Acts 17:28

St. Chrysostom comments (Hom., xxxviii.): Τί λέ γω μακράν; οὕτως ἐγγύς ἐστιν, ὡς χωρὶς αὐτοῦ μὴ ζῆν. ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν κ. τ. λ.… καὶ οὐκ εἶπε, διʼ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλʼ ὃ ἐγγύτερον ἦν, ἐν αὐτῷ. In the three verbs it has been sometimes maintained there is an ascending scale; in God we possess the gift of life, in Him we move, in Him we are (not “have our being” simply), i.e., we are what we are, personal beings. Bethge and Plumptre may be named as two chief supporters of some such view as this, whilst others regard the words (Bengel, Weiss) as merely expressing what had been already expressed in Acts 17:25, or as referring simply (so Overbeck, Wendt, Felten) to our physical life and being. τῶν καθʼ ὑμᾶς π.: “of your own poets,” see Grimm., sub v. κατά, with the accusative as a periphrasis for the possessive pronoun; see also Winer-Moulton, xxii., 7, xlix. d. Blass takes it as = ὑμέτεροι., on the reading see W. H. marg. καθʼ ἡμᾶς, though the limited range of attestation prevents them from reading this in the text: “there would be a striking fitness in a claim by St. Paul to take his stand as a Greek among Greeks, as he elsewhere vindicates his position as a Roman (Acts 16:37; Acts 22:25; Acts 22:28), and as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6)”: W. H., ii., p. 310. τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν : half of an hexameter, the γὰρ καὶ has nothing to do with the meaning of the quotation in the N.T., but see Winer-Moulton, liii. 10. The words are found in Aratus, B.C. 270, Phœnom., 5, and Cleanthes, B.C. 300, Hymn to Jove, 5; for other parallels see Blass, in loco, and Wetstein, so that Zöckler may go too far in saying that St. Paul quoted from the former as his fellow-countryman, Aratus being of Soli in Cilicia. Both poets named were Stoics, and the words may have been well known as a familiar quotation, see on Tarsus, chapter lx. 11. In Cleanthes the actual words are rather different, ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ γένος ἐσμέν, where origin rather than kinship may be meant. No doubt it is possible to exaggerate, with Bentley, St. Paul's knowledge of classical literature, but on the other hand it is not perhaps an unfair inference that a man who could quote so aptly from the poets as here in 1 Corinthians 15:35, and in Titus 1:12, could have done so at other times if occasion had required, cf. Curtius, ubi supra, Blass, in loco, and Farrar, “Classical Quotations of St. Paul,” St. Paul, 2, Exc., 3. As the words of the hymn were addressed to Zeus, a difficulty has been raised as to the Apostle's application of them here, and it has been questioned whether he was acquainted with the context of the words, or whether he was aware of their application. But he must at least have known that they were not originally written of the God Whom he revealed. If so, however, there seems no more difficulty in supposing that he would apply such a hemistich to a higher purpose, than that he should make the inscription on a heathen altar a text for his discourse.