Acts 5:17

ἀναστὰς, see on Acts 1:15, cf. Acts 6:9 : it may denote a hostile intention (but need not force this), Mark 3:26; Luke 10:35; Matthew 12:41, in LXX, Job 16:8; see Overbeck, Blass, Weiss; ὁ ἀρχ., i.e., Annas not Caiaphas, Acts 4:6. πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ : the context seems to imply that more are included than referred to in Acts 4:6. ἡ οὖσα αἴρεσις (= οἵ εἰσιν αἵρεσις), a rare employment of the relative in the N.T., but found in Luke and Paul, most of all in the latter; cf. Acts 16:12; 1 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 3:16; Ephesians 3:13; Acts 6:2; Philippians 1:28, etc. (cf. Revelation 4:5; Revelation 5:9); Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 192 (1896). αἵρεσις : (1) a choosing, choice, so in classical writers, cf. also LXX, Leviticus 22:18; Leviticus 22:21 1Ma 8:30; (2) that which is chosen, a chosen method of thought and action; (3) later, a philosophic principle; those who have chosen certain principles, a school, a sect, so six times in Acts. It is used thrice elsewhere in N.T., 1 Corinthians 11:29; Galatians 5:20; 2 Peter 2:1 in the plural, of factions or parties within the Church; in its later ecclesiastical use, applied to doctrines, “heresies,” which tended to cause separation from the Church. The word need not therefore be used in a bad sense, although it is so used of the Nazarenes, cf. Acts 24:5; Acts 24:14; Acts 28:22, whilst on the other hand St. Paul uses it of the Pharisees, Acts 26:5 (cf. Acts 15:5), in no depreciatory sense (cf. its use by Josephus of the Sadducees, Ant., xx., 9, 1). Lumby gives a disparaging use of the word in Apocr. Act. Phil. in Hellad., 10, see his note. It is not expressly said by St. Luke that Annas was a Sadducee, although he seems to imply it. But this is not in itself inconceivable (see Acts 4:1) in spite of the strictures of Zeller and Overbeck; Josephus distinctly says, u. s., that the son of Annas who bore his father's name was of the sect of the Sadducees, and if he mentions this as something peculiar, and as showing why the younger Annas was so bold and insolent (Zeller, cf. Nösgen's note, in loco), yet there is no difficulty in supposing that the elder Annas was at least associated with the Sadducees if only for political reasons. ζήλου : jealousy, R.V., so rightly A.V in Acts 13:45; Wycliffe “envy,” cf. Romans 13:13 1 Corinthians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 11:2; Galatians 5:20; James 3:14; James 3:16, Clem. Rom., Cor [177], iii. 4 and iv vi (cf. Numbers 25:10-11Ma 8:16, οὔκ ἐστι φθόνος οὐδὲ ζῆλος ἐν αὐτοῖς, and 2:54, 58, Psal ms of Solomon 2:27), and in some places of the jealousy which God has, as in 2 Corinthians 11:2; Numbers 25:10-11, and cf. Psalms of Solomon Acts 2:27; Acts 4:2 1Ma 2:54. But φθόνος is capable only of an evil signification. By Aristotle ζῆλος is used in its nobler sense (Rhet., ii., 11), as opposed to τὸ φθονεῖν, but it seems to be used by other writers as = φθόνος or coupled with it. The meaning is defined by the context. Trench, N. T. Synonyms, i., 99. Here the envy and jealousy of the Sanhedrim was provoked by the popular favour shown to the disciples, and hence to their doctrine of the resurrection.

[177] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.