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Ascension supplements and explains the former brief notice in.
the Gospel, it seems reasonable to accept the Acts as a narrative
written with the purpose of continuing the history of the
Christian Church after Christ’s ascension, in the same manner
in which the history of Christ’s own deeds had been set forth in
the Gospel. Now the writer declares that his object in the first
work had been to explain what ‘Jesus began to do and teach.’
He had not, any more than the other Evangelists, aimed at giving
a complete life of Jesus. He set forth only an explanation of
those principles of His teaching, and those great acts in His life,
on which the foundations of the new society were to be laid. Τῇ
then the second book be meant to carry on the history in the
same spirit in which it had been commenced, we shall expect to
find in it no more than what the disciples began to do and teach
when Jesus was gone away from them. And such unity of
purpose, and consequently of treatment, will be all the more to be
looked for because both books are addressed to the same person,
That the Acts of the Apostles is a work of this eharacter, a
history of beginnings only, will be apparent from a very brief
examination of its contents. We are told by the writer that
Christ, before His ascension, marked out the course which should
be taken in the publication of the Gospel. ‘Ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.’ Taking these
words for his theme the author directs his labour to shew in
what manner the teaching of the Apostles was begun in each of
these appointed fields of labour. And he does nomore. He men-
tions the eleven Apostles by name at the outset, implying thereby
that each one took his due share in the work of evangeliza-
tion. But of many of them we hear no more. It did not
come within the historian’s purpose to describe their portion of
the work. With like brevity he relates how the Apostolic
band was completed by the election of Matthias into the place
INTRODUCTION. ΧΥ͂
of Judas. This done, he turns to his proper theme, which is
what Jesus did from heaven through the Spirit after His ascen-
sion, and this work he exemplifies in the history of a series of
beginnings of Christian congregations in various places. He tells
us how the disciples, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached in
Jerusalem until it was declared by the lips of their adversaries
(Acts v. 28) that the city was filled with their doctrine. After
this commencement we hear but little of the work done in Jeru-
salem.
The author’s next step is to relate how from the Holy City
the mission of the disciples was extended into Judaea and
Samaria. To make this intelligible it is found needful to de-
scribe with some detail the events which led to the death of
Stephen, and before that to point out the position which the
first martyr held in the new society. And as the defence
which Stephen made before the Jewish rulers forms what may
be called the Apology to the Jews for the universalism of
Christianity, we have the argument of that speech given at
some length. The time had arrived when the Gospel was to be
published to others than Jews, and we can see from the charges
laid against Stephen that this further spread of their labours
had been ‘dwelt upon in the addresses of the Christian teachers.
‘ Blasphemous words’ spoken ‘ against the Temple and the Law’
would be but a vague accusation were it not explained: by the
defence which was made in reply to it. From this defence we
see what the provocation was which had roused the Jews against
Stephen, It was the doctrine that God was the God not of the
Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, and that His worship was no
longer to be restricted to any particular locality as heretofore.
To prove to his hearers that this was shewn in their own history
and taught by their own prophets, Stephen points out that it was
not in the Holy Land, to which they attached such sanctity,
that God first appeared to Abraham, but in Mesopotamia; that
God was with him also in Haran, and that when He had brought
‘the father of the faithful’ into Canaan, He gave no permanent
possession therein either to him or to his descendants for many
generations. Yet though the people of Israel were for a long
b2
XVi INTRODUCTION.
time strangers in Egypt God was with them there. He blessed
them so that they multiplied exceedingly, and manifested His
constant care of them in their slavery until at last He sent
them a deliverer in Moses. This prophet God had trained first in
Pharaoh’s court and then in the land of Midian, and had mani-
fested His presence to him in a special manner in the wilderness
of Mount Sinai, and all these tokens of God’s care of His people
had been shewn without any preference on the part of Jehovah
for one place above another.
The mention of Moses leads the speaker into a brief digression,
in which he compares the rebellious behaviour of the Israelites
towards their deliverer, with the hostile disposition of the Jews
towards Jesus. But he soon resumes the thread of his argument,
and points out that the Tabernacle, and with it the visible sign
of God’s presence among His chosen people, was moving from
place to place for forty years in the wilderness, and that when
the people came into Canaan there was no thought of a fixed
abode for the Tabernacle until the days of David: that then God
did not at once permit the building of the Temple which that
king designed to raise, and when Solomon was at length allowed
to build God’s house, the voice of their prophets, as Stephen re-
minds his hearers, still testified that the Most High did not dwell
in temples made with hands, but sat in heaven, while earth
was as His footstool, and that He was the Maker and Preserver
not of one race, but of all men. This language, enforcing, from
a review of their own history and prophecies, the position which
Stephen had taken up in the defence of the new doctrine, and
rather going beyond, than defending himself against, the accusa-
tion of his opponents, roused their indignation. Apparently
perceiving this, the speaker concludes his defence not with a
peroration, but with a solemn rebuke, in which he says that,
with all their zeal for the Law they have not kept the true
spirit of that heaven-sent deposit of which they had been made
the guardians. Provoked still more by such a declaration the
crowd broke out into a furious rage, and by stoning Stephen
and persecuting all who adhered to his cause, endeavoured to
stop the spread of the Christian doctrines, but these persecutions
INTRODUCTION. XVli
became the cause οὗ a still wider propagation of the new teach-
ing and effected the very object to which the Jews were so
strongly opposed.
Stephen’s defence is the longest speech contained in the Acts,
and the great prominence given to it by the author seems to
harmonize with what we judge to be his general design. For
this address was the jist ἀπολογία for the wider extension of the
preaching of the disciples, and on such initiatory stages of the
movement it is after the author’s manner to dwell.
He next proceeds with the history of the propagation of
Christ’s doctrine in Judzea and Samaria. And as if to indicate at
once that the message was now to be spread to the farthest
corners of the earth, Philip’s mission to the Ethiopian eunuch
is mentioned. Thus we are informed concerning the firstfruits
of the faith in Africa, but the story is carried no farther, nor have
we any after-record concerning Philip, except the notice (xxi. 8)
which seems to imply that he made his home for the future
in Caesarea, where the population would be mainly Gentiles.
Saul’s conversion and Peter’s visit to Cornelius may be called
companion pictures. They seem meant to display the two lines of
activity by which the conversion of the Gentiles was to be brought
about. The one mission, initiated by St Peter, was to those
among the heathen who, like the centurion of Caesarea, had been
already led to some partial knowledge of God, through the study
of the Jewish Scriptures. On the other hand the great Apostle of
the Gentiles was sent forth to his allotted work among those who
were to be turned (Acts xiv. 15) ‘from their vanities to serve
the living God which made heaven and earth and all things
therein.’
As soon as Peter’s share in the beginning of his mission is
concluded, and he has twice testified concerning it (xi. 4—17,
xv. 7—11) that his action had been prompted by a Divine
revelation, and that the propriety of what he had done was
confirmed by the witness of the Holy Spirit, our historian dis- -
misses him, the most energetic of the original twelve, from his
narrative, because the other beginnings of Gospel- preaching
among the heathen can be better explained by following the
xviii INTRODUCTION.
career of St Paul, the chief pioneer of the Christian faith as it
spread to the ends of the earth. Still through the whole of what
is related concerning the labours of that Apostle, we learn only ἢ
of the founding of Churches and societies, and of the initiul
steps of the Christian work in those places which he visited. We
are indeed told that St Paul proposed, some time after the
completion of their first missionary journey (xv. 36), that he and
Barnabas should go and visit those cities in which they had
already preached the word of the Lord. But that proposal
came to nought. The Apostle with Silas subsequently visited only
Lystra and Derbe, and that apparently for the sole purpose of
taking Timothy as a companion in his further labours. After
this visit, the account of which is summed up in three verses, the
whole of the second journey was made over new ground. ‘Troas,
Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens and Corinth were visited, and
probably in all these places, and in others unnamed, the begin-
nings of a Christian society were established. We know that it
was so in three of these cities. In returning by sea to Jeru-
salem the Apostle touched at Ephesus, but remained there so
short a time that his real work in that metropolis can hardly be
dated from this visit. We are only told that he entered into the
Synagogue and reasoned with the Jews (xviii. 19), no mention
being made of what was his special work, the mission to the
Gentiles. But on his third journey, as though he had foreseen
how ‘great a door and effectual’ was opened to him in Ephesus,
he chose that city as the first scene of his settled labours. There
he continued for the greater part of three years, and became
in that time, we cannot doubt, the founder of the Asiatic
Churches of the Apocalypse. From thence he passed over to
Macedonia, but though this journey is noticed there is no word
told us concerning the Churches which had been founded there
by St Paul and his companions on the previous visit, nor con-
cerning his labours in Greece whither he afterwards went. Nay
even though he made a special halt on his homeward voyage at
Philippi, where was a congregation which above all others was
a deep joy to the Apostle, we have no detail recorded of the
condition in which he found the brethren whom he so much
INTRODUCTION. xix
loved. Very little had been said concerning the results of the
former stay at Troas (xvi. 8—11) to indicate whether any Chris-
tian brotherhood had been established there; and it may be that
the missionaries were forbidden of the Spirit at that time to preach
in Troas as in the rest of Asia. For this reason, it seems, the
historian dwells more at length (xx. 6—12) on the residence of
St Paul in that city during his third journey, in such wise as to
make clear to us that here too the work of Christ was now begun.
After that, during the whole course of the voyage, with the ex-
ception of the invitation of the Ephesian elders to Miletus and the
solemn parting address given to them there, in which we hear
repeated echoes of the language of St Paul’s Epistles, there
is no mention of any stay at places where the work of Evan-
gelization had already commenced. And when Jerusalem is
reached the imprisonment speedily follows, and the writer
afterwards records merely those stages in the Apostle’s history
which led up to his visit to Rome. He might have told us
much of the two years passed in Ceesarea, during which St
Paul’s friends were not forbidden ‘to minister or to come unto
him.’ He might have told us much of those two other years
of the Roman imprisonment, of which he knew the termination.
But this entered not into his plan of writing. He has made
no attempt to write a history of St Paul, any more than of
St Peter. As soon as we have heard that the message of the
Gospel was published first to the Jews and then to the
Gentiles in the empire-city of the world in that age, the author
pauses from his labour. He had completed the task which he
undertook: he had described what Jesus, through His messen-
gers, began to do and teach, after His ascension into heaven, for
in reaching Rome the message of the Gospel had potentially
come ‘to the uttermost parts of the earth.’
11. THE TITLE.
It will be clear from what has been already said of its contents
that the title, by which the book is known to us, can hardly have
been given to it by its author, The work is certainly not ‘ The
xx INTRODUCTION.
Acts of- the Apostles.’ It contains no detailed account of the
work of any of the Apostles except Peter and Paul. John is |
mentioned on three occasions, but he appears rather as the com-
panion of Peter than as the doer of any special act by himself.
Of James the son of Zebedee we have no notice except of
his execution by. Herod, while much more space is devoted to
Stephen and Philip, who were not Apostles, than to him.
The same remark applies to the notices of Timothy and Silas.
We may conclude then that the title, as we now have it, was a
later addition. The author (Acts 1. 1) calls the Gospel ‘a
treatise’ (λόγος), a term the most general that could be used ;
‘and if that work were styled by him ‘the first treatise,’ the Acts
would most naturally receive the name of ‘the second treatise.’
Or it may be that the form of title given in the Cod. Sinaiticus
was its first appellation. There the book is called simply (πράξεις)
‘Acts,’ and for a while that designation may have been sufficient
to distinguish it from other books. But it was not long before
treatises came into circulation concerning the doings of indi-
vidual Apostles and Bishops, and these were known by such
titles as ‘The Acts of Peter and Paul, ‘The Acts of Timothy,’
‘The Acts of Paul and Thecla,’ &. It would become neces-
sary, as such literature increased and was circulated, to enlarge
the title of this original volume of ‘Acts,’ and from such
exigency we find in various MSS. different titles given to it,
such as ‘Acts of the Apostles,’ ‘Acting of Apostles,’ ‘Acts of
all the Apostles, ‘Acts of the Holy Apostles, with still longer
additions in MSS. of later date.
Ill. THE AUTHOR.
All the traditions of the early Church ascribe the authorship
of the Acts to the writer of the third Gospel, and Eusebius (//is¢.
Eccl. τι. 11) says, ‘ Luke, by race a native of Antioch and by pro-
fession a physician, having associated mainly with Paul and
having companied with the rest of the Apostles less closely, has
left us examples of that healing of souls which he acquired from
INTRODUCTION. xxi
them in two inspired books, the Gospel and the Acts of the
Apostles.’ Eusebius lived about 3254.p. Before his time
Tertullian, A.D. 200, speaks (De jejuniis, 10) of the descent of
the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and of Peter going up
to the housetop to pray, as facts mentioned in the com-
mentary of Luke. Also (De baptismo, 10) he says, ‘ We find in
the Acts of the Apostles that they who had received the baptism
of John had not received the Holy Ghost, of which indeed they
had not even heard.’ Similar quotations could be drawn from
Clement of Alexandria, a little anterior to Tertullian, and also
from Irenaeus, who wrote about A.D. 190. The earliest clear
quotation from the Acts is contained in a letter preserved in
Eusebius (77. Δ, v. 2) sent by the Churches in the south of Gaul
to the Christians of Asia and Phrygia and written a.p. 177,
concerning the persecutions of the Church in Gaul. Alluding
to some who had been martyred there, the writers say, “ They
prayed for those who ordered their torture as did Stephen,
that perfect martyr, ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,”
In still earlier writings there are found words which may well
- be allusions to ‘the Acts,’ yet they are not sufficiently distinct
to warrant their insertion as quotations. But in the scarcity
of writings at this early period we need not be surprised if a
century elapsed after the writing of the book before we can
discover traces of its general circulation, It was probably
completed, as we shall see, between A.D. 60—70, and if in a
hundred years from that time the Christians of Europe could
quote from it as a book well known to their brethren in Asia we
may feel quite sure that it had been in circulation, and generally
known among Christians, for a large portion of the intervening
century. Modern critics have doubted the existence of ‘the Acts’
at the date when this letter of the Churches of Vienne and
Lyons was written, and have argued thus: “The tradition of
St Stephen’s martyrdom, and the memory of his noble sayings,
may well have remained in the Church, or have been recorded
in writings then current, from one of which indeed eminent
critics conjecture that the author of Acts derived his materials 1.”
1 Supernatural Religion, 111. 25.
XXii INTRODUCTION.
As if it were easier to admit on conjecture the existence of
writings for which no particle of evidence is forthcoming, than
to allow, in agreement with most ancient tradition, that ‘the
Acts’ was composed at the date to which, on the face of his
work, the writer lays claim.
In his book the author makes no mention of himself by
name, though in the latter part of his narrative he very fre-
quently employs the pronoun ‘we,’ intimating thereby that he
was present at the events which in that portion of his work he is
describing. The passages in which this pronoun is found (xvi.
10—17; xx. 5—38; xxi. 1—18; xxvii.; xxviii.) deserve special
notice. The author of ‘the Acts, by alluding in the opening
words to his ‘former treatise,’ leads us to the belief that in this
second work he is about again to use material which he gathered
from those who had been eyewitnesses and ministers in the scenes
which he describes. Much of this material he has clearly cast
into such a shape as fitted his purpose, and much which was
no doubt at hand for him he did not use because of the special
aim which in his treatise he had in view. It is very difficult to
believe that an author who has in other parts systematically
shaped other men’s communications, many of which would
naturally be made to him in the first person, into a strictly
historical narrative, should in four places of his work have for-
gotten to do this, and have left standing the ‘we’ of those persons
from whom he received his information. It seems much more
natural to infer that the passages in question are really the con-
tributions of the writer himself, and that, on the occasions to
which they refer, he was himself a companion of St Paul. For
whoever the writer may have been he was neither neglectful nor
ignorant of the rules of literary composition, as may be seen by
the opening words both of the Gospel and ‘the Acts,’
But it has been alleged that anyone who had been the com-
panion of St Paul at those times, to which reference is made in
the passages we are considering, would have had much more
and greater things to tell us than the writer of ‘the Acts’ has here
set down. This would be quite true if the author had set out
with the intention of writing a life of St Paul. But, as has been
INTRODUCTION. xxiii
observed before, this is exactly what he did not do. His book
is a description of the beginnings of Christianity. And bearing
this in mind we can see that the matters on which he dwells
are exactly those which we should expect him to notice. In the
first passage (xvi. 10—17) he describes the events which were
connected with the planting of the first Christian Church in
Europe at Philippi, and though the word ‘ we’ only occurs in the
verses cited above, it would be ridiculous to suppose that he,
who wrote those words implying a personal share in what was
done, was not a witness of all that took place while Paul and
Silas remained in Philippi. A like remark applies to the second
passage (xx. 5—38). Here too the word ‘we’ is not found after
verse 15, where we read ‘we came to Miletus.’ But surely having
been with St Paul up to this point, there can be no reason for
thinking that the writer was absent at the time of that earnest
address which the Apostle gave to the Ephesian elders whom he
summoned to Miletus to meet him; an address which is exactly
in the style that we should, from his Epistles, expect St Paul to
have used, and which we may therefore judge the writer of ‘the
Acts’ to have heard from the Apostle’s lips, and in substance to
have faithfully reported.
The next ‘we’ passage (xxi. 1—18) brings the voyagers to Jeru-
salem, and there the writer represents himself as one who went
with St Paul to meet James and the Christian elders when the
Apostle was about to give an account of his ministry among the
Gentiles. But though after that the story falls again, as a history
should, into the third person, have we any right to conclude from
this that the writer who had come so far with his friend, left him
after he had reached the Holy City? It seems much more
natural to suppose that he remained near at hand, and that we
have in his further narrative the results of his personal observa-
tion and enquiry, especially as when the pronoun ‘we’ again
appears in the document it is (xxvil. 1) to say ‘it was determined
that we should sail into Italy.’ The writer who had been the com-
panion of St Paul to Jerusalem is at his side when he is to
be sent to Rome. The events intervening had been such that
there was no place for the historian to speak in his own person,
XXiv INTRODUCTION.
but the moment when he is allowed again to become St Paul’s
companion in travel, the personal feature reappears, and the
writer continues to be eye-witness of all that was done till Rome
was reached, and perhaps even till the Apostle was set free, for
he notes carefully the length of time that the imprisonment
lasted, |
That the writer of ‘the Acts’ does not mention St Paul’s
Epistles is what we should expect. He was with St Paul, and
not with any of those congregations to which the Epistles were
addressed, while as we have said, the plunting of the Church,
and not the further edification thereof was what he set before
him to be recorded in ‘the Acts.’ Moreover we are not to look
upon St Luke as with St Paul in the same capacity as Timothy,
Silas, or Aristarchus. He was for the Apostle ‘the beloved
physician’; a Christian brother it is true, but abiding with
St Paul because of his physical needs rather than as a prominent
sharer in his missionary labours.
The passages in question seem to give us one piece of definite
information about their writer. They shew us that he accom-
panied St Paul from Troas as far as Philippi, and there they
leave him. But they further shew that it was exactly in the
same region that the Apostle, when returning to Asia for the
last time, renewed the interrupted companionship, which thence-
forward till St Paul’s arrival in Rome seems only to have been
interrupted while the Apostle was under the charge of the Roman
authorities. If we suppose, as the title given to him warrants us
in doing, that Theophilus was some official, perhaps in Roman
employ; that he lived (and his name is Greek) in the region of
Macedonia; then the third Gospel may very well have been
written for his use by St Luke while he remained in Macedonia,
and ‘the Acts’ subsequently when St Paul had been set free.
In this case when addressing Theophilus, who would know how
the writer came to Macedonia with St Paul, and how he went
away again as that Apostle’s companion, the places in which the
author has allowed ‘we’ to stand in his narrative are exactly
those in which the facts would dictate its retention.
Nor is this personal portion of the writer’s narrative so unim-
INTRODUCTION. XXV
portant as has been alleged by some critics. The founding of
the Church at Philippi may be called the recorded birthday of
European Christendom. And for the writer of ‘the Acts’ it was
not unimportant to tell us that a Christian Church was establish-
ed at Troas, seeing that he had said in an earlier place that on
a former visit they were forbidden of the Spirit to preach the
word in Asia. Who moreover can reckon the address at Miletus
an unimportant document in early Church history? Does it
not shew us how the prescient mind of the Apostle saw the
signs of the times, the germs of those heretical opinions which
he lived to find more fully developed, and against which he
afterwards had to warn Timothy and Titus, against which too
almost all the letters of the other Apostles are more or less
directed? And how the ‘Apostle of the Gentiles’ was brought
to Rome was a subject which could not but find full place in a
history of the beginnings of the Gospel. For though the writer
of ‘the Acts’ fully acknowledges the existence of a Christian
Church in Rome before St Paul’s arrival, it was a part of his
purpose to shew us how that Church was for the first time
strengthened by the personal guidance and direction of one of
the Apostles.
The letters of St Paul bear their witness to St Luke’s pre-
sence with the Apostle when he was a prisoner in Rome; for
in the Epistle to Philemon, written from Rome during his first
imprisonment, the writer sends to Philemon the salutation of
Luke (ver. 24) as one of his fellow-labourers, and in the Epistle
to the Colossians (iv. 14) he is also mentioned as ‘Luke the
beloved physician.’ Indeed it seems very probable that St Luke
afterwards continued to be the companion of St Paul, for in a
later Epistle (2 Tim. iv. 11) we find him saying, ‘Only Luke is
with me.’
That ‘the beloved physician’ was the writer both of the Gospel
and of ‘the Acts’ may perhaps also be inferred from the use which
the author makes of technical medical terms in his description
of diseases, as in the account of Simon’s wife’s mother (Luke
iv. 38), in the story of the woman with the issue of blood
(viii. 43, 44), and in his narration of the agony of Christ
XXV1 INTRODUCTION.
(xxii. 44). Also in the description of the cripple at the Temple
gate (Acts iii. 7), in the notice of the death of Herod Agrippa
(xii. 23), and when he writes of the blindness of Elymas (xiii. 11),
and of the sickness of the father of Publius in Melita (xxviii. 8).
A comparison of the Greek phraseology of the Gospel and
of ‘the Acts’ leads also to the conclusion that the two books
are from the same hand. It should further be noticed that |
there are more than fifty words used in the Gospel and also in
‘the Acts’ which are not found elsewhere in the New Testament.
This work, as well as the Gospel, being anonymous, attempts
have been made to refer the authorship to some other person
than St Luke, seeing that it is only assigned to him by tradition,
and that his name never appears in the story as do the names
of other actors in the work. Some critics have suggested that
Timothy was the author of those sections in which the plural
pronoun ‘we’ occurs, because in the letters addressed to the
Corinthians, Thessalonians and Philippians, St Paul mentions
Timothy with great affection as his fellow-preacher. It is
argued that whoever wrote the narrative of the Acts must have
been in very close relation to St Paul at the time when he
visited Corinth and Thessalonica and Philippi, and that the
name of such a man would not have been omitted, at all events,
from the opening greetings of all these Epistles. But we can see
from Acts xx. 4—5 that there was an intimate companion of
St Paul, who for some reason remained at his side when the
others could leave him, and who there states expressly that he
was with the Apostle when Timothy had gone away. And the
suggestion of those who think that Luke the physician was taken
with him by St Paul because of the bodily infirmities under
which the Apostle laboured, and that it is in this capacity,
rather than as a fellow-preacher, that St Luke was in such close
attendance during the missionary journeys, is worthy of con-
sideration. If this were so, Luke, though the writer of the diary,
yet would not come so prominently before the Churches in the
various cities which were visited, as those companions of St
Paul who were fellow-missionaries, and this would explain why
he is omitted in the greetings of the letters afterwards written
INTRODUCTION. XXVil
by St Paul to the newly-founded congregations. Moreover, the
- physician would be the one person who would naturally remain
in attendance, when the fellow-preachers had gone forth on their
several ways.
Nor is there any better ground for supposing, as some have
done, that Silas is the narrator who writes in the first person.
We have only to look at Acts xv. 22, where, in the portion of
the narrative which, according to this hypothesis, must have
been written by Silas, he is spoken of as a ‘chief man among
the brethren,’ to see that Silas could not be the writer of such
a notice concerning himself.
And the argument which would make Silas (i.e. Silvanus),
and Luke (i.e. Zucanus), two names belonging to one and the
same person, because the one is derived from silva=a wood,
and the other from Jucus=a grove, and so their sense is
cognate, does not merit much consideration. It is said in
support of this view that Silas and Luke are never mentioned
together. But it is plain from the story of the preaching and
arrest of Paul and Silas at Philippi, that the writer who there
speaks in the first person plural was a different person from Silas
(cf. Acts xvi. 16—19). And with regard to the cognate significa-
tion of the two names it should be borne in mind that when
such double appellations were given to the same person they
were not derived from the same language. Cephas and Thomas
are Aramaic, while Peter and Didymus are Greek. But Silvanus
and Zucanus have both a Latin origin.
With still less ground has it been suggested that Titus was
the author of these personal sections and that some later writer
incorporated them in his work. Titus was with St Paul in his
missionary journeys, as we know from the second Epistle to the
Corinthians, but to accept him as author of ‘the Acts’ would be
to prefer a theory of modern invention before the tradition which,
though not capable of exact verification, has the voice of long
antiquity in its favour. We are therefore inclined to give the
weight which it deserves to the ancient opinion, and to accept
the traditional view of the origin of both the Gospel and ‘the
Acts,’ rather than any of the modern suppositions, which are
XXVill INTRODUCTION.
very difficult to be reconciled with the statements in ‘the Acts’
and the Epistles, and which are the mere offspring of critical
imaginations.
IV. DATE OF THE WORK.
That the writer was one who lived amid the events with
which he deals will be clear to any one who will consider how
he connects his narrative with contemporary history, and that in
no case can he be proved to have fallen into error. We find him
speaking of Gamaliel (Acts v. 34) exactly as what we know from
other sources about that doctor of the Law would lead us to
expect a contemporary to speak. In the same place he deals
with historical events in connection with Theudas and Judas, and
it has been shewn in the notes that there is great probability that
all he says is correct; for he speaks of the latter of these
rebels with more exactness than is found in Josephus, while the
former has probably been unnamed by that writer, because the
rebellion in which Theudas was concerned was comprised under
the general description that he gives of the numerous outbreaks
with which Judaea was at that time disturbed.
Again, the writer of ‘the Acts’ brings Caesarea before us
exactly in the condition in which we know it to have been under
Roman government, in the period before the destruction of
Jerusalem. He alludes (xi. 28) to the famine in the days of
Claudius Czesar, in language which only one who had personal
knowledge of the event would have used. He gives a notice of
Herod Agrippa which accords with Josephus in most minute
details, and which shews that the writer of the description was
most intimately acquainted with the circumstances which at-
tended that monarch’s death. In his mention of Cyprus he makes
it clear, by the designation which he uses for the Roman governor
of that island, that he was conversant with all the circumstances
of its government, which had but recently undergone a change,
as is pointed out in the notes on St Paul’s visit to Cyprus.
Of the same character is his very precise notice of the magisterial
titles in Thessalonica and Malta. He employs in his narrative
INTRODUCTION. ΧΧΙΧ
about these places no general expression, signifying ‘ruler’ or
‘chief man,’ but gives the special names of the officials there,
using words far from common, and which modern investigations
have proved to be of that precision which bespeaks a personal
acquaintance with the condition of the districts to which the
writer refers.
It is noteworthy also that he introduces at Ephesus the burn-
ing of the books of magic exactly at that place where, almost
above any city in the whole of Asia, such acts were held in the
greatest repute. So too the whole dialogue which he records
when Paul was rescued by the chief captain in Jerusalem is full
of incidental allusions to the tumults and disorders with which
Judaea was afflicted at the time, allusions which would hardly
have been made, and certainly not so naturally and without all
comment, by a writer who put together the story of the Acts at
a time long after the Apostles were dead. The mention of the
large force told off to convey Paul to Caesarea is just one of those
notices which a later writer would never have invented. A body-
guard of four hundred and seventy men for the conveyance of a
single prisoner would have seemed out of all proportion except
to one who when he wrote knew that the whole land was in-
fested with bands of outlaws, and that these desperadoes could
be hired for any outrage at the shortest notice.
In the same way Felix, Festus and Agrippa are brought before
us in exact harmony with what we learn of their history and
characters from other sources, and with none of that description
which a late writer would have been sure to introduce, while a
contemporary would know it to be unnecessary. Even the
speech of Tertullus before Felix, both by what it says and what
it omits, in its words of flattery, is evidence that we are dealing
with the writing of one who lived through the events of which he
has given us the history.
But it is in the frequent notices of Jerusalem that the most
cogent evidence is to be found for the date of the writer. That
city was destroyed by the Romans Α.Ὁ. 70, but in the whole of
the Acts there is no single word to indicate that the author of
this book knew anything of that event or even of the causes
THE ACTS δ
xxx INTRODUCTION.
whose operation brought it about. The city is always mentioned
as still in its grandeur; the Temple services and sacrifices con-
tinue to be observed; at the great feasts the crowds of strangers
assemble as the Law enjoined, and among its population the
Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees act the same parts which
they do in the Gospel histories; localities such as Solomon’s
porch, and the field Akeldama, the tower of Antonia and its near
neighbourhood to the Temple, are spoken of as though still
existing and as well-marked spots; the synagogues erected in
the city for the foreign Jews are mentioned, and the writer speaks
of them as places which would be well known to his readers.
Annas and Caiaphas and Ananias are to him no characters re-
moved by long years of past history, but recent holders of office
in the city which was still standing in all security. These features,
so many and so various, of contemporary knowledge mark the
Acts as a book which must have been written before the over-
throw of Jerusalem, and as the narrative terminates about the
year 63 A.D., we conclude that its composition must have been
completed very soon after that date, and probably not later than
A.p. 66. About the latter year St Paul was martyred at Rome,
and had the writer of the Acts known of that event it is very
difficult to imagine that he would have made no allusion to it in
such passages as those in which the Apostle declares his ex-
pectation of death and his readiness to suffer in the cause of
Christ.
But not only does the writer of the Acts move easily in his
narrative as if amid contemporary history, and give notices of
persons and places as one would do to whom actual experience in
what he writes about makes his footing sure, he has also left an
undesigned testimony to the date at which he wrote in the
character of his narrative. We know that before the end of the
first century the Christian Church was troubled by the rise of
much false doctrine. In the New Testament we have a few
allusions to false teachers, as when it is said of Hymenaeus and
Alexander (1 Tim. i. 19, 20) that they ‘have made shipwreck con-
cerning the faith, and (2 Tim. ii, 17, 18) of Hymenaeus and
Philetus, that they ‘have erred concerning the truth.’ But from
INTRODUCTION. XXxXl
other sources we learn much more than from Holy Writ con-
cerning these first heretical teachers. The earliest and most
prominent among them were the Gnostics, who derived their
name from the pretensions which they made to superior know-
ledge (γνῶσις). This knowledge, as they taught, distinguished the
more elevated among mankind from the vulgar, for whom faith
and traditional opinion were said to be sufficient. These teachers
also perverted the Scriptures by great license in the use of
allegorical explanation; they held that from God had emanated
generations of spiritual beings, whom they named Aeons (αἰῶνες),
and who, from the description given of them, are seen to be im-
personations of the Divine attributes. By the Gnostics matter
was declared to be evil, but superior knowledge could enable men
either by asceticism to become superior to it, or if they indulged
in excesses, to do so without harm. These heretics also denied
the resurrection of the body. One of their number, Cerinthus,
taught that Christ was one of the Aeons, and that he descended
upon the man Jesus at His baptism, and gave Him the power of
working miracles, but departed from Him before His crucifixion.
There were many other forms assumed by their various heretical
doctrines, but what has been said will be a sufficient notice of
their character for us to see how free from all knowledge of such
speculations was the writer of the Acts. He mentions the
opposition of the Judaizing Christians, those of the Circumcision,
and he records in many places the violent assaults made on the
first missionaries by those sections of the heathen population
who saw that the spread of Christianity would interfere with
their sources of gain, but of Gnosticism in any of its phases he
has never a word, though that kind of teaching was widely
spread before the end of the first century. It is therefore to be
believed that his history was composed before such heretical
teaching had spread, or even made itself much known, otherwise
we must suppose that the writer, though aware of the existence
of all these errors, has yet been able to compile a narrative of
the early years of the Church without giving us a hint of what
had been developed within her at the time when he wrote. He
has brought forward St Paul speaking at Miletus (xx. 29, 30),
c2
XxXxil INTRODUCTION.
‘I know that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them;’ and yet on such a passage he has given no sign that the
words of the Apostle had been exactly verified. ΤῸ suppose that
the writer could thus compose his book and never shew that he
knew of the later course of the history of the Church, if he did
know of it, is quite as difficult as to conceive that he was
‘aware of the overthrow of the Holy City, and yet, though making
mention of Jerusalem in almost every chapter, he has never let
fall a word to intimate his knowledge that the city no longer
existed. The only safe conclusion to which a consideration of
these characteristics of the Acts can lead us is that the author
wrote as he has done because, at the time when he was writing,
Gnosticism had not been spread abroad, nor was Jerusalem
destroyed.
The absence of any allusions to the writings of St Paul in the
Acts is a piece of the same kind of evidence for the early date
of its composition. Many of the Pauline Epistles were no
doubt written and in the possession of those Churches to which
they were addressed before the composition of the Acts, but
they had not yet been widely circulated, and so were probably
unknown to St Luke. There are, however, some points in
the history, which he has given us, that derive support from
the Epistles. Thus the provision for widows, alluded to Acts
vi. 1, was a new feature of social obligation introduced by
Christianity. In the narrative of St Luke we are shewn that
this was one of the earliest cares of the infant Church, and
that it even took precedence of all that we now embrace under
the name of public worship. Consonant with this part of the
early Christian organization are the regulations given by St Paul
to Timothy (1 Tim. v. 9) concerning provision for the widows in
the Church over which he was to preside. Again the historian
gives in several places the account of Saul’s conversion after he
had been a persecutor of the Christians; in entire accord with
this the Apostle speaks of himself (1 Tim. i. 13) as ‘a blasphemer,
and a persecutor, and injurious,’ but as having ‘obtained mercy
INTRODUCTION. XXXlil
because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.’ St Paul tells of his
escape from Damascus (2 Cor. xi. 32) in language which agrees
with what we read in the Acts (ix. 23—25). In like manner he
makes mention (Gal. i. 18) of his visit to Jerusalem to see Peter
and James exactly as St Luke mentions it in the history (Acts ix.
28). We learn from the Acts (xii. 17) that James was president
of the Church in Jerusalem, and with that agrees the testimony
of St Paul (Gal. ii. 9), while the persecutions which the Apostle
underwent in Lystra, Antioch and Iconium, of which the his-
torian speaks at some length (Acts xiii, xiv.), are mentioned by
St Paul when he is writing to Timothy, a native of Lystra (2
Tim. iii. 10, 11), as matters about which the latter had full
knowledge. So too the letters of St Paul confirm the history in
the Acts with reference to the sufferings endured by the Apostle
in his mission to Macedonia. Speaking of these sufferings he
reminds the Philippians (i. 30) that their conflict is of the same
kind as they had seen him endure. He alludes also (ii. 22) to
their knowledge of the character of Timothy whom St Luke
mentions as one of St Paul’s companions in that journey. And
at an earlier period when writing to the Thessalonians (1 Thess.
i. 6) he makes mention of the great affliction under which they
had received the word of the Gospel, and specially names (ii. 2)
the shameful treatment to which he and his companions had
been subjected at Philippi. Then the teaching recorded at
Athens in which the Apostle points out how men from natural
religion should be led to ‘seek the Lord if haply they may feel
after Him and find Him’ has its counterpart in what is said in
the opening of the Epistle to the Romans. There too St Paul
declares that the invisible things of God, even His eternal power
and Godhead, are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, so that men are without excuse. While the quo-
tation from Aratus in that same speech on Mars’ Hill is exactly
in the style of St Paul, as may be seen from similar quotations
made by him 1 Cor. xv. 33 and Titus i. 12, while no other N.T.
writer is found quoting from the works of heathen authors.
Again both history and letters shew us how St Paul laboured
with his own hands for the support not only of himself but of
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
those who were with him. St Luke mentions the working with
Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth (xviii. 3) and puts a reference to
the like conduct at Ephesus into the Apostle’s mouth (xx. 34)
when he is speaking to the elders at Miletus. The passages
which confirm this narrative in the Epistles will be found in
1 Cor. iv. 12; 2 Cor. xi. 8—10; 1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 8;
while from Rom. xvi. 4 and 2 Tim. iv. 19 we have evidence
that these persons whom St Luke tells us were fellow-workers
with the Apostle as tent-makers were really friends whom he
valued highly as brethren in Christ.
On another point we have similar confirmation of one docu-
ment by the others. We know from the Acts how St Paul en-
couraged the Gentiles to aid with their substance the poor
Christians in Judaea, and he mentions (Acts xxiv. 17) that it was
to bring some of the alms collected in answer to his appeals that
he had come to Jerusalem when he was attacked in the Temple.
Writing to the Romans (xv. 25) the Apostle says ‘Now I go
unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints’ and in the next
verse mentions the ‘contributions’ of Macedonia and Achaia.
We have also a proof (1 Cor. xvi. 1) that such collections were
directed to be made in the churches of Galatia as well as at
Corinth, and the same subject is mentioned 2 Cor. viii. 1-—4,
In Acts xix. 21, the historian tells us of St Paul’s intention to
visit Rome, and to the Christians there the Apostle writes (Rom.
i. 13) ‘I would not have you ignorant that oftentimes I have
purposed to come unto you.’ We know from the Acts very
incidentally (xxvii. 2) that Aristarchus went with St Paul when
he was carried prisoner to Rome. This is confirmed by the
language which the Apostle uses in a letter written during that
imprisonment (Col. iv. 10) where he speaks of Aristarchus as his
fellow-prisoner, a term which might well be used figuratively by
him to express the devotion of the friend who gave up his own
liberty that he might minister to the venerable Apostle.
Such coincidences of testimony in works written indepen-
dently of each other are of the highest value, and could only be
found in writings produced by those who wrote from direct
personal knowledge. So that we are in this way brought to
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
the conclusion that the narrative of the Acts was composed
before the time when the Epistles of St Paul had been brought
into circulation. For there is in the history no notice of the
letters, and yet the details betoken the same freshness, and
closeness to the events of which they speak, as is seen in the
confessedly contemporary allusions made by St Paul in his
Epistles. There can, therefore, be no great difference in their
date of composition between those Epistles of St Paul from
which we have’ quoted and St Luke’s account in the Acts of the
Apostles.
A consideration of these various features of the Acts,—that
the writer makes mention of contemporary secular history as
one who was living among the events of which he speaks;
that in his work we find no indication that he knew of the fall
of Jerusalem; that he displays no acquaintaince with the here-
tical tenets which were rife before the end of the first century ;
that he makes no reference to any of St Paul’s Epistles, though
writing as one fully conversant with the missionary-travels of
that Apostle,—forces us to the conclusion that the work was
written at some time between A.D. 63 and A.D. 70, and most
probably about midway between these dates.
V. THE SOURCES OF THE NARRATIVE.
In the preface to the Gospel of St Luke the writer states
definitely that the information which he is about to record for
Theophilus was derived from those ‘which from the beginning
were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word.’ And as he him-
self was certainly not a disciple of Christ from the first, it was
necessary that in the earlier treatise he should consult others,
and it may have been needful to do so for the greater portion
of what he has there written. But in the later book the sources
of his information are not necessarily of exactly the same kind
as for the Gospel. So that the preface of the Gospel need not
be taken as having reference to the Acts likewise; and it is
manifest from the passages in which the author in the Acts
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
speaks in the first person plural that he meant to imply that he
was himself an eye-witness of the events which he is there
describing. What has been said in the notes on iii. 8 about the
graphic character of the language there used, and of its simi-
larity in style to the Gospel of St Mark, the vivid narratives of
which have much in common with the acknowledged language
of St Peter, it seems not improbable that the account of the
events at and after the Ascension and of the spread of the
Gospel in Jerusalem (Acts iy.) may have been drawn directly
or indirectly from that Apostle’s information. We may also
ascribe to the same source all those portions of the narrative in
which St Peter plays a conspicuous part, and of which the
language is markedly of one character. Such portions would
include ix. 32—xi. 18 and also xii. 1—19, much of which could
have come in the first instance from no other lips than those of
Peter himself. From some member of the Hellenistic party, of
whom St Luke would meet many during his travels with St
Paul, (just as we know (xxi. 8) that he dwelt with Philip the
Evangelist many days at Caesarea,) our author probably drew
the whole of that portion of his narrative which relates to the
appointment of the deacons and the accusation, defence and
death of Stephen (vi.—vii.), as well as those notices of the after
movements of the Hellenistic missionaries (vill. 1—40, xi. 19—-30,
xil. 25) which are found at intervals in the history.
The narrative of Saul’s conversion (ix. 1—30) must have been
told by St Paul himself, and after xiii. 1 the remainder of the
book deals exclusively with the labours of that Apostle, and as
the writer had abundant opportunities while journeying with
St Paul of hearing all the history of his life before he became
his companion, we cannot suppose that he has recorded anything
in that part of his narrative except what was derived from the
information of the Apostle or his fellow-labourers,
There remain the two historic notices (1) of the rest experi-
enced by the Churches of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria
(ix. 31) and (2) of the death of Herod Agrippa (xii. 20—23);
but of these, if, as we have endeavoured to shew, he were living
amidst the events of which he writes, the author would be aware
INTRODUCTION. XXXVil
from his personal knowledge; and the natural manner in which
both these incidents are introduced indicates how well the
writer knew that for his Christian readers as well as for himself
a slight hint would recall the bypast trials of Christ’s Church.
VI. ON SOME ALLEGED DIFFICULTIES IN THE CHARACTER OF
THE NARRATIVE IN THE ACTS.
It has been said in recent criticism on the Acts that the book
represents the Gospel as intended not for Jews only but for
all mankind, in a manner at variance with the teaching of the
Gospels. Those who put forward this objection would assign
the teaching of the universality of the Gospel message to St
Paul alone and would set it down as his development of what
was meant at first to be only a modification of Judaism.
That in the Acts the preaching of the Gospel is represented
as for all nations is certainly true. St Peter says (1. 39) ‘The
promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are
afar of, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.’ The
accusation laid against Stephen (vi. 14) was that he had said
‘Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and change the
customs which Moses delivered us’ and his whole defence shews
that he had preached that not the Jews nor Jerusalem were
any longer to be God’s special care, but that all men were now
to be embraced in His covenant, while the whole of St Paul’s
labours are directed to make of Jews and Gentiles one worldwide
Church of Christ. But the student of the Gospels need surely
find no stumblingblock here. For if we take that which is on
all hands accepted as the most Jewish of the Gospels, that of
St Matthew, we can see that the universalism of the Acts is
therein foreshadowed from the first, and spoken of definitely
before the close. To God’s ancient people His offers of mercy
were made first, and in accordance with this is the conduct of all
the preaching of the Acts, but Gentiles are no longer excluded
when once Christ has been born. To lay the foundations of the
Christian Church firmly in the short space of the ministerial
life of its Founder it was needful that the labours both of Himself
XXXVIlil INTRODUCTION.
and His disciples should be confined within a limited range, and
directed to a people prepared by the Old Testament revelation
and among whom some were likely to be ready to hear the words
of the Gospel message. But while the infant Jesus is in His
cradle we see wise men from the Hast brought to be His earliest
worshippers. The voice of His herald proclaims that not the
natural seed of Abraham shall of necessity be heirs of the pro-
mises, but that God is able of the very stones (and if so, much
more from among the rest of mankind) to raise up children unto
Abraham. When the ministry of Christ is begun and He takes
up His abode in the border land of the Gentiles, we are reminded
that it had been made known of old that ‘the people which sat
in darkness were to see great light, and that light is sprung up
for them that sat in the region and shadow of death.’ Then what
can be more universal than the benedictions with which the
Sermon on the Mount begins? The poor in spirit, the mourners,
the meek, the pure, the merciful, these are not restricted to the
Jewish race, and on these it is that Jesus utters His first blessings.
How often too does He shew that the customs of the Jews were
to be done away, the ceremonial law, the fastings and the sabbaths
to be disregarded, while the moral law was to be widened and
deepened so that all men should learn that they were neighbours
one of another! How often does He select the Samaritans to illus-
trate His teaching, and place them before us as those with whom
He was well pleased, while He points out (Matt. viii. 10) that in
the Roman centurion there was faith manifested beyond what He
had found in Israel! It is true that when Jesus first sent out
the twelve (Matt. x. 5) He said unto them ‘Go not into the way
of the Gentiles’ but this was in the same spirit in which all the
teaching of Christianity had its commencement among the
Jews. Yet the Lord, who gave the injunction that this should
be so, knew that those to whom the message was first sent would
largely refuse to hear. For He adds to his commission the warn-
ing that His ministers are going as ‘sheep among wolves, and
foretells that they should be persecuted from one city to another
(Matt. x. 16—23), and goes on to say that His message is to be
published far and wide, yea even proclaimed, as it were, from
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
the housetops. When He speaks afterwards (Matt. xii. 18—21)
of His own work in the language of Isaiah He quotes ‘He shall
shew judgment to the Gentiles...and in His name shall the Gentiles
trust’ and before the close of that same address He adds those
words which proclaim that not only the ties of race but even
those of family and kindred are to be disregarded in comparison
with the unity of all men in Him ‘Whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and
sister and mother.’
Think too how he figures the kingdom of God. It is a tree
(Matt. xiii. 32) in whose branches the birds of the air from all
quarters shall come and find a home: it is a net cast into the
wide sea of the world and gathers (xiii. 47) of every kind of fish;
while the field in which God’s seed is to be sown is not Judea
nor Palestine nor any limited region, but in His own gracious ex-
position (xiii. 38) ‘The field is the world” He makes known
(Matt. xviii. 11) that His mission is not to save one race only but
to seek and save that which is lost, and says to the professedly,
but only outwardly, religious among His own people (xxi. 31)
‘The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you, and adds the solemn warning afterwards (xxi. 43) ‘The
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof,’
And as the end of His life drew near Jesus spake even more
plainly. Thus He says (Matt. xxiv. 14) ‘This Gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations, and His final commission (xxviii. 19) bids His dis-
ciples do what St Luke tells us in the Acts they did: ‘Go ye
therefore and teach all nations baptizing them...and teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.’
When in one Gospel we find so many evidences of what the
character of the Christian preaching was meant to be, we need
not examine farther to see with how little ground it is asserted
that in the Acts St Luke paints Christianity in different colours
from anything that was known to the writers of the Gospels or
set forth in the life and teaching of Jesus. As the angels pro-
claimed at the birth of the Lord, ‘the tidings of great joy’ were
xl INTRODUCTION.
to be ‘unto all people, and the new-born King while ‘the glory
of God’s people Israel’ was also heralded from the first as to be
‘a light to lighten the Gentiles.’
Another objection to the narrative in the Acts is that the book
marks no rupture with Judaism. To bring this objection into
prominence much stress is laid, by those who use it, on the
severity with which St Paul speaks of the Judaizers in some
parts of his letters, notably in the Epistle to the Galatians.
From the language there used it is argued that the Apostle had
broken altogether with Judaism, and that the picture of his life
and labours as we have received it in the Acts is untrustworthy.
Now first of all it is extremely unlikely that the preachers of
Christ’s Gospel, with His example before them, would sever
themselves from their Jewish brethren until circumstances arose
which forced them to do so. Our Lord had been a devout Jew
while rebuking without measure what was deserving of rebuke in
Pharisaic Judaism. And what we have set before us in the Acts,
first in the doings of the twelve, and then in the story of St Paul,
is in natural sequence to the Gospel history. Peter and John
going up to the Temple at the hour of prayer is the link which
binds one history to the other, and it is a link which would not
lightly be broken, for who could be so powerfully appealed to by
the first Evangelists as those who had the ancient scriptures
already in their hands?
And in St Paul’s case a distinction should be made between
Judaism and Judaizers. He knew that Judaism must pass
away, yet how tenderly, lovingly he deals in his letters with the
devout Jew. The Judaizers, who were of set purpose an obstacle
and hindrance to the work of the Gospel, he cannot away with.
They are the men who desire merely ‘to make a fair shew in the
flesh, who preach ‘another Gospel,’ and therefore are to the
Apostle anathema. But he could still see constantly in the Law
the pedagogue appointed to bring men to Christ; and how near
his heart his own people were we can discern from that Moses-like
language of his written to the Romans at the very same time that
he wrote in his severest strain to the misleading Judaizers among
the Galatians. In what a truly tender light St Paul regarded all
INTRODUCTION. xli
that was Jewish is seen from his words to the Romans (Rom. ix.
1—5) ‘I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing
witness with me in the Holy Ghost, that I have great sorrow
and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself
were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen
according to the flesh: who are Israelites; whose is the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and
of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God
blessed for ever.’ Now this very same feeling is shewn to us in
the Acts. There to the Jews he becomes a Jew that he may gain
them for the Gospel. He follows the advice of the brethren in
Jerusalem and takes on him the Nazirite vow, and in his speech
before the Council he shrinks not from saying ‘I am a Pharisee,
a son of Pharisees, exactly in accord with the spirit which
dictates again his argument to the Romans (xi. 1) ‘Did God
cast off His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite.’
And those whom God had not cast off we may rest sure St Paul
had not cast off, nor made with them such a breach as is sug-
gested by those who argue from some expressions in his Epistles
that the behaviour described in the Acts is not such as St Paul
would have shewn to the other disciples nor they to him.
Again it is said that in the Acts Peter is represented as Pauline
in all he says and does and Paul’s conduct is pictured as in
complete harmony with Peter’s. But to those who believe that
these two were both Apostles of the same Jesus, both preachers
of the same Evangel, both guided by the same Holy Spirit,
there is nothing but what is natural in this. The historian
brings both before us as labouring for the same work, the ex-
tension of the Gospel according to Christ’s command from Jeru-
salem to the ends of the earth. He gives us only short abstracts
of what either preacher said, and is it not to be supposed that
there would be great similarity in the drift of their addresses?
Their main theme must be the Resurrection as a proof of the
Divinity and the Messiahship of Jesus. Their chief exhortation
‘Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the re-
mission of your sins.’
xlii INTRODUCTION.
But this figment of a Pauline and a Petrine party never
entered into the thoughts of either Luke or Paul or Peter.
There were partizans of Paul and of Peter at Corinth, it is true,
but we know how they were rebuked by Paul himself, who bade
them remember that Christ was not divided. Nor is there any
evidence worth the name that His Apostles were divided. Paul
tells us how he rebuked Peter because he stood condemned by
the inconsistency of his own actions. But it was the rebuke
of a friend and not of an opponent, for in the same chapter
he speaks of Peter as one who had been entrusted by the Spirit
with the Gospel of the circumcision, and who had given to him
and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, as labourers in a
common cause though in different fields. But neither in the
Acts nor in the Epistles have we any warrant for that opinion
which is so prominent in the Clementine fictions of the second
century. There, without being named, St Paul is alluded to by
Peter ‘as the man who is mine enemy, and under the guise
of Simon Magus is attacked for reproving Peter at Antioch.
These writings are a most worthless ground on which to base
any argument at all. Their author, whoever he may have been,
durst not mention St Paul by name, so doubtful is he of the
acceptance which his work will meet with; and yet it is of these
works that writers who deny the fidelity of the New Testament
documents assert ‘there is scarcely a single writing which is of
so great importance for the history of Christianity in its first
stage.’ It is out of these fictions that the Petrine and Pauline
parties have been evolved. The writings of Justin Martyr, who
knew the sentiments of Christians in the Holy Land at the
beginning of the second century, have no trace of these parties,
neither is there a trace to be found in what is left us of the
writings of that Judeo-Christian Hegesippus. And if these
men, who were in the position to know most about it, have no
word of the matter, we can only conclude that the opposition so
much dwelt on did not exist, but that, just as in the Acts we have
it set before us, the preaching of Peter and Paul was in entire
harmony. For them Christ was not divided, nor did their
doctrine differ except so far as was made necessary by the con-
INTRODUCTION. xliii
dition of the audiences which they addressed. For a fuller dis-
cussion of this subject than is here possible, and for demonstra-
tion that there was no antagonism between Paul and the rest of
the Apostles, the reader is referred to Dr Lightfoot’s Essay on
‘St Paul and the Three’ in his Edition of the Epistle to the
Galatians.
In the notes on various readings the text of the Vulgate has
been compared throughout and it will be found that that version
supports to a remarkable degree the readings given in the earliest
MSS.
The language of the Acts, and in part the grammar, has
been illustrated, where it is possible, from the Septuagint (and
especially from the Greek of the Apocryphal Books), since to that
version we are indebted in the main for the New Testament
diction.
As will be seen from the Index, a considerable number of
extracts from the Homilies of Chrysostom on the Acts have been
given in the notes. The study of patristic commentaries is now
encouraged by some of the University examinations. It there-
fore seemed worth while to draw the attention of the student
from the first to such commentaries, and no more attractive
writer than Chrysostom could be found with whom to begin
an acquaintance with patristic Greek.
Where the recently published ‘Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles’ offers any matter illustrative of St Luke’s history it
has been noticed, and in the same manner reference will be
found not unfrequently made to the various portions of the
Apocryphal Acts.
For grammatical reference Winer-Moulton has been quoted
where the student might wish for a fuller discussion of any point
than could be given in the notes.
TPA=SEI= AMTO2FOAQN
1 ἘΠῚ \ - / 5) / \ t
OV μὲν πρῶτον λόγον ἐποιησάμην περὶ πάν-
ἊΝ ς a a
των, ὦ Θεόφιλε, ὧν ἤρξατο ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς ποιεῖν τε καὶ διδάσ-
ἥ a 3
Kew, "ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας ἐντειλάμενος τοῖς ἀποστόλοις
“Ὁ , ἔ
διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου ods ἐξελέξατο ἀνελήμφθη. " οἷς
a \ a
καὶ παρέστησεν ἑαυτὸν ζῶντα μετὰ τὸ παθεῖν αὐτὸν ἐν
“ ? lal ,
πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις, δι’ ἡμερῶν τεσσεράκοντα ὀπτανό-
μενος αὐτοῖς καὶ λέγων τὰ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ
lal , A >
θεοῦ" “καὶ συναλιζόμενος παρήγγειλεν αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ
> \ / \
Ἱεροσολύμων μὴ χωρίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ περιμένειν τὴν
n e / 5 a7 >’ /
ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ πατρὸς ἣν ἠκούσατέ μου " ὅτι ᾿Ιωάννης
\ > / ids c - δὲ > / θ /
μὲν ἐβάπτισεν ὕδατι, ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐν πνεύματι βαπτισθή-
εσθε ἁγίῳ οὐ μετὰ πολλὰς ταύτας ἡμέρας. “ οἱ μὲν
σεσθε ayim ov peta πολλᾶς τ S ἡμερᾶς. μ
5 , eh er , ἢ δ τ ἢ
οὖν συνελθόντες ἠρώτων αὐτὸν λέγοντες, Κύριε, εἰ ἐν
/ ¥ al
τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ ἀποκαθιστάνεις τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ
> / é ye 3 \ 2 , 3 Ls A > \ rn
Ἰσραήλ ; ‘cimrev πρὸς αὐτούς, Οὐχ ὑμῶν ἐστὶν γνῶναι
/ x \ «ὃ «ς \ ΝΜ > “Ὁ δι > /
χρόνους ἢ καιροὺς ods ὁ πατὴρ ἔθετο ἐν TH ἰδιῳᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ,
Β..5 \ / rae ,
ἀλλὰ λήμψεσθε δύναμιν ἐπελθόντος τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύ-
WK ᾽ ἐᾷ “Ὁ , 4 4
ματος ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἔσεσθέ μου μάρτυρες ἔν τε lepov-
σαλὴμ καὶ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ᾿Ιουδαίᾳ καὶ Σαμαρείᾳ καὶ ἕω
Te πάσῃ τῇ lovdaia καὶ Σαμαρείᾳ ς
> A »-“ rn » / ’ “Ὁ
ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς. “Kal ταῦτα εἰπὼν βλεπόντων αὐτῶν
3 ‘ \ / an A
ἐπήρθη, καὶ νεφέλη ὑπέλαβεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν
3A 10 \ ᾽ \
αὐτῶν. “Kat ὡς ἀτενίζοντες ἦσαν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν
THE ACTS Ht ; I
a
2 TTPA=EI2 I. 10
“ / , /
πορευομένου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄνδρες δύο παρειστήκεισαν
a “ 1 \ a 53 ”
αὐτοῖς ἐν ἐσθήσεσι λευκαῖς, “olf καὶ εἶπαν, *Avdpes
al / \ >
Γαλιλαῖοι, τί ἑστήκατε βλέποντες εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν:
- ra) rn e798 \ Je ς An ’ \ ’ \
οὗτος ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς 6 ἀναλημφθεὶς ad ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν
«Ὁ / \ ΄
οὕτως ἐλεύσεται ὃν τρόπον ἐθεάσασθε αὐτὸν πορευό-
> \ > , 12 27 C7 oe:
μενον εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. ™TOTE ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς lepov-
\ 5» \ v ~ [4 5 lal [ .}
σαλὴμ ἀπὸ ὄρους τοῦ καλουμένου ᾿λαιώνος, Ὁ ἐστιν
ς \ /
ἐγγὺς Ἱερουσαλὴμ σαββάτου ἔχον ὁδόν. “Kal ore
oA > \ ς A ΞΟ - > ;
εἰσῆλθον, εἰς τὸ ὑπερῷον ἀνέβησαν οὗ ἦσαν κατα-
τ “ / “23 / \ σεῦ \
μένοντες, ὅ τε Llétpos καὶ ᾿Ιωάννης καὶ ᾿Ιάκωβος καὶ
᾿Ανδρέας, Φίλιππος καὶ Θωμᾶς, Βαρθολομαῖος καὶ
an /
Μαθθαῖος, ᾿Ιάκωβος ᾿Αλφαίου καὶ Σίμων ὁ Ζηλωτὴς
> / > / 14 e / 4
L ᾿Ιούδας Ἰακώβου. “οὗτοι πάντες ἦσαν προσκαρ-
lal Us Ν a A \
_TepovyTes ὁμοθυμαδὸν TH προσευχῇ σὺν γυναιξὶν Kat
\ A \ (ee nr \ nr » “ἅμ r
Μαριὰμ τῇ μητρὶ Tod ᾿Ιησοῦ καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτοῦ.
15 K A 3 a PBS A , > A ,ὕ >
al ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις ἀναστὰς Ilétpos ἐν
, a ’ a - J ΠΣ wv > , ah
μέσῳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν εἶπεν ἦν TE ὄχλος ὀνομάτων ἐπὶ
3,
τὸ αὐτὸ ὡς ἑκατὸν elxoow “”Avdpes ἀδελφοί, ἔδει
A \ « fy: 5: \ “Ὁ ee
πληρωθῆναι THY γραφὴν ἣν προεῖπεν TO πνεῦμα TO ἅγιον
\ ΄ ef ΝᾺ a / ¢ -
διὰ στόματος Δαυεὶδ περὶ ᾿Ιούδα τοῦ γενομένου ὁδηγοῦ
a a > a 17 ὦ , s >
τοῖς in al ape, ὅτι κατηριθμημένος ae
saad καὶ ἔλαχεν τὸν λῆρον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης.
" οὗτος per οὖν ἐκτήσατο χωρίον ἐκ μισθοῦ τὴν ἀδικίας,
καὶ πρηνὴς γενόμενος ἐλάκησεν μέσος, καὶ ἐξεχύθη
“ \ a
πάντα Ta σπλάγχνα αὐτοῦ “Kal γνωστὸν ἐγένετο
nr lal la) ¢ / A
πᾶσι τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν lepovcadnpm, ὥστε κληθῆναι TO
/ > a a γὼ / > A 3 “ἢ
χωρίον ἐκεῖνο τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ αὐτῶν ᾿Αχελδαμάχ,
n 3 Ν ͵ “ δὴν ἡ \ 5) 7,
τοῦτ ἔστιν χωρίον αἵματος. “᾿ γέγραπται γὰρ ἐν βίβλῳ
- , δι ΔΚ ’ » ὧν \ \
ψαλμῶν, Τενηθήτω ἡ ETAUALS αὐτοῦ ἔρημος καὶ μὴ
Y ε a We i Υ, yen
ἔστω ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν αὐτῇ, Kal, Tv ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ
/ “ 2 lal = an al ,
λαβέτω ἕτερος. “ δεῖ οὖν τῶν συνελθόντων ἡμῖν ἀνδρῶν
IL 9 ~ ATIOZTOAQN 3
= > “Ἢ Fe \ lal » « n
ἐν παντὶ χρόνῳ ᾧ εἰσῆλθεν Kai ἐξῆλθεν ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς ὁ
͵ ᾽ a 22 ? , Αὐτοῦ A , 5)
κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς, ~ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ‘lw-
, “ A ς lA ba > μ“ 3. 4... 5.8 a /
ἄννου ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἧς ἀνελήμφθη ad’ ἡμῶν, μάρτυρα
A > / » fal \ δ᾿ .99 7 ,
τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ σὺν ἡμῖν γενέσθαι ἕνα τούτων.
/ \ \ an
“ὃ καὶ ἔστησαν δύο, Iwond τὸν καλούμενον Βαρσαββᾶν,
ε 3 a /
ὃς ἐπεκλήθη ᾿Ιοῦστος, καὶ Μαθθίαν. “καὶ mpocev-
“ 4 \ / a
ἕξάμενοι εἶπαν, Σὺ κύριε καρδιογνῶστα πάντων, ava-
δειξον ὃν ἐξελέξω ἐκ τούτων τῶν δύο ἕνα “λαβεῖν τὸν
‘ nw / Ψ Ὁ ? Φ
τόπον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης καὶ ἀποστολῆς, ἀφ᾽ ἧς
Ea) 5 / a > \ / \ »
παρέβη ᾿Ιούδας πορευθῆναι εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν ἴδιον.
26 peer / 3 a \ ” ς a wes
καὶ ἔδωκαν κλήρους αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔπεσεν ὁ κλῆρος ἐπὶ
\ a ο
Μαθθίαν, καὶ συγκατεψηφίσθη μετὰ τῶν ἕνδεκα ἀπο-
᾿ στόλων.
an nr ς an
2 “Καὶ ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς Πεν-
a 5 ¢ n >
τηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ TO αὐτό. * Kal ἐγένετο
7 nr a 7 Α͂ Ὁ
ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς
/ eae | a \ 9 « tJ ‘
βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθη-
3 Ν Μ θ > an ὃ , an
μενοι, καὶ ὠφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι
ςς EN , ἀνα ey 5», «Ψ Ψ 3. Ὅν 4 \
ὡσεὶ πυρός, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐφ᾽ Eva ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, * καὶ
5) l , , δ, ἃ ΣΡ
ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ayiov, καὶ ἤρξαντο
Qn , \ \ fal 5,
λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γχώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀπο-
΄ Set οἷς 5.53 Ni... spate ς \
φθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς. ἦσαν δὲ ἐν “Ἱερουσαλὴμ κατοι-
a > a x” 5 fal > \ \ »
κοῦντες ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους
a ς \ \ 2 / \ a a
τῶν ὑπὸ TOV OUpavoy’ “ γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης
an \ a
συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη, ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς
Ὁ “Ὁ 50.ὕ >’ Ὁ
ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν. ἢ ἐξί-
/
σταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ ἐθαύμαζον λέγοντες, Οὐχ ἰδοὺ
Uj e J, > L ς a 8 \ al
TAVTES OUTOL εἰσιν οἱ τες Τ᾿ αλιλαῖοι; * καὶ πῶς
«ς a. 3 Ul Ὁ A 5.9} ͵7 ς a > -
ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος TH ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ἡ
? ra : t a a ε
ἐγεννήθημεν, "Ἰ]άρθοι καὶ Μῆδοι καὶ ᾿Ελαμῖται, καὶ οἱ
κατοικοῦντες τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν, ᾿Ιουδαίαν te καὶ Καπ-
Ἐ-. Ὁ»
4 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ 1.9
ἢ \ > / 10 , \
παδοκίαν, Πόντον καὶ τὴν ᾿Ασίαν, “" Φρυγίαν τε Kat
\ \ / lal / “
Παμφυλίαν, Αἴγυπτον καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς Λιβύης τῆς
\ , \ ς " a ¢ a ’ ~ ὧν
κατὰ Κυρήνην, καὶ ot ἐπιδημοῦντες “Ρωμαῖοι, ᾿Ιουδαϊοί
\ / 11 A ἊΝ 9 /
Te Kal προσήλυτοι, " Κρῆτες καὶ “ApaBes, ἀκούομεν
lal a «ς / \ “
λαλούντων αὐτῶν ταῖς ἡμετέραις γλώσσαις τὰ μεγαλεῖα
τοῦ θεοῦ. " ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος
/ A 3 3 ¢
πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, Τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι; * ἕτεροι
7 /
δὲ διαχλευάζοντες ἔλεγον ὅτι ['λεύκους μεμεστωμένοι
εἰσίν.
ς al lal \
4S rabels δὲ ὁ Létpos σὺν τοῖς ἕνδεκα ἐπῆρεν THY
lal » lal / “-
φωνὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπεφθέγξατο αὐτοῖς, "Avdpes ᾿Ιουδαῖοι
a id \ “ Εἰς, νι
καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες ᾿Ιερουσαλὴμ πάντες, τοῦτο ὑμῖν
ἢ , 5.3
γνωστὸν ἔστω, καὶ ἐνωτίσασθε Ta ῥήματά μου. “οὐ
\ ¢ « lal ¢ ͵ e “ »” \
yap ὡς ὑμεῖς ὑπολαμβάνετε οὗτοι μεθύουσιν, ἔστιν γὰρ
“ / - id VA 1g. 2 \ lal / > Ν ’ /
ὥρα τρίτη τῆς ἡμέρας, ANAA τοῦτο ἐστιν TO εἰρημένον
ἈΝ aA / » / 17 \ 3 lal 3 /
διὰ Tov προφήτου ᾿Ιωὴλ, “" Kai ἔσται ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις
~ \ -“" / /
ἡμέραις, λέγει ὁ θεός, ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου
a ¥ e « “Ὁ
ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα, καὶ προφητεύσουσιν οἱ υἱοὶ ὑμῶν καὶ
id A e lal ΕΥ͂Σ
αἱ θυγατέρες ὑμῶν, καὶ οἱ νεανίσκοι ὑμῶν ὁράσεις ὄψον-
\ e « a
ται, Kal οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ὑμῶν ἐνυπνίοις ἐνυπνιασθήσον-
. 18 ἢ SAN \ , \
ται “Kai ye ἐπὶ τοὺς δούλους μου Kal ἐπὶ τὰς δούλας
“ «ς / lal fa
μου ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ TOU πνεύματός
\ μ \ -
μου, καὶ προφητεύσουσιν. “Kai δώσω τέρατα ἐν τῷ
’ a wv A \ a A +S
οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ σημεῖα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω, αἷμα Kal πῦρ
Ν ’ / “ 20 ¢ e/ / >
καὶ ἀτμίδα καπνοῦ. “ὁ ἥλιος μεταστραφήσεται εἰς
/ ‘ “4 / ’ φ \ a c ,
σκότος Kal ἡ σελήνη εἰς αἷμα, πρὶν ἐλθεῖν ἡμέραν
, al y rn a
κυρίου τὴν μεγάλην καὶ ἐπιφανῆ. ™ καὶ ἔσται πᾶς ὃς
» τ ,
ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται.
rn > / Ἁ , /
*®” A vdpes ᾿Ισραηλῖται, ἀκούσατε τοὺς λόγους τούτους"
» lal \ “ v ὃ ’ ὃ ὃ 7 > A “
Τησοῦν τὸν Ναζωραῖον, avdpa ἀποδεδειγμένον ἀπὸ τοῦ
A - ’ / Φ
θεοῦ εἰς ὑμᾶς δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σημείοις, οἷς ἐποί-
Il. 37 “ATLOZTOAQN :
᾽ ΕῚ nr ce \ > 7 ς tal \ » \ y
ησεν dt αὐτοῦ ὁ θεὸς ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν, καθὼς αὐτοὶ οἴδατε,
-“ A ¢ ΠΝ “Ὁ \ r al li
* τοῦτον TH ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ Ex-
\ \ 5 / ’ > " «ὁ ς
δοτον διὰ χειρὸς ἀνόμων προσπήξαντες ἀνείλατε, ™ dv ὁ
κι | A Qn , ,
θεὸς ἀνέστησεν λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου, καθότι
᾽ 5 \ a re GAs ᾽ A 25 \
οὐκ ἦν δυνατὸν κρατεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ. Δαυεὶδ
\ y ’ A 7
yap λέγει εἰς αὐτόν, ]Ϊροορώμην τὸν κύριον ἐνώπιόν μου
\ fg ἐν ? n ? Be on \ rn,
διὰ παντός, ὅτι ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἐστίν, ἵνα μὴ σαλευθῶ
\ nr » / ς ’ὔ 4
διὰ τοῦτο ηὐφράνθη μου ἡ καρδία καὶ ἠγαλλιάσατο
«ς An / li Ἂν φ , Γ
ἡ γλῶσσά μου, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ σάρξ μου κατασκηνώσει
’ γ \
ep ἐλπίδι, “OTL οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψεις THY ψυχήν μου
᾽ f > \ , \ lA / A
εἰς ἅδην οὐδὲ δώσεις τὸν ὅσιόν σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν.
28. Ὁ ἢ , “δ \ a ἢ ᾽ ἢ
ἐγνωρισάς μοι ὁδοὺς ζωῆς, πληρώσεις με εὐφροσύνης
\ Ξ ἢ 29 » ᾽ Raves aheltA
μετὰ τοῦ προσώπου σου. ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί, ἐξὸν εἰπεῖν
\ ς a \ a /
μετὰ παρρησίας πρὸς ὑμᾶς περὶ τοῦ πατριάρχου Δα-
/ ¢, \ / \ \ a A
velo, OTL καὶ ἐτελεύτησεν Kal ἐτάφη, καὶ TO μνῆμα αὐτοῦ
, Ch Ae eT, , 30 , >
ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν ἄχρι τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης. προφήτης οὖν
ef ν᾿ A ς
ὑπάρχων καὶ εἰδὼς ὅτι ὅρκῳ ὥὦμοσεν αὐτῷ ὁ θεὸς ἐκ
an ~ “ / -“
καρποῦ τῆς ὀσφύος αὐτοῦ καθίσαι ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον αὐτοῦ,
31 SEN Say \ a 5) , κα A
προϊδὼν ἐλάλησεν περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ,
ef ΕἸΣ ’ / ’ ef ΕΣ «ς \ "5 rod 3
OTL οὔτε ἐγκατελείφθη εἰς ἅδου οὔτε ἡ σὰρξ αὐτοῦ εἶδεν
ὃ 32 a \ 5» lal , , € , a
ιαφθοράν. ™ tovtov τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν ἀνέστησεν ὁ θείς, οὗ
/ ς A \ Ud 33 a A 5 ἴω -
πάντες ἡμεῖς ἐσμὲν μάρτυρες. τῇ δεξιᾷ οὖν τοῦ θεοῦ
6 / / ω id ’
ὑψωθεὶς τήν τε ἐπαγγελίαν πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου
\ i, A nr “Ὁ id A
λαβὼν Tapa Tod πατρὸς ἐξέχεεν τοῦτο ὃ ὑμεῖς βλέπετε
\ ,’ / 34 5 Ἁ \ 9 / » Ἁ ,’ /
καὶ ἀκούετε. οὐ γὰρ Δανεὶδ ἀνέβη εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς,
λέ δὲ ’ / Ei , A / 10 ’
éyes δὲ αὐτός, Εἶπεν κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου, κάθου ἐκ
ὃ Ka 35 ὦ a - \ » , ς ‘5
εξιῶν μου, * ἕως av O@ τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ὑποπόδιον
A a 86 » a > /; aA ΗΑ
τῶν ποδῶν σου. ἀσφαλῶς οὖν γινωσκέτω πᾶς οἶκος
᾽ \ ae \ ’ SN \ \ ς \ > ͵
Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι καὶ κύριον αὐτὸν καὶ Χριστὸν ὁ θεὸς ἐποίη-
A \ » A mY ς A ΄
σεν, τοῦτον τὸν Ιησοῦν ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε.
37? t \ ’ \ , 9 7
Axovoavtes δὲ κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν, εἶπόν
6 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ Il. 37
\ \ \ > / ,
τε πρὸς τὸν Πέτρον καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀποστόλους, Τί
> , 38 , \ \ » ἢ
ποιήσωμεν, ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί; ™ ἸΙέτρος δὲ πρὸς αὐτούς,
ς “Ὁ \ “Ὁ
Μετανοήσατε, καὶ βαπτισθήτω ἕκαστος ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τῷ
nr tod nw rn al ς “~
ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν,
\ i \ \ a ee. , 89 € κα
καὶ λήμψεσθε τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος. “ἢ ὑμῖν
“Ὁ ¢ a \ n
yap ἐστιν ἡ ἐπαγγελία καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν καὶ πᾶσιν
a « / / ς Ν
τοῖς εἰς μακράν, ods ἂν προσκαλέσηται κύριος ὁ θεὸς
co 40 ¢_/ ! ἢ ὃ , \
ἡμῶν. “ἑτέροις τε λόγοις πλείοσιν διεμαρτύρατο, καὶ
/ > \ an a a
παρεκάλει αὐτοὺς λέγων, Σώθητε ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς τῆς
σκολιᾶς ταύτης.
Ss 5 / ? lal
τ Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀποδεξάμενοι τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ ἐβαπτί-
\ / > “a ¢e / > / ΄ »
σθησαν, καὶ προσετέθησαν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ψυχαὶ
« Ν , ΜᾺ \ lal A
ὡσεὶ τρισχίλιαι. “noav δὲ προσκαρτεροῦντες TH δι-
lal n 2 ‘ a a al
δαχῇ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ TH κοινωνίᾳ, TH κλάσει TOD
Χ a a / / a
ἄρτου καὶ ταῖς προσευχαῖς. “ὃ ἐγίνετο δὲ πάσῃ ψυχῇ
Ψ , / \ an \ a ’ f
φόβος πολλά τε τέρατα Kal σημεῖα διὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων
\ e / = \ \ ’
ἐγίνετο. “πάντες δὲ οἱ πιστεύοντες ἦσαν ἐπὶ TO αὐτὸ
/ 5 \ / \
Kal εἶχον ἅπαντα κοινά,. “Kal τὰ κτήματα Kal τὰς
/ ’ Ὁ
ὑπάρξεις ἐπίπρασκον καὶ διεμέριζον αὐτὰ πᾶσιν, καθότι
5 ᾿ wr : / an
ἄν τις χρείαν eiyev’ “καθ᾽ ἡμέραν τε προσκαρτεροῦντες
ς \ an ς A “ 7 | 5)
ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, κλῶντές TE KAT οἶκον ἄρτον,
n 3 i >
μετελάμβανον τροφῆς ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει καὶ ἀφελότητι
a \ \ \ 4
καρδίας, “ αἰνοῦντες Tov θεὸν καὶ ἔχοντες χάριν πρὸς
[{ Ν / 3 \ , / \ /
ὅλον TOV λαόν. ὁ δὲ κύριος προσετίθει τοὺς σωζομένους
᾽
καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό.
δι » oe \
3 ᾿'Πέτρος δὲ καὶ ᾿Ιωάννης ἀνέβαινον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν
- a \ / 2 / 5. οἷς
ἐπὶ τὴν ὥραν τῆς προσευχῆς τὴν ἐνάτην. ~ καί τις ἀνὴρ
\ » cal ς / 5 /
χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων ἐβαστάζετο
᾿ \ \ / mn Δ fal \
ὃν ἐτίθουν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν πρὸς τὴν θύραν τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὴν
a a ’ \ n
λεγομένην ὡραίαν Tov αἰτεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην Tapa τῶν
᾿] / >’ se foo ὃ \ II / \ *T ,
εἰσπορευομένων εἰς TO ἱερόν" * ὃς ἰδὼν Ilerpov καὶ lwav-
III. 16 ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ 5
/ 2 / Ρ] Ἁ e \ 3 £ /
νὴν μέλλοντας εἰσιέναι ELS TO ἱερὸν ἡρώτα ἐλεημοσύνην
- 4 0 / \ / > 3 AN \ A
λαβεῖν. “atevicas δὲ Πέτρος εἰς αὐτὸν σὺν TO ᾿Ιωάννῃ
5 / > Ὁ a δ. -£ \ 3 A ? 4
εἶπεν, Βλέψον eis ἡμᾶς. “ὁ δὲ ἐπεῖχεν αὐτοῖς προσδο-
n > νι a - 5 ;
κῶν TL Tap αὐτῶν λαβεῖν. " εἶπεν δὲ Πέτρος, Αργύριον
\ / ’ ς / . \ \ a
Kal χρυσίον οὐχ ὑπάρχει por ὃ δὲ ἔχω, τοῦτό σοι
δίδωμι ἐν τῷ ὀνό Ἰησοῦ Χ ῦ τοῦ Ναζωραί
μ ματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Nafwpaiou
” \ ͵ - \ ͵ > a a
ἔγειρε Kal περιπάτει. ‘Kal πιάσας αὐτὸν τῆς δεξιᾶς
\ / > ’ - \
χειρὸς ἤγειρεν αὐτόν. παραχρῆμα δὲ ἐστερεώθησαν ai
3 na \ \ , 8 XY, 3 / » \
βάσεις αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ σφυρά, * καὶ ἐξαλλόμενος ἔστη, Kal
/ \ > rn \ ᾿ lal ᾽ \ \
περιεπάτει, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν σὺν αὐτοῖς εἰς TO ἱερὸν περι-
“ \ ς / \ > [4] \ / 9 \ 9
πατῶν καὶ ἁλλόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν τὸν θεόν. καὶ εἶδεν
»“ « \ ’ \ na na \ /
πᾶς ὁ λαὸς αὐτὸν περιπατοῦντα Kal αἰνοῦντα τὸν θεόν'
10." , δλ ΓΝ “ ΓΙ 5 ς \ \
ἐπεγίνωσκον δὲ αὐτόν, OTL οὗτος ἦν ὁ πρὸς τὴν ἐλεη-
, t ἣ \ fal ς 7 ' ee Φ a
μοσύνην καθήμενος ἐπὶ TH ὡραίᾳ πύλῃ τοῦ ἱεροῦ" καὶ
2 / U % 5 “ b] \ a
ἐπλήσθησαν θάμβους καὶ ἐκστάσεως ἐπὶ TO συμβεβη-
5 fel
KOTL αὐτῷ.
1 "ἢ fal ᾽ a / 3 /
‘ Κρατοῦντος δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸν Πέτρον καὶ tov ᾿Ιωάννην
/ a ς \ 2 \ an a -
συνέδραμεν πᾶς ὁ λαὸς πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῇ στοᾷ τῇ
7 lal f 12 3 \ \ ς
καλουμένῃ Σολομῶντος ἔκθαμβοι. "" ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ Πέτρος
> \ \ ie > A /
ἀπεκρίνατο πρὸς τὸν Aaov,”*Avdpes ᾿Ισραηλῖται, Ti θαυ-
/ b] \ / nN ¢ ad / > / ¢ ἰδί ὃ ,
μάζετε ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ἢ ἡμῖν τί ἀτενίζετε ὡς ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει
Ny ᾽ A a ier 13 ¢ \
ἢ εὐσεβείᾳ πεποιηκόσιν τοῦ περιπατεῖν αὐτόν; “ὁ θεὸς
5 \ > \ > ¢ \ A ,
Αβραὰμ καὶ ᾿Ισαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ, ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων
La fal 286 x 1}. 5 “ΟΣ ral «Ὁ € al \
ἡμῶν, ἐδόξασεν τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦν, ὃν ὑμεῖς μὲν
/ ’ , \ U /
παρεδώκατε Kal ἠρνήσασθε κατὰ πρόσωπον Πιλάτου,
, ἈΠ δ , Sara δὲ \ “ \
κρίναντος ἐκείνου ἀπολύειν “vets δὲ τὸν ἅγιον καὶ
δί Υ̓ / θ \ 3 / y ὃ ,
ίκαιον ἠρνήσασθε, καὶ ἡτήσασθε ἄνδρα φονέα χαρισ-
a a 5 \ \ > \ a > / “Δ
θῆναι ὑμῖν, " τὸν δὲ ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς ἀπεκτείνατε, ὃν
ce 4, ν᾽ rn e ς cal / / >
ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, οὗ ἡμεῖς μάρτυρές ἐσμεν
16 . Δ 2% a > ? a la) a
καὶ ἐπὶ TH πίστει τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ τοῦτον, OV
a nN = fal ‘
θεωρεῖτε καὶ οἴδατε, ἐστερέωσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, καὶ
8 HRASEIS III. 16
σχτ τ el
ς / ¢ ae 5) ed ao! ‘ Cat re /
ἡ πίστις ἡ Ot αὐτοῦ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ τὴν ὁλοκληρίαν
Ud 3 / / ς a 17 \ a iO ,
ταύτην ἀπέναντι πάντων ὑμῶν. “Kal νῦν, ἀδελφοί,
5 a aed > / γ΄, \ wae
οἶδα ὅτι κατὰ ἄγνοιαν ἐπράξατε, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες
ς Pie) 45 © δὲ θ 4 ΩΝ t ὃ \ , ,
ὑμῶν" "ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἃ προκατήγγειλεν διὰ στόματος πάν-
a a a Ἄν \ > a > f
των τῶν προφητῶν, παθεῖν τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐπλή-
δ s \ , 3
ρωσεν οὕτως... ᾿" μετανοήσατε οὖν καὶ ἐπιστρέψατε εἰς
ἘῸΝ a con \ ¢ , / x
τὸ ἐξαλειφθῆναι ὑμῶν Tas ἁμαρτίας, ὅπως dv ἔλθωσιν
> Δεν a / 20 A. 3
καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ κυρίου ™ καὶ ἀπο-
" \ CoA Nall pil OFT
στείλῃ τὸν προκεχειρισμένον ὑμῖν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν, ™ ov
al 5 ᾽ /
δεῖ οὐρανὸν μὲν δέξασθαι ἄχρι χρόνων ἀποκαταστάσεως
U a / , A e /
πάντων ὧν ἐλάλησεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ στόματος TOY ἁγίων
αν τ IA > “- A 22 ae A \ 3 γ
ἀπ αἰῶνος αὐτοῦ προφητῶν. “᾿ Mwians μὲν εἶπεν ὅτι
μ Ἐς: νὰ = / / « ε a A
Προφήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν ἐκ τῶν
LO a ς A ς hg 7 > a =) UY \ ,
ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν ὡς EME’ αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε κατὰ πάντα
isd Ἃ \ id A 7 A
ὅσα av λαλήσῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς. “ἔσται δὲ πᾶσα ψυχὴ
ef x Nee ( a / > / > /
τις ἂν μὴ akovan τοῦ προφήτου ἐκείνου ἐξολεθρευθή-
“ al / lel 9
σεται ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ. “Kal πάντες δὲ οἱ προφῆται ἀπὸ
x ᾿ a a c/ 5 UY \ /
Σαμουὴλ καὶ τῶν καθεξῆς ὅσοι ἐλάλησαν, καὶ κατὴγ-
\ ¢ U 95 ¢ a e fal
γειίλαν Tas ἡμέρας ταύτας. “ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ οἱ viol τῶν
προφητῶν καὶ τῆς διαθήκης ἧς διέθετο ὁ θεὸς πρὸς
τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν, λέγω ὃς ᾽Αβραάμ, Καὶ ἐν τῷ
ς pas ἡμῶν, λέγων πρὸς ραάμ, Καὶ ἐν τῷ
, / > ’ a e a
σπέρματί σου ἐνευλογηθήσονται πᾶσαι ai πατριαὶ τῆς
an os. an id \ 2 \ na ’ n
γῆς. “ὑμῖν πρῶτον ὁ θεὸς ἀναστήσας τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ
5 7] > \ nr ¢ “Ὁ a > /
ἀπέστειλεν αὐτὸν εὐλογοῦντα ὑμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἀποστρέφειν
“4 ? a A e A
ἕκαστον ATO TOV TOVNPLOV ὑμών.
4 1 , \ eae \ \ / perry
Λαλούντων δὲ αὐτῶν πρὸς Tov λαόν, ἐπέστησαν
" al 2 an er \ “ la)
αὐτοῖς οἱ ἱερεῖς Kal ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ of Lad-
a ‘ \ ’
δουκαῖοι, " διαπονούμενοι διὰ τὸ διδάσκειν αὐτοὺς τὸν
\ \ / > a) A \ ’ / ‘
λαὸν Kal καταγγέλλειν ἐν τῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ THY ἀνάστασιν τὴν
> a 8 \ > , > a \ a \
ἐκ νεκρῶν, “Kal ἐπέβαλον αὐτοῖς Tas χεῖρας καὶ ἔθεντο
> / > \ , ἣ 3
εἰς τήρησιν εἰς τὴν αὔριον ἦν γὰρ ἑσπέρα ἤδη.
IV.17 ATTOZSTOAQN 9
4 \ \ a > ͵ \ , Sos. af \
πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν ἀκουσάντων TOV λόγον ἐπίστευσαν, καὶ
᾽ / ’ 0 \ A ’ ὃ n € \ ὃ /
ἐγενήθη ἀριθμὸς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ὡσεὶ χιλιάδες πέντε.
\ \ , an > A \
ἐγένετο δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν αὔριον συναχθῆναι αὐτῶν τοὺς
\ 7 \ \ cal
ἄρχοντας καὶ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους Kal τοὺς γραμματεῖς
id ’ AC ! ς > \ \ of
ἐν ‘lepovoarnm, “kat “Avvas ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς καὶ Καϊάφας
ws ͵ \? , Ny if 53 > ,
καὶ ᾿Ιωάννης καὶ ᾿Αλέξανδρος καὶ Ὅσοι ἦσαν ἐκ γένους
» A \ > \ » “Ὁ “
ἀρχιερατικοῦ. ‘Kal στήσαντες αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ μέσῳ
> / ᾽ 7 / Rte / > / 5
ἐπυνθάνοντο, "Ev ποίᾳ δυνάμει ἢ ἐν ποίῳ ὀνόματι ἐἔποιυ-
, / > \ >
βύτεροι, ° εἰ ἡμεῖς σήμερον ἀνακρινόμεθα ἐπὶ εὐεργεσίᾳ
] / fal e / 10 \
ἀνθρώπου ἀσθενοῦς, ἐν τίνει οὗτος σέσωσται, YYwWaTOV
» lal e A \ \ An Ls ee / “ >
ἔστω πᾶσιν ὑμῖν καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ᾿Ισραὴήλ, ὅτι ἐν
aA » ᾽ὔ μὴ: a 4 lal “ Ν ζ / “ὃ 4 a
τῷ ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Nalwpaiov, ov ὑμεῖς
» ε \ a > /
ἐσταυρώσατε, ὃν ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, EV τούτῳ
e , ἢ Cain ς ἢ τ".
οὗτος παρέστηκεν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ὑγιής. “οὗτός ἐστιν
id ,ὔ Ἕ \ «ς ’ ς a an 5 / «ς ’
ὁ λίθος ὁ ἐξουθενηθεὶς ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν τῶν οἰκοδόμων, ὁ γενό-
᾽ \ / 12 \ ’ ” b LA
μενος εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας. καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἄλλῳ
>] Ν [ ae 50." A wv , > “ [4 \
οὐδενὶ ἡ σωτηρία. οὐδὲ yap ὄνομά ἐστιν ἕτερον ὑπὸ
Ν 5 \ \ / > > / 5 = lal lal
τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸ δεδομένον ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἐν @ δεῖ σωθῆναι
ς “Ὁ
ἡμᾶς.
13 a \ \ n Σ
Θεωροῦντες δὲ τὴν τοῦ ἸΠέτρου παρρησίαν καὶ
ἯΙ / \ / e/ wv θ 5 / /
ὠάννου, Kal καταλαβόμενοι OTL ἄνθρωποι ἀγράμματοί
> work, A ,
εἰσιν καὶ ἰδιῶται, ἐθαύμαζον, ἐπεγίνωσκόν τε αὐτοὺς ὅτι
\ a? AS ED , U La
σὺν τῷ ‘Inood ἦσαν, "τόν τε ἄνθρωπον βλέποντες σὺν
5 a e a \ , > 3
αὑτοῖς ἑστῶτα τὸν τεθεραπευμένον, οὐδὲν εἶχον ἀντει-
2 15 / ’ a
πεῖν. “κελεύσαντες δὲ αὐτοὺς ἔξω TOD συνεδρίου ἀπελ-
“A 7. \ ᾽ ’
θεῖν, συνέβαλλον πρὸς ἀλλήλους " λέγοντες, Τί ποιή-
an ’ / f \ \
σωμεν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις ; OTL μὲν γὰρ γνωστον
a / > > A A Lal A
σημεῖον γέγονεν δι’ αὐτῶν, πᾶσιν τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν ἱἸερου-
\ , a ? 7 δὰ
σαλὴμ φανερόν, καὶ ov δυνάμεθα ἀρνεῖσθαι “add ἵνα
ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ IV. 17
TO
μὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖον διανεμηθῇ εἰς τὸν λαόν, ἀπειλησώμεθα
an al A, “- 5 f \
αὐτοῖς μηκέτι λαλεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ μηδενὶ
‘ , ’ \ /
ἀνθρώπων. “Kat καλέσαντες αὐτοὺς παρήγγείλαν TO
\ / rn ’ /
καθόλου μὴ φθέγγεσθαι μηδὲ διδάσκειν ἐπὶ TO ὀνόματι
δ 3 lal 19 ¢ \ / ny 4 ’ /
τοῦ [Ιησοῦ. ὁ δὲ Πέτρος καὶ ᾿Ιωάννης ἀποκριθέντες
, , 7 / / lal rn
εἶπον πρὸς αὐτούς, Ki δίκαιόν ἐστιν ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ,
id A ’ / “ “Δ nr cal / 5 20 9 /
ὑμῶν ἀκούειν μᾶλλον ἢ Tov θεοῦ, κρίνατε' * οὐ δυνά-
\ ¢ lal \ » \ >’ dg \ n
μεθα yap ἡμεῖς ἃ εἴδαμεν καὶ ἠκούσαμεν μὴ λαλεῖν.
21 ¢ \ / ee μὸν 5) ἢ \
οἱ δὲ προσαπειλησάμενοι ἀπέλυσαν AVTOUS, μηδὲν
[4 Ν “Ὁ , , vi: A \ 7
εὑρίσκοντες TO πῶς κολάσωνται αὐτούς, διὰ τὸν λαόν,
“ , 207 \ \ ee n ͵ 229 OA
ὅτι πάντες ἐδόξαζον Tov θεὸν ἐπὶ TO γεγονότι. ™ ἐτῶν
> ͵ ¢ v «
γὰρ ἦν πλειόνων τεσσεράκοντα ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐφ᾽ ὃν γε-
a lal lal ve α
γόνει TO σημεῖον τοῦτο τῆς ἰάσεως.
» / δ Ὁ \ \ 5. " \ ᾽ /
ἢ Απολυθέντες δὲ ἦλθον πρὸς τοὺς ἰδίους καὶ ἀπήγ-
3 \ ar an ς
γείλαν ὅσα πρὸς αὐτοὺς οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι
> 24 ¢ Kees , ς \ 5 \
εἶπαν. “ot δὲ ἀκούσαντες ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἦραν φωνὴν
\ \ 5 / \ ¢ i \
πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ εἶπαν, Δέσποτα, σὺ ὁ ποιήσας τὸν
3 “Ὁ \ ’ \
οὐρανὸν Kal τὴν γῆν Kal τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ πάντα Ta ἐν
» an \ ς “ \ ¢ / /
αὐτοῖς, “ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου στό-
\ ; ae ν eps 5 , ”
ματος Δαυεὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών, ἱνατί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη
\ πον 7 δ τ ΘᾺ , ε a
καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά; “παρέστησαν οἱ βασιλεῖς
= a 4 \ \ 5 \ \
τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες συνήχθησαν ἐπὶ TO αὑτὸ κατὰ
κι ἴω a 3 A 27 ,
τοῦ κυρίου, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ. ““ cuvny-
\ ’ ᾽ 5 / > lal / ‘ ’ \ \
θησαν yap ἐπ᾽ αληθείας ἐν τῇ πόλει ταὐτῃ ἐπὶ τὸν
“ τὃ Λ ἽἾ la e\ 4 Ἥ "ὃ \
ἅγιον παῖδά σου ᾿Ιησοῦν, ὃν ἔχρισας, Ἡρώδης τε καὶ
- \ Qn 5 / 28 a
Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος σὺν ἔθνεσιν καὶ λαοῖς ᾿Ισραήλ, ™ ποιῆ-
4 ς / As / / / θ
σαι (oa ἡ χείρ σου καὶ ἡ βουλή σου τ eat Hoe γενέσθαι.
Pr IF
an \ Versa > a \
“Kal τὰ νῦν, κύριε, ἔπιδε ἐπὶ τὰς ἀπειλᾶς αὐτῶν, καὶ
na \ / , - \
δὸς τοῖς δούλοις σου μετὰ παρρησίας πάσης λαλεῖν τὸν
ΓΟ “ / > vv
λόγον σου “ ἐν TO τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐκτείνειν σε εἰς ἴασιν
ἑ
lal / / \ “ 5 f rf
καὶ σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα γίνεσθαι διὰ τοῦ ονόματος τοῦ
V.6 ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ =
c 3 , 5 fal 81 \ ὃ θέ > a 4
ἁγίου παιδός σου ᾿Ιησοῦ. “Kat δεηθέντων αὐτῶν ἐσα-
/ ¢ / » 2. ns δι 2 λ / Q
λεύθη ὁ τόπος ἐν ᾧ ἦσαν συνηγμένοι, Kal ἐπλήσθησαν
lal ε ’ \ FJ U \ /
ἅπαντες τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, Kat ἐλάλουν Tov λόγον
fal lal \ /
τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ παρρησίας.
rn lal , a / \
Tod δὲ πλήθους τῶν πιστευσάντων ἦν καρδία καὶ
’ - an e U ’ lal f-
ψυχὴ μία, Kal οὐδὲ εἷς τι τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτῷ ἔλεγεν
5 3 > ᾽ a / ΄, 33 \ ’
ἴδιον εἶναι, ἀλλ᾽ ἦν αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα κοινά. ™ καὶ δυνάμει
, 5 ,ὔ \ / ς 5 / A 4
μεγάλῃ ἀπεδίδουν τὸ μαρτύριον οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῆς ava-
΄ a > fal fs / 3 δι δὰ
στάσεως τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, χάρις τε μεγάλη ἣν ἐπὶ
, ? , 84 γῶν \ ἢ ; 5 ᾽ 4. Δ ae
πάντας αὐτούς. “ovdé γὰρ ἐνδεής τις ἦν ἐν αὐτοῖς
[7 x / / “Δ an « -“ na
ὅσοι yap κτήτορες χωρίων ἢ οἰκιῶν ὑπῆρχον, πωλοῦντες
my] \ a , 35 Nah. 5 \
ἔφερον Tas τιμὰς τῶν πιπρασκομένων © καὶ ἐτίθουν Tapa
\ / ἣν Ὁ. 5 ἢ : / Ure F ἢ
τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων" διεδίδετο δὲ ἑκάστῳ καθότι
yf 3 \ \ ¢ 9 \ /
av τις χρείαν εἶχεν. “᾿Ιωσὴφ δὲ ὁ ἐπικληθεὶς Bapva-
\ a / li e\
Bas ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων, 6 ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον υἱὸς
l ft ’ A , 51 ¢ ,
παρακλήσεως, Λευΐτης, Κύπριος τῷ γένει, “ ὑπάρχοντος
5 n b] a , U \ a \ 7
αὐτῷ ἀγροῦ, πωλήσας ἤνεγκεν τὸ χρῆμα καὶ ἔθηκεν
\ \ / a ’
Tapa τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων.
12 \ , 4“. / >] / a
5 "᾿Ανὴρ δέ τις ᾿Ανανίας ὀνόματι σὺν Σαπφείρῃ τῇ
¥ > a 3 / “a 2 / =
γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ ἐπώλησεν κτῆμα, “Kal ἐνοσφίσατο ἀπὸ
lal a / \ a , \
τῆς τιμῆς, συνειδυίης Kal τῆς γυναικός, καὶ ἐνέγκας
, Ν \ t n ᾽
μέρος τι παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων ἔθηκεν.
bs at Ny Je / > / / , ¢ aA
εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Ilétpos, ᾿Ανανία, διατί ἐπλήρωσεν ὁ σατανᾶς
\ 7 , Δ \ a 7
τὴν καρδίαν σου, Ψψεύσασθαί σε TO πνεῦμα TO ἅγιον Kal
/ 3 \ A A a t ’ ‘
νοσφίσασθαι ἀπὸ τῆς τιμῆς τοῦ χωρίου; “ οὐχὶ μένον
XP \ \ b] A AL / ς lal 4 Lick
σοὶ ἔμενεν καὶ πραθὲν ἐν τῇ σῇ ἐξουσίᾳ ὑπῆρχεν ; τί ὅτι
> 5 a , \ lal a 2 /
ἔθου ἐν TH καρδίᾳ σου TO πρᾶγμα τοῦτο; οὐκ ἐψεύσω
> / > \ a Ὁ 5 3 f Code
ἀνθρώποις ἀλλὰ TO θεῷ. “ἀκούων δὲ ὁ ᾿Ανανίας τοὺς
΄ , \ \
λόγους τούτους, πεσὼν ἐξέψυξεν" καὶ ἐγένετο φόβος
f ae ἂν / \ 3 ?
μέγας ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας " ἀναστάντες δὲ οἱ
/ 7] >] \ /
νεώτεροι συνέστειλαν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐξενέγκαντες ἔθαψαν.
12 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ν. 7
\ al n / ν᾽. κα \ -
᾿ ἐγένετο δὲ ὡς ὡρῶν τριῶν διάστημα καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ
\ 20 An \ \ Me θ 8 3 , δὲ \
μὴ εἰδυῖα TO γεγονὸς εἰσῆλθεν. ὅ ἀπεκρίθη δὲ πρὸς
Ψ \ / » > , \ / ᾽
αὐτὴν Ἰ]έτρος, Εὐπέ μοι, εἰ τοσούτου τὸ χωρίον ἀπε-
/ \
δοσθε; ἡ δὲ εἶπεν, Nai, τοσούτου. °6 δὲ Πέτρος πρὸς
ΟΥ̓ 4 c a la)
αὐτήν, Τί ὅτι συνεφωνήθη ὑμῖν πειράσαι τὸ πνεῦμα
, 5 Ae ἢ 1 be ἢ \ ” a,"
κυρίου; ἰδοὺ οἱ πόδες "τῶν θαψάντων τὸν ἄνδρα σου ἐπὶ
τῇ θύρᾳ, καὶ ἐξοίσουσίν σε. " ἔπεσεν δὲ παραχρῆμα
\ \ ᾽ a / ς
πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐξέψυξεν᾽ εἰσελθόντες δὲ οἱ
/ 4φ » \ 4 4
νεανίσκοι εὗρον αὐτὴν νεκράν, Kat ἐξενέγκαντες ἔθαψαν
\ \ Ld 2235 11 Ὁ τὰ δένο, ΄ 7, >,?
πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς. *' καὶ ἐγένετο φόβος μέγας ἐφ
¢ \ b ΄ ,
ὅλην τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας
ταῦτα.
ΤΑΝ \ δὲ “ . “Ὁ ᾿ ᾽ / ἥ lal
ιἃ δὲ TOV χειρῶν TOV ἀποστόλων ἐγίνετο σημεῖα
\ , \ ’ A A. \ “- " \
Kal τέρατα πολλὰ ἐν τῷ AAW Kal ἦσαν ὁμοθυμαδὸν
dA 5) a A Ss a 4 13 a δὲ a
ἅπαντες ἐν τῇ στοᾷ Σολομῶντος" “tov δὲ λοιπῶν
’ a ’ a ’
οὐδεὶς ἐτόλμα κολλᾶσθαι αὐτοῖς, GAN ἐμεγάλυνεν av-
\ e A fal
τοὺς ὁ λαός" “ wadrdov δὲ προσετίθεντο πιστεύοντες TO
,ὔ , ,’ - \ lal f »
κυρίῳ, πλήθη ἀνδρῶν τε καὶ γυναικῶν, “" ὥστε καὶ εἰς
‘ Ι bd / \ ’ lal a’ , » \
Tas πλατείας ἐκφέρειν τοὺς ἀσθενεῖς καὶ τιθέναι ἐπὶ
= ’ εὖ U “ > / / x
κλιναρίων Kat κραβάττων, ἵνα ἐρχομένου Πέτρου κἂν
ξ \ 3 “-“ \
ἡ σκιὰ ἐπισκιάσῃ τινὶ αὐτῶν. “auvnpyeto δὲ Kal TO
lal lal , / ’
πλῆθος τῶν πέριξ πόλεων “Ἱερουσαλήμ, φέροντες ἀσ-
lal » δ, > /
θενεῖς καὶ ὀχλουμένους ὑπὸ πνευμάτων ἀκαθάρτων,
ul
οἵτινες ἐθεραπεύοντο ἅπαντες.
11 » \ he ee, \ \ , - \ x A
Ἀναστὰς δὲ ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς Kal πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ,
fal Nn ’ /
ἡ οὖσα αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκαίων, ἐπλήσθησαν ζήλου
18 ips \ a "ἊΝ \ " , \
καὶ ἐπέβαλον τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους, Kal
ἔθ "τοὺς ἐ ΄σει δημοσίᾳ. “ ἄγγελος δὲ ου
ἔθεντο αὐτοὺς ἐν τηρήσει δημοσίᾳ. yyeros δὲ κυρίο
\ \ v \ / “Ὁ “Ὁ >’ /
διὰ νυκτὸς ἤνοιξεν Tas θύρας τῆς φυλακῆς ἐξαγαγών τε
> \ s 20 , \ , a > lal
αὐτοὺς εἶπεν, ~ IlopeverGe καὶ σταθέντες λαλεῖτε ἐν TO
ἱερῷῳᾳ τῷ λαῷ πάντα τὰ ῥήματα τῆς ἕωῆς ταύτης.
V. 33 ATTOZTOAQN 13
21 » ἢ \ “ΣῊ ΓᾺΔ \ ” > Mai 68. ἐν
ἀκούσαντες δὲ εἰσῆλθον ὑπὸ τὸν ὄρθρον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν
\ / , Ls ᾽
καὶ ἐδίδασκον. παραγενόμενος δὲ ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς καὶ οἱ
\ a \ \ A
σὺν αὐτῷ συνεκάλεσαν TO συνέδριον καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν
a CA ΕῚ / \ Bd / > \
γερουσίαν τῶν υἱῶν ᾿Ισραήλ, καὶ ἀπέστειλαν εἰς TO
/ A
δεσμωτήριον ἀχθῆναι αὐτούς. “oi δὲ παραγενόμενοι
c 4“ 3 Φ \ a A
ὑπηρέται οὐχ εὗρον αὐτοὺς ἐν TH φυλακῇ ἀναστρέ-
Ν > / / /
ψαντες δὲ ἀπήγγειλαν ™ déyovtes ὅτι Τὸ δεσμωτήριον
“ , ’ , ’ 7 \ \ ,
εὕρομεν κεκλεισμένον ἐν πάσῃ ἀσφαλείᾳ καὶ τοὺς φύ-
ς A BN A val 3 ,ὔ Non i 50. 7
λακας ἑστῶτας ἐπὶ τῶν θυρῶν, ἀνοίξαντες δὲ ἔσω οὐδένα
“ 24 Ἔ δὲ v \ / / “
εὕρομεν. “ws δὲ ἤκουσαν τοὺς λόγους τούτους ὅ τε
“ “ ἴω) /
στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ Kal οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς, διηπόρουν περὶ
αὐτῶν, τί ἂν γένοιτο TOTO. “παραγενόμενος δέ τις
> / 5 a “4 > \ ily \ »” > Ἂ
ἀπήγγειλεν αὐτοῖς ὅτι ᾿Ιδοὺ οἱ ἄνδρες ods ἔθεσθε ἐν TH
a a A A \ /
φυλακῇ εἰσὶν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἑστῶτες Kal διδάσκοντες TOV
’ .ς6. 5) \ ς A \ rn ς /
λαόν. “TOTE ἀπελθὼν ὁ στρατηγὸς σὺν τοῖς ὑπηρέταις
5 » / ’ \ / 2 ἴω \ \ /
ἦγεν αὐτούς, ov μετὰ Bias, ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ τὸν λαόν,
\ a A é 7-3 , \ ’ \ » > a
μὴ λιθασθῶσιν" “ ἀγαγόντες δὲ αὐτοὺς ἔστησαν ἐν TO
,ὔ wes , ᾽ ek oe WE ΒΕ: ΞΔ
συνεδρίῳ. καὶ ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτοὺς 6 ἀρχιερεὺς ™ λέγων,
, εν. | A
Παραγγελίᾳ παρηγγείλαμεν ὑμῖν μὴ διδάσκειν ἐπὶ τῷ
ee | / tna | \ , \ ec
ὀνόματι τούτῳ, καὶ ἰδοὺ πεπληρώκατε τὴν ἱἹΙερουσαλὴμ
lel - id a \ U b] a >4? ς a
τῆς διδαχῆς ὑμῶν, καὶ βούλεσθε ἐπαγαγεῖν ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς
SA na 3 , , 29 » \ \ ,
τὸ αἷμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τούτου. ™ ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Ilétpos
καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι εἶπαν, Πειθαρχεῖν δεῖ θεῷ μᾶλλον ἢ
a 2 ¢ lal f ’ ἴω
ἀνθρώποις. 6 θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἤγειρεν Inoodr,
“Δ c a ὃ ͵ θ ’ 5. ΟΝ . 81 i
ὃν ὑμεῖς διεχειρίσασθε κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου" * τοῦτον
πὶ A A f a a ’ fal
ὁ θεὸς ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σωτῆρα ὕψωσεν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ
lal / lal ’ \ \ v ε A
δοῦναι μετάνοιαν τῷ “lopanrX Kal ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν.
82 ς a A U / ᾷ
καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμὲν μάρτυρες τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων, καὶ
Ν an ε ral ΄“
τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ὃ ἔδωκεν ὁ θεὸς τοῖς πειθαρχοῦσιν
» A
αὐτῷ.
͵ ᾽
ὁ Οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες διεπρίοντο καὶ ἐβουλεύοντο ave-
14 TIPA=EI= Vir
nr 3 \ / al /
λεῖν αὐτούς. “avactas δέ τις ἐν TO συνεδρίῳ Φαρι-
a ee Ci μ / / Ν
σαῖος ὀνόματι αμαλιήλ, νομοδιδάσκαλος τίμιος παντὶ
- Xx r > aN ἔξ B 7 4 > θ /
τῷ λαῷ, ἐκέλευσεν ἔξω βραχύ Te τοὺς ἀνθρώπους
a $5 5 ἡ \ 5) , ” 5 > A
ποιῆσαι, * εἶπέν τε πρὸς αὐτούς, “Avdpes ᾿Ισραηλῖται,
a \ a ] /
προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις, τί μέλ-
36 \ \ / “ ς an Lae
λετε πράσσειν. “πρὸ yap τούτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀνέστη
an / 3 / « / a / 5 -“
Θευδᾶς, λέγων εἶναί τινα ἑαυτόν, ᾧ προσεκλίθη ἀνδρῶν
᾽ c / ray ’ / \ / "
ἀριθμὸς ὡς τετρακοσίων, ὃς ἀνῃρέθη, καὶ πάντες ὅσοι
> / » a / \ > / > » /
ἐπείθοντο αὐτῷ διελύθησαν Kai ἐγένοντο εἰς οὐδέν.
“ > lal a
Ἵ μετὰ τοῦτον ἀνέστη ᾿Ιούδας ὁ Τ'αλιλαῖος ἐν ταῖς ἡμέ-
lal n \ 3 A 5 / > A.
pais τῆς ἀπογραφῆς καὶ ἀπέστησεν λαὸν ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ
a \ / / / > -
κἀκεῖνος ἀπώλετο, καὶ πάντες ὅσοι ἐπείθοντο αὐτῷ
\ 4 “4 “ >
διεσκορπίσθησαν. “Kal τὰ viv λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπόστητε
J \ n > , "4 \ 7 3 ΞΟ gee 4. ἃ -
ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τούτων καὶ ἄφετε αὐτούς᾽ ὅτι ἐὰν
Pry > / « a ad * A. ὦν nr
ἢ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἡ βουλὴ αὕτη ἢ τὸ ἔργον τοῦτο, KaTa-
na Ἂ ΄
λυθήσεται “et δὲ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐστίν, οὐ δυνήσεσθε κατα-
A > / / \ / ¢ lal 40 9 ΄
λῦσαι αὐτούς, μήποτε καὶ θεομάχοι εὑρεθῆτε. “ ἐπεί-
Ν 2 A \ \ >
σθησαν δὲ αὐτῷ, Kal προσκαλεσάμενοι τοὺς ἀποστόλους
/ / \ 4 > \ an ’ ,ὔ lal
δείραντες παρήγγειλαν μὴ λαλεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ
Ἢ a \ > / 41 O ς \ oy > / /
ησοῦ, Kal ἀπέλυσαν. ἱ μὲν οὖν ἐπορεύοντο yai-
> \ , ἴω Lf 7
ροντες ATO προσώπου τοῦ συνεδρίου, OTL κατηξιώθησαν
3 \ “- 21 iS ᾽ a 2 a Wg
ὑπὲρ τοῦ ονόματος atipacOnvar’ “πᾶσάν τε ἡμέραν
[4] [4] \ > 53 ’ /
ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ Kal κατ᾽ οἶκον οὐκ ἐπαύοντο διδάσκοντες
\ ’ / \ \ Pl] rn
καὶ εὐωγγελιζόμενοι Tov Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν.
6 1° δὲ n Cis oh , θ , a
ν δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις πληθυνόντων τῶν
n ’ lal a
μαθητῶν ἐγένετο γογγυσμὸς τῶν ᾿Ελληνιστῶν πρὸς
\ ¢ 4 / a a a
τοὺς ᾿βραίους, ὅτε παρεθεωροῦντο ἐν τῇ διακονίᾳ τῇ
A e lal ’ a
καθημερινῇ αἱ χῆραι αὐτῶν. * προσκαλεσάμενοι δὲ οἱ
δώδ δ πλῆθ ᾿ θητῶν εἶ Οὐκ a )
ὠδεκα TO πλῆθος τῶν μαθητῶν εἶπαν, Οὐκ ἀρεστόν
3 ς “A / \ / lal a a
ἐστιν ἡμᾶς καταλείψαντας TOV λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ διακονεῖν
/ a
τραπέζαις. " ἐπισκέψασθε οὖν, ἀδελφοί, ἄνδρας ἐξ ὑμῶν
VII. 2 ATIOZTOAQN 15
μαρτυρουμένους ἑπτὰ πλήρεις πνεύματος καὶ σοφίας,
ods καταστήσομεν ἐπὶ τῆς χρείας ταύτης" * ἡμεῖς δὲ τῇ
“μ΄.
lal al ἴω /
προσευχῇ καὶ TH διακονίᾳ τοῦ λόγου προσκαρτερήσο-
, \ an ἵν
ἐσεν ὁ λόγος ἐνώπιον παντὸς τοῦ πλήθους,
5 ΡῈ τῇ
μὲν. ° καὶ ἢ
, ἢ
καὶ ἐξελέξαντο Στέφανον, ἄνδρα πλήρη πίστεως καὶ
δ: SF \ , \ ’ \ NT ,
πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ Φίλιππον καὶ Ἰ]Ϊρόχορον καὶ Νικά-
3, i \ ἐν Ν / /
vopa καὶ 'Τίμωνα καὶ Ilappevay καὶ Νικόλαον προσή-
΄ «Ὁ fal
λυτον ᾿Αντιοχέα, ° ovs ἔστησαν ἐνώπιον TOV ἀποστόλων,
/ ἫΝ »“" ; at
καὶ προσευξάμενοι ἐπέθηκαν αὐτοῖς Tas χεῖρας. * Kal
c / a a » \ > / ¢ 3 \
ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ηὔξανεν, καὶ ἐπληθύνετο ὁ ἀριθμὸς
- a \ /
τῶν μαθητῶν ἐν ἱἹερουσαλὴμ σφόδρα, πολύς τε ὄχλος
“Ὁ ξ «ς a
τῶν ἱερέων ὑπήκουον TH πίστει.
/ \ / “ \ /
"Στέφανος δὲ πλήρης χάριτος Kal δυνάμεως ἐποίει
τέρατα καὶ σημεῖα μεγάλα ἐν τῷ λαῷ. * ἀνέστησαν δέ
“ ’ - a n /
τινες TOV EK τῆς συναγωγῆς τῆς λεγομένης AvBeptivwy
ae an
καὶ Κυρηναίων καὶ ᾿Αλεξανδρέων καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ Κιλικίας
γ΄. / aw aA. A , 10 \ ’ ΕΣ
καὶ ᾿Ασίας δυνξζητοῦντες τῷ Στεφάνῳ, “" καὶ οὐκ ἴσχυον
4 a A ῃ a A " ΟΣ ΣΤ ἢ ΠῚ,
ἀντιστῆναι τῇ σοφίᾳ καὶ τῷ πνεύματι ᾧ ἐλάλει. “ τότε
/ U A a
ὑπέβαλον ἄνδρας λέγοντας ὅτι ᾿Ακηκόαμεν αὐτοῦ λα-
“ ’ / oo al U
λοῦντος ῥήματα βλάσφημα εἰς Μωῦσῆν καὶ τὸν θεόν.
/ t \
“ συνεκίνησάν τε τὸν λαὸν Kal τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους καὶ
\ la) \ /
τοὺς γραμματεῖς, Kal ἐπιστάντες συνήρπασαν αὐτὸν
U > \ ΄
καὶ ἤγαγον εἰς τὸ συνέδριον, ᾿" ἔστησάν τε μάρτυρας
a 7 ς y e ᾽ aA
ψευδεῖς λέγοντας, O ἄνθρωπος οὗτος οὐ παύεται λαλῶν
\ a Vale “
ῥήματα κατὰ τοῦ τόπου τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ τοῦ νόμου᾽ “ ἀκη-
, \ > a / a > a ς a
κόαμεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ὅτι ᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος
- , \ , lal Ν > / \ »ν)
οὗτος καταλύσει τὸν τόπον τοῦτον, καὶ ἀλλάξει τὰ ἔθη
ε / ¢ n - A
ἃ παρέδωκεν ἡμῖν Maovons. “Kai atevicavtes eis
δόσιν / e U > “Ὁ / 9 Ν
αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ καθεζόμενοι ἐν τῷ συνεδρίῳ, εἶδον τὸ
> a / >
πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ πρόσωπον ἀγγέλου.
'Εἶπεν δὲ 6 ἀρχιερεύς, Ei ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει; " ὁ
16 ITRASEI2 ὙΠ
νιν / > \ / ᾽
δὲ ἔφη, “Avdpes ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες, ἀκούσατε. ὁ θεὸς
an / wv “~ Ν « n ? \ ” > lal
τῆς δόξης ὠφθη τῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν ᾿Αβραὰμ ὄντι ἐν TH
᾿ / \ x a 5... N > , 3 \
Μεσοποταμίᾳ πρὶν ἢ κατοικῆσαι αὐτὸν ἐν Χαρράν, * καὶ
4 \ ab Wi " ? a A ἈΞ a
εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν, ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου Kal ἐκ THs
\ lal ’ \ “ «Ὁ
συγγενείας σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς τὴν γῆν ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω.
4 / \ » nr
τότε ἐξελθὼν ἐκ γῆς Χαλδαίων κατῴκησεν ἐν Χαρράν.
» “ \ \ ,’ nw \ ’ Qn
κἀκεῖθεν μετὰ TO ἀποθανεῖν τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ μετῴ-
\ a / 3 “Δ ξ “-“ rn
KLOEV αὐτὸν ELS THY γῆν ταύτην εἰς ἣν ὑμεῖς νῦν KaTOL-
- 5 \ 7 Μ ᾽ lal / > » ee Ψῷ 2O\
κεῖτε, °Kal οὐκ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ κληρονομίαν ἐν αὐτῇ οὐδὲ
aA lal “Ὁ /
βῆμα ποδός, καὶ ἐπηγγείλατο δοῦναι αὐτῷ εἰς KaTa-
δ. τὰ \ a , > a > es, 5)
σχεσιν αὐτὴν καὶ TO σπέρματι αὐτοῦ μετ᾽ αὐτόν, οὐκ
v , n / 6 > , A ¢/ ς \ cd
OVTOS AUT@ τέκνου. ἐλάλησεν δὲ οὕτως ὁ θεὸς ὅτι
" \ / » an / » fal » 7 \
ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ πάροικον ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ, Kal
J \ / f /
δουλώσουσιν αὐτὸ Kal κακώσουσιν ἔτη τετρακόσια.
7 \ Laer SES / aes " c \
καὶ TO ἔθνος ᾧ ἐὰν δουλεύσουσιν, κρινῶ ἐγώ, ὃ θεὸς
> rn / \ /
εἶπεν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐξελεύσονται Kal λατρεύσουσίν
“ / ‘ vy ᾽ n
μοι ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τούτῳ. “καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ διαθήκην
al ef ΄ \ ] \ \
περιτομῆς" καὶ οὕτως ἐγέννησεν τὸν ᾿Ισαὰκ Kal περιέ-
Ts. ΜΚ A ¢ , A > Ul \o> Ν \ ᾽ /
τεμεν αὐτὸν TH ἡμέρᾳ TH ὀγδόῃ, καὶ ᾿Ισαὰκ τὸν ᾿Ιακώβ,
\ \ /
καὶ ᾿Ιακὼβ τοὺς δώδεκα πατριάρχας. ὅ καὶ οἱ πατρι-
/ / \ ᾽ \ ’ / > ”
apxat ζηλώσαντες Tov ᾿Ιωσὴφ ἀπέδοντο εἰς Αἴγυπτον'
\ 9 ¢ \ > ’ rn 10 Age , any > A
καὶ nv ὁ θεὸς μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ, " καὶ ἐξείλατο αὐτὸν ἐκ πασῶν
Ὁ / ΩΣ Lal \ » > A / \ /
τῶν θλίψεων αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ χάριν Kal σοφίαν
> / \ / » / \ /
ἐναντίον Φαραὼ βασιλέως Αἰγύπτου, καὶ κατέστησεν
» \ ¢ / > , yy \ & \ 3 ᾽ “
αὐτὸν ἡγούμενον ἐπ᾽ Αἴγυπτον καὶ ὅλον τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ.
Tape! \ \ mle 4 \ / \ τ
"ἦλθεν δὲ λιμὸς ἐφ᾽ ὅλην τὴν Αἴγυπτον καὶ Χαναὰν καὶ
᾽ 7
θλίψις μεγάλη, καὶ οὐχ εὕρισκον χορτάσματα οἱ Ta-
΄ c “ 5 / A » Vv / }] "
τέρες ἡμῶν. © ἀκούσας δὲ ᾿Ιακὼβ ὄντα σιτία εἰς Αἴγυπο-
/ \ / ε rn A
τον ἐξαπέστειλεν τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν πρῶτον" ™ καὶ ἐν
a / » / > \ al ’ “ » a
τῷ δευτέρῳ ἀνεγνωρίσθη ᾿Ιωσὴφ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς αὐτοῦ,
\ \ ’ / a 4b) \ \ / Da , 14?
καὶ φανερὸν ἐγένετο τῷ Φαραὼ τὸ γένος ᾿Ιωσήφ. “ ἀπο-
VII. 2 ATIOZTOAQN 17
5 \ ‘ \
στείλας δὲ Ἰωσὴφ μετεκαλέσατο ᾿Ιακὼβ τὸν πατέρα
a] a \ / lal
αὐτοῦ Kal πᾶσαν THY συγγένειαν ἐν ψυχαῖς ἑβδομή-
5 LA >]
κοντα πέντε. “Kal κατέβη ᾿Ιακὼβ eis Αἴγυπτον, καὶ
ἘΠῚ ΔΆ, . 7 e al 1 \
ἐτελεύτησεν αὐτὸς Kal οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν, ° καὶ μετετέθη-
\ 7 a“ / e ’ /
σαν εἰς Συχὲμ Kal ἐτέθησαν ἐν TO μνήματι ᾧ ὠνήσατο
"AB \ A 5 / \ al ea Ἢ \ >
ραὰμ τιμῆς ἀργυρίου παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν ᾿Εμμὼρ ἐν
ἊΣ 7 17 θ Ν δὲ " ς , A > /
υχέμ. “Kabds δὲ ἤγγιζεν ὁ χρόνος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας
e Ε / ¢ \ A > / Yj
ἧς ὡμολόγησεν ὁ θεὸς τῷ ᾿Αβραάμ, ηὔξησεν ὁ λαὸς
\ ‘ ΡῚ Py ὅν κΚ \
καὶ ἐπληθύνθη ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, axypt ov ἀνέστη βασιλεὺς
S10 a Μ «Ὁ 5 ” \ > , 19 Φ
ἕτερος ἐπ᾿ Αἴγυπτον, ὃς οὐκ ἤδει τὸν ᾿Ιωσήφ. “δ οὗτος
/ \ , - , Ν
κατασοφισάμενος τὸ γένος ἡμῶν ἐκάκωσεν τοὺς πατέρας
“ a ! A nr
Tov ποιεῖν TA βρέφη ἔκθετα αὐτῶν εἰς TO μὴ ζωογονεῖσ-
09.43 Ka a > “ ” a \ 3 ᾽ al
θαι. “ev ᾧ καιρῷ éyevvnOn Motors, καὶ ἦν ἀστεῖος
A A \ » , “Ὁ a ’ A v lal
τῷ θεῷ. ὃς ἀνετράφη μῆνας τρεῖς ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ TOD
/ ofe 3 , \ 5 a 5 , Le «ς ,
πατρός. ™ ἐκτεθέντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀνείλατο αὐτὸν ἡ θυγα-
\ « A ey
Tnp Φαραὼ καὶ ἀνεθρέψατο αὐτὸν ἑαυτῇ εἰς υἱόν. ™ καὶ
on A , / > / 2 “- \
ἐπαιδεύθη Maions ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ Αἰγυπτίων" ἦν δὲ
ὃ Ἁ > / Ὁ 1 ’ a 93 ¢ δὲ > A
υνατος ἐν λογοις καὶ ἔργοις αὑτοῦ. ως ὃὲ ἐπληροῦτο
5 A \ / 5 / 2 \ \ Ns
αὐτῷ TETTEPAKOVTAETHS χρόνος, ἀνέβη ἐπὶ THY καρδίαν
5 la) > \ 5 \ ᾽ A \ Cas
αὐτοῦ ἐπισκέψασθαι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ τοὺς υἱοὺς
5) ’ 24 NOUS See 5) ἢ ΩΝ, \
Ἰσραήλ. καὶ ἰδών τινα ἀδικούμενον ἠμύνατο, καὶ
lal 7] ͵ A
ἐποίησεν ἐκδίκησιν τῷ καταπονουμένῳ πατάξας τὸν
> ers 5 ᾿ 7 A > \ 6
Αὐγύπτιον. “ἐνόμιζεν δὲ συνιέναι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ὅτι
ς \ \ \ ? a / / eS eee τ es ©
ὁ θεὸς διὰ χειρὸς αὐτοῦ δίδωσιν σωτηρίαν αὐτοῖς οἱ
> A A / 7 = a
δὲ ov συνῆκαν. τῇ τε ἐπιούσῃ ἡμέρᾳ ὠφθη αὐτοῖς μαχο-
/ ' 9 > / > ,
μένοις, Kal συνήλλασσεν αὐτοὺς εἰς εἰρήνην εἰπῶων,
4 - A / ΡΥ Δ \
"Avopes, ἀδελφοί ἐστε ἱνατί ἀδικεῖτε ἀλλήλους ; “ ὁ δὲ
9 “ \ / ? / 9 \ ’ / /
ἀδικῶν TOV πλησίον ἀπώσατο αὐτὸν εἰπῶν, Tis σε
7, \ Sw. Cane ee ee
κατέστησεν ἄρχοντα Kal δικαστὴν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν ; ~ μὴ ἀνε-
a \ ΄, a \ SS ak
λεῖν με σὺ θέλεις, Ov τρόπον ἀνεῖλες ἐχθὲς τὸν AuyuTr-
29 Κ “ a , t \
τίον; “ἔφυγεν δὲ Μωῦσῆς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ, καὶ
THE ACTS 2
18 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ VII. 29
ER U > A M ὃ / 1, ee ον 4.5 Ὁ δύ
ἐγένετο πάροικος ἐν γῇ Μαδιάμ, οὗ ἐγέννησεν υἱοὺς δύο.
380 \ / ὅς δὸς / ” θ 9 me AS
καὶ πληρωθέντων ἐτῶν τεσσεράκοντα ὠφθὴ αὐτῷ ἐν
a an YU 3 \ \ U
τῇ ἐρήμῳ Tod ὄρους Σινᾶ ἄγγελος ἐν φλογὶ πυρὸς Ba-
31 ¢ O\ - A IOAN 5) ͵ \o¢ .
tov. “6 δὲ Μωῦσῆς ἰδὼν ἐθαύμασεν τὸ ὅραμα προσερ-
a al leet \ /
χομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ κατανοῆσαι ἐγένετο φωνὴ κυρίου,
᾿ a 1 c \ 3 \ \
*°-EKyo ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων σου, ὁ θεὸς ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ
\ / on -
᾿Ισαὰκ καὶ ᾿Ιακώβ. ἔντρομος δὲ γενόμενος Μωῦσῆς
A 3 \ ᾿ “Ὁ ς /
οὐκ ἐτόλμα κατανοῆσαι. “εἶπεν δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ κύριος,
an AE / A a ξ ς \ / >?
Λῦσον τὸ ὑπόδημα τῶν ποδῶν σου ὁ yap τόπος ἐφ
δ᾽ ἢ A ¢ uy / 34) \ 3 \ /
ᾧ ἕστηκας yn ayia ἐστίν. “ἰδὼν εἶδον τὴν κάκωσιν
“ a fal \ lal nr
τοῦ λαοῦ μου τοῦ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, Kal τοῦ στεναγμοῦ
5. Ἂς Ὑ \ / > μ ’ Varten \ a
αὐτῶν ἤκουσα, καὶ κατέβην ἐξελέσθαι αὐτούς" καὶ νῦν
an " 35 κ᾿ \ Ἔ
δεῦρο ἀποστείλω σε εἰς Αἴγυπτον. ὁ τοῦτον τὸν Mav-
a “Ὁ / /
σῆν, ὃν ἠρνήσαντο εἰπόντες, Tis σε κατέστησεν ἄρχοντα
Ν ἴω f \ \
καὶ δικαστήν; τοῦτον ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἄρχοντα Kal λυτρωτὴν
Nes, \ \ 3 , ΠΟΥΛῪ τὸ t ee See
ἀπέσταλκεν σὺν χειρὶ ἀγγέλου τοῦ ὀφθέντος αὐτῷ ἐν
a / ᾿ 5 A 7 ,
τῇ βάτῳ. “οὗτος ἐξήγαγεν αὐτοὺς ποιήσας τέρατα
καὶ σημεῖα ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ καὶ
ne Tu i 4 ff tities a
5 “ ’ Ui Ls / >| - “.
ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἔτη τεσσεράκοντα. ἥἧ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Mav-
“A ε " lal a a) ᾿] / 4 , 4 a 3
σῆς ὁ εἴπας τοῖς υἱοῖς ᾿Ισραήλ, ΠΓροφήτην ὑμῖν avac-
μ ς \ 2 tal 3 val ¢ a ς 9... 283 , nA
τήσει ὁ θεὸς ἐκ TOV ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν ὡς ἐμέ. ™ οὗτός
3 e / 5 A 5 / 5 “ τ / \ fal
ἐστιν ὁ γενόμενος ἐν TH ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐν TH ἐρήμῳ μετὰ TOU
, n an J A al τ al rn
ἀγγέλου τοῦ λαλοῦντος αὐτῷ ἐν TO ὄρει Σινᾶ καὶ TOV
¢ Ὁ A > / / “Ὁ lal ς Cal
πατέρων ἡμῶν, ὃς ἐδέξατο λόγια ζῶντα δοῦναι, ἡμῖν,
89 Ὁ ᾽ θέλ ς / , θ e ! ς A
ᾧ οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ὑπήκοοι γενέσθαι οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν,
5 \ ’ / \ > / ’ “A / 5
ἀλλὰ ἀπώσαντο καὶ ἐστράφησαν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐ-
al > A ti 40 5 a eX / II i c.f
τῶν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, * εἰπόντες τῷ ᾿Δαρών, Iloinoov ἡμῖν
«Ὁ “ \ o A
θεοὺς of προπορεύσονται ἡμῶν ὁ yap Μωῦσῆς οὗτος,
“Δ 5». " ¢ A ᾽ tal a ae ’ Μ /
Os ἐξήγαγεν ἡμᾶς ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, οὐκ οἴδαμεν τί
/ Pile. ' a
ἐγένετο αὐτῷ. “Kal ἐμοσχοποίησαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις
ἐκείναις καὶ ἀνήγαγον θυσίαν τῷ εἰδώλῳ, καὶ εὐφραί-
ς nyay (av τῷ εἰδώλῳ, ραί
VIL. ss ATIOZTOAQN 19
lal 357 nA τ lal 4
vovTO ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν. “ἔστρεψεν
4 \ / ,’ \ / “Ὁ A
δὲ ὁ θεὸς Kat παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς λατρεύειν τῇ στρατιᾷ
A " 4 \ / , / al aA
τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν βίβλῳ τῶν προφητῶν,
I i \ , / , li
Μὴ σφάγια καὶ θυσίας προσηνέγκατέ μοι ἔτη τεσσερά-
’ A 5» / 3 ak +4 43 \ ’ >. qe} \
κοντα ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, οἶκος ᾿Ισραήλ, “ καὶ ἀνελάβετε τὴν
᾿Ὶ -“ \ \ \ v A ane , \
σκηνὴν τοῦ Modoy Kal TO ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ Ρεφαν, τοὺς
\ / an ,’ A A
τύπους OUS ἐποιήσατε προσκυνεῖν αὐτοῖς ; καὶ μετοικιῶ
id nr ’ , a 44 ¢ \ a ,
ὑμᾶς ἐπέκεινα Βαβυλῶνος. ἢ σκηνὴ τοῦ μαρτυρίου
5 A eww ᾽ ΜΕ \ ͵
ἣν τοῖς πατράσιν ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, καθὼς διετάξατο
€ lal “Ὁ “ ~ A » \ A \ /
ὁ λαλῶν τῷ Movon ποιῆσαι αὐτὴν Kata τὸν τύπον
δ e , ἐδ ἃ \ ae, , ε ,
ὃν ἑωράκει" “ἣν καὶ εἰσήγαγον διαδεξάμενοι οἱ πατέ-
4 lal δ Ὁ lal 5» / »“» A
pes ἡμῶν μετὰ ᾿Ιησοῦ ἐν τῇ κατασχέσει τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὧν
/ 6 \ , \ / n 7 [ὦ a
ἔξωσεν ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν, ἕως
A € A A iS 46 ἃ e ἢ ΡΝ, A Ἂν
τῶν ἡμερῶν Δαυείδ, “0s εὗρεν χάριν ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ
ἕλος.» ς na , a y > / 47 χ'
καὶ ἡτήσατο εὑρεῖν σκήνωμα τῷ οἴκῳ ᾿Ιακώβ. >oX0-
A ’ > - 48 9 > ᾽ ε΄ ὦ
μῶν δὲ ὠκοδόμησεν αὐτῷ οἶκον. “ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὁ ὕψιστος
> , a Nas ὧν / , 49¢
ἐν χειροποιήτοις κατοικεῖ, καθὼς ὁ προφήτης λέγει, “Ὃ
, ς \ n e , an A
οὐρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου᾽
-“ “" ’ / / / “Δ / /
ποῖον οἶκον οἰκοδομήσετέ μοι, λέγει κύριος, ἢ τίς τόπος
5
A ἢ ΠΩ͂Σ, yok eae. ἢ ,
τῆς καταπαύσεώς μου; “οὐχὶ ἡ χείρ μου ἐποίησεν
lal / 5 / \ , /
ταῦτα πάντα; ™ σκληροτράχηλοι καὶ ἀπερίτμητοι καρ-
, \ “ , / £ “ +s “ ff “ c /
δίαις Kal τοῖς ὠσίν, ὑμεῖς ἀεὶ TO πνεύματι TO ἁγίῳ
> ἢ ς ε , Crier Ne tila δ ay
ἀντιπίπτετε, WS OL πατέρες ὑμῶν Kal ὑμεῖς. δ᾿ τίνα τῶν
A ΄ 7] eS nr \ ’ ,
προφητῶν οὐκ ἐδίωξαν οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ; Kal ἀπέκτει-
\ / Lal I a nr
vay τοὺς προκαταγγείλαντας περὶ τῆς ἐλεύσεως TOD
/ Ka a ς “ / \ al ,
δικαίου, οὗ νῦν ὑμεῖς προδόται καὶ φονεῖς ἐγένεσθε,
63 Ud \ / ’ \ > ᾿ \
οἵτινες ἐλάβετε TOY νόμον εἰς διαταγὰς ἀγγέλων, καὶ
5"
οὐκ ἐφυλάξατε.
54 » ͵ \ a , a 7 4
Ακούοντες δὲ ταῦτα διεπρίοντο ταῖς καρδίαις αὐ-
a Vin ov \ 2O7 ἈΠ ΕΈΝ ’ 55 Ὁ ,
τῶν καὶ ἔβρυχον τοὺς ὀδόντας ἐπ᾽ αὐτον. ὑπάρχων
Ν hy / ς » ,ὔ ’ \
δὲ πλήρης πνεύματος ἁγίου, ἀτενίσας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν
2 2
20 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ VIL. 55
, a 5 “ lal al “ -“
εἶδεν δόξαν θεοῦ καὶ ᾿Ιησοῦν ἑστῶτα ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ,
56 \ 7, "16 ‘ θ ἐκ \ > \ ὃ L
καὶ εἶπεν, ᾿Ιδοὺ θεωρώ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς διηνουιγμένους
“ > “ na “ lal
καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκ δεξιῶν ἑστῶτα τοῦ θεοῦ.
57 ! δὲ al / , ᾿ς ἦἉ tein
κράξαντες ὃὲ φωνῇ μεγάλῃ συνέσχον τὰ ὦτα αὐτῶν
δ, ἊΝ ς \ sae Ἐπ 58 Ν > /
Kal ὥρμησαν ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν, * καὶ ἐκβαλόντες
“- e ΄ 5» /
ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἐλιθοβώλουν. καὶ οἱ μάρτυρες ἀπέθεντο
a /
τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν παρὰ τοὺς πόδας νεανίου καλουμένου
\ Vi - ’
Lavrov, ” καὶ ἐλιθοβόλουν τὸν Στέφανον, ἐπικαλούμενον
/ 2 a a E> \
Kat λέγοντα, Κύριε ᾿Τησοῦ, δέξαι τὸ πνεῦμά pov. © θεὶς
\ \ U » “Ὁ U / \ /
δὲ Ta γόνατα ἔκραξεν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ, Κύριε, μὴ στήσῃς
- ¢ “ ’ \ /
αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην. Kal τοῦτο εἰπὼν ἐκοιμήθη.
8 1 a a: 5 5 a a» / ’ A
Σαῦλος δὲ ἦν συνευδοκῶν TH ἀναιρέσει αὐτοῦ.
Ἢ / de > “> / “ «ς / \ / ee.
γένετο δὲ ἐν ἐκείνῃ TH ἡμέρᾳ διωγμὸς μέγας ἐπὶ
\ > / \ Ber ne , 5 , \
τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις" πάντες δὲ διε-
\ \ a
σπάρησαν κατὰ Tas χώρας τῆς Ιουδαίας καὶ Σαμαρείας
\ A ᾽ / 2 , \ \ ,
πλὴν τῶν ἀποστόλων. " συνεκόμισαν δὲ τὸν Στέφανον
v ’ a \ > / \ ᾿ De 9 “
ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς καὶ ἐποίησαν κοπετὸν μέγαν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ.
3 A \ > , ae, , \ \ "
Σαῦλος δὲ ἐλυμαίνετο τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, κατὰ τοὺς οἴκους
, a
εἰσπορευόμενος, σύρων τε ἄνδρας Kal γυναῖκας παρε-
, , = A
δίδου eis φυλακήν. “οἱ μὲν οὖν διασπαρέντες διῆλθον
/ /
εὐαγγελιζόμενοι TOV λόγον.
, \ a
"Φίλιππος δὲ κατελθὼν εἰς THY πόλιν τῆς Σαμα-
/ ’ a \ - a
pelas ἐκήρυσσεν αὐτοῖς τὸν Χριστόν. “ προσεῖχον δὲ οἱ
a / ς “
ὄχλοι τοῖς λεγομένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐν
A ᾽ ᾽ \ “ «ἃ
τῷ ἀκούειν αὐτοὺς καὶ βλέπειν τὰ σημεῖα ἃ ἐποίει.
\ nw / , Ὁ“
᾿ πολλοὶ γὰρ τῶν ἐχόντων πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα, βοῶντα
A / .
φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ἐξήρχοντο" πολλοὶ δὲ παραλελυμένοι Kal
/ fol
χωλοὶ OeparrevOncav' * ἐγένετο δὲ πολλὴ χαρὰ ἐν TH
\ “
πόλει ἐκείνῃ. ἥ ἀνὴρ δέ τις ὀνόματι Σίμων προὐὔπῆρχεν
> A / / \ > / A ot A
ἐν τῇ πόλει μαγεύων καὶ ἐξιστάνων τὸ ἔθνος τῆς Lapa-
/ 3 7 e a
pelas, λέγων εἶναί Twa ἑαυτὸν μέγαν, “ ᾧ προσεῖχον
b>, Ke ae α.ς....(
VIII 25 *, BEERGN ¢ >
/ > A lal - / , e / >
πάντες ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου λέγοντες, Οὗτός ἐστιν
lal ἴω ¢ / / cal
ἡ δύναμις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ καλουμένη μεγάλη. “προσεῖχον
\ 3 a \ he a / a > /
δὲ αὐτῷ διὰ TO ἱκανῷ χρόνῳ ταῖς μαγείαις ἐξεστακέναι
Ul UA “Ὁ / 2
αὐτούς. "ὅτε δὲ ἐπίστευσαν τῷ Φιλίππῳ εὐαγγελιζο-
\ A lal -“ \ nr b
μένῳ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος
= a XS a 2 , v 5 \ a
ησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐβαπτίζοντο ἄνδρες Te καὶ γυναῖκες.
13 ¢ δὰ / \ 2 N δι τῶ \ \ 3
ὁ δὲ Σίμων καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπίστευσεν, καὶ βαπτισθεὶς ἦν
lal lal / “Ὁ n
προσκαρτερῶν τῷ Φιλίππῳ, θεωρῶν τε σημεῖα καὶ
, / / -
δυνάμεις μεγάλας γινομένας ἐξίστατο.
» ς
"᾽ Ἀκούσαντες δὲ οἱ ἐν “Ἱεροσολύμοις ἀπόστολοι ὅτι
δέδ € Ss / \ / a a 3 /
ἐδεκται ἡ Σαμάρεια Tov λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀπέστειλαν
\ ᾽ \ , \>? ἢ ΕΝ τὲ ,
πρὸς αὐτοὺς Iléetpov καὶ ᾿Ιωάννην, “" οἵτινες καταβάντες
, > A f / “
προσηύξαντο περὶ αὐτῶν ὅπως λάβωσι πνεῦμα ἅγιον.
ee WS \ 53 ee ee \ S11 rags s ,
οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν ἐπ᾽ οὐδενὶ αὐτῶν ἐπιπεπτωκός, μόνον
\ / ς ol > \ " “
δὲ βεβαπτισμένοι ὑπῆρχον εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου
» fal / “~
Ἰησοῦ. “Tore ἐπετίθεσαν τὰς χεῖρας ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, Kal
/ a , /
ἐλάμβανον πνεῦμα ἅγιον. "ἰδὼν δὲ 6 Σίμων ὅτι διὰ
Ὁ“ / »" Lal “Ὁ
τῆς ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν τῶν ἀποστόλων δίδοται τὸ
lal / ᾿ lal
πνεῦμα, προσήνεγκεν αὐτοῖς χρήματα “λέγων, Δότε
> \ \ > / / “ Φ bee > m \
κἀμοὶ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ταύτην, ἵνα ᾧ ἐὰν ἐπιθῶ τὰς
rn , ἴω “ A 20 / \ ΜῈ \
χεῖρας λαμβάνῃ πνεῦμα ἅγιον. ™ Ilérpos δὲ εἶπεν πρὸς
ant = τυ ῃ , \ \ " > ; , “
αὐτὸν, Τὸ ἀργύριόν σου σὺν σοὶ εἴη εἰς ἀπώλειαν, ὅτι
“Ὁ la) / Ὁ
τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνόμισας διὰ χρημάτων κτᾶσθαι.
οἵ 2 BA \ *O\ al > A ’ ’ ‘
οὐκ ἔστι σοι μερὶς οὐδὲ κλῆρος ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ
/ 7 Ψ a Yj a a
ἢ yap καρδία σου οὐκ ἔστιν εὐθεῖα ἔναντι τοῦ θεοῦ.
/ A / / \ /
“ PETAVONTOV οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας σου ταύτης, Kal δεή-
a : ς / a
θητι Tov κυρίου εἰ ἄρα ἀφεθήσεταί σοι ἡ ἐπίνοια τῆς
/ \ ,
καρδίας σου “ἢ εἰς yap χολὴν πικρίας καὶ σύνδεσμον
’ , Cc _ σὺ ” 24 5 θ \ δὲ gt τὰν τ,
ἀδικίας ὁρῶ σε ὄντα. “᾿ ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Σίμων εἴπεν,
Δ 10 ς a See b) a \ \ , v4 δὲ
εήθητε ὑμεῖς ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ πρὸς τὸν κύριον, ὅπως μηδὲν
4.1} θ ἡ ἀ ORK ὦ er, Gren. 'e \ 5 ὃ U
ἐπέλθῃ ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ὧν εἰρήκατε. ~ οἱ μὲν οὖν διαμαρτυρα-
22 TIPAZEIS VIII. 25
\ ; 5 / \ , Lal / « /
μενοι Kal λαλήσαντες TOV λόγον τοῦ κυρίου ὑπέστρεφον
, , an “Ὁ
εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, πολλάς τε κώμας τῶν Σαμαρειτῶν
»
εὐηγγελίζοντο.
\ / /
ἜΑ γέλος δὲ κυρίου ἐλάλησεν πρὸς Φίλιππον λέ-
\ Ν \
you, ᾿Ανάστηθι καὶ πορεύου κατὰ μεσημβρίαν ἐπὶ τὴν
«ον \ / ᾽ A ing \ ᾽ , ;
ὁδὸν τὴν καταβαίνουσαν ἀπὸ “Ἱερουσαλὴμ eis Γάξαν
“ > \ ” 27 C259 \ 5) , ae. \
αὕτη ἐστὶν ἔρημος. ™ Kal ἀναστὰς ἐπορεύθη. καὶ ἰδοὺ
» \ ’ ἴω 4 /
ἀνὴρ Αἰθίοψ εὐνοῦχος δυνάστης ΚΚανδάκης βασιλίσσης
> \ ἮΡ a “ ae ,
Αἰθιόπων, ὃς Hv ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς γάξης αὐτῆς, ἐληλύθει
ἢ ἀρ ple / 28 5 ε , \
προσκυνήσων εἰς “Ἱερουσαλήμ, “ἦν τε ὑποστρέφων, Kal
na a \ ’
καθήμενος ἐπὶ TOD ἅρματος αὐτοῦ Kal ἀνεγίνωσκεν τὸν
“ἡ \ a “
προφήτην Ἡσαΐαν. ™ εἶπεν δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ Φιλίππῳ,
/ a / , 3
Πρόσελθε καὶ κολλήθητι τῷ ἅρματι τούτῳ. ™ mpoc-
\ t lal /
δραμὼν δὲ 6 Φίλιππος ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ ἀναγινώσκοντος
« Sf \ / \ s . / s a
Ησαΐαν τὸν προφήτην, καὶ εἶπεν, ᾿Αρά ye γινώσκεις ἃ
> , Rie) OR Le a \ a , >\
avayiwoaoKes; “ὁ δὲ εἶπεν, Ids yap av δυναίμην ἐὰν
/ « / / 7 \ Λ
μή τις ὁδηγήσει με; παρεκάλεσέν τε τὸν Φίλιππον
5 B / θί. \ » a $2 ¢ δὲ \ Ὁ
ἀναβάντα καθίσαι σὺν αὐτῷ. ἡ δὲ περιοχὴ τῆς
A Δ > / 3 ἀλλο Ne , > ἢ
γραφῆς ἣν ἀνεγίνωσκεν nv αὕτη Os πρόβατον ἐπὶ
\ / r /
σφαγὴν ἤχθη, Kal ὡς ἀμνὸς ἐναντίον τοῦ κείροντος
ee | > “
αὐτὸν ἄφωνος, οὕτως οὐκ ἀνοίγει τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ. ™ ἐν
a , « / an » \ \ “
τῇ ταπεινώσει ἡ κρίσις αὐτοῦ ἤρθη τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ
/ / / ’ - an lal
τίς διηγήσεται; ὅτι αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἡ ζωὴ αὐτοῦ.
’ “ lal / >
“ ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ εὐνοῦχος τῷ Φιλίππῳ εἶπεν, Δέομαί
-“ \ lal
σου, περὶ Tivos ὁ προφήτης λέγει τοῦτο ; περὶ ἑαυτοῦ ἢ
Ἀν Ι 385 2 / ee 5 " \ 4
περὶ ἑτέρου Tivos; ἧ᾿ ἀνοίξας δὲ ὁ Φίλιππος τὸ στόμα
a) - \ a - 5»
αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς ταύτης εὐηγγελί-
᾽ a a /
gato αὐτῷ Tov ᾿Ιησοῦν. “ws δὲ ἐπορεύοντο κατὰ τὴν
ς , s , ef ’ rn
ὁδόν, ἦλθον ἐπί τι ὕδωρ, καί φησιν ὁ εὐνοῦχος, ᾿Ιδοὺ
΄“ / , a
vdwp' τί κωλύει pe βαπτισθῆναι; “Kai ἐκέλευσεν
a Ν, δῇ \ /, 3 Ζ > Vo
στῆναι TO ἅρμα, Kal κατέβησαν ἀμφότεροι εἰς TO ὕδωρ,
EX ¥2 ATIOZ TOAQN 23
ul \ ς " an \
6 τε Φίλιππος καὶ ὁ εὐνοῦχος, Kat ἐβάπτισεν αὐτόν.
/
“OTe δὲ nk ale ἐκ TOU ὕδατος, πνεῦμα Κυρίου ἥρ-
πασεν τὸν Φίλιππον, καὶ οὐκ εἶδεν αὐτὸν οὐκέτι ὁ
> = me , \ \ << 3 a , 40 ,
εὐνοῦχος" ἐπορεύετο γὰρ τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ χαίρων. “ Φί-
\ Φ' “ἢ 3, ὦ \ , ,
λιίππος δὲ εὑρέθη ets ᾿Αζωτον, καὶ διερχόμενος εὐηγγε-
“ U id fal a
λίζετο τὰς πόλεις πάσας ἕως τοῦ ἐλθεῖν αὐτὸν εἰς Και-
σάρειαν.
1.
9 Ὁ δὲ Σαῦλος ἔ ἔτι ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς, καὶ φόνου « εἰς
τοὺς μαθητὰς τοῦ κυρίου, προσελθὼν τῷ cea ᾿ aH
σατο wtp αὐτοῦ ἐπιστολὰς εἰς Δαμασκὸν Tpos τὰς
συναγωνγάς, ὕπως ἐάν τινὰς εὑρῇ) τῆς ὁδοῦ ὄντας, ἄνδρας
τε καὶ γυναῖκας, δεδεμένους ἀ ἀγάγῃ εἰς ᾿Ἰέρουσαλήμ. * ἐν
δὲ τῷ mec rae ἐγένετο αὐτὸν ἐγγίζειν τῇ Δαμασκῷ,
ἐξαίφνης τε αὐτὸν περιήστραψεν φῶς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ,
4 Ν Ν PN \ a v \ , ΠΣ
καὶ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἤἠκόυσὲν φωνὴν λέγουσαν αὐτῷ,
/ 5 Ὁ /
Σαοὺλ Σαούλ, τί pe διώκεις ; " ἐἶπεν δέ, Tis εἶ, κύριε; ὁ
re / ,’ ἴω «δ ’ Adi
δέ, “Eye εἰμι ᾿Ιησοῦς, ὃν σὺ διώκεις. " ἀλλὰ nanan
καὶ εἴσελθε εἰς τὴν πόλιν, καὶ λαληθήσεταί σοι ὅ τι σε
δεῖ ποιεῖν. ἢ οἱ "δὲ ἄνδρες οἱ συνοδεύοντες αὐτῷ εἱστή-
κεισαν éveol, ἀκούοντες μὲν τῆς φωνῆς, μηδένα δὲ θεω-
a 8 ΛΔ δὲ s a b) \ a A > 4
ροῦντες. “ἠγέρθη δὲ Σαῦλος ἀπὸ THs γῆς, avewypevov
\ a > ‘ n ? rn 5 ὧἋΧ » Ὶ Σ “-
δὲ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ οὐδὲν ἔβλεπεν χειρωαγωγοῦντες
> ‘ Ny ς νῈ a
δὲ αὐτὸν εἰσήγαγον εἰς Δαμασκόν. ° καὶ nv ἡμέρας Tpets’
\ 7 ν \ > » FQ WV ς
μὴ βλέπων, καὶ οὐκ ἔφαγεν οὐδὲ ἔπιεν.
5. , a Wray ieee 4 >
Hy δὲ τις μαθητὴς ἐν Δαμασκῷ ὀνόματι ᾿Ανανίας,
c , >,
καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐν ὁράματι ὁ κύριος, ᾿Ανανία.
¢€ \ 3 5 a > / / TiS \ / \ > !
ὁ δὲ εἶπεν, Ἰδοὺ ἐγώ, κύριε. “0 δὲ κύριος πρὸς αὐτόν,
’ \ ’ “τῶν \ ἘΣῪ \ ,
Avactas πορεύθητι ἐπ calli ee σὴν καλουμένην
εὐθεῖαν καὶ ξόρησον ἐν οἰκίᾳ ᾿Ιούδα Lavrov ὀνόματι
12
εὐ \
Tapoéa. ἰδοὺ γὰρ προσεύχέται, Kat εἶδεν ἄνδρα
2. ᾿ / , A Ln
Ἀνανίαν ὀνόματι εἰσελθόντα Kal ἐπιθέντα αὐτῷ χεῖρας,
24 ΠΕΆΞΕΙΣ IX. 12
ὅπως ἀναβλέψη. "ἀπεκρίθη δὲ ᾿Ανανίας, Κύριε,
" δ ἧς A \ ake ἢ \ , ov
ἤκουσα ἀπὸ πολλῶν περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τούτου, ὅσα
κακὰ τοῖς ἁγίοις σου ἐποίησεν ἐν ᾿ἱερουσαλήμ᾽ ™ Kat
ὧδε ἔχει ἐξουσίαν παρὰ τῶν ἀρχιερέων δῆσαι πάντας
τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομά σου. "εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς
αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος, Ilopevou, ὅτι σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς ἐστίν μοι
οὗτος τοῦ βαστάσαι τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐνώπιον ἐθνῶν τε
καὶ βασιλέων υἱῶν te ᾿Ισραήλ' "ἐγὼ γὰρ ὑποδείξω
αὐτῷ ὅσα δεῖ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματός μου παθεῖν.
2 ἀπῆλθε δὲ ᾿Ανανίας καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν, καὶ
ἐπιθεὶς ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν τὰς χεῖρας εἶπεν, Σαοὺλ ἀδελφέ,
κύριος ἀπέσταλκέν με, iynauss ὁ ὀφθείς σοι ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ
ἤρχου, ὅπως ἀναβλέψῃς καὶ πλησθῆς πνεύματος ἁγίου.
“Kat εὐθέως ἀπέπεσαν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὡς
λεπίδες, ἀνέβλεψέν τε, καὶ ἀναστὰς ἐβαπτίσθη, " καὶ
λαβὼν τροφὴν ἐνίσχυσεν" ἐγένετο δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἐν Δα-
μασκῷ μαθητῶν ἡμέρας τινάς, “καὶ εὐθέως ἐν ταῖς
ς
oO
Ὁ
7)
συναγωγαῖς efor pur ge τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὃ
υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ. “ ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες οἱ ἀκούοντες καὶ
ἔλεγον, Οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ πορθήσας ἐν “Ἱερουσαλὴμ
τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομα τοῦτο, καὶ ὧδε εἰς τοῦτο
ἐληλύθει, ἵνα δεδεμένους αὐτοὺς ἀγάγῃ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄρχιες ir
22
pets ; Σαῦλος δὲ pane ἐνεδυναμοῦτο καὶ συνέχυνεν
τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐν Δαμασκῷ, συμβι-
/ ὅ e , ΕῚ ς Yr / "
Bafwv ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός.
φ ες Kg “- ς x
Ὡς δὲ ἐπληροῦντο ἡμέραι ixavai, συνεβουλεύσαντο
» lal 5» n A
Ἰουδαῖοι ἀνελεῖν adbtov' "“᾿ἐγνώσθη δὲ τῷ Σαύλῳ ἡ
> \ > nr rn \ \ \ /
ἐπιβουλὴ αὐτῶν. παρετηροῦντο δὲ καὶ τὰς πύλας
« \ , /
ἡμέρας τε καὶ νυκτός, ὅπως αὐτὸν ἀνέλωσιν “λαβόντες
δὲ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ νυκτὸς διὰ τοῦ τείχους καθῆκαν
αὐτὸν χαλάσαντες ἐν σπυρίδι.
IX. 38 ATTIOZTOAQN 26
26 , \ Sua e \ Ἔ ͵
, “Παραγενόμενος δὲ εἰς ᾿Ιερουσαλὴμ ἐπείραξεν κολ-
fal “ - “ἂς U » ἴω τι
λᾶσθαι τοῖς μαθηταῖς: καὶ πάντες ἐφοβοῦντο αὐτόν,
Η͂ ΄ “ > \ 6 ΠΑΡ: 7B Z δὲ 2
μὴ πιστεύοντες ὅτι ἐστὶ μαθητῆης. “ BapvaBas δὲ ἐπίλα-
J \ if \ \ > / \ /
Bopevos αὐτὸν ἤγαγεν πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστόλους, καὶ διηγή-
- fal CaaS lal = \ ΄ \ /
σατο αὐτοῖς πῶς ἐν TH ὁδῷ εἶδεν τὸν κύριον Kal ὅτι
/ >’ a \ tal > a » /
ἐλάλησεν αὐτῷ, καὶ πῶς ἐν Δαμασκῷ ἐπαρρησιάσατο
a a = » Ψ A >
ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ. “καὶ ἢν μετ᾽ αὐτῶν εἰσπορευό-
; , ae ΄ 29 /
μενος Kal ἐκπορευόμενος εἰς ᾿ἱερουσαλήμ, “ παρρησιαζό-
ᾧ "5 a / I~ = \ 7
μενος ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι TOV κυρίου, ἐλάλει TE καὶ συνεζητει
\ εἴ ¢ ee eny ’ 7 ᾽ fal » /
πρὸς τοὺς ᾿Ελληνιστάς" οἱ δὲ ἐπεχείρουν ἀνελεῖν αὐτὸν.
80 > / \ ς > \ 7, ’ ᾿ ᾽ ,
ἐπιγνόντες δὲ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ κατήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς Καισά-
ΑΥΤΆ 7 ΓΤ ᾽ T ’ 31 ¢ \ 3
ρείαν καὶ ἐξαπέστειλαν αὐτὸν εἰς Ταρσόν. “ἡ μὲν οὖν
Ἰ] 7 al > / \ rs
ἐκκλησία καθ᾽ Orns τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας καὶ Ἰ᾿αλιλαίας καὶ
/ 3 2 ΄ ᾽ ΄ \ /
Σαμαρείας εἶχεν εἰρήνην, οἰκοδομουμένη καὶ πορευομένη
A / a / \ n / rn ¢
τῷ φόβῳ τοῦ κυρίου, καὶ TH παρακλήσει τοῦ ἁγίου
/
πνεύματος ἐπληθύνετο.
39} ὔ \ 7ὕ \
Ἐγένετο δὲ Ἰ]έτρον διερχόμενον διὰ πάντων κατελ-
- \ \ \ ¢ \ a
θεῖν καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους τοὺς κατοικοῦντας Λύδδα.
83 τ OE ie Π , ΠΡΟΣ, ae > ow
εὗρεν δὲ ἐκεῖ ἀνθρωπόν τινα ὀνόματι Aivéay ἐξ ἐτῶν
> / e\ τὸ
ὀκτῶ κατακείμενον ἐπὶ κραβάττου, ὃς ἦν παραλελυ-
J 34 \ 3 5 = Gs / ee >a) / > nr
μένος. “καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰ]έτρος, Αἰνέα, ἰᾶταί ce “Inoods
᾽ \ a an 5 ?
Χριστός" ἀνάστηθι καὶ στρῶσον σεαυτῷ. “καὶ εὐθέως
2 / \ 53 3 \ / e n ‘
ἀνέστη. καὶ εἶδαν αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες Λύδδα
Ν ay U / 3 / b] \ \ ,
καὶ Tov Σάρωνα, οἵτινες ἐπέστρεψαν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον.
362 77 , 5 , ey -
ἂν Ἰόππῃ δέ τις ἦν μαθήτρια ὀνόματι Ταβιθά, ἣ
/ / / if 2 / 3
διερμηνευομένη λέγεται Δορκάς. αὕτη ἦν πλήρης aya-
a y \ fal τ / ᾿
θῶν ἔργων καὶ ἐλεημοσυνῶν ὧν ἐποίει. ™ ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν
a ck ΕΣ , 5. νὰ eo a
Tals ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἀσθενήσασαν αὐτὴν ἀποθανεῖν᾽
, \ « \ \
λούσαντες δὲ ἔθηκαν αὐτὴν ἐν ὑπερῴῳ. “éyyds δὲ
” Avédd A SW € \ b) , “
οὔσης Λυδὸας τῇ ᾿Ιὄππὴ οἱ μαθηταὶ ἀκούσαντες ὅτι
Il / > \ > 2 b / ὃ , by ὃ \
Ilerpos ἐστὶν ἐν αὐτῇ, ἀπέστειλαν δύο ἄνδρας πρὸς
26 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ ΙΧ. 38
> 4 a x ’ , rn ΄ « Lal
αὐτὸν παρακαλοῦντες, Μὴ ὀκνήσης διελθεῖν ἕως ἡμῶν.
39 5 \ \ , n ow ae ,
ἀναστὰς δὲ Ἰ]έτρος συνῆλθεν αὐτοῖς: ὃν παραγενό-
> / > Ἀ ς Lal > / >] nr
μενον ἀνήγαγον εἰς TO ὑπερῷον, καὶ παρέστησαν αὐτῷ
al e a / \ , n
πᾶσαι ai χῆραι κλαίουσαι καὶ ἐπιδεικνύμεναι χιτῶνας
“ > , » ἀν δὸς 3 c ͵
καὶ ἱμάτια, ὅσα ἐποίει μετ᾽ αὐτῶν οὖσα ἡ Aopkas.
\ \ , / € / \ \ δι Ψ'
Ὁ ἐκβαλὼν δὲ ἔξω πάντας ὁ Ilétpos καὶ θεὶς τὰ γόνατα
/ \ > / \ \ tal ἣν
προσηύξατο, καὶ ἐπιστρέψας πρὸς τὸ σῶμα εἶπεν,
Kea ἐν ς ᾿ τὰ \ » \ ae
Ταβιθὰ ἀνάστηθι. ἡ δὲ ἤνοιξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῆς,
\ 9: a \ / > / 41 \ \ 5. α nr
καὶ ἰδοῦσα τὸν Ilérpov ἀνεκάθισεν. * δοὺς δὲ αὐτῇ χεῖρα
3... ἐμ ’ πω / \ \ ¢ / \ \
ἀνέστησεν avTnv' φωνήσας δὲ τοὺς ἁγίους Kal Tas
, ΠΩ Se Nl Asean 42 \ \ 7ὕ
χήρας παρέστησεν αὐτὴν ζῶσαν. γνωστὸν δὲ ἐγένετο
> Ao? ΩΡ ΡΝ, ee Sar
καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς ᾿Ιόππης, καὶ ἐπίστευσαν πολλοὶ ἐπὶ TOV
’ Ἢ ἄτα, 7 \ Bulli Ade, e \ A
κύριον. “ἐγένετο δὲ αὐτὸν ἡμέρας ἱκανὰς μεῖναι ἐν
> , , / “
Τόππῃ παρά τινι Σίμωνι βυρσεῖ.
159 \ 7, ᾽ ͵ > ἡ ,
10 “᾿Ανὴρ δέ τις ἐν Καισαρείᾳ ὀνόματι Κορνήλιος,
» / lal ΄ τ. a
ἑκατοντάρχης ἐκ σπείρης τῆς καλουμένης ᾿Ιταλικῆς,
: "εὐσεβ \ \ B ’ \ 6 \ \ \ a »
ns καὶ φοβούμενος τὸν θεὸν σὺν παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ
᾽ “ A , \ A A \ /
αὐτοῦ, ποιῶν ἐλεημοσύνας πολλὰς τῷ λαῷ καὶ δεόμενος
a n , 3 53 > Cay A ς \
τοῦ θεοῦ διαπαντός, *eidev ἐν ὁράματι φανερῶς, ὡσεὶ
/ , n ¢ / a rn >
περὶ ὥραν ἐνάτην τῆς ἡμέρας, ἄγγελον τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσελ-
/ \ Ἢ Ν \ » , > a a / 4% \
θόντα πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ εἰπόντα αὐτῷ, Kopyndue. (*6 δὲ
ΕῚ / > an ‘. ” β / s ᾿ ἣν ᾿ ’
ἀτενίσας αὐτῷ καὶ ἔμφοβος γενόμενος eitrev,\'Ti ἐστιν,
/ 3 7 \ 2 a ς , \ e
κύριε; εἶπεν δὲ αὐτῴ, Αἱ προσευχαί σου καὶ ai ἐλεη-
’ Μ al
μοσύναι σου ἀνέβησαν εἰς μνημόσυνον ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ
rn r / vv > 5 7 \
θεοῦ. "καὶ viv πέμψον ἄνδρας εἰς ᾿Ιόππην καὶ peta-
“Ὸ an / 2 6 Φ
πέμψαι Σίμωνά τινα ὃς ἐπικαλεῖται Ἰ]έτρος" “ οὗτος
nr e > J
ξενίζεται Tapa τινι Σίμωνι βυρσεῖ, ᾧ ἐστιν οἰκία παρὰ
- ς / ς lal 2 al
θάλασσαν. ‘ws δὲ ἀπῆλθεν ὁ ἄγγελος ὁ λαλῶν αὐτῷ,
an a \ , » - a
φωνήσας δύο τῶν οἰκετῶν καὶ στρατιώτην εὐσεβῆ τῶν
» n \ ’ U “
προσκαρτερούντων αὐτῷ, “Kai ἐξηγησάμενος ἅπαντα
lal ἈΝ 3 ,
αὐτοῖς ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν lomarny.
7
Χ. 23 ATIOZTOAQN 27
9 a ΝΟ , ὃ , > / \ A /
Τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ὁδουπορούντων ἐκείνων καὶ τῇ πόλει
’ , Tk / ᾽ Ν \ A /
ἐγγιζόντων ἀνέβη Ilétpos ἐπὶ τὸ δῶμα προσεύξασθαι
ear “ 10> 7 δὲ Nin tse
περὶ ὥραν ἕκτην. “eyevero δὲ πρόσπεινος καὶ ἤθελεν
γεύσασθαι" μὴν ts aed δὲ αὐτῶν ἐγένετο͵ ἐπ᾽
αὐτὸν ἔκστασις, " καὶ θεωρεῖ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγμένον
καὶ καταβαῖνον σκεῦός τι ὡς πριν: ΠΡΡΌΔΑ τέσσαρσιν
ἀρχαῖς καθιέμενον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, “ἐν ᾧ ὑπῆρχεν πάντα
ral \ \ fal
τὰ τετράποδα Kal ἑρπετὰ τῆς γῆς καὶ TeTEWa τοῦ
> a 13 a \ \ ΡΝ: > \
οὐρανοῦ. “καὶ ἐγένετο φωνὴ πρὸς αὐτόν, ᾿Αναστὰς
a re 7 \ / 3 a
Ilétpe θῦσον καὶ φάγε. “ὁ δὲ Ilétpos εἶπεν, Μηδαμῶς,
, e Q/ ΝΜ a \ \ > /
κύριε, OTL οὐδέποτε ἔφαγον πᾶν κοινὸν Kal ἀκάθαρτον.
/ > ε
"Ὁ καὶ φωνὴ πάλιν ἐκ δευτέρου πρὸς αὐτόν, “A ὁ θεὸς
’ / \ / 16 fal \ > , ΕῚ \ y
ἐκαθάρισεν σὺ μὴ Kolvov. “TovTO δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τρίς,
\ La a > f \ a ’ \ > ,
καὶ εὐθὺς ἀνελήμφθη τὸ σκεῦος εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν.
iG A / ς , ’ πὰ
Os δὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ διηπόρει ὁ Ἰ]έτρος, τί ἂν εἴη τὸ
ἘΠ οὶ A. 9 ὅτι ἃς co. e239 , ὦ n
ὅραμα ὃ εἶδεν, ἰδοὺ οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ ἀπεσταλμένοι ἀπὸ τοῦ
“ \ / a
Κορνηλίου διερωτήσαντες THY οἰκίαν τοῦ Σίμωνος ἐπέ-
“Ὁ 7 ἢ
στησαν ἐπὶ τὸν πυλῶνα, Kai φωνήσαντες ἐπυνθάνοντο
/ ,
Σίμων ὁ ἐπικαλούμενος Ilétpos ἐνθάδε Eeviferau.
