Acts 1:4

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. AND BEING ASSEMBLED TOGETHER WITH THEM - not, as in the margin, 'eating with them,' which is to be disapproved. This appears to have been His very last meeting with them. COMMANDED (OR 'CHARGED') THEM THAT THEY SHOULD NOT DEPART FROM JERUSALEM. Why? Because it was God's high purpose to glorify the existing economy, by causing His Spirit to descend upon the disciples at its ancient seat, and on the occasion of the very first of its annual festivals after the ascension of the Church's Head; so fulfilling the sure word of prophecy, "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (, with which compare...

4._Gathering them together, he commanded, etc _They had before done the duty of Apostles; but that lasted but a while; and, secondly, so far forth that they might with their preaching awake the Jews to hear their Master. And so that commandment to teach, which Christ had given them, (Matthew 10:7,) whilst he lived with them upon earth, was, as it were, a certain entrance into their apostleship which was to come, for which they were not yet ripe. Therefore, their ordinary function was not laid upon them, until such time as Christ was risen again; but they stirred up their nation (as I have said) like criers, that they might give ear to Christ. And then at length, after the resurrection, they were made Apostles, to publish abroad throughout the whole world that doctrine which was committed to them. And whereas after they were made Apostles, Christ commandeth them as yet to abstain from

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 1:4. _AND, BEING ASSEMBLED TOGETHER_] Instead of συναλιζομενος, _being assembled together_, several good MSS. and versions read συναυλιζομενος, _living_ or _eating together_, which refers the conversation reported here to some particular time, when he _sat at meat_, with his disciples. See Mark 16:14: Luke 24:41. See the _margin_. But probably the common reading is to be preferred; and the meeting on a mountain of Galilee is what is here meant. _THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER_] The HOLY SPIRIT, which indeed was the grand promise of the New Testament, as JESUS CHRIST was of the Old. And as Christ was the grand promise of the Old Testament, during the whole continuance of th

AND BEING ASSEMBLED TOGETHER - Margin, “or, eating together.” This sense is given to this place in the Latin Vulgate, the Ethiopic, and the Syriac versions. But the Greek word has not properly this signification. It has the meaning of “congregating, or assembling.” It should have been, however, translated in the active sense, “and having assembled them together.” The apostles were scattered after his death. But this passage denotes that he had assembled them together by his authority, for the purpose of giving them a charge respecting their conduct when he should have left them. When this occurred does not appear from the narrative; but it is probable that it was not long before his ascension; and it is clear that the place where they were assembled was Jerusalem. BUT WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER - For the fulfillment of the promise respecting the descent of the Holy Spirit made b...

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

AND BEING ASSEMBLED TOGETHER WITH THEM,.... At their last meeting at Bethany, or Mount Olivet, which was by appointment: some render the words, as the Vulgate Latin, "and eating with them"; which was one of the proofs he gave of his being alive; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and when he had ate bread with them", and the Ethiopic version, "and dining with them", which he might do more than once; see John 21:12 this was the last time, when he COMMANDED THEM THAT THEY SHOULD NOT DEPART FROM JERUSALEM; which does not necessarily infer, that they were then at Jerusalem; for they might be, and they seem rather to be at Bethany, or on the Mount of Olives, from whence they afterwards returned to Jerusalem; and from thence they had orders not to depart, where the blood of Christ had been shed, and where were his greatest enemies, and where the disciples might have no inclinat

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...

BEING ASSEMBLED Or, eating with them. YE HAVE HEARD Or, heard from me....

ACTS 1:4 sunalizo,menoj The textual problems involving sunalizo,menoj and its variants are less perplexing than the lexical considerations concerning the meaning of the word. All known uncial manuscripts, with the possible exception of D, and the overwhelming majority of the minuscule manuscripts read sunalizo,menoj. The first hand of codex Bezae reads sunalisko,menoj metV auvtw/n, which has been corrected by a subsequent hand to sunalisgo,menoj metV auvtw/n. Since, however, the meaning of sunali,skesqai is intolerable in the context (the verb means _to be taken captive together_), and since &sk& (as well as &sg&...