Acts 16:1
κατήντησε : only in Luke and Paul, nine times in Acts, four times in Paul, Acts 18:19; Acts 18:24; Acts 20:15; Acts 21:7; Acts 25:13; Acts 26:7; Acts 27:12; Acts 28:13; 1 Corinthians 10:11;... [ Continue Reading ]
κατήντησε : only in Luke and Paul, nine times in Acts, four times in Paul, Acts 18:19; Acts 18:24; Acts 20:15; Acts 21:7; Acts 25:13; Acts 26:7; Acts 27:12; Acts 28:13; 1 Corinthians 10:11;... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐμαρτυρεῖτο, _cf._ Acts 6:3; Acts 10:22; Acts 22:12. The good report which may well have been formed to some extent by the aptitude and fitness which Timothy had shown in the Church during St. Paul's absence may also have helped the Apostle in the selection of his future companion. The union of Lyst... [ Continue Reading ]
περιέτεμεν αὐτὸν : the act might be performed by _any Israelite; cf._ Genesis 17:23 for a similar phrase which may indicate that St. Raul performed the act himself. See also Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, ii., 674; the marriage and the exemption of Timothy from the Mosaic law may be reg... [ Continue Reading ]
A proof of St. Paul's loyalty to the Jerusalem compact. The decree had not been delivered in Syria and Cilicia (where the letter had been already received), but in Galatia St. Paul delivers it. Wendt regards Acts 16:4-5 as interpolated by the author, who desires to give a universal importance to the... [ Continue Reading ]
αἱ μὲν οὖν ἐκκ.: the last time ἐκκλησία is used by St. Luke, except of the Jerusalem Church, and in the peculiar case of the elders at Ephesus, Hort, _Ecclesia_, p. 95. Rendall, _Appendix_, μὲν οὖν, p. 165, connects this verse with the following paragraph, _cf._ Acts 9:31, so apparently Blass in β.... [ Continue Reading ]
διελθόντες δὲ τὴν Φ. καὶ τὴν Γ. χώραν, see critical notes, and also additional note at the end of chap. 18. If we follow R.V. text and omit the second τὴν, and regard both Φ. and Γ. as adjectives with Ramsay and Lightfoot (so Weiss and Wendt, _cf._ adjective Πισιδίαν, Acts 13:14; but see also Acts 1... [ Continue Reading ]
κατὰ τὴν Μ.: “over against Mysia,” R.V., _i.e._, opposite Mysia, or perhaps, on the outskirts of Mysia, _cf._ Acts 27:7, and Herod., i., 76, κατὰ Σινώπην, Ramsay, _St. Paul_, p. 194, Wendt, p. 354 (1888), and Gifford, _u. s._, p. 13. If we read εἰς for κατά (2), it means that they endeavoured to go... [ Continue Reading ]
παρελθόντες : “passing by Mysia”. Ramsay renders “neglecting Mysia,” _cf. St. Paul_, pp. 194, 196, 197, _i.e._, passing through it without preaching. McGiffert, p. 235, so Wendt (1899), following Ramsay. Rendall, p. 278, explains “passing along or alongside of Mysia,” _i.e._, skirting it, the southe... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ὅραμα : used by St. Luke eleven times in Acts elsewhere (in N.T. only once, Matthew 17:19), three times in 1 12., and eight times in 12 28 (see Hawkins, _Horæ Synoptiœ_, p. 144). But St. Luke never uses ὄναρ; sometimes ὅρ. διὰ νυκτός as here, sometimes ὅρ. alone. It is quite arbitrary on the par... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς Μ.: It is easy to understand St. Paul's eagerness to follow the vision after he had been twice hindered in his purpose, although it may well be that neither he nor St. Luke regarded the journey from Troas to Philippi as a passage from one continent to another continent Macedonia and Asia were tw... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναχθέντες, see on Acts 13:13. εὐθυδρομήσαμεν : only in Acts here and in Acts 21:1, nowhere else in N.T., not in LXX or Apocrypha but used by Philo, _cf._ St. Luke's true Greek feeling for the sea, Ramsay, p. 205. Strabo used εὐθύδρομος, p. 45, and elsewhere St. Luke's language may point to the infl... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐκεῖθέν τε εἰς Φ.: on or near the site of Krenides (_Wells or Fountains_), so called from its founder Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. Near Philippi, Octavius and Anthony had decisively defeated Brutus and Cassius, and to that event it owed the honour of being made a Roman colony with the... [ Continue Reading ]
πόλεως, see critical notes, and C. and H., p. 226, note. παρὰ ποταμόν : “by a river side,” A. and R.V., see critical notes; here Ramsay sees in the omission of the article a touch of local familiarity and renders “by the river side”. On the other hand Weiss holds that the absence of the article mere... [ Continue Reading ]
Λυδία : she may have taken her name “a solo natali,” as Grotius and others have thought, like many of the _libertinae_, Afra, Græca, Syra; but the name was a popular one for women, _cf._ its frequent use in Horace. Renan takes it as meaning “the Lydian,” and compares Κορινθία in inscriptions, _St. P... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ οἶκος : as in the case of Cornelius, so here, the household is received as one into the fold of Christ, _cf._ Acts 16:33 and Acts 18:8. We cannot say whether children or not were included, although we may well ask with Bengel: “quis credat in tot familiis nullum fuisse infantem?” but nothing again... [ Continue Reading ]
If we add the article τὴν, see critical note: “to the place of prayer,” R.V. πνεῦμα Πυθῶνος : in R.V., accusative, see critical note, “a spirit, a Python,” margin, _i.e._, a ventriloquist (Ramsay). The passage most frequently quoted in illustration is Plutarch, _De defectu Orac._, ix., from which it... [ Continue Reading ]
κατακολουθήσασα, but if we follow R.V. the present participle denotes that she continuously followed after (κατά), and kept crying (ἔκραζε). The verb is only used by St. Luke in N.T., _cf._ Luke 23:35; in LXX, Jeremiah 17:16, Dan., LXX, Acts 9:10; Esther 7:1; Esther 7:1; Judges 11:6 1Ma 6:23, but no... [ Continue Reading ]
διαπονηθεὶς, only here and in Acts 4:2 in N.T.; its use in LXX in two passages only does not help us much, see Acts 4:2, and in classics it is not used in the sense required here. Aquila uses it four times of the Hebrew עָצַב in passages which show that the word may combine the ideas of grief, pain,... [ Continue Reading ]
ὅτι ἐξ. ἡ ἐλπὶς κ. τ. λ.: “The most sensitive part of ‘civilised' man is his pocket,” Ramsay, _St. Paul_, p. 237, and we can see how bitter was the hostility excited both here and at Ephesus when the new faith threatened existing pecuniary profits. ἐπιλαβ.: here with hostile intent, see above on Act... [ Continue Reading ]
οὗτοι, contemptuously Ἰουδ. ὄντες : If the decree of Claudius expelling the Jews from Rome had been enacted, it would have easily inflamed the minds of the people and the magistrates at Philippi against the Jews (_cf._ Acts 18:2, so Holtzmann). Of the bad odour in which the Jews were held we have al... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔθη : religious customs here; the charge ostensibly put forward was really that of introducing a _religio illicita, licita_ as it was for the Jews themselves. No doubt the fact that they were Jews presented in itself no ground of accusation, but their Jewish nationality would suggest the kind of cus... [ Continue Reading ]
συνεπέστη : only here in N.T., _cf._ Acts 18:12, not in LXX, but _cf._ Numbers 16:3, used in classical Greek, but not in same sense. No reason is given, but the ὄχλος would have been easily swayed by hatred of the Jews, and further incensed perhaps at finding an end put to their love of the revelati... [ Continue Reading ]
δεσμοφύλακι, Lucian, _Tox._, 30; Jos., _Ant._, ii., 5, 1, LXX ἀρχιδεσμοφύλαξ, Genesis 39:21-23; Genesis 40:3 A, Genesis 41:10 A (_cf._ the word ἀρχισωματοφύλαξ, Deissmann, _Neue Bibelstudien_, p. 93). Chrysostom and Oecumenius identify him with Stephanus, but he was the first-fruits of Achaia, 1 Cor... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐσωτέραν : comparative for superlative, as often in N.T. (Blass). Not necessarily underground, but a part of the prison which would have been further from such light and air as could be had. τὸ ξύλον, Hebrew סַד, Job 33:11 (A κυκλώματι), _cf._ Arist., _Eq._, 367, 393, 705; Herod., vi., 75; ix., 37;... [ Continue Reading ]
κατὰ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον : neuter of the adjective μεσονύκτιος, _cf._ Acts 20:7; Luke 11:5, elsewhere only in Mark 13:35, often in medical writers, also in Arist., Strabo, Plutarch; in LXX, Judges 16:3 A, Ruth 3:8, Ps. 118:62 (Isaiah 59:10). προσευχόμενοι, see on chap. Acts 12:12. ὕμνουν with accusati... [ Continue Reading ]
ἄφνω, see on Acts 2:2. σεισμὸς, _cf._ Acts 4:31, where the divine nearness and presence were manifested in a similar manner; the neighbourhood and the period were conspicuous for such convulsions of nature, _cf._ Plumptre on Matthew 24:7, and Ramsay, _St. Paul_, p. 221. παραχρῆμα, see critical notes... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔξυπνος : only here in N.T., once in LXX, Esther 3:3; Esther 3:3, of Darius waking from sleep. μάχαιραν : article omitted in T.R., see critical note. Weiss thinks that the omission occurs since in Acts 12:2, and five times in Luke, no article is found with μάχαιρα. τὴν = his sword, _cf._ Mark 14:47.... [ Continue Reading ]
μηδὲν πράξ. σεαυτῷ κακόν : Blass remarks that the distinction between πράσσειν and ποιεῖν is not always precisely observed in N.T., and takes it as = Attic, μ. ποιησῆς. πράσσειν is not found in St. Matthew or St. Mark and only twice in St. John, whilst by St. Luke it is used six times in his Gospel,... [ Continue Reading ]
φῶτα : “lights,” R.V., plural, and only in plural in later Greek, _cf._ 1Ma 12:29, of fires in a military encampment; “the prisoners' chains were loosed, and worse chains were loosed from himself; he called for a light, but the true heat was lighted in his own heart” Chrys., _Hom._, xxxvi. εἰσεπήδησ... [ Continue Reading ]
Κύριοι, in respect, _cf._ John 20:15. ἵνα σωθῶ; the word of the maiden σωτηρία and the occurrence of the night may well have prompted the question. The context, Acts 16:31, seems to indicate the higher meaning here, and the question can scarcely be limited to mere desire of escape from personal dang... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπὶ τὸν Κ.: “non agnoscunt se _dominos_ ” Bengel they point him to the One Lord. οἶκος … οἰκίᾳ : the first word is most frequently used in Attic Greek, and in the N.T. for household, _cf._ Acts 16:15, but both words are used in Attic, and in the N.T., for _familia_. σὺ καὶ ὁ οἶκός σου : “and thou sh... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ἐλάλησαν : before baptism instruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ τῆς νυκτὸς, _cf._ Acts 16:18, “at that hour of the night”; the jailor will not delay for a moment his first Christian duty, Matthew 25:36. ἔλουσεν ἀπὸ τῶν πληγῶν : “and washed them of their stripes,” Ramsay; _i.e._, the stains of the wounds caused by the lictors (for similar constru... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀναγαγών τε αὐτοὺς : τε closely connects this second proof of his thankfulness with the first ἀναγ.: “he brought them up into,” R.V.; Blass thinks that the ἀνά means that he brought them up from underground, but it may simply mean that the house was built over the prison; see also Knabenbauer _in lo... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπέσ. οἱ στρατηγοὶ : we are not told the reason of this sudden change in the action of the prætors, and no doubt the omission may fairly account for the reading in, see critical notes. At the same time it is quite characteristic of St. Luke to give the plain facts without entering upon explanations.... [ Continue Reading ]
νῦν οὖν, Lucan, _cf._ Acts 10:33; Acts 15:10; Acts 23:15. ἐν εἰρήνῃ (omitted by): the jailor may well have used the words in a deeper sense after the instruction of Paul, and his own admission to citizenship in a kingdom which was “righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost”.... [ Continue Reading ]
Δείραντες ἡμᾶς δ.: in flagrant violation of the Lex Valeria, B.C. 500, and the Lex Porcia B.C. 248; see also Cicero, _In Verrem_, v., 57, 66, it was the weightiest charge brought by Cicero against Verres. To claim Roman citizenship falsely was punishable with death, Suet., _Claud._, xxv. ἀκατακρίτου... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀνήγγειλαν, see critical notes. ἐφοβήθησαν, so the chief captain, Acts 22:29; and no wonder, for the illegal punishment of Roman citizens was a serious offence. If convicted, the magistrates would have been degraded, and incapable in future of holding office; _cf._ Cicero, _In Verrem_, v., 66; _Rep.... [ Continue Reading ]
See addition in, critical note. The fear of a further riot expressed by the magistrates is exactly what we should expect in the cities of the Ægean lands, which were always weak in their municipal government. [300] also expresses the naïve way in which the magistrates not only try to throw the blame... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς, see critical notes; they would not leave the city without once more visiting the household out of which grew the Church dearest to St. Paul; see Lightfoot's remarks on the growth of the Church from “the Church in the house,” _Philippians_, pp. 57, 58. ἐξῆλθον : the third person indicates that t... [ Continue Reading ]