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2 Tim. iii. 8.

1

man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to 1 Exod. vii. 11. hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. 9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) m filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10 and said, O full of all subtilty and all Jo mischief, "thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all

m ch. iv. 8.

n Matt. xiii. 38. John viii. 44.

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The

9.

retained five or even more years. imperial provinces, on the other hand, were governed by a military officer, a Proprætor or Legatus of the Emperor, who was girded with the sword, and not revocable unless by the pleasure of the Emperor. The minor districts of the imperial provinces were governed by Procurators. Nothing more is known of this Sergius Paulus. Another person of the same name is mentioned by Galen, more than a century after this, as a great proficient in philosophy. He was of consular rank, and is probably the Sergius Paulus who was consul with L. Venuleius Apronianus, A.D. 168, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. 8. Elymas] See above on ver. 6. who also is called Paul] This notice marks the transition from the former part of his history, where he is uniformly called Saul, to the latter and larger portion, where he is without exception known as Paul. I do not regard it as indicative of any change of name at the time of this incident, or from that time: the evidence which I deduce from it is of a different kind, and not without interest to enquirers into the character and authorship of our history. Hitherto, our Evangelist has been describing events, the truth of which he had ascertained by research and from the narratives of others. But henceforward there is reason to think that the joint memoirs of himself and the great Apostle furnish the material of the book. In those memoirs the Apostle is universally known by the name PAUL, which superseded the other. If this was the first incident at which Luke was present, or the first memoir derived from Paul himself, or, which is plain, however doubtful may be the other alternatives, the commencement of that part of the history which is to narrate the teaching and travels of the Apostle Paul,-it would be natural that a note should be made, identifying the two names as belonging to the same person.-The also must not be understood as having any reference to Sergius Paulus, or as meaning that the Apostle also (as well as Sergius)

was called Paul.' It signifies that Paulus was a second name borne by Saul, in conformity with a Jewish practice as old as the captivity (or even as Joseph, see Gen. xli. 45), of adopting a Gentile name. Mr. Howson traces it through the Persian period (see Dan. i. 7; Esth. ii. 7), the Greek (1 Macc. xii. 16; xvi. 11; 2 Macc. iv. 29), and the Roman (ch. i. 23; xiii. 1; xviii. 8, &c.), and the middle ages, down to modern times. Jerome has conjectured that the name was adopted by Saul in memory of this event; the subjugation of Sergius Paulus to Christ, as the first fruits of his preaching-in the same way as Scipio after the conquest of Africa was called Africanus, and Metellus was called Creticus after the conquest of Crete. It is strange that any one could be found capable of so utterly mistaking the character of St. Paul, or of producing so unfortunate an analogy to justify the mistake. It is yet stranger that Augustine should, in his Confessions, adopt the same view: "He who was the least of Thine Apostles,

...

loved to be called Paul, instead of Saul, as before, to commemorate so great a victory." So also Olshausen. A more probable way of accounting for the additional name is pointed out by observing that such new names were often alliterative of or allusive to the original Jewish name: -he who was Jesus as a Jew, was called Jason or Justus, Col. iv. 11: see other examples in my Greek Test. set his

eyes on him] It seems probable that Paul never entirely recovered his sight as before, after the "glory of that light" (see ch. xxii. 11). We have several apparent allusions to weakness in his sight, or to something which rendered his bodily presence contemptible. In ch. xxiii. 1, the same expression, "fixing his eyes on,” “earnestly beholding," A. V., "the council" occurs, and may have some bearing (see note there) on his not recognizing the high priest. See also Gal. iv. 13, 15; vi. 11, and 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9, and notes. The traditional notices of his personal appearance represent him as having contracted and overhanging eyebrows. Whatever the

1 Sam. v. 6.

righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of Exod. ix. 3. the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. 13 Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and P John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. p ch. xv. 38. 14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and 9 went into the synagogue on the xvii. xviii.

word may imply, it appears like the graphic description of an eye-witness, who was not Paul himself. 10. son of the devil] Meyer supposes an indignant allusion to the name Bar-jesus (son of Jesus, or Joshua). This is possible, though hardly probable. wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?] This evidently applies, not to Elymas's conduct on this occasion merely, but to his whole life of imposture and perversion of others. The especial sin was, that of laying hold of the nascent enquiry after God in the minds of men, and wresting it to a wrong direction. The Lord here

and in ver. 11, is Jehovah. 11. for a season] The punishment was only temporary, being accompanied with a gracious purpose to the man himself, to awaken repentance in him. a mist and a darkness] In the same precise and gradual manner is the healing of the lame man, ch. iii. 8, described: he stood (first), and walked. So here, first a dimness came on him, then total darkness. And we may conceive this to have been shewn by his gestures and manner under the infliction.

