Acts 1:22

Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

Beginning from the baptism of John - by whom our Lord Himself was baptized, and introduced to disciples of His own, gathered for no other end than to have them prepared to welcome Him.

Unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. Since twelve men had been solemnly set apart by the Lord of the Church for the work which now lay before them, the apostle deems it indispensable that their ranks, so mournfully broken, should be filled up before the time should arrive for the commencement of the work. No doubt the correspondence of that number with the number of the tribes of Israel (see the notes at Matthew 10:1, Remark 3) had been long before observed by themselves, in which case they would regard the lack of one as a serious, if not a fatal gap. The qualifications for the apostleship here laid down as indispensable are very specific, and should he carefully observed. It was not enough to have seen the Lord Jesus alive after His passion: the candidate behoved to have been His constant follower from the very first to the very last, that from his own personal knowledge he might be qualified to testify to that public life which His resurrection glorified, and those claims which it conclusively established.