Bible Strands
Acts 3:18
But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Peter addresses Jewish believers in Jerusalem immediately after healing a lame man, clarifying that the crowd and their leaders acted in ignorance. He speaks at this moment to pivot from their past actions to God’s sovereign plan.
The words — The Greek word προκατὴγγειλεν (prokatēngeilen) literally means "foretold beforehand," indicating God’s prior declaration. The phrase διὰ στόματος πάντων (dia stomatos pantōn) translates to "through the mouth of all," specifying the prophets as the instruments of that declaration.
The thread — This fulfillment of prophetic suffering is echoed in Acts 2:23 and Isaiah 53:1, where divine foreknowledge and the suffering servant motif converge. Peter consistently links Christ’s passion to established prophetic testimony across his speeches.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Christ’s suffering was not a surprise but a divinely ordained fulfillment. It requires the reader to align their understanding of Jesus’ death with Scripture’s prior witness rather than personal assumption.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
- Acts 2:23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Acts 26:22 But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:
- Isaiah 50:6 I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.
- Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Luke 24:26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”
- Luke 24:44 Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
- Acts 17:2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
- 1 Corinthians 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
- 1 Peter 1:10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace to come to you searched and investigated carefully,