Hechos 3

VBL · Chapter 3/28

1Pedro y Juan iban de camino, subiendo hacia el Templo, a la hora de la oración de la tarde, cerca de las 3 p.m.

2Y habían llevado allí a un hombre que había estado paralítico desde su nacimiento. Todos los días lo ponían allí, junto a la puerta del Templo que se llamaba “La Hermosa”, para que pudiera pedir limosna a las personas que entraban al Templo.

3Entonces este hombre vio a Pedro y a Juan cuando iban a entrar al Templo, y les pidió dinero.

4Entonces Pedro lo miró fijamente, y Juan también.

5Entonces el hombre paralítico puso toda su atención en ellos, esperando recibir algo.

6“No tengo plata ni oro”, le dijo Pedro, “pero te daré lo que tengo: En el nombre de Jesucristo de Nazaret, ¡camina!”

7Entonces Pedro lo tomó por la mano derecha y lo ayudó a levantarse. Y de inmediato sus pies y rodillas se volvieron fuertes.

8Y el hombre se puso en pie de un brinco y comenzó a caminar. Luego entró con ellos al Templo, caminando y saltando, y alabando a Dios.

9Todos los que estaban allí lo vieron caminando y alabando a Dios.

10Entonces lo reconocieron como el mendigo que solía sentarse junto a la puerta del Templo, La Hermosa, y estaban sorprendidos y maravillados ante lo que le había sucedido a este hombre.

11Entonces él se agarró fuertemente de Pedro y Juan mientras todos corrían por el Pórtico de Salomón en completo asombro por lo que había ocurrido.

12Y cuando Pedro vio esta oportunidad, les dijo: “Pueblo de Israel, ¿por qué están sorprendidos por lo que le ha sucedido a este hombre? ¿Por qué nos miran como si hubiéramos hecho caminar a este hombre por nuestro propio poder o fe?

13El Dios de Abraham, Isaac, y Jacob—el Dios de nuestros antepasados—ha glorificado a Jesús, su siervo. Él fue al que ustedes traicionaron y rechazaron en presencia de Pilato, incluso después de que Pilato había decidido soltarlo.

14Ustedes rechazaron a Aquél que es Santo y Justo, y exigieron que dejaran libre a un asesino.

15Ustedes mataron al Autor de la vida, Aquél a quien Dios levantó de los muertos, y nosotros somos testigos de esto.

16Por medio de la fe en el nombre de Jesús este hombre fue sanado. Ustedes ven a este hombre aquí, y lo conocen. Es por la fe en Jesús que este hombre ha recibido sanidad completa aquí delante de todos ustedes.

17“Ahora sé, hermanos y hermanas, que ustedes hicieron esto por ignorancia, así como sus dirigentes.

18Pero Dios cumplió lo que había prometido: que su Mesías iba a sufrir.

19Ahora, arrepiéntanse, y cambien sus caminos, para que sus pecados puedan ser limpiados, a fin de que el Señor pueda enviarles oportunidad para sanarse y restaurarse,

20y envíe a Jesús, el Mesías designado para ustedes.

21Porque él debe permanecer en el cielo hasta el momento en que todo sea restaurado, como Dios lo anunció a través de sus santos profetas hace mucho tiempo.

22“Moisés dijo: ‘El Señor tu Dios levantará entre tus hermanos a un profeta como yo. A él lo escucharás.

23Cualquiera que no lo escuche será eliminado del pueblo por completo’.

24A partir de Samuel, todos los profetas profetizaron acerca de estos días.

25Ustedes son hijos de los profetas, y del acuerdo que Dios hizo con sus padres cuando le dijo a Abraham: ‘Por medio de tus descendientes todas las familias de la tierra serán benditas’.

26Dios preparó a su siervo y lo envió primero a ustedes, para bendecirlos al convertirlos de sus malos caminos”.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Peter and John heal a man lame from birth at the temple gate called Beautiful. The crowd is amazed, and Peter takes the opportunity to preach about Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Explanation

The healing takes place at the 'ninth hour' (around 3 p.m.), the hour of prayer at the temple, showing that the apostles continued practicing Jewish devotion while proclaiming Jesus. Peter is careful not to attribute the miracle to his own power, redirecting all the glory to the name of Jesus. He also calls the people to repentance, citing Moses and the prophets to show that Jesus fulfills Jewish messianic expectation. The practical lesson: true spiritual power always points to God, never to the one exercising it.

