Acts 17:26

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 the Creator, and worship Him. The apostle spoke of an altar he had seen, with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. This fact is stated by many writers. After multiplying their idols to the utmost, some at Athens thought there was another god of whom they had no knowledge. And are there not many now called Christians, who are zealous in their devotions, yet the great object of their worship is to them an unknown God? Observe what glorious things Paul here says of that God whom he served, and would have them to serve. The Lord had long borne with idolatry, but the times of this ignorance were now ending, and by his servants he now commanded all men every where to repent of their idolatry. Each sect of the learned men would feel themselves powerfully affected by the apostle's discourse, which tended to show the emptiness or falsity of their doctrines.

Before appointed (προτεταγμένους) The Rev., properly, omits before, following the reading of the best texts, τεταγμένους assigned. Bounds (ὀροθεσίας) Only here in New Testament. The word, in the singular, means the fixing of boundaries, and so is transferred to the fixed boundaries themselves.

Hath made of one blood: 1. To teach all charity and compassion towards one another, being so nearly allied to one another. 2. As also to admire God more in that variety that appears in men’s shapes and voices, but especially in the dispositions of their minds; whenas they all come from one stock and stem. Hath determined the times. &c.: the apostle asserts the providence of God against these Athenian philosophers, that nothing comes by chance, or a fatuitous concourse of atoms; but that God is in every thing, though men know it not, or rather will not consider it, Job 7:1 14:5,14 . This doctrine was preached by Moses, who tells the people, that God is their life, and the length of their days, that they might love him, and obey his voice, and cleave unto him, Deu 30:20 .

Acts 17:26 . Ἐξ ἑνὸς ) There is added in most copies αἵματος , which I know not whether Irenæu[98] himself read. Ἀνθρώπου [so some MSS. of Vulg. have homine for omne ] might equally well be understood from what follows, πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων .[99] At all events the antithesis is between ἑνὸς and πᾶν , of one and every (viz. race).— πᾶν ἔθνος , every race ) He does not say, πάντα ἔθνη , all nations . “We all are one nation.— ὁρίσας , having determined or defined ) That there is a God who gave the earth to men to dwell in, Paul proves from the order of times and of places, which indicates the consummate Wisdom of the Governor, superior to all human counsels: Deuteronomy 32:8 ; Deuteronomy 2:5 ; Deuteronomy 2:9 , etc.; Psalm 74:17 ; Psalm 115:16 .— προστεταγμένους ) So the LXX., Jeremiah 5:24 , κατὰ καιρὸν πληρώσεως προστάγματος θερισμοῦ , “at the time of the fulfilment of the appointment of harvest:” and Sir 39:16 ; Sir 39:18 , πᾶν πρόσταγμα ἐν καιρῷ αὐτοῦ ἔσται · ἐν προστάγματι αὐτοῦ πᾶσα ἡ εὐδοκία .— ὁροθεσίας , the bounds ) by means of mountains, rivers, etc. [98] renæus (of Lyons, in Gaul: born about 130 A.D., and died about the end of the second century). The Editio Renati Massueti, Parisinæ, a. 1710. [99] The margin of the Ed. 2, as also of the Germ. Vers., leaves the decision to the reader.—E. B. AB Vulg. Memph. Theb. omit αἵματος . But DE de and both Syr. Versions support αἵματος .—E. and T.

{14} And hath made of {o} one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (14) God is wonderful in all his works, but especially in the work of man: not that we should stand amazed at his works, but that we should lift our eyes to the workman. (o) Of one stock and one beginning.

26, 27. and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth—Holding with the Old Testament teaching, that in the blood is the life (Ge 9:4; Le 17:11; De 12:23), the apostle sees this life stream of the whole human race to be one, flowing from one source [Baumgarten]. and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation—The apostle here opposes both Stoical Fate and Epicurean Chance, ascribing the periods and localities in which men and nations flourish to the sovereign will and prearrangements of a living God.

Verse 26. - He made for hath made , A.V.; of one for of one blood , A.V. and T.R.; every nation for all nations , A.V.; having determined their appointed seasons for and hath determined the times before appointed , A.V. From the unity of God Paul deduces the unity of the human race, all created by God, all sprung from one ancestor, or one blood (whichever reading we take), and so not to have their several national gods, but all to be united in the worship of the one true and living God, the Father of them all. It may be remarked by the way that the languages of the earth, differing like the skins and the features of the different races, and corresponding to those various bounds assigned by God to their habitations, yet bear distinct and emphatic testimony to this unity. They are variations, more or less extended, of the speech of man. Bounds of their habitation ; τὰς ὀροθεσίας κ.τ.λ .: the word only occurs here; elsewhere, though rarely, τὰ ὀροθέσια . Acts 17:26

