Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 26:7

εἰς ἣν : unto which promise, not spem (Grotius, Bengel), καταντῆσαι εἰς, cf. the same construction with the same verb, Philippians 3:11; Ephesians 4:13, only in Luke and Paul, but never by the former elsewhere in metaphorical sense; in classical Greek after verbs of hoping we should have had a future, but in N.T. generally aorist infinitive, Viteau, Le Grec du N.T., p. 154 (1893). τὸ δωδεκάφυλον : here only in biblical Greek; perhaps used after the mention of the fathers, as the heads of the tribes; for the word cf. Prot. Jac., i., 3, Clem. Rom., Cor [399], Leviticus, 6 (cf. xxxi. 4), and Orac. Syb., λαὸς ὁ δωδεκάφυλος; the expression was full of hope, and pointed to a national reunion under the Messiah; for the intensity of this hope, and of the restoration of the tribes of Israel, see on Acts 3:21 (p. 115), and references in Acts 26:6, Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 67, and especially Psalms of Solomon, 17:28, 30, 50. ἐν ἐκτενείᾳ, cf. Acts 12:5 2Ma 14:38, 3Ma 6:41, Judges 4:9 (twice?); Cic., Ad Att., x., 17, 1. See Hatch, u. s., p. 12. νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, cf. Acts 20:31, also used by Paul; elsewhere in his Epistles five times, and once in Mark 5 in genitive, 1Th 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Timothy 5:5; 2 Timothy 1:3; Mark 5:5. The precise phrase in the accusative also occurs in Luke 2:37; Mark 4:25. λατρεῦον, cf. Luke 2:37, joined with νύκτα καὶ ἡμ. as here, and in both places of the earnest prayer for the Messiah's coming; same phrase elsewhere in N.T. only in Revelation 7:15. For the force of the expression here and its relation to the Temple worship see Blass, in loco, and Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 174, E.T. ὑπὸ Ἰουδ.: by Jews, O King! Agrippa knew that this hope, nowever misdirected, was the hope of every Israelite, and the Apostle lays stress upon the strange fact that Jews should thus persecute one who identified himself with their deepest and most enduring hopes.

[399] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 26:7

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