John Calvin Commentary Acts 13:46

"And Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." — Acts 13:46 (ASV)

When they had taken liberty. Luke shows that the servants of Christ were so far from being discouraged by the stubbornness of the enemies, that they began, therefore, to denounce them anew more freely. For though they had sharply challenged them, they still spared them a little. But now, when they see Christ obstinately rejected by them, they excommunicate them and deprive them of the kingdom of God.

By this example we are taught that we must not use extreme severity, except only against those who are completely beyond hope. And the more bold the reprobate are to oppress the truth, the more courage we should take. For the servants of God must be armed with invincible constancy of the Spirit, so that they may never yield to the devil, nor to his ministers, as the Lord commands Jeremiah to encounter the reprobate with a face of iron.

It was necessary. He accuses them of unthankfulness because, since they were chosen by God out of all people, that Christ might offer Himself to them, they refuse so great a benefit maliciously. And in the first part he sets down the degree of honor and excellency to which God had exalted them; afterward follows the rebuke, because they willingly cast from themselves so great grace; upon which he concludes that it is now time that the gospel be transferred to the Gentiles.

In that he says, that it was meet that it should first be preached to them, it properly pertains to the time of Christ’s kingdom. For under the law, before Christ was given, the Jews were not only the first, but alone. Therefore Moses called them a priestly kingdom, and the peculiar people of God (Exodus 19:5–6). But the adoption of God rested then with them alone upon this condition (the Gentiles being omitted), that they should still be preferred before the Gentiles by the coming of Christ.

For though Christ reconciled the world to His Father, yet they were first in order, who were already near to God and of His family. Therefore, that was the most ordained order, that the apostles should gather the Church first from the Jews, then from the Gentiles, as we saw in the first chapter (Acts 1:18) and in other places, so that the fellowship of the Gentiles did not take from the Jews the right of the firstborn, but that they were always the chief in the Church of God. In this respect Paul says that the righteousness of God is made manifest in the gospel, first to the Jews, then to the Greeks (Romans 1:16).

Such greatness of grace, which God graciously bestowed upon them, exaggerates and increases the greatness of their sin, while they reject that which is so mercifully offered to them. Therefore he adds that they give judgment of themselves, that they are unworthy of eternal life. For since the rejecting of the gospel is the denial of the righteousness of God, we need no other judge to condemn the unbelievers.

And after that you reject. Paul seems to reason inappropriately. For, first it was not of necessity that the Jews should be excluded, so that the Gentiles might be admitted to the hope of salvation; secondly, this was more convenient, that, after the Jews had embraced the gospel, they should grant the second place to the Gentiles.

And Paul speaks as if they could not grow together into one body, and as if the gospel could not come to the Gentiles unless it were rejected by the Jews. And was he not ordained to be the apostle of the Gentiles before he found such stubbornness in the Jews?

I answer, that there is great force in the words we are turned. For his meaning is, that he is now turned away from the Jews, that he may devote himself entirely to the Gentiles. If they had remained in their place such turning had not followed, but he should have drawn the Gentiles also with a continuous course, after the Jews were received into the fold; and he should have embraced them both together. Now, since the Jews turn their backs, and withdraw themselves from his ministry, he cannot attend to both them and the Gentiles at the same time.

Therefore, taking his leave of them, he is forced to transfer his care to the Gentiles. Therefore, unless the Jews had alienated themselves from the Church, the calling of the Gentiles should have been such as is described by the prophets: In that day shall seven strangers take hold of the cloak of a man that is a Jew, and shall say, we will walk with you; because God is with you. But now the Gentiles are called in a new and incidental manner; because, when the Jews were rejected, they entered into the vacant possession.

They ought to have been gathered to the Jews; but after they fell away, and were driven out, they came in their place. So that their death was the life of the Gentiles, and the natural branches being cut off, the wild olives were grafted into the holy root, until God at length restores them also to life, being grafted into their former root, that the Israel of God being gathered together from all directions may be saved.