In the present list of Jewish lessons, Deut. 1: - 3: 22 and Isa. 1: 1-22 form the

forty-fourth in order, and Bengel makes the happy suggestion that this was the lesson on

the day of Paul's visit to the synagogue at Antioch. Farrar draws attention to the

occurrences of two words used in Paul's address, one of unusual form, etrophophoresen

(Acts 13: 18), "carried them as a man carries his little son" (LXX Deut. 1: 31), and the

other, hupsosen, employed, most unusually, to convey the sense of "He brought them up"

(Acts 13: 17; Isa. 1: 2). The fact that these two words are found, respectively, in the first

of Deuteronomy and the first of Isaiah, combined with the circumstance that the historical

part of Paul's exhortation turns on the subject alluded to in the first of these two chapters,

and that the promise of free remission is directly suggested by the other, makes Bengel's

suggestion extremely probable, i.e., that these were the two chapters which had just been

In some respects Paul's address differs from that of Peter recorded in Acts 2:, while

in others it is similar to it. Where Peter limits his remarks to the people of Israel and

Jewish proselytes, Paul addresses his audience as "men of Israel", "ye that fear God",

"children of the stock of Abraham"  and  "whosoever among you feareth God".

Whereas Peter when preaching to Cornelius said "the word which God sent unto the

children of Israel" (Acts 10: 36), Paul said to the whole congregation, "To you is the word

of this salvation sent" (Acts 13: 26).

The apostle begins his address with a resumé of Israel's history and focuses attention

on David. He then comes to his point.

He then pauses to bring in the witness of John the Baptist, afterwards proceeding to

show that the very hatred of the Jew was but a fulfilling of the Scriptures they read every

Sabbath day. Pilate's testimony to the Saviour's innocence is also adduced, and the

fulfillment of all that was written, even to the particulars of His burial, is impressed upon

them. Then, once more, he stresses his point: "But God raised Him from the dead"

(Acts 13: 30), and lays before them the further witness of those who saw the risen Lord

over a period of many days. He returns to the glad tidings that God had fulfilled the

promises to the fathers.

After yet further proofs of the resurrection, the apostle comes to his glorious

Here Paul reaches the great doctrine of his early ministry, "Justification by faith

without the deeds of the law", a doctrine that finds its exposition in both the Epistle to the

Galatians and the Epistle to the Romans. A structure of the exhortation follows.