Acts 14:15

World English Bible (2000)

"Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Καὶ, λέγοντες, Ἄνδρες, τί ταῦτα ποιεῖτε; Καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁμοιοπαθεῖς ἐσμεν ὑμῖν ἄνθρωποι, εὐαγγελιζόμενοι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν ματαίων ἐπιστρέφειν ἐπὶ τὸν Θεὸν τὸν ζῶντα, ὃς ἐποίησεν τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς:

Transliteration

And, legontes, Andres, why these things poieite? Also we homoiopatheis esmen to you anthrōpoi, euangelizomenoi you from these mataiōn to epistrephein to the Theon the zōnta, who epoiēsen the ouranon, and the gēn, and the thalassan, and all the things in them:

Grammar Details

• *legontes*: present active participle, nominative masculine plural - saying
• *Andres*: vocative masculine plural - men
• *poieite*: present active indicative, 2nd person plural - you do/are doing
• *homoiopatheis*: nominative masculine plural - having like feelings/similar nature
• *esmen*: present active indicative, 1st person plural - we are
• *anthrōpoi*: nominative masculine plural - humans/people
• *euangelizomenoi*: present middle participle, nominative masculine plural - proclaiming good news
• *mataiōn*: genitive neuter plural - vain things/worthless things
• *epistrephein*: present active infinitive - to turn/return
• *Theon*: accusative masculine singular - God
• *zōnta*: present active participle, accusative masculine singular - living
• *epoiēsen*: aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular - made/created
• *ouranon*: accusative masculine singular - heaven/sky
• *gēn*: accusative feminine singular - earth/land
• *thalassan*: accusative feminine singular - sea
• *panta*: accusative neuter plural - all things

Word Meanings

• *homoiopatheis*: with like feelings/of similar nature/with the same nature
• *mataiōn*: vain things/worthless things/empty practices
• *epistrephein epi ton Theon ton zōnta*: to turn to the living God/to convert to the living God
• *epoiēsen ton ouranon kai tēn gēn kai tēn thalassan*: made the heaven and the earth and the sea (reference to creation)

Referenced Verses

• 1 Sam 12:21 : 21 Don't turn aside; for [then you would go] after vain things which can't profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
• Jer 14:22 : 22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
• Acts 10:26 : 26 But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up! I myself am also a man."
• 1 Cor 8:4 : 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
• Jas 5:17 : 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.
• Rev 14:7 : 7 He said with a loud voice, "Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!"
• 1 Thess 1:9 : 9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
• Deut 32:21 : 21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
• Gen 1:1 : 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
• Jer 8:19 : 19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?
• Matt 16:16 : 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
• Acts 4:24 : 24 When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, "O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
• Acts 7:26 : 26 "The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?'
• Josh 3:10 : 10 Joshua said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.
• 1 Tim 3:15 : 15 but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
• Heb 3:12 : 12 Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
• Eph 4:17 : 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
• Acts 12:22-23 : 22 The people shouted, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn't give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
• Acts 13:32 : 32 We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers,
• Acts 14:7 : 7 There they preached the Good News.
• Acts 14:21 : 21 When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
• Acts 16:30 : 30 and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
• Acts 17:16-18 : 16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
• Acts 17:24-30 : 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, 25 neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. 26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. 30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
• Acts 26:17-20 : 17 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, 18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' 19 "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
• Acts 27:10 : 10 and said to them, "Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives."
• Acts 27:21 : 21 When they had been long without food, Paul stood up in the middle of them, and said, "Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete, and have gotten this injury and loss.
• Acts 27:25 : 25 Therefore, sirs, cheer up! For I believe God, that it will be just as it has been spoken to me.
• Rom 1:20-23 : 20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. 21 Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
• Rev 19:10 : 10 I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, "Look! Don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy."
• Rev 19:19 : 19 I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.
• Rev 22:9 : 9 He said to me, "See you don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
• John 5:26 : 26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
• John 7:18 : 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
• Acts 3:12-13 : 12 When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, "You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
• Jer 32:17 : 17 Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
• Dan 2:28-30 : 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these: 29 as for you, O king, your thoughts came [into your mind] on your bed, what should happen hereafter; and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what shall happen. 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but to the intent that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
• Dan 6:26 : 26 I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even to the end.
• Amos 2:4 : 4 Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh's law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;
• Jonah 2:8 : 8 Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
• Zech 12:1 : 1 An oracle. The word of Yahweh concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:
• Jer 10:3-5 : 3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. 5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
• Jer 10:8 : 8 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
• Jer 10:10-11 : 10 But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation. 11 You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.
• Jer 10:14-15 : 14 Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
• Gen 41:16 : 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, "It isn't in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
• Exod 20:11 : 11 for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
• Deut 5:26 : 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?
• 1 Sam 17:26 : 26 David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
• 1 Sam 17:36 : 36 Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God."
• 1 Kgs 16:13 : 13 for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and with which they made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities.
• 1 Kgs 16:26 : 26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities.
• 2 Kgs 19:4 : 4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
• 2 Kgs 19:16 : 16 Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent to defy the living God.
• Ps 31:6 : 6 I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in Yahweh.
• Ps 33:6 : 6 By Yahweh's word, the heavens were made; all their army by the breath of his mouth.
• Ps 124:8 : 8 Our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. A Song of Ascents.
• Ps 146:5-6 : 5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
• Prov 8:23-31 : 23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. 24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was brought forth; 26 while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there; when he set a circle on the surface of the deep, 28 when he established the clouds above, when the springs of the deep became strong, 29 when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth; 30 then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before him, 31 Rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was with the sons of men.
• Isa 44:9-9 : 9 Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. 10 Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
• Isa 44:19-20 : 19 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?" 20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
• Isa 45:18 : 18 For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn't create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: "I am Yahweh; and there is no other.
• Isa 45:20 : 20 "Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can't save.
• Isa 46:7 : 7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.