Acts 13:2

λειτουργούντων : “as they ministered to the Lord,” A. and R. V., ministrantibus Domino, Vulgate. It would be difficult to find a more appropriate rendering. On the one hand the word is habitually used in the LXX of the service of the priests and Levites (cf. Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 10:11), although it has a wider meaning as, e.g., when used to describe the service of Samuel to God, 1Sa 2:18; 1 Samuel 3:1, or of service to man, 1 Kings 1:4; 1Ki 1:15, 2 Chronicles 17:19, Sir 10:25. So too in the N.T. it is used in the widest sense of those who aid others in their poverty, Romans 15:27 (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:12), Philippians 2:25; Philippians 2:27, and also λειτουργία τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν, Philippians 2:17, of the whole life of the Christian Society. But here the context, see on Acts 13:3 (cf. Acts 14:23), seems to point to some special public religious service (Hort, Ecclesia, p. 63, but see also Ramsay's rendering of the words, and Zöckler, in loco). In this early period λειτουργία could of course not be applied to the Eucharist alone, and the Romanist commentator Felten only goes so far as to say that a reference to it cannot be excluded in the passage before us, and in this we may agree with him. At all events it seems somewhat arbitrary to explain Didaché, xv. 1, where we have a parallel phrase, of the service of public worship, whilst in the passage before us the words are explained of serving Christ whether by prayer or by instructing others concerning the way of salvation; so Grimm-Thayer. In each passage the verb should certainly be taken as referring to the ministry of public worship. In the N.T. the whole group of words, λειτουργέω, λειτουργία, λειτουργός, λειτουργικός, is found only in St. Luke, St. Paul, and Hebrews. See further on the classical and Biblical usage Westcott, Hebrews, additional note on Acts 8:2. Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 137, from pre-Christian papyri points out that λειτουργία and λειτουργέω were used by the Egyptians of the sacred service of the priests, and sometimes of a wider religious service. αὐτῶν : not the whole Ecclesia, but the prophets and teachers: “prophetarum doctorumque qui quasi arctius sunt concilium,” Blass. νηστευόντων, cf. Acts 10:30; Acts 14:23; Acts 27:9, and in O.T. 1 Samuel 7:5-6; Daniel 9:3, on the union of fasting and prayer. In Didaché, viii. 1, while the fasts of the “hypocrites” are condemned, fasting is enjoined on the fourth day of the week, and on Friday, i.e., the day of the Betrayal and the Crucifixion. But Didaché, vii., 4, lays it down that before baptism the baptiser and the candidate should fast. The conduct therefore of the prophets and teachers at Antioch before the solemn mission of Barnabas and Saul to their work is exactly what might have been expected, cf. Edersheim, Temple and its Services, p. 66. εἶπε τὸ Π.: we may reasonably infer by one of the prophets; it may have been at a solemn meeting of the whole Ecclesia held expressly with reference to a project for carrying the Gospel to the heathen (Hort, Felten, Hackett). Felten sees in δή an indication of an answer to a special prayer. But it does not follow that the “liturgical” functions should be assigned to the whole Ecclesia. Ἀφορίσατε, cf. the same word used by St. Paul of himself, Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:15, LXX, Leviticus 20:26; Numbers 8:11. μοι. Such words and acts indicate the personality of the Holy Ghost, cf. δή emphatic, signifying the urgency of the command (cf. use of the word in classical Greek). A. and R.V. omit altogether in translation. In Luke 2:15 both render it “now,” in Matthew 13:23, R.V. “verily,” Acts 15:36, “now,” 1 Corinthians 6:20, A. and R.V. “therefore,” to emphasise a demand as here. With this force the word is thus peculiar to Luke and Paul (in other passages, reading contested). The translation of the word may have been omitted here, since the rendering “now” would have been taken in a temporal sense which δή need not suggest. ὃ for εἰς ὃ, cf. Acts 1:21; Luke 1:25; Luke 12:46. Grimm-Thayer, Winer-Moulton, l., 7 b, so in Greek writers generally. προσκέκλημαι, cf. Acts 2:39; Acts 16:10. Grimm-Thayer, sub v. b. Winer-Moulton, xxxix. 3.