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1: The ninth hour - The Jews divided the time from sunrise
to sunset into twelve hours; which were consequently of unequal
length at different times of the year, as the days were longer
or shorter. The third hour therefore was nine in the morning;
the ninth, three in the afternoon; but not exactly. For the
third hour was the middle space between sunrise and noon; which,
if the sun rose at five, (the earliest hour of its rising in
that climate,) was half an hour after eight: if at seven (the
latest hour of its rising there) was half an hour after nine.
The chief hours of prayer were the third and ninth; at which
seasons the morning and evening sacrifices were offered, and
incense (a kind of emblem representing prayer) burnt on the
golden altar.
2: At the gate of the temple, called Beautiful - This gate was
added by Herod the Great, between the court of the Gentiles and
that of Israel. It was thirty cubits high, and fifteen broad,
and made of Corinthian brass, more pompous in its workmanship
and splendour than those that were covered with silver and gold.
6: Then said Peter, Silver and gold have I none - How unlike his
supposed successor! Can the bishop of Rome either say or do
the same?
12: Peter answered the people - Who were running together, and
inquiring into the circumstances of the fact.
13: The God of our fathers - This was wisely introduced in the
beginning of his discourse, that it might appear they taught
no new religion, inconsistent with that of Moses, and were far
from having the least design to divert their regards from the
God of Israel. Hath glorified his Son - By this miracle, whom ye
delivered up - When God had given him to you, and when ye ought
to have received him as a most precious treasure, and to have
preserved him with all your power.
14: Ye renounced the Holy One - Whom God had marked out as such;
and the Just One - Even in the judgment of Pilate.
16: His name - Himself: his power and love. The faith which is
by him - Of which he is the giver, as well as the object.
17: And now, brethren - A word full of courtesy and compassion,
I know - He speaks to their heart, that through ignorance ye did
it - which lessened, though it could not take away, the guilt.
As did also your rulers - The prejudice lying from the authority of
the chief priests and elders, he here removes, but with great
tenderness. He does not call them our, but your rulers.
For as the Jewish dispensation ceased at the death of Christ,
consequently so did the authority of its rulers.
18: But God - Who was not ignorant, permitted this which he had
foretold, to bring good out of it.
19: Be converted - Be turned from sin and Satan unto God.
See (Ac 26:20). But this term, so common in modern writings,
very rarely occurs in Scripture: perhaps not once in the sense
we now use it, for an entire change from vice to holiness.
That the times of refreshing - Wherein God largely bestows his
refreshing grace, may come - To you also. To others they will
assuredly come, whether ye repent or no.
20: And he may send - The apostles generally speak of our Lord's
second coming, as being just at hand. Who was before appointed
- Before the foundation of the world.
21: Till the times of the restitution of all things - The apostle
here comprises at once the whole course of the times of the New
Testament, between our Lord's ascension and his coming in glory.
The most eminent of these are the apostolic age, and that of the
spotless Church, which will consist of all the Jews and Gentiles
united, after all persecutions and apostacies are at an end.
22: The Lord shall raise you up a prophet like unto me - And that
in many particulars. Moses instituted the Jewish Church: Christ
instituted the Christian. With the prophesying of Moses was soon
joined the effect, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt: with the
prophesying of Christ that grand effect, the deliverance of his
people from sin and death. Those who could not bear the voice of
God, yet desired to hear that of Moses. Much more do those who
are wearied with the law, desire to hear the voice of Christ.
Moses spake to the people all, and only those things, which God
had commanded him: so did Christ. But though he was like Moses,
yet he was infinitely superior to him, in person, as well as in
office. (De 18:15).
23: Every soul who will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed
from among the people - One cannot imagine a more masterly address
than this, to warn the Jews of the dreadful consequence of their
infidelity, in the very words of their favourite prophet, out of
a pretended zeal for whom they rejected Christ.
24: These days - The days of the Messiah.
25: Ye are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant - That in,
heirs of the prophecies. To you properly, as the first heirs,
belong the prophecies and the covenant. (Ge 12:3).
26: To bless you, by turning you from your iniquities - Which is
the great Gospel blessing.
