Chapter Three

Miraculous healing by the holy Apostle Peter of a man lame from birth (1–11). His speech to the people on this occasion (12–26)

Acts 3:1. Peter and John were going up together to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. “At the ninth hour of prayer,” επί τήν ώραν τῆς προσεχῆς τήν εννάτην — the Slavonic rendering, “for prayer at the ninth hour,” is somewhat less precise. Both the Greek text and the Russian translation imply by their phrasing that there were other hours of prayer besides the ninth: these other hours were the third and the sixth (by our reckoning, 9 a.m. and noon). The Slavonic, by contrast, expresses it in a way that could suggest the coincidence of the Apostles’ prayer with the ninth hour (3 p.m. our time) was merely incidental. Traces of thrice-daily prayer appear very early in Jewish history: David himself, in one of the Psalms, already points to prayer in the evening, morning, and at noon (Ps 54:18). The prophet Daniel, during the Babylonian captivity, knelt three times a day in prayer (Dan 6:10). In the temple the morning and evening hours (the third and ninth) were marked by the legally prescribed morning and evening sacrifices; it was to one of these prayer hours that the Apostles were going, to offer their prayers to God through the temple worship that He had established and that had not yet lost its significance for them.

Acts 3:2. And there was a man lame from his mother’s womb who was being carried, and they would place him every day at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms from those entering the temple. “Lame from birth” — Acts 4:22 — he was now more than forty years old. The “Beautiful Gate” of the temple, so named probably for its beauty, is mentioned nowhere else. It was likely the main eastern gate (in Solomon’s Porch), leading into the Court of the Gentiles, which Josephus describes as the most beautiful of all, surpassing all the other temple gates in magnificence (Jewish War 5:5, 3).

Acts 3:4. Peter with John, fixing their gaze on him, said: look at us. Acts 3:5. And he fixed his attention on them, hoping to receive something from them. The miracle performed on the lame man was preceded by both the Apostles and the man gazing intently at each other. This was, as it were, a mutual preparation for the miracle. In the case of the lame man, it served as a means of arousing his attention and spiritual receptiveness to the miraculous gift of healing.

Acts 3:6. But Peter said: silver and gold I have none; but what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. “What I have, I give you.” Even before performing the miracle, the Apostle is fully confident that it will be performed. This confidence was grounded, without doubt, in the Lord’s promises to the Apostles (Mark 16:18; Luke 9:1, John 14:12, and others) and was felt in the sensation of the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit within himself — which the Apostle expresses in the words: “what I have, I give.” “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Not by his own power, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, does Peter perform this miracle.

Acts 3:7. And taking him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened, “Taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up.” To his word the Apostle adds a physical action, as the Lord himself had once done.

Acts 3:8. and leaping up he stood, and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. “Walking and leaping” — an expression of the healed man’s soul filled with joyful rapture.

Acts 3:9. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; “And all the people” — that is, those gathered and still gathering in the temple courts — “saw him” — that is, no longer lame but healthy and cheerful.

Acts 3:11. And as the healed lame man would not leave Peter and John, all the people in amazement ran together to them in the porch called Solomon’s. “The porch called Solomon’s” — a spacious covered gallery through which the Beautiful Gate also led into the temple. Here the crowd gathered after the news of the miracle had spread with lightning speed, its best confirmation being the formerly lame man, so well known to everyone, now enthusiastically praising God and not leaving the Apostles.

Acts 3:12. Seeing this, Peter said to the people: men of Israel! why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? In response to the people’s bewilderment and amazement, Peter delivers another speech, similar to the first (on the day of Pentecost), proving to the people, on the basis of Old Testament testimonies, the Messianic dignity of the Lord Jesus and urging them to repentance and faith in him. But before this he dispels the people’s mistaken understanding of the cause of the miracle. The wondering gaze of the people, fixed on the Apostles, seemed to ask: what power do these men possess that they perform such great miracles? or: how great must be the piety of these men, that God glorifies them with such wondrous signs? The Apostle at once rules out both explanations: “this,” he says, “belongs not to us, for it is not by our own merit that we have drawn down the grace of God”... (Chrysostom).

