51
1 ὁπτανόμενος
4. Καὶ συναλιζό-
1 τεσσαρακοντα, so B°E 1, 13, Meyer; but τεσσερακοντα ΝΑΒ”"ΟΡ 61, so Tisch.,
W.H., Weiss.
technical significance, is hardly consistent with any other supposition (see Sanday, Inspiration, p. 319, note). The recent attempt to identify Theophilus with Seneca, referred to by Zockler, Afostel- geschichte, p. 163, must be dismissed as equally groundless and fanciful as the former conjecture that he was no other than ῬΠΙ]ο.- περὶ πάντων ὧν: the use of was (mostly after a prep., as here) followed by an attracted relative may be classed amongst the mannerisms of St. Luke (Simcox, Writers of the N. Τ., p. 24, where other instances are given)-; see also Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, pp. I, 2.---ὧν: in St. Luke’s Gospel and in the Acts the frequency of the attraction of the relative again specially characterises him amongst the N.T. writers, Friedrich, u. δ., pp. 36 and τοο.--ἤρξατο: often τε- garded as simply pleonastic, butsometimes as emphatic, to intimate that the work which Jesus began on earth He continued in heaven, or that He began the work of the Gospel and committed its continuance to His followers; Zahn, uw. s., p. 366 ff. In Winer’s view to regard ἄρχεσθαι as pleonastic is a mere subterfuge to avoid a difficulty, and he renders the passage “what Jesus began bothtodoandto teach, and continued to do until,” etc.’ (see also Grimm-Thayer, sub v.), treating it as an example of breviloquence (Winer- Moulton, Ixvi., 1). On the whole it is perhaps best to consider the phrase ἤρξ. ποιεῖν with Bengel (7m loco) as equivalent to fecit ab initio, although no doubt there is a sense in which, with every Christian for nineteen centuries, St. Luke would regard the whole earthly life of Jesus as a beginning, a prelude to the glory and mighty working to be revealed and per- fected in the ascended Lord. The verb is of frequent use in St. Luke’s writings (Friedrich, Zeller, Lekebusch), although in St. Mark’s Gospel it is also constantly found. In the LXX it is often found like
br hi., and also in Apocr, oveiy
τε καὶ διδάσκειν, '' Scilicet prius fecit, deinde docuit; prius docuit exemplo, deinde verbo. Unde prius non docuit, quod prius ipse non fecit’’ (Corn. a Lap.).
Ver. 2. ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας. In Matt. ἄχρι occurs once or twice, in Mark and
D omits δια, so Blass in β.
and John not at all, in Luke four times, and in Acts sixteen ; whilst the commoner µέχρι is found only once in the Gospels and twice in the Acts (Winer-Schmiedel, p. 227, and on the use of the form ἄχρι or ἄχρις see Grimm-Thayer, sub v.). It is seldom used in the LXX, but in 2 Macc. xiv. it occurs twice, vv. 10 and 15; cf. also Symm., 2 Kings xxi. 16; Theod., Job xxxii. 11.-- διὰ πνεύματος Ἁγίου. The older commentators, and Wendt, Holtzmann, Zéckler, Hilgenfeld, amongst moderns, connect the words with ἐξελέξατο, the reference to the choice of the Apostles through the Holy Ghost standing significantly at the opening of a book in which their endowment with the same divine power is so prominent. On the other hand, it is urged that there is no need to emphasise further the divine choice of the Apostles (cf. Luke vi. 13, and see below on ver. 25), but that it was important to show that the instructions to continue the work and teaching of Jesus were a divine commission (Weiss), _ and to emphasise from the commencement of the Acts that Jesus had given this com- mission to His Apostles through the same divine Spirit Whom they received shortly after His Ascension (Felten). Spitta (who refers i. 1-14 to his inferior source B), whilst he connects διὰ mvevp. ay. with ἐντειλάμενος, Curiously limits the latter to the command to the Apostles to assemble themselves on the Mount of Olives (so too Jingst). For other connections of the words see Alford in Ἰοεο.---ἐξελέξατο, always in N.T. ἐκλέγομαι, middle (except, perhaps, in Luke ix. 35, but see R.V. and W.H.). Another verb very frequent in LXX, used constantly of a divine choice: of God’s choice of Israel, of Jacob, Aaron, David, the tribe of Judah, Zion, and Jerusalem. The verb is also found in the same sense in the middle voice in classical (τοεεζ.-- ἀνελήμφθη : the verb is used of Elijah’s translation’ to heaven in the LXX, 2 Kings ii. 9-11, also in Ecclesiasticus xlviii. g and 1 Macc. ii. 58, and perhaps of Enoch in Ecclesiasticus xlix. 14 (A, µετετέθη). In addition to the present passage (¢f. vv. 11, 12) it is also used in Mark xvi. 9 and 1 Tim. iii. 16 (where it probably forms part of an early Christian Hymn or confession of faith)