Acts 3:11

Act_3:11-26

All the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomons, greatly wondering.

Solomons porch

The porch--or better, portico or cloister--was outside the temple, on the eastern side. It consisted in the Herodian Temple, of a double row of Corinthian columns, about thirty-seven feet high, and received its name as having been in part constructed, when the temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, with the fragments of the older edifice. The people tried to persuade Herod Agrippa I. to pull it down and rebuild it, but he shrank from the risk and cost of such an undertaking (Jos., Ant. 20:9, § 7). It was, like the porticoes in all Greek cities, a favourite place of resort, especially as facing the morning sun in winter. (See Joh_10:23.) The memory of what bad then been the result of their Masters teaching must have been fresh in the minds of the two disciples. Then the people had complained of being kept in suspense as to whether Jesus claimed to be the Christ, and, when He spoke of being One with the Father, had taken up stones to stone Him (Joh_10:31-33). Now they were to hear His name as Holy and Just, as the Servant of Jehovah, as the very Christ (Act_3:13-14; Act_3:18). (Dean Plumptre.)

Solomons porch--a hallowed spot for Peter

It must have been a spot filled with cherished memories for the apostle. Every Jew naturally venerated this cloister, because it was Solomons; just as men in the grandest modern cathedral still love to point out the smallest relic of the original structure out of which the modern building grew. At San Clemente, in Rome, the priests delight to show the primitive structure where they say St. Clement ministered about a.d. 100. At York the vergers will indicate far down in the crypt the fragments of the earliest Saxon church, which once stood where that splendid cathedral now rears its lofty arches. So, too, the Jews naturally cherished this limb of continuity between the ancient and the modern temples. But for St. Peter this Solomons porch must have had special memories over and above the patriotic ideas that were linked with it. He could not forget that the very last feast of the Dedication which the Master had seen on earth, He walked in this porch, and there, in His conversation with the Jews, claimed an equality with the Father which led them to make an attempt on His life. Here, then, it was that within twelve months the apostle Peter makes a similar claim on his Masters behalf. (G. T. Stokes, D. D.)

Misapprehensions removed

Here was a congregation worthy of an apostle; and Peter was ready for the occasion. The people were excited. They ran together. This made it possible to address them all at once. They were amazed, and were, therefore, in an inquiring mood. Peter--

I. Called his hearers to quiet thoughtfulness. He asked them the cause of their amazement. Did he pause after his questions to let the hearers mind balance itself? The miracle had aroused attention which must now be steadied, in order that judgment might be calmly exercised.

II. Corrected the supposition that the miracle had been done by human ability. Some supposed the cause was in their magical power or extraordinary godliness. But this was a superficial and God-dishonouring hypothesis, as is that which attributes the results of preaching to the preachers eloquence, logic, or magnetism. Peter corrected this, and we say that conviction, penitence, conversion, and the power to live holy is all of Gods grace.

III. Cleared a way for the truth. If false suppositions had not been removed the true view of the miracle would have been prevented; but by contradicting error Peter brought the minds of the hearers to need a true explanation. So long as astronomers believed the earth to be the centre of the solar system, many false suppositions had to be made, and many phenomena were misinterpreted. Ptolemaic error blocked out Copernican truth. But when the fundamental error had been overthrown the chariot of knowledge could proceed. See the magnificent results in the precision and fulness of modern astronomical science. Conclusion: Let us learn to remove error in order that the way of truth may be open. Let us do this for penitents whom some error may keep in bondage, for inquirers lest some false notion blind them. (A. Hudson.)

And when Peter saw it, he answered.--

A greater miracle

1. This speech is a greater miracle than the cure. The great miracles are all wrought within. Compare Peter before the resurrection with the Peter of this speech, and tell me what has happened. Surely a great cure has been wrought up,m him. You cannot work miracles, because you yourselves are not miracles. We approach the whole case from the outside, and with many lame suggestion we attempt to mend the worlds sad condition. We must be greater ourselves than any work which it is possible for ourselves to do.

2. In this speech Peter vindicated his apostolic primacy. You might have asked questions concerning Peters superiority before, but after this all men feel that the first place belongs to him. Any primacy that is not based on merit must go down. For time you may bolster up a man; but a superiority of position that is not based upon fundamental and vital merit falls before the testing touch of circumstances and time. So let this book of God stand or fall. The priests cannot keep it up. Parliaments and thrones cannot give the Bible its lasting primacy. If the inspiration he not in the book itself you cannot communicate it; and if the inspiration really be in the book itself you can never talk it down. By force you may quiet it for a time, but truth is eternal, it returns.

3. The danger is that we be not just to such men as Peter. We may take this speech as a mere matter of course. We hear an eloquent man drop sentence after sentence of singular beauty, and think that he does so simply as a matter of course. In every such sentence there is a drop of sacrificial blood. True eloquence is forced out of men. This speech was not a prepared oration which he took out and read; it was as extemporaneous as was the event itself. The looking people make the eloquent preacher. All the people fastened their eyes upon Peter and John; and, as the lame man had drawn out of Peter spiritual power by his magnetic look, so the people drew out of Peter still higher power by their marvelling.

4. In reply to that wonder Peter declines any primacy based on purely personal considerations. This is not our doing. It is the Lords doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. And, with inspired wisdom, he magnified the occasion by attaching the miracle to the omnipotence of a God about whose existence the Jew had no doubt. The God of Abraham, etc. The apostles did not snatch at praise for themselves. They maintained their royal supremacy by operating in the presence of the people merely as the servants and instruments of God. We must return to that allegiance to the Divine name and throne.

5. Not only does Peter decline the implied eulogium, he takes upon himself to cut the people to pieces. No great progress can be made in moral reform until our apostles slay us. Flattery will do nothing for us--at most, will but mislead or bewilder us. Hear his speech, Whom ye delivered up, etc. That man must succeed in his ministry, or he must be killed! Such a speaker of such an address cannot occupy a middle position. When did the apostles speak with bated breath and whispering humbleness? When did they try to make the best of the case by appeasing the spirit of the people, and by an endeavour to placate sensibilities which had been strongly excited? So we come back to a truth with which this message has made us familiar. We are not to put away the Crucifixion as an historical circumstance, nineteen centuries old. The Crucifixion takes place every day. Realise this circumstance, and there will go up the old cry, and after it will come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.

6. In verse 17 the tone changes with wondrous skill. The gospel is not an impeachment only--it is an offer, and he introduces this new phase of the subject with a word which united himself with the people--brethren. This verse repeats the very prayer of Christ Himself upon the Cross. So he opens a great door of hope. The Church ought to be fertile in its invention of opportunities for the worst men to return. Tell the very worst man that the door of hope, if not wide open, is yet ajar, and that the very faintest touch of his fingers will cause it to fall back to the very wall.

7. Then comes the keyword of apostolic preaching, and the secret of apostolic success repent (verse 19). It is like the sword of which David said, Give me that; there is none like it. This word repent goes to the root and to the reality of the case. Who has repented? I do not ask who has been alarmed by threatened consequences, and who therefore has professed a change of habit and of purpose. My question is a deeper one. Who has felt heart-brokenness on account of sin, as a spiritual offence against God? Have we not forgotten that old word? Has the Church become too dainty to use it?

8. There is another word in verse 19 of as much importance--therefore--which refers to the historical and logical argument upon which Christianity is founded. Peter having gone back to God of Abraham, etc., and having traced the history of the Crucifixion, and having explained the secret by which the lame man had been healed, etc., gathers himself up in this one supreme effort, and says, Repent ye, therefore--for no sentimental reasons, but on the historical ground of the ancient dealings of God with His people, and because of the culmination of those dealings in the recovery of the man who is standing there.

9. Then Peters speech proceeds like a deep, broad river, and ends with Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you. Apostolic preaching was tender, but it kept itself to this one theme. And because it did so it turned the world upside down. Preacher, come back from all intellectual vagaries, romances, and dreamings, and stand to your one work of accusing men of sins, and then revealing the living Son of God, who came with the one purpose only of blessing men. Blessing and iniquity never can co-exist in the same heart. The iniquity must go, and the blessing will come. The wickedness must depart, and then angels will hasten into the soul from which it has gone out. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The miracle at the Beautiful gate as a text

It is a law of mind to look through its dominant sentiments, and to subordinate all outward things to its dominant purposes. The apostles were full of thoughts pertaining to Christ, and they looked at all events through this medium.

I. Peter traces the miracle to its true Author.

1. Negatively. He disclaims the authorship--a remarkable demonstration of his honesty. Had he taken the credit his social power would have been regnant at once, and would have had an immense following. And the people were willing to give it him.

2. Positively. He shows--

(1) That their God had wrought the miracle. The God of Abraham.

(2) That their God had wrought it in order to glorify His Son--not merely to restore the invalid--and to attest the Messiahship of Him whom they had put to death.

II. He connects the miracle with the name of Christ. He had unbounded faith in Jesus, and had therefore power to perform works that should demonstrate His Divine authority; and the effects produced on the bodies of men were only faint types of the results which faith in Christ will produce on souls. Jesus is here presented--

1. In the titles that belong to Him.

(1) Holy One and Just.

(2) Prince of Life.

2. In the history of their conduct.

(1) They delivered Him up.

(2) They denied Him, their Messiah, in the presence of a heathen scoffer.

(3) This was done in opposition to the tyrants wish.

(4) They preferred a murderer.

(5) They killed Him.

3. In His relation to God. God had--

(1) Glorified Him.

(2) Raised Him from the dead.

(3) Overruled their conduct towards Him.

Observe--

(a) It was the purpose of the Father that Christ should suffer as announced in prophecy (Psa_22:1-31; Isa_53:3-10; Dan_9:26).

(b) That the conduct of the Jews was made to subserve this purpose. So perfect is the control which the Monarch of the universe has over His creatures, that He makes the greatest rebels work out His grandest plans.

(c) The Jews were ignorant of what they were doing. This was said not to extenuate their guilt, but to convict them of their folly and impotence.

III. He develops the Christian plan of restitution (verses 19-26). Which--

1. Aims at a thorough spiritual reformation as a necessary condition. This includes--

(1) A change of heart. Repent, etc.

(2) Forgiveness of sins. That your sins may be blotted out.

(3) Invigoration of being. When the times of refreshing shall come.

2. Is ever under the direction of God. From the presence of the Lord i.e., by His providence. Observe--

(1) That the invigorating influence of the scheme is from God. The times of refreshing are from His presence.

(2) That the chief Agent of this scheme is from God. He shall send Jesus.

(3) That the revelation of this scheme is from God. Which God hath spoken, etc.

3. Shall realise its end before the final advent of Christ. Whom the heavens must receive, etc. Christ is now in heaven, but His work proceeds on earth, and when His work is accomplished He will come again, and not before. Pre-millennialism is a delusion.

4. Is the grand burden of prophetic truth. Observe--

(1) The cases of prophetic reference to Christ.

(a) Moses (verse 22; cf. Deu_18:15-19, LXX.).

(b) Samuel (verse 24). Moses and Samuel are the most distinguished names in Jewish history; but they are mentioned as samples.

(c) All the prophets. We may not be able to trace references to Christ in each, yet in the majority of the prophetic books there are notes of hope struck from the harp of future ages, flashes of light from that bright day which Abraham saw afar.

(2) The reason for these references (verse 25).

5. Was first to be presented to the Jews (verse 26). Christ was sent--

(1) To bless, not to curse. Justly might we have expected malediction.

(2) To bless with the greatest blessing. Iniquity is the greatest curse; to men from that is the greatest boon.

