Acts 13:15-41

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 difference between this speech and that of Stephen. The motif is quite different, the scope almost wholly different; there is, it is true, a historical section in both, but it is brief in Paul's speech while almost co-extensive with that of Stephen. The points mentioned differ for the most part, and the last nineteen verses of Paul's speech (much the greater part of it) are without any parallel in that of Stephen. None of Paul's letters let us see what he said to Jewish congregations; 1 Th., Gal., 1 Cor., are all addressed to Gentile churches; indeed, we have lamentably little information about his mission preaching in the epistles. And there is a striking degree of variation in the range of texts employed in the epistles. A. S. P.] To Paul the synagogue on the Sabbath was a familiar scene; the service was the same all the world over, and he had attended it at Tarsus. It began with the recital of the Shema or creed (Deuteronomy 6:4; Deuteronomy 11:13; Numbers 15:37), then prayer was said, then the lesson from the Law was read, then that from the Prophets, each with translation into the vernacular, then an address, and lastly the blessing. Barnabas and Paul are asked to give the address after the reading.

Acts 13:16. Paul's address is directed to two sets of people, the Israelites, or born Jews, sitting there, and the God-fearers, the Gentiles who attended the service. The distinction made at the outset does not afterwards appear except in Acts 13:26. Jew and Gentile worshippers are taken as one body and spoken of as we, our. The historical introduction (cf. ch. 7) begins with the Exodus and passes rapidly over the time in the wilderness, where God is said to have borne the manners (Acts 13:18) of the people for forty years. Mg., he bore them as a nursing father, differs from the text by one letter (etrophophoresen for etropophoresen).

Acts 13:20 f. The Period of the Judges (according to a current Jewish tradition, 450 years) to Samuel and Saul. The forty years allotted to Saul are not found in OT.

Acts 13:22 f. David is brought in as the ancestor of Jesus and because his words in the Psalms refer to Jesus.

Acts 13:24. In the account of John the Baptist we have the tradition present in the Fourth Gospel, mingled with that of the Synoptists; with his figure the ministry of Jesus begins (Acts 1:22; Acts 10:37).

Acts 13:26. The two classes in the audience are again named, and pointed to the salvation which is in Jesus. It is sent to us, i.e. to the mixed communities of the Dispersion with which Paul identifies himself, because the Jews of Jerusalem and their rulers have cut themselves off from it by their treatment of the Messiah. This appears to be the logic of Acts 13:27, and there are echoes of the thought in Paul's epistles (1 Corinthians 2:7 f., 1 Thessalonians 2:14). As in former speeches there is here no doctrine of the virtue of Messiah's sufferings; they are according to God's will, and God speedily replaced them by the Resurrection. Paul does not here count himself among the witnesses of the risen Christ; he is not one of those who accompanied Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, nor does he refer to his own vision; it is difficult to understand how he could speak in this way. The passage quoted in Acts 13:33 from Psalms 2 is spoken in Luke 3:22 (D) to Jesus by the heavenly voice at His baptism; here it is applied to the Resurrection, as if He then became fully God's Son (see Romans 1:4).

Acts 13:34 is perhaps better translated, but that he raised him from the dead. he said thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David (Isaiah 55:3). The prophecy in Acts 13:35 (Psalms 16:10) is fulfilled in the Resurrection; the sure mercies of David guarantee it.

Acts 13:36 f. accordingly unfolds the argument of Peter (Acts 22:7) that the prediction of resurrection, not fulfilled to David, must have been spoken of one who actually was raised up, as was Jesus. David served his own generation and is dead; Jesus served and will serve many.

Acts 13:38. The practical conclusion follows in a couple of sentences, that forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to the hearers through Jesus, and that the believer in Him is justified from guilt for which the Law provided no justification. This implies that the Law did justify to a certain extent, a conclusion from which the Paul of the epistles dissents strongly (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, Php_3:9), and that faith in Christ might be regarded as a means for completing one's justification, which the Law left incomplete. The passage from Habakkuk 1:5 is taken from the LXX. Its threatenings were little calculated to win the hearers; but all the preachers in this book deal in threats of doom.