Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
28. for in him we live ] i.e. through or by Him. All our existence is through His care, therefore He must be near to all of us. The preposition is rendered by in Act 17:31, “ By that man whom he hath ordained.”
and move ] More literally, are moved. The word does not refer to the motion of persons from place to place, but to those internal movements of the mind and spirit of which the outward actions are the effect. St Paul means that the feelings of men are acted on by God, who speaks to the heart through all nature if men will but hearken. This is the truth of which Pantheism is the caricature.
your own poets have said ] The words are a quotation from Artus, Phnomena, 5, and are also found in Cleanthes, Hymn to Jupiter, 5. Artus was a native of Cilicia, and St Paul may in consequence be supposed to have known of his writings as of those of a fellow-countryman. By quoting from their own literature to the Athenians, St Paul illustrates his own declaration that in his labours “he became all things to all men.” Such a quotation was also very well devised for arresting the attention of these cultivated hearers, and winning it may be some consideration for the speaker, as also being a man of culture.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For in him we live – The expression in him evidently means by him; by his originally forming us, and continually sustaining us. No words can better express our constant dependence on God. He is the original fountain of life, and he upholds us each moment. A similar sentiment is found in Plautus (5, 4,14): O Jupiter, who dost cherish and nourish the race of man; by whom we live, and with whom is the hope of the life of all men (Kuinoel). It does not appear, however, that Paul designed this as a quotation; yet he doubtless intended to state a sentiment with which they were familiar, and with which they would agree.
And move – kinoumetha. Doddridge translates this, And are moved. It may, however, be in the middle voice, and be correctly rendered as in our version. It means that we derive strength to move from him; an expression denoting constant and absolute dependence. There is no idea of dependence more striking than that we owe to him the ability to perform the slightest motion.
And have our being – kai esmen. And are. This denotes that our continued existence is owing to Him. That we live at all is his gift; that we have power to move is his gift; and our continued and prolonged existence is his gift also. Thus, Paul traces our dependence on him from the lowest pulsation of life to the highest powers of action and of continued existence. It would be impossible to express in more emphatic language our entire dependence On God.
As certain also – As some. The sentiment which he quotes was found substantially in several Greek poets.
Of your own poets – He does not refer particularly here to poets of Athens, but to Greek poets who had written in their language.
For we are also his offspring – This precise expression is found in Aratus (Phaenom., v. 5), and in Cleanthus in a hymn to Jupiter. Substantially the same sentiment is found in several other Greek poets. Aratus was a Greek poet of Cilicia the native place of Paul, and flourished about 277 years before Christ. As Paul was a native of the same country it is highly probable he was acquainted with his writings. Aratus passed much of his time at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia. His principal work was the Phoenomena, which is here quoted, and was so highly esteemed in Greece that many learned men wrote commentaries on it. The sentiment here quoted was directly at variance with the views of the Epicureans; and it is proof of Pauls address and skill, as well as his acquaintance with his auditors and with the Greek poets, that he was able to adduce a sentiment so directly in point, and that had the concurrent testimony of so many of the Greeks themselves. It is one instance among thousands where an acquaintance with profane learning may be of use to a minister of the gospel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 17:28
In Him we live and move and have our being.
In Him we live and move, and have our being
I. Wrong views of the nature of God lie at the foundation of all false theories of religion.
These are–
1. That He is a limited Being, dwelling in temples, receiving gifts from man. This was the popular notion here combated.
2. That He is an infinite Being, but removed from us; the Creator, but not the Moral Governor.
3. That He is the only Being, all that is being merely phenomena of Him; so that there is no separate existence, no self-activity, responsibility, sin, holiness, or hereafter.
II. The true doctrine here taught.
1. That God is a personal Being, distinct from the world; its Creator and Preserver.
2. That He is not far from any one of us, but is everywhere present, beholding, directing, controlling all things; a Being on whom we are dependent and to whom we are responsible.
3. That our dependence upon Him is absolute for being, life, and activity, but at the same time it is consistent with separate existence, liberty, and accountability.
III. These are the fixed points in Pauls theism. How are these points to be understood?
1. By the reason. The problem to be solved is how the omnipresent agency of the First Cause stands related to the phenomenal world.
(1) The most natural solution is the pantheistic.
(a) Because it is the simplest and most intelligible.
(b) Because it has been the solution most generally received.
Brahm was the universal substance of which all things are the manifestation. This principle underlay the nature worship of the Egyptians, and was the esoteric faith of the higher Greek philosophers, and of the Alexandrian school. It reappears among the schoolmen, and is the popular faith of many modern teachers.
(2) The rebound from this extreme is Deism–a God extra mundane, but indifferent to any efficiency of His in the events of the world.
2. By the intuitions of our moral and religious nature as enlightened by the Scriptures.
(1) That all existence is from and in God.
(2) That all life is from Him and in Him, and–
(3) All activity, so far that unsustained by Him no second cause could act.
IV. From. All this it follows–
1. That we are always most near God. This presence is one of knowledge, power, approval, or disapprobation.
2. That we are thus dependent for natural, intellectual, and spiritual life.
3. That this consensus of the human and Divine is according to fixed laws, which are, however, under the control of a personal God, who can suspend them at will. If we recognise these laws, and act according to them, we experience their normal working, we become more and more recipients of the life of God. If we transgress them the opposite result is unavoidable.
4. That as our whole being and blessedness is dependent on keeping the true relation to God, we should be ever on our guard against violating His laws; in all things acting in accordance with His will, feeling our dependence and obligation, rendering Him trust, gratitude, and love.
5. Under all circumstances we are ever in contact with the infinite source of knowledge, being, and blessedness; but the wicked are always in contact with Him as a consuming fire. (G. Hodge, D. D.)
In Him we live and move and have our being
In Him–
I. We live. Apart from Him our life would decay, and be extinguished as a flame which had been suddenly deprived of its sustaining element.
II. We move. Apart from Him we are not only inert and helpless, but not even such movement as sustains the life of plants would be possible for us.
III. We have our being. In Him we are; apart from Him we should not only cease to be what we are, but we should cease to be at all; it is only the hand of God that interposes between us and annihilation. (W. L. Alexander.)
In God
Let us apply Pauls doctrine to–
I. The world of matter. We are embosomed by mighty forces which we regard merely as Gods instruments. But science comes forward as Gods interpreter, and indicates with Sir John Herschel the force of gravitation, e.g., as the energy of an omnipresent will. Again, we speak of dead matter, but science takes the ultimate atoms which chemistry deals with, so tiny that no microscope can detect them, and gives them free room to move about in–the ten millionth part of the twenty-fifth of an inch apiece, and shows them jostling each other with ceaseless activity, even in the block of stone and the bar of steel; and according to Jevons each one of these airy atoms is probably a vastly more complicated system than that of the planets and their satellites. But according to Faraday and Boscovitch an atom is a mere centre of force. When we have analysed it into its elementary constituents it is alive with energies inconceivably subtle. And all this force is the immediate energy of the omnipresent Creator. Matter is force and force is mind, says science. So says Scripture. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made. This solid frame is, in its inmost essence, nothing but a form of the thought of God.
