Acts 17:24

24 God that made the world and all things that be in it, this, for he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hand [made by hand],

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 And Paul stood in the middle of Areopagus, and said, Men of Athens, by all things I see you as vain worshippers.
23 For I passed, and saw your maumets [and saw your simulacra], and found an altar, in which was written, To the unknown God. Therefore which thing ye unknowing worship, this thing I show to you.
24 God that made the world and all things that be in it, this, for he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hand [made by hand],
25 neither is worshipped by man's hands, neither hath need of any thing [having need of any thing], for he giveth life to all men, and breathing, and all things;
26 and made of one all the kind of men [for] to inhabit on all the face of the earth, determining times ordained, and terms of the dwelling of them [and terms of habitation, or dwelling, of them],
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.