26 . and hath made of one blood ] All the best MSS. omit the word “blood.” And this seems to bring out more fully what the Apostle desires to dwell on; the Fatherhood of God. It is not that men are all of one family and so all equal in God’s eyes, and ought to be in the eyes of one another. But when we read “they are made of One” we are carried back to the higher thought of the prophet ( Malachi 2:10 ), “Have we not all one Father?” This was a philosophy not likely to be acceptable to the Athenians among whom the distinction between Greeks and Barbarians was as radical as that which has grown up in America between white man and “ ,” or between Europeans and natives in India. for to dwell on all the face of the earth ] For His children the Father provided a home. and hath determined the times before appointed ] The word προστεταγμένους has more authority than προτεταγμένους and gives a better sense. The times (rather seasons ) are appointed unto men, but it is not so clear what “before-appointed” could mean. Read “ And hath determined their appointed seasons .” (So R. V. ) The “seasons” referred to are those which God has ordained for seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night, which are fixed by his decree and make the earth a fitting abode for men. and the bounds of their habitation ] i.e. where they can dwell and where they cannot.

Acts 17:26-27 . “The single origin of men and their adjusted diffusion upon the earth was also His work, in order that they should seek and find Him who is near to all.” ἐποίσε … κατοικεῖν ] He has made that, from (proceeding from) one blood, every nation of men should dwell upon all the face of the earth (comp. Genesis 11:8 ). Castalio, Calvin, Beza, and others: “fecitque ex uno sanguine omne genus hominum, ut inhabitaret” (after ἀνθρ . a comma). Against this is the circumstance that ὁρίσας κ . τ . λ . contains the modal definition, not to the making (to the producing) of the nations, but to the making-them- to-dwell , as is evident from τῆς κατοικίας αὐτῶν ; so that this interpretation is not according to the context. ἐξ ἑνὸς αἵματος ] See, respecting αἷμα as the seat of life propagating itself by generation, on John 1:13 . Paul, by this remark, that all men through one heavenly Father have also one earthly father, does not specially oppose, as Stolz, Kuinoel, and others, following older interpreters, assume, the belief of the Athenians that they were αὐτόχθονες (see Wetstein in loc .); the whole discourse is elevated above so special a polemic bearing. But he speaks in the way of general and necessary contrast to the polytheistic nature-religions, which derived the different nations from different origins in their myths.

Quite irrelevant is what Olshausen suggests as the design of Paul, that he wished to represent the contempt in which the Jews were held among the Greeks as absurd. ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπ . τ . γῆς ] refers to the idea of the totality of the nations dwelling on the earth, which is contained in πᾶν ἔθνος ( every nation). ὁρίσας ] Aorist participle contemporaneous with ἐποίησε , specifying how God proceeded in that ἐποίησε κ . τ . λ : inasmuch as He has fixed the appointed periods and the definite boundaries of their (the nations’) dwelling . τῆς κατοικ . αὐτ . belongs to both—to προστετ . καιρ ., and to τὰς ὁροθ . God has determined the dwelling ( κατοικία , Polyb. v. 78. 5; Strabo, v. p. 246) of the nations , according both to its duration in time and to its extension in space . Both, subject to change, run their course in a development divinely ordered. Comp. Job 12:23 . Others take προστετ . καιρ . independently of τ . κατοικ . αὐτ . (so Baumgarten); but thereby the former expression presents itself in perplexing indefiniteness. The sense of the epochs of the world set forth by Daniel (Baumgarten) must have been more precisely indicated than by the simple καιρούς . Lachmann has separated προστεταγμ . into πρὸς τεταγμένους unnecessarily, contrary to all versions and Fathers, also contrary to the reading προτεταγμ . in D* Iren. interpr. ἡ ὁροθεσία is not elsewhere preserved, but τὸ ὁροθέσιον ; see Bornemann.

(26) And hath made of one blood all nations of men. —Literally, every nation. The previous verses had given what we may venture to call St. Paul’s Philosophy of Religion. This gives his Philosophy of History. And the position was one which no Greek, above all, no Athenian, was likely to accept. For him the distinction between the Greek and the barbarian was radical and essential. The one was by nature meant to be the slave of the other. (Aristot. Pol. i. 2, 6.) In rising above his own prejudices of fancied superiority of race, the Apostle felt that he could attack, as from a vantage-ground, the prejudices of others. He naturally accepted the truth as it was presented to him in the Mosaic history of the Creation; but the truth itself, stated in its fullest form, would remain, even if we were to accept other theories of the origin of species and the history of man. There is a oneness of physical structure, of conditions and modes of life, of possible or actual development, which forbids any one race or nation, Hebrew, Hellenic, Latin, or Teutonic, to assume for itself that it is the cream and flower of humanity. Hath determined the times before appointed.—The better MSS. give simply, “the appointed seasons.” Few words, even in St. Paul’s teaching, are more pregnant with significance. They justify all that the wise of heart have said as to the “manifold wisdom of God,” as seen in history and in the education of mankind.

The special gifts of character of each race—Hebrew thought of God, Greek sense of beauty, Roman sense of law, Teutonic truthfulness, Keltic impulsiveness, docility—have all their work to do. All local circumstances of soil and climate that influence character come under the head of the “bounds of men’s habitation.” All conditions of time—the period at which each race has been called to play its part in the drama of the world’s history—come under the head of the “appointed seasons.”