Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary Acts》

πάς. δικ., of all that is right.

διαστρ. κ. τ. λ.] The οὐ παύσῃ evidently makes this apply, not to Elymas’s conduct on this occasion merely, but to his whole life of imposture and perversion of others. The especial sin was, that of laying hold of the nascent enquiry after God in the minds of men, and wresting it to a wrong direction.

κυρίου, here and Acts 13:11, is Jehovah. If, as some suppose, the reading of the name Bar-jesus is Bar-jehu, the repetition may be allusive: as in the other case might the ἐχθρὲ πάς. δικαιοσύνης to the name Jesus. But Meyer supposes the various readings in the forms of the name (Barsuma, Barjesuban) to have arisen from a desire to reverence the Name Jesus.

τυφλὸς μὴ βλέπων] so μνήσθητι μὴ ἐπιλάθῃ, Deuteronomy 9:7.

Verse 11

ἀχλὺς κ. σκότος] In the same precise and gradual manner is the healing of the lame man, ch. Acts 3:8, described: ἔστη (first), κ. περιεπάτει. So here, first a dimness came on him,—then total darkness. And we may conceive this to have been evinced by his gestures and manner under the infliction.

Verse 12

12. ἐπὶ τῇ διδ. τ. κυρ.] Hesitating as he had been before between the teaching of the sorcerer and that of the Apostle, he is amazed at the divine power accompanying the latter, and gives himself up to it. It is not said that he was baptized: but the supposition is not thereby excluded: see Acts 13:48; ch. Acts 17:12; Acts 17:34; Acts 18:8, first part.

Verse 13

Henceforward Paul is the principal person, and Barnabas is thrown into the background.

πέργην τ. παμφ.] Perga lies on the Cestrus, which flows into the bay of Attaleia. It is sixty stadia from the mouth ( εἶθʼ ὁ κέστρος ποταμός, ὃν ἀναπλεύσαντι σταδίους ἑξήκοντα πέργη πόλις, Strabo, xiv. p. 667), “between and upon the sides of two hills, with an extensive valley in front, watered by the river Cestrus, and backed by the mountains of the Taurus.” (C. and H. vol. i. p. 195, from Sir C. Fellows’s Asia Minor.) The remains are almost entirely Greek, with few traces of later inhabitants (p. 194 and note).

The inhabitants of Pamphylia were nearly allied in character to those of Cilicia ( οἱ πάμφυλοι, πολὺ τοῦ κιλικίου φίλου μετέχοντες, Srabo, xii. § 7): and it may have been Paul’s design, having already preached in his own province, to extend the Gospel of Christ to this neighbouring people.

John probably took the opportunity of some ship sailing from Perga. His reason for returning does not appear, but may be presumed from ch. Acts 15:38 to have been, unsteadiness of character, and unwillingness to face the dangers abounding in this rough district (see below). He afterwards, having been the subject of dissension between Paul and Barnabas, ch. Acts 15:37-40, accompanied the latter again to Cyprus; and we find him at a much later period spoken of by Paul, together with Aristarchus and Jesus called Justus, as having been a comfort to him (Colossians 4:10-11): and again in 2 Timothy 4:11, as profitable to him for the ministry.

Verse 14

ἀντιόχεια ἡ πισιδία or πρὸς πισιδίᾳ, Strabo, xii. 8, was founded originally (Strabo, ib.) by the Magnetes on the Meander, and subsequently by Seleucus Nicator, and became, under Augustus, a Roman colony ( ἔχουσα ἐποικίαν ῥωμαίων, Strabo, ib.:—‘Pisidarum colonia Cæsarea, eadem Antiocheia.’ Plin. Acts 13:24.

‘In Pisidia juris Italici est colonia Antiochensium,’ Paulus, Digest. i. 15). Its position is described by Strabo as being on a hill, and was unknown or wrongly placed till Mr. Arundell found its ruins at a place now called Yalobatch, answering to Strabo’s description: where since an inscription has been found with the letters ANTIOCHEAE CAESARE (C. and H. pp. 205, 207 note).

Verse 15

ἀπέστειλαν] Then they were not sitting in the πρωτοκαθεδρίαι, Matthew 23:6, but somewhere among the congregation. The message was probably sent to them as having previously to this taught in the city, and thus being known to have come for that purpose. See, as illustrating our narrative, Luke 4:17 ff. and notes.

