Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 9:31

ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία with אABC. Vulg. ‘ecclesia quidem.’

31. ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία … εἰρήνην, so the Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria had peace. The sense is that the whole Christian body enjoyed a time of quiet, not as A.V. (with Text. recept.), the various congregations. The cause of this peace for the Christians was that the attention of their persecutors, the Jews, was turned from them to resist the attempt made by Caligula (Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 8. 2) to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This profanation was averted partly by the determined opposition of the Jews, and partly by the intercession of king Agrippa with the mad emperor.

κατά with the genitive of place, as here, implies the spreading of the act or condition spoken of over and throughout the place mentioned. Cf. Luke 4:14 φήμη ἐξῆλθεν καθ' ὄλης τῆς περιχώρου, ‘the fame went forth over all the surrounding district.’

Examples of this sense are not very common, but it occurs in Acts 9:42 below and in Acts 10:37.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 9:31

Old Testament

New Testament