For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Parallel translations
- WEB ‘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.’
- BSB ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- NKJV for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
- NASB for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’
- NLT For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
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
Paul quotes Greek poets that in God we live and move and exist, and are His offspring.
Overview
Using their own writers, Paul affirms that all people depend continually on God for existence. As creatures made by Him, humanity bears a relation to God that idolatry denies. Paul skillfully employs common grace insights in pagan thought to point his hearers toward the Creator they have ignored.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Job 12:10In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
- Col 1:17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
- Heb 1:3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
- Ps 36:9For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
- Luke 20:38For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.
- John 5:26For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
- John 11:25Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
- Ps 66:9Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
- Heb 12:9Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
- 1 Sam 25:29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
- Dan 5:23But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
- Luke 3:38Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
- Titus 1:12One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 17:28 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.