Acts 17:31

διότι καθότι, R.V., see critical note, only found in St. Luke = quia (Blass) in Luke 1:7; Luke 19:9; Acts 2:24; Acts 2:45; Acts 4:35 = according as: see Plummer on Luke 1:7, and Blass, Gram., p. 268. ἔστησεν ἡμέραν : hence the command to repent, cf. 1Ma 4:59 and Blass, in loco. μέλλει κρίνειν, LXX, Psalms 9:8; Psalms 95:13,(Psalms 96:13), Psalms 97:9; Psalms 98:9; its form here may = Acts 12:6, “on the point of judging” (Weiss). τὴν οἰκ., so often in LXX, as in instances above. ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ = δικαίως (as of the moral element in which the judgment will take place), cf. 1 Peter 2:24 and Revelation 19:11, cf. Psalms as above, and Sir 45:26. ἐν ἀνδρὶ : in the person of the man (so Ramsay, Meyer, Alford), not ἄνθρωπος but ἀνήρ, in viro (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:12, ἐν ὑμῖν κρίνεται); above we have ἀνθρώποις, but here the nobler appellation. We may compare with the Christian doctrine Book of Enoch, xli. 9, although according to other Jewish statements it would seem that God, and not the Messiah, was to judge the dead. ᾧ ὥρισε : ᾧ attraction, cf. Acts 2:22, see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 225, cf. Acts 10:42; Romans 1:4. The whole statement, as indeed the general tenor of the address, is entirely in line with the preaching to the Thessalonians in the Epistles written some few months later, cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1Th 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:2 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:12; McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 259, and Plumptre, in loco. “Pour un juif, dire que Jésus présidera au jugement, c'éait à peu près dire qu'il est créateur. Aussi je ne sais pas de preuve plus éclatante de l'immense impression produite par le Galiléan que ce simple fait … après qu'il eut été crucifié, un pharisien, comme l'avait été Paul, a pu voir en lui le juge des vivants et des morts,” Colani, J. C. et les Croyances Messianiques de son temps. πίστιν παρασχὼν : in classical Greek to afford assurance, a guarantee, see instances in Wetstein. But it is difficult to say how much St. Paul included in the words to a Jewish audience he would no doubt, like St. Peter, have insisted upon the resurrection of Christ as a final proof given by God that the claims of Christ were true; but to an audience like that at Athens he might well insist upon the fact of the resurrection of the Man ordained by God as a guarantee that all men would be raised; R.V., “whereof he hath given assurance,” “whereof” implied in the Greek: marginal rendering in A.V. “offered faith” is omitted in R.V.; “and He hath given all a guarantee in that He hath raised Him from the dead”: so Ramsay. Others have taken the words to mean that God thus affords assurance that He will judge the world righteously in that He hath shown His righteousness by raising Christ, others again connect πίστιν closely with ἐν ἀνδρί (so Bethge). If at this point the Apostle was interrupted he may have intended to pursue the theme further, if not then, on some other occasion. But the fact that the speech contains so little that is distinctively Christian is a strong proof of its genuineness; none would have invented such a speech for Paul, any more than they could have invented his discourse at Lystra, see below on p. 381, and Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 150 and 250, 251. Yet in this short address at Athens the Apostle had preached both Jesus and the Resurrection.