Acts 28:28

Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God . . .—The better MSS. give “this salvation,” the demonstrative adjective having the same force as in “the words of this life,” in Acts 5:20. The Apostle points, as it were, to that definite method of deliverance (the Greek gives the concrete neuter form, as in Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6, and not the feminine abstract) which he had proclaimed to them. The words remind us of those which had been spoken under like circumstances at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:46). We can, in some measure, enter into the feelings which filled the Apostle’s mind, through what we read in Romans 9-11,—the bitter pain at the rejection of Israel, relieved by a far-off hope of their restoration, the acceptance of God’s ways as unsearchable and past finding out.

Benson Commentary

Acts 28:28-29. Be it known, therefore, &c. — Having reproved the unbelieving and disobedient among his hearers, he assured them that the salvation of God, which they despised and seemed to fortify themselves against, was sent unto the Gentiles — Namely, more especially from that time; and that they would hear and embrace it, and so inherit the blessings which these Jews rejected. His words imply, that he would, from that day forward, turn to the Gentiles; and would seek, in their faith and obedience, his consolation under that grief which the infidelity of his brethren gave him. Before this, it must be observed, no apostle had been at Rome. St. Paul was the first. And when he had said these words — The last, it seems, that he now uttered among them; the Jews departed — Out of the place, not being prevailed upon to receive Jesus as the Messiah; and had great reasoning — Greek, συζητησιν, disputations; among themselves — Some thinking there was considerable weight in what Paul had urged to defend the gospel, while others, still retaining their sinful and inveterate prejudices against it, were enraged, and spake of him and his arguments with great contempt and indignation.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:23-31 Paul persuaded the Jews concerning Jesus. Some were wrought upon by the word, and others hardened; some received the light, and others shut their eyes against it. And the same has always been the effect of the gospel. Paul parted with them, observing that the Holy Ghost had well described their state. Let all that hear the gospel, and do not heed it, tremble at their doom; for who shall heal them, if God does not? The Jews had afterwards much reasoning among themselves. Many have great reasoning, who do not reason aright. They find fault with one another's opinions, yet will not yield to truth. Nor will men's reasoning among themselves convince them, without the grace of God to open their understandings. While we mourn on account of such despisers, we should rejoice that the salvation of God is sent to others, who will receive it; and if we are of that number, we should be thankful to Him who hath made us to differ. The apostle kept to his principle, to know and preach nothing but Christ and him crucified. Christians, when tempted from their main business, should bring themselves back with this question, What does this concern the Lord Jesus? What tendency has it to bring us to him, and to keep us walking in him? The apostle preached not himself, but Christ, and he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Though Paul was placed in a very narrow opportunity for being useful, he was not disturbed in it. Though it was not a wide door that was opened to him, yet no man was suffered to shut it; and to many it was an effectual door, so that there were saints even in Nero's household, Php 4:22. We learn also from Php 1:13, how God overruled Paul's imprisonment for the furtherance of the gospel. And not the residents at Rome only, but all the church of Christ, to the present day, and in the most remote corner of the globe, have abundant reason to bless God, that during the most mature period of his Christian life and experience, he was detained a prisoner. It was from his prison, probably chained hand to hand to the soldier who kept him, that the apostle wrote the epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews; epistles showing, perhaps more than any others, the Christian love with which his heart overflowed, and the Christian experience with which his soul was filled. The believer of the present time may have less of triumph, and less of heavenly joy, than the apostle, but every follower of the same Saviour, is equally sure of safety and peace at the last. Let us seek to live more and more in the love of the Saviour; to labour to glorify Him by every action of our lives; and we shall assuredly, by his strength, be among the number of those who now overcome our enemies; and by his free grace and mercy, be hereafter among the blessed company who shall sit with Him upon his throne, even as He also has overcome, and is sitting on his Father's throne, at God's right hand for evermore.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The salvation of God - The knowledge of God's mode of saving people.

Is sent unto the Gentiles - Since you have rejected it, it will be offered to them. See the notes on Acts 13:46.

