Chapter 1

[1] Paul began his journeys from Damascus and came to Jerusalem; from there he went to Tarsus, and from Tarsus to Antioch, and then again to Jerusalem, and a second time to Antioch; from there, set apart together with Barnabas for the work of the apostleship, he came to Seleucia, then to Cyprus, where he first began to be called Paul; then he went on to Perga, then to Pisidian Antioch, to Iconium, to Lystra, to Derbe and Lycaonia, then to Pamphylia, then back to Perga, then to Attalia, then a third time to Syrian Antioch, a third time to Jerusalem over the question of circumcision, then a fourth time to Antioch, then a second time to Derbe and Lystra, then to Phrygia and the region of Galatia, then to Mysia, then to Troas and from there to Neapolis, then to Philippi, a city of Macedonia; then, passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, he came to Thessalonica, then to Berea, to Athens, to Corinth, to Ephesus, to Caesarea, then a second time to Pisidian Antioch, then to the region of Galatia and Phrygia, then a second time to Ephesus; then, passing through Macedonia, he came a second time to Philippi, and from Philippi again to Troas, where he raised up Eutychus, who had fallen from the window. Then he came to Assos, then to Mitylene; then he put in opposite Chios; then he came to Samos and from there to Miletus, where he summoned the elders of Ephesus and spoke with them; then he went on to Cos, then to Rhodes, and from there to Patara, then to Tyre, to Ptolemais, and from there to Caesarea, from which he returned a fourth time to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem he was sent to Caesarea. And then, as a prisoner, on toward Rome. Thus from Caesarea he came to Sidon; and from there to Myra in Lycia; then to Cnidus; and from there, after suffering many hardships, he came to the island, where the viper fastened on his hand and he remained unharmed. Then he came to Syracuse; then to Rhegium in Calabria; then to Puteoli; and from there he went up to Rome on foot, the brothers coming to meet him at the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns. And then, having entered Rome and taught for a sufficient time, he was afterward martyred in Rome itself, having fought there the good fight. The Romans, laying his relics in beautiful and royal buildings, keep a yearly memorial day in his honor, the third day before the Kalends of July. Even before this the blessed man had given many exhortations concerning the conduct of life and virtue, and had set forth many directions about what people ought to do; and, above all, through the very fabric of his fourteen Epistles he mapped out for humanity the whole rule of life.

