[680] mss. and Edd. apartisai kai oikeiosai heauto. The Catena has preserved the true reading anartesai. in the sense, to make them hang upon (him for further communications).--Below, to panta athroon eis tas ekeinon rh& 178;psai psuchas, the ekeinon distinguishes the first hearers from the people generally: if he had spoken all at once to those, the consequence would have been chaunoterous ergasasthai, not that "nearly the whole city" should assemble on the following sabbath.
[681] Edd. from E .F. autos heautou instead of tou Paulou. We have restored the comments to their proper clauses in the Scripture text.
[682] The order of the exposition in the mss. and Edd. marked by the letters a, b, etc. is much confused, but not irremediably. The matter falls into suitable connection, when the parts are taken in the order c, a, d, b.
[683] all' hora ten parresian meta metrou ginomenen. A. meta to metrou. Mod. text metro. If this be not corrupt, it may be explained by the clause at the end of c, polles epieikeias he parr. gemousa, but then the connection with the following ei gar Petros k. t. l. is obscure. Perhaps from A. we may restore meta to Petrou: "the boldness coming to them after the affair of Peter."
[684] hos ek tes ekeinon spoudes me (om. A. B. ) tunchanonta ton agathon.
[685] The expression: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed," has been both minimized and exaggerated. Chrys. points the way to its correct interpretation in saying: "set apart for God" and adding later: "not in regard of necessity." The writer is by no means seeking to define a doctrine of the divine plan in its bearing upon human self-determination, but pointing out a historical sequence. Those who became believers were as truly so in God's plan as they are so in fact. The passage says nothing of the relation of God's ordainment to the believer's choice. It is an example of the Pauline type of thought which grounds salvation upon the eternal purpose of God. Whoever are saved in fact, were saved in God's purpose. If as matter of fact they are saved on condition of faith and not through the enforcement of a decretum absolutum, then it is certain that their salvation as foreseen in God's purpose does not exclude their self-determination and personal acceptance.--G.B.S.
[686] diephereto, was published, E.V. diapherein angelias, "to bear tidings," and diapheretai ho logos, "the saying is bruited," are classical, but perhaps the expression was not familiar to Chrysostom's hearers.
[687] 'Anti tou, ouk estesan mechri tou zelou. As in the mss. this clause follows that at the end of a, anti tou, diekomizeto, the anti tou may be only an accidental repetition. At the end of this clause, the mss. have hora palin pos (om. A. C. Cat.) diokomenoi, and then, pos (C. Cat.) hetera katask. (beginning of c.) The former clause, as the conclusion of b, may be completed with "they extend the preaching," or the like. But probably diokomenoi is due to the scribes, who seem to have understood by zelou here the zeal of the Apostles, not the envy of the Jews, v. 45.
[688] ek polles periousias homos anairousin auton ten apologian. The sense is evidently as above, but anair. will hardly bear this meaning, and perhaps was substituted for some other word by the copyist, who took it to mean, "They leave the Jews no excuse."--The connection is, It was not because they were less bold than when they said, "We turn unto the Gentiles," that they still went to the Jews first: but ex abundanti they enabled themselves to say to their brethren at Jerusalem, We did not seek the Gentiles, until repulsed by the Jews.
[689] ton semeion en. A. has semeion en. In the preceding clause, C. mechri pollou semeia poiousi, the rest ou poiousi. The antithesis ten men (om. A.) parresian...to de pisteusai must be rendered as above: not as Ben. immo fiduciam addebat ipsorum alacritas....Quod autem auditores crederent inter signa reputandum.
[690] Here all the mss. have kai megale te phone (to which mod. text adds kai pos, akoue.) then the text 8, 9, 10, followed by Dia ti, meg. te ph. and so all the Edd. But in fact that clause is only the reporter's abbreviation of the Scripture text, kai [en Lustrois....to] megale te phone, followed by its comment.
[691] Mod. text adds, touto gar esti to ekousen.--Below pareblabe is an expression taken from the foot-race: this was a race in which his lameness was no hindrance.
