Acts 2:29

ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί : an affectionate form of address as compared with Acts 2:14; Acts 2:22 (cf. Acts 7:2; Acts 22:1), but still much more formal than Acts 3:17, where we have ἀδελφοί alone in St. Peter's pity for those who crucifying the Saviour knew not what they did. ἐξὸν, sc., ἐστι (with infinitive), cf. 2 Corinthians 12:4, only in N.T. Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 200 (1893), cf. LXX Esther 4:2; 4Ma 5:18; not “may I speak unto you,” but “I may say unto you,” R.V., not = ἔστω, but ἐστί (ἔξεστι), Wendt, in loco. μετὰ παρρησίας : on the phrase, see below, Acts 4:13, and its repeated use by St. Luke; cf. Hebrews 4:16; Lat., cum fiducia, Westcott, Hebrews, p. 108. In the LXX the phrase is found, Leviticus 26:13; Esther 8:12 1Ma 4:18, Malachi 4:1; Malachi 4:1; 3Ma 7:12. St. Peter will first of all state facts which cannot be denied, before he proceeds to show how the words used of David are fulfilled in “great David's greater Son”. He speaks of David in terms which indicate his respect for his name and memory, and as Bengel well says, “est igitur hoc loco προθεραπεία, prævia sermonis mitigatio” (“est hæc προθερ. ut aiunt rhetores,” Blass, in loco). τοῦ πατριάρχου, the name is emphatically used in the N.T. of Abraham; cf. Hebrews 7:4 (properly the ἄρχων (auctor), πατριᾶς), and of the sons of Jacob, Acts 7:8-9, and cf. 4Ma 7:19, used of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the LXX it is used of the “heads of the fathers' houses,” 1 Chronicles 9:9; 1 Chronicles 24:31, in a comparatively lower sense. Here used, as a term of high honour, of David, regarded as the ancestor of the kingly race. See on the word and its formation, Kennedy, Sources of New Testament Greek, p. 114. ὅτι καὶ ἐτελεύτησε καὶ ἐτάφη : “that he both died and was buried,” R.V. St. Peter states notorious facts, and refers to them in a way which could not wound the susceptibilities of his hearers, whilst he shows them that David's words were not exhausted in his own case. The argument is practically the same as that of St. Paul in Acts 13:36 from the same Psalm. καὶ τὸ μνῆμα αὐτοῦ ἐστιν ἐν ἡμῖν, i.e., in Jerusalem, the mention of the tomb emphasises the fact and certainty of the death of David, and implies that his body had seen corruption. That David's tomb was shown in the time of Nehemiah we know from Nehemiah 3:16. From Jos., Ant., vii., 15, 3; xiii., 8, 4; B. J., i., 2, 5, we learn that Solomon had buried a large treasure in the tomb, and that on that account one of its chambers had been broken open by Hyrcanus, and another by Herod the Great. According to Jos., Ant., xvi., 7, 1, Herod, not content with rifling the tomb, desired to penetrate further, even as far as the bodies of David and Solomon, but a flame burst forth and slew two of his guards, and the king fled. To this attempt the Jewish historian attributed the growing troubles in Herod's family. In the time of Hadrian the tomb is said to have fallen into ruins. Whatever its exact site, it must have been within the walls, and therefore could not correspond with the so called “tombs of the kings” which De Saulcy identified with it. Those tombs are outside the walls, and are of the Roman period (Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. i., p. 276, E.T., “David,” B.D. 2). Wetstein, in loco, quotes the testimony of Maundrell as to the sepulchres of David and his family being the only sepulchres within the walls. St. Jerome, Epist., xlvi., writing to Marcella, expresses a hope that they might pray together in the mausoleum of David; so that at the end of the fourth century tradition must still have claimed to mark the spot.