The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
Parallel Translations
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The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
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The God of oure fathers raysed vp Iesus whom ye slewe and hanged on tre.
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The God of our fathers hath raised vp Iesus, whom ye slewe, and hanged on a tree.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Acts 5:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Acts 10:39 We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree.
- Acts 13:28-29 Though they found no cause for death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.
- Acts 3:13-15 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.
- Acts 4:10-11 may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him. He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
- Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know, him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
- 1 Chronicles 12:17 David went out to meet them, and answered them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers see this and rebuke it.”
- 1 Chronicles 29:18 Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this desire forever in the thoughts of the heart of your people, and prepare their heart for you;
- Ezra 7:27 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify Yahweh’s house which is in Jerusalem;
- Luke 1:55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.”
- Luke 1:72 to show mercy toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,
- Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
- Acts 3:26 God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
- Acts 13:33 that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your father.’
- Acts 22:14 He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 30. The God of our fathers. They descend unto…
30. The God of our fathers. They descend unto the matter whereof they are to speak, that they may declare that they made small account of the commandment of the priests, not without cause, nor yet unadvisedly. For (as I have already said) the comparison between God and man taketh no place save only when there is some contrariety. Therefore they prove by this, that they are enforced by the fear of God to refuse the commandment of the priests; because God commandeth that which they forbid. Therefore, first of all, they say that God had raised up Christ, after the common custom of the Scriptures. For this speech is common, that God raised up prophets or judges, or rather ministers, whom he determined to use into some great work; which importeth as much as that all excellency of nature is weak, unless God do furnish those with singular gifts whom he preferreth unto any excellent office. Peradventure, also they allude unto that famous place of Moses, which Peter cited in his first sermon, (Deuteronomy 18:15, above 3:22.) They cite the God of the fathers by name, as the author, that they may declare that they bring in no new form of religion, neither yet will they enforce upon the people any new god. For they were to make answer to that false slander, that they went about to lead away the people from the law and the prophets. Not that they allow all that worship which was used by the fathers, as profane men are content with this only argument, that the fathers taught thus, that they do all things according to the custom and decree of their ancestors; but the apostles speak in this place of those fathers with whom God hath made his covenant, who followeth right and pure doctrine, who embraceth the promise of salvation with true faith; finally, who had their beginning of the heavenly Father, and who, through the only begotten Son of God, were the children of God together with their posterity.
Whom ye. In this member the apostles declare unto them plainly that they were the enemies of God who would have the chief honor given them as unto the governors and prelates of the Church. Whereupon it followeth that they are unworthy even of the smallest authority. Although there is also a prevention, being a token of boldness, when as he speaketh of that thing boldly and freely which they did account a shameful thing, to wit, lest any part of Christ’s glory should seem to be diminished because he suffered a slanderous death upon the cross; as if it had been said, You have slain him. Neither was your cruelty satisfied with a plain and common death; for he was hanged upon a tree. But neither could death extinguish his power; neither could that shame and reproach which he suffered amongst you take away his honor. Therefore the calling of God continueth firm and stable. Therefore, as the apostles hit the priests in the teeth with that wickedness and heinous offense which they had committed, so they prevent, by a granting, to express the manner of the reproachful death which Christ suffered, lest the authors of the wickedness triumph as having gotten the victory.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Christ is appointed and indeed declareth Prince and preserver…
Christ is appointed and indeed declareth Prince and preserver of his Church in despite of his enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,…
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Ver. 30. Ye slew and hanged on a tree] Constantine the Great, in honour of our Saviour, took away by a law that custom of crucifying men, in use, till then, among the Romans: a lingering and cruel kind of death; as was likewise that of impaling, very usual, saith Illyricus, among the ancients. The malefactors had a stake or pale (σκολοψ) thrust in at their anus, and it came out again at their shoulders; so that if the stake did not pierce their hearts or vitals, as it was thrust up, they lived sometimes two or three days in exquisite pain and torment. And to this kind of cruel death, said he, St Paul seemeth to allude, 2Co 12:7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The God of our fathers; this is the rather…
The God of our fathers; this is the rather mentioned by the apostle, that they might not think our Saviour, or they his ministers, preached any other God unto them, but him whom they had worshipped from their forefathers.
