Acts 3:10

And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) They knew.—Better, they recognised him that it was he.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-11 The apostles and the first believers attended the temple worship at the hours of prayer. Peter and John seem to have been led by a Divine direction, to work a miracle on a man above forty years old, who had been a cripple from his birth. Peter, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, bade him rise up and walk. Thus, if we would attempt to good purpose the healing of men's souls, we must go forth in the name and power of Jesus Christ, calling on helpless sinners to arise and walk in the way of holiness, by faith in Him. How sweet the thought to our souls, that in respect to all the crippled faculties of our fallen nature, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth can make us whole! With what holy joy and rapture shall we tread the holy courts, when God the Spirit causes us to enter therein by his strength!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And all the people ... - The people who had been accustomed to see him sit in a public place.

And they knew ... - In this they could not be deceived; they had seen him a long time, and now they saw the same man expressing his praise to God for complete recovery. The particulars in this miracle are the following, and they are as far as possible from any appearance of imposture:

1. The man had been afficated from a child. This was known to all the people. At this time he was 40 years of age, Acts 4:22.

2. He was not an impostor. If he had pretended lameness, it is wonderful that he had not been detected before, and not have been suffered to occupy a place thus in the temple.

3. The apostles had no agency in placing him there. They had not seen him before. There was manifestly no collusion or agreement with him to attempt to impose on the people.

4. The man himself was convinced of the miracle, and did not doubt that the power by which he had been healed was of God.

5. The people were convinced of the same thing. They saw the effects; they had known him well; they had had every opportunity to know that he was diseased, and they were now satisfied that he was restored. There was no possibility of deception in the case. It was not merely the friends of Jesus that saw this; not those who had an interest in the miracle, but those who had been his enemies, and who had just before been engaged in putting him to death. Let this miracle be compared, in these particulars, with those pretended miracles which have been affirmed to have been performed in defense of other systems of religion, and it will be seen at once that in these there is every appearance of sincerity, honesty, and truth; in them, every mark of deception, fraud, and imposition. (See Paley's "Evidences of Christianity," proposition ii. chapter ii.)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. they knew that it was he which sat for alms, &c.—(Compare Joh 9:8).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They knew that it was he; the very same lame beggar, probably notoriously known to many.

They were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him; being so much contrary to what they had seen him but a little while before, when he had begged their alms; and, as he reasoned well, John 9:32,

Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind; so it was never heard, that any strengthened thus the feet of him that was born lame.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they knew it was he that sat for alms,.... The Syriac version renders it, "they knew him to be that beggar that sat daily and asked alms". As he was daily brought thither, and had, for many years, it is very likely, sat there to ask alms of the people as they went into the temple; he was well known by them, and they had but just now passed him, and observed him in the same condition he had for a long time been, and knew him to be the same. It was a clear and indisputable point with them.

At the beautiful gate of the temple See Gill on Acts 3:2.

And they were all filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him; that he should have a cure so suddenly, and in such an extraordinary manner; they wondered at the power of God, which was seen in it, and that he should make use of such mean and contemptible persons as the apostles were.

Geneva Study Bible

And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 3:10. ʼΕπεγίνωσκον αὐτὸν, ὅτι κ.τ.λ.] A well-known attraction. Winer, p. 581 [E. T. 781].

πρὸς τὴν ἐλεημοσ.] for the sake of alms.

ὁ καθήμενος] See on John 9:8.

ἐπὶ τῇ ὡραίᾳ π.] ἐπί: immediately at; on the spot of the Beautiful gate. See on John 4:6.

θἀμβους καὶ ἐκστάσ.] astonishment and surprise at what had happened to him—an exhaustive designation of the highest degree of wonder. Comp. θαῦμα καὶ θάμβος, Plut. de audit. 8. 145, and similar expressions, Lobeck, Paral. p. 60 f.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 3:10. ἐπεγίνωσκόν τε: “took knowledge of him” or perhaps better still “recognised”. The word is so used of recognising any one by sight, hearing, or certain signs, to perceive who a person is (Grimm), cf., e.g., Luke 24:16; Luke 24:31, Matthew 14:35, Mark 6:54.—ὁ … καθήμενος: imperfect, may refer to the customary action of the man: or may be equivalent here to an imperfect, a force of the imperfect usual in similar cases when reference is made to a time before the actual time of recognition, Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 188.—ἐπὶ: for the local dative cf. Acts 5:9, Matthew 24:33, Mark 13:29, John 5:2, Revelation 9:14.—θάμβους, cf. Luke 4:36; Luke 5:9. A word peculiar to St. Luke in the N.T. (so St. Luke alone uses ἔκθαμβος, Acts 3:11); used from Homer downwards, of amazement allied to terror or awe, cf. LXX, Ezekiel 7:18, Song of Solomon 3:8; Song of Solomon 6:3 (4), 9 (10).—ἐκστάσεως: for the word in a similar sense, Mark 5:42; Mark 16:8, Luke 5:26. Its use in ordinary Greek expresses rather distraction or disturbance of mind caused by a shock. The word is very common both in Hippocrates and Aretaeus. In the LXX it is employed in various senses, cf. Deuteronomy 28:28, ἐκστάσει διανοίας; elsewhere it is used of agitation, trouble, 2 Chronicles 29:8, and most frequently of terror, fear, 1 Samuel 11:7, Ezekiel 26:16. See further on. Here the word expresses more than simple astonishment as its collocation with θάμβος shows (Wendt, in loco), rather “bewilderment,” cf. Mark 5:42. See on Acts 2:43 for this characteristic of St. Luke. But there is no occasion to conclude with Weiss that these strong expressions as to the effect of the miracle show that it must have been the first which the disciples performed. It was the unique nature of the miracle which affected the beholders so powerfully.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. and they knew that it was he, &c.] The same verb is rendered (Acts 4:13) they took knowledge, and that sense is perhaps the better here. It can hardly have been intended to say that the whole of the people knew the man.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 3:10. Θάμβους, with amazement) in feeling.—ἐκστάσεως, ecstasy) [wonder, elevation of mind] in the understanding.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Took knowledge of him for knew, A.V. Wonder and amazement (θάμβος); any very strong emotion of awe, or admiration, or astonishment. It occurs elsewhere only in Luke 4:36, where it describes the awe and amazement which came upon those who witnessed the casting out of the unclean spirit from the man in the synagogue at Capernaum. The verb θαμβέω occurs in Acts 9:6 in the T.R., and is rendered "astonished" in the A.V., but is omitted in the text of the R.V.; elsewhere only in Mark 1:27; Mark 10:24, 32. Ἕκθαμβος occurs once in ver. 11 of this chapter; and ἐκθαμβέομαι in Mark 9:15; Mark 14:33; Mark 16:5, 6; ἔκστασις, an ecstasy, mostly used of a state of transport, as Acts 10:10; Acts 11:5; Acts 22:17. But in the LXX. (Genesis 27:33), Mark 5:42; Mark 16:8; and Luke 5:26, it is used, as here, for a violent emotion of astonishment and amazement. Acts 3:10

Vincent's Word Studies

They knew (ἐπεγίνωσκον)

Or recognized. Rev., took knowledge.

Wonder (θάμβους)

Used by Luke only. See on Luke 4:36.

Amazement (ἐκστάσεως)

See on Mark 5:42; and compare Luke 5:26.