Acts 17:2

κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς : phrase peculiar to St. Luke, only here and in Luke 4:16. St. Paul follows his usual principle: “to the Jew first”. ἐπὶ σάββατα τρία : “for three Sabbath days” or “weeks,” R.V., margin, the latter strongly supported by Zahn, Einleitung, i., 152. This may be the exact period of work within the synagogue. For ἐπί cf. Acts 3:1; Acts 4:15; Acts 13:31; Acts 16:18, etc.; Hawkins, Horæ Synopticœ, p. 152, used in the “We” sections, and also predominantly, though not exclusively, in the rest of Acts or Luke or either of them; see on Acts 27:20; Acts 28:6; Klostermann, Vindiciæ Lucanæ, p. 53; see also Blass, Gram., p. 133. διελέγετο αὐτοῖς : he reasoned, rather than disputed, as the word is sometimes rendered ten times in Acts, seven times rendered by R.V., “reasoned,” cf. also Hebrews 12:5, and twice “discoursed,” Acts 20:7; Acts 20:9, once only “disputed,” Acts 24:12, cf. Jude 1:9. Here the word may point to a conversational intercourse between St. Paul and his fellow-countryman (cf. Acts 17:17 and Mark 9:34); so Overbeck, Holtzmann, Wendt, on the force of the verb with the dative or πρός. That such interchange of speech could take place in the synagogue we learn from John 6:25; John 6:29; Matthew 12:9. In classical Greek with the dative or πρός the word means to converse with, to argue, and thus in Xen., Mem., i., 6, 1, ii., 10, 1, we have the construction διαλ. π. τινι or πρός τινα to discuss a question with another, so that the word might easily have the meaning of arguing or reasoning about a question, but not of necessity with any hostile intent; even in Hebrews 12:5 it is the fatherly παράκλησις which reasoneth with sons. Blass supports the imperfect as in T.R., Gram., p. 186. ἀπὸ γραφῶν, i.e., drawing his proofs from them, or if a discussion is meant, starting from them; Winer-Moulton, xlvii., Grotius, so Overbeck, Kuinoel, Weiss, Wendt take the word with διανοίγων.