Acts 8:2

ἐποίησαν with אABCD.

2. συνεκόμισαν, they carried to burial. The verb is found in classical Greek for ‘to help in burying,’ cf. Soph. Ajax, 1048 τόνδε τὸν νεκρὸν … μὴ συγκομίζειν; also Thuc. VI. 71 συγκομίσαντες δὲ τοὺς ἐαυτῶν νεκρούς, ‘having carried forth their own dead,’ where the corpses however were to be burned not buried.

The Jews paid great attention to funeral rites. Cp. Midrash Rabbah on Genesis 47:29 (par. 96), ‘Deal kindly and truly with me,’ literally, ‘Do with me kindness and truth.’ “Is there then a kindness of falsehood, that he says, kindness and truth? How is this? There is a common proverb which says, ‘Is the son of thy friend dead?’ Put on the load (i.e. bear the burden with him). Is thy friend himself dead? Put off the load (his survivors will not requite you for your sympathy). Therefore he says to him, ‘If thou wilt do me a kindness after my death, that is a kindness of truth.’ And in all Ashkenazic prayer-books it is said: ‘These are the works of which a man reaps the interest in this world, and the capital endures in the world to come: the honouring of father and mother, the doing of acts of mercy, … the bearing forth the dead, the reconciliation of a man to his neighbour, but the study of the Torah is above them all.’ ” Cp. Mishna Peah I. 1.

εὐλαβεῖς, devout. See note on Acts 2:5.

καὶ ἐποίησαν κοπετὸν μέγαν, and made great lamentation. κοπετός is not a classical word but is frequent in the LXX., most generally with the cognate verb, as κόπτεσθαι κοπετόν Genesis 1:10; Zechariah 12:10; 1Ma 2:70, &c. But ποιῆσαι' κοπετόν occurs Jeremiah 6:26; Micah 1:8. The word signifies the beating on the breast which is one of the outward expressions of great sorrow. The Hebrew word for mourning (Genesis 23:2; 2 Samuel 3:31 &c.) has the same sense. It must have needed no little courage at such a time to perform the funeral rites for one who had fallen as Stephen had, by the fury of the whole people.