Acts 1

Acts 1:3

To which end he appeared to them after his resurrection, and gave them many sure evidences that it was truly he, and talked with them of the church which should be planted and ruled by them, and of many other things concerning the gospel, (and his dealing with the enemies thereof. See ver. 7, and note [g] Matt. iii.) 4, 5. And as he eat and drank, and was familiarly conversant with them, thereby to give them all possible assurance of the truth of his resurrection, and so of his power and Godhead, and that he was indeed the undoubted Messias, (see note [f] Matt. xxvi.) he gave them order after this manner: Go not from Jerusalem suddenly, but there expect a while the completion of that promise which I gave you from the Father, in these words, when I told you, that as John baptized his disciples with water, so you should have to that an addition of the Holy Ghost’s coming down upon you within a while, till which time you were to stay here at Jerusalem, and not go about your business of preaching in other places.

Acts 1:5

[a] baptized with the Holy Ghost] What is meant by this phrase, βαπτισθήσεσθε ἐν ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, in this place, is determined by the circumstance of the time, then future, and yet not many days after Christ’s speaking of it; and it is clearly meant of the Holy Ghost’s visible descending upon the disciples, ch. ii. 2, by which he should do two things especially; 1. He should give them testimony of the truth of all that Christ had said unto them, John xv. 26, as by his descending on Christ at his baptism he testified (and thereby God the Father himself) that Christ was the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased, i. e. who declared nothing but the truth and good pleasure of God to them. 2dly. He should testify to others, that whatsoever they should teach was also the will of God, and so authorize them for the solemn testifying of Christ’s resurrection, &c. give them power and commission and graces to discharge their whole ministry, as witnesses now designed and pointed out by him to declare and testify to all Israel what Christ had done and said in their presence, ver. 8, and that he was risen from the dead, ver. 22. This may the more appear by taking notice of the opposition here set betwixt John’s baptizing with water and the baptizing of the apostles with the Spirit, here spoken of. To baptize is to wash or purify, belonging to all the kinds of purifications among the Jews, (see note [c] Mark vii.) and from thence more especially to the receiving of proselytes, admitting disciples: this John did, after the manner of the Jews, by water only, or by the ceremony of immersion in water, which among them was the way of sanctifying any thing, (i. e. fitting or setting apart for holy uses,) and therefore the priest’s washings of himself, before his officiating, are called in the Talmud קדושין, (Joma, c. 3. §. 3.) sanctifications. Beside this, John did nothing else to his disciples, or those that came in to him upon his preaching; but Christ’s disciples, that were to be consecrated to an office in a more eminent manner than John’s, being to have the whole power of disseminating the gospel, and governing the church of Christ after him, were not only to be received in as proselytes, with that ceremony of washing, but God from heaven was visibly to instate this power upon them, and withal to testify the truth of that doctrine which they were to preach: and this was to be done by the Holy Ghost’s descending in a visible manner, i. e. revealing himself gloriously by the appearance of angels, (whose appearance signifies God’s peculiar presence.) And thus we see it fulfilled, Acts ii. 2, &c. And what befell the apostles there, as the firstfruits of the church of the Jews, converted to Christianity, the same was, in the effects of it, vouchsafed by God to Cornelius and his family, as the firstfruits of the Gentile converts, Acts x. 44, which, saith St. Peter, put him in mind of this speech of Christ’s, that John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, ch. xi. 16, i. e. was a demonstration to him that God had accepted these Gentiles, and so that they were fit to be baptized, Acts x. 47. By this will appear the meaning

Acts 1:6

And as the disciples met Jesus after his resurrection, they asked him, saying, Do you mean now presently to repair and settle that kingdom on your followers which hath been prophesied of, Dan. vii. 18, and so do what is expected from the Messias?

Acts 1:7

To whom Christ replied, It is not for you to know the secrets which God will keep to himself; and such is the time and moment of Christ’s entering on his kingdom: see Matt. xxiv. 36.

