Acts 28:25

ἀσύμφωνοι, cf. Wis 18:19 and Dan., LXX, Bel., Acts 28:15; cf. for the phrase Diod. Sic., iv., 1, the word is found in Josephus, but also in classical Greek. δέ : the best attested reading marks sharply and emphatically the turn of affairs; there may have been Pharisees among the well-disposed Jews, and to these Paul may have made an appeal when the hope of Israel, now as formerly, was in question, cf. Acts 23:6; but if so, they would not decide to rank themselves amongst “the Pharisees that believed” however imperfectly, and of them as well of the unbelievers the writer can only say ἀπελύοντο, cf. for middle Exodus 33:11, and so Polyb., iii., 34, 12. εἰπόντος τοῦ Π.: the words do not mean that they departed because Paul so spoke, but almost = ἀπολυομένων εἶπεν (so Blass, Nösgen). It may be that Paul's words of censure were partly directed against the spirit which prompted the Jews to depart all together; in other words to suppress the differences which had evidently arisen amongst them, for the sake of an outward show of fellowship, lest they should again be charged as tumultuantes (Nösgen); but beyond all this, in their absence of brotherly love for one who still claimed them as his ἀδελφοί, in the unbelief of some, in the want of the courage of their convictions in others, St. Paul saw a fulfilment of that hardness and dulness of heart of which the prophet had spoken. ῥῆμα ἕν : “ one word,” emphatically drawing attention to the prophetical utterance which followed; it was evening, the night was drawing on, and (Acts 28:23) so too for the disbelieving nation: the day was far spent, the night was at hand (Bethge). καλῶς, cf. Matthew 15:7; Mark 7:6; Mark 7:9 (as in these two passages placed first with strong indignation, Page), Mark 12:28; Luke 20:39, the word often occurs in St. Paul's Epistles. It is remarkable that the same prophetic quotation with which the Christ had opened His teaching by parables, which is cited in all four of the Evangelists, should thus form the solemn close of the historical books of the N.T. See above on Matthew 13:14; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10, and John 12:40, where the same words are quoted by St. John to explain the rejection of Christ's own teaching, just as here by St. Paul to explain the rejection of the teaching about Christ. “Est hoc extremum dictum Pauli in Actis, neque fortuito esse videtur; totius enim fere libri summam continet ad gentis evangelium a Judæis jam translatum esse, quippe spretum ab eis” (Blass), cf. the course of events in Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Acts 13:42; Acts 18:6; Acts 19:9. τὸ Π. τὸ Ἅ.: the solemnity of the words is intensified by thus introducing the Holy Ghost, rather than merely the human agent, as Himself speaking (see also critical note); and not only so, but by thus intimating that they were resisting not man but God, cf. Acts 7:51. ἡμῶν : if we read ὑμῶν the word indicates that St. Paul would not identify himself with the unbelieving Jews, cf. Acts 7:52, the indignant words of St. Stephen, which the speaker had himself heard.