Acts 17:26

And hath made of one blood all nations, &c.— Παν εθνος ανθρωπων, the whole generation of men. By this expression the apostle shewed them, in the most unaffected manner, that though he was a Jew, he was not enslaved to any narrow views, but looked on all mankind in one sense as his brethren. This and the two following verses may be thus paraphrased: "And he hath made of one blood, and caused to descend from one original pair, the immediate work of his own almighty power and goodness, the whole nation and species of men, now by his providential care so propagated, as to inhabit and cover all the face of the earth, having marked or ordained all the seasons as they roll, to change and return according to fixed laws for the regulation of their time, and appointed the several boundaries of their different habitations—all things in the disposition of his providence centring in this one great end, that they might be excited to seek after the Lord their maker; and that, amidst all the darkness which their own degeneracy and prejudice have brought upon their minds, theymight feel after him, and be so happy as to find him out, in the knowledge of whom their supreme happiness consists; who indeed, though he be so little known and regarded by the generality of mankind, yet is not far from every one of us: for in him we perpetually live, and are moved, and do exist; the continuance of all our active powers, and even of our being, is ever owing to his steady and uninterrupted agency upon us, according to those stated laws of operation which he hath wisely been pleased to lay down for himself; as some also of your own poets have in effect said, 'For we his offspring are'."