Acts 1:26

1:15-26 The great thing the apostles were to attest to the world, was, Christ's resurrection; for that was the great proof of his being the Messiah, and the foundation of our hope in him. The apostles were ordained, not to wordly dignity and dominion, but to preach Christ, and the power of his resurrection. An appeal was made to God; Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, which we do not; and better than they know their own. It is fit that God should choose his own servants; and so far as he, by the disposals of his providence, or the gifts of his Spirit, shows whom he was chosen, or what he has chosen for us, we ought to fall in with his will. Let us own his hand in the determining everything which befalls us, especially in those by which any trust may be committed to us.

Acts 1:26 . And they gave forth their lots — That is, saith Grotius, they put two lots into two urns, the one containing the two names of Joseph and Matthias, the other a blank and the word apostle: and then drawing forth the name of Joseph and the blank, they knew that the lot containing the name of an apostle belonged to Matthias. This being in answer to their prayers, they concluded that Matthias was the man whom the Lord had chosen to the apostleship. The honour God had conferred on inquiries by lot, ( Joshua 7:14-15 ; 1 Samuel 10:20-21 ,) and the custom of fixing the offices of the priests in the temple, while in waiting there, by lot, ( 1 Chronicles 24:5 ; Luke 1:9 ,) might lead them to take this method of knowing the will of God. Here, therefore, commenced in the Christian Church the proper use of the lot, whereby a matter of importance, which cannot be determined by any ordinary method, is committed to the divine decision. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles — The rest of the apostles gave him the right hand of fellowship, so that for the future he made the twelfth of that venerable society of men.

They gave forth their lots; the manner is not so certain, nor necessary to be known; but the whole disposing of the lot being from the Lord, as Proverbs 16:33 , they were thus as it were immediately chosen by God, and were consecrated by Christ himself; no apostle ordaining another, but all of them being called and ordained by Christ. He was numbered with the eleven apostles; the rest of the apostles, and the whole church, agreeing with that Divine choice which was made.

Acts 1:26 . Ἔδωκαν , they gave forth ) They cast.— κλήρους αὐτῶν , their lots ) the lots of Joseph and Matthias [not their own lots]. [With prudent consideration they had brought forward two out of the whole multitude, for the purpose of making choice between them: but there remained now no other way of deciding between these two, save that of casting lots.—V. g.] Whilst the apostles had the Lord with them, they had no recourse to lots; nor did they employ them after the coming of the Paraclete, ch. Acts 10:19 , Acts 16:6 , etc. [The Holy Spirit guided them]: but at this intermediate time alone, and in the case of this one business, they employed them most appropriately.— συγκατεψηφίσθη , he was numbered among ) All acquiesced in the showing (the direction) of the Divine choice. Hands are not said to have been laid on the new apostle; for he was ordained by an altogether immediate call.

Verse 26. - They gave lots for them for they gave forth their lots , A.V. and T.R. ( αὐτοῖς for αὐτῶν ); but the T.R. gives the easiest sense. The exact mode of taking the lot does not appear. Some think the name of each candidate was written on a tablet, and that the first name which fell out of the urn after it had been shaken was the one chosen. Some think the lot was taken by dice. But however the taking of the lot was managed, the effect was to leave the choice to God in answer to prayer. Acts 1:26

Acts 1:26 . And they (namely, those assembled) gave for them ( αὐτοῖς , see the critical notes) lots—i.e. tablets, which were respectively inscribed with one of the two names of those proposed for election—namely, into the vessel in which the lots were collected, Leviticus 16:8 . The expression ἔδωκαν is opposed to the idea of casting lots ; comp. Luke 23:34 and parallels. ἔπεσεν ὁ κλῆρος ] the lot (giving the decision by its falling out) fell (by the shaking of the vessel, πάλλειν ; comp. Hom. Il. iii. 316. 324, vii. 181, Od. xi. 206, al. ). ἐπὶ Ματθ .] on Matthias , according to the figurative conception of the lot being shaken over both (Hom. Od. xiv. 209; Psalm 22:19 , al. ). Comp. LXX. Ezekiel 24:6 ; John 1:7 . This decision by the θεία τύχη (Plat. Legg. 6:759 C; comp. Proverbs 16:33 ) of the lot is an Old Testament practice ( Numbers 26:52 ff.; Joshua 7:14 ; 1 Samuel 10:20 ; 1 Chronicles 24:5 ; 1 Chronicles 25:8 ; Proverbs 16:33 ; comp. also Luke 1:9 ), suitable for the time before the effusion of the Spirit , but not recurring afterwards , and therefore not to be justified in the Christian congregational life by our passage. συγκατεψηφ . μετὰ τ . ἕνδ . ἀπ .] he was numbered along with [108] the eleven apostles , so that, in consequence of that decision by lot, he was declared by those assembled to be the twelfth apostle. Bengel correctly adds the remark: “Non dicuntur manus novo apostolo impositae, erat enim prorsus immediate constitutus.” It is otherwise at Acts 6:6

. The view which doubts the historical character of the supplementary election at all (see especially Zeller), and assumes that Matthias was only elected at a later period after the gradual consolidation of the church, rests on presuppositions (it is thought that the event of Pentecost must have found the number of the apostles complete) which break down in presence of the naturalness of the occurrence, and of the artless simplicity of its description. [108] συγκαταψηφίζεσθαι in this sense, thus equivalent to συμψηφίζεσθαι ( Acts 19:19 ), is not elsewhere found; D actually has συνεψηφίσθη as the result of a correct explanation. The word is, altogether, very rare; in Plut. Them . 21 it signifies to condemn with . Frequently, and quite in the sense of συγκαταψηφ . here, συγκαταριθμεῖσθαι is found. א* has only κατεψηφίσθη . So also Constitt. ap. vi.12.1.

26 . And they gave forth their lots ] Better, And they gave lots for them , in accordance with MSS. The process probably was that each member of the company wrote on a tablet or ticket the name of one of the chosen two; the whole were then placed in some vessel and shaken together, and that tablet which was first drawn out decided the election. The casting of lots, though not now permitted to the Jews (see Shulkhan Aruch Joreh Deah par. 179. 1), was used by a provision of the Mosaic Law ( Leviticus 16:8 ) for the selection of one out of the two goats for the Lord. “The goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell” was offered for a sin offering. The Apostles had not yet received the Spirit which was to “guide them into all truth.” When the Holy Ghost had been given, they, as St Chrysostom notices ( In Act. Ap. Hom . III.), used no more casting of lots.

(26) And they gave forth their lots. —As interpreted by the prayer of Acts 1:24 , 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 Doriar invasion (Sophocles, Aias. 1285; comp. Proverbs 16:33 ). The practice was recognised, it may be noted, in the Law ( Leviticus 16:8 ). He was numbered with the eleven apostles.—The Greek word is not the same as in Acts 1:17, 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.