Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 5:6 - 5:6

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 5:6 - 5:6


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6. οἱ νεώτεροι, the younger men. Some have thought that already an organized body had been formed whose business it was to take charge of funerals. But it seems unlikely that, at a time when assistance had not been provided to relieve the Apostles from ‘serving tables’ and distributing the funds to those who needed (Act 6:1-4), there should already have been an organization for this less pressing necessity. The use of another word, νεανίσκοι, for these same persons in Act 5:10 seems to shew that οἱ νεώτεροι was not an official designation, but that those who are meant are those most able physically to perform such an office as is here described. On the way in which the Jews regarded attention to funeral rites see note on Act 8:2.

συνέστειλαν, wound him up, i.e. in the robe which he was at the moment wearing. The middle voice is used in classical Greek in the sense of ‘gathering one’s robe about one.’

ἔθαψαν. We know from what took place after the Crucifixion that graves were made ready beforehand; and in the caves where the dead were deposited, as we can see from the account of the raising of Lazarus, there (Joh 11:43) needed little preparation, for they were closed by the simple means of a stone placed at the cave’s mouth. It would not therefore need much time to complete the whole work of burial. In hot climates burial must needs follow quickly after death. Cf. the brief time which Jehu allowed to pass after Jezebel’s death (2Ki 9:34) before he gave orders for her burial.