Acts 13:52

οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐπληροῦντο χαρᾶς, and the disciples were filled with joy. Rejoicing in accordance with the Lord’s exhortation (Matthew 5:12) when men reviled and persecuted them, which was the very treatment 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�.

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 include Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, as well as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets. (3) The Hagiographa, containing Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon[3], Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two Books of Chronicles. The command which enjoins the reading of the Pentateuch is found Deuteronomy 31:10, ‘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.’

[3] The five small books, the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, are for synagogue-use 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 appointment, which prescribes the reading of the whole Pentateuch 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 b) 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 commandment[4], and hereby may be accounted for some other of the unused subdivisions of the copies of the Jewish Law.

[4] 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.