Acts 2:20

For similar prophetic imagery taken from the startling phenomena of an eclipse in Palestine, cf. Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7; Amos 8:9. πρὶν ἢ ἐλθεῖν. The LXX omit ἤ, and Weiss contends that this is the reason of its omission here in so many MSS. Weiss retains it as in Acts 7:2; Acts 25:16; cf. also Luke 2:26 (but doubtful). Blass omits it here, but retains it in the other two passages cited from Acts: “Ionicum est non Atticum”; cf. Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 130 (1893). τὴν ἡμέραν Κυρίον. It is most significant that in the Epistles of the N.T. this O.T. phrase used of Jehovah is constantly applied to the Coming of Jesus Christ to judgment; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:14; Philippians 1:10; Sabatier, L'Apôtre Paul, p. 104. καὶ ἐπιφανῆ : if the word is to be retained, it means a day manifest to all as being what it claims to be, Vulgate manifestus, “clearly visible”; Luke 17:24; also 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:8, where the word ἐπιφάνεια is used of the Parousia (cf. Prayer-Book, “the Epiphany or Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles”). But in the Hebrew the word הַנּוֹרָא = “terrible,” not “clearly visible,” and the LXX here, as elsewhere, Habakkuk 1:7; Malachi 1:14 (Judges 13:6, A.), etc., has failed to give a right derivation of the word which it connects with רָאָה, to see, instead of with יָרֵא, to fear (Niph. נוֹרָא and Part [125], as here, “terrible”). Zöckler holds that the LXX read not הַנּוֹרָא, but הָנּוֹדָא.

[125]art. grammatical particle.