Acts 17:31 - Exposition

Inasmuch as for because, A.V. and T.R.; the man for that man, A.V. He hath appointed a day . Hitherto the Athenians seem to have listened with interest while St. Paul was, with consummate skill, leading them onwards from the doctrines of natural religion, and while he was laying down speculative truths. But now they are brought to a stand. They might no longer go on asking, τι καινόν ; A day fixed by God, they were told, was at hand, in which God would judge the world in righteousness, and in which they themselves would be judged also. And the certainty of this was made apparent by the fact that he who was ordained to be Judge was raised from the dead, and so ready to commence the judgment. The time for immediate action was come; God's revelation had reached them. The man ( ἀνδρί ). So Acts 2:22 , ἰησοῦν τὸν ναζωραῖον ἄνδρα ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀποδεδειγμένον κ . τ . λ . And so in John 5:27 our Lord himself says of himself that the Father gave him authority to execute judgment "because he is the Son of man;" and in Matthew 26:24 , "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power." (For the connection of the judgment with Christ's resurrection, see especially Acts 10:40-42 .) So too the Creeds.