18 Now G3303 G3767 this man G3778 purchased G2932 a field G5564 with G1537 the reward G3408 of iniquity; G93 and G2532 falling G1096 headlong, G4248 he burst asunder G2997 in the midst, G3319 and G2532 all G3956 his G846 bowels G4698 gushed out. G1632
Then G5119 Judas, G2455 which G3588 had betrayed G3860 him, G846 when he saw G1492 that G3754 he was condemned, G2632 repented himself, G3338 and brought again G654 the thirty G5144 pieces of silver G694 to the chief priests G749 and G2532 elders, G4245 Saying, G3004 I have sinned G264 in that I have betrayed G3860 the innocent G121 blood. G129 And G1161 they said, G2036 What G5101 is that to G4314 us? G2248 see G3700 thou G4771 to that. And G2532 he cast down G4496 the pieces of silver G694 in G1722 the temple, G3485 and departed, G402 and G2532 went G565 and hanged himself. G519 And G1161 the chief priests G749 took G2983 the silver pieces, G694 and said, G2036 It is G1832 not G3756 lawful G1832 for to put G906 them G846 into G1519 the treasury, G2878 because G1893 it is G2076 the price G5092 of blood. G129 And G1161 they took G2983 counsel, G4824 and bought G59 with G1537 them G846 the potter's G2763 field, G68 to G1519 bury G5027 strangers G3581 in. G5027 Wherefore G1352 that G1565 field G68 was called, G2564 The field G68 of blood, G129 unto G2193 this day. G4594 Then G5119 was fulfilled G4137 that which G3588 was spoken G4483 by G1223 Jeremy G2408 the prophet, G4396 saying, G3004 And G2532 they took G2983 the thirty G5144 pieces of silver, G694 the price G5092 of him that was valued, G5091 whom G3739 they of G575 the children G5207 of Israel G2474 did value; G5091 And G2532 gave G1325 them G846 for G1519 the potter's G2763 field, G68 as G2505 the Lord G2962 appointed G4929 me. G3427
When I saw H7200 among the spoils H7998 a H259 goodly H2896 Babylonish H8152 garment, H155 and two hundred H3967 shekels H8255 of silver, H3701 and a H259 wedge H3956 of gold H2091 of fifty H2572 shekels H8255 weight, H4948 then I coveted H2530 them, and took H3947 them; and, behold, they are hid H2934 in the earth H776 in the midst H8432 of my tent, H168 and the silver H3701 under it. So Joshua H3091 sent H7971 messengers, H4397 and they ran H7323 unto the tent; H168 and, behold, it was hid H2934 in his tent, H168 and the silver H3701 under it. And they took H3947 them out of the midst H8432 of the tent, H168 and brought H935 them unto Joshua, H3091 and unto all the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 and laid them out H3332 before H6440 the LORD. H3068 And Joshua, H3091 and all Israel H3478 with him, took H3947 Achan H5912 the son H1121 of Zerah, H2226 and the silver, H3701 and the garment, H155 and the wedge H3956 of gold, H2091 and his sons, H1121 and his daughters, H1323 and his oxen, H7794 and his asses, H2543 and his sheep, H6629 and his tent, H168 and all that he had: and they brought H5927 them unto the valley H6010 of Achor. H5911 And Joshua H3091 said, H559 Why H4100 hast thou troubled H5916 us? the LORD H3068 shall trouble H5916 thee this day. H3117 And all Israel H3478 stoned H7275 him with stones, H68 and burned H8313 them with fire, H784 after they had stoned H5619 them with stones. H68 And they raised H6965 over him a great H1419 heap H1530 of stones H68 unto this day. H3117 So the LORD H3068 turned H7725 from the fierceness H2740 of his anger. H639 Wherefore the name H8034 of that place H4725 was called, H7121 The valley H6010 of Achor, H5911 unto this day. H3117
But Gehazi, H1522 the servant H5288 of Elisha H477 the man H376 of God, H430 said, H559 Behold, my master H113 hath spared H2820 Naaman H5283 this Syrian, H761 in not receiving H3947 at his hands H3027 that which he brought: H935 but, as the LORD H3068 liveth, H2416 I will run H7323 after H310 him, and take H3947 somewhat H3972 of him. So Gehazi H1522 followed H7291 after H310 Naaman. H5283 And when Naaman H5283 saw H7200 him running H7323 after H310 him, he lighted down H5307 from the chariot H4818 to meet H7125 him, and said, H559 Is all well? H7965 And he said, H559 All is well. H7965 My master H113 hath sent H7971 me, saying, H559 Behold, even now there be come H935 to me from mount H2022 Ephraim H669 two H8147 young men H5288 of the sons H1121 of the prophets: H5030 give H5414 them, I pray thee, a talent H3603 of silver, H3701 and two H8147 changes H2487 of garments. H899 And Naaman H5283 said, H559 Be content, H2974 take H3947 two talents. H3603 And he urged H6555 him, and bound H6696 two H8147 talents H3603 of silver H3701 in two H8147 bags, H2754 with two H8147 changes H2487 of garments, H899 and laid H5414 them upon two H8147 of his servants; H5288 and they bare H5375 them before H6440 him. And when he came H935 to the tower, H6076 he took H3947 them from their hand, H3027 and bestowed H6485 them in the house: H1004 and he let the men H582 go, H7971 and they departed. H3212 But he went in, H935 and stood H5975 before his master. H113 And Elisha H477 said H559 unto him, Whence H370 comest thou, Gehazi? H1522 And he said, H559 Thy servant H5650 went H1980 no whither. H575 And he said H559 unto him, Went H1980 not mine heart H3820 with thee, when the man H376 turned H2015 again from his chariot H4818 to meet H7125 thee? Is it a time H6256 to receive H3947 money, H3701 and to receive H3947 garments, H899 and oliveyards, H2132 and vineyards, H3754 and sheep, H6629 and oxen, H1241 and menservants, H5650 and maidservants? H8198 The leprosy H6883 therefore of Naaman H5283 shall cleave H1692 unto thee, and unto thy seed H2233 for ever. H5769 And he went out H3318 from his presence H6440 a leper H6879 as white as snow. H7950