Acts 3:13. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” underscores the greater guilt of the Jews toward his beloved Son — the Messiah Jesus — and at the same time points to the true author of the performed miracle, as well as its purpose: the glorification of Jesus (cf. John 17:1). “His Servant,” (τόν παῖδα αυτοῦ) — a title for the Messiah taken from the prophecies of Isaiah (chapters XL–LXVI). “Whom you delivered over and denied” — see John 19:14-15; Luke 23:2 and parallel passages. This brief account of the circumstances of the Savior’s suffering is fully consistent with the Gospel narrative and represents, so to speak, precious excerpts from a “fifth” Gospel “of Peter.” “Two charges,” says Chrysostom here, “namely that Pilate wanted to release him, and that when he wanted to, you did not want to... He was as if saying: in his place you asked for a robber. He presented their deed in the most terrible light... You asked,” he says, “for the release of one who was killing others, and the one who gives life to the slain, you did not want.”

Acts 3:14. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked that a murderer be granted to you, Acts 3:15. and you killed the Author of life. God raised him from the dead, of which we are witnesses. “Killed the Author of life” — a remarkably strong expression that sets two such sharp contrasts against each other. The concept of life here is taken in its fullest and most perfect sense (John 1:4), signifying not only the highest spiritual life and eternal salvation received through faith in Christ, but all life in general, of which Christ is the fundamental source, author, and perfecter. “God raised him from the dead, to which we are witnesses.” See Acts 2:24-32.

Acts 3:16. And by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong — the one you see and know — and the faith that is through him has granted him this healing before you all. “By faith in his name” — whose faith? It is not clear. The faith of the Apostles, or the faith of the sick man? In any case, the cause of the miracle is the power of faith — the faith, it must be said, of both the Apostles and of the one healed — faith specifically in the risen Lord Jesus. “The faith that is through him” — faith as a gift of Christ through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:9). “In the presence of you all.” Although the healing itself took place perhaps in the presence of very few, this miracle could rightly be called performed “before all,” because these very “all” now saw the healed man walking and leaping — instead of seeing him lying helpless by the temple gate as they were accustomed to.

Acts 3:17. Yet I know, brothers, that you, just as your rulers, acted in ignorance; Having set before the eyes of the Jews the weight of their guilt toward God the Father and the Lord Jesus, and intending to incline their hearts toward repentance and turning to Christ, the Apostle softens his speech by addressing his listeners with the friendly term “brothers” and explaining the killing of Jesus as having been done on their part in ignorance (cf. Luke 23:34; 1 Cor 2:8), and at the same time presenting this killing as something predetermined in the eternal counsel of God and foretold by all the prophets. — Thus, in the words of Chrysostom, the Apostle “gives them the opportunity to disown and repent of what they have done, and even presents a plausible excuse on their behalf, saying: that you killed an Innocent man, this you knew; but that you killed the Author of life — this, perhaps, you did not know. And thus — he not only acquits them of the crime but also the chief authors of the evil. For if he had turned his speech into an accusation, he would have made them more hardened”...

Acts 3:18. but what God foretold through the mouths of all his prophets — that Christ would suffer — he has thus fulfilled. “God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.” Although not all the prophets prophesied specifically about the sufferings of Christ, the Apostle speaks of them in this way evidently because the central focus of all Hebrew prophecy in general was Christ the Messiah, and consequently — all his work, for the sake of which he had to come to earth. “He has thus fulfilled.” The Jews handed the Messiah over to suffering and death, but in doing so, while remaining independent and responsible agents, they became instruments of the fulfillment of God’s will and the will of the Messiah himself, as he had himself said more than once (John 10:18).

Acts 3:19. Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, “Turn back” — that is, to Christ as the Messiah; believe in him.

Acts 3:20. that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was appointed for you, “Times of refreshing” — that is, the favorable year whose arrival the Lord himself had proclaimed in the Nazareth synagogue — the kingdom of the Messiah, the kingdom of grace with its righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Just as the Old Testament is here presupposed to be a life of estrangement from God, a life full of all manner of troubles, sufferings, and struggles, so the New Testament is viewed here as true rest and refreshment of the soul in peace with God and close communion with him, capable of erasing and healing every bitterness of suffering. “From the presence of the Lord” — judging by what follows, God the Father is meant here. “That he may send” — the reference is to the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus at the end of the world, and the meaning of the expression is the same as the one above — “God raised him” and so on.

