_ With an entire good conscience. With an upright sincerity. But St. Paul is far from excusing himself from all sin. He laments elsewhere his blind zeal in persecuting the Christians. See 1 Corinthians xv. 9. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
God will strike thee, thou whited wall. [1] These words are rather by way of a prophecy. (Witham) --- Whited wall. That is, hypocrite, for pretending to judge me according to law; whereas, against all sense of justice, thou strikest me before my condemnation; nay, even without giving me a hearing. T... [ Continue Reading ]
I knew not, &c. Some think St. Paul here speaks ironically, or to signify that now he could be no longer high priest since the Mosaic law, with its rites and ceremonies, was abolished. But St. John Chrysostom rather judges that St. Paul having been long absent from Jerusalem, might not know the pers... [ Continue Reading ]
I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. [2] It may signify only a disciple of the Pharisees, though the common Greek copies have of a Pharisee. (Witham) --- The address of the apostle in this is great. Knowing the different dispositions of his judges, he throws disunion into their councils, in order... [ Continue Reading ]
_There arose a dissension. By the Greek, a division, or schism among them, occasioned by St. Paul's declaring himself for the resurrection, which made the Pharisees favour him, and incensed the Sadducees. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be constant...so must thou bear witness also at Rome; and so needest not fear to be killed by them. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bound themselves. The Greek is, anathematized, that is, submitted themselves to a curse, if they did not kill Paul. It was a great imprecation, the violation of which would have been equivalent to renouncing their belief in God. See to what degree of iniquity this nation is come. When any good is i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forty men that had made this conspiracy, [3] and bound themselves with an impious curse, or imprecation upon themselves, if they did not kill him. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Devoverunt se, _Greek: anathematisan. [ver. 14, bind under a great curse.]_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Taking him by the hand, with marks of affection and tenderness. It is probable that he tribune expected this young man was come to offer some ransom for Paul's liberty. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_From the third hour of the night. If the tribune spoke with a regard to the twelve hours of the night, the third hour was three hours after sunset, and was about our nine o'clock at night; but if he meant the third watch of the night, that began at midnight. See Matthew xiv. 35. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Felix. This man had been a slave of the emperor Claudius. The high priest, Jonathan, had procured him to be made governor of Judea. He governed the country with great cruelty and outrage; exercising the power of a king, says Tacitus, with all the insolence and meanness of a slave, who is neither re... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is omitted in the Greek. Antipatris was a pleasant city on the Mediterranean sea, situated at equal distance, about 24 miles, between Joppe and Cæsarea, on the way from Jerusalem to this latter city. (Matt. Polus)... [ Continue Reading ]
_I rescued...having understood that he is a Roman. This was not true, if we understand it of the first time he rescued him; but may be true, if meant of the second time. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
This was a palace erected by Herod the Great; in which the governors had taken up their habitation. (Bible de Vence)... [ Continue Reading ]