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Preface (1–3). Instructions and promises of the Lord to the apostles before the ascension and His ascension (4-11 vv.). The first speech of the Apostle Peter is about the election of a new apostle to the place of Iscariot and the election itself (vv. 12–26) Acts 1:1. I wrote the first book for you, Theophilus, about everything that Jesus did and taught from the beginning. “The first book” - glory. “first word” - Greek. τόν μεν πρῶτον λόγον - an obvious indication of St. The Gospel written earlier by Luke for Theophilus (Luke 1:1–4). Putting his new work in relation to the first, like the second, St. Luke wants to show that both in the external and internal essence of the events narrated, this second book of his is a direct continuation and development of the first, giving along with it the most detailed history of the founding, spread and establishment of the Church of Christ on earth. "About everything Jesus did". According to Chrysostom’s explanation, “about everything that is especially important and necessary,” “without omitting any of the essential and necessary things, from which the divinity and truth of the sermon is learned” (Theophylact). Such reservations are made by holy interpreters in view of the fact that another Evangelist, John, recognized it as impossible to describe all the events of the Lord’s life (John 21:25). The literal meaning of the above phrase is significant: “about everything that Jesus began to do and teach” (ῶν ήρξατο ο Ιησοῦς ποιεῖν τι καί διδάσκειν). The writer seems to want to say that the Lord Jesus has only just begun with all His earthly activities, laid the foundation for His works and teaching. The continuation of this beginning will be everything further in the affairs of His messengers and their successors until the end of the age (Matt. 28:20), constituting as a whole the completion of the great work of Christ, however, not limited by any times and periods. Acts 1:2. until the day on which He ascended, giving commands by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen, "Until the day that He was taken up." The Ascension of the Lord is only briefly mentioned in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:50-53). This event was the end of the Gospel story and the beginning of the Apostolic story. Therefore St. Luke chooses to report this event in more detail in Acts. The Ascension is preceded by a commandment - a testament of the Lord to the apostles - “giving commandments to the apostles by the Holy Spirit” - Greek. εντειλάμενος τοις αποστόλοις διά Πνεύματος άγίου more literally than glory: “having commanded the apostles by the Holy Spirit.” Here, of course, is either His “promise” - to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles, with the command to wait for this promise in Jerusalem (Luke 24:49), or His commandment to them - to be witnesses and preachers “in His Name for repentance and remission of sins in all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47-48). This promise or commandment and command of the Lord is given, in the words of the Writer, “by the Holy Spirit.” “This is what it says,” explains Blessed Theophylact, “not because the Son needed the Spirit, but because where the Son creates, the Spirit cooperates and is co-present as one in essence”... This Holy Spirit, by the good will of the Father, filled His Son according to humanity - “beyond measure” in abundance (Luke 4, 1, 14, 18; John 3, 34); promised to the apostles as the unifying principle of the Father, the Son and humanity redeemed by Him. “Whom He chose” is an indication of the exclusivity of the apostolic powers and rights, in contrast to other believers. The justification for this exclusivity is that the Lord “revealed Himself alive” to these only His chosen ones through His suffering, so that they could be convinced and unfalse witnesses and preachers about Him for the whole world. Acts 1:3. to whom He revealed Himself alive, after His suffering, with many true proofs, appearing to them for forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. “According to His suffering” – i.e. together and after His death, which concluded His suffering. “With many true proofs” - i.e. the fact that He really rose again, which they did not know how to believe for a long time, and did not dare to believe; - that it was He Himself who was truly resurrected - crucified and dead, and not another who replaced Him; that not a ghost of Him, but the real He Himself again became alive among them, for which He ate before them and was even touched by the hand of Thomas, and for 40 days again continued His preaching to them about the Kingdom of God. All this, finally, until then incomprehensible and unlikely to the apostles, turned out to be in accordance with the Divine Scriptures, for the understanding of which the Risen One opened their minds, revealing in these writings all the many other evidences for faith in Him as the true Son of God, worthy of the faith of all nations. "Continuing 40 days". This exact indication of the time of the Risen Lord’s stay on earth after the resurrection is available only in this place of deeds. – The Gospel narratives of Mark and Luke do not give any indications of this time and speak about the ascension of the Lord very briefly, in the general connection of previous events. And the other two Evangelists (Matthew and John) do not mention the ascension at all. This makes the passage in question from the book of Acts especially valuable, as it fills in such important aspects of the last Gospel events. “About the Kingdom of God”, i.e. about everything that concerned the new life of people redeemed by the sufferings of the Savior and called to form a new Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Messiah, the Kingdom of the new Israel, the Church of Christ. How much the disciples of Christ needed this and how little they still penetrated into these mysteries of the true Kingdom of God is proved by what follows in v. 6. The full initiation of the apostles of Christ into the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and into worthy heralds and planters of it followed the descent of the Holy Spirit on them (John 16:12-13), according to the promise of the Lord. Acts 1:4. And having gathered them together, He commanded them: Do not go away from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me, “And having gathered them”, Greek. καί συναλιξόμενος, slav. more precisely - “poisonous with them.” Literally - “and in their assembly they ate food.” Eating food and the command not to leave Jerusalem - at first glance, somehow they do not seem so easily connected into one sentence. This combination of thoughts will not seem strange, however, if you introduce into them one note that escapes during a quick reading. The apostle’s thought then takes on the following course: “He ascended, giving commands by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He revealed Himself alive after His suffering, with many true proofs, appearing to them for forty days and speaking to them about the Kingdom of God, making them glad and proving Himself before them to the point that He even ate food before them, commanded them from Jerusalem not go away"... Thus, the expression “poisonous with them” - συναλιξόμενος - seems to crown the greatest foundation of the joy of the apostles and their faith in the Savior, who again set Himself alive before them after His suffering, assuring this with many true proofs, including the surest and most joyful for those who did not believe because of joy and those who wondered. the apostles (Luke 24:41) the eating of food was obvious to everyone. “Do not leave Jerusalem” - the Lord commands the apostles so that, having begun preaching in distant places, they would not be slandered, i.e. called liars (synaxarion for the Ascension of the Lord). In Jerusalem this would have been much more difficult to achieve, for, in addition to the apostles, there were so many other witnesses and reliable messengers of the events they preached. And so the preached One Himself was still alive in everyone’s memory! With the command not to leave Jerusalem is connected the covenant - to wait for the “Promised from the Father”, i.e. sending down the Comforter of the Holy Spirit - John. 14:16, 16:7, 13, etc. “Promised by the Father” – Greek. ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ πατρός, or rather slav. “the promises of the Father” (compare also Luke 24:49), the promises of the Father, the promises of the Father. The Lord calls the sending of the Holy Spirit “the promise of the Father,” who, back in the Old Testament (Is. 44:3, etc.), through the prophets, gave such a promise about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the time of the Messiah. “What have you heard from Me,” more precisely, the Greek and Slavic texts: ήν ηκούσατε μου, “you have heard (i.e., the promise of the Father) from Me.” Here, therefore, the Lord makes it clear that His promise is precisely the same promise of His Father, which was given in the Old Testament and is now once again expressed through the mouth of the Son. The Lord’s words also echo the thought that He, as “one with the Father,” spoke His promise, and this promise took on force, as at the same time the promise of the Father, whose will in this case was done by the Son. Explaining in more detail the essence of this Father-Sonial promise, the Writer cites it in the words of the Son (Luke 3:16; John 1 and parallels). Acts 1:5. for John baptized with water, and a few days after this you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. “For John baptized with water.” Slav. “For John baptized to eat with water.” Greek ότι Ιωάννης ... etc. This ότι stands in obvious connection with the previous ἠκούσατε, explanatorily connecting both sentences, which should be translated as follows: “wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from Me, namely: that John baptized with water, and you...”, etc. Russian “for”, if you translate the Greek ότι, then it is completely wrong; if μέν (ότι Ιωάννης μέν), then it is completely unnecessary, since μέν ... δέ are untranslatable particles. Actually, the direct connection between ότι must be assumed with the further “imate to be baptized.” In this case, the expression “John baptized with water” takes on the meaning of a simple insertion by the Writer, not implied in the expression of the Lord “even if you hear”; This understanding of the matter is prompted by the fact that in the Gospel these words are not taught to the Lord himself, but only to John (Luke 3:16; John 1:33 and par.), although, of course, the Lord Himself could have said them, not all of whose sayings were included in the Gospel. The expression “to be