Acts 1:16

Ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί : a mode of address indicating not only respect but also the solemnity of the occasion and the importance of the subject. There is nothing unclassical in this use of the vocative without ὦ at the beginning of speeches. Demosthenes, at least on some occasions, used the phrase Ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι without ὦ. Simcox, ubi supra, p. 76, note, and see also Winer-Schmiedel, p. 258, note. ἔδει : very frequent in St. Luke's Gospel and the Acts; in the former nineteen, in the latter twenty-five times, and in all parts of the book, Friedrich, ubi supra, p. 22 (Lekebusch). It expresses a divine necessity, and is used by all the Evangelists, as by St. Peter here, and by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:25), of the events connected with and following upon the Passion. δεῖ, oportet, expresses logical necessity rather than personal moral obligation ὤφειλεν, debuit, or the sense of fitness, ἔπρεπεν, decebat. The three words are all found in Hebrews 2:1; Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 2:10, on which see Westcott, Hebrews, p. 36, and Plummer's St. Luke, p. 247. St. Peter's speech falls into two parts, one introduced by ἔδει, and the other introduced by δεῖ, Acts 1:21. τὴν γραφὴν : the reference is undoubtedly to the particular passages in the O.T. which follow, cf. Luke 4:20; Acts 8:35; see Lightfoot on Galatians 3:22. There is no reference to Psalms 41:9, or this passage would have been quoted, but to the passages in Acts 1:20. πληρωθῆναι, cf. Luke 24:44-45. πληρόω (which is very frequently used by St. Luke, Friedrich, ubi supra, p. 40) means more than “fulfil” in the popular acceptation of the word; it implies “to fill up to the full”; “Not only is our Lord the subject of direct predictions in the Old Testament, but His claims go to the full extent of affirming that all the truths which are imperfectly, and frequently very darkly shadowed forth in the pages, are realised in Him as the ideal to which they pointed” (Row, Bampton Lectures, pp. 202, 203). τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. St. Luke uses this, or a similar expression, πνεῦμα ἅγιον or τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, about forty times in Acts alone, whilst in St. Luke's Gospel alone it is used about as many times as in the three other Evangelists together (Lekebusch, Apostelgeschichte, p. 65, and Plummer, St. Luke, p. 14). ὁδηγοῦ τοῖς συλλ. τὸν Ἰησοῦν. St. Peter simply states a fact, but does not heap scorn or abuse upon Judas (Chrysostom, Hom., iii., cf. Theophylact). St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. John simply say of Judas ὁ παραδιδούς, “he who delivered Him up,” or employ some similar expression; he is never called “ the traitor” (St. Luke 6:16, ἐγένετο προδότης, “ became a traitor,” see Plummer, in loco). This self-restraint is remarkable on the part of men who must have regarded their Master's Death as the most atrocious of murders (see Row, Bampton Lectures, pp. 179, 180, note). At the same time the word ὁδηγός seems to bring before us the scene in Gethsemane, how Judas went before the multitude, and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him (Luke 22:47), and to show us how vividly the memories of the Passion were present to St. Peter; cf. 1 Peter 2:21 ff.).