Thought on Mothers Day

This was conceived on Mother’s Day, May 2025.

“For in him we live and move and exist.” (Book of Acts 17:28)

A saying often attributed to the Cretan poet Epimenides (circa 6th century BC) sadly constrains readers’ imagination, with the male pronoun “him”.

If this blinker is removed, the thought of a fetus moving and growing within the womb is never far from imagination.
Actually not far from the poet’s original intent.

Why not?
A fetus does move around and gradually comes into his/her being, fed through the umbilical cord.

And on Mother’s Day it is apt.

Imagine.
Haven’t we often heard of Mother Nature?

Imagine again.
We are all moving around on this earth, breathing its air, drinking its water, getting our vitamin D and the best disinfectant of ultra violet through its sun light.
We are growing, though unfortunately too dying, all because of Mother Nature.

Offspring that continues to live, walk and exist in the womb!

Please don’t accuse me of engaging in DEI and pronouns.
Certainly don’t accuse Epimenides.

Dependence on the divine was almost unquestioned basic truth to a poet around 6th BC!

It would actually be reasonable to write that way as a reference to Zeus.

That’s why we find another ancient Greek poet Aratus (circa 3rd century BC), pronouncing in a hymn to Zeus: “For we are indeed his offspring.” 

Isn’t a fetus growing in dependence of Mother Nature, an offspring?
Who cares if it’s Zeus or Mother Nature?
Who cares if it is a “him” or “her”?
Why let poetic thoughts be bogged down in by DEI, or Trump?

Human beings failing to grasp this dependence on the divine, indeed continuous dependence, is a fatal flaw of civilisation!

Farmers have long known.
Fishermen too.
Gardeners should too.
Only proud urbanites who mistakenly believe they get fed by Food Panda, Park N Shop, or Trader Joe’s fail to know.
Or maybe they refuse to acknowledge this dependence.

Ancient Greek poets acknowledged.
Most acknowledged Zeus.
Some, “The Unnamed God”, like the Chinese “Sek Kam Dong”.

The names might evolve.
The names might even have brought about fighting and murder.

Perhaps it’s best to first acknowledge the dependence and then work through the identity of the names.
And eventually debate which name is above all names.
Like the Athenians did in the first century. (See record below.)

(The Bible, Book of Acts 17:22-34, NLT)

22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,
25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 
26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 
29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 
31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” 
33 That ended Paul’s discussion with them, 
34 but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

In Acts 17:28, Paul is speaking to the Athenians at the Areopagus and says, “‘As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” The two parts of this verse likely draw from different ancient Greek sources.

1. “For in him we live and move and have our being”: This is often linked to the Cretan poet Epimenides (circa 6th century BC). While no exact surviving text matches this quote verbatim, it aligns with ideas in Epimenides’ poetry, particularly from his work Cretica, where he discusses humanity’s dependence on the divine. Early Christian writers like Clement of Alexandria attributed similar sentiments to Epimenides, suggesting Paul was paraphrasing or drawing from a shared philosophical tradition.

2. “We are his offspring”: This is a direct quotation from the Greek poet Aratus (circa 3rd century BC), from his didactic poem Phaenomena (line 5), which begins with a hymn to Zeus: “For we are indeed his offspring” (Greek: tou gar kai genos eimen). The Stoic poet Cleanthes also expressed a similar idea in his Hymn to Zeus, which may have influenced Paul’s choice, though Aratus is the more commonly cited source.

Paul, being well-versed in Greek literature and speaking to a philosophically inclined audience, likely used these familiar poetic references to connect Christian theology with ideas the Athenians would recognize, adapting them to refer to the one true God. The sources are not explicitly named in Acts, but scholarly consensus points to Epimenides for the first part and Aratus (possibly Cleanthes) for the second.