Acts 9:31

FLOURISHING STATE OF THE CHURCH IN PALESTINE AT THIS TIME. (Act 9:31)

Then had all the churches rest--rather, "the Church," according to the best manuscripts and versions. But this rest was owing not so much to the conversion of Saul, as probably to the Jews being engrossed with the emperor Caligula's attempt to have his own image set up in the temple of Jerusalem [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 18.8.1, &c.].

throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria--This incidental notice of distinct churches already dotting all the regions which were the chief scenes of our Lord's ministry, and that were best able to test the facts on which the whole preaching of the apostles was based, is extremely interesting. "The fear of the Lord" expresses their holy walk; "the comfort of the Holy Ghost," their "peace and joy in believing," under the silent operation of the blessed Comforter.

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

Act_9:31

Then had the Churches rest.

Quiet times

The right use of quiet times is a great secret of Christian living. Human life is made up of alternations of storm and calm, of trouble and rest. It is so with the life of an individual, a nation, or a Church. The earlier part of this chapter indicated a time of trouble. But now the chief persecutor has himself felt the force of truth. Then again the Emperor Caligula was making an impious attempt to place his own image in the Temple, and so the attention of the Jews was wholly occupied with plans for frustrating his design. They had no time to persecute. So the Churches had peace: how did they use it? Did it make them indolent, unfruitful, unfaithful, quarrelsome? Two things are said of them: they were--

I. Edified.

1. The whole Church is one building, planned by one Architect, carried on by one Builder, designed for one end, to be the habitation of God. This thought is full of comfort. It shows us that however small the place of each one, yet each one has his place, and that, if it be not filled, there is a blank, be it ever so small. Is not that honour enough? Does it not say to each, See that thy place be not a blank, or worse?

2. The Church of each land, age, town, is a building. It may be but a fragment, a buttress, or a pinnacle of the universal Church; but you all know how any building would look if one buttress fell; and therefore you will not count it a small thing if some such position belongs to our community. This congregation of ours is a building. Is it then being built up? is it rising, in solidity, unity, beauty? is it giving signs, more and more, of its destination as a habitation of God?

3. Each human soul is a building. What a question is it, for each one, How is that building which is I myself, getting on? Are the foundations deeply and soundly laid in the faith of Christ? Is the superstructure rising day by day gradually, regularly, quietly, yet consciously, perceptibly, visibly? Am I growing in grace? more and more prevailing over sinful passions? better able to do the work which He has given me? Times of tranquillity ought to be times of edifying: alas I too often they are times of suspended energy.

II. Multiplied. A time of peace ought to be a time of outward as well as inward progress. It was so of old. How is it now? Is there zeal in founding or reinforcing missionary institutions? Alas! you know that with much philanthropy there is little gospel zeal amongst us; that, where a thousand pounds can be gathered for a work of charity, it is hard to collect ten for a work of piety. And is the Church at all multiplying at home? Can we point, by tens, or fives, or units, to new persons brought to be worshippers by agencies now working amongst us? We are not left in the dark as to how this may be done. The Church multiplies, by its own progress, in two things: walking in--

(1) The fear of the Lord, etc. Christ deserves not only our love but our fear. Does that seem strange? Is He not our merciful and faithful High Priest, the Propitiation for our sins. Yes! The words are written for our comfort, but not to make us careless about our sin. There is nothing which so solemnises the mind as the thought of an absolutely disinterested and unbounded love. It says of itself, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? To trample under foot the Son of God, to count the blood of the covenant, wherewith we are sanctified, an unholy thing, must indeed be of all crimes the blackest and the most fatal. And that is what men do every day for want of this very fear of which the text speaks. To walk in the fear of Christ is one-half of Christianity.

(2) And then, so walking, there is room for the comfort of the Holy Ghost. This is not a mere soothing influence within; it is a cheering power without also. The same word is rendered exhortation. God comforts by cheering on; by encouraging to action. We may try the reality of our comfort by this one test: Does it stir me up and spur me on to action? Does it say not, Rest from work, but, Rest in working? (Dean Vaughan.)

I. The different parts of the description here given.

1. The Churches were edified. A Church may be edified by the addition of new members. The Church is a building, and those added to it are living stones; and by the addition of such stones the spiritual temple advances to completion. Such, however, cannot be the meaning of the word here; it means rather, Growth in grace; advancement in the principles and fruits of Divine love. The Churches were composed of individuals, and as the wealth of a country consists in the aggregate wealth of the individual inhabitants, and the national wealth increases in proportion as the wealth of individuals increases, so with the Church. If we desire the edification of our own Christian society or the Church of God generally, the first requisite is our seeking personal advancement in knowledge, faith, and holiness; and the second is our using all the appointed means for promoting the same among our brethren. Edification includes--

(1) Growth in knowledge. All other growth arises from this. There is a kind of knowledge which hinders edification. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. Knowledge that engenders self-conceit tends to the destruction of love; and whatever opposes love is a foe to all genuine spirituality and improvement. Yet there can be no edification without growth in the spiritual discoveries of the mind. The Bible contains the inexhaustible resources of wisdom, and the study of it is indispensable to edification.

(2) Increase in faith. This is the natural effect of growth in spiritual knowledge. The Word of God, like His other works, contains in it the marks of its Divine origin, and the more it is known the more its source will be perceived and felt.

(3) And connected with growth in faith there is a corresponding growth in all the graces and virtues of the Christian character. All the ingredients in the composition of inward, vital godliness, arise from the influence of Divine grace upon the heart and life, and must be in proportion to the growth of faith.

2. They walked in the fear of the Lord. This--

(1) Imparted a becoming solemnity to all their social meetings for worship, and a corresponding dignity and propriety to all who were present.

(2) Implies a sacred conscientious regard in all things to His authority.

(3) Suggests that this was the superior dominant principle, and that the fear of man was suppressed and kept in control.

3. They walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Edification and practical godliness were associated with spiritual enjoyment. The comfort of the Holy Ghost is comfort of which the Spirit of God is the great Author. To walk in this comfort is to enjoy harmony within, and to display it externally to have the powers of the mind and the affections of the heart engaged in duty. This comfort, then, is not an indolent, inactive enjoyment. It is only to be found in active service, not in a life of ascetic seclusion, or in feelings of spiritual epicurism. There is an intimate connection between walking in the fear of the Lord and walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. All pretensions to the latter without the former are vain. There is no true legitimate comfort from the truths of God except to those that walk in the ways of God.

II. The connection subsisting between them and especially between the character of the churches with their multiplication. An undue regard to members has often done incalculable mischief. Increase is desirable, but it must be increase of those whose hearts are right with God. With Him respectability consists not in numbers but in character. He had a few names in Sardis who had not defiled their garments. But, as a corrupt body, the Church of Sardis is admonished, and there is joy before the angels of God. We rejoice more in an addition to than in the continued safety of the sheep. We delight in seeing all the jewels of the Saviours crown continuing to shine with pure lustre; but our delight is still more elevated when a new jewel is added to it. It is in this respect that missions to the heathen are so supremely interesting. Notice, then, a connection between--

1. Rest and edification. In the Church as well as in the state, times of difficulty and trial often call forth latent powers, and produce remarkable men where they were least expected; but it too generally happens that to the members of a persecuted body such seasons are not times of steady thought, and deliberate and persevering study of Divine truth, and consequently of general improvement. A state of rest, on the contrary, affords opportunities for much study of the Divine oracles; for private and social meetings for conversation, and prayer, and mutual excitement. Let it be a serious question whether the rest which we enjoy is duly improved by us for the purposes of edification?

2. Rest and increase.

(1) A state of rest affords opportunities and leisure to attend to the interests of others: for preaching and using without restraint all the means for the conversion of sinners.

(2) Rest sets others free from the fear of attending at the proscribed places where the obnoxious doctrine is taught. Good cannot be done to the souls of men unless they are brought under the sound of the gospel.

3. The state of the Church as described--increase. Where these characteristics obtain--

(1) The influence of the character of Churches upon the augmentation. In illustrating this we may observe--there is an augmentation of holy and active zeal for the glory of the Redeemer and for the salvation of souls, which God blesses with success.

(2) There is combined with the effort to promote the truth the practical exemplification of its influence. When the truth is recommended, not merely in words, but by the exhibition of its power--then, under the blessing of God, it makes a successful appeal to the consciences of men, and finds its way with efficacy to the heart.

(3) There must be a most spiritual, strengthening effect on those who minister in holy things, to preach the gospel. The sight of a listless, lukewarm, divided Church, will act like a heavy drag on the spirit of the pastor. But when the Church prospers, when the members become edified, and walk in the fear of the Lord, and when they are united, affectionate, zealous, steady, constant, prayerful--this is the very zest of a pastors life.

(4) The Church will be mighty in prayer. Prayer is a means of edification and a measure of its progressive amount. If believers are not growing in the spirit and exercise of prayer, they are not growing in grace. It is a common observation, and the principles of the Word of God lead us to believe it, namely, that revivals of religion have been preceded by more than an ordinary predominance of prayer among the people of God for the success of His cause in all lands.

(5) There is secured an increase of the blessing of the Redeemer, and of supply of His grace. Every branch in him that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. And this proceeds upon a general principle, elsewhere laid down by Him. Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, etc. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

The characteristics and multiplication of Christian Churches

I. The grand characteristics by which Christian Churches ought to be distinguished. We observe here--

1. The Church is governed by the practical influence of religion. The fear of the Lord is the scriptural equivalent for the whole of practical religion, and involves devout reverence of the Divine attributes, and continued obedience to the Divine commandments. Churches are places where impenitence and unbelief should never come; where the depravity of the human heart should be expelled by the energy of redeeming grace; where every heart should be imbued with the love, and should be devoted to the service of God, and where every individual soul should be growing and meetening for the possession of holiness in heaven! True it is that, from time to time, there come among our communities those who have not the fear of the Lord, but these are spots in our feasts of charity. They have no part and no lot in the matter.

2. Churches enjoying the consolations of religion. The comfort of the Holy Ghost signifies, of course, the comfort which the Holy Ghost, in His character of Comforter, is intended to bestow upon those who are truly walking in the fear of the Lord; and that comfort must be regarded as consisting in feeling that they are possessors of vital piety: of a personal sense of their interest in the work of redemption; taking away from them the spirit of fear, and implanting within them the Spirit of adoption, administering to them sufficient strength for all circumstances, and filling them with emotions of joy and gratitude. But the enjoyment of the consolations of religion must be regarded as arising from practical devotedness and eminence in piety. The inspired historian mentions one characteristic as a cause and the other as an effect. The Spirit administers comfort where the Spirit receives honour; and where the Spirit is grieved there the Spirit is restrained. His awakening influences precede, His consoling influences follow.

II. The blessings which Christian Churches, as thus distinguished, may anticipate. These Churches were multiplied.

1. There are two principles connected with this multiplication of Christian Churches. It is intimately connected--

(1) With the state of religion amongst those persons who belong to them. They were multiplied because they were walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The connection between the holiness of Christians and the conversion of sinners is in Scripture most distinctly stated. Let your light so shine before men, etc. (see also Php_2:14-16; 1Pe_2:11-12). If the unconverted world see you inconsistent they will be disgusted, but let them see you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and then the very meanest of you will be himself a powerful minister of religion, will become a living epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. Your communities will increase in reputation, and in augmenting numbers, and your spiritual privileges will be enjoyed by men, who but for your holiness would yet have remained in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, but whom you shall have to present, finally, as your glory, as your joy, and as the crown of your rejoicing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming.

(2) With their exertions. Every believer is set apart, not only for holiness, but for exertion; and if Christians be idle, in whatever class of life they may be found, they are guilty of the most shameful breach of trust. The Church at Jerusalem was one mighty mass of activity (Act_2:42, etc.). And when they were scattered abroad by persecution, every man was transformed into a preacher of the gospel (Act_8:4). Now this is the legitimate consequence of walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost; but it is too much undervalued and forgotten. Are ministers expected to be arduous and incessant, while their Churches are to remain indolent and torpid, just to coolly receive their message, or else to criticise their defects, and to be discontented at their want of success? There wants to be sent another Pentecostal fire, which shall touch all ranks and classes, kindling in their bosom the flame of that zeal which shall never be quenched till death.

2. This multiplication is a most desirable and happy event. There appears to be, in the language of the historian, an element of pleasure, but there are nominal Christians in modern times to whom it produces no pleasure at all to hear of the multiplication of Churches. There are two reasons, however, why this event is so desirable and so happy. Its intimate connection--

(1) With the promotion of the glory of God.

(2) With the present and final blessedness of man. (J. Parsons.)

Rest and prosperity of Churches

Our text--

I. Describes the Churches of the Holy Land.

1. Their nature.

(1) They were congregations, or assemblies, of good people. And they are described as being more than one in the same country.

(2) They were not material edifices; although I do not object to, but prefer, that application of the word.

(3) They were not promiscuous associations, constituted by chance, nominal profession, outward and involuntary rites; they were real Christians.

(4) They were not national communities, for we read not of a Church, but Churches.

2. Their quiet. Then had the Churches rest.

(1) This denotes the commencement, not the continuance, of a state of peace. Then--after the persecution of chap. 8:1-4. It was the calm after the storm, the joy coming in the morning, after the weeping that endured through the night, and therefore the more precious.

(2) The causes of this return of quiet.

(a) The conversion of Saul. The grace of God was exceeding abundant towards him. His opposition was destroyed, not by his punishment as a foe, but by his transformation into a friend. Is there no encouragement to us in this? His conversion is set forth by himself as a pattern of the power and the mercy of the gospel. Then let Christians pray.

(b) The solicitude and alarm of the Jews. At Alexandria the Jews suffered dreadfully from the Egyptians, and in Judea and elsewhere were in imminent peril of ruin. An attempt was made to bring the statue of Caligula unto the Holy of Holies, in consequence of some offence he had taken at the conduct of the Jews. Nothing could produce greater consternation. So they were too concerned about their own affairs to meddle with those of others. God can restrain the wrath of man, as well as make it praise Him. He can control the circumstances as well as change the character of our foes. Saul returned from pursuing after David when the Philistines invaded the land.

3. Their experience and conduct.

(1) They were edified--built up as lively stones, a spiritual house.

(a) When the storm ceased they set earnestly about the completing of their moral temple. Persecution is unfavourable to religious, as war is to secular, commerce. It dispirits, diverts attention, employs resources, and intercepts communication. Peace, however, permits the full and unfettered employment of the Churchs gifts and graces for their appropriate and appointed purposes. The Churches before us were edified when they had rest. Their principles became broader in their base, and more perfect in their symmetry. Their faith increased in intelligence and earnestness. As a natural result of this, they cherished and expressed that filial reverence for God which is called for by His majesty and mercy; and they sought and submitted to all the intimations and the influences of the Spirit of Christ.

(b) This was their course. They walked according to this rule. It was not an occasional, but a constant thing. It described them in their relations as men of the Church and as men of the world. And what was the result?

4. Their increase. Were multiplied. They received large accessions from the world. There was more Christianity, and so there were more Christians. Saints were sanctified, and sinners became saints. These are the two elements of Church prosperity, the two ends of Church association. Christians are thus connected that they may promote each others spirituality, and that, by the union of their graces and the combination of their energies, they may be as light to a dark, and salt to a corrupt world. And these two things are inseparably connected. The Church cannot grow in grace without diffusing grace.

II. Sets them before us for imitation. The text was written for our use. Consider--

1. The connection between the rest and the edification of these Churches. They had rest, and were edified. They made spiritual advancement while they enjoyed civil repose. They did not spend the season of calm in luxury and sinfulness.

(1) Often quiet deteriorates the Church. The favour of the world has been often far more injurious to her than its hatred and opposition. When the civil sword has been turned against the Church, she has often lived more abundantly; when that sword has been turned against the enemies of the Church, she has often as miserably died.

(2) Our text, however, says that rest is not ruin, of necessity. And all Churches in their condition may have this character. It is quite a mistake to regard affliction as indispensable to spirituality. And yet how familiar is the language, The Church is got into a bad state: it wants the fire of persecution to purge it from its dross. And if nothing but persecution would bring the Church into a good state, let it come, and the sooner the better. But Christians should not be dependent on the malice of their enemies for the welfare of their souls; nor can it be imagined that the wicked are the salt of the Church, without which it would speedily go into utter corruption.

(3) On the contrary, the rest of the Churches is both a motive and a means of their prosperity. We should be stimulated by gratitude to a devout and diligent employment of the privileges so peacefully possessed. And then it affords the occasion for devotedness. The attention is not diverted by danger. There is the power of a regular and undistracted attendance on all the institutions of Christianity. The mind is left free from a dispiriting anxiety to study the great things of Gods law, and the machinery of means can play away without injury or interruption. See you not how all this applies to us? We have rest in a fuller measure than the Churches of Palestine. What is, what ought to be, the effect? Alas! they are not the same thing.

2. The connection between the edification of these Churches and their increase.

(1) The piety of a people is necessary to the safe and profitable enjoyment of their increase. A Church not eminently holy may suffer from great multiplication. Enlargement will tend to vanity and self-sufficiency. Perhaps we may find in this the reason why some Churches remain so stationary. It would hurt them to be otherwise.

(2) It is for the benefit of those who are added to a Church that it should be greatly good. Who can think without concern and pity of a multitude of souls being joined to a worldly Church?

