Acts 1:22

ἀρξάμενος, cf. note on Acts 1:1. The word need not be restricted to our Lord's own baptism, but would include the time of the baptism preached by John, as his baptism and preaching were the announcement of, and a preparation for, the Christ. If St. Mark's Gospel, as there is every reason to believe, was closely connected with St. Peter, its opening verses give us a similar date for the commencement of the Apostolic testimony; cf. Schmid, Biblische Theologie des N. T., p. 436. ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἧς : according to Wendt and Weiss, the relative is not attracted for ᾗ, but is to be regarded as a genitive of time, but cf. Leviticus 23:15; Haggai 2:18, Bar 1:15; Winer-Schmiedel, p. 226; Blass, ubi supra, p. 170. μάρτυρα τῆς ἀναστάσεως. It has been noted as remarkable that St. Peter here lays down experience of matters of fact, not eminence in any subjective grace or quality, as one of the conditions of Apostleship, but it is evident that from the first the testimony of the Apostles was not merely to the facts, but to their spiritual bearing, cf. chap. Acts 5:32 : “On the one side there is the historical witness to the facts, on the other, the internal testimony of personal experience” (Westcott's St. John, John 15:27), and the appeal to Him “Who knew the hearts,” showed that something more was needed than intellectual competency. Spitta and Jüngst (so Weiss) regard the whole clause ἐν παντὶ χρόνῳ … ἀφʼ ἡμῶν as introduced by a reviser, but on the other hand Hilgenfeld considers the words to be in their right place. He also rebukes Weiss for maintaining that the whole passage, Acts 1:15-26, could not have been composed by the author of the book, who gives no intimation of the number of the Apostles, with whom the Twelve as such play no part, and who finds his hero outside their number. But Hilgenfeld points out that the Twelve have for his “author to Theophilus” a very important place; cf. Acts 2:14; Acts 2:22; Acts 4:33; Acts 5:12; Acts 5:40; Acts 8:1; Acts 8:14; Acts 9:27.