Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 3:13

"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him." — Acts 3:13 (ASV)

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.—Here again we have an echo of our Lord’s teaching. That Name had been uttered in the precincts of the Temple, not improbably in the very same portico, as part of our Lord’s constructive proof of the resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:32). Now it was heard again in connection with the witness given by the Apostles that He Himself had risen. (See also Note on Acts 7:32.)

Hath glorified his Son Jesus.—Better, Servant. The word is that used throughout the later chapters of Isaiah for “the servant of Jehovah” (Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11). It meets us again in Acts 3:26; Acts 4:27; Acts 4:30, and as applied to Christ, is peculiar to the Acts, with the exception of the citation from Isaiah in Matthew 12:18. It is, therefore, more distinctive than “Son” would have been, and implies the general Messianic interpretation of the prophetic language in which it is so prominent.

When he was determined.—Better, when he had decided; the word implying, not a purpose only, but a formal act, as in Luke 23:16.