Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 1:15
And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty,)
15 26. Election of an Apostle into the place of Judas Iscariot
15. And in those days ] i.e. the days intervening between the Ascension and Pentecost.
Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples ] The best MSS. read brethren for disciples. Here we have a formal assembling of all those who were avowed followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, and the rising of Peter to address them bespeaks the importance which he attached to the duty they were about to perform in electing a successor to Judas.
the number, &c.] Render, and there was a multitude of persons (Gr. names) gathered together, about a hundred and twenty. For this use of names = persons cp. Rev 3:4, “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.”
The hundred and twenty here collected is in no way inconsistent with St Paul’s statement (1Co 15:6) that Christ shewed Himself on one occasion, before His Ascension, to more than five hundred brethren at once. Those were gathered from all parts of the land, and we have now mention made only of such as had continued in the Holy City.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In those days – On one of the days intervening between the ascension of Jesus and the day of Pentecost.
Peter stood up – Peter standing up, or rising. This is a customary expression in the Scriptures when one begins to do a thing, Luk 15:18. The reason why Peter did this may be seen in the notes on Mat 16:16-17. It is not improbable, besides, that Peter was the most aged of the apostles; and from his uniform conduct we know that he was the most ardent. It was perfectly characteristic, therefore, for him to introduce the business of the election of a new apostle.
The disciples – This was the name, which was given to them as being learners in the school of Christ. See the notes on Mat 5:1.
The number of the names – The number of the persons, or individuals. The word name is often used to denote the person, Rev 3:4; Act 4:12; Act 18:15; Eph 1:21. In Syriac it is, The assembly of people was about an hundred and twenty. This was the first assembly convened to transact the business of the church; and it is not a little remarkable that the vote in so important a matter as electing apostle was by the entire church. It settles the question that the election of a minister and pastor should be by the church, and that a pastor should not be placed over a church by a patron, or by an ecclesiastical body. If a case could ever occur where it would be right and proper that one should be selected to exercise the office of a minister of Christ by the ministry only, the election of one to fall the office of an apostle was such a case. And yet in this the entire church had a voice. Whether this was all the true church at this time does not appear from the history. This expression cannot mean that there were no more Christians, but that these were all that had convened in the upper room. It is certain that our Saviour had, by his own ministry, brought many others to be his true followers. Compare 1Co 15:6.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 1:15
And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples.
Peters attitude
Mark the bearing of Peter towards his fellow-believers. No priestly attitude does he assume. Though he leads, he associates the whole assembly with himself. He will have them to choose candidates for the apostleship; he accepts their nomination; and though it is all but certain that in laying these two before the Lord, he was the spokesman, this is not said. Nor was it only on this first occasion, when he might be supposed rather to shrink, that he thus acted, but on every subsequent occasion his procedure was in keeping with this. So little ground is there not only for the lordly assumptions of those who call themselves successors of the prince of the apostles, but for that ecclesiastical ambition which has proved the bane and blight of many who repudiate Romish pretensions. (D. Brown, D. D.)
A model church meeting
This was a meeting–
I. To transact business of very grave importance. To elect an apostle–an eye-witness of the resurrection–in the place of Judas. The resurrection is the key-stone of the Christian system. The fact was so extraordinary, and clashed so mightily with popular prejudices that no one would dare to proclaim it who had not been deeply convinced of it by irresistible evidence. To be able to do this was necessary to constitute an apostle.
II. In which the assembled members had a duty to fulfil, and all of them, male and female, were called upon to exercise their best judgment, and to give their conscientious vote. The candidates were set up not by the apostles, but by the whole body of disciples. The appointment of ministers is not the right of an individual, however distinguished in Church and state, but by the assembled Church.
III. Competent in itself to discharge the business. They sought no counsel from any body of men external to themselves, nor would they have submitted to dictation from any person or society outside, however dignified. The power of a Church for its own business is in itself inspired and guided by Christ its Head.
IV. Superintended by its ablest member. Peters conduct shows that he was the most competent–the man to direct affairs. Observe–
1. His sketch of the miserable man who had once occupied the vacant post.
2. His counsel as to present duty. Peters principle was that the new apostle should be selected from those who were most intimate with the Master–a principle to be for ever observed. He only is qualified for the highest office in the Church whose alliance with Christ is most vital.
V. In which they engaged in united prayer to heaven for direction. The prayer implies–
1. A recognition of the Divine omniscience. A deep impression of Gods acquaintance with all hearts is essential to devotion.
2. A desire to have their choice regulated by the Divine. We only desire to vote for Him whom Thou hast ordained. Conclusion: Would that all church meetings had ever been ruled by this model. Gathered not for trivial but important business; recognising the right of every member to a voice; holding the power to transact all its affairs independently of external authority, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Preparing for ecclesiastical business
Notice that the company was–
1. Comparatively small. But it was the first part of Christs mighty kingdom. Despise not the day of small things.
2. Business-like. Names suggests that a list was probably drawn up–a sign of intelligence and earnestness.
3. Imperfect. One place was vacant, and the company could not be content till it was filled.
4. Every member of it acknowledged the authority of Holy Scripture. The company was prepared–
I. By being adequately instructed. Peters speech showed–
1. That the place of Judas must be filled up. The number of apostles followed that of the twelve tribes of Israel. They were commonly designated as the Twelve, both before and after the death of Judas.
2. That the whole assembly must take part in filling up the vacancy.
3. That the Word of God was to give the assembly present direction.
4. That definite qualifications were required in an apostle.
5. That a definite work had to be done by the apostles. This instruction probably cleared up vague thinkings for many a member of the company.
II. By being strongly warned against sin. In the case of Judas they saw–
1. Sin working in one who had held office under Jesus–the Saviour from sin. What qualifications had they which Judas had not had? Yet sin turned him out of his office. Then let all beware.
2. Sin working in one who had been chosen for office by Jesus Himself.
3. Sin growing to great enormity.
4. Sin making its perpetrator infamous.
5. Sin ending in a doom of darkness.
Conclusion: Here we see–
1. The true primacy of Peter. He led in preparation, interpretation and prayer. The fulfilment of the words, Thou art Peter, etc., is here begun. The foundation is not the confession, but the man (Gal 2:9; Eph 2:20; 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 2:4-6). Christ is the one foundation stone (1Co 3:11); but there is also a foundation of the apostles and prophets, and this is laid in Peter. Accordingly he founded the Jewish portion of the Church, as we see in the early chapters of this book. On him, standing on Christ, were laid in one day three thousand souls. And he also founded the Gentile portion (chaps. 10., 11.). But Peter had no special primacy of rank after his own special work was completed. And he could have no successor.
2. The true functions of the preacher. Peter gave the sense of Scripture, and applied it to the circumstances of the time so directing the hearers. The Acts is the best treatise on homiletics.
3. A good example for all Christians. Under Peters direction the company prayed, considered their duty, and so proceeded to action–prayer, meditation, work, describe the whole sphere of Christian duty. (W. Hudson.)
The premature election
1. In those days Peter stood up. It was a pity he did so, for he had been told to sit down. But who can wait ten days? Yet those periods of waiting are interposed in every life, for the trial of patience and for the perfecting of faith. They also serve who only stand and wait. Stand still and see the salvation of God. Your strength is to sit still. But Peter was a man who could not wait. He was always more or less of a talkative man. Instead of embodying it in patience and endurance his energy evaporated in speech. He will become a better man by and by; yes, even in this opening speech, he begins to show that delicacy of touch which made him conspicuous amid all the apostolic writers. It was to be feared that he would begin with a mistake, because he ended with one (Joh 21:21). The fussy church must be doing something, if it is only mischief; the mechanical church cannot stand still; they consider that if they are walking up and down very much, they are doing something, but if they be sitting quietly still in expectancy and eager love, they are doing nothing. Peter will have a vote taken, or a ballot; he will complete the broken circle–he who broke the circle most.
2. Peter begins where all wise teachers begin, if they would continue efficiently, and conclude beneficently. He founds what he has to say upon the Scriptures. This is the peculiarity of Christian teaching: it founds itself upon the Written Word. Even where there may be differences of interpretation, it rests upon something deeper than merely verbal exposition. Herein is that sublime possibility of all Christian sections being substantially and integrally right. It is the spirit that unites, it is the letter that divides and kills. It is quite possible for a heterodox man to have an orthodox spirit, and it is by his spirit that he will be saved, and not by his letter.
3. Grounding himself upon Scripture, and only partially interpreting it, Peter proceeded to take a ballot for an apostle to succeed the apostate Judas. Who asked him to rise and address the disciples at all? The disciples were told to wait for the baptism of power. Peter was not endued with the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal sense when he made this speech. The conditions of succession to the apostolate are very beautiful (verses 21, 22). That is the law of the ministry to-day. Lay hands suddenly on no man. The Christian ministry must be composed of men who have companied with us and known the Lord Jesus Christ all the time. You cannot make ministers; they must be born, not of blood, etc. This is the mischief against which we have to guard, that you can buy ministers with money. This genius is not in the market.
4. Having elected two men for choice, the disciples prayed: they left the case in the hands of God, but unfortunately they had first taken it into their own. Never take your own case into your own hand. Persons say, Be prudent–if ever you can for a moment sit yourself down, resolving to be prudent, God has forsaken you! Persons say, Beware of exaggeration, of enterprises that are dangerous–those persons never did anything for the world; they cannot; cold water never drove an engine, and a body without wings never knew the danger, the mystery, the joy of flight. Seek an inspired life. So the apostles committed themselves in prayer to God for guidance. So would I take every matter to God day by day.
5. The disciples gave forth their lots. How pitiful. In a few more days they will have had the Holy Ghost. There are men now who would decide everything by lot: it seems a short and easy method, but it is no method in the house of God; we are now under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. There is no such way of discovering Gods thought. We do not decide things by lot in our own narrow sphere, nor do we carry things unanimously ourselves. Thus, these are the voters that live in you–Judgment, Self-interest, immediate Success, Curiosity, Speculation, Family considerations, Health, Time, and some twenty more voters all have a seat in the council of your mind. Now those who are in favour of this course say, Aye, those who oppose say, No, and then you, that innermost You, says, The ayes have it–or the noes, so that in reality you do not carry your own personal decisions unanimously. Sometimes your judgment does not vote at all, then the resolution is said to be carried nem. con. Sometimes you carry your resolutions unanimously, the whole man stands up and says, Let it be done. When I have wished in critical hours to know what was right, I have submitted myself to three tests–
(1) What is my own deepest conviction.
(2) What is the concurrent voice of my most trusted counsellors.
(3) What is the fair inference from conspiring circumstances? With these, I have said, There is none other than Gods will: if it be not, Lord, stop me. Not my will but Thine be done.
6. In the case before us the lot fell upon Matthias, and you hear no more about him. I do not want to be a balloted minister: here because I had six votes, and another man had only five: I want to stand in my ministry by right Divine, by credentials not written by men and that cannot be expunged by men. That is the calling of the whole Church: do not imagine that Episcopalianism, Congregationalism, etc., will save you. We are not saved by name, nor are we an influential Church because we bear an illustrious name. Every day needs its own inspiration, as every day requires its own bread. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Christian life organic
I. The suicide of Judas created a vacancy in the number of the twelve apostles. Christ does not seem to have spoken concerning this, but leaves it to be filled by the Church. And this is the duty to which Peter summons them. The little handful of believers were waiting for the promise of the Father. They were called not to activity, but to stillness and expectancy. But Peter at once organises a council and proceeds to an Episcopal election. And, unquestionably, Peter was right, and the disciples recognised it to be their first duty to fill up the ranks and perfect the organisation, and so enlarge the influence and increase the working power of that Divine agency which Christ had committed to their charge.
II. Let us admit freely that organisation is not life, but without organisation there can be no life. In nature we know of life at all, only as it exhibits itself under organised forms, and so St. Paul affirms must the life of Divine truth in the world, be an organised life with a head, and hands and feet–in other words with that which governs and that which communicates and that which obeys. When a farmer in the Salt Lake Valley constructs that ingenious system of sinuous and interlacing the watercourses by which the melting snows of the Wausatch Mountains are conducted to every remotest corner of his vineyards and cornfields, he has not thereby secured the smallest guarantee that the snow will fall, or that it will melt, or that it will obey the law of gravitation and run down hill into his tanks. These things are ordered by God, and his orchards blossom and his corn sprouts, not because he has laid so many feet of drain-pipe, but because God has put into the melted snow or the chance shower some mysterious power of making that arid desert of sand with its silex and potash to burst forth, straightway so soon as the water has touched it, and bud and blossom as a rose. But none the less, as things are, that arid and desert valley would never have burst into flower if the farmers simple machinery had not so organised and utilised these forces of nature that the baptism of the one became the new birth and resurrection of the other.
III. And this, at any rate, is the lesson of such a parable, as it is of all history. The church of God is in the world, not as a human invention, but as a Divine appointment to be applied by human hands. Its fellowship is not salvation, but it is a means of salvation. Its sacraments are not grace, but they are channels of grace. Its Bible is not a charm or a talisman, but it is a teacher and guide. Its services are not spells, but they are helps and refreshments. I honour with my whole soul that protest against the formalism of the Church, which resents the tendency to make of these things the whole of religion. I honour no less that vehement and robust indignation which denounces the temper that hands over all men who do not belong to your Church or mine or some other of equal historic pretensions, to the uncovenanted mercies of God. But all this does not affect in the smallest degree, the question whether or no Christ has founded a Church, whether or no you and I have sought, and found its fellowship. The Church exists in the world not to enjoy our patronage, to invite our criticism, to gratify our taste, but to accept our discipleship. Her organised life, her ministry, her sacraments, her worship, the proclamation of her Lords message–all these things are not less essential to-day, than when in the beginning Peter convened the hundred and twenty disciples to choose Matthias. This Christian organisation is Divine, and as such it speaks its message and holds forth its ministrations. It may be that some of us have come to regard the Church as a kind of social appendage, a rather more dignified marrying and burying and baptising association, which we are to make use of when tradition or custom or decorum constrains us to, and at other times conveniently forget. But the moment that we look into it we find that it asserts of itself nothing less than a Divine origin, and it demands a definite obedience. We may say that that authority is groundless, but until we have proved it, our allegiance is not an option, it is a debt.
IV. And so I plead with parents to train children in ways of reverent familiarity with Gods word, Gods house, and Gods day. Let them understand that something higher than your taste or preference makes these things sacred and binding. And that you may do this the more effectually, give them, I entreat you, that mightiest teaching which consists in your own consistent and devout example. And in your holidays remember that wherever you go, you are a baptised member of the Church, and treachery to your baptismal vow is as disloyal under a foreign flag as it would be under your own. (Bp H. C. Potter, D. D.)
Lessons from the pre-Pentecostal period
In this paragraph we have–
I. The law of leadership in Christian communities.
1. Society without leadership sinks into confusion.
2. In the long run leadership resolves itself into a question of personal qualification. Sooner or later unqualified men have to resign positions they ought never to have assumed.
3. In a great leader many elements are combined. Others may excel him in detached points, but taken as a whole, he rules not by one dominant faculty, but by a noble proportion of gifts.
4. The position of leader is not so easy as it seems to unreflecting observers. Men see the elevation, not the strain and responsibility.
5. The only sound rule for promotion is wisdom which should be recognised irrespective of age or position.
6. He leads best who knows the art of wise following. The leader is often, as here, but the mouthpiece of the whole community.
7. All human leadership is to be subjected to the Headship of the Divine Redeemer.
II. The construction of the Christian ministry.
1. It was required that the successor to the vacant bishopric be a man who had known Christ. Those who now sustain the office of witnesses for Christ must be men whose spiritual intimacy with Him is intense and fully tested. Every minister must have seen Christ and known the power of His resurrection.
2. It is clear from the election of Matthias that there is in the Scriptures a distinct claim to apostolic succession. Who then are in this succession? Those who are animated by the apostolic spirit. It is not question of ecclesiastical descent, but of spiritual illumination and sympathy.
3. The twelfth minister was chosen by the whole Church subject to a distinct expression of the Divine Will. The election was not determined by personal taste, much less by the industrious canvassing of ambitious candidates. The minister was sought by prayer and as a consequence was received with submission and thankfulness. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. In the midst of the disciples] ; but instead of this, , brethren, is the reading of ABC, a few others, with the Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate. This seems the best reading, because of what immediately follows; for it was not among the disciples merely that he stood, but among the whole company, which amounted to one hundred and twenty. It is remarkable that this was the number which the Jews required to form a council in any city; and it is likely that in reference to this the disciples had gathered together, with themselves, the number of one hundred and twenty, chosen out of the many who had been already converted by the ministry of our Lord, the twelve disciples, and the seventy-two whom he had sent forth to preach, Lu 10:1, &c., thus they formed a complete council in presence of which the important business of electing a person in the place of Judas was to be transacted.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In those days, between our Saviours ascension and Pentecost.
