----το.
Καίσαρος πράττουσι, βασιλέα λέγοντες ἕτερον εἶναι, ᾿Ιησοῦν. 8. ἐτάραξαν δὲ τὸν ὄχλον καὶ τοὺς πολιτάρχας ἀκούοντας ταῦτα : 9. καὶ λαβόντες τὸ ἱκανὸν παρὰ τοῦ ᾿Ιάσονος καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν, ἀπέλυσαν
> , αυτους,
το, Οἱ δὲ ἀδελφοὶ εὐθέως διὰ τῆς νυκτὸς ἐξέπεμψαν τόν
τε Παῦλον καὶ τὸν Σίλαν εἰς Βέροιαν: οἵτινες παραγενόµενοι, εἰς
1 Before Ἰησουν Blass reads τινα ποτε (nescto quem) with Gig., and cod. Lat.
‘Sangermanensis ap. Berger.
coincidence and accuracy of the Acts and x Thess. ii 14-16, Paley, Hore Pauline, ix., 5, and McGiffert, u. s.
Ver. 8. érapafav: the people would be disturbed at intelligence which might point to a revolution, and the politarchs, lest they should themselves be liable to the same charge of treason for not de- fending the honour of the emperor. No charge would be more subtle in its con- ception, or more dangerous in the liabili- ties which it involved, cf. Tacitus, Aun., dii., 38.
Ver. 9. λαβόντες τὸ ἱκανὸν = satis secipere (cf. Mark xv. τς, and Wetstein, sw loco). Blass regards the phrase as a sommercial one, due to the frequency of «ommercial intercourse, and cf. ν. 31, xviii. 15, xix. 38 (xxiv. 24, B); properly a pecuniary surety, or sureties, here security for good behaviour from Jason and the others, that nothing illegal should be done by them, and certainly nothing against the majesty of the emperor. The words have been explained as meaning that securities were given for the produc- tion of the Apostles, and that thus Jason and his friend, by sending them off at night, ran a risk of their lives (Chrys., Grotius), or that the Apostles should not be sheltered any longer, or that they should be obliged to depart at once. Evidently the magistrates did not con- sider the evidence very weighty =arné- λυσαν avTovs.
Ver. 10, εὐθέως ... ἐξέπεμ.: there was need of immediate action, either in obedience to the direct charge of the magistrates that Paul should not come -again to Thessalonica, or from danger of a revival of the tumult. That St. Paul left Thessalonica with grief and pain is evident from 1 Thess. ii. 17-20, but he felt that the separation was necessary at least for a time. But still he looked back upon Thessalonica and his work with an ungrudging affection, and his converts were his glory and joy. In the opening words of his First Epistle, i. 7 cf. 2 Thess. i. 4, 2 Cor. viii. 1), he speaks
Cf. xxv. 1ο.
in a way which not only implies that his own work extended further in and from Thessalonica than the Acts alone enables us to learn, but that the furtherance ot the Gospel was due to the Thessalonians themselves. See McGiffert, p. 255, 0n St. Paul’s quiet hand-to-hand work at Thes- salonica. For it was not only in the synagogue that St. Paul laboured, as it the message of the Gospel was formal and official, but amongst them who were working like himself for their daily bread, 1 Thess. ii. 9, 2 Thess. iii. 8, see Ram- say’s note, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 85, on St. Paul’s work at Thessalonica. The phrase “‘ night and day,” 1 Thess. ii, 9, need not imply, as the Speaker’s Com- mentary, that Paul had only the Sundays for preaching, because his other days were so fully occupied; but the phrase means that he started work before dawn, and thus was able to devote some of the later part of the day to preaching. On the striking parallel between the char- acteristics of the Thessalonians of St. Paul’s Epistles and the Acts and the characteristics which were marked by St. Jerome in his day, see Speaker’s Com- mentary, iii., 701.—Bépovav (or Βέρροια): in the district of Macedonia called Emathia, Ptol., iii., 12, originally per- haps Phercea, from Pheres, its founder (see Wetstein): about fifty miles south- west of Thessalonica. It was smaller and less important than the latter, but still possessing a considerable population and commerce, owing to its natural advantages, now Verria or Kara Feria, see B.D.? and Hastings’ B.D., Renan, St. Paul, p. 162, and C. and H., small edition, p. 261. According to the Itin- eraries, two roads led from Thessalonica to Bercea. Wetstein quotes a curious passage from Cicero, In Pisonem, xxvi., which may possibly indicate that Paul and Silas went to Bercea on account ot its comparative seclusion (so Alford, Farrar, Felten): Cicero calls it ‘ oppi- dum devium”.—eig τὴν σνν. The Jewish population was at least considerable