St. Paul could write of Him, Who took upon Him the form of a servant, Who humbled Himself, and became obedient to the death of the Cross, Phil. ii. 6; and St. Peter, in one familiar word, which so far as we know St. Paul never used, brings before his hearers the same sublime pic- ture of obedience, humility, death and glory; Jesus is the ideal, the glorified “ Servant” of God (see note on iti. 13). But almost in the same breath St. Peter speaks of the Servant as the Holy and Righteous One, iii. 14; holy, in that He was consecrated to the service of Jehovah (ἅγιος, iv. 27, 30, see note, and ii. 27); righteous, in that He was
26.
‘Incoiv,! ἀπέστειλεν αὐτὸν εὐλογοῦντα ὑμᾶς, ἐν τῷ ἀποστρέφειν
9 er ~ a“ α an €KaCTOY ἅπο των πονηριων υὑμων.
‘ Ἰησουν om. ΜΒΕΟΡΕ. 61, Vulg.; so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Hilg.
νμων
ΜΦΑΟΡΡΕΡΤ, 31, 61, Syrr. (P. and H.), Arm., Aeth., so Tisch. [W.H.]., Weiss; in B, Chrys., Theophyl. omitted; C* 13, Vulg., Sah., Boh., Irint. read αντων.
also the impersonation of righteousness, a righteousness which the Law had pro- claimed, and which Prophets and Kings had desired to see, but had not seen (Isaiah liii. 11). But whilst we note these titles, steeped each and all of them in O.T. imagery, whilst we may see in them the germs of the later and the deeper theology of St. Paul and St. John (see Dr. Lock, “' Christology of the Earlier Chapters of the Acts,” Expositor, iv. (fourth series), p. 178 ff.), they carry us far beyond the conception of a mere humanitarian Christ. It is not only that Jesus of Nazareth is set before us as ‘“ the very soul and end of Jewish Prophecy,” as Himself the Prophet to whom the true Israel would hearken, but that He is associated by St. Peter even in his earliest utterances, as none other is as- sociated, with Jehovah in His Majesty in the work of salvation, ii. 34; the salva- tion which was for all who called upon _Jehovah’s Name, ii. 21, was also for all in the Name, in the power of Jesus Christ, iv. 12 (see notes, J. c, and cf. the force of the expression ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα in 1 Cor. i. 2, Schmid, Bib- lische Theologie, p. 407); the Spirit which Joel had foretold would be poured forth by Jehovah had been poured forth by Jesus raised to the right hand of God, ii. 18, 33 (see further notes in chap. x. 36, 42, 43).
One other matter must be briefly noticed—the correspondence in thought and word between the St. Peter of the early chapters of the Acts and the St. Peter of the First Epistle which bears his name. A few points may be selected. St. Peter had spoken of Christ as the Prince of Life; quite in harmony with this is the thought expressed in 1 Pet. i, 3, of Christians as ‘ begotten again” by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. St. Peter had spoken of Christ as the Holy and Righteous One, so in the First Epistle he sets forth this aspect of Christ’s peculiar dignity, His sinless- ness. As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. the thought of the sufferings of Christ is prominent, but also that of the glory which should follow, chap. i., ver. if. “As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. these
sufferings are described as undeserved, but also as foreordained by God and in accordance with the voices of the Pro- phets, 1 Pet. i. 11 and ii, 22-25. Asin Acts, so in x Pet. it is the special task of the Apostles to be witnesses of the sufferings and also of the resurrection of Christ, chap. v. 1. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have the clearest testimony to the δόξα of Christ, 1 Pet. i. 2x and iv. 11. As in Acts stress is laid not only upon the facts of the life of Christ, but also upon His teaching, x. 34 ff., so also in r Pet., while allusions are made to the scenes of our Lord’s Passion with all the force of an eye-witness, we have stress laid upon the word of Christ, the Gospel or teaching, i. 12, 23, 25, ii. 2, 8, iii. I9, iv. 6. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have a reference to the agency of Christ in the realm of the dead, 1 Pet. 11. το, iv. 6. As in Acts, x. 42, so in τ Pet. Christ is Himself the judge of quick and dead, iv. 6, or in His unity with the Father shares with Him that divine prerogative, cf. i. 17. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. the communication of the Holy Spirit is specially attributed to the exalted Christ, cf. Acts ii, 33, 1 Pet. i. 11,12. Asin Acts, so in 1 Pet. Christ is the living corner-stone on which God’s spiritual house is built, Acts iv. 12 and 1 Pet. ii. 4-10. As in Acts, so in rt Pet. not only the details but the whole scope of salvation is regarded in the light and as a fulfilment of O.T. prophecy, cf. Acts ili. 18-25, 1 Pet. ii. 22, 23, and i. 10-12. But this correspon- dence extends to words, amongst which we may note πρόγνωσις, Acts Ii. 23, rt Pet. i. 2, a word found nowhere else in the N.T., and used in each passage in the same sense; ἀπροσωπολήμπτως, I Pet. i. 17, and only here in N.T., but cf. Acts Χ. 34, οὐκ ἐστιν προσωπολήµπτης. ξύλον twice used by St. Peter in Acts v. 30, x. 39 (once by St. Paul), and again in 1 Pet. ii. 24; ἀθέμιτος only in the Cornelius history, Acts x. 28, by St. Peter, and in 1 Pet. iv. 3; µάρτυς with the genitive of that to which testimony is rendered, most frequently in N.T. used by St. Peter, cf. Acts i. 22, vi. 32, x. 39, and 1 Pet. v. 1; and further, in