CHAPTER I.

1. The former treatise. Or, book; or, history; for so the Greek authorizes us to translate. A clear reference is here made to the Gospel according to Luke, to which the present work stands in the character of a second part, or supplement. The chain of direct connexion consists in the identity of the person to whom both works are dedicated. Theophilus. We possess no knowledge of this individual, beyond the mere mention of his name in this passage, and in Luke i. 3. But this fact suggests the probability that he was a Christian of distinction and esteem, a friend of the writer, perhaps a civil officer, and, judging by the name, of Grecian origin. All, i. e. a full history, not literally all. See John iv. 29, xxi. 25.-Began both to do and teach. This expression is sometimes construed as meaning, that the Gospel by Luke described the beginning of Christianity, with the labors of Jesus, but that the Acts was intended to relate its progress under the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the administration of the apostles; in fact, a species of second advent of Christ, in the extension and power of his religion. Others regard began as an intensive word, expressive of the greatness or difficulty of the work. But the more natural way is to consider the sentence a Hebrew idiom, meaning, simply, all that Je

sus did and taught; "began " being redundant. A division is here made between what he did, and what he taught, or his miracles and his instructions, the two leading forms in which his spirit manifested itself.

2. Until the day. During the forty days intervening between the resurrection and ascension, our Lord continued to teach and to work miracles as before his death. Luke xxiv. 45; John xxi. 6. — He was taken up. Such expressions imply that he was not the cause, but the object, of the miraculous power exerted at his ascension. Ver. 9.-Through the Holy Ghost, or Spirit; i. e. through divine inspiration. It has been a question among critics, to what member of the sentence this clause properly belongs: some decide in favor of its present location; others connect it with "taken up ;" and others with "had chosen." The latter construction has the great weight of Griesbach in its favor, who points the original to read thus: "after that he had given commandments unto the apostles, whom he had chosen through the Holy Spirit."- Had given commandments. Literally, "had commanded." One of his principal commands was to "preach the gospel to every creature." Mat. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15.

3. To whom also he showed himself. As the apostles were chosen with a special reference to their

office as witnesses, Jesus appeared most frequently to them, though he did also to others, and at one time to more than five hundred. 1 Cor. xv. 6. After his passion. This has a technical, theological sense, as applied to the Saviour. It means the sufferings of death. By many infallible proofs. The length of time he appeared — during “forty days the number of persons to whom he showed himself, the variety of circumstances under which he appeared, his eating, walking, conversing, teaching, working miracles, showing his wounds, the identity of character he exhibited, constitute what may, without exaggeration, be called "infallible proofs," that Jesus rose from the dead. This doctrine is fortified by so many evidences, that every shadow of doubt is dissipated. - Forty days. This length of time gives additional force to the argument for the resurrection. Speaking of the things, &c. He still is interested in the great object for which he died. We recognize the same Jesus in the traits of his character, as well as the wounds of his body. The kingdom of God is ever uppermost in his thoughts; for this he lives, dies, and rises again. The instructions which he gave at this time are partly detailed in the Gospels, and in the present chapter; they probably related to the real character of his kingdom as a spiritual reign, and to the duties devolving upon the apostles in their untried condition.

4. Being assembled together with them. Having met with them. Margin* reads, "eating together;" but it is unauthorized. The more exact version would be, "having assembled them together," taking the Greek participle in the middle voice, and with the active sense. Jesus brought them together by his own summons. - Not depart from Jerusalem. No revenge was harbored in the bosom of the Crucified One. The city of Caiaphas, and Pilate, of scribes and Pharisees, of the cross and the tomb, was to be the central point of the gospel radiation. Here was the seat of worship of the one God, and the solemn associations of centuries. Here were the chief witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection, of our Lord; here the most important scenes in the Divine tragedy. Here God would vindicate his Son by the descent of the Spirit on his apostles. It was not without good reasons that he bade them remain in "Jerusalem.". The promise of the Father, i. e. the promise of the descent of the Holy Spirit made by the Father through Christ. Luke xxiv. 49; John xiv. 16, 17, 26, xv. 26, xvi. 7. Here, as elsewhere, the Father is represented as the primary source of all spiritual influence and life.

5. With water · with the Holy Ghost. See Mat. iii. 11; Luke iii.

By the marginal readings are meant those made by King James' translators, but which they considered inferior to the text, and therefore threw into the margin.

6 hence.

16; John i. 33. The prediction of John the Baptist was now to be consummated. He baptized, indeed, with the purifying element of water; but there would be a baptism, under the new dispensation, of a higher degree, -a baptism of a holy breath, wind, chap. ii. 2, spirit, a still more subtile element. The fine figure contained in the original is lost in our translation, and the unauthorized addition made of the article "the." Note on Mat. iii. 11. To be baptized with a holy Spirit, was to be imbued with it. Not many days hence. This appears to be spoken only a short time before the ascension, which, according to Carpenter, occurred about nine days only before the feast of Pentecost and the gift of the Spirit.

