Acts 13:33

God hath fulfilled the same Better, "how that God hath," &c. The "glad tidings" are concerning the promise, and the precise message which is the cause for gladness is contained in the announcement that the promise has been fulfilled.

hath fulfilled The verb in the original is a strengthened form and indicates "complete fulfilment."

unto us their children The Greek order of the words is emphatic, "unto their children, even us." There are some good MSS. which read "unto our children," but this weakens the language greatly, for what the audience whom St Paul addressed would desire was a fulfilment for themselves. Their children would inherit what they received, but a promise to be fulfilled to their children would not move them so much as one of which they were to be sharers themselves.

in that he hath raised up Jesus again i.e. from the dead. This is necessary to the Apostle's argument, which is on the resurrection of Jesus as a proof that He was the Messiah. The quotation which follows need not refer alone to the birth of Jesus into this world. He was also the first-begotten from the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept.

as it is also written in the second psalm The reading of many good MSS. is "in the first psalm." What we now call the first psalm was formerly regarded as an introduction to the whole and not counted in the numbering. The quotation which follows is, according to the present order of the Psalms, taken from Psalms 2:7.