--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 413 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/413/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 413. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/413/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 413. Acts · 39 of 76 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/413/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/413/#p-N ### Verse 46 [¶1] Waxed bold - Παρῥησιασαμενοι; Having great liberty of speech; a strong, persuasive, and overpowering eloquence. They had eternal truth for the basis of this discourse; a multitude of incontestable facts to support it; an all-persuading eloquence to illustrate and maintain what they had asserted. [¶2] Should first have been spoken to you - When our Lord gave his apostles their commission to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, he told them they must begin first at Jerusalem, [Mar 16:15]; [Luk 24:47]. In obedience therefore to this command, the apostles (in every place where they preached) made their first offers of the Gospel to the Jews. [¶3] Ye put it from you - Απωθεισθε αυτον, Ye disdain this doctrine, and consider it contemptible: so the word is frequently used. [¶4] And judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life - Was this meant as a strong irony? "Ye have such humbling thoughts of yourselves, that ye think the blessings of the Gospel too good to be bestowed on such worthless wretches as ye are." Or did the apostle mean that, by their words and conduct on this occasion, they had passed sentence on themselves, and, in effect, had decided that they were unworthy of the grace of the Gospel; and God now ratifies that judgment by removing those blessings from them, and sending them to the Gentiles? ### Verse 47 [¶6] For so the Lord commanded us - The apostles could quote a pertinent scripture for every thing they did; because the outlines of the whole Gospel dispensation are founded in the law and the prophets; and they were now building the Church of God according to the pattern shown them in the Mount. In the things of God, no man nor minister should go farther than he can say, Thus it is written, and thus it behoves me to do; and let him see that his quotations are fairly made, and not a detached passage or member of a sentence produced, because it seems to look like the system he wishes to establish. [¶7] I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles - This quotation is from [Isa 49:6], and was most fully in point. The Jews could not resist the testimony of their own prophet; and the Gentiles rejoiced to find that the offers of salvation were to be made so specifically to them. [¶8] For salvation unto the ends of the earth - The very name of the Messiah, viz Jesus, announced the design and end of his mission. He is the Savior, and is to be proclaimed as such to the ends of the earth; to all mankind; to every nation, and people, and tongue; and, wherever the Gospel is preached, there is a free, full, and sincere offer of salvation to every soul that hears it. And the offer is proof sufficient, in itself, that there is a power to receive its blessings given to those to whom the offer is made; as it would be of no use to offer them a salvation which it was designed they either should not or could not receive. A son of Satan might be capable of such dissimulation and bad faith; but the holy God cannot. ### Verse 48 [¶10] As many as were ordained to eternal life believed - This text has been most pitifully misunderstood. Many suppose that it simply means that those in that assembly who were fore-ordained; or predestinated by God's decree, to eternal life, believed under the influence of that decree. Now, we should be careful to examine what a word means, before we attempt to fix its meaning. Whatever τεταγμενοι may mean, which is the word we translate ordained, it is neither προτεταγμενοι nor προορισμενοι which the apostle uses, but simply τεταγμενοι, which includes no idea of pre-ordination or pre-destination of any kind. And if it even did, it would be rather hazardous to say that all those who believed at this time were such as actually persevered unto the end, and were saved unto eternal life. But, leaving all these precarious matters, what does the word τεταγμενος mean? The verb ταττω or τασσω signifies to place, set, order, appoint, dispose; hence it has been considered here as implying the disposition or readiness of mind of several persons in the congregation, such as the religious proselytes mentioned [Act 13:43], who possessed the reverse of the disposition of those Jews who spake against those things, contradicting and blaspheming, [Act 13:45]. Though the word in this place has been variously translated, yet, of all the meanings ever put on it, none agrees worse with its nature and known signification than that which represents it as intending those who were predestinated to eternal life: this is no meaning of the term, and should never be applied to it. Let us, without prejudice, consider the scope of the place: the Jews contradicted and blasphemed; the religious proselytes heard attentively, and received the word of life: the one party were utterly indisposed, through their own stubbornness, to receive the Gospel; the others, destitute of prejudice and prepossession, were glad to hear that, in the order of God, the Gentiles were included in the covenant of salvation through Christ Jesus; they, therefore, in this good state and order of mind, believed. Those who seek for the plain meaning of the word will find it here: those who wish to make out a sense, not from the Greek word, its use among the best Greek writers, and the obvious sense of the evangelist, but from their own creed, may continue to puzzle themselves and others; kindle their own fire, compass themselves with sparks, and walk in the light of their own fire, and of the sparks which they have kindled; and, in consequence, lie down in sorrow, having bidden adieu to the true meaning of a passage so very simple, taken in its connection, that one must wonder how it ever came to be misunderstood and misapplied. Those who wish to see more on this verse may consult Hammond, Whitby, Schoettgen, Rosenmuller, Pearce, Sir Norton Knatchbull, and Dodd. ### Verse 49 [¶12] The word of the Lord was published, etc. - Those who had come from different parts, and were converted, carried the glad tidings to their respective neighbourhoods; and thus the doctrine was published throughout all the region of Pisidia, where they then were. See on [Act 13:44] (note). ### Verse 50 [¶14] Devout and honorable women - It is likely that these were heathen matrons, who had become proselytes to the Jewish religion; and, as they were persons of affluence and respectability, they had considerable influence with the civil magistracy of the place, and probably their husbands were of this order; and it is likely that they used that influence, at the instigation of the Jews, to get the apostles expelled from the place. ### Verse 51 [¶16] They shook off the dust of their feet against them - This was a very significant rite; by it, they in effect said: Ye are worse than the heathen: even your very land is accursed for your opposition to God, and we dare not permit even its dust to cleave to the soles of our feet; and we shake it off, in departing from your country, according to our Lord's command, ([Mat 10:14]), for a testimony against you, that we offered you salvation, but ye rejected it and persecuted us. The Jews, when travelling in heathen countries, took care, when they came to the borders of their own, to shake off the dust of their feet, lest any of the unhallowed ground should defile the sacred land of Israel. [¶17] Came unto Iconium - According to Strabo, Iconium was a small fortified town, the capital of Lycaonia, at present called Cogni. "Lycaonia was a province at the back of Pamphylia, higher up in Asia Minor, and to the northeast of Pamphylia." Pearce. ### Verse 52 [¶19] The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost - Though in the world they had tribulation, yet in Christ they had peace; and, while engaged in their Master's work, they always had their Master's wages. The happiness of a genuine Christian lies far beyond the reach of earthly disturbances, and is not affected by the changes and chances to which mortal things are exposed. The martyrs were more happy in the flames than their persecutors could be on their beds of down. [¶20] St. Paul's sermon at Antioch has been thus analyzed. [¶21] 1. His prologue, [Act 13:16], addressed to those who fear God. [¶22] 2. His narrative of God's goodness to Israel: [¶23] 1. In their deliverance from Egypt. [¶24] 2. In their support in the wilderness. [¶25] 3. In his giving them the land of Canaan. [¶26] 4. In the judges and kings which he had given for their governors, Acts 13:7-22. [¶27] 3. His proposition, that Jesus was the Christ, the Savior of the world, [Act 13:23]. [¶28] 4. The illustration of this proposition, proving its truth: [¶29] 1. From Christ's stock and family, [Act 13:23]. [¶30] 2. From the testimony of his forerunner, [Act 13:24]. [¶31] 3. From the resurrection of Christ, [Act 13:30]; which was corroborated with the testimony of many Galileans, [Act 13:31], and of the prophets, David, [Act 13:33], [Act 13:35], and Isaiah, [Act 13:34]. [¶32] 5. He anticipates objections, relative to the unjust condemnation, death and burial of Christ, [Act 13:27-29]. [¶33] 6. His epilogue, in which he excites his audience to embrace the Gospel on two considerations: [¶34] 1. The benefits which they receive who embrace the Gospel, [Act 13:38], [Act 13:39]. [¶35] 2. The danger to which they were exposed who should despise and reject it, [Act 13:40], [Act 13:41]. ### Introduction [¶37] Paul and Barnabas, having preached at Iconium with great success, are persecuted, and obliged to flee to Lystra and Derbe, [Act 14:1-6]. Here they preach, and heal a cripple; on which, the people, supposing them to be gods, are about to offer them sacrifices, and are with difficulty prevented by these apostles, [Act 14:7-18]. Certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, coming thither, induce the people to stone Paul; who, being dragged out of the city as dead, while the disciples stand around him, rises up suddenly, and returns to the city, and the next day departs to Derbe, [Act 14:19], [Act 14:20]. Having preached here, he and Barnabas return to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the disciples, and ordaining elders in every Church, [Act 14:21-23]. They pass through Pisidia and Pamphylia, [Act 14:24]. Through Perga and Attalia, [Act 14:25]; and sail to Antioch in Syria, [Act 14:26]. When, having called the disciples together, they inform them of the door of faith opened to the Gentiles, and there abode a long time with the Church, [Act 14:27], [Act 14:28]. ### Verse 1 [¶39] In Iconium - See the conclusion of the preceding chapter. [¶40] So spake - Και λαλησαι οὑτως. With such power and demonstration of the Spirit, that a great multitude both of the Jews, genuine descendants of one or other of the twelve tribes, and also of the Greeks, Ἑλληνων, probably such as were proselytes of the gate, believed, received the Christian religion as a revelation from God, and confided in its Author for salvation, according to the apostles' preaching. ### Verse 2 [¶42] Stirred up the Gentiles - Των εθνων, Such as were mere heathens, and thus distinguished from the Jews, and the Greeks who were proselytes. [¶43] Evil affected - Εκακωσαν, Irritated or exasperated their minds against the brethren, the disciples of Christ; one of their appellations before they were called Christians at Antioch. See on [Act 11:26] (note).