12. at the doctrine of the Lord] Hesitating as he had been before between the teaching of the sorcerer and that of the Apostle, he is amazed at the divine power accompanying the latter, and gives himself up to it. It is not said that he was baptized but the supposition is not thereby excluded: see ver. 48; ch. xvii. 12, 34; xviii. 8, first part. 13. Paul and his company] Is there not a trace of the narrator being among them, in this expres sion ?-Henceforward Paul is the principal person, and Barnabas is thrown into the background. Perga in Pamphylia] Perga lies on the Cestrus, which flows into the bay of Attaleia. It is sixty stadia (7 miles) from the mouth, "between and upon

q ch. xvi. 13:

4.

the sides of two hills, with an extensive valley in front, watered by the river Cestrus, and backed by the mountains of the Taurus." (Conybeare and Howson, vol. i. p. 195, from Sir C. Fellows's Asia Minor.) The remains are almost entirely Greek, with few traces of later inhabitants. The inhabitants of Pamphylia were nearly allied in character to those of Cilicia: and it may have been Paul's design, having already preached in his own province, to extend the Gospel of Christ to this neighbouring people. John probably took the opportunity of some ship sailing from Perga. His reason for returning does not appear, but may be presumed, from ch. xv. 38, to have been, unsteadiness of character, and unwillingness to face the dangers abounding in this rough district (see below). He afterwards, having been the subject of dissension between Paul and Barnabas, ch. xv. 37-40, accompanied the latter again to Cyprus; and we find him at a much later period spoken of by Paul, together with Aristarchus, and Jesus called Justus, as having been a comfort to him (Col. iv. 10, 11): and again in 2 Tim. iv. 11, as profitable to him for the ministry. It is not improbable that during this journey Paul may have encountered some of the perils by robbers' of which he speaks, 2 Cor. xi. 26. The tribes inhabiting the mountains which separate the table-land of Asia Minor from the coast, were notorious for their lawless and marauding habits. Strabo says of Isauria, that its inhabitants were all robbers, and of the Pisidians, that, like the Cilicians, they have great practice in plundering. He gives a similar character of the Pamphylians. ANTIOCH IN

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14.]

PISIDIA was founded originally by the Magnetes on the Meander, and subsequently by Seleucus Nicator; and became, under Augustus, a Roman colony. Its position is

ver. 27.

8 Heb. xiii. 22.

t ch. xii. 17.

u ver. 26, 42, 43. ch. x. 35.

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r Luke iv. 16. sabbath day, and sat down. 15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, [ Ye men and] brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. 16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of x Deut. vii. 6,7. Israel, and "ye that fear God, give audience. 17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the when they dwelt as strangers in the land of and with an high arm brought he them out of it. about the time of forty years suffered he their

y Exod i. 1.

Ps. cv. 23, 24.

ch. vii. 17. z Exod. vi. 6:

xiii. 14, 16.

a Exod. xvi. 35. Numb. xiv. 33, 34. Ps. Xcv. 9, 10.

ch. vii. 36.

people

Egpyt,
18 And

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Comit: see on ch. i. 16.

d

d render, bore he them as a nurse beareth a child :

described by Strabo as being on a hill, and
was unknown or wrongly placed till Mr.
Arundell found its ruins at a place now
called Yalobatch, answering to Strabo's
description where since an inscription has
been found with the letters ANTIOCHEAE
CAESARE. 15.] The divisions of the
law and prophets at present in use among
the Jews were probably not yet arranged.
Before the time of Antiochus Epiphanes,
the Law only was read in the synagogues:
but, this having been forbidden by him,
the Prophets were substituted :--and, when
the Maccabees restored the reading of the
Law, that of the Prophets continued as
well.
sent unto them] Then they
were not sitting in the foremost seats,
Matt. xxiii. 6, but somewhere among the
congregation. The message was probably
sent to them as having previously to this
taught in the city, and thus being known
to have come for that purpose. See, as
illustrating our narrative, Luke iv. 17 ff.
and notes. 16. beckoning with his
hand] As was his practice; so he stretched
forth the hand, ch. xxvi. 1. See also
ch. xxi. 40. The contents of this speech
(vv. 16-41) may be thus arranged:
I. Recapitulation of God's ancient deliver-
ances of His people and mercies towards
them, ending with His crowning mercy,
the sending of the Deliverer and promised
Son of David (vv. 16-25). II. The his-
tory of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews,
and of God's fulfilment of His promise by
raising Him from the dead (vv. 26–37).
III. The personal application of this to
all present, the announcement to them
of justification by faith in Jesus, and
solemn warning against the rejection of
Him. It is in the last degree unsafe to
argue, as Dr. Wordsworth has done, that
because Strabo asserts the language of the
Pisidians to have been neither Greek nor

see note.

