Acts 16:21

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 customs with the introduction of which it would be easy to charge them, e.g., circumcision. The introduction of Jewish habits and mode of life included under ἔθη, cf. Acts 6:14; Acts 21:21, would upset the whole social system, so that here, as on other occasions, the missionaries suffered from being identified with their Jewish countrymen. οὑκ ἔξ. παραδέχεσθαι : Wetstein, in loco; Marquardt, Röm. Staatsrecht, iii., 70, and see preceding verse, cf. Acts 15:5; Acts 21:21. In LXX, cf. Exodus 23. Ῥωμαίοις οὑσι : in natural contrast (at the end of the sentence) to the despised Jews: as inhabitants of a Roman colonia they could lay claim to the proud title. On the force of ὑπάρχοντες and οὗσι see Alford's note in loco.