Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 3:17

"And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." — Acts 3:17 (ASV)

I wot that through ignorance ye did it.—The Rhemish is the only version which substitutes “I know” for the now obsolete “I wot.”

St. Peter’s treatment of the relation of “ignorance” to “guilt” is in exact agreement with St. Paul’s, both in his judgment of his own past offences (1 Timothy 6:13) and in the judgment he passed regarding the Gentile world (Acts 17:30). Men were ignorant where they might have known, if they had not allowed prejudice and passion to overpower the witness borne by reason and conscience. Their ignorance was not invincible, and therefore they needed to repent of what they had done in the times of that ignorance. But because it was ignorance, repentance was not impossible. Even the people and rulers of Israel, though their sin was greater, came within the range of the prayer, offered in the first instance for the Roman soldiers: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (See Note on Luke 23:34.)