Bruce Acts

A Bible Study Commentary
1. Auflage 1982
ISBN: 978-1-912149-06-3
Verlag: Kingsley Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Written as part of Scripture Union's Bible Study Commentary series, which encourages regular, systematic personal Bible reading, this commentary is also designed as a resource manual for group study. Acts is a pivotal book in the New Testament, says Bruce, 'for it provided the sequel to the Gospels and the background to the apostolic letters.' PLEASE NOTE that F.F. Bruce also wrote a larger (580 pages) and more scholarly commentary on Acts as part of the New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) series. That larger book has been called 'one of the best commentaries on this book of Scripture.' This e-book is a shorter and more popular commentary on Acts. It reflects both Professor Bruce's careful study of Acts as well as his passion for proclaiming the Bible as God's guide for our lives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruce, F. F.

Leseproben

3:1-10

A LAME MAN HEALED

Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles” (2:43). The healing of cripples was commonplace in the ministry of Jesus; more than once it was to mark the ministry of the apostles also (compare 14:8-20). The instance now recorded was probably selected by Luke because of its sequel.

Peter is the leading figure in the first part of Acts. When John appears, he does so as Peter’s silent companion (compare 8:14-25). The apostles continued to be practising Jews; otherwise they would not so readily have enjoyed “favour with all the people” (2:47). Attendance at the Temple daily at “the ninth hour” (around 3 pm), the time of the evening offering (compare 1 Kings 18:29, 36), was a mark of piety. The sacrifice of a lamb (compare Exodus 29:38-42) was accompanied by a service of prayer and praise.

As male Jews, the apostles passed through the outer court of the Temple (the court of the Gentiles), up the steps into the court of women (the first of the inner courts) and through it into the court of Israel. The sacrificial ceremony was carried out in the inmost court (the court of the priests), which laymen were not normally permitted to enter. The inner courts, on a higher level than the outer court, were surrounded by barricades to which were fixed notices in Greek and Latin warning Gentiles not to proceed farther on pain of death (compare 21:28, 29). The “Beautiful Gate” probably pierced this barricade at the top of the steps leading from the outer court into the court of women. It is commonly identified with the “Gate of Nicanor”, made of Corinthian bronze, but of such exquisite workmanship, says Josephus, that it exceeded in value those which were plated with silver and set in gold.

The lame man had chosen a strategic position, for practically all Jewish worshippers would pass through that gateway. It is emphasised that he was a genuine cripple; he had been lame since his birth. The apostles could not give him the kind of alms he asked for, but in the name of Jesus Christ they gave him something better—the ability to walk. Some cripples who made a tidy income from charitable gifts might not have been too pleased to be cured, but this man was overjoyed. When the service was over, he accompanied the apostles back into the outer court, a living fulfilment of the prophecy of the new age: “Then shall the lame man leap like a hart” (Isaiah 35:6).

THOUGHT: Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
                              Your loosened tongues employ;
                         Ye blind, behold your Saviour come;
                              And leap, ye lame, for joy!

(C. Wesley)

3:11-16

“BEHOLD MY SERVANT”

The two apostles, with the man who had been healed, made their way back through the court of the Gentiles from west to east until they reached Solomon’s Portico, the covered colonnade which ran alongside the whole east side of that court (compare John 10:23). There the concourse of people, excited by the wonderful cure they had witnessed, thronged together to gaze on the man who had been born a cripple and was now finding out for the first time in his life all the things that a healthy pair of legs could do. Here was a ready-made congregation, and Peter seized his opportunity.

It was by no power or piety of their own, he explained, that he and John had enabled the cripple to walk. It was the power of Jesus’ name that had healed him. Jesus had looked for faith, and where faith was forthcoming, in however feeble a form, people had been healed. It was similarly by faith that this cripple was healed. A few months before, as many of them remembered, Jesus had been crucified outside the north gate of the city. When his body had been taken down from the cross and buried, most people had thought that that would be the end of him. His friends had thought so with regret, his enemies with satisfaction. But now his name was every bit as powerful as his healing word and touch had been before his death. How could this be?

