John Calvins Commentaries On The Acts Vol. 1

John Calvin's Works in English

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Missing volume 4 Jeremiah and Lamentations and volume 8 Acts to Jude. The Marian Exiles saw themselves as the defenders of the Protestant faith, resisting what they saw as the political and spiritual tyranny of Mary. They also believed the Bible was their primary source This is an excellent resource for John Calvin lovers or those interested in Calvinism.

This book has been read but is in good condition. The dust jacket for hard cover books could be missing. Binding will show minimal wear.

Commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1

There will be NO missing pages. Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, Volume 7: Calvin's Commentaries 21 of the 22 volume SET Hello, great set of books. The only one missing is the vol. All books are in very good condition, a few may have small creases on corners. John Calvin was a major theologian of the Reformation period. He is known especially for his highly influential theological work, "Institutes of the Christian Religion". In Box - Excellent condition.

I don't believe it has ever been used.

Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, Volume 6: Wat is, vir hom, die waarde van hierdie boek vir die kerk van sy dae? Is hy, soos baie vandag, van mening dat Handelinge in die eerste plek gaan oor die werk van die Heilige Gees? Vanaf het Calvyn oor Handelinge gepreek en geskryf.

Sy kommentaar word voorafgegaan deur 'n Argumentum sowel as verskeie opdragbriewe wat die onderskeie uitgawes vergesel het. In hierdie inleidende dokumente gee Calvyn insig in wat hy beskou het as die waarde en tema van die boek Handelinge.

Hy beskryf die waarde veral vanuit 'n Christologiese perspektief: Hierdie effek neem sy mees sigbare vorm in die tema wat Calvyn vir die boek Handelinge identifiseer: Die tema word dus vanuit 'n ekklesiologiese perspektief gedefinieer. Hierdie artikel toon die waarde daarvan aan om nie slegs Calvyn se kommentare te bestudeer nie, maar ook die gepaardgaande inleidende dokumente.

Daardeur word Calvyn se visie op die boek Handelinge duidelik vir ons geteken. On 16 April , the city council of Geneva met to discuss the request that a play, based on the Acts of the Apostles, be presented in Geneva Naphy This play was written by the Frenchman, Simon Greban, and had already been performed in Bourges in Dowden In two separate letters to Farel, Calvin expressed himself about this matter. On 03 June , he wrote that this performance did not have all the ministers' approval, but at the same time he realised that one cannot deny people every one of their amusements CO 12, Eventually all the ministers decided that the Council would be advised to allow the play.

The date for the performance was set on 04 July However, Michael Cop did not adhere to this decision, and on 28 June , he used the pulpit seriously to admonish the actors. This nearly caused a great tumult in the city. Shortly afterwards, Calvin wrote about this incident to Farel: When the day was coming on, Michael, who had done so once before, instead of preaching, inveighed against the actors' CO 12, Calvin continues to describe how the events unfolded until they were finally resolved.

Eventually the play continued, but whether Calvin himself watched it is unknown. What is clear, however, is that Calvin was not positive about the play on the Acts of the Apostles, though he allowed it. Just a few years later he decided to take on the book of Acts himself. But he rather chose another medium by which to paint a lively picture of the important message of Acts.

In fact, he chose two media which ran parallel for almost five years. On 25 August , Calvin delivered the first sermon in his lectio continua on the book of Acts. He would spend the greatest part of the next 5 years preaching on this book during the Sunday morning services.

At the same time, in , he also started his commentary on this book. Nowhere in Calvin's works do commentary and sermons coincide as they do in the case of the commentary and the sermons on Acts Moehn But Calvin's work on Acts provides us with the solitary instance where commentary and sermons, exegesis and preaching, go hand in hand.

Calvin Commentaries

And the result of this exegetical work on Acts was one of the most extensive commentaries in his series of New Testament commentaries. Calvin himself anticipated that it would be a sizeable volume. On 10 November , he wrote to Farel: Why do you remind me of Acts and Genesis, embryos hardly yet conceived in the womb? I am ashamed to confess how slowly I am getting on with Acts. I have only done a third ex tertia parte of it, and what I have written is so long that I foresee it will all be a big volume. I have had to give up Genesis for the time being.