baptized with the Holy Spirit” in correspondence with baptism with water means complete filling with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as if immersion in His cleansing and life-giving grace. St. Cyril of Jerusalem talks about this this way: “This is not a private grace, but an all-perfect power, for just as one who is immersed and baptized in waters is surrounded by waters everywhere, so they were completely baptized by the Spirit; but the water washes the outward appearance, and the Spirit, without excluding anything, baptizes everything to the inside of the soul itself. And why be surprised?... If fire, entering the interior of rough iron, turns its entire composition into fire and the cold heats up, the black begins to glow; and if fire, being a substance and penetrating the substance of iron, acts so unhindered, then why be surprised if the Holy Spirit enters the interior of the soul itself? “A few days after this” is again an inaccurate translation of the Greek. ου μετά πολλάς ταύτας ημέρας, slav. more precisely - “not for many days now” - after a few days or a few days later. This happened exactly ten days later. The Lord ordered His apostles to wait so long for the Promised Comforter. No more and no less. No more because further continuation of the days of waiting would tire those waiting, would allow distraction and inattention into their souls, and this would make the quiet breath and reverence of the Spirit of God upon them less fruitful. No less, because a premature end to the days of waiting would leave the souls of many in an insufficiently intense thirst for the Comforter, in an insufficiently matured consciousness of the importance of what is to come, in an insufficiently appreciated preciousness and comfort of the Coming, which would also weaken the power and significance of the coming of the Spirit of God. Acts 1:6. Therefore, they came together and asked Him, saying: Are you at this time, O Lord, restoring the kingdom to Israel? “Isn’t it at this time?” , Greek ει εν τῶ χρόνω τούτω, – i.e. “after a few days,” when the disciples “will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (v. 5). – “Restores kingdoms to Israel”, Greek. αποκαθιστάνεις τήν βασιλείαν τω Ισραήλ . The apostles express, obviously, the usual ideas about the earthly reign of the Messiah, with the enslavement of all other nations and the assimilation of earthly greatness, glory and power to the people of Israel. “Tako bysha still kosni” (behind) “students” – let us note in the words of a church song. Taught for forty days about the Kingdom of God by the Savior who appeared, they still “did not quite clearly understand what this Kingdom was, since they had not yet been taught by the Spirit..., they were still attached to sensitive objects, although not as much as before; they have not yet become the best, - however, they have already thought more highly about Christ” (Chrysostom). Acts 1:7. He said to them, “It is not your business to know the times or seasons which the Father has appointed in His power; “None of your business” is a somewhat rough translation of the Greek. - ουκ υμῶν εστι, - more precisely, glory. “It’s yours...” It is better and more correct to express the Savior’s answer in this form: “it is not for you to know... etc.” The Lord’s delicately evasive answer to such an inappropriate question, resonating with gross prejudices, from his beloved disciples, at first impression seems to leave them in the same prejudices, only changing the time of their execution; in fact, this answer correctly counted on a change in the views of the apostles by the very course of events that were about to occur in the near future: “but accept strength,” etc. It would be useless now, right away, to completely disappoint the disciples in what they had become too accustomed to, especially since their views and expectations, which were in the nature of a gross prejudice, one way or another received fulfillment, only in the highest best, noblest sense. This can be indicated in the expression of the Savior καιρούς, - it is not for you to know the times or methods of circumstances, the nature of the fulfillment of your hopes, that the Father has placed everything in His power. The Russian translation of the expression καιρους - “dates” does not accurately express the Lord’s thought and conveys an unnecessary tautology to it. The Lord assimilates knowledge of the times and ways of fulfilling hopes for the Kingdom of the Messiah only to the Father - “not because He Himself did not know, but because the question itself was unnecessary, and therefore He answered with silence for their benefit” (Theophylact). Acts 1:8. but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. Diverting the attention of the disciples from the area of the unrealizable and unnecessary, the Lord draws this attention to the revolution awaiting them in themselves, when everything that is most important and precious to them will come by itself: “you will receive power” - the power precisely from the “Holy Spirit” that has come upon you - the power to be Me “witnesses... even to the ends of the earth”, witnesses and preachers about Me, about My life, teaching, deeds, commandments, promises and portents. “This is a saying,” says the blessed one. Theophylact, is both an exhortation and an irrefutable prophecy of the Savior about what the disciples of Christ will and should be after they receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Here also lies a secret hint of how, by what and when their life hopes for the coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah, the kingdom of the New Israel, will be fulfilled, into which old Israel will enter only as a part, without exhausting the all-encompassing power and wealth of not earthly temporary, but spiritual eternal blessings of the new Kingdom. If previously the Lord sent His disciples to preach about the approach of the Kingdom of God only to the Jews, forbidding them to go with this sermon to the pagans and Samaritans (Matthew 10:5), then this restriction on apostolic activity is removed. Jerusalem is only supposed to be the starting point or center, from where the rays of the Gospel Light should illuminate the entire universe “even to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:9. Having said this, He rose up in their sight, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. “Having said this, He arose.” At ev. Mark: – “after talking with them” (Mark 16:19). At ev. Luke: “When he blessed them,” he departed from them, i.e. several separated and began to ascend into heaven (Luke 24:51). “And a cloud took him out of their sight.” The final moment of ascension, regarding which bl. Theophylact says: “He was resurrected in such a way that they did not see, but they saw His ascension; they saw the end of the resurrection, but did not see its beginning; They saw the beginning of His ascension, but did not see its end.” The “cloud” - probably bright - (cf. Matt. 17:5) was here a sign of the special presence of God, the special Divine power by which this glorious last earthly work of the Lord was accomplished. Acts 1:10. And when they looked at the sky, during His ascension, suddenly two men in white clothes appeared to them “Two men in white clothes” are undoubtedly angels (cf. Luke 24:4; Mark 16:5; Matt. 28:2; John 20:12). “He calls angels men,” says Bl. about this. Theophylact, “showing the event in the form in which it appeared to the eye, since the angels actually took on the image of men so as not to frighten.” Acts 1:11. and they said: Men of Galilee! Why are you standing and looking at the sky? This Jesus, who has ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him ascending into heaven. With bewilderment and surprise, the apostles had to fix their gaze on the sky, where the Lord had just hidden from them. This bewilderment, perhaps close to stupor, is resolved by the angels with a meek and gentle reproach; “Why are you standing and watching?” It is time to turn from the aimless contemplation of the heights of the air to ordinary reality, where a life of apostolic calling awaits them, full of vigorous activity. "He will come in the same way." Here, of course, obviously, the second glorious coming of the Lord, about which He Himself spoke to the disciples (Matthew 25:31), and which will be in the same glorified body of His and also on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24:30). Acts 1:12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath's journey away. “Then”, i.e. after receiving admonition from the angels, “they returned to Jerusalem.” In the Gospel, Luke adds to this “with great joy” (Luke 24:52). The mention of the Mount of Olives as the place from which the apostles returned to Jerusalem after the Ascension of the Lord obviously means that this mountain was also the place of the ascension. The writer also precisely determines the location of the named mountain, obviously because Theophilus, for whom the book was intended, was unfamiliar with the topography of Jerusalem. “Near Jerusalem, within the distance of the Sabbath journey”, glory. “the way of the Sabbath” (Greek “having” – σαββάτου έχον οδόν), i.e. from the mountain which has the path of the Sabbath, or such a path as was allowed to be taken on the Sabbath. This path, according to rabbinical strictness regarding the Sabbath rest, was determined to be 2000 steps (about a mile), at which distance the outermost tents stood from the Tabernacle of Moses, during the Jews’ wanderings in the desert. If in the Gospel of St. Luke (Luke 24:50) says that the Lord ascended “from... them out to Bethany,” then this expression, not in contradiction with what was discussed, means that the place of the ascension was on the way from Jerusalem to Bethany. The latter stood from Jerusalem at a distance twice the distance of Olivet, at a distance of two Sabbath paths, and is indicated simply to determine the direction along which the Lord led the disciples to the place of His ascension. Acts 1:13. And when they came, they went up to the upper room, where they stayed, Peter and James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. Acts 1:14. They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with some of the women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. “They went up into the upper room where they remained... with one accord in prayer and supplication.” Perhaps it was the same upper room in which the last Last Supper was held (the “great” upper room, Luke 22:12) and the owner of which was probably among the followers of the Lord. Removed from the noise of the street, it provided the most convenient place for prayer meetings, in which the Lord’s disciples prepared themselves with prayers and supplications for