Acts 2:30

Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) Therefore being a prophet.—The words “according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ,” are wanting in many of the best MSS. Without them the sentence, though somewhat incomplete, would run thus: “That God had sworn with an oath that from his loins one should sit upon his throne.” The words claim for the Psalmist a prophetic foresight of some kind, without defining its measure or clearness. His thoughts went beyond himself to the realisation of his hopes in a near or far-off future. As with most other prophets, the precise time, even the “manner of time,” was hidden from him (1Peter 1:11).

He would raise up Christ.—The Greek, by using the verb from which comes the word “resurrection,” gives to the verb the definite sense of “raising from the dead.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:22-36 From this gift of the Holy Ghost, Peter preaches unto them Jesus: and here is the history of Christ. Here is an account of his death and sufferings, which they witnessed but a few weeks before. His death is considered as God's act; and of wonderful grace and wisdom. Thus Divine justice must be satisfied, God and man brought together again, and Christ himself glorified, according to an eternal counsel, which could not be altered. And as the people's act; in them it was an act of awful sin and folly. Christ's resurrection did away the reproach of his death; Peter speaks largely upon this. Christ was God's Holy One, sanctified and set apart to his service in the work of redemption. His death and sufferings should be, not to him only, but to all his, the entrance to a blessed life for evermore. This event had taken place as foretold, and the apostles were witnesses. Nor did the resurrection rest upon this alone; Christ had poured upon his disciples the miraculous gifts and Divine influences, of which they witnessed the effects. Through the Saviour, the ways of life are made known; and we are encouraged to expect God's presence, and his favour for evermore. All this springs from assured belief that Jesus is the Lord, and the anointed Saviour.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore - As David was dead and buried, it was clear that he could not have referred to himself in this remarkable declaration. It followed that he must have had reference to some other one.

Being a prophet - One who foretold future events. That David was inspired is clear, 2 Samuel 23:2. Many of the prophecies relating to the Messiah are found in the Psalms of David: Psalm 22:1, compare Matthew 27:46; Luke 24:44 - Psalm 22:18, compare Matthew 27:35 - Psalm 69:21, compare Matthew 27:34, Matthew 27:48 - Psalm 69:25, compare Acts 1:20.

And knowing - Knowing by what God had said to him respecting his posterity.

Had sworn with an oath - The places which speak of God as having sworn to David are found in Psalm 89:3-4, "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish," etc.; and Psalm 132:11, "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon my throne"; Psalm 89:35-36. The promise to which reference is made in all these places is in 2 Samuel 7:11-16.

Of the fruit of his loins - Of his descendants. See 2 Samuel 7:12; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 46:26; 1 Kings 8:19, etc.

According to the flesh - That is, so far as the human nature of the Messiah was concerned, he would be descended from David. Expressions like these are very remarkable. If the Messiah was only a man, they would be unmeaning. They are never used in relation to a mere man; and they imply that the speaker or writer supposed that there pertained to the Messiah a nature which was not according to the flesh. See Romans 1:3-4.

He would raise up Christ - That is, the Messiah. To raise up seed, or descendants, is to give them to him. The promises made to David in all these places had immediate reference to Solomon and to his descendants. But it is clear that the New Testament writers understood them as referring also to the Messiah. And it is no less clear that the Jews understood that the Messiah was to be descended from David, Matthew 12:23; Matthew 21:9; Matthew 22:42, Matthew 22:45; Mark 11:10; John 7:42, etc. In what way these promises that were made to David were understood as applying to the Messiah, it may not be easy to determine. The fact, however, is clear. The following remarks may throw some light on the subject:

(a) The kingdom which was promised to David was to have no end; it was to be established forever. Yet his descendants died, and all other kingdoms changed.

(b) The promise likewise stood by itself; it was not made to any other of the Jewish kings; nor were similar declarations made of surrounding kingdoms and nations. It came, therefore, gradually to be applied to that future king and kingdom which was the hope of the nation; and their eyes were anxiously fixed on the long-expected Messiah.

(c) At the time that he came it had become the settled doctrine of the Jews that he was to descend from David, and that his kingdom was to be perpetual.

On this belief of the prophecy the apostles argued; and the opinions of the Jews furnished a strong point by which they could convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter affirms that David was aware of this, and that he so understood the promise as referring not only to Solomon, but in a far more important sense to the Messiah. Happily we have a commentary of David himself as expressing his own views of that promise. That commentary is found particularly in Psalm 2:1-12; Psalm 22; Psalm 69; and Psalm 16:1-11; In these Psalms there can be no doubt that David looked forward to the coming of the Messiah; and there can be as little that he regarded the promise made to him as extending to his coming and his reign.

It may be remarked that there are some important variations in the manuscripts in regard to this verse. The expression "according to the flesh" is omitted in many mss., and is now left out by Griesbach in his New Testament. It is omitted also by the ancient Syriac and Ethiopic versions, and by the Latin Vulgate.

