Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles John Calvin
John Calvin
22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man showed towards you of God, by powers and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves know: 23. Him, I say, have ye taken, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, by the hands of wicked men, and have slain him, having fastened him to the cross. 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of death, forasmuch as it was impossible that he should be holden of it.
22. Jesus of Nazareth Now doth Peter apply unto his purpose the prophecy of Joel; namely, that the Jews may thereby know that the time of restoring was present; and that Christ was given them for this purpose. For this promise was no otherwise to be fulfilled, save only by the coming of the Mediator. And this is the right use of all those gifts which we have by Christ, whilst that they bring us unto Christ, as unto a fountain. But he cometh hither by little and little. For he doth not by and by in the beginning affirm that Jesus was Christ; but he saith only that he was a man sent of God; and that doth he prove by his miracles. Afterward he addeth, that he rose from death when he was slain. Whereby it appeareth more certainly and more fully that he was not one of the prophets, but the very Son of God, who was promised to be the repairer of all things. Let this, therefore, be the first member, that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God by manifest testimonies, so that he could not be despised as some base and obscure person. The old interpreter did not evil 99 translate {ὑποδεδειγμενον} approved. And Erasmus is deceived, who thinketh that he did read it otherwise; and he himself did not express Luke's mind, when as he translated it given. 100 For, seeing that word doth signify among the Grecians to show, whereupon the mathematicians also call those arguments whereby they set a thing, as it were, before a man's eyes, {αποδειξεις}, or demonstrations, Luke meant to say, that Jesus came not unknown, and without any testimony or approbation, but that those miracles which God showed by him served to this end, that he might be famous and excellent. Therefore he saith that he was showed toward the Jews; because God would have his Son to be accounted excellent and great among them; as if he should say, that miracles were not appointed for other nations, but for the Jews, that they might know that Jesus was sent unto them of God.
By great works. He calleth miracles by these three names. And because God doth show forth his power in them after a new and unwonted sort, or doth, at least, procure greater admiration, they are, for good causes, called great works. 101 For we are commonly more moved when any extraordinary thing doth happen. In which respect they are also called wonders, 102 because they make us astonished. And for this cause are they called signs, because the Lord will not have men's minds to stay there, but to be lifted up
99"Male," ill, improperly. 100"Exhibitum," exhibited. 101"Virtutes." 102"Prodigia," prodigies.