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| Volume 28 Number 2 February 2026 |
Page 16 |
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| Volume 28 Number 2 February 2026 |
Page 16 |
Louis Rushmore, Editor
“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 KJV). The only other English Bible translation of which I am aware that has “God winked” in Acts 17:30 is the Webster Bible (1833), which was a revision by Noah Webster to update archaic language in the KJV for readers in the 19th century. The KJV itself was largely a revision of earlier English translations, and as well, the KJV has gone through a number of such vocabulary updates since then, too. The NKJV may be viewed as the latest of one of those language updates. Readers today, probably, would not be able to comprehend the English language in which the KJV of 1611 was published.
Most contemporary English Bible translations, such as the NKJV, render Acts 17:30 as the following. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.” A person may take some pleasure in imagining that the Almighty and Invisible God, in some way, can be pictured, in one’s mind, as mimicking human emotions and gestures. However, ascribing to Deity human characteristics or attributes involves a figure of language called anthropomorphism, which is a compound word that means “human” and “form.”
The biblical context (Acts 17:22–34) in which we find Acts 17:30 pertains to the apostle Paul’s public address on Mars Hill (KJV) or the Areopagus (NKJV) in Athens, Greece (Acts 17:22). He contrasted the many idols of polytheism that populated Athens in both public and domestic settings with the one true God and Creator of all that exists. Histories estimate that there were as many as 30,000 of these man-made false gods when the apostle and his team arrived in the city.
Rather than citing that the Athenians were “very religious” (NKJV, etc.) or “too superstitious” (KJV), literally, the apostle Paul acknowledged that they were “demon-fearing, or given to the worship of demons” (McGarvey). Overall, Acts 17:30 contains doctrinal implications. Brother McGarvey explained, “The times of ignorance, in which they had built these temples and carved these images, he tells them that God had overlooked; that is, to use his own language on another occasion, he had “suffered [all] the nations to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16).” In his commentary, H. Leo Boles seems to imply that God did not attribute sin to Gentile—non-Jewish—peoples or nations prior to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “These long times of heathen ignorance God overlooked, passed over, ‘winked at’; the time has now come when he will not overlook such ignorance, but ‘commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent.’ Things have changed now since Christ has come with a full knowledge of God and has revealed God’s will to man.” Similarly, The People’s New Testament comments, “The times of this ignorance. The times when there was no revelation in to those in darkness. God winked at. Overlooked.” Vincent defines “overlooked” or “winked at” as “to suffer to pass unnoticed.”
Ironside also appears to envision that the idolatrous Gentiles were not held accountable for their sins prior to the introduction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 30 suggests something that may be of great comfort to those who are troubled when they think of a world left for many centuries without the knowledge of the one true and living God. Paul said, “the times of this ignorance God winked at,” or overlooked. God deals with men according to the light they have. He does not hold them responsible for light that has not yet been revealed. But now, since Christ has come and the gospel is being preached, God commands all men everywhere to repent; that is, to change their attitude and turn to Him for that deliverance which they can find nowhere else. (Ironside Commentaries emphasis added)
Likewise, the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary supposes that God excused Gentile idolatry before the advent of Jesus Christ, saying, “…that is, bore with, without interposing to punish it otherwise than by suffering the debasing tendency of such worship to develop itself. Adam Clarke, too, concluded that the idolatrous nations prior to the pronouncement of the Gospel escaped God’s condemnation.” “He who has an indisputable right to demand the worship of all his creatures has mercifully overlooked those acts of idolatry which have disgraced the world and debased man; but now, as he has condescended to give a revelation of himself, he commands, as the sovereign, all men everywhere, over every part of his dominions, to repent…” Add Albert Barnes to those who believe that God did not condemn Gentiles for their idolatry until they were gifted with the Gospel. “The sense is, he passed over those times without punishing them, as if he did not see them.” “God ‘in His forbearance…holding back, delay’ left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (Rom 3:25). This parallels Acts 14:16, ‘In the past, He let all nations go their way’” (Bible Knowledge Commentary).“
God has overlooked means that God did not punish men as they deserved; and the times when men did not know refers to the time before men came to know God’s will in Jesus Christ. A verb such as overlooked should not be rendered in such a way as to imply that God was heedless or unconcerned; rather, one should employ some such expression as “God chose not to consider.” In some languages this may be equivalent to “God has decided not to count up…” or “God determined not to count against people the time when they did not know.” (UBS New Testament Handbook Series)
Don DeWelt explained the position that pagans were not hereto held accountable for their idolatry based on the end result of combining the Gentiles and the Jews together through the Gospel of Christ. “Paul says here as Peter said in Acts 3:17, ‘I know that in ignorance ye did it’…In times past the conditions described could be attributed to ‘ignorance’ but a new day has come, a new hour has struck. God only ‘overlooked’ those times because He looked beyond them to this day, this time. In this day, and in this message there is a remedy for all the ignorance and sin of the days past.”
