[123] The ekeinoi, if the old text be correct, are the mockers, but these are not "the devout men out of every nation under heaven," therefore hous xenous eipen anotero can hardly be meant to refer to the following clause, entaitha pros ekeinous k. t. l. The omission of the text-words, and the seeming antithesis of anotero and entautha, caused a confusion which the modern text attempts to remedy by transposing tous diachl. to the place of toutous. "Whom the writer above called strangers, to those Peter here directs his speech, and he seems indeed to discourse with those, but corrects the mockers." This just inverts Chrysostom's meaning, which is clear enough from the following context. He says: "The dwellers in Jerusalem' are especially the devout men out of every nation mentioned above, and to instruct these (toutous) is the real aim of the discourse, which however is addressed in the first instance to the others (ekeinous), whose mockery gave occasion to it. St. Peter stands up apparently for the purpose of defending himself and his brethren: but this is in fact quite a secondary object, and the apology becomes a sermon of doctrine."
[124] Kai to en I. oikein. Below he explains andres 'Ioudaioi to mean, "dwellers in Judea:" therefore the kai seems to mean, "to be not only such, but dwellers in Jerusalem also."
[125] Here our leading ms. after ou gar hos humeis, has apopleroutai, phesi, kai hupolambanetai hoti methuousin. "For not as ye."--It is fulfilled (he says) and it is supposed that they are drunken!" which may have been said by Chrys., but certainly not in this place.
[126] There is no reason to doubt that the company who witnessed the scenes at Pentecost really supposed the Christians to be intoxicated. To this opinion they were, of course, the more readily inclined because of their prejudice against the new sect. The force of Peter's refutation of the charge of drunkenness: "Seeing it is but the third hour, etc.," lies partly in the fact that 9 a.m. was too early for any such general intoxication, and still more in the fact that the third hour was the first hour of prayer, at which time it would have been sacrilege to drink to excess.--G.B.S.
[127] Here the innovator, again mistaking his author's meaning, as if it were--Peter did not say, "These are not drunk," but what he did say was, "They speak by the Spirit"--finds it necessary to add, Kai ouch haplos, And not merely so, but, etc.
[128] apologian, as in 2 Cor. vii. 11. "Yea, what clearing of yourselves."
[129] i.e. The brightness of the miraculous fire appears at a time when there would be many to see it, people not being engaged in their works, nor within their houses at their noontide meal. OEcumenius evidently had the old text before him, for he gives the same sense with the slightest verbal alterations. In the Catena the sense is altered by omission of the negatives. "When people are about their work, when about their dinner," etc. The innovator (followed by Edd.) makes it "For when the brightness of the light is shown, then men are not occupied in the business of dinner (ou peri erga...ta peri ariston), then the day is cheerful (phaidra, the brisk and stirring time of day), then all are in the market." By to lampron tou photos he seems to mean bright daylight.
[130] Here, after eis deuteran, C. has 'Oldan (marg. gr. kai Lobnan. hoion Deb. kai Lobnan. B. after Deb. kai 'Oldan adds e Lobnan) It does not appear who is meant by this Lobna, unless it originates in some strange misconception of 2 Kings xxiii. 31, "daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah," LXX. Th. I. ek Lobna. Clem. Alex. Str. i. §. 136. has no such name in his list of Old Testament prophetesses.
[131] Edd. "For it was not expedient, because this also was obscure. I will show, etc. For it frightened them more, being obscure. But if he had interpreted, it would even have offended them more."
[132] What follows in the edited text is obscure and perplexed. The original text seems to labor under some defects, besides the omission of the passages commented upon.
[133] Something seems wanting here: e.g. as above, "There were signs in heaven, as Josephus relates. This however, in the full sense, has never been fulfilled." And then, a reference to the Babylonian compared with the Roman judgment.
[134] First blood, i.e. the taking and slaughter of the inhabitants: then, fire, etc., i.e. the burning of the city.
[135] As B. has this sentence, which is in fact necessary to the sense, the omission of it in C. A. may be referred to the homoeoteleuton, eleutheros.
[136] kai (=kaiper, or ei kai?) phoberon to tes kolaseos. i.e. he alleviates the severity of his discourse by speaking of the effects of faith, at the same time that he shows the fearfulness of the punishment. Edd. kai ou phob. krupton to tes kolaseos, i.e. light...and not fearful, by withdrawing out of sight what relates to the punishment: which however Ben. renders as if it were ou to phob. And not concealing the fearfulness, etc."
[137] It is extremely doubtful if Peter understood by "the great and terrible day of the Lord" (20) the destruction of Jerusalem. (Chrys.) It probably refers to the Parousia which is thought of as imminent. The "last days" then would be the days preceding the Messianic age which is to begin at the Parousia. This view harmonizes with the Jewish conception and with the Christian expectation that the then existing period (aion houtos) was soon to pass into a new age (ai& 241;n mellon). The scenes of Pentecost were thought to be the harbingers of this consummation and were so significant both of the joys and woes of the impending crisis, that the bold imagery of the prophet Joel is applied to them. Cf. the prophetic terms in which the destruction of Jerusalem is foretold--an event closely associated with the personal return of our Lord in Matt. xxiv.--G.B.S.
[138] hos hotan lege en to ampeloni pempein ta strateumata autou. Chrys. is misreported here, for the sending forth of the armies belongs to the parable of the marriage of the king's son.
[139] Something must have been omitted here: viz. a brief exposition of the parable here referred to. The innovator endeavors to mend the text, by leaving out the following sentence.
[140] On ouden omoteron gegonen, agapetoi, ton tote pepragmenon pragmaton. This may be explained as a negligent construction, but perhaps some words are omitted. The next sentence, Kai autos apephenato (which phrase is repeated below), refers to Matt. xxiv. 21. "There shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world to this time."
