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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 16:22 - 16:22
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
22. καὶ συνεπέστη ὁ ὄχλος, and the multitude rose up together, i.e. along with the aggrieved proprietors of the damsel.
περιρήξαντες αὐτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια, rent their (i.e. Paul and Silas’s) clothes off them.
ἐκέλευον ῥαβδίζειν, they commanded to beat them. ῥαβδίζειν, to beat with rods was the office of the Roman lictor, who carried rods for this purpose when attending on the magistrates. The use of this special word is an indication that St Luke was aware of the particular kind of beating, and perhaps beheld the infliction. This is one of the occasions, no doubt, to which St Paul alludes (2Co 11:25), ‘Thrice was I beaten with rods’ (ἐραβδίσθην).
On the sufferings of the Apostles at Philippi, Chrysostom says: τούτοις συνεχῶς ἀναμιμνὴσκωμεν ἑαυτοὺς παρακαλῶ, ὅσα ἔπαθον, ὅσα ὑπέμειναν. πῶς οὐκ ἐθορυβοῦντο; πῶς οὐκ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο; τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔργον ἐποίουν καὶ ταῦτα ἔπασχον, οὐκ ἔλεγον, τί τοῦτο κηρύττομεν καὶ οὐ προίσταται ἡμῖν ὁ θεός; ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο αὐτοὺς ὠφέλει, καὶ χωρὶς τῆς βοηθείας αὐτῷ τῷ πράγματι εὐτονωτέρους ἐποίει, ἰσχυροτέρους, ἀκαταπλήκτους. ἡ θλῖψις, φησίν, ὑπομονὴν κατεργάζεται.