Acts 14:22

ἐπιστηρίζοντες : only in Acts, cf. Acts 15:32; Acts 15:41; for the simple verb see Acts 18:23 (W.H [272], R.V.), and Luke 22:32, and six times in St. Paul's Epistles, frequent in LXX, but not in any similar sense, although for the simple verb cf. Psalms 51:12 (Psalms 50:12 ἐμμένειν, Galatians 3:10; Hebrews 8:9, two quotations: in the former, with the simple dative; in the latter, with ἐν; several times in LXX, and with both constructions, cf. Xen., Mem., iv., 4. τῇ πίστει : subjective or objective, as a feeling of trust, or a belief, a creed? That it was used in the latter sense by St. Paul we cannot doubt, in such passages as Colossians 1:23; 1 Timothy 5:8 (cf. 1 Peter 5:9; Jude 1:3; Jude 1:20), and St. Luke may have used the word in this latter sense in recording the incident. But cf. also Acts 6:7; Acts 13:8, where the word may be used, as perhaps here, in a kind of intermediate stage. ὅτι, cf. Acts 11:3; Acts 15:1, we have the language of the preachers themselves, but it is precarious to conclude that ἡμᾶς includes the presence of the author of the book, St. Luke himself. The ἡμᾶς may simply mean that the speakers thus associated themselves with their hearers, and drew a general lesson similar to that drawn by St. Paul in 2 Timothy 3:12, as he looked back upon these same sufferings at the close of his life. The teaching thus expressed may have struck deep root in the heart of one of St. Paul's hearers why not Timothy? and have been repeated by him to St. Luke as the Apostle had uttered it; see further in its bearing on the date, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 123. Alford's note strongly maintains that Luke himself was present, see in loco and also Proleg., pp. 6, 7. On the possibility that the words contain an Agraphon of the Lord see Resch, Agrapha, pp. 148, 278, and cf. Epist. Barn., vii., 11. θλίψεων, cf. Acts 20:23, quite a Pauline word, not used by Luke at all in his Gospel (five times in Acts), cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:12, and Epist. Barn., u. s. On St. Paul's reference to “the kingdom of God,” sometimes as future, sometimes as actually present, see Witness of the Epistles, p. 311, note (1892).

[272] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.