Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 17:25

οὐδὲ … θεραπεύεται : used in LXX and in classical Greek of the service of the Gods, significantly twice in Epist. Jer [313], 17:27, 39, of the worshippers and priests of the idols overlaid with silver and gold, which are contrasted with the true God in that they can save no man from death, or show mercy to the widow and the fatherless, before which the worshippers set offerings and meat as before dead men. “Non quærit ministros Deus. Quidni? ipse humano generi ministrat,” Seneca, Epist., 95, and instances in Wetstein; but St. Chrysostom's comment must also be noted, λέγων δέ, μὴ ὑπὸ χ. ἀνθ. θεραπεύεσθαι τὸν θεόν, αἰνίττεται ὅτι διανοίᾳ καὶ νῷ θεραπεύεται. προσδεόμενός τινος : only here in N.T., to need in addition, as if necessary to perfection, “qui habet quidem aliquid, sed non satis, qui insuper eget,” Wetstein, so “cum … nullius boni desideret accessionem,” Erasmus; a close parallel is found in 2Ma 14:35 (3MMalachi 2:9); in both passages the word ἀπροσδεής is used of God, and in the former reference is made to the fact that God was pleased that the temple of His habitation should be amongst the Jews, cf. also Ecclus. 52:21. Blass and Wetstein both quote a striking Pythagorean saying from Hierocles, see in loco, and to this αὐτάρκεια of the divine nature both the Jewish philosopher Philo and the Roman Epicurean Lucretius from their varying standpoints bore witness, see the instances in Wetstein (cf. Psalms 51:9). Luther takes τινος as masculine, which as Wendt admits corresponds well to the preceding and also to the following πᾶσι, but it seems best to take it as neuter, of the service which men render, cf. Clem., Cor [314], lii., 1, ἀπροσδεής, ἀδελφοί, ὁ δεσπότης ὑπάρχει τῶν ἁπάντων, οὐδὲν οὐδενὸς χρῄζει εἰ μὴ τὸ ἐξομολογεῖσθαι αὐτῷ, and Epist. ad Diognetum, iii., 5. αὐτὸς διδοὺς : “seeing he himself giveth,” R.V., so Vulgate ipse, but although αὐτός is so emphatic it was unfortunately ignored in Wycl., Genevan and A.V. The best commentary on the words is in David's words, 1 Chronicles 29:14, cf. the striking passage in Epist. ad Diognetum, iii., 4. πᾶσι : taken as neuter or masculine, but perhaps with Bengel “omnibus viventibus et spirantibus, summe προσδεομένοις indigentibus. De homine speciatim, v. seq.” ζωὴν καὶ πνοὴν, cf. Genesis 2:7, not a mere hendiadys, vitam animalem, or spiritum vitalem, but the first word = life in itself, existence; and the second the continuance of life, “per spiritum (halitum) continuatur vita,” Bengel: on the paronomasia, see Winer-Moulton, lxviii., 1. For πνοή LXX, Psalms 150:6; Job 27:3; Isaiah 42:5, Ecclus. 30:29 (Sir 33:20), 2Ma 3:31; 2Ma 7:9, etc. τὰ πάντα : omnia quæcumque, Romans 8:32, the expression need not be limited with Bethge to all things necessary for the preservation of life and breath.

[313] Jerome, Hieronymus.

[314] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 17:25

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