The chapters of the Acts of the holy Apostles. 1. On the teaching of Christ after the resurrection, his appearance to the disciples, and the promise to them of the gift of the Holy Spirit; the manner and form of the Lord’s ascension; and his glorious second coming. 2. Peter’s discourse to the disciples concerning the death and rejection of Judas the traitor. 3. On the divine descent of the Holy Spirit upon the believers on the day of Pentecost. 4. On the healing, in Christ’s name, of the man lame from birth; and the merciful, exhortatory instruction, leading to salvation, that Peter gave on this occasion. 5. On the unanimous and universal fellowship of the believers. 6. How an angel of God brought the apostles, who had been thrown into prison, out by night, charging them to preach Jesus without hindrance. 7. On the appointment of the seven deacons. 8. The uprising and the false accusations of the Jews against Stephen; and his discourse on God’s covenant with Abraham and on the patriarchs. 9. On the persecution of the Church and the death of Stephen. 10. On Simon the magician, who believed and was baptized along with many others. 11. That the gift of the Holy Spirit is given not for silver and not to hypocrites, but to the holy through their faith. 12. That God grants salvation to the good and faithful, as is clear from the case of the eunuch. 13. On the divine call of Paul from heaven to the apostleship of Christ. 14. On Aeneas the paralytic, healed in Lydda by Peter. 15. On Cornelius—how an angel appeared to him, and what was again said from heaven to Peter concerning the calling of the Gentiles. 16. How Peter recounts to the apostles, in order, each of the things that had happened, and at that time sends Barnabas to the brothers in Antioch. 17. Agabus’s prophecy of a famine over the whole world, and the relief sent by the believers of Antioch to the brothers in Judea. 18. The slaying of the apostle James; and here also the punishment of the guards and the bitter and ruinous downfall of the impious Herod. 19. The sending of Barnabas and Saul by the divine Spirit to Cyprus, and what they did in Christ’s name to Elymas the magician. 20. Paul’s profitable teaching about Christ on the basis of the law and the prophets, with its historical and gospel character. 21. How, preaching Christ in Iconium, the apostles were driven out after many had believed. 22. On the man lame from birth healed by the apostles in Lystra, on account of which they seemed to the inhabitants to be gods come down to them; and there Paul is stoned. 23. That the converts from the Gentiles ought not to be circumcised; the deliberations and decree of the apostles. 24. On the instruction of Timothy, and on the revelation to Paul that he should go to Macedonia. 25. On the disturbance that arose in Thessalonica because of the preaching, and Paul’s flight to Berea and from there to Athens. 26. On the inscription on the altar in Athens and Paul’s wise preaching. 27. On Aquila and Priscilla, on the disbelief of Corinth, and on the favor toward them, foreknown, that was revealed to Paul. 28. On baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit given through Paul’s prayer to the believers in Ephesus, and on Paul’s healings. 29. Paul’s journey, with the death and recall to life of Eutychus through prayer in Troas, and his pastoral exhortation to the elders of Ephesus. 30. Agabus’s prophecy concerning what would befall Paul in Jerusalem. 31. James’s exhortation to Paul not to seem to forbid the Hebrews to be circumcised. 32. On the disorder stirred up against Paul in Jerusalem, and how the tribune rescued him from the crowd. 33. What Paul suffered, said, and rightly did when he came down to the council. 34. On the plot devised against Paul by the Jews, and the disclosure of it to Lysias. 35. Tertullus’s accusation against Paul, and Paul’s defense before the governor. 36. On Felix’s successor and the promotion of Festus, and the conclusion before him of Paul’s examination and appeal. 37. The arrival of Agrippa and Bernice, and the inquiry into the matters concerning Paul. 38. Paul’s voyage to Rome, full of very many and very great dangers. 39. How Paul arrived at Rome from Melita. 40. On Paul’s discussion with the Jews who were in Rome. Commentary of our father among the saints John Chrysostom on the Acts of the holy Apostles. To many this very book is not even known—neither the book itself nor the one who wrote and composed it. For this reason I judged it necessary to undertake this work, both to teach those who do not know [and not to let so great a treasure remain unknown and hidden]; for it will be able to profit us no less than the Gospels, filled as it is with such wisdom and rightness of doctrine, and especially with the things wrought by the Spirit. Let us not, then, pass it by, but examine it with all exactness; for the predictions which Christ proclaims beforehand in the Gospels we can see here having gone forth into deed, and we can see the truth shining out in the very events, and the great change for the better in the disciples, wrought in them by the Spirit; and here too we can find doctrines… […]

But the greater part of what is contained here consists of the acts of Paul, who labored more than all the rest. The reason is that the one who composed this book, the blessed Luke, was his disciple. His excellence can be seen from many sources and in many ways, but especially from the fact that he held to his teacher without separation and followed him at all times. Demas and Hermogenes, at any rate, forsook him—the one going off to Galatia, the other to Dalmatia. Hear what Paul says about him: “Only Luke is with me.” And writing to the Corinthians he says of him: “whose praise in the gospel is throughout all the churches.” And when he says that “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve,” and “according to the gospel which you received,” he means Luke’s gospel; so that no one would err in ascribing this work to him—and when I say “to him,” I mean to Christ. And if anyone says, “Why then did he not write everything, since he was with Paul to the end?”—we would answer that even these things were sufficient for those who wished to attend to them; that he always kept to what was most pressing; and that their zeal did not lie in writing books, for they handed down much by unwritten tradition as well. Now everything set down in this book is worthy of wonder, but most of all the accommodation of the apostles, which the Spirit also prompted in them, preparing them to dwell on the word of the divine economy. For this reason, after speaking so much about him, they said little about his divinity; they discoursed more about his becoming man, his passion, his resurrection, and his ascension. For what was sought at that time was this: that it be believed that he rose and ascended into the heavens. Just as Christ himself was concerned above all to show that he had come from the Father, so this one too was concerned above all to show that he rose, was taken up, went to the Father, and came from him. For if this was not believed at first, much more—once the addition was made of the resurrection and the ascension—did the whole doctrine seem incredible to the Jews. Therefore gently and little by little he leads them up to the higher truths; and in Athens Paul even calls him simply a man, saying nothing more, and reasonably so. For if they often tried to stone Christ himself when he spoke of his equality with the Father, and on this account called him a blasphemer, they would scarcely have received this teaching from fishermen—and that after the crucifixion had taken place. And why speak of the Jews, when even the disciples themselves, hearing the higher doctrines, were often troubled and offended? For this reason he said: “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” And if those could not bear them—those who had been with him so long, who had shared in so many secrets and seen so many miracles—how could those who came from altars and idols and sacrifices, from cats and crocodiles (for such were the objects of Greek worship), and who had only just then been torn away from their other evils, have suddenly received the lofty doctrines? And how could the Jews, who every day learned and had sounded in their ears from the law, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord, and besides him there is no other,” and who had seen him nailed to the cross—indeed had crucified and buried him, and had not even seen him risen—how, on hearing that this very man is God and equal to the Father, would they not have recoiled and broken away more than anyone? For this reason the apostles advance them gently and little by little, and make great use of the economy of accommodation, and enjoy a more abundant grace of the Spirit; and in his name they work greater works than he himself did, so that on both sides they may raise them up as they lie on the ground, and may give assurance of the word concerning the resurrection. For this above all is what this book is—a demonstration of the resurrection; for once this was believed, the rest advanced in due course. The theme, then, and the whole aim of the book, as one might say in summarizing it broadly, is this above all. But let us now listen to the prologue itself.

