Commentary Upon Acts, Part 1 · Chapter 3
ACTS. CHAP. III.
Vers. 1. Peter and Iohn went up together into the Temple.
IT may bee this was likewise on Pentecost day; and foreign doth signifie identity of time: as it doth, 2 Sam. 21.9. and in the Chaldee of Ionathan on Deut. 25.5. And the ninth houre mentioned here in reference to the third houre in preceding story, Chap. 2.15. at nine a clock in the morning was that conversion of 3000, and at three a clock in the afternoone this of 5000. Howsoever, whether it were on that day, or no; certainly it was on some solemne day, either a Sabbath or Festivall, as appeareth by the number that were then present in the Temple, when so many of them were converted. For ordinarily on the common dayes of the week, the company that was in the Temple was very few, besides the Priests and the Stationary men (foreign as they are called by the Rabbins) which were a number of men chosen to bee constantly there, to represent the whole Congregation, in laying their hands on the heads of the Sacrifices in their behalfe. This concourse of people on such a solemne day, was a fit subject and opportunity for these Apostles to worke upon; and that in all probability was the maine induction that brought them into the Temple at this time. That they should goe thither to institute the Canonicall houres by their own example, as Baronius dreameth, is a fancy that farre better deserveth laughter, then any answer.
Vers. 2. The gate of the Temple which was called Beautifull.
This was the Gate that entred into the second Court, or out of the Court of the Gentiles, into the Court of the Jews: And there this Creeple lay, begging of the Jews that came into the Temple, but disdaining, as it seemeth, to beg of the Gentiles. This seemeth to bee that gate that Iosephus calleth the Corinthiack Gate, and which hee describeth to bee of so much gorgiousnesse and bravery, de Bello Iud. lib. 5.14. and which we shall have occasion to describe in another worke, fully and on set purpose.
Vers. 11. The porch called Solomons.
Not that the very porch built by Solomon was now standing, for that was burnt and destroyed by the Babylonians, as well as the rest of the Temple, but because this was built on the very same pile that his was built upon. For the Temple standing upon an high and steep hill, with a deep and sharpe precipice about it; Solomon to make roome for the floore of the mount, which was too strait, filled up the ditch on the East side with huge stones strongly joynted together, and he built his porch upon that pile; and because this of Herods was erected also upon that very same foundation, it therefore is called Solomons porch. It was the first gate or entrance into the mountaines of the House; and not onelyonly the very building of the porch, but the Court within bare the same name, Iosephus ubi supra.
Vers. 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered, &c.
Here Peters Sermon is registred againe, but Chapt. 4.1. it is said, As they spake, which resolveth that Iohn preached as well as hee.
Vers. 16. Through faith in his name, &c.
Faith is twice named in this verse, because of the Apostles faith in doing, and the Creeples faith in receiving the miracle; the former was foreign: the latter foreign, or foreign.
Vers. 17. Through ignorance ye did it.
So Christ said himself, Luke 23.34. Father forgive them, for they know not what they doe. This their ignorance proceeded mainly from mistaking the place of Christs birth, for they supposed it had been Nazaret; and from mistaking the kingdome of the Messias, for they expected it would have been pompous, and full of worldly glory; the title on the Crosse, Iesus of Nazaret King of the Iewes, spake out both the ignorances that carryed them on to so wretched an act.
Ver. 19. When the times of refreshing shall come.
