“To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
Acts 17:23b
In the ancient world most gods had names. For how else would one know who to thank or to curse for the good and bad things that happened to one?
Luke, in that quote from Acts is being canny in the tale he tells about the altar inscription to an unknown god. He is telling us that this anonymous god is obviously worthy to have an altar given to them and that they must have done things that could not be attributed to any other named or known god.
In the Christian Faith, our God is not named; God is simply God his being is his name. God’s name is not given. In the Hebrew tradition God does have a name ‘Yahweh’ but he is not called such nor is it ever written in full out of respect to the deity. Our Christian god is the god of the Hebrews but we simply know him as ‘God’. The name we associate with God is ‘Jesus’ for as St.John tells us:
‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’
and Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. As such we do not need a name for God because God has revealed himself to us as Jesus. In telling his hearers that he will make known to them the ‘unknown god’ Luke is opening the way for us to hear all about ‘Jesus' the only name we can associate with God.