Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 14:2 - 14:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2. οἱ δὲ ἀπειθήσαντες Ἰουδαῖοι. Render, but the Jews that were disobedient. The same verb is found Joh 3:36, where the rendering should be ‘he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life.’ The word is stronger than ‘unbelieving,’ it expresses unbelief breaking forth into rebellion, and so exactly describes the character of these Jews who were persecuting Paul and Barnabas. It is noteworthy throughout the Acts that persecution seems nearly in every case to have originated with the Jews.
Cf. for the verb Bar 1:19, ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύης ἤμεθα ἀπειθοῦντες πρὸς κύριον θεὸν ἡμῶν, καὶ ἐσχεδιάζομεν πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀκούειν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ.
ἐκάκωσαν τὰς ψυχάς, made their minds evil affected. The verb is not frequently found in this sense. The precise phrase κακῶσαι τὰς ψυχάς (ψυχήν) is found twice in LXX. (Num 29:7; Num 30:14), but there it is of affliction put on a person’s own soul by a fast or a vow. It is also used (Act 12:1) to describe the harm done to the Church by Herod Agrippa. Here it implies not only an ill disposition aroused towards the brethren, but also that injury was done to the minds in which such feeling was stirred up.