Acts 2:27

Acts 2:27, in plain English

The psalm promises that God won't abandon the speaker to death and won't let his body decay—which happened for Jesus when God raised Him on the third day.

Why it's here

This is the prophetic promise being quoted. Peter is showing the specific prediction: God would not leave His Holy One in the grave. Jewish burial customs involved decomposition within days, so 'not seeing decay' was a concrete way of saying 'resurrection, not just spiritual survival.'

Who's speaking

Peter, continuing Psalm 16

Where it sits in the story

Death and decay are signs of separation from God and the end of God's involvement in our lives. But God promised that His Holy One would not experience this—He would be raised back to life, intact and glorified.

The scholarly reading

Peter quotes the psalm's central promise: God will not abandon the psalmist's soul to Hades, and His 'Holy One' will not experience decay—a prophecy Peter applies to Jesus's resurrection.

Language and setting

This verse contains the exegetical hinge of Peter's argument. The Greek ψυχή (psychē)—'soul'—appears in parallel with 'Holy One' (ὁσιός), and the poetic structure creates equivalence: the psalmist's soul will not be abandoned to Hades (the Greek underworld, translating the Hebrew Sheol), and the Holy One's flesh will not see decay (διαφθορά). Peter's later explanation in verse 31 makes explicit that the 'Holy One' refers to Jesus. Scholars debate whether David consciously prophesied this or whether Peter engages in what we might call 'typological' reading—seeing David as a type of Christ. The Jewish background here matters: early Jewish thought increasingly entertained resurrection hope (as reflected in Daniel 12:2 and 2 Maccabees 7), making Peter's claim less alien to Jewish eschatology than often supposed. Yet for Peter, the resurrection is not merely one eschatological event among others; it is the definitive, present reality already occurring.

Voice

Peter, quoting Psalm 16:10 (LXX)

Significance

This prophecy becomes, in Christian interpretation, the scriptural anticipation of Christ's bodily resurrection. The refusal of the Holy One to experience decay stands against any Gnostic or purely spiritual conception of resurrection: the Christian Easter asserts the transformation and vindication of the body itself.

25David says about Him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

26Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell in hope,

27because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

28You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence.’

29Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Read all of Acts 2 — The Spirit arrives like wind and fire. The church is born in a single day. A movement that will never stop starts in one room.