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Act 13:18-19. Καὶ-ἐτροφοφόρησεν, and-bore like a nurse [τροφὸς]) The beginning of this discourse, Act 13:17-19, has three Greek verbs, which are partly rare, partly altogether peculiar to the sacred writings, ὕψεσεν, ἐτροποφόρησεν, and κατεκληρονόμησεν; of which the first occurs in Isa 1:2, the second and third in Deu 1:31; Deu 1:38. And moreover these two chapters, Deuteronomy 1 and Isaiah 1, are to the present day read on the one Sabbath: whence it is established with sufficient certainty that both were read on that very Sabbath, and that too in Greek, and that Paul referred especially to that reading of Moses and of the prophets spoken of in Act 13:15. For even the mention of the Judges, Act 13:20, accords with the Haphtara, or lesson read, Isa 1:26, “I will restore thy judges as at the first:” and it is customary with the Jews to take their discourses, or the beginnings of them, from the Sabbath lesson read in the synagogue. [It was also at that time the same part of the year in which the temple, along with the city, both had been formerly desolated by the Chaldeans, and was subsequently to be desolated by the Romans.-V. g.] Now, as relates to the verb ἐτροποφόρησεν, instead of which valuable MSS. have ἐτροφοφόρησεν, it is already put beyond dispute that the passage referred to in it is Deu 1:31, ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ταύτῃ ἐτροφοφόρησέ σε Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, ὡς εἴ τις τροφοφορήσαι ἄνθρωπος τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ. The Hebrew נשא, bore, expresses the simple notion: how did he bear with them? In endurance (tolerance) or in beneficence (kindness)? Answer: God bore, not merely led, the people of Israel in the wilderness, in a way most beneficent and altogether peculiar, such as would properly suit (apply to) that tender age, in which the people did not bear its own self as an adult man, but God bore it as a little child not yet able to help itself, so as that they were exempted from all anxiety concerning food, concerning raiment, and concerning their goings forth. Accordingly Scripture, in speaking of the people in the wilderness, distinguishes this peculiar way of their being borne from everything else of the kind. See Deu 8:2; Deu 8:5; Deu 8:15; Deu 32:10, etc.; Isa 63:9, at the end; Hos 11:1, etc.; Amo 2:10; Nehem. Act 9:21, in which passage the conjugate διέθρεψας also comp. Num 11:12, ὡσεὶ ἄραι τιθηνὸς τὸν θηλάζοντα. And it is to this that the passage also in Deuteronomy 1 has reference, and Paul here: whence Laud. 3, along with Æth. Arab. and Syr.[72] versions, has rendered the word nourished. For God bore with the manners (ἐτροποφόρησε) of the people even previously, Eze 20:9, when bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt; and afterwards, Psa 106:43-44, “Many times did He deliver them, but they provoked Him with their counsel.” Wherefore if τροποφορεῖν always had a different meaning from ΤΡΟΦΟΦΟΡΕῖΝ, ἘΤΡΟΦΟΦΌΡΗΣΕ should be by all means read; a verb which occurs also in 2Ma 7:27, and in Macar. homil. 46, § 3. But ἘΤΡΟΠΟΦΌΡΗΣΕΝ is used in the same sense. For this verb has a double force, according as it is derived from ΤΡΌΠΟς or ΤΡΟΦῸς (not from ΤΡΟΦῊ): for Φ before Φ passes into Π, as in writing the forms used are, not ἉΦῊ, ΘΑΦῊ, ἘΧΕΧΕΙΡΊΑ, ὈΧΕΘΗΓΊΑ, ΦΈΦΥΚΑ, ΧΙΘῺΝ, ἝΧΩ, ἈΜΦΈΧΩ (from which however come ἝΞΕ, ἈΜΦΈΞΩ), but ἈΦῊ, ΤΑΦῊ, ἘΚΕΧΕΙΡΊΑ, ὈΧΕΤΗΓΊΑ, ΠΈΦΥΚΑ, ΚΙΘῺΝ or ΧΙΤῺΝ, ἜΧΩ, ἈΜΠΈΧΩ, from a wish to avoid aspirates, a feeling which goes so far that the transcribers wrote everywhere, ΟἹ ΦΑΡΙΣΑῖΟΙ, ΑἹ ἩΜΈΡΑΙ, ΕἾς Ὁ, Κ.Τ.Λ. The Scholiast on Aristophanes employs it in the sense derived from ΤΡΌΠΟς: commenting on the verses,-
[72] Syr. the Peschito Syriac Version: second cent.: publ. and corrected by Cureton, from MS. of fifth cent.
