That they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
All Commentaries on Acts 17:27 Go To Acts 17
John Chrysostom
AD 407
(a) It means either this, that He did not compel them to go about and seek God, but according to the bounds of their habitation: (c) or this, that He determined their seeking God, yet not determined this (to be done) continually, but (determined) certain appointed times (when they should do so): showing now, that not having sought they had found: for since, having sought, they had not found, he shows that God was now as manifest as though He were in the midst of them palpably (ψηλαφώμενος). (e) Though He be not far, he says, from every one of us, but is near to all. See again the power (or, what it is to be God,) of God. What says he? Not only He gave life and breath and all things, but, as the sum and substance of all, He brought us to the knowledge of Himself, by giving us these things by which we are able to find and to apprehend Him. But we did not wish to find Him, albeit close at hand. Though He be not far from every one of us. Why look now, He is near to all, to every one all the world over! What can be greater than this? See how he makes clear riddance of the parcel deities (τοὺς μερικούς)! What say I, afar off? He is so near, that without Him we live not: for in Him we live and move and have our being.
