Acts Chapter 1 verse 20 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - Made desolate for desolate, A.V.; office (as in margin) for bishopric, A.V. The book of Psalms, one of the recognized divisions of the canonical Scriptures, as we find Luke 24:44, "The law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms," the last standing for the Hagiographa, of which it was the first and principal book. Here, however, as in Luke 20:42, it may rather mean the Book of Psalms proper. (For similar quotations from the Psalms, see Acts 13:33-35; Hebrews 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, etc.) His office let another take. Bishop being the English transliteration of ἐπίσκοπος, bishopric is, of course, the literal rendering of ἐπισκοπή; if taken in its wider and more general sense, as in the well-known work of Archdeacon Evans? "the bishopric of souls." This same office is called a διακονία (a deaconship), and ἀποστολὴ (an apostleship) in vers. 17 and 25. So St. Paul cells himself διάκονος (a minister) in Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:23, 25, etc. So the presbyters of the Church are called bishops (Acts 20:17, 28; 1 Timothy 1:1, 2. etc.). The ecclesiastical names for the different offices in the Church only acquired their distinctive use later, and by the gradual growth of custom. In the Septuagint, ἐπισκοπή answers to the Hebrew פְקֻדָּה, A.V., "oversight" (Numbers 3:32; Numbers 4:16, etc.).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) For it is written in the book of Psalms--St. Peter's speech is continued after the parenthetical note. His purpose in making the quotation is to show that the disciples should not be staggered by the treachery of Judas, and the seeming failure of their hopes. The Psalms had represented the righteous sufferer as the victim of treachery. They had also spoken of the traitor as receiving a righteous punishment such as had now fallen upon Judas. No strange thing had happened. What had been of old was typical of what they had heard or known. We need not in this place discuss either the historical occasions of the Psalms cited, or the ethical difficulties presented by their imprecations of evil. Neither comes, so to speak, within the horizon of St. Peter's thoughts. It was enough for him to note the striking parallelism which they presented to what was fresh in his memory, and to believe that it was not accidental.His bishoprick let another take.--Better, as in Psalm 109:8, let another take his office. The Greek word is episcope, which, as meaning an office like that of the episcopos, is, of course, in one sense, rightly translated by "bishoprick." The latter term is, however, so surrounded by associations foreign to the apostolic age that it is better to use the more general, and, therefore, neutral, term of the English version of the Psalm. The use of "bishoprick" may be noted as an instance of the tendency of the revisers of 1611 to maintain the use of "bishop" and the like where the office seemed to be placed on a high level (as here and in 1Peter 2:25), while they use "overseer" and "oversight" (as in Acts 20:28, and 1Peter 5:2) where it is identified with the functions of the elders or presbyters of the Church. "Bishoprick" had, however, been used in all previous versions except the Geneva, which gives "charge."