(3) The godliness of a Church is a prime means of its increase. God blesses an eminently spiritual Church. For there will be prayers with labours, not instead of them--the only prayers that God will hear. And those labours will possess a character of earnestness and uniformity. The spirit of self-denying love and zeal will pervade the entire body; he that heareth will say, Come; each individual, like his Master, will seek in order to save. Nor is this all. The holy character of a Church in itself has no mean influence in winning souls. The exhibition of holiness is calculated to arrest attention by its singularity, and to produce impression by its force. The religion of Christ has suffered more from the inconsistencies of its friends than the opposition of its foes; its professors have created more objections than they have answered; and the proof of its divinity may be drawn from its preservation in spite of its adherents. Had all Christians been like Jesus Christ, or anything like Him, the world would have become Christian. And the holiness of Christians is especially important in an so practical as our own. The question is being asked of everything, For what good? Christianity must stand the test--it has always claimed to be tried by it. It depends on Christians, however, what shall be the actual and immediate results of such a trial. For all these reasons, the sanctification of Churches is necessary to their proper spiritual extension. There is an extension which Christ does not approve, and which men do not profit by--an increase of dimensions which resembles that premature growth which issues in consumption, if not rather that extension of the body which takes place at death. But the legitimate enlargement of Churches must come of their internal prosperity. Would you, as Churches, be increased? You must be quickened. A revival of religion must commence with the religious. (A. J. Morris.)

Prosperous Churches

I. Their external circumstances. Rest. The hurricane of persecution was now hushed, and under the genial influence of peace they grew. Peace in the nation is the time to build houses and develop resources. Peace in nature is the time for sowing and cultivation. Persecution, like storms, may deepen the roots of piety when it exists, but is unfavourable to the dissemination of seed and the growth of fragile plants.

1. This external condition Churches in England now have. We can sit under our own vine, etc. Once our Churches were very differently circumstanced--e.g., under Mary and the Stuarts.

2. This condition we are bound to improve. Great is our responsibility. All the waste land should be cultivated. Every spot brown with barrenness should be made emerald with life.

II. Their mutual relation. There was--

1. Organic independence. These Churches are spoken of as distinct; they were doubtless distinct organisations, each having its own laws, managing its own affairs, and knowing no head but Christ.

2. Spiritual unity. They are all spoken of as belonging to one generic class, subject to one general condition, and pursuing the same order of life. And there is vital unity between all true Churches--the unity of spirit, aim, headship. They were all members of one body. That which really unites Churches is not unions, conferences, etc., but Christs spirit of truth, love, and goodness.

III. Their internal condition.

1. Living in godly reverence.

2. Receiving sacred influences.

IV. Their leading signs. Increase--

1. Of strength.

2. Of numbers. Strong Churches, like strong nations, will colonise. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Churches increased

I. What is meant by walking in the fear of God?

1. A habitual and profound veneration for His character and institutions.

2. A humble and unreserved submission to His authority. The influence of this fear will extend to all the powers and faculties of the soul. It will--

(1) Constrain the understanding to submit implicitly to the authority of Gods revealed will.

(2) Influence the will, rendering it pliable and submissive, and conforming it to the will of God.

(3) Control and regulate the affections.

(4) Guide and govern the imagination.

3. A holy jealousy of ourselves, end a watchful care to avoid everything which may grieve, displease, or provoke Him to forsake us. Now, as Churches are composed of individuals, it follows that when all or nearly all the members of a Church live under the habitual influence of this principle, the Church will walk in the fear of God; and all the duties which are incumbent on it will be diligently and faithfully performed. These duties are--

(1) To provide the means of grace and of religious instruction for itself, its children, and those who are immediately connected with it:

(2) To faithfully maintain the discipline of Christ in His house.

(3) To assemble at proper seasons for social worship.

(4) To take care of the religious education of its children.

(5) To assist feeble and destitute sister Churches with pecuniary aid according to their ability.

II. What is meant by walking in the comforts of the holy ghost? Having--

1. Peace of conscience, or peace with God, arising from a persuasion wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit that we are pardoned and accepted in the Beloved.

2. A strong and well-grounded hope, arising at times to a full assurance, that we are adopted into Gods family, and that consequently we have a title to all the privileges of His children.

3. Foretastes of the joys of heaven.

III. When the members of Churches habitually walk in this manner, great additions will be made to them. This is probable when we consider--

1. That such a life and temper will naturally and most powerfully tend to convince all around them of the reality and happy effects of religion, to remove their prejudices against it, and to show them that its possession is highly desirable.

2. That this state of things is exceedingly pleasing to God, and naturally tends to draw down His blessing. Them that honour Him He will honour.

3. That, when Churches walk in this manner, it proves that God is pouring out His Spirit upon them, and that a revival of religion is already begun. (E. Payson, D. D.)

Complementary forces in the Christian life

I. We are apt to regard these two forces--fear and consolation--as contradictory.

1. The fear of the Lord marks an abiding characteristic of the Christian life--i.e., the fear which dwelt in our Lord Himself must dwell in His disciples. Christ was heard in that He feared. He was penetrated by a sense of religious awe and conscientiousness, and was delicately alive to the will of His Father; and thus He had power with God and prevailed. The fear of the Lord, like the love or the glory of the Lord, is to be participated in by His disciples, and is altogether a noble thing. It is an anxious state of mind lest we should wound the love of God, violate the law of righteousness, or fail to reach the highest sanctification of character (1Pe_1:16-17).

2. The comfort of the Holy Ghost is also an indispensable element. As the name of Comforter as applied to the Spirit of God means also Helper, Advocate, so the idea of comfort implies that of efficient succour, and the idea of efficient succour that of comfort--the deep satisfaction imparted to the soul by the energy of the Spirit of God--strong consolation, as we have it in Hebrews. The primitive Christians felt this, and walked in its power. Some praise ancient heathenism because, amid all its absurdities, it was a cheerful religion. Now, it must be acknowledged that Christianity is not a cheerful religion in the sense in which they were. Christ brought out the deeper meaning of life, and we have far deeper reasons for seriousness than men could possibly feel prior to the Advent. The superficial hilariousness of pagan worship was an impossibility to those who knew the Holy One of Israel, who had seen the awful beauty of Christ, and who were expecting the manifestation of that perfect universe into which nothing can enter that defileth. But, on the other hand, Christ has given us such reasons for bravery and hope in the moral life as men never knew before. Do we fear lest we fail to realise the wondrous love of God? The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Do we tremble lest we fail to recognise the mind of God? When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. Do we shrink to contemplate the wide gulf which comes between us and the perfection of our Father in heaven? The Spirit assures us of sonship, and gives us the earnest of the promised inheritance, and urges us forward to share in Gods everlasting glory and blessedness.

II. So far from these two phases being, incompatible, they are complementary. In nature apparently contradictory forces blend, and in blending produce the grandest results. Widely as oxygen and nitrogen differ, they are complementary gases, and combined make the sweet and vital atmosphere. Attraction and repulsion are also complementary forces whose combined action preserves the universe in harmonic movement. So the resultant of the double action of the heart is life and health. Thus is it in Christian experience.

1. Fear is not inconsistent with--

(1) Peace. Then had the Churches rest,…walking in the fear of the Lord.

(2) Love. The disciple of love fell at his Masters feet as dead.

(3) Hope. Peter, who has so much to say about the terrible day of the Lord, is full of hope.

(4) The highest world and the fullest felicity. Those who stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of gold, sing, Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy.

2. And so comfort is not inconsistent with any grace of the Spirit. Thoughtfulness and a full assurance; a constant eye to the imperative ideal which is so far above us, and to the glorious grace dwelling so richly in us; a vivid sense of our high and holy calling, and of the dangerous path of pilgrimage which leads up to it; the recollection of the jealous God, and of the God keeping mercy for thousands; the anticipation of judgment and glory, are coordinate and cooperative moods in the working out of our salvation.

3. The danger lies in the omission of either.

(1) How faulty the piety in which fear has no place! in which there is no trembling before the holiness of God, no overwhelming sense of the gravity of our position, no gazing with awe into the dread eternity how surely mine! The brighter the star, the more it trembles; and the purest saints, the bravest heroes of all times, have stood in fear and in much trembling.

(2) Not less faulty is the piety in which comfort has no place--legal, tormenting, morbid religiousness! Pale sorrow must consort with blooming joy; weakness must lean on strength; sweet comfort must soothe awesome fear. Only in the equilibrium of these opposite forces do we attain the fulness of life and the fulness of its blessing. Our grandest moments arise in the union of two opposing emotions (Gen_28:16-17; Mat_28:8).

III. Whilst we cultivate both sentiments, we must maintain both in due proportions. Most of us are under temptation to yield this or that undue preeminence, and the reason is found both in our constitution and our circumstances.

1. To exaggerate the sentiment of fear is the peril of some. An old writer tells us of a strange tribe which dwelt in caves because they were afraid of the sunshine; many devout people are afraid of the sunshine of the mind. Such are burdened with a sense of imperfection, condemnation, peril, and are slow to consider the gracious aspects of the Divine character, the inspiriting and mighty aid of the Comforter. Let those of a certain temperament watch against this danger. Let God lead you into green pastures. Abound in hope, and you shall find yourself more than conqueror.

2. The peril of others lies in exaggerating the element of comfort. These chiefly ponder the element phases of religion, and remember that like as a father pitieth his children, etc. They dwell more on the promises of Christ than on His requirements. Those need to be reminded of the sterner side of things. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, etc. All our austere thinking must be relieved by gracious hope, and our bounding joy chastened by the hallowed fear. Rejoice with trembling.

IV. The text exhibits fear and comfort, not as alternative, but as co-existent and concurrent moods of the soul. At one and the same time they walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

1. The two streams ought to mingle in one full tide of feeling. Happy is the man that feareth alway, and blessed is he also who rejoices evermore, and in everything gives thanks. In the geologic world, for distinct and protracted periods, different gases prevailed; now you have the Carboniferous epoch, and then some other element predominates: but in the perfected earth the various gases mingle in due proportions, and the life and beauty of the whole orb are secured and perpetuated. In the cruder and more imperfect stages of our religious history, periods of anxiety are succeeded by periods of jubilation; but in the higher and riper development of the soul there is more simultaneousness in our moods, and they happily mingle in one deep and rich experience. In the Psalms we frequently find the most rapid transitions of thought, the mingling of most diverse emotion--gladness suddenly becoming thoughtful, and again, sorrow smiling through her tears. And the same comprehensive experience finds expression in the New Testament (2Co_4:8-10; 2Co_6:9-10). So far from deprecating this, we must regard it as Gods wonder-working order, and direct our self-culture accordingly. The artist ranges over the whole chromatic scale, and makes his picture so grand because the colours are so skilfully mixed; the musician rapidly passes from key to key, from stop to stop, and because he does so creates commanding music; thus in the believers life it is the constant concurrent appeal to law and grace, to responsibility and privilege, to the God of righteousness and the God of love, to heaven near and heaven distant, that finally gives to the character that full and finished beauty of which all artistic perfection is but the coarse figure.

2. The concurrence of these two habits of feeling secures the highest welfare of the soul. It was whilst the first Churches walked in this fear and comfort that they were edified and multiplied. The truest condition of Christian life is not found in the comparative absence of feeling. The text represents the soul as full of force and movement. A uniform experience is thought by some a satisfactory sign. The truth is far otherwise. How much grandeur would be lost to the world if the mountains were levelled; how much fruitfulness, and history, and poetry, and art! Somewhat thus is it with the soul. The true soul is full of great contending emotions, the upheavals and subsidences caused by the Spirit which worketh in us mightily; and in the exaltations and humiliations, the soaring hopes and lowly fears, the confidence which touches the heights and the apprehensions which reach the depths, lies the perfecting of the soul. The more life the more feeling, the more feeling the more life.

3. In an experience which contains the full measure and compass of feeling we secure the stability of the soul. The perfect lighthouse is a mighty column rising out of the rock, the very ideal of strength; yet it is a reed shaken with the wind, and because it bends it stands. It is thus with the highest and safest characters. There must be strength of mind, of principle, of faith, or it is impossible that we should bear the strain of life. And yet with all this there must be that sensitiveness which is ever the sign of sublimest strength. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Honourable fear

There is a filial fear. There is nothing more solicitous than love. A mother knows fear in connection with those children that she loves, but it is not degrading fear. The child, anxious to please, looks with waiting expectancy to see if its task has pleased father or mother. The child that is learning to write, or that is studying art, and, making sketches, brings them to the teacher or to the parent, comes with a kind of trembling apprehension lest they shall not be approved. That is honourable. That has the approval of affection itself, and it is ennobling. But the fear of anger, the fear of penalty, the fear of our own suffering and loss, is admirable only in very remote degrees, and occasionally, when other motives fail. And yet there is a filial fear, a love fear, which not only is permissible, but is honouring and uplifting. (H. W. Beecher.)

The Church at rest

Some men seem to think that the glory of the Church consists in being let alone. What they esteem above all other things is peace. A green mantling pool of what they call orthodoxy, with a minister croaking like a frog solitary--that is their conception of a Christian Church in a state of prosperity. But, according to the Bible, we are warriors. The battles we fight, however, are not battles of blood, but battles of love and mercy. We are sent to carry, not the sword and the spear, not rude violence, but conceptions of higher justice, nobler purity, wiser laws, and more beneficent customs. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. With these we contest, and we will contest, against rage and wrath and bitterness, knowing that He that called us and sent us is the God of battles, and will guide us and give us that victory which, if worth anything, is worth achieving in the severest conflict. For victories that are cheap, are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting. (H. W. Beecher.)

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

Act 9:31. Then had the churches — The whole body of Christian believers, with all their congregations, wherever they were dispersed; throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, rest — Ειρηνην, peace; their bitterest persecutor being converted. So some. But the peace they now enjoyed, Dr. Doddridge, with many others, thinks, “is by no means to be ascribed merely or chiefly to Saul’s conversion, who, though a great zealot, was but one young man, and whose personal danger proves the persecution, in some measure, to have continued, at least, three years after it. The period spoken of, therefore, seems to be that which commenced at, or quickly after, his setting out for Cilicia; and, as Dr. Lardner observes, this repose of the Christians might be occasioned by the general alarm which was given to the Jews, when Petronius, by the order of Caligula, attempted to bring the statue of that emperor among them, and set it up in the holy of holies; a horrid profanation, which the whole people deprecated with the greatest concern, in the most solicitous and affectionate manner. How long this peace, or rest, continued, we do not certainly know: probably till Herod interrupted it, as we shall see, chap. 12. And were edified — In faith and holiness. The word οικοδομουμεναι, thus rendered, is a figurative expression, properly a term of architecture, signifying the erecting or constructing the whole superstructure of a building upon a foundation. In this place it must signify, by analogy, that the churches were further instructed in the great truths of the gospel, and advanced in all the branches of piety and virtue; and walking — That is, speaking and acting; in the fear of the Lord — That is, under the influence of that principle; and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost — In the consolations afforded by his agency; were multiplied — By an accession of new members, whereby the damage sustained in the late persecution was abundantly repaired.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_9:32. Lydda.—The Old Testament Lod (Neh_7:37; Neh_11:35; 1Ch_8:12), now called Lucid. Described by Josephus (Ant., XX. vi. 2) as a village “not less than a city in largeness.” Named Lydda in 1Ma_11:34. After the destruction of Jerusalem it is often mentioned. Besides being the seat of a Christian community, it possessed for some time, like Jabne close by, a Rabbinical school. (See Riehm’s Handwörterbuch des Biblischen Allertums: art. Lod.)

Act_9:35. Saron, or Sharon, the Plain, meant the north half of the flat end lying along the Mediterranean shore, from Lydda in the south to Carmel in the north. “The whole goodly plain of Sharon is visible—from Mount Carmel on the north down to Lydda, from the eastern hills to the blue sea, now bathed in gold—a wilderness of weeds and thorn brakes, and yet a very paradise of colour and ever varying beauty” (Picturesque Palestine, iii., 146).

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_9:31-35

The Miracle at Lydda; or, the Healing of Æneas

I. The time.—

1. At the close of the persecution which arose on the death of Stephen. This must have continued three years, if the present paragraph chronologically succeeds the preceding. What occasioned the cessation of hostilities against the Christians can only be conjectured. The excitement raised by Gaius’s (Caligula’s) order to have his image erected in the temple, about A.D. 39 and 40 (Lardner, De Wette), may have diverted the attention of the Jews for a season from the apostles and disciples (Jos., Ant., XVIII. viii. 2–9).

2. During a period of Church rest and prosperity. This inevitably followed on the cessation of active measures of hostility against the Christians, and continued for a number of years, say from A.D. 39 to A.D. 44, when a fresh persecution was initiated against the Church by Herod Aprippa (Act_12:1). During this interregnum, the work of preaching, going forward in uninterrupted quiet, caused the ranks of believers to be largely augmented—the Holy Ghost constantly bearing witness to the truth.

3. While Peter was on a visitation tour among the saints. Whether “quarters” (Kuinoel) or “saints” (Bengel, Meyer, Hackett) be supplied after “all” the sense is the same, that Peter, encouraged presumably by the peace which prevailed, had undertaken a pilgrimage among the Christians in all the districts round about for the purpose of confirming them in the faith, and by evangelising of increasing their number.

4. When he had come to the town of Lydda. The Lud of the Old Testament (1Ch_8:12; Ezr_2:33; Neh_7:37; Neh_11:35) was a village lying between Joppa and Ramleh, on the ancient line of travel between Jerusalem and Cæsarea. It was at the time of Peter’s visit the seat of a Rabbinic School, and of a Christian community, established there probably as the result of Philip’s labours (Act_8:40).

II. The miracle.—

1. The patient. Æneas, probably a Hellenistic Jew, and most likely a disciple. His name has suggested the question whether the fame of Virgil’s poem had made the Trojan hero known even in the plains of Palestine (Plumptre). Besser, interpreting his name as “Man of Praise,” finds in it a beautiful suggestion of the joyous singer of God’s grace who was healed at the Beautiful Gate of the temple (Act_2:9).

2. The malady. Palsy. A paralysis in the limbs, which had rendered the patient bedridden for eight years. A minuteness of detail characteristic of Luke as a physician (compare Act_3:7; Act_9:18; Act_28:8).

3. The cure. Made whole.

(1) Easily; by a word.

(2) Instantly; without delay or lengthened process.

(3) Completely. He arose (compare Act_3:9) and made his bed (compare Joh_5:9), doing for himself what others for eight years had been doing for him.

(4) Really. Though Renan says that “Peter” only “passed for having cured a paralytic,” there is no reason to doubt that he actually did so.

4. The physician. Not Peter but Jesus Christ. “In the assonance of the Greek words (Ἰησοῦς ἰᾶταί σε) we may perhaps trace a desire to impress the thought that the very name of Jesus testified that He was the Great Healer. Such a paronomasia has its parallel in the later play upon Christian and Chrestiani = the good or gracious people (Tertull., Apoc., c. 3), perhaps also in Peter’s own language that the Lord is not Christos only but Chrestos = gracious (1Pe_2:3)” (Plumptre).

5. The prescription. “Arise and make thy bed.” Probably a reminiscence of the way in which Christ was accustomed to proceed in similar cures (Mat_9:6; Joh_5:8).

III. The result.—

1. The countryside was affected by the miracle. “All that dwelt at Lydda and in Sharon”—i.e., the plain extending along the coast from Joppa to Cæsarea, a distance of thirty miles, “saw” the man that had been cured, and were convinced of the reality of the miracle (compare Act_3:9).

2. Most of those who saw were by the sight converted. They believed the gospel Peter preached and turned to the Lord. The evidence of their eyesight was too strong to be gainsaid.

Learn.—

1. That the edification of the Church proceeds best in the time of peace.

2. That the best propagandists of Christianity are devout Christians.

3. That Christian ministers should avail themselves of every opportunity opened in providence for the prosecution of their sacred calling.

4. That the miracles of moral healing performed by Christianity are a powerful means of attracting men to faith.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_9:31. The Church of Jesus Christ.

I. Independent of territorial limitations.—“The Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria.”

II. Possessed of spiritual unity.—“The Church,” though existing in different localities.

III. Susceptible of growth.—Outwardly its number “was multiplied”; inwardly its religious life “was edified.”

IV. Distinguished by its walk and conversation.—“Walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.”

Act_9:33. The Healing of Æneas.

I. An affecting emblem of the sinful soul.—

1. Afflicted with a grievous malady. Sin, which, like a palsy, paralyses the soul’s powers.

2. Of long standing—not for eight years only, but from birth.

3. Incurable by human means. Even if Æneas’s malady might have been remedied by ordinary therapeutics, the soul’s cannot be removed by any known power or wisdom of man.

II. A cheering proclamation of the soul’s physician.—

1. His name, Jesus Christ—i.e., the Heaven-sent Saviour.

2. His presence—in the immediate vicinity of every sick soul, so that He can operate at once.

3. His power—able to make the soul whole, to heal its destroying malady of sin, to cancel the guilt and break the power of it—and to do this completely.

III. An authoritative declaration of the soul’s duty.—

1. To believe. In the revealed physician. In His name and character, His presence and power.

2. To appropriate by an act of faith the healing offered. Without this the soul could not arise.

3. To arise from its sinful—i.e., guilty and helpless—condition. Practically it is the soul’s duty, instantly on believing, to begin to lead a new life.

IV. A simple illustration of the power of faith.—The moment he believed, appropriated, and endeavoured, he arose a cured man. So is it always with them who believe and obey the prescription of the soul’s physician. They arise from their guilty and condemned condition—no condemnation (Rom_8:1). They shake off the fetters of sin’s bondage and enter into spiritual liberty.

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.

SECTION III

DURING PETER’S VISITATION OF THE CONGREGATIONS IN JUDEA, HE IS INDUCED BY A SPECIAL REVELATION FROM HEAVEN TO VISIT A GENTILE NAMED CORNELIUS, TO PREACH CHRIST IN HIS HOUSE, AND TO BAPTIZE HIM AND THOSE THAT WERE IN HIS HOUSE; THIS ACT OF PETER WAS AT FIRST REGARDED IN JERUSALEM WITH DISAPPROBATION, BUT WAS ULTIMATELY, AFTER THE EXPLANATIONS WHICH HE GAVE, VERY GLADLY COMMENDED

Act_9:31 to Act_11:18

A.—WHILE THE CONGREGATIONS IN THE HOLY LAND ENJOY REPOSE, AND CONTINUE TO FLOURISH, PETER VISITS THEM. DURING THIS PERIOD, HE HEALS ENEAS IN LYDDA, WHO WAS SICK OF THE PALSY, AND, IN JOPPA, RESTORES TABITHA TO LIFE

Act_9:31-43

31Then had the churches [church]23 rest [peace] throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified [was built up]; and walking [walked] in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were [and, by the exhortation of the H.G., was] multiplied. 32 And [But] it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, [went through all, that] he came down also to the saints which [who] dweltat Lydda. 33And there he found a certain man named Eneas which had kept his bed [who lay on his bed for] eight years, and was sick of the palsy [who was paralytic]. 34And Peter said unto him, Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole [Jesus, the Anointed One, healeth thee!]: arise, and make thy bed [the bed for thyself]. And he aroseimmediately. 35And all that dwelt at [the inhabitants of] Lydda and Saron saw him,and turned [then were converted] to the Lord. 36Now [But] there was at Joppa a certain [female] disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation [being interpreted] is called Dorcas [Gazelle]Acts 24 : this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds [mercy]which she did [practised]. 37And [But] it came to pass in those days, that she was sick [sickened], and died: whom when they had washed, they [then they washed herand] laid her in an upper chamber. 38And forasmuch as [But as] Lydda was nigh to [lies near] Joppa, and the disciples had [om. had] heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men,25 desiring him that he would not delay to come to them26 [and besought him: Delay not to come to us!]. 39 Then [But] Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him [conducted him up] into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by [came to] him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments [the under and upper garments] which Dorcas [Gazelle] made, whileshe was with them. 40But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him [, then turned] to the body [and] said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. 41And [But] he gave her his hand, and lifted [raised] her up; and when he had called [to] the saints and widows,he presented her alive. 42And it was [became] known throughout all Joppa; and manybelieved in the Lord. 43And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one [a certain] Simon [who was] a tanner.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_9:31. Then had the churches rest [the church peace].—This section prepares the way for the narrative of the conversion of Cornelius, which event constituted an epoch in the history of missions among pagans; the gradual approach of Peter to the vicinity of Cesarea is distinctly described. The connection with the facts previously related, is indicated by οὖν, but, probably, not in the sense that the peace of the church was directly connected with the conversion of Saul, its former persecutor, as the immediate result. Luke rather intends to resume the thread of the history by means of οὖν, which word he also elsewhere employs for a similar purpose (Act_8:4; Act_11:19), when the course of the narrative had been interrupted by an intermediate remark or a somewhat extended episode.—He describes, in Act_9:31, the state of the Christian church as one of external peace (εἰπήνη) and of internal growth in godliness, after the persecution which commenced with Stephen’s martyrdom had gradually abated, and, at length, entirely ceased. Here he names three provinces of Palestine, Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, as those in which Christian congregations existed. Several had been founded in Samaria, according to Act_8:12; Act_8:25, but none that existed in Judea, with the exception of the holy city itself, had hitherto been expressly mentioned. Still, we can easily conceive that Christian congregations had been formed in various villages and cities of Judea, as well as in Galilee, which latter province had, indeed, been the chief scene of the labors of Jesus, and was the home of the greater part of the apostles and disciples. If Samaria [the intermediate province] is mentioned in the last place, the cause is to be found in the religious, separation of the Samaritans from the people of Israel.—In accordance with the established usus loquendi in general, and the practice of Luke, in particular (comp. Act_6:1; Act_6:7), the verb ἐπληθύνετε can be taken in no other sense than (as Bengel also says) that of multiplicari, augescere numero, and not in that of repleri aliqua re. For similar reasons παράκλησις cannot well signify comfort [consolation (Vulg.; de Wette)], but rather means exhortation, admonition, encouragement. [Οἰκομουμένη, growing in the inner religious life; this explanation best agrees with the Pauline usage of the word, e. g., 1Co_14:4, (de Wette; Alford).—Tr.]

Act_9:32. As Peter passed throughout all quarters [went through all].—This διέρχεσθαι (literally, a journey through different inhabited places) was an apostolic visitation, for the purpose of inspection. The statements which follow show that ἁγίων is to be supplied after διὰ πάντων [“not τόπων; comp. Act_20:25; Rom_15:28” (de Wette), and also 2Co_1:16, δἰὑμῶν.—Tr.]. In the course of Peter’s journey to the west coast, he reached Lydda, a town not far distant from the Mediterranean, described by Josephus (Antiq. xx. 6. 2) as πόλεως τὸμέγεθος οὐκ ἀποδέουσα; it lay, according to Act_9:38, in the vicinity of the city of Joppa [“just one day’s journey from Jerusalem.” (Alford). It is probably the Lod of the children of Benjamin, 1Ch_8:12; Ezr_2:33; Neh_11:35; at a later period it was called Diospolis. (von Raumer).—Tr.]

Act_9:33-35. Eneas.—No circumstance is mentioned which indicates that he was a Christian; the expressions ευ̇͂ρε and ἄνθρωπόν rather represent him as a stranger; his Greek name leads us to conjecture that he was of Hellenistic descent. [His name, Αἰνέας. which is also found in Thuc. 4. 119; Xen. Anab. 4. 7. 13; Pind. Ol. 6. 149, is not identical with that of the Trojan Αἰςείας (Meyer), e. g., Il. II. 820; V. 166; the former is accented by English speakers on the first, the latter on the second syllable.—Tr.]. When Peter says to this man, whose paralyzed limbs had confined him to his bed: “Jesus, the Anointed One, healeth thee,” the mention of the Redeemer’s name no doubt implies that the man had obtained a certain amount of knowledge of Him by report (“audierat de Christo sine dubio, sanante omnes illo tempore.” Bengel), but by no means shows that he was already a member of the church of Christ. This mode of describing the Lord would not have been employed in the case of a believer. The word ἰᾶται itself is to be taken strictly in the present, and not in a future tense, inasmuch as the cure was instantly performed; the man was at once able to arise and make his bed. This sudden and miraculous restoration of one who had so long been paralyzed, but whom the inhabitants of that place and the surrounding region now saw in the enjoyment of health, led to the conversion of many persons; for no argument can here be needed to show that Luke does not intend to say that all without exception were converted.—The name ὁ Σαρών does not denote a particular place (the modern village Saron), as some have supposed, since, in that case, the article would not have been prefixed; it refers to the ell known fertile region of that name [Sharon, 1Ch_27:29; Isa_33:9; Isa_35:7; Isa_65:10] which also abounded in flowers [Son_2:1]. This plain extends along the coast from Cesarea to Joppa on the south.

Act_9:36. Tabitha.—The Gazelle (Greek, δορκάς, [see above, note 2 appended to the text.—Tr.]) is distinguished for its slender and beautiful form, its graceful movements and its soft but brilliant eyes; it is frequently introduced by the Hebrews and other Oriental nations as an image of female loveliness, and the name was often employed as a proper name, in the case of females [2Ki_12:1; 1Ch_8:9. Rob. Hebr. Lex. p. 881.—Tr.]. It was the designation of this person, who resided in Joppa, the well known seaport of antiquity, of the middle ages, and of modern times. [It was somewhat more than 30 miles distant from Jerusalem; it is mentioned in 2Ch_2:16; Jon_1:3 (Joppa); Jos_19:46 (Japho); now called Japha, Jaffa or Yafa. A summary of its history is given by von Raumer: Palæstina, p. 204 f.—Tr.]. She is, unlike Eneas, at once introduced as a Christian, and her charitable disposition, which was demonstrated by many benevolent acts performed for others, receives special commendation. One illustration, evidently taken from real life, is furnished in Act_9:39. The widows, who weep for the loss of their faithful benefactress, approach Peter, and, in the presence of the corpse of the beloved one, exhibit all the upper and under garments (χιτῶνας καὶ ἱμάτια) [“the tunic and robe or gown, which still constitute the oriental costume of both sexes” (J. A. Alexander, ad. loc.], which Tabitha had made for them while she lived, thus, demonstrating not only the skill of her practiced hand, but also her disinterested and self-sacrificing industry. [Hackett, ad loc. well observes: “The omission of the article [before χιτῶνας] (suggestive of a wrong sense as inserted in the English version [and by Lechler above]) shows that they presented specimens only of her industry.”—Tr.], This devout female disciple [μαθήτρια, Attic μαθητρίς] is a model for Christian women; although she does not appear to be endowed with extensive property, she is charitable, to the full extent of her ability, to the poorest and most neglected class of all, to widows; she acquires the means by furnishing articles usually made by females, and these she prepares with unwearied diligence and self-denial. While charity thus prompts her to provide for the needy, she proves that she is a faithful disciple of Him who himself first showed mercy to her and to all the world.

Act_9:37-38. She was sick, and died.—Tabitha had, without doubt, served Christ for years in pauperibus, and exercised her faith by performing works of love. It was during the period in which Peter abode in the vicinity (ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις), that she became sick and died. After the body had been washed and laid in a retired upper chamber [λούσατες masc. as Luke “speaks in the most general terms and impersonally: they washed and laid, etc.” Winer: Gram. N. T. § 27. 6], the disciples in Joppa sent a message to Peter, who was then in Lydda [distant about 10 Roman miles], and urged him to come to them without delay. All the members of the Christian congregation at Joppa (οἱ μαθηταί Act_9:38) appear to have been deeply moved by the loss which they had sustained, and to have entertained the wish in their hearts, although they did not venture to express it, that, if it were possible, Tabitha might be recalled to life. Thus they bear witness to that intimate communion which subsists among Christians, by virtue of which even one who, viewed externally, seems to stand alone in society, may be connected with others by closer ties than those of kindred.

Act_9:39-43. a. Then Peter arose and went.—As soon as the apostle, who had made no delay, had arrived, the Christians conducted him to that upper chamber in which the corpse lay (for οἰ μαθηταί must doubtless be taken as the nominative to ἀνήγαγον). Then the widows on whom the deceased had conferred such benefits also approached, so that the two classes of persons with whom Tabitha had been connected during her life, were now assembled: 1. the Christian congregation, to which she herself belonged, and, 2. the widows whose benefactress she had been, and who, in part at least, did not belong to the congregation [“saints and widows.”]. But Peter directed them all to withdraw, so that he might devote himself to prayer in entire seclusion. After having offered fervent prayer on his knees, he turned towards the body and called to Tabitha, saying: “Arise.” Luke gives a graphic description of the scene: at first she opened her eyes, then, on seeing Peter, rose up on the bed, and, at length, when Peter had given her his hand, stood up. The apostle now invited the Christians [the saints, Act_9:41, see above, Exeg. and Crit. Act_9:13-14.—Tr.] and the widows to enter, in order that he might present to them the woman alive, who had been raised up by the power of God. Such an event naturally became known to the whole city, and conducted many to faith in Christ.—Peter did not immediately leave Joppa, but remained there during a considerable period, and lodged with a tanner named Simon, who was, without doubt, a Christian. The apostle, accordingly, cannot have regarded the tanner as an unclean person, on account of his trade, although such was, according to rabbinic views, the case.

b. The restoration of Tabitha to life, has, as we might have expected, been explained by some as a natural occurrence, by others as an unhistorical legend. The former (for instance, Heinrichs) imagine that the whole was a case of apparent death, from which the subject was awakened. The latter (for instance, Baur) regard the narrative as simply a legendary transfer of events in the life of Jesus to the apostles, for the purpose of glorifying the latter, and that the whole has been embellished by tradition. The case of the restoration to life of the daughter of Jairus is specially adduced, and here Baur lays considerable stress on the similarity of sounds in the two words Ταλιθά (Mar_5:41) and Ταβιθά, and attempts to show that the latter name agrees in sense with the former word. If any analogy exists between the procedure of Peter on the present occasion and that of the Lord, (e. g., the removal of the spectators, the call to the deceased, the act of reaching the hand to her), it may be the more readily understood, when we remember that Peter himself was one of the three disciples, who, with the exception of the parents of the maiden [Luk_8:51], were the sole witnesses of the restoration of the latter; the apostle naturally regarded the course adopted by his Lord and Master as a model when he performed a similar miracle.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The unity or oneness of the Church of Christ is here presented for the first time, even if it be but in an expression. Quite a number of Christian congregations already existed in the three provinces of Palestine—Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Nevertheless, they are regarded and designated as a whole, as ἡ ἐκκλησία; the experience of any one of them, concerns the others also; the same life pervades them—they belong together. It was more difficult to preserve this unity and maintain it in practice, when the Gospel was extended over several countries, in its progress in the heathen world. But, even at the present day, when national churches, of precisely the same creed, respectively maintain an isolated position, and, further, when the Romish, the Greek, and the Evangelical Churches appear to be separated from one another by wide chasms, the una sancta catholica ecclesia is not a vain delusion, but a truth—of faith!

2. The Church was edified.—What is edification?—The believing Christian is built by regeneration and conversion on the foundation which is laid, on Jesus Christ, as the corner-stone, and is joined to him. But even as our birth is only the beginning, while growth and development constitute the progress of bodily life, so, too, regeneration is only the beginning, but continued renewal and sanctification constitute the progress of spiritual life; the laying of the foundation must be succeeded by unceasing building. And as regeneration is a divine-human work in man, wrought by the grace of God, but dependent on man’s reception of, and capacity for it, so, too, edification or renewal is a divine-human work, in which human action from below, and the operation of grace from above, combine; the only difference is found in the circumstance that, in the latter case, the element of moral power and independent action assumes far more prominence than in the former. Luke, indeed, states this point in so far as he first remarks that the Church walked in the fear of God, that is, was earnest and diligent, with respect to any act of a moral character, in avoiding every sin (for by it they would offend God,) and, on the contrary, in pleasing him by obedience. He afterwards remarks, that, as a result of the exhortation of the Holy Ghost, the Church was multiplied, that is, increased in the number of members through the operations of the grace of the Spirit. For even when he refers only to the influence of the Holy Ghost on the external growth of the Church, he still testifies that that influence was an essential, animating and moving power, in the life of the Church.

