Acts 3:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

There are two accusations: that Pilate wished to release Him, and that when Pilate wished it, you did not. Everywhere he reminds them of their evil deed, both to show the miracle and to confirm the resurrection.

Here he also adds something else. He no longer calls Christ the Nazarene. How does he name Him? "The God of our fathers," he says, "glorified His Son Jesus."

Notice also his modesty. He did not accuse them and immediately say, "Now believe; behold, a man lame for forty years has risen in the name of Jesus Christ."

He did not speak so, because by this he would have made them still more stubborn. Instead, he first praises them for marveling at what had happened.

Again he gives them a name derived from their ancestor. He does not say, "Jesus healed the lame man," although He truly had healed him.

He does this so that they might not say, "How is it possible for God to glorify a transgressor of the Law?" Therefore he reminds them of the trial before Pilate.

He shows that, if they had wished to pay attention, they would have known that He was no transgressor. Otherwise Pilate would not have wished to release Him.

Then, lest they think God's decree served as an excuse for them, he first rebukes them. Their denial of Christ before Pilate, when he wished to release Him, was not accidental.

You cannot deny this, because the one whom you asked for in His place accuses you. Thus in this too there was a great divine economy.

Here the apostle shows their shamelessness and insolence. A Gentile, who then saw Him for the first time and had heard nothing great about Him, was releasing Him.

But they, raised among miracles, acted in the opposite way. And that Pilate judged rightly in deciding to release Him, and did not act from mercy, hear what he says elsewhere.

"But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" (Jn 18:39; Mt 27:15).

The apostle probably uses it here deliberately, to give stronger emphasis to the Jews' guilt toward His beloved Son, Jesus the Messiah.

"Glorified" means specifically by this miracle upon the lame man, since this miracle was performed in His name (v. 6), and faith in His name strengthened the paralytic (v. 16).

"His Son," strictly, "His Servant" (pais). In the great prophecies of the great prophet Isaiah (Isa 40-46), this name is often given to the Messiah.

He is so called as the fulfiller of the work of God's great counsel concerning the salvation of men. This title was understood precisely as a title of the Messiah; see the note on Mt 12:18.

Speaking to the Jews, the apostle speaks to them, so to say, in Old Testament language. The apostles often do this, and the Lord Himself did so.

"Whom you delivered up," and so forth. Turning his speech toward persuading them to repent and be converted, the apostle expressively and in detail sets forth their guilt before his hearers.

It was their guilt against Jesus, the Servant whom God glorifies. By the miracle of healing the lame man, God glorified His Servant Jesus.

This, in the introductory speech, is that Jesus whom you delivered up, that is, to Pilate for trial and condemnation.

You denied Him before Pilate. That is, you denied that this Jesus is the true Messiah, the Son of God (cf. Jn 19:14-15; Lk 23:2, and parallels).

"When he had determined to release Him"; see Jn 19:4; Lk 23:16, and parallels.

Yet you did not wish to release Him, while Pilate did. The Roman governor of Judea, Pontius, was called Pilate because he distinguished himself while commanding troops armed with spears called pilo.

Through calculation and weakness of will, he yielded to the unjust demand for Christ's death. Later he suffered punishment.

On the Jews' complaint he was exiled to Gaul, where he ended his life by suicide, as Flavius and Tacitus testify.

It is remarkable here that Jesus is called not Christ, but the Son of God. For everything is still being attributed to God, who glorified Jesus as His Only-begotten Son.

In Greek, the word "Son" is expressed by the word "Servant" (Pais). In this there was a certain reproduction of Isaiah's prophecy about the Messiah as the Servant of the Lord.

That is, He wholly gave Himself to the Father in service for the salvation of men (cf. Isa 42; Jn 19:7; Lk 23:2). This was certainly intelligible to those who knew the prophecies, as many Jews then did.