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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Acts 3:12 - 3:12
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Act 3:12. Ἀπεκρίνατο, answered) having again obtained an opportunity.-τί θαυμάζετε, why wonder ye?) They had good reason to wonder; but they ought to have recognised the Lord, from whom the benefit had come, and not to stop short and fasten their whole attention upon the mere work itself, or upon the Divine instruments by which it was accomplished.-δυνάμει ἢ εὐσεβείᾳ) Most frequently δύναμις and ἐξουσία are joined. Wherefore the Syriac and some MSS. of the Latin Vulg. have taken up virtute aut potestate, instead of virtute aut pietate: and furthermore some MSS. mentioned in Irenæu[27], inasmuch as these two words seemed synonymous, have omitted et potestate, “and power.” The formation of the words in writing, εὐσέβεια and ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑ, piety and power, is also similar in appearance, especially in the contractions used in writing Latin.[28] These two, virtue and power, are usually looked to by men in the Divine instruments. Wherefore “Peter puts away from himself the attribution of power, whether physical or meritorious, and ascribes the whole to God and Christ the Lord.” So writes H. de Bukentop, lib. ii. de Vulgata, p. 285.
[27] renæus (of Lyons, in Gaul: born about 130 A.D., and died about the end of the second century). The Editio Renati Massueti, Parisinæ, a. 1710.
[28] ABCDde Vulg. Amiat. (the oldest MS.) have ἢ εὐσεβείᾳ.-E. and T.