19 a δὲ / 5 / \ A eres 5
τοῦ δὲ Πέτρου διενθυμουμένου περὶ τοῦ ὁράματος εἶπεν
- a tal eee a a
τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῷ, ᾿Ἰδοὺ ἄνδρες τρεῖς ζητοῦσί σε * ἀλλὰ
» ‘ 5 - \
ἀναστὰς κατάβηθι, καὶ πορεύου σὺν αὐτοῖς μηδὲν δια-
ἢ “ Sa aN ef ᾽ ͵ 21 \ \
κρινόμενος, OTL ἐγὼ ἀπέσταλκα αὐτούς. ™ καταβὰς δὲ
/ \ / ea ’ ΄ «Ῥ a
Πέτρος πρὸς τοὺς ἄνδρας εἶπεν, Ἰδοὺ ἐγώ εἰμι ὃν ζητεῖτε"
, « ES Lr Se / 22 ε hae ,
τίς ἡ αἰτία δι’ ἣν πάρέστε; “οἱ δὲ εἶπαν, ἹΚορνήλιος
e U Bree / \ , \ /
ἑκατοντάρχης, ἀνὴρ δίκαιος καὶ φοβούμενος τὸν θεόν,
τ , « / n a
μαρτυρούμενός τε ὑπὸ ὅλου τοῦ ἔθνους τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων,
Φ' / « \ 5 , ¢ , / / >
ἐχρηματίσθη ὑπὸ ἀγγέλου ἁγίου μεταπέμψασθαί σε εἰς
\ πὰ » fa a ‘ al
TOV οἶκον αὐτοῦ Kal ἀκοῦσαι ῥήματα παρὰ σοῦ. “ὃ εἰσ-
καλεσάμενος οὖν αὐτοὺς ἐξένισεν. τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον
> \ IER \ ΕῚ a , a ᾽ - A
ἀναστὰς ἐξῆλθεν σὺν αὐτοῖς, καί τινες τῶν ἀδελφῶν τῶν
28 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ X. 23
ἀπὸ ᾿Ιόππης συνῆλθον αὐτῷ. ™ τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον εἰσῆλθαν
> \ / Pas \ / > , a 3 ΄
εἰς τὴν Καισάρειαν" ὁ δὲ Κορνήλιος ἦν προσδοκῶν αὐτούς,
ad »"Ἥ ’
συγκαλεσάμενος τοὺς συγγενεῖς αὐτοῦ Kal τοὺς avay-
/ ,
καίους φίλους.
o5¢ oe ae rn , a \ , haben ie.
Os δὲ ἐγένετο τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν τὸν Llétpov, συναντή-
, AS / \ 3 \ \ , /
σας αὐτῷ ὁ Κορνήλιος πεσὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας προσεκύ-
vnoev. “ὁ δὲ ἸΤέτρος ἢ ἤγειρεν αὐτὸν as ᾿Ανάστηθι"
καὶ ἐγὼ αὐτὸς ΠΡΟΣ εἰμι. ΟΞ καὶ σὐυνομιλῶν αὐτῷ
εἰσῆλθεν, καὶ εὑρίσκει ΕΞ τα πολλούς, ἔφη τε
πρὸς αὐτούς, "“ ὙὝμεϊς ἐπίστασθε ὡς ἀθέμιτόν ἐστιν ἀνδρὶ
lal " >
᾿Ἰουδαίῳ κολλᾶσθαι ἢ προσέρχεσθαι ἀλλοφύλῳ: κἀμοὶ
Ei
ἔδειξεν ὁ θεὸς μηδένα κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον λέγειν ἄνθρω-
ἐπ τος αν + 37 a > ,
πον διὸ καὶ ἀναντιρρήτως ἦλθον μεταπεμφθείς.
πυνθάνομαι οὖν, τίνι λόγῳ μετεπέμψασθέ με; “καὶ ὁ
Sara Nees ἔφη, ᾿Απὸ τετάρτης ἡμέρας μέχρι ταν τῆς
ὥρας ἤμην τὴν ἐνάξην προσευχόμενος, ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου,
καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ ἔστη ἐνώπιόν μου ἐν ἐσθῆτι λαμπρᾷ, καί
φησιν, " Κορνήλιε, εἰσηκούσθη σου ἡ ROCHA καὶ αἱ
ἐλεημοσύναι σου ἐμνήσθησαν ἐ ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ. “πέμ-
yoy οὖν εἰς ᾿Ἶόππην καὶ μετακάλεσαι Σίμωνα ὃς ἐπικα-
a / Z + Ἐς Ὁ > iF Sy ΄
λεῖται ἸἹ]έτρος᾿ οὗτος ξενίζεται ἐν οἰκίᾳ Σίμωνος βυρ-
/ A ‘
σέως παρὰ θάλασσαν. * ἐξαυτῆς οὖν ἔπεμψα πρός ce,
σύ τε καλῶς ἐποίησας παραγενόμενος. νῦν οὖν πάντες
ἡμεῖς ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ πάρεσμεν ἀκοῦσαι πάντα τὰ
“προστεταγμένα σοι ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου.
**’AvoiEas δὲ Πέτρος τὸ στόμα εἶπεν, Em’ ἀληθείας
, “ > Vv / «
καταλαμβάνομαι ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ
θεός, “ ἀλλ᾽ ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει ὁ φοβούμενος αὐτὸν καὶ ἐργα-
ζόμενος δικαιοσύνην δεκτὸς αὐτῷ ἐστιν" Tov λόγον ὃν
» , fal tan 5 \ 53 ᾿ ; , ᾿ » ,
ἀπέστείλεν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ εὐαγγελιζόμενος εἰρήνην
> “ a n 97 lal
διὰ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ" οὗτός ἐστιν πάντων κύριος. ὅ ὑμεῖς
XI.2 _« AMOZTOAQN 29
” . us ’ ἈΠῸ ae J > of ee , τ ,
οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας, ἀρξά-
3 \ n / \ \ γι τὶ ἡ :
μενος ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας μετὰ TO βάπτισμα ὃ ἐκήρυξεν
» / 38 3 “Ὁ Ν > \ N 20, ¢ + 5 \
Speen ἜΝ TOV απὸ st ὡς eXpurer αὐτὸν
ὁ θεὸς πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ δυνάμει, ὃς διῆλθεν εὐεργετῶν
καὶ ἐμενὸς πάντας τοὺς καταδυναστευομενους ὑπὸ τοῦ
διαβόλου; ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἢ τῇ μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ" Ἢ καὶ ἡμεῖς μάρτυρες
A ᾽ / \ 3
πάντων ὧν ἐποίησεν ἔν τε τῇ χώρᾳ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων καὶ ἐν
«ς , «“ \ ᾽ “ , ἜΝ ,
“spaces ὃν καὶ avethav sits esos aie seer
° τοῦτον ὁ θεὸς dS paid τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν
ἐμφανῆ γενέσθαι, “ov παντὶ τῷ λαῷ, ἀλλὰ μᾶρτυσὺρ
τοῖς ,«προκεχειροτονημένοις͵ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡμῖν οἵτινες
συνεφάγομεν καὶ μην αὐτῷ μετὰ τὸ ἀναστῆναι
αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν" “ καὶ παρήγγειλεν ἡμῖν κηρύξαι τῷ
λαῷ καὶ διαμαρτύράσθαι ὕ ὅτι αὐτός ΕαΝῸΝ ὁ ὡρισμένος ὑπὸ
τοῦ θεοῦ κριτὴς ζώντων καὶ νεκρῶν." ὁ τούτῳ πᾶντες οἱ
προθῆπαι oo gla dgpeow ἁμαρτιῶν λαβεῖν διὰ τοῦ
ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ πάντα τὸν πιστεύοντα εἰς αὐτόν.
Saad τῇ fal an / aa Bae a » ΄,
Tt λαλοῦντος τοῦ Iletpov τὰ ρήματα ταῦτα ἐπέ-
a \
πεσεν TO πνεῦμα TO ἅγιον ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας
\ , 45 \ 39/7 δὲν fh lal \ ca
τὸν λόγον. * Kal ἐξέστησαν οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς πιστοὶ Ὁσοι
A lal / 6 \ FLA \ Ὅν ς \ a
συνῆλθαν τῷ Πέτρῳ, ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη ἡ δωρεὰ τοῦ
ἘΣ ; te ἕλος 2 A
ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐκκέχυται' “ἤκουον γὰρ αὐτῶν λα-
U / \ \ ΄ /
λούντων γλώσσαις καὶ μεγαλυνόντων τὸν θεὸν... τότε
Ε] , , PO CS
ἀπεκρίθη Ilérpos, “ Μήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται 'κωλῦσαί TLS
an \ a \ Ξ a \
τοῦ μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτους, οἵτινες TO πνεῦμα TO
A 5 er Ν ΓΕ nites 48 , \ ᾿ \ ?
ἅγιον ἔλαβον ὥς Kal ἡμεῖς ; “προσέταξεν δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐν
ρα, ἐἡ 3 A a a / ᾽
τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ βαπτισθῆναι. τότε ἠρώτη-
ae ἃς a
σαν αὐτὸν ἐπιμεῖναι ἡμέρας τινάς.
f e
11 *"Heoveay δὲ οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ of ἀδελφοὶ οἱ
U t \
ὄντες κατὰ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν ὅτι Kal τὰ ἔθνη ἐδέξαντο τὸν
/ a nr «ς /
λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ. * ὅτε δὲ ἀνέβη Πέτρος εἰς ‘lepoveadnp,
30 . ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ ΧΙ
\ ΄ a / 14
διεκρίνοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς, λέγοντες * ὅτι
» rn \ ν » / 7 \ ’
Εἰσῆλθες πρὸς ἄνδρας ἀκροβυστίαν ἔχοντας καὶ συνέφα-
J 4 4 , , XN , » / ’ -“
γες αὐτοῖς. ἀρξάμενος δὲ Πέτρος ἐξετίθετο αὐτοῖς
fal ’ ’ .
καθεξῆς λέγων, "᾿Εγὼ ἤμην ἐν πόλει ᾿Ιόππῃ προσευχό-
/ / lal alr
μενος, Kal εἶδον ἐν ἐκστάσει ὅραμα, καταβαῖνον σκεῦός
« ᾽ , / 9 A 7
τι ὡς ὀθόνην μεγάλην τέσσαρσιν ἀρχαῖς καθιεμένην ἐκ
rn A a. ’ “Δ ’ /
τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἦλθεν ἄχρι ἐμοῦ" 5 εἰς ἣν ἀτενίσας
, , A A \ \ /
κατενόουν, καὶ εἶδον τὰ τετράποδα τῆς γῆς καὶ τὰ θηρία
΄ Ἁ “ » a U \
Kal τὰ ἑρπετὰ Kal τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. ἴ ἤκουσα δὲ
a , / “-“ \ /
καὶ φωνῆς λεγούσης μοι, ᾿Αναστὰς Ilétpe θῦσον καὶ φάγε.
8 5 , A ͵ . “ \ re eee,
εἶπον δέ, Μηδαμώς, κύριε' ὅτι κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον
γΩῸ 7 >A > \ , 9 > , \
οὐδέποτε εἰσῆλθεν εἰς TO στόμα pov. ἣ ἀπεκρίθη δὲ
\ , , ᾿] » ᾿Ὶ an ws ες \ , ’
φωνὴ ἐκ δευτέρου ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, “Α ὁ θεὸς ἐκαθάρισεν
A ἢ 7 \ ,
σὺ μὴ Kolvov. "τοῦτο δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τρίς, Kal aveo-
, / t/ » \ > / 21 \ » Ά, oI
πάσθη πάλιν ἅπαντα εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐξ-
A A \ / Φ
αυτῆς τρεῖς ἄνδρες ἐπέστησαν ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκίαν ἐν ἧ ἦμεν,
᾽ 7 ae ῃ , 12. 5 \ κι
ἀπεσταλμένοι ἀπὸ Καισαρείας πρὸς με. εἶπεν δὲ τὸ
nw fn b] lal \ / %
πνεῦμα μοι συνελθεῖν αὐτοῖς μηδὲν διακρίναντα. ἦλθον
\ \ +e ᾽ \
δὲ σὺν ἐμοὶ καὶ οἱ ἕξ ἀδελφοὶ οὗτοι, * καὶ εἰσήλθομεν εἰς
Ἁ 3 lal 5 , ’ / \ id ~ “Ὁ 3 \
TOV οἶκον τοῦ ἀνδρός. ἀπήγγειλεν δὲ ἡμῖν πῶς εἶδεν TOV
» 5 “ x” 5» “ ͵ \ ’ , > /
ἄγγελον ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ σταθέντα καὶ εἰπόντα, ᾿Από-
’ » \ ' / \ ᾿]
στείλον εἰς ᾿Ιόππην καὶ μετάπεμψαι Σίμωνα τὸν ἐπι-
, , 14 ἃ ἢ cy , >
καλούμενον Ἰ]έτρον, “ds λαλήσει ῥήματα πρός σε, ἐν
᾿ \ \ A ¢ “ / 15 3 \ A v
οἷς σωθήσῃ σὺ καὶ πᾶς ὁ οἶκός σου. ἐν δὲ τῷ ἄρξασ-
7 nw , ‘ ~ li » »
θαί με λαλεῖν ἐπέπεσεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς
[7 \ 9 . ἽΝ ὁ Ὁ , 5 A 16 > td \ “Ὁ δι
ὥσπερ καὶ ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς ἐν ἀρχῇ. “ἐμνήσθην δὲ τοῦ ῥήματος
lal / c ΝΜ. » / \ » / ¢/
τοῦ κυρίου, ws ἔλεγεν, ᾿Ιωάννης μὲν ἐβάπτισεν ὕδατι,
΄ nan \ , 5» / € , 17 , >
ὑμεῖς δὲ βαπτισθήσεσθε ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. “et οὖν
A v \ »” » wn «ς A [4 \ € cal
τὴν ἴσην δωρεὰν ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς ὡς Kal ἡμῖν,
/ \ , ral
πιστεύσασιν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν, ἐγὼ τίς
" \ a \ ! 1s ? ' \ a
ἤμην δυνατὸς κωλῦσαι τὸν θεον; “" ἀκούσαντες δὲ ταῦτα
XI. 30 ATIOZTOAQN 31
/ Ν \ , .
ἡσύχασαν, καὶ ἐδόξασαν τὸν θεὸν λέγοντες, "Apa καὶ
A » ¢ \ \ tA 3 \ »
τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ὁ θεὸς τὴν μετάνοιαν εἰς ζωὴν ἔδωκεν.
7 3 \ A A
"Oc μὲν οὖν διασπαρέντες ἀπὸ τῆς θλίψεως τῆς
, A “ / \
γενομένης ἐπὶ Στεφάνῳ διῆλθον ἕως Φοινίκης καὶ Κύ-
Ne 9 a \ an \ , ,
πρου καὶ Ἀντιοχείας, μηδενὶ λαλοῦντες τὸν λογον εἰ
\ , > " “0 5 δέ > ὅς Sieur) eS
μὴ μόνον ‘lovdaiots. ἦσαν δέ τινες ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄνδρες
A , > /
Κύπριοι καὶ Κυρηναῖοι, οἵτινες ἐλθόντες εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν
J f ΕῚ
ἐλάλουν καὶ πρὸς τοὺς “EXAnvas, εὐαγγελιζόμενοι τὸν
lal > > “-“
κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν. ™ καὶ ἦν χεὶρ κυρίου μετ᾽ αὐτῶν, πολύς
5
τε ἀριθμὸς ὁ πιστεύσας ἐπέστρεψεν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον.
22) , Se ς , > Ἀν ΝΝ A > ἢ a
ἠκούσθη € 0 λογος εἰς TA WTA τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς
v , id \ \ » “Ὁ \ > /
οὔσης ἐν “lepovoadam περὶ αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐξαπέστειλαν
“Ὁ , \
BapvaBav ἕως ᾿Αντιοχείας: “Os παραγενόμενος Kat
’ x \ ‘ Qn Qn , \ /
ἰδὼν τὴν χάριν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐχάρη, καὶ παρεκάλει
» Ἷ rn 7 rn / / ad /
πάντας τῇ προθέσει τῆς καρδίας προσμένειν TO κυρίῳ,
4 [72 > 5 x ’ \ \ / / «ς 7 \
ὅτι nV ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς Kal πλήρης πνεύματος ἁγίου Kal
/ \ / ΕΙΣ e \ a 7 95 95
πίστεως. καὶ προσετέθη ὄχλος ἱκανὸς τῷ κυρίῳ. ἐξ-
lal \ lal lal ς
ἦλθεν δὲ εἰς Ταρσὸν ἀναζητῆσαι Lavrov,” καὶ εὑρὼν
Ὑ / \ 5 lal \
ἤγαγεν εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν. ἐγένετο δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐνιαυτὸν
ey n 5 an , / \ , ”
ὅλον συναχθῆναι ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ διδάξαι ὄχλον
Φ / / / > , / ,
ἱκανόν, χρηματίσαι Te πρώτως ἐν ᾿Αντιοχείᾳ τοὺς μαθη-
\
tas Χριστιανούς.
279 n / A Sterne
“Ev ταύταις δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις κατῆλθον απὸ ‘lepo-
/ “Ὁ ᾽ > / E 2
σολύμων προφῆται εἰς Αντιόχειαν
- > x A <3 ” > / \ fal /
εἷς ἐξ αὐτῶν ὀνόματι “AyaBos ἐσήμανεν διὰ τοῦ πνευ-
la - > f
ματος λιμὸν μεγάλην μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι ἐφ᾽ ὅλην τὴν
, lA A
οἰκουμένην, ἥτις ἐγένετο ἐπὶ Κλαυδίου. ™ τῶν δὲ μαθη-
cal ’ A
τῶν καθὼς εὐπορεῖτό Tis, ὥρισαν ἕκαστος αὐτῶν εἰς
ὃ / , fal lal 3 A) ὃ ͵ὕ δὲ
ιακονίαν πέμψαι τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν ἐν τῇ Ιουδαίᾳ ἀδελ-
a «Δ \ \
hots. ” 0 καὶ ἐποίησαν ἀποστείλαντες πρὸς TOUS πρεσ-
8 9 Ὁ
ἀναστὰς δὲ
βυτέρους διὰ χειρὸς Βαρνάβα καὶ Σαύλου.
32 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ ἌΤΙ
al / « U
12 ‘Kar’ ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπέβαλεν Ἡρώδης ὁ
lal “A 5 lal
βασιλεὺς τὰς χεῖρας κακῶσαί τινας TOV ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκ-
‘ A Pa \ 3 f
κλησίας. "ἀνεῖλεν δὲ ᾿Ιάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν ᾿Ιωάννου
/ 8 ὃ \ δὲ “ 5 ’ a | ὃ /
μαχαίρῃ. "ἰδὼν δὲ ὅτι ἀρεστόν ἐστιν τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις,
rn € /
προσέθετο συλλαβεῖν καὶ Πέτρον, ἦσαν δὲ ἡμέραι TOV
Yer 4 ἃ \ , ” > , ὃ \
ἀζύμων, “ὃν καὶ πιάσας ἔθετο εἰς φυλακὴν, παραδοὺς
/ a / >
τέσσαρσιν τετραδίοις στρατιωτῶν φυλάσσειν αὐτόν,
“ ΘΝ “
βουλόμενος μετὰ τὸ πάσχα ἀναγαγεῖν αὐτὸν τῷ λαῷ.
δ ἐ \ ed / > a > a (a \ δὲ
ὁ μὲν οὖν ἸΤέτρος ἐτηρεῖτο ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ προσευχὴ δὲ
3 A A U \ \ \
NV ἐκτενῶς γινομένη ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας πρὸς τὸν θεὸν
\ > “ 6 “ \ v lal Due 4
περὶ αὐτοῦ. “ὅτε δὲ ἤμελλεν προαγαγεῖν αὐτὸν ὁ
Ἥ ᾽ὃ lal \ > / 53 5 II i , \
pons, τῇ νυκτὶ ἐκείνῃ ἦν ὁ ἸΤέτρος κοιμώμενος μεταξὺ
’ an / ς 4 / if /
δύο στρατιωτῶν, δεδεμένος ἁλύσεσιν δυσίν, φύλακές TE
\ a ͵ nay \ , 7 \ 5 \ »
πρὸ τῆς θύρας ἐτήρουν τὴν φυλακήν. ‘Kai ἰδοὺ ἄγγελος
, > / \ a ” > n 3:. .
κυρίου ἐπέστη, καὶ φῶς ἔλαμψεν ἐν τῷ οἰκήματι
, \ \ \ A 7 " Sakaki
πατάξας δὲ τὴν πλευρὰν τοῦ Ilétpouv ἤγειρεν αὐτὸν
, > U > 4 δ. 5.» δ 5) a € tar
λέγων, Avacta ἐν ταχει. καὶ ἐξέπεσαν αὐτοῦ ai adv-
a a 5 ¢ Ν \ Ἄν. οι, ΄
σεις ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν. “εἶπέν τε ὁ ἄγγελος πρὸς αὐτόν,
ΖΔῶσαι καὶ ὑπόδησα, τὰ σανδαλιά σου. ἐποίησεν δὲ
7 a “ ¢ U
οὕτως. Kal λέγει αὐτῷ, Περιβαλοῦ τὸ ἱμάτιόν σου καὶ
es / ,
ἀκολούθει μοι. “ καὶ ἐξελθὼν ἠκολούθει, καὶ οὐκ ἤδει
“ > / ’ \ / \ an πὰ ΄. 5» , \
OTL ἀληθές ἐστιν TO γινόμενον διὰ TOD ἀγγέλου, ἐδόκει, δὲ
7 / / ,
ὅραμα βλέπειν. " διελθόντες δὲ πρώτην φυλακὴν Kat
/ 53 3... τῷ \ “ \ a \ /
δευτέραν ἦλθαν ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην THY σιδηρᾶν THY φέρουσαν
> \ , “ > / > ῃ > A \ 4 ,
εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ἥτις αὐτομάτη ἠνοίγη αὐτοῖς, Kal ἐξελθόν-
lal =F / \ , 7 > / c ΑΓ
Tes προῆλθον ῥύμην μίαν, Kal εὐθέως ἀπέστη ὁ ἄγγελος
» » 5 - , “
ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. “Kai ὁ Ἰ]έτρος ἐν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενος εἶπεν,
“ 53 ᾽ “Ὁ [7 /
Νῦν οἶδα ἀληθῶς ὅτι ἐξαπέστειλεν κύριος τὸν ἄγγελον
5 lal \ ,’ 4 / » \ ς / \ / Ὁ
αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξείλατό με ἐκ χειρὸς Ηρώδου καὶ πάσης τῆς
/ a - n / 3
προσδοκίας τοῦ λαοῦ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων. ᾿" συνιδὼν τε ἦλθεν
’ \ \ ’ / a A nr
ἐπὶ THY οἰκίαν τῆς Μαρίας τῆς μητρὸς ᾿Ιωάννου τοῦ ἐπι-
XII. 25 ATIOZ TOAQN 33
ΗΝ
/ / ε τὸ e si 2 \
καλουμένου Μάρκου, οὗ ἦσαν ἱκανοὶ συνηθροισμένοι καὶ
προσευχόμενοι.
*Kpovoavtos δὲ αὐτοῦ τὴν θύραν τοῦ πυλῶνος
προσῆλθεν παιδίσκη ὑπακοῦσαι, ὀνόματι “Ῥόδη, “Kal
᾿ ἐπιγνοῦσα τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ Ilérpov ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς οὐκ
ἤνοιξεν τὸν πυλῶνα, εἰσδραμοῦσα δὲ ἀπήγγειλεν ἑστάναι
\ , \ A A 1 Q\ \ ἘΣ ΝΑΥ͂Ν τ
τὸν Ilétpov πρὸ τοῦ πυλῶνος. ™ οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπαν,
Μαίνῃ. ἡ δὲ διϊσχυρίζετο οὕτως ἔχειν. οἱ δὲ ἔλεγον,
« " , > 3 a 16¢ ΩΝ r ΡΥ, ͵ ᾿
Ο ἀγγελός ἐστιν αὐτοῦ. " ὁ δὲ Ἰ]έτρος ἐπέμενεν κρούων
> / ‘ie 5. ΦΈΡ. 17 ͵
ἀνοίξαντες δὲ εἶδαν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐξέστησαν. “ κατασείσας
δὲ αὐτοῖς τῇ χειρὶ συγᾷν διηγήσατο αὐτοῖς πῶς ὁ κύριος
Tie \ 5 / 5] A A 9 ΄ ᾽ 7,
αὐτὸν ἐξήγαγεν ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς, εἶπέν τε, ᾿Απαγγεί-
λατε ᾿Ιακώβῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ταῦτα. καὶ ἐξελθὼν
> 40 ἢ Ψ 18 , δὲ eo τ 3
ἐπορεύθη εἰς ἕτερον τόπον. “᾿ γενομένης δὲ ἡμέρας ἦν
τάραχος οὐκ ὀλίγος ἐν τοῖς στρατιώταις, τί ἄρα ὁ
»
Πέτρος ἐγένετο. “᾿᾿ Ἡρώδης δὲ ἐπιζητήσας αὐτὸν καὶ μὴ
εὑρών, ἀνακρίνας τοὺς φύλακας ἐκέλευσεν ἀπαχθῆναι,
καὶ κατελθὼν ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας εἰς Καισάρειαν διέ-
τριβεν.
“Ἦν δὲ θυμομαχῶν Τυρίοις καὶ Σιδωνίοις" ὁμο-
\ \ A \ ϑιὰ a ᾿ / ,
θυμαδὸν δὲ παρῆσαν πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ πείσαντες Βλάστον
τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος τοῦ βασιλέως ἠτοῦντο εἰρήνην, διὰ
\ 2 ray / > Ὁ A
τὸ τρέφεσθαι αὐτῶν τὴν χώραν ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλικῆς.
21 lal δὲ Θ / ¢ Ἥ ὃ >’ ὃ / > On
τακτῇ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ Ἡρώδης ἐνδυσάμενος ἐσθῆτα βασι-
λικὴν καὶ καθίσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἐδημηγόρει πρὸς
αὐτούς" “ὁ δὲ δῆμος ἐπεφώνει, Θεοῦ φωνὴ καὶ οὐκ
> θ ͵ 23 A Na Seth 2% v
ἀνθρώπου. “ὃ παραχρῆμα δὲ ἐπάταξεν αὐτὸν ἄγγελος
, >” 5 are). if \ / a A \ ͵
κυρίου ἀνθ᾽ ὧν οὐκ ἔδωκεν τὴν δόξαν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ γενό-
μενος σκωληκόβρωτος ἐξέψυξεν. “ὁ δὲ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ
ἢ A
ηὔξανεν καὶ ἐπληθύνετο. ““ Βαρνάβας δὲ καὶ Σαῦλος
¢ / > ς 7 [4 \ ὃ
ὑπέστρεψαν ἐξ “Ἱερουσαλήμ, πληρώσαντες τὴν διακο-
THE ACTS 3
24 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XIT. 25
+] / \ b /
νίαν, συμπαραλαβόντες ᾿Ιωάννην τὸν ἐπικληθέντα
Μάρκον. |
/
18 "Ἦσαν δὲ ἐν ᾿Αντιοχείᾳ κατὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἐκκλη-
a “ /
ciav προφῆται καὶ διδάσκαλοι 6 τε BapvaBas καὶ
\ ‘4 / / \ / ¢€ “
Συμεὼν 6 καλούμενος Νίγερ, καὶ Λούκιος ὁ Κυρηναῖος,
/ ς / an / / A
Mavanv τε ἫἩρώδου τοῦ τετράρχου σύντροφος καὶ
a , > a a
Σαῦλος. ᾿λειτουργούντων δὲ αὐτῶν τῷ κυρίῳ Kal
/ = \ al \ “ ΑΝ / ὃ ,
νηστευόντων εἶπεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ᾿Αφορίσατε δή
Sy Βαρνάβαν καὶ Σαῦλον εἰς τὸ ἔργον ὃ προσ-
μοι τὸν Βαρνάβαν us py poo
\
κέκλημαι αὐτούς. *TOTE νηστεύσαντες καὶ προσευξά-
lal 3 a ’ 7 ᾽
μενοι καὶ ἐπιθέντες τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῖς ἀπέλυσαν. “ αὐτοὶ
\ = b] / ¢ \ an ¢ Ι / A
μὲν οὖν ἐκπεμφθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος κατῆλ-
> / δ᾿ “Δ΄ > / > /
Gov εἰς Σελεύκειαν, ἐκεῖθέν τε ἀπέπλευσαν eis Κύπρον,
ὅ καὶ γενόμενοι ἐν Σαλαμῖνι κατήγγελλον τὸν λόγον τοῦ
fal a -“ an * 3 ς
θεοῦ ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς τῶν ‘lovdaiwy' εἶχον δὲ καὶ
᾽ , ς , 8 , \¢ \ a ”
Τωάννην ὑπηρέτην. ° διελθόντες δὲ ὅλην THY νῆσον ἄχρι
U / / > A
Πάφου εὗρον ἄνδρα τινὰ μάγον ψευδοπροφήτην ᾿Ιουδαῖον,
- -“ «᾿ 3 \ A >
ᾧ ὄνομα Bapinaods, ᾿ὃς ἣν σὺν τῷ ἀνθυπάτῳ Σεργίῳ
/ ε οἾ A φ / /
Παύλῳ, ἀνδρὶ συνετῷ: οὗτος προσκαλεσάμενος Bapva-
rn 3 / > A \ / na a.
Bav καὶ Σαῦλον ἐπεζήτησεν ἀκοῦσαι Tov λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ
ee / \ 92) = AiG ' ς , ef \
ἀνθίστατο δὲ αὐτοῖς ᾿Ελύμας ὁ μάγος, οὕτως yap μεθερ-
͵ ery ᾽ a a , \ > ,
μηνεύεται TO ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, ζητῶν διαστρέψαι τὸν ἀνθύ-
a a / ¢ a
TaTov ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως. “Σαῦλος δέ, ὁ καὶ Παῦλος,
, 5 / > = a | =
πλησθεὶς πνεύματος ἁγίου ἀτενίσας εἰς αὐτὸν ™ εἶπεν,
3 U \ / \ / «ε “ [Δ
Q. πλήρης παντὸς δόλου καὶ πάσης ῥᾳδιουργίας, υἱὲ
Ν 5
διαβόλου, ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης, οὐ παύσῃ διαστρέ-
at. ἐδ πᾶν / \ een ae A ed ΒΩ \
φων τὰς ὁδοὺς κυρίου τὰς εὐθείας ; “Kal νῦν ἰδοὺ χεὶρ
᾽ὔ \ / /
κυρίου ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ ἔσῃ τυφλὸς μὴ βλέπων τὸν ἥλιον
Ὑ “ [4] \ Ν᾽ 3 > 5 \ > \
ἄχρι καιροῦ. παραχρῆμα δὲ ἔπεσεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀχλὺς
ῇ ΓΒ
καὶ σκότος, καὶ περιάγων ἐζήτει χειραγωγούς. "ἢ τότε
ἰδὼν ὁ ἀνθύπατος τὸ γεγονὸς ἐπίστευσεν, ἐκπλησσόμενος
πον a a “ /
ἐπὶ TH διδαχῆ τοῦ κυρίου.
XIII. 25 ATIOZ TOAQN 35
» / \ ’ Ἂς lal ? rf
“’AvayGevtes δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Πάφου οἱ περὶ ἸΠαῦλον
“ / »
ἦλθον εἰς Ἰ]έργην τῆς Παμφυλίας. ᾿Ιωάννης δὲ ἀποχω-
/ Sse ? a ¢ / > ee as , 14 > \
ρήσας ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν ὑπέστρεψεν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα. “αὐτοὶ
\ , Be N a fi - / ee /
δὲ διελθόντες ἀπὸ τῆς Ilépyns παρεγένοντο εἰς ᾿Αντιό-
\ / ΄ n
yevay τὴν ΤΠισιδίαν, καὶ ἐλθόντες εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν TH
ε ΄ [4] / >’ / 15 \ δὲ Ν >’ /
ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων ἐκάθισαν. © μετὰ δὲ THY ἀνάγνω-
σιν τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν ἀπέστειλαν οἱ ἀρχισυ-
’ \ ’ ᾿ /
vaywyot πρὸς αὐτοὺς λέγοντες, “Avdpes ἀδελφοί, εἴ τις
” 3 ©. in , , \ \ ῃ /
ἐστιν ἐν υμὶίν λογος παρακλήσεως προς TOV λαὸν, λέγετε.
10 \ a a
Αναστὰς δὲ Iladdos καὶ κατασείσας τῇ χειρὶ
> ’ an
εἶπεν, "Avdpes ᾿Ισραηλῖται καὶ οἱ φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν,
¢ ἴον a /
ἀκούσατε. “ἶ ὁ θεὸς τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου ᾿Ισραὴλ ἐξελέξατο
\ “ ¥. A \ \ \ A
τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν, καὶ TOV λαὸν ὕψωσεν ἐν TH παροικίᾳ
A , \ \ la
ἐν yn Αἰγύπτῳ, καὶ μετὰ βραχίονος ὑψηλοῦ ἐξήγαγεν
3 al
αὐτοὺς ἐξ αὐτῆς, " καὶ ὡς τεσσερακονταέτη χρόνον ἐτρο-
, 5) Ἀ 4. γῇ AY Dini 19 \ Vea ε \
φοφόρησεν αὐτοὺς ἐν TH Epnuw, καὶ καθελὼν ἔθνη ἑπτὰ
ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν κατεκληρονόμησεν τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν, “ ὡς
ἔτεσιν τετρακοσίοις καὶ πεντήκοντα. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα
» Vay ἣν \ , 21 eee ee
ἔδωκεν κριτὰς ἕως Σαμουὴλ προφήτου. * κἀκεῖθεν ἠτή-
/ ἣν 3, > a ς \ \ \ εχ
σαντο βασιλέα, καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ὁ θεὸς τὸν Σαοὺλ υἱὸν
/ ” > fal 4 7 / g
Keis, ἄνδρα ἐκ φυλῆς Βενιαμείν, ἔτη τεσσεράκοντα
22 \ t eek ” \ \ > a >
καὶ μεταστήσας αὐτὸν ἤγειρεν τὸν Δαυεὶδ αὐτοῖς εἰς
β λέ Ka \ s / Εὖ A 10 \ n
actNéa, ᾧ Kal εἶπεν μαρτυρήσας, Εὗρον Δαυεὶδ τὸν τοῦ
a A
Ἴεσσαί, ἄνδρα κατὰ τὴν καρδίαν pov, ὃς ποιήσει πάντα
\ , t 23 D ς \ ets a ,
τὰ θελήματά pov. ““ τούτου ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος
Ι lal Ν tal 3 fal
κατ᾽ ἐπαγγελίαν ἤγαγεν τῷ ᾿Ισραὴλ σωτῆρα ‘Inoodr,
“ προκηρύξαντος ᾿Ιωάννου πρὸ προσώπου τῆς εἰσόδου
αὐτοῦ βάπτισμα μετανοίας παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ᾿Ισραήλ.
\
* eos δὲ ἐπλήρου ᾿Ιωάννης τὸν δρόμον, ἔλεγεν, Τί ἐμὲ
«ς - > 3 ϑι. X 5 Ls > > » \ » ’
ὑπονοεῖτε εἶναι, οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐγώ: ἀλλ᾽ ἰδοὺ ἔρχεται μετ
ἐμὲ οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἄξιος τὸ ὑπόδημα τῶν ποδῶν λῦσαι.
as
36 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XIII. 26
9 ν᾽ ᾿ ᾿] \ \ e > ¢ n
ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί, viol γένους ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ οἱ ἐν ὑμῖν
/ σιν i / n / /
φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν, ὑμῖν ὁ λόγος τῆς σωτηρίας ταύτης
> , 27 ¢ \ n bi ie \ \
ἐξαπεστάλη. “ἶ οἱ yap κατοικοῦντες ἐν ᾿Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ
, n a ’ / \ \ \
οἱ ἄρχοντες αὐτῶν τοῦτον ἀγνοήσαντες καὶ Tas φωνὰς
- a \ \ “ , » /
τῶν προφητῶν Tas κατὰ πᾶν σάββατον ἀναγινωσκομένας
/ / /
κρίναντες ἐπλήρωσαν, ™ καὶ μηδεμίαν αἰτίαν θανάτου
«ς / 3 / “ >] nr , / - 99 ¢ δὲ
εὑρόντες ἡτήσαντο Πιλᾶτον ἀναιρεθῆναι αὐτόν" ™ ὡς δὲ
~ Ε “ / /
ἐτέλεσαν πάντα τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ γεγραμμένα, καθελόντες
» Ν -“ , Μ ᾿] al 30 ¢ \ \ ”
ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου ἔθηκαν εἰς μνημεῖον. “ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἤγειρεν
es. 5) a 81 «\ v Hey id / / a
αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν, * ds ὠφθη ἐπὶ ἡμέρας πλείους τοῖς
a ᾽ lal 5 \ lal / ’ ¢ /
συναναβᾶσιν αὐτῷ ἀπὸ τῆς Vadwralas εἰς lepoveardnp,
οἵτινες νῦν εἰσὶν μάρτυρες αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸν λαόν. ™ καὶ
«ς “Ὁ « “ ’ / \ 7
ἡμεῖς ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελιζόμεθα τὴν πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ἐπαγ-
, 838. τ ͵ \ ͵ a
γελίαν γενομένην, ἧ ὅτι ταύτην ὁ θεὸς ἐκπεπλήρωκεν τοῖς
ς a 5 U 2 “ὦ «ς al
τέκνοις ἡμῶν ἀναστήσας ᾿Ιησοῦν, ὡς Kal ἐν TO πρώτῳ
᾿Ξ , er 5 een Tae , 7
ψαλμῷ γέγραπται, Tios μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέν-
ἢ 84 ὦ ᾽ A
νηκά oc. “Ott δὲ ἀνέστησεν αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν μηκέτι
, ¢ , > ῃ “ »
μέλλοντα ὑποστρέφειν εἰς διαφθοράν, οὕτως εἴρηκεν
tc A c ὃς ΕΝ τὸ A ὶὃ \ , 835 , \
ott Δώσω ὑμῖν τὰ ὅσια Δαυεὶδ τὰ πιστά. * διότι καὶ
/ 5 / \ 7 a
ἐν ἑτέρῳ λέγει, Ov δώσεις τὸν ὅσιόν σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν.
86 A 15 \ \ ΤΙ apie ͵ A A a
avelO μὲν yap ἰδίᾳ γενεᾷ ὑπηρετήσας TH τοῦ θεοῦ
a Ss / \ / a
βουλῇ ἐκοιμήθη καὶ προσετέθη πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας αὐτοῦ
Ν 53 = “Ὁ
καὶ εἶδεν διαφθοράν: ™ dv δὲ ὁ θεὸς ἤγειρεν, οὐκ
5 “ a
εἶδεν διαφθοράν. “γνωστὸν οὖν ἔστω ὑμῖν, ἄνδρες
᾽ / “ \ / cc. “ ψὴ ΝΜ ς -“
ἀδελφοί, ὅτι διὰ τούτου ὑμῖν ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν KaTay-
, ἜΣ ἃ Ξ: ᾽ > ͵ > ,
γέλλεται" “απὸ πάντων ὧν οὐκ ἠδυνήθητε ἐν νόμῳ
" ’ὔ a “Ὁ
Moicéws δικαιωθῆναι, ἐν τούτῳ πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων δικαι-
a 40 ἢ 3 ΡΝ ἢ ΤΠ, \ > / a
οὗται. “᾿ βλέπετε οὖν μὴ ἐπέλθῃ TO εἰρημένον ἐν τοῖς
ἢ 41 "δ ἕ ΄ \ ,
προφήταις, ετε, οἱ καταφρονηταί, καὶ θαυμάσατε
“5 / θ “ ” > , Se ee - ἀν
καὶ ἀφανίσθητε, ὅτι ἔργον ἐργάζομαι ἐγὼ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις
[ὦ “Ὁ »Μ “Ὁ ᾽ \ , a a
ὑμῶν, ἔργον ὃ οὐ μὴ πιστεύσητε ἐάν τις ἐκδιηγῆται ὑμῖν.
XIV. 2 ATIOZTOAQN 37
‘ \ > a ς / \
“°Kéwvrav δὲ αὐτῶν, παρεκάλουν εἰς TO μεταξὺ
A 5 ἴω ψ val
σάββατον λαληθῆναι αὐτοῖς τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα. ““λυ-
7 \ A A 5 / \ A
θείσης δὲ τῆς συναγωγῆς ἠκολούθησαν πολλοὶ τῶν
al , , Ὁ
Ἰουδαίων καὶ τῶν σεβομένων προσηλύτων τῷ Ilavrw
\ a / / a ’ a ”
καὶ τῷ BapvaBa, οἵτινες προσλαλοῦντες αὐτοῖς ἔπειθον
a , A a 4 [4] \
αὐτοὺς προσμένειν TH χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ. “᾿τῷ δὲ ἐρχο-
ῇ / \ A ¢€ / b] al
μένῳ σαββάτῳ σχεδὸν πᾶσα ἡ πόλις συνηχθὴη ἀκοῦσαι
\ ; A / 45, 257 Se a rae ΤΌΣ \
τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου. “ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι τοὺς
, / \ ’ 2 “ «ς
ὄχλους ἐπλήσθησαν ζήλου, καὶ ἀντέλεγον τοῖς ὑπὸ
A / » , “Ὁ
Παῦλου λαλουμένοις ἀντιλέγοντες καὶ βλασφημοῦντες.
46 , / ς A ᾿: / 3
παρρησιασάμενοί Te ὁ ἸΙαῦλος καὶ ὁ Βαρνάβας εἶπαν,
os Lal 5 » “Ὁ Ὁ Ὁ“ \ / fal
piv nv ἀναγκαῖον πρῶτον λαληθῆναι τὸν λόγον τοῦ
ae 5 te 9 A 9228 \ 3 5»“.} t
θεοῦ ἐπειδὴ ἀπωθεῖσθε αὐτὸν καὶ οὐκ ἀξίους κρίνετε
e \ a > / “Ὁ > \ / >’ \ »
ἑαυτοὺς τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, ἰδοὺ στρεφόμεθα εἰς Ta ἔθνη.
4 ὦ \ > , aS ς ͵ 7 ’ >
οὕτως yap ἐντέταλται ἡμῖν ὁ κύριος, 'Γέθεικα σε εἰς
φῶς ἐθνῶν τοῦ εἶναί σε εἰς σωτηρίαν ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς
A 4g 2 , \ \ » ” NEDO? \
γῆς. “ἀκούοντα δὲ ta ἔθνη ἔχαιρον Kai ἐδόξαζον τὸν
, fal / / bee
λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, Kal ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι
/ / rf
εἰς ζωὴν aidviov’ * διεφέρετο δὲ ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου bu
“ A / 50 € \. +3 a / 4
ὅλης τῆς χώρας. “ot δὲ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι παρώτρυναν τὰς
σεβομένας γυναῖκας τὰς εὐσχήμονας καὶ τοὺς πρώτους
a , δι 3 ῇ \ ΣΡ Τα \ a \
τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐπήγειραν διωγμὸν ἐπὶ τὸν LladXov καὶ
V3 / 5 Ν 5 Ν A ce / ’ An
Βαρνάβαν, καὶ ἐξέβαλον αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων αὐτῶν.
51 id \ 2 \ \ A a ἥν ee.
οἱ δὲ ἐκτιναξάμενοι TOV κονιορτὸν τῶν ποδῶν ἐπ
» \ 53 3 / ει e \ ral
αὐτοὺς ἦλθον εἰς ᾿Ικόνιον᾽ ™ οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐπληροῦντο
a \ fia
χαρᾶς Kat πνεύματος ἁγίου.
/ \ a
14 *’Eyévero-8é ἐν ᾿Ικονίῳ κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ εἰσελθεῖν
» \ > \ \ “ ἢ ὃ / \ a
αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν τῶν lovoaiwy καὶ λαλῆσαι
" 7 n / «ς
οὕτως ὥστε πιστεῦσαι lovdaiwy τε καὶ ᾿ Ελλήνων πολὺ
a 2 a /
πλῆθος. “οἱ δὲ ἀπειθήσαντες ᾿Ιουδαῖοι ἐπήγειραν Kai
p re 4 \ \ a 20 a \ a tO a
ἐκάκωσαν τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἐθνῶν κατὰ τῶν ἀδελφών.
38 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XIV. 3
ave \ \ 3 , ὃ / / ; ee
ἱκανὸν μὲν οὖν χρόνον διέτριψαν παρρησιαζόμενοι ἐπὶ
ω / an tal n Ul a U ,’ nr
TO κυριῳ T@ μαρτυρουντι TO λόγῳ τὴς χάριτος avuTou,
a 7 \ a tal
διδόντι σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα γίνεσθαι διὰ τῶν χειρῶν
lel n a ¢e \
αὐτῶν. ᾿ἐσχίσθη δὲ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς πόλεως, Kal οἱ μὲν
s \ a ᾽ / e \ \ aA , /
ἦσαν σὺν τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις, οἱ δὲ σὺν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις.
΄ 7 \ r
" ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο ὁρμὴ τῶν ἐθνῶν τε καὶ ᾿Ιουδαίων σὺν τοῖς
a \ lal » /
ἄρχουσιν αὐτῶν ὑβρίσαι καὶ λιθοβολῆσαι αὐτούς, “ συνι-
/ / > \ / a / Ud
δόντες κατέφυγον εἰς Tas πόλεις τῆς Λυκαονίας Λύστραν
\ Ἵ aa , τον ee ;
καὶ Δέρβην καὶ τὴν περίχωρον" ᾿ κἀκεῖ εὐαγγελιζόμενοι
4
ἦσαν.
9 lal \
δ Καί tis ἀνὴρ ἐν Λύστροις ἀδύνατος τοῖς ποσὶν
> 10 \ > / \ ? oS a Ἰδέ
ἐκάθητο, χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ, ὃς οὐδέποτε
U 9 Ξε " a / a
περιεπάτησεν. * οὗτος ἤκουσεν τοῦ IlavXoV λαλοῦντος,
ε A 5 7 7 a a
ὃς ἀτενίσας αὐτῷ Kal ἰδὼν OTL ἔχει πίστιν τοῦ σωθῆναι,
5 πὴ» Cees \
εἶπεν μεγάλῃ φωνῇ, ᾿Ανάστηθι ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας σου
> ’ Lo \ a lo” » "Ὁ 7
ὀρθός. καὶ ἥλατο, καὶ περιεπάτει. “ot τε ὄχλοι ἰδόντες
ee / “ > A \ \ 9 οι \
ὃ ἐποίησεν Ἰ]αῦλος ἐπῆραν THY φωνὴν αὐτῶν Λυκαονιστὶ
/ e \ ς / 5 / iA
λέγοντες, Οἱ θεοὶ ὁμοιωθέντες ἀνθρώποις κατέβησαν
lal / / \ \
πρὸς ἡμᾶς, "ἐκάλουν τε τὸν Βαρνάβαν Δία, τὸν δὲ
lal A ε « / A /
Παῦλον “Ἑρμῆν, ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ ἡγούμενος τοῦ λόγου.
13 ὦ e a av \ a ,
°0 τε ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, ταύρους
καὶ στέμματα ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας ἐνέγκας, σὺν τοῖς
v v
ὄχλοις ἤθελεν θύειν. “ἀκούσαντες δὲ οἱ ἀπόστολοι
/ lal /
BapvaBas καὶ Ἰϊαῦλος, διαρρήξαντες τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν
᾽ AS > \ v 15 ΄ \ ,
ἐξεπήδησαν εἰς τὸν ὄχλον, “ κράζοντες καὶ λέγοντες,
/ lal Qn -" »-»"
Ανδρες, τί ταῦτα ποιεῖτε ; καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁμοιοπαθεῖς ἐσμὲν
ae. / > ¢ A lal
ὑμῖν ἄνθρωποι, εὐαγγελιζόμενοι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν
/ n ᾿
ματαίων ἐπιστρέφειν ἐπὶ θεὸν ζῶντα, ὃς ἐποίησεν τὸν
» ‘ \ \ “Ὁ
οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ πάντα τὰ
» > lal 16 «\ “ A
ἐν αὐτοῖς, “os ἐν ταῖς παρῳχημέναις γενεαῖς εἴασεν
/ \ / a a a
πάντα Ta ἔθνη πορεύεσθαι ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν “ καίτοι
XV. 2 ATIOZTOAQN 39
ΕΣ > , πω ἢ » A 2 tal 7 t
οὐκ ἀμάρτυρον αὐτὸν ἀφῆκεν ἀγαθουργῶν, οὐρανόθεν
[6 5.53. γᾶς ς A \ \ / a
᾿ ὑμῖν ὑετοὺς διδοὺς καὶ καιροὺς καρποφόρους, ἐμπιπλῶν
aA \ ’ ͵ , Con ὩΝ =
τροφῆς καὶ εὐφροσύνης τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν. “Kal ταῦτα
/ / \ / fal
λέγοντες μόλις κατέπαυσαν τοὺς ὄχλους τοῦ μὴ θύειν
’ a
αὐτοῖς.
» - >’ ᾽
ἢ ἙἜπηῆλθαν δὲ ἀπὸ ᾿Αντιοχείας καὶ ᾿Ικονίου ᾿Ἰου-
a \ f
δαῖοι, Kai πείσαντες τοὺς ὄχλους καὶ λιθάσαντες τὸν
“ Μ A
Παῦλον ἔσυρον ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, νομίζοντες αὐτὸν Te-
θνηκέναι. "“᾿κυκλωσάντων δὲ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτὸν ἀνα-
\ lal > \ / lal A
στὰς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς THY πόλιν. καὶ TH ἐπαύριον ἐξῆλθεν
\ A ἢ ; , ᾿ς ΨΩ, δ. 5 ἢ ,
σὺν τῷ Βαρνάβᾳ eis Δέρβην εὐαγγελιζόμενοί τε τὴν
/ \ / ¢
πόλιν ἐκείνην καὶ μαθητεύσαντες ἱκανοὺς ὑπέστρεψαν
> Ν / \ > 5 / \ > » /
εἰς τὴν Avotpay καὶ εἰς ᾿Ικόνιον καὶ εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν,
\ -
“ἐπιστηρίζοντες τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν μαθητῶν, παρακα-
lal / a \ a
λοῦντες ἐμμένειν TH πίστει, καὶ OTL διὰ πολλῶν θλίψεων
an A a \ an a
det ἡμᾶς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. * χει-
2 a ’
ροτονήσαντες δὲ αὐτοῖς κατ᾽ ἐκκλησίαν πρεσβυτέρους,
/ \ a / n
προσευξάμενοι μετὰ νηστειῶν παρέθεντο αὐτοὺς τῷ
δ /
κυρίῳ εἰς ὃν πεπιστεύκεισαν. “καὶ διελθόντες τὴν
s e \ -
Πισιδίαν ἦλθον εἰς τὴν Παμφυλίαν, * καὶ λαλήσαντες
\ /
ev Ilépyn τὸν λόγον κατέβησαν εἰς ᾿Αττάλειαν, * Ka-
an > / 2 ; ἮΝ , vA >
κεῖθεν ἀπέπλευσαν εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν, ὅθεν ἦσαν παραδε-
a / a a > » e >
δομένοι τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς τὸ ἔργον ὃ ἐπλήρωσαν.
\ \ ει
παραγενόμενοι δὲ καὶ συναγαγόντες τὴν ἐκκλησίαν,
ΟῚ 7 ed 5 ͵ ς θ \ 5 » A \ vA
avnyyeXXov oa ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς MET αὐτῶν, καὶ OTL
cal y , / / \
ἤνοιξεν τοῖς ἔθνεσι θύραν πίστεως. “ὃ διέτριβον δὲ
/ \ a an
χρόνον οὐκ ὀλίγον σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς.
5 \ A 3 /
15 ᾿Καί τινες κατελθόντες ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας ἐδί-
\ / > \ \ a a »
δασκον τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ὅτι ᾿Εὰν μὴ περιτμηθῆτε τῷ ἔθει
a PE OM | 3 ͵ : a 2 7 \ /
τῷ Maicéws, ov δύνασθε σωθῆναι. "γενομένης δὲ στά-
A / > > / Ὁ / A "Ὁ
σεως καὶ ζητήσεως οὐκ ὀλίγης τῷ Ila’Aw καὶ τῷ
40 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XV. 2
, / a
BapvaBa πρὸς αὐτούς, ἔταξαν ἀναβαίνειν Ἰ]αῦλον καὶ
, / »” 5 ’ -“ \ \ 3
BapvaBav καί τινας ἄλλους ἐξ αὐτῶν πρὸς τοὺς aTro-
\ lal
στόλους Kal πρεσβυτέρους εἰς ‘lepovcadnpm περὶ τοῦ
é ¢ \
ζητήματος TovTov. “οἱ μὲν οὖν προπεμφθέντες ὑπὸ
a > / / t / ‘\ ,
τῆς ἐκκλησίας διήρχοντο τήν τε Φοινίκην καὶ Σαμά-
ρείαν, ἐκδιηγούμενοι τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν, καὶ
n “-“ Ἢ a 4
ἐποίουν χαρὰν μεγάλην πᾶσιν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς. “Tapa-
\ > € \ / θ id \ -
γενόμενοι δὲ εἰς “Ἱερουσαλὴμ παρεδέχθησαν ὑπὸ τῆς
ἐκκλησίας καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων,
» / / d ¢ \ 5] / ΕῚ ’ ral 5) /
ἀνήγγειλάν τε ὅσα ὁ θεὸς ἐποίησεν μετ᾽ αὐτῶν. "ἐξανέ-
tal \ lal / A
στησαν δέ τινες TOV ἀπὸ τῆς αἱρέσεως TOV Φαρισαίων
7 - > \
πεπιστευκότες, λέγοντες OTL Δεῖ περιτέμνειν αὐτοὺς
παραγγέλλειν τε τηρεῖν τὸν νόμον Mwicéas.
ΝΣ / δὲ δ..5 / \ e /
υνήχθησαν δὲ οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι
- lal 7 »"»ἢλΜ /
ἰδεῖν περὶ τοῦ λόγου τούτου. ‘woddAHs δὲ ἕητήσεως
7 ’ \ / 3 Ἃ 3 , ΕῚ
γενομένης ἀναστὰς []έτρος εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς, ᾿Ανδρες
᾿ / ¢ a b] / dé Ψ 4 A ? / >
ἀδελφοί, ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε OTL ἀφ ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων ἐν
ων σὲ > / ¢ \ \ a / 4 > n
ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς διὰ τοῦ στόματός μου ἀκοῦσαι
\ » \ / fal 9 ᾽ ο A . 8 \
τὰ ἔθνη τὸν λόγον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Kal πιστεῦσαι. ὃ καὶ
, “
ὁ καρδιογνώστης θεὸς ἐμαρτύρησεν αὐτοῖς δοὺς τὸ
le] \ / ιν
πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον καθὼς καὶ ἡμῖν, "καὶ οὐθὲν διέκρινεν
\ «ς “ » “Ὁ r
μεταξὺ ἡμῶν τε καὶ αὐτῶν, TH πίστει καθαρίσας Tas
᾽ al a)
καρδίας αὐτῶν. "νῦν οὖν τί πειράζετε τὸν θεόν, ἐπι-
a \ A a ε
θεῖναι ζυγὸν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον τῶν μαθητῶν, ὃν οὔτε
e / ¢ Lal / ¢ “A
οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν οὔτε ἡμεῖς ἰσχύσαμεν βαστάσαι;
1 ? \ \ al a lal
᾿ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ πιστεύομεν
“Ὁ \ - lal
σωθῆναι καθ᾽ ὃν τρόπον κἀκεῖνοι. “éolynoev δὲ πᾶν
\ n ee ’
τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ ἤκουον Βαρνάβα καὶ ἸΙαύλου ἐξηγουμέ-
A .) , ¢e \ - “-“
νων Ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ἐν τοῖς
ἔθνεσιν δι’ αὐτῶν.
13 \ \ \ An ,
Μετὰ δὲ τὸ σιγῆσαι αὐτοὺς ἀπεκρίθη ᾿Ιάκωβος
νδ΄. ATIOZTOAQN 41
, ᾽ 1.5.5 , , 14
λέγων, "Avdpes ἀδελφοί, ἀκούσατέ μου. "“᾿Συμεὼν ἐξη-
/ \ A « \ / n
ynoato καθὼς πρῶτον ὁ θεὸς ἐπεσκέψατο λαβεῖν ἐξ
nr ¥ a ’ -“ 5 \
ἐθνῶν λαὸν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ. “Kal τούτῳ συμφω-
νοῦσιν οἱ λόγοι τῶν προφητῶν, καθὼς γέγραπται,
1Μ \ a » / \ >’ , \ \
ετὼ ταῦτα ἀναστρέψω καὶ ἀνοικοδομήσω THY σκηνὴν
Δαυεὶδ τὴν πεπτωκυΐῖαν, καὶ τὰ κατεστραμμένα αὐτῆς
> / Sa AS , Se We Ἃ > ἢ
ἀνοικοδομήσω καὶ ἀνορθώσω αὐτήν, “Ὅπως ἂν ἐκζητή-
€ A
σωσιν οἱ κατάλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν κύριον, Kal
δ 8. 9.» « > / \ v / 3D
πάντα Ta ἔθνη ἐφ᾽ ovs ἐπικέκληται TO ὄνομά μου ἐπ
’ , / U a A a
αὐτούς, λέγει κύριος ποιῶν ταῦτα “yYwoTa aT alavos.
ἘῸΝ \ b \ / \ - A ’ \ ral > -“
LO ἐγὼ κρίνω μὴ παρενοχλεῖν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν
» 7 \ a nv an
ἐπιστρέφουσιν ἐπὶ Tov θεόν, “᾿αλλὰ ἐπιστεῖλαι αὐτοῖς
“ > ’ a 5 “Ὁ “Ὁ
τοῦ ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων καὶ τῆς
/ \ 4 a A A “ A
πορνείας καὶ τοῦ πνικτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος. ™ Μωῦσῆς
A > /
yap ἐκ γενεῶν ἀρχαίων κατὰ πόλιν τοὺς κηρύσσοντας
> \ an - “
αὐτὸν ἔχει ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς κατὰ πᾶν σάββατον
5
ἀναγινωσκόμενος.
2 / ral ’ ~
“Tote ἔδοξε τοῖς ἀποστόλοις Kal τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις
\ Ov Lal > λ / ’ ὌΝ / bd ὃ 2 3 “
σὺν ὅλῃ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἐκλεξαμένους ἄνδρας ἐξ αὐτῶν
Υ͂ > > / \ (al UY \ U
πέμψαι εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν σὺν τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ BapvaBa,
2 / / a }- Ν
lovdav τὸν καλούμενον Βαρσαββᾶν καὶ Σίλαν, ἄνδρας
ξ A a ‘ \ \
ἡγουμένους ἐν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, “γράψαντες διὰ χειρὸς
ἀν hei ἢ ε ͵ ᾽ \ a
αὐτῶν, Οἱ ἀπόστολοι Kal οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἀδελφοὶ τοῖς
\ , / / > a
κατὰ τὴν ᾿Αντιόχειαν καὶ Συρίαν καὶ Κιλικίαν ἀδελφοῖς
a3 ’ fal , 94. 9 ἀπ cS) , or \ ’
τοῖς ἐξ ἐθνῶν χαίρειν. ™ ἐπειδὴ ἠκούσαμεν ὅτι τινὲς ἐξ
« La > / Σ / ¢ A / ’ /
ἡμῶν ἐξελθόντες ἐτάραξαν ὑμᾶς λόγοις ἀνασκευάζοντες
\ ξ an ne ’ I Ε. νύ
Tas ψυχὰς ὑμῶν, οἷς οὐ διεστειλάμεθα, “ἔδοξεν ἡμῖν
/ ς / 5 / v /
γενομένοις ὁμοθυμαδόν, ἐκλεξαμένους ἄνδρας πέμψαι
Ν ς a a a fal \
πρὸς ὑμᾶς σὺν τοῖς ἀγαπητοῖς ἡμῶν BapvaBa καὶ
/ 5 7 \ 5 nr
Παύλῳ, “ἀνθρώποις παραδεδωκόσι τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν
ς \ a 3 A A rn “
ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
42 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XV. 27
> 2 I \ b]
"GrectadKkapev οὖν ᾿Ιούδαν καὶ Σίλαν, καὶ αὐτοὺς διὰ
’ / \ » , 28 v \ “Ὁ ΄
λόγου ἀπαγγέλλοντας τὰ αὐτά. “᾿ἔδοξεν γὰρ τῷ πνεύ-
A ς / \ € wn \ / > / ε lal
ματι TO ἁγίῳ Kal ἡμῖν, μηδὲν πλέον ἐπιτίθεσθαι ὑμῖν
A » [4
βάρος πλὴν τούτων τῶν ἐπάναγκες, “ ἀπέχεσθαι εἰδω-
λοθύτων καὶ αἵματος καὶ πνικτῶν καὶ πορνείας, ἐξ ὧν
᾽
al \ 3 / /
διατηροῦντες ἑαυτοὺς εὖ πράξετε. ἔρρωσθε.
᾽ “Ὁ > >
Ὁ Of μὲν οὖν ἀπολυθέντες κατῆλθον εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν,
\ “Ὁ \
Kal συναγαγόντες TO πλῆθος ἐπέδωκαν τὴν ἐπιστολήν.
31? ’ Csr 4.3 ἢ, A , 32? >
ἀναγνόντες δὲ ἐχάρησαν ἐπὶ TH παρακλήσει. ““᾿Ιούδας
\ I \ > \ n ” \ /
τε καὶ Σίλας, καὶ αὐτοὶ προφῆται ὄντες, διὰ λόγου
fa) 3 \ \ 3 /
πολλοῦ παρεκάλεσαν τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ ἐπεστήριξαν᾽
5 ’ > / >
ὃ; ποιήσαντες δὲ χρόνον, ἀπελύθησαν μετ᾽ εἰρήνης ἀπὸ
lal a > , 3 ‘al
τῶν ἀδελφῶν πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστείλαντας αὐτούς. “11αῦ-
/ ᾽ / /
Nos δὲ καὶ BapvaBas διέτριβον ἐν ᾿Αντιοχείᾳ, διδάσκον-
, \ \ e / Lal
Tes Kal εὐαγγελιζόμενοι μετὰ Kal ἑτέρων πολλῶν τὸν
λόγον τοῦ κυρίου.
/ 3 \ / re
°° Mera δέ τινας ἡμέρας εἶπεν πρὸς Βαρνάβαν Παῦλος,
/ \ > \ \
᾿Επιστρέψαντες δὴ ἐπισκεψώμεθα τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς κατὰ
“Ὁ I \ / a
πόλιν πᾶσαν ἐν ais κατηγγείλαμεν τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου,
al / , -“
πῶς ἔχουσιν. “Βαρνάβας δὲ ἐβούλετο συμπαραλαβεῖν
καὶ τὸν ᾿Ιωάννην τὸν καλούμενον Μάρκον" “᾿ΙΙΠαῦλος δὲ
5 ͵ \ , U 5 9 ᾽ val > \ / \
ἠξίου, τὸν ἀποστάντα ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἀπὸ Ilaududas καὶ
\ , > A ᾽ wee \ ,
μὴ συνελθόντα αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἔργον, μὴ συμπαραλαμβά-
ἴω Ld 7 >
νειν τοῦτον. “ἐγένετο δὲ παροξυσμός, ὥστε ἀποχωρισ-
“Ὁ ᾿ / /
θῆναι αὐτοὺς ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων, τόν τε Βαρνάβαν παραλα-
“ > A “
βόντα τὸν Μάρκον ἐκπλεῦσαι εἰς Κύπρον. “ἸἸ[αῦλος
A \ a “
δὲ ἐπιλεξάμενος Σίλαν ἐξῆλθεν, παραδοθεὶς τῇ χάριτι
rn lal ? A 1 / \
Tov κυρίου ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν" “dinpyeto δὲ τὴν Συρίαν
Ἁ / ’ / \ 9 /
καὶ Κιλικίαν ἐπιστηρίζων τὰς ἐκκλησίας.
> / > /
16 'Κατήντησεν δὲ εἰς Δέρβην καὶ εἰς Λύστραν. καὶ
> \ / 9 5 Ase / / ey \
ἰδοὺ μαθητής Tis ἦν ἐκεῖ ὀνόματι Τιμόθεος, vids γυναικὸς
XVI. 14 ATIOZTOAQN 43
ΕῚ 7 a \ A Ὑ e\ » A
Ιουδαίας πιστῆς πατρὸς δὲ “Ἕλληνος, "ὃς ἐμαρτυρεῖτο
ς - , \ / ’ al “
ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Λύστροις καὶ ᾿Ικονίῳ ἀδελφῶν. τοῦτον
» \ » A 4
ἠθέλησεν ὁ Παῦλος σὺν αὐτῷ ἐξελθεῖν, καὶ λαβὼν
, \ 5 \ , f
περιέτεμεν αὐτὸν διὰ τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους τοὺς ὄντας ἐν τοῖς
» / ‘/ fa)
τόποις ἐκείνοις" ἤδεισαν γὰρ ἅπαντες τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ
"» ¢ A
ὅτι “Ελλην ὑπῆρχεν. “ws δὲ διεπορεύοντο τὰς πόλεις,
" an
παρεδίδοσαν αὐτοῖς φυλάσσειν Ta δόγματα τὰ κεκριμένα
ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων τῶν ἐν ‘lEepoco-
λύμοις. "αἱ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησίαι ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει
eS / a ee a ΩΝ ἢ U 6 a x
καὶ ἐπερίσσευον τῷ ἀριθμῷ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν. “διῆλθον δὲ
\ / \ \ 4 / ς A a
τὴν Φρυγίαν καὶ Varatixny χώραν, κωλυθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ
¢ “A a
ἁγίου πνεύματος λαλῆσαι τὸν λόγον ἐν TH ᾿Ασίᾳ" “éd-
᾿ \ \ \ / > Ul ᾽ \ /
θόντες δὲ κατὰ τὴν Μυσίαν ἐπείραζον εἰς τὴν Βιθυνίαν
A 3 a a
πορευθῆναι, καὶ οὐκ εἴασεν αὐτοὺς TO πνεῦμα ᾿Ιησοῦ"
/
“παρελθόντες δὲ τὴν Μυσίαν κατέβησαν eis Τρωάδα.
\ a , "
"καὶ ὅραμα διὰ νυκτὸς τῷ Παύλῳ ὠφθη, ἀνὴρ Μακεδών
3 ΞΕ \ \ a ΨΥ Ἃ, ᾿ f \
τίς HV ἑστὼς καὶ παρακαλῶν αὐτὸν καὶ λέγων, AvaBas
a / 3
εἰς Μακεδονίαν βοήθησον ἡμῖν. “ὡς δὲ τὸ ὅραμα εἶδεν,
/ al
εὐθέως ἐζητήσαμεν ἐξελθεῖν εἰς Μακεδονίαν, συμβι-
/ “ ’ ς a ς \ ᾽ /
βάζοντες ὅτι προσκέκληται ἡμᾶς 6 θεὸς evayyericac bat
᾽ , 11? , 3 ae , ᾽ ,
αὐτούς. ἀναχθέντες οὖν ἀπὸ Τρωάδος εὐθυδρομή-
> > θ , A δὲ ᾿ , > Né a»
σαμεν εἰς Σαμοθρᾷάκην, TH δὲ ἐπιούσῃ εἰς Néay πόλιν,
195. Ὁ ἃ + ἢ “ > \ / A (δ
κἀκεῖθεν εἰς Φιλίππους, ἥτις ἐστὶν πρώτη τῆς μερίδος
Μακεδονίας πόλις, κολωνία. ἦμεν δὲ ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ πόλει
t
διατρίβοντες ἡμέρας τινάς.
“Tn τε ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων ἐξήλθομεν ἔξω τῆς
/ τ \ 3
πύλης παρὰ ποταμὸν οὗ ἐνομίζομεν προσευχὴν εἶναι,
\ 7 rf an / /
καὶ καθίσαντες ἐλαλοῦμεν ταῖς συνελθούσαις γυναιξίν.
14 f 3
Kat τις γυνὴ ὀνόματι Λυδία, πορφυρόπωλις πόλεως
/ ys / vy ia « /
Ovateipwv, σεβομένη τὸν θεόν, ἤκουεν, ἧς ὁ κύριος
, A 7 ξ \
διήνοιξεν τὴν καρδίαν προσέχειν τοῖς λαλουμένοις ὑπὸ
44 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XVI. 14
4 / \ [ 3 0a
Παύλου. “ws δὲ ἐβαπτίσθη Kai ὁ οἶκος αὐτῆς, Tape-
/ / 5 / / \ a ΄
κάλεσεν λέγουσα, Ki κεκρίκατέ pe πιστὴν τῷ κυρίῳ
5 > ἢ > \ o 7 / ἣ \ /
εἶναι, εἰσελθόντες εἰς τὸν οἶκόν μου μένετε" καὶ παρεβιά-
A / ς a > \
σατο ἡμᾶς. " ἐγένετο δὲ πορευομένων ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν προσευ-
A nw «ς “
χήν, παιδίσκην τινὰ ἔχουσαν πνεῦμα πύθωνα ὑπαντῆσαι
a Ul a al / ee a |
ἡμῖν, ἥτις ἐργασίαν πολλὴν παρεῖχεν τοῖς κυρίοις αὐτῆς
n lal , \
μαντευομένη. “αὕτη κατακολουθοῦσα τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ
a e / A = nr
ἡμῖν ἔκραζεν λέγουσα, Οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ
ἐπ Le , Dep “ 7, Cha =
τοῦ ὑψίστου εἰσίν, οἵτινες καταγγέλλουσιν ὑμῖν ὁδὸν
, 18 a δὲ ) l Ee, \ cme 5
σωτηρίας. “τοῦτο δὲ ἐποίει ἐπὶ πολλὰς ἡμέρας. δια-
\ \ a oe) / a f 9
πονηθεὶς δὲ Παῦλος καὶ ἐπιστρέψας τῷ πνεύματι εἶπεν,
/ >’ n lal a
Παραγγέλλω σοι ἐν ὀνόματι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐξελθεῖν
3 5» ’ »-“ Ξ \ , “ » a n [72 19 » ͵ὔ \ e
ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς" καὶ ἐξῆλθεν αὐτῇ τῇ dpa. “ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ
/ r σὺ e/ 5» κα 4 3 \ A ϑ / ? al
κύριοι αὐτῆς ὅτι ἐξῆλθεν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς ἐργασίας αὐτῶν,
lal \ / ¢, 9
ἐπιλαβόμενοι τὸν Παῦλον καὶ τὸν Σίλαν εἵλκυσαν εἰς
\ ’ \ ᾽
τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας, ™ Kal προσαγαγόντες av-
\ n a 53 δ εν
τοὺς τοῖς στρατηγοῖς εἶπαν, Οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐκτα-
Uy -“ 3 lal « / 21 \
ράσσουσιν ἡμῶν τὴν πόλιν, ᾿Ιουδαῖοι ὑπάρχοντες, " Kal
ty y Se Sie con δέ θ
καταγγέλλουσιν ἔθη ἃ οὐκ ἔξεστιν ἡμῖν παραδέχεσθαι
δὲ One ͵ 3 22 \ / c oy
οὐδὲ ποιεῖν “Ρωμαίοις οὖσιν. “Kal συνεπέστη ὁ ὄχλος
᾿ > | al ΄ a \
κατ αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ στρατηγοὶ περιρήξαντες αὐτῶν Ta
΄ ,ὔ / ΡῈ Lal
ἱμάτια ἐκέλευον ῥαβδίζειν, πολλάς τε ἐπιθέντες αὐτοῖς
\ », ᾽ / } A
πληγᾶς ἔβαλον εἰς φυλακήν, παραγγείλαντες τῷ δεσ-
/ 5 A A 5 \
μοφύλακι ἀσφαλῶς τηρεῖν αὐτούς" “Os παραγγελίαν
, » \
τοιαύτην λαβὼν ἔβαλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν ἐσωτέραν φυλα-
‘ \ \ U 5 / ’ al > \ /
κὴν καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἠσφαλίσατο αὐτῶν εἰς τὸ ξύλον.
25 \ ε
“κατὰ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον Ἰ]αῦλος καὶ Σίλας προσευχό-
7 ee A » -
μενοι ὕμνουν τὸν θεόν᾽ ἐπηκροῶντο δὲ αὐτῶν οἱ δέσμιοι.
26 ἡ \ \ res / “ A \
ἄφνω δὲ σεισμὸς ἐγένετο μέγας, ὥστε σαλευθῆναι τὰ
, [οὶ 7 5 5» / \ a
θεμέλια τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου" ἠνεῴχθησαν δὲ παραχρῆμα
| OY a \ / \ ὃ ΠΕ £9 91»
αι θύραι πᾶσαι, καὶ πάντων τὰ δεσμὰ ἀνέθη. “ἔξυπνος
XVI. 40 ATIOZ TOAQN 45
δὲ ͵ Sas aN a ASS ’ , i
€ γενόμενος ὁ δεσμοφύλαξ καὶ ἰδὼν ἀνεῳγμένας τὰς
aA A / / ᾽
θύρας τῆς φυλακῆς, σπασάμενος μάχαιραν ἤμελλεν
> a / /
ἑαυτὸν ἀναιρεῖν, νομίζων ἐκπεφευγέναι τοὺς δεσμίους.
“ἐφώνησεν δὲ φωνῇ μεγάλῃ Παῦλος λέγων, Μηδὲν
a , 7
πράξῃς σεαυτῷ KaKov' ἅπαντες yap ἐσμεν ἐνθάδε.
al / Ἐν ἡ
"αἰτήσας δὲ φῶτα εἰσεπήδησεν, καὶ ἔντρομος γενόμενος
/ A , N al I~.
προσέπεσεν τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ τῷ Lira, Kal προαγαγὼν
/ / a a a
αὐτοὺς ἔξω ἔφη, Κύριοι, τί με δεῖ ποιεῖν ἵνα σωθῶ ; “oi
\ - / > Ν \ / > an \ 7
δὲ εἶπαν, ἸΠστευσον ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν, καὶ σωθήσῃ
\ NX Ε ἂν ἐν 32 \ 5, / ΡῚ A \ ,
σὺ καὶ ὁ οἰκός Gov. “καὶ ἐλάλησαν αὐτῷ τὸν λόγον
lal \ A “-“ A an
τοῦ κυρίου σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐν TH οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ. “Kal
\ > \ > 3 / A lal \ »,
παραλαβὼν αὐτοὺς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ τῆς νυκτὸς ἔλουσεν
A a / δ \ a
ἀπὸ τῶν πληγῶν, Kal ἐβαπτίσθη αὐτὸς Kal οἱ αὐτοῦ
/ A 3 5 / ᾽ \ > 5
πάντες παραχρῆμα, “ἀναγαγών τε αὐτοὺς εἰς TOV οἶκον
Ν 3 /
παρέθηκεν τράπεζαν, καὶ ἠγαλλιάσατο πανοικὶ πεπι-
στευκὼς τῷ θεῷ.
" "gee , δὲ , 2 / ς \
Ἡμέρας δὲ γενομένης ἀπέστειλαν οἱ στρατηγοὶ
/ > / \ >
τοὺς ῥαβδούχους λέγοντες, ᾿Απόλυσον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους
Ν ¢ /
ἐκείνους. “amnyyeirev δὲ ὁ δεσμοφύλαξ τοὺς λόγους
, \ \ a S19 , ςε \
τούτους πρὸς Tov Παῦλον ὅτι ᾿Απέσταλκαν οἱ στρατηγοὶ
A A 3 / /
iva ἀπολυθῆτε᾽ νῦν οὖν ἐξελθόντες πορεύεσθε ἐν εἰρήνῃ.
41. O\ a ” \ > ͵ / Chutes ,
ὁ δὲ ΤΤαῦλος ἔφη πρὸς αὐτούς, Δείραντες ἡμᾶς δημοσίᾳ
! > / «ς 7, ς /
ἀκατακρίτους, ἀνθρώπους Ῥωμαίους ὑπάρχοντας, ἔβα-
\ lal / ¢ A >
Nav εἰς φυλακήν, καὶ νῦν λάθρα ἡμᾶς ἐκβάλλουσιν ;
> , > \ / 5 \ ¢ fal b] rf
ov yap, ἀλλὰ ἐλθόντες αὐτοὶ ἡμᾶς ἐξαγαγέτωσαν.
385 > / \ A A ec e ὃ “- \
ἀπήγγειλαν δὲ τοῖς στρατηγοῖς οἱ ῥαβδοῦχοι τὰ
φ: ἢ fal > 40 δὲ ᾽ Ἷ e/ ς
ῥήματα ταῦτα. ἐφοβήθησαν δὲ ἀκούσαντες ὅτι ‘Po-
na? ᾽ 39 Sons i / 5) , \
μαῖοί εἰσιν, “Kat ἐλθόντες παρεκάλεσαν αὐτούς, Kal
7 A 5» \ lal
ἐξαγαγόντες ἠρώτων ἀπελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως. “ἐξελ-
A a ‘al \ \
θόντες δὲ ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς εἰσῆλθον πρὸς τὴν Λυδίαν,
καὶ ἰδόντες παρεκάλεσαν τοὺς ἀδελφούς, καὶ ἐξῆλθαν.
46 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XVIL 1
17 " Διοδεύσαντες δὲ τὴν ᾿Αμφίπολιν καὶ τὴν ᾿Απολ-
λωνίαν ἦλθον εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην, ὅπου ἦν συναγωγὴ τῶν
Ἰουδαίων. “κατὰ δὲ τὸ εἰωθὸς τῷ Παύλῳ εἰσῆλθεν
πρὸς αὐτούς, καὶ ἐπὶ σάββατα τρία διελέξατο αὐτοῖς
ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν, “ διανοίγων καὶ παρατιθέμενος ὅτι τὸν
Χριστὸν ἔδει παθεῖν καὶ ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν, καὶ ὅτι
οὗτός ἐστιν Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς, ὃν ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν.
καί τινες ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπείσθησαν καὶ προσεκληρώθησαν
τῷ IlatAw καὶ τῷ Lira, τῶν τε σεβομένων ᾿λλήνων
πλῆθος πολύ, γυναικῶν τε τῶν πρώτων οὐκ ὀλίγαι.
"ζηλώσαντες δὲ οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι καὶ προσλαβόμενοι τῶν
ἀγοραίων τινὰς ἄνδρας πονηροὺς καὶ ὀχλοποιήσαντες
ἐθορύβουν τὴν πόλιν, καὶ ἐπιστάντες τῇ οἰκίᾳ ᾿Ιάσονος
ἐζήτουν αὐτοὺς προαγαγεῖν εἰς τὸν δῆμον “μὴ εὑρόντες
δὲ αὐτοὺς ἔσυρον ᾿Ιάσονα καί τινας ἀδελφοὺς ἐπὶ τοὺς
πολιτάρχας, βοῶντες ὅτι Οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀναστατώ-
σαντες οὗτοι καὶ ἐνθάδε πάρεισιν, ‘ods ὑποδέδεκται ᾽1ά-
cov’ καὶ οὗτοι πάντες ἀπέναντι τῶν δογμάτων Καίσαρος
πράσσουσιν, βασιλέα ἕτερον λέγοντες εἶναι ᾿Ιησοῦν.
δἐτάραξαν δὲ τὸν ὄχλον καὶ τοὺς πολιτάρχας ἀκούοντας
ταῦτα, “καὶ λαβόντες τὸ ἱκανὸν παρὰ τοῦ ᾿Ιάσονος καὶ
τῶν λοιπῶν ἀπέλυσαν αὐτούς.
Oi δὲ ἀδελφοὶ εὐθέως διὰ νυκτὸς ἐξέπεμψαν τόν
τε Παῦλον καὶ τὸν Σίλαν εἰς Βέροιαν, οἵτινες παραγε-
νόμενοι εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων ἀπήεσαν"
ἡ οὗτοι δὲ ἦσαν εὐγενέστεροι τῶν ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ, οἵτινες,
ἐδέξαντο τὸν λόγον μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας, καθ᾽ ἡμέραν
ἀνακρίνοντες τὰς γραφάς, εἰ ἔχοι ταῦτα οὕτως. "“πολλοὶ
μὲν οὖν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπίστευσαν, καὶ τῶν ᾿λληνίδων
γυναικῶν τῶν εὐσχημόνων καὶ ἀνδρῶν οὐκ ὀλίγοι" “ws
δὲ ἔγνωσαν οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης ᾿Ιουδαῖοι ὅτι καὶ
XVII. 24 ATOZ TOAQN 47
a / /- ¢ \ nr a ς A
ἐν TH Bepoia κατηγγέλη ὑπὸ τοῦ ἸΠαῦλου ὁ λόγος τοῦ
fal 5 > a / \ /
θεοῦ, ἦλθον κἀκεῖ σαλεύοντες καὶ ταράσσοντες τοὺς
\ Ye \ A
ὄχλους. “evléws δὲ τότε τὸν Παῦλον ἐξαπέστειλαν
“
οἱ ἀδελφοὶ πορεύεσθαι ἕως ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν" ὑπέ-
\ a
μεινάν τε 6 Te Σίλας καὶ ὁ Τιμόθεος ἐκεῖ. “oi δὲ
\ fal , » val
καθιστάνοντες τὸν ἸΙΪαῦλον ἤγαγον ἕως ᾿Αθηνῶν, καὶ
λαβόντες ἐντολὴν πρὸς τὸν Σίλαν καὶ τὸν Τιμόθεον, ἵνα
«ς / » Ἂν » / » /
ὡς τάχιστα ἔλθωσιν πρὸς αὐτόν, ἐξήεσαν.
\ A ᾽ , 3 ΡΥ
Ev δὲ ταῖς ᾿Αθήναις ἐκδεχομένου αὐτοὺς τοῦ
/ \ a >] nr A
Παύλου, παρωξύνετο τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ, θεω-
nr / 7 \ ,
ροῦντος κατείδωλον οὖσαν τὴν πόλιν. "διελέγετο μὲν
5 5 Ὁ lol “ 5 / \ lal /
οὖν ἐν TH συναγωγῇ τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις καὶ τοῖς σεβομένοις
\ Say A ? a \ a «ς 7 \ \
καὶ ἐν TH ἀγορᾷ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν πρὸς τοὺς Tapa-
8 \ \ \ A 5 /
τυγχάνοντας. “twes δὲ καὶ τῶν ᾿᾿ὐπικουρείων καὶ
“" “Ὁ / 3 A
Στωϊκῶν φιλοσόφων συνέβαλλον auTo, Kal τινες ἔλεγον,
ofa } ς = ,
Τί ἂν θέλοι ὁ σπερμολόγος οὗτος λέγειν ; οἱ δέ, Ξένων
a 3 “
δαιμονίων δοκεῖ καταγγελεὺς εἶναι, ὅτι τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν καὶ
Nice ett il ? / 19 > , , ᾽ a
τὴν ἀνάστασιν εὐηγγελίζετο. “᾿ἐπιλαβόμενοί τε αὐτοῦ
> \ \ ” U v / /
ἐπὶ τὸν "Αρειον πάγον ἤγαγον, λέγοντες, Δυνάμεθα
“Ὁ / ξ \ “ Or Ὲ \ A / /
γνῶναι τίς ἡ καινὴ αὕτη ἡ ὑπὸ σοῦ λαλουμένη διδαχή ;
ς0 / / > LA 3 \ > \ ¢ Piss
Eevifovta yap τινα εἰσφέρεις εἰς τὰς ἀκοὰς ἡμῶν" Bov-
πὰ a / / a a
λόμεθα οὖν γνῶναι τίνα θέλει ταῦτα εἶναι. “᾿Αθηναῖοι
δὲ , \ δ’ ὃ a ΄ ? woe Ψ
€ πάντες καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι εἰς οὐδὲν ἕτερον
τ / ἈΝ - ὧδ /
ηὐκαίρουν ἢ λέγειν τι ἢ ἀκούειν καινότερον.
\ a / ἴω
“᾿Σταθεὶς δὲ ἸΠαῦλος ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ᾿Αρείου πάγου
BA »᾿ > a ’ ra
ἔφη, “Avdpes ᾿Αθηναῖοι, κατὰ πάντα ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέ-
cal A 23 \ A
ρους ὑμᾶς θεωρῶ. ““διερχόμενος γὰρ καὶ avabewpav
\ / ¢ A e \ \ > a2 > /
τὰ σεβάσματα ὑμῶν εὗρον καὶ βωμὸν ἐν ᾧ ἐπεγέ-
> A a a) > A
ypatTo, ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ ὃ οὖν ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε,
a Ea 7 Cle 24 ¢ \ - , \
τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν. ™“*o θεὸς ὁ ποιήσας τὸν
Ν n ᾽ “Ὁ a
κόσμον καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος οὐρανοῦ Kal γῆς
48 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XVII. 24
« / “ 5 ᾿] - -“
ὑπάρχων κύριος οὐκ ἐν χειροποιήτοις ναοῖς κατοικεῖ,
νοι κς ον. κα A : θ / , ͵
οὐδὲ ὑπὸ χειρῶν ἀνθρωπίνων θεραπεύεται προσδεό-
᾿] \ \ -“
μενός τινος, αὐτὸς διδοὺς πᾶσιν ζωὴν καὶ πνοὴν καὶ τὰ
’ E τῶ 7 7, > δ ἡ A ” > ͵
πάντα" “ἐποίησέν τε ἐξ ἑνὸς πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων
a \ / lal a
κατοικεῖν ἐπὶ παντὸς προσώπου τῆς γῆς, Opicas προσ-
\ lal
τεταγμένους καιροὺς καὶ Tas ὁροθεσίας τῆς κατοικίας
5 Ὁ 7 a \ / >
αὐτῶν, ” ζητεῖν τὸν θεόν, εἰ ἄρα ye ψηλαφήσειαν αὐτὸν
/ ’ \ / al
καὶ εὕροιεν, καί γε οὐ μακρὰν ἀπὸ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἡμῶν
͵ 98 » > a \ a \
ὑπάρχοντα. “ἐν αὐτῷ yap ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα Kai
/ « a ’ nr al ͵
ἐσμέν, ὡς καί τινες τῶν KAO ὑμᾶς ποιητῶν εἰρήκασιν,
rn / Ψ / lal
Τοῦ yap καὶ γένος ἐσμέν. ™yévos οὖν ὑπάρχοντες TOU
θ fa) ’ εν X {4 nA KN τ᾿ Uy * λίθ
εοῦ οὐκ ὀφείλομεν νομίζειν, χρυσῷ ἢ ἀργύρῳ ἢ λίθῳ,
\ / ’ / \ “Ὁ
χαράγματι τέχνης καὶ ἐνθυμήσεως ἀνθρώπου, τὸ θεῖον
/ 3 \ \ 5 ͵ A «3 7 ε Ἢ
εἶναι ὅμοιον. “᾿ τοὺς μὲν οὖν χρόνους τῆς ἀγνοίας ὑπεριδὼν
Η a , A > , ͵
ὁ θεὸς τὰ νῦν παραγγέλλει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις πάντας παν-
n nn 31 / » «ς » e /
ταχοῦ μετανοεῖν, “᾿καθότι ἔστησεν ἡμέραν ἐν 1) μέλλει
A 7
κρίνειν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν,
\ a bd aE. a
πίστιν παρασχὼν πᾶσιν ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν.
32? , Kp ee A ee er ,
Ακούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον,
e \ s 5 / , \ 4 \ /
οἱ δὲ εἶπαν, ᾿Ακουσόμεθά cov περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν.
¢, “ A / » fal
ϑ. οὕτως ὁ Παῦλος ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν. “τινὲς δὲ
Μ / » ASS ͵ > - \ ’
ἄνδρες κολληθέντες αὐτῷ ἐπίστευσαν, ἐν οἷς καὶ Διονύ-
ΞΕ / ’ /
σιος ὁ ᾿Αρεοπαγίτης καὶ γυνὴ ὀνόματι Δάμαρις, καὶ
ἕτεροι σὺν αὐτοῖς.
\ fal A “Ὁ
18 ᾿ Μετὰ ταῦτα χωρισθεὶς ἐκ τῶν ᾿Αθηνῶν ἦλθεν
> ἢ 2 ‘Cera ; a Rae > ͵
εἰς Κόρινθον. “καὶ εὑρών τινα ᾿Ιουδαῖον ὀνόματι ᾿Ακύ-
\ al > lal
λαν, ἸΤοντικὸν τῷ γένει, προσφάτως ἐληλυθότω ἀπὸ τῆς
lal κ \ \
Ἰταλίας, καὶ ΤΠρίσκιλλαν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, διὰ τὸ διατε-
/ \ >
ταχέναι Κλαύδιον χωρίζεσθαι πάντας τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους
" \ Lc c , A“ 5» “- 8 A \ \ ε 7
ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥώμης, προσῆλθεν αὐτοῖς, “καὶ διὰ TO ὁμό-
3 > > ω > / “ =
τεχνον εἶναι ἔμενεν Tap αὐτοῖς, Kal ἠργάζετο" ἦσαν
XVIII. 17 ATIOZTOAQN 40
yap σκηνοποιοὶ TH τέχνῃ. “διελέγετο δὲ ἐν TH συνα-
γωγῇ κατὰ πᾶν σάββατον, ἔπειθέν τε ᾿Ιουδαίους καὶ
Ἕλληνας. “ὡς δὲ κατῆλθον ἀπὸ τῆς Μακεδονίας 6 τε
Σίλας καὶ ὁ Τιμόθεος, συνείχετο τῷ λόγῳ ὁ Ἰ]αῦλος, δια-
μαρτυρόμενος τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις εἶναι τὸν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν.
δἀντιτασσομένων δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ βχλασφημούντων ἐκτι-
ναξάμενος τὰ ἱμάτια εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς, Τὸ αἷμα ὑμῶν
ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ὑμῶν καθαρὸς ἐγὼ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν εἰς
τὰ ἔθνη πορεύσομαι. ‘Kal μεταβὰς ἐκεῖθεν εἰσῆλθεν
εἰς οἰκίαν τινὸς ὀνόματι ᾿Ιούστου σεβομένου τὸν θεόν,
οὗ ἡ οἰκία ἦν συνομοροῦσα τῇ συναγωγῇ. "ΚΚρίσπος δὲ
ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος ἐπίστευσεν τῷ κυρίῳ σὺν ὅλῳ τῷ
οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν Κορινθίων ἀκούοντες ἐπί-
στευον καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο. " εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος ἐν νυκτὶ
δι’ ὁράματος τῷ Παύλῳ, Μὴ φοβοῦ, ἀλλὰ λάλει καὶ μὴ
σιωπήσῃς, " διότι ἐγὼ εἰμι μετὰ σοῦ καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐπιθήσεταί
σοι τοῦ κακῶσαί σε, διότι λαός ἐστίν μοι πολὺς ἐν TH
πόλει ταύτῃ. “ ἐκάθισεν δὲ ἐνιαυτὸν καὶ μῆνας ἕξ διδά-
σκων ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ.
᾿ Ταλλίωνος δὲ ἀνθυπάτου ὄντος τῆς ᾿Αχαΐας κατεπ-
έστησαν ὁμοθυμαδὸν οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ ἤγαγον
αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα, “λέγοντες ὅτι Ἰ]αρὰ τὸν νόμον
ἀναπείθει οὗτος τοὺς ἀνθρώπους σέβεσθαι τὸν θεόν.
4 wédXovtos δὲ τοῦ Παύλου ἀνοίγειν τὸ στόμα εἶπεν
ὁ Γαλλίων πρὸς τοὺς ᾿Ιουδαίους, Ei μὲν ἦν ἀδίκημά τι
ἢ ῥᾳδιούργημα πονηρόν, ὦ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, κατὰ λόγον ἂν
ἀνεσχόμην ὑμῶν “et δὲ ζητήματά ἐστιν περὶ λόγου
καὶ ὀνομάτων καὶ νόμου τοῦ καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς, ὄψεσθε αὐτοί"
κριτὴς ἐγὼ τούτων οὐ βούλομαι εἶναι. " καὶ ἀπή-
λασεν αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος. “ἐπιλαβόμενοι δὲ
πάντες Σωσθένην τὸν ἀρχισυνάγωγον ἔτυπτον ἔμ-
THE ACTS 4
50 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XVIII. 17
A Z IO\ , - ἢ
προσθεν τοῦ βήματος" καὶ οὐδὲν τούτων τῷ Τ᾽ αλλίωνι
lj
ἔμελεν.
« a 7 ς / lal
*"O δὲ Παῦλος Ett προσμείνας ἡμέρας ἱκανάς, τοῖς
5 al ’ \ / \
ἀδελφοῖς ἀποταξάμενος ἐξέπλει εἰς τὴν Συρίαν, Kat
\ ᾽ tal
σὺν avt@ ἸΤ]ρίσκιλλα καὶ ᾿Ακύλας, κειράμενος ἐν Key-
~ A 5 ’ / /
χρεαῖς τὴν Kehadynv’ εἶχεν yap εὐχήν. ™“ κατήντησαν
\ > ᾽ a
δὲ eis "Edecov, κἀκείνους κατέλιπεν αὐτοῦ, αὐτὸς δὲ
» \ > \ \ / “ » /
εἰσελθὼν εἰς THY συναγωγὴν διελέξατο τοῖς “lovédaiors.
/ a / / a
“ἐρωτώντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ πλείονα χρόνον μεῖναι οὐκ
, 21? NaS
ἐπένευσεν, AANA ἀποταξάμενος καὶ εἰπών, Iladw ava-
/ \ id a lal rn / > / > \ lal
κάμψω πρὸς ὑμᾶς τοῦ θεοῦ θέλοντος, ἀνήχθη ἀπὸ τῆς
> / 22
Edeoov, “ καὶ κατελθὼν εἰς Καισάρειαν, ἀναβὰς καὶ
3 \ > / f » > ,
ἀσπασάμενος THY ἐκκλησίαν κατέβη εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν,
23 \ / / \ Jn / an
καὶ ποιήσας χρόνον τινὰ ἐξῆλθεν, διερχόμενος καθεξῆς
\
τὴν Γαλατικὴν χώραν καὶ Φρυγίαν, στηρίζων πάντας
τοὺς μαθητάς.
3 al / /
“Ἰουδαῖος δέ τις ᾿Απολλὼς ὀνόματι, ᾿Αλεξανδρεὺς
A / DN λό / > "i ὃ \
τῷ γένει, ἀνὴρ λόγιος, κατήντησεν εἰς "Edecor, δυνατὸς
“ a ε΄ e 3 / 4
ὧν ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς. “οὗτος ἦν κατηχημένος τὴν ὁδὸν
lal '§ \ / [4] > / \ > /
Tov κυρίου, Kal ζέων TO πνεύματι ἐλάλει καὶ ἐδίδασκεν
[4] \ Qn ᾿ Qn
ἀκριβῶς τὰ περὶ τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ, ἐπιστάμενος μόνον τὸ
e /
βάπτισμα ᾿Ιωάννου, “ οὗτός τε ἤρξατο παρρησιάζεσθαι
“Ὁ “Ὁ 3 rn ͵ \
ἐν TH συναγωγῆ. ἀκούσαντες δὲ αὐτοῦ IIpicKirAXa καὶ
᾽ / Sie A; ἃ , 5. ἢ
Ακύλας προσελάβοντο αὐτὸν καὶ ἀκριβέστερον αὐτῷ
“ al x 3 Ze)
ἐξέθεντο τὴν ὁδὸν Tod θεοῦ. “βουλομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ
al 5 of 5
διελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ᾿Αχαΐαν, προτρεψάμενοι οἱ ἀδελφοὶ
» - a > / Ef \
ἔγραψαν τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἀποδέξασθαι αὐτόν. ὃς παρα-
a / -
γενόμενος συνεβάλετο πολὺ τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν διὰ τῆς
’ » -
χάριτος. “εὐτόνως γὰρ τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις διακατηλέγχετο
δημοσίᾳ ἐπιδεικνὺς διὰ τῶ ὃν εἶ yy X )
ημοσίᾳ ἐπιδεικνὺς διὰ τῶν γραφῶν εἶναι τὸν Χριστὸν
Ἰησοῦν.
MINS 14 ATIOZTOAQN ει
3 / \ nr \ 3 Εἰ
19 “Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ τὸν ᾿Απολλὼ εἶναι ἐν Ko-
/ an f » A
ρίνθῳ ἸΙαῦλον διελθόντα τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη ἐλθεῖν εἰς
"RR q \ Cn \ , Δ ἀν. ἐν \
φεσον' καὶ εὑρεῖν τινὰς μαθητάς, "εἶπέν τε πρὸς
᾽ / > “ dA Ud , e
αὐτούς, Et πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἔλαβετε πιστεύσαντες : οἱ
δὲ \ » / "A » 5... ’ ἴω ed / b]
€ πρὸς AUTO), AN οὐδὲ εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιόν ἐστιν
> , ἘΣ π΄. ἢ > , 5 > / ς
ἠκούσαμεν. “εἶπέν τε, Kis τί οὖν ἐβαπτίσθητε; οἱ
\ be 5 πεῖν , / 5 a
δὲ εἶπαν, Eis τὸ ᾿Ιωάννου βάπτισμα. ‘eimev δὲ Παῦ-
> / / a A
Nos, lwavyns ἐβάπτισεν βάπτισμα μετανοίας, TO λαῷ
δ > \ / > \ ie /
λέγων εἰς τὸν ἐρχόμενον μετ᾽ αὐτὸν iva πιστεύσωσιν,
, 5) Nw n Fe , LES ,
τουτέστιν εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν. ° ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἐβαπτίσθη-
> \ fal a
σαν εἰς TO ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, “ καὶ ἐπιθέντος
> a a / a 3 \ a ΕΔ
αὐτοῖς τοῦ IlavXouv χεῖρας ἦλθεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον
ϑὺν | > / 5 Us / \ > /
ἐπ αὐτούς, ἐλάλουν τε γλώσσαις Kal ἐπροφήτευον.
73 Naor ὁ / " ε \ ἢ
ἦσαν δὲ οἱ πάντες ἄνδρες ὡσεὶ δώδεκα.
8 Ε \ δὲ 5) \ \ ? / sey
ἰσελθὼν δὲ εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν ἐπαρρησιάζετο ἐπὶ
lal a fs \ / an
μῆνας τρεῖς διαλεγόμενος καὶ πείθων τὰ περὶ τῆς βασι-
f a a ς /
λείας τοῦ θεοῦ. *ws δέ τινες ἐσκληρύνοντο Kal ἠπεί-
lal \ ¢e x ’ “ fa) /
Jovy κακολογοῦντες THY ὁδὸν ἐνώπιον τοῦ πλήθους,
᾽ \ ’ > 5 “ > / \ / "Ὁ /
ἀποστὰς ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀφώρισεν τοὺς μαθητάς, καθ᾽ ἡμέ-
ραν διαλεγόμενος ἐν τῇ σχολῇ Τυράννου. "“ τοῦτο δὲ
/ \ , Ld 7 \ an
ἐγένετο ἐπὶ ἔτη δύο, ὥστε πάντας τοὺς κατοικοῦντας
\ 5 7 > fal \ 4 lal / ’ /
τὴν ᾿Ασίαν ἀκοῦσαι Tov λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, ᾿Ιουδαίους
ΔΎ τ ’ > \ / ς \
te cal” EXAnvas. “ δυνάμεις τε οὐ Tas τυχούσας ὁ θεὸς
> / \ a A ἢ 12 ¢/ nee eat \ ᾽
ἐποίει διὰ τῶν χειρῶν Lavrov, ” ὥστε καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀσθε-
“ > / > \ la) \ ? a /
vouvtas ἀποφέρεσθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ χρωτὸς αὐτοῦ σουδάρια
3 5 / ᾽ 3 ’ A \
ἢ σιμικίνθια καὶ ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν Tas νόσους
΄ ͵ \ \ / 1
Ta τε πνεύματα τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκπορεύεσθαι. * ἐπεχεί-
7 a / > /
ρησαν δέ τινες Kal τῶν περιερχομένων ᾿Ιουδαίων ἐξορ-
“Ὁ >’ / \ \ 4 & / \
κιστῶν ὀνομάζειν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔχοντας Ta πνεύματα τὰ
\ Ny, A 7 ? a , ξ t
πονηρὰ TO ὄνομα Tov κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, λέγοντες, OpKifw
« A \ > “ a a Uy 145% δέ
ὑμᾶς τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν ὃν ἸΙαῦλος κηρύσσει. ἦσαν δὲ
A—2
52 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XIX. 14
s avs δαί ; ͵ e \ e 4 -
τινες Σκευᾶ ᾿Ιουδαίου ἀρχιερέως ἑπτὰ υἱοὶ τοῦτο ποι-
a 5 \ \ an \ \ =
obvtes. "“᾿ἀποκριθὲν δὲ TO πνεῦμα TO πονηρὸν εἶπεν
val a \ “ / Ἢ
αὐτοῖς, Τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν γινώσκω καὶ τὸν Παῦλον ἐπίσταμαι
ς a \ / > , 16 \ > / cw 9-9
ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνες ἐστέ ; “Kal ἐφαλόμενος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐπ
’ / - > \ la) \ sy /
αὐτούς, ἐν ᾧ ἦν TO πνεῦμα TO πονηρόν, κατακυριεύσας
» lal / \
ἀμφοτέρων ἴσχυσεν KAT αὐτῶν, ὥστε γυμνοὺς καὶ Te-
“ lal 7. nr
τραυματισμένους ἐκφυγεῖν ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου ἐκείνου. ™ τοῦτο
a bcd
δὲ ἐγένετο γνωστὸν πᾶσιν ᾿Ἰουδαίοις τε καὶ “EXAnow
Qn a x v \ 3 / / ’ \
τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν τὴν “Edecor, καὶ ἐπέπεσεν φόβος ἐπὶ
, a 7
πάντας αὐτούς, καὶ ἐμεγαλύνετο τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου
5 Ἂς Ὁ / a y
Ἰησοῦ, " πολλοί τε τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἤρχοντο ἐξομο-
\ ’ ’ ᾽ a
Noryoupevol καὶ ἀναγγέλλοντες Tas πράξεις αὐτῶν.
\ an i é 4
“ikavol δὲ τῶν τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων συνενέγκαντες
\ / / Sie ἢ ‘ \ ,
τὰς βίβλους κατέκαιον ἐνώπιον πάντων" καὶ συνεψή-
Ν \ S30 un ; [ ͵
φισαν τὰς τιμὲς αὐτῶν καὶ εὗρον ἀργυρίου μυριάδας
Γ / \ 7 a Ὁ /
πέντε. “OUTWS κατὰ κράτος τοῦ κυρίου ὁ λόγος
\
ηὔξανεν καὶ ἴσχυεν.
/ a] Lal
"Os δὲ ἐπληρώθη ταῦτα, ἔθετο ὁ ἸΠαῦλος ἐν τῷ
i \ \ ΕῚ
πνεύματι διελθὼν τὴν Μακεδονίαν καὶ ᾿Αχαΐαν πορεύ-
> | ' » \ “ Μ \ \ / θ
εσθαι εἰς ἱἹεροσόλυμα, εἰπὼν ὅτι Μετὰ τὸ γενέσθαι με
an a VC al ’ I \ x
ἐκεῖ δεῖ με καὶ Ῥώμην ἰδεῖν. ™ ἀποστείλας δὲ εἰς τὴν
4 A ’ “
Μακεδονίαν δύο τῶν διακονούντων αὐτῷ, Τιμόθεον καὶ
wv ’ \ 5 / / » \ a /
Epacrtov, αὐτὸς ἐπέσχεν χρόνον eis τὴν ᾿Ασίαν.
> / \ x a / »
Ἐγένετο δὲ κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον τάραχος οὐκ
\ A ¢ - 24 ' , 5...»
ὀλίγος περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ. “᾿Δημήτριος γάρ τις ὀνόματι,
"» an \ 53 ἴω .} 4 ͵ὔ
ἀργυροκόπος, ποιῶν ναοὺς ἀργυροῦς ᾿Αρτέμιδος παρεί-
a ’ 5 / 25 \
NETO τοῖς τεχνίταις οὐκ ὀλίγην ἐργασίαν, ” οὗς συναθ-
\ \ \ a “ 3 ΝΜ
ροίσας καὶ τοὺς περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργάτας εἶπεν, ΓΑνδρες,
/ a > , « ,’ A € 7
ἐπίστασθε ὅτι ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἐργασίας ἡ εὐπορία ἡμῖν
> 26 \ θ a aie / v4 ? / Ἢ 4
ἐστιν, ἢ καὶ θεωρεῖτε καὶ ἀκούετε OTL οὐ μόνον ᾿Εφέσου
A / ς fal e 7 Ἧ
ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν πάσης τῆς ᾿Ασίας ὁ ἸΙαῦλος οὗτος πείσας
XIX. 38 ATIOZTOAQN 53
e \ ΝΜ / 5
μετέστησεν ἱκανὸν ὄχλον, λέγων ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοὶ οἱ
a 9 > \ fal
διὰ χειρῶν γινόμενοι. “ov μόνον δὲ τοῦτο κινδυνεύει
A 5 \ A na
ἡμῖν TO μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν, ἀλλὰ Kal TO τῆς
r e \ 3 / > ’ \ A
μεγάλης θεᾶς ἱερὸν ᾿Αρτέμιδος εἰς οὐθὲν λογισθῆναι,
\ a Aa A
μέλλειν Te καὶ καθαιρεῖσθαι τῆς μεγαλειότητος αὐτῆς,
Ae oe ©? / Α΄ οὐ us , / 28 » ͵
ἣν oAn ἡ Ἀσία καὶ ἡ οἰκουμένη σέβεται. ακούσαντες
\ \ / / rn Μ /
δὲ καὶ γενόμενοι πλήρεις θυμοῦ ἔκραζον λέγοντες,
‘ ¢ / >’ /
Μεγάλη ἡ “Apteuis ᾿Εφεσίων. "καὶ ἐπλήσθη ἡ πόλις
“Ὁ , ἃ / \
τῆς συγχύσεως, ὥρμησάν Te ὁμοθυμαδὸν εἰς TO θέατρον,
/ fu
συναρπάσαντες Laiov καὶ ᾿Αρίσταρχον Μακεδόνας,
, , 3
συνεκδήμους Ἰ]αύλου. “᾿1Παύλου δὲ βουλομένου εἰσελ-
- » Ν δῆ >’ » it, * e FS \
θεῖν εἰς τὸν δῆμον, οὐκ εἴων αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταί: ™ τινὲς
\ \ al > tal / ᾽ A , 7
δὲ καὶ τῶν ᾿Ασιαρχῶν, ὄντες αὐτῷ φίλοι, πέμψαντες
\ > \ / al
πρὸς αὐτὸν παρεκάλουν μὴ δοῦναι ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ θέατρον.
s
δ᾽ ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν ἄλλο τι ἔκραζον" ἦν yap ἡ ἐκκλησία
“ \ e
συγκεχυμένη, Kal οἱ πλείους οὐκ ἤδεισαν Tivos ἕνεκα
3 "“ 5"
συνεληλύθεισαν. “ἧ ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ὄχλου συνεβίβασαν ᾿Αλέ-
/ a
ξανδρον, προβαλόντων αὐτὸν τῶν “lovdaiwy’ ὁ δὲ ᾿Αλέ-
/ \ A ” > a a
Eavdpos κατασείσας τὴν χεῖρα ἤθελεν ἀπολογεῖσθαι TO
ἢ 84 5 ἢ ιν δ > ar ἢ San tee,
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/ /
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v
γραμματεὺς τὸν ὄχλον φησίν, “Avdpes ᾿Εφέσιοι, τίς
΄ b] , « \ > /
yap ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων ὃς ov γινώσκει τὴν “Edeciov
, / > A / > , \ r
πόλιν νεωκόρον οὖσαν τῆς μεγάλης ᾿Αρτέμιδος Kal τοῦ
nA Ld /
Διοπετοῦς ; “᾿ἀναντιρρήτων οὖν ὄντων τούτων δέον
a /
ἐστὶν ὑμᾶς κατεσταλμένους ὑπάρχειν Kal μηδὲν προ-
>] / /
πετὲς πράσσειν. “nyayeTe γὰρ τοὺς ἄνδρας τούτους
by « / v “ Ν % « an
οὔτε ἱεροσύλους οὔτε βλασφημοῦντας τὴν θεὸν ἡμῶν.
\ ΕΣ al lal
ef μὲν. οὖν Δημήτριος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τεχνῖται
lal τ 5 /
ἔχουσιν πρός τινα λόγον, ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται καὶ avOv-
54 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XIX. 38
/ 3 892. »
πατοί εἰσιν, ἐγκαλείτωσαν ἀλλήλοις. “ εἰ δέ τι περὶ
ἑτέρων ἐπιζητεῖτε, ἐν τῇ ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐπιλυθήσεται
ετέρων ἐπιζὴη ᾽ 7 KG No le 4 ,
/ lal \ “Ὁ
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\ ¢ >] /
σήμερον, μηδενὸς αἰτίου ὑπάρχοντος περὶ οὗ ov δυνησό-
al an f
μεθα ἀποδοῦναι λόγον περὶ τῆς συστροφῆς ταύτης.
41 \ A > \ Dey. \ > /
καὶ TAUTA επὼν ἀπέλυσεν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.
20 ᾿ Mera δὲ τὸ παύσασθαι τὸν θόρυβον μεταπεμ-
/ ¢ fa) \ \ \ /
ψάμενος ὁ ἸΙαῦλος τοὺς μαθητὰς καὶ παρακαλέσας,
ἀσπασάμενος ἐξῆλθεν πορεύεσθαι εἰς Μακεδονίαν. ὅ δι-
\ \ \ / 9 “ Ν 7 » \ /
ελθὼν δὲ Ta μέρη ἐκεῖνα Kal παρακαλέσας αὐτοὺς λόγῳ
πολλῷ ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν ᾿ Ελλάδα, * ποιήσας τε μῆνας τρεῖς,
/ > a ’ nat \ “ 5 / /
γενομένης ἐπιβουλῆς αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων μέλλοντι
ἀνάγεσθαι εἰς τὴν Συρίαν, ἐγένετο γνώμης τοῦ ὑὕπο-
, \ , 4 ͵, \ 3, ἔγῶς 2
στρέφειν διὰ Μακεδονίας. * συνείπετο δὲ αὐτῷ ἄχρι
τῆς ᾿Ασίας Σώπατρος Πύρρου Βεροιαῖος, Θεσσαλονι-
lal Taw
κέων δὲ ᾿Αρίσταρχος καὶ Σεκοῦνδος καὶ Γάϊος Aep-
al \ \ / ᾿
βαῖος καὶ Τιμόθεος, ᾿Ασιανοὶ δὲ Τυχικὸς καὶ Τρόφιμος
Bs \ / ΝΜ ς n b / ey es a
οὗτοι δὲ προελθόντες ἔμενον ἡμᾶς ἐν Tpwads " ἡμεῖς
\ 5 / \ \ ς / lal > / ’ \
δὲ ἐξεπλεύσαμεν μετὰ Tas ἡμέρας τῶν ἀζύμων ἀπὸ
\ \
Φιλίππων, καὶ ἤλθομεν πρὸς αὐτοὺς eis τὴν Τρωάδα
a e ΄
ἄχρι ἡμερῶν πέντε, οὗ διετρίψαμεν ἡμέρας ἑπτά.
Τ᾿ Ἔν δὲ TH μιᾷ TO BBa σ ένων ἡμῶ
ν δὲ τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων συνηγμένων ἡμῶν
/ / id “ / 5 a
κλάσαι ἄρτον ὁ ἸΙαῦλος διελέγετο αὐτοῖς, μέλλων ἐξιέ-
pal τῇ ἐπαύριον, παρέτεινέν τε τὸν λόγον μέχρι μεσο-
΄ o (SF \ , ς A709 AY Ke , e
νυκτίου “ἦσαν δὲ λαμπάδες ἱκαναὶ ἐν TO ὑπερῴῳ οὗ
ἦμεν συνηγμένοι. ° καθεζόμενος δέ τις νεανίας ὀνόματι
al 7 -
Ἐὔτυχος ἐπὶ τῆς θυρίδος, καταφερόμενος ὕπνῳ βαθεῖ,
΄ a / Lyre - \ 2 \
διαλεγομένου Tov ἸΤαύλου ἐπὶ πλεῖον, κατενεχθεὶς ἀπὸ
τοῦ ὕπνου ἔπεσεν ἀπὸ τοῦ τριστέγου κάτω καὶ ἤρθη
νεκρός. “καταβὰς δὲ ὁ ἸΠαῦλος ἐπέπεσεν αὐτῷ καὶ
συμπεριλαβὼν εἶπεν, Μὴ θορυβεῖσθε: ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ
XX. 23 ATIOZTOAQN © 55
> n 5 A 5
αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ ἐστίν. "᾿ ἀναβὰς δὲ καὶ κλάσας τὸν
/ £ 94?
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᾽ A e/ IA 12 ¥ \ \ lal A
αὐγῆς, οὕτως ἐξῆλθεν. "ἤγαγον δὲ τὸν παῖδα ζῶντα,
x / ’
Kal παρεκλήθησαν ov μετρίως.
s¢ »"Ἤ a
"Ἡμεῖς δὲ προελθόντες ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον ἀνήχθημεν
\ , - /
ἐπὶ τὴν “Accor, ἐκεῖθεν μέλλοντες ἀναλαμβάνειν τὸν
a x “ \ / = ,
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ἢ Ay Oe \ ΄, aie
πεζεύειν. “ ws δὲ συνέβαλλεν ἡμῖν eis τὴν “Accor,
3 » \ I. 5 a
ἀναλαβόντες αὐτὸν ἤλθομεν εἰς Μιτυλήνην. " κἀκεῖθεν
lal ,
ἀποπλεύσαντες τῇ ἐπιούσῃ κατηντήσαμεν ἄντικρυς
͵ a Caer oF , > , A Ay ats
Χίου, τῇ δὲ ἑτέρᾳ παρεβάλομεν εἰς Σάμον, TH δὲ ἐχο-
/ wv > / 16 / \ ¢ lal
μένῃ ἤλθομεν εἰς Μώλητον. “ Kexpixes yap ὁ Παῦλος
al \ ” ¢/ \ / 3 A
παραπλεῦσαι THY” Edecor, ὅπως μὴ γένηται αὐτῷ χρο-
A 3 a > / / \
νοτριβῆσαι ἐν τῇ ᾿Ασίᾳ᾽ ἔσπευδεν yap, εἰ δυνατὸν
εἴη αὐτῷ, τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς Ἰ]εντηκοστῆς γενέσθαι εἰς
“Ἱεροσόλυμα.
Ν A ΜΝ
"Aro δὲ τῆς Μιλήτου πέμψας εἰς “Edecov μετε-
/ \ / a > / 18....8 \
καλέσατο τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους τῆς ἐκκλησίας. “ws δὲ
/ \ / A a
παρεγένοντο πρὸς αὐτόν, εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Ὕ μεῖς ἐπί-
2 \ / ¢ / ce ed > 2 , > \
στασθε, ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας ἀφ᾽ ἧς ἐπέβην εἰς τὴν
3 / a > £ A \ ‘
Aciav, πῶς μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν τὸν πάντα χρόνον ἐγενόμην,
19 , A / \ , / \
δουλεύων TO κυρίω μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης Kal
\ A A al
δακρύων καὶ πειρασμῶν τῶν συμβάντων μοι ἐν ταῖς
ἐπιβουλαῖς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, “ws οὐδὲν ὑπεστειλάμην
Ξ , A AS A Cir \ ,
τῶν συμφερόντων τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι ὑμῖν Kal διδάξαι
a / » /
ὑμᾶς δημοσίᾳ Kal κατ᾽ οἴκους, * διαμαρτυρόμενος ᾿Ἰου-
, \ “ \ 3 \ , \
δαίοις τε καὶ “EXAnow τὴν εἰς θεὸν μετάνοιαν καὶ
, > \ / εξ -“ 9 al / 22 \
πίστιν εἰς τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν. ™ καὶ
rn 5 \ / 5 \ A / ᾿ 5
νῦν ἰδοὺ δεδεμένος ἐγὼ τῷ πνεύματι πορεύομαι εἰς
ε / 53 “Ὁ / / \ 3 [4
Ἱερουσαλήμ, τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ συναντήσοντά μοι μὴ εἰδώς,
A / /
“adv ὅτι TO πνεῦμα TO ἅγιον κατὰ πόλιν διαμαρτύ-
56 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XX. 23
ed \ \ / ΄
ρεταί μοι λέγον ὅτι δεσμὰ καὶ θλίψεις με μένουσιν.
a \ \ t b]
Ἃ ἀλλ᾽ οὐδενὸς λόγου ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν ἐμαυ-
tal a \ \ «Ὁ
τῷ ὡς τελειῶσαι τὸν δρόμον μου καὶ τὴν διακονίαν ἣν
”. \ la) z I a ὃ / θ \
ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, διαμαρτύρασθαι τὸ
- A A 25 \ αἰ τα ii Sa
εὐαγγέλιον τῆς χάριτος τοῦ θεοῦ. “Kal νῦν ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ
1 vA » / vy Θ \ / / ¢ lal 4
οἷδα ὅτι οὐκέτι ὄψεσθε τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ὑμεῖς πᾶντες
A \ / % \ ,
ἐν ols διῆλθον κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν. “did μαρτύ-
- A / ¢ / vA / 3 ᾽ \
ρομαι ὑμῖν ἐν TH σήμερον ἡμέρᾳ OTL καθαρός εἰμι ἀπὸ
a Ξε > iN ie / lal \
τοῦ αἵματος πάντων “ov yap ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ
>’ nw a \ \ a θ δε “ον φῇ 98
ἀναγγεῖλαι πᾶσαν τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῖν. προσ-
al n / 5 “δ ¢ \
έχετε ἑαυτοῖς καὶ παντὶ τῷ ποιμνίῳ, ἐν ᾧ ὑμᾶς TO
rn t /
πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔθετο ἐπισκόπους, ποιμαίνειν τὴν
a « “
ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ κυρίου, ἣν περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ
“ a 5.7 29 93 \ ὃν vA > ͵
αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου. ἐγὼ οἶδα ὅτι εἰσελεύσονται
/ nA > id “A \ /
μετὰ τὴν ἄφιξίν μου λύκοι βαρεῖς εἰς ὑμᾶς, μὴ φειδό-
A \ ς A 3 A 3 /
μενοι TOU ποιμνίου, ἧ Kai ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν ἀναστήσονται
ἄνδρες λαλοῦντες διεστραμμένα τοῦ ὠποσπᾷν τοὺς μα-
ρ μ' ‘
a 1 \ a /
θητὰς ὀπίσω ἑαυτῶν. * διὸ γρηγορεῖτε, μνημονεύοντες
΄ f \ > /
OTL τριετίαν νύκτα Kal ἡμέραν οὐκ ἐπαυσάμην μετὰ
δακρύων νουθετῶν ἕνα ἕκαστον. “Kal τὰ νῦν παρα-
Zz ς “Ὁ “ [4] \ [4] / An / 5 lal
τίθεμαι ὑμᾶς TA θεῷ καὶ TO λόγῳ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ,
tal / 3 A \ la) \
τῷ δυναμένῳ οἰκοδομῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν κληρονο-
͵ > a ¢ , A 33 » " ath oe
μίαν ἐν τοῖς ἡγιασμένοις πᾶσιν. ἀργυρίου ἢ χρυ-
3 e a \
σίου ἢ ἱματισμοῦ οὐδενὸς ἐπεθύμησα “avtol y-
7 a \ a nr
VWOKETE OTL ταῖς χρείαις μου καὶ τοῖς οὖσιν μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ
ς lal & / ς 7 A
ὑπηρέτησαν al χεῖρες αὗται. ~ πάντα ὑπέδειξα ὑμῖν,
‘/ ¢/ fal ὃ a 5 ’ A >
OTL οὕτως κοπιώντας δεῖ ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν ἄσθε-
νούντων, μνημονεύειν τε τῶν λόγων τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ,
“ ? \ > / / b] “Ὁ /
ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν, Μακάριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι
x» Ἂ, / 30 \ Le) > , \ \ /
ἢ λαμβάνειν. καὶ ταῦτα εἰπών, θεὶς τὰ γόνατα
37
> lal \ n » ἴω /
αὐτου συν πασιν AUTOS προσηύξατο. ἱκανὸς δὲ
BEX! τὶ ATTOZTOAQN 57
\ Ns / Ἂ..5 / 4 \ ,
κλαυθμὸς ἐγένετο πάντων, Kal ἐπ'πεσόντες ἐπὶ TOV τρά-
A - ᾽ 38 5 ἢ
χηλον τοῦ Παύλου κατεφίλουν αὐτόν, “ὁ ὀδυνώμενοι
, > \ a , ee OY; “ > s , \
μάλιστα ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ ᾧ ELPNKEL, OTL OVKETL μέλλουσιν TO
fal a \ 3 \
πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ θεωρεῖν. προέπεμπον δὲ αὐτὸν εἰς TO
πλοῖον.
91 i¢ a ἄν 3 A ΟΝ ἜΣ /
Ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο ἀναχθῆναι ἡμᾶς ἀποσπασθέντας
ee J 3 “Ὁ 5 / v > \ a a
ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν, εὐθυδρομήσαντες ἤλθομεν εἰς τὴν Ko, TH
δὲ ἑξῆς εἰς τὴν “Ρόδον, κἀκεῖθεν εἰς ἸΙάταρα. * καὶ
«ς / “ n > / > / » ᾽
εὑρόντες πλοῖον διαπερῶν εἰς Φοινίκην, ἐπιβάντες ἀνήχ-
39 , \ \ , \ ΄
θημεν. “ἀναφάναντες δὲ τὴν Κύπρον καὶ καταλυπόν-
5 \ 4 > Α > / \ /
TES αὐτὴν εὐώνυμον ἐπλέομεν ELS Συρίαν, καὶ κατήλθο-
> / 5 2 a \ \ a - > U
μεν εἰς Τύρον" ἐκεῖσε γὰρ τὸ πλοῖον ἦν ἀποφορτιζόμενον
> / \ \ \ 2
τὸν γόμον. * ἀνευρόντες δὲ τοὺς μαθητὰς ἐπεμείναμεν
5 fal e / «ς / “4 a / Μ, \ A
αὐτοῦ ἡμέρας ἑπτά, οἵτινες τῷ ΤΙ]αύλῳ ἔλεγον διὰ τοῦ
΄ ee / 22. (ἃ i 5 “ eg Bee
πνεύματος μὴ ἐπιβαίνειν εἰς Ιεροσόλυμα. “ὅτε δὲ ἐγέ-
ε lal > / \ ¢ / 5 / > /
veto ἡμᾶς ἐξαρτίσαι τὰς ἡμέρας, ἐξελθόντες ἐπορευό-
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, Ψ ” A t \ ͵ \ ’ iy Sh
τέκνοις ἕως ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, Kal θέντες τὰ γόνατα ἐπὶ
\ > \ Γῇ 6? / + ,
τὸν αἰγιαλὸν προσευξάμενοι “ ἀπησπασάμεθα ἀλλή-
λους καὶ ἐνέβημεν εἰς τὸ πλοῖον, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ὑπέστρεψαν
εἰς τὰ ἴδια.
ε - A
Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸν πλοῦν διανύσαντες ἀπὸ Τύρου κατην-
/ > Νὰ \ 3 / Ν Ψ
τήσαμεν εἰς ἸΠτολεμαΐδα, καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι τοὺς ἀδελ-
\ , > a a
φοὺς ἐμείναμεν ἡμέραν μίαν Tap αὐτοῖς. ὅ τῇ δὲ ἐπαύ-
ρίον ἐξελθόντες ἤλθομεν εἰς Καισάρειαν, καὶ εἰσελθόντες
3 ! “Ὁ 3 a A
els τὸν οἶκον Φιλίππου τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ ὄντος ἐκ τῶν
5 fal 9 5
ἑπτά, ἐμείναμεν Tap αὐτῷ. * τούτῳ δὲ ἦσαν θυγατέρες
πρᾶν; Ἶ
τέσσαρες παρθένοι προφητεύουσαι. “δ ἐπιμενόντων δὲ
ς , a f A
ἡμέρας πλείους κατῆλθέν τις ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας προφή-
ἃ τὸς " 11 \ \ eee Ps \ oo»
της ὀνόματι “AyaBos, “ καὶ ἐλθὼν πρὸς ἡμᾶς Kal ἄρας
\ / “ , / e wn \ / \
τὴν ζώνην tod Παύλου, δήσας ἑαυτοῦ τοὺς πόδας Kal
58 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XXI. 11
Ἢ a 3 ' , \ na A” neh
τὰς χεῖρας εἶπεν, Τάδε λέγει TO πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον,
Τὸ bu ὃ e > ς 4 “ ὃ / 5
dv ἄνδρα οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ζώνη αὕτη οὕτως δήσουσιν ἐν
Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἱ “lovdaior καὶ παραδώσουσιν εἰς χεί-
A 2 δ \ ᾿ / lal n
pas ἐθνῶν. " ὡς δὲ ἠκούσαμεν ταῦτα, παρεκαλοῦμεν
Lal e / fal x |
ἡμεῖς TE καὶ οἱ ἐντόπιοι τοῦ μὴ ἀναβαίνειν αὐτὸν εἰς
΄ ’ 3 οἱ ΄ ς lal lal
Ἱερουσαλήμ. “τότε ἀπεκρίθη ὁ ἸΙαῦλος, Τί ποιεῖτε
, \
κλαίοντες καὶ συνθρύπτοντές μου THY καρδίαν; ἐγὼ
\ ’ / ὃ θῆ 3 \ \ 2 θ a > ¢
yap ov μόνον δεθῆναι ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀποθανεῖν εἰς “lepov-
« lal a Ὁ 6
σαλὴμ ἑτοίμως ἔχω ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ κυρίου
“ 7 ’ a
Ἰησοῦ. "μὴ πειθομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ ἡσυχάσαμεν εἰπόν-
7 1) μ
“ / \ / /
τες, Tod κυρίου τὸ θέλημα γινέσθω.
15 \ 9) ae ee , ἢ , >
Mera δὲ τὰς ἡμέρας ταύτας ἐπισκευασάμενοι aveE-
, a an \ -
βαίνομεν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα " συνῆλθον δὲ.καὶ τῶν μαθη-
tal / \ Φ τιν Yj Dwar a
τῶν ἀπὸ Καισαρείας σὺν ἡμῖν, ἄγοντες Tap ᾧ ξενισθώ-
/ > Me A
μεν Μνάσωνί τινι ΚΚυπρίῳ, ἀρχαίῳ μαθητῇ.
17 Us δὲ ¢ a > 2 | / >? 7 ΕῚ
Γενομένων δὲ ἡμῶν εἰς Ιεροσόλυμα, ἀσμένως ἀπε-
A ess / 18 «a oles
δέξαντο ἡμᾶς of ἀδελφοί. “TH δὲ ἐπιούσῃ εἰσήει ὁ
rn ε “ Ν 5 / /
Παῦλος σὺν ἡμῖν πρὸς ᾿Ιάκωβον, πάντες Te παρεγένοντο
\ 4 “ 5 \ lal
οἱ πρεσβύτεροι. “Kal ἀσπασάμενος αὐτοὺς ἐξηγεῖτο
eet “ τ > / ς \ 5 A », \
καθ᾽ ἕν ἕκαστον ὧν ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν διὰ
A peers CNN (8
τῆς διακονίας αὐτοῦ. ot δὲ ἀκούσαντες ἐδόξαζον τὸν
/ 2 a - ’ / U
θεόν, εἶπάν τε αὐτῷ, Θεωρεῖς, ἀδελφέ, πόσαι μυριάδες
lal 5 Ὁ /
εἰσὶν ἐν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τῶν πεπιστευκότων, καὶ πάντες
n , ΠΡΊΝ oa
ζηλωταὶ τοῦ νόμου ὑπάρχουσιν κατηχήθησαν δὲ
“ ’ / '
περὶ σοῦ OTL ἀποστασίαν διδάσκεις ἀπὸ Μωῦσέως τοὺς
\ 1 / > / , \ /
κατὰ Ta ἔθνη πάντας ᾿Ιουδαίους, λέγων μὴ περιτέμνειν
αὐτοὺς τὰ τέκνα μηδὲ τοῖς ἔθεσιν περιπατεῖν. ™ τί οὖν
, an lal “ ’
ἐστιν; πάντως δεῖ συνελθεῖν πλῆθος" ἀκούσονται yap
2% A > / / /
ὅτι ἐλήλυθας. “ὃ τοῦτο οὖν ποίησον ὅ σοι λέγομεν. εἰ-
\ Cy 3 ” / » \ » 349 e Ae
σὶν ἡμῖν ἄνδρες τέσσαρες εὐχὴν ἔχοντες EP ἑαυτῶν
24 / \ ς / \ ? a \ /
τούτους παραλαβὼν ἁγνίσθητι σὺν αὐτοῖς, καὶ δαπά-
XXI. 34 ATIOZTOAQN 59
ἥδ Ὁ 3 al 4 £ \ , \
νῆσον ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἵνα ξυρήσονται τὴν κεφαλήν, καὶ
“ = / \ a
γνώσονται πάντες OTL WY κατήχηνται περὶ σοῦ οὐδέν
> b] a a“ \ ? \ ’ \ U
ἐστιν, ἀλλα OTOLYELS καὶ αὐτὸς φυλασσων τὸν νόμον.
- / [4] «ς a
"περὶ δὲ τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἐθνῶν ἡμεῖς ἐπεστείλαμεν
/ , ᾽ \ 4 > , \
κρίναντες φυλάσσεσθαι αὐτοὺς TO τε εἰδωλόθυτον καὶ
a \ \ } / 26 / ε Ξ
αἷμα καὶ πνικτὸν καὶ πορνείαν. τότε ὁ ἸΙαῦλος
xX Bo D a ὃ α lo me / ς / \ 5 a
παραλαβὼν τοὺς ἄνδρας τῇ ἐχομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ σὺν αὐτοῖς
« \ > / > A, 1 / , \ b] /
ἀγνισθεὶς εἰσήει εἰς TO ἱερόν, διαγγέλλων τὴν ἐκπλήρωσιν
A «ς A A ¢ A Ὁ -
τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ, ἕως οὗ προσηνέχθη ὑπὲρ
CLAN ee? oF ,“ ἃ ς , 91 ¢ δὲ » ε
ενὸοὸς ἐκάστου αὐτῶν ἢ προσφορα. ως ὃὲ ἐμελλον αἱ
e \ ς J fn e Ε] \ ΄»Ὸῃὥ ’ 4 5 an
ἑπτὰ ἡμέραι συντελεῖσθαι, οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ασίας ᾿Ιουδαῖοι
/ . > ra tied a / , \ ’
θεασάμενοι αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ συνέχεον πάντα TOV ὄχλον,
, > = aE \ a 28 t : ”
kai ἐπέβαλαν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὰς χεῖρας, “ὃ κράζοντες, "Ανδρες
i | ΧΡ; B θ -“ = ifs ἃ ¢ v θ ¢ \
σραηλῖται, βοηθεῖτε' οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος 6 κατὰ
“Ὁ fal A / rn / / ,
τοῦ λαοῦ Kal τοῦ νόμου Kal τοῦ τόπου τούτου πάντας
Ὁ / Μ Ν 5» / ᾽
πανταχῇ διδάσκων, ἔτι τε Kal” EXAnvas εἰσήγαγεν εἰς
rf a >
TO ἱερὸν Kal κεκοίνωκεν TOV ἅγιον τόπον τοῦτον. “ἦσαν
/ ey a
yap προεωρακότες Τρόφιμον τὸν ᾿Εφέσιον ἐν τῇ πόλει
Α 3 A \ NS 4 ¢/ 3 \ e \ > / is
σὺν αὐτῷ, ὃν ἐνόμιζον OTL εἰς TO ἱερὸν εἰσήγαγεν ὁ
aA / / / \ /
Παῦλος. “ἐκινήθη τε ἡ πόλις ὅλη καὶ ἐγένετο συν-
\ A ἴω / a /
δρομὴ τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ ἐπιλαβόμενοι τοῦ Lavrov εἷλκον
» \ Μ na ¢ ἴω \ ’ , > / 6 /
αὐτὸν ἔξω Tov ἱεροῦ, καὶ εὐθέως ἐκλείσθησαν ai θύραι.
21 / ’ \ » A 5 / / lal
ξητούντων τε αὐτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι ἀνέβη φάσις τῷ χι-
> 7 al / v4 or / st Xx /
ιάρχῳ τῆς σπείρης OTL ὅλη συγχύννεται ᾿ἱἹερουσαλήμ,
e A \ , \
“ds ἐξαυτῆς παραλαβὼν στρατιώτας Kal ἑκατοντάρχας
/ αϑτυ 3 ΝᾺ εἰν 07 \ , \
κατέδραμεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς" οἱ δὲ ἰδόντες TOV χιλίαρχον Kal
, / / \ a
TOUS στρατιώτας ἐπαύσαντο τύπτοντες τὸν Παῦλον.
33 ἢ" 5 , ς / ᾽ , ie Cait,
τότε ἐγγίσας ὁ χιλίαρχος ἐπελάβετο αὐτοῦ Kal éxé-
A / \ /
λευσεν δεθῆναι ἁλύσεσι δυσί, καὶ ἐπυνθάνετο τίς εἴη
/
καὶ τί ἐστι πεποιηκώς. ™ ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλο Te ἐπεφώνουν ἐν
a Δ. X A \ ὃ / δὲ > “ ῶνα \ a Xe ὃ \
TO OYA μὴ δυναμένου δὲ αὐτοῦ γνῶναι TO ἀσφαλὲς διὰ
60 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XXI. 34
\ , a? v - Τῷ ΣῊΝ \
τὸν θόρυβον, ἐκέλευσεν ἄγεσθαι αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν παρεμ-
\
Bory. “ὅτε δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀναβαθμούς, συνέβη
\ - a
βαστάζξεσθαι αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν στρατιωτῶν διὰ τὴν βίαν
a ’ “ lal fal
τοῦ ὄχλου “ ἠκολούθει γὰρ TO πλῆθος τοῦ λαοῦ Kpa-
Ψ ΠΌΑ
ζοντες, Alpe avTov.
7 Μέλλων τε εἰσάγεσθαι εἰς THY παρεμβολὴν ὁ Ilad-
4 λέ a > / EZ Μ / > al /
os λέγει τῷ χιλιάρχῳ, Ei ἔξεστίν μοι εἰπεῖν τι πρός
σε; 6 δὲ ἔφη, ᾿Ελληνιστὶ γινώσκεις; “οὐκ ἄρα σὺ
εἶ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος ὁ πρὸ τούτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀναστατώ-
\ > \ 7 \
σας καὶ éEayayov εἰς THY ἔρημον τοὺς τετρακισχι-
a / < 3 rn
λίους ἄνδρας τῶν σικαρίων ; “ὃ εἶπεν δὲ ὁ IladXos,
, > a lal
"Eyo ἄνθρωπος μέν εἰμι ‘lovdatos, Ταρσεύς, τῆς Kudu-
, > ἜΤ Το ἢ / Ἶ , , ἃ; ὧδ
κίας οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης" δέομαι δέ σου, ἐπίτρε-
lal \
ψόν μοι λαλῆσαι πρὸς τὸν λαόν. “ ἐπιτρέψαντος δὲ
» ye la) e \ > \ ed 5 -“ 7
αὐτοῦ ὁ Παῦλος ἑστὼς ἐπὶ τών ἀναβαθμῶν κατέσεισεν
τῇ χειρὶ τῷ λαῷ’ πολλῆς δὲ σιγῆς γενομένης προσε-
φώνησεν τῇ EBpaids διαλέκτῳ λέγων"
99, ""Ανδρες ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες, ἀκούσατέ μου
A a > ω
τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς νυνὶ ἀπολογίας. " ἀκούσαντες δὲ ὅτι
τῇ Ἕβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ προσεφώνει αὐτοῖς, μᾶλλον
παρέσχον ἡσυχίαν. καί φησιν, * Eye εἰμι ἀνὴρ
‘ 5 A , 5 7 a n K Ἔ 7 >
ουδαῖος, γεγεννημένος ἐν Ταρσῷ τῆς Κιλικίας, ava-
lal / ‘
τεθραμμένος δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, Tapa τοὺς πόδας
᾿] lal
Γαμαλιὴλ πεπαιδευμένος κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ πατρῴου
νόμου, ζηλωτὴς ὑπάρχων τοῦ θεοῦ καθὼς πάντες ὑμεῖς
’ / 4n / \ ὃ \ 28 / v θ ,
ἐστε σήμερον, "ὃς ταύτην τὴν ὁδὸν ἐδίωξα ἄχρι θανά-
/ \ \ > \ ”
του, δεσμεύων καὶ παραδιδοὺς εἰς φυλακὰς ἄνδρας τε
a \ a n
καὶ γυναῖκας, ἢ ὡς Kal ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς μαρτυρεῖ μοι καὶ πᾶν
τὸ πρεσβυτέριον, παρ᾽ ὧν καὶ ἐπιστολὰς δεξάμενος
\ \ , \ 5 \ rd / v
πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς eis Δαμασκὸν ἐπορευόμην, ἄξων
\ ‘ . oe ” / MeN Ἢ “
καὶ τοὺς ἐκεῖσε ὄντας δεδεμένους εἰς ᾿Ιερουσαλὴμ ἵνα
PEXT1: “20 ATTOZ TOAQN 61
τιμωρηθῶσιν. “ἐγένετο δὲ μοι πορευομένῳ καὶ ἐγγί-
‘cast τῇ Δαμασκῷ περὶ μεσημβρίαν ἐξαϊφνης; ἐκ τοῦ
Αρλτρβον περίαστῤάψαι φῶς ἱκανὸν περὶ ἐμέ; * ἔπεσά τε
εἰς τὸ. ἔδαφος καὶ binder oa A all λεγούδης μοι, Σαούλ
Σαούλ, τί με διώκεις ; ὃ ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπεκρίθην, Tis εἶ
Ys 9. 4. \
: κύριε; ᾿εἶπέν TE πρὸς ye "Evo εἰμι ΡΟΝ ὁ Να-
Cwpaios, ὃν σὺ διώκεις. “οἱ δὲ σὺν ἐμοὶ ὄντες τὸ μὲν...
φώς ao Sine τὴν δὲ φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκοῦσαν TOU λαλοῦν-
Tos μοι. “εἶπον δέ, Τί ποιήσω, κύριε; ὁ δὲ κύριος
> εἶπεν πρός με, ᾿Αναστὰς μεν εἰς τὴν θαῤοττε κἀκεῖ
σοί χρῥαιμανο περὶ πάντων ὧν τέτακταΐ GOL ποιῆ-
σαι. ᾿ ὡς ‘Oe ob ἐνέβλεπον ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τοῦ φωτὸς
ἐκείνου, χειραγωγούμενος ὑπὸ τῶν συνόντων μοι ἦλθον
εἰς Δαμασκόν. *"Avavias δέ τις, ἀνὴρ εὐχαβὴς κατὰ
τὸν νόμον, ἘΠ Bide ΙΝ ἐς ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν κατοικούν-
των Ἰουδαίων, " ἐχθὼν πρὸς ἐμὲ καὶ ἐπιστὰς εἶπέν μοι,
Σαοὺλ ἀδελφέ, ἀνάβλεψον. Kayo αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἀνέ-
βλεψα εἰς αὐτόν. “o δὲ εἶπεν, .Ο θεὸς τῶν πατέρων.
ἡμῶν προεχειρίσατό σε γνῶναι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ καὶ
ἰδεῖν “τὸν δίκαιον καὶ ἀκοῦσαι ον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος
αὐτοῦ, » OTL ἔσῃ μᾶρτυς αὐτῷ πρὸς πάντας ᾿ἀνθρώπους
ὧν ἑώρακας καὶ ἤκουσας. “Kal νῦν τί μέλλεις ; ἀνα-
στὰς βάπτισαι καὶ ἀπόλουσαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου, ἐπι-
καλεσάμενος τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. “ ἐγένετο δέ μοι ὑπο-
στρέψαντι εἰς ἱΙερουσαλὴμ καὶ προσευχομένου μου ἐν
τῷ ἱερῷ γενέσθαι με ἐν ἐκστάσει, “Kal ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν
λέγοντά μοι, Σπεῦσον καὶ ἔξελθε ἐν τάχει ἐξ ‘lepov-
σαλήμ, διότι οὐ παραδέξονταί σου μαρτυρίαν περὶ ἐμοῦ.
“Kayo εἶπον, Κύριε, αὐτοὶ ἐπίστανται ὅτι ἐγὼ ἤμην
φυλακίζων καὶ δέρων κατὰ τὰς συναγωγὰς τοὺς πι-
, 2 An \ e /
στεύοντας ἐπὶ σέ ™ καὶ ὅτε ἐξεχύννετο τὸ αἷμα Στεφάνου
62 ΠΡΉΞΕΙΣ XXII. 20
a U U : \ \ x
τοῦ MAPTUPOS σου, καὶ αὐτὸς ἤμην ἐφεστὼς καὶ συνευ-
“ \ / \ 3 ~ >’ ’
δοκῶν καὶ φυλάσσων τὰ ἱμάτια τῶν ἀναιρούντων av-
͵ 21 Κι κα ὦ , , “ SO ὦ ae
Tov. “καὶ εἶπεν πρός με, Ilopevov, OTL ἐγὼ εἰς ἔθνη
\ > A
μακρὰν ἐξαποστελῶ σε.
22.Η 4 ’ nw / n / \ » “Ὁ
κουον δὲ αὐτοῦ ἄχρι τούτου τοῦ λόγου, καὶ ἐπῆ-
\ \ > lal / 3 > \ A lal \
ραν τὴν φωνὴν αὐτῶν λέγοντες, Aipe ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς τὸν
lal > \ lal 5 \ lal
τοιοῦτον ov yap καθῆκεν αὐτὸν ζῆν. ™ κραυγαζόντων
fal / e x
δὲ αὐτῶν Kal ῥιπτούντων τὰ ἱμάτια καὶ κονιορτὸν
Sif / ¢ /
βαλλόντων εἰς TOV ἀέρα, ™ ἐκέλευσεν ὁ χιλίαρχος εἰσά-
Ψ ‘ » ΄ >
γεσθαι αὐτὸν εἰς THY παρεμβολήν, εἴπας μάστιξιν ἀνε-
“ . “ 5 A pes οἱ fae & “ » ΄
τάζεσθαι αὐτόν, ἵνα ἐπιγνῷ δι ἣν αἰτίαν οὕτως ἐπεφώ-
n 95 id / ᾽ \ lal “Ὁ
νουν αὐτῷ. “ ὡς δὲ προέτειναν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἱμᾶσιν,
3 \ A . 1 a € / £ nr ᾽
εἶπεν πρὸς τὸν ἑστῶτα ἑκατόνταρχον ὁ Παῦλος, Ev
’ ς al 9 € -“
ἄνθρωπον Ῥωμαῖον καὶ ἀκατάκριτον ἔξεστιν ὑμῖν
/ 26 > f \ 3 e UG \
μαστίζειν; * ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ ἑκατόνταρχος προσελθὼν
a / ’ / / / , an ς
τῷ χιλιάρχῳ ἀπήγγειλεν λέγων, Τί μέλλεις ποιεῖν ; ὃ
\ ” Φ ς ar > 27 \
yap ἄνθρωπος οὗτος “Ῥωμαῖός ἐστιν. προσελθὼν
Ν ς / 3 5 a , \ ς -“
δὲ ὁ χιλίαρχος εἶπεν αὐτῴ, Λέγε μοι, σὺ “Ῥωμαῖος
53 ς ’ ig ς \
et; ὁ δὲ ἔφη, Ναί. “ὃ ἀπεκρίθη δὲ ὁ χιλίαρχος, ᾿Εμγὼ
lal , \ / / » /
πολλοῦ κεφαλαίου τὴν πολιτείαν ταύτην ἐκτησάμην.
\ lal li » /
ὁ δὲ Παῦλος ἔφη, ᾿Εγὼ δὲ καὶ γεγέννημαι. ™ εὐθέως
53 / » > » “ 5 ,
οὖν ἀπέστησαν aT αὐτοῦ οἱ μέλλοντες αὐτὸν ἀνετάζειν'
e / x 7 a
καὶ ὁ χιλίαρχος δὲ ἐφοβήθη, ἐπιγνοὺς ὅτι ‘Pwpaios
> Ae ἐδ ΟΝ > /
ἐστιν καὶ ὅτι αὐτὸν ἣν δεδεκώς.
“ \ r \
TH δὲ ἐπαύριον βουλόμενος γνῶναι TO ἀσφαλές,
rn ς \ -“ γ.
τὸ τί κατηγορεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, ἔλυσεν αὐτὸν καὶ
lal ’ a A
ἐκέλευσεν συνελθεῖν τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ πᾶν TO συνέ-
Ν \ “ ͵
δριον, καὶ καταγαγὼν τὸν Παῦλον ἔστησεν εἰς αὐτούς.
4..5 lal / ¢ a
93 * Atevicas δὲ τῷ συνεδρίῳ ὁ ἸΙαῦλος εἶπεν,
» / \ / A
"Avdpes ἀδελφοί, ἐγὼ πάσῃ συνειδήσει ἀγαθῆ πεπο-
a se ΄ a εἰ ὃ ὁ uF \
λίτευμαι TO θεῷ ἄχρι ταύτης τῆς ἡμέρας. ὁ δὲ
XXIII. 13 ATIOSTOAQN 63
͵7 lal ἴω 5 fn
ἀρχιερεὺς “Avavias ἐπέταξεν τοῖς παρεστῶσιν αὐτῷ
ral / , fal \
τύπτειν αὐτοῦ TO στόμα. *TOTe ὁ IlavAos πρὸς av-
\ s i 7 ς , a
τὸν εἶπεν, Τύπτειν σε μέλλει ὁ θεός, τοῖχε κεκονια-
: / \ \
μένε: Kal σὺ κάθῃ κρίνων με κατὰ τὸν νόμον, Kal Tapa-
lal Uy “4 ¢ an
νομῶν κελεύεις pe τύπτεσθαι; “ot δὲ παρεστῶτες
\ 5» 7 lal -“ n 5 li
εἶπαν, Tov ἀρχιερέα τοῦ θεοῦ Rotdopeis; “ἔφη τε ὁ
fa) ’ » > / ͵
Παῦλος, Οὐκ ἤδειν, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἀρχιερεύς"
\ J f rn ἴω 5 > a
γέγραπται yap ὅτι “Apxovta τοῦ λαοῦ σου οὐκ ἐρεῖς
a 6 \ \ ¢ fa v4 \ a / > \
κακῶς. “ryvovs δὲ ὁ Ἰ]αῦλος ὅτι TO ἕν μέρος ἐστὶ
/ \ \ Ὁ / Μ > A
Σαδδουκαίων τὸ δὲ ἕτερον Φαρισαίων, ἔκραζεν ἐν τῷ
’ / \ al ey
συνεδρίῳ, “Avdpes ἀδελφοί, ἐγὼ Φαρισαῖός εἰμι, υἱὸς
Φαρισαίων: περὶ ἐλπίδος καὶ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν ἐγὼ
ρ
lal a /
κρίνομαι. “TovTO δὲ αὐτοῦ λαλήσαντος ἐγένετο στά-
ὃν Φ ' t Ladd [ ὶ ἐσχίσθη τὸ
σις τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ Σαδδουκαίων, καὶ ἐσχίσθη τὸ
a - \ \ 3 “
πλῆθος. “ Σαδδουκαῖοι μὲν γὰρ λέγουσιν μὴ εἶναι ava-
a a e
στασιν μήτε ἄγγελον μήτε πνεῦμα, Φαρισαῖοι δὲ ὁμο-
A rics , eae er \ \ ἢ
λογοῦσιν τὰ ἀμφότερα. ° ἐγένετο δὲ κραυγὴ μεγάλη,
“Ὁ an , An
Kal ἀναστάντες τινὲς TOV γραμματέων τοῦ μέρους τῶν
/ / / 5 \ \ «ς /
Φαρισαίων διεμάχοντο λέγοντες, Οὐδὲν κακὸν εὑρί-
σκομεν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τούτῳ" εἰ δὲ πνεῦμα ἐλάλησεν
,’ “Ὁ “Δ ” x : 10 rAN δὲ , ,
αὐτῷ ἢ ἄγγελος; “πολλῆς δὲ γινομένης στάσεως
\ «ς fal «ς lal
φοβηθεὶς ὁ χιλίαρχος μὴ διασπασθῇ ὁ Παῦλος ὑπ᾽
’ al « / 5
αὐτῶν, ἐκέλευσεν τὸ στράτευμα καταβὰν ἁρπάσαι av-
\ > / > A
TOV ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν ἄγειν τε εἰς THY παρεμβολήν.
11 Tn δὲ > / ἮΝ \ 3 a¢ / 3
ἢ δὲ ἐπιούσῃ νυκτὶ ἐπιστὰς αὐτῷ ὁ κύριος εἶπεν,
ἢ πος \ , \ a ς
Θάρσει' ὡς yap διεμαρτύρω τὰ περὶ ἐμοῦ εἰς ‘lepov-
/ / nr ¢ a 9
σαλήμ, οὕτω ce δεῖ καὶ εἰς Ρώμην μαρτυρῆσαι. “yevo-
/ \ ¢ / / -
μένης δὲ ἡμέρας ποιήσαντες συστροφὴν οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι
>’ / ς A A
ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἑαυτούς, λέγοντες μήτε φαγεῖν μήτε πιεῖν
[τς @ ’ a) = MS
ἕως ov ἀποκτείνωσιν τὸν Παῦλον. “ἦσαν δὲ πλείους
,
τεσσεράκοντα οἱ ταύτην THY συνωμοσίαν ποιησάμενοι,
64 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XXIII. 14
1 4 “ la) \ rn
‘oitwes προσελθόντες τοῖς ἀρχιερεῦσιν καὶ τοῖς πρεσ-
, s > / > ς
βυτέροις εἶπαν, Αναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν ἑαυτοὺς
\ / Ψ 18 3 ΄ \ fa)
μηδενὸς γεύσασθαι ἕως οὗ ἀποκτείνωμεν τὸν Παῦλον.
5 lal 5 c al 8 / -“ an
“νῦν οὖν ὑμεῖς ἐμφανίσατε τῷ χιλιάρχῳ σὺν τῷ συν-
/ e/ / ᾽ \ > ¢ “Ὁ e /
εδρίῳ, ὅπως καταγώγῃ αὐτὸν εἰς ὑμᾶς ὡς μέλλοντας δια-
» / \ \ >] lal “-“
γινώσκειν ἀκριβέστερον τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ" ἡμεῖς δὲ πρὸ
la) > / a “-
τοῦ ἐγγίσαι αὐτὸν ἕτοιμοί ἐσμεν τοῦ ἀνελεῖν αὐτόν.
’ A “ / ‘
" ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ vids τῆς ἀδελφῆς Παύλου τὴν ἐνέδραν,
/ \ 5 \ > \ \ ’ /
παραγενόμενος Kal εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὴν παρεμβολὴν ἀπήγ-
al / lal
γείλεν τῷ Παύλῳ. προσκαλεσάμενος δὲ 6 ἸΠαῦλος
a \ lal v
ἕνα τῶν ἑκατοντάρχων ἔφη, Tov νεανίαν τοῦτον ἄπαγε
A f 5 a ? ~
πρὸς τὸν χιλίαρχον, ἔχει yap τι ἀπαγγεῖλαι αὐτῷ.
¢ \ > by \ \
“0 μὲν οὖν παραλαβὼν αὐτὸν ἤγαγεν πρὸς τὸν χι-
λίαρχον καί φησιν, Ὃ δέσμιος Παῦλος προσκαλε-
t a \ / > a
σάμενός ME ἠρώτησεν τοῦτον τὸν νεανίσκον ἀγαγεῖν
A 9 39 ’ \
πρὸς σέ, ἔχοντά TL λαλῆσαί σοι. “ ἐπιλαβόμενος δὲ
tal \ ’ rn \ 5 / P|
τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ ὁ χιλίαρχος Kal ἀναχωρήσας κατ
»ὰἵ > / / » ra ” > -“ /
ἰδίαν ἐπυνθάνετο, Τί ἐστιν ὃ ἔχεις ἀπαγγεῖλαί μοι;
al 4 “ “Ὁ
Ἢ εἶπεν δέ ὅτι Οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι συνέθεντο τοῦ ἐρωτῆσαί
“ ” \ “ ΄ ᾽ \ /
σε ὅπως αὔριον Tov Ἰ]αῦλον Katayayns εἰς TO συνέδριον
«ς / , / ’ \ > “
ὡς μέλλων TL ἀκριβέστερον πυνθάνεσθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ.
1 \ 3 an , ws
“ov οὖν μὴ πεισθῆῇς αὐτοῖς" ἐνεδρεύουσιν yap αὐτὸν
’ » “Ὁ / ‘ ig
ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄνδρες πλείους τεσσεράκοντα, οἵτινες ave-
/ \ / rn -
θεμάτισαν ἑαυτοὺς μήτε φαγεῖν μήτε πιεῖν ἕως οὗ
» , ,’ an /
avéhwow αὐτόν, καὶ νῦν εἰσὶν ἕτοιμοι προσδεχόμενοι
\ tae esis / 22 ¢ \ τ ͵
τὴν ἀπὸ σοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν. Ο μὲν ovy χιλίαρχος
, ΄ \ v4 f \ b] “Ὁ
ἀπέλυσε τὸν νεανίσκον, παραγγείλας μηδενὶ ἐκλαλῆ-
cA lal /
σαι ὅτι ταῦτα ἐνεφανισας πρὸς ἐμέ. ™ καὶ προσκα-
“ / / a
λεσάμενός τινας δύο τῶν ἑκατοντάρχων εἶπεν, ᾿ἕτοι-
͵ / / ef
agate στρατιώτας διακοσίους ὅπως πορευθωσιν ἕως
/ e a /
Καισαρείας, καὶ ἱππεῖς ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ δεξιολάβους
ΧΧΙν. 3 ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ 65
/ 3 \ / 7
διακοσίους, ἀπὸ τρίτης ὥρας τῆς νυκτός, “᾿ κτήνη τε
A “ 3 ΄ A
παραστῆσαι, ἵνα ἐπιβιβάσαντες τὸν Παῦλον διασώ-
\ / \ ¢e / 5
σωσι πρὸς Φήλικα τὸν ἡγεμόνα, “γράψας ἐπιστολὴν
14 lal
ἔχουσαν τὸν τύπον τοῦτον᾽
20 ! / A / ¢ / ,
Κλαύδιος Λυσίας τῷ κρατίστῳ ἡγεμόνι Φήλικι
/ 2 \ Vv a -
χαίρειν. “tov ἄνδρα τοῦτον συλλημφθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν
> / \ / 5 A ε 3 5 A 3 \
Ἰουδαίων καὶ μέλλοντα ἀναιρεῖσθαι ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἐπιστὰς
\ a =, 2 x / θ \ “ ‘p as
σὺν τῷ στρατεύματι ἐξειλάμην, μαθὼν ὅτι ‘Pwpaios
> 28 ͵ , ἢ a ae ON pee 5 ται
ἐστιν. βουλόμενός τε ἐπυιγνώναι τὴν αἰτίαν δι’ ἣν
. A >
ἐνεκάλουν αὐτῷ, κατήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς TO συνέδριον
αὐτῶν, “ὃν εὗρον ἐγκαλούμενον περὶ ξητημάτων τοῦ
, ’ a \ \ v / nv an Μ
νόμου αὐτῶν, μηδὲν δὲ ἄξιον θανάτου ἢ δεσμῶν ἔχοντα
4 / > A
ἔγκλημα. * μηνυθείσης δέ μοι ἐπιβουλῆς εἰς τὸν ἄνδρα
» 5 >] A » / Λ x
ἔσεσθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἔπεμψα πρός σε, παραγγείλας Kal
cal 5 \ \ an
τοῖς κατηγόροις λέγειν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ σοῦ.
“Ot μὲν οὖν στρατιῶται κατὰ τὸ διατεταγμένον
9 A 3 / \ na » \ \ >
αὐτοῖς ἀναλαβόντες τὸν ἸΤαῦλον ἤγαγον διὰ νυκτὸς εἰς
\ 3 / 32 Ὁ Χ > “ » (Β΄. \
τὴν ᾿Αντιπατρίδα, ™ τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ἐάσαντες τοὺς
A 2 ba) ¢ /
ἱππεῖς ἀπέρχεσθαι σὺν αὐτῷ, ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν
/
παρεμβολήν" * οἵτινες εἰσελθόντες εἰς τὴν Καισάρειαν
A «ς 7 /
καὶ ἀναδόντες THY ἐπιστολὴν TO ἡγεμόνι, παρέστησαν
\ \ lal 3 A 94 39 \ \ \ b] /
καὶ τὸν Παῦλον αὐτῷ. “ ἀναγνοὺς δὲ καὶ ἐπερωτήσας
» / > / > / \ ᾿ς “ b] \
ἐκ ποίας ἐπαρχίας ἐστίν, καὶ πυθόμενος OTL ἀπὸ ΚΚιλι-
’ 35 ͵ , oo “ \ ς , /
κίας, Ἢ Διακούσομαί σου, ἔφη, ὅταν καὶ οἱ κατήγοροί
/ nA A
σου παραγένωνται, κελεύσας ἐν τῷ πραιτωρίῳ τοῦ
3
Ἡρώδου φυλάσσεσθαι αὐτόν.
94 1 \ \ , Caf ΄ ς ? \
Mera δὲ πέντε ἡμέρας κατέβη ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς
>? / \ 4 a \ ef ἊΝ
Avavias μετὰ πρεσβυτέρων τινῶν καὶ ῥήτορος Tep-
a ς / \ a
τύλλου τινός, οἵτινες ἐνεφάνισαν TH ἡγεμόνι KATA TOU
3 rn > fr ε
Παύλου. “κληθέντος δὲ αὐτοῦ ἤρξατο κατηγορεῖν ὃ
, a / \
Τέρτυλλος λέγων, " Πολλῆς εἰρήνης τυγχάνοντες διὰ
THE ACTS 5
66 TIPAZEI= XXIV. 3
a \ , / a ” / \
σοῦ καὶ διορθωμάτων γινομένων τῷ ἔθνει τούτῳ διὰ
“Ὁ al / Ε \ an? /
τῆς σῆς προνοίας, πάντῃ τε καὶ πανταχοῦ ἀποδεχόμεθα,
/ a \ / 2 / 4° δὲ
κράτιστε Φηλιξ, μετὰ πάσης εὐχαριστίας. * ἵνα δὲ
al Lal > lal
μὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖόν σε ἐγκόπτω, παρακαλῶ ἀκοῦσαί σε
an a n / 5 € / \ \
ἡμῶν συντόμως TH σῇ ἐπιεικείᾳ. ° εὑρόντες γὰρ TOV
“ \ \ la) / - val
ἄνδρα τοῦτον λοιμὸν καὶ κινοῦντα στάσεις πᾶσιν τοῖς
A \ \ » / /
᾿Ιουδαίοις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην, TPWTOTTATHY TE
a a Τ , ξν οὐ 6 ἃ Ἀν. τὰν δ \ b] /
τῆς τῶν Ναζωραίων αἱρέσεως, ° ὃς καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπεί-
A «Ὁ Ἀ Ὁ ἣν “ Ξ > e ὃ /
ρασεν βεβηλῶσαι, ὃν καὶ ἐκρατήσαμεν, “Tap ov δυνή-
/ \ / / b] Ὁ τ
σῃ αὐτὸς ἀνακρίνας περὶ πάντων τούτων ἐπυιγνώναι ὧν
an fa n / \ e
ἡμεῖς κατηγοροῦμεν αὐτοῦ. * συνεπέθεντο δὲ καὶ οἱ
> a 7 an 7
Ἰουδαῖοι φάσκοντες ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν.
» ε “ ΄ ᾽ lal “ ¢
*’AmexpiOn τε ὁ Ἰαῦλος, νεύσαντος αὐτῷ τοῦ ἡγε-
/ / 3 a 5 A v \ a
μόνος λέγειν, Ex πολλῶν ἐτῶν ὄντα σε κριτὴν TO
f / ᾽ lal τ
ἔθνει τούτῳ ἐπιστάμενος, εὐθύμως τὰ περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ ἀπο-
“Ὁ 1 [4 ral 5
λογοῦμαι, “" δυναμένου σου ἐπιγνῶναι ὅτι οὐ πλείους
> , ς J ὃ "ὃ 3 32 4Φ > / Ud >
εἰσίν μοι ἡμέραι δώδεκα ad ἧς ἀνέβην προσκυνήσων εἰς
4 12 \ Y 2 ane ae Oe
“Ἱερουσαλήμ. ™ καὶ οὔτε ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ εὗρόν με πρός τινα
/ Ἃ / le) 5) al
διαλεγόμενον ἢ ἐπίστασιν ποιοῦντα ὄχλου, οὔτε ἐν ταῖς
ΝΥ ἢ \ \ 5.5... A
συναγωγαῖς οὔτε κατὰ THY πόλιν. “ἡ οὐδὲ παραστῆσαι
U / \ ἣν \ A
δύνανταί σοι περὶ ὧν νυνὶ κατηγοροῦσίν μου. ™“ ὁμο-
a \ (a “ \ \ eg, «Ὁ /
λογώ δὲ τοῦτό σοι, OTL κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν ἣν λέγουσιν
“ A “ “ tal lal
αἵρεσιν οὕτω λατρεύω τῷ πατρῴῳ θεῷ, πιστεύων πᾶσι
- \ \ / \ a -
τοῖς κατὰ τὸν νόμον καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς προφήταις γεγραμ-
/ 15 5 ὃ Μ > \ θ / «ὃ \ φΦ \ Ls
μένοις, “" ἐλπίδα ἔχων εἰς τὸν θεόν, ἣν καὶ αὗὑτοὶ οὗτοι
/ 5 / / » /
προσδέχονται, ἀνάστασιν μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι δικαίων τε
\ 9, 16 > / a
καὶ ἀδίκων. “ἐν τούτῳ Kal αὐτὸς ἀσκῶ ἀπρόσκοπον
! / \
συνείδησιν ἔχειν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν Kai τοὺς ἀνθρώπους
5 , oe ES ; ; P
ιαπταντός. L ἐτῶν δὲ πλειόνων ἐλεημοσύνας ποιή-
> \ /
σων εἰς τὸ ἔθνος μου παρεγενόμην Kal προσφοράς, * ἐν
e Lg / aS / > a € “Ὁ 9 \ v
ais εὑρὸν μὲ ἡγνίσμενον EV τῷ ἱερῷ, OU μετὰ ὄχλου
XXV. 4 ATIOZTOAQN 67
5 3 \ A A
οὐδὲ μετὰ θορύβου, τινὲς δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ασίας ᾿Ιουδαῖοι,
\ A - A
“ods ἔδει ἐπὶ σοῦ παρεῖναι καὶ κατηγορεῖν, εἴ τι ἔχοιεν
/ Ἃ e /
πρὸς ἐμέ. “ἢ αὐτοὶ οὗτοι εἰπάτωσαν τί εὗρον ἀδίκημα
/ A 3 a
στάντος μου ἐπὶ τοῦ συνεδρίου, "7 περὶ μιᾶς ταύτης
aA a > aa A > > a ς \ v4 Ng ,
φωνῆς ns ἐκέκραξα ἐν αὐτοῖς ἑστὼς ὅτι Ilept ἀναστά-
σεως νεκρῶν ἐγὼ κρίνομαι σήμερον ἐφ᾽ ὑμῶν.
> A
Σ᾽ Ανεβάλετο δὲ αὐτοὺς ὁ Φῆλιξ, ἀκριβέστερον εἰδὼς
\ < A ¢ A " ἢ“ / ¢ /
Ta περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ, εἴπας, Ὅταν Λυσίας ὁ χιλίαρχος
A ὃ / \ ᾽ ξ a 23 /
καταβῇ, διαγνώσομαι τὰ Kal ὑμᾶς, “ὃ διαταξάμενος
n e / lal
τῷ ἑκατοντάρχῃ τηρεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ἔχειν TE ἄνεσιν Kal
΄ A an a A
μηδένα κωλύειν τῶν ἰδίων αὐτοῦ ὑπηρετεῖν αὐτῷ.
24 \ δὲ ery \ , ς a Ἢ
μετὰ δὲ ἡμέρας τινὰς παραγενόμενος ὁ Φῆλιξ σὺν
Λ A » >
Apovoihrn τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικὶ οὔσῃ ‘lovdaia μετεπέμ-
\ A Yes ? a \ a bd
rato τὸν Ἰ]αῦλον, καὶ ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ τῆς εἰς Χρι-
ΡΣ ΤΙ a , 25 " \ 3 κα \
στὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν πίστεως. ™ διαλεγομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ περὶ
δικαιοσύνης καὶ ἐγκρατείας καὶ τοῦ κρίματος τοῦ μέλ-
A / a
λοντος ἔμφοβος γενόμενος ὁ Φῆλιξ ἀπεκρίθη, To νῦν
lj
ἔχον πορεύου, καιρὸν δὲ μεταλαβὼν μετακαλέσομαί
26 ὦ \ / “ , ὃ ee iva
σε, “ἅμα καὶ ἐλπίζων oT χρήματα δοθήσεται αὐτῷ
ς \ a ee
ὑπὸ Tov IlavAov' διὸ Kal πυκνότερον αὐτὸν μεταπεμ-
/ / ,
πόμενος ὡμίλει αὐτῷ. ™ διετίας δὲ πληρωθείσης ἔλαβεν
διάδοχον ὁ Φῆλιξ Πόρκιον Φῆστον᾽ θέλων τε χάριτα
A ς A , \ n
καταθέσθαι τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις ὁ Φῆλιξ κατέλιπε τὸν Ilad-
λον δεδεμένον.
25 1 DF > 5) \ Ain / \ an
haotos οὖν ἐπιβὰς τῇ ἐπαρχίᾳ μετὰ τρεῖς
Ἐπ SZ > ¢ , ΞΡ , 5.»
