I have always rather liked this quote about the immanence of the Divine, but had not realised that it was entirely lifted from Greek pagan poetry - hurrah! (thanks to my chum
Gerardus for pointing this out).
For in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring'. (Acts 17:28)
But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,
For in thee we live and move and have our being. (Epimenides' Cretica)
Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.
For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.
Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.
For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).
2 comments:
In volume 1 of The Life and Work of St. Paul, F.W. Farrar discusses the classical quotations and allusions of St. Paul in some detail. Beginning at p. 630 in the 1879 edition, if you're interested. The full text is available at Google Books.
Interestingly it also begs the question of whether St Paul thought Zeus and Yahweh were the same god - they were both thunder gods, both top deity....
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