Ver.21I. εὐαγγελ.: continuous preach- ing, present participle, and the result, many disciples; not ‘having taught many,” A.V., but ‘had made many dis- ciples,” R.V., cf. Matt. xxviii. το. No doubt they pursued the same course as at Lystra, and again we have direct proof that the teaching of the Gospel was not in vain: it is therefore quite unwarrantable to suppose that Paul’s
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‘ > - καὶ ᾿Ικόνιον καὶ ᾽Αντιόχειαν, 22. ἐπιστηρίζοντες τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν μαθητῶν, παρακαλοῦντες ἐμμένειν τῇ πίστει, καὶ ὅτι διὰ πολλῶν
θλίψεων δεῖ ἡμᾶς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ.
..
/ δὲ > ie) / 3 > , Χειροτονήσαντες δὲ αὐτοῖς πρεσβυτέρους κατ ἐκκλησίαν, προσ- ευξάµενοι μετὰ νηστειῶν, παρέθεντο αὐτοὺς τῷ Κυρίῳ εἰς ὃν
speech at Lystra indicates the powerless- ness of the message of the Gospel in contact with deep-rooted heathenism (Bethge) ; in vv. 22, 23 we have abun- dant proof that Paul had not limited his first preaching in Lystra to truths of natural religion, for now on his return the disciples are bidden ἐμμένειν τῇ πίστει, and they are commended to the Lord, εἰς ὃν πεπιστεύκεισαν, “on whom they had believed”. No persecution is mentioned at Lystra, with which cf. 2 Tim. iii. 11.—taréotpepav: how they were able to do this after they had been recently expelled, cf. Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 70 ff.,and McGiffert, Apostolic Age, pp. 190, IgI—no permanent disability could be inflicted on them by the magistrates, and the person expelled might return after a little, especially if new magistrates had been appointed in the interim. Moreover, on their return jour- ney the Apostles may have refrained from open and public preaching, and devoted themselves rather to the organisa- tion ofthe Christian communities. (There is therefore no ground for Hilgenfeld’s and Wendt’s reference of ver. 19 to a different source from the verse before us.) At the same time the courage of the Apostle is also noteworthy: ‘‘neque enim securum petit, ubi instar emeriti militis otio fruatur, sed etiam repetit loca, in quibus paullo ante male tractatus fuerat,” Calvin.
Ver. 22. ἐπιστηρίζοντες: only in Acts, cf. xv. 32, 41; for the simple verb see xviii. 23 (W.H., R.V.), and Luke xxii. 32, and six times in St. Paul’s Epistles, fre- quent in LXX, but not in any similar sense, although for the simple verb 4 Ps. li. (1.) 12.---ἐμμένειν, Gal. iii. το, Heb. viii. g, two quotations: in the former, with the simple dative; in the latter, with ἐν: several times in LXX, and with both constructions, cf. Xen., Mem., iv., 4. ---τῇ πίστει: subjective or objective, as a feeling of trust, or a belief, a creed? That it was used in the latter sense by St. Paul we cannot doubt, in such passages as Col. i. 23,1 Tim. v. 8 (cf. 1 Pet. v. 9, Jude vy. 3, 26), and St. Luke may have used the word in this latter sense in recording the incident. But cf. also vi. 7, xiii. 8, where the word may be used, as perhaps here,
in a kind of intermediate stage.—@ru, cf. xi. 3, xv. I, we have the language of the preachers themselves, but it is precarious to conclude that ἡμᾶς includes the pre- sence of the author of the book, St. Luke himself. The ἡμᾶς may simply mean that the speakers thus associated themselves with their hearers, and drew a general lesson similar to that drawn by St. Paul in 2 Tim. iii. 12, as he looked back upon these same sufferings at the close of his life. The teaching thus expressed may have struck deep root in the heart of one of St. Paul’s hearers—why not Timothy ? —and have been repeated by him to St. Luke as the Apostle had uttered it; see further in its bearing on the date, Ram- say, St. Paul, p. 123. Alford’s note strongly maintains that Luke himself was present, see ix loco and also Proleg., ΡΡ. 6, 7. On the possibility that the words contain an Agraphon of the Lord see Resch, Agrapha, pp. 148, 278, and cf. Epist. Barn., vii.. 11.—@Ahpewv, cf. xx. 23, quite a Pauline word, not used by Luke at all in his Gospel (five times in Acts), cf. 1 Thess. iii. 3 and ii. 12, and Epist. Barn., u.s. On St. Paul’s reference to ‘the kingdom of God,” sometimes as future, sometimes as actually present, see Witness of the Epistles, p. 311, note (1892). ;