Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 3:23

ἔσται δὲ, cf. Acts 2:17. The expression, which is not in the Hebrew. seems to call attention to what follows. ἐξολεθρευθήσεται ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ : “shall be utterly destroyed” (ἐξ), R.V. In the LXX, Deuteronomy 18:19, following the Hebrew, the words are ἐγὼ ἐκδικήσω ἐξ πὐτοῦ, “I will require it of him”. But the phrase which St. Peter uses was a very common one, from Genesis 17:14, for the sentence of death, cf. also Exodus 12:15; Exodus 12:19; Leviticus 17:4; Leviticus 17:9; Numbers 15:30. Here again the quotation is evidently made freely or from memory. The strong verb, although frequent in the LXX, is found only here in the N.T. It is used by Josephus and by Philo, but not in classical Greek. The warning is evidently directed against wilful disobedience, and is expressed in terms signifying the utterness of the destruction from the people. But in their original meaning in the O.T. they need not refer to anything more than the penalty of the death of the body, and it is not necessary to see in them here any threat of eternal punishment in Gehenna (so Wendt, Holtzmann, Felten). If the word has any eschatological bearing it would support the theory of annihilation more easily. Grotius explains ἐξολεθ., “morte violenta aut immatura,” and he adds “mystice etiam Rabbini hoc ad poenas post hanc vitam referunt,” but this is quite apart from the primary meaning of the word.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 3:23

Old Testament

New Testament