Though wickedness H7451 be sweet H4985 in his mouth, H6310 though he hide H3582 it under his tongue; H3956 Though he spare H2550 it, and forsake H5800 it not; but keep it still H4513 within H8432 his mouth: H2441 Yet his meat H3899 in his bowels H4578 is turned, H2015 it is the gall H4846 of asps H6620 within H7130 him. He hath swallowed down H1104 riches, H2428 and he shall vomit them up again: H6958 God H410 shall cast them out H3423 of his belly. H990
Then G5119 one G1520 of the twelve, G1427 called G3004 Judas G2455 Iscariot, G2469 went G4198 unto G4314 the chief priests, G749 And said G2036 unto them, What G5101 will ye G2309 give G1325 me, G3427 and G2504 I will deliver G3860 him G846 unto you? G5213 And G1161 they covenanted G2476 with him G846 for thirty G5144 pieces of silver. G694
Which have forsaken G2641 the right G2117 way, G3598 and are gone astray, G4105 following G1811 the way G3598 of Balaam G903 the son of Bosor, G1007 who G3739 loved G25 the wages G3408 of unrighteousness; G93 But G1161 was G2192 rebuked G1649 for his G2398 iniquity: G3892 the dumb G880 ass G5268 speaking G5350 with G1722 man's G444 voice G5456 forbad G2967 the madness G3913 of the prophet. G4396
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Acts 1
Commentary on Acts 1 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 1
Ac 1:1-11. Introduction—Last Days of Our Lord upon Earth—His Ascension.
1, 2. former treatise—Luke's Gospel.
Theophilus—(See on Lu 1:3).
began to do and teach—a very important statement, dividing the work of Christ into two great branches: the one embracing His work on earth, the other His subsequent work from heaven; the one in His own Person, the other by His Spirit; the one the "beginning," the other the continuance of the same work; the one complete when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the other to continue till His second appearing; the one recorded in "The Gospels," the beginnings only of the other related in this book of "The Acts." "Hence the grand history of what Jesus did and taught does not conclude with His departure to the Father; but Luke now begins it in a higher strain; for all the subsequent labors of the apostles are just an exhibition of the ministry of the glorified Redeemer Himself because they were acting under His authority, and He was the principle that operated in them all" [Olshausen].
2. after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments, &c.—referring to the charge recorded in Mt 28:18-20; Mr 16:15-18; Lu 24:44-49. It is worthy of notice that nowhere else are such communications of the risen Redeemer said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost." In general, this might have been said of all He uttered and all He did in His official character; for it was for this very end that God "gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (Joh 3:34). But after His resurrection, as if to signify the new relation in which He now stood to the Church, He signalized His first meeting with the assembled disciples by breathing on them (immediately after dispensing to them His peace) and saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (Joh 20:22) thus anticipating the donation of the Spirit from His hands (see on Joh 20:21, 22); and on the same principle His parting charges are here said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost," as if to mark that He was now all redolent with the Spirit; that what had been husbanded, during His suffering work, for His own necessary uses, had now been set free, was already overflowing from Himself to His disciples, and needed but His ascension and glorification to flow all forth. (See on Joh 7:39.)
3-5. showed himself alive—As the author is about to tell us that "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" was the great burden of apostolic preaching, so the subject is here filly introduced by an allusion to the primary evidence on which that great fact rests, the repeated and undeniable manifestations of Himself in the body to the assembled disciples, who, instead of being predisposed to believe it, had to be overpowered by the resistless evidence of their own senses, and were slow of yielding even to this (Mr 16:14).
after his passion—or, suffering. This primary sense of the word "passion" has fallen into disuse; but it is nobly consecrated in the phraseology of the Church to express the Redeemer's final endurances.
seen of them forty days—This important specification of time occurs here only.
speaking of—rather "speaking."
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God—till now only in germ, but soon to take visible form; the earliest and the latest burden of His teaching on earth.
