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Acts 17 · a question people ask

"As some of your own poets have said" (17:28). Who were they?

In the text

Paul doesn't name them. The WEB prints the verse this way: "‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’" (17:28). The verse doesn't say where the first words come from, and gives the second as from "some of your own poets". Then Paul goes on in his own words: "Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man." (17:29). These notes don't name any poet or say where either saying comes from.

The verses

“‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.”
Acts 17:28-29 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Acts 17

Acts 17: To an unknown God

At Athens some said Paul seemed to be "advocating foreign deities" (17:18): behind advocating is a noun Strong's gives as "a proclaimer". And Paul's first words about what he brings use its verb: "What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you" (17:23), the verb of "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ" (17:3).

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions