Acts 13:29

And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. AND WHEN THEY HAD FULFILLED ALL THAT WAS WRITTEN OF HIM, THEY TOOK HIM DOWN FROM THE TREE, AND LAID HIM IN A SEPULCHRE. Though the burial of Christ was an act of honour and love to Him by the disciples to whom the body was committed, yet, since his enemies looked after it, and obtained a guard of soldiers to keep watch over it, as the remains of their own victim, the apostle regards this as the last manifestation on their part of enmity to the Saviour, that his hearers might see how God had laughed their precautions to scorn by undoing their act-as about to be mentioned....

29._When they had fulfilled all things; _to wit, which it pleased God should be done by them. For they did so handle Christ that there was nothing of the prophecies of the Scripture left unfulfilled. By this means is the stumbling-block (which the understanding of the flesh conceiveth by reason of the ignominy of the cross) taken away, that the Son of God was not laid open to the furious fury of the wicked; but he obeyed his fathers decree. Furthermore, it doth also in Scripture appear what condition was appointed for him in times past. Whereas he saith that Christ was buried by the same which had slain him, it seemeth contrary to the history of the gospel; but it may be that Luke did take the word _buried _indefinitely. And if it please you to refer it unto the same, it shall be _synecdoche. _For he was buried with Pilate’s leave; and at the appointment and pleasure of the priests there...

14-31 When we come together to worship God, we must do it, not only by prayer and praise, but by the reading and hearing of the word of God. The bare reading of the Scriptures in public assemblies is not enough; they should be expounded, and the people exhorted out of them. This is helping people in doing that which is necessary to make the word profitable, to apply it to themselves. Every thing is touched upon in this sermon, which might best prevail with Jews to receive and embrace Christ as the promised Messiah. And every view, however short or faint, of the Lord's dealings with his church, reminds us of his mercy and long-suffering, and of man's ingratitude and perverseness. Paul passes from David to the Son of David, and shows that this Jesus is his promised Seed; a Saviour to do that for them, which the judges of old could not do, to save them from their sins, their worst enemies....

Verse 29. _THEY TOOK_ HIM _DOWN FROM THE TREE_] The apostle passes rapidly over several circumstances of his _death_, that he might establish the fact of his _resurrection_....

THEY TOOK HIM DOWN ... - That is, it was done by the Jews. Not that it was done by those who put him to death, but by Joseph of Arimathea, and by Nicodemus, who were Jews. Paul is speaking of what was done to Jesus by the Jews at Jerusalem; and he does not affirm that the same persons put him to death and laid him in a tomb, but that all this was done by Jews. See John 19:38....

EXPOSITION ACTS 13:1 _At Antioch., in the Church that was there _for _in the Church that was at Antioch, _A.V.; _prophets, _etc., for _certain prophets, _etc., A.V. and T.R.; _Barnabas, _etc., for _as Barnabas, _etc., A.V.; _Symeon _for _Simeon, _A.V.; _the foster-brother of _for _which had_ _been brought up with, _A.V. AT ANTIOCH, IN THE CHURCH, etc. Κατὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἐκκλησίαν rather means "the existing Church," just as at αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι_ _means "the existing powers," "the powers that be," in Romans 13:1, A.V. and T.R. _The then Church _seems mere the meaning than _the Church there. _Luke writes from the standpoint of

AND WHEN THEY HAD FULFILLED ALL THAT WAS WRITTEN OF HIM,.... When they had vilified and reproached him in the most opprobrious manner; buffeted and scourged him, and pierced his hands and his feet, by nailing him to the cross; when they had crucified him between two thieves, and parted his raiment and cast lots on his vesture; when they had pierced his side, and it was sufficiently evident that his life was taken from the earth; all which were written of him in the Psalms and Prophets: THEY TOOK HIM DOWN FROM THE TREE; the cross, on which he was crucified: it may be rendered impersonally, "he was taken down from the tree"; for not the same persons that desired he might be slain, and fulfilled all that was written of him, took him down, but others; though they were some of the rulers, as Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, yet such as did not consent to his death: AND LAID HIM IN A SEPU...

Acts 13:13. _Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down._ They would be noticed as strangers who had come thither. The synagogue did not generally contain a very large assembly, and the Jews of the place would be well known to one another, and they would notice that two or three men had come in whom they had not been accustomed to see in their company. Acts 13:15. And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up, and

PART III The Witness to the Gentiles. The Apostle to the Gentiles; his Ministry and Captivity. Chapter s 13-28 CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The Divine Choice. Barnabas and Saul separated unto the work (Acts 13:1)._ 2. The Beginning of the Journey and the events in Cyprus (Acts 13:4). 3. The Gospel in Galatia. Paul's Address (Acts 13:13). 4. The Gospel rejected by the Jews (Acts 13:42). The thirteenth chapter is the beginning of the third part of this book. The second great center of Christianity comes to the front. It is no longer Jerusalem, but the city of Antioch. The gospel which had been preached in

THE SERMON AT PISIDIAN ANTIOCH. This is a specimen of Paul's missionary practice. In external matters it is true to the facts, yet the sermon is on the one hand so like the sermon of Peter (ch. 2) and of Stephen (ch. 7), and on the other so different from the evidence of Paul's epistles as to what he did say when he broke new ground on such occasions (1 Thessalonians 1:9; Galatians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 2:2), that we can scarcely accept it. The texts quoted are not such as Paul relied on, nor the motives appealed to such as he kept in view. His preaching may not have been the same all through his career; but it must have had a style of its own. [It should be observed, however, that there is considerable di