Acts 17 · Verse 29

Acts 17:29

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.
Acts 17:29, King James Version

Acts 17:29 in other translations

BSBTherefore, 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.
WEBBeing 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.
ASVBeing then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man.
YLT‘Being, therefore, offspring of God, we ought not to think the Godhead to be like to gold, or silver, or stone, graving of art and device of man;
DARBYBeing therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, the graven form of man's art and imagination.
BBEIf then we are the offspring of God, it is not right for us to have the idea that God is like gold or silver or stone, formed by the art or design of man.
WebsterBeing then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man's device.

What does Acts 17:29 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think--The courtesy of this language is worthy of notice. that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device--("graven by the art or device of man"). One can hardly doubt that the apostle would here point to those matchless monuments of the plastic art, in gold and silver and costliest stone, which lay so profusely beneath and around him. The more intelligent pagan Greeks no more pretended that these sculptured gods and goddesses were real deities, or even their actual likenesses, than Romanist Christians do their images; and Paul doubtless knew this; yet here we find him condemning all such efforts visibly to represent the invisible God. How shamefully inexcusable then are the Greek and Roman churches in paganizing the worship of the Christian Church by the encouragement of pictures and images in religious service! (In the eighth century, the second council of Nicea decreed that the image of God was as proper an object of worship as God Himself).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Barnes' Notes
Verse 29. Forasmuch then. Admitting or assuming this to be true. The argument which follows is drawn from the concessions of their own writers.

We ought not to think. It is absurd to suppose. The argument of the apostle is this: "Since we are formed by God; since we are like him, living and intelligent beings; since we are more excellent in our nature than the most precious and ingenious works of art, it is absurd to suppose that the original Source of our existence can be like gold, and silver, and stone. Man himself is far more excellent than an image of wood or stone; how much more excellent still must be the great Fountain and Source of all our wisdom and intelligence!" See this thought pursued at length in Isa 40:18-23.

The Godhead. The Divinity--τοθειον--the Divine Nature, or Essence. The word used here is an adjective employed as a noun, and does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament.

Is like unto gold, etc. All these things were used in making images, or statues of the gods. It is absurd to think that the Source of all life and intelligence resembles a lifeless block of wood or stone. Even degraded heathen, one would think, might see the force of an argument like this.

Graven. Sculptured; wrought into an image.

(d) "to think" Isa 40:18 (++) "Godhead" "Deity"

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, etc. - This inference of the apostle was very strong and conclusive; and his argument runs thus: "If we are the offspring of God, he cannot be like those images of gold, silver, and stone, which are formed by the art and device of man; for the parent must resemble his offspring. Seeing, therefore, that we are living and intelligent beings, He from whom we have derived that being must be living and intelligent. It is necessary, also, that the object of religious worship should be much more excellent than the worshipper; but a man is, by innumerable degrees, more excellent than an image made out of gold, silver, or stone; and yet it would be impious to worship a man: how much more so to worship these images as gods! Every man in the Areopagus must have felt the power of this conclusion; and, taking it for granted that they had felt it, he proceeds: -

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Acts 17:22-31

Here we have a sermon to heathens, who worshipped false gods, and were without the true God in the world; and to them the scope of the discourse was different from what the apostle preached to the Jews. In the latter case, his business was to lead his hearers by prophecies and miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the former, it was to lead them, by the common works of providence, to know…

Read the full comment on Acts 17:22-31 →

Acts 17:29 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

γένοςgenosOffspringG1085
οὖνounthereforeG3767
ὑπάρχοντεςhuparchontesbeingG5225
τοῦtou<the>G3588
θεοῦtheouof GodG2316
οὐκouknotG3756
ὀφείλομενopheilomenwe oughtG3784
νομίζεινnomizeinto considerG3543
χρυσῷchrusōto goldG5557
ἢēorG2228
ἀργύρῳargurōto silverG696
ἢēorG2228
λίθῳ,lithōto stone,G3037
χαράγματιcharagmatia graven thingG5480
τέχνηςtechnēsof craftG5078
καὶkaiandG2532
ἐνθυμήσεωςenthumēseōsimaginationG1761
ἀνθρώπου,anthrōpouof man,G444
τὸtotheG3588
θεῖονtheionDivine BeingG2304
εἶναιeinaito beG1511
ὅμοιον.homoionlike.G3664

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Acts 17:29

  • Isaiah 40:25

    To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

  • Isaiah 46:5-6

    To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.

  • Exodus 20:4

    Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

  • Psalms 115:4-8

    Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. …

  • Habakkuk 2:19-20

    Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

  • Romans 1:20-23

    For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

  • Jeremiah 10:4-10

    They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee. …

  • Psalms 106:20

    Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

  • Isaiah 44:9-20

    They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint. …

  • Psalms 94:7-9

    Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

  • Isaiah 40:12-20

    Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. …

  • Exodus 32:4

    And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
we ought.
Ps 94:7-9; 106:20; 115:4-8; Isa 40:12-18; 44:9-20; Hab 2:19,20
Ro 1:20-23
graven.
Ex 20:4; 32:4; Isa 46:5,6; Jer 10:4-10

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Acts 17:28

    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.

  • Acts 17:29

    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.

  • Acts 17:30

    And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Read all of Acts 17

Acts 17:29 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Siendo pues linaje de Dios, no hemos de estimar la Divinidad ser semejante á oro, ó á plata, ó á piedra, escultura de artificio ó de imaginación de hombres.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Étant donc la race de Dieu, nous ne devons pas penser que la divinité soit semblable à de l’or, ou à de l’argent, ou à de la pierre, à une œuvre sculptée de l’art et de l’imagination de l’homme.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Da wir nun Gottes Geschlecht sind, so sollen wir nicht meinen, daß das Göttliche dem Golde oder Silber oder Stein, einem Gebilde der Kunst und der Erfindung des Menschen, gleich sei.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Genus ergo cum simus Dei, non debemus æstimare auro, aut argento, aut lapidi, sculpturæ artis, et cogitationis hominis, divinum esse simile.