ACTS 17:28 IN PAUL’S SPEECH
Paul’s reference to “your own poets” points to pagan writers. He used these pagan authors much like he would Jewish Scripture with a Jewish audience.
Acts 17:28a
1. Epimenides (Crete, 6th cent BCE): the 1st quote, “In Him we live and move and have our being” was attributed to him.
2. Posidonius (Rhodes, 135 BCE): the 1st quote, “In Him we live and move and have our being” could also be attributed to him.
Acts 17:28b
3. Aratus (Macedonia, 315 BCE). The 2nd quote, “we are indeed his offspring” (Acts 17:28b), is from Aratus’ Phaenomena. (Aratus was a student of the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium)
4. Cleanthes: (Asia Minor, 330 BCE) In his Hymn To Zeus, he writes: "We art thine offspring... All that in myriad motion lives for its day on the earth, bears one impress: thy likeness." or "We are your offspring and of all created things the only ones who receive from you the image of the One... For we are your sons."