3. The words of Peter: ἰᾶταί σε Ἰησο͂υς ὁ Χρ. bear witness to the actual presence and the divine power of Jesus Christ, particularly as the deed accompanies the words. It is not the apostle, but Jesus himself, who heals the sick man, and renews his prostrated strength. This miracle is a striking proof that Christ operates in his exaltation, and continues the work which he performed in his humiliation (comp. Act_1:1; ω̇͂ν ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς ποιεῖν).—Peter’s words, at the same time, supplied a firm foundation for the sick man’s faith in the Person and the power of Christ. No reference is made by Luke to this man’s faith; Peter makes no inquiry respecting it—but it is unquestionably assumed as already existing in his soul.

4. The “conversion to the Lord,” namely, to Jesus Christ, Act_9:35, is a testimony offered for the Deity of Christ. In Act_15:19, Luke employs the expression: ἐπιστρέφεν ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, in reference to heathens who became Christians; comp. μετάνοια εἰς τὸν θεόν, Act_20:21. If faith in Jesus Christ is a conversion to the Lord, then his divine dignity and nature are thereby presupposed. For ἐπιστρέφειν, in the Scriptural sense, is certainly such a turning of the heart and the will, that all the trust of the individual is placed in him, and his most humble obedience is rendered to him, to whom he turns; and here it is taken for granted that Christ is equal to God, for otherwise conversion to his Person would be nothing else than a lapse into idolatry.

5. Tabitha was full of good works and almsdeeds [mercy].—Here we fully assent to the remark of Baumgarten as well established, that these terms describe the good works and merciful deeds by which this Christian woman was distinguished, as being really of an internal nature, permanently abiding in her soul and indeed attached to it [“full of, etc.”], whereas good works, as soon as they are actually performed, acquire an external, positive nature of their own. But, in truth, good works can be justly regarded as genuine and Christian in their nature, only when the whole soul of the individual who performs them, is infused into them, so that it is not the hand alone, but the soul also, that gives and performs—the external acts proceed from the heart. When such is the case, the work is not an opus operatum, in which the soul does not participate, and which, (as most of all important,) the Spirit of God does not recognize; it partakes, on the contrary, of the nature of the soul; it is wrought in the soul, abides in it, and follows it even in death (Rev_14:13, τὰ δὲ ἔργα αὐτῶν ἀκολουθεῖ μετ̓ αὐτῶν.).

6. The restoration of Tabitha to life, and the healing of Eneas, were not independent acts of Peter as a Christian and an apostle, but were acts of Christ, for they were essentially answers to prayer. The apostle first bends the knee, when he is alone with his God and Lord in the chamber of the dead. It is only after this exercise that he turns towards the corpse and says: Arise, speaking in the power of the Lord—of that Saviour, who is ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς (comp. Peter’s address, Act_3:15.). This prayer is the essential or most important feature in which the raising up of Tabitha differs from that of the daughter of Jairus. For Jesus himself took the dead child by the hand, without having previously offered prayer, when he called her back to life, whereas Peter does not restore life to the dead, until he has first besought the Lord to grant this miracle. Thus the name of Jesus, and not that of his apostle, is glorified, and, as a consequence of it, many persons in Joppa are converted to Christ, and not to Peter.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Act_9:31. Then had the churches [church] rest, etc.—After the storm, the church enjoys a season of repose; even when the dragon [Rev_12:1 ff.] threatens and rages, the Lord gathers his people under his wing and protects them. (Ap. Past.).—Throughout all Judea—and Samaria.—Jews and Samaritans meet together in peace, under the banner of the cross—an illustration alike of the pacificatory character of the Gospel, and of the divine purpose that it should become the religion of the world!—Edified … comfort of the Holy Ghost—multiplied.—The times of refreshing [Act_3:19] granted to the Church: I. Seasons of repose and comfort after storms of trouble; II. Seasons of meditation and diligent preparation, in view of new contests.—When are the peaceful times of the Church truly blessed times? When the peace which we enjoy, I. Does not teach us to become arrogant, but inclines us to fear the Lord, even when no foe is present; II. Does not teach us to presume, but inclines us to seek they comfort of the Holy Ghost, even when we enjoy temporal prosperity; III. Does not teach us to become indolent, but rather tends to the edification of the church, that is, to its advancement in religious life, in place of encouraging it to be satisfied with the progress that has been already made.—Peace is the appropriate season for building—houses and granaries, schools and churches, hearts and congregations.—On a sound and an unsound peace; I. In the family; II. In the country; III. In the church.—Under what circumstances may a congregation be truly said to be built up? I. When the reverence with which it regards God and his word, constitutes the firm foundation on which its life and doctrine repose; II. When love and peace in Jesus Christ closely unite the hearts of all; III. When the power of the Holy Ghost is the animating and moving principle that conducts alike the individual and the whole congregation nearer and nearer to heaven.—When may a congregation be said to flourish? I. When it is rooted in the fear of the Lord; II. When it branches out in brotherly love; III. When it exhibits the fruits of the Spirit in their maturity.—Why are the seasons of blossoming so brief in Christian hearts, Christian congregations, and Christian nations?—Is it Spring or Autumn in the Church of the Lord?

Act_9:32. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all.—Congregations as much need a regular Church-visitation, as a garden needs the oversight of the gardener. We cannot safely yield to a feeling of security, even when the church enjoys peace, but should diligently watch, for Satan is never idle, Luk_11:24. (Starke).—He came down also to the saints.—It is an evidence of a serious decline that the word “saint” has become a term of derision in the bosom of Christendom, and that those who would claim it, would be accused of commending themselves. It may, according to the Scriptures, be assumed in a truly humble spirit. The sinner who repents, is a saint, when he devotes himself to God and Christ as a a peculiar servant. (Rieger).

Act_9:33. There he found a certain man … which had kept his bed eight years.—Sick persons may he found also among the saints; the communion of the saints retains some of the features of a lazaretto, and the one is expected to serve as the nurse of the other. How much vital power has already streamed forth from Jesus Christ! And all that is diseased in me, will hereafter be gloriously restored by Him. (Rieger).

Act_9:34. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.—This is the language, I. Of an apostle’s humility (Jesus Christ, not I); II. Of a prophet’s power of faith (He “maketh”—not—May he make thee whole).—Arise and make thy bed.—We pray, in our less distinguished age, that God would grant his aid to the sick at whose bedside we stand, if such be his holy will; we exhort the sick to be patient, and to look to the future with hope. But Peter, when invested with apostolical fulness of power, is enabled to announce to Eneas: ‘Thou shalt be made whole; yea, thou art already restored.’ And Luther, with his heroic and mighty faith, speaks authoritatively to the faint-hearted and dying Melanchthon: “Thou must live! Thou shalt not die!” [It was at Weimar, in 1541; after very fervent prayer, Luther seized the hand of his friend, who was already unconscious, and said: Bono animo esto, Philippe; non morieris!—Tr.].—Two things pertain to the healing of souls that are sick: 1. They must be taught to look up in faith to the Lord, from whom alone salvation and help can come; II. They must be encouraged to arise in His strength, and walk in newness of life.

Act_9:35. Turned to the Lord.—Thus the Lord blesses the labors of his servants; the healing of a sick man conducts many to salvation; the restoration of one may exercise a saving influence on many others.

Act_9:36. A certain [female] disciple.—Women are not appointed to be teachers, but may be disciples in the church. (Starke).—Full of good works and almsdeeds.—The giving of alms does not impoverish; it empties the hand, but fills the heart. Pro_19:17. (Starke).—The honorable mention made of Tabitha: I. She was a disciple—the title refers to her faith; she sits with Mary at the feet of Jesus; II. She was full of good works and almsdeeds—this language describes her love, which served the Lord in the brethren, thereby manifesting its life and power.

Act_9:37. She was sick, and died.—It was only after her death that it became known what a treasure she had been to the church; the odour of the costly ointment filled the house, when the vessel in which it lay concealed, was broken [Joh_12:3]. (Besser).

Very few words are used with respect to her sickness and death. But the Lord had surely been present at her bedside, both while she lay sick, and when she died, even as He had not failed to be present in her closet when she had kneeled there as His disciple, and in her chamber when she worked in his service, and prepared garments for the poor.—Thou wilt die, as thou hast lived.

Act_9:38. The disciples heard that Peter was (at Lydda, and) sent unto him.—They also were believers, but they had not miraculous gifts like those of Peter. Grace and gifts are not the same; God bestows the latter according to his wisdom, giving five pounds to one servant, three to another, and one to a third. (Ap. Past.).—They can have scarcely expected a miracle from Peter, and only desired that he would address words of consolation to them. Much is already gained, when they who abide in the house of mourning sincerely desire the consolations of God’s word.

Act_9:39. Shewing the coats and garments, etc.—Acts of benevolence which survive their author, are the best relics of the saints. (Starke).—The tears of the widows standing around the bier of Tabitha, a noble testimony, I. With respect to the deceased woman and her charity; II. With respect to the survivors and their gratitude.

Act_9:40. But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed.—Why did he direct all who were present to withdraw? I. He followed the example of his Master in the case of the daughter of Jairus; II. He may have perceived that some were governed by an idle curiosity; III. He could more fully engage in prayer when alone; IV. He did not yet know whether it was the Lord’s will to restore the deceased woman to life. Hence he desired to be alone with the Lord, in order to make known to Him the request of the disciples [Php_4:6].—Observe: (a) Even if a pastor should possess the miraculous powers of an apostle, it would still be his duty continually to cherish a sense of his dependence on the Lord, and never act presumptuously in his office, or suppose that he could perform any work by his own strength. (b) We are not at liberty to assent to every request, even of devout men or disciples, without due examination, but are in duty bound to lay the matter, first of all, before the Lord, particularly when it concerns the life or death of a child of God, the continued residence or the removal of a pastor, etc. (c) In such cases, private prayer is preëminently needed. (Ap. Past.).—Tabitha, arise! Such success should attend pastors, when souls are spiritually awakened. To have power with God and joyfulness in prayer [Hos_12:3]—to penetrate, with the aid of God’s word, into hearts that are dead—to offer a helping and guiding hand to the awakened (Act_9:41), and to present those who had been dead sinners as living saints, who glorify God, and instruct others by their example—this is a work worthy of an apostle and follower of Jesus. (Ap. Past.)

Act_9:41. When he had called the saints, etc.—It is exceedingly cheering when a pastor can publicly diffuse the blessing which he had sought in his closet on his knees, and scatter it as the seed of new and more abundant fruits. (Ap. Past.).—Luke mentions that the widows wept as they stood around the corpse, but he does not describe their joy when Tabitha was restored to life—it could not be described. (Besser).

Act_9:42. It was known throughout all Joppa.—Simon, the son of Jonah (Mat_16:17), was more highly honored in Joppa, than Jonah, the ancient prophet (Jon_1:3). (Starke).—Many believed.—In Lydda “all,” (Act_9:35), in Joppa only “many” were converted. All miracles do not produce the same effects, and all sermons are not attended by the same blessing. (Ap. Past.).

Act_9:43. He tarried many days in Joppa.—When God opens a wide door for a pastor in any spot, it becomes his duty to tarry as long as possible, so that the good seed may take root.—With one Simon a tanner. There is no trade, however mean it may be in the eyes of the world, or even, however unclean, which cannot be sanctified. (Starke).—The house of Simon the tanner may have been disregarded by men, but, according to Act_10:6, it was well known in heaven, and in the presence of the angels of God, and was beheld by them with interest. (Rieger).

ON THE WHOLE SECTION.

The church of Christ is rich in love, and through love: I. There are always persons to be found in a congregation, who constitute, as it were, central points around which the love that exists in the congregation, collects; every work of love is guided by their hands, and even when they utter no loud words, they successfully admonish others. A congregation which possesses but a single Tabitha, is rich through love, since it owns in that soul a vast productive capital. When such a member dies, God raises up a successor, for love never dies. II. But the congregation is then only rich in love and through love, when the love which gives, is met by a love which gratefully receives. Under any other circumstances, no blessing attends the gifts which have been received. (Palmer: Homil.).

That good works and alms are necessary features of the character of a true Christian. (Beck: Hom. Rep.).

That the Lord always has men ready to call that which is dead in his church back to life. (ib).

On the share of a Christian female in the work of Inner Missions [on which subject see the article in Herzog: Encyk. IX. 650–658, by Wichern. —Tr.]:

I. Her duty; II. Her fitness; III. Her opportunities for it. (Fritz: Zeitpr.).

On Christian sympathy with a neighbor in his affliction (J. Hartmann: Zeugnisse ev. Wahrh.).

How may the miracles of Jesus and the apostles prove to be blessings to us? I. They should strengthen our faith; II. Urge us to seek our sanctification. (Lisco).

Tabitha, not a fashion-plate, but a model for every Christian female: I. In her life—by her walk in faith (she was a disciple), and her labor of love (full of good works and almsdeeds); II. In her death—by the tears of love (the widows), and the prayer of faith (Peter) at her bier; III. In her restoration to life—as an image of the blessed duration of a holy and divine life, (on earth in grateful hearts; in heaven in glory).

The chamber of death (in which Tabitha (—our beloved friends—) died): I. It is the dark abode of grief, in which love has reason to weep; II. It is the retired closet in which faith wrestles with God in prayer; III. It is the spot in which hope triumphs over death and the grave.

Tabitha, prepared for the grave—the means of awakening many unto life [Act_9:42]: I. The sketch of her life, read at the bier—brief, but expressive: “a disciple” —“full of good works;” II. The funeral procession, forming around her bier—unpretending, and yet affecting: love weeping, faith administering consolation; III. The funeral hymn heard at her bier—a triumphant recall to life: “Tabitha, arise!” —peculiar, and yet full of comfort, for us all; it not only refers to a brief continuance of her life on earth, but also reminds us of the resurrection and continued life of all the children of God, above, (in the mansions of our Father in heaven), and on earth (in those who were conducted by them to God).

“Tabitha, arise” —an awakening call addressed to our age: I. To whom is it addressed? Awake, thou spirit of love and mercy! This call is addressed to all Christendsm of our day, especially to evangelical Christendom. And if men will not hearken, then do ye put them to shame, ye females, who have always, since the days of Tabitha, led the way in works of love and heroic deeds of Christian mercy. II. Why is the call addressed to us? The wants of the times are urgent, and the debt of that love which saves, has greatly increased, particularly in the evangelical Church, which, on this point, may derive instruction from her Catholic sister. III. Whence does the call proceed? Not from an external source. The work of Inner Missions is not a matter of fashion, neither can the government of itself here afford aid. We need the presence of the Lord, and the instrumentality of Peter, that is, the word of God with its power, the Church with its blessing, the office of the ministry with its love. (Zeitpredigt über innere Mission, 1850.).

The miraculous awakening of Tabitha, an image of the miracle of grace when a sinner is spiritually awakened. I. The grief and sympathy of the mourning congregation, first appear—the weeping widows. II. The supplications and prayers of God’s believing servants—Peter praying. III. The awakening call of the divine word: “Tabitha, arise.” And now we perceive, IV. The first signs of life in the awakened soul—“she opened her eyes—saw Peter—sat up.” There is, next, needed, V. Friendly aid, offered to the new and still feeble life—“he gave her his hand—lifted her up;” VI. Also, an affectionate admission into the church—“he called … alive”; VII. And, lastly, as the result, a blessed impression is received by many, Act_9:42.

(Compare, on the life and death of Tabitha, viewed as an example, the “Biography of the devout Beata Sturm, 1780, etc.,” edited by Rieger).

Footnotes:

[23] Act_9:31. H—ἐκκλησία—ἐπληθύνετο; this is the reading of A. B. C., and. as it has recently appeared, also of Cod. Sin. as well as of many manuscripts of the second rank, of the majority of the Oriental versions, and also of the Vulgate, and of Dionysius of Alex. On the other hand, the plural [text. rec.], (αἱ—ἐκκλησίαι (πᾶσαι E.) ει̇͂χον .. ἐπληθύνοντο) is found in E. G. H. and some other manuscripts. As the latter generally belong to a later period, and as most of the ancient versions exhibit the singular, this is far better attested than the plural, and has been preferred by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf and Bornemann [Stier and Theile, and Alford, with whom de Wette concurs. Meyer had, in earlier editions, espoused the opposite view, but in the last edition of his Commentary (3d, 1861) unhesitatingly adopts the singular as the original reading, and as “expressive of the apostolical conception of the unity of the Church.”—Tr.]. The plural is to be regarded as an explanation. [The word ἐκκλῃσία, in the singular, used for the whole body of Christians, or the Church universal, occurs, e. g., in Mat_16:18; Act_20:28; 1Co_10:32; 1Co_12:28; Eph_1:22.—Tr.]

[24] Act_9:36. [The Greek word, Dorcas, which Luke furnishes as the translation of the Aramæan or Syro-Chal. Tabitha. is rendered in the margin of the English Bible “Doe, or, Roe”; it is usually applied to the gazelle, the Antelope dorcas of Linnæus.—The earlier English versions (Wiclif; Tynd.; Cranm.; Geneva; Rheims) all exhibit “Dorcas.”—Tr.]

[25] Act_9:38. a. The words δύο ἄνδρας [of text. rec.] are omitted in G. H. and a number of later [minuscule] mss., as well as in several versions and fathers; the words in Act_9:39, συνῆλθεν αὐτοῖς, however, imply that the former belong to the text. [Retained in the Vulg. and recent critical editions, and confirmed by Cod. Sin. etc.—Tr.]

