Acts 3

Acts 3:2

And there was an impotent man, who was so from his birth, who was therefore daily carried by others, and laid at the gate of the temple, toward the east, in Solomon’s porch, ver. 11, which was called the Beautiful gate, that there he might beg and receive the alms of those that went up daily to pray there, by which means this man was known to all the pious men of the city that used to go that way,

Acts 3:8

And he demonstrated the perfectness of the cure by using his legs to all services, leaping, standing, walking, and as a testimony of his thankfulness to God the author, he entered with them—

Acts 3:11

And as this person, which was thus healed, kept close to Peter and John, and was unwilling to depart from them, from whom he had received so great a mercy, all the people ran together—

Acts 3:15

And murdered the Messias, put him to death, who came to bring life into the world. And when you had done so, God was then pleased to raise him from the dead, and to make us witnesses thereof.

Acts 3:16

And now it is by belief in him that he (or his power) hath recovered this man from his lameness, whom you now see to be cured, and know before, for many years, to have been unable to go. And this faith, or believing on him, working not by itself, but by his power on whom we believe, is it that hath wrought this so remarkable cure on him, which you all so wonder at.

Acts 3:17

Now this, I suppose, brethren, that you of the multitude, which did thus reject Christ, did not know him to be the Messias, and the same I suppose of your rulers, those of the sanhedrim.

Acts 3:18

And so the many prophecies of scripture, that the Messias should be put to death, have by this means had their completion. 19, 20. Do you therefore amend your lives that this may be pardoned, that so the second coming of Christ, so often spoken of, Matt. xxiv., for the delivery and rescue of all the faithful, (giving them rest from their troubles and persecutions, and a quiet profession of the gospel,) but withal for the destruction Pilate, κατὰ πρόσωπον Πιλ. 5 to release, ἀπολύειν. 6 Captain,

ἀρχηγόν: see Heb. ii. 10. 7 have known, οἴδατε. 8 to the blotting out of your sins, that

the seasons—may come, εἰς τὸ ἐξαλειφθῆναι—ὅπως ἂν καιροί—ἔλθωσι.

Acts 3:19

[a] times of refreshing] Καίροι ἀναψύξεως, days of refreshment or comfort, are proverbially taken among the Hebrews for the time of any special deliverance, whether temporal here or eternal in the resurrection. So Gen. i. 21. Jonathan’s Chaldee Paraphrase saith, that Leviathan is prepared לַיִם נִחְמָתָא, for the day of consolation, that is, the day of deliverance, and festivity in commemoration thereof, wherein, said the Jews, God was wont to make merry, and to sport with Leviathan. So the name of Noach, from that same Hebrew word which is rendered consolation, signifies deliverance, and was imposed as a pro-

Acts 3:21

[b] the heaven must receive] Beside the ordinary rendering of ἐν δεῖ διδασθαί οὐρανόν, whom heaven must receive, another there is, of which the words are capable literally, and to which the context more inclines them, that Christ must, or that God hath decreed he should receive heaven, in the sense that Camillus is said διδασθαί πόλιν, to receive the city, that is, to undertake the government of the city, parallel to that of Psalm lxxv. 2, speaking of Christ’s exaltation, when I shall receive the congregation; and so this place will be all one with 1 Cor. xv. 25, he must reign, &c. and that peculiarly in the subduing and conquering all his enemies, converting some, and rooting out (ver. 23.) all others, who stand out in hostility against him.

