Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 5:7

ὡρῶν τριῶν διάστημα, the space of three hours. This was time enough for the bestowal of the dead body, but yet so short that news of the death of her husband had not reached Sapphira. It may have been that their home was in the country at a distance from Jerusalem, and that the husband alone came in to offer the money by reason of the distance.

διάστημα is found of a distance in space in LXX. of Genesis 32:16; Ezekiel 41:8; Ezekiel 45:2; 2Ma 14:44, but not of an interval of time. διάστημα τετραετές occurs Polyb. IX. 1. 1; and ἡμιωρίου διάστημα, the space of half an hour, Apocryph. Act. Andreæ 14.

καὶ ἡ γυνή. The construction is broken here. We should have expected an accusative and infinitive in dependence on ἐγένετο. But such interruptions are not uncommon after a clause beginning with ἐγένετο. Cf. Luke 8:1; Luke 8:22; Luke 9:28, &c. The construction is due to the Hebrew form ויהי followed by ו.

μὴ εἰδυῖα. μὴ here cannot be held to differ from οὐ. There is a direct statement of a fact, present, and nothing which can convert the words in any sense into a mere thought or conception.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 5:7

Old Testament

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