When reading many passages from Scripture, it is hard at once to understand and feel the atmosphere of what is happening, the mood of the people, even though...
When reading many passages from Scripture, it is hard at once to understand and feel the atmosphere of what is happening, the mood of the people, even though the Evangelists often mention them. The point is that the writers do not put into the lines their own attitude and emotions about what is being described.
To understand, we need to stop, perhaps read the passage again several times, think, and imagine the situation. The Word of God is more alive than any other book precisely because it is not obscured by the personality of the writer and gives us the opportunity to become participants in those events.
To "read" today's passage from Acts, one must not merely read the phrase, "...lame from his mother's womb..." and understand it as we usually understand the word "lame," that is, as having the ability to walk, but with effort and pain, but also see what was actually the case. This man was "carried and laid" there, that is, he could not move about on his own. One needs to see his gaze fixed on the apostles, waiting for alms. This man, unlike other healed people familiar to us (see, for example, Mark 10:51), did not think of asking for healing.
It is striking that such a seemingly unimportant detail is indicated: the hand by which Peter raises the lame man. But this detail brings the story to life and speaks of the importance of what is happening. Surely this man remembered for the rest of his life the touch after which he was able to walk. And then the one who perceived each day, in particular, in terms of how much would be given to him that day, leaps up and goes into the temple. Before, after all, he had sat only near the temple, and no one had carried him inside, and perhaps he had not asked...
And now this man glorifies God, who for him is now connected with His Son, Christ, in whose Name the healing was performed.
3
3:1 The ninth hour - The Jews divided the time from sunrise to sunset into twelve hours; which were consequently of unequal length at different times of the year, as the days were longer or shorter. The third hour therefore was nine in the morning; the ninth, three in the afternoon; but not exactly. For the third hour was the middle space between sunrise and noon; which, if the sun rose at five, (the earliest hour of its rising in that climate,) was half an hour after eight: if at seven (the latest hour of its rising there) was half an hour after nine.The chief hours of prayer were the third and ninth; at which seasons the morning and evening sacrifices were offered, and incense (a kind of emblem representing prayer) burnt on the golden altar.
3:2 At the gate of the temple, called Beautiful - This gate was added by Herod the Great, between the court of the Gentiles and that of Israel. It was thirty cubits high, and fifteen broad, and made of Corinthian brass, more pompous in its workmanship and splendour than those that were covered with silver and gold.
3:6 Then said Peter, Silver and gold have I none - How unlike his supposed successor! Can the bishop of Rome either say or do the same?