Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 28:26

"saying, Go thou unto this people, and say, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:" — Acts 28:26 (ASV)

Go unto this people, and say . . .—Regarding the passage just quoted, see the notes on Matthew 13:14-15.

Here, we are chiefly concerned with the fact that our Lord had cited these words to describe the spiritual state of the Jews of Palestine.

The record of their citation is found in the first three Gospels (Matthew 13:13; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10), while St. John (John 12:40) reproduces them as embodying the solution to the apparent failure of our Lord’s personal ministry.

This prophecy evidently had wide circulation in all reports of our Lord's teaching, both oral and written. Furthermore, St. Paul was clearly well acquainted with one collection of our Lord's discourses (Acts 20:35).

Therefore, we can hardly resist the inference that he now applied these words, following the pattern of his Master’s teaching.

What was true of the Jews of Jerusalem was also true of those of Rome.

In both groups, there was a willful blindness and deafness to what should have produced conviction and conversion. (Compare the language the Apostle had previously used in Romans 11:25.)