τς ο
229
IX. 1. Ὁ AE Σαῦλος ἔτι ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς καὶ Φόνου εἰς τοὺς
μαθητὰς τοῦ Κυρίου, προσελθὼν τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ, 2. ἠτήσατο παρ αὐτοῦ
3 4 3 x A AY , 5 9 -/ ἐπιστολὰς εἰς Δαμασκὸν πρὸς τὰς συναγωγάς, οπως ἐάν τινας ευρῃ
τῆς ὁδοῦ ὄντας ἄνδρας τε καὶ Ὑγυναῖκας, δεδεµένους ἀγάγῃη εἰς
habitants, twenty thousand in number, were massacred in an hour. Here the famous Rabbi Akiba met a martyr’s death, here Eusebius of Czsarea and Procopius were born, and hither Origen fled. See Schirer, µ. s.; Hamburger, Real-Encyclo- padie des Fudentums, ii., 1, 123; G. A. Smith, 1. s., pp. 138, 143 ff., B.D.?; Eder- sheim, History of the fewish Nation, pp. 21, 23, 156, 199, 251, 205, etc. Among the Jews Czsarea was called by the same name by which we know it, but some- times from its fortifications, Migdal Shur, or after its harbour, Migdal Shina, or after both, and once by its ancient name, ‘Straton’s Tower” (cf. also Strabo, xvi., Ρ. 758), but as the seat of the Roman power, and for its preponderating heathen population, it was specially hated; and so it was designated ‘the daughter of Edom,” although the district, so rich and fertile, was still called ‘‘the land of life”. Edersheim, fewish Social Life, pp. 24, 72, 202, and Hamburger, u.s. Czsarea is mentioned in the verse before us not because of its political and com- mercial importance, but because it be- came the after home of Philip, xxi. 8. But it also might be named here as marking a further and interesting stage in the progress of the Gospel (see also below on chap. x.). We cannot say whether at the time of the narrative in chap. x. Philip had already settled and worked in Czsarea. CHAPTER IX.—Ver. 1. ‘O δὲ Σαῦλος: takes up and continues the nartative from viii. 3; the resumptive use of δέ.--- ἔτι: ‘“‘Sic in summo fervore peccandi ereptus et conversus est’? Bengel.— ἐμπνέων: only here in N.T., not “' breath- ing out,” A.V., but rather “breathing of,” lit.,‘‘ in” (R.V. simply “ breathing ”’), cf. LXX, Josh. x. 40; πᾶν ἐμπνέον ζωῆς (cf. Ps. xvii. 15)—threatening and murdering were as it were the atmo- sphere which he breathed, and in and by which he lived, cf. Stobzus, Flor., 85, 19, ὁδμῆς ἐμπνέοντα, L. and S. and Blass, im loco (cf. also Aristoph., Eq., 437, οὗτος ἤδη κακίας καὶ συκοφαντίας avet, and Winer-Moulton, xxx., 9).---τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ: probably Joseph Caiaphas, who continues thus to persecute the Church, see on iv. 6 (v. 17); he held office until 36 Α.Ὀ., see Zockler’s note, in loco, and
3
‘*Caiaphas,”’ B.D.?, ard Hastings’ B.D. ““Saul as a Pharisee makes request of a Sadducee!”’ says Felten.
Ver. 2. Πτήσατο, see on iii. 2, with παρά, in iii. 3, we have the imperfect, but “ inest in aoristo quod etiam accepit,” Blass; on the use of the verb in N.T., see also Blass, Gram., p. 182, and Grimm- Thayer, sub υ.--ἐπιστολὰς, cf. xxii. 5, xxvi. 12; on the jurisdiction of the San- hedrim, see above on iv. 5; Weber, Fiudische Theol., p. 141 (1897); Ο. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, pp. 174, 175; and Schirer, ¥ewish People, div. ii., νο]. i., p. 185, E.T.: only within the limits of Judza had the Sanhedrim any direct authority, although its orders were regarded as binding over every Jewish community. But the extent to which this obligation prevailed depended on the disposition of the Jewish com- munities towards the Sanhedrim.—Aa- μασκὸν: ‘In the history of religion,” writes Dr. G. A. Smith, ‘‘ Damascus was the stage of two great crises. She was the scene of the conversion of the first Apostle of Christianity to the Gentiles ; she was the first Christian city to be taken by Islam. It was fit that Paul’s conversion, with his first sense of a mission to the Gentiles, should not take place till his journey had brought him to Jewish soil.” If Damascus was not the oldest, it may at all events be called the most enduring city in the world. Ac- cording to Josephus, Ant., i., 6, 4, it was founded by Uz, the grandson of Shem, whilst a Moslem tradition makes Eliezer its founder, and Abraham its king (see also Jos., Ant.,i., 7, 2). Here, too, was the traditional scene of the murder of Abel (Shakespeare, 1 King Henry VI.,i., 3). Damascus was situated some seventy miles from the seaboard (about six or eight days’ journey from Jerusalem), to the east of Anti-Lebanon in a great plain, watered by the river Abana with her seven streams, to which the city owes her beauty and her charm, Travellers of every age and of every nationality have celebrated the gardens and orchards, the running waters and the fountains of Damascus, and as the Arab passes from the burning desert to its cooling streams and rich verdure, it is not surprising that he hails it as an earthly paradise. From