friends, but of foes, to their reality. Mat. xii. 24; John iii. 2, xi. 47. Peter was addressing at this time the very individuals who had witnessed the cures performed by Christ, who had beheld the "signs" at the crucifixion; that the sun was darkened, and the earth, "sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe;" and his words must have sunk into their hearts with a thrilling and indescribable power, of which we cannot now conceive, and we cease to wonder at the effects described in ver. 37, 41.

23. Delivered, i. e. delivered up. The word, as it stands in the text, means directly the opposite of the original. Jesus was delivered up, or betrayed, by Judas to the Jews, and also by the Jews delivered up to the Romans. -The determinate counsel and foreknowledge, i. e. what God had willed and known. It might be objected, on the part of the cavilling Jews, that Jesus could not be the true Messiah, for God had rejected him, had suffered him to be put to death, in the most dishonorable manner, by the hands of wicked men. Surely this could not be the illustrious and eternal Messiah, the sublime hope of their nation, the King of the world! Peter removes this difficulty, by alleging that it was foreknown and foreordained that it should be so; the Messiah was to die, that from his death might come life to the world. It was the determinate, the defined and settled, counsel and foreknowledge of God that Jesus should die. It was not therefore a strange thing that had happened, but what was to be looked for in the ordinations of the Most High. Luke xxiv. 46. Still the apostle, by declaring it to have taken place according to the will and foreknowl

edge of God, does not absolve the actors from the guilt of Christ's death, but speaks of the "wicked hands," or, if that phrase is doubtful, through the whole tenor of the discourse accuses them of a deep-dyed crime. The old question of God's foreknowledge and man's free agency is deep as the sea, and broad as the sea, and no man can fathom it. As Abbott has observed, "The human mind will probably ever continue to speculate in vain upon this subject. No one has yet resolved the theoretical difficulties in which it is involved, although, practically, no difficulty arises from it whatever.”By wicked hands, i. e. by the Romans, who, as being Gentiles, were called sinners. The Greek adjective, translated "wicked," means, literally, "without law," i. e. the heathen. The language of the apostle has, therefore, a peculiar significance, which is lost in our version. It is true, Jesus was put to death by wicked men, by hardened, sensual, cruel Romans, whose history was an epitome of blood: though Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, because they did not know, at least in this instance, what they did; they were unaware of the divine character and dignity of him upon whom they laid such ruthless hands. But Peter was now remonstrating with the Jews, and he would pierce their conscience with the peculiar remorse that they had delivered up their Messiah, their precious and glorious Deliverer, the hope of ages, into the hands of the heathen it would have been sinful enough to put him to death themselves, but it was yet worse to employ the "sinners," the "dogs," of the uncircumcised, as they called the Gentiles, to torture and crucify their Lord of glory.

we

24-28. Whom God hath raised up. In this bold and unrefuted assertion of the resurrection of our Saviour, see evidence of its reality. It was but a few weeks ago since that event. A report to discredit it had been industriously circulated among the Jews, and the soldiers had been bribed to bear witness to its falsehood. Mat. xxviii. 11-15. But Peter, in the presence of assembled thousands, courageously vindicates that essential fact; and, what is to the point, suffers no contradiction. The negative argument of silence on the part of enemies, as well as the positive one of the testimony of friends, corroborates the resurrection of Jesus. We also remark that God is said to have raised up his Son; he did not rise of his own power or will from the sleep of the tomb. The resurrection was a miracle wrought by the Almighty, not by Christ. See notes on John x. 16-18.- Having loosed the pains of death. Or, more properly translated, "the bonds of death." Jesus is represented as bound in the prisonhouse of death, until God interposed and freed him on the third day. Because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. The impossibility here spoken of did not consist in any natural obstacle, but in the fact that "it was unfit in itself, and contrary to the tenor of prophecy," that the Messiah should "see

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corruption" in the grave. No tomb was strong enough to hold his body, when the voice of God called him forth to life. He arose triumphant, and "abolished death." — For David. In Ps. xvi. 8-11. David was regarded by the Jews as the type of the Messiah. The quotation, as usual in the New Testament, is made from the Septuagint Greek version, not from the Hebrew original.-1 foresaw the Lord, &c. Noyes, in his admirable version of the Psalms, has thus translated this passage:

"I set the Lord before me at all times;

Since he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Therefore my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoiceth;

My flesh also dwelleth in security.
For thou wilt not give me up to the grave;
Nor wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see the
pit.

