Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 9:40

ἐκβαλὼν δὲ ἔξω πάντας : nothing could be more natural than this action of St. Peter as a reminiscence of his Master's action, when He was about to perform a similar miracle, cf. Matthew 9:25; Mark 5:40 (cf. 2 Kings 4:33, and 2 Kings 4:4-5 in same chapter), but in Luke 8:54 it is noteworthy that the similar words are omitted by W.H [234] and the revisers, see above. In St. Matthew the multitude ὁ ὄχλος is put out, but in St. Mark (and St. Luke), whilst all are described as put out (the same verb), Peter, James and John, with the parents, are allowed to be present at the miracle. Weiss points out the reminiscence of Mark 5:40, but this we might expect if St. Mark's Gospel comes to us through St. Peter. St. Chrysostom marks the action of St. Peter as showing how entirely free he was from any attempt at display. θεὶς τὰ γόνατα, see note on Acts 7:60, “hoc Dominus ipse non fecerat” Blass. St. Peter had been present on each of the three occasions recorded in the Gospels when his Master had raised the dead, but he does not venture at once to speak the word of power, but like Elijah or Elisha kneels down in prayer (see Rendall's note). Τ. ἀνάστηθι, cf. Mark 5:41. Here again we note the close agreement with St. Mark's narrative the words to the damsel are not given at all by Matthew 9:25, and by St. Luke in Greek, Luke 8:54, not in Aramaic as by Mark. On the absurdity of identifying the Ταβιθά here with the Ταλιθά of Mark 5:41 see Nösgen and Zöckler, in loco. It may suffice to note with Lumby that in each case an interpretation of the word used is given. ἀνεκάθισε : not found in LXX, and used only by St. Luke in this passage and in his Gospel, Acts 7:15 (but [235] has ἐκάθισεν, which W.H [236] reads only in margin), in both cases of a person restored to life and sitting up. In this intransitive sense it is almost entirely confined to medical writers, to describe patients sitting up in bed. It occurs in Plato, Phædo, 60 B, but in the middle voice, and with the words ἐπὶ τὴν κλίνην expressed: in Xen., Cvr., v., 7, it is also used, but in a different sense (to sit down again), cf. Hobart, pp. 11, 40, 41, who also notices that the circumstantial details of the gradual recovery of Tabitha are quite in the style of medical description. τὸ σῶμα, Luke 17:37, the word is quite classical for a dead body, so too in LXX, cf. Deuteronomy 21:23; 1 Kings 13:24 1Ma 11:4, 2Ma 9:29. Everything, as Wendt admits (1888), points to the fact that no apparent death, or a raising by natural means, is thought of by the narrator. Holtzmann and Pfleiderer can only find a parallel here with Acts 20:9-12, but none can read the two narratives without seeing their independence, except in the main fact that both narrate a similar miracle. ἤνοιξε τοὺς ὀφθ.: to this there is nothing corresponding in the details given by the Gospel narratives, as Blass points out.

[234] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[235] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[236] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 9:40

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