Ver. 5. The real contrast is marked in this verse, ὡς δὲ éyév. Hitherto the evil results indicated in ver. 2 had not resulted in an open combination of Jews and Gentiles to injure Paul and Barnabas,
but now the Jews and their rulers were prepared to act in concert with the Gen- tiles, so that the opposition assumed a public shape, and a definite accusation of blasphemy could be formulated against the Apostles.—éppm, “ onset,” R.V.; “‘as- sault,” A.V., but neither word seems ap- propriate, since neither onset nor assault actually occurred. It seems therefore better to take the word as expressing the inclination, or hostile intention, or instigation, and to connect it with the infinitives. In classical Greek the word is used of eagerness (joined with ἐπι- θυµία), of inpulse, of eager desire of, or for, a thing, cf. Thuc. iv. 4, Plat., Phil., 35 D, although it is also used of an assault or attack. The only other place in the N/T. in which it occurs is James iii. 4 (R.V. renders ‘impulse ”). Hesychius regards it as equivalent to βονλή, ἐπιθυμία, but see also for its use as expressing attack, violence, 3 Macc. i. 16, 23; iv. 5.--σὺν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν αὐτῶν, i.¢., of the Jewish synagogues, as αὐτῶν shows. Hackett and Lumby take it of the heathen magistrates. On the dis- tinction between these and the épyicv- νάγωγος, see Schiirer, div. ii., vol. ii., pp. 64, 250, E.T. The magistrates of the city could not have participated in an act of mob-violence, and the plot to stone the Apostles seems to point to Jewish instigation for enforcing the punishment of blasphemy.— vB pica, “to entreat them shamefully,” so A, and R.V., indicating
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