II. The human body.
1. Let us see how the same Divine force holds our physical frame together. Five-sixths of it is water, a creature of that form of force called chemical affinity. Each molecule is a compound of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. But for the constant action of this Divine force holding the gaseous element in unyielding combination our bodies would become a form of matter as invisible as air. Besides this the processes of growth and repair are carried on unrestingly by this same chemical energy of God ever gluing atom to atom in blood, skin, and bone, etc., under the direction of the master workman we call Life, in whose skill we see the Divine intelligence of Him in whom we live and who renews our substance day by day.
2. And it is wonderful how much God does and how little we do. We breathe because we cannot help it. From a sort of electric battery of cells in the head there streams along the nerves a current of divine force, which works the muscles of respiration, even in spite of the utmost effort of will to hold the breath. We eat and drink, but it is merely as the servant who opens the house door to receive supplies. The nerve current supplies the digestive apparatus with power to convert food into flesh, and works the central force pump which carries to every part of the system its due supply. What if it were dependent on us to keep the heart beating? And again, in every movement and utterance all we do is by our will to set free the quasi-electric force which is in us, but is not ours, by which the appropriate muscles are contracted and our will accomplished. In Him we move. But a large part of our experience is passive. Hot and cold, bitter and sweet, light and dark, etc. What are we to all these phases of surrounding force but a harp of so many strings responding to the fingers of God in Nature? And then these outward touches of the Divine fingers woke other powers. The pain of fire and the recoil of the flesh are independent of our will, and the operation of a will not our own. So again with our instincts; their automatic power is the immediate energy of the God in whom we live.
III. The mind. Our thinking is done by means of the brain, as our lifting is done by means of the muscles. In either case we simply press the key. The Divine current of power flows according to the measure of the door we open, whether it be narrow in the case of the peasant or wide in that of the philosopher.
IV. The soul. We are His offspring. His ever-flowing stream it is which fills the tiny pools of our existence. We think; but all the truth we think is His. Our discoveries are His revelations. We desire; but our aspirations are Gods inspirations. We pray; but prayer is the circulation of His Spirit through us and to Him again. Ours is the joy of doing good, but it is one with the joy of God in goodness; ours the pain of doing ill, but it is the resistance of God within us to evil. (J. M. Whiton, Ph. D.)
Our being in God
1. Where is God? Ye will answer, In heaven. True. Our Lord teaches us to pray, Our Father which art in heaven; and what child would not long to be where its father was? Here on earth we cannot see God. In heaven He is seen in His glory.
2. But is God confined to heaven? Many think of Him so, and many wish so, in order that He might give no heed to them and their ways. But God says, Do I not fill heaven and earth? The eternity of God contains all time; the being of God, all being; the infinity of God, all space. If we could see Him here as fully as the angels, this too would be heaven. Yet God is everywhere wholly, and yet the whole of Him is nowhere. For if He were not here wholly, He would be divided into parts; which cannot be. The air surrounds us, and we are in it, although we do not see it, only, at times, the moisture in it. God surrounds us, and we are in Him, although we have no senses to see or feel Him.
3. God worketh in all things around us, working at a distance, or giving laws by which all things should be and fulfil their being. Wherever anything is, or can be worked, there is God. It is not with God as when we build a house, and part off what is without from what is within, that so God should be shut out by the works of His own hands. He is above, beneath, behind, before them; not a part of them, not immingled with them, nor confused with them; nor are they a part of Him; yet they hinder not His presence. He is not in one way within them, in another way without them; but one and the same God wholly everywhere.
4. But then, since God is everywhere, we move, speak, act, think, in God. This might be the bliss almost of the blessed in heaven. But it has its awful side also. Since we think, speak, act in God, then every sin is committed in God. It cannot be otherwise. You can no more escape out of the presence of God than out of the air which you breathe. Gods infinite, unchangeable holiness is sinned against by every sin of every creature, but cannot be injured by all sin. The human feelings which God has given us make men shrink from doing deeds of shame even in this created light. But to God, darkness is light. God not only sees through the darkness, He is in it. There He is, where thou sinnest. Thou canst not turn away from God, except to meet God. Thou canst turn away from His love, yet only to meet Him in His displeasure. Turn, then, in sorrow from thy sin, and thou wilt meet Him and see Him forgiving thee.
5. Yes! so is there a more blessed presence than that through which, in nature, we live and move, and have our being in God–nearer, closer, dearer, fuller far, whereby the soul, through grace, may be, or is, in God. God willed, before the foundation of the world, to make us one with Himself in Christ. He did not make us to exist only through Him, or to be encompassed by Him. He willed that we should be in the very closest union of love and of being of which created beings are capable. To this end God the Son, in eternal harmony with the Fathers will, took the manhood into God. When men saw our Lord Jesus Christ in the body, they saw Him who was not man only, but God; they saw Him who was, with the Father, one God. And this oneness with us He took, not only to reconcile us to God by putting away the Fathers wrath, but to unite us to God in Himself. Marvellous mercy! Yet since God has vouchsafed to do this, stranger were it that God, who is the life of our life, should form us capable of, and yet not give us His love, if we will have it; that He should make us capable of being united with Himself, and not unite us if we will. So hath He not left us. Whoso dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. He who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
6. Since then all is of God, and in God, since we, if our souls are alive, are in Christ and through Christ in God, there is no room to claim anything as our own. To do so were to rob God. But who could wish to?. How much more blessed is it to draw every breath of our lives in Him. As in nature, even the strength which men abuse against God is still continued by God, so, in grace, each act wherewith, from the sacrifice of Abel, God has been well-pleased, has been done through the power of His grace put forth in men, and by Him perfected in them. Where then can be boasting, or any thought of anything as our own, or any pleasure in any works as our own? (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
The Omnipresence of God
I. Its nature. The simple, popular idea is that God is equally present everywhere. The understanding, however, requires a more particular statement to avoid our conceiving of God as extended. The nature of time and space involved in this conception is among the most difficult of philosophical questions. Happily some of the most simple truths are the most mysterious. We know that our spirits are here and not elsewhere, and yet the relation of our souls to space is inscrutable. So we know that God is everywhere, but His relation to space is past finding out.
1. He is everywhere present as to–
(1) His essence, for He does not admit of division.
(2) His knowledge, for nothing escapes His notice.
(3) His power, as He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
2. This attribute, therefore, includes the idea–
(1) That the universe exists in God. All creatures live and move, and have their being in Him.
(2) That all the intelligence indicated in nature is the omnipresent intelligence of God. Rational creatures He has endowed with an intelligence of their own.
(3) That all the efficiency manifested in nature is the potestas ordinata of God.
II. Its consequences. Hence–
1. The universe is a manifestation of God. We see God in everything.
2. All events, the falling of a sparrow or of a kingdom; the course of history; the events of our own life, are all manifestations of His presence.
3. We are ever in Gods presence. All our thoughts, feelings, acts are open to His view.
4. An infinite Helper and Portion is ever near to us. The fountain of all blessedness is always at hand from which we may derive inexhaustible supplies of life.
5. All sin and sinners are enveloped, as it were, with a consuming fire, They can no more escape than we can escape out of the atmosphere.
