Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Parallel translations
- WEB who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
- BSB In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.
- NKJV who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.
- NASB In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways;
- NLT In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In past generations God let the nations go their own way. God's patience permitted the nations' wandering before the gospel reached them.
Overview
Paul acknowledges a period when God did not send the law and prophets to the Gentile nations, allowing them to follow their own paths. This does not excuse their idolatry but explains God's forbearance, much as Paul argues in Romans 1. It also highlights the new era now dawning, in which God summons all nations to repent through Christ (Acts 17:30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Acts 17:30And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
- Ps 81:12So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
- Rom 1:28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
- Ps 147:20He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
- Mic 4:5For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
- Eph 2:12That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
- 1 Pet 4:3For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
- Rom 1:21–25Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
- Hos 4:17Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 14:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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