Ver. 2. διαπονούμενοι, cf xvi. 18, only in Acts in the N.T., not, as often in classical Greek, referring to the exertions made by them, but to the vexation which they felt, “being sore troubled,” R.V. (πόνος, dolor, Blass), cf. LXX, Eccles. x. 9, used of pain caused to the body, and 2 Macc. ii. 28, R. (A. al. ἀτονοῦντες), but cf. Aquila, Gen. vi. 6, xxiv. 7, 1 Sam. xx. 3, 34, of mental griefi—év τῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ =
µενοι διὰ τὸ διδάσκειν αὐτοὺς τὸν λαόν, καὶ ‘Inood τὴν ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν -
123 1 καταγγέλλειν ἐν τῷ
3. καὶ ἐπέβαλον αὐτοῖς τὰς
χεῖρας,” καὶ ἔθεντο εἰς τήρησιν εἰς Thy αὔριον: ἦν γὰρ ἑσπέρα ἤδη.
4. πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν ἀκουσάντων τὸν λόγον ἐπίστευσαν' καὶ ἐγενήθη 6
1 D reads αναγγελλειν τον |. εν Τη αναστασει των vexpwv, but Blass rejects (Chase contends for Syriac); την ex νεκρων SVABCE, Vulg., Boh., Syrr. (P. and H.); των νεκρων DP, h, 31, Flor., Gig., Par., Sah., Arm., Aeth., Lucif., Ir., Chrys.
2 yxeupas; after this word Flor. inserts εκρατησαν αυτους (which Zéckler and Belser regard as original); for επεβαλον D reads επιβαλοντες.
not “through,” but as in R.V., ‘in Jesus,” z.¢., ‘in persona Jesu quem resur- rexisse dicebant”’ (Blass). Others render it ‘in the instance of Jesus” (so Holtz- mann, Wendt, Felten, Zéckler).—rhv ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν: on the form of the expression see Plummer on St. Luke, xx. 35, and Lumby’s note, i loco. It must be distinguished from (4) ἀνάσ- τασις τῶν νεκρῶν. It is the more limited term implying that some from among the dead are raised, while others as yet are not; used of the Resurrection of Christ and of the righteous, cf. with this pas- sage 1 Peter i. 3 (Col. i. 18), but see also Grimm-Thayer, sub ἀνάστασις. It was not merely a dogmatic question of the denial of the Resurrection which con- cerned the Sadducees, but the danger to their power, and to their wealth from the Temple sacrifices and dues, if the Re- surrection of Jesus was proclaimed and accepted (see Wendt and Holtzmann, in loco, and Plummer on Luke xxiii. 1-7, note). Spitta agrees with Weiss, Feine, Jungst, in regarding the mention of the distress of the Sadducees at the preaching of the Apostles as not belonging to the original source. But it is worthy of notice that in estimating the positive value of his source, A., he decides to retain the mention of the Sadducees in iv. I—it would have been more easy, he thinks, for a forger to have represented the enmity to the Church as proceeding not from the Sadducees but from the Pharisees, as in the Gospels. But the Sadducees, as Spitta reminds us, accord- ing to Josephus, included the high-priestly families in their number, and it was by this sect that at a later date the death of James the Just was caused. Only once in the Gospels, John xii. το, the chief priests, rather than the Pharisees, take the initiative against our Lord, but this was in the case of what was essentially a question for the Sadducees (as here in Acts iv. 2), the advisability of getting rid of Lazarus, a living witness to the truth
which the Sadducees denied. It is no unfair inference that the chief priests in St. John occupy the place of the Saddu- cees in the Synoptists, as the latter are never mentioned by name in the fourth Gospel; and if so, this is exactly in ac- cordance with what we should expect from the notices here and in Acts v. 17, and in Josephus; see on the point Light- foot in Expositor, 1890, pp. 86, 87.
Ver. 3. ἐπέβαλον αὐτοῖς τὰς χεῖρας: the verb is always as here joined with the same noun in Acts, and twice in the Gospel; the phrase is found once in Matthew and Mark, and twice in John; see Luke xx. 19, xxi. 12, Acts iv. 3, v. 18, Xi σαι ο opi ee Gets σας τοῦ 2 Sam. xvill. 12; Esther vi. 2, so also in Polybius.—rypyotv, cf. ν. 18, only used elsewhere in N.T. by St. Paul, τ Cor. να, I9; in Thuc., vii., 86 (Wendt), it denotes not only the act of guarding, but also a place of custody. Five times in LXX, but in the former sense. For another instance of its meaning as a place of custody (see Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien, p. 55), on papyrus in Egypt, second or third century after Christ.—ijv γὰρ ἑσπέρα ἤδη, c/. iii. 1, the judicial examination must therefore be postponed until the next day, see Jer. xxi. 12, on which it appears that the Rabbis founded this prohibition against giving judgment in the night (Lumby and Felten, in loco).—éomwépa: only in St. Luke in the N.T., Luke xxiv. 29, Acts iv. 3 (xx. 15, W.H. margin) and XXVill. 23.