And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
And he said unto them, It is not for you (q.d., 'It is no business of yours') to know the times or the seasons, х chronous (G5550) ee (G2228) kairous (G2540)] - rather, 'to know times and seasons;' words by no means synonymous in the usage of the New Testament. By "times" [`itiym] are meant periods of some length; and here the reference is to the great epochs of prophecy and the intervals between them: by "seasons" [mow`ªdiym] are meant the definite times for the occurrence of the predicted events (see the same terms in 1 Thessalonians 5:1; Titus 1:2-3, Greek)
Which the Father hath put in his own power - х etheto (G5087) en (G1722) tee (G3588) idia (G2398) exousia (G1849)]. DeWette, Meyer, Humphry, Webster and Wilkinson, Alexander, translate, 'which the Father hath established by His own power.' But how should the Father's having arranged and determined all these times and seasons make it inexpedient to disclose them? whereas the Father's having reserved the knowledge of them to Himself was a very sufficient reason why they should not be pried into. Accordingly most interpreters rightly adhere to the sense, given by our translators. It is hardly necessary to add that, in ascribing these high arrangements to the Father, our Lord by no means implies His own ignorance of them: it is merely an adherence to the current language and form of Scripture thought, that the eternal decrees for the government of the world and the salvation of the Church emanate from the Father; and the import of the statement simply is, that this was not the time for what they were inquiring about, and that their present business and future wor k were of so different a nature as to make the question unseasonable and irrelevant. Accordingly He adds: