Acts 21:38

οὐκ ἄρα σὺ εἶ : mirantis est, cf. Arist., Av., 280 (Blass). Vulgate, Eras, render Nonne tu es …? but emphasis on οὐκ “Thou art not then” (as I supposed). No doubt the false prophet to whom reference is made by Josephus. Whilst Felix was governor he gathered the people around him on the Mount of Olives to the number of 30,000, and foretold that at his word the walls of the city would fall. But Felix attacked him and the impostor fled although the majority (πλεῖστοι) of his followers were captured or slain, Jos., B.J., ii., 13, 5. In another account, Ant., xx., 8, 6, Josephus states that 400 were killed and 200 wounded, so that he evidently contradicts himself and his numbers are untrustworthy. For the various attempts to reconcile these different notices, cf. Krenkel, Josephus und Lukas, p. 243. But apart from this, there is no positive discrepancy with St. Luke. It is possible that the chiliarch as a soldier only reckoned those who were armed, whilst Josephus spoke of the whole crowd of followers. Evidently the Roman officer thought that the Egyptian had returned after his flight, and that he was now set upon by the people as an impostor (so also Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. ii., p. 180, note, E.T.). There is no sign whatever that St. Luke was dependent upon Josephus, as Krenkel maintains, but it is of course quite possible that both writers followed a different tradition of the same event. But St. Luke differs from Josephus in his numbers, there is no connection in the Jewish historian, as in St. Luke, between the Egyptian and the Sicarii, and whilst Josephus mentions the Mount of Olives, St. Luke speaks of the wilderness; Belser, Theol. Quartalschrift, pp. 68, 69, Heft i., 1896, “Egyptian, The” (A. C. Headlam), Hastings' B.D. ὁ … ἀναστ. καὶ ἐξαγ.: “stirred up to sedition and led out,” R.V., this rendering makes the first verb (used only in Luke and Paul) also active, as in other cases in N.T. where it occurs, Acts 18:6; Galatians 5:12. The verb is not known in classical writers, but cf. LXX, Daniel 7:23, and also in the O.T. fragments, Aquila and Symm., Psalms 10:1; Psalms 58:11; Isaiah 22:3 (Grimm-Thayer). τοὺς : “the 4000,” R.V., as of some well-known number. τῶν σικαρίων : “of the Assassins,” R.V. The word sicarius is the common designation of a number, A.V., cf., e.g., the law passed under Sulla against murderers, “ Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis ”; so in the Mishna in this general sense, but here it is used of the Sicarii or fanatical Jewish faction (and we note that the writer is evidently aware of their existence as a political party) which arose in Judæa after Felix had rid the country of the robbers of whom Josephus speaks, Ant., xx., 8, 5, B.J., ii., 13, 2, so called from the short daggers, sicæ, which they wore under their clothes. They mingled with the crowds at the Festivals, stabbed their political opponents unobserved, and drew suspicion from themselves by apparent indignation at such crimes, “Assassin” (A. C. Headlam), Hastings' B.D., Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. ii., p. 178, E.T.