EXCURSUS A. ON THE PENTECOSTAL MIRACLE. On the day of Pentecost, the first part of the work of the divine Founder of the Christian Church was completed when the Holy Ghost was given by the Father to the ‘hundred and twenty' gathered together in the name of Jesus. A special grace and power was doubtl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost,_ 1-4. Acts 2:1. AND WHEN THE DAY OF PENTECOST WAS FULLY COME. The exact time when the great miracle took place is specified. The Holy Ghost fell on the apostles and their company _in_ _the course of the day of the feast of Pentecost._ The word ‘Pen... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:2-3. THERE CAME FROM HEAVEN a SOUND as OF a RUSHING MIGHTY WIND, AND IT FILLED ALL THE HOUSE WHERE THEY WERE SITTING. AND THERE APPEARED UNTO THEM CLOVEN TONGUES LIKE AS OF FIRE, AND IT SAT UPON EACH OF THEM. The external signs which attended the outpouring of the Spirit on the chosen band we... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:4. AND THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND BEGAN TO SPEAK WITH OTHER TONGUES, etc. And then those fire-tongues they saw flaming round their heads a bright and glorious aureole seemed to speak from each man's heart, and to give utterance in a new strange language to the thoughts of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_How the Multitude were moved by the Miracle,_ 5-13. Acts 2:5. AND THERE WERE DWELLING AT JERUSALEM JEWS, DEVOUT MEN, OUT OF EVERY NATION UNDER HEAVEN. Dwelling. The Greek word used here (ϰατοιϰοῡτες). according to classical usage, would convey the notion that the foreign Jews here alluded to were... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:6. NOW WHEN THIS WAS NOISED ABROAD; or better rendered, ‘And when this sound was heard.' Calvin, Beza, and the translators of the English Version have understood these words in the sense of ‘Now when this report arose;' the meaning of the Greek word, however, leads us to the right sense of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:7. BEHOLD, ARE NOT ALL THESE WHICH SPEAK, GALILEANS? The frequenters of that house, where the ‘hundred and twenty' were gathered together, were no doubt well known to the ‘devout men,' who had made the Holy City their home, to be at least for the most part from Galilee. Provincials, notorious... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:8. IN OUR OWN TONGUE, WHEREIN WE WERE BORN. Foreign Jews had long lost their acquaintance with Hebrew and its various dialects. The translation of the LXX. bore witness to the wide diffusion of the ‘Greek' language among the chosen people, who, born and brought up in distant lands, were utter... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:9. PARTHIANS, MEDES, ELAMITES. In the Persian kingdom. It was among these peoples that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, settled the captive ten tribes. MESOPOTAMIA. The country lying between the river Tigris and the river Euphrates. Here the Jewish captives were left by Nebuchadnezzar. JUDEA... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:10. PHRYGIA lay on the east of ‘Asia,' but the greater part of it was then reckoned in that great province. PAMPHYLIA, a small division extending along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, was a tributary district. From these five provinces of Asia Minor St. Luke passes to the south. EGYPT... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:11. CRETES AND ARABIANS. In Crete the Jews were very numerous. Arabia, bordering on the Holy Land, of course counted among its inhabitants many Israelites. No sufficient reason, however, can be assigned for these two names occurring _at the end_ of the list. Hackett considers them ‘an after-t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:12-13. AND THEY WERE ALL AMAZED... OTHERS MOCKING, SAID, THESE MEN ARE FULL OF NEW WINE. The effect of the Pentecost miracle was twofold. Some were convinced, some became inquirers. We read later, that three thousand were baptized (first - fruits of the Pentecostal miracle) that very day; whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_St. Peter's First Discourse,_ 14-36. No doubt the few discourses St. Luke has given us in the ‘Acts,' represent faithfully the various characteristic features of early apostolic preaching. They are studiedly simple: the arguments brought forward are carefully chosen with due regard to the audience... [ Continue Reading ]
_First Division of the Discourse, 14-21._ What they heard was no effect of drunkenness, but the long prophesied outpouring of the Spirit. Acts 2:14. BUT PETER, STANDING UP WITH THE ELEVEN, LIFTED UP HIS VOICE. St. Augustine well calls attention to the marked change in St. Peter now that the Holy G... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:15. THESE ARE NOT DRUNKEN, AS YE SUPPOSE, SEEING IT IS BUT THE THIRD HOUR OF THE DAY. The division of the day into twelve hours seems to have come into general use among the Jews during the captivity at Babylon. It is first mentioned by Daniel. The third hour here alluded to was about nine in... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:16. THIS IS THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET JOEL. _This,_ namely, the wonderful utterances of praise, the crowds from so many nations had been just listening to. The quotation, with a few unimportant variations (which will be noticed in their places), is from the LXX., Joel 3:1-5, Hebrew... