Acts 1:16

16. ταύτην omitted with אABC and Vulgate.

16. ἄνδρες�. This form of beginning an address is common throughout the Acts (cf. Acts 1:11; Acts 2:14; Acts 2:22; Acts 2:29; Acts 3:12, &c.), and an objection has been raised against this uniformity. But we cannot but suppose, that St Luke after collecting the speeches which were reported to him, cast them into a form fitted for insertion in his narrative. This is only what a writer of history must do. Some introductory words were necessary at the commencement of the speeches, and it is probable that the uniformity found in these places is due to him and not to those whose words he reports and supplies with the links needful to attach them to his narrative.

γραφή. A constant word for Old Testament Scripture (cf. John 7:38; John 10:35; Acts 8:32, &c.), and often used in the plural in the same sense (Matthew 21:42; Matthew 22:9, &c.).

ἣν προεῖπεν. The quotations made below are from Psalms 69:25; Psalms 109:8, and these the minds of the disciples, being opened, comprehend may be applied to the case of Judas, whose treachery more than fulfils all the description of the Psalmist. The words which describe the traitor-friend suit completely the conduct of Judas, but we are not on that account to suppose that they had not a first fulfilment in the life-history of him who wrote these Psalms, and the otherwise fierce character of the imprecations they contain finds its best justification when we learn how they are to be applied. While the Psalmist spake of himself and of his own circumstances, the Holy Ghost was speaking through him of what should happen to “the son of David.”