Peter, as generally, spake for and amongst the apostles; but now especially, to express his zeal and faithfulness to our Saviour, whom he had so lately denied, he being also designed the minister of the circumcision, which place he began now to execute.
The number of the names, or persons, together were about an hundred and twenty; probably Christ had converted many men, but these might be either men of name or quality, or meant of such as, Act 1:21, had accompanied with Christ and his apostles, and were designed for the ministry.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15-26. in those daysofexpectant prayer, and probably towards the close of them, when thenature of their future work began more clearly to dawn upon them, andthe Holy Ghost, already “breathed” on the Eleven (Joh20:22), was stirring in Peter, who was to be the leading spiritof the infant community (Mt16:19).
the number . . . about anhundred and twentyMany, therefore, of the “five hundredbrethren” who saw their risen Lord “at once” (1Co15:6), must have remained in Galilee.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And in those days Peter stood up,…. That is, in one of the days after Christ’s ascension, and before the day of Pentecost, whilst the disciples were waiting for the promise of the Spirit. The Ethiopic version reads, “on that day”; as if it was the same day they came first into Jerusalem, and went into the upper room; and which is likely enough; for no time was to be lost in choosing one in the room of Judas; when Peter, not only as a forward person, and who had been used to be the first mover and actor in any affair; but as willing to show his zeal for Christ, whom he had so lately denied, and as being the senior man in company, as well as the minister of the circumcision, rises, and stands up, as persons used to do, when about to make an oration, and in respect and reverence to the persons addressed:
in the midst of the disciples; not only the other ten, but the whole hundred and twenty. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, “in the midst of the brethren”, and so reads the Vulgate Latin version; and the Ethiopic version, “in the midst of his own brethren”;
and he said what is expressed in the following verses, which before the historian relates, he inserts in a parenthesis this clause,
the number of the names; that is, of persons; see Re 11:13. Some copies read, “of the men”, and so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; who
together, all put together in one sum, or as meeting together in one and the same place, or as agreeing in the same faith and judgment, so the Arabic version, “and there was there a company whose names and wills agreed in this same opinion”; they were all in one place, and of the same mind; and the sum of them
were about an hundred and twenty; among whom were the eleven apostles, and seventy disciples, which made eighty one; so that there were thirty nine persons more in this company: not that it is to be thought that these were all that were in Jerusalem that believed in Christ; but these were the number of the persons that met and embodied together in a church state, and who not only gave themselves to the Lord, but to one another, by the will of God; and their names being taken and registered, the historian calls the account of them, the number of the names, and not persons; though he means persons. This was a number pretty famous among the Jews; the sanhedrim of Ezra, called the men of the great synagogue, consisted of an “hundred and twenty elders”; the last of which was Simeon the just, and he comprehended the hundred and twenty h. And such a number was requisite for a sanhedrim in any place; it is asked,
“how many must there be in a city, that it may be fit for a sanhedrim? “an hundred and twenty”; R. Nehemiah says two hundred and thirty i:”
but the decision is according to the former: hence they say k, that
“they fix in every city in Israel, where there is an “hundred and twenty”, or more, a lesser sanhedrim.—A city in which there is not an hundred and twenty, they place three judges, for there is no sanhedrim less than three.”
h Juchasin, fol. 13. 2. Bartenora in Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 1. Elias Levit. prefat. 3. ad Sepher Masoret. i Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 6. Vid. Maimon. & Bartenora in. ib. & T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 17. 2. k Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 3, 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Death of Judas; Matthias Elected to Be an Apostle. |
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15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) 16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. 17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. 18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. 20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishopric let another take. 21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. 23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
The sin of Judas was not only his shame and ruin, but it made a vacancy in the college of the apostles. They were ordained twelve, with an eye to the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve patriarchs; they were the twelve stars that make up the church’s crown (Rev. xii. 1), and for them twelve thrones were designated, Matt. xix. 28. Now being twelve when they were learners, if they were but eleven when they were to be teachers, it would occasion every one to enquire what had become of the twelfth, and so revive the remembrance of the scandal of their society; and therefore care was taken, before the descent of the Spirit, to fill up the vacancy, of the doing of which we now have an account, our Lord Jesus, probably, having given directions about it, among other things which he spoke pertaining to the kingdom of God. Observe,
I. The persons concerned in this affair. 1. The house consisted of about a hundred and twenty. This was the number of the names, that is, the persons; some think the men only, distinguished from the women. Dr. Lightfoot reckons that the eleven apostles, the seventy disciples, and about thirty-nine more, all of Christ’s own kindred, country, and concourse, made up this one hundred and twenty, and that these were a sort of synod, or congregation of ministers, a standing presbytery (ch. iv. 23), to whom none of the rest durst join themselves (ch. v. 13), and that they continued together till the persecution at Stephen’s death dispersed them all but the apostles (ch. viii. 1); but he thinks that besides these there were many hundreds in Jerusalem, if not thousands, at this time, that believed; and we have indeed read of many that believed on him there, but durst not confess him, and therefore I cannot think, as he does, that they were now formed into distinct congregations, for the preaching of the word and other acts of worship; nor that there was any thing of this till after the pouring out of the Spirit, and the conversions recorded in the following chapter. Here was the beginning of the Christian church: this hundred and twenty was the grain of mustard-seed that grew into a tree, the leaven that leavened the whole lump. 2. The speaker was Peter, who had been, and still was, the most forward man; and therefore notice is taken of his forwardness and zeal, to show that he had perfectly recovered the ground he lost by his denying his Master, and, Peter being designed to be the apostle of the circumcision, while the sacred story stays among the Jews, he is still brought in, as afterwards, when it comes to speak of the Gentiles, it keeps to the story of Paul.
II. The proposal which Peter made for the choice of another apostle. He stood up in the midst of the disciples, v. 15. He did not sit down, as one that gave laws, or had any supremacy over the rest, but stood up, as one that had only a motion to make, in which he paid a deference to his brethren, standing up when he spoke to them. Now in his speech we may observe,
1. The account he gives of the vacancy made by the death of Judas, in which he is very particular, and, as became one that Christ had breathed upon, takes notice of the fulfilling of the scriptures in it. Here is,
(1.) The power to which Judas had been advanced (v. 17): He was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry which we are invested with. Note, Many are numbered with the saints in this world that will not be found among them in the day of separation between the precious and the vile. What will it avail us to be added to the number of Christians, if we partake not of the spirit and nature of Christians? Judas’s having obtained part of this ministry was but an aggravation of his sin and ruin, as it will be of theirs who prophesied in Christ’s name, and yet were workers of iniquity.
(2.) The sin of Judas, notwithstanding his advancement to this honour. He was guide to those that took Jesus, not only informed Christ’s persecutors where they might find him (which they might have done effectually though he had kept out of sight), but he had the impudence to appear openly at the head of the party that seized him. He went before them to the place, and, as if he had been proud of the honour, gave the word of command: That same is he, hold him fast. Note, Ringleaders in sin are the worst of sinners, especially if those that by their office should have been guides to the friends of Christ are guides to his enemies.
(3.) The ruin of Judas by this sin. Perceiving the chief priests to seek the life of Christ and his disciples, he thought to save his by going over to them, and not only so, but to get an estate under them, of which his wages for his service, he hoped, would be but an earnest; but see what came of it. [1.] He lost his money shamefully enough (v. 18): He purchased a field with the thirty pieces of silver, which were the reward of his iniquity. He did not purchase the field, but the wages of his unrighteousness did, and it is very elegantly expressed thus, in derision of his projects to enrich himself by this bargain. He thought to have purchased a field for himself, as Gehazi did with what he got from Naaman by a lie (see 2 Kings v. 26), but it proved the purchase of a field to bury strangers in; and what was he or any of his the better for this? It was to him an unrighteous mammon, it deceived him; and the reward of his iniquity was the stumbling-block of his iniquity. [2.] He lost his life m ore shamefully. We were told (Matt. xxvii. 5) that he went away in despair, and was suffocated (so the word signifies there, and no more); here it is added (as latter historians add to those who went before) that, being strangled, or choked with grief and horror, he fell headlong, fell on his face (so Dr. Hammond), and partly with the swelling of his own breast, and partly with the violence of the fall, he burst asunder in the midst, so that all his bowels tumbled out. If, when the devil was cast out of a child, he tore him, threw him down, and rent him, and almost killed him (as we find Mar 9:26; Luk 9:42), no wonder if, when he had full possession of Judas, he threw him headlong, and burst him. The suffocation of him, which Matthew relates, would make him swell till he burst, which Peter relates. He burst asunder with a great noise (so Dr. Edwards), which was heard by the neighbours, and so, as it follows, it came to be known (v. 19): His bowels gushed out; Luke writes like a physician, understanding all the entrails of the middle and lower ventricle. Bowelling is part of the punishment of traitors. Justly do those bowels gush out that were shut up against the Lord Jesus. And perhaps Christ had an eye to the fate of Judas, when he said of the wicked servant that he would cut him in sunder, Matt. xxiv. 51.
(4.) The public notice that was taken of this: It was known to all the dwellers in Jerusalem. It was, as it were, put into the newspapers, and was all the talk of the town, as a remarkable judgment of God upon him that betrayed his Master, v. 19. It was not only discoursed of among the disciples, but it was in every body’s mouth, and nobody disputed the truth of the fact. It was known, that is, it was known to be true, incontestably so. Now one would think this should have awakened those to repentance that had had any hand in the death of Christ when they saw him that had the first hand thus made an example. But their hearts were hardened, and, as to those of them that were to be softened, it must be done by the word, and the Spirit working with it. Here is one proof of the notoriety of the thing mentioned, that the field which was purchased with Judas’s money was called Aceldama–the field of blood, because it was bought with the price of blood, which perpetuated the infamy not only of him that sold that innocent precious blood, but of those that bought it too. Look how they will answer it, when God shall make inquisition for blood.
(5.) The fulfilling of the scriptures in this, which had spoken so plainly of it, that it must needs be fulfilled, v. 16. Let none be surprised nor stumble at it, that this should be the exit of one of the twelve, for David had not only foretold his sin (which Christ had taken notice of, Joh 13:18; Psa 41:9, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up the heel against me), but had also foretold, [1.] His punishment (Ps. lxix. 25): Let his habitation be desolate. This Psalm refers to the Messiah. Mention is made but Psa 69:21; Mat 27:34 of their giving him gall and vinegar, and therefore the following predictions of the destruction of David’s enemies must be applied to the enemies of Christ, and particularly to Judas. Perhaps he had some habitation of his own at Jerusalem, which, upon this, every body was afraid to live in, and so it became desolate. This prediction signifies the same with that of Bildad concerning the wicked man, that his confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and shall bring him to the king of terrors: it shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his; brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation,Job 18:14; Job 18:15. [2.] The substitution of another in his room. His bishopric, or his office (for so the word signifies in general) shall another take, which is quoted from Ps. cix. 8. With this quotation Peter very aptly introduces the following proposal. Note, We are not to think the worse of any office that God has instituted (whether magistracy or ministry) either for the wickedness of any that are in that office or for the ignominious punishment of that wickedness; nor will God suffer any purpose of his to be frustrated, any commission of his to be vacated, or any work of his to be undone, for the miscarriages of those that are entrusted therewith. The unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect. Judas is hanged, but his bishopric is not lost. It is said of his habitation, that no man shall dwell therein, there he shall have no heir; but it is not said so of his bishopric, there he shall not want a successor. It is with the officers of the church as with the members of it, if the natural branches be broken off, others shall be grafted in, Rom. xi. 17. Christ’s cause shall never be lost for want of witnesses.
2. The motion he makes for the choice of another apostle, Act 1:21; Act 1:22. Here observe, (1.) How the person must be qualified that must fill the vacancy. It must be one of these men, these seventy disciples, that have companied with us, that have constantly attended us, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, preaching and working miracles for three years and a half, beginning from the baptism of John, from which the gospel of Christ commenced, unto that same day that he was taken up from us. Those that have been diligent, faithful, and constant, in the discharge of their duty in a lower station, are fittest to be preferred to a higher; those that have been faithful in a little shall be entrusted with more. And none should be employed as ministers of Christ, preachers of his gospel, and rulers in his church, but those that are well acquainted with his doctrine and doings, from first to last. None shall be an apostle but one that has companied with the apostles, and that continually; not that has visited them now and then, but been intimately conversant with them. (2.) To what work he is called that must fill up the vacancy: He must be a witness with us of his resurrection. By this it appears that others of the disciples were with the eleven when Christ appeared to them, else they could not have been witnesses with them, as competent witnesses as they, of his resurrection. The great thing which the apostles were to attest to the world was Christ’s resurrection, for this was the great proof of his being the Messiah, and the foundation of our hope in him. See what the apostles were ordained to, not to a secular dignity and dominion, but to preach Christ, and the power of his resurrection.
III. The nomination of the person that was to succeed Judas in his office as an apostle.
1. Two, who were known to have been Christ’s constant attendants, and men of great integrity, were set up as candidates for the place (v. 23): They appointed two; not the eleven, they did not take upon them to determine who should be put up, but the hundred and twenty, for to them Peter spoke, and not to the eleven. The two they nominated were Joseph and Matthias, of neither of whom do we read elsewhere, except this Joseph be the same with that Jesus who is called Justus, of whom Paul speaks (Col. iv. 11), and who is said to be of the circumcision, a native Jew, as this was, and who was a fellow-worker with Paul in the kingdom of God and a comfort to him; and then it is observable that, though he came short of being an apostle, he did not therefore quit the ministry, but was very useful in a lower station; for, Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Some think this Joseph is he that is called Joses (Mark vi. 3), the brother of James the less (Mark xv. 40), and was called Joses the just, as he was called James the just. Some confound this with that Joses mentioned Acts iv. 36. But that was of Cyprus, this of Galilee; and, it should seem, to distinguish them, that was called Barnabas–a son of consolation; this Barsabas–a son of the oath. These two were both of them such worthy men, and so well qualified for the office, that they could not tell which of them was the fitter, but all agreed it must be one of these two. They did not propose themselves nor strive for the place, but humbly sat still, and were appointed to it.
2. They applied to God by prayer for direction, not which of the seventy, for none of the rest could stand in competition with these in the opinion of all present, but which of these two?Act 1:24; Act 1:25. (1.) They appeal to God as the searcher of hearts: “Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, which we do not, and better than they know their own.” Observe, When an apostle was to be chosen, he must be chosen by his heart, and the temper and disposition of that. Yet Jesus, who knew all men’s hearts, for wise and holy ends chose Judas to be one of the twelve. It is comfortable to us, in our prayers for the welfare of the church and its ministers, that the God to whom we pray knows the hearts of all men, and has them not only under his eye, but in his hand, and turns them which way soever he will, can make them fit for his purpose, if he do not find them so, by giving them another spirit. (2.) They desire to know which of these God had chosen: Lord, show us this, and we are satisfied. It is fit that God should choose his own servants; and so far as he in any way by the disposals of his providence or the gifts of his Spirit, shows whom he hath chosen, or what he hath chosen, for us, we ought to comply with him. (3.) They are ready to receive him as a brother whom God hath chosen; for they are not contriving to have so much the more dignity themselves, by keeping out another, but desire to have one to take part of this ministry and apostleship, to join with them in the work and share with them in the honour, from which Judas by transgression fell, threw himself, by deserting and betraying his Master, from the place of an apostle, of which he was unworthy, that he might go to his own place, the place of a traitor, the fittest place for him, not only to the gibbet, but to hell–this was his own place. Note, Those that betray Christ, as they fall from the dignity of relation to him, so they fall into all misery. It is said of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 25) that he went to his own place, that is, says one of the rabbin, he went to hell. Dr. Whitby quotes Ignatius saying, There is appointed to every man idios topos—a proper place, which imports the same with that of God’s rendering to every man according to his works. And our Saviour had said that Judas’s own place should be such that it had been better for him that he had never been born (Matt. xxvi. 24) –his misery such as to be worse than not being. Judas had been a hypocrite, and hell is the proper place of such; other sinners, as inmates, have their portion with them, Matt. xxiv. 51. (4.) The doubt was determined by lot (v. 26), which is an appeal to God, and lawful to be used for determining matters not otherwise determinable, provided it be done in a solemn religious manner, and with prayer, the prayer of faith; for the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord, Prov. xvi. 33. Matthias was not ordained by the imposition of hands, as presbyters were, for he was chosen by lot, which was the act of God; and therefore, as he must be baptized, so he must be ordained, by the Holy Ghost, as they all were not many days after. Thus the number of the apostles was made up, as afterwards, when James, another of the twelve, was martyred, Paul was made an apostle.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Brethren (). Codex Bezae has “disciples.”
Multitude of persons ( ). Literally, multitude of names. This Hebraistic use of =person occurs in the LXX (Num 1:2; Num 18:20; Num 3:40; Num 3:43; Num 26:53) and in Rev 3:4; Rev 11:13.