Peter told them. Jesus had been repudiated by the leaders of his people and handed over to the Roman governor for sentence and execution. When the governor had given them an opportunity to have Jesus released, they had clamoured for the release of Barabbas instead, and Jesus, “the Author of life”, was put to death (3:15). But God raised him from the dead. Peter and his colleagues were witnesses to this, for they had seen him alive again.

But who was this Jesus, on whose behalf God had so signally intervened? He was “the Holy and Righteous One”, said Peter, using language which marked Jesus out as the man of God’s peculiar choice. He was the Servant of the Lord, of whom God had said through the prophet, “Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high” (Isaiah 52:13). The prophet had given the Servant no name, but Peter named him: “The God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus” (3:13).

THOUGHT: “That which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand” (Isaiah 52:15).

3:17-26

WHY THE CHRIST HAD TO SUFFER

Peter’s statement that the rejection of Jesus was the result of ignorance on the part of the people of Jerusalem and their rulers reminds us of Jesus’ prayer on the cross for the forgiveness of his executioners (Luke 23:34). But the rejection of Jesus, disastrous as it was, had been overruled by God for the accomplishment of his purpose. The idea “that his Christ (anointed one) should suffer” (3:18) occurs repeatedly in Luke’s writings (see Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 17:3; 26:23) each time with special reference to the fulfilment of prophecy. But where in the prophets is it foretold that the Christ must suffer? Nowhere, if we look for an explicit mention of the Messiah as suffering. But when the righteous sufferer of the Psalms (e.g. psalms 22 and 69) or the suffering Servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is identified with the Messiah, then there is no difficulty in finding Old Testament scriptures which foretell that the Christ should suffer (compare 1 Peter 1:10, 11).

Peter offered to his hearers a wide open opportunity to repent. Not only would their sins be wiped out but the new age would come with the return of Christ. Verses 20, 21 have been held to present “the most primitive Christology of all”. This is debatable, but it is difficult to deny that these verses do suggest a very primitive eschatology, or doctrine of the last things. If there were a general acceptance by Israel of Jesus as the Messiah, it is implied, the promised age of blessing would quickly dawn. Christ, who had been temporarily received into heaven, would be sent back to earth by God, Elijah-like, to bring about “the restitution of all things” (compare Malachi 4:5, 6; Mark 9:12a), to establish “all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old” (3:21). But such a speedy consummation was not to be.

Jesus is not only the Servant portrayed by Isaiah; he is the Prophet foretold by Moses—the great Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15) whom God would raise up to declare his will to his people (3:22, 23). God had sent him, said Peter, to turn his people from their sin (3:26). Not only so: Jesus is also the “posterity” of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18). It was fitting, said Peter, that the family of Israel, Abraham’s natural descendants, should be the first to be offered the blessing promised to Abraham (3:25). Compare Paul’s repeated phrase “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16, etc.), although he himself was the apostle to the Gentiles.

THOUGHT: Why do we struggle with the idea of a suffering saviour? “This note of the terrifying responsibility of knowledge sounds all through the New Testament” (William Barclay).

4:1-12

THE INCOMPARABLE NAME

Preaching in the Temple precincts was not an offence, but too large a congregation might create an obstruction. In any case, the subject matter of Peter’s address was not to the liking of the Temple authorities, the majority of whom belonged to the party of the Sadducees. The Sadducees did not appreciate all this talk of resurrection—especially the resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 23:8). The “captain of the Temple” (4:1) was the head of the Temple police and was responsible for maintaining order within the precincts. He was drawn from one of the chief-priestly families and ranked next after the high priest. It was no doubt he who took the decision to lock up the two apostles overnight (along with the former cripple, it appears) and hold a court of inquiry.

Next morning a quorum of the Sanhedrin (the supreme court of Israel) held the inquiry at which some of the most distinguished members of that body were present. Caiaphas was the...