ἡμέρας ἀνέβη εἰς ᾿Ιεροσόλυμα ἀπὸ Καισαρείας, * ἐνε-
A A e A Lal
φάνισάν Te αὐτῷ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς Kal of πρῶτοι τῶν ᾿Ἰου-
7 \ A , \ / bs eK 3 ᾽
δαίων κατὰ τοῦ Ἰ]αύλου, καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ὃ αἰ-
Les
τούμενοι χάριν κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ὅπως μεταπέμψηται αὐτὸν
> a lal
εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἐνέδραν ποιοῦντες ἀνελεῖν αὐτὸν κατὰ
\ cas 4 - \ 5 n ᾽ ' a \
τὴν ὁδόν. “ὁ μὲν οὖν Φῆστος ἀπεκρίθη τηρεῖσθαι τὸν
5—2
68 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ ΧΧν.4
ἴω \ \ A > /
Παῦλον εἰς Καισάρειαν, ἑαυτὸν δὲ μέλλειν ἐν τάχει
> U 5 e Φ b] feeble , \
ἐκπορεύεσθαι. ° Οἱ οὖν ἐν ὑμῖν, φησίν, δυνατοὶ συγκατα-
al 5» U /
βάντες, εἴ τι ἐστὶν ἐν TO ἀνδρὶ ἄτοπον, κατηγορείτωσαν
’ rn 6 / \ 5 9 na e / ’ ͵7ὔ
αὐτοῦ. " διατρίψας δὲ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμέρας οὐ πλείους
> \ * / \ > / al 9
ὀκτὼ ἢ δέκα, καταβὰς εἰς Καισάρειαν, τῇ ἐπαύριον
a , \ a) ᾽ al
καθίσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἐκέλευσεν Tov Παῦλον ἀχθῆ-
5 a / Ss
vat. ἧἶ παραγενομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ περιέστησαν αὑτὸν
U 2 a \
of ἀπὸ Ἱεροσολύμων καταβεβηκότες ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, πολλὰ
/ \ >
καὶ βαρέα αἰτιώματα καταφέροντες, ἃ οὐκ ἴσχυον
lal lal ’ / tA
ἀποδεῖξαι, ὃ τοῦ ἸΪαύλου ἀπολογουμένου ὅτι Οὔτε εἰς τὸν
a 3 / Bd > ys \ v > / U
νόμον τῶν lovdaiwy οὔτε εἰς TO ἱερὸν οὔτε εἰς Καίσαρα
A \ , biel ae s
τι ἥμαρτον. ° 6 Φῆστος δὲ θέλων τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις χάριν
/ \ “Ὁ , J /
καταθέσθαι, ἀποκριθεὶς τῷ ἸΙαύλῳ εἶπεν, Θέλεις εἰς
c / » \ > -“ Ν / “ ᾽ ᾽
Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀναβὰς ἐκεῖ περὶ τούτων κριθῆναι ἐπ
a = a 3 \ a
ἐμοῦ; "εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Ἰ]Παῦλος, “Emit τοῦ βήματος Kai-
ς / > 2 ὃ a / a > ὃ / 27O\
σαρος ἑστώς εἰμι, ov με δεῖ κρίνεσθαι. ᾿Ἰουδαίους οὐδὲν
νοῶ ε \ \ , > ἢ ii \
ἠδίκηκα, WS καὶ συ κάλλιον ἐπιυγινώσκεις. εἰ μὲν
a / / / -
οὖν ἀδικῶ καὶ ἄξιον θανάτου πέπραχά τι, οὐ παραιτοῦ-
> hae > \ 5ὼ “7 e =
μαι TO ἀποθανεῖν" εἰ δὲ οὐδέν ἐστιν ὧν οὗτοι KaTNYO-
ἴω > / , a
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a 12 ¢ nA ΄
capa ἐπικαλοῦμαι. "" τότε ὁ Φῆστος συλλαλήσας μετὰ
la} / / / /
τοῦ συμβουλίου ἀπεκρίθη, Καίσαρα ἐπικέκλησαι, ἐπὶ
r , j
Kaicapa πορεύσῃ.
“Ὁ / lal ᾽ ,
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/ >
σιλεὺς καὶ Βερνίκη κατήντησαν εἰς Καισάρειαν ἀσπα-
Ν a id / ς / /
σάμενοι τὸν Φῆστον. “* ws δὲ πλείους ἡμέρας διέτριβον
a “ A a » Sf \
ἐκεῖ, ὁ Φῆστος τῷ βασιλεῖ ἀνέθετο τὰ κατὰ τὸν
fal / » / / £
Παῦλον λέγων, ᾿Ανήρ τις ἐστὶν καταλελειμμένος ὑπὸ
, 15 \ ἸἩΦ , 51 τῷ κ᾿
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“ e Ὁ
λυμα ἐνεφάνισαν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι τῶν
/ > Qn
Ἰουδαίων, αἰτούμενοι Kat αὐτοῦ καταδίκην. * πρὸς
XXV. 26 ATTOZTOAQN 69
«“ὉὍὄ 2 / vA ᾽ » ΝΜ ξ U 7 ͵
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\ ἂν SE , \ ,
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\ / / 5 / /
σωπον ἔχοι TOUS κατηγόρους τόπον TE ἀπολογίας λάβοι
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περὶ τοῦ ἐγκλήματος. “᾿ συνελθόντων οὖν αὐτῶν εἐνθαὸε
᾿] \ ὃ / / ial e fal θί ,’ \
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a ’ a ς > θῇ \ ” ὃ Ξ 13 \ e
τοῦ βήματος ἐκέλευσα ἀχθῆναι Tov avopa περὶ ov
€ , ’ / ,’ / 7 τ \
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, / 1 / U \ A 1O7/
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3 \ ’ \ \ / 5 -
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\ , ¢ an a 20 ? ,
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\ 5 \ \ \ , / » 5 /
δὲ ἐγὼ τὴν περὶ τούτων ζήτησιν ἔλεγον εἰ βούλοιτο
«ς / ’ lal / \ /
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- \ “ A
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pe ais \ a ~~ a ὃ , : a
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- Sik ἂν “ e ’ / > \ X= K /
peta Oar αὐτὸν ἕως οὗ ἀναπέμψω αὐτὸν πρὸς Καίσαρα.
6 \ a > / - 5
ὩΣ Αγρέίππας δὲ πρὸς τὸν Φῆστον, ᾿Ε βουλόμην καὶ αὐ-
\ a > / 5 A v / » ,
τὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀκοῦσαι. Αὔριον, φησίν, ἀκούσῃ
αὐτοῦ.
rn 3 ιν..." / \ Ὁ
TH οὖν ἐπαύριον ἐλθόντος τοῦ Αγρίππα καὶ τῆς
val \ ’ ᾽
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/ \ ᾽ ’ -
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al / A /
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A 4 / ¢e “Ὁ 5 /
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Aa id , ς lal Vv
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a A ® / \ a > /
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. € , \ νι a
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a > a , 25 2 \ Qi / \
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/ ’ n \ / >
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e » , , A ἢ > ” : 5 \ ἢ
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a / FN a nA
yayov αὐτὸν ἐφ᾽ ὑμῶν καὶ μάλιστα ἐπὶ σοῦ, βασιλεῦ
70 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ 'ΧΧΥ͂. 26
n 2 / / a /
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/ “ 97 Υ» U ὃ a / δέ \
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Kal τὰς KAT αὐτοῦ αἰτίας σημᾶναι.
\ \ Ἂ 7 >
26 '"᾿Αγρίππας δὲ πρὸς τὸν Παῦλον ἔφη, ᾿Ἐπι-
na ' ε “
τρέπεταί σοι περὶ σεαυτοῦ λέγειν. τότε ὁ Ilavros
ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα ἀπελογεῖτο, " Περὶ πάντων ὧν ἐγ-
an a >
καλοῦμαι ὑπὸ ᾿Ιουδαίων, βασιλεῦ ᾿Αγρίππα, Hynwat
nA / / a
ἐμαυτὸν μακάριον ἐπὶ σοῦ μέλλων σήμερον ἀπολογεῖ-
/ an
σθαι, "μάλιστα γνώστην ὄντα σε πάντων τῶν κατὰ
Ε] / 2 a \ Ι Η ὃ \ δέ
Ἰουδαίους ἐθῶν τε καὶ ζητημάτων διὸ δέομαι μακρο-
al 4 \ Ὁ / / \
θύμως ἀκοῦσαί pov. ᾿ τὴν μὲν οὖν βίωσίν μου τὴν ἐκ
’ > an , > Ὁ 4
νεότητος τὴν aT ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἔν
Pee! “ 5
te ἹἹεροσολύμοις ἴσασι πάντες οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, ° προγινώ-
A »-“
σκοντές με ἄνωθεν, ἐὰν θέλωσι μαρτυρεῖν, ὅτι κατὰ τὴν
f “ ς / +
ἀκριβεστάτην αἵρεσιν τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας ἔζησα
“ lal 5 / - > \ 7]
Φαρισαῖος. 5 καὶ νῦν ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι τῆς εἰς τοὺς πατέρας
- / « . lal an ef /
ἡμῶν ἐπαγγελίας γενομένης ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἕστηκα κρινό-
ee Beran \ , eka ses / ,
μενος, ‘els ἣν τὸ δωδεκάφυλον ἡμῶν ἐν ἐκτενείᾳ νύκτα
a a ὃ \
Kal ἡμέραν λατρεῦον ἐλπίζει καταντῆσαι" περὶ ἧς
“ ς * 3 A
ἐλπίδος ἐγκαλοῦμαι ὑπὸ ᾿Ιουδαίων, βασιλεῦ. ὃ τί ἄπι-
3, sf a8 » ΚΒ \ \ /
στον κρίνεται Trap ὑμῖν εἰ ὁ θεὸς νεκροὺς ἐγείρει ; ° ἐγὼ
\ 3 » > lal \ A om > a a
μὲν οὖν ἔδοξα ἐμαυτῷ πρὸς TO ὄνομα ᾿Ιησοῦ τοῦ Ναζω-
ὃ a Viooad / A . 10 ἃ \ 9 , >
paiov δεῖν πολλὰ ἐναντία πρᾶξαι" “ ὃ καὶ ἐποίησα ἐν
aA εἰν , =
“Ἱεροσολύμοις, Kal πολλούς TE τῶν ἁγίων ἐγὼ ἐν φυλα-
καῖς κατέκλεισα, τὴν παρὰ τῶν ἀρχιερέων ἐξουσίαν
’ ᾽ na / a
λαβών, ἀναιρουμένων τε αὐτῶν κατήνεγκα ψῆφον, "" καὶ
\ A ᾽
κατὰ πάσας TAS συναγωγὰς πολλάκις τιμωρῶν αὐτοὺς
> Tal -
ἠνάγκαζον βλασφημεῖν, περισσῶς τε ἐμμαινόμενος av-
a δ / “ \ ’ \ » /- 12 2? cd
τοῖς ἐδίωκον ἕως καὶ eis τὰς ἔξω πόλεις. ᾿ἦ ἐν οἷς
? \ \ > »᾽οΑ ΩΝ ,
πορευόμενος εἰς τὴν Δαμασκὸν μετ᾽ ἐξουσίᾶᾷς καὶ ἐπι-
tol A he a / ς , I A
τροπῆς THY τῶν ἀρχιερέων, nuepas μέσης κατὰ τὴν
Π i
XXVI. 25 ATIOZTOAQN γι
εἶδον, βασιλεῦ, οὐρανόθεν ὑπὲρ ἫΝ λαμπρότητα
τοῦ ἡλίου περίχάμψάν᾽ He φῶς καὶ τοὺς σὺν ἐμοὶ
ba and ss ὁ πάντων καταπεσόντων ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν
γῆν ἠκουσὰ φωνὴν χεγουσαν πρός με τῇ Ἕβραΐδι
διαλέκτῳ, Σαούλ, Σαούλ, τί ΔῈ ca ini Bee ον σοι
πρὸς κέντρα λακτίξειν. " ἐγὼ δὲ εἶπα, Τίς εἶ, κύριε;
£6) δὲ , 53 > , 5) ’ a 7 ἃ \ t
ἐ κύριος εἶπεν, Kyo εἰμι ᾿Ιησοῦς ov σὺ διώκεις.
62 N oe eer θ oe A! ἐπὶ aS Ca * Let tt
ἀλλὰ ἀνάστηθι καὶ στῆθι ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας σου" εἰς
ie 2 ΜΠ ‘ t
τοῦτο yop ὦφθην σοι, προχειρίσασθαί σε ὑπηρέτην καὶ
We, e 5 ie | > Mt ,
μάρτυρα ὧν τε εἶδες av τε ὀφθήσομαϊί σοι, “ ἐξαιρού-.
« a A Ὶ f a CAM bd «Ὁ
μενός σε ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν, εἰς οὺἣς ἐγὼ
-" 5 al A
ἀποστέλλω σε, avotEat ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν, τοῦ ἐπι-
/ , \ / ’ A \ “Ὁ ,’ / a
στρέψαι ἀπὸ σκότους εἰς φῶς καὶ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ
a δον \ / A a 3 \ v ς
catava ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, τοῦ λαβεῖν αὐτοὺς ἄφεσιν ἅμαρ-
“ a a / / a
TLOV καὶ κλῆρον ἐν τοῖς pene Relais πίστει TH ELS ἐμέ.
/
ὅθεν, βασιλεῦ al cae οὐκ ἐγενόμην ἀπειθὴς τῇ
οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ, “ ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐν Δαμασκῷ πρῶτόν τε
a \ / fal
ἡ Ἱεροσολύμοις πᾶσάν τε τὴν χώραν τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας
\ lal 4 > t a“ oe 4
καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀπήγγελλον μετανοεῖν καὶ ἐπιστρέφειν
a ,
ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, ἄξια τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα πράσσοντας.
* ἕνεκα τούτων με ᾿Ιουδαῖοι συλλαβόμενοι ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ
[ [
A 7, ὧν 5 7 3
ἐπειρῶντο διαχειρίσασθαι. ™ ἐπικουρίας οὖν τυχὼν
fol \ a As. Ss A ¢ / 4
τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄχρι τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης ἕστηκα μαρ-
An \ ͵ 5 2
τυρόμενος μικρῷ τε καὶ μεγάλῳ, οὐδὲν ἐκτὸς λέγων ὧν
τε οἱ προφῆται ἐλάλησαν μελλόντων γίνεσθαι καὶ
- A An ᾿
Μωὺῦσῆς, * εἰ παθητὸς ὁ Χριστός, εἰ πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστά-
νι a / . a A
σεως νεκρῶν φῶς μέλλει καταγγέλλειν τῷ TE Naw καὶ
τοῖς ἔθνεσιν.
24 A \ 3 A 3 / e A U
Ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἀπολογουμένου ὁ Φῆστος μεγαλῃ
a A / lal \ / /
τῇ φωνῇ φησίν, Maivy Ιαῦλε: τὰ πολλά σε γράμματα
> , , 25 ¢ \ A > /
εἰς μανίαν περιτρέπει. ~o δὲ Iladdos, Οὐ μαίνομαι,
72 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XXVI. 25
an 3 3 / \ ,
φησίν, κράτιστε Φῆστε, ἀλλὰ ἀληθείας καὶ σωφροσύνης
» \ \ ,
ῥήματα ἀποφθέγγομαι. “ὃ ἐπίσταται yap περὶ τούτων
\ ΄ on
ὁ βασιλεύς, πρὸς ὃν καὶ παρρησιαζόμενος λαλῶ" λαν-
᾽ IO Fc eS ,? /
θάνειν yap αὐτόν τι τούτων οὐ πείθομαι οὐδέν" οὐ γάρ
/ a 2 / fal
ἐστιν ἐν γωνίᾳ πεπραγμένον τοῦτο. ™ πιστεύεις, βασιλεῦ
> " A ἢ ; 25 ¢/ , 28 ¢ Ss
Aypintra, τοῖς προφήταις ; οἰδα OTL πιστεύεις. oO ὃὲ
n > ’ , 7
᾿Αγρίππας πρὸς τὸν Παῦλον, "Ev ὀλίγῳ με πείθεις
A ¢ \ fal ? / x a
Χριστιανὸν ποιῆσαι. “ὁ δὲ ἸΙαῦλος, EvEaiuny av τῷ
“ \ > ἫΝ , \ ’ / ᾽ / 3 \ \
θεῷ καὶ ἐν ὀλίγῳ καὶ ἐν μεγάλῳ οὐ μόνον σε adda καὶ
.« c L
᾽ , U / / Ι͂
πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντάς μου σήμερον γενέσθαι τοιούτους
vad al lal “ 8 >
ὁποῖος κἀγώ εἰμι, παρεκτὸς τῶν δεσμῶν τούτων. “ ἀν-
7 ¢ \ \ ¢ « \ e/ / \ e
ἔστη τε ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ ὁ ἡγεμὼν ἥ Te Bepvixn Kat οἱ
συγκαθήμενοι αὐτοῖς, “καὶ ἀναχωρήσαντες ἐλάλουν
᾿ / > / a -“
πρὸς ἀλλήλους λέγοντες ὅτι Οὐδὲν θανάτου ἢ δεσμῶν
" ἢ εκ @ 32? , \ A
ἄξιον πράσσει ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος. Αγρίππας δὲ τῷ
>
Φήστῳ ἔφη, ᾿Απολελύσθαι ἐδύνατο ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος εἰ
μὴ ἐπεκέκλητο Καίσαρα.
na rn al \
21 "Ὡς δὲ ἐκρίθη τοῦ ἀποπλεῖν ἡμᾶς eis τὴν
Ἰταλίαν, παρεδίδουν τόν τε Ἰ]αῦλον καί τινας ἑτέρους
/ e / 9 , >] / ,
δεσμώτας ἑκατοντάρχῃ ὀνόματι Ἰουλίῳ σπείρης Σεβασ-
A 29 , \ ey a y a
τῆς. "ἐπιβάντες δὲ πλοίῳ ᾿Αδραμυττηνῷ μέλλοντι πλεῖν
\ ’ U b]
εἰς τοὺς κατὰ τὴν ᾿Ασίαν τόπους, ἀνήχθημεν, ὄντος
an ’ - fal
σὺν ἡμῖν ᾿Αριστάρχου Μακεδόνος Θεσσαλονικέως" * τῇ
> “
τε ἑτέρᾳ κατήχθημεν εἰς Σιδῶνα, φιλανθρώπως τε ὃ
Ἰούλιος τῷ Παύλῳ σά ἐπέ ὸ ὺ
ς τῷ λῳ χρησάμενος ἐπέτρεψεν πρὸς τοὺς
/ na a
φίλους πορευθέντι ἐπιμελείας τυχεῖν. ᾿ κἀκεῖθεν avax-
θέντες ὑπεπλεύσαμεν τὴν Κύπρον διὰ τὸ τοὺς ἀνέμους
3 5 / 5΄λ᾽, , \ \ \ ,
εἶναι ἐναντίους, "τό τε πέλαγος τὸ κατὰ τὴν Κιλικίαν
καὶ Ἰϊαμφυλίαν διαπλεύσαντες κατήλθαμεν εἰς Μύρρα
A / » al rn
τῆς Λυκίας. “κακεῖ εὑρὼν ὁ ἑκατοντάρχης πλοῖον
> \ / 3 a
Αλεξανδρινὸν πλέον εἰς τὴν ᾿Ιταλίαν ἐνεβίβασεν ἡμᾶς
XXVII. 20 ATIOZTOAQN 73
> SKYE γε Ὦ A ὧν Poem, a \
els αὐτό. ἐν ἱκαναῖς δὲ ἡμέραις βραδυπλοοῦντες καὶ
\ \ / \ A n
μόλις γενόμενοι κατὰ τὴν Κνίδον, μὴ προσεῶντος ἡμᾶς
Ap N52 ς , \ Κ ΄ \ s t
τοῦ ἀνέμου, ὑπεπλεύσαμεν τὴν Κρήτην κατὰ Σαλμώνην,
8 / Ud > \ Μ θ > / \
μόλις τε παραλεγόμενοι αὐτὴν ἤλθομεν εἰς τόπον τινὰ
/ = \ 5 ,
καλούμενον Καλοὺς λιμένας, ᾧ ἐγγὺς nv πόλις Aacaia.
ἴω / \ f Ὑ
"ἱκανοῦ δὲ χρόνου διαγενομένου καὶ ὄντος ἤδη ἐπι-
- A \ \ \ \ \ , ”
σφαλοῦς τοῦ πλοὸς διὰ TO Kal THY νηστείαν ἤδη
/ / ¢ la) / al
παρεληλυθέναι, παρήνει ὃ Ἰαῦλος "λέγων αὐτοῖς,
U a 7 / \ a t
"Avépes, θεωρῶ ὅτι μετὰ ὕβρεως Kal πολλῆς ζημίας
b) / A / \ n / > \ \ a
ov μόνον τοῦ φορτίου καὶ TOU πλοίου ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν
A A / > \ “-“ i hes
ψυχῶν ἡμῶν μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι τὸν πλοῦν. “ὁ δὲ
; A A / “Ὁ
ἑκατοντάρχης τῷ κυβερνήτῃ καὶ τῷ ναυκλήρῳ μᾶλλον
= / 2°? , \
ἐπείθετο ἢ τοῖς ὑπὸ Παύλου λεγομένοις. “ἢ ἀνευθέτου δὲ
lal / ¢ / 8 Ul
τοῦ λιμένος ὑπάρχοντος πρὸς παραχειμασίαν, οἱ πλείονες
» \ > lal ) a ” /
ἔθεντο βουλὴν ἀναχθῆναι ἐκεῖθεν, εἴπως δύναιντο καταν-
> y , / a ,
τήσαντες εἰς Φοίνικα παραχειμάσαι, λιμένα τῆς Κρήτης
/ \ / \ x a
βλέποντα κατὰ λίβα καὶ κατὰ χῶρον. “ ὑποπνεύσαντος
- /
δὲ νότου δόξαντες τῆς προθέσεως κεκρατηκέναι, ἄραντες
5 7 \ a 14 5) ᾽ κ᾿ \
ἄσσον παρελέγοντο τὴν Κρήτην. “wet ov πολὺ δὲ
»” 5 ’ A wv \ c ’
ἐβαλεν κατ΄ αὐτῆς ἄνεμος τυφωνικὸς ὁ καλούμενος
» , Sask θέ δὲ n / \ \
ευρακύλων συναρπασθεντος ὃὲ τοῦ πλοίου καὶ μὴ
/ 5 la) tal > 7 > / =} U
δυναμένου ἀντοφθαλμεῖν TO ἀνέμῳ ἐπιδόντες ἐφερόμεθα.
16 , δὲ ς ὃ , , Κ ae > 7
νησίον δέ τι ὑποδραμόντες καλούμενον Καῦδα ἰσχύσα-
/ lal / pd e
fev μόλις περικρατεῖς γενέσθαι τῆς σκάφης, “Hv
v / nr ς lal
ἄραντες βοηθείαις ἐχρῶντο, ὑποζωννύντες τὸ πλοῖον"
“ / \ ’ \ '
φοβουμενοί τε μὴ εἰς τὴν σύρτιν ἐκπέσωσιν, χαλάσαντες
\ a “ ἜΡΙΝ, 18 a \ 7,
τὸ σκεῦος, οὕτως ἐφέροντο. “ἢ σφοδρῶς δὲ χειμαζομένων
rd a R teen » \ ) an 19 \ - ͵, ΓΝ
ἡμῶν τῇ ἑξῆς ἐκβολὴν ἐποιοῦντο, “ἡ καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ αὐτό-
ap aN \ a , ” . 20 ἢ NGS Cac
χειρες τὴν σκευὴν τοῦ πλοίου ἔρριψαν" “ μήτε δὲ ἡλίου
, U /
μήτε ἄστρων ἐπιφαινόντων ἐπὶ πλείονας ἡμέρας, χει-
ἊΝ / 5» Ὃς 3 ‘ ral
μῶνός TE οὐκ ὀλίγου ἐπικειμένου, λοιπὸν περιῃρεῖτο
74 ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ XXVII. 20
A lal / ε rn lal ’ /
ἐλπὶς πᾶσα Tov σώζεσθαι ἡμᾶς. ™ πολλῆς τε ἀσιτίας
ς Ul / \ ς lal > / ᾽ a
ὑπαρχούσης, τότε σταθεὶς ὁ ἸΙαῦλος ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν
5 ” / > ” / / \
εἶπεν, "ἔδει μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες, πειθαρχήσαντάς μοι μὴ
45.8 Bi cN a ! a / \ ¥
ἀνάγεσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς Κρήτης κερδῆσαί te τὴν ὕβριν
\ \ a Lal € a
ταύτην καὶ THY ζημίαν. ™ Kal Ta viv παραινῶ ὑμᾶς
5» lal b \ lal ’ , “Ὁ
εὐθυμεῖν: ἀποβολὴ γὰρ ψυχῆς οὐδεμία ἔσται ἐξ ὑμῶν
2. 23 f / t n
πλὴν τοῦ πλοίου. “παρέστη yap μοι ταύτῃ TH νυκτὶ
a A yes) A aes DO ΥΩ κα \ / " My 7
τοῦ θεοῦ οὗ εἰμὶ ἐγώ, ᾧ καὶ λατρεύω, ἄγγελος “᾿λέγων,
\ a a - fal \
Μὴ φοβοῦ, ἸΤαῦλε: Καίσαρί σε δεῖ παραστῆναι, καὶ
᾿] Ν ¢
ἰδοὺ κεχάρισταί σοι ὁ θεὸς πάντας τοὺς πλέοντας μετὰ
δ᾿ 25 \ > - ” 2 ͵ \ A n o
σοῦ. ~ διὸ εὐθυμεῖτε, ἄνδρες᾽ πιστεύω yap τῷ θεῷ ὅτι
“ ΝΜ a / / / ΘΠ ΣΝ fal
οὕτως ἔσται καθ᾽ ὃν τρόπον λελάληταί μοι. εἰς νῆσον
ῇ ne a a d Ul
δέ τινα δεῖ ἡμᾶς ἐκπεσεῖν. “ds δὲ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτη
\ nh 8 / ς fal 5 nD / \
νὺξ ἐγένετο διαφερομένων ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ ᾿Αδρίᾳ, κατὰ
a ς A / \
μέσον τῆς νυκτὸς ὑπενόουν οἱ ναῦται προσάγειν τινὰ
> a \
αὐτοῖς χώραν. “καὶ βολίσαντες εὗρον ὀργυιὰς εἴκοσι,
\ \ / \ / / e
βραχὺ δὲ διαστήσαντες Kal πάλιν βολίσαντες εὗρον
’ \ \ a
ὀργυιὰς δεκαπέντε" ™ φοβούμενοί τε μήπου κατὰ τραχεῖς
/ / >]
τόπους ἐκπέσωμεν, ἐκ πρύμνης ῥίψαντες ἀγκύρας τέσ-
% y ~ Lal
capas εὔχοντο ἡμέραν γενέσθαι. “tav δὲ ναυτῶν
lal fal / /
ζητούντων φυγεῖν ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου Kal χαλασάντων τὴν
/ 2 \ / U ¢ 2 /
σκάφην εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν προφάσει ὡς ἐκ πρώρας
> Uy / > / 31 #7 ς “ ΚΡ
a@yKupas μελλόντων ἐκτείνειν, “ εἶπεν ὁ Παῦλος τῷ ἑκα-
/ na /
τοντάρχῃ καὶ τοῖς στρατιώταις, Kay μὴ οὗτοι μείνωσιν
5 a / ς a a Ἵ / 32 / > /
ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ, ὑμεῖς σωθῆναι ov δύνασθε. * τότε ἀπέκοψαν
a A 2 \
οἱ στρατιῶται τὰ σχοινία τῆς σκάφης Kal εἴασαν αὐτὴν
> κα 55 Υ δὲ ee δ ” / θ
ἐκπεσεῖν. “ ἄχρι δὲ οὗ ἡμέρα ἤμελλεν γίνεσθαι, παρε-
ς rn / a a /
κάλει ὁ ἸΙαῦλος ἅπαντας μεταλαβεῖν τροφῆς λέγων,
Τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην σήμερον ἡμέραν προσδοκῶντες
a , 84 \
ἄσιτοι διατελεῖτε, μηθὲν προσλαβόμενοι. “810 παρα-
n ς a a a lal \ \ a
καλῶ ὑμᾶς μεταλαβεῖν τροφῆς τοῦτο yap πρὸς τῆς
XXVIIL. 4 ATIOZTOAQN 76
€ , ἢ ce Σ A BS \ \ Ceen \
ὑμετέρας σωτηρίας ὑπάρχει᾽ οὐδενὸς yap ὑμῶν θρὶξ
> \ - lal > a 35 ν \ A \
ato τῆς κεφαλῆς απολεῖται. εἴπας δὲ ταῦτα καὶ
3 / A A ,
λαβὼν ἄρτον εὐχαρίστησεν τῷ θεῷ ἐνώπιον πάντων
/ ’ ΜΝ / 8 ! \
καὶ κλάσας ἤρξατο ἐσθίειν. ὁ εὔθυμοι δὲ γενόμενοι
Ν ’ \ / A ’
πάντες Kal αὐτοὶ προσελάβοντο τροφῆς. “ἤμεθα δὲ ai
πᾶσαι ψυχαὶ ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ διακόσιαι ἑβδομή ἕξ
x é wo διακ l ομήκοντα ἕξ.
38 f \ a ͵ Ἐ-
κορεσθέντες δὲ τροφῆς ἐκούφιζον τὸ πλοῖον ἐκβαλλό-
\ A > \ θ , 39 οἱ δὲ eum
μενοι τὸν σῖτον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν. ὅτε δὲ ἡμέρα
ay? A ’ ; ,
ἐγένετο, τὴν γῆν οὐκ ἐπεγίνωσκον, κόλπον δέ τινα
/ ” 3 ! πον aN 5 / > ,
κατενόουν ἔχοντα αἰγιαλόν, εἰς ὃν ἐβουλεύοντο εἰ δύναιντο
17 \ A 40 \ \ 3 , / "
ἐξῶσαι τὸ πλοῖον. “ καὶ τὰς ἀγκύρας περιελόντες εἴων
» , if > \ A
εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, ἅμα ἀνέντες Tas ζευκτηρίας τῶν
\ / \ > A
πηδαλίων, Kal ἐπάραντες TOV ἀρτέμωνα TH πνεούσῃ
a 5 , 4 , Sard ’
κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αὐγιαλόν. “᾿ περιπεσόντες δὲ εἰς τόπον
/ 5 / \ “ \ ¢ \ A
διθάλασσον ἐπέκειλαν τὴν ναῦν, Kal ἡ μὲν πρῷρα
> / Μ ’ / « \ Ἷ ᾿ / ¢ x
ἐρείσασα ἔμεινεν ἀσάλευτος, ἡ δὲ πρύμνα ἐλύετο ὑπὸ
a / 42 nr \ A \.3 ’ “ Ἁ
τῆς βίας. τῶν δὲ στρατιωτῶν βουλὴ ἐγένετο ἵνα τοὺς
, ’ f / > / £
δεσμώτας ἀποκτείνωσιν, μή τις ἐκκολυμβήσας διαφύγῃ"
A \ n
ἢ ὃ δὲ ἑκατοντάρχης βουλόμενος διασῶσαι τὸν Παῦλον
Ψ ‘ 5 N x n / 5 , ΞΕ \
ἐκώλυσεν αὐτοὺς τοῦ βουλήματος, ἐκέλευσέν TE τοὺς
7 A 5 , / > \ \
δυναμένους κολυμβᾷν ἀπορρίψαντας πρώτους ἐπὶ τὴν
A te 44 \ \ \ Δ \ aN /
γῆν ἐξιέναι, “καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς os μὲν ἐπὶ σανίσιν,
ᾺἋ \ A A \ / ,
οὺς δὲ ἐπί τινων τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πλοίου. καὶ οὕτως ἐγένετο
U an a
πάντας διασωθῆναι ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν.
1 μ 7 / ς
28 ᾿ Καὶ διασωθέντες τότε ἐπέγνωμεν ὅτι Μελέτη ἡ
A A 7 , A ’
νῆσος καλεῖται. “οἵ τε βάρβαροι παρεῖχαν ov τὴν τυ-
fa} / et: τὸ ὙΕ \
χοῦσαν φιλανθρωπίαν ἡμῖν" ἅψαντες yap πυρὰν προσε-
, U ¢ [2] \ x «ς \ i\ 2 A \
λάβοντο πάντας ἡμᾶς διὰ τὸν ὑετὸν τὸν ἐφεστῶτα καὶ
\ / A , /
διὰ TO ψύχος. *auvaotpéavtos δὲ τοῦ Παύλου dpvya-
20 i pe θέ ΠΝ \ , » ὃ > \
νων τι πλῆθος καὶ ἐπιθέντος ἐπὶ τὴν πυράν, ἔχιδνα ἀπὸ
“Ὁ / “Ὁ lal A \ > ἴω πος
τῆς θέρμης ἐξελθοῦσα καθῆψεν τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ. “ws
76 ΠΡΆΞΕΙΣ XXVIII. 4
\ 3 e U / \ / 3 A \
δὲ εἶδον οἱ βάρβαροι κρεμάμενον τὸ θηρίον ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς
lal ’ / / / : 3
αὐτοῦ, πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἔλεγον, Ilavtws φονεύς ἐστιν ὃ
Μ Φ \ / > A U ¢ /
ἄνθρωπος οὗτος, ὃν διασωθέντα ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης ἡ δίκη
A > " ἘΠπὲ \ 5 > , \ ; > \
ζῆν οὐκ εἴασεν. ° ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀποτινάξας τὸ θηρίον εἰς TO
an » 2O\ / fe \ ; δέ τς
πῦρ ἔπαθεν οὐδὲν κακόν. “οἱ δὲ προσεδόκων αὐτὸν
/ / ax / wv / ’ \
μέλλειν πίμπρασθαι ἢ καταπίπτειν ἄφνω νεκρόν. ἐπὶ
a / \ ὰ
πολὺ δὲ αὐτῶν προσδοκώντων καὶ θεωρούντων μηδὲν
v ᾽ 5 \ / , »,
ἄτοπον εἰς αὐτὸν γινόμενον, μεταβαλλόμενοι ἔλεγον
αὐτὸν εἶναι θεόν. “ἐν δὲ τοῖς περὶ τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον
€ a / a / A ’ / /
ὑπῆρχεν χωρία τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς νήσου ὀνόματι Ποπλίῳ,
“δ 5 / «ς a A ¢ / / ’ /
ὃς ἀναδεξάμενος ἡμᾶς τρεῖς ἡμέρας φιλοφρόνως ἐξένισεν.
, Ν / “ lal
“ἐγένετο δὲ τὸν πατέρα τοῦ ἸΠοπλίου πυρετοῖς καὶ
lal « «ς la
δυσεντερίῳ συνεχόμενον κατακεῖσθαι, πρὸς dv ὁ Παῦλος
.Ὶ \ \ > \ Χ an » n
εἰσελθὼν καὶ προσευξάμενος, ἐπιθεὶς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῷ,
U ’ e \
ἰάσατο αὐτόν. ὃ τούτου δὲ γενομένου καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ οἱ ἐν
a U4 ’ / , \
τῇ νήσῳ ἔχοντες ἀσθενείας προσήρχοντο καὶ ἐθερα-
«Ὁ a ee / ς fal
πεύοντο, ot Kal πολλαῖς τιμαῖς ἐτίμησαν ἡμᾶς Kal
\ /
ἀναγομένοις ἐπέθεντο τὰ πρὸς τὰς χρείας.
11 \ \ a A ΕῚ ͵ > ,
Mera δὲ τρεῖς μῆνας ἀνήχθημεν ἐν πλοίῳ παρακε-
td ΕῚ ~ / > a. /
χειμακότι ἐν τῇ νήσῳ, ᾿Αλεξανδρινῷ; παρασήμῳ Διο-
/ > ’
σκούροις. “Kal καταχθέντες εἰς Συρακούσας ἐπεμεί-
« / al f / U
ναμεν ἡμέρας τρεῖς, “ὅθεν περιελθόντες κατηντήσαμεν
> \ ς / /
εἰς Ρήγιον. καὶ μετὰ μίαν ἡμέραν ἐπιγενομένου νότου
a ᾽ , 1 ie χε ;
δευτεραῖοι ἤλθομεν εἰς ἸΤοτιόλους, “ov εὑρόντες ἀδελφοὺς
> a a ¢ / ν᾿ e U
παρεκλήθημεν παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐπιμεῖναι ἡμέρας ἑπτά" Kal
7 \ 5 Ὁ ς > Ξ
οὕτως εἰς τὴν “Ῥώμην ἤλθαμεν. “κἀκεῖθεν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ
A ἘΝ > / δὲ
ἀκούσαντες τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν ἦλθαν εἰς ἀπάντησιν ἡμῖν
wv > / / \ a a “ὉΟ > \ ς΄
ἄχρι ᾿Αππίου φόρου καὶ Τριῶν ταβερνῶν, ovs ἰδὼν ὁ
Lal nr “Ὁ > /
Παῦλος εὐχαριστήσας τῷ θεῷ ἔλαβε θάρσος. “ὅτε δὲ
tal / >
εἰσήλθομεν εἰς Ρώμην, ἐπετράπη τῷ Παύλῳ μένειν καθ
\ A Ud
ἑαυτὸν σὺν τῷ φυλάσσοντι αὐτὸν στρατιώτῃ.
XXVIIL. 27 ATTOZTOAQN 77
17 ἫΝ / δὲ x «ς , - 7
γένετο δὲ μετὰ ἡμέρας τρεῖς συγκαλέσασθαι
, Ὁ > / / = f
αὐτὸν τοὺς ὄντας τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων πρώτους" συνελθόντων
‘ON = A 4 ’ > \ f 3 /
δὲ αὐτῶν ἔλεγεν πρὸς αὐτούς, “Eyo, ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί,
Ἔ 7] A A * -“ / “
οὐδὲν ἐναντίον ποιήσας τῷ λαῷ ἢ τοῖς ἔθεσι τοῖς πα-
7 δέ 3 Ἵ λύ δόθ » \ an
τρῴοις, δέσμιος ἐξ “Ἱεροσολύμων παρεδόθην εἰς Tas χεῖρας
A ς , 1. ὦ ᾽ / , ᾽ ,
τῶν Ῥωμαίων, “δ οἵτινες ἀνακρίναντές pe ἐβούλοντο
οὶ a \ \ / Ἂ ἐκ / e , >
ἀπολῦσαι διὰ TO μηδεμίαν αἰτίαν θανάτου vrrapyew ἐν
5 [fon ΟὟ; / \ lal 5 / > / 5
ἐμοί: " ἀντιλεγόντων δὲ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων ἠναγκάσθην ἐπι-
΄ θ K Ys b) ς “ 0 »
καλέσασθαι Καίσαρα, οὐχ ὡς τοῦ ἔθνους μου ἔχων τι
lal 20 /
κατηγορεῖν. “dia ταύτην οὖν THY αἰτίαν παρεκάλεσα
ς a > - \ al pA “ \ a > /
ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν Kal προσλαλῆσαι" ἕνεκεν γὰρ τῆς ἐλπίδος
pa \ \ “ ΄ / 21 e \
τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν ἅλυσιν ταύτην περίκειμαι. οἱ δὲ
\ , 3 ς a an
πρὸς αὐτὸν εἶπαν, Ἡμεῖς οὔτε γράμματα περὶ σοῦ ἐδε-
’ + lal ? / / a
ξάμεθα ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας, οὔτε παραγενόμενός τις τῶν
5 “ ’ / DI / / \ lal /
ἀδελφῶν ἀπήγγειλεν ἢ ἐλάλησέν τι περὶ σοὺ πονηρον.
᾽ A le) > a «Ὁ a
" ἀξιοῦμεν δὲ Tapa σοῦ ἀκοῦσαι ἃ φρονεῖς" περὶ μὲν
lal ¢ al
yap τῆς αἱρέσεως ταύτης γνωστὸν ἡμῖν ἐστὶν ὅτι παν-
ayo / 3
ταχοῦ ἀντιλέγεται. ™ ταξάμενοι δὲ αὐτῷ ἡμέραν ἦλθον
\ 3 \ > \ / Ns - » /
πρὸς αὐτὸν eis τὴν ξενίαν πλείονες, οἷς ἐξετίθετο δια-
, \ ΄ lal a
μαρτυρόμενος τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, πείθων τε av-
ee “ > / “ / -
τοὺς περὶ Tov ᾿Ιησοῦ ἀπό τε τοῦ νόμου Mwicéws καὶ
al an τ \ Δ. ld € / 2 td
τῶν προφητῶν, ἀπὸ πρωΐ ἕως ἑσπέρας. “ καὶ οἱ μὲν
ΡῚ , a / e bg νῶν / 95 5» /
ἐπείθοντο τοῖς λεγομένοις, οἱ δὲ ἠπίστουν. “ ἀσύμφωνοι
\ / AN » > / A
δὲ ὄντες πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀπελύοντο εἰπόντος τοῦ Παύλου
εν Δ f -“ \ n +,
ῥῆμα ἕν ὅτι Καλῶς τὸ πνεῦμα TO ἄγιον ἐλάλησεν διὰ
e ἈΠ a , Ν \ / Ὁ A 8 7
Ησαΐου τοῦ προφήτου πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ὑμῶν “λέγων,
\ \ a “
Πορεύθητι πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον καὶ εἰπόν, ᾿Ακοῇ
ἊΝ \ A Z
ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε Kal
ἌΡΑΣ . 91 » "ἢ we δί A A ,
ov μὴ ἴδητε" ™ ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου,
\ - $e. ye v \ \ 2 \
καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν, καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς
3 a > ΄ a a
αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν᾽ μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ
78 TTPA=EI2 ATIOZTOAQN. XXVIII. 27
τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν Kal TH καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν Kal ἐπι-
στρέψωσιν, καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς. “᾿ γνωστὸν οὖν ἔστω
ὑμῖν ὅτι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀπεστάλη τοῦτο τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ
θεοῦ" αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀκούσονται.
Ὁ ᾿Βνέμεινεν δὲ διετίαν ὅλην ἐν ἰδίῳ μισθώματι, καὶ
ἀπεδέχετο πάντας τοὺς εἰσπορευομένους πρὸς αὐτόν,
Ἵ κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ διδάσκων τὰ
περὶ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας
’
ἀκωλύτως.
NOTES.
In the notices of various readings prefixed to each chapter it is not
intended to give more than the most important variants, and to indicate
the uncial authorities by which each is supported. Of versions the
Vulgate alone is specially noticed.
CHAPTER 1.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
Title. πράξεις ἀποστόλων adopted on the authority of B, and as
describing the contents of the book better than any other. The book
is not the Acts of the Apostles, but merely some acts of certain
Apostles, which are related by the author, but intermixed with the
acts of others who were not Apostles, wherever such additions seem
needed to make the narrative clear. N gives πράξεις only, which
appears too brief, sufficient for the purposes of quotation, but not for
a complete title. δὲ has the subscription rpate:s ἀποστόλων. The longer
forms bear marks of the reverent additions of a later date.
1. δ᾽ Ἰησοῦς with NAE, The omission in other MSS. is probably
due to the occurrence of o as the last letter of ἤρξατο.
3. τεσσεράκοντα is the spelling of NAB and other authorities.
6. ἠρώτων with NABC. The shorter form was most likely the
earlier, The same may be said too of βλέποντες in verse 11.
8. pov. The Text. recept. is the result of a conformity to the more
common construction.
10. ἐσθήσεσι λευκαῖς. This is the reading of NABC. The Vulgate
has ‘in vestibus albis.’ The Text. recept. has conformed to the
ordinary expression,
14. καὶ τῇ δεήσει omitted with NABCDE. The Vulgate has only
‘oratione.’ The insertion of the words is probably due to a marginal
note taken from Phil, iv. 6.
15. ἀδελφῶν with NABC. μαθητῶν seems to have been introduced
to avoid the occurrence of the same word in three consecutive verses.
The Vulg. has ‘ fratrum,’
80 THE ACTS. Et
16. ταύτην omitted with SABC and Vulgate.
17. ἐν for σὺν with all the most ancient authorities. The Vulg.
has ‘in.’
19. ᾿Αχελδαμάχ with NA. The form, though not easy to be ac-
counted for, has also much support from the versions.
23. BapoaBBav with NABE. Μαθθίαν with BD, following the
analogy of Maé@@aios in 13, which is there the form given by N-also.
But the authorities are inconsistent about the latter name.
25. τόπον for κλῆρον with ABCD. Text. recept. seems to have
been a change made because τόπον occurs again in the verse. The
Vulg. has ‘locum,’ δὲ κλῆρον.
ἀφ᾽ for ἐξ with NABCD.
Cu. I. 1- 14, Linx connecTING THIS Boox witH St LUKE’s GosPEn.
DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE ASCENSION.
1. πρῶτον. The use of πρῶτος for the former of two things was
not uncommon in later Greek. We have examples, Matth. xxi, 28;
1 Cor. xiv. 30; Heb. viii. 7; ix. 15; Rev. xxi. 1. We use /irst in the
same way in English, and Cicero (de Inventione) in his second book
(chap. iii.) calls the former book primus liber. The work here intended
by it is the Gospel according to St Luke, also addressed to Theophilus.
τὸν μὲν πρῶτον λόγον. The clause which should have answered to
this and been of the form τοῦτον δὲ τὸν δεύτερον x.7.X. 15. omitted,
The writer is carried on by the subject to speak of Christ’s appear-—
ances and leaves the structure of his sentence incomplete.
λόγος is used in a similar way by Xenophon (Anab. 11. 1) in speak-
ing of one ‘book’ of his history.
ἐποιησάμην, I made. The time is indefinite and we have no
warrant in the text for that closer union of the two books, in point of
date, which is made by the rendering of the A.V.
Ocddire. Nothing is known of the person so called, except that
from the adjective κράτιστος applied to him in Luke i. 3 he seems to
have held some official position. Cf. Acts xxiii. 26; xxiv. 3; xxvi. 25.
Some have however thought that had the title been an official one ‘it
would not have been omitted in this verse. The word is used without
any official sense; cf. Josephus Ant. vi.6,8; where the Midianitish women
speak to the Israelites as ὦ κράτιστοι νεανιῶν. But its employment
elsewhere in the Acts favours the acceptance of it asa title. Josephus
uses the word as a title in addressing Epaphroditus, to whom he
dedicates the account of his life (Vit. Joseph. ad fidem). The sugges-
tion, that θεόφιλος, =‘ lover of God,’ is a name adopted by the author to
indicate any believer, is improbable. Such personification is unlike
the rest of Scripture and is not supported by evidence.
év. The relative, instead of standing as required by the governing
verbs (ποιεῖν and διδάσκειν) in the accusative is attracted into the
L. 3.] NOTES. 81
case of the preceding demonstrative. This grammatical peculiarity
is very common. Cf. Acts iii, 21, 25, vii. 17; &e.
ἤρξατο. This is an emphatic word. The writer regards the Gospel
as a record of work which Jesus began, and committed to others to be
carried forward; and this later book is to be a history of the beginning
of Christian congregations in various places, and after such a begin-
ning has been made at Rome, then the metropolis of the civilized
world, his proposed labour is brought to a close.
The Gospel was the record of Christ’s work on earth, the Acts of
His work from heaven. Hence the force of ‘began’ as applied to the
former. His work was continued by the various ‘ beginnings’ recorded
in the Acts.
“ποιεῖν Te καὶ, διδάσκειν. So in St Luke (xxiv. 19) the disciples call
Jesus ‘a prophet mighty in deed and in word.’ The acts and the life
spake first and then the voice.
2. ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας. An instance of the incorporation of the ante-
cedent into the relative clause, where it must take the case of the
relative. Cf. Matth. vii. 2, ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτετεἐν τῷ μέτρῳ, ἐν @
μετρεῖτε.
διὰ πνεύματος aylov. The preposition indicates the operation of
that power of the Holy Spirit with which Jesus was filled after His
baptism (Luke iv. 1). Chrysostom speaks of Christ’s communication
to the Twelve thus: πνευματικὰ πρὸς αὐτοὺς εἰπὼν ῥήματα οὐδὲν ἀνθρώ-
πινον. Along with the charges which Jesus gave to His disciples there
was bestowed on them too a gift of the Holy Ghost (John xx. 22),
which at Pentecost was to be poured out in rich abundance, so that
‘filled with the Holy Ghost’ becomes a frequent phrase in the Acts
to describe the divine endowment of the first evangelists. (Cf. Acts
li. 4, iv. 8, 31, vi. 3, 5, vii. 53, xi. 24, xiii. 9.)
3. μετὰ TO παθεῖν αὐτόν, after He had suffered. The death is
included with the other forms of the passion.
ἐν πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις. This use of ἐν for expressing the means by
which anything is done, is from a translation of the Hebrew 2 =in.
Thus the LXX. have (Eccles. ix. 15) καὶ διασώσῃ αὐτὸς τὴν πόλιν ἐν τῇ
σοφίᾳ αὐτοῦ.
A τεκμήριον is such an evidence as to remove all doubt. It is ex-
plained by Hesychius as σημεῖον ἀληθές. See also Aristot. Rhet. i. 2.
So 3 Mace. iii. 24, καὶ τεκμηρίοις καλῶς πεπεισμένοι. The proofs which
Christ gave of His true resurrection were His speaking, walking and
eating with His disciples on several occasions after His resurrection,
and giving to Thomas and the rest the clearest demonstration that He
was with them in the same real body as before His death (Luke xxiv.
39, 43; John xx. 27; xxi. 13). As the verity of the Resurrection
would be the basis of all the Apostolic teaching, it was necessary for
the Twelve who were to be His witnesses to have every doubt re-
moved.
δι ἡμερῶν. The preposition intimates that the appearances of
THE ACTS 6
~s
82 THE ACTS. [Las
Jesus to His disciples happened from time to time during the forty —
days, a force which is scarcely to be gathered from A.V. So Chry-
sostom who remarks οὐκ εἶπεν τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας ἀλλὰ δι’ ἡμερῶν
τεσσεράκοντα, ἐφίστατο γὰρ καὶ ἀφίπτατο πάλιν.
The period of forty days is only mentioned here, and it has been
alleged as a discrepancy between St Luke’s Gospel and the Acts that
the former (Luke xxiv.) represents the Ascension as taking place on
the same day as the Resurrection. It needs very little examination to
disperse such an idea. The two disciples there mentioned (verse 13)
were at Emmaus ‘towards evening’ on the day of the Resurrection.
They came that night to Jerusalem and told what they had seen. But
after this has been stated, the chapter is broken up at v. 36 (which a
comparison with John (xx. 26—28) shews to be an account of what
took place eight days after the Resurrection), and again at vv, 44 and
50, into three distinct sections, with no necessary marks of time to
connect them. And in the midst of the whole we are told that Christ
opened the minds of His disciples that they should understand the
Scriptures. No reasonable person can suppose that all this was done
in one day. Beside which the objectors prove too much, for according
to their reasoning the Ascension must have taken place at night, after
the two disciples had returned from Emmaus to Jerusalem.
ὀπτανόμενος. Arare word. It is used Tobit xii. 19 by the angel
Raphael, πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ὠπτανόμην ὑμῖν, and in the LXX. of 1 Kings
viil. 8 about the staves on which the ark was carried, and which when
it rested in the Most Holy place were not seen outside.
βασιλ. τοῦ θεοῦ. The more frequently used phrase is βασιλ. τῶν
οὐρανῶν. Here the meaning is, the new society which was to be
founded in Christ’s name, and in which all members were to be His
soldiers and servants and to bear His name. On the nature of the
intercourse between Christ and His disciples during this period, see
John xx. 21; Matth. xxviii, 20; Mark xvi. 15, 16; Luke xxiv. 45.
They received their solemn commission, and were made to understand
the Scriptures, and also were comforted by the promise of the Lord’s
constant presence to aid them in their great work.
4. συναλιζόμενος. This word is not found elsewhere in N. T., and in
only one doubtful instance (Ps. exl. 5) in the LXX., but is frequent in
Herodotus, and several times found in Xenophon. Connected with
adyns=close gathered together, its sense is ‘being gathered in com-
pany,’ and αὐτοῖς is to be supplied in thought. The Vulgate renders
by ‘convescens’=eating together, as if the word were derived from ἅλς,
salt. This sense was put on the word by some of the Greek Fathers,
Chrysostom expounding it by τραπέζης κοινωνῶν.
érayy. Tov πατρός. That promise which God had made of old time
through His prophet (Joel iii. 1—5) concerning the outpouring of His
Spirit, which Jesus knew was shortly to be fulfilled. This promise is
alluded to, Luke xxiy, 49, and is found in St John (xiv. 16, 26, xv.
26), ‘The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, shall teach you all
things’; ‘He shall testify of Me.’ This was to be their special prepa-
ration for their future work.
se NOTES. 83
ἣν ἠκούσατέ pov. Here the language passes from the oblique to
the direct form of narrative, as is not uncommon in Greek. Cf. Acts
XXili. 22 where a similar change occurs. See also Tobit vill. 21, καὶ
εἶπεν αὐτῷ 'Ραγουὴλ.. λαβόντα τὸ ἥμισυ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτοῦ πορεύεσθαι
μεθ᾽ ὑγείας πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ὅταν ἀποθάνω καὶ ἡ γυνή μου.
μου. Vulg. ‘per os meum.’
5. The variation in construction after βαπτίζειν, first the dative
ὕδατι without a preposition and then with ἐν, is probably due to the
difference of sense between baptism with water and with the Spirit.
But βαπτίζειν ἐν ὕδατι is found (John i. 31) where there is no contrast
between sacramental and spiritual baptism.
6. εἰ. This conjunction, at first used after some verb on which it
was dependent, at last came to be employed in questions of an inde-
pendent form. We may suppose that originally some such expression
as ‘Tell us’ was understood before the ‘if,’ but in translating this
sentence the Vulgate merely gives ‘Domine, si restitues’...and the
Latin si in Jerome’s time had become a particle of direct interrogation.
For other examples of εἰ thus used cf. Acts xix. 2, xxl. 37, xxil. 25.
βασιλείαν. Though they were being taught the nature of the king-
dom of God, yet their minds were even still far from open, and ran on
the thought of a temporal kingdom over Israel to be established by
Jesus. The change from the spirit which dictated the question in
this verse, to that in which St Peter (Acts ii. 38, 39) preached repent-
ance and forgiveness to all whom the Lord should call, is one of the
greatest evidences of the miracle of Pentecost. Such changes are only
wrought from above.
7. οὐχ ὑμῶν ἐστίν, it does not belong to you, it is not your busi-
ness. This sense of the genitive, implying property or propriety, is
not uncommon in classical Greek. During the tutelage, as it may be
called, of His disciples, Jesus constantly avoided giving a direct answer
to the inquiries which they addressed to Him. He checked in this
way their tendency to speculate on the future and drew their minds to
their duty in the present. Cf. John xxi. 21, 22. Of this conduct
Chrysostom writes : διδασκάλου γὰρ τοῦτό ἐστι, μὴ ἃ βούλεται ὁ μαθητὴς
ἀλλ᾽ ἃ συμφέρει μαθεῖν, διδάσκειν.
καιρούς. Vulg. ‘momenta.’ This word differs from χρόνος in being
restricted to some well-defined point of time, while χρόνος embraces a
more extended period. Cf. LXX. Neh. x. 34, where the wood for the
altar is to be brought εἰς καιροὺς ἀπὸ χρόνων ἐνιαυτὸν κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτόν, Ξ- αὖ
fixed points of time chosen out of larger periods, year by year. The
A.V. has ‘at times appointed year by year.’ Cf. also for the idea of
the words LXX. 2 Sam. xx. 5, καὶ ἐχρόνησεν ἀπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ οὗ ἐτάξατο -
αὐτῷ, ‘he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed
him’ (A.V.). The two nouns are found in conjunction LXX. Dan. ii.
21, vil. 12. Also in 1 Thess. v. 1.
ἐξουσίᾳ =authority, absolute disposal. ‘Which the Father appointed
by His own authority.’ It is not the same word as that in the next
verse, δύναμις, though the A. V. renders both by ‘power.’
6—2
84 THE ACTS. mes
8. ϑύναμιν. Khe Vulgate renders ‘virtutem,’ and makes it govern
the words in the genitive which immediately follow, ‘Ye shall
receive the influence of the Holy Spirit which shall come upon you.’
It is better, with A.V., to render the genitive as genitive absolute,
because of the participle included in the expression, The phrases
δύναμις τοῦ πνεύματος and δ. πνεύματος ἁγίου do occur (Lk. iv. 14; Rom.
xv. 13, 19), but not constructed as in this verse. The effect of this
gift was to be something different from the profitless speculations to
which they had just desired an answer, even ‘a mouth and wisdom
which their adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist’ (Lk. xxi, 15).
“Ιερουσαλὴμ. κιτιλ. The order here appointed for the preaching of
the Gospel was exactly observed. At Jerusalem (Acts ii.—vii.), Judwa
and Samaria (Acts viii. 1), and after the conversion of Saul, in all
parts of Asia, Greece, and last of all at Kome.
ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆΞ. The precise expression occurs several times
in the LXX. of Isaiah (xlviii. 20, xlix. 6, Ixii. 11). See also Acts
xiii. 47.
9. βλεπόντων αὐτῶν. The Ascension took place while the Eleven
beheld, for they were to be witnesses of that event to the world as well
as of the life, death, and resurrection. That the Eleven alone saw
Christ go into heaven is told us, Mark xvi. 14. In the Gospel (Luke
xxiv. 51), we are told that Christ was parted from them ‘while He
blessed them.’
10. πορευομένου αὐτοῦ, as He went. The ‘up’ of A.V. is not re-
presented in the Gk.
καὶ ἰδού. The καὶ with the apodosis after expressions signifying
time is very common in N.T. Greek and is to be classed with those
where a similar untranslatable καὶ follows ἐγένετο δέ and like expres-
sions. See Winer-Moulton, p. 756 n.
ἐν ἐσθήσεσι λευκαῖς. The plural rendering given by the Vulgate is
strong evidence in favour of the reading of the older MSS., for the
unusual Greek is not likely to have been put into the place of the more
usual form. The two persons are called men, but were evidently
angels. So one of the two angels which Mary saw in the sepulchre
after the Resurrection is called (Mark xvi. 5), a young man, clothed in
a long white garment. The Jews use the expression ‘clad in white
garments’ in describing angelic or divine messengers. Cf. Luke xxiv.
4; Acts x. 30, xi. 13.
11. Γαλιλαῖοι. We know that most of the Twelve were called
in Galilee, and it is very probable that they were all from the same
district, as they would be called at the earliest portion of Christ’s
ministerial life, which was begun among His countrymen in the north.
Below (v. 22) Peter speaks of the new disciple to fill the place of Judas,
as one who must be fit to be a witness from the time when John was
baptizing; so the Twelve must themselves have been companions of
Jesus from thatearly period. Men of Galilee were easily known by their
peculiar dialect, Thus when Peter is accused (Matth. xxvi. 73) of
I. 12.] NOTES. 85
being a follower of Jesus, it is said to him, ‘Surely thou art one of
them, for thy speech bewrayeth thee,’ a remark which shews plainly
that Christ’s immediate followers and friends were known as
Galileans.
οὕτως ἐλεύσεται. These words explain the statement which occurs
in the abridged account of the Ascension given by St Luke in the
Gospel (xxiv. 52), ‘They returned to Jerusalem with great joy.’ They
had been supernaturally assured that He would return to them.
ὃν τρόπον. The manner in which an action is performed is often
expressed both in classical and Hellenistic Greek by the simple
accusative; cf. Jude 7, τὸν ὅμοιον τούτοις τρόπον ἐκπορνεύσασαι. When a
relative and antecedent are to be used in this way, the antecedent is
transferred not unfrequently, as here, into the relative clause. See
Matth. xxiii. 37, ὃν τρόπον ὄρνις ἐπισυνάγει τὰ νοσσία. Also LXX,
Ezek. ΧΙ], 7; 2 Mace. xv. 40.
12. τοῦ καλουμένου, as well as the subsequent indication of the
locality of mountain, shew us that he for whom the Acts was written
was a stranger to these places.
*Edatavos. Here ᾿Ελαιών is given as the designation by which the
mountain was known. Its name was= Olivetum.
ἐγγὺς ᾿Τερουσαλήμ, near unto Jerusalem. The A.V. omits to
translate the preposition. The mount of Olives is on the east of
Jerusalem, between that city and Bethany.
σαββάτου δδόν. The journey which a Jew was allowed to take on
the sabbath. This was put at two thousand yards or cubits (Heb.
ammoth), and the Rabbis had arrived at the measure by a calculation
based on their exposition of Exod. xvi. 29, ‘Abide ye every man in
his place.’ Here the Hebrew word is takhtav, and this the Talmud
(Erubin 51 a) explains to mean the four yards (which is the space
allowed for downsitting and uprising), but in the same verse it
says, ‘Let no man go out of his place,’ and here the word is makom,
and this means two thousand yards. For makom is in another passage
explained by nisah=flight, and nisah is explained by gebul=border,
and gebul is explained elsewhere by khuts=extremity, and in one
place khuts=two thousand yards. For it is written (Numb. xxxy. 5)
‘And ye shall measure from the extremity of the city on the east side
two thousand yards,’
So taking khuts as defined in the last passage, they made an
equation khuts=gebul=nisah=makom, and made makom in Exod.
xvi. 29 also equal to two thousand yards. The Scriptural passages on
which the above reasoning is based are (1) Exod. xxi. 13 ‘I will appoint
thee a place (makom) whither he shall flee’ (yanus), and from the verb
yanus the noun nisah is formed. (2) Numb. xxxv. 26 ‘But if the
slayer shall at any time come without the border (gebul) of the city of
his refuge whither he is fied,’ a passage which connects gebul and
nisah, (3) Numb. xxxv. 27 ‘If the avenger of blood shall find him
without (mikhuts) the border of the city of his refuge,’ where gebul-is
brought into connexion with khuts.
86 | THE ACTS. Π Tet
13. εἰσῆλθον, they were come in, i.e. entered into Jerusalem,
coming from the open country where the Ascension had taken place.
εἰς τὸ ὑπερῷον, into the upper room. The occurrence of the article
is probably because the room was the same which had been used
before for the Last Supper (Mark xiv. 15; Luke xxii, 12). The noun is
not the same here as in those passages, but it seems most probable
that the disciples, strangers in Jerusalem, when they had shortly
before.found one such room which could be obtained, would hardly
seek after another. The passover chamber moreover would be hallowed
to them by what happened at the Last Supper. In the next clause
καταμένοντες seems to imply that the Twelve had taken possession of
the room while awaiting the fulfilment of the promise which Jesus had
made to them.
The names of the Eleven are probably here recited again, though
they had been given to Theophilus in the Gospel, that it might be on
record, that though all of them at the arrest and trial forsook their
Master, this was done by all but Judas only through fleshly weakness
not through defection of heart. It may also be that their names are
here given at the outset of the Acts, that it may be intimated thus,
that though the separate works of each man will not be chronicled in
these fragmentary ‘ Acts of Apostles,’ yet all alike took their part in
the labour which their Master had appointed for them.
Ἰάκωβος ᾿Αλφαίου.. Ἰούδας ᾿Ιακώβου. The A.V. renders these two
identical constructions in different ways, making James the son of
Alpheus, but Judas the brother of James. There is authority to
be found for both renderings, though many more instances occur
where the ellipse is the word son, than where it is brother. Judas is
made to be the brother of James here, because in Jude 1 that Judas
calls himself brother of James. But we cannot be sure that they were
the same person, and in the list of the Twelve it is hardly conceivable
that two different words were meant to be supplied with names which
stand in close juxtaposition. It is better therefore to render Judas
the son of James, for which insertion we have more abundant
authority.
Σίμων ὁ Ζηλωτής. Ζηλωτής is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew word
which is represented by Kavavirns (Matth. x. 4; Mark iii. 18). That
word signifies one who is very zealous for his opinions or his party,
and was applied in our Lord’s time to those Jews who were specially
strict in their observance of the Mosaic ritual.
14. τῇ προσευχῇ. It would seem from the article here as if already
some religious service had taken definite form among the disciples.
This is almost implied too in the fact of their continuance therein
with one accord, a description hardly consistent with mere individual
supplication. The disciples had long before made the request ‘Lord,
teach us to pray’ (Luke xi. 1), and during the three years of association
with Jesus, the form given them as an example may very well have
grown into the proportions suited for general worship.
σὺν γυναιξίν, best rendered ‘with certain women,’ There is nothing
1. 16.] τ SAMOTES. 87
to define them, but from the first, women played a helpful part in
Christian offices.
τῇ μητρί. It is noteworthy how from first to last the Gospel history
shews our Lord acknowledging a human mother, and so causing her
to be cared for by His friends, but from the dawn of consciousness at
twelve years old never speaking but of a Father in heaven. The
blessed Virgin would naturally remain with St John, to whose care she
had been confided by Jesus at the Crucifixion (John xix. 27). This is
the last mention of the Virgin, and thus Scripture leaves her on her
knees. She is mentioned apart from the other women as having
a deeper interest in all that concerned Jesus than the rest could have.
ἀδελφοῖς. See Matth. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3, The brethren of our
Lord are there named James, Joses (or Joseph), Simon and Judas.
Being mentioned here as persons distinct from the Eleven, we may
fairly conclude that James, the son of Alpheus, and James, the Lord’s
brother, were different persons.
A change has come over these ‘brethren’ since the last mention of
them (John vii. 5), There we are told that they did not believe on
Jesus.
15—26. Erection oF AN APOSTLE TO FILL THE PLACE OF JUDAS
IscARIOT.
15. ἡμέραις. The days which intervened between the Ascension
and Pentecost.
Πέτρος. Asin the Gospels, so here, Peter is always the moving
spirit and speaker among the Apostles, till he drops out of the history
and gives place to St Paul.
ἦν τεκιτιλ. This sentence is not well rendered in A.V. Better
‘and there was a crowd of persons [names] gathered together, about a
hundred and twenty.’ On this use of évouara=persons, cf. Rev. iii.
4, ‘Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled
their garments.’
16. ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί. This form of beginning an address is com-
mon throughout the Acts (ef. i. 11, ii. 14, 22, 29, iii. 12, &c.), and an
objection has been raised against this uniformity. But we cannot but
suppose, that St Luke after collecting the speeches which were report-
ed to him, cast them into a form fitted for insertion in his narrative.
This is only what a writer of history must do. Some introductory
words were necessary at the commencement of the speeches, and it is
probable that the uniformity found in these places is due to him and
not to those whose words he reports and supplies with the links need-
ful to attach them to his narrative.
γραφή. A constant word for Old Testament Scripture (cf. John vii.
38, x. 35; Acts vili. 32, &c.), and often used in the plural in the same
sense (Matth. xxi. 42, xxii. 9, &c.).
ἣν προεῖπεν. The quotations made below are from Pss. lxix. 25 and
cix. 8, and these the minds of the disciples, being opened, comprehend
>.
88 THE ACTS. (I. 16—
may be applied to the case of Judas, whose treachery more than fulfils
all the description of the Psalmist. The words which describe the
traitor-friend suit completely the conduct of Judas, but we are not on
that account to suppose that they had not a first fulfilment in the
life-history of him who wrote these Psalms, and the otherwise fierce
character of the imprecations they contain finds its best justification:
when we learn how they are to be applied. While the Psalmist spake
of himself and of his own circumstances, the Holy Ghost was speaking
through him of what should happen to “the son of David.”
17. ἐν ἡμῖν. This preposition is supported by the ‘in nobis’ of the
Vulgate, and seems to give, more than is done by the σὺν of the Teat.
recept. the sense that though Judas was counted in the Twelve, he
was not truly of them.
τὸν κλῆρον. The article is best rendered by the possessive pronoun
‘his part.’
18. μὲν οὖν. These particles at the opening of the verse shew that
there is a break in the continuity of the narrative and that what fol-
lows, in verses 18 and 19, must be taken for a parenthesis. For
examples of such use of μὲν οὖν ef. Acts v. 41, xiii. 4, xvii. 30, xxiii.
22, xxvi. 9. ;
ἐκτήσατο, acquired. The word may be used not only of him who
gets something for himself, but of one who is the cause of its being
gotten by another. The field was bought by the chief priests (Matth.
xxvii. 5—8), but it was the return of the money by Judas, and the
difficulty of disposing of it in any other way, which brought about the
purchase of the field.
ἐκ μισθοῦ τῆς ἀδικίας. This expression is found only here and in
2 Pet. ii. 13, 15. It seems therefore to be a Petrine phrase. The
varied English of the A.V. in these places effectually obscures the
evidence of this, Though these verses are in the form of a paren-
thesis, St Luke most probably gathered the facts which they contain
from St Peter himself, or he would not thus have inserted them within
the compass of that Apostle’s address.
πρηνὴς γενόμενος. Of course this occurred after he had hanged
himself, as is recorded by St Matthew (xxvii. 5). If the cord used by
Judas broke with his weight, it is easy to understand how all that is
related took place. The ground, to be suitable for an Eastern burial-
place must needs be rocky and cavernous. St Matthew intimates
that it was a clay-pit which had probably been long before dug out
for making pottery. When the body suspended over such a place fell
down on the hard bottom, a result would ensue like that described
2 Chron. xxv. 12, and which might well be described by the language in
the text.
ἐλάκησεν (from Adoxw). The word indicates that the occurrence was
~ attended by a loud sound. There is a passage in the apocryphal Acta
Thome § 33 which illustrates the language of this verse, and where
this rare verb occurs. ὁ δράκων φυσηϑεὶς ἐλάκησε καὶ ἀπέθανε καὶ ἐξε-
I. 20.] NOTES. 80
χύθη ὁ ἰὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ χολή. The dragon burst asunder by reason of
the poison which he had been compelled by the Apostle to suck back
out of the body of a young man whom he had slain and whom the
Apostle raised to life. The apocryphal story then goes on to tell
how a chasm opened, so that the dragon was swallowed into the
earth, while the Apostle, after commanding the hollow to be filled
up, and houses to be built over it, adds, iva οἴκησις γένηται τοῖς ξένοις,
that it may be a dwelling-place for the strangers. Cf. Matt. xxvii. 7.
19. Kal γνωστὸν ἐγένετο, and it became known. And hence the
name of ‘the Potter’s Field’ was by general consent changed to ‘the
Field of Blood.’ The entire story, as St Luke tells it, must have been
what in later days became widely known, for there is nothing of it in
St Matthew’s narrative, which only mentions the purchase to account
for the change of name.
τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ. i.e.in the Aramaic speech, which was the lan-
guage of the dwellers in Jerusalem. The giving of this name must
have taken place some time after _the Day of Pentecost. So that St
Luke is explaining parenthetically something in which evidence still
remained, in the name, to bear witness to the terrible fate of Judas,
and to the impression which it produced throughout all Jerusalem.
᾿Αχελδαμάχ. This orthography, which has most authority, is not
easy to explain. The Aramaic form would be NID4 Son, and for this
we should expect an aspirate at the beginning of the word, and itis so
represented in some authorities, as in Vulg., which gives ‘ Haceldama.’
When the word was made to commence with 4, the principle of com-
pensation for the lost aspirate may have converted Hacel into’ Axed (cf.
for the converse of this ἔχω, future ἕξω), and the final χ may be due
to a desire to represent in some way the final δὲ of the Aramaic, which
together with the preceding vowel-point might be deemed incompletely
represented by a only.
20. γενηθήτω, let it become (or be made) desolate. The Vulgate
gives ‘fiat commoratio eorum deserta,’ quoting exactly from Ps. lxix.,
where the pronoun is plural, But there is no authority for reading
αὐτῶν instead of αὐτοῦ, and the singular is needed in this application
of the verse to Judas. The further application of the prophecies to
the Jewish nation, and their fulfilment in that case too, came at a
later date, but were as terrible as the fulfilment upon Judas.
ἐπισκοπήν. An office involving oversight of others. Im A. V.
‘bishoprick,’ and so in all previous versions except the Geneva,
which has ‘charge.’ But ‘office’ which is the word used in Ps. cix, 8
is better.
It is this second prophecy which makes a new election necessary.
Judas has perished, but the work must have another overseer and not
be hindered by the sin of the traitor.
The former of these quotations stands in the LXX. (Ps. lxviii., Heb.
lxix. 26) thus γενηθήτω ἡ ἔπαυλις αὐτῶν ἠρημωμένη, καὶ ἐν τοῖς σκηνώ-
μασιν αὐτῶν μὴ ἔστω ὁ κατοικῶν. These variations are of interest
go THE ACTS. (1. 20—
as shewing the freedom with which the text was handled in quota-
tion.
21. ἐν παντὶ χρόνῳ. It seems then that Justus and Matthias
had been companions of Jesus from a very early period, as no doubt
were several others; for the Twelve were chosen out of a greater
number, and the sending of the Seventy shews us that Jesus em-
ployed many more agents, and had many more who were ready to
be employed, than the Twelve selected to be His closest com-
panions.
εἰσῆλθεν καὶ ἐξῆλθεν. These verbs are used in connexion more
than once in the LXX. (cf. Deut. xxxi. 2; Josh. xiv. 11; 1 Sam. xviii.
13), but in those passages (though the third sentenee about David is
not so manifestly like the other two) the reference is to some leader-
ship in war or otherwise. Here the sentence seems to mean no more
than ‘ passed His life’ (cf. Acts ix. 28), unless the leadership of Jesus
is to be understood in the preposition 颒=over, which immediately
follows. On the expression cf. Chrysostom’s words: δείκνυσιν αὐτοὺς
συνῳκηκότας αὐτῷ οὐχ ἁπλῶς ὡς μαθητὰς παρόντας.
22. ἀρξάμενος. For it could not be long after His baptism that
Jesus began to gather followers around Him, and some of these had
been beforetime disciples of John, had perhaps been witnesses of the
baptism of Jesus, and certainly had heard the frequent testimony borne
to Him by the Baptist.
ἧς. This is perhaps not to be regarded as an attraction of the
relative like that in verse 1, for the genitive of the time when is
common in Greek, and this may be taken as an example of it. Cf.
LXX. Levit. xxiii. 15, ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας ἧς ἂν προσενέγκητε τὸ δράγμα. So too
Deut. iv. 32; Baruchi, 19. The form ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας ἢ x.7.d. Occurs
Numb. xv. 21; Josh. ix. 12, &c.
τῆς ἀναστάσεως. This, as the central point of the Christian faith,
must be attested, and they would be the most cogent witnesses thereto
who had known most of Jesus before His crucifixion. Cf. the language
of Chrysostom on this as the chief subject of the Acts: καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο
μάλιστά ἐστι τὸ βιβλίον, ἀπόδειξις ἀναστάσεως.
τούτων. Resuming the construction of the συνελθόντων at the be-
ginning of the verse.
23. ἔστησαν. They first exercised their own powers in selecting
those who best fulfilled the condition laid down. Probably there
were only few among the hundred and twenty, besides the Eleven
See the selected two, who had been continuously in the company of
esus.
BapoaBBav. Apatronymic. The man’s Jewish name was Joseph,
and his father’s Sabba. He had besides a Roman name, Justus,
This was a common thing among the Jews to have one name among
their own people, and another for use in their intercourse with non-
Jews. Thus Saul becomes generally known as Paulus when he is to
1. 26.] NOTES. οι
go forth on his missionary labours. Simon takes (from Christ, per-
haps that by it he might become known to all the world) the name
of Petrus, and Thomas is called Didymus.
If we may judge from his three appellations, and from his being
set first in order, Joseph was the better known, and it may be of
more repute among the brethren. But God’s choice falls on Matthias.
24. προσευξάμενοι. They made a solemn supplication to God for
His guidance. St Luke mentions the only point towards which
the whole tenor of their petitions was directed, viz. for light to see
God’s choice. No doubt the prayers, like the speeches in the book,
were of greater extent than is indicated in the sentence or two of
abstract in which the author sums up for us their purport.
The participle προσευξάμενοι, though aorist, is used to express a
simultaneous action with the verb, ‘they prayed and (in their prayer)
said.’ :
avaSetov: Having done their utmost to select fit persons, and
having sought God’s blessing on their endeavour, they now ask for
some token by which they may be guided in the final choice. From
the use of κύριε we may judge that the prayer was addressed to
Christ, by whom at first the Twelve had been chosen. καρδιογνώ-
στῆς is applied to God the Father (Acts xv. 8), but the Apostles
(John ii, 25) had learnt that their Master ‘knew what was in man.’
25. τόπον. Used in the sense of a position or office, Sirach xii.
12 μὴ ἀνατρέψας σε στῇ ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον cov. Cf. also 1 Cor. xiv. 16. The
testimony of the Vulyate is in favour of τόπον, for κλῆρον could not
be rendered by ‘ locum ministerii.’
διακονίας... καὶ ἀποστολῆς. The office is described by two words,
the first of which is the more general, the second defining the charac-
ter of the work which was to constitute the διακονία.
παρέβη, fell away. The periphrasis ‘by transgression fell’ of the
A.V. gives the sense correctly, but does not shew that the whole expres-
sion is but a single verb in the original.
τὸν τόπον τὸν ἴδιον. He had been chosen for one place, but had
made choice of another for himself. The writer does not define what
this was, but what this phrase meant in a Jewish mouth is seen from
the Baal Haturim on Numb. xxiv. 25, where the place to which
Balaam went is explained as Gehenna, the place of torment. So too
Midrash Koheleth Rabbah, yu. 1.
26. κλήρους. The giving of lots was a provision in the Law (Lev.
xvi. 8) by which one of the two goats offered on the great Day of
Atonement was to be selected for the Lord. ‘The goat upon which
the Lord’s lot fell’ was offered for a sin offering. Most probably in
this case each one of the Eleven wrote on a tablet the name of that
one of the two men for whom in his heart he was prompted to vote,
and he who had most votes was chosen to fill the vacant place among
the Apostolic band.
St Chrysostom, on this passage, remarks that these events took
92 THE ACTS. [1]. 26—
place before Pentecost. After the Holy Ghost had been given they
used no more casting of lots. ;
συγκατεψηφίσθη μετά, he was numbered (literally together) with.
This is an example of redundancy of prepositions with which may be
compared LXX. Ps. xlvi. 10, ἄρχοντες λαῶν συνήχθησαν μετὰ τοῦ θεοῦ
᾿Αβραάμ. See also Ezek. xxviii. 7.
CHAPTER II.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
1. πάντες ὁμοῦ with NABC. The Vulg. has ‘pariter.’
7. πρὸς ἀλλήλους omitted with NABC and Vulg.
12. τί θέλει with ABCD. Vulg. has ‘quidnam vult.’ δὲ reads τί
θέλοι Without dv, which seems to confirm the correctness of the other
uncials, θέλοι being only a slip of the scribe for θέλει.
17. ἐνυπνίοις with NABCD. There is the like variation between
accusative and dative in the MSS. of the LXX.
22. Omit καὶ before αὐτοὶ with NABCDE and numerous cursives.
The Vulg. inserts ‘et.’
23. Omit λαβόντες with NABC and Vulg.
30. τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ἀναστήσειν τὸν Χριστόν omitted with NABCD.
The Vulg. does not represent these words. The omitted words seem
like a marginal exposition which in time made its way into the
text.
31. ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ omitted with NABCD and Vulg. They appear to
have been added to balance ἡ σὰρξ in the following clause.
33. νῦν omitted with NABCD and Vulg.
36. αὐτὸν placed after κύριον with NABC. The Vulg. has ‘domi-
num eum et Christum.’
38. ἔφη omitted with NAC, which however add, what the Vulg.
appears to have read, φησίν after μετανοήσατε. There is much varia-
tion in the word as well as in its position in the different MSS, and
versions.
Add ὑμῶν after ἁμαρτιῶν with NABC and Vulg.
41. ἀσμένως omitted with NABCD and Vulg.
42. Omit καὶ after κοινωνίᾳ with NABCD. The Vulg. has ‘et com-
municatione fractionis panis,’ which also supports the omission of
καί.
47. Omit τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, and add from the commencement of the
next chapter ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό after ἡμέραν, so that chap. iii. will begin
Πέτρος δέ. This reading is given by NABCG and is confirmed by the
Vulg. and many other versions.
Tesi] NOTES. 93
Cx. Il. 1—-13. THe Hory Guost ciIvEN at Pentecost. EFFECT
FIRST PRODUCED THEREBY ON THE DWELLERS AT JERUSALEM.
1. ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι. This compound verb is not found in the
LXX. (nor in classical Greek in this’ sense), but the derived noun
occurs 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 of the ‘complete fulfilling’ of a period of
time. The simple verb is used both of a period of time to be gone
through and of a point of time which has to be reached. See Numb.
vi. 5, and Jer. xxv. 12 compared with verse 34 of the same chapter.
The Vulg. gives ‘cum complerentur dies Pentecostes,’ as if the day
of the feast was regarded as the completion of the whole seven
- weeks.
τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς Πεντηκοστῆς. Pentecost was the second of the
three great Jewish feasts, the Passover being the first, and the third
the Feast of Tabernacles. The name is derived from πεντηκοστός, ©
fiftieth ; because it was kept on the fiftieth day after the Passover
Sabbath. In the Law it is called ‘the feast of harvest, the first-
fruits of thy labours’ (Exod. xxiii. 16) and also, from being seven
weeks after the Passover, it is named ‘the feast of weeks’ (Exod.
xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 9—10). The offering in this festival was the
two first loaves made from the first portion of the wheat-harvest
of the year, as a thank-offering.
The words of Chrysostom on the typical character of the Pente-
costal feast are worthy of notice. τίς ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ Πεντηκοστή ; ὅτε
τὸ δρέπανον ἐπιβάλλειν ἔδει τῷ ἀμήτῳ, ὅτε τοὺς καρποὺς συνάγειν ἐχρῆν.
εἶδες τὸν τύπον᾽ βλέπε πάλιν τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
This day was probably chosen for the outpouring of the Spirit upon
the Apostles, that there might be a greater multitude present in
Jerusalem, and so the tidings of this gift might at once be spread
abroad. It is perhaps for this reason that the very word employed is
one which indicates that the day was fully come, and so all that were
intending to be present at the feast were there. We find in ix. 2
that there were Christians at Damascus before we read of any one of
the Apostolic band visiting that city. It may well be that among
those who saw the gifts now bestowed, and whose hearts were pierced
by Peter’s sérmon, there were some who went forth to this and other
cities, bearing the fame and teaching of the new society along with
them. In like manner, we cannot doubt that it was in order that
more might hear His words, that our Lord so frequently went to Jeru-
salem at the feasts (John iv. 45, v. 1, vii. 10, x. 22, &c.).
ὁμοῦ, together. This word and that which takes its place in the
Text, recept. i.e. ὁμοθυμαδόν occur frequently in this part of the Acts
and mark very strongly the unity which existed in the new society,
but which was so soon destined to be broken. For ὁμοθυμαδόν cf.
Acts i. 14, ii. 46, iv. 24, v. 12, &c. Beside this book the word is
only found in N.T. in Rom. xv. 6.
ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτός Doubtless this was in the upper room in which the
disciples were wont to meet.
94 THE ACTS. [ire
2. ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας. Literally ‘as of a mighty wind
borne along,’ i.e. as of the rushing of a mighty wind. The verb here
employed to express the rushing of the wind is used by St Peter (2 En.
i. 17, 18) of ‘the voice which came from heaven’ at the Transfigura-
tion, also (1. 21) of the gift of prophecy, and the motion of the pro-
phets by the Holy Ghost.
3. διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός, tongues like as of fire
distributed among them. Cf. Is. v. 24, where the Hebrew has ‘ tongue
of fire’ (see margin) while the A. V. gives only ‘fire.’ It is also to be
noticed that the appearance is not called fire, but only compared to
fire. The idea conveyed by the verb is that the flamelike tongues
were distributing themselves throughout the assembly (the Vulg. has
‘dispertite’), and the result is expressed by what follows; and it sat
upon each of them. The intention of the writer is to describe some-
thing far more persistent than meteoric light or flashes of electricity.
The sound which is heard fills the house, and the flame rests for ©
some time on the heads of the disciples. (See ver. 33.)
4, This verse describes a great miracle, and its simplicity of state-
ment marks it as the record of one who felt that no additional words
could make the matter other than one which passed the human under-
standing.
ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις. These are spoken of as καιναὶ
γλῶσσαι, new tongues (Mark xvi. 17). The meaning is, they spake in
languages which before were unknown to them, and from the history
it would appear that some of the company spake in one and some in
another language, for the crowd of foreigners, when they come to-
gether, all find somebody among the speakers whom they are able to
understand.
ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς. The order is supported by the Vulg. ‘dabat
eloqui illis,’ as well as by the oldest MSS.
5. ἦσαν δὲ ἐν ἹΙερουσαλήμ. Probably, in addition to the visitors
who had come to the feast, many religious Jews from foreign parts
were permanent residents in Jerusalem, for it was to the Jew a thing
much to be desired, that he might die and be buried near the Holy
City. Itis said (T.B. Kethuboth, 111 α), ‘Every one that is buried in
the land of Israel is in as good case as if he were buried under the
altar,’ and there are many other like expressions in the immediate
context of this quotation. That among the crowd were some residents
seems the more likely, because when they recognized the new tongues,
some asked as though they were acquainted with the speakers, ‘Are
not these men Galileans?’
εὐλαβεῖς, devout. The word is used of the aged Simeon (Luke ii,
25) and of the men who carried Stephen to his burial (Acts viii. 2),
It is one of those Greek words which Christianity has taken hold
of and dignified. In classical language its sense is merely =circum-
spect. The LXX. (according to some authorities) has it (Micah
vii. 2) of the good, godly, merciful man; other MSS. read εὐσεβὴς
there,
IL. 7.] NOTES. 95
ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους. This expression is hyperbolic. We say from
every part of the world, when we only mean from a great many
parts. Cf. also Deut. ii. 25, ‘This day will I begin to put the fear of
thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven.’ That the
Jews were spread abroad very widely is seen from Josephus (B. J. 1.
16, 4) where Herod Agrippa says ‘There is not a nation in the world
which does not contain some of us’ (Jews). So Philo In Flaccum, § 7,
says of them, τὰς πλείστας καὶ εὐδαιμονεστάτας τῶν ἐν Εὐρώπῃ Kal’ Acia
κατά τε νήσους καὶ ἠπείρους ἐκνέμονται.
6. γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης, and when this sound was
heard. Φωνή though not the same word as ἦχος which is used for
sound in verse 2, yet is never found in the sense of a report or rumour,
as is given by the A.V. It is used for crying aloud, as in the mourn-
ing at Rama and Christ’s cry on the cross (Matt. 11. 18), or in John
the Baptist’s preaching (Mark i. 3), and of voices from heaven fre-
quently (Matt. xvii. 5; Mark 1. 11; Luke iii. 22; Acts ix. 4, &c.), of
the sound of the wind which is used as a figure for the gift of the
Spirit in Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus (John iii. 8), and con-
stantly of the heavenly voices in the book of the Revelation (i. 10, v.
2, vi. 6, &c.). So in the LXX. we have φωνή with σάλπιγγος, βροντῆς,
σεισμοῦ, and such like words, all indicating a loud noise.
The sound which was sent forth, though heard around in the city,
was evidently such as could be traced to a central spot, for led by
the sound, the multitude came together to the room in which the
Apostles were assembled. It would need but a brief space for a
crowd to gather, and all the new-comers found among the disciples,
now divinely prepared to be Christ’s heralds, some who were declaring
what had come to pass, and the great things which God had wrought
with them, in the different languages of the lands where the strangers
had been born, This was clearly not a proclamation of the wonderful
works of God in some one language, which the Spirit, acting upon the
hearers, caused them to appreciate as if it were their own, for in that
way the gift of the Holy Ghost ought to have been described as
poured out, not on the speakers, but on the listeners.
ἤκουον. The verb is plural, in consequence of the plural idea
contained in πλῆθος, though the verbs in immediate connexion with
the noun are singular. For πλῆθος joined directly with a plural cf.
Luke xxiii. 1 ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθος ἤγαγον αὐτόν. See also Acta Apocryph.
Philip. 7 πολὺ πλῆθος ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀποφυγόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ ἐπεστρέ-
φοντο ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν.
εἷς ἕκαστος is explanatory and distributive, and not to be regarded
as a direct nominative to the verb. So too in verse 8, and also xi. 29.
7. οὐχ. This form, though the succeeding word has only the
smooth breathing, is supported by the best MS. authority and
adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf. See also Acts xix. 23, where
οὐχ ὀλίγος is read by Lach.; but not by Tisch. though it has the sup-
port of SAD. Similarly below in verse 26 of this chapter ἐφ᾽ ἐλπίδι is
the reading favoured by Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles,
Tischendorf reading also ἑλπίδι.
96 THE ACTS. (II. 8s—
8. τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ. There is no description here of any jargon or
incoherent speech. We are told of utterances tested by the ears of
men who had spoken these languages from their youth. Cf. Chrysos-
tom’s words ov yap ἁπλῶς ἐλάλουν, ἀλλά τινα θαυμαστὰ ἔλεγον. ‘The
only question on which from St Luke’s description we are left in un-
certainty is this: whether the disciples did or did not understand the
new words which they were enabled to utter. The only other place
in the New Testament which throws any light on this matter is St
Paul’s 1st Epistle to the Corinthians. For a consideration of the
expressions which St Paul there employs concerning these marvel-
lous gifts, see note after ver. 13.
9,10. Under all the nationalities mentioned in these verses we are
to understand the Jews, either by birth or conversion (as is indicated
in the case of Rome), whose homes were in the countries named.
TIap§0r. A people who occupied a wide extent of country south of
the Caspian Sea, from which they were separated by Hyrcania. They
stretched in the Apostolic times from India to the Tigris, and no doubt
stand foremost in this list because of their great fame among the
nations of the time.
Μῆδοι. Their country lay east of Assyria, north-west of Persia and
south-west of the Caspian Sea.
*Edapirat. These dwelt in the district known to the Greeks and
Romans as Susiana. It lay at the north of the Persian Gulf and was
bounded on the west by the Tigris, touching Media on the North and
Persia on the South and East. They were a Semitic people, perhaps
taking their name from Elam, son of Shem (Gen. x. 22). ‘Shushan
in the province of Elam’ is mentioned Dan. viii. 2.
Μεσοποταμίαν. The country between the Euphrates and the Ti-
gris.
᾿Ιουδαίαν. These would comprise the Jews from the neighbouring
towns,
Καππαδοκίαν.. Παμφυλίαν. These were all countries within Asia
Minor, Pontus lying in the N.E. and forming, on the north, part of
the shore of the Euxine. Cappadocia was south of Pontus, Phrygia
was westward of Cappadocia, separated from it by Lycaonia, while
Pamphylia stretched on the south coast of Asia Minor between Lycia
on the W. and Cilicia on the FE. By Asia in this verse, and every-
where else in the Acts is meant the Roman province known as Pro-
consular Asia. It comprised all the western coast of Asia Minor and
may be roughly considered as embracing the countries known as
Mysia, Lydia and Caria. Its capital was Ephesus, and in this district
were the seven churches of the Apocalypse.
Αἴγυπτον. The cities of the north of Egypt, and especially Alex-
audria, were the abodes of great numbers of Jews.
Λιβύη was the name anciently applied to the African continent.
The ‘parts of it about Cyrene’ means the district called Cyrenaica.
This lay E. of the Syrtis Major and contained five chief cities of which
I. 11.] NOTES. 97
Cyrene was the best known. We find Simon a Cyrenian living in
Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion (Matt, xxvii. 32). Josephus has
a passage (Antig. xtv. 7, 2) which testifies to the wide dispersion of
the Jews at this time, and also mentions specially Egypt and the
parts of Libya about Cyrene as full of them. It runs thus:
‘Strabo in another place bears witness to this [the wealth and
influence of the Jews]; saying that when Sulla crossed over into
Greece to war against Mithridates, he also sent Lucullus to put down
in Cyrene the revolution raised there by our nation, of whom the whole
world is full. His words are: There were four classes in the city of the
Cyrenians, that of citizens, that of husbandmen, that of resident
aliens, and the fourth of the Jews. Now this last class has already
spread into every city, and it 1s not easy to find a place in the world
which has not admitted this tribe and which is not swayed by them.
And with regard to Egypt and Cyrene as being under the same
governors, and many portions of other countries, it has come to pass
that they imitate them [the Jews], and also give special support to
companies of the Jews, and flourish from their adoption of the ances-
tral laws of the Jews. For instance, in Egypt there is a special district
set apart for the Jews, and beside this a large part of the city of
Alexandria is apportioned to this race. And a special magistrate is
appointed for them, who governs their nation and administers judg-
ment, and takes charge of their contracts and agreements as if he
were the governor of an independent state.’ Philo in Flaccum, § 8,
confirms what is said here about Alexandria, telling that two districts,
out of the five into which that city was divided, were known as
_ Ἰουδαϊκαί, while Jews also lived in parts of the other three.
ot ἐπιδημοῦντες Ῥωμαῖοι. Render, sojowrners from Rome, both Jews
dc. We know from the allusions to them in Latin writers that Jews
were numerous in Rome (Hor. Sat. 1.5; Juv. x. 14, &.). It is most
probable that converts from among these Romans founded the Church
which we learn from Acts xxviii. 14, 15 was flourishing there when
St Paul first came to that city.
προσήλυτοι. This word, signifying one who has come over, is mainly
employed of converts from heathenism to the religion of the Jews. It
is of very frequent occurrence in the LXX. of the last four books of
Moses.
11. Κρῆτεςς Natives of the well-known island which lies south of
the Cyclades in the Mediterranean, and is now called Candia.
Christianity may perhaps have been spread in Crete also from the
converts of Pentecost. Titus was made bishop of Crete.
"ApaBes. Inhabitants of the great peninsula which stretches be-
tween the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
τὰ μεγαλεῖα. Literally, the great works of God. Vulg. ‘magnalia.’
The word is rendered ‘wonderful works’ (as A.V.) in Ecclus. xxxvi. 8.
In the same way it is said (xiii. 46) of the first Gentile converts on
whom the Holy Ghost came, ‘They heard them speak with tongues
THE ACTS ἢ
98 THE ACTS. (ion
and magnify God.’ And of those to whom the Spirit was given at
Ephesus (xix. 6), ‘ They spake with tongues and prophesied.’
12. διηποροῦντο, were perplexed. They were in no doubt about
the facts. Their eyes and ears were trusty witnesses. But they were
at a loss how to account for what they heard and saw.
13. ἕτεροι δὲ K.t.d., but others mocking said: They are full of
new wine, ‘yAedKos, not a common word, is found in LXX. of Job
xxxii. 19,
In the above description of the events of the day of Pentecost, the
meaning which St Luke intends to convey is very plain in every respect,
except that we cannot with certainty gather from it whether the dis-
ciples, as well as speaking new languages, also understood what they
uttered. It would seem most reasonable to conclude that the Holy
Spirit with the one power also bestowed the other, and this may have
been so in the case of the disciples at Pentecost, even though it was
not so at other times and under other circumstances. The only
Scripture which bears upon the question is St Paul’s 1st Epistle to
the Corinthians (xii. 10—xiv. 30). There among the gifts of the
Spirit the Apostle enumerates “divers kinds of tongues” (xii. 10, 30)
and as what might be a separate gift not included in the first, “‘ the
interpretation of tongues”’ (xii. 10). He mentions in the next chapter
the tongues of angels as well as of men (xiii. 1), but not in such an
enumeration as to connect the words with our inquiry. It should be
borne in mind that all which the Apostle says in the Epistle is ad-
dressed to the Corinthians, not as missionary labourers but as members
of a settled Christian Church, and he is instructing them what the
best gifts are after which they should seek. Now their labours and
utterances were to be among their own people and mostly among
those already professing Christianity. St Paul repeatedly dwells on
‘the Church’ as the scene of their labours, which expression without
necessarily always implying an edifice (which however here seems to
be its meaning, see xiv. 23, 24) indicates a Christian community. The
Apostle tells them that gifts of tongues are not for these. Tongues
are for a sign not to them that believe but to the unbelieving. To
speak with tongues was therefore not the best gift to be desired for
the Church at Corinth. Yet we can fancy that some members longed
for such a power, and it is to such as these that the Apostle’s remarks
are directed. In such a congregation as theirs, he tells them, ‘he
that speaketh in a tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God’
(xiv. 2), meaning to teach them that if a man had this gift he would
yet profit his neighbours nothing, for they would not be men of a
foreign speech like the crowd at Pentecost, or like those in foreign
lands which the Christian missionaries must visit. Next he adds
‘he that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself’ (xiv. 4), for he feels
the power and tells of the great works of God.. The Apostle could
wish ‘they all spake with tongues,’ if, that is, there were an ad-
vantage to the Church therein, but under their circumstances he
rather wishes for them the gift of prophecy, or power of exposition
of the Scriptures and preaching. We next come to those sentences
I, 14. NOTES. — 99
which bear directly upon our inquiry (xiv. 13), ‘Let him that speaketh
in a tongue pray that he may interpret.’ There were then in the
Corinthian Church examples of that division of these closely connected
gifts which in the recital of spiritual gifts the Apostle seems to imply ;
some spake with tongues who could not interpret, and others could
interpret who did not speak with tongues. And the next words
confirm this view, ‘If I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth’ (and in
this way I edify myself), ‘but my understanding is unfruitful.’
Therefore the Apostle desires that form of power for himself which in
a congregation shall exercise both spirit and understanding. He
himself had this gift in great fulness, but in the Church it is not that
which he would desire to use, lest the unlearned should not be able to
say ‘Amen’ to his giving of thanks. For in the ordinary church-
assembly if the gift of tongues were exercised, it would seem madness
to those Corinthian unbelievers who came in, and heard a speaker
uttering a foreign language to a congregation who were all Greeks,
and their minister a Greek likewise. St Paul therefore ordains that
if any man speak in a tongue in the Church, he must have an interpreter,
or else must keep silence. From which ordinance also it appears that
there were those who, though endowed with the gift of speaking with
tongues, were yet not able to interpret to the congregation the words
which they were empowered to speak.
In these passages we have all the references to this gift of the Holy
Ghost which seem to help us to appreciate in some degree what its
character was. Whatever may have been the case at Pentecost, cer-
tainly in the Corinthian Church the power of speaking seems not
always to have had with it the power of interpretation, though in
some cases it had, and all were to pray for the one to be given with
the other. Yet in this whole account it is to be borne in mind that
we have no indication that such gifts were frequent in Corinth, but
only that the members of the Church longed to possess them, From
this wish the Apostle dissuades them, because their duty was to
minister to believers rather than to unbelievers, whereas on those
occasions where the gift was most markedly bestowed, as related by
the author of the Acts, viz. at the house of Cornelius, and in the
heathen and multilingual maritime city of Ephesus, as well as at the
outpouring on Pentecost, there was the probability of having an
audience on whom such a display of God’s gifts would be likely to
produce the same kind of effect as that produced in Jerusalem on
the first manifestation,
14—21. Sxercu or St Petrer’s Sermon. ReFuration or THE MockErs.
14. ἹΤέτρος σὺν τοῖς ἕνδεκα. The Twelve naturally take the leading
place among the disciples, and Peter, who is usually the spokesman
in the Gospels, begins the general address now, directing it principally
to those who were dwellers in Jerusalem and the neighbouring country,
for it was more likely to be these who gave vent to the mocking
speeches than the foreigners who would better recognize the astound-
ing nature of what had come to pass.
7--ὦ
100 THE ACTS. ΠῚ. 14—
ἀπεφθέγξατο, spake forth unto them. The word is the same that
is used to describe the gift which they had just received. ‘ They spake as
the Spirit gave them utterance,’ lit. ‘to speak forth’ (ii. 4). St Paul
employs it when Festus had said he was mad. ‘I speak forth the
words of truth and soberness’ (xxvi. 25).
ἐνωτίσασθε. The word signifies ‘to take anything into the ears.’
It is only found here in N.T. but is very common in the LXX., espe-
cially in the Psalms. Cf. also Gen. iv. 23 (Lamech’s address); Job
ean 10, xxxty, 16, xxxvin, 13:
15. μεθύουσιν. Wine was drunk by the Jews with flesh only, and,
founding the custom on Exodus xvi. 8, they ate bread in the morning,
and fiesh in the evening, and so took no wine till late in the day.
So Eccles. x. 16, 17, by the ‘princes who eat in the morning’ are
meant those who eat to the full of all sorts of food and so take wine,
and their opposites are next described as those who eat in due season
for strength and not for drunkenness,
The paraphrase of this passage given in the Targum is worth
notice in illustration of the text of the Acts. It reads, ‘ Woe to thee,
O land of Israel, when there shall reign over thee Jeroboam the wicked,
and shall exterminate from the midst of thee the offering of the morn-
ing sacrifice, and when thy lords shall eat bread before any man has
offered the perpetual offering of the morning. Blessed art thou, land
of Israel, at the time when Hezekiah the son of Ahaz (who is of the
genealogy of the house of David) shall reign, who will be a mighty
hero in the law, and fulfil all the duties of the commandments, and
then thy princes shall only eat bread after the perpetual offering has
been offered (i.e. their eating shall be) at the fourth hour, from the
labour of their hands in the strength of the iaw, and not in faintness
and blindness of the eyes,’
apa τρίτη. Only one quarter of the day was over. The Jews
divided the day and night each into twelve parts, calling them hours,
though their length varied according as the daylight was less or more.
When day and night were equal, the third hour would be nine o’clock
in the morning.
- 16. διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, through the prophet. διὰ is the preposi-
tion generally used in such phrases, and denotes that the prophet was
the instrument by whose intervention God spake, Joel himself (i. 1)
calls his prophecy ‘ the word of the Lord that came unto Joel.’ The
quotation is from Joel ii. 2332. The order of sentences differs here
from the Hebrew (which is represented by the A.V. of Joel), but agrees
with the LXX. very nearly, only for ἐν ταῖς éox. ἡμέραις the LXX. has
μετὰ ταῦτα, and omits σημεῖα in verse 19.
17. ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις. In the language of the Old Testa-
ment prophets these words signify the coming of the Messiah (cf. Is,
ii. 2; Micah iv. 1). .
18. καί ye may be rendered, Yea and, or And truly. Cf. Acts
xvii. 27 where καί ye is the correct reading. The Vulg. gives ‘et
quidem,’
II. 22.] NOTES. ΙΟΙ
προφητεύσουσιν. Fulfilled also in the case of Agabus (xi. 28), and
of the Ephesian converts (xix. 6), and of the daughters of Philip the
Evangelist (xxi. 9).
19. τέρατα. Even when the Kingdom of Christ shall have come
mighty troubles will still prevail. Christ Himself gave the same lesson
(Matth. xxiv. 21—30).
20. ἐπιφανῆ, notable. The Hebrew word in Joel means terrible.
But the Hebrew verbs to fear and to see are often confounded in the
LXX. version, with which the quotation in the text agrees. The pro-
phecy of Joel had a partial fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem
by Nebuchadnezzar, but it also looked onward to its later destruction
by the Romans.
21. σωθήσεται. Eusebius (H. EH. 11. 5. 3) tells how the Christians
were warned to leave Jerusalem before its destruction, and went into
a city of Perea called Pella.
22—36. Recrirau or Gop’s TESTIMONY BY THE RESURRECTION TO THE
MESSIAHSHIP OF JESUS,
22. ἄνδρες ᾿Ισραηλῖται. As the prophecies which St Peter is
about to put forward were given before the nation was rent into two
parts, he calls them by a name which points to their union and
common descent from Jacob.
᾿Ιησοῦν τὸν Ναζωραῖον. This accusative, taken up by the following
τοῦτον, continues in suspense till the close of the next verse.
ἄνδρα. St Peter begins with the humanity of Jesus, as a point on
which they would all agree.
ἀποδεδειγμένον. Publicly demonstrated, or set forth. Cf. the
words of Nicodemus (John iii. 2) ‘No man can do these miracles that
thou doest except God be with him.’ The sense of the participle is
given by the gloss of D, which reads δεδοκιμασμένον.
εἰς ὑμᾶς. Render, wnto you. The testimony was not given among
them only (as A.V.), but wnto them. Cf. John xii. 37 ‘Though He
had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on Him.’
δυνάμεσι «.t.A. These distinct names are given to Christ’s mar-
vellous works according to the light in which they are viewed. The
first name, δυνάμεις, lit. powers, is applied to them because they pro-
claimed the might of Him who wrought them; they are named répara,
wonders, because they called forth that feeling when they were
wrought; and σημεῖα, signs, because they point out their author as
divine.
ois. Attracted into the case of the antecedent, as ini. 1, though
here that case is dative. See note there.
ὁ θεός. St Peter does not advance at once to the declaration that
Christ is God, but speaks of Jesus as God’s agent, in the mighty works
which their own eyes had seen.
102 THE ACTS. [II. 23—
23. ἔκδοτον. Given up unto you as God had decreed He should be,
for the sake of man’s redemption.
διὰ χειρὸς ἀνόμων, by the hand of wicked (lit. lawless) men. διὰ
χειρός is @ literal translation of a Hebrew expression = by means of.
Cf. Ley. viii. 36 ‘Things which the Lord commanded by the hand
of Moses.’ See also 2 Kings xiy. 25, though in both those passages
the LXX. has ἐν χειρί. But διὰ χειρός in the same sense is found
2 Kings xiv. 27; 1 Chron. xi. 3, xxix. 5, &c.
24. τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου. The expression occurs in LXX. Ps.
xvu. 5, ὅσο.
25. AavelSx«.t.A. The passage which St Peter quotes is from Ps,
xvi. 8—11, and he argues that it could not be of himself that the
Psalmist there spake, for they had evidence that the words could not
be truly said of him. But having regard to God’s promise David
spake of Him who was to be born from his line, as identified with
himself. St Peter’s quotation is from the LXX.
εἰς αὐτόν, in reference to him. The preposition indicates the direc-
tion of the thoughts of him who spoke. Cf. Winer-Moulton, p. 495.
προορώμην. The πρὸ is used here as a strengthening of the follow-
ing ἐνώπιόν μου, and in the same sense. The foresaw of A.V. is equal
to no more than saw. The Hebrew text would be rendered, I set.
26. ἡ γλῶσσα pov. The Hebrew=my glory. For this exposition
of glory, cf. Ps. οὐ]. 1, where the A. V. has, according to the Hebrew,
‘I will give praise even with my glory,’ while the Prayer-Book Version
renders ‘with the best member that I have.’ If however we are to be
guided by the Hebrew parallelism ‘the glory’ is the soul or life. Cf.
Ps. vii. 5, ‘Let him tread my life upon the earth, and lay my glory
(A.V. honour) in the dust.’ On the use of a similar expression by
the Arabs for any member of the body of special honour, see Gesenius
fi Vix. 8 deka
κατασκηνώσει, Lit. shall tabernacle.
27. εἰς ἅδην, in Hades, i.e. in the unseen world. So too in verse
31 where we have the more usual expression εἰς @dov (understanding
δόμον), but in the Psalm from which quotation is made, the best text
of the LXX. gives the accusative there too.
δώσεις, Thow wilt suffer [lit. give].
τὸν ὅσιόν σου, Thy Holy One. The Hebrew word in the Psalm
conveys the idea of beloved, as well as godly or pious.
28. πληρώσεις «.t.A. This is an example of how the LXX. some-
times paraphrases. The Hebrew text literally translated is, ‘in thy
presence is fulness of joy.’
29. ἐξὸν εἰπεῖν. Here ἔστι is the verb to be supplied. Render ‘It
is allowed me=I may freely say unto you concerning the patriarch
David that he both died and was buried.’ Here St Peter begins his
argument with a statement which none of them will gainsay. St Paul
II. 33.] NOTES. 103
makes use of the selfsame argument (xiii. 36) ‘David after he had
served his own generation...fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers.’
τὸ μνῆμα. The existence of the sepulchre is evidence that David
did not rise again. The sepulchre of the House of David was a famous
object in the Holy City. Among the marvels of Jerusalem mentioned
in the Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan (c. 35), we are told, ‘There are no
graves made in Jerusalem except the tombs of the House of David and
of Huldah the Prophetess, which have been there from the days of the
first prophets.’
On the burial of David in Zion, cp. 1 Kings ii. 10 with 2 Sam. v. 7.
30. ὅρκῳ dpooev. See Ps, exxxii. 11 ‘Of the fruit of thy body will
I set upon thy throne.’
ἐκ καρποῦ κιτιλ. Render, of the fruit of his loins one should sit
for, he would set one] on his throne; for καθίζειν is used both
transitively and intransitively.
31. περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, of the resurrection of the
Christ, i.e. the Messiah, Jehovah’s Anointed.
ὅτι οὔτε ἐγκατελείφθη, that neither was He left in Hades nor did His
flesh, &e. The ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ of the Text. recept. has been introduced
to make this application accord more exactly with the words of the
prophecy quoted in verse 27. At first perhaps the addition was inno-
cently placed as a note on the margin, but the next copyist incor-
porated it.
32. ἀνέστησεν, raised up (from the dead). The word takes up the
ἀνάστασις of the previous verse. The English cannot mark by simi-
larity of word the forcible character of the Greek, which would be
given in sense somewhat thus: ‘David spake of a resurrection, which
manifestly was not his own, but here is now come to pass the resur-
rection of Jesus, of which we all are witnesses.’ The πάντες is pro-
bably to be confined to Peter and the Eleven, with whom he is more
closely connected in this speech (see ver. 14) than with the rest.
33. ὑψωθείς, exalted (into heaven), for the Apostles are wit-
nesses not only of the Resurrection but of the Ascension also.
τήν τε ἐπαγγελίαν mv. τ. dy. Called ini. 4 ἡ ἐπαγγελία τοῦ πατρός.
The promise was made by the Father, and the Holy Ghost was the
gift promised. Christ’s words were, ‘I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter’ (John xiv. 16), What was at first
an ἐπαγγελία has now attained its fulfilment, so that λαβών implies
the complete fruition of all that was promised.
ἐξέχεεν, He hath poured forth. Thus fulfilling the promise in the
prophecy quoted verse 17: ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ Tod πνέυματός μου.
βλέπετε καὶ ἀκούετε. It would seem from this that the appearance,
like as of fire, which rested upon each of them, remained visible for
some time, thus making it evident how different this was from any
meteoric flashes into which some have endeavoured to explain away
the miracle which St Luke describes.
104 THE ACTS. (II. 34—
34. ov...dvéBn, he ascended not. He went down to the grave,
and ‘slept with his fathers.’
λέγει δέ. The passage is from Ps. cx. 1. David saith, speaking as
a prophet, and concerning the same person, whom though He is to be
born of the fruit of his loins, he is yet taught by the Spirit to call his
Lord. The words of this Psalm were admitted by the Jews them-
selves in their discourse with Jesus (Matt. xxii. 44, 45) to be spoken
of the Christ.
κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ pov. The sense is, the Lord [Jehovah] said unto
[Him whom I must even now call] my Lord, since I foresee how great
He shall be.
κάθου ἐκ δεξιῶν pov. A common Oriental expression for sharing
power and sovereignty. Cf. the request of the mother of James and
John when she desired places of influence for her sons in the future
kingdom, which she supposed would be an earthly one (Matth. xx. 21).
35. ὑποπόδιον. To put the foot on the neck of a prostrate enemy
was in the Eastern world a token of complete conquest. (Cf. Josh. x.
24.)
36. γινωσκέτω. This appeal could only be made to Israel, for they
alone knew of the promises and prophecies in which the Christ had
been foretold.
ὅτι kal «.t.A. Render, that God hath made Him both Lord and
Christ, even this Jesus whom ye crucified. ‘Thus closes the argument.
Its steps are: Jesus, who has been crucified, has been by God raised
from the grave, by God exalted to heaven, and set at His right hand,
and thus proved to be the Lord and the Anointed One.
37—40. Erreot or St PETER’s SERMON.
37. κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν. The verb, without the following
noun, is found LXX. Gen. xxxiv. 7 (were grieved A.V.) and κατανενυγ-
μένον τῇ καρδίᾳ, Ps. ΟΥ̓. 16 of one ‘broken in heart.’ The sense
here is, they were stung with remorse at the enormity of the wicked-
ness which had been committed in the crucifixion, and at the blind-
ness with which the whole nation had closed their eyes to the teaching
of the prophecies which had spoken of the Messiah.
πρὸς tov Πέτρον x.t.A. For these men, who had so clearly set
before them the error of the whole people, were the most likely to
know what could be done to atone for it.
ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί. See i. 16 note.
38. μετανοήσατε. This was in accordance with the directions of
Jesus before His Ascension (Luke xxiv. 47) ‘that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name.’ On the omission
of both ἔφη and φησίν in this verse, cf. Acts xxv. 22, xxvi. 28, where
the best MSS. are without any verb=he said. It should be noticed
that the Vulg. has ‘ Penitentiam (inquit) agite,’
ΤΙ. 40.] NOTES. 105
βαπτισθήτω. The verb is here singular from the close connexion
with the distributive ἕκαστος, but the plural with which the verse com-
menced is resumed immediately in λήμψεσθε.
The exhortation to baptism is in accord with Christ’s injunction
(Matth. xxviii. 19), and though there the baptism is directed ‘to be in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,’ and
here it is only said ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ we are not to sup-
pose any change made from the first ordinance, but only that as the
Church was to be called Christ’s, so in mentioning the Sacrament for
the admission of its members His name was specially made promi-
nent. It was belief in Christ as the Son of God which constituted
the ground of admission to the privileges of His Church. This made
the whole of St Peter’s Creed (Matt. xvi. 16) when Christ pronounced
him blessed.
Swpedy τ. ay. wv. This is expressly stated to have been bestowed on
some of the first converts (see viii. 17, x. 44, &c.), and the prompt
repentance of these earliest hearers of the truth would not be without
its reward.
39. ἐπαγγελία must be taken to embrace the same gifts which it
included in i. 4 and 11, 33.
καὶ tots τέκνοις. As under the old covenant the promises were
made (Gal. iii. 16) ‘to Abraham and his seed,’ so is it to be under the
new dispensation.
τοῖς εἰς μακράν. Peter knew from the first, we see, that the Gentiles
were to be admitted to the same privileges as Israel. But Christ’s
commission said they were to preach first in Jerusalem and in Judza.
Peter needed the vision of the great sheet let down from heaven to tell
him when God’s time was come for the extension of the work; and
though in his dream the natural prejudice of his race was asserted, yet
when he awoke he went ‘without gainsaying as soon as he was sent
for’ (x. 29), as he says to Cornelius. For Christ’s words had been
‘Go, teach all nations.’
The expression oi εἰς μακράν means those persons, whom to reach
you have to go out into the distance.
προσκαλέσηται. Render, shall call unto Him. Thus the force of
the preposition will be given, which disappears in A.V.
40. ἑτέροις τε λόγοις πλείοσιν. This is a very important statement.
We learn from it that there is no attempt made by the writer of the
Acts to produce more than the substance and character of what was
here said, And we may be sure that he uses the same rule always.
We need not therefore be startled if we find an address followed by
mighty results, even though St Luke’s abstract of it may only extend
over a few verses.
διεμαρτύρατο, he charged, as 1 Tim, v. 21; 2 Tim. ii. 14, iy. 1.
Peter’s address was not of the nature of testimony but a direction
what the penitents were to do.
σκολιᾶς. Literally crooked. The expression ‘crooked generation’
is found in A.V. (Deut. xxxii. 5) where the Greek of the LXX. is the
106 THE ACTS. (Il. 40—
same as here and in Phil. ii. 15. γενεὰ σκολιά is also the text in
Ps. lxxvii. (Ixxviii.) 8.
41—47. Tue First CoNVERTS AND THEIR BEHAVIOUR.
41. προσετέθησαν. Render, there were added on that day about
three thousand souls, i.e. to the hundred and twenty who composed the
community when the day began. In v. 47 it is said ‘the Lord added.’
42. προσκαρτεροῦντες. This means that they allowed nothing to
interfere with the further teaching which the Apostles no doubt gave
to the newly baptized. The converts would naturally seek to hear all
the particulars of the life of Him whom they had accepted as Lord and
Christ, and such narratives would form the greatest part of the teach-
ing of the Apostles at the first.
The phrase ἡ διδαχὴ τῶν ἀποστόλων has acquired a new interest
since the recent discovery and publication of a MS. with that title.
But the subjects treated of in this new discovery, a work manifestly of
the first or beginning of the second century, are not such as could be
spoken of immediately after the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit.
They relate to the Church when she has taken a firm hold on the
world.
κοινωνίᾳ, that communion, or holding all things common, of which
a more full description is given in the following verses, and which
_ would bind them most closely into one society.
Chrysostom calls this ‘an angelic republic’: τοῦτο πολιτεία ἀγγελικὴ
μηδὲν αὐτῶν λέγειν ἴδιον εἶναι. ἐντεῦθεν ἡ ῥίζα τῶν κακῶν ἐξεκόπη, καὶ
bc ὧν ἔπραττον ἔδειξαν ὅτι ἤκουσαν.
The omission of the conjunction after κοινωνίᾳ makes a division
between the educational and social duties on one hand, and the
strictly devotional on the other.
τῇ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτου. The earliest title of the Holy Communion
and that by which it is mostly spoken of in Scripture. (See Acts
xx. 7; 1 Cor. x. 16, &c.) In consequence of the omission here and
elsewhere of any mention of the wine, an argument has been drawn
for communion in one kind. But it is clear from the way in which
St Paul speaks of the bread and the cup in the same breath, as it were,
that such a putting asunder of the two parts of the Sacrament which
Christ united is unwarranted by the practice of the Church of the
Apostles.
It is worth notice that in the ‘Teaching of the xm Apostles’ to
which allusion has just been made, the directions concerning the cup
stand first. See chap. 9 περὶ δὲ τῆς εὐχαριστίας, οὕτως εὐχαριστή-
σατε. πρῶτον wept ποτηρίου" κ.τ.λ.
ταῖς προσευχαῖς. There is the article here too. MHender, the
prayers. See note oni. 14.
43. πάσῃ Ψυχῇ. Even the mockers were afraid to continue their
jeers in the ph of such preaching and such lives.
τέρατα Kal σημεῖα. See note on verse 22. The purposes now
chiefly aimed at by the miracles were to arrest attention and bear
TT. 46.] NOTES. 107
evidence to the new teaching. So they are not here spoken of 85
δυνάμεις.
44. ἦσαν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ κιτιλ. With the words of the angels still in
their ears (i. 11) ‘ This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen Him go into heaven,’ the disciples were no doubt full of the
thought that the return of Jesus was not far distant. Such an opinion
spreading among the new disciples would make them ready to resign
their worldly goods, and to deyote all things to the use of their
brethren, For so the spreading of a knowledge of Christ could be
made the chief work of the whole body of believers.
45. κτήματα.. ὑπάρξεις. The Vulg. distinguishes the words by
rendering ‘ possessiones et substantias.’ The former of the Greek words
seems to imply those means which were at the time actively employed
in the acquisition of more wealth; this would include farming and
trade stock, &c., while ὕπαρξις refers rather to realized property
(cf. however iv. 34). Soon, it seemed, there would be no need for
either, and the produce of their sale was the most convenient form
in which the bounty could be used for those who needed it.
καθότι ἄν τις χρείαν εἶχεν, according as any man had need. We
gather from this that the first converts kept their homes and things
needful for themselves, but held the rest as a trust for the Church to
be bestowed whenever need was seen. This is an earlier stage than
that in which the money was brought and put at the disposal of the
Apostles.
The verb εἶχεν is in the indicative notwithstanding the preceding
καθότι ἂν, because the writer’s intention is to describe a fact, viz. that
there were persons in need,
46. καθ᾽ ἡμέραν te κιτ.λ., and day by day attending continually
with one accord, &c.
At the Temple they were likely to meet with the greatest number of
devout listeners; and we shall find that the first Christians did not
cease to be religious Jews, but held to all the observances of their
ancient faith, its feasts, its ritual, and its hours of prayer, as far as
they could do so consistently with their allegiance to Jesus. We find
(xxi. 20—24) the elders of the Church in Jerusalem urgent on St Paul
that he should shew his zeal for the Law by taking upon him the vow
of a Nazirite, and should so quiet the scruples of Jews, and of such
Christian brethren who were more zealous for the Law than St Paul
himself, and the Apostle saw no reason why he should not comply
with their request.
κλῶντές Te Kat’ οἶκον ἄρτον. Render, breaking bread at home;
though the A.V., if rightly understood, gives the sense very well.
What is meant is, that the specially. Christian institution of the
breaking of bread was not a part of the service in the Temple, but was
observed at their own homes, the congregations meeting now at one
house, now at another. The Vulg. has ‘circa domos.’ The connexion
of the Lord’s Supper with the Passover meal at its institution made
the Christian Sacrament essentially a service which could be cele-
108 THE ACTS. [11. 46—
brated, as on the first occasion it was, in the dining-room of a dwelling-
house.
τροφῆς, i.e. their ordinary meals,
ἀγαλλιάσει, with gladness. Because those who were able to con-
tribute to the support of the poorer members of the Church were
delighted to do so, and thus all over-anxious care for the morrow was
removed from the whole community.
ἀφελότητι καρδίας. Vulg. ‘simplicitate cordis.? Having but one
end in view, that the faith of Christ should be as widely spread
abroad as possible.
47. χάριν, favour. As it was said of Christ, ‘The common people
heard Him gladly’ (Mark xii. 37), so it seems to have been with the
Apostles. The first attack made on them is (iv. 1) by the priests, the
Captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees.
τοὺς σωζομένους. For this use of the present participle in relation
to a work or condition begun, but only as yet in progress and not
complete, cf. LXX. Judges xiii. 8 (Manoah’s question to the angel), τί
ποιήσωμεν TH παιδίῳ τικτομένῳ, The child spoken of is not born, but
will be, for God has promised it. So here the men were put into
the way of salvation, but not yet saved, though made through hope
to be heirs of salvation. The rendering of the text is, and the Lord
added day by day together such as were in the way of salvation.
CHAPTER III.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
1. Πέτρος δέ. In accordance with the change made in the last
verse of chap. 11.
7. ἤγειρεν αὐτόν with NABCG. The Vulg. has the pronoun twice
expressed.
11. αὐτοῦ instead of τοῦ ἰαθέντος χωλοῦ with NABCDE. Vulg.
‘cum teneret autem Petrum.’
13. Omit αὐτὸν after ἠρνήσασθε with NABC and many cursives.
Vulg. ‘et negastis ante faciem Pilati.’
18. αὐτοῦ after Χριστὸν with NABCDE. Vulg. ‘Christum suum.’
20. προκεχειρισμένον is the reading of NABCDEP. The Vulg.
favours the Text. recept. in giving ‘qui predicatus est.? But that
sense is out of harmony with verse 25 where the people are called υἱοὶ.
τῆς διαθήκης. See notes. ᾿
21. τῶν ἁγίων for πάντων ἁγίων with NABCD. Vulg. ‘per os sanc-
torum, &c.’
dr αἰῶνος before αὐτοῦ with NABC. The Vulg. has ‘suorum a
seculo prophetarum,’ which does not leave am’ αἰῶνος to the end of
the verse.
TIT. 2.) NOTES. 109
22. Omit yap πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας with NABC. Vulg. ‘Moses quidem
dixit.’
26. Omit Ἰησοῦν with NBCDE and Vulg.
Ca. III. 1--10. Heauine or THE Lame MAN at THE BEAUTIFUL
GATE OF THE TEMPLE.
1. ἀνέβαινον, were going up. The verb is in the imperfect
tense and to render it exactly adds much to the vividness of the
narrative. On the close attachment always seen between Peter and
John, Chrysostom observes, παντάχου φαίνονται οὗτοι πολλὴν ἔχοντες
πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμόνοιαν. τούτῳ νεύει ὁ Πέτρος. ὁμοῦ εἰς τὸν τάφον ἔρχον-
ται οὗτοι. περὶ αὐτοῦ φησὶν τῷ Χριστῷ, οὗτος δὲ τί;
The Temple stood above the city on Mt Moriah.
τὸ ἱερόν. While earnestly labouring for the spread of Christ’s teach-
ing, they did not cast off their regard for that schoolmaster which
had been appointed to bring men to Christ.
ἐπί. The preposition indicates the period of time towards which
their movement tended, and may be well rendered for the hour,
&e. They were on their way, and would get there at the time
appointed for prayer. This is not the most common use of ἐπὶ with
the accusative of time. It more frequently denotes that space of
time over which any action is extended. Cf. Acts xiii. 31 ἐπὶ ἡμέρας
πλείους ΞΞ- during many days. See Winer-Moulton, pp. 508, 509.
We read in Scripture of three specified hours of prayer in accord-
ance with which the Psalmist speaks of his own custom (Ps. lv. 17),
‘Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray.’ And in like
manner Daniel prayed ‘three times a day’ (Dan. vi. 10). Cf. also
‘The Teaching of the twelve Apostles,’ chap. 8, τρὶς τῆς ἡμέρας οὕτω
προσεύχεσθες The hour of morning prayer was the third hour, and
Peter went up to the housetop to pray (Acts x. 9) about the sixth
hour, which was noon, and the evening prayer was this to which
Peter and John were going up.
ἐνάτην. This orthography has the support of much authority,
See Tischendorf’s Prolegomena, p. 49, ed. 7.
At the Equinox the ninth hour would be three o’clock in the after-
noon, but when the daylight was longer it would be later, so that if
there were 18 hours’ day and 6 hours of darkness, each hour of the
day would be an hour and a half long, and the hours of the night
only half an hour each. At such time the ninth hour would be at
half-past four. See ii. 15 note.
2. ex. Just as when this preposition is used with words directly
indicative of time, the idea here contained in it is of a starting-point
since which a certain state has been continuous. Cf. Acts xxiv. 10,
ἐκ πολλῶν ἐτῶν ὄντα κριτήν. Render, a certain man who was lame,
otherwise ὑπάρχων is not represented.
ἐβαστάζετο.. ἐτίθουν. The imperfect tenses imply that this was
done regularly every day, and the position in which he had been daily
110 THE ACTS. [Π1|. 2—
set for the greater part of his forty years’ life (see iv. 22) made it
certain that he would be widely and well known. In the same
fashion Bartimaeus sat by the wayside to beg (Mark x. 46).
πρὸς τὴν θύραν... ὡραίαν. The gateways of the Temple gave ad-
mission to the inner court from the court of the Gentiles and the
court of the women. There were three on the north and the same
number on the south, but the Beautiful Gate meant in this verse was
probably the gate on the east which led from the court of the women.
The other gates, Josephus says (B. J. v. 5, 3), were overlaid with gold
and silver, but this one was ‘made of Corinthian bronze, and much
surpassed in worth those enriched with silver and gold.’
τοῦ αἰτεῖν, to ask. This form of construction of the infinitive with
τοῦ to indicate purpose is abundantly common in N.T. and LXX. Cf.
Gen. iv. 15, καὶ ἔθετο κύριος ὁ θεὸς σημεῖον τῷ Κάϊν τοῦ μὴ ἀνελεῖν αὐτὸν
πάντα τὸν εὑρίσκοντα αὐτόν.
ἐλεημοσύνην. Not ἃ classical word, but very common in the LXX.,
first, for the feeling of mercy which dictates the giving of alms, and
then, for the gift itself, as here. For the latter sense see Tobit xii. 8,
ἀγαθὸν προσευχὴ μετὰ νηστείας καὶ ἐλεημοσύνης...... καλὸν ποιῆσαι ἐλεη-
μοσύνην ἢ θησαυρίσαι χρυσίον. Also EKeclus. iii, 14, 30, xxxv. 2.
From this word comes the English alms, formerly spelt almesse,
or awmous, and in German it has become almosen.
3. λαβεῖν. This infinitive is redundant. A similar pleonasm is
found Mark i. 17.
4. ἀτενίσας δέ. Soof St Paul in a similar case (xiv. 9). And doubt-
less too here Peter ‘ perceived that the man had faith to be healed.’
For his first act after his cure—‘he entered into the temple’—be-
speaks a devout frame of mind, and we may judge that though his
infirmity had kept him atthe gate for forty years, he had felt earnestly
a longing to enter.
5. ἐπεῖχεν, gave heed. The verb requires τὸν νοῦν, or something
similar, to be supplied with it. The sense is ‘turned (his attention).’
Cf. Ecclus. xxxiv. 2, ὁ ἐπέχων ἐνυπνίοις, ‘he that pays attention to
dreams’; and verse 18 of the same chapter, τίνι ἐπέχει; ‘To what
does he pay attention?’
6. οὐχ ὑπάρχει por. The Apostles, we may see from this, made
no claim for themselves upon the contributions of the richer converts.
There seems to be a difference intended in the kind of possession,
ὑπάρχω being used of the worldly belongings, ἔχω of the spiritual
gifts, as being the best, and the most surely held.
Render the second clause, ‘What I have that give I thee.’ Weare
nowhere told how much time had passed since the day of Pentecost,
but it is probable that this was not the first miracle which Peter
wrought (see ii. 43). For he speaks as not without experience of what
works God will enable him to do. His language is that of firm
assurance, ‘what I have,’ though in a moment he adds ‘in the name
of Jesus Christ.’
111 8 NOTES. 11
ἸΝαζωραίου. According to St John’s account, the name Nazareth
_ was included in the title on Christ’s cross (John xix. 19), and we can
see that the place was despised in the eyes of the Jews (John i. 46)
from Nathanael’s question to Philip. This despised origin, as well
as the shameful death, of Jesus, was a stumblingblock to the Jews.
ἔγειρε καὶ περιπάτει. There is some variation in the MSS. here,
some having only the last verb. As it stands, the text is exactly the
same as the words which Christ used (Luke v. 23) at the cure of the
paralytic. Hence objectors have alleged that St Luke in the Acts has
based his history here on those recorded words of Jesus. .But what
is more natural than that St Peter at such a time when speaking and
acting in Christ’s name should employ Christ’s very words?
7. αἱ βάσεις αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ σφυρά. These words are found nowhere
else in the N.T. They are of a technical character, and their use, to-
gether with the other features of exact description of the cripple’s case,
indicate that we have before us the language of the physician (Col.
iv. 14). And it is hardly possible to dwell too strongly on indications
of this kind, which indirectly mark in the history something which is
likewise noted in the Epistles. Those who would assign the second
century as the date of the composition of the Acts, must assume for
their supposed writer the keenest appreciation of every slight allusion
in the letters of St Paul, and at the same time an ability to let his
knowledge peep out only in hints like that which we find in this verse.
Such persons, while rejecting all that is miraculous in the story as we
have it, ask us to believe in such a writer as would himself be almost
a miracle, for his powers of observation and the skill with which he
has employed them.
βάσις in the LXX. is generally used of some basement or foundation
on which a thing may rest, but it occurs with the meaning of this
verse in Wisdom xiii. 18, where, in speaking of an idolater, it is said
he makes petitions περὶ ὁδοιπορίας [ἱκετεύει] TO μηδὲ βάσει χρῆσθαι duva-
μενον, ‘for a good journey unto that which cannot set a foot forward.’
8. ἐξαλλόμενος, leaping up. Thus manifesting his faith by his
instant obedience, though his limbs must have shrivelled with forty
years’ want of use.
περιεπάτει. Every word seems to express the man’s joy. He kept
walking is the sense of this imperfect.
εἰσῆλθεν, he went in. As we see afterwards, he did not want to
leave his benefactors. Beside this, it was the best use he could make
of his new powers, to go to the Temple with the other worshippers.
Of this conduct Chrysostom says, διὰ τοῦ μετὰ τὸ ἅλλεσθαι αἰνεῖν τὸν
θεόν, οὐκ ἐκείνους θαυμάζων ἀλλὰ τὸν θεὸν τὸν δι᾽ ἐκείνων ἐνεργήσαντα"
οὕτως εὐχάριστος ἦν ὁ ἀνήρ.
ἁλλόμενος. He cannot put his strength sufficiently to exercise by
the calm pace of those who have been walking all their lives. His
exultant ‘leaping’ was a part of his ‘ praising God.’
We can hardly fail to see, if we compare the narrative of this miracle
with that of the similar one wrought at Lystra by St Paul (xiv.), to
112 THE ACTS. ΠΗ; #2
which we have already referred, that St Luke has used faithfully the
materials with which he was furnished by ‘ eye-witnesses,’ and has
given the accounts as he received them without any colouring of his
own. In this chapter we have a description such as a painter would
desire; the scene is brought vividly before us, and all the characters are
in lively action. Itis just such an account as we find in St Mark’s
Gospel of the cure of the demoniac child (Mark ix. 14—27), and both
are quite in accord with all that we know of St Peter’s mode of speaking,
and from St Peter it is most probable that the narrative in this chapter
(like the substance of the Second Gospel) is derived. On the contrary,
the story of the cure wrought at Lystra by St Paul is told in the fewest
possible words and with no touch of the graphic power of which this
description is so full. The difference bespeaks the faithfulness of the
writer of the Acts, and shews us that he has left the narratives as they
came to his hand, without any attempt to stamp on them an
individuality of his own.
9. πᾶς 6 λαός, all the people. There was no lack of testimony to
the reality of the cure. Many of the witnesses must have known the
cripple for years. The Jewish authorities (iv. 16) admit the un-
impeachable character of the evidence.
10. ἐπεγίνωσκον. This verb is rendered they took knowledge in
iv. 13, and that is the better sense here. It can hardly be intended to
say that the whole of the people present knew the man. For the con-
struction which brings from the predicate-sentence its subject and
makes it the object in the antecedent clause, cf. below, ix. 20, ἐκήρυσ-
σεν Tov Ἰησοῦν ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Vids τοῦ θεοῦ.
πρός with an accusative of the aim or purpose. Cf. xxvii. 12, πρὸς
παραχειμασίαν, ‘for the purpose of wintering in.’
11—26. Sr Peter’s Discourse To THE CRowpD.
11. Σολομῶντος. As the name of Solomon was so intimately con-
nected with the Jewish temple, it is natural enough that one of its
porches (or cloisters) should be called after him. There is no account
of any such porch in Solomon’s own temple, but Josephus tells us
(Ant. xx. 9. 7) that there was an eastern porch in Herod’s temple
called by this name. The mention of this feature in the building is
a sign that the writer, from whom St Luke drew, was one acquainted
with the localities about which he speaks, and that the account was
written before the fall of Jerusalem, or he would not have said ‘is
called,’ or if he had done so would have been convicted of inconsistency
of language by those to whom his work was first presented.
ἔκθαμβοι is in the plural, because the notion of λαὸς is a plural one,
12. ἰδὼν δέ. Seeing, viz. their astonishment, as we may gather
from his opening words, τί θαυμάζετε.
ἀπεκρίνατο, gave answer, i.e. to their looks, for there had been no
words. This word, like the Hebr. 7, is frequently used for the first
utterance of a speaker, unevoked by any question. Cf. (LXX. and
Hebrew) Deut. xxi. 7, xxvi. 5, xxvii. 14. So too Acts v. 8, where
IIT. 14.] NOTES. 113
Peter is said to have answered Sapphira, though she had said nothing,
as far as we are told, and where the Apostle’s words are a question.
ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ‘at this man,’ as is evidenced by the pronoun being
αὐτόν at the end of the verse.
ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει. As he had said to the crippled man, so now he makes
it clear to the crowd, that the name of Jesus is the power to which the
cure is due.
εὐσεβείᾳ. That extreme devotion to God was sometimes conceived
to obtain miraculous power for its reward may be gathered from such
narratives as the raising of the widow’s son by Elijah (1 Kings xvii. 24).
The mother seeing her son restored to her says, ‘Now by this I know
that thou art a man of God.’ Cf. also Nicodemus’ statement, John
iii. 2.
πεποιηκόσιν τοῦ περιπατεῖν αὐτόν, having made him to walk. This
genitive of the infinitive is such a harsh construction after a verb with
which a direct infinitive would be expected, that it is worth while to
give a few illustrations of it, mainly from the LXX. 1 Chron. xvii. 6
ois ἐνετειλάμην Tod ποιμαίνειν τὸν λαόν μου, compared with 1 Kings xvii.
4 καὶ τοῖς κόραξιν ἐντελοῦμαι διατρέφειν σε ἐκεῖ. So too Is. v. 6 ταῖς
νεφέλαις ἐντελοῦμαι τοῦ μὴ βρέξαι εἰς αὐτὸν ὑετόν. The construction is
also found Gen. xxxvii. 18 ἐπονηρεύοντο τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτόν, Exod.
ii. 18 διὰ τί ἐταχύνατε τοῦ παραγενέσθαι σήμερον ; ‘How is it that ye
are come so soon to-day?’ (A.V.). Cf. also Acta Andr. Apocryph. 14
ἄλλοι οὖν Kal ἄλλοι ἐπετήδευον τοῦ λῦσαι αὐτόν, and Acta Petri et Pauli,
5, ἠἡτήσαντο Καίσαρα τοῦ ἀποστεῖλαι ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπαρχίαις αὐτοῦ.
13. ὁ θεὸς ᾿Αβραὰμ κιτιλ. The crowd of listening Jews must have
been sorely troubled to be told that they had been guilty of such re-
bellion against the God of their fathers.
maida αὐτοῦ, His servant. The use of this word would carry the
minds of the hearers back, as St Peter no doubt intended, to Isaiah
xlii. 1, ‘Behold my servant whom I uphold,’ a passage which St
Matthew (xii. 18) applies to Jesus.
ἠρνήσασθε.ς When to Pilate’s question (John xix. 15), ‘Shall I
erucify your king?’ they had answered, ‘We have no king but
Caesar,’
Kata πρόσωπον. This is a rendering of a Hebrew form spd, and is
common in the LXX. Cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 13, xvi. 8; 1 Kings i. 23.
κρίναντος. Render, when he had given sentence to release Him.
For Pilate had pronounced Jesus innocent (John xix. 4).
14. τὸν ἅγιον. Whom eyen the demoniac (Mark i, 24) had con-
fessed to be ‘the Holy One of God.’
φονέα, i.e. Barabbas, who had committed murder (Mark xv. 7;
Luke xxiii. 19). “Avdpa seems here joined with φονέα, a8 ἄνθρωπος so
often is with nouns that signify some occupation which is discredit-
able (γόης, συκοφάντης), to increase the odiousness of the term. So we
have ἀνὴρ γεωργός for a tributary servant, LXX. Gen. xlix. 15, a sort
of adscriptus glebe.
THE ACTS 8
114 THE ACTS. [Tir 15
15. ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς, the prince of life. The same word applied to
Jesus (Heb. xii. 2) is rendered ‘author and finisher of our faith,’ and in
the same epistle (ii. 10) ‘the captain of their salvation.’ It is probably
in the latter sense that St Peter, whose thoughts are on the resurrec-
tion, uses the word here, thinking of Christ as the firstfruits of them
that slept (1 Cor. xv. 20), but the other sense, that ‘in Him was life’
(John i. 4), is also embraced in the word.
ἤγειρεν, raised, i.e. once for all.
ov. This pronoun takes up the preceding ὃν, and refers to Jesus,
‘whose witnesses we are.’ Not merely of the Resurrection did the
Apostles bear witness, but of all Christ’s teaching and deeds. Cf. 1, 22,
where Matthias was chosen to be such a witness.
16. καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει κιτιλ., and on the ground of faith in His
name, His name hath made strong this man whom ye see and know.
This use of name = power, and even as an absolute equivalent for God,
is very Jewish; cf. iv. 12, The usage grew out of such passages as
Ps. evi. 8, ‘He saved them for His name’s sake.’ In the literature of
the Jews great power was attributed to the name of God even when
only inscribed, e.g. as it was said in tradition to have been on the
rod of Moses. By this power he is reported to have wrought the
miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness. But St Peter’s language
here explains that it is no such power of which he is now speaking,
for the name of Jesus does not work the miracle per se, but only
because of the faith of the believer.
For éri=on account of, cf. Luke v. 5, ἐπὶ τῷ ῥήματί cov χαλάσω τὸ
dixrvov=on account of thy bidding. See Winer-Moulton, p. 491, who
explains it as=‘ induced by.’
ἡ πίστις ἡ δι’ αὐτοῦ. Cf. the same Apostle’s words (1 Pet. i. 21),
τοὺς δὲ αὐτοῦ πιστοὺς, ‘you who through Him are believers.’ Christ
is ‘the author and finisher of our faith,’
ὁλοκληρίαν, complete soundness. The word occurs in the LXX. Is.
i. 6, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ ddoxAnpia. Also in later Greek writers, as Plu-
tarch.
17. κατὰ ἄγνοιαν, through ignorance. Ignorance has many degrees
and may arise from many causes. The Jewish multitude were igno-
rant from want of teaching, their rulers from mental perverseness in
looking only on one part of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Yet of both of these it may be said that through ignorance (i.e. want of
knowledge, however caused) they crucified Jesus. Compare the words
of Chrysostom, ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως δίδωσιν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν ἀρνήσασθαι καὶ μετα-
γνῶναι ἐπὶ τοῖς γεγεννημένοις" μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἀπολογίαν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν συντί-
θησιν εὐπρόσωπον, καὶ λέγει" ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἀθῷον ἀνηρεῖτε, ἤδειτε" ὅτι δὲ
τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς, ἴσως ἠγνοεῖτε. καὶ ἐντεῦθεν οὐκ αὐτοὺς μόνους
ἀφίησιν ἐγκλημάτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς τῶν κακῶν ἀρχιτέκτονας.
18, τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτοῦ, Render, by the mouth of all the prophets
that His Christ should suffer. The purpose of the whole of the Scrip-
ture is to set forth the redemption of men through the suffering of
Christ. So that from the first mention of the bruising of the heel of |
IIT. 20.] NOTES. 115
the seed of the woman (Gen. iii. 15), there had been a constant chain
of testimony that the Christ should suffer. The ignorance of the Jews
was manifested in this, that they would only see what spake of
the sovereignty of the Messiah, and so rejected Him who came to give
His life as a ransom for men.
οὕτως. Emphatic. By turning your evil deed to a purpose of
salvation. So Chrysostom, ὅρα πόση τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ σοφία, ὅτ᾽ ἂν ταῖς ἑτέρων
πονηρίαις els τὸ δέον ἢ κατακεχρημένη.
19. μετανοήσατε, repent; seeing how great your offence is, but
yet that sin done in ignorance may be pardoned.
ἐπιστρέψατε. Literally, turn again, 1.e. from the evil of your ways.
So (xi. 21) ‘a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.’ The
phrase ‘be converted’ of the A.V. has received much augmentation of
meaning since 1611.
ἐξαλειφθῆναι. A very common word in the LXX. for the blotting-
out of offences. The idea is, they are written down, but may be
erased, Cf. Jerem. xvili. 23, τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν ph ἐξαλείψῃς. So
Pss, 1. (li.) 1, 11, eviii. (cix.) 14; 2 Mace. xii. 42.
ὅπως av. These particles cannot be translated ‘when the times...
shall come,’ but ‘that the times...may come.’ They indicate a purpose,
the accomplishment of which still lies in doubt. So the Apostle’s
argument is, Repent, that your sins may be blotted out, that in this
way (i.e. by your penitence) the times of refreshing may come. ὅπως
ἄν is rendered in this sense (Acts xv. 17), ‘That the residue of men
might [better may] seek after the Lord.’ See also Luke ii. 35.
καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως. Literally, ‘appointed times of refreshing.’ These
God hath appointed and keeps in His own power, but the penitence of
men can hasten them. They are called ‘times of refreshing,’ i.e.
peace and blessedness, for the Apostle describes them afterwards as’
the coming of the Christ. But by the prophecies which he quotes he
shews that the refreshing is for those only who repent (vers. 23) and
hear the prophet whom God sends. The anticipation of a speedy
return of Christ from heaven was common among the first believers.
St Peter here does not directly state this opinion, but we can see how
current it was from St Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,
where he finds it necessary to warn the Christians of that Church
against the disquiet which the immediate expectation of the second
Advent was causing among them.
ἀνάψυξις is used in LXX. Exod. viii. 15 of the relief which Pharaoh
felt when the plague of frogs was removed.
20. Kal ἀποστείλῃ. The construction is continued from ὅπως dy in
the previous verse, Render, and that He may send.
προκεχειρισμένον, the Christ which was appointed for you, even
Jesus. This reading and sense agree with the proof which St Peter
presently cites (ver. 25), ‘Ye are the children of the covenant which
God made with our fathers.’ The Christ, the Messiah had been ap-
8—2
116 THE ACTS. (IT. 20—
pointed and promised unto the Jewish nation, and now the promise
of the covenant is fulfilled in Jesus.
21. ϑέξασθαι. And Peter and the rest could bear witness that He
was gone into heaven, His work on earth being finished.
ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων, restoration of all things, i.e. at Christ’s
second coming. But this phrase, ‘the restoration of all things,’ is used
in two sensesin N.T, For it is said (Matt. xvii. 11; Mark ix. 12) that
Elias must ‘first come and restore all things.’ There the beginning
of Christ’s Kingdom is meant. As Christ’s death was for all men’s
redemption, the restoration of all things may be said to have begun
then. In the present verse the words have reference to the time when
the course of that restoration shall be completed.
av ἐλάλησεν. For the attraction of the relative, see note on i. 1,
Render, of which [times] God hath spoken.
22. Μωῦσῆς μέν, Moses indeed said. Here the Apostle cites the
prophecies to which he has been alluding. First from Deut. xviii. 15
(though not quoting the LXX. quite exactly) he points out that the
prophet who had been promised was to be of their brethren, as Moses
had been.. This was a comparison which the Jews themselves were
fond of making, and they often identified the prophet of whom Moses
spake with the Messiah. Thus the Midrash Rabbah on Eccl. i. 9 says,
‘Rabbi Berakhiah in the name of Rabbi Yizkhak [Isaac] says: ‘‘ As
was the former redeemer so shall the latter redeemer be.’’ While of the
former redeemer it is said (Exod. iv. 20), ‘‘ And Moses took his wife
and his sons and set them upon an ass,” so of the latter: for it says
(Zech. ix. 9), ‘‘He is lowly and riding upon an ass.” And while the
former redeemer brought down manna, as it says (Exod. xvi. 4), ‘‘Be-
hold I will rain bread from heaven for you,” so the latter redeemer will
bring down manna. For it says (Ps. lxxii. 16), ‘‘ There shall be abund-
ance of corn in the earth.” And as the former redeemer caused the
well to spring up (see Num. xxi. 17), so the latter redeemer shall also
cause the waters to spring up. For it says (Joel iii. 18), ‘‘A fountain
shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley
of Shittim.””’
ὡς ἐμέ, like unto me. This is a rendering of the Hebrew 5, and
is very common in the LXX. Cf. Jud. viii. 18 καὶ εἶπαν Ὥς σὺ ὡς
αὐτοὶ, els ὁμοίωμα υἱοῦ βασιλέως.
ἀκούσεσθε, i.e. those who have ‘ears to hear’ when the prophet
comes and speaks. The next verse shews that all the nation were not
included in the ‘ye.’
24. καὶ πάντες δὲ οἱ προφῆται. To other prophecies St Peter only
makes a general reference. We learn (Midrash Shemuel, c. 24) that
Samuel was called by the Jews the Rabban, the chief and teacher, of
the prophets and there are several reasons why he is put in this fore-
most place. (1) We never read of a school of the prophets before his
time. (2) His mother Hannah is the first person in Holy Writ
who speaks of the Messiah (1 Sam. ii. 10), ‘God’s anointed.’ (3)
IIT. 36. NOTES. 117
Jewish tradition says that the man of God who came to Eli (1 Sam.
ii, 27) was Elkanah. The Targum on 1 Sam.x. 12, ‘But who is their
father?’ explains father by Rabbi, and refers the word to Samuel, so
that the question in that verse would imply, ‘Why do you wonder at
Saul among the prophets? Who is it that instructs the prophets? Is
it not Samuel? And has not Saul been with him just now and been
anointed by him?’ All this could be said without the speaker having
any knowledge that Saul was to be king. For the use of father
as=teacher or Rabbi cf. Elisha’s cry to Elijah (2 Kings ii, 12), ‘My
father, my father.’
ὅσοι ἐλάλησαν Kal κατήγγειλαν. Render, as many as spake they
also told of these days. The προ which is prefixed to the latter verb
in the Teaxt: recept. seems to have been introduced with the notion
that the words of a prophet must of necessity be predictive. Where-
as the prophet was one who spake for God, gave a message in His
name, but was not necessarily a foreteller of the future.
25. viol τῶν προφητῶν. Render, sons of the prophets, i.e. of the
same race as they, and hence what they spake is meant for you.
For you is the prophet raised up whom Moses foretold.
καὶ τῆς διαθήκης, and [sons] of the covenant, i.e. heirs to its
promises and obligations. So (2 Kings xiv. 14) hostages are called
literally sons of the pledgings or compacts. LXX. οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν συμμίξεων.
So the two anointed ones are called LXX. Zech. iv. 14 viol τῆς πιό-
TNTOS.
λέγων. The quotation is from Gen, xxii. 18, but the LXX. instead
of πᾶσαι ai πατριαὶ has πάντα τὰ ἔθνη.
26. ὑμῖν πρῶτον. That the house of Israel might first receive the
blessing, and be God’s instruments in spreading it abroad.
ἀναστήσας. The word is used here not of the resurrection of
Jesus, but recalling the promise of Moses, cited in v. 22 that a
prophet should be raised up (ἀναστήσει κύριος) and sent unto the
people.
τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ, His servant. See note on verse 13.
εὐλογοῦντα, to bless you (literally, blessing you), i.e. by the appointed
times of refreshing alluded to in verse 19. The way and means to
this blessing is to be by the repentance and turning again to which
the Apostle has been exhorting them. And to effect this they must
turn away from their iniquities, but for doing this he assures them
they will find present help in Christ.
Such a construction as this of a present participle after an aorist
tense has sometimes been explained as though it were equal to a
future. It is better to regard the action expressed by the participle as
having begun from the point of time indicated by the verb. So here,
the blessing was ready for the faithful as soon as ever Christ was
sent. Cf. Winer-Moulton, p. 429.
ἐν TO ἀποστρέφειν, in turning away every one of you from his
iniquities, This word is very common in the LXX. in this sense,
118 THE ACTS. [IIT. 26—
See Ezek. xviii. 27, ἐν τῷ ἀποστρέψαι ἄνομον ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας αὐτοῦ.
Also Ezek, iii. 19, xxxiii. 14 and Jonah iii. 10, ἀπέστρεψαν ἀπὸ τῶν
ὁδῶν αὐτῶν τῶν πονηρῶν.
CHAPTER IV.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
6. “Avvas «.7.A. All the names in this verse are in the nomina-
tive with SAB. The Vulg. has also nominatives but the construction
of the previous verse in the Latin brings the words there also into the
same case.
8. τοῦ Ἰσραήλ omitted with NAB. The Vulg. also omits, but reads
‘Principes populi et seniores, audite.’
11. οἰκοδόμων instead of οἰκοδομούντων with NABD. The Vulg.
has a participle.
17. ἀπειλῇ omitted with NABD. Unrepresented in the Vulg.
18. αὐτοῖς omitted with NABDE. The Vulg. gives the pronoun
only once, ‘vocantes eos.’
19. εἶπον πρὸς αὐτούς with NABDE, and the Vulg. agrees with this.
24. ὁ Θεὸς after od omitted with NAB. Vulg. has ‘tu es qui
fecisti.’
25. ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου στόματος Aaveld παιδός
σου. This is the reading of NABE. The Vulg. in some degree
confirms it, having ‘qui Spiritu sancto per os patris nostri David,
pueri tui.’ But the reading is full of difficulty and there is probably
some error. The Vulg. would seem to have had τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν after
στόματος, and, it may be, another διὰ preceding that word. Dr Hort
suggests that τοῦ πατρὸς may be a corruption for τοῖς πατράσιν, and
that στόματος &c. may be taken in apposition with what precedes, the
mouth of David being represented as the mouth of the Holy Ghost.
27. After ἀληθείας add ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ With NABDE. Vulg. ‘in
civitate ista.’
32. ἡ omitted before καρδία and ψυχὴ with NABD.
33. δυνάμει μεγάλῃ (the order of the Vulg.) with SABD and several
cursives.
34. ἦν for ὑπῆρχεν with NABF,
36. ᾿Ιωσὴφ with NABDE and Vulg., also several cursives and some
other versions.
IV. 1.] NOTES. 119
Cu, IV. 1—12. First Arrest oF THE AposTLEs. THEIR HEARING
AND DEFENCE.
1. λαλούντων δέ. Some little time must have elapsed since Pente-
cost, for now the movements of the Apostles have become a matter of
concern to the Jewish authorities. See their complaint (v. 28). There
is no note of time at the beginning of chap. iii. It need not have been
a long period, for news soon spread in the city, as we learn from the
events related in the previous chapter.
ἐπέστησαν, came upon them, 1.6, to arrest them. The same word
is used (xxiii. 27) of the action of the chief captain. See note there.
οἱ ἱερεῖς. Those whose duty it was at the time to take charge of the
Temple services, and who probably had taken offence at the multitudes
assembled in the Temple court. The division of the priests was into
twenty-four courses, each of which was to serve in the Temple for
a week, see 1 Chron. xxiv. 1—19; 2 Chron. xxiii. 8. It was during
such service in the order of his course, that the promise of the birth of
John the Baptist was made to Zacharias the priest (Luke i. 5—8).
Some versions render high-priests, but these were only gathered to the
council on the following day.
6 στρατηγὸς Tov ἱεροῦ. There is mentioned in the O. T. an officer
whose title is ‘the ruler of the house of God,’ ὁ ἡγούμενος οἰκοῦ κυρίου
(or τοῦ θεοῦ), (1 Chron. ix. 11; 2 Chron. xxxi. 13; Neh. xi, 11). He
was not a military officer, but had charge of the guard of priests and
Levites who watched the Temple at night. There are two titles given
to such an officer in the later writings of the Jews. (1) the memunneh
(T. Babl. Tamid 1.), a kind of prefect of the Temple guard; and (2) a
higher officer called ‘the captain of the mountain of the [Lord’s]
house.’ (1. Babl. Middoth 11.) Rabbenu Shimshon describes this
second officer as ‘the Commander who was set over every watch of
those that watched in the less sacred portion of the Temple.’ He was
apparently a civil as well as a religious official, for we find (v. 26) that
he goes with ‘the officers’ to make the second arrest of the Apostles.
ot Σαδδουκαῖοι. This was the name of one of the most influential
sects among the Jews in our Lord’s time. Their name has been
variously explained. The Jewish authorities state that the name,
which they write T'sedukim, is derived from Tsadok (Zadok) the proper
name, and that thus they are ‘the followers of Zadok.’ The Zadok
from whom they derive the title is said to have been a disciple of
Antigonus of Socho. This Antigonus is the second in order of the
Jewish Fathers whose sayings are recorded in the Pirke Aboth, and
the commentators thereon mention two of his pupils, Baithos and
Zadok, to the latter of whom and to his followers they attribute the
teaching that ‘there was nothing for them in the world tocome.’ But
it is perhaps more probable, from their constant connexion with the
priests, that the name of the Sadducees was derived from the more
famous Zadok who became high priest in the reign of king Solomon
(1 Kings ii. 35). We read of the distinction of his descendants as
‘the sons of Zadok,’ and ‘the priests the Levites of the seed of
120 THE ACTS. (IV. 1—
Zadok,’ even as late as the description of Ezekiel’s temple (Ezek.
xl. 46, xliv. 15). The probability of this priestly descent of the
sect of the Sadducees is strengthened by the way in which they are
mentioned Acts v. 17, ‘Then rose up the high priest and all they that
were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees),’ The derivation
which makes their name the plural of the Hebrew adjective Tsaddik,
=righteous, has not much authority to support it.
The teaching of the Sadducees is partly described (Acts xxiii. 8).
They ‘say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit.’ In
addition to this they attached no authority to the Oral Law, while the
Pharisees maintained that the greater portion thereof had been trans-
mitted to them from Moses. The Sadducees also taught the doctrine
of the freedom of the will of men. The statement that they rejected
all the Old Testament Scriptures except the Pentateuch has no con-
firmation in Josephus, and has arisen from a confusion of the Sadducees
with the Samaritans. Josephus (Antiq. xvut. 1. 4) says ‘their doctrine
is accepted only by a few, but yet by those of the greatest dignity,’ a
statement fully borne out by the influential position in which we find
them when the history of the Acts opens. They play no very pro-
minent part in the Gospel history, because the teaching of Christ while
on earth was directed more specially against the formalism and out-
ward show of religion that prevailed among the Pharisees. It is
when the doctrine of the resurrection begins to be preached that the
hostility of the Sadducees makes itself most apparent.
2. διαπονούμενοι. The word is found in LXX. (Eccles. x. 9) of the
pain and risk which a man incurs in removing stones. Here the pain
is mental, they were sorely grieved. It is used (xvi. 18) of St Paul’s
feeling when the ‘damsel possessed with a spirit of divination’ cried
after him at Philippi.
Chrysostom’s words on this sentence are: διεπονοῦντο οὐ μόνον ὅτι
ἐδίδασκον, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι οὐκ αὐτὸν μόνον ἔλεγον ἐγηγέρθαι, ἀλλὰ Kal ἡμᾶς δι᾽
ἐκεῖνον ἀνίστασθαι. οὕτως ἰσχυρὰ ἐγένετο ἡ ἀνάστασις ὡς καὶ ἑτέροις αὐτὸν
αἴτιον γενέσθαι ἀναστάσεως.
διδάσκειν. The scribes and priests would have made teaching a
monopoly of their own, and would be the more vexed because these
new teachers were ἄνθρωποι ἀγράμματοι. See verse 13,
καταγγέλλειν ἐν τῷ “I. x.7.A. Render, and published in Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. This would rouse the feelings of the Sad-
ducees. The resurrection is said to be in Jesus, because His resurrec-
tion was a pledge that all should rise. ‘In Christ all shall be made
alive’ (1 Cor. xv. 22). The language of the Apostles in the Acts does
not dwell on this as a consequence of the resurrection of Jesus, for the
Apostles set forth at first what was historical rather than doctrinal
teaching. Their language was a proclamation, not an argument.
τὴν ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν, the resurrection from the dead. Here
this expression seems to mean exactly the same as ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν
in xxiv. 21, viz. the general resurrection. The latter expression is the
more common, being found nine or ten times (in Acts xxiv. 15 modern
IV. 4.] NOTES. 121
editors omit νεκρῶν), and means most frequently the general resur-
rection, though it is applied to Christ’s resurrection in Acts xxvi. 23;
Rom. i. 4; while in 1 Cor. xy. 21 it signifies the general resurrection
implied i in the particular raising up of Jesus.
ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν is found twice (Matt. xxii. 31; 1 Cor. XV. 42)
of the general resurrection ; and the form in this verse (ἡ ἀνάστασις ἡ
ἐκ νεκρῶν) is found again in Luke xx. 35, there, as here, signifying the
resurrection of all men. Like this is ἡ ἐξανάστασις ἡ ἐκ νεκρών οἵ
Phil. iii. 11. And we have once (1 Pet. i. 3) ἀνάστασις ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ
ἐκ νεκρῶν.
When the verb (ἐγείρω, ἀνίστημι, 0.) is used, the preposition which
most usually follows it is ἐκ commonly ἐκ νεκρῶν, now and then ἐκ
τῶν νεκρῶν. In St Matthew we have, three times, ὠπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν
(xiv. 2, xxvii. 64, xxviii. 7).
It appears that the preposition most commonly employed after the
verb was also put after the derived noun (as 1 Pet. i. 3); and once or
Swice the preposition was used, as here, in the adjectival form (ἡ ἐκ
νεκρῶν) appended to the noun.
Those sentences where the verb is used refer nearly always to
Christ’s coming up from among the dead, or to some particular rising,
like that of Lazarus or John the Baptist; but once in Mark xii. 25
there is a wider sense. Where the noun is found the phrase is nearly
always of the general resurrection, though the examples given above
shew that it is sometimes restricted to our Lord’s rising again.
3. τήρησιν, ward, safe keeping, i.e. in a prison-house. And it
is worth noticing on the use of it, that the Jews only employed im-
prisonment for this precautionary purpose. It was not a mode of
punishment with them, and where we find mention of it so used in
the Scripture records, the authorities who inflicted it were not Jewish.
ἑσπέρα ἤδη, already eventide. The Apostles had gone up to the
Temple about the ninth hour, so sundown would soon come on, and
the Jews were not allowed to give judgment in the night, while ‘their
day ceased at the twelfth hour. The Rabbis founded the prohibition
on Jer. xxi. 12, ‘O house of David, thus saith the Lord, Execute
judgment in the morning.’ In Mishna Sanhedrin tv. 1 it is said:
‘Judgments about money may be commenced in the day and con-
cluded in the night, but judgments about life must be begun in the
day and concluded in the day.’ And even the rule about the de-
claration of the new moon, which was looked on as a judicial pro-
ceeding, is similarly regulated (Mishna Rosh ha-Shanah ται. 1), and it
may not be declared unless the examination of the witnesses and all
other preliminaries enjoined before its proclamation be completed
before dark.
4. πολλοὶ δέ, but many &c.; 1.6, they were not deterred by the
arrest of the Apostles.
ἐπίστευσαν, believed, 1.6. on Him (Jesus) whom Peter had set
before them as the Prophet of whom Moses had spoken.
ἐγενήθη, came to, amounted to. Thus the Christian brotherhood
122 THE ACTS. [IV. 4— |
nek gained nearly two thousand adherents since the day of- Pentecost
(cf. ii. 41).
δ. ἐπὶ τὴν αὔριον, on the morrow, when the investigation was
permitted to be held.
τοὺς ἄρχοντας Kal τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους. Here we may see that the
party of the Sadducees was at this time the party of power and in-
fluence.
Kal τοὺς γραμματεῖς. Not only did the Scribes copy, but they also
expounded the Law. And the teaching of the followers of Jesus
would probably differ as much as did His own from the lessons of the
Scribes. Cf, Matth. vii. 29.
ἐν ‘IepoveaArp. This is the preposition in the best MSS. Some of
the authorities may have resided away from the city, and had to be
summoned. Hence συναχθῆναι, to be gathered together.
6. καὶ “Avvas ὁ ἀρχιερεύς, and Annas the high-priest was there.
The verb in this sentence is understood. Annas (called Ananus in
Josephus) son of one Seth was made high-priest (4.p.7) by the Roman
governor Quirinus [Cyrenius], and so continued till a.p. 14 (Joseph.
Antig. xvi. 2.1). We do not find that he was ever again appointed
to the office, though St Luke here calls him high-priest. But the way
in which he is mentioned at the time of the trial of Christ, who was
brought, as we read, before Annas first (John xviii. 13), and sent by
him afterwards bound unto Caiaphas, shews that, though not actual
high-priest, yet in the eyes of the people of Jerusalem his position
was one which justified them in bringing Jesus to him as soon as he
was seized. It is difficult to explain from the words of the New Test.
the relation of these two men in their office. Caiaphas is expressly
called high-priest by St John, yet we are not told why Christ was not
at once brought to him, It may be that one was acting high-priest,
while the other was nasi or president of the Sanhedrin. Moreover
it is not improbable that Annas, haying been high-priest before, and
only deposed from the office by the Roman governor Gratus, would,
both during the short high-priesthood of his son Eleazar (4.p. 16), and
the longer high-priesthood of Caiaphas, his son-in-law (A.D. 25—37),
exercise much influence by reason of his age and experience, and might
from his former tenure of the office even be spoken of as high-priest.
It is clear that he was at the head of one of the most influential Jewish
families, for before his death, five of his sons had been high-priests
(Joseph. Antig. xx. 9.1). We can see from Luke iii. 2, where both
Annas and Caiaphas are said to be high-priests, that there was some
laxity in the common use of the title. So far only does the New Testa-
ment carry us, but when we come to examine the Old Testament, and
the records of later Jewish literature, there seems every reason to con-
clude that the expressions which seem somewhat hard to reconcile are
exactly those which would naturally be employed. We find that Moses,
who is himself counted (Ps. xcix. 6) high-priest on the same level with
Aaron, anointed not Aaron only, but his sons at the same time (Exod.
xl. 12—15) to be high-priests. Also (Numb. xxxi. 6) Phinehas the son
of Eleazar is sent to the war against the Midianites with ‘the holy
IV. 6.] NOTES. 123
instruments’ (i.e. the Urim and Thummim), which shews that he was
high-priest at the same time as EHleazar his father. Again in later
times (2 Kings xxv. 18) we have mention made of ‘Seraiah the chief
priest and Zephaniah the second priest,’ which the Targum explains
as ‘high-priest and Sagan’ or deputy high-priest. The Talmud makes
it very clear that there was a special arrangement for providing on
some occasions such a deputy for the high-priest. Thus (Mishna Joma
1. 1) it says, ‘Seven days before the day of atonement they remove the
high-priest from his house to the chamber of the assessors, and they
provide another priest in his place lest any disqualification should
befall him.’ On this passage Rashi’s note is ‘to be high-priest instead
of him’: and a little later on in the same treatise (T. B. Joma 39 a) it
is said concerning the services of the Day of Atonement: ‘Rabbi
Khanina the Sagan of the priests (and so one qualified to speak on the
duties of the office) said: ‘* Why does the Sagan stand on the right
hand of the high-priest (when the lots are being cast for the goats)?”
The answer is, ‘‘ So that if any disqualification should befall him, the
Sagan may go in (to the Holy of Holies) and perform the service in
his stead.”’ Cp. also Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus (par. 20 ad fin.).
‘If there was any defilement on Aaron, Eleazar served (as high-priest),
and if there was any defilement on Eleazar, Ithamar served.’ (On
the slight matters which caused such ceremonial defilement, see note
on x. 28.) And in the same chapter we find ‘Had not Elisheba
(Exod. vi. 23, the wife of Aaron) joy in this world who saw five crowns
(i.e. subjects for rejoicing) in one day; her brother-in-law (Moses) a
king (Deut. xxxiii. 5); her brother (Naashon) nasi, i.e. president of the
Sanhedrin ; her husband high-priest; her two sons, Sagans of the
high-priest; and Phinehas her grandson anointed for the war?’ These
notices make it clear that from the earliest times down to a period
posterior to the date of the Acts, there were occasions, and these
not unfrequent, when two men were called high-priests at the same
time.
That one who had been high-priest should still retain the title may
be seen from the principle laid down in several places in the Talmud,
(see Mishna Shekalim v1. 6, ed. prince. Jerus.), viz. that ‘you may
elevate in a sacred office or service, but you cannot bring down’: as
with us ‘once a Bishop, always a Bishop.’ The illustration given is
that you might lay the shewbread on a marble table first, and after-
wards on a golden one, but the contrary order of proceeding was for-
bidden. (For another illustration, see note on vi. 3.) Therefore
Annas, having been high-priest could, according to Jewish usage,
never be called by any lower title.
The relationship between Annas and Caiaphas and the seniority
of the former is enough to explain the conduct of the crowd in bringing
Jesus to him first: while the omission of the word high-priest (Acts
iv. 6) with the name of Caiaphas is no more a proof that he was not
also known to be high-priest, as well as Annas, than the words of
St Mark’s Gospel (xvi. 7), ‘Go your way, tell His disciples and Peter’
can be made evidence that Peter was not one of the disciples. For
a similar phrase see chap. v. 29 and the note there.
124 THE ACTS. τ frees
καὶ Καϊάφας, and Caiaphas. He was called Joseph Caiaphas
(Joseph. Ant. xv1. 22), and was son-in-law of Annas.
καὶ ᾿Ιωάννης, and John. This is the same name as Johanan, and
Lightfoot concludes that this person was the famous Johanan ben
Zaceai, who by his influence with Vespasian procured permission for
many of the Jews to settle in Jamnia (Jafneh) after the destruction of
their city, and himself became head of the synagogue there.
καὶ ᾿Αλέξανδρος, and Alexander, of whom we have no other
notice than this. The adoption of a Greek name, and his being by
that best known, is a sign that foreign influence was at this time
strong among the Jews.
ἀρχιερατικοῦ. The adjective is of rare occurrence. It occurs of the
chief priest’s dress τὸ ἔνδυμα τὸ ἀρχιερατικόν in the Acta Philippi in
Hellade §§ 9 and 23; also Joseph. Ant. x1. 8. 2. Here ‘the kindred
of the high priest’ would most likely all of them belong to the sect
of the Sadducees.
7. ἐν τῷ μέσῳ, in the midst. The council or Sanhedrin was
assembled in the Beth-din or Judgment-hall.
ἐν ποίᾳ δυνάμει, by what power. The noun here is the same
which is used often for ‘a mighty work,’ and so has the force of
‘miraculous power.’
ἢ ἐν ποίῳ ὀνόματι. Literally ‘in what name.’ But ὄνομα is con-
stantly used in the sense of authority. In this second member of the
sentence, the literal translation is the most forcible. Cf. Peter’s very
words in iii. 6.
8. πνεύματος ἁγίου. The Spirit of God which had come upon him
had changed Peter ‘into another man.’ Cf. 1 Sam. x. 6.
ἄρχοντες τοῦ λαοῦ. This was the highest tribunal which the Jews
possessed.
Kal πρεσβύτεροι. The council was composed of the chief priests, i.e.
the heads of each of the twenty-four classes into which the priests
were divided, the scribes, men who were skilled in all the Jewish law,
and the elders, grave and learned men chosen to complete the number,
which is stated to have been in all seventy-one.
9. εἰ. This conjunction followed as here by the verb in the indi-
cative=if, as is really the case; and so in sense is equivalent to
ἐπεὶ, since, but may still be rendered ‘if.’
ἀνακρινόμεθα K.t.A. Render, we are examined concerning a good
deed done to an impotent man. Both the nouns are without the article.
This of itself however is not conclusive, as may be seen below in verse
11, εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας. Not unfrequently after a preposition the
article is omitted even where a definite sense is required. But in this
verse the definiteness begins in the οὗτος which follows immediately.
