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the latest. In the account of the death of Stephen, Wendt, following Weiss, Sorof, Clemen, Hilgenfeld, regards vii. 58), vill. ΤΑ, 3, as evidently additions of the redactor, although he declines to follow Weiss and Hilgenfeld in passing the same judgment on ver. 55 (and 56, according to H.), and on the last words of Stephen in ver. 59>. The second ἐλιθοβόλουν in 59), which Hilgenfeld as- signs to his redactor, and Wendt now refers to the action of the witnesses, as distinct from that of the whole crowd, is repeated with dramatic effect, height- ened by the present participle, ἐπικ., “ruthless violence on the one side, an- swered by continuous appeals to heaven on the other’’; see Rendall’s note, in loco.—émux. : ‘calling upon the Lord,” Κ.Υ. (“calling upon God,” A.V.), the former seems undoubtedly to be rightly suggested by the words of the prayer which follow—on the force of the word see above, ii. 21.---Κύριε ᾿Ιησοῦ, δέξαι τὸ πνεῦμά µου: a direct prayer to our Lord, cf. for its significance and reality,
‘Zahn, “ Die Anbetung Jesu” (Skizzen
aus dem Leben der alten Kirche, pp. 9,288), Liddon, Our Lord’s Divinity, lect. vii. ; cf. Luke xxiii. 46. (Weiss can only see an imitation of Luke, and an interpola- tion here, because the kneeling, and also another word follow before the surrender of the spirit ; but see on the other hand the remarks of Wendt, note, p. 196.) Ver. 60. θεὶς δὲ τὰ γόνατα: a phrase not used in classical writers, but Blass compares Ovid, Fasii, ii., 438; five times in St. Luke’s writings, Luke xxii. 41, Acts ix. 40, xx. 36, xxi. 5; only once elsewhere in N.T., Mark xv. 19. The attitude of kneeling in prayer would no doubt commend itself to the early be- lievers from the example of their Lord. Standing would seem to have been the more common attitude among the Jews, but cf. instances in the O.T. of kneeling in prayer, LXX, 1 Kings viil. 54, Ezra ix. 5, Dan. vi. 10, and also the expression used twice by St. Paul, κάµπτειν τὰ γόνατα, 1 Chron. xxix. 20, 1 Esdras viii. 73, Isa. xlv. 23, etc., Ephes. iii. 14, and Phil. ii. το (Rom. xi. 4, xiv. 11). See Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, p. 42.— φΦωνῇ µεγάλῃ, cf. Luke xxiii. 46. The last final effort of the strong love which showed itself also in the martyr’s bended knees (see Wendt, z loco). Eusebius, H. E., v., 2, tells us how the martyrs of Vienne and Lyons took up St. Stephen’s words in their own prayer for their perse- cutors (cf. the famous instance of the last words of Sir Thomas More before
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