Acts 4:28
in Acts 4They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass.
KJV
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
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This verse in Acts 4
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Leo the GreatSermon LXVII. (on the Passion, XVI.: Delivered on the Sunday.) · Written before 461.
Did then the wickedness of Christ's persecutors spring from God's plan, and was that unsurpassable crime prefaced and set in motion by the hand of God? Clearly we must not think this of the highest Justice: that which was fore-known in respect of the Jews' malice is far different, indeed quite contrary to what was ordained in respect of Christ's Passion. Their desire to slay Him did not proceed from the same source as His to die: nor were their atrocious crime and the Redeemer's endurance the offspring of One Spirit.
This site's exposition
You spoke by the Holy Spirit
on Acts 4:25-28
The church reads Psalm 2 as its own crisis, with Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles and Israel as the psalm's raging rulers. They did what God's hand and will had decided beforehand, so God's plan and their guilt stand together, as at 2:23.
This site's exposition
what Your hand and will
Gill explains that the conspirators meant to feed their own malice, yet in the event they brought about what God had decreed. Leo the Great insists their crime did not spring from God's plan, since their will to kill differed from Christ's will to die.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
"Do whatever your hand and your will have ordained" (Acts 4:28): that is, they could not do it themselves, but you are the one who permitted and brought the whole matter to completion, namely prudent and wise. Indeed they had come together as enemies with …
Not they had power to do this: but Thou didst it all, Thou that didst permit, that dost call to account, and yet didst bring to accomplishment, Thou the All-skilful and Wise, that didst serve Thee of Thine enemies for Thine own pleasure. "For to do whatever Thy hand," etc. Here they discourse of His exceeding Skill and Wisdom and Power. So then, as enemies they came together, and with murderous purpose, and as opposing themselves, but they did what things Thou wouldest.
"For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy purpose determined before to be done." What means, "Thy hand?" Here he seems to me to denote one and the same thing by power and purpose, meaning that for Thee it is enough but to will: for it is not by power that one determines. "Whatsoever Thy hand," etc. i.e. Whatsoever Thou didst ordain: either this is the meaning, or, that by His hand He did effect.
See how complete is this prayer and how fitting to the occasions of the times. For when they said, "You, Lord, knower of all hearts," (Acts 1:24) there was indeed a need of foreknowledge. But here, since it was necessary to stop the mouths of …
The same intention remains evident. For there is no need for counsel where power is present. Therefore whatever things you ordained from the beginning were done by the Apostles, and so the prayer was not to repel troubles, but for the success of evangelical prayer; …
5 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
They bring forward this prophecy, as if asking God for the fulfillment of the covenant, and at the same time consoling themselves with the thought that the enemies contemplate this in vain. "To do whatever Your hand and Your counsel predetermined," that is, they did …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
For to do whatsoever thy hand,.... It was not the end of their gathering together against Christ, or it was not their intention and design, to fulfil the purposes and decrees of God, but to fulfil their own lusts, and satiate their rage and malice against him; but it was so in the event, according to the wise disposal of providence, that by their gathering together, by their consultations and conspiracies, they brought about what God in his everlasting council had decreed.
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.
But herein they do that which thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. See here (1.) The wise and holy designs God had concerning Christ. He is here called the child Jesus, as he was called (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For to do ... - See the notes on Act 2:23; Act 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.
The words behind it
11 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ποιῆσαι | poiesai | to do | G4160 → | 569 times |
| ὅσα | hosa | as much as | G3745 → | 110 times |
| ἡ | he | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χείρ | cheir | hand | G5495 → | 175 times |
| σου | sou | of You | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἡ | he | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| βουλή | boule | purpose | G1012 → | 12 times |
| σου | sou | of You | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| προώρισεν | proorisen | determined beforehand | G4309 → | |
| γενέσθαι. | genesthai | to happen. | G1096 → | 667 times |
ποιῆσαιto do
poiesaiG4160 →569 times
ὅσαas much as
hosaG3745 →110 times
ἡthe
heG3588 →19766 times
χείρhand
cheirG5495 →175 times
σουof You
souG4771 →2973 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἡthe
heG3588 →19766 times
βουλήpurpose
bouleG1012 →12 times
σουof You
souG4771 →2973 times
προώρισενdetermined beforehand
proorisenG4309 →
γενέσθαι.to happen.
genesthaiG1096 →667 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 50:20As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
it leads to
- Romans 8:28
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
- Psalms 119:71
It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.
- Genesis 45:5–8
And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.
- Genesis 37:18–20
Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.
- Romans 8:28
Through
Isaiah 46:10I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
it leads to
- Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.
- Psalms 33:11
The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
- Ephesians 1:9–11
And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ
- Isaiah 43:13
Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
- Proverbs 19:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Acts
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 11; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Leo the Great, Sermon LXVII. (on the Passion, XVI.: Delivered on the Sunday.); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Acts.