Exposition of Acts Chapter One
       
by Jameison-Faussett-Brown
• Key
INTRODUCTION
THE writer of this Gospel is universally allowed to have
been Lucas (an abbreviated form of Lucanus, as Silas of
Silvanus), though he is not expressly named either in the
Gospel or in the Acts. From Colossians
4:14 we learn that he was a "physician"; and by comparing
that verse with Colossians
4:10,11 circumcision who were then with him, but does not
mention Luke, though he immediately afterwards sends a
salutation from him--we gather that Luke was not a born Jew.
Some have thought he was a freed-man (libertinus), as
the Romans devolved the healing art on persons of this class
and on their slaves, as an occupation beneath themselves. His
intimate acquaintance with Jewish customs, and his facility in
Hebraic Greek, seem to show that he was an early
convert to the Jewish faith; and this is curiously confirmed
by Acts
21:27-29 the Jews enraged at Paul's supposed introduction
of Greeks into the temple, because they had seen "Trophimus
the Ephesian" with him; and as we know that Luke was with Paul
on that occasion, it would seem that they had taken him for a
Jew, as they made no mention of him. On the other hand, his
fluency in classical Greek confirms his Gentile origin.
The time when he joined Paul's company is clearly indicated in
the Acts by his changing (at Acts
16:10 to the first person plural ("we"). From that time he
hardly ever left the apostle till near the period of his
martyrdom (2 Timothy
4:11 EUSEBIUS makes him a native of Antioch. If so, he
would have every advantage for cultivating the literature of
Greece and such medical knowledge as was then possessed. That
he died a natural death is generally agreed among the
ancients; GREGORY NAZIANZEN alone affirming that he died a
martyr.
The time and place of the publication of his
Gospel are alike uncertain. But we can approximate to it. It
must at any rate have been issued before the Acts, for there
the 'Gospel' is expressly referred to as the same author's
"former treatise" (Acts
1:1 Acts was not published for two whole years after
Paul's arrival as a prisoner at Rome, for it concludes with a
reference to this period; but probably it was published soon
after that, which would appear to have been early in the year
63. Before that time, then, we have reason to believe that the
Gospel of Luke was in circulation, though the majority of
critics make it later. If we date it somewhere between A.D. 50
and 60, we shall probably be near the truth; but nearer it we
cannot with any certainty come. Conjectures as to the place of
publication are too uncertain to be mentioned here.
That it was addressed, in the first instance, to Gentile
readers, is beyond doubt. This is no more, as DAVIDSON
remarks [Introduction to the New Testament, p. 186],
than was to have been expected from the companion of an
"apostle of the Gentiles," who had witnessed marvellous
changes in the condition of many heathens by the reception of
the Gospel. But the explanations in his Gospel of things known
to every Jew, and which could only be intended for Gentile
readers, make this quite plain--see Luke
1:26; 4:31;
8:26;
21:37;
22:1;
24:13
particulars, both of things inserted and of things omitted,
confirm the conclusion that it was Gentiles whom this
Evangelist had in the first instance in view.
We have already adverted to the classical style of
Greek which this Evangelist writes--just what might
have been expected from an educated Greek and travelled
physician. But we have also observed that along with this he
shows a wonderful flexibility of style, so much so, that when
he comes to relate transactions wholly Jewish, where the
speakers and actors and incidents are all Jewish, he writes in
such Jewish Greek as one would do who had never been
out of Palestine or mixed with any but Jews. In DA COSTA'S'S
Four Witnesses will be found some traces of "the
beloved physician" in this Gospel. But far more
striking and important are the traces in it of his intimate
connection with the apostle of the Gentiles. That one who was
so long and so constantly in the society of that master mind
has in such a work as this shown no traces of that connection,
no stamp of that mind, is hardly to be believed. Writers of
Introductions seem not to see it, and take no notice of it.
But those who look into the interior of it will soon discover
evidences enough in it of a Pauline cast of mind.
Referring for a number of details to DA COSTA, we notice here
only two examples: In 1 Corinthians
11:23 Christ Himself the account of the Institution of the
Lord's Supper which he there gives. Now, if we find this
account differing in small yet striking particulars from the
accounts given by Matthew and Mark, but agreeing to the letter
with Luke's account, it can hardly admit of a doubt that the
one had it from the other; and in that case, of course, it was
Luke that had it from Paul. Now Matthew and Mark both say of
the Cup, "This is my blood of the New Testament"; while Paul
and Luke say, in identical terms, "This cup is the New
Testament in My blood" (1 Corinthians
11:25; Luke
22:20 cup after supper, saying," &c.; while
Paul says, "After the same manner He took the cup when He
had supped, saying," &c.; whereas neither Matthew nor
Mark mention that this was after supper. But still more
striking is another point of coincidence in this case. Matthew
and Mark both say of the Bread merely this: "Take, eat; this
is My body" (Matthew
26:26; Mark
14:22 which is broken for you" (1 Corinthians
11:24 which is given for you" (Luke
22:19 precious clause, "This do in remembrance of
Me," Luke does the same, in identical terms. How can one
who reflects on this resist the conviction of a Pauline stamp
in this Gospel? The other proof of this to which we ask the
reader's attention is in the fact that Paul, in enumerating
the parties by whom Christ was seen after His resurrection,
begins, singularly enough, with Peter--"And that He rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen
of Cephas, then of the Twelve" (1 Corinthians
15:4,5 the only one of the Evangelists who mentions that
Christ appeared to Peter at all. When the disciples had
returned from Emmaus to tell their brethren how the Lord had
appeared to them in the way, and how He had made Himself known
to them in the breaking of bread, they were met, as Luke
relates, ere they had time to utter a word, with this
wonderful piece of news, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath
appeared to Simon" (Luke
24:34
Other points connected with this Gospel will be adverted to
in the Commentary.