III. Reflections. The contemplation of this doctrine serves–
1. To exalt our conceptions of God by making all things the manifestation of His glory and power.
2. To promote our peace and security, because we know that God is everywhere and controls all events.
3. To excite fear.
4. To stimulate joy and confidence.
5. To teach sinners the certainty and fearfulness of their doom. Conclusion: As all religion consists in communion with God, and as all communion supposes His presence, this doctrine lies at the foundation of all religion. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.–The quotation has a special interest as being taken from a poet who was a countryman of St. Pauls. Aratus, probably of Tarsus (circ. B.C. 272), had written a didactic poem under the title of Phoenomena, comprising the main facts of astronomical and meteorological science as then known. It opens with an invocation to Zeus, which contains the words that St. Paul quotes. Like words are found in a hymn to Zeus by Cleanthes (B.C. 300). Both passages are worth quoting:–
From Zeus begin we; never let us leave
His name unloved. With him, with Zeus, are filled
All paths we tread, and all the marts of men;
Filled, too, the sea, and every creek and bay;
And all in all things need we help of Zeus,
For we, too, are his offspring.
Aratus, Phoenom., 1-5.
Most glorious of immortals, many-named,
Almighty and forever, thee, O Zeus,
Sovran oer nature, guiding with thy hand
All things that are, we greet with praises. Thee
Tis meet that mortals call with one accord,
For we thine offspring are, and we alone
Of all that live and move upon this earth,
Receive the gift of imitative speech.
Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus.
—(Dean Plumptre.)
Man the offspring of God
This glorious fact in our nature–
I. Indicates constitutional resemblance to God. It means something more than to be Gods creatures, like the earth, sea, sky, etc.; but implies resemblance in essential attributes–spiritual personality, intellectual perception, moral sensibility, loving sympathy, spontaneous activity. This resemblance–
1. Constitutes man the highest natural revelation of God. Though a mere atom comparatively, he is the brightest reflector of the Infinite. As I see the ocean in a dewdrop, and the sun in a particle of light, I see God in man.
2. Accounts for our power of forming ideas of God. Had we no resembling attributes, His existence would be a blank to us. Had we no personality, love, etc., His perfections would be without meaning. The eagle takes a vaster view of nature than we can; yet it sees no God because not made, like us, in the image of the Creator.
II. Suggests the rationale of Divine laws. Why has God given us laws? To restrict our freedom or curtail our pleasures? Do His laws, like those of human monarchs, arise from the policy of selfishness or fear? Is He obliged, like mortal rulers, to guard His throne by legislation? No. His laws are the considerate directions of a loving Father, profoundly desirous that His offspring shall escape all evils, and realise the highest good. He who has the true spirit of a child will always say with the Psalmist, O how I love Thy law! If any question this interpretation of the Divine code, let him–
1. Carefully examine the character of those laws, and see if he can find one that does not tend to happiness.
2. Consult the experience of the obedient, and see if he can find one who will not say, In the keeping of Thy commandments there is great reward.
III. Explains the interposition of Christ. What was there in insignificant and sinful man to enlist this? Was it the intrinsic value of the human soul? The soul, it is true, is superior to the irrational universe; but it is inferior, perhaps, to other intelligences; and as compared with the Infinite mind, What is it? I find the reason in the souls relationship, as the offspring of God. Parental love amongst men, instead of being cooled by the infirmities of the child, is fired by them. This principle, which is a Divine implantation, enables me to understand, in some humble measures, why the Infinite Father should show all this wonderful compassion to men.
IV. Exposes the enormity of sin. What laws are so binding–what authority so sacred as a true Fathers? How heinous is sin–
1. In relation to God, when you think of Him as a Father! The greatest ingratitude is that which overlooks a fathers kindness; the greatest criminality is that which violates a fathers precepts; the greatest rebellion is that which contemns a fathers authority.
2. In relation to society. We are all brothers and sisters. How enormously iniquitous then are slavery, war, cruelty, and oppression of every kind?
V. Aids us to estimate the transcendent blessedness of the dutiful. The office of a father is to provide for his children. As a guardian, God protects the mind as well as the body, and guards our existence with all its rights and interests. As an educator, He develops all the wonderful powers of our nature, trains us not only for some office in time, but for the high services of eternity. As a nourisher, He has supplies for all wants now and forever. Conclusion: Man, reverence thy nature! act worthy of thy high relationship; thou art a child of the Infinite. The great universe is thy Fathers house. Seek through Christ the pardon of thy sins, and the true spirit of adoption, and thou shalt find at last in the great eternity a mansion prepared for thee. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Man Gods offspring
Man, with few exceptions, has never been able to believe that he stands alone in the universe, a helpless orphan, surrounded by blind and irresistible forces, and hurried onward by inevitable destiny. Wherever the voice of mans nature is allowed to speak, it asserts that he is Gods offspring. This fact is demonstrated by–
I. Mans intellectual superiority. In his physical nature he is allied to the lower animals; but the intellectual difference between the lowest savage and the highest animal is so great that it can only be accounted for by the text. Mans marvellous powers are seen in his discovery of the laws of the universe, in his forcing from nature her secrets, and in subjecting her to do him service, and above all in his capacity for knowing God. All this raises him immeasurably above all other creatures.
II. His moral nature. In all men there is a knowledge of rural distinctions, and as arising out of them the sense of obligation. In some communities this knowledge is imperfect and even perverted, but it is there. It cannot be the result of education, but must be part of the constitution of our nature, because so universal. This fact again puts an impassable gulf between man and all other creatures, and is inexplicable save on the hypothesis of the text.
III. His religious nature.
1. His consciousness of guilt, everywhere demonstrated by sacrifice, shows his alienation from a Being with whom he was once in harmony.
2. His struggles after a purer and higher life are but the effort of Gods child to recover a lost condition and relationship.
3. His restlessness and dissatisfaction till he finds rest in God is the culminating proof. Conclusion: Christ has come to lead us back to God, to make us true sons in Him, so that His Father becomes our Father. (J. Fraser, M. A.)
Man Gods offspring
What a blessed doctrine! How high our dignity! how rich our patrimony! Wherever we are, in whatever portion of His universe, we are still in His house–our home. We can never outstep our heritage. The Father has fitted nature not merely to supply our wants, but also to minister to our delight–the glitter of the star and of the dewdrop, the colour and scent of the flower, freshness and beauty for the eye, and song and melody for the ear. Our Fathers house is not barely furnished, but richly ornamented. Rocks are piled into hoary mountains and picturesque heights; the woods are budding forth into life in spring, laden with foliage in summer, or swinging their great boughs to the tempest of winter; the sky folds its curtains and trims its lamps; the waters dance in torrents and leap in cascades, as well as fill the seas; there is gold as well as iron, gems as well as granites, the blush and fragrance of the blossom, as well as the sweetness and abundance of the fruit. The human frame, too, has symmetry as well as strength–possesses far more than is merely essential to life and work; the eye, lip, and brow are rich in expression and power. There is not only the power of thought essential to business and religion, but there is the garniture of imagination, poetry as well as science, music in addition to speech, ode and oracle as well as fact and doctrine in Scripture, the lyre of the bard no less than the pen of the apostle. Above sensation there rises the power of discovery–invention blends with experience. In man and around him there is not mere provision for necessities; there are profuse luxuries. His offspring walk in the lustre of His love. It rejoices them to know that the power which governs is no dark phantom veiled in mystery; no majestic and all-controlling force–a mighty and shadowless sceptre; no mere omniscience–an eye that never slumbers; no dim Spirit, having its only consciousness in the consciousness of man–but a Father with a fathers heart to love us, and to the yearnings of which we may ever appeal–a fathers ear to listen to us, and a fathers hand to bless with kind and continued benefactions. And, as we have wandered, shall not each of us say, I will arise and go to my Father? Will not He accept the returning child, giving us the adoption of sons, revealing Himself graciously through Christ the Elder Brother, who leads us to cry in true filial devotion, Our Father which art in heaven? (Prof. Eadie.)
