Acts 2:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Jesus of Nazareth," he says, "a Man attested to you by God." Notice how significant it was to say that He was sent from God. This is what Christ Himself, John, and the Apostles always and everywhere tried to prove. Listen, for example, to what John says: "He who sent me said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'" (Jn 1:33). Christ Himself especially teaches this, saying, "I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me" (Jn 8:42). Everywhere in Scripture there is special concern for this. Therefore this holy leader in the blessed choir, this lover of Christ, this fiery disciple, to whom the keys of heaven were entrusted, first humbled them by fear. He showed that the Apostles had been counted worthy of great gifts and made them credible. Only then does he speak about Jesus. Ah, how did he dare, among murderers, to say that He had risen? Yet he does not immediately say, "He rose," but first, "He came to you from God." This is evident from what He did. He does not say, "He did this," but, "God did this through Him," so that by modesty he might better draw them in. He calls them themselves as witnesses and says, "a Man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know." Then, when he reached their dreadful crime, see how he strives to free them from guilt. For although this had been foreordained, they were still murderers.

He Himself once said, "You seek to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth" (Jn 8:40). At another time He said, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30). From the first passage arose the Samosatene heresy, which held that Jesus was a mere man. "With mighty works and wonders and signs." The same thought is expressed in the Epistle to the Romans: "declared to be the Son of God in power" (Rom 1:4). This means the Son whose deeds and wonders proved that He truly is the Son of the Father. There is no difference between saying, "declared the Son of God in power," and saying, "attested by mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did through Him." Truly God acts as through the Son, for through Him He also made the ages. By saying, "among you," he calls them as witnesses to what he says. "Among you" means not secretly and not in a corner.

By proving that the bodies of other men underwent corruption after death, Peter affirms that He of whom it is said, "You will not let Your Holy One see corruption" (Ps 15:10), is free from the corruption proper to men. He also proves that He has surpassed the limits of human being, and therefore must be placed with God rather than with men. From the account of the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:34-43) and from the Apostle Paul's address in Athens (Acts 17:22-31), you will learn how the Apostles began their preaching among the Gentiles.

The present illumination of the Spirit of God opened for Peter's speech a new source of power and proof in the prophecies. Until now they had been obscure, and could not so strongly influence the minds of the Jews. Now they were intelligible to everyone who wished to know the truth. The sign from heaven, which the Jews had so often and vainly asked of Jesus, now appeared by itself from Him who had ascended into heaven. It testified where the Crucified One dwelt, whom they had considered powerless. The ability to speak in new and unknown tongues was an extraordinary gift among miracles known from ancient and more recent times.

In another place, Saint Paul sets forth the same name as an advantage distinct from the general title of Hebrews: “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.”

Therefore Saint Peter, by his address, calls his hearers to turn their attention to the ancient prophecy and to the present work of God. He wishes thereby to teach the people to look into them as befits the true people of God.

They must be Jews not outwardly, but in secret, and must have the circumcision of the heart in the Spirit.

“Hear these words,” the words of the prophecy and of its fulfillment in the event.

The prophecy contains not one subject, but many. Namely, it contains the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon all people, the signs that must precede a certain special day of the Lord, the coming of that day, and the universality of salvation for all nations.

The explanation of the prophecy in the preacher’s word is presented in a partly reverse order. First come the signs, as testimonies striking and clear for all. Then comes the great day of the Lord, then the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and then the universality of salvation.

First, the signs. “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God among you by mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you took, and by lawless hands nailed and killed.”

What a true succession of miracles, appearances, and signs must now have presented itself to the Apostle’s hearers. They had filled all Jerusalem only fifty days earlier, when Jesus Christ the Nazarene was on the cross.

The prophecy speaks especially of three signs: blood, fire, and vapor of smoke. These were precisely fulfilled on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.

The moon was turned into blood. The sun, the fire, was darkened. Darkness was over all the earth, darkness with smoke, since on that same day there was also an earthquake.

In such an earthquake, especially pungent smoke is usually torn out from cracks in the earth.

Together with this, those miracles which Jesus had wrought among the Israelites were especially brought to the hearers’ minds of themselves. They had been as if forgotten on the day of the crucifixion.

They were the many kinds of healing of incurably sick people, the cleansing of lepers, the enlightening of the blind, the saving of sinners, and the raising of the dead.

The repeated testimonies of God in the voice from heaven, descending upon Jesus amid gatherings of the people, must also be counted here as “wonders in heaven above.”

