NOTES for Act 3:1-10

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¹Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

²And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

³Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

⁴And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

⁵And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

⁶Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

⁷And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength.

⁸And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

¹⁰And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

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.

Other notes

For Act 3:1-10

¹Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

²And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

³Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

⁴And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

⁵And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

⁶Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

⁷And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength.

⁸And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

¹⁰And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

The Gospels are full of stories of healings. And the Book of Acts continues this tradition: immediately after the description of the Savior's Ascension and Pentecost comes the description of a healing performed, true, no longer by Christ Himself, but... Read more

The Gospels are full of stories of healings. And the Book of Acts continues this tradition: immediately after the description of the Savior's Ascension and Pentecost comes the description of a healing performed, true, no longer by Christ Himself, but by the apostles in the name of Christ. Of course, one could explain everything by saying that one of the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts have the same author. But that is only the outer side of the matter. Something else is more important: the essential connection of the Gospel events with those described in the Book of Acts. And first of all, of course, this concerns the promise Jesus gave to the apostles during His earthly ministry, the promise that they too would be able to do on earth everything He Himself did.

But this is not all. The main point is that the history of the Kingdom in the world continues. And this means that Christian history continues. Not the history of certain Christian ecclesiastical institutions, or of what might be called, rather conditionally, Christian civilization, but the history of the Church. The one with a capital C. The one that is a community of people living in the Kingdom. In fact, Christ never created any other Church. What He left on earth was precisely a small community, at first, of inhabitants of the Kingdom. Or, more exactly, of those who were to become inhabitants of the Kingdom after His Resurrection, after Pentecost; those through whom the Kingdom would continue to exist in the world, transfiguring it.

The apostles' healing of the lame man who sat at the entrance to the Temple was precisely a witness that the apostles had become inhabitants of the Kingdom: it was the power of the Kingdom, its breath, that healed the lame man. It accompanied the apostles just as it had accompanied the Savior Himself when He walked on earth. Thus His work on earth continued. And so did the history of salvation.

For Act 3:1-26

¹Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

²And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

³Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

⁴And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

⁵And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

⁶Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

⁷And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength.

⁸And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

¹⁰And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

¹¹And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.

¹²And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

¹³The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

¹⁴But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

¹⁵And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

¹⁶And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

¹⁷And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

¹⁸But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

¹⁹Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

²⁰And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

²¹Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

²²For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

²³And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

²⁴Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

²⁵Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

²⁶Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

The Apostle Peter's answer to the lame man sitting at the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem prompts us too to consider what... Read more

The Apostle Peter's answer to the lame man sitting at the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem prompts us too to consider what we can give the world around us. The world indeed most often thirsts for “silver and gold,” which Christianity is unable to give it. Yet the fact is that deep down the world thirsts for more: it awaits healing and wants to know the truth about itself and about God. The Book of Acts gives us wonderful examples of how the Apostles bring peace, healing, and meaning to those around them. Peter and John not only heal the lame man, emphasizing that this happened not by their own power but by God's; in a few extraordinarily concise words, they also reveal to the Israelites the meaning of their history and their election by God, and point them toward the center of their longings and hopes: Christ. In today's circumstances, the Lord expects all this from Christianity, from the Church, and from us as well.

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