Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 26:22

ἐπικουρίας … τῆς παρὰ (ἀπὸ) Θεοῦ : “the help that is from God,” R.V., i.e., the help which cometh from God only; only here in N.T., cf. Wis 13:18 (ἐμπειρίας, 2), for the use of the same phrase cf. instances in Wetstein from Polybius; the word is found in Josephus, but also frequently in classical Greek, of succour against foes. τυχὼν : no idea of chance, cf. 2 Timothy 2:10; the aid was divine, not human. οὖν, see Wendt, and references, Blass, Gram., p. 267, Winer-Moulton, liii., 10, 4. ἕστηκα : sto salvus, Bengel, after these repeated dangers. The A.V. hardly gives the force of the word; it is a Pauline expression, cf. Ephesians 6:13-14; Colossians 4:12, so Knabenbauer, subsisto incolumis. μαρτυρούμενος : “testifying,” A.V., yet μαρτυρόμενος, see critical note, would rather signify “testifying,” so R.V., see on Acts 6:3. Grimm-Thayer, if the reading in T.R. is retained, evidently considers that it should be rendered as passive, “testified to both by small and great”. But μαρτυρόμενος marks most appropriately the office of bearing testimony to which Paul was appointed. μικρῷ τε καὶ μεγάλῳ : if taken to mean “both small and great,” the words would have a special force in thus being spoken before Festus and Agrippa, but if = young and old, i.e., before all men, cf. Acts 8:10; Hebrews 8:11; cf. Genesis 19:4; Genesis 19:11, etc., but in Revelation 11:18; Revelation 13:16; Revelation 19:5, reference is made rather to rank than to age, and the latter meaning may well be included here; cf. Deuteronomy 1:17; Job 3:19, Wis 6:7. οὐδὲν ἐκτὸς λ. ὧν τε οἱ πρ.… μελλόντων = οὐδὲν ἐκτὸς τούτων ἅ … ἐλάλησαν μέλλοντᾳ, cf. Revelation 17:8 Simcox, Language of the N.T., p. 135. μελλ. γίγ., cf. Luke 21:36; ἐκτὸς, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:27; the word is only used by St. Paul elsewhere in N.T. (except Matthew 23:26), cf. 1 Kings 10:13 2 Chronicles 9:12; 2 Chronicles 17:19. οἱ προφ.… καὶ Μ.: more naturally Moses and the prophets, Luke 16:29; Luke 16:31, and cf. Acts 28:23, but Moses may have been mentioned to influence the Sadducean element in the audience: the historical Christ was always the subject of St. Paul's preaching “Jesus is the Christ,” and the historical Christ was also the ideal Christ; cf. Acts 3:13; 1 Corinthians 15:3. See on this verse critical note, and Wendt (1899), p. 397, note.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 26:22

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