Chapter 3

Acts 3:1–7. Now Peter and John were going up together into the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a certain man, lame from his mother’s womb, was being carried, whom they laid every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. And Peter, fixing his eyes on him together with John, said: Look at us. And he gave heed to them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said: Silver and gold I do not have; but what I have, that I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And taking him by the right hand, he raised him up. Everywhere these two are seen to have great concord. To this one Peter makes a sign; together they came to the tomb; concerning him he speaks. Now the other signs he passes over briefly in passing, as one writing the book; but this sign he relates, the one by which all were moved. ‘They were going up into the temple.’ Why? Were they then still living in the Jewish manner? God forbid. Rather, they did this in a useful and condescending way. See how they persevered in their prayers, and at the ninth hour prayed there together. He mentions both the place and the time precisely, giving proof of the things he writes. Why then does he not give the name of the lame man? Because not even the apostles knew it; for the man was entirely unknown to them. And perhaps also so that they might not appear to be performing the healings as a favor and out of partiality, nor that any suspicion of pretense should be entertained, even by the most shameless—as though for favor’s sake some of those known to the apostles were feigning the healings supposedly done upon them. How then did they not learn his name even after the healing? Because they had no leisure to occupy themselves with things that profit nothing. But it seems to me that the multitude too did not know the man’s name, but called him simply ‘the lame man,’ from his affliction. For so notable and so well known was his disease to all, that whenever anyone heard ‘the lame man,’ even though there were perhaps others, he at once thought of that one. From where, then, did they know that he was lame from his mother’s womb? From the report of all, from the testimony of all; for all knew him from his constant sitting at the temple, and also from the healed man himself. Why then did they not bring him to be healed by Christ? Perhaps some of those who sat by the temple were unbelievers; for they did not even bring him to the apostles, though they saw them entering and saw that they had done such wonders. ‘Silver and gold I do not have.’ He did not say, ‘I do not have it here,’ as we are accustomed to say, but, ‘I have none at all.’ See how John everywhere keeps silence, while Peter speaks even on his behalf. What then? Do you overlook the suppliant because you have no silver? No; but ‘what I have, that I give,’ he says. So also did Christ, often healing by word alone, and often also by touch, where they happened to be weaker in faith, lest what was done should seem to come about of itself. ‘And taking him,’ he says, ‘he raised him up.’ This he did to make the resurrection manifest; for it was an image of the resurrection.

Acts 3:8–10. Immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they recognized him, that it was he who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ‘Walking and leaping’—testing himself and making fuller proof, whether he had truly been set upright; for because of the marvelous and unhoped-for nature of it, it was likely that he too was in doubt about himself. But some say that he did not even know how to walk, and for this reason made the motion of his feet as though leaping. See how he did not keep still: this partly from joy, and partly to stop their mouths, lest the thing be thought a pretense. For this reason he leaped; as one who is, as it were, scarcely yet recognized from the matter—for we use this expression of those who are barely known. And out of goodwill and affection toward them he would not part from them; perhaps giving thanks to them, and keeping them in good cheer. And the wonder takes place in the temple, for the salvation and benefit of the many.

