457
19. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Kuptos,! μετὰ τὸ λαλῆσαι αὐτοῖς, ἀνελήφθη εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ: 20. ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ἐξελθόντες ἐκήρυξαν πανταχοῦ, τοῦ Κυρίου συνεργοῦντος, καὶ τὸν λόγον βεβαιοῦν-
τος διὰ τῶν ἐπακολουθούντων σημείων.
᾽Αμήν.:
1 CLA have Ίησους after Κυριος (W.H. brackets). ? Auny is found in CLA among other uncials (W.H. πιαηρ.).
seem to introduce us into the twilight of apocryphal story. Healing of the sick by laying on of hands brings us back to apostolic times. θανάσιμον is a ar.
Vv. 19, 20. The story ends with a ‘brief notice of the ascension of the Lord Jesus on the one hand (μὲν), and of the
apostolic activity of the Eleven on the other (δὲ). Lk., who means to tell the story of the acts of the Apostles at length, contents himself with reporting that the Eleven returned from Bethany, his scene of parting, to Jerusalem, not with sadness but with joy, there to worship and wait.
το ΚΑΤΑ
Ἱ. 1. ᾿ΕΠΕΙΔΗΠΕΡ πολλοὶ ἐπεχείρησαν ἀνατάξασθαι διήγησιν
περὶ τῶν πεπληροφορηµένων
Cuapter I, ΤΗΕ ΕΑΕΙΥ History. Vv. 1-4. The preface.—Ver. 1. ἔπειδ- ήπερ: three particles, ἐπεί, δή, περ, blended into one word, implying that the fact to be stated is well known (δή), important (wep), and important as a reason for the undertaking on hand (ἐπεί) = secing, as is well known. Hahn thinks the word before us is merely a temporal not a causal particle, and that Luke means only to say that he is not the first to take such a task on hand. But why mention this unless because it entered somehow into his motives for
riting? It might do so in various ways: as revealing a widespread im- pulse to preserve in writing the evangelic memorabilia, stimulating him to do the same; as meeting an extensive demand for such writings on the part of Chris- tians, which appealed to him also; as showing by the number of such writings that no one of them adequately met the demand, or performed the task in a final manner, and that therefore one more attempt was not superfluous. ᾿Ἐπειδήπερ, a good Greek word, occurs here only in Ν. Τ.--πολλοὶ: not an exaggeration, but to be taken strictly as implying extensive activity in the production of rudimentary “Gospels”. The older exegetes understood the word as re- ferring to heretical or apocryphal gospels, of course by way of censure. This view is abandoned by recent commentators, for whom the question of interest rather is: were Mt.’s Logia and Mk.’s Gospel among the earlier contributions which Lk. had in his eye? This question cannot be decided -by exegesis, and answers vary according to the critical theories of those who discuss the topic. All that need be said here is that there is
ἐν ἡμῖν πραγμάτων, 2. καθὼς παρέ-
no apparent urgent reason for excluding Mt. and Mk. from the crowd of early essayists.—émeyeipnoav, took in hand; here and in Acts ix. 29, xix. 13. Itisa vox ambigua, and might or might not imply blame = attempted and did not succeed, or attempted and accomplished their task. It is not probable that emphatic blame is intended. On the other hand, it is not likely that ἐπεχ. is a mere ex- pletive, and that ἐπεχ. ἀνατάξασθαι is simply = ἀνετάξαντο, as, after Casaubon, Palairet, Raphel, etc., maintained. The verb contains a gentle hint that in some respects finality had not yet been reached, which might be said with all due respect even of Mt.’s Logia and Mk.’s Gospel. — ἀνατάξασθαι διήγησιν, to set forth in order a narrative; the expression points to a connected series of narratives arranged in some order (τάξις), topical or chronological, rather than to isolated narratives, the meaning put on διήγησις by Schleiermacher. Both verb and noun occur here only in N. T.—wepi... πραγμάτων indicates the subject of these narratives. The leading term in this phrase is πεπληροφορημένων, about the meaning of which interpreters are much divided. The radical idea of πληροφορέω (πλήρης, φέρω) is to bring or make full.