Ver. 4. οὐχὶ, ‘id quaerit quod sic esse nemo negat,” Grimm, ‘“ while itremained, did it not remain thine own?” R.V. Very frequent in Luke as compared with the other Evangelists, see also vii. 50. This rendering better retains the kind of play upon the word µένω, to which Weiss draws attention, and com- pares 1 Macc. xv. 7 for the force of ἔμενεν. ---πραθὲν, 1.6., the price of it when sold (rectius πραθέντος τὸ ἀργύριον, cf. Viteau, Le Grec du N. Τ., p. 57 (1896)) ; so αὐτά in ii. 45 is used for the prices of the possessions and goods sold. The whole question, while it deprived Ananias of every excuse, also proves beyond doubt that the community of goods in the Church of Jerusalem was not compulsory
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τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο! ; οὐκ ἐψεύσω ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ τῷ Ocd.
5. ἀκούων
δὲ ᾽Ανανίας τοὺς λόγους τούτους, πεσὼν ἐξέψυξε: καὶ ἐγένετο φόβος
1 το πραγµα Touro; but D, Par., Sah. read ποιησαι (το) πονηρον τουτο-- πραγμα once elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel i. 1, once in St. Matt., four times in St. Paul. Αν. SABEP, Chrys. prefix article, so Tisch., W.H., Weiss, Wendt. πεσων; D, Par., so Hilg., prefix wapaxpnpa—and Par. also adds after πεσ. επι την γην, cf. ix. 4, read by BlassinB. ταντα om. ΝΔ ΑΡΒΓ, verss., Orig., Lucif., so Tisch., W.H., R.V.,
Wendt, Weiss; cf. ver. 11 end,
but voluntary.—éfovela, power or right (ἔξεστι): “* The Ecclesia was a society in which neither the community was lost in the individual, nor the individual in the community,” Hort, Ecclesia, p. 48.—tt ὅτι, sc., τί ἔστιν ὅτι, cf. Luke ii. 49, and Viteau, Le Grec du N. Τ., p. tor (1893), Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 173.— ἔθου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σον, xix. 21, and Luke xxi. 14. The phrase is rightly described as having a Hebraistic colouring, cf. LXEX, x Ὅατα, αι, 12; 4Dan: 1. 5, Ἠαος. ii. 16, το, Mal. i. 1, and the Homeric θέσθαι ἐν dpeot, ἐν θυμῷ βάλλεσθαι. --τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο: so frequently in LXX, Gen. xliv. 15, Exod. i. 18, Josh. ix. 24, 1 Chron. xxi. 8; Viteau, Le Grec du Ν. Τ., p. 149 (1Ι506).-- οὐκ ἐψεύσω: the words do not here of course mean that Ananias had not lied unto men, butan absolute negative is employed in the first conception, not to annul it, but rhetorically to direct undivided atten- tion to the second, cf. Matt. x. 20, Mark ix. 37, 1 Thess. iv. 8, Winer-Moulton, lv. 8, 6. The dative of the person is found after ψεύδεσθαι in the LXX, but not in classical Greek. The sin of Ananias was much more than mere hypocrisy, much more than fraud, pride or greed—hateful as these sins are—the power and presence of the Holy Spirit had been manifested in the Church, and Ananias had sinned not only against human brotherhood, but against the divine light and leading which had made that brotherhood possible. In the words there lies an undeniable proof of the personality and divinity ofthe Holy Ghost, and a refutation of Macedonius long before he was born (see Bede’s note in loco, and on patristic authorities, Felten). We cannot satisfactorily ex- plain the words by supposing that offence against the public spirit of that Church is meant, and that the sin against the Holy Ghost may be identified with this.
Ver. 5. ἀκούων, “as he heard these words” = μεταξὺ ἀκούων, so Weiss, Blass, Rendall.—égépugev : only found here, in ~ver. 10 Of Sapphira, and xii- 23 of the
death of Herod, in the N.T.; not found in classical writers, and only twice in the LXX, Judg. iv. 21 where A reads it to describe the death of Sisera, but=a He- brew word which may only mean to faint, to faint away ; Ezek. xxi. 7 (12) where it
translates a Hebrew word [JJ meaning oe