Verse 16

16. κατασείσας τ. χειρί] As was his practice; see ch. Acts 21:40. See also ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα, ch. Acts 26:1.

On the character, &c. of Paul’s speeches reported in the Acts, see Prolegg. § i. 13; ii. 17.

The contents of this speech (Acts 13:16-41) may be thus arranged: I. Recapitulation of God’s ancient deliverances of His people and mercies towards them, ending with His crowning mercy, the sending of the Deliverer and promised Son of David (Acts 13:16-25). II. The history of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, and of God’s fulfilment of His promise by raising Him from the dead (Acts 13:26-37). III. The personal application of this to all present,—the announcement to them of justification by faith in Jesus, and solemn warning against the rejection of Him (Acts 13:38-41). It is in the last degree unsafe to argue, as Wordsworth has done, that, because Strabo asserts the language of the Pisidians to have been neither Greek nor Lydian, St. Paul must have spoken to them by virtue of his miraculous gift of tongues. To the question put by Wordsw., “In what language did St. Paul preach in Pisidia?” we may reply, seeing that he preached in the synagogue after the reading of the law and prophets, “In the same language as that in which the law and prophets had just been read.”

οἱ φοβ. τ. θ.] The (uncircumcised) proselytes of the gate; not excluding even such pious Gentiles, not proselytes in any sense, who might be present. The speech, from the beginning and throughout, is universal in its application, embracing Jews and Gentiles.

Verse 17

17. τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου] ‘Hoc dicit Pisidis, Judæos digito monstrans’ (Grot.). Or rather, perhaps by the τούτου indicating, without gesture, the people in whose synagogue they were assembled.

τ. πατ. ἡμῶν] It is evident that the doctrine so much insisted on afterwards by Paul, that all believers in Christ were the true children of Abraham, was fully matured already: by the τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου he alludes to the time when God was the God of the Jews only: by this ἡμῶν he unites all present in the now extended inheritance of the promises made to the fathers.

ὕψωσεν] Evidently an allusion to Isaiah 1:2, where the word is also used in the sense of ‘bringing up,’ nourishing to manhood. This was done by increasing them in Egypt so that they became a great nation: see ref. Gen. There is no reference to any exaltation of the people during their stay in Egypt: whether by their deliverance (Calv., Heinr., Elsner), or by the miracles of Moses (Meyer), or by Joseph’s preferment to honour (Beza, Grot.).

Verse 18

Verse 19

The unusual transitive sense of κατεκληρονόμησεν, justified by reff. LXX, has not been understood by the copyists, and has led to the rec. reading.

From the occurrence of manifest references, in these opening verses of the speech, to Deuteronomy 1 and Isaiah 1, combined with the fact that these two chapters form the present lessons in the synagogues on one and the same sabbath, Bengel and Stier conclude that they had been then read. It may have been so: but see on Acts 13:15.

Verse 20

It seems then that Paul followed a chronology current among the Jews, and agreeing with the book of Judges itself (the spaces of time in which, added together = exactly 450), and that adopted by Josephus, but not with that of our present Hebrew text of 1 Kings 6:1. The objection to this view, that Josephus is not consistent with himself (Olsh.),—but in Antt. xx. 10. 1, contra Apion. ii. 2 gives another chronology, has arisen from not observing that in the latter places, where he states 612 years to have elapsed from the Exodus to Solomon’s temple, he reckons in the twenty years occupied in building the temple and the king’s house, 1 Kings 6:38; 1 Kings 7:1. His words are, Antt. xx. 10. 1, ἀφʼ ἧς ἡμέρας οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἐξέλιπον αἴγυπτον ΄ωυσέως ἄγοντος, μέχρι τῆς τοῦ ναοῦ κατασκευῆς, ὃν σολομῶν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν ἱεροσολύμοις ἀνήγειρεν, ἔτη δυοκαίδεκα πρὸς τοῖς ἑξακοσίοις. To reckon in the thirteen years during which he was building his own house may be an inaccuracy, but there is no inconsistency.

Wordsworth, contrary to his usual practice, takes refuge in the amended text of ^{(68) (69) (70)}, and then characterizes in the severest language those who have had the moral courage to abide by the more difficult reading, charging them with “arbitrary caprice,” “gratifying a sceptical appetite,” &c. I cite this as an example of that elastic criticism, which by any means within reach, and at any price, smooths away every difficulty from the sacred text.

