Has not My hand made all these things?’
Parallel translations
- WEB Didn’t my hand make all these things?’
- KJV Hath not my hand made all these things?
- NKJV Has My hand not made all these things?’
- NASB ‘Was it not My hand that made all these things?’
- NLT Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?’
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 reminds them that His own hand made all things. The Creator owns and transcends everything, so He needs no house from man.
Overview
Stephen completes the Isaiah quotation: God made all things (Isaiah 66:2). Since everything is His handiwork, no human construction can add to or contain Him. This caps his argument that true worship is not bound to the temple but offered to the God who made and rules all.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 32:17“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
- Isa 66:2Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.
- Ps 33:6–9By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
- Exod 20:11For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
- Isa 40:28Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
- Ps 146:5–6Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
- Isa 45:12It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.
- Acts 14:15“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
- Jer 10:11Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
- Isa 45:7–8I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
- Ps 50:9–12I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,
- Isa 44:24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
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 7:50 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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