III. 1.2 "EM! τὸ αὐτὸ δὲ Πέτρος καὶ Ἰωάννης ἀνέβαινον εἰς τὸ.
ἱερὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ὥραν τῆς προσευχῆς τὴν ἐνάτην.
1D begins εν δε ταις ηµεραις ταυταις, so Par.
2. Kai? τις ἀνῆρ.
Blass (so Harris) regards the
phrase as addition ‘in principio nove lectionis,”’ but the addition is characteristic of
After tepov D also inserts το δειλινον (the acc. of time, like τὸ.
πρώϊ, v. 21—defended by Belser (and by Zéckler), who argues that it is more likely to have been struck out on revision than added by a later hand); Hilg. retains.
2 After και D, Par.?, Syr. Pesh. insert ιδον. υπαρχων om. D, Gig., Par.
early Christian Church, but whilst the Essenes dined together, owing to their scrupulosity in avoiding all food except what was ceremonially pure, the Chris- tians saw in every poor man who partook of their common meal the real Presence of their Lord. Of all contemporary sects it may no doubt be said that the Chris- tian society resembled most nearly the Essenes, but with this admission Weiz- sacker well adds: ‘‘ The Essenes, through their binding rules and their suppression of individualism, were, from their very nature, an order of limited extent. In the new Society the moral obligation of liberty reigned, and disclosed an un- limited future,”’ Apostolic Age,i.,58(E.T.). It is often supposed that the after-poverty of the Church in Jerusalem, Rom. xv. 26, Gal. ii. 10, etc., was the result of this first enthusiasm of love and charity, and that the failure of a community of goods in the mother city prevented its intro- duction elsewhere. But not only is the above view of the ‘‘communism” of the early Christians adverse to this supposi- tion, but there were doubtless many causes at work which may account for the poverty of the Saints in Jerusalem, cf. Rendall, Expositor, Nov., 1893, p. 322. Thecollec- tion for the Saints, which occupies such a prominent place in St. Paul’s life and words, may not have been undertaken for any exceptional distress as in the earlier case of the famine in Judza, Acts xi. 26, but we cannot say how severely the effects of the famine may have affected the fortunes of the Jerusalem Christians, We must too take into account the per- secution of the Christians by their rich neighbours; the wealthy Sadducees were their avowed opponents. From the first it was likely that the large majority of the Christians in Jerusalem would possess little of this world’s goods, and the con- stant increase in the number of the dis- ciples would have added to the difficulty of maintaining the disproportionate num- ber of poor. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there was another and a fatal cause at work—love itself had grown
cold—the picture drawn by St. James in his Epistle is painfully at variance with the golden days which he had himself seen, when bitter jealousy and faction were unknown, for all were of one heart and one soul, Zahn, Skizzen aus dem Leben der alten Kirche, p. 39 ff.; Zockler, Ἡ.δ., Pp. 191, 192; Wendt, im loco; M‘Giffert, Apostolic Age, p. 67; Cony- beare, ‘‘Essenes,” Hastings’ B.D.; Kaufmann, Socialism and Communism,
5 ff.
CHAPTER III].—Ver. 1. St. Luke selects out of the number of τέρατα καὶ σημεῖα the one which was the immediate antecedent of the first persecution. ‘‘ Non dicitur primum hoc miraculum fuisse, sed fuit, quanquam unum e multis, ipso loco maxime conspicuum,”’ Blass, as against Weiss, Hilgenfeld, Feine.—aveBawoy, cf. Luke xviii. ro. ‘‘ Two men went up into the Temple to pray,” {.ο., from the lower city to Mount Moriah, the hill of the Temple, ‘‘ the hill of the house,” on its site see “' Jerusalem,” B.D.2. The verb is in the imperfect, because the Apostles. do not enter the Temple until ver. 8. St. Chrysostom comments: Πέτρος καὶ Ιωάννης ἦσαν καὶ τὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν εἶχον µέσον, Matt. xviii. 20.—émt τὴν ὥραν τῆς προσευχῆς, not during or about, but marking a definite time, for the hour, i.e., to be there during the hour—some- times the words are taken to mean “towards the hour”: see Plummer on Luke x. 35 (so apparently Weiss). Page renders ‘‘for, 1.¢., to be there at the hour” (so Felten, Lumby). In going thus to the Temple they imitated their Master, Matt. xxvi. 55.---τὴν ἐνάτην, {.6., 3 P.M., when the evening sacrifice was offered, Jos., Ant., xiv., 4, 3. Edersheim points out that although the evening sacrifice was fixed by the Jews as ‘‘ be- tween the evenings,” 7.¢., between the darkness of the gloaming and that of the night, and although the words of Psalm cxxxiv., and the appointment of Levite singers for night service, 1 Chron. ix. 33, xxiii. 30, seem to imply an even- ing service, yet in the time of our Lord: