Acts 28:28

γνωστὸν οὖν : for the word similarly used cf. Acts 2:14; Acts 4:10; Acts 13:38. τοῦτο τὸ σωτ., see critical note; cf. LXX, Psalms 66:2; Psalms 97:2-3. σωτ., adjective, neuter of σωτήριος, used substantively (as in classical Greek), so often in LXX of the Messianic salvation; cf. Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6; Ephesians 6:17, and Clem. Rom., Cor [436], xxxv., 12, xxxvi. 1. The word is used only by St. Luke and St. Paul, see Plummer, note on Luke 3:6. For the whole expression here cf. Acts 13:26, where words very similar are used by Paul, and with very similar results, Acts 13:46. τοῦτο, emphatic this, the very message of God's salvation, this is what I am declaring to you. αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀκούσονται : “they will also hear,” R.V. The words thus rendered may not convey so plainly a reproach to the Jews as in A.V., but at the same time they express something more than the mere fact that Gentiles as well as Jews will now hear the message; that message will not only be sent (ἀπεστάλη), but also heard; the καί may well indicate that whilst the Jews will hear with the ear only as distinct from the understanding, the Gentiles will not only hear, but really (καί) listen (see Rendall and Weiss, in loco). At the same time we must remember that as a background to what the Apostle here says we have his words in Romans 9-11, and the thought which he had expressed to the Roman Church that God had not really cast away His people, but whilst through their unbelief the Gentiles had been called, yet that inclusion of the heathen in the Messianic kingdom would rouse the Jews to jealousy, and that thus all Israel would be saved, Romans 11:11; cf. Romans 10:19; Sanday and Headlam, Romans, p. 341 ff. We can scarcely doubt that the words are uttered not merely to condemn, but to lead to repentance; at all events it would not be possible to find stronger words against his own countrymen than those written by St. Paul in his earliest Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16; and yet we know how St. Paul, for those same countrymen, could wish himself accused; so Bethge, as against Overbeck, who can only see that in Acts the belief of the Gentiles results not in a noble jealousy, but in the bitter envy of the Jews. But there blends with the tone of sadness a note of triumph in the words αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀκούσονται, the future of his message is assured, and we may borrow two words as an inscription for these closing pages of St. Luke's second treatise the last word of the Apostle, and the last of the historian ἀκούσονται … ἀκωλύτως the word of God was heard and welcomed, and that word was not bound, see the suggestive remarks of Bethge, p. 335, and Zöckler on Acts 28:31.

[436] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.