Mesopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and i strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 j Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking k i render, Romans, who are sojourning here. j render, Cretans. W. of Parthia and Hyrcania, S. of the Caspian sea, E. of Armenia, N. of Persia. Elamites] in pure Greek, Elymeans, inhabitants of Elam or Elymais, a Semitic people (Gen. x. 22). Elam is mentioned in connexion with Babylon, Gen. xiv. 1; with Media, Isa. xxi. 2; Jer. xxv. 25; with, or as part of, Assyria, Ezek. xxxii. 24; Isa. xxii. 6; as a province of Persia, Ezra iv. 9; as the province in which Susan was situated, Dan. viii. 2. According to Josephus, the Elamæans were the progenitors of the Persians. We find scattered hordes under this name far to the north, and even on the Orontes near the Caspian. Mesopotamia] the well-known district between the Euphrates and Tigris, so called merely as distinguishing its geographical position, between the rivers (so the word imports in Greek): it never formed a state. The name does not appear to be older than the Macedonian conquests. The word is used by the LXX and A. V. in Gen. xxiv. 10 to express the Hebrew "Aram Naharaim," Aram of the two rivers. Judæa] I can see no difficulty in Judæa being here mentioned. The catalogue does not proceed by languages, but by territorial division; and Judæa lies immediately S. of its path from Mesopotamia to Cappadocia. It is not Jews by birth and domicile, but devout men who are spoken of; the dwellers in Judæa settled in Judæa. And even if born Jews were meant, doubtless they also would find a place among those who heard in their mother tongue the wonderful works of God. Cappadocia] At this time (since the year of Rome 770) a Roman province embracing Cappadocia proper and Armenia minor. Pontus] the former kingdom of Mithridates, lying along the S. coast of the Euxine (whence its name, from the Pontus Euxinus, the Euxine Sea) from the river Halys to Colchis and Armenia, and separated by mountains from Cappadocia on the S. It was at this time divided into petty principalities under Roman pro k render, speaking. tection, but subsequently became a province under Nero. Asia] i. e. here Asia proper, or rather the W. division of it, as described by Pliny, as bounded on the E. by Phrygia and Lycaonia, on the W. by the Egean, on the S. by the Egyptian sea, on the N. by Paphlagonia. Ephesus was its chief city. See ch. xvi. 6, where the same appears to be intended. 10. Phrygia] It was at this time part of the Roman province of Asia. Pamphylia] a small district, extending along the coast from Olbia, or Phaselis, to Ptolemais. It was a separate tributary district we find it at one time classed with Galatia, and ruled by the same person. Egypt] Having enumerated the principal districts of Asia Minor, the catalogue passes (see above on the arrangement, ver. 9) to Egypt, a well-known habitation of Jews. Two-fifths of the population of Alexandria consisted of them, and they had an Ethnarch, or governor, of their own. the parts of Libya about Cyrene] By this expression is probably meant Pentapolis, where Josephus, quoting from Strabo, testifies to the existence of very many Jews, amounting in Cyrene to a fourth part of the whole population. The Cyrenian Jews were so numerous in Jerusalem, that they had a special synagogue (see ch. vi. 9). Several were Christian converts: see ch. xi. 20; xiii. 1. Roman sojourners (so literally)] 'The Roman Jews dwelling (or then being) in Jerusalem.' Jews and proselytes] This refers more naturally to the whole of the past catalogue, than merely to the Roman Jews. It does not take up a new designation, but expresses the classes or divisions of those which have gone before. 11. Cretans and Arabians] These words would seem as if they should precede the last. 13. Others] Probably native Jews, who did not understand the foreign languages. Meyer supposes,-persons previously hostile to Jesus and his disciples, and thus judging as in Luke vii. 34 they 1 said, These men are full of m new wine. 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing 1 Thess. v. 7. it is [but] the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet [ Joel; 17 h And] it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, 'I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in 1 literally, said that they were. m render, sweet. your i Ezek. xi. 19: xxxvi. 27. Joel xliv. 3. Zech. xii. 10. k ch. xxi. 9. nnot expressed in the original. • Some of our ancient authorities omit these words. Sweet wine, not necessarily new wine: perhaps made of a remarkably sweet small grape, which is understood by the Jewish expositors to be meant in Gen. xlix. 11; Isa. v. 2; Jer. ii. 21,—and is still found in Syria and Arabia. Suidas interprets it "that which oozes out of the grapes before they are pressed." 14-36.] THE SPEECH OF PETER. "St. Luke gives us here the first sample of the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles, with which the foundation of Christian preaching, as well as of the Church itself, appears to be closely connected. We discover already, in this first sermon, all the peculiarities of apostolic preaching. It contains no reflections nor deductions concerning the doctrine of Christ,-no proposition of new and unknown doctrines, but simply and entirely consists of the proclamation of historical facts. The Apostles appear here as the witnesses of that which they had seen: the Resurrection of Jesus forming the central point of their testimony. It is true, that in the after-development of the Church it was impossible to confine preaching to this historical announcement only: it gradually became invested with the additional office of building up believers in knowledge. But nevertheless, the simple testimony to the great works of God, as Peter here delivers it, should never be wanting in preaching to those whose hearts are not yet penetrated by the Word of Truth." Olshausen. The discourse divides itself into two parts: 1. (vv. 14-21) This which you hear is not the effect of drunkenness, but is the promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh,'-2. (vv. 22—36) which Spirit has been shed forth by Jesus, whom you crucified, but whom God hath exalted to be Lord and Christ." 14. with the eleven] Peter and the eleven come forward from the great body of believers. And he distinguishes (by the word "these" in ver. 15) not himself from the eleven, but himself and the eleven from the rest. De Wette concludes from this, that the Apostles had not themselves spoken with tongues, as being an inferior gift (1 Cor. xiv. 18 ff.); perhaps too rashly, for this view hardly accords with the word all which is the subject of the whole of ver. 4. men of Judæa] the Jews, properly so called: native dwellers in Jerusalem. all ye that dwell at Jerusalem] the sojourners (ver. 5) from other parts. 15.] these, see above. the third hour of the day] the first hour of prayer: before which no pious Jew might eat or drink.-But perhaps we need not look further than the ordinary intent of such a defence-the improbability of intoxication at that hour of the morning. See Eccl. x. 16; Isa. v. 11; 1 Thess. v. 7. 16.] This prophecy is from the LXX, with very slight variations. this is, i. e. this is the fact, at which 1ch. xxi. 4: ix. 10. 1 Cor. m Joel ii. 30, 31. those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy : 19 m and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs Pin the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of n Matt. xxiv. smoke: 20 n the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the o Rom. 1. 13. Lord come: 21 and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man 29. Mark xiii. 24. p John iii. 2: xiv. 10, 11. ch. x. 38. Heb. ii. 4. 9 Matt, xxvi. approved of God among you P by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye 24. Luke xxii. 22: xxiv. 44. ch. iii. 18: iv. 28. yourselves also know: 23 him, P render, on. being delivered by the 4 render, according to. pressly aserted of Jew and Gentile, Rom. i. 17, where see note. 22. Ye men of Israel] This address binds all the hearers in one term, and that one reminds them of their covenant relation with God: comp. "all the house of Israel," ver. 36. of Nazareth] This title does not here seem to be emphatically used by way of contrast to what follows, as some have thought, but only as the ordinary appellation of Jesus by the Jews, see John xviii. 5, 7; ch. xxii. 8; xxvi. 9. The words of (by) God, belong to approved, and denote the source whence the proof came. approved must be taken in its fuller and stricter meaning: viz. as importing,shewn to be that which He claimed to be. The connexion of the passage is, that the Man Jesus of Nazareth was by God demonstrated, by God wrought in among you, by God's counsel delivered to death, by God raised up (which raising up is argued on till ver. 32, then taken up again), by God (ver. 36), finally, made Lord and Christ. This was the process of argument then with the Jews,-proceeding on the identity of a man whom they had seen and known, and then mounting up from His works and His death and His resurrection, to His glorification,— of all THE PURPOSE AND DOING OF GOD. our English text, 'the servants and handmaids. The words and they shall prophesy are not in the LXX nor in the Hebrew text. 19.] The words above, signs, and beneath are not in the LXX, nor in the Hebrew text. blood, and fire,....] Not, bloodshed and wasting by fire,' as commonly interpreted:—not devastations, but prodigies, are foretold :bloody and fiery appearances :-pillars of smoke, as in the Hebrew. 20.] See Matt. xxiv. 29. the... day of the Lord] Not the first coming of Christ, which interpretation would run counter to the whole tenor of the Apostle's application of the prophecy :-but clearly, His second coming: regarded in prophetic language as following close upon the outpouring of the Spirit, because it is the next great event in the divine arrangements. The Apostles probably expected this coming very soon (see note on Rom. xiii. 11); but this did not at all affect the accuracy of their expressions respecting it. Their days witnessed the Pentecostal effusion, which was the beginning of the signs of the end: then follows the period, KNOWN TO THE FATHER ONLY, of waiting-the Church for her Lord, -the Lord Himself till all things shall have been put under His feet, and then the signs shall be renewed, and the day the Lord shall come. Meantime, and in the midst of these signs, the covenant of the spiritual dispensation is, ver. 21"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved.' The gates of God's mercy are thrown open in Christ to all people :- -no barrier is placed, no union with any external association or succession required: the promise is to individuals, as individuals: whosoever: which individual universality, though here, by the nature of the circumstances, spoken within the limits of the outward Israel, is afterwards as ex - which God did by him] This is not, as De Wette characterizes it, a low view of the miracles wrought by Jesus, nor is it inconsistent with John ii. 11; but it is in strict accordance with the progress of our Lord through humiliation to glory, and with His own words in that very Gospel (v. 19), which is devoted to the great subject, the manifestation, by the Father, of the glory of the Son. This side of the subject is here especially dwelt on in argument with these Jews, to exhibit (see above) the whole course of Jesus of ye have rch. v. 30. determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 whom ver. 82. God [hath] raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden t of it. 25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the PSA. xvi. 8. Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh I read and render, ye by the hand of lawless men nailed up and slew. ti. e. by it. s omit. Nazareth, as the ordinance and doing of THE GOD OF ISRAEL. 23. delivered] by whom, is not said, but was supplied by the hearers. The counsel and foreknowledge of God are not to be joined as in the A. V. to "delivered," with "by," as if they were the agents-the connexion in the original is that of accordance and appointment, not of agency. The same connexion is expressed in ch. xv. by "after the manner of Moses." See 2 Pet. i. 21 and note. by the hand of lawless men] viz. of the Roman soldiers. The same word is used by St. Paul to express those without law, to whom he became as without law, 1 Cor. ix. 21. The counsel and foreknowledge of God are not the same: the former designates His Eternal Plan, by which He has arranged all things (hence the determinate counsel)-the latter, the omniscience, by which every part of this plan is foreseen and unforgotten by Him. nailed up] The harshness and unworthiness of the deed are strongly set forth by a word expressing the mechanical act merely, nailed up, as in contrast with the former clause, in which the dignity and divine mission of Jesus are set forth.-Peter lays the charge on the multitude, because they abetted their rulers,—see ch. iii. 17, where this is fully expressed: not for the farfetched reason given by Olshausen, that 'all mankind were in fact guilty of the death of Jesus' in which case, as Meyer well observes, Peter must have said 'we,' not 'you.' 24.] On the difficulty, and probable account to be given of the expression having loosed the pains of death, see note in my Greek Test. They cannot well be explained to the English reader. The assertion, it was not possible that he should be holden of it, depends for its proof on the "For" which follows. 25.] The xvith Psalm was not by the Rabbis applied to the Messiah: but Peter here proves to them that, if it is to VOL. I. u render, may. be true in its highest and proper meaning of any one, it must be of Him. We are met at every turn by the shallow objections of the Rationalists, who seem incapable of comprehending the principle on which the sayings of David respecting himself are referred to Christ. To say, with De Wette, that Peter's proof lies not in any historical but only in an ideal meaning of the Psalm, is entirely beside the subject. To interpret the sayings of David (or indeed those of any one else) historically,' i. e. solely as referring to the occasion which gave rise to them, and having no wider reference, would be to establish a canon of interpretation wholly counter to the common sense of mankind. Every one, placed in any given position, when speaking of himself as in that position, speaks what will refer to others similarly situated, and most pointedly to any one who shall in any especial and pre-eminent way stand in that position. Applying even this common rule to David's sayings, the applicability of them to Christ will be legitimized :-but how much more, when we take into account the whole circumstances of David's theocratic position, as the prophetic representative and type of Christ. Whether the Messiah were present or not to the mind of the Psalmist, is of very little import: in some cases He plainly was in others, as here, David's words, spoken of himself and his circumstances, could only be in their highest and literal sense true of the great Son of David who was to come. David often spoke concerning himself: but THE SPIRIT WHO SPOKE IN DAVID, concerning Christ. The citation is almost word for word according to the LXX version, differing from the Hebrew original as noticed below. that I may : u 1 Kings ii. 10. ch. xiii. 30. shall rest in hope: 27 because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you " of the patriarch David, that he y is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a x 2 Sam. vii. prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, y that a his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. z 32 This Jesus [hath] God raised up, a whereof we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the right hand 12, 13. Ps. exxxii. 11. Luke i. 32, 69. Rom. 1. 3. 2 Tim. ii. 8. y Ps. xvi. 10. ch. xiii. 35. z ver. 24. a ch. i. 8. b ch. v. 31. Phil. ii. 9. X b "I will give praise with the best member 29. The title Patriarch' is only here applied to David as the progenitor of the kingly race:-Abraham and the sons of Jacob are so called in ch. vii. 8, 9, and in Heb. vii. 4. In the LXX, the word is used of chief men, and heads of families, with the exception of 2 Chron. xxiii. 20, where it represents "captains of hundreds." We learn from 1 Kings ii. 10, and Neh. iii. 16, that David was buried at Jerusalem, in the city of David, i. e. the stronghold of Zion, 2 Sam. v. 7.-Josephus gives an account of the high priest Hyrcanus, when besieged by Antiochus Eusebes,—and afterwards King Herod, opening the tomb and taking treasure from it. Dio Cassius mentions, among the prodigies which preceded Hadrian's war, that the tomb of Solomon (the same with that of David) fell c down. Jerome mentions that the tomb of term seeing this before distinctly asserts us. 32.] From ver. 25, the Apostle has been employed in substantiating the Resurrection as the act of God announced by prophecy in old time: now the historical fact of its accomplishment is affirmed, and the vouchers for it produced. The word rendered "whereof" may also mean of whom: and this latter is the more probable; see ch. i. 8. It includes the other rendering. We are His witnesses,' implies, We testify to this His work,' which work implied the Resurrec 6 |
