Acts 17:5

But the Jews which believed not In the oldest MSS. the last three words are unrepresented in the Greek. These are very likely a gloss which has crept into the later texts, the reader who made it on his margin wishing to note that not all the Jews were adverse to the Apostle.

moved with envy( jealousy)] They did not like to see numbers of men and women drawn away from their party.

certain lewd fellows of the baser sort The Greek is more nearly represented in modern English by "vile fellows of the rabble." ἀγοραῖος, "of the rabble," is properly the man who having no calling lounges about the ἀγορὰ, the market-place, in the hope of picking up a chance living, and who is ready for anything bad or good that may present itself. We have no English word sufficiently dignified to use for such a term in translation. "Loafer" comes nearest, but of course is too colloquial. The word "lewd" meant in old English "people," but afterwards came to signify (1) "the common people" and (2) "the ignorant and rude among the people," which is the sense intended by the A. V. The word nearest akin to "lewd" is the Germ. leute= people.

set all the city on an uproar There is no word in the Greek for "all." The Jews in Thessalonica must have been numerous and influential to bring about such a tumult, but they preferred to raise (see Acts 17:7) the cry that the new teachers were enemies of the Roman power. This would gain them a larger following.

the house of Jason Manifestly the host of Paul and Silas. Beyond what is said of him in the following verses (6 9) we know nothing. The name is found, Romans 16:21, in a list of those whom St Paul speaks of as his "kinsmen," but this may be quite a different person. He is most likely to have been a Jew, whose proper name perhaps was Joseph, and Jason, which is Greek, may be only that which he used in his intercourse with Gentiles.

bring them out to the people So that the excited mob might inflict summary vengeance on them.