power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they, beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward 10 heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why

that so rendered in the following verse. The sense of this first word is "absolute disposal," and we might well render it authority.

8. ye shall receive power] Something different from the profitless speculations to which they had just desired an answer, even "a mouth and wisdom which their adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist” (Luke xxi. 15). Thus would they be enabled to become Christ's wit

nesses.

in Jerusalem, and in all Judea] To which district all the ministrations of the Apostles were confined till the death of Stephen.

and in Samaria] Whither the first who went with authority was Philip, one of the seven (Acts viii. 5), and afterwards Peter and John.

and unto the uttermost part of the earth] Commenced by the preaching of Paul, Barnabas, Mark, Silas and Timothy, and regarded as placed on a secure footing when St Paul was once brought into the capital city of the world.

The writer keeps before him from first to last the promise contained in this verse, and leaves out of his narrative all that does not tend to illustrate its fulfilment. The work of every agent is followed so far as he is used to bring about this result and no farther. This will be noticed at each stage as we proceed, and it will be seen that it explains why among "Acts of Apostles" some works are included which were not carried on by Apostles, and why the histories of the chief agents are left incomplete.

9.

while they beheld] That they might have as clear proof of His Ascension as they had received of the reality of His Resurrection, He is taken from them while they are still gazing on Him and with His words yet sounding in their ears In the Gospel (xxiv. 51) it is "while He blessed them." From the narrative in this place the witnesses of the Ascension seem to have been only the eleven, and this is stated expressly in St Mark's Gospel (xvi. 14), so that although in St Luke's Gospel (xxiv. 33) the two disciples who had returned from Emmaus are related to have come unto the eleven to report what they had seen, we are not to conclude that they remained with them during all the other events recorded in that chapter, an additional evidence that that chapter relates to events which happened in the course of several days and not all in close sequence on the same day. Cp. i. 3, note.

10. as he went up] The preposition is not in the Greek, which has simply, as he went.

in white apparel] They are called men, but they are evidently angels.

stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner 12 as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from 13 Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were

So the two angels are clothed in white (John xx. 12) whom Mary saw in the sepulchre after the Resurrection, and one of these is called by St Mark (xvi. 5) "a young man clothed in a long white garment." St Luke in the Gospel calls them "two men in shining garments" (xxiv. 4). So the "man in bright clothing,' "Acts x. 30, is described in xi. 13 as "an angel." This was a common Jewish expression to signify angelic or divine messengers. Cf. Talm. Jer. Joma v. 2, ad fin.

"Shimeon ha-Tsaddik (i. e. the righteous) served Israel forty years in the High-priesthood, and in the last year he said to the people, 'In this year I shall die.' They said to him: 'How dost thou know this?' He said to them: 'Every year when I was going into the Holy of Holies there was an Ancient one, clad in white garments and with a white vail, who went in with me and came out with me; but this year he went in with me and did not come out with me.' [On this matter] they asked of Rabbi Abuhu, 'But surely it is written: 'Nothing of mankind shall be in the tent of meeting when he [the High-priest] goes in to make atonement until his coming out again,' not even those concerning whom it is written [Ezek. i. 5] They had the likeness of a man,' even they shall not be in the tent of meeting.' He said to them: 'What is there [in this language of Shimeon] to tell me that it was a human being at all? I say it was the Holy One."

11. Ye men of Galilee] The Galilæan dialect was a marked peculiarity of the apostolic band. It seems also to have been our Lord's manner of speech. For when Peter is accused (Matt. xxvi. 73) of being. one of Christ's followers the words of the accusation are "Surely thou art one of them, for thy speech bewrayeth thee."

shall so come] This promise of the return of Jesus, on the immediate expectation of which so many of the first Christians fixed their thoughts, explains those words in the abridged account of the Ascension in St Luke's Gospel (xxiv. 52), "They returned to Jerusalem with great

joy."

12. from the mount called Olivet] Elsewhere usually called the mount of Olives, but in Luke xix. 29, xxi. 37, some texts give, as here, Olivet.

which is from Jerusalem, &c.] Literally, which is near unto Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey off. The mount of Olives is on the east of Jerusalem, and must be passed by those who go from Jerusalem to Bethany. Hence St Luke's expression in the Gospel is (xxiv. 50) “He led them out as far as towards (ews πpòs) Bethany.

The sabbath day's journey was two thousand yards or cubits [ammoth], and in the Babylonian Talmud, Erubin 51 a, there is given an elaborate account of how this precise limit was arrived at, which is such

come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode

an interesting specimen of Rabbinical reasoning, that it seems worth quoting at some length. "We have a Boraitha [i.e. a Mishna not taught officially in R. Jehudah ha-Nasi's lectures and so not embodied in the Mishna proper, but incorporated amongst the Gemara or in other ways] on Exod. xvi. 29, Abide ye every man in his place' (takhtav), that means the four yards (which is the space allowed for downsitting and uprising), and in the same verse it says 'Let no man go out of his place (makom), this is the two thousand yards.' The argument intended to be founded on this explanation is, that as Holy Writ, which does not uselessly multiply words, has used here two different words for place, this is done because there is a different meaning for each. "But (continues the questioner) how do you learn this?" (viz. that makom implies two thousand yards). Rab Chisda says "We have learnt the meaning of makom from the use of makom elsewhere, and we learn what that [second] makom means from nisah (=flight, with which word, in one passage, it is connected), and what nisah means we have learnt from another nisah, and the meaning of the [second] nisah we gather from gebul (=border, which is found in connection with it in a certain passage), and what gebul means we gather from another gebul, and what that gebul means from khuts (=extremity), and what khuts means from another khuts; for it is written (Numbers xxxv. 5) 'and ye shall measure from the extremity (mikhuts) of the city, on the east side, two thousand yards."

