Acts 9:35

τὸν Σάρωνα, on accentuation see critical notes: “at Lydda and in Sharon,” R.V. In Sharon, because it was not a town as Lydda, but rather a level tract, the maritime plain between Carmel and Joppa, so called in Hebrew (with article), meaning “the Level”; in Greek, the Forest, δρυμός, LXX, because it was once covered by a great oak forest; full of quiet but rich beauty; cf. 1 Chronicles 27:29; Isaiah 33:9; Isaiah 35:2; Isaiah 37:24; Isaiah 65:10, celebrated for its pasturage, Song of Solomon 2:1. “The masculine article doth show that it is not named of a city, and so doth the LXX article in Isaiah 33:9,” J. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. There is no ground for supposing that it meant a village in the neighbourhood, as no place bearing the name Saron can be satisfactorily cited, but cf. Nösgen, in loco; see G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land, pp. 52, 147, 148; Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 74; Hamburger, Real-Encyclopädie des Judentums, i., 6, p. 897. πάντες : the expression may be taken to mean that a general conversion of the inhabitants followed. Rendall renders “and all that dwelt, etc., who had turned to the Lord, saw Him,” i.e., attested the reality of the miracle, Acts, pp. 72 and 232. But it might fairly be urged that many would see the man besides those who had become Christians. It helps us to understand the passage if we remember with Nösgen (so Bengel) that the expression ἐπὶ τὸν Κ. applies not to God the Father, but to Jesus Christ, so that we learn that a conversion of the Jewish population at Lydda to the claims of Jesus as the Messiah was the result of the miracle (see also Hackett's useful note). On the use of οἵτινες see Alford's note on Acts 7:53, quoted by Page (Winer-Schmiedel, p. 235). For the phrase ἐπισ. ἐπὶ τὸν Κ. cf. Acts 14:15.