other, but inferior reading, with the sense of " dwelling together with" the disciples. The Vulgate, convescens, "eating with," probably rests on a mistaken etymology of the Greek term. The whole verse is in substance a repetition of Luke xxiv. 49, where see Notes.

(5) John truly baptized with water.- See Note on Matt. iii. 11. The words threw the disciples back upon their recollection of their first admission to the Kingdom. Some of them, at least, must have remembered also the teaching which had told them of the new birth of water and of the Spirit (John iii. 3-5). Now they were told that their spirits were to be as fully baptised, i.e., plunged, into the power of the Divine Spirit, as their bodies had then been plunged in the waters of the Jordan. And this was to be "not many days hence." The time was left undefined, as a discipline to their faith and patience. They were told that it would not be long, lest faith and patience should fail.

(6) Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom?-More literally, art Thou restoring

Before the Passion the disciples had thought that "the kingdom of God should immediately appear" (Luke xix. 11). Then had come the seeming failure of those hopes (Luke xxiv. 21). Now they were revived by the Resurrection, but were still predominantly national. Even the Twelve were thinking, not of a kingdom of God, embracing all mankind, but of a sovereignty restored to Israel.

(7) It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.-The combination of the two words is characteristic of St. Luke and St. Paul (1 Thess. v. 1). The answer to the eager question touches the season rather than the nature of the fulfilment of their hopes. They are left to the teaching of the Spirit and of Time to re-mould and purify their expectations of the restoration of Israel. What was needed now was the patience that waits for and accepts that teaching.

Which the Father hath put in his own power.-Better, as free from the ambiguity which attaches to the present version, which the Father appointed by His own authority.

(8) But ye shall receive power.-The use of the same English noun for two different Greek words is misleading, but if "authority" be used in verse 7 then "power" is an adequate rendering here. The consciousness of a new faculty of thought and speech would be to them a proof that the promise of the Kingdom had not failed.

Ye shall be witnesses unto me.-The words, which are apparently identical with those of Luke xxiv. 48, strike the key-note of the whole book. Those which follow correspond to the great divisions of the Acts-Jerusalem, chaps. i. and vii.; Judæa, ix. 32, xii. 19; Samaria, viii. ; and the rest of the book as opening the wider record of the witness borne "to the uttermost

The Extent of the Apostles' Witness. you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own (8) But ye shall receive power,1 power. after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (9) And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received

d

It

parts of the earth." And this witness was two-fold: (1) of the works, the teachings, and, above all, of the Resurrection of Jesus; (2) of the purpose of the Father as revealed in the Son. The witness was to be, in language which, though technical, is yet the truest expression of the fact, at once historical and dogmatic. (9) He was taken up; and a cloud received him. . .-It is remarkable how little stress is laid in the Gospels on the fact which has always been so prominent in the creeds of Christendom. Neither St. John nor St. Matthew record it. It is barely mentioned with utmost brevity in the verses which close the Gospel of St. Mark, and in which many critics see, indeed, a fragment of apostolic teaching, but not part of the original Gospel. The reasons of this silence are, however, not far to seek. It was because the Ascension was from the first part of the creed of Christendom that the Evangelists said so little. The fact had been taught to every catechumen. They would not embellish it-as, for example, the Assumption of the Virgin was embellished in later legends-by fantastic details. That it was so received is clear. is implied in our Lord's language, as recorded by St. John," What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before ?" (John vi. 62), and such words would hardly have been brought before believers at the close of the apostolic age if they had received no fulfilment. It is assumed in the earliest form of the Church's creed, "He was received up into glory," the verb being identical with that which St. Luke employs in St. Peter's speeches (Acts ii. 33; iii. 21), and in St. Paul's epistles (Eph. i. 20; 1 Tim. iii. 16). We may add that there was something like a moral necessity, assuming the Resurrection as a fact, for such a conclusion to our Lord's work on earth. Two other alternatives may, perhaps, be just imagined as possible: He might, like Lazarus, have lived out His restored life to its appointed term, and then died the common death of all men; but in that case where would have been the victory over death, and the witness that He was the Son of Man? He might have lived on an endless life on earth; but in this case, being such as He was, conflict, persecution, and suffering would have come again and again at every stage, and in each instance a miracle would have been needed to save the suffering from passing on to death, or many deaths must have been followed by many resurrections. When we seek, however, to realise the process of the Ascension, we find ourselves in a region of thought in which it is not easy to move freely. With our thoughts of the relations of the earth to space and the surrounding orbs, we find it hard to follow that upward motion, and to ask what was its direction and where it terminated. We cannot get beyond the cloud; but that cloud was the token of the glory of the Eternal Presence, as the Shechinah that of old filled the Temple (1 Kings viii. 10, 11; Isa. vi. 1-4), and it is enough for us to know