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:17. _In_ THE LAST DAYS. The LXX. here reads μετὰ ταῡτα, _after these things._ The great Jewish commentator Rabbi D. Kim chi says these two expressions mean the same thing. ‘And it shall be after these things,' is the same as, ‘And it shall be in the last days' (R. D. Kimchi in Lightfoot, _Hor... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:18. AND ON MY SERVANTS AND ON MY HANDMAIDENS I WILL POUR OUT IN THOSE DAYS OF MY SPIRIT. This has been understood as a reference to the number of slaves and persons of the lowest rank who became Christians, and suffered and endured such great things for the sake of Jesus during the first age... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:19-20. AND I WILL SHOW WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, AND SIGNS IN THE EARTH BENEATH; BLOOD, FIRE, AND VAPOUR OF SMOKE... BEFORE THAT GREAT AND NOTABLE DAY OF THE LORD COME. The Messianic dispensation, however, has two aspects the one characterized by grace and mercy, the other by judgment and puni... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:21. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT WHO-SO EVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED. St. Peter here winds up the first division of his discourse, turning from theology to life, telling men and women of all races and ages the name of Him who could save them in all and through all... [ Continue Reading ]
_Second Division of St. Peter's Discourse,_ 22-28. St. Peter declares the name of that Lord who will save all the children of men who choose to call upon Him. Acts 2:22. JESUS OF NAZARETH. The words ‘of Nazareth' are added as His usual designation among the Jews, the name ‘Jesus' not being an unco... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:23. HIM, BEING DELIVERED BY THE DETERMINATE COUNSEL AND FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. This was not man's work, St. Peter says; but all this was done strictly in accordance with God's own design _all_ had been settled, had been foreseen by Him. FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. This indirectly appeals for suppor... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:24. WHOM GOD HATH RAISED UP. ‘Resurrection.' Peter had been leading up all the time to this great fact the resurrection of Jesus; the remainder of his discourse (thirteen verses) dwells exclusively on this theme. So much hung on it. (1) It was the centre of that grand redemption scheme Peter... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:25. FOR DAVID SPEAKETH CONCERNING him. To show it was no new idea of his, that death could not hold the ‘Holy One of God,' St. Peter quotes the words of Psalms 16, where David writes of the sure hope of a joyous future life with God. This sure hope of immortality is the spirit of the Psalm; b... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:26. THEREFORE DID MY HEART REJOICE. These words describe Messiah's glad consciousness on earth of His oneness with the Father; for an expression of this, compare the words of Jesus on the occasion of the raising of Lazarus (St. John, John 11:42), ‘I know that Thou hearest me always.' AND MY... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:27. BECAUSE THOU WILT NOT LEAVE MY SOUL IN HELL. This was the Redeemer's sure confidence during the days of His earthly life. It may, if we will, be _ours_ too; for after a little while the joyful resurrection of the Lord, of body as well as soul, will be the inheritance of all holy and humbl... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:28. THOU HAST MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE. The thoughts of the Redeemer on earth are still being expressed. To Him in His deep humiliation were made known by the Father those mysterious ways which lead through death to life. He knew when He had endured the pain and agony of the cross, w... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:29. LET ME FREELY SPEAK UNTO YOU OF THE PATRIARCH DAVID. Freely (‘frei und offen,' Meyer and Ewald), without fear of being thought unjust to the great memory of the royal patriarch, the founder of the kingly house of Judah. THAT HE IS BOTH DEAD AND BURIED, AND HIS SEPULCHRE IS WITH US. This... [ Continue Reading ]
_Third Division of St. Peter's Discourse,_ 29-36. The preacher shows that that great Psalm which he has used as a bulwark of his argument respecting Messiah, could not by any possibility refer to David, or in fact to any one but Jesus.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:30. THEREFORE BEING A PROPHET. ‘In the stricter sense, a foreteller of future events by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit' (Alford). Jesus Himself expressly speaks of David writing ‘in the Spirit' (Matthew 22:43). AND KNOWING THAT GOD HAD SWORN WITH AN OATH TO HIM, THAT OF THE FRUIT OF HIS... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:31. HE SEEING THIS BEFORE SPAKE OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, THAT HIS SOUL WAS NOT LEFT in HELL, NEITHER DID HIS FLESH SEE CORRUPTION. David as a seer looking (παίδων) into the far future, wrote of this great Descendant of his of whom the prophet Nathan had spoken as establishing the throne... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:32. THIS JESUS HATH GOD RAISED UP. Looking back to Acts 2:24, this Jesus whom you all knew about so well as David's descendant has fulfilled all the varied details of this marvellous prophecy; for as _you_ know He was dead, He is risen again. WHEREOF WE ARE ALL WITNESSES. No doubt here poin... