Acts 17:28

Bible in Basic English

For in him we have life and motion and existence; as certain of your verse writers have said, For we are his offspring. Acts 17:28 (BBE)

Study Bible

Study this verse in context

Read first The explanation stays close to the text and to the chapter’s movement.

Verse explanation

Acts 17:28 shows Paul engaging a pagan audience without flattering paganism. He uses language from their world to expose their failure to know the God who gives life.

Context in the chapter

At the Areopagus Paul is not praising Athenian spirituality. He is confronting idolatry and pressing his hearers toward repentance by proclaiming the God they have ignored.

⚔️ Confrontation

This verse is often used to justify vague spirituality. In context it does the opposite: God’s nearness in creation makes rebellion more guilty, not less.

🧭 Interpretive caution

Paul is not endorsing pagan poets wholesale. He is seizing a true fragment in order to press home the claims of the living God.

Connections to other Scriptures

Isaiah 42:5 Jump to text

Isaiah also ties life and breath directly to God’s sustaining action.

Colossians 1:16-17 Jump to text

Paul later roots all created life and continued coherence in Christ himself.

Teaching points

Common language can be used missionally without surrendering revelation.
God’s sustaining presence leaves humanity without excuse.
Faithful witness exposes idolatry rather than decorating it.

Bible study questions

Where do modern Christians confuse cultural contact with spiritual approval?
How does Paul move from shared language to a call for repentance?

Acts 17:22-31 Deep

Creation apologetics becomes a summons to repent before the risen Judge

Open

Jump to chapter

Paul does not stop at common ground. He moves from the God who made all things to the command that all people everywhere must repent because the risen man appointed by God will judge the world.

Persons, places, events, and background

People

Paul Paul models bold, intelligent witness before a skeptical elite audience.

Athenian philosophers Stoic and Epicurean listeners represent a culture that was intellectually alive and spiritually blind.

Places

Areopagus A public civic-philosophical setting where Paul addresses the city’s thought-world directly.

Events

Areopagus address This sermon moves from creation and providence to repentance and coming judgment.

Cultural background

Quoted pagan poets Paul cites familiar lines from Greek culture, not to baptize pagan religion, but to show that even their own words leave them accountable before God.

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Compare Translations

ASV

for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even 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.’

DBY

for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.

DRA

For in him we live, and move, and are; as some also of your own poets said: For we are also his offspring.

FBV

In him we live, move, and exist. Just as one of your own poets wrote, ‘We are his family.’”

GNV

For in him we liue, and mooue, and haue our being, as also certaine of your owne Poets haue sayd, for we are also his generation.

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.

OJB

For “we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,” as also some of your poets have said, “For we are all His offspring.”