The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 166

Ver. 83.- But they, when tliey Tieard tTils, order of the A. V. ; are alJout to do for mtend for wlien tliey l1eard toot, tliey, A.V.; were to do, A.V. minded for toole oounsel, A.V. a.nd T.R. ,Ver. 36.-Girnng himeelf out for boaw!ing (ifJo6Jo.ovTo for l{JouJo.,6owro, oe oleo eh. xv, himself, A.V.; rli•persed for scattered, A. V.; 89). The word for were ont to the heart came for brought, A.V. Rose np Thendae. (o,'1rp10V"To) is found only here and in eh. A very serious chronological difficulty arises vii. 54, ~here the full phro.so is givon. It ~ere. The only Thendas known to hist,,ry means hteral!y, in the active voice, •• to saw ls the one ahout whom Josephus writes asunder," ond is so used by the LXX. in (' Ant._ Jud.,' xx. 5), quoted in full by 1 Chron. xx. 2. In Hob. xi. 37 it i1 the Eusebrns (' Eccles. Hist.,' ii. 11) 11B having simple verb 1rp(,,, which is used; 1rp(,,, and pretended to be a prophet, having lured 11, several of its compounds oro surgical terms. number of people t,, follo,v him to the Ver. 8i.-But tliere for there, A.V.; in banks of the Jordan, by the assurance that honour of for in reputation among, A.V.; the he would part the waters of the river and men for tlie apostles, A.V. and T.R.; while for BB having been pursued by order of Cu~pius space, A.V. A Pharisee named Gamaliel. St. Fadue, the Procurator of Jndrea, when Luke had mentioned (eh. iv.land v.17)that numbers of hie followers were slain and there was an influentfol party of Sadduceee token prisoners, and Thendas himself had in the Sanhedrim. He, therefore, now spe- hie head cut off. But Fadus was procurator cially notes that Gamnliel was a Pharisee. in the reign of Claudius Cresar, immediately There can be no doubt that this alone would after tile death of King Agrippa, ten or rather dispose him to resist the violent twelve years after the time when Gamalicl counsels of the Sarlducean members, a.nd was speaking, and about thirty ye«l"il after the more so as the doctrine of the Resur- the time at which Gamnlicl places Theudas. rection was in question (see eh. x.xiii. 6-8). Assuming St. Luke to be as accurate and Moreover, Ge!!ln!iel was noted for bis correct here e.e he hne been proved to be in moderation, That Gamaliel here named other instances where his historical aceuracv is the same as that of eh. xxii. 8, at whose has been impngned, three ways prescn"t feet St. Paul we.a brought up at Jerusalem, themselves of explaining the discrepancy. and who is known iu the Talmud ne Ra.bban 1. Josephus may have misplaced the adven- Gamaliel the elder (to distinguish him from ture of Thendas by some occidental error. Ilia grandson of the so.me name, the younger), Considering the vost number of Jewish the grandson of Hille!, the head of the insurrections from the death of Herod the school of Hille!, and at some time president Great to the destruction of J erusa..lem, such of the Sanhedrim, one of the most famous a mistake is not very improbable. 2. There of the Jewish doctors (as the title Rabban, may have been two adventurel"il of the name borne by only six others, shows), seems of Theudae, one in the reign of A ugustns certain, though it cannot absolutely be Cmsa.r, and the other in the reign of proved. The description of him a.s a doctor Claudius; and so both the historians may or the law, had in honour of a.ll the people ; be right, and the apparent discrepancy the allusion to him as a great teacher, mo.y have no renl existence (see Wordsworth, learned in the perfect manner of the Law of in loo.), 3. The person named Thenda.s tile fa.there, and one whose greatt!ese would by Gama.lie! may be the so.me whom Jose- be as a shield to hie pupils, in eh. xxii. 8; phus speaks of(' Bell. Jud.,' ii. iv. 2) by the the exact chronological agreement: the common name of Simon, a.s gathering a band weight he possessed in the Sa.nhedrim, in of robbers a.round him, and making himself spite of the Sadducean tendeucioe of the king o.t Herod's denth (' Sonntag,' cited by high priest and hie followers: and the Meyer, etc.). But he was killed by Grotns, agreement between hie character a.a written and the insurrection suppressed. A variety iu the Talmud and oe shown in his speeoh in this 111,St mode has also been suggested a.nd in the oouneel given in it,-eeem to pla.oe (Kitto's 'Cyo\opmdio '), ,iz. to underst,md his identity beyond all ree.eonoble doubt. Theudas to be an Aramaio form of Theo- There does not seem to be any foundation dotus, and the equiva.leut Hebrew form of for the legen1t in the Clementine Recog- Theodotue to be i'T'nno, Motthiue, and so the nitions, the.t he was in seoret a Oh ristian. person meont by• Theudas to be o. certain If the pr11,yer used in the synagogues, "Let Matthiaa who with one Judas made an there be no hope to them that opostBtize insurrection, when Herod the Great wo.a from the true religion: and let heretics, dying, by tee.ring down the golden eagle \low many soever they be, 11,ll perish as in which Herod had put over the gre,1t gate of 11, moment," be really hie composition, ns the the temple, and who wo.s burnt alive with Jews say, he cert11,iuly had no inclination to his compo.nioue, after defending bis deed in Christianity (' Prid. Conn.,' i. 861 ). a speeoh of great boldness aud constancy Ver. 85.-He said for aaid, :A..V.; aB (' Ant. Jud.,' xvii. 6). A consiclcro.tion of tooching these men transposed from the these methods of exp\aiuiug the apparent. •OTB. ll 162 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oe. v. 1-42,