Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

1:12 A Sabbath day's journey was the maximum distance one could travel on the Sabbath without it constituting work. This was not an explicit OT law but a later Jewish tradition. The rabbis set the limit at 2,000 cubits (about 0.6 miles or 1 km). Jews at Qumran had a lower travel limit.

1:14 The women in the upper room likely included those who ministered to Jesus' followers (Luke 8:2-3), accompanied them from Galilee (Luke 23:55), and witnessed the crucifixion and empty tomb (Luke 23:49, 55-56; 24:2-11). Jesus had four brothers--James, Joses, Judas, and Simon (Mark 6:3). The main activity in the upper room was prayer. Jesus had told them "to wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4), but "waiting" on God and prayer are closely related in several places in the OT, and therefore it is likely that they were praying constantly that the promised Spirit would descend.

1:15 Throughout chs. 1-15 Peter is the spokesman for the apostles.

1:16 The Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David is one of the clearest affirmations in Scripture that the Bible is the inspired word of God. The Holy Spirit "spoke" through David's mouth in the sense that David's written words were inspired by the third person of the Trinity (God the Holy Spirit) foretelling events that took place a thousand years later (see v. 20; cf. Ps. 69:25; 109:8).

1:18 this man acquired a field. That is, the field was acquired indirectly by Judas, through the agency of the chief priests. As Matt. 27:3-7 records, Judas brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders. The chief priests then purchased the potter's field with Judas's money, with the same effect as if Judas had himself made the purchase. he burst open. The two accounts of Judas's death are complementary retellings of the same event, each focusing in different ways on the same details. Both accounts involve: Judas's remorse, the purchase of a field with his ill-gotten money, its reputation as "the Field of Blood," and Judas's gory death (for the location of "the Field of Blood," see note on Matt. 27:7-8). The main difference is that Matt. 27:5 speaks of Judas hanging himself, while Acts speaks of his body falling headlong and bursting open with all his entrails spilling out. One possible explanation suggests that the field overlooked a cliff, and as Judas hanged himself, the rope (or the branch) may have broken, with his body falling headlong over the edge of the cliff onto jagged rocks below. Others have suggested that Judas's body may have remained hanging for some time decaying and decomposing ("swelling up," ESV footnote), eventually falling to the ground and bursting open in its decomposed condition. In either case, there is no reason to see the two accounts as contradictory, since they focus on complementary details of the same event. In both accounts the effect of Satan's control over Judas's life is clear, demonstrating the general principle that Satan brings total destruction and disgrace to the person who comes under his control, for "he was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44).

1:20 Judas's death was the fulfillment of Ps. 69:25, and his place among the disciples was now empty. Let another take his office. The selection of Matthias (Acts 1:26) as the twelfth apostle was a direct fulfillment of prophecy (cf. v. 16; Ps. 109:8), carried out under the direction of the Lord. The addition of this new twelfth apostle would complete the new nucleus for the people of God, parallel to the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel in the OT. Though these 12 would remain the core group of the apostles (see Luke 22:30; 1 Cor. 15:5; Rev. 21:12, 14), a few more later became "apostles," including at least Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:4, 14) and James, the Lord's brother (Gal. 1:19). However, apostles were not replaced from this point onward: in Acts 12, James the brother of John was not replaced after his execution. See also note on Rom. 1:1.

1:23-24 Two men, Joseph and Matthias, met the necessary requirements to be considered for apostleship. The group turned the matter over to the "Lord" (v. 24; that is, the Lord Jesus, who had chosen all the other apostles), praying that he would make his choice known.

1:26 The lots were probably marked stones that were placed in a pot and then shaken out (cf. 1 Chron. 26:13-16). This does not imply that people should cast lots to make their decisions today, for there is no such command in any NT letter or in any of Jesus' earthly teachings. The appointment of a twelfth apostle was a unique situation, a choice that was made by Jesus himself. In the rest of the NT, the elders and deacons and other church leaders are chosen according to decisions made by human beings, whether by an apostle or by others in the churches (see Acts 6:3-6; 14:23; 15:22; 2 Cor. 8:19; cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). On the 12 apostles, see note on Matt. 10:1.