The Pulpit Commentary on Acts 3:19

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Turn again for be converted, A.V., with no difference in sense; that so there may come seasons of refreshing for when the times of refreshing shall come, A.V. Turn again. The turning to God is the consequence of the change of mind ( μετάνοια).

That so there may come; rightly for the A.V. "when," etc., which the Greek cannot mean. What Peter conceives is that if Israel turns to God at once in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, then there will come at once those times of refreshing, those blessed days of righteousness, and peace, and rest, and universal joy, which are the characteristics of Christ's kingdom as foretold by the prophets.

Those days are delayed by the unbelief of Israel. Seasons of refreshing. The A.V." times of refreshing" is manifestly right, though there is no article in the Greek. "Seasons of refreshing" seems very vague and vapid (see Alford, Acts 1:1, who very appropriately and conclusively cites the phrase καιροὶ ἐθνών, "the times of the Gentiles''(Luke 21:24).

Meyer also compares the παράκλησιν τοῦ ἰσραήλ of Luke 2:25, and so in Luke 2:21, χρόνων ἀποκαταστάσεως is rendered "the times of restoration."

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