SOURCE: Edwards, M. J. “Quoting Aratus: Acts 17,28.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentarische Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 83, nos. 3-4 (1992): 266-69.

In the following essay, Edwards considers the extent to which Saint Paul and Luke may have possessed first-hand knowledge of the Phaenomena of Aratus.

ἐν αὐτo γ
F70x;ρ ζoμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμἐν· ὡs καί τινεs τoν καθ'ὑμas ποιητῶν εἰρήκασιν· τοὑγ
F70x;ρ καὶ γἐνοs ἐσμἐν.

This verse from Paul's speech to the Athenians prompts two related questions: (1) who is the poet quoted? (2) what is the source for the author's knowledge of his words? The second, at least, would seem to admit of a more sustained inquiry than it has hitherto received.

1. Of the two known candidates¹ we may exclude Cleanthes, a Stoic philosopher who exclaims in verse four of his Hymn to Zeus ἐκ σοὑ γ
F70x;ρ γενόμεσθα. He speaks to Zeus, not of him, and employs a different verb. Dibelius has shown that the plural τινεs … ποιητo...