The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 363

of tho Holy Ghost and of faith. Bo Stephen eitb~r by the Roman court or camp st is dcsoribcd (oh. vi. 5) as "full of faith and Antioch, or by the Greek population, in- of the Holy Spirit." 'fhe Holy Spirit ia fluenced sa they were by Rornnn form11 spoken of in both places as o. SpirH or power of speech current amongst them (compore a.ud demonstra.tion in prea,ching the Word. the Graico-Oriental N estorians, Arians, No reason is o.ppnrent why the H.T., having etc.). We may be sure that Christian8, nltered Ghost to Spirit in eh. vi. 5, retui ns i.e. followers or Messiah is not a norne Ghost here. Mnoh people, etc.; the direct !ikely f.o _have be~n given\y Jews. There consequence of the energy of the Holy 1s no eVJdence 01ther or ih having been Ghost in Bamablld's ministry. given in derision. The well-known account Ver. 25.-And he went forth for then of Ta.citns is "V~l~us _Christin.nos appelln.- departed Barnabas, A.V. nnd T.R.; to seek bat. Auctor nornm1s eJus Christus Tiberio for for for to seelc, A.V. Observe the re- imperitante, per Pontiurn Pilatum ~upplicio rn1trk11ble providence which had made use o.lfectus erat" (' Annal.,' xv. 44). Suidn.s of the violence of the Hellenist J ewe at says that those who had been previously Jerusnlem to drive Saul to Tarsus, where called Nazarenes and Galileans, in the rei!!ll he would be close at hand to take up the of Claudius C::esar, when Enodill.'J had be~n work so UDexpectedly prepared for him at made Bishop of Antioch by Peter, ha.J tliei,· Antioch. "It was in the spring of the year nome changed into that of Christians. lie A.D. 43, or just ten years after the Crucifixion, seems to refer to the statement of Mabins that Barnabas proceeded to Tarsus, found (qnoted by Conybeare and Howson, i. Ul), Baul, and brought him to Antioch" (Lewin, "that they who had been before c:.lleu i. 96). From Seleucia to the port of Tarsus Nazarenes and Galileang received the nn.m~ woulc.l be about a twelve hour~• sail; or, by of Christians in the time of Eucclius, wlio land, a journey oh.bout eighty miles would succeeded St. Peter as Bishop of Antioch, bring him to 'farsus from Antioch. and who himself gave tliem this name." Ver. 26.-Even for a whole year for a Malalas is thought to have lived somewhere whole year, A.V. and T.R.; they were between the sixth and ninth centuries, at gathered together for they assembled them- Byzantium. A beautiful passage in tile selves, A. V. ; and that the disciples for and Clementine Liturgy is also quoted at p. 130: the disciples, A.V. The phrase ,v Ti/ <KICA1)1J'i~ "We give thee thanks that we are callee! occurs again in 1 Cor. xi. 18 (T.R.), where by the Name of thy Christ, and are thus it hrui, as here, very neorly the sense of" in reckoned as thine own," where the 11llusion the church," as a place of meeting, It is to Jns. ii. 7. The name Christian is should be "in," not "with." The "Church" frequent in the epistles of lgrnitius, the is the assembly of disciples gathered together Bishop of Antioch; Polycarp's dying words in their house of meeting. Were oolled; were," I am a Christian" (Bishop Words- xp11µa.Tlcra.,, bore the nnme of. It is e. worth). peculiar use of the word occurring in the Ver. 27.-Noia for and, A.V.; there came New 'festament only in Rom. vii. 3 besides, down for came, A. V. (see eh. xv iii. 22). Pro- but found also in Poly bi us, Strabo, Josephus, phots ; a recognized order in the Church n.t and some other writers. Its common mean- that time (eh. ii. 17, 18; xiii. 1; x::i:. 23; ing is, in the passive voice, "to be worned x:xi. 9, 10; 1 Cor. xii. 28, 29; Eph. iv. 11). of God," as in eh. L 22, where see note. The news of the accession of the Gentiles Christians. It was a memorable event in to the Church of Antioch would naturally the history of the Ouurch when the n11me lead to such prophets being either sent by of Christians, which has distinguished them the Church of Jerusalem or coming of their for nearly eighteen centuries and o. half, was own accord. given to the disciples of Christ. Hitherto Ver. 28.-.A. great famine for great dearth, they hnd been called among themselves dis- A.V.; 011er for throughont, A. V.; Cla11dius ciples, and brctliren, and s,iints, and, by the for Claudius Ca:sar, A.Y. anc.l •r.R. The Jews, men "of the Way" (ell. ix. 2), or world; .;, oi,couµ.<V1), tho inhabited enrth, the "Nnzarenes" (eh. xxiv. 5), but now they common .-!:tpression for the wllole Roman received the name of Christians, a.a followers empire. But the expression must be taken of Uhrist, from the outside world, and 110- J,ere as hyperbolical, just as Josephus says cepted it themselves (eh. xxvi. 28 ; 1 Pet. that Ahob sent messengers to search for iv. 16). From the Lo.tin form of the word Elijah, ,ca.-ra """"" -r~,v 01,covµ.lv.,w, where, Christians, i.e. followers of Cluist (like of course, only the neighbouring countries Herodians, followers of Herod ; Mo.rians, to Judraa can be meaut, strictly speaking Pompemns, partis11ns of M,trius and Pom- (' Ant. Juu.,' viii. xiii. 4). Ilut there is no pey; Cwsal'ioni, Ciceroni11ni, Vitclliaui, evidence to show that ,1 01,cou1,dv11 is ever a Fl1tviAni, etc. ; Conybeore u.nd Howson, vol. technical term for Jue.Ima. See the use of i. 130; Lewin, vol. i. 97), the designation the word by Luke (Luke ii. 1; iv. 5; xxi. must ho.ve been invented by the Gentiles, 26; oh. xvii. 6, 31; xix. 27; :uiv. 5). Ill  TilE ACTS OF TIIE APOSTLES. [tit, xr. 1-::io.