38. εἰ μὲν οὖν Δημήτριος”
‘ ες x ~ ” , a καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τεχνῖται πρός τινα λόγον ἔχουσιν, ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται,
καὶ ἀνθύπατοί εἶσιν' ἐγκαλείτωσαν ἀλλήλοις.
39. et δέ τι περὶ
1 ῬἘοτ την θεαν NABD?E*HL, Chrys., so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt, Blass read την θεον, and for Όμων ΝΑ ΒΡΕ, Syr. P., Sah., Arm., Aeth., Tisch., W.H.,
R.V., Blass, Weiss, Wendt read ημων.
2 After Anp. D, Syr. Pesh., Ephr., Blass, Hilg. add ovros.
In 2 Macc. iv. 42 we have the same word ἱερόσνλος, R.V., “Author of the sacri- lege,” ‘*Church-robber,” A.V., used of Lysimachus, brother of Menelaus the high priest, who perished in a riot which arose from the theft of the sacred vessels by his brother and himself (quoted by Ramsay, uw. s.). Canon Gore, Ephesians, Ρ. 41, note, however, points out that the word is used in the former sense of ‘*robbers of temples,” in special connec- tion with Ephesus by Strabo, xiv. 1, 22, and Pseudo-Heraclitus, Letter vii., p. 64 (Bernays) ; cf. Rom. ii. 22. The cog- nate noun is found in inscriptions at Ephesus, describing a crime involving the heaviest penalties, Wood, Ephesus, vi., I, p. 14; Lightfoot, Cont. Rev., Ρ. 294, 1878.
Ver. 38. λόγον ἔχουσιν: no exact equivalent elsewhere in N.T., but Grimm (so Kypke) compares Matt. v. 32 (see also Col. iii. 13).--ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται: “the courts are open,” R.V., perhaps best to understand σύνοδοι, “ court- meetings are now going on,” {.έι for holding trials (in the forum or agora) ; Vulgate, conventus forenses aguntur, the verb being in the present indicative. Or ἡμέραι may alone be supplied = court days are kept, #.e., at certain intervals, not implying at that particular time, but rather a general statement as in the words that follow: ‘‘ there are proconsuls,”’ see Page, in loco. For ἄγειν, cf. Luke xxiv. 21, Matt. xiv. 6, 2 Macc. ii. 16, cf. Strabo, xiii., p. 932, Latin, conventus agere. Alford, so Wendt (1888), speaks of the distinction drawn by the old gram- marians between ἀγοραῖος and ἀγόραιος as groundless, but see also Winer- Schmiedel, p. 6ο.---ἀνθύπατοί εἶσιν: the plural is used: ‘‘de eo quod nunquam non esse soleat,” Bengel (quoted by Blass and Wendt), although strictly there would be only one proconsul at a time. There is no need to understand any assistants of the proconsul, as if the description was meant for them, or, with Lewin, as ifthere were several persons with proconsular power. It is quite possible that in both
clauses the secretary is speaking in a mere colloquial way, as we might say, ‘“« There are assizes and there are judges”. Lightfoot calls it ‘‘a rhetorical plural” Cont. Rev., p. 295, 1878, and quotes Eur., I. T., 1359, κλέπτοντες ἐκ γῆς ξόανα καὶ θυηπόλους, though there was only one image and one priestess.—éykahettwcav ἀλλήλοις: “accuse,” R.V. The verb need not have a technical legal sense as is implied by ‘‘implead’”’ in A.V. Soin LXX it may be used quite generally, or of a criminal charge, and so in classical Greek, cf. Wisd. xii. 12 and Ecclus. xlvi. 19. In the N.T. it is used six times in Acts with reference to judicial process, and only once elsewhere by St. Paul in Rom. viii. 33 in a general sense. The verb only occurs in the second part of Acts in accordance no doubt with the subject-matter ; see Hawkins, Hore Syn- optica, p. 147, note, and Weiss, Einleitung in das N. T., p. 570, note.
Ver. 39. eb δέ τι περὶ ἑτέρων: if we read περαιτέρω, cf. Plato, Phedo, p. 107 B, the meaning is anything further than an accusation against an individual, a public and not a personal matter: if they desired to get any resolution passed with regard to the future conduct of citi- zens and of resident non-citizens in this matter, see Ramsay, Expositor, February, 1896, reading περαιτ.--ἐπιλυθήσεται (cf. Mark iv. 34), nowhere else in N.T. (the verb is found in LXX, Aquila, Gen. xl. 8, xli. 8,12; Th., Hos., iii. 4; Philo., Jos.). --τῃ ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ: “the regular assembly,” R.V. Mr. Wood, Ephesus, App., Ῥ. 38, quotes an inscription in which it was enjoined that a statue of Minerva should be placed in a certain spot, κατὰ πᾶσαν ἔννομον ἐκκλησίαν. But A.V. has “the lawful assembly ”: which is the better rendering ? “‘ regular ” seems to restrict us to vépipor ἐκ- κλησίαι held on stated customary days, and to exclude from the secretary’s statement any reference to extraordinary meetings, meetings summoned for special business, whereas he would be likely to use a term which would cover all legal