Οὐ χρὴ λέοντος σκύμνον ἐκ πόλει τρέφειν,
Μάλιστα μὲν λέοντα μὴ ʼν πόλει τρέφειν.
Ἤν δʼ ἐκτραφῇ τίς, τοῖς τρόποις ὑπηρετεῖν-
Ranæ, Acts 5, Scene 4, 185 f.-
he renders the last phrase by the verb τροποφορεῖν. Also Tully, l. 13, ad Att. Epist. 29, τὸν τύφον μου τροποφόρησον. But in Scripture, even those who write τροποφορεῖν, nevertheless mean τροφοφορεῖν. The Cod. Cantabrigiensis has in the Greek ἐτροποφόρησεν, and yet in the Latin, “ac si nutrix aluit.” The Apost. Constit. have ἐτροποφόρησεν αὐτοὺς ἐν παντοίοις ἀγαθοῖς, I. vii. c. 36. And so clearly Ephraim Syrus, ὥσπερ νήπιον,-οὕτω καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ αἱ χάριτος θείας μέτοχοι γενόμεναι, τροποφοροῦνται ἐν τῇ γλυκύτητι καὶ ἀναπαύσει τοῦ πνεύματος, κ.τ.λ., fol. υκς. ed. Oxon. On the contrary, τροποφορεῖν from τρόπος, at least in the testimonies just quoted, implies some degree of consent (approval): but God by no means approved of the manners of the people in the wilderness. He says προσώχθισα, I was grieved, Heb 3:10; with which comp. Exo 23:21, “Provoke Him not, for He will not pardon your transgressions;” Exo 32:10; Psa 106:23; Isa 63:10; Eze 20:13. Then, even though it may be understood of an unobjectionable toleration of bad manners, yet in this passage, as Mill says, “perhaps it is not even true. For how can it be said that God bore their manners for forty years in the wilderness, seeing that He destroyed them all, excepting one and a second (Joshua and Caleb), in the wilderness?” Nor would that notion accord with the design of the apostle: for he would thus, by implication, be accusing the Israelites; which it is not probable that he wished to do immediately at the beginning of his address, especially as that beginning was so mild a one. Procopius Gazæus joins τρέπω and τρέφω in the derivation of this verb, explaining that ἐτροποφόρησεν, Deuteronomy 1, ὁ σύμμαχος ἐβάστασε, φησί. Κυρίως δὲ σημαίνει τὸ τοὺς παῖδας δυσκολαίνοντας τρέπειν καὶ μεταφέρειν διὰ συμψελλισμῶν καὶ συγκαταβάσεως. See Hoeschel on Orig. c. Cels., p. 480. At all events, whatever of good the notion has in it from the term τρόπος, still remains: for evidently a τροφὸς, nurse, also performs as well the other offices of kindness, as also especially tolerates patiently the manners (temper and ways) of a peevish little child: and God tolerated the manners of the Israelites, but He also, in many other ways, ἐτροφοφορησε: see the whole of Psalms 78. Comp. App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage.[73] We must say something also of the ΚΑΤΕΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΗΣΕΝ. It denotes not merely, to take an inheritance, but also to give an inheritance; Jdg 11:24, “That which Chemosh shall give thee to possess,” κληρονομήσει, and ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΉΣΟΜΕΝ, “we will possess as an inheritance.” And in this passage of Luke it rests on the best MSS. A very few have κατεκληροδότησεν.[74] The same variety of reading is found in Deu 1:38, LXX.-Ὡς ΤΕΣΣΑΡΑΚΟΝΤΑΕΤῆ ΧΡΌΝΟΝ, about the space of four hundred years) Paul, in recounting the benefits of GOD towards the people in chronological method, at the same time furnishes to his hearers occasion (handle) for thinking about the length of the ages from the Exodus down to Christ, and invites his hearers on that account the rather to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. Comp. Mat 1:17, note (as to the three periods of fourteen generations from Abraham to Christ).
[73] AC corrected, E, have ἐτροφοφόρηοεν. Nutrivit in e: ac si nutrix aluit in d. But B (judging from the silence of the collators) D Vulg. have ἐτροποφόμησεν.-E. and T.
[74] ABCDE support κατεκληρονόμησεν. None of the oldest authorities support the κατεκληροδότησεν of the Rec. Text.-E. and T.