The life and work of St. Paul

308 THE Lira AND wpfiX o? si.
" in wandering through your city, and gazing about me on the objects of
devotion, 1 1 found among them 2 an altar on which had been carved an inscription,
"To THE UNKNOWN Goo." 3
That, then, which ye unconsciously*
adore, that am I declaring unto yon. The God who made the universe and all
things in it, He being the natural 6 Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in
temples made with hands, 6 nor is He in need of 7
anything so as to receive
service 8 from human hands, seeing that He is Himself the giver to all of life
and breath and all things; and He made of one blood 9
every nation of men
to dwell on the whole face of the earth, ordaining the immutable limits to the
times and extents of their habitation, 10
inspiring thorn thereby to seek God, if
after all they might grope in thoir darkness u and find Him, though, in
reality, 12 He is not far from each one of us for in Him ; we live, and move, and
are, as some 13 also of your own poets have said
(We need Him all,)
For we are e'en His offspring."
1 Not, as in E.V., " your devotions " (cf. Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iv. 19, p. 156).
* KOI. For avaOeupuv D reads Suvropuw, perspiciens, d. The jireyrypairro implies per*
manence, and perhaps antiquity.
*
5 ... TOUTO, N, A, B, D, with Origen and Jerome. Cf. Hor.
"
Epod. v. 1. At O
Deorum quicquid in caelo regit;" and the frequent piacular inscription, "Soi Deo Sei
Deae." The vague expression " the Divine " is common in Greek writers.
4 Ver. 23, iyvood/ref, not "ignorautly," which would have been unlike Paul's urbanity,
but " without knowing Who He is," with reference to iyvuxmf (cf. Horn. i. 20). The word
nvfptln also implies genuine piety.
*
virapvwv.
8 An obvious reminiscence of the speech of Stephen (viL 48 ; of. Eurip. Fragm. ap
Clem. Alex. Strom. V. ii. 76).
1 A proposition to which the Epicureans would heartily assent.
8 eepajmiereu, "is served," not "is worshipped," which is meaningless when applied
to "hands." It means by offerings at the altar, &o. (cf. II. i. 39, el ITOT TOI \apUyr' itrl
Vnov fpc\ff, to fumble, like a blind man, or one hi the dark (Arist. Pax. 691 ; Gen.
jcxvii. 21 ; Isa. lix. 10 ; cf. Rom. i. 21, x. 68) :
' I stretch lame hands of faith, and gropt
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what 1 feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope." Tennyson.
12 He means to imply that the necessity for this groping was their own fault wan
due to their withdrawal to a distance from God, not His withdrawal from them.
13 The poet actually quoted is Aratus of Cilicia, perhaps of Tarsus, and thejhie come*
from the beginning
of his 4>