Heinrich Meyer Commentary - Acts 3:7 - 3:8

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Heinrich Meyer Commentary - Acts 3:7 - 3:8


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Act_3:7-8. Αὐτὸν τῆς δεξιᾶς ] comp. Mar_9:27, and see Valckenaer, ad Theocr. iv. 35.

ἐστερεῶθησαν ] his feet were strengthened, so that they now performed their function, for which they had been incapacitated in the state of lameness, of supporting the body in its movements.

αἱ βάσεις are the feet, as in Wis_13:18; Joseph. Antt. vii. 5. 5; Plat. Tim. p. 92 A, and in later Greek writers.

τὰ σφυρά : the anklebones, tali (very frequent in the classics), after the general expression subjoining the particular.

ἐξαλλόμενος ] springing up, leaping into the air. Xen. Cyr. vii. 1. 32; Anab. vii. 3. 33; LXX. Isa_55:12. Not: exsiliens, videlicet e grabbato (Casaubon), of which last there is no mention.

καὶ εἰσῆλθε τὸν θεόν ] This behaviour bears the most natural impress of grateful attachment (comp. Act_3:11), lively joy ( περιπατ . καὶ ἁλλόμενος ,—at the same time as an involuntary proof of his complete cure for himself and for others), and religious elevation. The view of Thiess—that the beggar was only a pretended cripple who was terrified by the threatening address of Peter into using his feet, and afterwards, for fear of the rage of the people, prudently attached himself to the apostles—changes the entire narrative, and makes the apostle himself (Act_3:12; Act_3:16; Act_4:9-10) the deceiver. Peter had wrought the cure in the possession of that miraculous power of healing which Jesus had imparted to His apostles (Luk_9:1), and the supernatural result cannot in that case, any more than in any other miracle, warrant us to deny its historical character, as is done by Zeller, who supposes that the general χωλοὶ περιπατοῦσιν , Luk_7:22, Mat_15:31, has here been illustrated in an individual instance.