Ver. 30. ἐν τῷ κ.τ.λ., ili. 26: a He- braistic formula; for similar expres- sions used of God cf. Exodus vil. 5, Jeremiah xv. 6, Ezek. vi. 14, etc., most frequently in the act of punishment; but here the context shows that it is for healing, Luke v. 13, vi. 10; ‘* while thou stretchest forth thine hand ”’—the con- struction is very frequent in Luke and the Acts, see Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 162, and Friedrich, p. 37. Commenting on the prayer, St. Chry- sostom writes: ‘“‘ Observe they do not say ‘crush them, cast them down,’. . . let us also learn thus to pray. And yet how full of wrath one would be when fallen upon by men intent upon killing him, and making threats to that effect! how full of animosity | but not so these saints.” ---γίγνεσθαι: A. and Κ.Υ. make γιγ. to depend upon δός, but better to regard it
31. Καὶ δεηθέντων αὐτῶν ἐσαλεύθη ὁ τόπος ἐν ᾧ ἦσαν συνηγµένοι, καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν ἅπαντες Πνεύματος Αγίου, καὶ ἐλάλουν τὸν λόγον
τοῦ Θεοῦ μετὰ παῤῥησίας.ϊ
1 At end of νετ. D (E, Ir., Aug.) adds παντι τω θελοντι πιστευειν (last word omitted by Aug.); so Hilg. Chase points out that Syriac often inserts “ will’? when nothing corresponding in Greek, but see Harris on a primitive Latin redaction, Four Lectures, °
etc., pp. 89, go.
as infinitive of purpose, subordinate to ἐν τῷ κ.τ.λ. (See Wendt and Page). Weiss regards from καὶ op. to yy. as the reviser’s insertion.—eis ἴασιν: St. Luke alone employs the good medical word ἴασις, see ver. 22, and Luke xiii. 32, sO whilst ἰᾶσθαι is used only three or four times by St. Matthew, two or three times by St. John, and once by St. Mark, it is used by St. Luke eleven times in his Gospel, and three or four times in the Acts. The significant use of this strictly medical term, and of the verb ἰᾶσθαι in St. Luke’s writings, comes out by comparing Matt. xiv. 36, Mark vi. 56, and Luke vi. 19, see Hobart. ἴασιν -- Ἰησοῦ, paronomasia; Wordsworth. In this ver., 30, Spitta, agreeing with Weiss as against Feine, traced another addition in the reviser’s hand through the influence of source B, in which the Apostles appear, not as preachers of the Gospel, but as performers of miraculous deeds. Ver. 31. δεηθέντων, cf. xvi. 26, where a similar answer is given to the prayer of Paul and Silas: the verb is character- istic of St. Luke and St. Paul, and is only used by these two writers with the exception of one passage, Matt ix. 38; in St. Luke’s Gospel it is found eight times, and in Acts seven times, and often of requests addressed to God as here, cf. x. 2, Vili. 24, Luke x. 2, xxi. 36, xxii. 32, 1 Thess. iii. 10. See on αἰτέω, Grimm- Thayer (Synonyms). This frequent reference to prayer is characteristic of St. Luke both in his Gospel and the Acts, cf. Acts i. 14, ii. 42, iv. 31, vi. 4, x. 2, ΚΙ. 3, xiv. 23, xvi. 13, 25, xxviii. 8; Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, pp. 59, 6ο.---ἐσαλεύθη, xvi. 26; Luke (vi. 38, 48, vil. 24) xxi. 26; Heb. xii. 26, 27; in the O.T. we have similar manifestations of the divine Presence, cf. Ps. cxiv. 7, Amos ix. 5, where the same word is used; cf. also Isa. vi. 4, Hag. ii. 6, Joel iii. 16, Ezek. xxxviii. 19. For instance of an earthquake regarded as a token of the presence of a deity, see Wetstein, in loco; Virgil, Aneid, iii., go; Ovid, Met., xv., 672, and so amongst the Rabbis,
Schoéttgen, Hor. Heb., in loco. In the Acts it is plainly regarded as no chance occurrence, and with regard to the rationalistic hypothesis that it was merely a natural event, accidentally coinciding with the conclusion of the prayer, Zeller admits that there is every probability against the truth of any such hypothesis ; rather may we see in it with St. Chrysos- tom a direct answer to the appeal to the God in whose hands were the heaven and the earth (cf. Iren., Adv. Haer., iii., 12, 5). ‘‘ The place was shaken, and that made them all the more unshaken” (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius). ---συνηγμένοι, “were gathered,” so in ver. 27; the aorist in the former verse referring to an act, but here the perfect to a state, but impossible to distinguish in translation, Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 45. That the shaking is regarded as miraculous is admitted by Weiss, who sees in it the reviser’s hand introducing a miraculous result of the prayer of the Church, in place of the natural result of strengthened faith and popular favour.—kat ἐπλήσθησαν, ver. 8. So here the Holy Ghost inspired them all with courage: He came comfortari, to strengthen; they had prayed that they might speak the word μετὰ παρρ. and their prayer was heard and fulfilled to the letter (ver. 31) as Luke describes “with simple skill '.---ἐλάλουν: mark the force of the imperfect. ἐπλησθ. (aorist), the prayer was immediately answered by their being filled with the Holy Ghost, and they proceeded to speak, the imperfect also implying that they continued to speak (Rendall) ; there is no need to see any reference to the speaking with tongues. Feine sees in the narrative a divine answer to the Apostles’ prayer, so that filled with the Holy Ghost they spoke with boldness. And he adds, that such divine power must have been actually working in the Apostles, otherwise the growth of the Church in spite of its opposition is inex- plicable—a remark which might well be considered by the deniers of a miraculous Christianity. It is in reality the same