εὐεργεσία very often means well-doing, kindness of spirit, generally,
but it is used of a concrete act, as here, in 2 Mace. ix. 26, ἀξιῶ μεμνημέ-
νους τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν, “1 claim that ye should remember my good actions,’
-ν
Ἐν. 191 NOTES. 125
ἐν τίνι οὗτος σέσωσται, by what means this man is made whole.
The demonstrative pronoun should be expressed in the translation (it
is not so in A.V.) for it is emphatically inserted in the Greek. The
man was there for all to see (cf. verse 14) and probably St Peter
pointed him out as he spake.
σέσωσται. The verb σώξω primarily refers to the body, and means
the keeping of that safe and sound, and out of peril of death. Then
it is used for healing, bringing the body into a sound state out of an
unsound one. But as disease and death are the consequences of sin,
the scriptural use of the word was elevated, and it meant in the end
the salvation of the soul.
10. ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι, in the name, as before in verse 7.
ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε, ye crucified. For though the Roman soldiers
were the actual agents in the crucifixion, it was the Jewish people
and their rulers who set the Roman power in motion and urged it to
the last extremity. The pronoun is therefore emphatically inserted.
ἐν τούτῳ. Refer back to the previous ἐν, and so render, in this
name.
11. οὗτος, this, viz. Jesus.
ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν τῶν οἰκοδόμων. Render, of you the builders. The article
has its proper force. The council are fitly called the builders, for on
them depended the whole religious and civil government of the people.
St Peter, with his mind now enlightened to apply the Scriptures, uses
the words of the Psalmist (cxvili, 22) as spoken prophetically of
Christ. Christ had already (Matt. xxi, 42) applied these words to
Himself and to the way in which He was being rejected of the Jews, in
the close of one of His parables which the Pharisees felt had been
spoken against them.
The rendering of the Psalm by the Apostle does not altogether
accord with the words of the LXX.
εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας, the head of the corner. Christ, now exalted
into heaven, is no longer the despised, but is become the most im-
portant, stone in the new bui e-Christian society, ef. Eph.
ii. 20—22. St Peter uses this quotation in his Epistle (1 Pet. ii. 7),
and joins with it a passa _xxyili. 16) where the like figure is
cmpleye prophetically of the Messiah, ‘the foundation stone laid in
jon.” sen iy Re eT
For the expression cf. LXX. Jerem., xxviii. 26, λίθος εἰς γωνίαν and
Job xxxvill. 6 ὁ βαλὼν λίθον γωνιαῖον.
12. καὶ... ἡ σωτηρία. Render, and salvation is not in any other, i.e.
salvation in all the fulness of its conception. St Peter thus intimates
that the cure of the lame man is only a sign of the power of salvation
for the soul which was in Jesus. The people were to draw from the
effect produced by ‘Arise and walk,’ the conclusion that the same
power could as surely give the greater blessing, ‘thy sins be forgiven
thee’ (Matt. ix. 5). Cf. on σώξω, verse 9, and the use of σωθῆναι
immediately.
126 THE ACTS. [IV. 12—
τὸ δεδομένον ἐν ἀνθρώποις, i.e. communicated to men by God, as a
means of salvation.
Set implies the necessity of seeking our salvation in this name, if
we are ever to find it.
13—22. Tur APOSTLES ARE DISMISSED UNPUNISHED,
13. θεωροῦντες. This is not the common verb for seeing, but im-
plies that they beheld with some astonishment.
παρρησίαν, a freedom and readiness of speech not to be expected in
unlearned men. This it was which made them wonder.
tov Πέτρου... καὶ "Iwdvvov. It appears then, though St Luke has
not recorded a word of his, that St John had also shewn boldness of
speech on this occasion. Another evidence that St Luke has not
aimed to report complete speeches of those about whom he writes,
ἰδιῶται. Render, common men. The word signifies plebeian, as
opposed to men of noble birth.
ἐπεγίνωσκόν te αὐτούς. These words have been interpreted as
though they meant that the members of the Sanhedrin now for the
first time discovered the relation in which the two Apostles stood to
Jesus. Those who press such a rendering must overlook the force of
the very same verb as used in 111, 10, ‘They knew that it was he
which sat for alms.’ The men of whom this is said had known the
cripple for years, but now observed in addition that he was a cripple
no longer, though still the same man whom they had‘so long seen
begging. Just so with the Jewish authorities; they could hardly fail
to have known the connexion of the preachers with Jesus after the
sermon on the Day of Pentecost and the events which followed it, and
now they further (ἐπὶ) notice that as the Master’s words had been
powerful, so there was like power in the language of those who had
been with Him. We are told (John xviii. 15) of one disciple, taken
always to be St John himself, that he was known to the high-priest
before the Crucifixion,
14. τόν τεἄνθρωπον. It has been asked on this verse: Why did the
sight of the healed man so utterly confound the judges that they had
not a word to say? We may see from what happened afterwards that
there were men in the council not without the thought that God was
really working through the Apostles. Gamaliel says (v. 39) ‘If this
work be of God’; and if this feeling operated in him, the recognised
head of the Jewish court, it is not unlikely that others were also
silent with the consideration that ‘haply they might be fighting against
God.’
Chrysostom says the miracle spake as forcibly as did the Apostles:
οὐχ ἧττον δὲ τῆς τούτων φωνῆς ἠφίει φωνὴν τὸ θαῦμα καὶ τὸ tia é
δὴ καὶ μάλιστα ἐνέφραξεν αὐτῶν τὰ στόματα.
15. ἔξω Tov συνεδρίου, i.e. to retire from the ee chamber
while the members of the council considered in conference what
course should be taken. συνέβαλλον is the word used (xvii. 18) of the
TV. 21. NOTES. 127°
conference of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers with St Paul at
Athens,
16. γνωστόν, well-known, patent to all. For the word, which is
legs common in the singular than in the plural, cf. Ecclus. xxi. 7 yrw-
στὸς μακρόθεν ὁ δυνατὸς ἐν γλώσσῃ.
πᾶσιν... φανερόν, manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. Be-
cause all the inhabitants knew the beggar at the Temple-gate, and that
he had been lame all his life. There could only be two grounds on
which, in reference to the cure of the cripple, the Apostles could be
worthy of punishment: (1) If it were a case of imposture, but this
nobody in the council or anywhere else insinuated, or (2) if the
miracle had been wrought by some unlawful agency (Deut. xiil.). The
question of the Sanhedrin points in this direction, ‘By what power
have ye done this?’ But Peter from the first (iii. 13) had ascribed
the miracle to the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,’ and again
testifies that it is God through Jesus Christ that hath made the
man whole. So that there was no charge possible on the second
ground.
17. διανεμηθῇ, be spread abroad, i.e. the fame of the miracle and
the consequent belief in the divinity of Jesus.
ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι. The notion in the preposition here is that of rest-
ing upon. The Apostles were no more to make the name of Jesus the
basis and groundwork of their addresses, nor to refer to it as the
source of their power.
18. καλέσαντες, having called them, i.e. back again into the council-
chamber.
παρήγγειλαν, they commanded. The verb is frequently used of our
Lord’s strict injunctions that His miracles should not be published
abroad (Mark vi. 8; Luke v. 14, &c.).
τὸ καθόλου, at all. This not very common adverb is found in verse
26 of the Song of the Three Children, καὶ οὐχ ἥψατο αὐτῶν τὸ καθόλου
TO πῦρ.
19. ὁ δὲ Πέτρος kal ᾿Ιωάννης. Both alike express their determina-
tion to publish the news of Christ’s life and resurrection. The
reason why both names are here mentioned may be that each was
separately appealed to for a promise to desist. For an instance of like
firmness in a good cause cf. 2 Mace. vii. 30.
κρίνατε, judge ye, i.e. come to whatever decision you please. Our
minds are made up, and ‘we are not careful to answer you in this
matter.’
20. εἴδαμεν kal ἠκούσαμεν, we saw and heard. For the witness
is to be concerning the whole life of Jesus.
21. προσαπειλησάμενοι, having further threatened. The first
threats must have been made as soon as the Apostles were called
back into the council-hall, as was suggested in verse 17. They did
not see their way to do more than threaten, because the people were
sure that the lame man had been healed and that there was no charge
128 THE ACTS. [Iv. 21
against the Apostles for which they deserved punishment. They
could not say that the miracle was untrue, for there was the man
standing by, and proving its reality; and they could not inflict a
punishment ‘for a good deed,’ nor could they find any ground for an
accusation in the declaration that the man had been healed in the
name of Jesus.
On the contrast between the courage of the Apostles and the terror
of the Sanhedrin Chrysostom says: τοιοῦτον ἣ φιλοσοφία. ἐκεῖνοι ἐν
ἀπορίᾳ, οὗτοι ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ" ἐκεῖνοι πολλῆς γέμοντες αἰσχύνης, οὗτοι
μετὰ παῤῥησίας πάντα πράττοντες" ἐκεῖνοι ἐν τῷ δεδοικέναι, οὗτοι ἐν
τῷ θαῤῥεῖν. τίνες γὰρ ἦσαν, εἰπέ μοι, οἱ φοβούμενοι; οἱ λέγοντες ἵνα
μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον διανεμηθῇ εἰς τὸν λαὸν ἢ οἱ λέγοντες οὐ δυνάμεθα ἃ εἴδαμεν
καὶ ἠκούσαμεν μὴ λαλεῖν ; καὶ ἐν ἡδονῇ καὶ ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ καὶ ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ
μείζονι πάντων οὗτοι" ἐκεῖνοι ἐν ἀθυμίᾳ ἐν αἰσχύνῃ ἐν φόβῳ. τὸν γὰρ
λαὸν ἐδεδοίκεσαν. ἃ ἐβούλοντο ἐφθέγξαντο οὗτοι, ἐκεῖνοι ἃ ἐβούλοντο οὐκ
ἐποίησαν. τίνες ἦσαν ἐν δεσμοῖς καὶ ἐν κινδύνοις ;
τὸ πῶς κολάσωνται, i.e. on what pretext, or in what way they might
punish them, without enraging the multitude. For the form of the
sentence cf. 1 Thess. iv. 1 παρελάβετε παρ᾽ ἡμῶν τὸ πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς περι-
πατεῖν.
22. ἐτῶν... τεσσεράκοντα, above forty years old. To one who
looked on the circumstances, as St Luke, with a physician’s eye
(Col. iv. 14), this feature would be most noticeable. For limbs un-
used shrink and wither, and become disproportionate to the other
parts of the frame.
ἐφ᾽ ὃν γεγόνει τὸ σημεῖον κιτλ. Literally, ‘on whom this sign of
healing was wrought.’ The A.V. rendering σημεῖον by miracle has
given somewhat of its sense by using the verb shewed.
23—31. Tuer APOSTLES RELEASED, ‘THEIR PRAYER AND ITS
ANSWER.
23. πρὸς τοὺς ἰδίους, to their own company, who were perhaps still
abiding in the upper room which they had occupied before Pentecost.
Because St Peter on a later occasion (xii. 12) made his way, after his
delivery from prison, to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark
where many were gathered together praying, some have thought that
this was the house where the Apostles had dwelt from the first. Such
men at such a time would have neither means (see iii. 6) nor in-
clination to change from house to house, and Christ’s injunction
(Luke x. 7) ‘Go not from house to house’ was given with a pur-
pose which the Apostles would be likely to bear in mind and act
upon.
24. ot δὲ ἀκούσαντες, and they, having heard it, viz. the report
of the threats.
ἦραν φωνήν, lifted up their voice. The compound verb ἐπαίρειν is
the more common in classical Greek in this phrase. Both forms are ©
found in the LXX. For αἴρειν φωνὴν cf. Judges xxi. 2; 1 Sam. xi. 4,
and ἐπαίρειν occurs Judges ix. 7; Ruth i. 9,14. The words of the
IV. 27.] NOTES. 129
prayer which follows have so direct a reference to the circumstances
which had just occurred that we cannot interpret otherwise than that
to the prayer, uttered by the lips of one, all the rest, with one mind,
pronounced fervent Amens, ‘The author (says Zeller) takes no for-
biddén liberty when he collects the concordant expressions of indi-
viduals into one common expression.’
Séorrota, Lorn, lit. Master. The word is not often used of God
(as Luke ii. 29) or Christ, but it is worth notice that St Peter (2 Pet. ii.
1) and St Jude (4) apply it to Jesus.
σὺ ὁ ποιήσας, Thou that hast made. The ὁ θεός of the Text.
Recept. is an expository note, meant to explain δέσποτα.
25. 6 Tov πατρὸς... παιδός cov. Render, who by the Holy Ghost
[through] the mouth of our father David thy servant. See textual
note. If through be omitted in this rendering then the latter clause
becomes an apposition in explanation of the words ‘by the Holy
Ghost.’
The Apostle now proceeds to apply the words of the second Psalm,
which has been admitted by the Jews themselves to be Messianic, to
the circumstances under which Christ was put to death.
The words of the LXX. are here quoted exactly.
ἔθνη, the nations, or the Gentiles as it is rendered in verse 27.
The Psalm in its first application probably referred to some revolt
against the king of Israel. We have such a revolt mentioned in
David’s reign (2 Sam. viii.), where the Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites
and other nations were conquered by David, after being in vain
rebellion.
27. ἐπ᾽ ἀληθείας, of a truth. This expression is both classical
and is also found often in the LXX. as Dan. ii. 8, 47; Job ix. 2, xix.
4, xxxvi. 4; Is. xxxvii. 18, for the Hebrew DIIIN= verily.
The Apostle proceeds to apply the language of the Psalmist to the
events which preceded the Crucifixion. Thus the words ἐν τῇ πόλει
ταύτῃ find a natural place here, as given by the best authorities.
maida, servant, as in ili, 13.
ἔχρισας, Thow hast anointed, i.e. by the descent of the Holy Ghost
upon Him at His baptism.
“Hpodns. The representative of the rulers of the Jews. This par-
ticular Herod was Antipas the son of Herod the Great by his Samaritan
wife Malthace. He was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (Luke iii. 19),
and because our Lord belonged to Galilee, Pilate took occasion to send
Jesus to be examined by him, as Herod was in Jerusalem to keep the
feast of the Passover.
καὶ IIdyrios Πιλάτος, who was the Roman Governor; and so in
his person were represented many nations at this time under the sway
of Rome. His officials and soldiers would be drawn from all lands,
and the mockery to which Jesus was exposed at their hands might
well be described as the rage of the Gentiles.
Pontius Pilate was the sixth Roman procurator of Juda; he was
THE ACTS 9
130 THE ACTS. (IV. 27—
appointed a.p. 25—6 in the twelfth year of Tiberius, and continued
to hold the office till a.p. 36, when he was sent to Rome by Vitellius
under an accusation brought against him by the Samaritans. Of his
after life and his death there are many legends, but no history.
28. ποιῆσαι, to accomplish. God made the passions, which the
enemies of Jesus indulged, to be the instruments for working out His
will. So men, when they suppose they are choosing their own way,
have the ends thereof shapen by God, ‘rough hew them how they will.’
Their misdeeds are made to execute the will of God, yet they are not
on that account exempt from blame.
ἡ χείρ σου. The verb (προώρισεν, = preordained) which follows is due
to the intervening noun BovAy=counsel. Such a zeugma is not un-
common. And in χείρ is conveyed the idea of grandeur and majesty,
so that the need for a different verb is scarcely felt. For an instance
of zeugma, cf. Acta Pauli et Thecle 43, wxynoe ἐν σπηλαίῳ ἐσθίουσα
βοτάνας καὶ ὕδωρ.
29. ἔπιδε, look upon. The verb is employed in heathen writings
very often of the oversight and notice of the gods, and is common in
the LXX. for God’s providential care. Cf. Job xxii. 12; Ps. cxii. 6;
Ezek. viii. 12, and 2 Mace. vii. 6 ὁ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐφορᾷ.
δούλοις. The Apostles use this word of themselves, they are
Christ’s bond-servants. For Jesus the word is παῖς. Cf. verse 30. St
Paul constantly calls himself δοῦλος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ or the like, Cf.
Rom: i. 1; Phil, i. 1; Titus i. 1, &.
παρρησίας, boldness, freedom of speech, as above, verse 13, Christ
had promised that this should be given to them (Luke xxi. 15), and
they are able to feel (cf. below, verse 31) that His promise is fulfilled.
30. ἐν τῷ τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐκτείνειν oe. Literally, ‘while Thou
stretchest forth Thine hand.’ Thus the mighty works were to be ἃ
sign and testimony to the words which the Apostles spake, to demon-
strate that they were God’s words, and that none could do the works
which they did except God were with him, (John iii.’ 2.)
παιδός cov, Thy servant (as in verse 27).
31. ἐσαλεύθη ὁ τόπος. That they might feel at once that the God
of all nature, to whom they had appealed (ver. 24), was among them.
In their immediate need an immediate answer is vouchsafed, and a
token with it that their prayer was heard. Cp. xvi. 26 of the shaking
of the prison at Philippi after the prayers of Paul and Silas.
ἐλάλουν. The imperfect tense indicates that they went on preach-
ing, speaking the word which God gave unto them, without regard to
the threats of the council.
32—37. UNANIMITY AND LOVE AMONG THE FIRST CHRISTIANS.
32. καρδία kal ψυχὴ pla, one heart and soul. This was a Hebrew
form of expressing complete accord. So (1 Chron. xii. 38) καὶ ὁ κατά-
λοιπὸς Ἰσραὴλ ψυχὴ pla τοῦ βασιλεῦσαι τὸν Δαυίδ, Also οἵ, such ex-
IV. 35. ] NOTES. 131
pressions as (1 Sam. xiv. 7; 2 Kings x. 15) ὡς ἡ καρδία σοῦ καρδία μοῦ.
In some MSS. there is an addition to this verse, καὶ οὐκ ἣν διάκρισις
(some have χωρισμος) ἐν αὐτοῖς οὐδεμία. This is followed by several
versions and quoted by the Fathers. It has not found its way into
the Received Text, but is just such a marginal explanation as a scribe
would be sure sooner or later to incorporate.
καὶ οὐδὲ εἷς K.T.A., and not one of them said. This is much stronger
than the rendering of the A.V. Each felt that he held his possessions
only as a trust, and if occasion called for it, they were to be given up.
Such love towards one another, Christ had foretold, should be a mark
of His disciples (John xiii. 35). AJl those who have sketched a perfect
society, as Plato in his Republic, and Sir Thos. More in his Utopia,
have placed among their regulations this kind of community of goods
which was established by the first Christians. In theory it is the
perfection of a commonwealth, but there is need of perfection in the
citizens before it can be realized. There can be no question that an
expectation of Christ’s immediate return from heaven, acting along
with the unity of thoughts and feeling, made these men willing to
part with their possessions and goods, there being, as we shall see
from the case of Ananias, no constraint upon them to do 80.
33. ἀπεδίδουν τὸ μαρτύριον, they gave their witness. The article
should have its force. See above on verse 12. The verb is also much
stronger than the usual verb ‘to give.’ Itis used for ‘paying a debt’
(Matth. xviii. 29; Luke vil. 42) and for ‘rendering an account’ (Matth.
sii. 36; Heb. xiii. 17): so that there is implied in it the sense of
obligation under which the Apostles so constantly declare themselves
placed (cf. above, verse 20).
χάρις Te μεγάλη, and great grace (or favour). Like their Master,
while experiencing the favour of God, they were also finding favour
with men. Cf, Acts v. 13.
84. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐνδεής τις ἦν. The A.V. omits to translate yap, but
it is essential to the sense. For neither was there, ἄορ. This was
one reason for their favour among men. All could see and admire
the spirit of self-sacrifice which was exhibited by what they were
doing. See ii. 44, 45 and the notes there.
TAS τιμὰς TOV πιπρασκομένων. The language here expressly avoids
saying that these men sold all they had. They sold some things,
and the sum realized by what was sold was offered to the common
store. We never hear that a similar fund was raised in any place
except Jerusalem.
35. παρὰ τοὺς πόδας. To lay a thing at, or under, any one’s
feet was a significant act. Here it denoted that entire control was
given to the Apostles over the bestowal of these sums. For the
figure, cp. Ps. viii. 6, and Cicero pro Flacco (xxvu. § 68) ‘ante pedes
pretoris in foro expensum est auri pondo centum paullo minus.’
διεδίδετο δὲ «.t.A. Render, and distribution was made unto each
according as any had need, There were no doubt many who were not
g—2
132 THE ACTS. [IV. 35—
in need, and they of course lived on their own. The distribution was
intended only for the needy, as widows, &c., and for those who could
not otherwise support themselves while they took part, as many did,
in the active propagation of the new faith. It may be, too, that some
were deprived of the means of support because they had become
Christians. Cf. the threat of the authorities, John ix. 22.
36. Ἰωσήφ. The oldest MSS. give this as the form of the word.
Barnabas, who was so called, was afterwards the companion of St
Paul in his first missionary journey (Acts xiii. 2), and is often men-
tioned by St Luke. He was invited by St Paul to join him on his
second journey, but as they disagreed about taking John Mark with
them, they did not labour again, as far as we know, in the same field,
and the writer leaves Barnabas (xv. 39) with the mention that ‘he
took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.’
μεθερμηνευόμενον. The interpretation is added for the sake of
Theophilus, who may have had no knowledge of Hebrew (see on i. 19).
vids παρακλήσεως. Probably, son of exhortation, rather than, of
consolation. The Hebrew noun nebuah is from the same root as the
common word for prophet. The title may have been given to Barna-
bas from his ability as a preacher (xi. 23), though in this he seems
(Acts xiv. 12) to have been less prominent than St Paul, as most men
must have been. In describing the work of Barnabas in xi. 23 the
verb used (παρεκάλει), ‘he exhorted,’ is that from which the noun in
this verse is derived, and is akin to the word παράκλητος, which is so
often translated ‘Comforter’ when applied to the Holy Ghost, but
rendered ‘advocate’ in 1 John ii. 1 when used of the intercession of
Jesus.
Λευΐτης, a Levite. In the Holy Land, the Levites had no portion
assigned unto them, but were scattered through all the tribes; the
same regulation may not, however, have applied to the Levites in
other countries ; and we are not informed where the field was situated
which Barnabas sold. He may also have been a married man, and
have held lands from his marriage.
Κύπριος. The island of Cyprus, still called by the same name, is
in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. We find Jews settled
there in the Maccabean times (1 Macc. xv. 23). It was one of the
places to which Paul and Barnabas went in their missionary journey,
and it had been previously visited by some of the Christian teachers
who were driven from Jerusalem by the persecution which succeeded
the death of Stephen (Acts xi. 19).
37. ἀγροῦ, a field. Joseph is perhaps chosen as an example of
the primitive liberality of the Christian community, because there was
something remarkable in the kind of gift, or the nature of the
sacrifice which he made. And the character of the man, who was to
play a part in the history of the Acts, is also set before us by his first
recorded action. Ξ
Chrysostom says: μέλλει διηγεῖσθαι τὸ κατὰ ᾿Ανανίαν λοιπὸν καὶ
ὯΙ NOTES. 133
Σάπφειραν, καὶ θέλων δεῖξαι τὸν ἄνδρα χείριστα ἡμαρτηκότα, πρῶτον
μέμνηται τοῦ κατωρθωκότος.
τὸ χρῆμα, the money, the price realized. The word is seldom
found in the singular in this sense. Perhaps it is so used here to in-
dicate the compactness, the entirety of what was brought. It was the
sum without deduction, in contrast to the proceeding which follows in
the next chapter.
CHAPTER V.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
2. αὐτοῦ omitted with NABD.
δ. ταῦτα omitted with NABD, So also Vulg. and other versions.
8. πρὸς αὐτὴν for αὐτῇ with NABD.
9. εἶπε omitted with NBD. Vuly. has ‘ Petrus autem ad eam.’
10. πρὸς for rapa with NABD.
12. τέρατα πολλὰ ἐν τῴ λαῷ with NABDE. Vulg. has ‘ prodigia
multa in plebe.’
15. καὶ εἰς for κατὰ with NABD. Vulg. has ‘ita ut in plateas.’
κλιναρίων for κλινῶν with NABD.
κραβάττων asin ΔΑΒ). Vulg. has ‘ grabatis.’
16. eis omitted with NAB. The Vulg. has no preposition.
18. αὐτῶν omitted with NABD. The Vulg. has no pronoun.
19. τῆς before νυκτὸς omitted with NABD.
22. ot δὲ παραγενόμενοι ὑπηρέται With NAB, The Vulg. has ‘cum
autem venissent ministri.’
23. μὲν omitted with NABD.
ἔξω omitted with NABDEP. It is not represented in Vulg.
ἔπὶ for πρὸ with NABD. Vuilg. has ‘ ante.’
24. ἱερεὺς kalo omitted asin NABD. Vulg. has only ‘ magistratus
templi.’
25. λέγων omitted with NABDEP. It is not represented in Vulg. .
28. ov omitted with NAB, also unrepresented in Vulg.
32. αὐτοῦ omitted with NAD. Vulg. ‘et nos sumus testes horum
verborum.’
34. ἀνθρώπους for ἀποστόλους with NAB. Vulg. ‘homines.’
36. ᾧ προσεκλίθη ἀνδρῶν ἀριθμὸς ὡς τετρακοσίων with NABC.
81. ἱκανὸν omitted with NAB. Vulg. has only ‘populum.’
134 THE ACTS. [vis
38. ἄφετε for ἐάσατε with NABC.
39. δυνήσεσθε with NBCDE. Vulg. ‘poteritis.’
αὐτούς for αὐτό with NABCDE. Vulg. ‘illud.’
40. αὐτούς omitted with NABC. Vulg. ‘eos.’
41. κατηξιώθησαν ὑπὲρ tod ὀνόματος ἀτιμασθῆναν with NABC.
Vulg. ‘digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati.’
42. τὸν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν with NAB. Vulg. ‘ Christum Jesum.’
Cu. V. 1—11. Account oF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA.
The narrative with which this chapter commences is one which
none but a veracious narrator would have inserted where it stands.
The last chapter concludes with a description of the unity of heart
and soul which prevailed among the brethren, and expressly notices
that all were filled with the Holy Ghost. But as among the twelve
Apostles there was a Judas, so into the infant Church there had in-
truded two at least whose professions were not sincere, and who were
unworthy of the gifts of grace which, with the rest, they had received.
We cannot but be surprised that persons like Ananias and Sap-
phira should have thought it worth while to act as they did. Why
join the Christian community at all? Or why not leave it when they
found what was required of them? But there is in some characters an
innate and incorrigible duplicity. It is clear that there must have
been a strong conviction of the truth of Christianity.
The offence of Ananias and Sapphira shewed contempt for God,
vanity and ambition in the offenders, and utter disregard of the corrup-
tion which they were bringing into the society. Such sin, committed
in despite of the light which they possessed, called for a special mark
of divine indignation, and to those who, likewise filled with the Spirit,
knew all that had been done and why it was done, there is no shock
produced by the terrible doom of the sinners. Nor is any language
employed in the narration but the simplest and plainest. A late
compiled story would have enlarged and spoken apologetically on the
reasons for such a judgment, and would not have presented us with
a bare recital of facts without comment.
1. ’“Avavias. The name was common. See Acts ix. 10—17, and
Xxili, 2, xxiv. 1. It is the same as Hananiah, Jer. xxviii. 1; Dan. i.
6, 7, &c., where it is the Hebrew name of Shadrach, which is spelt
Ananias in the Benedicite, and that form of the name is found Tobit
v.12. It signifies ‘one to whom Jehovah has been gracious.’
Σαπφείρῃ. The name is probably derived from σάπφειρος, sapphire,
the precious stone so called. Similar derivations may be found in
Beryllus (βήρυλλος), and the more common name Margaret (uapya-
pirns), though the latter may have gone through more than one stage
in its passage from a common noun to a proper name.
V. 3. NOTES. 135
κτῆμα. In verse 3 it is called χωρίον, a piece of land, but the word
may be applied to any kind of property. it is used (Matth. xix. 22)
of the young man who had ‘great possessions.’ The LXX. use it
(Hos. ii. 15) of vineyards.
2. évordicato, kept back, withheld, bringing only a part and
pretending it was the whole. The portion withheld can hardly have
been large, or the disproportion between what was offered and the
value of the property sold and represented as sacrificed to the common
cause would have been too apparent. νοσφίζομαι is rendered (Tit.
ii. 10) to purloin, and is used 2 Mace. iv. 32 of the golden vessels
which Menelaus stole. It has the stronger sense constantly in clas-
sical Greek.
συνειδυίης, being privy to it. This is mentioned to shew that the
offence was an aggravated one, and had not been committed without
deliberation and set purpose. She. was a willing aecomplice in the
intended fraud.
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας... ἔθηκεν. Thus professing equal devotion with all
the others who were making sacrifices for the cause of the faith. We
are not told what Ananias and his wife hoped to gain by their act,
whether in reputation among the people (ii. 47), or, by giving what was
supposed to be their whole estate (which may be implied in the vague
word possession), to procure for themselves in perpetuity a maintenance
from the common funds. The former ambition was most probably
what led to their offence. They thought more of the display made at
the Apostles’ feet than of the offence before God’s eyes. And we know
from St Peter’s Epistle (2 Pet. ii. 3) that it was soon foretold that
men would arise in the Christian community who ‘through covetous-
ness would with feigned words make merchandise of’ the society, and
at a later date (Jude 11) these men are described as those who run
‘greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.’ We may therefore be
convinced that in the example of Ananias we have a typical instance
of the kind of offence into which at this time the Christian community
was in danger of being tempted.
3. διατί. Stronger probably than the simple ri. ‘On what ac-
count? to what temptation have you listened?’ It may be an indica-
tion that it would have been possible to resist the evil influence, had
Ananias desired to do so.
ἐπλήρωσεν, filled. The idea seems to be that of complete occupa-
tion. The heart is so charged and possessed with one purpose, that
there is no room left for any other influence. Cf. LXX. Eccles. viii. 11,
ἐπληροφορήθη καρδία υἱῶν Tov ἀνθρώπου ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὸ πονηρόν.
σατανᾶς. The word, which is Hebrew, signifies ‘an adversary,’ and
is especially applied to the prince of evil spirits, as the great adversary
of all good. It is used in LXX. of 1 Kings xi. 14, 23, 25 in its
primary sense of an ‘adversary’ raised up against king Solomon, but
in the sense of ‘Satan’ Ecclus, xxi. 27.
TO πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, the Holy Ghost, for it was the power of the
Holy Ghost that was manifested in the Apostles. It is much to be
136 THE ACTS. ΕΞ
noticed how from the first the Apostles disclaim any power in them-
selves. It is Christ who works the miracles, the God of Abraham
who gives the power of healing, and the Holy Ghost who is grieved
by sins like that of Ananias. There is no trace of any seeking after
consideration for themselves and their deeds among the records of
these Acts of Apostles, and no sign could be more indicative of the
earliest age of the Christian Church.
4. οὐχὶ μένον col ἔμενεν. To bring out the force of the repeated
verb render, whiles it remained, did it not remain thine own? that is,
there was no compulsion on Ananias to sell it, the only thing expected
from him being that, if he were moved to sell, he should honestly set
forth what he had done. There seems to have been no necessity to
give at all to the common fund unless a man felt that he could well
afford to do so, nor to give all that he either had, or had realized by
any sale, provided only he made honest declaration of what his gift
really was. This is implied in the words which follow, which declare
that the sum produced by any sale was at the seller’s disposal until
he made it over to the common fund,
ἔθου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ. The precise phrase occurs in LXX. of Dan. i. 8,
and is rendered ‘Daniel purposed in his heart’; cf. also Haggai 11. 19.
The force of the expression is ‘to lay anything (as a plan or a precept)
deep in the heart,’ and it implies long and stedfast deliberation on the
part of this offender. The offence of Ananias was not a case of yield-
ing to a sudden temptation, but the plan had been accepted into the
heart, and fostered there till there seemed to be a way of carrying it
out. Satan had filled his heart, and he had made no effort to cast
out the intruder.
οὐκ ἐψεύσω ἀνθρώποις, thow hast not lied unto men. That is, the
grave portion of the offence is not the lie to men, but the lie to God.
In verse 3 the Apostle said that the deception had been practised to-
wards the Holy Ghost, and so is expressed the Divinity of the third
Person of the Trinity.
5. ἀκούων. The present tense seems to indicate the immediate
result of the Apostle’s words, spoken in the power of the Spirit with
which he was filled. Here is no description of a death from apoplexy
or mental excitement under the rebuke of the Apostle, but a direct
intervention of the divine power.
Terrible as this divine judgment was, we cannot wonder that it
should be inflicted, for it was so done to check that kind of offence
which brought in all the troubles of the early Church, and which
though they be not so punished now, when Christ’s Church has at-
tained more firm hold on the world, yet would, if not terribly visited
in these earlier days, have overthrown the whole work of the Apostles.
Of a like character is the apparent severity of the penalty inflicted on
Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, at the commencement of the Jewish
priesthood (Ley. x. 2); and the way in which Aaron and his family
are forbidden to mourn for those whom God so punished may teach
us what interpretation to put upon the judgment inflicted on Ananias .
V.6.] NOTES. 137
and Sapphira. For they were of the members of the infant Church ;
they had presumed to come nigh unto God and in a wrong spirit. On
them, we may conclude, some gifts had been bestowed, and in this
they differed from Simon Magus (viii. 20) and Elymas (xiii. 11), with
whom they are sometimes compared. So that the words which God
spake of Nadab and Abihu may be used of these offenders, “1 will be
sanctified in them that come nigh Me.’ We see what evils the spirit
of greed and hypocrisy wrought in the Corinthian Church, even to the
profanation of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. xi. 17—21). Every good
institution would have been thus perverted and, as is said of some in
later times (Jude 4), they would have ‘turned the grace of God into
lasciviousness.’ The very community of goods which here was insti-
tuted for a time, was in this way perverted and turned into an argu-
ment for a community of all things, which resulted in the vices for
which the Nicolaitans are so severely censured (Rev. ii. 6,15). The
death of Ananias and his wife is the finger of God interposed to save
His Church from danger, just as He interposed to build it up by
stretching forth His hand to heal, and that through the name of His
Servant Jesus mighty works might be wrought by the first preachers.
ἐξέψυξεν, gave up the ghost. ἐκψύχω is not classical, but is found
in LXX. (of some MSS.) in Judges iv. 21 and in Ezek. xxi. 7. It is
only used in the N.T. concerning the death of this husband and wife,
and of the end of Herod Agrippa (Acts xii. 23), but is found Acta
Andr. et Matth, Apocr. 19 used of men suddenly falling down dead.
φόβος μέγας. A great fear, which would deter those who were not
sincere from making a profession of Christianity. This result would
help the stability of the young community, which would have been
sorely hindered by hypocritical members.
6. ot νεώτεροι, the younger men. Some have thought that already
an organized body had been formed whose business it was to take
charge of funerals. But it seems unlikely that, at a time when assist- -
ance had not been provided to relieve the Apostles from ‘serving
tables’ and distributing the funds to those who needed (vi. 1—4),
there should already have been an organization for this less pressing
necessity. The use of another word, νεανίσκοι, for these same persons
in verse 10 seems to shew that οἱ νεώτεροι was not an official designa-
tion, but that those who are meant are those most able physically to
perform such an office as is here described. On the way in which the
Jews regarded attention to funeral rites see note on viii. 2.
συνέστειλαν, wound him up, i.e. in the robe which he was at the
moment wearing. The middle voice is used in classical Greek in the
sense of ‘gathering one’s robe about one.’
ἔθαψαν. We know from what took place after the Crucifixion that
graves were made ready beforehand; and in the caves where the dead
were deposited, as we can see from the account of the raising of
Lazarus, there (John xi. 43) needed little preparation, for they were
closed by the simple means of a stone placed at the cave’s mouth. It
would not therefore need much time to complete the whole work of
138 THE ACTS. [vee
burial. In hot climates burial must needs follow quickly after
death. Cf. the brief time which Jehu allowed to pass after Jezebel’s
death (2 Kings ix. 34) before he gave orders for her burial.
7. ὡρῶν τριῶν διάστημα, the space of three hours. This was
time enough for the bestowal of the dead body, but yet so short that
news of the death of her husband had not reached Sapphira. It may
have been that their home was in the country at a distance from
Jerusalem, and that the husband alone came in to offer the money by
reason of the distance.
διάστημα is found of a distance in space in LXX. of Gen. xxxii. 16;
Ezek. xli. 8, xlv. 2; 2 Macc. xiv. 44, but not of an interval of time.
διάστημα τετραετές occurs Polyb. 1x. 1.1; and ἡμιωρίου διάστημα, the
space of half an hour, Apocryph. Act. Andree 14.
καὶ ἡ γυνή. The construction is broken here. We should have
expected an accusative and infinitive in dependence on éyévero. But
such interruptions are not uncommon after a clause beginning with éyé-
vero. Cf. Luke vili. 1, 22, ix. 28, &. The construction is due to
the Hebrew form ‘1° followed by }.
μὴ εἰδυῖα. μὴ here cannot be held to differ from ov. There is a
direct statement of a fact, present, and nothing which can convert the
words in any sense into a mere thought or conception.
8. ἀπεκρίθη, answered. This verb is not unfrequently used both in
LXX. and N.T. where no question has preceded, and often where no
remark has gone before (see Deut. xxvi. 5, xxvii. 14; Dan. ii. 14, 26;
Matth. xi. 25; Luke iii. 16). The peculiarity here is that St Peter’s
words are not an answer but a question.
The word is similarly used before a question Act. Andr. et Matth.
Apocr. 20.
τοσούτου, for so much. St Peter mentioned the sum which Ananias
had brought in, or perhaps it was still lying on the ground where he
had first put it down.
9. τί ὅτι. This form, which occurs also in verse 4, is to be ex-
plained by the ellipsis of ἐστὶ. ‘ Why is it that...’
πειράσαι, to tempt. They would make trial whether the Spirit of
the Lord would make their deception known. Nothing could render
more manifest their want of faith, their unfitness to be members of
the society, than such an attempt.
οἱ modes. The footsteps of the young men as they returned were
probably now audible without.
καὶ ἐξοίσουσίν σε, and they shall carry thee out, i.e. to burial like-
wise. St Peter, as before, was prompted by the Holy Ghost in what
he said, and was enabled to predict the punishment of Sapphira for
her persistent dissembling. We are not told that he knew beforehand
what would befal Ananias, but as the Spirit shewed him what was to
come on the wife we may perhaps conclude that he knew what the fate
of the husband would be also.
bi NOTES. 139
10. πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, at his feet. Close to the place where
the money, for which they had sinned, had been laid, and where
perhaps it was still lying. For we cannot think that St Peter would
be willing to mix an offering given in such a hypocritical spirit with
the more pure offerings of the other brethren. It may be that as he
spake, in verse 8, he pointed to the money still lying there unaccepted,
‘Did ye sell the land for so much ?’
εἰσελθόντες. The young men came to join the congregation again,
for the worship appears not to have ceased during the time between
the death of Ananias and the arrival of Sapphira. And this may be
the explanation of the wife’s ignorance of her husband’s fate. None
had gone forth but the younger men to bury the dead body.
πρὸς TOV ἄνδρα αὐτῆς, beside her husband.
11. καὶ ἐγένετο k.t.X., and great fear came upon the whole Church,
and upon all that heard these things.
To produce such a fear as should deter others from a like offence
was God’s intention in this miracle of punishment. And St Luke
seems to have pointed to the reason by making here for the first time
any mention of ‘the Church’ (see note on 11. 47). The true ἐκκλη-
σία must be free from such hypocritical professors, or its work could
not advance. The lesson was to be stamped into the hearts of all who
were fit to be of ‘ the Church,’ though at the same time it would strike
deep into the minds of all others who learnt how the Spirit of God had
punished the lying lips of those who sought the praise of men rather
than that of God.
12—16. Mrracuntous Powers or tHE ApostiEs. CONTINUED GROWTH
OF THE CHURCH.
12. διὰ δὲ τῶν χειρῶν, and by the hands. This may be only a
Hebrew mode of expressing by, and need not necessarily be pressed
to imply imposition of hands. Cf. (Josh. xiv. 2) ‘By lot was their
inheritance, as the Lord commanded by the hand (ἐν χειρὶ) of Moses.’
But as in the description of our Lord’s miracles we very often read
‘He laid His hands upon a few sick folk’ (Mark vi. 5, &c.), and as it is
said of the Apostles (Mark xvi. 18) ‘they shali lay their hands on the
sick and they shall recover,’ it seems better to understand the words
here of such acts of imposition of hands, though we presently find
(ver. 15) that the multitudes believed that a cure could be wrought
without such an act.
ἐγίνετο. The imperfect tense, probably to indicate that such oc-
currences were numerous at the first.
ἅπαντες. The reference in this sentence must be to such assemblies
as were held by the Apostles for conference and instruction when
they went up at the usual times of prayer. Thus ἅπαντες will signify
the whole company assembled on some such occasions, and not em-
brace every person who had joined the new teaching.
ἐν τῇ στοᾷ Σολομῶντος, in Solomon’s porch. Probably this be-
140 THE ACTS. Γ΄. 12—
came a recognized meeting-place of those who wished to tell and to
hear more of the new teaching.
13. τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν, but of the rest, &., i.e. of those not yet
interested in the movement. The sense is that the assemblies of
Christians made the porch of Solomon their special rendezvous when
they went up to the Temple, seeing that it was there that the first
addresses in the Temple-precincts had been given by St Peter. And
while they were so assembled none of the other people who had not
yet joined the new community ventured to attach themselves intru-
sively to the Christian body. The verb κολλᾶσθαι is used of Philip
(viii. 29) when he is commanded ‘Go near and join thyself to this
chariot,’ where the action meant by it is one that was to press some
notice of Philip upon the eunuch. From such intrusion all who were
not Christians held back, and left the worshippers in Solomon’s porch
alone.
GAN ἐμεγάλυνεν κιτιλ., howbeit the people magnified them. The
fear inspired by what had happened, though it deterred those who
might have tried to join the community from other than sincere
motives, did not produce an unfavourable feeling among the people,
but quite the contrary.
For the English ‘magnify’ in the sense of praise cf. the opening of
the Magnificat, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord.’
14. προσετίθεντο, were added. And the tense implies the con-
tinuous growth of the Church. The addition of this verse makes
clear what has just been said about the sense of κολλᾶσθαι, that it
implied insincere intrusion into the Christian assemblies. For the
number of the faithful went on increasing.
15. wore καὶ eis τὰς πλατείας, so that even into the streets.
These words are a description of one way in which the new believers
gave evidence of their faith. To bring a sick person on a couch to the
presence of Jesus was accepted by Him (Mark ii. 5) as a sign of true
faith, and for the sake of the faith shewn by those who brought him
the paralytic was made whole. So here, though we are not told of any
cures, we may conclude that to the like faith God would give a like
blessing.
ἐπὶ κλιναρίων, on beds. In the east the warm climate made it
possible to bring the sick into the open air, as we read more than
once in the Gospels.
ἵνα ἐρχομένου Ilérpov «.7.d., that, as Peter came by, at least his
shadow might fall on some one of them. Peter is alone mentioned here
because he was the most prominent figure, but we are not to conclude
that no mighty works were done by the rest. These men who gave
such an exhibition of faith have been described (ver. 14) as believers in
the Lord. There can therefore be no question as to what they regarded
as the power which was to heal their sick. They did not believe on
Peter, though they magnified him as the Lord’s instrument; they did
not ascribe healing power to Peter’s shadow, though it might please
God to make that a sacrament of healing, as to Israel in old times
ae ee NOTES. 141
He had made the brazen serpent. They had seen health bestowed
through the Apostle by the name of Christ, and to demonstrate
their faith in that name, they bring their afflicted friends into the
way of salvation.
κἀν. The explanation of the καί here is that in the first clause there
is some word or two suppressed. The full idea is ‘that as Peter came
by they might be in the way and so his shadow,’ &e.
16. τὸ πλῆθος κιτιλ., the multitude of the cities round about. The
word πόλις is not unfrequently used of places which are comparatively
small. So of Nazareth (Matth. ii. 23), Nain (Luke vii. 11) and Arima-
thea (Luke xxiii, 51). With τῶν πέριξ πόλεων cf. Acta Andr. et Matth.
Apocr. 26, ots ὁ μακάριος ἐξέβαλεν ἐκ τῶν πέριξ χωρῶν.
The preposition being omitted before ἹἹερουσαλήμ, it becomes the
accusative under the government of συνήρχετο, a verb with the sense
of motion to a place.
ὀχλουμένους, troubled, vexed. The word is found also Luke vi. 18,
and nowhere else in N.T. As it occurs often in the works of Greek
medical writers, it points to Luke as having been a physician. Cf. for
its use concerning evil spirits, Tobit vi. 7, ἐάν τινα ὀχλῇ δαιμόνιον ἢ
πνεῦμα πονηρόν, ταῦτα δεῖ καπνίσαι ἐνώπιον ἀνθρώπου ἢ γυναικὸς καὶ
μηκέτι ὀχληθῇ.
ὑπὸ πνευμάτων ἀκαθάρτων, by wnclean spirits. It was recognized
that the power of the Apostles extended not only to physical, but also
to spiritual maladies. Indeed the whole history being of a supernatural
character, the cures wrought on ordinary maladies were of the nature
of signs and wonders, and spake of a power which was not human.
The power here displayed is that which in Christ’s own life was con-
fessed to be that of the Son of God (Luke iv. 40, 41).
Unclean spirits are those which are called wicked (πονηρά) in other
parts of the New Testament (Matth. xii. 45, &c.); and the former epithet
is probably applied to them because an unclean life had made the
afflicted man the subject of this possession, or because in his state of
frenzy he wandered into places where he would incur ceremonial
defilement, as the demoniac who had his dwelling among the tombs
(Mark v. 3); the latter adjective indicates the evil effects so often patent
in the condition of the afflicted person, as loss of speech, hearing and
other senses, the belief of the Jews being that spirits afflicted with
such maladies were the cause of the like affliction in human beings.
ἅπαντες, all of them. For it was only a complete faith which had
prompted the bringing them unto the Apostles, and to such faith all
things had been promised by Christ (Mark ix. 23).
17—32. ARREST OF THE TWELVE. THEIR MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE
AND THEIR DEFENCE BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN.
17. ἀναστὰς δέ. The ‘rising up’ is due to the indignation caused
by the spread of the Christian teaching. The word ἀναστάς has this
sense of movement in opposition. See below, of the insurrections of
142 THE ACTS. ΓΤ 7:
Theudas and Judas (vv. 36, 37) and in vi. 9 of the disputants with
Stephen.
The rendering should be, but the high-priest rose up. While the
multitudes thronged to be healed, the effect on the authorities was to
rouse them to opposition.
πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷς A phrase more comprehensive than that used
in iv. 6, ‘as many as were of the kindred of the high-priest.’ The
opposition has had time to gather its forces, and now represents not
only the family of Annas, but the heads of the party of the Sadducees.
αἵρεσις, the sect. It is the word from which our English heresy
comes. But St Paul uses it of his own mode of worship (though there
shewing that the Jews attached an ill meaning to it), in his defence
(Acts xxiv. 14) before Felix, ‘after the way which they call a sect.’
But he employs it without any sense of blame (xxvi. 5) about the Pha-
risees, and it is used of them also xv. 5. With a bad sense it is
applied to the Nazarenes (xxiv. 5), and similarly xxviii. 22.
It is used disparagingly in Apocr. Act. Phil. in Hellad. 10, Ἰησοῦς
...0s ἐδίδαξεν τὴν αἵρεσιν ταύτην. The words are in the mouth of the
Jewish high-priest.
τῶν Σαδδουκαίων. From verse 21 it will be seen that the statement
of Josephus concerning the influence of this sect is fully borne out
(Ant. x1. 11. 6), that they had the rich on their side. We have
no certain evidence in Scripture that Annas was a Sadducee, but
Josephus (Ant. xx. 9. 1) tells us that his son Ananus [or Annas]
was of this sect.
ζήλου, jealousy. This is rather the sense of the word than ‘ indig-
nation’ as A.V. Of course the one was bred of the other. But what
is here described is an outbreak of party feeling in a body who were
jealous of the spread of this teaching about a resurrection.
18. ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους. The whole twelve are now arrested. The
new teachers must be put down. It is clear from this, though St Luke
has only mentioned the speeches of Peter, with some slight notice
that John also was a speaker, that all the Apostles were busy, and
could have been quoted as preachers and teachers had it been any
part of the compiler’s purpose to write a history of all the Apostles.
ἐν τηρήσει δημοσίᾳ, in public ward. See note on iy. 3. This was
meant to be a temporary imprisonment, till next day when the council
could be gathered.
19. ἄγγελος δὲ k.7.A., but an angel of the Lord by night, &c. As
if for a protest against the actions of those who taught that ‘there
was neither angel nor spirit.’ There is no possibility of explaining
St Luke’s words into anything but a miraculous deliverance. He
gives no word that can be twisted into any other meaning. It was
not an earthquake, it was not a friendly human being who interposed
to procure the release of the Apostles. The writer readily acknow-
ledges in this very chapter the effect of such intervention on the part
of Gamaliel, but he is here speaking of supernatural aid. If it be
remarked that the Apostles make no mention of their miraculous
12] NOTES. 143
deliverance when they are called upon for their defence, it may be
answered that they in no case dwell on the miracles either wrought by
or for them, except where they have been wrought under the eyes of
men and are to be used as signs of the divine power which was
working in and for the Church. To enter on a description of a
miracle which had been wrought in the lonely night, as this deliver-
ance had been, and to ground their claims to be heard upon circum-
stances of which the eyes of those to whom they speak could not bear
testimony, is foreign to the whole character of the Apostolic ministry.
διὰ νυκτός. διά cannot have here the sense throughout which is
most usual when itis constructed with a genitive. Here the expres-
sion means no more than at night, for the release took place at one
point of time only. It is found in this sense in xvi. 9.
20. πορεύεσθε kal σταθέντες κιτιλ., go ye and stand and speak. There
was to be no attempt made to conceal their escape. They were to go
back to the same place where their most frequent teachings had been
given before, and were to continue the same teaching. They are not
directed to appeal to the multitude for sympathy, nor to try and
excite any feeling against those who had arrested them.
τὰ ῥήματα τῆς ζωῆς ταύτης. This has been explained as if it meant
no more than ‘these words of life’ (see Winer-Moulton, pp. 297, 298).
But this weakens the sense immensely. The Apostles were to preach
this new life through the resurrection. It was Christ’s own message
(John xi. 25) ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’ It was the words
of this life which the Sadducees could not away with. But spite of
all opposition the same teaching about the life to come is to be per-
sisted in.
21. ὑπὸ τὸν ὄρθρον, at break of day. The words indicate a time
as soon as possible after day dawn. They lost no time in obeying the
command. How early it was possible for them to come to the Temple
we find from the directions in the Talmud concerning the morning
sacrifice. It is said (Mishna Joma m1. 1) ‘The Memunneh (see note
on iv. 1) said to them: Go ye out (on to the Temple wall or roof) and
see whether the time for killing the sacrifice has arrived. If it had
arrived, the outlooker said, ‘‘It has flashed forth” (i.e. day has dawned).
Matthia ben Shemuel said [that the form of question was], ‘‘ Has the
whole face of the east become lit up as far as to Hebron? And the
man answered, Yes.” So that the first sacrifice took place at the very
peep of day.’ A like explanation is found Mishna Tamid 11. 2.
παραγενόμενος, having come, i.e. into the council-chamber, to
consider what steps to take about their prisoners.
συνεκάλεσαν τὸ συνέδριον, they called together the council; i.e.
the Sanhedrin proper. This was evidently deemed to be a matter of
the gravest character, for, as we see from Gamaliel’s presence, it was
not the Sadducees alone who were summoned to the council.
τὴν γερουσίαν. The word occurs many times in LXX. of the Pen-
tateuch, and in the Apocryphal books, and is variously rendered
elders, cowncil, or senate (see 1 Macc. xii. 6; 2 Macc. i. 10, iv. 44,
144 THE ACTS. [V. 21—
xi. 27), The name indicates that they were older men, who probably
were invited as assessors to join the council by reason of their age
and consequent weight of character. We can find from the Jewish
literature that such assessors were often appointed. In the extract
Mishna Joma τ. 1, quoted on iv. 6, the word for ‘ assessors’ is parhe-
drin, 1.6. the Greek πάρεδροι, and the adoption of such a word into the
Jewish vocabulary shews that the institution which it describes was
of so permanent a nature as to justify the adoption of a foreign ex-
pression to describe it.
22. οἱ δὲ παραγενόμενοι ὑπηρέται, but the officers that came. The
word may refer to some military body, or it may have been only some
of the Levitical guard who were sent. The same word is used (Luke
iv. 20) for the ‘minister’ of the synagogue.
23. τοὺς φύλακας, the guards, who were of course unconscious
that their prisoners were gone.
ἐπὶ τῶν θυρῶν. This, the oldest reading, is not the usual mode of
expressing by, at, beside. ἐπὶ with the genitive usually means upon
or over, which can hardly be meant here. We find however ἐπὶ τῶν
θυρῶν =at the doors, 1 Mace. i. 55, and the singular ἐπὶ τῆς θύρας, in a
like sense, LXX. Numb. xi. 10, xii. 5, xxvii. 2.
24. ἤκουσαν τοὺς λόγους τούτους, heard these words, i.e. the report
of the officers who had been to the prison. ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ.
On this officer see on iv. 1, and on ἀρχιερεῖς iv. 23.
διηπόρουν, they doubted of them, i.e. they were at a loss about what
was said, and did not know what step to take next. It is worthy of
notice that when the Apostles are brought before them in the end, the
magistrates avoid all questions about how they had been released.
They clearly wished to have no more testimony to the supernatural
powers which had been so often manifested in connexion with Jesus
and His followers. Caiaphas and his party could not be ignorant
how Jesus Himself had risen out of His grave to the great terror of
the Jewish guard set over it. Holding the opinions which they did,
we can quite understand their perplexity and their silence on the sub-
ject, at all events before the disciples and the multitude.
25. παραγενόμενος δέ τις, and there came one, &c. The Apostles
made no attempt at concealment, and the judgment-hall was at no
great distance from the place in which they were teaching.
εἰσὶν ἐν τῴ ἱερῷ κιτιλ. Render, are in the Temple, standing and
teaching, &c. ‘The words look back to the command of the angel in
ver. 20, and shew that Peter and his fellows were obedient thereto.
This standing implies the prominent and undaunted position which
the Apostles had taken up. They were not like prisoners who had
escaped, and so were seeking a place to hide themselves; but like men
whose work had been interfered with, and who, as soon as they were
able, had come back to it ayain.
26. ov peta Blas, without violence. Nor can we suppose that the
Apostles were ac all likely to offer resistance, for their examination
V. 29. NOTES. 148
before the council would afford them an opportunity of proclaiming
the message of the Gospel.
On this verse Chrysostom says ὦ τῆς ἀνοίας" ἐφοβοῦντό, φησι, τὸν
ὄχλον. τί γὰρ αὐτοὺς ὁ ὄχλος ὠφέλει; δέον τὸν θεὸν φοβηθῆναι τὸν καθά-
περ πτηνοὺς ἀεὶ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοὺς ἐξαρπάζοντα τῶν ἐκείνων, οἱ δὲ μᾶλλον
τὸν ὄχλον φοβοῦνται.
μὴ λιθασθῶσιν. After a past tense, as ἐφοβοῦντο, the verb would be
expected to be in the optative not in the subjunctive mood. The sub-
junctive is explained as implying more certainty of a result. Here=
‘lest they should be stoned,’ as surely they would have been. We
have already had evidence of the favour with which the disciples were
looked upon by the people, and we can see from the account of the
death of Stephen that a sudden outbreak of popular rage might
result in the death of him against whom this feeling was displayed.
And that the Jewish people were ready enough thus to take the law
into their own hands, we can see from the Gospel history (John x.
31—33), and the parables of Jesus speak of such proceedings as though
they were of no very rare occurrence (Matth. xxi. 35).
28. παραγγελίᾳ κιτιλ., we strictly charged you. The charge had
been given (iv. 18) only to Peter and John, but the magistrates assume
that it has been conveyed by them to their companions.
For this manner of expressing intensity, by the dative case of a
cognate noun joined to the verb, cf. Luke xxii. 15 ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἐπεθύμησαΞ
‘I have earnestly desired.’ Other examples are in John iii. 29; Acts
xxii. 14,
ἐπὶ τῴ ὀνόματι τούτῳ, i.e. resting all your teaching upon this
name. They go at once to that which is the great offence in their
eyes. The name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they knew to have been
crucified, but who was proclaimed to be alive again, and whose fol-
lowers manifested such mighty works, was the object against which
their power was directed.
πεπληρώκατε τὴν ἹΙερουσαλήμ, ye have filled Jerusalem. The best
of evidence, coming from the mouths of adversaries, that the Apostles
had actively fulfilled the first part of Christ’s directions (i. 8).
Kal βούλεσθε k.7.A., and ye wish to bring this man’s blood upon us.
It is a marvellous spectacle to see judges take the place of culprits,
and deprecate accusation where they would naturally be dealing out
penalties. But the invocation of the people before Christ’s cru-
cifixion, ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children’ (Matth.
XXvii. 25), was felt by the council to be likely to be brought to fulfil-
ment.
29. Kal ot ἀπόστολοι, and the Apostles. It is quite like the style of
the New Testament to say ‘ Peter and the Apostles’ (cf. Mark xvi. 7).
It is not implied hereby that Peter was excluded from the num-
ber of the Apostles, but, as he probably was the chief speaker, his
name is singled out for prominence in the narrative (see note on iv.
6). Here again we have evidence that St Luke has made no attempt
THE ACTS Io
146 THE ACTS. [Υ͂. 29—
to do more than produce for us the substance of such speeches as he
notices.
πειθαρχεῖν Set. Render, we must obey. The argument is that of
Peter and John (iv. 19) on a former occasion, though here there is
more stress laid on the impossibility of doing otherwise.
30. ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν. The Apostles point out, just as
Peter did (iii. 13), that there is no severance of themselves from the
worship of the Covenant God of Israel. On the contrary they were
Ἃ teaching that His promise through Moses had now been fulfilled, since
in Jesus the promised prophet had appeared. Cf. Deut. xviii. 15, and
St Peter’s speech, Acts iii, 22.
ὃν ὑμεῖς κιτιλ. Render, whom ye hanged on a tree and slew. This
sentence describes the Roman, and not the Jewish mode of execution.
By the Jewish law only those who were already dead were to be
hanged (Deut. xxi. 22; Josh. x. 26). ;
In the word διεχειρίσασϑε the Apostles point out that the guilt of
the Crucifixion was as truly upon the Jews as if they had slain Jesus
with their own hands. The phrase κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου is used again
(x. 39) by St Peter, and by nobody else in the N.T. He also has év-
λον =tree, for σταυρός, a cross, in 1 Pet. ii. 24, ‘He bare our sins in
His own body on the tree.’
¥ 31. ἀρχηγὸν kal σωτῆρα, a prince and a Saviour. If Christ seeks
( to rule it is that He may save those who take His yoke upon them.
τῇ SEG, by His right hand, as in ii. 88. The right hand is the
symbol of might. Cf. ‘His right hand, and His holy arm, hath
gotten Him the victory’ (Ps. xeviii. 1). .
δοῦναι μετάνοιαν, for to give repentance, thus offering the way of
salvation to all those who were ready to accept it. These words toa
Jew would have great significance, for they had a saying (T. B. Sanhe-
drin 113 a) that salvation was one of the things which God kept in
His own power. if Christ then was to bestow this gift on Israel He
4 a be owned by them as God.
32. Kal ἡμεῖς ἐσμὲν μάρτυρες τῶν ῥ. T., and we are witnesses of
+1 these things, i.e. of the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension.
Kal τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, and so is the Holy Ghost. Christ had said,
while alive, concerning the Holy Ghost, ‘He shall testify of Me’
(John xv. 26), And this He now did in the minds of the Apostles by
‘bringing all things to their remembrance,’ and by enlightening them
to see how Christ’s life had fulfilled the prophecies, and also in the
mighty
Christ was truly applied.
13. ὁ δὲ Σίμων... ἐπίστευσεν, and Simon himself believed also. We
can see from the history which follows that the belief here described
was of a very imperfect nature. It perhaps amounted to no more
than the conviction that in Philip was some power greater than his
own. We have an example of a like imperfect belief described in like
words in St John’s Gospel (viii. 31), ‘then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on Him,’ and all that follows in the chapter shews that
the belief which they professed was not enough to prevent them from
plotting for Christ’s death.
καὶ Barrio els, and when he was baptized. Chrysostom (Hom. xvu1.
in Act.) asks why it came to pass that such a man was admitted to
baptism, and answers the question ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν ᾿Ιούδαν ὁ Χριστὸς
ἐξελέξατο. But St Luke’s language here (ἐξίστατο) implies that Simon
was possessed with the same feeling towards Philip which the people
of Samaria had towards himself.
θεωρῶν τε κιτ.λ., Leholding the signs and great miracles wrought.
There is apparently a distinction intended by St Luke between the
belief of the Samaritans and that of Simon. When they believed
(verse 12) it was the preaching and the glad tidings to which they
most gave heed, but the verb used in this verse (θεωρῶν) seems to
paint Simon as one who gazed with wonder only on a sight which
was beyond him to explain.
14—25. PETER AND JOHN SENT DOWN To SAMARIA. ConpucT ΟΕ Simon
Maauvs.
14. οἱ ἐν ἹΙεροσολύμοις ἀπόστολοι, the Apostles which were at Jeru-
salem, the whole Twelve still abiding there, as noted in verse 1, and
evidently all taking their part in the administration of the affairs of.
the Church, though it does not fall within St Luke’s purpose to notice
what each did or said.
ὅτι δέδεκται «.7.X., that Samaria had received the word of God.
There was a communication kept up between the fugitives from Jeru-
salem and the Twelve even from the first. Samaria here means the
district, for although Philip’s preaching was in one city, the newly-
baptized would spread abroad in every part, and carry the teaching
forth as the woman of Samaria did her ‘ new learning’ (John iv. 28).
They had received the word of God as their countrymen before, so as
to ‘know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’
ἀπέστειλαν, they sent. We gather from this passage that there was
no special preeminence assigned to any among the Twelve in these
earliest days, Peter and John were sent forth on their mission by the
VIII. 19.] NOTES. 181
decision of the whole body. These two were probably chosen for such
a work, as they had taken the most active part and in concert (iii. 1)
in establishing the Church in Jerusalem.
15. καταβάντες, when they were come down. Used often of leaving
Jerusalem, the centre of all religious life, to go into other parts. So
the contrary verb ἀναβαίνειν is employed (Luke ii. 42) to describe the
journey to the Holy City.
ὅπως λάβωσι, that they might receive. The subjunctive mood
comes after ὅπως even when preceded by a past tense, as here, when
the result intended is regarded as something which will surely come
to pass. Cf. Acts xxv. 26, προήγαγον αὐτὸν ἐφ᾽ ὑμῶν... «ὅπως σχῶ τί
γράψω.
πνεῦμα ἅγιον, the Holy Ghost, or rather (as the word has no
article) ‘a gift of the Holy Ghost.’ It is clear from the whole history
that special gifts of the Holy Ghost, bestowed at this period on the
Christian converts in various places, were not given except through
the Apostles. The case of Ananias, sent by God’s special command
to Saul, differs from all others. Peter could promise it (ii. 58} to those
who should repent and be baptized, but the Samaritan converts whom
Philip had made received no share of such powers till the arrival of
Peter and John. But the Apostles make it manifest by their prayer
that the gift was not theirs either to impart or withhold, but was ‘of
God,’ as Peter calls it (ver. 20).
16. ὑπῆρχον. This verb seems to be used with somewhat of its
original foree=‘to make a beginning.’ These men had taken one
step, and had been baptized and thus admitted into the community.
εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, into the name The preposition, which is the same
that is used by Christ (Matth. xxviii. 19) at the institution of the Sa-
crament, implies the tie by which the new converts are in baptism
bound to Christ as His followers, servants, worshippers.
17. τότε ἐπετίθεσαν «.t.X., then they laid their hands on them,
that there might be some outward sign of this imparted grace. So
Ananias (ix. 17) laid his hands on Saul, and he received the Holy
Ghost. But on Cornelius and his companions (x, 44) the same gift
was bestowed while Peter spake unto them.
18. ἰδὼν δέ, and when Simon saw, &c. Simon’s conduct now
makes it clear how limited his faith had been. As he offered to buy
the power, so we may be sure he meant to sellit. His faith had only
sprung from his amazement,
προσήνεγκεν K.T.A., he offered them money. From Simon’s name
all trafficking in sacred things has since been called ‘ simony.’
19. δότε κἀμοὶ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ταύτην, give me also this power. The
character of the man is shewn by what he asks for. He does not
desire the Holy Ghost for himself as a spiritual gift to seal his baptism,
but that he may be able to bestow what he looks upon as a higher
power than his own magic. On this verse Chrysostom remarks οὐκ ἂν
οὕτως εἶπεν εἰ μὴ αἰσθητόν τι éyivero. The gift of the Holy Ghost had
182 THE ACTS. [VIII 19—
been made apparent by the new powers conferred on those who
received it. ‘Their works and words Simon had seen and heard, and
hence his application to the Apostles.
20. τὸ ἀργύριον... ἀπώλειαν, thy silver perish with thee. els ἀπώ-
λειαν is a frequent expression in the LXX. Thus for the king’s threat
‘ye shall be cut to pieces’ (A.V.) we find Dan. ii. 5, ili, 29 ἔσεσθε
els ἀπώλειαν. The expression also occurs Is. xiv. 23; Esther vii. 4;
Ezek. xxviii. 7, &c. Itis clear from what follows that the terrible
invocation of doom upon this offender is to be qualified by the condi-
tion supplied from ver. 22, where repentance and prayer are pointed
out as means whereby even so great a sinner may find forgiveness.
And St Peter may have thus joined Simon in the same destruction as
his money, because he foresaw that there was little or no hope that
such a man could be brought to repentance unless the consequence of
his sin were set before him in all its terror.
ὅτι τὴν δωρεὰν K.T.A., because thou thoughtest to acquire the gift of
God for money. Simon had given no heed to the prayer which the
Apostles had offered to God that this gift of the Spirit might be sent
down. He did not regard it as ‘the gift of God’ but only thought, if
he could but once buy it, it would be his own at all times and for ever.
21. μερὶς οὐδὲ κλῆρος. These two words are constantly found
together in the LXX. of Deuteronomy where the Levites are spoken
of, who had no inheritance or possession in the land of Canaan. Thus
Deut. xii. 12 ὁ Λευίτης, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῷ μερὶς οὐδὲ κλῆρος μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν.
So xiv. 27, 29, xviii. 1.
ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ, in this matter. Or, more literally, ‘in this word’;
and if that rendering be taken, the reference will be to the λόγον θεοῦ
mentioned in verse 14. ;
ἡ yap καρδία σου οὐκ ἔστιν εὐθεῖα, for thy heart is not right, &e.
This expression or its equivalent (εὐθὺς τῇ καρδίᾳ) is very common in
the LXX. of the Psalms, as Pss. vii. 10, x. 2, xxxi. 11, &c. The
passage which most nearly accords with this verse is Ps. lxxvii. 37,
ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν οὐκ εὐθεῖα μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ.
22. μετανόησον οὖν ἀπὸ τ. K., repent therefore, &c. On this con-
dition not only could the stern wish of Peter be averted, but the anger
of God also. We see therefore that the words of the Apostle in ver.
20 must have been coupled in his mind with such condition, but the
further language of this verse seems to imply that to Peter’s mind
there was not much hope of such repentance. The phrase μετανοεῖν
ἀπό is found in LXX. (Jer. viii. 6) ἄνθρωπος ὁ μετανοῶν ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας
αὐτοῦ.
δεήθητι τοῦ κυρίου, and pray the Lord. This is what one would
look for in the sentence, rather than ‘pray God’ (Text. recept.), for
the offence was directly against Christ. Simon, with corrupt motives,
was seeking to be enrolled among those who were called by Christ’s
name.
εἰ dpa, if perhaps. The Apostle sees how full the mind of Simon
VIII. 25.] NOTES. 183
has been of the scheme which he has conceived, and the knowledge of
this seems expressed in the εἰ dpa with which this clause begins. He
will not declare that there is not hope even for such an offender, but
the covetousness, which is idolatry, makes repentance almost impos-
sible. See Chrysostom’s words, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ εἶπεν, el dpa ἀφεθήσεταί
σοι, ὅτι ber ἀδιόρθωτον ὄντα.
ἡ ἐπίνοια, the thought. ἐπίνοια is found only here in N.T., but is
not uncommon in the LXX. It implies a: deliberate, well matured
plan. Cf. Wisdom xiv. 12, ἀρχὴ yap πορνείας ἐπίνοια εἰδώλων. Also
see 2 Mace. xii. 45.
23. εἰς γὰρ χολὴν πικρίας. The preposition els=into is not easy to
explain here. Some have thought that eis, like év, is used as represent-
ing 3. By others the construction has been compared with that of the
Hebrew preposition 7a for, after the verb ‘to be’ in passages such as
Ezek, xxxvii. 22 ‘I will make them one nation,’ literally ‘unto one
nation.’ But instances of this construction are not common enough
in the O.T. for an imitation of it in the N.T. to be probable. It seems
better therefore not to take ‘gall of bitterness’ and ‘bond of iniquity’
as thus in apposition with the subject of the sentence, but rather to
regard the preposition as used with the sense of motion towards a
place or state and subsequent rest there. So it is found in Luke xi. 7,
‘my children are with me in (eis) bed,’ where the meaning is, ‘they
have come into, and are remaining in, bed.’ So that the sense here
would be ‘thou hast advanced towards, and art involved in, the gall of
bitterness,’ &c. The expression χολὴ πικρίας is a modification of words
which are found more than once in the LXX. Cf. Deut. xxix. 18 ῥίξα
ἄνω φύουσα ἐν χολῇ καὶ πικρίᾳ Similarly Deut. xxxii. 32 σταφυλὴ
χολῆς, βότρυς πικρίας. See also Lament, iii. 15.
σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας, the bond of iniquity. The expression is found
in the LXX. (Is. lviii. 6). The whole sentence thus implies that
Simon had gone from one evil to another till he had reached and was
remaining in a stage which deserved the reprobation spoken against
idolatry in the O.T., and that he had allowed evil to make kim its
prisoner,
24. ὅπως μηδὲν ἐπέλθῃ k.7.X., that none of these things which ye have
spoken come upon me. Simon shews from the character of his petition
that he is not moved by a true spirit of repentance. He utters no
word of sorrow for the evil of his thought, but only petitions that he
may suffer no punishment. Yet we can see that he had not taken
the expression of St Peter in ver. 20 as a curse invoked upon him by
the Apostle, but only as a declaration of the anger of God and of
the certainty of a penalty upon the wilful continuance in such sin.
His entreaty may be compared with that oft-repeated petition of
Pharaoh to Moses (Exod. viii. 8, 28, ix. 28, x. 17), ‘Intreat the Lord
for me,’ extorted by fear and followed by no change of conduct.
25. ot μὲν ovdv...dadroayres...eis “Τεροσόλυμα...εὐηγγελίζοντο, they
therefore, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord,
returned towards Jerusalem, and preached the Gospel to many villages
184 THE ACTS. [ὙΠ]. 25—
of the Samaritans. Peter and John had not been sent forth to make an
extended missionary journey, but only to confirm the work of the
Evangelists who had first preached and baptized in Samaria, by lay-
ing their hands upon the converts. This done they returned to their
place in Jerusalem, but by the way preached in such villages of Samaria
as lay in their road.
On this return Chrysostom remarks διατὶ πάλιν ἀπίασιν ἐκεῖ ἔνθα ἡ
τυραννὶς ἣν, ἔνθα ἡ ἀρχὴ τῶν κακῶν, ἔνθα οἱ μάλιστα φωνῶντες ; καθάπερ
ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις οἱ στρατηγοὶ ποιοῦσι καὶ τὸ πονοῦν τοῦ πόλέμου μέρος
καταλαμβάνουσι τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ οὗτοι ἐργάζονται.
26—40. Puinip BAPTIZES AN ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH.
26. ἄγγελος δέ, and an angel. God does not let His agents
languish for want of occupation. Peter and John are sent to com-
plete the work of Philip in Samaria, but Philip meanwhile is divinely
directed to another scene of labour.
ἐλάλησεν πρὸς Φίλιππον, spake unto Philip. Most probably in a
vision, as to Cornelius (x. 3) and to Peter (xi. 5).
κατὰ μεσημβρίαν, toward the south. Gaza was the southernmost
of the five great cities which the Philistines had formerly occupied,
and was on the route which a traveller from Jerusalem to Egypt would
follow. In 96 B.c. the city of Gaza had been destroyed and its in-
habitants massacred by Alexander Jannzus (Joseph. Ant. xu. 13. 3),
but it had been rebuilt by Gabinius (Ant. xv. 5. 3), though it is
said that the restored city was nearer the sea than the ancient one. It
continued to be a city of importance (see Ant. xv. 7. 3 and xvi. 11.
4), and it cannot therefore be to the city that the word ‘desert’,
which follows, must be referred. From Samaria Philip would come
directly south, and leaving Jerusalem on the east strike the road at
some distance from that city.
ἀπὸ “Ἱερουσαλὴμ eis Tdfav, from Jerusalem unto Gaza. There
was more than one road from Jerusalem to Gaza; the more northern
route went first to Ascalon and then by the coast to Gaza, another road
was by Hebron and through the more desert country which lay to
the west of it, and this is most likely the road intended in the
narrative.
αὕτη ἐστὶν ἔρημος, this is desert. With αὕτη it is best to supply
ἡ ὁδὸς. If the words had been inserted as an explanation by the
writer in reference to Gaza, they would scarcely have been so curt,
whereas if we regard them as a portion of the speech of the angel
they contain all that was needed for Philip’s instruction. That road
toward Gaza which passed through the desert explains exactly the
place to which he was to go.
27. ἀνὴρ Αἰθίοψ. The deletion of the second és in this verse
leaves the nominative with a verb to which it may be joined, which
was not the case in the Text. recept.
Ethiopia, like Cush in the O.T., is a general name given to the
country which is now called Nubia and Abyssinia. Its northern por-
- ὙΠ]. 30.] NOTES. 185
tion was the great kingdom of Meroé, which we know was ruled over
by queens for a long period (Plin. H.N. vi. 29), and it is from this
kingdom, most probably, that the eunuch had come. Jews were
abundant in Egypt, and this man had become a proselyte to their
religion.
Kavédxns, of Candace. We are told by Pliny (1. c.) that this was
the name of a series of queens of Meroé, just as Pharaoh at an early
period, and Ptolemy subsequently, were general names for the kings of
Egypt, and Cesar for the Roman emperors,
ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς γάζης αὐτῆς, over all her treasure. “γάζα is a word
of Persian origin, and is found in nearly the same form in the
Hebrew text of Ezra v. 17, vi. 1, vii. 20, and Esther iv. 7, into which
books it has come directly from the Persian,.
ἐληλύθει προσκυνήσων, had come to worship, which proselytes
did, as well as Jews. This we learn from the enumeration of those
who were present at the feast of Pentecost (ii. 10), among whom
proselytes are expressly named. So (John xii. 20) we find Greeks
coming up to the feasts at Jerusalem.
28. ἦν τε ὑποστρέφων, and was returning, 1.6. at the termination
of the feast.
ἀνεγίνωσκεν τὸν προφήτην ‘Hoatav, read Isaiah the prophet. He
was evidently reading aloud (see ver. 30), and this was common among
orientals, and was specially the practice of the Jews, who accompanied
the reading with a good deal of bodily motion and considered this
helpful to study. Thus T.B. Erubin 53b ad fin. ‘ Beruriah found a
student who was reading, but not aloud; she pushed him and said
to him, Is it not written ‘‘Only when it is well ordered then it is
kept”? Ifit is put in order by all thy two hundred and forty-eight
limbs [thy study] will abide, but if not it will not abide. We have
heard of a pupil of Rabbi Eliezer who studied but not aloud, and
after three years he had forgotten his learning.’ And a little after-
wards we read, ‘Shemuel said to Rab Jehudah, Clever fellow! Open
thy mouth when thou readest the Bible, and open thy mouth when
thou studiest the Mishna, in order that the reading may abide, and
that thy life may be prolonged. For it says (Prov. iv. 22), For life are
they to them that find them’ (or as the Rabbis preferred to read it, ‘to
them that utter them forth’).
29. εἶπεν δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα TO Φιλίππῳ, and the Spirit said unto Philip,
i.e. by some inward prompting.
πρόσελθε καὶ κολλήθητι K.T.A., go near and join thyself to this
chariot. No doubt this royal treasurer had a numerous retinue, and
a single traveller on a desert road would be doing what was natural in
attaching himself to a train of people who were journeying in the
same direction. Philip would therefore be able to approach and hear
what was read without being deemed an intruder.
30. προσδραμὼν δέ, and having run up, i.e. to overtake and get
near the chariot.
186 THE ACTS. (VIII. 30—
ἄρά ye γινώσκεις, dost thou understand? i.e. how the words are to
be applied, and to whom they relate.
31. ἐάν. For an example of ἐάν with future indicative cf. Luke
xi. 12, ἐὰν αἰτήσει ὠόν.
ὁδηγήσει pe, shall guide me. The eunuch living far away from
the received expounders of the Scriptures, feels that in a dark passage
like that which he was reading he has need of trained instruction.
He uses therefore the word which is employed for the guidance given
by teacher to pupil. Our Lord uses it (Matth. xv. 14; Luke vi. 39) re-
proachfully of the blind guidance which the scribes and Pharisees in
His day were giving to the people who came to them for instruction.
He uses the same word for the guidance of the Holy Spirit (John
xvi, 18). The word is common in LXX. version of the Psalms. Cf.
also Eccles. ii. 3 and Wisdom ix. 11, ὁδηγήσει pe...cwhpdvws καὶ φυλάξει
με ἐν τῇ δοξῇ αὐτῆς, Where divine wisdom is the guide spoken of. It
was a marked feature in the teaching of the Jews that explanations of
Scripture were passed on from generation to generation, and that only
was highly valued by them which a man had received from his
teachers. Such a system (unhappily not without its parallels in the
history of the Christian Church) accounts for the permanence of all
their traditions.
παρεκάλεσέν τε, and he besought. The verb implies a very earnest
request, and betokens the great desire which the eunuch had for more
enlightenment.
32. ἡ δὲ περιοχή, now the place, &c. The word περιοχή is of rare
occurrence in this sense, but Cicero uses it in Epist. ad Attic, xm. 25.
It means the section of a book, rather than a particular place. Com-
pare the use of the verb in 1 Pet. ii. 6, περιέχει ἐν τῇ γραφῇ, ‘it is con-
tained in the Scripture.’ The eunuch was studying the whole de-
scription of the sufferer whom the prophet is describing.
αὕτη, this. The verses quoted here are Isaiah 1111. 7, 8, and are
given word for word from the LXX., which it is most probable that
the eunuch was reading, as, being made in Egypt, that version was
most likely to be circulated among those Jews with whom this man
would be brought into communication. Philip also belonging to the
Grecians (vi. 5) would be most familiar with the Greek translation.
It will be seen that the translation differs in some points from the
original, but yet it is sufficiently close in sense to express the inten-
tion of the prophet or rather the ‘mind of the Spirit’ in the prophecy,
and on this translation therefore Philip founds his teaching.
33. ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει, in His humiliation. The Hebrew text
signifies ‘through oppression and through judgment (1.6, punish-
ment) he was taken away.’
τὴν γενεὰν K.T.A., who shall declare His generation? i.e. who shall
describe His contemporaries, men who under a form of judicial punish-
ment oppressed the sufferer, and put Him to death?
ὅτι αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἡ ζωὴ αὐτοῦ, for His life is taken from the
earth. The Hebrew has ‘for He was cut off out of the land of the
VIIL. 311 NOTES. 187
living.’ It will be seen from a comparison of the Hebrew and the
LXX. that the latter is in some parts rather a paraphrase than a trans-
lation.
Some of the Jews interpreted this passage of a suffering prophet,
but most generally it was applied to the suffering nation. Although
the notion of a suffering Messiah fell very much into the background,
yet it is to be found in some Rabbinical interpretations of Isaiah. In
the Targum of Jonathan the Messianic and the national application
of the words run side by side. On the whole subject, see Perowne,
Psalms (5th edition), Appendix.
34. περὶ ἑαυτοῦ, concerning himself. As Isaiah lxi. ‘The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, &c.,’ was held by the Jews to refer to
Isaiah, so the eunuch enquires whether the words he has been reading
may have the same reference.
35. Kal ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς ταύτης K.T.A., and he began at
this Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. It can hardly be doubted
that during his sojourn in Jerusalem the eunuch had heard the history
of the new teachers who had created such an excitement in the city.
Thus he would have had some story told him of the founder of the
new community, but his informants would have been Jews, and he
would only have heard from them a version of what had been done
of such a sort as to make him account Jesus one of the many
deceivers who abounded in those times,
36. ὡς δὲ ἐπορεύοντο κατὰ τὴν ὁδόν, and as they went on the way.
We must suppose that Philip travelled for some time with the eunuch,
for not only has he explained that in Jesus was fulfilled all that the
prophets had spoken concerning the sufferings of the Messiah, but
has taught him that believers in Jesus are to be admitted into the
Christian Church by baptism, of which sacrament he desires to be a
partaker at once.
On the full teaching which the eunuch had received from Philip,
Chrysostom says, ὅρα πώς τὰ δόγματα ἀπηρτισμένα εἶχε, Kal yap ὁ
προφήτης πάντα περιεῖχε, τὴν σάρκωσιν, τὸ πάθος, τὴν ἀνάστασιν, τὴν
ἀνάληψιν, τὴν κρίσιν τὴν μέλλουσαν. ἃ δὴ καὶ πολλὴν τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν αὑτῷ
μάλιστα ἐνεποίησαν. αἰσχύνθητε ὅσοι ἀφώτιστοι τυγχάνετε.
37. εἶπεν δὲ ὁ Φίλιππος, Hi πιστεύεις ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας ἔξεστιν.
᾿Αποκριθεὶς δὲ εἶπεν, Πιστεύω τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν
Χριστόν. These words stand in the Tezt. recept. as verse 37, but are
omitted in the oldest MSS. They probably found their way into the
text, of those MSS. in which they stand, from the margin. Such a
margin would be readily formulated by those who thought perhaps
that the question in verse 36 required a definite answer, and who,
when the Church had become more extended, and formal professions
of faith were the rule before baptism, felt that there was a want of
completeness in the narrative unless some such confession were sup-
posed to have been made. Thus the margin became a kind of exposi-
tion, and in the end found acceptance in the text.
Though found in some MSS. of the Vulgate it is absent from the
best, and was not in that which Beda used.
188 THE ACTS. (VIII. 33—
38. ἐκέλευσεν στῆναι τὸ ἅρμα, he commanded the chariot to stand
still, i.e. he bade the chariot-driver halt. Of course the whole retinue
would be witnesses of what took place, and they may perhaps be re-
garded as the nucleus of a congregation to be established in Ethiopia.
Tradition tells us that the eunuch labonred to evangelize his country-
men, and none were more likely to be influenced by his teaching than
those who were present at his baptism and were, with him, witnesses
of the way in which Philip was taken from them.
κατέβησαν k.T.A., they went down both into the water, as was the
custom among the Jews. Thus John baptized his followers in the Jor-
dan. It is worth notice that in the ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’
recently discovered provision is made for baptism by affusion (chap.
vii.), ἔκχεον els τὴν κεφαλὴν τρὶς ὕδωρ εἰς ὄνομα πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ Kal ἁγίου
πνεύματος.
89. πνεῦμα κυρίου κιτιλ., the Spirit of the Lord caught away
Philip. Just as Obadiah expected that Elijah would be carried away
while he himself went on his errand to Ahab (1 Kings xviii. 12).
Compare the language of Ezekiel (iii. 12, 14, viii. 3, &.), ‘So the
spirit lifted me up (ἀνέλαβε) and took me away.’
Chrysostom says of this removal of Philip: συμφερόντως οὖν ἥρπασεν
αὐτὸν τὸ πνεῦμα, ἐπεὶ ἠξίωσεν ἂν Kal συνεπανελθεῖν αὐτῷ ὁ εὐνοῦχος, ὃν
καὶ ἐλύπησεν ἂν ἐκεῖνος, ἀνανεύσας καὶ ἀρνησάμενος οὐδέπω καιροῦ ὄντος.
καὶ οὐκ εἶδεν αὐτὸν οὐκέτι ὁ εὐνοῦχος, and the eunuch saw him no
more. This marvellous removal of Philip would confirm the eunuch
and his companions in their faith. They would recognize that he who
had been sent unto them was a man of God.
ἐπορεύετο yap τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ χαίρων, for he went on his way rejoic-
ing. The words explain why Philip was no more seen of the eunuch.
He was not like the sons of the prophets at Jericho, who went to seek
Elijah when they heard of his being carried away. The eunuch was
filled with joy at the new light which God had sent to him, and felt
no anxiety for the safety of Philip, being sure that he was cared for
by the same hand which had sent him forth.
40. Φίλιππος δὲ εὑρέθη, but Philip was found, i.e. he appeared
again and continued the work of his ministry. Evpé0y is the exact
translation of a Hebrew verb which in the A.V. is often rendered ‘to
be present.’ Cf. Esther i. 5 ‘that were present,’ and in the margin
‘Hebrew, found.’
eis” Atwrov, at Azotus. The preposition els, =into, in such a connex-
ion may be explained as implying ‘he had come into the city and was
staying there.’ The LXX. text of the passage from Esther alluded to
in the last note is a good illustration of this sentence, ἐποίησεν ὁ βασι-
λεὺς πότον τοῖς ἔθνεσιν τοῖς εὑρεθεῖσιν els τὴν πόλιν. See above on verse
23 and Winer-Moulton, p. 516.
Azotus is the ancient Ashdod (1 Sam. v. 1—7), one of the five chief
cities of the Philistines when the Israelites settled in Canaan,
εἰς Καισάρειαν, to Cesarea. This was Cesarea Sebaste, so called
in honour of Augustus (Greek, Σεβαστός) Caesar (Joseph. Ant. xvi.
IX. 1] NOTES. 189
5.1). It was the chief city of Palestine under the Roman rule, and
lay at the extreme north of the plain of Sharon. It is mentioned in
the Acts as the place at which Cornelius was stationed (x. 1), and it
seems that Philip subsequently made his home there (xxi. 8).
CHAPTER IX.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
8. ἐκ for ἀπὸ with NABCL. Vulg. ‘de.’
δ. ὁ δέ instead of ὁ δὲ κύριος εἶπεν with ABC. Vulg. ‘et ille’ only.
5, 6. σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν. τρέμων τε kal θαμβῶν εἶπεν,
Κύριε, τί με θέλεις ποιῆσαι; καὶ ὁ κύριος πρὸς αὐτόν omitted with
NABCEHLP. The Vulg. represents it.
8. οὐδὲν for οὐδένα with NAB. Vulg. ‘nihil.’
12. ἐν ὁράματι omitted with NA. The Vulg. also does not repre-
sent it.
18. ὡς for ὡσεὶ with NAB.
παραχρῆμα omitted with NABCHP. Not represented in Vulg.
19. ὁ Σαῦλος omitted with NABCE. Not in Vulg.
20. For Χριστόν read ᾿Ιησοῦν with NABCE. Vulg. ‘Jesum.’
26. ὁ Σαῦλος omitted with NABC. Not in Vulg.
29, Ἰησοῦ omitted with NABE. Not in Vulg.
81. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία with NABC, Vulg. ‘ecclesia quidem.’
38. Μὴ ὀκνήσῃς with NABCE. Vulg. ‘Ne pigriteris.’
ἡμῶν for αὐτῶν with NABCE. Vulg. ‘nos.’
42, ἐπίστευσαν πολλοὶ with NABCE. Vulg. ‘crediderunt multi.’
Cu. Ix. 1—9. Savu’s Mission ro Damascus AND HIS CONVERSION.
1. ὁ δὲ Σιαῦλος, but Saul. The dé takes up the previous δέ in viii.
1, where Saul was last alluded to. On this resumptive use of δέ cf.
Winer-Moulton, Ὁ. 553.
ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς, breathing threatening. This was the atmosphere
in which he was constantly living during his search for the Christians.
The rendering ‘breathing out’ (A.V.) gives a wrong sense. Cf. LXX.
Josh. x. 40 πᾶν ἐμπνέον ζωῆς ἐξωλόθρευσεν, ‘he utterly destroyed
everything which drew the breath of life.’
εἰς Tots μαθητάς, against the disciples. We are not told of any
other death, but Stephen’s, in which Saul was an active participator,
but we can gather from his own words (Acts xxvi. 10) ‘when they
were put to death, I gave my voice [vote] against them’ that the
protomartyr was not the only one who was killed in the time of this
persecution. It has been suggested that the zeal which Saul shewed
at the time of Stephen’s death led to his election into the Sanhedrin,
190 THE ACTS. ΠΧ ΣΕ
and so he took a judicial part in the later stages of the persecution,
and, it may be from a desire to justify the choice of those who had
placed him in authority, he sought to be appointed over the enquiry
after the Christians in Damascus. We gather from xxvi. 10 that
before this inquisitorial journey he had been armed with the authority
of the chief priests in his search after the Christians in Jerusalem.
τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ, to the high-priest. He would be the person through
whom the power, which the great Sanhedrin claimed to exercise in
religious matters, over Jews in foreign cities, would be put in motion.
2. ἐπιστολάς, letters. These are the papers which constituted his
‘authority and commission’ (xxvi. 12). From that passage we learn
that the issuing of these papers was the act of the whole body, for
Paul there says they were ‘from the chief priests.’
Δαμασκόν, Damascus. Of the history of this most ancient (Gen.
xiv. 15) city in the world, see the Dictionary of the Bible. It had
from the earliest period been mixed up with the history of the Jews,
and great numbers of Jews were living there at this time, as we can
see from the subsequent notices of their conduct in this chapter. We
are told by Josephus (B. J. τι. 20. 2) that ten thousand Jews were
slaughtered in a massacre in Damascus in Nero’s time, and that the
wives of the Damascenes were almost all of them attached to the
Jewish religion.
πρὸς τὰς Tuvaywyds, to the synagogues, viz. those which existed in
Damascus. As at Jerusalem, so in Damascus, the synagogues were
numerous, and occupied by different classes and nationalities, Greek-
Jews were sure to be found in so large a city.
τινας... τῆς ὁδοῦ ὄντας, any that were of the Way. For εἰμὶ with this
genitive of a class or particular character, cf. 1 Thess. v. 5 οὐκ ἐσμὲν
νυκτὸς οὐδὲ σκότους, and just afterwards (verse 8) ἡμεῖς δὲ ἡμέρας ὄντες.
The name ‘the Way’ soon became a distinctive appellation of the
Christian religion. The fuller expression ‘the way of truth’ is found
2 Pet. ii. 2; and the brief term is common in the Acts. See xix. 9,
23, xxii. 4, xxiv. 14, 22.
ἄνδρας te Kal γυναῖκας, whether they be men or women. We can
mark the fury with which Saul raged against the Christians from this
mention of the ‘women’ as included among those whom he committed
and desired to commit to prison. Cp. viii. 3 and xxii. 4. The women
played a more conspicuous part among early Christians than they
were allowed to do among the Jews, See note oni. 14.
εἰς “Τερουσαλήμ, unto Jerusalem, as to the head-quarters of Jewish
authority, where the whole power of the great Sanhedrin might be
employed to crush out the new teaching.
3. ἐν δὲ τῷ πορεύεσθαι, and as he journeyed. There were two roads
by which Saul could make his journey, one the caravan road which
led from Egypt to Damascus, and kept near the coast line of the Holy
Land till it struck eastward to cross the Jordan at the north of the
Lake of Tiberias. To join this road Saul must have at first turned
IX. 4.] NOTES. ΤΟΙ
westward to the sea. The other way led through Neapolis and crossed
the Jordan south of the Sea of Tiberias, and passing through Gadara
went north-eastward to Damascus. We have no means whereby to
decide by which road Saul and his companions took their way. The
caravan road was a distance of 136 miles, and occupied six days for
the journey.
ἐγένετο αὐτὸν ἐγγίζειν, it came to pass that he drew nigh. This
accusative and infinitive after éyévero is frequent in St Luke’s writ-
ings, but it also occurs in other parts of N.T.; cf. Mark ii. 23, καὶ
ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν διὰ τῶν σπορίμων. Cf. Winer-Moulton,
The party must have reached the near neighbourhood of the city,
for his companions (ver. 8) ‘led him by the hand and brought him
into Damascus’ after the vision.
φῶς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, a light from heaven. In xxii. 6 we are told
that the time of the day was ‘about noon’ when the vision was seen,
and in xxvi. 13 Paul says that ‘ at mid-day’ the light was ‘above the
brightness of the sun.’ The mid-day glare of an Eastern sun is of
itself exceedingly bright, and the hour was chosen, we cannot doubt,
in order that ‘the glory’ of this heaven-sent light should not be con-
founded with any natural phenomenon. It was in the midst of this
glory that Christ was seen by Saul (1 Cor. xv. 8), so that he can
enumerate himself among those who had beheld the Lord after His
resurrection.
4. καὶ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἤκουσεν, and he fell to the earth and
heard. The fall was in consequence of the dazzling intensity of the
brightness, From xxvi. 14 we find that not only Saul but his com-
panions were struck down by the light, though there was more in the
vision which he beheld than was made evident to them, and by
reason of the greater glory which was manifested to him his natural
sight was blinded.
φωνήν. By using the accusative case here and the genitive in verse
7, St Luke seems to point out that there was a difference between the
hearing which Saul experienced and that of his companions. St
Paul in xxii. 9 marks the distinction in his own narrative of what
occurred. Speaking of his companions, he says τὴν φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκου-
σαν, though here in verse 7 we have ἀκούοντες μὲν τῆς φωνῆς said of
them.
Taking all the instances together the correct conclusion seems to
be that when ἀκούειν signifies direct hearing, it may have after it a
genitive case and participle, but not an accusative and participle.
Thus the construction of λέγουσαν in this verse must be taken as an
apposition to φωνήν, a voice that said, &c. So also must be explained
the construction in xxvi. 14.
Saul during the vision heard articulate sounds, a voice which spake
to him, but his companions were only conscious of a sound from
which they comprehended nothing.
Of a similar supernatural communication to Hyreanus the high
192 _ THE ACTS. [rx act
priest we have (Joseph. Ant. xu. 10. 3) φασὶ yap ὅτι... αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ
ναῷ θυμιῶν μόνος ὧν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἀκούσειε φωνῆς ws οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ νενι-
κήκασιν ἀρτίως τὸν ᾿Αντιόχον. In this case the sound was that of
intelligible words.
Σαοὺλ Σαούλ, τί pe διώκεις ; Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me 3
It is very noteworthy that in all the three accounts of the vision the
Greek text of Saul’s name is a transliteration of the Hebrew, shewing -
that we have here a very close adherence to the words of Jesus. The
Lord spake in the language of His people, and both the evangelist
and the apostle have preserved for as this remarkable feature of the.
heavenly address. The only other place where the Hebrew form of
Saul’s name is retained is in the speech of Ananias when (ix. 17) he
comes to see the convert in his blindness. As he also had received
@ communication from Jesus in connexion with Saul’s conversion, we
can understand how the same form of the name would have been
given to him. Moreover he was himself, to judge from his name, a
Hebrew, and therefore that form would be most natural on his lips.
ne in these cases St Luke always employs the Greek form of the
word.
Christ speaks of Himself as persecuted by Saul, because ‘in all the
affliction of His people He is afflicted’ (Is. lxiii. 9), and ‘whoso toucheth
them toucheth the apple of His eye’ (Zech. ii. 8).
5. εἶπεν δέ, Τίς εἶ, κύριε, and he said, Who art thou, Lord? Saul
is sensible of the divine nature of the vision, and shews this by his
address. The appearance of Christ, though in a glorified body, must
have been like that which He wore in His humanity, and since Saul
does not recognize Jesus we may almost certainly conclude that
he had not known Him in His ministerial life.
6 8é, and he said. The verb is needed for the sense in English,
but the Greek could dispense with it, as is done below in verse 11,
See also xix. 2.
ἐγώ εἰμι ᾿Ιησοῦς, dv σὺ διώκεις, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
The emphatic contrast of the pronouns is to be noticed, though it
cannot be represented in a translation. In xxii. 8 St Paul gives the
fuller form of the sentence, I am Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord speak-
ing from heaven, and employing this His human name, at once and
for ever puts an end to Saul’s rage and persecution. Him whom
he must own as Lord is the same who was Jesus of Nazareth. Thus
he sees, what his master Gamaliel had before suggested (vy. 39),
that to persecute ‘the Way’ is ‘to fight against God.’
5, 6. The words here omitted by the best MSS. have found their
way into the text in this place from the desire of some early students
of the Acts to make a complete narrative of Saul’s conversion by
combining with what is here said the additional particulars given in
xxvi. 14 and xxii. 10. To do this some slight adaptations of the
words became necessary, and hence the form in the Tezt. recept. The
excluded words are more in place in the personal narratives of
St Paul than here, where the account is that of the historian.
IX. 8.] NOTES. 193
ὁ. ἀλλὰ ἀνάστηθι, but arise. Saul had continued prostrate during
the vision, just where he had been struck down at first.
εἰς τὴν πόλιν, into the city. Here is another proof that the party of
travellers had arrived very nearly at Damascus. Tradition here, as
in many other instances, has fixed on a spot as the scene of this divine
vision. It is placed outside the eastern gate, and about a mile from
the city. Such a situation answers very well, but its fitness is the only
ground for attaching any weight to the tradition.
6 τι σε δεῖ ποιεῖν, what thou must do. It is very uncommon in N.T.
Greek to find ὅ τι in an indirect question, the usual form being τί. Cf.
Matth, xx. 22, οὐκ οἴδατε τί αἰτεῖσθε, and numerous other instances.
See also Winer-Moulton, p. 210.
It will be noticed that, in xxvi. 16—18, St Paul gives an abstract
of the labours for which Christ had designed him, and the words
in that passage appear as a portion of the divine communication
made before Saul entered Damascus. In that narrative however no
mention is made of Ananias or his visit, but the Apostle has given
instead a brief notice of the message which Ananias brought to him,
and therein is contained a declaration of those things which Jesus in
the vision only spake of as ‘what thou must do.’
7. ot δὲ ἄνδρες κιτιλ., and the men which journeyed with him stood
speechless. Cf. Dan. x. 7, ‘I Daniel alone saw the vision, for the men
that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon
them.’
Saul was not only furnished with authority, but also with men who
were to carry out his intentions and bring the prisoners to Jerusalem.
Painters have represented the travellers as riding on horseback, but
there is no warrant for this in any form of the narrative.
εἱστήκεισαν means here ‘remained fixed,’ ‘did not move.’ For they
were not on their feet, but had been stricken down as weil as Saul
(xxvi. 14).
ἐνεός is found in LXX., Is. lvi. 10 κύνες ἐνεοί, and in Epist. Jerem.
Al éveov μὴ δυνάμενον λαλῆσαι.
ἀκούοντες μὲν τῆς φωνῆς, hearing the voice. On the case and its
probable significance see above on verse 4.
μηδένα δὲ θεωροῦντες, Dut beholding no man. Oewpéw is used by
Stephen (vii. 56), ‘I behold the heavens opened.’ So here of the glo-
rious vision of Jesus which Saul beheld but not his companions. In
their astonishment, and guided by the sound, Saul’s companions lifted
up their faces to the sky, but as with the words so with the appear-
ance of Jesus; it was unseen by all but one, but to him was manifest
enough to form a ground of his confidence in his Apostolic mission:
‘Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?’ (1 Cor. ix. 1).
8. ἀνεῳγμένων δὲ.. οὐδὲν ἔβλεπεν, but when his eyes were opened
he saw nothing. The vision had struck him blind. He opened his
᾿ς eyes, but their power had been taken away. Thus his physical con-
dition becomes a fit representation of the mental blindness which he
THE ACTS 13
ἐδ" THE ACTS. (Tx. B23
afterwards (xxvi. 9) deplores: ‘I verily thought with myself that I
ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.’
χειραγωγοῦντες δέ, but they led him by the hand and, &c. His
companions had seen nothing of the blinding glory, and so saw all
things as before.
9. ἡμέρας τρεῖς, three days. During this time we cannot but
think the illumination of his mind was being enlarged by the Spirit.
He had been convinced by the vision that Jesus was risen from the
dead and ascended into heaven. But more than this was needed for
the preparation of this mighty missionary. He himself (Gal. i. 16)
speaks of God revealing His Son not only to but in him, and that his
conferences were not with flesh and blood, and we are told below
(ver. 12) that the coming of Ananias had been made known unto him
by vision. To this solemn time of darkness may also perhaps be re-
ferred some of those ‘visions and revelations of the Lord’ which the
Apostle speaks of to the Corinthians (2 Cor, xii. 1—4). While his bodily
powers were for a time in suspense, he may fitly describe himself as
not knowing whether what he saw was revealed to him ‘in the body
or out of the body,’ and it was the spiritual vision only which saw the
third heaven and paradise, and the spirit heard those ‘unspeakable
words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.’ The Apostle no
doubt received other divine revelations while he was in retirement in
Arabia.
μὴ βλέπων. It is impossible to discern any difference here between
μὴ and what the sense could have been with οὐ, and the absence of any
such difference is made more apparent by the ov which follows twice
over in the next clause. On the use of μὴ in such sentences, cf.
Winer-Moulton, p. 610.
καὶ οὐκ ἔφαγεν, and he did not eat. The mental anguish for
a time overpowered the natural craving for food. The newly-called
Apostle was contemplating in all.its enormity his sin in persecuting
the Church of Christ, and though there were times of comfort and.
refreshing before Ananias came, yet the great thought which filled
Saul’s mind would be sorrow for his late mad and misdirected zeal,
and so the three days of blindness formed a period of deep penitence,
10—22. SauL’s SIGHT RESTORED, HE PREACHES IN DAMASCUS.
10. ἦν δέ τις μαθητὴς... ᾿Ανανίας. Now there was a certain disciple
at Damascus, named Ananias. Of this disciple we have no further
mention in Holy Writ except in chap. xxii. 12, where St Paul describes
him as ‘a devout man according to the Law, having a good report of
all the Jews which dwelt’ at Damascus. Whether he had become a
Christian during the life of Jesus, or was among the Jewish converts
on the Day of Pentecost or at some subsequent time, and had been
forced to flee from Jerusalem by the persecution which followed on
the death of Stephen, we are not told, but we can gather, from the
words which he employs in expressing his reluctance to visit Saul,
that he had much and trustworthy communication still with the Holy
IX. 15] . NOTES. 198
City, for he knows both of the havock which the persecutor has
caused, and of the purpose of his mission to Damascus. On the name
Ananias see v. 1, note.
On the sending of Ananias Chrysostom asks τί δήποτε οὐδένα τῶν
κορυφαίων ἀποστόλων οὔτε ἐκάλεσεν οὔτε ἀπέστειλε πρὸς τὴν τοῦ 1]αύλου
κατέχησιν ; and answers the question thus: ὅτε οὐκ ἐχρῆν δι’ ἀνθρώπων
ἐνάγεσθαι ἀλλὰ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ χριστοῦ" ἐπεὶ καὶ οὗτος ἐδίδαξεν μὲν αὐτὸν
οὐδέν, ἐβάπτισε δὲ μόνον.
ἐν ὁράματι, in a vision. As Saul had been prepared for the visit by
a vision, so Ananias is by a vision instructed to go to him. Dean
Howson’s remarks (Life and Epistles of St Paul, 1.101) on this pre-
paration and its similarity to the preparation of Peter and Cornelius
’ deserve to be dwelt on. ‘The simultaneous preparation of the hearts
of Ananias and Saul, and the simultaneous preparation of those of
Peter and Cornelius—the questioning and hesitation of Peter and the
questioning and hesitation of Ananias—the one doubting whether he
might make friendship with the Gentiles, the other doubting whether
he mighi approach the enemy of the Church—the unhesitating obedi-
ence of each when the Divine will was made clearly known—the state
of mind in which both the Pharisee and the Centurion were found—
each waiting to see what the Lord would say unto them—this close
analogy will not be forgotten by those who reverently read the two
consecutive chapters, in which the baptism of Saul and the baptism of
Cornelius are narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.’ When so much
criticism has been expended to shew that the Acts is a work of fiction
written at a late period to minimize certain differences supposed to
exist between the teaching of St Paul and that of St Peter, it is well
to know that others have seen, in these undoubted analogies, proofs
of the working of a God who is ever the same, and who would have all
men to be saved through Jesus Christ.
11. ἐπὶ τὴν ῥύμην τὴν καλουμένην εὐθεῖαν, into the street which is
called Straight. ἐπὶ with the accusative signifies ‘upon,’ and here the
sense given by it is that of motion first to the street, and then along it.
ῥύμη is only a word of late classical authors. In N.T. it is used in
contradiction to πλατεῖα, which is a wide, open space. So puun=lane.
It is found in like contrast in LXX. of Is. xv. 3; also it occurs in
Tobit xiii. 18; Ecclus. ix. 7 μὴ περιβλέπου ἐν ῥύμαις πόλεως, Where the
context suggests a reference to the less public and open places of the
city.
A long, straight street still runs through Damascus, and is probably
(so persistent is every feature of Oriental life) the same in which
Ananias found Saul in the house of Judas.
12. ἀναβλέψῃ, he may receive his sight. Here we have ὅπως with
the conjunctive after a past tense. But as the event alluded to is yet
in the future, it is easy to explain the construction.
13. ἤκουσα ἀπὸ πολλῶν, I have heard from many. These words
seem to indicate a longer residence of Ananias in Damascus than he
could have mage if he had only left Jerusalem after the death of
13—2
196 THE ACTS. fim: 192
Stephen; and so do the words (xxii. 12) which speak of his good
report among all the Jews that dwelt at Damascus. And what a tale
they tell us of Saul’s zeal against the Church.
τοῖς ἁγίοις σου, to Thy saints. The Christian converts were pro-
bably called ‘saints,’ i.e. ‘holy persons,’ at a very early period after the
death of Christ because of the marvellous outpourings of the Holy
Spirit upon the first converts, cf. 1 Pet.i. 15. The word is of frequent
occurrence in the greetings of St Paul’s Epistles.
14. τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομά cov, those that call on thy
name. ‘To call on Christ’s name’ is equivalent to being a be-
liever in Him. The expression is found in 1 Cor. i. 2 in apposition
to ἅγιοι, and thus we see what in Pauline language is meant by
‘saints ’ when used of the whole body of the Christian Church,
15. σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς, a chosen vessel. Literally, ‘a vessel of elec-
tion.’ This is a Hebrew form of expression. Cf. LXX. Jerem. xxii.
28, where it is said of king Coniah that he is ws σκεῦος οὗ οὐκ ἔστι
χρεία. Soin Hosea viii. 8 Israel is called σκεῦος ἄχρηστον.
This qualitative genitive (where one noun serves to another in the
place of an adjective) is a common construction in Hebrew because
that language is poor in adjectives,
τοῦ βαστάσαι τὸ ὄνομά pov, to bear My name. This shall be the
load which I will lay upon this My chosen servant.
This use of the infinitive with the article in the genitive to express
purpose or design is very common both in the LXX. and in the N.T.
Greek. In the former it is the constant form for rendering the infini-
tive with ὡς Cf. Gen. i, 14 and almost every chapter in the Bible. In
the N. T. the frequency of this usage is probably due to a familiarity
with the LXX., though the classical writers use such a genitival in-
finitive occasionally. Cf. Winer-Moulton, pp. 410, 411.
ἐνώπιον ἐθνῶν, before the Gentiles. This was doubtless a revelation
to Ananias, who as a devout Jew would not yet have contemplated
the inclusion of the whole world in the Church of Christ. The Gentiles
are placed first in the enumeration, because among them specially
was Saul’s field of labour to be. For the wide spirit in which the
Apostle embraced his commission, see Rom, i. 13, 14, &c. -
καὶ βασιλέων, and kings. As before Agrippa (xxvi. 1, 32) and at
Rome in consequence of the appeal unto Cesar.
16. ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματός μου παθεῖν, to suffer for My name. It was
no light burden which the new convert was to bear. Cf. his own
words (xx. 23), ‘the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that
bonds and afflictions abide me.’ The truth of this is borne out by
that long list of the Apostle’s sufferings which he enumerates in his
letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor, xi. 23—28), and the less detailed list
in the same Epistle (vi. 4, 5).
17. Σαούλ. See above on verse 4.
ὁ κύριος... Invovs. Ananias is guided to combine the name ‘Lord,’
which Saul had used when he beheld the vision of glory, with ‘Jesus’
IX. 19.] NOTES. 197
which Christ had Himself uttered in answer to Saul’s question, ‘Who
art thou?’ Thus his mission would bring at once its warrant to the
mind of Saul. He was now confirmed from without of the verity of
all he had seen in the way, and would recognize in Ananias the
teacher who was to explain to him what he should do.
πλησθῇς πνεύματος ἁγίου, be filled with the Holy Ghost. On this
occasion the hands laid on him to whom the gift was imparted were
not those of an Apostle, except in so far as Ananias was Christ’s ἀπό-
στολος in this special case.
18. ὡς λεπίδες, as it had been scales. The word λεπίς is used by
Hippocrates as a technical term for a disease of the eye, and λεπίζω
is found (Tobit 111, 17, xi. 13) used to describe the peeling-process by
which such a disease was cured. καὶ ἐλεπίσθη ἀπὸ τῶν κάνθων τῶν ὀφθαλ-
μῶν αὐτοῦ τὰ λευκώματα, ‘and the whiteness pilled away from the
corners of his eyes’ (A.V.). λευκώματα is rendered in the margin
(Tob. ii. 10) ‘white films’; they were clearly something like the ‘scales’
which caused Saul’s blindness, and a process for the cure thereof is
called (111, 17) λεπίσαι τὰ λευκώματα, ‘to scale away the whiteness of
Tobit’s eyes.’ St Paul (xxii. 11) ascribes his blindness to the glory of
the heavenly light, and it may have been some secretion, caused by
the intensity of that vision, which formed over them, and at his cure
fell away. Some have thought that his constant employment of an
amanuensis, and the mention of the large characters in which he
wrote in his Epistle to the Galatians (vi. 11) ‘ye see in what large
letters I have written to you,’ are indications that the Apostle
suffered permanently in his eyesight from the heavenly vision.
On the recovery of St Paul’s sight, Chrysostom remarks καὶ iva μὴ
νομίσῃ φαντασίαν τις εἷναι τὴν πήρωσιν, διὰ τοῦτο αἱ λεπίδες.
καὶ ἀνέβλεψεν, and he recovered his sight. Render thus also in the
previous verse.
καὶ ἀναστὰς ἐβαπτίσθη, and he arose and was baptized. In the
fuller account (xxii. 16) we learn that the exhortation to be baptized
was.part of the message with which Ananias was charged, and so he
was divinely commissioned to receive Saul thus into the Christian
Church.
19. καὶ λαβὼν τροφήν, and when he had taken meat. Needed after
his three days’ fast, but (says Calvin) ‘he refreshed not his body with
meat until his soul had received strength.’
ἐγένετο δὲ.. ἡμέρας τινάς, and he was certain days with the disciples
which were at Damascus. ἡμέρας τινάς is found again x. 48, xv. 36,
xvi. 12, xxiv. 24 and xxv. 13, and in all cases the time indicated by
them must have been brief. It was for this amount of time that
Peter tarried with Cornelius; the words are applied to a short period
spent by Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, to the time of St Paul’s
stay at Philippi, to the short time during which Paul was detained
at Cesarea before his hearing by Felix, and to a like period between
the arrival of Festus aad the visit which Agrippa made to salute him
as the new governor. In most of these instances the time intended
198 | THE ACTS. (Ix. 19—
must have been very brief, and it is important to notice this here,
because in verse 23 we shall find another expression, ἡμέραι ἱκαναί,
which is translated ‘many days’ and seems designed by the writer to
indicate a somewhat longer period. It is clear, from the way in which
‘disciples’ are here mentioned, that there was a numerous body of
Christians in Damascus at this early period. Saul dwelt with them
now not as an enemy but as a brother, by which name Ananias had
been directed to greet him.
20. ἐκήρυσσεν τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν k.t.A., he proclaimed Jesus that He is
the Son of God. This is undoubtedly the correct reading. The
preaching which was to be to the Jews a stumbling-block was that
Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, their long-expected Messiah.
Saul went, as was Christ’s custom also, into the synagogues as the
most likely places where to find an audience who would listen to his
proclamation. His letters to the synagogues (ver. 2) were not delivered,
but he came as the herald of one of higher authority than the chief
priests. For St Paul’s constant practice of teaching in the Jewish
synagogues see xiii. 5, xiv. 1, xvii. 1, 10, xviii. 4, 19, xix. 8.
Chrysostom’s note on this practice from the first is ὅρα, εὐθέως
διδάσκαλος ἦν ἐν ταῖς cuvaywyats* οὐκ ἠσχύνετο τὴν μεταβολήν, οὐκ
ἐδεδοίκει ἐν οἷς λαμπρὸς ἣν ταῦτα καταλύων" οὐχ ἁπλώς ἣν διδάσκαλος
ἀλλὰ ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς.
The construction is not entirely simple, for a portion of the predica-
tive clause has been attracted into the antecedent part of the sentence.
The simpler order would have been ἐκήρυσσεν ὅτι ᾿Ιησοῦς ἐστιν x.7.X.
But κηρύσσειν ᾿Ιησοῦν (or Χριστόν) had a distinct sense on the lips of
the early Christians (cf. Acts vill. 5; 1 Cor, i. 23, &c.), which will
account for the order of the words here.
21. ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες, but all were amazed. Saul’s fame as a
persecutor of Christians was apparently well known to the Jews of
Damascus, and the authorities of the synagogues may have been
instructed beforehand to welcome him as a zealous agent. If so their
amazement is easy to understand. It is clear from what follows in
this verse that they knew of his mission and the intention thereof,
though Saul did not bring them his ‘commission and authority.’ We
should gather also from the strong expression ὁ πορθήσας ‘he that
destroyed,’ used to describe Saul’s career in Jerusalem, that the
slaughter of the Christians there had not been limited to the stoning
of Stephen.
ἐληλύθει, ἵνα... ἀγάγῃ, came hither that he might bring. The sub-
junctive after the past tense seems however to indicate that in the
mind of the speaker the intention is still thought to be persistent.
‘He came that he may (as he is resolved to do) bring,’ &e.
22. Davros δὲ μᾶλλον ἐνεδυναμοῦτο, but Saul increased the more
in strength, i.e. became more and more energetic in his labours, and
the Holy Ghost gave him more power. His fitness for the labour on
which he was entering was very great. He possessed all ‘the Jewish
learning of a zealous pupil of Gamaliel, and now that he had seen
Te: 23] NOTES. 199
Jesus in the glory of the Godhead, he could use his stores of learning
for the support of the new teaching i in such wise as to commend it to
those Jews who were looking for the consolation of Israel. But these
would naturally be the smallest portion of his hearers. The rest of
the Jews were confounded. They heard their Scripture applied by a
trained mind, and shewn to be applicable to the life of Jesus. They
could not at this time make an attack on Saul, for they were paralysed
by what they heard, and it was only when some time had elapsed that
they resolved to continue in their rejection of Jesus, and then, at
a later time, their persecution of Saul began.
συμβιβάζων, proving. This word is used again xvi. 10 and translated
there in A.V. ‘assuredly gathering.’ The idea conveyed by it is that
of putting things side by side, and so making a comparison and form-
ing a conclusion. Thus Saul, well equipped with a knowledge of the
ancient Scriptures, set before his hearers a description of the Messiah
as He is there portrayed, and relating the life history of Jesus, shewed
them that in Him the Scriptures of the prophets had been fulfilled.
The word is used often in the LXX. of teaching and instructing.
Thus Exod. xviii. 16 καὶ συμβιβάζω αὐτοὺς τὰ προστάγματα θεοῦ, where
the sentence relates to judging between one and another. Cf. also
Deut. iv. 9.
23—25. A Puor aaarnst Savu’s Lire. His Fuicut rrom Damascus,
23. ἡμέραν ἱκαναί, many days. As the visit to Jerusalem mentioned
in ver. 26 seems to follow closely upon the events narrated in ver. 25,
and as that visit was not made till after the retirement into Arabia of
which St Paul speaks (Gal. i. 17, 18) thus: ‘Neither went I up to
Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before me, but I went into
Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I
went up to Jerusalem to see Peter,’ we must place the visit to Arabia
between the events recorded in ver. εν and the fresh narration which
commences in this verse. St Luke has marked, as it seems, the two
periods as distinct by calling one time of residence ‘certain days,’ and
the other ‘many days.’ The following seems to have been the order of
events. Saul preached for ‘certain days’ in Damascus immediately after
his conversion. He then made his journey into Arabia, either for preach-
ing or for retirement and spiritual communion, n, after which he made
a second visit to Damascus, on which latter occasion his enemies
sought to take his life. ~This latter visit is here spoken of as lasting
‘many days.’ The words thus translated are used in several places of
the Acts; as in this chapter, ver. 43, of the stay made by Peter at
Joppa after the raising of Dorcas; also xviii. 18, of the time, ‘a good
while,’ which St Paul spent in Corinth after he had been brought
before Gallio; and in xxvii. 7 of the ‘many days’ of slow sailing
during the Apostle’s voyage to Rome. It is clear from these examples
that the period covered by the words is very indefinite, but if we
reckon the ‘three years’ (Gal. i. 18) from Saul’s conversion, then the
first and last times of residence in Damascus would be included in that
period, and we need not then extend either the stay in Arabia or the
ν΄
200 THE ACTS. ΠΧ. 23—
duration of this later visit to Damascus over a great while, especially
if we remember that, to a Jew, one whole year with the end of the
preceding and the beginning of the succeeding one was counted for
three years.
συνεβουλεύσαντο, they took counsel. The deliberation and previous
preparation implied in this expression are such as would take place,
not among the people who were ‘confounded’ by Saul’s first preach-
ing, but when they had become enraged against him after his second
visit, when his words would be even more full of power than before,
by reason of the time spent in Arabia, in spiritual communion to pre-
pare himself for the labours which God had set before him.
24. ἐγνώσθη δὲ τῷ Σιαύλῳ ἡ ἐπιβουλὴ αὐτῶν, but their plot was
known to Saul. Perhaps the information was given by some of the
Christian disciples, who would be well disposed to him from what
they had heard from Ananias. These certainly manifested their zeal
towards him in aiding him to make his escape from Damascus.
παρετηροῦντο δὲ καὶ τὰς πύλας, and they watched the gates also. The
gates were the places to which one fleeing from death would naturally
make his way. St Paul says (2 Cor. xi. 32), of the circumstances
under which this plot was made against his life, that ‘in Damascus
the governor (ὁ ἐθνάρχης) of king Aretas kept the city of the Damas-
cenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me.’ Hence it appears
that it was no mere attack made by the Jews resident in Damascus,
but they had gained the support of the authorities for the time being.
We do not know enough of the history of Syria and Arabia at this
period to be able to explain with certainty how an ethnarch of Aretas,
who was king of Arabia Petrzea, came to be holding Damascus. But
we do know (Joseph. Ant. xvim1. 3. 1—4) that Aretas had been at
war with Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, who in consequence of
his attachment to his brother Philip’s wife, had forsaken his own
wife, who was the daughter of Aretas. Herod had appealed to Rome,
and had been promised the help of the Roman power, but the death
of Tiberius (4.p. 37) checked the march of Vitellius, the Roman
governor of Syria, into Arabia, and he thereupon returned to Antioch.
It may have been that Aretas, encouraged by this withdrawal, had
advanced, and in the general confusion had taken possession of
Damascus. He had, in a former stage of the war, destroyed the
army of Herod; and some of the Jews, who hated Herod, spake of
this destruction of his troops as a divine judgment for his murder
of John the Baptist. We can understand then that the Jews in
Damascus might under such circumstances favour Aretas, and in re-
turn for their support be aided by his ethnarch in an attempt on the
life of Saul.
Or the occupation of Damascus by Aretas may have been (as Dean
Howson suggests) in consequence of the change of policy which took
place so widely at the death of Tiberius; and Caligula, in contradic-
tion of what his predecessor had been designing, to crush Aretas,
may have put the Arabian king in command of the city of Damascus
for a time.
IX. 26.] NOTES. 201
25. λαβόντες δὲ of μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ K.7.A., but his disciples took him
by night and, &c. This well-supported reading favours the explana-
tion of ἡμέραι ἱκαναί given in verse 23. On his second visit to
Damascus, more than ever filled with the Spirit, he stayed long
enough to gather about him a band of followers who accepted him
. as their leader in spiritual things.
διὰ τοῦ τείχους, through the wall, i.e. by some opening in the wall,
on which probably stood, as is often the case in Hastern cities, some
of the dwelling-houses. In 2 Cor. xi. 33 St Paul says, ‘and through
a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped.’ Such
apertures can be found in the walls of houses in all defenced cities,
and it was by such a way that Rahab let the spies escape from Jericho
(Josh. ii. 15), and Michal aided David’s escape (1 Sam. xix. 12). The
basket here mentioned (σπυρίς) is of the same kind as that spoken of
(Matth. xv. 37) at the feeding of the Four Thousand in the mountain
district west of the Sea of Galilee. It appears to have been large
and soft, fit for carrying a great quantity of miscellaneous articles
from the plain into the hills, while the baskets (κόφινοι) spoken of at
the feeding of the Five Thousand (Matth. xiv. 20) were such as the
multitude, which in that case had followed Jesus on foot out of the
cities, would be likely to carry in their hands. In a basket of the
former kind Saul might easily be wrapped and then lowered over the
city wall.
26—31. Sau visits JERUSALEM. HE 1s SENT AWAY TO TARSUS.
THE CHURCHES HAVE Rest.
26. παραγενόμενος δὲ cis “Ἱερουσαλήμ, and when he was come to
Jerusalem. Saul had never visited Jerusalem since the day when
he set out on his inquisitorial journey to Damascus, and as he had
been a long time in Arabia since then, his name may very well have
fallen out of the memory of many in the Holy City, or knowing little
of what had happened to him in the meantime they might esteem
him still only as their determined enemy.
ére(patev κολλᾶσθαι τ. μ., he assayed to join himself to the dis-
ciples. If as a Jew he had gone to Alexandria or any other city
where Jews were numerous, his first thought would have been to
search out his co-religionists; so he acts now. He seeks to join the
Christian community. But his own language (Gal. i. 16) shews us
that he had made no attempt to spread the news of his changed feel-
ings among the Christian congregations. ‘I conferred not with flesh
and blood,’ he says, ‘but I went into Arabia, and returned to
Damascus.’ An absence of three years, mainly in a region whence
little news could come of his conversion and labours, and the
memory of what evil he had done in days gone by, was enough
to justify some hesitation about receiving him, on the part of the
disciples,
καὶ πάντες ἐφοβοῦντο αὐτόν, and they were all afraid of him.
The rendering of καὶ by but (A.V.) is unjustifiable. There is not
202 THE ACTS. (IX. 26—
any adversative sense. Saul tried to become a member of the Church,
and they were not willing to receive him.
In Gal. i. 18 St Paul says his wish was to see Peter, and this we
can very well understand, for though Saul had received his com-
mission directly from Jesus, there were many things in the history
of the life of Christ which could be best learned from the lips of him
who had been with Jesus from the commencement of His ministry.
But at first Saul came to the Christians at Jerusalem as an ordinary
believer.
ὴ πιστεύοντες K.T.A., not believing that he was a disciple. From
this we can see how little was known in Jerusalem of the history of
Saul since his conversion, and we can understand those words of his
own (Gal. i. 22), ‘I was unknown by face unto the churches of
Judea which were in Christ.’ God had been training him for his
work among the Gentiles, and although he was brought to Jerusalem
that all might know that the Gospel was one, and that Saul was sent
forth even as the Twelve, yet no attempt is made by St Luke at this
point, where, according to some theories, it might have been most
expected, to set forth the unanimity of Paul and Peter. It is left for
St Paul himself to tell us of his desire to see Peter, and the historian
only says they all were afraid of him.
27. BapvdBas δὲ κ.τ.λ., but Barnabas took him and brought him to
the Apostles, i.e. to such of the Apostles as happened to be then in Jeru-
salem. During a short space of fifteen days it is easy to understand
that all but Peter and James might be absent from Jerusalem. St
Paul tells us he only saw these two during his visit (Gal. i. 19), and
all that he says is perfectly consistent with St Luke’s narrative.
Barnabas, who introduced Saul to the Apostles, has already been
mentioned as a Levite of Cyprus (iv. 36), and from the proximity of
Cyprus to Cilicia, and the distinction of the schools of Tarsus, a
conjecture has been hazarded that Barnabas may have been known to
Saul before they came to Jerusalem. This would explain how it came
to pass that while the other disciples were afraid of him, Barnabas
listened to his statement and repeated it to the rest of the Church.
ἐπιλαβόμενος αὐτόν. This verb, which signifies to take hold of a
person by the hand for the purpose of leading, is generally constructed
with the genitive of the limb (as τῆς xepds) or of the person (αὐτοῦ).
When as here the accusative follows it, the construction appears due
to the other verb (ἤγαγεν), so that the whole idea ‘took and led’ must
be taken as requiring this case.
πῶς ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ κιτιλ., how he had seen the Lord in the way. It is
worthy of notice in how many forms the statement of the appear-
ance of Jesus to Saul is repeated. This was indeed the turning-
point Ἢ the Apostle’s life, Jesus of Nazareth seen as the glorified Son
of God.
ἐπαρρησιάσατο, he had spoken boldly (as in verse 29). Whether
the knowledge of Barnabas on this subject was derived from Saul
himself or from other sources we are not told, but in the political
IX, 31.] NOTES. 203
turmoil of the times (see ver. 24, note) we may easily suppose that
the teachings of a preacher who appeared for a brief space, and then
retired from Damascus, and who had only lately reappeared, would
not be widely known among the Church at Jerusalem.
28. καὶ ἦν per αὐτῶν, and he was with them, i.e. for the fifteen
days during which his visit lasted he was received into the fellowship
of the Church.
On εἰσπορευόμενος καὶ ἐκπορευόμενος see note oni, 21,
29. Tischendorf marks the beginning of this verse at ἐλάλει, and
not, as other editors, at παρρησιαζόμενος.
ἐλάλει τε kal συνεζήτει πρὸς τοὺς ᾿ΕΙλληνιστάς, and he spake and
disputed against the Grecians. These ‘E\\nuorai were the Greek
Jews at whose instigation Stephen had been put todeath. NowSaul,
who had consented unto that martyrdom, is exposed to the like
persecution. The very same word (συζητεῖν, to dispute) is here used
which was employed to describe the controversies with the proto-
martyr (vi. 9), and it is found nowhere else in this book. But it is
worth notice that the attack is now reversed. The Grecians disputed
with Stephen, now Saul disputes with them. Chrysostom comments
thus on Saul’s preaching to the Greeks: ἐκεῖνοι yap of ἄλλοι οὐδὲ ἰδεῖν
αὐτὸν ἠθέλησαν οἱ βαθεῖς ‘EBpato,
οἱ δὲ ἐπεχείρουν ἀνελεῖν αὐτόν, but they sought to slay him. The
same expression is used above (verse 23) of the attempts of Saul’s
enemies in Damascus.
30. ἐπιγνόντες δὲ of ἀδελφοί, and when the brethren were aware of it.
The disciples in Jerusalem, just as those in Damascus, got informa-
tion about the plot which was being laid against Saul.
κατήγαγον αὐτὸν eis Καισάρειαν, they brought him down to
Ce@sarea, i.e. to the seaport so called, not to Cesarea Philippi, for
the latter place was only touched by the road which led from Tyre to
Damascus. The former was a place from which Tarsus could be
reached either by sea or by the road which ran northward along the
coast of Syria.
eis Ταρσόν, to Tarsus, where he was born, and which perhaps,
next to Jerusalem, would appear to be the best centre from which his
work could be carried on. For an account of Tarsus and its fame as
a seat of heathen learning, see Dict. of the Bible.
31. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία... εἰρήνην, so the Church throughout ail
Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace. The sense is that the ~
whole Christian body enjoyed a time of quiet, not as A.V. (with Text.
recept.), the various congregations. The cause of this peace for the
Christians was that the attention of their persecutors, the Jews,
was turned from them to resist the attempt made by Caligula (Joseph.
Ant. xvi. 8. 2) to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jeru-
salem. This profanation was averted partly by the determined opposi-
tion of the Jews, and partly by the intercession of king Agrippa with
the mad emperor.
204 THE ACTS. [1Χ. 31—
κατά with the genitive of place, as here, implies the spreading of
the act or condition spoken of over and throughout the place men-
tioned. Cf. Luke iv. 14 φήμη ἐξῆλθεν καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς περιχώρου, ‘the
fame went forth over all the surrounding district.’
Examples of this sense are not very common, but it occurs in verse
42 below and in Acts x. 37,
382—35. PETER HEALS A Paratytic at Lyppa.
32. διὰ πάντων, through all quarters. The history now turns from
Saul to Peter, to shew us that when the former had been prepared for
his special work, the latter was taught by revelation that the time had
arrived for the next and complete extension of the Church among all
nations. Peter had been labouring, as no doubt all the rest of the
Twelve also (for we have seen that only two were at Jerusalem when
Saul came thither), in building up the Churches in Judxa and Samaria,
and the narrative of two miracles which follow in the history makes
intelligible to us the position of Peter when Cornelius is warned to
send for him.
On the connexion of this portion of the history with the preceding
Chrysostom says μέλλει περὶ Πέτρου λέγειν, καὶ ὅτι πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους
κάτεισιν. ἵν᾽ οὖν μὴ φόβου τοῦτο νομίσῃ τις, πρότερον ὡς εἶχον αἱ ἐκκλη-
σίαι διηγεῖται, δεικνὺς ὅτι διωγμὸς ὅτε ἦν, ἐν ἱΙεροσολύμοις ἣν, ὅτε δὲ
πανταχοῦ ἐν ἀσφαλείᾳ τὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, τότε λοιπὸν καὶ τὰ ἱΙεροσόλυμα
ἀφίησιν: οὕτως ἣν θερμὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ σφοδρός. οὐ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ εἰρήνη ἣν
ἐνόμιζε μηδὲν δεῖσθαι τῆς αὐτοῦ παρουσίας.
τοὺς ἁγίους. See note on verse 13.
Λύδδα, Lydda. The Hebrew Lod, 1 Chron, viii. 12. It was after-
wards called Diospolis. It was near to Joppa, and a day’s journey
from Jerusalem. Josephus (Ant. xx. 6. 2) calls it ‘a village not less
than a city in largeness.’
33. ἐξ ἐτῶν ὀκτὼ κατακείμενον K.T.r., which had kept his bed
eight years. There could therefore be no doubt cast upon the miracu-
lous nature of his cure. :
34. ἰᾶταί σε Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. As
in the cure of the cripple at the Temple gate (111. 6), the Apostle makes
known that he is but the messenger, and that the healer is Christ.
We are not told that Alineas was a disciple, but it may be inferred
that he was among ‘the saints,’ and that thus Peter was brought unto
him.
Kal στρῶσον. The noun τὴν κλίνην, or some equivalent, must be
understood after this verb.
35. Kal εἶδαν αὐτὸν πάντες, and they all saw him. No doubt his
case of eight-years-long paralysis was well known to the dwellers in
the village and neighbourhood, and to see such a one about in their
midst again would be a cause for general remark and enquiry into
the manner of his restoration. ‘When the Scripture saith all it doth
not comprehend every one, how many soever it noteth, but it putteth -
IX. 39.] NOTES. 205
all for the more part, or for many, or for the common sort of men’
(Calvin on this verse).
τὸν Xdpeva, Saron. The O.T. Sharon, It is doubtful whether
by this name is intended some village in the neighbourhood of Lydda
or the whole district known as the ‘plain of Sharon,’ and extending
along the coast from Joppa to Cesarea. No place of this name has
been noticed in the neighbourhood, and as in the original the word
has the article, ‘the Sharon,’ it is better to refer it to the district.
οἵτινες eréotpebay ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον, and they turned unto the Lord.
ὅστις in this and similar sentences is almost like the Latin quippe quit,
when it can be rendered ‘and in fact.’ So here the force of this
strengthened relative is somewhat of this kind, ‘they saw him, and as
a fact in consequence of their seeing, they turned.’
36—43. Dorcas RAISED TO Lire. PETER’s Stay AT JOPPA.
36. ἐν ᾿Ιόππῃ, in Joppa. The seaport town on the coast of
Palestine almost directly west from Jerusalem. For its history, see
Dict. of the Bible.
μαθήτρια, a (female) disciple. The word is only found here in N.T.
and is rare in other Greek authors. It is probably used to shew that
under the Gospel there is no distinction between male and female
(Gal. ili. 28), all alike are disciples.
Ταβιθά, Tabitha. This is the Aramaic form of a Hebrew word
(found 2 Sam. i. 19) which signifies a gazelle, which is also the mean-
ing of the Greek Δορκάς.
πλήρης ἀγαθῶν ἔργων, full of good works. A favourite form of
expression with St Luke. Cp. ‘Stephen full of faith and power’
(vi. 8); Elymas, ‘full of all subtilty’ (xiii. 10); and the Ephesians
‘full of wrath’ (xix. 28). The sense is ‘given up to’ or ‘devoted to.’
37. ἀσθενήσασαν αὐτὴν ἀποθανεῖν, that she fell sick and died.
The proceedings which followed on her death are evidence of its
reality. The probable reason for deferring the burial was the know-
ledge that Peter was close at hand, and the hope of the disciples that
the power of Jesus might be exercised through him for the restoration
to life of so eminent a disciple as Dorcas,
λούσαντες δέ, and when they had washed her. No doubt it was the
women who prepared the body for burial, but the historian, speaking
generally, writes not λούσασαι but the masculine.
38. παρακαλοῦντες, Μὴ ὀκνήσῃς διελθεῖν ἕως ἡμῶν, entreating him,
Delay not to come on to us. Thus διελθεῖν has its full force, which is
lostin A.V. Itis as though their supplication were, ‘We have heard
of the mighty works which Jesus has wrought by thy hands; extend
thy journey to us, for we are in great need.’
39. ἀναστὰς δὲ Ilérpos, and Peter arose. We may be sure that
the Apostle knew, by the Spirit, that it would please God to do some-
thing for the help of the distress at Joppa when he set out with the
messengers.
206 THE ACTS. (IX. 39—
καὶ παρέστησαν αὐτῷ πᾶσαι αἱ χῆραι κλαίουσαι, and all the
widows stood by him weeping. These were the women who, with the
dead Dorcas, had been busy in the good works to which they were all
devoted. The petition of such a company was sure to have power
with the Apostle, and their actién shews how they place the good deeds
of her whom they had lost far above their own. The χῆραι became a
recognized class of women earnest in good works and separate from
the world. See the directions concerning them which St Paul gives to
Timothy, 1 Tim. v. 3—5, 9, 11, 16.
40. ἐκβαλὼν δὲ... ὁ ἹΠέτρος, but Peter put them all forth. Cf.
Christ’s action (Matth. ix. 25) at the raising of Jairus’ daughter, on
which occasion Peter had been present.
Kal θεὶς τὰ γόνατα προσηύξατο, and kneeled down and prayed. For
the first part of the phrase, cf. vii. 60. St Peter’s request no doubt
here was that the consolation to be given to these mourners might be
the restoration of the dead woman to life.
καὶ ἐπιστρέψας πρὸς TO σῶμα, and turning him to the body.
When he felt within him that his prayer would be answered.
Ταβιθὰ ἀνάστηθι, Tabitha, arise. If St Peter spake in the Aramaic
dialect, as is most probable, his utterance Tabitha cumi must have
been nearly the same as that of our Lord (Mark ν. 41), Talitha cumi,
at the raising of the daughter of Jairus. But when we find both these
utterances interpreted in the places where they occur, it is astonishing
that some should suggest that the Tabitha of this verse is an adapta-
tion of the Talitha of the Gospel.
41. φωνήσας δὲ τοὺς ἁγίους kal τὰς χήρας, and when he had
called the saints and widows, These words make it evident that the
petition sent to Peter had been the supplication of the whole Christian
Church of Joppa, ‘Come on unto us and help us,’
42. καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς Ιόππης. See above, verse 31, note.
καὶ ἔπίστευσαν πολλοὶ ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον, and many believed on the
Lord. There seems to be intended by these words a fuller acceptance
of the faith of Jesus than when it is said ‘they turned to the Lord’
(see above, ver. 35). The belief here wrought by the resurrection of
Dorcas is like that mentioned (John xi, 45) of those who were won to
the faith by the raising of Lazarus.
43. ἡμέρας ἱκανάς. On the indefinite nature of the length of time
indicated here, see verse 23, note,
παρά τινι Σίμωνι βυρσεῖ, with one Simon a tanner. The trade of
a tanner was held as abominable by the Jews. A wife, it is said, could
claim a-divorce from a husband who became a tanner. See Mishna
Khethuboth vu. 10 where is recorded the following story: ‘It hap-
pened at Sidon that a tanner died, and left a brother who was also a
tanner. The sages held that his (childless) widow had a right to
plead, Thy brother I could bear but I cannot bear thee, and so in this
case the woman might refuse to marry her husband’s brother.’
10 is a sign that in the mind of St Peter some usages and pre-
X. 1] NOTES. 207
judices of the Jews were already becoming of small account, when he
makes his abode at the house of Simon a tanner. Such a step prepares
us for the history of the next chapter, where he is instructed to go and
preach to and baptize the Gentile Cornelius.
CHAPTER X.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
1. ἢν omitted with NABCEL. Vulg. has ‘erat.’
5. Σίμωνά twa with ABC. Vulg. ‘Simonem quemdam.’
6. οὗτος λαλήσει σοι τί σε δεῖ ποιεῖν Omitted with NABCELP. The
ie , represents these words.
For τῷ Κορνηλίῳ read αὐτῷ with NABCE, Vulg. ‘qui loque-
pate illi.’
Omit αὐτοῦ after οἰκετῶν, with SNABCE.
10. ἐγένετο for ἐπέπεσεν with SABC. Vulg. ‘cecidit.’
11. Omit ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν after καταβαῖνον with SNABCE. The words are
not represented in the Vulg.
δεδεμένον καὶ omitted with NABCE. They are not represented
in the Vulg.
12. καὶ τὰ θηρία omitted with SABC. Unrepresented in Vulg.
16. εὐθὺς for πάλιν with NABCE. Vulg. ‘statim.’
17. καὶ before ἰδοὺ omitted with SAB. Unrepresented in Vulg.
τοὺς ἀπεσταλμένους ἀπὸ τοῦ Κορνηλίου πρὸς αὐτόν omitted with
SABDELE, and unrepresented in Vulg.
23. ἀναστὰς for ὁ Πέτρος with SABD. Vulg. ‘surgens.’
30. νηστεύων καὶ omitted with SABC. Unrepresented in Vulg.
ὥραν omitted with NABCD.
32. ὃς παραγενόμενος λαλήσει σοι Omitted with NAB. Not repre-
sented in Vuilg.
33. τοῦ κυρίου for τοῦ θεοῦ with NABCE. Vulg. ‘Domino.’
39. ἐσμεν omitted with NABCDE.
48. ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ for τοῦ κυρίου with NABE. Vulg. has ‘Domini
Jesu Christi.’
Cu. X.1—8. CoRNELIUS IS DIVINELY WARNED TO SEND FOR PETER.
1. St Luke now brings to our notice the circumstances which at-
tended the first preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. The Apostles,
though informed by Christ’s commission that they were to ‘teach all
nations,’ yet tarried the Lord’s leisure, and waited till the Spirit, who
208 THE ACTS. [x.1—
was their constant guide, shewed them a door opened for such exten-
sion of their labours. The first Gentile converts seem to have been
living in some sort of communion with the Jews of Cxsarea, for Cor-
nelius, the representative figure among them, was ‘of good report
among all that nation,’ but yet from the complaints of the brethren
at Jerusalem, when they heard what Peter had done, we can see that
Cornelius was one of the ‘sinners of the Gentiles.’ ‘Thou wentest in
to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them’ expresses the shock
which the strict observers of the Law experienced in this new develop-
ment of the Church; and even Peter himself, though chosen to inau-
gurate the preaching to the Gentiles, was not always proof against the
scruples and remonstrances of his brethren of the Circumcision (Gal.
ii. 12).
ἀνὴρ δέ τις. The substantive verb is omitted by the best authori-
ties. The rendering would therefore be, Now a certain man...which
gave much alms...saw in a vision.
Cesarea is the same place which is mentioned viii. 40, and was
usually the residence of the Roman Procurator (see xxiii. 23—26, xxv.
1—4). The soldiers over whom Cornelius was centurion were the
necessary troops to support the state and authority of the Roman
representative, who at this time was Herod Agrippa, whom Claudius
had made king over Juda and Samaria.
ὀνόματι Κορνήλιος, by name Cornelius. The name shews he was a
Roman, and perhaps he may have been of the famous Cornelian Gens.
But there were also many plebeians of this name, for Sulla (Appian
B. Ο. 1. 100) bestowed the Roman franchise on 10,000 slaves and called
them after his own name, ‘ Cornelii.’
ἑκατοντάρχης, a centurion. We find also the Latin word xevrupiwy in
N.T. (Mark xv. 39, 44, 45). The centurion’s was not a distinguished
office. He was commander of the sixth part of a cohort, i.e. of half a
maniple. The name must have been given to such officer when his
command was over a hundred men. The Roman legion in these times
was divided into ten cohorts, and each cohort into three maniples, so
that the nominal strength of the legion would be 6000 men.
ἐκ σπείρης, of the band, i.e. the cohort. See Polyb. x1. 23. 1 τοῦτο
δὲ καλεῖται σύνταγμα τῶν πεζῶν παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις κοόρτις. Such a troop
was stationed in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion (Matth.
xxvii. 27). σπεῖρα is found in the LXX. used of Jewish troops (Judith
xiv. 11; 2 Macc. viii. 23, xii. 20, 22).
τῆς καλουμένης ᾿Ιταλικῆς, called the Italian band. The name at
first would be given to it from the country in which it was raised, but
no doubt it would afterwards be recruited from other parts, and yet
still retain its original title. Tacitus (Hist. τ. 59 &c.) mentions an
Italian legion. A centurion of a similar band, which was styled
‘Augustan,’ is mentioned (xxvii. 1) below.
2. εὐσεβής, a devout man, i.e. he was a worshipper of the true
God, but had not joined himself to the Jews in the observance of the —
Law. The language of St Peter in verse 28 shews us that he was ποῦ
Pray NOTES. 209
a proselyte. It is noteworthy that wherever in the N.T, we find men-
tion made of Roman centurions they appear to have been good men,
Matth. vili. 5; Luke vii. 2, xxiii. 47.
σὺν παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, with all his house. The earnestness of his
devotion to God is evidenced by the character of his household. (Cf.
Abraham’s character, Gen. xviii. 19.) If his family be here meant,
he had instructed them in the worship of God, and had provided that
those who attended on him should also be of the same character. The
soldier, whom he sends to Peter, is called εὐσεβής likewise. Chrysos-
tom says here ἀκούσωμεν ὅσοι τῶν οἰκείων ἀμελοῦμεν.
τῷ λαῷ, to the people. This must mean the Jewish people among
whom he was stationed. So of the centurion mentioned Luke vii. 5
it is said by the Jews ‘He loveth our nation and hath built us a syna-
gogue.’
δεόμενος τοῦ θεοῦ διαπαντός, praying to God always. This devo-
tional habit of the centurion is manifested through the whole narra-
tive. See especially verse 30.
8. εἶδεν ἐν ὁράματι φανερῶς, he saw in a vision openly, i.e. he was
not in a trance, as we read afterwards concerning Peter, but was
employed in prayer when the angel appeared. See below ver. 30.
ὡσεὶ περὶ ὥραν ἐνάτην, about the ninth hour. The ὡσεὶ makes the
point of time less definite. Cornelius was observing the Jewish hour
of eat and at some time during his devotions the vision was seen
by hin.
ἄγγελον τοῦ θεοῦ, an hes of God, called in verse 30 ἀνὴρ ἐν ἐσθῆτι
λαμπρᾷ.
4, ὁ δὲ ἀτενίσας, and when he had fastened his eyes on him. The
dazzling brightness of the vision would first rivet the centurion’s gaze,
and the terror would come afterwards when he realized that he was in
the presence of an angel. Cf. Manoah’s alarm from a similar cause.
Judges xiii. 21, 22.
ἔμφοβος. When found in classical Greek, which is rare, this word
has the sense of ‘terrible.’ It occurs twice in the LXX. with the
meaning ‘afraid’ as here. Cf. Ecclus. xix, 24 and 1 Mace. xiii. 2,
εἶδεν τὸν λαὸν ὅτι ἐστὶν ἔντρομος Kal ἔμφοβος.
τί ἐστιν, κύριε; what is it, Lord? His words express his readiness to
do whatever he may be bidden.
αἱ προσευχαί σου καὶ αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι σου ἀνέβησαν, thy prayers and
thine alms have gone up. ἀναβαίνω is used Hzek, viii. 11 of the rising
up of the cloud of incense, and this is the figure here. Cf. Rev. viii.
3, 4, also Rev. v. 8, ‘vials full of odours which are the prayers of
saints.’ See too Ps, exli. 2.
εἰς μνημόσυνον ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ, for a memorial before God. They
have been such that God remembers them and is now about to answer
them. The portion of the meal-offering which the priest was com-
manded to burn upon the altar to be an offering of a sweet savour
THE ACTS 14
210 THE ACTS. [Χ. 5—
unto the Lord (Lev. ii. 2) was called a μνημόσυνον, and the allusion is
to offerings of this kind. Cf. the words of the angel (Tobit xii. 12), ‘I
did bring the remembrance (μνημόσυνον) of your prayers before the
Holy One.’
6. The words omitted from the text in this verse (see notes on
readings) are an adaptation of xi, 14, where St Peter is giving an
account of his visit to Cornelius, and are another example of the
desire naturally prevalent to make the narrative complete in the early
chapters by adding on the margin any particulars which can be
gathered from the subsequent narrative. Put at first as marginal
illustrations and expansions, they found in early times their way into
the text through the agency of copyists.
7. ὡς δὲ ἀπῆλθεν κιτιλ., and when he was departed. The reality
(see φανερῶς in verse 3) of the angelic presence is strongly marked by
this language, which speaks of his going away just as if he had been
any human visitor.
τῶν προσκαρτερούντων αὐτῷ, of those that attended on him. So of
the judges in the History of Susanna (verse 7), οὗτοι προσεκαρτέρουν ἐν
τῇ οἰκίᾳ ᾿Ιωακείμ, ‘These kept much at Joachim’s house,’ where ‘ keep’
is in the sense still common in the Universities and elsewhere, of
‘live,’ ‘abide,’ ‘dwell.’ So here the soldier was attached to the personal
service of Cornelius. Compare that other centurion’s retinue (Luke
vii. 8) where the master says to one ‘Go,’ and his order is at once
obeyed.
8. ἐξηγησάμενος ἅπαντα αὐτοῖς, when he had declared all things
unto them. The confidence which Cornelius placed in those who at-
tended on him is shewn by this open communication with them at
once on the subject of his vision. They had known all his former
hopes and prayers, and so were fit persons to be made sharers in what
seemed to be the answer.
9—16. PETER IS PREPARED BY A VISION FOR THE COMING OF CORNELIUS’
MESSENGERS,
9. ἀνέβη Πέτρος ἐπὶ τὸ δῶμα, went up upon the housetop. With the
flat roofs of houses, to which access could be obtained from outside with-
out passing through the rooms of the building, the housetop formed a
convenient place for retirement. It was the place chosen by Samuel
(1 Sam, ix. 25, 26) for his conference with Saul before he anointed ~
him king. Cp. also 2 Sam. xi. 2.
προσεύξασθαι, to pray. We find that the housetop was used as a
place for religious observances (Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29; Zeph. i. 5).
These are instances of worship paid to false gods; and we find a
similar example of altars on the top of the roofs of a part of the
Jewish temple (2 Kings xxiii. 12) LXX.,» τὰ θυσιαστήρια τὰ ἐπὶ τοῦ
δώματος τοῦ ὑπερῴου " Αχαΐ, but in Nehemiah (viii. 16) at the celebration
of the Feast of Tabernacles we read καὶ ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς σκηνὰς ἀνὴρ ἐπὲ
Tov δώματος αὐτοῦ. So that these places were not used only for pur-
19] NOTES. ets:
poses of idolatrous worship, though in the O.T. they are noticed most
frequently in that connexion.
περὶ ὥραν ἕκτην, about the sixth hour, i.e. midday, and the second
of the Jewish stated hours of prayer. We see from verses 23 and 24
that the journey from Joppa to Caesarea occupied more than one day,
so that the vision of Cornelius took place on the day before the
trance of St Peter, and the messengers had time almost to accomplish
their journey before the Apostle, by his vision, was prepared to receive
them. The distance between the two places was 30 Roman miles.
10. πρόσπεινος, very hungry. The word is found nowhere else.
ἤθελεν γεύσασθαι, he would have eaten. γεύομαι is not commonly
used for taking a meal, but (LXX. Gen. xxv. 30) the hungry Esau says
γεῦσόν με ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑψήματος τοῦ πυροῦ. :
παρασκευαζόντων δὲ αὐτῶν, but while they made ready. The persons
to whom reference is made in αὐτῶν have been in no way indicated,
but the mind readily supplies the οἰκέται to whom the wish for food
would be communicated.
ἐγένετο ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν ἔκστασις, he fell into a trance. The word ἔκστασις
is used by the LXX. (Gen. ii. 21) of the deep sleep sent upon Adam,
and also (Gen, xv. 12) of that which came upon Abraham, when it
was revealed unto him that his seed should be captives in a strange
land, before they entered on the possession of Canaan. In like manner
here, the vision was disclosed mentally to St Peter, all things being
presented to him as in a dream.
Chrysostom says, τί ἐστιν ἔκστασις ; πνευματική, φησί, θεωρία γέγονεν
αὐτῷ. τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ἂν εἴπῃ τις, ἐξέστη ἡ ψυχή.
11. καὶ θεωρεῖ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγμένον, and he beholdeth heaven
opened. For θεωρέω of the vision οἵ things heavenly, ef. vil. 56, ix.
7. The opened heaven made it clear to Peter that the teaching of the
vision was sent from God.
σκεῦός TL ὡς ὀθόνην μεγάλην, τέσσαρσιν ἀρχαῖς καθιέμενον ἐπὶ τῆς
γῆς, @ certain vessel as it had been a great sheet let down by four
corners upon the earth. The word ἀρχαί is used (LXX. Exod. xxviii.
23, xxxix. 15) of the extremities of the high-priest’s breastplate to
which rings were to be attached for fastening it upon the ephod.
What St Peter saw was an extended sheet, the four corners of which
were held up as it were by cords let down from the four extremities of
the opened sky. The significance of the outstretched sheet, as a
figure of the wide world, and the four corners as the directions into
which the Gospel was now to be borne forth into all the world has often
been dwelt upon,
12. ἐν ᾧ ὑπῆρχεν, in which were, i.e. as it seemed in the vision.
πάντα τὰ τετράποδα K.T.A., all manner of fourfooted beasts and
creeping things of the earth and fowls of the air. The vision re-
presented the entire animal creation. There were present living
creatures typical of each kind, not a multitude of the same sort of
birds and beasts.
I4—2
212 THE ACTS. [Χ. 13—
13. ἀναστὰς Ilétpe θῦσον καὶ φάγε, rise, Peter, kill and eat. He
was hungry before he fell into the trance. In the vision there is
presented the means of satisfying his hunger. But with this there
comes an instruction to disregard the Mosaic distinction about clean
and unclean meats. His waking mind is able to interpret this, and
he sees that now all nations alike are to be included among God’s
eople.
Η On a ἀναστάς Chrysostom remarks ἴσως ἐπὶ γόνατα κείμενος εἶδε τὴν
ὀπτασίαν. And then he continues ὅτι δὲ καὶ θεῖον ἦν τὸ γινόμενον δῆλον
ἔκ τε τοῦ ἄνωθεν ἰδεῖν καταβαῖνον, ἔκ τε τοῦ ἐν ἐκστάσει γενέσθαι. τὸ δὲ
καὶ φωνὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἐνεχθῆναι, καὶ τὸ τρὶς τοῦτο γενέσθαι, καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν
ἀνεῳχθῆναι, καὶ τὸ ἐκεῖθεν ἥκειν, καὶ τὸ éxel ἀναρπασθῆναι πάλιν μέγα
δεῖγμα τοῦ θεῖον εἶναι τὸ πρᾶγμα.
14. μηδαμῶς, κύριε, not so (by no means), Lord. Cf. Ezek. iv. 14,
where the prophet being shewn that the children of Israel shall eat
defiled bread among the Gentiles, exclaims in words very like St
Peter’s, ‘There never came abominable flesh into my mouth.’ For
the care with which the devout Jew observed the ceremonial distine-
tion between clean and unclean, see Dan. i. 8—12; 2 Mace. vi. 18.
ovdsérore...rav. From the usage of the Hebrew, the N.T. writers
frequently use οὐ (μὴ)...πᾶς where the classical authors would use
οὐδείς and μηδείς. Cf. Matth. xxiv. 22, οὐκ ἂν ἐσώθη πᾶσα σάρξ. So
Rom. iii. 20; Ephes. iv. 29, &e. In the LXX. οὗ Exod. xx. 10 (of the
Sabbath-day), οὐ ποιήσεις ἐν αὐτῇ πᾶν ἔργον. Also, with another case
than the nominative or accusative, 2 Chron. XXXxil. 15, οὐ μὴ σέ ς-
ὁ θεὸς παντὸς ἔθνους καὶ βασιλείας τοῦ σῶσαι τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ.
κοινὸν καὶ ἀκάθαρτον, common and unclean. The use of κοινός in
the sense of ‘impure’ according to the Mosaic code is, as were all the
ordinances about which this language was employed, peculiar to the
Jews. But it is easy to trace the steps by which the word came to
be used thus. All persons who were not Jews were viewed as the
‘common’ rabble, shut out from God’s covenant (cf. κοινοὶ ἄνθρω-
mot, Joseph. Ant. J. x1. 2, 14), then whatever practices of these out-
casts differed from those of the chosen people were called ‘common’
things, and as these ‘common’ things were those forbidden by the
Law, all such prohibited things or actions became known as ‘common.’
Cf. Mark vii. 2, where ‘dejiled hands’ is the rendering of χεῖρες ἀνιπτοι.
κοινός is not used by the LXX. as the rendering of any passage where
unclean beasts are spoken of, but appears first in this sense in that
version, 1 Macc. i. 50, 65 τοῦ μὴ φαγεῖν κοινά.
15. Kal φωνὴ πάλιν κιτιλ,, and a voice came again the second time.
As there i is no verb in the sentence, ἐγένετο, as in 13, must be sup-
phot. ἐκ δευτέρου defines precisely what was not definite with πάλιν
only.
ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἐκαθάρισεν od μὴ Kolvov, what God hath cleansed that
make not thow common. The heaven-sent voice revokes what had
been enjoined from heaven at the giving of the Law. The power
which made the restriction can remove it. That it would be removed
X. 18. | NOTES. 213
Christ had intimated (Matth. xv. 11), ‘Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man.’ The old dispensation is now to give place to
the new, and Peter is taught by the vision that men are not to make
such distinctions and separations for themselves. ‘For meat destroy
not the work of God’ (Rom. xiv. 20). That the Christian religion
was meant to abrogate these ceremonial regulations may be gathered
also from Christ’s language (Mark vii. 18, 19) about that which goeth
into a man not defiling him, which He is expressly stated to have
spoken, καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα, ‘making (or declaring) all meats
pure.’
16. τοῦτο δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τρίς, and this was done three times. The
threefold repetition of the vision was meant to leave no doubt in the
Apostle’s mind about its nature, and the reception of the whole into
heaven again was designed to point out that it was a lesson which
God had as directly sent as of old He sent the Law on Sinai. Cf. the
repetition of Pharaoh’s dream (Gen. xli. 32) and Joseph’s explanation
thereof. Peter would also remember when he came out of his trance
the thrice-repeated charge given to him by Jesus (John xxi. 15—17),
‘Feed My sheep.’
ἐπὶ τρίς is not classical and is seldom found. It occurs in xi. 10 in
the repetition of this history.
17—24. ARRIVAL OF THE MrssENGERS FROM CORNELIUS. PETER
GOES WITH THEM TO CASAREA.
17. ὡς δὲ ἐν ἑαυτῷ διηπόρει, now while he was much perplexed in
himself. διαπορέω implies ‘to be thoroughly at a loss, and not to
know which way to turn.’ It is used (Luke ix. 7) of Herod’s per-
plexity about Christ, when men said that John the Baptist was
risen from the dead. Peter, aroused from his trance, was to apply
what he had seen and heard, but he knew not how to begin the
work.
ἀπὸ τοῦ Κορνηλίου, from Cornelius. There is no great certainty in
this verse whether the preposition is ἀπό or ὑπό. It could not in this
case make much difference to the sense, but with passive verbs the
more common preposition is ὑπό when the action done is with the
knowledge of the agent. ἀπό might in some cases (though not here)
mean coming from without the direct consciousness of him from whom
the persons came.
ἐπέστησαν ἐπὶ τὸν πυλῶνα, stood at the porch. The position of the
house had been described to Cornelius (ver. 6), and when his messen-
gers found the details true, it must have given them confidence that
their errand was to be a successful one.
18. Kal φωνήσαντες κιτιλ., and called, éc., i.e. they attracted by
a call the attention of the persons in the house, and brought some
one out. These messengers, like Cornelius himself, were most pro-
bably Gentiles, but Gentiles of such a sort as to respect Jewish
scruples, and so might not feel justified in entering a Jewish house
without giving notice of their presence.
214 THE ACTS. Βπ ὩΣ
19. τοῦ δὲ Πέτρου διενθυμουμένου περὶ τοῦ ὁράματος, now while
Peter pondered over the vision. He was turning over his difficulty in
his mind, and asking what God would have him learn by this lesson
about the abolition of differences in meats. And while he was thus
pondering the explanation came.
εἶπεν τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῷ, the Spirit said to him. Thus the arrival of
the messengers was, by an inward admonition of the Spirit, connected
with the vision which he had just seen.
τρεῖς, 1.6. the two servants and the soldier whom Cornelius had sent
(see verse 7).
20. κατάβηθι, get thee down. Peter was still on the housetop.
μηδὲν διακρινόμενος, doubting nothing. The same words are ren-
dered Jas. i. 6 ‘nothing wavering’ (A.V.). There is a difference in the
best MSS. between the reading here and in xi. 12, where instead of
the middle voice we have the active, μηδὲν διακρίναντα. This latter
signifies ‘making no distinction,’ i.e. between Jew and Gentile. We
must bear in mind that this phrase was used by the Apostle when
events had taught him precisely what the vision and the spiritual
exhortation meant. The Spirit’s teaching is given little by little as
Christ had told His disciples that it should be, ‘He shall guide you
(lit., lead you on the way) unto all truth’ (John xvi. 13). The vision
had given no hint of a journey to be taken; now Peter is informed of
it, and so too when the end of the journey is reached the ‘nothing
wavering’ is shewn to mean ‘putting no distinction between Jews and
other men,’ and thus the vision was made intelligible little-by little
and the perplexity removed. ᾿
22. μαρτυρούμενός τε ὑπὸ ὅλου τοῦ ἔθνους, of good report among all
the nation, i.e. for the alms-deeds which he did, and on account of his
reverence for the true God. They say not only among the people of
Cesarea was the piety of Cornelius known, but among all the Jews.
ἐχρηματίσθη, was divinely warned. This word and the noun de-
rived from it are constantly used of messages from above. Thus we
find the verb where we are told of Joseph’s warnings (Matth. ii. 12, 22),
of Simeon’s divine revelation (Luke ii. 26), and of the admonitions
sent to Moses (Heb. viii. 5), and to Noah (Heb. xi. 7). For the noun,
(AY Mace. ii. 4, χρηματισμοῦ γενηθέντος αὐτῷ, ‘being warned of God,’
aN abs
ἀκοῦσαι ῥήματα παρὰ σοῦ, to hear words of thee, i.e. to receive com-
mandments from thee and learn what God would have him to do (ep.
xi. 14). By the Jews the Ten Commandments are constantly called
‘the ten words,’’ and Moses in recapitulating them (Deut. v. 5) speaks
of them as τὰ ῥήματα κυρίου.
23. εἰσκαλεσάμενος οὖν αὐτοὺς ἐξένισεν, then he called them in
and lodged them. This was the first step towards laying aside the
scruples to which the Jews were so much attached.
τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ἀναστὰς ἐξῆλθεν σὺν αὐτοῖς, and on the morrow he
arose and went forth with them. They would start in the early part of
X. 26.] NOTES. 215
ba day to get through as much of their way as they could on the first
ay.
Kal τινες τῶν ἀδελφών K.T.A., and certain of the brethren from Joppa
accompanied him. In xi, 12 we are told that there were six of them,
and in verse 45 of this chapter they are called oi ἐκ περιτομῆς πιστοί.
So these men were Jewish Christians, and Peter took them for his com-
panions that he might, if need were, afterwards appeal to them for
testimony of what had been done, and to explain why he had acted as
he did. No doubt they were informed by him of the message which the
servants of Cornelius had brought, and the good repute of this devout
man would weigh with them and make them ready to go.
24. τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον «.7.X., and the morrow after they entered into
Cesarea. Their road lay the way along the coast, and as Apollonia
was situate about halfway between Joppa and Cesarea, it is most
likely that they passed the night there.
6 δὲ Κορνήλιος ἦν προσδοκῶν αὐτούς, and Cornelius was waiting for
them. His attitude of preparation shews how convinced the man was
of the reality of his vision, and that God was about to give him an
answer to his prayers.
τοὺς συγγενεῖς αὐτοῦ Kal τοὺς ἀναγκαίους φίλους, his kinsmen and
near friends. The whole narrative shews that Cornelius must have
been a long while stationed at Cesarea, for his good deeds to have be-
come known to the whole nation. An officer in such a permanent
post would be very likely to have his kindred round about him. We
can hardly doubt also that they were people of like mind with Cornelius
in their faith and worship, and so had naturally been told of the
answer which he was expecting, and invited to be present when Peter
arrived.
25—33. ARRIVAL OF PETER. CORNELIUS EXPLAINS WHY HE HAS SENT
FOR HIM.
25. ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν τὸν Ilérpov, and as Peter was come
in. This is a solitary case in the N.T. of the substantival infinitive
in such a construction, and it is very difficult to see an explanation of
it. That it could so stand is clear from a parallel sentence in Acta
Barnab. Apocryp. 7 ws δὲ ἐγένετο Tov τελέσαι αὐτοὺς διδάσκοντας. It
seems as if the genitive of the infinitive in both these instances were
regarded as a genitive absolute would be. So that the sense=‘when
Peter went in’ ‘when they had finished teaching.’ What occurred
in Cesarea was prior to St Peter’s entry into the house. We read of
that in verse 27.
προσεκύνησεν, worshipped, 1.6, paid him the religious reverence
which the supernatural direction of the angel concerning Peter would
be likely to prompt. This act of obeisance in the Roman officer
marks most strongly his sense that Peter was God’s messenger. Such
acts were not usual among Roman soldiers.
26. ὁ δὲ ἹΤέτρος ἤγειρεν αὐτόν, but Peter raised him up. Cf. with
the way in which Peter declines such reverence the language of the
216 THE ACTS. [X. 26—
angel to St John (Rey. xix. 10) refusing similar worship. ‘See thou
do it not. Iam thy fellow-servant.’
27. Kal συνομιλῶν αὐτῷ εἰσῆλθεν, and as he talked with him he
went in. So the previous part of the interview had been without. The
action of Cornelius in thus coming forth to meet Peter is in the spirit
of that other centurion in the Gospel, who said (Luke vii. 6) “1 am
not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.’ συνομιλέω
(which is a very rare word) indicates the communication made during
an interview of some length. The subsequent remarks of St Peter
shew us that he had been told many things by Cornelius, which are —
not specially mentioned, but comprehended under this word ‘ talked,’
καὶ εὑρίσκει συνεληλυθότας πολλούς, and finds many that were come
together. Cornelius had won many attached friends by his high
character, and now of all that God shall communicate to him he
wishes them to be sharers with himself.
28. ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε, ye know. The pronoun is perhaps meant to
be emphatic. Ye, who, though ye be not Jews, have lived in friend-
ship with Jewish people and so know their customs,
ὡς ἀθέμιτόν ἐστιν K.T.A., how that it is an unlawful thing, &e. It is
said expressly by Maimonides, Hilechoth Rozeah, &c. x11. 7 ‘It is for-
bidden to a Jew to be alone with heathens, because they are suspected
of (lightly) shedding blood, nor must he associate with them on
the road.’ And in the Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus, cap, 20 (ad fin.),
there is an interesting example of the sort of ceremonial defilement
which association with the heathen might bring about, ‘It happened
that Shimeon the son of Kimkhith (who was high-priest) went out
to speak with the king of the Arabians, and there came a fleck of
spittle from the king’s mouth upon the priest’s garment and so he
was unclean; and his brother Judah went in and served instead of
him in the high-priest’s office. That day their mother saw two of
her sons high-priests.’ The Apostle speaks of the prohibition as
a thing well known to those who heard him, and the action of the
messengers of Cornelius in standing outside the house of Simon and
calling out some one to question in the open air shews that they were
aware of the dislike of the Jews to associate with Gentiles. We have
evidence that this dislike was well known wherever the Jews resided
from the words of Juvenal (xtv. 103), ‘Non monstrare vias eadem nisi
ooaftiamaaaial So Tacitus (Hist. v. 5) ‘separati epulis, discreti cubi-
ibus.
κολλᾶσθαι, to keep company. Literally ‘to join himself.’ The word
is used in the command to Philip (viii. 29) ‘Go near and join thyself
to this chariot;’ and signifies intimate intercourse. The ordinary
dealings of life must constantly have forced Jews to be in the company
of Gentiles, but it was to be avoided if possible.
ἀλλοφύλῳ, to one of another nation. In the historical books of the
Old Test. (Samuel, Kings, &c.), ἀλλόφυλοι is the constant rendering
of the name of the Philistines, This helps us to see what the force of
X. 35.] ἀπ ως MOTES. 217
the word would be in a Jew’s mouth when speaking to one of the
uncircumcised.
κἀμοὶ ἔδειξεν ὁ θεὸς κιτιλ., but God hath shewed me that I should not
call any man common or unclean. The Spirit’s command, ‘Go with
them doubting nothing, for I have sent them,’ has taught Peter how
he is to interpret the figure shewn to him in his vision.
29. ἀναντιρρήτως, without gainsaying, 1.6. I have followed the
guidance of the Spirit, though I did not see fully what God would
have me do.
_ 80. ἀπὸ τετάρτης ἡμέρας, four days ago. The notion of the phrase
is ‘from the fourth day,’ i.e. which will be the fourth if we reckon
backwards.
μέχρι ταύτης τῆς ὥρας ἤμην τὴν ἐνάτην προσευχόμενος, until this
hour 1 was observing the ninth hour of prayer. These words shew us
that the time of Peter’s arrival at Cesarea was after the ninth hour
of the day. The prayer-service to which Cornelius refers had begun
and been continued for a time before the appearance of the angel.
ἀνὴρ... ἐν ἐσθῆτι λαμπρᾷ, a man...in bright clothing. See i. 10 note
and above on verse 3 of this chapter.
