“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to hold him — the resurrection (anastasis) is the pivotal reversal: death could not contain Jesus (adynatos, impossible, impotent before divine power). The agony (ōdin, birth pangs, labor pains) of death is the phrase that makes sense of Easter as the birth of a new creation. Resurrection is not CPR but transformation; death's grip is broken.
Church Fathers on Acts 2:24
[He men of Israel]: it is not for flattery that he uses this term; but, as he has borne hard upon them, he relaxes a little, and puts them in mind of their great ancestor [Israel]. Here again he begins with an introduction, that they may not become excited, now that he is going to make express mention to them of Jesus: for in what preceded, there was no reason why they should be excited, while the Prophet was the subject of discourse: but the name of Jesus would have given…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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