the Promised baptism in the Holy Spirit. “We stayed” - not in the sense of hopelessly living in an upper room for all 10 days. The expression only means that the disciples did not each go to their own place, but, having ascended to a certain upper room, they constantly gathered there for unanimous prayers. In the Gospel Luke. 24, 53 - “they were always in the church, glorifying and blessing God.” This means that the Lord’s disciples remained constant visitors to the divine services of the Old Testament church, which had not yet been replaced by new sacred rites. But even now, these services, noticeably, did not satisfy the disciples of the Lord, and their new impressions and beliefs forced them to develop their own new forms to satisfy them. So, now in the church, now in the upper room - they are constantly in prayer and praise to God, constantly gathering in anticipation of the promised change in their orphaned lot. The names of the apostles without (Judas Iscariot) and the order are almost the same as in the Gospels, with minor changes (cf. Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:17-18; Luke 6:14-16). Lebway or Thaddeus is given with the name of Judah Jacob (cf. John 14:22), and Simon the Canaanite is called a Zealot (“zealot”), as belonging to the party of the Zealots, extreme zealots of the Law of Moses. The enumeration of the names of the apostles is intended to bring awareness to the main persons who formed the focus of the first Christian society and were the main characters in the events described - the establishment and spread of the Church of Christ, by the election of Its Founder Himself. "With wives". Here we obviously mean those pious worshipers of the Lord who accompanied Him during His life, serving from their estates (Luke 8:2-3; cf. Luke 23:55, 24:1). Precious is the mention of the “Mother of Jesus,” as well as “His brothers,” who not so long ago did not believe in Him as the Messiah (John 7:5), but now, obviously, were among the believers. Acts 1:15. And in those days Peter stood in the midst of the disciples and said "In those days" i.e. between the Ascension and Pentecost. “Peter stood in the midst of the disciples and said.” Peter, “the mouth of the apostles, always fiery and supreme in the face of the apostles” (Chrysostom, commentary on Matthew, XVI, 15), takes precedence here as “the one to whom Christ entrusted His flock” (Theophilus), offering to fill the face of the XII, diminished by Judas. Acts 1:16. (there was a meeting of about one hundred and twenty people): men and brethren! It was necessary to fulfill what the Holy Spirit foretold in the Scriptures through the mouth of David about Judas, the former leader of those who took Jesus; The remark regarding the number of those gathered is meant to note the general unanimity that prevailed in the meeting of the Lord’s disciples, and also to show the participation of their general meeting in deciding generally important matters such as the one described. In this case, this participation of the believers was expressed in the following actions: they “set up” Joseph and Matthias (v. 23), “prayed” for them (v. 24) and “cast lots” (v. 26). Having in mind this order of solving matters, Chrysostom says: “look how Peter does everything with common consent, and does not dispose of anything autocratically and as a boss.” "About 120 people". The actual number of the Lord's followers was much greater, since during one of His appearances after the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:6) more than 500 brothers are already mentioned. We must assume from this that not everyone was present at the described meeting, but only those who had not gone far from Jerusalem and were honored to be witnesses of the Ascension of the Lord. In the speech of the Apostle Peter there are two main ideas: the falling away of the former Apostle Judas and the replenishment of the apostolic face with another person. Since the sad fate of Judas and his bold and terrible deed could shake the weak in faith, the Lord at the Last Supper explained this event to the Apostles in the light of the Word of God (John 13:18). Now, like the Lord, Peter also does the same, pointing out in what happened the fulfillment of what was predicted through the mouth of David by the Holy Spirit (v. 20). Acts 1:17. he was numbered among us and received the lot of this ministry; “I received the lot of this ministry,” i.e. apostolic, was called to apostolic service. Acts 1:18. but he acquired the land with an unrighteous bribe, and when he fell, his belly was split open and all his entrails fell out; “I acquired the land with an unrighteous bribe” is an ironic expression referring to the consequences of the terrible atrocity of Judas (Matthew 27:7-8). “When he fell, his belly was split open”, Greek. πρηνής γενόμενος ελάκησε μέσος, more precisely, the glory: “being prostrate, gray in the middle,” literally - having become bowed head down, burst in the middle, with the belly. The Gospel says that Judas “hanged himself,” probably by strangulation, his body broke off, which is why what the Apostle Peter says happened. Acts 1:19. and this became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the land in their native dialect was called Akeldama, that is, the land of blood. “Village of Blood”, i.e. a village purchased with the money for which the murdered Jesus was sold. “In their native