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Lydian, St. Paul must have spoken to them
by virtue of his miraculous gift of tongues.
To the question put by Dr. W., In what
language did St. Paul preach in Pisidia ?"
we may reply, seeing that he preached in
the synagogue, after the reading of the
law and prophets, "In the same language
as that in which the law and prophets had
just been read." ye that fear God]

The persons thus addressed here, and in
ver. 26, formed a distinct class, viz. the
(uncircumcised) proselytes of the gate;
not excluding even such pious Gentiles,
not proselytes in any sense, who might be
present. The speech, from the beginning
and throughout, is universal in its appli-
cation, embracing Jews and Gentiles.
17. of this people of Israel] Grotius thinks
that as the Apostle said these words, he
pointed with his hand to the Jews. Or
rather, perhaps by the word this he indi-
cated, without gesture, the people in whose
synagogue they were assembled.

our

fathers] It is evident that the doctrine so much insisted on afterwards by St. Paul, that all believers in Christ were the true children of Abraham, was fully matured already: by the words this people he alludes to the time when God was the God of the Jews only by this us he unites all present in the now extended inheritance of the promises made to the fathers. exalted

the people] Evidently an allusion to Isa. i. 2, where the word is also used in the sense of bringing up,' nourishing to manhood. This was done by increasing them in Egypt so that they became a great nation: see Gen. xlviii. 19. There is no reference to any exaltation of the people during their stay in Egypt: whether by their deliverance, or by the miracles of Moses, or by Joseph's preferment to honour. 18. he bore them as a nurse beareth a child] The adoption of this rendering,

19 And [when] bhe [had] b Deut. vii. 1.

cf he cJosh. xiv. 1,

2. Ps. lxxviii. 55.

manners in the wilderness. destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, divided their land to them by lot. 20 And after that he a Judg. ii. 16. gave unto them judges, about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. 21 f And after- f1 Sam. viii. 5:

e

ward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. 22 And [when] he [had] removed him, hf he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found

f

e omit. render, and. instead of that of the A. V., depends on the change of one letter in the Greek. The word is 66 etrop(or, ph)ophoresen :" the former being the reading rendered in the A. V. But the other is the more probable, both from the MSS. here, and from the Heb. of Deut. i. 31, and the expansion of the same image in Num. xi. 12.

19.

seven nations] See Deut. vii. 1; Josh. iii. 10; xxiv. 11.-From the occurrence of manifest references, in these opening verses of the speech, to Deut. i. and Isa. i., combined with the fact that these two chapters form the present lessons in the synagogues on one and the same sabbath, Bengel and Stier conclude that they had been then read. It may have been so: but see on ver. 15. 20.] Taking the words as they stand, no other sense can be given to them, than that the time of the judges lasted 450 years. And we have exactly the same chronological arrangement in Josephus; who reckons 592 years from the Exodus to the building of Solomon's temple,-arranging the period thus: (1) forty years in the wilderness: (2) twenty-five years under Joshua: (3) Judges (below): (4) forty years under Saul, see on ver. 21: (5) forty years under David, 1 Kings ii. 11: (6) four years of Solomon's own reign. This gives 592 minus 149, i. e. 443 years (about 450) for the judges, including Samuel. That this chronology differs widely from 1 Kings vi. 1, is most evident, -where we read that Solomon began his temple in the four hundred and eightieth (LXX, four hundred and fortieth) year after the Exodus. All attempts to reconcile the two are arbitrary and forced. some such recounted in my Greek Test. It seems then that St. Paul followed a chronology current among the Jews, and agreeing with the book of Judges itself (the spaces of time in which, added toge ther, come exactly to 450), and that adopted by Josephus, but not with that of our VOL. I.

See

e 1 Sam. iii. 20.

x. 1.

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g render, Kis.

