Later text
Acts 17:25BSB
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 17:25 → Genesis 2:7
Allusion
Earlier text
Genesis 2:7BSB
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
Isaiah 54:17BSB
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.
Earlier text
Isaiah 42:5BSB
This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:
Earlier text
“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me. I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens, for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
Significance
Paul declares that God is not "served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:25) — an appeal to the Creator who "breathed the breath of life" into man's nostrils so that he "became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). The logic runs from creation to worship: the God who is the source of every creature's life cannot be the debtor of any creature's service, and the psalmist already mocked the notion that God must be fed by sacrifice (Psalm 50:9-13). Human beings owe God everything and can add nothing to him; true religion begins in receiving, not supplying. This self-giving Creator is the same God who gives the greater life in his Son, in whom is life and light for the world (John 1:4) — the Author of breath now breathing his Spirit into all who trust the risen Christ.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy