Acts 1:15
Read Acts 1:15 Using Other Translations
What does Acts 1:15 mean?
And in those days Peter stood up
That is, in one of the days after Christ's ascension, and before
the day of Pentecost, whilst the disciples were waiting for the
promise of the Spirit. The Ethiopic version reads, "on that day";
as if it was the same day they came first into Jerusalem, and
went into the upper room; and which is likely enough; for no time
was to be lost in choosing one in the room of Judas; when Peter,
not only as a forward person, and who had been used to be the
first mover and actor in any affair; but as willing to show his
zeal for Christ, whom he had so lately denied, and as being the
senior man in company, as well as the minister of the
circumcision, rises, and stands up, as persons used to do, when
about to make an oration, and in respect and reverence to the
persons addressed:
in the midst of the disciples;
not only the other ten, but the whole hundred and twenty. The
Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, "in the midst of the
brethren", and so reads the Vulgate Latin version; and the
Ethiopic version, "in the midst of his own brethren";
and he said
what is expressed in the following verses, which before the
historian relates, he inserts in a parenthesis this clause,
the number of the names;
that is, of persons; see ( Revelation
11:13 ) . Some copies read, "of the men", and so the Vulgate
Latin and Syriac versions; who
together,
all put together in one sum, or as meeting together in one and
the same place, or as agreeing in the same faith and judgment, so
the Arabic version, "and there was there a company whose names
and wills agreed in this same opinion"; they were all in one
place, and of the same mind; and the sum of them
were about an hundred and twenty;
among whom were the eleven apostles, and seventy disciples, which
made eighty one; so that there were thirty nine persons more in
this company: not that it is to be thought that these were all
that were in Jerusalem that believed in Christ; but these were
the number of the persons that met and embodied together in a
church state, and who not only gave themselves to the Lord, but
to one another, by the will of God; and their names being taken
and registered, the historian calls the account of them, the
number of the names, and not persons; though he means persons.
This was a number pretty famous among the Jews; the sanhedrim of
Ezra, called the men of the great synagogue, consisted of an
"hundred and twenty elders"; the last of which was Simeon the
just, and he comprehended the hundred and twenty F8. And
such a number was requisite for a sanhedrim in any place; it is
asked,
``how many must there be in a city, that it may be fit for a sanhedrim? "an hundred and twenty"; R. Nehemiah says two hundred and thirty F9:''but the decision is according to the former: hence they say F11, that
``they fix in every city in Israel, where there is an "hundred and twenty", or more, a lesser sanhedrim.---A city in which there is not an hundred and twenty, they place three judges, for there is no sanhedrim less than three.''
F8 Juchasin, fol. 13. 2. Bartenora in Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 1. Elias Levit. prefat. 3. ad Sepher Masoret.
F9 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 6. Vid. Maimon. & Bartenora in. ib. & T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 17. 2.
F11 Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 3, 4.
