Acts uses χειροποίητος in Stephen’s speech (7:48: “the
Most High does not dwell in houses made
by hands [ἐν χειροποιήτοις]”),
and in the Areopagus discourse (17:24: God “does not live in temples made by hands [ἐν χειροποιήτοις ναοῖς]”). Neither occurrence
expresses any fundamental criticism of the temple; rather, both pick up the
idea of the limitation of the temple’s significance, already suggested in the
OT itself (cf. 1 Kgs 8:27), and both — particularly the theology of mediation
characterizing the Areopagus discourse — show a connection to Stoic thinking
(cf. É. des Places, Bib 42 [1961]
217–23). The diminishing of the temple’s significance (namely, the progression
from Luke 1–2 and Acts 1–5 to Acts 7:48; 17:24) corresponds to the increase in
the sphere of influence of the gospel from Jerusalem “to the end of the earth”
(cf. Acts 1:8). (W. Rebell, “ἀχειροποίητος,” in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Horst Robert Balz and Gerhard Schneider [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990–], 3:464, emphasis in bold added)
