SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:24
al cual Dios levant, sueltos los dolores de la muerte, por cuanto era imposible ser detenido de ella.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 2:24
Verse 24. Whom God hath raised up] For, as God alone gave him up to death, so God alone raised him up from death. Having loosed the pains of death] It is generally supposed that this expression means, the dissolving of those bonds or obligations by which those who enter into the region of the dead are detained there till the day of the resurrection; and this is supposed to be the meaning of twm ylbj chebley maveth, in Psa. cxvi. 3, or lwa ylbj chebley sheol, in Psa. xviii. 5, and in 2 Sam. xxii. 6, to which, as a parallel, this place has been referred. But Kypke has sufficiently proved that luein tav wdinav qanatou, signifies rather to REMOVE the pains or sufferings of death. So Lucian, Deuteronomy Conscr. Hist., says, "a copious sweat to some, eluse ton pureton, REMOVES or carries off the fever." So STRABO, speaking of the balm of Jericho, says, luei de kefalalgiav qaumastwv-it wonderfully REMOVES the headache, &c. That Christ did suffer the pains and sorrows of death in his passion is sufficiently evident; but that these were all removed, previously to his crucifixion, is fully seen in that calm manner in which he met it, with all its attendant terrors. If we take the words as commonly understood, they mean that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be left in the empire of death: his resurrection, therefore, was a necessary consequence of his own Divine power.
Instead of qanatou, of death, the Codex Bezae, Syriac, Coptic, and Vulgate, have aidou, of hell, or the place of separate spirits; and perhaps it was on no better authority than this various reading, supported but by slender evidence, that, He descended into hell, became an article in what is called the apostles' creed. And on this article many a popish legend has been builded, to the discredit of sober sense and true religion.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 24. Whom God raised up , etc.] From the dead; for though his life was taken away by men, he was raised to life again by God the Father, to whom the resurrection of Christ is generally ascribed, though not to the exclusion of Christ himself, and the blessed Spirit; and this being what the apostles were witnesses of, and the Jews endeavoured to stifle as much as they could, it being the sign Christ gave them of the truth of his Messiahship; and this being also a fundamental article of the Christian religion, the apostle enlarges upon it: having loosed the pains of death ; this may be understood either of what Christ had done for his people by dying for them; he had abolished death; he had took away its sting, and delivered them from the curse of it, having fulfilled the law, satisfied justice, and made full atonement for their sin; so that though they die, death is not a penal evil to them, nor shall they always continue under the power of it: or of what God did in raising Christ from the dead; he delivered him from the power of death, by which he was held in the grave, and which is expressed by a word which signifies pains and sorrows, even those of a woman in travail; which though he felt not now, he had gone through them; his low state in the grave was the effect of them; and these are said to be loosed when he was raised up, he being so entirely delivered from them, as that they should never come upon him more: and it is to be observed, that the same word in the Hebrew language, and so in the Chaldee and Syriac, in which Peter might speak, signifies both cords and sorrows; and we often read in Talmudic and Rabbinic f117 writings, of jym l wlbj , the sorrows, or pains of the Messiah.
The death which Christ died, being the death of the cross, was a very painful one: he endured great pains in his body, smote with rods, and buffeted with the hands of men; by being scourged and whipped, and having a crown of thorns platted on his head; but the pains of the cross were still greater, his body being stretched out upon it, and fastened to it by nails drove through his hands and feet, and then reared up, and jogged in the earth, where he hung upon it in extreme agony, till he expired: and these pains he endured, not through want of love to him in his Father, who, as he does not willingly grieve and afflict the children of men, so neither would he his own Son; nor was it on account of any sin of his, for he knew none, nor did he commit any; but he was wounded, and bruised, and endured these sorrows and pains for the sins of his people: as he was their surety, it was necessary he should die, because the wages of sin is death, and the justice and veracity of God required it; and it was proper he should die the painful death of the cross, because of the types and prophecies of it, and chiefly that he might appear to be made a curse for his people: though more must be meant here than the pains he endured in the moment and article of death, since they ceased at death, and he was then freed from them; whereas the text speaks of a loosing him from them at his resurrection, which supposes that they continued on him until that time; wherefore these pains of death also signify the power and dominion death had over him, and continued to have over him in the grave; with the cords of which he was bound and held, till he was loosed by raising him from the dead. Dr. Goodwin is of opinion, that these words are to be understood, not of the resurrection of Christs body from the pains and power of death, but at least chiefly of the recovery and revival of his soul from those spiritual agonies which attended him, and from which he was loosed and delivered before his death; and the rather, because as before observed, at death the pains of it are gone, the bitterness of it is over, and nothing is felt in the grave; besides, the word here used signifies the pains of a woman in travail, ( 1 Thessalonians 5:3) and seems best to agree with those inward sufferings of Christ, which are called the travail of his soul, ( Isaiah 53:11) and which, like the pangs of a woman in labour, came upon him gradually: four or five days before his death he said, now is my soul troubled, ( John 12:27). The night in which he was betrayed, when he came into the garden, he began to be sorrowful, and heavy, and sore amazed; and at length he breaks out, and says, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, ( Matthew 26:37,38) and after some time his pains increase, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood, ( Luke 22:44) but the sharpest