Fun facts

  • The temple's 'Beautiful' Gate was, according to historians like Flavius Josephus, likely made of Corinthian bronze, one of the most ornate entrances in the Jerusalem temple complex.
  • Peter quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses speaks of a 'prophet like me' whom God would raise up — a passage widely understood by the early Christians as prophecy about the Messiah.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Hechos 3:1The hour of prayer mentioned, the ninth, was around 3 p.m. The temple in Jerusalem had fixed prayer times tied to the morning and evening sacrifices, and devout Jews went there at those hours even if they were not priests.
  2. Hechos 3:2The “Beautiful” gate was one of the entrances to the temple complex, probably the most ornate one. Beggars positioned themselves there because it was an unavoidable passage for many people going to pray.
  3. Hechos 3:3The lame man asks Peter and John for alms just as he did every day with anyone entering the temple, expecting nothing more than money.
  4. Hechos 3:4Peter fixes his eyes on him and asks for his attention before acting, a gesture that prepares the man to receive something different from what he expected.
  5. Hechos 3:5The lame man looks at them expecting to receive a coin, showing that he had no idea what was about to happen.
  6. Hechos 3:6Peter’s words are the center of the scene: he has no money to give, but he offers healing in the name of Jesus of Nazareth—showing that the power came from Jesus, not from the apostles themselves.
  7. Hechos 3:7Peter takes the man by the right hand and lifts him up; the text describes with medical detail his feet and ankle bones receiving strength immediately, reinforcing that the healing was complete and instant.
  8. Hechos 3:8The man not only walks but leaps, entering the temple together with Peter and John, visibly celebrating his own healing—a striking contrast with his whole life spent sitting and begging.
  9. Hechos 3:9The scene happens in full view of all the people present in the temple at that hour of prayer, giving the healing a mass witness rather than a hidden event.
  10. Hechos 3:10People recognize the man as the beggar who always sat at the Beautiful gate, which makes the change even more shocking to those who saw him there every day.
  11. Hechos 3:11Solomon’s porch was a covered colonnade on the east side of the temple, a remnant that tradition linked to the older temple built by Solomon. It became a fixed meeting place for the first Christians within the temple grounds.
  12. Hechos 3:12Peter uses the crowd’s attention to make clear that the healing did not come from his own or John’s power or holiness, preventing people from treating them as divine figures.
  13. Hechos 3:13Peter speaks to Jewish listeners who had been present or had heard about Jesus’ trial before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, when the crowd asked for Barabbas to be released instead of Him.
  14. Hechos 3:14Peter recalls that the crowd asked for Barabbas, a murderer, to be released instead of Jesus, whom he calls “the Holy One and the Just”—a direct contrast between the two.
  15. Hechos 3:15“The Prince of life” is what Peter calls Jesus, highlighting the irony that the listeners killed the very one who is the source of life, and that God raised Him from the dead soon after.
  16. Hechos 3:16Peter explains that it was neither magic nor his own virtue: it was faith in the name of Jesus that brought the man complete healing, in front of everyone now witnessing the result.
  17. Hechos 3:17Peter softens the accusation by saying that they acted out of ignorance, both the people and their own leaders, opening space for a call to repentance rather than mere condemnation.
  18. Hechos 3:18Peter argues that the Messiah’s suffering was not an accident or a failure, but something the Old Testament prophets had already announced beforehand.
  19. Hechos 3:19The call to repentance is linked to the idea of “times of refreshing,” an expression of relief and renewal that would come with the return of God’s special presence.
  20. Hechos 3:20Peter ties the people’s repentance to the future sending back of Jesus Christ, the same one already announced to them before.
  21. Hechos 3:21“Heaven” must receive Jesus until a time of “restitution of all things,” a prophetic idea that history is moving toward a complete renewal long announced by the prophets.
  22. Hechos 3:22Peter quotes Moses speaking of a prophet “like unto me,” a passage from Deuteronomy that Jews read as the promise of a great prophet still to come. Peter is saying that this promise was fulfilled in Jesus.
  23. Hechos 3:23Peter continues quoting Moses: whoever would not hear this promised prophet “shall be destroyed from among the people,” that is, cut off from the community of God’s people—a quotation from the book of Deuteronomy.
  24. Hechos 3:24Peter broadens the argument, saying that not only Moses but all the prophets since Samuel had, in one way or another, already pointed to these events they were now living through.
  25. Hechos 3:25Peter calls the listeners “the children of the prophets” and of the covenant God made with Abraham, recalling the ancient promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed through his descendants.
  26. Hechos 3:26Peter closes his speech saying that God sent Jesus to Israel first, before the Gentiles, with the purpose of blessing them, turning each one away from their own wickedness.

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