The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 411

0118ly puts a mention of Galiloo in the aclded to show tbo.t Christ's resurrection was angel's mouth, in the very place where, a fino.l victory over death ; not like that or e.oeording to St. Me.tthew, he announced the Lazarus, or the Slmnammi te's son, or ,J a1rus's Lord's o.ppe1uance in Galilee. St Joh"!!, clo.ughtor, but, as St. Paul l,imself so.ye e.go.in plo.ces tho threo first appearances m (Roru. vi. 9), "Christ being raised from the Jeruso.lem (John xx.), but describe~ at len~h dead dicth no more, death bath no more a third as ho.ving tuken place m Galilee dominion ornr him.'' Here be tells us that (John ui. 2, 14). St. Paul (1 Oor. xv. 6) this eternal exemption of Christ from death speaks of nn nppeamnce. to five hunr_l~ed was promised or signified in Isa. Iv. 3, which brethren at once, which m o.11 probab1hty he quotes from the LXX., only abbrc·,iating took place in Galilee, o.s only o. hundred the li,ci81i<Toµ.a.,, K.-r.1>,.., into aca,rc.i, I will give. and twenty names were numbered _at What, then, is meant by the ocr," A<>f!.<o Ta Jerusalem ( ell. i. 15). It is, therefore, satJS• 1r1<T'Td.? Tbe Hebrew has C'J';).~_;;i 71J 'JC';, factory to ho.ve this confirmation of the which can mean nothing else but" the sure residence of the apostles in Galilo_e bc~ween mercies of Davicl," tho favour o.nrl mercy the Resurrection and the .Ascension m St. promised to David in God's CTc1hsting Luke's report of St. Po.ul's speech. O1?serve covenant, well ordered in a.II thin2"s and that St. Po.ul distinctly separates himself sure. And in like manner, in 2 Chron. vi. from these witnesses by the emphatic TJJL••s 42, 3<T1ct Aci,8lo means " the mercies of God to in ver. 32. David." And if we turn to the o.ccount of Ver. 32.-Bring you good tidings of th6 this covenanted mercy in 2 Sam. vii., we promise made for decl.are unto you gl.ad shall see that it comprises the setting of tidings h0t0 that the pl'omiae which waa made, David's seP.d upon his throne for ever (see .A.V. specially vers. 12-16). In ver. 15 it ie Ver. 33.-How that God for God, A. V. (" how that" being in ver. 32); our child:en said, 1l,;J!:? "1',D: l:i', ''!<?~, "My mercy sb.all not for us their children, .A.V. and T.R.; rauecl depart from him." And in the next verse up for hath raised up. . . again, .A. V. ; ~8 also his ho118e e.nd his kingdom e.re described it is for as it is alBo, A. V. Our children. e.s being c~il7 )12~} "sure," or "established The reading of the R.T. is not adopted by for ever," which, when applied to the personal Meyer or Alford, and is scarcely an improve- Christ, the Son of Do.vid, manifestly implies ment upon the T.R. There ce.n be no his etemal exemption from death and cor- reasonable doubt tho.t c'iva<r'T1J<Tcts, raised up, ruption (see o.lso Ps. cmii. 4). The sense means here, e.s in ver. 44, raised from the of the Hebrew, therefore, is cleare.nrl certain, dead. Observe with what skill the apostle e.nd it is equally certain that the LXX. speaks of the resurrection of Jesus Obrist as meant to represent this sense in the version the fulfilment of God's promise to their here quoted by St. Paul. "Ocr,os, though fathers, which it was to be presumed they properly meaning "holy, pious," e.nd thence were anxiously expecting. The seoond pse.lm. "'mild" e.nd "merciful" (eip1Jv11<bs, Hesych.) Many manuscripts e.nd editions have, " the e.s applied to man, came to be applied in first," because the first psalm was often the sa.me senses to God (Rev. xv. 4; xvi. reckoned not numerically but as an intro- 5 ; e.nd here e.nd in the LX.X. 1 Beyond duction to the whole book, so that the second doubt, therefore, the passage before us is pea.Im was numbered e.s the first. This is rightly rendered in the A. V., ''the sure probably the reason why the eighteen mercies of De.vid ; " the plnrnl. li<T "'• repre- psalms e.e reckoned by the J~ws inc_lud~ Ps. sents the c•-,on of the Hebrew. Clemens xix., though Joshua ben Levi explu.ms 1t by the rejection of the second psalm, on account, Alex. (quotea.'by Schleusner) uses it in the no doubt, of its testimony to Messiah e.s God's same we.y for "mercies or "benefits:" Il~<T11 begotten Son. But the ro.bbins generally "~.,.,;; ocpe(1>,.oµ.ev o<Tu::: "For how many mercies oolmowledge the application of this psalm are we indebted to Christ I " In a &imilo.r to Messiah (Lightfoot, • Exercit. on the we.y the Latin pietas is used for God's Acts'). Thou art my Bon, etc. 'l'his e.ppli- "ju:tice" or "kindness" ('lEneid,' ii. 536; v. ce.tion of the seeond psalm to the Resurrec- 688). "Trini pul,es pietatem" (on e. sepul- tion is best explo.ined by Rom. i. 4.. T~e chral monwnent, A.D. 1427): " Beat t!>t the refe1·ence in both passages to Do.v1d 18 door of God's mercy." remarkuble (vers. 22, 23). Christ, who was 1 Gronovius, iu his note on 11Elie.n. V. H.,' bo 00 ot.ten of the Father before all worlds, was viii. 1 where he a.scribes to lia-ios the primi- rle~lured before men e.nd angels to be the tive ;onse of what is "just" aurl '·due," Son of God, when he wns raised from the from man either to God or to his fellow• dead in the power of an endless lifo. mun Rd,ls, "'l.'ribuunt quidem LXX. interp. Ver. 34.-Hath spolcw for s1tid, A.V.; etia~ Deo .,->, Ha-iov: sed etiam tum sig,.1 ilicat l,nly an,1. sure bfossings for snre merci'.es, A.V. quoddn.w quasi offieium benig, i lt\fu in No more to return to oorruption. This is homines pios, Deo , l-,corum."  408 TIIE ACTS OF 'l'l:tE APOSTLES. (oll. XI1L 1-52.