4. should not depart from Jerusalem—because the Spirit was to glorify the existing economy, by descending on the disciples at its metropolitan seat, and at the next of its great festivals after the ascension of the Church's Head; in order that "out of Zion might go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa 2:3; and compare Lu 24:49).
5. ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence—ten days hence, as appears from Le 23:15, 16; but it was expressed thus indefinitely to exercise their faith.
6-8. wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?—Doubtless their carnal views of Messiah's kingdom had by this time been modified, though how far it is impossible to say. But, as they plainly looked for some restoration of the kingdom to Israel, so they are neither rebuked nor contradicted on this point.
7. It is not for you to know the times, &c.—implying not only that this was not the time, but that the question was irrelevant to their present business and future work.
8. receive power—See Lu 24:49.
and ye shall be witnesses unto me … in Jerusalem … in all Judea … and unto the uttermost part of the earth—This order of apostolic preaching and success supplies the proper key to the plan of the Acts, which relates first the progress of the Gospel "in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria" (the first through ninth chapters), and then "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (the tenth through twenty-eighth chapters).
9-11. while they beheld, he was taken up—See on Lu 24:50-53. Lest it should be thought He had disappeared when they were looking in some other direction, and so was only concluded to have gone up to heaven, it is here expressly said that "while they were looking He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." So Elijah, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee" (2Ki 2:10); "And Elisha saw it" (Ac 1:12). (See on Lu 9:32.)
10. while they looked steadfastly toward heaven—following Him with their eager eyes, in rapt amazement. Not, however, as a mere fact is this recorded, but as a part of that resistless evidence of their senses on which their whole subsequent testimony was to be borne.
two men in white apparel—angels in human form, as in Lu 24:4.
11. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, &c.—"as if your now glorified Head were gone from you never to return: He is coming again; not another, but 'this same Jesus'; and 'as ye have seen Him go, in the like manner shall He come'—as personally, as visibly, as gloriously; and let the joyful expectation of this coming swallow up the sorrow of that departure."
Ac 1:12-26. Return of the Eleven to Jerusalem—Proceedings in the Upper Room till Pentecost.
12-14. a sabbath day's journey—about two thousand cubits.
13. went up into an upper room—perhaps the same "large upper room" where with their Lord they had celebrated the last Passover and the first Supper (Lu 22:12).
where abode—not lodged, but had for their place of rendezvous.
Peter, &c.—(See on Mt 10:2-4).
14. continued with one accord—knit by a bond stronger than death.
in prayer and supplication—for the promised baptism, the need of which in their orphan state would be increasingly felt.
and Mary the mother of Jesus—distinguished from the other "women," but "so as to exclude the idea of her having any pre-eminence over the disciples. We find her with the rest in prayer to her glorified Son" [Webster and Wilkinson]. This is the last mention of her in the New Testament. The fable of the Assumption of the Virgin has no foundation even in tradition [Alford].
with his brethren—(See on Joh 7:3).
15-26. in those days—of expectant prayer, and probably towards the close of them, when the nature of their future work began more clearly to dawn upon them, and the Holy Ghost, already "breathed" on the Eleven (Joh 20:22), was stirring in Peter, who was to be the leading spirit of the infant community (Mt 16:19).
the number … about an hundred and twenty—Many, therefore, of the "five hundred brethren" who saw their risen Lord "at once" (1Co 15:6), must have remained in Galilee.
18. falling headlong, &c.—This information supplements, but by no means contradicts, what is said in Mt 27:5.
20. his bishopric—or "charge." The words are a combination of Ps 69:25 and Ps 109:8; in which the apostle discerns a greater than David, and a worse than Ahithophel and his fellow conspirators against David.
21. all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—in the close intimacies of a three years' public life.
22. Beginning from the baptism of John—by whom our Lord was not only Himself baptized, but first officially announced and introduced to his own disciples.
unto that same day when he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection—How clearly is the primary office of the apostles here expressed: (1) to testify, from personal observation, to the one great fact of "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus"; (2) to show how this glorified His whole previous life, of which they were constant observers, and established His divine claims.
23. they appointed—"put up" in nomination; meaning not the Eleven but the whole company, of whom Peter was the spokesman.
two—The choice would lie between a very few.
24. prayed and said, Thou, Lord, &c.—"The word 'Lord,' placed absolutely, denotes in the New Testament almost universally THE SON; and the words, 'Show whom Thou hast chosen,' are decisive. The apostles are just Christ's messengers: It is He that sends them, and of Him they bear witness. Here, therefore, we have the first example of a prayer offered to the exalted Redeemer; furnishing indirectly the strongest proof of His divinity" [Olshausen].
which knowest the hearts of all men—See Joh 2:24, 25; 21:15-17; Re 2:23.
25. that he might go to his own place—A euphemistic or softened expression of the awful future of the traitor, implying not only destined habitation but congenial element.
26. was numbered—"voted in" by general suffrage.
with the eleven apostles—completing the broken Twelve.