[b] the seasons] The word καιρός, which sometimes signifies an opportunity, or seasonable time, sometimes also signifies a moment, or least particle of time. Thus it is wont to be defined, καιρός ἐστιν, ἐν ᾧ οὐκ ἔστι χρόνος, “it is that wherein there is no time;” and so it seems to signify here, where God’s reserving the χρόνους καὶ καιρούς, times and moments, in his own hands, so that they shall not be known by them, seems parallel to the day and hour knoweth no man, the day and the times noting a larger proportion of time, and the hour and the moment a lesser, and accordingly the Vulgar reads vel momenta, “or moments.”

Acts 1:8

Only this I shall tell you, that the Holy Ghost shall shortly descend on you, and give you a formal commission for the execution of your office, and then you shall testify the truth of what I have done and said, proclaim and divulge it first in Jerusalem, then in all Judæa and Samaria; and, after the Jews shall have rejected the gospel, depart to the heathen world. to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 1:9

And after he had said thus much in their presence and sight, he was taken up by angels from the earth in a bright shining cloud, which inclosed him, so that they could see him no more.

[c] a cloud] The appearance of angels is ordinarily described by a cloud, as hath been formerly said; and so here the clouds receiving him, signifies the angels receiving him. Thus when, Exod. xxv. 22, it is said of the covering of the ark. There will I meet thee, and commune with thee from betwixt the two cherubims, &c., it is, Lev. xvi. 2, I will appear in the cloud upon that propitiatory, or covering, of the ark.

Acts 1:10

And as they looked earnestly after him, lo, two angels appeared to them as in a shining glorious manner of array.

• shall come one day to judge the world in as glorious a manner as now he is gone up to heaven; his going thither is not an absolute departing from you, but a seizing or taking possession of that his kingdom, which he shall exercise till the end of the world.

Acts 1:12

This was done on the mount Olivet, which is seven furlongs (saith the Syriac interpreter) distant from Jerusalem; thither therefore they immediately returned from thence.

13, 14. And when they were come to Jerusalem they resorted to the temple, and in one of the upper rooms of that structure the eleven apostles constantly performed their devotions, together with the women that were wont to attend Christ, and Mary the mother of Christ, and James and the rest of his kindred.

Acts 1:13

[d] an upper room] It is said by the writer of this book, Luke xxiv. 53, that the apostles, after Christ’s assumption, returned to Jerusalem, and were διαπαντός ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, continually in the temple, praising and blessing God, (which clearly signifies that the temple at Jerusalem was the place (not of their continual abode, but) of their constant daily performance of their devotions, see Luke ii. 37.) and so he concludes that Gospel. And here where he begins another book, and, in that, the story after the ascension of Christ, and so repeats that again, ver. 9, &c. he adds, ver. 12, as he had said in the Gospel, that they returned to Jerusalem, and when they came thither, *ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸ ὑπερῶον, they went up into an upper room, and there, that is, in that upper room, saith he, (the same St. Luke, that before had said they were continually, or, at the times of devotion, constantly in the temple,) all the eleven disciples, ἦσαν καταμένοντες ὁμοθυμᾶδον ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ δεήσει, continued unanimously in prayer and supplication, that is, did there daily perform their devotions and religious offices, manifestly referring to the ὑπερῶον, or upper room, where they daily did so; and so, ch. ii. 1, where they are said to be all unanimously ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, together, (a phrase to denote their sacred assemblies, or ἐπισυναγωγαί,) this sure denotes the ὑπερῶον, the upper room, as the constant place of their daily devotions. From the comparing of these two places, and the phrases used in the several places, ἦσαν διαπαντός, they were continually, and ἦσαν διαμένοντες, they were continuing, being perfectly equivalent, some difficulty would arise how the temple should by the same historian be set down as the daily constant place of their devotions, in one place, and the upper room, in the same manner and phrase, to be it in the other, were not this way

Acts 1:15

Now at a time, when there was a good company of them (to the number of sixscore) gathered together to the public service of God, Peter being a person of special account among the apostles, briefly

[e] names] That the word ὄνομα, name, is here taken for a person, not literally a name, will easily appear by the like use of שָׁם, in the Hebrew; for though that primarily signify a name, yet it is ordinarily used in the Hebrew writers in this other sense for person, and with an emphatical adjunct (הַשָּׁם, the name) it is commonly set to signify God, who is κατ’ ἐξοχήν, ὁ ὢν, he that is; and from thence, in Ignatius’s Epistle to the Ephesians, τὸ ὄνομα περιφέρειν, to carry the name, is to carry God, that is, Christ about with him, (the importance of that martyr’s title Θεοφόρος,) and is therefore rendered by the vulgar translator nomen Christi circumportare, “to bear about the name of Christ.” And so St. Cyprian uses the word nomen, “name.” So St. Chrysostom, Hom. 1. in Rom. 1 οὐδὲ εἴκοσιν ἀρκοῦντες ὀνόμασιν, “not sufficient for twenty names,” that is, for an assembly of so many persons.