Acts 3:11–16. Now as the healed lame man held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. And Peter, seeing it, answered the people: Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you fix your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked that a murderer be granted to you; and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, this man, whom you behold and know, his name has strengthened; and the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. What does this mean, ‘as the healed lame man held Peter and John’? He was afraid of being drawn away from them; for he supposed that he had been freed from his affliction only so long as he held them and clung to them, especially because Peter, taking hold of him and raising him up, had healed him in that way. ‘In the portico.’ This portico alone was standing from the building of Solomon; for Nebuchadnezzar burned the temple, and Cyrus the Persian rebuilt it. ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?’ This address is fuller of boldness than the former one—not because in the former he was afraid to speak boldly, but because then the Jews, being mockers and insolent, could not yet have borne such a tone. Hence, when beginning that earlier speech, he draws them to attention at the very outset through his introduction, saying: ‘Let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.’ But here he no longer needs such a device, for they were not heedless; rather, since the sign had turned them all, they were full of fear and astonishment. See how he wards off the glory directed at themselves. For nothing so benefits the hearers as that the speaker should not only say nothing great about himself, but should even forbid anyone else who wishes to speak of it. And so these men, despising the glory they could have had among men, glorified themselves all the more, by showing that what had happened was not a human work but a divine one. ‘The God of our fathers has glorified his Servant Jesus.’ He still keeps to the humbler aspects, yet he sets the daring of the Jews in plain view, and does not cast it into shadow as before. And he does this all the more because he wishes to win them over; for the more he showed them to be guilty, the more this was accomplished. ‘Whom you delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.’ Two charges against the Jews: one, that Pilate, a Greek by birth, a man who had seen no sign and had known none of the prophets, wished to release Jesus; the other, that you, being Jews by descent, a people brought up among signs and instructed in the prophecies concerning Christ, did not wish to release him, when Pilate wished it. ‘You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer.’ By saying that instead of Christ they asked for a robber, Peter made the matter fully plain; for by this it is proved that they had it in their power to release him. For if they released a robber, much more could they have released the guiltless one. But they acquitted the evildoer alone and killed the benefactor; for they killed ‘the Author of life.’ And if he is the Author of life, then, as having life in himself and as the cause of life, he raised himself, ‘of which we are witnesses.’ He no longer takes refuge in prophecy as before; but since he was already trustworthy to them, he brings forward the company of the apostles: ‘of which,’ he says, ‘we are witnesses.’ ‘His name strengthened him.’ Having said, ‘by faith in his name,’ since the man who was set upright had believed in this way, Peter corrects the statement and says, ‘his name strengthened him.’ That is: why do I say that he was strengthened by believing in his name? Even before he believed, the name alone, when invoked, had strengthened him. So great is the power it has, and such grace does it pour forth. ‘And the faith which is through him.’ And what this faith is, the one proclaimed through him, he himself interprets: ‘that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus whom you sent.’ For lest anyone should say, ‘Then, if an unbeliever invokes his name, the healing will no less go forward, even upon unbelievers, if the mere invocation of the name strengthened him’—lest anyone say this, he added, ‘and the faith which is through him.’ That is: great indeed is the name, and fearful, and it pours forth healings; but there is need also of souls worthy to be counted deserving of the grace, and of intercessors able to propitiate the Giver of healings. For if the one seeking healing is going to remain an unbeliever, the healing will not come about so simply; and the name, when invoked by unbelievers, will not work its proper effect: the sons of Sceva not only failed to benefit others but even harmed themselves. So, then, we explain it. But others have interpreted it thus: And indeed it is the same faith that wrought this; for he did not say, ‘through the name,’ but, ‘in the name.’ Yet they did not yet dare to say, ‘the faith in him’; and so that the ‘through him’ should not be wholly lowly, he added, ‘and his name strengthened him.’ And since this again was lofty and complete, he confirmed it by adding, ‘and the faith which is through him,’ mixing lowly things with lofty—assigning some to the nature of the matter, and some to the disposition and capacity of the hearers. For lowly is the saying ‘by faith in his name’ and ‘the faith which is through him’; but lofty and complete is the saying, ‘his name strengthened him,’ which, spoken baldly, would have galled the Jews, but, joined and set beside the others, became easy to accept.

Acts 3:17. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But God what he had foretold through the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Since he had rebuked them severely, he again relaxes, giving them an opportunity for repentance; and he grants them one ground of excuse—their ignorance—and a second, that the things spoken had been foretold beforehand. But why does he not set down a scriptural testimony concerning his crucifixion? Yet even earlier he says, ‘delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you took him.’ And now he sets it forth more fully, saying:

Acts 3:18. What he foretold through the mouth of all the prophets He does not set down the testimony thus bare, because each of these prophecies was spoken together with many charges and with the punishment laid against them; as also this one: ‘And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death.’ And consoling them, he says that ‘the daring deed was not yours, but God so willed it’; while at the same time meeting their words also. For reproaching him on the cross they said: ‘If he wills him, let him save him,’ and, ‘If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross,’ and the like. He all but says: ‘These were idle words, O senseless ones; for if it had to be so, and all the prophets testify to this, it is plain that he did not submit through weakness, but rather through unspeakable power and surpassing authority and boundless love for mankind.’

