Acts 1:15-26, Josh 18:10, 1 Kingdoms/Samuel 10:20–21, 1 Chronicles 24:5, 25:8, Psalms LXX 68, 108 (MT 69, 109), Proverbs 16:33, Luke 24:3, 1 Cor 8:6, and 2 Peter 1:16-20.
This week’s passage, Acts 1:15-26, contains both echoes and direct quotations from the Old Testament. It comes directly after Jesus’ Ascension, and after Luke’s narrative concerning those who returned from that great event to the upper room in order to continue together in prayer—the disciples, the women, and specifically the mother of Jesus. Here we will see how the Church was guided in its earliest organization by the Apostle Peter, who had been called by Jesus to strengthen his brothers, by prayer, and by the Holy Spirit. Here is the passage:
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said,
Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it; and Let another take his office. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.
And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:15-26)
Immediately, as the young Church meets to prepare for the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter speaks of the importance of the Scriptures. Let’s remember that the risen Christ, about 40 days prior, had bequeathed to His disciples a way of searching the Old Testament Scriptures so as to understand how every part of them –Law, Prophets, and Writings—looked forward to Him. This had happened on the road to Emmaus and then in the very upper room where they were now again gathered, waiting for the next chapter of God’s story. This is what happened at those two Paschal meetings:
“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Jesus asked. And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:26-27)
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:44-48)
Peter, along with the others, had his mind opened to understand when Jesus instructed them this way about reading the Scriptures. (It is helpful to know that “the Psalms” was a quick way of referring to the third collection known as “the Writings,” just like the Jewish people called the Torah by the name “Moses”). Now Peter extends this lesson of Jesus to the situation that he and the others were facing after the Ascension. He directs them back to the Old Testament to illumine their specific circumstances, which form part of this story about the Messiah and their continuing witness to Him. Already, through the instruction of Jesus at Pascha, Peter has come to understand what he will write in his second epistle, that in the Old Testament we have a light “shining in a dark place,” to which we will “do well to pay attention” (2 Peter 1:19), by interpreting it in the manner that Jesus had taught His disciples. This light of the Old Testament shines not only on the triumph of the resurrection, but also upon darker parts of the story, including Jesus’ betrayal and what they should do about replacing the one who betrayed Him.
Here, the Old Testament shows us how to deal with loss—specifically, the loss of betrayal from one of the Twelve, and the dark events that followed. Luke’s vivid description of Judas’ end reminds us of this tragic element! But Jesus was not shocked or even taken by surprise. In the Psalms He read of several similar low points, points which in the first place were about David, but that also anticipated the end of times, when David’s greater Son would be among His people, and rejected even by those close to Him. Though Peter doesn’t directly quote it, it is likely that he had in the back of his mind the heartbreaking words of Psalm 40/41:
All my enemies whisper together against me;
they imagine the worst for me, saying,
“A vile disease has afflicted him;
he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
Even my close friend,
someone I trusted,
one who shared my bread,
has turned against me. (verses 7-9)
Judas, one of their number, who had shared with them, and had even been trusted with their treasury, was the betrayer of their LORD, and so also the betrayer of the disciples as a whole. Jesus had at least twice warned them of this (John 6:71; 13:21), knowing that Satan has his ways of punishing those who do God’s will. Now that Jesus has ascended, the disciples need guidance, and so Peter quotes to them from two other Psalms of realism, which say, concerning the betrayer, “May his camp become desolate…” (Psalm 68/69:25) and “Let another take his office” (Psalm 108/9:8). If we look at these Psalms, we can see that both of them picture a servant of the LORD in deep trouble, harassed by enemies, and praying for help. Both picture the appalling actions and words of the accusers of God’s beloved one, and both say that the appropriate action of the LORD is to make the enemy’s home or camp empty, and to replace him with someone else. The Greek Old Testament, followed by Peter’s quotation in the Acts speak not simply generally of “the office” of the betrayer, but of his “oversight” (episcopē!) and so is particularly suited to speak of the exalted office that Judas undeservedly shared with the other eleven.