[f] together] Ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ is the Greek expression in the Old Testament to interpret the Hebrew word יָחַד, together; so Psalm ii. 2. נִכְדַּר יָחַד, συνήχθησαν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, they assembled together, as in a council, all about the same business and design, all as one man; and so here, and ch. ii. 1, and 1 Cor. xi. 20, the phrase signifies, and notes these assemblies for the service of God to be designed for the uniting of the prayers and service of all into one, every action being to be accounted not the action of private men, but of the whole body; and therefore, 1 Cor. xi, the eating there ἴδιον δεῖπνον, ver. 21, a man’s own meal, a man’s eating that there which himself had brought, is set contrary to the κυριακὸν δεῖπνον, the Lord’s supper, or the church meal, which is eaten συνερχομένων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, when they are come together to one, or the same, that is, all to be as one, not as several.

Acts 1:16

Sirs, ye know what the psalmist prophesied, Psalm xli. 9, which being from the Spirit of God, it was of necessity to have a completion, and accordingly it is now punctually accomplished in Judas, of whom the Holy Ghost then foresaw and foretold it, viz.,

Acts 1:17

That he was of our society, a fellow disciple, one of the twelve sent out and empowered by Christ, Matt. x. 1. 5, and being one of those to whom the keys, Matt. xvi., and the power of binding, Matt. xviii., and of judicature, Matt. xix. 28, were promised by Christ, he was in designation an apostle of Christ as truly as any of us.

Acts 1:18

But for a sum of money he delivered up his Master to his enemies, those of the sanhedrim, and having done so, was troubled at that which he had done, and threw back the money in the temple into the chief priests’ hands, (who durst not keep it themselves, or put it into the corban, but were willing to employ it on some charitable use, and so bought with it a field to bury strangers,) and the sense of this black fact casting him into a deep melancholy, he fell forward on his face upon the ground, in a fit of suffocation, and his belly burst, and all his entrails came out: (see note [a] Matt. xxvii.)

[g] falling headlong] That Judas’ death was caused by a suffocation of grief was shewed, note [a] Matt. xxvii. The death is here described by πρηνὴς γινόμενος, and that doth not necessarily import any more than falling forward on the face, (contrary to supinus, “falling or lying on the back.”) as it is on the place in Matthew, expounded from the grammarians; but it is possible also it may denote the throwing himself down a precipice, which among human authors is frequently mentioned of those who, through excess of melancholy, or oppression of conscience, especially upon guilt of blood, are weary of their lives, and have this ready way to deliver themselves from that burden. It were impertinent to multiply testimonies to that purpose; the authors

[h] burst asunder] The word ἐλάκησε is the Greek by which the old Glossary renders dissiluit, not as that signifies, to leap down, but to break asunder; and μίσος added to it signifies no more than in Latin medius discerpitur, or disruptur, or ἐσχίσθη μίσον, Luke xxiii. 45, that is, that he was broken in pieces, a natural consequent of which it is, which here follows, that his bowels gushed out at the wound, or rupture.

Acts 1:19

And this act, and this fate of Judas, was notoriously known to all that dwelt at Jerusalem, and thereupon the field, which was bought with that money, was vulgarly known by the name of the Field of blood.

Acts 1:20

To him therefore belongeth that which Psalm lxix. 25. and Psalm cix. 8. was said, not by way of execration, but by way of prediction, that as he shall come to a desperate miserable end, so that office of power and authority, which Christ hath designed to be given him with the rest of the twelve, (which was, first to plant, and then to oversee and govern the church, as a bishop of it,) shall be bestowed on another man.

21, 22. It is therefore our duty, according to this prophecy, to make choice of some one of these persons that are now here with us, ver. 15, and who have continued with us ever since Jesus undertook to

• (and there was a multitude of names together, about, ἓν τὸ ὄχλος ὀνόματων καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ὡς Ac. ¹⁰ Men, brethren, Ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί. ¹¹ That, &c. ¹² on his face.

