Acts 3:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For if He foretold many things and must be heard, one will not err in saying that the prophets said this. He speaks of what especially drew them. Do you see how he sows together both lowly and lofty things?

It is both lowly and lofty if the One who is to ascend into heaven is like Moses. Yet at that time even this was a great thing. For these words no longer go to Moses: "And it shall be that every soul" who does not hear "shall be destroyed."

He said many other things as well, from which it is clear that Christ is not like Moses. Thus he touched upon a great testimony. "God," he says, "will raise Him up" from among your brethren.

Moses himself also threatened those who did not hear him. All this had power to draw them. But the phrase "like me," unless it is taken in the sense of lawgiving, has no basis in any other meaning.

Moses is of priestly lineage; Christ, through the Virgin, is of the lineage of David. With Moses there is Pharaoh; with Christ there is Herod. Pharaoh kills children; Herod slaughters infants. The one strikes down males, and the other also destroys the male sex.

Moses is saved through his mother. Through His Mother, and together with her, Christ also was saved.

First, Moses, inspired by God, spoke this after Joshua had already been chosen. Second, if the son of Nun had surpassed Moses, the Jew's claim would be plausible, though still not true. But since he was far below Moses, this opinion proves wholly groundless.

Third, Joshua added nothing to the Law, but governed according to its ordinances. Fourth, if the word concerned the son of Nun, it should have said not "He will raise up," but "He has raised up."

Fifth, it should have said: "Every soul that does not hear this Prophet." But by saying "that Prophet," Moses set aside this one, that is, the son of Nun.

Sixth, why did the Jews send to John, born after many generations, asking, "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No" (Jn 1:22). It was because, although he was a prophet, he was not that Prophet.

Seventh, why, when the Savior came to earth, did those who saw His miracles say, "This is truly the Prophet" (Jn 6:14)? Therefore let this Jew see how many things stand against him. Let him worship the true Foreknower and King.

There Moses warns the Hebrews against the abominations of Canaan. He forbids them to listen to diviners and soothsayers of that land. In God's name he promises that God will raise up for them a Prophet whom they must hear without contradiction.

In the nearer sense, the word concerns the whole assembly of Hebrew prophets raised up by God, under the collective name "Prophet." Yet the aim of all Old Testament prophecy is in Christ.

Since Christ is the fulfillment of all the prophets and the crown of prophecy, all antiquity, Jewish and Christian, rightly referred this prophecy to Christ. It saw the fulfillment of this promise in Christ.

This is even more so because among all the Old Testament prophets there was no particular prophet as great as Moses (Deut 34:10-12), except Christ, who is higher than Moses (Heb 3:1-6).

For persuading the Jews to faith in Christ, this passage had special importance. The Jews considered Moses higher than all the prophets. They regarded his word as divine and higher than the words of other prophets (cf. Jn 9:29; 5:45-46).

The passage is cited in a somewhat distinctive form, more according to the Septuagint. "A Prophet like me" means a special and extraordinary mediator between God and the people, as the first Moses was.

In relation to Jesus Christ as Prophet, the words "like me" especially characterize His legislative activity, as Moses' activity also was. Among all the prophets they apply chiefly, if not exclusively, to Him (cf. Chrysostom).

"Hear Him in all things," and so forth. If Moses himself commanded, or God commanded through him, that this Prophet be heard in all things, this had special persuasive force for the Jews.

All antiquity, Jewish and Christian, referred this prophecy to Jesus Christ. There was no other such Lawgiver and Leader of salvation, followed, though not at once, by more than followed Moses.

For this reason Moses is considered only a type of Christ. The prophecy of the lawgiver of the Jews about Jesus Christ as the new Lawgiver is remarkable also in another respect.

It shows the impotence of the Mosaic Law as temporary and preparatory to the new law under Christ.