Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 4:11

οὗτος : “He, as in R.V. All E.V [152] previously translated it “this,” referring it to ὁ λίθος, but in the next verse a person is directly spoken of, not under the metaphor of a stone, and the pronoun finds its subject better in the ἐν τούτῳ, masculine of Acts 4:10. See Winer-Schmiedel, p. 216. ὁ ἐξουθενηθεὶς : in the LXX and in the Gospels the word used is ἀπεδοκίμασαν. St. Peter, quoting apparently from memory, used a word expressing still greater contempt. It is used, e.g., very significantly by St. Luke in his Gospel, Acts 23:11, and again in Acts 18:9. The word is found in none of the other Gospels, and is characteristic of St. Luke and of St. Paul (cf. Romans 14:3; Romans 14:10, 1 Corinthians 1:28; 1 Corinthians 6:4, etc.). It occurs several times in the LXX; cf. Wis 3:11; Wis 4:18, Sir 19:1, 2Ma 1:27, and Psalms of Solomon, Acts 2:5. In classical writers it is not found at all. ὁ γενόμ. εἰς, “which was made,” R.V. Blass compares the Hebrew phrase הָיָהלְ and finds parallels in Acts 5:36; Luke 13:19, but γίγνεσθαι εἰς, while common in the LXX, is a correct expression in classical Greek, although the places in the N.T. in which the formula is found in O.T. quotations are undoubtedly Hebraisms (see below on Acts 5:36), Winer-Schmiedel, p. 257, and with this may be connected the frequency of its occurrence in the Apocalypse (see Simcox on the phrase, Language of the N. T., p. 143). κεφαλὴν γωνίας : not “the top-most pinnacle-stone,” but a corner-stone uniting two walls, on which they rested and were made firm, cf. the meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (Isaiah 28:16), 1 Peter 2:6-8; Ephesians 2:20, which is used here by Symmachus instead of κεφ. γων. The Hebrew פִּנָּה elsewhere always refers not to the upper part of the building, but to the lower (Isaiah 28:16; Jeremiah 51:26; Job 38:6, ὁ βαλὼν λίθον γωνιαῖον, Delitzsch). Probably therefore the expression here refers to a foundation-stone at the base of the corner. On the occurrence of the phrase from Psalms 118:22 in St. Peter's First Epistle, and in his speech here, see p. 119, and also Scharfe, Die Petrinische Strömung, 2 c., p. 126.

[152] English Version.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 4:11

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