and T.R. ; he bll$01tght Philip to CO'IIUl u_p and given in the' Speaker's Commentary:' uwho 8it tllith him for he d.e8ired Philip that he will con~Hlcr, give serious thought to, hie u,oulri, etc., A.V. He besought, cto. The life or age, seeing it is so prematurely cut humility and thirst for instruction of this oft"?" which is merely another wax of saying ~rcat courtier nre very rcmarkablo, and the that l\lessiah should "be out off ' (Dan. ix. ins!nnoc of the joint use of the written Word 26)" from the land of tho living, th11t bis o.nd the Ji\'ing teacher is noteworthy. Name bo no morn rE>membored 11 (Joremhlh, Yer. 32.-Now thepla.oefor the plac.e, A.V.; as abo,·e ). It was the frustration of this ,ca, reading for read, A.V.; a.s a lmmb ..• hope of Jesus being forgotten in oonsequence is dumb for like a lamb dumb, A.V.; he of his death that so troubled the So.nhedrim openelh not for openeii. he not, A.V. As a (eh. v. 28). lamb . . . is dumb. The A.V. of this clause Ver. 34.-0ther for other man, A.V. The seems to me preferable as a rendering of the eunuch's intelligent question gave Philip Greek, though the Hebrew has ;,oS~. "is exactly the opeuiug be required for preach- dumb." But this may be rendered' ;;·~hich ing to him Jesus, the Messiah of whom all is dumb." As regards tile word 1r,p,ox{1, the prophets spake by the Holy Ghost (1 Pet, rendered plaoe, and considered as the ante- i 10, 11). cedent to which, the use of it by Cice!o ('Ad Ver. 35.-And for then, A.V.; beginning Attic.,' xiii 25) for a whole par,o.gra.ph, and from this Scripture for began at the same Scrip- the employment in the Syriac Version of this ture, A. V. ; preached for and preached, A.V. passage of the technical word which denotes Ver. 36.-The way for their way, A.V.; a" section" or" paragraph,'' and the Vn.lgate saith for said, A.V.; behold for see, A.V. rendering, LoeUB . . . quern (Schleusner), as Here is water. "When we were o.t Tell-el- well as the etymology of the word, which Hasy, and saw the water standing along the menns "a circuit," or "circumforence," within bottom of the adjacent wady, we could not which something is couta.ined-all strongly but remark the coincidence of severo.l circum- point io the rendering in the text. Meyer, stances with the account of the eunuch's however, and others make .,.;is -ypa.cp;js the baptism. This water is on the most direct antecedent to l!v, and construe, •• The con• road from Bait Jibrin (Eleutheroplis)to Gaza, tents of the Scriptnre which he was reading,'' on the most southern road from Jerusalem, and refer to 1 Pet. ii 6. and in the midst of a country now 'desert,' Ver. 33.-His generation ,oho shall '1eelare, i.e. without villages or fixed habitations. for and who shall '1eelare his generation? A. V. There is no other similar water on this road" and T.R. The preceding quotation is taken (Robinson, 'Bihl Res.,' vol. ii. p. 345). There verbatim from the LXX., which, however, were three roads from Jerusalem to Gaza, of -mrics somewhat from the Hebrew. In this which the one above described still exists, verse, for the Hebrew as rendered in the "and actually passes through the desert" .A.. V., '' He was taken from prison and from (ibid. p. 514). What doth hinder me to be judgment,'' the LXX. has, "In his humilia- baplized 1 This question clearly shows that tion his judgment was taken away,'' having the doctrine of baptism had formed part of evidently read in their copy io~~Q i~j.,J?., or Philip's preaching, as it had of Peter (oh. ii, perhaps ;-~p:;t, "Throngh [or, 'in'] hisoppres- 38). sion [hnmiliation] his judgment was taken Ver. 37.-The wboleofver. 37 of tbeA.V. away." Mr. Cheyne trallSlates the Hebrew, is omitted in the R.T., on the authority of " Through oppression and throngh a. judg- the best existing manusoripts. But on the ment [sentence] he was taken away [to other hand, Iremeus, in the third book death]." For the Hebrew of the A. V., "He against Heresies, eh. xii. 8, distinctly quotes "·as cut off out of the land of the living,'' a portion of this verse. The eunuch, he says, :he LXX. has, "His life is taken from the when he asked to be baptized said, lliO''l'EVOI earth,'' where they muat have read i•;:i," his .,.1,., vibv 'l'OU e,ou d11a.1 'TOV '1710-ouv Xp10''1'0II: and Cyprian, in his third book of Testi- life," ae the BUbject of the verb, instead of monies, :xliii., quotes the other part of the C':'1:1, the living, taken in construction with verse. In proof of the thesis that "whoever r:;i~, the earth. The differences, however, are believes may be immediately baptized,'' he not materiel in regard to the general meaning says, "In the Acts of the Apostles [ when the of the passage. Hil generation who shall eunuch said], Behold water, wh1it doth hin- declare1 TLe explanation of this difficult der me t.o be baptized? Philip an11wered, If expression belong-s toacommentaryon Isaiah. thou believest with all thine heart, thou Here it muat snffice to say that the explana- mayest." So that in the second and third tion most in accordance with the meaning of centnries, long anterior to the oldest exist- the Hebrew words (nl')~: and iii,), with the ing manuscripts, this entire verse must conlkxt, and with the 'turn of thought in have been found in the codices both of the Isa. :uxviii 10-12 and Jer. x.t. 19, i.a that Greok un<l Latin Oburohes. 0B, VIII, 1-40,] THE AUTS OF 'rilE APOSTLES. 255
Ver. 38.-Both went down for went down nnrl hiR tre.nsporta.tion to Azotus, or Ashdod, 'both, A.V. Nothing con be more graphio reminds us fordbly of I Kings xviii. 12, a.ud than the simple na.rmtive of this interesting of t~e successive journeys of 1,;Jijahjust prior and important baptism. Surely Luke must to his translation. In Philip's case we may have heord it from Philip's own mouth (see suppose B kind of trance, which was not oh. xxi. 8-10). ended till he found himself at Azotus. Ver. 89.-0cime up for were C(Jffl6U'p, A.V.; Passing through. For 6dpxo:~a, (there ren- a,nd the eunuch for that the eunuch, A.V.; dered" went about"), see ver. 4, note. To for he went for and he went, A.V. The Cieurea; where we find him domiciled (eh. eunuch mu.de no attempt to follow Philip, xxi 8~. S~eh coincidences, appearing in the but went on his road to Egypt, bis whole narrative without any explanation are strong heart filled with the new joy of Christ's sal- marks of truth. "He journeyed 'northward vation. from Ashdod, perhaps through Ekron, Ra.- Ver. 40.-He preached the goapel to all mah, Joppa, and the plain of Sharon" the c,'ties for he preached in all the citiea, A.V. (Meyer), The audden rapture of Philip by the Spirit,