[692] Ede okeioto ten proairesin. Strangely rendered by Erasmus, Jam præelectione assumptus familiariter erat, and Ben. Jam præelectionem in familiaritatem assumserat.
[693] ouden hubristikon, ho de kai epi ton proph. epoioun. The meaning appears from the context to be: he speaks throughout with much epieikeia. When he says apotheisthe, he does not upbraid them with this as hubris, a personal outrage to himself and Barnabas, though in fact he might have done so, being just what their fathers did to the prophets: but he does not say, Ye repulse us, for the affront is not to us. And he says it to show that in what he is going to say, "Ye judge yourselves not worthy of eternal life," he does not mean that they do this of humility. In short, he says it not by way of complaint, but to justify what he adds, "Lo, we turn to the Gentiles."
[694] Mod. text omits this clause, which we take as an interlocution: q. d. "If the Lord ordered you to go to the Gentiles, why did ye not do this in the first instance." In the next sentence, A. C. kai touto ou par hemon par humon de gegone to, pro humon (B., with accidental omission, kai touto pro humon. Houto gar), meaning, "And this is not our doing, but yours, the before you:' i.e. the Gentiles hearing the word before you. But Cat., kai touto ou pro humon, par humon de k. t. l. (attested by the mutilated reading in B.) which we have expressed in the translation.--The mod. text has plen touto ou par hemon, par humon de gegone to pro humon opheilon: which Ben. takes to be corrupt, but leaves in the text, only adopting in the translation to par hemon opheilon, which interpres legisse videtur. Downe ap. Sav. proposes to pro touton humin opheilomenon vel hopheilon. Sed præstare videtur lectio quam propono, quamque secutus est vetus Interpres Latinus, Ben. forgetting that the Latin version is Erasmus's (Veruntamen hoc non ex nobis facimus. A vobis autem factum est, quod a nobis oportebat, Erasm.) and was made from E. which has no such reading here. Ed. Par. Ben. 2. expresses the sense of E. thus, Quod nos oporteat ante vos gentes erudire,' it is your doing that it is become our duty to teach the Gentiles before you.
[695] aplastous ontas (i.e. the Gentiles who would otherwise have received the Apostles) kakourgos diethekan, evidently the interpretation of ekakosan: not evil-treated the Apostles, etc.
[696] Me touto elattoseos einai nomises. The innovator (Edd.), mistaking the meaning, connects this and the following clauses thus: "For when they said, hote gar elegon, "Which witnessed," saith it, "before Pontius P., then the (His?) boldness was shown, but here he speaks concerning the people:" what he meant is not easy to see, nor does it much matter. Below, entautha peri tou laou phesin, i.e. the parresia is in reference to their own nation (Israel): they spake boldly to the Gentiles, fearless of the reproaches of the Jews.
[697] It seems clear from the fact that the apostles are said to have been aware (v. 6) of what the Jews had done against them, that the word horme (v. 5) can hardly mean an "assault" (A.V.) or even "onset" (R.V.) in the sense of any open violence. There would be no propriety in Luke adding that they became aware of an attack upon them. Orme must have here the sense of appetitus animi--a strong movement of mind, an intention to attack them--"Trieb" "Drang." (Meyer.) The word occurs in but one other passage (Jas. iii. 4) where the horme of the pilot is spoken of as directing the ship, evidently, meaning the "purpose" or "intention." (So Trench, Gloag, Meyer, Lechler, Alford.)--G.B.S.
[698] oudamou ton thumon auton ekkaiontes (restored to its fitting-place after katephugon), i.e. as on all occasions we find them forbearing to kindle the wrath of their enemies, so here, seeing the intended assault, they fled. Mod. text entha oudamou and ekkaiein en, "fled to Derbe," etc. where (the enemies) had nowhere power to let their wrath blaze against them: so that they went away into the country-parts, etc.
