Acts 1:16-17

Peter addressed the assembled disciples in a way that was evidently customary when speaking to Jews. Here "brethren" is literally "men, brothers" (andres, adelphoi). This same salutation occurs elsewhere in Acts always in formal addresses to Jews (cf. Acts 2:29; Acts 2:37; Acts 7:2; Acts 13:15; Acts 13:26; Acts 13:38; Acts 15:7; Acts 15:13; Acts 22:1; Acts 23:1; Acts 23:6; Acts 28:17).

Notice the high regard with which Peter viewed the Old Testament. He believed David’s words came from the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16), and he viewed them as Scripture (holy writings). Peter interpreted David’s words about false companions and wicked men who opposed God’s servants as applying to Judas. What God had said through David about David’s enemy was also true of Jesus’ enemy since Jesus was the LORD’s Anointed whom David anticipated.

"Since David himself was God’s appointed king, many times Scripture treats him as typical of Christ, the unique Anointed One, and David’s enemy becomes a type of Jesus’ enemy." [Note: Kent, p. 27.]

"Of course the betrayal of the Messiah by one of his followers, leading to his death, required such an explanation, since this was no part of early Jewish messianic expectation." [Note: Witherington, p. 122.]

Peter said this Scripture "had" (Gr. dei, by divine necessity) to be fulfilled.

"The understanding [of Peter] here is . . . (1) that God is doing something necessarily involved in his divine plan; (2) that the disciples’ lack of comprehension of God’s plan is profound, especially with respect to Judas who ’was one of our number and shared in this ministry’ yet also ’served as guide for those who arrested Jesus’; and (3) that an explicit way of understanding what has been going on under divine direction is through a Christian understanding of two psalms that speak of false companions and wicked men generally, and which by means of the then widely common exegetical rule qal wahomer (’light to heavy,’ or a minore ad majorem) can also be applied to the false disciple and wicked man par excellence, Judas Iscariot." [Note: Longenecker, p. 263.]