Saul. The first mention of the apostle to the Gentiles.
59. Calling upon God. God is not in the Greek. From the vision just described, and from the prayer which follows, it is evident that Jesus is meant. So Rev., the Lord.
Jesus. An unquestionable prayer to Chrest.
60. Lay not this sin to their charge (ui) orjons adtots THY dpaptiav tavrnv). Lit., fiw not this sin upon them.
He fell asleep (éxo1y7.9n). Marking his calm and peaceful death. Though the pagan authors sometimes used sleep to signify death, it was only as a poetic figure. When Christ, on the other hand, said, ‘ Our friend Lazarus sleepeth (xexoiwnrat),” he used the word, not as a figure, but as the expression of a fact. In that mystery of death, in which the pagan saw only nothingness, Jesus saw continued life, rest, waking—the ele- ments which enter into sleep. And thus, in Christian speech and thought, as the doctrine of the resurrection struck its roots deeper, the word dead, with its hopeless finality, gave place to the more gracious and hopeful word sleep. The pagan burying- place carried in its name no suggestion of hope or comfort. It was a burying-place, a hiding-place, a monumentum, a mere memorial of something gone ; a columbarium, or dove-cot, with its little pigeon-holes for cinerary urns; but the Christian thought of death as sleep, brought with it into Christian speech the kindred thought of a chamber of rest, and embodied it in the word cemetery (Kowuntjpiov)—the place to le down to sleep.
Cu. VII] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 487
CHAPTER VIII. 1. Death (avaipécer). Lit., taking off. See on Luke xxiii. 32. 2. Devout. See on Luke ii. 25.
Carried to his burial (cuvexouicav). Only here in New Testament. Lit., to carry together ; hence, either to assist in burying or, better, to bring the dead to the company (cvv) of the other dead. The word is used of bringing in harvest.
Stephen (2régavov). Meaning crown. Ue was the first who received the martyr’s crown.
Lamentation (xozerov). Lit., beating (of the breast). Only here in New Testament.
3. Made havoc (éAvpaiveto). Only here in New Testament. In Septuagint, Ps. lxxix. 13, it is used of the laying waste of a vineyard by the wild boar. Compare Acts ix. 21, where the A. V. has destroyed, but where the Greek is wopIjcas, devas- tated. Canon Farrar observes: ‘“ The part which he played at this time in the horrid work of persecution has, I fear, been always underrated. It is only when we collect the separate passages—they are no less than eight in number—in which allusion is made to this sad period,* it is only when we weigh the terrible significance of the expressions used that we feel the load of remorse which must have lain upon him, and the taunts to which he was liable from malignant enemies” (“ Life and Work of St. Paul”). Note the imperfect, of continued action.
5. Philip. The deacon (Acts vi. 5). Not the apostle. On
the name, see on Mark iii. 18.
* See Acts viii. 3; ix. 2; xxii. 3, 4; xxvi. 9, 10.
488 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. _[Cu. VIIL
Christ (tov Xpucrdv). Note the article, “the Christ,” and see on Matt. i. 1.
He did (ésroéet). Imperfect. Aept doing from time to time, as is described in the next verse.
7. Taken with palsies (apadeAvpévor). Rev., more neatly, palsied. See on Luke v. 18.
Were healed. See on Luke v. 15.
9. Used sorcery (wayevwov). Only here in New Testament. One of the wizards so numerous throughout the East at that time, and multiplied by the general expectation of a great deliverer and the spread of the Messianic notions of the Jews, who practised upon the credulity of the people by conjuring and juggling and soothsaying.
Bewitched (é&ioT@v). Better as Rev., amazed. See on ch. eG