Acts 20:31

γρηγ.: the pastoral metaphor continued; verb used four times by St. Paul, and it may well have passed into familiar use in the early Church by the solemn injunction of our Lord on the Mount of Olives to watch, cf. also Luke 12:37; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 3:2-3; Revelation 16:15, and the names Gregory, Vigilantius, amongst the early converts. τριετίαν : the three years may be used summarily i.e., as speaking in round numbers, or literally. It would have seemed out of place in such an appeal to say “two years and three months,” or whatever the exact time may have been. The intention was to give a practical turn to this watchfulness: triennium celeste, Bengel. The word is regarded by Vogel as a decided employment of a medical term by Luke from Dioscorides, see also to the same effect Meyer Weiss, Evangelium des Lukas, note on Acts 1:1. The word is found only here in N.T., not at all in LXX, but used by Theophr., Plut., Artem. νύκτα : perhaps placed first because it corresponded more closely to the idea of watching against attacks, or perhaps because it emphasised the ceaselessness of the Apostle's labours, cf. Acts 26:7 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:10 1 Timothy 5:5, 2 Timothy 1:3. μετὰ δακρύων, cf. 2 Corinthians 2:4, Chrys., Hom., xliv. “Quod cor tamen saxatum, ut hisce lacrimis non emolliatur? qui non fleat flente Paulo?” Corn. à Lapide; see also Farrar, St. Paul, ii., 283. νουθετῶν : only here in Acts, but seven times in St. Paul's Epistles, but nowhere else in N.T., “admonish,” R.V. In classical Greek it is joined both with παρακαλεῖν and κολάζειν; St. Paul too used it in gentleness, or “with a rod”. In LXX, Job 4:3; Wis 11:10; Wis 12:2. ἕνα ἕκαστον, 2 Corinthians 11:29 and John 10:3; αἶς ἕκαστος twice in St. Luke's Gospel, Luke 4:40; Luke 16:5, six times in Acts, five times in St. Paul's Epistles (only once elsewhere in N.T., Matthew 26:22, but not in T.R.).