12. — [In prayer to God.] The peculiarity of the Greek words here has made some think that the meaning should have been ren- dered, He continued all night " in a house of prayer/' a place set apart for prayer to. God. That the Jews had such praying- houses, is undeniable. But whether such a house is referred to here, is very doubtful. Out of the thirty seven places in which the Greek word occurs in the New Testament, there is only one other where it could be interpreted " a place of prayer," Acts xvi. 18, and even there it is a disputed point. There seems no necessity for leaving the sense given by our translators. Bar- radius remarks, that the expression which we translate, " prayer to God," is a Hebraism, meaning "most fervent and earnest prayer," just as " mountains of God," and " cedars of God," in the Old Testament, mean " lofty" mountains, and " high" cedars. (Psalm xxxvi. 6 ; Ixxx. 10.)
Isidore Clarius, in his orations on St. Luke, published at Venice in 1065, has some striking remarks on the disgraceful contrast , between the manner in which the apostles were called to their office after a night spent in prayer, and the manner in which ecclesiastical offices were fiUed up in Italy in his own day. He exposes the system of jobbing, nepotism, corruption, and covet- ousness, which universally prevailed on such occasions, and enters a faithful protest against it.
It is singular enough that the tone of Stella, the Spanish com- mentator on St. Luke, in expounding this passage, is precisely similar to that of Clarius.
18. — [Chose twelve,,. named apostlee.'] Gorderius gives a curious passage from Rabanus Maurus on the number twelve, bringing together the instances of that number being specially chosen in the Bible. He says, "The number twelve, which consists of three times four, points out that the apostles would preach the