_Healing of the Lame Man by Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple,_ 1-11. The writer of the ‘Acts,' after describing the inner life of the new society, takes up the thread of the story again. He had spoken (Acts 2:46) of the daily attendance of the followers of Jesus in the Temple, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:1. PETER AND JOHN WENT UP TOGETHER INTO THE TEMPLE. These two apostles are constantly mentioned as being together in the later portions of the Gospel, and the earlier ones of the ‘Acts.' They were sent by Christ to prepare the upper room for the last Passover. They were most probably both pre... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:2. A CERTAIN MAN LAME FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB WAS CARRIED, WHOM THEY LAID DAILY AT THE GATE OF THE TEMPLE WHICH IS CALLED BEAUTIFUL, TO ASK ALMS OF THEM THAT ENTERED INTO THE TEMPLE. Martial (i. 112) tells us of beggars who were in the habit of sitting at the gate of heathen temples. Chrysosto... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:3. ASKED AN ALMS. Meyer, quoting from Vajikra Rabbi, f. Acts 20:3-4, gives us some Jewish forms of begging: ‘Merere in me,' ‘In me benefac tibi,' etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:4. AND PETER, FASTENING HIS EYES ON HIM WITH JOHN, SAID, LOOK ON US. Calvin, commenting on this miracle about to be worked by Peter and John, asks whether they had the power of working such miracles when they pleased, and replies they were so exclusively ministers of the Divine power that the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:5. AND HE GAVE HEED UNTO THEM. The sufferer, perhaps surprised at this unusual notice from a passer-by, gazed up at Peter and John with rapt attention (the Greek word is far stronger than the English equivalent), _knowing_ he was about to receive some kindness, he knew not what, from these ho... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:6. THEN PETER SAID. Recognising from something he could read in that face, marked by years of suffering and want, that _lure_ was true faith. SILVER AND GOLD HAVE I NONE; BUT SUCH AS I HAVE GIVE I THEE. Centuries after, Cornelius a Lapide beautifully relates how Thomas Aquinas once came to P... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:7. AND HE TOOK HIM BY THE RIGHT HAND. To the word of command, Peter, following his Master's example in such cases (see Mark 9:27), grasps him by the right hand, thus encouraging him to obey the command to arise. On the use of such outward instrumentality, Chrysostom remarks: ‘So, too, Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:8. AND ENTERED WITH THEM INTO THE TEMPLE. Instead of at once going to his home or any other place, his first thought seems to have been: ‘He would go into the sanctuary of his God and there return thanks for his great deliverance.' Peter and John, guided by the Holy Ghost , when they cast the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:9-10. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAW HIM WALKING. The crowds in the temple-court knew him as he walked among them for that helpless beggar whom they had seen so many times lying by the ‘Beautiful Gate;' they saw, him now, who had never walked before, full of life and power, praising God, and were str... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:11. AND AS THE LAME MAN WHICH WAS HEALED HELD PETER AND JOHN. That is, while he was holding them fast or keeping near them (see De Wette), perhaps, as Alford suggests, in the ardour of his gratitude, that he might testify to all who his benefactors were. IN THE PORCH THAT IS CALLED SOLOMON'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:12. AND WHEN PETER SAW IT, HE ANSWERED UNTO THE PEOPLE, etc. The wondering gaze of the throng in the temple-court seemed to ask, ‘What mighty power is possessed by these men? What holy men must these be for God to have endowed them with these strange miraculous gifts?' It was in answer to tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Second Discourse of St. Peter,_ 12-26. This second sermon of St. Peter is even more briefly reported than the first. Compared with the summary Divine wisdom has preserved for us in the ‘Acts,' it must have been originally a discourse of some length. The last division especially (Acts 3:17-26) has a... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:13. THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND OF ISAAC, AND OF JACOB, THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS. No words could have riveted the attention of the people like these. ‘ _We_ have not done this great thing which so astonishes you, but the Eternal of hosts, the Glory and Hope of Israel, the covenant God, in whose roy... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:14. BUT YE DENIED THE HOLY ONE AND THE JUST. Old Testament titles of Messiah, where He is called the Holy One, the Righteous Branch, the Lord our Righteousness, God's Righteous Servant who should justify many (Isaiah 53:11).... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:15. THE PRINCE OF LIFE. Life here, in its highest sense, is intended eternal life (see John 1:4; John 5:26; John 2:25); but it includes also physical life. Alford even suggests the possibility that the words may contain an allusion to the great miracle [the raising of Lazarus], which was the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:16. AND HIS NAME THROUGH FAITH IN HIS NAME HATH MADE THIS MAN STRONG, WHOM YE SEE AND KNOW. We will take these words in the order of the original Greek: ‘And through faith in His name.' Peter had just related (in Acts 3:15) what was the ground of his perfect faith: _he had been one of the wit... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:17. Peter's tone changes here. After his vivid picture of the awful guilt incurred by the Jews as a nation in murdering the Messiah, he now lovingly would not have them despair, but tells them they knew Him not when they consented to that cruel death a death, too (Acts 3:18), which was necess... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:17. AND NOW, BRETHREN. Notice the apostle no longer gravely, though courteously, addresses the people as ‘men of Israel' (Acts 3:12), but affectionately as ‘brethren.' THROUGH IGNORANCE YE DID IT. Not recognising under that meek and lowly form the conquering Messiah they so fondly looked fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:18. In reference to God, the sin of Israel, consisting in the rejection and murder of Messiah, may be forgiven, in so far as it at the same time involved the fulfilment of the divine decree made mention of by all the prophets, ‘that Messiah should suffer.' WHICH GOD SHOWED BY THE MOUTH OF AL... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:19. REPENT YE THEREFORE (οῧν). Seeing, then, that your guilt, great though it be, does not shut you out from pardon and reconciliation in the blood of the Messiah, whom in ignorance you crucified, ‘repent ye therefore.' AND BE CONVERTED that is, turn from your present way of life, receive t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:20. AND HE SHALL SEND JESUS CHRIST. See above, the note on the ‘times of refreshing,' with which period this Second Advent of the Lord must be considered as contemporaneous.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:21. WHOM THE HEAVEN MUST RECEIVE. Some commentators (_e g._ Bengel, Olshausen, Stier) have adopted another rendering of the Greek words (which makes ὅν the subject) ‘who must receive heaven.' considering that the usually-received translation involves a statement injurious to the nil-pervading... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:22-23. The quotation is from the LXX. Version (Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 18:18-19). The words of the original are not exactly given, but the paraphrase of St. Peter faithfully reproduces the original sense. The Deuteronomy passage promises, at some future period, that God seeing that the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:22-24. These verses are explanatory of the general statement of Acts 3:21, ‘Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets.' They first speak of Moses and his famous words relating to Messiah, and then dwell on the testimony of the prophets collectively from Samuel downwards.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:23. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS (ἔσται δέ). These words do not occur in the passage quoted by St. Peter. Every soul which will not hear that prophet. The apostle had been excusing the people who had crucified the Lord, seeing they had done it ignorantly. Now, in the words of the Pentateuch pro... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:24. ALL THE PROPHETS FROM SAMUEL, AND THOSE THAT FOLLOW AFTER. Of the prophets between Moses and the days of Samuel, we possess few recorded sayings. Samuel is mentioned as the founder of the so-called schools of the prophets. Gloag especially notes this verse as probably containing only an e... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:25. YE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE PROPHETS AND OF THE COVENANT. ‘Children' (υἱοί). ‘Children' in this sense is a very common expression in Hebrew thought. So in Matthew 8:12, we read of ‘the children of the kingdom;' in Luke 16:8, ‘children of the world' and ‘children of light.' They were childr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 3:26. UNTO YOU FIRST GOD, etc. ‘First.' St. Peter here clearly recognises definitely that upon others as well as Israel, the glory of the Lord has risen (Isaiah 60). Perhaps at this moment, full of the Holy Spirit, the fact of the glorious breadth of redemption flashed on the speaker's mind wit... [ Continue Reading ]