Thou wilt show me the path of life;
In thy presence is fulness of joy."

Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. The word "hell" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon hel-an, to cover; a place covered. Bishop Horsley remarks that "The English word hell,' in its primary and natural meaning, signifies nothing more than the unseen and covered place,' and is properly used, both in the Old and New Testament, to render the Hebrew word in the one, and the Greek word in the other, which denote the invisible mansion of disembodied souls, without any reference to suf

ferings." This might have been true of the primitive usage of the word, but "hell" now means, in Englishi, a place of torment, supposed to be the abode of the wicked after death; and whenever therefore hades, the Greek word in the present text, is rendered "hell," it conveys the idea, not of the vast subterranean mansion of the departed good or bad, as it ought to do according to Jewish belief, but that of an abode, according to the popular theology, of superlative woe. The word hades occurs eleven times in the New Testament; Mat. xi. 23, xvi. 18; Luke x. 15, xvi. 23; Acts ii. 27,31; 1 Cor. xv. 55; Rev. i. 18, vi. 8, xx. 13, 14; and in every instance but one, that of 1 Cor. xv. 55, it is rendered "hell," when the proper translation would have been either “death,” the 66 grave," as in 1 Cor. xv. 55, or the "abode of the dead," as might suit the connexion. Another word, which is translated "hell" in our version of the New Testament, is gehenna, which is of Hebrew origin, signifying "the valley of Hinnom;" a valley near Jerusalem, where the offal and refuse of the city were cast, and fires were constantly kept to consume them, and worms were always preying upon the decayed matter. See note on Mat. v. 22. This term is used eleven times by our Lord, and once by James, and signifies "punishment," or "a place of punishment." The only other word which is rendered "hell" in the New Testament, is Tartarus. It is used once in 2 Peter ii. 4. It is a Greek word, taken from the ancient mythology, and signifies the "abyss," or abode of the Titans, or place

where Ixion, Sisyphus, and others, were fabled to be punished. - To see corruption. Which means to suffer decay, to experience decomposition. Acts xiii. 35.

29. Men and brethren. Hebrew for "brethren." To call their attention to something important which he was about to utter, he uses this address; as we naturally call a person by name in conversation, whose ear we wish to gain to what we are about to say. The patriarch David. Acts xiii. 36; 1 Kings ii. 10. This title was applied to David because he was the venerable ancestor of the royal line, which for so many years sat on the Jewish throne, and from which the Messiah originated. It is likewise used in connexion with the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the progenitors of the Israelites. Acts vii. 8, 9; Heb. vii. 4. The heads of the families, or the chief men of the tribes, were also thus designated. 2 Chron. xix. 8. — His sepulchre is with us unto this day. The sepulchre of the kings was on Mount Zion. David, as we are informed by Josephus, was buried with great pomp and splendor by his son Solomon, and an immense sum of money deposited in the tomb; for he states that, 1300 years afterwards, when Hyrcanus was besieged by Antiochus, he took out 3000 talents to induce the enemy by money to raise the siege; and Herod also subsequently rifled the tomb of a large amount of treasure.

30-32. It has long been a controverted point among interpreters, how the apostle should be understood in thus quoting and applying this Psalm of David to the Messiah.

The same difficulty also arises in relation to the use made of it by Paul in Acts xiii. 34-36. The general method is to consider David as uttering in Ps. xvi. a literal prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Peter quotes as conclusive proof that Jesus was the Messiah, since he had been raised up by God from the dead, and thus fulfilled the words of the inspired prophet. But against this view there lies the great objection, that the Psalm bears not the least apparent trace of a prophetic character, regarding the distant coming Messiah. As observed by Noyes, and as appears from the version by him, before quoted, "The person who is the subject of this Psalm expresses his entire dependence upon God, his gratitude for divine goodness, his satisfaction with the condition assigned him, and his firm hopes of future protection and favor." It would even seem to be doubtful, according to the above translation, whether the author originally had any reference to any thing except the present life.

