Acts 17:29

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ¹  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ²  made by human ³  skill ⁴  and imagination. ⁵ 

Colossians 2:9

2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives ⁶  in bodily form,

[17:29]  ¹ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ² tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ³ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ⁴ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ⁵ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[2:9]  ⁶ sn In him all the fullness of deity lives. The present tense in this verse (“lives”) is significant. Again, as was stated in the note on 1:19, this is not a temporary dwelling, but a permanent one. Paul’s point is polemical against the idea that the fullness of God dwells anywhere else, as the Gnostics believed, except in Christ alone. At the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity assumed humanity, and is forever the God-man.