Man Gods offspring
Man has not ascended from the animal, say rather that he has descended from God. The line of his pedigree points, not downward to the dust, but upward to the skies. The son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. For we also are His offspring; not the offspring of the chimpanzee. Compare the head of the most uncivilised man with the head of the best-trained monkey, and the difference is immense. What is the capacity of the monkey brain? Thirty-two cubic inches. What is the capacity of the human brain? Ninety cubic inches. You therefore see that the brain of the most undeveloped man, who is not positively an idiot, is nearly three times the capacity of the brain of the most civilised monkey in this or any other country. How to account for the difference? There is a great deal of talking and writing in the present day about the missing link–the missing link between the ape and the man. Missing link indeed! It is not a link that is missing, but a whole chain. Human reason is not a development of the monkey brain; rather is it the immediate outcome of the Divine Life. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being] He is the very source of our existence: the principle of life comes from him: the principle of motion, also, comes from him; one of the most difficult things in nature to be properly apprehended; and a strong proof of the continual presence and energy of the Deity.
And have our being] , And we are: we live in him, move in him, and are in him. Without him we not only can do nothing, but without him we are nothing. We are, i.e. we continue to be, because of his continued, present, all-pervading, and supporting energy. There is a remarkable saying in Synopsis Sohar, p. 104. “The holy blessed God never does evil to any man. He only withdraws his gracious presence from him, and then he necessarily perisheth.” This is philosophical and correct.
As certain also of your own poets] Probably he means not only Aratus, in whose poem, entitled Phaenomena, the words quoted by St. Paul are to be found literatim, ; but also Cleanthus, in whose Hymn to Jupiter the same words ( ) occur. But the sentiment is found in several others, being very common among the more enlightened philosophers. By saying your own poets, he does not mean poets born at Athens, but merely Grecian poets, Aratus and Cleanthus being chief.
We are also his offspring.] The Phaenomena of Aratus, in which these words are found, begins thus:-
, ‘
,
‘ ,
‘
. . . .
With Jove we must begin; nor from him rove;
Him always praise, for all is full of Jove!
He fills all places where mankind resort,
The wide-spread sea, with every shelt’ring port.
Jove’s presence fills all space, upholds this ball;
All need his aid; his power sustains us all.
For we his offspring are; and he in love
Points out to man his labour from above:
Where signs unerring show when best the soil,
By well-timed culture, shall repay our toil, &c., &c.
Aratus was a Cilician, one of St. Paul’s own countrymen, and with his writings St. Paul was undoubtedly well acquainted, though he had flourished about 300 years before that time.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In him we live, &c.; he is the God that made us, that preserves us, and not we ourselves; he keeps us as in the hollow of his hand, and compasseth our paths. Our breath is in our nostrils, and when we send it forth we have none to take in again, unless God furnish us with it, as out of his own hand.
As certain also of your own poets; Aratus, a Greek poet: not that St. Paul thought to derive any authority from these poets unto what he had said, but that he might shame them the more by the testimony of their allowed authors. Such quotations as these are (as the bringing in of a Greek into the temple) very rare; yet, besides this, we meet with the like, 1Co 15:33; Tit 1:12.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. For in him we live, and move,and have our being(or, more briefly, “exist”).Thismeans, not merely, “Without Him we have no life, nor thatmotion which every inanimate nature displays, nor evenexistence itself” [MEYER],but that God is the living, immanent Principle of all these in men.
as certain also of your ownpoets have said, For we are also his offspringthe first halfof the fifth line, word for word, of an astronomical poem of Aratus,a Greek countryman of the apostle, and his predecessor by about threecenturies. But, as he hints, the same sentiment is to be found inother Greek poets. They meant it doubtless in a pantheisticsense; but the truth which it expresses the apostle turns to his ownpurposeto teach a pure, personal, spiritual Theism. (Probablyduring his quiet retreat at Tarsus. Ac9:30, revolving his special vocation to the Gentiles he gavehimself to the study of so much Greek literature as might be turnedto Christian account in his future work. Hence this and his otherquotations from the Greek poets, 1Co 15:33;Tit 1:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For in him we live, and move, and have our being,…. The natural life which men live is from God; and they are supported in it by him; and from him they have all the comforts and blessings of life; and all motions, whether external or internal, of body or of mind, are of God, and none of them are without the concourse of his providence, and strength assistance from him; though the disorder and irregularity of these motions, whereby they become sinful, are of themselves, or of the devil; and their being, and the maintenance of it, and continuance in it, are all owing to the power and providence of God.
As certain also of your own poets have said; the Syriac version reads in the singular number, “as a certain one of your wise men has said”; but all others read in the plural; and some have thought, that the apostle refers to what goes before, that being an Iambic verse of some of the poets, as well as to what follows, which is a citation from Aratus x and whom the apostle might have called his own, as he was his countryman; for Aratus was a native of Solis, a city of Cilicia, not far from Tarsus yea, some say y he was of Tarsus, where the apostle was born: but Aratus being an Heathen, and the apostle speaking to Heathens, calls him one of them; and the rather, that what is cited might be the more regarded by them: though the expression is also z said to be in an hymn to Jove, written by Cleanthes, who taught at Athens; and so the apostle addressing the Athenians, might, with greater propriety, say, “as certain of your own poets say”: it is also said to be in Aratus the astronomer, and in the poet Homer; so that the plural number may well be used. Which is,
for we are also his offspring; the offspring of Jove, says Aratus; which the apostle applies to the true Jehovah, the Creator of all men, by whom, and after whose image, they are made, and so are truly his offspring; upon which the apostle argues as follows.
x In Phaenomenis, p. 1. y Vid. Fabricii Biblioth. Gr. l. 3. c. 18. p. 451. z Vid. Fabricii Biblioth. Gr. l. 3. c. 18. p. 453.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For in him ( ). Proof of God’s nearness, not stoic pantheism, but real immanence in God as God dwells in us. The three verbs (, , ) form an ascending scale and reach a climax in God (life, movement, existence). is either direct middle present indicative (we move ourselves) or passive (we are moved).
As certain even of your own poets ( ‘ ). “As also some of the poets among you.” Aratus of Soli in Cilicia (ab. B.C. 270) has these very words in his Ta Phainomena and Cleanthes, Stoic philosopher (300-220 B.C.) in his Hymn to Zeus has . In 1Co 15:32 Paul quotes from Menander and in Tit 1:12 from Epimenides. J. Rendel Harris claims that he finds allusions in Paul’s Epistles to Pindar, Aristophanes, and other Greek writers. There is no reason in the world why Paul should not have acquaintance with Greek literature, though one need not strain a point to prove it. Paul, of course, knew that the words were written of Zeus (Jupiter), not of Jehovah, but he applies the idea in them to his point just made that all men are the offspring of God.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We are also his offspring. A line from Aratus, a poet of Paul ‘s own province of Cilicia. The same sentiment, in almost the same words, occurs in the fine hymn of Cleanthes to Jove. Hence the words, “Some of your own poets.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; (en auto gar zomen kai kinoumetha kai esmen) “For in Him we live, and we move, and we exist,” or have, possess, or hold our existent state of being, Act 14:17; Rom 1:17; Col 1:17; Heb 1:3; La 3:22, 23.
