Bede — Commentary on Scripture

Acts 2:38-39

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, as the Lord says through the prophet: I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Joel II). And what he added: And to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call, refers to that final testimony placed from the prophet, that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Ibid.). This particularly pertains to the calling of the Gentiles, who were far removed from the fellowship of the sons of Israel in both kinship and merit, and yet were to be saved by invoking the name of the Lord according to the prophet’s promise.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 2:41

And about three thousand souls were added that day. Where the baptism of the Church was first celebrated, divine mercy, by careful plan, gathered a number of souls equal to the confession of the Holy Trinity. And Moses indeed, on the fiftieth day of Passover when the law was given, commanded the solemnity of the first fruits to be initiated; but now, with the Holy Spirit coming, not sheaves of wheat, but souls were consecrated as first fruits to the Lord.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 2:41

Those, therefore, who received his word were baptized. Another translation, according to the accuracy of the Greek truth, has it thus: Those indeed willingly accepting his word were baptized. By this interpretation it seems more clearly expressed that not some of those who had heard Peter's word, but all who had assembled to hear, willingly hearing this, were baptized.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 2:44

And they had all things in common, etc. If the love of God is poured into our hearts, it soon surely generates love for our neighbor. Hence, on account of the double ardor of charity, the Holy Spirit is read to have been given twice to the apostles. It is also a great indication of fraternal love to possess all things in common, having nothing as one's own.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 2:47

But the Lord added daily those who were being saved. In Greek it is read thus: But the Lord added to the Church those who were being saved, and then another narration begins.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:1

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple, etc. The apostles, about to enter the temple at the ninth hour, first heal a man lame from birth, and then, laboring until evening, imbue many thousands of men with the word of faith. For the teachers of the Church, coming toward the end of the world, preach both to Israel, who were first languishing, and afterwards to the Gentiles. For these are the laborers whom the father of the family brings into the vineyard at the ninth and eleventh hour (Matt. XX).

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:1

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Which can be adapted to the previous sentence thus: Since the Lord daily was gathering the believers to his Church through the preaching of the apostles, the foremost of the apostles were going up to the temple to pray to God for the same thing, that is, so that he might always provide increases to his Church.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:2

Whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful. The Beautiful Gate of the temple is the Lord, through whom if anyone enters, he shall be saved. To this gate, the weak Israel, unable to go on his own, is carried by the voices of the law and the prophets, so that he may beseech help from those entering the interior, by hearing the wisdom of faith. They place listeners at the gate by the prophecy of what is to come, but it is Peter's to lead them into the temple, to whom for a strong confession both the name of the rock and the keys of heaven have been given.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:2

And a certain man, who was lame from his mother's womb, was carried. For the people of Israel were rebellious not only to the Incarnate Lord, but from the very first times of the given law, as if lame from the mother's womb. This is well figured by Jacob wrestling with the angel, blessed indeed, but limping (Gen. XXXII), because the same people, prevailing in the passion of the Lord, were in some ways blessed through faith, but in others lame through disbelief.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:6

Silver and gold have I none, etc. Indeed, the old tabernacle had the justifications of worship, and the secular sanctuary distinguished by gold and silver, but the blood of the Gospel shines more precious than the metals of the law, because the people who before lay mentally weak at the gilded posts, healed in the name of the Crucified, enter the temple of the heavenly kingdom. Otherwise, the blessed Peter, mindful of the Lord's precept, which says: Do not possess gold and silver (Matt. X), used to preserve the money placed at the apostles' feet not for himself, but for the use of the poor, who had left their patrimonies.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:7

And having taken his right hand, he raised him up. He who lifts another up also strengthens him with his right hand. For the word of the teacher is worth less in the hearts of the hearers if it is not also recommended by examples of one's own action.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:7

And immediately his feet and ankle bones were strengthened. The term 'bases' is Greek in origin, and it is placed thus in Greek, which in Latin means 'supports': by which term it indicates that his steps were strengthened, just as some have also translated it into Latin. But it must be known that steps are properly called διαβήματα or πορίαι among the Greeks.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:8

And leaping up, he stood and walked. And he entered the temple with them. The order of perfection is clear: first, he who had lain down rises, then he seizes strength, and thus he enters the gate of the kingdom with the apostles.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:10

And they were all filled with wonder and amazement. Ecstasy means fear here. For ecstasy can also be said in another way, not alienated by fear, but taken up by some inspiration of revelation.

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:10

And they were filled with wonder and amazement. Another Edition for amazement, which is a state of being beyond one's mind, does not properly place ‘admiration’; because greater amazement sometimes leads the mind to a state beyond, and transfers it to higher modes of thought beyond the usual manner of thinking.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:11

All the people ran to them, to the portico called Solomon's. With Israel saved by the apostles, the entire world rushes to the thresholds of the true and peaceful Solomon, of whom it is said: "His government shall increase and peace shall have no end" (Isaiah IX). This is the stone cut from the mountain, which, with the earthly realm of faith's enemy crumbling, alone holds the peaceful dominion through the world (Daniel II).

