Acts 3:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then he also points to the great punishment. Here he fittingly spoke of perdition. Whenever he says something great, he turns to the prophets. Here he presented a testimony containing both things.

So he said there also: "until I make Your enemies Your footstool" (Ps 109:1). It is remarkable that in one place both things are spoken of: submission and disobedience, and punishment as well.

"Him," he says, "you shall hear." And not simply so, but how? "And it shall be that every soul which does not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people."

After showing that they had sinned, after granting them forgiveness and promising blessings, he then shows that Moses also says the same thing.

"Shall be destroyed from among the people." Since the human soul is immortal, it is not utterly annihilated, but falls away from some good state in which it had formerly been placed. Thus Judas was destroyed, that is, excluded from the company of the Apostles. Therefore, since the soul is immortal, by its destruction we understand its deprivation of those good things which it would have tasted if it had lived in a God-pleasing manner.

The Jew who entered into dispute with you said nothing strong or bold. He merely spewed out a few empty phrases and asserted that this saying, "The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren, like me," was spoken of the son of Nun.

Answer him thus: You err in many ways. You understand unsoundly, flee from knowledge itself, and conceal most of what Moses implies. For it is said: "Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And every soul that does not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people."

The Apostle Peter's address to the people after the healing of the lame man, like his address on the day of Pentecost, is a preaching about Jesus Christ. He was glorified by God (v. 13), crucified by men (vv. 14-15), risen from the dead (v. 15), and ascended into heaven (v. 21). See the interpretations on chapter 2.

"Shall be destroyed from among the people." In the original and in the Septuagint it reads, "I will require it of him." To affect his hearers more strongly by the threat for disobedience, the Apostle replaces the strong expression with a still stronger one.

This stronger phrase often occurs in Moses: "shall be destroyed from his race," or, "I, Jehovah, will destroy him from the people." Such expressions indicate the death penalty.

The Apostle clearly applies the prophecy to the Messiah. By this expression he signifies condemnation to exclusion from participation in the kingdom of the Messiah, and to Gehenna's punishment, that is, eternal death. "He who does not believe is condemned already" (Jn 3:18).

Cf. Deut 18:15-18. The prophetic threat against those who despise the Messiah and Savior is expressed with the greatest force. To be destroyed from among the people means the death penalty.

Applied to participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah, it means deprivation of that Kingdom, and together with this condemnation to eternal death. The unbeliever is already condemned by that very fact, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God (cf. Jn 3:18).

Without Him salvation is impossible. Conversely, everyone who calls upon His name shall be saved. The possession of the covenants and promises by the Hebrews so exalted them among other peoples that the other nations were, as it were, no people (cf. Hos 2:23).