[i] bishoprick] The word ἐπισκοπή and ἐπίσκοπος is frequently used in the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament there be two Hebrew words rendered by the Greek ἐπίσκοπος; 1. לא, which, as it is oft rendered Θεός, Κύριος, Ἄγγελος, God, Lord, Angel, so once ἐπίσκοπος. So among profane authors it is all one with ἄρχων, ruler, (as in Aristides, where, after the mention of kings, are added οἱ κατ’ ἑνιαυτὸν ἐπίσκοποι ἀφικνούμενοι, “they that come annually as episcopi, overseers,” of which he had said before, ἡγεμόνες δὲ ἡμῖν ἐκ νόμου φοιτῶσι καθ’ ἕκαστον ἕτος, “there come rulers by law every year,” by which it appears that ἡγεμόνες and ἐπίσκοποι, rulers and bishops, are all one; and so Justinian calls those which Aristides speaks of, ἄρχοντες ἐπαρχιῶν and μητροπόλεων, “the rulers of provinces and metropoles;” and accordingly Hesychius explains ἐπίσκοπον by Βασιλέα, king or governor.) The second Hebrew word which is rendered by it is מפקד, and other the derivatives of פקד, visitavit, פקיד, פקיד, all which note a prefect or governor, or any empowered by commission to exercise any authority intrusted to him. And as it is sometimes rendered ἐπίσκοπος, so elsewhere ἐπιστάτης, προστάτης, ἄρχων, τοπάρχης, κωμάρχης, all words of government, or prefecture, and once θυρωρὸς, doorkeeper, to whom the keys of the house of the Lord were committed, Ezek. xlv. 2. When it is rendered ἐπίσκοπος, it is taken in five senses: 1. in an army, ἐπίσκοπος τῆς δυνάμεως, Num. xxxi. 14. Judges ix. 28, 2 Kings xi. 15, the captain of the host; 2dly, among workmen, the principal that were set over all others in the building of the temple, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 12. 17; 3dly, in the city, the ruler or prince, Neb. xi. 9. 14, and especially of the priests, ver. 10, and of the Levites, ver. 15; 4thly, in the ministry of the temple, Eleazar the son of Aaron, (who, Num. iii. 32, is ἀρχόντων τῶν Λευτῶν ἄρχων, the ruler of the rulers of the Levites.) Num. iv. 16, is called ἐπίσκοπος Ἐλεάζαρ, bishop Eleazar; 5thly, in the house of the Lord, over which he that was set is ἐπίσκοπος ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον Κυρίου, 2 Kings xi. 18, the bishop over the house of the Lord. By all which it appears that agreeable to the notion of the word in the Old Testament, ἐπισκοπὴ here (and ἐπίσκοπος elsewhere) in the New, denotes prefecture, or ruling power in the church, viz. that apostolic power, which, at the coming of the Holy Ghost, was to be instated upon him that should now be chosen into Judas’s place, to be an apostle. See note [b] on Philipp. i.

Acts 1:25

[k] his own place] What is here meant by ὁ τόπος ὁ ἴδιος, may be best collected from the κλῆρος διακονίας καὶ ἀποστολῆς, lot or portion of ministry and apostleship, that is, of apostolical ministry, in the begin-

m Or. de Concord. ad Asiat. Civ.

Acts 1:26

[I] was numbered] The word συγκατεψηφίσθη is acknowledged to come from ψῆφος, calculus, “a stone,” or the like, of which there were two uses, one in choices, or judgments, wherein they gave their votes by this means, Rev. ii. 17, the other in accounting or numbering. Hence ψῆφος is expressed in Hesychius by λόγος, as that signifies counting, and by κρίσις, judgment. Now for the use of it in this place; first, it is evident that Matthias, being here chosen by lot, was not chosen by the suffrages or votes of men; 2dly, that καταψηφίζω, proportionably to ψῆφος, signifying originally two things, numbering as well as choosing, it may most probably in this place signify being numbered; and so συγκατεψηφίσθη μετὰ τῶν ἑνδεια, he was numbered together with the eleven