Israel’s Prophets Meet Athens’ Philosophers 205 Athenians they are ignorant of the one true God and then Paul goes on to describe this God as the creator of all. I am not arguing that Paul’s two statements are based on this one verse as such, but this verse does show that Paul’s words are echoing scriptural tradition. It is not essential that members of Luke’s audience recognize Isa 40,28 specifically — only that they recognize in Paul’s words pervasive biblical ideas. Isa 42,5a, speaks of God as the creator of heaven and earth. Similar assertions are made in Isa 45,12.18. Not only the prophetic literature, but also other texts testify to God as the creator, such as Gen 14,19, which speaks of God who created heaven and earth (cf. Gen 14,22). Exod 20,11 asserts that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the seas and everything in them”. Ps 145,6a likewise states that God made the heavens, the earth, the seas and everything in them. Next, Paul asserts in 17,24b that, since God is lord of all, and has made all, he does not dwell in a building made by human hands. This idea, which is also asserted by Stephen in Acts 7,48-50 (17), echoes the assertion of several scriptural intertexts, such as 1 Kgs 8,27, which asks, “if heaven and the heaven of heavens are not sufficient for [God,]” how much less the house that Solomon built for God’s name? Cf. 1 Chr 6,18. Isa 66,1-2a makes the same point, in which God asks, “heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool for my feet. What house would you build for me?” Both of these texts indicate that, since God has made the heavens and the earth, he can obviously not be contained in a temple, contrary to the implication of the many temples in Athens (18). The word ceiropoihvto" occurs many times in the LXX. The Mosaic Law uses it when forbidding the manufacture of idols or to refer to idols themselves, “do not make for yourselves hand-made (ceiropoivhta) idols” (Lev 26,1; cf. Lev 26,30). Isaiah predicts the disappearance of idols, kai; ta; ceiropoivhta pavnta katakruvyousin (17) The idea that no temple can hold God is clearly important to Luke, as it appears in separate speeches to Jews and to Gentiles. According to J. JESKA, Die Geschichte Israels in der Sicht des Lukas. Apg 7,2b-53 und 13,17-25 im Kontext antik-jüdischer Summarien der Geschichte Israels (Göttingen 2001) 211, this is part of Luke’s critique of temples and thus of Gentile religiousness. (18) See DUBARLE, “Le Discours”, 587; R. PESCH, Die Apostelgeschichte (Apg 13-28) (EKK; Zürich 1986) II, 136; F.F. BRUCE, “Paul’s Use of the Old Testament in Acts”, Tradition and Interpretation in the New Testament. Essays in Honor of E. Earle Ellis for His 60th Birthday, (eds. G.F. HAWTHORNE – O. BETZ) (Grand Rapids, MI 1987) 75; FITZMYER, Acts, 608; and POLHILL, Acts, 373; and F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts (Grand Rapids, MI 1988) 336.