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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 19:7 - 19:7
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7. ἦσαν δὲ οἱ πάντες ἄνδρες ὡσεὶ δώδεκα, and they were in all about twelve men. A new band or Apostles.
The verse has been the cause of much remark. Why the inspired historian should speak with an ‘about,’ has been asked by some. With that we are not concerned, only to observe that the Spirit has not prompted him to speak otherwise. Some have seen in the number and the circumstances a resemblance to the Apostles and their supernatural endowment; others have looked back as far as the Patriarchs and have made of these men the beginning of another Israel. May it not be that the ‘about’ was written to admonish us of the unprofitableness of such speculations? Cp. Jos 7:5.
Here Chrysostom asks: πῶς οἱ λαβόντες τὸ πνεῦμα οὐκ ἐδίδασκον, ἀλλ' Ἀπολλὼς μήπω τὸ πνεῦμα λαβών; ὅτι οὐκ ἦσαν οὕτω ζέοντες οὐδὲ κατηχημένοι· ἐκεῖνος δὲ καὶ κατηχημένος ἦν καὶ σφόδρα ζέων. ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκεῖ ὅτι καὶ πολλὴ ἦν ἡ παρρησία τοῦ ἀνδρός. ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ ἀκριβῶς ἐλάλει τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ; ὅμως ἐδεῖτο ἔτι ἀκριβεστέρας διδασκαλίας. οὕτω καίτοι οὐκ εἰδὼς πάντα ἀπὸ τῆς προθυμίας ἐπεσπάσατο τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον καθάπερ οἱ περὶ Κορνήλιον.