And we are witnesses of all things. — The Apostle still keeps before him the main idea of his mission as laid down in the command given by his Lord (Acts 1:8).
Both in the land of the Jews. — Speaking as St. Peter did at Cæsarea, and as a Galilean, we must probably take the word in its narrower sense as meaning the inhabitants of Judæa. So taken, the words have the interest of implying the ministry in Judæa, of which the first three Gospels record so little, but which comes out into full prominence in the fourth. (See Introduction to St. John’s Gospel.)
Whom they slew and hanged on a tree. — As in Acts 2:23, Peter represents the Crucifixion as virtually the act of the rulers and people of Jerusalem and not of the Roman governor. The mode of death is described as in the Greek of Deuteronomy 28:26 and in Galatians 3:10, rather than in the more technical language of the Gospels.