6–12. Parallel with Mark xvi. 19;

Luke xxiv. 50-53.

6. Were come together. On a different occasion from that spoken of in ver. 4, 5, and upon the Mount of Olives, ver. 12. Wilt thou at this time restore again. Or, simply, "restore." This question reveals in the clearest manner the state of the apostles. Their minds were still haunted with their old visions of royalty, temporal sovereignty. The fall of Jesus had for a time damped their ardor; but, when he came forth the conqueror over death and the grave, all their hopes came to life again with him. They saw their Master king, Israel triumphant, and Roman and Greek bend the knee in subjection. True, in common with their countrymen, they believed that pure religion was to be the great end of this Jewish victory; that the worship of one God was to be estab

lished over the earth. But much selfishness and ambition had room to mingle in this brilliant dream. They would be the ministers and favorites of the king, and they now ask him, with assured tone, the question of the text. Of the great event itself they had no doubt: they simply confine their inquiries to the point of time when it would occur, and whether it would take place immediately. He had told them to await the coming of the Spirit at Jerusalem: they virtually ask, in their simplicity, whether it was to the inauguration of the new sovereign to his office. — To Israel. It was the favorite idea of the Jews that their Messiah would, at his coming, elevate their nation to a far prouder eminence than it enjoyed even under their most powerful kings, David and Solomon, and that Jerusalem would become the metropolis of the earth.

7. It is not for you to know, &c. This was a rebuke of their idle curiosity and their worldly ambition. There was no time now to make explanations. They were not yet prepared to know the true character and the probable period of Christ's kingdom being established, but their prejudices would, after a while, wear away. God had reserved, too, in his own omniscience, the great epochs of Christianity. Even Christ professes his ignorance of them, and thus .acknowledges the superiority of the Father, either by implication or assertion. Mat. xxiv. 36; Mark xiii. 32; John xiv. 28. Various times and seasons have been reserved in the divine jurisdiction; as the period of Christ's coming, which took place at

the overthrow of Jerusalem and Judaism; the prevalence of Christianity over the earth; the end of the world; the day of our death; the eras of retribution and immortality. Deut. xxix. 29. Man can calculate the revolutions of Saturn, or Halley's comet, but not the times and seasons of human affairs. It has been wisely and kindly ordered that we should be ignorant of many things. Knowledge is not always a blessing. If we knew the events of the future, we might be distracted in our devotion to the duties of the present. An acquaintance with our coming fortunes would be inconsistent with free choice and human agency. The obscurity before us leads us to watch, and pray, and labor. “The veil which covers the face of futurity is woven by the hands of Mercy.". The times or the seasons Wakefield renders, "those seasons of time." Hath put in his own power. Rather, "disposed according to his own authority."

8. But ye shall receive power, &c. This clause would be more properly rendered, as in the English margin, "but ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." The word "power" is different in the original from the word thus rendered in ver. 8, and which is better translated "authority." Though it was not given them to know the times and seasons, they would receive the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit a prediction which was soon fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. They had the greatest work to do, and they needed the greatest assistance. Witnesses unto me. Literally, "martyrs." Not that they would certainly be put to death,

though many of them were killed for the sake of the gospel; but the word refers more to the witness they would bear than the manner in which they would bear it. The apostles were selected with a special reference to this end, that having first been admitted to an intimate acquaintance with the life, character, miracles, and teachings, of our Lord, with his death, resurrection, and ascension, they should go forth to bear testimony of all they had seen and heard, both to Jews and Gentiles. Hence their preaching principally consisted, at first, of a recapitulation of historical facts. Chap. ii. 22 - 36, iii. 12-23, iv. 8 - 12, v. 29-32. — Jerusalem. The apostles were naturally to commence their work at the head-quarters of the Jewish faith, and the scene of the most eventful passages in the life of the Master.

- Judea - Samaria. The southern portion of the country, including the capital, and the adjoining northern province. Chap. viii. 1, 4. When driven by persecution from Jerusalem, they were to spread over the surrounding regions. · Unto the uttermost part of the earth. An announcement, showing at once the grand and universal plan of Jesus to establish his kingdom in no narrow Jewish limits, but to circumscribe the whole Gentile world. The very fact of such a conception furnishes presumptive evidence of a more than mortal wisdom. mind had yet embraced the whole earth, either in its ambitious, or its benevolent regards. It was reserved for Jesus to draw a scheme from the divine councils, which should eclipse the visions of both warriors and philosophers, Sublime prospect, not yet

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