Acts 3:15

τὸν δὲ ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς : again the words stand in marked contrast not only to φονέα but also to ἀπεκτείνατε; magnificum antitheton, Bengel. The word is rendered “Author” in the margin of R.V. (Vulgate, auctorem) but “Prince” in the text and so in Acts 5:31 (Vulg., principem). In the two other passages in which the word occurs in the N.T., viz., Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 12:2, R.V. renders “Author,” “the author of their salvation,” “the author and perfecter of our faith,” margin “captain” (Vulgate, auctorem); see Westcott, Hebrews, pp. 49, 395. Christ is both the Prince of life and the Source (auctor) of life: “Vitam aliis dat Christus, opp [142] φονεύς qui adimit” (Blass). Grimm and others draw a distinction between the meaning attaching to the word here and in Acts 5:31. The use of the word in the LXX may help to justify such a distinction, for whilst it is found in the sense of a leader or a captain (Numbers 14:4, Jdt 14:2), or the chief of a family or tribe (R.V. renders it “every one a prince” in Numbers 13:2, but in the next verse “heads of the children of Israel”), it is also used to signify the author, or beginner, the source, cf. 1Ma 9:61; 1Ma 10:47, Micah 1:13 (although it was never used for a prince or to describe kingly attributes); but in many respects the rendering “Prince” may be compared with the Latin princeps, which signifies the first person in order, a chief, a leader, an originator, the founder of a family (in the time of the emperors it was used of the heir to the throne). So in classical Greek the word was used for a leader, a founder, Latin auctor, for the first cause, author, so God τῶν πάντων, Plat., and also for a prince, a chief, and, especially in later Greek, of the person from whom anything good or bad first proceeds in which others have a share, e.g., ἀρχηγὸς καὶ αἴτιος combined (antesignanus et auctor), Polyb., i., 66, 10; Hdian., ii., 6, 22, and as Alford points out in Hebrews 2:10, this later usage throws a light upon its meaning in Acts 3:15, cf. Chrys. on Hebrews 2:10, ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας τούτεστι τὸν αἴτιον τῆς σωτηρίας. Christ is the source of life, a life in which others share through Him; in this very place where St. Peter was speaking our Lord had spoken of Himself as the giver of eternal life, John 10:28, although doubtless the expression may include the thought that in Him was life in its fullest and widest sense physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual. St. Chrysostom comments on the words “Prince of Life,” Hom., xi.: “It follows that the life He had was not from another, the Prince or Author of Life must be He who has life from Himself”. Theophylact and Oecumenius see in the words a contrast to the φονέα, in that Christ gives life, while the murderer takes it away a contrast deepened by the words of St. Peter's fellow-disciple whom he here associates with himself in his appeal to the people, cf. 1 John 3:15. In John 10:31 ἀρχ. in its rendering “Prince” of kingly dignity may be compared with the use of the word in Thuc., i., 132, Æsch., Agam., 259. Rendall sees in the expression both here and Acts 5:31 a reference to Jesus (the name used by St. Peter) as the second Joshua. As Joshua was the captain of Israel and led them across the Jordan into the land of promise, so Jesus was the Captain of the living army of the Resurrection; and for Saviour, Acts 5:31, he compares Matthew 1:21. Such associations may be included in St. Peter's words, but they seem much more applicable to Acts 5:31. In modern Greek the word ἀρχηγός = leader, in the ordinary sense, Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 153; see Grimm, sub v. οὗ may refer to ὅν, cf. Acts 1:8; Acts 13:31, or to the fact of the Resurrection, cf. Acts 2:32; Acts 5:32; Acts 10:39. R.V. reads “of whom” in the margin.

[142] opposite, opposition.