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:33. THEREFORE BEING BY THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD EXALTED. Render instead, THEREFORE BEING EXALTED TO THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. The quotation from the prophecy of Psalms 16, which related in so strangely an accurate way Messiah's calm, joyful confidence that death should have no abiding power over ei... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:34-35. FOR DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS: BUT HE SAITH HIMSELF, THE LORD SAID UNTO MY LORD, SIT THOU ON MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THY FOES THY FOOTSTOOL. The preacher, here fearful lest any should still suspect that King David was the One spoken of throughout the great passage he h... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:36. LET ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL KNOW ASSUREDLY. Conclusion of the discourse. The whole of this first apostolic sermon was addressed to f _etus._ St. Peter in his argument lays little stress on the miracles of the Lord. He only alludes to them in passing, and argues alone from fulfilled prophe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Effect of the First Discourse of St. Peter, 37-41._ ‘St. Luke here relates what was the fruit of the sermons, that we may know that the Holy Spirit was displayed not merely in the variety of tongues, but in the hearts too of those who heard' (Calvin). Acts 2:37. Now when they heard this, they wer... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:38. BE BAPTIZED. The rite of baptism was well known to the Jews: they used to baptize proselytes and their children. IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. Their belief in Jesus was the ground on which they were to be baptized (Meyer). Here only do we find the expression ‘to be baptized _in_ the name'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:38-40. The exquisite tact and courtesy so marked in all the early Christian writings, and especially in the apostolic letters and sermons we possess, is very remarkable in this little _resume_ of the first great Christian address. St. Peter forbears all reproach, for they were fully conscious... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:39. For the promise is unto you. The promise contained in the prophecy of Joel, viz. the miraculous gifts and influences of the Spirit a characteristic, as far as regards the miraculous gifts, of the first days of the age of Messiah. AND TO YOUR CHILDREN. Hackett explains ‘your children' as... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:40. WITH MANY OTHER WORDS. ‘The words cited appear to be the concluding and inclusive summary of St. Peter's many exhortations' (Alford). SAVE YOURSELVES FROM THIS UNTOWARD GENERATION. This should be rendered (as σώθητε is passive): _Be ye saved_ (by God), Lasset each rotten (De Wette). FRO... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:41. THEN THEY THAT GLADLY RECEIVED HIS WORD WERE BAPTIZED: AND THE SAME DAY THERE WERE ADDED TO THEM ABOUT THREE THOUSAND SOULS. Several commentators remark here, that as during the course at least of that day three thousand persons received baptism, this great multitude could not have been _... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:42. AND THEY CONTINUED STEDFASTLY. The three thousand souls converted after the Pentecost feast. The _whole_ church is not especially mentioned in Acts 2:44. In the apostles' doctrine. Those who had just joined the little company of believers in Jesus naturally sought to know more and more... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Church of the First Days in Jerusalem,_ 42-47. St. Luke gives us in these few verses a vivid and a beautiful picture of the beginnings of the faith. The believers were no mere handful of men and women now. A large proportion of the three thousand who had been baptized at Pentecost doubtless wer... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:43. AND FEAR CAME UPON EVERY SOUL. The general impression on the public mind. A feeling of awe was excited even among those who did not join the company of believers. AND MANY WONDERS AND SIGNS WERE DONE BY THE APOSTLES. The healing of the lame man by Peter and John, related in the 3d chapter... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:44-45. The question of ‘community of goods in the early Church' is discussed in Excursus (B) at the end of this chapter. AND ALL THAT BELIEVED WERE TOGETHER. This means that they assembled together. There were probably, even at this early period, several places of assembly for the followers... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:46. AND THEY, CONTINUING DAILY WITH ONE ACCORD IN THE TEMPLE. The wisdom of the Church of the first days was conspicuously shown in their reverent love for the temple of their fathers. This no doubt, in no small degree contributed to their _having_ (as we read in the next (Acts 2:47) verse) _... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 2:47. ADDED TO THE CHURCH. The balance of authorities is rather against admitting ‘to the church' in the text. The sense of the passage, if the word be omitted, would remain unaltered. The word ἰϰϰλησία, _church,_ is a favourite one with the author of the Acts. It occurs in this book (says Word... [ Continue Reading ]