Acts 3:1

This chapter develops the story of the healing of a congenital cripple by the apostles Peter and John.

Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. (Acts 3:1)

Peter and John ... How great must have been the friendship, of these two men. They had been partners in the fishing business on Galilee when Jesus called them to be "fishers of men," and both of them had earned the distinction of membership in the inner circle of the Twelve who witnessed such events as the Transfiguration, the raising of Jairus' daughter, and the agony in Gethsemane. Here, it would seem that they were following the pattern of going "two by two," as when the Lord had first sent them on their apostolic mission.

Into the temple ... Christians, for some considerable time after Pentecost, continued to frequent the temple, especially at the hours of prayer, not merely for the purpose of praying, but also, it may be supposed, for the opportunities afforded by such occasions for preaching Christ to the people. In time, God would remove the temple; and the separation from Judaism would become complete. Ten reasons why, it may be concluded, that God destroyed the temple are discussed in my Commentary on Mark, Mark 13:2.

Regarding the chronology of just when the event described in this chapter occurred, some have been quite anxious to suppose that a long period had elapsed since Pentecost, Ramsay declaring that "It is not made clear at this point whether weeks or months or years had passed,"[1] evidently preferring the longest interval possible. He made a preposterous deduction from this, affirming that whereas, in Peter's speech on Pentecost, "the way of salvation was described as consisting of three steps, repentance, baptism, and remission of sins ... now the nature of this process is better understood ... the idea of faith is fundamental in this address. Through faith comes healing"[2]

Ramsay's exegesis, above, is,the classical example of the lengths to which men will go in their efforts to get baptism out of the plan of redemption, Ramsay's argument includes these affirmations: (1) that Peter did not properly understand the plan of redemption on Pentecost, (2) that he mistakenly included baptism as a precondition of salvation, (3) that a very long period elapsed between chapters two and three, giving Peter time to learn the truth he did not know earlier, (4) that when Peter announced the terms of salvation in chapter three he stressed "faith" (Ramsay apparently did not notice that Peter made no mention at all of faith in the announcement offering salvation in Acts 3:19). It would be impossible to imagine a more fallacious exegesis based upon this chapter, the most astounding thing in the exegesis being the denial absolutely of Peter's inspiration on Pentecost immediately after his baptism in the Holy Spirit!

The hour of prayer ... "The hours of prayer were the third (Acts 2:15) when the morning sacrifice was offered, the sixth (noon), and the ninth, the time of the evening sacrifice."[3] The Jewish method of counting time was followed in the temple, of course, the ninth hour being 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon.

[1] Sir William M. Ramsay, Pictures of the Apostolic Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1959), p. 19.

[2] Ibid., p. 20.

[3] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 822.