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Act_11:27-28. Κατῆλθον ] whether of their own impulse, or as sent by the church in Jerusalem, or as refugees from Jerusalem (Ewald), is not evident.
προφῆται ] inspired teachers, who delivered their discourses, not, indeed, in the ecstatic state, yet in exalted language, on the basis of an ἀποκάλυψις received. Their working was entirely analogous to that of the O. T. prophets. Revelation, incitement, and inspiration on the part of God gave them their qualification; the unveiling of what was hidden in respect of the divine counsel for the exercise of a psychological and moral influence on given circumstances, but always in reference to Christ and His work, was the tenor of what these interpreters of God spoke. The prediction of what was future was, as with the old, so also with the new prophets, no permanent characteristic feature; but naturally and necessarily the divinely-illuminated glance ranged very often into the future development of the divine counsel and kingdom, and saw what was to come. In respect to the degree of the inspired seizure, the προφῆται are related to the γλώσσις λαλοῦντες (see on Act_10:46) in such a way that the intellectual consciousness was not thrown into the background with the former as with the latter, and so the mental excitement was not raised to the extent of its becoming ecstatic, nor did their speaking stand in need of interpretation. Comp. on 1Co_12:10.
ἀναστάς ] he came forward in the church-assembly.
Ἄγαβος ] Whether the name (comp. Ezr_2:46) is to be derived from çÈâÈá , a locust (with Drasius), or from òâá , to love (with Grotius, Witsius, Drusius, Wolf), remains undecided. The same prophet as in Act_21:10.
διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ] This characterizes the announcement ( ἐσήμανε ) of the famine as something imparted to the prophet by the Holy Spirit; hence Eichhorn’s opinion (comp. Heinrichs), that the famine was already present in its beginnings, does great violence to the representation of the text, which, moreover, by ὅστις … Κλαυδίου states the fulfillment as having occurred afterwards, and consequently makes the event to appear at that time still as future, which also μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι definitely affirms.
λιμὸν … οἰκουμένην ] that a great famine was appointed (by God) to set in over the whole inhabited earth. Thus generally is τὴν οἰκουμ . to be understood in the original sense of the prophet, who sees no local limits drawn for the famine beheld in prophetic vision, and therefore represents it not as a partial, but as an unrestricted one. Just because the utterance is a prediction, according to its genuine prophetic character, there is no ground for giving to the general and usual meaning of τὴν οἰκουμ .—which is, moreover, designedly brought into relief by ὅλην —any geographical limitation at all (to the land of Judaea or the Roman empire; see on Luk_2:1). This very unlimited character of the vision, on the one hand, warranted the hyperbolical form of the expression, as given by Agabus, while yet, on the other hand, the famine extending itself far and wide, but yet limited, which afterwards historically occurred, might be regarded as the event corresponding to the entirely general prophetic vision, and be described by Luke as its fulfilment. History pointed out the limits, within which what was seen and predicted without limitation found its fulfilment, inasmuch, namely, as this famine, which set in in the fourth year of the reign of Claudius (A.D. 44), extended only to Judaea and the neighbouring countries, and particularly fell on Jerusalem itself, which was supported by the Syrian queen Helena of Adiabene with corn and figs. See Joseph. Antt. xx. 2. 6, xx. 5. 2; Eus. H. E. ii. 11. The view which includes as part of the fulfilment a yet later famine (Baumgarten), which occurred in the eleventh year of Claudius, especially at Rome (Suet. Claud. 18; Tacit. Ann. xii. 43), offends against the words ( λιμὸν … ἣτις ) as well as against the connection of the history (Act_11:29-30). It is altogether inadmissible to bring in here the different famines, which successively occurred under Claudius in different parts of the empire (Ewald), since, by the famine here meant, according to Act_11:29-30, Judaea was affected, and the others were not synchronous with this. Lastly, very arbitrary is the assertion of Baumgarten, that the famine was predicted as a sign and herald of the Parousia, and that the fulfilment under Claudius was therefore merely a preliminary one, which pointed to a future and final fulfilment.
On λιμός as feminine (Doric), as in Luk_15:14, see on Luk_4:26, and Bornemann on our passage.