Acts 2:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As for the Resurrection, since this was a great matter, Peter covers it for a time and only afterward brings it into view. The sufferings, namely the Cross and death, were acknowledged by all, but the Resurrection was not yet acknowledged. Therefore he speaks of it afterward, adding, "But God raised Him up, having loosed the bonds of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it." Here he indicated something great and lofty. The words "it was not possible" show that Christ Himself both permitted death to hold Him, and that death itself suffered birth pangs, as it were, and was in grievous pain while holding Him. It is known that Scripture everywhere customarily calls danger a mortal pain.

"Whom God raised up." Ah, how did he dare to say, among murderers, that Christ had risen? If it is said that the Father raised Him, this is because of the weakness of the hearers. For through whom does the Father act? Through His own power, and the power of the Father is Christ. Therefore He raised Himself, although it is said that the Father raised Him. "Having loosed the pangs of death." He shows that death also suffered, as though in travail, and was terribly afflicted when it held Him. For the Old Testament calls the pangs of death, as though of a woman in travail, danger and calamity for death itself. A woman in travail does not hold back what is within her, nor does she act, but suffers and hastens to be delivered.

If one asks how we should understand that the bonds of death were loosed by Him, since He was not held in them as though in chains, the matter is easy to understand. He did not loose them as if He had broken chains by which He was bound. They were loosed as hunting snares may be untied, so that they no longer hold, not because they had held Him. Or we may believe that He loosed those bonds by which He Himself could not be held, but by which others were held, whom He knew must be set free.

Since it was necessary for Him to implant in our nature the power of resurrection from the dead, He again becomes "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" and "the firstborn from the dead." He was the first to destroy by His own power the pangs of death. Thus He made possible for us a new birth after death, since through the Resurrection of the Lord the torment of death, by which we were all held, was destroyed.

Not only as God, but also as sinless according to His humanity. This is why, as Peter says in his preaching, it was impossible for the bonds of death to hold Him.

Then the twelve Apostles come forward to the people, and Peter speaks to them. He is no longer the former Peter, timid and fearful, but courageous and fearless. He says that the extraordinary event now taking place among them is the action of the Holy Spirit, whom God once promised to send upon His servants. He says that Jesus Himself sent down this Spirit upon them, the disciples of Jesus. This was the same Jesus whom the Jews had recently crucified here, whom God raised from the dead, glorified, and seated at His right hand. Therefore Jesus is the Christ. The recent teachings of the Risen One Himself had shown that Christ had to suffer and enter into His glory only by this path.

"Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it," the Apostle continued. Since the speech here concerns the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, united with the Godhead in His person, the Apostle speaks in accordance with this understanding. He says that Jesus was raised, as though not by His own, that is, not by human power. He also speaks in keeping with the understanding of his hearers, who were not yet instructed in true theology concerning the three Persons of the Godhead and the Incarnation. Yet when he immediately adds that it was impossible for Jesus to remain dead, he thereby already says that His being raised by God is not an external divine act, as in the resurrection of other men.

God raised Him: Christ, as the Son of God, has life in Himself (Jn 5:26). He has authority to lay down His life and authority to take it again (Jn 10:18). That is, having tasted death, He has authority to rise by His own power, as God, self-existent life. Yet the Apostle speaks of Him as above, saying that God worked miracles through Him. With the humanity of Jesus Christ in view, he says that God raised Him from the dead. "If it is said that the Father raised Him, this is because of the weakness of the hearers. For through whom does the Father act? Through His own power, and the power of the Father is Christ. Therefore He raised Himself, although it is said that the Father raised Him" (Theophylact). "Having broken the bonds of death" means, more exactly, having loosed the pains of death.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is also spoken of in adaptation to the perception of Jews weak in faith. Namely, it is presented as accomplished by the power of God, although Jesus Christ said that He has authority to lay down His life and to take it again (see Jn 10:17). Here there is a remarkable expression concerning the necessity of Christ's Resurrection, and also concerning the impossibility of death holding Christ in its bonds. Death inevitably had to release Him from its confines, just as a woman in labor cannot but bring forth the living being within her. For Christ was Life (see Jn 5:26). How, then, could death fail to part with this Life and Source of life? This thought is expressed in many ways in the Paschal hymns.

The God-man, Who took upon Himself the fulfillment of the eternal counsel of the tri-hypostatic Godhead concerning the salvation of the human race (Heb 10:9), drank to the very bottom the cup of redemptive sufferings and death.

This was the cup before which His humanity was filled with dread (Mt 26:37).

The Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18), emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man (Phil 2:6-7).

