20. γέγραπται yap ἐν βίβλῳ Ψαλμῶν,
«ς , ε ν > ~ 3 \ α ς a 3 Γενηθήτω ἡ ἔπαυλις αὐτοῦ ἔρημος, καὶ μὴ ἔστω ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν
- 32 ‘ a > - / oe » αὐτῇ ' Kal, “Thy ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος.
21. Δει οὖν
A / ε ο) 3 A 3 ‘ ΄ > e > fol A τῶν συνελθόντων ἡμῖν ἀνδρῶν ἐν παντὶ xpdvw ἐν ᾧ εἰσῆλθε καὶ
still considered to belong to Judas, was employed for the purchase of the accursed spot as a burial ground for strangers. See Edersheim, Fesus the Messiah, Π., 574, 575. Whatever may be alleged as to the growth of popular fancy and tradi- tion in the later account in Acts of the death of Judas, it cannot be said to contrast unfavourably with the details given by Papias, Fragment, 18, which
Blass describes as “insulsissima et feedissima ”’. Ver. 20. The quetation is twofold,
the first part from Psalm Ixix. 26 (LXX, Ixviii.); in the LXX we have αὐτῶν, changed here into αὐτοῦ with reference to Judas, whilst ἐν τοῖς σκηνώµασιν is omitted and the words ἐν avrq, referring to ἔπαυλις, are added. The omission would make the application of the words more general than in the original, which related to the desolation of the encamp- ment and tents of a nomadic tribe. The other part of the quotation is verbatim from Psalm cvili. 8 (cix.), called by the ancients the Iscariot Psalm. With the exception of Psalm xxii., no Psalm is more frequently quoted in the N.T. than Ixix. ; cf. νετ. 9 with John ii. 17; ver. 21 with Matt. xxvii. 34, and with John xix. 28; ver. 22 and 23 with Rom. xi. g, ΙΟ; and ver. g with Rom. xv. 3. In these Psalms, asin the twenty-second Psalm, we see how the history of prophets and holy men of old, of a David or a Jeremiah, was typical of the history of the Son of man made perfect through suffering, and we know how our Lord Himself saw the fulfilment of the words of the suffering Psalmist .(xli. ϱ) in the tragic events of His own life (John xiii. 18). So too St. Peter in the recent miserable end of the traitor sees another evidence, not only of the general truth, which the Psalmists learnt through suffering, that God re- warded His servants and that confusion awaited the unrighteous, but also another fulfilment in the case of Judas of the doom which the Psalmists of old had in- voked upon the persecutors of the faith- ful servants of God. But we are not called upon to regard Psalm cix. as the Iscariot Psalm in all its details (see Per- owne, Psalms, p. 538 (smaller edition)), or to forget, as Delitzsch reminds us, that the spirit of Elias is not that of the N.T.
St. Peter, although he must have re- garded the crime of Judas as a crime without a parallel, does not dwell upon his punishment, but passes at once to the duty incumbent upon the infant Church in view of the vacant Apostleship.— ἔπαυλις: by many commentators, both ancient and modern (Chrys., Oecum., so too Nésgen, Overbeck, Wendt, Blass, Holtzmann, Zéckler, Jiingst), this is re- ferred to the χωρίον, which was rendered desolate by the death of Judas in it, on the ground that yap thus maintains its evident relation to what precedes. But if the two preceding verses are inserted by St. Luke, and form no part of St. Peter’s words, it would seem that ἔπαυλις must be regarded as parallel to ἐπισκοπή in the second αιοίαίῖοπ.-- ἐπισκοπὴν; ‘his office,” Κ.Υ. (‘‘ overseership,”’ mar- gin), so for the same word in LXX, Ps, cix. 8, from which the quotation is made. In the LXX the word is used, Num. iv. 16, for the charge of the tabernacle. St. Peter uses the word ἐπίσκοπος in 1 Peter ii. 25, and it is significant that there the translators of 1611 maintain the use of the word ‘bishop,’ as here “ bishoprick”’ (so R.V., “‘ overseer,” mar- gin), whilst they use ‘overseer’? and “oversight ” (ἐπισκοπή), Acts xx. 28 and 1 Peter v. 2, where the reference is to the function of the elders or presbyters. The word ἐπισκοπή, of course, could not have its later ecclesiastical force, but the Apostolic office of Judas might well be described as one of oversight, and care of others; and it is significant that it is so described, and not only as a διακονία (see below on ver. 25, and on ἐπίσκοπος, xx. 28, note): ‘St. Peter would not have quoted the Psalm containing the expres- sion ἐπισκοπή unless he had instinctively felt the word to be applicable to’ Judas’ position ” (Canon Gore in Guardian, 16th March, 1808).