Acts 2:47

2:42-47 In these verses we have the history of the truly primitive church, of the first days of it; its state of infancy indeed, but, like that, the state of its greatest innocence. They kept close to holy ordinances, and abounded in piety and devotion; for Christianity, when admitted in the power of it, will dispose the soul to communion with God in all those ways wherein he has appointed us to meet him, and has promised to meet us. The greatness of the event raised them above the world, and the Holy Ghost filled them with such love, as made every one to be to another as to himself, and so made all things common, not by destroying property, but doing away selfishness, and causing charity. And God who moved them to it, knew that they were quickly to be driven from their possessions in Judea. The Lord, from day to day, inclined the hearts of more to embrace the gospel; not merely professors, but such as were actually brought into a state of acceptance with God, being made partakers of regenerating grace. Those whom God has designed for eternal salvation, shall be effectually brought to Christ, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of his glory.

Added (προσετίθει) Imperfect: kept adding. Such as should be saved (τοὺς σωζομένους) Lit., as Rev., those that were being saved. The rendering of the A. V. would require the verb to be in the future, whereas it is the present participle. Compare 1 Corinthians 1:18. Salvation is a thing of the present, as well as of the past and future. The verb is used in all these senses in the New Testament. Thus, we were saved (not are, as A. V.), Romans 8:24; shall or shalt be saved, Romans 10:9, Romans 10:13; ye are being saved, 1 Corinthians 15:2. "Godliness, righteousness, is life, is salvation. And it is hardly necessary to say that the divorce of morality and religion must be fostered and encouraged by failing to note this, and so laying the whole stress either on the past or on the future - on the first call, or on the final change. It is, therefore, important that the idea of salvation as a rescue from sin, through the knowledge of God in Christ, and therefore a progressive condition, a present state, should not be obscured, and we can but regret such a translation as Acts 2:47, 'The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved,' where the Greek implies a different idea" (Lightfoot, "On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament"). To the church See on Matthew 16:18.

Praising God; acknowledging him who teacheth one to want, and another to abound. Having favour with all the people; that is, generally to be understood, amongst them that continued yet without the pale of the church; the goodness, meekness, and patience of the apostles, and the rest of the believers, did wonderfully prevail to beget a good opinion of them. The Lord added to the church; salvation is (to be sure) only from the Lord; not Peter’s sermons, no, nor the miracles of fiery cloven tongues, and the rushing mighty wind, could have converted any, but Dei ti endon, that which was signified there, viz. the powerful operation of the Spirit of God in their hearts.

Acts 2:47 . Χάριν , grace , i.e. favour ) They find this who praise God.— ὁ δὲ Κύριος , moreover the Lord ) Jesus.— τοὺς ) An emphatic article: There was no day without such being added who were being saved.— τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ) This, as it seems, is a gloss of Chrysostom , which has been propagated by the Syriac version and others. The words are not in the older authorities.[24] [The company of believers receives a variety of appellations, until, having obtained its own regular constitution, it at last receives the name of the Church (an argument against the genuineness of τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ here).— Not. Crit. ] [24] Hence also in this passage the decision of the larger Ed., which had judged the omission of the words τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ not to be approved of, is corrected. The margin of Ed. 2 has left the decision to the reader: but the Germ. Vers. follows this after-decision of the Gnomon.—E. B. The words are omitted in ABC Vulg. Memph. and Theb.: and so Lachm. But E e and Rec. Text insert them: so also D d and Syr. ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ : so Tisch.—E. and T.

47. Praising God—"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works" (Ec 9:7, also see on [1941]Ac 8:39). having favour with all the people—commending themselves by their lovely demeanor to the admiration of all who observed them. And the Lord—that is, Jesus, as the glorified Head and Ruler of the Church. added—kept adding; that is, to the visible community of believers, though the words "to the Church" are wanting in the most ancient manuscripts. such as should be saved—rather, "the saved," or "those who were being saved." "The young Church had but few peculiarities in its outward form, or even in its doctrine: the single discriminating principle of its few members was that they all recognized the crucified Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. This confession would have been a thing of no importance, if it had only presented itself as a naked declaration, and would never in such a case have been able to form a community that would spread itself over the whole Roman empire. It acquired its value only through the power of the Holy Ghost, passing from the apostles as they preached to the hearers; for He brought the confession from the very hearts of men (1Co 12:3), and like a burning flame made their souls glow with love.

By the power of this Spirit, therefore, we behold the first Christians not only in a state of active fellowship, but also internally changed: the narrow views of the natural man are broken through; they have their possessions in common, and they regard themselves as one family" [Olshausen].