Acts 1:1. The former account I made concerning all things, O Theophilus, He reminds Theophilus of the Gospel, in order to display his own carefulness; for at the beginning of that work he says: “It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely from the first, to write to you in order”—and not casually, but “just as they delivered them to us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.” He recalls that work, then, reminding Theophilus of the carefulness there; and he reminds him of the carefulness so that, holding this same carefulness in mind for the present book as well, he may give the closest attention to what is written. Hence he had no need here of any other recommendation; for one who, in writing what he had heard, proved trustworthy and was believed, all the more deserves to be believed when he sets down not what he heard from others but what he himself saw. For this reason he does not say, “The former gospel, which I preached,” but “The former account,” because he was without pretension and modest-minded, and considered the title “gospel” to be greater than himself—although the apostle adorns him with this very name, saying, “whose praise is in the gospel.” But by saying “concerning all things” he seems to contradict the evangelist John; for the one says it was not possible to write all things, while this one says he made his account “concerning all things” from the beginning until the ascension. What, then, do we say? That by “concerning all things” he means that he omitted none of the essential and pressing matters from which the divinity and truth of the preaching are apprehended; for both Luke and each of the evangelists set down in their gospels, summarily and as in an outline, with exactness, the very things by which the divinity and truth of the preaching are apprehended; and John the theologian likewise treated of all these. For they left out nothing of those things through which, on the one hand, the economy of the Word in the flesh is believed and recognized, and on the other, the majesty of his divinity shines out and is made manifest. John says that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written, if all that the Master said and did were written down in detail; and still more would it not contain them if one wished to set down in writing all the deeds and words of the Lord together with an inquiry into their meaning—for the human mind can neither grasp nor know their meanings and the causes for which the Lord acted and spoke, since all that he did in human nature he did as God; in this respect the deeds and words of Christ can neither be expressed in speech nor committed to writing. Yet I also grant that this addition is a hyperbolic figure of speech, and does not assert absolutely that the world would not contain the books that were written, if the account were fuller. One may also say that this evangelist, inasmuch as he dwelt more than the others on contemplation, truly knows all the works and deeds of the Savior—not only those he displayed in the flesh, but those he made from eternity, both without a body and with a body; and if anyone were to attempt to write of each of these—their nature, origin, differences, essence, and the rest—then, even granting it possible, the world could not contain the books that would be written. But if anyone understands “world” here not simply as the world, but as the person who lies in wickedness and minds the things of the world and of the flesh—for it is taken thus in many places of Scripture—then John rightly says that, if anyone wished to write down all the miracles wrought by Christ, such people, inclined by the multitude and greatness of the works to come rather to unbelief than to faith, could not contain what was written. And it is precisely for this reason that the evangelists in many places pass over a whole crowd of those who were healed, and skip over many of the miracles, noting only the general fact that many were freed from various diseases, that many wonders took place, and the like, without listing them; for to people incapable of understanding and deceived by error, a detailed listing of many miracles usually produced unbelief and reluctance to listen rather than faith and eagerness to listen. “which Jesus began to do and to teach”—he means the miracles and the teaching; and not this alone, but that Jesus taught by deed as well; for he did not merely urge others by word to do this or that while not doing it himself, but by the very deeds he performed he persuaded people also to imitate him and to be zealous for virtue. It should be known that Theophilus was one of the devout, of those who had been instructed by Luke in godliness. And do not wonder that for the sake of one man he took such care as to write two whole works for him; for he was a keeper of the Master’s saying which declares: “It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish.” And why, in writing to one man, Theophilus, did he not make one book, but divide the subject matter into two? For the sake of clarity, and to give the reader rest; moreover the subjects were divided by their content as well; and so he rightly divided these matters into two works.

