Acts 14:13

ὁ δὲ ἱερεὺς. Plural in; strongly rejected by Blass, with other details. Ramsay defends (p. 118), and points out that at each of the great temples in Asia Minor a college of priests would be in regular service: see also Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 52, 53. τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς π. αὐτῶν, see critical notes. R.V., omitting αὐτῶν, renders “whose temple was before the city,” i.e., enshrined in the temple outside the gate as the protecting deity. Zöckler, with Ramsay, compares “ Ζωῦς Προάστιος ” on an inscription at Claudiopolis, cf. also παρὰ Διΐ (= ad fanum Jovis), παρʼ Ἥρῃ, and modern, the name of a church in Rome, “S. Paolo fuori le mura” (see also Holtzmann and Wendt). Here again the reading of [267] seems to bring out the technical force of the phrase more accurately, τοῦ ὄντος Δ. πρὸ πόλεως (so Blass in [268]) possibly = Προπόλεως (cf. an unpublished inscription of Smyrna with the phrase ἱέρεια πρὸ πόλεως or Προπόλεως). In this phrase, as read in, the force of the participle is retained in a way characteristic of Acts, as almost = τοῦ ὀνομαζομένου : see on Acts 13:1, a characteristic lost by the transposition of ὄντος; see on the whole question Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 51 ff., and also on the possible site of the temple. The words cannot refer to the statue of Jupiter (so lately Rendall), to which no priests would be attached. See Blass in Studien u. Kritiken, 1900, p. 27, n. 1. ταύρους καὶ στέμματα : brought by the ministri who would be included in the generic term priests. On the sacrifice of a bull to Jupiter, Ovid, Met., iv., 755, as also to Mercury, Persius, Sat., ii., 44. On the garlands to wreathe and adorn the victims, Æneid, v., 366; Eur., Heracl., 529, perhaps also for the priests and the altars, the doors, and the attendants; see instances in Wetstein, and cf. Tertullian, De Corona, x. The words do not refer to the Apostles; the aim seems to be indicated in ἤθελε θύειν. ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας : some see a reference to the gates of the city, mainly because of the collocation τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς Π. Blass supposes that the priest came from the temple outside to the city gates, but in that case Ramsay urges that Lucan usage would = πύλη rather than πυλών, cf. Acts 9:24; Acts 16:13. Others take it of the gates of the temple in front of which the altar stood, cf. οἱ μὲν ἱεροὶ τοῦ νεὼ πυλῶνες, Plut., Tim., 12. Ramsay suggests that the priests probably prepared their sacrifices at the outer gateway of the temple grounds, as something beyond the usual ritual, and so not to be performed at one of the usual places, cf. ἐπιθύειν; St. Paul, p. 119. Others again refer the words to the gates leading into the atrium or courtyard of the house in which the Apostles were lodging, partly on the ground that the word ἐξεπήδησαν is best referred to the house (cf. Jdt 14:17, and Susannah, Acts ver. 39). But the verb may mean that they ran hastily out of the city to the temple, and there mingled with the crowd: in 2MMalachi 3:18 the same verb is used of a general rush of the people to the temple for supplication to heaven. ἤθελε θύειν : What was his motive? Was he acting in good faith, or out of complaisant regard to the wishes of the multitude (Ewald), or for the sake of gain? On the attitude of the native priests see Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 144. In the present instance it would appear that they had known of the Apostles' preaching for some time at all events, and also, it may be, of its success, cf.., Acts 14:7, critical notes, and apparently they were willing to honour the Apostles with divine honours, and to turn the religious revival to their own ends.

[267] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[268] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.