Together ( ). The word “gathered” is not in the Greek here, but it does occur in Mt 22:34 and that is undoubtedly the idea in Lu 17:35 as in Acts 2:1; Acts 2:44; Acts 2:47; 1Cor 11:20; 1Cor 14:23. So also here. They were in the same place ( ).
About a hundred and twenty ( ). A crowd for “the upper room.” No special significance in the number 120, just the number there.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Of the disciples [ ] . The best texts read aJudelfwn, brethren.
The number of the names together were about, etc. [ ] . Much better as Rev., and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about, etc. Oclov, multitude, would not be used of a number about to be stated.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
First Church Business Meeting (Election of Matthias to succeed Judas, V. 15-26)
1) “And in those days,” (kai en tois hemerais tautais) “And in these (those) days; The days of prayer, supplication, and waiting in one accord for the coming of the Holy Spirit of Promise to endue them with special power – as they tarried, Joh 14:16-17; Joh 15:26.
2) “Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said,” (anastas Petros en meso ton adelphon eipen) “Peter standing up in the midst of the brethren (the church) said; Peter was a leader in our Lord’s church, recognized as such, when he arose and presided over afore-prophesied business matters in the church, as the church tarried for empowering of the Holy Spirit, which occurred on Pentecost, shortly following this church business meeting.
3) (The number of names together “ (en te ochlos onomaton epi to auto) “The crowd of the names that were together;” It appears that a roll of names, of baptized brethren who were covenant followers of the Lord, had been kept crowded together. And that these brethren were aware of it.
4) “Were about an hundred and twenty,)” (hosei hekaton eikosi) “Were approximately an hundred and twenty,” most at least were Galileans, as recognized and identified by the two angelic messengers who appeared to them at the ascension of their Lord into heaven, v. 11. This company of followers of Jesus, from His early ministry in Galilee, was His new covenant church. He had called and chosen them to be custodians and disseminators of His work, worship, and service when He was gone, Joh 15:16; Act 10:37-41.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. It was meet that Matthias should be chosen into the place of Judas, lest, through the treachery of one man, all that might seem to have been made of none effect which Christ had once appointed. He did not unadvisedly choose the twelve in the beginning, as principal preachers of his gospel. For when he said that they should be judges of twelve tribes of Israel, Luk 6:13, Joh 6:70; he showeth here that it was done of set purpose, that they might gather together the tribes of Israel unto one faith. But after that the Jews had refused the grace offered unto them, it was behoveful that the Israel of God should be gathered together out of all countries.
This, therefore, was, as it were, a holy number, which, if it should have been diminished through the wickedness of Judas, then should the preaching of the gospel both have had, and also have, less credit at this day, if the beginning thereof had been imperfect. (56) Although, therefore, Judas would (as much as in him lay) have disappointed the purpose of Christ, yet nevertheless it stood firm and stable. He perished as he was worthy, yet did the order of the apostles remain whole and sound.
The company of names It is uncertain whether he meaneth the men who only have the name properly, seeing the women are comprehended under the name of the men; or whether he taketh names simply for all the heads, as the Hebrews call them souls. This may also be called in question, whether they were wont daily to frequent that parlor in which the apostles did dwell, or they did continually dwell there with them. For the place was scarce able to contain so great a multitude, to serve them for all necessary uses. Surely it seemeth to me a thing more like to be true, that Luke doth in this place express the number of them, that we may know that they were all gathered together when Peter made this sermon. Whereby we may guess that they were not always present there. Although I dare not affirm any certain thing concerning this matter, yet being moved with a probable conjecture, I do rather lean unto this part, that the church was gathered together them because they had to intreat of a serious matter, and to this end also tendeth this word rising, [standing up.]
(56) “ Ut ita loquar claudicaret,” had been, so to speak, lame, defective.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act. 1:15. Those days lay between the Ascension and Pentecost. For disciples, , the R.V. reads brethren, , as in Mat. 25:40; Act. 9:30; Act. 11:29; 1Co. 5:11. Names = persons, as in Rev. 3:4; Rev. 11:13. Unclassical. Together, , has always a local signification. (See Act. 3:1; Luk. 17:35.)
Act. 1:16. Scripture which the Holy Ghost spake.A testimony to the Inspiration of the Old Testament. Compare 2Pe. 1:21. By the mouth of David seems to guarantee that David was the author of some parts of the Psalterin particular of Psalms 69, and perhaps also of Psalms 41. Who was (or became) guide. Originally a disciple, Judas turned to be a traitor, and acted as a leader to the Roman cohort which apprehended Christ (Mat. 26:47; Joh. 18:3).
Act. 1:17. For, , indicates that Judas supplied the conditions that were requisite to enable him to fulfil the Scripture. The figurative expression lot, , used in its literal sense in Act. 1:26, is here employed, as in Act. 8:21, Act. 26:18, to denote anything obtained by lot, and hence generally any portion, share, or office without regard to the mode of its attainment. The term clergy is derived from , the order of the ministry being viewed as divinely appointed.
Act. 1:18. Purchased.Obtained (R.V.), got possession of (Plumptre), or caused to be purchased (Hackett); what was bought with Judass money being considered as bought by himself. Qui facit per alium facit per se. Falling headlong.Having probably first hanged himself, and afterwards, through the breaking of the rope, fallen to the ground, which would cause him to burst asunder in the midst. Matthews account (Act. 27:5) suggests this. The traitor may have struck in his fall upon some pointed rock, which entered the body and caused his bowels to gush out (Hackett). Papias was acquainted with a version of this story, which reported that Judas died of a loathsome disease.
Act. 1:19. Aceldama, , formed from the Syro-Chaldaic , and signifying field of bloodi.e., either purchased by the blood money paid to Judas and returned by him (Matthew), or sprinkled with the traitors blood when he fell (Luke). Perhaps both reasons contributed to the fixing of the name subsequently borne by the potters field, which became a burial place for strangers. According to tradition Aceldama lay on the south side of Mount Zion.
Act. 1:18-19 are commonly regarded as no part of Peters speech, but an interposition by Luke (Calvin and others); yet (Act. 1:18) renders this doubtful (Holtzmann).
Act. 1:20. In the Book of Psalms.The two citations (Psa. 69:25; Psa. 109:8), given with slight modifications from the LXX. recite the doom of the enemies of David and his kingdom, and therefore of the enemies of Christ and His kingdom, of which the former were types; consequently also of Judas, as the first and most notable of these (Alford).
Act. 1:21. Went in and out among us.An exact construction of the Greek would have placed unto us, , after went in or came in, and inserted from us, , after went out (Hackett). Compare Act. 9:28; Joh. 10:9.
Act. 1:22. The baptism of John signified not Johns baptism of Christ, but Johns baptism generally as a well-known date.
Act. 1:23. They, i.e., the congregation and the apostles, appointed, or put before God, or before themselves for selection.
Act. 1:24. Thou Lord.Whether addressed to God or Christ is disputed. For the former opinion (Meyer, Plumptre, Holtzmann) appeal is taken to Act. 15:7-8, in which God is called , and Peter represents himself as being chosen by God. For the latter (Olshausen, Alford, Hackett, Spence) it is argued
(1) that in the N.T. generally Christ is usually styled Lord;
(2) that Christ is stated in Act. 1:2 to have selected the other apostles;
(3) that the first Christians were in the habit of praying to Him (Act. 7:59, Act. 9:14); and
(4) that Peter in the Gospel (Joh. 21:17) ascribes to Christ the knowledge of all things, which certainly include the hearts of all men.
Act. 1:25. Fell.Went aside by transgression. His own place.His own proper destiny, Gehenna, or the place of punishment, from which he (Judas) was kept back so long as he was in the apostleship.
Act. 1:26. Lots.These were either tablets or slips of parchment with the names of the candidates written upon them, which were cast into a vase or other vessel, which was then shaken, when the first tablet or slip thrown out indicated the candidate elected.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.Act. 1:15-26
Completing the Apostleship; or, the Election of Matthias
I. The vacancy in the apostolic college.
1. The honoured place of Judas.
(1) Numbered with the apostles (see Luk. 6:16). Peter explains not the motives (he could not) which led Christ, who knew the traitor from the beginning (Joh. 6:70), to select him for this signal favour, but dwells upon the fact that in being so selected he received a mark of special confidence. Many besides Judas have obtained high privileges, and been called to important trusts by Christ, who, like him, have misapplied the one and abused the other.
(2) Invested with ministerial office. Generally like his colleagues, but particularly also by being made the treasurer of the company (Joh. 13:29). The management of their finances appears to have been his portion in this ministry, or the duty assigned to him in connection with the apostolate. If the Twelve required a treasurer, it cannot be sinful for churches and congregations either to have secular affairs or to depute persons to attend to them.
2. The melancholy fall of Judas.
(1) Tenderly referred to, not with vituperation, but in mildness. He was guide to them that took Jesus. Even the worst sins of the worst men should be under rather than over stated.
(2) Sufficiently indicated. What Peter says implies the rest of the pathetic story of the betrayal for thirty pieces of silver. Hence he dilates not on the sad theme, but leaves his hearers imaginations to call it up to their own thoughts. A lesson for preachers, never to enlarge more than they can help upon the backsliding, of individual believers.
(3) Divinely foreseen. By the Holy Ghost, who inspired David to pen words and thoughts exactly fitting the traitors case, and depicting his ejection from office, Let his habitation be made desolate, and let no man dwell therein (Psa. 69:26), and His office let another take (Psa. 109:8).
3. The appalling end of Judas. Slain
(1) In his own field, which he, or the priests (Mat. 27:7), purchased with the blood money received for betraying Christ.
(2) By his own hand, it being most likely that he hanged himself on a tree in his field, and that the rope breaking he fell heavily to the ground, with the consequence stated by Peter.
(3) To his own shame, the name given to the field, Aceldama, or The field of blood, perpetuating the memory at once of his wickedness and of his woe. (For the apparent discrepancy between Matthews account and Lukes, see Critical Remarks.)
II. The proposal to fill the vacancy.
1. Made by Peter. And in those days Peter stood up, etc. Peters forwardness on this occasion was completely in harmony
(1) with the place assigned him in the lists of the apostles,
(2) with his ardent and impulsive character,
(3) with his practice in pre-crucifixion days to take the lead among his brethren and be their spokesman,
(4) with the charge given him by Christ, when once he had been converted, to strengthen his brethren (Luk. 22:32), and
(5) with the foreshadowings that were beginning to appear of that spiritual pre-eminence to which he was henceforth to attain in the New Testament Church. 2. Defined by Peter.
(1) As to the qualifications demanded of those who should fill the office. They must have companied with the apostles and been eyewitnesses of the Lord Jesus from His baptism by John to the day of His taking up. (Compare 1Co. 9:1.)
(2) As to the business to be done by the elected candidate, To witness, with his colleagues, to Christs resurrection. (Compare Act. 4:33.)
(3) As to the urgency for proceeding with the election. Of these must one become a witness. Peter has been accused of precipitation in filling up the ranks of the Twelve; but as Peter acted in this under the Holy Spirits guidance, such an indictment is inadmissible.
III. The method of carrying out the proposal.
1. The nomination of candidates. Joseph, called Barsabas, or son of Sabas, surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Both, mentioned only here, probably belonged to the Seventy, and, it may be assumed, possessed the requisite qualifications. Of neither does historical information survive. Eusebius states, on the authority of Papias, that the former drank a cup of poison without being hurta legend modelled upon Mar. 16:18. The latter, according to one tradition, suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, according to another in Colchis, according to a third in Juda, by being stoned. Justus was a Roman cognomen, probably assumed according to prevalent custom (Alford).
2. The asking of divine direction. The prayer of the congregation, presumably led by Peter, was
(1) directed to the glorified Christ, in the context styled Lord (Act. 1:21),
(2) on the ground that He knew the hearts of all men (Joh. 1:50; Joh. 2:25; Joh. 6:64; Joh. 21:17),
(3) requesting Him to show of the two candidates which He had chosen, since Christs choice was indispensable to the holding of apostleship (Joh. 6:70; Joh. 13:18; Joh. 15:16).
3. The casting of lots. These were probably tablets with the names of the persons written on them, and shaken in a vessel or in the lap of a robe (Pro. 16:33); he whose lot first leaped out being the person designated (Alford). This method of ascertaining the divine decision, derived from the Old Testament Church, in which lotcasting was common (Lev. 16:8over the two goats on the great day of atonement; Num. 34:13; Jos. 14:2; Jos. 18:2at the dividing of the land; 1Ch. 24:5; 1Ch. 25:8in the appointment of temple singers), appears to have never again been followed in the election of office-bearers in the New Testament Church. Instead of lot-casting, vote-giving by show of hands seems to have been substituted (Act. 14:23, which see).
4. The enrolling of the chosen. Matthias the elected was numbered with the eleven apostles. That he was formally voted in by the suffrages of the congregation, which thereby, as it were, confirmed the divine selection, may be suggested by the verb (Plumptre), but hardly appears admissible in the circumstances. If the congregation added anything to the decision of lot it was merely an intimation (unanimous doubtless) of its acquiescence in the appointment.
Lessons.
1. The danger of falling.
2. The heinousness of betraying Christ.
3. The appalling doom of apostates.
4. The grand theme of apostolic preaching.
5. The cessation of the apostolate in the New Testament Church.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act. 1:15. The first Christian Assembly.
I. The ornament of Jerusalem.Its members more distinguished in Heavens eye than Caiaphas, Annas, or any other Jerusalem dignitary.
II. The glory of Christ.Having been called into existence by Him.
III. The commencement of Gods kingdom.The hundred and twenty persons have since grown into an innumerable company.Oosterzee.
Act. 1:16. Old Testament ScriptureIts fourfold relation:
I. To the Holy Ghost.Indicated by the words which the Holy Ghost spake. Though perhaps the express authority of the Holy Ghost should not be claimedin this place, at leastfor more than the two citations from the Book of Psalms which are given in Act. 1:20; yet it cannot be doubted that both Christ and His apostles regarded the Holy Ghost as the Author of the whole book in such a way and to such an extent as to make Him responsible for its contents. (See Mat. 22:31; Mat. 22:43; Luk. 1:70; Act. 28:25; 2Ti. 3:16; Heb. 1:1; 1Pe. 1:11; 2Pe. 1:21.)
II. To David.As representing its writers. This pointed to by the clause spake by the mouth of David. Although this appears to guarantee that David had a hand in producing the Psalteran honour which modern critics are extremely anxious to deny himit does not necessarily signify that David (or the other holy prophets and psalmists) were merely passive instruments in the hand of the Spirit, who mechanically reproduced what the Spirit inbreathed. All the facts go to show that, while the writers of Old Testament Scripture maintained their personalities and individualities in what they spoke or penned, they were nevertheless in a mysterious (and probably incomprehensible) manner superintended and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
III. To Jesus.A glimpse of this looks out from the words, It was needful that the Scripture should be fulfilled. Besides being the sacred books of His people, the Old Testament Scripture was for Him, Jesus, the Fathers and the Holy Ghosts vade mecum, which they had prepared for Him to be used as a light unto His feet and a lamp unto His patha sort of Messianic programmewhen He entered on His public career. What Old Testament Scripture was to Jesus the whole Bible should be to His peoplea directory for daily life.
IV. To Judas.Referred to in the words concerning Judas. That the traitors person, character, and transgression were outlined beforehand in Old Testament Scripture neither compelled him to act as He did nor relieved him of responsibility for his deeds, any more than in ordinary matters the divine foreknowledge destroys the individuals liberty of will.
Concerning Judas.
I. His early fame.Numbered among the apostles.
II. His guilty fall.Guide to them that took Jesus.
III. His woful fate.Committed suicide, and went to his own place.
Act. 1:19. Aceldama, the field of blood.
I. Purchased by the price of blood.Whether Judas or the chief priests were the purchasers is immaterial. The money payment was the thirty pieces of silver delivered to the traitor in reward for his iniquity. The field was the clay-yard of a potter of the town (Geikie), and to purchase this the blood money was devoted, because to cast it into the treasury would have been unlawful.
II. Defiled by the stain of blood.Somewhere in this clay-yard the traitor put an end to his life by hanging. Nor was even this the end, for the cord by which he had suspended himself gave way, and he fell beneath, ruptured and revolting (Geikie). Matthew agrees with Luke in reporting the suicide; Luke differs from Matthew in describing the rupture.
III. Kept as a memorial of blood.The name could not fail to preserve a recollection of both of Judass crimeshis infamous treachery towards his Master, and his cowardly execution of himself. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Act. 1:17-20. The Wages of Sin; or, the Miserable End of Judas.
I. He ought to have been a disciple of Christ, and he betrayed his Lord.
II. He ought to have performed the duties of his bishopric, and he acquired the field of blood.
III. He ought to have proclaimed the Risen One, and he perished as a suicide.
IV. He ought to have received the Holy Ghost, and he went into condemnation.Florey, in Lange.
Act. 1:23. Justus and Matthias.
I. Justus the equal of Matthias, in being:
1. A disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Esteemed by his fellow-believers.
3. Proposed for the apostleship.
4. Honoured with a place in sacred history.
II. Matthias preferred to Justus.
1. Elected to the apostleship.
2. Chosen by Christ.
3. Numbered with the Eleven.
Act. 1:24. Prayer addressed to Christ.
I. As a personal divine Being.Thou, Lord.
II. As a possessor of Omniscience.Who knowest the hearts of all men.
III. As the director of His people.Show us!
IV. As the disposer of offices in the Church.Show of these two the one whom Thou hast chosen.
Act. 1:16-25. The Personal History of Jesus.
I. His baptism by John.
II. His companionship with the apostles.
III. His betrayal by Judas.
IV. His arrestment by the Romans.
V. His death upon the cross.
VI. His resurrection.
VII. His ascension.In all these points Peter agrees with the Gospel writers.
Act. 1:25. Individual Destiny.
I. Every mans destiny is prepared for him beforehand.As Daniel had his lot (Dan. 12:13), so had Judas his own place. The Fathers kingdom is prepared for Christs people from the foundation of the world (Mat. 25:34). Paul speaks of vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, and vessels of mercy prepared unto glory (Rom. 9:22-23).
II. Every mans destiny will correspond with the character which he possesses.Like Judas, every man will go to his own placehe who by patient continuance in well doing has sought for glory and honour and incorruption, to eternal life; he that has obeyed not the truth, but obeyed unrighteousness, to tribulation and anguish (Rom. 2:7-9). In every case the environment will correspond with the life.
III. Every mans destiny will be the outcome of his own doings.Each individual on earth will ultimately be what he makes himself. He may permit himself to become the victim of his surroundings, but the fault will be his own. He may be helped by divine grace, but even divine grace does not enable him to dispense with personal exertion. The solemnity which this gives to life needs no remark.
Natural Selection in the Spiritual World.The subject of the text of practical moment to us, is one of moral adjustment, and involves fitness for the sphere occupied. Every realm of creationmind or matter, animate or inanimatehas its order and label because of its nature, its identity, its surroundings peculiar to itself, with relations and dependenciesessential adjuncts of the nature and surroundings of the realm. That this principle may be seen in its tangible actuality turn to the pages of natural history, where we find represented the families, tribes, and species of the different continents, each with its peculiar nature and the environment contributing most to its vigorous development. Also in logic and psychology, in the sense of a peculiar office or sphere, than place there is no more pregnant term nor more requisite factor. It is the third foot of a tripoda sine qu non. But interesting as it may be for us to consider the import of place in the spheres of natural and intellectual science, still greater is its significance amid the species and graduations of the moral and spiritual world; for here the term is used not only in mechanical arrangement and scientific analysis, but it has also all the additional gravity of the moral and eternal world, with its attraction and repulsion, its reward and retribution.
I. The preservation intact of the families, species, and habitat of the spiritual world requires that the members of each great family, the redeemed and the unredeemed, should be assigned to their fittest place or habitat for eternity.
1. This must be true out of respect for the harmony, purity, and order of heaven. There is no one in the city of God of whom it could be said: He is a disturber of the peace, a shame and grief to his relatives, and a disgrace to the avenue on which he lives. Such a character or species cannot be permitted there. The order of the celestial community may not be so disturbed. The rle of eternal praise and the spotaneity of the currents of felicitous thought are inviolable rights which inhere in the citizenship of heaven.
2. Not only for orders sake, but from moral considerations must he go to his own place. All the opportunity which unfathomed depths of compassion and the sweep of mercys unbounded forecast could provide have been extended. By all the inducements which lifes opportune and sanguine day of probation could proffer, he has been overturned. The die is cast. Before God and His government he stands unacquitteda rebel. Through all lifes paths he has afforded the material for the record of a rebelthe habits and the development of a rebel; the wishes, heart, and character of a rebelagainst his own souls requirements, the provisions for an eternity of peace and the beneficent laws of God. Probation is past; and now to the place of what grade or species of character does he belong?
II. Let us now consider the means of reaching ones moral grade, destination, or place in the spirit world. We need not falter in the belief that God, whose scrutiny none can evade, is able by His word directly to appoint each to his place. But in the apportionment to the abodes of the righteous and wickedheaven and hellthe respective habitat of each of the two great families under the genus Spirit, there are certain natural forces or laws of moral adjustment which may well claim our attention.
1. There are characteristic functions of privilege or duty in every position of honour; and this is intuitively true of the home of the saints of God.
2. A second function of the life in heaven is fellowship. Now, if permitted, could the unrepentant soul endure such association?
3. Another function of the heavenly life is unveiled mental vision and untrammeled mental freedom. What kind of freedom here could the impenitent soul enjoywhose habits of life have drilled him in wrong methods and whose sources of pleasure have blinded, deafened, and paralysed his conscience and spiritual functions in company with the redeemed whose pinions never tire? But another mighty agency in moral adjustment and consequent assignment to place to which sinners are subject and which is a positive and not a negative factor in the work of adjustment is natural retribution, one of the forces of which is the reason, which now sees the effect of a wrong ideal, a practical idolatry, selfish and gross, by which the soul which might have been assimilated into the likeness of Christthe model of heavenhas been gradually metamorphosed into a type of moral degradation. The conscience also presents its unmet claims, and sad regret causes memory, as another factor in natural retribution, to point backward to days of opportunity, and a conscientious reflection iterates:
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these; it might have been.
4. But still another force, which is decisive in effecting Gods own proclamation of a separation between the redeemed and unredeemed, may be mentioned; it is the law of sustentation. Just because the ponderous iron mass or the stone block should see the balloon sustained in mid-air, ascending to the clouds, shall they say, Oh, we shall fly too? Never in their present gross form. Never, until by fiercest heat they become sublimated into gaseous matter. Never as iron and stone will they fly. So the fact that the inhabitants of heaven can remain there sustained and enjoy the fulness of bliss is only by the support and protection of the laws of the kingdom of God; and to the sinner in outer darkness there is no protection or support from the laws of the kingdom of God, therefore he cannot remain in heavennor enter there. To illustrate: The rigor of the frigid zone is so great that only such animals as are provided to endure its exposures can there sustain life. The sloth and ant-eater are animals which are not provided to endure the exposures of the frigid zone; therefore they cannot there sustain life. Let us now briefly notice
III. The sense in which the hell of the hereafter is the unrepentant sinners own place. The adjective own signifies a place peculiar to himself, But it is his own also as a member of a class or grade. Students belong to a class, and yet each holds his own place according to his standing. So you, if you choose the way of death, must take your place according to your proficiency in the customs of that dark abode, along with adulterers, the lustful, the hypocrites, unbelievers, drunkards, liars, and all that is profane and abominable. It is peculiarly his own place, then
1. By course of preparation, which course may be termed the conservation of energy in the spiritual realmi.e., all the forces of the sensibilities, intellect, and will are differentiated into a unit of essential wickedness. In natural science, heat and electricity are proved to be only different phenomena of a single force; so in this course of preparation for his own place, the different faculties and functions, conscience, moral accountability, etc., are by the voluntary course in sin transmuted into the distinctive features of a unity and substance of wickedness.
2. It is peculiarly his own place, in that it is a greatly curtailed sphere of activity. The fish of Mammoth Cave are blindnot by accident nor special creation, but being so situated that the organs of vision may not be exercised, the energies or life force which would have utilised these avenues of communication with the outer world were applied elsewhere and that apartment abandoned, and the fish left blind in a dark cave as a consequence of the disuse of its eyes. So the moral and spiritual faculties are atrophied and the privilege of their healthful functions lost through disuse. It is the sinners own place, then, because it is the contracted and degraded sphere in which he has enclosed himself.
IV. The eternity of this doom.
1. This doom is eternal, because it is the verdict of moral government. The protection of the good demands it. The finale is pronounced, and to no higher court can you appeal.
2. It is a self-imposed destiny, and never, until the Ethiopian can change his skin and the leopard his spots and transmute themselves into a different type or species, will there be any commutation of the sentence.
3. This matter is eternal with the lost, who abide in their own place not only because they have cut themselves off from agencies and appliances in the kingdom of grace, but because all the conditions are now complied with for growing worse and worse.C. R. Hunt.
Act. 1:12-26. The Waiting Time.What were its characteristics? It was:
I. A time of transition.It stood midway between Christs work on earth now completed and the yet unopened work of the Spirit from heaven. In the history of redemption the first or preparatory chapter closed on the day of the Incarnation. The second, though ending tragically, in a sense unknown to human history, brought life and immortality to light through the darkness and death of the cross. The third and last chapter, the dispensation of the Spirit, was about to open.
II. A time of felt need.As yet the eleven had no clear conception of the tale they were to tell, while they could not but feel that they had neither the position, culture, nor influence to move the world, and not one ground to hope for success save in their assurance of the truth of their story and the help they might receive from above in the telling of it.
III. A time of expectancy.How often would they recall, and find it indispensable to recall, such words as these, Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
IV. A time of prayer.These all continued with one accord steadfastly in prayer. And who can have any doubt what would be the burden of their prayers?
V. A time of fraternal conference.It seems only reasonable to assume that the intervals (between the prayers) would be filled up by free interchange of recollections and reflections on the astonishing events and thrilling scenes in the earthly life of their now glorified Lord and the encouragements thence arising.
VI. A time of action.On one of these days Peternow fully restored, and, as originally designed, taking the leadrose and explained to the assembly why the vacancy amongst the Twelve which the fall of Judas had created required to be filled up; and having pointed out the qualifications required, he left it to themselves to select one of their number whom they might lay before their enthroned Lord for His approval. This resulted in the choice of Matthias.David Brown, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(15) The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty.The number probably included the Seventy of Luk. 10:1, perhaps also Joseph of Arimatha and Nicodemus, and some of the five hundred who had seen their risen Lord in Galilee or elsewhere (1Co. 15:6). The use of names may be merely as a synonym for persons, but It suggests the idea of there having been a list from which St. Luke extracted those that seemed most conspicuous.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. The recompletion of the apostolic number. Act 1:15-26 .
On the apostolic number twelve, see our vol. ii, p. 81. As Jesus is now enthroned on high over the house of Israel, temporal and spiritual, so it befits that his viceroys (see our note on Mat 19:28) should in their complete significant number receive the unction of the Pentecostal Spirit. Accordingly, we see (Act 2:14) that the full twelve stand up on that occasion as the divinely recognised number. In this we recognise the full disproof of the opinion sometimes maintained, that Paul, not Matthias, was “the twelfth apostle.” If the apostles in this election acted mistakenly and without Divine guidance, it was an act of most officious impertinence, and it is utterly unsupposable that Luke should record it in full as among truly apostolic acts. His closing assertion that Matthias was “numbered with the eleven apostles” no doubt expresses the permanent acceptance of the Church, even after the day of Pentecost. We do not hesitate, therefore, to reckon it as one of the preparatories for the Pentecost that the organic number of the apostles should be complete.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15. In those days The ten days between the ascension and the Pentecost.
Peter stood up. After his terrible fall, and his full restoration by Jesus himself, (see John’s account in the closing chapter of his Gospel,) Peter resumes his place as eminent among his equals of the apostolic body. He has, indeed, no popish power to elect an apostle or a bishop, but he is leader in the process of election by others equally with himself.
Names For the persons bearing the names, which were probably enrolled upon some record. So Rev 3:4, “Thou hast a few names (for persons) even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments,” where, doubtless, allusion is made to the Church record. (See note on Act 3:16.)
About a hundred and twenty The hundred and twenty satraps, says Grotius, of a kingdom much greater than the realm of Darius. (Dan 6:1.) We rather think this number to be the apostolic twelve, multiplied by the Gentile or national ten: just as the seventy deacons were the sacred seven multiplied by ten, and the forty days (see note on Act 1:3) are the sacred four multiplied by ten. So the beast of seven heads has ten Gentile or national horns; and the commandments for all nations are ten. We suppose that the number of Christians in Jerusalem was larger than this; and very probably this exact number was seldom present, but only about that named figure. Hence it is hardly too much to suspect that this about one hundred and twenty were an enrolled organic number hinted here by Luke to be symbolically representative of the whole Church of the Christian ages. (See on Sacred Numbers, vol. i, pp. 79, 105.) As such they received the pentecostal outpouring. (See note on Act 2:1.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and said (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty),’
It was some time during the ten days before Pentecost that Peter stood up among the gathering of disciples of about one hundred and twenty. Here Peter is clearly looked up to as the spokesman and natural leader, a man with drive and initiative, although sometimes too impetuous. This gathering probably took place in the colonnades of the Temple (compare Luk 24:53). The number of one hundred and twenty is twelve intensified. This signified that they were the holy remnant of Israel, and under the authority of the eleven, soon again to become ‘the twelve’. We can see from this the emphasis that was being laid on ‘twelve’ as signifying the full number. (Later it would be ‘three thousand’ (Act 2:41), the number of completeness intensified, and then ‘five thousand’ (Act 4:4) indicating the covenant community).
We can compare with this figure the ‘five hundred’ (five intensified indicating another covenant connection) who in Galilee had seen the risen Christ at one time (1Co 15:6). Not all had been able to come to Jerusalem.
We should note carefully that whereas previously the emphasis has been on the Apostles (Act 1:2-13), and then on the Apostles and those who were with them (Act 1:14), that number has now expanded into one hundred and twenty (Act 1:15), whom it would be pointless mentioning if they were not now part of the ‘they’. The one hundred and twenty indicated an amplification of the twelve ready for the coming of the Holy Spirit and can be compared with the seventy who waited for the coming of the Spirit under Moses (Numbers 11).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The address of Peter:
v. 15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
v. 16. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
v. 17. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
v. 18. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
v. 19. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood.
v. 20. For it is written in the Book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishopric let another take. “In those days,” on one of the ten days intervening between the ascension of Christ and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. At one of the meetings held during those days Peter assumed the initiative by rising up and standing before the disciples in addressing them on a very important matter. Upon this occasion there were some hundred and twenty disciples assembled together, probably all of those in Jerusalem that had professed adherence to the Lord at that time. Note that they are called brethren, bound together by a common faith and by a common love more closely than by the bonds of blood relationship. Mark also that Peter, although acting as spokesman, yet is one of the brethren; he acts with their consent, and does nothing in an imperious manner. Very solemnly Peter addresses the assembly as “men and brethren,” the importance of his subject being reflected throughout his discourse. He points out that it was necessary first of all for the Scripture to be fulfilled in the defection of Judas Iscariot. His betrayal of Christ had been foretold, Psa 41:9. More than a thousand years before the Messiah had bitterly denounced the shamelessness of the traitor. It was Judas that was the leader of the enemies’ band at the capture of Jesus, that showed the soldiers and servants the way to the probable place of Christ’s abode on that night. Note with what tact Peter handles his delicate subject throughout, not heaping scorn or abuse upon the traitor, but speaking of him with all lenity. His example might well be followed at the present time, no matter whose death is spoken about. Judas had been numbered with the twelve apostles; he had been chosen by the Lord as one of the men that were to serve as His messengers and ambassadors to bring the Gospel to all people; he had obtained a lot, or share, in this ministry by actual selection of Jesus; he was supposed to receive a charge as well as the other apostles actually did. The call of Jesus is always sincere and with the intention of keeping the believer at His side; the unbeliever’s defection must be placed entirely to his own charge.
Verses 18 and 19 are probably to be regarded as a note inserted by Luke for the understanding of the Gentile readers. Judas had received a certain sum of money, thirty denarii, the price of a slave, as the price of blood for the betrayal of his Master. When he was then seized by repentance and fear on account of his horrible deed, he brought back the money to the high priests, and since they refused to accept it, he threw it into the Temple. With this money, which the hypocritical Jewish leaders still considered as belonging to Judas, they bought the potter’s field, which thus was really the property of Judas, and might have been claimed by his heirs. Thus the reward of iniquity, of unrighteousness, bought the burial-ground for the unknown strangers. This fact, especially after. the terrible end of the traitor, became known throughout the city, and that field, since all the inhabitants of the city knew the history of that piece of ground therefore soon acquired a name, in the Aramaic, or Chaldeo-Syriac, language Akeldama, which means “a field of blood,” bought with the price of the life of blood of the Lord Jesus. And Judas himself had a horrible end. It seems that after he hanged himself, the rope broke, and he pitched over backward down some declivity, with the result that his body burst open and all his intestines gushed forth. That was evidently the judgment of God upon this hardened sinner; he had gone to the place provided for such as he was the place of the damned. But in all these happenings, horrible as they sound in the narration, Peter finds the fulfillment of Scriptures. In Psa 69:25 the Lord had prophesied: Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell In their tents, and in Psa 109:8: Let another take his office. The exposition of Peter shows that these passages found their strictest fulfillment in Judas Iscariot and his fate, as a warning to all men for all times. The habitation of Judas had become desolate; he had lost his ministry, his office, when he denied the faith and betrayed his Lord. Note the deep impression which the end of the traitor had made upon the other disciples, and how they heeded the warning contained in the story, just as all believers will remember the horrible end of the apostates, either here or hereafter, lest they fall into the same example of unbelief.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Act 1:15. The number of the names, &c. Of the persons. See Rev. ch. Act 3:4 and Virg. AEn. 6: ver. 763. An hundred and twenty was the number of a Jewish council. It is very likely that most of the disciples who met our Lord in Galilee after his resurrection, did either live in Galilee, in the remotest parts of Judea, or in Samaria, and were not now in Jerusalem.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 1:15 . . .] between the ascension and feast of Pentecost.
