Acts 5:30

ὁ Θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν, cf. Acts 3:13. St. Peter, as before, will not dissociate himself from the common wealth of Israel, or his hearers from the message and works of the Christ. ἤγειρεν : does this word refer to the Resurrection, or to the sending of Jesus into this world, and His raising up by God as the Messiah? The former is the view taken by St. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Erasmus, and amongst moderns by Meyer-Wendt, Nösgen, Alford, Overbeck, Felten, Blass, Holtzmann, Weiss, Hilgenfeld; but in Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10, the phrase is ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν (cf. Sir 48:5 : ὁ ἐγείρας νεκρὸν ἐκ θανάτου), although in Acts 10:40; Acts 13:37, the word evidently refers to the Resurrection. Others interpret the word as ἀνίστημι in Acts 3:22, and as in Acts 13:22, ἤγειρεν αὐτοῖς τὸν Δαυείδ (cf. Luke 1:69; Luke 7:16), so Calvin, Bengel, De Wette, Lechler, Hackett, Page. One of the chief arguments for the former interpretation is the contrast marked in the next clause between the death of the Cross and the Resurrection, but this contrast would still be marked by the following verb. Is it not possible that, as in the days of old God had raised up a Saviour, or Saviours, for Israel, cf. Judges 2:18, ἤγειρε Κ. αὐτοῖς κριτάς, Judges 3:9; Judges 3:15, ἤγειρε Κ. σωτῆρα τῷ Ἰ., St. Peter may now speak of Him as raising up Ἰησοῦς, i.e., a Saviour? see further, Acts 5:31. διεχειρίσασθε, cf. Acts 26:21, “whom ye slew, hanging Him on a tree,” R.V., not as in A.V., “whom ye slew and hanged on a tree,” which would make the words refer to a Jewish mode of punishment, for, according to Jewish law, only those were hanged who were already dead (Deuteronomy 21:22; Joshua 10:26). The word which means in middle to lay hands upon, and so to slay, to kill, is only used by St. Luke (not in LXX), and forcibly represents the guilt of the Jews in the murder of Jesus, as if they had perpetrated it with their own hands (cf. Acts 26:24), “made away with violently,” Page; cf. instances in Wetstein (trucidastis). κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου, LXX, Genesis 40:19; Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Joshua 10:26; Esther 5:14; Esther 6:4 (Galatians 3:13). Although St. Luke uses κρευασθείς of crucifixion, Luke 23:39, St. Peter alone uses the exact phrase of the text given in Acts 10:39, and so he too has ξύλον, 1 Peter 2:24, for the Cross (although St. Paul uses the same word, Acts 13:29). The word may therefore have a place amongst the many coincidences between St. Peter's addresses and the language of his Epistles, see above on pp. 121 ff. The fact that their victim was thus accursed in the eyes of the law aggravated their guilt, and at the same sharply contrasted their act and that of God; for a similar contrast see Acts 3:14-15.