[26] Act_9:38. b. The readings ὀκνήσῃς and ἠμῶν [adopted by Lach. Tisch. and Alf., and recognized by the Vulg.] occur in A. B. E., and the original text of C., as well as in Cod. Sin.; but G. H. (and C. corrected by a later hand) furnish ὀκνῆσαι—αὐτῶν [text. rec.]. The alteration in Cod. Ephraemi [C.] is, in particular, a decisive fact, as it shows that the original was in the form of the direct style of address. Besides, the Coptic version, while it reproduces the infinitive, retains the first person of the pronoun [ἡμῶν]—a remnant of the original reading. [Ὀκνήσῃς—ἡμῶν is preferred by de Wette also, and, recently, by Meyer (3d. ed. of Commentary), although the latter had previously considered the oratio directa to be a gloss. If the infinitive had been the original form, there could be no motive—Alford says—for correcting it.—The margin of the Engl. Bible furnishes “be grieved” (Tynd.; Cranm.) as another translation of the original, which is more accurately rendered in the text, delay (Geneva).—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.

Acts

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH

Act 9:31.

A man climbing a hill stops every now and then to take breath and look about him; and in the earlier part of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles there are a number of such landing-places where the writer suspends the course of his narrative, in order to give a general notion of the condition of the Church at the moment. We have in this verse one of the shortest, but perhaps the most significant, of these resting-places. The original and proper reading, instead of ‘the Churches,’ as our Version has it, reads ‘the Church’ as a whole -the whole body of believers in the three districts named-Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria-being in the same circumstances and passing through like experiences. The several small communities of disciples formed a whole. They were ‘churches’ individually; they were collectively ‘the Church.’ Christ’s order of expansion, given in Act 1:1 - Act 1:26, had been thus far followed, and the sequence here sums up the progress which the Acts has thus far recorded. Galilee had been the cradle of the Church, but the onward march of the Gospel had begun at Jerusalem. Before Luke goes on to tell how the last part of our Lord’s programme-’to the uttermost parts of the earth’-began to be carried into execution by the conversion of Cornelius, he gives us this bird’s-eye view. To its significant items I desire to draw your attention now.

There are three of them: outward rest, inward progress, outward increase.

I. Outward rest.

‘Then had the Church rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria.’

The principal persecutor had just been converted, and that would somewhat damp the zeal of his followers. Saul having gone over to the enemy, it would be difficult to go on harrying the Church with the same spirit, when the chief actor was turned traitor. And besides that, historians tell us that there were political complications which gave both Romans and Jews quite enough to do to watch one another, instead of persecuting this little community of Christians. I have nothing to do with these, but this one point I desire to make, that the condition of security and tranquillity in which the Church found itself conduced to spiritual good and growth. This has not always been the case. As one of our quaint divines says, ‘as in cities where ground is scarce men build high up, so in times of straitness and persecution the Christian community, and the individuals who compose it, are often raised to a higher level of devotion than in easier and quieter times.’ But these primitive Christians utilised this breathing-space in order to grow, and having a moment of lull and stillness in the storm, turned it to the highest and best uses. Is that what you and I do with our quiet times? None of us have any occasion to fear persecution or annoyance of that sort, but there are other thorns in our pillows besides these, and other rough places in our beds, and we are often disturbed in our nests. When there does come a quiet time in which no outward circumstances fret us, do we seize it as coming from God, in order that, with undistracted energies, we may cast ourselves altogether into the work of growing like our Master and doing His will more fully? How many of us, dear brethren, have misused both our adversity and our prosperity by making the one an occasion for deeper worldliness, and the other a reason for forgetting Him in the darkness as in the light? To be absorbed by earthly things, whether by the enjoyment of their possession or by the bitter pain and misery of their withdrawal, is fatal to all our spiritual progress, and only they use things prosperous and things adverse aright, who take them both as means by which they may be wafted nearer to their God. Whatsoever forces act upon us, if we put the helm right and trim the sails as we ought, they will carry us to our haven. And whatsoever forces act upon us, if we neglect the sailor’s skill and duty, we shall be washed backwards and forwards in the trough of the sea, and make no progress in the voyage. ‘Then had the Church rest’-and grew lazy? ‘Then had the Church rest’-and grew worldly? Then was I happy and prosperous and peaceful in my home and in my business, and I said, ‘I shall never be moved,’ and I forgot my God? ‘Then had the Church rest, and was edified.’

Now, in the next place, note the

II. Inward progress.

There are difficulties about the exact relation of the clauses here to one another, the discussion of which would be fitter for a lecture-room than for a pulpit. I do not mean to trouble you with these, but it seems to me that we may perhaps best understand the writer’s intention if we throw together the clauses which stand in the middle of this verse, and take them as being a description of the inward progress, being ‘edified’ and ‘walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.’ There are two things, then-the being ‘edified’ and ‘walking’; and I wish to say a word or two about each of them.

Now that word ‘edified’ and the cognate one ‘edification’ have been enfeebled in signification so as to mean very much less than they did to Luke. When we speak of ‘being edified,’ what do we mean? Little more than that we have been instructed, and especially that we have been comforted. And what is the instrument of edification in our ordinary religious parlance? Good words, wise teaching, or pious speech. But the New Testament means vastly more than this by the word, and looks not so much to other people’s utterances as to a man’s own strenuous efforts, as the means of edification. Much misunderstanding would have been avoided if our translators had really translated, instead of putting us off with a Latinised word which to many readers conveys little meaning and none of the significant metaphor of the original. ‘Being edified’ sounds very theological and far away from daily life. Would it not sound more real if we read ‘being built up’? That is the emblem of the process that ought to go on, not only in the Christian community as a whole, but in every individual member of it. Each Christian is bound to build himself up and to help to build up other Christians; and God builds them all up by His Spirit. We have brought before us the picture of the rising of some stately fabric upon a firm foundation, course by course, stone by stone, each laid by a separate act of the builder’s hand, and carefully bedded in its place until the whole is complete.

That is one emblem of the growth of the Christian community and of the Christian individual, and the other clause that is coupled with it in the text seems to me to give the same idea under a slightly different figure. The rising of a stately building and the advance on a given path suggest substantially the same notion of progress.

And of these two metaphors, I would dwell chiefly on the former, because it is the less familiar of the two to modern readers, and because it is of some consequence to restore it to its weight and true significance in the popular mind. Edification, then, is the building up of Christian character, and it involves four things: a foundation, a continuous progress, a patient, persistent effort, and a completion.

Now, Christian men and women, this is our office for ourselves, and, according to our faculty and opportunities, for the Churches with which we may stand connected, that on the foundation which is Jesus Christ-’and other foundation can no man lay’-we all should slowly, carefully, unceasingly be at our building work; each day’s attainment, like the course of stones laid in some great temple, becoming the basis upon which to-morrow’s work is to be piled, and each having in it the toil of the builder and being a result and monument of his strenuous effort, and each being built in, according to the plan that the great Architect has given, and each tending a little nearer to the roof-tree, and the time that ‘the top stone shall be brought forth with the shout of rejoicing.’ Is that a transcript of my life and yours? Do we make a business of the cultivation of Christian character thus? Do we rest the whole structure of our lives upon Jesus Christ? And then, do we, hour by hour, moment by moment, lay the fair stones, until

‘Firm and fair the building rise,

A temple to His praise.’

The old worn metaphor, which we have vulgarised and degraded into a synonym for a comfortable condition produced by a brother’s words, carries in it the solemnest teaching as to what the duty and privilege of all Christian souls is-to ‘build themselves up for an habitation of God through the Spirit.’

But note further the elements of which this progress consists. May we not suppose that both metaphors refer to the clauses that follow, and that ‘the fear of the Lord’ and ‘the comfort of the Holy Ghost’ are the particulars in which the Christian is built up and walks?

‘The fear of the Lord’ is eminently an Old Testament expression, and occurs only once or twice in the New. But its meaning is thoroughly in accordance with the loftiest teaching of the new revelation. ‘The fear of the Lord’ is that reverential awe of Him, by which we are ever conscious of His presence with us, and ever seek, as our supreme aim and end, to submit our wills to His commandment, and to do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Are you and I building ourselves up in that? Do we feel more thrillingly and gladly to-day than we did yesterday, that God is beside us? And do we submit ourselves more loyally, more easily, more joyously to His will, in blessed obedience, now than ever before? Have we learned, and are we learning, moment by moment, more of that ‘secret of the Lord’ which ‘is with them that fear Him,’ and of that ‘covenant’ which ‘He will show’ to them? Unless we do, our growth in Christian character is a very doubtful thing. And are we advancing, too, in that other element which so beautifully completes and softens the notion of the fear of the Lord, ‘the encouragement’ which the divine Spirit gives us? Are we bolder to-day than we were yesterday? Are we ready to meet with more undaunted confidence whatever we may have to face? Do we feel ever increasing within us the full blessedness and inspiration of that divine visitant? And do these sweet communications take all the ‘torment’ away from ‘fear,’ and leave only the bliss of reverential love? They who walk in the fear of the Lord, and who with the fear have the courage that the divine Spirit gives, will ‘have rest,’ like the first Christians, whatsoever storms may howl around them, and whatsoever enemies may threaten to disturb their peace.

And so, lastly, note

III. The outward growth.

Thus building themselves up, and thus growing, the Church ‘was multiplied.’ Of course it was. Christian men and women that are spiritually alive, and who, because they are alive, grow, and grow in these things, the manifest reverence of God, and the manifest ‘comfort’ of the divine Spirit’s giving, will commend their gospel to a blind world. They will be an attractive force in the midst of men, and their inward growth will make them eager to hold forth the word of life, and will give them ‘a mouth and wisdom’ which nothing but genuine spiritual experience can give.

And so, dear friends, especially those of you who set yourselves to any of the many forms of Christian work which prevail in this day, learn the lesson of my text, and make sure of ‘a’ before you go on to ‘b,’ and see to it that before you set yourselves to try to multiply the Church, you set yourselves to build up yourselves in your most holy faith.

We hear a great deal nowadays about ‘forward movements,’ and I sympathise with all that is said in favour of them. But I would remind you that the precursor of every genuine forward movement is a Godward movement, and that it is worse than useless to talk about lengthening the cords unless you begin with strengthening the stakes. The little prop that holds up the bell-tent that will contain half-a-dozen soldiers will be all too weak for the great one that will cover a company. And the fault of some Christian people is that they set themselves to work upon others without remembering that the first requisite is a deepened and growing godliness and devotion in their own souls. Dear friends, begin at home, and remember that whilst what the world calls eloquence may draw people, and oddities will draw them, and all sorts of lower attractions will gather multitudes for a little while, the one solid power which Christian men and women can exercise for the numerical increase of the Church is rooted in, and only tenable through, their own personal increase day by day in consecration and likeness to the Saviour, in possession of the Spirit, and in loving fear of the Lord.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Subdivision 4. (Act 9:31-43.)

Remnant mercy in Israel.

Israel is thus casting out the messengers sent to her, and filling full for herself the cup of wrath, which at a later time we know that she drank to the uttermost. But God is slow to anger, and of great mercy; and while the threatened judgment lingers, His long suffering is salvation to a remnant, in whom may be seen the promise yet abiding of final blessing to Israel as a whole. This remnant is as the sap of a cut down tree, in which is the hope of revival for the tree. The history of the development of the divine ways in the Church pauses for awhile here; to give us such an intimation of the faithfulness of a Saviour God.

1. We have first, as the result of the dealing of God with the chief persecutor, peace to the assembly throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; -the whole extent, as far as yet enjoyed, of Israel’s land. It is but a remnant, this assembly, as already said, and the mass are rejecting; and so it will be even in the last days: a remnant will become the nation; God having to purge out the obstinate rejectors from among the people, as prophecy shows abundantly. Here it is only a hint of what will be; yet we see in it Judea and Jerusalem maintained in their central place; Samaria owning it, in Galilee of the Gentiles God’s heart towards His scattered ones. Outwardly there is peace; inwardly the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. How blessed to realize when for Israel at last all this shall be fulfilled!

Let us notice what are here put together for us: first of all, not the comfort, but the fear of the Lord, -hearts in subjection to the Ruler of His people. With Him, if grace reigns, as it does, the reign is not less absolute, but more. When grace has not for its effect the fear of the Lord, in the same proportion is grace really unknown, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit will be unenjoyed. The Spirit is here to glorify Christ; and, as the Holy Spirit, refuses absolutely all touch of evil; legality and license are both in uttermost extreme from Him, and further by far than they are from one another. The slave may at times make up for his slavery by license; the child’s happy service needs no compensation for its offering of love.

Here in a soil like this the seed of divine truth will fructify; for it is love that edifieth; and the assembly walking in such a spirit will be surely multiplied. Where an opposite spirit exists, multiplication will be but a multiplication of the evil; it is a good law that forbids such unhappy growths to go on, whose sap, against nature, is poisonous to themselves.

2. We now follow Peter, who with the growth of the work is no more confined to Jerusalem, but is passing through the land. He comes down to the saints who dwell at Lydda, a still existing town in the plain of Sharon, and finds there a certain man, who from the description and the apostle’s words to him seems not yet to be a disciple; named Aeneas, eight years paralyzed. Immediately, upon Peter’s declaration, "Jesus the Christ healeth thee, arise, and make thy bed," he is healed and rises up; and "all that dwelt in Lydda and the Sharon" (the Plain, stretching from Joppa to Caesarea on the sea-coast), "saw him, and turned to the Lord."

Conversion so widespread shows indeed that God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew (Rom 11:1); and Lydda well fulfills its name, as the "birthplace" of so many souls. We naturally ask ourselves, Is this all that we are intended to find in it? or is there here, as in so many other cases, a hidden meaning? If the Lord is assuring us in this of what the apostle declares that Israel’s remnant according to election preaches to us, would it be strange to find in it a further assurance as to God’s purposes towards His ancient people? Here too, would be the very place in which we might expect to find this: here, where we are just at the point at which, the natural branches being broken off for unbelief, the Gentiles are being graffed into the olive. Certainly all is in harmony in this way. Aeneas means "praise"; and in the case of Israel, a paralysis of praise is truly come upon her. She is a reproach instead of praise, but is yet to be a people formed for Himself, to show forth His praise. Aeneas is thus yet to be healed, and as it were in a moment, by Jesus the Christ; and Lydda may well speak of a new "birth" by which this will be effected. Nothing else will accomplish it; for the nature of man is fallen, and the Lydda of natural birth is in the "plain," -the common level of humanity. Christ alone can renew it; so that in the end Sharon shall be a fold of flocks (Isa 65:10), a type of which this remarkable ingathering of converts there may speak. For when Israel is that praise to God which she never yet has been, then will the time have come for such a turning to God as the earth has not yet witnessed. Israel’s eighth year will have come, -her new covenant time.

3. If this, then, be the deeper view of the healing of Aeneas, the raising up of Dorcas must, one would say, be in the same line of application, and have its own story to tell, different, yet connected. And here one thing is plain: Aeneas presents to us the healing of a sinner Dorcas, on the other hand, the resurrection of a saint. If both of these speak of Israel, it must be in these contrasted ways: and in both ways it is clear that Israel may be spoken of, or her history would be a very different one from what we know it to be. Israel as astray from God is how the centuries long have known her, the enemy of Christ and of His cause, and for many this has almost blotted out the remembrance of the long debt we owe her, and of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles that have sprung from her. But God does not forget: "I remember thee," He says, "the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His increase: all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord (Jer 2:2-3). And for us, how is it possible to forget that from Israel we have obtained, through the mercy of God, almost the whole of the precious volume of inspiration, out of which we have; so to speak, been fed and clothed, not for centuries merely, but for the life that is to come? Here as a picture of Israel, this woman full of good works and alms-deeds is surely no unfitting one. The more we consider, the more we shall realize its perfect appropriateness.

It is in Joppa, anciently Japho, that we find her. -a name which means, as I take it, "fair to Him." (See notes on Jos 19:46.) This agrees entirely with that view of Israel which is presented to us here. Tabitha’s name is given us in two languages, as if there were importance in it, and means "beauty," in Daniel (Dan 11:16; Dan 11:41), twice applied to the land of Israel, "the glorious land." Its secondary meaning, in which we are to take it here; is "gazelle," so named from its beauty, one of the clean animals of Scripture; both chewing the cud and dividing the hoof (Lev 11:1-47 see the notes). If we realize the typical meaning of these, we shall understand its application to one who "ruminates" upon the Word, the walk corresponding to this. Israel as represented by the psalmists, and especially the writer of the 119th psalm, answers fully to the name and in this character they were suited to be vessels of inspiration, as in fact they were. The double name gets in this way its significance for these two languages, Hebrew and Greek, were those of the Old and New Testaments, for both of which we are indebted to the Jew.

Tabitha is dead, and there is no human hope of recovery for her. We may weep and lament, but she is gone from us; yet those possessed with the spirit of Peter may still pray, not without hope, for Israel’s resurrection. It will surely come, as it did in the case before us here, and Israel live in far more than all the glory of her past. The effect too, as in the healing of Aeneas, will be the bringing many more to faith. Joppa or Japho will again fulfill its name; and "the Lord of hosts shall be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people" (Isa 28:5).

How fitting and comforting an assurance with which to turn to see the incoming of the Gentile, as we find it now in the pouring out of the Spirit on Cornelius and his company at Caesarea!

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:31 This verse is one of several in Acts that detail the numerical and spiritual growth of the church (see also 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:1, 7; 12:24; 21:20). • The first Christians were discovering the truth of the principle, “the fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge” (Prov 1:7; 9:10; cp. Job 28:28; Ps 111:10; Eccl 12:13; see Luke 7:16), and they were growing in their faith (cp. Acts 2:43; 19:17).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 9:31. Ἐκκλησία, the Church) So ch. Act 16:5, as to the churches, they “were established in the faith, and increased in number daily.” [The Singular number is emphatic.—Not. Crit.]