To sit on his throne - To be his successor in his kingdom. Saul was the first of the kings of Israel. The kingdom was taken away from him and his posterity, and conferred on David and his descendants. It was determined that it should be continued in the family of David, and no more go out of his family, as it had from the family of Saul. The unique characteristic of David as king, or what distinguished him from the other kings of the earth, was that he reigned over the people of God. Israel was his chosen people, and the kingdom was over that nation. Hence, he that should reign over the people of God, though in a manner somewhat different from David, would be regarded as occupying his throne, and as being his successor. The form of the administration might be varied, but it would still retain its prime characteristic as being a reign over the people of God. In this sense the Messiah sits on the throne of David. He is his descendant and successor. He has an empire over all the friends of the Most High. And as that kingdom is destined to fill the earth, and to be eternal in the heavens, so it may be said that it is a kingdom which shall have no end. It is spiritual, but not the less real; defended not with carnal weapons, but not the less really defended; advanced not by the sword and the din of arms, but not the less really advanced against principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places; not under a visible head and earthly monarch, but not less really under the Captain of salvation and the King of kings.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29-36. David … is … dead and buried, &c.—Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, sees in this sixteenth Psalm, one Holy Man, whose life of high devotedness and lofty spirituality is crowned with the assurance, that though He taste of death, He shall rise again without seeing corruption, and be admitted to the bliss of God's immediate presence. Now as this was palpably untrue of David, it could be meant only of One other, even of Him whom David was taught to expect as the final Occupant of the throne of Israel. (Those, therefore, and they are many, who take David himself to be the subject of this Psalm, and the words quoted to refer to Christ only in a more eminent sense, nullify the whole argument of the apostle). The Psalm is then affirmed to have had its only proper fulfilment in Jesus, of whose resurrection and ascension they were witnesses, while the glorious effusion of the Spirit by the hand of the ascended One, setting an infallible seal upon all, was even then witnessed by the thousands who stood listening to Him. A further illustration of Messiah's ascension and session at God's right hand is drawn from Ps 110:1, in which David cannot be thought to speak of himself, seeing he is still in his grave.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Had sworn with an oath; not barely had sworn, which had been sufficient; but to show the excellency of the matter, and the necessity of our believing of it, as also the solemnity of the words, Psalm 132:11.

Of the fruit of his loins; such as should descend from him, as the virgin Mary did.

According to the flesh; as to his human nature, which our Saviour did truly partake of, being in the form of a servant.

He would raise up Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of his virgin mother, as to his incarnation; and by the same power out of the grave, in his resurrection.

To sit on his throne; as Luke 1:32,33: not as a temporal king, for his kingdom is not of this world; but as David ruled over all the people of God, so does Christ, and shall do for ever.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore being a prophet,.... Who could foretell things to come, as he did many things concerning the sufferings and death of Christ, and the circumstances attending it, concerning his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God. So the title of his "Psalms", in the Syriac version, runs thus; the "Book of the Psalms of David, King and Prophet": and in the Arabic version, "the First Book of the Psalms of David the Prophet, King of the Children of Israel". Though the Jews (d) will not allow him, nor Solomon, nor Daniel, to be strictly and properly prophets, they make a difference between prophecy, and the Holy Spirit. They own, that the book of Psalms was written under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but not by prophecy; and therefore they place it among the Hagiographa, or holy writings, but not among the Prophets: though after all, Kimchi allows David to be a prophet, since he is called a man of God; for he says this name is not said of any but , "of a prophet" (e); and Peter is right in calling him so:

and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him; as he did in Psalm 132:11.

that of the fruit of his loins; of one that should be of his seed, that should spring from him, even the Virgin Mary, who was of the house and lineage of David:

according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ; would send him forth, according to the human nature; for this phrase respects not his resurrection from the dead, but his incarnation or exhibition in the flesh, as in Acts 3:26. This clause is wanting in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and in the Alexandrian copy, and should be read in a parenthesis; since it is not in the text in Psalm 132:11.

to sit on his throne; on the throne of David his father; see Gill on Luke 1:32.

(d) Maimon. More Nevochim, par. 2. c. 45. Vid. Procop. Gazaeum in Reg. l. 2. c. 23. sect. 2.((e) Kimchi Praefat. ad Psalm.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had {x} sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

(x) Had sworn solemnly.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 2:30-32. Οὖν] infers from the previous καὶ τὸ μνῆμα αὐτοῦ … ταύτης, whence it is plain that David in the Psalm, l.c., as a prophet and divinely conscious progenitor of the future Messiah, has spoken of the resurrection of Christ as the one who should not be left in Hades, and whose body should not decay.

καὶ εἰδώς] see 2 Samuel 7:12.

ἐκ καρποῦ τ. ὀσφύος αὐτοῦ] sc. τινά. On the frequent supplying of the indefinite pronoun, see Kühner, II. p. 37 f.; Fritzsche, Conject. I. 36. The well-known Hebrew-like expression καρπὸς τῆς ὀσφύος αὐτοῦ (Psalm 132:11) presupposes the idea of the uninterrupted male line of descent from David to Christ. Comp. Hebrews 7:5; Genesis 35:11; 2 Chronicles 6:9; and see remark after Matthew 1:18.