Commentary on Acts

Acts 3:13

The God of our fathers glorified His Son Jesus, whom you indeed delivered, etc. In Greek it is more appropriately stated: The God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus. For it was fitting for a wise teacher, when addressing those who had killed Him, first to recall His humanity, which could be delivered up and slain; then gradually revealing the glory of His resurrection, to declare that He is also God and God's Son. Finally, shortly after, he calls Him the Author of life. And at the conclusion of the speech, more openly: To you first, he says, God, raising up His Son, sent Him blessing you, that your sins may be blotted out, that when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord, then your sins may be blotted out. The times of refreshment, however, signify the distinction of the universal judgment and the redemption of the just, of which they themselves, having indeed suffered tribulations but made safe in hope, say to the Lord in the psalm: We went through fire and water, and you brought us into refreshment (Psalm 65). For then indeed our sins will be full…

The God of our fathers glorified His Son Jesus, whom you indeed delivered, etc. In Greek it is more appropriately stated: The God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus. For it was fitting for a wise teacher, when addressing those who had killed Him, first to recall His humanity, which could be delivered up and slain; then gradually revealing the glory of His resurrection, to declare that He is also God and God's Son. Finally, shortly after, he calls Him the Author of life. And at the conclusion of the speech, more openly: To you first, he says, God, raising up His Son, sent Him blessing you, that your sins may be blotted out, that when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord, then your sins may be blotted out. The times of refreshment, however, signify the distinction of the universal judgment and the redemption of the just, of which they themselves, having indeed suffered tribulations but made safe in hope, say to the Lord in the psalm: We went through fire and water, and you brought us into refreshment (Psalm 65). For then indeed our sins will be fully blotted out when, by the power of the resurrection, the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed (I Corinthians 15). In a certain translation, we find this verse positioned this way for the explanation of the sense: That when the times of refreshment come, they may come to you from the face of the Lord. And indeed it is thus written in Greek, with the addition of that pronoun: That when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord to you.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:21

Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. This is what the Psalmist testifies as said to the same Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (Psalm 109). For He was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. In that seat of paternal majesty, He always remains divinely, nor has He ever departed from it, but in the assumed humanity, He is to come from heaven to judge the living and the dead when all His enemies will be put under His feet, and all things which God spoke through all the prophets from the beginning of the world will be restored; because, when all the saints enter eternal life with the Lord, the reprobates with the devil will endure eternal punishments, there will be absolutely nothing left which the prophets can promise us further to hope for, since both parts, namely the good and the bad, will have received an irrevocable sentence in the final judgment from the just judge. And Orig…

Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. This is what the Psalmist testifies as said to the same Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (Psalm 109). For He was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. In that seat of paternal majesty, He always remains divinely, nor has He ever departed from it, but in the assumed humanity, He is to come from heaven to judge the living and the dead when all His enemies will be put under His feet, and all things which God spoke through all the prophets from the beginning of the world will be restored; because, when all the saints enter eternal life with the Lord, the reprobates with the devil will endure eternal punishments, there will be absolutely nothing left which the prophets can promise us further to hope for, since both parts, namely the good and the bad, will have received an irrevocable sentence in the final judgment from the just judge. And Origen is greatly mistaken and deceives, who thinks that after this judgment, though after a long interval of time, the other sinners, who were sent to hell with the devil on the left side of the judge, will be freed and brought to the heavenly kingdom, as if the prophet who said: And they will be gathered in the dungeon, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah 24), promised this to them, since the clear meaning of the prophet's words according to sound sense is that he predicted that the enemies and persecutors of the holy Church would be carried off to hell individually on the day of their departure, but he foresaw that all of them would be briefly released from there on the day of judgment, when, having received an immortal body, they would again be plunged into double punishment of eternal death. For the next words of the prophet declare that he intended this in his statement, who after saying: And after many days they will be visited, immediately added: And the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed (ibid.), which will come to pass on the day of judgment as both prophecy and the words of the gospel declare.

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:22

Moses indeed said: Because the Lord your God has raised up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like me, you shall listen to him according to all that he will speak to you, etc. The beginning of this passage in Greek has more: Moses indeed said to your fathers: Because the Lord your God has raised up for you a prophet. The meaning of the sentence is clear, because our Lord took on the truth of flesh from the people of Israel, appearing in the likeness of Moses, so that just as he [Moses] introduced carnal Israel, instructed and purified by ceremonies and sacred rites, into the promised land, so also the Lord, through the grace of the Gospel, gathering spiritual Israel from the whole world, would lead them to the heavenly kingdoms. And just as those who disdained the law of Moses were expelled from the promised land by enemy nations, so also those who have scorned the teaching of evangelical grace will be cast out from the assembly of the saints by avenging spirits. For this is what follows:

Retractions on Acts

Acts 3:23

And it will come to pass that every soul who does not listen to that Prophet shall be destroyed. Briefly and clearly, with the testimony of the prophets and the law, he teaches that the Lord must be listened to by all nations, condemning indeed the unbelievers and granting the faithful eternal blessing.

Commentary on Acts