The Ascension.

him out of their sight. (10) And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; (11) which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (12) Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jeru

that where God is there also is Christ, in the glory of the Father, retaining still, though under new conditions and laws, the human nature which made Him like unto His brethren.

(10) Two men stood by them in white apparel. -Better, were standing, the appearance being sudden, and their approach unnoticed. The forms were such as those as had been seen at the portals of the empty sepulchre, bright and fair to look upon, and clad in white garments, like the young priests in the Temple. (See Note on Luke i. 12.)

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(11) Shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.-So our Lord, following the great prophecy of Dan. vii. 13, had spoken of Himself as 'coming in the clouds of heaven" (see Note on Matt. xxvi. 64), in visible majesty and glory. Here, again, men have asked questions which they cannot answer; not only, when shall the end be, but where shall the Judge thus appear? what place shall be the chosen scene of His second Advent ? So far as we dare to localise what is left undefined, the words of the angels suggest the same scene, as well as the same manner. Those who do not shrink from taking the words of prophecy in their most literal sense, have seen in Zech. xiv. 4, an intimation that the Valley of Jehosophat (= Jehovah judges)—the "valley of decision" -shall witness the great Assize, and that the feet of the Judge shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, from which He had ascended into heaven. This was the current mediæval view, and seems, if we are to localise at all, to be more probable than any other.

(12) From the mount called Olivet. As to the name, see Note on Luke xix. 29. The mention of the distance, and the measure of distance employed are, both of them, remarkable, and suggest the thought that St. Luke's reckoning was a different one from that which Christendom has commonly received, and that the "forty days" expired before the last renewal of our Lord's intercourse with His disciples, and that this ended on the following sabbath-.e., eight days before the day of Pentecost. On this supposition we get a reason, otherwise wanting, for this manner of stating the distance. Symbolically, too, there seems a fitness in our Lord's entering into His rest, on the great day of rest, which is wanting in our common way of reckoning. On the other hand, it may be noted that it is after St. Luke's manner as in the case of Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 13) to give distances. The "Sabbath day's journey" was reckoned at 2,000 paces, or about six furlongs.

(13) They went up into an upper room, where abode...-Better, into the upper room, where they were abiding. The Greek noun has the article. The room may have been the same as that in which the Paschal Supper had been eaten (Mark xiv. 15).

On

The Disciples in the Upper Chamber. salem a sabbath day's journey. (13) And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphæus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. (14) These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

the other hand, that room seems to have been different from that in which the disciples had lodged during the Paschal week, and to have been chosen specially for the occasion (Luke xxii. 8). The word used is also different in form. So far as we are able to distinguish between the two words, the room of the Paschal Supper was on the first floor, the guest-chamber, used for meals; that in which the disciples now met, on the second floor, or loft, which was used for retirement and prayer. It would seem from Luke xxiv. 53, that they spent the greater part of each day in the Temple, and met together in the evening. The better MSS. give "prayer" only, without "supplication." The prayer thus offered may be thought of as specially directed to the "promise of the Father." Whether it was spoken or silent, unpremeditated or in some set form of words, like the Lord's Prayer, we have no data to determine.

Peter, and James.-On the lists of the Twelve Apostles see Notes on Matt. x. 2-4. The points to be noticed are- (1) that Andrew stands last in the group of the first four, divided from his brother, thus agreeing with the list in St. Mark (iii. 17); (2) that Philip is in like manner divided from Bartholomew, and Thomas from Matthew; (3) that Zelotes appears here, as in Luke vi. 15, instead of the Cananæan.

