Acts 17:25
23 For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
26 From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.
27 God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
- KJV
- Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
- WEB
- He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
- ASV
- neither is he served by men`s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
- DARBY
- nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things;
- BLB
- nor is He served by hands of men as needing anything—He [who] gives to all life and breath and all things.
- ÅB
- Han tjenes ikke av menneskelige hender heller, som om han trengte til noe, for det er han selv som gir liv og ånde og alt til alle.
- OTB
- Heller ikke blir han tjent av menneskehender, som om han trengte noe, siden det er han selv som gir alle liv og ånde og alle ting.
- B1930
- heller ikke tjenes han av menneskelige hender som om han trengte til noget, han som jo selv gir alle liv og ånde og alle ting;
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Psalms 50:8–13
I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
Read in contextIsaiah 42:5
This is what God the LORD says— He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
Read in contextGenesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Read in contextActs 17:28
‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
Read in contextRomans 11:35
“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
Read in contextJob 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Read in contextJob 35:6–7
If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?
Read in contextJob 22:2
“Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?
Read in context