Therefore being by the right hand of God. — The Greek has the dative case without a preposition. The English version takes it, and probably is right in taking it, as the dative of the instrument, the image that underlies the phrase being that the Eternal King stretches forth His hand to raise Him who was in form His Servant to a place beside Him on His right hand; and, on the whole, this seems the best rendering. Not a few scholars, however, render the words “exalted to the right hand of God.”
Having received of the Father. — The words of St. Peter, obviously independent as they are of the Gospel of St. John, present a striking agreement with our Lord’s language as recorded by him (John 14:26; John 15:26). The promise throws us back upon these Chapter s, and also upon Acts 1:4.
Hath shed forth this. — Better, hath poured out. The verb had not been used in the Gospels of the promise of the Spirit, but is identical with that which was found in the Greek version of Joel’s prophecy, as cited in Acts 2:17, “I will pour out of My Spirit.”