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Act_2:9-11. Πάρθοι … Ἄραβες is a more exact statement, placed in apposition, of the subject of ἐγεννήθημεν . After finishing the list, Act_2:11, Luke again takes up the verb already used in Act_2:8, and completes the sentence already there begun, but in such a way as once more to bring forward the important point τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ , only in a different and more general expression, by ταῖς ἡμετ . γλώσσαις . Instead, therefore, of simply writing λαλούντ . αὐτ . τὰ μεγαλ . τ · Θεοῦ without this resumption in Act_2:11, he continues, after the list of nations, as if he had said in Act_2:8 merely καὶ πῶς ἡμεῖς .
The list of nations itself, which is arranged not without reference to geography, yet in a desultory manner (east, north, south, west), is certainly genuine (in opposition to Ziegler, Schulthess, Kuinoel), but is, of course, not to be considered, at any rate in its present order and completeness, as an original constituent part of the speech of the people (which would be psychologically inappropriate to the lively expression of strong astonishment), but as an historical notice, which was designedly interwoven in the speech and put into the mouth of the people, either already in the source whence Luke drew, or by Luke himself, in order to give very strong prominence to the contrast with the preceding Γαλιλαῖοι .
ʼΕλαμῖται , on the Persian Gulf, are so named in the LXX. (Isa_21:2); called by the Greeks ʼΕλυμαῖοι . See Polyb. 5. 44. 9, al. The country is called ʼΕλυμαΐς , Pol. xxxi. 11. 1; Strabo, xvi. p. 744.
ʼΙουδαίαν ] There is a historical reason why Jews should be also mentioned in this list, which otherwise names none but foreigners. A portion of those who had received the Spirit spoke Jewish, so that even the native Jews heard their provincial dialect. This is not at variance with the ἑτέραις γλώσσαις , because the Jewish dialect differed in pronunciation from the Galilean, although both belonged to the Aramaic language of the country at that time; comp. on Mat_26:73. Heinrichs thinks that ʼΙουδαίαν is inappropriate (comp. de Wette), and was only included in this specification in fluxu orationis; while Olshausen holds that Luke included the mention of it from his Roman point of view, and in consideration of his Roman readers. What a high degree of carelessness would either suggestion involve! Tertull. c. Jud_1:7, read Armeniam. Conjectural emendations are: ʼΙδουμαίαν (Caspar Barth), ʼΙνδίαν (Erasmus Schmid), Βιθυνίαν (Hemsterhuis and Valckenaer). Ewald guesses that Syria has dropped out after Judaea.
τὴν ʼΑσίαν ] is here, as it is mentioned along with individual Asiatic districts, not the whole of Asia Minor, nor yet simply Ionia (Kuinoel), or Lydia (Schneckenburger), to which there is no evidence that the name Asia was applied; but the whole western coast-region of Asia Minor (Caria, Lydia, Mysia), according to Plin. H. N. v. 28; see Winer, Realw., Wieseler, p. 32 ff.
τὰ μέρη τῆς Λιβύης τῆς κατὰ Κυρήνην ] the districts of the Libya situated towards Cyrene, i.e. Libya Cyrenaica, or Pentapolitana, Upper Libya, whose capital was Cyrene, nearly one-fourth of the population of which were Jews; see Joseph. Antt. xiv. 7. 2, xvi. 6. 1.[125] So many of the Cyrenaean Jews dwelt in Jerusalem, that they had there a synagogue of their own (Act_6:9).
οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες Ῥωμαῖοι ] the Romans
Jews dwelling in Rome and the Roman countries of the West generally—residing (here in Jerusalem) as strangers (pilgrims to the feast, or for other reasons). On ἐπιδημ ., as distinguished from κατοικοῦντες , comp. Act_17:21. Plat. Prot. p. 342 C: ξένος ὢν ἐπιδημήσῃ . Legg. viii. p. 8, 45 A; Dem. 1352. 19; Athen. viii. p. 361 F: οἱ Ῥώμην κατοικοῦντες καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες τῇ πόλει . As ἐπιδημοῦντες , they are not properly included under the category of κατοικοῦντες in the preparatory Act_2:5, but are by zeugma annexed thereto.
ʼΙουδαῖοί τε καὶ προσήλυτοι is in apposition not merely to οἱ ἐπιδ . Ῥωμαῖοι (Erasmus, Grotius, van Hengel, and others), but, as is alone in keeping with the universal aim of the list of nations, to all those mentioned before in Act_2:9-10. The native Jews ( ʼΙουδαῖοι ) heard the special Jewish local dialects, which were their mother-tongues; the Gentile Jews ( προσήλυτοι ) heard their different non-Hebraic mother-tongues, and that likewise in the different idioms of the several nationalities.
Κρῆτες καὶ Ἄραβες ] are inaccurately brought in afterwards, as their proper position ought to have been before ʼΙουδ . τε καὶ προσήλ ., because that statement, in the view of the writer, held good of all the nationalities.
τ . ἡμετέραις γλώσσαις ] ἡμετ . has the emphasis of contrast: not with their language, but with ours. Comp. Act_2:8. That γλώσσ . comprehends also the dialectic varieties serving as a demarcation, is self-evident from Act_2:6-10. The expression τ . ἡμετ . γλ . affirms substantially the same thing as was meant by ἑτέραις γλώσσαις in Act_2:4.
τὰ μεγαλεῖα τ . Θεοῦ ] the great things of God (which God has done; comp. Psa_71:19; Sir_17:8; Sir_18:3; Sir_33:8; 3Ma_7:22). It is the glorious things which God has provided through Christ, as is self-evident in the case of that assembly in that condition. Not merely the resurrection of Christ (Grotius), but “tota huc οἰκονομία gratiae pertinet,” Calovius. Comp. Act_10:46.
[125] See Schneckenburger, neutest. Zeitgesch. p. 88 ff.