Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 14:11

ἐπῆραν τὴν φ. αὐτῶν : aorist; lifted up their voices with a sudden outburst, and then went on to devise names for the two: ἐκάλουν, “were for calling,” imperfect; cf. Luke 1:54 (Rendall). The phrase here only found in Acts 2:14; Acts 22:22 and Luke 11:27; Friedrich, p. 29, cf. LXX, Judges 9:7; phrase also found in classical Greek. οἱ ὄχλοι : the common city mob; the crowd, who would speak in their own native tongue. The Apostles had evidently spoken in Greek, which the native Lycaonians would understand and speak, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 57. But in moments of excitement their native tongue would rise more naturally to their lips, and they would give expression to their old superstitious beliefs, see Church in the Roman Empire, p. 58, and Wendt (1888), p. 313. Λυκαονιστὶ : specially mentioned not only on account of its naturalness here (see above) but also because, as St. Chrysostom noted, this mention of the fact would explain why Paul and Barnabas made no protest. Bethge's objection that ὁμοιοπαθεῖς (Acts 14:15) shows that St. Paul understood the words of Acts 14:11 is no answer, because the preparations for the sacrifice, rather than the words of the people, enabled the Apostles to understand the bearings of the scene. On the speech of. see Conder, Palestine Explor. Fund, October, 1888. Οἱ θεοὶ κ. τ. λ.: the knowledge of the story of Baucis and Philemon, according to which Jupiter and Mercury visited in human form the neighbouring district, Ovid, Met., viii. 611 ff., would render such words quite natural (cf. Fasti, v., 495, and Dio Chrys., Orat., xxxiii., p. 408). Baur, Zeller, and Overbeck, followed by Wendt, object that the people would not have thought of such high gods, but rather of magicians or demons, and the latter evidently thinks that St. Luke has coloured the narrative by introducing into it the form which in his opinion the adoration of the Apostles would assume; but the same narrative emphasises the fact that the miracle was a notable one, and we can scarcely limit the bounds of excitement on the part of a superstitious people who were wont to make their pilgrimages to the spot where Jupiter and Mercury conversed with men. At Malta a similar result follows from the miracle of Paul, and heathen mythology was full of narratives of the appearances of high gods, which were by no means strange to N.T. times (see Holtzmann's note, Hand-Commentar, p. 378). Moreover, the people, rude as they were, might easily have seen that Paul and Barnabas were not altogether like the common magicians of the day. The main incident, McGiffert admits, was entirely natural under the circumstances, and is too striking and unique to have been invented, Apostolic Age, pp. 188, 189.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 14:11

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