Chapter 1
[Acts 1:1] -- I indeed made the first account, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began to do and teach. What he says: Indeed the first, is not an adverb of order, according to the Apostle: First, I thank my God (Romans 1), but as it is easily evident from the Greek, first is a noun to be joined to what follows the discourse, so that the meaning is that he made the first discourse about Jesus by writing the Gospel, now he is about to make the second by adding the Acts of the Apostles. And indeed he fulfills the mention of the first discourse, when he adds: Until the day He was taken up, having given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, and then he made the beginning of the second discourse, when he follows: To whom he also presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs over the course of forty days, etc. For even if he testified in the Gospel that He ascended into heaven, and that the disciples returned to Jerusalem from Bethany, he did not however say there that over forty days after his passion he appeared to them frequently, that they questioned him about restoring the kingdom to Israel, that angels stood by them when he sought heaven, predicting that he would return in like manner, and other such things.
[Acts 1:5] -- For John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Baptisma in Greek is called tinctio in Latin. Wherefore, in some manuscripts we find it interpreted thus: For John indeed dipped with water, but you will be dipped in the Holy Spirit. Here the marvelous harmony of the words of the Lord and his precursor is evident. For he said to those whom he baptized, about the Lord: I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). And the Lord himself: John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It should be noted as well that the baptism of the Lord in the Holy Spirit, which John had foretold, does not refer only to that time when the Apostles and other faithful of that time were baptized with water for the remission of sins, through the grace of the Holy Spirit given to them by the Lord; but also to this, when, with the Lord sending them, they received more fully the gifts of the same Spirit from heaven. But also now, whoever receives baptism for the remission of sins, is certainly baptized in the Holy Spirit, through whose gift they are both cleansed from all sins, and are aided so that they can progress in good deeds.
[Acts 1:6] -- Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Not to this Israel, but to this Israel; and as it is manifest in Greek, where τῷ Israel, and not οῦ Israel, is written. Which would be understood more easily if, by adding one word, it were said: Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to the people of Israel.
[Acts 1:10] -- While they were looking on as he went into heaven. In Greek, it is thus: And while they were gazing into heaven as he went; that is, they were gazing into heaven, where he was going. Hence, the angels say to them: Why do you stand looking into heaven? Because it is also shown that they were gazing at him who was going into heaven, by the angels' following words, when it is said: He will come in the same way you saw him going into heaven.
[Acts 1:13] -- And when they had entered the upper room, they went up where they were staying. For in Greek the order of words is also placed thus: And when they had gone into the upper room, they went up where they were staying—Peter and John, and Andrew and James. In Greek the order of names is thus: Peter and Andrew, and James and John, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. Histories recount concerning these, in which the passions of the apostles are contained, and many deem them apocryphal, that they preached in Persia, and there were killed by the priests of the temples in the city of Suanir, and they underwent glorious martyrdom. The Book of Martyrology, which is titled with the name and preface of blessed Jerome, although Jerome himself was not the author but the translator, and Eusebius is narrated to have been the author, affirms this as well. Further, Isidore believes that this Simon is the one who ruled the Church of Jerusalem after James the brother of the Lord, and was crowned with martyrdom of the cross under Trajan, being a hundred and twenty years old, whom we also followed formerly in the first book of the Acts of the Apostles, not examining what he wrote scrupulously, but simply listening to his words, believing that he learned these things from certain ancient histories. We dare not deny this even now, especially since he who wrote the aforementioned passions of the apostles has most certainly revealed that he wrote uncertain and false things. For he says that the eunuch of Candace, whom Philip baptized in Judea, was in Ethiopia at the time when Matthew was teaching there and helped him in his teaching, while it is manifest that Candace is the name not of a man, but of a woman, that is, not of the eunuch, but of his mistress, namely the queen of the Ethiopians, who, as we have learned from ancient records, were all commonly called thus in olden times. I wrote in the same work, following Jerome's commentary, and concerning Judas the brother of James, who was also called Thaddaeus, that he was sent to Abgar, king of Osroene, as ecclesiastical history has handed down; but afterward, examining the ecclesiastical history itself more diligently, I found it not written there that Thaddaeus the apostle, one of the twelve, but Thaddaeus one of the seventy disciples, was sent to heal the aforementioned king. I do not think an error should be imputed to me, where, following the authority of great doctors, I believed without doubt what I found in their small works should be accepted.
[Acts 1:14] -- With the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. It says brothers of Jesus, not of Mary. For in Greek there is a clear distinction where it is written not αὐτῆς but αὐτοῦ, which without any doubt is a masculine pronoun among them. Blessed Luke took care to inform readers that the brothers of the Lord were participants in his faith at that time, about whom it was previously said before his passion: "Neither did his brothers believe in him."
[Acts 1:19] -- And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akeldama. It says in their language who were inhabitants of Jerusalem, because certainly, even though both spoke Hebrew, the propriety of the language of Jerusalem differed from that of the Galileans, from whom were the apostles, which we learn in the story of the Lord's passion, where Peter, even against his will, was revealed by his speech to be a Galilean.
[Acts 1:23] -- And they appointed two, Joseph who was called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus. In Greek it is more detailed: And having said these things, they appointed two: Joseph who was called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Where we in this sentence read Justus, in the Greek also Justus is written. If we believe it to be a Latin name, it seems that this man was of such virtue that even the Romans, who could have known him, gave him the name of justice. But if it is a Hebrew name, it can be interpreted as “sparing” or “he himself uplifted,” as Jerome teaches in the Book of Hebrew Names. What is called Justus in Latin, in Hebrew is Sadoch, and in Greek is called δίκαιος. Furthermore, Clement of Alexandria, a most learned man in all respects, reports that both those appointed to the lot of apostleship were from the number of the seventy disciples.