[59]—καθʼ ὅλης, κ.τ.λ., throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria) Recapitulation.—εἰρήνην, peace) after that Saul, the principal persecutor, was converted.—πυρευομένη) So ὑπάγητε, Joh 15:16, where see note [as הלך of progress, not in reference to place, but to time and degree]. In both passages there is an Hendiad. So ἐπορεύετο χεὶρ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, Jdg 4:24.—φόβῳ—παρακλήσει, in the fear—comfort) An excellent blending. Comfort, peace internal: εἰρήνη, peace external, with the fear of the Lord, the dread of men being taken away.—ἐπληθύνετο, was multiplied) in the number of believers.

[59] Ee and later Syr. support the Plural αἱ ἐκκλησίαι of Rec. Text. But the best authorities, ABC Vulg. Syr. Memph. and Theb. have ἡ ἐκκλησία.—E. and T.

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

Act_9:31. Οὖν] draws an inference from the whole history, Act_9:3-30 : in consequence of the conversion of the former chief enemy and his transformation into the zealous apostle.

The description of the happy state of the church contains two elements: (1) It had peace, rest from persecutions, and, as its accompaniment, the moral state: becoming edified (advancing in Christian perfection, according to the habitual use of the word in the N. T.), and walking in the fear of the Lord (dative of manner, as in Act_21:21; Rom_13:13; comp. on 2Co_12:18), i.e. leading a God-fearing life, by which that edification exhibited itself in the moral conduct. (2) It was enlarged, increased in the number of its members (as in Act_6:1; Act_6:7, Act_7:17, Act_12:24; hence not: it was filled with, etc., Vulgate, Baumgarten, and others), by the exhortation (as in Act_4:36, Act_13:15, Act_15:31; Php_2:1) of the Holy Spirit, i.e. by the Holy Spirit through His awakening influence directing the minds of men to give audience to the preaching of the gospel (comp. Act_16:14). The meaning: comfort, consolation (Vulgate and others), is at variance with the context, although still adopted by Baumgarten.

Observe, moreover, with the correct reading ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία κ.τ.λ. the aspect of unity, under which Luke, surveying the whole domain of Christendom, comprehends the churches which had been already formed (Gal_1:22), and were in course of formation (comp. Act_16:5). The external bond of this unity was the apostles; the internal, the Spirit; Christ the One Head; the forms of the union were not yet more fully developed than by the gradual institution of presbyters (Act_11:30) and deacons. That the church was also in Galilee, was obvious of itself, though the name is not included in Act_8:1; it was, indeed, the cradle of Christianity.

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 9:31 . αἱ ἐκκλησίαι if we read the singular ἡ ἐκκλ . with the great MS. the word shows us that the Church, though manifestly assuming a wider range, is still one: Hort, Ecclesia , p. 55, thinks that here the term in the singular corresponds by the three modern representative districts named, viz. , Judæa, Galilee, Samaria, to the ancient Ecclesia, which had its home in the whole land of Israel; but however this may be, the term is used here markedly of the unified Church, and in accordance with St. Paul’s own later usage of the word; see especially Ramsay, St. Paul , pp. 126, 127, and also p. 124. καθʼ ὅλης : the genitive in this sense is peculiar to St. Luke, and always with the adjective ὅλος ; Luk 4:14 ; Luk 23:5 , Act 9:42 ; Act 10:37 , the phrase, although not the best classically, seeming to “sound right,” because καθόλου , only in Act 4:18 in N.T., had come into common use since Aristotle (Simcox, Language of the N. T. , p. 148; Vogel, p. 45). οὖν connects with the preceding narrative; so Bengel, Weiss, Wendt, Blass, Zöckler; the Church had rest because the persecutors had become converted; but see also Rendall, Appendix, on μὲν οὖν , p. 164, and Hackett, Felten. οἰκοδομούμεσαι : “being edified,” R.V. (see critical notes) (not “and were edified,” A.V.) as an accompaniment of the peace from persecutors. The term may refer primarily to the organisation of the Church as a visible institution, but would also indicate the spiritual edification which is so often expressed by the word in St. Paul’s Epistles, where both the verb and its cognate noun are so frequent; cf. Act 20:32 , and note. The fact that the verb is employed only once in the Gospels, Mat 16:18 , of the Church, as here in a non-literal sense, as compared with its constant use by St. Paul as above, is a striking indication of the early date of the Synoptic Gospels or their source (see Page, in loco ). For the metaphorical use of the word in the O.T. of good fortune and prosperity, cf. LXX, Psa 27:5 (Psa 28:5 ), Jer 12:16 ; Jer 40:7 (Jer 33:7 ); Jer 38:4 (Jer 31:4 ), Jer 49:10 (Jer 42:10 ). (Hilgenfeld refers the whole section Act 9:32-42 to the same source A from which his “author to Theophilus” derived the founding, and the first incidents in the history, of the early Church, 1:15 4:42, although the “author to Theophilus” may have added the words καὶ τῇ παρακ .… ἐπληθύνοντο . But if we desire a good illustration of the labyrinth (as Hilgenfeld calls it) through which we have to tread, if we would see our way to any coherent meaning in Act 9:31 to Act 12:25 , it is sufficient to note the analysis of the sources of the modern critics given us by Hilgenfeld himself, Zeitschrift für wissenschaft. Theol. , pp. 481, 482; 1895.) οἰκοδ .: may refer to the inward spiritual growth, ἐπληθ . to the outward growth in numbers; a growth attributed not to human agency but to the power of the Holy Ghost. παράκλησις only here in Acts of the Holy Ghost. Hort renders “and walking by the fear of the Lord and by the invocation [ παρακ .] of the Holy Spirit [probably invoking His guidance as Paraclete to the Ecclesia] was multiplied” ( Ecclesia , p. 55), and it is not strange that the working of the Παράκλητος should be so described; while others connect the word with the divine counsel or exhortation of the prophets in opening hearts and minds; others again attach παρακ . to ἐπληθ . as expressing increase of spiritual strength and comfort (see Blass, Rendall, Felten, and cf. Col 1:11 , 1Pe 1:2 ). On the verb and its frequency in Acts see p. 73.

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

This is a borrowed kind of speech, which signifieth establishment and increase.

The end of persecution is the building of the Church, so that we will patiently wait for the Lord.

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

Verse 31. Then had the Churches rest] Instead of ια εκκλησιαι, the Churches, ABC, several others, the Syriac, Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate, have ηεκκλησια, the Church. Every assembly of God's people was a Church; the aggregate of these assemblies was THE CHURCH. The word ειρηνην, which we translate rest, and which literally signifies peace, evidently means, in this place, prosperity; and in this sense both it and the Hebrew שלום shalom are repeatedly used. But what was the cause of this rest or success? Some say, the conversion of Saul, who before made havoc of the Church; but this is not likely, as he could not be a universal cause of persecution and distress, however active and virulent he might have been during the time of his enmity to the Christian Church. Besides his own persecution, related above, shows that the opposition to the Gospel continued with considerable virulence three years after his conversion; therefore it was not Saul's ceasing to be a persecutor that gave this rest to the Churches. Dr. Lardner, with a greater show of probability, maintains that this rest was owing to the following circumstance: Soon after Caligula's accession to the imperial dignity, the Jews at Alexandria suffered very much from the Egyptians in that city; and at length their oratories were all destroyed. In the third year of Caligula, A.D. 39, Petronius, who was made president of Syria in the place of Vitellius, was sent by the emperor to set up his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. This was a thunder-stroke to the Jews, and so occupied them that they had no time to think of any thing else; apprehending that their temple must be defiled, and the national religion destroyed, or themselves run the risk of being exterminated if they rebelled against the imperial decree.

The account given by Josephus will set this in a clear point of view. "Caligula sent Petronius to go with an army to Jerusalem, to set up his statues in the temple, enjoining him if the Jews opposed it, to put to death all that made resistance, and to make all the rest of the nation slaves. Petronius therefore marched from Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and a large body of auxiliaries raised in Syria. All were hereupon filled with consternation, the army being come as far as Ptolemais. The Jews, then, gathering together, went to the plain near Ptolemais, and entreated Petronius in the first place for their laws, in the next place for themselves. Petronius was moved with their solicitations, and, leaving his army and the statues, went into Galilee, and called an assembly of the heads of the Jews at Tiberias; and, having exhorted them without effect to submit to the emperor's orders, said, 'Will ye then fight against Caesar?' They answered that they offered up sacrifices twice every day for the emperor and the Roman people; but that if he would set up the images, he ought first of all to sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to submit themselves, their wives and children, to the slaughter." Philo gives a similar account of this transaction. See Lardner's Credibility, Works, vol. i. p. 97, c.

It appears, therefore, that, as these transactions took place about the time mentioned in the text, their persecution from the Romans diverted them from persecuting the Christians and THEN had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria; the terror occasioned by the imperial decree having spread itself through all those places.

Were edified] οικοδομουμεναι, A metaphor taken from a building.

1. The ground is marked out;

2. the ichnograph, or dimensions of the building, ascertained;

3. the foundation is digged;

4. the foundation stone laid;

5. the walls builded up with course upon course;

6. the top-stone brought on;

7. the roof raised, and the whole covered in; and,

8. the interior part fitted up and adorned, and rendered convenient for the intended inhabitant.

This figure frequently occurs in the sacred writings, especially in the New Testament. It has its reason in the original creation of man: God made the first human being as a shrine or temple, in which himself might dwell. Sin entered, and the heavenly building was destroyed. The materials, however, though all dislocated, and covered with rubbish and every way defiled, yet exist; no essential power or faculty of the soul having been lost. The work of redemption consists in building up this house as it was in the beginning, and rendering it a proper habitation for God. The various powers, faculties, and passions, are all to be purified and refined by the power of the Holy Spirit, and order and harmony restored to the whole soul. All this is beautifully pointed out by St. Peter, 1Pe 2:4-5: To whom (Jesus Christ) coming as unto a LIVING STONE, chosen of God and precious, ye also, as LIVING STONES, are BUILT UP a spiritual HOUSE, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ. And St. Paul, who, from his own profession as a tent-maker, could best seize on the metaphor, and press it into this spiritual service, goes through the whole figure at large, in the following inimitable words: Ye are the HOUSEHOLD of God, and are BUILT upon the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief CORNERSTONE, in whom all the BUILDING, FITLY FRAMED together, groweth unto a HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord: in whom ye also are BUILDED together for a HABITATION of God, through the Spirit, Eph 2:19-22. Edification signifies, therefore, an increase in the light, life, and power of God; being founded on the doctrine of Christ crucified; having the soul purified from all unrighteousness, and fitted, by increasing holiness, to be a permanent residence for the ever-blessed God.

Walking in the fear of the Lord] Keeping a continually tender conscience; abhorring all sin; having respect to every Divine precept; dreading to offend him from whom the soul has derived its being and its blessings. Without this salutary fear of God there never can be any circumspect walking.

In the comfort of the Holy Ghost] In a consciousness of their acceptance and union with God, through his Spirit, by which solid peace and happiness are brought into the soul; the truly religious man knowing and feeling that he is of God, by the Spirit which is given him: nothing less can be implied in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

Were multiplied.] No wonder that the Church of God increased, when such lights as these shone among men. This is a short, but full and forcible description of the righteousness, purity, and happiness of the primitive Church.

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

31. Then the Churches. Luke’s meaning is, that the enemies of the gospel were greatly provoked by Paul’s presence. For why was there such peace made suddenly by his departure, save only because the very sight of him did provoke the fury of the enemies? And yet this is no reproach to him, as if he had been, as it were, some trumpet in war; but Luke doth rather commend him for this, because he made the wicked run mad, only with the smell of him when he was near them. For Christ meant so to triumph in him, that he might be no less a trouble than an ornament to his Church.

Therefore we are taught by this example that those are not by and by to be condemned, who inflame the madness of the wicked more than others; which admonition is not a little profitable. For as we are too dainty and too much besotted with the love of our own rest, so we be also sometimes angry with the best and most excellent servants of Christ, if we think that through their vehemency the wicked are pricked forward to do hurt; and by this means we do injury to the Spirit of God, whose force and speech kindleth all that flame.

And whereas Luke saith, that the Churches had peace, let us know that it was not continual, but because the Lord granted his servants some short breathing. For thus doth he bear with our infirmity, when he appeaseth or mitigateth the winds and storms of persecutions, lest if they should hold on still, they should urge us out of measure. And this blessing is not to be despised, neither is it any common blessing, when as the Churches have peace. But Luke addeth other things, which are of far more value; to wit, that the Churches were edified, they walked in the fear of God, and they were filled with the consolation of the Spirit. For as we are wont to riot and exceed in time of peace, the Churches are more happy, for the most part, amidst the tumults of war, than if they should enjoy what rest they would desire. But and if holy conversation, and the consolation of the Spirit, whereby their state doth flourish, be taken away, they lose not only their felicity, but they come to nought. Therefore, let us learn not to abuse external peace in banqueting and idleness; but the more rest we have given us from our enemies, to encourage ourselves to go forward in godliness whilst we may. And if at any time the Lord let loose the bridle to the wicked to trouble us, let the inward consolation of the Spirit be sufficient for us. Finally, as well in peace as in war, let us always joyfully go forward toward him who hath a reward for us.

Edification may be taken either for increase; to wit, whilst the Churches are augmented with the number of the faithful, or for their going forward who are already in the flock; to wit, whilst they have new gifts given them, and have greater confirmation of godliness. In the first signification it shall be referred unto the persons; in the second unto the gifts of the Spirit. I embrace both willingly; that there were some every now and then gathered unto the Church who were strangers before, and those who were of the household of the Church did increase in godliness and other virtues. Furthermore, the metaphor of a building is very convenient, because the Church is the temple and house of God, and every one of the faithful is also a temple, (1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Corinthians 3:16.) The two things which follow, that they walked in the fear of God, and that they were filled with the consolation of the Spirit, are parts of that edification. Therefore, though the Churches had peace, yet they were not drunken with delights and earthly joy, but, trusting to God’s help, they were more emboldened to glorify God.

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.

(31) Then had the churches rest.—The better MSS. have “the Church” in the singular. The tranquility described may have been due, partly to the absence of any leading men among the opponents of the new society; partly, perhaps, to public excitement being diverted to the insane attempt of Caligula to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem—an attempt from which he was only dissuaded by the earnest entreaties of Herod Agrippa, whom he had raised to the dignity of King of Judæa, but who happened at the time to be at Rome, and of Petronius, the Prœses of Syria. The latter was influenced by great showers of rain falling from a clear sky, after a long drought, in answer to the prayers of Israel (Jos. Ant. xviii. 8, § 6). Such prayers, made at a crisis in which believing and unbelieving Jews felt an equal interest, may, probably, have suggested St. James’s allusion to the old historical parallel of Elijah (Jas_5:17).

Throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria.—Brief as the notice is, it is every way significant. It is the first intimation since the opening of the apostolic history of the existence, not of disciples only, such as had gathered round our Lord during His personal ministry, but of organised religious communities, in the towns and villages of Galilee. We may think of such churches as formed in Capernaum and Tiberias, in Chorazin and the two Bethsaidas, perhaps even in Nazareth. The history is silent as to the agency by which these churches had been founded; but looking to the close relations between St. Luke and St. Philip, and to the probability that the latter made Cæsarea his head-quarters for the work of an Evangelist, we may legitimately think of him as having worked there as he had worked in Samaria. It is not improbable, however, that here also, as in that region, he may have been followed, after he had done his work as an Evangelist, by the Apostles to whom it belonged to confirm and organise. (See Note on Act_8:14.) The mention of Samaria in like manner indicates the extent and permanence of the result of Philip’s work there, followed up as it had been by the preaching of Peter and John.

Were edified; and walking. . . .—The more accurate construction of the sentence gives, The Church . . . . had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and was multiplied by the counsel of the Holy Ghost. The passage is noticeable for the appearance of the word “edified,” or “built up,” in the sense in which St. Paul had used it (1Co_8:1; 1Co_14:4), as describing orderly and continuous growth, the superstructure raised wisely upon the right foundation,

Walking in the fear of the Lord.—The phrase, so common in the Old Testament, is comparatively rare in the New, being used only by St. Luke here, and in 2Co_5:11, where it is wrongly translated “the terror of the Lord.” What it describes, as interpreted by its Old Testament use (Job_28:28; Psa_111:10; Pro_1:7, et al.), is the temper of reverential awe; the scrupulous obedience to the commandments of God, which had been described of old as “the beginning” of wisdom.

The comfort of the Holy Ghost.—It was natural that the gift of the Spirit who had been promised as the Paraclete, or Advocate (see Excursus G on the Gospel of St. John), should be described by the kindred word of paraclesis, and equally natural that this connection should re-appear in the two English words of “comfort” and “Comforter.” “Comfort “is, however, somewhat too narrow; the Greek word including (see Note on Act_4:36) counsel and exhortation, so as to be very nearly equivalent to “prophecy.” What is meant here is that the words of counsel which came from the Holy Ghost, speaking through the prophets of the Church, were, then as always, far more than signs and wonders, or human skill of speech, the chief agents in its expansion.

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

31. Then had the churches rest, &c.] Better, “So the Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria had peace.” In the best texts the noun and all the verbs agreeing with it are in the singular number, and what is meant is the whole Christian body, not the various congregations. The cause of this peace for the Christians was that the attention of their persecutors the Jews was turned from them to resist the attempt made by Caligula (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 8. 2) to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This profanation was averted partly by the determined opposition of the Jews, and partly by the intercession of King Agrippa with the mad Emperor.