(14) With the women.-Looking to what we have seen in the Gospels, it is a natural inference that here, too, the "devout women" of Luke viii. 2, 3, were among St. Luke's chief informants. This may, perhaps, account for the variations in the list just noticed. The women were less likely than the disciples to lay stress on what we may call the accurate coupling of the Twelve. The mention of "the women' as a definite body is characteristic of St. Luke as the only Evangelist who names them. (See Notes on Luke viii. 1-3; xxiii. 49.) We may reasonably think of the company as including Mary Magdalene, Salome, Susanna, Joanna, Mary and Martha of Bethany, possibly also the woman that had been a sinner, of Luke vii. 37. Here we lose sight of them, and all that follows is conjectural. It is probable that they continued to share the work and the sufferings of the growing Church at Jerusalem, living together, perhaps at Bethany, in a kind of sisterhood. The persecution headed by Saul was likely to disperse them for a time, and some may well have been among the "women" who suffered in it (chap. viii. 3); but they may have returned when it ceased. St. Luke, when he came to Palestine, would seem to have met with one or more of them.

Mary the mother of Jesus.-Brief as the record is, it has the interest of giving the last known fact, as distinct from legend or tradition, in the life of the mother of our Lord. St. John, we know, had taken her to his own home, probably to a private dwelling in Jerusalem (see Note on John xix. 27), and she had now

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(15) And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) (16) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas," which was a Ps. 41. 9. guide to them that took Jesus. (17) For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. (18) Now

come with him to the first meeting of the Ecclesia. Here also we trace the influence of the women as St. Luke's informants. They could not have left unnoticed the presence of her who was the centre of their group. The legends of some apocryphal books represent her as staying at Jerusalem with St. John till her death, twenty-two years after the Ascension; while others represent her as going with him to Ephesus and dying there; the Apostles gather around her deathbed; she is buried, and the next day the grave is found emptied, and sweet flowers have grown around it; Mary also had been taken up into heaven. The festival of the Assumption, which owes its origin to this legend, dates from the sixth or seventh century.

With his brethren.-The last mention of the "brethren" had shown them as still unbelieving (John vii. 5). Various explanations of their change may be given. (1) They may have been drawn to believe before the Crucifixion by the great miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus. (2) The risen Lord had appeared to James as well as to the Apostles (1 Cor. xv. 7), and that may have fixed him and the other brothers in steadfast faith. (3) If the mother of Jesus was with John, the brethren also were likely to come, in greater or less measure, under the influence of their cousin. It may be noted that the brethren are here emphatically distinguished from the Apostles, and therefore that James the son of Alphæus cannot rightly be identified with James the Lord's brother. (See Note on Matt. xii. 46.)

(15) The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty.-The number probably included the Seventy of Luke x. 1, perhaps also Joseph of Arimathæa and Nicodemus, and some of the "five hundred" who had seen their risen Lord in Galilee or elsewhere (1 Cor. xv. 6). The use of "names may be merely as a synonym for "persons," but it suggests the idea of there having been a list from which St. Luke extracted those that seemed most conspicuous.

(16) Men and brethren.-Better, brethren only, the word being used as in the LXX. of Gen. xiii. 8. The tone of St. Peter's speech is that of one who felt that his offence had been fully forgiven, and that he was now restored by the charge given him, as in John xxi. 15-17, to his former position as guide and leader of the other disciples. To do that work faithfully was a worthier fruit of repentance than any public confession of his guilt would have been. This, of course, does not exclude-what is in itself probable--that he had previously confessed his fault, either to his special friend St. John, or to the whole company of Apostles and other disciples.

Which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake ....-We have here, obviously, the

foretold in the Psalms.

this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. (19) And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. (20) For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his

first fruits of the new method of interpretation in which the Apostles had been instructed (Luke xxiv. 27, 45). They had already been taught that the Holy Spirit which their Lord had promised to them had before spoken by the prophets. The recurrence of the same mode of speech in the "holy men of God who spake as they were moved (literally, borne along) by the Holy Ghost," in 2 Pet. i. 21, is, as far as it goes, evidence in favour of the genuineness of that Epistle.