33. ἀκοῦσαι πάντα τὰ προστεταγμένα σοι ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου, to hear
all things that are commanded thee of the Lord. Cornelius infers that
as he had been instructed to send for Peter, so Peter had God’s com-
mand for his conduct and speech. By ‘hear’ the centurion meant also
‘to obey.’ . To one so directed from heaven the words of the Apostle
would be divine orders. We learn also (xi. 14) that the message which
Peter would bring had been described to him as one ‘whereby he and
all his house might be saved.’ To hear then was to do.
34—43. SprecH oF PETER TO CORNELIUS AND HIS FRIENDS.
84. ἐπ᾽ ἀληθείας καταλαμβάνομαι k.t.A., of a truth I perceive that
God is no respecter of persons. The_yerb xaza\. implies the grasping
of something with the mind which has hitherto not been compre-
hended, and indicates some degree of strangeness in what is accepted.
St Peter is constrained to say, I am now fully convinced, from what
I have heard of God’s angel appearing to Cornelius, and from the
connexion of that vision with my own, that God is making Himself
known to all the workers of righteousness (ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει), whether they |
be Jews or Gentiles.
προσωπολήμπτης. This word is found nowhere else. A kindred
verb occurs James ii. 9, and a noun in Rom. ii. 11; Col. iii. 25;
James ii. 1. But πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν is not an unfrequent expres-
sion in the LXX.; see Lev. xix. 15; Job xiii. 8, xlii. 8; Ecclus. xxxv.
13, and a good instance is Malachi ii. 9 οὐκ ἐφυλάξασθε τὰς ὁδούς μου
ἀλλὰ ἐλαμβάνετε πρόσωπα ἐν νόμῳ, ‘Ye have not kept my ways, but
have been partial in the law’ (A.V.).
35. δεκτὸς αὐτῷ ἐστίν, is accepted with Him, i.e. is acceptable unto
218 THE ACIS. (Xx. Shas
Him. God has no longer a chosen people, but calleth all men to
repent, and will accept all penitents.
36. τὸν λόγον ὃν ἀπέστειλεν k.t.A. The construction in this verse
and in the following is very involved. τὸν λόγον seems, in the inten-
tion of the speaker, to have been used first with reference to the
language in the previous verse, and to have meant the message there
recited, that whoever feareth God and worketh righteousness is
accepted with Him. And the sentence begins thus: This message
which God sent to the children of Israel when He published the good
mews of peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all). Here
the speaker should have introduced a verb like the οἴδατε which pre-
ently follows, but instead of doing so, he resumes the τὸν λόγον, by
another expression τὸ ῥῆμα, and leaves the first sentence in suspense,
continuing thus: That saying ye yourselves know which was pub-
lished throughout all Judea. Then he returns in thought to the
word εὐαγγελιζόμενος, and makes his speech refer to the same subject,
viz. to God who published the good news of peace, beginning (the pub-
lication by Jesus Christ) from Galilee after the baptism which John
preached. In the next sentence the message and the saying of the
previous clause find concrete expression, and are taken up with the
name of Him in whom they centred: Jesus of Nazareth, how God
anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power.
37. ὑμεῖς οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα. The ῥῆμα is the teaching about
Jesus which went forth when John the Baptist began to preach, and
seems to be more restricted in sense than the λόγος which refers to the
whole message of salvation through Christ. About the Baptist and
his preaching, Peter either assumes Cornelius and his friends to have
heard, as so many must have done during Christ’s ministerial life,
or he speaks from what he had gathered in his previous conversation
with Cornelius, Hence he says, ‘ Ye know of the history of Jesus.’
καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς... See on ix. 31,
38. ᾿Ιησοῦν tov ἀπὸ Natapéd, Jesus of Nazareth. In Him was
the whole accomplishment of the ῥῆμα and the λόγος. This was the
entire scope of what had been preached even from the first: Jesus
who had lived as a man in Nazareth, had yet been God’s Anointed
Son, the promised Messiah, and shewn to be so by the mighty works
which He did.
τοὺς καταδυναστευομένους K.T.A., those that were oppressed of the
devil. The verb, not much used in classical Greek, is very common,
especially in the active voice, in the LXX. The cure of those op-
pressed by the devil is perhaps mentioned as shewing that the power
of Jesus was to be not only over physical but over moral evil likewise,
and this alone is mentioned because in the healing of the greater, the
power to cure the less evil is implied.
ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἦν per αὐτοῦ, for God was with Him. Of which presence
the mighty works were the σημεῖα. Cf. Nicodemus’ confession (John
iii. 2), ‘No man can do these signs that Thou doest except God be
with him.’
a an NOTES. 219
39. Kal ἡμεῖς μάρτυρες, and we are witnesses. Because they had |
seen His mighty works through His whole ministerial life (Luke xxiv.
48).
ὧν ἐποίησεν. For this attraction see note on i. 1.
ὃν Kal ἀνεῖλαν «.T.A., whom also they slew, hanging Him on a tree.
He does not mention here, before a Gentile audience, who the
offenders were; though to the Jews themselves (ii. 23) he dwells on the
sin, that he may thereby move his hearers on whom the guilt lay.
For the expression κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου, see chap. v. 30, note.
40. Kal ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν ἐμφανῆ γενέσθαι, and gave Him to be made
manifest. The literal translation implies more than the A.V. Christ was
not openly shewed, but by many proofs it was made clear to those who |
saw Him that it was the same body which had been wounded on the
cross that was alive again, though the resurrection had bestowed on
it a character and a glory which had not been observed before.
41. ov παντὶ τῷ λαῷ, not to all the people. For they, having re-
jected Moses and the prophets, who foretold Christ’s coming, and the
nature of His kingdom, were not likely, as Jesus Himself had said of
some others of like character, to be converted by the rising of any one
from the dead.
μάρτυσιν τοῖς προκεχειροτονημένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, to witnesses chosen
before by God. The article joined with the participle, while the noun
has none, gives special prominence to the fact of the previous choice of
the Apostles by God, =‘even those who were,’ &c. Christ Himself
(John xvii. 6) calls them ‘those whom Thou hast given Me.’
ἡμῖν, tous. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 6—8.
οἵτινες συνεφάγομεν «.T.A. The relative is emphatic. Who (to
make our testimony undeniable) did eat and drink with Him after He
rose from the dead. See Luke xxiv. 42, 43. And in the narrative
John xxi. 12—15 it is to be inferred, especially from the last verse,
that Jesus Himself partook of the food which He gave to the rest.
42. καὶ παρήγγειλεν ἡμῖν κηρύξαι τῷ λαῷ, and He commanded us
to proclaim to the people. This was among the commandments alluded
to Acts i. 2. Compare the vharge given by Christ, Matth. xxviii. 19,
where the wide commission ‘Go ye, teach all nations,’ is one that
anticipated the preaching of the Gospel not only to Cornelius, but to
all other Gentiles.
ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ ὡρισμένος K.T.r., that it is He which was ordained!
of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. Of this the Apostles could)
testify for they had heard it from Christ’s own lips. Cf. His words to)“
the Jews (John v. 22, 27), ‘For the Father judgeth no man, but hath)
committed all judgment unto the Son,’ ‘and hath given Him authority |
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.’ .
48. τούτῳ πάντες οἱ προφῆται μαρτυροῦσιν, to Him give all the
prophets witness. Cornelius and his friends could be referred to ihe|
prophets, for though not Jews, they were students and followers of {
Jehovah’s law. The prophetic words to which allusion is ee
220 THE ACTS. |X. 43—
/ made are such as Jer. xxxi. 34 ‘They shall all know Me, from the
least of them unto the greatest of them.’ Also Joel il. 32 ‘ Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.’ So that under
the Law the redemption of the Gentiles was seen afar off.
πάντα τὸν πιστεύοντα, every one that believeth. So that not cir-
‘cumcision but faith was now the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.
44 48, Tue Horny Guost 15 SENT UPON CORNELIUS AND HIS FRIENDS,
AND THEY ARE SUBSEQUENTLY ΒΑΡΤΙΖΕΡ.
44. ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀκούοντας, on all them which heard. On the
nature of this hearing, which made the men fit to receive so great
a gift, see above on verse 33.
45. ot ἐκ περιτομῆς, they of the circumcision, i.e. those six Jew-
ish Christians mentioned in xi. 12 as companions of St Peter from
Joppa.
46. ἤκουον γὰρ αὐτῶν κιτιλ., for they heard them speak with
tongues and magnify God. As to those first called in the Jewish Church,
so here to the first called of the Gentiles, God pours forth His gifts of
grace. This was the Gentile Pentecost. (See ii. 11.)
41. μήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται κωλῦσαί τις τοῦ μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτους;
can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized? Here is
another instance of the genitival infinitive so common in N.T.
Greek. But here, as κωλύειν may have a genitive of the thing from
which any one is hindered, the construction offers less difficulty. The
μὴ before βαπτισθῆναι is an instance of the Greek fondness for doubling
negative ideas. Cf. Eur. Phoeniss. 1268 κωλύειν τινὰ μὴ θανεῖν, where
the negative only renders emphatic the sense of the verb.
Though the gift of the Spirit has been made so apparent, yet
St Peter does not omit the outward sign which Christ had ordained
(Matth. xxviii. 19) for the admission of members into His Church.
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς, as well as we. And in precisely the same kind of
manifestation. ᾿
48. προσέταξεν δὲ κιτ.λ., and he commanded them to be baptized.
Peter seems to have refrained from baptizing converts, and we know
that St Paul did so, and the latter indicates a reason which may have
influenced all the Twelve to appoint others to baptize, lest factions
should arise, and men sever the Christian unity by calling themselves
by the name of some one of the Apostles. Cp. 1 Cor. 1. i3—16.
ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ, in the name of Jesus Christ. The
name of Jesus Christ is perhaps specially mentioned with a thought
of the danger just alluded to. The converts were to be Christians.
But see also ii, 38 note.
ἐπιμεῖναι ἡμέρας τινάς, to tarry certain days. It is probable that
Peter consented to stay and to become the guest of Cornelius and his
friends (see xi. 1—3); and thus shewed that he was prepared to act
according to the teaching of the vision. We know that afterwards
(Gal. ii. 11—13) he wavered in his determination, and was rebuked by
> ee NOTES. ane
St Paul for so doing; but even the account of that rebuke shews us
that Peter had laid aside his Jewish prejudices in a great degree, and
had only acted in the way which was blamed, through the influence of
some still strict Jews who had come from Jerusalem to Antioch. St
Luke is not to be supposed to be ignorant of that wavering action of
St Peter because he does not mention it. For a similar Christian
reticence, in a like case, see ΧΙ], 13 and note there.
CHAPTER ΧΙ.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
3. ὅτι εἰσῆλθες. This order is in agreement with NABD, and is
supported by the Vulg. ‘ quare introisti.’
8. ὅτι κοινόν. The omission of πᾶν agrees with NABDE and has
the support of Vulg.
9. μοι omitted after ἀπεκρίθη δὲ with NAB. Vulg. ‘Respondit autem
12. μηδὲν διακρίναντα with NAB. Vulg. ‘ Nihil hesitans.’
13. αὐτῷ omitted after εἰπόντα with NAB. The Vulg. adds ‘sibi.’
ἄνδρας omitted with NABD. Unrepresented in Vulg.
20. “Εἰλληνας for ᾿Ελληνιστάς with NAD. Vulg. ‘Grecos.’
22. ovons added after ἐκκλησίας τῆς with NBE.
διελθεῖν omitted with NAB. Vulg. ‘Barnabam usque ad Antio-
chiam.’
25. ὁ Βαρνάβας omitted with SAB. Vulg. represents it.
26. Kal εὑρὼν ἤγαγεν eis, with NAB.. The first αὐτὸν is also omit-
ted in EK. Vulg. has ‘quem cum invenisset, perduxit Antiochiam,’
which supports the omission of the second αὐτόν.
28. μεγάλην after λιμόν with NABD, and so ἥτις to agree with it
instead of ὅστις.
Καίσαρος omitted with SABD. Unrepresented in Vulg.
Cu. XI. 1—18. THe Jupmo-CHRISTIANS BLAME PETER. HE MAKES
HIS DEFENCE AT JERUSALEM,
1. ἤκουσαν δέ, now they heard. The report of what had happened
at Czsarea reached Jerusalem before Peter’s return. Hence it seems
that he accepted the hospitality of the new converts.
ὅτι καὶ τὰ ἔθνη ἐδέξαντο τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, that the Gentiles also
had received the word of God.
Where animate objects and especially persons are spoken of it is
common in both classical and N.T. Greek for nouns in the neuter
plural to be joined with a plural verb, Cf. Matth. xxvii. 52 πολλὰ
σώματα τῶν κεκοιμημένων ἁγίων ἠγέρθησαν. For an instance of this
Ary ecu THE ACTS. pea Ὁς-
usage about things inanimate see below verse 13, note. At the news
of the acceptance of the word of God by the Gentiles, had there
been no additional information about Peter’s eating with Cornelius,
the disciples would have rejoiced, and would have welcomed this
further spread of the word, as they did (viii. 14) the conversion of the
Samaritans, but to some, who were not only Christians, but strict
observers of Jewish ritual, it was a cause of offence that Peter had
consented to become the guest of a Gentile.
2. διεκρίνοντο πρὸς αὐτόν, they contended with him. The verb is
the same which is used (x. 20), with a negative, μηδὲν duaxpwopevos,
nothing doubting, and presently in this chapter (xi. 12) μηδὲν διακρί-
vavra making no difference. The contention of these opponents of
Peter’s conduct was that the difference between Jew and Gentile
should still be maintained, and that any close fellowship (such as was
involved in living at the same board) with those who accepted
Christianity otherwise than through the gate of submission to the
Mosaic Law should be avoided. As the Jews felt it their duty (x.
28) to behave towards Cornelius and such as he before they became
Christians, so would the Judaizing feeling have prompted the Jewish
Christians to deal with him still. And when we think on the pre-
judice which, by generations of ceremonial observance, had grown
up among the Jews, we cannot wonder greatly at what they did. A
whole nation is not brought to a change of feeling in a day.
ot ἐκ περιτομῆς, they that were of the circumcision. This must
have been the whole Church, at the time when the event occurred, for
there were no Christians as yet except Jews and proselytes. But St
Luke’s narrative was compiled at a time when ‘ they that were of the
circumcision’ had become a distinct party, and when their influence
had begun to work division in the Christian societies. He therefore
employs a name which when he wrote was full of significance, although
it had its origin only in the circumstances to which he here applies it.
Those who had been born Jews and knew of Jesus as conforming to
the Law, and who had not heard of Peter’s vision nor seen the gift of
the Holy Ghost to Cornelius and his friends, as those who had been
with Peter had done, were to be pardoned, if their scruples caused
them to question the conduct of the Apostle at this time; yet when
they heard his story they were satisfied (see ver. 18), but many Jewish
Christians elsewhere continued to make this subject a cause of con-
tention. See xv. 1.
3. πρὸς ἄνδρας ἀκροβυστίαν ἔχοντας, to men uncircumcised. The
expression here employed testifies to the strength of feeling against
what Peter had done. The men with whom he had mixed are not
called Gentiles only, but the uncircumcised, the word of greatest re-
proach on the lips of a Jew.
Kal συνέφαγες αὐτοῖς, and didst eat with them. Among whom
there would be no ceremonial observance about either the character
of the food or the way of its preparation.
4. ἀρξάμενος δὲ Ilérpos ἐξετίθετο αὐτοῖς καθεξῆς, but Peter began
and rehearsed the matter in order to them.
ets Toul}: NOTES. 223
5. καθιεμένην. The participle is here in agreement with ὀθόνην.
Τὴ the parallel passage in the previous chapter, it was made to agree
with σκεῦος. The one construction is as correct as the other.
6. κατενόουν, 1 beheld. So LXX. (Exod, xxxiii. 8) καὶ κατενοοῦσαν
ἀπιόντος Μωυσῆ, of the people watching Moses as he went up the
mountain. Cf. also Ps. xe. (xci.) 8, xciii. 9.
11. καὶ ἰδοὺ... ἐν ἡ ἦμεν, and behold immediately there stood three
men before the house in which we were. The Apostle is speaking to
the congregation at Jerusalem, who would know of any companions
who might have gone with him to Lydda and Joppa. Therefore he
includes them in his words. It is most in harmony with what was
done in other cases that he should not have gone forth unaccom-
panied. ;
12. μηδὲν διακρίναντα, making no difference. On this change of
the verb from the middle to the active voice, and for a reason why
Peter, after having been at Cesarea and having heard the statement
of Cornelius and seen the gift of the Spirit, adopted this form in his
address at Jerusalem, see x. 20 note.
ἦλθον δὲ σὺν ἐμοὶ Kal of ἕξ ἀδελφοὶ οὗτοι, and these six brethren
accompanied me. Those who had been his companions to Cxsarea
were brought on by Peter to Jerusalem, that their testimony might
support his statement, and that they might declare to the rest of
Judzxo-Christians what they had witnessed. It may be that these
men, or some of them, had been his companions in his journey described
(ix. 32) as made ‘throughout all quarters.’
13. ἀπήγγειλεν δὲ ἡμῖν πῶς εἶδεν τὸν ἄγγελον, and he related to us
how he had seen the angel. Before St Peter made this defence, and
long before St Luke put it down in the Acts, the story of Cornelius
- and his vision would be well known, and so the definite article would
be used in speaking of it, i.e. ‘the angel’ of whom all men had heard.
In N.T. Greek the general usage is to put the forms used for direct
interrogation (as πῶς, πότε) where the classical writers would usually
write the corresponding relative forms, ὅπως, ὁπότε. So Matth. vi. 28
39 ἢ
καταμάθετε τὰ κρίνα τοῦ ἀγρου πῶς αὐξάνουσιν.
ἀπόστειλον εἰς ᾿Ιόππην, send to Joppa. The insertion of ἄνδρας
here is one of the numerous instances where in the repetition of a
narrative an attempt has been made to bring the different passages
into exact verbal agreement. There have been times when devout
men thought much of this verbal accord. It is therefore worth notice
that the writers of the N.T. disregarded it utterly. The words in such
a solemn inscription as that above the Cross differ in all the four
Gospels, and St Peter, when in the Second Epistle (i. 17) he speaks
of the heavenly voice heard at the Transfiguration, varies verbally
from each of the accounts of the Evangelists.
15. ἐν δὲ τῷ ἄρξασθαί pe λαλεῖν, and as I began to speak, A some-
what more precise statement than that of the previous chapter, which
was (x. 44) ἔτι λαλοῦντος τοῦ Πέτρου. It would appear from these
224 THE ACTS. [XI. 15—
words of Peter that he had hardly begun his address before the gift of
the Spirit descended.
ἐν ἀρχῇ, at the beginning, i.e. at the feast of Pentecost.
16. τοῦ ῥήματος τοῦ κυρίου, the word of the Lord; recorded above
i.5. The ὡς ἔλεγεν which follows is inserted to introduce the exact
words of Christ.
17. πιστεύσασιν, who believed. The participle refers alike to the
preceding αὐτοῖς and ἡμῖν, and thus the two cases are made parallel
exactly as in the narrative of verse 15. For just as in the case of
Peter and the Apostles, their faith was existing before the gift of the
Spirit, so in Cornelius and in his companions there existed a degree of ©
faith, or there could have been no sincere prayer offered by them.
ἐγὼ tls ἤμην δυνατὸς κωλῦσαι τὸν θεόν ; who was I that I could with-
stand God? There are in reality two questions here merged into one,
Who was I? Was 1 able to withstand...? So also Luke xix. 15 ris τί
διεπραγματεύσατο-- who had traded, and what he had made thereby.
18. ἡσύχασαν, they held their peace. But though those who
listened to St Peter’s narrative were satisfied that God had now called
Gentiles as well as Jews to be of His Kingdom, there were others who,
some perhaps with a real but misguided zeal for the Law, some, as
St Paul says (Gal. vi. 13), from vain-glory, maintained the necessity ©
for the observance of the older covenant, and hence arose dissensions
in the Church from a very early time.
19—26. FurtrHer SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL AS FAR AS ANTIOCH.
19. ἐπὶ Urepdve, about Stephen. See above viii. 1.
ἕως Φοινίκης, as far as Phenicia. A still wider circuit for the Gospel
messengers. Phoenicia contained the important seaports of Tyre and
Sidon. For its history see Dict. of the Bible.
Κύπρου. Cyprus. See iv. 36.
᾿Αντιοχείας. Antioch. The capital city of Syria, about 16 miles
from the sea-coast, on the river Orontes. It was the residence of the
Roman pro-consul of Syria. St Paul made this his starting point in
all his three missionary journeys, For its history see Dictionary of
the Bible.
εἰ μὴ μόνον ᾿Ιουδαίοις, but unto the Jews only. For they had not
been warned, as Peter was, that the time was come to carry out
Christ’s prophetic command (Acts i. 8) to its fullest extent.
20. ἦσαν δέ τινες... Κύπριοι kal Kupnvator, but some of them were
men of Cyprus and Cyrene. In whose minds, from their more cosmo-
politan education, there was less scruple about mixing with Gentiles
than existed among the Jews of Palestine, the home of the nation,
and by consequence the stronghold of their prejudices.
ἐλάλουν πρὸς τοὺς "EAAnvas, spake unto the Greeks. The N.T. uses
᾿Ἑλληνισταί to mean those Jews who had been born in some foreign
land and spoke the Greek language, or else for proselytes; but” Eves,
XI. 23.) NOTES. 525
when the heathen population is spoken of. Now it is clear that it
would have been no matter of remark had ‘these men preached to
“Ἑλληνισταί, Greek-Jews, for of them there was a large number in the
Church of Jerusalem, as we see from the events related in chap.
vi. 1, and most probably these Grecian and Cyprian teachers were
themselves Greek-Jews; but what calls for special mention by St Luke
is that they, moved perhaps by some spiritual impulse, addressed
their preaching in Antioch to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. The
time was ripe for such a work, and God who had prompted Peter by a
vision, moved these men by His Spirit.
21. καὶ ἦν χεὶρ κυρίου pet αὐτῶν, and the hand of the Lord was
‘with them. The expression is a common one in the O.T. to express
the direct interposition of God in the affairs of the world. Cf. 1 Sam.
v. 3, καὶ ἐβαρύνθη χεὶρ κυρίου ἐπὶ τοὺς ’Afwriovs. So too 1 Sam. vii. 13:
and of His interposition for good, see Is. xli. 20. Cf. also Exod. viii.
ΠΣ xiv. 31.
πολύς τε ἀριθμὸς ὁ πιστεύσας ἐπέστρεψεν K.T.A., and a great multi-
tude that believed turned unto the Lord, These probably, like Cornelius
had been prepared, by their knowledge of Jehovah through Judaism,
to accept the teaching of the Christian missionaries.
22. ἠκούσθη δὲ ὁ λόγος k.7.A., and the report concerning them, dc.
i.e. concerning these Gentile converts. ‘These events took place, and
were known to the Church in Jerusalem, before they heard of the
visit of Peter to Cornelius. But what had happened at Antioch caused
the Church no disturbance, because we read of no such breaking
through the restrictions of the ceremonial Law as was made in
Cesarea when Peter took up his abode with Cornelius. The Jewish
preachers mingled no further with the Gentiles to whom they preached
at Antioch than the intercourse of everyday life forced them to do
constantly.
καὶ ἐξαπέστειλαν Βαρνάβαν, and they sent forth Barnabas. He was
sent forth, as Peter and John before had been sent into Samaria
(viii. 14), to confirm and give the sanction and direction of the mother
Church to the work which had begun at a new centre. Barnabas
being a native of Cyprus would most likely be well known to the
Cyprians who were preaching at Antioch, and so he was a most fit
person to be selected for this errand.
23. Kal ἰδὼν τὴν χάριν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, and having seen the grace of
God, i.e. as it was exhibited in the faith, and consequent turning to
Christ, of these Gentiles.
ἐχάρη, was glad. Seeing nothing in the new movement which could
call for disapproval, while the addition of new members to the Church
was a source of joy.
καὶ παρεκάλει, and exhorted. He is called vids παρακλήσεως in iv. 36.
τῇ προθέσει τῆς καρδίας, with purpose of heart. Lit. ‘in the purpose
of their heart.’ Their determination was at present formed, and they
had turned to the Lord; the purport of Barnabas’ exhortation was
THE ACTS τὰ
226 THE ACTS. [ XI. 23—
that continuing in the same determination they should hold fast their
faith, and allow nothing to shake their attachment to Christ. The
heathen converts to Christianity had much to endure for Christ’s sake,
and to the weak there were many temptations to relapse.
24. πλήρης πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ πίστεως, full of the Holy Ghost
and faith. The same description is given of Stephen (vi. 5), and a
man of like character with that most eminent among the Greek-Jews
would exert much infiuence in Antioch, where Greeks and Greek-Jews
were the chief part of the population. It was in consequence of the
persecution after Stephen’s death that these preachers had come to
Antioch, and some of them were probably of those Grecians who had
been forward in the work for which Stephen was martyred.
Kal προσετέθη ὄχλος ἱκανός, and much people was added. No
doubt the joyful approval of Barnabas, representing the Mother-
Church of Jerusalem, would help forward the zeal of the preachers a
Antioch.
25. ἀναζητῆσαι Σιαῦλον, for to seek Saul. That he, to whom the
Lord had appeared, and who had been marked as a ‘chosen vessel’
(ix. 15) to bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles, might come
oe him to share in this new work of preaching to the Gentiles at
tioch.
26. ἐνιαυτὸν ὅλον, a whole year. This long period, spent with
success in the first field where the preaching to the Gentiles had
begun, will account for the constant return of the Apostle of the
Gentiles to Antioch after each of his three missionary journeys. He
had preached at Damascus and at Jerusalem, but it was always with
his life in his hand. At Antioch he first found a quiet Church with a
wide scope for all his earnestness.
χρηματίσαι τε πρώτως k.T.A., and the disciples were called Christians
jirst in Antioch. It is most probable that this name was given them
by the heathen in ridicule. The disciples of Jesus never give it to
themselves, and as the use of it would imply that those who bore it
were the followers of the Messiah, the Christ, it is certain it would
not be given to them by the Jews. The reason for a new distinctive
term is apparent. When these new Gentile converts were joined to
the Church of Antioch, none of the former distinctive appellations
would embrace the whole body. They were no longer all Nazarenes
or Galileans or Greek-Jews, and as to the people of Antioch they
probably seemed a strange medley, they would not be unlikely to
apply to them such a hybrid form as ‘Christian,’ a Greek word with
a Latin termination. The name is probably used in mockery by
Agrippa (Acts xxvi. 28) ‘ With but little persuasion thou wouldest
fain make me a Christian,’ but in the only other and later instance
of the use of the name in the N.T. (1 Pet. iv. 16) we can see that
what had been at first a taunt had soon come to be a name in
which to glory, ‘If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed.’
χρηματίζω, having, as a first meaning, ‘ to do some business,’ came
XI. 28.] NOTES. 227
afterwards, because persons of certain callings are named from what
they do, to have the sense of ‘to be named’ as here.
27—30. Acapus at ANTIOCH FORETELLS A FAMINE, AND IN CON-
SEQUENCE THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH SENDS RELIEF TO JERU-
SALEM.
27. ἐν ταύταις δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις, and in those days, i.e. during the
year when Barnabas and Saul were labouring in Antioch, and the
Church increasing there rapidly in consequence.
προφῆται, prophets. That there should be prophets in the Church
was but the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel which Peter had
quoted in his Pentecostal sermon (ii. 17). We cannot gather from
the N. T. records any clear description of what office is to be under-
stood by the word ‘prophet.’ The men to whom it is applied are
sometimes occupied in preaching and explaining the word of God,
and sometimes have the power of foretelling future events, as Agabus
did here. See Acts xiii. 1, xv. 32, xix. 6, xxi. 9, 10; Rom. xii. 6;
1 Cor. xii. 10, 28, 29, xiii. 2, 8, xiv. 6, 29—37; Eph. ii. 20.
28. εἷς ἐξ αὐτῶν ὀνόματι "AyaBos, one of them,named Agabus. He
is mentioned again in xxi. 10, where, after the fashion of some of
the prophets of the O. T., he by a significant action, as well as by his
words, foretells the imprisonment of St Paul at Jerusalem.
διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, So too xxi. 11 the words of Agabus are prefaced
by τάδε λέγει τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον.
λιμὸν μεγάλην, great dearth. This noun is usually masculine, but
the grammarians notice that, as St Luke makes it here, it is some-
times feminine. The Megarean in Aristoph. Acharn. 743 uses it as
feminine.
This famine is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. xx. 2. 5) who tells
how Helena, queen of Adiabene, being at Jerusalem, succoured the
people by procuring for them corn from Alexandria and a cargo of
figs from Cyprus. The date of this severe famine was A.p. 45.
ἐφ᾽ ὅλην τὴν οἰκουμένην, throughout all the world. ἡ οἰκουμένη is
the phrase used for the whole Roman empire, as in Luke ii. 1, but
here perhaps it has a wider signification. Though one region might
be specially afflicted by the failure of its crops, all the rest of the
Roman empire would be sure to suffer in some degree at the same
time, and especially when famines were, as at this time, of frequent
recurrence,
ἐπὶ Κλαυδίου, in the days of Claudius. The reign of Claudius
(a.D. 41—54) was remarkable for the famines with which various parts
of the empire were afflicted. The first, second, fourth, ninth and
eleventh years of this emperor’s reign are recorded as years of famine
in some district or other. See Suetonius, Claudius, 28 ; Tacitus,
Ann. x11. 43; Josephus, Ant. xx. 2. 5; Dio Cassius, rx. p. 949; Huseb.
H. F. 11. 8.
I5-—2
228 THE ACTS. [XT. 29—
29. τῶν St μαθητῶν καθὼς εὐπορεῖτό tis, and the disciples each
man according to his ability, i.e. the disciples of the Church at
Antioch,
εἰς διακονίαν, for relief. Lit. ‘for ministry’: a phrase which recalls
the ἡ διακονία ἡ καθημερινή of vi. 1. The relief from Antioch was to be
distributed in that way, for no doubt the Christian Church in
Juda would be much impoverished. At first the poorer converts
had been sustained by the common fund, but persecution had driven
away great numbers of the Christians, and those would be most
likely to depart who possessed means to support themselves in other
places. Thus the Mother-Church would be deprived of those mem-
bers who were best able to give relief in such a severe time of distress.
30. πρὸς τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους, to the elders. This is the first time
we come upon the πρεσβύτεροι in the Christian history. In xx. 17
they are again mentioned, and shortly afterwards (verse 28) in the
same narrative they are named ézicxoro.=overseers, bishops. No
doubt at first the office of elder or presbyter comprised, beside the
work of teaching, the general oversight of one, or it may be more
Churches. Cf. Phil. i. 1 where the two orders of the ministry are
described as ‘bishops (=presbyters) and deacons.’ As the Church
increased in numbers these duties were separated, and the general
superintendence and control assigned to one who was called overseer
or bishop.
διὰ χειρὸς BapvdBa καὶ Σιαύλου, by the hand of Barnabas and
Saul. The character and labours of these two had marked them out as
the most fit men to be bearers of this help, and it was from Jerusalem
that Barnabas had been sent at first to Antioch.
CHAPTER XIL
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
9. αὐτῷ omitted with NABD. Vulg. represents it. .
13. αὐτοῦ for τοῦ Πέτρου with SABDLP. Vuldg. ‘co.’
20. ὁ Ἡρώδης omitted with NABD. Unrepresented in Vulg.
25. καὶ omitted after συμπαραλαβόντες with NAB. Unrepresented
in Vulg.
Cu. XIT, 1—12. Herrop’s Persecution oF THE CHurcH. PETER’S
MrracuLous DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON.
: δ κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρόν, now about that time. The events
narrated in this chapter must have occurred very shortly before
Herod’s death. The date will therefore be about A.p. 43.
“Ἡρώδης ὁ βασιλεύς. This was Herod Agrippa I. He was the son of
Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great. See Table of the
Herods in Archdeacon Farrar’s St Luke (Cambridge Gk. Test. for
Schools), Introduction, p, li.
ἈΠ 59 : NOTES. 229
ἐπέβαλεν... τὰς χεῖρας κακῶσαι, siretched forth his hands to injure.
Agrippa according to Josephus (x1x. 7. 3) was anxious to be esteemed
a devout Jew: ‘He loved to live continually at Jerusalem, and was
exactly careful in the observance of the laws of his country. He
therefore kept himself entirely pure, nor did any day pass over his head
without its appointed sacrifice.’ Such a man might easily be roused,
by the Jews whom he was so anxious to please, to the perpetration
of cruelties upon the Christians.
On the seizure of St James, Chrysostom says, Τοῦτό ἐστιν ὃ ἔλεγεν
ὁ Χριστός. τὸ μὲν ποτήριον ὃ μέλλω πίνειν πίεσθε, Kal TO βάπτισμα ὃ
ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθήσεσθε.
2. ᾿Ιάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν ᾿Ιωάννου, James, the brother of John. This
was one of the two sons of Zebedee, who had-been among the three
specially favoured disciples of Jesus. Itis therefore likely that he
would take a leading part in the labours of the Church. Thus Agrip-
pa’s attention would be drawn to him as a proper person to be first
struck down. All the accusations which had been laid against
Stephen, that the Christian leader spake against the Temple and the
Law, would be used with effect to such a zealous observer of Mosaic
ritual as Herod Agrippa was.
μαχαίρῃ, with the sword. This was the third in order of the modes
of execution appointed among the Jews. These modes were (1) stoning,
(2) burning, (3) the sword, and (4) strangulation. In connexion with
the execution of James the words of the Mishna are interesting : ‘The
ordinance for putting to death by the sword is as follows: the man’s
head is cut off with the sword as is wont to be done by royal command.’
See Surenhusius on Sanhedrin, p. 248, where there is a discussion
about the position of the prisoner, whether he should stand erect or
have his head on a block.
3. ἰδὼν δὲ ὅτι ἀρεστόν ἐστιν τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις, and because he saw it
pleased the Jews, which with him was so great an object. Josephus,
in contrasting Agrippa with the Herod who ruled before him, says the
latter was ‘more friendly to the Greeks than to the Jews,’ but in this
respect Agrippa ‘was not at all like him.’
προσέθετο συλλαβεῖν kal Ilérpov, he proceeded further to take Peter
also. Literally, ‘he added to take &c.’ This is the literal rendering cf
a common Hebrew form. Cf. LXX. Gen. iv. 2, καὶ προσέθετο τεκεῖν
Tov ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, ‘and she bare again his brother,’ and Gen. xxxvii.
8, καὶ προσέθεντο ἔτι μισεῖν αὐτὸν ἕνεκεν τῶν ἐνυπνίων αὐτοῦ, ‘and they
hated him yet the more for his dreams.’ Peter was the other most con-
spicuous figure among the Twelve, for John, as in his Gospel he keeps
himself from view under the designation ‘that other disciple’ (John
xx. 2, 3, xxi. 20, 23), so in the work of the early Church is but little
noticed after the first persecution at Jerusalem.
ἦσαν dé ἡμέραν τῶν ἀζύμων, and those were the days of unleavened
bread. The phrase refers to the whole Passover feast, as may be seen
᾿ from Luke xxii. 1 ἡ ἑορτὴ τῶν ἀζύμων ἡ λεγομένη πάσχα.
230 THE ACTS. [ XII. 4—
4. ἔθετο εἰς φυλακήν, he put him in prison, to be kept a prisoner
till the termination of the feast, when he might be brought to trial.
παραδοὺς τέσσαρσιν τετραδίοις κιτιλ., having delivered him to four
quaternions of soldiers to guard him. A quaternion was a set of four
men, which was the number at one time occupied in the work of the
guard, two soldiers being chained to the prisoner, and two keeping
guard outside. These latter are called (ver. 10) ‘the first and second
ward.’ There were four such sets appointed to have charge of Peter,
one company for each of the four watches by day and by night.
A similar arrangement for keeping guard, though not over a prisoner,
is mentioned Philo in Flaccum 13, where an officer is sent to arrest
Flaccus, and it is said στρατιώτην δέ τινα τῶν ἐν τοῖς τετραδίοις φυλακῶν
καθ᾽ ὁδὸν εὑρὼν κελεύει δεικνύναι τὴν οἰκίαν στρατάρχου.
βουλόμενος μετὰ τὸ πάσχα, intending after the Passover. The
A.V. renders πάσχα by ‘Easter,’ meaning thereby to shew that the
whole feast, and not the day of the sacrifice only, is spoken of. That
this meaning, and not the single day of the Paschal feast is intended
by the Greek, seems clear from the elaborate preparation made, as for
a longer imprisonment than was the rule among the Jews. Peter was
arrested at the commencement of the Passover feast (14th of Nisan),
and the king’s intention was to proceed to sentence and punish him
when the feast was at an end on the 21st of Nisan.
ἀναγαγεῖν αὐτὸν τῴ λαῷ, to bring him forth to the people. That
they might see his zeal for Judaism by the sentence which he should
pass upon Peter. The same verb is used (Luke xxii. 66) of bringing
Jesus before the council, ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ συνέδριον.
δ. ἐτηρεῖτο ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ, was kept [guarded] in the prison. An-
other indication of the intended longer duration of the imprisonment,
and that he was not arrested on the day of the Paschal sacrifice with
the purpose of being brought forth on the morning of the 15th of
Nisan, as some have maintained.
προσευχὴ δὲ ἦν ἐκτενῶς γινομένη «.T.A., but prayer was earnestly
made by the Church unto God for him. The adverb ἐκτενῶς is thus
used in LXX. of earnest crying unto God. Joel i. 14; Jonah iii. 8.
So Judith iv. 12 καὶ ἐβόησαν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν Ἰσραὴλ ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐκτεν ὧς
τοῦ μὴ δοῦναι εἰς διαρπαγὴν τὰ νήπια αὐτῶν. The prayers of the Church
were offered by assemblies of Christians meeting in various private
houses (see verse 12), for the persecution would now render public
Christian services dangerous, as we know was ofien the case in the
early days of Christianity.
6. ὅτε δὲ ἤμελλεν προαγαγεῖν αὐτὸν ὁ “HpwSns, and when Herod
was about to bring him forth. This is an additional note of the lapse
of some space between the arrest and the intended punishment of the
Apostle.
φύλακές τε πρὸ τῆς θύρας, and guards before the door, i.e. those two
soldiers of the quaternion who were not chained to the prisoner.
See above on verse 4.
eet Ὁ Ἢ NOTES. 231
7. καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπέστη, and behold an angel of the Lord
came upon him. ‘The phrase is word for word the same as in Luke ii.
9, and the words which follow there καὶ δόξα κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτοὺς
have much resemblance to the further description here.
καὶ...ἐν TO οἰκήματι, and a light shined in the cell. οἴκημα, though
applicable to any dwelling-place, is used in classical Greek for such
places as a tavern, a cage for birds, a store-room, and for a prison (as
here) in Thue. tv. 47, παραλαβόντες δὲ αὐτοὺς οἱ Κερκυραῖοι és οἴκημα
μέγα καθεῖρξαν. The light in the cell was due to the presence of the
angel who came in the glory of the Lord.
ἤγειρεν αὐτόν, he roused him up. The verb indicates that the angel
woke Peter from his sleep, not that he helped him to arise, as might
be supposed from the A.V.
8. ἴῶσαι, gird thyself. To gird up the loose Oriental robe was a
necessity before undertaking any expeditious movement. So to
Gehazi, (LXX.) 2 Kings iv. 29, Elisha says Ζῶσαι τὴν ὀσφύν σου, and
uses the same phrase (2 Kings ix. 1) to that one of the sons of the
prophets whom he is about to send to Ramoth-Gilead.
περιβαλοῦ τὸ ἱμάτιόν σου, cast thy garment about thee. The ἱμά-
τιον was the outer garment as distinguished from the under one, which
is χιτών. The ἱμάτια were stripped off by those who stoned Stephen
(Acts vii. 58), and in the LXX. the constant phrase for rending the
loose robe as a sign of horror is διέῤῥηξαν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, while the
dress made for Adam and Eve is described as χιτῶνες δερμάτινοι (Gen.
iii, 21), and it was the χιτών which Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 27) rent, that he
might put sackcloth upon his flesh. Cf. also ‘Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles,’ chap. 1. ἐὰν ἄρῃ τις τὸ ἱμάτιόν σου, δὸς αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν χιτῶνα.
10. διελθόντες δὲ πρώτην φυλακὴν καὶ δευτέραν, and when they
were past the first and second ward, i.e. the warders, who were
stationed one nearer to the inner door of the prison and another at
some further distance away.
ἦλθαν ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην κιτιλ., they came unto the iron gate that leadeth
into the city. This description, with the words which immediately
follow about the street into which they came, make it probable that
the prison in which Peter was kept was in the midst of the city.
αὐτομάτη, of its own accord, i.e. withoutanyhumanagency. Cf. the
description of the fire which appeared to the Egyptians when they
were oppressing the holy nation (Wisdom xvii. 6), διεφαίνετο δ᾽ αὐτοῖς
μόνον αὐτομάτη πυρὰ φόβου πλήρης.
ἀπέστη ὁ ἄγγελος ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, the angel departed from him, giving
no more aid now that the Apostle could make his way without super-
natural assistance. Cf. Chrysostom’s words, τὰ μέν τοι ἔνδον γενόμενα
θαυμασιώτερα ἣν, τοῦτο δὲ λοιπὸν ἀνθρωπινώτερον. ὅτε οὐδὲν κώλυμα ἣν
τότε ἀπέστη ὁ ἄγγελος.
11. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἐν ἑαυτῷ γενόμενος, and when Peter was come to
himself. This and the other subjective features of the narrative shew
that the account must have been derived from St Peter himself.
232 THE ACTS. [xi ΕΣ
No one else could describe the astonishment and the after realization
that all was truly enacted and no vision.
In Luke xv. 17 the phrase is els ἑαυτὸν γενόμενος where it is a
moral and spiritual, not a physical, awakening and resipiscence that
is spoken of.
Kal πάσης τῆς προσδοκίας τοῦ λαοῦ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, and from all the
expectation of the people of the Jews. Their gratification had been
great at the death of James, and now they hoped to see another of the
Apostles condemned and executed.
12. συνιδών te, and when he comprehended the matter, i.e. had
taken in all the circumstances and decided what was best to be done.
The same word is used (xiv. 6) of the disciples getting news of an
intended attack, and making up their minds to flee before it took
place.
Μαρίας τῆς μητρὸς ᾿Ιωάννου x.t.A., Mary the mother of John, whose
surname was Mark. This Mary was the sister to Barnabas as we learn
in Col. iy. 10, where Mark is called sister’s son to Barnabas. This
relationship accounts for the way in which the uncle clung to his
nephew, even when St Paul declined to have Mark as a companion on
their second proposed missionary journey. We do not read of the
father of Mark anywhere, so it is probable that Mary was a widow,
and, like her brother, was possessed of means which enabled her to
put a house, or a part thereof, at the service of the Church, as a
meeting-place for prayer.
συνηθροισμένοι Kal προσευχόμενοι, gathered together and praying,
Probably Mary’s house was a regular place for Christian assemblies.
At one time they would meet for one purpose, at another for another,
but just when Peter was delivered their object in meeting had been to
make supplication for his deliverance.
13—19. SurRpPRISE OF THE BRETHREN AND ANGER OF HEROD.
13. τὴν θύραν τοῦ πυλῶνος, the door of the gate. θύρα is the
wicket which was opened for any one’s admission, while πυλών is the
porch into which admission was obtained through the θύρα. ἡ θύρα
τοῦ πυλῶνος Occurs in the LXX. Ezek. xl. 11; also in Judges xviii. 16,
17, in which latter place the expression applies to the gate of a city,
which had also its wicket.
ὑπακοῦσαι, to hearken. Perhaps we have here a trace of the danger
which at this time surrounded the disciples from this zeal for Judaism
on the part of Herod. Saul had entered into every house and carried
off men and women to prison (viii. 3), and there was a prospect of a
like persecution. So Rhoda was not minded to open till she knew who
was seeking for admission.
14. καὶ ἐπιγνοῦσα τὴν φωνὴν tov Πέτρου, and when she knew
Peter’s voice. We know that there was something easily recognized
in it, and he was known by his speech on a former occasion (Matth.
xxvi. 73).
me ia NOTES. | 233
ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς οὐκ ἤνοιξεν τὸν πυλῶνα, she opened not the gate for
gladness. Cf. with this action the description of the disciples, Luke
xxiv. 41; when they recognized Jesus ‘they believed not for joy.’
On this Chrysostom remarks: καλῶς καὶ τοῦτο γέγονε" ἵνα μὴ καὶ
ἐκεῖνοι ἐκπλαγῶσιν εὐθέως ἰδόντες καὶ ἀπιστήσωσιν, ἀλλ᾽’ ἐγγυμνασθῇ ἡ
διάνοια, καὶ ὅπερ ἔθος ἡμῖν ποιεῖν, εὑρεθῇ πράττουσα καὶ αὐτή.
15. ἡ δὲ διϊσχυρίζετο, but she confidently affirmed. In the time of
the A.V. constantly had the meaning of confidently, which it has now
lost. διϊσχυρίζομαι is in N.T. only here and in St Luke xxii. 59. It
occurs in Acta Petri et Pauli Apocryph. §§ 34 and 39, of δὲ τῷ Σίμωνι
κολληθέντες Tov Ilérpov διϊσχυρίζοντο μάγον. The word is often found
in classical Greek.
ὁ ἄγγελός ἐστιν αὐτοῦ, it is his angel. The author of the Epistle to
the Hebrews expresses (i. 14) in part the opinion of the Jews concern-
ing angels when he asks, ‘ Are they not all ministering spirits sent
forth to do service to them who shall be heirs of salvation?* The
Jewish belief was that each man had a guardian angel assigned to
him. Cf. Midrash Rabbah on Eccles. iv. 4, where it is said that ‘six
hundred thousand of the angels of the presence came down on Sinai
at the giving of the Law, and each one bore a crown to crown Israel,
one for each Israelite.’ Cf. also our Lord’s language (Matt. xviii. 10).
17. πῶς, how. See on ix. 27 note.
ὁ κύριος αὐτὸν ἐξήγαγεν ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς, the Lord had brought him
out of the prison. Cf. his exclamation in verse 11.
ἀπαγγείλατε, carry word. The A.V. has endeavoured to give the
full sense by ‘Go, shew,’ but this seems as though it represented two
verbs instead of one.
᾿Ιακώβῳ, unto James. This is no doubt the James who is afterwards
(xv. 13) described as presiding over the council at Jerusalem concern-
ing circumcision, and giving his sentence on that question. Thus he
seems to have been at the head of the Church at Jerusalem, and to
him it was natural for Peter to send the first news of his deliverance.
This James must have been either the son of Alpheus or else the
James who is called one of the Lord’s brethren, but it is not easy to
decide whether the persons called by these names were one and the
same. It seems however safest not to identify the Apostle, James the
son of Alphzus, with the Lord’s brother, for these brethren of Jesus
did not believe in Him till a very late period of His ministerial life,
long after the Twelve were chosen. But the James in St Luke’s narra-
tive here is probably the Lord’s brother, because St Paul gives to the
James who was one of the pillars of the Church at Jerusalem (Gal. ii.
9) when St Paul visited that city, the express title of ‘the Lord’s
brother’ (Gal. 1. 19). This James, bishop of Jerusalem, was, as we
learn from a tradition preserved by Eusebius (H. E. τι. 23), cast down
from the pinnacle of the Temple, whither the Jews had brought him,
in the expectation that he would disown Christ. When, on the con-
trary, he still held to his belief, he was thrown down, and not being
killed by the fall, was slain by a blow from the club of a fuller.
234 THE ACTS. [Xin ae
καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, and to the brethren, i.e. to the rest of the Christ-
ian congregation. Though it was in the middle of the night when his
deliverance took place, Peter sends to the various centres where, as in
the house of Mary, prayer was also being offered to God for his de-
liverance.
ἐπορεύθη εἰς ἕτερον τόπον, he went into another place. The peril of
death was so imminent if he had been seized that he takes refuge by
hiding where he cannot be found. The times are altered since the
day when, after his former deliverance, he could dare to go and speak
in the day-dawn to the people in the Temple. Then the populace
were a protection to the Church and saved them from violence of the
authorities, now the Jewish people are in expectation of a second exe-
cution.
18. τάραχος οὐκ ὀλίγος ἐν τοῖς στρατιώταις, No small stir among the
soldiers. For the guards who had been chained to the prisoner would
discover as soon as they awoke that he had escaped from between
them, and they would know that their life would probably answer for
the life of Peter.
19. μὴ εὑρών. It is difficult to imagine any more literal statement
than these words, and there can be no distinction in such a sentence
between μὴ and οὐ.
ἐκέλευσεν ἀπαχθῆναι, commanded that they should be put to death.
This is the A.V., and gives the sense better than the literal rendering
‘commanded that they should be led forth.’ This ‘leading forth’ was
the prelude to execution. The verb ἀπάγειν is frequent in the accounts
of the trial and Crucifixion of Jesus in the Gospels.
KatedOav...els Καισάρειαν διέτριβεν. The preposition goes with
κατελθών; he came down to Cesarea and abode there. By Caligula
there had been conferred on Herod Agrippa the tetrarchies of Herod
Philip and Lysanias mentioned Luke 111,1, He afterwards received
the tetrarchy of Antipas, and was honoured with the title of king.
He therefore, and not a Roman governor, was in power at Cesarea
at this date, for Josephus tells us (Ant. xx. 8. 2) that he had received
from Claudius, Judea and Samaria in addition to the districts over
which he had ruled under Caligula.
20—25. DratH or Herop Acrippa I. GrowtH or THE CHURCH.
20. ἦν δὲ θυμομαχῶν, now he was highly displeased. The word
is of very rare occurrence, being found once in Polybius and once in
Diodorus Siculus, and nowhere else. It implies a very deep seated
feeling of anger.
Τυρίοις kal Σιδωνίοις, with them of Tyre and Sidon. These cities
were still seats of maritime industry, and perhaps Herod’s regard for
the people of Berytus (Beyrout), another Phoenician seaport a little
north of Sidon, may have been connected as cause or effect with his
anger at the people of the two older cities. Josephus (xrx. 7. 5) gives
an account of splendid buildings which this king provided for Berytus.
It is clear that the way in which the royal anger had made itself felt
XII. 23.] NOTES. 235
was one which interfered with the commercial prosperity of Tyre and
Sidon.
ὁμοθυμαδὸν δὲ παρῆσαν πρὸς αὐτόν, but they came with one accord to
him, i.e. they joined in a common embassy and sent persons from
both towns to make representations and to use their influence to ap-
pease Herod’s anger.
Βλάστον τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος τοῦ βασιλέως, Blastus the king’s
chamberlain. The name Blastus is Roman, and the man had proba-
bly taken office under this eastern king because he was high in the
favour of the Roman emperor.
ἡτοῦντο εἰρήνην, they asked for peace. We are not to understand
from these words that Agrippa was making war on Tyre and Sidon,
but only that he was on unfriendly terms with them and was imped-
ing their trade.
Sid τὸ τρέφεσθαι αὐτῶν τὴν χώραν ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλικῆς, because their
country was nourished by the king’s country. The extent of Herod’s
rule was very great, and if he encouraged another port, and made
regulations by which traffic was diverted from the towns of Tyre and
Sidon, it was in his power to take away from them at least one-half
of the commerce which was their support.
21. τακτῇ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ, and upon a set day. The day was one ap-
pointed (as Josephus tells us) for holding a festival on which to make
vows for the safety of the Roman emperor,
ὁ ‘Hpddns ἐνδυσάμενος ἐσθῆτα βασιλικήν, Herod having arrayed
himself in royal apparel. See the extract from Josephus given below.
23. παραχρῆμα δὲ ἐπάταξεν αὐτὸν ἄγγελος κυρίου K.T.A., and im-
mediately an angel of the Lord smote him,..and he was eaten of
worms, Of. the fate of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Macc. ix. 9), and
Herod the Great’s death (Josephus, Ant. xvi1. 6. 5). The passage in
which Josephus describes these events is so important in its bearing
on the N. Test. narrative that it deserves to be read in its entirety.
He writes (Ant. xix. 8. 2), “Now when Agrippa had reigned three
years over all Judea he came to the city Cesarea, which was
formerly called Strato’s Tower, and there he exhibited shows in
honour of Cesar, upon his being informed that there was a certain
festival celebrated to make vows for his safety. At which festival a
great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons and such
as were of dignity throughout his province. On the second day of
which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver and of a con-
texture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morn-
ing, at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the
fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising
manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a dread and shuddering
over those that looked intently upon it, and presently his flatterers
cried out, one from one place and another from another (though not
for his good), that he was a god. And they added, ‘Be thow merciful
to us, for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only asa man yet
236 THE ACTS, [ΧῚ 23—
shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.’ Upon this
the King did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery. But
as he presently afterwards looked up he saw an owl sitting upon a
certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird
was the messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been the messenger
of good tidings to him, and fell into the deepest sorrow. A
violent pain also arose in his belly, having begun with great severity.
He therefore looked upon his friends and said, ‘I whom you call a
god, am conmanded presently to depart this life, while Providence thus
reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I who was
called by you immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death.
But I am bound to accept what Providence allots as it pleases God,
for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy man-
ner.’ When he had said this his pain became violent. Accordingly he
was carried into the palace, and the rumour went abroad everywhere
that he would certainly die in a little time...... And when he had
been quite worn out by the pain in his bowels for five days he de-
parted this life.”
We can see from this extract that among the throng who flattered
Herod, there were some who were suing for mercy to be shewn to
them; that the day was a set day, that Herod was clad in royal robes,
that the flattery consisted in calling him a god, that he did not rebuke
them; that he was stricken immediately so that he had to be carried
to his palace, that he acknowledged that the stroke came from God as
a rebuke for accepting such flattery, and everybody expected him to die
at once.
With reference to the latter portion in which Josephus speaks of a
violent pain increasing in vehemence very rapidly, and the N. Test.
says he was eaten of worms, it is noticeable that, in the account of
the death of Antiochus, already alluded to, we have these two features
of the same disease mentioned and that they are described separately.
First, 2 Macc. ix. 5, ‘The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote
him with an incurable and invisible plague, for as soon as he had
spoken these words a pain of the bowels that was remediless came
upon him and sore torments of the inner parts.’ Then after a verse
or two describing the pride of Antiochus we read, ‘So that the worms
rose up out of the body of this wicked man.’
Josephus (by whom Herod, as one who favoured Jews, was regarded
as of no bad character, and was moreover looked upon with an eye of
admiration as having been raised to the highest pitch of power through
Roman influence, to which Josephus himself was very ready to pay
court) has merely described the form in which the malady made it-
self apparent at first, and has left out the more loathsome details from
the death story of one who in his eyes was a great king: while Holy
Writ has given the fuller account, because the object of the writer of
the Acts was to emphasize in all its enormity the sin for which
Josephus tells us that Herod himself felt that he was stricken. The
points of accord in the two accounts are so many, and the difference
so slight and so easy to be accounted for, that this extract from Jose-
phus must always be regarded as a most weighty testimony to the
ἘΠ] NOTES. 237
historic accuracy and faithfulness of St Luke’s narrative. For other
instances of death by this loathsome malady, see Herodotus iv. 205;
Eusebius vir. 16; Tertullian ad Scapul. 11. A similar account is
given of the death of Philip 11. of Spain.
24, ὁ δὲ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ηὔξανεν καὶ ἐπληθύνετο, but the word of God
grew and multiplied. Cf. vi. 7 and xix. 20. ‘The seed is the word,’
said Christ, and so the Christian historian tells us that the word was
as seed,—when it was cast forth diligently it waxed and brought forth
fruit.
25. ὑπέστρεψαν ἐξ ἱΤερουσαλήμ, returned from Jerusalem, i.e. to
their labours among the Gentile converts in Antioch.
πληρώσαντες τὴν ϑιακονίαν, when they had fulfilled their ministra-
tion. ἡ διακονία here means the giving into the care of the Church the
contributions of the disciples in Antioch for the support of their
brethren in Judea during the famine which Agabus had foretold (xi.
28).
᾿Ιωάννην, John. See above on verse 12.
CHAPTER XIII.
Readings varying from the Test. recept.
1. τινες omitted with NABD. Unrepresented in Vulg.
4. αὐτοὶ for οὗτοι with NAB. Vulg. ‘ipsi.’
6. ὅλην added before τὴν νῆσον with NABCDE, Vulg. ‘universam
insulam.’
wis καὶ before ἀτενίσας omitted with NABCL. Not represented in
ulg.
15. εἴ τις ἔστιν ἐν υμῖν λόγος with NABC. Vulg. ‘si quis est in
vobis sermo.’
18. ἐτροφοφόρησεν for ἐτροποφόρησεν with ACE. Vulg. ‘mores
eorum sustinuit.’
19. αὐτοῖς omitted after κατεκληρονόμησεν with NBD. Vulg. has
‘eis.’
20. ὡς ἔτεσιν τετρακοσίοις καὶ πεντήκοντα. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα with
SABC. Supported by Vulg.
25. τί ἐμὲ for τίνα we with NAB. Vulg. ‘Quem me.’
33. τοῖς τέκνοις ἡμῶν with NABCD. Vulg. ‘filiis nostris.’
ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ Ψαλμῷ with D. Vulg. ‘in Psalmo secundo.’ But
see notes. :
40. ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς omitted with NBD. Vulg. ‘vobis.’
238 THE ACTS. [XTIT. 1—
42. ἐξιόντων δὲ αὐτῶν for ἐξιόντων δὲ ἐκ τῆς συναγωγῆς τῶν Ιουδαίων
with SABCDEI. Vulg. ‘exeuntibus autem illis.’
τὰ ἔθνη omitted with NACDI. Unrepresented in Vulg.
44. κυρίου for θεοῦ with NAB. Vulg. ‘Dei.’
50. καὶ before τὰς evox tpovas omitted with NABCD. Vudlg. ‘et.’
51. αὐτῶν omitted with NABC. Unrepresented in Vulg.
Cu. XIII. 1—12. Brarnnine or Savvr’s First Missionary JOURNEY.
He visits Cyprus.
1. ἦσαν δὲ ἐν ᾿Αντιοχείᾳ κατὰ τὴν οὖσαν ἐκκλησίαν, now there
were at Antioch in the Church which was there.
We now come to the history of those three great journeys which the
Apostle of the Gentiles undertook in his special work. It is fitting that
the point of departure should be Antioch, the city in which Gentiles
had first in large numbers been joined to the Church, and where as
yet ay had risen no difficulty about the way in which they were
received,
προφῆται καὶ διδάσκαλοι, prophets and teachers. Cf. ii. 17. The
words of Joel were now to receive a wider fulfilment.
We see from the ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,’ chap. xiii. that
these two classes of instructors became recognized i in the Church. πᾶς
δὲ προφήτης ἀληθινός, θέλων καθῆσαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ἄξιός ἐστι τῆς “τροφῆς
αὐτοῦ, ὡς αὔτως διδάσκαλος ἀληθινός ἐστιν ἄξιος καὶ αὐτός, ὥσπερ ὁ
ἐργάτης, τῆς τροφῆς αὐτοῦ.
Συμεὼν ὁ καλούμενος Niyep, Simeon that was called Niger. The first
name points out the man as of Jewish origin, and the second is a
Latin adjective= black, which may have been assumed, or given to
him, as a name from his dark complexion. Jews were, and are still,
in the habit of having another name beside their national one, for use
when they mixed among foreign nations.
Λούκιος ὁ Κυρηναῖος, Lucius of Cyrene. This name is Latin,
though his birthplace or home may indicate that he was one of the
Jews who abounded in Cyrene and other parts of northern Africa.
Perhaps he is the person mentioned Rom. xvi. 21.
Mavany, Manaen, i.e. Menahem. The name is Jewish, andis found
in Josephus (Ant. xv. 10. 5) as the name of an Essene who foretold
that Herod the Great would become king. It may well be that the
name became, when the prophecy had received its fulfilment, a
favourite one among those who were attached to or favoured the
rulers of the Herodian family.
᾿Ἡρώϑου τοῦ tetpdpxov σύντροφος, the foster-brother of Herod the
tetrarch. The Vulg. gives ‘collectaneus.’ Herod the tetrarch (Antipas)
had a brother Archelaus by the same mother. Manaen would hardly;
be said to have ‘been brought up with’ (as A.V.) one brother and not
with the other,
XIII. 3.] NOTES. — 239
The various connections and nationalities of the men who are here
named are worthy to be noticed when we reflect on the work which
was to have its beginning from Antioch. One a Cypriote, another a
Cyrenian, another a Jew, but from his double name accustomed to
mix among non-Jews, one a connection of the Idumean house of
Herod, and Saul, the heaven-appointed Apostle of the Gentiles,—the
list may be deemed in some sort typical of ‘all the world,’ into which
the Gospel was now to go forth.
2. λειτουργούντων δὲ αὐτῶν τῷ κυρίῳ, and as they ministered to
the Lord. The verb λειτουργέω is the one usually employed by the
LXX. for the ministerial services in the Temple, as it is also Heb. x.
11, but the parallelism with the next verse, where the service here
mentioned is described as ‘fasting and prayer,’ shews us that we are
not to attach the former strict signification to it. Such has been the
mind of the Church also, for from this verb comes our word ‘ Liturgy.’
The old order is giving place to the new, and the terminology is
receiving 2 new sense.
καὶ νηστευόντων, and fasted, i.e. as a solemn act of devotion in the
prospect of the work which was before them.
εἶπεν TO πνεῦμα τ. ἅ., the Holy Ghost said, speaking to and through
the prophets who were there.
ἀφορίσατε δή μοι K.T.A., separate me Barnabas and Saul. Saul had
from the first been a ‘vessel of election,’ and so specially severed for
this work, and we can see why Barnabas, who had been the first to
introduce Saul to the Church at Jerusalem, and whose education may
have been very like his own, (for there was much inter-communication
between Cyprus and Tarsus,) was appointed to be the sharer of Saul’s
labours. Ξ
The verb ἀφορίζω is used in the LXX. (Numb. viii. 11) of the sepa-
ration of the Levites for God’s service, and (Exod. xiii. 12) of living
things specially devoted to the Lord.
εἰς τὸ ἔργον K.T.A., for the work whereunto I have called them. As
the one portion of this admonition was from the Holy Ghost, we may
perhaps be warranted in concluding that the whole course of this first
great missionary journey was pointed out also by the Spirit. There
is no notice of a deliberation in the Church about the best way for
the Apostles to set forth.
ὃ προσκέκλημαι. It is usual in Greek not to repeat with the rela-
tive the preposition which stands before the antecedent. Cf. Luke xii.
46, ἥξει ὁ κύριος τοῦ δούλου ἐκείνου ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἣ οὐ προσδοκᾷ.
The middle force of προσκέκλημαι though not possible to be repre-
sented in a translation should not be lost sight of. The Holy Ghost
says ‘I have called them for myselj.’
3. τότενηστεύσαντες. This verse indicates that there was a solemn
dedication service at the end of the ministration and fasting with
which the devotions of the Church had commenced.
240 THE ACTS. [ XIII. 4—
4. ἐκπεμφθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, sent forth by the Holy
Ghost. This repetition marks the solemn character which St Luke and
also his informant attached to this new form which the Christian work
was taking. }
εἰς Σελεύκειαν, wnto Seleucia, which was the seaport of Antioch at
the mouth of the river Orontes.
ἀπέπλευσαν εἰς Κύπρον, they sailed to Cyprus. Probably, if not
specially directed, the missionary Apostles were induced to take this
route because Cyprus was the birthplace of one of them, and there
were in the island already many Jews resident, and also some Cypriote
Christians (xi. 20), who perhaps had been in Jerusalem at the feast of
Pentecost among the various nationalities then assembled, and who
had, when driven away by persecution, turned their steps homeward
and preached Jesus to their fellow countrymen (xi. 19).
5. γενόμενοι ἐν Σαλαμῖνι, when they were at Salamis. Salamis was
the nearest port of Cyprus for voyagers from Seleucia, Τὺ is at the
eastern end of the island in the bay which is now called Famagousta,
ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, in the synagogues of the Jews,
who were in sufficient numbers in Salamis to need several synagogues.
εἶχον δὲ καὶ ᾿Ιωάννην ὑπηρέτην, and they had also John as their
minister. This is John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas (see on xii. 12).
His office may have been to baptize, from which service the Apostles
seem to have refrained where it was possible (see above on x. 48). But
there is perhaps also implied in the word ὑπηρέτης some degree of
the same service which in old times Elisha rendered to Elijah (2 Kings
iii.11). The same Greek word is used for the minister in a synagogue
(Luke iv. 20).
6. διελθόντες δὲ ὅλην τὴν νῆσον ἄχρι ΤΙάφου, and when they had
gone through the whole island unto Paphos. Probably teaching at other
places in the same way as they had done in Salamis. Paphos was the
capital of Cyprus, and therefore the residence of the Roman governor.
It was the more modern city, not the old city of Paphos, to which Paul
and Barnabas came. See Dictionary of the Bible.
εὗρον ἄνδρα τινὰ μάγον ψευδοπροφήτην ᾿Ιουδαῖον, they found a cer-
tain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew. That there were living
among the Jews persons well known as pretenders to magic powers we
can see from a story told T.B. Berakhoth 59 a, of a certain Rab
Katina who, in his walk, as he was passing the door of one who was
known as a professor of witchcraft and magic arts, felt a slight shock
of an earthquake. He thereupon called out and asked ‘Does this
wizard diviner know what that shock is?’ Upon this the man cried
with a sanctimonious promptness worthy of his profession, ‘In the
hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, remembers His children who
dwell in sorrow among the nations of the world, He lets fall two tears
into the great sea, and that is the cause of the tremor of the earth.’
Chaldean astrologers and impostors are mentioned by Juvenal (vt.
562, χιν. 248) and Horace (Sat. 1. 2. 1) and by many other Latin
| The Eustem Meditereanran & adjacent Lanils
| ἃ ᾿ JUUSTRATING THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY
. [Reenter | APOSTLE PAUL.
= τ ———— -τοοι
τὸν ἂς 606 7 3 bz Tastifrum τὸ Oevetwich ite εἰ
English Miles Cambridge University Press
ἘΠῚ 9.) | NOTES. 241
writers, and these were probably Babylonian Jews. So also Lucian,
Necromantia, where a wonderful story is told of a magician named
Mithrobarzanes. Also Lucian, Philopseudes, where one of the wonder-
workers is called ‘A Syrian from Palestine.’
Βαρϊησοῦς, Bar-Jesus. This was his Jewish name. The Arabic
name or title, Hlymas=wise, was a self-assumed designation; and for
that reason he is called ‘Magus’ =the magician, a name originally
applied to the Persian priests, who were deemed the wise men of the
realm both in policy and religion, though their title in after times was
degraded to baser arts and persons.
7. ὃς ἦν σὺν τῷ ἀνθυπάτῳ Lepylw Παύλῳ, which was with the pro-
consul Sergius Paulus. Under Augustus the Roman provinces were
divided into two classes, one class of which (needing the presence of
troops for their government, and the possession of which gave the em-
peror the control of the army) was called imperatorial, while the others
were called senatorial provinces. The former were governed by an
officer named propraetor, the latter by a proconsul. We know from
Dio Cassius (n111. 12) that Cyprus was originally an imperatorial pro-
vince, and therefore under a propretor. This also Strabo confirms
(xiv. 685), but says that Augustus made it over to the people along
with Cyprus and part of Galatia, and took instead of these Dalmatia
for one of his provinces, so that the government was at St Paul’s
visit held by a proconsul for the Roman senate, as is here recorded;
and ie is another instance of the historic faithfulness of St Luke’s
record.
Of Sergius Paulus we know nothing, but the opportunities now
aiforded, by the English occupation of Cyprus, for the investigation of
the antiquities of the island, may lead to some discovery of his name
and office in coin or description.
ἀνδρὶ συνετῷ, a prudent man. The presence of such a man as
Klymas among his staff shews that the proconsul was a man of inquir-
ing mind, and the same characteristic is displayed by his desire to hear
Barnabas and Saul,
8. ἵητών διαστρέψαι τὸν ἀνθύπατον ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως, seeking to turn
aside the proconsul from the faith. Sergius had not yet accepted the
doctrine of the Apostles, though we may presume that both he and
Elymas had heard much about their teaching since their landing at
Salamis. Report going before had roused the proconsul’s curiosity
and the magician’s fear, and the wish of the latter was to divert the
attention of Sergius, that he might | not send for the new teachers.
On this Chrysostom has: ὅρα τοῦτον, ὅτε μὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐκήρυττον οὐ
σφόδρα ἀγανακτοῦντα, ἐπείδη δὲ τῷ ἀνθυπάτῳ προσίεσαν τότε. τὸ δὲ
θαυμαστὸν τοῦ ἀνθυπάτου, ὅτι καὶ προκατειλημμένος τῇ μαγείᾳ ἐκείνου
ἤθελεν ἀκοῦσαι τῶν ἀποστόλων.
9. Σαῦλος δέ, ὁ καὶ ΙΤαῦλος, but Saul, who also is called Paul. In
spite of Hlymas, the proconsul had been determined in his purpose,
and Saul had come before him. At this point we first meet the name
by which the great Apostle is best known throughout the Christian
THE ACTS τό
242 THE ACT'S. [ XIII. 9—
Church, and many reasons have been given why he assumed this name,
and why at this time. Some have thought that the name was adopted
from the proconsul’s, his first convert of distinction, but this is utterly
alien to all we know of the character of St Paul, with his sole glory in
the cross of Christ. Far more likely is he to have been attracted to it,
if it were not his before, by the meaning of the Latin word (paullus =
little, see Ter. And. 1. 5. 31; Adelph. 5. 4. 22), and its fitness to be
the name of him who called himself the least of the Apostles.
But perhaps he did only what other Jews were in the habit of
doing when they went into foreign lands, and chose him a name of
some significance (for the Jews were fond of names with a meaning)
among those with whom he was about to mix. Dean Howson (Life
and Letters of St Paul, 1. p. 164) compares Joses—Jason; Hillel
—Iulus, and probably the similarity of sound did often guide the
choice of such a name, and it may have been so with the Apostle’s
selection. St Luke, recognizing that the history of St Paul is now to
be his chief theme and that the work for which that Apostle was sepa-
rated was now begun, names him henceforth only by the name which
became most current in the Churches.
The article 6 before καὶ belongs to the understood καλούμενος, and is
not to be considered a substitute for the relative.
πλησθεὶς πνεύματος ἁγίου, filled with the Holy Ghost. So we learn
that the punishment inflicted on Elymas was dictated to the Apostle
by the Spirit, and that he knew, from the inward prompting thereof,
what would be the result to the offender.
ἀτενίσας εἰς αὐτὸν εἶπεν, fastened his eyes on him and said. For
Elymas was standing by, ready to catch at anything which he could
turn to the discredit of the Apostles. This is meant by St Paul’s
rebuke of him, as διαστρέφων τὰς ὁδοὺς κυρίου Tas εὐθείας.
10. ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης, enemy of all righteousness. We may
judge from this expression that St Paul recognised an earnest zeal for
truth in the inquiries of the proconsul, and that his wrath against Elymas
was not only because of what he did at the time, but for the tendency
of all his teachings. He had led astray for a long time one who was
desirous to understand the ways of the Lord. That there were such
anxious inquirers among the Greeks and Romans we can see from the
case of Cornelius and his friends. These were sure to seek to Jews
for guidance, and in Elymas and such as he they found false guides.
11. χεὶρ κυρίου, the hand of the Lord, i.e. of that Jehovah whose
ways Elymas had perverted, for it could only have been after the Jew-
ish faith that Sergius Paulus had made his inquiries of Elymas, who
instead of teaching him to know the Lord, seduced him by his own
pretensions.
For the expression cf. LXX. Exod. ix. 3, ἰδοὺ yelp κυρίου ἐπέσται ἐν
τοῖς κτήνεσί σου, and 1 Sam. xii, 15, καὶ ἔσται χεὶρ κυρίου ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς.
τυφλὸς μὴ βλέπων, blind, not seeing. As the infliction is still in the
future, and so only a conception ia the mind of St Paul, however
firmly settled, it is reasonable to use the subjective negative μὴ. Cf.
XIII. 13.] NOTES. 243
for an exactly similar expression Luke i. 20, σιωπῶν καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος
λαλῆσαι.
ἄχρι καιροῦ, for a season. The punishment inflicted on Elymas is
lighter than that of Ananias and Sapphira, because in their case the
hypocrisy of their conduct would have brought ruin to the Church, if it
had not been severely punished, and their sin was against greater light
and gifts of grace than had been bestowed on the magician of Cyprus.
ἀχλὺς καὶ σκότος, a mist and a darkness, There is a gradation in
the words which implies that the withdrawal of his sight was somewhat
_ gradual. At first the eyes began to cloud over, and as the film increased
upon them he became quite blind.
καὶ περιάγων ἐζήτει χειραγωγούς, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand.
περιάγειν =to lead about, is also used in N.T. in the intransitive sense,
‘to go about,’ cf. Mark vi. 6, καὶ περιῆγεν τὰς κώμας κύκλῳ διδάσκων.
χειραγωγός is rare, and only herein N.T. The verb is found in the
LXX. (some texts) Judges xvi. 26.
As Elymas perceives the darkness closing in upon him he turns in
the direction where he had last noticed some friend, and endeavours to
get a guide. For such a man would wish to shew as little as possible
how exactly the Apostle’s words had come to pass.
12. τότε ἰδὼν ὁ ἀνθύπατος κιτιλ., then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed. He was convinced by the miracle and by the
words with which it was accompanied that the Apostles were teachers
of that way of the Lord after which he had been seeking in vain from
Elymas. We are not told that Sergius was baptized, but we have other
instances of the like omission of notice (see verse 48), yet as baptism
was the appointed door into Christ’s Church, such omission of the
mention thereof should not be thought to warrant us in believing that
the sacrament was neglected on any occasion.
13—15. Tuer AposTLzes visit PAMPHYLIA AND Pisip1aA. JoHN Marx
RETURNS TO JERUSALEM.
13. ἀναχθέντες δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Πάφου, now having sailed from Paphos.
Their course would be N.W. to reach the south coast of Asia Minor.
On the prompt departure from Paphos, Chrysostom says: ὅρα καὶ
αὐτοὺς οὐκ éyxpovifovras αὐτόθι ἅτε τοῦ ἀνθυπάτου λοιπὸν πιστεύσαντος
οὐδὲ μαλακισθέντας τῇ κολακείᾳ καὶ τῇ τιμῇ, ἀλλ᾽ εὐθέως τοῦ ἔργου
ἐχομένους καὶ τὴν ἀντίπεραν χώραν ὁρμῶντας.
οἱ περὶ ΤΓαῦλον, Paul and his company. Literally ‘those around
Paul.’ Henceforth the Apostle of the Gentiles is made the central
figure of nearly every scene in the Acts.
ἦλθον εἰς ἸΤέργην τῆς Παμφυλίας, they came to Perga in Pamphylia.
Pamphylia was about the middle part of the southern seaboard of Asia
Minor, and Perga was its capital. We are not told of any missionary
labours in Perga at this time, either because there was no opening for
their commencement, or it may be that the Apostles were troubled at
} : τ ὦ
244 THE ACTS. (XIII. 13—
the departure of Mark. They did preach in Perga on their return
visit (xiv. 25).
᾿Ιωάννης δὲ κιτ.λ., and John departing from them returned to Jeru-
salem. har is no reason given for his departure either here or else-
where, but the cause assigned had clearly not been one which satisfied
St Paul (xv. 88). John Mark, most probably the same person as the
writer of the second Gospel, afterwards was an earnest labourer for
Christ, and St Paul (Col. iv. 10) speaks of him with affection. If St
Luke knew the cause of his present withdrawal, the remembrance of
his subsequent zeal sealed his lips on the subject. Cf. x. 48 note.
14, αὐτοὶ St διελθόντες ἀπὸ τῆς Πέργης, but they having passed
through from Perga. διέρχομαι is a very correct expression and should
be precisely rendered. The direction in which they went obliged them
to cross a whole district. See below.
εἰς ᾿Αντιόχειαν τὴν Πισίδιαν, to Antioch in Pisidia. Pisidia lay
inland to the N. of Pamphylia, and Antioch was at its extreme
northern point.
Dean Howson (Life and Epistles of St Paul, 1. 175) suggests that
it was perhaps in this journey that St Paul and his companion were
exposed to those ‘perils of robbers’ of which he speaks 2 Cor. xi. 26.
Pisidia was a mountainous district rising gradually towards the north,
and the quotations given by Dr Howson from Xenophon and Strabo
shew that there was a great deal of brigand-like life even in these
times, from which Paul and his company may have been in danger.
els τὴν συναγωγήν, into the synagogue. Though he is the Apostle
of the Gentiles, it is always to the synagogue that St Paul first makes
his way. The Law of Moses ought to be a better schoolmaster to bring
men to Christ than the law of nature.
15. μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν, and after
the reading of the Law and the Prophets. Which was a prominent por-
tion of the synagogue-service. For the better understanding of what
was here done, and also at the time when our Lord ‘stood up for to
read’ in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke iv. 15) it seems worth while
to give in detail an account of the manner in which the Scriptures are
read in the Jewish synagogues. For this see the Excursus at the end
of this chapter.
ἀπέστειλαν οἱ ἀρχισυνάγωγοι πρὸς αὐτούς, the rulers of the syna-
gogue sent unto them. These were the persons who had the control of
the arrangements for calling up readers and preachers.
εἴ τις ἔστιν ἐν ὑμῖν λόγος παρακλήσεως, if ye have any word of exhor-
tation, The sense of λόγος παρακλήσεως is well seen from Heb. xiii. 22,
where the writer calls his whole epistle by that name. λόγοι παρα-
κλήσεως are spoken of 1 Macc. x. 24, where the A.V. renders ‘words of
encouragement,’ while a similar expression, ἡ ἐν τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς λόγοις
παράκλησις (2 Mace. xv. 11), is rendered ‘comfortable and good words,’
XIII. 19.] NOTES. 245
16—41. Pavu’s Spercu at ANTIOCH.
16. κατασείσας τῇ χειρί, beckoning with his hand. Cf. xii. 17,
where it is explained that the gesture was for the purpose of procuring
silence.
ἄνδρες ᾿Ισραηλῖται kal ot φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν, men of Israel and ye
that fear God. The audience consisted of born Jews and proselytes
as well as perhaps some Gentiles. (See verses 42 and 43.) When the
audience and the subject and the end aimed at were so entirely in accord
on all three occasions we cannot be surprised that the address of St
Paul at Antioch partakes largely of the character, and also of the lan-
guage, of those of St Peter at Pentecost and St Stephen in his defence.
St Paul had heard the last of these, and the vision on the way to
Damascus had taught him to speak with boldness on the truth of the
Resurrection.
17. ὁθεὸς... τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν, the God of this people of Israel chose
our fathers. He commends his words to their hearing by dwelling on
the historic facts of their national life as God’s chosen people. In that
history the LXX. continually represents God’s choice of Israel by this
word ἐξελέξατο. Cf. Deut. vil. 7, xiv. 2; Ps. xxxiii. 12, lxxvii. 70, &c.
ἐν τῇ παροικίᾳ, when they dwelt as strangers. The expression
occurs Wisdom xix. 10, ἐμέμνηντο yap ἔτι τῶν ἐν τῇ παροικίᾳ αὐτῶν,
where the allusion is to the sojourn in Egypt. In the LXX. of
Ezra it is also found (vili. 35), of υἱοὶ τῆς παροικίας, of those who were
in Babylon.
18. ἐτροφοφόρησεν αὐτούς, He bare them as a nursing father. This
is the expression in Deut. i. 31, where the LXX. have rendered, καὶ ἐν
TH ἐρήμῳ ταύτῃ... ὡς τροφοφορήσει σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου ὡς εἴ τις τροφοφο-
ρήσαι ἄνθρωπος τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ. The allusion of St Paul is so clearly to
this passage that there can be no hesitation about the choice of read-
ing. ἐτροποφόρησεν is well supported by MS. authority, and is repre-
sented in the A.V., and in the text of the Revised Version, ‘he
suffered their manners.’ But for this reading, true as it is to the facts,
there is no such close parallel to be found in the books of Moses, while
the other is equally true to fact; much more beautiful, and borne out
by the words of the LXX., with which we can have no doubt that St
Paul was very familiar.
19. ἔθνη ἑπτά, seven nations. They are enumerated (Deut. vii. 1)
before the people went over Jordan, viz. the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites.
κατεκληρονόμησεν τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν ὡς ἔτεσιν κιτιλ., he gave their
land for an heritage about the space of four hundred and fifty years.
According to the received chronology there was about this length of
time between the call of Abraham and the death of Joshua. So that
the land is regarded as a κληρονομία from that early time. But it is
dangerous to found any conclusions on chronology based, as the O.T.
chronology must be, on such insufficient data,
246 THE ACTS. (XIII. 19—
kal μετὰ ταῦτα ἔδωκεν κριτὰς ἕως Σαμουὴλ προφήτου, and after
these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. On Samuel
as the prophet above all others cf. iii. 24, note.
21. καἀκεῖθεν, and after that. The word indicates from that
point in their history where Samuel appears they began to clamour
for a king, and thus the local becomes a temporal meaning in the
adverb.
τὸν Σαοὺλ υἱὸν Kels, ἄνδρα ἐκ φυλῆς Beviapely, Saul the son of Kish,
a man of the tribe of Benjamin. And to the speaker himself some
part of this description applied, for he also was of the tribe o
Benjamin. .
The forty years’ duration of Saul’s reign is only to be gathered in-
directly from Holy Writ, but Josephus (Ant. v1. 14. 9) expressly states
that time as the length of his reign, and as Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, whom
Abner set on the throne after his father’s death was forty years old
when he began to reign (2 Sam, ii. 10), we may conclude that the
length assigned in the text is correct.
22. εὗρον Aaveld κιτιλ., I have found David, ἄς. This sentence is
a combination and adaptation from two separate verses out of the
O. Test. (1) ‘I have found David my servant,’ Ps. lxxxix. 20; (2)
‘The Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart, and the Lord
hath commanded him to be captain over His people,’ 1 Sam. xiii. 14.
23. τούτου ὁ θεὸς... κατ᾽ ἐπαγγελίαν ἤγαγεν.. ᾿Τησοῦν, from this
man’s seed hath God according to promise brought unto Israel a
Saviour Jesus. The promise alluded to here is preserved for us in
Ps. exxxii. 11 ‘Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat,’
and in many other similar declarations in the prophets. Cf. Zech.
iii. 8, 9
24. πρὸ προσώπου is only the rendering of the Hebrew pb =at
the face of, and means no more than πρό, and the A.V. has rightly
rendered it only by before.
βάπτισμα μετανοίας, the baptism of repentance, i.e. baptism which
ae = be an outward sign of an inner change of life and mind, Cf.
ark i. 4.
25. τί ἐμὲ ὑπονοεῖτε εἶναι, what think ye that I am? For John’s
words see Matth, iii. 11; Mark i. 7; Luke iii. 16; John i. 20, 27.
26. οἱ ἐν ὑμῖν φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν. Cf. above on verse 16.
ὑμῖν ὁ Adyos...€Earerrddn, to you was the word of this salvation sent
forth. Some of the oldest authorities read ἡμῖν here, and for the
Apostle to say ‘to us’ is quite in accord with the language of yerse 17,
‘God chose our fathers.’ Through the whole address he avoids, as far
as may be, wounding any Jewish prejudice, and so classes himself with
his hearers where the subject allows him to do so.
In λόγος σωτηρίας the reference is to the σωτήρ mentioned in verse
i so that the meaning is ‘the message of the work of Jesus as
saviour,’
XIII. 32.] NOTES. 247
There appears to be a reference in the aorist ἐξαπεστάλη to the first
announcement of the message of salvation.
27. τοῦτον ἀγνοήσαντες, because they knew Him not. Cf. the very
similar language of St Peter at the Temple (iii. 17), ‘I wot that
through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers,’ and see note
there.
28. καὶ μηδεμίαν αἰτίαν θανάτου εὑρόντες, and though they found
no cause of death in Him. These words are part of the declaration of
Pilate (Luke xxiii. 22).
29. πάντα τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ γεγραμμένα, all the things which have
been written of Him. Various prophecies received their fulfilment in
Christ’s sufferings, some in the betrayal, others in harsh treatment,
and agony which preceded His death, the greatest of them all.
30. ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἤγειρεν αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν, but God raised Him from
the dead. This was the proof that God had now fulfilled the promise
made unto Abraham and to David, that of their seed should one come,
in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, even as St
Paul says below, by being justified from all things, from which they
could not be justified by the law of Moses. And elsewhere (Rom. i.
4) the Apostle says that Jesus ‘ was declared to be the Son of God with
power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the
dead.’
31. ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, from Galilee. The Apostles, and the
main body of Christ’s followers, were drawn from Galilee, in so much
that, before the Crucifixion, Galileaans was a name by which they were
known (Mark xiv. 70).
οἵτινες viv εἰσὶν μάρτυρες αὐτοῦ, who now are His witnesses. St
Paul has not mentioned the Ascension of Jesus, but when he says that
now men are His witnesses, it is implied that Christ was no longer on
earth for men to see Him. The Apostle also thus marks out what
was the especial work of those who had companied with Jesus during
His life.
32. Kal ἡμεῖς ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελιζόμεθα, and we declare unto you glad
tidings. While the companions of Jesus are to be His witnesses, we
are His Evangelists, the bringers of the good news of His salvation.
τὴν... ἐπαγγελίαν ..., of the promise which was made unto the fathers.
Thus ἐπαγγελίαν becomes the direct object of the verb εὐαγγελιζό-
μεθα.
33. ὅτι ταύτην & θεὸς ἐκπεπλήρωκεν. Render, how that God hath
completely fuljilled this. The telat tidings’ are about the promise, and
the precise message which is the cause for gladness is contained in the
announcement that the promise has been fulfilled, and the strengthened
form of the verb (ἐκπεπλήρωκεν) marks the completeness of this fulfil-
ment.
τοῖς τέκνοις ἡμῶν, unto our children. This well-supported reading
certainly merits Tischendorf’s remark, ‘insolenter illud quidem dictum
est.’ We should naturally expect what the Text. recept. has given, ‘to
248 THE ACTS. (XIII. 32—
us their children.’ But when the complete force of the preceding
verb is taken into account, the sentence may be explained. The
promise was made to Abraham, and generation after generation was
born and passed away, having received the promises only by faith.
Even the generation contemporary with Jesus was not born to the
complete fulfilment, but now after Christ’s resurrection Christians
may say ‘for our children’ the promises are utterly fulfilled.
ἀναστήσας Ἰησοῦν, in that He hath raised up Jesus again, 1.6. from
the dead. This is necessary to the Apostle’s argument, which is on
the resurrection of Jesus as a proof that He was the Messiah. The
quotation which follows need not refer alone to the birth of Jesus into
this world. He was also the first-begotten from the dead, the first-
fruits of them that slept.
ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ arpa, in the first Psalm. What we now call the
first and second Psalms were originally joined into one, which will
account for what is now Ps. ii. 7 being named as in the text. Justin
Martyr (Apol. τ. 40) treats the whole from μακάριος ἀνήρ (‘ Blessed is
the man’ &c.) to μακάριοι πάντες οἱ πεποιθότες ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν (the close of the
present second Psalm) as all one composition and on one subject. So
Tertullian (Adv. Mare. tv. 22) writes ‘in primo psalmo, ‘‘filius meus
es tu, hodie genui te.”’’
84. οὕτως εἴρηκεν, He [i.e. God] hath spoken on this wise. The
quotation is from Is. ly. 3.
ϑώσω ὑμῖν τὰ ὅσια Δαευὶδ τὰ πιστά, I will give you the sure
(faithful) mercies of David. τὰ ὅσια is often used by the LXX. to repre-
sent the Hebrew word for ‘mercies’ as here. St Paul speaking to the
people of Antioch no doubt used the Greek version, though he would
carry the Hebrew thought along with him. But having τὰ ὅσια as the
explanation of the ‘everlasting covenant’ of which Isaiah is speaking,
St Paul at once connects τὰ ὅσια with the τὸν ὅσιον of Ps. xvi. 10,
where it is said God will not give His Holy One to see corruption.
35. διότι καὶ ἐν ἑτέρῳ λέγει, because He saith also in another place.
These words of Ps. xvi., which David was inspired to utter, cannot
refer to David himself, and this St Paul now proceeds to shew. Cf.
on the whole passage ii. 2931 notes.
36. Δανεὶδ μὲν γὰρ... ἐκοιμήθη, for David, after he had served his
own generation by the counsel of God, fell on sleep. There are several
other constructions possible in this verse. Thus βουλῇ might be taken
as dependent on vrnperjcas, ‘after that in his own generation he had
served the counsel of God, fell asleep.’ Or βουλῇ might be taken after
ἐκοιμήθη, ‘he fell asleep by the counsel of God.’ But the A.V. seems
preferable. For it must be borne in mind that the contrast which
most aids the Apostle’s argument is that, while David’s services could
benefit only those among whom he lived, and could not be extended
to other generations, Christ by His Resurrection, never more to die
and see corruption, is a Saviour for all generations, and remission of
sins through Him can be promised to every one that believeth.
XIII. 43. NOTES. 249
38. ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν, forgiveness of sins. Just as Jesus in His life-
time on earth declared that His miracles were only signs that ‘the
Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,’ so the Apostles
preach concerning the Resurrection. Cf, x. 43, the conclusion of St
Peter’s speech in the house of Cornelius.
39. ἀπὸ πάντων ὦν, from all things from which. On the non-
repetition of a preposition before the relative when it precedes the
antecedent, see note above on verse 2.
40. μὴ ἐπέλθῃ, lest there come about, viz. a moral and spiritual
overthrow as great as the destruction which the Chaldeans and
Nebuchadnezzar wrought upon the land and people at the time of the
Babylonish captivity, to which the prophecy (Hab. i. 5) quoted in the
next verse refers,
41. ἴδετε, οἱ καταφρονηταί, behold, ye despisers. This the render-
ing of the LXX. and of some other versions. The Hebrew text gives,
as A.V., ‘Behold, ye among the heathen.’ The LXX. either had, or
thought they had, a different text.
ἔργον ὃ ov μὴ πιστεύσητε, a work which ye shall in no wise believe.
It is the result of long-continued evil-doing that those who live in it
grow incredulous and proof against all warnings. Their hearts are
allowed to wax gross and their ears to become dull of hearing.
42. 52, FurtTHerR PREACHING BOTH TO JEWS AND GENTILES. JEALOUSY
OF THE JEWS, AND EXPULSION OF THE APOSTLES FROM ANTIOCH.
42. ἐξιόντων δὲ αὐτῶν, παρεκάλουν, and as they were going out, they
besought. The congregation had been in the synagogue where we may
presume that only Jews and proselytes were assembled. We do not
read of Gentiles among the throng of listeners until the next sabbath.
The ra ἔθνη of the Text. recept. makes the verse unintelligible.
εἰς τὸ μεταξὺ σάββατον. In 44 we have the expression τῷ δὲ épyo-
μένῳ σαββάτῳ, and some thinking a difference of meaning intended
would render here ‘during the intervening week.’ This does not
seem needed, but as is pointed out in the Excursus on ver. 15 the
Jewish congregations had a portion of the Law read in the synagogues
not only on the Sabbath, but on the Monday and on. the Thursday
mornings, that they might not be for three days without hearing the
Scripture. The peculiar expression in this verse may apply to the
meetings in the synagogue on those days, when the people desired
to hear once more the message which St Paul had just preached
to them,
τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα. Render, these tidings, to mark that the word is
not λύγος. Cf. x. 37.
43. τῶν σεβομένων προσηλύτων, of devout proselytes. This name
may have been used to distinguish those proselytes who conformed
entirely to Judaism from the proselytes of the gate,
250 THE ACTS. [ XIII. 43—
ἔπειθον αὐτοὺς προσμένειν τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ, persuaded them to
continue in the grace of God, as Barnabas in like circumstances had
urged on the converts at Antioch in Syria (xi. 23). Here, though
we have no mention of actual converts, the Apostles must have had
regard to the ‘purpose of their hearts’ when they spake to these in-
quirers as though they were already ‘in the grace of God.’
44. σχεδὸν πᾶσα ἡ πόλις, almost the whole city. Shewing that the
Apostles must have been labouring diligently, both among Jews and
heathen during the intervening days.
45. ἐπλήσθησαν ζήλου, they were filled with jealousy. That spirit
of exclusion, which was so engrafted in the Jewish race, asserted itself
as soon as they saw the Gentiles gathered to hear the Apostles. The
teaching of men who would admit all mankind to the same privileges
was abhorrent to them. For themselves and for proselytes they could
accept a message as God-sent, and tolerate some modifications in their
teaching and practice, but they could not endure that the Gentiles
should be made equal with God’s ancient people.
ἀντιλέγοντες Kal βλασφημοῦντες, contradicting and blaspheming.
Cf. the singular conduct of the Jews at Corinth under like circum-
stances (xviii. 6). There is considerable authority for omitting ἀντιλέ-
Ὕοντες καὶ here. It may be that they fell out because of the previous
ἀντέλεγον in the verse. The sense seems better conveyed by their
retention. They contradicted and, in doing so, became blasphemers.
46. ὑμῖν ἦν ἀναγκαῖον κιτ.λ., it was necessary that the word of
God should first have been spoken to you. That, as Christ came first
unto His own, so His messengers should declare their glad tidings
first unto Jews, but if they received not the word, then it was to be
proclaimed to all who would receive it.
καὶ οὐκ ἀξίους κρίνετε ἑαυτούς, and adjudge yourselves unworthy, 1.6.
you pronounce a sentence upon yourselves by your actions. Cf. Matth.
xxii. 8, ‘They that were bidden’ to the marriage-supper were found in
this fashion to be unworthy. He who sent to call them had deemed
them worthy, but they made it clear they were not so by their refusal
to come.
47. οὕτως yap ἐντέταλται ἡμῖν ὁ κύριος, for thus hath the Lord
commanded us. The Lord’s command which the Apostle quotes is from
Isaiah xlix. 6, and it shews that from the prophetic times the reception
of the Gentiles was made manifest in the counsels of God. Whatever
application be made of the words of the Prophet (i.e. to whomsoever
the ‘ thee’ be referred) it is clear that, with the Jews, the Gentiles also
are to be recipients of the promised blessings. ;
48. Kal ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, and
as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. In the contro-
versies on predestination and election this sentence has constantly
been brought forward. But it is manifestly unfair to take a sentence
out of its context, and interpret it as if it stood alone. In ver. 46 we
are told that the Jews had adjudged themselves unworthy of eternal
life, and all that is meant by the words in this verse is the opposite of
XIII. 52.] NOTES. 251
that expression. The Jews were acting so as to proclaim themselves
unworthy; the Gentiles were making manifest their desire to be
deemed worthy. The two sections were like opposing troops, ranged
(τεταγμένοι Ξε marshalled) by themselves, and to some degree, though
not unalterably, looked upon as so arranged by God on different sides.
Thus the Gentiles were ordering themselves, and were ordered unto
eternal life. The text says no word to warrant us in thinking that
none could henceforth change sides. Nor is the rendering ‘ ordained’
necessarily an evidence of the Calvinistic bias of our translators. The
same rendering is found in other English versions and the Rhemish,
strange to say, is even stronger, having ‘pre-ordinate.’
50. τὰς σεβομένας γυναῖκας τὰς εὐσχήμονας, the devout women of
honourable estate. We read that in Damascus, and we may suppose
that it was likely to be the case in other large towns and cities in
which Jews abounded, the wives of the men in high position among
the heathen were much inclined to the Jewish religion (Josephus, B.J.
11. 20. 2). These would be easily moved by the Jews to take action
against the Apostles.
τοὺς πρώτους τῆς πόλεως, the chief men of the city, i.e. the heathen
magistrates. As the Jews in Jerusalem had appealed to Pilate and
the Roman power to carry out their wishes at the Crucifixion, so the
Jews in Antioch excite the heathen authorities against Paul and
Barnabas.
ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων, from their borders. The old English word ‘coasts’
(A.V.) did not mean only land bordering on the sea as now, but any
borderland.
Bl. οἱ δὲ ἐκτιναξάμενοι τὸν κονιορτὸν kK.T.A., but they having shaken
off the dust of their feet against them. This significant action, like
that of the ‘shaking of the raiment’ (xviii. 6), implied that those
against whom it was done were henceforth left to go their own way.
Cf. Matt. x. 14.
Ἰκόνιον, Iconium. A city in Pisidia to the east of Antioch. It is
still a large town, and preserves a trace of its old name, being now
called Konieh. See Dict. of the Bible.
52. οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐπληροῦντο χαρᾶς, and the disciples were filled
with joy. Rejoicing in accordance with the Lord’s exhortation (Matt.
y. 12) when men reviled and persecuted them, which was the very treat-
ment which they had received in Antioch.
καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου, and with the Holy Ghost. This inward presence
of the Comforter was the spring from which came the fulness of joy.
On this Chrysostom says, πάθος γὰρ διδασκάλου παρρησίαν οὐκ ἐγκόπτει
ἀλλὰ προθυμότερον ποιεῖ τὸν μαθητήν.
252 THE ACTS [XIII
ON THE JEWISH MANNER OF READING THE
SCRIPTURES.
The Jewish division of the Scriptures is (1) the Law, i.e. the Five
Books of Moses. (2) The Prophets, under which title the Jews in-
clude Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, as well as Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets. (3) The Hagio-
grapha, containing Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon},
Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah,
and the two Books of Chronicles. The command which enjoins the
reading of the Pentateuch is found Deut. xxxi. 10, ‘At the end of
every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the Feast
of Tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy
God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this Law
before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men
and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that
they may hear.’
This appointment, which prescribes the reading of the whole Pen-
tateuch on the Feast of Tabernacles, was probably soon found to be
impracticable, and it is not unlikely that from a very early time
the people arranged to read through the Pentateuch in seven years by
taking a small portion on every Sabbath, beginning with the Sabbath
after the Feast of Tabernacles in one year of release, and ending with
the Feast of Tabernacles in the next year of release. Thus would
they in some sort be fulfilling the commandment. That such an early
subdivision of the Pentateuch into small portions took place seems
likely from what we know of the later arrangements for the reading
of the Law. The existence of such a plan for reading would account
for some of the divisions which exist (otherwise unexplained) in various
copies of the Jewish Law.
For (1) we learn (T. B. Megillah, 29 Ὁ) that the Jews of Palestine
broke up the Pentateuch into sections for each Sabbath in such a
manner as to spread the reading thereof over three years (and a half?).
They arranged no doubt that the concluding portions of their second
reading should be on the Feast of Tabernacles in the year of release;
and they began again on the following Sabbath. In this way they read
through the whole Law twice in the seven years, and by concluding it on
the Feast of Tabernacles in the year of release observed the command-
ment”, and hereby may be accounted for some other of the unused
subdivisions of the copies of the Jewish Law.
1 The five small books, the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesi-
astes and Esther, are for Ὁ Sra ee ρα written each on a separate roll, and so
are named the five Megilloth (rolls) and are read respectively, The Song of
Solomon at the Feast of Passover, Ruth at Pentecost, Lamentations on the 9th
of Ab (the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple), Ecclesiastes on the
Feast of Tabernacles and Esther at Purim,
* This arrangement is still observed partially in the Jewish “Temple” at
Hamburg, founded in 1818, and there was a little while ago (see Jewish Chronicle,
Feb. 7, 1879) a movement on foot for introducing a similar arrangement in the
West London Synagogue of British Jews.
ἘΠῚ NOTES. 253
2. The Babylonian Jews in the 4th century after Christ, and pro-
bably much earlier, and all Jews down to this day have the Penta-
teuch so divided that it is read through once every year, such reading
beginning on the Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, and con-
cluding on the so-called last day of that Feast in the next year, the day
really being the day of ‘rejoicing in the Law’ (simkhath Torah). Thus
they bring their reading to an end in each year, and so of course in
the release-year, on the day appointed, and observe the command in
this manner.
This comparatively modern, though almost universally prevailing
arrangement, accounts for the present larger divisions of the Law for
reading, and these divisions have each of them its proper name. For
the whole Pentateuch has 54 weekly portions, one for each Sabbath.
No year however contains 54 Sabbaths, and beside this, some festivals
(or rather, holy convocations) may fall on the Sabbath, and when
that happens the Scripture appointed for the festival is read, and not
the appointed weekly portion in its sequence. In order that the
whole Law may still be read through on the Sabbaths, it is provided
that occasionally two weekly sections are combined and read on one
Sabbath},
These weekly sections of the Pentateuch (Parshioth) are each divided
into seven portions, and seven readers are called up from the congrega-
tion. These are to be (1) an Aaronite (and if such be in the congrega-
tion he may not be passed over), (2) a Levite, (3) five ordinary Israelites.
These must all be males and at least 13 years and one day old. Prac-
tically, in Europe at least, though these are still called up in the ecngre-
gations, they do not themselves read, but a reader is appointed to read
for them. There are congregations in which as a mark of honour
more-than seven are called up, but this is discountenanced by some
Rabbis as likely to lead to abuses.
When the reading of the Law in this manner is concluded the
seventh section or part thereof is repeated, and any person may be
asked to do this. Such reader is called Maphtir, i.e. the Haphtarist
(the person whose reading terminates the reading of the Law). With
this is connected the subsequent reading of the selected portions of
the Prophets.
In olden times the Haphtarist was also the person invited to be the
preacher, and this must have been the position occupied by St Paul at
Antioch, and by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth.
The sections of the Prophets selected for Sabbath reading and called
Haphtaroth have always some bearing upon the appointed portion of
the Law for that Sabbath, e.g. with the first section of Genesis (Gen.
i. 1—vi. 8), which contains the account of the Creation, there is ap-
pointed as the prophetical reading the passage (Isaiah xlii. 5—21),
which begins ‘Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens,’
&c. With the next section of the Law which contains the history of
Noah (Gen. vi. 8—xi. 32), the prophetical reading is Isaiah liv. 1—10,
1 Of course there will be less need for this arrangement in an intercalated
year, which will have four sabbaths extra.
254 THE ACTS. [X TIL
in which passage is found ‘This is as the waters of Noah unto me.’
The next section of the Law (Gen, xii. 1—xvii. 27) contains the his-
tory of Abraham, and the reading from the Prophets begins with
Isaiah xl. 27—xli. 16, and in the passage there occurs ‘Who raised up
the righteous man from the East, called him to his foot,’ &c., anda
like arrangement is observed throughout the year.
On the Sabbath afternoons the Jews in their synagogues read, to
three people, the first seventh of the portion of the Law which is set
apart for the following Sabbath, and they do the same on Monday
morning and on Thursday morning. So that during the week this
part is read four times over.
No prophetic portions are read along with this, but (ΤΠ, B. Shabbath,
116 b) in the old times, as early as the commencement of the 3rd
century, we find that on the Sabbath afternoons portions of the Hagio-
grapha were read along with this smaller section of the Law, and we
cannot doubt that the same principle would be observed in their
selection, and that passages similar in character to the selections from
the Pentateuch would be chosen in these cases also, though we have
no indication what they were.+
Festivals and Fasts had their own portions of the Pentateuch ap-
pointed, and therewith corresponding portions of the Prophets.
On quasi-festival Sabbaths the ordinary portions of the Law were
read, but besides this occasionally other additional portions of the Law
were chosen for the Haphtarist to read with reference to the festival,
and instead of the usual prophetical section appointed for these days,
such passages from the Prophets were chosen as bore on the nature
of the quasi-festival.
These quasi-festivals are
(1) Should the Sabbath be (a) the day before the New Moon, or (Ὁ)
the day coincident with the New Moon.
Partaking of the character of a quasi-festival there is also the so-
called ‘great Sabbath,’* which is the Sabbath that precedes the
Passover. On this day the portion of the Law to be read is
neither varied nor increased, but as in (1) the appointed Haph-
tarah is changed for one of a suitable character. The same sort
of change of the Haphtarah, but not of the portion of the Law
to be read, takes place for the Sabbath between New Year and
the Day of Atonement (1—10 of the month Tishri).
(2) The Maccabean festival of the Dedication, which as it lasted
for 8 days might include two Sabbaths.
(3) Four semi-festivals which are in one string,
a. The Sabbath preceding the New Moon of Adar, or coinci-
dent with that New Moon. This is called Shekalim(=the
shekels), and the special portion of the Law then additionally
read is Exod. xxx. 11—16.
* Thus would be accounted for many still unexplained divisions in the
τὰ pny
It may be mentioned that the name ‘great Sabbath’ is by the Italian Jews
applied also to the Sabbath preceding Puakesoak ᾿
XIII.) NOTES. 255
b. The Sabbath before Purim (the Haman-festival) called
Zacor=remember, for which the special additional portion
of the Law is Deut. xxv. 17—19.
c. The Red Heifer Sabbath. This is a moveable feast, but
must fall between (b) and (d). It is a preparation of Puri-
fication for Passover, and its special additional portion οἵ"
the Law is Num. xix.
d. . Ha-Khodesh=the month. The Sabbath preceding or co-
incident with the New Moon of Nisan, for which the special
portion of the Law is Exod. xii, 1—20.
(4) To the above six must be added two Sabbaths if they fall in the
middle holidays of the Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles, for
such Sabbaths are even of a higher dignity than the other quasi-
festivals.
(5) The three Sabbaths before the commemoration of the destruc-
tion of the city and Temple by Titus, and its previous destruction
by Nebuchadnezzar}. On these Sabbaths the portion of the Pen-
tateuch appointed for the day is retained, but prophetic portions
are selected which suit the circumstances. These are known as
the three Sabbaths [commemorative] of Punishment and Troubles.
(6) Besides these there are seven Sabbaths called ‘Sabbaths of Con-
solation,’ for which, in the same way, special prophetic passages
are read, which must all be chosen from the latter part of Isaiah
(chap. xl. and after), and in one of them probably occurred the
passage (Isaiah lxi. 1), read by Jesus in the synagogue at Naza-
reth?. For although at present the Haphtarah from that chapter
is marked to begin at verse 10, there are indications in some
MSS.? that the selected portion formerly commenced at an earlier
point, and this for coherence could hardly be elsewhere than at
verse 1. It seems probable that in post-Christian times the
verses read by our Lord have designedly been cut off from the
special prophetic passage. For although any charge against the
Jews of altering the words of Scripture on account of Christianity
must be dismissed as utterly unfounded, it is on the other hand
beyond question that they abolished the most ancient and hal-
lowed custom of reading the ten words during the morning prayers
daily, ‘because of the murmuring of the heretics’ (minin), and by
this word (minin) the Jews meant the earliest Judexo-Christians
(T. Β. Berakhoth 12 a) who, after Christ’s example in the Sermon
on the Mount, laid great stress on the Ten Commandments of the
Moral Law to the depreciation of ceremonial regulations,
1 Both these events are commemorated on-the same day (9th of Ab).
2 That there is no anachronism in supposing that these ‘Sabbaths of Consola-
tion’ were observed in our Lord’s time may be inferred from the strict way in which
the Jewish traditions always identify, in everything but time, the destruction of
the two temples by Nebuchadnezzar and by Titus, and the observances in con-
nexion therewith. And we take it as a further proof of the antiquity of this
observance that though there are slight variations in the ordinary Haphtaroth,
in the various Jewish rituals, those for the ‘Sabbaths of Consoiation’ are the
same in all.
3 See a South-Arabian (Yemen) Codex, Brit. Museum MSS. Oriental 1470.
256 THE ACTS. [xXIvi t=
CHAPTER XIV.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
3. καὶ before διδόντι omitted with ABDEP. Not represented in
Vulg.
8. ὑπάρχων omitted with NABCDE. Unrepresented in Vulg.
13. αὐτῶν after πόλεως omitted with NABCDE. Not represented
in Vulg.
14. ἐξεπήδησαν for εἰσεπήδησαν with NABCDE, Vulg. ‘exsilierunt.’
17. ἀγαθουργῶν for ἀγαθοποιῶν with SABC.
23. κατ᾽ ἐκκλησίαν πρεσβυτέρους with NABCD. Vulg. ‘per singu-
las ecclesias presbyteros.’
28. ἐκεῖ omitted with SABCD, Not represented in Vulg.
Cu. xv. 1—7. PREAcHING AT Iconium. THe APOSTLES FORCED
TO FLEE.
1. κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ εἰσελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν συναγωγήν, that they
went both together into the synagogue. These words probably refer not
to one special visit, but to repeated occasions in which Paul and
Barnabas appeared as fellow-labourers before the Jewish congregation
in Iconium.
For an example of κατὰ τὸ αὐτό in this sense, cf. LXX. 1 Sam. xi. 11,
καὶ οὐχ ὑπελείφθησαν ἐν αὐτοῖς δύο κατὰ τὸ αὐτό.
καὶ λαλῆσαι οὕτως, and so spake, i.e. on various occasions, on some
of which not Jews only but Gentiles were hearers of the word.
“Ἑλλήνων, of the Greeks. St Luke elsewhere uses Ἕλληνες to mean
Gentiles and “EA\nvicral to mean Greek-Jews. But it has been thought
that in this verse "E\\nves can only mean Greek-Jews, and that the
word is here used differently from the other places where it is found
in the Acts. Such supposition does not seem necessary. Clearly the
visit of the Apostles to Iconium lasted a considerable time, and it is
not to be supposed that while there they refrained from speaking the
word of their message in any place but in the solitary synagogue.
They went, as their wont was, to the synagogue first, that place was
the scene of their joint labours on many occasions, and there many of
the Jews were won to the faith. But the Apostles spake elsewhere the
same glad tidings which they published to the Circumcision, and by
this labour many Gentiles also were converted. This seems a simpler
explanation than to make St Luke say”E\\nves here, when he means
ἱἙλληνισταί. The verse condenses the account of the Apostolic labours,
marks that their commencement was at the synagogue, that Jews be-
came believers, and then without further specification of a place of
preaching adds ‘and of the Gentiles,’ to complete the description of
the whole result,
XIV. 5.] NOTES. 257
2. οἱ δὲ ἀπειθήσαντες ᾿Ιουδαῖοι. Render, but the Jews that were
disobedient. The same verb is found John iii. 36, where the rendering
should be ‘he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life.’ The word
is stronger than ‘unbelieving,’ it expresses unbelief breaking forth into
rebellion, and so exactly describes the character of these Jews who
were persecuting Paul and Barnabas. It is noteworthy throughout
the Acts that persecution seems nearly in every case to have origi-
nated with the Jews.
Cf. for the verb Baruch i. 19, ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης ἤμεθα ἀπειθοῦντες
πρὸς κύριον θεὸν ἡμῶν, Kal ἐσχεδιάζομεν πρὸς TO μὴ ἀκούειν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ.
ἐκάκωσαν τὰς ψυχάς, made their minds evil affected. The verb is
not frequently found in this sense. The precise phrase κακῶσαι τὰς
ψυχάς (ψυχήν) is found twice in LXX. (Numb. xxix. 7, xxx. 14), but
there it is of affliction put on a person’s own.soul by a fast or a vow.
It is also used (Acts xii. 1) to describe the harm done to the Church
by Herod Agrippa. Here it implies not only an ill disposition aroused
towards the brethren, but also that injury was done to the minds in
which such feeling was stirred up.
- 8, ἱκανὸν μὲν οὖν χρόνον διέτριψαν, long time therefore abode they.
There are two results described in this and the following verse as the
consequences of the Jewish opposition. First, a long stay was neces-
sary that, by the words of the Apostles and by the mighty deeds
following wherewith God confirmed them, the faith of the new converts
might be fully established before the Apostles departed. Secondly,
there came about a division among the people; the Christians and
non-Christians became distinctly marked parties.
Tappynoiatopevor ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ, speaking boldly in the Lord. The
preposition implies dependence and rest upon something. The παρ-
pnoia of the Apostles came from the Lord, and was sustained by Him.
He made them bold by His works of power in support of their message.
τῷ λόγῳ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ, the word of His grace. So named
because the word of the truth of the Gospel is a message of grace and
favour.
4. οἱ μὲν ἦσαν σὺν τοῖς ᾿Ιουϑαίοις, part held with the Jews. For
a similar division see the history of the preaching at Thessalonica,
xvii. 4,5. That His word should cause such division had been fore-
told by Jesus (Luke xii. 51).
δ. ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο ὁρμή, but when there was an onset made. The
noun does not necessarily imply that any direct attack had been made,
which, from what follows, we can see was not the case. It rather
refers to the excitement, urging, and instigation which the Jews were
applying to their heathen companions, and which was likely to end in
violence. Chrysostom says οὐ yap ἐδιώκοντο, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπολεμοῦντο μόνον.
σὺν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν, with their rulers. The religious animosity call-
ing in the civil power, as on other occasions, to work its wishes.
καὶ λιθοβολῆσαι αὐτούς, and to stone them. We can see from this
that the prompting to violence came from the Jews. Stoning was
their punishment for blasphemy, and such they would represent the
THE ACTS 17
258 THE ACTS. [XIV. 5—
teaching of the Apostles to be. We need not suppose that any regular
legal stoning like that of Stephen was intended, or that to accomplish
that object the rulers here mentioned were such Jewish authorities as
could be gathered together in Iconium, and that they are indicated by
a vague term because they had no very settled position. The previous
verb ‘to use them despitefully’ rather points to the opposite conclusion,
and marks the intended proceeding as a piece of mob-outrage, for
which the countenance of any authority was gladly welcomed.
In connexion with St Paul’s residence at Iconium, there exists a
story of the conversion of a maiden named Thecla, of which the
apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla represents the form into which
the legend had grown in the fourth century. Thecla, who was espous-
ed to Thamyris, is said to have been deeply affected by the preaching
of the Apostle, which she accidentally heard, and when St Paul was
put in prison on the accusation of being a magician, she bribed the
gaoler and visited the prisoner, and was fully instructed by him in
the Christian faith. The Apostle was punished and sent away from
Iconium. Thecla was condemned to die for her refusal to marry
Thamyris, but was miraculously saved, and after many troubles joined
St Paul in his missionary travels, and ultimately made her home in
the neighbourhood of Seleucia, where she led the life of a nun till her
death, which took place when she was ninety years old.
This story may at first have had some basis of truth to rest on, but
it has been so distorted with inconsistent details, that it is impossible
now to judge what the foundation of it may have been.
6. συνιδόντες, they being ware of it. The Apostles were not with-
out friends among the people, and of the party which sided with them
there would be some who could get information about any attack
which was being planned against them. It is to be noticed that
throughout the history there is no attempt to exaggerate the sufferings
of the Christian teachers. Here was a narrow escape from stoning,
and as such it is recorded with no more expansion than is absolutely
unavoidable,
katépuyov...kal τὴν περίχωρον, fled unto the cities of Lycaonia,
Lystra and Derbe, and unto the region round about. From the vio-
lence of a mob excited by the Jews they fled into a wilder region
where were few or no Jews, and the cities are enumerated in the order
in which they were visited, while some to which they went are un-
named but included in the general term ‘the region round about.’
The flight of the Apostles is exactly in accord with Christ’s injunction
(Matt. x. 23).
8—18. Cure or A CrippLe at Lystra. Tue HeatHen PEOPLE
REGARD THE APOSTLES AS GopDs,
8. ἐν Λύστροις, at Lystra. This place lay almost south from
Iconium, if the site generally assigned to it, at the foot of the Kara-
dagh, be the correct one. See Dict. of the Bible. It is most probable
that this was the home of Timothy. We cannot conclude this ab-
XIV. 9.] NOTES. 259
solutely from xvi. 1, because both Derbe and Lystra are there men-
tioned, but in xx. 4 we have an enumeration in which are the words
‘Gaius of Derbe and Timotheus,’ where the form of the expression
makes it almost certain that the latter was not of Derbe. Further,
when St Paul recalls to Timothy his sufferings undergone at this
period (2 Tim. iii. 10, 11), he says ‘Thou hast fully known...... the
persecutions and afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Ico-
nium, at Lystra,’ words which seem to connect Timothy with the
last-named place, and when taken in connexion with the other pas-
sages to be conclusive that Timothy did not live at Derbe.
That Timothy was made a convert to Christianity at this first visit
of St Paul is plain from xvi. 1, where on the Apostle’s second visit he
is called ‘a disciple.’ It is also clear from the same passage (xvi. 3)
that there could have been but few Jews at Lystra at this time, or else
the son of a religious Jewess would hardly have remained uncircum-
cised till he had reached man’s estate. Some, however, have thought
that this may have come to pass through the influence of the Greek
father of Timothy.
ἀδύνατος τοῖς ποσὶν ἐκάθητο, there sat a certain man impotent in
his feet. Perhaps this cripple, like that other in Jerusalem (iii. 2),
was brought by his friends to some much frequented place that he
might ask alms of them that passed by. There is no mention of a
synagogue in Lystra, and it is very improbable that there was
one. The Apostles therefore would seek out some place of public resort
where they might proclaim their message, and such a position would
also be most adapted for the purposes of a begging cripple.
It is worth while to notice once again in what precise and peculiar
terms Luke, the physician, describes the nature of this and other
maladies which claim mention in the history.
9. οὗτος ἤκουσεν K.T.A., this man heard Paul speaking. The aorist
leaves it quite indefinite whether the man heard on this one occasion
only, or had listened to frequent teachings, and so become filled with
faith in what was taught.
ὃς ἀτενίσας αὐτῷ, who fastening his eyes upon him, This verb is
common with St Luke, and seems to indicate that the person using it
was an eye-witness of what he relates. It occurs several times of St
Paul, as in xiii. 9, where he fixes his gaze on Elymas, and xxiii. 1,
where he attentively beholds the council. From the context of the
latter passage, in which we learn that the Apostle did not recognize
the high-priest, some have thought that this straining earnest gaze,
so frequently ascribed to St Paul, was due to some weakness of sight
remaining ever since his blindness at the time of his conversion.
καὶ ἰδὼν ὅτι ἔχει πίστιν τοῦ σωθῆναι, and seeing that he had faith to
be healed. The man’s heart shone out in his face, and the Spirit
within the Apostle recognized that here was a fit object to be made, by
his cure, a sign unto the men of Lystra. Cf. Mark x. 23.
The genitival infinitive τοῦ σωθῆναι may here be regarded as a noun
regularly governed by πίστιν.
17—2
260 THE ACTS. (XIV. 10—
10. εἶπεν μεγάλῃ φωνῇ, said with a loud voice, i.e. raising his tone
above that in which his ordinary address was given. Chrysostom
says, διατὶ μεγάλῃ φωνῇ; ὥστε τοὺς ὄχλους πιστεῦσαι, having their
attention called to the cure which followed at once upon the words.
ἀνάστηθι ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας cov ὀρθός, stand upright on thy feet. It
has been noticed in chap. iii. how different is the narration of this
miracle from that wrought by St Peter at the Beautiful Gate of the
Temple. The two cures were of exactly the same character, and had
the historian been giving his own words only and aiming at producing
a harmony in his picture between the words and works of St Paul
and St Peter, no finer opportunity could have been found than by
making the narratives in these two places as much as possible alike. A
careful perusal leaves the impression that the latter may have been
written from personal observation (see below on verse 22) or from the
information of St Paul, but that the former was drawn from an
entirely different authority, and that the historian has faithfully pre-
served the distinct character of the two sources from which he derived
his information.
Kal ἥλατο Kal περιεπάτει, and he leaped and walked. The differ-
ence in tense is to be remarked in these verbs. ἥλατο is aorist as ex-
pressing one act, the upward spring, which shewed once for all that
the cure was wrought; περιεπάτει is imperfect, and indicates that the
act of walking was continued, that he henceforth was able to exercise
his new power.
11. Avkaowerl, in the speech of Lycaonia. Which would come
more naturally to their lips than any other. The people were bilingual,
and St Paul had been speaking to them in Greek. This fact may give
us some additional light on the question of what the gift of tongues
was which was bestowed upon the Apostles. Clearly, from what we
see here, it was not such a power as enabled them at once to under-
stand and converse in the various dialects of all the people into whose
countries they might be brought in their missionary labours. For it
is manifest that neither Paul nor Barnabas understood the cry of these
Lycaonians. If they had, we cannot suppose that they would have
allowed a moment to elapse before they corrected the false impression
which the words conveyed, and at which, when they came to know its
purport, they expressed such horror. They, however, left the place
where the multitude of listeners had been assembled, and departed to
their own lodgings without any knowledge of what the mistaken people
were about to do.
On this compare the words of Chrysostom, ᾿Αλλ᾽ οὐκ ἣν τοῦτο (the
intention to offer sacrifice) οὐδέπω δῆλον. τῇ γὰρ οἰκείᾳ φωνῇ ἐφθέγ-
Ὕοντο λέγοντες ὅτι οἱ θεοὶ ὁμοιωθέντες ἀνθρώποις κατέβησαν πρὸς ἡμᾶς.
διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς ἔλεγον. ἐπειδὴ δὲ εἶδον τὰ στέμματα τότε ἐξελθόν-
τες διέῤῥηξαν τὰ ἱμάτια.
οἱ θεοὶ ὁμοιωθέντες κιτ.λ., the gods are come down to us. Nothing
was more familiar to the heathen mind than the thought of the gods
assuming human shape and going about among mankind, and it has
often been noticed that the scene of the legend of Baucis and Philemon
XIV. 14.] NOTES. 261
related by Ovid (Metam. vitr. 611 seqq.), and in which Jupiter and
Mercury are said to have wandered on earth and to have been received
as guests by Baucis and Philemon, is laid in Phrygia, which province
was close to Lycaonia.
12. ἐκάλουν te τὸν BapvaBav Ala, τὸν δὲ Παῦλον “Eppa, and
they called Barnabas, Jupiter [Zeus]; and Paul, Mercurius [Hermes].
Of course this was not known until afterwards. We can understand
how the heathen people concluded that if any deity came to visit them
with a beneficent purpose it would be that god Jupiter whose temple
was before their city, and to whom therefore their chief worship was
paid; and Mercury was counted as the principal attendant on Jupiter,
and moreover as the god of eloquence. It was obvious, therefore, to
assign that name to the chief speaker, and the name of Jupiter to that
one of the two Apostles who had the more commanding presence.
That St Paul was not such a figure we know from his own words,
and tradition describes him as ἀνὴρ μικρὸς τῷ μεγέθει, ψιλὸς TH ke-
gary, ἀγκύλος ταῖς κνήμαις, Acta Pauli et Thecle, 2. Of the aspect
of Barnabas, Chrysostom writes, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὄψεως ἀξιοπρεπὴς
εἶναι ὁ Βαρνάβας.
ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ ἡγούμενος τοῦ λόγου, because he was the chief
speaker. This character is always assigned to Hermes by the heathen
writers. Cf. Macrobius, Sat. 1. 8, ‘Scimus Mercurium vocis et ser-
monis potentem,’ and Iamblichus, de Mysteriis ad init., says of him θεὸς
ὁ τῶν λόγων ἡγεμών.
13. 6 τε ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, the priest of
Jupiter, which was before their city, i.e. ‘whose temple was before their
city.’ Zeus was their tutelar divinity, and it was to his priest that
the people ran with their cry, and brought him, with all the prepara-
tions for a sacrifice, to the gate of the house where the Apostles were
lodged.
ταύρους καὶ στέμματα, oxen and garlands. The latter were sometimes
put on the heads of the victims, and sometimes used by the worshippers
for their own decorations at religious rites. Probably in this case they
were meant to make gay some temporary altar.
ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας, unto the gates. Even though we have the plural
here it seems impossible to regard the word as used of the gates of the
city, because of the action of the Apostles (ἐξεπήδησαν) who sprang
forth upon the intending worshippers. The word must refer to the
entrance of the house where the Apostles lodged. They were within
the house, and as it was meet to offer the victims to the supposed gods
in their presence rather than on the altar at Jupiter’s temple, it was
to the house of their host that the procession came.
14. ἀκούσαντες δέ, but when they heard. As they did first from
the clamour and excitement of the would-be worshippers.
ἐξεπήδησαν, they sprang out. They were horror-stricken at what
was contemplated, and with garments rent to shew, by signs (for there
would be many among the crowd who could understand little of what
they said) as well as by words, their repudiation of such worship. -
262 THE ACTS. (XIV. ΕΞ
they sprang forth from the house, through the vestibule, and into
the midst of the crowd, that they might put an end to the delusion of
the people. Cf. Matth. xxvi. 65.
15. εὐαγγελιζόμενοι, preaching unto you. Literally, ‘ bringing you
good tidings’ as the message must be which makes known to men 8
living God in the place of a dumb idol.
ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν ματαίων ἐπιστρέφειν, that ye should turn from
these vain things. τὰ μάταια is a frequent expression in the LXX. for
‘false gods’; cf. 2 Kings xvii. 15, καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ὀπίσω τῶν ματαίων.
Also Jer. ii. 5; Levit. xvii. 7, &c.
16. ὅς ἐν ταῖς παρῳχημέναις γενεαῖς K.T.A., who in bygone genera-
tions suffered all the heathen to walk in their own ways. On this cf,
Acts xvii. 30; Rom. i. ii.
πορεύεσθαι ταῖς ὁδοῖς. This phrase in the LXX. almost always has
the preposition ἐν, but it is found without a preposition (according to
some MSS.) in 2 Chron. xi. 17.
God had chosen Israel only for His own people before the coming of
Christ, and had given to the rest of the world no revelation of Himself
except what they could read in the pages of the book of nature. But
that, St Paul says, spake clearly of a careful Creator and Preserver of
the world.
17. οὐκ ἀμάρτυρον αὐτὸν ἀφῆκεν, He left not Himself without witness.
This is the same argument which the Apostle employs (xvii. 27) to the
more philosophic multitude whom he addressed on Mars’ Hill. God’s
natural teaching is meant to speak alike to all men. Cf. also the
similar reasoning in Rom. i. 19, 20.
ὑμῖν ὑετοὺς διδούς, giving you rain. The reading ἡμῖν of the Tezt.
recept. seems unnatural. For the Apostle could not include himself
amongst those to whom God’s appeal had been made through the
gifts of nature only.
A few rather unusual words and forms which occur in this verse
have suggested to some that we have here a fragment of a Greek poem
on the bounties of nature, which the Apostle quotes, as he sometimes
does quote the Greek poets, to illustrate his speech from the language
familiar to his hearers. Attempts have therefore been made to arrange
the words into some dithyrambic metre. But it is hardly probable
that St Paul would quote Greek poetry to the people in Lycaonia, to
whom Greek was not sufficiently familiar for them to appreciate its
literature to the extent which this supposition presumes, and certainly
the other quotations which he makes from Greek authors (Acts
xvii. 28; 1 Cor. xv. 33; Tit. i. 12) are used to much more cultured
audiences,
τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, your hearts, to correspond with the first part of
the verse. With the Greeks καρδία was the seat of the appetites, so
that there could be no harshness in such an expression as ‘to fill the
heart with food,’
ahY..19.} NOTES. 263
18. τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
Here the genitival infinitive is in strict government by the verb κατέ-
παυσαν, which like other verbs of detention and hindering can be
properly constructed with a genitive.
19—28. CHANGE OF FEELING IN THE MouutitupE. Pavu Is STONED,
Tue ApostLEs visit DERBE, AND THEN RETURN, BY THE ROUTE BY
WHICH THEY CAME, TO ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.
19. ἀπὸ ᾿Αντιοχείας καὶ “Ikoviov “Iov8ator, certain Jews from
Antioch and Iconium. Their anger, like that of ‘the circumcision’ in
Jerusalem, was roused against the Apostles, whom they knew to be
born Jews, but whom they saw casting away the legal restraints to
which they themselves clung. They therefore followed them to other
places and represented them no doubt as renegade Jews, and probably
taught the heathen people, that what they had seen done was done by
evil powers and not by beneficent ones. Some such argument they
must have used. The mighty work of the cured cripple bore witness
to the reality of the Apostle’s power. It was only left, therefore, to
ascribe it to evil agency, as the Jews aforetime said of Christ, ‘He
casteth out devils through Beelzebub.’
πείσαντες τοὺς ὄχλους, having persuaded the multitudes. Dean
Howson (Life and Epistles of St Paul, 1. 208) quotes from the
Scholiast on Homer (Il. rv. 89—92) the following, ἄπιστοι γὰρ Λυκάονες,
ws καὶ ᾿Αριστοτέλης μαρτυρεῖ, a passage which is confirmed by the
fickle conduct of the people on this occasion. For a similar sudden
change of temper in the populace, cf. the conduct of the multitude at
Jerusalem just before the Crucifixion, and the sudden alteration of
opinion in the people of Melita (Acts xxviii. 6).
καὶ λιθάσαντες τὸν IIatAov, and having stoned Paul. Their jealous
rage carried them to such a length that they became themselves the
active agents in taking vengeance on the ‘chief speaker’ of the two
missionaries. This must be the stoning to which Paul alludes (2 Cor.
xi. 25), ‘Once was I stoned.’ And Paley (Hore Pauline, p. 69) calls
attention to the close agreement between the history of St Luke
and the letter of St Paul. At Iconium St Paul had just escaped
stoning; at Lystra he was stoned. The two circumstances are men-
tioned by the historian, only the actual suffering by the Apostle him-
self. Nothing but truth to guide them, says Paley, could have brought
the two writers so close ‘to the very brink of contradiction without
their falling into it.’
ἔσυρον ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, they drew him out of the city. The stoning
had not been in a place set apart for such executions, for there were
few Jews in Lystra, but had been done publicly in the midst of the
city, perhaps in the place of common resort where St Paul had been
wont to preach.
νομίζοντες αὐτὸν τεθνηκέναι, thinking that he was dead. As they
had apparently every reason to do, when the body could be dragged
along the road,
264 THE ACTS. [XIV. 20—
20. κυκλωσάντων δὲ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτόν, but as the disciples stood
round about him. Among this ring of disciples we may well believe
that the young Timothy was included. Braving all danger that might
attend on their act, the believers at Lystra gathered about what they,
as well as his assailants, deemed the corpse of their teacher, and their
sorrowing thoughts were perhaps concerned how they might procure
for it reverent burial.
ἀναστὰς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, he rose up and came into the city.
The word ἀναστάς conveys the impression that this was a resurrection
from the dead, and that the restoration of the Apostle, and his imme-
diate exhibition of vigour, and boldness to enter again into the city,
was the effect of a miracle. That one stoned and left for dead by a
savage mob should revive and go about as if nothing had befallen him
must have been a still more striking evidence of the mighty power of
God present with these teachers than what the people had seen before
in the restoration of the cripple.
On the zeal of the Apostle and his readiness to return to the scene of
his danger, Chrysostom remarks οὐδαμοῦ δὲ λέγει ὅτι ὑπέστρεψαν χαί-
βοντες ὅτι σημεῖα ἐποίησαν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι κατηξιώθησαν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος
αὐτοῦ ἀτιμασθῆναι.
καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον ἐξῆλθεν, and the next day he departed. Having been
sheltered for the night in the house of some disciple, perhaps in that
of Eunice and Lois, the mother and grandmother of Timothy, of whose
faith the Apostle speaks (2 Tim. i. 5) as though he had been witness
of its fruits in their lives.
σὺν τῷ Βαρνάβᾳ εἰς Δερβήν, with Barnabas to Derbe. Barnabas,
it seems, had not been an object of jealousy to the Jews. His power,
though great as the ‘son of exhortation or consolation,’ was not so
demonstrative as that of his fellow Apostle. Derbe, the town to which
the Apostles next went, was to the east of Lystra. We have no
mention of any other places in Lycaonia than these two as visited by
Paul and Barnabas, but from ver. 6 we gather that their preaching was
extended to other parts of the surrounding country.
21. μαθητεύσαντες ἱκανούς, and having made many disciples. Ac-
cording to Christ’s words (Matth. xxviii. 19), μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ
ἔθνη. Of course teaching was a part of the process, but μαθητεύειν
implies a stage beyond that. Perhaps ‘Gaius of Derbe,’ whom St
Luke mentions as one of Paul’s companions in a subsequent journey
(xx. 4), may have been one of these. This is the more probable
because he is there mentioned in the same clause with Timothy, who
undoubtedly was converted by St Paul during this visit to Lycaonia.
ὑπέστρεψαν, they returned. Thus going back over the ground which
they had travelled before, that they might provide for the spread of
that seed of the word which they had imperilled themselves so greatly
to sow.
22. ἐπιστηρίζοντες τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν μαθητῶν, confirming the souls of
the disciples. The strengthening indicated by ἐπιστηρίξειν is of that kind
which St Peter was charged to afford to his fellow disciples, ‘When
XIV. 25.] NOTES. 265
thou art converted strengthen (στήρισον) thy brethren,’ i.e. by warnings
and exhortations drawn from thy own trials and thy deliverance from
them. We see that this was the purport of St Paul’s charge to the
Churches,
τῇ πίστει, in the faith. This expression seems to point to the
existence of a definite creed. ἡ πίστις is certainly so used in later
books of the N.T. Cf. Col. i. 23; 1 Pet. v. 9, &c.
καὶ ὅτι διὰ πολλῶν θλίψεων Set ἡμᾶς k.7.A., and that we must through
many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God. From the use of
the pronoun ‘we’ in this sentence some have thought that, although
unmentioned, the writer of the Acts was present with Paul and Bar-
nabas in this first missionary journey as well as in the others. St
Luke only indicates his presence at Troas and elsewhere in the same
manner (xvi. 10—12, &c.), though in those passages the mention is
more conclusive than in the verse before us.
23. χειροτονήσαντες, having ordained. The word is found else-
where in N.T. only in 2 Cor. viii. 19, It is used of the like ordination
in the ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,’ 15, χειροτονήσατε οὖν ἑαυτοῖς
ἐπισκόπους καὶ διακόνους ἀξίους τοῦ kuplov. So Philo de prem. et pen. 9,
ὑπὸ θεοῦ χειροτονηθείς. So too Josephus, Ant. vi. 4. 2.
κατ᾽ ἐκκλησίαν πρεσβυτέρους, elders in every Church, i.e. men
who should have the oversight, and take care for the growth of these
infant Churches when the Apostles were gone. It appears, then, that
the Church in these places must have gone on without any regular
ministry. On the appointment of Elders ef. xi. 30.
προσευξάμενοι μετὰ νηστειῶν, having prayed with fasting. They
used the same solemn service, at the dedication of these men to their
duties, which had been used when they were themselves sent forth
from Antioch for their present labour (xiii. 3).
On this conduct Chrysostom says: εἶδες θερμότητα Παύλου; προσευ-
ξάμενοι, φησὶ, μετὰ νηστειῶν παρέθεντο αὐτοὺς τῷ κυρίῳ. dpa’ μετὰ
νηστειῶν αἱ χειροτονία. πάλιν νηστεία τὸ καθάρσιον τῶν ἡμετέρων
ψυχών.
παρέθεντο κιτιλ., they commended them to the Lord. Cf. St Paul’s
parting commendation (καὶ τανῦν παρατίθεμαι ὑμᾶς) of the elders of Ephe-
sus (xx. 32) who had come to meet him at Miletus. The Lord was
able here also to build these men up, and to give them an inheritance
among those which are sanctified.
25. καὶ λαλήσαντες ἐν Ilépyy τὸν λόγον, and when they had spoken
the word in Perga. Which, for some unstated reason, they appear
not to have done as they passed through it before. See xiii. 13, 14,
note.
εἰς ᾿Αττάλειαν, to Attalia. A seaport of Pamphylia, at the mouth
of the river Catarrhactes. For its history see Dictionary of the Bible.
The Apostles had sailed, as they came from Paphos, directly to Perga,
which they reached by coming some way up the river Cestrus. Now
they go by land from Perga to the seacoast at Attalia, where there
266 THE ACTS. [XIV. 25—
was more likelihood of finding a vessel in which they could sail into
Syria.
26. ὅθεν ἦσαν παραδεδομένοι τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ, from whence they
had been commended to the grace of God. It is necessary to recur to
the more usual meaning of παραδίδοσθαι before we reach the whole
sense of these words. It is most commonly used of giving up to
enemies, and of exposing to danger; and that there were dangers and
foes in abundance before them those who sent out Barnabas and Paul
knew, but while sending them into danger, they had faith in the grace
of God for them.
27. Kal συναγαγόντες τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, and having gathered the
Church together, 1.6. the Christian congregation at Antioch who had
been moved by the Spirit (xiii. 2) to send them forth. It was fitting
therefore that to them should be made a declaration of the results of
the Apostolic mission.
ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς per’ αὐτῶν, all that God had done with them.
The expression occurs again in xv. 4. The preposition implies that
they felt through the whole work that their motto was Immanuel=
God with us, cooperating and conspiring with every effort. Chryso-
stom on this verse says, οὐκ εἶπον ὅσα αὐτοὶ ἐποίησαν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα ὁ θεὸς
per’ αὐτῶν.
ἤνοιξεν τοῖς ἔθνεσι θύραν πίστεως, had opened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles, i.e. had made faith the ground of admission to His king-
dom. It was now no longer through circumcision that men should
enter in and be known as God’s people. The Gospel privileges were
offered to every one that believed. The phrase ἀνοίγειν θύραν in this
sense first occurs here: cf. 1 Cor. xvi. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 12; Col. iv. 3;
Rey. iii. 8.
28. διέτριβον δὲ χρόνον... μαθηταῖς, and they abode no little time
with the disciples. St Paul was naturally more attached to Antioch
than to Jerusalem, for here was the centre where Gentiles had first
formed a Church, and where consequently he found most sympathy
with his special labours.
The termination of St Paul’s first missionary journey seems a fitting
place to notice the general character of the Apostle’s labours as they
are set forth for us by the historian. A space of three or four years
at least must be assigned for the duration of this first mission, and
as the district traversed was comparatively small, a considerable time
must have been spent at each place which was chosen for a centre of
labour. This is very clear from St Luke’s narrative. He tells us (xiii.
49) how ‘the word of God was published throughout all the region.’
He speaks also (xiii. 52, xiv. 22) of ‘the disciples’ as though converts
had been made in no small numbers. Again at Iconium he mentions
(xiv. 1) that ‘a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed,’
and (xiv. 3) that ‘long time’ was spent there in striving to over-
come the opposition of the ‘unbelieving Jews,’ and at last the whole
city seems to have been divided through the influence of the mission-
uries into two great and warmly opposing factions. Such results were
XIV. 28.] NOTES. 267
not produced by a couple of unknown Jewish preachers except after
long-extended labour. At Lystra they abode long enough to attract
crowds to their discourses and to form a congregation of earnest disci-
ples, who did not allow the work to die out. Another proof of the
abundant fruit of their labours is the necessity for ordaining elders in
the various centres and providing for orderly Church government, It
took too no short time, we may feel sure, to secure converts of such a
character as to be fit for the presidential offices in every Church. And
the subsequent language of St Paul (xv. 36) where he speaks of revisit-
ing their brethren in every city where they ‘had before preached the
word of the Lord,’ shews that he believed a good foundation had been
laid in the various places where they had ministered. We judge from
this that the plan of the mission was that Barnabas and Paul made
a stay in some centre of population, and there continued their preach-
ing till converts enough and of such a character had been gained to
continue the work when the Apostles departed, and some of them so
far instructed as to be fit to become teachers to the rest.
It is however when we read of the Christian congregations that the
narrative of St Luke becomes most replete with interest. The vision
by which St Paul was called (Acts xxii. 21) declared him expressly
chosen to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. In his letter to the Gala-
tians he confirms (Gal. 11, 7) what St Luke tells us on this point in
the history. Yet the history exhibits him to us as quite acting up to
the feelings which he himself has expressed (Rom. x. 1), where he
declares that his heart’s desire for Israel is that they may be saved,
and it shews us how his whole life was in accord with the language
of that same Epistle (Rom. xi. 1) when he completely identifies him-
self with the children of Israel. Throughout all this missionary tour
the Apostle in no instance neglects to publish the glad tidings of
salvation first to his own people. The Jews reject him in one place,
yet he still goes to their brethren first at the next station to which he
comes. In Cyprus both he and Barnabas went first to the synagogue
in Salamis. It is true that they preached mightily unto the Gentiles,
but the Jews had heard their message first. At Antioch it was in the
synagogue that their mission was commenced. ‘They took their
places there as ordinary Jewish worshippers, and were asked by the
rulers to address the congregation as being brethren and of the same
faith. The address which St Paul made on that occasion, the
summary of which St Luke has preserved for us, echoes in more than
one place the language of the Epistle to the Romans. While in the
latter St Paul says (iii. 28) ‘we conclude that a man is justified by
faith without the deeds of the Law,’ the historian relates (Acts xiii. 39)
that he said to the Antiochene congregation in similar terms, ‘By
Him all that believed are justified from all things from which ye could
not be justified by the law of Moses.’ In the same way we find in the
Epistle St Paul explains to the Romans (x. 19) that God’s purpose
had been to rouse His ancient people to jealousy by them that are no
people, so at Antioch the history tells us how he said, ‘It was neces-
sary that the word of God should be first spoken to you, but seeing ye
adjudge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
268 THE ACTS. (XIV. 28—
Gentiles.’ This is quite in harmony too with Rom.i. 16. There the
Gospel is proclaimed to be ‘the power of God unto salvation to every ©
one that believeth,’ but the order in which it is offered is ‘to the Jew
first, and afterward to the Gentiles.’
To notice the unanimity of the language of St Paul’s chief Epistle
with that of such abstracts of his speeches as are furnished by
St Luke has much interest and is of much importance. For there
are those who maintain that the St Paul of the Acts is a very different
person in character and teaching from the St Paul of the Epistles. To
establish such an opinion, those passages in the letters have been
singled out and unduly dwelt on, wherein the Apostle speaks severely
of the opposition which he met with from the Jews. A theory has
been started that in the early Church there were two opposing parties,
one named from Peter, the other from Paul, and that the Acts of the
Apostles is a work of a late date written with the view of bringing
about harmony between them. It cannot therefore be too promi-
nently set forward, that in the narrative of St Luke there is a great deal
for which we find an exact counterpart in St Paul’s Epistles. And if
the comparison of the history with the letters be extended as far as
the materials at our command permit, at every step it will become
more and more apparent, that the agreement between the Apostle and
the historian exists, because the latter is faithful to what he saw and
heard, and his record therefore cannot but harmonize with the spirit
and words of him who was the chief actor in the history,
CHAPTER XV.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
7. ἐν ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς with NABC. Vulg. has ‘Deus in nobis
elegit.’
8. αὐτοῖς after δοὺς omitted with NAB. Vulg. only represents the
pronoun once, though having ‘dans illis,’
11. Χριστοῦ omitted with NABEHLP. Vulg. has ‘Domini Jesu
Christi.’
14. ἐπὶ omitted before τῷ ὀνόματι with NABCDE, Not represented
in Vulg.
17, 18. κύριος ποιῶν ταῦτα γνωστὰ ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος. §16...with NBC.
The Vulg. gives ‘Dominus faciens hee. Notum a seculo est Do-
mino opus suum. Propter quod...’ But on the verses see notes.
23. τάδε after αὐτῶν omitted with NAB. Vulg. has only ‘per manus
eorum.’ :
καὶ οἱ before ἀδελφοὶ omitted with NABCD. Vulg. has ‘et
seniores fratres,’
24. λέγοντες περιτέμνεσθαι καὶ τηρεῖν τὸν νόμον omitted with NABD,
Not represented in Vulg,
XV. 1.] NOTES. 269
33. ἀποστείλαντας αὐτούς for ἀποστόλους with NABCD. Vulg.‘ad
eos qui miserant illos.’
34. ἔδοξεν δὲ τῷ Dida ἐπιμεῖναι αὐτοῦ omitted with NABEHLP.
Vulg. has ‘Visum est autem Sile ibi remanere,’ and continues with
words not represented in Text. recept., and only partly in D, viz.
‘Judas autem solus abiit Jerusalem.’
36. εἶπεν πρὸς Βαρνάβαν ἸΤαῦλος with NABC. So Vulg. ‘dixit ad
Barnabam Paulus.’
ἡμῶν after ἀδελφοὺς omitted with NABCDE. Not represented
in Vulg.
37. ἐβούλετο for ἐβουλεύσατο with NABCEH. Vulg. ‘volebat.’
καὶ before τὸν ᾿Ιωάννην with NB, but the καὶ without the suc-
ceeding article appears alsoin CE. Vulg. has ‘et Joannem.’
39. δὲ for οὖν after ἐγένετο with NABD. Vulg. ‘autem.’
40. κυρίου for θεοῦ with NABD. Vulg. ‘Dei.’
Cu. XV. 1—5. At ANTIOCH SOME MAINTAIN THAT GENTILE CONVERTS
MUST BE cIRCUMCISED, A Mission TO JERUSALEM ABOUT THE
QUESTION. RECEPTION OF THOSE WHO WERE SENT.
The history now approaches that subject of controversy which was
certain to arise as soon as Christianity spread beyond the limits of the
people of Israel. The first converts to the new faith were made among
the Jews, but few of them were likely to cast aside those prejudices
of religion in which they had long been educated. As soon as
Gentiles who had not first become proselytes to Judaism joined the
Christian Church, Jewish exclusiveness received a violent shock, and
there was no small danger lest the new community should be rent
asunder almost at its beginning. ‘The covenant,’ by which ex-
pression the devout Jew specially meant ‘circumcision,’ was con-
stituted a cry by Judaizing agitators, and the opposition, first brought
into prominence at Antioch, proved a continuous source of trial through
the whole ministry of St Paul, and has left its traces on most of
the writings both of the N.T. and of early Christian literature.
1. καί τινες κατελθόντες ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιουϑδαίας, and certain which
came down from Judea, i.e. to Antioch. The words of the new comers
would derive authority from the place whence they had come, and
would be received as the latest ordinance of the heads of the Church
at Jerusalem. Thus the mission of inquiry to Jerusalem was rendered
necessary.
ἐδίδασκον τοὺς ἀδελφούς, taught the brethren. These were a mixed
body, composed of Jews, proselytes and Gentiles (see xi. 19, 20, and
the notes there). Thus it was precisely the place where such a ques-
tion would arise. Gentile converts who had not passed into Christi-
anity by the gate of Judaism would be sure to be regarded as wanting
something by the people in whose mouths ‘uncircumcised’ had
270 VHE ACTS. (XV. 1—
been from old times the bitterest term of reproach. (Cf. 1 Sam.
xvii. 26 and Acts xi. 3.) The tense of the verb used implies that
these men were persistent in their teaching, they kept constantly to
this theme.
τῷ Wa τῷ Moicéus, after the custom of Moses, The word is found
before (Acts vi. 14) ‘the customs which Moses delivered’ and signifies
those rites and usages which had their foundation in the Law (ef.
Luke i. 9, ii. 42; Acts xxi, 21) and so were more than a ‘manner’
or ‘fashion.’ Cf. also John vii. 22, for circumcision as the ordinance
given to the people by Moses.
ἔθος is not common in the LXX. and appears to be only once used
(2 Mace. xi. 25) for the observances of the Jewish religion.
The dative case is put here to express the rule or order by which a
thing is done, but a much more frequent mode of expressing this is,
asin xvii. 2, by κατὰ with the accusative. But cf. 2 Mace. vi. 1 τοῖς
τοῦ θεοῦ νόμοις πολιτεύεσθαι.
οὐ δύνασθε σωθῆναι, ye cannot be saved. Such a statement was
likely to cause debate and questioning among those who had just
learnt (xiv. 27) that ‘God had opened the door of faith’ (independent
of the observance of the ceremonial Law) ‘unto the Gentiles.’
2. γενομένης δὲ στάσεως kal ἕητήσεως, and when there arose a
debate and questioning. στάσις does not necessarily imply angry
dissension, but only a division. The members of the Church took
opposite sides in the matter. Of course Paul and Barnabas would
be with those who maintained that circumcision was no longer
necessary.
ἔταξαν, they appointed, i.e. the brethren of the Church at Antioch
did so. The verb, as well as the whole context, shews that the mission
was sent, in an orderly fashion, by the whole Christian community,
to which the question was one of most vital importance, probably
affecting a large part of their members.
καί τινας ἄλλους ἐξ αὐτῶν, and certain other of them, who would
represent the position of the men who had come from Judea.
πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστόλους καὶ πρεσβυτέρους, wnto the Apostles and elders.
Peter, John and James we find were now at Jerusalem, and they seem,
from other notices in the N.T. (Gal. i. 18, 19, and ii. 9), to have been
the Apostles who continued to live in the holy city. These with the
elders appear now as the governing body of the infant Church. And
Jerusalem was for the Jew, until its destruction, the place of chief
authority (cf. Is. ii. 3), The overthrow of the holy city did as much
as anything to help on the knowledge of the universality of the
Christian religion. Those who had been bred in Judaism could not
(as devout Jews to this day do not) cast away the thought that Jeru-
salem is ‘the place where men ought to worship.’
3. προπεμφθέντες, being brought on their way. It was not an un-
common mark of affection or respect that a part of the Church at any
place should attend its chief teachers for a short way on their jour-
neys. (Cf. infra xx. 38, xxi, 16.) And for the antiquity of the custom
XV. 3.] NOTES. 271
among the Jews, see Gen. xviii. 16, where when the heavenly visitors
were departing from Abraham it is said (LXX.), συνεπορεύετο per’
αὐτῶν συμπροπέμπων αὐτούς.
Among the companions of Paul and Barnabas on this journey must
have been Titus, for we read of him, and of the question raised about
his circumcision, in St Paul’s own notice of this visit (Gal. ii. 3).
ϑιήρχοντο τήν τε Φοινίκην καὶ Σαμάρειαν, they passed through both
Phenicia and Samaria. The road would take them along the coast
through Berytus, Tyre and Sidon, which at this time were places of
great importance, and most likely to have bodies of Christians among
their inhabitants.
ἐκδιηγούμενοι τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν, declaring the conversion of
the Gentiles. This would naturally be St Paul’s great theme. Among
those who were going up to Jerusalem with him would be members of
the Judaizing party, but their presence was no check on the Apostle’s
zeal that all men should hear of the bringing in of Gentiles to the
faith of Christ. The verb ἐκδιηγεῖσθαι implies that he gave his story
with all details, and we may be sure that he dwelt on the way in
which the Spirit of God had set a seal upon the work, though the
converts of whom he spake were all uncircumcised.
πᾶσιν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, unto all the brethren, i.e. in the Churches
through which they passed, in which places the brethren must have
been in great part Jews, though there might be proselytes also among
them. We see therefore that it was only some of the Jews who
demanded irom the Gentiles complete conformity to the Law. At
Jerusalem (ver. 5) the Judaizing party is described as ‘certain of the
sect of the Pharisees which believed,’ and the Gospel history represents
the Pharisees on all occasions as determined supporters of the cere-
monial law. Probably their party was most numerous at Jerusalem,
where all the ritual observances could be most completely carried out.
In the more remote congregations the joy over the Gentile conversions
would be more unalloyed.
4. παρεδέχθησαν ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, they were received by the
Church. The ἐκκλησία is perhaps named first because there would on
such a visit be an assembly of the whole Christian body to hear the
story of the missionary labours of Paul and Barnabas before the ques-
tion about which they had specially been sent from Antioch came to
be discussed. The account of the spreading of the faith was for all,
while the question of circumcision would be discussed only by the
heads of the Church, and those who could speak with authority. This
preliminary meeting must have lasted for a considerable time, even if
only a mere abstract of the labours, sufferings and success of Paul
and Barnabas were given to those who met them. Such a recital was
the best introduction that could be conceived for the question which
was afterwards to be discussed and legislated on.
μετ᾽ αὐτῶν, with them. On this preposition cf. xiv. 27. That the
Apostles had a true notion of themselves as only instruments, though
Christ deigned to be a fellow-worker (Mark xvi. 20) with them, is seen
below in verse 12 where the preposition used is διὰ (by),
272 THE ACTS. RA
δ. ἐξανέστησαν δέ τινες τῶν... Φαρισαίων, but there rose up certain
of the sect of the Pharisees. The margin of the A.V. takes this sen-
tence as part of the narration of Paul and Barnabas, ‘there rose up,
said they, certain, &c.’ But it is much more natural to consider it
to be St Luke’s account of what happened at Jerusalem. The teachers
at Antioch had not been described as Pharisees, though they probably
were so. Yet in no other passage of the N.T. are the Pharisees
mentioned away from Jerusalem. As soon as the Apostolic narrative
was heard by the Church, certain of that party stood forth from the
Church body and lodged their protest against what had been done.
The Pharisaic teaching concerning the necessity of circumcision was
based on such passages as Is. lvi. 6, where the covenant mentioned
was held to be that of circumcision. They also supported their posi-
tion by such passages as Is. lii. 1, where the uncircumcised are ex-
cluded from the Holy City.
πεπιστευκότες, which believed, i.e. had accepted Christ as the pro-
mised Messiah. But we can see from the position of these men that
there was no thought at first by so doing of making a complete break
with Judaism.
λέγοντες ὅτι Δεῖ, saying, It is needful, &c. The words are a direct
utterance, and St Luke sets before us the very words spoken before the
Church assembly.
The visit of St Paul to Jerusalem which St Luke here describes is
now generally admitted to be the same of which St Paul speaks in
Gal. ii, 1—9. The chronology offers no obstacle to this conclusion,
while the purpose of the visit and the companionship of Barnabas
and the persons who were at the head of the Church in Jerusalem are
all accordant in the two notices. In the Epistle St Paul tells us that
he took Titus with him, and nothing is more likely than that while
he had the company of some members of the Judaizing party, he
would also take a companion with him from among those converts on
whose behalf he was making the journey. He says too that it was ‘by
revelation’ that he went up, while the narrative of the Acts represents
him as sent by the Church of Antioch. But here need be no contra-
diction. An inward monition may have furnished the true reason
why the Apostle consented to make an appeal to the central authori-
ties in Jerusalem. St Luke would not necessarily be aware of this;
it was important in St Paul’s argument to the Galatians that he
should mention it. (For a fuller comparison of the two notices, see
Bp Lightfoot’s Ep. to Galatians, note, pp. 122—127.)
6—12. Tue Councrn at JERUSALEM; THE DEBATE AND THE SPEECH OF
Peter. NARRATION OF THE WORK ΟΕ BARNABAS AND Pavt.
6. συνήχθησαν δὲ of ἀπόστολοι kal οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, and the Apo-
stles and elders were gathered together. These words refer to a formal
summoning to discuss the difficult question which had been brought
forward. That there was a space between the first welcome of the
Apostles by the Church and the assembly of the synod suits St Paul’s
oS ae NOTES. 242
words (Gal. ii. 2) that he explained his position ‘privately to them
which were of reputation.’ This private conference was a necessary
preparation for the more public discussion, which alone is noticed by
the history.
ἰδεῖν περί, to consider about. The use of ἰδεῖν in this sense and con-
struction is rare. But compare our own familiar idiom ‘to see about
anything.’
7. πολλῆς δὲ ζητήσεως K.T.A., and when there had been much ques-
tioning. For the Pharisaic element would find its warmest supporters
at Jerusalem. And it is to that party that the disputing must be
ascribed, for it is plain, from the summing-up of St James at the
close of the discussion, that the other Apostles were of the same
mind with Paul and Barnabas, and as is said in the Epistle tc the
Pca (ii. 9), ‘they gave unto them the right hands of fellow-
ship.
ἀναστὰς Ilérpos εἶπεν, Peter rose up and said. It is to be noted
that Paul and Barnabas leave arguments and reasons to be put for-
ward by those who had laboured most among Jewish converts, and
content themselves with a recital of what God had wrought through
them in their journey among the Gentiles.
dd ἡμερῶν ἀρχαίων. Literally ‘from early days.’ The A.V. ‘a
good while ago’ is very idiomatic, and sufficiently close in sense. St
Peter is alluding to the conversion of Cornelius (chap. x.), which pro-
bably took place some ten years before the meeting of this synod. That
was at an early period of the Apostolic ministry, and the great and
numerous events which had intervened made the time seem long ago.
ἐν ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεός, God made choice among you. This, the
reading of the oldest authorities, shews Peter as putting himself and
his fellow Apostles on the same level with the whole Christian body
which he is addressing. God might have chosen whom He would to
receive the instruction of the sheet let down from heaven.
διὰ τοῦ στόματός pov, by my mouth. That he may not seem to
be claiming a distinction for himself as the one chosen of God for this
work, St Peter is careful to call himself no more than the mouthpiece
of God.
8. ὁ καρδιογνώστης, which knoweth the hearts. καρδιογνώστης is
only here and in Acts i. 24, and on both occasions it is St Peter who
uses it. Such a witness could admit of no appeal. God himself had
put the uncircumcised on the same level with the circumcised by
giving to them the same gifts of the Spirit.
9. Kal οὐθὲν διέκρινεν, and put no difference, i.e. made no distinc-
tion. The Apostle looks on God’s testimony to the Gentiles in two
lights. "What was given to the new converts was the same which had
been given at the first outpouring of the Spirit. And God made no
mark of distinction to sever Jews from Gentiles. Faith had purified -
the hearts of Cornelius and his house, and the outward observances of
the Law of Moses were of no account when the heart was clean before
THE ACTS τὸ
bg: THE ACTS. (XIV 8:5
Him who alone could judge of the purity thereof. In these words
of his St Peter clearly agrees to all that St Paul had taught about the
admission of the Gentiles.
τῇ πίστει καθαρίσας τὰς καρδίας αὐτῶν, having purified their hearts
by faith. When he uses καθαρίσας St Peter is clearly thinking of
the vision and the voice ἃ 6 θεὸς ἐκαθάρισεν σὺ μὴ Kolvov.
10. νῦν οὖν, now therefore, i.e. after you have had so much evidence
of God’s acceptance of the Gentiles, both in the early days and in the
journeys of St Paul and Barnabas.
τί πειράζετε τὸν θεόν; why tempt ye God? Men are said ‘to tempt
God’ when they distrust His guidance, and in consequence disobey
His revealed will (cf. Ps. χουν. 9). So the Jews tempted God in the
wilderness (Heb. iii. 9) when they saw His mighty works and yet
murmured at His leaders; so they are said to have tempted Christ
(1 Cor. x. 9) when they were punished by the fiery serpents; and
Ananias and Sapphira are said to ‘ have agreed to tempt the Spirit of
the Lord,’ by acting as though they thought they could deceive God in
their offering. From these instances the force of the question in
the text will be seen. Those who should act as the Pharisaic party
would recommend, would be distrusting God’s knowledge of the hearts
of men, and refusing to be guided by what His Spirit had made
known in the conversion of Cornelius.
ἐπιθεῖναι k.t.A., to put a yoke. The infinitive is sometimes used as
here to express the way or manner in which anything is done, and is
in force something like a gerund, ‘ by placing a yoke.’ Cf. 1 Pet. iy. 3,
‘The time past of our life sufficeth us (κατειργάσθαι) for having
wrought the will of the heathen.’
ζυγόν, a yoke. So St Paul (Gal. v. 1) calls the ceremonial law ζυγὸν
δουλείας. Christ uses the word ἕυγός as a designation for His own
precepts, knowing that a yoke was needed for the guidance of men,
but calls it ξυγὸς χρηστός, ‘an easy and profitable yoke,’ Matth.
xi. 30.
ἰσχύσαμεν βαστάσαι, are able to bear. How this was felt is shewn
by the Rabbinic injunction to ‘make a hedge about the Law,’ i.e. so to
fence in its precepts by additional regulations of their own, that there
should be no chance of infringing the commandment. ‘These addi-
tions, commandments of men, as our Lord styles them, had made the
ceremonial observances into a killing load. ‘The yoke of the com-
mandments’ was a Rabbinic expression (T. B. Berachoth τι. 2) and
referred to the penalties for disobedience, the duty of laying up the
commands in the heart, of binding them upon the hands, and as
frontlets between the eyes, of teaching them to children, and speaking
of them at all times, and writing them upon the doorposts and the
gates. So that ‘the yoke’ was a heavy one for the teacher as well as
for the learner.
11. ἀλλά, but. There is much implied in this one word. The
Apostle means ‘ But all this has been changed by God’s new revela-
XV. 13.] NOTES. eee
tion of Himself, and we should cease this tempting of Him, for we
believe (if we are truly in Christ) that salvation is for all men.’
Sid τῆς χάριτος τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, through the grace of the Lord
Jesus. A new and living way has been opened, and it is not in any
conformity to the Jewish Law that we now look for salvation.
καθ᾽ ὃν τρόπον κἀκεῖνοι, even as they, i.e. even as they believe. Thus
the argument is: If our belief and hope are the same, and no other,
than theirs, why should these new converts be urged to adopt observ-
ances which form to us no ground for our hope of salvation?
After this point in the N.T. history St Peter’s name appears no
more, and when we call to mind the opposition which, at the close of
the first, and in the second, century was represented as existing
between the teaching of Paul and Peter, we cannot think that it was
without meaning that this last appearance of the Apostle of the cir-
cumcision in the Scripture story sets him before us in full accord with
the Apostle of the Gentiles. The collision between Paul and Peter at
a later period in Antioch (Gal. ii.) came about because the latter had
forgotten for a time his own statement that ‘God is no respecter of
persons.’ But like the παροξυσμός between Paul and Barnabas there
was no rupture in the Church in consequence of the rebuke which
St Paul administered to his fellow-apostle.
12. ἐσίγησεν δὲ wav τὸ πλῆθος, then all the multitude kept silence.
We see here, though the Apostles and Elders are alone mentioned
(verse 6) as being gathered together, that the assembly was a very
large one. The cause of their silence was the voice of authority with
which he could speak through whom God had first opened the door
of faith to the Gentiles. For while he told what God had done, he
related how he, like themselves, had much prejudice to overcome be-
fore his mission to Cornelius.
Kal ἤκουον, and gave audience. The verb is plural to correspond |
with the plural sense of πλῆθος, and the use of the imperfect tense is
to indicate the continuous attention to the whole narrative of that, the
first missionary journey for the spread of the faith.
ὅσα... σημεῖα kal τέρατα, what signs and wonders. The two nouns
are the same which occur in the prayer of the disciples (iv. 30) ‘that
signs and wonders may be done through the name of Thy holy servant
Jesus.’ The prayer had been abundantly answered in the experience
of Paul and Barnabas.
Sv αὐτῶν, by them, i.e. through them as instruments. See above on
verse 4.
13—21. JAMES SUMS UP THE DISCUSSION, AND PRONOUNCES THE
DECISION OF THE CHURCH ON THIS CONTROVERSY.
13. αὐτούς, i.e. Paul and Barnabas.
᾿ἸΙάκωβος, James, i.e. the brother of our Lord who was so called, and
who was at the head of the Church in Jerusalem. See above on
ἘΠῚ 17:
18-—2
276 THE ACTS. [Xvi ie
ἀκούσατέ pov, hearken unto me. The president’s summary takes
no note of the ‘much questioning’ (v. 7) but points out that a divine
revelation had been made to Peter, and that it was accordant with the
words of Old Testament prophecy. On these warrants he based his
decision.
14. Συμεών, Symeon. This more Jewish form of the name of the
Apostle Peter is found also at the commencement of St Peter’s second
Epistle. The Jews after they came to have much intercourse with
Gentiles had frequently two forms of name, one of which was em-
ployed on religious and solemn occasions, the other in intercourse
with non-Jews and in the ordinary transactions of life. Thus in the
Apocrypha (1 Mace. v. 17, &.) the name of the Maccabean prince is
written Simon, though on his coins it stands Symeon (see Gesenius,
8.V.)-
καθὼς πρῶτον ὁ θεὸς ἐπεσκέψατο, how God did first visit, i.e. the
way in which the first Gentile convert was made. It was some time
after the mission of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles that Cornelius was
converted. ‘At the first’ of the A.V. gives a wrong idea.
λαὸν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ, a people for His name. Thus the ‘chosen _
people’ were no longer to be Jews only, and so those ceremonial
ordinances which had hitherto marked out Jews from Gentiles were
seen to be no longer necessary.
The force of this dative is best perceived when we remember that
God’s ‘name’ is often used for ‘ Himself.’ There is no harshness in
the case, when the expression is regarded as the equivalent ‘to take
for Himself.’
15. Kal τούτῳ συμφωνοῦσιν, and to this agree, i.e. with this action
on God’s part the statements of His prophets are in harmony. They
had foretold that it should be so. Only one prophet is here quoted,
viz. Amos (ix. 11, 12), but the audience would recall other like passages,
as St Paul does Rom. xv. 9—12, quoting from the books of Moses,
David and Isaiah.
16. μετὰ ταῦτα, after these things. It will be seen on reference
to the words of Amos that the quotation here given is not made from
the Hebrew, which is correctly represented by the A.V. in the book of
Amos. Whether St James himself spoke at the synod in Greek, or
St Luke has represented in Greek what the speaker himself uttered in
Aramaic, we cannot know. But the words in the text correspond very
nearly with the LXX. which here (either because they read the Hebrew
consonants differently or because they merely gave the sense without
attempting an exact rendering) varies from the Hebrew text. Yet St
Luke does not give exactly the words of the LXX. He may have
quoted from memory or have modified them somewhat to adapt them
to the form of his sentence. The words of the LXX. run thus, ἐν τῇ
ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἀναστήσω τὴν σκηνὴν Δαυὶδ τὴν πεπτωκυῖαν, καὶ ἀνοικο-
δομήσω τὰ πεπτωκότα αὐτῆς, καὶ τὰ κατεσκαμμένα αὐτῆς ἀναστήσω, καὶ
ἀνοικοδομήσω αὐτὴν καθὼς αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ αἰῶνος, ὅπως ἐκζητήσωσιν οἱ
XV. 18.] NOTES. 277
κατάλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐφ᾽ ods ἐπικέκληται τὸ
ε “ an
ὄνομά μου ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, λέγει κύριος ὁ ποιῶν πάντα ταῦτα.
ἀναστρέψω καὶ ἀνοικοδομήσω, I will return and will build. This is
not the form of the expression either in the Hebrew text or in the
LXX., but it is a common Hebrew formula to signify ‘I will do a
thing again.’ Cf. Eecles. iv. 1 καὶ ἐπέστρεψα ἐγὼ καὶ εἶδον, ‘I
returned and considered’ =I considered once again. Similarly Eccles.
iv. 7, ix, 11. The occurrence of this formula favours the opinion that
St James, in this specially Jewish synod, spoke in Aramaic of which
St Luke has given us a literal translation.
τὴν σκηνὴν Δαυείδ, the tabernacle of David. The Hebrew word
used in Amos signifies one of those booths used by the people at the
Feast of Tabernacles, when they lived in frail dwellings in order to
be reminded that God was their protector. This word may be applied
to the estate of the Jews when the Deliverer should come, to indicate
that they should be brought very low, but yet should find in Him a
Saviour.
17. ὅπως dv ἐκζητήσωσιν... τὸν κύριον, they might seek after the
Lord. The Hebrew of Amos (see A.V.) differs widely here; and in
the LXX. τὸν κύριον is not expressed. But the Spirit enabled St James
to give the full interpretation of the prophetic words. The original
paints the restored tabernacle, and of course the people of David
restored along with it, as possessors of the remnant of Edom and all
the heathen. The nations shall be joined unto the Lord’s people.
The LXX., as an exposition, speaks of ‘the residue of men seeking
unto the restored tabernacle.’ St James makes both clear by shewing
that ‘to seek after the Lord’ is to be the true up-building both of the
house of David and of all mankind besides.
The Hebrew word for ‘man’ is Adam, which differs very slightly
from the word Edom. So that the variation between ‘remnant of
Edom’ in the Hebrew and ‘residue of men’ in the LXX. may be due
only to the various reading of that noun.
ὅπως with ἄν implies an end aimed at, but the attainment of it is
still dependent on circumstances. Cf. Winer-Moulton, p. 389.
ἐφ᾽ ovs ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνομά pov ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, upon whom My name is
called. An Aramaic mode of saying ‘who are called by My name.’
The expression is so translated James ii. 7 (A.V.). Cf. for the
Greek Jerem, xli. 15 (LXX.) ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ ov ἐπεκλήθη τὸ dvoud μου ἐπ’
αὐτῷ.
18. ποιῶν ταῦτα γνωστὰ ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος. This is the reading supported
by most authority, and the sense must be either (1) ‘the Lord who
maketh these things known from the beginning of the world,’ or (2)
‘the Lord, who doeth these things that were known from the begin-
ning of the world.’ The first of these renderings is the more difficult
to understand, and it must be taken as somewhat hyperbolic. God
made known by His prophets the calling of the Gentiles in very early
days, and this early revelation may be all that is intended by the
stronger phrase. But the second sense seems to suit better with the
278 THE ACTS. [Xi tee
context. This reception of the Gentiles seems to the Jew a new and
startling thing, but God has revealed it by His prophets, and He who
is doing it is but carrying out what He had known and designed from
the beginning of the world.
19. διὸ ἐγὼ κρίνω, wherefore I decide. The pronoun is emphatically
expressed, and indicates that the speaker is one who may decide with
authority.
ἣ παρενοχλεῖν K.T.A., that we trouble not them, &c. The verb is
only found here in N.T., but is somewhat frequent in the LXX. Thus
of the fire around the Three Children (Song of Three Child. 26) it is
said οὐκ ἐλύπησεν οὐδὲ παρηνώχλησεν αὐτούς. ‘It neither hurt nor
troubled them.’ Cf. also 1 Macc. x. 35, 63, where the word is used as
here in a public proclamation. The notion is of putting an obstacle
in any one’s way. St James’s idea is ‘ We will not by needless impe-
diments hinder the new converts from joining us.’
Tots ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπιστρέφουσιν ἐπὶ Tov θεόν, them which from the
Gentiles are turning to God. The same phrase is used elsewhere in the
Acts (cf. ix. 35, xiv. 15, xxvi. 20) and its full significance is explained
when in xi. 21 it is said of the converts at Antioch πολὺς dp:Ouds
πιστεύσας ἐπέστρεψεν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον. It was belief in Christ as the Son
of God which constituted this true turning.
20. ἀλλὰ ἐπιστεῖλαι αὐτοῖς, but that we write unto them. ἐπιστέλλω
is used primarily of a charge sent by a messenger, but also, as in Heb.
xiii, 22, is often used of what is sent by letter (and hence comes the
English word epistle), and there can be little doubt that this is the
sense in the present case, for though messengers were sent, they
carried with them the decision of the synod of Jerusalem in a formal
manner committed to writing (v. 23).
Tov ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων, that they abstain from
pollutions of idols. This is explained in v. 29 by ‘meats offered (i.e.
sacrificed) to idols.’ Of the necessity for such an injunction in the
early Church, where congregations were to be now composed of both
Jews and Gentiles, we can judge from St Paul’s argument to the
Corinthians (1 Cor. viii. 1—10, x. 19), and we can also see how he
would have the Gentile converts deal tenderly with the scruples of
their Jewish fellow-worshippers, however needless they themselves
might deem such scruples.
Here the genitival infinitive is used where in ordinary Greek a
simple infinitive would have been written. Cf. above, vii. 19 note.
The noun ἀλίσγημα is only found in N.T. and the verb ἀλισγέω in
LXX. Dan. i. 8; Mal. i. 7, 12, and in a passage somewhat illustrative
of this verse, Ecclus. xl. 29 ἀλισγήσει τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐδέσμασιν
ἀλλοτρίοις, though the food there spoken of has not been offered to
idols.
As the ordinance of the synod is for the settling of Jewish minds,
we may understand the sort of offence which they were likely to feel.
It was of the same nature as the feeling of Daniel when he refused to
eat of the food supplied by King Nebuchadnezzar. Meat was often
XV. 21.] NOTES. 279
sold in the markets from beasts that had been offered in sacrifice to
idols, and this food and those who ate it the Jew would abhor. The
Gentile converts might not be careful, when they had once come to
think of the idol as nothing, and might join still in banquets with
their non-Christian friends, and St Paul (1 Cor. viii. 10) supposes an
extreme case, that such men might even sit down to meat in an idol-
temple. If Jew and Gentile were to become one in Christ, much
respect must be paid to the feelings which had been sunk deep into
the minds of Israel by long years of suffering for their own idolatry.
Kal τῆς πορνείας, and from fornication. This injunction must not
be understood as a simple repetition of a moral law binding upon all
men at all times, but must be taken in connexion with the rest of
the decree, and as forbidding a sin into which converts from heathen-
ism were most prone to fall back, and which their previous lives had
taught them to regard in a very different light from that in which a
Jew would see it. The Levitical law against every form of unchastity
was extremely strict (Lev. xviii. and xx.), and it is probably to the
observance of these ordinances that we may ascribe the persistence of
the Jewish type, and the purity of their race at this day. Whereas
among the heathen unchastity was a portion of many of their temple
rites, and persons who gave themselves up to such impurities were
even called by the names of the heathen divinities. To men educated
in the constant contemplation of such a system, sins of unchastity
would have far less guilt than in the eyes of those to whom the Law of
Moses was read every sabbath-day.
καὶ τοῦ πνικτοῦ k.T.A., and from what is strangled and from blood.
The prohibition of blood was made as soon as animal food was given
to men (Gen. ix. 4), and it was frequently enforced in the Mosaic law
(Lev. iii. 17, vii. 26, xvii. 10, 14, xix. 26). To eat blood was counted
a sin against the Lord in the days of Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 33), and with
strict Jews it is an abomination to this day. Things strangled are
not specially mentioned in the law of Moses, but that they should not
be eaten follows from the larger prohibition. Lev. vii. 26 does, how-
ever, make mention of the blood of fowls, and it would be in the use
of them that the eating of blood began first to be practised. And in
breaking the neck of an animal the Jew held that the blood was caused
to flow into the limbs in such wise that it could not be brought out
even by salt. See Τὶ, B. Chullin, 113 a.
21. Μωῦσης γὰρ ἐκ γενεῶν ἀρχαίων x.t.d., for Moses of old time
(lit. from generations of old) hath in every city, &c. Here we have the
reason why these injunctions are to be laid upon the Gentile converts.
It is necessary however to take the whole verse into consideration
before we can decide on the force of the reason. Laying stress chiefly
on the expression ‘from generations of old,’ some have thought that
St James’s argument means that the Mosaic ritual having been preached
for so long a time and found to be a load too heavy to bear, must now
be given up, except in these specified points. Again, the verse has
been taken to mean that there was no need for the Christian Church
280 THE ACTS. [XV. 21—
to legislate about the observance of the Mosaic Law other than in these
few points, because there was public teaching on the subject every-
where in the Jewish synagogues. Jewish Christians were therefore
supplied with guidance, and would be so supplied until by degrees
Judaism had entirely given place to Christianity. No doubt the
Apostle contemplates the retention by the Jewish Christians of much
of their old ritual, and that they would make no breach with the ser-
vices of the synagogue. But in these enactments, which were appa-
rently only for a time (since St Paul nowhere alludes to them in his
Epistles), and to promote peace between Gentiles and Jews, we must
remember that the Jews are the persons who have felt offence, and for
whose quieting the decree is put forth. The argument of the council
seems to be this: We, Jews, may make this concession to the Gentiles
without fear. It is not probable that our feelings and prejudices will
be interfered with, or the Mosaic Law in its other portions set aside;
‘for Moses,’ &c.
ἀναγινωσκόμενος, being read. On the reading of the Jewish Scrip-
tures in the synagogues, see the Excursus at the end of chap. xiii.
22—29. ANSWER AND DEPUTATION SENT FROM JERUSALEM. THE
LETTER OF THE SYNOD TO THE CHRISTIANS OF ANTIOCH.
22. τότε ἔδοξε, then it seemed good. The expression is one often
used in the official announcements of public resolutions, or decrees
made by authority. (Cf. Herod. 1. 3; Thue. rv. 118.)
σὺν ὅλῃ TH ἐκκλησίᾳ, with the whole Church. The decree was the
voice of the whole Church, and the deputies sent were chosen by the
whole body. So it is in the name of ‘apostles, and elder brethren’ |
that the letter runs (v. 23).
ἐκλεξαμένους ἄνδρας ἐξ αὐτῶν πέμψαι, to choose men out of their own
company and send them. The A.V. takes ἐκλεξαμένους as if it were
ἐκλεχθέντας, and renders ‘chosen men’; but the middle voice implies
that the council and Church, ‘choosing for themselves’ men, sent them
forth. For the accusative participle following the dative which is
required by ἔδοξε we have a parallel in Soph. Electra, 480, ὕπεστί
μοι θράσος ἁδυπνόων κλύουσαν ἀρτίως ὀνειράτων, and see on similar con-
structions Elmsley on Heracl. 693; Medea, 810; cf. also Thue. rv. 118,
referred to above.
σὺν τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ BapvéBa, with Paul and Barnabas. That the
Church of Antioch might have the confirmation of the decree from the
lips of others besides these two, for they might be supposed to favour
especially all that was considerate towards Gentile converts.
᾿Ιούδαν τὸν καλούμενον Βαρσαββᾶν, Judas called Barsabbas. Of this
man nothing more is known than what we learn from this chapter.
But as Barsabbas is clearly a patronymic, it has been conjectured that
he was the brother of Joseph, also called Barsabbas, mentioned in Acts
i. 23.
Σίλαν, Silas. This is probably the same person who in St Paul’s —
Epistles (2 Cor. i. 19; 1 Thess, i. 1; 2 Thess. i, 1) and by St
XV. 341 NOTES. 281
Peter (1 Pet. v. 12) is called Silvanus. For an account of similar con-
tracted names cf. Winer-Moulton, pp. 127, 128. The mention of
Silas is frequent in the Acts in this and the next three chapters. He
was one of St Paul’s companions in the first missionary journey into
Europe.
23. γράψαντες, huving written. From the form in which the docu-
ment is here given, we should judge that the original was in Greek. A
translation from a Hebrew original would hardly have begun with a
greeting and ended with ἔρρωσθε. It seems likely that this was so too,
because the population of Antioch, the chief town in Syria, would
use Greek much more than Hebrew, at this date. The nominative
case γράψαντες is a construction to accord with sense rather than strict
grammar. It stands asif it had been preceded by some such words as
καὶ τοῦτο ἐποίησαν.
διὰ χειρὸς αὐτῶν. Literally, ‘by their hand.’ This is a Hebrew
form of saying, by them. Cf. Levit. x. 11, ἅπαντα τὰ νόμιμα ἃ ἐλάλησε
κύριος πρὸς αὑτοὺς διὰ χειρὸς Μωυσῆ. So Mal.i.1, &c. The letter was
not delivered to Paul and Barnabas, but to the two ambassadors from
Jerusalem. It is the oldest synodical circular letter in existence, and
the only one of Apostolic times which has come down to us. Bengel
suggests that it was composed by James, in the name and at the re-
quest of the assembly.
οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἀδελφοί, the Apostles and elder
brethren. This reading, supported by the oldest MSS., brings the
text into more complete harmony with what has gone before. Hitherto,
though the whole Church came together only two sets of persons
have been spoken of as to be consulted or as having authority. These
are οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ of πρεσβύτεροι (verses 2, 6 and 22). It seems most
natural therefore that the decree should run in the names of these
two bodies.
κατὰ τὴν “Avridxeay καὶ Συρίαν καὶ Κιλικίαν, in Antioch and
Syria and Cilicia. As we have no mention of this decree of the
synod of Jerusalem in St Paul’s Epistles, we may suppose that the
agitation on the subject, begun at Antioch, had spread only into Syria
and Cilicia, and that the authoritative decision of the mother Church
quieted the controversy there, while it did not arise in the same form
in other places.
χαίρειν, greeting. The infinitive is dependent on λέγουσι under-
stood, but in a formula of this kind the governing verb never ap-
pears,
24. ἐξελθόντες, which went out. Some ancient MSS. omit this
word, but it seems to have a distinct and necessary force. The dis-
turbing teachers had come from Jerusalem, but their want of any
authority is contrasted strongly with the commission of Judas and
Silas (v. 27). The first men went of themselves, the new messengers
were the choice of the Church.
ἀνασκευάζοντες τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν, subverting your souls. The verb
ἀνασκευάζειν is found in N.T. only here, and not at all in the LXX. In
282 THE ACTS. [XV. 24—
classical Greek it is applied mostly to an entire removal of goods and
chattels either by the owners or by a plundering enemy. The devas-
tation wrought in the minds of the Gentile converts through the new
teaching is compared to an utter overthrow.
ols οὐ διεστειλάμεθα, to whom we gave no commandment. The Church
of Jerusalem disclaims any connexion of any kind with the disturbing
teachers. The sentence becomes thus much more forcible than it is
with the additions of the Text. recept.
25. γενομένοις ὁμοθυμαδόν, having become of one accord. This
rendering makes some distinction between ὁμοθυμαδόν with εἰμί and
with γίγνομαι. With the substantive verb this adverb stands in
Acts ii. 1, iv. 24, v. 12, and may there be rendered ‘ being with one
accord.’
ἐκλεξαμένους ἄνδρας πέμψαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, to choose out men and send
them to you. On the language see above on verse 22.
σὺν τοῖς ἀγαπητοῖς ἡμῶν, with our beloved. The intention of the
whole letter is to shew the honour which the Church in Jerusalem felt
was due to these missionary labourers. Hence the adjective aya-
πητός, Which in N.T. is specially applied to those who are closely
united in faith and love. St Peter applies it to St Paul (2 Pet.
iii. 15).
BapvaBa καὶ Παύλῳ, Barnabas and Paul. The order in which
the names here stand is perhaps due to the fact that Barnabas had
formerly (xi. 22) been sent as the accredited messenger from Jeru-
salem to the Church in Antioch; while St Paul was not so well known
in Jerusalem.
26. ἀνθρώποις παραδεδωκόσι tds ψυχὰς αὐτῶν, men that have
hazarded their lives. This Paul and Barnabas had done on several
occasions. (See xiii. 50, xiv. 2, 5, 19.)
ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος, for the name. Here, as often, name signifies the
Messianic dignity and divine authority of Jesus. They have preached
everywhere Jesus as the Christ.
27. διὰ λόγου, by word, i.e. by word of mouth.
ἀπαγγέλλοντας, announcing. The present tense is however equi-
valent to a future. ‘We have sent them announcing,’ i.e. as an-
nouncers, as persons to announce. So that the A.V. ‘ who shall tell
you’ is the precise sense and excellent English. The use of this
tense comes from the feeling of the senders that those whom they
are despatching are as good as present at their destination.
28. ἔδοξεν γὰρ τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ Kal ἡμῖν, for it seemed good
to the Holy Ghost and tous. A third time in this clause of the narra-
tive from 22—29 does this official word occur, from which is derived
the noun dogma. It had been promised that to the Apostles there
should be given the Spirit of truth, who should guide them into all
truth (John xvi. 13), and the historian of the Acts often speaks of them
as ‘filled with the Spirit.’ They put forward therefore this unerring
guide as the warrant for their decree, And as they at the suggestion
Tae, S25) NOTES. 283
of the Spirit were laying aside their long-standing prejudices against
intercourse with Gentiles, they claim that the Gentiles in their turn
‘should deal tenderly with the scruples of Jews.
The co-ordination of the Divine Spirit and the human instruments
in the preamble of the decree is not a little remarkable.
On this verse Chrysostom says: καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν εἶπεν, ἔδοξε τῷ ἁγίῳ
πνεύματι; ἵνα μὴ νομίσωσιν ἀνθρώπινον εἶναι" τὸ δὲ ἡμῖν ἵνα διδαχθῶσιν
ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀποδέχονται καὶ ἐν περιτομῇ ὄντες.
μηϑὲν πλέον ἐπιτίθεσθαι ὑμῖν βάρος, to lay upon you no greater
burden. The Christian-Jews could now speak thus of the load of
legal observances (cf. above, verse 10). Now they had selected but a
small part thereof, which the circumstances of the time made necessary
to be observed.
29. εὖ πράξετε, ye shall do well, i.e. it shall be well with you.
ἔρρωσθε, fare ye well. This conclusion and the greeting at the
commencement of the letter are in the style of Western, rather than
Oriental, epistolary language. See above on verse 23.
30—35. RECEPTION OF THE LETTER AND MESSENGERS AT
ANTIOCH.
30. κατῆλθον eis ᾿Αντιόχειαν, came down to Antioch. As in viii. 5,
Jerusalem is regarded as the chief seat of Church-government, and
the centre of authority. Throughout the Bible the chosen place is
always spoken of as one to which men go up.
συναγαγόντες τὸ πλῆθος, having gathered the multitude. This ex-
pression shews of how great concern the question had become to the
whole Christian body. πλῆθος is used above (v. 12) of the assembly of
Christians at Jerusalem.
31. ἐχάρησαν ἐπὶ τῇ παρακλήσει, rejoiced for the consolation.
Barnabas (vids παρακλήσεως, iv. 36) was a fit member of such an
embassy. The consolation would be felt both by Jews and Gentiles, by
the former because they now knew how much was to be asked of their
Gentile fellow-worshippers, by the latter because they were declared
free from the yoke of Jewish observances. The noun very often signi-
fies exhortation, but that sense is neither so apt here, nor is it borne
out by the character of the letter, which sets forth a ground of peace
and comfort, but is not hortatory.
32. καὶ αὐτοὶ προφῆται ὄντες, being prophets also themselves. mpo-
φήτης is here used in the earlier and less special sense; not as one
who foretells the future, but who, being filled with the Spirit, speaks
with His authority in explanation of the will of God. Judas and
Silas being thus endowed were well fitted to exhort and confirm the
disciples. The exhortations would be most necessary for the Gentiles
who were to consent to more strict living than in times past, while the
confirmation would uphold the Jews who otherwise might feel unwill-
ing to allow the non-observance of a part of their Law. The prophetic
character of the speakers would give to their words the force of revela-
tion. Such confirmation or strengthening of the brethren is the
284 THE ACTS. (XV. 32—
special charge laid on St Peter (Luke xxii. 32), who was to be the first.
preacher of Christ to the Gentiles, and had first received the lesson
that what God had cleansed was not to be called common.
33. μετ᾽ εἰρήνης, in peace. This means with a parting prayer for
their peace and welfare. The expression is a rendering of a common
Hebrew phrase, and is found in the LXX. of Gen. xxvi. 29; Judges
viii. 9, xi. 18: 1 Mace. vii. 28, &c.
πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστείλαντας αὐτούς, unto those that had sent them forth,
who were not only ‘the Apostles’ (as A.V.) but the whole synod of
Jerusalem.
The oldest MSS. omit verse 34. It seems to be no more than a
marginal note to explain verse 40. There Paul, who did not leave
Antioch, is said to have chosen Silas for his companion in his next
journey. The latter must therefore have also remained in Antioch,
and such an explanation, placed by some reader on the margin, came
after a time to be incorporated with the text. But there are great
differences in the MSS., and also in the versions.
35. διδάσκοντες καὶ εὐαγγελιζόμενοι, teaching and preaching. In
such a community there was need not only of setting forth Jesus 85.
the Saviour, but of much instruction concerning the ways in which
God had shewn that the Gentiles were now to be made partakers of
the new covenant. So that the two verbs should not be taken one
as an explanation of the other, They represent different parts of the
ministerial work.
36—41. A new MISSION-JOURNEY PROPOSED. CONTENTION BETWEEN
Paun AND Barnabas. THEY SEPARATE, AND PAUL WITH Siuas
GOES THROUGH SYRIA AND CILICIA.
36. τοὺς ἀδελφούς, the brethren. Implying both their own converts
and those who should have been won to the Church since Paul and
Barnabas came away.
κατὰ πόλιν πᾶσαν ἐν ais, in every city in which. The plural
number of the pronoun αἷς is due to the plural idea involved in the πόλιες
πᾶσα: ‘every city’ means ‘all the cities.’
πῶς ἔχουσιν, how they do. The direct interrogative instead of the
dependent. The common usage of N.T.
37. BapvaBas δὲ ἐβούλετο, but Barnabas wished. Rev. Ver. ‘was
minded.’ The reason for Barnabas’ wish was probably because Mark
was his nephew (Col. iv. 10).
38. τὸν ἀποστάντα ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν, him who departed from them. See
above, xiii. 13. He turned back to Jerusalem from Perga.
39. ἐγένετο δὲ παροξυσμὸς κ.τ.λ., and there arose a sharp contention,
so that, ἄο. παροξυσμός (from which comes our English paroxysm)
intimates a temporary rather than a prolonged dispute, although it
may for the time be severe. The result to the Church was that two
missionary journeys were undertaken instead of one. Though the
XVI] NOTES. 285
Apostles might differ in their estimate of Mark, they were at one with
reference to the work of the Gospel. Barnabas is mentioned no more
in the Acts after this chapter. His name occurs in St Paul’s Epistles,
1 Cor. ix. 6; Gal. ii. 1, 9,13; and Col. iv. 10, in which last passage,
written no doubt after the events here related, we can see that Mark
had been again received as a fellow-worker by St Paul. We learn too
from 2 Tim. iv. 11 and Philemon 24 that St Paul became warmly
attached to him afterwards.
παροξυσμός is twice used in the LXX. (Deut. xxix. 28; Jer. xxxii.
37) of the righteous anger of God against His offending people.
Chrysostom remarks on this contention: τὸ ζητούμενον, οὐχ ὅτι
διηνέχθησαν ἐν ταῖς γνώμαις, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι συγκατέβησαν ἀλλήλοις ἰδεῖν. οὕτω
μεῖζον ἀγαθὸν γέγονε τὸ χωρισθῆναι, καὶ πρόφασιν ἐκ τούτου τὸ πρᾶγμα
ἔλαβε. τί οὖν; ἐχθροὶ ἀνεχώρησαν ; μὴ γένοιτο. ὁρᾷς γὰρ μετὰ τοῦτο
Βαρνάβαν πολλῶν ἐγκωμίων ἀπολαύοντα παρὰ Παύλου ἐν ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς.
παροξυσμός, φησίν, ἐγένετο, οὐκ ἔχθρα οὐδὲ φιλονεικία.
ἐκπλεῦσαι εἰς Κύπρον, sailed unto Cyprus, in which island Barna-
bas, and it may be Mark also, was born (iv. 36). They chose there- |
fore for their labours a district in which they were likely to have some
influence.
40. παραδοθείς, being commended. See above on xiv. 26.
41. τὴν Συρίαν καὶ Κιλικίαν, Syria and Cilicia. These were the
districts in which the teaching of the Judaizers had been most active,
and the presence of Paul, with Silas as a representative of the Church
in Jerusalem, would allay all doubts and questionings, and lead to
those results which are mentioned xvi. 5, the establishing of the
Churches, and their daily increase in numbers. This duty St Paul
first discharged before he went on to visit any of the Churches which
himself had founded.
CHAPTER XVI.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
1. τινος omitted with NABCDE. Not represented in Vulg.
6. διῆλθον with NABCDE. Vulg. ‘transeuntes.’
7. εἰς before τὴν Βιθυνίαν with NABCD. Vulg. ‘in Bithyniam.’
τὸ πνεῦμα ᾿Ιησοῦ with NABCDE. Vulg. ‘Spiritus Jesu.’
9. τῷ Παύλῳ ὦφθη with NBDE. Vulg. ‘Paulo ostensa est.’
ἀνὴρ Μακεδών tis ἣν ἑστὼς kal with SABCE. Vulg, ‘vir Ma-
cedo quidam erat stans et deprecans.’
10. θεὸς for κύριος with NABCE. Vulg. ‘Deus.’
13. ἔξω τῆς πύλης with NABCD. Vulg. ‘foras portam.’
ἐνομίζομεν προσευχὴν εἶναι with NABC. Vulg. ‘videbatur
oratio esse.’
286 THE ACTS. [ΧΥΤΡῈΣ
16. πνεῦμα πύθωνα with NABCD. Vulg. ‘spiritum pythonem.’
17. ὑμῖν before ὁδὸν with NBDE. Vulg. ‘vobis.’
31. Χριστόν omitted with NAB. Unrepresented in Vulg.
32. σὺν for καὶ before πᾶσιν with NABCD. Vulg. ‘cum.’
34. αὐτοῦ omitted after οἶκον with BCP. Vulg. ‘in domum suam.’
39. ἀπελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως with NAB. Vulg. ‘egrederentur de
urbe.’
40. πρὸς τὴν Λυδίαν with SABDEHLP. Vulg. ‘ad.’
παρεκάλεσαν τοὺς ἀδελφούς omitting αὐτούς with NAB. Vulg.
‘visis fratribus consolati sunt eos.’
Cu. XVI. 1—12. Pav rEvisits DERBE AND LystRA, cHoosEs TIMOTHY
FOR A COMPANION IN HIS MISSION, AND CIRCUMCISES HIM. THEY
PASS THROUGH PHRYGIA AND GALATIA, AND COME INTO MysIA AND TO
Troas. By a Vision Pav 15 CALLED INTO MacepontA. HE cRossEs
THE SEA AND REMAINS SOME Days at PHILIPPI,
1. κατήντησεν. The preposition in this verb seems to have little
or no foree. Cf. its use in 2 Mace. iv. 21, 44.
εἰς Δέρβην καὶ... «Δύστραν, to Derbe and Lystra. This is the begin-
ning of that revisiting spoken of in xv. 36. See notes on xiy. 6.
ἦν ἐκεῖ, was there. The verb does not make it certain that Lystra,
to which ἐκεῖ is most naturally referred, was the birthplace of Timothy,
but only his home at the date of Paul’s visit. He must however have
resided there a good while to have earned the favourable report of the
people both of that place and Iconium.
Τιμόθεος, Timothy. This is the person to whom St Paul addresses
two Epistles, and who was the companion of his labours in this journey
until his return into Proconsular Asia (xx. 4). He was the son of a
Jewish-Christian mother, and his father was a Greek, whether a
proselyte of the gate or not we are not told. The mother’s name was
Eunice (2 Tim. i. 5) and the grandmother’s Lois. Timothy is spoken
of as a fellow-worker with St Paul (Rom. xvi. 21). From 1 Cor. iv. 17
we find that he was St Paul’s messenger to that Church, and he is
joined with that Apostle in the greeting of 2nd Corinthians. He also
went to and fro between St Paul and the Church in Thessalonica (1
Thess. iii. 2, 6) and must have been at Rome with St Paul soon after
the Apostle’s arrival there, for he is mentioned in the Epistles, to the
Philippians (i. 1, ii. 19), to the Colossians (i. 1) and to Philemon (1).
An imprisonment which he underwent is alluded to (Heb. xiii. 23),
but we cannot be certain when or where it was. According to tradi-
tion (Eus. H, EF. m1. 14) he was the first bishop of Ephesus, and is
said to have suffered martyrdom at the hands of the populace (Niceph.
H. E. 11. 11).
XVI. 4. NOTES. 287
vids γυναικὸς ᾿Ιουδαίας πιστῆς, the son of a Jewess which believed,
Her earnest education of her son in the holy Scriptures (2 Tim, iii. 15)
from his early youth marks the character of the woman, and makes it
probable that the husband of such a woman was at least a proselyte
of the gate. Timothy’s father is so little mentioned that it seems
likely he had died early.
πατρὸς δὲ “EAAnvos, but of a father who was a Greek. The word
Ἕλλην was widely used by the Jews about all who were not of their own
nation. The world for them was divided into ᾿Ιουδαῖοι καὶ EAXnves.
Cf. Acts xiv. 1; Rom. i. 16, &c.
2. ὃς ἐμαρτυρεῖτο, who was well reported of. The same word is
used about Cornelius (x. 22), and by Paul about Ananias (xxii. 12).
ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Avotpots kal ᾿Ικονίῳ ἀδελφῶν, by the brethren that were
at Lystra and Iconium. The ‘brethren’ are the members of the
Christian Churches. Five or six years had elapsed since St Paul’s
previous visit. In that time congregations had been gathered together
and the characters of their most earnest members were well known.
We see too that there was an interchange of kindly offices between the
neighbouring Churches.
3. περιέτεμεν αὐτόν, he circumcised him. It must be remembered
that the decree of the synod of Jerusalem only related to the exemp-
tion of Gentiles from circumcision. It was a very different thing for
a Jew to consent to become a fellow-worshipper in the Christian
Churches with a Gentile who remained uncircumcised, and to tolerate,
at this time, the non-observance of the rite by one who was counted
for a Jew. For by the Rabbinical code the child of a Jewish mother
was reckoned as a Jew (T. J. Jebamoth, 1.6). It was because of this
prejudice that Timothy was circumcised. It could be no offence to
the Gentiles, and would render the labours of Timothy more accept-
able to the Jews. Because he was the child of a mixed marriage the
rite had been unobserved, and so long as he did not come forward as a
teacher there would be no need felt that it should be enforced, and
there would be doubtless many others of a like class. But when he
was to take a share in the missionary labours of St Paul all this was
altered. He would at once have been met with the objection from
the Jews, that he who had been but a bad Jew was not likely to guide
others right as a Christian teacher. That St Paul saw no inconsis-
tency in what was done in this matter is clear, for the narrative of St
Luke tells us in the next verse that to the Churches to which they
went forth he delivered the decrees of the synod at Jerusalem.
4. παρεδίδοσαν αὐτοῖς, they delivered to them, i.e. to the converts
in the several cities. They gave to the Gentile-Christians the decrees
to observe, for there was nothing in them which a Jew would be likely
to disregard. All that would be needed for the Jews in such cities would
be to explain the terms on which Gentiles were to be admitted to the
Christian communion.
—
288 THE ACTS. [XVL 4—
τὰ δόγματα τὰ κεκριμένα, the decrees that were ordained. The phrase
of James (xv. 19) was ἐγὼ κρίνω, and the decree was in the form ἔδοξεν
ἡμῖν (xv. 25).
δ. ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει, were established in the faith. This verb
is peculiar to the Acts, and is used (iii. 7, 16) of the strengthening of
the limbs of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. So
its employment here indicates that thus the Church was now prepared
to make great progress. The barrier to Gentile admission was removed,
and so the number of Christians multiplied daily.
orepedw is found both in the literal and metaphorical senses in the
LXX. The former is mostly concerning God, 6 στερεώσας τὴν γῆν καὶ
τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ (Is. xlii. 5). In a figurative sense (Prov. xx. 21) διαλογισμοὶ
ἐν βουλῇ στερεοῦνται.
6. διῆλθον δέ, and they passed through. The reading διελθόντες of
the Text. recept. is probably due to the participle which immediately
follows and has no conjunction.
τὴν Φρυγίαν kal Γαλατικὴν χώραν, Phrygia and the region of Gala-
tia. This was scarcely the direction, so far as population was con-
cerned, which would have been chosen by them of their own accord,
but the inner admonition of the Holy Ghost kept them from entering
Proconsular Asia. The news of the events at Jerusalem on the Day
of Pentecost were known to some in Phrygia already (ii. 10), but of
Galatia the history has yet made no mention, though we know from
St Paul’s Epistle to that Church that he afterwards had the warmest
interest in and greatest anxiety concerning the Christians there,
among whom Judaizers wrought like mischief with that done in An- —
tioch. From some expressions of St Paul (Gal. iv. 19) it seems likely
that it was from his own preaching at this time that Churches in
Galatia were founded.
κωλυθέντες, having been forbidden. As they had been forbidden the
one route they went by the other. St Luke says little about the events
in this part of the journey, probably because he was not of the
company, for his language below (v. 10) seems to shew that he only
joined St Paul at Troas.
Chrysostom’s reflection on the hindrance here spoken of is: διατί
μὲν οὖν ἐκωλύθησαν, οὐ λέγει. ὅτι δὲ ἐκωλύθησαν εἶπε, παιδεύων ἡμᾶς
πείθεσθαι μόνον καὶ μὴ ζητεῖν τὰς αἰτίας.
ἐν τῇ ᾿Ασίᾳ, in Asia. See note on ii. 9.
7. ἐλθόντες δὲ kata τὴν Μυσίαν, and being come over against
Mysia. The ‘to’ of A.V. is incorrect. The course of the journey
seems to have been through Galatia and Phrygia, until they got so
far to the west as to be opposite to, and on the borders of, Mysia.
From this point they were inclined to go north into Bithynia, rather
than further to the west, but were again hindered of their intention.
ἐπείραζον els τὴν Βιθυνίαν πορευθῆναι, they attempted to go into
Bithynia. This was their plan and they were ready to carry it out,
when they were inwardly admonished to go another way.
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XVI. 12.] NOTES. 289
τὸ πνεῦμα ᾿Ιησοῦ, the spirit of Jesus. In like manner (Rom. viii.
9) the ‘Spirit of God’ is called also the ‘Spirit of Christ.’ Cf. also
Gal: ty.-6; Phils sto 24 Pet: 1. Τ᾿
8. παρελθόντες δὲ τὴν Μυσίαν, and having passed by Mysia, 1.6.
without preaching there. Mysia was a district of Proconsular Asia,
where they were forbidden, by the Spirit, to preach.
εἰς Τρωάδα, to Troas, the well-known seaport on the coast of
Mysia.
9. καὶ ὅραμα Sia νυκτὸς τῷ Παύλῳ ὦφθη, and a vision appeared
to Paul by night. That such divine communications should be made
after the descent of the Holy Ghost was part of the fulfilment of the
prophecy of Joel about which Peter spake on the Day of Pentecost
(ii. 17). For their frequent occurrence cf. ix. 10, x. 3, 17, 19, xi. 5,
xii, 9, xviii. 9.
ἀνὴρ Μακεδών, a man of Macedonia. His nationality was made
known by the words of his request. :Ξ
10. ἐζητήσαμεν, we sought. The steps taken would be in the way
of inquiry how and when they could cross into Europe. For ¢yrew
with a verb of going, cf. LXX. 1 Kings xi, 22, ἰδοὺ od ζητεῖς ἀπελθεῖν
els τὴν γῆν σου.
At this point the writer begins to speak in the first person as if
now he became a sharer in St Paul’s labours. This he continues till
verse 17.
ἐξελθεῖν, to go forth. A word suitable for the first step in the next
extension of missionary work from Asia into Europe.
συμβιβάζοντες, assuredly gathering. The verb has the sense of
‘coming to a conclusion from putting things side by side.’ So it is
rendered ‘ proving’ in ix, 22 and elsewhere. Here it means ‘deeming
it to be proved.’
Chrysostom explains thus: ri ἐστι συμβιβάζοντες ; στοχαζόμενοι, φησί.
τῷ τε γὰρ Παῦλον ἰδεῖν καὶ μηδένα ἕτερον, καὶ τῷ κωλυθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ
πνεύματος καὶ τῷ πρὸς τοῖς ὅροις εἶναι, ἀπὸ τούτων ἁπάντων ταῦτα
συνῆγον.
11. Σαμοθράκην, Samothrace. This island lies in the north of the
Aegean Sea, opposite to that part of the Thracian coast at which the
river Hebrus empties itself.
Νέαν πόλιν, Neapolis, the port of Philippi. This place is generally
identified with the modern Kavalla. On the discussion about its
identity see Dictionary of the Bible (s. v.).
12. κἀκεῖθεν eis Φιλίππους, and from thence to Philippi. As there
is no change of the verb (εὐθυδρομήσαμεν) for the whole description of
the journey, we may conclude that it was all made by ship.
ἥτις ἐστὶν... κολωνία, which is a city of Macedonia, the first of the
district, a colony. Philippi and the country round had long been
famous by reason of the neighbouring gold-mines. At the time of St
Paul’s visit it was held by the Romans, and a colony had been founded
there by Augustus. The civil magistrates and the military authorities
THE ACTS 19
290 THE ACTS. [XVI 12—
were Roman. Hence the fear (xvi. 38) when they heard that prisoners
whom they had scourged were Roman citizens. For a history of
Philippi, see Dict. of the Bible.
It should be borne in mind that a Roman colony was not like what
we now calla colony. The inhabitants did not settle as they pleased,
but were sent out by authority from Rome, marching to their destina-
tion like an army with banners, and they reproduced, where they
settled, a close resemblance of Roman rule and life. They were planted
on the frontiers of the empire for protection, and as a check upon the
provincial magistrates. The names of those who went were still
enrolled in the lists of the tribes of Rome. Latin was their language,
and they used the Roman coinage, and had their chief magistrates
sent out or appointed from the mother city. Thus were they very
closely united with Rome, and entirely free from any intrusion on the
part of the governors of the provinces.
15. 34. PREACHING ON THE SABBATH AT PuHILIPP1. CONVERSION AND
Baptism or Lypra. A Sprrir or Divination cast out By St
Pauu. ANGER OF THOSE WHO MADE GAIN THEREBY. PAvuL AND
SILAS ARE SEIZED, BROUGHT BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES, SCOURGED
AND IMPRISONED, BUT THE Prison DooRS ARE OPENED BY A
MrracueE. CoNvERSION AND BaApTisM OF THE JAILOR AND HIS
HovusEHOLD.
13. τῇ τε ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων, and on the sabbath. The form
of the phrase is common in the LXX, Cf. Lev. xxiv. 8; Num.
xxviii. 9; Jer. xvii. 21, 22. But ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ σαββάτου is also fre-
quent.
ἔξω τῆς πύλης, outside the gate. The Jews probably found that their
worship was less likely to attract hostile notice and less liable to in-
terruption there than it would have been in the city.
οὗ ἐνομίζομεν προσευχὴν εἶναι, where we supposed there was a place
of prayer. The meaning of προσευχή here and in verse 16 is ‘a
place of prayer.’ The Jews had such προσευχαί, sometimes in build-
ings, sometimes in the open air, as was the case in this instance. The
word is found in this sense in Josephus, De vita sua, 54, συνάγονται
πάντες els THY προσευχὴν μέγιστον οἴκημα πολὺν ὄχλον ἐπιδέξασθαι δυνά-
μενον. They are described by Philo (ed. Mang.) m. 282. They were
very numerous in Rome (see Mayor, Juvenal, 11. 296). Because of
Jewish ceremonial washings they were, when in the open air, as often
as might be, near a river-side or on the sea-shore.. Cf. Ezra yiii.
15 and 21. And no doubt the language of Ps. cxxxvii. 1, ‘By the
rivers of Babylon we sat down,’ applies to a similar state of things.
καὶ καθίσαντες, and having sat down. Sitting was the usual atti-
tude of Jewish teachers.
ταῖς συνελθούσαις γυναιξίν, wnto the women which were come to-
gether. The Greek refers to those gathered together on this particular
occasion only. Considering the little regard which the Jews had
for women as persons to be conversed with and taught, it is note-
XVI. 16.] NOTES. 291
worthy how large a part women play botk in the Gospel History and
in the Acts. It was one effect of Christianity to place woman in her
true position.
14. Λυδία, Lydia. This may have been the woman’s proper name,
or it may only have been that by which she passed among the
colonists of Philippi, being from the Lydian town of Tiyatira. From
inscriptions which have been found on the site of the ancient town,
it is clear that dyeing was one of the staple trades of Thyatira, and it
was from thence that Lydia brought over the purple which she sold in
Philippi.
πόλεως Ovarelpwv, of the city of Thyatira. This city was on the
Lydian river Lycus. There was another river Lycus in Phrygia, in
the valley of which stood the cities of Laodiczea, Hierapolis and
Colosse, all afterwards the seats of Christian congregations in whose
welfare St Paul was deeply interested. See Col. iv. 13.
σεβομένη τὸν θεόν, who worshipped God, i.e. who had become a
proselyte to Judaism.
ἧς ὁ κύριος διήνοιξεν τὴν καρδίαν, whose heart the Lord opened. St
Luke recognizes that without this the word would have made no
entrance. He probably makes special mention of this here because
he had previously stated that the Lord had called them to preach
at Philippi. Having pointed out their work, He helps them to per-
form it.
For the phrase compare the prayer 2 Mace. i. 4, καὶ διανοίξαι τὴν Kap-
diay ὑμῶν ἐν τῷ νόμῳ αὐτοῦ.
προσέχειν, that she attended. For the construction see note on viii.
6. She gave such heed that she was convinced of the truth of what
was taught.
Chrysostom says here: τὸ μὲν οὖν ἀνοίξαι, Tov θεοῦ, τὸ δὲ προσέχειν,
αὐτῆς" ὥστε καὶ θεῖον καὶ ἀνθρώπινον ἦν.
15. καὶ ὁ οἶκος αὐτῆς, and her household. Of a like baptizing of a
household see below (v. 33), and also cf. xi. 14. We are not justified
in concluding from these passages that infants were baptized. ‘ House-
hold’ might mean slaves and freedwomen.
μένετε, abide there. Like the two disciples who followed Jesus
(John i. 38) Lydia was anxious to have the teachers whose lessons
she found so suited to the needs of her opened heart near unto her,
παρεβιάσατο ἡμάς, she constrained us. Used in N.T. only by St
Luke here and Luke xxiv. 29, of the two disciples at Emmaus. In
the LXX. it occurs more frequently and is used (1 Sam. xxviii. 23) of
the constraint put upon Saul at Endor to make him take food, also
(2 Kings ii. 17) of the urgent request made to Elisha by the prophets
at Jericho. Cf. also 2 Kings v. 16.
The force used was that of a prayer which would accept no ‘Nay.’
16. πορευομένων ἡμῶν εἰς THY προσευχήν, as we were going to the
place of prayer (see on verse 18). This verse must refer to a different
occasion from that on which Lydia was converted. In the previous
Ig—2
292 THE ACTS. [XVI. 16—
παρεβιάσατο it is implied that they consented to her request. Thus
they had already taken up their abode in Lydia’s house.
ἔχουσαν πνεῦμα πύθωνα, having a spirit, a Python. According to
Plutarch (De def. Orac. 9) those persons who practised ventriloquism,
ealled also ἐγγαστρίμυθοι, were named Pythons. But the damsel in
this history clearly laid claim to some prophetic power, and was
used as a means of foreknowing the future. So that the word
Python is better here referred to the name of Apollo, the heathen
god of prophecy, and the A.V. ‘ spirit of divination’ gives the correct
idea.
ἐργασίαν πολλήν, much gain. ἐργασία means first the ‘work done,’
and secondarily the ‘profit from it.’ Cf. Wisdom xiii. 19, περὶ δὲ
πορισμοῦ καὶ ἐργασίας, ‘and concerning gaining and getting’ (A.V.).
τοῖς κυρίοις αὐτῆς, to her masters. Some persons who having found
a strange power in the maiden made use of it, as has oft been done,
for their own purposes of gain, and persuaded the people to resort unto
her with their questions.
μαντευομένη, by soothsaying. This word is found nowhere else in
N.T., and wherever it is used in the LXX. it is invariably of the words
of lying prophets, or those who used arts forbidden by the Jewish Law.
Thus of the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 8) μάντευσαι δή μοι ἐν τῷ
ἐγγαστριμύθῳ, and (Ezek, xiii. 6) βλέποντες ψευδῆ, μαντευόμενοι μάταια.
Cf. also Deut. xviil. 10; Ezek. xii, 24, xxi, 29, xxii. 28; Mic. iii. 11.
Here therefore we must take it in the bad sense, ‘by pretending to
foretell the future.’
17. κατακολουθοῦσα τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ ἡμῖν, following Paul and us.
Whatever may have been the nature of the mental and spiritual malady
under which this damsel suffered, it produced on her the like effect
which is oft recorded of evil spirits in the history of Jesus (Mark i.
24; Luke iv. 41), and forced her to confess to the true character of the
Christian teachers. The devils believe and tremble (James ii. 19).
After this verse the writer ceases for a time to indicate by his lan-
guage that he was with St Paul, but in xx. 5, where the Apostle comes
once again to Philippi, the first person plural appears in the narrative.
It seems therefore not improbable that St Luke was left behind to
labour for the spread of the Gospel in Macedonia, and only taken
away again by St Paul after the work had been well established,
δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου, the servants of the Most High God. Cf.
the words of the demoniac, Mark v. 7.
oltives καταγγέλλουσιν ὑμῖν, who proclaim unto you. This is an
older reading than ἡμῖν, and it seems more like what one who had
been engaged in speaking as a soothsayer to others would say.
18. τοῦτο δὲ ἐποίει ἐπὶ πολλὰς ἡμέρας, this she did for many days.
Whether this following took place only on the sabbaths, when the
Apostles were going to the place of prayer, in which case the Apostles
must have remained in Philippi some weeks, or whether it was on
every occasion on which they appeared in public, we are not told.
XVI. 22.] NOTES. 293
διαπονηθεὶς δὲ TLatdos, but Paul beiny grieved. The same verb is
used (iv. 2) of the annoyance of the priests and Sadducees at the
teaching of the Apostles, and nowhere else in N.T. (See note there.)
Its sense is ‘to be thoroughly worn out with vexation.’
τῷ πνεύματι εἶπεν, said to the spirit. As Christ had acted when on
earth, so Paul now will not allow the cry of the evil spirit, even
though the words proclaim that he and his companions are servants
of the Most High God. Soin Christ’s name he bids the evil power
come forth.
19. ὅτι ἐξῆλθεν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς ἐργασίας αὐτῶν, that the hope of their
gain was gone. The verb ἐξῆλθεν is the same word which was used of
the spirit coming out of the damsel. We cannot produce the same
effect by English words. When the spirit went out, the hope of their
gain went out also. What the damsel herself may have thought of
her power we cannot tell. Probably, for their money-making pur-
poses, they had persuaded her that her ravings were prophetic.
ἐπιλαβόμενοι τὸν ἸΤαῦλον καὶ τὸν Σίλαν, having caught Paul and
Silas, as being the most prominent members of the mission party.
eis τὴν ἀγοράν, into the market-place. This was the great place of
concourse and where, as in the Roman forum, would be the seat of
the authorities.
ἄρχοντας, rulers. A very general term, the special members of the
magistracy being indicated in the next verse.
20. προσαγαγόντες αὐτοὺς τοῖς στρατηγοῖς, having brought them to
the magistrates. These στρατηγοί were the duumviri, the two pretors
specially appointed to preside over the administration of justice, in
cases where there was no appeal to Rome, in the municipia and
colonie of the Romans. The title στρατηγοί seems to indicate some-
what of a military authority, which could administer summary punish-
ment.
ἐκταράσσουσιν, do exceedingly trouble. Only used here in N.T. In
the LXX. it is twice found of terror arising from visions (Wisdom
XVii. 8; xviii. 17 φαντασίαι μὲν ὀνείρων δειν ὡς ἐξετάραξαν αὐτούς). Also in
Pss. xvii, 5, lxxxvii. 17, of the trouble caused by floods of ungodliness,
and by the terrors of the Lord. The kind of trouble spoken of in the
text is seen from xvii. 6. ‘These that have turned the world upside
down’ is the deseription of the preachers.
*Tovdator ὑπάρχοντες, being Jews. On the ways in which Roman
aversion was aroused and exhibited towards the Jews, for their reli-
gious exclusiveness, see Mayor Juvenal xtv. 96—106 notes, with the
authorities there given. Jew-baiting is no modern invention.
21. καὶ καταγγέλλουσιν ἔθη, and set forth customs. The verb refers
to the proclamation or preaching of the Apostles.
22. Kal συνεπέστη ὁ ὄχλος, and the multitude rose up together, i.e.
along with the aggrieved proprietors of the damsel.
περιρήξαντες αὐτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια, rent their (i.e. Paul and Silas’s)
clothes off them.
294 THE ACTS. [ΧΕ ΕΞ
ἐκέλευον ῥαβδίζειν, they commanded to beat them. ῥαβδίζειν, to beat
with rods was the office of the Roman lictor, who carried rods for this
purpose when attending on the magistrates. The use of this special
word is an indication that St Luke was aware of the particular kind
of beating, and perhaps beheld the infliction. This is one of the
occasions, no doubt, to which St Paul alludes (2 Cor. xi. 25), ‘Thrice
was I beaten with rods’ (ἐραβδίσθην).
On the sufferings of the Apostles at Philippi, Chrysostom says:
τούτοις συνεχῶς ἀναμιμνήσκωμεν ἑαυτοὺς παρακαλῶ, ὅσα ἔπαθον, ὅσα
ὑπέμειναν. πῶς οὐκ ἐθορυβοῦντο; πῶς οὐκ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο; τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ
ἔργον ἐποίουν καὶ ταῦτα ἔπασχον, οὐκ ἔλεγον, τί τοῦτο κηρύττομεν καὶ οὐ
προίσταται ἡμῖν ὁ θεός; ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο αὐτοὺς ὠφέλει, καὶ χωρὶς τῆς
βοηθείας αὐτῷ τῷ πράγματι εὐτονωτέρους ἐποίει, ἰσχυροτέρους, ἀκατα-
πλήκτους. % θλῖψις, φησίν, ὑπομονὴν κατεργάζεται.
23. ἔβαλον εἰς φυλακήν, they cast them into prison. So that they
should have no chance of teaching any longer. They appear (see v.
35) to have intended to keep them one night in prison and then to
turn them out of the city.
24. εἰς τὴν ἐσωτέραν φυλακήν, into the inner prison. Necessarily
a place dark and without ventilation, and hence foul and loathsome,
perhaps underground, like the Tullianum at Rome (Varr. L. L. v. §
161; Liv. xxrx. 22).
καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἠσφαλίσατο αὐτῶν εἰς τὸ ξύλον, and made their feet
fast in the stocks. The ξύλον (literally wood) was a means οὗ addi-
tional security and additional torture. The feet passed through holes
and held secure made rest almost impossible. The instrument was of
early use (cf. Job xxxiii. 11 (LXX.) ἔθετο δὲ ἐν ξύλῳ μου τὸν πόδα); and
the Greeks, as well as ourselves, had also the pillory, and had it made
with five apertures for head, hands and feet (Aristoph. Eq. 1049).
ἀσφαλίζομαι is used (Wisdom xiii. 15) of a man making his idol
firm in its place, ἐν τοίχῳ ἔθηκεν αὐτὸ ἀσφαλισάμενος σιδήρῳ.
25. κατὰ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον, and at midnight. Slee being out of
the question they passed the night in devotion. The imperfects ὕμνουν
and ἐπηκροῶντο in the verse indicate that the prayers and singing
were continued; but we have no means of adequately representing
this by idiomatic English,
οἱ δέσμιοι, the prisoners. The inner prison appears to have held
more than Paul and Silas, or it may be that bars in the inner walls
allowed the sound to pass into other cells. The verb is not the com-
mon one for ‘hearing,’ and is rarely found anywhere. It indicates
attentive hearkening.
The derived noun éraxpéacis is found in LXX. 1 Sam. xv. 22 ἡ
ἐπακρόασις ὑπὲρ στέαρ κριῶν, ‘Hearkening [i.e. obedient hearkening]
is better than the fat of rams.’
26. σεισμὸς ἐγένετο μέγας, there was a great earthquake. Just
as the place wherein the Apostles prayed (iy. 31) was shaken, so here
God testifies that He is near at hand.
XVI. 30.] NOTES. 295
πάντων τὰ δεσμὰ ἀνέθη, every one’s bands were loosed. The sense
in which these words are to be taken may be gathered from the rest
of the description. The chains (δεσμὰ) were made fast to the wall,
and the shock which burst asunder the bolts of the doors also released
the fastenings which held the chains in the masonry.
27. ἔξυπνος δὲ γενόμενος ὁ δεσμοφύλαξ, and the jailor awaking out
of his sleep. For ἔξυπνος cf. 1 Esdras 111. 3, ὁ βασιλεὺς... ἐκοιμήθη καὶ
ἔξυπνος ἐγένετο. It is only found in N.T. in this verse,
σπασάμενος μάχαιραν, having drawn his sword. The jailor proba-
bly slept in such a place that on rising he could observe at a glance
whether the prison doors were secure, and had his weapon close at
hand so that he might seize and use it on any emergency. He must
also have been so near to the open doors before he manifested any
design of suicide that the prisoners within could see what he was
doing. St Paul out of the dark could observe him before the jailor
could see farther than the opened doors.
ἤμελλεν ἑαυτὸν ἀναιρεῖν, he was about to kill himself. For he knew
what his fate would be. See xii. 19; and compare xxvii. 42, for the
way in which Roman officials must answer with their lives for the
escape of prisoners. Suicide under such circumstances would to the
jailor’s mind present the easiest way out of his difficulties, and the
teaching of even the greatest minds both of Greece and Rome was
that it was justifiable and under some circumstances praiseworthy.
The suicide of Cato (Catonis nobile letwm) furnished a constant text
for such teaching. (Cf. Cie. Tusc. 1. 88 9—119; Plat. Apol. 40.)
28. ἐφώνησεν δὲ φωνῇ μεγάλῃ Παῦλος, but Paul cried with a loud
voice. The sound of even one voice would arrest the jailor’s action,
for at the sight of the open doors he had concluded that all had made
use of the opportunity and had escaped.
29. αἰτήσας δὲ φῶτα, and having called for lights. He would
summon all the help he could, and would wish to make an inspection
of his charge as speedily as possible.
ἔντρομος γενόμενος, being terror-stricken. For the word see above,
, vu. 32. It is also found in LXX. Dan. x. 11; Wisd. xvii. 9; 1 Mace.
ΧΗ]. 2 ἔντρομος καὶ ἔμφοβος ; and in Pss. xvii. 8, lxxvi. 18 of the earth
in an earthquake, ἐσαλεύθη καὶ ἔντρομος ἐγενήθη ἡ γῆ. The jailor
connected all that had occurred with the two prisoners Paul and Silas,
and as they were not fled away, a change of feeling came over him,
and he at once judged them to be more than other men. Hence his
attitude becomes one of supplication and worship.
30. καὶ προαγαγὼν αὐτούς, and having brought them out. For there
could be no fear that they would flee now who had remained when the
open doors made escape easy.
κύριου, Sirs, literally, ‘Lords.’ He acknowledges by the word their
great superiority.
τί pe Set ποιεῖν ἵνα σωθῶ ; what mustI do to be saved? He had pro-
bably heard about the testimony of the possessed damsel, that Paul
296 THE ACTS. [X VI. 30—
and Silas shewed the way of salvation (verse 17), and now without
knowing what it fully meant, he cries out (in his misery, when
despair had prompted suicide), asking for the teaching which they had
to give.
31. πίστευσον ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν, believe on the Lord Jesus.
The word Χριστὸς which is inserted here in the Text. recept. would
not have the same significance for a Gentile as for a Jew, and may
well have been omitted in the address to the jailor. What was
asked from Gentile converts was to accept Jesus as their Lord.
The men whom he had just called ‘Lords’ point him to the only
‘ Lord.’
Kal 6 οἶκός σου, and thy house. The thought is that what the
head of the family did would be followed by the rest. The remark
made above (verse 15) on the meaning of οἶκος is not so applicable
here. The jailor was not likely to have a slave-household. But
whoever the members were, we see from the next verse that they were
willing hearers.
The reflection of Chrysostom is: μάλιστα τοῦτο τοὺς ἀνθρώπους
ἐφέλκεται, τὸ Kal τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ σωθῆναι.
82. τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, the word of the Lord, i.e. he preached ἰο
him the doctrine of Christ, in the only way then possible, by the narra-
tive of His life and its purpose.
33. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ τῆς νυκτός, in that same hour of the night. It
was midnight, see verse 25. But a new day, a birthday, had already
begun for him and it must be kept as a feast. So he does his utmost
to shew his rejoicing by care for those who had caused it.
ἔλουσεν ἀπὸ τῶν πληγῶν, he washed their stripes. An act of atten-
tion which had not been bestowed before. They were thrust into the
inner prison with their wounds all bleeding and uncared for. The
literal sense is ‘washed (them) from their wounds,’ i.e. from the stains
and blood which their wounds had caused. Cf. Apoc. i. 5, λούσαντι
ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμών.
Chrysostom here remarks: ἐκείνους μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν πληγῶν ἔλουσεν,
αὐτὸς δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἐλούθη, ἔθρεψε καὶ ἐτραφη.
84. παρέθηκεν τράπεζαν, he set meat (lit. a table) before them. He
would not let them remain longer in the dungeon, but took means
to testify how the dawn of faith had filled him with joy.
καὶ ἠγαλλιάσατο πανοικὶ πεπιστευκὼς τῷ θεῷ, and rejoiced with all
his house, having believed in God. He had been taught in verse 31 ‘to
believe on the Lord Jesus,’ and we must explain this verse by that.
To believe on Jesus is to believe what God has made known concern-
ing Him. This the jailor had heard in ‘the word of the Lord’
(verse 32), that story which told how in Jesus all the prophecies were
fulfilled, and how by His mighty works He had shewn that He was
the Son of God.
It is scarcely possible to help being struck in this chapter with the
account of the effect of the first preaching of the Gospel in Europe,
ἘΝ]: NOTES. 297
We see at once its universality and its power. The first notable con-
vert is Lydia, the Asiatic settler, a woman evidently of wealth, posi- |
tion and refinement; then the demoniac slave-girl is made an instru-
ment of proclaiming the presence and power of the Most High God;
and last, the Roman jailor, of a class, insensible as a rule and
hardened by habit, and also disposed to despise the Jews who were
the bearers of the message of the Gospel. The converts of Philippi
(the firstfruits of St Paul’s preaching in Europe) were types and an
earnest of how Christ’s cause would make its way.
35—40. THE MacIsTRATES WOULD SEND THEM AWAY, BUT PAuL
REFUSES TO BE THUS DISMISSED. HE ANNOUNCES THAT THEY
ARE RoMANS, AND THE MAGISTRATES IN FEAR BESEECH THEM TO
DEPART. THEY TAKE LEAVE OF LyDIA AND THE BRETHREN AND
LEAVE PHInIprt.
35. τοὺς ῥαβδούχους, the serjeants. Literally, ‘rodbearers.’ These
were the lictors, that attended on the pretors (duumviri, στρατηγοί),
probably the same persons who on the previous day had scourged Paul
and Silas, and were now sent to see that they were got rid of.
36. ἀπήγγειλεν δὲ... τοὺς λόγους τούτους, and he reported these
words. No doubt he came with great joy, and it is evident that
Paul and Silas had gone back to their prison after the events at mid-
night.
ἐξελθόντες πορεύεσθε, come forth and go, i.e. out of the prison, in
which they were still remaining to abide what should befall.
37. ὁ δὲ ΤΓαῦλος ἔφη πρὸς αὐτούς, but Paul said unto them, i.e.
to the lictors, through the jailor. Itis highly probable that the con-
versation of the Roman officers would be in Latin, and that the pro-
ceedings of the previous day may have been conducted in that language.
In this way, if Paul and Silas were unfamiliar with the Latin speech,
we might account for the non-mention or the disregard of their Roman
citizenship. If either the Apostle did not comprehend all that was
going on or could not, amid the confusion of such a tumultuous court,
make himself understood, the message which he now sends to the
magistrates might have had no chance of being heard before the scourg-
ing was inflicted.
δείραντες ἡμᾶς δημοσίᾳ, having beaten us publicly. For no doubt
they had been lashed to the palus or public whipping-post in sight of
all the people.
ἀκατακρίτους, uncondemned. There had been no reality of a trial,
no attempt to get at the truth. For all that had been listened to was
the charge of the accusers, who, leaving out all mention of the real
reason of their charge, viz. that they had lost a source of money-
making, put forward the plea that the missionaries were disturbers of
public law and order. The crowd shouted with the accusers, and the
magistrates, forgetting their position, joined with the mob (verse 22) in
the assault on the Apostles.
298 THE ACTS. [|X VI. 37—
ἀνθρώπους Ρωμαίους ὑπάρχοντας, men that are Romans. This is in
marked contrast with the charge of the accusers, which ran, ‘These
men, being Jews.’ The laws which had been violated by this act were
the Lex Valeria (s.c. 508) and the Lex Porcia (Β.σ. 800). On the out-
rage, compare Cicero’s language in the Verrine orations (v. 66), ‘ Faci-
nus est vinciri civem Romanum, scelus verberari, prope parricidium
necari.’
λάθρα ἡμᾶς ἐκβάλλουσιν ; are they thrusting us out privily? The
Apostle would say, Our punishment was in public, let our dismissal be
public too.
ov γάρ, ἀλλά. The explanation of this combination of particles
appears to be to understand the previous question as a refusal to come
forth=‘We will not be thrust out privily. For that is not what ought
to be, but let them come,’ &e. So that the ‘Nay verily’ of A.V. gives
the sense very well.
38. ἐφοβήθησαν δέ, and they were afraid, because a Roman citizen
had a right of appeal to the emperor, and outrage on such a man was
visited with severe penalties.
“Ῥωμαῖοί εἰσιν, they are Romans. The words are reported exactly as
the messengers would utter them; ὅτι is no more than a mark of
quotation.
39. ἠρώτων απελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως, they desired them to depart
from the city. Finding how much they had offended, they become
very humble, and beg the disciples to relieve them of their anxiety
by quitting Philippi. We are not told how Paul and Silas established
their statement, but they must have produced satisfactory proof to
inspire so much fear. We hear of Paul’s claim afterwards when he
appeals to Cesar. Of Silas’ right to citizenship we have no further
evidence.
40. πρὸς τὴν Λυδίαν, into the house of Lydia. Waiting there
probably till they were fit to travel farther. But in the midst of
the suffering they still exhort and comfort the Christians whom in their
stay they had gathered into a Church.
How deep the mutual affection was, which afterwards existed between
St Paul and these Philippians, his first European converts, is manifest
in every line of the Epistle which he wrote to them from Rome in his
first imprisonment. They are his greatest joy, they have given him no
cause for sorrow, and from first to last have ministered to his afflic-
tions, and made manifest how they prized their ‘ Father in Christ.’
The jubilant language of the letter is marked by the oft-repeated
* Rejoice in the Lord.’
CHAPTER XVII.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
1. ἡ omitted before συναγωγὴ with NABD.
4. πλῆθος πολύ with NABDE. Vulg. ‘multitudo magna.’
xe NOTES. 299
ο΄ δ. ἀπειθοῦντες omitted before ᾿Ιουδαῖοι with NABE. Not repre-
sented in Vulg.
προαγαγεῖν with SAB, Vulg. ‘producere.’
7. βασιλέα ἕτερον λέγοντες with NAB. Vulg. ‘regem alium dicen-
tes.’
13. Kal ταράσσοντες added before τοὺς ὄχλους with NABD. Vulg.
‘et turbantes.’
15. αὐτὸν before ἕως ᾿Αθηνῶν omitted with NABD. Vulg. has ‘eum.’
18. αὐτοῖς before εὐηγγελίζετο omitted with NBLP. Vulg. has ‘eis.’
20. τίνα θέλει with NAB. Vulg. ‘quidnam velint.’
21. ἢ for καὶ before ἀκούειν with NABD. Vulg. ‘aut.’
23. ὃ for ὃν, τοῦτο for τοῦτον, with NABD. Vulg. ‘Quod...hoe.’
24. ὑπάρχων κύριος with NABE. Vulg. ‘cum sit dominus.’
26. αἵματος omitted with SAB. Not represented in Vulg.
προστεταγμένους with NABDEHLP. Vulg. ‘statuta tempora.’
27. θεόν for κύριον with NABHL. Vulg. ‘Deum.’
30. πάντας for πᾶσι with NABD. Vulg. ‘hominibus ut omnes.’
32. καὶ before πάλιν added with NAB. Not represented in Vulg.
33. καὶ before οὕτως omitted with NAB. Vulg. has only ‘sic.’
Cu. XVII. 1—9. Pavt AND Sinas JoURNEY TROUGH AMPHIPOLIS AND
APOLLONIA TO THESSALONICA, WHERE SOME OF THE JEWS RAISE AN
UPROAR AGAINST THEM AND JASON THEIR Host.
1. διοδεύσαντες δέ, and when they had passed through. This verb,
of rare occurrence in classical Greek, but common in the LXX. (ef.
Gen. xil. 6; Ps. Ixxxviii. 40; Baruch iv. 2, &c.), is found in the N.T.
only here and in Luke viii, 1. The use of the same words and phrases
is a noticeable point in support of the identity of authorship of the
two books.
Ἀ
τὴν ᾿Αμφίπολιν καὶ ᾿Απολλωνίαν, Amphipolis and Apollonia. ‘The
journey is made to the south and west. Amphipolis was about 33
miles distant from Philippi, along the Egnatian road. It had been a
famous place in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and was in St
Paul’s time a great Roman military station. Its name was given to it
_ because it was as nearly as possible enclosed by the winding stream of
the river Strymon. Apollonia was about 30 miles farther on, in the
district of Macedonia known as Mygdonia, and about 37 miles from
Thessalonica. The Apostle and his companions appear not to have
made any stay in these towns. Chrysostom accounts for their haste
thus: πάλιν τὰς μὲν μικρὰς παρατρέχουσι πόλεις, ἐπὶ δὲ Tas μείζους ἐπεί-
300 THE ACTS. (XVI
γονται, ἐκεῖθεν καθάπερ ἔκ Twos πηγῆς μέλλοντος τοῦ λόγου diappéew εἰς
τὰς πλησίον.
Θεσσαλονίκην, Thessalonica, the modern Saloniki, to the Chris-
tians of which place St Paul afterwards addressed the two earliest of
his extant epistles. From very early times Thessalonica had been a
famous place. Its old name was Therma, and it was called Thessalo-
nica after a sister of Alexander the Great. It is now one of the most
important towns in European Turkey, and it played a great part in
the history of the Middle Ages as the bulwark of Christendom in the
East. It was captured by the Saracens a.p. 904, then by the Cru-
saders in 1184, and lastly by the Turks in 1430. Even now there is a
large Christian element among its population, and a still larger num-
ber of Jews.
συναγωγὴ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, a synagogue of the Jews. Apparently at
Philippi there had been no synagogue. But Thessalonica may have
had a larger Jewish population, and numerous enough to provide and
support a building for their religious services.
2. κατὰ δὲ τὸ εἰωθός, and as his manner was. On the Apostle’s
constant habit of going to the synagogues see xiii. 5, 14, xiv. 1,
&e. The dative case stands after εἰωθός, instead of the genitive, be-
cause the verb ἔθω governs a dative.
εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτούς, he went in unto them. And he was no doubt
asked (as on a former occasion xiii. 15) to offer any exhortation to the
people, if he were moved so to do.
ἐπὶ σάββατα τρία, three sabbath days. On which days the Jews
would be sure to gather in greater numbers, and for the other days of
the week to be less accessible.
3. Stavolywv, opening. St Luke (and he only in the N.T. xxiv, 32)
uses this verb of making plain what before was not understood. We
may see from that passage what had been St Paul’s work in Thessa-
lonica, ‘He began at Moses and all the prophets and expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Christ.’
Kal παρατιθέμενος, and alleging. ‘The more modern use of allege =
to assert, has somewhat obscured the older English meaning, which
was merely ‘to set forth.’ παρατίθημι signifies primarily ‘to set out
food, &c. on a table,’ and then figuratively ‘to set out arguments,’
but without the idea of assertion. St Paul reasoned but only out of
the Scriptures. For the English word οἵ, Coverdale, Works (Parker
Soc.), p. 14, ‘We will first declare our mind out of Scripture and
allege (i.e. set before you) somewhat more for the better understanding
of the matter.’
ὅτι τὸν Χριστὸν ἔδει παθεῖν, that it behoved the Christ to suffer. The
Messiah, whom the Jews expected, they looked for in New Testament
days only as a mighty conqueror who should deliver them from their
oppressors. Their wishes had been father to their thoughts, and they
overlooked all that spake of the Messiah as the ‘Man of sorrows.’
This portion of the Scriptures it was which St Paul opened.
XVII. 5.] | NOTES. 301
καὶ ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν, and to rise from the dead. For they, like
the disciples themselves in earlier days (John xx. 9), ‘understood not
the Scriptures (such as Ps. xvi. 10) that He must rise again from the
dead.’
καὶ ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς ὃν ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν, and
this (said he) is Christ Jesus whom I proclaim unto you. There 15 8
change in the structure of the sentence from the indirect to the direct
form of expression which can be best made intelligible by the insertion
of ‘said he.’ Cf. chap. i. 4.
Jesus has fulfilled the prophecies. He has suffered, risen from the
dead and ascended into heaven. And we are witnesses to and preachers
of this glad tidings.
On the brevity of St Luke’s reports of the discourses which he
mentions, Chrysostom notes here: τὸ κεφάλαιον εἶπε τῆς διαλέξεως"
οὕτως ἀπέριττός ἐστιν, οὐ πανταχοῦ τὰς δημηγορίας αὐτοῦ λέγων.
4. καί τινες ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπείσθησαν, and some of them were persuaded.
For the Apostle’s teaching was by arguments which they could fully
appreciate.
καὶ προσεκληρώθησαν, and consorted with. But it should be kept
in mind that the verb is passive. The literal sense is ‘they were
allotted to.’ They joined the company of the Apostles, but there was
a power which acted on them other than their mere inclination, They
were inwardly moved to what they did.
τῶν τε σεβομένων ᾿ Ελλήνων πλῆθος πολύ, and of the devout Greeks
a great multitude. These were proselytes of the gate, heathens by birth,
but having in part embraced the Jews’ religion (cf. xiii. 43, 50, and
verse 17 of this chapter), Such men were likely to join St Paul in
greater numbers, for they had not the prejudices of the born Jew.
5. ζηλώσαντες δὲ οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, but the Jews being moved with envy.
This must refer to those who still clung to all the ritual and traditional
exclusiveness which had grown up around the Mosaic Law. {os in
its worse sense expresses their anger and dislike at seeing large num-
bers drawn away from their opinions.
τῶν ἀγοραίων τινὰς ἄνδρας πονηρούς, certain vile fellows of the
rabble. ἀγοραῖος, ‘ of the rabble,’ is properly the man who having no
calling lounges about the ἀγορά, the market-place, in the hope of
picking up a chance living, and who is ready for anything bad or good
that may present itself. We have no English word sufficiently digni-
fied to use for such aterm in translation. ‘Loafer’ comes nearest, but
of course is too colloquial. The word ‘lewd’ (A.V. for πονηρούς) meant
in old English ‘people,’ but afterwards came to signify (1) ‘the com-
mon people,’ and (2) ‘the ignorant and rude among the people,’ which
is the sense intended by the A.V. The word nearest akin to ‘lewd’
is the Germ. Leute = people.
ἐθορύβουν τὴν πόλιν, they set the city in an uproar. The Jews in
Thessalonica were clearly numerous and influential or they would
never have stirred up sucha tumult. To help their case they chose
302 THE ACTS. [XVIL. 5—
(see verse 7) to raise the cry that the new teachers were enemies of the
Roman power.
τῇ οἰκίᾳ ᾿Ιάσονος, the house of Jason. Manifestly the host of Paul
and Silas. Beyond what is said of him in the following verses (6—9)
we know nothing. The name is found, Rom. xvi. 21, in a list of
those whom St Paul speaks of as his ‘kinsmen,’ but this may be quite
a different person. He is most likely to have been a Jew, whose
proper name perhaps was Joseph, and Jason, which is Greek, may be
only that which he used in his intercourse with Gentiles,
αὐτοὺς προαγαγεῖν els τὸν δῆμον, to bring them forth to the people.
So that the excited mob might inflict summary vengeance upon them.
6. ἔσυρον ᾿Ιάσονα, they dragged Jason. ctpew is expressive of con-
siderable violence. It is used (viii. 3) of Saul, ‘haling’ men and
women and committing them to prison.
On Jason’s conduct, Chrysostom says: θαυμαστὸς ὁ ἀνήρ, els κίνδυνον
ἑαυτὸν ἐκδοὺς καὶ ἐκπέμψας αὐτούς. ͵“
καί τινας ἀδελφούς, and certain brethren. Hence we find that in
these three weeks a Church had been formed, a Christian society esta-
blished.
ἐπὶ τοὺς πολιτάρχας, to the rulers of the city. The title πολιτάρχης
is found nowhere in literature except in this chapter. But an inscrip-
tion connected with this very city of Thessalonica has been preserved
on an arch which spans a street of the modern city. It contains some
names which occur as the names of St Paul’s converts, Sosipater,
Gaius, Secundus, but the inscription is prdbably not earlier than the
time of Vespasian (see Boeckh, Inscr. 2, p. 52, n. 1967). There the
title of the magistrates is given in this precise form; a striking con-
firmation of the truthfulness of the account before us.
τὴν οἰκουμένην, the world. Lit. ‘the inhabited earth.’ A phrase
used in later Greek to signify the whole Roman Empire, which then
embraced a very large portion of the known world (cf. Luke ii. 1). It
speaks much for the spread of Christianity and its powerful infiuence,
that words like these should come from the lips of enemies.
ἀναστατώσαντες, having turned upside down. The word is very
rare, used by Aquila and Symmachus, and perhaps in Ps. x. 1 (LXX.),
though this is not the reading of the Vatican MS. In N.T. we have
it here and xxi. 38; and Gal. v. 12.
7. ods ὑποδέδεκται ᾿Ιάσων, whom Jason hath received, as guests
into his house. Thus he would be counted for a sympathizer with
their teaching, as most probably he was. For the verb οἵ. Tobit vii.
9; 1 Mace. xvi. 15,
οὗτοι πάντες, these all. Implying that Paul and Silas, whom they
had not found, would be included in the accusation, if they could be
caught.
βασιλέα ἕτερον λέγοντες εἶναι ᾿Ιησοῦν, saying that there is another
king, one Jesus. So far as this chapter gives an account of St Paul’s
XVII. 11.] NOTES. | 303
preaching, he had only drawn the attention of the Jews to the suffer-
ings of the Messiah, but we cannot doubt that he had also spoken of
His kingdom. Such language the mob would be urged to seize on,
and make it the justification for their uproar, for Thessalonica though
a tree city was subject to the Emperor.
8. ἐτάραξαν δὲ τὸν ὄχλον, and they troubled the people, with lan-
guage like this, which seemed to speak of insurrection. Thus the mob
would be made eager for the punishment of the Apostles.
9. Kal λαβόντες τὸ ἱκανὸν παρὰ τοῦ ᾿Ιάσονος, and when they had
taken security of Jason, i.e. having made him responsible either by his
finding securities to be bound with and for him, or by making him
give some deposit as a pledge for his good conduct, they took measures
for securing, so far as those at present in custody were concerned,
that they should commit no treason.
τὸ ἱκανὸν λαβεῖν seems to be a rendering of a Latin expression
satis accipere. The Greek phrase is not found elsewhere, but the
converse ἱκανὸν touiy=satis dare, to give security, occurs in Diog.
Laert. tv. 50.
10—15. Pau AND Simas SENT AWAY TO BER@A. Nose CHARACTER OF
THE Bera@ans. THE JEws FRoM THESSALONICA FOLLOW AFTER PAvt,
AND BY REASON OF THEIR ENMITY HE IS CONDUCTED TO ATHENS.
10. Sid νυκτός, by night. The preposition refers to the time within
(during) which the action took place.
ἐξέπεμψαν tov te ΤΤαῦλον καὶ τὸν Σίλαν, they sent away Paul and
Silas. The after-conduct of the Thessalonian Jews (see verse 13) shews
that they were determined to bring danger on the missionaries. Feel-
ing that this was so, their friends got them out of the way.
εἰς Βέροιαν, unto Berea. Still the journey is south-west. The old
name of Bercea may be recognised in the modern Verria.
εἰς THY συναγωγήν, into the synagogue. See above on verse 2.
11. εὐγενέστεροι, more noble. εὐγενής is applied first to nobility of
birth ; but its secondary sense is, as here, nobility of character. The
latter ought to be a consequence of the former. Cf. 2 Macc. xiv. 42
εὐγενῶς θέλων ἀποθανεῖν, Wishing to die nobly. Also see 2 Mace. x. 13.
ἐδέξαντο τὸν λόγον, they received the word, i.e. the word published
to them as the word of God. It was the same teaching which had
been given to the Jews in Thessalonica. This we see because the
Berceans go to the O. T. Scriptures to examine into the truth of what
they hear. Here we have a noteworthy instance of the right of private
judgment. Even an Apostle’s word is not to be taken for granted.
The noble Berceans were ready to listen, and then diligent to examine
into the grounds of what was said.
ἀνακρίνοντες τὰς γραφάς, searching the Scriptures. This is a diffe-
rent verb from that so rendered in John v. 39, which is ἐρευνᾶν.
avaxpivew has the sense of examining and sifting evidence. It was
used in Attic law of the steps taken by the lawyers to see whether an
304 THE ACTS. (XVIT. 11—
action would lie. It is used by the LXX. 1 Sam. xx. 12, where our
A.V. renders ‘when I have sounded [Heb. searched] my father,’ also
in Susanna 51 of Daniel’s examination of the elders.
εἰ ἔχοι ταῦτα οὕτως, whether those things were 80. The optative
mood implies that they had conceived the possibility in their minds,
but still would examine before accepting what was said. Cf. Winer-
Moulton, p. 364.
12. tav‘' Ed\Anvidev γυναικῶν τῶν εὐσχημόνων, of honourable women
which were Greeks. See above on xiii. 50.
The adjective ‘E\\nvis agrees in gender with γυναικῶν because it
stands before that word in the sentence, but it probably is intended
to define ἀνδρῶν too. The Jewish population has been previously
described as ready to search the Scriptures. The men as well as the
women who are mentioned afterwards were most likely all Gentiles.
13. ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, the word of God. This is the language of the
author. The Thessalonian Jews would not have called St Paul’s
preaching by such a name.
σαλεύοντες Kal ταράσσοντες τοὺς ὄχλους, stirring up and troubling
the multitudes. The figures in these verbs are of a storm at sea where
all is stirred up from the depth. The second verb ταράσσω has already
occurred in verse 8, and it is probable from this that the trouble in
Bercea was produced in the same way as before by the statement that
the Apostles were traitors to the Roman power. For the figurative
language cf. LXX. Ps. xvii. 8, καὶ ἐσαλεύθη καὶ ἔντρομος ἔγενήθη ἡ γῆ,
καὶ τὰ θεμέλια τῶν ὀρέων ἐταράχθησαν καὶ ἐσαλεύθησαν ὅτι ὠργίσθη αὐτοῖς
ὁ θεός. Also Pss. xlvii. 5, evi. 27.
14. εὐθέως δέ, and immediately. As from Thessalonica, so from
Bercea, the departure is made with all haste. The charge of conspir-
ing against Cesar, which was probably put forward everywhere, had
a very dangerous effect on the popular mind.
πορεύεσθαι ἕως ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, to go as far as to the sea. This
is to be preferred to the Text. recept. for several reasons. First it has
stronger MS. support. And further it agrees better with the history.
The A.V. ‘to go as it were to the sea’ represents the ws of Tezt.
recept., and would imply that for a while the travellers made as
though they were bound towards the sea, but then to baffle pursuit
turned and took the land road to Athens. But it is difficult to under-
stand that St Paul would have gone on through Thessaly and all the
intervening districts which lie north of Attica, and never have sought
an opportunity of preaching the word anywhere till Athens was
reached. If however he were conveyed to the sea and took ship and
was thus brought to Athens, it is easy to understand that the next
place mentioned in the journey is Athens. It is clear too from the
whole account of St Paul’s travels, that he was a person who by reason
of his infirmities could not easily travel alone. That such a person
should have been brought so long a distance by land, where the sea-
voyage was so accessible and easy, is hardly to be imagined. It may
well be that at the departure from Bercea the design was to wait at the
XVII. 16.] NOTES. 305
coast till his proper companions could come to him, but that when
the sea was reached there was found a speedy opportunity of sailing
into Attica, which the Apostle embraced, as his conductors were will-
ing to go all the way with him.
ὑπέμεινάν τε ὅ τε Σίλας Kal ὁ Τιμόθεος ἐκεῖ, but Silas and Timothy
abode there still. For they had played a less prominent part, and
therefore were not in such peril as St Paul.
15. ot δὲ καθιστάνοντες, and they who conducted. This form
καθιστάνω, which is found nowhere else in N.T. in this sense, is the
same word as the more usual καθίστημι; and the use of this word
conveys the idea that the whole care and ordering of the journey was
in the hands of his conductors and not of St Paul. καθίστημι is used
of the way in which the Israelites led Rahab and all that belonged to
her out of Jericho (Joshua vi. 23); also see 2 Chron. xxviii. 15 of
the way in which the Judean captives were sent back, καὶ ἀνέστησαν
...kal πάντας τοὺς γυμνοὺς περιέβαλον ἀπὸ τῶν σκύλων Kal ἐνέδυσαν
αὐτοὺς καὶ ὑπέδησαν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔδωκαν φαγεῖν καὶ ἀλείψασθαι... καὶ κατέ-
στησαν αὐτοὺς εἰς ἱΤεριχώ.
ἤγαγον ἕως ᾿Αθηνῶν, brought him unto Athens, And of course saw
him safely settled where he could wait for his fellow-missionaries,
which he seems to have designed to do, without preaching, had not
his spirit been roused by the sights he saw.
ὡς τάχιστα, with all speed. This charge was given because Paul
was now to be left alone; and would not readily set about his mission
till he had some companion.
16—21. PavL, PROVOKED BY THE PREVALENCE OF IponaTRY AT ATHENS,
FIRST ADDRESSES THE JEWS AND THEN THE GENTILES. SOME OF
THE PHILOSOPHERS QUESTION HIM ON HIS TEACHING, AND BRING HIM
TO THE AREOPAGUS THAT THEY MAY HEAR HIM MORE AT FULL.
16. παρωξύνετο τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ, his spirit was stirred
in him. But the stirring was of the sharpest. It was a parorysm.
He was provoked till he could not forbear, could not hold his peace
till Timothy and Silas arrived. On this Chrysostom says, οὐκ ὀργὴν
ἐνταῦθα, οὐδὲ ἀγανάκτησιν 6 παροξυσμός, ἀλλὰ διέγερσιν καὶ ζῆλον δηλοῖ,
καθάπερ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ (xv. 89). ἐγένετο, φησί, παροξυσμὸς μεταξὺ αὐτῶν.
ὅρα δε πῶς οἰκονομεῖται καὶ ἄκοντα μεῖναι ἐκεῖ ἐκδεχόμενον ἐκείνους. τί
οὖν ἐστι, παρωξύνετο; ἀντὶ τοῦ denyetpeto. ὀργῆς καὶ ἀγανακτήσεως
πόῤῥω τὸ χάρισμα. οὐκ ἔφερεν ἀλλ᾽ ἐτήκετο.
θεωροῦντος κιτιλ., as he beheld the city full of idols. This agrees
with the facts. What St Paul beheld was the numerous statues erected,
some to one god, some to another. That the city was wholly given to
idolatry was the inference from this abundance of idols. The muti-
lation of the busts of Hermes before the Sicilian expedition in the
Peloponnesian war shews how numerous were the statues erected
to one divinity only. Time had added many to the number before St
Paul’s visit.
THE ACTS 20
306 THE ACTS. [XVIT. 16—
With κατείδωλος may be compared κατάδενδρος, κατάκαρπος, κατάκο-.
μος, κατάμπελος &e., which all have the notion of ‘abounding with.’
17. διελέγετο... τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαῖοις, therefore he reasoned in the syna-
gogue with the Jews, Going to them first, as sure to find from them
sympathy in his horror against idolatry.
τοῖς σεβομένοις, with the devout persons, the proselytes of the gate.
See above on xiii. 50.
καὶ ἐν TH ἀγορᾷ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν, and in the market daily. One
cannot but be reminded of the way in which Socrates some centuries
earlier had thus gone about in the same city, seizing eagerly on every
one who would listen, and trying, according to his light, to shew them
higher things, to open their eyes that they might discern between real
knowledge and conceit without knowledge.
18. τινὲς δὲ kal τῶν ᾿Εἰπικουρείων kal Drwikav heen then cer-
tain philosophers, both of the Epicureans and of the Stoics. In St Paul’s
day these two systems of philosophy were most prominent through-
out the Roman world, and were regarded as conflicting, though in
many points they bear a strong likeness to one another. Both were
the result of a desire to find some better principle for the guidance of
man’s moral nature than could be found in the so-called religious
systems of Greece and Rome. But before the Christian era much
that was best in both schools had sadly degenerated from its pristine
character.
‘The founder of the Stoics was Zeno of Citium in Cyprus. His pre-
cise date is uncertain, but he flourished in the century between B.c.
350—250. The first lesson of his teaching was that the highest duty
of the philosopher was to practise virtue. For the doing this know-
ledge was necessary, and the only knowledge that could be relied on
was that which was based upon sensation. Reality belonged only to
material things such as the senses could appreciate. In this manner the
Stoic philosophy became materialist. For though owning the existence
of God and of the soulin man, Zeno and his followers spake of these as, ©
in some sense, material. But they termed God the soul of the universe,
and taught that all things are produced from him, and will at last be
absorbed into him again. And then a new world-cycle will begin and
be in all respects like that which went before. So the Stoics were
Pantheists. They taught moreover that the universe was governed by
‘unchanging law, that the lot of individuals, and the occurrence of
particular events, were all uncertain. The care of Providence was for
the fabric of the universe, and only indirectly extended to particulars
or individuals whose lot was bound up with the unchanging course of
fixed law. The Stoics therefore were Fatalists. The way in which the
individual could make the nearest approach to happiness was by bring-
ing himself, through knowledge, into harmony with the course of the
universe. But so unimportant did the individual appear to these phi-
losophers, that suicide was held to be lawful, and at times praiseworthy.
They were conscious of both physical and moral evil in the world, and
from this men might escape by self-inflicted death. They taught how-
XVII. 18.] NOTES. 307
ever that, though the virtuous might have to suffer, no real evil happens -
to them, nor real good to the vicious. Fortified with this thought, the
Stoic trained himself to be proudly independent of externals, and to
bear evils, should they come, with indifference, and thus he strove to
secure undisturbed peace of mind. Materialism, Pantheism, Fatalism
and pride, were the features of one of the systems into contact with
which St Paul was brought at Athens.
The Epicureans (named from Epicurus, born at Samos 8.6. 342)
agreed with the Stoics that philosophy should seek to promote the
happiness of man, but maintained that this end could be best gained
by the pursuit of pleasure. By this language they did not intend pro-
fligate pleasure, but a state wherein the body was free from pain and
the mind from disturbance. They too made the senses their means of
judging of what is pleasure, and so with them man became the measure
of all good for himself. Thus the Epicureans were materialists. But
differing from the Stoics they taught the world was formed by chance,
and that the gods had no concern in its creation. Their gods were
described as perfectly happy, dwelling apart and caring neither for the
world nor its inhabitants. Thus the Epicureans were practical atheists.
With them man might approach to a state of happiness by cireum-
scribing his wants, so that life might be free from care. To restrain
the senses was the Epicurean road to happiness, to crush them as much
as possible into insensibility was the path of the Stoic. But having
such thoughts of the gods, neither system had in any way run counter
to the popular theology. By doing so the Stoic would fear lest he
should be thought to deny God altogether, while the Epicurean, though
thinking all such worship folly, yet felt it too great an interruption to
the pleasure which he sought, to become an advocate of the abolition of
idol worship. So St Paul found Athens crowded with the images and
altars of the gods.
συνέβαλλον αὐτῷ, encountered him, i.e. met him in disputation,
argued with him. The word is used of the Sanhedrin holding a debate
among themselves (iv. 15) on what was to be done with the Apostles.
τί dv θέλοι ὁ σπερμολόγος οὗτος λέγειν ; what would this babbler say?
i.e. if we would listen to him.
σπερμολόγος is not found elsewhere in N.T. or LXX. In profane
writers it is used of birds picking up scattered grain, and then figura-
tively of men who pick up a living as best they may, and hence are
willing to flatter for the sake of what they can get. Men without
principle or ground in what they say.
ξένων ϑαιμονίων... εἶναι, he seems to be a setter-forth of strange
gods. δαιμόνια, from which comes the English ‘demon,’ was used in
classical Greek mostly to denote some inferior order among the divine
beings. In the LXX. it is always applied to false gods or evil spirits.
Cf. Tobit iii. 8, ᾿Ασμοδαῖος τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον. It was one of the
accusations brought against Socrates, and the charge on which he was
condemned, that he introduced new δαιμόνια (Xen. Mem. τ. 1, 2: Plato
Apolog. 40 a &c.). It has been thought by some that the Athenians,
20——2
308 THE ACTS. [XVII 18—
from using this word in the plural, fancied that ‘Jesus’ was one new
divinity and ᾿Ανάστασις another. On the latter notion Chrysostom
says, καὶ γὰρ τὴν ἀνάστασιν θεόν τινα εἶναι ἐνόμιζον, are εἰωθότες καὶ
θηλείας σέβειν.
Times seem changed at Athens since the prosecution of Socrates, for
it is not anger, but scornful curiosity, which prompts the language of
the speakers. They do not mean to assail Paul for his teaching, and
amid the abundance of idols, they perhaps now would have felt no
difficulty in allowing Jesus a place, provided he did not seek to over-
throw all the rest of their divinities.
The nature of St Paul’s teaching ‘in the market-place’ has not been
mentioned until we are told that it was of ‘ Jesus and the resurrection.’
We may take this as a specimen of the way in which the author of the
Acts has dealt with his materials. He has not seen it needful here to
do more than specify in half-a-dozen words what St Paul had spoken
about; and so when we have a report of a speech we need not suppose
that he has given, or intended to give, more than a summary of what
the speaker said, and, adhering to the substance, has cast his abbre-
viated record into such form as best fitted his narrative.
19. ἐπιλαβόμενοί τε αὐτοῦ, and they took hold of him and, &e.
There is no need to suppose that any violence was used or intended.
The same verb is used often of taking by the hand to aid or protect
(so Mark viii. 23; Acts xxiii. 19), and is the word by which the action
- of Barnabas is described (Acts ix. 27) when ‘he took Paul and brought
him to the Apostles.’ Moreover the whole context shews that the
action of the crowd was in no sense that of an arrest, for we read
(verse 33) when his speech was done ‘Paul departed from among
them,’ evidently having been under no kind of restraint.
ἐπὶ τὸν "Ἄρειον πάγον ἤγαγον, they brought him unto the Areopagus.
This was an eminence to the west of the Acropolis at Athens. It was
famous in classic literature as the meeting-place of the Athenian coun-
cil of Areopagus, which took its name from the place where it met. To
this hill of Mars (Ares) the philosophers led St Paul, probably at a
time when it was unoccupied (though some suppose that the court was
sitting), that they might the better hear him away from the bustle of
the market-place, and that he might more conveniently address a
larger audience,
δυνάμεθα γνῶναι... ; may we know...? Literally ‘are we able to
know...?’ But the literal sense of δύναμαι (especially when used in the
first person) was often merged in that of θέλω or βούλομαι. Cf. Luke
ΧΙ. 7, οὐ δύναμαι ἀναστὰς δοῦναί σοι, ‘I cannot rise and give thee,’ where
the sense clearly is ‘I don’t want to rise.’ For after importunity the
man does rise and do all that is desired. The Stoics and Epicureans
were not the people to doubt their own power of understanding any-
thing which St Paul might say to them.
tls ἡ καινὴ... λαλουμένη διδαχή, what this new doctrine is which is
spoken by thee. The sense of λαλεῖν in N.T. is not unfrequently that
of announcing and publishing. The word is also used of messages
XVII. 22.) NOTES. 309
spoken by God or by His prophets (ef. Luke 1. 45, 55, 70, xxiv. 25;
Acts iii. 21, 24; James v. 10). The Apostle was not speaking to the
Athenians about the doctrine (as A.V.), his words were the doctrine.
20. ἕξενίζοντα γάρ τινα, certain strange things. Literally ‘things
striking us as strange.’ The word implies the effect produced on the
minds of the hearers. In the middle voice the word occurs in 1 Pet.
iv. 4, 12=‘to think anything strange.’ The active is found, as here,
in 2 Mace. ix. 6, πολλαῖς καὶ ξενιζούσαις συμφοραῖς, ‘with many and
strange torments.’
τίνα θέλει ταῦτα εἶναι, what these things mean, 1.6. of what nature
they are. Cf. above on verse 18.
21. This verse is a parenthesis explanatory of what has gone before.
The audience had been struck with the strange teaching, and that it
was strange was enough. Novelty was their life’s pursuit. So without
having any regard for the importance of the teaching, they were ready
to listen because it was new.
οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι, the strangers sojourning there. The place was
famous and hunters after novelty came thither from every quarter.
ηὐκαίρουν. The verb signifies (1) to have a convenient time, and then
uniquely here (2) to make leisure for, to give up time to any pursuit.
The imperfect tense implies that this was their constant state of mind.
καινότερον. The comparative is noteworthy. The Athenians are
by it represented as thirsting ever for something ‘newer still.’ What
had been heard at once became stale. This character of the Athenian
populace is confirmed by many statements of classical authors. In
Thue. m1. 38 Cleon is represented as complaining of his countrymen
that they were in the habit of playing the part of ‘ spectators in dis-
plays of oratory, and listeners to the stories of what others had done’ ;
and a like charge is made more than once by Demosthenes in his
speeches on the vigorous policy of Philip of Macedon, which he con-
trasts with the Athenian love of talk and news.
92—31. Sprecu or St Pavun at ATHENS.
Taking notice of the extreme religious scrupulousness which had
led the Athenians to raisc an altar to an unknown God, the Apostle
declares to them the God whom alone they ought to worship, and
whom as yet they did not know. This God was the Maker and
Preserver of all things, and the Father of all men, and He desired to
bring all to a knowledge of Himself. Athenian poets had spoken
of this Fatherhood of God. Such a God is not fitly represented by
graven images, and He would have men cease from such ignorant
worship, for he will be the Judge as well as Father of men, and has
given proof of the reality of the judgment and of the world to come by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22. ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ Apelov πάγου, in the midst of the Areopagus. See
above on verse 19,
370 THE ACTS. (XVII. 22—
ἄνδρες ᾿Αθηναῖοι, men of Athens. The language of the Apostle’s
address takes exactly the form which it would have assumed in the
mouth of one of their own orators. This may be due either to St
Paul’s knowledge of Greek literature, and to his desire, everywhere
manifest, to find words acceptable to his audience; or it may be that
St Luke, giving an abstract of the speech, has cast the initial words
into a form which Demosthenes would have employed. In the latter
case it is no mark of unfaithfulness in the author, who clearly in these
ten verses can only mean to give a skeleton of what the Apostle really
uttered. St Paul spake at length, we cannot doubt, when he stood in
such a place and before such an audience. The historian in the Acts
gives the barest outline of what was spoken, and cannot be thought
to have meant his words to be otherwise accepted, seeing that what he
has given us would hardly occupy five minutes in the utterance,
κατὰ πάντα ws δεισιδαιμονεστέρους ὑμᾶς θεωρῶ, in all things I per-
ceive that ye are somewhat superstitious. δεισιδαίμων has two senses:
(1) superstitious, (2) religious. The Apostle intends the word in the
former sense, but by the comparative he qualifies it in some degree.
He implies a degree of blame which perhaps comes nearly to ‘ more
superstitious than you ought to be.’ His desire is not to offend at
first by too stern an expression of blame, but by gently pointing out a
fault to lead his hearers into a more excellent way. For a description
of the δεισιδαίμων, which exactly answers to our ‘superstitious,’ see
Theophrastus, Charact. ¢. XVII.
κατὰ πάντα means ‘in everything which he had noticed while
wandering about their city.’
23. διερχόμενος γάρ, for as I passed along, through your streets and
squares.
καὶ ἀναθεωρῶν τὰ σεβάσματα ὑμῶν, and noticed the objects of
your worship. ἀναθεωρέω indicates a full observation. Paul had
not only looked at the statues, but had read the inscriptions on
them.
σέβασμα-- απ object of worship is found three times in the LXX.
Wisdom xiv. 20, τὸν mpd ὀλίγου τιμηθέντα ἄνθρωπον viv σέβασμα ἐλογί-
σαντο, ‘They took him now for an object of worship (A.V. a god)
which a little before was honoured as a man.’ So Wisdom xv. 17 xpeir-
των γάρ ἐστι τῶν σεβασμάτων αὐτοῦ, ‘himself is better than the things
which he worshippeth.’ Cf. also Bel 27.
εὗρον καὶ βωμόν, I found also an altar, i.e. in-addition to the
multitude of statues and altars to definite deities,
ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ, to an unknown god. This was an altar erected on the
occasion of some visitation, the cause of which was not apparent, and
which could not be ascribed to any of their existing divinities. We
have abundant evidence of the existence in Athens of such altars as
that to which St Paul alludes. But the words in which they are
described generally run in the plural number, τοῖς ἀγνώστοις θεοῖς.
Thus Pausanias t i, 4) describing one of the ports of Athens tells us
that there were there ‘altars to gods styled unknown,’ and Philostratus
XVII. 25.] NOTES. Ey:
in his Life of Apollonius says ‘at Athens there are erected altars for
unknown gods.’ There is a like allusion in (pseudo) Lucian’s Philo-
patris, but it is doubtful whether that is not drawn from this passage
of the Acts. And Jerome writing on Tit. i. 12 says ‘The inscription
on the altar was not, as Paul stated, ‘To the unknown God” but
“ ΤῸ the unknown gods of Asia and Europe and Africa, to unknown
and foreign gods.” But, because Paul required to speak of only one
unknown God, he used the word in the singular.’ But it is better to
suppose that St Paul saw what he says he saw; and as evidence that
such an inscription was not improbable, we may quote the Latin in-
scription found on an altar at Ostia, now in the Vatican, representing
a sacrificial group in connexion with the worship of Mithras, the Sun-
god of the later Persian mythology (Orelli, Inscr. Gel. 11. 5000), ‘Sig-
num indeprehensibilis dei,’ which is a very near approach in Latin
to what the Greek inscription to which the Apostle alludes would
mean. The word ‘unknown’ must not be pressed into the sense
of ‘unknowable’ because of what comes after. Paul says that ‘he
is prepared to set forth to them that power which they were wor-
shipping in ignorance.’ So though man by searching cannot find
out God, yet he would desire to teach the Athenians, what he says
elsewhere, that ‘the everlasting power and divinity of God may be
clearly seen through the things that are made’ (Rom. i. 20).
ὃ οὖν ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε, what therefore ye worship in ignorance.
This brings out the Apostle’s meaning. He does not intend to reflect
on the nature of their worship. But they were offering it in
ignorance. This ignorance he proposes to dispel. He accepts their
religious character, takes hold on their confession of want of know-
ledge, and so makes way for his proposal to teach them. They have,
he presumes, accepted what he offers, but have not understood all
that it means. On this Chrysostom says: ὅρα πῶς δείκνυσι προειλη-
φότας αὐτόν. οὐδὲν ξένον, φησὶ, οὐδὲν καινὸν εἰσφέρω.
τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν, this set I forth unto you. In his
verb the Apostle takes up their own word καταγγελεὺς of verse 18,
where they call him ‘a setter-forth of strange gods.’
24. ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιήσας τὸν κόσμον, the God that made the world.
He whom the Apostle set forth was no Epicurean divinity, dwelling
apart and in constant repose. Nor was the world a thing of chance,
as those philosophers taught, but the handiwork of God, and so were
all things in it.
οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ὑπάρχων κύριος, being Lord of heaven and earth,
and having for this reason the supreme disposal of all things.
οὐκ ἐν χειροποιήτοις ναοῖς κατοικεῖ, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, of which Athens held some of the most renowned in
the world. A special interest attaches to these words as being so like
to those of Stephen (vii. 48). Paul has taken up the work of him
whose martyrdom he formerly abetted.
25. οὐδὲ ὑπὸ χειρῶν ἀνθρωπίνων θεραπεύεται, neither is served by
men’s hands. θεραπεύειν implies the sort of service yielded by a
312 THE ACTS. [XVIT. 25—
steward to his master, or a minister to his king, a service in which
the superior is not independent of his inferior, and could not well do
without him. This is seen in the next clause. God is not like
earthly masters and kings. He gives all, and men can only offer to
Him themselves in return, Cf. Pss. 1., li. for like teaching. See
also Chrysostom on this verse, λέγων δέ, wh ὑπὸ χειρῶν ἀνθρώπων
θεραπεύεσθαι τὸν θεόν, αἰνίττεται ὅτι διανοίᾳ Kal νῷ θεραπεύεται.
ζωὴν καὶ πνοὴν καὶ τὰ πάντα, life and breath and all things. The
Apostle in the paronomasia seems to be adapting his style some-
what to his audience. Such similarity of sound was thought to give
elegance.
26. ἐποίησέν τε ἐξ ἑνὸς πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων, and hath made of one
every nation of men. Thus would he bring out most prominently the
Coctrine of the common Fatherhood of God. It is not merely that
men are all of one family and so all equal in God’s eyes, and ought ©
to be in the eyes of one another. When we read ‘they are made of
One’ we are carried back to the higher thought of the prophet
(Malachi ii. 10), ‘Have we not all one Father?’ This was a philo-
sophy not likely to be acceptable to the Athenians, among whom the
distinction between Greeks and Barbarians was as radical as that
which has grown up in America between white man and ‘nigger,’ or
between Europeans and natives of India.
κατοικεῖν ἐπὶ παντὸς προσώπου τῆς γῆς, for to dwell on all the face
of the earth. For His children the Father has provided a home.
ὁρίσας προστεταγμένους καιρούς, having determined their appointed
seasons. The ‘seasons’ referred to are those which God has or-
dained for seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night,
which are fixed by His decree and make the earth a fitting abode
for men.
καὶ tds ὁροθεσίας τῆς κατοικίας αὐτῶν, and the bounds of their
habitation, i.e. where they can dwell and where they cannot ; or, per-
haps, where each nation and tribe should dwell.
27. {nretv τὸν θεόν, that they should seek God. This was the :
lesson which God meant His creation and providence to teach. Men
were to behold Him through His works.
εἰ dpa ye ψηλαφήσειαν αὐτὸν καὶ εὕροιεν, if haply they might feel
after Him and find Him. The world was to be man’s lesson-book,
open before all men. In it they could read everywhere of Almighty
power and care and love. Thus stimulated, a desire to know more
might grow; and by efforts, which the graphic word of the Apostle
compares to the exertion of one groping in the dark, more know-
ledge would come, and at last the full discovery would be made.
God would be found. He is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him,
καί ye οὐ μακρὰν ἀπὸ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἡμῶν ὑπάρχοντα, though He be
not far from every one of us. And so can reveal Himself according to
the measure of the zeal shewn by those who seek Him.
——
XVIT. 31.] NOTES. 313
28. ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν, for in Him we live, i.e. through or by Him.
For ἐν in this sense, see below verse 31.
All our existence is through His care. He must therefore be near
unto each of us.
καὶ κινούμεθα, and move. More literally, ‘are moved.’ The word
does not refer to the motion of persons from place to place, but to
those internal movements of the mind and spirit of which the out-
ward actions are the effect. St Paul means that the feelings of men
are acted on by God, who speaks to the heart through all nature if
men will but hearken. This is the truth of which Pantheism is the
caricature.
ὡς kal τινες τῶν καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ποιητῶν εἰρήκασιν, as certain of your
own poets have said. The expression τῶν καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς in place of the
simpler pronoun is like νόμου τοῦ καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς in xviii. 15. Cf, also xxvi.
3. The words are found in Aratus, Phaenomena, 5
τοῦ γὰρ Kal γένος ἐσμέν, ὁ δ᾽ ἤπιος ἀνθρώποισι
δεξιὰ σημαίνει.
They also occur in Cleanthes’ Hymn to Jupiter, 5. Aratus was a
native of Cilicia, and St Paul may in consequence be supposed to have
known of his writings as of those of a fellow-countryman. By quoting
from their own literature to the Athenians, St Paul illustrates his
own declaration that in his labours ‘he became all things to all
men.’ Such a quotation was also very well devised for arresting the
attention of these cultivated hearers, and winning, it may be, some
consideration for the speaker, as also being a man of culture.
τοῦ. Here the article has its original force, and is equivalent to a
demonstrative pronoun. See Winer-Moulton, Ὁ. 129.
29. οὐκ ὀφείλομεν νομίζειν K.T.A., we ought not to think, &c. As
man is of more honour than material things, how far above these
must the Godhead be. The Athenians, the Apostle would teach them,
had formed not too high but too low a conception of themselves.
30. τοὺς μὲν οὖν χρόνους τῆς ἀγνοίας ὑπεριδὼν ὁ θεός, the times of
ignorance therefore God overlooked but, &c., i.e. God has not imputed
unto men the errors which they committed in ignorance. But now
the case is changed. Men cannot plead ignorance who have heard of
Christ. Cf. Luke xii. 48.
For the sentiment οὗ, also Ecclus. xxviii. 7, μνήσθητι... διαθήκην
ὑψίστου καὶ πάριδε ἄγνοιαν, where the A.V. translates (as here) ‘wink
at ignorance,’ meaning ‘pass over offences committed through it,’ and
so imitate the Most High.
τὰ νῦν παραγγέλλει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις πάντας πανταχοῦ μετανοεῖν, ποιὺ
He commandeth men that they all everywhere should repent. ‘Repent-
ance’ here means the amendment of the lives which they have been
leading wrongly through ignorance.
31. καθότι ἔστησεν ἡμέραν K.T.A., because He hath appointed a day,
ἄς. The day of judgment had, in God’s foreknowledge, been long
ago appointed. But through Christ the certainty has been made clear
314 THE ACTS. (XVI, 31—
tomen. Through a knowledge of Christ, who has been raised from
the dead, men have learnt that there is to be a general resurrection.
Christ is the firstfruits. But Christ has taught (Matth. xxv. 32) that
after resurrection judgment shall come. By the resurrection of
Jesus, God has given to men assurance that what Jesus taught is
true. Therefore because He foretold and revealed to men the
certainty of the judgment, they ought everywhere to repent, for all
men shall be judged.
It is worth while to notice how St Paul’s argument advances
through its various stages. He speaks first of God as the Creator of
the world and of men. Then of the ordinances which He has made
for man’s abode on earth. Next he argues that all this should inspire
men with the thought that as they are more worthy than material
things, so God is far exalted above men. This ought to have led them
to seek after Him, and even in the darker days those who sought
could find Him. But now the days of God’s revelation through
nature are atan end. He has spoken through that Son of Man whom
the resurrection proved to be the Son of God. Through Him will God
judge the world, for which judgment men should prepare themselves
by repentance.
It may be that at this point the Apostle’s speech was stopped.
Neither party among the hearers would have any sympathy with the
doctrine of a resurrection and a final judgment. Had the address been
completed, St Paul would have probably spoken in more definite
language about the life and work of Jesus.
32—34. Errecr oF St Paut’s SprecH. SoME MOCKED, BUT
OTHERS BELIEVED.
32. ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν. See above on verse 18.
οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον, some mocked. So did some (Acts ii. 13) on the day
of Pentecost. But they were Jews. On Mars’ Hill the mockers were
heathens. To the Epicurean this life was all, and the teaching of the
Stoic, that all should finally be absorbed into the Godhead, forbade
the belief that the dead should rise again. So of these men the
Epicureans would most likely be the mockers; the Stoics might be
expected to give more heed, and theirs perhaps would be the decision
to hear the Apostle again. On this mockery Chrysostom writes: dpa
αὐτὸν μείζους ἔχοντα πειρασμοὺς παρὰ ᾿Ιουδαίοις ἢ παρ “Ἕλλησιν. ἐν γοῦν
᾿Αθήναις οὐδὲν πάσχει τοιοῦτον, ἀλλὰ μέχρι γέλωτος τὸ πᾶν προυχώρησε,
καὶ τοί γε ἔπεισεν. ἐν δὲ ᾿Ιουδαίοις πολλὰ τὰ δεινά. οὕτως ἦσαν ἐκπε-
πολεμωμένοι μᾶλλον.
ἀκουσόμεθά σου καὶ πάλιν, we will hear thee yet again.
33. ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν, he departed from among them. Clearly
being free to go when he pleased, though it may surprise us that he
did not remain longer with those who had promised him another
hearing. On this Chrysostom says: τί δή ποτε πείσαντος οὕτως αὐτοῦ
ὡς καὶ εἰπεῖν ᾿Αθηναίους, ἀκουσόμεθά, σου πάλιν περὶ τούτου, καὶ κινδύνων
οὐκ ὄντων ἐπείγεται τὰς ᾿Αθήνας ἀφεῖναι ὁ Παῦλος; ἴσως ἤδει οὐ μέγα
XVIIL] © NOTES. 315
ὠνήσων, ἄλλως τε καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος εἰς Κόρινθον ἤγετος And
presently afterwards he adds: οἱ γὰρ ᾿Αθηναῖοι καίτοι ξένης ὄντες
ἀκροάσεως ἐρασταὶ ὅμως οὐ προσεῖχον. οὐ γὰρ τοῦτο ἐσπούδαζον ἀλλ᾽ ὥστε
acl τι ἔχειν εἰπεῖν.
84. Διονύσιος ὁ ᾿Αρεοπαγίτης, Dionysius the Areopagite, i.e. one
of the members of the upper council of Athens. He must have been a
man of position and influence, for no one could be a member of this
council unless he had filled some high office of state, and was above
60 years of age. Tradition (Euseb. H. E. ur. 4, 1v. 23) says that
this Dionysius was the first bishop of Athens, and that he was
martyred. The works which long circulated among Christians as his
compositions, and which even at the time of the Reformation occupied
much of the thoughts and labours of such men as Dean Colet, are no
doubt forgeries of a much later date than the days of this Dionysius.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Readings varying from the Teat. recept.
1. δὲ after μετὰ omitted with NAB. Not represented in Vulg.
ὁ Παῦλος omitted with NBD. Not represented in Vulg.
5. λόγῳ for πνεύματι with NABDE. Vulg. ‘verbo.’
εἶναι added after ᾿Ιουδαίοις with NABD. Vulg. ‘esse.’
9. ἐν νυκτὶ δι᾽ ὁράματος with NB. Vulg. ‘nocte per visionem.’
12. ἀνθυπάτου ὄντος with NABD.
13. ἀναπείθει οὗτος with NAB. Vulg. supports the contrary order.
15. ἵητήματα with NABDE. Vulg. ‘quaestiones.’
ἘΕ γὰρ after κριτὴς omitted with NABD. Not represented in
ulg.
17. οἱ “Ἑλληνες omitted with NAB. Not represented in Vulg.
τ ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς τὴν κεφαλήν with NAB. Vulg. ‘in Cenchreis
caput.’
19. κατήντησαν with SABE. Vulg. supports the singular.
20. παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς omitted with NAB. Not represented in Vulg.
21. ἀποταξάμενος καὶ εἰπών with NABD. Vulg. ‘valefaciens et
dicens.’
Δεῖ με πάντως τὴν ἑορτὴν τὴν ἐρχομένην ποιῆσαι eis Ἱεροσόλυμα
omitted with ΑΒΕ). Not represented in Vulg.
The δὲ after πάλιν, and καὶ before ἀνήχθη disappear as a
consequence of the preceding omission.
25. ᾿Ιησοῦ for Κυρίου with NABDEL. Vulg. ‘Jesu.’
26. Πρίσκιλλα καὶ ᾿Ακύλας with NABE. Vulg. ‘Priscilla et
Aquila.’
τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ with NAB. Vulg. has ‘viam Domini.’
316 THE ACTS. (XVIII. 1—
Cu. XVIII. 1—11. ῬΑΌΙ, Gors rrom ATHENS TO CORINTH, LABOURS
THERE WITH HIS OWN HANDS FOR HIS MAINTENANCE. HE Is EN-
COURAGED IN HIS PREACHING BY A VISION OF THE LoRD.
1. μετὰ ταῦτα xwpiobels......4\Gev, after these things he departed
and came. The ὁ Παῦλος of Text. recept. is an insertion of some one
who thought to make the reference clearer. The number of similar
instances in this book is large.
εἰς Κόρινθον, to Corinth. As Athens was the seat of culture, so
Corinth was the seat of commerce in the south of Greece. The city, at
this time the political capital of Greece and the residence of the
Roman pro-consul, stood on the isthmus which united the Peloponnesus
to the mainland, and through it all land traffic between the peninsula
and the rest of Greece must pass, while its two harbours, one on each
side of the neck of land on which Corinth stood, made it the resort of
seafaring traders both from east and west. Of Lecheum, the western
port, on the Corinthian gulf, we have no mention in the New Testa-
ment, but Cenchree, the harbour on the Saronic gulf, by which
communication with the East was kept up, is mentioned in verse 18.
The city was also made famous for its connexion with the Isthmian
games, from which St Paul in his Epistles draws frequent illustrations
when writing to the Corinthian Church. (See 1 Cor. ix, 2427, &.)
For further particulars of the history of Corinth see Dict. of Bible, s.v.
2. ᾿Ιουδαῖον ὀνόματι ᾿Ακύλαν, a Jew named Aquila. The name
Aquila is Latin, and it is not likely that this was the man’s Jewish name,
but as the custom was among the Jews, he had probably assumed a
Roman name during his dwelling in Italy and in his intercourse with
the Gentiles. See above on xiii. 9. The name is identified, by the
Jews, with that of Onkelos, who wrote a Targum on the Pentateuch,
and some make that Onkelos to be the same with Aquila who
translated the Old Testament into Greek, of which translation part
is preserved to us in Origen’s Hexapla,
Ποντικὸν τῴ γένει, born in Pontus. Literally, ‘a man of Pontus by
birth.’ The provinces of Asia Minor abounded with Jewish families of
the Dispersion, as we may see from the whole history in the Acts. In
Acts ii, 9—11 many of these districts are mentioned as contributing
to the number of worshippers who had come to Jerusalem for the
feast of Pentecost. Pontus came under Roman sway when its king
Mithridates was conquered by Pompey, and this connexion may have
led Aquila to leave his native country for Italy. Aquila and his wife
are mentioned Rom. xvi. 3 as though they were again in Rome, so
that probably they had formed ties there which were only temporarily
severed by the Claudian edict mentioned in this verse. (It is however
questioned whether the salutations in Rom. xvi. form part of the
Epistle as it was sent to the Romans.) They were with St Paul when
he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xvi. 19), and were
so far settled in Ephesus, where that Epistle was written, as to have a
house which they could place at the service of the Christians there, as
a place to worship in. And if (as is most probable) Timothy was in
SVE 37° NOTES. 317
Ephesus when the Second Epistle (2 Tim. iv. 19) was addressed to
him, they were in that city again at this later date (for Priscilla is
only the diminutive form of Prisca, as the name of the wife is there:
written). More than this is not known of their changes of abode.
προσφάτως, lately. This adverb is only found here in N.T., but is
more common in the LXX. Cf. Judith iv. 3 προσφάτως ἦσαν ἀναβεβη-
κότες ἐκ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας. Also Judithiv. 5; 2 Macc. xiv. 36.
Πρίσκιλλαν, Priscilla. This name also is Latin, being a diminu-
tive of the adjective ‘Prisca,’ which was also used as a proper name,
see Rom. xvi. 3.
διὰ τὸ διατεταχέναι.. ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥώμης, because that Claudius had
commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. The Jews were often
objects of persecution in Rome, but this particular occasion is pro-
bably that mentioned by Suetonius, Claud. 25, where we read that by
reason of the Jewish tumults at the instigation of one Christus (or
Chrestus) they were driven out of the city. Whether this was the
name of some Jew then resident in Rome, or whether it is a reference
to some disturbance that had arisen from the Jewish expectation of
‘the Christ’ or Messiah, and the name Christus is mistakenly used by
Suetonius as though it were that of some agitator actually present, we
cannot tell. Or it may have been some movement of the Jews against
the Christians because they taught that the ‘Christ’ was already
come. In that case the name ‘Christus’ would come into great
prominence, and might give rise to the statement of Suetonius that a
person of that name had been the instigator of the disturbances. |
3. καὶ διὰ τὸ ὁμότεχνον εἶναι, and because he was of the same craft.
Among the Jews every Rabbi deemed it proper to practise some handi-
craft, and they have a proverb about R. Isaac, who was a smith,
‘Better is the sentence of the smith (R. Isaac) than that of the
smith’s son (R. Jochanan),’ thus marking their opinion that the
pursuit of a craft was no injury to the teacher’s wisdom (T. B.
Sanhedrin, 96°). Thus our Lord is spoken of (Mark vi. 3) as ‘ the
carpenter.’
There is an interesting passage bearing on this matter in the
‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,’ chap. 12. It is concerning one who
comes to a Christian congregation ‘in the name of the Lord.’ εἰ δὲ
θέλει πρὸς ὑμᾶς καθῆσαι, τεχνίτης ὦν, ἐργαζέσθω καὶ payérw. εἰ δ᾽ οὐκ
ἔχει τέχνην, κατὰ τὴν σύνεσιν ὑμῶν προνοήσατε, πῶς μὴ ἀργὸς μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν
ζήσεται Χριστιανός. εἰ δ᾽ οὐ θέλει οὕτω ποιεῖν, χριστέμπορός ἐστι.
ἔμενεν παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἠργάζετο, he abode with them and wrought.
In a passage from T. B. Sukkah, 51 Ὁ, part of which has already been
quoted on vi. 9, we read in a description of the Jewish synagogue at
Alexandria, ‘ The people did not sit mixed together, but goldsmiths by
themselves, and silversmiths by themselves, and ironworkers by them-
selves, and miners by themselves, and weavers by themselves, and
when a poor man came there he recognised the members of his
craft, and went there, and from thence was his support, and that of
318 THE ACTS. [XVIII. 3—
the members of his house.’ This may explain how readily Paul found
at Corinth some persons who were of his own craft.
ἦσαν yap σκηνοποιοὶ τῇ τέχνῃ; for by their occupation they were
tentmakers. What they made was most probably tent-cloth. This
was of goats’ hair, and the plaiting of it into strips and joining
these together was a common employment in Cilicia, to such an
extent that the district gave name to the material and the articles
made of it, a soldier’s and sailor’s rough hair-rug being named Cili-
cium. As the trade was intended in such cases as St Paul’s merely to
be used as a resource under circumstances of need which were not
likely to come about, we can understand that while complying with
Jewish feeling in the matter, a trade would be chosen for the boy
which would not consume a large part of his time in learning.
Mishnah Qiddushin τν. 14 says ‘let a person teach his son a trade
both clean and easy.’ The most common handicraft of Tarsus
offered just such a trade in the making of this rough goats’ hair-
cloth.
4. ἔπειθέν te Iovdalous kal” EAAnvas, and persuaded both Jews and
Greeks. No doubt as in other Gentile cities, the religion of the Jews
in Corinth gained the attention of many among the Gentiles, who as
proselytes or inclining thereto might form part of the Sabbath audience
in the synagogue. According to his rule St Paul addressed himself to
the Jews first.
δ. ὡς δὲ κατῆλθον... ὁ Τιμόθεος, but when Silas and Timothy came
down from Macedonia. After the arrival of his companions, who had
been left at Beroea (xvii. 14) there was a change in the character of
St Paul’s preaching. It may well be that he had encouragement by
their presence in his work of preaching, and also that it was not
so necessary for him to consume his whole time on his craft because
the Philippians had sent a contribution for his support (Phil. iv. 15;
2 Cor. xi. 9).
συνείχετο τῷ λόγῳ ὁ Παῦλος, was constrained by the word. The
meaning is, he was earnestly occupied in preaching the word, and felt
himself more urged on, and also more able to preach, because of his
freedom from the necessity of constant labour. It was apparently
only on the Sabbath that he had reasoned with the people before.
The usus loquendi favours the passive meaning. Meyer (8rd ed.)
renders ‘he was apprehended, seized by the word’ in the sense of
internal pressure of spirit. For the verb cf. Wisdom xvii. 11, πονηρία
προσείληφε τὰ χαλεπὰ συνεχομένη TH συνειδήσει, ‘being pressed with
conscience’ (A.V.).
διαμαρτυρόμενος.. εἶναι τὸν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν, testifying to the Jews
that Jesus was the Christ. We are here told of the manner in which
the greater earnestness of the Apostle was exhibited. He gave in all
its fulness his solemn testimony, no doubt confirmed from Scripture
and by the narrative of his own miraculous conversion, that this
Jesus, whom he had formerly persecuted, was the Christ, the Messiah
whom the Jews had long expected,
--
Bo." 8 ae NOTES. 319
“6. ἀντιτασσομένων δὲ αὐτῶν, but when they opposed themselves.
The word implies a strong organized opposition. They resisted like a
force drawn up for battle.
καὶ βλασφημούντων, and blasphemed. The same word is used in
2 Pet. ii. 2, ‘The way of truth shall be evil spoken of.’ And the
same conduct, though the word is different, is described in the
next chapter (xix. 9), ‘speaking evil of the Way before the multi-
tude.’
ἐκτιναξάμενος τὰ ἱμάτια εἶπεν, he shook out his raiment and said.
Cf. LXX. Neh. v. 13, καὶ τὴν ἀναβολήν μου ἐξετίναξα καὶ εἶπα Οὕτως
ἐκτινάξαι ὁ θεὸς πάντα ἄνδρα ὃς οὐ στήσει τὸν λόγον τοῦτον ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου
αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ κόπου αὐτοῦ. The act is figurative of entire renuncia-
tion. Nothing which pertained to them should cling to him. In
like manner he would cast them from his thoughts. Cf. xiii. 51.
τὸ αἷμα ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ὑμῶν, your blood be upon your own
heads. For the phrase cf. LXX. 2 Sam. i, 16; 1 Kings 11. 37; Ezek.
xxxili. 4. The verb to be supplied is ἔστω or ἐλθέτω. The Apostle
uses the O. T. expression ‘blood’ in the figurative sense of ‘ destruc-
tion.’ .
εἰς τὰ ἔθνη πορεύσομαι, 1 will go unto the Gentiles, i.e. the Gentiles
in Corinth. For in his future preaching elsewhere (see xix. 8) he
addressed the Jews and went to the synagogue, as had been his
custom from the first.
7. εἰσῆλθεν εἰς οἰκίαν τινὸς ὀνόματι ᾿Ιούστου, he entered into a cer-
tain man’s house named Justus. St Paul perhaps used this house for the
purposes of teaching and worship. We may suppose that for his own
lodging, he still remained with Aquila and Priscilla. Some MSS. give
the name Titus (or Titius) Justus to this man, and the double name
is adopted in the Revised Version, but there is good authority for the
Text. recept.
σεβομένου τὸν θεόν, one that worshipped God. He was a proselyte.
See above on xiii. 43, xvii. 4. The house of Justus was therefore an
appropriate place in which both Jews and Gentiles might meet, and
to which Gentiles would be more ready to come than to that of a Jew
by birth.
ov ἡ οἰκία... τῇ συναγωγῇ, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
It is likely that St Paul though he came no more to the synagogue
at Corinth, chose not to betake himself far away, because he would be
ready to receive any of his brethren who might change their feelings
and come to him. On this cf. Chrysostom’s language: ὅρα πῶς πάλιν
εἰπών, ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν, οὐδὲ οὕτως αὐτῶν ἀμελεῖ. ὥστε τοῦ διεγεῖραι ἕνεκεν
εἶπε τοῦτο. καὶ λοιπὸν ἦλθε πρὸς ᾿Ιοῦστον, οὗ ἣν ἡ οἰκία ὁμοροῦσα τῇ
Palit éyertvlagev ὥστε καὶ ζῆλον ἔχειν ἀπὸ τῆς γειτνιάσεως εἴπερ
€AOV.
But we can see how, while his near neighbourhood gave opportunity
for this, the meetings of those who came to the synagogue with those
who were going to the house of Justus, would be likely to cause bitter.
320 THE ACTS. [XVITl. 7—
ness, especially when the number of St Paul’s adherents began to
increase, and a ruler of the synagogue was counted among them.
8. Κρίσπος δὲ ὁ ἀρχισυνάγωγος, and Crispus the ruler of the syna-
gogue. This Crispus is alluded to, 1 Cor. i. 14, as one of the few
whom St Paul himself baptized. His previous distinguished position
among the Jews, and the conversion of his whole family, would make
him noticeable among the Christian converts. There may have been
more than one synagogue in Corinth. In verse 17 we read of So-
sthenes, the ruler of the synagogue. But it is quite possible that this
man may have been appointed immediately after the conversion of
Crispus, and may have been desirous to shew his zeal against the
Christian teachers by laying an immediate information against Paul
before the proconsul.
Kal πολλοὶ τῶν Κορινθίων... ἐβαπτίζοντο, and many of the Corin-
thians...were baptized. St Paul mentions that he himself only bap-
tized (in addition to Crispus) Gaius and the household of Stephanas.
But Silas and Timothy were now by his side and would care for the
admission of the new converts to baptism.
9. εἶπεν δὲ... ἐν νυκτὶ δι᾿ ὁράματος τ. II., and the Lord spake to Paul
in the night by a vision. We may infer from the language used to
him that for some reason the heart of the Apostle was beginning to
wax faint, and that he was in danger of bodily maltreatment. The
communication was made in the same way as the call to come over
into Macedonia (xvi. 9,10). Only here the Lord appeared to his ser-
vant.
λάλει Kal μὴ σιωπήσῃς, speak, and hold not thy peace. Instead of
fainting, be more earnest still. Let nothing stop thy testimony.
10. διότι ἐγώ εἰμι μετὰ σοῦ, for I am with thee. The pronoun is
emphatically expressed.
τοῦ κακῶσαί oe, to harm thee. There will be assailants. Christ does
/\ not promise him freedom from attack. But the enemy shall not be
able to do him violence. And this appearance of Christ would give
the Apostle the confidence of the prophet of old (2 Kings vi. 16), ‘ They
that be with us are more than they that be with them.’
With this genitival infinitive of design, cf. Luke xxiv. 29, εἰσῆλθεν
τοῦ μεῖναι σὺν αὐτοῖς, also Gen. xxiv. 21, καὶ παρεσιώπα τοῦ γνῶναι εἰ
εὐώδωκε κύριος τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ ἢ οὔ. ;
διότι λαὸς... ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, for I have much people in this city.
How important and extensive the Christian community at Corinth
became we may gather from the Epistles which St Paul wrote after-
wards to the Church there. And as the city was one of the great
centres of commercial activity at this period, we can see how impor-
tant it was (humanly speaking) for the Church to make good its foot-
ing there from the first. The Lord mercifully by this vision gave His
servant assurance that his words should be largely blessed, and rising
up thus comforted, he was ready for any task.
XVIIT. 12.] NOTES. 321
“11. ἐκάθισεν δέ, and he dwelt there. In this word the historian
seems to intend to express the quiet and content which filled the
Apostle’s mind after the vision. καθίζω is generally rendered ‘to sit
down,’ and here seems to be applied purposely to the restful state of
the Apostle’s mind after the comforting revelation. The same verb is
used by St Luke (xxiv. 49), ‘Tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed
with power from on high,’ where the admonition is of like character
with the advice given here to St Paul. In no other place in the New
Testament is the word similarly used.
ἐνιαυτὸν καὶ μῆνας ἕξ, a year and six months, and beside the teach-
ing which he gave to the Corinthians he wrote at this time the two
Epistles to the Thessalonians which are the first in order of date
among the Apostolic letters, and probably the earliest part of the
whole New Testament.
12—17. PavL 15 ACCUSED BEFORE GALLIO, WHO DECLINES TO CONSIDER
THE CHARGE AGAINST HIM. IN CONSEQUENCE, THE POPULACE FALL
AT ONCE ON SOSTHENES, A CHIEF MAN AMONG THE JEWS, BUT GALLIO
LETS THEIR ASSAULT PASS UNNOTICED.
12. Ταλλίωνος δὲ ἀνθυπάτου ὄντος τῆς “Axatas, but when Gallio
was proconsul of Achaia. We come now to an episode in marked con-
trast to the repose and quiet spoken of just before. St Luke here gives
Gallio his correct title, which is a great mark of the fidelity of his
narrative. Achaia was a Roman province. Such provinces belonged
either to the Senate or to the Emperor. When they were senatorial
the governor was styled Proconsul. Now Achaia had been a senato-
rial province under Augustus, but under Tiberius became an imperial
province fora time. Subsequently after a.p. 44 under Claudius (Suet.
Claud. xxv.), which is the reign in which these events in St Paul’s life
occurred, it was once more made senatorial and so had a proconsul at
this period for its governor. This Gallio was the brother of the famous
philosopher Seneca, who was tutor, and for a time minister, of the
Emperor Nero, Originally Gallio was called Marcus Annzus Novatus,
and took the name of Gallio from the orator Lucius Junius Gallio,
by whom he was adopted. The character of Gallio as described by
his Roman contemporaries is that of a most bright, popular and
affectionate man. He is spoken of as ‘sweet Gallio,’ and Seneca
declares that ‘those who love him to the utmost, don’t love him
enough.’
κατεπέστησαν ὁμοθυμαδόν, they rose up with one accord. The Jews
probably hoped to avail themselves of the inexperience of a newly
arrived proconsul. For this reason they came in a body and sought
to have Paul expelled from the city.
καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα, and brought him to the judgement seat.
In Gallio’s eyes they would seem to be a company of Jews accusing
one of their own race of some erroneous teaching. If he had only
lately come from Rome, he would be likely to have heard there of the
troubles about ‘Christus’ (see above on verse 2), and he would consider
that he had come into the midst of a quarrel about the same matter.
THE ACTS 21
322 THE ACTS. (XVIII. 13—
13. παρὰ τὸν νόμον, contrary to the law, i.e. the Jewish law. The
Jewish religion was one of those allowed throughout the Roman
Empire, and their hope is to induce the proconsul to protect the
Jewish law by Roman law. But the majesty of the Roman power was
far too august to be invoked for settling a quarrel between the mem-
bers of a merely ‘tolerated’ religion. He would not meddle in their
matters.
14. μέλλοντος δὲ τοῦ Tlavdov ἀνοίγειν τὸ στόμα, but when Paul was
about to open his mouth. The Roman proconsul has too much contempt
for the whole matter and all who are concerned in it to listen to any
defence. For the law of the Jews, its breach or its observance, he has
no care, and will not be used by either party. Chrysostom praises
Gallio’s conduct. ἐπιεικής Tis ἄνθρωπος οὗτος εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ, καὶ δῆλον
ἐξ ὧν ἀποκρίνεται συνετῶς.
εἶπεν ὁ Γαλλίων πρὸς τοὺς Ιουδαίους, Gallio said unto the Jews.
He declines to hear any argument, for he is determined to give no
opinion.
εἰ μὲν ἦν ἀδίκημά τι ἢ ῥᾳδιούργημα πονηρόν, if it had been a matter
of wrong or wicked villany. The two things of which the magistrate
would take account are (1) any evil-doing (cp. xxiv. 20), an act of
injustice, or (2) any unscrupulous conduct involving moral wrong.
He would be, that is, a minister of law and equity, for that was his
duty.
κατὰ λόγον dv ἀνεσχόμην ὑμῶν, reason would that I should have
borne with you. A very happy idiomatic rendering of the Greek, like
many others in the A. V. Gallio shews by his language how far he
feels the Roman citizen above the tolerated Jews. But if their case
had ealled for its exercise they should have had the benefit of tolera-
tion, and he would have inquired into matters that were the business
of his office.
15. εἰ δὲ ζητήματά ἐστιν περὶ λόγου kal ὀνομάτων, but if they are
questions about words and names. The use of the indicative ἐστίν shews
that Gallio considers this is what they are.
There would no doubt be many points brought forward from St
Paul’s teaching to which the Jews would object. And whether Jesus
was the Christ or not would seem to the Roman a matter entirely of
definition, and on which the law had no bearing. If he had heard
the name of ‘Christus’ at Rome (see on verse 2), it would make Gallio
the more ready to imitate his royal master, and get rid of the dispu-
tants as fast and as far as possible.
καὶ νόμου τοῦ καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς, and of your own law. On this circumlocu-
tion see xvii. 28 note. The accusers had without doubt been striving
to make out that in teaching a different manner of worship (ver. 13)
Paul was bringing forward a religion not enjoying toleration by the
Roman government. But Gallio sees through their intention, and
counting them all for Jews, he will not be drawn into their questions.
XVIII. 17.] NOTES. 323
ὄψεσθε αὐτοί, look to it yourselves. The pronoun is very emphatic.
For the form ὄψεσθε used as an imperative, cf. LXX. Numb. xiii. 19,
καὶ ὄψεσθε τὴν γῆν τίς ἐστι, καὶ τὸν λαόν. Also Judges vii. 17, xxi. 21;
1 Sam. vi. 9; &c.
κριτὴς ἐγὼ τούτων οὐ βούλομαι εἶναι, 1 am not minded to be a judge
of these matters. Gallio knows his own business and will only look to
that. It is not a case where his jurisdiction can interfere, and so he
leaves the whole untouched. There is no question here about his
own regard and disregard of enquiries about religion. He sits to
administer Roman law, and this dispute among the Jews at Corinth
lies outside his cognizance altogether.
16. Kal ἀπήλασεν αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος, and he drave them from
the judgement seat. The description given by St Luke makes it pro-
bable that Gallio’s βῆμα was in some open public place, whither all
might come and bring their plaints. The proconsul would be attended
by his lictors and other officials, and those he now commands to clear
the place of these troublesome cavillers about words and names. The
new magistrate found perhaps enough to do in matters which came
within his jurisdiction in the busy mercantile life of Corinth.
17. ἐπιλαβόμενοι δὲ πάντες Σωσθένην τὸν ἀρχισυνάγωγον, and they
all laid hold on Sosthenes the ruler of the synagogue and, &c. The verb
is used (xxi. 30) of the violent action of the mob at Jerusalem, and
just afterwards (xxi. 33) of the chief captain’s conduct when he rescued
Paul. Neither of these would be a very gentle measure. And we may
understand something of the same kind here. The surrounding crowd,
of whom no doubt most would be Greeks, catching the tone of the
magistrate, prepared to follow up his decision by a lesson of their
own, of a rather rough kind. Sosthenes had probably been the spokes-
man of the Jews, and Paul would not improbably have some sympa-
thizers among the Gentiles. And ‘Jew-baiting’ was not unknown in
those days. So with impunity the crowd could wreak their own ven-
geance on these interrupters of the proper business of the court, and
beat Sosthenes before he was out of the magistrate’s presence. The
name Sosthenes was a very common one, and we need not identify
this man with the Sosthenes mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 1,
καὶ οὐδὲν τούτων τῷ Γαλλίωνι ἔμελεν, and Gallio cared for none
of these things, neither for the questions raised nor for those who
raised them. How little Jewish life was regarded by the Romans is
shewn in many places in their literature (see Farrar’s St Paul, Vol.
1. Exe. xty.). Tiberius banished four thousand of them to Sardinia,
saying that if the unhealthy climate killed them off ‘it would bea
cheap loss’ (Tac. Ann. τι. 85). Coming from Rome where such feeling
was universal, the lives and limbs of a few Jews would appear of small
importance, and like the Emperor just named he may have thought it
mattered little what became of them,
It is best to take οὐδέν as subject of ἔμελεν, and τούτων not as
governed by ἔμελεν, but by οὐδέν.
9.1.---
324 THE ACTS. (XVIII. 18—
18—23. Pavut teaves ΟΟΒΙΝΤΗ TO GO INTO SyRIA, HALTING A SHORT
ΤΙΜΕ AT CENCHREZ, AND SOMEWHAT LONGER AT EPHESUS. HE
LANDS aT CSAREA, GOES UP TO JERUSALEM, AND FROM THENCE TO
ANTIOCH, AND AFTER A TIME DEPARTS ON HIS THIRD MISSIONARY
JOURNEY.
18. προσμείνας ἡμέρας ἱκανάς, having tarried many days. This
seems to refer to the period after the appearance before Gallio. We
are told (verse 11) that he settled quietly for a year and six months.
Then came an opportunity of attacking him on Gallio’s arrival. Of
this the Jews tried to avail themselves, and when their attempt was
at an end, the Apostle had another time of peace among his converts.
So that the whole stay in Corinth extended over more than a year and
a half.
ἀποταξάμενος, having taken leave of. A strictly N.T. use of the
word. It occurs again below in verse 21 and in Mark vi. 46; Luke ix,
61.
ἐξέπλει εἰς τὴν Συρίαν, he sailed for Syria. We have no motive
given why the Apostle at this time sailed back. Some have suggested
that he was carrying a contribution to the brethren in Jerusalem. It
is clear that when the return was resolved on, he wished to reach
Jerusalem as soon as possible, for he declined to tarry in Ephesus even
though his preaching was more readily received there than by the
Jews in many other places. It may have been the wish to fulfil his
vow, which could only be brought to its conclusion by a visit to the
temple in Jerusalem.
κειράμενος ἐν Keyxpeais τὴν κεφαλήν, εἶχεν γὰρ εὐχήν, having shorn
his head in Cenchree, for he hada vow. We can observe all through
the narrative of the Acts that St Paul, although the Apostle of the
Gentiles, never ceased to regard the festivals and ceremonies of the
Jews in things which did not militate against the Christian liberty.
For some reason, either during sickness or in the midst of his conflict
at Corinth, he had taken a vow upon himself of the nature of the
Nazirite vows (Numb. vi. 1—21). This could only be brought to its
fitting close by a journey to Jerusalem to offer up the hair, which it
was a part of the vow to leave uncut. At Jerusalem when the cere-
mony was completed the head was shaven (see Acts xxi. 24), but it
seems to have been allowed to persons at a distance to cut the hair
short and to bring that with them to the temple and to offer it up
when the rest was shaven. This appears to be what St Paul did at
this time, at Cenchrezx, before starting on the voyage to Syria. The
Greek word for ‘having shorn’ stands in the original next to Aquila.
Hence some have contended that it was he who had the vow, and who
cut his hair. They have pointed out also that the order of the
names ‘ Priscilla and Aquila’ seems to have been adopted purposely
to make this connexion of words possible. But the name of the wife
stands before that of her husband in Rom. xvi. 3; see also 2 Tim. iv.
19 and according to the best MSS. in verse 26 below. This order of the
names may have been adopted because by her zeal she made herself a
XVIII. 22,] NOTES. 325
very conspicuous member of the Church wherever she lived. But it
seems very unlikely that all this detail of a vow and its observance
would be so prominently mentioned in connexion with Aquila, who
played but a small part in St Luke’s history; while it is a most signi-
ficant feature in the conduct of St Paul that he so oft conformed to
Jewish observances.
19. κατήντησαν δὲ εἰς “Ederov, and they came to Ephesus. Ephesus
was the famous city, the capital of Ionia, and afterwards the scene of
a large portion of St John’s labours. It stood not far from the sea on
some hilly ground, by a small river which flows into the sea in the
district lying between the greater rivers, the Hermus and the Meander.
In St Paul’s day it was by far the busiest and most populous city in
Proconsular Asia. For a more complete account of its inhabitants
and the special worship of Artemis (Diana) for which it was celebrated,
a fitting place will be found in the notes on chap. xix.
κἀκείνους κατέλιπεν αὐτοῦ, and he left them there. They probably
had business connexions with the large city of Ephesus, which caused
them to end their journey here. These people though working at
their trade appear to have been above the position which would be
implied by Dr Farrar’s expression (St Paul 1. 573), ‘his lodging in the
squalid shop of Aquila and Priscilla.’ They travelled about and lived
now at Rome, now at Ephesus, and now in Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 19;
Rom. xvi. 3; 2 Tim. iv. 19), and on their condition when in Ephesus,
see above on verse 2.
els τὴν συναγωγήν, into the synagogue. He could not give up his
own people, though he was constantly exposed to hard usage by them.
He seeks them out again here as soon as he arrives. In Ephesus
however his message seems to have been received with less hostility,
for those who heard him begged him to stay a longer time. The
cosmopolitan character of the Ephesian population may have had
something to do with this.
20. ἐρωτώντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ πλείονα χρόνον μεῖναι, and when they
asked him to tarry a longer time. We need not from this suppose that
more impression had been produced on this occasion than made the
Jews willing to give him a patient hearing.
21. ἀλλὰ ἀποταξάμενος Kal εἰπών, but bidding them farewell and
saying. The words in the Text. recept., which are omitted from this
-verse, seem to be an addition suggested by xx.16. The authorities
for the omission are numerous, both uncials, cursives and versions.
πάλιν ἀνακάμψω πρὸς ὑμᾶς Tov θεοῦ θέλοντος, I will return again to
you, if God will. Having the opportunity, he soon redeemed his
promise. See xix. 1.
22. εἰς Καισάρειαν, to Cesarea. This was the home of Philip the
Evangelist, and we may suppose that St Paul would make the success
of his distant mission known to his fellow-labourer. He made the
house of Philip his home in Cesarea on a later occasion (xxi. 8).
ἀναβάς, having gone up, i.e. from the coast to the city of Jerusalem,
326 THH ACTS. [X VIII. 22—
kal ἀσπασάμενος τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, and having saluted the Church. This
must strike every reader as a very brief notice of a visit to the centre
of all Church life and action at this time. And we cannot but be sur-
prised that there is no mention (as in xiv. 27) of a gathering of the
Church, and of the report of what the great missionary had been
enabled to effect. Dr Farrar (St Paul, 1.5) suggests that St Paul met
with a cold and ungracious reception, and that the position which he
assumed towards the Law in his preaching to Gentile converts raised
him up adversaries among the Christians in Jerusalem, who were
naturally zealous for the Law. It is certainly strange that even the
name of the city is not mentioned, nor are we told a word about the
fulfilment of the vow. For some reason or other, the Apostle hastened,
as soon as his salutations were ended, to the more congenial society
of the Christians at Antioch who had rejoiced over his success on a
former visit.
23. καὶ ποιήσας χρόνον τινά, and after he had spent some time
there. As they had experienced for themselves the troubles of the
Judaizers, the people at Antioch would sympathize with the Apostle,
if he were meeting with like opposition now in his own work.
For χρόνον ποιεῖν cf. xv. 33, xx. 3; 2 Cor. xi. 25; Jas. iv. 13.
ἐξῆλθεν, he departed, making Antioch his starting point as he had
done in both his former missions.
διερχόμενος καθεξῆς... Φρυγίαν, passing through ald the region of
Galatia and Phrygia in order. No doubt he took the same route as
before. Thus he would visit Lystra and Derbe before he came to the
more northern portions of Asia Minor mentioned in this verse.
στηρίζων, strengthening. The return of the Apostle to the Churches
which he had once visited would infuse new spirit, while his presence
and words would everywhere quicken Christian activity.
24—28. Visir or Apottos ΤῸ Ernesus, AND HIS TEACHING THERE.
HE IS MORE FULLY INSTRUCTED BY AQUILA AND PRISCILLA, AND
AFTERWARDS PASSING OVER INTO ACHAIA, PREACHES CHRIST THERE
WITH GREAT POWER.
24. ᾿Ιουδαῖος δέ τις ᾿Απολλὼς ὀνόματι, now a certain Jew named
Apollos. The five verses following are a digression to introduce the
narrative of the next chapter.
᾿ The name Apollos is an abbreviation of Apollonius, which is read
in one MS. (D). His infiuence as a Christian teacher made itself
most felt in Corinth. (Cp. 1 Cor. i. 12, iii. 5, iv. 6.)
Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει, an Alexandrian by birth. On Alexandria as
a place where Jews abounded, cf. vi. 9. It was in Alexandria and by
Jews that the Septuagint Version was made.
_ ἀνὴρ λόγιος, an eloquent man (Rev. Ver. ‘learned’). The word
includes both senses. He had stores of learning, and also could use
them to convince others.
XVIII. 25.] NOTES. SF rae
κατήντησεν eis Ἔφεσον, δυνατὸς ἀν ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς, came to
Ephesus, and he was mighty in the Scriptures. The study of the Old
Testament flourished greatly in Alexandria, and Apollos had great
power in the exposition and application of these Scriptures. The
literary activity and philosophic pursuits of the Greek population of
Alexandria were not without their effect on the more conservative Jews,
and we find from many sources that the Jewish writings were studied
with all the literary exactness which marked the Greek scholarship of
the time; and the Jews, conscious of the antiquity of their own records
and yet impressed with the philosophic character of their cultured
fellow-citizens, bent themselves greatly to find analogies between the
Mosaic writings and the teachings of the schools. In study like this
Apollos had no doubt been fully trained.
δυνατὸς ἐν is in the N. T. used only by St Luke, see Luke xxiv. 19;
Acts vil. 22. It is frequent in the LXX., cf. Ecclus. xxi. 7, γνωστὸς
μακρόθεν ὁ δυνατὸς ἐν γλώσσῃ.
25. οὗτος ἣν κατηχημένος τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ κυρίου, this man was
instructed in the way of the Lord. The verb κατηχέω (whence our
‘catechize’) implies a course of instruction distinct from his own
study of the O. T. Scriptures. We know from Josephus (Antiq. xvm1.
5. 2) that the teaching and baptism of John produced great effect
among the Jews. We need not therefore wonder at finding among
Jews in Alexandria and Ephesus men who had accepted the Baptist’s
teaching about Jesus. But in considering such cases we must remember
where such instruction as they had received would stop short. They
would know that John baptized in preparation for the coming of the ἡ
kingdom, they would have heard that he pointed to Jesus as the Lamb
of God, being certified thereof when He came to be baptized. But
when John was dead and the life of Jesus was brought to a close on
Calvary, except the few of John’s disciples who had joined the
followers of our Lord, none would know of the way in which the
foundations of the heavenly kingdom were laid, none would understand
the institution of the Sacraments, nor the sending down of the Holy
Ghost, nor the teaching of repentance, and of the gift of salvation to
the faithful through grace. Of these things John had known nothing,
and we must not forget in our attempt to estimate his work and its
effects, that there came to himself a day when he sent to Christ to ask
‘Art thou He that should come?’ (Matth. xi. 3.)
καὶ ζέων τῷ πνεύματι ἐλάλει Kal ἐδίδασκεν ἀκριβῶς τὰ περὶ τοῦ
᾿Ιησοῦ, and being fervent in spirit he spake and taught carefully the
things concerning Jesus. By πνεῦμα is meant Apollos’s own spirit and
zeal. The reading of the Text. recept. ra περὶ τοῦ Kupiov seems to have
been the suggestion of some one who did not understand the plain
statement of the text. In the previous expression ‘the way of the
Lord’ we have only the Old Test. words (Is. xl. 3) quoted by the Evan-
gelists concerning John’s preaching. (Matth. iii. 3; Mark i. 3.)
There may have been some timidity felt about the further statement
thai Apollos taught the things ‘concerning Jesus,’ and so the reading
of the early part of the verse was brought in here also. But after
328 THE ACTS. [XVIIL. 25—
what has been said above we can see how this Alexandrian Jew might
publish with the utmost accuracy all that John had proclaimed about
the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, and enforce it from his own
studies of the Old Testament Scriptures. He might declare how John
had pointed to Jesus, and might even relate much of the works and
words of Christ, as an evidence that God was sending greater prophets
than they had known for long, and that therefore Christ’s life was a
testimony that redemption was near. All this he might know and
preach most carefully, and yet lack all that further knowledge which
Aquila and Priscilla imparted. Chrysostom on the contrary explains
πνεῦμα of the Holy Ghost, and suggests that the case of Aquila is
somewhat like that of Cornelius, where the Holy Spirit was given
before baptism in the name of Christ. For féwy τῷ πνεύματι cf. Rom,
si. Li.
émordpevos..." Iwivvov, knowing only the baptism of John. In this
sentence we have the solution of any difficulty which there may seem
to be in the verse. He knew nothing of that other baptism, which is
the entrance into Christ’s kingdom, and therefore he could merely be
looking forward for the fulfilment of the prophecies, and the power of
his teaching would consist in the zealous way which he published that
the voice of God in His older Revelation proclaimed Messiah’s advent
very near.
26. οὗτός τε ἤρξατο παρρησιαάζεσθαι ἐν TH συναγωγῇ, and this man
began to speak boldly in the synagogue. The verb παρρησιάζεσθαι has
been frequently used of the boldness of the disciples (cf. ix. 27, 29,
xiv. 3, &c.). Here too was the same spirit and the same need of it.
For the Jews were not all ready to listen to announcements of the
approach of the Messiah. The speaker must be prepared with argu-
ments as well as courage who dwelt on this theme, about which the
Jews had been deluded by many impostors.
ἀκούσαντες δὲ αὐτοὺ Πρίσκιλλα Kal’ Ακύλας, but when Priscilla and
Aquila heard him. Here as in other places (see above on 18) the name
of the wife precedes that of her husband. By joining her in this
marked way with Aquila in the communications with Apollos, the his-
torian indicates that she was a woman of great power and zeal among
the Christians. It has been suggested that she was perhaps a born
Jewess and her husband not so, which might account for the promi-
nence given in several places to her name. It may be noted here, as
so often, that Aquila and his wife, like the other Judzo-Christians,
still attended the worship of the synagogue.
προσελάβοντο αὐτόν, they took him unto them. He would be much
more in sympathy with them than with many of the Jewish congrega-
tion. He was prepared to accept the Messiah, but did not yet under-
stand that Jesus was He. Priscilla and Aquila must have been per-
sons of some mark to be warranted in taking Apollos thus to their
company.
καὶ axpiBéorepov...tHv ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, and expounded unto him the
way of God more carefully. For the adverb cf. the previous verse.
XVIII. 27.] NOTES. 329
The use of the same word in both verses seems to shew that the
studies of Aquila and his wife in the Scriptures had been of the same
earnest kind as those of Apollos. By the ‘way of God’ we must
understand God’s further working out of the Old Testament prediction
in the closing events of the life of Jesus, and in the gift of the Holy
Ghost. That Joel’s prophecy, quoted by St Peter on the day of
Pentecost (Acts ii. 16), had been thus fulfilled, was new learning for
the eloquent Alexandrian. As also the newly-appointed means of
grace in baptism and the breaking of bread, with the promise of
salvation through faith in Christ. These also may be included as
part of the ‘way of God,’ being means whereby men are brought
nearer to Him.
27. βουλομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ διελθεῖν, ε. r."A., and when he was minded
to pass over into. Achaia. We find from xix. 1 that the centre of his
labours there was Corinth. Being acquainted with the philosophy and
learning of Greece he was well fitted to be a preacher to the Greeks as
well as to the Jews, and he may have felt that Corinth was the place
where he could do most good. We are not told of any Apostolic com-
mission to Apollos, but we know from 1 Cor. i. 12, &c. that he came
to be regarded by some Corinthians as the equal of St Paul, and that
there arose some strong party feeling in that Church, which is rebuked
in St Paul’s letter to them. We cannot suppose that this was brought
about by Apollos, for St Paul speaks of him as watering what he him-
self had planted, and it may be that the knowledge of the existence of
such a spirit accounts for the unwillingness of Apollos to come back
to Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 12) which we read of somewhat later.
προτρεψάμενοι.. ἀποδέξασθαι αὐτόν, the brethren encouraged him
and wrote to the disciples to receive him. For προτρέπομαι cf. Wisdom
xiv. 18, καὶ τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας ἡ τοῦ τεχνίτου προετρέψατο φιλοτιμία. Also
2 Mace. xi. 7, αὐτὸς δὲ πρῶτος ὁ Μακκαβαῖος ἀναλαβὼν τὰ ὅπλα προετρέ-
ψατο τοὺς ἄλλους: Here we find the first instance of letters of com-
mendation sent from one Church to another. ‘The brethren’ at
Ephesus were probably only a small number, but Aquila and Priscilla
would be well known to the Christians in Corinth.
ὃς παραγενόμενος... διὰ τῆς χάριτος, who when he was come helped
them much which had believed through grace. διὰ τῆς χάριτος May
be joined either to συνεβάλετο or to τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν. But as the
history is occupied with the work of Apollos, it seems more natural
to explain the ‘grace’ spoken of, as the gift which was already in
Apollos, and which the more full instruction that he had just received
had tended to increase. He had formerly been but partially en-
lightened. Now that he knows the truth in Christ, his former ability
becomes more helpful still. He helps others through his grace. His
work seems rightly estimated by St Paul, ‘he watered’ what the
Apostle had ‘ planted’ (1 Cor. iii. 6).
For συμβάλλομαι in the sense of ‘helping,’ cf. Wisdom v. 8, τί πλοῦ-
Tos μετὰ ἀλαζονείας συμβέβληται ἡμῖν ; ‘What good hath riches with
our vaunting brought us?’ (A.V.).
330 THE ACTS. [X VIEL 982
28. εὐτόνως γὰρ τοῖς ᾿Ιουϑαίοις διακατηλέγχετο, for he mightily
confuted the Jews. ‘The verb implies that Apollos brought the ob-
jections of the Jews to the test (ἔλεγχος) of Scripture, and shewed
them to be futile. The disciples, who had already believed, appear to
have been suffering from Jewish gainsayers. It was by his power in
the Scriptures that Apollos was helpful against these adversaries of
the faith.
For εὐτόνως, which in N.T. is found only here and in Luke xxiii. 10,
cf. LXX. Josh. vi. 8, σημαινέτωσαν εὐτόνως. Also 2 Macc. xii. 23.
διακατελέγχομαι Occurs nowhere else.
δημοσίᾳ, publicly. By his discourses in the synagogue. This was
an important feature in the help that Apollos gave. He was a learned
Jew, able to set forth to whole Jewish congregations how their Scrip-
tures were receiving their fulfilment. Thus they who already believed
would be strengthened.
emdexvds...trov Χριστὸν "Incotv, shewing by the Scriptures that
Jesus was the Christ. See above on verse 5. The Jews had com-
plained before Gallio that St Paul was teaching a religion ‘contrary
to the Law.’ Those who heard Apollos learnt that in Jesus they were
accepting the ‘ fulfiller of the Law.’
Chrysostom says here: ἐντεῦθεν πῶς ἣν δυνατὸς ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς
᾿Απολλὼς δείκνυσι" τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ᾿Ιουδαίους σφόδρα ἐπεστόμιζε. τοῦτο “γάρ
ἐστι τὸ διακατηλέγχετο" τοὺς δὲ πιστεύοντας θαρρεῖν μᾶλλον ἐποίει, καὶ
ἵστασθαι πρὸς τὴν πίστιν.
CHAPTER XIX,
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
1. εὑρεῖν for εὑρών with SAB. Vulg. supports this having ‘veniret
...et Inveniret.’
2. εἶπον omitted with NABDE. Vulg. has ‘dixerunt.’
3. “πρὸς αὐτούς omitted with NAE. Not represented in Vulg.
4. Χριστὸν omitted with SABE. Not represented in Vulg.
9. τινός omitted with NAB. Vulg. has ‘cujusdam.’
ma Ἰησοῦ omitted after Κυρίου with NABDE. Not represented in
ulg.
12. ἐκπορεύεσθαι for ἐξέρχεσθαι ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν with NABDE. Vulg. has
‘egrediebantur’ only.
13. ὁρκίζω with NABDE. Vulg. ‘abjuro.’
14. viol after ἑπτὰ and omitting οἱ with NABE. Vulg. has ‘septem
filii qui hoe faciebant.’
15. αὐτοῖς added after εἶπεν with NABD. Vulg. has ‘eis.’
16. ἀμφοτέρων for αὐτῶν with NABD. Vulg. ‘amborum.’
XIX. 2] - NOTES. 331
24. οὐκ ὀλίγην ἐργασίαν with NABD. Vulg. ‘non modicum ques-
29. ὅλη omitted with NAB. Vulg. does not represent it.
33. συνεβίβασαν with NABE. Vulg. ‘detraxerunt.’
34. ἐπιγνόντες with NABDEHLP. Vulg. seems to support Text.
recept.
35. ἀνθρώπων with SABE. Vulg. ‘hominum.’
θεᾶς omitted with NABDE. Not represented in Vulg.
40. περὶ οὗ οὐ with NABHLP. Vulg. has ‘de quo possumus,’
Cu. XIX. 1—7. Pav RETURNING TO EPHESUS FINDS THERE SOME
DisciPLES OF JOHN THE Baprisvt.
1. ἐν τῷ Tov’ Απολλὼ εἶναι ἐν Καὶ ορίνθῳ, while Apollos was in Corinth.
The digression concerning Apollos being ended, the history now re-
turns to St Paul. Apollos found, no doubt, that Corinth was the
most effective centre for his work in Achaia, and apparently made
that his head-quarters,
Παῦλον διελθόντα τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη, Paul having passed through
the upper country. The districts alluded to are those mentioned in
xvili. 23, Galatia and Phrygia, to reach which he would also pass
through Lycaonia. ἀνωτερικός signifies the upland away from the sea;
here the more eastern parts of Asia Minor.
ἐλθεῖν eis” Eerov, came to Ephesus. This he had promised to do if
he could (xviii. 21).
καὶ εὑρεῖν τινὰς μαθητάς, and sound certain disciples. These men
are called disciples because they were, like Apollos, to a certain
extent instructed concerning Jesus, and what they already knew drew
them to listen to St Paul who could teach them more.
2. εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐλάβετε πιστεύσαντες : did ye receive the Holy
Ghost when ye believed? On the use of εἰ as simply the mark of an
interrogation cf, i. 6.
The position of these disciples is difficult to understand. St Paul
addresses them as believers. But this perhaps is only because they
presented themselves among the real Christian disciples, and his recent
arrival made it impossible for him to know the history of all who
appeared among the members of the congregation. He presumes
they are believers from the company in which he finds them.
ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιόν ἐστιν ἠκούσαμεν, nay, we did not so
much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given. This is the sense of
the verse, and not that given by the A.V. Of the existence of the
Holy Ghost no disciples of John could (as might be conceived from
the A.V.) be ignorant. In his preaching John had proclaimed that the
baptism of Him who was to come after him should be with the Hoiy
332 THE ACTS. [XIX. 2—
Ghost and with fire. But in the Greek where, as in this verse, the ex-
pression ‘ Spirit’ or ‘Holy Spirit’ is found without an article (although
in English we are forced to put ‘the’ before it) it signifies not the per-
sonal Comforter, but an operation or gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus
in John vii. 39, the A.V. rightly renders οὔπω yap ἦν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ‘for
the Holy Ghost was not yet given,’ although there is no verb for
‘given,’ because the noun is without an article in the Greek, and so
signifies ‘a spiritual outpouring.’ These disciples at Ephesus, then,
imply by their answer not that the name ‘Holy Ghost’ was strange,
but that they were unacquainted (as was the Baptist himself) with
any special bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit.
8. εἰς τί οὖν ἐβαπτίσθητε; into what then were ye baptized? The
phrase, derived from the language of Christ (Matth. xxviii. 19), was
βαπτίζειν els τὸ ὄνομα. Hence the form of this question and of the
answer, εἰς τὸ ᾿Ιωάννου βάπτισμα, which means ‘ We were baptized into
that into which John baptized.’ These men may have been disciples
of Apollos, and been baptized by him before his fuller instruction by
Priscilla and Aquila.
4. εἶπεν δὲ ἸΙαῦλος, ᾿Ιωάννης ἐβάπτισεν βάπτισμα μετανοίας, and
Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance. Such was
John’s description of his own baptism (Matth. iii. 11), but after the day
of Pentecost the language of the Christian preacher (Acts ii. 38) is,
‘Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ These
Ephesian disciples knew nothing of baptism for the remission of sins,
or of the other sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, nor of the gift of the
Spirit to the Church, nor of the doctrines of faith in Christ and salva-
tion by grace through faith.
βάπτισμα μετανοίας, found Mark i. 4; Luke iii. 3; Acts xiii. 24,
is explained by βαπτίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν of Matth. iii. 11. The baptized
were pledged to amendment of life, and to a preparation for the
coming Messiah.
εἰς τὸν ἐρχόμενον μετ᾽ αὐτόν, κιτιλ., on Him which should come after
him, that is, on Jesus. In his preaching John had constantly used the
phrase ‘He that cometh after me.’ This was the stage of instruction
at which these disciples had arrived. They knew that John spake of
one who was to come. St Paul’s teaching made clear to them that
this was Jesus. The closing words of the sentence (εἰς τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν) are
a condensation of all the explanations by which the Apostle convinced
them that Jesus, whom he preached, was the prophet whom John
announced. St Luke does not anywhere give speeches or arguments
in extenso, but only so much as is needed to explain the results which
he describes.
δ. ἀκούσαντες δέ, and when they heard. What they heard was not
the mere statement that Jesus was the Messiah; but all the arguments
with which St Paul demonstrated that this was so, and proved that in
Him the Scriptures were fulfilled. The conviction need not have been
sudden, though its description is brief.
KIX. 6] NOTES. 333
εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, into the name. Cf. Matth. xxviii. 19 and Acts ii. 38
note. These men followed the order appointed for admission to the
privileges of the Christian covenant. No argument can be drawn from
this verse for a repetition of baptism. These disciples had never
received such a baptism as Christ ordained. John’s baptism was but
a washing symbolical of the repentance which he preached; baptism
into the name of Christ is the pledge of a covenant of salvation.
6. ἦλθεν τὸ πνεῦμα τ. a. ἔπ᾽ αὐτούς, the Holy Ghost came upon
them. The gift of the Holy Ghost to these disciples appears to have
been a special provision of the Spirit for the great work which was to
change Ephesus, from the city wholly devoted to the goddess Diana, .
into the centre of Christian life throughout the west of Asia Minor for
several centuries.
ἐλάλουν τε γλώσσαις, and they spake with tongues. A Pentecostal
outpouring; for as in Jerusalem the gift wrought its effect among the
Jews then gathered there from every quarter, so was the Spirit given
in this great centre of Gentile activity that a like result might follow,
and that the amazement and marvel at such a power might win atten-
tion to the message and gain converts to Christ.
καὶ ἐπροφήτευον, and prophesied. Probably in this case to be
understood of the exposition of Old Testament prophecy, and of the
power of preaching bestowed on them by the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The foretelling of future events would be no such help to the cause of
Christ as would the power of prophecy in this other sense.
7. ἦσαν δὲ οἱ πάντες ἄνδρες ὡσεὶ δώδεκα, and they were in all about
twelve men. A new band of Apostles.
The verse has been the cause of much remark. Why the inspired
historian should speak with an ‘about,’ has been asked by some.
With that we are not concerned, only to observe that the Spirit has
not prompted him to speak otherwise. Some have seen in the number
and the circumstances a resemblance to the Apostles and their super-
natural endowment; others have looked back as far as the Patriarchs
and haye made of these men the beginning of another Israel. May it
not be that the ‘about’ was written to admonish us of the un-
profitableness of such speculations? Cp. Josh. vii. 5.
Here Chrysostom asks: πῶς οἱ λαβόντες τὸ πνεῦμα οὐκ ἐδίδασκον, ἀλλ᾽
᾿Απολλὼς μήπω τὸ πνεῦμα λαβών; ὅτι οὐκ ἦσαν οὕτω ζέοντες οὐδὲ
κατηχημένοι" ἐκεῖνος δὲ καὶ κατηχημένὸς ἦν καὶ σφόδρα ζέων. ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκεῖ
ὅτι καὶ πολλὴ ἣν ἡ παρρησία τοῦ ἀνδρός. ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ ἀκριβώς ἐλάλει τὰ
περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ; ὅμως ἐδεῖτο ἔτι ἀκριβεστέρας διδασκαλίας. οὕτω καίτοι
οὐκ εἰδὼς πάντα ἀπὸ τῆς προθυμίας ἐπεσπάσατο τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον
καθάπερ οἱ περὶ Κορνήλιον.
8—-20. ῬΑΌΙΤ, PREACHES TO THE JEWS FIRST AND AFTERWARDS TO THE
GENTILES. THE Worp or Gop PREVAILS MIGHTILY.
8. εἰσελθὼν δὲ εἰς τὴν συναγωγήν, and having entered into the
synagogue. As the incident of John’s disciples is mentioned before
anything else, it seems likely that St Paul found them among the few
334 THE ACTS. [xr
Christian brethren in Ephesus, and began his teaching of them before
he commenced his visits to the synagogue.
ἐπὶ μῆνας τρεῖς, for three months. Going there, that is, on all
occasions of religious service, and so giving to his brethren of Israel a
full opportunity of hearing all his reasoning, and of inquiring whether
what he taught was in accordance with the Scriptures. The abiding a
longer time with them, which they had asked for (xvili. 20) on his
previous Visit, does not seem to have gained him more adherents among
the Jews. Perhaps he had noticed when the request was made that it
was not with great fervour. Otherwise, it is not like the Apostle to
pass by an opened door.
διαλεγόμενος, reasoning. The word is the same as in xvii. 2. There
ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν is added. The same sense is no doubt intended here.
It must be from their Scriptures that the congregation of the
synagogue would be conviuced.
9. ὡς δέ τινες ἐσκληρύνοντο Kal ἠπείθουν, but when divers were
hardened, and believed not, that is, retused the persuasion spoken of
in the previous verse. The same two verbs are found together in
Ecclus. xxx. 11 of the training of a son, θλάσον τὰς πλευρὰς αὐτοῦ ws
ἔστι νήπιος μήποτε oxAnpuvOels ἀπειθήσῃ σοι.
κακολογοῦντες τὴν ὁδὸν ἐνώπιον τοῦ πλήθους, speaking evil of the
Way before the multitude. The evil speaking is the final manifestation
of the hardening. The Apostle continued his exhortations to stony-
hearted hearers for three months, but when their obstinacy changed
into malignity he left them. ἡ ὁδός was soon given as a distinctive
name to ‘the Christian religion.’ See note on ix, 2 and cf. below
verse 23.
It was not mere opposition to the arguments of the Apostle which
these Jews employed, they took occasion to excite the crowds of the
city against him. And it would seem from verse 33, where the Jews
attempt to put forward a spokesman in the tumult, that they wished
the heathen populace to believe that Paul was not approved of by his
own nationality.
ἀποστὰς ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν, departing from them, i.e. ceasing to take part
any longer in the services at the synagogue, through which the evil
speaking had been aroused.
ἀφώρισεν τοὺς μαθητάς, he separated the disciples. The Christian
part of the congregation, with any of the Jews who were attracted
more than the rest by his teaching.
διαλεγόμενος, reasoning (as in verse 8), Among these more sympa-
thizing hearers, he would only have to set forward the arguments for
the faith which he preached unto them. His teaching now could go
on constantly (καθ᾽ ἡμέραν), and was not confined to the synagogue
times of service.
ἐν τῇ σχολῇ Τυράννου, in the school of Tyrannus. This teacher,
whether a heathen or a Jew, was a man well known. Otherwise we
can conceive no reason for the mention of a proper name. As
ΕΣ, 15] NOTES. 335
the name is Greek, some have thought that the place meant was the
lecture-room of a philosophic teacher; others, thinking that St Paul
would hardly have chosen such a place for his preaching, have pre-
ferred to consider it a Jewish school or Beth-Hammidrash, in which his
Jewish hearers would be more willing to assemble. Since the listeners
are described, in the next verse, as being partly Jews, and partly
Greeks, it is impossible to arrive at a conclusion. No doubt the Jews
in Ephesus were numerous enough to render such ‘ schools’ necessary
for their education, and in their intercourse with Gentiles they not
unfrequently adopted a Gentile name in addition to their Jewish one.
So Tyrannus may have been a Jew.
10. ἐπὶ ἔτη δύο, by the space of two years. Speaking to the Ephe-
sian elders at Miletus the Apostle says he ceased not to admonish the
Church there for ‘ three years.’ The two statements need not be con-
flicting. To the two years mentioned here when the three months of
verse 8 are added, and the time which may have preceded his teaching
in the synagogue (see on verse 8), the duration of the Aposile’s stay in
Ephesus would be described in Jewish reckoning as ‘three years,’
which in their mode of speech need only consist of one whole year, and
parts of that which preceded, and that which followed it. Cf. the
reckoning of three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
ὥστε πάντας.. ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, so that all they which
dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord. By Asia is meant ‘ pro-
consular Asia’ (see note on 11. 10). The seed of the Seven Churches of
the Apocalypse was sown in these two years. It is evident from the
tumult described in this chapter that the Christian teaching was
making as much way among the Gentiles as among the Jews. The
language of St Luke here implies that the audience of St Paul was
made up not of the settled inhabitants of Ephesus only, but of those
who visited the city for business or pleasure, and carried news of the
preacher and his message to all corners of the district. Philemon
from Colosse may have been one of St Paul’s converts during this
time.
11. δυνάμεις τε od τὰς τυχούσας ὁ θεὸς ἔποίει διὰ τῶν χειρῶν 171αύ-
λου, and God wrought special (or no common) powers by the hands of
Paul. The language of the historian is noteworthy. God works,
Paul is the instrument. (Cp. the mighty hand of Moses, Deut. xxxiv.
12.) The imperfect tense of the verb in the Greek implies that these
manifestations of God’s power were continued during the Apostle’s
stay. This was no mere spasmodic excitement over some powerful
discourse. ‘By the hands’ is probably only the Jewish mode of ex-
pressing ‘by.’ See note on νυ. 12.
On ov τὰς τυχούσας --΄ not such as are usual’ cf. below chap. xxviii. 2,
and 2 Mace. 111. 7, καὶ οὐ τῷ τυχόντι περιῆψαν ψόγῳ, ‘And they attached
to them no ordinary blame.’
