What Does Acts 17:25 Mean?
Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;THE KEY
God is not sustained by what your hands bring; your hands, your breath, and everything in them already depend on what he gives.
THE MEANING
Your life is received, down to the breath moving through you and the things you hold. The verse places the source of all this giving beyond human hands, so nothing you offer supplies a lack in God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God depends on what you provide to remain whole or to give to you.
THE ROOT
διδοὺς
didous
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω- (do-/dō-)
to give, grant
“gives” in this verse is didous. The word translated “giveth” is a form of δίδωμι (didōmi), “to give.” The verse reverses the imagined direction of dependence: the one approached by human hands is himself the giver from whom all receive.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: a giving; a gift
δόσις
This related word keeps the act of giving and what is given in one word family, echoing the verse’s picture of life and breath as gifts.
dōrea: gift; free gift
δωρεά
Its shared give-family makes clear that what sustains life comes as a gift, not as something humans supply to God.
πνοὴν
pnoēn
GROWS FROM
πνε-
pne-
to breathe, blow
The Greek word πνοή (pnoē) belongs to the family of breathing and blowing. Breath here is named alongside life and all things as something given to everyone.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: to breathe; to blow
πνέω
This verb shows the living action behind the noun: breath is the movement of breathing, not an abstraction.
pneuma: breath
πνεῦμα
The same word family carries breath into another familiar Greek term, keeping breath and its movement together.
ζωὴν
zōēn
GROWS FROM
ζω-
zō-
to live
The verse names life, breath, and all things as gifts from one source. The word family gathers living itself and the giving of life together, opening “life” beyond a possession that can be self-made.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: to live
ζάω
This verb names the living activity contained in the noun “life.”
zōopoieō: to make alive; give life
ζωοποιέω
This related verb makes explicit the life-giving action implied when the verse calls God the giver of life.
THE PATTERN
Life is received at its source: living beings depend on the giver of life and breath.
And the LORD God shaped the ground-being, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.In whose hand is the living soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh.For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.THE THREAD
For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.“Giveth” here and “given” there are forms of the same Greek verb, δίδωμι (didōmi), meaning “to give.” Acts names life and breath as gifts to all; John connects life itself with the Father’s giving.
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