(3) To bless the greatest sinners first. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Peters sermon

How he denounces (verses 14, 15); how he comforts and grows gentle (verses 17, 18); how he pleads (verse 19); how he promises (verse 20); how he proves (verse 21). It makes one think another Joseph has come to the pulpit (Gen_45:4-5). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

Peters address

I. Jesus presented.

II. Sinners condemned.

III. Pardon proclaimed. (J. T. McCrory.)

Peters address

He--

I. Begins (verses 12-16) by disclaiming the miracle as his own and ascribing it to Christ.

II. Goes on (verses 13-16), to set before the people their sin.

III. Continues (verses 19, 21) by holding out a hope of mercy.

IV. Crowns all (verses 19, 21) by a summons to repentance and a changed life. (Monday Club.)

Peters address

I. The exordium is stamped with humility (verse 12).

II. The body is marked by fidelity (verses 13-18).

III. The application is redolent of mercy (verses 19-26). (J. Bennett, D. D.)

Peters speech

This was in thorough consonance with the miracle. The people were excited, the apostles were calm; the people clamoured in darkness, the apostles spoke from the serene elevation of cloudless height; the people were startled by a spectacle, the apostles were controlled by law. Was it not almost a mockery to ask the people why they marvelled? Are great works to be regarded without surprise? Are men to become familiar with the outstretched arm of God and to be calm? The power that can restore is one that can destroy; what if that dread power be preparing itself to strike? It would strike but once--its stroke would be death. Peters speech may be regarded as showing--

I. The false method of looking at human affairs--As though by our own power, etc.

1. The visible is not the final.

2. Second causes do not explain life. There is a false method of looking at the results of--

(1) Preaching.

(2) Business.

(3) Thinking.

The man who does not look beyond second causes lives in distraction--in chaos!

II. The true method of regarding extra, ordinary events--God hath glorified His Son Jesus. Faith in His name hath made this man strong. That is the sublime explanation of all recovery, progress, abiding strength and comfort. Forget God, and society in every phase and movement becomes a riddle without an answer; its happiness is but a lucky chance--its misery an unexpected cloud. Regard life as controlled and blessed by the mediation of Christ, then--

1. There is discipline in every event--design, meaning, however untoward and unmanageable the event.

2. A purpose of restoration runs through all human training. See how new, how beautiful, life would be, if after all its happy experiences we could say, God hath glorified His Son Jesus! Physical recovery; spiritual forgiveness; special interpositions; even death itself.

III. The Only Method Of Setting Man Right With God. Repent ye therefore, etc. The men who worked miracles spoke plain words about mens souls. There is no ambiguity here. Are the old words Repent, Be converted, being allowed to slip out of Christian teaching, and are we now trifling with the character and destiny of men?

1. Every man must repent, because every man has sinned.

2. Every man must be converted, because every man is in a false moral condition.

IV. The sublime object of Christs incarnation--To bless you, etc.

1. Where iniquity is there is no blessing.

2. Physical restoration is the type of spiritual completeness.

Conclusion:

1. Two practical lessons arise out of the subject.

(1) It is not enough to wonder at the mighty works of God.

(2) Gods glory is even identified with the well being of man. Restitution, Refreshing, Blessing.

2. Peters appeal rested upon a solid Biblical basis; Moses, Samuel, and all the prophets. Gods message is the summing up of all the voices of holy history. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The threefold testimony of Peter concerning Christ

He is--

1. The substance of all miracles (verses 12, 17).

2. The Redeemer of all souls (verses 18-21).

3. The accomplisher of all prophecies (verses 22-26). (Lisco.)

Trite courage

If you see a man on the railway track before an approaching train, or if you see a child in the roadway in danger of being run over by a horse, you have no right to be silent and inactive. It is a sin not to speak out. If you see the first outbursting of flames in a neighbours house it would be criminal not to cry Fire. Truth cannot be kept to yourself without sin. Silence on popular forms of wrong doing is criminal silence. Silence concerning the duty of repentance and the possibilities of salvation in the presence of the impenitent and unsaved is not to be thought of by the true disciple of Jesus. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

Why look ye so earnestly upon us as though by our own power and holiness we had made this man to walk.--

Show me the doctor

A man, blind from his birth, a man of much intellectual vigour, and with many engaging social qualities, found a woman who, appreciating his worth, was willing to cast in her lot with him and become his wife. Several bright, beautiful children became theirs, who tenderly and equally loved both their parents. An eminent French surgeon, while in this country, called upon them, and, examining the blind man with much interest and care, said to him:--Your blindness is wholly artificial; your eyes are naturally good, and if I could have operated upon them twenty years ago, I think I could have given you sight. It is barely possible that I can do it now, though it will cause you much pain. I can bear that, was the reply, so you but enable me to see. The surgeon operated upon him, and was gradually successful. First there were faint glimmerings of light; then more distinct vision. The blind father was handed a rose; he had smelled one before, but had never seen one. Then he looked upon the face of his wife, who had been so true and faithful to him; and then his children were brought, whom he had so often fondled, and whose charming prattle had so frequently fallen upon his ears. He then exclaimed: Oh, why have I seen all of these before inquiring for the man by whose skill I have been enabled to behold them! Show me the doctor. And when he was pointed out to him, he embraced him with tears of gratitude and joy. So, when we reach heaven, and with unclouded eyes look upon its glories, we shall not be content with a view of these. No; we shall say, Where is Christ--He to whom I am indebted for what heaven is? Show me Him, that with all my soul I may adore and praise Him through endless ages.

Credit due to Christ

The engineer of an express train sees, just ahead, a switch wrongly turned, and knows that if he cannot stop the train it will go over the bank and be destroyed. The stoker jumps out, but the brave engineer resolves to share the fate of the engine. Speedily he reverses the action, and with all his strength rolls back the wheels, Just as the fatal point is reached, they cease to move, and the train is saved! What meanness would it be, when unharmed, they reach the town, for the stoker to say, We were in great danger, but by my presence of mind I saved the train. Yet what greater meanness is it for us to take the credit to ourselves when it belongs to Christ. Gods influences come upon you in mighty tides, and you have no right to claim for yourself the glory which belongs to Christ. (H. W. Beecher.)

Glory to be given to God

If I were a pupil of Titian, and he should design my picture and sketch it for me, and look over my work every day, and make suggestions, and then, when I had exhausted my skill, he should take the brush and give the finishing touches, bringing out a part here and there, and making the whole glow with beauty, and then I should hang it upon the wall, and call it mine, what meanness it would be! When life is the picture and Christ is the designer and master, what greater meanness is it to allow all the excellence to be attributed to ourselves. (H. W. Beecher.)

Glory due to Christ

That workman should do ill who having built a house with another mans purse, should go about to set up his own arms upon the front thereof. In Justinians law it was decreed that no workman should set up his name within the body of that building which he made out of another mans cost. Thus Christ sets us all at work, it is He that bids us to fast, and pray, and hear, and give alms, etc. But who is at the cost of all? whose are all these works? surely Gods. Mans poverty is so great that he cannot reach a good thought, much less a good deed; all the materials are from God, the building is His, it is His purse that paid for it; give but therefore the glory and the honour thereof unto God, and take all the profit to thyself. (J. Spencer.)

The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of men

1. The disposition of the crowd to make heroes of the apostles when they should have recognised in the miracle the power of God is an illustration of a common and not altogether mischievous instinct. When through foreign invasion or internal revolution the institutions of society are broken up, the blind submission which a whole nation sometimes yields to a popular chief, or the heir of an illustrious name, sometimes renders it possible to restore law and order. The intellectual supremacy of great men has also its uses; it preserves something like order in our intellectual life. It is the same with that conspicuous moral excellence which wins more reverential homage. The example of great saints has been a law to successive generations.

2. But there is hero-worship in the Bible. The Jews had their fighting men, poets, orators, statesmen, saints; but you find no disposition in the Old Testament to surround them with glory. The heroism of Wallace is commemorated in the national songs of Scotland, but there is no Psalm to celebrate the heroism of David. Nor does Jewish history exalt Moses as the history of Europe exalts Charlemagne, as the history of England exalts Alfred or Elizabeth. The genius of Isaiah does not receive the same kind of homage that we concede to the genius of Dante or of Shakespeare. There is the same absence of hero-worship in the New Testament. Luke never analyses the apostles power nor dwells upon their personal qualities. That they were in any way remarkable is never intentionally suggested. The saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the New are transparent; God shines through them.

3. That is the Christian law. Are men steadfast in righteousness, fervent in charity, temperate, fearless? Do not glorify them; glorify God who made them so good. Are they wise? Glorify God who is the Giver of wisdom. Have they wrought great deliverances for mankind? Why look ye on them as though by their own power or holiness they had wrought these deliverances? Joshua fought well; but when the men of later days look back upon his victories, they say--We have heard with our ears, O God, etc. And we find the greatest of the apostles saying, I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase. This address of St. Peters about the miracle is a vivid illustration of the spirit of both Testaments.

4. In recent times we have failed to maintain the traditional spirit of Judaism and of Christianity. We dwell on the goodness, temperament, and intellectual power of Peter, Paul, and John; and treat them as ordinary historians treat sovereigns like Elizabeth and Cromwell, statesmen like Burghley and Walpole and Chatham. We inquire what there was in the men that accounted for the success of their work. No doubt their character and endowments had a direct relation to their work. But the gifts were from God; their power was His. In the spiritual, as in the natural life, when the blind receive sight, Christ gives it; when the lame walk, it is Christ who makes them strong. His name through faith in His name, hath made this man strong is the explanation of all wonders.

5. Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Baxter, Wesley, and Whitefield, what were they all but ministers of God by whom England or Europe came to know and believe a truer gospel? They should be transparent to us as the Jewish prophets and heroes, and as the Christian apostles were. Their noble qualities may be honoured as Gods gifts; but still it was not their power or their holiness that first loosened and then broke the fetters by which the spiritual life of nations was bound; it was God who did it all. This holds true of all effective spiritual work in our own time. When men are prevailed upon to submit to Christs authority, their great decision is not to be attributed to the impassioned eloquence, the vigorous argument, the pathetic entreaty of the preacher, nor to his personal sanctity, nor to his fervent zeal, but to the direct appeal of the Spirit of God to the conscience and to the heart.

I. Everything short of the actual conversion of men to God we can accomplish without Gods help; but for that we are entirely dependent upon him.

1. Canvass the town for children and you can fill your Sunday schools. Make the teaching interesting, let the rooms be pleasant, have cheerful singing, let the teacher be kindly and earnest, and you can keep the children when you have them, and enable them to pass excellent examinations in Scripture, and you can soften their manners, refine their tastes and elevate their morals. And if you are satisfied with this there is no need to pray. But if you want the children to love and serve Christ, the Spirit of God must be with you, and must work directly on the inner thought and life of your scholars.

2. Build an attractive church, get a good organ and choir, let there be an educated and earnest and eloquent man in the pulpit, and you can get a crowd of people to hear him and he may produce a profound impression. But if men are to be moved to real penitence, and are to be inspired with real faith, the light and power of the Holy Spirit must reach individual hearts.

3. Many of us know what this means. For years we were familiar with truths which ought to have exerted irresistible control over us; we believed them; sometimes we felt their power. But we can remember when these very truths came to us as though we had never known them before. Perhaps we were listening to a sermon; but we had listened to sermons before, and to sermons not less impressive, and had listened unmoved; others heard the same sermon and it did not touch them. Perhaps we were reading a book; but we had read the book before, and it had never taught us what we now learnt, and others have read the same book and learnt nothing from it. What made the difference was a silent voice to which then, for the first time, we consented to listen. The Spirit of God came to us, and we suffered Him to lead us into the truth.

II. Our perverse reluctance to believe that all life and light come from God is inexplicable. We have to learn the same lesson over and over again in many forms; and we look back upon wasted years, and mourn that we had not learnt the open secret earlier which would have made all those years bright and noble and glorious success.

1. The lesson has to be learnt at the beginning of the religious life. We want the pardon of sin and that change which will render it possible for us to do the will of God. And we try for months, perhaps for years, to make our penitence for sin more agonising and our hunger and thirst for righteousness more keen, hoping that at last we shall have assurance and strength. It is all in vain; and then we discover what we knew from the first--that we can trust God to forgive, us, and to inspire us with the life and power of the Holy Ghost: we trust Him and we pass into a new world.

2. But the lesson has to be learnt over again. We are now liberated from distress about our past guilt, and we know that we are the sons of God; but we find that we are unequal to many duties, and are overcome by many temptations. We subject ourselves to discipline; we pray; we think upon the transcendent motives to righteousness. It is all in vain. And then, again, we discover what a child might have taught us, what we always knew, that evil passions are to be burnt down to their very roots by the fire of God; that we are to be strong for holy living in the strength of God: we trust in Him once more, and as long as we trust we are kept in perfect peace.

3. But we have not learnt the lesson even now. We engage in Christian work. We do our best, and hardly anything comes of it. Then once more we discover what we always knew; God and only God can bring right home to man the truth which is on our lips; we trust in Him, and then our work begins to prosper.

III. Entire dependence in God is the secret of ministerial power.

1. For the work of the Christian ministry it is necessary to secure men of intellectual power, and men who have received the most thorough intellectual training. There is an Antinomianism in relation to Christian work not less fatal and far more subtle than the Antinomianism of the Christian life. Men have argued that since they can do nothing for their own salvation without God, they will attempt nothing. They might as well say that they can get no harvest without the rain of heaven and the heat and light of the sun, and that therefore they will not plough nor sow. And men have argued, that since Christian work can never achieve its highest results apart from the direct appeal of the Spirit of God to the souls of men, that learning and eloquence are worthless, and that we should leave everything to God. What insanity there is in this!

2. But among ourselves there are not many who are likely to be infected with this heresy.

Our peril lies in the opposite direction.

1. We look back upon the great evangelists of the past, and think that if we could only have them with us again the most glorious days of the Church would return. If St. Bernard with his fiery passion, Luther with his audacity and immense moral force, Whitefield with his affectionate spirit and his charming eloquence, Wesley with his calm and resolute strength and his keen sagacity were here--then we might hope to see a great religious reformation in England. But what can we do? This self-distrust is only the specious cover of a want of faith in God. The illustrious preachers of former days are with us no longer; but the great Preacher of all is with us still--the only Preacher whose voice can raise the dead, whose power achieved all the triumphs which we connect with the famous and sacred names in the history of Christendom. Could these great saints come back again, it would not be to take the work from our hands because we are unequal to it, but to tell us that the same Spirit that was with them can still reach the hearts and consciences of men.

2. Even when we pray we sometimes forget that our trust should be in the Spirit of God. We ask that for the success of our work we may have a larger knowledge of the thought of God, a more fervent passion for the honour of Christ, a profounder solicitude for the rescue of men--wise and necessary prayers, but incomplete, fatally incomplete. For the prayers imply that if we ourselves had greater power, greater holiness, we should be successful. This was not what the apostles thought--Paul planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase.

3. What is true of men is also true of ecclesiastical systems. It is not the perfection of its organisation that enables a Church to redeem men. There have been preachers in the Church of Rome, spite of its monstrous polity, who have done glorious work for mankind and for God. There is no power, no holiness in Presbyterianism, in Methodism, in Congregationalism, in Episcopacy, to work spiritual miracles. The chief merit of an ecclesiastical system lies in the measure in which it is transparent and lets the glory of Christ shine through.

4. The same test is to be applied to all theologies and all methods of spiritual discipline. Do they break down everything that comes between the soul and Him who is the fountain of mercy and of power?

(1) Tell me that my good works are necessary before Christ will forgive my sins, and you put months, and perhaps years, of painful moral struggle between me and Christ; tell me that He will forgive me at once, as soon as I come to Him, and Christ is already at my side at the very beginning of my new life. The doctrine of justification by works seems less likely to be true than the doctrine of justification by faith.

(2) Tell me that to make sure of the Divine forgiveness I must confess my sins to a priest, and there is danger lest the priest should come between me and Christ. Tell me that I can confess to Christ, and then, again, Christ is near to me while I am in the agony of my repentance. The doctrine which affirms that the priest has power to absolve seems less likely to be true than the doctrine which denies it.

(3) Tell me that the priest must consecrate the bread and the wine before the Church can have the real presence of Christ at the Lords Supper, and then the Church must wait till the priest has pronounced the words of mystery and power. Tell me that wherever two or three are gathered together at the table of Christ, Christ is among them, and then there is no delay, either in His access to us, or our access to Him. Those who maintain the theory of sacramentalism seem less likely to be in the right than those who reject it.

(4) But here, too, we must remember that the truest and simplest doctrine may be made a fetich, and may come between the soul and Christ. If you think that any doctrine is so true and so simple that by its own power or holiness it will regenerate and save men, you will be separated from Christ as completely by the soundest belief as other men are by the most corrupt.

IV. The truths which we have been considering should teach us to be of good heart about the work, which is Christs rather than ours. We are conscious--all of us--that we have little strength to do any noble service for God and for mankind. The consciousness deepens as we grow older. But neither our weakness nor our unworthiness is a reason for despondency. If we had to measure our own strength and earnestness against the difficulties of our work we might despair; but our confidence is in the strength and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The results of our labour will transcend all that could be anticipated from the labour itself. This kindles our enthusiasm, and is a motive for strenuous exertion. If we are only perfectly loyal to Christ, even we may do very much for the rescue of men. The true minister of Christ does not stand alone; he is in alliance with Christ Himself; this is the secret of the ministers power. But very much depends on the sympathy he receives from his Church. You remember the famous description of an orator. It was not his voice alone that spoke; his eyes, his face, his hands, his feet--they were all eloquent. And a Church is a living body. The minister is its voice; but, if he is to speak to any purpose, the voice must not come from a body struck with death, with fixed features, glassy eyes, and rigid limbs; there would be something ghastly in that. Eyes, hands, face, feet, must all have life and passion in them, and must all speak; they must share the sorrow and alarm with which the minister tells men of the infinite evil of sin, and the rapture with which he triumphs in the infinite love of God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_3:11. For the lame man which was healed the best codices read he. The porch (or portico) that is called Solomon’s ran along the eastern wall of the temple on both sides of the gate of Susa, and overlooked the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It had three rows of columns fifty feet high, and two walks thirty feet wide. The columns were each of one stone (white marble), the walks were paved with stones of various colours, and the roofs adorned with sculptures in wood. The porch, which was a survival from the Solomonic temple, was frequently resorted to, especially in winter, as a promenade or public walk (Joh_10:23; Jos., Ant., XV. xi. 5).

Act_3:12. At this.—Sc. man rather than thing. Look earnestly.—Fasten your eyes, as in Act_3:4. For this man read him.

Act_3:13. Hath glorified.—Better, glorified not by this particular miracle (Meyer, Spence), or by all the mighty works which attested His mission (Hackett), but by His exaltation through death, as in Joh_12:23; Joh_17:10 (Alford). His son.—Should be His servant, this being an Old Testament title of Messiah (Isa_41:8; Isa_42:1-7; Isa_49:3-6); and applied as such to Christ by Matthew (Act_12:18), and outside of canonical scripture by Clem., I. ad Cor. 59:3; Barnabas, vi. 1; Didache, ix.

2. Had determined.—Or decided that it was just (see Luk_23:16; Luke 20-23; Joh_19:4).

Act_3:15. Prince.—Author, in the fullest sense (see Heb_2:10; Heb_12:2). Whereof.—Or of whom (compare Act_2:32; Act_13:31).

Act_3:16. Through, or on the ground of, faith.—Not the man’s or the people’s (Olshausen) but the apostles’ (Alford, Spence, Holtzmann, Hackett) faith in His Christ’s name.

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_3:11-16

Solomon’s Porch; or, Peter’s Second Sermon.

1. The Secret of the Miracle explained

I. The people’s excitement calmed.—The effect produced upon the healed man was scarcely greater than that wrought upon the multitude who saw him in the Temple. Filled with wonder and amazement at what had taken place, the crowd swarmed round the two apostles, to whom the cured cripple was eagerly clinging in Solomon’s porch as if unwilling to permit them to depart. Taking speech in hand, Peter, with his customary readiness, proceeded to address them with a view to quieting their agitation. Their wonder and amazement he—

1. Admitted as not unnatural. It would have been surprising if they had not marvelled on seeing a forty years’ old cripple restored to perfect health. When in Capernaum a similar miracle had been wrought by Christ (Luk_5:18-26), “amazement took hold on all … and they were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day.” So wherever Christ’s religion operates it performs moral miracles, at which men gaze sometimes with incredulity and even with hostility, but always with astonishment (see Act_17:6).

2. Rebuked as wrongly directed. The multitude imagined that Peter and John had healed the cripple by their own power and in virtue of their own goodness. Hence their wonder and admiration were turned rather upon the instruments than towards the agent. The sole connection John and Peter had with the miracle was that a higher power had used them as a means of effecting His gracious will. It does not appear that the apostles ever had the power of working miracles at their own discretion, but only at a signal given by the Holy Spirit. Significant as proof of this is the circumstance that Paul, though he wrought miracles, could not cure Epaphroditus when he was sick nigh unto death (Php_2:27), or Trophimus, whom he left at Miletus sick (2Ti_4:20). So the moral miracles performed by the Gospel in changing men’s hearts and lives are due to neither the ability nor the piety of those who preach the Gospel but solely to Him of whom the Gospel speaks. The right to say “I am He who healeth thee” belongs to God alone (Exo_15:26; Psa_103:3; Psa_147:3).

3. Instructed as ill informed. The miracle had been done

(1) instrumentally by the apostles, which they did not deny: they had made the lame man to walk (Act_3:12); and

(2) mediately by the man’s own faith, or at least by the apostles’ faith—a point which is duly emphasised (Act_3:16; compare Act_14:9); but nevertheless

(3) causally, or efficiently by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, or by the power which that name represented, and which accompanied the utterance of and belief in that name. So the healings of a spiritual sort which are effected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ are to be ascribed neither to the human agents by whom it is preached nor to the words in which it is set forth, but to the spirit and power alone of the exalted Christ (1Co_3:6-7; 2Co_4:6; Eph_2:1; Php_1:6).

II. The people’s guilt rehearsed.—This is done indirectly and, as it were, by way of parenthesis, while introducing to their notice the real author of the miracle. The extent of their guilt lay in four things:

1. Treachery. By acquiescing in the wickedness of Caiaphas and Judas they had been practically guilty of delivering up Jesus into the hands of His enemies—they had, in fact, endorsed the crimes of their leaders and rulers. The solidarity of nations which renders the individual members thereof responsible, in a certain measure at least, for the deeds of their representatives, is apt to be forgotten.

2. Denial. When He stood before Pilate, and was by that Roman Governor pronounced “innocent,” and offered to be released as a compliment to their nation, they had cried “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” (Mat_27:22; Joh_19:4; Joh_19:15.) In the most deliberate manner possible they had disowned Him who was really God’s holy and righteous One.

3. Rejection. Nor was that the worst that could be charged against them, but when Pilate gave them an opportunity of choosing between Jehovah’s Servant, the Prince of Life, and Barabbas, who for a certain sedition had been cast into prison, they actually chose the murderer to be granted to them (Joh_18:39-40). To such a depth of moral depravity had they sunk in their hostility to Jesus of Nazareth.

4. Crucifixion. They paused not in their hate till they had killed the Prince of Life, who not only had life in Himself but on more occasions than one had given life to others (Mat_9:25; Luk_7:15; Joh_11:44)—killed Him by adjudging Him to the shameful and painful death of the cross (Joh_19:17-18). Here it should be noted that, heinous as these sins were, as great may still be committed against Christ (Heb_6:6).

Learn.—

1. The mistakes men make in judging of Christianity and its preachers.

2. The humility that ought to characterise every true servant of Christ.

3. The covenant-keeping character of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The possibility of repeating the crimes of the Jews who crucified the Prince of Life.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_3:13. The God of our Fathers.

I. Our fathers had a God.—They were not atheists or agnostics. Descent from a pious ancestry a great privilege, entailing large responsibilities.

II. The God of our Fathers covenanted with them to bless their children.—The promise was made to them and to their children (Act_2:39). And He is faithful who hath promised (Heb_10:23; Heb_11:11).

III. For this purpose the God of our fathers raised up Jesus and sent Him to bless us.—The whole mission of Christ, in His incarnation, death, resurrection, exaltation, and coming again in the spirit, a carrying out of the divine idea and purpose of salvation to which in a manner God had pledged Himself by His gracious promises to the fathers of Israel and the father of the faithful.

IV. Have we, the children of those fathers and the heirs of these promises, risen to the height of our privileges?—Have we taken our fathers’ God as our God? And the Saviour promised to the fathers as our Redeemer?

The Glory of Christ.

I. Essential.—

1. That which He had with the Father before the world was (Joh_17:5).

2. That which belonged to His own person when on earth—the glory of an only begotten from a Father full of grace and truth (Joh_1:14).

II. Delegated.—

1. When appointed by His Father to be the High Priest of humanity (Heb_5:5).

2. When in answer to prayer His Father showed Him to be the conqueror of death (Joh_11:4).

3. When by His own death upon the cross He triumphed over the principalities of evil (Joh_12:23; Joh_17:1).

4. When raised from the dead by the glory of His father (Act_3:15; Rom_6:4).

5. When the Spirit reveals Him to the soul of man (Joh_16:14).

III. Acquired.—

1. The glory of sitting on the mediatorial throne (1Co_15:25).

2. The glory of being worshipped by the Church universal (Rev_5:8-14).

3. The glory of being the heir of all things (Heb_1:2).

4. The glory of being the final judge of mankind (Joh_5:27; Act_17:31).

Act_3:11-16. A Model for the Christian Preacher.—Found in Peter and his sermon, which reveal—

I. The spirit which should animate the preacher.—A spirit of self-abnegation and humility, which turns away the attention of his hearers from himself, as did John the Baptist (Joh_1:23; Joh_3:30).

II. The object at which the preacher should aim.—To exalt Christ and bring His glory and claims before the minds of his hearers, as again did the Baptist and Paul (1Co_2:2).

III. The manner in which the preacher should address his hearers.—With much plainness of speech, and even with personal directness, but yet with tenderness and sympathy, as once more did Paul (Php_3:18; 2Co_3:12).

IV. The theme on which the preacher should descant.—Not on himself, his own virtues and achievements, but on the name of Jesus, its glorious excellence and its power to heal and save, with the terms and conditions on which alone it can operate, as again did Paul (1Co_2:2).

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

B.—Peter’s Testimony Concerning Jesus, Delivered In The Presence Of The People

Act_3:11-26

11And as the lame man which was healed4 held [But as the lame man held fast to] Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering [full of wonder]. 12And [But] when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel [Ye Israelitish men], why marvel ye at this [this man]? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness5 [godliness] we had made6 this man to walk? 13The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob7, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son [Servant] Jesus; whom ye 8 delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined [after he had decided] to let him go [release him]. 14But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15And killed the Prince [Author]9 of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof We are witnesses. 16And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, [and] the faith which is [which wrought] by him hath given him this perfect soundness [this health] in the presence of you all. 17And now, brethren, I wot [know] that through [in] ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his [all the] prophets, that Christ [his Anointed]10 should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when [in order that] the times of refreshing shall [may] come from the presence [face] of the Lord; 20And he shall [And that he may] send Jesus Christ, which before was preached [the Messiah Jesus who was appointed]11 unto you; 21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things [times wherein all things will be restored], which God hath spoken by the mouth of all12 [om. all] his holy prophets since the world began 13 [prophets from of old]. 22For Moses truly said Moses14 has said] unto the fathers 15 [om. unto the fathers], A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of [out of] your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall [will] say unto you. 23And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. 24Yea, and [And] all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold16 of [om. of] these days. 25Ye are the17 children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus18, sent [his Servant, sent] him to bless you, in turning every one of you from his iniquities.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_3:11. And as the lame man held [fast] to Peter and John.—Large numbers of persons, full of wonder, gathered around the two apostles, to whom the man that had been lame, continued to cling; Peter was both required and enabled by this circumstance, to deliver an address to the people. It induced him to explain the occurrence itself, and, in general to speak of Jesus. Luke employs the word ἀπεκρίνατο, as the address was virtually an answer to a question which the wondering glances and excited movements of the spectators seemed to direct to him. The precise locality of this assemblage of people and of the address, is indicated by Luke; it was Solomon’s porch in the court [called the great court, 2Ch_4:9; 2Ch_6:13; Winer, Realw. art.Temple]; this portico or colonnade was distinguished from the others by bearing Solomon’s name, inasmuch as it was a remnant of the original temple built by him; it had escaped the general destruction of the building which Nebuchadnezzar had ordered. The immediate cause, however, in consequence of which the people ran together unto the apostles, lay in the man himself; with a heart full of gratitude and devotion, he had attached himself to them, seized them by the hand, and held them fast; the latter is the clearly proved meaning of the phrase: κρατεῖν τιυα, while it can by no meansbe established on philological grounds that the phrase means: to hold to, to follow some one.

Act_3:12. a. Peter’s address consists of two parts:—1. Instructions concerning the Author and the purpose of the miracle, Act_3:12-18; ‘it was not wrought by us, who are men, but by God; He purposed thereby to glorify his Servant Jesus, whom Israel had denied and killed, but whom God raised up.’ 2. An exhortation to repentance and conversion, in order that the sins of the Israelites might be forgiven, and that the blessing which all the promises had taught them to expect, might be imparted to them through Christ, Act_3:19-26.

b. Why marvel ye at this?—Peter does not reprove the people simply for expressing great astonishment, but for assuming that the healing of the man had been an independent act of the apostles, performed solely by them. For the wondering and steady gaze (ἀτενίζετε) of the people, seemed to say: ‘What vast power resides in these men (ἰδία δύναμις)!’ Or—‘What holy men these must be, since God rewards them with such miraculous gifts!’ The latter thought would undoubtedly suggest that of “merit,” the word which Luther has employed in his version [for εὐσέβεια]. Peter, therefore, denies that he and John possessed either such a physical power as the people imagined, or such a meritorious ability of the soul.—The expression ὡς πεποιηκόσι τοῦ περιπατεῖν αὐτόν involves an inexact use of the genitive of the purpose [Winer: Gr. N. T., § 44, 4]; literally: “as if we had done aught so that he might walk.” [ἐπὶ τούτῳ rendered by L. in the version above, not as a neuter (this event), but as a masc. pron. (this man), with de Wette, Meyer, Alford, Hackett, etc.—Tr.]

Act_3:13-14. a. The God of Abraham … hath glorified his Son [Servant] Jesus.—After the error has been exposed, the truth is set forth (as in Act_2:15 ff.): ‘Not we have wrought the miracle; its author is God, the covenantal God of our fathers, and, indeed, of the original founders of our nation.’—The apostle refers, at the same time, to the author of the miracle, and to its design and significance. It was the design of this miracle to glorify Jesus, to exhibit him in his δόξα, and to teach men to see and confess his dignity and the power of his higher life, attained through the resurrection and ascension, as well as to demonstrate that in him dwelt the fulness of vital and saving power, the gracious exercise of which was designed for the benefit of mankind.—But what is the meaning of παῖς θεοῦ when applied to Jesus? The earlier interpreters, without specially dwelling on the point, assumed that the term was equivalent to υἱός θεοῦ, with the single exception of Piscator, in the seventeenth century. Bengel explains the sense to be: Servant of God, as in Mat_12:18. And since Nitzsch has published the results of his investigations (in Stud. u. Kr. 1828, p. 331 ff.), all the recent interpreters agree that παῖς θ.. means, not the Son, but the Servant of God. [So Olsh., Stier (in Red. d. Ap. ad loc. 2d ed.), Alford, Hackett, Robinson (in Lex. art.,παῖς, 2. c.), etc.; Alexander ascribes to the word a “dubious or double sense.”—Tr.]. Indeed, the term παῖς is a standing predicate with Luke, being applied to Israel (Gosp. Luk_1:54), and to David (Act_4:25, and Gosp. Luk_1:69). In the present passage, as well as in Act_3:26, below, and in Act_4:27; Act_4:30, as also in Mat_12:18, it corresponds to עֶבֶד יְהוָֹה in Isaiah [ch. 40–ch. 66].

b. But ye denied.—Peter speaks unreservedly and emphatically of the sin which his hearers had committed against Jesus, so that he might lead them to repentance. Ye have—he says—delivered up Jesus, denied him before Pilate, and even preferred, and interceded for a murderer, while ye killed Him. He shows that they advanced, step by step, in crime and guilt. He exhibits the sin of the people in a still stronger light, by means of antithetic propositions. He, first, contrasts Israel with Pilate, the pagan: the latter pronounced the sentence that Jesus should be released [Luk_23:16; Joh_19:4]; the people, on the contrary, denied Him—their Messiah. He then contrasts Jesus with Barabbas: the latter was a murderer; Jesus was not only innocent and holy, but even the Author and Giver of life; ‘yet you released the former, and killed Jesus.’

Act_3:15-16. Peter here explains the manner in which God had glorified (Act_3:13) his Servant Jesus: Whom God hath raised from the dead.—And, (he continues,) it is solely in the power of the name of Jesus, received in faith, that this man, once lame, has been made strong, and restored to health. We, the apostles, bear witness to that event—the raising up of Jesus; of the restoration of this man to health and strength, ye have yourselves all been eye-witnesses (ἀπέναντι πάντων ὑμῶν).

Act_3:17-18.—And now, brethren.—After showing the necessity of a change of mind and feeling on the part of his hearers, the apostle testifies, that both repentance and forgiveness are possible, in reference, first, to the sinner, Act_3:17, and, secondly, to God, Act_3:18. However great the sin is, it may, nevertheless, be forgiven, since it was committed in ignorance, both by the people, and by their rulers. And the apostle makes this declaration in the most sincere love—a love already revealed in the appellation brethren, which he here employs; compare with it the more formal ἄνδρες Ἰσρ., in Act_3:12.—In reference to God, the sin of Israel, consisting in the rejection and execution of the Messiah, may be forgiven in so far as it, at the same time, involved the fulfilment of the decree that the Messiah should suffer, which God had made from of old, and foretold through all the prophets.

Act_3:19-21. Repent ye therefore.—The apostle states the conclusion which is to be drawn from the words which he had pronounced, and, in a direct appeal to his hearers, calls on them to turn back and change their minds; at the same time, he not only represents the blotting out of their sins as the result of such repentance (ἐξαλειφθῆναι, applied [as in Col_2:14] to a document that is obliterated), but he also opens a still wider view before them, and exhibits a time of refreshment and blessedness, for which, too, they may hope. Of that time God is the author and source (ἀπὸ προςώπου τοῦ κυρίου); it commences with the return of Christ, whom heaven receives during the interval, but whom God will send personally (ἀποστείλη, etc.); it consists ofall that which God had hitherto promised through the prophets (ἀποκαταστάσεως, etc.). In ὃν δεῖ οὐρανὸν δέξασθαι the subject [or acc. before the inf.] is not δν, but οὐρανὸν, i.e. heaven must receive him [as in the Engl. version], not, he must take possession of heaven (Luther), the latter not agreeing with the usus loquendi of δέχεσθαι. [On the contrary, Bengel (Gnomon) holds that ὃν is the subject, and translates: Who must, etc.; he terms the construction here preferred by Lechler, and by many others, a “violenta interpretatio,” since it implies that heaven is greater than Christ, and since it is hostile to the grandeur of Christ, who is “above all heavens,” Eph_4:10, etc. So, also, Olsh. and Lange. Stier [Red. d. Ap. ad loc. 2d ed.) unequivocally adopts Bengel’s views, and rejects those which Lechler (whom he specially means) here prefers. Tyndale and Cranmer translated: who must receive heaven. (Alexander, ad loc.)—Tr.]. According to the established usus loquendi of ἀποκατάστασις, it regularly denotes a restoration, or return of an earlier condition; see below, Doctr. and Ethical. 6.) [“The before heaven—is supplied by the translators—without reason, etc.” (J. A. Alex.).—Tr.]

Act_3:22-24. Moses said.—[Deu_18:15; Deu_18:18-19, combined with Gen_17:14]. The language in these verses is intended to develop more fully and to confirm all that Peter had intimated in Act_3:21 concerning the word of prophecy. Moses—he says—has promised that a prophet shall come forth out of Israel, and has declared that they who do not unconditionally obey him, shall be cut off and destroyed; and the succeeding prophets, beginning with Samuel, have all uttered predictions respecting these times.

