Ver. 18. As there was to be no limit of sex or age, SO too there was no limit of con- dition. The word pov is not in the Hebrew, only in the LXX, but as it is found in the latter and in Acts it is argued that the words δούλους and δούλας do not mean those of servile rank, but are applied in a general sense to those who are wor- shippers, and so servants of God. But in retaining the word pov we are not obliged to reject the literal meaning ‘“‘bond-servants,” just as St. Peter him- self, in addressing household servants and slaves, commands them to act ὡς δοῦλοι θεοῦ (1 Peter ii. 16): ‘ Intelliguntur servi secundum carnem, diversi a liberis.
So
4 καὶ προφητεύσουσι.
‘ [ή 19. καὶ δώσω τέρατα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω, καὶ i 3 4 ~ ~ , nw lol σημεῖα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω, αἷμα καὶ πΏρ καὶ ἀτμίδα καπνοῦ.
20. 6
ἥλιος µεταστραφήσεται εἰς σκότος, Kal ἡ σελήνη εἰς aipa,? πρὶν ἢ
1 αιμα και πυρ και ατµιδα καπνον om. D, Gig., Par.}, Hilg.
Ἔπριν η BP, Chrys., so W.H., marg.; retained by Weiss (Wendt doubtful). η omitted in RABCDE 13,61; so Tisch., W.H., Hilg. text, R.V. (omitted also in LXX). την ηµεραν, article omitted by *BD; so Tisch., W.H., Weiss, Wendt, Hilg.
νετ. 17, sed iidem servi Dei,’ Bengel. According to Maimonides, no slave could be a prophet, but as in Christ there was neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, so in Him there was neither bond nor free (see also Keil, zn loco). — καὶ προφητεύσουσι: an explanatory ad- dition of the speaker, or an interpolation from ver. 17, not found either in Hebrew or LXX.
Ver. 19. The word σημεῖα is wanting in the Hebrew and the LXX, but the co-ordination of the two words τέρας and σημεῖον is frequent in the Ν.Τ, (John iv. 48, Acts iv. 30, Rom. xv. 19, 2 Cor. xii. 12), and even more so in the LXX (Exod. vii. 3, 9, Deut. iv. 34, Neh. ix. Io, Dan. vi. 27), so also in Josephus, Philo, Plutarch, Polybius. For the distinc- tion between the words in the Ν.Τ., see below on νετ. 22. τέρας is often used of some startling portent, or of some strange appearance in the heavens, so here fitly used of the sun being turned into darkness, etc. But God’s τέρατα are always onpeta to those who have eyes to see, and significantly in the N.T. the former word is never found without the latter. It isno doubt true to say that St. Peter had already received a sign from heaven above in the ἦχας ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, and a sign upon the earth below in the λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (Nésgen), but the whole context, vv. 19- 21, shows that St. Peter’s thoughts had passed from the day of Pentecost to a period of grace and warning which should precede the Parousia. No ex- planation, therefore, of the words which limits their fulfilment to the Pentecostal Feast (see Keil, in loco, and also his re- ‘erence to the interpretation of the Rabbis) is satisfactory.—oypeta is pro- oably introduced into the text to empha- sise the antithesis, as also are ἄνω and κάτω.--- αἷμα καὶ πὂρ: if we see in these words σημεῖα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κάτω, there is no need to refer them to such startling phenomena as rain of blood, or fiery meteors, or pillars of smoke rising from the earth (so De Wette, Overbeck), but rather
to the bloodshed and devastation of war (so Holtzmann, Wendt, Felten) ; cf. our Lord’s words, Matt. xxiv. 6, 29. Dean Plumptre thinks of the imagery as drawn from one of the great thunderstorms of Palestine, and cf. Weber, Fiidische Theologie, pp. 350, 351 (1897).
Ver. 20. For similar prophetic imagery taken from the startling phenomena of an eclipse in Palestine, cf. Isaiah xiii. 10, Ezek. xxxii. 7, Amos viii. ο.-- πρὶν ἢ ἐλθεῖν. The LXX omit 4, and Weiss contends that this is the reason of its. omission here in so many MSS. Weiss retains it as in vii. 2, xxv. 16; cf. also Luke ii. 26 (but doubt- ful). Blass omits it here, ut retains it in the other two passages cited from Acts: ‘“‘Tonicum est non Atticum ” ; cf. Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 130 (1893).--- τὴν ἡμέραν Κυρίου. It is most significant that in the Epistles of the N.T. this O.T. phrase used of Jehovah is constantly applied to the Coming of Jesus Christ to judgment ; cf. 1 Thess. v. 2, 1 Cor. i. 8, 2 Cor. i. 14, Phil. i. 10; Sabatier, 1, Αβδίγε Paul, p. 104.—Kat ἐπιφανη: if the word is to be retained, it means a day manifest to all as being what it claims to be, Vulgate manifestus, “ clearly visible” ;_ Luke xvii. 24; also 1 Tim. vi. 14, 2 Thess. ii. 8, where the word ἐπιφάνεια is used of the Parousia (cf. Prayer-Book, ‘‘the Epiphany or Mani- festation of Christ to the Gentiles”).