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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 2:15 - 2:15
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15. μεθύουσιν. Wine was drunk by the Jews with flesh only, and, founding the custom on Exo 16:8, they ate bread in the morning, and flesh in the evening, and so took no wine till late in the day. So Ecc 10:16-17, by the ‘princes who eat in the morning’ are meant those who eat to the full of all sorts of food and so take wine, and their opposites are next described as those who eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
The paraphrase of this passage given in the Targum is worth notice in illustration of the text of the Acts. It reads, ‘Woe to thee, O land of Israel, when there shall reign over thee Jeroboam the wicked, and shall exterminate from the midst of thee the offering of the morning sacrifice, and when thy lords shall eat bread before any man has offered the perpetual offering of the morning. Blessed art thou, land of Israel, at the time when Hezekiah the son of Ahaz (who is of the genealogy of the house of David) shall reign, who will be a mighty hero in the law, and fulfil all the duties of the commandments, and then thy princes shall only eat bread after the perpetual offering has been offered (i.e. their eating shall be) at the fourth hour, from the labour of their hands in the strength of the law, and not in faintness and blindness of the eyes.’
ὥρα τρίτη. Only one quarter of the day was over. The Jews divided the day and night each into twelve parts, calling them hours, though their length varied according as the daylight was less or more. When day and night were equal, the third hour would be nine o’clock in the morning.