Acts 3:24

καὶ πάντες δὲ οἱ προφῆται. To other prophecies St Peter only makes a general reference. We learn (Midrash Shemuel, c. 24) that Samuel was called by the Jews the Rabban, the chief and teacher, of the prophets and there are several reasons why he is put in this foremost place. (1) We never read of a school of the prophets before his time. (2) His mother Hannah is the first person in Holy Writ who speaks of the Messiah (1 Samuel 2:10), ‘God’s anointed.’ (3) Jewish tradition says that the man of God who came to Eli (1 Samuel 2:27) was Elkanah. The Targum on 1 Samuel 10:12, ‘But who is their father?’ explains father by Rabbi, and refers the word to Samuel, so that the question in that verse would imply, ‘Why do you wonder at Saul among the prophets? Who is it that instructs the prophets? Is it not Samuel? And has not Saul been with him just now and been anointed by him?’ All this could be said without the speaker having any knowledge that Saul was to be king. For the use of father as = teacher or Rabbi cf. Elisha’s cry to Elijah (2 Kings 2:12), ‘My father, my father.’

ὅσοι ἐλάλησαν καὶ κατήγγειλαν. Render, as many as spake they also told of these days. The προ which is prefixed to the latter verb in the Text. recept. seems to have been introduced with the notion that the words of a prophet must of necessity be predictive. Whereas the prophet was one who spake for God, gave a message in His name, but was not necessarily a foreteller of the future.