Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:27
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
27. in hell ] The Greek word here and in Act 2:31 is Hades, and signifies the unseen world.
neither wilt thou suffer ] Lit. give.
thine Holy One ] The Hebrew word in the Psalm contains the idea of beloved, as well as godly or holy. Our A. V. represents the Greek.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou wilt not leave my soul – The word soul, with us, means the thinking, the immortal part of man, and is applied to it whether existing in connection with the body or separate from it. The Hebrew word translated soul here, nephesh, however, may mean spirit, mind, life, and may denote here nothing more than me or myself. It means, properly, breath; then life, or the vital principle, a living being; then the soul, the spirit, the thinking part. Instances where it is put for the individual himself, meaning me or myself may be seen in Psa 11:1; Psa 35:3, Psa 35:7; Job 9:21. There is no clear instance in which it is applied to the soul in its separate state, or disjoined from the body. In this place it must be explained in part by the meaning of the word hell. If that means grave, then this word probably means me; thou wilt not leave me in the grave. The meaning probably is, Thou wilt not leave me in Sheol, neither, etc. The word leave here means, Thou wilt not resign me to, or wilt not give me over to it, to be held under its power.
In hell – – eis Hadou. The word hell, in English, now commonly denotes the place of the future eternal punishment of the wicked. This sense it has acquired by long usage. It is a Saxon word, derived from helan, to cover, and denotes literally a covered or deep place (Webster); then the dark and dismal abode of departed spirits; and then the place of torment. As the word is used now by us, it by no means expresses the force of the original; and if with this idea we read a passage like the one before us, it would convey an erroneous meaning altogether, although formerly the English word perhaps expressed no more than the original. The Greek word Hades means literally a place devoid of light; a dark, obscure abode; and in Greek writers was applied to the dark and obscure regions where disembodied spirits were supposed to dwell. It occurs only eleven times in the New Testament. In this place it is the translation of the Hebrew Sheowl.
In Rev 20:13-14, it is connected with death: And death and hell (Hades) delivered up the dead which were in them; And death and hell (Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. See also Rev 6:8; Rev 1:18, I have the keys of hell and death. In 1Co 15:55 it means the grave: O grave (Hades), where is thy victory? In Mat 11:23 it means a deep, profound place, opposed to an exalted one; a condition of calamity and degradation, opposed to former great prosperity: Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell (Hades). In Luk 16:23 it is applied to the place where the rich man was after death, in a state of punishment: In hell (Hades) he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. In this place it is connected with the idea of suffering, and undoubtedly denotes a place of punishment. The Septuagint has used this word commonly to translate the word Sheowl.
Once it is used as a translation of the phrase the stones of the pit Isa 14:19; twice to express silence, particularly the silence of the grave Psa 94:17; Psa 115:17; once to express the Hebrew for the shadow of death Job 38:17; and sixty times to translate the word Sheol. It is remarkable that it is never used in the Old Testament to denote the word qeber, which properly denotes a grave or sepulchre. The idea which was conveyed by the word Sheol, or Hades, was not properly a grave or sepulchre, but that dark, unknown state, including the grave, which constituted the dominions of the dead. What idea the Hebrews had of the future world it is now difficult to explain, and is not necessary in the case before us. The word originally denoting simply the state of the dead, the insatiable demands of the grave, came at last to be extended in its meaning, in proportion as they received new revelations or formed new opinions about the future world. Perhaps the following may be the process of thought by which the word came to have the special meanings which it is found to have in the Old Testament:
(1) The word death and the grave qeber would express the abode of a deceased body in the earth.
(2) Man has a soul, a thinking principle, and the inquiry must arise, What will be its state? Will it die also? The Hebrews never appear to have believed that. Will it ascend to heaven at once? On that subject they had at first no knowledge. Will it go at once to a place of happiness or of torment? Of that, also, they had no information at first Yet they supposed it would live; and the word Sheowl expressed just this state – the dark, unknown regions of the dead; the abode of spirits, whether good or bad; the residence of departed people, whether fixed in a permanent habitation, or whether wandering about. As they were ignorant of the size and spherical structure of the earth, they seem to have supposed this region to be situated in the earth, far below us, and hence, it is put in opposition to heaven, Psa 139:8, If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell (Sheol), behold, thou art there; Amo 9:2. The most common use of the word is, therefore, to express those dark regions, the lower world, the region of ghosts, etc. Instances of this, almost without number, might be given. See a most striking and sublime instance of this in Isa 14:9; Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee, etc.; where the assembled dead are represented as being agitated in all their vast regions at the death of the King of Babylon.
