Acts 4:28
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
For to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done.
American King James Version (AKJV)
For to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done.
American Standard Version (ASV)
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy council foreordained to come to pass.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
To do that which had been fixed before by your hand and your purpose.
Webster's Revision
To do whatever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
World English Bible
to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
English Revised Version (ERV)
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass.
Barnes's Acts 4:28 Bible Commentary
For to do ... - See the notes on Acts 2:23; Acts 3:18. The facts which are brought to view in these verses are among the most remarkable on record. They are briefly these:
(1) That the Jewish rulers were opposed to the Messiah, and slew him.
(2) that the very people to whom he came, and for whose benefit he labored, joined in the opposition, so that it became the act of a united people.
(3) that the Romans, who were there as a sort of representation of all pagan nations, were easily prevailed on to join in the persecution, and to become the executioners.
(4) that thus opposite factions, and dissimilar and prejudiced people, became united in opposing the Messiah.
(5) that the rulers of the Roman people, the emperors, the statesmen, the philosophers, and the rulers of other nations, united to oppose the gospel, and brought all the power of persecution to stay its progress.
(6) that the people of the empire, the mass of people, were easily prevailed upon to join in the persecution, and to endeavor to arrest its progress. It may be added,
(7) That the gospel has encountered similar difficulties and opposition wherever it has been faithfully presented to the attention of people. It has become a very serious question why this has been; on what pretence this opposition has been vindicated, or how it can be accounted for - a question which it is of as much importance for the infidel as for the Christian to settle. We know that accusations of the corrupt lives of the early Christians were freely circulated, and that most gross accounts of their scandalous conduct were propagated by those who chose to persecute them. (See Lardner's "Credibility.") But such accounts are not now believed, and it is not certain that they were ever seriously believed by the rulers of the pagan people. It is certain that it was not on things account that the first opposition arose to Christ and his religion.
It is not proper here to enter into an examination of the causes of this opposition. We may state the outlines, however, in few words:
(1) The Jewish rulers were mortified, humbled, and moved with envy, that one so poor and despised should claim to be the Messiah. They had expected a Messiah of a different rank and character; and all their prejudices rose at once against his claims to this high office, Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.
(2) the common people, disposed extensively to acknowledge his claims, were urged on by the enraged and vindictive priests to demand his death, Matthew 27:20.
(3) Pilate was pressed on against his will by the impetuous and enraged multitude to deliver one whom he regarded as innocent.
(4) the Christian religion, in its advances, struck at once at the whole fabric of superstition in the Roman empire and throughout the world. It did not, like other religions, ask a place amidst the religions already existing. It was exclusive in its claims. It denounced all other systems as idolatry or superstition, and sought to overthrow them. Those religions were interwoven with all the habits of the people; they were connected with all the departments of the state; they gave occupation to a vast number of priests and other officer who obtained their livelihood by the existing superstitions, and who brought, of course, all the supposed sacredness of their character to support them. A religion which attempted to overthrow the whole fabric, therefore, at once excited all their malice. The monarchs whose thrones were based on the existing state of things, and the people who venerated the religion of their ancestors, would be opposed to the new system.
(5) Christianity was despised. It was regarded as one form of the superstition of the Jews, and there were no people who were regarded with so much contempt by other nations as the Jews. The writings of the Romans on this point are full proof.
continued...
Wesley's Acts 4:28 Bible Commentary
4:28 The sense is, but they could do no more than thou wast pleased to permit, according to thy determinate counsel, to save mankind by the sufferings of thy Son. And what was needful for this end, thou didst before determine to permit to be done.