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Acts

Actschapter 3

26 verses · BSBActs book hub →

Speaks with:Acts 3×5Acts 14×5Acts 2×4Acts 7×3Acts 10×2Acts 4×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Peter and John at the temple Beautiful gate; the lame man healed. Peter's second sermon in Solomon's porch: 'the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob … hath glorified his Son Jesus.' 'Repent ye therefore, and be converted.'

Context

History · Luke — Acts overview

  • A. 1–10 Silver and Gold Have I None: The Lame Man Leaps
  • B. 11–16 At Solomon's Porch: Faith in His Name Made Him Whole
  • C. 17–26 Repent and Turn: Seasons of Refreshing

The outline

  1. A.Silver and Gold Have I None: The Lame Man Leapsvv. 1 to 10

    Read vv. 1 to 10 →

  2. B.At Solomon's Porch: Faith in His Name Made Him Wholevv. 11 to 16

    Read vv. 11 to 16 →

  3. C.Repent and Turn: Seasons of Refreshingvv. 17 to 26

    Read vv. 17 to 26 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

A prophet like unto Moses

Type

Moses promises that God will raise up a Prophet like himself, and the last chapter of the Torah says the promise is still outstanding: there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses. The question is still live in John's Gospel, and Peter preaches the promise fulfilled in Christ.

The five books of Moses end on an unfilled office, and the whole Old Testament reads under that open promise. When the priests ask John the Baptist, Art thou that prophet, they are asking about Deuteronomy 18. Acts states the answer in so many words, which is why this page may say it plainly.

  1. Deuteronomy 18:15-18

    The promise given

    A Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; I will put my words in his mouth.

  2. Deuteronomy 34:10

    The promise still open

    The Torah's last chapter says no prophet like Moses has yet arisen.

  3. John 1:21

    Art thou that prophet?

    The question is still being asked in the first century.

  4. Acts 3:22-23 you are here

    Peter names the Prophet

    Acts quotes Deuteronomy 18:15 and applies it to Christ.

The world behind this chapter

Acts 3
When
The first months of the Jerusalem church · c. AD 30–33
Where
The temple complex — the Beautiful Gate, and the long covered colonnade called Solomon's Portico.
Who first heard it
Theophilus and Gentile readers watching the apostles preach inside the temple itself.

The history

Begging at a temple gate was a job, not a random misfortune. A man who could not work depended on alms, and worshipers on their way to pray were the most reliable givers of the day. Friends would carry a disabled beggar to his spot each morning and home each night.

The "hour of prayer" at three in the afternoon lined up with the evening sacrifice. Twice a day the priests offered a lamb, and crowds gathered in the courts to pray while it burned. That is why there was an audience standing ready.

Solomon's Portico was a roofed row of columns running along the eastern edge of the temple platform, open on one side to the court. Teachers used it for exactly this — a shaded public space where a crowd could gather and listen. The apostles kept meeting there for months.

What it meant to them

For the first hearers, the healing was an argument. A man crippled from birth, known by sight to everyone who used that gate for forty years, walked. Peter refuses the credit and points to the name of Jesus, then presses the crowd with the sharpest possible claim: the man you handed over is the one God raised.

Peter also gives them a way back. He calls their part in it ignorance, holds out repentance, and frames Jesus as the prophet Moses foretold — not a break with Israel's story but its promised next chapter.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Acts 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 22 · A picture of Christ

A prophet like Moses would arise

Deuteronomy 18:15→

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

MannaFest topical index

v. 25 · A picture of Christ · Quoted here

'in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed' (Peter, Abrahamic covenant)

Genesis 22:18→

And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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