Acts 14:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 14:17
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
to fill in (up) · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
our
ἡμῶνhēmōn
G2257
of (or from) us
hearts
καρδίαςkardias
G2588
the heart · noun — accusative plural feminine
food
τροφῆςtrophēs
G5160
nourishment (literally or figuratively) · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
gladness
εὐφροσύνηςeuphrosunēs
G2167
joyfulness · noun — genitive singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to…
Job 5:10 Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:
Deuteronomy 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and t…
Isaiah 5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that…
Leviticus 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Deuteronomy 8:12-14 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
Deuteronomy 28:12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 14:8-18
In these verses we have,
I. A miraculous cure wrought by Paul at Lystra upon a cripple that had been lame from his birth, such a one as was miraculously cured by Peter and John, Act 3:2. That introduced the gospel among the Jews, this among the Gentiles; both that and this were designed to represent the impotency of all the children of men in spiritual things: they are lame from their birth, till the grace of God puts strength into them; for it was when we were yet without strength that Christ died for the ungodly, Rom 5:6. Observe here, 1. The deplorable case of the poor cripple (Act 14:8): He was impotent in his feet, disabled (so the word is) to such a degree that it was impossible he sho…
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness--Though the heinousness of idolatry is represented as so much less in the heathen, by how much they were outside the pale of revealed religion, he takes care to add that the heathen have divine "witness" enough to leave them "without excuse."
he did good--scattering His beneficence everywhere and in a thousand forms.
rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons--on which human subsistence and all human enjoyment depend. In Lycaonia, where, as ancient writers attest, rain is peculiarly scarce, this allusion would have all the greater effect.
filling our hearts with food and gladness--a natural colloquialism, the heart being gladdened by the foo…
He left not himself without witness - Though he gave the Gentiles no revelation of his will, yet he continued to govern them by his gracious providence; doing them good in general; giving then rain to fertilize their grounds, and fruitful seasons as the result; so that grass grew for the cattle and corn for the service of man.
Filling our hearts with food - Giving as much food as could reasonably be wished, so that gladness, or general happiness, was the result. Such was the gracious provision made for man, at all times, that the economy and bounty of the Divine Being were equally evidenced by it. He never gives less than is necessary, nor more than is sufficient. His economy forbids men to…
The Church Fathers
"Nevertheless, He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, giving you rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness." See how covertly he puts the accusation "in that He did good," etc. And yet if God did this, He could not have "let them alone;" on the contrary, they ought to be punished, for that, enjoying so great benefits, they had not acknowledged Him, not even as their feeder. "From heaven," he says, "giving you rain." Thus also David said, "From the fruit of their corn and wine and oil were they made to abound" and in many places speaking of Creation, he brings forward these benefits: and Jeremiah mentions first Creation, then Providence shown by the rains, so that the Apostle here discourses as taught from those Scriptures. "Filling," he says, "with food and gladness." With large liberality the food is given, not merely for a frugal sufficiency, nor stinted by the need.
And yet He has not left them without a witness to Himself, that He was working for their good and taking thought for it beforehand, for He manifested to them some tokens of His goodness, some four hundred years or more before the coming of Christ, in the days of Alexander the Macedonian, long after the Trojan war, when the Greeks were still flourishing. Let me give an instance of this: When Alexander the Macedonian was passing by Jerusalem in prosecution of his war against Darius, the High Priest of the Jews, arrayed in the robes of his office, came forth to meet him, whereupon Alexander dismounted from his horse and in a very kindly manner embraced him. And when his attendants reproached him for so doing and said: Why hast thou done so? he excused himself and said: When I set out at first from Macedonia, a man dressed in this style was seen by me in a dream who said to me: Go forth and conquer. The result was that the King himself offered sacrifices to God and bestowed many gifts on the Temple, and accorded many privileges to the country of the Jews.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Providence — Literally means foresight, but is generally used to denote God’s preserving and governing all things by means of second causes (Ps. 18:35; 63:8; Acts 17:28; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). God’s providence…
Barnabas · General references — General references
Fruits · Given by God — Given by God
Goodness Of God, The · Manifested: In supplying temporal wants — Manifested: In supplying temporal wants
Heathen, The · Have: Evidence of the goodness of God — Have: Evidence of the goodness of God
Homage · Paul and Barnabas — Paul and Barnabas
Lycaonia · Paul visits towns of — Paul visits towns of
Lystra · from persecutions in Iconium — from persecutions in Iconium
Rain · God: Exhibits goodness in giving — God: Exhibits goodness in giving
Religion · NATURAL — NATURAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness,.... Of his kindness and goodness to them, during this long interval and period of time; for they had not the written law, yet they were not destitute of the law of nature; and had, besides, many instances of providential goodness, by which they might have known God: and should have been thankful to him, and glorified him as God, and not have worshipped the idols of their own hands; the goodness of God should have led them to repentance, and not have been abused to so many wicked purposes as it had been:
in that he did good; in a providential way, to persons very undeserving of it, of which some particular instances follow:
and gave us rain…
Acts 14:14-18
14. Furthermore, when the apostles, Barnabas and Saul, had heard, rending their garments, they ran in into the, press, crying, 15. And saying, Men, why do ye these things? We be also men subject to like miseries as you are, preaching to you that you turn from those vain things unto the living God, who hath made heaven and earth, and the sea, and whatsoever are in them: 16. Who in times, past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, 17. Though he left not himself without witness, doing good, giving to us from heaven rain and fruitful times, replenishing with food and gladness our hearts. 18. And when they had thus said, they scarce appeased the multitude, that they shoul…
The apostles opposed the people’s idolatry and their attempt to offer sacrifices to them. They directed the people’s worship to the living God; the apostles were his representatives as they brought the Good News of the Christian message.
