Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
Parallel translations
- KJV Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
- BSB Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
- NKJV Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
- NASB Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.
- NLT And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
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
Since we are God's offspring, we should not imagine God as gold, silver, or carved stone.
Overview
Paul draws the logical conclusion: living beings made by God cannot be honored by lifeless idols crafted by human art. Idolatry reverses the order, reducing the Creator to the work of His creatures' hands. The argument exposes the absurdity of worshiping images and prepares the call to repentance that follows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 40:25“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
- Exod 20:4“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
- Isa 46:5–6“To whom will you liken me, and consider my equal, and compare me, that we may be equal?
- Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- Hab 2:19–20Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it.
- Rom 1:20–23For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.
- Jer 10:4–10They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.
- Ps 106:20Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
- Isa 44:9–20Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
- Exod 32:4He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- Isa 40:12–20Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
- Ps 94:7–9They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
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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.
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Original language
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