So taking khuts in this last passage as defined, they, by an equation khuts gebul=nisah=makom, defined the second word place mentioned in Exod. xvi. 29, as also equal to two thousand yards.

The Scriptural passages on which the above reasoning is based are (1) Exod. xxi. 13, "I will appoint thee a place (makom) whither he shall flee" (yanus), and from the verb yanus the noun nisah is formed; (2) Numb. xxxv. 26, "But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border (gebul) of the city of his refuge whither he is fled," which passage connects gehul and nisah; and (3) Numb. xxxv. 27, "If the avenger of blood find him without (mikhuts) the border of the city of his refuge," which brings khuts into connection with gebul.

A traditional development of an interpretation like this must have been received, by him who announces it, from his teacher and must not be his own invention, and in this way a very high antiquity is assured for all such interpretations.

13. And when they were come in] i. e. into the city, from the open country where the Ascension had taken place.

they went up into an [the] upper room] Probably the upper room which has been mentioned before (Mark xiv. 15; Luke xxii. 12) as used by our Lord and His disciples for the passover feast. The Greek word in the Gospels is not the same as here, but in both cases it is evident that it was some room which could be spared by the occupiers and which was let or lent to the Galilæan band and their followers. The next words indicate the temporary occupancy, and would be better rendered where they were abiding, namely Peter, &c. The eleven were the tenants of

both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

the upper room, to which the other disciples resorted for conference and

communion.

Peter, &c.] The names of the Apostles are again given, though they had been recorded for Theophilus in "the former treatise" (Luke vi. 14-16), perhaps because it seemed fitting that the names of those who are now to be the leaders of the new teaching should be recited at the outset, that each one may be known to have taken his share in the labour, though it will not fall within the plan of the writer to give a notice of their several works; and secondly, as all the twelve had fled before the Crucifixion, this enumeration of them as again at their post, may shew that there had been in all of them, except Judas, only weakness of the flesh, and not unwillingness of the spirit.

It may be noticed that, whereas in the list of Apostles given in St Luke's Gospel the name of Andrew stands second in the first group of four and next after Peter, in this repeated list Andrew is placed fourth. The history gives no reason for this change, but we see in the Gospels, when important events occurred in Christ's ministry, such as the raising of the daughter of Jaïrus, the Transfiguration, and the Agony in Gethsemane, that the three disciples chosen to be present with Jesus are Peter, James and John, but not Andrew. Whatever may have been the reason for such an omission, the fact may in some degree explain the altered position of Andrew's name in the list of the twelve. It appears no more in Holy Writ.

The order of the next group of four differs from their arrangement in the Gospel, but as none of them are mentioned after this verse there is nothing to explain the variation in order. In the next group the A. V. is inconsistent in rendering James the son of Alphæus, and afterwards a like construction by Judas the brother of James. It is more common to find this dependent genitive in descriptions of a son, though the relationship of brother to brother is found so indicated. Judas is called the brother of James here because it is assumed that he is the same person as the author of the Epistle of St Jude, who (Jude 1) calls himself brother of James. But as it is not certain that the writer of that Epistle was one of the twelve, it is better to render the two identical constructions standing so close together in the same way, and so to read Judas the son of James. James in that case would be the name of some otherwise unknown person, but it was a very common name among the Jews.

Simon Zelotes] called Simon the Canaanite (Matt. x. 4; Mark iii. 18). The last-named title is a corruption of an Aramaic word of like meaning with the Greek Zelotes, and signifying Zealot, a name applied in our Lord's time to those Jews who were most strict in their observance of the Mosaic ritual. Of this Simon we have no further mention in Scripture history.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and sup- 14 plication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

15-26. Election of an Apostle into the place of Judas

Iscariot.

And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the 15 disciples, and said (the number of names together were

14. These all continued, &c.] gift which they were expecting. are omitted in the best MSS.

Prayer was the fittest preparation for the
The words rendered and supplication

with the women] Better, with certain women. Literally, with women. Probably some of those who during the life of Jesus had ministered to Him of their substance and had been at the cross and at His grave (Luke viii. 3, xxiv. 22; Matt. xxvii. 55). The frequent mention of these and other women in the course of Christ's ministry is a noteworthy feature of the Gospel story, and bespeaks more consideration shewn by Him for women than was usual among His nation or with other great teachers.

Mary the mother of Jesus] who would naturally remain with St John, to whose care she had been confided by Jesus at the Crucifixion (John xix. 27). This is the last mention of the Blessed Virgin, and thus Scripture leaves her on her knees. She is mentioned apart from the other women as having a more deep interest in all that concerned Jesus than the rest had.

and with his brethren] These, called (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3) James, Joseph (or Joses), Simon and Judas, are here clearly distinguished from the Apostles, which shews us that James, the son of Alphæus, and James, the Lord's brother, were different persons.

15-26. ELECTION OF AN APOSTLE INTO THE PLACE OF JUdas ISCARIOT.

15. And in those days] i. e. the days intervening between the Ascension and Pentecost.

Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples] The best MSS. read brethren for disciples. Here we have a formal assembling of all those who were avowed followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, and the rising of Peter to address them bespeaks the importance which he attached to the duty they were about to perform in electing a successor to Judas.

the number, &c.] Render, and there was a multitude of persons (Gr. names) gathered together, about a hundred and twenty. For this use of names=persons cp. Rev. iii. 4, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments."

The hundred and twenty here collected is in no way inconsistent with St Paul's statement (1 Cor. xv. 6) that Christ shewed Himself on one occasion, before His Ascension, to more than five hundred brethren at once. Those were gathered from all parts of the land, and we have now mention made only of such as had continued in the Holy City.