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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 1:18 - 1:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
18. μὲν οὖν. These particles at the opening of the verse shew that there is a break in the continuity of the narrative and that what follows, in Act 1:18-19, must be taken for a parenthesis. For examples of such use of μὲν οὖν cf. Act 5:41; Act 13:4; Act 17:30; Act 23:22; Act 26:9.
ἐκτήσατο, acquired. The word may be used not only of him who gets something for himself, but of one who is the cause of its being gotten by another. The field was bought by the chief priests (Mat 27:5-8), but it was the return of the money by Judas, and the difficulty of disposing of it in any other way, which brought about the purchase of the field.
ἐκ μισθοῦ τῆς ἀδικίας. This expression is found only here and in 2Pe 2:13; 2Pe 2:15. It seems therefore to be a Petrine phrase. The varied English of the A.V. in these places effectually obscures the evidence of this. Though these verses are in the form of a parenthesis, St Luke most probably gathered the facts which they contain from St Peter himself, or he would not thus have inserted them within the compass of that Apostle’s address.
πρηνὴς γενόμενος. Of course this occurred after he had hanged himself, as is recorded by St Matthew (Mat 27:5). If the cord used by Judas broke with his weight, it is easy to understand how all that is related took place. The ground, to be suitable for an Eastern burial-place must needs be rocky and cavernous. St Matthew intimates that it was a clay-pit which had probably been long before dug out for making pottery. When the body suspended over such a place fell down on the hard bottom, a result would ensue like that described 2Ch 25:12, and which might well be described by the language in the text.
ἐλάκησεν (from λάσκω). The word indicates that the occurrence was attended by a loud sound. There is a passage in the apocryphal Acta Thomæ § 33 which illustrates the language of this verse, and where this rare verb occurs. ὁ δράκων φυσηθεὶς ἐλάκησε καὶ ἀπέθανε καὶ ἐξεχύθη ὁ ἰὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ χολή. The dragon burst asunder by reason of the poison which he had been compelled by the Apostle to suck back out of the body of a young man whom he had slain and whom the Apostle raised to life. The apocryphal story then goes on to tell how a chasm opened, so that the dragon was swallowed into the earth, while the Apostle, after commanding the hollow to be filled up, and houses to be built over it, adds, ἵνα οἴκησις γένηται τοῖς ξένοις, that it may be a dwelling-place for the strangers. Cf. Mat 27:7.