Acts 12:25

ὑπέστρεψαν ἐξ Ἱ., see critical notes, and Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 63, 64, and note on Acts 22:17, below. πληρ. τὴν διακ.; if the visit extended over as long a period as Ramsay believes, viz., from the time when the failure of harvest in 46 turned scarcity into famine until the beginning of 47 (u. s., pp. 51, 63), no doubt the delegates could not have simply delivered a sum of money to the elders, but would have administered the relief (not money), and carried a personal message of cheer to the distressed (Ramsay, p. 49 ff., u. s.), and so have “fulfilled” their ministry. But the word διακονία does not of necessity involve this personal and continuous ministration, e.g., cf. Romans 15:31, where St. Paul uses the word of the money collection brought by him to Jerusalem for the poor, a passage in which the Western gloss is δωροφορία, cf. Romans 15:25, 2 Corinthians 8:4; 2Co 9:1; 2 Corinthians 9:12-13. Grimm writes that the word is used of those who succour need by either collecting or bestowing benefactions; see further, Expositor, March and July, 1896 (Ramsay), April, 1896 (Sanday), also Hort, Ecclesia, p. 206, and above on Acts 11:29. Σαῦλος, see critical notes for Western addition. συμπαραλαβόντες, cf. Acts 15:37-38, of bringing as a companion in N.T., only once elsewhere in same sense, Galatians 2:1. (cf. 3MMalachi 1:1). This incidental notice of John Mark may well emphasise the fact that he was taken with Paul and Barnabas as a supernumerary, and to mark his secondary character as compared with them. In view of subsequent events, it would be important to make this clear by introducing him in a way which showed that he was not essential to the expedition, Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 71, 170, 177; cf. Acts 15:37; Acts 15:40.