(3) The inquiry could not but arise whether all these beings were happy. This point revelation decided; and it was decided in the O d Testament. Yet this word would better express the state of the wicked dead than the righteous. It conveyed the idea of darkness, gloom, wandering; the idea of a sad and unfixed abode, unlike heaven. Hence, the word sometimes expresses the idea of a place of punishment: Psa 9:17, The wicked shall be turned into hell, etc.; Pro 15:11; Pro 23:14; Pro 27:20; Job 26:6. While, therefore, the word does not mean properly a grave or a sepulchre, it does mean often the state of the dead, without designating whether in happiness or woe, but implying the continued existence of the soul. In this sense it is often used in the Old Testament, where the Hebrew word is Sheol, and the Greek Hades: Gen 37:35, I will go down into the grave, unto my son, mourning I will go down to the dead, to death, to my son, still there existing; Gen 42:38; Gen 44:29, He shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; Num 16:30, Num 16:33; 1Ki 2:6, 1Ki 2:9; etc. etc. in the place before us, therefore, the meaning is simply, thou wilt not leave me among the dead. This conveys all the idea. It does not mean literally the grave or the sepulchre; that relates only to the body. This expression refers to the deceased Messiah. Thou wilt not leave him among the dead; thou wilt raise him up. It is from this passage, perhaps, aided by two others (Rom 10:7, and 1Pe 3:19), that the doctrine originated that Christ descended, as it is expressed in the Creed, into hell; and many have invented strange opinions about his going among lost spirits. The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church has been that he went to purgatory, to deliver the spirits confined there. But if the interpretation now given be correct, then it will follow:
- That nothing is affirmed here about the destination of the human soul of Christ after his death. That he went to the region of the dead is implied, but nothing further.
- It may be remarked that the Scriptures affirm nothing about the state of his soul in that time which intervened between his death and resurrection. The only intimation which occurs on the subject is such as to leave us to suppose that he was in a state of happiness. To the dying thief he said, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. When Jesus died, he said, It is finished; and he doubtless meant by that that his sufferings and toils for mans redemption were at an end. All suppositions of any toils or pains after his death are fables, and without the slightest warrant in the New Testament.
Thine Holy One – The word in the Hebrew which is translated here Holy One properly denotes One who is tenderly and piously devoted to another, and corresponds to the expression used in the New Testament, my beloved Son. It is also used, as it is here by the Septuagint and by Peter, to denote One that is holy, that is set apart to God. In this sense it is applied to Christ, either as being set apart to this office, or as so pure as to make it proper to designate him by way of eminence the Holy One, or the Holy One of God. It is several times used as the wellknown designation of the Messiah: Mar 1:24, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God; Luk 4:34; Act 3:14, But ye denied the Holy One, and the just, etc. See also Luk 1:35, That holy thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
To see corruption – To see corruption is to experience it, to be made partakers of it. The Hebrews often expressed the idea of experiencing anything by the use of words pertaining to the senses, as, to taste of death, to see death, etc. Corruption here means putrefaction in the grave. The word which is used in the Psalm, shachath, is thus used in Job 17:14, I have said to corruption, thou art my father, etc. The Greek word used here properly denotes this. Thus, it is used in Act 13:34-37. This meaning would be properly suggested by the Hebrew word, and thus the ancient versions understood it. The meaning implied in the expression is, that he of whom the Psalm was written should be restored to life again; and this meaning Peter proceeds to show that the words must have.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell] , in hades, that is, the state of separate spirits, or the state of the dead. Hades was a general term among the Greek writers, by which they expressed this state; and this HADES was Tartarus to the wicked, and Elysium to the good. See the explanation of the word in the notes, See Clarke on Mt 11:23.
