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Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:27

(27) Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.—Literally, in Hades. (See Note on Matthew 11:23.) As interpreted by St. Peter’s words in his Epistle (1 Peter 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 Apostle’s 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... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:28

(28) Thou hast made known to me the ways of life.—The Apostle does not interpret these words, but we can hardly err in thinking that he would have looked on them also as fulfilled in Christ’s humanity, To Him also the ways of life had been made known, and so even in Hades He was filled with joy (better, perhaps, gladness, as in Acts 14:17), as being in the Paradise of God (Luke 23:43). read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:29

(29) Let me freely speak.—Better, it is lawful for me to speak with freedom. Those to whom the Apostle spoke could not for a moment dream of asserting that the words quoted had been literally and completely fulfilled in him, and it was therefore natural to look for their fulfilment elsewhere.Of the patriarch David.—The word is used in its primary sense, as meaning the founder of a family or dynasty. In the New Testament it is applied also to Abraham (Hebrews 7:4) and the twelve sons of Jacob... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:30

(30) Therefore being a prophet.—The words “according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ,” are wanting in many of the best MSS. Without them the sentence, though somewhat incomplete, would run thus: “That God had sworn with an oath that from his loins one should sit upon his throne.” The words claim for the Psalmist a prophetic foresight of some kind, without defining its measure or clearness. His thoughts went beyond himself to the realisation of his hopes in a near or far-off future. As... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:31

(31) He seeing this before. . . .—In the vision of the future which St. Peter thus ascribes to David, the king had been led, as he interprets the words, not only or chiefly to speak out his own hopes, but to utter that which received its fulfilment in the fact of the resurrection. What was conspicuously not true of the historical David was found to be true of the Son of David according to the flesh. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:32

(32) This Jesus hath God raised up . . .—From the first the Apostles take up the position which their Lord had assigned them. They are witnesses, and before and above all else, witnesses of the Resurrection. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:33

(33) Therefore being by the right hand of God.—The Greek has the dative case without a preposition. The English version takes it, and probably is right in taking it, as the dative of the instrument, the image that underlies the phrase being that the Eternal King stretches forth His hand to raise Him who was in form His Servant to a place beside Him on His right hand; and, on the whole, this seems the best rendering. Not a few scholars, however, render the words “exalted to the right hand of... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:34

(34) The Lord said. . . .—There is, when we remember what had passed but seven weeks before, something very striking in the reproduction by St. Peter of the very words by which our Lord had brought the scribes to confess their ignorance of the true interpretation of the Psalmist’s mysterious words (Psalms 110:1). (See Note on Matthew 22:44.) Those who were then silenced are now taught how it was that David’s Son was also David’s Lord. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:36

(36) That same Jesus. . . .—Better, this Jesus.Both Lord and Christ.—Some MSS. omit “both.” The word “Lord” is used with special reference to the prophetic utterance of the Psalm thus cited. There is a rhetorical force in the very order of the words which the English can scarcely give: “that both Lord and Christ hath God made this Jesus whom ye crucified.” The pronoun of the last verb is emphatic, as pointing the contrast between the way in which the Jews of Jerusalem had dealt with Jesus and... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 2:37

(37) They were pricked in their heart.—The verb occurs here only in the New Testament, and expresses the sharp, painful emotion which is indicated in “compunction,” a word of kindred meaning. A noun derived from it, or possibly from another root, is used in Romans 11:8 in the sense of “slumber,” apparently as indicating either the unconsciousness that follows upon extreme pain, or simple drowsiness. In “attrition” and “contrition” we have analogous instances of words primarily physical used for... read more

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