Someone help me with this Scripture

[BamaRider]

And excerpt from today’s scripture reading.

*Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
**the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,*nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions

Acts 17:15, 22- 18:1

The bold hightlight in this statement means what?

 

[Pax]

This is the explanation given in the Haydock Bible Commentary.

“However, from this inscription St. Paul takes an occasion, with wonderful dexterity, with sublime reflections, and with that solid eloquence, of which he was master, and which he employed, as often as it was necessary, to inform them, and instruct them, concerning the works of the one true God, of whom they had little knowledge, by their own fault: that this one true God made the world, and all things in it: that from one man he raised all mankind: that his presence is not confined to temples made by the hands of men, being every where, and in all creatures, preserving them every moment: that in him we live, move, and have our being, or subsist: that it is he, who hath determined the time, limits, or bounds of every empire, and kingdom, and of every man’s life: that this true God, who made, preserves, and governs all things in heaven and on earth, cannot be like to gold, silver, or any thing made by the art, or fancy of men.”

You can check it out here:
haydock1859.tripod.com/id132.html

 

[Bishopite]

And excerpt from today’s scripture reading.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
***does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,***nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions

Acts 17:15, 22- 18:1

The bold hightlight in this statement means what?

Haydocks commentary says:

Ver. 24.

God…dwelleth not in temples. He who is infinite cannot be confined to space; nor stand in need of what human hands can furnish. Temples are not for God, but for man. It is the latter who derives assistance from them. The same may be observed of all exterior acts of worship. They are serviceable, inasmuch as they proceed from, or powerfully assist, interior devotion, by the impressions which exterior objects leave upon the soul. The reciprocal action of one upon the other, in our present state of existence, is great and inevitable. (Haydock) See chap. vii. above, ver. 48. — God, indeed, dwelleth in the temple, yes, and in the soul of the just man, but he is not confined there, as the idols were to their temples. Hence the prayer of Solomon at the consecration of the temple: if heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thy immensity, how much less this house, which I have erected? God dwelleth there, then, to receive the prayers and sacrifices of the faithful, but not as though he needed any thing. See ver. 25. — God is not contained in temples; so as to need them for his dwelling, or any other uses, as the heathens imagined. Yet by his omnipresence, he is both there and every where. (Challoner)
Ver. 27. *Feel *

The heathen gods to which St. Paul was referring were limited and confined to their pagan temples. Remember, Jesus is sacramentally, substantially present in the Eucharist which is in the tabernacle, but that Jesus (who IS God) isn’t merely limited to a place or dwelling as were the false gods.

 

[YADA]

Look up the story of Epimenedes … Paul is using a story of Athens past to introduce Jesus to the Athenians …

Epimenedes [A Cretan Philosopher Paul quotes in Scripture and alludes to here] supposedly was brought to athens during a time of plague …

Epimenedes supposedly told the King of Athens that the plague was the result of insulting a God … since they had sacrificed to all of the Gods to no avail, they must have insulted the God [and that God must be the most poerful God] they did not know…

He instructed them to place sheep on the hill over the Aeropagus and where ever they laid down, they were to build an Altar and sacrifice the sheep to this Unknown God …

This they [the Athenians] did, the plague was lifted and the town was saved … Epemenides refused any payment, entering into a treaty [covenant] between Crete and Athens …

There are many parallels between the story for Paul to explain:

Epemenides/Unknown God/People of Athens/Saving [Life/Redemption] …

Paul/Christ/People/Eternal Life

Paul introduces the Unknown God in the person of Jesus Christ

 

[Godlovestrength]

And excerpt from today’s scripture reading.

the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
Acts 17:15, 22- 18:1

The bold hightlight in this statement means what?

In the old testement God had people make tabanacles, or the likes of the “Holy of Holies” as Moses had, and later Solomon had the temple made (by human hands).

In the “new testement” Jesus tells us that He came “not” to change the old testement but to “fulfill it”.
And it is in fulfilling it that Jesus tells us that “we” are now the tabinacle the temple which in God lives. Hence it is writen tha tthe God of the universe does “not” dwell in such places made by human hands, but in people, those who are the elect of God.

That is the very reason why we are not to disgrace ( do things) that donot glorify God since our body does not belong to us. Also this is the reason why we are not to make false imiges of God, or use the name of the Lord in vain.

Does that make sence.

Godbless

 

[BamaRider]

Reading the bible cover to cover was on my list of things to do, when I retired. I started in the New Testament. I admit to skipping around (not reading the chapters in order) I started Luke and just finished Matthew.

I also take my St Joseph MIssal and read the Scripture readings each day, when I read these writings from Acts.

I’ve been a cradel Catholic all my 52 years,and I’ll never be ANYTHING but a Catholic, but I looked at this quote and went straight to my belief that the Lord is IN the sanctuary of mine and every Catholic parish, so I needed to know what the writer is talking about.

Is it correct to say then this statement is to say God is not confined to just the sanctuary but is everywhere? And if a Protestant uses this quote to refute the real presence of the Lord in a Catholic Church, what is the proper response?

 

[The_Cardinal]

Think of it this way… While God is everywhere and in all things at all times and likewise Christ is God then we can easily see how God can be everywhere and in one place at the same time. For instance when Christ walked the Earth and someone was in his presence they were also in the presence of God and not limiting God to that one place. Likewise while God is everywhere he is also Sacramentally in all of our Tabernacles and churches around the world.

 

[scaron]

the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
Acts 17:15, 22- 18:1

The bold hightlight in this statement means what?

I take it literally. Our God does not dwell in human-made sancturies (in the sense of pagan sanctuaries, as discussed above).

Our Lord dwells in the Blessed Eucharist, by his own divine gift. Nothing we as humans can do can put him there. He takes up His dwelling in the Eucharist as His gift to us.

 

[Bishopite]

Reading the bible cover to cover was on my list of things to do, when I retired. I started in the New Testament. I admit to skipping around (not reading the chapters in order) I started Luke and just finished Matthew.

I also take my St Joseph MIssal and read the Scripture readings each day, when I read these writings from Acts.

I’ve been a cradel Catholic all my 52 years,and I’ll never be ANYTHING but a Catholic, but I looked at this quote and went straight to my belief that the Lord is IN the sanctuary of mine and every Catholic parish, so I needed to know what the writer is talking about.

Is it correct to say then this statement is to say God is not confined to just the sanctuary but is everywhere? And if a Protestant uses this quote to refute the real presence of the Lord in a Catholic Church, what is the proper response?

The pagans believed their gods dwelled within their statues and were limited to their places in the temple. St. Paul is essentially saying that the true God is NOT limited to mere places built by human hands, being He is omnipresent, He is everywhere in one sense. Paul is NOT saying God can’t dwell within things made by humans, otherwise he would be contradicting Solomon’s Temple, the Arc of the Covenant and the Holies of holies mentioned in Hebrews 9; God DID dwell within there which was built with human hands, in fact it had cheribum statues built in it by Gods command to build.
We Catholics, as you already know, don’t view statues as anything other than uses for imagery, because we are sensable people (we use our senses, we see, touch, hear, smell etc.) so statues, pictures, imagery itself isn’t wrong. We don’t believe statues have power nor are anything other than matter and worshipping them or applying any form of diety to them is idololatry. From what I’ve read, your concern is that perhaps Protestants or others will make the false claim that God can’t dwell in our Catholic tabernacles, since they are made by human hands, but if they properly take this passage within its true context, they will see what St. Paul is truly saying in Act 17.

 

[BamaRider]

Thanks for explaining what St Paul was talking about.