To see corruption.] Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, was a sentence pronounced on man after the fall: therefore this sentence could be executed on none but those who were fallen; but Jesus, being conceived without sin, neither partook of human corruption, nor was involved in the condemnation of fallen human nature; consequently, it was impossible for his body to see corruption; and it could not have undergone the temporary death, to which it was not naturally liable, had it not been for the purpose of making an atonement. It was therefore impossible that the human nature of our Lord could be subject to corruption: for though it was possible that the soul and it might be separated for a time, yet, as it had not sinned, it was not liable to dissolution; and its immortality was the necessary consequence of its being pure from transgression.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My soul; that is, me: the soul is put for the person, as Rom 13:1, Let every soul be subject; and sometimes for a dead body, as Lev 19:28; Num 5:2, and in divers other places, that signifies a soul, is so used.
In hell; the word is put either for the grave, or for the place of the damned. Being these words are alleged as a proof of Christs resurrection, and that our Saviours soul was certainly in paradise, where he promised to the penitent thief that he should be with him, it seems rather to be meant of the grave, which, according to this prophecy, could not hold our blessed Saviours body so long as that it should corrupt in it. If David by his soul here did mean our Saviour, because he was as it were the soul of his soul, and life of his life, it shows how he did, and how we ought to value him.
Thine Holy One; as being anointed, sanctified, and sent by God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. wilt not leave my soul inhellin its disembodied state (see on Lu16:23).
neither . . . suffer thineHoly One to see corruptionin the grave.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,…. This is an apostrophe, or an address to his Father, who he believed would not leave his soul, as separate from his body, in Hades, in the invisible world of souls, in the place where the souls of departed saints are, but would quickly return it to its body, and reunite them; or else, that he would not leave his dead body, for so sometimes signifies; see Le 19:28 in the grave; which is no unusual sense of ; see Ge 42:38 that is, so long as to be corrupted and putrefy, as the next clause shows:
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The character of an “Holy One” well agrees with Christ, both as God, or with respect to his divine nature, holiness being a perfection in it, and in which he is glorious; and as man, he being holy in his nature, harmless in his life and conversation: all his doctrines were pure and holy, and so were all his works; and all his administrations in the discharge of every of his office; and he is the efficient cause and lain of all the holiness of his people; they are sanctified in him, and by him, and have all their sanctification from him. The word may be rendered, “thy merciful”, or “bountiful one”; and such Christ is, a merciful, as well as faithful high priest; and who has shown great compassion both to the bodies and souls of men, and has been very beneficent and liberal in the distributions of his grace and goodness. Now, though he died, and was laid in the grave, and buried, yet God would not suffer him to lie there so long as to be corrupted and putrefied, which is the sense of seeing corruption: and so the Jews themselves explain the last clause of the preceding verse, in connection with this, “my flesh shall rest in hope”, that no worm or maggot should have power over it, or corrupt it.
“Seven fathers (they say x) dwell in eternal glory, and there is no , “worm or maggot”, rules over them; and these are they, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Aaron, and Amram their father; and there are that say also David, as it is said, Ps 16:1, “therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope”.”
And which sense also is mentioned by one of their commentators of note y, who thus paraphrases the words:
“whilst I am alive it shall rest safely, for thou wilt deliver me from all hurt; and in the mystical sense, or according to the Midrash, after death; intimating, that no maggot or worm should have power over him;”
which was not true of David, but is of the Messiah.
x Massecheth Derech Eretz Zuta, c. 1. fol. 19. 1. y Kimchi in Psal. xvi. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Hades ( H). Hades is the unseen world, Hebrew Sheol, but here it is viewed as death itself “considered as a rapacious destroyer” (Hackett). It does not mean the place of punishment, though both heaven and the place of torment are in Hades (Lu 16:23). “Death and Hades are strictly parallel terms: he who is dead is in Hades” (Page). The use of here= is common enough. The Textus Receptus here reads H (genitive case) like the Attic idiom with (abode) understood. “Hades” in English is not translation, but transliteration. The phrase in the Apostles’ Creed, “descended into hell” is from this passage in Acts (Hades, not Gehenna). The English word “hell” is Anglo-Saxon from , to hide, and was used in the Authorized Version to translate both Hades as here and Gehenna as in Mt 5:22.
