Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42. And they continued stedfastly. The three thousand souls converted after the Pentecost feast. The whole church is not especially mentioned in Acts 2:44.

In the apostles' doctrine. Those who had just joined the little company of believers in Jesus naturally sought to know more and more of that Master they had learned to love. The teaching of the apostles would especially consist in rehearsing the sayings of Jesus and explaining the doctrines of the faith so far as they were at that time revealed to them.

And fellowship. This word should not be coupled with the apostles' doctrine, as in the Authorized Version; the rendering should be, ‘ and in fellowship ' (ϰαὶ τή ϰοινωνία) .

Three significations have been proposed for this difficult word (a) oneness of spirit, brotherhood one with the other; (b) distribution of money and food among the society; (c) communion in the sense of our communion, the Lord's Supper. Of these, (c) would seem excluded, as this sense of the word does not appear to have prevailed before the fourth century; (a) and (b) are both admissible, but the use of the term in the sense of distribution of money or necessaries among the poor in such passages as Romans 15:26, 2 Corinthians 8:4, and also Hebrews 13:16, seems decisive for (b).

And in breaking of bread. Common consent refers this expression to the breaking of the bread in the Lord's Supper. At this time the Eucharist was preceded by an ordinary repast. There is no doubt these words refer to a meal taken in common by the brethren, accompanied by the celebration of the Eucharist, following here the example of the last supper of the Lord.

And in prayers. These would include the beautiful prayers and Psalms of the old Jewish ritual, together with new supplications adapted to the new dispensation, in which Jesus was invoked as King and God. See Acts 7:60; Acts 9:6; Acts 22:10.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 2:42

Old Testament

New Testament