Acts 17:24

24 God that made the worlde and all that are in it seynge that he is Lorde of heven and erth he dwelleth not in temples made with hondes

Acts 17:24 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 17:24

God that made the world, and all things therein
In this account of the divine Being, as the Creator of the world, and all things in it, as the apostle agrees with Moses, and the rest of the sacred Scriptures; so he condemns both the notion of the Epicurean philosophers, who denied that the world was made by God, but said that it owed its being to a fortuitous concourse of atoms; and the notion of the Peripatetics, or Aristotelians, who asserted the eternity of the world; and some of both sects were doubtless present.

Seeing that he is the Lord of heaven and earth;
as appears by his being the Creator of both; hence he supports them in their being, and governs all creatures in them by his providence.

Dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
such as were the idol temples at Athens; nor in any other edifices built by man, so as to be there fixed and limited; no, not in the temple at Jerusalem: but he dwells in temples that are not made with hands, as in the temple of Christ's human nature, in which the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in the hearts of his people, who are the temples of the Holy Ghost. This strikes at a notion of the Athenians, as if God was limited, and circumscribed, and included within the bounds of a shrine, or temple, though it is not at all contrary to his promises, or the hopes of his own people, of his presence in places appointed for divine worship, but is expressive of the infinity and immensity of God.

Acts 17:24 In-Context

22 Paul stode in the myddes of Marse strete and sayde: ye men of Attens I perceave that in all thinges ye are to supersticious.
23 For as I passed by and behelde the maner how ye worship youre goddes I founde an aultre wher in was written: vnto ye vnknowen god. Whom ye then ignoratly worship him shewe I vnto you.
24 God that made the worlde and all that are in it seynge that he is Lorde of heven and erth he dwelleth not in temples made with hondes
25 nether is worshipped with mennes hondes as though he neded of eny thinge seinge he him selfe geveth lyfe and breeth to all men every where
26 and hath made of one bloud all nacions of men for to dwell on all the face of the erthe and hath assigned before how longe tyme and also the endes of their inhabitacion
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