John Calvin Commentary Acts 13:23

"Of this man`s seed hath God according to promise brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus;" — Acts 13:23 (ASV)

According to promise. This clause also proves what I have already said elsewhere: that in sending Christ, the Lord regarded only His own faithfulness and goodness, for He sent Him because He had promised to do so. And as the promise testifies that salvation was free, it also lends considerable credibility to the gospel. This is because it shows that Christ did not come suddenly, as someone about whom nothing had ever been spoken; rather, He who was promised from the beginning was now given at the appointed time.

The promises that Luke touches upon here are prominent and well-known. Indeed, they were so common among the Jews that they usually called Christ by no other name than the Son of David (Matthew 22:42; Matthew 15:22).

Luke says that Jesus was raised up for Israel because, though salvation belongs to the whole world, He was first a minister of the circumcision to fulfill the promises made to the fathers (Romans 15:8). Luke translated the Hebrew name Jesus into σωτήρ in Greek. Thus, he stated one thing twice, yet this is not a superfluous repetition, because he intended to declare that Christ truly is and performs what the name given Him by God, through the voice of the angel, signifies.