“All such signs,” Peter seemed to be saying, “were long and continuously among you, our hearers. You yourselves know all this. Are these not divine testimonies that Jesus is from God?

Did not many of you yourselves say that a man could not do such signs unless God were with him?

Judging by the way Jesus was testified to from above, and by the benefits He did for you, it would seem that what happened to Him could not have happened. Yet all human considerations vanished in the depth of God’s counsel concerning Him.

You took Him as though not by your own will. He was delivered to you. You killed Him, not yourselves, but by the hands of lawless Gentiles.

Yet all this was done to Him according to God’s predetermined purpose and foreknowledge.”

Meanwhile, with what consoling thoughts, as far as possible, the heaviest word for the Israelites is surrounded here: that they killed Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God among them by powers, wonders, and signs, which God did through Him in their midst, as they themselves knew.

And what kind of language this is! Truly, it is the language of the boundless love of Jesus Christ Himself, handed on to the Apostles immediately after the resurrection, that it might be communicated to all without exception, excluding no one.

The Apostle now communicates it to them. He communicates it not with flattering speech, but on his own part calls everything as it is.

“You killed Jesus,” he says directly. Yet he seems at the same time to explain, “Such an act disappears in the abyss of God’s love and predestinations, if you desire it.”

Next the preacher of God explains that great and glorious day of the Lord mentioned in the cited prophecy. Before its coming, there had to be the wonders in heaven and the signs on earth mentioned in the prophecy.

In fact, they had occurred only a day before the very arrival of the day of the Lord.

The Apostle unfolds this fundamental thought in detail, explaining the whole great work of Christ’s sufferings and His glorification.

He explains this work from two sides, the human and the divine. From the first side, human injustice brought Him to death on the cross. From the second, God glorified Him in the resurrection and ascension.

The wise caution of the Apostle, speaking before unbelievers, restrains him from burdening their hearing. For the cross of Christ is a stumbling block to Jews (1 Cor 1:23).

Therefore it compels him to soften for their hearing his speech about Christ. He speaks of Him as a Man whom God, having raised from the dead, made Lord and Christ, that is, Messiah.

He does not yet speak directly of the fact that He is God, the incarnate Son of God.

With this same aim, he establishes his words about Christ’s resurrection and ascension on the words of the Old Testament prophet and king David.

With the same aim, he calls the Lord not by names designating His divine dignity, such as Son of God, Messiah, and the like. He calls Him by His ordinary human name, Jesus of Nazareth, that is, Jesus from Nazareth; compare Mt 2:21.

With this aim in general, “he says nothing lofty, but begins his speech in an extremely humbled manner” (Chrysostom).

“A Man attested,” and so forth: God testified concerning Him as the Messiah, His special and extraordinary messenger, through various extraordinary works, powers, wonders, and signs.

For the many and extraordinary miraculous works of Jesus were undoubtedly a sign and confirmation of His special mission from the Father; Jn 3:2; Jn 5:36; Jn 10:25, and parallels.

“Which God did through Him”: the Lord, as God, worked miracles and signs by His own almighty power. Yet the Apostle, designating here the human side in Christ’s actions, says that God worked through Him.

So also the Lord Himself, in His profound humility before God His Father, sometimes spoke in the same way; Jn 14:10 and parallels.

“He does not say, ‘He Himself did them,’ but ‘God through Him,’ so that by modesty he might better attract them” (Chrysostom).

“To you,” “in your midst”: the Apostle directs his word to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v. 14), and not only to visitors from various countries. Therefore he speaks this way.

The visitors perhaps had not witnessed the Lord’s miracles and signs. Yet Peter generalizes the statement, as he does further throughout this whole speech, and as in the next expression, “as you yourselves know.”

Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee, and the surrounding regions were filled with the glory of the Lord’s miracles, as we see from the Gospels. Therefore Peter could speak with confidence to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and even to the visitors: “You yourselves know.”

For the moment, the question of Jesus Christ Himself, according to His essence, is left aside." "He does not say, 'He Himself did these things,' but, 'God through Him. ' in order to draw them better by modesty." He also does this "so as not to tell the Jews at once what they were not yet able to receive." The Apostle addressed himself chiefly to the Jews because they knew more than others about Christ's miracles. Therefore, in the accounts of them, they could become, so to speak, willing and unwilling fellow participants in the gospel of Christ before the multitude gathered from the whole world. They themselves had been eyewitnesses of many of Christ's miracles, despite their hostility toward Him. So once the Samaritans testified of Christ, saying, "We have heard for ourselves and know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ" (Jn 4:42).