Hanged on a tree; a tree, or wood, which is rather mentioned than a cross, that the allusion to Deu 21:23 might be more full, where he that is hanged on a tree is accursed; and in that Christ was made a curse for us, Gal 3:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Him hath God exalted with his right hand,.... Not…
Him hath God exalted with his right hand,.... Not at his right hand, though he is exalted to it, and is set down at it, but with, or by his right hand; that is, by his power: for being by him raised from the dead, he was exalted to the highest heavens, and placed in human nature at the right hand of God, on the same throne with him, crowned with glory and honour; and having a name above every name, and all power and authority both in heaven and in earth given him,
to be a Prince and a Saviour: being made and declared both Lord and Christ, Lord of lords, and Prince of the kings of tHe earth, the Prince of life and peace, the Head of the church, and over all things for the sake of it, and the Saviour of his body the church, of all the elect of God; not with a temporal, but a spiritual and eternal salvation, of which he is become the author by his obedience, sufferings, and death; and is an able and willing, a suitable and an only Saviour: and some of the branches of his power and grace are
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for to give repentance to Israel; to the Israel whom God has chosen for himself, and Christ has redeemed by his blood, and whom the Spirit calls by his graee: these being sinners, as well as others, stand in need of repentance; and whereas this is not in any man's power, but is the free gift of God's grace; for though he should give men time and space to repent, and afford them the means of it, yet if he does not give them grace to repent, they never will, such is the hardness of man's heart; Christ is appointed to give this grace to the chosen ones, which he does by sending his Spirit to convince of sin, and to take away the stony heart, and give an heart of flesh:
and forgiveness of sins; free and full forgiveness of all sins; which being obtained by his blood, is applied by his Spirit to all that truly repent of them; for these two always go together; where he gives the one, he also gives the other: the manifestations and applications of pardoning grace are only made to repenting sinners; and there are none that truly, and in an evangelical way, repent of sin, but who have some views, or, at least, hopes of pardoning grace; and none ever mourn more over sin, than those that see it in the glass of forgiving love.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Hath raised up Jesus - Of the seed of…
Hath raised up Jesus - Of the seed of David, according to the promises made to our fathers.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. The God of our fathers raised up…
Verse 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus] It was well to introduce this, that the council might at once see that they preached no strange God; and that he who so highly honoured the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets, had yet more highly honoured Jesus Christ in raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand, and proclaiming him as the only giver of salvation and the repentance which leads to it.
Whom ye slew] They charge them again with the murder of Christ, as they had done before, Ac 4:10-12, where see the notes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Raised up Jesus - This refers to his resurrection.
Raised up Jesus - This refers to his resurrection.
Hanged on a tree - That is, on the “cross,” Gal 3:13; 1Pe 2:24; Act 10:39; Act 13:29. This is the amount of Peter’s defense. He begins with the great principle Act 5:29, which they could not gainsay, that God ought to be obeyed rather than man. He then proceeds to state that they were convinced that God had raised up Jesus from the dead, and as they had such decisive evidence of that, and were commanded by the authority of the Lord Jesus to be “witnesses of that,” they were not “at liberty” to be silent. They were bound to obey God rather than the Sanhedrin, and to make known everywhere the fact that the Lord Jesus was risen. The remark that God had raised up Jesus whom they had “slain,” does not seem to have been made to irritate or to reproach them, but merely to “identify” him as the person that had been raised. It was also a confirmation of the truth and reality of the miracle. Of his “death” they had no doubt, for they had been at pains to certify it, Joh 19:31-34. It is certain, however, that Peter did not shrink from charging on them their guilt; nor was he at any pains to “soften” or “mitigate” the severe charge that they had murdered their own Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. God of our fathers—By this solemn expression the…
30. God of our fathers—By this solemn expression the apostles assume that Jesus and themselves are in true line of descent from the fathers and under sanction of their God. It was the God of Abraham by whom Jesus was exalted.
Raised up Jesus—These confessors are most careful in face of those Sadducees to insert the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus in their avowal.
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Ye slew—Here again is the charge direct and personal. All sins and all sinners have virtually nailed Jesus to the cross; but these men literally, by direct authorization, performed the deed for all.
A tree—The Greek word does indeed literally signify tree or wood; but it also signifies the perpendicular beam of a cross, and so the word might have been correctly rendered cross.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus]…
30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus] As Peter did in Act_3:13, so here the Apostles point out that there is no severance of themselves from the worship of the Covenant God of Israel, but that they were teaching that His promise through Moses had now been fulfilled, for that in Jesus the promised prophet had appeared. Cp. Deu_18:15, and St Peter’s speech, Act_3:22.
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree] Better, whom ye hanged on a tree and slew. This sentence describes the Roman, and not the Jewish mode of execution. With the latter people only those who were already dead were to be hanged (Deu_21:22; Jos_10:26).
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In the word which they use for slew the Apostles intimate that the guilt of the Crucifixion was as truly upon the Jews as if the act had been done by their hands, and not by those of the Roman soldiery.
The phrase hanged on a tree is used by St Peter again (Act_10:39), and by nobody else in the N. T. He also has a similar expression, tree for cross (1Pe_2:24), “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.—This…
(30) Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.—This synonym for crucifying comes from the LXX. version of Deu_21:23, where it is used in a wider sense, including analogous forms of punishment, such as hanging or impaling. It meets us again in Peter’s speech to Cornelius (Act_10:39. Comp. Gal_3:13).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Hanging him for and hanged, A.V. The God of…
Hanging him for and hanged, A.V. The God of our fathers, etc. Observe how carefully Peter preserves his own brotherhood with the Jews whom he was addressing, and the continuity of the New Testament with the Old Testament as being the sequel of the acts of the same God of Israel. Raised up; viz. from the dead; hgeire, not ajnisth, as 3:22, 26. Some, however (Calvin, Bengel, etc.), take hgeire, as here used, to mean "raised up" in the wider sense of ajnasthsai, as in the T.R. of Act_13:23, where, however, the R.T. has h Slew; viz. with your own hands, as dieceirisasqe means. It only occurs besides in Act_26:27.
Vers. 30-32. The cross and the crown.
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In this address which Peter delivered to the Sanhedrim we have another epitome of the gospel.
I THE LOWEST DEPTH OF EARTHLY SHAME. "Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (ver. 30). The Son of God was "made a little lower than the angels," even a Son of man, "for the suffering of death". (Heb_2:9) He stooped to the level of our humanity, in order that he might "taste death for every man." And he underwent that experience in its most dreadful form in darkness, pain, shame, desertion, inexpressible agony of soul. He went deliberately down to the very lowest point to which he could stoop, that he might finish the work the Father had given him to do.
II THE HIGHEST SUMMIT OF HEAVENLY HONOUR. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus... him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior" (vers. 30, 31). "From the highest throne of glory to the cross of deepest woe" he had come; now he reascended from the grave to the throne, to the seat of heavenly power and blessedness. He has become an enthroned Redeemer, a sovereign Savior,
(1) occupying the foremost place in heavenly rank,
(2) dispensing salvation to the lost children of men, and
(3) receiving the willing homage, the affectionate service of the multitude he has redeemed. What more honorable, enviable, blessed position can we conceive than that of One who, seated in the very highest post of honor, is conferring the best of all imaginable boons, and is receiving, in return, the freest, richest, most rejoicing worship and service of his redeemed, both of those who are about his person "in the heavens," and of those also who are serving him and striving to follow him below?
III THE METHOD OF THE REIGNING SAVIOUR. He is a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance.., and forgiveness of sins." How does the exalted Lord carry on his great work as he reigns in heaven? By giving repentance and remission.
1. He gives to human souls a sense of the heinousness of their sin.
2. He dispenses to them, through his atoning sacrifice, full and free forgiveness of their sin. Thus he leads men everywhere away from their iniquity, and restores them to the favor and so to the happy service of the Supreme.
IV THE BLESSED CERTAINTY WE HAVE OF THE FACT OF HIS ELEVATION. (Ver. 22.) The apostles could assure the council that these things were so; they could place it beyond all doubt, inasmuch as
(1) they themselves were witnesses of the facts, and
(2) the Holy Spirit had confirmed their testimony by the signs and wonders he enabled them to work. We too have testimony, both human and Divine.
1. The human testimony of the apostles of our Lord; also of all Christian souls in all succeeding generations, who have witnessed for him and the power of his grace; and also the assurance of our contemporaries, who rejoice in the liberty with which he has made them free.
2. The Divine testimony of that gracious Spirit of God, who, though he works no signs and wonders around us, does work conviction, comfort, sanctity, strength, within us. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain See notes on verse 29
See notes on verse 29
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:30-32 We are witnesses of these things: The apostles,…
5:30-32 We are witnesses of these things: The apostles, as witnesses, were required to testify to what they had seen and heard (see Lev 5:1; cp. Acts 1:8; Matt 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.