Which was guide to them that took Jesus.The actual word "guide" is not found in the Gospel narrative, but it appears as a fact in all four, notably in that of St. John (xviii. 2, 3).

(17) For he was numbered with us.-Literally, he had been numbered.

Had obtained part of this ministry.-Better, the portion, or inheritance. The Greek has the article, and the noun (cleros) is one which afterwards acquired a special half-technical sense in the words, clerus, clericus, clerk,"." clergy." In 1 Pet. v. 3, as being lords over the heritage," we find it in a transition sense. (See Note on verse 25.)

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(18, 19) Now this man purchased a field. Better, acquired, got possession of, a field, the Greek not necessarily including the idea of buying. On the difficulties presented by a comparison of this account with that in Matt. xxvii. 5-8, see Note on that passage. Here the field bought with Judas's money is spoken of as that which he gained as the reward of his treachery. The details that follow are additions to the briefer statement of St. Matthew, but are obviously not incompatible with it. Nor is there any necessity for assuming, as some have done, that there were two fields known as Aceldama, one that which the priests had bought, and the other that which was the scene of Judas's death. The whole passage must be regarded as a note of the historian, not as part of the speech of St. Peter. It was not likely that he, speaking to disciples, all of whom knew the Aramaic, or popular Hebrew of Palestine, should stop to explain that Aceldama meant "in their proper tongue, The field of blood."

(19) In their proper tongue.-Literally, in their own dialect. The word is used frequently in the Acts (ii. 6, 8; xxi. 40), but not elsewhere in the New Testament.

(20) For it is written in the book of Psalms. -St. Peter's speech is continued after the parenthetical note. His purpose in making the quotation is to show that the disciples should not be staggered by the treachery of Judas, and the seeming failure of their hopes. The Psalms had represented the righteous sufferer as the victim of treachery. They had also spoken of the traitor as receiving a righteous punishment such as had now fallen upon Judas. No strange thing had

The Vacant Place to be filled.

The Prayer to the Searcher of Hearts.

fore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus

went in and out among us, (22) beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. (23) And they appointed two, Joseph

charge, a Ps. 109. 8.

happened. What had been of old was typical of what they had heard or known. We need not in this place discuss either the historical occasions of the Psalms cited, or the ethical difficulties presented by their imprecations of evil. Neither comes, so to speak, within the horizon of St. Peter's thoughts. It was enough for him to note the striking parallelism which they presented to what was fresh in his memory, and to believe that it was not accidental.

His bishoprick let another take.- Better, as in Ps. cix. 8, let another take his office. The Greek word is episcopè, which, as meaning an office like that of the episcopos, is, of course, in one sense, rightly translated by "bishoprick." The latter term is, however, so surrounded by associations foreign to the apostolic age that it is better to use the more general, and, therefore, neutral, term of the English version of the Psalm. The use of "bishoprick" may be noted as an instance of the tendency of the revisers of 1611 to maintain the use of "bishop" and the like where the office seemed to be placed on a high level (as here and in 1 Pet. ii. 25), while they use "overseer" and "oversight" (as in Acts xx. 28, and 1 Pet. v. 2) where it is identified with the functions of the elders or presbyters of the Church. Bishoprick" had, however, been used in all previous versions except the Geneva, which gives "charge."

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(21) Wherefore of these men which have companied with us.-From the retrospective glance at the guilt and punishment of the traitor, Peter passes, as with a practical sagacity, to the one thing that was now needful for the work of the infant Church. They, the Apostles, must present themselves to the people in their symbolic completeness, as sent to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the gap left by the traitor must be filled by one qualified, as they were, to bear witness of what had been said or done by their Lord during His ministry, and, above all, of His resurrection from the dead. That would seem, even in St. Paul's estimate, to have been a condition of apostleship (1 Cor. ix. 1).

Went in and out. -The phrase was a familiar Hebrew phrase for the whole of a man's life and conduct. (Comp. chap. ix. 28.)

