AND WHEN THE DAY OF PENTECOST WAS FULLY COME,.... Or "was come", was begun and entered upon; for it was not over, or ended, it being but the third hour of the day, or nine of the clock in the morning, when Peter began his sermon; see Acts 2:15. The Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, "when the d... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SUDDENLY THERE CAME A SOUND FROM HEAVEN,.... Which is expressive of the original of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, which come from above, from heaven, from the Father of lights; and of the freeness of them, being unmerited; and so come suddenly, at an unawares, being unthought of, un... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE APPEARED UNTO THEM CLOVEN TONGUES LIKE AS OF FIRE,.... An emblem of the various tongues and languages, in which they were to preach the Gospel; these appearances were like flames of fire parted, and these parted flames looked like tongues; so, a flame of fire is with, the Jews called, לשון... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST,.... With the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they had received the Spirit before, as a Spirit of grace, and were endowed with great gifts; but now they had great plenty of them, a large abundance; they were like vessels filled to the brim; they were as it were... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WERE DWELLING AT JERUSALEM, JEWS,.... The Ethiopic version adds, "proselytes"; but they were not all such, as appears from the following account of them; many, and it seems the most of them were of Jewish extract and descent, and others were proselytes to the Jewish religion: these were no... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW WHEN THIS WAS NOISED ABROAD,.... Or "when this voice was made"; referring either to the sound, as of a mighty rushing wind, which came from heaven; and might not only be heard by those in the house, into which it came, but by the inhabitants of the city, as it came down from heaven; so the Arabi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WERE ALL AMAZED, AND MARVELLED,.... They were struck with surprise, they were as it were out of themselves, like persons in an ecstasy, not knowing what could be the cause or meaning of this: SAYING ONE TO ANOTHER; the phrase "one to another", is left out in the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HOW HEAR WE EVERY MAN IN OUR OWN TONGUE,.... Them speaking, as the Ethiopic version reads; that is, we everyone of us hear one or another, speak in the same language, WHEREIN WE WERE BORN; our native language; for though these men were Jews by descent, yet were born and brought up in other coun... [ Continue Reading ]
PARTHIANS, AND MEDES, AND ELAMITES,.... These are the words of the men continued, and not of the historian, as appears from Acts 2:10 and so the Arabic version reads, "of us Persians, Parthians, and Medes"; that is, we hear them speak in the language of everyone of us: the order in this version is i... [ Continue Reading ]
PHRYGIA, AND PAMPHYLIA, IN EGYPT,.... Phrygia was a country in Asia, and had part of Galatia on the north, Lycaonia, Pisidia, and Mygdonia on the south, and on the east Cappadocia x; here the Apostle Paul afterwards travelled, and strengthened the Christians; see Acts 16:6. Pamphylia, now called Set... [ Continue Reading ]
CRETES AND ARABIANS,.... The former are either the same with the Cretians, Titus 1:12 the inhabitants of the island of Crete, Acts 27:7 now called Candia or Candy, which has on the north the Aegean sea, on the south the Libyan or African sea, on the west the Adriatic sea, and on the east the Carpath... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WERE ALL AMAZED,.... That is, all these devout men, Jews and proselytes, which came from other nations before mentioned: AND WERE IN DOUBT; not whether the apostles spoke in various languages, nor about the sense of their words; for they not only heard them with their ears, and were assure... [ Continue Reading ]
OTHERS MOCKING, SAID,.... These were the native inhabitants of Jerusalem, the common people; and it may be also the Scribes and Pharisees, who did not understand the languages in which the apostles spake, and therefore derided them both by words and gestures: THESE MEN ARE FULL OF NEW WINE; the Syr... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PETER STANDING UP WITH THE ELEVEN,.... Apostles; their number being now complete, Matthias being chosen in the room of Judas. These all at once rose up, as abhorring the fact they were charged with, and to show the falsehood of it, and to vindicate themselves; when Peter, as their mouth, stood ... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THESE ARE NOT DRUNKEN,.... Meaning not only the eleven apostles, but the rest of the hundred and twenty, on whom also the Spirit was poured forth, and who were endowed with his extraordinary gifts: AS YE SUPPOSE; and had given out that they were: and this shows the sense of being filled with ne... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THIS IS THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET JOEL. This affair, which is a matter of wonder and amazement with some, and of speculation with others, and of ridicule and contempt with the most, not the effect of wine, but the fulfilment of a prophecy in Joel 2:28 and is that effusion of the Spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS,.... In Joel it is, "afterwards"; instead of which Peter puts, "in the last days"; the sense is the same: and so R. David Kimchi, a celebrated commentator with the Jews, observes, that "afterwards" is the same "as in the last days", and which design the tim... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ON MY SERVANTS, AND ON MY HANDMAIDENS,.... In Joel it is only the servants and the handmaids; and which Kimchi interprets of strangers that should stand in the land of Israel, and serve the Israelites. But these phrases do not seem so much to describe the civil state and condition of those perso... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL SHOW WONDERS IN HEAVEN ABOVE,.... The word above is not in Joel, nor in the Syriac version here, as neither the word "beneath", in the next clause. This may refer either to the appearance of angels, and of an extraordinary star at the birth of Christ; or rather to comets and blazing stars... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS,.... As at the death of Christ, by a total eclipse of it: AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD; as at the opening of the sixth seal, Revelation 6:12 BEFORE THAT GREAT AND NOTABLE DAY OF THE LORD COME; when he shall come in power and great glory, as he did in a few years af... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS,.... Even at that time, when these signs shall appear, and the destruction is hastening on, that WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD; shall believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with the heart, and shall confess him with the mouth, and shall worship him in Spirit and i... [ Continue Reading ]
YE MEN OF ISRAEL HEAR THESE WORDS,.... The Arabic version prefaces this passage with these words, "in those days Peter stood and said unto the people"; as if it was not on the same day, and the following oration was a new one, and not a continued discourse with the former; whereas it was delivered a... [ Continue Reading ]
HIM BEING DELIVERED,.... By himself, according to his own will, for he gave, or delivered himself for his people; and by his Father, who spared him not, but delivered him up for us all; and by Judas, one of his disciples, who, for a sum of money, delivered him into the hands of the Jews; and by them... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM GOD RAISED UP,.... From the dead; for though his life was taken away by men, he was raised to life again by God the Father, to whom the resurrection of Christ is generally ascribed, though not to the exclusion of Christ himself, and the blessed Spirit; and this being what the apostles were witn... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR DAVID SPEAKETH CONCERNING HIM,.... The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Psalms 16:8. The whole psalm belongs to the Messiah, and everything concerning the person in it agrees with him; such as his trust in God, Psalms 16:1 as he was man and Mediator; his very great regard to the saints, and de... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE DID MY HEART REJOICE,.... Because that he had always the truth, faithfulness, and power of God in his view, and the presence and protection of God with him; and which are sufficient to make the hearts of his people, as well as of him, to rejoice: AND MY TONGUE WAS GLAD: in the Hebrew text... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THOU WILT NOT LEAVE MY SOUL IN HELL,.... This is an apostrophe, or an address to his Father, who he believed would not leave his soul, as separate from his body, in Hades, in the invisible world of souls, in the place where the souls of departed saints are, but would quickly return it to its... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE,.... That is, thou hast raised me from the dead. When God raised Christ from the dead, he showed him, or made him to know experimentally the way of life, or the way of the resurrection from death to life; and this path of life, or of the resurrection to an... [ Continue Reading ]
MEN AND BRETHREN, LET ME FREELY SPEAK UNTO YOU,.... The apostle calls the Jews, brethren, whom he before only styled men of Judea, and men of Israel, because they were his brethren according to the flesh, as many of them afterwards were in a spiritual relation; and the rather he adds this affectiona... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE BEING A PROPHET,.... Who could foretell things to come, as he did many things concerning the sufferings and death of Christ, and the circumstances attending it, concerning his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God. So the title of his "Psalms", in the Syriac version... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SEEING THIS BEFORE,.... Or by a spirit of prophecy foreseeing it, that according to God's promise and oath, the Messiah would be raised up, and spring from his seed; and also by the same Spirit foresaw that he would suffer and die, and be laid in the grave, the pit of corruption: SPAKE OF THE RE... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS JESUS HATH GOD RAISED UP,.... That is, from the dead, WHEREOF WE ARE ALL WITNESSES; namely, of his resurrection, they having seen him, and heard him, and ate, and drank, and conversed with him since his resurrection; and which was true, not of the twelve apostles only, but of the whole company... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE BEING BY THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD EXALTED,.... After his resurrection he ascended to heaven, and was exalted in human nature; "to the right hand of God", as the Ethiopic version; and the Arabic version used by De Dieu read; an honour that never was conferred on any creature, angels or men, be... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS,.... In his body, that being still in the grave, in his sepulchre, which remained to that day, though in his soul he was ascended to heaven; his Spirit had returned to God that gave it, and was among the spirits of just men made perfect: but he saith himsel... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTIL I MAKE THY FOES THY FOOTSTOOL. Matthew 22:44.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE LET ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL KNOW ASSUREDLY,.... "With certain knowledge", as the Arabic version renders it; with full assurance of it: this is a case that is plain and clear, a matter of fact that may be depended on; which all the people of Israel, called "the house of Israel", a phrase fr... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW WHEN THEY HEARD THIS,.... Or "him", as the Arabic version; that is, Peter speaking these things, describing the character of Jesus of Nazareth; opening the prophecies concerning him; asserting his resurrection from the dead, and exaltation at the right hand of God; ascribing this wonderful affai... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN PETER SAID UNTO THEM,.... Being the mouth of the apostles, and being ready to give advice, and speak a word of comfort to their distressed minds: REPENT: change your minds, entertain other thoughts, and a different opinion of Jesus of Nazareth, than you have done; consider him, and believe in... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 39 FOR THE PROMISE IS UNTO YOU,.... Either of the Messiah, and salvation by him, which was particularly given forth to the people of the Jews; or of the remission of sins, which was a branch of the covenant made with the house of Israel, in a spiritual sense, even the whole household of God; or... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WITH MANY OTHER WORDS DID HE TESTIFY AND EXHORT,.... For Luke does not give the sermons of the apostles at length, but a compendium, or specimen of them, and some of the more remarkable things in them; and which, it seems, lay partly in testifying concerning Christ, his person, office, grace, ri... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THEY THAT GLADLY RECEIVED HIS WORD,.... The Syriac version adds, "and believed"; what Peter said concerning repentance and baptism, and especially concerning remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost; and concerning the promise of Christ, and salvation by him, of the pardon of sin, and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CONTINUED STEADFASTLY IN THE APOSTLES' DOCTRINE,.... And which is the same with the doctrine of Christ, of which he is the author, preacher, and subject; the substance of which is peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him: this the apostles received from Christ, and constantly taug... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 43 AND FEAR CAME UPON EVERY SOUL,.... Upon every inhabitant of Jerusalem, at least upon a great many of them; and upon all, or the greater part of them that saw, and heard these things; that heard the apostles speak with divers tongues, and Peter preach in the awful manner he did, and saw so ma... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THAT BELIEVED WERE TOGETHER,.... Not in one place, for no one house could hold them all, their number was now so large; but they "agreed together", as the Arabic version renders it: all these believers were of one mind and judgment, as to doctrines, they agreed in their sentiments and princi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SOLD THEIR POSSESSIONS AND GOODS..... Their houses and lands, their fields and vineyards, their goods, moveable or immoveable: AND PARTED THEM TO ALL MEN; that were of their society, not to others: AS EVERY MAN HAD NEED: the rich sold their estates, and divided them among the poor, or gave the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CONTINUED DAILY WITH ONE ACCORD IN THE TEMPLE,.... Every day they went up to the temple, at the time of prayer, or whenever any religious service was to be performed; this was their constant practice, and in this they agreed: AND BREAKING BREAD FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE; either administering the... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAISING GOD,.... Not only for their temporal mercies and enjoyments of life, which they partook of in so delightful and comfortable a manner; but for their spiritual mercies, that the Lord had been pleased to call them by his grace, and reveal Christ to them, and pardon them who had been such vile... [ Continue Reading ]