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Act_14:13. But the priest (then officiating) of the Zeus, who is before the city, i.e. of the Zeus ( πολιεύς ), who had his seat in a temple in front of the city. ἱεροῦ is not to be supplied, with Kuinoel and others (see Bernhardy, p. 184 f.), as τοῦ Διός is the genitive directly belonging to ἱερεύς ; but the expression τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλ . is explained from the heathen conception that the god himself is present in his temple, consequently is ( ὄντος ) at the place where his temple stands: hence the classical expressions παρʼ Διΐ (ad fanum Jovis), παρ ̓ Ἥρῃ (Jacobs, ad Del. epigr. p. 229). Wolf thinks that it is spoken “de Jove, cujus simulacrum (and so not templum) ante urbem erectum erat.” But mere statues had no special priests. See Valckenaer, Opusc. II. p. 295, and Schol. I. p. 509. It does not, however, follow from this passage, that there was also a temple of Jupiter in the city (Olshausen).
ταύρους καὶ στέμματα ] bulls and garlands. “Taurus tibi, summe Deorum,” Ovid. Metam. iv. 755. Beza, Calovius, Raphel, Erasmus Schmid, Palairet, Morus, Heinrichs, and others, have quite erroneously assumed a hendiadys for ταύρους ἐστεμμένους . This would come back to the absurd idea: bulls and, indeed, garlands. See Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 856. Winer, p. 585 [E. T. 786]. The destination of the garlands is, moreover, not to be referred to the deified apostles (in opposition to Grotius and Valckenaer), who (like statues, comp. ep. Jerem. 9) were to have been adorned; but to the animals that were to be adorned therewith at the commencement of the sacrifice (see Wetstein and Dougtaeus, Anal. p. 80 ff.; Hermann, gottesd. Alterth. § 24. 7), because the design of the garlands is included in the ἤθελε θύειν .
ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας ] to the gates (doors of the gate), namely, of the city. This reference is required by the correlation in which ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας stands to τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλεως . The alleged incarnate gods were in the city, and therefore the sacrifice was to be brought at the gates of the city. The reference to the doors of the temple ( οἱ μὲν ἱεροὶ τοῦ νεὼ πυλῶνες , Plut. Tim. 12), or of the house where the apostles lodged, is not in keeping with the context.