Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:19

Omit ἡμῶν after πατέρας with אBD.

τὰ βρέφη ἔκθετα with אABC.

19. κατασοφισάμενος τὸ γένος ἡμῶν, dealt subtilly with our race and, &c. The expression is from the LXX. (Exodus 1:10), κατασοφισώμεθα αὐτούς are the words of the new king.

ἐκάκωσεν τοὺς πατέρας, he evil entreated our fathers. In the account of the taskmasters, the LXX. says they were appointed ἴνα κακώσωσιν αὐτοὺς ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις. Beside the hard tasks put upon the people according to the record in Exodus, Josephus adds (Ant. II. 9. 1) that the Egyptians ‘made them to cut a great many channels for the river, and set them to build pyramids; forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts and to accustom themselves to hard labour.’

τοῦ ποιεῖν τὰ βρέφη ἔκθετα αὐτῶν, in causing their young children to be cast out. The words are rather a description of what the Egyptian king did in his tyranny (Exodus 1:22), than (as A.V.) of what the Israelites were driven to by their despair.

With the genitival infinitive in this clause, expressive of that wherein the κάκωσις consisted, of. 1 Kings 16:33, καὶ προσέθηκεν Ἀχαὰβ τοῦ ποιῆσαι παροργίσματα τοῦ παροργίσαι τὸν κύριον θεὸν τοῦ Ἰσραήλ.

εἰς τὸ μὴ ζωογονεῖσθαι, to the end that they might not live. The verb is used, in the active voice, three times (Exodus 1:17-18; Exodus 1:22) of the conduct of the midwives in saving the children alive. Cf. also the remarkable use of the word in Luke 17:33.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:19

Old Testament

New Testament