Acts 21:39

Ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος μέν εἰμι Ἰ.… δέομαι δέ …: there is no strict antithesis, “I am indeed a Jew of Tarsus” (and therefore free from your suspicion); but without speaking further of this, and proceeding perhaps to demand a legal process, the Apostle adds “but I pray you,” etc. Mr. Page explains, from the position of μέν : “I (ἐγώ) as regards your question to me, am a man (ἄνθρωπος μέν), etc., but, as regards my question to you, I ask (δέομαι δέ …),” see reading in [363]. On St. Paul's citizenship see note below on Acts 22:28. St. Paul uses ἄνθρωπος here, but ἀνήρ, the more dignified term, Acts 22:3, in addressing his fellow-countrymen; but according to Blass, “vix recte distinguitur quasi illud (ἄνθρωπος) ut ap. att. sit humilius,” cf. Matthew 18:23; Matthew 22:2. λαλῆσαι : Blass has a striking note on Paul's hopefulness for his people, and the proof apparent here of a man “qui populi sui summo amore imbutus nunquam de eo desperare potuit,” Romans 9-11 Ἰουδ. not only Ταρ., which would have distinguished him from Ἀιγ., but Ἰουδ., otherwise the chiliarch from his speaking Greek might have regarded him as no Jew, and so guilty of death for profaning the Temple. οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως : litotes, Acts 20:29, on Tarsus see Acts 9:11. The city had on its coins the titles μητρόπολις αὐτόνομος. For ἄσημος, cf. Malachi 3:1; Malachi 3:1, and in classical Greek, Eurip., Ion., 8. οὐκ ἄσ. Ἑλλήνων πόλις, i.e., Athens (Wetstein), see further Acts 22:27. Hobart (so too Zahn) mentions ἄσημος as one of the words which show that Luke, when dealing with unprofessional subjects, shows a leaning to the use of professional language; ἄσημος is the technical term for “a disease without distinctive symptoms,” and Hippocrates, just as Luke, says, μία πόλεων οὐκ ἄσημος, Epis., 1273. So again in Acts 23:13, ἀναδιδόναι, a word applied to the distribution of nourishment throughout the body, or of blood throughout the veins, is used by Hippocrates, as by Luke, l.c., of a messenger delivering a letter, Epis., 1275 (see Hobart and Zahn); but it must be admitted that the same phrase is found in Polybius and Plutarch. Still the fact remains that the phraseology of St. Luke is here illustrated by a use of two similar expressions in Hippocrates, and it should be also remembered that the verb with which St. Luke opens his Gospel, ἐπιχειρεῖν, was frequently used by medical men, and that too in its secondary sense, just as by St. Luke, e.g., Hippocrates begins his treatise De Prisca Med., ὁκόσοι ἐπειχείρησαν περὶ ἰατρικῆς λέγειν ἢ γράφειν (see J. Weiss on Luke 1:1); so too Galen uses the word similarly, although it must be admitted that the same use is found in classical Greek and in Josephus, c. Apion., 2

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