Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 17:16

παρωξύνετο τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ, his spirit was stirred in him. But the stirring was of the sharpest. It was a paroxysm. 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�, ἀλλὰ διέγερσιν καὶ ζῆλον δηλοῖ, καθάπερ καὶ� (Acts 15:39). ἐγένετο, φησί, παροξυσμὸς μεταξύ αὐτῶν. ὅρα δε πῶς οἰκονομεῖται καὶ ἄκοντα μεῖναι ἐκεῖ ἐκδεχόμενον ἐκείνους. τί οὖν ἐστι, παρωξύνετο; ἀντὶ τοῦ διηγείρετο. ὀργῆς καὶ�. οὐκ ἔφερεν�' ἐτήκετο.

θεωροῦντος κ.τ.λ., 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 mutilation 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.

With κατείδωλος may be compared κατάδενδρος, κατάκαρπος, κατάκομος, κατάμπελος &c., which all have the notion of ‘abounding with.’

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 17:16

Old Testament

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