Acts 13:16 But Paul, rising up… They would rise to their feet when they intended to speak, so that they might stand out and be heard more easily. “Observe,” says Chrysostom, “how Barnabas everywhere yields to Paul, just as John does to Peter” (Acts 3:12).
And motioning with his hand for silence… It was the custom of the Jews, says Chrysostom, that speakers would indicate silence by extending their hand. Paul does so again in Acts 20:1, and they would also signal assent by the hand (Acts 21:40). This was also a custom of the Romans, from which the poet Persius, in his Fourth Satire, mocks Nero, because—being a beardless youth of sixteen years—he had come to the imperial throne, incapable as he was of calming a tumultuous populace by speech. Thus he says:
Therefore, when the rabble boils in stirred-up anger,
my spirit longs to bring hot silence upon the crowd
by the majesty of my hand. What next shall I say?
“Men of Israel…”—that is, Jews by nature and descendants of the patriarch Jacob according to the flesh.
“And you who fear God…”—that is, all who, coming from paganism, had become proselytes to the Jewish religion, worshiping and fearing God.
“Listen.” This is the first sermon of Saint Paul, of which Saint Luke has written an abridgment. It is not unlike the sermon of Saint Stephen in Acts 7, in which the ancient benefits bestowed by God upon the Israelite people are recounted, so that the discourse might at last be brought to Christ. The only difference is that Stephen begins earlier, with Abraham, whereas Paul begins only with Moses.
Acts 13:17 “The God of the people Israel…”—that is, the God who, with a singular affection, is the God of this Israelite people above all other nations.
“Chose our fathers…” so that from them He might form a people peculiar to Himself.
“And exalted the people…”—that is, He made our people illustrious and visible to the whole world by the many plagues and miracles worked through Moses in Egypt.
“And with an outstretched arm…”—with great power and the working of lofty wonders, He led them out.
Acts 13:22 “And when He had removed him…”—that is, Saul—because of his disobedience, his persecution of the innocent David, and other crimes, “He raised up for them David as king.” This was done even while Saul was still living, when God commanded that David be anointed by Samuel, although David did not exercise the royal authority until after Saul’s death.
“I have found David, the son of Jesse…” Thus the Seventy translators commonly call the father of David “Jesse,” but with a diphthong at the end—Iessai—which has the same sense as the Hebrew Isai. He was also called Nadab (“serpent” or “viper”), because—according to a Hebrew tradition reported by Saint Jerome—Jesse, the father of David, was so innocent that he had never committed a mortal sin except for the sin of the serpent—that is, original sin—into which we all fall because of the serpent’s suggestion.
A man according to my own heart…—that is, one pleasing to Me. God had found him such because He Himself had made him such by His grace, says the Carthusian. Saint Paul here alludes to the words of Samuel (1 Samuel 13:14) and of Psalm 89:21, where God is said to have sought and found another king pleasing and obedient to Him, in place of the disobedient Saul.
“Who will do all my wills…”—that is, nearly all that I command him. For although David sinned by the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11), and although these sins were not pleasing to God, yet he was still “after God’s heart” because he satisfied for these sins by fitting and profound penance, says Saint Augustine (Questions to Dulcitius, 8). Thus the few sins of David, afterward effaced by penance, are reckoned as nothing when set beside his many good works and the innocence of the rest of his life.
Acts 13:23 “Of this man’s offspring…”—that is, through his son Solomon—“according to the promise” made to David (“I will establish his seed forever,” Psalm 89:30), and foretold long before by the prophets (“There shall come forth a shoot from the root of Jesse,” Isaiah 11:1), “God brought forth for Israel a Savior, Jesus…” the Savior of the human race, as His name indicates, for Iesus or Yeshuaʿ in Hebrew means “Savior.”
Acts 13:24 “John, preaching before His coming…”—that is, the coming of this Jesus. Before Jesus manifested His appearance to the world, John the Baptist went before Him preaching “a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel,” a baptism by which the Jews were disposed for repentance, so that through perfect contrition they might receive the forgiveness of sins.
Acts 13:25 “And as John was completing his course…”—as he approached the end of the mission for which he had been sent, “he said, ‘Whom do you suppose me to be? I am not He.’” For on account of his holiness and outward austerity of life, many thought him to be the Messiah, since they judged from Jacob’s prophecy that the time of the Messiah’s coming was at hand (“The scepter shall not be taken from Judah,” Genesis 49:10). They saw that the kingdom of the Jews had now been transferred to Herod of Idumean stock.
“But behold, there comes after me…”—that is, at this very time He comes, for Christ was only six months younger than John the Baptist, and was about to begin His Gospel ministry.
“The sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to unfasten.” Christ and the Apostles wore sandals—simple coverings of the soles of the feet, tied with straps to the leg. This expression is proverbial and signifies that he considered himself unworthy even of the lowest and most menial service to Christ, since he knew that Christ was not merely a man, but God.
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