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 it came to pass, as Peter passed through all quarters,.... The Arabic version reads, "all the foresaid places", as Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; through which he took a tour, in order to visit the new churches here planted, fix pastors over them, and confirm the Gospel by miracles, which they had received:

he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda: a city which lay on the west of Jerusalem, and is said (u) to be a day's Journey from it; and a day's journey were ten parsas, or forty miles (w): it was but thirty two miles from Jerusalem, and was a place famous for Jewish doctors; for which reason it is frequently mentioned in the Talmudic writings, under the name of Lod or Lud. Mention is made of R. Simlai, who was of Lydda (x), and of the chambers of Beth Nithzah, and of Arum in Lydda (y) where the doctors disputed; there was a school here, of which R. Akiba was president (z) here also the sanhedrim sometimes sat, since we are told that Ben Sutda was tried and stoned at Lud or Lydda (a); and here likewise they intercalated the year (b), it being in Judea: this place was situated in a plain; so says Jerom (c),

"they that dwell in Sephela, that is, in the plain, Lydda and Emmaus, which design Diospolls and Nicopolis, shall possess the Philistines.''

And with this agrees the account the Talmudists (d) give of it,

"the country of Judea was divided into three parts, the hill country, the plain, and the valley; from Bethhoron to Emmaus was the hill country; from Emmaus to Lydda was the plain or champaign country; and from Lydda to the sea, the valley.''

Hence also we read (e) of , "the plain of Lydda": and now Peter coming from Jerusalem, and the hill country of Judea, into this plain and champaign country, is properly said to come down to the saints there. So Quadratus in Josephus (f) is said to come up from Lydda to Jerusalem. This place was near the Mediterranean sea; and was in Jerom's time called Diospolis (g), and in the time of R. Benjamin (h) Seguras; it is the same with Lod in Ezr 2:33 The builder of it was Shamed the son of Elpaal, Ch1 8:12. It was in the times of Josephus (i) a village, yet not inferior to a city for greatness. It is now called S. Georgia. And here it seems some saints or Christians dwelt, whom Peter, among the rest, visited; and which is mentioned for the sake of the miracle he there wrought, next related. And these saints at Lydda very likely were converted under Philip's ministry, as he passed from Azotus to Caesarea, Act 8:40 and, it may be, were in a church state, or, however, were afterwards. Zenas the lawyer, the Apostle Paul speaks of in Tit 3:13 is said to be bishop of Diospolis, or Lydda; in the beginning of the fourth century Aetius was bishop of this place, who assisted in the council of Nice; and in the same century, anno 331, Dionysius, another bishop of this place, was present at a council at Constantinople; and in the fifth century Photinus wrote himself bishop of Lydda, in the Chalcedon council, anno 451 (k).

(u) Misn. Maasersheni, c. 5. sect. 2. T. Bab. Betza, fol. 5. 1. & Roshhashana, fol. 31. 2. & Juchasin, fol. 37. 1. (w) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 93. 2. & Gloss. in ib. (x) Juchasin, fol. 105. 1. (y) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 2. T. Hieros. Pesachim, fol. 30. 2. (z) Misn. Roshhashana, c. 1. sect. 6. (a) T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 25. 4. (b) Ib. fol. 18. 3. (c) In Obad. 1. 19. (d) T. Hicros. Sheviith, fol. 38. 4. (e) Misn. Sheviith, c. 9. sect. 2. (f) De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 8. (g) Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 59. A. (h) ltinerar. p. 52. (i) Antiqu. l. 20. c. 5. sect. 2. (k) Reland. Palestina Illustrata, 1. 3. p. 878, 879. Vid. Magdeburg. Hist. Eccles. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 2. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 2.

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

31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

Ver. 31. Then had the churches rest] As when Paul was converted, the Churches rested; so, much more, when sin and Satan shall be destroyed, shall the state of the saints be most restful and blissful in heaven.

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.

Then had the churches rest - That is, the persecutions against Christians ceased. Those persecutions had been excited by the opposition made to Stephen Act 11:19; they had been greatly promoted by Saul Act 8:3; and they had extended doubtless throughout the whole land of Palestine. The precise causes of this cessation of the persecution are not known. Probably they were the following:

(1) It is not improbable that the great mass of Christians had been driven into other regions by these persecutions.

(2) He who had been most active in exciting the persecution; who was, in a sort, its leader, and who was best adapted to carry it on, had been converted. He had ceased his opposition; and even he was now removed from Judea. All this would have some effect in causing the persecution to subside.

(3) But it is not improbable that the state of things in Judea contributed much to turn the attention of the Jews to other matters. Dr. Lardner accounts for this in the following manner: “Soon after Caligula’s accession, the Jews at Alexandria suffered very much from the Egyptians in that city, and at length their oratories there were all destroyed. In the third year of Caligula, 39 a.d., Petronius was sent into Syria, with orders to set up the emperor’s statue in the temple at Jerusalem. This order from Caligula was, to the Jews, a thunderstroke. The Jews must have been too much engaged after this to mind anything else, as may appear from the accounts which Philo and Josephus have given us of this affair. Josephus says ‘that Caligula ordered Petronius to go with an army to Jerusalem, to set up his statue in the temple there; enjoining him, if the Jews opposed it, to put to death all who made any resistance, and to make all the rest of the nation slaves. Petronius therefore marched from Antioch into Judea with three legions and a large body of auxiliaries raised in Syria. “All were hereupon filled with consternation, the army being come as far as Ptolemais.” See Lardner’s Works, vol. i, pp. 101, 102, London edition, 1829.

Philo gives the same account of the consternation as Josephus (Philo, DeLegat. a.d. Cai., pp. 1024, 1025). He describes the Jews “as abandoning their cities, villages, and open country; as going to Petronius in Phoenicia, both men and women, the old, the young, the middle-aged; as throwing themselves on the ground before Petronius with weeping and lamentation,” etc. The effect of this consternation in diverting their minds from the Christians can be easily conceived. The prospect that the images of the Roman emperor were about to be set up by violence in the temple, or, that in case of resistance, death or slavery was to be their portion, and the advance of a large army to execute that purpose, all tended to throw the nation into alarm. By the providence of God, therefore, this event was permitted to occur to divert the attention of bloody-minded persecutors from a feeble and bleeding church. Anxious for their own safety, the Jews would cease to persecute the Christians, and thus, by the conversion of the main instrument in persecution, and by the universal alarm for the welfare of the nation, the trembling and enfeebled church was permitted to obtain repose. Thus ended the first general persecution against Christians, and thus effectually did God show that he had power to guard and protect his chosen people.

All Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria - These three places included the land of Palestine. See the notes on Mat 2:22. The formation of churches in Galilee is not expressly mentioned before this; but there is no improbability in supposing that Christians had traveled there, and had preached the gospel. Compare Act 11:19. The formation of churches in Samaria is expressly mentioned, Acts 8.

Were edified - Were built up, increased, and strengthened. See Rom 14:19; Rom 15:2; 1Co 8:1.

And walking - Living. The word is often used to denote “Christian conduct, or manner of life,” Col 1:10; Luk 1:6; 1Th 4:1; 1Jo 2:6. The idea is that of travelers who are going to any place, and who walk in the right path. Christians are thus travelers to another country, an heavenly.

In the fear of the Lord - Fearing the Lord; with reverence for him and his commandments. This expression is often used to denote “piety” in general, 2Ch 19:7; Job 28:28; Psa 19:9; Psa 111:10; Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10; Pro 13:13.

In the comfort of the Holy Ghost - In the consolations which the Holy Spirit produced, Joh 14:16-17; Rom 5:1-5.

Were multiplied - Were increased.

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

The Church visibly proceedeth still with much comfort and patience; she is perfected by persecution, and by means of the promised infallible protection, she has ever proved herself invulnerable to all the envenomed shafts of her adversaries.

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).

Then had the churches rest; when Paul was sent away, against whom they had the greater spite, as having been as zealous a persecutor as any amongst them.

And were edified: the church is frequently compared to a building, and every believer to the temple of God, 1Co 3:16, and 1Co 6:19, which God dwells in; from whence this metaphor is taken.

Walking in the fear of the Lord: walking is a progressive notion, and so is building and adding to a structure till it come to perfection; which signifies that these believers increased daily in the knowledge of God, in true piety and charity, &c.

In the comfort of the Holy Ghost; the word also signifies the exhortation of the Holy Ghost; such exhortations as were given from God by the apostles: to be sure, the comforts of the Spirit are not without our obedience to the commandments of God; and it seems to be given here as the reason why the churches were edified, and did thus increase, because believers walked in the fear of the Lord; and nothing persuades more effectually to the embracing of religion, than the holy living of such as make profession of it.

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

31. Rest—From both the persecution by Saul, and the persecution of Saul. But concurrently with this, it is supposed that the trouble of the Jews arising from the project of the Emperor Caligula of placing his statue for worship engrossed all their thought and arrested the persecution of Christians. The trouble of her foes was the peace of the Church.

HISTORICAL NOTE II.—To the extravagant and freakish fool CALIGULA, (see Hist. Note I, Act_1:1,) the successor was the solemn and stupid fool CLAUDIUS. He was himself a well-meaning man, but rendered a tyrant by being the tool of wicked advisers. His wife Messalina was guilty of the grossest debaucheries, but after deceiving him for awhile she was, upon detection, put to death. He then married Agrippina, his niece, the mother of Domitius AEnobarbus. Agrippina secured a marriage between her son and Octavia, the emperor’s daughter, and thereby secured to her son the succession to the imperial throne. She then poisoned Claudius, after a reign of fourteen years, and installed her son in his place with a new name which he has made forever infamous in history, NERO. The reign of Claudius covers the period extending from this repose to the commencement of the labours of Paul at Ephesus, in his second mission. It is contemporaneous with the apostolic life of Paul, from his retirement to Tarsus to the zenith of his active ministry; from January, A.D. 41, to October, 54. (See Hist. Note, Act_19:10.)

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

So the Church had peace, being edified for then had the Churches rest, and were edified, A.V. and T.R.; was multiplied for were multiplied, A.V. and T.R. It is thought that the attention of the Jews to the progress of the faith of Jesus Christ was diverted at this time, and their active hostility stayed, by the still greater danger to the Jews" religion which arose from Caligula"s intention of placing a statue to himself as a god in the holy of holies. Thus did God"s gracious providence intervene to give rest to his harassed saints, and to build up his Church in numbers, in holiness, and in heavenly comfort. Especially Paul had another breathing-time, which may have been the more required if, as is thought, one at least of the five scourgings mentioned in 2Co_12:2-4 had been inflicted at Damascus, and one of the three shipwrecks alluded to in the same passage and been undergone in the dangerous coasting voyage from Caesarca to Scleucia.

The opportunity and obligation of the Church.

I THAT A TIME OF TRANQUILLITY MAY BE AND SHOULD BE A PERIOD OF PROGRESS. "The Churches had rest .... and were edified, were multiplied." The time of rest is too often one of inglorious repose, of unworthy indulgence, or even fatal luxury and corruption. But when the molesting hand of persecution is taken away, it is possible for the Church to put forth all its strength to enter on a path of unflagging activity, of holy enterprise, and of gratifying enlargement.

II THAT THE CHURCH SHOULD NEVER BE WITHOUT A SENTIMENT OF SACRED AWE. It should always be walking "in the fear of the Lord." Love, trust, joy in Christ, should be the element in which it lives; but it must never take leave of its deepest reverence and awe. It must walk "in fear,

(1) realizing the near presence of its observant Lord, the Lord of righteousness and purity; (Rev_2:1)

(2) remembering that it is held by him responsible for the extension of his kingdom, for the conversion of the world; (2Co_5:19) recollecting that, if it should lose its sanctity, there is no human power by which it can hope to be restored. (Mat_5:13)

III THAT THE CHURCH REQUIRES TO BE CONTINUALLY SUSTAINED BY INFLUENCES WHICH ARE DISTINCTIVELY DIVINE. "Multiplied by the exhortation comfort, ministry of the Holy Spirit." No perfectness of machinery, no eloquence of human oratory, no promptings of emulation, no pressure of authority, no earth-born influences of any kind or number, will suffice to sustain a Church in living power. It must be multiplied by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It must secure the teaching which is animated by the Spirit of God; it must be listening to the doctrine which is communicated By the Spirit; it must have the indwelling of the Spirit in the minds and hearts of its members; it must be looking to the ever-living power of the Spirit to make all its agencies and operations effectual.

IV THAT THE CHURCH OF CHRIST SHOULD BE ADVANCING AS A DIVINELY ERECTED STRUCTURE. The Church "was edified." built up; it rose as a structure rises gradually and in due proportions. The Church of Christ should, in the increase which it makes, possess the characteristics of the best building it should

(1) attain to a stately, should "multiply," grow in numbers and in the extent of ground it covers;

(2) become more beautiful in aspect;

(3) acquire increasing strength. C.

Vers. 31-43. Works of peace.

It is a bright picture of happy and prosperous Church life that here opens. Peace "lay like a shaft of light athwart the land" of Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria. The work of edification, ever silent and sure like the growth of the tall palm, went on. There was the spirit of reverence and the sense of comfort and of joy in the presence of the Holy Spirit. That nation is happy whose life contributes few incidents that startle, changes that dismay, revolutions and wars that attract attention. Who can calculate the value of a day"s sunshine to the earth? Who can tabulate the results of a year"s peaceful intercourse? Quiet Church life is not resultless; and to obtain it demands and implies more of prayer and effort than that which is spasmodic and sensational.

I THE VISIT OF PETER TO LYDDA. He finds there the paralytic Aeneas. The bedridden sufferer may be viewed as a type of all prostration, physical and moral, which Christ comes to heal. "Jesus Christ is healing thee!" such is the abiding word of the Christian apostle and minister, further reaching in its application to the inward than to the outward life. And if it be a fact that healing energy is ever flowing from Christ, a moral hope and a moral energy is derivable from the fact. "Rise and act for thyself" is the command which the Christian minister may give, founded on the fact that the energy is imparted to the will in trust on Divine power. "And straightway he arose." The rise of any soul out of weakness into strength, out of self-despair into confidence and freedom, implies two things

(1) the Divine agency to heal;

(2) the human will co-operating with the Divine. In the absence of either of these factors there is no transition from one state to another. Whenever such a conversion takes place and is observed, the minds of the spectators are turned towards that higher source of power. They "turn to the Lord" in reverent recognition, in devout thankfulness, in earnest expectation.

II THE RAISING OF DORCAS.

1. The sketch of a useful life. Dorcas is full of good works and aims. The "eye for pity, and the hand open as day for melting charity," was hers. Pity, compassion, the feeling for those who are less happy than ourselves, is the habit which above all the gospel teaches and cultivates in the soul. The loving simple heart has a place not less important to fill in ministry to others than the clear intellect and the powerful will. The tears and gratitude of the widows were a noble testimony to Dorcas and her character. She was a center of the true "sweetness and light" in the community, a fountain of pure Christian love. "In the possession of one such example a Church has a great spiritual capital. When such a one dies, God will raise up followers, for love never dies.

2. The office of raising from the dead. Was not this entrusted to Peter, that it might be a parable to all times of this truth that God gives to chosen men in the Church the power to raise others out of death into life, that is, instrumentally? The Resurrection is spiritually repeated whenever the word of power reaches the conscience. Peter puts all the mourners out of the room, kneels down and prays. This was after the example of the Master. Solitude, silence, and prayer prepare for all exertion of spiritual activity.

However great the power entrusted to the minister of God, he must still use it in dependence upon him. However urgent the call from men, the Divine will must first be consulted before it is obeyed. From dependence on God comes all independence of other conditions. To use the imperative mood with others, we must have learned the submissive mood before him. The word, "Tabitha, arise!" and the stretching out of the hand to the prostrate one, these acts had their antecedents in the spiritual sphere. We cannot comprehend a miracle; but we may be well assured that it follows a Divine though hidden law. God has reason in all his acts. In the giving of the lost but restored one again to her friends we have a prophecy of future restoration of those whom we have loved and lost. There arc moments when the power of God is put forth to realize our most loving wishes and to satisfy the unquenchable aspirations of the heart. Our friends "live in God" as Dorcas and Lazarus lived in him, and death is but a semblance for pious souls. Would that we had that profound knowledge of the power and love of God which should enable us to see the wondrous in the common! Faith will be produced and will be increased wherever our passage through the world, our visits and our words, are followed by a joy like that reflected on the Church at Joplin by the visit and ministry of Peter. J.

Edification.

Then had the Churches rest," etc. (of. Revised Version). The events of the past had been exciting, stimulating activity, spreading the Word. But excitement cheeks growth in character. Wonderful appointment of Providence the leader of the persecution becoming the chief example of Christian activity.

I THE RIGHT USE OF A TIME OF PEACE AND REST.

1. The cultivation of brotherly intercourse. The Churches (or the Church) throughout Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, in a time of peace, could communicate with the apostles and with each other.

2. The exercise of spiritual gifts, knowledge, prophecy, tongues, etc., the study of Scriptures, especially with a view to future claims on the Church"s activity.

3. The manifestation of steadfast Christian character: Walking in the fear of the Lord." The times of external danger less suited for the observation of individual graces.

II THE CHURCH OF CHRIST A SPIRITUAL EDIFICE. The foundation is Christ. The superstructure is:

1. Eminently simple; not a hierarchy, not a complicated system of ecclesiastical office; not an imitation of civil society, but the amplification of the germ seen in the upper room at Jerusalem.

2. Spiritual. Full of the Holy Ghost; not built up with worldly materials; maintaining discipline, purity, fellowship. 3. Multiplied from within, not from without; by its own graces coming forth on the world; not by mere accession of material resources or combination with worldly elements. Take care that our multiplication is genuine. R.

History a sermon.

The simplest matters of fact are sometimes weighted with impression and charged with instruction. And in like manner, the simplest-told history sometimes preaches the most suggestive of sermons. Notice three things in this briefly described episode of history.