Thy Holy One ( ). Peter applies these words to the Messiah.
Corruption (). The word can mean destruction or putrefaction from , old word, but in N.T. only here and Ac 13:34-37. The Hebrew word in Ps 16 can mean also the pit or the deep.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Leave [] . Lit., leave behind.
Suffer [] . Lit., give.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” (hoti ouk egkataleipseis ten pouchen mau-eis haden) “Because thou wilt not give, abandon, or desert my soul into hades,” or sever my soul from my body into hades, -as is some times supposed by some Bible commentators. That the soul of Jesus made a trip thru hades, after Jesus said to the Father, “it is finished, into thy hands I commit my Spirit,” seems to be unjustified speculation and presumption, with no reasonable grounds of Scriptural sanction, Luk 23:46. The English term “leave” means “permit”- -or give up or over. Thus the soul of Jesus in death went to the Father, not to hell for a while, as some have supposed.
2) “Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One,” (oude doseis ton hosion sou) “Nor wilt thou give over or deliver thy Holy One,” the Jesus of Nazareth, of whom the prophecy speaks, Psa 16:10. The term “Holy One” refers to Jesus Christ in His earthly body, which was prepared of the Father for Him, Heb 10:5.
3) “To see corruption,” (idein diaphthoran) “To perceive corruption,” or experience putrefaction and decay of His body.
The only logical conclusion to be drawn from this parallelism seems to be that 1) The body of Jesus was kept from any taint of putrefaction or corruption, and, 2) The soul of Jesus was not permitted even to go to the hadean world at all, much less make a canvass of the place after He had “borne our sins in His body on the tree,” 1Pe 2:24; “finished the work the Father had given Him to do,” and cried, “it is finished,” Joh 17:4; and given His Spirit into the Father’s hand, Luk 23:46.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
27. Because thou shalt not leave To leave the soul in hell is to suffer the same to be oppressed with destruction. There be two words used in this place, both which do signify the grave amongst the Hebricians. Because שאול, doth signify to require, I suppose it is called סול, because death is insatiable; whence also cometh that translation, Hell hath enlarged her soul. Again, they set open their mouth like hell. And because the latter שחת, is derived and set for corruption, or consumption, that quality is to be considered, as David meant to note the same. Those things which are disputed in this place by divers, concerning the descending of Christ into hell, are in my judgment superfluous; because they are far from the intent and purpose of the prophet. For the word anima, or soul, doth not so much signify the spirit being of an immortal essence as the life itself. For when a man is dead, and lieth in the grave, the grave is said to rule over his life. Whereas the Grecians translate it holy, it is in Hebrew חסת, which doth properly signify meek, or gentle, but Luke did not much regard this, because it doth not much appertain unto the present purpose. Furthermore, gentleness and meekness is so often commended in the faithful, because it behoveth them to imitate and resemble the nature of their Father.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.Literally, in Hades. (See Note on Mat. 11:23.) As interpreted by St. Peters words in his Epistle (1Pe. 3:19), the words conveyed to his mind the thought which has been embodied in the article of the Descent into Hell, or Hades, in the Apostles Creed. The death of Christ was an actual death, and while the body was laid in the grave, the soul passed into the world of the dead, the Sheol of the Hebrews, the Hades of the Greeks, to carry on there the redemptive work which had been begun on earth. (Comp. Act. 13:34-37, and Eph. 4:9.) Here again we have an interesting coincidence with St. Peters language (1Pe. 3:19), as to the work of Christ in preaching to the spirits in prison.
Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.The word for holy is different from that commonly so rendered, and conveys the idea of personal piety and godliness rather than consecration. As the Psalmist used the words, we may think of them as expressing the confidence that he himself, as loving, and beloved of, God, would be delivered from destruction, both now and hereafter. St. Peter had learnt to interpret the words as having received a higher fulfilment. Christ was, in this sense, as well as in that expressed by the other word, the Holy One of God (Mar. 1:24; Luk. 4:34). In Heb. 7:26; Rev. 15:4; Rev. 16:5, this very word is applied to Christ. The Hebrew text of Psa. 16:10 presents the various reading of the holy ones, as if referring to the saints that are upon the earth, of Act. 2:3. The LXX., which St. Peter follows, gives the singular, which is indeed essential to his argument, and this is also the reading of the Masoretic text. The Greek word for corruption ranges in its meaning from decay to destruction. The Hebrew to which it answers is primarily the pit of the grave, and not corruption, or wasting away.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Hell The place of departed spirits, Hades. (See notes on Luk 16:23,)
Thine Holy One A term which David under inspiration would hardly apply to himself simply.
Corruption Rationalists have denied that the Hebrew word used by David signifies corruption; but they are refuted on this point by Hengstenberg. As he well remarks, corruption refers to the body, as Hades refers to the soul. Good proof that in both David’s and Peter’s theology body and soul are different things, and may exist apart.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Act 2:27 . What now the Psalmist further says according to the historical sense: For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Hades ( i.e. Thou wilt not suffer me to die in my present life-peril), and wilt not give Thy Holy One (according to the Ketbh of the original: Thy holy ones , the plural of category, comp. Hupfeld in loc. ) to see corruption is by Peter, as spoken , taken in accordance with the prophetical meaning historically fulfilled in Him: Thou wilt not forsake my soul in Hades (after it shall have come thither; see Khner, 622; Buttm. neut. Gr. p. 287 [E. T. 333] ), but by the resurrection wilt again deliver it, [130] and wilt not suffer Thy Holy One (the Messiah) to share corruption, i.e. according to the connection of the sense as fulfilled, putrefaction (comp. Act 13:34 ff.). [131] Instead of , the original has , a pit , which, however, Peter, with the LXX., understood as , and accordingly has derived it not from , but from , ; comp. Job 17:14 .
On , comp. Act 10:40 . The meaning is: Thou wilt not cause, that, etc. Often so also in classical writers from Homer onward. As to in the sense of experiencing, comp. on Luk 2:26 .
[130] This passage is a dictum probans for the abode of the soul of Christ in Hades, but it contains no dogmatic statement concerning the descensus ad inferos in the sense of the church. Comp. Gder, Lehre von d. Erscheinung Christi unter d. Todten , p. 30; Weiss, Petrin. Lehrbegr. p. 233 f.
[131] After this passage, compared with ver. 31, no further discussion is needed to show how unreasonably it has been taken for granted (see especially Holsten, z. Ev. d. Paul. u. Petr. p. 128 ff.) that the early church conceived the resurrection of Christ as a , entirely independent of the dead body of our Lord. How much are the evangelical narratives of the appearances of the risen Christ, in which the identity of His body has stress so variously laid on it, at variance with this opinion! Comp. Act 10:41 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Ver. 27. My soul in hell ] That is, my body in the grave. So Rev 20:13 . Death and hell, i.e. the grave, are cast into the burning lake. To the three degrees of our Saviour’s humiliation, are answerable the three degrees of his exaltation: to his death, his resurrection; to his burial, his ascension; to his abode a while in the grave, his sitting at the right hand of his heavenly Father.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
27. ] Heb. , ‘ corruption ,’ from , corrupit, or ‘ the pit ,’ from , subsidere. De Wette maintains the last to be the only right rendering: but the Lexicons give both, as above, and Meyer and Stier defend the other.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 2:27 . In LXX and N.T. rightly . W.H [127] ; cf. also Briggs, Messianic Prophecies , p. 24; although in T.R. as usually in Attic, , sc. , . Blass regards as simply usurping in the common dialect the place of , but we can scarcely explain the force of the preposition here in this way. used of utter abandonment, cf. Psa 22:1 ( cf. 2Ti 4:10 ; 2Ti 4:16 ). : whilst it is true that the Psalmist “says nothing about what shall happen to him after death” (Perowne), he expresses his conviction that his soul would not be given up to the land of gloom and forgetfulness, the abode of the dead, dark and cheerless, with which the Psalmist cannot associate the thought of life and light (see also on Act 2:31 ). : in R.V. (O.T.) the word “suffer” is retained, but in R.V. (N.T.) we find “thou wilt not give,” the Hebrew being used in this sense to permit, to suffer, to let, like and dare , Viteau, Le Grec du N. T. , p. 156 (1893). : the Hebrew Chsd which is thus sometimes translated in the LXX (Vulgate, Sanctus ) is often rendered “thy beloved one,” and the word denotes not only one who is godly and pious, but also one who is the object of Jehovah’s loving-kindness. The word might well be used of Him, Who was not only the Holy One of God, but , “the beloved Son”. On the word Chsd see Kirkpatrick, Psalms , Appendix, p. 221. : “corruption” or “the pit,” margin R.V. (O.T.), but in the N.T. simply “corruption” (A. and R.V.), Vulgate, corruptio . In the LXX the Hebrew is often rendered , “corruption,” as if derived from , “to corrupt”; not, however, in the sense of corruption, putridity, but of destruction. The derivation however is probably from , to sink down, hence it means a pit, and sometimes a sepulchre, a grave, Psa 30:10 ; Psalm 55:24, so here “to see the grave,” i.e. , to die and be buried, cf. Psa 49:10 (see Robinson’s Gesenius , p. 1053, note, twenty-sixth edition). Dr. Robertson Smith maintains that there are two Hebrew words the same in form but different in origin, one masculine = putrefaction or corruption , the other feminine = the deep or the pit . So far he agrees with the note in Gesenius, u. s. , that the word should here be rendered by the latter, the pit , but he takes the rendering, the deep or the pit , as an epithet not of the grave but of Sheol or Hades (see Expositor , p. 354, 1876, the whole paper on “The Sixteenth Psalm,” by Dr. R. Smith, should be consulted, and p. 354 compared with the note in Gesenius ), and this view certainly seems to fit in better with the parallelism.
[127] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
leave = forsake, or abandon. Greek. enkataleipo. Occurs nine times. Always translated “forsake”, except here and Rom 9:29.
my soul = me. App-110.
in = into. App-104.
hell. App-131.
neither. Greek. oude.
suffer = give.
Holy One. Greek. hosios. Here; Act 13:34, Act 13:35; 1Ti 2:8. Tit 1:8. Heb 7:26. Rev 15:4; Rev 16:5. Over thirty times in Septuagint, of which twenty-five are in Psalms. Mostly as rendering of Hebrew. ha id = grace, or favour. See Deu 33:8. Psa 16:10; Psa 52:9.
see. App-133.
corruption. Greek. diaphthora. Only here; Act 2:31; Act 13:34-37.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
27. ] Heb. , corruption, from , corrupit,-or the pit, from , subsidere. De Wette maintains the last to be the only right rendering: but the Lexicons give both, as above, and Meyer and Stier defend the other.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 2:27. , My soul) i.e. Myself, as regards the soul. The subsequent sentence refers to the body.- ) viz. : is as it were the sepulchre of souls. LXX. translate : with occurs in Lev 19:10, Psa 49:11, Job 39:14. He was in Hades: he was not left in Hades.- , Thy Holy One) The Hebrew has, Thy Gracious One. Christ is the One in whom all the Fathers good pleasure rests.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
hell
Hades. (See Scofield “Luk 16:23”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
leave: Psa 49:15, Psa 86:13, Psa 116:3, Luk 16:23, 1Co 15:55, Rev 1:18, Rev 20:13
thine: Act 3:14, Act 4:27, Psa 89:19, Mar 1:24, Luk 1:35, Luk 4:34, 1Jo 2:20, Rev 3:7
to see: Act 2:31, Act 13:27-37, Job 19:25-27, Jon 2:6, Joh 11:39, 1Co 15:52
Reciprocal: Job 17:14 – corruption Psa 16:10 – neither Psa 40:2 – brought Psa 49:9 – see Psa 89:48 – shall Jon 2:2 – hell Joh 11:17 – four Act 13:35 – in 1Co 15:42 – in corruption
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7
When a man dies, his soul (inner man) goes to the unseen or intermediate realm, called Hades in the Greek New Testament, which is rendered “hell” by the King James translators. His body remains on the earth, and after three days it will begin to decompose or see corruption. This fact explains the words of Martha in Joh 11:39. But this noted passage means that the soul of Jesus was not to remain in hell (Hades) long enough for his body that had been placed in the tomb of Joseph to start decaying. That was why it was neces sary for Jesus to be raised from the dead after three days.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 2:27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. This was the Redeemers sure confidence during the days of His earthly life. It may, if we will, be ours too; for after a little while the joyful resurrection of the Lord, of body as well as soul, will be the inheritance of all holy and humble men of heart. His soul was not to remain in the realm of the dead. Hell, the well-known English translation of ;, the Hebrew , is singularly unfortunate, as the word (Greek and Hebrew) simply means the abode where the souls of the dead dwell after body and soul are separated by death. In this realm will remain until the resurrection morning, the souls both of the righteous and the wicked though widely separatethe one, however, dwelling in the regions of the blessed; the other, in those of the unhappy lost ones, waiting in fear for judgment.
Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The Beloved One of God was not to moulder in the grave, was not to share in that part of the curse of Adam which told man he should return to dust.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 25
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. We have two words used by the Holy Ghost and translated Hell in E. V., i. e., Hades, which in R. V. is not translated, but transferred very correctly to our language, while the other word Gehenna in R. V. is constantly and correctly Hell. The difference between the two is simply that of genus and species, Hades being a generic word simply meaning the unseen world, from Alpha, not, and aidoo to see. Hence Hades, the unseen, includes both heaven and hell. We have this illustrated in Luke 16, where the rich man and Lazarus are in the same world, actually enjoying conversational proximity. But Dives is tormented by the flame of fire. Hence he is in hell properly so called; while Lazarus is in that intermediate Paradise called Abrahams bosom, because it was the receptacle of all the spiritual children of Abraham, i. e., the Old Testament saints, saved in the Abrahamic covenant and there detained in a state of felicitous captivity (Eph 4:8) till the Abrahamic covenant was sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ The dying thief went to this paradise the very day of the crucifixion, (Luk 23:43), notwithstanding certain wicked heretics have had the audacity to even change the punctuation of the Greek in this passage in order to sustain the most senseless of all heresies which even brutalizes you by taking away your immortal soul. As our Savior assured the women in the garden that He had not yet ascended into heaven, though He had already, pursuant to His prediction on the cross, met the saved thief in paradise, i. e., in Abrahams bosom (Luke 16), the intermediate paradise of the old dispensation, where the saints enjoyed unmingled bliss, awaiting the great redemption on Calvary, and their risen and glorified Lord to lead them all into heaven, throwing wide the pearly portals evermore to stand ajar while angels welcome every saint into the New Jerusalem, the city of God, the home of the angels and glorified saints.
1Pe 3:19 : Being put to death in the flesh and quickened in the spirit, by which going, he proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
This is the pillar of popery and modern theories of a second probation for sinners after they die in sin. It is radically and literally untrue as manipulated by those heretics. The capital S in Spirit in E. V. was put there by the translators, because they thought it meant the Holy Spirit, which is incorrect, as this construction would break up the antithesis with flesh. The simple meaning is that while our Saviors body was put to death, His human spirit, not the Holy Ghost, was quickened by the Holy Ghost, so that His human spirit leaving His dead body on the cross [poor soul- sleepers even deny that Jesus had a soul] went down to the intermediate world and proclaimed to the lost millions of hell. The E. V. erroneously translates ekeeruxen, which simply means proclaim as a herald, preach, thus leading the people to believe that Jesus preached the gospel to the disembodied sinners in hell. The word which means to preach the gospel is not in this passage, but it simply means to proclaim as a royal herald. What did our Savior proclaim to the inmates of Hades? He proclaimed His own victory, gloriously and eternally won on the cross of Calvary. The devil had been after Him to kill Him all His life, vainly congratulating himself that if he could kill the man Jesus, the final victory would perch on his black banner, and he would have nothing to do but add this world to hell and reign forever without a rival. While the devil is paradoxically intellectual, his spirit is black as the midnight of hell, uncheered by a solitary ray. Hence he leaped to the conclusion that if he could kill the man Jesus, the last battle was fought and the final victory won. Therefore hell roared with shouts over the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane, cheered and enthused more and more by the successive reports of His condemnation by Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate, meanwhile the black couriers constantly arrive from Calvary, reporting the bloody culmination of their hellish enterprise. Finally, Satan, sitting on his ebon throne in the center of the pandemonium, has ordered ten thousand tall demons to subscribe in glowing capitals, Victory, on the black walls all round the palace of damnation. Demoniacal hands have half written the word. Suddenly thunderclaps and lightnings flash from the opening portals of the pandemonium appalling all the inmates of the bottomless pit. Lo! Hark! Who comes there? It is none other than the human soul of Jesus. He has left His dead body on the cross and now walks into hell, the herald of his own victory won on Calvary. He proclaims in the face of all devils hells eternal defeat and the redemption of the world. With the tread of a conqueror He walks round the pandemonium, with His Own hands pulling down the trophies of four thousand years of successful warfare and treading them beneath His triumphant feet. The tall peers of the pit wail on all sides, acknowledge Him conqueror and beg Him to depart. He now approaches Satan, the King of Darkness, sitting on his ebon throne in the center of the pandemonium; seizing him by the throat and dragging him down, puts His foot upon his neck, thus verifying the first promise made by Jehovah to Adam and Eve in fallen Paradise: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head. Having proclaimed His victory in hell, He now crosses that abyss impassable to finite beings, but not to Him, intervening between the flaming hell of Dives and the Abrahams bosom of Lazarus (Luk 16:26), and there, pursuant to His promise on the cross, meets the thief before midnight, while it is yet Friday, the Crucifixion Day. As the thief died under the old dispensation, he went to that intermediate paradise, i. e., Abrahams bosom, the jubilant rendezvous of all the souls saved under the Abrahamic covenant in the former dispensation, there in joyful anticipation to await the verification of the covenant by the blood of Calvary. The thief runs to meet Him with a tremendous shout, Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Hebrew children and all the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints rend the firmament with triumphant shouts congratulating King Jesus on the victory won. Now the good old Jewish Sabbath sets in, the most wonderful they had seen in four thousand years. Oh! what an ovation! Golden harps are impoverished in the attempted proclamation. The first day of the week supervenes at midnight, eternally commemorated by the abolishment of the intermediate paradise, the emancipation of all the captives (Eph 4:8), and the resurrection of our glorious Lord. Here begins that wonderful ascension (Eph 4:9), when our Lord descended into the lower parts of the earth [which never did mean the grave], the Savior leading the way with the patriarchs and prophets on His right and on His left, followed by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, jubilant and ecstatic, reaching the sepulcher at day- dawn, calling His body into life and re-entering it; meanwhile the sacramental host, all invisible because they are disembodied spirits, accompanying our risen Lord the forty days of His abiding with His disciples, and ascending with Him from Mt. Olivet, constituting the mighty trophy of His victory, whom He leads into the heavenly metropolis and presents before the Father. Davids prophetic eye in Psalms 24 caught a glimpse of this wonderful scene, while our Lord, accompanied by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, sweeps through trackless ether, passing rolling worlds, glowing suns, wheeling spheres, and flaming comets, finally draws nigh the celestial gates, saluted by seraphic voices:
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory come in. Who is this King of Glory? he Lord, mighty to save and strong to deliver.
The pearly gates fly high and swing wide, multiplied millions of celestial seraphs shout long and loud, Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home, O King of Glory, Conqueror of Mt. Calvary. Heaven is stirred with such an ovation as archangels never knew, infinitely eclipsing the tremendous shout of the sons of God at creations birth. Amid the jubilant congratulations of angelic millions, the triumphal procession, led by King Jesus, moves through the city and halts before the great white throne, Father, here am I, and the children thou hast given me. Now Abraham mounts a celestial pinnacle and testifies, followed by the thrilling witnesses to the wonders of redeeming grace, while multiplied millions of unfallen angels listen spell bound. Since our Lord has led the way, heaven is now accessible to every disembodied saint, nothing to do but die, and sweep with a shout into glory.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 27
In hell. The word hell is used here, as in many other passages, to mean simply death, or the grave.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:27 Because thou wilt not {t} leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
(t) You will not allow me to remain in the grave.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
David said he would not go to Hades (the place of departed spirits, Old Testament Sheol), and his body would not suffer decay. This was a poetic way of expressing his belief that God would not allow him to experience ultimate humiliation. David referred to himself as God’s devout one. Peter saw this fulfilled literally in Jesus’ resurrection from the grave after only three days. Jesus was the supremely devout one.