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XII. τ. KAT’ ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρὸν ἐπέβαλεν Ηρώδης ὁ βασιλεὺς
a a ~ [ή ~ Ν [ο 5 [ή 1 τὰς χεῖρας κακῶσαί τινας τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας. ἸΙάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰωάννου µαχαίρᾳ.
2. ἄνεῖλε δὲ
4 > a a > , 3. καὶ ἰδὼν ὅτι ἀρεστόν
ἐστι τοῖς ἸΙουδαίοις, προσέθετο συλλαβεῖν Kai Πέτρον: (ἦσαν δὲ
1 After εκκλησιας D, Syr. Harcl. mg., Par., Wern. add της εν ty Ἴουδαιᾳ--- the words were original it seems difficult to account for their omission ; but see Belser’s
defence, p. 64, of this and β in vv. 3 and 5.
2 After lovSarors D, Syr. H. mg., Par., so Hilg., add η επιχειρησις αυτον επι τους migTous—this again may be an explanatory gloss, defining what pleased the Jews— but επιχ. and πιστ. are used by Luke in his writings.
K). At the same time there is nothing to surprise us in the fact that the adminis- tration of alms should be connected in loco with the office of elders. If they were representing the Apostles at the time in Jerusalem, it is what we should expect, since the organisation of alms- giving remained part of the Apostolic office, Gal. ii. το, 2 Cor. viii., etc.; and if in a passage from Polycarp (quoted by Dr. Hatch) we find the two connected— the presbyterate and what looks like the administration of alms, Polycarp, Phil., vi., xi—this again need not surprise us, since not only in the N.T., but from the passage referred to in Polycarp, it is evident that the elders, whilst they exercised judicial and administrative functions, exercised also spiritual gifts, and discharged the office of teachers, functions to which there was nothing analogous in the Jewish presbyters (see Gore, u. s., note K, and Gwatkin, wu. s., p. 302). To turn back the sheep that are gone astray (ἐπιστρέφοντες τὰ ἄπο- πεπλανημµένα) is one of the first com- mands laid by Polycarp in his Epistle upon the Christian Presbyters (vi., quoted by Hatch), and from this alone it would appear that a familiar title in the Jewish Church passed into the Church of Christ, gaining therein a new and spiritual power. See further on xx. 17, and for the use of the word in inscriptions, Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 153, and Neue Bibel- studien, p. 160.
CHAPTER XII. Persecution by Herod ; St. Peter’s deliverance.—Ver. 1. κατ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν: “about that time,” or more precisely “ at that time,” Rendall, cf. Rom. ix. 9, so in Gen. xviii. 10, 2 Macc. iii. 5 : in the early part of 44 A.D.—HpdSns 6 β., Herod Agrippa I.: only in this chapter in the N.T.: on his character and death, see below xii. 3, 23. Born in B.c. 10 and educated in his early life in Rome, he rose from a rash adventurer to good fortune and high position first through
the friendship of Caligula and afterwards of Claudius. He united under his own sway the entire empire of his grand- father, Herod the Great, while his Phari- saic piety and also his attachment to the Roman supremacy found expression in the titles which he bore, βασιλεὺς µέγας Φιλόκαισαρ εὐσεβὴς καὶ Φφιλορώμαιος. On the pathetic story told of him in con- nection with the Feast of Tabernacles (A.D. 41) see Hamburger, Real-Encyclo- padie des Fudentums, ii., 1, p. 28, and the whole article; Schiirer, Fewish People, ἄῑν. 1., γοι.. Ἡ., Ῥ. 150 ff., (dpe ἘἙαττας, The Herods, p. 179 ff. (1808).---ἐπέ- βαλεν τὰς χεῖρας, Luke xx. 109, xxi. 14, Απᾶ ος, Acts, iV. 8, ν. 1δ, xl. 2Η, once in Matthew and Mark, in John twice; Friedrich, p. 39, cf. LXX, Gen. xxii. 12, 2 Sam. xviii. 12 (so in Polyb.), cf. for similar construction of the infini- tive of the purpose xviii. Io, not in the sense Of ἐπεχείρησε, conatus est, but to be rendered quite literally; cf. also the context, νετ. 3.- κακῶσαι: five times in Acts, only once elsewhere in N.T., 1 Peter iii. 13, “(ο afflict,’ R.V., A.V. ‘“‘ vex,” so Tyndale.—ra@v ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκ., for the phrase cf. vi. 9, xv. 5, Grimm- Thayer, sub v., ἀπό, ii., but see also Blass, Gram., p. 122 and in loco,