His earthly life was a completely free and voluntary self-abasement. In the midst of it His Divinity shone forth only for believing souls.

This life, in which our Author of salvation (Heb 12:2) was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15), ended on earth in still greater self-abasement.

The Lord endured against Himself the reproach of sinners (Heb 12:3), and was obedient to the divine decree even unto death, the death of the Cross (Phil 2:8).

By His Cross He conquered death in its most terrible form. It was a cruel death, because extreme inhumanity cannot devise more dreadful sufferings.

It was a shameful death, because the cross was the instrument of execution for the gravest criminals.

It was a slow death, because the duration of crucifixion’s torments was measured by agonizing hours.

Finally, it was a death without consolation, because at the moment of His death our Lord Jesus Christ was abandoned by all. At His Cross He saw only His Mother and the beloved disciple.

He conquered death when death, taking every precaution, summoned to its aid the might of the powerful of the earth. The tomb was surrounded by a reliable guard, sealed with a seal, and blocked by a heavy stone.

The divine Dead One was lamented, anointed with spices, wrapped in a shroud, and laid upon the bed of death, as it might have seemed, for the rest customary to mortals.

Everything was done that fragrant love inspired in some, in order to give peace to the grave. Everything was done that the hardened malice of unbelief inspired in others, in order to preserve the tomb inviolate and whole.

Here there was everything that is found among men. Only the corruption of death was absent, because the royal prophet David had already foretold of his Descendant that His flesh would not see corruption (Ps 15:10; Acts 2:31).

While His flesh rested in the sealed tomb, His soul descended into Hades. There the Victor over death also triumphed over him who had the power of death, the devil (Heb 2:14).

Thus, in the very highest degree of the Redeemer’s abasement, His divine glory was revealed. By His death He destroyed death, and by His descent into Hades He destroyed the power of the devil.

But the divine glory of the Victor over death and Hades was revealed still more clearly when He rose from the tomb. The holy Apostle Paul places this glorification in direct connection with His abasement.

“Therefore God also highly exalted Him,” according to His humanity, “and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:9-10).

By His Resurrection from the dead the Lord sealed His ministry to the salvation of men. “If Christ has not been raised,” says the holy Apostle Paul, “then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor 15:14).

As the Teacher of divinely revealed truth, He preached the Gospel. As the Holiest of the holy, He presented in His life the example of the highest virtues.

As the first Source of grace-filled powers, He performed great miracles. As an innocent Sufferer, He endured terrible torments and death on the Cross.

Yet in all the glory of the divine Redeemer and in the unapproachable majesty of the Godhead, He shone forth from the tomb by His Resurrection.

The risen Lord assured all that He is alive. He showed that all His promises are true, His commandments binding, and His redemptive merits effective.

He showed that He is and will remain the Master and Head of the holy Church (Eph 1:22; Col 1:18), which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

After the Resurrection the Lord remained on earth for forty days.

His visible public activity in relation to the Jews ended with His death on the Cross.

Now, “having received authority on earth and in heaven, He had to keep in view not the Sanhedrin with the Pharisees, but the whole world, and to prepare His disciples for its conversion.

“To this final and great purpose were dedicated His last days on earth before His Ascension into heaven, as His subsequent appearances to the Apostles testify.”

“If,” Saint John Chrysostom observes, “He had hoped to draw the Jews to faith, then after the Resurrection He would not have delayed appearing also to all of them.”

But He did not appear in His glory, because, as Saint Philaret of Moscow says, “for those hardened in unbelief this would have been useless. It would only have served them for greater hardening and heavier condemnation.”

Persisting in their unbelief, the enemies of Christ could have said at the appearance of the risen One that it was “a phantom,” as Saint John Chrysostom says.

Others could have said that “the one who appeared either had not died, or had come to life not by divine power,” as Bishop Innocent says.

For the stubborn enemies of the truth and for the whole universe, the risen Lord raised up from among His disciples a whole assembly of eyewitnesses (1 Jn 1:1-3).

They performed every kind of miracle to confirm the truth of the Resurrection, and for it they laid down their lives.

The body of Christ after the Resurrection was, according to the word of the holy Apostle, a glorious body (Phil 3:21). In accordance with this state, it received certain special properties.

Thus, for example, it passed unhindered through material barriers (Jn 20:19, 26), and became invisible (Lk 24:31).

Saint John Chrysostom observes that the Lord “did not constantly associate with the disciples, nor as He had before, after the Resurrection.

“This was not an open presence, but certain signs that He was present. He appeared to them in another form, with another voice, and in another manner.

“Often, while standing before the Apostles, He was not recognized by them. He did nothing human, as He had done before, showing that even then this had been done by condescension.”

If the holy Evangelists indicate that He received food (Lk 24:41-43; Jn 21:5), then, without doubt, as the same holy Father says, “this happened in some miraculous way.

“It was not because Christ’s nature still needed food, but by condescension, for the proof of the Resurrection.”

Such association of the risen One with the disciples could little by little accustom them to separation from Him, which was soon to follow.

In the appearances after the Resurrection, He is no longer presented as an inhabitant of earth, but rather as a heavenly One, Who seems to tarry on earth for a definite purpose.

He allows Himself to be seen only when this is necessary for assurance in the Resurrection, and only for as much time as is needed.

Here there is no mention of His place of residence, journeys, movement from place to place, or other circumstances customary to men.

The risen One appeared suddenly, instantly, and in the same way became invisible. No one knew whence He came or whither He would go.

To these striking visions of the eyes there was joined the inner action of the grace of God. It implanted in the hearts of believers an unshakable conviction in the great truth of Christianity.

The Resurrection (Acts 2:24-32; 10:40-41).

On Saturday evening the rest of the feast ended, and the night of the third day after the dreadful event on Golgotha began.

The enemies of Christ remembered that on this very day precautions had to be strengthened, in order to prevent the fulfillment of the saying of the Crucified One, which they had distorted.

The disciples of the Lord were terrified by the death of the Teacher. Even if they had not forgotten His many clear predictions about the Resurrection on the third day, they were undoubtedly perplexed about how this new miracle of God’s omnipotence would take place.

The moving words of the Savior’s farewell discourse still sounded in their ears. They hoped that consolation would be sent to them in the deep sorrow that had overtaken them.

They hoped that separation from the Teacher would be made up in another way. With this hope they turned their gaze forward, seeking in the future the resolution of their perplexities.

The third day, as is evident from the conversation of the travelers to Emmaus (Lk 24:21), was also for them a day of special expectations.

However many times the Lord foretold His Resurrection to the disciples with full clarity (Mt 16:21; 17:23; 20:19), and to the Jews in veiled form (Mt 12:39-40; Jn 2:19, 21), He always said that this event would follow on the third day after His sufferings and death.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria observes that He “could have raised the body at the very moment of death and shown it alive again, but He did not do this well and providently.

“For they would have said that the body had not died at all, or that an imperfect death had touched it.

“If death and Resurrection had followed in the same interval of time, perhaps the glory of incorruption would not have been made manifest.

“To show death in the body,” the holy Father continues, “the Word raised it on the third day.

“But He also did not allow more than three days, and did not prolong the expectation of those who had heard what was said to them about the Resurrection.

“He did this so that, by rising after a long stay and complete corruption in the tomb, He might not give occasion to unbelief, as though He now had not the same body, but another.

“For this very reason, while the word still sounded in their hearing, while they had not yet turned away their eyes or withdrawn in thought, the Son of God Himself showed the body immortal and incorrupt.

“The killers and the witnesses of the death of the Lord’s body were still alive on earth and in the same place. The body had been dead for three days.”

According to the reckoning of Venerable Isidore of Pelusium, Jesus Christ rose, in accordance with His prediction, on the third day, “touching the outer days and completing the whole middle day fully” in the tomb.

On the first day He remained in death from the ninth hour, when He gave up the spirit, for three hours. The ninth hour, according to present time, is three o’clock in the afternoon.

On the second day the Lord was dead for all twenty-four hours.

On the third day He was dead a little more than six hours, for He rose a little after midnight.

Thus, within the three-day period, the body of the Savior remained breathless in death for a little more than thirty-three hours.

The Victor over death and Hades died amid the noisy, frenzied cries of His enemies, in the sight of all the people, on the Cross set up on Golgotha.

He died amid extraordinary signs in nature, which testified to the Divinity of the Crucified One.

Yet He rose in the silence of deep morning, amid the common rest of nature and men. He rose without any noise or confusion, clothing the most glorious manifestation of His Godhead in most sacred mystery.

The eye of a mortal could not endure the unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16) in which the risen Redeemer, in His glorified body, left the bed of death.

Earthly eyewitnesses of that foundational truth of Christianity (1 Cor 15:14) were unnecessary.

The Lord was pleased to establish this truth in Himself, knowing, as Saint John Chrysostom says, that “the time that followed would bear witness to it by His appearances and by the miraculous spread of the Gospel on earth.”

He rose, in the words of Venerable Isidore of Pelusium, “from the sealed tomb,” while “the seals and the stone lay on the tomb,” as Saint John Chrysostom says.

For His glorified body could not be restrained by material barriers (Jn 20:26).