Acts 24:15

Acts 24:15. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. That is to say, his belief in the Law and the Prophets gave him a hope founded on God, because His word and the promises contained in the Law and the Prophets furnish the only grounds for such a hope. The hope was, as he went on to say, that there would surely be a resurrection. Nor was he singular in holding this certain expectation. These, he said, pointing to members of the Sanhedrim in the court, and to the other Jews present these hold it with me. Such an appeal tells us that the dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Sanhedrim alluded to in chap, Acts 23:7 had been speedily arranged, and that both parties had agreed together to compass the destruction of the famous Gentile missionary. Paul with justice refers to the belief in the resurrection as the general belief of the Jewish nation, the sceptical opinions of the Sadducees influencing only a very few, comparatively speaking. ‘The Sadducees,' writes Josephus, ‘were able to persuade none but the rich; the Pharisees had the multitude on their side' (Antiquities). Thus he explained to Felix his faith was the faith of the people, the faith of his fathers; and the devout hope of the resurrection which he and his brother Nazarenes put forward so prominently, and which evidently was a deep offence to some of the more prominent members of the great Jewish council the devout hope of the resurrection was, after all, entertained in the hearts of the majority of the Jewish people. ‘Hast thou, ' asks Lange here, ‘this hope? If the Spirit has not yet imparted it to thee, pause not until thou art assured of thy blessed resurrection; pause not, for there can be nothing more awful than to die without the hope of the resurrection.'

Lange has also an exhaustive note on the devout hope of the resurrection being the ancient heritage of the Jewish race: ‘The hope of the resurrection is established on a doctrine, the glory of which did not arise for the first time in the New Testament. This golden thread of eternal life passes, on the contrary, through the whole of the Old Testament.

‘The Creator who animated the dust of the ground with His breath, the covenantal God who made an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:7) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is not a God of the dead, but of the living. That hope was a source of comfort to Job (Job 19:25-27); Isaiah (Acts 26:19) foretold it; Daniel (Acts 12:2) bore witness to it.

‘It is, however, true that this hope first acquired a firm foundation, and was endowed with life and productive power through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.'