68
Ματθίαν.ὶ
ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ i.
24. καὶ προσευξάµενοι εἶπον, Σὺ Κύριε, καρδιογνῶστα
πάντων, ἀνάδειξον ἐκ τούτων τῶν δύο ἕνα ὃν ἐξελέξω, 25. λαβεῖν τὸν
1 Ματθιαν; but Μαθ. in B*D, Sah., so Τ., W.H., Hilg. (see Winer-Schmiedel,
Ρ. 60; W.H., App., pp. 162, 166).
by St. Peter. Both Eusebius and Epi- phanius rank him in the Seventy, and he is said to have suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia. An apocryphal Gospel was ascribed to him, Euseb., Η.ΒΕ., iii., 25, and from Clem. Alex., Strom., iv., 6, 35, we find that the words of Zacchzus, Luke xix. 8, were supposed to be his; so too Hilgenfeld, Actus Apost., p. 202, 1899.
Ver. 24. Kupte kapStoyvaora ... ὃν ἐξελέξω. The words may well have been addressed to Christ: St. Peter had just spoken of Him as the Lord, his own experience and that of his fellow-disciples must have taught him that Jesus was One Who knew the hearts of all men (John ii. 25, xxi. 17), and he had heard his Master’s claim to have chosen the Apostles (cf. Luke vi. 13, and v. 2 above, where the same verb is used). On the other hand Wendt regards as decisive against this view that St. Peter himself in xv. 7 says ἐξελέξατο 6 θεός and then in ver. 8 calls God καρδιογνώστης (cf. Jeremiah xvii. 10, where Jehovah is said to search the heart). But the passage in Acts xv. is much too general in its reference to consider it decisive against any special prerogative ascribed to Jesus here (viz., the choice of His own Apostles), and the references to 2 Cor. i. 1, Ephes. ii. 1, where St. Paul refers his Apostleship to God, may be fairly met by Acts ix. 17 and xxvi. 16. It is quite true that in iv. 29 Κύριε is used in prayer plainly addressed to the Lord Jehovah, but it is equally certain that prayer was directed to Christ in the earliest days of the Church (Zahn, Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche, ΡΡ. 1-38 and notes), see also below onii. 21 (and cf. t Thess. iii. 11, 12, and 2 Thess. ii. 16 ; Archbishop of Armagh in Speaker’s Commentary, iii., 600). --- ἀνάδειξον: in Luke x. 1 the only other passage in the N.T. where the word is used, it is applied to our Lord’s appointment of the Seventy, and is rendered “‘ appointed,” A. and R.V. But here R.V. renders ‘‘show” as A.V. (Rendall, ‘“ appoint”). The verb how- ever may be used in the sense of showing forth or clearly, and hence to proclaim, especially a person’s appointment to an office (cf. the noun ἀνάδειξις also used by St. Luke only in his Gospel, i. 80); cf. for the former meaning, 2 Macc. ii. 8, cf.
ν. 6, and for the latter, 2 Macc. ix. 4, 23) 850 κ. πχ; ἄπῑν. 1, 28: τ' Επάας η. 35, Vili. 23; so too the use of the word in Polybius and Plutarch (see Grimm- Thayer, sub v., and Weiss, {2 loco).
Ver. 25. tov κλῆρον: R.V. τόπον marking the antithesis between the place in the Apostleship and ‘“ his own place” to which Judas had gone, Vulg. locum. —rijs διακονίας ταύτης καὶ ἀποστολῆς: as above we have not only the word διακονία used but also ἐπισκοπή, ν. 17 and 20, so here too we have not only διακονία. but also ἀποστολή, although no doubt there is a sense in which we may truly say with Dr. Hort (Ecclesia, p. 204) that Apostleship is the highest form of minis- tration. On the word ἀπόστολος see xiii. 2, 3; the term was undoubtedly used in N.T. to include others besides the Twelve, although there is no reason to suppose that the qualification of having ‘‘seen the Lord” was in any case invalidated (cf. Gwatkin, ‘ Apostle,” Hastings’ B.D., p. 126). The whole nar- tative before us which relates the solemn appeal of the Church to her Ascended Lord, and the choice determined upon in immediate sequence to that appeal, is clearly at variance with any conception of Apostleship as other than a divine commission received directly from Christ Himself (Moberly, Ministerial Priest- hood, p. 130).—mapéBn, ‘fell away,” R.V. cf. LXX Exod. xxxii. 8, ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ, so Deut. ix. 12, xvii. 20, ἀπὸ τῶν ἐντολῶν