Acts 1:3

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: TO WHOM ALSO HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE. As the historian is about to relate how "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" was the great burden of apostolic preaching, so the subject is here fitly introduced by an allusion to the primary evidence on which that great fact rests-His repeated and undeniable manifestations of Himself in the body to the assembled disciples, who, instead of being predisposed to believe it, had to be overpowered by the resistless evidence of their own senses, and were slow to yield even to this (Mark 16:14). AFTER HIS PASSION, [ meta (G3326)...

3._Unto whom, etc _He addeth this, that he might make the resurrection to be believed, as a thing most necessary to be known, and without the which the whole gospel falleth fiat to the ground, neither remaineth there any more faith. And that I may omit to speak of other discommodities that come by being ignorant of the resurrection of Christ, the gospel loseth his whole authority, unless we know and be also fully persuaded that Christ being alive, speaketh unto us from the heavens. Whereunto Luke hath chiefest respect in this place. Therefore, that the truth hereof might not be called in question, he saith that it was proved by many signs and tokens. Those which Erasmus, following an old interpreter, doth call arguments, I have translated proofs. For Aristotle doth call that τεκμηριον, in the first book of his _Rhetorics, _which is necessary in signs. This is, therefore, that which I sai...

1-5 Our Lord told the disciples the work they were to do. The apostles met together at Jerusalem; Christ having ordered them not to depart thence, but to wait for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. This would be a baptism by the Holy Ghost, giving them power to work miracles, and enlightening and sanctifying their souls. This confirms the Divine promise, and encourages us to depend upon it, that we have heard it from Christ; for in Him all the promises of God are yea and amen....

Verse Acts 1:3. _TO WHOM - HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE - BY MANY INFALLIBLE_ _proofs_] πολλοιςτεκμηριοις; by many proofs of such a nature, and connected with such circumstances, as to render them _indubitable_; for this is the import of the Greek word τεκμηριον. The proofs were such as these: 1. Appearing to several different persons at different times. 2. His eating and drinking with them. 3. His meeting them in Galilee according to his own appointment. 4. His subjecting his body to be touched and handled by them. 5. His instructing them in the nature and doctrines of his kingdom. 6. His appearing to upwards of five hundred persons at once, 1 Corinthians 15:6. And, 7. Continuing these public manifestations of himself for _forty_ days

HE SHOWED HIMSELF - The resurrection of Jesus was the great fact on which the truth of the gospel was to be established. Hence, the sacred writers so often refer to it, and establish it by so many arguments. As the fact of his resurrection lay at the foundation of all that Luke was about to record in his history, it was of importance that he should state clearly the sum of the evidence of it in the beginning of his work. AFTER HIS PASSION - After he suffered, referring particularly to his death as the consummation of his sufferings. The word “passion” with us means commonly excitement or agitation of mind, as love, hope, fear, anger, etc. The original means “after he suffered.” The word “passion,” applied to the Saviour, denotes his last sufferings. Thus, in the Litany of the Episcopal Church, it is beautifully said, “By thine agony and bloody sweat; by thy cross and passion, good Lord,...

EXPOSITION ACTS 1:1 _I made_ for _have I made, _A.V.; _concerning _for _of, _A.V.; _to teach _for _teach, _A.V. THE FORMER TREATISE; literally, _the first _history, narrative, or discourse. The form of the Greek, τὸν μὲν τρῶτον, shows that the writer had in his mind at the time to contrast the _second history_, which he was just beginning, and that naturally τὸν δὲ δεύτερον or τοῦτον δὲ τὸν λόγον, ought both grammatically and logically, to have followed. But the mention of "the apostles whom he had chosen" drew him, as it were, into the stem of his history before he was able to describe it. O THEOPHILUS. The omission of the title "most excellent," given to Theophilus in the Gospel (Luke 1:3

TO WHOM ALSO HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS PASSION,.... That is, after his sufferings and death; for that he suffered many things, and at last death itself, is certain from the acknowledgment of the Jews themselves, who own, that they put him to death on the passover eve d; as well as from the accounts of the evangelists; and from the soldiers not breaking his legs, when the rest that were crucified with him were broken, because he was already dead; and from his "ricardium" being pierced with a spear, from whence blood and water sprung, after which it was impossible he should be alive; and from the testimony of the centurion who watched him, to whom Pilate sent to know if he was dead, and how long he had been dead; and from his being buried, and lying in the grave so long as he did: and yet after, and not withstanding this, "he showed himself alive"; he raised himself from the dead,...

Acts 1:1. _The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God:_ The resurrection of Christ, as we have often said, is the best attested of all historical facts. There is not half as much reason to be sure that Napoleon Bonaparte was ever taken to St. Helena as to believe that Jesus Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. If the resurrection of Christ is not credible, there remains nothing credible in history. I go further than that, and say that the news of yesterday, which you read in this morning's paper, you had no...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS Part I The Witness to Jerusalem. The Advent of the Spirit and the Formation of the Church. The Offer to Israel and its Rejection. Chapter s 1-7 CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The Introduction (Acts 1:1)._ 2. The final words of the risen Lord (Acts 1:4). 3. The ascension (Acts 1:9). 4. The waiting company (Acts 1:12). 5. Matthias chosen in the place of Judas (Acts 1:15). The introductory words prove that Luke is the writer. In the former treatise, Luke had addressed to Theophilus (the Gospel of Luke)

INTRODUCTION. The writer refers to his former treatise, intimating rather than stating that he is beginning a second. The Ascension is his present starting-point, but instead of simply referring to the account already given (Luke 24:50), he narrates it again, and in a way which shows that the tradition had grown considerably in the interval. The apostles appear as a fixed number, with definite functions. The text reads more simply without Acts 1:3; the things concerning the kingdom of God is the writer's summary of the contents of Christian preaching; _cf. Acts 8:12_, Acts 19:8; Ac