] even now asserting his position of primacy in the apostolic circle, already apparent in the Gospels, and promised to him by Jesus Himself.
(see the critical notes) denotes, as very often in the Book of Acts and the Epistles, the Christians according to their brotherly fellowship; hence here (see the following parenthesis) both the apostles and the disciples of Jesus in the wider sense.
.] of persons , who are numbered. Comp. Ewald, ad Rev 3:4 . The expression is not good Greek, but formed after the Hebrew (Num 1:2 ; Num 1:18 ; Num 1:20 ; Num 3:40 ; Num 3:43 ).
There is no contradiction between the number 120 and the 500 brethren in 1Co 15:6 (in opposition to Baur and Zeller, who suppose the number to have been invented in accordance with that of the apostles: 12 10), as the appearance of Jesus in 1 Cor. l.c. , apart from the fact that it may have taken place in Galilee, was earlier , when many foreign believers, pilgrims to the feast, might have been present in Jerusalem, who had now left. Comp. Wieseler, Synops. p. 434, and see on 1Co 15:6 ; also Lechler, apost. u. nachapost. Zeitalt. p. 275 f.; Baumgarten, p. 29 f.
] locally united. Comp. Act 2:1 , Act 3:1 ; Luk 17:35 ; Mat 22:34 ; 1Co 7:5 ; 1Co 11:20 ; 1Co 14:23 ; Hist. Susann. 14; often also in the LXX. and in Greek writers. See Raphel, Polyb. , and Loesner.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty,) (16) Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. (17) For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. (18) Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. (19) And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. (20) For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishopric let another take. (21) Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, (22) Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
The day here spoken of means one of the ten days in the interval from the Lord’s ascension, to the descent of the Holy Ghost. I beg the Reader to notice, what Peter saith of the Holy Ghost’s speaking by David. A plain proof, in confirmation of what hath been before remarked in this Chapter, both of the Person, and Godhead, and Ministry, of the Almighty Spirit, in the Old Testament dispensation. God the Holy Ghost was now going to make a more sensible, and open manifestation of himself, as God the Father, and God the Son, had done, in their office characters, as the next Chapter shews; but He had, it is plain, as the Founder of the Church, all along been presiding over the Church, and directing all the affairs of it, 2Pe 1:21 . And I beg the Reader also to remark with me, what Peter saith of the needs be there was, for the fulfilling of that scripture concerning Judas. Yes! The decrees and appointments of Jehovah are sure and certain. But the infamy of the traitor is not lessened by the sovereign ordinations of the Lord. In all foul transactions, the sin is the same; though the Lord overrules it to the divine glory, Act 2:23-24 ; Jud 1:4 . And I pray the Reader also to notice, what Peter saith of Judas having been chosen into the number of the twelve Apostles, and having obtained part of the ministry. In addition to what hath been already observed, respecting the appointment of Judas to the Apostleship, and the obtaining part of the ministry, I would just say further, that it is in my view the mercy of the Church, to have these things always in remembrance. The part of the ministry Judas obtained, and the being numbered with the Apostles, had not a single act of grace in the whole. He had no part in Christ, we are very sure, Neither was he ever numbered in the book of life. And he therefore stands forth, an everlasting monument in the Church of the Lord Jesus; never to judge of men by outward things, nor outward privileges. The only well grounded cause for joy, is when our names are found to be written in the book of life, Luk 10:19-20 .
I hope the Reader will also pay suitable attention, to what Peter hath said, of the prophetic Psalm, concerning Judas; and which, on his account, is strikingly called the Iscariotic Psalm. What, but a spirit of prophecy could have spoken so pointedly to the person, and crimes of the traitor? The desolate habitation, or palace, is also mentioned in the 69th Psalm, 25th verse (Psa 69:25 ). It is remarkable, that there should be exactly thirty specific curses in the 109th Psalm (Psa 109 ), as if corresponding to the thirty pieces of silver, for which the traitor sold his master. But what is most to be attended to, in the Psalm, and the Apostle’s application of it is, that Peter drew his conclusion from it, that it was the will of the Holy Ghost, another should take his office. His days in the office were indeed few, and soon it became another’s, Psa 109:8 .
In relation to what is said of Judas purchasing a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong until his bowels gushed out: these things are not contrary to what is said of his hanging himself, Mat 27:3-5 . For it was his ill-gotten money, with which the field was afterwards bought. And it is possible, that he might have fallen from the place to which he had hung himself, after he was dead, and perhaps hung long there, and such a consequence might have followed. But what an awful end! And what an awful character!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 4
Prayer
Almighty God, we know thee as the Searcher of hearts, and we tremble before thee. Thou dost search Jerusalem as with a candle; the light of thine eyes falls upon the inmost parts of the heart, and there is nothing hidden from thy vision. The darkness and the light are both alike unto thee, the wings of the morning cannot carry us away beyond thy looking, there is no height in heaven, there is no depth in hell wherein is concealment from the eyes that fill the universe. Wherewithal then can we come before thee, wherein is our standing, and on what ground do we now appear? Thou hast nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against thee; no child of thine on all this earth but has lifted up an arm of rebellion against the heavens: there is none righteous, no, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, wherein then do we appear before thee but in him who is our brother and Priest and Saviour, Jesus Christ the Son of God? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive the homage of all creation, loudest and sweetest of all, the hymn of redeemed men, who, having known the darkness and the torment of sin, have been brought into a marvellous light and into an unspeakable joy. We come before thee to speak of Christ, to bless thee for the Son of Man, to worship him as thy Son, our Priest and our one Sacrifice, who answers every question, soothes us by his grace, gives us infinite comfort by his promises, and who has pledged himself, as with the oath of his blood, to complete what he has begun, and to present us faultless before thee.
How long, O Lord, how long before we are brought into a state of obedience unto thee? We are proud and self-willed, we are ignorant of all that is deep and lasting, we seize things that flit by us, and imagine that they express eternity. We come before thee as those who are foolish of heart and void of understanding, and we ask thee to pity us and forgive us with all the infinite tenderness of thy love. Thou dost show us thyself in wondrous ways; oh, that we had eyes to see thee in all the story of the day, in all the march of the seasons, in all the displays of thy providence. Thou dost crush the bad man, and overthrow that which is corrupt, and upon righteousness and virtue dost thou set the crown of thine approbation. If for a small moment thou dost forsake men, it is that with everlasting mercies thou mayest gather them.
Take thine own way with us thy will be done. We cannot follow all thy will, nor do we know the secret of thy movement, but we know Christ thy Son, and he has revealed the Father. Work in the dark or in the light, as thou wilt, only when thou hast tried us, bring us forth as gold. Preside over the furnace, watch all the burning, when the last dross falls away, when in our purified soul thou dost see the shining of thine image, cool the furnace and present us to thyself. We would be thine: bad in our inmost heart, sullied in all the emotion and passion of our soul, crushed by burdens of our own creation still we would be thine. We are ashamed of the devil, we are ashamed of ourselves, we find no confidence and rejoicing but in the light and the truth of the Deity: Lord, may our better conquer our worse self, set up thy kingdom in our heart, that great, glad, radiant kingdom which is called the kingdom of heaven.
Help us up the road when it is very steep, draw nearer to us as the wind becomes colder, when we are affrighted by presences in the dark, and by voices mingling with the storm, let thy comforting toward us be multiplied and recall our courage in God.
We pray for those who are not here: for the bad one who would not come, for the sick one who could not come, for the far away one who wants to come, for all who are included within the circle of thy love. Have pity upon the suffering, those who are dying do thou make to live by thy presence and thy soothing: where the house is very lonely and the shadow has the deeper gloom to the eye that reads it aright than any other shadow they ever saw in the house before where the heart is very sore, where old companionships are about to be broken up, where lifelong unions are about to be sundered, where the wedding vow is about to be taken up and to pass on to other meanings, where the child is sick, where the shadow of the coffin rests upon the cradle, and where there is gloom or sorrow or weariness of any kind O, thou who didst make every star of the night and every flower of the summer day, thou who didst incarnate thyself in Jesus Christ, let thy grace be multiplied, and let thy comfort mightily prevail over all our distress. Amen.
Act 1:15-26
15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names [probably a synonym for persons] together were about an hundred and twenty) [of whom one-tenth were apostles].
16. Men and brethren [Demosthenes said, Ye men of Athens!], this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David [the beginning of the new method of interpretation] spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17. For he was numbered with us [he had been numbered], and had obtained part of this ministry [portion or inheritance].
18. Now this man purchased [got possession of. In old English purchase often meant acquired] a field with the reward of iniquity [a Petrine phrase, see 2Pe 2:13 , 2Pe 2:15 ]; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
19. And it was [became] known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue [in their own dialect] Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
20. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick [the general term office is preferable] let another take.
21. Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us [representing the whole life and conduct].
22. Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
23. And they appointed two, Joseph [nothing further is known of him] called Barsabas [son of the oath or wisdom], who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias [given by Jehovah].
24. And they prayed, and said, thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen.
25. That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell [away], that he might go to his own place.
26. And they gave forth their lots [not votes]; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered [the Greek word is not the same as in 2Pe 2:17 ] with the eleven apostles.
The Premature Election
“AND in those days.” There were ten days between the taking up of the Lord Jesus and the festival of the outpouring of the Spirit which is now known to us by the name of Whitsuntide. In those ten days Peter “stood up.” It was a pity he did so, for he had been distinctly told to sit down. But who can wait ten days? Yet those periods of waiting are interposed in every life, for the trial of patience and for the perfecting of faith. Where is there a man who can sit down ten long days and do nothing but wait? “They also serve who only stand and wait” “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” “Your strength is to sit still.” Mark how this is God’s training of us in this matter of sitting, waiting, expecting, training us to the eloquence of silence and to the energy of standing still. Who can do it?
Peter was pre-eminently the man who could not do it. Goaded by impatience, he stood up and addressed the disciples. He was always more or less of a talkative man, letting his energy flow out in speech instead of embodying it in noble patience and heroic endurance. His energy evaporated. He will become a better man by-and-by; from Peter we shall yet hear some of the most solid and noble deliverances ever pronounced by an inspired apostle. He will burn as Paul never burned; he will excel even John in tenderness, yes, even in this opening speech, made before the time, he begins to show that delicacy of touch which so often made him conspicuous amid all the writers of apostolic letters.
It was to be feared that he would begin with a mistake, because he ended with one. On the last occasion probably, or near it, on which he saw the Lord, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what shall this man the disciple whom Jesus loved do?” A man who asks a question of that kind will commit a mistake the next time he speaks. Faults go in groups. Jesus rebuked him, saying, “If I will,” that subtle lordliness of tone which always separated him from all other speakers. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” The next time we hear of Peter in any conspicuous relation is in the instance before us, when during the ten days of waiting he became impatient, and stood up amid the disciples and made a speech about the vacancy in the apostolate.
The fussy church must be doing something, if it is only mischief; the mechanical church cannot stand still; church-mongers are infinitely too busy; they lack repose; they consider that if they are walking up and down very much, they are doing something, they consider that if they be sitting quietly still, looking with wonder-filled eyes to the great silent heavens in expectancy and eager love, they are doing nothing. Peter will have a vote taken, or a ballot; he will complete the broken circle he who broke the circle most, he whose crime outblackens Iscariot’s, he who said, “I know not what thou sayest, I know not the man,” he who with cursing and swearing denied that he knew Christ, was that not in reality selling his Lord without the silver? He stood up in the midst and began to organise the apostolate! If Judas had lived, who knows what Christ would have done to him? Peter lived, and Christ had a secret interview with him, and in that private conversation an amnesty was pronounced and Peter was re-established. No man can expel you from the church. Every expelled man expels himself. You can be put away from a visible community. You cannot be put away from Christ’s bosom, Christ’s family, Christ’s church, but by your own hand. It is this terrific power of suicide with which God has entrusted rational life! Chrysostom was wont to say, what we now quote as a modern proverb, as if contemporaneous wit had suggested and formulated the wisdom, “No man can hurt a man but himself.” Nothing that you can say against me will have the smallest effect upon me or against me, if I be true in my inmost soul, unbroken in homage, constant in devotion, perfect and incorruptible in sincerity. Nothing that I can say against you will have the smallest effect detrimental in the long run, if you be true in heart, and full of integrity towards God.
Peter excluded himself from the church. So we read, “Go tell my disciples and Peter.” The first-born disinherited, the great primogeniture broken up, the first last, the leader an exile! And Judas “by transgression fell” he put himself outside the church. It is not a Papacy that can unchurch me, it is not an ecclesiastical confederation that can unchurch you. You have in your own self the power of life and death, so far as this particular matter is concerned. God has made you your own trustee. You can separate yourself from Christ, you can turn away and walk no more with him, you can commit suicide, but as for others, no man can pluck you out of your Father’s hand. Let us consider well, therefore, how each soul is treating itself.
But Peter was forgiven. What was said at the secret interview, who can tell? When the hands touched one another again, one of them was just the same it always was, a rough fisherman’s hand but the other was not the same the wound print made all the difference! But the grip was the same, the old, old grip, the masonry of the union was the same, and the wound only increased its tenderness. Poor soul, thou mayest be forgiven! Black Iscariot, all but damned, thou art not yet lost; seek an interview with the ill-treated Saviour, have it out between yourselves this very day, tell him all the tale without a single reservation or self-excuse, and ere you have got it all out, his forgiveness will be down upon you like an infinite blessing! He never allows the prodigal to finish his speech. He sees from the first sentence what the last is going to be, and punctuating the eloquence of penitential grief with his affectionate embrace, the sin is forgotten, as impurity is consumed in fire.
Peter begins where all wise teachers must begin, if they would continue in efficiency, and conclude beneficently. He founds what he has to say upon the Scriptures. This is the peculiarity of Christian teaching: it founds itself upon the written word, it never fears to rest itself upon that sacred testimony: even where there may be differences of interpretation, it rests upon something deeper than merely verbal exposition. Herein is that sublime possibility of all Christian sections being substantially and integrally right. The Arminian and the Calvinist, two ghosts that have often affrighted the timid church they are both right. The man who believes in the humanity of Christ, and the man who believes in the Deity of Christ are both right. How is this, then? Simply because the contradiction and the difference are to be found in interpretation, but there is always something below anything that can be written, and there is something higher than a tongue or a prophecy, or an interpretation in words! It is the spirit that unites, it is the letter that divides and kills. It is quite possible for an heterodox man to have an orthodox spirit, and it is by his spirit that he will be saved, and not by his letter. Do not tell me what your creed is: but do tell me something of your temper, your spirit, your supreme aspiration, your highest, broadest prayer what is the one desire of your heart? There is nothing true that is incompatible with love; charity never faileth. As for our conceptions, interpretations, and suggestions, they are but intermediate or transient; we are passing on through them to some further and higher generalisation: on the road let us exchange views, approach one another with a noble charity, and know that there is no one man who holds in exclusive trust the totality of the Truth which is indicated by the expression “the kingdom of God.”
Grounding himself upon what is written in the Scriptures, and only partially interpreting it, Peter proceeded to take a ballot for an apostle to succeed the apostate Judas. But could Peter make a mistake when he addressed the disciples at that time? Who asked him to rise and address the disciples at all? In our last study of this chapter, we read that the disciples were told to wait for the baptism of power “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” They were waiting for that baptism, and whilst they were waiting for it, Peter spoke. Peter was not endued with the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal sense when he made this speech: we shall watch him grow; when the Holy Spirit does descend upon him and burn up all his folly, then we shall see how noble a man was concealed under the exterior of that rough and oft-mistaken fisherman.
The conditions of succession to the apostolate are very beautiful. “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.” That is the law of the ministry today. “Lay hands suddenly on no man.” The men who must come to this Christian ministry must be men who have “companied with us all the time,” men who have known the Lord Jesus Christ all the time, men who were present at his birth in Bethlehem, and present at His upgoing on Olivet men who have been with him “all the time,” men to whom he is no stranger, who read his character, peruse the mystery of his spirit, comprehend the beneficence of his purpose, enter into sacred and inviolable unity with every emotion that heaved his breast and that sanctified his life, men who “have companied with him all the time.”
