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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 26:23 - 26:23
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23. εἰ παθητὸς ὁ Χριστός, that the Christ should suffer. Literally ‘if the Christ be one who has to suffer.’ And the Apostle having in his mind the facts, puts the sentence as a topic on which there was debate among the Jews, as indeed there was (see Joh 12:34). And St Paul says he answered this question out of the Scriptures. His answer of course was a positive one; therefore what he taught is fairly represented by the English ‘that the Christ’ &c.; though the teaching was a response to ‘whether the Christ be one who is to suffer.’ The same remark applies to the use of εἰ in the next clause.
πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν φῶς μέλλει καταγγέλλειν, He first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light. For Christ was the first-fruits of them that sleep. His resurrection was an earnest of the general resurrection. Thus life and immortality were brought to light. The full force of μέλλει καταγγέλλειν ‘is about to proclaim’ points on to the preaching of the Gospel from generation to generation. He shall enlighten believers thus through all time.
τῷ τε λαῷ καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, both unto the people and to the Gentiles. By ὁ λαός the Jews are meant. So in St Mat 1:21, ‘He shall save His people from their sins,’ ‘His people’ = His own (cf. St Joh 1:11), i.e. the Jews. Christ was spoken of in like terms by the aged Simeon, ‘A light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of Thy people Israel,’ and he could say this because in Jesus he beheld God’s ‘salvation.’ He could ‘depart in peace,’ being sure that ‘to die’ was only the pledge of ‘to rise again.’