dialect” is obviously an insertion made by Luke for Theophilus, as well as an explanation of the word “Akeldama”. Acts 1:20. In the book of Psalms it is written: let his court be empty, and let there be no one living in it; and: let another take his dignity. (to Art. 16). Prophetic references to Judas are borrowed from two psalms – 68 (Ps. 69:26) and 108 (Ps. 109:8). Interpreting these prophecies as applied to Judas, St. Chrysostom and Bl. Theophylact by “court” means the village (bought: “for what could be emptier than a cemetery?”) and the house of Judas, and by bishopric - the apostolic title. In both of these psalms of David, a righteous man innocently suffering from enemies is depicted, uttering in prayer to God for protection (threats to enemies given by Peter). The application of these threats to Judas (with the change of the plural to the singular) is justified insofar as the righteous man depicted here was a prototype of the Messiah, who innocently suffered from the enemies and since Judas was their main representative and the culprit of the success of their villainous plan. Acts 1:21. Therefore, it is necessary that one of those who were with us throughout the entire time that the Lord Jesus stayed and spoke with us, Peter sets an essential condition for election to the rank of apostle that the person elected should be an eyewitness to all the earthly activities of the Lord, starting from the baptism of John until the day of the ascension. This apparently purely external condition, however, also had an important internal force: it gave more hope for the stability, completeness and maturity of faith and love for the Lord of such a person, and indicated, so to speak, the greater solidity of his preparation - in uninterrupted communication with the Divine Teacher of all of them. Only such preparation - continuous and from the Lord Himself, with the entire totality of His deeds and teachings and the events of His life during the period of public service - gave the right to such high service. Acts 1:22. from the baptism of John until the day on which He ascended from us, He was a witness with us of His resurrection. “To be a witness with us of His resurrection.” This is how the essence of the apostolic ministry is defined - to be a witness of the resurrection of Christ (v. 8; cf. 1 Cor. 15; Rom. 10:9) - “not anything else,” says Theophylact, “because whoever appears worthy to testify that the Lord who ate and drank with them and was crucified arose, he can and should be much more entrusted with testifying about other events, because the resurrection was what was sought, since it was done in secret, but the rest was done openly.” Acts 1:23. And they appointed two: Joseph, called Barsaba, who was called Justus, and Matthias; “They put two”, i.e. Of those who met the stated condition, two were identified. “Why not many? So that there would not be more disorder, besides, the matter concerned only a few...” (Theophilus.). The chosen ones - Joseph Barsabas (Justus) and Matthias - are both unknown in the Gospel history. Probably, “they were from among the 70 who were with the 12 apostles, and from other believers, but they believed more ardently and were more pious than the others” (Theophilus). Acts 1:24. and they prayed and said: You, Lord, knower of the hearts of all, show of these two one whom You have chosen “They prayed and said” - και προσευξάμενοι εῖπον - more precisely, glorious: “and having prayed, they decided” - and having prayed, they said. It is likely that the prayer that follows was said by Peter on behalf of the congregation. The prayer obviously addresses the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is called the “knower of the heart.” Since in another place Peter calls God a knower of the heart (Acts 15:8, etc.), the use here of the same name in application to Jesus Christ expresses nothing more than faith in His Divine properties and confession of His Divinity. “Show”, i.e. by lot. “They didn’t say “choose,” but show, they say, the chosen one: they knew that with God everything was determined in advance (Chrysostom).” Just as during His life on earth, the Lord Himself chose apostles for Himself, so now, although He ascended to heaven, having promised to always remain in His Church, He must Himself choose the twelfth Apostle. Acts 1:25. accept the lot of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas fell away in order to go to his place. “Go to your place”, i.e. to the place of condemnation, Gehenna. Acts 1:26. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was numbered among the eleven Apostles. Determination by lot is an Old Testament institution, and in deciding matters by lot they saw the action of God Himself (Lev. 16:8 et c.; Num. 17; Num. 34:13; Josh. 14:2; 1 Sam. 10:20). But “why,” says Chrysostom, “do the apostles prefer election by lot?” Because “they have not yet considered themselves worthy of making a choice themselves, and therefore they want to find out (about this choice) through some sign... And the Holy Spirit has not yet descended on them... and the lot was of great significance”... Numbered among the apostles of St. Matthias preached the Gospel in Judea and Ethiopia and died in Jerusalem, stoned (his memory is August 9). Joseph (Josiah - Just) was later the bishop of Eleutheropolis of Judea and also died a martyr (mem. Oct. 30). You might be interested in: