Again I see others stand talking while Prayer is going on; while the more consistent [593] of them (do this) not only during the Prayer, but even when the Priest is giving the Benediction. O, horror! When shall there be salvation? when shall it be possible for us to propitiate God?--Soldiers [594] go to their diversion, and you shall see them, all keeping time in the dance, and nothing done negligently, but, just as in embroidery and painting, from the well-ordered arrangement in each individual part of the composition, there results at once an exceeding harmony and good keeping, so it is here: we have one shield, one head, all of us (in common): and if but some casual point be deranged by negligence, the whole is deranged and is spoilt, and the good order of the many is defeated by the disorder of the one part. And, fearful indeed to think of, here you come, not to a diversion, not to act in a dance, and yet you stand disorderly. Know you not that you are standing in company with angels? with them you chant, with them sing hymns, and do you stand laughing? Is it not wonderful that a thunderbolt is not launched not only at those (who behave thus), but at us? For such behavior might well be visited with the thunderbolt. The Emperor is present, is reviewing the army: and do you, even with His eyes upon you, stand laughing, and endure to see another laughing? How long are we to go on chiding, how long complaining? Ought not such to be treated as very pests and nuisances; as abandoned, worthless reprobates, fraught with innumerable mischiefs, to be driven away from the Church? When will these forebear laughing, who laugh in the hour of the dread Mystery (hen hora phrikes)? when refrain from their trifling, who talk at the instant of the Benediction? Have they no sense of shame before those who are present? have they no fear of God? Are our own idle thoughts not enough for us, is it not enough that in our prayers we rove hither and thither, but laughter also must needs intrude, and bursts of merriment? Is it a theatrical amusement, what is done here? Aye, but, methinks, it is the theatres that do this: to the theatres we owe it that the most of you so refuse to be curbed by us, and to be reformed. What we build up here, is thrown down there: and not only so, but the hearers themselves cannot help being filled with other filthinesses besides: so that the case is just the same as if one should want to clean out a place with a fountain above it discharging mire; for however much you may clean out, more runs in. So it is here. For when we clean people out, as they come here from the theatres with their filthiness, thither they go again, and take in a larger stock of filthiness, as if they lived for the purpose of only giving us trouble, and then come back to us, laden with ordure, in their manners, in their movements, in their words, in their laughter, in their idleness. Then once more we begin shovelling it out afresh, as if we had to do this only on purpose that, having sent them away clean, we may again see them clogging themselves with filth. Therefore I solemnly protest to you, the sound members, that this will be to you judgment and condemnation, and I give you over to God from this time forth, if any having seen a person behaving disorderly, if any having seen any person talking, especially in that part (of the Service), shall not inform against him, not bring him round (to a better behavior). To do this is better than prayer. Leave thy prayer and rebuke him, that thou mayst both do him good, and thyself get profit, and so we may be enabled all to be saved and to attain unto the Kingdom of Heaven, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost together be glory, dominion, honor, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.
[576] This is the only instance in the Acts in which the Holy Spirit is said to be given anterior to baptism (cf. xix. 5, 6) which was generally accompanied by the laying on of hands by the apostles. A special reason is observable here which greatly diminishes the force of Baur's objections to the historicity of the narrative drawn from this exceptional order of events, viz: the marked receptivity of Cornelius and his company. Perhaps it was intended by divine providence to signalize this bringing in of the first fruits of the Gentiles by showing how little the gifts of grace are conditioned upon outward rites. Some critics suppose that this gift of the Spirit before baptism was granted to impress Peter with the idea of the admissibility of the Gentiles, but this seems unnecessary, as he had been taught this lesson already by the vision and had distinctly avowed his conviction (v. 35). Chrysostom's exposition is in the line of the latter interpretation; he forcibly calls this gift of the Spirit an apologiamegale for Peter. The principle which Bengel lays down in his comments--liberum gratia habet ordinem--together with the special significance of the occasion is a sufficient explanation of the apparently exceptional manner of the bestowment of the Spirit here.--G.B.S.
[577] kai ho Petros schedon haplos paresti paideuomenos. Erasm. fere simpliciter adest ut discat. Not meaning that St. Peter needed to be taught (see above p. 146, note 1), but that--such is the oikonomia for his exculpation--it is made to appear as if he needed the lesson and was now taught it, and had his misapprehensions rectified in common with them. Ben., entirely mistaking the meaning, has quasi fortuito adest docens.
[578] Kai dia touto meth' huperboles ginetai. Erasm. Idcirco hæc cum excellentia quadam fiebant. Ben. Ideo hæc modo singulari fiunt. But the meaning is, "There is a lavish array of Divine interpositions. The mission of the Angel to Cornelius, Peter's vision, the command given by the Spirit, above all, the gift of the Holy Ghost and the speaking with tongues before the baptism. This last was in itself an unanswerable declaration of the will of God, and sufficed for the Apostle's justification. The others are ek periousias, arguments ex abundanti."
[579] Some critics (as Meyer, Olshausen) have affirmed the opposite of what Chrys. states, in regard to the hoi ek peritomes. He excludes the apostles from this category; they would include them. The hoi ek peritomes, however, seem to have been a special class of Christians in the mind of the writer. In expressing the fact that the Church learned of the reception of the Gentiles, the "apostles and brethren" are named, but when the narrative advances to the thought of the contention against Peter on account of it, a new term is chosen; the writer could not allow the same subject to stand for the verb diekrinonto, but chooses another term--hoi ek peritomes. The two subjects, then, can hardly be identical. The phrase more probably denotes judaizing Christians, i.e. those who gave special prominence to the Law and the necessity of circumcision (So Lechler, Gloag, Alford).--G.B.S.
[580] Allos de ou tosouton to diaphoron Samareiton kai ethnon. Edd. (from E. alone,) for ou tosouton have polu kai apeiron, "great and infinite the difference between Samaritans and Gentiles."
[581] A. B. C. (after v. 11. which we have removed), 'Ekeina anankaia en (read ta an.) alla dia touton auta kataskeuazei. By ekeina he means, what we have heard above, what happened at Cæsarea. The modern text (Edd.): "What points were essential, he relates, but of the rest he is silent: or rather by these he confirms them also, kai auta kataskeuazei."
[582] touto eikotos proskeitai. i.e. though this was not mentioned before (see above, p, 145. note 6) with good reason it is added here: viz. for Peter's justification. Edd. from E. "that he may not disgust them: but what had nothing great in it. He shall speak,' etc. Do you mark how for this reason I mentioned before, he hastens on?" But the saying, "He shall speak," etc. was great, even greater than that which he omits: but this was not necessary, the other (Chrys. means) made a strong point for Peter's defence, and therefore is added.
[583] anothen auton ten dianoian oikeioi, viz. by letting them see how all along it was not his doing. Then before legon pros autous, something is wanting: e.g. "Which done, he urges most effectively, Who have received,'" etc.
[584] E. D. F. Edd. "But there was no need to baptize, it may be said, for the baptism was complete, when the Spirit fell upon them.' Therefore he does not say, I first ordered them to be baptized but what? Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized?' By this showing that he did nothing himself. What therefore we have obtained, those received."
[585] hotan hemeis autous koinonous legomen; "when we put them on a level with us the Apostles and first disciples, in regard that they received the Spirit in the same manner as we received, and as the rest of you did not?"
[586] tote ho P. husteron existatai; kai dia touto phesin. "But when God gave them the Spirit, then Peter afterwards is astonished," etc. This is evidently corrupt. Tote ho P. seems to be part of the text v. 46. tote apekrithe ho P. For husteron existatai we may perhaps restore, kai pros touto ho P. husteron histatai. "On this Peter afterwards insists (as above, p. 156), and with a view to this he says (before), God hath shown me,'" etc. The innovator substitutes: "When Peter expounded to them his trance, saying, God hath shown me,'" etc. So Edd.
[587] Ei gar meden touton en, ouk erkei to katorthoma; Of the Edd. only Savile puts this, as it ought to be, interrogatively: Ben. renders, non sat fuisset præstium.
[588] monon me kathaper hoi loipoi ton neophotiston epereazontai, hotan allous horosi photisthentas, kai euthus apiontas. Doxazein dei ton Theon, kan pantes sothosin; kai su e& 129;n theles k. t. l. Above Hom. i. p. 20, it is said, "the sick man" having received baptism in the prospect of death, "if he recovers, is as vexed" because of his baptism "as if some great harm had happened to him." And so it might have been said here, "not (to feel) as some of the newly-baptized (are apt to do, who) are annoyed (or aggrieved, etereazontai), when they see others" etc.: i.e. who, seeing such cases, think themselves ill used that they were not allowed to defer their baptism to the last moment, but were forced upon the alternative either of leading a strict life, or of forfeiting the grace of baptism. But the assertion hoi loipoi ton neoph. is too sweeping, and the word epereazontai is scarcely suitable to this sense: it should rather have been deinopathousin or anaxiopathousin. The meaning, not fully expressed, is: "only not, like as the rest of the newly-baptized are insulted, taunted or jeered (by some), when they see others," etc.: i.e. it is right to glorify God, only not to imagine that God is glorified by those who, exulting in the safety of their friends who received baptism at the point of death, taunt the rest of the newly baptized, saying, "See, these men are safe: they are baptized to some purpose; while you have received the gift, only to be in danger of losing it."--He adds, "It is right to glorify God, though all be saved"--though that were the case with all except yourself, that they passed at once from baptism to that world, with the gift unimpaired, and no more in danger to be lost. "And as for you, if you will, you have received a greater gift," than they: etc.--For epereazontai, A. has epereazousin: and this is adopted by the innovator, who alters the passage thus (E. Edd.): "to glorify God, all' ouk epereazein (adopted by F. D.) kathaper oi polloi ton neophot. etereazousin, when they see, etc. It is right to glorify God, kai hoti menein ou sunchorei; & 169;Oste kai su e& 129;n theles k. t. l.(Erasm. et non insultare: Ben. non autem insultare illis.)
[589] kreisson heis poion to thelema Kuriou, e murioi paranomoi. St. Chrys. repeatedly cites this, and almost in the same words, as a text of Scripture, and the Edd. refer it to Ecclus. xvi. 3, but there it is, kreisson gar heis e chilioi (with no various reading), and here the following words, hoi (B. ei) gar murioi pros ton (to, B. F. hena oudepo ephthasan, seem to be meant as part of the citation. For these E. Edd. substitute, Touto kai tis sophos ainittomenos houto tos phesi. Savile adopts both, but reads ou gar murioi.
[590] Oudeis ten epimeleian echei tou paidos tou heautou; oudeis echei zelon pros presbuten idon mimesasthai. i.e. "The young are neglected by their own parents and masters, and elsewhere they see no good example of the old to move them to virtue."