357
2. κατὰ δὲ τὸ εἰωθὸς τῷ Παύλῳ εἰσῆλθε πρὸς αὐτούς, καὶ ἐπὶ σάββατα
τρία } διελέγετο αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν, 3. διανοίγων καὶ παρατιθέ-
µενος, ὅτι τὸν Χριστὸν ἔδει παθεῖν καὶ ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν, καὶ ὅτι
1 διελεξατὸ (pro -λεγετο, which Meyer retains) NAB 13, 61, 103, Syrr. Ῥ. and H., Boh., so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt ; διελεχθη, Hilg. with D.
and Cleon fell, Thuc., v., 6-11, whilst for his previous failure to succour the place Thucydides had himself been exiled (Thuc., 1., 26). From the Macedonians it passed eventually into the hands of the Romans, and in B.c. 167 Aimilius Paulus proclaimed the Macedonians free and Am- phipolis the capital of the first of the four districts into which the Romans divided the province (Liv., xlv., 18, 29). In the Middle Ages Pofolia, now Neochori: B.D.’ and Hastings’ B.D.,C.andH. The toute may well have been one of the most beautiful of any day’s journey in St. Paul’s many travels, Renan, St. Paul, pp. 154, 155.--᾿Απολλωνίαν: to be carefully distinguished from the more celebrated Apollonia in Illyria—apparently there were three places in Macedonia bearing this name. The Antonine Itinerary gives it as thirty miles from Amphipolis, and thirty-seven from Thessalonica, but the other authorities, for example, the Feru- salem Itinerary, differ a little. The Via Egnatia passed through it, and the name is probably retained in the modern Pollina. It is quite possible that the two places are mentioned as having formed St. Paul’s resting-place for a night, see references above. --θΘεσσα- λονίκην: Saloniki; formerly Therme; the name had been most prcbably changed by Cassander in honour of his wife Thessalonica, the sister of Alexander the Great, Polyb., xxiii., 4, 4. Under the Romans it became the capital of the second of the four districts of Macedonia Provincia (Liv., xlv., 29), and later it was made the metropolis of the whole when the four districts were united into one. It was the largest as well as the most popzious city in Macedonia, and like Ephesus and Corinth it had its share in the commerce of the gean. From its geographical position it could not cease to be important; through the Middle Ages it may fairly be described as the bulwark of Christendom in the wast, and it still remains the second city in European Turkey. St. Paul, with his usual wisdom, selected it as marking a centre of civilisation and government in the district: “ posita in gremio imperii
Romani,” as Cicero says. C. and H., Ρ. 247 ff. ; Zahn, Einleitung, i., p. 151; Light- foot, Biblical Essays, p. 253 ff.; Schaff- Herzog, Encycl., ἵν.--ὅπου ἦν ἡ συν.: implying that there was no synagogue at Amphipolis or Apollonia, the former being a purely Hellenic town, and the latter a small place. ὅπου may = οὗ simply, but if distinguished from it implies oppi- dum tale in quo esset (as in distinction to the other places named) ; see Wendt and Blass. In Agrippa’s letter to Caligula we have plain evidence of the existence of Jews in Macedonia, O. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, p. 180; Schirer, Fewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., E.T., pp. 222, 232. As the name remains in the modern Saloniki, manent $udaei quoque (Blass), C. and H., 250, see also in this connection, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 236. Ver. 2. κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς: phrase peculiar to St. Luke, only here and in Luke iv. 16. St. Paul follows his usual principle: ‘*to the Jew first ”.- ἐπὶ σάβ- Bara τρία: “for three Sabbath days” or “weeks,” R.V., margin, the latter strongly supported by Zahn, Eimnleitung, i., 152. This may be the exact period of work within the synagogue. For ἐπί cf. ili. 1, iv. 15, xili. 31, xvi. 18, etc.; Hawkins, Hore Synoptice, p. 152, used in the ‘* We” sections, and also predomi- nantly, though not exclusively, in the rest of Acts or Luke or either of them; see on Acts xxvii. 20, xxviii. 6; Kloster- mann, Vindicie Lucane, p. 53; see also Blass, Gram., p. 133.---διελέγετο αὐτοῖς : he reasoned, rather than disputed, as the word is sometimes reridered—ten times in Acts, seven times rendered by R.V., “reasoned,” cf. also Heb. xii. 5, and twice ‘‘discoursed,” xx. 7,9, once only “disputed,” xxiv. 12, cf. Jude 9. Here the word may point to a conversational intercourse between St. Paul and his fellow-countryman (cf. ver. 17 and Mark ix. 34) ; so Overbeck, Holtzmann, Wendt, on the force of the verb with the dative or πρός. That such interchange of speech could take place in the synagogue we learn from John vi. 25, 29, Matt. xii. 9. In classical Greek with the dative or πρός the word means to converse with,