Acts 28:23-28

The Jews are Hardened. It was a numerous meeting; we can scarcely understand the words to mean that more came the second time than the first. The kingdom of God is a wide phrase for the Christian doctrine which began with the announcement of the nearness of God's rule (cf. Acts 1:3). The doctrine about Jesus, supported by texts from the Law and the Prophets, is appropriate to the audience, and sums up what the writer considered to be the essence of Christian preaching (cf. Luke 24:44). But they must have heard it all before; the occasion could not have such tragic importance for them as Paul's quotation of Isaiah 6:9 f. (LXX) suggests. The passage appears in the Gospels in controversy with the Jews; see Mark 4:12 *, John 12:40; also 1 Clem. 3:3, Justin, Dial. 12 and 28. The words added in mg. (Acts 28:29) are a repetition of Acts 28:24 f., and are out of place after the verdict on the Jews given in the quotation. In Romans 1:14 Paul does not profess himself debtor to the Jews; the word first in Romans 1:16 is given by WH in brackets.