Acts 14:13

αὐτῶν after πόλεως omitted with אABCDE. Not represented in Vulg.

13. ὅ τε ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, i.e. ‘whose temple was before their city.’ Zeus was their tutelar divinity, and it was to his priest that the people ran with their cry, and brought him, with all the preparations for a sacrifice, to the gate of the house where the Apostles were lodged.

ταύρους καὶ στέμματα, oxen and garlands. The latter were sometimes put on the heads of the victims, and sometimes used by the worshippers for their own decorations at religious rites. Probably in this case they were meant to make gay some temporary altar.

ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας, unto the gates. Even though we have the plural here it seems impossible to regard the word as used of the gates of the city, because of the action of the Apostles (ἐξεπήδησαν) who sprang forth upon the intending worshippers. The word must refer to the entrance of the house where the Apostles lodged. They were within the house, and as it was meet to offer the victims to the supposed gods in their presence rather than on the altar at Jupiter’s temple, it was to the house of their host that the procession came.