<p>3:17 <em>And now-</em> These are not just redundant words. The sense may be that although they crucified the Lord knowing full well what they were doing, <em>now</em>, by God's grace, that could be counted as having been done in relative ignorance. This is the amazing extent of imputed righteousness.</p><p><em>Brothers</em>- Peter again is bridge building, having made the point that they had denied their Messiah just at the same time and place as he had done (see on Acts 3:14).</p><p><em>I know that in ignorance </em><i>you did it, as did also your rulers<em>- </em></i>It had been generous spirited of the Lord to pray on the cross: &ldquo;Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do&rdquo;. He may have meant they were relatively ignorant, or it may be that He felt they were so blinded now that the recognition of Him they once had had was now not operating. And Peter, who probably heard with amazement those words from the cross as he beheld the Lord&rsquo;s sufferings, found the same generous spirit to men whom naturally he would have despised: &ldquo;In ignorance you did it&rdquo; (Acts 3:17 cp. Lk. 23:34).&nbsp;</p><p>The generosity of the Father and Son to humanity is awesome- so eager are they for our repentance. God so pleads for Israel to return to Him in Hosea and Isaiah that He almost takes the blame onto Himself, cooing over His people as having been tossed and afflicted- when it was His own judgment of them that caused it. And I think this explains the difficulty of Acts 3:17-19, where Peter appeals to the Jews to repent, because they had murdered the Lord Jesus &quot;in ignorance&quot;. The Lord's own parables explained that they did what they did with open eyes- &quot;this is the heir, come let us kill him&rdquo;. Yet in God's passionate desire for their repentance, He appears to view their awful sin in the most gracious possible light.</p><p>Paul uses the same word to reason that the Gentiles too had sinned in ignorance, but now must repent because of the Lord's resurrection (Acts 17:30). This is another example of Paul consciously modelling himself and his preaching on Peter. Considering that Peter was an illiterate fisherman, mocked by the Jerusalem intelligentsia as speaking without grammar... and Paul was the intellectual Jewish rabbi trained in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel... this indicates so much humility in Paul. Although I will later develop the possibility that Paul actually pretended to Peter to such an unhealthy extent that he failed to focus as he might on his ministry to the Gentiles, and sought rather to emulate Peter's to the Jews.</p>