Chapter 13:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 John Romans
Acts 13
Verse 1. Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod - His foster
brother, now freed from the temptations of a court.
Verse
2. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
called them - This was not ordaining them. St. Paul was ordained
long before, and that not of men, neither by man: it was only
inducting him to the province for which our Lord had appointed
him from the beginning, and which was now revealed to the
prophets and teachers. In consequence of this they fasted, prayed,
and laid their hands on them, a rite which was used not in
ordination only, but in blessing, and on many other occasions.
Verse
3. Then having fasted - Again. Thus they did also, chap. xiv, 23.
Verse
5. In the synagogues - Using all opportunities that offered.
Verse
6. Paphos was on the western, Salamis on the eastern part of the
island.
Verse
7. The proconsul - The Roman governor of Cyprus, a prudent man
- And therefore not overswayed by Elymas, but desirous to
inquire farther.
Verse
9. Then Saul, who was also called Paul - It is not improbable, that
coming now among the Romans, they would naturally adapt his
name to their own language, and so called him Paul instead of
Saul. Perhaps the family of the proconsul might be the first who
addressed to or spoke of him by this name. And from this time,
being the apostle of the Gentiles, he himself used the name which
was more familiar to them.
Verse
10. O full of all guile - As a false prophet, and all mischief - As a
magician. Thou son of the devil - A title well suited to a magician;
and one who not only was himself unrighteous, but laboured to
keep others from all goodness. Wilt thou not cease to pervert the
right ways of the Lord? - Even now thou hast heard the truth of
the Gospel.
Verse
11. And immediately a mist - Or dimness within, and darkness
without, fell upon him.
Verse
12. Being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord - Confirmed by
such a miracle.
Verse
13. John withdrawing from them returned - Tired with the fatigue,
or shrinking from danger.
Verse
14. Antioch in Pisidia - Different from the Antioch mentioned ver.
1.
Verse
15. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the chief of
the synagogue sent to them - The law was read over once every
year, a portion of it every Sabbath: to which was added a lesson
taken out of the prophets. After this was over, any one might
speak to the people, on any subject he thought convenient. Yet it
was a circumstance of decency which Paul and Barnabas would
hardly omit, to acquaint the rulers with their desire of doing it:
probably by some message before the service began.
Verse
16. Ye that fear God - Whether proselytes or heathens.
Verse
17. The God - By such a commemoration of God's favours to their
fathers, at once their minds were conciliated to the speaker, they
were convinced of their duty to God, and invited to believe his
promise, and the accomplishment of it. The six verses 17-22,
contain the whole sum of the Old Testament. Of this people - Paul
here chiefly addresses himself to those whom he styles, Ye that
fear God: he speaks of Israel first; and ver. 26, speaks more
directly to the Israelites themselves. Chose - And this exalted the
people; not any merit or goodness of their own, Ezek. xx, 5. Our
fathers - Abraham and his posterity. Isaiah i, 2.
Verse
18. Deut. i, 31.
Verse
19. Seven nations - Enumerated Deut. vii, 1; about four hundred
and fifty years - That is, from the choice of the fathers to the
dividing of the land; it was about four hundred and fifty years.
Verse
21. He gave them Saul forty years - Including the time wherein
Samuel judged Israel.
Verse
22. Having removed him - Hence they might understand that the
dispensations of God admit of various changes. I have found
David, a man after my own heart - This expression is to be taken
in a limited sense. David was such at that time, but not at all
times. And he was so, in that respect, as he performed all God's
will, in the particulars there mentioned: But he was not a man
after God's own heart, in other respects, wherein he performed his
own will. In the matter of Uriah, for instance, he was as far from
being a man after God's own heart as Saul himself was. It is
therefore a very gross, as well as dangerous mistake, to suppose
this is the character of David in every part of his behaviour. We
must beware of this, unless we would recommend adultery and
murder as things after God's own heart. 1 Sam. xvi, 12, 13.
Verse
24. John having first preached - He mentions this, as a thing
already known to them. And so doubtless it was. For it gave so
loud an alarm to the whole Jewish nation, as could not but be
heard of in foreign countries, at least as remote as Pisidia.
Verse
25. His course - His work was quickly finished, and might
therefore well be termed a course or race. Luke iii, 16.
Verse
27. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers - He here
anticipates a strong objection, "Why did not they at Jerusalem,
and especially their rulers, believe?" They know not him, because
they understood not those very prophets whom they read or heard
continually. Their very condemning him, innocent as he was,
proves that they understood not the prophecies concerning him.
Verse
29. They fulfilled all things that were written of him - So far could
they go, but no farther.
Verse
31. He was seen many days by them who came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem - This last journey both presupposes all the
rest, and was the most important of all.
Verse
33. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee - It is true, he
was the Son of God from eternity. The meaning therefore is, I
have this day declared thee to be my Son. As St. Paul elsewhere,
declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection
from the dead, Rom. i, 4. And it is with peculiar propriety and
beauty that God is said to have begotten him, on the day when he
raised him from the dead, as he seemed then to be born out of the
earth anew. Psalm ii, 7.
Verse
34. No more to return to corruption - That is, to die no more. I
will give you the sure mercies of David - The blessings promised
to David in Christ. These are sure, certain, firm, solid, to every
true believer in him. And hence the resurrection of Christ
necessarily follows; for without this, those blessings could not be
given. Isaiah lv, 3.
Verse
35. He saith - David in the name of the Messiah. Psalm xvi, 10.
Verse
36. David, having served the will of God in his generation, fell
asleep - So his service extended not itself beyond the bounds of
the common age of man: but the service of the Messiah to all
generations, as his kingdom to all ages. Served the will of God -
Why art thou here thou who art yet in the world? Is it not that thou
also mayest serve the will of God? Art thou serving it now? Doing
all his will? And was added to his fathers - Not only in body. This
expression refers to the soul also, and supposes the immortality of
it.
Verse
39. Every one that believeth is justified from all things - Has the
actual forgiveness of all his sins, at the very time of his believing;
from which ye could not be justified - Not only ye cannot now;
but ye never could. For it afforded no expiation for presumptuous
sins. By the law of Moses - The whole Mosaic institution! The
division of the law into moral and ceremonial was not so common
among the Jews, as it is among us. Nor does the apostle here
consider it at all: but Moses and Christ are opposed to each other.
Verse
40. Beware - A weighty and seasonable admonition. No reproof is
as yet added to it.
Verse
41. I work a work which ye will in nowise believe - This was
originally spoken to those, who would not believe that God would
ever deliver them from the power of the Chaldeans. But it is
applicable to any who will not believe the promises, or the works
of God. Hab. i, 5.
Verse
42. When the Jews were going out - Probably many of them, not
bearing to hear him, went out before he had done. The Sabbath
between - So the Jews call to this day the Sabbath between the
first day of the month Tisri (on which the civil year begins) and
the tenth of the same month, which is the solemn day of expiation.
Verse
43. Who speaking to them - More familiarly, persuaded them to
continue - For trials were at hand, in the grace of God - That is, to
adhere to the Gospel or Christian faith.
Verse
46. Then Paul and Barnabas speaking boldly, said - Those who
hinder others must be publicly reproved. It was necessary -
Though ye are not worthy: he shows that he had not preached to
them, from any confidence of their believing, but seeing ye judge
yourselves unworthy of eternal life - They indeed judged none but
themselves worthy of it. Yet their rejecting of the Gospel was the
same as saying, "We are unworthy of eternal life." Behold! - A
thing now present! An astonishing revolution! We turn to the
Gentiles - Not that they left off preaching to the Jews in other
places. But they now determined to lose no more time at Antioch
on their ungrateful countrymen, but to employ themselves wholly
in doing what they could for the conversion of the Gentiles there.
Verse
47. For so hath the Lord commanded us - By sending us forth, and
giving us an opportunity of fulfilling what he had foretold. I have
set thee - The Father speaks to Christ. Isaiah xlix, 6.
Verse
48. As many as were ordained to eternal life - St. Luke does not
say fore-ordained. He is not speaking of what was done from
eternity, but of what was then done, through the preaching of the
Gospel. He is describing that ordination, and that only, which was
at the very time of hearing it. During this sermon those believed,
says the apostle, to whom God then gave power to believe. It is as
if he had said, "They believed, whose hearts the Lord opened;" as
he expresses it in a clearly parallel place, speaking of the same
kind of ordination, chap. xvi, 14, &c. It is observable, the original
word is not once used in Scripture to express eternal
predestination of any kind. The sum is, all those and those only,
who were now ordained, now believed. Not that God rejected the
rest: it was his will that they also should have been saved: but they
thrust salvation from them. Nor were they who then believed
constrained to believe. But grace was then first copiously offered
them. And they did not thrust it away, so that a great multitude
even of Gentiles were converted. In a word, the expression
properly implies, a present operation of Divine grace working
faith in the hearers.
Chapter 13:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Johnson
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| McGarvey Pendleton
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 John Romans
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