Exposition of Acts Chapter One
Acts 1:1-27
by Jameison-Faussett-Brown
• Key
Verses
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Ac
1:1-11. INTRODUCTION--LAST DAYS OF OUR LORD UPON EARTH--HIS ASCENSION.
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Verse 1, 2. former treatise--Luke's
Gospel.
Theophilus--(See on Lu
1:3).
began to do and
teach--a very important statement, dividing the work of
Christ into two great branches: the one embracing His work
on earth, the other His subsequent work from
heaven; the one in His own Person, the other by His
Spirit; the one the "beginning," the other the continuance of
the same work; the one complete when He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high, the other to continue till His
second appearing; the one recorded in "The Gospels," the
beginnings only of the other related in this book of
"The Acts." "Hence the grand history of what Jesus did and
taught does not conclude with His departure to the Father; but
Luke now begins it in a higher strain; for all the subsequent
labors of the apostles are just an exhibition of the
ministry of the glorified Redeemer Himself because they
were acting under His authority, and He was the principle that
operated in them all" [OLSHAUSEN].
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Verse 2. after that he, through the Holy
Ghost, had given commandments, &c.--referring to the
charge recorded in Mt
28:18-20; Mr 16:15-18; Lu 24:44-49. It is worthy of notice
that nowhere else are such communications of the risen
Redeemer said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost." In
general, this might have been said of all He uttered and all
He did in His official character; for it was for this very end
that God "gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (Joh
3:34). But after His resurrection, as if to signify the
new relation in which He now stood to the Church, He
signalized His first meeting with the assembled disciples by
breathing on them (immediately after dispensing to them
His peace) and saying, "Receive ye the Holy
Ghost" (Joh
20:22) thus anticipating the donation of the Spirit from
His hands (see on Joh
20:21, 22); and on the same principle His parting charges
are here said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost," as
if to mark that He was now all redolent with the Spirit; that
what had been husbanded, during His suffering work, for His
own necessary uses, had now been set free, was already
overflowing from Himself to His disciples, and needed but His
ascension and glorification to flow all forth. (See on Joh
7:39.)
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Verse 3-5. showed himself alive--As
the author is about to tell us that "the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus" was the great burden of apostolic
preaching, so the subject is here filly introduced by an
allusion to the primary evidence on which that great fact
rests, the repeated and undeniable manifestations of Himself
in the body to the assembled disciples, who, instead of being
predisposed to believe it, had to be overpowered by the
resistless evidence of their own senses, and were slow of
yielding even to this (Mr
16:14).
after his
passion--or, suffering. This primary sense of the word
"passion" has fallen into disuse; but it is nobly consecrated
in the phraseology of the Church to express the Redeemer's
final endurances.
seen of them
forty days--This important specification of time occurs
here only.
speaking of--rather
"speaking."
the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God--till now only in germ, but soon to
take visible form; the earliest and the latest burden of His
teaching on earth.
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Verse 4. should not depart from
Jerusalem--because the Spirit was to glorify the existing
economy, by descending on the disciples at its metropolitan
seat, and at the next of its great festivals after the
ascension of the Church's Head; in order that "out of Zion
might go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem" (Isa
2:3; and compare Lu
24:49).
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Verse 5. ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence--ten days hence, as
appears from Le
23:15, 16; but it was expressed thus indefinitely to
exercise their faith.
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Verse 6-8. wilt thou at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel?--Doubtless their carnal views of
Messiah's kingdom had by this time been modified, though how
far it is impossible to say. But, as they plainly looked for
some restoration of the kingdom to Israel, so they are
neither rebuked nor contradicted on this point.
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Verse 7. It is not for you to know the
times, &c.--implying not only that this was not
the time, but that the question was irrelevant to their
present business and future work.
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Verse 8. receive power--See Lu
24:49.
and ye shall be
witnesses unto me . . . in Jerusalem . . .
in all Judea . . . and unto the uttermost part of
the earth--This order of apostolic preaching and
success supplies the proper key to the plan of the Acts,
which relates first the progress of the Gospel "in Jerusalem,
and all Judea and Samaria" (the first through ninth chapters),
and then "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (the tenth
through twenty-eighth chapters).