21.

present Hebrew text of 1 Kings vi. 1. Samuel] mentioned as the terminus of the period of the Judges, also as having been so nearly concerned in the setting up over them of Saul and David. Saul.... a man of the tribe of Benjamin] It may be not altogether irrelevant to notice that a Saub, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, was speaking; and to trace in this minute specification something characteristic and natural. by the space

of forty years] So also Josephus. In the Old Testament the length of Saul's reign is not specified; 1 Sam. vii. 2 gives no reason, as Bengel thinks, why Saul's reign should have been less than twenty years, as the twenty years there mentioned do not extend to the bringing up of the ark by David, but only to the circumstances mentioned in the following verses. Biscoe has well shewn, that as Saul was a young man when anointed king, and Ishbosheth his youngest son (1 Chron. viii. 33) was forty years old at his death (2 Sam. ii. 10), his reign cannot have been much short of that period. It is clearly against the construction to suppose Samuel's time as well as Saul's included in the forty years, following as they do upon the verb gave them." Yet this has been done by the majority of Commentators. 22. he removed him] i. e. deposed him: in this

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case,

by his death, for David was not made king till then. Or perhaps the word may refer to the sentence pronounced against Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 14, or xv. 23, 28, and the following verb, raised up, to the whole process of the exaltation of David to be king. But I prefer the former.

to

whom he gave testimony, and said] The two passages, Ps. lxxxix. 20, and 1 Sam. xiii. 14, are interwoven together: both were spoken of David, and both by prophetic inspiration. They are cited from memory, neither the words "the son of Jesse," nor "which shall fulfil all my will," being

3 C

k1 Sam. xiii. David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart,

14. ch. vii.

46.

1 Isa. xi. 1.

Luke i. 32, 69. ch. ii, 30. Rom. i. 3.

m 2 Sam. vii.

12. Ps. cxxxii. 11.

Rom. xi. 26.

which shall fulfil all my will.

231 Of this man's seed hath

God according to [his] promise iraised unto Israel" a
Saviour, Jesus: 24 when John had first preached

before

n Matt. i. 21, his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said,

o Matt. iii. 1.

Luke iii. 3.

p Matt. iii. 11. Mark i. 7. Luke iii. 16.

q Matt. x. 6. Luke xxiv.

47. ver. 16.

P Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, John 1. 20, 27. there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. 26 [Men and] brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and m whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers,

ch. iii. 26. r Luke xxiii. 34. ch. iii.

17. 1 Cor. ii. 8.

s ver. 14, 15.

ch. xv. 21.

t Luke xxiv.

xxvi. 22:

xxviii. 23.

22. Mark xv.

xxiii. 21, 22.

27 For

because

they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets

u Matt. xxvii. 8 which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled 13, 14. Luke them in condemning him. 28 u And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. 29 y And when they had fulfilled all that

John xix. 6, 15.

x ch. iii. 13, 14.

y Luke xviii. 81: xxiv. 44.

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30, 30, 37. 28, was written of him, they took him down from the tree,

z Matt. xxvii.

46. Luke

59. Mark xv. and laid him in a sepulchre. 30 a But God raised him from the dead: 31 and he was seen many days of them which

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hath God according to promise brought..
viz. the promise in Zech. iii. 8, where the
very word "bring forth" is used; not
however excluding the many other pro-
mises to the same effect.
24. before
the presence of his coming] referring to
"brought" above, when his coming forward
publicly was about to take place. 25.]
The expression "to fulfil (or finish) a
course "is peculiar to St. Paul: see ch.
xx. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 7. On this course see
Luke iii. 15 ff.
26.] The same two
classes, (see on ver. 16,) Jews, and God-
fearing Gentiles, are here again addressed:
and this should be more distinctly marked

render, they desired.

in the version, than is done in the A.V.
this salvation] viz. the salvation implied
in Jesus being a Saviour-salvation by
Him. 27.] On the peculiar construc-
tion of this verse, almost unintelligible
in any English representation, consult my
Greek Test. 28. when they found
Not, though,' but rather because they
found no cause: when they found no cause
of death in him, they besought, &c.: see
Luke xxiii. 22, 23. 29.] De Wette
rightly remarks, that St. Paul, in this
compendious narrative, makes no distine-
tion between friend and foe in what was
done to our Lord, but regards both as
fulfilling God's purpose regarding Him. I
may add that there is also a contrast
between what men did to Him, and God's
raising Him, ver. 30.-Joseph and Nico-
demus, be it observed, were both rulers.—
Paul touches but lightly on the cross of
Christ, and hastens on to the great point,
the Resurrection, as the fulfilment of pro-
phecy and seal of the Messiahship of Jesus.

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