Acts 3:19–21. Repent therefore and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out; so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was appointed beforehand for you, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of all his holy prophets from of old. He does not speak of the sin dared at the cross, since he said above: ‘And now I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.’ And what was it that he meant there by ‘And now I know’? ‘Now I know,’ he says—that is, it is profitable to speak thus, that I may secure your salvation; or, ‘Now I know that you acted in ignorance,’ from the fact that I see many of you turning and being saved. For it is likely that he says this to those of them who had already turned and believed. But how did they act in ignorance? For to ask for a robber, to refuse to accept the one judged worthy of release, and even to wish to kill him—of what ignorance is this? Yet he spoke thus, opening to them a door of conversion; and for this reason he does not say, ‘Repent of what you dared at the cross,’ but, ‘that for now your other sins may be blotted out.’ ‘Repent therefore,’ he says, ‘that times of refreshing may come.’ And he shows here that they are about to fall into many hardships; for such a word would fit one who is going to weep and who longs for some consolation. See how he gradually advances toward his aim. In the first speech he hinted at the rest and the sitting in the heavens; but here he points also to the manifest coming, which he calls times of refreshing. For what other times of refreshing could there be than those of the resurrection? These Paul too seeks after, when he says: ‘And we who are in this tent groan, being burdened.’ But if anyone should also call the times after the capture of Jerusalem ‘times of refreshing,’ nothing hinders. For God shortened the times of their affliction and captivity for the sake of the elect, that those who believed might find refreshing and be saved from that severe distress. ‘And that he may send Jesus Christ, who was appointed for you.’ This is as if to say: it is necessary to receive him, inasmuch as he is God and ought ever to sit together with the Father. ‘Whom heaven must receive until the times.’ He shows the reason why he does not come now. ‘All things must be restored,’ he says, ‘and come to their fulfillment, and then he will come.’ But how does he say above, ‘whom heaven must receive’? Had heaven then not yet received him? Indeed it had. Why then did he not say, ‘whom heaven received’? He says this as one speaking about the former times. And the ‘until’ and the ‘as long as’ in divine Scripture are not indicative of a limit of time; for one must understand it as in the saying addressed to God, ‘until the age you are.’ This, then, is the sense of the passage: ‘Many things,’ he says, ‘the prophets foretold would come to pass, which have not yet all been fulfilled, but are still coming to pass and will come to pass until the consummation.’ For Christ, having been taken up into the heavens, remains there until the consummation of the world, and will come then with power, when at last all things have been restored which the prophets foretold; that is, when the end comes and sensible things cease, then Christ will be higher than the heavens.

Acts 3:22–26. For Moses said to the fathers: A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up for you from among our brethren, like me; him you shall hear in all things, whatever he shall say to you. And it shall be, that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And all the prophets too, from those that followed after, as many as spoke, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham: And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. To you first God, having raised up his Servant Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from your iniquities. Having said, ‘A Prophet like me’—the ‘like me’ is to be understood not of nature, but of action. Not of essence, then, but in respect of deeds; for if he had said ‘like me’ in respect of essence, not one would have arisen, but many. ‘A Prophet shall the Lord raise up for you.’ Emmanuel is named a prophet on account of his humanity, he who, in the order of Moses, is the mediator between God and men. For I would even call him Moses—Moses compared with him by way of figure, the truth set beside the shadow. For Christ is born in Bethlehem, as Moses was born in Egypt; an Israelite was that one, and this one too according to the flesh, but while Moses was of priestly race, Christ is from David through the Virgin. Pharaoh in the days of the one, Herod in the days of the other; that one slays the infants, this one destroys the infants; that one the males, and this one too the males; that one is saved through his mother, and this one too was saved through his mother and together with his mother. ‘Shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ The soul of man, being immortal, is not utterly destroyed, but falls out of some good rank in which it was formerly placed. So also Judas was destroyed from the choir of the apostles. Since, then, the soul is immortal, by its destruction we understand its coming to be outside the good things which it would have enjoyed, had it lived in a manner pleasing to God. ‘You are the sons of the prophets.’ He says ‘sons of the prophets’ to mean: do not be afraid, nor think that you must estrange yourselves from the promises. ‘You are the sons of the prophets’; so that it was to you that they spoke, and for your sake these things have come to pass. And what does ‘sons of the covenant’ mean? It stands for ‘heirs’—heirs, however, not merely newly enrolled, but as sons. He says ‘sons’ moreover to show that, so far as concerns the adoption, if you yourselves also are willing, you are heirs. For this reason he says, ‘You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant.’ ‘Jesus, whom he sent to bless you.’ For he sent him to others as well, but to you first, who crucified and killed him. And when? From the cross only? No, but also after these things, and after the resurrection. For, he says, ‘to you first, having raised him up, he sent him.’ To do what? To bless you and to save you, if indeed you yourselves also choose to turn away from your iniquities.