Acts 17:5

ἀπειθ., see critical note. ζηλώσαντες : the jealousv is apparent, whether the word is read or not (cf. [305]), a jealousy aroused not only by the preaching of a Messiah, but also by the success of such preaching. προσλαβ., cf. Acts 18:26 for similar sense of the verb, cf. 2Ma 8:1; 2Ma 10:15. τῶν ἀγοραίων … πον.: “certain vile fellows of the rabble,” R.V.; πον. translated in A.V. “lewd” (A.-. loewede) means simply “people,” hence (1) the common people and (2) the ignorant and rude among the people, cf. Spenser, Shep. Kal. Feb., 245: “But little ease of thy lewd tale I tasted” (Skeat); and in the sense of vicious, Ezekiel 16:27, A. and R.V. (see Lumby's note in loco the German Leute is the word nearest akin to it.) ἀγορ.: hangers-on in the market-place; Blass renders “tabernarii aliique in foro versantes,” see instances in Wetstein (Aristophanes, Xen., Plut.), who compares “canalicolæ” hodie canaille. In Latin, subrostrani, subbasilicani; Germ. Pflastertreter, our Loafer, Grimm-Thayer, Farrar, St. Paul, i., 513, and Nösgen, in loco. On the distinction sometimes but probably fancifully maintained between ἀγοραῖος and ἀγόραιος, see Alford on Acts 19:38; Wendt (1888), in loco; Winer-Schmiedel, p. 69; Grimm-Thayer, sub v. For the accent of πονηρός see also Winer-Schmiedel, u. s. τῇ οἰκίᾳ Ἰ.: in which the Apostles were lodging, or in which the Christian assemblies were held. We know nothing further for certain of this Jason, cf. Romans 16:21 where a Jason is mentioned as a companion of Paul, and amongst his συγγενεῖς. If he was a Jew, as is most probable, we may infer that his Jewish name was Joshua or Jesus, but that he used the name Jason, the nearest Greek equivalent, in his intercourse with Greeks and Hellenists; cf. for a similar change of the two names Malachi 1:7; Malachi 1:7; 2Ma 4:7, and cf. Jos., Ant., xii., 5, 1, where we read that Jason's real name was Joshua, but that he changed it into the former, owing no doubt to his Hellenising; see Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 184, note; Wendt and Zöckler express themselves doubtfully, and hold that the name may be here a Greek name, and its bearer not a Jew at all. ἐπιστάντες, cf. Acts 4:1; Acts 6:12, Friedrich, p. 87. δῆμον : to a public meeting, or to the crowd who shall inflict vengeance on them, there and then (so Weiss, Lumby); C. and H. take it of the free assembly of the people, so Ramsay. A true cause does not need such methods or supporters, “non tali auxilio nee defensoribus istis”.

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