You cannot make ministers, you cannot pick out exiles and aliens and teach them this language of the kingdom of heaven, as if they were natives of that celestial empire. They must be born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but they must be born of God, and so born nothing can stand against them. They will trample down difficulties with the scorn of infinite strength, saying, “We can do all things through Christ.” This is the mischief against which we have to guard, that you can buy ministers with money, that you can qualify apostles by salary, that if you offer higher prices , you would get higher genius! It is a LIE! This genius is not in the market, it is not a commodity that can be exchanged and bartered, it has no equivalent in kind, it is a fire that only one hand can light and that no storm can put out.
Having elected two men for choice, the disciples prayed: they left the case in the hands of God, but unfortunately they had first taken it into their own. Never take your own case into your own hand: have nothing to do with it: I will not guide my own life. Persons say “Be prudent” if ever you can for a moment sit yourself down, resolving to be prudent, God has forsaken you! Persons say, “Beware of exaggeration, of over-colouring; beware of enterprises that are questionable or dangerous” those persons never did anything for the world; they cannot do anything for the world: cold water never drove an engine, and a body without wings never knew the danger, the mystery, the joy of flight. If any man can resolve his life into a life of prudence he has taken his life into his own hands, and God will turn his prudence into confusion, and the question will again be asked; “Where is the wise? where is the prudent? where is the scribe?” Seek an inspired life. Say to kind heaven every day, “Not my will but thine be done. I want to build a tower, but not my will thine be done. I ask for great success, but if failure is better for me, not my will but thine be done. Here is my short programme, rewrite it or burn it not my will but thine be done.” So the apostles committed themselves in prayer to God for guidance in this matter. So would I take every matter to God day by day, and say, “It is of no consequence to my poor little life, but everything is of infinite consequence to thy holy and glorious kingdom: Let it be according to thy mind, loving One, and not according to mine.”
The disciples gave forth their lots. How pitiful. In a few more days they will have had the Holy Ghost. Casting forth the lots was an Old Testament plan, an initial arrangement, a small introductory mechanism, adapted to the infantile state of the world. There are men now, who would like to decide everything by lot: it seems a short and easy method, but it is no method in the house of God: we are now under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. If you were to write all the creeds of Christendom and to put them into an urn and to shake the urn after prayer, asking God that the right creed might come out, I should not wonder but that some creed would fall out of the urn that would shock the sense of nine-tenths of Christendom. There is no such way of discovering God’s thought. That is not his scheme, and that is not the scheme of our life: we do not decide things by lot, in our own narrow sphere; nor do we carry things unanimously ourselves. Let me make that point as clear as I can: you, an individual man, do not always carry things unanimously: you often have to decide your course by a majority of yourself. Thus, these are the voters that live in you Judgment, Self-interest, Immediate Success, Curiosity, Speculation, Family Considerations, Health, Time, and some twenty more voters all have a seat in the council of your mind. Now those who are in favour of this course say, “Aye,” those who oppose this course say, “No,” and then you, that innermost You, that Self you have never seen, says, “The ayes have it or the noes,” so that in reality you do not carry your own personal decisions unanimously. Sometimes your judgment does not vote at all, then the resolution is said to be carried nem. con. , no one contradicting. Sometimes you carry your resolutions unanimously, the whole man stands up and says: “Let it be done;” so various are the ways by which we conduct the personal business and discharge the individual responsibilities of life. When I have wished in critical hours to know what was right to do, I have submitted myself to three tests. First, what has been the deepest conviction of my own mind; secondly, what has been the concurrent voice of my most trusted counsellors; and thirdly, what has been the fair inference to be drawn from conspiring circumstances? With a strong personal conviction, with a confirmatory judgment from my friends, with circumstances evidently conspiring to point in a certain direction, I have said, “This is none other than God’s will: if it be not, Lord, stop me at once, for he who does his own will is a fool, and he who does Thy will, will be lifted up into Thy heavens. Not my will but Thine be done.”
In the case before us the lot fell upon Matthias, and you hear no more about him. I do not want to be a balloted minister: I do not want to be here because I had six votes, and another man had only five: I want to stand in my ministry by right divine, by qualifications incontestable, by credentials not written by men and that cannot be expunged by men. That is the calling of the whole church: do not imagine that Episcopalianism, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, or Methodism will save you. We are not saved by names, traditions, or legends, nor are we an influential church because we bear an illustrious name. Every day needs its own inspiration, as every day requires its own bread.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
Ver. 15. The number of names ] Nominum, id est, hominum, or of the chieftains that were fit to act in the election.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 26 .] ELECTION OF A TWELFTH APOSTLE TO FILL THE ROOM OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
15. . . . ] ln the days between the Ascension and Pentecost; during which it appears that the number of the assembly had increased, not probably by fresh conversions, but by the gathering round the Apostles of those who had previously been disciples.
] The very frequent use of is a peculiarity of the Acts, and should have its weight in determining the reading, even where, as here, seems more appropriate. It occurs in the Gospel 5 times: in the Acts, 121.
] [that is, of persons: but the term would hardly be used except where the number is small.] See note on Rev 3:4 .
] De Wette asks, ‘where were the 500 brethren of 1Co 15:6 ?’ We surely may answer, ‘not in Jerusalem.’ See Neander, Pfl. u. Leit., p. 72, note.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 1:15 . : St. Luke often employs such notes of time, used indefinitely like similar expressions in Hebrew e.g. , 1Sa 28:1 , both in his Gospel and in Acts. Friedrich, p. 9, Lekebusch, p. 53. : it is very characteristic of St. Luke to add a participle to a finite verb indicating the posture or position of the speaker. This word is found in St. Luke’s Gospel seventeen times, and in Acts nineteen times, only twice in Matthew, six or seven times in Mark; cf. also his use of , three times in Gospel, six times in Acts, but not at all in the other Evangelists. : that St. Peter should be the spokesman is only what we should naturally expect from his previous position among the Twelve, but, as St. Chrysostom observes, he does everything with the common consent, nothing imperiously. The best fruits of his repentance are here seen in the fulfilment of his commission to strengthen his brethren. : another favourite expression of St. Luke both in his Gospel and in the Acts, in the former eight times, in the latter five times (four times in St. Matthew, twice in St. Mark). Blass compares the Hebrew , Grammatik des N. G. , p. 126, and in loco . : Blass retains and contends that . has arisen from either Act 1:14 or Act 1:16 ; but there is strong critical authority for the latter word; cf. Act 6:1 . In LXX it is used in three senses; a brother and a neighbour, Lev 19:17 ; a member of the same nation, Exo 2:14 , Deu 15:3 . In the N.T. it is used in these three senses, and also in the sense of fellow-Christians, who are looked upon as forming one family. The transition is easily seen: (1) member of the same family; (2) of the same community (national), of the same community (spiritual). Kennedy, Sources of N.T. Greek , pp. 95, 96. On its use in religious associations in Egypt see Deissmann, Bibelstudien , i., 82, 140, 209. : here for the first time solitarium . On the frequent recurrence of this word in Acts in all parts, as compared with other books of the N.T., see Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , pp. 257, 258. : R.V., “persons”. Lightfoot compares the use of the word in Rev 3:4 ; Rev 11:13 (so too Wendt), where the word is used to signify any persons without distinction of sex, so that the word may have been used here to include the women also. But he considers that it rather means men as distinct from women, and so, as he says, the Syriac and Arabic understand it here. Its use in the sense of persons reckoned up by name is Hebraistic LXX, Num 1:2 ; Num 1:18 ; Num 1:20 ; Num 3:40 ; Num 3:43 ; Num 26:53 (Grimm-Thayer, sub v. ), but see also for a similar use on the Egyptian papyri, Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien , p. 24 (1897). , “ gathered together,” R.V.; cf. Mat 22:34 , Luk 17:35 , Act 2:1 ; Act 2:44 ; Act 2:47 (so W.H [105] , R.V., see in loco , Wendt, Weiss), 1Co 11:20 ; 1Co 14:23 . Holtzmann, in loco , describes it as always local, and it is no doubt so used in most of the above passages, as also in LXX Psa 2:2 ( cf. Act 4:26 ), 2Sa 2:13 , Mal 3:1Mal 3:1 , Sus. Act 1:14 , and in classical Greek. But when we remember the stress laid by St. Luke in the opening chapters of the Acts upon the unanimity of the believers, it is not unlikely that he should use the phrase, at all events in Act 2:44 ; Act 2:47 , with this deeper thought of unity of purpose and devotion underlying the words, even if we cannot render the phrase in each passage in Acts with Rendall ( Acts , p. 34), “with one mind,” “of one mind”. . Both Wendt and Feine reject the view that the number is merely mythical (Baur, Zeller, Overbeck, Weizscker), and would rather see in it a definite piece of information which St. Luke had gained. It is quite beside the mark to suppose that St. Luke only used this particular number because it represented the Apostles multiplied by 10, or 40 multiplied by 3. If he had wished to emphasise the number as a number, why introduce the ?
[105] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 1:15-26
15At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said, 16″Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17″For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” 18(Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. 19And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem; so that in their own language that field was called Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20″For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead be made desolate, And let no one dwell in it’; and, ‘Let another man take his office.’ 21″Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us 22beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from usone of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” 23So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. 24And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen 25to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
Act 1:15 “at this time” This is literally “in these days” (en tais hmerais) This phrase is used often in the opening chapters of Acts (cf. Act 1:15; Act 2:18; Act 5:37; Act 6:1; Act 7:41; Act 9:37; Act 11:27; Act 13:41). Luke is using other eyewitness sources. He also uses “from day to day” (kath hmeran) as common, ambiguous time indicator in the early chapters of Acts (cf. Act 2:46-47; Act 3:2; Act 16:5; Act 17:11; Act 17:31; Act 19:9). After Acts 15, Luke is personally acquainted with many of the events he is recording. He still uses “day” often, but not as often as in these ambiguous, idiomatic phrases.
“Peter stood up” Peter is obviously the spokesman for the Apostles (cf. Matthew 16). He preached the first sermon of the church after the coming of the Spirit (cf. Acts 2) and the second sermon in Acts 3. Jesus appears to him first in the post-resurrection appearances (cf. John 21 and 1Co 15:5). His Hebrew name is “Simeon” (cf. Act 15:14; 2Pe 1:1). This name is spelled “Simon” in Greek. The term “Peter” is a Greek term (petros) for a “detached rock.” It is “Cephas” or “bedrock” in Aramaic (cf. Mat 16:18).
“a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons” This phrase is a parenthesis in the UBS4 Greek text (but not Act 1:18-19). This group must have included the eleven Apostles, the women who accompanied Jesus, and other disciples from Jesus’ preaching and healing ministry.
Act 1:16 “the Scripture” All references to “Scripture” in the NT (except 2Pe 3:15-16) refer to the OT (ex. Mat 5:17-20; 2Ti 3:15-17). This passage also asserts the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2Pe 1:21) through David. It also implies the canonization of “the Writings” section of the Hebrew Bible.
SPECIAL TOPIC: INSPIRATION
had to be” This is dei, which means necessity. It is an imperfect active indicative and refers to the first quote in Act 1:20.
The term is characteristic of Luke’s sense of the life of Jesus and the early church being an extension of OT Scriptures (cf. Luk 18:31-34; Luk 22:37; Luk 24:44). Luke uses this term often (cf. Luk 2:49; Luk 4:43; Luk 9:22; Luk 11:42; Luk 12:12; Luk 13:14; Luk 13:16; Luk 13:33; Luk 15:32; Luk 17:25; Luk 18:1; Luk 19:5; Luk 21:9; Luk 22:7; Luk 22:37; Luk 24:7; Luk 24:26; Luk 24:44; Act 1:16; Act 1:21; Act 3:21; Act 4:12; Act 5:29; Act 9:6; Act 9:16; Act 14:27; Act 15:5; Act 16:30; Act 17:3; Act 19:21; Act 19:36; Act 20:35; Act 23:11; Act 24:19; Act 25:10; Act 25:24; Act 26:9; Act 27:21; Act 27:24; Act 27:26). The term means “it is binding,” “it is necessary,” “it is inevitable.” The gospel and its growth is not a chance occurrence, but the predetermined plan of God and fulfillment of OT Scripture (LXX usage).
“fulfilled” When one reads these OT quotes (Act 1:20), Judas’ betrayal was not the intent of the writer of the Psalms (i.e., Psa 69:25; Psa 109:8). The Apostles interpreted the OT in light of their experience with Jesus. This is called typological interpretation (cf. Act 1:20). Jesus Himself may have set the pattern of this approach as He walked and talked with the two on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luk 24:13-35, especially Act 1:25-26). The early Christian interpreters saw parallels between the events of the OT and Jesus’ life and teachings. They saw Jesus as the prophetic fulfillment of all the OT. Believers today must be careful of this approach! Those inspired NT authors were under a level of inspiration and personally familiar with the life and teachings of Jesus. We affirm the truth and authority of their witness but cannot reproduce their method.
SPECIAL TOPIC: TYPOLOGY
“Judas” It was Judas’ apostasy, not his death, which caused this election of a substitute Apostle. In Act 1:20 b, Judas’ actions were seen as a fulfillment of prophecy. The NT does not record another Apostolic election after the death of James (cf. Act 12:2). There is much mystery and tragedy in the life of Judas. He was possibly the only Apostle who was not a Galilean. He was made the treasurer of the apostolic group (cf. Joh 12:6). He was accused of stealing their money throughout the period of Jesus’ time with them. He is said to be a prophetic fulfillment and an object of Satanic attack. His motives are never stated, but his remorse resulted in his taking his own life after returning the bribe.
There is so much speculation about Judas and his motives. He is mentioned and vilified often in John’s Gospel (Joh 6:71; Joh 12:4; 13:2,26,39; Joh 18:2-3; Joh 18:5). The modern play “Jesus Christ Superstar” depicts him as a faithful, but disillusioned, follower who tried to force Jesus into fulfilling the role of Jewish Messiahthis is, to overthrow the Romans, punish the wicked, and set up Jerusalem as the capital of the world. However, John depicts his motives as greedy and malicious.
The main problem is the theological issue of God’s sovereignty and human free will. Did God or Jesus manipulate Judas? Is Judas responsible for his acts if Satan controlled him or God predicted and caused him to betray Jesus? The Bible does not address these questions directly. God is in control of history; He knows future events, but mankind is responsible for choices and actions. God is fair, not manipulative.
There is a new book that tries to defend JudasJudas Betrayer or Friend of Jesus? by William Klassen, Fortress Press, 1996. I do not agree with this book, but it is very interesting and thought provoking.
“who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus” Here is a quote from my commentary on Mat 26:47-50 (see www.freebiblecommentary.org ).
“There has been much discussion about the motivation of Judas. It must be said that this remains uncertain. His kiss of Jesus in Acts 1:49 either (1) was a sign to the soldiers that this was the man to arrest (cf. Mat 26:48); or (2) lends support to the modern theory that he was trying to force Jesus’ hand to act, (cf. Mat 27:4). Other Gospel passages state that he was a robber and an unbeliever from the beginning (cf. Joh 12:6).
From Luk 22:52 we know the make-up of this crowd. There were Roman soldiers involved because they were the only ones who could legally carry swords. Also, the Temple police were involved because they usually carried clubs. Representatives from the Sanhedrin were also present at the arrest (cf. Mat 26:47; Mat 26:51).”
Act 1:17 Judas was chosen by Jesus, heard Jesus speak, saw Jesus’ miracles, was sent on mission by and for Jesus, was present in the upper room and participated in these events and, yet, betrayed Jesus!
Act 1:18
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, NJB,
NIV”falling headlong, he burst open”
TEV”where he fell to his death and burst open”
It is possible that “falling headlong” was a medical term for “swelling up” (cf. Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, pp. 535-536), which is found in some English translations (e.g., Phillips, Moffatt and Goodspeed). For a good discussion of the different versions of Judas’ death (Mat 27:5 vs. Act 1:18) see Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 511-512.
“this man acquired a field” Act 1:18-19 are parenthetical (cf. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NJB, NIV). The author provided this information for the reader’s understanding. From Mat 27:6-8 we learn the priests bought this piece of land in fulfillment of OT prophecy (cf. Mat 27:9). It was Judas’ money, which the priests considered unclean and used to buy a field for burying unclaimed bodies. Act 1:18-19 tell us it was the very field in which Judas died. This information about Judas’ death is not repeated elsewhere.
Act 1:19 “in their own language” Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day did not read or speak Hebrew, but a similar Semitic language, Aramaic, which they learned from their years under Persian rule. The educated people could speak and read Hebrew. Jesus used it when He reads Scripture in the Synagogues.
Many people in Palestine would have been bilingual (Koiine Greek and Aramaic) or tri-lingual (Koine Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew).
Jesus spoke Aramaic most of the time. The phrases and words in the Gospels that are transliterated are all Aramaic.
