Acts 3:19

ἐπιστρέψατε : “turn again,” R.V.; cf. also Matthew 13:15; Mark 4:12, and Acts 28:27 (Luke 22:32), in each of these passages, as in the text, A.V., “should be converted,” following the Vulgate, convertantur. But the verb is in the active voice in each of the passages mentioned; cf. LXX, 1Ki 8:33, 2 Chronicles 6:24; 2 Chronicles 6:37; Isaiah 6:10 (“turn again,” R.V.), Tob 13:6 ἐπιστρέψατε ἁμαρτωλοί : this passive rendering in the Vulgate and A.V. testifies to the unwillingness in the Western Church to recognise the “conversion” to God as in any degree the spontaneous act of the sinner himself men have enlarged upon Lamentations 5:21, but have forgotten James 4:8 (Humphry, Commentary on the R. V., pp. 31, 32). πρὸς τὸ ἐξαλειφθῆναι : in the LXX the verb is found in the sense of obliterating ἀνομίας, Psalms 50 (51):1, 9; Isaiah 43:25, Sir 46:20, Jeremiah 18:23, with ἁμαρτίας, 2Ma 12:42, with ἁμάρτημα (cf. 3Ma 2:19, ἀπαλείφειν with ἁμαρτίας), and in N.T.; cf. Colossians 2:14. For other instances of its use in the N.T., cf. Revelation 3:5, with Deuteronomy 9:14; Psalms 9:5, etc., and see also Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4. In Psalms of Solomon it is used twice once of blotting out the memories of sinners from off the earth, Psalms 2:19; cf. Exodus 17:14, etc., and once of blotting out the transgressions of Saints by the Lord, Psalms 13:9. Blass speaks of the word as used “de scriptis proprie; itaque etiam de debita pecunia”; cf. Dem., 791, 12 (Wendt), and see also Wetstein, in loco. The word can scarcely be applied here to the Baptism (as Meyer), for which a word expressing washing would rather be required, cf. Acts 22:16, although no doubt, as in Acts 2:38, Baptism joined with Repentance was required for the remission of sins. ὅπως ἄν : not “when” (as if ὅπως = ὅτε), but “that so there may come,” R.V., ἄν with ὅπως indicates that the accomplishment of the purpose is dependent upon certain conditions; here dependent upon the repentance. In the N.T. there are only four instances of this use of ὅπως ἄν, all in pure final clauses, viz., in the text, Luke 2:35, and in two quotations from the LXX, Acts 15:17 (where ἄν is wanting in LXX, Amos 9:12), and Romans 3:4 = LXX, Psalms 50 (51):4, so that this usage is practically peculiar to St. Luke in the N.T. Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 80 (1893); Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 207, and Burton, N.T. Moods and Tenses, p. 85. καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως : the word ἀνάψυξις, used only by St. Luke, means refreshing or refreshment. In the LXX it occurs in Exodus 8:15 (but cf. Aq. on Isaiah 28:12, and Sym. on Isaiah 32:15), where it is translated “respite,” although the same Hebrew word רְוָחָה, in the only other place in which it occurs, Lamentations 3:56, may have the sense of “relief” (see Dr. Payne Smith, in loco, Speaker's Commentary, vol. v.). In Strabo ἀνάψυξις is found in the sense of recreation, refreshment, 10, p. 459; see also Philo, De Abr., 29, and cf. the verb ἀναψύχω in 2 Timothy 1:16 (cf. Romans 15:32, ἀναψύξω μεθʼ ὑμῶν, DE, refrigerer vobiscum, Vulgate, and Nösgen on Acts 3:19). Rendall would render it here “respite,” as if St. Peter urged the need of repentance that the people might obtain a respite from the terrible visitation of the Lord. But the καιροὶ ἀναψ · are identified by most commentators with the ἀποκατα. πάντων, and ἀναψ · need by no means be rendered “respite”. Nösgen, connecting the words with the thought of ἀνάπαυσις (cf. the various renderings in Romans 15:32), would see here a fulfilment of Christ's promise, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς, Matthew 11:28, to those who turned to Him in true repentance, and so in his view the expression applies to the seasons of spiritual refreshment which may be enjoyed by the truly penitent here and now, which may occur again and again as men repent (Isaiah 57:16); so J. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., interprets the word of the present refreshing of the Gospel, and God's present sending of Christ in His ministry and power, and in the same manner ἀποστείλῃ, i.e., not at the end of the world, when Christ shall come as Judge, but in the Gospel, which is His voice. But the context certainly conceives of Christ as enthroned in Heaven, where He must remain until His Second Advent, although we may readily admit that there is a spiritual presence of the enthroned Jesus which believers enjoy as a foretaste of the visible and glorious Presence at the Parousia, Briggs, Messiah of the Apostles, p. 31 ff. ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ Κ. πρόσωπ., lit [145], face, often used as here for “the presence”; cf. Hebrew, מִפְּנֵי, frequently in LXX, and see above on Acts 2:28, here of the refreshment which comes from the bright and smiling presence of God to one seeking comfort (so Grimm). The phrase occurs three times in Acts 5:41; Acts 7:45, elsewhere in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, and three times in Apoc. On St. Luke's fondness for phrases with πρόσωπον (ἀπό, πρό, κατά), see Friedrich (Das Lucasevangelium, pp. 8, 9, 89). The Lord is evidently God the Father, the καιροί are represented as present before God, already decreed and determined, and as coming down from His presence to earth (Weiss, Wendt). Christ speaks, Acts 1:6, of the seasons which the Father hath set in His own power, and so St. Chrysostom speaks of God as αἴτιος of the seasons of refreshment.

[145] literal, literally.