And that they will hear it - They will embrace it. Paul was never discouraged. If the gospel was rejected by one class of people he was ready to offer it to another. If his own countrymen despised it, he never allowed himself to suppose that Christ had died in vain, but believed that others would embrace its saving benefits. How happy would it be if all Christians had the same unwavering faith and zeal as Paul.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28. the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear—(See on [2148]Ac 13:44-48). "This departure to the Gentiles" he had intimated to the perverse Jews at Antioch (Ac 13:46), and at Corinth (Ac 18:6); now at Rome: thus in Asia, Greece, and Italy" [Bengel].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The salvation of God; so the gospel is called; because:

1. The finding of it out.

2. The preparing of it by sending his Son.

3. The revealing of it, and;

4. Its efficacy, is only of God.

Is sent unto the Gentiles; as by our Saviour’s commission, Matthew 28:19, and Luke 24:47, does appear. And Paul had by experience found the effects of it, as may be seen in all this book of his travels, where we may find many of the Gentiles were obedient unto the word, which the Jews gainsaid and blasphemed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be it known therefore unto you,.... Unbelievers and despisers, take this along with you at parting, and do not say you were never acquainted with it:

that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles; meaning the Gospel, which is a publication and declaration of that salvation, which God contrived from all eternity; made provision for, and secured in the covenant of grace; which he appointed, called, and sent Christ to effect, in the fulness of time; and which he has accomplished, by his obedience, sufferings, and death; even a full, complete, spiritual, and eternal salvation, from sin, Satan, the world, the curse of the law, and eternal death; that that Gospel which proclaims this, and is the power of God unto it, to them that believe, is sent to the Gentile world, by God himself, who has ordered his ministers to turn to them, upon the rejection of it by the Jews:

and that they will hear it: and do understand it and obey it, believe it and profess it: this the apostle could assert upon his own knowledge, who had preached it in many nations of the world; and could testify how gladly they heard it, with what pleasure they received it, how readily they obeyed it, and how cheerfully they professed it, and how steadily they held it; though the Jews despised and put it away from them, judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life: this the apostle says, reproaching them with their folly, stupidity, and infidelity; when the Gentiles, which knew not God, received the Gospel and are saved.

Geneva Study Bible

{15} Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

(15) The unbelief of the reprobate and castaways cannot cause the truth of God to be of no effect.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 28:28-29. Οὖν] because ye are so obdurate and irrecoverable.

ὅτι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν κ.τ.λ.] that by my arrival at Rome this (τοῦτο, see the critical remarks) salvation of God (i.e. the Messianic salvation bestowed by God, which is meant in this prophecy) has been sent, not to you Jews, but to the Gentiles. Comp. Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6.

αὐτοί] they on their part, quite otherwise than you.

καὶ ἀκοίσονται] namely the announcement of salvation, which conception is implied in ἀπεστάλη as its mode (Acts 10:36, Acts 13:26). καί, etiam: non solum missa est iis salus, sed etiam audient (give ear). Comp. Bornemann, Schol. in Luc. p. 24. Bengel appropriately observes: “Profectionem ad gentes declaraverat Judaeis contumacibus Antiochiae xiii. 46; Corinthi xviii. 6, nunc tertium Romae; adeoque in Asia, Graecia, Italia.”

Acts 28:30. ἐν ἰδίῳ μισθώμ.] i.e. in a dwelling belonging to himself by way of hire. This he had obtained after the first days when he had lodged in the ξενία, Acts 28:23; but he was in it as a prisoner, as follows from Acts 28:16, from καὶ ἀπεδέχετο κ.τ.λ., and from ἀκωλύτως, Acts 28:31 (nemine prohibente, although he was a prisoner; comp. Php 1:7). To procure the means of hiring the dwelling, must have been an easy matter for the love of the brethren (and support came also from a distance, Php 4:10 ff.).