Again, to quote further the same author, "Some Christians who believe the apostles to be inspired as teachers of the Christian system, rather than as reasoners and interpreters, suppose David, or the author of the Psalm, to be the only person described in it." So that Peter and Paul are regarded by this class of interpreters, as having made this mistake as to one class of the evidences of Christianity, or one of the proofs of the resurrection of Christ; viz. that they quoted as a prophecy what was not so in reality, and had no reference to the Messiah. If this should appear to be the fact, the great difficulty is the liability of the apostles, after their spiritual illumi

nation, to err in so important a point as the proofs of the truth and divinity of the Christian religion; though that might perhaps be parried, by referring to the traces of imperfection or doubt in relation to other and equally important affairs and duties. See Acts xv. 6, 39; Gal. ii. 11–14.

There is still another mode of explanation, which has its difficulties, but which is perhaps less embarrassed than the preceding ones. It supposes that Peter quotes rather by way of rhetorical illustration, than of theological argument; that he uses a mode of reasoning adapted to the Jewish audience which he was addressing, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews pursues a course of argumentation best suited to Hebrew prepossessions; that the words David uses could not have been literally applicable to him, for he died and was buried, and saw corruption; but that in a more sublime sense they are to be understood of the Messiah, that he would arise from the dead. It is true that, in ver. 25, it is said that "David speaketh concerning him," i. e. Christ; but such expressions are in some measure free and popular, not literal; for, as Kuinoel observes, the formula, "to speak concerning any one," is often employed to denote, not that the words were peculiarly spoken of the individual, but that they might be accommodated to his case. See Eph. v. 32, where the apostle says, "I speak concerning Christ and the church," meaning that he had introduced a figurative illustration from the relation of a man to his wife, which was appropriate to the case of Christ and the church. The meaning would be, then, that what David had said of himself was capable of being used, in a more sublime sense,

32 tion.

with reference to the resurrection of the Messiah. Newcome says that "This prophecy, in its most eminent sense, applied to Jesus Christ; although it had an inferior sense, also, viz. that David should be preserved from death, notwithstanding the malice and power of his enemies." The case of Caiaphas, see notes on John xi. 49-52, is in point here to some extent. He did not predict, as a prophet, the death of Jesus, but he said what might afterwards be regarded in the light of prophecy, and thus applied. Still this method is burdened with the objections of being rather obscure, of holding to the theory of two senses, of not assigning a clear and definite meaning to the apostle's words, and of supposing that he used arguments to convince the Jews that did not have weight with his own mind, a device better suited to a Grecian sophist than a Christian apostle.

There is also another interpretation of the following kind: David is understood, in the Psalm, to rejoice that his seed should not be extinct; that though he died, yet the line should be continued; for the Messiah had been promised, and that was a guaranty that the family would be perpetuated. The Jews considered it a great misfortune to die childless, and have one's family cease at death. But, on the other hand, to view one's posterity extending on in unbroken succession, was a matter of great rejoicing. For example, recur to these texts: Deut. xvii. 20; Ps. xxxvii. 28. It was in such a frame of mind that the Psalm was composed. Peabody remarks, in his Essay on Prophecy, that " David acknowledges the promise of that glorious descendant from himself, in whom his name would be perpetuat

ed, so that he should, after death, enjoy, as it were, a posthumous and perpetual life. When he says, ‘Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption,' he means the same that Horace does when he says, 'Non omnis moriar;' 'I shall not wholly die, I shall revive and live in the glory of that Messiah who shall make my name an universally honored name, my kingdom a perpetually glorious kingdom.' The apostle simply quotes the Psalm to show that it had been fulfilled, that David's line had descended unbroken, and appeared in the person of Jesus, whom God had raised up to be both Lord and Christ, and crowned the proof of his authority by his resurrection and ascension. The difficulty of this view is, that it makes what is said about God "raising him up," ver. 24, 31, 32, and his "resurrection," as is usually understood, from the dead, to refer back to his original advent into the world, and his being brought into being at first by God, which is somewhat hard. But this view, on the whole, is encumbered with as few difficulties, perhaps, as any that can be proposed. It derives considerable support from the 30th verse, in particular; for it there seems to be stated that the "raising up," spoken of, was not simply from the grave, but originally upon Christ's first advent into the world. See, also, Acts iii. 22, 26, v. 30, xiii. 23.

Peabody thus paraphrases ver. 30, 31: " Being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that, of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, said, concerning the raising up of Christ, (to sit on his throne,) that his own (David's) soul