καθίσαι ἐπὶ τ. θρόνον αὐτοῦ] to sit on His throne (Xen. Anab. ii. 1. 4), namely, as the Messiah, who was to be the theocratic consummator of the kingdom of David (Mark 11:10; Acts 15:16). Comp. Luke 1:32.

προϊδών] prophetically looking into the future. Comp. Galatians 3:8.

ὅτι οὐ κατελ.] since He, in fact, was not left, etc. Thus has history proved that David spoke prophetically of the resurrection of the Messiah. The subject of κατελείφθη κ.τ.λ. is not David (Hofm. Schriftbew. II. l, p. 115)—which no hearer, after Acts 2:29, could suppose—but ὁ Χριστός; and what is stated of Him in the words of the Psalm itself is the triumph of their historical fulfilment, a triumph which is continued and concluded in Acts 2:32.

τοῦτον τὸν Ἰησοῦν] has solemn emphasis; this Jesus, no other than just Him, to whom, as the Messiah who has historically appeared, David’s prophecy refers.

οὗ] neuter: whereof. See Bernhardy, p. 298.

μάρτυρες] in so far as we, His twelve apostles, have conversed with the risen Christ Himself. Comp. Acts 1:22, Acts 10:41.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 2:30. προφήτης: as David could not have spoken this Psalm of himself, he spoke it of some other, who was none other than the Messiah—here the word is used in the double sense of one declaring God’s will, and also of one foretelling how that will would be fulfilled.—ὑπάρχων: another favourite word of St. Luke, in his Gospel, and especially in Acts; in the former it is found seven times, and in the latter no less than twenty-four times, and in all parts (excluding τὰ ὑπάρχοντα), Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, p. 7. It is not used by the other Evangelists. In the N.T., as in later Greek, it is often weakened into an equivalent of εἶναι; Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 239. Here it may indicate that David was a prophet, not only in this one instance, but constantly with reference to the Messiah.—ὅρκῳ ὤμοσεν, Hebraistic; cf. Acts 2:17. Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 141 (1896); for the oath cf. Psalm 132:11, 2 Samuel 7:16.—ἐκ καρποῦ τῆς ὀσφύος αὐτοῦ, i.e., of his offspring. It is a common Hebraistic form of expression—ὀσφύς read here, but κοιλία in Ps. 131:11 (LXX); cf. Genesis 35:11 and 2 Chronicles 6:9 (Hebrews 7:5). With regard to the human element in the Person of Jesus, Peter speaks of him as a descendant of David according to prophecy, as in the Synoptists and Romans 1:3 (Schmid). The exact expression, καρπὸς τῆς ὀσφύος, is not found in the LXX, but καρ. τῆς κοιλίας is found, not only in the Psalm quoted but in Micah 6:7 (Lamentations 2:20), where the same Hebrew words are used as in the Psalm: ὀσφύς in the LXX is several times a translation of another Hebrew word חֲלָצַיִם (dual). This partitive construction (supply τινα) is also a Hebraistic mode of expression, and frequent in the LXX; cf. Acts 2:18, Acts 5:2. See Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 151 (1896).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. knowing that God had sworn with an oath] See Psalm 132:11, “of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”

that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne] The words represented by “according … Christ” are omitted in the best MSS. The clause as corrected by them would be “of the fruit of his loins one should sit [or he would set one] on his throne.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 2:30. Προφήτης, a prophet) “Whence it follows that the 16th Psalm is prophetical.—εἰδὼς, knowing) by the prophecy of Nathan (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Therefore it was after this prophecy that David composed and sang the 16th Psalm.—ὅτι ὃρκῳ ὤμοσεν, with an oath He swore) Psalm 132:11, with which comp. Acts 2:2.—καρποῦ τῆς ὀσφύος, of the fruit of his loins) Scripture speaks of propagation with wonderful correctness and delicacy. A periphrasis for, of his seed.—καθίσαι) to set, to cause to sit.—αὐτοῦ, his) David’s.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - Being therefore for therefore being, A.V.; that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon for that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on, A.V. and T.R. Had sworn, etc. The first record of God's promise to David is in 2 Samuel 7:11-16: "The Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And... I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and will establish his kingdom.... Thy throne shall be established forever;" and in ver. 28, David speaks of it as God's promise: "Thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant." But there is no mention there of an oath. But in Psalm 89, great stress is laid upon God having sworn to David: "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations" (vers. 3, 4); and again, ver. 35, "Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David" 1 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89, should be read through carefully (comp. also Isaiah 4:3; Acts 13:23). (For the phrase, "I have sworn by my holiness," see Amos 4:2.) Acts 2:30

Vincent's Word Studies

According to the flesh, he would raise up Christ

The best texts omit. Render as Rev., he would set one upon his throne.