pains were yet to come, and which he endured when on the cross, being forsaken by his God and Father, ( Matthew 27:46) and which arose partly from the sins of his people, the filth and guilt of them laid upon him, which must be very distressing to his pure and holy mind; and from the wrath of God, and curse of the law, which he sustained as the punishment for them; and it was necessary he should bear the whole punishment due to sin, the punishment of sense, or feel the wrath of God, and the strokes of divine justice, and the punishment of loss, or be deprived of the divine presence; and these sorrows of soul may be well called the pains or sorrows of death, because they were unto death, and issued in it; a corporeal death followed upon them; and when he was in the garden, and on the cross, it might be truly said, the sorrows of death compassed him about, ( Psalm 18:4) but from these he was loosed just before his death, when he said, it is finished; the darkness was over; the light of Gods countenance broke out upon him; he heard his cry, and helped him in the acceptable time, in the day of salvation; his anger, as a judge, was turned away from him, justice being entirely satisfied; and therefore it was not possible he should be held any longer with these cords and sorrows of death; for he being an infinite person, was able to bear all the wrath of God at once, which was due to sin, and therefore did not bring on him an eternal death as on the wicked, he sustaining and satisfying for all at once; and, like another Samson, broke asunder these cords like threads, and was loosed from them. But after all, though these are very great truths; yet, according to the order in which these words lie, being placed after the account of the crucifixion and death of Christ, they seem rather to respect the resurrection of his body, and the loosing it from the power and dominion of death; and in such sense as never to return to it, or any more feel the pains of it. One of Stephens copies reads, the pains of Hades, or the invisible state; and the Vulgate Latin version, the pains of hell; as in ( Psalm 18:5) where the grave is meant; and the Syriac version, lwad hylbj , the pains, or cords of the grave: the word cords, or bands, best agrees with the word loosing; and the Ethiopic version renders it, the bands of death. Because it was not possible he should be holden of it : of death, and under the power of it; partly, because of the power and dignity of his person, as the Son of God, he being still the Prince of life, and who by dying abolished death, and him that had the power of it; and partly, because as the surety of his people, he had made full satisfaction for sin, and had brought in an everlasting righteousness, and therefore ought in justice to be discharged, and detained a prisoner no longer; as also because of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning his resurrection, which must be fulfilled, as follows.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 22-36 - From this gift of the Holy Ghost, Peter preaches unto them Jesus: an here is the history of Christ. Here is an account of his death an sufferings, which they witnessed but a few weeks before. His death is considered as God's act; and of wonderful grace and wisdom. Thus Divin justice must be satisfied, God and man brought together again, an Christ himself glorified, according to an eternal counsel, which coul not be altered. And as the people's act; in them it was an act of awfu sin and folly. Christ's resurrection did away the reproach of his death; Peter speaks largely upon this. Christ was God's Holy One sanctified and set apart to his service in the work of redemption. Hi death and sufferings should be, not to him only, but to all his, the entrance to a blessed life for evermore. This event had taken place a foretold, and the apostles were witnesses. Nor did the resurrectio rest upon this alone; Christ had poured upon his disciples the miraculous gifts and Divine influences, of which they witnessed the effects. Through the Saviour, the ways of life are made known; and we are encouraged to expect God's presence, and his favour for evermore All this springs from assured belief that Jesus is the Lord, and the anointed Saviour.
Greek Textus Receptus
ον 3739 R-ASM ο 3588 T-NSM θεος 2316 N-NSM ανεστησεν 450 5656 V-AAI-3S λυσας 3089 5660 V-AAP-NSM τας 3588 T-APF ωδινας 5604 N-APF του 3588 T-GSM θανατου 2288 N-GSM καθοτι 2530 ADV ουκ 3756 PRT-N ην 2258 5713 V-IXI-3S δυνατον 1415 A-NSN κρατεισθαι 2902 5745 V-PPN αυτον 846 P-ASM υπ 5259 PREP αυτου 846 P-GSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
24. Pains (wdinav). The meaning is disputed. Some claim that Peter followed the Septuagint mistranslation of Ps. xviii. 5, where the Hebrew word for snares is rendered by the word used here, pains; and that, therefore, it should be rendered snares of death; the figure being that of escape from the snare of a huntsman. Others suppose that death is represented in travail, the birth-pangs ceasing with the delivery; i.e., the resurrection. This seems to be far-fetched, though it is true that in classical Greek the word is used commonly of birth-throes. It is better, perhaps, on the whole, to take the expression in the sense of the A.V., and to make the pains of death stand for death generally.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:24 {God raised up} (ho qeos anestesen). _Est hoc summum orationis_ (Blass). Apparently this is the first public proclamation to others than believers of the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus. "At a time it was still possible to test the statement, to examine witnesses, to expose fraud, the Apostle openly proclaimed the Resurrection as a fact, needing no evidence, but known to his hearers" (Furneaux). {The pangs of death} (tas wdinas tou qanatou). Codex Bezae has "Hades" instead of death. The LXX has wdinas qanatou in #Ps 18:4, but the Hebrew original means "snares" or "traps" or "cords" of death where sheol and death are personified as hunters laying snares for prey. How Peter or Luke came to use the old Greek word wdinas (birth pangs) we do not know. Early Christian writers interpreted the Resurrection of Christ as a birth out of death. "Loosing" (lusas) suits better the notion of "snares" held a prisoner by death, but birth pangs do bring deliverance to the mother also. {Because} (kaqoti). this old conjunction (kata, hoti) occurs in the N.T. only in Luke's writings. {That he should be holden} (krateisqai auton). Infinitive present passive with accusative of general reference and subject of en adunaton. The figure goes with "loosed" (lusas) above.
