Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Parallel translations
- WEB neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
- 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;
- BSB Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
- NASB nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
- NLT and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
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
God needs nothing from people; rather, He gives everyone life, breath, and all things.
Overview
Paul overturns the pagan notion that gods depend on human worship and sacrifice. The true God is the self-sufficient giver, not a needy recipient. This humbles human pride and exalts God's grace, for every breath we draw is His gift, and salvation likewise flows from His giving, not our giving to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Ps 50:8–13I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
- Gen 2:7Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Isa 42:5Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.
- Job 33:4The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
- Acts 17:28‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- Rom 11:35“Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
- Job 35:6–7If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
- Job 22:2“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
- Ps 104:27–30These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season.
- Job 12:10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
- 1 Tim 6:17Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;
- Ps 16:2My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing.”
- Job 27:3(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
- Zech 12:1A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:
- Matt 9:13But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- Matt 5:45that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
- Acts 14:17Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
- Amos 5:21–23I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.
- Job 34:14If he set his heart on himself, If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
- Jer 7:20–23Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”
- Num 27:16“Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,
- Isa 57:16For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made.
- Num 16:22They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”
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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 17:25 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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