Ver. 18. ἀνακ., cf. xxiv. 8, xxv. 6, 26, referring here to the judicial inquiries of Felix and Festus.
Ver. 1Ο. ἀντιλ.: the word is a mild one to describe the bitter enmity of the Jews (‘‘clementer dicit,” Bengel) ; they are not actually represented as speaking against Paul’s acquittal, although they are evidently presupposed as doing so by the proposal of Festus, xxv. 9, and by the belief that sooner or later he would fall a victim to their plots the Apostle wag no doubt compelled (ἠναγκάσθην) to appeal. Holtzmann seems to forget the part played by the Jews, and their bitter enmity, when he says that in reality Paul was compelled to appeal not by the Jews, but by Festus; see also critical note.— τοῦ ἔθνους pov: they were still his nation,
548
κατηγορῆσαι.
20. διὰ ταύτην οὖν τὴν αἰτίαν παρεκάλεσα ὑμᾶς
ἰδεῖν καὶ προσλαλῆσαι 1: ἕνεκεν γὰρ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ Ισραὴλ τὴν
ἄλυσιν ταύτην περίκειµαι.
21. οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν εἶπον, Ἡμεῖς οὔτε
γράμματα περὶ cod ἐδεξάμεθα ἀπὸ τῆς Ιουδαίας, οὔτε παραγενόµενός
tis? τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἀπήγγειλεν ἢ ἐλάλησέ τι περὶ σοῦ πονηρόν.
22.
3 a \ N a a“ a - x 9 4 a eer ἀξιοῦμεν δὲ παρὰ σοῦ ἀκοῦσαι & φρονεῖς. περὶ μὲν yap τῆς αἱρέσεως
1 εινεκεν the Ionic form is supported by ΝΑ, W.H., Weiss, Blass. 2 After τις Blass in β, so Hilg. add απο ἱεροσολυμων with Gig., Syr. Pesh.
and he was not ashamed to call them so, as a true patriot, when he stood before a foreign tribunal; cf. xxiv. 17, xxvi. 4, “see what friendliness of expression, he does not hold them in odium,’”’ Chrysos- tom.
Ver. 20. διὰ ταύτην .. - προσλα- λῆσαι: “for this cause therefore did I intreat you to see and to speak with me,” R.V. text; in margin a comma is placed after tpas, “call for you, to see and to speak with you”: but the former seems the more likely, for as a prisoner St. Paul would hardly go out into the synagogue. —vexev, see Critical note ; if etvexev, the word is only used by St. Luke amongst the Evangelists; cf. Luke iv. 18 (quota- tion), xviii. 29, and elsewhere only by St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 10; Ionic form (see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 5ο).--τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ Ἰ., cf. xxvi. 6.--περίκειµαι: for con- struction, Winer-Moulton, xxxii., 5; cf. 4 Macc. xii. 3; Clem. Rom., 2 Cor., i., 6 (bis). Nothing could be more pathetic than this reference to the chain, cf. Ephes. iii. I, iv. I, vi. 20; the words might well serve as an introduction to what was to follow, the Christian prisoner and the Jewish leaders all had ‘“‘ one hope of their calling,” and in that hope they and he were one.
Ver. 21. πρὸς αὐτὸν: the emphatic position of the words may indicate, as Weiss suggests, that as Paul had spoken to them up to this point of a personal matter, so they in reply spoke with a like reference.—otre γράμματα, {.ε., ΠΟ official letters from the Sanhedrim—this was practically impossible, for it is not likely that any ship had left Czsarea before Paul’s departure with such intel- ligence (so Weiss, Blass, Hackett).— τῶν ἀδελ., 7.2., Of the Jewish nation, cf. νετ. 17. The Jews do not assert that they know nothing of Paul, but only that with reference to the state- ment which he had just made they had teceived no report (ἀπήγ., cf. R.V., so iv. 23), or had any of his country-
men spoken evil of him. The aorists point to this limitation of the assertion (Page’s note, and Nosgen, in loco), and this view prevents us from seeing any contradiction between vv. 21 and 22, for if the statement in the former verse be taken quite generally of Paul’s work, the Jews contradicted themselves in ver. 22, where they evidently include Paul in this sect (ταύτης), of which they knew that it was everywhere spoken against. ---πονηρόν: the stress need not be laid on this word, as if the sentence meant that they had heard something about Paul, but nothing evil; it may well have been chosen with reference to the Apostle’s own expression, οὐδὲν ἐναντίον.