To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
To whom also he showed himself alive. As the historian is about to relate how "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" was the great burden of apostolic preaching, so the subject is here fitly introduced by an allusion to the primary evidence on which that great fact rests-His repeated and undeniable manifestations of Himself in the body to the assembled disciples, who, instead of being predisposed to believe it, had to be overpowered by the resistless evidence of their own senses, and were slow to yield even to this (Mark 16:14).
After his passion, х meta (G3326) to (G3588) pathein (G3958) auton (G846)] - or, 'after His suffering.' This primary sense of the word "Passion" has nearly fallen into disuse on ordinary subjects; but it is nobly consecrated in the phraseology of the Church to express the Redeemer's final endurances, when He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
By many infallible proofs. The one word here used х tekmeeriois (G5039)] is well so rendered, expressing as it does more than mere 'evidences' х seemeia (G4592)], and being used by Aristotle to denote 'demonstrative proof.' (Beza renders it certissimis signis).
Being seen of them, [ optanomenos (G3700 ), an unclassical form, here only used, but twice used by the Septuagint] forty days, х di' (G1223) heemeroon (G2250) tesserakonta (G5062)] - properly, 'through (a period of) forty days.' (Compare Acts 5:19, Gr.) Chrysostom rightly takes this expression to mean that the manifestations of the risen Redeemer were not, as in the days of His flesh, continuous, but occasional; and it is to show through what a lengthened period those "infallible proofs" of His resurrection extended that the precise duration of His stay on earth is specified. It is worthy of notice that in the Third Gospel the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are so connected that we could not have been sure from it alone that they had not both occurred on one day, while here an interval between them of forty days is expressly mentioned. But different objects were in view in the two works. In his Gospel the Ascension of Christ is viewed as the termination of His life on earth, and so is related in more general terms; in the Acts it is viewed in direct connection with the events which were to follow it-particularly those of the great Pentecostal day and the first gatherings of the Church-and so all the information on the subject which was possessed by the better informed, but is nowhere else recorded, is here communicated. Yet the two statements are regarded as contradictory by Strauss, Teller, and even Meyer; while DeWette thinks that Luke, while writing his Gospel, may have forgotten the long interval that separated the two events. This is just one of many proofs how insufficient mere critical acumen and learning are to throw light on the sacred writings, if not employed in sympathy with their deeper intent.
And speaking of (or 'discoursing') the things pertaining the kingdom of God. This reference to "the kingdom of God" - as the burden of Christ's last instructions on earth, as it had been of His very earliest teaching-will be observed with interest by those who, in addition to the truths which Jesus taught, would fain catch even His tones, and who love to cast themselves into the very mould of His teaching, tracing amidst its enduring elements its gradually advancing forms. When at the very outset He said, as did also His forerunner, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and when at a further stage He said to the Pharisees, "the kingdom of God hath reached you" х efthasen (G5348) ef' (G1909) humas (G5209)] (Matthew 12:28), it was only as "a grain of mustard seed" - in its most rudimental germ: now it was all ready to stand out in visible form, as eventually it is to cover the whole earth.