Acts 28:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This, he says, was done by people who stopped their ears and closed their eyes. "Lest they should turn, and I should heal them." This points to the strong impiety and stubborn aversion of these people. It is said in order to draw and incline them, and to show that if they turn, they will be healed. "For the heart of this people has grown dull." This is not said as though God, "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4), helps to keep them from seeing. Nor is it as though He is zealous that they should not hear. Rather, we are accustomed to speak this way about people who withdraw and do not wish to hear the word of salvation. Such a person flees and turns away his ears, lest somehow he hear the word that could turn him back and restrain him from evil.

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and exalted, and the house was full of His glory, and the Seraphim stood around Him" (Is 6:1, according to the LXX). Some who interpreted this passage before me, both Greeks and Latins, understood the Lord sitting upon the throne to be God the Father. By the two Seraphim, represented as standing on either side, they understood our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Although these interpreters are distinguished by remarkable learning, I do not agree with their opinion. It is far better to explain simply but truly than eloquently but falsely. This is especially so when the Evangelist John writes that in this vision it was not God the Father who appeared, but Christ.

So that we should not think hardness of heart and the ears' inability to hear belong to their nature rather than to their will, he adds the blame for their decision and says: "And their eyes they have closed" (Acts 28:27). That is, they themselves, by their transgressions, were the cause of God closing their eyes.

In presenting the teaching, he found it necessary to touch upon his own circumstances. He supposed that they were at least somewhat known to them, and therefore needed to remove suspicion. But he learned that the Roman Jews had not heard about him. When Paul declared that he was bound for the hope of Israel, they asked him to unfold his thoughts on this matter. "We have heard," they said, "that there is much dispute about this teaching." Paul appointed a day and set forth to them the teaching concerning the Kingdom of God. He proved from Moses and the Prophets that Jesus is the true Messiah. But his preaching found faith in few, and he had to repeat Isaiah's rebuke to his contemporaries (Acts 28:26-28).

When it thus became clear that the preaching about Christ found little acceptance in the hearts of the Roman Jews, Paul spoke to them as they were leaving him. He said that they had once more proved in themselves the justice of the words of the Prophet Isaiah (Is 6:9 and following). By inspiration from the Spirit of God, Isaiah portrayed the hearts of the people of his nation as grown coarse, even to the point of being unable to hear the word of truth. Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it. At the beginning of his conversation with the Jews the Apostle did not state this truth openly. He did not touch upon it, condescending to their spiritual weakness. But when he saw their hardness, he testified to it directly and solemnly. When he had said this, the Jews departed, disputing among themselves still more intensely.

Toward the end, the conversation even took on a somewhat stormy character. Before it ended, the Apostle Paul addressed the unbelievers with a speech. In it he applied to them the passage from the prophet Isaiah, which the Savior also had once cited. They would not see or hear, because they did not want either to see or to hear. Their blindness and deafness were the punitive consequence of the hardening of their hearts. Then he sternly warned them that the salvation of God was now being sent to the Gentiles, and that they would hear the gospel offered to them.

When they were leaving, but had not yet gone (v. 29), Paul spoke the following words. More precisely, he gave one further saying after the conversation that had lasted the whole day. "Well," that is, truly and justly (cf. Mt 15:7), "did the Holy Spirit speak to our fathers," and so forth. The words of the Prophet Isaiah are cited (Acts 6:9 and following) concerning the hardening of the heart of the people of Israel toward divine truth. This saying, quoted literally according to the LXX, the Apostle applies to his present hearers, the Roman Jews, who did not believe his word. He applies it in the same sense in which the Lord applied these same words to the Jews of His time who did not believe Him. The Evangelist John also used them when he expressed his wonder at the Jews' unbelief in the Lord, despite so many and such great signs of His (see Mt 13:14 and following; Jn 12:40).

Cf. Is 6:9-10. Seeing that the unbelievers were leaving without hearing Paul's teaching to the end, the Apostle spoke of their insensibility in the words spoken to their fathers through the Prophet Isaiah. These words portray people with hardened hearts who close their eyes so as not to see, and turn away their ears so as not to hear. Therefore, seeing, they do not see; hearing, they do not hear. They do not perceive with the heart or understand with the mind. In general, they do not turn to God with their whole heart, but turn away from Him. As a result, God also turns away from them and grants them no means of deliverance from such a condition. Together with this, He withholds the rest of His mercies, prepared for those who believe in God, hear Him, and turn to Him.