CO 13, 1. This article will focus, however, neither on Calvin's commentary nor on his sermons on the book of Acts. Instead, a few small documents the Argumentum and the dedicatory letters , which were attached to his commentary on Acts, will be investigated in order to establish how Calvin viewed the book of Acts. Was it just history that could be enacted in a play, or was there more to this book?

Calvin, John

The benefit and theme of the book of Acts. What are for Calvin the specific characteristics of the book of Acts? What distinguishes this book from other books of the Bible? In order to answer these questions, and thereby set up his commentary, Calvin mainly uses the Argumentum, 2 and, to a lesser degree, the dedicatory letters. Although not absent in the commentary proper, the reader will find little conscious reflection on these 'preliminary' matters. The effect of Christ's death and resurrection.

From the outset of his Argumentum, Calvin makes it clear that he wants all the godly pii omnes to read the book of Acts. However, in his attempts to show his readers the benefit of the book of Acts, the reformer is aware of the fact that Satan has always tried to erase the memory of this history from the minds of the believers; Satan either wants believers to forget about this history or he tries to discredit this history in their minds.

This last statement is crucial to Calvin's understanding of the benefit of the book of Acts, as he immediately afterwards comes to the following conclusion: So, if this record of Luke Lucae monumentum was not in existence, Christ could have appeared to have left no effect fructum of his death and resurrection on earth, after He had been lifted up to heaven. For everything would have vanished along with his body. Here Calvin comes to the core of what he views as the particular benefit of the book of Acts.

The benefit of Acts has everything to do with the continuous effect fructum of Christ's earthly work after his ascension. That, to Calvin, is the most important benefit of this sacred history. Calvin's view on the benefit the utilitas of the book of Acts is, therefore, determined by his Christology, 4 his view on the all-important place of the Person and work of Jesus Christ. After stating that, if Luke's record Lucae monumentum was not in existence, Christ could have appeared to have left no effect of his death and resurrection, Calvin goes on to describe what he considers to be the effect of Christ's earthly work after his ascension starting every time with nesciremus: In these different aspects Calvin explains what he sees as the effect of Christ's death and resurrection after his ascension.

Christ's ascension was, therefore, not his departure from this world, but rather his enthronement as King. Ascension for Calvin means that Christ accepted his kingship and that already now, from the mystery of heaven, he governs his church and is near to it through Word and Spirit. With Calvin the ascension of Christ and his sitting at the right hand of the Father are the inauguration of the kingship of the exalted Lord Van der Kooij The second effect of Christ's death and resurrection after his ascension pertains to the spreading of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth through the ministry of the apostles.

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This effect actually contains three distinct and important aspects, namely the spreading of the Gospel, the central role of preaching and teaching, and the task of the apostles. Calvin quotes from Isaiah 2: This last statement immediately highlights the central role of preaching and teaching the sound of the Gospel. The third and final effect of Christ's death and resurrection after his ascension has to do with the work of the Spirit.

In summary, it can be said that, according to Calvin, the benefit utilitas of the book of Acts is that it paints a lively picture 7 and thereby knowledge of the effect fructum that Christ's work on earth had after he ascended into heaven. This effect is the royal reign of Christ from heaven, the coming of the Spirit, and the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles to the ends of the earth.

In these aspects, as they are described in the book of Acts, Calvin sees the continued effect of Christ's death and resurrection after his ascension, something which Satan would have wanted us to be without. Calvin's view on the benefit and value of the book of Acts is therefore determined by his Christology. The beginning of the church. The effects of Christ's death and resurrection on earth after his ascension - that is the reign of Christ from heaven, the coming of the Spirit, and the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles - receives its most visible shape in what for Calvin is also the theme of the book, namely 'the beginning of the church'.

Several times in the Argumentum to his commentary Calvin indicates 'the beginning of the church' as the theme of Acts Moehn Thus, Acts is classified as sacred history, specifically telling its readers the narrative of the beginning church through the providential care of God. God's care for his beginning church is, therefore, not just something, but Someone - Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth, through the presence of his Spirit. It is clear that the beginning of the reign of Christ the beginning of the kingdom and the beginning of the church are intricately connected. Calvin, however, defines even further what he means by Christ's reign over his fledgling church.

Before his ascension Christ had, of course, already gathered some of his church by his preaching, but: For Calvin, therefore, the apostles' preaching of the Gospel through the power they received i. On the contents of the apostles' preaching, Calvin does not digress much in the Argumentum. From the above it can be deduced that, for Calvin, the beginning of the church forms the central theme of the book of Acts. Calvin has a Christological view on the benefit of the book of Acts, but the theme of the book is ecclesiological.

And, as has been stated above, the beginning of the church is intricately linked to the beginning of Christ's heavenly reign i. Thus, the beginning of the church as central theme in the book of Acts does not happen in isolation, but is linked to ascension, outpouring and proclamation. This theme 'the beginning of the church' receives a very specific application in the respective dedicatory letters that Calvin wrote to his commentary. In them he connects the beginning of the church, as described in Acts, to an analogous beginning of the church in the country where the dedicatee played a substantial role.

According to Calvin, this connection serves to encourage the recipient of his commentary. In the first dedication, to King Christian III of Denmark , Calvin urges the king to strengthen his conscience by considering the pattern ratio and nature natura , the state status and condition conditio that the kingdom of Christ had in the beginning ab initio.

Such a consideration will highlight two things in particular, namely the teaching of the Gospel by which Christ gathers and governs his church, as well as the fellowship of the believers. Eight years later in , Calvin re-uses the exact same words in his dedicatory letter to Nicolas Radzivil. In his dedication of part 2 of his commentary on Acts to Prince Frederick II of Denmark Calvin explicitly states that he thought it suitable to connect coniungere the young crown prince to the narrative of Acts, which tells of the very beginnings of the church right from its actual birth natalibus ecclesiae christianae , and then its advances and increases.

That is also the reason why Calvin decided to divide his commentary into two books: Frederick might be encouraged by the precise resemblance between the reborn church of Denmark renascentis ecclesiae , which the Lord has committed to his protection, and the church in Acts CO 15, Only a few moments later, Calvin stresses the same point again. It is particularly useful, he says, to look to the origin of the church in ecclesiae originem as Luke describes it.

This usefulness lies in the portrayal of the wonderful power of God as well as the endurance of his servants CO 15, It is clear that Calvin's letters to the respective dedicatees, especially those addressed to Christian III and Frederick II as being the original dedicatees, were not detached from the contents of the accompanying commentary. Instead, they were intricately linked to what Calvin deemed to be the central theme of the book. The gap of 15 centuries is bridged in order to link two beginning churches - the beginning church in Acts and the beginning church in Calvin's own time.

The latter is urged to study and follow the example of the former. More than one beginning. The question then arises where Calvin places the real beginning of the church.

His strong emphasis on the beginning of the church in Acts could suggest that, for him, the church actually started at that time. However, Calvin fully acknowledges the existence of the church before the time of Acts. In the dedication of his commentary on Genesis to Duke Henry of Vendomme , for example, he clearly states that God after the fall of humanity adopted to himself a church CO 20, This implies the existence of a people from the beginning of the world. But how, then, should Calvin's emphasis on the beginning of the church in Acts be understood?

For Calvin the church does not have only one beginning.

Instead, God has made several new beginnings throughout the history of the Old and the New Testament. The reformer asserts that the old and the new covenants do not differ, but that they are completely one and the same. He does accept the differences which Scripture mentions, but these should not detract in any way from the unity that has already been established CO 2, When he discusses the differences - more as an appendix appendicis than as the main argument CO 2, - Calvin describes the Old Testament as the childhood of the church and the New Testament as the church's adulthood.

Calvin speaks of these new beginnings as new births or rebirths Harms For him the exodus from Egypt, the return from the Babylonian exile and the first coming of Christ represent the most important beginnings. The exodus from Egypt is the first of God's new beginnings with his church. In his commentary on Hosea

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