Ver. 4. προσεκληρώθησαν: ‘there were in addition gathered to them” (Ramsay), giving the verb a passive meaning answering to its form ; or ‘“‘ these were allotted to them, associated with them, as disciples [by God],” cf. Ephes. i. 11. The verb is often used in Philo, also found in Plutarch, Lucian, but only here in N.T. Mr. Rendall, while point- ing out that the A.V. and R.V. “con- sorted”’ gives the impression of outward association only, regards the passive aorist as a middle in meaning, and renders “threw in their lot with Paul and Silas”. According to A.V. and R.V., W. H., Weiss, and Hort, ¥udaistic Christianity, p. 89, two classes seem to be mentioned besides the Jews, viz., devout Greeks, and some of the chief women. According, however, to Ramsay, comparing A and D (see p. 235, St. Paul),
4—5:
353
πρώτων οὐκ ὀλίγαι. 5. [ηλώσαντες δὲ of! ἀπειθοῦντες ᾿Ιουδαῖοι, καὶ
προσλαβόμενοι τῶν ἀγοραίων Twas ἄνδρας πονηρούς, καὶ ὀχλοποιή- σαντες, ἐθορύβουν τὴν wodw: ἐπιστάντε τε τῇ οἰκίᾳ ᾿Ιάσονος,
1 απειθουντες om. SABE, Vulg., Syr. P. Η., Sah., Boh., Arm., Aethpp., so Tisch., R.V., Weiss, Wendt, W.H.; προσλ. δε οι |. οι απειθ. HLP; reading in Τ.Ε. very
ill supported ; and there are other variations.
xiv. 2.
Probably απειθ. is an addition after
D reads οι δε απειθ. |. σννστρεψαντες (συστροφη occurs twice in Acts, not
elsewhere in N.T., but not συστρεφω in sense demanded here), so Blass in B,
and Hilg.
αγαγειν, but προ- SAB, Vulg., Tisch., Weiss, Wendt, W.H., R.V.,
Blass in B; Meyer follows T.R. with HP; προσαγ. in E; evayay. in L; εξαγαγ.
in D, so Hilg.
we have three classes besides the Jews, viz., proselytes, Greeks, chief women (added as a climax), see critical note, but also McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 247. The difficulty in T.R. and authorities first mentioned is that their rendering restricts St. Paul’s work not only to three Sabbaths or weeks, but to the synagogue and its worshippers, whereas from 1 Thess. i. 9, ii. 14, it would appear that the Church contained a large number of converted heathens. McGiffert thinks it possible that St. Luke may have only recorded the least important of Paul’s labours, just as he only mentions his work in three Macedonian towns, whereas he may easily have laboured over 2 wider area, 1 Thess. i. 7; but see Paley, Hore Pauline, ix., 6, and on the reading, Zahn, LEinleitung, Ἱ., Ῥ. 152. In any case it would seem that a small minority of Jews is contrasted with a large num- ber of born Gentiles, so that the Thessa- lonian Church may have been spoken of by St. Paul as one of Gentile Christians, who had been opposed not only to Christianity, but earlier still to Judaism, 1 Thess. i. 9, 10.—yuv. τε τῶν πρώτων οὐκ ὀλίγαι: here, as at Philippi and Bercea, the three Macedonian towns, the prominence assigned to women quite in accordance with what we know from other sources; see above. The mention both here and in ver. 12 that the women were the leading high-born women intimates that the poorer women would follow the men of the lower orders, ver. 5. Dr. Hort regards the women here as the Jewish wives of heathen men of distinction, as in xiii. 50, Fudaistic Christianity, p. 89, but in xiii. 50 the opposition to the Apostles proceeds from these women of the higher classes, and it seems much more likely that those men- tioned here were Macedonian women. Ver. 5. ἄπειθ., see critical note.— ζηλώσαντες: the jealousy is apparent,
whether the word is read or not (cf. B), a jealousy aroused not only by the preaching of a Messiah, but also by the success of such preaching.—rpooAaB., cf. xviii. 26 for similar sense of the verb, ef. 2 Macc, viii. 1, x. 15.-- τῶν ἀγοραίων .. « πον.: ‘‘certain vile fellows of the rabble,” R.V.; wov. translated in A.V. “lewd” (A.-S. loewede) means simply ‘*people,” hence (1) the common people and (2) the ignorant and rude among the people, cf. Spenser, Skep. Kal. Feb., 245: ‘' But little ease of thy lewd tale I tasted’”’ (Skeat); and in the sense of vicious, Ezek. xvi. 27, A. and R.V. (see Lumby’s note in loco— the German Leute is the word nearest akin to it.)— Gyop.: hangers-on in the market-place ; Blass renders ‘‘tabernarii aliique in foro versantes,’’ see instances in Wetstein (Aristophanes, Xen., Plut.), who com- pares ‘‘canalicole”’ hodie camaille. In Latin, subrostrani, subbasilicani; Germ. Pflastertreter, our Loafer, Grimm- Thayer, Farrar, St. Paul, i., 513, and Nésgen, in loco. On the distinction sometimes but probably fancifully maintained between ἀγοραῖος and ἀγόραιος, see Alford on xix. 38; Wendt (1888), in loco; Winer- Schmiedel, p. 69; Grimm-Thayer, sub v. For the accent of πονηρός see also Winer- Schmiedel, u..s.—rq οἰκίᾳ *Il.: in which the Apostles were lodging, or in which the Christian assemblies were held. We know nothing further for certain of this Jason, ¢f. Rom. xvi. 21 where a Jason is mentioned as a companion of Paul, and amongst his owyyevets. If he was a Jew, as is most probable, we may infer that his Jewish name was Joshua or Jesus, but that he used the name Jason, the nearest Greek equivalent, in his intercourse with Greeks and Hellenists; cf. for a similar change of the two names 2 Macc. i. 7, iv. 7, and cf. Jos., Ant., xii, 5, 1, where we read that Jason’s real name was Joshua, but that he changed it into the