CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 9:32. Lydda.—The Old Testament Lod (Nehemiah 7:37; Nehemiah 11:35; 1 Chronicles 8:12), now called Lucid. Described by Josephus (Ant., XX. vi. 2) as a village “not less than a city in largeness.” Named Lydda in 1Ma. 11:34. After the destruction of Jerusalem it is often mentioned. Besides being the seat of a Christian community, it possessed for some time, like Jabne close by, a Rabbinical school. (See Riehm’s Handwörterbuch des Biblischen Allertums: art. Lod.)
Acts 9:35. Saron, or Sharon, the Plain, meant the north half of the flat end lying along the Mediterranean shore, from Lydda in the south to Carmel in the north. “The whole goodly plain of Sharon is visible—from Mount Carmel on the north down to Lydda, from the eastern hills to the blue sea, now bathed in gold—a wilderness of weeds and thorn brakes, and yet a very paradise of colour and ever varying beauty” (Picturesque Palestine, iii., 146).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 9:31-35
The Miracle at Lydda; or, the Healing of Æneas
I. The time.—
1. At the close of the persecution which arose on the death of Stephen. This must have continued three years, if the present paragraph chronologically succeeds the preceding. What occasioned the cessation of hostilities against the Christians can only be conjectured. The excitement raised by Gaius’s (Caligula’s) order to have his image erected in the temple, about A.D. 39 and 40 (Lardner, De Wette), may have diverted the attention of the Jews for a season from the apostles and disciples (Jos., Ant., XVIII. viii. 2–9).
2. During a period of Church rest and prosperity. This inevitably followed on the cessation of active measures of hostility against the Christians, and continued for a number of years, say from A.D. 39 to A.D. 44, when a fresh persecution was initiated against the Church by Herod Aprippa (Acts 12:1). During this interregnum, the work of preaching, going forward in uninterrupted quiet, caused the ranks of believers to be largely augmented—the Holy Ghost constantly bearing witness to the truth.
3. While Peter was on a visitation tour among the saints. Whether “quarters” (Kuinoel) or “saints” (Bengel, Meyer, Hackett) be supplied after “all” the sense is the same, that Peter, encouraged presumably by the peace which prevailed, had undertaken a pilgrimage among the Christians in all the districts round about for the purpose of confirming them in the faith, and by evangelising of increasing their number.
4. When he had come to the town of Lydda. The Lud of the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; Nehemiah 11:35) was a village lying between Joppa and Ramleh, on the ancient line of travel between Jerusalem and Cæsarea. It was at the time of Peter’s visit the seat of a Rabbinic School, and of a Christian community, established there probably as the result of Philip’s labours (Acts 8:40).
II. The miracle.—
1. The patient. Æneas, probably a Hellenistic Jew, and most likely a disciple. His name has suggested the question whether the fame of Virgil’s poem had made the Trojan hero known even in the plains of Palestine (Plumptre). Besser, interpreting his name as “Man of Praise,” finds in it a beautiful suggestion of the joyous singer of God’s grace who was healed at the Beautiful Gate of the temple (Acts 2:9).
2. The malady. Palsy. A paralysis in the limbs, which had rendered the patient bedridden for eight years. A minuteness of detail characteristic of Luke as a physician (compare Acts 3:7; Acts 9:18; Acts 28:8).
3. The cure. Made whole.
(1) Easily; by a word.
(2) Instantly; without delay or lengthened process.
(3) Completely. He arose (compare Acts 3:9) and made his bed (compare John 5:9), doing for himself what others for eight years had been doing for him.
(4) Really. Though Renan says that “Peter” only “passed for having cured a paralytic,” there is no reason to doubt that he actually did so.
4. The physician. Not Peter but Jesus Christ. “In the assonance of the Greek words (Ἰησοῦς ἰᾶταί σε) we may perhaps trace a desire to impress the thought that the very name of Jesus testified that He was the Great Healer. Such a paronomasia has its parallel in the later play upon Christian and Chrestiani = the good or gracious people (Tertull., Apoc., c. 3), perhaps also in Peter’s own language that the Lord is not Christos only but Chrestos = gracious (1 Peter 2:3)” (Plumptre).
5. The prescription. “Arise and make thy bed.” Probably a reminiscence of the way in which Christ was accustomed to proceed in similar cures (Matthew 9:6; John 5:8).
III. The result.—
1. The countryside was affected by the miracle. “All that dwelt at Lydda and in Sharon”—i.e., the plain extending along the coast from Joppa to Cæsarea, a distance of thirty miles, “saw” the man that had been cured, and were convinced of the reality of the miracle (compare Acts 3:9).
2. Most of those who saw were by the sight converted. They believed the gospel Peter preached and turned to the Lord. The evidence of their eyesight was too strong to be gainsaid.
Learn.—
1. That the edification of the Church proceeds best in the time of peace.
2. That the best propagandists of Christianity are devout Christians.
3. That Christian ministers should avail themselves of every opportunity opened in providence for the prosecution of their sacred calling.
4. That the miracles of moral healing performed by Christianity are a powerful means of attracting men to faith.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 9:31. The Church of Jesus Christ.
I. Independent of territorial limitations.—“The Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria.”
II. Possessed of spiritual unity.—“The Church,” though existing in different localities.
III. Susceptible of growth.—Outwardly its number “was multiplied”; inwardly its religious life “was edified.”
IV. Distinguished by its walk and conversation.—“Walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 9:33. The Healing of Æneas.
I. An affecting emblem of the sinful soul.—
1. Afflicted with a grievous malady. Sin, which, like a palsy, paralyses the soul’s powers.
2. Of long standing—not for eight years only, but from birth.
3. Incurable by human means. Even if Æneas’s malady might have been remedied by ordinary therapeutics, the soul’s cannot be removed by any known power or wisdom of man.
II. A cheering proclamation of the soul’s physician.—
1. His name, Jesus Christ—i.e., the Heaven-sent Saviour.
2. His presence—in the immediate vicinity of every sick soul, so that He can operate at once.
3. His power—able to make the soul whole, to heal its destroying malady of sin, to cancel the guilt and break the power of it—and to do this completely.
III. An authoritative declaration of the soul’s duty.—
1. To believe. In the revealed physician. In His name and character, His presence and power.
2. To appropriate by an act of faith the healing offered. Without this the soul could not arise.
3. To arise from its sinful—i.e., guilty and helpless—condition. Practically it is the soul’s duty, instantly on believing, to begin to lead a new life.
IV. A simple illustration of the power of faith.—The moment he believed, appropriated, and endeavoured, he arose a cured man. So is it always with them who believe and obey the prescription of the soul’s physician. They arise from their guilty and condemned condition—no condemnation (Romans 8:1). They shake off the fetters of sin’s bondage and enter into spiritual liberty.