Acts 3:21. whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke through the mouths of all his holy prophets from ages past. “Whom heaven must receive” — a reference to the Lord Jesus remaining in heaven with his glorified body since the day of his ascension. “Until the times of restoring all things,” άχρι χρόνων αποκαταστάσεως πάντων — more accurately, until the times of the restoration of all things. This likely refers to the same thing that the Apostle Paul foretold when speaking of the conversion of all Jews to Christ (Rom 11:26). “By the mouth of all his holy prophets” — see above, on verse 18. The general meaning of this text, according to the interpretation of blessed Theophylact, is that “much of what the prophets foretold has not yet been fulfilled, but is being fulfilled and will continue to be fulfilled until the end of the world, because Christ, who ascended to heaven, will remain there until the end of the world and will come in power when, at last, everything that the prophets foretold has been fulfilled.”

Acts 3:22. Moses said to the fathers: the Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brothers, like me; listen to him in everything he says to you; Having mentioned the prophecies of the prophets about Christ, the Apostle quotes as one of the clearest and most authoritative prophecies the words of Moses (Deut 18:15 and following). In these words Moses, warning the people of God against the false diviners and soothsayers of Canaan, promises in the name of God that they will always have true prophets whom, after Moses, they must obey without question. The reference is, in the immediate sense, to the entire company of the Hebrew prophets, spoken of collectively under the common name “the prophet,” raised up by God. But since the end and fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy is Christ, it is right that all antiquity — both Jewish and Christian — applied this prophecy to Christ, all the more so because among all the Old Testament prophets there had been no prophet like Moses (Deut 34:10-12). Only Christ surpassed Moses (Heb 3:3-6). “A Prophet like me,” πρυφήτην — that is, the same kind of special, extraordinary mediator between God and the people as Moses was. This points especially to the legislative activity of Jesus Christ, in which he, unlike all other prophets, resembled and surpassed Moses.

Acts 3:23. and it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be cut off from the people. “Will be cut off from the people,” εξολοθρευθήσεται εκ τοῦ λαοῦ. The original says “I will require it of him.” The Apostle replaces this with another, stronger expression frequently used elsewhere in Moses, meaning condemnation to destruction or the death penalty; in the present case it refers to eternal death and exclusion from participation in the kingdom of the promised Messiah (cf. John 3:18).

Acts 3:24. And all the prophets, from Samuel and those who came after, as many as have spoken, also announced these days. “All the prophets... proclaimed these days” — that is, the days of the appearing of the great prophet-Messiah (cf. verses 18 and 21). “From Samuel,” who is taken here as the greatest prophet after Moses, with whom begins the unbroken succession of the Old Testament Hebrew prophets, ending with the close of the Babylonian captivity.

Acts 3:25. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham: and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The interpretation of blessed Theophylact: “He says ‘sons of the prophets’ instead of saying: do not despair or think that you have been deprived of the promises. ‘You are sons of the prophets,’ so that they were speaking to you, and everything was accomplished for your sake. And what does ‘sons of the Covenant’ mean? That means ‘heirs,’ but heirs not merely by adoption, but as true sons. So, if you yourselves wish it, you are heirs.” “God made a covenant with your fathers, saying to Abraham.” The covenant with Abraham was a covenant with all the fathers of the Jewish people, who have Abraham as their forefather, and thus with the entire Jewish people. But this is not exclusive: the blessing of God was promised not to them alone, to the Jews, but to all the families of the earth — to the Jews first only, by the particular covenant made with them through Moses. “In your offspring all will be blessed” — the promise to Abraham, repeated more than once by God (Gen 12:3). By the “offspring” of Abraham here is meant not the descendants of Abraham in general, but one particular Person from that lineage, namely the Messiah. This is how not only Peter but also the Apostle Paul interprets it (Gal 3:16).

Acts 3:26. God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you by turning each one of you from your evil deeds. In saying that God sent the blessed descendant of Abraham “first” to the Jews, or “before all others” to the Jews, the Apostle seeks to show not merely their advantage over all other peoples, but also the most powerful incentive and, as it were, obligation to receive before all others the promised blessing — through turning to Christ and faith in him. “Having raised up his Servant” — see above on Acts 2:24. “Sent him to bless you” — that is, to fulfill in you the promise given to Abraham, to make you the blessed recipients of all the blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom, to grant you salvation and eternal life. “Therefore, do not consider yourselves rejected and cast off” — Chrysostom concludes. “By turning from your evil deeds” — the essential condition for receiving the promised blessing of God in the kingdom of the Messiah, into which nothing unclean or unrighteous will enter. In speaking of Israel’s priority in receiving the blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom, the Apostle again repeats the thought of the universality of the Messiah’s kingdom, which is destined to extend to all the families of the earth.