Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

◄ Acts 17:30 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

English Standard Version
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

New American Standard Bible
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,

King James Bible
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,

International Standard Version
Though God has overlooked those times of ignorance, he now commands everyone everywhere to repent,

American Standard Version
The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men, that all should every where do penance.

Darby Bible Translation
God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent,

Young's Literal Translation
the times, indeed, therefore, of the ignorance God having overlooked, doth now command all men everywhere to reform,

Cross References

Luke 24:47
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Acts 14:16
Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.

Acts 17:23
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare I to you.

Acts 26:20
But showed first to them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

Romans 3:25
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Ephesians 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Titus 2:11
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

17:22-31 Here we have a sermon to heathens, who worshipped false gods, and were without the true God in the world; and to them the scope of the discourse was different from what the apostle preached to the Jews. In the latter case, his business was to lead his hearers by prophecies and miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the former, it was to lead them, by the common works of providence, to know the Creator, and worship Him. The apostle spoke of an altar he had seen, with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. This fact is stated by many writers. After multiplying their idols to the utmost, some at Athens thought there was another god of whom they had no knowledge. And are there not many now called Christians, who are zealous in their devotions, yet the great object of their worship is to them an unknown God? Observe what glorious things Paul here says of that God whom he served, and would have them to serve. The Lord had long borne with idolatry, but the times of this ignorance were now ending, and by his servants he now commanded all men every where to repent of their idolatry. Each sect of the learned men would feel themselves powerfully affected by the apostle's discourse, which tended to show the emptiness or falsity of their doctrines.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

30. the times of this ignorance God winked at—literally (and far better), "overlooked," that is, bore with, without interposing to punish it, otherwise than suffering the debasing tendency of such worship to develop itself (compare Ac 14:16, and see on [2043]Ro 1:24, &c.).

but now—that a new light was risen upon the world.

commandeth—"That duty—all along lying upon man estranged from his Creator, but hitherto only silently recommending itself and little felt—is now peremptory."

all men every where to repent—(compare Col 1:6, 23; Tit 1:11)—a tacit allusion to the narrow precincts of favored Judaism, within which immediate and entire repentance was ever urged. The word "repentance" is here used (as in Lu 13:3, 5; 15:10) in its most comprehensive sense of "repentance unto life."