σαμουήλ] mentioned as the terminus of the period of the Judges, also as having been so nearly concerned in the setting up over them of Saul and David.

Verse 21

21. σαοὺλ … ἄνδρα ἐκ φ. β.] It may be not altogether irrelevant to notice that a Saul, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, was speaking; and to trace in this minute specification something characteristic and natural.

ἔτη τεσσεράκοντα] So also Josephus: ἐβασίλευσε σαοὺλ σαμουήλου ζῶντος ἔτη ὀκτὼ πρὸς τοῖς δέκα· τελευτήσαντος δὲ δύο καὶ εἴκοσι, Antt. vi. 14. 9. In the O. T. the length of Saul’s reign is not specified; 1 Samuel 7:2 gives no reason, as Bengel thinks, why Saul’s reign should have been less than twenty years, as the twenty years there mentioned do not extend to the bringing up of the ark by David, but only to the circumstances mentioned in the following verses. Biscoe has well shewn (p. 399), that as Saul was a young man when anointed king, and Ishbosheth his youngest son (1 Chronicles 8:33) was forty years old at his death (2 Samuel 2:10), his reign cannot have been much short of that period. It is clearly against the construction to suppose Samuel’s time as well as Saul’s included in the forty years, following as they do upon the ἔδωκεν. Yet this has been done by the majority of Commentators.

Verse 22

22. μεταστήσας] having deposed him (reff.): in this case, by his death, for David was not made king till then. Or perhaps μεταστ. may refer to the sentence pronounced against Saul, 1 Samuel 13:14, or Acts 15:23; Acts 15:28, and ἤγειρεν to the whole process of the exaltation of David to be king. But I prefer the former.

ᾧ κ. εἶπεν μ.] The two passages, Psalms 89; (88 LXX) 20, and 1 Samuel 13:14, are interwoven together: both were spoken of David, and both by prophetic inspiration. They are cited from memory, neither τὸν τοῦ ἰεσσαί nor ὅς … μου being found in them. These latter words are spoken of Cyrus, see reff. That such citations are left in their present shape in our text, forms a strong presumption that we have the speeches of Paul verbatim as delivered by him, and no subsequent general statement of what he said, in which case the citations would have been corrected by the sacred text.

Verse 23

23. κατʼ ἐπαγγ. ἤγαγεν] viz. the promise in ref. Zech. (LXX), where the very word ἄγω is used; not however excluding the many other promises to the same effect.

The reading σωτηρίαν has probably arisen from the contracted way of writing ἰησοῦν, thus: σωτηραῑν; and then from Acts 13:26 σωτηρίαν was adopted.

Verse 24

24. εἰσόδου] referring to ἤγαγεν above—his coming forward publicly.

Verse 25

τί ἐμὲ ὑπ. εἶν.] Not, ‘I am not that which ye suppose me to be,’ as Vulg. (reading τίνα,—quem me arbitramini esse, non sum ego); Luth., Grot., Kuin.,—making τί (or τίνα) relative, which it will not bear (see note on 1 Corinthians 15:2); but What suppose ye me to be? I am not He. See Luke 3:15 ff.

Verse 26

26. [The same two classes (see on Acts 13:16), Jews and God-fearing gentiles, are here again addressed.]

τ. σωτηρίας ταύτης] viz. the salvation implied in Jesus being a σωτήρ—salvation by Him.

Verse 27

27.] The position of ἡμῖν at the commencement of its clause in the last verse shews the emphasis to be on it, and now the reason is given—for the Jews in Jerusalem have rejected it. See ch. Acts 22:18-21.

τὰς φωνάς is not governed by ἀγνοήσαντες, which makes the sentence an unusually harsh one in construction, requiring αὐτόν to be supplied after κριν., and αὐτάς after ἐπλήρωσαν. The καί, as often, merely introduces, without the emphasis implied by our ‘even,’ a new element into the sentence. It is perhaps hardly possible to find in our language or the Latin any one word which may give exactly this slight shade of meaning, and no more: paraphrased, the sense might be (but imperfectly and clumsily) thus represented: in their ignorance of Him (not only rejected His salvation, but) by judging Him, fulfilled the voices of the prophets, &c.