NASB, NRSV”Hakeldama, that is Field of Blood”
NKJV”Akel dama, that is, Field of Blood”
TEV”Akeldama, which means Field of Blood”
NJB”Bloody acre. . .Hakel-dama”
This is a Greek translation of an Aramaic word. It is always difficult to uniformly transpose from one language to another. Despite the Greek spelling variations, the Aramaic means “field of blood.” This could mean
1. a field bought with blood money (cf. Mat 27:7 a)
2. a field where blood was shed (cf. Act 1:18)
3. a field where murderers or foreigners were buried (cf. Mat 27:7 b)
Act 1:20 These are two quotes from the Psalms. The first is Psa 69:25. Originally it was plural. It functions as a curse formula related to Judas. The second quote is from Psa 109:8 (LXX). It provides the prophetic precedent for the replacement of Judas discussed in Act 1:21-26.
Modern believers cannot reproduce this method of typological hermeneutics because none of us in this period of history are inspired. The Spirit guided these Bible authors/scribes at a level He does not do for later believers. We are illumined by Him but we sometimes disagree (see SPECIAL TOPIC: INSPIRATION at Act 1:16).
NASB, NKJV,
NJB”office”
NRSV”positions of overseer”
TEV”place of service”
In the Septuagint the term episkop carries the connotation of a charge or service of an officer (cf. Num 4:16; Psa 109:8). It came to denote an office in the Roman Catholic clerical system, but in Greek it simply was the Greek city-state term for leader (cf. NIV), as “elder” (presbuteros) was the Jewish term for leader (ex. Gen 50:7; Exo 3:16; Exo 3:18; Num 11:16; Num 11:24-25; Deu 21:2-4; Deu 21:6; Deu 21:19-20 and others). Therefore with the possible exception of James, “overseer” and “elder” after the death of the Apostles refer to the pastor (cf. Act 20:17; Act 20:28; Tit 1:5; Tit 1:7; Php 1:1).
Act 1:21 “it is necessary” This is the word dei (see full note at Act 1:16). Apparently Peter felt that the Twelve Apostles somehow represented the twelve tribes or some other symbolism that must not be lost.
Act 1:21-22 These are the qualifications for Apostleship (See Special Topic: Send [apostell] at Act 14:4). Notice that it shows the presence of other believers besides the Twelve who followed Jesus throughout His earthly ministry. These criteria were later used by some to reject Paul’s Apostleship.
Luke apparently includes these two verses to show the priority of Apostolic witness, not the election of Matthias, about whom we hear no more. The church and NT Scripture will be built on Jesus’ life and teachings, but it is mediated through eyewitness, authoritative witness, selected theological witness, the NT. This is the theological issue, not the symbolism of “twelve”!
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE NUMBER TWELVE
Act 1:23 “they set two” There is a Greek manuscript variant which shows the theological issue in this phrase:
1. estsan (“they set”) in MSS , A, B, C, D1, E
2. estesen (“he set”) in MS D* (fifth century), Lectionary 156 (tenth century), two Old Latin manuscripts (fifth and thirteenth centuries), and Augustine (A.D. 354-430)
If number one, this is an example of the whole group of disciples voting on the possible replacement of Judas (a form of congregational polity (cf. Act 15:22), but if number 2, then this is evidence for the supremacy of Peter (cf. Act 15:7-11; Act 15:14). As far as Greek manuscript evidence, the wording of number one is certain (UBS4 gives it an “A” rating).
“Joseph. . .Matthias” We know nothing about these men from the NT. We must remember that the Gospels and Acts are not western histories, but selected theological writings to introduce Jesus and show how His message impacted the world.
Act 1:24
NASB”who knows the hearts of all men”
NKJV”who knows the hearts of all”
NRSV”you know everyone’s heart”
TEV”you know the thoughts of everyone”
NJB”you can read everyone’s heart”
This is a compound word, “hearts” and “known” (cf. Act 15:8). This reflects an OT truth (cf. 1Sa 2:7; 1Sa 16:7; 1Ki 8:39; 1Ch 28:9; 2Ch 6:30; Psa 7:9; Psa 44:21; Pro 15:11; Pro 21:2; Jer 11:20; Jer 17:9-10; Jer 20:12; Luk 16:15; Act 1:24; Act 15:8; Rom 8:27). God knows us completely and still loves us (cf. Rom 8:27).
The disciples affirm that YHWH knows their motives as well as the motives and lives of the two candidates. They want God’s will in this choice (aorist middle). Jesus chose the Twelve, but He is now with the Father.
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART
Act 1:25 “to his own place” This is an euphemism for “damnation.” Satan used him for his purposes (cf. Luk 22:3; Joh 13:2; Joh 13:27), but Judas is responsible for his choices and actions (cf. Gal 6:7).
Act 1:26 “they drew lots for them” This has an OT background related to the High Priest’s use of the Urim and Thummim in Lev 16:8, or to individuals using some similar type of method (cf. Pro 16:33; Pro 18:18). The Roman soldiers also cast lots for Jesus’ clothes (cf. Luk 23:34). However, this is the last time this method of knowing God’s will is mentioned in the NT. If one tends toward proof-texting, this method could become normative for how to make spiritual decisions, which would be very unfortunate (e.g., opening the Bible and putting one’s finger on a verse to determine the will of God). Believers are to live by faith, not by mechanical means of determining God’s will (e.g., sheep fleece, cf. Jdg 6:17; Jdg 6:36-40).
“Matthias” Eusebius says he was involved in the mission of the seventy (cf. Luke 10). Later traditions assert that he was martyred in Ethiopia.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
stood up = rose up. Greek. anistemi. App-178.
disciples. The texts read “brethren”.
number. Greek. ochlos, crowd. This is an occurance of the Figure of speech Epitrechon.
together = to the same (place). Greek. epi to auto. See Act 2:1, Act 2:44; Act 4:26. 1Co 7:5; 1Co 11:20; 1Co 14:23.
an hundred and twenty = three forties. A divinely appointed number during a period of waiting. It -was the number of Ezra’s great synagogue. See App-10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15-26.] ELECTION OF A TWELFTH APOSTLE TO FILL THE ROOM OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 1:15. , having stood up) as men are wont to do when about to make a speech. This speech of Peter, though delivered before the great Pentecost, yet bears the impress, not of the discipleship, but of the apostleship, owing to the receiving of the Holy Ghost, as mentioned in Joh 20:22.- , together, at the same time) namely, in that place. In other places there may have been more disciples, especially outside of the city.- , about one hundred and twenty) A tenth part of this number consisted of apostles. and [5] are written, according to the statement of Eustathius.–, said-men) There is a parenthesis between the proposition and its discussion, as in Gen 6:9-10, These are the generations of Noah (Noah was a just man, etc.); and Noah begat three sons.
[5] ABCE support : Rec. Text .-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Act 1:15-26
SELECTION OF MATTHIAS
Act 1:15-26
15 And in these days Peter stood up-Peter had denied his Lord after the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed unto him, but we now find him in his old place impetuously speaking for the apostles. He had been forgiven, and had received a special message sent to him by the risen Saviour (Mar 16:7), and a special charge given him (Joh 21:15-18). He is here strengthening his brethren; he does not apologize for the sin of Judas, but rather reminds them that he was numbered among us, and received his portion in this ministry. Some think that Peter was the oldest of the apostles; hence, he took the lead. There was a multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty. The word for gathered is not in the Greek here, but it does occur in Mat 22:34, and it seems to be the same idea in Luk 17:35. The entire number of disciples is not mentioned as being one hundred and twenty, but that number was gathered together in Jerusalem ; evidently there were others scattered through the country. (1Co 15:6.) There is no significance in the number one hundred and twenty.
16 Brethren, it was needful that the scripture should be fulfilled,-Brethren literally means men, brethren, or brother men. Women are included in this address, though andres refers only to men. Peter reminds them that the prophecy given by David through the Holy Spirit concerning Judas must be fulfilled. He evidently refers to Psa 41:9, which referred first to Ahithophel, and in Joh 13:18 to Judas; hence, Peter here indirectly states that David wrote Psalms 41. Judas led the company of Jews and Romans to the Garden of Gethsemane to betray Jesus. Peter here found three things foretold, which had to be fulfilled: (1) that the traitor was to be one of themselves; (2) what his fate would be; (3) that his office from which he had been ejected was to be filled by another.
17 For he was numbered among us,-Peter is not ashamed to state that one of the twelve betrayed the Master; inspiration has been true to the fact and recorded this betrayal. One might think that it would be injurious to the cause of Christ to record the fact that one of his disciples betrayed him; however, Judas fulfilled the conditions of the prophecy. (Psa 41:9 Psa 109:2-5.) Judas had a mouth of deceitfulness, the lying tongue, the groundless enmity, the requital of evil for good; yet he was numbered among the twelve apostles.
18 (Now this man obtained a field with the reward-Judas obtained this field, or acquired it indirectly with the money which he received for the betrayal of Jesus. (Mat 26:14-26 Mat 27:3-8.) Verses 18 and 19 are not a part of Peters speech, but seem to have been parenthetically included in Lukes account. The field was bought with the money that Judas received for betraying the Savior; he brought it back and threw it at the feet of the chief priest, and they took the money and purchased this property; they would not put the money in the treasury. (Mat 27:5-8.) This field was bought by the chief priest in order to bury strangers in it. Matthew further says: That field was called, The field of blood. (Mat 27:3-8.) Luke here states that Judas fell headlong and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Matthew states that Judas went away and hanged himself. (Mat 27:5.) There is no contradiction here, as he could have hanged himself and then fallen and burst asunder. Evidently in his attempt to hang himself the traitors body fell and was mangled as described here by Luke.
19 And it became known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem;-The fate of Judas and the way in which the purchase money was obtained caused the name to be changed from the potters field to The field of blood, and all people recognized the appropriateness of this name. Akeldama is the Aramaic word which Peter explained to mean The field of blood. Aramaic was the corrupt Hebrew which was spoken in Palestine at that time.
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms,-Peter here quotes from Psa 69:25 and Psa 109:8. He changes the plural of the first quotation into the singular as David was speaking of many enemies of his own, and Judas was the instrument through which the many enemies of Jesus work out their will; hence, the punishment which came upon Judas as the chief offender. Peter illustrates and points to its fulfillment in prophecy. The disciples would be disturbed at the treachery of Judas, but Peter answers by pointing to predictions in the Psalms which proved that none of these things were accidental; they were known long before by Jehovah. His office let another take means that another must be selected to fill the place that Judas was selected to fill.
21-22 Of the men therefore that have companied-The apostles were to be witnesses of Jesus; Peter here states the conditions required in the one who is to be appointed to take the place of Judas. He mentions two things; namely, that they should have been a disciple of Jesus from the baptism of John, and that they should have accompanied him after his resurrection. This is another way of saying that one should have known and followed Jesus from the first of his personal ministry to his trials, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. These apostles were careful in selecting the successor to Judas place; the one selected must be a competent witness; no one can be selected who is not an eyewitness of the things to which he must testify, so that his knowledge may be firsthand and his evidence trustworthy. Peter had quoted from the Psalms that the place was vacant and that another should fill it; hence, he proceeded at once under the guidance of God to complete this task.
23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas,- With the qualifications before them, they began their search for one who met all qualifications. They found two who met these qualifications. It is supposed that these two were selected from the company that was assembled. It is not clear as to who is included in they; some think that the entire assembly selected or found the two who were qualified; others think that only the apostles were included in the they. Those who take the view that the assembly selected the two who had the qualifications draw the conclusion that the church may select its officers today. They should remember that the church had not been established at this time, and that this is no precedent for selecting officers in the church. Joseph called Barsabbas also bore the name Justus; he was a well-known disciple at that time, and had been a companion of Jesus for three or more years, but we know nothing further about him. There have been different interpretations as to the meaning of his name; we cannot make him the same as Barnabas mentioned in Act 4:36. Matthias is the contracted form of Mattathias, and is the equivalent of the Greek, Theodore, which means gift of God.
24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord,-Luke here gives only the substance of the prayer that was prayed; it is very probable that Peter led in this prayer, and that they all prayed with him. Some claim that this prayer was addressed to Jesus, and others that it was addressed to God. Lord may refer to God and Christ. It is the same Greek word that Peter used four times in answering Jesus (Joh 21:15-17 Joh 21:21), and that the eleven used after the resurrection in speaking to Jesus (Act 1:6). Jesus had not at this time become the Mediator and High Priest, as his church had not been established. Who knowest the hearts of all men literally means who heart knowing all men. There is a similar expression applied to God: Jehovah searcheth all hearts (1Ch 28:9) and I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart (Jer 17:10). Since God knows the hearts of all men, he is asked to show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen. It is clear that the Lord had chosen; that he was to make known which one should take the place of Judas. The Lord knew the heart; they knew only the men with their qualifications; hence, they asked the Lord to show or point out by some visible or other means which one of the two he had chosen. They wanted only the one that the Lord had chosen.
25 to take the place in this ministry-It is clear that they desire one to take Judas place and to become an apostle with them; they want him to participate in the office of the apostleship from which Judas fell away that he might go to his own place. Judas had been chosen to the place by Jesus, but he was disqualified by his wickedness and went to his own place, and now another must be chosen by the authority of God to take his place.
26 And they gave lots for them-The Jews were familiar with the process of casting lots; this method of decision by lot was an Old Testament custom. The land of Canaan was divided and assigned to the different tribes by lot. (Num 26:55.) The guilt of Achan seems to have been determined by lot (Jos 7:14); the king of Israel, Saul, was selected by lot (1Sa 10:20-21); the same method was used in determining the scapegoat (Lev 16:8). Pro 16:33 indicates how the lot was cast. There are different ways by which the lot was cast, but we need not discuss these. The only thing practical here is that the apostles placed the responsibility of the selection on the Lord, and he made the choice; so Matthias was chosen by the Lord, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. The Greek word for numbered is not the same as in verse 17, but is a word used in one form to signify the person who was selected. Some have doubted as to whether the apostles were guided by the Holy Spirit in selecting Matthias; they claim that Matthias was never an apostle.
Questions on Acts
by E.M. Zerr
Acts Chapter 1
To what document does “former treatise” refer?
State the subject matter of that treatise.
Until what event did the narrative continue?
What did he give to the apostlcs?
Through what means did he give these?
What showing did he make to the apostles?
By what did he do this showing?
What is meant here by his passion?
For what length of time was he with them?
Of what things did he speak to them?
While assembled what did he command not to do?
For what should they wait?
What is here said of John?
Who are the antecedents of “ye” in 5th verse?
State their advantage ovcr John’s disciplcs.
What question was now asked of Christ?
To what institution did they refer?
What had happened to this institution?
Give the answer of Jesus to them.
Who had the power over this mattcr?
What was to come upon the apostles?
This would cause them to receive what?
And cause them to become what for Christ?
What was to be their territory?
After this conversation what happened to Christ?
What object shut him off from view?
Who next appeared on the scene?
State the question they asked.
What important prediction did they then make?
Name the location of the ascension.
To where did the apostles now go?
How much of a journey was it?
Into what place did they go?
Who were dwelling there?
How were they passing the time?
Tell what noted woman was in the group.
State the number of disciples.
Who was the spokesman?
In what term did he address the others?
To what document did he refer?
Why couple the Holy Ghost and David togethcr?
Concerning what person did he speak?
What had he done?
In what position had he been formerly?
Tell what he purchased.
With what did he make the purchase?
Was it purchased before his death?
In what way was the purchasing made?
How is his death here described?
Explain this and the former account.
How extensively known did this event become?
State the name given to the place.
What would make this name appropriate?
From what book does the speaker quote?
Tell the meaning of the word bishop rick.
Of what circumstances is this verse a prophecy?
What association must the chosen man have had?
Name the period covered by this association.
Why begin with the baptism of John?
What is the chosen man to become?
Who are “they” of verse 23?
Did they put two into the apostleship?
Why were the two men named?
Did “they” know outward qualification of the men?
What did the Lord only know about them?
State what religious exercise was first performed.
By what means did Judas fall from his office?
What is meant by ”his own place”?
Is “he was numbered with the 11 apostles” inspired?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Filling a Vacant Place
Act 1:15-26
It may be that the Apostles were acting upon Christs directions, when they proceeded to the election of a successor to Judas. There was awe in Peters voice, as he describes the traitor as the guide of the arresting band, although he had been numbered with the Apostles and had obtained part in their ministry. It was as though Peter felt that it might have been himself. He and the rest had stood at the brink of the precipice over which Judas had flung himself.
