Acts 2:31

Act 2:31. Προΐδων, seeing before) in prophetical vision.—ἐλάλησε, he spake) in that 16th Psalm.—τοῦ Χριστοῦ, of Christ) Peter thus reasons: David did not speak of himself, as the fact shows; therefore he must have spoken of Christ, as being about to rise again from the dead. But how is the resurrection inferred from the promise concerning the kingdom? Answer—Because Christ had not heretofore entered upon the kingdom, and because the future kingdom was an eternal one. Therefore David recognised the inner nature (character) of the kingdom of Messiah.—ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ, His soul) The Latin Vulg. omits this. For it has “neque derelictus est in inferno;” where the masculine derelictus shows that the translator has purposely written it so (and not by an oversight). Other very ancient authorities accord with this. More modern authorities have supplied it from Act 2:27.[15]

[15] Thence both, in this passage, the margin of Ed. 2, to which the Gnomon along with the Vers. Germ. corresponds, has advanced the briefer reading, which in the larger Ed. is rated at a lower estimate, to the mark β.—E. B.

Ee support ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ, with the Rec. Text. But ABC corrected, D Vulg. Memph. Theb. Syr. and Iren. omit the words.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 2:31 . προϊδών , cf. Gal 3:8 . The word ascribes prophetic consciousness to David in the composition of the Psalm, but, as we learn from St. Peter himself, that prophetic consciousness did not involve a distinct knowledge of the events foretold (1Pe 1:10-12 ); that which the Holy Ghost presignified was only in part clear to the prophets, both as to the date of fulfilment and also as to historical shaping (Schmid, Biblische Theol. des N. T. , p. 395, and Alford, in loco ). ὅτι : introducing the words which follow as a fuller explanation, or simply as expressing a well-known fact. ἐγκατελείφθη … εἶδεν : aorists, not futures, because from St. Peter’s standpoint the prophecy had been already fulfilled (Felten, Wendt). With this verse we naturally compare the mention of Christ’s descent into Hades and His agency in the realms of the dead in St. Peter’s First Epistle, Act 3:19 ( cf. Phi 2:10 , Eph 4:9 , Rom 10:7 ; Zahn, Das Apost. Symbolum , pp. 71 74; but see also Schmid, ubi supra , p. 414). Thus while the words bore, as we have seen, a primary and lower reference to David himself, St. Peter was led by the Holy Ghost to see their higher and grander fulfilment in Christ. εἰς ᾅδου : on the construction see above on Act 2:27 , and on the Jewish view of Sheol or Hades in the time of our Lord as an intermediate state, see Charles, Book of Enoch , p. 168 and p. 94, and compare also the interesting although indirect parallel to 1Pe 3:19 , which he finds in The Book of the Secrets of Enoch , p. 45. ff.; Weber, Jüdische Theologie , pp. 163, 341.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 31. That his soul was not left in hell] The words η ψυχη αυτου, his soul, are omitted by ABCD, Syriac, Coptic, AEthiopic, and Vulgate. Griesbach has left them out of the text, and Professor White says again, certissime delenda. The passage may be thus read: "He spake of the resurrection of Christ, that he was not left in hades, neither did his flesh see corruption." For the various readings in this and the preceding verse, see Griesbach.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(31) He seeing this before. . . .—In the vision of the future which St. Peter thus ascribes to David, the king had been led, as he interprets the words, not only or chiefly to speak out his own hopes, but to utter that which received its fulfilment in the fact of the resurrection. What was conspicuously not true of the historical David was found to be true of the Son of David according to the flesh.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. spake of the resurrection of Christ] Better, of the resurrection of the Christ, i.e. the Messiah, the anointed of Jehovah.

that his soul was not left in hell, &c.] The words for his soul are not found in the best MSS. Read, that neither was he left in hell nor did his flesh, &c. This is an example of a kind of variation from the earliest MSS. which is very common and can be most easily understood and explained. On the margin of some early copy the words for his soul were written as an explanation of the shorter expression used in this verse by the more full language of the Psalm in Act_2:27, and by some later scribe the words were brought into the text.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 resurrection of Christ; from the dead, to the sense of the following words, in Psa 16:10.

that his soul was not left in hell: neither his separate soul in Hades, nor his body in the grave,

neither his flesh did see corruption; or his body, or his "carcass", as the Syriac version renders it, did not lie so long in the grave as to rot and putrefy.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

Ver. 31. Neither his flesh] It was a pious error in those good women that embalmed his body to preserve it from corruption.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He, seeing this before ... - By the spirit of prophecy. From this it appears that David had distinct views of the great doctrines pertaining to the Messiah.

Spake ... - See Psa 16:1-11.

That his soul ... - See the notes on Act 2:27.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Foreseeing he (David) spoke of the resurrection of Christ. St. Peter shews them that the prophetical words of the Psalm, agree not to David in person, he being dead, and his body having remained in the grave, without rising from the dead. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He seeing this before; by a prophetical eye, unto which any thing that was revealed was as certain and manifest, as aught could be to the eye of the body. By the same prophetical Spirit, and with the same certainty, which he space of the incarnation, he

spake also of the resurrection of Christ. Of the rest, see Act 2:27.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

31. Spake of the resurrection of Christ—The word Christ signifies Messiah, and it is worth while to note how Peter changes from Christ or Messiah to Jesus in the next verse. His meaning is that Messiah was predicted as having a resurrection; that this Jesus had a resurrection we know, and, therefore, a presumption, in the surrounding circumstances, that this Jesus is Messiah. For his soul was not left in hell, a reading more probable would be, he was not left in hell. The copyist probably borrowed the word soul from Act_2:27.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Foreseeing this for seeing this before, A.V.; neither was he left in Hades for his soul was not left in hell, A.V. and T.R.; nor did his flesh for neither his flesh did, A.V.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

hell

Hades. (See Scofield "Luk 16:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 29

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

31. ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ omitted with אABCD and Vulg. They appear to have been added to balance ἡ σὰρξ in the following clause.

31. περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, of the resurrection of the Christ, i.e. the Messiah, Jehovah’s Anointed.

ὅτι οὔτε ἐγκατελείφθη, that neither was He left in Hades nor did His flesh, &c. The ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ of the Text, recept. has been introduced to make this application accord more exactly with the words of the prophecy quoted in Act 2:27. At first perhaps the addition was innocently placed as a note on the margin, but the next copyist incorporated it.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31.] The word προϊδών distinctly asserts the prophetic consciousness of David in the composition of this Psalm. But of what sort that prophetic consciousness was, may be gathered from this same Apostle, 1Pe 1:10-12: that it was not a distinct knowledge of the events which they foretold, but only a conscious reference in their minds to the great promises of the covenant, in the expression of which they were guided by the Holy Spirit of prophecy to say things pregnant with meaning not patent to themselves but to us.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.