Ver. 9. ἐπήρθη: the word in ver. 2 is different, and ἐπήρθη seems not merely to denote our Lord’s first leaving the ground (as Weiss, Overbeck), but also to be more in accordance with the calm and grandeur of the event than ἀπήρθη; this latter word would rather denote a taking away by νιο]εποε.- καὶ νεφέλη ὑπέλαβε: the cloud is here, as elsewhere, the symbol of the divine glory, and it was also as St. Chrysostom called it: τὸ ὄχημα τὸ βασιλίκον; cf. Ps. civ. 3. In τ Tim. iii. 16 we read that our Lord was received up ἐν δόξῃ, ‘‘in glory,” R.V.
Ver. το. ἀἄτενίζοντες ἦσαν: this peri- phrasis of ἦν or ἦσαν with a present or perfect participle is very frequently found in St. Luke’s writings (Friedrich, pp. 12 and 8g, and compare the list in Simcox, 1. s., pp. 130-134). The verb is peculiar to St. Luke and St. Paul, and is found ten times in Acts, twice in St. Luke’s Gospel, and twice in 2 Cor.; it denotes a fixed, steadfast, protracted gaze: “and while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went,’ R.V., thus ex- pressing more clearly the longing gaze of the disciples watching the Lord as He was going (πορευοµένου αὐτοῦ, the pre- sent participle denoting that the cloud was still visible for a considerable time), as if carrying their eyes and hearts with Him to heaven: ‘‘ Ipse enim est amor noster ; ubi autem amor, ibi est oculus et σος” (Corn. a Lapide). The word is also found in LXX 1 Esdr. vi. 28 and 3 Mace. ii. 26 (cf. Aquila, Job vii. 8), and also in Josephus, B. ¥., v., 12, 3, and Polybius. Ramsay, St. Paul, 38, 39, gives a most valuable account of the use of the word in St. Luke, and concludes that the action implied by it is quite inconsistent with weakness of vision, and that the theory which makes Paul a per- manent sufferer in the eyes, as if he could not distinctly see the persons near him, is hopelessly at variance with St. Luke; cf. too the meaning of the word as used by St. Paul himself in 2 Cor. iii. 7, 13, where not weak but strong sight is implied in the word. The verbthuscommon in St. Luke is frequently employed by medical writers
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, 3 A ‘ id 4 397, 5, δύ , 1 πορευοµενου Q“UTOU, και LOOU AVAPES OVO παρειστηκεισαν