Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 28:25

"And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers," — Acts 28:25 (ASV)

The points at which many of the Jewish leaders disagreed with Paul and left the session, Luke says, were two. (1) Paul attempted to prove the obduracy of Israel from Scripture on the ground that Isaiah, in Isa 6:9-10, had foretold the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as Messiah (cf. the use of this passage in Mt 13:13–15; Jn 12:40, though not with quite the same thrust). Paul had elaborated on this issue in Ro 9–11. (2) He quoted prophecy here not just to explain Israel’s stubbornness but to set the stage for his second point: because of Israel’s hardened attitude the message of “God’s salvation” had been sent directly to Gentiles, who would respond positively.

A revolutionary new policy for proclaiming the Gospel and making converts had been providentially worked out during Paul’s first missionary journey and at the Jerusalem Council (cf. 12:25–16:5 and comments). That policy was then carried out through two more missionary journeys extending into Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia (cf. 16:6–19:20). This policy advocated the proclamation of the Gospel “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16; cf. Acts 13:46–52). Luke has carefully shown how everything that happened in the ministry of the early Jerusalem church essentially looked forward to the inauguration of this policy and how it lay at the heart of Paul’s missionary purpose. Now having traced the story of the advance of the Gospel to Rome, Luke reports how that same pattern was followed at Rome. His account of the Gospel’s advance from Jerusalem to Rome in terms of the distinctive policy of first the Jew, then the Gentile comes to a fitting conclusion with the quotation of Isa 6:9–10.