12. ὥστε καὶ.. ἀποφέρεσθαι ἀπὸ Tod χρωτὸς αὐτοῦ, so that from his
body there were carried away unto the sick. St Luke is careful
to intimate that the Apostle did not of himself adopt or reeommend
336 THE ACTS. [XIX Tees
these methods, but the faith of the converts was such that it mani-
fested itself in this way, and God was pleased to bestow blessings
because of their faith. In the city of Ephesus where, as we find from
this chapter, exorcism and ‘ curious arts’ of witchcraft and incantation
were familiarly exercised, God appears to have made the cures that
were wrought to be specially evidences of the power of faith. Paul
does not go to the sick, and even the sons of Sceva (verse 13) recognise
that it is not to Paul, but to Jesus whom he preacheth, that the
‘powers’ are to be ascribed. Thus was God’s minister made to differ
from the pretenders to miraculous power with which the Ephesian
people were familiar. A specimen of these may be seen in the life of
Apollonius of Tyana, tv. 3 (Kayser, p. 66).
σουδάρια ἢ σιμικίνθια, handkerchiefs or aprons. Some take the
latter word to signify the cincture, by which the loose robes of the
Orientals were gathered together round the waist. This would be
expressed by ‘ belts’ or ‘ girdles’. Others think they were the aprons
used by the Apostle while working at his trade. The derivation of the
word favours the latter sense. They seem to have been employed to
cover the front half of the dress during work.
The words are both Latin, sudariwm and semicinctium, and the latter
is sometimes written σημικίνθιον.
καὶ ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν... ἐκπορεύεσθαι, and the diseases de-
parted from them and the evil spirits went away. These converts
acted on the popular belief, that virtue proceeded from the bodies of
our Lord and His Apostles. St Luke notices this belief in his Gospel
(vill. 44), and St Mark says of Jesus (v. 30) ‘ perceiving in Himself that
the power proceeding from Him had gone forth.’ The words of Serip-
ture can hardly be made to countenance, though they recognise, the
popular belief. Yet, even though these men employed means which
were unnecessary and superstitious to display their faith, because of
the reality of this faith God did not suffer it to lose its reward.
13. ἐπεχείρησαν δέ τινες kal τῶν περιερχομένων ᾿Ιουδαίων ἐξορκισ-
τῶν, and certain also of the Jews that went about as exorcists took upon
them. In addition to the real, though ignorant, faith of the converts
alluded to in verse 12, some impostors, who had no faith, tried to win
more credit for their jugglery by employing the names of Paul and
Jesus, These were certain Jews who went about from place to place,
professing by charms and spells to cure diseases. The A.V. ‘ vaga-
bond’ conveys in modern language a moral censure, which probably
these men well deserved, but which is not in the Greek. The Rey.
Ver. has adopted strolling, which gives more nearly the sense of the
original but is not a very dignified word. We read in Josephus (Aunt.
vit, 2. 5) that ‘God gave Solomon skill against demons for the help
and cure of men. And he arranged certain incantations whereby
diseases are assuaged, and left behind him forms of exorcism, where-
with they so put to flight the overpowered evil spirits that they never
return. And this method of curing is very prevalent among us up to
the present time.’ The Jews at Ephesus were professors of this pre-
tended art of healing.
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ἘΣ. 15 NOTES. 337
ὀνομάζειν... τοῦ κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ, to name over them which had evil
spirits the name of the Lord Jesus. From an early date the traditional
literature of the Jews ascribed great effects to the utterance of the
incommunicable divine name. By means of this (they say) it was
that Moses slew the Egyptian, and Elisha brought destruction on the
mocking children ‘by the name of Jehovah.’ We can understand
therefore, if the fame of St Paul were become known, and the name
of Jesus connected with his preaching, and with the powers vouch-
safed, how these men (living among superstitious Jews) would make a
pretence to the possession of the same secrets by which, as they would
declare, the cures were wrought.
On these men Chrysostom remarks: τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν δὲ λέγουσι ἐκεῖνοι
ἁπλῶς, δέον εἰπεῖν τὸν τῆς οἰκουμένης σωτῆρα, τὸν ἀναστάντα. ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ
ἤθελον ὁμολογῆσαι τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ. διὸ καὶ ἐλέγχει αὐτοὺς ὁ δαίμων ἐπι-
πηδήσας αὐτοῖς, καὶ εἰπὼν τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν γινώσκω καὶ τὸν ἸΤαῦλον ἐπίσταμαι.
woe. ἔλεγεν" ὑμεῖς οὐ πιστεύετε.
λέγοντες, “Ορκίζω, saying, I adjure. The singular is the form which
each particular pretender would use, when he was performing his
exorcism.
14. ἦσαν δέ τινες.. ἀρχιερέως ἑπτὰ viol, and there were seven sons of
one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest. We cannot tell why the title ‘ chief
priest’ is given to Sceva, but it is not improbable that the name was
applied to the heads of the twenty-four courses of the Levitical priest-
hood, who are called in the Old Testament ‘ heads of fathers’ houses,’
τοῦτο ποιοῦντες, Who did this, i.e. which agreed to adopt this form
of words in their exorcisms. There is no need to suppose that the
whole seven were present in the case about to be named, but only that
they were all exorcists, and in their wish to seem the best of their
class they determined to use words which should connect them with
the Christian preacher through whom many miracles were known to
have been wrought.
Chrysostom’s comment here is: σὺ δέ μοι σκόπει τοῦ συγγραφέως
ἐνταῦθα τὸ ἀνεπαχθές, καὶ πῶς ἱστορίαν μόνον γράφει, καὶ οὐ διαβάλλει.
τοῦτο τοὺς ἀποστόλους ἐποίει θαυμαστούς. ἀλλὰ τίνος ἦσαν υἱοὶ τὸ ὄνομα
λέγει καὶ τὸν ἀριθμόν, διδοὺς τοῖς τότε τεκμήριον ἀξιόπιστον ὧν ἔγραφε.
τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν καὶ περιήρχοντο, ἐμπορίας χάριν. οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὸν λόγον
καταγγέλλοντες. πῶς γάρ; καλῶς δὲ ἔτρεχον λοιπόν, κηρύττοντες δι᾽ ὧν
ἔπασχον.-
16. ἀποκριθὲν δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πονηρὸν εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, and the evil
spirit answered and said to them. They had taken upon them to use
the name of Jesus, but the result was far contrary to their wishes and
intentions. ‘Evil spirit’ is used for the man in whom the spirit was.
Cf. Mark iii. 11.
τὸν Incotv γινώσκω καὶ τὸν Παῦλον ἐπίσταμαι, Jesus 1 know and
Paul I know. It is hardly possible in a translation to mark the differ-
ence of the two verbs. In γινώσκω there seems to be intended a recog-
nition and admission of power, in ἐπίσταμαι a recognition of an ap-
pointed ministry thereof. The spirit speaking through the man would
THE ACTS 22
38 THE ACTS. [XIX. 15—
intimate: I recognise that Jesus has power over evil spirits, and I
know that Paul is a true servant of Jesus, through whom Jesus mani-
fests His power. The LXX. has the two verbs in the same sentence
(Is. xlviii. 8) οὔτε ἔγνως, οὔτε ἠπίστω.
ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνες ἐστέ; Lut who are ye? Ye are not like Paul, devoted
servants of Jesus. Ye are mere pretenders coming in His name.
16. ἐφαλόμενος, leaping upon, with the power, more than natural,
so often displayed by madmen.
κατακυριεύσας ἀμφοτέρων, having gained the mastery over both of
them. Here the reading ἀμφοτέρων preserves for us the information
that on the occasion here spoken of only two of the family were
present. This reading would never have been substituted for the
simpler αὐτῶν. But how prone scribes would be to put the simple for
the less obvious is easy to see. It is no objection to the recall of this
old well-supported reading, that other words in the verse, referring to
these brethren are plural and not dual. Plural verbs and adjectives
are not unfrequently used with dual subjects. Cf. Matth. iv. 18, εἶδεν
δύο ἀδελφοὺς βάλλοντας ἀμφίβληστρον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν" ἦσαν yap
ἁλιεῖς. There is no instance of a dual noun in the N.T.
ἴσχυσεν kar’ αὐτῶν, he prevailed against them. He put them to
flight, tearing their clothes to shreds, and leaving marks of his violence
upon their bodies. ἰσχύω is used of a victory won by Alexander in
1 Mace. x. 49.
17. τοῦτο δὲ ἐγένετο γνωστόν, and this became known. The sentence
refers to a gradual spreading of the story. We may be sure that ‘ the
sons of Sceva’ said as little about it as they could help.
πᾶσιν ᾿Ιουδαίοις te kal" EAAnow τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν τὴν Είφεσον, to
all both Jews and Greeks that dwelt at Ephesus. Exorcists were
plentiful in Ephesus, and what had happened would be taken for
a warning.
ἐπέπεσεν φόβος. fear fell on. This was the first and most prevalent
result. It touched every body that heard the history.
ἐμεγαλύνετο τὸ ὄνομα τ. kK. ., and the name of the Lord Jesus was
magnified. This was the later and no doubt less widespread effect. It
was produced among those by whom Jesus was becoming known and
worshipped.
18. πολλοί τε τῶν πεπιστευκότων, and many of those who had
believed, i.e. who had made a profession of their faith. Clearly it was
as yet only an imperfect belief. But the N.T. charity often names
those ‘saints’ who are only on the way to become so.
ἤρχοντο ἐξομολογούμενοι, came and confessed, i.e. came before the
Apostle and the Christian brethren, and acknowledged that their pro-
fession had not as yet been completely followed by their practice.
_ kal ἀναγγέλλοντες τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν, and published their deeds.
ἀναγγέλλω implies the ‘making of a public announcement.’ The
πράξεις were the practices connected with witchcraft, sorcery and
XIX. 20.] NOTES. 339.
exorcism, that were inconsistent with the Christian life. πρᾶξις is
thus used, without any defining word, of an evil course of action in
Luke xxiii. 51.
19. ἱκανοὶ δὲ τῶν τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων, and not a few (so R.V. to
make a distinction from the πολλοί of verse 18) of them which used
curious arts. The τὰ περίεργα were magic, jugglery and all such
practices as make pretence to supernatural agency. The word is used
of magic arts both in classical and patristic Greek, and the kindred
verb is used of Socrates (Plato, Apol. 8) because of his statement con-
cerning his inward spiritual monitor or demon. Cf. also Ecclus. iil.
23, ἐν τοῖς περισσοῖς τῶν ἔργων σου μὴ περιεργάζου, Where the whole
warning is against prying into things too hard for a man.
συνενέγκαντες τὰς βίβλους, having brought their books together. We
have seen above that the Jews had receipts for incantations and
exorcisms professedly dating back to the days of Solomon, and among
the heathen population of Ephesus such writings were vastly abun-
dant. Indeed ᾿Εφέσια γράμματα ‘ Ephesian letters’ was a common ex-
pression, signifying charms composed of magic words and worn as
amulets, and supposed to be efficacious against all harm. We are
told of a wrestler who could not be thrown while he wore such a
charm, but who was easily overcome when it was taken away. Some
of these amulets were said to be composed of the letters which were
upon the crown and girdle and feet of the statue of Artemis in
the temple at Ephesus. See Farrar’s St Paul, 11. 26, and the au-
thorities there quoted.
κατέκαιον ἐνώπιον πάντων, burned them in the sight of all men,
i.e. where all might see who were there. We must remember that
what they burnt were rolls of written material, not books after the
modern fashion, which are extremely difficult to burn. Such a
burning pile must have attracted much notice, and was a proof
that the descent of the Holy Ghost (ver. 6) had wrought in Ephe-
sus in the same way as aforetime in Jerusalem.
καὶ συνεψήφισαν tas τιμὰς αὐτῶν, and they counted the price of
them. And in the sacrifice we must think not only of the cost of
the books, but of the hopes of gain which were thrown also into
the fire by those to whom ‘curious arts’ had been a revenue.
Kal εὗρον ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε, and found it fifty thousand pieces
of silver. As the scene of this abjuration was among a Greek popu-
lation, it is almost certain that the Attic drachma is the coin in
which the reckoning is made. As 24 of these were a little more
in value than our English pound, we may consider that more than
two thousand pounds worth of rolls and slips of magic treatises
was consumed.
As an example of the omission of the coin in which a sum is
reckoned, cf. the English ‘ten thousand a year.’
20. οὕτως κατὰ κράτος, so mightily. The phrase is common in
classical Greek in the sense of ‘with all one’s power and might.’
Pim 2
340 THE ACTS. ΓΣΈΧΣ. oie
21, 22. Sr Pauu's Puans ror His JoURNEY FROM EPHESUS.
21. ὡς δὲ ἐπληρώθη ταῦτα, and after these things were ended. The
foundations of the Ephesian Church seemed fully laid, when sacri-
fices of such a kind had been made by the converts, and so St
Paul feels that he may leave the seed sown in good hope that it
will grow.
ἔθετο ὁ Παῦλος ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, Paul purposed in the spirit, i.e. he
had settled it in his own mind.
διελθὼν τὴν Μακεδονίαν καὶ ᾿Αχαΐαν, when he had passed through
Macedonia and Achaia. Intending, no doubt, as was his wont, to
visit the Churches which had been founded on his previous mission
(chapp. xvi.—xviii.) from Philippi to Corinth.
πορεύεσθαι εἰς Ιεροσόλυμα, to go to Jerusalem. With contributions,
as we know, collected throughout the other Churches for the needs
of the central organization of the Christian movement. See 1 Cor.
xvi. 1—3. There this intended journey through Macedonia and to
Corinth is alluded to, and the reason assigned for the Apostle’s
lingering in Ephesus (ver. 8, 9) ‘I will tarry at Ephesus until Pente-
cost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there
are many adversaries.’ The opening of the door was manifest in
the burning piles of magic books. Of the many adversaries we
read in this chapter in a description which might justify the Apostle
in using the language of the Psalmist, ‘Great bulls of Bashan close
me in on every side.’ And perhaps such a thought was in his mind
when he wrote of ‘fighting with beasts at Ephesus’ (1 Cor. xv. 32).
εἰπὼν ὅτι Mera τὸ γενέσθαι.. ἰδεῖν, saying, After I have been there
I must also see Rome. Of the long-cherished desire which he had
to visit the Imperial City, the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 13, in which
passage he intimates that the purpose had been often entertained,
but hitherto disappointed.
22. ἀποστείλας δὲ εἰς τὴν Μακεδονίαν, so having sent unto Mace-
donia. No doubt to make arrangements that the contributions of
the Churches might be in readiness, and that there should be no
vatherings when Paul himself came, as he says to the Corinthians
(1 Cor. xvi. 2).
διακονούντων, of them that ministered unto him. The chief duty
of such διάκονοι was in collecting and dispensing the alms of the
brethren. On the former of these duties Timothy and Erastus were
most likely now engaged.
Τιμόθεον kal "Epacrov, Timothy and Erastus. The former had
laboured in Macedonia and in Greece when St Paul was there before ;
the latter is mentioned (2 Tim. iv. 20) as having stayed at Corinth,
in that later period when the second Epistle to Timothy was written.
He can hardly be the same person as Erastus the chamberlain of
the city of Corinth spoken of in Rom. xvi. 23.
αὐτὸς ἐπέσχεν χρόνον εἰς τὴν ᾿Ασίαν, he himself stayed in Asia
for a season. For the phrase, in which ἑαυτόν must be supplied
XIX. 24.] NOTES. 341
after the verb, cf. LXX. Gen. viii. 10, καὶ ἐπισχὼν ἔτι ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ
ἑτέρας. We may perhaps infer from the mention of Asia rather than
Ephesus that St Paul did not remain constantly at Ephesus, at all
events when the congregation there became firmly established, but
making that city his head-quarters, went out into other districts
of the province of proconsular Asia,
23—41. HEATHEN OUTBREAK AGAINST St PauL AND HIS TEACHING,
23. κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον, about that time. This is better than
A.Y. ‘the same time,’ and there is some gain in accuracy of render-
ing of these connecting phrases. The literal rendering allows of the
lapse of some period between the action of the converts in burning
their magic books, and the uproar of the silversmiths. No doubt one
movement was in part, but need not have been entirely, a consequence
of the other, and the A.V. connects them more closely than is done by
the original.
περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ, about the Way. See above on verse 9,
24. ἀργυροκόπος is found in LXX. Judges xvii. 4; Jerem. vi. 29.
ναοὺς ἀργυροῦς ᾿Αρτέμιδος, silver shrines of Diana. These appear
to have been little models either of the temple or of the shrine
in which the image was preserved. We may be quite sure that
the ingenuity of Greek artists devised forms enough and sizes enough
to suit all needs. Smaller specimens might be carried about and
worn as ornaments and amulets at the same time; the larger could
be kept in the houses of their possessors, and would be a sign of
wealth as well as of devotion.
The goddess worshipped at Ephesus was called Artemis, but this
Kphesian Artemis was totally distinct from Artemis the Greek god-
dess, the sister of Apollo. It is believed that the Ephesian worship
was originally Asiatic, and that when the Greeks sent colonies to
Asia Minor they found it already established there, and from some
resemblance which they discovered in the worship they gave the
Asian divinity the name of Artemis. The Ephesian Artemis was
the personification of the fruitful and nurturing powers of nature,
and so the image in the temple represented her with many breasts.
Her whole figure is said to have been like a mummy, standing
upright and tapering downwards to a point. Her crown and girdle
and the pedestal on which the figure stood had upon it engraved signs or
letters, and the body was covered with figures of mystical animals. All
these things would furnish abundant variety for the craft of the
silversmiths.
οὐκ ὀλίγην ἐργασίαν, no small gain. The R.V. renders ‘no little
business.’ The word no doubt means primarily ‘employment’ by
which a living is made, but we have it used twice in chap. xvi. 16,
19 of the ‘gain’ made by the Philippian masters from the ravings of
the girl who was possessed, and here too ‘gain’ seems the better
sense. It was because their gains were going that the uproar was
made, and probably Demetrius himself, the most fierce of all the
342 THE ACTS. (XTX. 24—
rioters, did none of the work, but through employing many workmen
had a large share of the gains. He calls the gain a business or craft
(the same word) in verse 25, that being, as has been said, the first
sense of the word, but there is no need to cast aside the other sense
which it equally bears.
25. ods συναθροίσας καὶ τοὺς περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργάτας, whom hav-
ing gathered together along with the workmen of like occupation. His
own special branch of the craft was the carving and engraving of
these shrines, as we learn from the word dpyvpoxé7es. But before the
work reached the higher stage, the materials had to pass through
many hands in preparation, and from the smelter of the metal up to
him who added the final touches of adornment and polishing all were
concerned in the threatened loss of trade.
ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἐργασίας ἡ εὐπορία ἡμῖν ἐστιν, from this craft we have
our wealth. Such an appeal would go home at once. Their income
and prosperity were assailed by the new teaching.
26. Kal θεωρεῖτε kal ἀκούετε, and ye see and hear. Of what had
happened in Ephesus they were eyewitnesses, while the falling-off in
the demand for their wares would be brought to their knowledge from
all sides. The Christian preaching and preachers did not confine
themselves to Ephesus.
οὐ μόνον ᾿Εἰφέσου ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν πάσης τῆς ᾿Ασίας, not alone at
Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia. Beside Ephesus itself we
have only notices through St Paul’s writings of Churches founded_at
Colosse, Laodicwa, and Hierapolis. But in the Apocalypse we find
beside these, Pergamus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia,
places whose position shews us that through about two-thirds of the
coastline of Asia important centres of Christian life were formed before
that book was written, and we cannot doubt that by St Paul and his
fellow-workers the Gospel was preached in all that district. Hence the
alarm of Demetrius.
ὁ Παῦλος οὗτος, this Paul. If we think of the bodily presence of
St Paul which he himself always describes as insignificant, and which
would be familiar to the hearers of Demetrius, we can fancy the scorn
which would be thrown into the words as they fell from the angry lips
of the probably stalwart craftsman.
πείσας μετέστησεν, hath persuaded and turned away, i.e. from their
devotion to Artemis, and so from their purchase of shrines.
27. οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τὸ μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν,
and not only is this our craft in danger to be set at nought. τὸ μέρος ΞΞ
the portion or share which we make by our trade. ἀπελεγμός seems
to be found only here. The simpler form ἐλεγμός, in the sense of
rebuke, is not uncommon in the LXX,
On this Chrysostom comments thus: ὅρα παρ᾽ ἐχθρῶν τὰς μαρτυρίας
τοῖς ἀποστόλοις γινομένας. ἐκεῖ μὲν ἔλεγον, ἰδοὺ πεπληρώκατε τὴν ‘lepou-
σαλὴμ τῆς διδαχῆς ὑμῶν. ἐνταῦθα ὅτι μέλλει καθαιρεῖσθαι THs’ Ἀρτέμιδος
ἡ μεγαλειότης. τότε οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀναστατώσαντες ἤκουον, ὅτι οὗτοι
καὶ ἐνθάδε πάρεισι, νῦν ὅτι κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τοῦτο τὸ μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν
XIX, 29.] NOTES. 343
ἐλθεῖν. οὕτω καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι ἐπὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἔλεγον. spare ὅτι ὁ κόσμος
ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ ὑπάγει.
τὸ τῆς μεγάλης θεᾶς ἱερὸν Αρτέμιδος, the temple of the great goddess
Diana (Artemis). This was one of the wonders of the ancient world,
and the glory and pride of all the Ephesians, and the recent explora-
tions of Mr Wood (see Wood’s Ephesus) have made us aware of the
grandeur of the edifice and the consequent reason for this pride. Even
the fragments of the architecture in the British Museum make it
plain that the whole temple must have been a work of unsurpassed
magnificence. No expense had been spared on its building, and the
muunificence of worshippers maintained it in full splendour. It was
also used as a divinely-secured treasure-house, and those who made
use of it in this way no doubt paid liberally for the protection. Tra-
dition said, as it said of many another heathen idol, that the image in
the shrine fell down from heaven. The description of this image (see
ver. 24) is taken from coins which were current at the date when the
Acts of the Apostles was written.
εἰς οὐθὲν λογισθῆναι, should be made of no account, as would be the
case if men began to think that they were no gods which were made with
hands. In his eagerness to save the trade, Demetrius forgets to put
forward what the townclerk mentions afterwards (verse 35), that the
“ image was held to have come down from heaven, He is only inter-
ested in the support of what supplied his wealth.
καὶ καθαιρεῖσθαι τῆς μεγαλειότητος αὐτῆς, should even be deposed
from her magnificence. μεγαλειότης is sometimes used for the ‘mighty
power’ of God, cf. Luke ix. 43, and the ‘majesty’ of Christ, cf. 2 Pet.
1. 10.
The collocation in the same clause of τε καί here and in xxi. 28 in
the sense of and even is very unusual, and not found in classical Greek,
where these particles unite different clauses as both...and. See Winer-
Moulton, p. 548.
ἣν ὅλη ἡ ᾿Ασία καὶ ἡ οἰκουμένη σέβεται, whom all Asia and the
world worshippeth; for wealth from the East as well as from Greece
and Rome was bestowed at this gorgeous shrine.
28. ἀκούσαντες δὲ k.7.d., and when they heard this, they became
filled with wrath, &c. Demetrius had appealed to them in such wise
as to excite them more by each fresh argument. Their self-interest
first, and their pride and superstition afterwards.
29. Kal ἐπλήσθη ἡ πόλις τῆς συγχύσεως, and the city was filled
with the confusion. The city was not so directly interested in the
gains of the silversmiths, but equally with them was proud of the
glory and magnificence which Ephesus had, as the seat of the worship
of Artemis. So that the noise that began in the meeting which
Demetrius had gathered was taken up by the Ephesian population,
and they needed a wider space for the crowds now pouring together
from every side. σύγχυσις intimates that the throng gathered in great
excitement.
344 THE ACTS. [XIX. 29—
εἰς τὸ θέατρον, into the theatre. The theatre was the scene of all the
great games and exhibitions of the city. Its ruins still remain and
give evidence that when this crowd assembled there it was a building
that could hold 25,000 or 30,000 people (see Wood’s Ephesus, p. 68;
Fellowes, Asia Minor, p. 274). As Gaius and Aristarchus were not
Jews, but the former perhaps of Roman extraction, if we may judge by
his name, and the latter a Greek, with rights which even the Ephesian
mob would not venture to outrage, we do not read of anything more
done to them, than their being dragged along with the crowd towards
the place of meeting. It might be thought that they could tell how
St Paul was to be found, and when they could not, they were let go.
συναρπάσαντες, having carried off with them. ‘The verb implies
that a search had been made wherever the preachers were likely to be
found. Gaius and Aristarchus must have been seized by the crowd
because they were not able to find Paul. We may see therefore that
between the meeting of the craftsmen and the greater assembly in the
theatre, there had been search made by the mob that they might lay
hands on the Apostle. It is interesting to note that the companionship
of these Macedonian converts gives evidence of the permanent effect of
the labours of St Paul in that country on his previous journey. The
brevity of the record in the Acts makes it important to observe such
indications wherever they are given undesignedly. This Gaius is not
identical with any other of the same name met with in Acts xx. 4, and
Rom. xvi. 23; 1 Cor. i. 15. Of Aristarchus we hear again in xx. 4 and
xxvii. 2, for he accompanied St Paul in his voyage to Rome, and is men-
tioned in the Epistles written at that time (Col.iv. 10; Philemon 24).
As natives of Colosse, and most probably Philemon himself, came to
Ephesus and heard the preaching of St Paul there, Aristarchus may
have been personally known to those to whom the Apostle sends his
greeting in the above-named letters.
30. Παύλου δὲ βουλομένου εἰσελθεῖν cis τὸν δῆμον, and when Paul
was minded to enter in unto the people. Through a strength not his
own, the Apostle, feeble in frame though he seems to have been, waxed
bold in danger where an opportunity appeared to be offered of testify-
ing unto Christ.
οὐκ εἴων αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταί, the disciples suffered him not. These were
the brethren forming the Christian congregation, to some of whom the
storm that was rising would be known much sooner than to the
Apostle. They had evidently conveyed him from his usual abode, and
were taking care of him until the excitement was allayed. They would
tell him, of course, all that they heard of what was doing, and it was
on hearing this, that he wanted to go and appear before the crowd in
the theatre.
31. τινὲς δὲ Kal τῶν ᾿Ασιαρχῶν, ὄντες αὐτῷ φίλοι, and certain
also of the chief officers of Asia, being his friends. The’ Ασιαρχαί were
officers in the various cities of proconsular Asia, appointed to preside
over the games and religious festivals. In Ephesus these men would
be of much importance, for in addition to the other games over which
they would preside, the whole month of May was sacred to Artemis,
XIX. 33.] NOTES. 345
being called Artemision, and was given up to festivals in honour of the
city’s idol, We read of an Asiarch at Smyrna in the narrative of the
martyrdom of Polycarp (Euseb. H. E. tv. 15).
It would seem, from the fact that some of these prominent officials
were friends to St Paul, that though presiding over the games and
festivals for the satisfaction of the populace, they had no great care for
Artemis or her worship.
πέμψαντες πρὸς αὐτὸν παρεκάλουν, sent unto him and besought him.
mwapaxahéw generally=beseech. The use of such a word indicates the
personal interest these officers felt in the Apostle’s safety. We also
gather from the narrative that they knew where Paul was, though the
mob had failed to find him.
32. ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν ἄλλο τι ἔκραζον, some therefore cried one thing
and some another. As the craftsmen had not secured Paul, against
whom Demetrius had directed their rage, there was no central object
to arrest the general attention. Hence no settled cry was raised.
ἣν γὰρ ἡ ἐκκλησία συγκεχυμένη, for the assembly was confused.
The σύγχυσις in the city (see verse 29) had become intensified by the
rush into the theatre.
καὶ οἱ πλείους οὐκ ἤδεισαν K.T.A., and the greater part did not know,
&c. All that would be heard by many would be the shouts of the
mob, from which nothing could be gathered about St Paul as the
offender. Amid cries of ‘Artemis for ever’ or ‘Hurrah for Demetrius,’
little would be learnt of how the tumult had begun.
33. ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ὄχλου συνεβίβασαν ᾿Αλέξανϑρον, and some of the
multitude instructed Alexander. What he seems to have been intended
to do, was to explain on behalf of the Jews, that he and his fellow
Jews had no more sympathy with St Paul than the heathen multitude
had. It is just possible that this Alexander may be the same with him
who is mentioned 2 Tim. iv, 14.
συμβιβάζω in this sense of ‘to instruct’ is common in the LXX.,
cf. Exod. iv. 12, 15; Deut. iv. 9, &. But προεβίβασαν of the Text.
recept. gives a very good sense, ‘and out of the crowd they brought
forward Alexander.’
προβαλόντων αὐτὸν τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, the Jews putting him forward.
Thus it becomes clear that Alexander was no Christian, for the Jews
could have had no interest in bringing forward anybody who would
speak in defence of St Paul. But they were clearly concerned in
hindering, if they could, this uproar, raised against one who to the
heathen would be counted as a Jew, from developing into a general
attack on their race. We see that this might be no unlikely result,
for the crowd, recognising the Jewish face of the intending speaker,
would not hear a word that he had to say.
κατασείσας τὴν χεῖρα, having waved the hand, i.e. so as to ensure
silence. The more usual form in N.T.is x. τῇ χειρί. Cf. Acts xii. 17,
xili. 16, xxi. 40,
346 THE ACTS. (XIX. 33—
ἤθελεν ἀπολογεῖσθαι τῷ δήμῳ, would have made a defence. There
was nothing laid against him. But the Jews felt that they were all
likely to be included in the vengeance to be taken on these Jews whom
Demetrius had attacked. So they put forward their spokesman to dis-
claim all connexion with St Paul and his companions.
84, ἐπιγνόντες δέ, but when they perceived. The Jews would every-
where be readily known, both by their features and by their garb.
We can see from the way in which the mob took fire at the sight of a
Jewish speaker, that the apprehension of an attack on the Jews
generally was not without grounds.
φωνὴ ἐγένετο pla ἐκ πάντων, all with one voice. The grammar here
is disjointed. After ἐπιγνόντες we should have a verb in the plural
(e.g. ἐφώνησαν). Instead of this the participle is left in suspense, and
ἃ new nominative introduced. For a participle similarly left cf.
Mark ix. 20.
ὡς ἐπὶ ὥρας δύο, for the space of two howrs. They had found a com-
mon object to cry out against. Thus they became all of one voice.
They took up the cry, first started by the craftsmen, and persisted in
it with all the energy which characterizes a fanatical mob.
Chrysostom’s reflection is: παιδικὴ ὄντως ἡ διάνοια. καθάπερ PoBov-
μενοι μὴ σβεσθῇ τὸ σέβας αὐτῶν συνεχώς ἐβόων.
35. καταστείλας, having quieted, i.e. reduced them to such a degree
of order that he could make himself heard. The ‘appease’ of A.V. is
too strong. They were hardly appeased even when his speech was
done. Cf. 3 Mace. vi. 1, ’EXeafapos...rovs περὶ αὐτὸν καταστείλας πρεσ-
Burépous. In the verse preceding we are told ἀνεβόησαν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ
σφόδρα.
ὁ γραμματεύς, the townclerk. It is not easy to find an English
word which comes at all near the significance of this title. ‘Recorder’
has been proposed, because he had charge of the city archives, and
Luther calls him ‘chancellor.’ He was a most important personage,
and his title is found at times on the coinage. He also gave name in
some places to the year, like the Archon at Athens. Through him all
public communications were made to the city, and in his name replies
were given. It is this part of his duty which has led to the rendering
‘townclerk.’
φησίν, he says. The speech is full of ability, and shews that the
man was fitted for his eminent position. It seems to shew also that
the higher classes (as has been noticed in the case of the Asiarchs)
were not so devoted to the service of the goddess as were the common
people.
vewkdpov, worshipper. Rev. Vers. ‘temple-keeper.’ Lit. ‘temple
sweeper.’ The name no doubt was first used to imply that any office
in the service of so magnificent a goddess was a grand distinction;
and not in Ephesus only did the worshippers of a special divinity
apply this title to themselves. Thus Josephus B. J. v. 9 4 applies it
to the Jews as worshippers of Jehovah. The word also occurs in
Plato’s Laws γι. 759.
XIX. 381 NOTES. 347
τῆς μεγάλης ᾿Αρτέμιδος, of the great Artemis (Diana). It seems
more natural in the mouth of the γραμματεύς that θεᾶς should be
omitted.
- τοῦ Διοπετοῦς, of the image which fell down from Jupiter. The
adj. Διοπετές agrees with ἄγαλμα or some such word, which would be
as naturally omitted in common speech as θεᾶς in the previous clause,
The first part of the speech of the γραμματεύς is directed to point out
how uncalled for their uproar is. There is no need for them to shout
about the greatness of the Ephesian goddess. Everybody in the world
is aware how devoted the city is to her worship and how glorious is
her temple.
36. ἀναντιρρήτων οὖν ὄντων τούτων, seeing then that these things
cannot be gainsaid. Even those who spoke against the worship as
St Paul had done, could not dispute the facts just stated by the γραμ-
ματεύς about the devotion of the Ephesians to their goddess,
δέον ἐστὶν ὑμᾶς κατεσταλμένους ὑπάρχειν, ye ought to be quiet, i.e.
not raising an uproar like this. See on the verb, verse 35, above.
Kal μηδὲν προπετὲς πράσσειν, and to do nothing rash. mporerés
describes the headstrong outrageous uproar for which there was no
reason, and from which no good could come, and also their conduct
in seizing two persons who were not the offenders and against whom,
as it appears, they could take no proceedings.
In the LXX. the word is always used of rash talk. Cf. Prov. x. 14,
xiii. 3; Ecclus. ix. 18.
37. τοὺς ἄνδρας τούτους, these men, Gaius and Aristarchus.
ἱεροσύλους, robbers of temples. As the temple at Ephesus had a
great treasure-chamber, the offence might not be unknown among
them. All that was placed under the guardianship of the goddess
would be for the time the property of the temple, to steal which would
be sacrilege.
ἱερύσυλος is applied to Lysimachus (2 Mace. iv. 42) for his plunder-
ing of the temple at Jerusalem. αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν ἱερόσυλον παρὰ τὸ γαζο-
φυλάκιον ἐχειρώσαντο.
οὔτε βλασφημοῦντας τὴν θεὸν ἡμῶν, nor blasphemers of our goddess.
In a popular address it is natural that such a speaker would identify
himself with his fellow-citizens. We may gather from this verse that
the language of St Paul and his companions had been measured when
they had spoken about the special worship of Ephesus. They had
inculeated the great principle that those were no gods which were
made with hands and had allowed that to do its work. We find the
same restraint put on himself by St Paul at Athens, though he was
greatly moved to see the city wholly given to idolatry. Different
conduct in either of these cities would most likely have deprived him
of all chance of a hearing.
38. ἔχουσιν πρός twa λόγον, have a matter against any man, i.e.
have any charge which they wish to bring, For the concerns in
348 THE ACTS. [XIX. 38—
which the shrine-makers are interested must be such as the legal
tribunals can take cognizance of.
ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται, the lawis open. This is the general sense. With
ἀγοραῖοι we must supply ἡμέραι. The sense will then be ‘court days
are appointed’ i.e. there are proper times fixed when such causes can be
heard; or perhaps better, because of the verb which seems to imply
that the opportunity of legal action is even now open, ‘court-meetings
are now going on.’ In this latter sense σύνοδοι or some similar noun
must be supplied with ἀγοραΐοι.
Kal ἀνθύπατοί εἰσιν, and there are proconsuls. For the word ἀνθύ-
maros, cf. xiii. 7, 8, 12. Asia, in which Ephesus was situated, was a
proconsular province (see Conybeare and Howson, τι. 78). The diffi-
culty in the present verse has arisen from the use of the plural number,
for there was only one proconsul over a province at the same time,
and there could only be one in Ephesus when the townclerk was
speaking. But if we consider that he is speaking merely of the pro-
vision made by the institutions of the empire for obtaining justice in
a case of wrong, we can see that his words need not occasion much
trouble. ‘Proconsuls are (he says) an imperial institution. In every
province like ours there exists such a supreme magistrate, and so
there is no fear about obtaining redress for real injuries.’ Another
explanation (due to Basnage, and alluded to in the notes of Conybeare
and Howson, wu. 8.) is that after the poisoning of the proconsul Silanus
(as related Tac. An. xu. 1), Celer and Ailius, who governed the pro-
vince of Asia as procurators, might be intended by this plural title.
Others have thought that there might be present in Ephesus some
other proconsul from a neighbouring province, as Cilicia, Cyprus,
Lithynia or elsewhere; but the first seems the easier explanation.
ἐγκαλείτωσαν ἀλλήλοις, let them accuse one another. Of course the
accusation would be one side, the defence the other. What the
γραμματεύς means is ‘ let them take steps to obtain a legal decision.’
39. εἰ δέ τι περὶ ἑτέρων ἐπιζητεῖτε, but if ye seek anything about
other matters. The ‘ seeking’ alluded to is by a legal process. If the
matter were of such a character as to come before the proconsul, there
he was, ready to hear the cause. It was, as we might say, ‘ assize
time.’ But if the question was of another kind, one for the jurisdic-
tion of the ordinary city courts, then they could apply at the proper
time and place.
ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ, in the regular assembly. There were no doubt
legally fixed days and times for the city courts. To these it is that
the allusion is made.
Chrysostom explains: ἔννομον ἐκκλησίαν φησί, διότι τρεῖς ἐκκλησίαι
ἐγίνοντο κατὰ νόμον καθ᾽ ἕκαστον μῆνα.
40. καὶ γὰρ κινδυνεύομεν ἐγκαλεῖσθαι στάσεως περὶ τῆς σήμερον,
for indeed we are in danger to be accused of a riot concerning this day.
ἐγκαλεῖν in the previous verse = to accuse, and this meaning should be
preserved here. στάσις is the name which the γραμματεύς hints, by this
/ \ ,
ἐν κόπῳ καὶ μόχθῳ.
δεῖ ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν ἀσθενούντων, ye ought to help the weak.
By ἀσθενοῦντες does St Paul here mean those standing in need of
material or moral help? Grimm (s. v.) takes it for the poor, those
who are in want from any cause, as those must have been who could
not support themselves, and whose wants the Apostle supplied by his
own labour. Yet this is a very rare sense, as he admits, for the verb
to have, and ‘feebleness’ of faith and trust is much the more common
meaning. And that sense suits well here. If among new converts
large demands should be made for the support of those who minister,
they who are weak in the faith as yet may be offended thereby, and
becoming suspicious, regard the preacher’s office as a source of tem-
poral gain. An example like St Paul’s would remove the scruples of
such men, and when they became more grounded in the faith, these
matters would trouble them no more. For the use of ἀσθενής and
ἀσθενέω in the sense of moral, rather than physical, weakness, cf. Job
iv. 3, 4; Is. vii. 4; 1 Mace. xi. 49.
τῶν λόγων τοῦ κυρίου "Incod, the words of the Lord Jesus. St Paul
appeals to these words as though the saying was well-known, and as
we notice this, we cannot but wonder at the scanty number of the
words which have been handed down as ‘words of Jesus’ beyond what
we find in the Gospel. This is the only one in the New Testament,
and from all the rest of the Christian literature we cannot gather more
than a score of sentences beside. See Westcott, Introd. to Study of the
Gospels, pp. 428 seqq.
ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν, how He himself said. The emphatic pronoun should
not be overlooked.
μακάριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι ἢ λαμβάνειν, it is more blessed to give
than to receive. In support of what has just been said about strength-
ening the feeble in faith, these words seem as readily applicable to
that view of the Apostle’s meaning, as to the sense of ‘poverty.’ What
would be given in this special case would be spiritual strength and
trust; what is referred to in λαμβάνειν is the temporal support of the
preacher, which St Paul refrained from claiming. We cannot dovbt
366 THE ACTS. [XX. 35—
that he felt how much more blessed it was to win one waverer to
Christ than it would have been to be spared his toils at tent-making
by the contributions of his converts.
36. θεὶς τὰ γόνατα, having knelt down. The kneeling posture
marks the special character and solemnity of the prayer. We find the
Apostle doing the same in his parting from the brethren at Tyre (xxi.
5). On the usual custom of standing in prayer, cf. Mark xi. 25 and
the account of the Pharisee and publican (Luke xviii. 11—13). It has
often been noticed that the historian, who gives the speech with un-
usual fulness, does not venture to record the prayer.
37. κατεφίλουν αὐτόν, they kissed him. The verb expresses earnest
and sorrowful salutations.
38. ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ ᾧ εἰρήκει, for the word which he had spoken. On
the attraction of the relative cf. i. 1.
τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ θεωρεῖν, to behold his face. The Apostle in
verse 25 uses only dpdw, the ordinary word. Here in θεωρεῖν is ex-
pressed the earnest reverent gaze, with which we can fancy those who
knew the Apostle and his work would look upon him, His presence
filled not only the eye, but the mind, they contemplated the scenes
which the sight of him would recall.
προέπεμπον St αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ πλοῖον, and they brought him on his way
to the ship. Cf. xv. 3, xxi. 5. They would not lose a word or a look
until they were forced todo so. We gather from this verse that the
harbour was at some distance from the town of Miletus. See above
on verses 15 and 17.
CHAPTER XXI.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
3. κατήλθομεν for κατήχθημεν with NABE. Vulg. ‘venimus.’
4. ἐπιβαίνειν for ἀναβαίνειν with SABC.
δ. προσευξάμενοι ἀπησπασάμεθϑα ἀλλήλους kal with NABCE.
8. οἱ περὶ τὸν Παῦλον omitted with NABCE. Not represented in
ἤλθομεν for ἦλθον with NACE. Vulg. ‘ venimus.’
10. ἡμῶν omitted with NBCH.
11. δήσας ἑαυτοῦ τοὺς πόδας Kal τὰς χεῖρας with NBCDHLP.
Vulg. ‘alligans sibi pedes et manus.’
13. τότε before ἀπεκρίθη with NABC. Vulg. ‘ tune respondit.’
14, τοῦ κυρίου τὸ θέλημα with NABCE. Vulg. ‘Domini voluntas.’
20. θεόν for κύριον with NABCEL. Vulg. ‘Deum.’
ἐν τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις with NBCE. Vulg. ‘in Judeis,’
24. γνώσονται for γνῶσι with NABCDE,. Vulg. ‘scient.’
RAE. 2] NOTES. 367
25. μηδὲν τοιοῦτον τηρεῖν αὐτούς, εἰ μὴ omitted with NAB. Not
represented in Vulg.
34. ἐπεφώνουν for ἐβόων with NABDE.
μὴ δυναμένου δὲ αὐτοῦ with NABDE.
36. κράζοντες with NABE. Vulg. ‘clamans,’
Cu. XXI. 1—6. Pavu’s Voyace From MILETUS, AND HIS
Stay In TYRE.
1. ἀναχθῆναι ἡμᾶς ἀποσπασθέντας am αὐτῶν, when we were gotten
from them and had set sail. The vessel in which they sailed from
Troas to Patara seems to have been under the Apostle’s control, so
that they could stay wherever and as long as they pleased.
The verb ἀποσπασθέντας expresses the great wrench of the separa-
tion: so Chrysostom δείκνυσι δὲ τὴν βίαν τῷ εἰπεῖν ἀποσπασθέντες.
εὐθυδρομήσαντες ἤλθομεν εἰς τὴν Ko, we came with a straight course
unto Cos. Cos is a small island, now called Stanchio, on the coast of
Asia Minor, just at the entrance of the Archipelago, and in old times
was famous for its wines and some light-woven fabrics. There was
also in the island a temple of Aesculapius to which was attached
a medical school.
τῇ δὲ ἑξῆς εἰς τὴν Ῥόδον, and the day following unto Rhodes. Rhodes
is the famous island at the south-west extremity of Asia Minor, off the
coast of Caria and Lycia. The city of Rhodes and the island of which
it is the capital were famous in the times of the Peloponnesian war.
It was well supplied with timber fit for ship-building and hence
became famous for its navy, and its position has caused the island to
play a conspicuous part in European history from that time onward.
It was celebrated for the great Temple of the Sun, whose worship in
the island is marked by the head of Apollo on the coinage. With this
worship was connected the great statue known as the Colossus, which
was meant as a figure of the sun, and was one of the wonders of the
world, In the Roman times many privileges were granted to Rhodes
by the Roman emperors, while in medieval history this was the last
Christian city which resisted the advance of the Saracens,
Ildtapa, Patara. This was a city on the coast of Lycia. It was
devoted to the worship of Apollo, who is hence sometimes called by
classical writers Patareus. The city was not far from the river Xan-
thus, and Patara was the port of the city of Xanthus. We can under-
stand, therefore, why St Paul’s voyage in the coasting vessel should end
here, because at such a port he would be likely to find a larger vessel
to carry him to Syria.
2. πλοῖον διαπερῶν εἰς Φοινίκην, a ship sailing over [lit. crossing]
unto Phenicia. Phcenicia was the country on the Levant, north of
Palestine. It contained the important maritime cities of Tyre and
Sidon.
368 THE ACTS. [xX kas
3. ἀναφάναντες δὲ τὴν Κύπρον, and when we had come in sight of
Cyprus. On Cyprus, see notes on xiii. 4. The more usual construc-
tion would be ἀναφανείσης τῆς Κύπρου, but cf. with this alteration of
construction Gal. ii. 7, πεπίστευμαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, Meaning πεπιστεὺυ-
μένον ἔχω τὸ εὐαγγέλιον.
εἰς Συρίαν, into Syria. This was the general name for the whole
district lying along the Mediterranean from Cilicia down to Egypt.
κατήλθομεν εἰς Τύρον, we landed at Tyre. Tyre was one of the chief
ports of Phoenicia, and a city of very great antiquity. It was built
partly on the mainland and partly on an island, and is often mention-
ed both in Scripture and in profane literature. It is noticed as a
strongly fortified city as early as Joshua xix. 29. We read of its fame
in the time of Solomon in connexion with the building of the Temple;
and Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal, called
King of the Sidonians in Scripture, but in Josephus (Ant. vim. 13. 2)
King of Tyre. The city was besieged by Shalmaneser and afterwards
by Nebuchadnezzar, and was captured by Alexander the Great.
Christ went on one of His journeys from Galilee into the neighbour-
hood of Tyre, if not to the city itself, which was about 30 miles from
Nazareth, and it must have been then in much the same condition as
at this visit of St Paul.
ἐκεῖσε γὰρ... ἀποφορτιζόμενον τὸν youov, for there the ship was to
unlade her burden. And so in all probability the further voyage to
Ptolemais was made in a different vessel, this one going no further.
With regard to the exact meaning of this clause, there is no need to
suppose ἐκεῖσε is the same as ἐκεῖ, though the English idiom may ask
for ‘there’ in our rendering. The full idea of the words is, ‘thither
the ship was going and would there unlade &c.’ The reason for the
use of ἣν ἀποφορτιζόμενον is probably to be found by understanding
that the ship was in the habit of sailing to Tyre with cargoes. Cf.
James 1. 17, πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστι καταβαῖνον.
4, ἀνευρόντες δὲ τοὺς μαθητάς, and having found the disciples.
This means the members of the Christian Church of Tyre, not some
disciples who by chance happened to be at Tyre. That there was
already a Christian congregation there is probable from the account
of the spread of the Gospel given in xi. 19, and as brethren in
Pheenicia are spoken of in xv. 3. If there were such anywhere in
that country, they would presumably be in Tyre.
It was so much the custom for Jews to seek out their fellow Jews in
whatever place they came to, that it would be natural in St Paul and
his companions to inquire after the Christians in every city in the
same way.
ἡμέρας ἑπτά, seven days. It appears that the Apostle, having
finished nearly all his sea voyage, found that he could easily
accomplish his journey to Jerusalem in time, and so he no longer
hastened as he did when all the probable mishaps of a coasting
voyage were before him.
XXI. 7.] NOTES. 369
οἵτινες τῷ Tlatdw ἔλεγον διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, and these said to Paul
through the Spirit. The Apostle himself was urged by some inward
prompting to go on to Jerusalem ‘not knowing what might befall
him.’ The Spirit warns these disciples of the dangers which would
come upon him. We need not judge that these things are contrary
one to the other. The Apostle knew that bonds and afflictions were
to be his lot everywhere, and though the Spirit shewed to his friends
that he would suffer, yet the impulse of the same Spirit urged him
forward, because it was God’s will that he should suffer thus in the
cause and for the greater furtherance of the Gospel.
μὴ ἐπιβαίνειν εἰς ‘IepoodAvpa, that he should not set foot in Jerusalem.
After verbs of commanding, urging, directing &c. when the command is
in the negative form μὴ is used, because in the direct sentence this
would be the particle, as here μὴ ἐπίβαινε.
δ. ὅτε δὲ ἐγένετο ἡμᾶς ἐξαρτίσαι τὰς ἡμέρας, and when we had
accomplished those days. Literally, ‘when it came to pass that we
had &c.’ For the construction in the Greek ef. above verse 1.
τὰς ἡμέρας means, of course, the seven days previously mentioned.
The verb éfaprifw is very unusual in this sense, though the Vulgate
explains it so (expletis diebus) and Chrysostom gave it that meaning
(πληρῶσαι), SO We may accept it. Some, keeping to a more common
use of it, ‘to fit out,’ have proposed to understand the word ‘ship’ as
the object of it, and to render ‘when we had refitted (or fitted the ship
with stores) during those days.’
προπεμπόντων ἡμᾶς πάντων σὺν γυναιξὶ Kal τέκνοις, while they all
escorted us, with wives and children, i.e. with their wives and children.
The whole Christian community attended the Apostle to the shore.
The mention of families here confirms what was said on verse 4 about
‘the disciples.’ They were the Church of Tyre.
ἕως ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, till we were come outside the city. ἕως is used
in a local signification with many phrases which signify the point to
which the movement or action is continued.
καὶ θέντες τὰ γόνατα K.T.A., and kneeling down on the beach. On the
action cf. xx. 36 and note there.
προσευξάμενοι ἀπησπασάμεθα ἀλλέλους, we prayed and bade each
other farewell. The verb ἀπασπάζομαι is exceedingly rare. It occurs
nowhere else in N.T. or LXX.
6. Kal ἐνέβημεν εἰς TO πλοῖον, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς τὰ ἴδια, and
we went on board the ship, but they returned home again. There is
nothing in the Greek to tell us whether the ship was the same in
which they had come to Tyre, or not.
7—14. Pavt’s JouRNEY To CHSAREA, AND HIS STAY THERE.
7. τὸν πλοῦν διανύσαντες, when we had finished the voyage. The
distance was but short, and would be accomplished in a day.
κατηντήσαμεν eis Πτολεμαΐδα, we came to Ptolemais. Ptolemais is
the name which was given during Macedonian and Roman rule to the
THE ACTS 24
370 THE ACTS. [X XI. 7—
city anciently called Accho (Judges i. 31), and known in modern
history as St Jean d’Acre or often simply Acre. In the earliest times
it was the most important town on that portion of the coast, but at
the beginning of the Christian era was far surpassed by Cwsarea,
which was the residence of Herod and of the Roman governor.
καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι τοὺς ἀδελφούς, and having saluted the brethren.
It is clear then that there was a Christian society in Ptolemais also.
As the city lay on the great high-road by the coast it was certain to be
visited by some of the earlier preachers, when the disciples were
dispersed from Jerusalem after the death of Stephen.
8. τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ἐξελθόντες ἤλθομεν εἰς Καισάρειαν, and on the
morrow having departed we came to Οαβαγεα. This part of the jour-
ney was made by land, though it could have been made by sea. But
the road between the two places was one of the best.
els τὸν οἶκον Φιλίππου τοῦ εὐαγγελίστου, into the house of Philip the
evangelist. Philip is named next after Stephen in the narrative (vi. δ)
of the choosing of the seven, and though no such prominent exhibition
of his zeal is narrated as of Stephen, yet we are told that he went
away from Jerusalem and was the first to carry the Gospel to the
Samaritans (Acts vili. 5). He also was directed by the angel of the
Lord to go and baptize the Ethiopian eunuch (viii. 26—38), thus
being doubly an ambassador to the Gentiles, and earning his title of
‘ Evangelist.’ He preached afterwards at Azotus, and from the chap-
ter before us we may conclude that he had made his home at Cesarea.
Such a situation, the meeting-place of Gentiles with Jews, was the
proper scene for such a missionary to labour in, and such a labourer
would rejoice greatly to welcome to his house the great apostle who
had gone forth once and again unto the Gentiles and with such mighty
blessing on his work.
ὄντος ἐκ τῶν ἑπτά, who was of the seven, i.e. those seven who were
chosen (Acts vi.) to relieve the Apostles from the duty of ‘serving
tables.’
9. τούτῳ δὲ ἦσαν θυγατέρες τέσσαρες παρθένοι κ.τ.λ., NOW this man
had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. The family of the
Evangelist were walking in their father’s steps. These daughters, in-
stead of resting at home, took upon them the hard duty of publishing
the message of the Gospel. The English word ‘ prophesy’ has come
to have, since about the beginning of the seventeenth century, only
the one sense of ‘to predict what is yet to come.’ In the time of
Queen Elizabeth ‘prophesyings’ meant ‘ preachings,’ and Jeremy
Taylor’s famous work on the ‘ Liberty of Prophesying’ was written to
uphold the freedom of preaching. These women were, in their degree,
Evangelists also.
10. ἐπιμενόντων δὲ ἡμέρας πλείους, and as we tarried there many
days. In this phrase πλείους loses its comparative sense, and means
only ‘several,’ ‘some,’ ‘many.’ It is frequent in the LXX. Cf.
Numb. xx. 15, καὶ παρῳκήσαμεν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἡμέρας πλείους. Joshua xi.
18, καὶ ἡμέρας πλείους ἐποίησεν ᾿Ιησοὺς τὸν πόλεμον. See also Numb. ix.
XXI. 13.] NOTES. 371
19; Josh. xxiii, 1, xxiv. 7, &e. With the omission of ἡμῶν here,
leaving the genitive absolute without a subject, cf. Luke xii. 36, ἐλθόν-
Tos καὶ κρούσαντος where αὐτοῦ is similarly omitted.
προφήτης ὀνόματι "“AyaBos, a prophet named Agabus. Most pro-
bably the same who (xi. 28) foretold the coming famine. The pro-
phets mentioned on that occasion had also come up from Jerusalem.
And the name Agabus is not one of common occurrence.
11. καὶ ἐλθὼν... δήσας ἑαυτοῦ τοὺς πόδας Kal τὰς χεῖρας, and
coming...he bound his own feet and hands. The adoption by Agabus
of this figurative action makes it almost certain that the man was a
Jew. Similar actions are common in the Old Testament prophets.
Thus Isaiah (xx. 3) walks naked and barefoot, Jeremiah (xiii. 5)
hides his girdle by the river Kuphrates, and (xix. 10, 11) breaks the
potter’s vessel in the Valley of Hinnom ; Ezekiel (iv. 1—3) draws on a
tile a picture of the siege of Jerusalem, and (v. 1—4) cuts off his hair
and burns and destroys it as God commanded. So too Zedekiah the
son of Chenaanah made horns of iron (1 Kings xxii. 11). With this
act of may be compared our Lord’s words to St Peter (John
xxi. 18),
The girdle was that band with which the loose Oriental robe was
drawn together at the waist. It was of considerable size, and served
the purposes of a pocket, the money being carried in it. To judge
from the verb (dpas) employed in describing the prophet’s action, it
seems that St Paul had laid aside his girdle and that it was taken up
by Agabus from the place where it lay.
τάδε λέγει TO TV. τ. &., thus saith the Holy Ghost. That we may
the better note the Apostle’s zeal for carrying out the Lord’s will, we
are once more told how the Holy Ghost made known to him through
others that he was about to be made a prisoner. Still we see him go
forward unmoved, because though others might know that he was to
suffer, and might in their affection strive to hold him back, he was
convinced that such suffering was the Lord’s way for him. Therefore
he went on.
12. ἡμεῖς τε καὶ of ἐντόπιοι, we and they of that place. We (i.e. St
Luke and the rest who were fellow-travellers with St Paul) and the
Christian congregation of Caesarea. The act of Agabus was in all
probability done with some publicity ; perhaps in some meeting where
St Paul had laid aside his girdle for greater freedom while he spoke.
13. τί ποιεῖτε κλαίοντες Kal συνθρύπτοντές μου τὴν καρδίαν ; what
do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? i.e. what are you seeking to
effect thereby ?
συνθρύπτειν is a very rare word; its sense is to weaken the purpose
of any one. The Apostle does not mean ‘break my heart’ in the or-
dinary sense of adding to his load of sorrow so as to overpower him.
The deterring from his journey by weakening his determination is
what his words indicate.
ἐγὼ γὰρ κιτιλ., for I, &e. The pronoun stands emphatically, though
24—2
372 THE ACTS. [X XI. 13—
we cannot express its force in English. St Paul had long ago counted
the cost of Christ’s service, and had found the sufferings of the present
time not worthy to be compared with the future glory.
ἀποθανεῖν εἰς ἱΙερουσαλήμ,, to die at Jerusalem. For els following a
verb indicating rest, but implying previous motion, cf. Acts viii. 40,
Φίλιππος δὲ εὑρέθη εἰς ᾿Α ζωτον.
14. τοῦ κυρίου τὸ θέλημα γινέσθω, the will of the Lord be done.
' They gathered from the Apostle’s language that he had a higher lead-
ing than theirs in what he was doing, and feeling that Christ’s guid-
ance was better than any other, they quieted their minds with the
thought that the work was ‘for the name of the Lord Jesus,’ who
would strengthen His servant to do His will.
15,16. THe JouRNEY TO JERUSALEM.
15. ἐπισκευασάμενοι, having made ready our baggage. The verb is
used now and then in the LXX. of making ready the lamps &c. in the
house of the Lord. In classical Greek it is common enough, but only
occurs here in N.T.
16. συνῆλθον δὲ kal τῶν μαθητῶν, and there went with us also some of
the disciples. The genitive without government in this fashion is rare,
and the more usual thing is to find ἐκ, or some other preposition to
govern it, as in John xvi. 17, εἶπον οὖν ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, Some
then of His disciples said. Somewhat like the construction in this
verse is Isaeus, viI. 5, ὁ Θράσυλος τῶν ἐν Σικελίᾳ κατελέγη τριηράρχων,
and Xen. Mem. τ. 2. 81, Κριτίας τῶν τριάκοντα ἦν. But these are not
with an active verb like συνῆλθον.
ἀπὸ Καισαρείας, from Caesarea. The Evangelist had formed a
Church where he had settled, and the congregation were, like their
teacher, concerned at St Paul’s danger, and so some went with him to
Jerusalem. Perhaps the nucleus of the Church may be dated from
the baptism of Cornelius, and Philip settling in Cesarea carried on
what had been begun by St Peter.
ἄγοντες παρ᾽ ᾧ ξενισθῶμεν Mvdcovl τινι ΚΚυπρίῳ, ἀρχαίῳ μαθητῇ,
bringing with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom
we should lodge. The construction is not easy to settle. The rendering
just given takes παρ᾽ @ ξενισθῶμεν as an inserted clause interfering with
the regular government, which would be ἄγοντες Mvdcovd twa &e.
The antecedent however is made to correspond in case with
the intruded relative. This appears simplest, but others suppose
the sense to be ἄγοντες (ἡμᾶς) παρὰ Μνάσονά τινα...παρ᾽ ᾧ ξενισθῶμεν,
‘leading us to the house of Mnason’ &c. It seems more natural to
suppose that for some reason or other Mnason was at this time at
Cesarea, and that the arrangement by which the Apostle’s party be-
came his guests was made with him there, than to consider that the
disciples in Cesarea, knowing Mnason’s hospitality and that he could
receive such guests, agreed to carry them thither.
On Mnason’s reception of St Paul Chrysostom reflects thus: Παῦλον
ἐξένιζεν ἐκεῖνος. τάχα τις ὑμῶν ἐρεῖ" εἴ Tis κἀμοὶ Παῦλον ἔδωκε ἕενίσαι,
XXI. 181 NOTES. 373
ἑτοίμως ἂν kal μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς προθυμίας τοῦτο ἐποίησα" ἰδοὺ τὸν Παύλου
δεσπότην ἔξεστί σοι Eevioa, καὶ οὐ βούλει. ὁ γὰρ δεχόμενος, φησίν, ἕνα
τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμὲ δέχεται.
Mnason belonged to Cyprus, but had now his home in Jerusalem.
Just as Barnabas and Mary, the mother of John Mark, were also
Cypriotes, but had fixed their home in the holy City. Mnason is
called ἀρχαῖος μαθητής as having become a Christian in the beginning
of the Gospel preaching, soon after the day of Pentecost. At the
time of any of the great feasts it was no unnecessary precaution to
settle on a lodging beforehand, for Jerusalem was certain to be full of
people, and by this arrangement made in Cesarea, the whole party
was saved the trouble of searching for quarters when they arrived.
To find a house in which the Apostle and those with him might all be
received would probably have been attended with much difficulty. To
be the owner of such a house Mnason must have been one of the
wealthier members of the congregation. His name is Greek, and he
was most likely one of the Hellenists, or, if he were a Jew, Mnason
was perhaps substituted for some Jewish name, e.g. Manasseh.
17—36. ARRIVAL AT JERUSALEM. Pavuw’s RECEPTION BY THE
CHURCH AND BY THE PEOPLE.
17. ἀσμένως ἀπεδέξαντο ἡμᾶς οἱ ἀδελφοί, the brethren received us
gladly. The brethren, whose joy is here spoken of, would be those
Christians who first learnt of the arrival of Paul at Mnason’s house.
It is not the public reception which is here intended, for however
welcome Paul may have been to individuals, the heads of the Church
were manifestly apprehensive of trouble which might arise from his
presence in Jerusalem.
18. τῇ δὲ ἐπιούσῃ εἰσήει ὁ ΤΤαῦλος σὺν ἡμῖν πρὸς ᾿Ιάκωβον, and the
day following Paul went in with us unto James. This was the Church’s
reception of the returned missionaries. Notice of their arrival would
soon be given, and the authorities who were at the time resident in
Jerusalem were gathered together. There was not any Apostle there or
- St Luke would hardly have failed to mention the fact, as he was one
of those present. Paul took with him to this interview all who had
shared in his labours, that their work as well as his own might receive
the recognition of the mother Church of Christ. The James here
mentioned is the same who appears recognised as the head of the con-
gregation in Jerusalem (xii. 17, xv. 13). He was most probably one
of our Lord’s brethren. See note on xii. 17.
πάντες TE παρεγένοντο οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, and all the elders were present.
These men, with James, formed the governing body of the Church,
and were the persons to whom the Apostle would naturally desire to
give an account of his labours. In the proceedings which follow, the
narrative does not, as in the council at Jerusalem, represent James as
taking the lead, or being spokesman; he is only mentioned as the
person to whom the missionaries specially went. The advice given to
St Paul is couched in the plural number, as if the elders had jointly
tendered it.
374 THE ACTS. [X XT. 19—
19. Kal ἀσπασάμενος αὐτούς, and having saluted them. ἀσπάζομαι
is used of the greetings both at parting and arrival. For the latter,
ef. 1 Mace. xi. 6, ἠσπάσαντο ἀλλήλους Kal ἐκοιμήθησαν ἐκεῖ. For parting
see above, xxi, 1. Oriental greetings are of a much more formal cha-
racter than is common in Western countries.
ἐξηγεῖτο καθ᾽ ἕν ἕκαστον ὧν, he rehearsed one by one the things which.
Such a narrative must have consumed much time, though St Luke,
having given us before a sketch of St Paul’s work, omits here any
speech of the Apostle.
For the attraction of the relative into the case of its antecedent see
note oni. 1. Here however the antecedent τούτων is not expressed.
ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς... διὰ τῆς διακονίας αὐτοῦ, God had wrought among
the Gentiles by his ministry. We cannot doubt, from what remains
to us of St Paul’s writings, that this was the tone of all that he would
say. God had been pleased to use him, and for His own glory had
made Paul’s weakness effective.
20. ἐδόξαζον τὸν θεόν, they glorified God. They took up the strain
of thanksgiving which had run through all the Apostle’s story. No-
thing could show more clearly than such a result how little of himself,
and how much of God, there had been in St Paul’s narrative.
εἶπάν τε αὐτῷ, and they said unto him. Their anxiety makes itself
apparent at once, and we come here face to face with what must have
been one of the greatest difficulties for the early Christians. Before
Jerusalem was destroyed there must ever have been at that centre a
party zealous for the Law, with whom labour among the Gentiles
would find small favour.
θεωρεῖς, ἀδελφέ, thow seest, brother. The use of θεωρέω seems to
imply that there had already been some opportunity for the Apostle
to behold and estimate the character of a Christian gathering in Jeru-
salem. At this feast of Pentecost the Christians would have as much
interest in a commemorative assembly as the Jews.
πόσαι μυριάδες, how many thousands. Literally ‘myriads.’ But the
word is used indefinitely of a large number, just like our ‘thousand.’
εἰσὶν ἐν τοῖς ᾿Τουδαίοις τῶν πεπιστευκότων, there are among the Jews
of them which have believed. These were persons who, as was not
unlikely to be often the case, accepted Christianity as the supplement
of Judaism, but made no break with their old faith, of the observ-
ances of which their life-long training had made them tenacious. To
such men, as Christianity rested on the Old Testament Scripture,
there would seem little need to make a rent between their old life and
the new.
kal πάντες ζηλωταὶ Tod νόμου ὑπάρχουσιν, and they are all zealous
for the Law, i.e. rigorous maintainers of all the ceremonial of the
Mosaic code. Ζηλωταί was the name of a most rigid sect among the
Jews, begun in the times of the Maccabees. It is used in a bad sense,
‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’ § 3.
ox. Ἢ θὲ NOTES. 375
21. κατηχήθησαν δὲ περὶ σοῦ, and they have been informed concern-
ing thee. κατηχέω is a very significant verb. It is the root of our
English ‘catechize.’ It implies, therefore, that the process of educat-
ing public opinion in Jerusalem about St Paul had been a diligent
business. The Pharisaic party had taught the lesson persistently till
their hearers were fully trained in it. We can hence understand the
great hostility which the Apostle experienced, and his strong language
about these Judaizers. They must have had their partizans at work in
preparation for his visit, and have poisoned men’s minds against him.
ὅτι ἀποστασίαν...πάντας Lovdalous, that thou teachest all the Jews
that are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses. The calumniators made
use of the Apostle’s earnest words to Gentile converts, that they should
not accept Judaism first as a door to Christianity, to bring a charge
that, to Jews also, he spake of the Law as no longer to be regarded.
We can see from what we know of his words and actions how false
this was, but at such a time and amid such a populace the charge
would rouse great animosity, and have no chance of being refuted.
ἀποστασία is found i Mace. ii. 15, of those who were being compelled
to forsake the Law and the ordinances and to sacrifice unto idols.
oi παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως οἱ καταναγκάζοντες τὴν ἀποστασίαν... «ἵνα θυσιάσωσι.
λέγων μὴ περιτέμνειν αὐτοὺς τὰ τέκνα, telling them not to circumcise
their children. Circumcision had so long been the mark of the Jew,
and the expression ‘uncircumcised’ meant something so abhorrent to
his mind, that we cannot wonder that this is put in the forefront of |
the charge. For the sense of contempt and abomination in the name
‘uncircumcised,’ οὗ, 1 Sam. xvii. 26; Ezek. xxvii. 10, xxxii. 29, 30.
μηδὲ τοῖς ἔθεσιν περιπατεῖν, nor to walk after the customs. The cus-
toms are the ceremonial laws of the Jews. The recurrence of words=
‘to walk after’ gives quite an Old Testament ring to the language of
these speeches.
22. τί οὖν ἐστιν; what is it therefore? ic. How stands the matter?
A question used as introductory to the consideration of what is best
to be done.
πάντως Set συνελθεῖν πλῆθος, a multitude must needs come together.
These words are accepted by Lachmann and Tischendorf, but omitted
by Tregelles, and also in the Rev. Vers. They appear to suit very
badly with the sense. St Paul had just been addressing the conspicu-
ous members of the Church at Jerusalem. They recommend to him a
certain course by which certain Judeo-Christians might learn in their
visits to the Temple that the Apostle against whom such evil reports
had been circulated was taking part in the observance of the legal
customs. In all this there was nothing done with special reference to
a crowd, nor do we read of the gathering of any crowd till the seven
days of the vow were nearly ended, and then it was the Jews of Asia
who stirred up the multitude.
23. τοῦτο οὖν ποίησον, do therefore this. They advise St Paul to
take a part in the ceremonies of a Nazirite vow. He could not go
376 _ JHE ACTS. (XXL 23=
through the whole course of the observance, for these men had already
for sometime had the vow upon them, but it was permitted among the
Jews, to anyone who wished, to join in the final purification cere-
monies of this vow; and this was the more readily permitted, if the
person wishing to take a share only in this concluding portion bore
the charges of the person or persons to whom he joined himself. It is
significant of the intense clinging to the older ceremonial in the
Jewish Church that among the Christian congregation there were men
found who had taken this vow upon them. If the authorities knew of
St Paul’s previous observance of a like vow (xviii. 18) they would have
no scruple in urging him to take part in a similar service again. For
an account of the Nazirite’s vow, see Numbers vi. 1—21. It is
not there specified how long the observance of the vow lasted, and the
time may have varied in different cases, but the final ceremonies here
appear to have lasted seven days.
24. τούτους παραλαβὼν ἁγνίσθητι σὺν αὐτοῖς, them take and purify
thyself with them,1,e. make thyself one of their company, and observe
all the ordinances which they observe with regard to purification, and
avoiding what is unclean.
καὶ ϑαπάνησον ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς, and be at charges for them. Josephus
(Ant. xix. 6. 1) tells how Herod Agrippa took upon him the expenses
of many Nazirites (ξυρᾶσθαι διέταξε μάλα συχνούς). Cf. also Bell.
Jud. 11.15, 1, from which passage it appears that then the whole time
of a Nazirite’s vow was thirty days. This latter passage relates to a
vow made by Berenice.
ἵνα ξυρήσονταν τὴν κεφαλήν, that they may shave their heads. This
use of the future indicative after ἵνα is found in several places in N. T.
Whether it occurs in classical Greek is very doubtful; though ὅπως is
found with this construction.
The shaving of the head took place at the conclusion of the vow,
and when the victims were offered, the hair was burnt in the fire
which was under the sacrifice of the peace-offering. The charges
which had to be borne by St Paul would be the cost of the victims and
other things connected with the sacrifice.
καὶ γνώσονται πάντες, and all shall know, i. 6. learning from what
they actually behold.
κατήχηνται, they have been informed. See above on verse 21 for the
force of the word. They had been taught this calumny about St Paul
as if it were a lesson to be learnt.
οὐδέν ἐστιν, are nothing, i.e. have no truth in them. Cf, xxy. 11.
στοιχεῖς Kal αὐτὸς φυλάσσων τὸν νόμον, thou thyself also walkest
orderly keeping the Law. στοιχέω (as its derivation from orotyos=a
row, would intimate) is always used of going by a rule or example, fol-
lowing a pattern. What the pattern here is is expressed in the parti-
cipial clause. Of the value which the Jew attached to such following,
οἵ, Ecclus. xxi. 11,6 φυλάσσων νόμον κατακρατεῖ τοῦ ἐννοήματος αὐτοῦ.
He may not understand at first, but obedience will lead him to a
mastery of all that the Law means,
XXI. 26. NOTES. 377
25. περὶ δὲ τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἐθνῶν, but as touching the Gentiles
which believe. The elders, while urging on Paul the course they have
described in consideration of Jewish prejudices, are yet careful to dis-
tinguish from this the liberty of the Gentiles, and to confirm that
liberty. They make it plain to the Apostle that they are of the same
mind as when the council was held (Acts xv.). They refer now to the
decisions then arrived at.
ἡμεῖς ἐπεστείλαμεν, we wrote. This is said in reference to the time
when the decrees were first published (Acts xv. 23). ἐπιστέλλω is used
there (xv. 20) just as here. The proceedings of the synod are referred
to in their technical language.
κρίναντες, giving judgment. In this word also there is a reference
to the language of xv. 19 where James says ἐγὼ κρίνω. And although
James is not specially mentioned here as the speaker, there must have
been one who acted as the mouthpiece of the presbytery, and none
was more likely to do so than he.
φυλάσσεσθαι αὐτοὺς κιτιλ., that they should keep themselves from
things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled and
from fornication. On these prohibitions and the reasons for them see
notes on xy. 20.
26. τότε 6 ἸΤαῦλος παραλαβὼν τοὺς ἄνδρας, then Paul having taken
the men. ‘This consent of Paul to the advice of James and the elders
has been taken by some for a contradiction of the words and charac-
ter of the Apostle as represented in his own writings. But he has
testified of himself (1 Cor. ix. 19—23) that for the Gospel’s sake he
was made all things to all men, unto the Jews becoming as a Jew that
he might gain the Jews, and for the same end, to them that are with-
out law, as himself without law. And these brethren of the Church
of Jerusalem to whom St Paul joined himself were Christians,
and therefore were not clinging to legal observances as of merit
towards salvation, but as ordinances which were of divine origin, and
which education had made them careful to observe. The same spirit
had actuated the Apostle to manifest by an outward act his thankful-
ness for some deliverance when, on a former occasion, he took this
vow on himself without the suggestion of others (xviii. 18). In the
Christian services of the earliest days there was very little outlet for
the expression by action of any religious emotion, and we cannot
wonder that a people whose worship for a long time had been mainly
in external observance should cling still to such outward acts, though
they had grown to estimate them as of no saving virtue in themselves.
With reference to the supposed contradiction in the two pictures of St
Paul as given by St Luke and by himself, we need only compare his
language about Judaizers in the Epistle to the Galatians with what he
says of the preaching of the Gospel at Rome by similar adversaries,
when he was writing to the Philippians, to see that the Apostle in
what he said and did had ever an eye to the circumstances. To the
Galatians he speaks in the strongest terms against the Judaizers
because their influence was to draw away the Christians in Galatia
378 THE 4075. [XXE, 26—
from the simple Gospel as offered by him in Christ’s name to the
Gentiles, and to make them substitute for it the observance of the law
of Moses as a necessary door to Christianity. He has no words strong
enough to express his horror of such teachers in such a place. But the
same Paul concerning Rome, the condition of whose people may be
learnt by a perusal of the first chapter of his letter to that Church, says
(Phil. i. 15—18), ‘Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, sup-
posing to add affliction to my bonds. Notwithstanding every way,
whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.’ Assuredly there is as much of so-called
contradiction between Paul as described in different places by himself,
as between his own description and what St Luke has left us of his
history. Contradiction it is not, but only such concession as might
be expected from one strong in the faith as St Paul was when he was
dealing, as he was called upon to deal, with two classes of men who
could never be brought to the same standpoint. ‘To observe the cere-
monial law was not needful for the Gentiles, therefore the Apostle
decried its observance and opposed those who would have enforced it.
The ceremonial law was abolished for the Jew also in Christ, but
it had a divine warrant for those who had been trained in it from
their youth up, therefore all that the Apostle here desired was that
their true value only should be set on externals. He felt that time
would develop Christian worship to fill the place which the Temple
Service for a long time must hold among the Christians of Jerusalem.
τῇ ἐχομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ...εἰς TO ἱερόν, the next day, having purified himself
with them, he entered into the Temple. The regulation was that the
Nazirite should avoid all persons and things that would cause cere-
monial defilement, and that this might be more thoroughly accom-
plished the closing days of the vow appear, at this time, to have been
passed within the Temple precincts. This, of course, must have been
a later arrangement than any which is spoken of in the institution of
the vow (Numb. vi.).
On the Apostle’s action at this time Chrysostom remarks: ὅρα τὸν
Παῦλον. ov λέγει... καὶ μὴν δύναμαι πεῖσαι τῷ λόγῳ GAN ἐπείσθη αὐτοῖς
καὶ πάντα ἐποίησε. καὶ γὰρ οὕτω συνέφερεν. οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἴσον εἰς ἀπολογίαν
καταστῆναι, καὶ οὐδένος εἰδότος ποιῆσαι ταῦτα. ἀνύποπτον ἢν τὸ καὶ
δαπανᾶσθαι.
διαγγέλλων τὴν ἐκπλήρωσιν τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ, declaring the
fulfilment of the days of purification. The meaning is that St Paul
gave notice to the proper officials of the Temple that the completion
of the vow would be at a certain time. It would be needful for him
to do this, as otherwise they would have expected him to keep the
full number of days which the others observed. After his explanation
that he was only a sharer for a time in the vow of his companions, it
would be understood that his days of purification should terminate
when theirs did.
ἕως οὗ προσηνέχθη... ἡ προσφορά, until the offering was offered for
every one of them. ἕως οὗ depends on εἰσήει, ‘he entered in...(to stay)
till the offering, &c.’ The words are not a part of St Paul’s notice to
XX. 28 NOTES. 379
the priests, but of St Luke’s history. The Apostle performed these ob-
servances, and intended to continue as a Nazirite till the whole cere-
monial for all of them was ended.
τὰ 21. ἔμελλον... συντελεῖσθαι, were almost completed. Seven days ap-
pear to have been the period devoted to the more secluded residence
in the Temple. For συντελεῖσθαι, of the completion of a portion of
. time (which is not very common), cf. Job i. 5, καὶ ws dv συνετελέσθησαν
αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ πότου.
οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ασίας ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, the Jews from Asia. It seems from this
that a portion of the visitors to Jerusalem had known the Apostle in
his missionary labours, and may have come after him, in their enmity,
to damage his reputation by calumnious reports of his teaching, re-
ports which had as much ground in truth as the story about Trophi-
mus from which the tumult arose at this time in Jerusalem.
συνέχεον πάντα τὸν ὄχλον, stirred up all the multitude. These Asian
Jews were coming up to the Temple for their worship, and may even
have been of the company in the ship by which the Apostle and his
companions came from Patara. They certainly had known, or found
out, that Trophimus was an Ephesian and a Gentile. If they had
seen the Apostle in familiar converse with him, this would be enough
to rouse their indignation, especially as Paul and his companion
would probably be living together in the same house and at the same
board (cf. Acts xi. 3).
28. Bon etre, Help. The cry is as if an outrage had been commit-
ted, and they, the strangers visiting Jerusalem, were the persons who
could afford the best testimony to what had been done. For had they
not seen and heard Paul in Ephesus and elsewhere?
οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ κατὰ τοῦ λαοῦ k.T.A., this is the man that
teacheth all men everywhere against the people. By their language
they would intimate that he was bringing the whole nation into con-
tempt. The Jews no doubt were treated with contempt among the
Gentiles, and to hear that one of their own nation had helped this on
would rouse them as much as anything could.
καὶ Tod νόμου kal τοῦ τόπου τούτου, and [against] the Law and this
place. How great a change has come over the Apostle since the day
when he joined with those who charged Stephen (ch. vi. 13) with
speaking blasphemous words against this holy place (the Temple) and
the Law. Now a like multitude brings similar charges against him.
ἔτι τε καὶ “HAAnvas εἰσήγαγεν εἰς τὸ ἱερόν, and moreover he has
brought Greeks also into the Temple. On the occurrence of τε καί in
the same clause, cf. on xix. 27. There is no doubt a special emphasis
intended to be given ἴο “Ἑλληνας in this clause which may explain
St Luke’s irregular language.
There was in the Temple a ‘court of the Gentiles,’ but the accusa-
tion against St Paul was that, during his own sojourn in the sacred
precincts, he had brought his Gentile companions into places which
were forbidden to them, How unscrupulous their charge was is indi-
380 THE ACTS. (xx ee
cated by the plural ‘ Greeks,’ whereas the only person to whom such a
term could be applied was Trophimus.
καὶ κεκοίνωκεν «.T.r., and hath defiled this holy place. They them-
selves as Jews were in the court allotted to their nation, which was
deemed more sacred than that of the Gentiles. The Greek word
κεκοίνωκεν is literally ‘hath made common,’ and carries the thought
back to St Peter’s vision, where the Gentiles were figured by the beasts
which the Apostle deemed ‘common (κοινά) or unclean’ (Acts x. 14).
29. Tpddipov τὸν “Edéorov, Trophimus the Ephesian. Hence we
see that Trophimus had come with the Apostle not only ‘as far as
Asia’ (see note on xx. 4), but all the way to Jerusalem. His name
bespeaks the man a Greek, and, from the anger of these Asiatic Jews,
he was doubtless a convert to Christianity without having been a
proselyte of Judaism. It is noticeable that so ready were these men
to find a cause for attacking St Paul, that they began it on a mere
thought, ‘They supposed Paul had brought him into the Temple.’
30. καὶ ἐγένετο συνδρομὴ τοῦ λαοῦ, and the people ran together.
So καὶ ἐγένετο συνδρομὴ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ παρεμβολῇ (Judith x. 18) of the
crowding around Judith as she came into the camp of Holophernes.
What occurred is a proof that the words of James and the elders
were true. The whole Jewish community had been ‘catechized’ on
the doings of St Paul among the Gentiles. The least spark set the
whole train on fire.
Kal ἐπιλαβόμενοι τοῦ Παύλου εἷλκον αὐτόν, they laid hold on Paul
and dragged him. Their design was probably to get him out of the
Temple precincts before they proceeded to further violence. It is
clear that all the ceremonies of the Apostle’s vow were not yet accom-
plished, and had they not laid violent hands on him he might have
fled to the altar for safety. That such a murder as they contemplated
was possible in Jerusalem at this period we have evidence in the case
of Stephen.
ἐκλείσθησαν αἱ θύραι, the doors were shut. We need not suppose
that any of the Levites, the gatekeepers of the Temple, were of the
same mind with the rioters. Their action in closing the gates was
only to prevent any profanation of the building by the uproar which
they saw to be beginning.
31. ἵητούντων τε αὐτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι, and as they were seeking to kill
him.
For the omission of the pronoun, which is not rare with the genitive
absolute of the third person, see on verse 10 above and ef. 1 Chron.
Xviil. 24, μεγαλυνθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου ἕως αἰῶνος λεγόντων Κύριε, κύριε
παντοκράτωρ.
For ἕητεῖν in the sense of ‘wishing’ as here cf. Exod. iv. 24, συνήν-
Thoev αὐτῷ ἄγγελος κυρίου, καὶ ἐζήτει αὐτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι. The desire of
the mob was clearly, now that they had the Apostle in their power,
to beat him to death in the crowd, and thus avoid a charge of murder
against any individual,
ΧΧΙ. 33. NOTES. 381
ἀνέβη φάσις τῷ χιλιάρχῳ τῆς σπείρης, tidings came up to the chief
captain of the band. The chief military officer of the Romans in
Jerusalem was stationed in the tower of Antonia, which was situate
on the N.W. of the Temple on the hill Acra. This tower had been
built by Herod, and was so close to the scene of the tumult that news
would be brought at once. The military officer (probably a tribune)
is called χιλίαρχος, that is, officer overa thousand men. On the word
σπεῖρα for a Roman cohort, or troop of soldiers, ef. x.1. The verb
ἀνέβη ‘came up to’ shews that the writer was familiar with the locality
and had the whole scene in his mind. On the Tower of Antonia, see
Josephus, Vita, 5.
φάσις is used in classical Greek for a formal accusation laid before
a law court. It is only found once in the LXX. where φάσις θεοῦ is the
order from God given for the punishment of an offender, Susanna
55. The name of the χιλίαρχος is from the further history (xxiii. 26)
found to have been Claudius Lysias, but nothing is known of him
beyond what we read in the Acts.
ύννεται, was in confusion. Cf. the σύγχυσις at Ephesus, xix. 29.
At the time of the feast religious party feeling was sure to run
very high, and the multitudes of strangers visiting the city would
think to shew their zeal for the Temple and the Law by their eagerness
to avenge any supposed profanation.
32. στρατιώτας kal ἑκατοντάρχας, soldiers and centurions. Clearly
the χιλίαρχος had charge of a considerable troop, which might perhaps
just at the feast be augmented in anticipation that the incourse of so
many foreigners might lead to a disturbance.
κατέδραμεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, ran down upon them. The tower was on the
height above the Temple, so the verb is very correct.
ἐπαύσαντο τύπτοντες τὸν Παῦλον, they left beating of Paul. The
mob probably knew that Roman law would do justice, and that if the
Apostle were found by the chief captain to have been wrongfully
treated they would be brought to an account.
33. ἐπελάβετο αὐτοῦ, laid hold on him. The verb implies a formal
arrest. The chief captain did not come with a view to relieve St Paul,
but to find out what was the matter, and seeing the Apostle in the
hands of the mob, himself arrested him, that he might not be killed
without a hearing.
ἁλύσεσι δυσί, with two chains, cf. xii. 6. Hvidently, as appears
from his language afterwards (verse 38), the χιλίαρχος regarded St
Paul as some desperate criminal. He would have thought little of the
matter, had it seemed merely a question about Jewish law (see xxiii.
29).
καὶ ἐπυνθάνετο, and inquired. From those who appeared most
prominent in the crowd.
τίς εἴη καὶ τί ἐστι πεποιηκώς, who he was, and what he had done,
The optative mood in the first half of the question shews that this
382 THE ACTS. [ΧΧΙ. 33—
was a question about the answer to which there might be uncertainty.
The indicative in the latter half proclaims the conviction of the
χιλίαρχος. He was quite sure some wrong had been done.
34. ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλο τι ἐπεφώνουν, and some shouted one thing and
some another. ἐπιφωνέω is the verb which St Luke gives for the din
of the multitude which shouted against Jesus (Luke xxiii. 21), ‘ Crucify
Him’; also for the adulatory shouting in honour of Herod Agrippa
(Acts xii. 22). No other New Testament writer uses the word. It is
twice found in the LXX. (1 HEsd. ix. 47; 2 Mace. i. 23), both times of
loud responses in prayer.
The chief captain appears to have made an effort to learn what was
laid to the charge of the Apostle.
διὰ τὸν θόρυβον, because of the uproar. Probably, as at Ephesus
(xix. 32), a large part of the shouters hardly knew themselves why the
clamour was raised.
ἄγεσθαι... εἰς τὴν παρεμβολήν, to be led into the castle. παρεμβολή
signifies ‘an encampment,’ but was employed to designate the barracks
which the Romans had in the Tower of Antonia. The same word is
rendered ‘army’ in Heb. xi. 34. Cf. also LXX. 1 Sam. iv. 5, 6, 7.
35. ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀναβαθμούς, upon the stairs. The noun is common in
the LXX. (cf. 1 Kings x. 19, 20, &c.) but not in classical Greek. It
occurs Herod. 1. 125.
The stairs mentioned here are the flight of steps leading from the
Temple area up to the tower where the soldiers were stationed. They
were not covered in, for St Paul is able to address the multitude while
standing on them (verse 40).
διὰ τὴν βίαν τοῦ ὄχλου, by reason of the violence of the crowd. The
people pressed on St Paul with all the more fury because they saw
that he was now to be taken out of their hands. Hence it came to
pass, that some of the soldiers were obliged, in order to keep him safe,
to lift him from his feet and carry him up till he was out of reach,
their comrades meanwhile keeping back the people from the foot of
the stairs.
36. τὸ πλῆθος... κράζοντες, the multitude...crying. The plural
masculine participle is used, because the notion of πλῆθος is plural.
αἶρε αὐτόν, away with him. The same cry which (Luke xxiii. 18)
was used by the Jews before Pilate in reference to Jesus.
37—40. PavuL ASKS LEAVE TO ADDRESS THE CROWD.
37. μέλλων τε εἰσάγεσθαι, and when he was about to be brought.
This must have been when a place on the stairs had been reached
where Paul was safe out of reach of the mob, and needed no longer to
be borne up by the soldiers.
el ἔξεστίν μοι εἰπεῖν τι πρός σε; may I speak to thee? Literally ‘may
I say something to thee?’ On εἰ as a mere mark of interrogation, cf.
on i. 6,
XXI. 39.] NOTES. 383
“Ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις ; dost thou know Greek? The χιλίαρχος had
evidently come down with a preconceived notion who the offender was
about whom the disturbance had arisen. And from some source or
other he appears to have known that the Egyptian, whom he supposed
St Paul to be, could not speak Greek.
38. οὐκ dpa σὺ εἶ, thow-art not then (as I supposed thee to be).
Probably St Paul had addressed him in Greek already.
ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, the Egyptian. The person to whom allusion is here
made was a sufficiently formidable character, if we only reckon his
followers at four thousand desperadoes. Josephus (Ant. xx. 8. 6;
Bell, J. 11. 13. 5) tells how he was one of many impostors of the time,
and that when Felix was governor he came to Jerusalem, gave himself
out as a prophet, gathered the people to the Mount of Olives in num-
ber about 30,000, telling them that at his word the walls of Jerusalem
would fall down, and they could then march into the city. Felix with
the Roman soldiers went out against him. The impostor and a part
of his adherents fled, but a very large number were killed and others
taken prisoners. The narrative of Josephus does not accord with the
account of St Luke, but if the former be correct, we may well suppose
that the numbers and the occasion spoken of by the chief captain
relate to an event anterior to that great gathering on the Mount of
Olives. The fame of the impostor may have grown; indeed, must
have done so before he could collect the number of adherents of which
Josephus speaks.
ἀναστατώσας καὶ ἐξαγαγών, who stirred up to sedition and led forth.
ἀναστατόω is found, beside here, in Acts xvii. 6; Gal. v. 12, and is
always active. So dvdpas must be governed by both these verbs, and
not, as in A.V., by the latter only.
τῶν σικαρίων, of the assassins. σικάριοι is a word derived from the
Latin sica=a dagger, and imported into Greek. Josephus (B. J. 11.
13. 3) in an account of the lawless bands which infested Judea in
these times, says (after relating how a notorious robber named Eleazar
had been taken with his followers and sent in chains to Rome), ‘But
when the country was thus cleared there sprang up another kind of
plunderers in Jerusalem called Sicarii. They kill men by daylight in
the midst of the city. Particularly at the feasts they mix with the
crowd, carrying small daggers hid under their clothes. With these
they wound their adversaries, and when they have fallen the mur-
derers mix with the crowd and join in the outcry against the crime.
Thus they passed unsuspected for along time. One of their earliest
victims was Jonathan the high priest.’ For further notices of the
Sicarii cf. Josephus B. J. 1.17.6 and Ant. xx. 8. 10.
39. ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος μέν εἰμι TovSaios, Tapoeis, τῆς Κιλικίας, I am a
Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia. See vi. 9 and notes.
οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης, a citizen of no mean city. Tarsus was
the metropolis of Cilicia, and a city remarkable for its culture, and
the zeal of its inhabitants for philosophic studies.
384 THE ACTS. [XXI. 39—
ἐπίτρεψόν μοι λαλῆσαι πρὸς τὸν λαόν, give me leave to speak wnto
the people. An objection has been here raised that it is extremely
improbable that the chief captain could have held this conversation
with St Paul amid the tumult, and also that he would have granted
permission to speak to a man whom he had just taken as his prisoner,
and whom he afterwards arranges to examine by scourging (xxii. 24).
But we have only to remember that the Apostle and his interlocutor
were high up above the crowd, and so away from the noise; that the
staircase crowded with soldiers, who could not rapidly be withdrawn
because they were restraining the multitude, made some delay abso-
lutely unavoidable, and that, added to this was the surprise of the
chief captain that his prisoner could speak Greek, and we have enough
warrant for accepting the story as it is here told. Moreover the Greek
which the Apostle used was of a very polished character, shewing the
education and refinement of the speaker, and making good his claim
to respect.
40. ἐπιτρέψαντος δὲ αὐτοῦ, and when he had given him leave. As
in the previous verse.
κατέσεισεν τῇ χειρί, he beckoned with his hand. Apparently the
chief captain had also been so far impressed by the conversation of his
prisoner, that he allowed at least one of his hands to be released from
its chain (see above, verse 33) while he spake to the multitude, and
this he waved to ask for silence.
πολλῆς δὲ σιγῆς γενομένης, and when there was made a great silence.
The unusual circumstance, and the gesture which could be seen
through the whole crowd, would gain an audience very readily. Beside
which an Oriental mob is less persistent than those of the western
world.
τῇ ἝἙβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ, in the Hebrew language. This alone, as soon
as it was heard, would gain the speaker an audience with many. It
was their own speech, for by ‘Hebrew’ here is meant the Aramaic
dialect of Palestine.
CHAPTER XXII.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
9. καὶ ἔμφοβοι ἐγένοντο omitted with NABH. Not represented in
Vulg.
16. αὐτοῦ for τοῦ κυρίου with NABE. Vulg. ‘ipsius,’
on τῇ ἀναιρέσει αὐτοῦ omitted with NABE. Not represented in
ulg.
24. ὁ χιλίαρχος εἰσάγεσθαι αὐτὸν with NABCDE. Vulg. ‘ tribunus
induci eum.’
26 ὅρα omitted with NABC. Not represented in Vulg.
ἜΣΤΙ, 5 NOTES. 385
(30. ἀπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν omitted with NABCE. Not represented in
Vulg.
αὐτῶν after συνέδριον omitted with NABCE. Not represented
in Vulg.
Cu. XXII. 1—21. Sr Pavu’s DEFENCE,
1. ἀκούσατέ pov τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς νυνὶ ἀπολογίας, hear ye my defence
which I now make unto you. With regard to the construction of the
verse, it seems, as in John xii. 47, that ἀκούω is here followed by a
double genitive of the person and thing, ‘Hear from me the defence
&c.’ This is sometimes found also in classical Greek.
2. ἀκούσαντες δέ, and when they heard. The beckoning with the
hand (xxi. 40) had procured silence enough for the Apostle’s first
words to be heard, and now they caught the sound of their own
dialect.
μάλλον παρέσχον ἡσυχίαν, they were the more quiet. ἡσυχία is
stillness as opposed to motion, while σιγή (xxi. 40) is quiet as opposed
to noise. The phrase in this verse indicates that the crowd not only
abstained from cries and shouts, but kept still in their places that they
might hear the better. Thus a very high degree of quiet is described.
3. ἐγώ εἰμι ἀνὴρ ᾿Ιουδαῖος, I am a Jew. These first words of the
Apostle would correct many wrong impressions among the crowd, for
we may be sure that many, beside the chief captain, had the notion
that St Paul was one of those foreign desperadoes with which Judxa
abounded at this time.
γεγεννημένος ἐν Ταρσῷ τῆς Κιλικίας, born in Tarsus of Cilicia. On
Tarsus, cf. note on vi. 9.
ἀνατεθραμμένος δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, but brought up in this city.
St Paul means not that from his infancy he had lived in Jerusalem,
but that, when he had reached an age fitted for it, he was sent from
home to be educated under Gamaliel. The verb is used in this sense
in classical Greek. On Gamaliel, see note on v. 34.
παρὰ τοὺς πόϑας, at the feet. The most usual position of teacher
and pupils at the time of St Paul was that both should sit, the former
on a higher level than the latter. For the evidence on this matter
from the Talmud, see Taylor Pirke Aboth, pp. 28, 29.
πεπαιδευμένος κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ πατρῴου νόμου, ζηλωτὴς ὑπάρχων,
instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being
zealous, &c. For an account by the Apostle himself of his Jewish
birth, education, and character, cf. Phil. iii. 5,6. He was a Hebrew
of the Hebrews, and his language shews how learned he was in all
that concerned his own people. He makes frequent allusions to Jew-
ish customs, laws, and festivals, and reckons his time by the Jewish
calendar. He was also a Pharisee, and none of his contemporaries
surpassed him, while but few equalled him, in strictness of legal
observance,
THE ACTS | 25
386 THE ACTS. beac
καθὼς πάντες ὑμεῖς ἐστε, as ye all are. The Apostle, wno never puts
himself in peril when no good end is to be served by it, wishes to set
himself in an acceptable light before his audience. This is his reason
for explaining that he, like themselves, had been a zealous observer of
the law.
4. ὃς ταύτην τὴν ὁδὸν ἐδίωξα ἄχρι θανάτου, and I persecuted this
Way unto the death. On 7 ὁδὸς as the designation of the Christian
religion, cf. note on ix. 2. We are not told of any Christians who
were put to death through Saul’s zealous persecution, for in the case of
Stephen he was not a very active agent, but his own statement in this
verse, and the stronger expression xxvi. 10, ‘when they were put to
death I gave my voice against them,’ make it certain that the persecu-
tions in which he took part were carried beyond imprisonment, even to
the martyrdom of the accused.
eis φυλακάς, into prisons. The plural here used is probably in-
tended to express, what in chap. xxvi. is given in more detail, viz., the
wide field over which Saul’s zeal was exerted, ‘ being exceedingly mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’ The usual
phrase has the singular. Cf. 2 Chron. xvi. 10, καὶ παρέθετο αὐτὸν els
φυλακήν. Also Gen. xl. 3, ἔθετο αὐτοὺς ἐν φυλακῇ.
5. ὡς καὶ ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς μαρτυρεῖ μοι, as also the high priest doth bear
me witness, The Apostle refers not to the high priest at the time
when he was speaking, but to him who had held that office when (ix. 1)
in his earnestness against the Christians he had desired a commission
from the authorities to carry his persecuting measures as far as
Damascus. Josephus (Ant. xvut. 5. 3) tells us that in a.p. 37 Theo-
philus, son of Ananus, was made high priest in the place of his brother
Jonathan. The high priest to whom St Paul here alludes was one of
these two brothers, for Theophilus held office till he was removed by
Agrippa and his place occupied by Simon, called Kantheras (see Jos.
Ant, x1x. 6, 2, and ef. Farrar’s St Paul, τ. 178). Ananias was high
priest at the time of St Paul’s arrest. See xxiii. 2.
καὶ πᾶν τὸ πρεσβυτέριον, and all the estate of the elders. Though it
was now more than twenty years since St Paul’s conversion, it was
not improbable that some members of the Sanhedrin which granted
him his commission were still alive, and the records of the transaction
were doubtless preserved and could be appealed to.
πρεσβυτέριον is used for the position of an elder in LXX. Susanna 50.
ἐπιστολὰς δεξάμενος πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς, having received letters unto
the brethren, i.e. to the Jewish authorities in Damascus. The Jews
spake of all their race as brethren from the earliest times (cf. Deut.
xvili. 15). The whole family were Jacob’s children.
ἄξων kal τοὺς ἐκεῖσε ὄντας, to bring them also which were there, i.e.
any Christians whom I was able to find in Damascus. ἐκεῖσε has here
the force of éxe?, as it sometimes has in the Greek poets.
δεδεμένους els ᾿Ιερουσαλήμ, to Jerusalem in bonds. Thus they were
to be treated as the veriest criminals.
XXII. 12.] NOTES. 387
6. περὶ μεσημβρίαν, about noon. The time of the day at which the
vision occurred is not noticed in chap. ix., but in chap. xxvi. the
Apostle also mentions that it was ‘at mid-day,’ at which time the
heavenly brightness must have been very overpowering to shine above
the glare of an Eastern sun.
7. ἤκουσα φωνῆς, I heard a voice. As in chap. ix. 4 and 7, so
here, and below in verse 9, the case of the noun is varied, so as to
mark that the hearing in St Paul’s case was different from the hearing
of his companions. The verb can be connected with either a genitive
or accusative case. In both the narratives a variation is made, and it
was not without its significance (see notes on chap. ix.). St Paul
heard intelligible words, the others heard a sound, but it was not
speech to them, Cf. the narrative in Daniel x. 6—9.
8. ὁ Ναζωραῖος, of Nazareth. This adjective is found only in this
one of the three accounts of Saul’s conversion; though in some MSS.
to make the one place conform more exactly to the other they have
been inserted in ix, 5.
9. The words καὶ ἔμφοβοι éyévovro which appear in the Text. recept.,
but which the chief MSS. omit, are not like other words which have
been inserted in various portions of this book. There is nothing like
them either in chap. ix. or chap. xxvi. It is possible that they are of
early authority, and may have been omitted by a scribe whose eye
passed from the NTO of ἐθεάσαντο to the same letters at the end of
ἐγένοντο. They are omitted from the present text according to the de-
cision of Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles, but their difference
from other words similarly omitted is worthy of consideration.
τὴν δὲ φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκουσαν, but they heard not the voice, i.e. the
words which were spoken to Saul. They were only conscious of a
sound round about them. See above on verse 7.
10. ὧν τέτακταί σοι ποιῆσαι, which are appointed for thee to do.
On the attraction of the relative into the case of its antecedent, see on
1.1
God had explained to Ananias (see ix. 15) what Saul’s future work
should be: how he was a chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel; and still more about his labours
was to be revealed to the new Apostle himself. According to xxvi.
16—18 the character of the work to which he was called was from the
first indicated to Saul; though as no mention is made of Ananias in
that passage, it may well be that the Apostle there brings into one
statement both the words he heard on the way and those which were
afterwards spoken to him by Ananias.
11. ὡς δὲ οὐκ ἐνέβλεπον ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τοῦ φωτὸς ἐκείνου, and when
1 could not see for the glory of that light. This explanation of the
reason of the Apostle’s blindness is only given in this place.
ἐμβλέπωῳ is found Mark viii. 25 of sight returned after blindness.
12. ᾿Ανανίας δέ τις, ἀνὴρ εὐλαβὴς κατὰ Tov νόμον, and Ananias, a
devout man according to the Law. The Apostle neglects nothing in his
25—2
388 THE ACTS. peeun! y=
address which can conciliate his audience, and so he tells them that
the messenger whom God sent to him was ‘ well reported of by all the
Jews that dwelt in Damascus.’ (For Ananias see note on ix, 10.) The
hostility towards Christians, which was so strong in Jerusalem, had
not at the time of St Paul’s conversion manifested itself so greatly in
Damascus, since Ananias, ‘a disciple,’ was still in good repute with the
Jews there.
13. καὶ ἐπιστάς, and standing by me. The Apostle in his blindness
was seated, no doubt, and the messenger came and stood over him.
ἀνάβλεψον... ἀνέβλεψα eis αὐτόν, receive thy sight...I looked up
upon him. For the two renderings of the verb, cf. Luke xix. 5, where
ἀναβλέψας is used of Jesus looking up at Zaccheus in the sycamore
tree, with John ix. 11, where ἀνέβλεψα is said by the blind man who
describes how he received his sight.
14. ὃ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν, the God of our fathers. Ananias
spake naturally as one Jew to another. At the commencement of the
Christian Church there was no thought of a rupture with Judaism,
and nothing is more to be noticed in the Acts than the gradual ad-
vance made by the Apostles and their companions in apprehending
what the result of their mission would be.
προεχειρίσατό σε, hath appointed thee. The verb is only here and
in xxvl. 16in N.T. In the LXX, it is found Exod. iv, 13, προχείρισαι
ἄλλον δυνάμενον ὃν ἀποστελεῖς, Where Moses would excuse himself from
going unto Pharaoh; also Joshua iii. 12; 2 Mace. iii. 7, viii. 9: always
with the notion of selecting some one into whose hands an important
duty can be committed.
γνῶναι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ, to know His will. For this reason it is
that St Paul so often in the commencement of his Epistles speaks of
himself as an Apostle according to the will of God. 1 Cor.i.1;2
Cor. i. 1; Eph. i. 1; 1 Col. i. 1, &e. The whole passage Eph. i. 1—11
forms a comment on this clause.
καὶ ἰδεῖν τὸν δίκαιον, and to see the righteous One, i.e. Jesus. See
note on vil. 52 above.
καὶ ἀκοῦσαι φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ, and to hear a voice from
His mouth. That in this way St Paul might, even as the other Apo-
stles, be taught of Jesus.
15. ὅτι ἔσῃ μάρτυς αὐτῷ, for thou shalt be His witness. Thus the
commission of the later-called Apostle was exactly in the same terms
in which Christ (Acts i. 8) had spoken to the Eleven before his Ascen-
sion.
πρὸς πάντας ἀνθρώπους, wnto all men. Paul, with his usual disere-
tion, does not utter the word ‘Gentiles’ till he is forced to do so,
ὧν ἑώρακας Kal ἤκουσας, of what thow hast seen and heard. For by
revelation the Apostle was made aware of the whole scope of Christian
truth, and of those doctrines which Christ during His life on earth
had communicated to the Twelve. And at a later time (see 2 Cor. xii.
MXIE ΤΕ] NOTES. 389
2, 3) greater revelations appear to have been made to St Paul con-
cerning the world to come than to any of the other Apostles.
16. καὶ viv τί μέλλεις ; and now why tarriest thou? According to
the narrative in ix, 15, the message of Ananias had already proclaimed
the gift of the Holy Ghost to Saul, and the favour of God had been
shewn in the recovery of his sight. So the question of Ananias be-
comes parallel to that of St Peter in the house of Cornelius: ‘Can any
man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have re-
ceived the Holy Ghost as well as we?’
ἀναστὰς βάπτισαι, arise and be baptized. Though the gift of the
Spirit was announced yet God directs that the means of grace, the
sacrament of baptism, which the Apostle must offer to others, should
also be received by himself.
καὶ ἀπόλουσαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου, and wash away thy sins. The
close connexion of the sacramental sign with renewing grace is spoken
of in like terms by the Apostle in his Epistle to Titus (ii. 5), ‘accord-
ing to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost.’
ἐπικαλεσάμενος TO ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, calling on His name, i.e. τοῦ δικαίου,
the name of the righteous One, Jesus, mentioned in verse 14,
17. ὑποστρέψαντι eis ᾿Ιερουσαλήμ,, when I had returned to Jeru-
salem. This refers to that visit of the Apostle recorded in Acts ix. 26
seqq. Welearn from Gal. i. 18 that three years had elapsed between
the conversion of Saul and this visit to Jerusalem, which period is
supposed to have been consumed in Arabia (cf. Gal. i. 17). The
preaching of Saul at Jerusalem we are told in the Acts roused the
anger of the Greek-speaking Jews, and that in consequence of their
attempts against Saul the Christian congregation sent him away first
to Cesarea and then to Tarsus.
The double construction of the participle first in the dative after
ἐγένετο and then in the genitive absolute is noteworthy. But there is
a degree of difference in the seuse ‘after my return’ and ‘while I was
praying.’
προσευχομένου pov ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ, while I prayed in the Temple. It
is worthy of note how often in this address St Paul incidentally ex-
presses himself in such wise as to conciliate the crowd. His visit to
the Temple for the purpose of prayer was at once a proof that he was
not likely to despise Jewish ordinances and religious observances.
γενέσθαι pe ἐν ἐκστάσει, 1 fell into a trance. This was the occasion
of one of those ‘visions and revelations of the Lord’ of which St Paul
speaks to the Corinthians (2 Cor. xii. 1) and with which, from his con-
version onwards, he was many times instructed and comforted.
The infinitive, as here, after éyévero is common in St Luke. The
present example is however more noteworthy, because it is of the
form ἐγένετό μοι... γενέσθαι με.
18. καὶ ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν λέγοντά μοι, and saw Him saying unto me.
In Acts ix. 29, 30 no mention is made that a vision had appeared to
390 THE ACTS. [xxi te
Saul commanding him to depart from Jerusalem. It is only said that
‘the disciples’ sent him away. But these two statements are not
inconsistent with each other. Saul might be warned to go, and the
disciples at the same time prompted to send him. In the same way
two different causes, one natural, the other supernatural, are mentioned
Acts xiii. 2—4, viz. the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and the act of
the Church of Antioch. And still more like is the statement of St
Paul (Gal. ii. 2), that he went up to Jerusalem ‘by revelation,’ when
it is placed side by side with Acts xv. 2, where we are told that the
Christians of Antioch determined that Paul and Barnabas should go
up to consult the Church in Jerusalem.
ἔξελθε ἐν τάχει ἐξ ἹΙερουσαλήμ,, get thee quickly out of Jerusalem.
We know from Gal, i. 18 that the duration of the Apostle’s stay was
only fifteen days.
ἐν τάχει used adverbially is common both in classical Greek and in
the LXX.
ov παραδέξονταί σον μαρτυρίαν περὶ ἐμοῦ, they will not accept from
thee testimony concerning me. The Apostle, as is clear from what follows
in the next verse, considered that he would be specially a messenger
likely to persuade and convince men in Jerusalem of the truths of the
Christian faith. God, in the vision, points out that this will not be so.
19. Κύριε, αὐτοὶ ἐπίστανται, Lord, they know. The effect of the
expressed pronoun is not to be reproduced in English. These are, he
thinks, the very men to whom he can best appeal. Saul is confident
that he will be known by many to whom he would speak, and that his
zealous persecution of the Christians less than four years before can-
not have fallen out of men’s memories.
ἐγὼ ἤμην φυλακίζων καὶ Sépwv, I imprisoned and beat. The pecu-
liar form, the substantive verb with the participle, implies that this
conduct was continuous. Saul was regularly engaged in the work.
φυλακίζω is a rare word, found only here in N.T., and in LXX,
Wisdom xviii. 4, ἄξιοι μὲν yap ἐκεῖνοι στερηθῆναι φωτὸς καὶ φυλακισθῆναι
ἐν σκότει.
κατὰ τὰς συναγωγάς, in the synagogues. For the synagogues as
places where such punishment was inflicted cf. Matth. x. 17, xxiii. 34;
Mark xiii. 9; Luke xxi. 12. That they were also places in which
charges were heard is seen from Luke xii. 11.
20. Στεφάνου τοῦ μάρτυρός σου, of Stephen, thy witness. The Greek
word μάρτυς had not yet come to be applied, as it afterwards was, to
those Christians who bore witness to the truth by their death.
συνευδοκῶν, consenting. On the force of ἤμην with the participle,
which here implies that Saul took a share in the proceedings from first
to last, see the previous verse.
καὶ φυλάσσων τὰ ἱμάτια, and kept the raiment. See on vii. 58.
21. ἐγὼ εἰς ἔθνη μακρὰν ἐξαποστελῶ σε, 1 will send thee forth far
hence unto the Gentiles. We need not understand the command as
XXII. 24.] NOTES. 391
implying that the Apostle’s missionary labours were to begin from
that moment, but that God’s work for him was now appointed,
and would begin in His own time; and it would be not among
Jews or Greeks at Jerusalem, but among the Gentiles in distant
laces.
‘ St Paul had kept back as long as ever he could the word which
he was sure would rouse the anger of his hearers, and we may well
suppose from the conciliatory tone of much of his speech that the
attention of the crowd had been enlisted, for the speaker was a man
of culture and spoke their own tongue. But when the Gentiles are
spoken of as recipients of God’s message they break forth into all
the excitement of an Oriental mob.
22—29. Fury oF THE JEws. THE Curer CAPTAIN ORDERS PAUL TO
BE SCOURGED, BUT ON HEARING THAT HE IS A ROMAN, RECALLS
THE ORDER IN ALARM.
22. ἄχρι τούτου Tov λόγου, unto this word, i.e. Gentiles. It is pro-
bable that here and there in the speech the Apostle may not have
entirely pleased them. Their feelings however could not be restrained
when the hated name was spoken to them by one who professed to be
bearing abroad the message of Jehovah.
ov γὰρ καθῆκεν αὐτὸν ζῆν, for it was not fit that he should live, i.e. he
ought to have been put to death long ago. Cf. Keclus. x. 23, οὐ καθῆ-
kev δοξάσαι ἄνδρα ἁμαρτωλόν, i.e. it neither is nor ever has been proper
to magnify a sinful man. In which passage however the Vat. MS,
reads καθήκει.
23. ῥιπτούντων τὰ ἱμάτια, casting off their clothes, i.e. the loose
upper robe which could easily be laid aside, and which in such an
excitement would interfere with their movements. Compare the con-
duct of the crowd when our Lord rode into Jerusalem, and also the
behaviour of Jehu’s friends, 2 Kings ix. 13. Such loose parts of the
dress were rolled up for carrying and thus progress in a crowd was
made more easy.
Kal κονιορτὸν βαλλόντων εἰς τὸν ἀέρα, and casting dust into the air.
With this compare the action of Shimei, 2 Sam. xvi. 13, where the
marginal rendering shews that the dust was thrown at David. Per-
haps it may have been meant in the present case to be thrown at St
Paul, who was above the crowd, at the top of the stairs. The attempt
to reach him with what they threw was futile, but it shewed what they
would fain have done. For a like action as a sign of grief, cf. Job
ii. 12.
24. ἐκέλευσεν ὁ χιλίαρχος εἰσάγεσθαι αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ.., the chief captain
commanded him to be brought into the castle. Probably the chief
captain understood nothing of what St Paul had been saying, and
would be surprised at the outbreak of rage on the part of the people,
and conclude from it that there was some serious charge laid against
him which he might best ascertain by subjecting his prisoner to torture
till he should confess.
392 THE ACTS. [XXIT. 24—
εἴπας μάστιξιν ἀνετάζεσθαι αὐτόν, having bidden that he should be —
examined by scourging. The active verb dverdgew is found LXX,
Susanna 14, ἀνετάζοντες ἀλλήλους, but it is of very rare occurrence.
The mode of examination by torture among the Romans consisted
in binding the limbs of the person to be tortured fast to a framework
on which arms and legs were spread apart (divaricatio), and then the
beating was inflicted by means of rods,
Sv ἣν αἰτίαν οὕτως ἐπεφώνουν αὐτῷ, for what cause they cried so
against him. Here the antecedent has been, as is not uncommon,
transferred into the relative clause.
25. ὡς δὲ προέτειναν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἱμᾶσιν, and when they had tied him
up with the thongs. The person to be scourged was stretched forward
(προτείνειν) so that he might be in a position to receive the blows.
Some have translated ‘for the thongs,’ but ἱμάς is nearly always used
for straps employed for straining or binding tight, and rarely, if ever,
for the implement by which the chastisement is inflicted.
πρὸς τὸν ἑστῶτα ἑκατόνταρχον, to the centurion that stood by. He
was superintending the tying up of the prisoner to the whipping-post,
which was done by the common soldiers,
ἄνθρωπον Ῥωμαῖον, a man that is a Roman. It was an offence
punishable with the severest penalties for a man to claim to be a
Roman citizen, if he were not one. The peril of such an assertion, if
it were not true, convinces the centurion at once, and though we are
not told so expressly we may feel sure that the operation of ‘tying up’
was stopped.
26. τί μέλλεις ποιεῖν ; what art thou about to do? It was forbidden
under a heavy penalty, by the Lex Porcia, to scourge a Roman citizen
(Liv. x. 9).
28. τὴν πολιτείαν ταύτην ἐκτησάμην, obtained I this citizenship.
It was the Roman boast ‘I am a Roman citizen’ (Cic. in Verr. v. 63).
The sale of the freedom of Rome was at times the perquisite of some
of the Imperial parasites and favourites, who made what they could o
such a privilege. .
ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ γεγέννημαι, but Iam a Roman born. How St Paul came
to be a Roman citizen by birth we cannot tell; probably some ancestor
for meritorious conduct had been rewarded with enfranchisement.
Tarsus was a free city, and had its own laws and magistrates, but
that did not constitute its inhabitants Roman citizens.
29. ot μέλλοντες αὐτὸν ἀνετάζειν, those who were about to examine
him. The verb is used here euphemistically for the scourging which
it had been proposed to inflict on the Apostle.
αὐτὸν ἦν SeSexws, he had bound him, i.e. bound him for the purpose
of scourging. ‘To be bound with a chain as a prisoner was not pro-
hibited in the case of Romans. Hence we find St Paul speaking often
in the Epistles, written during his imprisonment at Rome, of the
bonds and the ‘ chain’ with which he was afflicted. Cf. Phil. i. 7, 13,
14,17; Col. iv. 18; Philem. 10, 13. Also Acts xxviii. 20, while the
XXII. | _ NOTES. 393
next verse in this chapter shews that though the Apostle was unloosed
from the whipping-post, he was still kept in bonds.
30. THE cHreF CAPTAIN BRINGS PAUL BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN.
30. βουλόμενος γνῶναι, desiring to know. The chief captain was
anxious, as a Roman officer, that justice should be done, and this
could only be by having both sides before some authoritative council.
τὸ τί κατηγορεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, of what he is accused by the
Jews. Ina similar way a whole sentence is treated as one nominal
idea by the prefixing of the neuter article in 1 Thess. iv. 1, παρελάβετε
παρ᾽ ἡμῶν TO πῶς Set ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν. Ξ
καὶ ἐκέλευσεν συνελθεῖν τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς, and commanded the chief
priests to come together. He had discovered thus much, that the
offence charged against his prisoner was concerning the religion of the
Jews. He therefore summons the chief religious authorities as those
who were best able to decide whether any wrong had been done.
Kal πᾶν τὸ συνέδριον, and all the council. By this is meant the
whole Jewish Sanhedrin. They were to meet in some place to which
Paul could be brought, and where the case might be fairly heard. The
place where the Sanhedrin met for their own consultations was called
Lishkath-Haggazith, and was a hall built of cut stone so situate that
one half was built on holy, the other half on the profane ground, and it
had two doors, one to admit to each separate section, T. B. Joma
25a. But whether this was the place of meeting at this time we have
no means of deciding.
Kal καταγαγὼν tov Παῦλον, and having brought Paul down, The
castle was situate in the highest part of the city, above the Temple, so
that wherever he had to go, the chief captain must come down.
ἔστησεν εἰς αὐτούς, he set him before them. The idea of εἰς is ‘he
brought him in among them.’ Perhaps the phrase is purposely used,
to intimate that Paul was not committed to them, nor brought into
their presence as if they were to be his judges, but only that both
accusers and accused might be heard on common ground.
CHAPTER XXIII
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
6. Φαρισαίων for Φαρισαίου with NABC. Vulg. ‘Phariseorum.’
9. τινὲς TOY γραμματέων with ABC. The Vulg. does not represent
τῶν γραμματέων τοῦ μέρους, having only ‘quidam Pharisworum.’
μὴ θεομαχῶμεν omitted with NABCE. Not represented in Vulg.
10. φοβηθεὶς for εὐλαβηθεὶς with NABCE. Vulg. ‘timens.’
11. Παῦλε omitted with NABCE. Not represented in Vulg.
12. οἱ Ιουδαῖοι with NABCE. Vulg. ‘ quidam ex Judwis.’
394 THE ACTS. [XXIII 1—
15. αὔριον omitted with NABCE. Not represented in Vulg.
‘
20. τὸν Παῦλον καταγάγῃς els τὸ συνέδριον with NABE. Vulg,
*producas Paulum in concilium.’
Pp
27. αὐτόν after ἐξειλάμην omitted with NABE. Not represented in
Vulg.
30. μέλλειν ὑπὸ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων omitted with NABE. The Vuly, has
‘quum mihi perlatum esset de insidiis quas paraverant illi.
éppwoo omitted with AB. Vulg. ‘vale.’
32. ἀπέρχεσθαι for πορεύεσθαι with NABE.
34. ὁ ἡγεμὼν omitted with NABE. Not represented in Vulg.
35. κελεύσας for ἐκέλευσέ τε with NABE. Vulg. ‘jussitque.’
Cu. XXIII. 1—10. Sr Pavun BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN. DISAGREE-
MENT BETWEEN THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES,
1. ἀτενίσας δέ, and earnestly beholding. The verb is one which
St Luke very frequently employs to note a speaker’s expression at the
commencement of a speech, and it is one of those features in the Acts
which shew us where the compiler has acted as editor to the narratives
which he used. He very generally gives some word to indicate the
gesture or look of the person who speaks.
On its use in describing St Paul’s earnest look, see xiv. 9, note,
ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί. See note oni. 16.
ἐγὼ πάσῃ συνειδήσει... ἄχρι ταύτης τῆς ἡμέρας, 1 have lived in all
good conscience before God until this day. The ἐγώ is emphatic. Itis
as though the Apostle would say, ‘ You see me before you as though I
were an offender, but personally I feel myself innocent.’ πολιτεύομαι
in profane authors signifies ‘ to discharge the duties of a citizen.’ St
Paul implies by its use that he has been obedient to God’s laws, as a
good citizen would be to the laws of his country. He employs the
verb again in his epistle to the Philippians (i. 27). It is also found in
LXX. 2 Mace. vi. 1, xi. 25 πολιτεύεσθαι κατὰ τὰ ἐπὶ τῶν προγόνων
αὐτῶν ἔθη.
So far as being devoted to God’s service, St Paul’s whole life up to
the present moment had been of one piece, it was only that his con-
science had been enlightened, and so his behaviour had changed. He
had at first lived as a conscientious and observant Jew, his conscience
now approved his conduct as a Christian.
2. ὃ δὲ ἀρχιερεὺς ᾿Ανανίας, and the high priest Ananias. This was
Ananias the son of Nebedeus (Joseph. Ant. xx. 5. 2). In the time
of the Emperor Claudius he had been suspended from his office for
Senn $4 NOTES. 395
some offence and sent to Rome (Ant. xx, 6. 2) but afterwards seems to
have been held in great reputation in Jerusalem (Ant. xx. 9. 2).
τύπτειν αὐτοῦ TO στόμα, to smite him on the mouth. No doubt St
Paul’s address, before the high priest gave this order, had extended
much beyond the single sentence which St Luke records. He only
preserves for us that which appears to have moved the anger of the
authorities, his claim to have led a life of which in God’s sight he was
not ashamed. The action was intended to put a stop to what would
be counted the presumptuous language of St Paul.
For τύπτειν τὸ στόμα τινος, which is not a common form, cf. Luke
xxii. 64.
8. τύπτειν σε μέλλει ὁ θεός, τοῖχε κεκονιαμένε, God shall smite thee,
thou whited wall. Here we may see how very far even the excellence
of St Paul comes short of the behaviour of the Divine Master, who
when He suffered threatened not, and when reviled, reviled not again.
We need not however consider that St Paul’s language here was a wish
for evil upon the high priest, but only an expression of confidence in
God that such conduct as that of Ananias would not be allowed to go
unpunished. We know from Josephus (B. J. 11. 17.9) that Ananias
did come to 4 violent end. St Paul calls him ‘ whited wall’ because he
bore the semblance of a minister of justice, but was not what he
seemed. Cf. ‘whited sepulchres’ (τάφοι κεκονιαμένοι, Matth. xxiii.
27). κεκονιαμένοι μετὰ ἀδικίας is found in LXX. (Prov. xxi. 9).
καὶ σὺ κάθῃ κρίνων pe, and dost thou sit judging me. The od seems
intended to refer to the epithet just applied to Ananias. Dost thou
(such an one) sit, το,
παρανομῶν, contrary to the law. Literally ‘ transgressing the Law.’
For St Paul had not yet been heard to the end. Cf. John vii. 51.
4, τὸν ἀρχιερέα τοῦ θεοῦ, God’s high priest. So styled because he
sat on the judgment-seat as God’s representative, cf. Deut. xvii. 8—
13. In the Old Test. the priestly, and even other, judges are some-
times called by God’s own name ‘Elohim.’ (See Exod. xxi. 6, xxii.
8, 9 and ef. Ps. lxxxii. 1.)
δ. οὐκ ἥἤδειν, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἀρχιερεύς, I knew not, brethren,
that he was the high priest. Several explanations have been given of
this statement of St Paul. Some think that it may have been true
that St Paul from defect of sight, with which he is supposed to have
been afflicted, could not distinguish that the speaker was the high
priest ; others that the high priest was not in his official position as
president of the court; or that owing to the troublous times, and St
Paul’s recent arrival in Jerusalem, he was not aware who was high
priest ; or that he was speaking in irony, and meant to imply that the
action of the judge was of such a character that none would have sup-
posed him to be high priest; or that he meant by οὐκ ἤδειν that for
the moment he was not thinking of what he was saying. It is most
consonant with St Paul’s character to believe that either his own
physical deficiency, or some lack of the usual formalities or insignia,
396 THE ACTS. [X XIII. 5—
made him unable to distinguish that he who had given the order was
really the high priest.
Chrysostom’s opinion on the subject is given thus: καὶ σφόδρα πεί-
Boma μὴ εἰδέναι αὐτὸν ὅτι ἀρχιερεύς ἐστι᾿ διὰ μακροῦ μὲν ἐπανελθόντα
χρόνου, μὴ σνγγινόμενον δὲ συνεχῶς ᾿Ιουδαίοις᾽ ὁρῶντα δὲ καὶ ἐκεῖνον ἐν τῷ
μέσῳ μετὰ πολλῶν καὶ ἑτέρων. οὐκέτι γὰρ δῆλος ἦν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς πολλῶν
ὄντων καὶ διαφόρων.
γέγραπται γάρ, for it is written. The quotation is from Exod.
xxii. 28 and is another illustration of what was said above on verse 4.
The whole sentence of the O. T. is ‘ Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor
curse the ruler of thy people,’ and the marginal note on ‘ gods’ is ‘ Or,
judges,’ which margin should be in the text.
6. γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Παῦλος, but when Paul perceived. We are not told
in what way the knowledge which the Apostle here acted on was
gained. , Perhaps the Pharisees, as in the parable of the Pharisee and
publican, kept themselves apart; or to a Jewish eye some mark of
their dress may have been enough to bespeak a difference of party. St
Paul used this party spirit in a perfectly legitimate manner. What
he did was not done merely to set them by the ears, but to secure an
opportunity for speaking on that central doctrine of Christianity, the
resurrection of the dead. (Cf. xxiv. 21.)
vids Φαρισαίων, a son of Pharisees. This reading has the advan-
tage of removing St Paul’s language beyond the questioning
which has sometimes been raised about it. ‘I am a Pharisee,’ he
says. And it has been asked, whether he had a right to describe
himself thus. When he continues ‘a son of Pharisees’ we see that
he is stating that by descent and birth his family had for genera-
tions been members of that party. Having said this, he then pro-
pounds that doctrine which, of all their teaching, was that which
severed them from the Sadducees. That this point also was the central
doctrine of Christianity makes St Paul’s address not disingenuous, but
an appeal to those who agreed with him thus far in his belief to hear
what he had further to say which might meet with their acceptance.
And it is not as if the Apostle had raised the question in their midst
on some side-issue. The whole teaching of the Christian Church rested
on the truth of the Resurrection, and therefore with much wisdom and
without any thought of deception he cries, ‘I am a Pharisee, and for
teaching the doctrine of the Resurrection (which they hold) I am now
called in question.’
On the καὶ before ἀναστάσεως which almost=namely, ‘ for the hope,
even the resurrection of the dead,’ cf. Winer-Moulton, p. 546. See
also above on i, 25.
7. ἐγένετο στάσις, there arose a dissension. The two parties began
to take sides for and against the Apostle.
8. Σαδϑουκαῖοι μὲν yap λέγουσιν μὴ εἶναι ἀνάστασιν, for the Sad-
ducees say that there 18 no resurrection. Τὺ 18 βαϊα that their teaching had
its rise in the thought that ‘God’s servants should not do service
with the hope of reward.’ As the life to come would be a reward we
XXIII. 10.] NOTES. 397
are told that their doctrine developed into the denial of the Resur-
rection, As we meet with them in the New Testament, they are
mainly members of the priestly order, and appear to have accepted
only the written Law, as distinct from tradition ; yet in spite of the
mention of angels in the Pentateuch they appear to have explained
the language in such wise as to identify these angelic appearances
with some manifestation of the divine glory, and thus to have come to
deny the existence of any spiritual beings distinct from God Himself.
In political matters they were on the side of Rome, and in conse-
quence are found uniting at times with the Herodians.
μήτε ἄγγελον μήτε πνεῦμα... ἀμφότερα, neither angel nor spirit, but
the Pharisees confess both. Here the ἄγγελος and πνεῦμα are coordi-
nate, and must be taken as together signifying ‘manifestations of a
spirit world.’ Then ἀνάστασις is one point, and the rest of the sentence
another included under the word ἀμφότερα.
Chrysostom remarks here, καὶ μὴν τρία ἐστί" πῶς οὖν λέγει ἀμφότερα;
ἢ ὅτι πνεῦμα καὶ ἄγγελος ἕν ἐστι, ἢ ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἡ λέξις περὶ δύο, ἀλλὰ καὶ
περὶ τριῶν λαμβάνεται. καταχρηστικῶς οὖν οὕτως εἶπε καὶ οὐ κυριολογῶν.
9. ἐγένετο δὲ κραυγὴ μεγάλη, and there arose a great clamour. The
noise of an excited assembly. κραυγή is used in the Parable of the
Ten Virgins (Matth. xxv. 6) to describe the shout at midnight ‘the
bridegroom cometh.’
τινὲς TOV γραμματέων τοῦ μέρους τ. P., and some of the Scribes that
were of the Pharisees’ part, 1.6. certain individuals as representatives
of the whole body.
διεμάχοντο, strove. The verb is used of strife in words, Ecclus. viii.
3 μὴ διαμάχου μετὰ ἀνθρώπου γλωσσώδους.
εἰ δὲ πνεῦμα ἐλάλησεν αὐτῷ ἢ ἄγγελος, and if a spirit hath spoken to
him, or an angel.... St Luke appears to have left the sentence as an
incomplete exclamation. This the Rev. Ver. has endeavoured to
represent by rendering the clause ‘And what if a spirit hath spoken
to him, or an angel?’ The temper of these Pharisees is so very much
akin to the counsel of Gamaliel in chap. v. 39, that it is not difficult
to understand how a thoughtful reader filled up on his margin the
unfinished exclamation by an adaptation of Gamaliel’s language (μὴ
θεομαχῶμεν), and that these words found their way in a short time
into the text.
10. ὁ χιλίαρχος, the chief captain. He must have been in some
position where he could watch all the proceedings, though we can
hardly think that he was presiding in the Sanhedrin.
μὴ διασπασθῇ, lest he should be pulled in pieces. The Pharisees
had constituted themselves protectors of the Apostle, and so the pos-
session of his person had become the object of a struggle between
them and their opponents. διασπάω is frequently used in the LXX.
of wild beasts tearing their prey in pieces. For the Apostle’s position
among the assembly οἵ, xxii. 30 on εἰς αὐτούς. He was evidently where
the ae could lay hands on him (cf. ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν, below in this
verse).
398 THE ACTS. (XXIII. 10—
ἐκέλευσεν τὸ στράτευμα καταβὰν κιτιλ., he commanded the
soldiers to go down, &c. They were in the tower of Antonia, over-
looking the Temple-precincts, and so were ready to interfere in the
struggle as soon as they were bidden. They were in considerable
numbers, for στράτευμα is properly an army, as the A.V. renders
in verse 27 below. Jerusalem was at this time in such an excited
state that the presence of a large Roman force was necessary.
11—25. PavL 15 CHEERED BY A VISION. THE JEWS CONSPIRE TO KILL
HIM,
11. τῇ δὲ ἐπιούσῃ νυκτί, and the night following. The Apostle was
now, though not rightly a prisoner, yet kept, that he might be out of
harm’s way, under the charge of the Roman soldiers. The hearing of
his case having been interrupted, another time was to be appointed
when the examination should be completed.
ἐπιστὰς αὐτῷ ὁ κύριος, the Lord stood by him. Appearing in a
vision as before at Corinth. Cf. on xviii. 9.
For the verb ἐπιστάς see above on xxii. 13.
θάρσει, be of good cheer. The Apostle could hardly be otherwise
than downcast with the events of the previous day. He had entered
the Temple and undertaken the Nazirite vow with a view of con-
ciliating the Jews and he had only been saved from being torn in
pieces of them through the interference of the Roman commander.
οὕτω σε δεῖ καὶ εἰς “Ρώμην μαρτυρῆσαι, so must thou bear witness
also at Rome. St Paul had already written to the Roman Church of
his ‘longing to see them,’ and, that ‘ oftentimes he had purposed
to come unto them’ (Rom. i. 11—13), and St Luke (Acts xix. 21)
records the intention in the history of St Paul’s stay at Ephesus.
The way to compass such a visit had not yet been found, but now it is
pointed out by the Lord Himself.
The preposition εἰς implies, as in other instances, that the Apostle
is to go to Rome, and then bear his testimony. See note on viii. 40.
In διαμαρτυρέω in this verse there seems to be an allusion to the
thoroughness and zeal of St Paul’s work hitherto.
12. γενομένης δὲ ἡμέρας, and when it was day. While Paul was
receiving comfort from the Lord, the Jews were plotting to secure his
destruction, and they let no time be wasted; their plans were
ready by the next day, and as soon as it arrived they set about their
execution.
ποιήσαντες συστροφὴν ot ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, the Jews having banded together.
To form such a compact is quite in the spirit of the time. The men
who did so were probably belonging to the Zealots of whose fanaticism
Josephus gives several instances.
ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἑαυτούς, bound themselves under a curse. Lit. ‘placed
themselves under an anathema.’ The noun is used in very solemn
language twice over by St Paul (Gal. 1. 8, 9), ‘Let him be accursed.’
It was an invocation of God’s vengeance upon themselves, if they
failed to do the work which they undertook.
XXIII. 15.] NOTES. 399
μήτε φαγεῖν μήτε πιεῖν, neither to eat nor drink. So that there was
no time to be lost. Their work must be promptly executed.
13. πλείους τεσσεράκοντα, more than forty. Shewing the excited
state of popular feeling at this moment among the Jews. They may
have been prompted to this method of getting rid of the Apostle,
because they had not the power of life and death any longer, and were
not likely to procure Paul’s death at the hands of the Roman authori-
ties, on any accusation connected with a religious question.
οἱ ταύτην τὴν συνωμοσίαν ποιησάμενοι, who had made this con-
spiracy. The middle voice, which is the best supported reading, is the
most in accordance with classical usage. The Greeks use ποιεῖν to be
a cause (to others) of anything, ποιεῖσθαι to bring about for oneself.
So they say ποιεῖσθαι πόλεμον, εἰρήνην, συμμαχίαν, When men procure
the war, peace or alliance unto themselves.
14, τοῖς ἀρχιερεῦσιν καὶ τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις, to the chief priests and
elders. These most likely were Sadducees, and so would have no wish
that Paul should be spared.
ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν ἑαυτούς, we have bound ourselves under a
great curse. Literally, ‘ with a curse have we cursed ourselves.’ This
is a Hebrew mode of expressing the intensity and earnestness of an
action. Cf. above on ch. v. 28.
μηδενὸς γεύσασθαι, to taste nothing. This includes both eating and
drinking.
Chrysostom says on this: dpa διαπαντός εἰσιν ἀναθεματισμένοι ἐκεῖνοι,
ov yap ἀπέκτειναν Tov Παῦλον.
15. νῦν οὖν ὑμεῖς... σὺν τῷ συνεδρίῳ, now therefore do ye with the
council signify, &c. ἐμφανίξω in this sense of giving notice or inform-
ation is frequent in LXX. Cf. Esther ii. 22, καὶ αὐτὴ ἐνεφάνισε τῷ
βασιλεῖ τὰ τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς. See also 2 Macc. iii. 7, xi. 29. The chief
priests and elders, of the Sadducees’ party, were to use their influence
in the council, that a request might proceed from the whole body of
the Sanhedrin, for Paul to be again brought before them by the chief
captain. From what we read of the Sadducees in the N.T. and
Josephus, it is easy to believe that they would be in a majority.
καταγάγῃ αὐτόν, that he bring him down, i.e. from the tower of
Antonia to the place where the Sanhedrin held its meetings. See
above on verse 10.
ὡς μέλλοντας διαγινώσκειν ἀκριβέστερον τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ, as though ye
would judge of his case more exactly. They would profess a desire to
know the whole right and wrong in the matter.
ἕτοιμοί ἐσμεν τοῦ ἀνελεῖν αὐτόν, we are ready to kill him. So that
the suspicion of complicity in the crime would not fall upon the chief
priests and elders. Their intention would appear to have been to give
St Paul a fair hearing, and the murder would seem to be the work of
some fanatics unconnected with the council.
For ἕτοιμος followed by the genitival infinitive, cf. LXX. 1 Sam. xiii.
400 THE ACTS. (XXIII. 15—
21, καὶ ἦν ὁ τρυγητὸς ἕτοιμος τοῦ θερίζειν, and 1 Mace. xiii. 37, ἕτοιμοί
ἐσμεν τοῦ ποιεῖν ὑμῖν εἰρήνην. Also 2 Chron. vi. 2, ἄο.
16. ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀδελφῆς Παύλου, but Ῥαρι1 8 sister’s son
heard, ἄο. We have no other mention of the family of St Paul
anywhere in the history. It seems improbable that the sister and her
son were settled inhabitants of Jerusalem, or we should have been
likely to hear of them on Paul’s previous visits. His imprisonment
at this time was only to keep him from being killed, and so any
relative or friend was permitted to come to him,
παραγενόμενος Kal εἰσελθών, he went and entered, &c. Another
punctuation joins παραγενόμενος with the former clause of the sentence,
so that the sense is ‘he heard of their lying in wait, having come in
upon them.’ Thus it would describe the way in which he had gained
his information. But this rendering seems to press too much into this
participle.
17. ἕνα τῶν ἑκατοντάρχων, one of the centurions. The Apostle was
under the charge of a military guard, and so would have no difficulty
in getting his message conveyed. And the knowledge that he was a
Roman citizen, and that by birth, would have spread among the
soldiery and would not be without its influence.
ἔχει γάρ τι ἀπαγγεῖλαι αὐτῷ, for he hath something to tell him. We
have nothing to guide us to a knowledge of how Paul’s nephew became
acquainted with the plot to murder his uncle. As we know nothing of
any kinsmen of St Paul being Christians, we may perhaps be right in
supposing that the young man was a Jew, present in Jerusalem on
account of the feast, and that he had heard among the Jewish popu-
lation about the uproar, and the undertaking of the would-be as-
sassins. In his interview with the chief captain it is clear that he was
prepared with evidence which was convincing to that officer.
18. παραλαβὼν αὐτὸν ἤγαγεν, he took himand brought him. With
soldier-like obedience and raising no questions.
ὁ ϑέσμιος Παῦλος, Paul the prisoner, a title which the Apostle used
often afterwards to apply to himself. Cf. Eph. iii. 1, iv. 1; Philemon
1 and 9, ἄο.
19. ἐπιλαβόμενος δὲ τῆς χειρός, and having taken him by the hand.
The messenger sent by a Roman citizen was entitled to some consider-
ation, and the action of the chief captain is meant to encourage the
young man. The chief captain would naturally incline after his con-
versation with him to favour Paul rather than his Jewish accusers.
We can gather this from the tone of the letter which he subsequently
sent to Cesarea.
κατ᾽ ἰδίαν ἐπυνθάνετο, inquired privately. The A.V. joins the ad-
verb with ἀναχωρήσας, but as this verb of itself implies a going aside,
it is better, and more also in accordance with the order of the Greek,
to join it with ἐπυνθάνετο.
XXIII. 23.] NOTES. 401
20. ὡς μέλλων τι ἀκριβέστερον πυνθάνεσθαι, as though thow wouldest
enquire somewhat more accurately. μέλλων is to be preferred to μέλ-
λοντες, for in addressing the chief captain Paul’s nephew would natu-
rally speak as though he, who had control of the whole proceedings,
was the person to enquire; while the plural in verse 15 is equally
natural in the mouth of a speaker among the Zealots, who would
say to the chief priests ‘as though ye would enquire.’
21. σὺ οὖν μὴ πεισθῇς αὐτοῖς, do not thou therefore yield to them.
The οὖν refers to the idea of a scheme in which the chief captain was
to be made use of; this has only been suggested in the previous verse,
not directly stated.
ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἑαυτούς, they have bound themselves under a curse. Cf.
verse 12 above.
προσδεχόμενοι τὴν ἀπὸ σοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν, looking for the promise from
ne i.e. which they are coming to try and induce thee to make to
them.
22. ὁ μὲν οὖν χιλίαρχος ἀπέλυσε τὸν νεανίσκον, so the chief captain
let the young man depart. For ἀπολύειν Ξε ο dismiss a person, and let
him go, cf. 2 Macc. xii. 25, ἀπέλυσαν αὐτὸν ἕνεκα τῆς τῶν ἀδελφῶν
σωτηρίας.
ὅτι ταῦτα ἐνεφάνισας πρὸς ἐμέ, that thou hast shewed these things to
me. Here the sentence which began in the oratio obliqua passes into
the oratio recta. If the original form of the clause had been con-
tinued the close should have been=‘ bidding him tell no one that he
had shewed these things to him.’ For a similar change though not
so unmanageable to translate cf. i. 4.
23. τινὰς Svo, two. The effect of τινάς is to intimate that the num-
ber is not precisely given; ‘two or so,’ ‘about two.’ But this cannot
be put into acceptable English.
ὅπως πορευθῶσιν ἕως Καισαρείας, to go unto Cesarea. ἕως literally
‘as far as.’ Caesarea was the residence of the Roman governor and
the seat of the chief jurisdiction. The distance from Jerusalem to
Cesarea is about 70 miles.
δϑεξιολάβους, spearmen. The Greek word is a very unusual one, and
signifies ‘graspers by the right hand.’ Hence it has been explained,
as in the A.V., of soldiers who carried a spear in their right hand;
others have thought a military guard was meant, who kept on the
right hand of the prisoners of whom they had charge. Others, soldiers
who were fastened to the right hand of the prisoners. This is impro-
bable, because for such a purpose two hundred could not have been
needed. The Vulgate gives lancearii, lancers.
ἀπὸ τρίτης ὥρας τῆς νυκτός, at the third hour of the night. This,
according to Jewish reckoning, would be 9 P.M.
This was to be the point in time from which the journey was to
commence. Hence ἀπό is used to define it.
THE ACTS 26
402 THE ACTS. [XXTIT. 24—
24. κτήνη Te παραστῆσαι. Here we have the contrary change to
that noted in verse 22. With ἑτοιμάσετε began a direct order, and
this is continued in the oratio recta down to the close of verse 23.
But with 24 the construction is oblique, as if some verb like ἐκέλευσεν
had preceded παραστῆσαι. Consequently the Rev. Vers. has inserted
in italics he bade them.
πρὸς Φήλικα τὸν ἡγεμόνα, to Felix the governor. Felix was made
procurator of Judza by Claudius in a.p. 53. He was the brother of
Pallas, the favourite freedman of Claudius, and it was by the interest
of his brother that Felix was advanced, and retained in his position
even after the death of Claudius. The character of Felix, as gathered
both from Roman and Jewish historians, is that of a mean, profligate
and cruel ruler, and even the troublous times in which he lived are
not sufficient to excuse the severity of his conduct. After his return
to Rome, on the appointment of Festus to be governor in his stead,
Felix was accused by the Jews of Cesarea and only saved by the in-
fluence which his brother Pallas had with Nero, as he had had with
his predecessor. Felix was connected with the Herodian family by
his marriage with Drusilla the daughter of Herod Agrippa I. He
continued to hold office at Cxsarea for two years after St Paul’s
coming there (xxiv. 27), and during the whole of that time the Apostle
was his prisoner.
25. ἐπιστολὴν ἔχουσαν τὸν τύπον τοῦτον, a letter after this form.
As both the writer and receiver of the letter were Romans, it is most
likely that Latin was the language in which it was written, and that
St Luke has given us a representation of the substance of the docu-
ment rather than its very words.
26—30. Letter or Cuaupius Lystas To Feurx.
26. τῷ κρατίστῳ ἡγεμόνι Φήλικι χαίρειν, to the most excellent
governor Felix sendeth greeting. The infinitive χαίρειν is governed by
λέγει or Some similar verb understood. See above, xv. 23.
The title κράτιστος ‘most excellent’ is that which is given by St
Luke at the beginning of his Gospel to the Theophilus for whom he
wrote it. Hence it is probable that Theophilus held some official
position, it may be under the Romans in Macedonia, where St Luke
remained for some time and where he may probably have written his
gospel.
27. τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον συλλημφθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων... ἐξειλάμην.
This men who was taken of the Jews...I rescued. συλλαμβάνειν implies
a seizure or arrest. It is used (Matth. xxvi. 55; Mark xiv. 48) of the
party of men who came to seize our Lord, and (Acts xii. 3) of Herod
Agrippa’s arrest of St Peter.
It is to be noted that the chief captain is represented as employing
throughout the letter ἀνήρ not ἄνθρωπος for man. The former implies
much more respect, and was used no doubt because he was presently
about to mention that he was a Roman citizen. The same distinction
exists in Latin as in Greek, so that the original may have been in
XXIII. 31.) NOTES. 403
either language. There can be little doubt that Roman officers at this
time were familiar enough with Greek to write in it, if need were.
“καὶ μέλλοντα ἀναιρεῖσθαι, and likely to be killed. The chief captain
does not give a very exact report of what had happened. He says no-
thing about the strife between the two religious parties. Perhaps he
did not understand either its nature or cause.
ἐπιστὰς σὺν τῷ στρατεύματι, coming upon them with the soldiers.
This must refer rather to the first rescue from the mob in the Temple-
precincts (xxi. 32). There is no word said of what happened after-
wards, the binding with two chains, and the intention of scourging the
prisoner.
On στράτευμα see above, verse 10 note.
μαθὼν ὅτι ἱῬωμαῖός ἐστιν, having learnt that he was a Roman. The
chief captain puts this in such wise as to claim credit for interference
on behalf of a Roman citizen, and in so doing omits to state that
it was only when Paul was about to be scourged and had protested
against it that he was discovered to be a citizen of Rome by birth.
28. βουλόμενός τε ἐπιγνῶναι, and desiring to know. The method by
which the chief captain proposed to satisfy this desire was by scourg-
ing the prisoner (cf. xxii. 24).
τὴν αἰτίαν δι᾽ ἣν, the cause wherefore. For which we had in xxii, 24
the attracted form δι᾽ ἣν αἰτίαν.
29. ὃν εὗρον ἐγκαλούμενον, whom I found to be accused. At first he
would have discovered that the outcry against St Paul had something
to do with the regulations of the Temple, then that there was a dispute
about the resurrection of those who were dead, and that on this point
some of the Jewish leaders sided with St Paul. Such questions about
their law would seem to the Roman officer quite as unworthy of con-
sideration as they did to Gallio at Corinth (xviii. 15).
30. μηνυθείσης δέ por ἐπιβουλῆς εἰς τὸν ἄνδρα ἔσεσθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν, and
when it was shewn to me that there would be a plot against the man by
them. The construction is very strange. The full sentence would be
grammatically μηνυθείσης μοι ἐπιβουλῆς ἐπιβουλὴν ἔσεσθαι κ.τ.λ.
ἔπεμψα πρός oe, I sent to thee, 1.6. I sent him. Of course Lysias
implies by his language that he felt Felix to be a more fit person than
himself to deal with such a case.
λέγειν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ σοῦ, themselves to speak before thee, i.e. to say
whatever they had to say.
31—35. PavL Is BROUGHT TO CHSAREA, AND KEPT PRISONER
BY ΒΈΙΙΧ.
81. οἱ μὲν οὖν στρατιῶται.. ἀναλαβόντες τὸν Ἰ]αῦλον, so the sol-
diers...took Paul and, &c., i.e. they formed a party for his escort and
placed him in their midst.
On this escort Chrysostom remarks: καθάπερ βασιλέα τινὰ δορυφόροι
παρέπεμπον μετὰ τοσούτου πλήθους Kal ἐν νυκτὶ φοβούμενοι τοῦ δήμου τὴν
26—2
404 THE ACTS. [XXITE si
ὀργὴν τῆς ὁρμῆς" ἐπεὶ οὖν τῆς πόλεως αὐτὸν ἐξέβαλον τότε ἀφίστανται. οὐκ
ἂν δὲ ὁ χιλίαρχος μετὰ τοσαύτης αὐτὸν ἀσφαλείας. ἐξέπεμψεν εἰ μὴ καὶ
αὐτὸς οὐδὲν ἦν αὐτοῦ κατεγνωκώς, καὶ ἐκείνων ἤδει τὸ φονικόν. -
ἀναλαμβάνω is thus used LXX. Gen. xxiv. 61, of the servant of
Abraham, when he escorts Rebecca to his master.
διὰ νυκτός, by night, i.e. that same night, starting off early in the
night and travelling during night-time, thus getting clear away from
Jerusalem before the ambush of the Jews was prepared.
εἰς τὴν ᾿Αντιπατρίδα, to Antipatris. This place was 42 miles from
Jerusalem and 26 from Cesarea. It was in early times called Caphar-
saba, but Herod the Great rebuilt it and named it Antipatris in
memory of his father Antipater. It lay in a beautiful part of the
Vale of Sharon and was both well watered and rich in wood. There-
mains of a Roman road have been found close by it. For notices of
the older city, see Josephus, Ant. xvi. 5. 2; 1 Mace. vii. 31; of the
place as rebuilt, see Josephus, B. J. 1. 4. 7; τι. 19. land 9; rv. 8.1.
32. τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον, but on the morrow. That part of the escort
which now seemed no longer needed returned, and would get back to
Jerusalem on the day of the intended plot. Those who returned were
the στρατιῶται and the δεξιολάβοι.
ἐάσαντες τοὺς ἱππεῖς ἀπέρχεσθαι σὺν αὐτῷ, having left the horsemen
to go on with him. Now that they were far away from Jerusalem and
in no fear of a surprise, seventy horsemen were guard enough for the
remainder of the way. But it may give us some idea of the danger-
ous state of the country at the time, when we consider that the chief
captain thought it needful to send with this one prisoner a guard of
470 soldiers. We may also form some idea of what the garrison in
Jerusalem must have been when so many men could be detached at a
moment’s notice.
ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς τὴν παρεμβολήν, they returned to the castle. Appa-
rently coming back as quickly as it was possible for them todoso. As
the road was one much travelled they were probably able to obtain a
change of horses here and there.
33. οἵτινες, who, i.e. the horsemen who went on with St Paul. It
is better with Rey. Vers. to break up the relative into a conjunction
and personal pronoun. ‘And they, when,’ &c.
παρέστησαν Kal τὸν Παῦλον αὐτῷ, presented Paul also unto him.
If the letter as given above be a rendering of the original, the prisoner
was not mentioned in it by name, but the soldiers would merely
declare that this was the man that had been committed to their
charge, and Felix would learn all the rest by questioning Paul.
34. ἐκ ποίας ἐπαρχίας ἐστίν, of what province he was. Cilicia had
been at one time, and perhaps still was, attached to the province of
Syria. It was so in the time of Quirinus. This will explain why at
once Felix without question decided that, at the proper time, he would
hear the cause,
XXIV.] NOTES. 405
35. διακούσομαί cov, I will hear thee. The verb implies a full
and thorough hearing of a case. ‘I will give thee a full hearing,’
The Rev. Vers. renders ‘I will hear thy cause.’
ὅταν Kal ot κατήγοροί σου παραγένωνται, when thine accusers are also
come; assuming that they would appear, since they had been bidden
to do so by the chief captain, as was explained in his letter. Of
course Lysias had not said a word of this to the Jews when his letter
was written, but intended to do so when Paul was safely on the road
to Cesarea.
ἐν τῷ πραιτωρίῳ τοῦ ᾿Ηρώδου φυλάσσεσθαι, to be kept in Herod’s
palace. πραιτώριον may signify either the palace of a prince, the tent
of a general, or the barracks of the soldiery. Here it is probably the
name of the palace which Herod had erected for himself, and which
now was used as the governor’s residence. It seems (from xxiv. 24—
26) that it was close to the quarters of Felix himself, and that Paul
could speedily be sent for. φυλάσσεσθαι only implies that Paul was to
be taken care of; he was not kept in close imprisonment. ‘A Roman
and uncondemned’ would not be subject to needless indignities, when
his accusers were Jews who could make no such claim for consideration.
’ Cf. xxiv. 23. -
CHAPTER XXIV.
Readings varying from the Tect. recept.
1. πρεσβυτέρων τινῶν for τῶν πρεσβυτέρων With RABE. Vulg. ‘cum
senioribus quibusdam.’ ,
δ. στάσεις with SABE. Vulg. ‘seditiones.’
7,8. Omitted from καὶ κατὰ to ἐπὶ σέ with NABHLP. See notes.
11. ἢ before δώδεκα omitted with NABEHLP. Vulg. has ‘quam.’
13. με after παραστῆσαι omitted with NABEL. Vulg. does not
represent it.
σοι after Sivavrat added with NABE. Vulg. ‘tibi.’
14. τοῖς ἐν before tots προφήταις added with NBE. Not added in
Vulg.
15. νεκρῶν omitted with NABC. Not represented in Vulg.
20. εἰ before τί omitted with NABCEHLP, Vulg. ‘si.’
ἐν ἐμοί omitted with NAB. Vulg. ‘in me.’
22. ἀνεβάλετο δὲ αὐτοὺς ὁ Φῆλιξ with NABCE. Vulg. ‘distulit
autem illos Felix.’
23. αὐτὸν for τὸν Παῦλον with NABCE. Vulg. ‘eum.’
ἢ προσέρχεσθαι omitted with NABCE. Not represented in
Vulg.
406 THE ACTS. [X XIV. 1—
24. τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικί with BC. Vulg. ‘uxore sua.’
*Inootv after Χριστόν added with NBEL. Vulg. ‘Christum
Jesum.’
25. ἔσεσθαι after μέλλοντος omitted with NABCE. Not represented
in Vulg.
26. ὅπως λύσῃ αὐτόν omitted with NABCE. Not represented in
Vulg.
27. χάριτα for χάριτας with NABC. Vulg. ‘gratiam.’
Cu. XXIV. 1—9. Arrivan or THE AccusERS. SPEECH oF TERTULLUS,
THEIR ADVOC..TE.
1, μετὰ δὲ πέντε ἡμέρας, and after five days. Most naturally this
means after St Paul’s arrival in Cesarea, and the events narrated
at the end of chap. xxiii. But it may mean five days after the
departure of the Apostle from Jerusalem. The chief captain would
give notice to the high priest of what he had done as soon as it was
safe to do so. After learning that they must go to Cesarea with
their accusation, the enemies of St Paul would spend some little time
in preparing their charge for the hearing of Felix, and in providing
themselves with an advocate. And as they would not probably travel
with as much haste as St Paul’s convoy did, five days is not & long
interval to elapse before they arrived in Cesarea.
κατέβη ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς “Avavlas, Ananias the high priest came down.
He would be sure to be hot against St Paul after that speech about
the ‘whited wall.’
The verb καταβαίνω is used because the journey was from inland
towards the seashore.
μετὰ πρεσβυτέρων τινῶν, with certain elders. It would only be a
portion of the elders who came. Those of the Pharisees’ party would
rather have spoken in favour of the Apostle. The persons likely to
take the journey to Cesarea would be the Sadducees.
καὶ ῥήτορος Ἰερτύλλου τινός, and with an orator, one Tertullus.
This man, as we may judge from his name, which is a modification of
the Latin Tertius, was a Roman, and would be chosen because of his
knowledge of Roman law, and his ability to place the case before
Felix in such a light as to make it seem that Paul was dangerous to
the Roman power, and not merely a turbulent and renegade Jew. We
see below that he endeavoured to do this.
οὕτινες ἐνεφάνισαν, and they informed. On the breaking up of the
relative in translation see above on xxiii. 33. If the relative render-
ing ‘who’ were kept, it might be supposed to refer only to Tertullus.
ἐμφανίξω St Luke uses in other places (Acts xxy. 2, 15) of the
laying a formal information before a judge. It is also used in LXX.
(Esther ii. 22) of Esther laying the information of the plot of the two
chamberlains before king Ahasuerus,
XXIV. 5.] NOTES. . 407
2. κληθέντος δὲ αὐτοῦ, and when he was called, i.e. summoned by
the official of the court, whose duty it was to call on the case.
ἤρξατο κατηγορεῖν ὁ Τέρτυλλος, Tertullus began to accuse him.
St Luke has given us but the digest of the advocate’s speech. The
seven verses, in which it is included, and a large part of which is
occupied with compliments to the judge, would not have occupied
three minutes in the delivery.
8. πολλῆς εἰρήνης τυγχάνοντες διὰ σοῦ, seeing that by thee we en-
᾿ς joy much peace. The orator seizes on almost the only point in the
government of Felix on which he could hang any praise. By severity
he had put down false Messiahs, and the partisans of an Egyptian
magician, as well as riots in Cesarea and Jerusalem, so that the
_ country was in a more peaceful condition than it had been for a long
time past.
For εἰρήνης τυγχάνειν, cf. 2 Mace. xiv. 10, ἄχρι yap ᾿Ιούδας περίεστιν,
ἀδύνατον εἰρήνης τυχεῖν τὰ πράγματα. See also the next note.
Kal διορθωμάτων γινομένων τῷ ἔθνει τούτῳ διὰ τῆς σῆς προνοίας, and
that by thy providence evils are corrected for this nation. The sentence,
which began with a nominative case τυγχάνοντες, is now varied by the
introduction of a genitive absolute. πρόνοια is found in a very parallel
passage, 2 Macc. iv. 6, ἑώρα γὰρ ἄνευ βασιλικῆς προνοίας ἀδύνατον εἶναι
τυχεῖν εἰρήνης, Where A.V. renders ἄ. Bac. mp. ‘unless the king did look
thereto,’ which shews what the force of the word is here. It was by
the severe looking thereto of Felix that disorders were corrected,
though we learn from Tacitus (Hist. v. 9, Ann. x11. 54) that his
severity in the end bore evil fruit, and it seems probable that his main
motive in suppressing other plunderers was that there might be the
more left for himself,
πάντῃ TE καὶ πανταχοῦ ἀποδεχόμεθα, we accept it in all ways and in
all places, i.e. we acknowledge and are glad of it. Some would join
πάντῃ TE Kal πανταχοῦ With the previous clause, ‘evils are in all ways
and in all places corrected &c.’ But this connexion is not favoured by
the order of the Greek.
κράτιστε PALE, most excellent Feliz. The title is the same which
was given to Felix in the letter of Claudius Lysias (xxiii. 26), and
which is afterwards given to Festus by St Paul (xxvi. 25).
4, ἵνα δὲ μὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖόν σε ἐγκόπτω, but that I be not further tedious
unto thee. The notion in the verb is that of stopping a person’s way
and so hindering him. Tertullus would imply that Felix was so
deeply engaged in his public duties that every moment was precious.
ἐπιεικείᾳ, clemency. The usage of this word in the LXX. is always
of the divine mercy. Cf. Baruch ii. 27; 2 Mace. ii. 22, x. 4, &e.
δ. εὑρόντες γὰρ... λοιμόν, for having found this man a pestilent
fellow. The Greek is literally ‘a pestilence.’ But the word is used of
persons, 1 Macc. x. 61, καὶ ἐπισυνήχθησαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἄνδρες λοιμοὶ ἐξ
Ἰσραήλ, Where, as here, the A.V. gives ‘pestilent fellows.’ In the
Greek there, the phrase is further defined by ἄνδρες παράνομοι. Cf. also
408 | THE ACTS. [XKTV) ee
υἱοὶ λοιμοί, 1 Sam. ii. 12, x. 27, and λοιμή used of Hannah, 1 Sam.
i. 16.
By εὑρόντες Tertullus would convey the impression that they have
already spent some pains in detecting the evil ways of the accused.
Kal κινοῦντα στάσεις, and a mover of seditions. The first charge
made was one of general depravity. On coming to particulars Tertul-
lus puts that first which would most touch the Roman power, and
against which Felix had already shewn himself to be severe. Insur-
rections were of such common occurrence that one man might at this ,
time be readily the prime mover in many.
It should be noticed that εὑρόντες in this sentence is left entirely in
suspense, the construction never being completed. It should run,
‘having found him &c....we &c.,’ but the conclusion is forgotten in
the orator’s accumulation of wrongdoings.
πᾶσιν τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην, among all the Jews
throughout the world. We must bear in mind that Paul had been as-
sailed at a time when Jerusalem was full of strangers who had come to
the feast. It is not improbable that from some of the Jewish visitors
particulars had been gathered about the Apostle’s troubles at Philippi,
Corinth, Ephesus and elsewhere, which in the minds and on the lips
of his accusers would be held for seditious conduct, conduct which had
brought him at times under the notice of the tribunals. This Tertul-
lus would put forward in its darkest colours. ἡ οἰκουμένη at this time
meant ‘the whole Roman Empire.’ Cf. Cesar’s decree (Luke ii. 1)
that ‘all the world’ should be taxed.
πρωτοστάτην τε, and a ringleader. The word is used in classical
Greek of the front-rank men inan army. It is found in LXX. (Job
xv. 24), ὥσπερ στρατηγὸς πρωτοστάτης πίπτων, where the Hebrew
describes a man fitted for the battle.
τῆς τῶν Ναζωραίων αἱρέσεως, of the sect of the Nazarenes. The
adjective is used as a term of reproach equivalent to ‘ the followers of
Him of Nazareth,’ which origin was to the mind of the Jews enough
to stamp Jesus as one of the many false Messiahs. Cf. on the
despised character of Nazareth, John i. 46.
6. ὃς Kal τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπείρασεν βεβηλῶσαι, who moreover assayed to
profane the Temple. The orator puts as a fact now, what had at first
been only an opinion of the Asiatic Jews, that Paul had brought
Trophimus into the Temple (xxi. 29). The mob made it as a charge
in their excitement, but Tertullus speaks in cold blood.
ὃν Kal ἐκρατήσαμεν, whom we also took, i.e. laid hold of by main
force. The verb implies that force was needed for Paul’s arrest.
Here the words, which are rendered in the A.V. ‘and would have
judged according to our Law. But the chief captain Lysias came upon
us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, command-
ing his accusers to come unto thee,’ are omitted in nearly all the oldest
MSS., while the Greek text in those MSS. in which the passage is
found exhibits many variations. Yet in spite of this it is hard to see
how the advocate could have avoided some allusion to the circum-
XXIV. 10] NOTES. 409
stances mentioned in these words. Of course he puts the matter in a
light most favourable to the Jews. ‘We would have judged him ac-
cording to our Law’ is very different language from that in which
(xxiii. 27) Lysias describes Paul as in danger to be killed by the Jews,
The action of Lysias too is described by Tertullus as one of great
violence. Probably the Roman soldiers would not handle the mob
tenderly. But Tertullus is trying to cast blame upon the chief captain
and to represent his party as doing all things according to law.
If the words be an interpolation, it is one which differs very greatly
from those which are common in the Acts. In other places of the
book such insertions have merely been made to bring the whole of a
narrative under view at once, and there has been no variation of an
account previously given elsewhere. But here we have a passage not
representing the facts as stated before, but giving such a version of
them as might make Lysias appear to have been in the wrong, and
to have exercised his power in Jerusalem most arbitrarily against
men who were only anxious to preserve the purity of their sacred
temple. As both the Syriac and the Vulgate represent the passage it
is not quite satisfactory to reject it.
8. παρ᾽ ov δυνήσῃ αὐτὸς dvaxpivas, κιτιλ., from whom thou wilt be
able by examining him thyself to take knowledge, &c. When the Tezt.
Recept. stood, the words ‘whom’ and ‘him’ in this passage referred to
Claudius Lysias, from whom Felix might naturally be expected to make
enquiry; without the supposed interpolation the words apply to
St Paul. Thus Tertullus suggests to Felix that the truth of the case
against the Apostle would be found to be supported by an examination
of the accused. This appears strange reasoning. It has therefore
been suggested that the word dvaxpivas has regard to some process of
torture by which a prisoner might be forced to confess thetruth. But
for this no sufficient support has been found. The noun ἀνάκρισις
derived from this verb is employed (xxv. 26) for the enquiry before
Agrippa. On the whole there seems quite as much to be said in favour
of the Textus Receptus from internal evidence as can be brought
against it by the evidence of MSS.
9. συνεπέθεντο δὲ καὶ ot ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, and the Jews also joined in the
charge, i.e. by language of their own reiterated the accusation. For
the verb used of an attack made in common, cf. LXX. Ps. iii. 6, οἱ
κύκλῳ συνεπιτιθέμενοι.
φάσκοντες ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν, affirming that these things were so.
Tertullus had of course been instructed in his case by Ananias and the
elders. Having supplied him with his arguments they now express
their accord with what he has said.
10—21. Sr Pauw’s ANSWER To THE CHARGE.
10. ἀπεκρίθη τε ὁ Παῦλος, and Paul answered. When the governor
had given him leave to speak the Apostle addressed his defence to the
points charged against him. He had not excited the people, nor been
the leader of any body of Nazarenes, nor had he polluted the Temple.
410 THE ACTS. [XXIV. 10—
ἐκ πολλῶν ἐτῶν, for many years. We have arrived in the history
at about a.p. 58 or 59, and Felix had been made procurator in Α,}Ὁ. 52.
So that ‘many years’ means about six or seven. But the governors
were often recalled before they had held office so long. In verse 17
‘many years’ must be about four or five.
εὐθύμως τὰ περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ ἀπολογοῦμαι, 1 cheerfully answer for
myself. St Paul was so far of good courage, because the experience of
Felix, and his knowledge of Jewish manners and customs, would
enable him to appreciate the statements which related to the Apostle’s
presence in Jerusalem.
11. δυναμένου cov ἐπιγνῶναι, secing that thou art able to take know-
ledge. The Apostle refers to the acquaintance which Felix had gained
of Jewish habits and customs and their festivals, and the manner of
observance thereof. This knowledge would make him appreciate St
Paul’s statement.
ov πλείους εἰσίν μοι ἡμέραι δώδεκα, it is not more than twelve days.
The time may be accounted for thus: the day of St Paul’s arrival, the
interview with James on the second day, five days may be given to the
separate life in the Temple during the vow, then the hearing before the
council, next day the conspiracy, the tenth day St Paul reached
Cesarea, and on the thirteenth day [which leaves five days (xxiv. 1),
as Jews would reckon from the conspiracy to the hearing in Caesarea]
St Paul is before Felix. See Farrar’s St Paul, τι. 338 (note).
ad’ ἧς ἀνέβην προσκυνήσων eis ἹΙερουσαλήμ,, since I went up to Je-
rusalem for to worship. The purpose of the Apostle was ‘ to worship.’
Was it likely that he would try to profane the Temple? And προσκυ-
νήσων expresses all the lowly adoration common among Orientals.
The Apostle probably chose it for this reason. He would have Felix
know that it was in a most reverent frame of mind that he came to the
feast.
ἀφ᾽ ἧς (ἡμέρας) is the construction in full.
12. καὶ οὔτε ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ K.T.A., and they neither found me in the
Temple disputing, &c. The Apostle gives a flat denial to the charge of
insurrection, and challenges them to prove any single point of it. He
had not even entered into discussion with any man.
On St Paul’s reply Chrysostom remarks: καὶ οὐδὲν εἶπεν ὧν εἶχεν
εἰκότως εἰπεῖν " ὅτι ἐπεβούλευσαν" ὅτι κάτεσχον αὐτόν" ὅτι ἔνεδρον ἐποίη-
σαν" ταῦτα γὰρ παρ᾽ ἐκείνων λέγεται γενέσθαι, παρὰ δὲ τούτου, καὶ κινδύνου
ὄντος, οὐκ ἔτι" ἀλλὰ σιγᾷ καὶ μόνον ἀπολογεῖται καί τοι μυρία ἔχων εἰπεῖν.
ἡ ἐπίστασιν ποιοῦντα ὄχλου, or causing a stir of the crowd. Rev.
Ver. ‘stirring up a crowd,’ The crowd had really been gathered by
the Jews.
13. οὐδὲ παραστῆσαι Sivayral σου, neither can they prove to thee.
The proof must be such as the Law required, not the mere multiplied
assertions of the accusers, The verb παρίστημι implies a formal set-
ting-forth of evidence, and is used by Josephus (De vita sua 6), of an
array of proof which he has set forth to shew that his fellow-country-
men did not enter on a war till they were forced,
XXIV. 16.] NOTES. 4τι
14. κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν ἣν λέγουσιν αἵρεσιν, after the Way which they
calla sect. So the rendering οὗ αἵρεσις is made to correspond with
verse 5 above. For ‘the Way’ meaning the Christian religion, see
note on ix. 2.
οὕτω λατρεύω τῷ πατρῴῳ θεῷ, so serve I the God of our fathers. The
verb λατρεύω is used of service which a man is bound to pay, and by
its use, as well as by the reference to ‘the God of our fathers,’ the
Apostle wants to shew that he has cast off no morsel of his old alle-
giance, has not severed himself from the ancestral faith of the Jewish
nation.
