Acts 2:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Although some take the words, "For You will not leave my soul in Hades," as spoken in the person of David, they cannot prove their thought. Yet they speak truly and piously when they say that the body rose in order to be incorruptible and spiritual. For the flesh that has risen after the Resurrection is a spiritual and incorruptible body.

And the prophet David, according to the interpretation of the great Peter, looks to Him and foretells: "You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption" (Ps 15:10). The Apostle Peter gives this prophecy the following explanation: "His soul was not left in Hades, and His flesh did not see corruption." His Godhead, both before the Incarnation, during His earthly life, and after the Passion, constantly remained unchanged, as it always was by nature and will remain forever. By the suffering of the human nature, it fulfilled the divine economy of our salvation. It separated the soul from the body for a time, yet was not itself separated from what had once been assumed.

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.

Verses 25-28. Yet an explanation of the mystery of the death of Jesus Christ, according to the union in Him of the divine and human natures, was not yet suited to the hearers and was not timely. Therefore, in explaining the Resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle again turns his hearers' attention to the words of Holy Scripture, which they could not but believe. He speaks further as if saying: "Do not think that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we proclaim, is something new and an unexpected accident. Do not reason from that side, as though asking whether it is possible. Turn to the psalms known to all of you, so often repeated and read every Sabbath in your synagogues. In them David long ago foretold that such a resurrection had once to occur.

"You will not leave My soul in Hades": here is the object of hope. Hades, Sheol, according to the Old Testament conception, is the place to which the souls of the dead depart (Gen 42:38; Ex 14:9 and following). To leave this place means to rise. Therefore this saying expresses the depicted righteous man's confidence in his own resurrection, just as the following saying does. "To see corruption" (compare Lk 2:26) means to undergo corruption in bodily composition. Thus both expressions very clearly designate the resurrection of the righteous or holy one depicted here. This is not resurrection on the last day (compare Jn 11:24-25), but in this life, a resurrection soon after death, when the body has not yet undergone corruption.

Compare Ps 15:8-11. This chief prophetic passage contains hope for such swift deliverance from death that the body will not have time to undergo corruption. According to the teaching of the Old Testament, all the souls of the dead passed into a dark and empty place called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek. To be freed from this place means to rise. See Gen 42:38 and Is 14:9. Incorruption is the same as resurrection, but indicated for a more definite, that is, nearer time. See Jn 11:24. Thus, by both expressions, as synonyms, one and the same thought is expressed from different sides, the general spiritual side and the outward bodily side.