Bible Strands
Acts 17:25
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Athenian philosophers at the Areopagus, continuing his discourse on God’s relationship to creation and human existence. He speaks to a gathered crowd in Athens, following his remarks on God’s transcendence and immanence.
The words — θεραπεύεται (therapeuetai) = is served, and προσδεόμενος (prosdeomenos) = as needing. These terms directly frame the verse’s denial of divine deficiency and the rejection of temple-based worship.
The thread — The text echoes the Creator’s self-sufficiency in Isaiah 42:5, where God declares He stretched out the heavens and earth without need. It also recalls the breath of life in Genesis 2:7 and the psalmist’s dismissal of sacrificial necessity in Psalm 50:8.
Why it lands — The text states that God requires no human service because He actively supplies life, breath, and all things to every person. It demands recognition that worship grounded in divine need is logically impossible and theologically misplaced.
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
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Cross-references
- Psalms 50:8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
- Genesis 2:7 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.
- 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:
- Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
- Acts 17:28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- Romans 11:35 “Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
- Job 22:2 “Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?
- Job 35:6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?
- Job 12:10 The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
- Psalms 104:27 All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.