(23) They appointed.-It is uncertain whether this was the act of the Apostles, presenting the two men to the choice of the whole body of disciples, or of the community choosing them for ultimate decision by lot. Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus. - Some MSS. give the variousreading of "Joses," which was, perhaps, only another form of the same name. Nothing further is known of him. The conditions of the case make it certain that he must have been a disciple almost from the beginning of our Lord's ministry, and that he must have become more or less prominent, and probable therefore, as stated by Eusebius (Hist. i. 12), that he was one of the Seventy. The name Barsabas (= son of the oath, or of wisdom) may have been a patronymic, like Barjona, or may have

Justus, and Matthias. (24) And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, (25) that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. (26) And they gave

been given, like Barnabas, as denoting character. It appears again in Judas Barsabas of chap. xv. 22, and on the former assumption, the two disciples may have been brothers. The epithet Justus, the just one, is significant, as possibly indicating, as in the case of James the Just, a specially high standard of ascetic holiness. Another with the same surname Jesus surnamed Justus-meets us as being with St. Paul at Rome as one of "the circumcision (Col. iv. 11), and another, or possibly the same, at Corinth (chap. xviii. 7). In both cases the use of the Latin instead of the Greek word is noticeable, as indicating some point of contact with the Romans in Judæa or elsewhere.

Matthias. Here, too, probably, the same condi tions were fulfilled. The name, like Matthew (see Note on Matt. ix. 9), signified "given by Jehovah," and had become, in various forms, popular, from the fame of Mattathias, the great head of the Maccabean family.

(24) Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men.-Literally, heart-knower of all men. The compound word is not found in any Greek version of the Old Testament, but meets us again in chap. xv. 8. The question meets us whether the prayer is addressed to the Lord Jesus, as with a recollection of His insight into the hearts of men (John ii. 24; vi. 64), or to the Father. The prayer of Stephen (chap. vii. 59, 60) shows, on the one hand, that direct prayer to the Son was not foreign to the minds of the disciples; and in John vi. 70, He claims the act of choosing as His own. On the other hand, the analogy of chap. iv. 29, where the Father is entreated to work signs and wonders" through his holy servant Jesus," is in favour of the latter view. "Whether," as used in the sense of "which of two," may be noted as one of the archaisms of the English version.

(25) That he may take part of this ministry. -Better, the portion, or the lot, so as to give the word (cleros, as in verse 17) the same prominence in English as it has in the Greek.

From which Judas by transgression fell.The last three words are as a paraphrase of the one Greek verb. Better, fell away.

That he might go to his own place.-Literally, as the verb is in the infinitive, to go to his own place. The construction is not free from ambiguity, and some interpreters have referred the words to the disciple about to be chosen, "to go to his own place" in the company of the Twelve. If we connect them, as seems most natural, with Judas, we find in them the kind of reserve natural in one that could neither bring himself to cherish hope nor venture to pronounce the condemnation which belonged to the Searcher of hearts. All that had been revealed to him was, that "it had been good for that man if he had not been born (Mark xiv. 21).

(26) And they gave forth their lots.-As interpreted by the prayer of verse 24, and by the word "fell" here, there can be no doubt that the passage

speaks of "lots" and not "votes." The two men were chosen by the disciples as standing, as far as they could see, on the same level. It was left for the Searcher of hearts to show, by the exclusion of human will, which of the two He had chosen. The most usual way of casting lots in such cases was to write each name on a tablet, place them in an urn, and then shake the urn till one came out. A like custom prevailed among the Greeks, as in the well-known story of the stratagem of Cresphontes in the division of territory after the Dorian invasion (Sophocles, Aias. 1285; comp. Prov. xvi. 33). The practice was recognised, it may be noted, in the Law (Lev. xvi. 8).

He was numbered with the eleven apostles. -The Greek word is not the same as in verse 17, and implies that Matthias was "voted in," the suffrage of the Church unanimously confirming the indication of the divine will which had been given by the lot. It may be that the new Apostle took the place which Judas had left vacant, and was the last of the Twelve.

II.

(1) When the day of Pentecost was fully come. It is natural to assume a purpose in the divine choice of the day on which the disciples were thus to receive the promise of the Father. That choice may have been determined, if one may so speak, either in view of the circumstances of the feast, or of its history and symbolic fitness.

(1) Of all the feasts of the Jewish year, it was that which attracted the largest number of pilgrims from distant lands. The dangers of travel by sea or land in the early spring or late autumn (comp. chap. xxvii. 9) prevented their coming in any large numbers to the Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles. At no other feast would there have been representatives of so many nations. So, it may be noted, it was the Feast of Pentecost that St. Paul went up to keep once and again, during his mission-work in Greece and Asia. (See Notes on chaps. xviii. 21; xx. 16.) So far, then, there was no time on which the gift of the Spirit was likely to produce such direct and immediate results.

(2) Each aspect of the old Feast of Weeks, now known as Pentecost, or the "Fiftieth-day" Feast, presented a symbolic meaning which made it, in greater or less measure, typical of the work now about to be accomplished. It was the "feast of harvest, the feast of the firstfruits;" and so it was meet that it should witness the first great gathering of the fields that were white to harvest (Ex. xxiii. 16). It was one on which, more than on any other, the Israelite was to remember that he had been a bondsman in the land of Egypt, and had been led forth to freedom (Deut. xvi. 12), and on it, accordingly, they were to do no servile work (Lev. xxiii. 31); and it was, therefore, a fit time for the gift of the Spirit, of whom it was emphatically true that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. iii. 17), and who was to guide the Church into the truth which should make men free indeed (John viii. 32). It was a day on which sacrifices of every kind were offered-burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and meat offerings, and peace offerings-and so represented the consecration of body, soul, and

The Day of Pentecost.

CHAPTER II.-(1) And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

spirit as a spiritual sacrifice (Lev. xxiii. 17—20). As on the Passover the first ripe sheaf of corn was waved before Jehovah as the type of the sacrifice of Christ, of the corn of wheat which is not quickened except it die (Lev. xxiii. 10; John xii. 24), so on Pentecost two wave-loaves of fine flour were to be offered, the type, it may be, under the light now thrown on them, of the Jewish and the Gentile Churches (Lev. xxiii. 17). And these loaves were to be leavened, as a witness that the process of the contact of mind with mind, which— as the prohibition of leaven in the Passover ritual bore witness-is naturally so fruitful in evil, might yet, under a higher influence, become one of unspeakable good: the new life working through the three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. (See Note on Matt. xiii. 33.)

(3) Lastly, the Feast of Pentecost had-traditionally, at least-also a commemorative character. On that day-so it was computed by the later Rabbis, though the Book of Exodus (xix. 1) seems to leave the matter in some uncertainty-the Israelites had encamped round Sinai, and there had been thunders and darkness and voices, and the great Laws had been proclaimed. It was, that is, an epoch-making day in the religious history of Israel. It was fit that it should be chosen for another great epoch-making day, which, seeming at first to be meant for Israel only, was intended ultimately for mankind.

Was fully come.-Literally, was being accomplished. The word seems chosen to express the fact that the meeting of the disciples was either on the vigil of the Feast-day, or in the early dawn. Assuming the Passover to have occurred on the night of the Last Supper, the Day of Pentecost would fall on the first day of the week, beginning, of course, at the sunset of the Sabbath. So the Churches of East and West have commemorated the day as on the eighth Sunday after Easter. In the Latin nations the name of Pentecost remains scarcely altered. The Pfingst of the Germans shows it still surviving in a very contracted form. Some eminent scholars have thought that our Whitsun-day represents it after a still more altered form, and that this is a more probable etymology of the word than those which connect it with the white garments worn on that day by newlybaptised converts, or with the gift of "wit, or wisdom."

With one accord in one place.-Probably in the same large upper room as in chap. i. 13. We may reasonably think of the same persons as being present. The hour, we may infer from verse 15, was early in the morning, and probably followed on a night of prayer. It is said, indeed, that devout Jews used to solemnise the vigil of Pentecost by a special thanksgiving to God for giving His Law to Israel; and this may well have been the occasion that brought the disciples together (Schöttgen, Hor. Hebr. in Acts ii. 1). It was, in the mystic language of the Rabbis, the night on which the Law, as the Bride, was espoused to Israel, as the Bridegroom. The frequent occurrence of the Greek word for "with one accord" (chaps. i. 14; ii. 46; iv. 24; v. 12) is significant as showing the impression made on the writer by the exceptional unity of the new society. Outside the Acts it is found only in Rom. xv. 16.