Verse 47. - To them day by day for to the Church daily , A.V. and T.R.; those that were being sated for such as should be saved , A.V. Added to them day by day. The R.T. has instead of τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ the words ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό , which in Acts 2:1 are properly rendered "in one place," but do not seem to be rendered at all in the R.V. of this verse. In fact, they have no sense unless you construe them with τοὺς σωζομένους , "those who escaped to the same place," i.e. to the Church. But it seems most probable that the words ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό do really belong to Acts 3:1 , where they are found in the T.R. If τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ does not properly belong to the text (it is wanting in A, B, C, א , and many versions), then προσετίθει must be taken absolutely, as προσετέθησαν is in ver. 41, the Church, or the disciples, being understood. Those that were being saved . The exhortation in ver. 40 was "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." Those who were added to the Church were those who complied with the exhortation, and escaped from complicity with their unbelieving countrymen. They were the remnant that escaped. (See the use of οἱ σωζόμενοι in the LXX. ( 2 Chronicles 20:25 , etc.), and see Mark 16:16 .) Acts 2:47

Acts 2:47 . Αἰνοῦντες τ . Θεόν ] is not to be restricted to giving thanks at meals , but gives prominence generally to the whole religious frame of spirit ; which expressed itself in the praises of God (comp. de Wette). This is clearly evident from the second clause of the sentence, καὶ ἔχοντες … λαόν , referring likewise to their relation in general . That piety praising God, namely, and this possession of the general favour of the people, formed together the happy accompanying circumstances, under which they partook of their bodily sustenance with gladness and simple heart. πρὸς ὅλ . τ . λαόν ] possessing favour (on account of their pious conduct) in their relation to the whole people .[142] Comp. Romans 5:1 . ὁ κύριος ] i.e. Christ, as the exalted Ruler of His church. τούς σωζομένους ] those who were being saved, i.e. those who (by their very accession to the church) became saved from eternal perdition so as to partake in the Messianic kingdom, Comp. Acts 2:40 . [142] To refer this remark, on account of the later persecution, to the idealizing tendency and to legendary embellishment (Baur), is a very rash course, as between this time and the commencement of persecution a considerable period intervenes, and the popular humour, particularly in times of fresh excitement, is so changeable. Schwanbeck also, p. 45, denies the correctness of the representation, which he reckons among the peculiarities of the Petrine portion of the book.

47 . praising God ] because their hearts were full of thankfulness for the knowledge of Jesus as His Christ. having favour with all the people ] As it was said of Christ, “the common people heard Him gladly” ( Mark 12:37 ), so it seems to have been with His Apostles. The first attack made on them is ( Acts 4:1 ) by the priests, the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved ] The oldest MSS. agree in omitting to the church , and the literal rendering of the most authoritative text is, And the Lord added day by day together such as were in the way of salvation , i.e. brought into the communion “such as” (literally) “were being saved,” the work of whose salvation was begun but needed perseverance; who had set foot on the way and were heirs through hope of ultimate salvation. By this rendering the Greek words ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό = to the same place, together, which in the Rec. Text are at the beginning of chapter 3, are taken into this verse in accordance with the authority of the oldest MSS.

(47) Having favour with all the people. —The new life of the Apostles, in part probably their liberal almsgiving, had revived the early popularity of their Master with the common people. The Sadducean priests were, probably, the only section that looked on them with a malignant fear. The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.—Many of the better MSS. omit the words “to the Church,” and connect “together,” which in the Greek is the first word in Acts 3:1, with this verse—The Lord added together . . . The verb “added” is in the tense which, like the adverb “daily,” implies a continually recurring act. “The Lord” is probably used here, as in Acts 2:39, in its generic Old Testament sense, rather than as definitely applied to Christ. For “such as should be saved”—a meaning which the present participle passive cannot possibly have—read, those that were in the way of salvation; literally, those that were being saved, as in 1Corinthians 1:18; 2Corinthians 2:15. The verse takes its place among the few passages in which the translators have, perhaps, been influenced by a Calvinistic bias; Hebrews 10:38, “if any man draw back,” instead of “if he draw back,” being another. It should, however, be stated in fairness that all the versions from Tyndale onward, including the Rhemish, give the same rendering. Wiclif alone gives nearly the true meaning, “them that were made safe.”

Acts PETER’S FIRST SERMON A PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCHActs 2:47 . ‘And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved.’-{R. V.} You observe that the principal alterations of these words in the Revised Version are two: the one the omission of ‘the church,’ the other the substitution of ‘were being saved’ for ‘such as should be saved.’ The former of these changes has an interest as suggesting that at the early period referred to the name of ‘the church’ had not yet been definitely attached to the infant community, and that the word afterwards crept into the text at a time when ecclesiasticism had become a great deal stronger than it was at the date of the writing of the Acts of the Apostles. The second of the changes is of more importance. The Authorised Version’s rendering suggests that salvation is a future thing, which in one aspect is partially true. The Revised Version, which is also by far the more literally accurate, suggests the other idea, that salvation is a process going on all through the course of a Christian man’s life. And that carries very large and important lessons. I. I ask you to notice here, first, the profound conception which the writer had of the present action of the ascended Christ. ‘The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved.’ Then Christ {for it is He that is here spoken of as the Lord}, the living, ascended Christ, was present in, and working with, that little community of believing souls.