Neville Goddard on Acts 17:22-28 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Acts 17 in context

Scripture Focus

22Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

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

24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

25Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

27That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Acts 17:22-28

Biblical Context

Paul addresses the Athenians, noting their devotion and an altar to the Unknown God, then proclaims that the Unknown God is the Creator who does not dwell in temples, gives life and breath, and is near to us; in Him we live, move, and have our being, and all nations come from one blood.

Neville's Inner Vision

Paul’s words invite me to look inward. The Unknown God is not a distant foreign tenant but the I AM that animates my own life. External altars and temples are only symbols of lack; God does not dwell in carved stone, but in the awareness that gives breath, form, and motion. When he says in Him we live and move and have our being, he speaks of the inner atmosphere of consciousness in which every experience arises. The line about one blood among nations becomes a unity of my own inner state; the times and bounds of their habitation are the movements of thought, not the nature of reality. If I seek this God, I am not chasing a distant deity; I am turning within until my awareness recognizes itself as life, movement, and the very substance of being. He is near, not because he travels worlds, but because my attention tunes to the I AM. No temple, no ritual, only a steadfast inner conviction that I am the presence that fills all space.