Verse 28

28.] Not, ‘though,’ but rather because they found no cause: when they found no cause of death in him, they besought, &c.: see Luke 23:22-23.

Verse 29

Joseph and Nicodemus, be it observed, were both ἄρχοντες.

Paul touches but lightly on the cross of Christ, and hastens on to the great point, the Resurrection, as the fulfilment of prophecy and seal of the Messiahship of Jesus.

Verse 31

Verse 32

ἀναστήσας] The meaning having raised Him from the dead is absolutely required by the context: both because the word is repeated with ἐκ νεκρῶν (Acts 13:34), and because the Apostle’s emphasis throughout the passage is on the Resurrection (Acts 13:30) as the final fulfilment ( ἐκπεπλήρωκεν) of God’s promises regarding Jesus. This is maintained by Luther, Hammond, Le Clerc, Meyer, &c.: the other meaning, ‘having raised up,’ as in ch. Acts 7:37, προφήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει ὁ κύριος,—by Calvin, Beza, Calov., Wolf, Michaelis, Rosenm., Heinrichs, Kuinoel, Olsh., and by Mr. Humphry. Meyer well remarks, that this meaning would hardly in our passage have been thought of or defended, had it not been that the subjoined citation from Psalms 2 has been thought necessarily to apply to our Lord’s mission upon earth.

Verse 33

33.] The reading ἐν τῷ πρώτεῳ ψαλμῷ is explained thus: “hic psalmus qui nobis secundus est olim primus fuit, quod is qui præcedit, tanquam proœmium, numeratus non esset.” Rosenm. Arg. Psalms 2 St. Paul refers the prophecy in its full completion to the Resurrection of our Lord: similarly in Romans 1:4, ὁρισθέντος υἱοῦ θεοῦ ἐν δυνάμει … ἑξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν.

Verse 34

But here the ὑποστρ. εἰς διαφθ. does not merely imply death, so that Jesus should have once undergone it, and no more hereafter, as the E. V. seems to imply: but we must supply ‘to die, and in consequence to’ before the words, understanding them as the result of death, if it had dominion over him: thus the clause answers even more remarkably to Romans 6:9.

τὰ ὅσια is the LXX rendering of חַסְדֵי, ref. Isa., which in 2 Chronicles 6:42, they have translated τὰ ἐλέη . The word ‘holy’ should have been preserved in the E. V., as answering to τὸν ὅσιόν σου below; the mercies of David, holy and sure: or my holy promises which I made sore unto David.

Verse 35

ἑτέρῳ] viz. ψαλμῷ, referring to Acts 13:33.

λέγει] viz. ὁ θεός, not David: the subject is continued from Acts 13:32; Acts 13:34, and fixed by εἴρηκεν and δώσω just preceding. δώσεις and ὅσιον accurately correspond to δώσω and ὅσια before. See on ch. Acts 2:27.

Verse 36

ἰδίᾳ γενεᾷ] The dative commodi, not ‘sua generatione,’ which is flat in the extreme. David ministered only to the generation in which he lived: but διὰ τούτου, remission of sins is preached ὑμῖν, and to all who believe on Him.

τῇ τοῦ θ. βουλῇ is best taken with ὑπηρετήσας, not with ἐκοιμήθη:—as E. V., after he had served his own generation by the will (i.e. according to the appointment) of God. His whole course was marked out and fixed by God—he fulfilled it, and fell asleep. I prefer this, because joining τῇ τοῦ θ. β. with ἐκοιμήθη seems to diminish the importance of that verb in the sentence. (See, on the whole, 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 2:10.)

προσετ. κ. τ. λ.] An expression arising from the practice of burying families together: see reff. and passim in O. T.

Verse 38

38.] Paul speaks here of justification only in its lowest sense, as negative, and synonymous with remission of sins; he does not unfold here that higher sense of δικαιόω, the accounting righteous, which those who have from God are δίκαιοι ἐκ πίστεως. It is the first office of the Spirit by which he spoke, ἐλέγχειν περὶ ἁμαρτίας, before He ἐλέγχει περὶ δικαιοσύνης: therefore he dwells on the ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν, merely just giving a glimpse of the great doctrine of justification, of which he had such wonderful things to write and to say.

Verse 39