John Calvin Commentary Acts 3:1

"Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, [being] the ninth [hour]." — Acts 3:1 (ASV)

We saw before that many signs were shown by the hands of the apostles; now Luke recounts one of many as an example, according to his common custom: namely, that a lame man, who was lame in his feet from his mother’s womb, was perfectly restored to his limbs. And he diligently gathers all the circumstances that serve to set forth the miracle.

If his legs had been out of joint, or if it had been some disease resulting from some accident, it might have been more easily cured. But a defect of nature could not have been so easily remedied. When he says that he was carried, we gather from this that it was no slight lameness, but that this man lay as if his legs were dead.

Since he was accustomed to ask for alms daily, all the people would thereby know him better. The fact that, being healed, he walked in the temple at the time of prayer, served to spread the fame of the miracle widely. Furthermore, it also significantly sets forth the miracle that, being lifted up and set on his feet, he leaps up immediately and walks joyfully.

Regarding the phrase went up together: because the Greek words επι το αυτο do not signify place any more than they signify time, this latter sense (time) seems to agree better with Peter's text. Yet, because it is not very important, I leave it undecided. It is called the ninth hour of prayer, when the day began to draw towards night.

For since the day from sunrise to sunset had twelve hours (as I have said elsewhere), all that time was divided into four parts. So by the ninth hour is meant the last portion of the day, just as the first hour continued until the third, the third until the sixth, and the sixth until the ninth.

From this we may gather, by a probable conjecture, that this hour was appointed for the evening sacrifice. Furthermore, if anyone asks whether the apostles went up into the temple to pray according to the rite of the law, I do not think that is as likely true as that they went to have a better opportunity to spread the gospel widely.

And if anyone would abuse this passage, as if it were lawful for us to adopt superstitious forms of worship while we are among the ignorant and weak, his reasoning will be frivolous. The Lord appointed that the Jews should offer sacrifice morning and evening (Exodus 29:41). By this practice they were taught to begin and end the day by calling upon the name of God and worshipping Him (Numbers 28:2). Therefore, Peter and John could freely come into the temple, which was consecrated to God; nor did they pollute themselves, since they called upon the God of Israel, so that they might thereby declare their godliness.

First, from the fact that the Lord would have the people of old observe the appointed hours, we gather from this that the Church cannot be without certain discipline. And even today, it would be profitable for us to have such meetings daily, if not for our excessive sluggishness preventing us. And since the apostles go up at that hour, from this we gather that we must not neglect any opportunity that is offered to us for the furtherance of the gospel.