Acts 17:27 - Exposition

God for the Lord, A.V. and T.R. (Meyer does not accept this reading); is for be, A.V.; each for every, A.V. If haply they might feel after him . ψηλαφάω is "to touch, feel, or handle," as Luke 24:39 ; Hebrews 12:18 ; 1 John 1:1 . But it is especially used of the action of the blind groping or feeling their way by their hands in default of sight. So Homer describes Polyphemus as χερσὶ ψηλαφόων , feeling his way to the mouth of the cave with his hands after he was blinded by Ulysses ('Odyssey,' 9.416). And in the LXX . of Deuteronomy 28:29 we read, ἔση ψηλαφῶν μεσημβρίας ὠς εἴ τις ψηλαφήσαι τυφλὸς ἐν τῷ σκότει , "Thou shall grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness." The teaching, therefore, of the passage is that, though God was very near to every man, and had not left himself without abundant witness in his manifold gifts, yet, through the blindness of the heathen, they had to feel their way uncertainly toward God. In this fact lies the need of a revelation, as it follows Deuteronomy 28:30 , etc. And hence part at least of the significance of such passages as, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord" ( Ephesians 5:8 ); "Who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" ( 1 Peter 2:9 ); "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" ( 2 Corinthians 4:6 ), and many more like passages.