Acts 2:23

23. Determinate This Greek participle is derived from a noun signifying boundary line; hence, the determinate counsel is the well-defined counsel, the definite counsel, namely, his counsel that Christ should redeem the world by voluntarily dying for it. The term counsel in Greek, βουλη , is the word from which our words volition and will are derived, but signifies a counsel or decree.

Wicked hands The best reading omits have taken. For with wicked hands the preferable reading is with the hands of lawless men. They had used the instrumentality of a Gentile ( without law, Romans 2:12) soldiery for the deed. The apostle discriminates with delicacy between the act of God and the act of man. He is no fatalist or predestinarian. The delivery of Christ was His act; the wicked slaying was their responsible act, foreseen by the foreknowledge of God. There were thousands of ways in which Christ could have died without being obliged to these wicked hands for its accomplishment God needs not any man’s sin. But God selected that point in human history where the most wicked men were ready to show how far wickedness could go, to place his consenting Son at the post of duty and death. Hence, he was holily delivered by God’s counsel, but wickedly slain by wicked hands. And now, graceful and respectful as is the style in which our apostle has addressed these men, he firmly reveals to them, in the light of prophecy and well-known fact, that they have committed the greatest crime in human history. See note on Acts 4:28, and Romans 8:29-30.