Ver. 19. ὅθεν: ‘‘ wherefore,” R.V., so in Heb. ii. 17, iii. 1, vii. 25, viii. 3, ix. 18 (locally in Luke xi. 24, Acts xiv. 26, xxvili. 13); probably best taken here as
508
πίστει τῇ €is ἐμέ.
19. Ὃθεν, βασιλεῦ Αγρίππα, οὐκ ἐγενόμην
ἀπειθὴς τῇ οὐρανίῳ ὁπτασίᾳ, 20. ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐν Δαμασκῷ πρῶτον
καὶ Ἱεροσολύμοις, eis πᾶσάν τε τὴν χώραν τῆς Ἰουδαίας, καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἀπήγγελλον μετανοεῖν καὶ ἐπιστρέφειν ἐπὶ τὸν Θεόν, ἄξια
1 After πρωτον ΝΑΒ 25, 61, add τε, except Hilg. Before lep. AE read εν. so Tisch.,
so Tisch. and other authorities in ver. 17, Hilg. has και τοις εν lep. R.V., W.H., but retained by Weiss, Hilg. and Wendt, may easily have dropped out after the preceding -οις.
εις om. SQAB,
Blass reads in a and β εις πασαν τε
(την) xwpav Ίονδαιοις και τοις εθνεσιν, with support by Par.? ‘‘ Judzis,” see note below, and Wendt (1899), p. 396. Clemen, p. 144, regards τε και lep. . . . lovdaras as a gloss of R. Judaicus (ver. 21 being added by R. Antijudaicus), and both Wendt and McGiffert view the whole reference as added to the original source.
referring to the whole revelation from ver. 12, marking the natural result of what had gone before; not used in St. Paul’s Epistles.—Bae. ’A.: “‘cum ad sua facta tedeat, apte regem denuo compellat,” Blass, marking the commencement of his real ἀε[εποε.---ἀπειθὴς: only in Luke and Paul in N.T., cf. Luke i. 17; Rom. i. 30, 2 Tim. iii. 2, Tit. i. 16, iii. 3; in LXX and in classical τεεκ.- ὁπτασίᾳ: here and here only Paul himself apparently speaks of the appearance of Christ vouchsafed to him before Damascus by this word, but ὁπτασία, as Beyschlag shows, is not confined to appearances which the nar- rators regard as visions, cf. Luke i. 22, xxiv. 23, and its meaning must be ex- plained from the entire “ objectivity ” with which St. Paul invests the whole narrative of his Conversion, cf. Witness of the Epistles, p. 383 (1892), and p. 380 for further reference to Beyschlag in Studien und Kritiken, 1864, 1890, and his Leben Fesu, i., p. 435. In modern Greek όπτα- aia =a vision (Kennedy).
Ver. 20. ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐν Δ.: “both to them of Damascus first, and at Jeru- salem,” reading τε (see critical note) after πρῶτον, thus closely connecting Damascus and Jerusalem as the scenes of Paul’s first activity, cf. ix. 20, 28.— εἰς πᾶσάν τε τὴν χώραν τῆς Ἰ., see criti- cal note. If we read accusative simply without eis = accusative of space marking the extension of the preaching. Blass solves the difficulty by regarding els = év, utse@pe. The statement seems to contra- dict Gal. i. 22, and there is no mention of such a widely extended preaching at this time in Acts. It has therefore been held by some that reference is made to the preaching at the time of Saul’s carrying relief with Barnabas from Antioch to Jerusalem, xi. 30, xii. 25 (Zéckler and Rendall), while others refer the passage to Rome xv. 10 (Weiss), and
others combine xi. 29, 30, xv. 3 = Rom. xv. 10. Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 382, re- gards the statement as so directly con- tradictory to all other authorities that he practically follows Blass in B text, and reads elg πᾶσαν χώραν Ἰονδαίοις τε καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσι, “in every land to both Jews and Gentiles”. The text he regards as not Lucan and hardly Greek, see also Blass, in loco; ἡ χώρα τῆς Ἰουδαίας ought to be τῶν Ἰουδ., as in x. 39, etc. But see in defence of reading in T.R. as against Blass, and the reference of the words to the journeys in xi. 30, xv. 3, Wendt, in loco (1899). The general meaning given to the words by Blass is at all events in accordance with the view of the speech as a summary, and not as an account in detail, of the Apostle’s work (C. and H., p. 620). Dr. Farrar, St. Paul, i., 228, ingeniously supposes that Paul may have preached on his way from Damascus to Jerusalem in the guest chambers of the Jewish syna- gogues, so that he may not have come into contact with any Christian com- munities, and he would thus explain Gal. i, 22.-- ἀπήγγελλον: imperfect, de- noting continuous preaching; here only of preaching the Gospel, but cf. xvii. 30 W.H., where God announces to men everywhere to repent, μετανοεῖν, a strik- ing similarity in language with Paul’s words here (cf. 1 John i. 2, 3).—é@m- στρέφειν, cf. for the expression xiv. 15, and see above on ver. 18.--ἄξια τῆς µετανοίας ἔργα: “worthy of their re- pentance,” R.V. margin, i.e, of the repentance which they profess. In the Gospels καρπούς, καρπόν, here ἔργα, but cf. Ephes. ii. το, v. 11, Col. i. 1ο, Tit. iii, 8, and ἀξίους with genitive rez, more frequent in St. Luke and St. Paul than in any other N.T. writers.—wpac- σοντας: used in N.T. sometimes of good, sometimes of evil, actions; in