Acts 2:24

24. Whom God hath raised Now comes the great sequel to this crucifixion the resurrection. The listeners knew the crucifixion; the apostles, as Peter will assure them, (Acts 2:32,) knew the resurrection. But first he will prove it by testimony infallible, namely, testimony before the fact, being Divine prophecy.

Loosed the pains of death In his resurrection Jesus was not released from the “pains of death,” for they had ceased when he expired. In Psalms 18:5, the Hebrew word for “snares” or “bonds of death” may signify either snares, or birth-pains, or agonies in general. The Septuagint Greek has ωδινες , a word of this last signification. Luke, in translating Peter’s speech from the Hebrew, in which it was spoken, into Greek, uses the Septuagint word. Probably in the Hebraized Greek of the day the word had the same double meaning; so that an English translator might suitably render it snares or “bonds of death;” a meaning suggested by the terms loosed and holden.

Not possible The impossibility that Christ should fail of a resurrection was not because it was prophetically predicted, but it was predicted because it was an impossibility. The Prince of Life could die in order to be the author of life to dying men; but the conquest of death must give way to a resurrection. His death was voluntary, his resurrection a necessity. The impossibility is additional, in Peter’s own view, to the prophecy. He knew it to lie in the very nature of Christ, who was able not only to lay down his life but to take it again. Hence in a true sense his resurrection was a natural event, being the legitimate effect of a sufficient cause. Hence, there is a fine truth in a striking reply of Goldwin Smith to those who object to a religion’s depending on human testimony. The resurrection of Christ is a necessary result of the high perfection of his character. If his life is a true life, and his death a transcendent death, then his resurrection is a necessary sequence, whether proved by human testimony or not. Not only does the testimony prove the fact, but the fact proves the testimony.

Holden of it Holden of death. We have a mighty Saviour who submitted to death, conquered death, and finally holds the keys of death and of Hades. His resurrection, surely, is a very natural event.