Acts 1:25

Acts 1:25. That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship. The word ϰλῆρος (clerus), translated ‘part,' better perhaps ‘the place,' signifies (1) a lot, (2) anything assigned by lot; for instance, an allotment of land, or an official position. So Israel is termed the inheritance, the lot, or the portion of the Lord out of the tribes of the earth (Deuteronomy 9:29, LXX.). Jerome tells us that out of the whole body of Christians, God's ministers were called Clerici, either because they are the lot and portion of the Lord, or because the Lord is their lot that is, their inheritance. The early history and associations which cluster round the well-known terms clergy, clergyman, clerk, clerical, most be looked for, in the first instance, in the various uses and meanings of this word.

That he might go to his own place. These strange words which close the traitor's gloomy story can convey no other possible sense than that Judas had gone to a place of condemnation. The phrase, ‘to go to one's own place, ‘was a known and received phrase in the Apostolic Age, and signified a man's going presently after death into his proper place a state either of happiness or misery, according to the life he had before lived while on earth (see Bishop Bull's Works, vol. i. Sermon ii.). Polycarp (Ep. ad Phil.) speaks of apostles and martyrs of that age being with their Lord in their due place. Clement of Rome writes of St. Peter, ‘Having suffered martyrdom, he went to his due place of glory.' Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes.) tells us how two things are together set before us life and death, and every one shall go to his own place. A rabbinical work (Baal Turim on Numbers 24:25) interprets with the same mournful interpretation an expression used of one who, like Judas, had been placed in a position which connected him in a peculiar manner with God. ‘Balaam went to his place' that is, ‘ to Gehenna'