What Does Acts 17:29 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
If you are God’s offspring, the divine cannot be reduced to something human hands can manufacture.
THE MEANING
You are named as God’s offspring, and that relation is the reason the divine is not like a human-made object of gold, silver, or stone. A crafted image bears a human design; it cannot be the source or measure of the life named here. The contrast is between living origin and a likeness produced by human thought and art.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God can be contained or defined by an image that people make.
THE ROOT
γένος
genos
GROWS FROM
γεν-
gen-
Beget, come into being; by extension, kind or lineage.
“offspring” in this verse is genos. γένος (genos) carries the sense of kind, stock, or lineage. The word grounds the contrast in living relation to God, set against a likeness produced by human craft.
ALSO GROWS
gennaō: Beget or give birth.
γεννάω
It makes the root’s connection to generation and living origin audible.
genesis: Birth or origin.
γένεσις
It echoes the idea of coming into being that stands behind being called God’s offspring.
χάραγμα
charagma
GROWS FROM
χαράσσ-
charass-
Cut, incise, or engrave.
The word translated “graven” evokes something cut into a surface: a human-made mark. Beside γένος (genos), it sharpens the verse’s contrast between living lineage and a form shaped by human hands.
ALSO GROWS
charassō: Engrave, scratch, or inscribe.
χαράσσω
It shows the physical action behind the crafted likeness in the verse.
charaktēr: An engraved mark or imprint.
χαρακτήρ
It shares the engraving word-family and shows how an incised mark can become a figure or representation.
THE PATTERN
God’s living origin cannot be contained in a likeness produced by human hands.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,THE THREAD
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.“Offspring” repeats the same Greek word, γένος (genos), used in the preceding verse. There it stands alongside living, moving, and having our being in God; here, that living origin is the reason God cannot be equated with a carved object.
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