Translated using ChatGPT.
Acts 2:14
“But Peter, standing…”
Peter stood so that he might be more easily heard by the multitude, and because it was the custom among the Jews that those who were about to address the people should rise to their feet, as was said in Acts 1:15.
“With the Eleven”
With the other Apostles, who stood around Peter as their prince and head, and in whose name he also spoke.
“He lifted up his voice”
Here John Chrysostom remarks how suddenly Peter was changed into another man: he who recently, frightened by the voice of a single servant girl, had denied his Lord, now with raised voice and without fear confesses Him before the Scribes and Pharisees and a multitude from all nations, and begins the promulgation of the New Law—and this without study or premeditation of speech. Even great orators, when about to speak before such a large audience, often falter in voice and are struck with fear.
“Men of Judea, and all you who dwell…” / “Men of Israel”
Israelites by descent of the flesh, not yet by imitation of the faith of your father Israel.
“Jesus of Nazareth”
He does not immediately call Him the Son of God or the Messiah, lest he provoke His killers—some of whom were present—as Chrysostom and Oecumenius note. Rather, he speaks modestly of Him as a man like others, even naming His homeland, which was of low reputation. Hence Nathanael’s saying: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Moreover, Nazareth was in Galilee, from which region no prophet had arisen, as the Pharisees objected (John 7:52).
“A man approved by God”
In life and doctrine. Again he calls Him merely a man, not yet God or anything greater than man, so that without offense he may gradually lead them to higher truths.
“Among you”
That is, among you for the whole space of three years and more, during which He lived and preached among you.
“By mighty works and wonders and signs”
Through these God approved the life and teaching of His Son. These three—virtutes (powers), prodigia (wonders), and signa (signs)—are distinguished only in aspect, and all are found in the same miracle, as Thomas Aquinas teaches (ST II–II, q.178, a.1, ad 3). Insofar as miracles exceed the power of nature, they are called virtutes (powers), as effects of divine power; insofar as they manifest something supernatural, they are called signa (signs); and because of the excellence of their signification, they are also called portenta, as showing something afar.
“Which God did through him”
As through an instrument united to the divinity, just as the body is an organ united to the soul, as the Carthusian explains after John of Damascus.
“In your midst”
Publicly and before all—hence you cannot deny them.
Acts 2:23
“This one, by the definite counsel…”
This Jesus of Nazareth, such and so great a man, was delivered not by chance but by a fixed and determined decree. Properly speaking, there is no “counsel” in God (since He does not deliberate), but He judges and decrees what those who deliberate arrive at in the end.
“And foreknowledge of God”
By which from eternity God the Father knew what He would do in time. Thus this event was not accidental or unforeseen.
As once Joseph said to his brothers (Gen 45:8), to console them and lighten their guilt: “It was not you who sent me here, but God.”
“Delivered up”
Exposed to your will—not by inciting you to evil, but by permitting the occasion and not rescuing Him from your hands, for a good end. For the Father had decreed from eternity to redeem the human race by the immolation of His Son—whether by commanding it directly (as in Abraham’s sacrifice) or by making use of the malice of the wicked.
Thus God willed Christ to live such a life, teach such doctrine, and perform such miracles that He foresaw the envy and malice of the Jews would burst forth even to His death. From this great evil He decreed to bring about the greater good of human redemption.
From this it is clear that Christ’s death was not only permitted (as some today teach) but also decreed by the Father.
However, it is false and heretical—as Calvin and Beza claim from this passage—that God predestined the sin of the Jews in the same way as He predestines good works.
“By the hands of lawless men”
That is, Roman soldiers—Gentiles and “lawless” (ἄνομοι), living outside the Law of God.
“You crucified and killed”
When you cried out to Pilate: “Crucify him!”
Acts 2:24
“Whom God raised up”
Just as before he called Him only a man, so now he says not that He raised Himself, but that He was raised by God.
“Having loosed the pains of Hades”
These are like bonds by which the souls of the just were held—partly in Limbo, partly in Purgatory. When Christ’s soul descended to the lower regions, He freed those souls from that subterranean prison.
The delay of glory itself was not without sorrow, as the Carthusian says, since “hope deferred afflicts the soul” (Prov 13:12).
It may also mean that Christ broke the snares of the pains of Hell, which are laid for those descending there, so that He Himself would not be held by them, as Augustine of Hippo explains (Ep. 99).
The Greek now reads: “pains of death,” that is, the pains reached through death.
“Because it was impossible…”
Since He was subject to no sin, but rather freed others from sin and its penalties.
“For Him to be held by it”
That He should be detained by death or Hell and not rise again in glory. Therefore Hell and death immediately “vomited Him forth,” as the fish once vomited Jonah.
Acts 2:25-28 (Psalm 16)
“David says concerning Him”
Speaking in His person:
“I foresaw the Lord always before me”
Christ, from the first instant of His conception, enjoyed the vision of the divine essence. Likewise, the saints continually set God before their minds.
“Because He is at my right hand, that I may not be moved”
Christ’s humanity was utterly immovable from righteousness—indeed impeccable.
“Therefore my heart rejoiced… and my tongue exulted”
So great was His joy that it overflowed into praise.
“Moreover my flesh shall rest in hope”
That is, in the repose of death, in hope of the resurrection.
“You will not abandon my soul in Hades”
After descending, it would immediately return.
“Nor let your Holy One see corruption”
That is, decay and dissolution.
“You have made known to me the ways of life”
By experience—the ways by which one rises from death to immortal life, previously unknown to mortals. Hence Christ is called “the firstborn from the dead” (Rev 1:5) and “the firstfruits of those who sleep” (1 Cor 15:20).
“You will fill me with joy with your face”
From the vision of God, from which the glory of the soul overflows into the body.
Acts 2:29
“Men, brothers”
He addresses them affectionately, to prepare their hearts lest they be offended when he explains that David spoke not of himself but of Christ.
“Let me speak boldly”
With your leave—do not be offended.
“Concerning the patriarch David”
Whom you highly esteem:
He died (1 Kings 2:10), was buried in the city of David (Mount Zion), and his tomb remains among you.
Even after later destructions of Jerusalem under Titus and Hadrian, the monument of David’s tomb endured, as Jerome mentions.
Peter indicates that David’s remains were still there, proving that his flesh saw corruption. This cannot be proved from an empty tomb—otherwise Christ’s tomb would prove He had not risen.
Thus David was not among those who rose at Christ’s resurrection (Matt 27:53), nor Samuel, whose relics were later translated, as Jerome recounts.
Acts 2:30–33
“God swore to him” (Ps 132:11)
“Of the fruit of his loins”—that is, his offspring.
“To sit upon his throne”
To exercise spiritual kingship over the whole Church, prefigured by David’s kingdom (cf. Luke 1:32).
“Foreseeing, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ”
Not of himself, since David’s flesh saw corruption.
“Exalted therefore by the right hand of God”
That is, by the power of God—glorified in the Resurrection and Ascension and seated at His right hand (cf. Ps 118:16).
“Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit”
For the Father had promised to send the Spirit at the Son’s request (John 14:16).
“He has poured out this”
The Holy Spirit, or His gifts. Just as the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so He is sent and poured out by the Son. Christ asks as man, but pours out as God.
“Which you see and hear”
In its visible and audible effects.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment