Acts 1:10

1:6-11 They were earnest in asking about that which their Master never had directed or encouraged them to seek. Our Lord knew that his ascension and the teaching of the Holy Spirit would soon end these expectations, and therefore only gave them a rebuke; but it is a caution to his church in all ages, to take heed of a desire of forbidden knowledge. He had given his disciples instructions for the discharge of their duty, both before his death and since his resurrection, and this knowledge is enough for a Christian. It is enough that He has engaged to give believers strength equal to their trials and services; that under the influence of the Holy Spirit they may, in one way or other, be witnesses for Christ on earth, while in heaven he manages their concerns with perfect wisdom, truth, and love. When we stand gazing and trifling, the thoughts of our Master's second coming should quicken and awaken us: when we stand gazing and trembling, they should comfort and encourage us. May our expectation of it be stedfast and joyful, giving diligence to be found of him blameless.

Christ’s ascent was the more leisurely, that he might delight their eyes and mind; but especially confirm their faith the more. Behold, two men stood by them, angels in the shape of men, in white apparel; which angels ordinarily appeared in, to show they retained their native purity, as also to represent the joyfulness of the errand they were usually sent upon.

Acts 1:10 . Ἄνδρες — λευκῇ , men—white ) Comp. note on Matthew 28:3 [Angels had not before the resurrection appeared in this garb]. A man put for an angel: ch. Acts 10:30 ; Acts 10:3 ; Acts 10:22 ; Luke 24:4 , note. But comp. also Luke 9:30 . note [Moses and Elias, who were men , appeared like angels at the transfiguration]. [Therefore they were either angels or men .—V. g.]

10. while they looked steadfastly toward heaven—following Him with their eager eyes, in rapt amazement. Not, however, as a mere fact is this recorded, but as a part of that resistless evidence of their senses on which their whole subsequent testimony was to be borne. two men in white apparel—angels in human form, as in Lu 24:4.

Verse 10. - Were looking for looked , A.V. ; into for toward , A.V.; went for went up , A.V. Two men . St. Luke describes them according to their appearance. They were really angels. In like manner, in Joshua 5:13 we read, "There stood a man over against him;" and in Genesis 18:2, 16 ; Genesis 19:10, 12, 16 , we read of "the men;" and in Judges 13:6, 8, 10, 11 , of "the man of God;" the persons spoken of in all these cases being angels (comp. Daniel 3:25 ; Daniel 8:15, 16 ; Daniel 9:21 , etc.; Zechariah 1:8, 10 ; Mark 16:5 ; Luke 24:4 ). Gabriel, too, means "man of God." In white apparel , typical of perfect holiness, and of the glory which belongs to the inhabitants of heaven (comp. Daniel 10:5, 6 ; Matthew 17:2 ; Matthew 28:3 ; Mark 9:3 ; Mark 16:5 ; Luke 24:4 ; Revelation 7:9, 13 ; Revelation 3:5, 18 ; Revelation 4:4 ; Revelation 6:11 ; Revelation 19:8 , etc.). Acts 1:10

10 . as he went up ] The preposition is not in the Greek, which has simply, as he went . in white apparel ] They are called men , but they are evidently angels. So the two angels are clothed in white ( John 20:12 ) whom Mary saw in the sepulchre after the Resurrection, and one of these is called by St Mark ( Mark 16:5 ) “a young man clothed in a long white garment.” St Luke in the Gospel calls them “two men in shining garments” ( Acts 24:4 ). So the “man in bright clothing,” Acts 10:30 , is described in Acts 11:13 as “an angel.” This was a common Jewish expression to signify angelic or divine messengers. Cf. Talm. Jer.

Joma Acts 1:2 , ad fin. “Shimeon ha-Tsaddik (i.e. the righteous) served Israel forty years in the High-priesthood, and in the last year he said to the people, ‘In this year I shall die.’ They said to him: ‘How dost thou know this?’ He said to them: ‘Every year when I was going into the Holy of Holies there was an Ancient one, clad in white garments and with a white vail , who went in with me and came out with me; but this year he went in with me and did not come out with me.’ [On this matter] they asked of Rabbi Abuhu, ‘But surely it is written: ‘Nothing of mankind shall be in the tent of meeting when he [the High-priest] goes in to make atonement until his coming out again,’ not even those concerning whom it is written [ Ezekiel 1:5 ] ‘They had the likeness of a man ,’ even they shall not be in the tent of meeting.’ He said to them: ‘What is there [in this language of Shimeon] to tell me that it was a human being at all? I say it was the Holy One .”

Acts 1:10-11 . Ἀτενίζοντες ἦσαν ] expresses continuance: they were in fixed gazing . To this (not to πορευομ . αὐτ .) εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν belongs. Comp. Acts 3:4 , Acts 6:15 , Acts 7:55 , Acts 11:6 , Acts 13:9 ; 2 Corinthians 3:7 ; 2 Corinthians 3:13 . τῷ οὐρανῷ might also have stood, Luke 4:20 ; Luke 22:56 ; Acts 3:12 ; Acts 10:4 ; Acts 13:1 . See generally, Valck. Schol. p. 309 ff. Comp. Polyb. 6:11. 7. Strangely erroneous is the view of Lange, Apost. Zeitalt. II. p. 12 : that ὥς is not temporal, but as if : “they wished to fix the blue (?) heaven, which one cannot fix.” πορευομένου αὐτοῦ ] whilst He , enveloped by the cloud, was departing (into heaven). καὶ ἰδού ] as in Luke 7:12 , Acts 10:17 ; not as an anacoluthon, but: behold also there ! See Nägelsbach, z. Ilias , p. 164, ed. 3. The men are characterized as inhabitants of the heavenly world, angels ,[99] who are therefore clothed in white (see on John 20:12 ). οἳ καὶ εἶπον ] who (not only stood, but) also said : comp. Acts 1:3 . τί ἑστήκατε κ . τ . λ .] The meaning is: “Remain now no longer sunk in aimless gazing after Him; for ye are not for ever separated from this Jesus, who will so come even as ye have seen Him go away into heaven.” οὕτως ] i.e. in the same manner come down from heaven in a cloud as He was borne up. Comp. Matthew 24:30 . On the emphasis οὕτως , ὃν τρόπον , comp. Acts 27:25 ; 2 Timothy 3:8 . [99] According to Ewald, we are to think on Moses and Elias, as at the transfiguration.

(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 1:12 .)