Evidently there were favored and humble men who, though they did not belong to the brotherhood, had been allowed to company with the Apostles, and had been witnesses of the marvelous story as it had been unrolled before their eyes. They were thus able to give their testimony first-hand. What an honor had been theirs! And now one of them was summoned to take the place of Judas. His qualification was his ability to bear witness to the Resurrection, Act 1:22. That was the salient point in the primitive evangel. But cannot we all bear witness to it? What but the resurrection of Jesus can account for the hot springs of religious fervor that arise in our wintry hearts!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Peter: Psa 32:5, Psa 32:6, Psa 51:9-13, Luk 22:32, Joh 21:15-17, the names, Rev 3:4, Rev 11:13,*Gr.
an: Act 21:20,*Gr: Mat 13:31, Joh 14:12, 1Co 15:6
Reciprocal: Psa 72:16 – There Isa 45:2 – make Mat 13:32 – the least Act 2:3 – sat Act 2:41 – added
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
As usual, Peter was the spokesman on this occasion. The hundred and twenty disciples means the ones who were present in this assembly. In 1Co 15:6 Paul says that Jesus was seen (after his resurrection) by “above five hundred brethren,” most of whom were living when the apostle wrote the epistle. Just where they were when the assembly was going on mentioned in the present verse we do not know, for only the apostles had been commanded to tarry at Jerusalem; the others were there by their own voluntary desire only.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Election of Matthias into the Number of the Twelve, 15-26.Address of Peter before the Election, 15-22.
Act 1:15. In those days. The few days intervening between the ascension and Pentecost.
Peter. Various reasons have been suggested for this priority which St. Peter certainly possessed among his brother apostles. He was the first called (Cyprian). He was the eldest (Jerome). He earned this priority by his ready confession of faith in Christ (Hilary). But that it was only a priority he possessed, not an authority, over the rest of the apostles, the testimony of the early Fathers, Greek as well as Latin, most amply shows. Peter in the early Church, from this age, from the personal friendship he had enjoyed with his Master, no doubt occupied one of the chief positions; but he shared his rank with Stephen, the first great Christian orator, during that martyrs short but brilliant career; with James, the Lords brother, who was undoubtedly the head of the Jewish Christians; and later, with St. Paul, to whom the great missionary work outside of the Holy Land was entrusted.
One hundred and twenty. St. Paul mentions 500 brethren who on one occasion saw the risen Lord. But this gathering of 500 took place some time previous to this occasion, probably in Galilee. Even if it had taken place in Jerusalem, the difference in numbers would be easily accounted for, as many of the Passover pilgrims from Galilee had no doubt before this left the city.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
During the ten days stay and continuance of the apostles at Jerusalem, before the feast of Pentecost, a motion was made among them for filling up the vacancy in the sacred college of the apostles, which was occasioned by the death of the traitor Judas; and here we have observable,
1. The person that made this motion, St. Peter: In those days Peter stood up, and said. Whence the church of Rome would infer his supremacy, byt very groundlessly.
For St. Peter’s being the chief speaker, and sometimes the sole speaker, is not to be attributed to his superiority; but,
1. To his seniority, he being probably elder than the rest.
2. To his apostolical office! he was appointed to be the first and chief minister of the circumcision, to preach among the Jews: and therefore no wonder that Peter if first mentioned, when any thing relating to the Jewish affairs is recited.
3. His forwardness to speak and act for Christ and his interest, may be imputed to his repentance, it being but necessary that he, who had so scandalously fallen, should, by his future zeal, convince the world both of his repentance and recovery.
And accordingly he speaks, acts, and labours more abundantly than all the apostles; not that the rest were idle or insignificant; for they were equal with him, having an equal authority, an equal gift of miracles, an equal number of tongues, and equal power to preach the gospel, an equal wisdom in preaching of it:
For the reasons above mentioned, St. Peter spake and did so much; having dishonoured Christ before by his cowardly denial of him, he now resolves to signalize himself by shewing extraordinary measures of zeal nad activity for him.
Observe, 2. The honourable office and station which Judas once had; He was numbered with the apostles, and obtained part of that ministry with them. Judas though (secretly) a thief, a traitor, yea, a devil, yet had he by Christ’s own choice, a part or office in the apostolic order.
O Lord! how possible, and yet how sad is it to preach to others, and to become castaways ourselves! to prophecy in thy name, and yet to perish in thy wrath! to cast devils out of others, and yet be cast to the devil ourselves! to have our ministry blessed to others comfort and salvation, and at the same time to minister to our own condemnation! Quistalia fando temperet a lachrymis?
Observe, 3. Judas’s sin described; He was guide to them that took Jesus, verse 16. A guide to the chief priests in thier counsels, as to the manner of apprehending Christ; and a guide to the soldiers, as to the time and place of his apprehension.
Note thence, That there cannot be a greater sin, than for a person to be a guide and leader of others into sin. Woe to magistrates! woe to ministers! woe to parents! that are found guilty of this sin.
Observe, 4. Judas’s punishment declared;
1. He was hanged or strangled; some think by his own hand: others by the devil’s. No doubt that Satan, who had so great a hand in his sin, had more than a finger in his punishment. Of all mortals, no wretch ever deserved so direful a fate as this traitor Judas: And doubtless it was the dreadfulest that the devil could inflict.
2. It is added, that he burst asunder, and his bowels gushed out. The rope, or that to which it was fastened, breaking, he fell down headlong, and burst asunder, and his bowels gushed out. A just and suitable punishment for his want of bowels to his kind and innocent Master.
3. He went to his own place; that is, he went and was sent to hell and damnation, the proper place for the son of perdition: called his own place, because of his own choosing, of his own deserving, of his own procuring; it was what he had purchased to himself by the wages of iniquity, and justly deserved for his final impenitency.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Matthias Chosen to Take Judas’ Office
Sometime during that period of waiting, Peter addressed a group of about 120 disciples in reference to the office formerly held by Judas. He had to be replaced because he had been numbered with them and had a part in the ministry the Lord had given to the apostles.
The entire assembly would have been acquainted with the facts surrounding Judas’ death and the purchase of the “Field of Blood.” Having realized what he had done, Judas threw the thirty pieces of silver down in the temple and went out and hanged himself. From what Luke further reports, we conclude either the branch he used to hang himself on or the rope itself broke and Judas’ body fell and burst open. The chief priests did not feel blood money should be placed in the treasury, so they purchased a field in which to bury strangers ( Act 1:15-19 ; Mat 27:3-10 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Act 1:15. In those days While they were waiting for the promise of the Spirit; Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples Probably being under a peculiar divine influence on this occasion. The number of the names, or persons, together That is, who were together in the upper room; were a hundred and twenty It seems the greater part of the five hundred to whom Christ had appeared (see 1Co 15:6) continued in Galilee during this interval between the feast of the passover and that of pentecost. Dr. Lightfoot reckons that the eleven apostles, the seventy disciples, and about thirty-nine more, all of Christs own kindred, country, and company, made up this one hundred and twenty; and that these were a sort of synod, or congregation of ministers, a standing presbytery, (Act 4:23,) to whom none of the rest durst join themselves, Act 5:13; and that they continued together till the persecution at Stephens death dispersed them all but the apostles, Act 8:1. But he thinks that, besides these, there were many hundreds, if not thousands, in Jerusalem at this time who believed; and indeed we read of many who believed on him there, but durst not confess him. Here was the beginning of the Christian Church; this one hundred and twenty was the grain of mustard-seed that was to grow into a tree, the leaven that was to leaven the whole lump.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15-18. We next have an account of the selection of an apostle to fill the place of Judas. There is no intimation that Jesus had authorized this procedure; on the contrary, it would be presumed that, as he himself had selected the original twelve, he would, in like manner, fill the vacancy, if he intended that it should be filled. Neither had the apostles yet received that power from on high which would enable them to act infallibly in a matter of this kind. From these considerations, it has been supposed by some that the whole procedure was both unauthorized and invalid. But the fact that Matthias was afterward “numbered with the eleven apostles,” and that the whole body were from that time called “the twelve,” shows that the transaction was sanctioned by the apostles even after they were fully inspired. This gave it the sanction of inspired authority, whatever may have been its origin. Moreover, Jesus had promised them that they should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and the fulfillment of this promise required that the number should be filled up. The Apostle Paul was not reckoned among “the twelve.” He distinguishes himself from them in 1 Cor 15:5, 8 . “He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve,” and “he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”
The particular time within the ten days, at which this selection was made, is not designated. The incident is introduced in these terms: (15) “And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of the names together was about one hundred and twenty,) (16) Brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, spoke before concerning Judas, who was guide to them that seized Jesus. (17) For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. (18) Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
The parenthetical statement that the number of names together were about one hundred and twenty is not to be understood as including all who then believed on Jesus, but only those who were then and there assembled. Paul states that Jesus was seen, after his resurrection, by “above five hundred brethren at once.” The hundred and twenty were, perhaps, all who were then in the city of Jerusalem.
The statement in reference to the fate of Judas is supposed by most commentators to be part of a parenthesis thrown in by Luke, though some contend that it is part of Peter’s speech. If the latter supposition is true, there is no ambiguity in it to the original hearers, for they all well knew that the field referred to was purchased by the Sanhedrim with money which Judas forced upon them, and which was invested in this way because they could find no other suitable use for it. Knowing this, they could but understand Peter as meaning that Judas had indirectly caused the field to be purchased. But whether the words are Peter’s or Luke’s, it must be admitted that a reader unacquainted with the facts in the case would be misled by them. Luke, however, presumed upon the information of his first readers, and that knowledge of the facts which they possessed has been transmitted to us by Matthew, so that we have as little difficulty as they did in discovering the true meaning of the remark.
As respects the manner of the death of Judas, the common method of reconciling Luke’s account with that of Matthew is undoubtedly correct. We must suppose them both to be true, and combine the separate statements. The whole affair stands thus: “He went out and hanged himself;” and, by the breaking of either the limb on which he hung, or the cord, “falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
SUICIDE, SUCCESSION AND DOOM OF JUDAS
15-26. Now Peter, in his recognized seniority, proceeds to have the vacuum created by the fall of Judas Iscariot supplied. The prophecies here quoted predicting the treason of Judas, did not necessitate him to perpetrate the atrocious crime. You must bear in mind that God is not tied to the prophecies, but the prophecies to God. The prophecies are in the past tense, from the simple fact that they are histories in anticipation, seen by the Omniscient Eye, with whom all events in all ages are present. Christ came into the world to die, a substitute for fallen humanity. If Judas had never been born, Jesus would have died a ransom for a lost world just the same. In Act 1:17 we learn that Judas received a lot of the apostolic ministry. We can not conclude that our Savior ever sent out a sinner or a devil to preach His holy gospel. Joh 6:70 : Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? If you will notice the gospel harmony you will find these words were spoken after about two years of the apostolic ministry had passed away. Unfortunately, Judas was the apostolical treasurer and financier, a very dangerous office. The love of money fought Jacob with desperation twenty years, and would have conquered and sent him to hell if he had not triumphed in the Peniel experience after that memorable night of prayer, when the love of money and all other phases of depravity were sanctified out of him. We doubt not but poor Judas has an alarming ministerial following at the present day. Could you uncap the bottomless pit and look down upon Judas, doubtless you would see him surrounded by multiplied thousands of preachers and church officials who were ruined by the love of money, sold out their Lord for filthy lucre, and made their bed in hell. Jesus condemns the hireling shepherd and says he will play the coward when the wolf comes. No wonder Satans wolves at the present day are making awful havoc, slaying, devouring and scattering the Lords sheep when a hireling ministry is the established order of all ecclesiasticisms. Judas sold Jesus for fifteen dollars. Many a preacher nowadays sells Him for fifteen hundred, and not a few for fifteen thousand. I seriously doubt whether any other apostle has a larger ministerial following than Judas. Reader, beware of filthy lucre; it sent an apostle to hell! There is no disharmony between Matthew and Luke as to the suicide of Judas, and their dissimilarity of phraseology but clinches the argument in favor of the veracity of both, as there is no probability that either had seen the record of the other. The statement in E. V. that Judas repented is not correct. When man repents in the true Bible sense, God always forgives, because a genuine repentance is the work of the Holy Ghost and the infallible antecedent to a free pardon. If Judas had repented, he would have been forgiven and saved. The Greek word does not mean repent, but flooded with remorse, an actual prelude of hell torment, so utterly intolerable as to precipitate him into suicide. For the same reason millions besides Judas have hurried to end their misery by suicide, a stratagem of the devil to expedite their damnation. Amid this horrific and unbearable remorse, Judas, seeking in vain to rescind the contract, throws down the money in the temple and runs away off to a rugged precipice beyond the deep valley of Hinnom [pointed out to me by my guide when I was there in 1895] with furious expedition, gets hold of a rope too weak to bear his robust, corpulent, Jewish body, ties it round his neck, swings off from the precipice, the rope breaks, he falls precipitately on the great rocks beneath, bursting in twain, as the Greek says, with a great noise, all of his internal organs gushing out. Thus he dies a most horrible death, weltering in his own blood. The popular superstition recognized the spot on which he fell as polluted, and, in modern parlance, haunted and unfit for human occupancy. Hence, they satisfy the proprietor by paying for it with Judass money which he had thrown down in the temple, and erect on it a sepulcher for the interment of the homeless and friendless dying at Jerusalem.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Act 1:15-26. Election of a Twelfth Apostle.In those days (cf. Mar 1:9; a vague expression) Peter comes forward as leader. 1Co 15:6* speaks of 500 brethren at once. The first to whom the risen Lord appeared was naturally their leader; though Ac. does not mention this, Lk. does (Luk 24:24-34). We have here the first example in Ac. of the application of OT passages to Christian things. Two passages from Ps. are applied to Judas, whose place is now to be filled. It is assumed that there is a fixed number of apostles, and that the number is to be kept up. Judas (Act 1:17) was one of the twelve; Psa 69:25 proves that there is a vacancy in their number, and Psa 109:8 that the vacancy must be filled. It is necessary that these prophecies should be fulfilled. The account of Judas death differs from that in Mat 27:5-7*. There the high priests buy the field, or claypit, with Judas money after his death: here he buys a field himself and dies the death of Antiochus Epiphanes (2Ma 9:7 ff.). The name Aceldama is probably historical; the story explains the name which existed already. The election of a successor is to be by lot; the Lord is to decide. The qualifications of suitable candidates are first set forth. They must have been familiar with the ministry of Jesus, which began with John the Baptist (Mar 1:1-4, Luk 3:2), and they must have been present in these last days up to the Ascension. An apostle is elected by the Church (2Co 3:1) as well as by God; this the name, which means sent or messenger, implies. It is not the Eleven who put the candidates forward, but the whole meeting, addressed by Peter and invited to act with him. The Lord who knows the heart is invoked; He must know best which of the two is the more sincere (Jer 17:10) and will make the better apostle. The office is one of ministry; not of tables only, but of the Word (Act 6:2-4). Neither candidate is heard of afterwards. Act 1:26 identifies the apostles with the Twelve. In 1 Corinthians 15 the Twelve are spoken of first, then the apostles as a larger body. Apostles would come into existence when there were several communities of Christians to be kept in touch with each other; the use of the word in the Gospels, in which Luke goes much the furthest, is an anachronism (p. 646, Harnack, Mission and Expansion2, i. 319ff.).
Act 1:15. Cf. Mishna (Sanh. Act 1:6), which says a town must have 120 inhabitants to have a council, and the officers must be one-tenth of the whole.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 15
Peter stood up. Peter was one of the first called among the apostles, (Matthew 4:18,) and his name is always placed at the head of the catalogue: he was prominent among his brethren during the lifetime of Christ: he was one of the first to believe and to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah, as recorded Matthew 16:16,–and on that occasion Jesus spoke of him as in some peculiar sense the foundation of the future church; (Matthew 16:17-19;) and now, after the ascension, he appears among the disciples as their acknowledge leader. It is on these grounds that the Roman Catholics maintain that he was constituted by Christ the head of the church, and claim for his supposed successors, the popes of Rome, supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction throughout the world. But there is no evidence that Peter’s preminence was official. In this case only he does not act; he only proposes action. He does not appoint; he simply recommends an election.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:15 {6} And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of {p} names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
(6) Peter is made the spokesman and interpreter of the whole company of the Apostles, either by secret revelation of the Holy Spirit, or by the express judgment of the congregation.
(p) Because men are commonly referred to and enrolled by their names.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The choice of Matthias 1:15-26
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
In view of Peter’s leadership gifts, so obvious in the Gospels, it is no surprise that he is the one who took the initiative on this occasion.
"Undoubtedly, the key disciple in Luke’s writings is Peter. He was the representative disciple, as well as the leading apostle. [Note: Darrell L. Bock, "A Theology of Luke-Acts," in A Biblical Theology of the New Testament, p. 148.]
"Brethren" is literally "disciples" (Gr. matheton). The group of 120 that Peter addressed on this occasion (cf. Act 1:13-14) was only a segment of the believers living in Jerusalem at this time (cf. 1Co 15:6, which refers to more than 500 brethren). Nonetheless this was a tiny group from which the church grew. God can take a small number of people, multiply them, and eventually fill the earth with their witness.