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ὑετὸν τὸν ἐφεστῶτα, καὶ διὰ τὸ ψῦχος.
3. Συστρέψαντος δὲ τοῦ
Παύλου φρυγάνων } πλῆθος, καὶ ἐπιθέντος ἐπὶ τὴν mupdy, ἔχιδνα 3 ἐκ
1 After @pvy. SABC 61, Vulg., Tisch., W.H., Weiss, Wendt, Blass add τι, but
Hilg. omits (so Gig.).
2The authorities for απο instead of ex are overwhelming, SRABCHLI, and
other authorities above with Hilg.
For εξελ., which is strongly supported by
ή 61, and so other authorities above, except Hilg., HLP (Meyer, Alford) read ων
εξ.
circumstances of weather described in the narrative, cf. Dean Howson’s “ Melita,” B.D.}, ii., pp. 315-317, and Zahn (in answer to Mommsen), Einleitung, ii., p- 422.
Ver. 2. βάρβαροι, i.c., they were not a Greek-speaking population, cf. Rom. i. 14 (not barbarians in the modern sense of rude and uncivilised); they were of Pheenician descent, and came under the Roman dominion in the second Punic War, Livy, xxi., 51. Ramsay, St. Paul, Pp. 343, sees in the title an indication that the writer was himself of Greek nation- ality. For the use of the term in classi- cal Greek, and by Philo and Josephus, see ‘‘ Barbarian” (F. C. Conybeare), Hastings’ B.D., Grimm-Thayer, sub v., and Mr. Page’s note. (In 2 Macc. ii. 21 the writer describes Judas Maccabzus as chasing ‘barbarous multitudes,” τὰ βάρβαρα πλήθη, retorting on the Greeks the epithet habitually applied by them to all nations not their own, Speaker’s Com- mentary.) See further the evidence of coins and inscriptions in Zahn, Ein- leitung, ii., 422, proving as against Mommsen that the Phoenician tongue had not died out in the island, and cf. above, Introd., p. 8.—ov τὴν τυχ., cf. xix. 11, ‘no common kindness,” Κ.Υ. (and so A.V. in xix. 11).—dtAav.: see note on xxvii. 3. The word is found in LXX, Esther viii. 13, 2 Macc. vi. 22, xiv. 9, 3 Macc. iii. 15, 18, and in classical Greek, but it was a word which a physician would be very likely to employ, for Hippocrates speaks of “philanthropy”’ in a physician as ever accompanying a real love of his profession. Galen dis- tinguishes between those who healed through “philanthropy ’” and those who healed merely for gain, and even a more generous diet for the sick was called diravOpwrotépa τροφή, Hobart, p. 296. The word is used here only and in Tit. iii. 4 in Ν.Τ.--ἀνάψ. γὰρ πυράν, Luke xii. 49, James iii. 5; if we read the simple verb (see critical note) we have it three times with λύχνον in Luke viii. 16, xi. 33, xv. 8, and newhere else
in N.T. (except with meaning ‘to touch”’). πυράν: only here and in ver. 3 in N.T., cf. Judith vii. 5, 1 Macc. xil. 28, 2 Macc. i. 22, x. 36 (see H. and R.), and similar phrases in classical Greek. ---προσελάβοντο, cf. xvii. 5, xviii. 26 for similar use, and five times by St. Paul; cf. 2 Macc. x. 15, see critical note. ---ἐφεστῶτα, cf. Polyb., xviii. 3, 7; in N.T. 2 Tim. iv. 6, only in Luke and Paul, presentem, Wetstein, “ present,” A.and R.V. Weiss and De Wette take it aS meaning that the rain suddenly came upon them.—wWtyos: this and the mention of the rain prove that St. Paul’s ship could not have encountered a sirocco wind, t.e., from the south-east, for this only blows for two or three days, and even in November is hot and sultry (Hackett). W.H. read ψύχος, but Weiss, Wendt, Blass as above, see Winer- Schmiedel, p. 68.
Ver. 3. συστρέψαντος: here only in Acts, but cf. xi. 27, xvi. 39, in B text; = exemplum αὐτουργίας, Bengel. Cf. Matt. xvii. 22, W.H., R.V. margin; of collecting men, 2 Macc. xiv. 30.— φρυγάνων: brushwood, copse ; the furze still growing near St. Paul’s Bay would well afford material for a fire (Lewin), and it may be quite true that wood is found nowhere else but in a place at a distance from the Bay; in classical Greek used in plural for dry sticks, especially firewood; here only in N.T., but several times in LXX, for straw, stubble, and bramble.—rt before πλῆθος, see critical note: implying as much as he could carry, Weiss; πλ. used elsewhere of persons.—éxtdva: the objection that no poisonous serpents are found to-day in Malta, like that based on the absence of wood in ver. 2, may well be dismissed as “too trivial to deserve notice; such changes are natural and probable in a small island, populous and long civilised,” Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 343, Breusing, p. 101, Vars, p. 243; sotoo J. Smith, p. 151, 4th edition, refers to the gradual dis- appearance of the viper in Arran as the island became more frequented, and cf.