Ver. 15. τὸν δὲ ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς” again the words stand in marked cor trast not only to φονέα but also to ἀπεκ τείνατε; magnificum antitheton, Bengel. The word is rendered “ Author” in th margin of R.V. (Vulgate, auctorem) bur **Prince”’ in the text and so in v. 31 (Vulg., principem). In the two other passages in
το
Πα.
Nh, ON a , iar dome 4 > a - a 6 a Q 16. καὶ’ ἐπι τη πιστει του ονοµατος αυτου, τουτον, ον εωρειτε και
”. 3 , 1,7 > A 4 ς , ς > 3 na 4 οἴδατε, ἐστερέωσε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ: καὶ ἡ πίστις ἡ δι αὐτοῦ ἔδωκεν
lew. ΜΙΑΟΡΕΕ, Vulg., Sah., Boh., Irint., so Tisch., and so Weiss ; but om. NB:
61, Arm., so W.H.
which the word occurs in the Ν.Τ., viz., Heb. ii. το, xii. 2, R.V. renders “ Author,” “the author of their salvation,” ‘the author and perfecter of our faith,”’ mar- gin ‘captain’? (Vulgate, auctorem); see Westcott, Hebrews, pp. 49, 305. Christ is both the Prince of life and the Source
(auctor) of life: ‘‘ Vitam aliis dat Christus, opp. Φονεύς qui adimit”’ (Blass). Grimm and others draw a dis-
tinction between the meaning attaching to the word here and in ν. 31. The use of the word in the LXX may help to justify such a distinction, for whilst it is found in the sense of a leader or a captain (Num. xiv. 4, Judith xiv. 2), or the chief of a family or tribe (R.V. renders it “ every one a prince’”’ in Num. xiii. 2, but in the next verse “heads of the children of Israel”’), it is also used to signify the author, or beginner, the source, cf. 1 Mace. ix. 61, x. 47, Micah i. 13 (although it was never used for a prince or to de- scribe kingly attributes); but in many respects the rendering ‘‘ Prince”’ may be compared with the Latin princeps, which signifies the first person in order, a chief, a leader, an originator, the founder of a family (in the time of the emperors it was used of the heir to the throne). Soin classical Greek the word was used for a leader, a founder, Latin auctor, for the first cause, author, so God τῶν πάντων, Plat., and also for a prince, a chief, and, especially in later Greek, of the person from whom anything good or bad first proceeds in which others have a share, é.g., ἀρχηγὸς καὶ αἴτιος combined (ante- signanus et auctor), Polyb., i., 66, 10; Hdian., ii., 6, 22, and as Alford points out in Heb. ii. 10, this later usage throws a light upon its meaning in Acts iii. 15, cf. Chrys. on Heb. ii. το, ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας τούτεστι τὸν αἴτιον τῆς σωτηρίας. Christ is the source of life, a life in which others share through Him; in this very place where St. Peter was speaking our Lord had spoken of Himself as the giver of eternal life, John x. 28, although doubtless the expression may include the thought that in Him was life in its fullest and widest sense — physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, St. Chrysostom comments on the words “ Prince of Life,’’ Hom., ix.:
(Lachmann and Blass punctuate εστερεωσεν ’ το ovop.)
“It follows that the life He had was not from another, the Prince or Author ot Life must be He who has life from Him- self”. Theophylact and Oecumenius see in the words a contrast to the dovéa, in that Christ gives life, while the murderer takes it away—a contrast deepened by the words of St. Peter’s fellow-disciple whom he here associates with himself in his appeal to the people, cf. 1 John iii. 15. In ver. 31 &px. in its rendering ‘* Prince” of kingly dignity may be compared with the use of the word in Thuc., i., 132,. fEsch., Agam., 259. Rendall sees in the expression both here and Acts ν. 31 a reference to Jesus (the name used by St. Peter) as the second Joshua. As Joshua was the captain of Israel and led them across the Jordan into the land of pro- mise, so Jesus was the Captain of the living army of the Resurrection ; and for Saviour, v. 31, he compares Matt. i. 21. Such associations may be included in St. Peter’s words, but they seem much more applicable to v. 31. In modern Greek the word ἀρχηγός = leader, in the ordinary sense, Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p- 153; see Grimm, sub υ.---οὗ may refer to ὄν, cf. i. 8, xiii. 31, or to the fact of the Resurrection, cf. ii. 32, v. 32,