Acts 1:20

It is written. The connection with v. 17 should be noted and maintained. After the explanation of vs. 18, 19 Peter quotes Ps. 69:25 (from the LXX, with some changes) and Ps. 109:8 (also from the LXX). Ps. 69 includes imprecations upon the enemies of David, but also contains prophetic utterances that pertain to the Messiah, as can be seen from vs. 7-21. Verse 25 is primarily a curse upon David’s enemies, and in an extended sense upon the enemies of the Messiah, and hence is applicable to Judas. Ps. 109 is also imprecatory, in terms even more bitter than the other, and v. 8 is a plea that the composite foe being imprecated may have a short life, and be removed from his responsibility (see on Ps. 69; 109).

Judas and his dreadful deeds stand as counterparts of what the psalms describe, and his deserved fate corresponds to that of the enemies described in these passages. This is a type of exegesis frequently employed in the NT to interpret and apply the OT (cf. 1 Peter 1:10, 11; cf. on Deut. 18:15).

Here, Peter has taken the quotation and applied it to the field that Judas bought (see on v. 18), foreseeing that it would not be inhabited.

Bishoprick. Gr. episkope, “oversight,” “charge,” “office,” correctly translating the Heb. pequddah. The word “bishoprick” should read, rather, “overseership.” Bishops were the ailing officers in the Church of England in 1611, when the KJV was translated, and it is psychologically understandable that the Anglican translators read into the Greek word, which means “oversight,” or “superintendence,” a much later and stronger ecclesiastical significance. Compare the mention of “Easter” in ch. 12:4, where the Greek means “passover.” The Calvinistic refusal to recognize any church official of higher authority than “elder” (Gr. presbuteros) was not reflected in the Anglican translation of 1611, although it had appeared in the Geneva Bible of 1560, in the translation, “charge.” For the NT meaning of the Greek words presbuteros, “elder,” and episkopos, “bishop,” see pp. 26, 38. In the NT, “elders” were sometimes called “bishops,” that is, “overseers,” but only here in Scripture are the apostles even indirectly referred to as “bishops.” Hence, the translation “charge,” or “office,” is preferable here. See pp. 26, 38.

The apostle uses Ps. 109:8 as authority for the election of another to take the place left vacant by Judas.