Hands, χείρ, זְרוֹעַ
To the Hebrews the hand was considered the wrist (Gen 24:22,30,47; Eze 16:11; 23:42) and fingers (Gen 41:42). Standard Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias typically use such words as “authority,” “power,” and “blessing” to carry the primarily signification of the hand when the laying on of hands is performed. These meanings are of course prosaisms, as has been discussed. The word used in the New Testament, since it is a more specialized prophetic text, powerfully and consistently carries a specialized prophetic connection.
For Chadwick[1] and most others, the traditional meaning for hand is “power,” because without it the arm is of no use, as in “the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord” in Acts 11:21. A casual look at this passage reveals that Peter is recounting the miraculous events leading to the introduction of the gentiles into the church. This shows “hand” is none other than God’s power of prophetic demonstration in Jesus, which is the meaning of his phrase “preaching the Lord Jesus,” by which the conversion of the gentiles subsequently took place. In verse 16 Peter remembers the prophecy of John the Baptist: “John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” This is a prophecy. God gave the vision of the animals on the sheet to Peter as a prophecy of the conversion of the gentiles. Peter clearly identifies what this “hand” of God was: “And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Ac 10:42–43). In 11:1, this is the “word of God” which Jews and Gentiles believed.[2]
The dual character of Christ/PW is seen most powerfully in the prophecy of Isaiah, “who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm (זְרוֹעַ) of the LORD revealed?” (Isa 53:1.) The arm, or hand of God gives Truth, revelation, to the faithful is both the person of Christ and his Prophetic Word.
This gives light to the whole book of Proverbs, such as in chapter 6 when it speaks of the hand in the negative: “He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers” (Pr 6:13). This “hand” of sinful man is given as an effect of the “sleep” of the fool, which is a prophetic sleep and a sleep to the truth of Messianic fulfillment, into which in latter days the church will fall (Mat 25:5), causing them to misinterpret the overall locus of Scripture in Messianic prophecy and miss Messiah at His coming.
[1] (J. Chadwick 1849)
[2] I have dealt with Cornelius elsewhere, but a few things are now necessary. Most Bible dictionaries that try to establish how much Cornelius knew before his meeting with Peter assume that he knew only the law, the Jewish traditions, the synagogue, and the God of Israel, but it is rare that they theorize as to the extent of his Messianic knowledge Of Jesus, which was well published in Israel and of which he surely could have known. In the major nineteenth-century biblical encyclopedia (McClintock and Strong 1867-1887), we see that he learned of “intelligent Jews, from whom he learned the truths respecting the Messiah, and he seems to have been prepared by a personal knowledge of the external facts of Christianity to welcome the message of Peter as from Devine authority.” Peter’s speech in Acts at the moment of gentile assimilation from Cornelius does not suggest that he knew nothing of these things, but rather that he knew a great deal already. In 10:35 Peter says that those who fear God and work righteousness are accepted by God. We ask what this fear of God produced by what scriptural and historical facts? In verses 36 and 37, addressing Cornelius, Peter says that the word which Jesus preached was published throughout the nation is “that word, I say, ye know.” In verse 39 Peter says, “And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree.” Who he includes in this “we” is not clear. Clarke thinks that “St. Peter may refer, not only to the twelve apostles, but to the six brethren whom he had brought with him.” However, there is nothing in the passage preventing us from assuming that Cornelius might have also been a witness to these events as well. As to a clarification on the meaning of the biblical concepts of “fear of God” and “working righteousness,” Peter says, “Of him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Ac 10:43). Another nineteenth-century Bible dictionary (Anonymous, People’s Dictionary of the Bible 1861), gives unintentionally the answer to the question of the type of moral condition and motivation that drove the early Christians, in explanation to how Peter was able to finally understand the meaning of God’s symbol of the sheet and animals: “How often are God’s facts the best expositor’s of our duty.”
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