2) “As certain also of our own poets have said,” (hos kai tines ton kath’ humas poieton eirekasin) “Just as, or even as, some (certain ones) of your poets have said,” have poetically expressed. The truth of the one living God as creator, sustainer, and order planner of the universe, Paul asserts, has been both acknowledged and affirmed, from the poets of your own people; Paul asserts, even as also taught, in and by nature, whereby these poets had recognized Him, Psa 19:1-3; Rom 1:20; Rom 2:1.
3) “For we are also His offspring.” (tou gar kai genos
esmen) “Because we are also offspring of Him,” of this God, we have our origin or existence, as well as our daily continuity. And the offspring partakers of the likeness of its fountainhead, of its origin. Thus man has both the image and likeness of God, though both are by nature, thru Adam’s fall, marred and scarred by sin. Ecc 7:20; Rom 3:9-23; Rom 5:12; Gen 1:26-27; Gen 5:1.
1. Man has the image of God in a trinitarian way, A. Mind, B. Body, C. Spirit, 1Th 5:23. And–
2. Man has the likeness of the trinitarian God in that he has a will, volition, or power of choice, in what he does or does not do, as a responsible person, Joh 7:17.
THE SKEPTIC CONVINCED
The great astronomer, Kirchner, had a friend who denied the existence of a God. One day he called on the astronomer, when he saw in one corner of his room a beautiful celestial globe, and inquired whose it was, and who had made it. “It is not mine,” said Kirchner, “and I do not think anybody made it. It must have come there by chance, and of its own accord.” “Ridiculous!” said his friend; “what is the use of such a reply?” “Why,” rejoined he, ”you cannot believe that this little, imperfect piece of workmanship sprung into existence of itself –how then can you imagine that the glorious heavens, which this merely represents, could have sprung into being of their own accord?” The arrow entered his heart, and he became a servant of that God whose existence he had denied,
– Stokes.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
−
28. For in him. I grant that the apostles, according to the Hebrew phrase, do oftentimes take this preposition in for per, or by or through; but because this speech, that we live in God, hath greater force, and doth express more, I thought I would not change it; for I do not doubt but that Paul’s meaning is, that we be after a sort contained in God, because he dwelleth in us by his power. And, therefore, God himself doth separate himself from all creatures by this word Jehovah, that we may know that in speaking properly he is alone, and that we have our being in him, inasmuch as by his Spirit he keepeth us in life, and upholdeth us. For the power of the Spirit is spread abroad throughout all parts of the world, that it may preserve them in their state; that he may minister unto the heaven and earth that force and vigor which we see, and motion to all living creatures. Not as brain-sick men do trifle, that all things are full of gods, yea, that stones are gods; but because God doth, by the wonderful power and inspiration of his Spirit, preserve those things which he hath created of nothing. But mention is made in this place properly of men, because Paul said, that they needed not to seek God far, whom they have within them. −
Furthermore, forasmuch as the life of man is more excellent than motion, and motion doth excel essence, [mere existence,] Paul putteth that in the highest place which was the chiefest, that he might go down by steps unto essence or being, thus, We have not only no life but in God, but not so much as moving; yea, no being, which is inferior to both. I say that life hath the pre-eminence in men, because they have not only sense and motion as brute beasts have, but they be endued with reason and understanding. Wherefore, the Scripture doth for good causes give that singular gift which God hath given us, a title and commendation by itself. So in John, when mention is made of the creation of all things, it is added apart, not without cause, that life was the light of men, ( Joh 1:4.) −
Now, we see that all those who know not God know not; because they have God present with them not only in the excellent gifts of the mind, but in their very essence; because it belongeth to God alone to be, all other things have their being in him. Also, we learn out of this place that God did not so create the world once that he did afterward depart from his work; but that it standeth by his power, and that the same God is the governor thereof who was the Creator. We must well think upon this continual comforting and strengthening, that we may remember God every minute. −
Certain of your poets. He citeth half a verse out of Aratus, not so much for authority’s sake, as that he may make the men of Athens ashamed; for such sayings of the poets came from no other fountain save only from nature and common reason. Neither is it any marvel if Paul, who spake unto men who were infidels and ignorant of true godliness, do use the testimony of a poet, wherein was extant a confession of that knowledge which is naturally engraven in men’s minds. The Papists take another course. For they so lean to the testimonies of men, that they set them against the oracles of God; and they do not only make Jerome, or Ambrose and the residue of the holy fathers, masters of faith, but they will no less tie us to the stinking [vile] answers of their Popes than if God himself should speak. Yea, that which more s, they have not been afraid to give so great authority to Aristotle that the apostles and prophets were silent in their schools rather than he. −
Now, that I may return unto this sentence which I have in hand, it is not to be doubted but that Aratus spake of Jupiter; neither doth Paul, in applying that unto the true God, which he spake unskillfully of his Jupiter, wrest it unto a contrary sense. For because men have naturally some perseverance of God, − (300) they draw true principles from that fountain. And though so soon as they begin to think upon God, they vanish away in wicked inventions, and so pure seed doth degenerate into corruptions; yet the first general knowledge of God doth nevertheless remain still in them. After this sort, no man of a sound mind can doubt to apply that unto the true God which we read in Virgil touching the reigned and false joy, that All things are full of joy. Yea, when Virgil meant to express the power of God, through error he put in a wrong name. −
As touching the meaning of the words, it may be that Aratus did imagine that there was some parcel of the divinity in men’s minds, as the Manichees did say, that the souls of men are of the nature of God. − (301) So when Virgil saith concerning the world, − The Spirit doth nourish within, and the mind being dispersed through all the joints, doth move your whole huge weight, he doth rather play the philosopher, and subtilely dispute after the manner of Plato, than purely mean that the world is supported by the secret inspiration of God. But this invention ought not to have hindered Paul from retaining a true maxim, though it were corrupt with men’s fables, that men are the generation of God, because by the excellency of nature they resemble some divine thing. This is that which the Scripture teacheth, that we are created after the image and similitude of God, ( Gen 1:27.) The same Scripture teacheth also, in many places, that we be made the sons of God by faith and free adoption when we are engrafted into the body of Christ, and being regenerate by the Spirit, we begin to be new creatures, ( Gal 3:26.) But as it giveth the same Spirit divers names because of his manifold graces, so no marvel if the word sons be diversely taken. All mortal men are called sons in general, because they draw near to God in mind and understanding; but because the image of God is almost blotted out in them, so that there appear scarce any slender lines, [lineaments,] this name is by good right restrained unto the faithful, who having the Spirit of adoption given them, resemble their heavenly Father in the light of reason, in righteousness and holiness. −
(300) −
“
Aliquo Dei sensu imbuti sunt,” are imbued with some knowledge of God
(301) −
“
Ex traduce Dei,” are transferred from God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) For in him we live, and move, and have our being.Better, we live, and are moved, and are. Each of the verbs used has a definite philosophical significance. The first points to our animal life; the secondfrom which is derived the Greek word used by ethical writers for passions, such as fear, love, hate, and the likenot, as the English verb suggests, to mans power of bodily motion in space, but to our emotional nature; the third, to that which constitutes our true essential being, the intellect and will of man. What the words express is not merely the Omnipresence of the Deity; they tell us that the power for every act and sensation and thought comes from Him. They set forth what we may venture to call the true element of Pantheism, the sense of a presence interposed, as in nature, in the light of setting suns, so yet more in man. As a Latin poet had sung, whose works may have been known to the speaker, the hearers, and the historian:
Deum namque ire per omnes
Terras que tractusque maris, ccelumque profundum,
Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,
Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas,
Scilicet hinc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri,
Omnia; nec morti esse locum sed viva volare
Sideris in numerum atque alto succedere clo.
[God permeates all lands, all tracts of sea,
And the vast heaven. From Him all flocks and herds,
And men, and creatures wild, draw, each apart,
Their subtle life. To Him they all return,
When once again set free. No place is found
For death, but all mount up once more on high
To join the stars in their high firmament.]
Virg. Georg. iv. 221-225.
In the teaching of St. Paul, however, the personality of God is not merged, as in that of the Pantheist, in the thought of the great Soul of the World, but stands forth with awful distinctness in the character of King and Judge. Traces of like thoughts are found in the prophetic vision of a time when God shall be all in all (1Co. 15:28), the discords of the worlds history harmonised in the eternal peace.
As certain also of your own poets have said.The quotation has a special interest as being taken from a poet who was a countryman of St. Pauls. Aratus, probably of Tarsus (circ. B.C. 272), had written a didactic poem under the title of Phenomena, comprising the main facts of astronomical and meteorological science as then known. It opens with an invocation to Zeus, which contains the words that St. Paul quotes. Like words are found in a hymn to Zeus by Cleanthes (B.C. 300). Both passages are worth quoting:
(1)
From Zeus begin; never let us leave
His name unloved. With Him, with Zeus, are filled
All paths we tread, and all the marts of men;
Filled, too, the sea, and every creek and bay;
And all in all things need we help of Zeus,
For we too are his offspring.
Aratus, Phnom. 15.
(2)
Most glorious of immortals, many-named,
Almighty and for ever, thee, O Zeus,
Sovran oer Nature, guiding with thy hand
All things that are, we greet with praises. Thee
Tis meet that mortals call with one accord,
For we thine offspring are, and we alone
Of all that live and move upon this earth,
Receive the gift of imitative speech.
Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus.
The fact of the quotation would at once quicken the attention of the hearers. They would feel that they had not to deal with an illiterate Jew, like the traders and exorcists who were so common in Greek cities, but with a man of culture like their own, acquainted with the thoughts of some at least of their great poets.
We are also his offspring.We too often think of the quotation only as happily introduced at the time; but the fact that it was quoted shows that it had impressed itself, it may be, long years before, on St. Pauls memory. As a student at Tarsus it had, we may well believe, helped to teach him the meaning of the words of his own Scriptures: I have nourished and brought up children (Isa. 1:2). The method of St. Pauls teaching is one from which modern preachers might well learn a lesson. He does not begin by telling men that they have thought too highly of themselves, that they are vile worms, creatures of the dust, children of the devil. The fault which he finds in them is that they have taken too low an estimate of their position. They too had forgotten that they were Gods offspring, and had counted themselves, even as the unbelieving Jews had done (Act. 13:46) unworthy of eternal life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. In him we live We are surrounded by his pervading Spirit as by an atmosphere; yet, contrary to pantheism, distinct from him. As This as refers not to the last clause, but back to Act 17:26, so as to include the whole thought that God has so formed man as that man should realize him.
His offspring And so cognate with him, and thereby competent to appreciate him. We are the offspring of God only, however, in our spiritual nature. And yet we are so spirit as to be like God, yet not identical with him; there being between the spirit of man and the spirit of God, not only an ineffable sameness, but an ineffable difference.
Your own poets And here the poets, speaking from our higher and more spiritual nature, are the best authority. More than one Greek poet had expressed this sentiment. The very words are contained in the Hymn of Cleanthes, one of the most sublime, and absolutely the most Christianlike production of pagan antiquity. Nearly the same words are found in Aratus, a poet, born, like the apostle, in Cilicia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Act 17:28. For in him we live, and move, &c. No words can better express that continued and necessary dependance of all derived beings, in their existence, and all their operations, on their first and almighty Cause, which the truest philosophy as well as theology teaches. The thought, in words just like these is found in an old Greek poet:but St. Paul not mentioning it as a quotation, the reader perhaps may be inclined to think with Le Clerc, that the poet borrowed it from this passage. The last words, for we are also his offspring, are well known to be found in Aratus, a poet of Cilicia, St. Paul’s own country, who lived almost 300 years before this time. They are also to be found in the hymn of Cleanthes, which is one of the purest and finest pieces of natural religion, of its length, extant in the whole world of Pagan antiquity. As these words are found in two different poets, this possibly may be the reason why St. Paul speaks in the plural number, certain of your own poets have said; though some have thought this refers to the first clause.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 17:28 . Reason assigned ( ) for . . . ., for in Him we live, we move, and we exist. Paul views God under the point of view of His immanence as the element in which we live, etc.; and man in such intimate connection with God, that he is constantly surrounded by the Godhead and embraced in its essential influence, but, apart from the Godhead, could neither live, nor move, nor exist. Comp. Dio Chrys. vol. I. p. 384, ed. Reiske: , . . . This explanation is required by the relation of the words to the preceding, according to which they are designed to prove the nearness of God; therefore must necessarily contain the local reference the idea of the divine (which Chrysostom illustrates by the example of the air surrounding us on all sides). Therefore the rendering per eum (Beza, Grotius, Heinrichs, Kuinoel), or, as de Wette more correctly expresses it, “resting on Him as the foundation ” (comp. already Chrysostom: , , ), which would yield no connection in the way of proof with the of the Godhead, is to be abandoned. In opposition to the pantheistic view, see already Calvin. It is sufficient to urge against it although it was also asserted by Spinoza and others on the one hand, that the transcendence of God is already decidedly attested in Act 17:24-26 , and on the other, that the . . . is said solely of men , and that indeed in so far as they stand in essential connection with God by divine descent (see the following), in which case the doctrine of the reality of evil (comp. Olshausen) excludes a spiritual pantheism.
. . ] a climax: out of God we should have no life , not even movement (which yet inanimate creatures, plants, waters, etc. have), nay, not even any existence (we should not have been at all). Heinrichs and others take a superficial view when they consider all three to be synonymous. Storr ( Opusc. III. p. 95), on the other hand, arbitrarily puts too much into : vivimus beate ac hilare; and Olshausen (after Kuinoel), too much into : the true being, the life of the spirit. It is here solely physical life and being that is meant; the moral life-fellowship with God, which is that of the regenerate, is remote from the context.
.] Namely, Aratus (of Soli in Cilicia, in the third century B.C.), Phaenom. 5, and Cleanthes (of Assos in Mysia, a disciple of Zeno), Hymn. in Jov. 5. For other analogous passages, see Wetstein.
The acquaintance of the apostle with the Greek poets is to be considered as only of a dilettante sort [69] (see Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans , 1); his school-training was entirely Jewish, but he was here obliged to abstain from O.T. quotations.
.] Of the poets pertaining to you, i.e. your poets. See Bernhardy, p. 241.