foreign: The Syriack readeth it, That your sinnes may bee blotted out, and the times of refreshing may come. and so the Arabick and Irenaeus, or at least his interpreter cited by Beza; the Vulgar, ut cùm venerint, but concludeth not the clause to make it sense. Beza, postquam venerint, but what sense he would make of it, I doe not well understand. Hee pleadeth much to prove that foreign doth signifie postquam, and it is not denyed him, but hee cannot deny withall that it signifieth ut likewise: and so may it best, and most properly bee understood, That your sinnes may bee blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come. The Apostle Peter taketh his speech from Esa. 28.12. where the Prophet at once prophecyeth of the gift of tongues, vers. 11. of the preaching of the Gospel, vers. 12. and the infidelity and obduration of the Jews, vers. 13. and speaketh of these very times and occasions that are now in hand: And accordingly is the Apostle to bee understood that speaketh from him, concerning the present refreshing by the Gospel, and Gods present sending Christ among them in the power and Ministery of that, and not of a refreshing at the calling of the Jewes which is yet to come; and Gods sending Christ personally to come and reigne among them, as some have dreamed, and it is but a dream: For let but this Text be seriously weighed in that sense that opinion would make of it; Rep…nt therefore and b…e converted, that your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come: As meaning this, Repent you now, that your sinnes may bee blotted out, 2000, or I know not how many hundred yeares hence, when the calling of the Jewes shall come: If this bee not the sense that they make of this Text, that produce it to assert Christs personall …eigne on earth for a thousand yeares; I know not why they should then produce it; and if this bee the sense, I must confesse I see no sense in it. The words are facil and cleare, and have no intricacy at all in them, if the Scripture may bee suffered to goe upon its owne wheeles; and they may bee taken up in this plaine and undeniable Paraphrase; Repent yee therefore and bee converted, that your sinnes may bee blotted out; so that the times of refreshing by the Gospel may come upon you from the presence of the Lord; and hee may send Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel to you, to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Vers. 20. And he send Iesus Christ.
As Vers. 26. God having raised his Sonne Iesus, sent him to blesse you: Now this cannot possibly bee understood of Christs personally and visibly comming among them; for who of this audience ever saw him after his resurrection? But of his comming among them now in this meanes and offer of salvation: and in the same sense is this clause in hand to bee understood: and so the 22 verse interpreteth it of the sending of Christ as the great Prophet, to whom whosoever will not hearken must be cut off: Not at the end of the world when he shall come as a Judge; but in the Gospel which is his voice, and which to refuse to hearken to, is condemnation. Peters exhortation therefore is to repentance, that their sinnes might bee blotted out, so that refreshing times might come upon them, and Christ in the Gospel might be sent among them, according as Moses had foretold, that hee should be the great instructer of the people.
Sect. Which before was preached unto you.
The very sense of the place confirmeth this reading: for though Beza saith, that all the old Greek Copies that ever he saw, as also the Syrian, Arabick, and Tertullian read it foreign, fore-ordained; yet the very scope and intention of Peters speech in this place doth clearely shew that it is to bee read, foreign, which before was preached to you, namely by Moses, or the law, vers. 22. and by all the Prophets, ver. 24.
Ver. 21. Vntill the restitution of all things.
Or the accomplishment of all things, and to that sense the Syriack translates it, untill the fulnesse of the time of all things, &c. And the Arabick not much different, untill the time in which all things shall bee perfected, or finished, &c. The Greeke word foreign indeed signifieth a restitution to a former estate, a repairing, or an amending, as might bee frequently shewed in Greek Writers, but in Scripture doth not so properly signifie this, as what the Rabbins would expresse by foreign, or foreign, a fulfilling or accomplishing: and the Preposition foreign doth not so much stand in the force of Re, or again, but it stands in opposition to foreign privative in foreign, which signifieth unsetled or unconfirmed, and so foreign is opposed to foreign, Polyb. Hist. lib. 4. Settlement of a City to tumult. And to take up these two places where this word is used in the new Testament, Matth. 17.11. and here. Elias indeed shall first come, foreign: and shall restore all things: what? to their former estate? Nay, that the Baptist did not, for hee brought them into a cleane different estate to their former: or hee shall amend all things? That is true indeed, so the Baptist did, but how will this place in hand bare that sense, which speaketh not of the mending of all things, but of their ending? and how improper would either of these senses runne in this verse, Till the restoring of all things to their former estate, which God hath spoken by the mouth of his Prophets? or till the amending of all things which God hath spoken by his Prophets: But cleare and facil is that sense that is given, Till the accomplishment of all things that God hath spoken by the mouth of his Prophets? The things which God had spoken by the mouth of his Prophets from the beginning of the world were, Christs victory over Satan in the Salvation of all his people; his conquest of the last enemy, death; the calling of the Jewes, the fulnesse of the Gentiles, &c. and how can these things be said to bee restored, or amended? they may most fitly bee said to bee accomplished, perfected, or performed: and so must the same words bee rendred of the Baptist, Elias truly commeth and accomplisheth all things, that are written of him; and so must the son of man doe all things that are written of him, as Marke followes the sense, Mar. 9.12.