Acts 1:2. …until the day in which, having given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up; “Having given commandment through the Spirit”—that is, having spoken spiritual words to them. There was nothing human in this, since he gave them commandment in the Spirit—just as the Master himself, speaking more humbly and by way of accommodation, said: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God…” Or, “through the Spirit,” it says, “having given commandment”—not because the Son had need of the Spirit, but because wherever the Son acts, there too the Spirit, as being of the same nature, both works and is present together. And what did he command? “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” “Having given commandment,” it says, “he was taken up”—he did not say “he ascended,” but still speaks of him as of a man. And from this we learn that even after the resurrection he taught the disciples; but no one has recorded this period with exactness. John spent more time with him than all the others, yet no one reported all this clearly, for they were intent on other things.

Acts 1:3. to whom also he presented himself alive after his suffering, by many proofs, throughout a span of days— forty. Having spoken first about the ascension, he now speaks also about the resurrection. Since you have heard that he was taken up, lest you should think that he was taken up by others, he added: “to whom also he presented himself alive.” For if he presented himself in the greater matter, much more in the lesser. “Through forty days”—but not on every single one of the forty days, because he was not continually with them as before the resurrection, but appeared and then withdrew again, lifting up their minds and no longer allowing them to be disposed toward him in the same way as before. With great wisdom and care he established both things—that the resurrection be believed, and that he be thought from then on to be greater than a man—although these were opposed to each other. For in order that the resurrection be believed, many human things had to take place; but for the other, the contrary. Yet both came about at the fitting time; for it was through the forty days, from the resurrection until the going up into the heavens, in which he both ate and drank with them, showing that it was he himself who was crucified and buried and rose from the dead. And why did he appear not to all but to the apostles? Because to the many, who did not know the ineffable mystery, his appearance would have seemed a phantom. For if even the disciples themselves disbelieved at first and were troubled, and needed the touch of his hand and a shared table, what would the many likely have suffered? For this reason, by the signs which the apostles received grace to perform, he makes the demonstration of the resurrection indubitable and common, so that the resurrection should be made manifest not only to those then present—which would come about from sight—but also to all who came afterward.

Acts 1:4–21. being seen by them and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, “which you heard from me.” The kingdom—the Lord himself called it the Father’s, in respect of which he promised the disciples that they would drink the new cup together with him, calling “new drink” that which he drank with them after his own resurrection. And he ate new food as well, not according to the former manner in which he used to eat and drink with them before the resurrection. For then, having become like us in all things except sin, he ate and drank as we do, willingly yielding to the flesh its need to seek nourishment; and so he willingly accepted the experience of hunger. But after the resurrection he no longer ate and drank out of need, but only to assure everyone of the truth of his bodily nature—and likewise that he suffered willingly and rose in a manner befitting God. So he called “new food and drink” that extraordinary food which he ate and that extraordinary drink which he drank together with the disciples after the resurrection, that is, by sharing common salt and common fare with them. And how this was, it is not for us to say, for it came about in some rather paradoxical way—not because his nature still required food, but by an accommodation made for the demonstration of the resurrection. “And revealing to them the mysteries concerning the kingdom of God, he charged them” not to depart from Jerusalem. Why did he charge them to do this? Earlier, when they were fearful and trembling, he led them out into Galilee, so that they might hear without fear what he had to say to them, for they were ready to desert. Then, when they had heard, and had spent forty days together, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem. Why so? Because, just as no one allows soldiers who are about to fall upon a large force to go out before they have armed themselves, nor lets horses spring from the starting gate before the charioteer has mounted, so too he did not allow them to appear in the line of battle before the descent of the Spirit, lest they be easily overpowered and captured by the many. And not for this reason alone, but also because there were many there who were going to believe; and thirdly, so that no one might say that, leaving their own people, they had gone off to boast among strangers—for this reason they offer the proofs among the very people who had killed the Lord, among those who had crucified and buried him, in the very city in which the lawless deed had been dared. And when did they hear the promise? When he said: “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you”; and again, “I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Comforter.” And why did the Comforter come neither while he was present nor immediately after his departure, but after eight or nine days…