Ver. 26. ὅρα, see critical note.—rt µέλλεις ποιεῖν, cf. 2 Macc. vii. 2 R, τί µέλλεις ἐρωτᾶν ;—6 γὰρ ἄν. οὗτος, on St. Luke’s fondness for οὗτος in similar phrases, Friedrich, pp. 10, 89.
Ver. 28. πολλοῦ κεφ., cf. LXX, Lev.
24---20. 46 3 εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Λέγε µοι,] εἰ σὺ Ῥωμαῖος ef; ὁ δὲ ἔφη, Ναί. 28. ἀπεκρίθη Ἄ τε 6 χιλίαρχος, ᾿Εγὼ πολλοῦ κεφαλαίου τὴν πολιτείαν
ταύτην ἐκτησάμην. 6 δὲ Παῦλος ἔφη, ᾿Εγὼ δὲ καὶ γεγέννηµαι. 29. εὐθέως οὖν ἀπέστησαν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ οἱ µέλλοντες αὐτὸν ἀνετάζειν. καὶ ὁ Χιλίαρχος δὲ ἐφοβήθη, ἐπιγνοὺς ὅτι Ῥωμαῖός ἐστι, καὶ ὅτι ἦν αὐτὸν ὃ δεδεκώς.
1 ει before avom. ΝΑΒΟΡΕΗ, so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt, Blass, Hilg.
2 In ver. 28 D reads και αποκριθεις ο χ. ειπεν εγω οιδα ποσου κεφ., SO Blass in β, with Bede, so Hilg. (adding yap after εγω). Alford thinks possibly original, πολλου being a gloss. After ειπεν above, Blass in B adds (before εγω yap οιδα) ουτως evxepws Ῥωμαιον σεαντον λεγεις; on the authority of Bede tam (ae dicis civ. R. esse? Cod. Dubl. (Berger) quam facile, so Boh. (Tisch.); Belser, p. 126, defends for vividness and clearness, but neither ευχερως or ευχερης occur in N.T although
both are classical, and each occurs in LXX.
5 After δεδ. 137, Syr. H. mg., Sah. add και παραχρηµα ελυσεν αντον, so Blass and Hilg. (but see Wendt, p. 51 (1899), regards as secondary).
ν. 24 (vi. 4), Num. ν. 7; Jos., Ant., xii., 2, 3 (used by Plato of capital (caput) as opposed to interest). Mr. Pagé compares the making of baronets by James I. as a means of filling the exchequer.—rhv πολιτείαν ταύτην: ‘‘this citizenship,” R.V., jus civitatis, cf. 3 Macc. iii., 21, 23, so in classical Greek. Probably A.V. renders ‘‘freedom” quite as we might speak of the freedom of the city being conferred upon any one. On the advan- tages of the rights of Roman citizenship see Schirer, div. ii., vol. Π., pp. 277, 278, E.T., and “‘ Citizenship,” Hastings’ B.D. --«ἐκτησάμην: Dio Cassius, lx., 17, tells us how Messalina the wife of Claudius and the freedmen sold the Roman citizenship, and how at one time it might be purchased for one or two cracked drinking-cups (see passage in full in Wetstein, and also Cic., Ad Fam., xli., 36). Very probably the Chiliarch was a Greek, Lysias, xxiii. 26, who had taken the Roman name Claudius on his purchase of the citizenship under the emperor of that name.—éy@ δὲ καὶ γε- γέννημαι: “but I am a Roman even from birth”: ‘item breviter et cum dignitate,” Blass. St. Paul’s citizenship of- Tarsus did not make him a Roman citizen, otherwise his answer in xxi. 39 would have been sufficient to have saved him from the present indignity. Tarsus was an urbs libera, not a colonia or municipium, and the distinction made in Acts between the Roman and Tarsian citizenship of Paul is in itself an ad- ditional proof of the truthfulness of the narrative. How his father obtained the ‘Roman citizenship we are not told; it
may have been by manumission, Philc Leg. ad C., 23, or for some service rendered to the state, Jos., Vita, 76, or by purchase, but on this last supposition the contrast here implied would be ren- dered less forcible. However the right was obtained, it is quite certain that there is nothing strange in St. Paul’s enjoyment of it. As early as the first century B.c. there were many thousands of Roman citizens living in Asia Minor; and the doubts raised by Renan and Overbeck are pronounced by Schiirer as much too weak in face of the fact that it is precisely in the most trustworthy por- tion of Acts that the matter is vouched for.
Ver. 29. Kal... δὲ, cf. iii. 24, Luke ii. 35, Matt. x. 18, xvi. 18, John vi. 51, xv. 27, Rom. xi. 23, 2 Tim. iii. 12, and other instances, Grimm-Thayer, sub v., δέ, 9. ---ἐφοβήθη, cf. xvi. 38, and the magis- trates of Philippi. He seems to have broken two laws, the Lex Porcia and the law mentioned above, ver. 26.---ἐπιγ. ὅτι Ῥωμαῖός ἐστι: the punishment for pre- tending to be a Roman citizen was death, and therefore St. Paul’s own avowal would have been sufficient, Suet., Claudius, 25.---ὅτι ἦν αὐτὸν δεδεκώς: on the construction usual in Luke see i. το. The words may be best referred to the binding in ver. 25 like a slave; this is more natural than to refer them to xxi. 33. If this latter view is correct, it seems strange that Paul should have remained bound until the next day, ver. 30. No doubt it is quite possible that the Apostle’s bonds were less severe after the chiliarch was aware of his Roman