Acts 27:35

λαβὼν ἄρτον εὐχαρίστησε τῷ Θ., cf. Luke 22:19; Luke 24:30, with intentional solemnity (Weiss, Weizsäcker). The words are sometimes taken to mean that Paul simply encourages them by his own example to eat. But Blass, see critical note, who comments “et oratione confirmat et exemplo,” adds in [419] text ἐπιδιδοὺς καὶ ἡμῖν, i.e., to Luke and Aristarchus, in which he sees a distinct reference to the cœna sacra (so Belser). But quite apart from this reading in [420] the peculiar language of St. Luke seems to intimate such a reference. Olshausen and Ewald (so Plumptre) take the words to refer to the Agape, whilst Meyer (so Hackett) sees a reference to the act of the Jewish house-father amidst his household; but Wendt simply refers it to the act of a pious Jew or Christian giving thanks before eating a meal and sharing it, so Zöckler. Bethge, more specifically, sees in the act a thanksgiving of a Christian to God the Father, an instance of what St. Paul himself recommends, Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17, and both Felten and Knabenbauer apparently prefer to interpret the words as marking Paul's reverence towards God before the Gentiles around him. Breusing shows, p. 196, that ἄρτος might = panis nauticus, but in the passage which he quotes from Lucian we have ἄρτους ναυτικούς.

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

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