The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 409

Jewish benrera by dwelllng upon the great grave objections on the aeore of chronology events of the hllltory of their father11, of u well aa grammar. Duration of time is whloh they were rroud, and claiming for expreseed by the acousative case, as vers. 18 Ohristlnna an equa heritage in that history. and 21: the measure of time in which The speeohea diverge in that Stephen a thing Ill done by the dative. So that sought to show in that history instances the natural rendering of the T.R. would be of the same stubborn unbelief in their that he gave them judges four hundred and fathers whioh had led the children to flftr years after the entrance into .Cana.an; cruoify the Lord of glory : but St. Paul whioh of co~rse. cannot be the meaning. rather sought to show bow the promises The other obJection ls that if the times o! made to their fathers had their fnlfilment the judges from the final ~nquest of the in that Jesus whom be preached unto them, lend to the jud~eship of Samuel was four and how the cruoiftxion of Obrist by the hundred and filty years, the whole time Jerusalem Jews WBB an axe.et fulfilment of from the Exodus to the building of the the Law and the prophets which had just temple must have been about six hundred been read to them in the synagogue. In both and forty years ' (37 from death or Moses speeches it is a great point to exhibit to Othniel + 450, + 30. for judgeship of Christianity as the true development of Samuel,+40 ofSaul'sre1gn,+40for David's Judaism (comp. Heh. i. 1 and throughout). reign,+ 3 years of Solomon,+ and the 10 Ver. 18.-.li'or about for about, A.V. years in the wilderness), whereas I Kin<>s Bu1fered he their manners ( l-rpo1To<f,&p111T<11). vi 1 gives the time as four hundred a~d This word ,,-p07roq,opeu,, to bear or put up eighty years; while the genealogies sup- with any one's (perverse) manners, is found pose a much shorter time- about two nowhere else in the New Testament. But hundred and eighty years. n is an im- in the Cod. Alex. of the LXX. it is the mense gain, therefore, to get rid of this four rendering of Dent. i 31, instead of l-rpoq,o• hundred and fifty years for the time of the p11tr<11, he be.re or carried, as a nursing judges, and by the well-supported reading father carries his ohild, which is the read- of the R.'r. to get a calculation in agreement of the Cod. Vat. and of the margin of the with Gal. ill. 17 and with the chronology of R.T. here. The Hebrew ~~l is capo.hie of thetimes. Gavethem .•. for an inheritance. either sense. From this quotation from The T.B. has ,.,.,,..1<11.11po80'r1)tre11, the R.T. Deuteronomy it is oonjectured that the Par- hBB ,.,.,,.,,.>,.11po11&µ11tr<11, which words e.re not aBhah ,:,n this occasion was from Deut. i., and unfrequently interchanged in dnferent if the u,i,"'"'" of ver. 17 is taken from Isa. i, codices of the LXX. (see Josh. :xix. 51; that would seem to have been the Haphtorah, Dent. i 38: ni. 16, etc.). They have nearly and it is curious that Deut. i and Isa. i. identical meanings, "to give as an inherit- a.re read in the synagogues now on the ance by lot." Neither word occlllS else- so.me so.bbath (but see note on ver. 17). where in the New Testament. Forty years is invariably the time assigned Ver. 21.-.Asked for for desired, A. V. ; to the dwelling in the wilderness (Exod. Kish for Cis, A.V.; for for by, A. V. The xvi 35; Numb. xiv. 33, 34; uxii. 13; forty yea.rs assigned to Saul may very uxiii. 38; Dent. i. 3: Ps. xcv. 10, eto.). probably include the seven yee.rs and six Vers. 19, 20.-Canaan for Chanaan, A.V.; months (2 Sam. v. 5) which elapsed before lie gave them their land for an inheritance, David's kingdom was established over a.II for about four hundred and fifty years : and Israel, wbile the honse of Saul was still in after these things he gave them judges, etc., power. The first twenty or thirty years of for he divided their land unto them by lot : his reign after the rescue of Jabesh-gilead and after that he gave unto them judges are passed over in absolute silence. The about the space of four hundred and fifty ne.rrative from 1 Sam. xiii. to xx.ri. relates years,eto., A.V. and T.R. It is difficult to only to about the last ten years of his life say what is the meaning of the R.T. in (for the correction of the A. V. of 1 Sam. xiii. regard to the four hundred and fifty years, 11 see 'Speaker's Commentary'). what is the terminus a quo or ad quem Ver. 22.-Raised up for raised up unto intended by it. The usual explanations of them, A.V. and T.R.; bare witness for ga~e tlie reading of the R.T. (adopted by Lach- testimony, A. V.: my for mille own, A. V. ; do man, Bishop Wordsworth, and others) is that for/uljil,A.V.; toho for which, A.V. This the years e.re dated from the birth of Isaac, is not an exact quotation, but the combined a1)d that the meaning is that the promise to meaning of 1 Sam. xiii H and Ps. l.u.xix. give the land to the seed of Abraham w11.11 21. 1 According to Africanus, 784 : Clemens actu111ly performed within four hundred and fifty years (C:., ,,,...,,) (after the analogy of Alexo.ndrinus, 6-ll; Theophilus, 566; Plll!- ~al. iii. 17), which gives a good sense and chal Chronicle, 632; Georgius Syncellus,659; 18 not. at. all improbable (see Bishop Words- and St. Paul, according to Eusebius, 600; wol1h'1 IIOMI). 'fhe reading of the T.R. b1111 Josephus, 592.  ~ THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLEa