Acts 17:27-31 Do you know God?

How do you tell people about God who don’t know God or the Bible? The Athenians didn’t know God or the Bible. Paul referred to something they did know – Greek poetry. In Acts 17:28 below, Paul quoted from two Greek poets to appeal to what the Athenians knew then he talked to them about what they didn’t know. It’s always a good idea to discuss things in terms that people understand.

J. Clontz – Editor of the Comprehensive New Testament

Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

28        ‘For in him we live and move and have our being,’

as even some of your own poets have said,

            ‘We are his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given proof to all men by raising him from the dead.”

17:27 Alx[seek God], Byz[seek the Lord (KJV, NKJ)], Alt[seek the Deity (NJB)]; Alx/Byz[if perhaps they might grope for him and find him], Alt/Peshitta[and, by means of his creations, might find him (MRD)]; Alx/Byz[though he is not far], Minor[and yet he is not far (ESV, ~NJB, RSV, TEV)], Alt[because he is not far (MRD)].

17:28 Alx/Byz[some of your own poets], Alt/Peshitta/Armenian/Ethiopic[one of your own sages or one of your own wise men (MRD)], Minor[some of our own poets], Alt[without textual foundation some of your own writers (~NJB)], other without textual foundation one of your own poets (~TLB)]; Classical[Epimenides, De Oraculis “They fashioned you a tomb, O holy and high one. The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons! But you are not dead. You live and abide forever. For in you we live and move and have our being”; Aratus, Phaenomena 5 “Let us begin with [god].  Never, O men, let us leave him unmentioned.  All the ways are full of [god], and all the market-places of human beings.  The sea is full of him; so are the harbors.  In every way we have all to do with [god], for we are truly his offspring”]; compare Titus 1:12.

17:30 Alx/Byz[ignorance], Minor[this ignorance (DRA, ~JNT, KJV, MRD, ~NET, ~NIV, NKJ, ~NLT, ~TLB)]; Alx/Byz[commands], Minor[announces to (DRA, NAS, NAU, ~NJB)].

17:31 Alx/Byz[by a man], Minor[adds Jesus].

17:27 Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalms 145:18; Isaiah 55:6; Jeremiah 23:23; OT-Apocrypha[Wisdom of Solomon 13:6]

17:28 Pseudepigrapha[Aristobulus Frag 4:6]; Greek[Epimenides, De Oraculis; Aratus, Phaenomena 5 Line 5; Cleanthes]; Origen[Against Celsus Book IV.5; De Principiis Book II.1.3]; Socrates Scholasticus Book 3.16

17:29 Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 4:28; Isaiah 40:18-20, 44:9-20; OT-Apocrypha[Wisdom of Solomon 13:10]; Pseudepigrapha[Joseph and Aseneth 2:3]

17:30 OT-Apocrypha[Sirach 28:7]; Pseudepigrapha[Joseph and Aseneth 6:7]; Clement of Alexandria[Stromata Book VI.6]; NT-Apocrypha[Kerygma Petri 3c]

17:31 Psalms 9:9, 96:13, 98:9; NT-Apocrypha[Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Paul 1.4]