To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. Appearing, and so forth Why did he not appear to all, but only to his disciples? Because to many of them, who did not know the mystery, he would have seemed a phantom. For if the disciples themselves were diffident, and terrified, and required to touch him with their hands, how would others have been affected? But we know from their miracles, the truth of the resurrection, which is made evident to all succeeding generations. Perhaps the apostles did not perform miracles. How then was the world converted? This is a fact which cannot be denied, and that it should have been brought about by twelve poor illiterate fishermen, without miracles, would be the greatest of all miracles, far beyond the reach of all human means. Saint John Chrysostom hom. i. chapter 1. on Acts.—“And speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God,” as we read in the Greek, and in the Protestant version, that is, pertaining to the Church, which is the kingdom of God, τα περι της βασιλειας του θεου, which plainly makes for unwritten tradition. Estius.