α----ᾱ,
103
χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων ἐβαστάζετο" ὃν ἐτίθουν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν πρὸς τὴν θύραν τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὴν λεγομένην Ὡραίαν, τοῦ
the evening sacrifice commenced much earlier, The Temple; its Ministry and Services, pp. 115, 116. According to Schiirer, followed by Blass who appeals to the authority of Hamburger, there is no ground for supposing that the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day were regular stated times for prayer. The actual times were rather (1) early in the morning at the time of the morning sacrifice (see also Edersheim, 4. s., p. 115); (2) in the afternoon about the ninth hour (three o’clock), at the time of the evening sacrifice; (3) in the evening at sunset (¥ewish People, div. ii., vol. i., 290, E.T.). The third, sixth, and ninth hours were no doubt appropriated to private prayer, and some such rule might well have been derived from Psalm lv. 7; of. Dan. vi. 11. This custom of prayer three times a day passed very early into the Christian Church, Didache, viii. 3. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the three daily times of prayer are traced back in the Berachoth, 26 6; Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch, p. 99.
Ver. 2. τις, by its position as in Luke xi. 27 directs attention to this man, ‘the man was conspicuous both from the place and from his malady’ Chrys., Hom., viii.—yodds . . . ὑπάρχων: “a certain man that was lame” R.V., otherwise ὑπάρχων is not noticed, fit- tingly used here in its classical sense expressing the connection between the man’s present state and his previous state, see on ii. 30.—éBaoralero: im- perf., expressing a customary act, the man was being carried at the hour of worship when the Temple would be filled with worshippers (Chrysostom) ; or the verb may mean that he was being carried in the sense that the bearers had not yet placed him in the accustomed spot for begging, cf. 2 Kings xviii. 14, Ecclesiasticus vi. 25, Beland the Dragon, ver. 36; Theod.—év ἐτίθουν: the imper- fect used of customary or repeated action in past time, Burton, Syntax of Moods and Tenses, etc., p. 12, on the form see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 121; Blass, Gram- matik des N.G., p. 48: in Acts there are several undoubted instances of the way in which the imperfect 3rd plural of verbs in pt was often formed as if from a contract verb, cf. iv. 33, 35, xxvii. 1.— πρὸς τὴν θύραν: Κ.Υ. ‘‘door,” although in νετ. 10 we have not θύρα but πύλη. --τὴν λεγ. Ὡραίαν: it may have been the
gate of Nicanor (so called because Judas Maccabzus had nailed to the gate the hand of his conquered foe, 1 Macc. vii. 47). The description given of it by Josephus, B. F., v., 5,3, marks it as specially magnificent, cf. also Ham- burger, Real-Encycl., ii., 8, p. 1198. This view was held by Wetstein, see, in loco, Nicanor’s gate. Another interpreta- tion refers the term to the gate Shushan, which was not only close to the Porch of Solomon, but also to the market for the sale of doves and other offerings, and so a fitting spot for a beggar to choose (Zéckler). The gate may have been so called because a picture of the Persian capital Susa was placed over it (Hamburger, 1. s.), {.ε., Town of Lilies. Cf. Hebrew Shushan, a lily, the lily being regarded as the type of beauty. Wendt suggests that the title may be explained from the decoration on the
pillars of lily work JW myn.
Mr. Wright, Some N.T. Problems, 1898, has recently argued that the eastern gate of the Court of the Women is meant, Ρ. 304 ff. (so too Schiirer, fewish People, div. ii., vol. i., p. 180, E.T.). This court was the place of assembly for the services, and a beggar might naturally choose a position near it. The decision as to which of these gates reference is made to is rendered more difficult by the fact that, so far as we know, no gate bore the name ‘“ Beautiful”. But the decision apparently lies between these alternatives, although others have been proposed, cf. John Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., in loco, and Wright, µ. 5. In such notices as the mention of the Beautiful Gate, Solo- mon’s Porch, Feine sees indications of a true and reliable tradition.—rov αἰτεῖν : genitive of the purpose, very frequent in this form, genitive of the article with the infinitive both in the N.T. and in the LXX, cf. Gen. iv. 15, 1 Kings i. 35, Ezekiel xxi. 11; Luke xxiv. 16, see especially Burton, Syntax of Moods and Tenses, p. 159. It is very characteristic of St. Luke, and next to him of St. Paul —probably indicates the influence of the LXX, although the construction is found in classical Greek, cf. Xen., Anab., iil., 5, see Viteau, Le Grec du N.T., p. 172 (1893). It was a common thing for beggars amongst the Jews as amongst the Christians (just as amongst the Romans, Martial, i., 112) to frequent the Temple