[141] 'Obegiskois (dagger-blades, or spear-heads, or spits) autous diepeiran. In Hom. vi. p. 43. infra, we have the phrase tines obeliskoi pepuromenoi diepeiran soma. It is evident that something is omitted, and no more probable supposition presents itself, than that Chrys. here read out from Josephus or Eusebius the description of the famine among the besieged (which the reporter of the sermon omitted at the time, intending to insert it at his leisure); and that the short sentence in the text is the preacher's own parenthetical explanation of some part of the description. Thus, B. J. vi. 3. 3. speaking of the cruelties practised upon dying wretches suspected of having food concealed about their persons, Josephus says: 'Alla kai tous ekpneontas hoi lestai diereunon, metis hupo kolpon echon trophen skeptoito ton thanaton hauto. Perhaps obeliskois autous diepeiran is C.'s comment upon diereunon.--Or, in like manner, it may refer to the description in B. J. v. 12. 3. how the lestai, after ransacking the bodies of the dead, tried the edges of their swords upon them, etc. Tas te akmas ton xiphon edokimazon en tois ptomasi, kai tinas ton errimmenon eti zontas dielaunon epi peira tou siderou. Perhaps, however, the expression may be taken in a metaphorical sense as in the phrase above cited: "they pierced themselves (heautous for autous) as with spits or lancets."
[142] Against the Marcionites, he says: You say that the God of the Old Testament is a cruel God; whereas Christ, the good God, is all mildness. Yet was not the Roman judgment upon the Jews inflicted by Him? And was it not beyond comparison more ruthless (omoteron, above) than the Babylonian or any former judgment, inflicted, as you say, by the God of the Old Testament?
[143] Pos oun phate phesin, i.e. as it is said in the text, "Every one that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved." The question is the same as was put in the beginning of this section: "What? do you speak of salvation for them after crucifying the Lord? And this, when you have shown us how fearfully that sin was visited?" This question, as a very simple one, he leaves the hearers to answer for themselves, by distinguishing between believers and unbelievers, the penitent and the hardened.--The innovator quite alters the sense; "How then say some that Christ remitted them their sin?" which makes the next sentence idle.
[144] Plen hotan kakeinos eis ekeinen metaste ten taxin The meaning is obscure: for it may be either, that he is displaced from office (metastenai, metastasis are common in this sense), and makes one of the stasiazontes; or, that he lays aside the magistrate and demeans himself to take part in their excesses. (Taxis is the expression for the attendants of any high official, and may perhaps be taken in that sense here). Erasmus goes wide of the text: nec exultant eo quod et ille ad hoc opus ordinatus est: and so Montf. nec exultantes quod ille ad hoc officium sit constitutus.
[145] meta ton Theon, omitted in the modern text.
[146] Hom. in Matt. lxxi. p. 699. C. Chrys. describes kenodoxia (vainglory) in almsgiving, as the thief that runs away with the treasure laid up in heaven. And something of this sort seems to have been in his thoughts here, where however his meaning is evidently very imperfectly expressed. The texts cited show that ekei, ekeithen, refer to something more than, as above, good laws and government in general; for here he speaks of the Gospel discipline of the inner man. "Where this restraint is, no dissipation of our temporal or spiritual wealth has place: for God, as common Father, has raised a wall to keep out all robbers both seen and unseen, from all our possessions: from the former He guards us, by law and good government; from the latter, by the Gospel prohibition of all vainglory: "Take heed that ye do not your alms," etc.
[147] Manthanei psuche enteuthen, opp. to ekeithen as in the following sentences: ekeithen sophrosunen manthanei, enteuthen akolasian--& 157;k. epieikeian, ent. tuphon--& 157;k. kosmioteta, ent. aschemosunen. Therefore either something is wanting: e.g. pleonexian; ekeithen, or for ent. we must read ekeithen.
[148] The old text kai ebouleto ekeinos ho analiskon kai ten oikeian eupragian mikran horan tros ten ekeinou, evidently requires correction, and the emendation assumed in the translation is, kai eb. ekeinos einai (ho anal. may perhaps be rejected as a gloss) kai ten oikeian eupr. m. horon p. t. ekeinou. Thus the whole passage, from kai ho men idiotes, refers to the id. or person feasted, and ekeinos throughout is the entertainer. The edited text has: 'Ekeinos de ho anal. kai ten oikeian eupr. mikran horan edokei p. t. ekeinou: of which Erasm. makes, Ille autem qui sumptus impendit et suam felicitatem parvam cum ea quam ex sumptu habebat conspicere putabat. But even if this sense lay in the words, it is not easy to see the connection of the following sentence, Dia touto, etc., Montf. translates, Qui vero sumptus fecit, suam præ illius felicitate parvam putabat, as if ekeinos and ekeinou in the same sentence referred to two different and contrasted persons. The meaning of the passage is, As, on the day before, the entertainer had to pleon tes euthumias, it is but fair that on the following day to pleon tes athumias should be transferred to him. This is expressed by Dia touto te hust. antididoasin: which however, Erasmus renders, Ideireo sequenti die reddunt sibi vestes iterum: Montf. redduntur vestes. (Perhaps there is an allusion to the legal phrase antidosis. v. Isocrat. peri antid).
[149] Eis anathemata oude eis krubden. The modern text has eis axonas oude eis, kurbeis, alluding to the peculiar form of tables on which the laws of Athens were written. On critical grounds we retain the reading of the old text, which, as being the more difficult one, is not likely to have been substituted for the other. Ouk eis anathemata; "not on public monuments for display." Laws of an Emperor, for instance, engraved on handsome monuments, may be called anathemata Oude eis krubden, (also an unusual expression), nor yet where no one would see them.'