The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 139

CHAPTER XX. there abode, A. V. ; a plot was laid against him by the Jews for when the Jewa laid wait for Ver. 1.-Hamng sent for ... and e:ihor/,ed him, A.V.; for forinto,.A.V.; detennilled for for called unto him, A. V. and T.R.; took purposed, A.V. (l-yl11er-o -yvcf,1-'1JS, R. T. ). When lea1'e of them, and departed for and embraced he had spent three months. For this use of them. and departed, A. V. Depn.rted for to go ,ro,.,v, see eh. xv. 83; xviii. 33. See also into Macedonia. This was St.. Paul's purpose, 2 Cor. :z:i.. 25, where the R.V. varies the as he had written to the Corinthians (1 Cor. rendering, and seems to take ,roieiv as a verb xvi. 5) from Ephesus. He judged it wise, neuter, as the A.V. does here, the accusative not only with a view to his own safety and (,.,.~vas TpEis) being taken as that of time that of his companions, but nlso for the rest how long. And a plot, etc. There is no and quiet of the Ephesian Church, to t&ke " and" in the Greek. It is better to take ad vantage of the lull in the popular storm, the •r.R., and to consider ,ro,~tTas as e. nomi- and withdraw into quiet waters before any fliltive pendens as ,,ri-yv&vT<s is in eh. xix. 34, tresh outbreak oocurred. Aquila and Pris- e.ccording to the reading of Meyer, Alford, cilla seem to have left Ephesus about the eto. A plot was laid against him by the Jews. same time, or soon after, siuce t.he Epistle to It appears from this that Apollos had not the Romans found them again ut Rome (Rom. succeeded in subduing the bigoted hatred of xvi. 3, 4); and, if the view mentioned in the the Corinthian Jews. But probably the note to oh. xix. 40 is true-that in the riot desperate measure of a. plot against his life they had saved St. Paul's life at the risk of (brif3ov1'.~, as in eh. ix. 23, 24; ver. 19 of this their own-there were probably the same chapter, and eh. xxiii. 30) is a.n indication prudential motives for their leaving Ephesus that m1my of their number had joined the a.s there were in the ease of the apostle. Church; and that the unbelieving remnant, Ver. 2.-Through for in,er, A.V. When he being foiled in argument, had recourse to vio- ha.d gone through (o,.J..6c.S11); see above, eh. lence. He determined; literally, according viii. 4, 40; L 36 ; xiii 6; xviii. 23, note, etc.; to the R.T., hewasofopinio-n. ButtheT.R. Luke ix. 6. Those parts ; JL•P11, a word espe- has ,.,,,v•-ro "Yvc.Sµ11, "his opinion was," the ci,ill y used of geographical districts : .,-a construction of the sentence being changed. JL•P71 'T~S r<t/uNilas; .,. .. JLEp1J Tupov «al ~,oio11os The three months were probably chiefly (Matt. ii 22; ~- 21 ; see too eh. ii. 10: spent at Corinth, according to the intention xiL I). Greeoe ('EMco4, not 'Axatav, as eh. expressed in 1 Cor. xvi. 6, though lt would xi.x:. 21 ; xviii. 12, and elsewhere). Mace- seem that he had stayed e. longer time in donia andAcbm are al ways coupled together Macedonia than he anticipated. It was ( see Tacit., 'Ann.,' i 76), as in Rom. xv. 26; during hlll sojourn a.t Corinth tha.t the 1 Thess. i 7, 8. In the Second Epistle to the Epistle to the Rome.ns was written. Corinthians, written from Macedouia, it lll Ver. 4.-.A.s fa-r as for into, A.V.; Ber<Ba always Achaia (2 Cor. i 1, etc.). In fact, for Berea, A. V.; the aon of Pyrrhus is 'EJ..luis is found nowhere else in the New added in the R.T. and R.V.; Timothy for Testament, Achaia being the name of the Timothem, A.V. Aocompanied; a'Vll<i1r<To, Roman province. Bengel and others under• peculiar to Luke in the New Testament, but i;tand Hellas here of the country between common in medical writers. Asfe.r as Asia. Macedonia and the Peloponnesus, especially If it were merely said, "there a.ccompanied Attica; which would make it probable that him,'' it might have been thought, with re- St. Paul revisited Athens. But Meyer, gard to the Macedonians Sopater, Aristar- Kuinoel, Alford, 'Speaker's Commentary,' ohus, and Seoundus, that they had merely ;,tc., think it lll synonymous with Achaia. gone as fe.r as their respective cities, Berm& Th;,re must, howaver, be some reason for and Thessalonica; it lll therefore o.dded (in this unusual use of Hellas instead of Aohaia. most manuscripts, though not in B or the 1,one bCClliB BO likely as that it was meant to Codex Siuaiticus), "ns far as Asia." It does cover wider ground than Achai.a would not necessarily follow that they all went as uature.lly indicate, namely Attica far aB Jcrnsalem, though m, know '£rophimue Ver. 3.- When he had ,pent . , , tk,e- for and Aristarchus <lid. Sopater may probably CJI, XX, 1-38.] '.l'IIE AC'fS OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. 1J3