πάντας] Christians, Jews, Gentiles; not merely the latter, as Baumgarten arbitrarily limits the word, while with equal arbitrariness he finds in Acts 28:31 a pointing to the final form of the church, in which the converted Israel will form the visible historical centre around which the Gentile nations gather, and then the Parousia will set in. This modern view of Judaistic eschatology has no support even in Romans 11:27 ff.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 28:28. γνωστὸν οὖν: for the word similarly used cf. Acts 2:14, Acts 4:10; Acts 13:38.—τοῦτο τὸ σωτ., see critical note; cf. LXX, Psalm 66:2; Psalm 97:2-3. σωτ., adjective, neuter of σωτήριος, used substantively (as in classical Greek), so often in LXX of the Messianic salvation; cf. Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6, Ephesians 6:17, and Clem. Rom., Cor[436], xxxv., 12, xxxvi. 1. The word is used only by St. Luke and St. Paul, see Plummer, note on Luke 3:6. For the whole expression here cf. Acts 13:26, where words very similar are used by Paul, and with very similar results, Acts 13:46. τοῦτο, emphatic this, the very message of God’s salvation, this is what I am declaring to you.—αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀκούσονται: “they will also hear,” R.V. The words thus rendered may not convey so plainly a reproach to the Jews as in A.V., but at the same time they express something more than the mere fact that Gentiles as well as Jews will now hear the message; that message will not only be sent (ἀπεστάλη), but also heard; the καί may well indicate that whilst the Jews will hear with the ear only as distinct from the understanding, the Gentiles will not only hear, but really (καί) listen (see Rendall and Weiss, in loco). At the same time we must remember that as a background to what the Apostle here says we have his words in Romans 9-11, and the thought which he had expressed to the Roman Church that God had not really cast away His people, but whilst through their unbelief the Gentiles had been called, yet that inclusion of the heathen in the Messianic kingdom would rouse the Jews to jealousy, and that thus all Israel would be saved, Romans 11:11; cf. Romans 10:19; Sanday and Headlam, Romans, p. 341 ff. We can scarcely doubt that the words are uttered not merely to condemn, but to lead to repentance; at all events it would not be possible to find stronger words against his own countrymen than those written by St. Paul in his earliest Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16; and yet we know how St. Paul, for those same countrymen, could wish himself accused; so Bethge, as against Overbeck, who can only see that in Acts the belief of the Gentiles results not in a noble jealousy, but in the bitter envy of the Jews. But there blends with the tone of sadness a note of triumph in the words αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀκούσονται, the future of his message is assured, and we may borrow two words as an inscription for these closing pages of St. Luke’s second treatise—the last word of the Apostle, and the last of the historian—ἀκούσονται … ἀκωλύτως—the word of God was heard and welcomed, and that word was not bound, see the suggestive remarks of Bethge, p. 335, and Zöckler on Acts 28:31.

[436] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. the [R. V. this] salvation of God] The oldest MSS. add “this,” and it has been almost surely omitted in later MSS. by the carelessness of the scribes. The Apostle would be anxious to emphasize that the doctrine which he was preaching to them and which they were rejecting, that this, was God’s very message of salvation.

and that they will hear it] This is certainly a wrong sense of the original. The Apostle does not wish to convey, as the English Version does, a taunt to the Jews that they come behind the Gentiles. What he wants to express is, that now the message has been given according to Christ’s command to the Jews everywhere, for Rome may be regarded as the centre of the then known world, and now the time has come when the Gentiles should in their turn be privileged to have everywhere the offers of the Gospel. Therefore read (with R. V.) “they will also hear” (i.e. as well as you), though looked upon by strict Jews as beyond the pale of salvation.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 28:28. Τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, to the Gentiles) whose capital was Rome. He had declared to the contumacious Jews his going to the Gentiles, at Antioch, ch. Acts 13:46; at Corinth, ch. Acts 18:6; and now in the third instance at Rome; and so also in Asia, Greece, and Italy.—ἀπεστάλη, is sent) by the apostle. Before this time no apostle, not even Peter, had come to Rome.—τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ, the salvation of God) The root of the name Jesus. Comp. note, Luke 3:6; Luke 2:30.—αὐτοὶ, these very persons) although ye will not hear it.—καὶ) even: not only is it sent to them, [but also they will hear it.]—ἀκούσονται, they will hear) The Jews ought to have repented by reason of the event of this very prediction.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - This salvation for the salvation, A.V. and T.R.; they will also hear for and that they will hear it, A.V. The A.V. gives the sense better than the R.V. This salvation; τὸ σωτήριον. This form, instead of the more common σωτηρία, is found in Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6; and Ephesians 6:17. The Gentiles (see Acts 13:46; Acts 18:6; Acts 22:26; Acts 26:17, 20, 23). But even at Rome the apostle of the Gentiles was faithful to the rule, "To the Jew first." Acts 28:28