πιστεύων... γεγραμμένοις, believing all things which are according
to the Law, and which are written in the Prophets. The Apostle thus
testifies to his complete acceptance of all the Jewish Scriptures, Some-
times the division is given as ‘the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms’
(Luke xxiv. 44), but more frequently, as in the text, only two sections
are named (cp. Matth. vii. 12, xi. 18, xxii. 40; Luke xvi. 16; Johni.
45).
15. ἐλπίδα ἔχων, having hope. The way in which this hope is
described, ἀνάστασιν μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι, explains the expression in xxiii. 6
περὶ ἐλπίδος καὶ ἀναστάσεως. The hope was even of the resurrection
of the dead.
ἣν καὶ αὐτοὶ οὗτοι προσδέχονται, which they themselves also look
for. Here the Apostle is of course alluding only to the Pharisees among
his own people, but he puts them as representatives of the larger part
of the nation. The Rev. Ver. renders ‘which these also themselves
look for.’ If the Apostle employed the words in that sense he must
have turned towards the body of Jews in the court rather than to the
Sadducees and their spokesman.
ἀνάστασιν μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι, that there shall be a resurrection. St
Paul adheres to the point which had before provoked the anger of
Ananias and his party, and they must have been the more irritated
because the words of the Apostle declare their opponents, the Phari-
sees, to be holding the true faith, and imply that such is the general
belief of the Jewish people.
δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων, both of the just and unjust. Speaking in the
presence of Felix, the Apostle seems to have chosen words which
might touch the conscience of the Procurator.
16. ἐν τούτῳ καὶ αὐτὸς ἀσκῶ, herein also I exercise myself. Herein,
i.e. in the worship, faith and hope spoken of in the last two verses;
while holding this belief, and because I hold it, I try to keep my con-
science clear. ‘I exercise myself’ that I may, by constant training
and striving, at length get near to what I aim after.
ἀπρόσκοπον συνείδησιν ἔχειν, to have a conscience void of offence.
The primary meaning of ἀπρόσκοπος is found Kcclus. xxxii, (xxxy.) 21
where ὁδὸς ἀπρόσκοπος --ϑ, plain way, one where there are no stumblers
nor anything to stumble at. A man of whose conscience the figure
could be used was neither likely to be a profaner of the Temple nor a
412 THE ACTS. [X XIV. 16—
mover of sedition. The adverb διαπαντός has a very emphatic place as
the last word in the verse.
17. δι᾿ day δὲ πλειόνων, now after many years. St Paul had come
to Jerusalem on the return from his second missionary journey in A.D.
53. It was now A.D. 58, so that his absence had lasted four or five
years (see note on verse 10).
ἐλεημοσύνας ποιήσων els τὸ ἔθνος pov, to bring alms to my nation.
These consisted of the money which had been collected in the Churches
of Macedonia and Achaia at St Paul’s request, and which is often
alluded to in his Epistles (cp. 1 Cor. xvi. 1; Rom. xv. 26; 2 Cor. viii.
4, &c.). There could be no desire to wound the feelings of the Jews
in a man who had come for such a purpose. It is noticeable too that
he describes the alms as not for the Christians only, but for his na-
tion, conveying by the word the impression of his great regard for all
the Jews.
St Paul can say ἐλεημοσύνας ποιεῖν, for though the gifts were not
his own, he was the cause of their being sent.
Kal προσφοράς, and offerings. These were the sacrifices connected
with the vow which he had undertaken. They must be offered in the
Temple, and the offerer was not likely to be one who thought of pro-
faning the holy place.
18. ἐν ais, amidst which, i.e. engaged in offering these oblations.
εὗρόν pe ἡγνισμένον, they found me purified, i.e. abstaining from all
things forbidden by the Law of the Nazirites (see Num. vi. 3—8). A
man who religiously purified himself could by no means be suspected
as likely to defile the Temple. All things tell the same way.
ov μετὰ ὄχλου οὐδὲ μετὰ θορύβου, neither with multitude nor with
tumult. The two things that would be steps towards profanity in
such a place, would have been to gather a crowd and then to raise an
uproar. Nothing of the sort could be laid to Paul’s charge.
τινὲς δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ασίας ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, but there were certain Jews of Asia.
It was from the Asiatic Jews, perhaps those from Ephesus, that the
uproar had at first originated. It would appear also that part of
Tertullus’ argument was derived from their information. Of these
Asiatic Jews St Paul was now about to speak, but he checks himself,
and does not say any word against them, only that they ought to
have been here to explain the offence for which he had been assailed.
19. Kal κατηγορεῖν, and to make accusation. They had set the cry
against him, yet did not come to say what he had done wrong. They
were probably on their way home, now that the feast was over.
20. ἢ αὐτοὶ οὗτοι εἰπάτωσαν, or let these men themselves say, i.e.
Ananias and his party. The assailants of St Paul were of two classes,
first the Asiatic Jews, who were furious against him because of his
preaching among the Gentiles in their cities, then those in Jerusalem
who hated him for preaching the resurrection. He challenges them
both, and when the former do not appear, he turns to the other.
XXTV. 23.] NOTES. 413
τί εὗρον ἀδίκημα, what evildoing they found. Paul uses ἀδίκημα as
ἘΠΕ the word which the Sadducees would use, not adopting it him-
self.
στάντος μου ἐπὶ τοῦ συνεδρίου, when I stood before the council. Up
to the moment when in the presence of the council he had spoken of
the resurrection, and so produced a division in the assembly, there was
no act of St Paul which had to do with any disturbance. The tumult
in the Temple and while he was speaking from the tower-stairs was all
caused by the Jewish mob.
21. ἢ περὶ μιᾶς ταύτης φωνῆς, except it be for this one voice, i.e. this
exclamation or cry. From xxiii. 6 we can-see that St Paul raised his
voice when he mentioned the resurrection.
j=other than. τί... ἤξετί ἄλλο ἤ.
92—27. ADJOURNMENT OF THE Cause. FEttx’s TREATMENT oF ST
PavuL.
22. ἀκριβέστερον εἰδὼς τὰ περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ, having more perfect
knowledge of the Way.
On ἡ 666s=the Christian religion, see on ix. 2. Felix was more
likely to understand something of the relations between Judaism and
Christianity, because he had a Jewish wife, Drusilla, daughter of
Herod Agrippa I., one who had been brought by her position into
connexion with the movements of the time.
ὅταν Λυσίας ὁ χιλίαρχος καταβῇ, when Lysias the chief captain
shall come down. ‘There had been nothing said in the letter of Lysias,
so far as we have it, about his coming to Cesarea, but no doubt he
went often between Jerusalem and the residence of the governor. The
language of this verse gives some support to the genuineness of verse 7.
(See note there.)
διαγνώσομαι τὰ καθ᾽ ὑμᾶς, I will determine your matters. On
διαγιγνώσκω see above, xxili. 15.
23. διαταξάμενος τῴ ἑκατοντάρχῃ; having commanded the centurion.
It might perhaps be one of the two whom Lysias had put in charge
of the conveyance of Paul (xxiii. 23). One might be appointed to go
on to Caesarea, while the other returned with the larger part of the
convoy from Antipatris.
τηρεῖσθαι αὐτόν, that he should be kept in charge. τηρεῖσθαι only
conveys the idea of safe keeping, not of severe detention, and it is
clear that for some reason Felix shewed himself well-disposed towards
the Apostle. Hither his conscience moved him or his hope of gain,
or perhaps the flattery and compliments of Tertullus had overshot
their mark.
ἔχειν τε ἄνεσιν, and should have indulgence, i.e. the strict prison
rules were to be relaxed in his favour.
For ἄνεσις cf. 1 Esdras iv. 62, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἄφεσιν καὶ ἄνεσιν.
414 THE ACTS. [XXIV. 23—
Kal μηδένα κωλύειν, and that he should hinder no one. Here is a
change of subject in the sentence. Παῦλον was the subject to the two
first infinitives, to κωλύειν the subject is τὸν ἑκατοντάρχην.
τῶν ἰδίων αὐτοῦ, of his friends. More literally ‘of his own people.’
Here from our limited knowledge we are only able to think of Philip
the Evangelist, who would be particularly a friend of St Paul; but he
had been more than once before in Cesarea, and he had no doubt
made himself known there as in other places. Those unnamed
disciples of Cesarea (xxi. 16) would be among the persons who had a
warm interest in St Paul, and it is clear from St Luke’s language that
there were friends at hand and ready to visit the Apostle when they
were allowed.
ὑπηρετεῖν αὐτῷ, to minister unto him. ὑπηρετεῖ; implies the doing
of those services of which a prisoner even under such liberal conditions
must ever stand in need. They would be his means of communication
with the outer world. And the cupidity of Felix may have suggested
that through these friends the means might be supplied for purchasing
the Apostle’s release.
24. pera δὲ ἡμέρας τινὰς K.7.A., but after certain days Felix
came, &c. Felix did not always reside in Cesarea. After the first
hearing of St Paul’s cause he had gone away for a time, but on his
return he sent for the Apostle to question him on his doctrine.
Perhaps those words about the resurrection of the just and unjust had
made him uneasy.
σὺν Δρουσίλλῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικὶ οὔσῃ ᾿Τουδαίᾳ, with Drusilla his wife
who was a Jewess. She was a daughter of Herod Agrippa I. and so
sister of Agrippa II. and of Bernice. She had formerly been married
to Azizus, king of Emesa, but had been induced by Felix to leave her
husband and become his wife. Though she had been only six years
of age when her father died (Acts xii. 23) she may have heard of the
death of James the brother of John, and the marvellous delivery of St
Peter from prison: for such matters would be talked of long after
they had happened, and perhaps her father’s sudden death may have
been ascribed by some to God’s vengeance for what he had done
against the Christians. Her marriage with the Gentile Felix shewed
that she was by no means a strict Jewess, and what she had heard of
Jewish opposition to St Paul’s teaching may have made her, as well as
her husband, desirous to hear him,
μετεπέμψατο tov IIavdov, sent for Paul. The Apostle was lodged in
some part of the procurator’s official residence (see xxiii. 35 note) and
so was close at hand.
καὶ ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ THs εἰς Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν πίστεως, and heard
him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. The addition of ᾿Ιησοῦν sup-
ported by the oldest MSS. gives force to the sentence. What St Paul
would urge was not only a belief in the Christ, for whose coming all
Jews were looking, but a belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah
whom they had so long expected.
XXIV. 27. NOTES. 415
25. ϑιαλεγομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ k.7.X., and as he reasoned of righteousness
and temperance and the judgment to come. It was no barren faith
which St Paul commended, but was to have its fruits in the life.
Felix perhaps expected some philosophical dissertation on the subject
of the resurrection, and the life after death. His own conduct, of
which Tacitus (Ann. x11. 54, Hist. v. 9) speaks as mean and cruel and
profligate, would make the subjects on which St Paul addressed him
Ἐρομβεῖν disturbing. For what if this man’s teaching should be
true?
ἔμφοβος γενόμενος ὁ Φῆλιξ ἀπεκρίθη, becoming terrified Felix an-
swered. It can hardly be conceived that St Paul was ignorant of the
character of those to whom he was speaking. Felix had been in office
long enough to be well known. And the Apostle’s themes were
exactly those by which he could find the joints in the procurator’s
harness. Of ‘righteousness’ his life’s history shews no trace, and for
‘temperance,’ i.e. self-control, the presence of Drusilla by his side
proved that he had no regard. Well might such a man be full of fear
at the thought, as St Paul would urge it home, of the judgment after
death. But the influence of his terror passed away, for we do not
read that the Apostle ever beheld such signs of penitence as led him to
quiet the terror, by preaching Christ as the atonement for sin.
ἔμφοβος is used, 1 Macc. xiii. 2, to describe the terror of the Jews at
Tryphon’s invasion, εἶδε τὸν λαὸν ὅτι ἐστὶν ἔντρομος Kal ἔμφοβος.
τὸ νῦν ἔχον, for the present. Cf. for the phrase Tobit vii. 11, ἀλλὰ
τὸ νῦν ἔχον ἡδέως γίνου, ‘ Nevertheless for the present be merry’ (A.V.).
καιρὸν μεταλαβὼν μετακαλέσομαί oe, when I have a convenient season,
I will call for thee. The convenient season never arrived. Felix did
not change his conduct. When two years more of his rule were ended
and he was superseded by Festus, the Jews in Cxsarea brought an
accusation against him before Nero, and had it not been for his
brother Pallas’ influence he would have been punished for his cruelty
and injustice. We have no record of how long he lived after his
recall from Caesarea.
26. ἅμα καὶ ἐλπίζων k.t.X., at the same time also hoping that money
would be given him by Paul. He had heard the Apostle speak of the
contributions which he had gathered for the Jews in Jerusalem. His
thought would naturally be that if he could raise money for the needs
of others, he could do so for his own release.
διὸ καί, wherefore also, i.e. this was a second reason why Paul was
frequently sent for, that he might, if he were disposed, offer Felix a
bribe. The first reason was to hear what the Apostle had to say about
the faith in Christ.
ὡμίλει αὐτῷ, he communed with him. ὁμιλέω implies that he esta-
blished a degree of friendly intercourse with his prisoner. Thus the
way was made smooth for any proposal about the terms of release,
had Paul been inclined to make one.
27. διετίας δὲ πληρωθείσης, but when two years were fulfilled, i.e.
fully completed. It may be that St Luke intends to indicate by his
416 THE ACTS. [XXIV. 27—
expression, that it was not a reckoning of time such as was usual
among the Jews, where portions of a year were sometimes counted for
a whole, but that the Apostle’s detention endured for two years
complete.
ἔλαβεν διάδοχον ὁ Φῆλιξ TIdpkiov Φῆστον, Porcius Festus came into
Felix’ room. Lit. ‘Felix received Porcius Festus as a successor.’
Festus was made governor by Nero probably in a.p. 60 and died in
about two years. Josephus (B. J. τ᾿. 14. 1) gives him a far better
character than his predecessor, but he had the same kind of difficulties
to deal with in the outbreaks of the populace and the bands of
assassins with which the country was infested. (Jos. Ant. xx. 8. 10.)
θέλων τε χάριτα καταθέσθαι τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις ὁ Φῆλιξ, and Felix desir-
ing to gain (lit. to store up) favour with the Jews. What Felix parti-
cularly desired at this time was to blunt the anger which the Jews
(especially those of Cesarea) felt towards him, that they might be less
bitter in their charges against him on his recall. And so he used Paul
as his ‘Mammon of unrighteousness’ and left him detained that he
might make himself friends thereby.
κατέλιπε τὸν IIatdov δεδεμένον, left Paul bound (R.V. in bonds).
This seems to indicate that before his departure Felix withdrew the
indulgence which had been previously granted to Paul, and put him in
bonds, so as to give to his successor the impression, which the Jews
desired, that he was deserving of punishment. -It would be very
interesting to know what St Paul did during the two years that he
was kept at Cesarea. Various conjectures have been ventured on, but
none with any ground of certainty. Some, accepting him as the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, point to this period as the time
of its composition. Others assign to this imprisonment those letters
of the Apostle which speak so much of his bonds, viz. to the Ephesians,
the Philippians, the Colossians and Philemon, but the evidence in
favour of Rome as the place whence they were written seems far to
outweigh all that can be said on behalf of Cesarea. Our only re-
flection on such a gap as this in the history of St Paul’s work must be
that the Acts was not intended to be a narrative of any man’s labours,
but how God employed now this servant, now that, for the establish-
ment of the Kingdom of Christ. The remembrance of this will prevent
us seeking from the book what it was not meant to give.
CHAPTER XXV.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
2. ot ἀρχιερεῖς with NABCEL. Vulg. ‘ principes sacerdotum.’
δ. ἄτοπον after ἀνδρὶ with NABCE. Vulg. ‘ crimen,’
6. ἡμέρας οὐ πλείους ὀκτὼ ἢ ϑέκα with NABO, Vulg. ‘dies non
amplius quam octo aut decem.’
7. κατὰ τοῦ Παύλου omitted with NABC. Not represented in
Vulg.
XXV. 3.] NOTES. 417
8. τοῦ IlavAov ἀπολογουμένου with NABC. Vulg. ‘Paulo ratio-
nem reddente.’
16. εἰς ἀπώλειαν omitted with NABCE. Vulg. has in some texts
‘damnare,’ in others ‘ donare’ for χαρίζεσθαι.
18. πονηράν added at the end of the verse with AC. Vulg.
‘malum.’ See notes.
22. ἔφη omitted with NAB. Vulg. has ‘ dixit.’
ὁ δὲ omitted with NAB. Vulg. does not represent it.
25. κατελαβόμην with NABCE. Vulg. ‘comperi.’
αὐτόν after πέμπειν omitted with NABC. Vulg. does not repre-
sent it.
26. τί γράψω with NABC. Vulg. ‘quid scribam.’
Cu. XXV.1—12. ArnrivaL or Festus. Pauw’s CAUSE HEARD BEFORE
HIM. PAUL APPEALS TO THE EMPEROR.
1. ἐπιβὰς τῇ ἐπαρχίᾳ, was come into the province. This may either
mean ‘when he had reached Cesarea,’ to which, as the seaport, he
would naturally come first; or, with margin of the Rev. Vers., ‘ when
he had entered upon his province.’ The former seems to be the prefer-
able sense because of what follows.
ἐπαρχία, which only occurs in N. T. here and in xxiii, 34, is
common in the Apocryphal Acts. Cf. Acta Petri et Pauli, §§ 3, 5, ἄτα.
μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἀνέβη, after three days he went up. Festus took a
very short time to make Mien sals acquainted with what would be his
principal residence, and then went up to visit the Capital.
2. ἐνεφάνισάν te, and they informed. The verb indicates that the
proceedings here assumed a legal form. It was no mere mention in
any irregular way, but a definite charge was made, no doubt in the
same terms which Tertullus had used before.
See on this verb above, xxiii. 15, 22, xxiv. 1.
ot ἀρχιερεῖς, the chief priests. No doubt Ananias, as before, was the
leader of the accusation, but he got others of his own class to support
him in Jerusalem. He was their representative when the hearing was
in Ceesarea,
καὶ ot πρῶτοι τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, and the principal men of the Jews. The
wealthiest men of the nation belonged to the party of the Sadducees.
3. αἰτούμενοι χάριν Kat’ αὐτοῦ, desiring favour against him, i.e.
they begged that their case might have some special consideration.
They were many and rich; the accused man was alone and an obscure
person, and it was much easier to bring one man from Czsarea, than
for their whole body to undertake a journey from Jerusalem thither.
No doubt too they hoped that with a new governor their influence and
good position would not be without weight.
THE ACTS 27
418 THR ACTS. «—ssi“( se
ἐνέδραν ποιοῦντες ἀνελεῖν αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν ὁδόν, laying wait in the
way to kill him. They still adhered to their plan of assassination,
than which no crime was more common at this time in Judea. Per-
haps too those men who had bound themselves by a vow, though they
had been forced to break it, yet felt dissatisfied that Paul was still
alive.
4. ἀπεκρίθη τηρεῖσθαι τὸν ΤΤαῦλον eis Καισάρειαν, he answered that
Paul was kept in charge at Cesarea. The governor’s position was
that the prisoner had been placed by his predecessor in a certain
state of custody, and that this could not be interfered with.
ἑαυτὸν δὲ μέλλειν ἐν τάχει Extropever dar, and that he himself was about
to depart thither shortly. A governor newly arrived must move about
actively, and could not remain long even in the capital. To have
waited till all the arrangements, which the accusing party were sup-
posed to be ready to make, were complete, would have consumed time,
which must be occupied in learning the details of his provincial
charge.
For ἐν τάχει, cf. xii. 7, xxii. 18, above.
δ. οἱ οὖν ἐν ὑμῖν.. δυνατοί, let them which are of power among you.
The words of Festus do not refer to whether some of them could go
to Cesarea or not, but to the character of those who should go down,
that they should be men of influence and character, such as would
fitly represent the powerful body who appealed to him.
συγκαταβάντες, going down with me. For they were evidently
wealthy persons, whose companionship on the journey might be no
discredit to the governor. Festus was no doubt willing to conciliate
the influential people in the nation, though he had refused to break
through a regulation of his predecessor at their request. :
εἴ τι ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἄτοπον, if there is anything amiss in the man.
For ἄτοπον in this sense cf. Luke xxiii. 41; also LXX. Job xxxvi. 21;
Prov. xxx. 20; 2 Macc. xiv. 23, καὶ ἔπραττεν οὐθὲν ἄτοπον ‘and he did
no hurt’ (A.V.).
6. ἡμέρας od πλείους ὀκτὼ ἢ δέκα, not more than eight or ten days.
This seems a more likely reading than that of the Text. recept. It is
more probable that the writer would use words to mark the shortness
of the stay than a form which would seem to describe ten days as a
long residence at Jerusalem. Festus was evidently full of business and
anxious to get it done.
For the omission of 7 after the comparative πλείους before numerals
ef. iv. 22, 3x8, 31, xxiv. 11.
τῇ ἐπαύριον, the next day. The Jewish authorities must have ac-
cepted the governor’s invitation, and have gone down along with him,
so that the hearing could begin at once. Probably they would think it
good policy to join the party of Festus, as they might turn their op-
portunities on the journey to some account against St Paui.
ev ΤΊΤΟΣ NOTES. 419
7. περιέστησαν αὐτὸν οἱ...κιτιλ., the Jews which had come down
from Jerusalem stood round about him. They were eager to set upon
him and so compassed him about on every side.
πολλὰ καὶ βαρέα αἰτιώματα καταφέροντες, bringing against him many
and grievous charges. In the two years lapse of time they had ga-
thered up every rumour they could collect, and these they brought
forward, even though they could not support them by evidence.
For καταφέρειν of an accusation cf. LXX. Gen. xxxvii. 1 κατήνεγκαν
δὲ κατὰ ᾿Ιωσὴφ ψόγον πονηρόν.
8. τοῦ ΤΓαύλου ἀπολογουμένου, while Paul said in his defence. He
offered an ἀπολογία for himself. He did not make a defence against
the unsubstantiated charges, but alluded only to those points on
which they would try to prove their case, i.e. his alleged attempt to
defile the Temple, his breaches of the Jewish Law, and any insurrec-
tionary outbreaks, in which the accusers would try to prove him a
leader, and which might be construed into opposition to the Roman
power. On this last his accusers would lay most stress. St Luke has
only given us the three heads of St Paul’s Apologia.
οὔτε εἰς τὸν νόμον τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων, κ.τ.λ., neither against the law of the
Jews...have I sinned at all. The accusation on the former occasion
had not dwelt on this point, but in the course of two years they had
discovered that the Apostle had taught among the Gentiles that cir-
cumcision was no necessary door for admission to Christianity, and
this they would construe into an offence against the Jewish Law.
9. ὁ Φῆστος δὲ θέλων τοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις χάριν καταθέσθαι, but Festus
desiring to gain favour with the Jews. See above, xxiv. 27. Though
he had not consented to their request when in Jerusalem Festus now
went some way towards doing so by his question to Paul.
θέλεις εἰς “Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀναβὰς K.7.A., wilt thou go up to Jerusalem,
&c. What Festus proposed was equivalent to acquitting the Apostle
of any charge which would come under Roman law. He is therefore
appealed to on the other accusations. The offences against the Law
of the Jews and against the Temple must be heard before the Sanhe-
drin. Would Paul accept an acquittal on one count and submit to a
trial before his own people on the rest? And Festus would be present
to see that right was done.
10. ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος Καίσαρος ἑστώς εἰμι, 1 am standing before
Cesar’s judgment seat. The Roman authorities had taken charge of
him and had kept him in custody for two years. Of this he reminds
the governor, and refuses to be turned over to another tribunal, where
he would have for judges, if he ever were allowed to live till his trial,
those persons who had been cognizant of the plot to murder him.
οὗ pe Set κρίνεσθαι, where I ought to be judged, because I am a
Roman citizen.
ὡς kal σὺ κάλλιον ἐπιγινώσκεις, as thou also very well knowest. St
Paul does not mean to say that Festus is to be blamed for his pro-
posal. Probably he saw that the governor was acting with a view to
27—2
420 THE ACTS. [ΧΧΎ. 10—
conciliate the Jews. But he intends to say that after all that the
governor has heard, any man would say at once that there was no
case against the prisoner.
The comparative force in κάλλιον may be brought out somewhat thus,
‘better than from your proposal to turn me over to Jews you would
appear to know.’
11. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀδικῶ, if then Iam awrong-doer. He has asserted
that he was innocent so far as the Jews are concerned. If there be
anything against him, it is for the civil jurisdiction of Rome, not for
the religious tribunal at Jerusalem, to decide upon.
εἰ δὲ οὐδέν ἐστιν ὦν, but if there be none of these things whereof, i.e.
if they be all nothing, all without truth; cf. on οὐδέν ἐστιν, chap. xxi.
24 above.
οὐδείς pe δύναται αὐτοῖς χαρίσασθαι, no man can deliver me unto
them, i.e. there is no authority or power by which I may be given into
their hands.
χαρίσασθαι properly signifies ‘to grant us a favour,’ and the use of
it by St Paul seems to shew that he saw through all that Festus was
doing, and how he was seeking (verse 9) to ingratiate himself with the
Jews. For other instances of this verb, cf. 2 Mace. iii. 31, 33, and in
the signification of ‘to make a present,’ 2 Mace. iy. 32.
Καίσαρα ἐπικαλοῦμαι, I appeal unto Cesar, the final tribunal for
a Roman citizen being the hearing of the Emperor himself.
On St Paul’s appeal Chrysostom Says: ἀλλ᾽ εἴποι ἄν Tis ἐνταῦθα" Kal
τίνος ἕνεκεν “ἀκούσας ὅτι καὶ ἐν Ῥώμῃ σε δεῖ μαρτυρῆσαι τὰ περὶ ἐμοῦ, ὡς
ἀπιστῶν ταῦτα ἐποίει; μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα πιστεύων. μᾶλλον
οὖν πειράζοντος ἣν τὸ θαῤῥεῖν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἀποφάσει, καὶ εἰς μυρίους ἑαυτὸν
ἐμβάλλειν κινδύνους, καὶ λέγειν, ἴδωμεν εἰ δύναται ὁ θεὸς καὶ οὕτως ἐξελέσ-
θαι με. ἀλλ᾽ οὐ ποιεῖ τοῦτο Παῦλος ἀλλὰ τὰ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν πάντα εἰσφέρει τὸ
πᾶν ἐπιτρέπων τῷ θεῷ.
12. συλλαλήσας μετὰ τοῦ συμβουλίου, having conferred with the
council, Having taken the opinion of those who sat as assessors with
him. Such persons would be specially needed for a new governor,
and the governors of Judea were changed frequently. Of the existence
of such assessors in the provinces, see Suetonius Zib. 33; Galba 19.
13—22. Ferstus consuutts Kina AGRIPPA ABOUT HIS PRISONER.
AGRIPPA WISHES TO HEAR PauL’s DEFENCE.
13. ἡμερῶν δὲ διαγενομένων. For διαγίνεσθαι, of the lapse of time,
ef. Mark xvi. 1; Acts xxvii. 9.
᾿Αγρίππας ὁ βασιλεύς, king Agrippa. This was Herod Agrippa II.,
son of Herod Agrippa I., and consequently a great-grandson of Herod
the Great. He was therefore brother of Bernice and Drusilla. On
account of his youth he was not appointed to succeed his father when
he died. But after a time the Roman emperor gave him the kingdom
of Chalcis, from which he was subsequently transferred to govern the
tetrarchies formerly held by Philip and Lysanias, and was named
REV FT| NOTES. 421
king thereof. His kingdom was afterwards increased by the grant of
other cities which Nero gave him. At the fall of Jerusalem he retired
to Rome, with his sister Bernice, and there died a.p. 100. He had
sided with the Romans in the war against the Holy City. Festus was
likely to avail himself of an opportunity of consulting Agrippa, for he
poe expect to be soundly advised by him on any question of Jewish
aw.
καὶ Bepvixn, and Bernice. She was the eldest daughter of Herod
Agrippa I. She had first been married to her uncle Herod, king of
Chalcis. Her connexion with her brother Agrippa II. was spoken of
both by Roman and Jewish writers as immoral. She was subsequently
married to Polemon, king of Cilicia, but soon left him and lived with
Agrippa II. in Rome.
κατήντησαν εἰς Καισάρειαν ἀσπασάμενοι τὸν Φῆστον, arrived at
Cesarea, and saluted (lit. having saluted) Festus. The Greek seems
to imply that they had met and paid their salutation to Festus before
arriving at Cesarea. If this had occurred, yet still the vassal-king
Agrippa would probably feel bound to pay a formal visit of welcome to
the representative of Rome in Cesarea, the official residence.
15. ot ἀρχιερεῖς, the chief priests. See above on verse 2, and on
ἐμφανίζω also,
καταϑίκην, judgment, but always with the sense of adverse judgment.
Hence Rev. Ver. ‘sentence.’ The word implies that those who asked
thought there could be but one opinion and that a condemnatory
sentence might be at once pronounced, even by the newly arrived
governor.
16. χαρίζεσθαί τινα ἄνθρωπον, to give up any man. See above,
verse 11, on the force of χαρίζεσθαι. The language throughout shews
that the Jews thought the influence of their party was enough to gain
from Festus the condemnation of this so obscure a prisoner, whatever
might be the merits of his case.
τόπον τε ἀπολογίας λάβοι, and have had opportunity to make his
defence (lit. ‘ place of defence’). On τόπος in this sense cf. Ecclus. iv.
5 μὴ δῷς τόπον ἀνθρώπῳ καταράσασθαί ce. See also Rom. xv. 23 where
‘having no more place in these parts’ signifies ‘no further opportunity
for preaching the Gospel.’
The two verbs ἔχοι and λάβοι are the only two cases of an optative
after πρὶν ἢ in the N. T.
17. συνελθόντων οὖν αὐτῶν ἐνθάδε, therefore when they were come
together here, i.e. the accusers from Jerusalem and the accused who
was in custody. Then they were κατὰ πρόσωπον, as the Roman law
required.
18. περὶ ov σταθέντες of κατήγοροι, concerning whom the accusers
when they stood up. Or there may be the same sense in the expression
as in περιέστησαν of verse 7, ‘When they stood round about him’
eager each to give emphasis to the charge.
422 THE ACTS. (XxVie
οὐδεμίαν αἰτίαν ἔφερον ὧν ἐγὼ ὑπενόουν πονηράν, they brought no
evil accusation of such things as I supposed. With αἰτία πονηρά may be
compared ῥαδιούργημα πονηρόν above, chap. xviii. 14.
19. περὶ τῆς ἰδίας δεισιδαιμονίας, concerning their own religion.
Cf. St Paul’s use of the cognate adjective, when he was speaking to
the Athenians, The word is one which might be employed without
offence by any one in speaking of a worship with which he did not
agree, Addressing Agrippa, Festus would not wish to say a word that
might annoy, any more than St Paul wished to irritate the Athenians
by his speech.
περί τινος Incod, concerning one Jesus. Neither in the hearing of
the cause before Felix nor when Festus made his inquiry, does St Luke
record any mention of the name of Jesus, but it is clear from the
explanation here given that not only had Paul stated the doctrine of
the Resurrection generally, which the Pharisees accepted, but had also
asserted in proof of it that Jesus had risen and ‘become the firstfruits
of them that sleep.’
20. ἀπορούμενος δὲ ἐγὼ τὴν περὶ τούτων ζήτησιν, and I being
perplexed how to inquire concerning these things. The whole subject
would be strange to Festus, and when he found that some Jews in
part at least agreed with St Paul, while others of them were his bitter
opponents, he could find no better plan than to turn to a Jew for an
explanation. He did not himself know how to conduct an inquiry on
such a subject, and yet the Jews’ religion, being now allowed by the
Empire, must have its causes adjudicated on.
21. τηρηθῆναι αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ διάγνωσιν, to be kept for
the decision of the emperor. τηρεῖσθαι is used above, xxiv. 23, where
the centurion was commanded to ‘keep’ Paul. He desired to be
under the care of the Roman authorities until his case could be
properly heard. Σεβαστός, the title given first to Octavianus, was
afterwards conferred on his successors, and so came to mean ‘His
Imperial Majesty,’ whoever might be on the throne. The present
Σεβαστός was Nero. In the noun διάγνωσις we have a word which im-
plies ‘thorough inquiry,’ which a final appeal was supposed always to
receive.
22. ἐβουλόμην kal αὐτὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀκοῦσαι, I was wishing [Rev.
Ver. ‘could wish’] also to hear the man myself. Agrippa intimates
that he knew something of the Apostle and his labours, as indeed was
not unlikely, and that in consequence he had for some time been
desirous to see and hear St Paul.
23—27. ASSEMBLY OF THE CouRT, AND ADDRESS OF FEsTUS.
23. μετὰ πολλῆς φαντασίάας, with great pomp. The children follow
in the steps of their father, who formerly had sat on his throne in
Cesarea arrayed in royal apparel, to listen to the flatteries of the
Tyrian deputation (xii. 21).
φαντασία is found only here in N.T., and in this sense is very rare
anywhere.
XXV. 26.] NOTES. 423
ἀκροατήριον, the place of hearing. The word is found nowhere else
in N.T. It was no doubt some special room attached to the governor’s
palace, where causes were tried. In classical Greek it is found in the
sense of ‘a lecture-room.’
χιλιάρχοις, chief captains. The word is frequent for the ‘ praefectus ’
of a Roman cohort.
ἀνδράσιν τοῖς κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν, the principal men. The word ἐξοχή is
used of any thing which is prominent. Cf. LXX. Job xxxix. 28 ἐπ᾽
ἐξοχῇ πέτρας, ‘on the crag of the rock.’ Hence in the text of persons
who are prominent. But the phrase is not common.
24. ἐνέτυχόν μοι, made suit to me. In all other places of N. T.
ἐντυγχάνειν is used of ‘making intercession’ to God. In the LXX. it
is also used thus, Wisdom viii. 21 ἐνέτυχον τῷ κυρίῳ; but also very
frequently of those who come before some authority with a complaint,
as the Jews did against St Paul. See 1 Mace. viil. 32, x. 61, 63, 64,
xi. 25; 2 Mace. iv. 36.
καὶ ἐνθάδε, and also here. No doubt the Sadducees from Jerusalem
had been able in the course of two years to work up a great deal of
feeling against Paul among their party in Cesarea. So when Festus
came he was appealed to by the great men of the residential city as
well as by those from Jerusalem.
25. ἐγὼ δὲ κατελαβόμην, but 7 found. Cf. above, verses 18 and 19.
μηδὲν ἄξιον αὐτὸν θανάτου πεπραχέναι, that he had committed nothing
worthy of death. To ask for the life of a prisoner because of some
offence against the religious observances of the Jews would be absurd
in the eyes of the Roman procurator, and the more so when the
accused was a Roman citizen.
Σεβαστόν, the emperor. See on verse 21.
26. τῷ κυρίῳ, to my lord. Octavianus by an edict forbade the title
‘Lord’ to be given to him. The practice had its rise from parasites ;
but you find ‘Dominus’ often used in Pliny’s letters to Trajan, so
that not many emperors were like Octavian.
3.4.9 «ε
ἐφ᾽ ὑμῶν, before you. Spoken with a glance towards the chief
priests and great personages who were present on the bench.
Kal μάλιστα ἐπὶ σοῦ, and especially before thee, i.e. as one most
likely to be able to clear up the difficulties which I feel about the
prisoner.
τῆς ἀνακρίσεως γενομένης, the examination having been made. The
. English of A.V. is very idiomatic, ‘after examination had.’ In classi-
cal Greek ἀνάκρισις is used of a preliminary examination of a cause
before the Archon, to see whether there is ground for proceeding
further. So Festus uses the technical term in its proper sense.
σχῶ τί γράψω, I may have somewhat to write. Lit. ‘what I may
write.’ With this use of the interrogative ri, where in classical Greek
a relative would have been used, ef. Matth. x. 19, δοθήσεται ὑμῖν...τί
λαλήσετε.
424 THE ACTS. [Xx Vege
27. ἄλογον, wireasonable. In this sense, which is quite the classi-
cal usage of the word, ἄλογος is not found again in N. T.
πέμποντα, when sending. This may mean ‘when I am sending,’
and if so taken, then the accusative participle following the dative
pronoun μοι may be compared with Heb. ii. 10, ἔπρεπεν αὐτῷ... ἀγαγόντα,
and the construction is not uncommon with words like ἔξεστι. But
πέμποντα may be general in its application and mean ‘that any one
when sending, &c.,’ and no doubt it would be as unreasonable in the
case of any other person as of Festus.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
3. cov after δέομαι omitted with NABE. Not represented in Vulg.
6. εἰς τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν with NABCE. Vulg. ‘ad patres nostros.’
7. τῶν before’ Ιουδαίων omitted with NABCEHILP.
βασιλεῦ at the end of the verse, omitting βασιλεῦ ᾿Αγρίππα with
NSBCEI. Vulg. puts ‘rex’ at the end.
12. καὶ after ἐν οἷς omitted with NABCEI. Not represented in
Vulg.
14. λέγουσαν πρός pe with NABCI omitting καὶ λέγουσαν afterwards.
The Vulg. has only ‘loquentem mihi.’
ian ὁ δὲ κύριος εἶπεν with NABCEIL. Vulg. ‘Dominus autem
ixit.’
25. ὁ δὲ ἸΤαῦλος with SABE. Vulg. ‘ et Paulus.’
28. ποιῆσαι for γενέσθαι with NAB. Vulg. ‘fieri’ representing
γενέσθαι.
29. εἶπεν omitted with NAB. Not represented in Vulg.
μεγάλῳ for πολλῷ with SAB. Vulg. ‘magno.’
30. καὶ ταῦτα εἰπόντος αὐτοῦ omitted with NAB. Not represented
in Vulg.
Cu. XXVI. 1—23. Pauxy’s DEFENCE BEFORE AGRIPPA,
1. ἀπελογεῖτο, made his defence. The verb is the same as before
(xix. 33, xxiv. 10, xxv. 8), and intimates that what is coming is an’
upologia. St Luke here as in other places notices the gesture of the
speaker (ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα).
2. ἥγημαι ἐμαυτὸν μακάριον, I think myself happy. Because
Agrippa was sure to understand much of the feeling imported into the
case which wouid be entirely obscure to a Roman magistrate. Paul
would thus be able to make his position clear, and get it explained
through Agrippa to the Roman authorities.
XXVI. 5.] NOTES. 425
ἐπὶ σοῦ, before thee. So xxiv. 19, and frequently in N.T. ἐπί with
genitive in this sense is also found in classical Greek, but not so com-
monly with a personal pronoun. For an example of the use, cf. Acta
Pauli et Thecle, 16, εἰπάτω ἐπὶ σοῦ τίνος ἕνεκεν ταῦτα διδάσκει.
8. μάλιστα γνώστην ὄντα σε, especially because thou art expert.
Some have joined μάλιστα with γνώστην, ‘because thou art especially
expert.’ But there is nothing to shew that this was so. He knew, as
other Jews knew, the character and meaning of Jewish customs, but
nothing more. ;
γνώστης is used most frequently in the LXX. of those diviners and
dealers with familiar spirits spoken of in the historical books. Cf. 1
Sam. xxvill. 3, 9; 2 Kings xxi. 6, xxiii, 24. Also in Susanna, verse
42, we have ὁ θεὸς αἰώνιος ὁ τῶν κρυπτῶν γνώστης.
Here Chrysostom says: καίτοιγε εἰ συνήδει ἑαυτῷ φοβηθῆναι ἐχρῆν
παρὰ τῷ πάντα εἰδότι δικαζόμενον. ἀλλὰ καθαροῦ συνειδότος τοῦτό ἐστι, τὸ
μὴ παραιτεῖσθαι δικαστὴν τὸν ἀκριβῶς εἰδότα τὰ γεγεννημένα, ἀλλὰ καὶ
χαίρειν.
τῶν κατὰ ᾿Ιουδαίους ἐθῶν, of customs which are among the Jews. For
this adjectival use of κατὰ followed by a noun or pronoun, ef. οἱ καθ᾽
ὑμᾶς ποιηταί (Acts xvii. 28).
μακροθύμως, patiently. Only here in N.T., and not found in LXX.
though μακρόθυμος is very common there.
4. τὴν μὲν οὖν βίωσίν pov, now my manner of life. βίωσις is only
found here in N.T. and nowhere in profane authors. We have the
word in the prologue to Kcclus., ὅπως... ἐπιπροσθῶσι διὰ τῆς ἐννόμου Blw-
σεως, ‘ that...they may profit in living according to the Law.’ This is
said of exactly such a life as St Paul led before his conversion.
ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, from the beginning. The Apostle though born in Tarsus
yet came early to Jerusalem for his education, and it was in the Holy
City that his character was formed and his manner of life shewed
itself.
ἔν τε ἹΙεροσολύμοις, and at Jerusalem. This addition of re implies
that even before coming to Jerusalem the Apostle had always dwelt
among his own people, and so was not likely to be one who would
undervalue Jewish privileges or offend against Jewish prejudices.
ἴσασι πάντες ot ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, know all the Jews. Because in the per-
secutions of the Christians Saul had made himself a conspicuous
character, and so had been in favour with the chief priests and allowed
to undertake the mission to Damascus.
δ. προγινώσκοντές pe ἄνωθεν, ἐὰν θέλωσι μαρτυρεῖν, having know-
ledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify. ἄνωθεν is found
Luke i. 3, where the Evangelist is describing his perfect understanding
of the Gospel story ‘from the very first.’ When we remember that the
early part of his Gospel can hardly have been gathered from anybody
but the Virgin Mary, who alone could know many of the details, we
may well think that the word ἄνωθεν here implies that St Paul had
been known from his very childhood. The rest of the sentence seems
426 THE ACTS. [XXVL $=
to intimate that there were some among those who were now his
accusers who could give evidence about his previous years if they were
so minded.
κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβεστάτην αἵρεσιν, after the straitest sect. αἵρεσις in
the singular=sect, as it is rendered everywhere in the Acts (in A.V.)
except xxiv. 14. In the Epistles where the plural only occurs it is
‘ heresies.’
τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας, of our religion. θρησκεία refers more espe-
cially to the outward marks of religious observance or life. Thus it
would describe well the ceremonial for which the Pharisees were speci-
ally distinguished. In the LXX. it is only used of the worship of
idols. See Wisdom xiv. 18, 27.
6. Kal νῦν.. ἕστηκα κρινόμενος, and now I stand here to be judged,
i.e. [am on my trial.
ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι τῆς εἰς τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν ἐπαγγελίας K.T.A., for the hope of
the promise made by God unto our fathers, i.e. because I entertain the
hope that the promise which God made to the patriarchs and to David
shall be fulfilled to us. The ‘promise’ must be of the Messiah, and of
His coming into the world as King. For this is what the ten tribes
were looking for. But this in St Paul’s view embraced the doctrine of
the Resurrection, because that was God’s assurance to the world (Acts
xvii. 31) that He who was so raised up was to be the judge of quick and
dead.
7. εἰς ἥν, wito which (promise). This makes it clear that the pro-
mise was the sending of the Messiah, that in Him all the families of the
earth should be blessed.
τὸ δωδεκαφυλον ἡμῶν, our twelve tribes. For the word see Protev.
Jacobi chap. i. ἀπίει eis τὴν δωδεκάφυλον τοῦ λαοῦ.
The Jews regarded themselves as representing the whole race, and
not merely the two tribes of the kingdom of Judah, and this no
doubt was true, for tribal names continued to be preserved, and with
the people of Judah there came back many of the members of the pre-
vious captivity of Israel. Thus in the N. T. we find (Luke ii. 36) that
Anna was of the tribe of Asher, and St James addresses his Epistle (i. 1)
‘ to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad’ ; and Paul himself knew
that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Cf. also 2 Chron. xxxi. 1 for
evidence of the existence of some of the ten tribes after the Captivity.
In T. B. Berachoth 20a Rabbi Jochanan says ‘I am irom the root of
Joseph.’
ἐν éxtevela, earnestly. The expression ἐν éxreveia μεγάλῃ is found
twice in Judith iv. 9, rendered in A. V. (1) ‘with great fervency’ and
(2) ‘ with great vehemency.’
περὶ ἧς ἐλπίδος, for which hope’s sake, i.e. because I entertain it and
press it upon others.
ἐγκαλοῦμαι ὑπὸ ᾿Ιουδαίων, I am accused by Jews, members of the
twelve tribes to whom the promise was made. Thus Paul brings out
the inconsistency of the situation.
XXVI. 11.] NOTES. 427
8. τί ἄπιστον κρίνεται παρ᾽ ὑμῖν εἴ ὁ θεὸς νεκροὺς ἐγείρει ; why is
it judged incredible with you if God doth raise the dead? The last
clause is not to be understood hypothetically, but ‘If God doth, as He
hath done in the case of Jesus.’ So that it is equivalent to ‘ Why
should you not believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead ?’
Chryscstom points out that the strange thing was that the doctrine
was not believed: εἰ yap μὴ τοιαύτη δόξα ἦν, εἰ yap μὴ ἀνατεθραμμένοι
ἦσαν ἐν τούτοις τοῖς δόγμασι, νῦν δὲ εἰσεφέρετο, ἴσως οὐκ ἂν ἐδέξατό
τις τὸν λόγον.
9. πρὸς τὸ ὄνομα, contrary to the name, i.e. to the faith of Jesus
Christ, into whose name believers were to be baptized. Cf. v. 41, note.
‘Name’ is constantly used in O. T. as the equivalent of ‘ Godhead,’
and any Jew who heard the language of such a verse as this would
understand that the Christians held Jesus to be a Divine Being.
Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Nafwpatov, of Jesus of Nazareth, whom we proclaim
now as having been raised from the dead, and as being the fulfiller of
the promises which were made to our forefathers,
10. ὃ καὶ ἐποίησα ἐν ‘Ieporodtpos, which thing I also did in
Jerusalem. Saul must have been a most active and prominent agent
in the work of persecution in Jerusalem, for we learn here that the
death of Stephen was not the only one for which he had given his vote.
He had also had the warrant of the chief priests for other arrests be-
side those he intended to make in Damascus. We can see that the
slaughter of the Christians was not in all cases the result of a sudden
outburst of rage at some act or speech, but that some of them were
imprisoned, then subjected to a form of trial, and afterwards put to
death as men condemned by law.
φυλακαῖς. On the use of this word in the plural see xxii, 4, note.
ψῆφον, vote. Of course the sense is the same as ‘voice’ in A.V.,
but the literal translation brings out more prominently that these
proceedings were all carried on in a formal and quasi-legal manner.
11. kal κατὰ πάσας τὰς συναγωγὰς πολλάκις τιμωρῶν αὐτούς, and
punishing them often in all the synagogues. This shews how zealous
Saul’s labours against the Way had been. Of the synagogues as
places where offenders were accused and punished, cf. Matth. x. 17,
xxili. 34; Mark xiii. 9; Luke xii. 11, xxi. 12.
ἠνάγκαΐζον βλασφημεῖν, I strove to make them blaspheme. ἀναγκάζω
is frequently rendered ‘constrain’ or ‘compel,’ but being here in the
imperfect tense, it seems to indicate that the attempt was repeated
often, and needed to be so, for it was not in some cases successful.
Saul kept on with his constraint. βλασφημεῖν, i.e. the name of
Jesus, into which they had been baptized. They were to be forced to
renounce the belief in the divinity of Jesus. Cf. on blasphemy of the
Divine Name, Ley. xxiv. 11—16.
ἕως Kal εἰς τὰς ἔξω πόλεις, even unto foreign cities, that is, cities
outside the country of the Jews proper. So that, as it appears,
428 THE ACTS. [XXVI. 12—
Damascus was but one among several cities to which Saul had gone
on his errand of punishment.
Cf. ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωπος, 2 Cor. iv. 16.
12. ἐν οἷς, wherein, 1.6. in doing this work. The margin of Rev.
Ver. represents the sense very well, ‘on which errand.’
pet ἐξουσίας kal ἐπιτροπῆς τῆς τῶν ἀρχιερέων, with the authority
and commission of the high priests. Saul was the commissioner sent
by the Jewish magistrates, and at this particular time Damascus had
been assigned as the district where he was to search for the Christians.
13. ἡμέρας μέσης, at midday. There could be no question about
the supernatural character of a light which overpowered the midday
glare of an Eastern sun.
14. ἤκουσα φωνὴν λέγουσαν πρός με, I heard a voice saying unto
me. Saul alone gathered the import of what was said. His com-
panions merely heard the sound, but nothing of the words. Cf.
Dan. x. 7.
τῇ ‘“EBpat&8. διαλέκτῳ, in the Hebrew language. And this is repre-
sented in the proper name, which is not Σαῦλος as usual, but Σαούλ, a
transliteration of the Hebrew form.
σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν, it is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks (lit. the goads). This is the only place where the oldest
MSS. give these words. See note on ix. 5. The figure is from an ox,
being driven on in his work. When restive or lazy, the driver pricks
him, and in ignorance of the consequences, he kicks back, and so gets
another wound. The words would imply that God had been guiding
Saul towards the true light for some time before, and that this zeal
for persecution was a resistance offered to the divine urging. It is not
unusual for men who are moved to break away from old traditions at
such times, by outward acts, to manifest even more zeal than before
for their old opinions, as if in fear lest they should be thought to be
falling away. This may have been Saul’s case, his kicking against the
goads. The figure is very common in classical literature. Cf. Aesch.
Prom. 323 ; Eur. Bacche 791.
15. τίς εἶ, κύριε; who art thou, Lord? The readiness with which
‘Lord,’ an expression of allegiance, comes to the Apostle’s lips lends
probability to the notion that God’s promptings had been working in
his heart before, and that the mad rage against ‘the Way’ was
an attempt to stifle them.
16. προχειρίσασθαί σε ὑπηρέτην, to appoint thee a minister. Cf.
for the verb, xxii. 14. It implies a deliberate selection and appoint-
ment. For this reason St Paul was σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (ix. 15).
καὶ μάρτυρα ὧν τε εἶδες, and a witness both of those things which thou
hast seen. ‘The Rev. Vers. gives ‘wherein thou hast seen Me,’ reading
με after εἶδες. This reading gives a good sense, for St Paul dwells not
unfrequently in his Epistles on his having seen Jesus. Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 1,
xy. 8, &c., and he makes this the ground of his independence in the
XXVI. 19.] NOTES. 429
Apostolic work, so that he can say he is not a whit behind any of
the other Apostles.
But the Text. recept. is accepted by Lachmann, Tischendorf and
Tregelles.
For the attraction of ὧν for ἃ see note oni. 1.
ὧν τε ὀφθήσομαί σοι, and of those things in the which I will appear
unto thee. St Paul was more favoured than the rest of the Apostles,
as far as we gather from the N.T. records, with visions from God
to guide and comfort him at critical points in his work. Cf. Acts
Xvili, 9, xxiii. 11; and 2 Cor. xii. 2. It was specially important that
Paul should have seen Jesus, so that he might bear independent wit-
ness to the truth of his Resurrection.
17. ἐξαιρούμενός σε ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ, delivering thee from the people.
The verb implies that the Apostle will be seized, and that the deliver-
ance will be a rescue. From the first even in Damascus Saul found
ee re he knew that in every city bonds and persecutions were to
be his lot.
εἰς ods ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω σε, unto whom I send thee. The full force of
the verb=‘I make thee an Apostle.’ In the oldest texts ἐγώ is em-
vhatically expressed. ‘Thou,’ as well as the rest, ‘art an Apostle
chosen by Me, the Lord Jesus.’ The mission to the Gentiles seems to
have been made clear to Saul from the very first. Compare his own
language, Gal. 1.16. And in Acts ix. 29 his preaching appears to have
been rather directed to the Greek-Jews than to the members of the
Church in Jerusalem.
18. ἀνοῖξαι ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν, τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι, to open their eyes that
they may turn. Here we have another shade of meaning of the geni-
tival infinitive. By the opening of their eyes the Gentiles will be
enabled to turn. Cf. LXX. 1 Kings viii. 58, ἐπικλῖναι καρδίας ἡμῶν ἐπ᾽
αὐτὸν τοῦ πορεύεσθαι ἐν πάσαις ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ.
ἀπὸ σκότους εἰς φῶς, from darkness to light. So complete is the
change which the Gospel knowledge works.
ἐν τοῖς ἡγιασμένοις πίστει τῇ εἰς ἐμέ, among them which are sanctified
by faith in me. It is by their belief in Jesus that men are sanctified,
and here ‘sanctified,’ as so often ‘saint’ in St Paul’s Epistles, is
applied to those who have been set on the way of salvation, and not
to those who are perfect in holiness; to that they will be brought if
they persevere.
19. οὐκ ἐγενόμην ἀπειθής, I was not disobedient. More literally, ‘I
did not become, or prove, disobedient.’ The thought goes back to the
‘kicking against the pricks,’ the opposition of previous times. That
was at an end now. Jesus was ‘Lord,’ and Saul’s only question
‘What wilt thou have me to do?’
τῇ οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ, to the heavenly vision. ὀπτασία is a word of
late origin. It occurs several times in N.T., Luke i. 22; 2 Cor. xii. 1;
also frequently in the LXX. of Daniel.
430 THE ACTS. [XX VI. 20—
20. Kal ἐν ἱἹΙεροσολύμοις, and at Jerusalem. Cf. ix. 29. Here he
spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the
Grecians, so that they went about to kill him.
πᾶσάν Te THY χώραν τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας, and throughout all the country
of Judea. This accusative of place after ἀπαγγέλλειν without a pre-
position is very unusual, but all the oldest authorities agree in omit-
ting εἰς. The omission is probably due to the position of the words
between the two datives Ἱεροσολύμοις and τοῖς ἔθνεσιν.
Of this ministration in Judea we are only told, ix. 30, that the
brethren finding Saul in danger in Jerusalem brought him to Cesarea, ~
and thence sent him to Tarsus. But as we see in the history of Felix
(cf. xxiii. 34, note) that Cilicia was sometimes reckoned as a part of
the province of Judea, the preaching in Cilicia may be included in
the expression ‘country of Juda.’ And we may feel sure that Paul,
wherever he might be, never laid aside the character which Christ’s
mission had imposed upon him.
ἀπήγγελλον, I declared. The literal sense should be kept in mind.
Saul had a message given to him to deliver. He was henceforth God’s
evangelist.
ἄξια τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα πράσσοντας, doing works worthy of their
repentance. Thus the force of the article is more nearly given, for
the works were to be a sign of their repentance and turning unto God;
the means whereby the reality of their sorrow and the earnestness of
their desire were to be shewn.
21. ἕνεκα τούτων, on account of these things. R.V. very well ‘for
this cause.’
*TovSator συλλαβόμενοιυ, the Jews having seized me. The verb implies
an arrest with violence.
ἐπειρῶντο διαχειρίσασθαι, endeavoured to kill me. St Paul combines
the riot in the Temple with the subsequent plot before he was sent to
Cesarea, or he may be alluding only to the violence by which he
was nearly torn in pieces before the chief captain came to his rescue.
The verb διαχειρίζομαι indicates the laying violent hands on any one,
and so favours the latter view. It is found above, v. 30.
22. ἐπικουρίας οὖν τυχὼν τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, having therefore obtain-
ed the help that is from God. The connexion by οὖν implies that only
help divine could have saved him in such perils. ἐπικουρία means
such succour as an ally gives, and recalls God’s promise, ‘ Surely I will
be with thee.’
ἄχρι τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης ἕστηκα, 1 stand unto this day. The Apostle
has in mind the many attempts to cast him down which had been
made by Jews, and Gentiles too, during his missionary journeys.
He has been rescued in many ways, and is still there standing safe and
sound through the help which God hath sent him. He does not forget
human agency, but this, whatever it was, was all sent of God.
XXVI_ 24.) NOTES. 431
μαρτυρόμενος μικρῷ Te Kal μεγάλῳ, testifying both to small and great.
St Paul was now in the presence of two who would be named great,
and he knew that God had declared he was to testify ‘ before kings’
(ix. 15).
ὧν. For the government, see i. 1.
οἱ προφῆται.. καὶ Mwions, the prophets and Moses, i.e. the whole
Old Testament Scriptures. The form of the phrase is usually ‘ Moses
and the prophets,’ according to the order of the O.T. books. Some-
times we have ‘the Law and the prophets,’ and once (Luke xxiv. 44)
‘the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.’
μελλόντων γίνεσθαι, were about to come. ~The attraction of μελλόν-
των into the case of the relative preceding is an uncommon occurrence.
The plain construction of the whole sentence would be ἐκτὸς τούτων ἃ
oi προφῆται ἐλάλησαν μέλλοντα, ‘ except those things which the prophets
spake of as about to come.’ But τούτων being dropped, the relative is
attracted into the case of the lost antecedent, and draws the participle
in its train.
23. εἰ παθητὸς ὁ Χριστός, that the Christ should suffer. Literally ‘if
the Christ be one who has to suffer.’ And the Apostle having in his
mind the facts, puts the sentence as a topic on which there was debate
among the Jews, as indeed there was (see John xii. 34). And St Paul
says he answered this question out of the Scriptures. His answer of
course was a positive one; therefore what he taught is fairly repre-
sented by the English ‘that the Christ’ &c.; though the teaching was
a response to ‘whether the Christ be one who is to suffer.” The same
remark applies to the use of εἰ in the next clause.
πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν φῶς μέλλει καταγγέλλειν, He first by
the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light. For Christ was the
first-fruits of them that sleep. His resurrection was an earnest of the
general resurrection. Thus life and immortality were brought to
light. The full force of μέλλει καταγγέλλειν ‘is about to proclaim’
points on to the preaching of the Gospel from generation to genera-
tion. He shall enlighten believers thus through all time.
τῷ τε λαῷ Kal τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, both unto the people and to the Gentiles.
By ὁ λαός the Jews are meant. So in St Matth. i. 21, ‘He shall
save His people from their sins,’ ‘His people’=His own (cf. St John
i. 11), 1.6. the Jews. Christ was spoken of in like terms by the aged
Simeon, ‘A light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of Thy
people Israel,’ and he could say this because in Jesus he beheld God’s
‘salvation.’ He could ‘depart in peace,’ being sure that ‘to die’
was only the pledge of ‘to rise again.’
24—32. INTERRUPTION BY Festus. APPEAL ΤῸ AGRIPPA. CONSULTA-
TION AND DECISION.
24. μεγάλῃ τῇ φωνῇ φησίν, says with a loud voice. Probably what
had last fallen from St Paul seemed to Festus little better than lunatic
ravings. The Gospel of the Cross did appear as ‘foolishness’ to the
432 THE ACTS. [XXVI. 24—
Gentile world. And this Gospel he had just heard in all its fulness:
that the Christ by suffering of death and rising to life again should
be the source of true enlightenment both to Jews and Gentiles.
μαίνῃ Παῦλε, Paul, thou art mad. μαίνομαι occurs in the next
verse, and the two places should accord, though sentiment clings to
‘Paul, thou art beside thyself.’
τὰ πολλά σε γράμματα els μανίαν περιτρέπει, much learning doth
make thee mad. Literally, ‘doth turn thee to madness.’ For γράμματα
in the sense of ‘learning’ ‘letters,’ cf. John vii. 15. It may be also
that there is an allusion to the γράμματα, ‘the Jewish Scriptures,’ to
which the Apostle had been so largely appealing. As a religious lite-
rature no nation, not even the polished Greeks, had anything to place
in comparison with the sacred books of the Jews.
25. κράτιστε, most excellent. On this title cf. above, xxiii. 26,
xxiv, 3, St Chrysostom remarks here that the Apostle now answers
with gentleness, not as to the high-priest (xxiii. 3).
σωφροσύνης, soberness. In classical Greek the word is the exact
opposite of that μανία unto which Festus had just said St Paul was
turned.
26. λανθάνειν γὰρ αὐτόν τι τούτων οὐ πείθομαι οὐδέν, for I am
persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, i.e. none of the
history of the life and works of Jesus, of His death and resurrection,
of the marvellous gifts of Pentecost, and the preaching of the Gospel
since Jesus had been crucified.
The grammar presents some anomaly from the occurrence of ri and
οὐδὲν in the same sentence. It is perhaps best to take the former
adverbially =‘in any degree.’ Then οὐ before πείθομαι is only the
Greek manner of intensifying a negative idea, and need not be
noticed in the English idiom.
ἐν γωνίᾳ πεπραγμένον, done in a corner. That there was no lack of
knowledge about our Lord among the Jewish people we can be sure
from the excitement which during His life He caused by His mighty
works, also from the efforts put forth to stop His teaching, efforts
which culminated in a trial in which both Jewish and Roman magis-
trates were consulted, and by the exclamation of the Pharisees (John
xii. 19) ‘The world is gone after Him,’ and the declaration (Acts xvii.
6) ‘These that have turned the world upside down.’
Chrysostom says: ἐνταῦθα περὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ λέγει τοῦτο, καὶ περὶ τῆς
ἀναστάσεως, καὶ ὅτι πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης γέγονε τὸ δόγμα.
27. πιστεύεις... τοῖς προφήταις ; believest thou the prophets? Whose
writings foretell the events about which I am speaking, and whose
predictions have had their fulfilment in the history of Jesus of Naza-
reth.
οἶδα ὅτι πιστεύεις, I know that thou believest. The Apostle answers
his own question, for he is sure that Agrippa would not have given a
different answer, seeing how anxious all his family were, in spite of
their relations with Rome, to be accepted of the Jewish nation. St
XXVI. 30.] NOTES. 433
Paul does not imply by his words any conviction about the character
of Agrippa’s faith in the Scriptures.
28. ἐν ὀλίγῳ pe πείθεις Χριστιανὸν ποιῆσαι, with but little per-
suasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian. The literal rendering
is, ‘with (or in) little (labour or time) thou art persuading me so as to
make me a Christian,’ as if ποιῆσαι-- ὥστε pe ποιῆσαι. ‘With little
labour’ or ‘in a little time’ implies that the king despised the attempt
which had been made to convince him, and mocked at the language of
St Paul in so readily taking for granted that he was in accord with
him. It is as though he said, ‘You are supposing that I accept these
words of the prophets in the same sense as you do, and you area fool
for your pains, to think that with so little trouble and in so short a
space you could win me over to your side. And sucha side! To bea
Christian.’ The name had, no doubt, been given, when it was first
applied (Acts xi. 26), to the adherents of Jesus as a term of reproach,
and it is likely that it had not yet won its way to be a name of credit,
at all events among such men as Agrippa and his friends. For we
have no reason to suppose that the king was influenced at all by
Paul’s words.
29. Kal ἐν ὀλίγῳ καὶ ἐν μεγάλῳ, whether with little or with much.
The Apostle takes up the jeer of the king in a serious tone, and
replies: ‘I may have seemed to use little persuasion, and suddenly to
have jumped at the conclusion that you accept the teaching of the
prophets as I myself receive it; but whether it need little or much
persuasion, or little or much time, my prayer to God is, for you and
for all who listen to me, that they may become such as I am, save as
to my bonds.’
γενέσθαι τοιούτους ὁποῖος κἀγώ εἰμι, might become such as I am.
The Apostle does not use the word ‘Christian,’ which for himself he
might willingly have accepted (cf. 1 Pet. iv. 16), but which was used by
the king in a mocking sense, and therefore would not have made his
wish seem an acceptable one. You may call me ‘Christian’ in
mockery, my joy and hope and faith in Christ are such, that I know
no better prayer for any than to wish you all the like blessings,
παρεκτὸς TOV δεσμῶν τούτων, except these bonds. From this it is
clear, in spite of the leniency with which Paul had been at first
treated by Felix, that either because his case was deemed more serious
in consequence of his being left in prison so long, or because he was
just now before the court as a prisoner, the Apostle had been put in
chains.
For παρεκτός, which is a rarely found preposition, cf. Matth. v. 32.
Also ‘Test. xu. Patr.’ Zab. 1, παρεκτὸς ἐννοίας. See also ‘ Teaching of
the Twelve Apostles,’ 6.
30. οἱ συγκαθήμενοι αὐτοῖς, they that sat with them, i.e. the chief
captains and the principal men of Cesarea. (See xxv. 23.) The
authorities withdrew to consult upon what they had heard,
THE ACTS 28
434 THE ACTS. ΓΙ ΧΥΕΡΕΞ
81. ἐλάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, they spake one toanother. This literal
sense brings out more clearly that they were all of one mind about
the case.
32. ἀπολελύσθαι ἐδύνατο, might have been set at liberty. Thus
Agrippa, looking at the question from the Jewish standpoint, confirms
the opinion of the Roman magistrate (cf. xxv. 25). So that St Paul
was acquitted on all hands, and Festus may rightly be deemed guilty
because he had driven an innocent man to appeal to a higher court,
from fear that he would be delivered into the power of his enemies.
But God was using human means for bringing the Apostle to Rome,
and so fulfilling his servant’s great desire, and in such wise that he
should be heard before kings in behalf of the Gospel.
εἰ μὴ ἐπεκέκλητο Καίσαρα, if he had not appealed unto Cesar.
The appeal put an end to all powers of a lower court either to
condemn or absolve.
Chrysostom’s comment here is ὅρα πῶς καὶ πάλιν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ ψηφίζον-
ται, καὶ μετὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν μαίνῃ, ἀφίασιν αὐτόν.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Readings varying from the Text. recept.
2. μέλλοντι for μέλλοντες with NAB. Vulg. ‘incipientes.’
14. εὐρακύλων with SAB. Vulg. ‘ Euroaquilo.’
16. Καῦδα with 8B. Vulg. ‘ Cauda.’
19. ἔῤῥιψαν with SABC. Vulg. ‘ projecerunt.’
29. ἐκπέσωμεν for ἐκπέσωσιν with NABCHLP. Vulg. ‘ incidere-
mus.”
41. τῶν κυμάτων omitted with NAB. Vulg. has ‘a vi maris.’
1—44. Sr Pauwu’s VoyaGE AND SHIPWRECK.
1. ὡς δὲ ἐκρίθη τοῦ ἀποπλεῖν ἡμᾶς, and when it was determined
that we should sail. No other instance of this infinitive with rod pre-
fixed is found after κρίνω except in the Text. recept. of 1 Cor. ii. 2,
where it is rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf and Tregelles. But in
the LXX. the construction is common enough after verbs of kindred
signification, e.g. βουλεύομαι. Cf. 1 Mace. iii. 31, ἐβουλεύσατο τοῦ πορ-
ευθῆναι els τὴν Iepoida, ‘he determined to go into Persia’ (A.V.). See
also 1 Mace. v. 2, ἐβουλεύσαντο τοῦ apa τὸ γένος Ἰακώβ. So 1 Mace.
ix. 69, xii. 35.
παρεδίδουν, they delivered, i.e. the soldiers who had the care of Paul
did so by order of Festus.
ἑκατοντάρχῃ, to a centurion. This was generally the rank of the
officers appointed to such a charge. Cf. xxi. 32, xxiv. 23, &e.
wea VEL: 4.1 NOTES. 435
σπείρης Σεβαστῆς, of the Augustan band. The word σπεῖρα might
be rendered ‘ cohort’ as in the marg. of R.V., and it is said that in the
time of Octavianus Augustus there were some legions to which the
title LeBacrds=Augustus was given, as being specially the Imperial
troops, and that perhaps among the soldiers in Cxsarea there was
a detachment of these legions. But as Cesarea was itself called
‘ Sebaste’ it seems more likely that the soldiers were Samaritan troops
belonging to Cesarea itself. And Josephus (Wars, τι. 12. 5) makes
mention of troops which had their name, Sebasteni, from this city
Czsarea Sebaste.
2. ἐπιβάντες δέ, and embarking in. This verb is the technical term
for ‘ going on board ship.’
᾿Αδραμυττηνῷ, of Adramyttium. This was a seaport on the coast of
that district of Asia Minor called Mysia, and in early times Aeolis. It
appears to have been in St Paul’s time a place of considerable trade,
and Pliny (vy. 30) mentions it as an assize town. The reason why the
Apostle and his companions embarked on board a vessel from this
port was that it was probably the easiest way of getting into the line of
vessels going from Asia to the West. The isle of Lesbos lay off the
gulf on which Adramyttium was situated, and to which it gave name,
and the town was in close connexion with Ephesus, Miletus, Pergamos
and Troas, and so was a considerable centre of commerce.
μέλλοντι πλεῖν «.7.A., which was about to sail unto the places on the
coast of Asia, The centurion and his party when they had reached
the Asiatic coast would be very likely to find in some of the ports there
a vessel which would carry them across to Italy.
᾿Αριστάρχου, Aristarchus. Mentioned before (xix. 29) as one of
those whom the mob in Ephesus seized in their fury against St Paul.
He went, as it seems, with the Apostle into Europe, for he is enumer-
ated amongst those who accompanied St Paul (xx. 4) on his return.
After the present notice of him, we learn nothing more of his history
except that from Col. iv. 10 and Philem. 24 we can gather that he
remained with the Apostle during his first Roman imprisonment.
3. κατήχθημεν εἰς Σιδῶνα, we touched at Sidon. This is the well-
known seaport on the coast of Pheenicia. κατάγειν here is a technical
term for ‘putting in a ship to shore,’ as dvdyew just before is for
‘setting sail.’
φιλανθρώπως χρησάμενος, treating kindly. φιλανθρώπως is only
found here in N.T., and only once in LXX. (2 Mace, ix. 27).
ἐπιμελείας τυχεῖν, to refresh himself. Literally, ‘ to receive attention.’
The Apostle no doubt knew some of the residents in Sidon, and at his
request the centurion allowed him, while the vessel stayed there, to
enjoy their company and kind offices. Sidon was on the road between
Jerusalem and Antioch, a journey which St Paul had frequently made.
4. ὑπεπλεύσαμεν τὴν Κύπρον, we sailed under Cyprus, i.e. between
Cyprus and the mainland, so as to have the shelter of the island on
their left to protect them from the contrary winds. Rey. Ver. ‘ under
the lee of Cyprus.’
28—2
436 THE ACTS. [XXVII. 5—
5. τό τε πέλαγος τὸ κατὰ THY Κιλικίαν καὶ ΤΙαμφυλίαν, the sea
which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia. These two countries formed the
coast of Asia Minor in that portion which is opposite to Cyprus,
εἰς Mippe, to Myrrha, which lies about 20 stadia (24 miles) from
the coast on the river Andriacus.
6. πλοῖον ᾿Αλεξανδρινόν, a ship of Alexandria. They found a
means of transport into Italy sooner perhaps than they had expected.
It may be that the same strong contrary winds from the west, which
had altered already the course of their own voyage from Sidon, had car-
ried this vessel across the Mediterranean to the Asiatic coast. Myrrha
was certainly out of the way for persons sailing from N. Africa to Italy.
7. ἐν ἱκαναῖς δὲ ἡμέραις βραδυπλοοῦντες, and sailing slowly for many
days, kept back by the same head-winds.
Kal μόλις γενόμενοι κατὰ τὴν Kvidov, and with difficulty being come
over against Cnidus. They had been forced to hug the coast all the
way from Myrrha, and when off Cnidus they were only opposite to the
S.W. extremity of Asia Minor. Cnidus was, as its remains demon-
strate, a famous seaport town in ancient times, and we find that Jews
dwelt there in the days of the Maccabees (1 Macc. xv. 23). It was a
_ notable seat of the worship of Aphrodite.
μὴ προσεῶντος ἡμᾶς τοῦ ἀνέμου, the wind not further suffering us,
i.e. not allowing us to make further progress. ‘The word προσεάω is
not found elsewhere.
ὑπεπλεύσαμεν τὴν Κρήτην κατὰ Σιαλμώνην, we sailed under Crete
over against Salmone. Key. Ver. (as in verse 4) ‘under the lee of.’
Crete is the modern island of Candia. Salmone was the eastern
extremity of the island, off which when they came they sheltered
themselves under the island, and sailed to the south of it, to avoid the
wind as much as might be.
8. μόλις τε παραλεγόμενοι αὐτήν, and with difficulty coasting along
it. mapadéyec@a describes a voyage made by keeping close to the
shore of the island. Against a wind N.W., or nearly so, the island of
Crete would afford them some protection.
ἤλθομεν εἰς τόπον τινά, we came to a place, 1.6, on the coast of Crete.
καλούμενον Kadots λιμένας, called Fair Havens. This place, though
mentioned nowhere else in literature, is known by the same name
still. It is on the south of Crete, four or five miles east of Cape
Matala, which is the largest headland on that side of the island.
Λασαία, Γαβαα. This city has also been identified very recently.
Its ruins were discovered in 1856, a few miles east of Fair Havens.
See Smith’s Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, App. m1. pp. 262, 263.
9. ἱκανοῦ δὲ χρόνου διαγενομένου, now when much time had been
spent, 1.6. waiting for a change of wind, and in debating what course
should next be taken.
Kal ὄντος ἤδη ἔπισφαλοῦς Tov πλοός, and when the voyage was now
dangerous. 1t had come to be dangerous by the late scason of the
XXVIT. 12.] NOTES 437
year. In St Paul’s day navigation, both among the Jews and other
nations, could only be attempted for a limited portion of the year,
when the weather permitted the stars to be seen.
διὰ τὸ καὶ τὴν νηστείαν ἤδη παρεληλυθέναι, because the fast was now
already past. The fast here meant is that on the great Day of Atone-
ment. This is the Fast par excellence of the Jews, being the only one
definitely appointed in the Old Testament. It falls on the tenth day
of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish year. This corresponds to
a part of September and October of our calendar; so that a stormy
season was to be expected.
10. ἄνδρες, Sewpa...... ζημίας, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will
be with injury and much loss. Evidently the character of the Apostle
had won him the regard and respect of those in charge of the vessel as
well as of the centurion. He must have had some experience of sailing
in the Mediterranean, and so was fitted to speak on the question
which was now being debated. We should bear in mind too that he
had seen more of perils by sea already than we gather from the Acts;
for some time before this voyage to Rome, he wrote to the Corinthians
(2 Cor, xi. 25), ‘ Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have
been in the deep.’
θεωρῶ implies the result of observation and does not refer to any
supernatural communication which the Apostle had received. This is
clear from the end of the verse, where St Paul speaks of hurt to the
lives of those on board, which did not come to pass (verse 44).
For ὕβρις used of material damage by a storm, cf. Joseph. Ant. mm.
6. 4, σινδόνες...τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ὄμβρων ὕβριν ἀπομαχόμεναι.
11. τῷ κυβερνήτῃ; to the pilot. By ‘master’ the A.V. means “ sail-
ing master,’ the ofticer who had charge of the vessel’s navigation.
καὶ τῷ ναυκλήρῳ, and to the owner of the ship, who was probably
owner of the cargo too, and if, as is most likely, this was corn, he
would be sailing with it, that he might dispose of it to the best advan-
tage when they reached Italy.
μᾶλλον ἐπείθετο, gave more heed to. As the centurion was in
charge of prisoners for the Imperial tribunal, his wish would be much
regarded by both owner and sailing-master; and it was natural when
they recommended the attempt to proceed that he should not listen to
Paul’s advice and remain where they were.
12. ἀνευθέτου δὲ... πρὸς παραχειμασίαν, and the haven not being
commodious to winter in. And to tarry through the winter was what
they were most likely to have to do, wherever they stopped. The sea-
son for sailing was now nearly over.
ἀνεύθετος is found only here. But evderos=convenient is common
in classical literature and in the LXX.
παραχειμάζειν occurs in this verse and in xxviii. 11, also in 1 Cor.
xvi. 6; Tit. 111. 12, but the noun nowhere else in N. T.
ἔθεντο βουλήν, advised. For the expression cf. LXX. Judges xix. 30,
θέσθε δὴ ἑαυτοῖς περὶ αὐτῆς βουλήν.
498 THE ACTS. [ΧΧΥ͂ΤΙ. 12—
ἀναχθῆναι ἐκεῖθεν, to put to sea from thence. On the verb, see above,
verse 3.
καταντήσαντες els Φοίνικα, having reached Phenix. Phoenix is no
doubt the correct orthography of the name. The place is mentioned
both by Strabo and Ptolemy, and has been identified with the modern
port of Lutro (Spratt’s Crete 11. 250 seqq.).
βλέποντα κατὰ λίβα Kal κατὰ χῶρον, looking north-east and south-
east. Literally ‘looking down the south-west wind and down the
north-west wind.’ To look down a wind is to look in the direction in
which it blows. So asa south-west wind would blow towards N.E., the
Rey. Ver. appears to give the correct sense, and the haven of Lutro
answers these conditions, being open towards the east.
χῶρος is a Greek representation of the Latin Caurus, one of the
names given to the N. W. wind.
13. ὑποπνεύσαντος δὲ νότου, and when the south wind blew softly.
The storm appeared to have in some degree abated, and the change of
wind must have been very complete, for (see verses 7,8) they had pre-
viously sailed under the lee of Crete to get shelter from the north wind,
For ὑπὸ in composition having this sense of ‘slightly,’ ‘in a less de-
gree,’ cf. ὑποκινέω Ξε ἴο move slightly, ὑπόλευκος, somewhat white, &c.
ἄραντες ἄσσον παρελέγοντο τὴν Κρήτην, having weighed anchor,
they sailed along Crete, close in shore. In this verse ἄσσον has been
taken by some for a proper name, and endeavours been made to discover
traces of some place so named in Crete. But though the translation
‘when they had loosed from Assos’ is as old as the Vulgate, there can
be little doubt that the word is really the comparative degree of ἄγχι,
‘near.’ So it literally means ‘nearer,’ and is probably used to indi-
cate that the coasting voyage now being made was one in which the
coast was hugged more closely than usual. This is intended by Rev.
Ver. ‘close in shore.’
14. ἔβαλεν κατ᾽ αὐτῆς, there beat down from it. αὐτῆς can only here
refer to Kpyrn. And whatever sense is to be given to the preposition
must be determined by the context. The effect of the wind described
in this verse was to carry the vessel to the island of Cauda. And they
were sailing on the south of and close under Crete. ‘Therefore they ἢ
were driven still more southward. This could only be by a wind from
the north, a wind therefore blowing over Crete. Hence κατά must be
taken=down from. Cf. such phrases as ῥίπτειν κατὰ τῆς πέτρας Which
are common enough.
What happened was that the wind suddenly changed from south to
north, and coming over the land carried the vessel southward away
trom Crete. Such changes are not unusual in the Mediterranean
(Smith’s Voyage of St Paul, p. 99).
ἄνεμος τυφωνικός, a tempestuous wind. The adjective is not found
elsewhere in this sense, but the noun τυφώς for ‘a whirlwind’ is frequent,
and is represented in the English ‘ typhoon,’
AVAL: 17. NOTES. 439
εὐρακύλων, Euraquilo. This reading has the support of the oldest
MSS., and has also the Vulgate ‘Euroaquilo’ in its favour, and it
exactly describes the wind which would carry the vessel in the direc-
tion indicated. It is known in Greek by the name ‘ Coecias’ and is a
north-east wind. Some have thought that the reading of the A. V.
Εὐροκλύδων, which has the support of many MSS., arose from a corrup-
tion in the mouths of sailors. For the word ‘Euraquilo’ is a hybrid,
the first portion being Greek, the latter Latin. The form in the Tezt.
recept. gives it a look of being all Greek, and the words ὁ καλούμενος
seem to intimate that the name was one known to the sailors, rather
than a word of general use, whereas ‘ Euraquilo’ would have needed
no such introductory expression, but have been understood at once by
its etymology.
15. ἀντοφθαλμεῖν τῷ ἀνέμῳ, to face the wind. Literally, ‘ to look
the wind in the eye.’ The verb is found Wisdom xii. 14, οὔτε βασιλεὺς
ἢ τύραννος ἀντοφθαλμῆσαι δυνήσεταί σοι.
ἐπιδόντες ἐφερόμεθα, we gave way to it and were driven. The verb
ἐπιδίδωμι has constantly the sense of yielding to a superior force. That
force here is the wind. The A.V. makes the sense to be ‘we yielded
up the vessel,’ which has not so much support, though it is not un-
exampled,
16. νησίον δέ τι ὑποδραμόντες καλούμενον ΚΚαῦϑα, and running
under the lee of a small island named Cauda. For the verb cf. above
on verses 4 and 7. νησίον is a rare word, found only here and in
Strabo. The name ‘Cauda’ which has the best MS. support agrees
well with the form which the name has assumed in modern times,
‘Gozzo’ and ‘Gaudo.’ But the form in A.V. is warranted by the
orthography of Ptolemy (Claudos) and Pliny (Glaudos).
ἰσχύσαμεν μόλις περικρατεῖς γενέσθαι τῆς σκάφης, we were able with
difficulty to secure the boat. The boats in old times were not as in
modern ships made fast round about the vessel, but were carried on
in tow. In stormy weather, there was of course much danger that
the boat would be washed away. This was the case here, and as soon
as ever they had gained the shelter of the island, they set about making
sure of its safety by hauling it on board, but this they were not able
to do without much difficulty, probably because it had been already
filled with water.
For περικρατεῖς γενέσθαι, cf. Susanna 39 (Codex Alez.).
17. ἣν ἄραντες, and when they had hoisted it up, i.e. from the sea
and on board the vessel.
βοηθείαις ἐχρῶντο, they used helps. These were strong cables, which
were drawn several times round the hulls of vessels, to help in keeping
the timbers from parting. The technical term for the operation is ‘to
frap’ a vessel, and it is only in modern times that the process has
been abandoned.
ὴ εἰς τὴν σύρτιν ἐκπέσωσιν, lest they should be cast upon the Syrtis.
The Syrtis Major and Syrtis Minor are two quicksands on the north
440 THE ACTS. (XX VIT. 17—
coast of Africa, of which the Syrtis Major lies most to the east, between
Tripoli and Barca, and was the shoal on to which the sailors at this
time were afraid of being driven.
χαλάσαντες TO σκεῦος, having lowered the gear. The noun σκεῦος is
a very general one, signifying ‘tackling’ or ‘implements’ of any kind.
What was done was to lower everything from aloft that could be dis-
pensed with. They could not have struck sail (as A. V.), because to do
so would be to give up all the chance which remained of using the
wind to avoid the Syrtis, which was what they desired to do.
χαλάω is used for the management of the rigging of a ship in LXX.
τ XXXlll. 23), οὐ χαλάσει τὰ ἱστία.
σφοδρῶς δὲ χειμαζομένων ἡμῶν, and as we laboured exceedingly
oe the storm, i.e. because it continually increased in violence.
ἐκβολὴν ἐποιοῦντο, they lightened the ship. Literally ‘they made a
casting overboard.’
For the expression see LXX. Jonah i. 5 ἐκβολὴν ἐποιήσαντο τῶν
σκευῶν τῶν ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ.
The verb ἐποιοῦντο, being imperfect, probably has the force of ‘they
set about lightening.’ The Latin phrase for the operation is very
similar, jacturum facere. The ship was probably carrying corn from
Alexandria to Italy, and if so the load would be a heavy one and its
removal a great relief to the struggling vessel. On the African supply
of corn to Italy cp. Juv. Sat. v. 118 seqq.
19. αὐτόχειρεξς.. ἔρριψαν, they cast out with their own hands. This
reading, supported by the oldest MSS., is much more probable than the
first person of the Text. recept. It is not likely that the writer of the
narrative, even if he were a fellow-traveller with St Paul in this voyage,
was employed in such a work, which is preeminently that which the
sailors alone would undertake.
τὴν σκευήν, the tackling. ΑΒ σκεῦος in 17 meant all that could be
spared from aloft, so σκευή seems to mean all that could be removed
from the deck or the hull of the vessel.
20. μήτε ἄστρων ἐπιφαινόντων ἐπὶ eae ἡμέρας, nor stars shone
upon us for many days. This does not imply a continuous darkness
like night, but that the mist and spray made the whole sky obscure
both by day and night. In such a state of things we can understand
how hopeless seemed the case of the Apostle and his fellows. They
were at the mercy of the storm, and could neither know the direction
in which they were carried, nor see if they were nearing any danger.
λοιπόν, at length. The word thus used adyerbially is common in
classical Greek.
21. πολλῆς τε ἀσιτίας ὑπαρχούσης, and when they had been long
without food. This was in consequence of the excitement which made
it impossible to eat, as well as the condition of the vessel which made
the preparation of food very difficult. They had been living on any-
thing that happened to be attainable, and that had been very little.
XXVIT. 25.] NOTES. 441
ἀσιτία is used Joseph. Ant. x11. 7. 1 of the want of food which made
soldiers unwilling to fight.
μὴ ἀνάγεσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς Κρήτης, not to have set sail from Crete.
His exhortation had been that they should stay at Fair Havens, even
though it was not so very commodious as a harbour.
κερδῆσαί te τὴν ὕβριν ταύτην Kal τὴν ζημίαν, and to have gotten (lit.
gained) this harm and loss, i.e. and by so doing to have incurred this
harm and loss. But κερδαίνειν is also used in the sense of ‘avoiding’
or ‘saving oneself from’ anything. Thus Joseph. Ant. τι. 3. 2 says of
Reuben’s desire to save Joseph’s life, καὶ τό ye μὴ μιανθῆναι τὰς χεῖρας
αὐτοὺς κερδαίνειν Ξε για that they would save themselves from having
their hands defiled. So in this we may take κερδῆσαι, without a repe-
tition of the μή from the previous clause, as meaning ‘to have saved
ourselves this harm &c.’ The sense is the same in either case.
22. καὶ τὰ νῦν, and now, i.e. though my advice was rejected before
I offer it again.
ἀποβολὴ yap ψυχῆς οὐδεμία ἔσται ἐξ ὑμῶν, πλὴν τοῦ πλοίου, for
there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. The
Apostle now speaks in the confidence of a revelation. Before (verse
10) he had reasoned from the probabilities of the case.
23. τοῦ θεοῦ ov εἰμὶ ἐγώ, ᾧ καὶ λατρεύω, ἄγγελος, an angel of the God
whose I am, whom also I serve. In speaking to heathens this would be
the sense which the Apostle designed to convey. They had their own -
gods. But St Paul stood in a different relation to his God from any
which they would acknowledge towards their divinities. To him God
was a Father, and therefore all obedience and service were His due.
Cf. the language of Jonah when he was among the heathen sailors
(Jonah i. 9).
24. Καίσαρί oe δεῖ παραστῆναι, thow must stand before Cesar,
and that this may come to pass thou shalt be saved from the present
danger.
For παρίστημι with a dative, in this sense, cf. LXX. Prov. xxii. 29,
ὁρατικὸν ἄνδρα καὶ ὀξὺν ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ βασιλεῦσι δεῖ παρεστάναι, καὶ
μὴ παρεστάναι ἀνδράσι νωθροῖς.
κεχάρισταί σοι ὁ θεός, God hath granted thee. This must be under-
stood as in answer to prayer on the part of St Paul. In the midst
of such peril, though no mention is made of the fact, we cannot doubt
that the Apostle cried unto the Lord in his distress, and the gracious
answer was vouchsafed that all should be preserved. It is not with
any thought of boastfulness that he speaks thus to the heathen captain
and centurion. All the praise is ascribed to God, and thus the
heathen would learn that St Paul had God very near unto him.
25. πιστεύω γὰρ τῷ θεῷ, for I believe God. And he implies ‘I would
have you do so too, that you may be of good cheer.’ In the midst of
danger, few things could be more inspiriting than such an address.
And by this time all in the ship must have learnt that they had no
442 THE ACTS. [XXVII. 25—
common prisoner in the Jew who had appealed from his own people to
the Roman emperor.
26. εἰς νῆσον Sé τινα δεῖ ἡμᾶς ἐκπεσεῖν, but we must be cast upon a
certain island, Hence it appears that in the vision some details of the
manner of their preservation had been made known to St Paul by the
divine messenger ; and more evidence of this is seen in the remainder
of the narrative.
27. τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτη νύξ, the fourteenth night, i.e. from the
time when they set sail from Fair Havens. Since that time they had
been constantly driven to and fro.
ἐν τῷ ᾿Αδρίᾳ, in the sea of Adria. That part of the Mediterranean
which lies between Greece, Italy and Africa is so called. The name
embraced a much wider extent of sea than the present Gulf of Venice,
which is called ‘the Adriatic.’ Cf. Strabo, 1.123. See also Josephi
Vita 3, for an account of a voyage made in the same sea about the
same period.
ὑπενόουν οἱ ναῦται, the shipmen surmised. Their knowledge of the
sea would enable them to form an opinion from things which others
would hardly notice. It may be they observed some alteration in the
currents, or a different character or sound of the waves, dashed against
the land as they would be, if land were near.
28. βολίσαντες, having sounded. In ancient times this must have -
been the only means of feeling their way in dark and stormy weather.
The lead must have been in constant use.
εὗρον ὀργυιὰς εἴκοσι, they found it twenty fathoms. Literally ‘ they
found twenty fathoms,’ 1.6, depth of water.
βραχὺ δὲ διαστήσαντες, and after a little space. The verb may
apply either to lapse of time or progress in space. As here the ship
was at the mercy of the waves it is better to take the phrase in refer-
ence to time. Cf. Luke xxii. 59. The movement of the vessel mean-
while is understood.
ὀργυιὰς δεκαπέντε, fifteen fathoms. Such a rapid decrease in the
depth of the water shewed that they would soon be aground.
29. φοβούμενοί τε μήπου κατὰ τραχεῖς τόπους ἐκπέσωμεν, and fear-
ing lest we should be cast ashore somewhere on rocky ground. That
rocks were near was evident from the dashing of the waves. But the
morning, even with the faint light which appeared through the dark
clouds, might enable them to make for a part where the coast was not
so full of danger.
ἐκ πρύμνης ῥίψαντες ἀγκύρας τέσσαρας, having cast four anchors out
of the stern, thus trying as best they might to keep the head of the
vessel towards the land and yet let her come no nearer to it, until they
could make out what it was like,
εὔχοντο ἡμέραν γενέσθαι, they wished [or prayed] for the day. If
‘prayed’ be takea as the rendering, the similarity of the circumstances
to those in Jonah’s voyage would be made still greater, for then the
heathen sailors prayed to their own gods,
XXVII. 34. NOTES. 443
30. τῶν δὲ ναυτῶν ζητούντων φυγεῖν, and when the shipmen were
seeking to flee. They had hit upon a device which they thought would
enable them to have the first chance for safety, and now they set about
to carry it out. Everybody would agree that it was the most important
matter at the moment to hold the ship in her position. So they pro-
fessed to be anxious to make her secure fore as well as aft, and to lay
out anchors from the foreship. For doing this they made out that
the boat must be lowered from the deck, and that having been done,
they intended to avail themselves of it and to row towards the shore.
Paul’s interference stopped them.
31. εἶπεν ὁ ΤἸΤαῦλος τῷ ἑκατοντάρχῃ Kal τοῖς στρατιώταις, Paul
said to the centurion and to the soldiers. These would probably be
able to stop the intended desertion better than the captain of the
vessel. At all events they were strong enough in numbers to take the
matter into their own hands, and cut the boat adrift. It seems too
(from verse 11) that the centurion had much to do with the direction
of the ship. Probably he had chartered her for the conveyance of his
prisoners and so had the right to be consulted on all that was done.
ἐὰν μὴ οὗτοι μείνωσιν ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ, except these abide in the ship.
We see from this that every human effort was still to be made, although
God had revealed to Paul that they should all be saved. If the sailors
had left, the ignorance of the soldiers and other passengers would not
have availed to save them at sucha time. The skill of the sailors was
to be exerted to carry out what God had promised.
32. τότε ἀπέκοψαν of στρατιῶται TA σχοινία τῆς σκάφης, then the
soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat, i.e. cut asunder the ropes
which attached the boat to the ship. Thus the boat was cast away.
33. ἄχρι δὲ od ἡμέρα ἤμελλεν γίνεσθαι, and while the day was
coming on, i.e. before it was light enough to see what had best be
done. Here again we may notice how every means was to be employed
for safety. Paul urges them to take now a proper meal that when the
time for work arrives they may be in a condition to undertake it.
The remaining clauses of the verse are not to be understood as
implying that the fast had been entire for so long a time. Sucha
thing is impossible. But what the Apostle means is that the crew
and passengers had taken during all that time no regular food, only
snatching a morsel now and then when they were able, and that of
something which had not been prepared.
34. τοῦτο γὰρ πρὸς τῆς ὑμετέρας σωτηρίας ὑπάρχει, for this is for
your safety ; because the men when they had been strengthened by a
proper meal would be able to do more towards their own preservation.
For πρός with a genitive, meaning ‘in the interest of,’ ‘to the ad-
vantage of,’ cf. Thuc. τι. 86, ἡ ἐν στενῷ ναυμαχία πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίων
ἐστιν.
οὐδενὸς γὰρ ὑμῶν θρὶξ ἀπὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἀπολεῖται, jor there shall not
a hair perish from the head of any of you. The phrase (with a variation
between πεσεῖται and ἀπολεῖται) is a proverbial one to express com-
plete deliverance. See LXX. 1 Sam. xiv. 45, ζῇ κύριος, εἰ πεσεῖται
444 THE ACTS. [XXVIE 8. -
τριχὸς τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. So 2 Sam. xiv. 11; 1 Kings 1.
52; and Luke xxi. 18.
35. εὐχαρίστησεν τῷ θεῷ, he gave thanks to God. As he had
advised, so he set the example of taking food. But he did more than
this. He made an Eucharist of this meal. In the sight of the heathen
soldiers and sailors, he brake the bread in solemn thanksgiving, and
thus converted the whole into a religious act, which can hardly have
been without its influence on the minds of some, at all events, of
those who had heard St Paul’s previous words about the revelation
which God had made to him.
36. εὔϑυμοι δὲ γενόμενοι πάντες, and all becoming of good cheer.
Paul’s hopeful spirit had breathed hope into the whole company, and
doubtless the religious character infused into the meal was not without
a caiming influence.
προσελάβοντο τροφῆς, took some food. The ‘some’ is due to the
partitive genitive.
37. διακόσιαι ἑβδομήκοντα ἕξ, two hundred threescore and sixteen.
As we do not know the number of prisoners and soldiers, it is impos-
sible to form any conclusion about the manning of such a ship as this.
The number here mentioned is very large, and we cannot suppose than
a merchantman from Alexandria to Rome would carry a very large
crew. But to accept the reading (supported by very little authority)
which makes the whole company ‘about threescore and sixteen’ has
equal difficulty on the other side, and the way in which it arose can be
easily explained from the use of letters for numerals among the Greeks.
A vessel which could have four anchors cast from the stern, and still
have more to spare for the foreship, must have been of large size and
have needed many hands. The occasion of the numbering was pro-
bably the near expectation of coming ashore, and so it was needful to
have ail told, for the captain, in respect of the crew, and for the cen-
turion, that of his prisoners and soldiers none might be allowed
to escape or be missing. The mention of the number at this point of
the history is one of the many very natural features of the narrative.
38. κορεσθέντες δὲ τροφῆς, and when they had eaten enough.
Literally ‘ having been satisfied with food.’ When they had satisfied
their present need, there was no use in trying to save more of the food
which they had. So they set about lightening the ship. This is
implied by the tense of the verb (ἐκούφιζον), and the next clause tells
us the way they did it. They cast into the sea the corn which had
been the first cargo of the vessel from Alexandria. No doubt this was
the heaviest part of the freight, and would relieve the vessel greatly.
39. τὴν γῆν οὐκ ἐπεγίνωσκον, they knew not the land. We need not
from this suppose that none of the sailors were acquainted with the
island of Malta, but that the point of the land, close to which they
were, was unrecognised by them. When they were close in shore, and
amid stormy weather, this could very well happen, as they were a long
way distant from the usual harbour.
XXVIL 41.] NOTES. 445
κόλπον δέ τινα κατενόουν ἔχοντα αἰγιαλόν, but they perceived a
certain bay with a beach. αἰγιαλός is used to signify such a sandy
beach as might allow a ship to be run aground upon it without the
danger of her immediately coming to pieces.
εἰς ὃν ἐβουλεύοντο εἰ δύναιντο ἐξῶσαι TO πλοῖον, and they took counsel
whether they could drive the ship upon it, i.e. they saw the beach to
be such that they had a chance of landing there. They therefore
discussed the best way of doing so in their present maimed condition.
40. Kal τὰς ἀγκύρας περιελόντες, and casting off the anchors. περι-
a.péw indicates that they now cast loose all the anchors round about
the stern of the vessel, where they had before laid them out. When
they had thrown overboard a load of corn, there was no likelihood
that they would trouble themselves with the weight of four anchors
and the labour of hauling them up. So ‘taken up’ (of A.V.) gives a
wrong idea.
εἴων εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, they left them in the sea, i.e. the anchors.
They had now no use for them, so they let them go.
ἅμα ἀνέντες τὰς ζευκτηρίας τῶν πηδαλίων, at the same time loosing
the rudder bands.
¢evxrnpia is found nowhere else but in this place. The rudders, of
which the ancient ships had two (thus accounting for the plural
number, πηδαλίων), had at first been made fast and raised out of the
water, when the anchors were laid out in the stern. Now that an
attempt is to be made to steer the ship toward the beach they are let
down again into the sea.
Kal ἐπάραντες τὸν aptépwva, and having hoisted the foresail.
ἀρτέμων was in old times the name given to the foresail. Cognate
words are now employed as names of the larger sails of vessels in the
Mediterranean. But here the foresail was all they had left. Cf.
Smith’s Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, pp. 102, 153, seqq.
τῇ πνεούσῃ; to the wind. The noun to be supplied is αὔρᾳ.
εἰς τὸν αἰγιαλόν, towards the beach, where they had resolved after
consultation to try to land.
41. περιπεσόντες δὲ εἰς τόπον διθάλασσον, but lighting upon a place
where two seas met. This is one of the features of the narrative by
which the locality can almost certainly be identified. The little
island of Salmonetta forms with the Maltese coast near St Paul’s Bay
exactly such a position as is here described. From the sea at a little
distance it appears as though the land were all continuous, and the
current between the island and the mainland is only discovered on a
nearer approach. This current by its deposits has raised a mudbank
where its force is broken by the opposing sea, and into this bank, just
at the place where the current meets the sea-waves, was the ship
driven, the force of the water preventing the vessel from reaching the
beach just beyond. So it came to pass that though they got much
nearer to the shore than at first, yet after all they had to swim for their
lives.
446 THE ACTS. [XXVIL. 41—
ἐπέκειλαν τὴν ναῦν, they ran the ship aground. ἐπικέλλω is found
in Homer and Apoll. Rhodius, but ἐποκέλλω is a more common word,
and so in time came to be substituted for the text of the oldest MSS.
ἡ δὲ πρύμνα ἐλύετο, but the s'ern began to breakup. This is the force
of the imperfect tense. When the foreship was immoyvyeable, the stern
would also be held fast, and so be acted on by the waves with great
violence and begin to go to pieces.
42. ἵνα τοὺς δεσμώτας ἀποκτείνωσιν, that they should kill the
prisoners. This advice was given because, by the Roman law, the
soldiers were answerable with their own lives for the prisoners placed
under their charge.
For wa after a word or phrase signifying ‘to counsel’ or ‘decree’
ef. John ix. 22. Also Ecclus. xliv. 18, obeys αἰῶνος ἐτέθησαν πρὸς
αὐτὸν ἵνα μὴ ἐξαλειφθῇ κατακλυσμῷ πᾶσα σάρξ.
48. ὁ δὲ ἑκατοντάρχης βουλόμενος διασῶσαι, but the centurion,
desiring to save. The centurion could not fail to see that it was to
the Apostle that the safety of the whole party was due, and he could
hardly help feeling admiration for the prisoner, after all he had seen
of him. From the first (see verse 3) he had been well disposed toward
Paul, and the after events would not have lessened his regard. So, to
save him, he stops the design of his men, and saves the whole number
of the prisoners.
ἐκώλυσεν αὐτούς, hindered them (Rey. Vers. stayed them). The
verb is a forcible word, and shews that the centurion was in full
command of his men, and had not in the confusion lost his thought-
fulness and presence of mind.
τοὺς δυναμένους κολυμβᾷν, those who could swim. This was the
wisest course to adopt. Thus there would be a body ready on the
shore to help those who only could float thither by the aid of some-
thing to which they were clinging. As St Paul had already been
thrice shipwrecked and had been in the deep a night and a day (2 Cor.
ΧΙ, 25) we may be sure that he was among those who were told off to
swim ashore.
ἀπορρίψαντας πρώτους ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐξιέναι, should cast themselves
overboard [lit. off] and get first to land. The swimmers were to get
into safety first of all, that then they might be in readiness to succour
those who drifted to the land on the floating spars and planks.
For the active participle in this reflexive sense cf. Arrian Eaped.
Alex. lib. τι. 4. 7, of δὲ εἰς τὸν Kvdvov ποταμὸν λέγουσι ῥίψαντα νήξασθαι.
44. καὶ τοὺς λοιπούς, and that the rest. The case is left pendent,
because of the long apposition which immediately follows. Some need-
ful words = ‘should get to the land’ are ΜΕΥ. supplied in thought.
ods μὲν ἐπὶ σανίσιν, os δὲ ἐπί τινων τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πλοίου, some on
planks, some on broken pieces of the ship. The last clause is literally
‘on some of the parts of the ship.’ The things on which they were
saved were pieces which on the stranding of the vessel would be broken
away from the main timbers. Everything that was needless to be kept
ee VibEL.- Fe NOTES. 447
on board they had already thrown over, and so we cannot think here
of loose furniture of the vessel, but only of the framework itself.
There seems in this verse to be no appreciable difference of sense be-
tween ἐπί with a dative and witha genitive. Kriiger (p. 340) is quoted
in a note to Winer-Moulton (p. 488) to the effect that ἐπί with a geni-
tive denotes a merely accidental, free connexion; ἐπί with the dative
denotes rather belonging to. There is no trace of such distinction here.
πάντας διασωθῆναι, all escaped safe. This is better than A.V.; for
‘all safe’ may mean no more than ‘ quite safe.’
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Readings varying from the Tezt. recept.
1. ἐπέγνωμεν for ἐπέγνωσαν with NABC. Vulg. ‘cognovimus.’
10. πρὸς tds χρείας with NABI. Vulg. ‘quae necessaria erant.’
16. ὁ ἑκατόνταρχος παρέδωκε τοὺς δεσμίους τῷ στρατοπεδάρχῃ Omitted
with NABI. Not represented in Vulg.
17. αὐτόν for τὸν Παῦλον with NABI. Vulg. has not the proper
name.
25. ὑμῶν for ἡμῶν with NAB. Vulg. ‘nostros.’
26. λέγων with NBLP.
28. τοῦτο added before τὸ σωτήριον with NAB. Vulg. ‘hoc salu-
tare.’
29. Omitted with NABE. Vulg. represents it, having ‘et cum hee
dixisset, exierunt ab eo Judi, multam habentes inter se questio-
nem.’
30. ὁ Παῦλος omitted with NABE. Not represented in Vulg.
Cu, XXVIII. 1—10. THE sHIPWRECKED COMPANY HOSPITABLY ENTER-
TAINED IN Matra. Pavb, BITTEN BY A VIPER, FEELS NO Hurt.
CURE OF THE FATHER OF THE CHIEF MAGISTRATE.
1. διασωθέντες τότε ἐπέγνωμεν, when we were escaped, then we knew,
i.e. we found out from the natives who were on the shore.
Μελίτη, Melita. They would at once learn what the land was from
the natives whom they found on the shore. Tradition has from the
earliest times identified Melita with the modern Malta. But Constan-
tine Porphyrogenitus (de Adm. Imp. p. 36) and others after him have
attempted to shew that Meleda,a small island in the Adriatic Sea, not
far from the coast of Illyria, was the scene of the shipwreck. They
have supported this opinion by confining the sense of Adria (xxvii. 27)
to the modern Adriatic Sea, by their explanation of ‘barbarians’ in
the next verse of this chapter, and by the absence of vipers at the
448 THE ACTS. (XX Vie
present time from the island of Malta. But the latter circumstance is
not without a parallel. The advance of cultivation and alteration of
temperature have destroyed poisonous beasts out of other districts
besides Malta, and the two first arguments are founded on mistakes.
Moreover it is hardly possible to conceive that a ship should be driven
for fourteen days in the Adriatic without going ashore, and the direc-
tion in which they sailed after finding a fresh vessel (xxviii. 11, 12) is
also completely opposed to the idea that they were wrecked in the Gulf
of Venice.
2. οἵ te βάρβαροι, and the barbarians. The word is used in the origi-
nal as it was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Those who did
not speak their language were to them always ‘ barbarians,’ not neces-
sarily in our modern sense, but as strange and foreign folks. The
language spoken in Malta was probably a Pheenician dialect, as the
island had received most of its inhabitants from Carthage, but had
come under Roman rule in the Second Punic War (Livy, xxr. 51).
βάρβαρος is used 2 Macc. x. 4, by Judas Maccabeus and the Jews
with him, to describe the Greek enemy under Antiochus, who certainly
would not be ‘ barbarians’ in the modern sense.
οὐ THY τυχοῦσαν φιλανθρωπίαν, especial kindness. Cf. above, xix. 11,
note.
προσελάβοντο πάντας ἡμᾶς, they received us all, i.e. took us under
their care. At first of course the hospitality would be shewn by kind
treatment on the beach, evidenced by their lighting a fire. Afterwards,
as the stay was of three months’ duration, the sailors and prisoners
would find quarters in the dwellings of the natives. Paul, the centu-
rion, and some others were received into the house of the chief magis-
trate. The rain continued after they had got ashore, and the storm
had so lowered the temperature that the first thing to be done was to
make a large fire.
For the verb used in this sense of hospitable entertainment, ef.
Philemon 17. Also 2 Macc. x. 15, τοὺς φυγαδευθέντας ἀπὸ ἱΙεροσολύμων
προσλαβόμενοι.
8. συστρέψαντος δὲ τοῦ ΠΙαύλου, but when Paul had gathered.
This is only another sign of the active spirit of the Apostle. What-
ever was to be done, if he were able to take a part in it, he was never
wanting, whether it was in counselling about a difficulty, in comfort-
ing under danger, or helping by bodily labour to relieve the general
distress.
The verb is used of gathering men together, 2 Mace. xiv. 30.
φρυγάνων τι πλῆθος, a bundle of sticks. φρύγανα applies very fitly
to the brushwood and furze which is said to be the only material
growing near St Paul’s Bay of which a fire could be made.
Chrysostom exclaims: ὅρα αὐτὸν ἐνεργοῦντα καὶ οὐδαμοῦ θαυματουρ-
γοῦντα ἁπλῶς ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ χρείας" καὶ ἐν τῷ χειμῶνι γὰρ αἰτίας οὔσης προεφή-
τευσεν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ἁπλῶς, καὶ ἐνταῦθα πάλιν φρύγανα συλλέγει καὶ ἐπι-
τίθησιν.
XXVIII. 6.] NOTES. 449
ἔχιδνα ἀπὸ τῆς θέρμης ἐξελθοῦσα, a viper coming out by reason of the
heat. Dr Farrar (Life of St Paul, τι. 384 note) has remarked that the
viper has disappeared from the isle of Arran, as it is now said to have
done from Malta.
The viper in this case had been numbed by the cold, and on feeling
the sudden heat woke up and sprang away from it.
In καθῆψεν we have an instance of the active voice used for the
middle, which became not uncommon in later Greek. Cf. xxvii. 43, note.
4. τὸ θηρίον, the beast. There is nothing in the Greek to represent
‘venomous’ (as given in the A.V.), though it was because the inhabit-
ants knew that such was its character that they were so astonished at
what happened.
But θηρίον must have been very frequently applied to venomous
creatures; for ἡ θηριακή (its derivative) is the name for an antidote
against poisonous bites.
ἡ δίκη ζῆν οὐκ εἴασεν, Justice suffereth not to live, i.e. She is, as is
her wont, finding out the wrongdoer.
5. ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀποτινάξας τὸ θηρίον, howbeit having shaken off the
beast. The verb is used (Luke ix. 5) of shaking off dust from the feet.
The idea conveyed is that St Paul was quite composed in what he did,
and that the beast was no cause of alarm to him.
6. οἱ δὲ προσεδόκων αὐτὸν μέλλειν πίμπρασθαι, but they expected
that he would have swollen. Such being the usual effect of the viper’s
bite, and making itself apparent in a very short time.
The verb πίμπρημι in classical Greek means ‘ to burn,’ ‘ to burn up,’
and in the passive ‘to be inflamed,’ but in the LXX. we have the verb
used in the sense of ‘to swell’ in Numb, v. 21, 23, 27, καὶ πρηθήσεται
τὴν κοιλίαν.
ἐπὶ πολὺ δὲ αὐτῶν προσδοκώντων, but when they had been long in
expectation. Keeping the same rendering for προσδοκέω in both places
in the verse. The people had seen cases of viper-bite before, and they
had no doubt about what was going to happen.
καὶ θεωρούντων μηδὲν ἄτοπον εἰς αὐτὸν γινόμενον, and beheld nothing
amiss come to him. For the word cf. Luke xxiii. 41; Acts xxv. 5. It
can be applied to anything abnormal whether it be a breach of the law
or a change of bodily condition. For the latter sense, see Joseph. Ant.
x1. 5. 2 ὅπως εὐχὰς ποιήσωνται τοῦ μηδὲν κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν παθεῖν ἄτοπον.
μεταβαλλόμενοι, changing their minds. For the word cf. Test. x11.
Patr. Dan 4, καὶ ἐάν τις ἐπαινῇ ὑμᾶς ws ἀγαθοὺς μὴ ἐπαίρεσθε μηδὲ μετα-
βάλλεσθε. The previous clause speaks of anger, and the last verb indi-
cates the change to the contrary.
ἔλεγον αὐτὸν εἶναι θεόν, they said that he was a god. Compare the
conduct of the Lycaonians in Lystra (xiv. 11 seqq.), whose behaviour
afterwards shews that the opinion quickly formed was unstable, and
liable to change as suddenly as it came.
Chrysostom’s comment here is: dpa καὶ τὸν περὶ προνοίας λόγον εἶχον
καὶ πολλῷ τῶν φιλοσόφων οὗτοι οἱ βάρβαροι φιλοσοφώτεροι ἐτύγχανον.
TIIE ACTS 29
450 ΠΕ ACTS. [XXVIII 6—
αὐτοὶ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἀφίασι προνοίας ἀπολαύειν τὰ ὑπὸ σελήνην" οἱ δὲ παντα-
χοῦ νομίζουσι παρεῖναι τὸν θεόν. :
7. ἐν δὲ τοῖς περὶ τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον ὑπῆρχεν χωρία, now in the
neighbourhood of that place were lands belonging, &c. The nearest
place to what is believed to have been the scene of the wreck is the
town now called Alta Vecchia.
τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς νήσου, to the chief man of theisland. ἹΤρῶτος is known
from inscriptions (see Bochart, Geogr. 11. 1. 26) to have been the
official title of the governor of Melita. The island of Melita belonged
to the province of the Sicilian Pretor (Cicero, Verr. 1v. 18), whose
legate Publius probably was. Tradition makes him become bishop of
Malta.
For πρῶτος used in this way, cf. Acta Pauli et Thecle 11, where
Thamyris supports his promises by saying, εἰμὶ yap πρῶτος τῆς πόλεως.
ds ἀναδεξάμενος ἡμᾶς, who having received us. This was only natu-
ral in the Roman official, for Paul was under the charge of a Roman
officer, and had appealed for hearing to the Roman emperor.
τρεῖς ἡμέρας φιλοφρόνως ἐξένισεν, entertained us courteously three
days. This was until arrangements could be made for a more perma-
nent dwelling-place. As they must remain in the island through the
stormy weather of winter, before they could start again, it would be
needful to provide them with settled quarters. They could not be
guests for the whole three months,
8. ἐγένετο δέ, and it was so, that, &e. The words do not mean as
might be thought from A.V. ‘and it came to pass, that,’ &c., that
the father of Publius fell ill after St Paul’s arrival, but that he was ill-
before.
πυρετοῖς Kal Sucevteplw, of fever and dysentery. The words are
technical, such as a physician, as St Luke is reputed to have been,
would be likely to use in describing the disease. πυρετοί, in the plural
number, implies the jits of fever which occur at intervals in such dis-
eases as ague.
9. καὶ ot λοιποί, the rest also. It was not a few who came, but
during the three months of their stay all the others who were_in sick-
ness and heard of what had been done for the father of the chief magis-
trate (and it was sure to be widely noised abroad) came to be cured.
10. πολλαῖς τιμαῖς, with many honours. No doubt these included
gifts of money and such things as would be needed by travellers who
had lost everything in the shipwreck: but to restrict the word to the
sense of ‘honorarium’ or fee, such as might be paid to a physician, is
to narrow the meaning needlessly, and to put a construction on the
proceeding which it cannot bear. The Apostle who prayed and laid
his hands on the sick and healed them was not the sort of person to
whom men would offer money as a fee.
ἐτίμησαν ἡμᾶς, they honoured us, i.e. not only St Paul, but for his
sake the rest of the party were honoured by the people of the island.
Sek VEIL 1s.} 2 NOTES. 451
kal ἀναγομένοις, and when we sailed. See above on xxvii. 3.
ἐπέθεντο τὰ πρὸς τὰς χρείας, they put on board such things as we
needed. The bounty must have been large if we consider the number
of those for whom it was given. But Publius would set the example,
and others would not be slow to follow it.
11—16. THe Voyacr rrom Matta, aND THE ARRIVAL IN Rome.
11. μετὰ δὲ τρεῖς μῆνας, and after three months. The proper season
for sailing having again come round, now that winter was over.
ἀνήχθημεν, we set sail, See on xxvii. 3.
ἐν tAoiw... AXeEavipwa, in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered
in the island. This was another vessel employed probably in the same
corn-carrying trade as that other in which (xxviii. 6) they had em-
barked at Myrrha, and suffered so many perils. This vessel had gotas
far as Melita, on its way to Italy, before the stormy weather came on.
As the harbour was then where it now is, the ship had wintered in
what is now Valetta.
παρασήμῳ Διοσκούροις, whose sign was the Twin brothers. Διοσκοῦροι
is the name given in mythological story to Jupiter’s two sons (Castor
and Pollux) born of Leda, who, when they were translated to the sky,
became a constellation of special favour towards sailors. Horace
speaks of them as ‘lucida sidera’ (Od. 1. 3. 2), where he describes their
beneficent influence on the ocean. By παράσημον πλοῖον is meant a
boat with what we should now call a figure-head. But the ancient
ships had such signs both at stem and stern, and often the figure was
that of some divinity.
If for no other reason than the description of the vessel in which the
further journey was performed we cannot accept the theory that the
wreck took place in the Adriatic Sea. It would be hard to conceive of
a vessel from Alexandria, which had stopped on its voyage to Italy to
avoid the storms of winter, being found so far out of its course as
Meleda in the Adriatic.
12. καὶ καταχθέντες εἰς Συρακούσας, and touching at Syracuse.
The vessel takes the regular route, sailing north from Valetta to
Sicily. Syracuse was one of the chief towns of Sicily lying on the
south-eastern extremity, and was famous in classical history as the
scene of many of the disasters of the Athenian fleet and army in their
expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian war.
13. περιελθόντες, having made a circuit. They made this winding
course because the favourable wind, for which they had probably been
waiting during the three days’ stay at Syracuse, did not come.
κατηντήσαμεν εἰς Ῥήγιον, we arrived at Rhegium. The modern
Reggio, situated at the southern point of Italy, on the straits of
Messina. At this place Caligula designed to construct a harbour for
these corn ships coming from Egypt to Italy, but his intention was
never carried out.
29—2
452 THE ACTS. [XX VIII. 13—
ἐπιγενομένου νότου, when a south wind sprang up. Thus by a change
of wind they were able to go speedily forward, instead of tacking as
they had been obliged to do from Syracuse to Rhegium.
εἰς ἸΠοτιόλους, to Puteoli. This is the modern Pozzuoli, near
Naples. In St Paul’s day it was a principal port of Rome, and to it
came most of the corn supply from Egypt.
A Greek name of Puteoli was Arcasapxla. Philo in Flaccum 521.
Josephus, Vita 3.
14. οὗ εὑρόντες ἀδελφούς, where having found brethren. There was,
we see from this, a Christian Church already established in Puteoli,
and it was to such a degree well known, that the Apostle on his
arrival at once learnt of its existence. From this we may gather that
the Christians in Italy had already spread to a considerable extent,
and hence it seems very probable that Christianity had been carried
into that country from Jerusalem soon after the first Pentecostal
preaching, at which time Roman visitors were present in the Holy
City. Of course in such a place as Puteoli the Jews were likely to
congregate, for the sake of trade, more than in many other places of
Italy, and from their body the earliest converts to Christianity must
have been made. But that, without any previous recorded visit of an
Apostle, there should already be in Puteoli a numerous band of
Christians is evidence of the zeal with which the new faith was being
propagated. For it was now only about 28 years since the death of
Jesus.
παρεκλήθημεν, we were intreated. It has generally been thought
that the duration of this stay (seven days) was arranged so that the
Apostle might be present with the Church in Puteoli at least over one
Lord’s day. Thus the Christian congregation would be able to gather
in its entirety, and to hear from the lips of the great Apostle of the
Gentiles, the Gospel for which he was now ‘an ambassador in bonds,’
We do not know whether any circumstances occurred to detain Julius
in Puteoli, but if it were not so, it is a token of the great influence
which St Paul had obtained over the centurion, that he was permitted
to stay such a long time with his Christian friends, when the capital
was so near at hand.
καὶ οὕτως εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην ἤλθαμεν, and so we came to Rome. The
narrative at first speaks of the completed voyage, and then in verse 15
mention is made of some details which relate to the short land
journey from Puteoli to the capital. ;
15. οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἀκούσαντες τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν, the brethren having heard
of us. Between Puteoli and Rome there was constant communica-
tion, and the seven days of the Apostle’s sojourn in the port were
amply sufficient to make the whole Christian body in Rome aware of
his arrival in Italy and of the time when he would set out towards the
city.
ἦλθαν εἰς ἀπάντησιν ἡμῖν, they came to meet us. Because the verb
ἀπαντάω takes a dative after it, the same case stands after the noun.
For examples cf. LXX. 2 Chron. xy. 2, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν els ἀπάντησιν τῷ
XXVIII. 15. ] NOTES. 453
᾿Ασᾷ. Also 2 Chron, xx. 18; Judges vi. 35, xx. 25; 1 Sam. xiii. 10,
&c. Ifit were quite certain that the sixteenth chapter of the Epistle
to the Romans was part of the letter which was sent to that Church
we might make sure of the names of some who would he of the party
which started from Rome to welcome St Paul on his arrival in Italy.
Aquila and Priscilla, Epenetus; Andronicus and Junias, who are
both spoken of as having been formerly fellow-prisoners with the
Apostle; Rufus, Herodion and Apelles, who are mentioned there in
terms of the greatest affection, could hardly have failed to be among
the company at Appii Forum. But the whole closing chapter of the
Kpistle to the Romans appears to apply better to some Asiatic Church,
probably Ephesus, than to Rome, and so it is unsafe to conclude that
the Christians there mentioned were those who now met St Paul and
cheered him on his way.
Perhaps however when we remember the Greek influence which
prevailed in the early centuries of the Christian era at Rome we need
not marvel at the Greek names we meet with in this xvith chapter.
The first Bishops of Rome have nearly all Greek names, and even
Clemens Romanus wrote in Greek, and not in Latin.
ἄχρι᾽ Αππίου φόρου, as far as Appit Forum, i.e. the Market of Ap-
pius. The name ‘Forum’ seems to have been given by the Romans
to places such as we should now call borough-towns. The town here
mentioned was situated on the Appian Way, the great road from
Rome to Brundusium. Both road and town owed their name to the
famous Appius Claudius, the Roman Censor, and this town is men-
tioned by Horace as crowded with sailors, and abounding in tavern-
keepers of bad character (Sat. 1. 5. 4). It was distant rather more
than forty miles from Rome, and as the Appian Way was only one of
two ways by which travellers could go from Appii Forum to the Im-
perial City, it was natural that the deputation from Rome should halt
here and wait for the Apostle’s arrival.
καὶ Τριῶν taBepvav, and the three Taverns. The name ‘Taberne’
had in Latin a much wider signification than the English ‘Taverns’
and was applied to any shop whatever, not as the English word to
one where refreshments are sold. The site of this place has not been
identified, but it is said to have been about ten miles nearer to Rome
than Appii Forum: and the body of Christians who came as far as
this had perhaps set out from Rome later than their brethren. The
whole distance from Puteoli to Rome was about 140 miles. ‘Tres
Taberne’ is placed 33 miles from Rome.
εὐχαριστήσας TO θεῷ ἔλαβε θάρσος, he thanked God and took courage.
When thinking and writing about his coming to Rome, Paul had
never thought that his first visit to it would be as a prisoner. He had
hoped (Rom. i. 11—12) to come as the bearer of some spiritual bless-
ing, and to be comforted himself by the faith of the Roman brethren.
How different was the event from what he had pictured. But yet here
were some of the brethren, and their faith and love were made mani-
fest by their journey to meet the Apostle, and no doubt they brought
with them the salutations of all the Church. This was somewhat to
454 THE ACTS. [XXVIIL 15—
be thankful for. The prisoner would not be without sympathy, and
the spiritual gift might be imparted even though Paul was no longer
free. The cause of Christ was advancing ; and cheered by the evidence
of this the Apostle’s heart revived.
16. ὅτε δὲ εἰσήλθομεν εἰς Ῥώμην, and when we came to Rome. There
was much that might have been said of this land journey from Puteoli
to Rome, and the writer of the Acts was one of the fellow-travellers.
But it is foreign to his purpose to dwell on anything which does not
concern the spread of the Gospel according to the command of Jesus
(Acts i. 8), and so he leaves all the glorious sights and scenery unmen-
tioned, and tells us no word of the many monuments which stood
along the Appian Way, only noticing, what his history required, the
two little bands, that represented Christ’s cause and the work of the
Gospel, in the great city to which they were approaching.
Here in some MSS. there is an addition, see above on the various
readings of the chapter. These additional words, not given in the
oldest MSS., are yet not of the same character as many of the sen-
tences which seem introduced into the text of the Acts by later hands.
They are entirely independent of anything either in the Acts or the
Epistles of St Paul, and it is not easy to understand why they should
have been added to the original text. There is moreover such simi-
larity between the ending of the first and last words in the clause,
that the eye of an early scribe may have passed over from the one to
the other, and thus omitted the clause, and in this way may have
originated the text of the MSS. which leave the passage out.
ἐπετράπη τῷ Παύλῳ μένειν καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν, Paul was suffered to abide
by himself. This lenity was probably due to the commendation of
the centurion Julius, who cannot but have found that in St Paul he
had charge of no ordinary prisoner, and having been saved and aided
by the Apostle’s advice would naturally wish to do something in
return.
Here Chrysostom says, οὐ μικρὸν καὶ τοῦτο τεκμήριον τοῦ πάνυ θαυμασ-
θῆναι αὐτὸν" οὐ γὰρ δὴ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἠρίθμουν αὐτόν.
σὺν τῷ φυλάσσοντι αὐτὸν στρατιώτῃ, with the soldier that guarded
him. The custom was that the prisoner should be chained by one
hand to the soldier while he was on guard. And to this chain the
Apostle often makes allusion in the Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians and Philemon) written during this imprisonment. See
also below, verse 20. The frequent change of the person who guarded
him would give the Apostle an opportunity of spreading the know-
ledge of his cause, and the message of the Gospel, very widely among
the Pretorian guards who had him in charge, and many things would
have been heard by them from the soldiers who had sailed with St
Paul, which would make them ready to attend to the narrative of their
prisoner.
17—28. Sr Pauw’s INTERVIEW WITH THE JEWS IN RoME.
17. μετὰ ἡμέρας τρεῖς, after three days. At first the Apostle would
naturally desire to learn all he could of the Christian congregations at
XXVIII. 20.] NOTES. 455
Rome from those who had been the first to welcome him on his
approach to that city. But for this, three days sufficed. Then he set
about explaining his position to those of his fellow-countrymen, not
Christians, who were of most importance in Rome. For to them
would most probably be forwarded an account of the charges to be
laid against the Apostle, and of the evidence by which they were to be
supported.
συγκαλέσασθαι αὐτὸν τοὺς ὄντας τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων πρώτους, that he
called together the chief of the Jews. Keeping still to the rule that the
Gospel should be offered first to the Jews, even here in Rome, where
he had good reason to think that his message would not be received.
The decree by which in the reign of Claudius all the Jews had been
banished from Rome (xviii. 2) was evidently no longer in force. For
clearly there was an important body of them resident in the city.
ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί. See note on i. 16.
οὐδὲν ἐναντίον ποιήσας τῷ λαῷ k.T.A., though -I had done nothing
against the people or the customs of our forefathers. For everywhere
he had shewn himself desirous that his own people should hear the
message of the Gospel first, and for Jews he had never forbidden cir-
cumcision, only insisting that Gentile converts should not be forced
to submit to the Jewish law before they were received into the Chris-
tian Church,
δέσμιος ἐξ ‘Ieporodtpoy παρεδόθην, I was delivered a prisoner from
Jerusalem. The Apostle describes the result, rather than the steps by
which it was brought about. The chief captain had rescued him from
the violence of the Jewish mob, and he had never since been out of
the care of the Roman authorities. Yet but for the Jews he never
would have been a Roman prisoner, and when the Sadducees in Jeru-
salem found that he was not to be given up to them, they made them-
selves his accusers before Felix and Festus.
18. ἀνακρίναντές pe ἐβούλοντο ἀπολῦσαι, having examined me, they
desired to set me at liberty. Alluding most probably to Agrippa’s
remark (xxvi. 32) and the statement of Festus (xxv. 25). It seems
probable that Felix would have found means to set Paul free had the
requisite bribe been offered to him (xxiv. 26). All were convinced of
his innocence.
19. οὐχ ὡς τοῦ ἔθνους pov ἔχων TL κατηγορεῖν, not that I had ought to
accuse my nation of. St Paul shews himself the patriotic Jew. He
knew how many things his fellow-countrymen had suffered at the
hands of the Roman power, and he did not wish in any way to bring
on them more trouble. He therefore explains that he had taken the
course of appealing to Cesar only because he saw no other means
of obtaining his release. If that were secured he wished to lay no
charge at the door of his accusers or their brethren in Rome.
20. διὰ ταύτην οὖν τὴν αἰτίαν παρεκάλεσα ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν καὶ προσλα-
λῆσαι, for this cause therefore have I called for you to see and to speak
with you. It is possible in this sentence either to take ὑμᾶς as the
~ object of ἰδεῖν and προσλαλῆσαι, or to understand με, and render (as in
456 THE ACTS. [XX VIII. 20—
Rey. Vers.) ‘did I entreat you to see and to speak with me.’ As it
seems more probable that Paul would say he wished to speak to the
Jews than that he wished them to come and speak with him, the A.V.
which the Rey. Vers. gives on the margin appears the preferable ren-
dering. It is quite true that παρακαλέω is generally rendered by
‘beseech’ ‘desire’ or ‘entreat,’ but there is no doubt that St Paul’s
message would be an earnest request, and we might render here ‘ have
I desired.’
ἕνεκεν yap τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ ᾿Ισραήλ, because that for the hope of
Israel. The ‘hope of Israel’ is the general expectation of Messiah.
In Jesus Paul believed that the expected Saviour had appeared, and
for preaching this he had been attacked and made a prisoner. He
held the same faith as all the Jews, only going in this matter farther
than they in that he believed the ancient promise was now fulfilled.
We can see from the reply of the Jews that they understood his
position exactly.
τὴν ἅλυσιν ταύτην περίκειμαι, 1 am bound with this chain. περίκει-
μαι has a construction like that of passive verbs of which the active
governs a dative of the person with the accusative of the thing, e.g.
πιστεύω τινί τι Of which the passive form becomes (Gal. ii. 7) πεπίστευμαι
τὸ εὐαγγέλιον. Since περίκειμαι has to serve for both active and passive
we cannot have the form equivalent to πιστεύω τινί τι, but in its passive
sense περίκειμαι follows the same form of construction as πεπίστευμαι.
21. οὔτε γράμματα περὶ σοῦ ἐδεξάμεθα ἀπὸ τῆς Iovdalas, neither
letters from Judea concerning thee. This may easily be understood.
For no ship starting later than that in which St Paul sailed was likely
to have arrived in Rome before he reached that city, and the Jews who
conducted the accusation would take a little time for drawing up all -
the details which they desired to lay before the court of appeal, so that
their despatch would be sent later than the time of Paul's sailing.
And before it was determined that he should be sent to Rome they
would see no necessity for informing the Jews there concerning his
case.
οὔτε παραγενόμενός τις τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἀπήγγειλεν ἢ ἐλάλησέν τι περὶ
σοῦ πονηρόν, nor did any of the brethren come hither and report or
speak any harm of thee. It is very conceivable that during the time
between Paul’s first arrest and his arrival in Rome (a period of more
than two years) many opportunities might have arisen for news about
the prisoner to have been sent to Rome. But apparently the speakers
here wish merely to say that no news has come to them in connexion
with this trial and appeal. They seem not to have been at all anxious
to move in the matter. At whatever time the edict of Claudius was
withdrawn it could only be within the last few years (ten at the most)
that the Jewish population had been again permitted to come to Rome.
They were probably loath therefore to call public attention again to
their nation by appearing before the court of appeal in a cause con-
nected with their religion.
On the use of adeA gol by the Jews in speaking of their fellow-country-
men, cf. on xxii. 5,
XXVIII. 23.] NOTES. 457
22. ἀξιοῦμεν δὲ παρὰ σοῦ ἀκοῦσαι, but we desire to hear of thee.
He was a Jew, one of their own nation, and was likely to be able to
put his belief before them in its true light. They professed to be open
ἢ πε τὶ but this may have been only because they knew not what
else to do.
περὶ μὲν yap τῆς αἱρέσεως ταύτης, for as concerning this sect. It is
clear from this expression that they had learnt from St Paul’s speech,
though St Luke does not record the words, that he was an adherent of
: ee = Nazareth, and held that in Him ‘the hope of Israel’ had been
ed.
γνωστὸν ἡμῖν ἐστίν, we know. Literally ‘it is known to us.’ Per-
haps the speakers intended by this circumlocution to distinguish what
they knew by report from a personal knowledge.
ὅτι πανταχοῦ ἀντιλέγεται, that everywhere it is spoken against.
They were doubtless aware of many of the attacks which had been
made by their countrymen on the Christians both in the cities of Asia
and Europe, and would have heard them spoken of as the men who
were turning the world upside down. The result of the conference was
that a day was fixed, on which the Apostle should set forth to them
his opinions, so that, as they had no other means for deciding on their
course of action, they might discover for themselves what would be the
best course to take.
23. εἰς τὴν ξενίαν, into his lodging. From this word éevla, implying
hospitable entertainment, it would seem that for the first portion of
the time that Paul was in Rome, he was allowed to accept the hospi-
tality of the Christian body, and though chained to his guard, yet to
be resident in a house which his friends had provided for him, and
where he was, as far as he could be under the circumstances, treated
as their guest.
πλείονες, many. πλείων often loses its strictly comparative sense,
though generally that sense may be observed in the context, though
it be not capable of representation in a translation. Here, for
instance, the first deputation who came to see the Apostle was a limited
number, but on the day appointed for a meeting they came πλείονες,
‘in greater numbers.’ Cf. Luke xi. 53; Acts ii, 40, xiii, 31, xxi. 10,
xxiv. 1Y, xxv. 14, xxvii. 20; 1 Cor, σ᾿ 3.3 Cor. ii. 6, iv. 153: &.
ots ἐξετίθετο, to whom he expounded. The R.V. adds in italics ‘ the
matter’ and something of this kind is required for the sense. What
he expounded is declared in the succeeding words ‘bearing witness of
the Kingdom of God.’ That is, he testified that the Messianic hope,
which all Jews spake of as the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of
Heaven, had now been revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. This was ‘the
matter’ of the Apostle’s exhortation.
ἀπὸ πρωὶ ἕως ἑσπέρας, from morning till evening. It is clear from
what follows that as in Jerusalem so here, there were some to whom
the Apostle’s words were not all unwelcome. This accounts for their
staying to hear him the whole day through. For the Greek, cf. LXX.
Ruth ii. 7, ἀπὸ πρωίθεν καὶ ἕως ἑσπέρας.
458 THE ACTS. [XX VILL 24—
24. οἱ δὲ ἠπίστουν, and some believed not. No doubt Pharisees and
Sadducees a their representatives in Rome as elsewhere among the
Jewish population.
25. ἀσύμφωνοι δὲ ὄντες πρὸς ἀλλήλους, and when they agreed not
among themselves. This may have been the real cause of their inaction
in the matter of the Apostle’s trial. He would not have been without
a party of supporters among their own body.
For ἀσύμφωνος, οἵ. Wisdom xviii. 10, ἀσύμφωνος βοή, ‘an ill-accord-
ing cry’ (A.V.).
πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ὑμῶν, unto your fathers. ‘Your’ rather than
‘our’ of Text. recept. is in accord with the spirit in which St Paul is
speaking. He would wish to distinguish these obstinate Jews from
himself and others who received the words of the Old Testament as
fulfilled in Jesus.
26. λέγων, saying. The passage which the Apostle quotes is from
Isaiah vi. 9, and had already been quoted by our Lord Himself against
the Jews (Matt. xiii. 14; Mark iv. 12; Luke viii. 10; see also John
xii, 40) when He was explaining why all His teaching was given in
parables. He spake in this wise first because had He said openly all
that He wished to teach He would have had far less chance of accept-
ance than when His message was veiled under a parable; and next He
so spake that those only who cared to manifest a desire to know the
deeper meaning of His words might be able to do so. His words were
for those who had ears to hear. But most of those to whom he spake
had not.
λέγων is masculine, though τὸ πνεῦμα is the noun to which it refers,
because of the personality of the speaker.
ἀκοῇ, by hearing, i.e. with the outward organs ye shall catch what
is said, but since ye have no heart for the message, ye shall not under-
stand.
27. καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν, and should turn again. This rendering is to
be preferred on account of the restricted meaning which in modern
speech has become attached to the word ‘convert’ of the A.V. In the
older language it signified ‘to turn round and go back again.’
28. τοῦτο τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ, this salvation of God. St Paul
would be very anxious to press on them that the doctrine which he
was preaching and they were rejecting, that this, was the very message
of God’s way of salvation.
αὐτοὶ Kal ἀκούσονται, they will also hear. The Apostle does not
wish to convey, as the A.V. does, a taunt to the Jews that they come
behind the Gentiles.. What he wants to express is, that the message
has been given according to Christ’s command to tlie Jews everywhere,
for Rome may be regarded as the centre of the then known world, and
now the time has come when the Gentiles should in their turn be
privileged to have everywhere the offers of the Gospel. They also will
now hear (as well as you), though they have been looked upon by
strict Jews as beyond the pale of salvation.
XXVILL. 30.] NOTES. 459
29. For the authorities which warrant the omission of this verse,
see notes on various readings.
30. St Pauu’s PreacHine AND Novice oF HIS RELEASE.
30. ἐνέμεινεν δέ, and he remained. The non-insertion of the proper
name by the oldest MSS. here comes about because they had nothing
of verse 29. It is only the addition of that verse which rendered
Παῦλος here needful to the sense.
διετίαν ὅλην, two whole years. Of these years we have no history,
except such as we can gather from the four Epistles which were written
from Rome during the time (see above on verse 16). We know that
from first to last the chain galled both his body and mind (Eph. iii. 1,
iv. 1; Phil. i. 13, 16; Col. iv. 18; Philem. verses 1, 9, 10), and that
his case was at times an object of much anxiety (Phil. ii. 23, 24). We
_also learn from the same letters that beside Luke and Aristarchus
(Acts xxvii. 27), he had also the fellowship, for some time at least, of
T'ychicus, who (Eph. vi. 21) was the bearer of his letter to Ephesus ;
of Timothy, whom (Phil. i. 1; Col. i. 1; Philem. 1) he joins with him-
self in the greeting to the Churches of Philippi and Colosse and also
in that to Philemon. In the former of these Churches Timothy had
been a fellow-labourer with the Apostle. Epaphroditus came with the
Philippian contributions to the need of the imprisoned Apostle (Phil.
iv. 18). Onesimus found out St Paul when in flight from his master
he made his way to Rome (Col. iv. 9; Philem. 10). Mark, the cousin
of Barnabas, was also there, and another Jewish convert, Jesus, called
Justus, of whom we only know that the Apostle considered him worthy
to be called a fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God (Col. iv. 10, 11).
Epaphras, from the churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis, had come to
visit Paul, and to bring him the greetings doubtless of the Christians
there, and carry back some words of earnest counsel and advice from
the Roman prisoner (Col. iv. 12). Last of all Demas was there, soon
after to be mentioned as having forsaken the good way through love of
this present world (Col. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 10). More than this and
the few words in this verse we do not know of this first imprisonment,
ἐν ἰδίῳ μισθώματι, in his own hired house. This was probably a
later arrangement than the gevia spoken of in verse 23. The means
for such hiring were provided by the liberality of the Philippians and
others, for the Apostle could no longer with his own hands minister
even to his own wants.
πάντας TOUS εἰσπορευομένους πρὸς αὐτόν, all that went unto him.
For the fulness of Gospel freedom had now been reached, and the word
of God and the kingdom of God were open to all who sought unto
them.
31. μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας ἀκωλύτως, with all confidence (Rev. Vers.
‘boldness’), no man forbidding him. παῤῥησία implies that ‘freedom of
speech’ which was looked upon by the Athenians as the great mark of
their liberty. For ἀκωλύτως cf. Josephus, Ant. x11. 1. 12.
For Englishmen there must arise the thought that perhaps from
460 THE ACTS. [XX VITT. 30.
some of those Roman soldiers who heard Paul in his prison the mes-
sage of the Gospel came first to our island.
The historian had now reached the end of his work, and does not
even tell the manner of the Apostle’s release, though as he mentions
the duration of the imprisonment, he must have known how he came
to be liberated. But that concerned not the purpose of his record, and
so he has no word more. ‘ Victoria Verbi Dei. Paulus Roma.
Apex Evangeliit. Actorum Finis” (Bengel).
GENERAL INDEX.
Abbott, Dr Ezra, quoted, 362
Abihu, 161
Abraham, 136
abstracts only of speeches, &c.
given by St Luke, 91
Achaia, 321, 329, 340
Acheldama, 89
Acre, St Jean d’, 370
Acta apocrypha quoted, 89, 95,
113, 130, 138, 142, 158, 215,
261, 351, 417, 425, 450
actions, significant, used by pro-
phets, 371
Acts, Title of, xix. 79
— design of, xiii,
— author of, xx.
— alleged difficulties in, xxxvil.
— date of, xxviii.
— written for one who was a
stranger in Jerusalem, 85
— sources of narrative, xxxv.
Acts of Paul and Thecla, 258,
417, 450
Adiabene, 227
Adramyttium, 435
Adria, 442
Agabus, 227, 371
Agapé, 355
Alexander, 124, 345
Alexandria, 96, 156, 326, 327, 436,
451
Alexandrians, 155
alms, offering of, 412
Alta Vecchia, 450
altars on housetops, 210
Amos, prophecy quoted, 276
Amphipolis, 299
anacoluthon, 80, 408
Ananias, 134, 136
— the high-priest, 394, 406
— a Damascene Christian, 176,
193, 194, 387
angel, face of an, 158, 166
— when Jehovah is meant, 168
— alarm at the sight of an, 209
angelic ministry, 184, 233
angels called men, 84, 209
— present at the giving of the
Law, 173, 233
Annas the high-priest, 122
antecedent, transposition of, 81,
5 >
Antioch in Pisidia, 244, 245, 263
— in Syria, 224, 238, 266, 269,
281, 283, 326
Antiochus Epiphanes, 235
Antipatris, 404
Antonia, tower of, 381, 398
Apocalypse, Churches of the, 342,
363
Apollonia, 299
Apollonius, 311
Apollos, 326, 328, 331
Apostles, courage of the, 128
— no special preeminence given
to any one, 180
Appii forum, 453
Aquila, 316, 324, 328
Arabia, 97
— St Paul in, 194
Aramaic dialect, 98, 277
Aratus, 313
Areopagus, 308, 309
Aretas, Ethnarch of, at Damas-
cus, 200
Aristarchus, 344, 352, 435
462
Aristobulus, 228
Ark, things contained in the, 171
- Artemis, worship of, 341
Ascension, witnesses of, 84
Asia, proconsular, 96, 288, 335,
340, 343, 352, 358
Asiarchs, 344
Asmodeus, 307
Assos, 356
Athenian character, 309
Athens, St Paul’s journey to, 304,
305
— St Paul’s speech there, 309
Attalia, 265
attraction, grammatical, 80, 90,
101, 116, 165, 219, 374, 387, 429,
431
Augustan band, 435
Azotus, 188
Babylon, 171
Balaam, 91
Baptism, sacrament of, 105
— by affusion, early notice of,
188
— ‘of repentance’, 246
Barabbas, 113
Bar-jesus, 241
Barnabas, 132, 201, 225, 228, 264,
282, 285
Barsabbas, 90, 280
Baucis and Philemon, story of,
260
belief not always perfect, 180
Bengel, quoted, 460
Bernice, 376, 421
Bercea, 303
Berytus (Beyrout), 234, 271
Beth-din, the, 124
Beth-Hammidrash, 335
Bithynia, 288
Blastus, 235
blindness of Saul, 193
bodies of patriarchs brought up
from Egypt, 164
books on witchcraft, 339
‘breaking of bread’, 106
‘brethren of the Lord’, 87, 233
burial near Jerusalem, highly
valued, 94
GENERAL INDEX,
burial-places, oriental, 88, 137
burnings at burial, 147
Cesar, appeal unto, 419, 434
Cesarea Palestina, 203, 208,
215, 234,325, 370, 401, 403, 406,
418, 421
Caiaphas, 123, 124
Caleb, 17]
Caligula, 203
Canaan, nations of, 245
Candace, 185
Cappadocia, 96
captain of the Temple, 119
— chief, 391, 397
Castor and Pollux, 451
Catarrhactes, river, 265
Cauda, 438, 439
Caurus, wind so ecalled, 438
Cenchreex, 324
centurions, 208, 209
Cestrus, river, 265
Chaldeans, 161
chief-priests, who so styled, 337,
417
Chios, 356
Chiun=Saturn, 171
Chrestus (Christus), 317, 322
Christ’s teaching, character of, 83
— language about His parents,
87
— prayer addressed to, 91
Christian, name first given, 226
— sense of, 435
Christianity, its effect on language,
94
Christians at Damascus, 93
— warned to leave Jerusalem, 101
— increased numbers of, 151
— Churches of, in Italy, 452
Chrysostom quoted, 81, 82, 83,
90, 98, 96, 106, 109, 111, 114,
115, 120, 126, 128, 132, 145, 151,
155, 157, 158, 162, 172, 175,176,
180, 181,183, 184, 187, 188, 195,
197, 198, 203, 204, 209, 211, 212,
229, 231, 233, 241, 243, 251, 257,
260, 264, 265, 283, 285, 288, 289,
291, 294, 296, 299, 301,305, 308,
311, 312, 314, 319, 322, 330, 333,
GENERAL INDEX.
337, 342, 348, 349, 359, 367, 372,
378, 396, 397, 399, 403, 410, 420,
425, 427, 432, 434, 448, 449, 454
churches had rest, why, "203
circumcision, 287
Cilicia, 156, 281, 285, 404, 436
Cilicium, 318
Claudius, emperor, 227, 317
— Lysias, 381, 402, 413
Cleanthes, 313
Cnidos, 436
cohort, Roman, 208
colony, Roman, nature of, 290
Colossx, 291
community of goods among first
Christians, 107, 131
comparative, use of, 309, 370, 418,
420, 457
construction, irregular, 138, 218,
346, 349, 352, 372, 403, 407
Corinth, 316, 320, 323, 331
Cornelius, 208
— his devotional habit, 209
Cos, 367
Crete, 97, 436, 438
Crispus, 320
crucifixion, not Jewish, 146
cup, mentioned first in Eucharistic
directions, 106
‘curious arts’, 336, 339
curse, binding by a, 398
Cyprus, 132, 224, 240, 241, 285,
368, 373, 435
Cyrene, 96
Cyrenians, 155, 224
Damascus, 190
Daniel, 278
dative, use of the, 145, 270, 276
David, sepulchre by, 103
days, the last, 100
deacons, 152, 154
decree of the Church at Jeru-
salem, 278, 280, 377
Demas, 363
Derbe, 258, 264, 286
Diana of the Ephesians, 341, 343
Dionysius the sce aucees 315
Dioscuri, 451
Diospolis, 204
463
discrepancy, one suggested, 82
Doreas, 205
Dositheus, reputed teacher of Si-
mon Magus, 179
Drusilla, wife of Felix, 414
dual nouns, not in N.T., 338
dust, shaking from the feet, 251
— casting in the air, 391
duumvyiri at Philippi, 293
ear, why the flap of, is soft, 174
Egypt, 90.
— sufferings of Israel in, 166
Egyptian, the, 383
Elamites, 96
elders, Jewish, 124
--- Christian — bishops, 358
Eleven, the names of recited, why,
86
Elymas, 241
‘Ephesian letters’, 339
Ephesus, 96, 325, 331, 342, 361
— theatre of, 844
Epicurean philosophy, 307
Erastus, 340
Ethiopia, 184
Eucharistic service, 355
Eunice, 264
Kuraquilo, 439
Europe, first converts in, 297
Eutychus, 354
evildoing, continued,
249
exclusiveness, Jewish, 250
execution, Jewish modes of, 229
exorcists, Jewish, 336, 338
effects of,
fair havens, 436
faith, evidences of, 140
famines, 227
fast, the, what, 437
fasting, among early Christians,
239
Father, the promise of the, 82
feet, things laid at the, 131—139
— to sit at the, 385
Felix, governor of Judxa, 402,
407, 410, 414, 415
Festus, Porcius, 416, 417, 419,
431
464
fire, tongues of, ποὺ mere flashes,
103
fornication, 279
forty days, lessons of the, 81, 82
funeral rites, Jewish, 137, 177
Gaius of Derbe, 264, 344, 352
Galatia, 288, 331
Galilee, men of, 84, 247
Gallio, 321
Gamaliel, 126, 147, 385
gates of the Temple, 110
Gaza, 184
genitive, qualitative, 196
Gentiles, court of the, 379
girdle, part of Eastern dress, 371
Gitton, birthplace of Simon Ma-
gus, 179
‘Glory’, meaning of, 102
gospel, order of its preaching, 84
Grecians, the, 154
Greece, 351
Greek, Jewish services in, 152
Greeks, 301, 379
hand = power, 168, 225
hands, imposition of, 154, 181
Hannah, first speech of the Mes-
siah, 116
Haphtaroth, 253
Haran, 160
Hebrew infinitive absolute, how
represented in Greek, 168
Hebrew tongue, what, 384
Hebrews, the, 152
Helena, queen of Adiabene, 227
Hellenists, who, 151, 203, 256
Hermes, 261
Herod Antipas, 129, 238
— Agrippa I. 228, 235
— the Great, 228
— Agrippa 11. 376, 420, 432
Herod, palace of, at Ceesarea, 405
Hierapolis, 291
High-priest, purification of, 123
Holy Ghost, Divinity of the, 136
— given only through the Apo-
stles, 181
— not yet given, 331
host of heaven, worship of, 170
GENERAL INDEX.
hours, Jewish reckoning of, 100,
109
households, baptized, 291
houses, oriental, 355
housetop, place for retirement, 210
Huldah, buried in Jerusalem, 103
Hymenzus, 363
hyperbole, 95
Iconium, 251, 256, 263, 287
idolatry in Athens, 305
ignorance, kinds of, 114
imperfect tense, force of, 109, 111,
130, 139, 167, 309, 357, 400, 427
infinitive, genitival, instances of,
110, 113, 166, 196, 215, 259,
263, 278, 320, 363, 399, 429,
434
Isaac, 162
Isaiah, chap. liii., applications of,
187
Italian band, the, 208
Italy, Christians in, at an early
date, 452
James, brother of John, 229
James, son of Alpheus, 86
James, bp. of Jerusalem, 288,
275, 373
Jason, 302
Jehovah, virtue of the name, 337
Jerusalem, visitors-there at the
feasts, 94
— graves in, 103
-- headquarters of Christian body,
177
— Church of, 270, 271, 373
— synod of, 278
Jesus, Stephen’s vision of, 174
— prayers addressed to, 175
— words of, not in the Gospels,
365
Jewish life little regarded, 323
Jewish scruples, 213
Jews, double names among, 90,
242
— widely scattered, 95, 97
— hold no intercourse with hea-
thens, 216
— expelled from Rome, 317
GENERAL INDEX.
Jews, Asiatic, 379, 412
John=Johanan, 124
John Mark, 237, 240, 244
John, St, alsoa speaker as well as
Peter, 126
John’s baptism, 327, 328, 332
Joppa, 205
Joseph, name of Barnabas, 132
Joshua, 171
Judea, condition of, 148
Judaism, first Christians did not
break with, 146
Judaizers, 269, 285
Judas Iscariot, 88, 89
Judas, son of James, 86
Judas of Galilee, 149
Judas, Barsabbas, 280
judgment, not to be given in the
night, 121
Justin Martyr, quoted, 179
Justus, 90, 319
Laodicea, 291
Lasza, 436
law, to make a hedge about, 274
— Jewish reading of, 249, 252
letters of commendation, 329
letters, large, why used by St
Paul, 197
Levites, 132
Levitical guard, 144
Libertini, 155
Libya, 96
lictors, office of, 294, 297
literature, Jewish, grandeur of,
432
Lois, 264
Lord’s Supper, 107
lots, casting of, how used, 91
Lucius of Cyrene, 238
Luke, St, treatment of his ma-
terials, 87, 112, 308
— givesonly abstracts of speeches,
105, 145, 310, 332, 395
— his use of technical terms, 111,
450
Lycaonia, 258, 260
Lycaonians, character of the, 263
Lycus, rivers so called, 291
Lydda, 204.
THE ACTS
405
Lydia, 291, 298
Lystra, 258, 263, 286
Macedonia, man of, 289, 340, 350
Machpelah, cave of, 164
Magic, pretenders to, 240
‘magnify,’ 140
Manaen, 238
Maphtir, 253
marginal explanation, 131
— note taken into the text, 79,
92, 187, 210
Mary, mother of John, 232
Matthias, 90
meats, clean and unclean, 212
Medes, 96
Megilloth, the five, 252
Meleda, 447
Melita, 447, 450
Memunneh, 119
Mesopotamia, 96, 160
Messiah, first mention of, 116
Messiahs, false, 149
Midian, land of, 168
Midrashim, quoted or alluded to,
91, 160, 161, 163, 177
Miletus, 335, 357
miracles, different Greek words
for, 101
miraculous power, thought the
reward of devotion, 113
Mitylene, 356
Mnason, 372
morning sacrifice, time of, 143
Moses as a redeemer, 116
— beauty of, 166
— age of, 167
— sons of, 168
Myrrha, 436
Mysia, 288, 289
Nadab, 136
name=power, 114, 124, 427
names, proper, from _ precious
stones, 134
narration, change from oblique to
direct, 83, 401
— change from direct to oblique,
402
Nazarenes, the, 408
39
466
Nazareth, a place despised, 111,
387
Nazirite vows, 324, 375, 376
Neapolis, 289
Nero, massacre in his time, 190
Nicolas, one of the seven, 154
Obadiah, 188
obeisance, significance of, 215
Old Testament quotations, 87,
89
Olives, mount of, 85
omission of a verse, 284
Onkelos, 316
— Targum of, 160
Oracles, living, what, 169
Oriental city walls, 201
Oxymoron, 150
Pamphylia, 96, 243, 436
Paphos, 240, 243
Parshioth, 253
Parthians, 96
passive voice used for middle, 149
Passover meal, 107
Patara, 367
Patriarchs, number who went in-
to Egypt, 163
Paul, St, his flight from Damas-
cus, 199
— his visits to Jerusalem, 201,
272, 326, 340, 373
— change of name from Saul,
241
— weakness of sight, 259
— figure of, 261
— a Roman citizen, 298
— works at his trade, 317, 364
— takes a Nazirite’s vow, 377
— nephew of, 400
— before Felix, 409
Agrippa, 424
— prisoner in Cesarea, 416
-- at Rome, 459
Pella, 101
Pentecost, feast of, 93, 357
— miracle of, 94
— of the Gentiles, 220
Perga, 243, 265
persecution in Jerusalem, 176
GENERAL INDEX.
Peter, character of, 87
—his use of Christ’s own
words, 111
— imitation of Christ’s action,
206
— graphic language of, 112 .
— at Lydda, 204
— vision at Joppa, 211
— voice and speech of, 232
— speech at Jerusalem, 273
— no further mention of in
the Acts, 275
— his Pentecostal sermon, 99 ;
— his attachment to John, 109
Petrine phraseology, 88
Pharisees, 272, 396
Philemon, 361
Philetus, 363
Philip, one of the seven, 154, 178,
325, 370
Philippi, 289
Philippian Church, 298
Philo quoted, 97, 230
Pheenicia, 224, 271, 367
Pheenix, 438
Phrygia, 96, 288, 326, 331
Pilate, Pontius, 129, 247
plots against St Paul, 351, 358,
398, 418
Pontus, 96, 316
Porcia Lex, 298
Potter’s field, 89
power = angelic influence, 179
prayer, Jewish hours of, 109, 209, |
211
,, attitudes in, 366
predestination, controversy on,
251
pricks, to kick against, what, 428
priests, courses of, 119
Priscilla, 317, 328
prisoners, manner of guarding,
230, 295, 454
proconsuls, 241
prophecy, gift of, 101
prophets, 116, 227, 283, 370
proselytes, 185, 249
proseuchai, 290
provinces, Roman, 241
psalm, Messianic, 104
GENERAL INDEX.
Psalms, first and second originally
one, 248
Ptolemais, 369
Publius, 450
Puteoli, 452
pythons, 292
Rahab, 305
raiment, changes of,
Eastern wealth, 364
raiment, shaking, significance of,
319
reading aloud among Jews, 185
— of the Law, order of, 244,
252
Red Sea, events at, 169
Redeemer, the former and the lat-
ter, 116
redundancy of words, 92
refreshing, times of, 115
Rephan, name of a god, 171
restoration, double sense of, 116
resurrection, proofs of Christ’s,
1
among
— said to be in Jesus, 120
revelations made to St Paul, 194
Rhegium, 451
Rhemish version, 251
Rhoda, 232
Rhodes, 367
right hand, to sit at the, 104
roads in Judza, 184
— to Damascus, 190
robes, oriental, 231
Roman citizenship, value of, 392
Rome, Jews in, 97
— Paul’s desire to visit, 340
— Paul is told that he shall go
to, 398
— Paul arrives at, 452, 453
Sabbath day’s journey, 85
Sadducees, 119, 120, 122, 142,
396
Sagan, a deputy high-priest, 123
St Paul’s Bay, 445
Saints, early Christians, so-called,
196
Salamis, 240
Salmone, 436
467
Salmonetta, 445
Samaria, 178, 180, 271
Samos, 356
Samothrace, 289
Samuel, a prophet, 116, 246
Sanhedrin, 124, 393
Sapphira, 134
Satan, 135
Saul, of Tarsus, 175, 192, 228
Saul among the prophets, 117
Saul son of Kish, 246
scales on the eyes, 197
Sceva, high-priest, 337
scourging, 392
Scribes, the, 122
Scriptures, Hebrew, how divided,
170, 252, 411
Secundus, 352
Seleucia, 240
Semo Sancus, 179
Seneca, 321
Septuagint quoted, 89, 102
— paraphrastic form of, 102,
276
Sergius Paulus, 241
services, religious, definite form
of, 86
seven, why that number of dea-
cons, 153
Sharon, 205
Shechem, 161
Shechinah, 173
Shema, the, 152
Sicarii, 383
Siccuth, 171
Sidon, 435
Silas, 280, 303, 305
Simeon, called Niger, 238
Simon Magus, 178, 179
Simon Zelotes, 86
Simon the tanner, 206
Simony, 181
Sinai, 163—168
Sinai, languages heard at, 169
sitting, the attitude of Jewish
teachers, 290
Socrates, 306, 307
Solomon’s porch, 112, 139
Sopater, 352
sorcery, 179
468
Sosthenes, 323
sound heard at Pentecost, 95
Spirit, gift of, 84
spirits, unclean, why so called,
141
Stephen, 154, 390
— speech of, xv., 157, 159
stocks, punishment of the, 294
Stoic philosophers, 306
stoning, not uncommon among
the Jews, 145
— method of, 174
Strabo, on the dispersion of the
Jews, 97
Street, called Straight in Damas-
cus, 195
subornation, 156
suicide, deemed justifiable, 295
Symeon = Simon, 276
synagogues, 156, 190, 427
Syracuse, 451
Syria, 281, 324, 351, 368
Syrtis, 96, 439
taberna, 453
tabernacle, fittings of, 171
Tabitha, 205, 206
tanner, trade of, in disrepute,
206
Targum on Eccles., x., 16, 17, 100
Tarsus, 156, 203, 318, 383
taxing, time of, 149
‘Teaching of the Twelve Apo-
stles,’ 106, 179, 188, 238, 265,
317, 358
temple on Mt Moriah, 109
temple, frequented by the Chris-
tians, 107, 109
tempt God, to, 274
tent-making, 318
Terah, 160, 161
Tertullus, 406
Thecla, 258
Theophilus, 80, 132, 402
Thessalonians, epistles to, writ-
ten, 321
Thessalonica, 300; magistrates of,
302
Theudas, 148
three taverns, 453
GENERAL INDEX.
Thyatira, 291
Timothy, 258, 286, 305, 316, 318,
340, 352
Tischendorf quoted, 247
Titus, 271, 350
‘tongues of fire,’ 94
tongues, gift of, what it was,
96, 98, 333
torture, examination by, 392
trade, all Jews taught one, 317
traditions, Jewish, permanence
of, 186
trance, 389
tribes, the twelve, members of,
426
triple repetition of vision, 213
Troas, 289, 353
Trogyllium, 356
Trophimus, 352, 380, 408
Tychicus, 352
Tyrannus, school of, 334
Tyre, 368, 869
unity among early Christians,
93
unknown God, 310
unleavened bread, days of, 229
upper room, 354
Ur of the Chaldees, 160
verbal accord, too much store set
by, 223
vipers, 449
Virgin Mary, last notice of, 87
vision of Saul, place of the,
193
Vulgate, mistaken rendering in,
82
— reading of the, 89, 93
Way = Christian religion, 190,
334, 341, 386, 411, 413
‘we’—sections of the Acts, xxii.,
265, 289, 292, 353
widows, relief of, 151
— as a class of Christian help-
ers, 200
wine, when drunk by the Jews,
100
witnesses, false, 157
GREEK INDEX.
women, their office and help in
the early Church, 87, 290
— roused against the apostles,
251
words, the ten, Jewish name for
commandments, 214
409
Zealots, 374
Zeno, 306
Zeugma, 130
Zeus, 261
Zipporah, wife of Moses, 168
INDEX OF GREEK WORDS.
ἀγοραῖος, 301, 348
ἀδελφοί, 456
αἵρεσις, 142, 411, 426
ἀκροατήριον, 423
ἀλίσγημα, 278
ἀλλοῴφυλος, 216
ἀναβλέπω, 196
ἀναγγέλλω, 338
ἀναθεματίζω, 398
dvabewpéw, 310
ἀναλαμβάνω, 404
ἀνάστασις, 120, 121, 308
ἀνάψυξις, 115
ἄνεσις, 413
ἀνετάζω, 392
avnp, 113
ἀνθύπατος, 241, 348
ἀνίστημι, 141
ἀντοφθαλμέω, 439
ἀνωτερικός, 331
ἀπάγω, 234
ἀπασπάζομαι, 369
ἀπειθέω, 257
ἀπελεγμός, 342
ἀπερίτμητος, 172
ἀπό, 401
ἀπογραφή, 149
ἀποδίδωμι, 131
ἀποκρίνομαι, 112, 138
ἀπολύω, 401
ἀποσπάω, 367
ἀποστολή, 91
ἀποτάσσομαι, 324
ἀποφθέγγομαι, 100
ἀργυρόκοπος, 342
ἀρτέμων, 445
ἀρχαί, 211
ἀρχηγός, 114
ἀρχιερατικός, 124
ἀρχισυνάγωγος, 244
ἀσθενής, 365
ἀτενίζω, 110, 259
ἄτοπος, 418, 449
ἄφιξις, 362
ἀφορίζω, 239
ἀχλύς, 243
ἄχρι, 353
Barrifw, 83
BapBapos, 448
βασιλεία, 361
βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ, 82
βάσις, 111
βήρυλλος, 184
γάζα, 18
γερουσία, 143
γεύομαι, 211
γίνομαι, 852
γλεῦκος, 98
γνώστης, 425
γογγυσμός, 151
γραμματεύς, 346
γραφή, 87
δαιμόνιον, 807
δεισιδαιμονία, 422
δεισιδαίμων, 510
δεξιόλαβος, 40Ὶ.
διά, 81, 100
διὰ χειρός, 102
διακατελέγχομαι, 330
470 GREER INDEX.
διακονία, 91, 152, 228
διακρίνομαι, 222
διαπονέομαι, 120
διαπορέω, 213
διαπρίω, 147
διάστημα, 138
διατί, 135
διδάσκαλος, 238
διισχυρίζομαι, 233
Διοπετές, 347
δοῦλος, 130
δύναμαι, 908
δύναμις, 84, 101, 124
ἐάν, 149
ἐγγαστρίμυθος, 292
ἐγκόπτω, 407
ἔθος, 210
el, 83, 124, 149, 150, 331
els, 161, 183, 371, 398
εἰς μακράν, 105
εἷς -- πρῶτος, 353
εἷς ἕκαστος, 95
ἐκ, 109
ἔκστασις, 211
ἐκψύχω, 157
᾿Ἐλαιών, 85
ἐλεγμός, 842
ἐλεημοσύνη, 110
“Ἕλληνες, 256
᾿Ἑλληνισταί, 151, 203, 256
ἐμβλέπω, 387
éeucavigw, 406
ἔμφοβος, 209
év=4, 81, 163, 313
ἐνεός, 193
ἐντυγχάνω, 423
ἐνωτίζομαι, 100
ἐξαλείφω, 115
ἐξαρτίζω, 369
ἐξόν, 102
ἐξουσία, 83
ἐξοχή, 423
ἐπαρχία, 417
ἐπέχω, 110
ἐπί, 109, 114, 144, 447
ἐπιγιγνώσκω, 112, 126
ἐπικαλέομαι, 175
ἐπιλαμβάνω, 202, 308, 323
ἐπισκέπτομαι, 167
ἐπισκοπή, 89
ἐπίσκοπος, 228, 362
ἐπιστάς, 988
ἐργασία, 292, 841
εὐεργεσία, 124
εὐλαβής, 94
εὐτόνως, 330
ἐφ᾽ ἱκανόν, 355
ἐφοράω, 180
ἔχω, 110
ἕως, 809
ζευκτηρία, 445
ζῆλος, 149
ζηλωτής, 80
ζυγός, 274
ζωογονέομαι, 106.
ἡ οἰκουμένη, 227, 802, 408
ἡσυχία, 385
θεραπεύω, 811
θεωρέω, 126, 198, 211, 437
θηριακή, 449
θηρίον, 449
θύρα, 232
ἰδιῶται, 126
ἱκανὸν λαμβάνω, 808
ἱκανός, 199
ἱμάτια, 174, 231
ἱματισμός, 364
iva, 376
ἰσχύω, 338
καθίζω, 103, 321
καθιστάνω, 305
καί, 396
καί in apodosi, 84
kai ye, 100
καιρός, 83
κακόω, 257
καρδία, 262
καρδιογνώστης, 273
κατά, 204
καταδίκη, 421
καταδυναστεύω, 218
κατανύσσω, 104
κατὰ πρόσωπον, 118
κατηχέω, 327, 375
κεντυρίων, 208
κοινός, 212
κοινωνία, 106
κολλάομαι, 140, 216
κοπετός, 177
κόφινος, 201
κράτιστος, 80, 402, 432
κτάομαι, 88
κτήματα, 107, 135
κωλύω, 220
Aaréw, 308
λάσκω, 88
λιμός, 227
λόγιος, 326
λόγος, 80
λοιμός, 407
μαθήτρια, 205
μαργαρίτης, 134
μάταια, 262
μεγαλεῖα, 97
μεγαλειότης, 343
μὲν οὖν, 88
μέρος, 842
μή, 138, 194, 284
νεωκόρος, 846
νοσφίζομαι, 135
éevigw, 809
ξύλον, 146, 294
oi σωζόμενοι, 108
οἴκημα, 231
ὁλοκληρία, 114
ὁμιλέω, 355, 415
ὁμοθυμαδόν, 93
ὁμοῦ, 93
ὀνόματα, 87
ὀπτάνομαι, 82
ὀπτασία, 429
ὅπως av, 115, 277
ὅτι, 193
οὐ... πᾶς, 212
οὐχ, 95
ὀχλέω, 141
παῖς, 118, 180
παραβάλλω, d59
GREEK INDEX. 41
παράκλησις, 192
παρεκτός, 433
παρεμβολή, 982
παρίστημι, 410
παροικία, 245
παροξυσμός, 284
παῤῥησία, 120, 257
πεζεύω, 356
περιάγω, 243
περίεργα, 889
περιοχή, 186
πίμπρημι, 449
πίστις, 264
πληρόω, 135
πνεῦμα ἅγιον, 181
πόλις, 141
πολιτάρχης, 802
πολιτεύομαι, 894
πραιτώριον, 405
πρεσβύτερος, 228, 362
πρεσβυτήριον, 386
προπέμπω, 270, 366
πρός, 112
προσεάω, 436
προσευχή, 290
προσήλυτος, 97
προσκαρτερέω, 106, 154
πρόσπεινος, 211
προστίθημι, 229
mporparws, 317
προσωπολήμπτης, 217
προτείνω, 392
προτρέπομαι, 329
προφήτης, 238
προχειρίζομαι, 388
πρῶτος, 80, 450
πύθων, 292
TUAW, 232
mupeTol, 450
ῥαβδίξω, 294
ῥαβδοῦχος, 297
σάββατον, 249
σατανᾶς, 135
σέβασμα, 310
Σεβαστός, 422
σεβόμενοι, 306
σημεῖα, 101, 106
472
σιγή, 385
σιμικίνθια, 336
σιτία, 163
σκεῦος, 440
σκολιός, 105
govdapia, 336
σπεῖρα, 208
σπερμόλογος, 307
σπυρίς, 201
aTepedw, 288
στηρίξω, 265
στοιχέω, 376
στράτευμα, 398
στρατηγοί, 293
συγκομίζω, 177
συζητέω, 203
συμβάλλομαι, 329
συμβιβάζω, 199, 289, 345
συμπληρόομαι, 93
συναλίζομαι, 82
συνευδοκέω, 175
συνέχομαι, 318
συνθρύπτω, 371
συνομιλέω, 216
σώζω, 125
τε kal, 343
τεκμήριον, 81
τέρατα, 101, 106
τετράδιον, 230
τήρησις, 121
τί ὅτι, 138
τὸ καθόλου, 127
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY ©. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
GREEK INDEX.
τὸ νῦν ἔχον, 415
τόπος, 91, 421
τράπεζαι, 158
τροφή, 108
τροφοφορέω, 245
ὕβρις, 437
ὑπάρξεις, 107
ὑπάρχω, 110, 181
ὑποστέλλω, 359
φαντασία, 422
φάσις, 381
φέρομαι, 94
φυλακαί, 386, 427
φυλακίζω, 390
φωνή, 95, 191
χαλάω, 440
χαρίζομαι, 420
χείρ, 180
χειραγωγός, 248
χειροτονέω, 265
χορτάσματα, 163
χρῆμα, 133
χρηματίζομαι, 214
χρηματίζω, 226
χρόνον ποιέω, 326
χρόνος, 88
χρονοτριβέω, 357
ψῆφος, 421
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