Ver. 24. All the Prophets from Samuel.
Hee is reckoned the first of the Prophets after Moses.
First, because Prophecy from the death of Moses to the rising of Samuel was very rare, 1 Sam. 3.1, 2.
Secondly, because he was the first Prophet after Moses that wrote his Prophecy. From the beginning of Samuels rule, to the beginning of the captivity in Babel, was 490 yeares, and from the end of that captivity to the death of Christ, 490 years more, and the 70 yeares captivity, the midst of yeares betweene, as I have shewed elsewhere: But I must advertise the Reader here, that the beginning of Samuels Propheticknesse in this reckoning, is not from the death of Eli, but from one and twenty yeares after. And here let me take up a verse of as much difficulty, and of as little observing of it, as almost any in the Old Testament: as that is 1 Sam. 7.2. And it came to passe while the Arke abode at Kiriath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty yeares: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Now the Arke was undeniably above forty yeares in Kiriath-jearim; namely, all the time from Elies death, till David fetcht it to Ierusalem, which was seven and forty yeares, and somewhat above, onelyonly that first excepted, in which it was seven moneths in the Land of the Philistims, 1 Sam. 6.1. and a little time in Bethshemesh; what then should bee the reason that it is said to bee in Kiriath-jearim onelyonly twenty yeares? Why, the meaning is not that that was all the time that it was there, but that it was there so long a time, before the people ever hearkened after it. Their idolatry and corruption of Religion had so transported them, that they thought not of, nor took regard to the Arke of God for twenty yeares together: Then all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord: for so must it bee rendred; and not, And all the house of Israel, &c.
And so have wee one and twenty yeares taken up from the Death of Eli till this time of Israels repentance, which yet are counted to Samuels forty, but are not reckoned in the account of Habakkuk, of the extent of the race of the Prophets.
Upon this place therefore we may take up these pertinent observations.
First, that God did now on a suddain poure a spirit of Reformation generally upon all the people of Israel after a long time of prophanenesse and Idolatry. They had been exceedingly prophane in the time of Elies sons: And therefore the Lord in justice forsook his Tabernacle in Shiloh, the Tent which hee had pitched besides Adam, when Israel passed through Iordan, Iosh. 3.16. Psal. 78.60. and hee gave the Arke into the Enemies hand; yet was not Israel humbled for it. The Arke was restored to them, and was among them twenty yeares together, and they continued in their Idolatry still, and never sought after it, nor took it to heart. At last, upon a suddaine, and with a generall conversion, Israel begins to turne to the Lord, and lament after him, and forsake their Idols.
Secondly, here was a strange and wondrous spirit of conversion poured upon the people at the beginning of the race of the Prophets, as there was at the end of it, in these Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.
Thirdly, as the practise here in the Acts, was to repent and to bee baptized; so was it then with Israel; as that expression may most properly bee interpreted, ver. 6. They drew water and poured it out before the Lord, as washing or baptizing themselves from their Idolatry.
Ver. 25. Ye are the children of the Prophets.
That is, the Scholars or Disciples of them, as the phrase, The children of the Prophets, is ordinarily used in the Old Testament, 2 King. 2. &c. and Amos 7.14. I was neither Prophet, nor Prophets son; that is, nor Prophets Scholar. And Mat. 11.19. Wisdome is justified of her children; that is, of her Disciples.