Vincent Word Studies - Acts 5:21 - 5:21

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - Acts 5:21 - 5:21


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Early in the morning (ὑπὸ τὸν ὄρθρον)

Ὑπό, beneath, is often used in the sense of just about, or near. Ὄρθρον, is from ὄρνυμι, to cause to arise: the dawn. See on Luk 24:1. Render as Rev., about daybreak.

Taught (ἐδίδασκον)

Imperfect: began teaching.

The council (συνέδριον)

The Sanhedrim.

The senate (γερουσίαν)

From γέρων, an old man, like the Latin senatus, from senex, old. Taking on very early an official sense, the notion of age being merged in that of dignity. Thus in Homer γέροντες are the chiefs who form the king's council. Compare the Latin patres, fathers, the title used in addressing the Roman senate. The word in this passage is the name of the Spartan assembly, Gerousia, the assembly of elders, consisting of thirty members, with the two kings. “The well-known term,” as Meyer remarks, “is fittingly transferred from the college of the Greek gerontes to that of the Jewish presbyters.” They summoned, not only those elders of the people who were likewise members of the Sanhedrim, but the whole council (all the senate) of the representatives of the people.

Prison (δεσμωτήριον)

Still another word for prison. Compare Act 5:18, Act 5:19. Rev., prison-house. The different words emphasize different aspects of confinement. Τήρησις is keeping, as the result of guarding. See on Act 5:18. Φυλακή emphasizes the being put under guard, and δεσμωτήριον the being put in bonds.