Acts 3:17

καὶ νῦν : favourite formula of transition, cf. Acts 7:35; Acts 10:5; Acts 20:25; Acts 22:16; 1 John 2:28; 2 John 1:5. See Wendt and Page, in loco. Bengel describes it as “formula transeuntis a præterito ad præsens”. Blass, “i.e., quod attinet ad ea quæ nunc facienda sunt, Acts 3:19 ”. ἀδελφοί : affectionate and conciliatory, cf. Acts 3:12, where he speaks more formally because more by way of reproof: “One of the marks of truth would be wanting without this accordance between the style and the changing mental moods of the speaker” (Hackett). κατὰ ἄγνοιαν : the same phrase occurs in LXX, Leviticus 22:14 (cf. also Leviticus 5:18; Ecclesiastes 5:5). On κατά in this usage, see Simcox, Language of the N. T., p. 149, who doubts whether it is quite good Greek. It is used in Polybius, and Blass compares κατʼ ἀνάγκην (Philem., Acts 3:14), which is found in Xen., Cyr., iv., 3. Their guilt was less than if they had slain the Messiah κατὰ πρόθεσιν κατὰ προαίρεσιν, or ἐν χειρὶ ὑπερηφανίας, Numbers 15:30, and therefore their hope of pardon was assured on their repentance (cf. 1 Peter 1:14, ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ, and Psalms of Solomon, Acts 18:5, for the same phrase). St. Peter speaks in the spirit of his Master, Luke 23:34. See instances in Wetstein of the antithesis of the two phrases κατʼ ἄγνοιαν and κατὰ πρόθεσιν (προαίρεσιν) in Polybius. οἱ ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν, cf. 1 Corinthians 2:8. The guilt of the rulers was greater than that of the people, but even for their crime St. Peter finds a palliation in the fact that they did not recognise the Messiah, although he does not hold them guiltless for shutting their eyes to His holiness and innocence.