for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’
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.’
- KJV 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.
- 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.’
- 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 life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
- Col 1:17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
- Heb 1:3His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
- Ps 36:9For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.
- Luke 20:38Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
- John 5:26For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
- John 11:25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
- Ps 66:9who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved.
- Heb 12:9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
- 1 Sam 25:29Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.
- Dan 5:23but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.
- Luke 3:38the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
- Titus 1:12One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
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.