Acts 1:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

There He darkened their understanding with fear and by saying, "I do not know." Here He did so by ascending after these words. They had a strong desire to know this and would not have left Christ. Yet it was very necessary that they not learn it. Tell me, what do the Gentiles disbelieve more? Is it that there will be an end, or that God became Man, came forth from the womb of a Virgin, and appeared to men in the flesh? Is it not the latter? Without doubt, you too will say so. But I am ashamed to speak constantly of this as though it were some indifferent matter. And so that they, in turn, might not say, "Why do You value this matter so highly?" He says, "The Father has placed it in His own authority." But the authority of the Father and His authority are one and the same. This is clear from His words: "As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will" (Jn 5:21). If, where action is required, He acts with the same authority as the Father, can it be that, where knowledge is required, He does not know with the same authority? To raise the dead is obviously a far greater thing than to know that day. If He performs the greater work with authority, how much more the other, lesser thing? But to make this clear to you, I will explain it with an example. When we see a child crying and constantly asking us for something useless to him, we hide it farther away. Then we show him our empty hands and say, "See, we do not have it." So also Christ acted with the Apostles. Yet the child, though we do not show him what he asks for, keeps crying, knowing that he has been deceived. Then we leave him and go away, saying, "Such a person is calling me." Instead of what he asked, we give him something else, to turn him from the thing he chose. We praise our own gift more than that one and, after giving it, depart. Christ did the same. The disciples asked. He said that He did not have it, and the first time He even frightened them. When they began to ask again, He again said that He did not have it. But this time He does not frighten them. Instead, after showing what He had done, He gives a plausible reason: "The Father has placed it in His own authority." What then? Do You not know what belongs to the Father? You know the Father Himself, but do not know what belongs to Him? You Yourself said, "No one knows the Father except the Son" (Mt 11:27). Moreover, it is said: "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10). And do You not know even this? By no means. He said this not so that we should think such a thing. He presents Himself as not knowing in order to turn the disciples away from an untimely question. They were afraid to ask again, lest they hear, "Are you also without understanding?" (Mk 7:18). For now they feared Him much more than before. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." As there He did not answer the thing about which they asked, since a teacher's task is to teach not what the pupil wants to know, but what is useful for him, so here He foretells what they needed to know, so they would not fear. They were still weak. To give them boldness, He encouraged their souls and veiled the difficulties. Since He was soon to leave them, He says nothing directly sorrowful in His conversation with them. How, then, does He speak? He joins praise to sorrowful words, as if saying: Do not fear, because "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Earlier He said, "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans" (Mt 10:5). Now He wants them to preach "in all Judea and Samaria." Therefore what He did not say then, He now adds, saying, "and to the end of the earth."

The Teacher's calling is to teach not what the disciple wants, but what it is useful to know. "And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Since He had formerly said, "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans" (Mt 10:5), wishing the word of God to be preached first to the Jews. And now it had to spread through the whole inhabited world, He fittingly adds, "in Judea and Samaria," and then, "to the end of the earth." The saying, "You shall be My witnesses," is both an exhortation and an unalterable prophecy. For they bore witness to their preaching to the uttermost ends of the earth. See Acts 1:7.

They said to Him, "But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel" (see Lk 24:13-21). You hoped rightly. What you hoped was true: in Him is the redemption of Israel. But why are you hastening? You want to take Him (see Jn 6:15). The following also shows us this desire, for the disciples asked about the end. They said to Him, "Will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They were already thirsting for this kingdom and already wanted it. That is, they wanted to take Him and make Him king. But He answered the disciples, since He still had to ascend alone: "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power from on high when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8). "You want Me to establish the kingdom already now. Let Me first gather what I shall establish. You love the things above, and you will obtain the things above, but follow Me through humility."

"And you shall be My witnesses" not only in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, but even to the end of the earth. It is as though the Lord says: You dream of the restoration of only the kingdom of Israel, and in this you think of earthly greatness and earthly power. But by God's providence, after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon you, you must build and spread in the world a Kingdom that is not of this world, the Kingdom of God, that is, My Church. You will spread My Kingdom not by force of arms and not by ordinary external means. No, you will form My Kingdom by the power of your preaching, patience, sufferings, and love for neighbor. Christ came to earth for the enlightenment of all, both Jews and Gentiles (Lk 2:30-32). The apostles also must be the light of the whole world, the salt of the whole earth, and universal preachers. Yet it is beyond doubt that the evangelical law had to be proclaimed to the world from the height of Zion. The word of the Lord had to begin resounding in the hearing of men from Jerusalem (Isa 2:3). It would resound and spread into the distant lands of the world (Lk 24:47). The duty of announcing the saving Gospel to men does not rest on the apostles alone. Every Christian, in every place and within the circle available to him, must show by word and example the superiority of Christ's faith over every other. Through this he must draw others to Christ.

He was poured into the senses of the disciples across the various borders of separate regions and the distant boundaries of the whole world. Nothing can escape Him or deceive Him. Therefore holy David says, "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your face?" (Ps 138:7). Of what angel does Scripture speak in such a way? Of what dominion, or of what power? What valor of an angel do we find dispersed among many? Angels were sent to a few, but the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the nations. Who then will doubt that what is poured out at once upon many is divine, being invisible yet seen and held by some?

They also had heavenly privileges: "to whom," says the divine Paul, "belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, is Christ" (Rom 9:4-5). Yet even before His Resurrection our Savior did not deprive the Gentiles of His preaching. He only preferred the Israelites to them: "Go rather," He said, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:6). Second, before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, the apostles did not yet have the gifts needed for the conversion of the Gentiles. They became sufficient to preach the faith even to peoples wholly ignorant of God, who worshiped the creature instead of the Creator, only when on the day of Pentecost they received the fullness of the divine gifts. "But you shall receive power," He says, "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." That is, the power of wisdom, tongues, zeal, miracles, and perfect virtue. These were the most necessary gifts for the conversion of the Gentiles. Then, prepared and provided for in this way, "you shall be My witnesses." That is, you shall bear witness to what you have seen and heard. You shall preach faith in Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the very uttermost ends of the earth. Here one must observe that these words, among all the words spoken by Jesus Christ during His sojourn on earth, are the last. For immediately after this, before the apostles' eyes, He ascended from the earth, and the cloud that received His most holy body hid Him from their eyes. "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9).

Dan 2:21), "which the Father has put in His own authority." After this the Lord indicates what the apostles' work consists in, and what they must think and care about first and above all. "It is not for you to know times or seasons... but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Their work and their calling is to be witnesses of Christ. They will receive the power and capacity for this from the Holy Spirit. This witness will begin from Jerusalem, continue in its surrounding regions, then pass into Samaria. Spreading farther and farther, it must reach even to the end of the earth.

This power of theirs would overcome every obstacle and triumph over everything. "You shall be My witnesses" means witnesses of My life, My teaching, and My works. In other words, it means preachers of the Gospel concerning Christ. In the concept of witness here is included the whole apostolic activity of the Lord's disciples in spreading and establishing His Kingdom on earth. "This saying is both an exhortation and an unalterable prophecy" (Theophylact). "In Jerusalem," and so forth. In this city of His sufferings Christ must be preached before all else. It must be the first to hear the word about the crucified and risen Messiah. At the same time, it must be the center from which the Gospel will spread throughout the whole land once beloved by God, Palestine, and then throughout the whole earth, throughout the whole world. "Judea and Samaria": see the notes on Mt 2:22 and Mt 10:5. "Since He had formerly said, 'Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans' (Mt 10:5), wishing the word of God to be preached first to the Jews. And now it had to spread through the whole world, He fittingly adds, 'in Judea and Samaria,' and then, 'to the end of the earth'" (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom). "To the end of the earth" does not mean only to the boundaries of the promised land or Palestine, because its constituent parts have already been listed here. It means to the boundaries of the whole earth, the whole globe, that is, throughout the whole earth and the whole world. Moreover, this expression does not mean that the apostles themselves would personally bring the Gospel of Christ throughout the whole earth, to the end of the earth. The Lord's words refer not only personally to the apostles, but also to their successors in the apostolic work, as His promise remains with them always, to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). This is one of the Lord's direct indications of the worldwide calling, the universalism, of His religion. It is also a brief and clear indication of the chief and general subject of the whole book of Acts.

Jesus Christ had spoken repeatedly to the Apostles before about the granting of this power to them: "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things" (Jn 14:26), and "He will declare to you the things to come" (Jn 16:13). And: "When they bring you before governors and kings... do not be anxious how or what you are to speak; for what you are to speak will be given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you" (Mt 10:18-20). Even during Christ's earthly life the Apostles saw this partly fulfilled, saying to Him Himself: "Even the demons are subject to us" (Lk 10:17). From this they should have understood what great gifts awaited them in the fullness of their sanctification, when the Holy Spirit would come down upon them. "The gifts of the Spirit are diverse," says Blessed Theophylact. "With such difference and variety of gifts, nothing prevented the Apostles from receiving the grace of the Spirit in different ways. But the full communication of the Spirit, which made them perfect and able to perfect others, occurred at Pentecost. When He came down upon them in the form of fiery tongues and wholly filled them with His power." The Apostles' witness to Jesus Christ as Savior and Only-begotten Son of God had been the work of their preaching even during His life. But then they did not always accomplish it with full courage or with the fullness of power. Now they are inspired to carry out this work fearlessly and completely, beginning with various nearby places and ending with all the ends of the world then known. This, as is known, they did accomplish, for "their proclamation went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Ps 18:5). Earlier, when Jesus Christ sent His disciples to preach, He said to them: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans" (Mt 10:5). Now He commands them first of all to preach in Jerusalem, so that at least some of His murderers might repent. Then He commands them to go not only into Judea and Samaria, but into the whole world, throughout all the earth. According to the explanation of our renowned interpreter, "the Lord's words refer not only personally to the Apostles, but also to their successors in the apostolic work, as does His promise to be with them always, to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). This is one of the Lord's direct indications of the worldwide, universal purpose of His religion. At the same time, it is a brief and clear indication of the chief and general subject of the whole book of the Acts of the Apostles." According to Blessed Theophylact, Jesus Christ spoke here "both an exhortation and an unalterable prophecy, because they, the Apostles, bore witness to their preaching to the uttermost ends of the earth."