19-22,
349
20.1 καὶ προσαγαγόντες αὐτοὺς τοῖς στρατηγοῖς, εἶπον, Οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐκταράσσουσιν ἡμῶν τὴν πόλιν, ᾿Ιουδαῖοι ὑπάρχοντες : 21. καὶ καταγγελλουσιν ” έθη ἃ οὐκ ἔξεστιν ἡμῖν παραδέχεσθαι οὐδὲ
ποιεῖν, Ῥωμαίοις οὖσι.
3ε/
22. καὶ συνεπέστη 6 ὄχλος κατ αὐτῶν:
καὶ ot στρατηγοί, περιῤῥήξαντες αὐτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια, ἐκέλευον ῥαβδίζ-
1 Gig., Lucif. read at beginning of verse και προσηνεγκαν αντους λεγοντες; see
Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 217.
εθη, D reads τα εθνη, but Blass and Hilg. reject.
called themselves), because they were the chief magisterial authorities, and the ac- cusation assumed a political form. Meyer and Zéckler, H. Holtzmann distinguish between the two, as if Gpx. were the local magistrates of the town, cf. πολι- τάρχης, xvii. 6. In the municipia and colonia the chief governing power was in the hands of duoviri who apparently in many places assumed the title of pretors, cf. Cicero, De Leg. Agr., ii., 34, where he speaks with amusement of the duoviri at Capua who showed their ambition in this way, cf. Horace, Sat., i., 5, 34. A duumvir of Philippi is a title borne out by inscriptions, Lightfoot, Phil., p. 51, note; Felten, p. 315.
Ver. 20. οὗτοι, contemptuously *lovd. ὄντες: If the decree of Claudius expelling the Jews from Rome had been enacted, it would have easily inflamed the minds of the people and the magistrates at Philippi against the Jews (cf. xviii. 2, so Holtzmann). Of the bad odour in which the Jews were held we have also other evidences, cf. Cicero, Pro Flacco, xXViil. ; Juvenal, xiv., 96-106. On the attitude ot the Romans towards the Jews see Sanday and Headlam, Romans, p. xix. ff. It was of this intense feeling of hatred and contempt felt by Romans and Greeks alike that the masters of the maiden availed themselves: ‘‘ causa autem alia atque pretextus causse,”’ Blass; the real cause was not a religious but a social and mercenary one, see above on ver. 19, and Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, Ῥ. 131; where the accusation was brought on purely religious grounds, as, ¢.g., at Corinth, xviii, 13, the Roman governor declined to be judge of such matters.—éxrapac- σουσιν: ‘exceedingly trouble” (ἐκ), cf. LXX, Ps. xvii. 4, Ixxxvii. 16, Wisd. xvii. 3, 4, see Hatch and Redpath, xviii., 7; Plut., Cor., xix., more often in classical Greek, συνταράσσω,
Ver, 21. ἔθη: religious customs here; the charge ostensibly put forward was
really that of introducing a religio illicita, licita as it was for the Jews themselves. No doubt the fact that they were Jews presented in itself no ground ot accusa tion, but their Jewish nationality would suggest the kind of customs with the introduction of which it would be easy to charge them, ¢.g., circumcision. The introduction of Jewish habits and mode of life included under ἔθη, cf. vi. 14, xxi. 21, would upset the whole social system, so that here, as on other occasions, the missionaries suffered trom being identified with their Jewish countrymen.—oix ἔξ. παραδέχεσθαι: Wetstein, in loco; Mar- quardt, Rom. Staatsrecht, iii., 70, and see preceding verse, cf. xv. 5, xxi. 21. In LXX, cf. Exod. xxiii.—‘Papators οὖσι: in natural contrast (at the end of the sentence) to the despised Jews: as in- habitants of a Roman colonta they could lay claim to the proud title. On the force of ὑπάρχοντες and οὖσι see Alford’s note in loco.
Ver. 22. συνεπέστη: only here in N.T., cf. xviii. 12, not in LXX, but cf. Num. xvi. 3, used in classical Greek, but not in same sense. No reason is given, but the ὄχλος would have been easily swayed by hatred of the Jews, and further incensed perhaps at finding an end put to their love of the revelations of fortune- telling.—mepippyé. αὐτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια, {.ε., they rent off the garments of Paul and Silas; just as there is no change of subject before ἐπιθ., so here probably what was done by the lictors is said to have been done by the magistrates. There is no need to suppose with Bengel that the pretors tore off the prisoners’ clothes with their own hands. Grotius (but see on the other hand Calvin’s note in locd) takes the words as meaning that the pretors rent off their own clothes (read- ing αὐτῶν); so Ramsay speaks of the pretors rending their garments in horror at the ἀσέβεια, the impiety. But not only would such an act be strange on the part of Roman magistrates, but also