Not everyone, though, subscribes to the view that heathen nations were excusable for their sins prior to the announcement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, even some in the Lord’s church have supposed that maybe the best thing in our day that we could do for those around the world who have not heard about our Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel is to keep that information from them, imagining that they are spiritually safe in their ignorance. If that were ever true, it is not valid now (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15–16).
“Overlooked” or “winked at” is an “old verb to see beyond, not to see, to overlook, not ‘to wink at’ of the Authorized Version with the notion of condoning” (Robertson emphasis added). We must concur with Robertson that God did not approve of idolatry among the Gentiles. “The oldness of the error does not excuse those that err, but it commends and sets forth the patience of God, who nonetheless will be a just judge…” (Geneva Notes emphasis added). “God has all the time objected to the polytheism of the heathen, and now he has made it plain” (Robertson). Following, in his commentary, Thomas Constable offers an explanation of “overlooked” or “winked at” that is consistent with God’s repeated declarations that idolatry is sinful (Leviticus 26:1; Jeremiah 8:19; Ezekiel 16:36).
Before Jesus Christ came, God did not view people as being as guilty as He does now, now that Christ has come. People before were guilty of failing to respond to former revelation, but now they are more guilty, in view of the greater revelation that Jesus Christ brought at His incarnation (cf. Heb 1:1-2). God “overlooked the times of ignorance” (i.e., when people had only limited revelation; cf. 3:17; 14:16; Rom 3:25; 2 Peter 3:9) in a relative sense only. Before the Incarnation, people died as unbelievers and were lost, but now there is more light. Consequently people’s guilt is greater this side of the Incarnation. Obviously many people have not heard the gospel, and are as ignorant of the greater revelation of God that Jesus Christ brought, as were people who lived before the Incarnation. Nevertheless they live in a time when God has revealed more of Himself than previously. Therefore God demands that “all people everywhere should repent.”
This makes it all the more important that Christians take the gospel to everyone. Greater revelation by God means greater responsibility for people, both for the unsaved and for the saved. God previously took the relative lack of understanding about Himself into consideration as He dealt with people. Now that Christ has come, He will hold people more responsible for their sins. (Constable emphasis added)
Yes, God definitely condemned idolatry among the non-Israelites, too (Jeremiah 1:4, 10, 16). Their idolatry was a prominent reason that God gave Canaan to the Israelites (Exodus 34:11–13; Deuteronomy 7:1–5) and punished other nations also for their idolatry (Ezekiel 30:13; Nahum 1:14; Jeremiah 50:2; Isaiah 21:9; Romans 1:18–23).
Irrespective of anyone’s understanding of whether God held heathen and Gentile people accountable for their sins prior to the incarnation of Christ and the subsequent declaration of the Gospel, every accountable human being now living or who shall ever live in the future is or will be accountable to God for his or her sins. Hence, the Lord’s church, empowered by mission minded Christians, simply must take the Gospel to the entire world (Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 16:15–16; Luke 24:46–47; Acts 1:8). If it ever were the case that souls uninformed of God’s Word were safe in that condition, certainly that is not the case today. “This period of forbearance is now past. The revelation of God’s will is confined no longer to a single nation” (Alexander).
Works Cited
Alexander, Joseph Addison. Acts of the Apostles Explained. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2015.
Barnes, Albert. Barnes’ Notes. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Boles, H. Leo. A Commentary on Acts of the Apostles. Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1989.
Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
Constable, Thomas L. Thomas Constable’s Notes on the Bible. Thomas L. Constable, 2014.
Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. Electronic Database. Colorado Springs: Cook Communications Ministries, 2000.
Geneva Notes. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
Ironside Commentaries. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2012.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Johnson, Barton Warren. The People’s New Testament: With Explanatory Notes. St. Louis: Christian P., 1891.
McGarvey, J.W. A Commentary on Acts of Apostles, With a Revised Version of the Text. Lexington, Kentucky: Transylvania Press, 1872.
Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville: Broadman P., 1933.
UBS New Testament Handbook Series. Electronic Database. New York: United Bible Societies, 1997.
Vincent, Marvin Richardson. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887.
