As we consider the characteristics of such men as Theudas and Judas, Τε 15 difficult to suppose that the age which produced them could have produced the Messiah of the Gospels. He is, in truth, the Anti-Christ of Judaism. Instead of giving Himself out to be somebody, Jesus is meek and lowly of heart ; instead of stirring revolt in Galilee, a burning furnace of sedition, His blessing is upon
160 ΠΡΑΞΗΙΣ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ γ..
J ἐάσατε adtots)+ ὅτι ἐὰν ή ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἡ βουλὴ αὕτη ἢ τὸ ἔργον τοῦτο, καταλυθήσεται: 39. εἰ δὲ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐστιν, οὐ δύνασθε καταλῦσαι
1 After αφετ. αντους (W.H., R.V.) DE, Flor. insert µη µιαναντες τας χειρας (E has µολυνοντες), d mon coinquinatas manus, e non coinquinantes manus, Flor. non macu- letis manus vestras. Blass and Hilg. follow D. Chase thinks that the gloss arose in Syriac by assim, of O.T. passages, cf. Isa. lix. 3; but see Harris, Four Lectures, etc., p. 79 ff., as against this, and for the possible deriv. from Syriac through the trans. of ὄννησεσθε (W.H., R.V.), and for theories that the gloss has moved away {as in other instances according to H.) from its right place. Belser sees in each word of the B recension in vy. 38 and 39 ‘‘the stamp of originality’. Mr. Harold Smith suggests that there was a gloss on εασατε (αφετε) αυτους from ver. 33 : µη αναι- povvres—MHANAIPOYNTEC—then µη became repeated —MHMHANAIPOYNTEC— the second µη became MI (by itacism), while AIP dropped out after AN. This pro- duces MHMIANOYNTEC which would easily be read µη µιαναντες--τας χειρας.
being added for sense. ἀναιρεῖν is very
the peace-makers ; instead of seeking a kingly crown, like Judas the Gaulonite, He withdraws from those who would take Him by force, and make Him a king; imstead of preaching revolt and licence in the name of liberty for merely selfish ends, He bade men render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s ; in- stead of defiantly bidding His followers to be in subjection to no man, and in- augurating a policy of bloodshed and murder, He bade them remember that whilst One was their Master and Teacher, they all were brethren. Schirer, fewish People, div. ii., vol. iii., Ρ. 80, E.T., well points out that we havea literary memorial of the views and hopes of the Zealots in the Assumption of Moses, which goes so far as to prophesy that Israel will tread on the neck of the eagle, i.e., the Romans, x. 8; but see also edition of Assumption of Moses by Prof. Charles, p. 42.
Ver. 37. ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ἀπογ., see Blass, in loco, on St. Luke’s accuracy. We must be careful to distinguish this from Luke ii. 1. The tribal method of numbering which forms απ essential part of St. Luke’s story in the Gospel may explain why no such serious dis- turbance followed as resulted from the Roman numbering and valuation which marked Quirinius’ second Roman ad- ministration, “the great census,” ἡ ἀπογ. (in 6-8 Α.Ρ.), taken when Judea had just become a part of the Roman province of Syria. This ‘‘ great cen- sus,” taken after the Roman method, involved the imposition of a tax, Jos., Ant., xviii., I, I, and it was this impost which roused the indignation of Judas. To pay tribute to a foreign power was to violate an Israelite’s allegiance to Jehovah: ‘* We have no Lord and Master
.and his followers.
common in Acts.
but God.” was the watchword of Judas For the whole subject see Ramsay, Expositor, April and June, 1897, and Was Christ born at Bethlehem ? (1898), ¢.g., pp- 107, 108, 127, 139.—Kat ἀπέστησε λαὸν: used here transitively, and here only in the N.T., cf. Deut. vii. 4, and in classical writers, Herod., i., 76. The verb ἀφίστημι is not found in any ot the Gospels except St. Luke’s, where it occurs,four times, and in the Acts six times. It is not only one of the words characteristic of the two books, but also of St. Luke and St. Paul (so also pe8iornpt, see on xix. 26), as it is only found once outside St. Paul’s Epistles (in which it is employed four times), viz., Heb. iii. 12; ‘‘drew away some of the people,” R.V. There is no word which actually expresses this as in T.R., where we have ἱκανόν = “much,” Α.Υ.---ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ: this prepositional use of ὀπ. is not found in classical writers, where the word is always an adverb. In the N.T. and LXX the prepositional use is derived