Acts 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He called them brethren and said, "Men, brethren." There he said nothing about himself, but only about Christ: "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly" (Acts 2:36).

Here, however, he also offers exhortation. There he waited for the Jews to speak. Here, after the apostles had already done so much, he knew they were more capable of receiving his words.

Without doubt, even what was said above did not arise from ignorance. They had asked for a robber. They did not receive Him whom Pilate had judged should be released.

They even wished to kill Him. What ignorance was there in this? Yet despite all this, he gives them opportunity to deny and repent of what they had done.

He even presents a plausible defense for them. He says: You knew that you killed an innocent man. But perhaps you did not know that you killed the Author of life.

In this way he excuses not only them from the crimes, but also the chief authors of the evil. Had he turned his speech into accusation, he would have made them more stubborn.

When someone who has done something terrible is accused, he becomes more obstinate while trying to justify himself. So Peter no longer says, "You crucified," or, "You killed."

He says, "you did it," and thereby leads them toward forgiveness. If those acted in ignorance, much more did these. If forgiveness is granted to those, it is granted much more readily to these.

For example: "And I will give the wicked for His burial and the rich for His death" (Isa 53:9). But for their consolation it is said that they did this in ignorance, yet God thus fulfilled it.

This is at the same time an answer to the words of all of them, the Jews, which they spoke in reproach against Him even at the cross.

They said: "Let God deliver Him, if He desires Him" (Mt 27:43), and, "If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Mt 27:40), and similar things.

Peter said only one thing short of this: "Foolish men, these were empty words." For if it had to be so, and if all the prophets testify to it, then the crucifixion clearly occurred not through Christ's weakness.

Rather, it occurred through His ineffable might, His exceeding authority, and His boundless love for mankind.

However grave the sin, it can be forgiven them if they repent. They, like their rulers, committed this sin in ignorance.

On God's side, the possibility that this sin be forgiven them is conditioned by the fact that the Messiah's death was predestined in God's eternal counsel and foretold by the prophets.

"You" means the apostle's hearers. In their person the whole Jewish nation is understood, since in the person of its rulers it delivered the Lord to death.

"You did this in ignorance," because they did not recognize their Messiah in the Lord Jesus and did not acknowledge Him as such.

The Lord Himself, when praying on the cross for those crucifying Him, said that they did not know what they were doing (Lk 23:34; see note).

The Apostle Paul, speaking of the same thing, says that if they had known the wisdom of God in the person of Christ, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8).

Of course, this ignorance does not excuse them, since they had every means to recognize their Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth.

Nevertheless, if they repented, this grave sin of theirs could be forgiven by the all-merciful God. The apostle "gives them the opportunity to deny and repent of what they had done."

"He even presents a plausible defense for them and says: You knew that you killed an innocent man, but perhaps you did not know that you killed the Author of life."

"Thus he excuses not only them from the crime, but also the chief authors of the evil. Had he turned his speech into accusation, he would have made them more stubborn" (Chrysostom).

Why did they not know Him? That blindness came upon them of which the prophet Isaiah had already foretold (cf. Isa 6:9-10).

"Heavenly love was hidden beneath earthly enmity, so that by the death of Love, enmity might be slain, and light and life might be spread through darkness and the shadow of death."

So Metropolitan Philaret said in one of his homilies in 1821. In general, the great mystery of God's providence, hidden from the angels, was little known to them in its true light.

False notions of the Messiah as an earthly king completely covered the true Messiah, as with a veil, from their spiritual sight.

Therefore it is understandable that they all had some excuse in rejecting Jesus Christ. And so the apostle, excusing them, calls them to repentance.

For this reason he calls them brethren, to whom the fatherly embrace of the one Father of all, God, is ready to open.

According to Saint Chrysostom, "the apostle gives them the opportunity to deny and repent of what they had done."

"He even presents a plausible defense for them and says: You knew that you killed an innocent man, but perhaps you did not know that you killed the Author of life."

"Thus he excuses not only them from the crime, but also the chief authors of the evil. Had he turned his speech into accusation, he would have made them more stubborn."