] The first half of a hexameter, verbatim from Aratus l.c.; therefore is not to be considered in logical connection with the speech of the apostle, but as, independently of the latter, a component part of the poetical passage, which he could not have omitted without destroying the verse. Nam hujus progenies quoque sumus: this Paul adduces as a parallel ( ) confirming to his hearers his own assertion, . As the offspring of God, we men stand in such homogeneity to God, and thus in such necessary and essential connection with God, that we cannot have life, etc. without Him, but only in Him. So absolutely dependent is our life, etc. on Him.
] Here, according to poetical usage since the time of Homer, in the sense of . See Khner, 480, 5; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 198. Paul has idealized the reference of the to Zeus in Aratus.
In the passage of Cleanthes, which was also in the apostle’s mind, it is said: , where is the accusative of more precise definition, and means, not kindred , as with Aratus, but origin .
[69] That Paul after his conversion, on account of his destination to the Gentiles, may have earnestly occupied himself in Tarsus with Greek literature (Baumgarten), to which also the , 2Ti 4:13 , are supposed to point, is a very precarious assumption, especially as it is Aratus, a fellow-countryman of the apostle, who is quoted, and other quotations (except Tit 1:12 ) are not demonstrable (comp. on 1Co 15:33 ). The poetical expression itself in our passage is such a common idea (see Wetstein), that an acquaintance with it from several Greek poets ( ) by no means presupposes a more special study of Greek literature.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Ver. 28. For in him we live, &c. ] The heathen could say,
” Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo. “
We move ] Understand it as well of the motions of the mind as of the body.
And have our being ] As the beams have their being in the sun, and an accident in the subject. Scholastici dependentiam creatorum a Creatore partita luci, quae in aere remote Sole extinguitur, partita vasculo aquam contentam circumscribenti, partim sigillo in aqua impresso comparant.
As certain also of your own poets ] Note that the apostle nameth not Aratus, whom he citeth, though he were his own countryman, a Cilician; notwithstanding the piety of that poet’s beginning, , or the divineness of his subject, the heavens, a more sublime and pure matter than useth to be in the wanton pages of other poets. Some sentences of heathenish authors are found in Scripture, as the Egyptian spoils furnished the Israelites, and David helped himself with Goliath’s sword: so the Holy Ghost strikes the heathens with their own weapons, Propriis pennis configimur, as Julian the Apostate complained, and therefore forbade the Christians to send their children to the heathen schools, lest they should be wounded with their own weapons.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
28. ] There is no justification for the pantheist in this.
It is properly said only of the race of men , as being His offspring, bound to Him: proceeding from, and upheld by, and therefore living, moving, and being in Him: but even in a wider sense His Being , though a separate objective Personality, involves and contains that of His creatures. See Eph 1:10 , where the same is said of Christ. must not be taken for ‘ by Him;’ the subsequent citation would in that case be irrelevant.
. . . ] ‘A climax: out of God we should have no Life , nor even movement (which some things without life have, plants, water, &c.), nay, not any existence at all (we should not have been ).’ Meyer. Storr’s explanation of by ‘vivimus beate ac hilare,’ and Kuinoel and Olshausen’s of by ‘ real being ,’ i.e. ‘ the spiritual life ,’ are evidently beside the purpose; the intent being to shew the absolute dependence for every thing of man on God, and thence the absurdity of supposing the Godhead like to the works of his (man’s) hands .
. . . ] Aratus, in the opening lines of the Phnomena. . Kleanthes also, Hymn. in Jov. 5, has . Aratus was a native of Tarsus , about 270 B.C., and wrote astronomical poems, of which two, the and , remain. Kleanthes was born at Assos, in Troas, about 300 B.C. The Apostle, by the plural, seems to have both poets in his mind.
The refers to Zeus in both cases, the admission being taken as a portion of truth regarding the Supreme God, which even heathen poets confessed. The has no connexion here , but is (see above) part of the verse in Aratus.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 17:28 . St. Chrysostom comments ( Hom. , xxxviii.): ; , . . . . , , , . In the three verbs it has been sometimes maintained there is an ascending scale; in God we possess the gift of life, in Him we move, in Him we are (not “have our being” simply), i.e. , we are what we are, personal beings. Bethge and Plumptre may be named as two chief supporters of some such view as this, whilst others regard the words (Bengel, Weiss) as merely expressing what had been already expressed in Act 17:25 , or as referring simply (so Overbeck, Wendt, Felten) to our physical life and being. .: “of your own poets,” see Grimm., sub v. , with the accusative as a periphrasis for the possessive pronoun; see also Winer-Moulton, xxii., 7, xlix. d. Blass takes it as = ., on the reading see W. H. marg. , though the limited range of attestation prevents them from reading this in the text: “there would be a striking fitness in a claim by St. Paul to take his stand as a Greek among Greeks, as he elsewhere vindicates his position as a Roman (Act 16:37 ; Act 22:25 ; Act 22:28 ), and as a Pharisee (Act 23:6 )”: W. H., ii., p. 310. : half of an hexameter, the has nothing to do with the meaning of the quotation in the N.T., but see Winer-Moulton, liii. 10. The words are found in Aratus, B.C. 270, Phnom. , 5, and Cleanthes, B.C. 300, Hymn to Jove , 5; for other parallels see Blass, in loco , and Wetstein, so that Zckler may go too far in saying that St. Paul quoted from the former as his fellow-countryman, Aratus being of Soli in Cilicia. Both poets named were Stoics, and the words may have been well known as a familiar quotation, see on Tarsus, chapter lx. 11. In Cleanthes the actual words are rather different, , where origin rather than kinship may be meant. No doubt it is possible to exaggerate, with Bentley, St. Paul’s knowledge of classical literature, but on the other hand it is not perhaps an unfair inference that a man who could quote so aptly from the poets as here in 1Co 15:35 , and in Tit 1:12 , could have done so at other times if occasion had required, cf. Curtius, ubi supra , Blass, in loco , and Farrar, “Classical Quotations of St. Paul,” St. Paul , 2, Exc. , 3. As the words of the hymn were addressed to Zeus, a difficulty has been raised as to the Apostle’s application of them here, and it has been questioned whether he was acquainted with the context of the words, or whether he was aware of their application. But he must at least have known that they were not originally written of the God Whom he revealed. If so, however, there seems no more difficulty in supposing that he would apply such a hemistich to a higher purpose, than that he should make the inscription on a heathen altar a text for his discourse.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
in = by. Greek. en. App-104.
have our being = are.
your own poets = the poets with (Greek. kata. App-104.) you. He refers to Aratus, who -was a native of Cilicia (about 270 B. C). Cleanthes (about 300 B.C.) has almost the same words. App-107.
also His offsprings = His offspring also.
offspring. Greek. genos. Translated kind, race, nation. kindred, &c. Offspring only here, Act 17:29, and Rev 22:16. Adam was by creation son of God. Gen 1:27; Gen 2:7. See App-99and Luk 3:38. All mankind are descended from Adam, and in that sense are the posterity or offspring of God. That every child born into the world “comes fresh and fair from the hands of its Maker”, and is therefore the direct offspring of God, is emphatically contradicted by Joh 1:13, where the One begotten of God is set in opposition to the rest of mankind who are begotten of the flesh and will of man.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
28.] There is no justification for the pantheist in this.