I THE REST WHICH THE CHURCH HAD.

1. It was a rest from the actual sufferings of persecution.

2. It was a rest from the constant and tearing anxieties involved in the fear of persecution. Foreboding kills many whom no actual suffering would kill.

3. It was a rest from the literal moving about from place to place, either with the chance of eluding persecution or as the consequence of it. In all of these respects the mercy of Christ is not forgetful of the need of the Church:

(1) As repose is one of the first necessities of each individual that composes it. Storm, trouble, conflict, operate as useful tests of character and fidelity, and they may be said to add some sort of strength. But for growth and nourishment and sound health rest is one of the first conditions.

(2) As repose is one of the first necessities for giving scope to the character and action of the Church as a whole. One of the divinest tests of the Church is its spontaneous love and its spirit of co-operation. Those who are in similar want, similar sorrow, similar danger, similar fear, do not find any difficulty in harmonizing, drawing near together, co-operating. But the scene is often changed when it is all fair weather. Therefore fair weather itself is necessary

(a) for trying character and hardening character, and

(b) for giving the time and the opportunity for combining in works of holy activity. Note well what a various thing Christian character and life make. They are of many elements; they need not a hard, stiff, monotonous, unbending treatment. But they need the revolution of the seasons, and can bear it too. They need blast and tempest, and are responsive to summer evening"s softest sigh also. They need many a caution, many an anxious watching, many an anguished heart-searching, but also they need to luxuriate awhile in the rest of calm, of happiness, of love.

II THE PEACE WHICH PREVAILED DURING REST. The enemy which might have taken opportunity to enter, one whom the most experienced would have feared the most, did not enter. The true motto, "Peace, as in all Churches of the saints", (1Co_14:33) was their welcome watchword now. Rest from without is often the very signal for confusion and discord within. The concord that comes of a common enemy known to be no distance off is something far inferior to the concord that comes from real intrinsic causes. This only can give us any slightest foretaste of the deep calm of heaven.

1. How pleasant this calm peace within must have been, as a mere contrast to what had been!

2. How welcome it must have been, as introducing the followers and disciples of Jesus to their first acquaintance with a thoroughly new set of ideas, new range of affections, new work of this life, and new scope of life itself!

3. How delightful this peace, for the sake of the actual converse of disciples with disciples, and of Church with Church! They had met, perhaps, in the relations of business, and of pleasure, and of a dead formalism of religion, and in the discussion of the humiliation of the political bondage under which they were now living; but what unwonted peace this was to have "their conversation in heaven," to find it "building time in the best sense, to "walk in the fear of the Lord," and to knowthe "comfort of the Holy Ghost"! The "fellowship of kindred minds" is indeed not necessarily "like to that above;" but the fellowship of such kindred minds is undoubtedly and blessedly "like to that above.

III THE INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. Intervals of rest give the opportunity of growth, and intervals of peace within are deep, solid, firm, growing itself. But neither the Church nor the individual Christian can be right in considering exclusively, or enjoying exclusively without consideration, its own possibilities of inward growth. The Church was now not only "edified" in itself, and "settled," "stablished," "strengthened," but "it was multiplied." No doubt, even in times of severest tribulation, it was added to, and persecution by no means closed its roll and cut off its recruits. But now the Church the destined depository of Divine power in part, and the honored fellow-laborer with Divine unseen actors was beginning to know its work and to feel its high force and to be conscious of its most responsible privileges. The very simple and beautiful description before us warrants us to say that the consistent "walk" of the Church, and the deep heart-felt experience on the part of the Church of what is most; characteristic above all things else whatsoever of her existence and nature, namely, "the comfort of the Holy Ghost," are the best adapted human means for the increase of the Church, for the impression of the world, for the conversion of the sinners. "The power is of God" under any and all circumstances. The "foolishness of preaching" is the positive and declared method of making known what the gospel of Christ is and what it proffers. But for impression on others, so far as human action goes, the Christian man who "walks in the fear of the Lord" availeth much. And for pressure upon the unbelieving world, pressure upon its eye, ear, judgment, and conscience, pressure constant, close, and unavoidable, there is nothing like the advance of a host that "walks in the fear of the Lord," and that enjoys "the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

1. Consistent Christian life speaks itself. This has always been a potent presence and an irresistible argument. The absence of it is damnatory, on all sides and in all senses to the person who makes hollow profession, damnatory of that hollowness; to the world damnatory of any inclination to be found in the camp of such hollowness. For, wonderful though it be that the world will condone and will have fellowship with other hollowness, most blessed and advantageous it is that it kicks at, scorns, and exposes the hollowness of mere profession of Christ.

2. The comfort of the Holy Ghost" is an experience, and it is of what is deepest down in human hearts. Yet is it not for that reason invisible. It betrays itself in the eye; it betokens itself in the language and the very tone of that language; it beams forth in all the deed of the man whom the Spirit who gives it vouchsafes to inhabit. When the Holy Ghost becomes the Master, the gracious, condescending, comforting Master of any man, or of the Church, or any part of the Church, then these become the persuasive masters of others, and the choicest, chiefest attraction of the world. The "Church is multiplied" then, and the "excellency of the power is of God" still. This little episode of history, then, is a sermon, and teaches us what a practical sermon the life of every Church and every Christian may preach. B.

The relation between edifying and multiplying.

For the precise meaning and the New Testament use of the term "edified," consult the Exposition. The "rest" secured for the Church at this time followed partly on the removal of Saul from the party of the persecutors, in which he had been the most active member; none seemed ready to take up the work which had so completely dropped from his hands, and by his secession the whole party was depressed and disorganized. But it followed chiefly on the fact that the attention of the Jewish rulers was turned away from the disciples to resist an attempt made by Caligula to have his statue erected in the temple at Jerusalem. The importance of resting-times for nations, Churches, and individuals should be shown, and the ways in which they usually come may be pointed out. Their value is illustrated in connection with our text, from which it appears that when, in a resting-time, the Church was edified, it was found to be also multiplied; or, to express it in other forms, internal culture is the best guarantee of external success. We dwell on two things.

I SOUL-CULTURE. AND ITS INTERNAL SIGNS. Piety, from the Christian point of view, is a new and spiritual life, With which our souls are quickened by the Holy Ghost. But in its beginnings it is young, feeble, untested life, like that of the young seedling or plant. Culture is demanded. The young life must be nourished into strength; and while the expressions of the life, in leaf and branch and flower, need to be watched and guided aright, the gardener"s supreme anxiety is to maintain and to increase the vitality. And so, while apostles give good counsel for the ordering of Christian conduct, their supreme anxiety concerns the culture of the soul"s life. They would have their disciples "grow in grace and in the knowledge experimental of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." It is to such forms of" edification" that Churches are directed in their quiet resting-times. Two signs were given as indicating that this edifying" work was healthily progressing.

1. There was holy walking. "Walking in the fear of the Lord." Christian conduct and conversation was "as becometh the gospel of Christ." The relations of the members to each other were kindly and brotherly, and the character of the disciples was increasingly satisfactory.

2. There were signs of heart-joy. The disciples were evidently enjoying the "comfort of the Holy Ghost the inward sealing of the Spirit; the power of his impulses to righteousness, and that happy sense of adoption which he gives. When the soul is efficiently cultured, its signs are apparent in these two things joy in God, and holy living. Joy in God includes joy in his worship and his work. Holy living includes the nourishing of all graces and virtues into fullness and beauty and power. Illustrate by the commendations of the living Christ to such Churches as Ephesus, Smyrna, and Philadelphia.

II SOUL-CULTURE AND ITS EXTERNAL POWER. For evidently the two things, edification and multiplication, are intentionally connected, and the one is, in some important respects, the cause of the other. We may say that multiplying a Church is one of the certain consequences of its edifying, for the well-nourished and truly spiritual Church has power:

1. By its witness. Such life must find expression.

2. There is the silent yet mighty force of its unconscious influence. There are the active labors to which it is inspired.

3. By its attraction. For wherever there is holy walking and evident heart-joy in God men are inclined to join the company. Such heart-joy all would find. Such holy walking seems to say, "Come with us, and we will do you good; for verily the Lord is with us." Distinguish carefully between the spasmodic and impulsive successes of revival times, and the steady witness and work of edged Churches and edified Christians in all ages. And conclude by impressing the moral value of the forces that strictly tend to edification, such as the example and character of our saintly ones, and the labors of those who instruct in Christian truth and duty. Such forces are sometimes most imperfectly estimated and are even undervalued, because their results are not easily counted; yet God"s Word teaches us that in the way of edifying comes the truest power for multiplying. R.T.

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

Then the Church - The whole body of Christian believers, had peace - Their bitterest persecutor being converted. And being built up - In holy, loving faith, continually increasing, and walking in - That is, speaking and acting only from this principle, the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Ghost - An excellent mixture of inward and outward peace, tempered with filial fear.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

That is, "After Saul’s miraculous conversion, and after he was sent away, and departed from those parts, where the Jews, his old companions in persecution, could not endure his presence, he having been just before as zealous a persecutor as themselves: Then the churches planted by Philip and others throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, had much rest and peace, and were greatly edified in knowledge of the Holy Spirit daily increasing in them, the number of believers daily multiplied.:"

Learn thence, That after the persecution and wearisome troubles of the church, God has his times for their peace and rest. God sends his church sun-shine after showers, a calm after a storm, health after an hectic, and a Canaan"s rest after a wilderness journey.

Learn, 2. That it is the church’s duty to improve her peace and rest for her establishment and and increase in all the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit.

Learn, 3. That it is a very great blessing to have the churches of God multiplied, and their multiplication is the happy fruit and consequent of their having peace; Then had the churches rest, were edified, and multiplied.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PETER’S EVANGELISTIC TOURS

31. The miraculous conversion of Saul stunned and paralyzed the aggressive persecutors of the fallen ecclesiasticism, at the same time giving a great boom to the rising hopes of the gospel church. “And the church was multiplied by the exhortation of the Holy Ghost,” i. e., by the exhortation inspired and superinduced by the Holy Ghost. It is a significant fact, of which the popular church has utterly lost sight, and to which the holiness movement is not half awake, that sinners are not converted by the cultured sermonic preaching, but by the irregular, impromptu, spontaneous, ejaculatory utterances and effusions of the Holy Ghost. I am an old revivalist, and have seen this verified on a thousand battlefields. The preaching is for the revival, sanctification and enduement of the church, who, thus flooded and inundated with the Spirit, all turn preachers, not in the modern but the Apostolic sense (Act 8:4), and literally encompass every sinner, pouring on him their red-hot exhortations, electrified with sympathetic tears and dynamited with prevailing prayers. I have actually witnessed revivals in which several hundred sinners, thus besieged by the irresistible exhortations of Spirit-filled saints, surrendered unanimously, all crowding the altar and crying for mercy. This beautiful and valuable passage is not translated correctly in E. V.; but such is its beauty and force and its inspiring testimony to the miraculous efficiency of the Pentecostal gospel, that I hope every reader will appropriate, utilize and proclaim it to others.

AENAES IS HEALED

Peter, in his rapid peregrinations throughout Palestine, inspiring the saints to grander conquests, arrives at Lydda, down on the Mediterranean Sea near Joppa. There he finds Aeneas, lying on a bed, held fast with the paralysis of eight years. He says to him: “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you: arise, take up thy bed; and he arose immediately.” Of course, Peter had preached to him, praying for him and expounding the plan of salvation, appertaining to both soul and body, and thus prepared him for the sudden inspiration of his faith, which took hold of Jesus Christ for the healing of his body. “As your faith is, so be it unto you,” is as true of the body as of the soul. With the spread of Scriptural holiness over the earth, divine healing is again everywhere becoming common, witnesses already innumerable and multiplying on all sides. The subjective reason why Aeneas was healed, was simply because he took hold of Jesus by faith and believed that He healed him that very moment. Faith is always in the present tense. A future faith is a misnomer; not faith, but hope. A true faith inspired by the Holy Ghost, either for soul or body, appropriates the very Omnipotence of God and becomes the medium of the supernatural and the miraculous, both spiritual and physical. We must remember, however, that while we are saved and sanctified through the grace of faith, bodily healing is through the gifts (1Co 12:9), which are not essential to spiritual salvation, but appertain to God’s wonderful munificence in the interest of our bodies, as well as the souls and bodies of others. While the absence of faith for your soul forfeits salvation and heaven, because it is condemnatory (Mar 16:16), the delinquency of faith for bodily healing only forfeits the healing and brings no condemnation to the soul.

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

31. Preparatory to this transition in the narrative, the historian glances rapidly over the territory to which we are about to be introduced, stating the condition of things immediately after Saul's departure for Tarsus. (31) " Then the Churches had peach throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria; and being edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and the consolation of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. " Thus times of peace and quiet were seen to be propitious to a cause which had sprung up amid strife and opposition, showing that it was not the obstinacy of human passion, but the legitimate working of unchangeable truth, which had brought it into being. According to the philosophy which Gamaliel had urged in the Sanhedrim, its claim to a divine origin was now vindicated.

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

31. Then had the churches rest. After the departure of Saul there was a cessation of persecution for several years. The reason is found in the history of the times. The Roman emperor, Caligula, had ordered his statue to be placed in the temple at Jerusalem for worship, a desecration of the temple, and the Jews were too much engaged in their efforts to prevent this to persecute the church. Edified. Built up. Were multiplied. The result, always, of “walking in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit.”

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:

In verse 32, the story shifts from Saul to a new part of the story about Peter.

General Information:

Verse 31 is a statement that gives an update on the church's growth.

the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria

This is the first use of the singular "church" to refer to more than one local congregation. Here it refers to all the believers in all the groups throughout Israel.

had peace

"lived peacefully." This means the persecution that started with the murder of Stephen was finished.

was built up

The agent was either God or the Holy Spirit. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God helped them grow" or "the Holy Spirit built them up" (See: Active or Passive)

walking in the fear of the Lord

"Walking" here is a metaphor for "living." AT: "living in obedience to the Lord" or "continuing to honor the Lord"

in the comfort of the Holy Spirit

"with the Holy Spirit strengthening and encouraging them"

Now it came about

This phrase is used to mark a new part of the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

throughout the whole region

This is an generalization for Peter's visiting the believers in many places in the region of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

he came down

The phrase "came down" is used here because Lydda is lower in elevation than the other places where he was traveling.

Lydda

Lydda is a city located about 18 kilometers southeast of Joppa. This city was called Lod in the Old Testament and in modern Israel.

translationWords

church

Judea

Galilee

Samaria

fear

lord

Holy Spirit

Peter

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

31. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία with אABC. Vulg. ‘ecclesia quidem.’

31. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία … εἰρήνην, so the Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria had peace. The sense is that the whole Christian body enjoyed a time of quiet, not as A.V. (with Text. recept.), the various congregations. The cause of this peace for the Christians was that the attention of their persecutors, the Jews, was turned from them to resist the attempt made by Caligula (Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 8. 2) to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This profanation was averted partly by the determined opposition of the Jews, and partly by the intercession of king Agrippa with the mad emperor.

κατά with the genitive of place, as here, implies the spreading of the act or condition spoken of over and throughout the place mentioned. Cf. Luk 4:14 φήμη ἐξῆλθεν καθ’ ὄλης τῆς περιχώρου, ‘the fame went forth over all the surrounding district.’

Examples of this sense are not very common, but it occurs in Act 9:42 below and in Act 10:37.

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

31.] Flourishing state of the church in Palestine at this time. Commencement of new section: compare μὲν οὖν, and note, ch. 11:19. The reading ἐκκλησία can hardly (as Meyer) be an alteration to suit the idea of the unity of the church,—as in that case we should have similar alterations in ch. 15:41; 16:5, where no variations are found in the chief mss. More probably, it has been altered here to conform it to those places. This description probably embraces most of the time since the conversion of Saul. De Wette observes, that the attention of the Jews was, during much of this time, distracted from the Christians, by the attempt of Caligula to set up his image in the temple at Jerusalem, Jos. Antt. xviii. 8. 2-9.

οἰκοδομουμένη] See Mat 16:18. It probably refers to both external and internal strength and accession of grace. Paul commonly uses it of spiritual building up: see reff.

πορ. τῷ φόβ.] walking in the fear: for construction see reff.:—not ‘following after the fear’ (Winer, edn. 2, § 31. 1; not in edn. 6, see § 31. 9),—nor ‘walking according to the fear’ as their rule (Meyer),—nor ‘advancing in the fear’ (Beza, Wolf).

κ. τ. παρακλ. τ. ἁγ. πν. ἐπληθ.] And was multiplied (reff.) by the exhortation of (i.e. inspired by) the Holy Spirit. This is the only rendering which suits the usage of the words. Those of the Vulg. ‘consolatione replebantur,’—of Kuin., ‘adjumento abundabant,’ are unexampled, see reff.

Neither must τῇ παρακλ. be coupled with τῷ φόβῳ, as in E. V., and by Beza and Rosenmüller, which would leave οἰκοδομ. standing by itself, and render the sentence totally unlike Luke’s usual manner of writing.

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

The churches. The best texts read the church; embracing all the different churches throughout the three provinces of Palestine.

Edified. Or build up.

Comfort [παρακλησει] . From parakalew, to call toward or to one's side for help. The word is rendered in the New Testament both exhortation and consolation. Compare Act 13:15; Rom 12:8; 2Co 8:17; Heb 12:5; and Luk 2:25 (see note); 2Th 2:16; Mt 5:4. In some passages the meaning is disputed, as Phi 2:1, where, as in 1Co 14:3, it is joined with paramuqion or paramuqia, the meaning of which also varies between incentive and consolation or assuagement. Here exhortation is the rendering approved by the best authorities, to be construed with was multiplied : was multiplied by the exhortation of the Holy Ghost; i e., by the Holy Spirit inspiring the preachers, and moving the hearts of the hearers.

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