Acts 5:26

ἤγαγεν : but imperfect with W.H [180] and Weiss, so Blass “quia modus quo res gesta est describitur; perfecta res indicatur, Acts 5:27, ἀγαγόντες ”. οὐμετὰ βίας, “ but without violence,” R.V. Weiss compares with the whole phrase ἦγεν … βίας (Exodus 14:25); βία three or four times in Acts only, Acts 21:35; Acts 24:7 (omit W.H [181], R.V.), Acts 27:41; used in the LXX in the same sense as here and with the genitive, cf. Exodus 14:25 (cf. Acts 1:14), 3Ma 4:7; classical usage more frequently has βίᾳ, ἐκ βίας, etc. ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ : the favour of the people which the Apostles so fully enjoyed at this time might well have caused an outbreak of fanaticism as later in the case of Stephen. The subjects to ἐφοβ. and to ἔστησαν (27) are ὁ στρατ. and οἱ ὑπηρέται. St. Chrysostom well comments on those who would thus fear not God, but the people. On the Greek of the verse, see Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 116 (1896). ἵνα μὴ λιθασθῶσιν : the reading μὴ undoubtedly correct, so W.H [182], Wendt, Weiss, Blass. τὸν λαόν : denoting the persons feared, and μὴ λιθασ., the thing feared, so that the meaning is as in R.V., “for they were afraid that they should be stoned by the people,” or ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ τὸν λαὸν may be taken as parenthetical (so Weiss), and μὴ λιθασ. as limiting ἦγεν … βίας. In the N.T. after verbs of fearing the subjunctive only is used where after secondary tenses we should have expected the optative, or sometimes the subjunctive is explained as implying more certainty of a result. Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, pp. 95, 96. λιθασ.: very seldom in Attic Greek, where we should expect καταλεύειν; only twice in LXX, 2 Samuel 16:6; 2 Samuel 16:13, where usually λιθοβολέω (not used in classical writers, but six or seven times in N.T.); but λιθάζειν is found eight or nine times in N.T.

[180] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[181] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

[182] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.