[699] So the order must be restored instead of, kai touto phesi dia pisteos ouk ex hemon; alla to pleon tou Theou; Theou gar phesi to doron. The mod. text, "And that it is not ours, but the more (part) God's:" hear Paul saying, "And this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God:" omitting dia pisteos, which is essential to the sense.--Perhaps we may read, kai touto, phesi, to "dia p."
[700] heautous etalanisan, "not as thou, heautous emakarisan."
[701] dia ten omoteta kai ten apanthropian. A strong expression, but so in the Homily on the Parable of the Virgins, Matt. p. 751, Am. Ed. p. 470, he interprets that the oil is charity (alms-giving), and that even virgins, lacking this, "are cast out with the harlots:" kai ton apanthropon kai ton aneleemona histesi met' auton (sc. ton pornon).
[702] meta aponoias, so Hom. xxxi. p. 196, ouk apenoethesan, "they did not bear themselves proudly."
[703] oukoun kai tapeinousthai chre. "if he to whom most is forgiven, loveth most, so ought he to whom more is given, to humble himself more."
[704] kai tauton ginetai, hoion an ei tis pater psuchrou (mod. text om.) kai pera tou deontos malthakou paidiou k. t. l. plakounta epido kai psuchron kai hosa terpei monon k. t. l. Erasmus translates loosely, videns puerum, quem supra modum tenere amat, ægrotum, illi frigida et quæcumque oblectant, porrigat. Ben., si pater nimis molli puero, etsi infirmanti, frigidam placentam et quæ solum oblectant porrigat. If the text be not corrupt, pera tou d. malth. may mean, "brought up more tenderly than need be although ill," and psuchrou, "silly." But the psuchron following may rather imply the physical sense as above expressed: the child is a poor creature, with no warmth or life in it, yet the father instead of warm and nourishing food, gives it cake and cold drink, etc.
[705] Dia ti ekrotesate; even now while he was protesting against this evil custom, derived from the theatres, some of the hearers could not refrain from expressing their approbation by applause.--Comp. de Sacerdot. lib. v. init. Hom. xv. in Rom. fin, Hom, vii. in Laz. §I. xvii. in Matt. §7.
[706] malista men oude houto chresimos ho epainos. i.e. as appears from the context, "to the preacher:" it does him no good, it is even a harm, both by hindering him (koluma) and by elating his mind (skirtemata kai pedemata tes psuches). In the intermediate clause, all' ouk an ekribologesamen, me me tis agroikias grapheto, the meaning implied seems to be--"as it would be easy to show, were it not ungracious to point out to you how little your praise is worth."
[707] Perieimi gar toutous zeton. Read tropous. Mod. text adds pantas eidena to the former sentence, and here II. gar kai autos tropous pantoious epizeton.
[708] dia ton chromaton tes arethes. Erasm. and Ben. ungrammatically, propter (ob) coloris virtutem; as meaning that such is the virtue or value of the colors, that they are fit to be employed only on imperial portraits. But the connection is plainly this: "the colors are the hues of virtue, the pencil is the tongue, the Artist the Holy Spirit." In the next sentence the old text has: ouk eukolon touto alla to me polle sunetheia katorthothenai, which is corrupt, unless indeed it may be construed, "but (it is) the not being, by reason of long habit, successfully achieved: i.e. it only shows that I have not, such is the force of long habit, succeeded in carrying my point." The mod. text Ouk euk. to pragma dokei, kai touto ou phusei alla to sunethei& 139; polle mepo katorthoun auto memathekenai. "It seems to be no easy matter, this: and this, not naturally, but by reason that from long habit you have not yet learnt to effect this reformation."
[709] ouk hesuchi& 139; kai sige (mss. hesuchia kai sige) ta panta kekosmetai (mod. text katechei). We alter the punctuation, and understand by ta panta not "all the proceedings in Church," but "all nature."
[710] hotan panta sullege, when all (that he has spoken) is gathered in by diligent attention of the hearers. Mod. text hotan tous karpous sullege, "when he collects the fruits."