Then had the churches rest, &c. Better, "So the Church throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria had peace." In the best texts the noun and all the verbs agreeing with it are in the singular number, and what is meant is the whole Christian body, not the various congregations. The cause of this peace for the Christians was that the attention of their persecutors the Jews was turned from them to resist the attempt made by Caligula (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 8. 2) to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jerusalem. This profanation was averted partly by the determined opposition of the Jews, and partly by the intercession of King Agrippa with the mad Emperor.

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