It is properly said only of the race of men, as being His offspring, bound to Him: proceeding from, and upheld by, and therefore living, moving, and being in Him:-but even in a wider sense His Being, though a separate objective Personality, involves and contains that of His creatures. See Eph 1:10, where the same is said of Christ. must not be taken for by Him; the subsequent citation would in that case be irrelevant.
. . .] A climax: out of God we should have no Life, nor even movement (which some things without life have, plants, water, &c.), nay, not any existence at all (we should not have been). Meyer. Storrs explanation of by vivimus beate ac hilare, and Kuinoel and Olshausens of by real being, i.e. the spiritual life, are evidently beside the purpose; the intent being to shew the absolute dependence for every thing of man on God,-and thence the absurdity of supposing the Godhead like to the works of his (mans) hands.
. . .] Aratus, in the opening lines of the Phnomena. . Kleanthes also, Hymn. in Jov. 5, has . Aratus was a native of Tarsus, about 270 B.C., and wrote astronomical poems, of which two, the and , remain. Kleanthes was born at Assos, in Troas, about 300 B.C. The Apostle, by the plural, seems to have both poets in his mind.
The refers to Zeus in both cases, the admission being taken as a portion of truth regarding the Supreme God, which even heathen poets confessed. The has no connexion here, but is (see above) part of the verse in Aratus.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 17:28. ) In Him, not in ourselves: , in, expresses the most efficacious presence flowing from the most intimate tie of connection, so that we cannot think of (feel) ourselves without thinking of (feeling) Him.- we live and move and are [Engl. Vers. have our being]) These verbs are equivalent to those three things in Act 17:25, life and breath and all things: , we are, whatever we are, who without Him would have no being at all. Being is implied of that kind which follows motion, as motion follows life.[100] Cypria[101] writes: We are in the Father, we live in the Son, we have motion and make progress in the Holy Ghost.- , certain of your own) Many add [The margin of both Editions, with the concurrence of the Germ. Vers., leaves the question undecided.-E. B. is supported by [102]
[103]
[104] Vulg. Orig. It is omitted by [105]
[106]
[107] Iren.]. And indeed Aratus, whose testimony Paul quotes in showing that God is a Spirit, was a poet: but with a weighty effect he abstains from the term poet, and from the name of Aratus.-) for , His, i.e. GODS.-, offspring) This is an article of natural theology: and in Christian theology it ought not to be so urged, as that more weight should not be given to the other ties of connection which bind us to GOD in Christ; , for we are His workmanship, Eph 2:10.-, we are) we all, we men, endowed with mind.
[100] Therefore Bengel takes not of our bare existence, as Engl. Vers.; but of all that we are; which follows life and motion.-E. and T.
[101] yprian (in the beginning and middle of the third century: a Latin father). Ed. Steph. Baluzii, Paris. 1726.
[102] the Alexandrine MS.: in Brit. Museum: fifth century: publ. by Woide, 1786-1819: O. and N. Test. defective.
[103] Cod. Basilianus (not the B. Vaticanus): Revelation: in the Vatican: edited by Tisch., who assigns it to the beginning of the eighth century.
[104] Laudianus: Bodl. libr., Oxford: seventh or eighth cent.: publ. 1715: Acts def.
[105] Bez, or Cantabrig.: Univ. libr., Cambridge: fifth cent.: publ. by Kipling, 1793: Gospels, Acts, and some Epp. def.
[106] Bez, or Cantabrig.: Univ. libr., Cambridge: fifth cent.: publ. by Kipling, 1793: Gospels, Acts, and some Epp. def.
[107] Cantabrigiensis, do.: the Gospels, Acts , , 3 d Ep. John.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
For we
Found in the sritings of Aratus and Cleanthes.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in him: 1Sa 25:29, Job 12:10, Psa 36:9, Psa 66:9, Luk 20:38, Joh 5:26, Joh 11:25, Col 1:17, Heb 1:3
as: Tit 1:12
we are: Luk 3:38, Heb 12:9
Reciprocal: Gen 1:26 – in our Gen 1:29 – I have Deu 30:20 – thy life Job 10:12 – life and favour Pro 20:24 – Man’s Pro 24:12 – that keepeth Dan 5:23 – in whose Joh 5:17 – My Act 14:17 – he left Act 17:25 – seeing Rom 11:36 – of him 1Co 8:6 – of whom
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IN HIM
In Him we live, and move, and have our being.
Act 17:28
The subject is a very deep and very mysterious one. The words exceed all comprehensionthis wonderful unionthis almost identity of Christ and the Christian.
I. Living.When did you first begin to feel the power, the privilege, the whole meaning of that word life? Was not it when you ceased to live for self, for the world, for sin? When you concentrated yourself unto one focus? And now see the security! Have you life, the very strength of life, the very essence of life? Is it not to you Christ? You who love Christ, you never, never die. In Him I live. The moment I give up Him, I die. Now mark well the little word. Do not be content to say, I live by Him; do not be content to say, I live for Him. Say, (I feel it, I feel it, I know it, I lay the emphasis on the right word, I live in Him. I live in Him. It means, He must die before I die! He must be lost before I can be lost! He must be condemned before I can be condemned! I am bound up in Him; I live with Him. So long as He lives, I live; it is the true necessary consequence, I live in Him, and I shall never, never die!
II. Moving.It may be wherever we go, whatever change may happen to me in this changing world, in whatever place my lot may be cast, I carry Him with me. I may move up or down; be very low in the world, or very high, as the world calls high; in poverty or wealth; in sickness or health; somewhere near, or somewhere far off; separated from all I hold dearest to me in this world, even down to that paasage of death which leads to another world; but I move with Him, with Him. Not only by Him; it is more than that, I move in Him. He and I can never be divided. It is like the atmosphere which I am breathing. Therefore I cannot be greatly moved.
III. Being.What is my being? A compound of body, soul, and spirit. The body has been worn by that Son of Man Who has endowed it. And that soul and spirit were also His. And He is in sympathy with all those weaknesses I feel. He knows exactly what each needs for its purification, and holiness, and strength, and victory. And though my whole being is subject to the attack of the most subtle and cruel enemy, that same enemy is His enemy and mine, but He has spoiled all his wiles, He has destroyed his power, and He has come out in the conflict with him more than conqueror.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
All is of God that is, and is to be;
And God is good; let this suffice us still,
Resting in child-like trust upon His will,
Who moves to His great ends unthwarted by the ill.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
8
Act 17:28. If we live in Him with all our activities of life, it follows that He is greater than any of us or anything that we can make, which is another argument against man-made images of God. Making reference to their own heathen poets was good psychology. They would be bound to accept their own authors, and finding that they taught the same things as Paul, it would incline them to think favorably of the statements of the apostle. Chief of the quotations was the one that spoke of man as the offspring of God.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
See notes on verse 22
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 28
Modern scholars have found an expression like the one quoted here in several of the Greek poets then known and read at Athens.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Here Paul cited lines from two Greek writers who expressed ideas that were consistent with divine revelation. The Cretan poet Epimenides (ca. 600 B.C.; cf. Tit 1:12) had written, "For in thee we live and move and have our being." [Note: From his poem Cretica, cited by Longenecker, p. 476.] The Cilician poet Aratus (c. 315-240 B.C.), and Cleanthes (331-233 B.C.) before him, had written, "We are also his offspring." [Note: From Aratus’ Phaenomena 5, and Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, also cited ibid.] Paul’s purpose in these quotations was to get his audience to continue to agree with him about the truth.