Acts 3:24

[c] Samuel] The account of the prophets is here begun from Samuel, because the schools of the prophets were first instituted and erected by him, and not that there was no prophet before him. Thus we read, 1 Sam. xix. 20, the college or company of the prophets at Ramah, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, making him the president of that college, as after Elias was; and therefore before his ascension he goes about from one college to another, 2 Kings ii. 3, &c. and after him Elisha, to whom therefore the sons of the prophets say, The place in which we dwell before thee (that is, under thee, under thy government) is too narrow for us, and so they build a larger. These sons of the prophets spent their time in studying the law, and praising and serving of God, (see note [m] Luke i.) and of them, because (though some were, yet) all were not called by God to the prophetic office, sent of messages to the people; therefore it is here added, ὅσοι ἐλάλεσαν, as many as spake, that is, as many as out of the schools of the prophets were by God called to that public office, προκατήγγειλαν, foretold what was now to come to pass.

Acts 3:25

Ye are the peculiar persons, of whom the prophets foretold, and to whom the covenant belongs, which was made to Abraham, in which was promised, that the posterity of him, that is, the Jews, should be so blessed by God, in having Christ given to them, (beside many other special prerogatives bestowed on them,) that all the families and people of the world also, that would bless themselves or others, should use this form, God bless them, as he blessed Abraham’s seed: (see note [c] Gal. iii.)

Acts 3:26

Which is now accordingly performed. For God having raised this Christ again, hath by our preaching his resurrection first to you over all your cities, sent him again in a most gracious manner to bless his enemies, to do all the good to them imaginable, to work upon the most obdurate crucifiers, and

[d] in turning away] It is matter of some question whether the ἀποστρίφειν, turning, refer to Christ or the Jews. It may fitly refer to Christ turning them by his grace, and so blessing them. But Œcumenius refers it to the Jews, εἰ ἄρα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐλοῖσθε ἐπιστρίψαι, if ye

Acts 3:43

And a general astonishment surprised men to see first those strange operations of the Holy Ghost, ver. 4, (a consequent of which was this wonderful accession of converts, ver. 41.) And withal the apostles did many miracles of very different sorts, some of cures, and some of exemplary severities, and thereby came to have a very great authority among all that heard it, ch. v. 5.

44, 45. And all that received the faith assembled together for the service of God, observed constant times of public prayers, and receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, (see note [c] ch. i.,) the richer communicated their goods to the poorer as freely as if they had been theirs.

Acts 3:46

And they daily assembled in the temple, and received the Lord’s supper in some of those upper rooms, (see note [d] ch. i.,) and eat together in a most pious charitable manner, with great cheerfulness and cordial sincere bounty and liberality,

Acts 3:47

Blessing the name of God, and exercising works of mercy to all that wanted; and God daily moved the hearts of some or other to come in to this number, gave the apostles a fruitful harvest, every day brought them in some that obeyed the exhortation given them, ver. 40, repented and got out of the actions and wicked lives of that crooked generation, and betook themselves to the obedience of Christ: (see note [b] Luke xiii. 23.)

CHAP. III.

NOW Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

[f] having favour] Ἔχειν signifies to use, or to exercise, as when Christ saith, to him that hath shall be given, and let us have grace, Heb. xii. 28. And as for χάρις, that is the very word charity, and is by Cicero so rendered, and frequently signifies liberality, (as in Epicurus’s book entitled περὶ δώρων καὶ χάριτος, “of gifts and charity, or liberality,” mentioned by Sextus Empir. I. cont. Gramm.) and so is used 2 Cor. viii. 4; and so Acts iv. 33, where μεγάλη χάρις is by the Syriac rendered שִׁבְחָה רַבָּה, that is, great goodness or benignity, (though Guido Fabritius render it gratia magna, following the notion which, it seems, he had of the Greek, without considering the Syriac,) and so the consequents demonstrate it to signify: and therefore the phrase ἔχοντες χάριν is by the Syriac rendered יהיבין ברחמא, that is, they gave alms before all the people; not, as Guido Fabritius again renders the Greek, rather than that, cum iniissent gratiam, “when they got favour;” for יהב signifies dedit, “gave,” and רחמא, misericordia, gratia, eleemosyna, σπλάγχνα, bowels of mercy, abundant liberality. See 2 Cor. viii. 1. and note [d] 1 Pet. iii.