Act_3:25-26. Ye are the children, etc.—Peter applies the whole to his own age and to the people before him, and presents two aspects of the case: first, the promise of the blessing [made to Abraham, Gen_12:3; Gen_18:18; Gen_22:18; to Isaac, Gen_26:4; to Jacob,. Gen_28:14] belongs, as he declares, to his hearers; but, secondly, on the condition that they fulfil the duty imposed upon them, of repenting and turning to God.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Those powers by which miracles were wrought, never resided inherently in any one of the children of God; here the apostles expressly guard their hearers against such a delusive thought; the exercise of such powers always depends on the might and free grace of God. The error which the apostles expose, is the assumption that the miracle proceeded originally either from a magic power (ἰδία δύναμις) or from moral merit (εὐσέβεια). If even the Redeemer ascribed to the Father the works which he did [“which the Father hath given me to finish,” Joh_5:36], the apostles, still more emphatically, ascribe their miracles to God the Father. But even as the miracles wrought by Jesus were designed to bear witness of him and glorify him (Joh_5:20; Joh_5:36; Mat_11:5), so all the deeds which his disciples performed by the grace and power of God, are designed to contribute to the honor of Christ, and to praise and magnify his name. (ὃ θεός—ἐδόξασε—Ἰησοῦν).

2. It is not simply an accommodation to the habits of thought and the mode of expression of Israel, when Peter says: “The God of our fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath glorified Jesus”; those words, much rather, express the truth, that the God of Abraham, etc., is likewise the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or, in other words, it is the same God who revealed himself to the fathers, and who now reveals himself to us through the Son; the new covenant is founded on the old covenant, and the latter already points to Jesus Christ.

3. The phraseology, according to which Jesus appears as ὁ παῖς θεοῦ, (that is, not a Servant of God, but “the Servant of God,” Act_3:13; Act_3:26, in a preëminent and special sense), alludes to the prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly to Isaiah 41. ff., and expresses a conception which refers, directly, to the Work of Jesus Christ alone, and not to his Person. Jesus, namely, is He through whom God executes or accomplishes all that he has determined to do, and promised in his word; comp. Act_3:21; Act_3:24; Act_3:26; the blessing which God had promised to Abraham, and, through him, to the human race, is realized and bestowed through Christ; all that God has ever promised through the prophets, is fulfilled in Christ. This is truly a lofty conception. It also undoubtedly assigns a high rank to the Person of Christ, although less directly, implying at least his intimate and peculiar union with God, even if not his deity.

4. With respect to the Person of Jesus, Peter describes Him as the Holy and Just One (Act_3:14), that is, not merely guiltless, as contradistinguished from Barabbas, the criminal, but in a positive sense, perfectly holy and just, as well in relation to God (ἅγιος), as in relation to men (δίκαιος). And, doubtless, here, too, the definite article [τὸν ἅγιον, etc.] is of weight, and has even a doctrinal significance; for it indicates a certain peculiarity not elsewhere found, and exalts Jesus, in a moral and religious respect, above the whole human race. To this view the title admirably corresponds, which he receives in Act_3:15, ὁ ἀρχηγὸς [“from ἀρχή and ἡγοῦμαι or ἄγω,” Wahl: Clavis.—Tr.] τῆς ζωῆς; it contrasts him with the murderer, the man who deprived others of life; Jesus, on the contrary, is the Author of life, opens the way to life, and is the Leader of those who seek life (primarily, in consequence of his resurrection). We are, therefore, enabled to follow in the way in which he leads, inasmuch as he imparts eternal life and blessedness to those who believe in him; at the same time, he imparts, through faith in his name, a vital power to the body also, Act_3:16.

5. Repentance, and conversion or turning from the evil way, are the indispensable conditions of salvation, that is, the conditions on which, first, (Act_3:19), the sins committed, and the guilt contracted by us, are forgiven and blotted out, and, secondly, (Act_3:20; Act_3:26) participation in the promised blessing and in the gracious gifts of God, is granted. The apostles by no means encourage the delusion that any one can acquire a claim to salvation by reason of his descent from the people of God, without being personally prepared for it, and without rendering to God the obedience of faith. Here, Peter demands, immediatelyafter having acknowledged his hearers to be children of the covenant or parties in it (Act_3:25), that they should turn away from sin and be changed in mind and spirit, if they desire to receive the promised Abrahamic blessing which is now offered in Christ (Act_3:26).—The application of these truths to Christendom is obvious.

6. The words of the apostle present a grand and comprehensive view of the counsels and acts of God, and of the course of divine revelation, from the beginning to the end. All the promises that God made to Abraham, all the words that he spoke by the mouth of Moses concerning a Prophet who was yet to come, and all the predictions of Samuel and the prophets who succeeded him, essentially refer to Christ as their central point—to his sufferings (Act_3:18)—to the blessing, given through him, and embracing the world (Act_3:25)—and to a future restoration of all things (Act_3:21). Jesus Christ, the Servant of God, whom he sent (Act_3:26), has come, has suffered (Act_3:18), but is now invisible, since heaven received him, until God shall send him again, namely, until he comes the second time from heaven (Act_3:20 ff.). This future is described (1) as καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως, seasons of refreshing (Act_3:19), that is, as a time in which rest, peace and recreation will succeed the heat, the violence and the pressure of conflicts and sorrows. The same time is described (2) as ξρόνοι ἀποκαταστάσεως (Act_3:21)—this latter, objectively; the former, subjectively [the latter, descriptive of the object; the former, referring to the subjects or persons affected by the object.—Tr.]. The usus loquendi shows that these terms refer to a restoration. But what is it that shall be restored? Baumgarten [Die Apostelgeschichte] I. p. 80 replies: ‘Nothing else than the kingdom of Israel, the whole power and glory of the Israelitic kingdom.’ Such a mode of interpretation, however, does not deduce the main point from the text, but at once inserts it in the text. The words themselves do not suggest such a meaning, but convey one that is far more comprehensive, namely, the following: ‘All that God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets, shall be restored, and be placed in its original order, and in that condition which God designed and promised.’ It may be added that this restoration is not to be understood as being exclusively a return of a condition which had existed at a previous time, but rather as a renewal of all things, that will partly be restorative in its operation, but also, in part, far transcend all that had ever existed. And we are the more fully authorized to adopt this interpretation, as the view presented by the apostle does not embrace Israel alone, but comprehends all mankind, and is uncircumscribed; the blessing that was promised to Abraham, is to be imparted to all the nations of the earth, Act_3:25. Even if he terms the Israelites the “children of the covenant”, he does not refer to any exclusive privileges, or to a monopoly or particularism, but only to priority in time. For Christ was sent, not to Israel only, but to Israel first, Act_3:26. And this expression presupposes, and indirectly testifies that Christ and the blessing which is given in him, are appointed for the Gentiles also, although they occupy only the second place.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Act_3:11. And as the lame man … held Peter and John.—The holy ties which unite awakened children of God and their spiritual fathers: by such ties, I. The awakened are strengthened; II. Their spiritual fathers are encouraged; III. The Church is edified; IV. The Lord is glorified.

Act_3:12. Why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us?—A solemn question addressed to us by all the faithful servants of God, when we survey the wonderful works of God, for the purpose, 1. Of guarding us (a) against a mere carnal wonder at the external form of the events, and (b) against the error of estimating too highly the human agents, and their power and merit; 2. Of directing our attention to (a) the Lord, who alone doeth wonders (Act_3:13; Act_3:15). (Admire Him, and do not idly wonder!); (b) ourselves, our guilt (Act_3:13-14), our duty (Act_3:19), our salvation (Act_3:20).—Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory! [Psa_115:1]. Such is the confession of all true servants of God. (Starke).—Men seek after new wonders, and are amazed; they forget those that are old, and do not rightly apply them. See Psa_106:21-22. (Quesn.).—The works of God can be distinctly seen only in the light of his word.

Act_3:13. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: the light which this truth casts, 1. On the Old Covenant, as the type and foundation of the New; 2. On the New Covenant, as the development and fulfilment of the Old.

Act_3:13-14. Ye denied Him! This sin is, since the resurrection of Jesus, the most heinous of all. (Apost. Past.).—Peter had himself previously denied the Lord Jesus; but when his Saviour had forgiven him this sin, he had great boldness in rebuking those who also committed it. Let faithful pastors bear this in mind. (ib.).

Act_3:15. Jesus, the Prince of life: as such, 1. Denied and slain by the world; 2. Raised up and glorified by God; 3. Declared and manifested in the Church.—“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” Gen_1:20. These words, in their deepest sense, were fulfilled in Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One. (Starke).—Men deal with the gifts and mercies which God bestows, as the Jews dealt with Christ; man can only destroy them; God alone can preserve or restore. (Quesn.).—Christ, the Holy One and the Just, in an absolute sense, not only, 1. As compared with Barabbas, the murderer, the representative of sinful men, but also, 2. In the presence of his God and Father.—Christ the Holy One, also the Prince of life.—Why do the apostles of the Lord so emphatically declare themselves to be the witnesses of his resurrection? (Schleiermacher: Easter sermon): 1. In reference to themselves; they are conscious of their human infirmity, and gratefully praise the goodness of their heavenly Father, who aids them in their weakness; 2. In reference to the Redeemer; his resurrection expresses the judgment of God respecting the death which he had suffered, and is the evidence of his eternal spiritual presence in the Church.

Act_3:16. Through faith, etc.—The faith that worketh miracles. The poet says: “A miracle—the fav’rite child of faith.” I. Faith performs the miracle (Peter and John); II. Faith experiences the miracle (the lame man, who is a believer, at least after the miracle is wrought, if not previously); III. Faith comprehends the miracle (the believing hearers).

Act_3:17. Through ignorance ye did it.—(Christ on the cross; “They know not what they do,” [Luk_23:34]. Paul to Timothy: “I did it ignorantly” [1Ti_1:13]). I. To whom may such words be applied? Not t all! II. What is their purpose? Not to furnish grounds for justifying sinful acts.—Ignorance may lessen, but does not cancel guilt, since it may itself be the result of a guilty course of conduct. (Gerlach).

Act_3:19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.—These words, in which grace and pardon are offered to such great sinners, illustrate the importance of repentance in the most striking manner. History does not present a case in which pardon was offered under such circumstances; there can be no escape from ruin for those who do not now accept it. (Starke).—The apostle furnishes a noble model to those who desire to preach repentance in a truly apostolical manner. We may do injustice to the subject by saying either too little or too much. We are always inclined to proceed to extremes; hence, we either prematurely encourage men to hope for the forgiveness of their sins, or else, we demand, in too high a degree, the grace of holiness, before we give them an assurance of the pardon of their sins. The apostles teach us to observe a just medium. (Apost. Past.).—To repent or change the mind, and to be converted or turn to the way of peace, belong together, (ib.).—Behold how the Holy Spirit executes his fourfold office, in the discourse of Peter! The office, I. Of convincing of sin (Act_3:13-15); II. Of instructing (Act_3:13; Act_3:15-16; Act_3:18; Act_3:21-25); III. Of exhorting (Act_3:19); IV. Of consoling (Act_3:20; Act_3:26).—How well the apostles understood the method of exercising, in the most emphatic manner, their power to forgive sins! How successfully they exercised it, when they called on men to repent! (K. H. Rieger).

The times of refreshing … from the presence of the Lord.—The times of refreshing experienced by the repentant and believing: I. In the external relations of life, after sore afflictions; II. In the inner life, after the godly sorrow of the soul; III. In eternity, after the toils of this life.—We suffer from a painful feeling of oppression, when we repent and behold the amount both of the evil which we have done, and of the good which we have left undone; but we revive when God reveals his mercy to us; Isa_57:15-18.—When inward and outward temptations, like a scorching flame, threaten to consume us, the Lord appears, bringing relief to the soul; Gen_18:1; Isa_38:17.—At length an eternal time of refreshing will come, when we shall have intered that world, in which the heat can no longer consume us. Rev_7:16-17. (Starke).—All true refreshing, whether in this life, or in the eternal world, must come from the presence of the Lord. (ib.).

Act_3:21. The threefold restoration: I. It did occur, when the way of salvation, under the new covenant, was opened; II. It does occur, when we are converted; III. It will occur, in the consummation of the world. (A. F. Schmidt: Predigtstud.).

Act_3:22. Christ and Moses: the relation in which the latter stands to Christ, is like, I. That of prophecy to the fulfilment; II. That of the law to the Gospel; III. That of a servant to the son, [Heb_3:5-6]. (Leonh. and Sp.).

Act_3:22-24. Christ, a prophet; nevertheless, more than a prophet:I. He teaches the way of God in truth; yet he is himself the way to the Father; II. He prophesies: yet he is the great object and the end of all prophecy; III. He is anointed with the Holy Spirit; yet he himself sends the Spirit. (ib.)—The prophet of the new covenant: I. Who is he? II. What call did he receive? III. What duties do we owe to him? (Langb.).—Christ, the heart and life, I. Of the Scriptures; II. Of believers; III. Of the history of the world.—“All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen.” [2Co_1:20].

Act_3:25-26. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant! These are words that, I. Are full of promise; II. Impose a solemn responsibility.—In Act_3:26, which recapitulates the prominent thoughts of the preceding discourse, Jesus appears as the true Isaac (the son of joy), the son of Abraham (the father of a multitude), who was himself the progenitor of the true Jacob = Israel (the struggling and conquering people of the Spirit). (Stier: Reden d. Ap.).

ON THE WHOLE SECTION.

The threefold witness which Peter bears of Christ: I. In him all the miracles of God are combined, Act_3:12-17; II. In him all men can find salvation, Act_3:18-21; III. In him all prophecy is fulfilled. (Lisco).

To the Lord alone be all the glory given! Peter unfolds and applies this thought, by directing attention, I. To his own and John’s powerlessness, Act_3:11-12; II. To the sin of his hearers and the whole people, Act_3:13-17; III. To the glorious testimony which God bore to Christ, Act_3:18-24; IV. To that great salvation which was offered in Christ to all the people, Act_3:25-26. [The fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament (Act_3:18; Act_3:21-24]: I. The mode; (a) sometimes delayed (2Pe_3:4, reasons); (b) often in an unexpected form (Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Joh_1:45-46); (c) always certain (divine attributes); II. The purpose; (a) to demonstrate the truth of revealed religion; (b) to confirm the faith and the hopes of the people of God; (c) to glorify God in Christ; III. Lessons; (a) teaching us—to adore God devoutly; (b) to study the prophetic word diligently; (c) to demonstrate the sincerity of our faith in God by our zeal in his service. —Tr.]

Footnotes:

[4]Act_3:11. The words τοῦ ἰαθἐντος χωλοῦ [of text. rec.; the authority not stated], were substituted in the text for αὐτοῦ, as an ecclesiastical lection [select portion of the Scripture] began at Act_3:11. [So Meyer.—The words are omitted by A. B. C. E. and Cod. Sin., all of which read simply αὐτοῦ; Syr., Vulg., etc.—Tr.]

[5]Act_3:12. a. In place of εὐσεβεία, several ancient versions read ἐξουσία, which seemed to derive support from δυνάμελ. [εὐσεβ., translated holiness in the Engl. Bible, is uniformly rendered godliness in the 14 other places in which it occurs in the N. T.—Tr.]

[6]Act_3:12. b. The reading ὡς ἡμῶν—πεποιηκότων instead of ὡς—πεποιηκόσι [of text. rec. with the other uncial MSS. and Cod Sin.] is but feebly supported by MSS., [by D.] and is apparently a correction intended to add strength to the original.

[7]Act_3:13. a. Some MSS. have ὁ θεὸς Ἀβρ. κ. θεὸς Ἰσ. καί θεὸς Ἰακ. [So Lachm. and Born, read, in accordance with A. C. D. Cod. Sin. Vulg., etc.; Alford adheres to the text. rec. with B. (e sil) E., and rejects the other reading as a later “correction to suit LXX. Exo_3:6, and Mat_22:32.”—Tr.]

[8]Act_3:13. b. μέν [omitted, after ὑμεῖς in text. rec.] without a corresponding δὲ [Winer, § 63. 2. e], is sustained by important MSS. [by A. B. C. E. Cod. Sin.; Syr. Vulg. (quidem) etc.—Tr.]

[9]Act_3:15. [For Prince, the margin (Engl. B.) offers Author, from (Rheims, 1580, and) the Vulg. (auctorem); the latter is preferred by Alexander, Hackett, Owen, etc.—Tr.]

[10]Act_3:18. αὐτοῦ, (not αὑτοῦ), after Χριστόν, and not after τ. προφητῶν [as in text. rec.] is the reading which Bengel had already adopted, and which, more recently, Lachm. and Tisch. recognize, in accordance with important authorities. [B. C. D. E. Cod. Sin.; Vulg. etc. So also Alf.—Tr.]

[11]Act_3:20. The reading προκεχειρισμένον is to be preferred to προκεκηρυγμένον [of the text. rec. with many minuscules]; the latter, the far more easy reading of the two, is not sustained by good authorities; προκεχειρισ. is adopted by Bengel, Griesb. and recent editors. [In accordance with A. B. C. D. E. Cod. Sin.—Tr.]

[12]Act_3:21. a. τῶν, instead of πάντων of the t. rec. is adopted by Griesb., Lachm., [Alf.] etc., in accordance with weighty authorities [namely, A. B. C. D. and Cod. Sin. Vulg.—“πάντων, borrowed from Act_3:24, was intended to add strength to the original.” (Meyer).—Tr.]

[13]Act_3:21. b. The reading ἀπʼ αἰῶνος [of text. rec.] should be retained as genuine; it is wanting only in a few authorities. [Omitted in D., but found in A. B. C. E. Cod. Sin. Vulg., etc.—Tr.]

[14]Act_3:22. a. μέν without γάρ is far better sustained than μὲν γάρ, although the latter undoubtedly corresponds to the logical connection. [μέν, alone, in A. B. C. D. E. Cod. Sin.—Alf reads: Μω. μὲν εἶπεν ὅτι.—Tr.]

[15]Act_3:22. b. πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας, in some MSS. before, in others, after εἶπεν, is a later addition, and, in accordance with high authorities, is cancelled by Lachm. and Tisch. [and by Alf.; found in few MSS.; omitted by A. B. C. Cod. Sin. Vulg., etc.—Tr.]

[16]Act_3:24. προκατήγγειλαν [of text. rec.] is an attempted correction of the simple form κατήγγειλαν; the latter is well sustained [by A. B. D. E. Cod. Sin., etc.—Tr.]

[17]Act_3:25. The article is omitted before υἱοὶ in the text. rec. [with D.] but is sufficiently sustained. [By A. B. C. E. Cod. Sin.—Tr.]

[18]Act_3:26. Ἰησοῦν after αὑτοῦ [of text. rec. with A. B.], is an addition, which is not sufficiently sustained in order to be admitted. [Omitted by C. D. E. Cod. Sin. Syr. Vulg., etc. Alf. says: “All such additions, if at all the subject of variations, are spurious.”—Tr.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 3:11. [Πᾶς ὁ λαὸς, all the people) consisting of those who had met together for public prayer, Act 3:1.—V. g.]—ἔκθαμβοι, exceedingly amazed) This comprehends amazement and ecstasy.

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

Act_3:11. Κρατοῦντος] But as he held fast Peter and John, i.e. in the impulse of excited gratitude took hold of them and clung to them, in order not to be separated from his benefactors. Comp. Joh_20:23; Rev_2:25; Rev_3:11; Son_3:4 : ἐκράτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐκ ἀφῆκα αὐτόν. Polyb. viii. 20. 8; Eur. Phoen. 600; Plut. Mor. p. 99 D. There is no sanction of usage for the meaning commonly given, and still adopted by Olshausen and De Wette: assectari. For in Col_2:19 κρατεῖν occurs in its proper sense, to hold fast; the LXX. 2Sa_3:6 is not at all in point, and in Achill. Tat. 5 :p. 309, ἐπεχείρει με κρατεῖν is: me retinere conabatur.

As to the porch of Solomon, see on Joh_10:23.

ἔκθαμβοι] the plural after the collective noun ὁ λαός. Kühner. ad Xen. Anab. ii. 1. 6. Ast, ad Plat. Legg. I. p. 63. Nägelsb. on the Iliad, ii. 278. Comp. Act_5:16.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 3:11 . κρατοῦντος : in his joy and gratitude, “holding them” in a physical sense, although it is possible that it signifies that the healed man joined himself to the Apostles more closely as a follower (Act 4:14 ), fearing like the demoniac healed by Christ (Luk 8:38 ) lest he should be separated from his benefactors, cf. Son 3:4 . ἐπὶ τῇ στοᾷ τῇ καλ . Σ .: better “portico,” R.V. margin; colonnade, or cloister (Joh 10:23 ). It derived its name from Solomon, and was the only remnant of his temple. A comparison of the notices in Josephus, B. J. , v., 5, 1; Ant. , xv., 11, 5 and xx., 9, 7, make it doubtful whether the foundations only, or the whole colonnade, should be referred back to Solomon. Ewald’s idea that the colonnade was so called because it was a place of concourse for the wise in their teaching has not found any support: Stanley’s Jewish Church , ii., 184; Edersheim, Temple and its Services , pp. 20, 22, and Keim, Geschichte Jesu , iii., 161. It was situated on the eastern side of the Temple, and so was sometimes called the Eastern Cloister, and from its position it was a favourite resort. τῇ καλ .: the present participle is used just as the present tense is found in the notice in St. John’s Gospel, chap. Act 5:2 (see Blass, Philology of the Gospels , pp. 241, 242), and if we cannot conclude from this that the book was composed before the destruction of the Temple, the vividness of the whole scene and the way in which Solomon’s Porch is spoken of as still standing, points to the testimony of an eye-witness. Nösgen argues that this narrative and others in the early chapters may have been derived directly from St. John, and he instances some verbal coincidences between them and the writings of St. John ( Apostelgeschichte , p. 28). But if we cannot adopt his conclusions there are good reasons for referring some of these Jerusalem incidents to St. Peter, or to John Mark, see introduction and chap. 12. Feine rightly insists upon this notice and that in Act 3:2 as bearing the stamp of a true and trustworthy tradition.

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

Either because he loved them, who had healed him: or because he feared that if he once let them go out of his sight, he should be lame again.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the lame man . . . held, &c.--This is human nature.

all the people ran together unto them in the porch, &c.--How vividly do these graphic details bring the whole scene before us! Thus was Peter again furnished with a vast audience, whose wonder at the spectacle of the healed beggar clinging to his benefactors prepared them to listen with reverence to his words.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. Held Peter and John] He felt the strongest affection for them, as the instruments by which the Divine influence was converted to his diseased body.

In the porch that is called Solomon's] On this portico see Bp. Pearce's note, inserted in this work, Joh 10:23.

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

11. In the porch. It is like that there was a porch built in that place where Solomon’s porch was sometimes, and that it took the name therefrom. For the old temple was pulled down, but Zerubbabel and Ezra, ill the re-edifying and new building of the same temple, had imitated the same, so nigh as they could possibly devise. Afterward Herod renewed the same, and made it far more gorgeous, but that vain cost which he had bestowed had not yet blotted out the remembrance of Solomon in the hearts of the people. And Luke nameth the same as a most famous place, whereunto the people ran together (by heaps, to celebrate their feasts unto God at the times appointed.)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) In the porch that is called Solomon’s.—The porch—or better, portico or cloister—was outside the Temple, on the eastern side. It consisted, in the Herodian Temple, of a double row of Corinthian columns, about thirty-seven feet high, and received its name as having been in part constructed, when the Temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, with the fragments of the older edifice. The people tried to persuade Herod Agrippa the First to pull it down and rebuild it, but he shrank from the risk and cost of such an undertaking (Jos. Ant. xx. 9, § 7). It was, like the porticos in all Greek cities, a favourite place of resort, especially as facing the morning sun in winter. (See Note on Joh_10:23.) The memory of what had then been the result of their Master’s teaching must have been fresh in the minds of the two disciples. Then the people had complained of being kept in suspense as to whether Jesus claimed to be the Christ, and, when He spoke of being One with the Father, had taken up stones to stone Him (Joh_10:31-33). Now they were to hear His name as Holy and Just, as “the Servant of Jehovah,” as the very Christ (Act_3:13-14; Act_3:18).

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

11–26. St Peter’s discourse to the crowd

11. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter, &c.] The oldest MSS. give And as he held Peter, &c. The additional words have crept in from some marginal note of explanation.

the porch that is called Solomon’s] As the name of Solomon was so intimately connected with the Jewish Temple, it is natural enough that one of its porches (or cloisters) should be called after him. There is no account of any such porch in Solomon’s own Temple, but Josephus tells us (Ant. xx. 9. 7) that there was an eastern porch in Herod’s Temple called by this name. The mention of this feature in the building is a sign that the writer, from whom St Luke drew, was one acquainted with the localities about which he speaks, and that the account was written before the fall of Jerusalem, or he would not have said is called, or if he had done so would have been convicted of inconsistency of language by those to whom his work was first presented.

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.

And as the lame man which was healed,.... This is left out in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and in the Alexandrian copy, which only read, and as he

held Peter and John; by their clothes or arms, either through fear, lest his lameness should return on their leaving him; or rather out of affection to them for the favour he had received, and therefore hung about them, and was loath to part with them; unless it was to make them known, and point them out as the authors of his cure, that they might be taken notice of by others, and the miracle be ascribed unto them:

all the people ran together unto them; to the man that was healed, and to Peter and John, when they saw him standing, walking, and leaping, and clinging about the apostles; who were

in the porch that is called Solomon's; See Gill on Joh 10:23.

greatly wondering; at the man that was cured; at the cure that was wrought upon him; and still more at the persons who did it, and the manner in which it was done.

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

11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

Ver. 11. Held Peter and John] Fearing perhaps lest, if he should lose them, he should lose his limbs again. So that demoniac, Mar 5:18.

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.

Held Peter and John - The word “held” means that he “adhered” to them; he “joined himself” to them; he was desirous of “remaining” with them and “participating” with them. “He clung to his benefactors, and would not be separated from them” (Prof. Hackett).

All the people ... - Excited by curiosity, they came together. The fact of the cure and the conduct of the man would soon draw together a crowd, and thus furnish a favorable opportunity for preaching to them the gospel.

In the porch ... - This “porch” was a covered way or passage on the east side of the temple. It was distinguished for its magnificence. See the plan and description of the temple, notes on Mat 21:12.

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

As he held Peter and John. That is, kept close by them, and with them, out of joy and gratitude. (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).

Held Peter and John, in an ecstasy of thankfulness unto them, they having been the instruments of so great a mercy from God towards him; as also out of fear, lest when they were gone he might relapse: he that found so great a change in himself could not but be as much surprised as they that saw the change upon him.

The porch that is called Solomon’s; not that which was built by Solomon, for that was destroyed by the Babylonians, as the rest of the temple was, 2Ki 25:9; unless some part of this porch might not be consumed by the fire, when the other parts of the temple were burned, some morsel often escaping the jaws of that devouring element, fire; or it may be it was built in the re-edification of the temple, in the same place where Solomon’s porch had stood, and thence called by the former name that was so much remembered. If any wonder that a porch should hold so many thousands of people, inasmuch as five thousand of them are said to be converted, Act 4:4; this porch is thought not only to have been the court of the Gentiles, and that of the Jews, that is, the outward and inward court; but to have contained a great part of the court of the Gentiles, if the whole court of the Gentiles might not be so called, as being indeed but a porch, or an entrance into the court of the Jews.

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

11. Held Peter and John—Luke presupposes that as they went into the temple (Act_3:8) worship and sacrifice were duly performed, and that they are now returning out. The lame-born during that time held, that is, closely adhered, or clung, to the apostles, and thereby marked them out to the devout multitude as authors of the deed.

All the people—The out-coming worshippers.

Ran together—Collected in a dense crowd.

Porch… called Solomon’s—It was in the previous winter, probably, (as John narrates,) that John saw a crowd surround Jesus in a similar manner as this company surround himself and Peter in this same Solomon’s Porch. (See notes on Joh_10:23.)

Solomon’s Porch, as above noted, was formed by the rows of pillars sustaining a roof of Lebanon cedar parallel to and joining upon the inner side of the great eastern wall of the court of the Gentiles through its whole length. It bore the name of Solomon either because it was a part of Solomon’s original work, or, more probably, because it was based upon the ground of a filled-up valley, upon which ground stood, in the first temple, a similar porch built by Solomon. The crowd has therefore moved from the court of the women across the court of the Gentiles, on its way out of the temple enclosures.

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

He for the lame man which was healed, A.V. and T.R. The words of the T.R. are thought to have crept into the text from the portions read in church beginning here, which made it necessary to supply them. Held; by the hand or otherwise; not have to in the spiritual sense. The porch that is called Solomon"s. Josephus tells us that King Solomon built up with masonry only the eastern side of the temple enclosure, and that upon the artificial foundation thus formed one stoa, or covered colonnade, was built, the other sides of the temple in Solomon"s time being naked and bare of buildings, but that in process of time, and by an enormous expenditure of treasure, the ground was filled up, leveled, and made firm by the masonry of huge walls all round, and then the circuit of buildings was completed. This eastern stoa, or colonnade, was called Solomon"s porch. (see Joh_10:23) Greatly wondering; ekqamboi, (see note on ver. 10).

Vers. 11-21. The human and the Divine.

Human and Divine elements are here crowded together, as indeed they are in most if not all of the events of our life. We look at

I THE HUMAN ELEMENT.

1. Excitement. The man who had been lame, in the excitement of joy and gratitude, "held Peter and John" (ver. 11), and "all the people ran together greatly wondering" (ver. 11). In the region of the Divine is calmness, serenity, peace; in that of the human is agitation, disturbance, excitement.

2. Instrumentality. (Ver. 12.) We do not effect anything of ourselves; we are co-workers with God. We depend on his Divine assistance, on the cooperation of forces that are acting around and within us, in virtue of his energizing power, for the accomplishment of our humblest undertakings. How much more emphatically is this the case in the sphere of sacred usefulness, in the communication of spiritual life! There should be, there must be, as in the case of Peter and John, fitness for the work and obedience to the word and will of Christ; but after all it is not "our own power or holiness" that "makes any man to walk" in the ways of God.

1. Guilt, qualified by ignorance. Peter charges his hearers with positive and terrible crime (vers. 13-15); he does, indeed, make the abatement which is due to ignorance (ver. 17): they did not "kill the Prince of life," knowing that it was he whom they were crucifying. But they remained in guilty ignorance of his origin, his character, and his mission; and their ignorance, if it palliated, did not excuse their crime. We also often "know not what we do" when we wrong the innocent, when we sin against ourselves, when we rob God of the glory due to his Name. Our ignorance is not left out of the account by the Holy and the Just One; nevertheless he adjudges us to be verily guilty, and he condemns us.

2. Penitence. (Ver. 19.) We are to be changed in our mind, and be converted or turned from our evil ways to those which are right, pure, godly.

3. Faith. (Ver. 16.) Peter says that "faith in the Name" of Jesus Christ had given the lame man that "perfect soundness" which they all beheld. He does not say, or is not reported as saying, that these "men of Israel" must believe in him whom they had guiltily slain, but that was either implied or expressed in his address to them. "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," is the testimony borne by apostles "both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks". (Act_20:21)

II THE DIVINE ELEMENT.

1. Overruling wisdom. (Ver. 18.) What God had shown beforehand needed to be done, he had, in the ordering of his holy providence, caused to take place. Through all these things which happened at Jerusalem, in which the hand of man had so large a share, there ran a thread of Divine agency; so that purposes of heavenly love and wisdom were after all fulfilled. He still "makes the wrath of man to praise him.

2. Glorifying the Just and Holy One. (Vers. 13, 15.) God is bringing many sons unto glory, as well as the "Captain of our salvation." He will ensure the ultimate acquittal and honoring of those who are reviled and wronged. "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.

3. Restoration. (Vers. 12, 19-21.) It was the Divine hand, and no human magic, which healed this lame beggar (ver. 12) It is the hand of God which gives such blessed recuperative power to our bodily system, and which raises the sick man from the bed of suffering, weakness, acute disease, to newness of physical life. It is God who grants to the condemned but penitent spirit restoration to his loving favor ("that your sins may be blotted out"), and it is he who will one day grant to a renovated world "times of refreshing," the reappearance of Jesus Christ in his heavenly power and glory (vers. 20, 21). There is a sense in which

(1) there is much that is marvelous in the working and outworking of God; it is so far beyond our finite understanding. But there is also a sense in which

(2) there is nothing surprising in any acts of restoration or renovation we witness. It is only what we should ask for and expect of him. "Why marvel we" at that? C.

Vers. 11-26. Witness of Peter to Jesus.

A great congregation, in the mood of wonder and prepared to listen, is before him. He who had once denied his Master in a moment of weakness, is now enabled with great power to give testimony of him.

I A DISCLAIMER OF INDEPENDENT POWER OR MERIT IN THE APOSTLES. The note of a genuine mission. The false prophet and the magician neglect nothing that will enhance their supposed supernatural character. The apostles insist that they are but men, have no power of themselves, are the agents merely of a higher will. So, too, peculiar piety on their part is disclaimed. They did not aim at the reputation of saints; they refused to encourage the natural delusion that they must be better than other men. This was not the way to popularity, but the simple course of honest witnesses for God.

II THE RECENT EVENT TRACED TO ITS SOURCE.

1. God is the faithful God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of their fathers; these were dear and time-honored appellations. With these is now connected that of Father of Jesus. Thus the recent is united with the most ancient past. One unfailing bond of Divine constancy and love knits the ages into unity, and makes history the unfolding of an increasing purpose.

2. His love is illustrated by the contrast with human hate. They had repudiated the Holy and Just One, and had begged the life of a murderer in his stead. Blindly they had hurried the "Author of life" to an ignominious doom. But who can contend against God, his power, nay, rather, his love? The purpose of life is victorious over human passion, and God will not suffer men to work out their suicidal intents to the full. The Resurrection, be it insisted, then, is the crowning proof of indefeasible constancy and will to save men in their own despite.

3. The energy to heal ever flows from the risen Christ. Faith is the condition of being blessed. It is the movement of the whole soul towards the Divine Benefactor. It is the junction of the human with the Divine will, and is the one principle of salvation.

III DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PAST. History, and every portion of it, contains a Divine logic. Every study of it is idle which does not end with the question What is the meaning for the present? What resolve is to be taken? What duty now to be discharged? The paths of experience converge towards one goal.

1. The crucifixion of Jesus had been an act of ignorance. They "knew not what they did;" neither people nor rulers. It was a mitigation of the crime, and divinely recognized. The acts of wrath are blind, and just judgment distinguishes between the evidences of passion and the evidences of ingrained perversity in man"s acts.

2. It was at the same time a fulfillment of prophecy. God permits evil means to work out holy ends. The happiest revolutions have often sprung from momentary ignition of wrath and resentment. The feeble human heart expends its little explosive force, and silently makes an opening for the march of a higher purpose. It was necessary that Christ should suffer. Every pleasure is the reaction from-a pain; every birth proceeds from travail; there is no deliverance without spiritual struggle. The most spiritual, the most living personality, must agonize and suffer most. This is the law. In the suffering of the "Leader of life" it finds its highest expression. Thus did Divine will confront human freedom, and the futility of resistance is shown. The very efforts of blind passion to defeat that will serve only to elicit its meaning. Like blows upon a vibrating substance, human sins draw deeper music from the heart of God.

IV PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. "Change your mind and turn." If we cannot influence the fixed course of things, it is wisdom to be influenced by it. If the Divine purpose is not to be bent aside for us, we must bend before it. We cannot change the course of fate, but we can change the course of our thoughts and actions. To persist in discovered error is like fighting against the stars in their courses. Sin, is only unforgivable when it is persisted in as sin. The constant promise of the gospel is that sin shall no longer be reckoned to a man, i.e. viewed as a fact of his life, when it has been corrected by the will. Our deeper thought teaches us that there is no time for God. Our "now" and its self-determination is the question. One solemn moment of decision converts the error of the way into the direction of truth and right.

V PROMISES OF FUTURE GOOD.

1. They are of indefinable grandeur and attraction. We cannot fully analyze the contents of any Divine promise. Its riches exceed definition and thought. At the same time, every promise has leading hints to guide faith and expectation. Here "times of refreshing" and the "sending of Jesus" form such hints.

2. They point to a goal of history. "The times of the restitution of all things." The golden age of paganism was in the remote past; that of Israel and of the gospel lies in the distant future. It rests, like all our good, upon nothing less sure than Divine will, and is the subject of prophetic oracles. To define is to limit and to narrow and to impoverish our noblest ideals. Let us be content, as Peter teaches elsewhere, to accept prophecy as a "light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn.

3. They are designed to guide conduct, not to explain the future fully. The prediction in the Law cited by Peter received many changing interpretations in the long course of its existence. The actual highest fulfillment was not recognized when it came. God ever fulfils himself unexpectedly. Meanwhile the delay of fulfillment keeps thought and hope awake.

4. The growth and increasing emphasis of prophecy. The sound dies not, but gathers in volume as it goes, filling the earth. Do we heed its sound now? Is there no voice of God for us in the instruction and warnings of the greatest spirits of our time? Every teacher who bids us strive and aspire towards the ideal, the kingdom of God in the spirit, is a prophet, and is charged with a measure of oracular power for his generation.

VI THE INHERITANCE OF THE PRESENT. We too are "sons of the prophets." God has spoken to us. Behind us lies the past, with its wonderful lore, its yet unsatisfied yearnings. We too are included in the Divine covenant of blessing. The process of events set in motion by the eternal Cause continues itself in us. The seed of his loving thoughts becomes fertile anew in the spirits of each succeeding generation, and appears in new blossom and fruit. Till "all countries of the earth" shall thus be sown and impregnated with the thoughts of God, the process shall continue. Away, then, with a dead theology which seeks for inspiration only in the fulfilled, not also in the fulfilling and the to be fulfilled. Let us believe in God, not merely because we know that he stirred in men"s souls in days of yore, but because we feel him stirring in our own souls now.

VII ORDER IN THE DIVINE PURPOSE. Israel first, next through Israel the nations are to be blessed. Spiritual force, like other force, must be concentrated that it may be diffused. Other nations have had light, but Israel the intensest. It is the moral consciousness which makes humanity; and in the turning from sin, men are in the way of all good, of growing good; the negation of evil is the affirmation of the principle of the spirit. J.

Vers. 11-26. A great sermon to a wondering multitude.

I The AUDIENCE.

1. Different from that previously gathered, which was made up of devout men chiefly, who were interested in the strange phenomenon of the tongues. This was a mingled multitude, partly of temple worshippers, partly of passers-by, including, therefore, many who were present, at the Crucifixion, who had shouted "Crucify him!

2. Their state of mind. Greatly wondering, ready to be taught, gazing inquiringly at the apostles, almost worshipping them. Strange that they should be so affected after having beheld the miracles of the Lord. Probably already deeply touched and filled with remorseful feelings by the Crucifixion, beginning to believe in the Resurrection, and so filled with alarm lest they had incurred the righteous wrath of God. Peter saw it," that is, the signs of an awakened mind and softened heart. He "answered," perhaps cries of astonishment and inquiry.

II THE SUBJECT OF DISCOURSE. Not the miracle as a miracle, but the Messiahship of Jesus, as proved by it, and its practical bearing on those present.

1. The facts of the gospel are set face to face with the words of Scripture. The agency of man is shown to be entirely under the control of an overruling Providence, "the determinate counsel of God." Thus the greatness and graciousness of the faith is at once clearly revealed. The miracle falls into its place as a sign of the Divine working. It is the Name of Christ to which all is to be ascribed. As the multitude were unconscious agents in fulfilling the prophecies, so the apostles are simply ministers proclaiming the gospel, inciting their brethren to believe.

2. The nearness of the kingdom of God is made the ground of an earnest call to repentance and faith. The tremendous responsibility of such a time is declared. If God has been working, how can he pass by the willful disobedience and neglect of those to whom such a message is sent?

3. The day of grace is heralded. While the guilt of a Savior"s crucifixion is boldly pronounced, the gate of life is flung wide open. Peter uses his key well. Times of refreshing and gladness will come if impenitence does not hinder them. Jesus has been sent to bless you, not to curse you; to offer up the blood you shed on your behalf, not to call it down upon your heads, as you did in your blind passion. It was an appeal from fear to faith. Behold the power, but understand that the power is not death, but life. Believe and live. A truly gospel message.

III AN EXAMPLE OF APOSTOLIC EARNESTNESS.

1. Thoroughly pervaded by the spirit of faith. Look, not on us, nor on the healed man, but on Christ. The power and the holiness (or godliness," Revised Version), is not ours, but God"s. We are mere earthen vessels. The excellency of the power is God"s. The firm persuasion which gave boldness to the preacher was not mere natural eloquence, or physical strength, or temporary elevation in the eyes of the multitude; but a scriptural faith, which rested on the fulfilled promises of God, which saw the facts in the light of eternal truth, which grasped the hope of the future restoration of all things.

2. Directness of appeal. They were not afraid of their faces. They spoke to their consciences. The guilt of the crucifiers is charged home upon them. We succeed best with men when they feel our hand grappling their conscience; if only they believe in our sincerity and faithfulness. Yet the apostles could not know how such a charge would be taken. Wonder might be changed in a fickle multitude into self-justification and rage against the prophet who said, "Ye are the men." Compare in this respect the New Testament prophets with those of the Old Testament.

3. Sympathy and love to souls. Nothing like inhuman pressing the charge or denunciation. They are "brethren" still. They did it "in ignorance." They can yet be blessed and saved. There is "perfect soundness" for them if they will have it.

4. Inspired wisdom and heavenly skill. They were taught of God" how to speak. The startling message comes first, "Ye are guilty;" then the Scripture exposition leading on to the loving appeal at the conclusion. Our last note should always be love. Yet the golden thread of gospel faithfulness must run through all. A model of preaching. Make the beginning, middle, and end, Christ. But let it be Christ the Savior from sin; not Christ the mere Teacher, or Example, or Mystery of God; but the Messenger of peace to dying souls. The sermon, doubtless, is given only in rough sketch, for it probably occupied some time, as the miracle was wrought about three o"clock in the afternoon, and the sermon was interrupted in the evening. There was time for a discourse of more than an hour, so that we may suppose the facts and arguments considerably amplified in the delivery. It would seem that some two thousand were converted between the day of Pentecost and the close of Peter"s sermon in Solomon"s porch. It is, therefore, likely that a large proportion of that number owed their conversion to this sermon; and they were many of them of the populace. Their identification with the Church would, therefore, give great weight to the message, which would be remembered and repeated in substance through the city, and hence handed down to the writer of the Acts. We cannot do better than study such models of simplicity and earnestness, if we would be blessed with similar success among the people. R.

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

11. Now the apostles have entered Solomon’s porch, running the entire width of the temple, fronting eastward. Meanwhile the ecstatic man so miraculously healed at the Beautiful Gate is holding them by the hand in adoring gratitude, leaping and skipping and shouting aloud, while the vast multitude running from all directions are gazing with unutterable bewilderment upon the scene, as the Greek says, “exceedingly excited.”

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11-15. The apostles took a position in one of the open colonnades which faced the inner side of the temple wall, called Solomon's Portico. (11) " And while the lame man who was healed was holding fast Peter and John, all the people ran together to them on the portico called Solomon's, greatly wondering. " The admiration of the multitude was directed toward Peter and John; and was understood by Peter to indicate that they attributed the cure rather to the singular holiness of himself and John, than to the power of their master. He determined to take advantage of the circumstances, by turning their excited thoughts into the proper channel. (12) " Then Peter, seeing this, answered to the people, Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you look earnestly on us, as though by our own power or piety we have caused this man to walk? (13) The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and rejected in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to let him go. (14) But you rejected the holy and just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you; (15) and you killed the author of life, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. "

In this passage the apostle makes the same statement, in substance, with which he introduced the main theme of his former discourse. The antithetical style adopted on this occasion gave to it a force scarcely excelled by his former discourse, while it was even more penetrating to the consciences of his hearers. The fact that the God of their fathers had glorified Jesus, is contrasted with the fact that they had delivered him up to die; their refusal to let him be released, with the cruel Pilate's determination to let him go; their rejection of one holy and just, with their demand that a murder should be released to them; and their murder of him, with his authorship of all life. These four points of antithesis form the four steps of a grand climax. Whom the God of our fathers glorified, you have delivered up to die. Your criminality is heightened by the fact, that when even a heathen judge declared him innocent, and desired to release him to you, you rejected him. Even this does not express the enormity of your guilt, for you yourselves knew him whom you rejected to be holy and just, and preferred the release of one whom you knew to be a murderer. But above all, in murdering him, you put to death the author of life, who has arisen from the dead. We might challenge the pages of all the classics for a climax more thrilling in its effect upon the audience, or for a happier combination of climax and antithesis. The effect upon the multitude was overwhelming. The facts declared were undeniable, except the resurrection, and of this the men who had just healed the cripple were the witnesses.

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.

11. Ran together … in the porch that is called Solomon's. The marvel assembled a concourse who gathered in Solomon's porch, a great covered portico of the temple, built on foundations that had been reared by Solomon, and hence called by his name.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

After healing the man who could not walk, Peter talks to the people.

General Information:

The phrase "in the porch that is called Solomon's" makes it clear that they were not inside the temple where only the priests were allowed to enter.

General Information:

Here the words "us" and "we" refer to Peter and John but not to the crowd to whom Peter is talking. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")

the porch that is called Solomon's

"Solomon's Porch." This was a covered walkway that consisted of rows of pillars that supported a roof, and which people named after king Solomon.

greatly marveling

"extremely surprised"

When Peter saw this

Here the word "this" refers to the amazement of the people.

You men of Israel

"Fellow Israelites." Peter was addressing the crowd.

why do you marvel?

Peter asks this question to emphasize that they should not be surprised by what had happened. AT: "you should not be surprised" (See: Rhetorical Question)

Why do you fix your eyes on us, as if we had made him to walk by our own power or godliness?

Peter asks this question to emphasize that the people should not think that he and John had healed the man by their own abilities. This could be written as two statements. AT: "Do not fix your eyes on us. We did not make him walk by our own power or godliness" (See: Rhetorical Question)

fix your eyes on us

This means that they looked intently at them without stopping. AT: "stare at us" or "look at us" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

Peter

John (the apostle)

Solomon

amazed

Israel

power

godly

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11–26. ST PETER’S DISCOURSE TO THE CROWD

11. αὐτοῦ instead of τοῦ ἰαθέντος χωλοῦ with אABCDE. Vulg. ‘cum teneret autem Petrum.’

11. Σολομῶντος. As the name of Solomon was so intimately connected with the Jewish temple, it is natural enough that one of its porches (or cloisters) should be called after him. There is no account of any such porch in Solomon’s own temple, but Josephus tells us (Ant. xx. 9. 7) that there was an eastern porch in Herod’s temple called by this name. The mention of this feature in the building is a sign that the writer, from whom St Luke drew, was one acquainted with the localities about which he speaks, and that the account was written before the fall of Jerusalem, or he would not have said ‘is called,’ or if he had done so would have been convicted of inconsistency of language by those to whom his work was first presented.

ἔκθαμβοι is in the plural, because the notion of λαὸς is a plural one.

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.

11-26.] The discourse of Peter thereupon.

11. κρατοῦντος] holding, physically: not spoken of mental adhesion, but of actual holding by the hand or arm, that he might not be separated from them in the crowd, but might testify to all, who his benefactors were.

στοᾷ τῇ κ. Σολομ.] See Joh 10:23, note.

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

The lame man which was healed. The best texts omit. Render as he held.

Held [κρατουντος] . Held them firmly, took fast hold. The verb from kratov, strength.

Greatly wondering [εκθαμβοι] . Wondering out of measure [εκ] . Compare wonder. (ver. 10).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.