It was customary with St. Paul to open the Scriptures first to the Jews, (Acts xiii. 46.) and to argue with them from the law and the prophets. (Acts xxviii. 23.) St. Paul made use of the same passages of Scripture to convince the Jews, as Jesus Christ did on a similar occasion. (Mat. Polus.)... [ Continue Reading ]
_That the Christ was to suffer. The suffering of Christ was the great stumbling-block to the Jews, which St. Paul now attempted to remove, by shewing them from the Scripture, that this was one of the necessary characters of the Messias, contained in the prophets. All the other marks were likewise ac... [ Continue Reading ]
And some of them, that is, of the Jews, in whose synagogue he preached, believed, and of those that [1] worshipped God, that is, of those who adored the only true God, though they had not submitted themselves to circumcision, and to the ceremonies of the Jewish law, and of the Gentiles, that is, of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who disturb the city, [2] put it in an uproar. In the ordinary Greek copies, for the city, we read the whole world. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Qui urbem concitant, in the common Greek copies, _Greek: oikoumenen, orbem: so that this difference might happen in the Latin, by the change of one letter o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Another king. These Jews suppress, with great artifice, their true cause of vexation against the apostles, and change a mere question of religion into one of temporal policy. The accusation of raising up a new power in opposition to Cæsar's, had been sufficiently refuted and disavowed before Pilate... [ Continue Reading ]
_Synagogue. In flying from the face of persecution in due season, St. Paul imitated the instruction and example of his master. When his labours are unsuccessful in one place, he renews them in another, and wherever he is, his object is always the same, to announce the truth to the Jews first, then t... [ Continue Reading ]
These were more noble than those of Thessalonica. According to the common exposition, the sense is, that these of Ber\'9ca, were of a more noble and generous disposition of mind, not carried away with envy and malice, like those of Thessalonica. --- Searching the Scriptures, or those places of the p... [ Continue Reading ]
Lactanius ridicules the folly of idolatry in a neat strain of irony, which he introduces by the following verses from Lucilius: Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere et esse homines; sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant, &c. --- The poet compares these fools to children. I think them wor... [ Continue Reading ]
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. The former of these philosophers held as their doctrine, that the Almighty did not interfere by his providence in the government of the world; that the soul did not subsist after the body; and consequently, that there was no future state of retribution. The latter d... [ Continue Reading ]
_To the Areopagus. In this place sat the Athenian judges: but some think that by this word may be here signified, some large hall or court, joining to the Areopagus, where all sorts of people met. (Witham) --- The Areopagus was the supreme and most famous tribunal of all Greece, before which all gre... [ Continue Reading ]
Over-religious. [4] Or very superstitious. To be superstitious, or given to superstition, is commonly taken for a vain and groundless religious worship, but it is also sometimes used in a good sense. And perhaps St. Paul, in the beginning of his speech to so many men of learning, does not so openly... [ Continue Reading ]
It may be asked, why they had not implicit faith, worshipping the true, though unknown, God?[5] 1st. because the worship of the true God can never exist with the worship of idols; 2nd. because an _explicit faith in God is required of all; 3rd. because it is repugnant to implicit faith, to admit any... [ Continue Reading ]
God...dwelleth not in temples. He who is infinite cannot be confined to space; nor stand in need of what human hands can furnish. Temples are not for God, but for man. It is the latter who derives assistance from them. The same may be observed of all exterior acts of worship. They are serviceable, i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Feel after him. Si forte attrectent eum, Greek: ei arage pselapheseian. It signifies palpare quasi in tenebris. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
St. Paul here cites Aratus, a Greek poet, and his own countryman, a native of Cilicia.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cherubim, which extended wings, were ordered by God to be made, and placed over the propitiatory; (Exodus xxxvii. 7.) the brazen serpent is declared by Jesus Christ himself to have been a figure of him; therefore to blame the universally received practice of the Catholic Church, with regard to pictu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Overlooked. Despiciens, Greek: uperidon. It may either signify looking down on the ignorant world, and so taking pity of it; or rather that God having overlooked, and permitted mankind to go on so long in their sins, now invites them to repentance, by sending Jesus, their Saviour and Redeemer. See... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because he hath appointed a day for judging all men with equity, by the man, to wit, Christ Jesus, a man, and also his true Son, whom he has appointed to be their judge; and by raising him (Jesus) from the dead, he hath made it credible, and given sufficient proofs of this truth, that every one sha... [ Continue Reading ]
_When they heard of the resurrection of the dead. This seemed so impossible, even to the philosophers among them, that some of them presently laughed, and made a jest of it. Others said, we will hear thee on this another time, and some believed. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dionysius the Areopagite. This illustrious convert was made the first bishop of Athens. They martyrologies say, St. Paul raised him to that dignity. It is the same person, who, observing the convulsions of nature, which paid homage, as it were, to its God, expiring upon the cross, and not knowing t... [ Continue Reading ]