The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 132

and Bengel render it, in dependence upon A.V.; unto each • , • ae any one for unto ~" .,-.;;, and by ngns and wonders being dOM, every man , .. aa he, A.V., R cho.nge with- II.I! the conBequenoe of the stretching out of out an improvement. Laid thom at the the hand of J·e8ue. The other ways of oon- a)loetles' feet, A significant token of the etruing- the sentence are either t.o make place occupied by tho apostles (as later by the clause, "tlrnt signs ancl wonders may the bishops of the Churoh) ne tho truotees be <lone," clependent upon "grant," which and dispensers of tbo Church's funds ns well seems to be the meaning of the A.V., or else as of the Church's doctrines. Compare to take it, ns Meyer does, 118 an independent "Ante pedes prmloris in foro expeneum est clause, expressing the aim of the stretching auri pondocentum" (Cio. pr. Flncoo, quotod out of the hnn<l. by Alford). We ho.ve, too, here an instance Ver. 31.- W'herein they were gathered for of the way in which Ch uroh in6titu tione rose tthen they were <U8embled, A.V. When they graduo.lly as occasion gnve birth to them. hnd prayed. When they hn.d finished the So the institution of deo.cone (oh. vi. 2, 3), preceding prayer. The plaoe was shaken, of presbyters or pri~sts (eh. xiv. 23), of pPrhaps by a mighty wind, as in eh. ii. 2. bishops (I Tim. i.-iii.), of Confirmution (eh. The word cra>,..,',.c,8a, is properly used of viii. H-17), appear to ho.ve come a.bout in ships or of the sea agitated and tossed by each case pro re natd. the wind; so M(l.tt. xi. 7, "A reed shaken Ver. 36.-Josepl, for Joses,A.V.,as ob. i. 23; by the wind." But it is also applied to the Son of ez.hortation for The son of consolation, rocking caused by an earthquake (eh. xvi A.V.; a man of Cyprus by race for and of 26), which may be the J..ind of shaking here the country of Cyprus, A.V. Joseph. In the meant. In this fresh outpouring ot the variation of manuscripts it is difficult to say Spirit, whereby they were enabled to speak which is right. Some (Grotius, Alford, etc.) the word of God with boldness, they ho.d a consider the two fo1·ms ns mere variations in dixect and immodiata answer to their prayer writing the no.me Joseph. But it seems more (see Isa. lxv. 24). probable that Joses is the same name 118 Yer. 32.-Soul for of one soul, A.V.; and Josiah, only without the addition of the not one of them said for neither said any of Divine Name (Jab) at the end (see Simon, them, A.V. The great increase in the • Onomast.'). It is found as e. proper name in number of believers bad been recorded in the T.R. of Matt. xiii. 55; xxvii. 56; Mark ver. 4. And the state of public feeling vi. 3; xv. 40, 47; Luke iii. 29 (Jose); and alluded to in ver. 21 makes it likely that is not likely to have been substituted for yet more may have been converted to tho the common no.me of Joseph. The Codex faith. This wa.s very important, no doubt; but Sine.iticus ha.s Joses ouly in Mark xv. 40. it WB!l scarcely less so that this grent multitude The R. V. has Joseph in Mntt. xiii. 55, and were one in heart and soul, closely united in Joses in Matt. xxvii. 56; Mnrk vi. 3; xv. 40, the bonds of Christian fellowship and love. 47. InLnkeiii29theR.V.hasJesus. But Ver. 33.-Thdr tDii:neu for v:>itneBB, A. V. Joaes is probably right both here e.nd in tho ( .. ~ µ,,p-r{,p,011). Their witness. It wa.e one above-cited passages. Barnabas; literally, of their chief functions a.s apostles to bear 110n of prophecy ; i.e. a prophet, as he id witness to the resurrection of the Lord called in oh, xviii. 1. Probably his exhorta- Jesne (see eh. i 22, note). Great grace, etc. tions under the influence of the Holy Sphi& Some understand this of the singular favour in the Church assemblies were particularly with which the people rega.rded them. But stirring e.nd edifying. The Greek version it is better to take it of the grace of God of the name, vibs 7ra.pa.,c>.f,crE"'s, should be which abounded towards them in spiritual rendered, a.s in R.V., Son of exhortation, for l(ifts e.nd abundant nnction and rich blesr• "son of consolation" is a meaning which ing, crowning their la.hours with success. can hardly be got out of the Hebrew. The Ver. 34.-For neither for neither, A.V. apostles seem here to have followed onr am<n'I!} them any for any among them, A. V Lord's example in naming the sons of One striking proof of the greatness of the Zebedee, sons of thunder, A man of 0yp1'111 Divine grace that was upon the Church at by raoe. The A. V. is leBS accurate, but it this time was that there was no such thing gives the sense better. Cyprus was the as want or poverty among them. The country where he wa.s born e.nd lived, as, it equality typified in the daily collection of is likely, his fathers had done bofore him. manna w11,5 literally fulfilled among them But he we.a hardly, in our sense of the (2 Cor. viii. 14, 15); for the rich sold their words, a Cypriot by race. We kn.>w that a houses and lands, and laid the price of them gre9:t ~any Jews w:ere ~ettled in Cyprus at the apoi,-tles' feet, to be need for the common (Philo, Leg. e.d Cn1um., § 36; Josephus, want.. The present participle in the Greek 'Ant.,' xiii 4; Alford, on eh. xi. 19); nnd we (,rw>.oiivT,s . . . 1r11rpa.cr1toµ.a,.,,.,) indicates the loorn from eh. xiii. 5 that in Salamis alone proc<:se as contiuuing (Meyer). there were several oyno.gogue~. Ver. s:i.-La.Mi tMrn for laid then, doum, Ver. 37.-.iJ.jield for I.and, A.V. OH, IV, 1-37,] THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. 127