What Judas and the enemies of Jesus did not realize was who He really is. This emerges, though, through the faithful words of Peter, who says that they need to replace Judas with someone who had been there the whole time that the “LORD Jesus” had been among them. For the illumined witnesses to Jesus’ ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension, He was not simply understood as “Messiah,” that is “Christ”, or “Rabbi,” that is, “Teacher”: he was the LORD. And this is no mere honorific title in the Bible. It is the mysterious name of God, the YHWH name that God revealed to Moses at the bush, the Ho Ōn, the Existing One. As St Paul would say in his letter to the Corinthians, idols are nothing, but “for us [Christians] there is one God and one LORD” (1 Cor 8:6). Not two Gods, but Father, Son, and Spirit, one creating God. This is the first time that a disciple has named the Master “the LORD Jesus,” using the holy Name to describe who He really is! In the gospels, we meet this title, “LORD Jesus” only in Luke 24:3, as part of the evangelist’s narrative of the women going to the tomb on Pascha morning. Earlier we hear of “Jesus,” and we hear of “the LORD,” but the two together are reserved for this climactic moment, and then Luke uses the full title all the way through his Acts, because now the reader knows the full story of the God-Man. As we say in Liturgy, “The Lord is God and has revealed Himself to us.”
But why did they have to fill up the slot for Twelve? This is because Jesus specifically chose twelve, re-constituting Israel, which had been made up of twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob. There were also twelve scouts sent into the Promised Land, 12 governors appointed by Solomon to administer the land, we baskets filled by Jesus in His miracle of the loaves and fishes, 12 foundations and 12 gates in John’s vision of the New Jerusalem. It is the number of a complete people, set apart by God. This renewed Israel would include not simply Jews, but Gentiles as well, men and women, girls and boys enlivened by the Spirit of truth. The new chosen member of the guiding Twelve had to be a witness of all that the others had seen, but the choice was left up to God, through the ancient custom of lots. Both men were good choices, and both went on to do great things. Of Matthias, whose name means “gift of God,” we hear that he preached the gospel in Judea, Ethiopia, and Cappadocia, and was martyred. Of the runner-up, Joseph Barsabbas Justus, who must have had a Roman connection because of his nickname Justus, we hear that he became bishop of an area in the foothills of Judea, and was likely martyred there in AD 68 when General Vespasian killed many during an attack. Both were originally members of the 70.
In the Old Testament, lots had been cast for the division of the Holy Land (Joshua 18:10), for the election of King Saul (1 Sam/1 Kingdoms 10:20-21), and for the service of the priests and levites (1 Chronicles 24:5, 25:8). As Proverbs says, “the lot is cast into the lap, its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). So this was a means of fairness. Interestingly, after this point in Scripture, there is no more talk of using lots. This is presumably because when the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church as a whole, lots are no longer necessary to help various people come to an agreement—they are united by the Spirit of truth, and can be led into God’s purposes personally, and without mechanical outside means. There can be a new intimate meeting of the minds. So here we see a development from the Old Testament, and how God directed His people.
Here, then, are the particular things that we note in this brief passage: the way that Jesus taught us to look to the Old Testament for light upon God’s ways, and for help in understanding; the new recognition that Jesus is not simply Messiah (wonderful though that is!), but is the Existing One, the LORD; the importance of the Twelve apostles as episcopēs or over-seers of a renewed Israel, as those who brought the witness of Jesus to the Church and the world, and whose ministry continues in the bishops and priests whom they eventually consecrated; and the anticipation of a time when God would work, by the Holy Spirit, in minds and hearts to bring His People to understanding and to consensus. This part of the story sets us up for the wonder of Pentecost, when the Promised One would come, guiding into all truth. Jesus had not left His followers desolate, but left to them the Apostles to guide, and the Scriptures to illumine, and they knew that His Ascension promised even more, so long as they waited patiently in prayer and discernment for that great Pentecostal event.
Edith M. Humphrey 