Bible Strands
Acts 7:50
Has not My hand made all these things?’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin during his trial, quoting the Lord to counter their focus on building a physical temple. God speaks through Stephen at this moment of condemnation to redefine His dwelling place.
The words — The Greek phrase οὐχὶ ἡ χεὶρ μου ἐποίησεν ταῦτα πάντα (ouchi hē cheir mou epoiēsen tauta panta) translates literally as “has not My hand made all these things?” This rhetorical question emphasizes divine agency over human construction.
The thread — This exact phrasing echoes Isaiah 66:2, while the theme of God’s creative power aligns with Jeremiah 32:17 and Psalm 33:6. The citation traces a consistent biblical claim that creation belongs solely to God.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that God cannot be contained in human architecture. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on religious structures and acknowledge divine sovereignty.
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
Hath not my hand made all these things?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 32:17 “Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
- Isaiah 66:2 Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.
- Psalms 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
- Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
- Psalms 50:9 I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,
- Psalms 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
- Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
- Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
- Isaiah 45:12 It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.
- Jeremiah 10:11 Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”