The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 61

mined tl,efr «]'1>ninfed ,eapanp for and 1,afh Certain even of your own poeto; viz. Aratus delermi11e,: f/,c limes l,~(ore appninted, A.V. of 'l'nrsus (270 B.o.), who bas the exnct From the unity ol Go,l PRul deduces the words quoted by St. Paul, nnd Cloonthes of unity of the liurnrm raco, nil created by Assos (:JOO B.O. ), who hns 'Ere crou -yo.p 1••vos n nu, nil srrung from one ancestor or one lrrp.,v. As he had just defended himsolffrom hlnorl (whic\,cvcr reaJing we tnke): nnd so the imputo.tion of introducing foreign gods 11nt to I.JRn ~heir. sc\"ernl nn.tione.l gods, but hy referring to an Athenian nltnr, so now, nil to be '!n!ted m the worship of the one for the same purpos~, he quotes one of their true and I 1nng God, the Father of them all. own Greek poets. (For the stllt.ement that It me.y be rciuRrkcd by the way thn.t the man is the offspring of God, comp. Luke lungunges of the earth, differing like the iii. 38.) skiDB o.nd ihc fcntu:.cs of the different rnccs, Ver. 29.-Being then for forasniuch then and corresponding to those various bounds as we are, A.V.; device of ,nan for man•, assigned by God to their habitations, yet device, A.V. Graven by art, eto. In the beo.r distinct and emphatic t.cstimony to Greek the substantive :xapc!-yµai-a, graven I-his unity. They e.rc vo.riations, more or images, things eng:raven, is in apposition less exteuJed, of the speech of man. Bollllds with the gold, silver, and stone, and n of their habitation ; .,-as opo0arias, re,., .1-. : thc further description of them. Art, -rlxv71, is word only occurs here; elsewhere, though the manual skill, the device; ev86µ.'IJ<ns is the rarely, .,..a OpoOi,na.. genius and mental power which plans the Ver. 27.-God for tlie Lord, A.V. o.nd splendid temple, or exquisite sculpture, or T.R. (l\Ieyer does not oocept this rending); the statue which is to receive the adora- is for be, A.V.; each for every, A .V. If haply tion of the idolater. Compare the withering they IJ.ight feel aftar him. '¥711-acp,;,., is " to sarcasm of Isaiah (xliv. 9-17). touch, feel, or handle," as Luke xxiv. 39; Ver. 30.-The times of ignorance therefore Hcb. xii. 18; l John i. 1. But it is espe- God overlooked for and tl,e time, of tkill cially used of the o.ction of ihe blind grop- ignorance God win1,ed at, A.V.; he com- ing or feeling their way by their hands in mandeth for commandeth, A.V.; men for all default of sight. So Homer describes Poly- men, A.V. ; that they should all everywhere phewus os x•pcrl 'f17M<l>o"'"• feeling his way to repent for er,erywhere to repent, A. V. nnd the mouthoftbecave with his ho.nds after he T.R. The times of ignorance ; perhaps with was blinded by Ulysses (' Odyssey,' ix. 416). reference to ver. 23, and o.lso implying tho.t Aud in the LXX. of Deut. xxvili. 29 we read, o.11 the idolatry, of which he bad spoken •E"!) 'f"'7Aatf,~w µ.,,,.,,µ.{Jpias /,,s .r -r,s ,jrq1-a,;,ficra.i in ver. 29, erase from ignorance. God over- -rvct,1-os iv .,-,;; ,ric6-r«, " Thou shalt grope at looked; or, as it is idiomatically expressed noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness:" in the A.V., winked at; made as if he did The teaching, therefore, of the po.ssage 18 not see it; " kept silence," as it Ill Sllid in that, t1,ough God wos very near to every Ps. 1. 21 ; made no move to punish it. mo.u, and had not left himself withont That they llhould all everywhere. The abundant witness in his manifold gift.a, yet, gospel is for the wliole world : "Their through the blindness of the heathen, they sound went into all the earth, and their ho.d to feel their way uncertainly toward words unto the ends of the world" (Rom. God. In this fact lies the need of e. revela- x.18); "Preach the gospel to every creature" tion, as it follows ver. 30, etc. And hence (Mark xvi. 15). Repent. The key-note of the part at least of the significance of such gospel (Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17; eh. XL 21). passages as, "Ye were sometimes darkuesu, Ver. 31.-Inasmuch as for beca1J,Be, A.V. but now are ve light in the Lord" (Epb. and T.R.; the man for that man, A.V. He ,. 8); "Who hath called you out of da.rk- hath appointed a day. Hitherto the Athe- ll<:tiS into his ma.rvellous light" (1 Pet. ii. 9); nians seem to have listened with intere~t " God who commanded the light to shine while St. Paul was, with consummate skill, out of darkness bath shined in our hearts to leading them onwards from •the doctrines give the light of the knowledge of the glory of natw-al religion, aucl while he was laying of God in the face of Jesus Christ " (2 Cor. down speculative truths. But now they i\". 6), and many more like passages. . . are brought to o. stand. They might no Ver. 28.-Even for also, .A.. V. For 1Il him, longer go on asking, T, ,co.w&v; A d11y fixed etc. This is the proof that we have not far by God, they were told, we.a at ho.nd, in to go to find God. Our very life. ~nd which God would judge the world in being, every movement we Ill8ke e.s livtng righteo118ness, and in which they themselves per:;ons, is 11. proof that God is near, nay, would be judged also. And the certainty more than near, that be is wiU1 118 and of tLie was me.de apparent by the fact that round about us, quickening 118 with his he who was ordained to be Judge was raised own life, upholding 118 by _his own power, from the dead, alld so ready to commence sustaining the being that we derive from the judgmeut. The time for immediate hi.Io (comp. Pe. cxu:ix. 7, etc.: :ui.ii, 4). action WIMI come; God's revcl~tion hacl CII, XVll, 1-31.] 'l'IIE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 63