Acts 17:24

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul addresses the Athenian philosophers at the Areopagus, having just identified their altar "To an Unknown God" (v.23) as the point of entry. He is naming the God they already worship but do not know.

The words — poieēsas (ποιησας, "having made," aorist participle) marks creation as a completed act, not an ongoing process. Kosmos (κόσμος) carries the sense of ordered arrangement, not merely "earth."

The thread — Solomon already asked whether God could dwell on earth (1 Kings 8:27), and Deuteronomy 10:14 assigned the heavens and earth to the LORD. Stephen made the same move against the temple in Acts 7:48.

Why it lands — It strips the reader of any comfortable location for God — no building, no institution, no ritual object holds Him. The question it forces is whether your theology still secretly puts God in a box.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Cross-references

1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
Deuteronomy 10:14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.
Acts 7:48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
Isaiah 66:1 This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?
2 Chronicles 6:18 But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Psalms 115:16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind.
2 Chronicles 2:6 But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?
John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Isaiah 42:5 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: