76
Ῥωμαῖοι, ἸΙουδαῖοί τε καὶ προσήλυτοι, 11. Κρῆτες καὶ "Αραβες,
ἀκούομεν λαλούντων αὐτῶν ταῖς ἡμετέραις γλώσσαις τὰ μεγαλεῖα
time of Pompey, although their first ap- pearance there dates from the days of the Maccabees (1 Macc. viii. 17, xiv. 24, xv. 15 ff.). Of the numerous Jewish families brought to Rome by Pompey many regained their freedom, and settled beyond the Tiber as a regular Jewish community with the rights of Roman citizenship. In 19 Α.Ρ., however, the whole Jewish population was banished from the imperial city, Jos., Ant., xviii., 3, 5; but after the overthrow of Sejanus it may be safely assumed that Tiberius allowed theirreturn to Rome(Schiirer,z.s., p. 232 ff.).—ot ἐπιδημοῦντες “Pwopator, “« Sojourners from Rome,” R.V., 7.¢., the Jews who live at Rome as sojourners— Roman Jews. Others take ἐπιδ. as re- ferring to the Roman Jews who were making a temporary sojourn in Jerusa- lem for the Feast, or for some other pur- pose, the word being thus in a certain degree opposed to the κατοικοῦντες (of permanent dwelling) in ver. 5. Others again apparently take the expression as describing Roman Jews who, born in Rome, had taken up their dwelling in Jeru- salem, and who are thus distinguished from those Jews who, born in Jerusalem, were Romans by right of Roman citizenship. The only other passage in which ἐπιδη- μοῦντες occurs is Acts xvii. 21 (but cf. xviii. 27, D and B (Blass)), and it is there used of the ξένοι sojourning in Athens, and so probably thus making a temporary sojourn, or who were not Athenians by birth or citizenship, as distinct from the regular inhabitants of Athens. Cf. Athe- nzus, viii, Ῥ. 361 F.—ot Ῥώμην κατοι- κοῦντες, καὶ οἱ ἐνεπιδημοῦντες τῇ πόλει, which passage shows that ἐπιδ. '' minus significat quam kartoukety’’ (Blass), and other instances in Wetstein. Hilgenfeld, whose pages contain a long discussion of recent views of the words’ in question, argues that according to what precedes we should expect καὶ of κατοικοῦντες Ῥώμην, and according to what follows we should expect simply Ῥωμαῖοι, and he solves the difficulty by the arbitrary method of omitting καὶ of ἐπιδ. before 'Ῥωμαῖοι, and ουδ. τε καὶ προσήλυτοι after it, Zeitschrift fir wissenschaft. Theol., p. 93 ff. (1895); see further Actus Apfost., p. 260, 1899.—'lov8atot τε καὶ προσή- Avtot. Not only would St. Luke in writing to a Roman convert of social tank like Theophilus be likely to mention
the presence of Roman Jews at the first Christian Pentecost, but he would also emphasise the fact that they were not only Jews, or of Jewish origin, but that proselytes from heathendom were also included (Felten, Belser). In thus ex- plaining the words Felten refers them, with Erasmus and Grotius, to of ἐπιδ. Ῥωμαῖοι only, whilst Overbeck, Weiss, Holtzmann, Wendt, Belser, so Page, Hackett, refer them to the whole of the preceding catalogue. It is evident that Schiirer takes the same view, for in speak- ing of the large offerings contributed by proselytes to the Temple at Jerusalem he mentions that in stating the number of Jews of every nationality living in Jeru- salem the Acts does not forget to men- tion the proselytes along with the Jews, ii. 10 (Η. δ., Ρ. 307).
Ver. 11. Κρῆτες καὶ “ApaBes: both names seem to have been added to the list as an after-thought. Even if we can- not accept Ndsgen’s idea that St. Luke is repeating verbatim the account which he had received orally from an eyewit- ness who had forgotten the Arabians and Cretans in going through the list geographically, yet the introduction of the two names in no apparent con- nection with the rest ought to show us that we are not dealing with an arti- ficial list, but with a genuine record of the different nations represented at the Feast. Belser, who endorses this view, supposes that St. Luke obtained his information from an eye- witness who added the Cretans and Arabians supplementarily, just as a per- son might easily forget one or two names in going through a long list of represen- tative nations at a festival. It is possible, as Belser suggests, that the Cretans and Arabians were thinly represented at the Pentecost, although the notices in Jo- sephus and Philo’s letter mentioned above point to a large Jewish population in Crete. The special mention of the Cretans is strikingly in accordance with the statement of the Jewish envoys ta Caligula, vzz., that all the more noted islands of the Mediterranean, including Crete, were full of Jews, ‘ Crete,” B.D.,? and Schiirer,, 4: 5., Ῥ. 232. ΕΝ. εΟτείαπς”; which marks the fact that the Greek Κρῆτες is a dissyllable ; in A.V. “Cretes” this is easily forgotten (cf. Titus i. 12).---μεγαλεῖα only found here