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Verse 9-11. while they beheld, he was
taken up--See on Lu
24:50-53. Lest it should be thought He had disappeared
when they were looking in some other direction, and so was
only concluded to have gone up to heaven, it is here
expressly said that "while they were looking He was
taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight."
So Elijah, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee"
(2Ki
2:10); "And Elisha saw it" (Ac
1:12). (See on Lu
9:32.)
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Verse 10. while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven--following Him with their eager eyes, in
rapt amazement. Not, however, as a mere fact is this recorded,
but as a part of that resistless evidence of their senses on
which their whole subsequent testimony was to be borne.
two men in white
apparel--angels in human form, as in Lu
24:4.
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Verse 11. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven, &c.--"as if your now glorified
Head were gone from you never to return: He is coming again;
not another, but 'this same Jesus'; and 'as ye have seen Him
go, in the like manner shall He come'--as personally,
as visibly, as gloriously; and let the joyful
expectation of this coming swallow up the sorrow of that
departure."
Ac
1:12-26. RETURN OF THE ELEVEN TO JERUSALEM--PROCEEDINGS IN THE UPPER
ROOM TILL PENTECOST.
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Verse 12-14. a sabbath day's
journey--about two thousand cubits.
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Verse 13. went up into an upper
room--perhaps the same "large upper room" where with their
Lord they had celebrated the last Passover and the first
Supper (Lu
22:12).
where abode--not
lodged, but had for their place of rendezvous.
Peter, &c.--(See on Mt
10:2-4).
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Verse 14. continued with one
accord--knit by a bond stronger than death.
in prayer and supplication--for the
promised baptism, the need of which in their orphan state
would be increasingly felt.
and
Mary the mother of Jesus--distinguished from the other
"women," but "so as to exclude the idea of her having any
pre-eminence over the disciples. We find her with the rest in
prayer to her glorified Son" [WEBSTER and
WILKINSON]. This is the last mention of
her in the New Testament. The fable of the Assumption
of the Virgin has no foundation even in tradition [ALFORD].
with his
brethren--(See on Joh
7:3).
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Verse 15-26. in those days--of
expectant prayer, and probably towards the close of them, when
the nature of their future work began more clearly to dawn
upon them, and the Holy Ghost, already "breathed" on the
Eleven (Joh
20:22), was stirring in Peter, who was to be the leading
spirit of the infant community (Mt
16:19).
the number
. . . about an hundred and twenty--Many,
therefore, of the "five hundred brethren" who saw their risen
Lord "at once" (1Co
15:6), must have remained in Galilee.
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Verse 18. falling headlong,
&c.--This information supplements, but by no means
contradicts, what is said in Mt
27:5.
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Verse 20. his bishopric--or "charge."
The words are a combination of Ps
69:25 and Ps 109:8; in which the apostle discerns a
greater than David, and a worse than Ahithophel and his fellow
conspirators against David.
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Verse 21. all the time the Lord Jesus
went in and out among us--in the close intimacies of a
three years' public life.
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Verse 22. Beginning from the baptism of
John--by whom our Lord was not only Himself baptized, but
first officially announced and introduced to his own
disciples.
unto that same day when
he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness
with us of his resurrection--How clearly is the primary
office of the apostles here expressed: (1) to testify, from
personal observation, to the one great fact of "the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus"; (2) to show how this
glorified His whole previous life, of which they were constant
observers, and established His divine claims.
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Verse 23. they appointed--"put up" in
nomination; meaning not the Eleven but the whole company, of
whom Peter was the spokesman.
two--The choice would lie between a very few.
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Verse 24. prayed and said, Thou,
Lord, &c.--"The word 'Lord,' placed absolutely,
denotes in the New Testament almost universally THE SON; and
the words, 'Show whom Thou hast chosen,' are decisive. The
apostles are just Christ's messengers: It is He that sends
them, and of Him they bear witness. Here, therefore, we have
the first example of a prayer offered to the exalted Redeemer;
furnishing indirectly the strongest proof of His divinity"
[OLSHAUSEN].
which knowest the hearts of all men--See Joh
2:24, 25; 21:15-17; Re 2:23.
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Verse 25. that he might go to his own
place--A euphemistic or softened expression of the awful
future of the traitor, implying not only destined habitation
but congenial element.
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Verse 26. was numbered--"voted in" by
general suffrage.
with the eleven
apostles--completing the broken
Twelve.
• Key
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition
prepared from text scanned by Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-Brown
Commentary is in the public domain and may be freely used and
distributed.
Bibliography
Information
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.
"Commentary on Acts 1". "Commentary Critical and
Explanatory
on the Whole Bible".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/jfb/view.cgi?book=ac&chapter=001>.
1871.
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