{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ACT","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Acts","commonName":"Acts","introduction":"THIS book is to the Gospels what the fruit is to the tree that bears it. In the Gospels we see the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying: in the Acts we see it bringing forth much fruit (Joh 12:24). There we see Christ purchasing the Church with His own blood: here we see the Church, so purchased, rising into actual existence; first among the Jews of Palestine, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, until it gains a footing in the great capital of the ancient world--sweeping majestically from Jerusalem to Rome. Nor is this book of less value as an Introduction to the Epistles which follow it, than as a Sequel to the Gospels which precede it. For without this history the Epistles of the New Testament--presupposing, as they do, the historical circumstances of the parties addressed, and deriving from these so much of their freshness, point, and force--would in no respect be what they now are, and would in a number of places be scarcely intelligible.\n\nThe genuineness, authenticity, and canonical authority of this book were never called in question within the ancient Church. It stands immediately after the Gospels, in the catalogues of the Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged books of the New Testament (see Introduction to our larger Commentary, Vol. V, pp. iv, v). It was rejected, indeed, by certain heretical sects in the second and third centuries--by the Ebionites, the Severians (see EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.29), the Marcionites, and the Manicheans: but the totally uncritical character of their objections (see Introduction above referred to, pp. xiii, xiv) not only deprives them of all weight, but indirectly shows on what solid grounds the Christian Church had all along proceeded in recognizing this book.\n\nIn our day, however, its authenticity has, like that of all the leading books of the New Testament, been made the subject of keen and protracted controversy. DE WETTE, while admitting Luke to be the author of the entire work, pronounces the earlier portion of it to have been drawn up from unreliable sources (New-Testament Introduction, 2a, 2C). But the Tubingen school, with BAUR at their head, have gone much farther. As their fantastic theory of the post-Joannean date of the Gospels could not pretend even to a hearing so long as the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles remained unshaken, they contend that the earlier portion of this work can be shown to be unworthy of credit, while the latter portion is in flat contradiction to the Epistle to the Galatians--which this school regard as unassailable--and bears internal evidence of being a designed distortion of facts for the purpose of setting up the catholic form which Paul gave to Christianity in opposition to the narrow Judaic but original form of it which Peter preached, and which after the death of the apostles was held exclusively by the sect of the Ebionites. It is painful to think that anyone should have spent so many years, and, aided by learned and acute disciples in different parts of the argument, should have expended so much learning, research, and ingenuity in attempting to build up a hypothesis regarding the origination of the leading books of the New Testament which outrages all the principles of sober criticism and legitimate evidence. As a school, this party at length broke up: its head, after living to find himself the sole defender of the theory as a whole, left this earthly scene complaining of desertion. While some of his associates have abandoned such heartless studies altogether for the more congenial pursuits of philosophy, others have modified their attacks on the historical truth of the New Testament records, retreating into positions into which it is not worth while to follow them, while others still have been gradually approximating to sound principles. The one compensation for all this mischief is the rich additions to the apologetical and critical literature of the books of the New Testament, and the earliest history of the Christian Church, which it has drawn from the pens of THIERSCH, EBRARD, and many others. Any allusions which it may be necessary for us to make to the assertions of this school will be made in connection with the passages to which they relate--in Acts, First Corinthians, and Galatians.\n\nThe manifest connection between this book and the third Gospel--of which it professes to be simply the continuation by the same author--and the striking similarity which marks the style of both productions, leave no room to doubt that the early Church was right in ascribing it with one consent to Luke. The difficulty which some fastidious critics have made about the sources of the earlier portion of the history has no solid ground. That the historian himself was an eye-witness of the earliest scenes--as HUG concludes from the circumstantiality of the narrative--is altogether improbable: but there were hundreds of eye-witnesses of some of the scenes, and enough of all the rest, to give to the historian, partly by oral, partly by written testimony, all the details which he has embodied so graphically in his history; and it will appear, we trust, from the commentary, that De Wette's complaints of confusion, contradiction, and error in this portion are without foundation. The same critic, and one or two others, would ascribe to Timothy those later portions of the book in which the historian speaks in the first person plural--\"we\"; supposing him to have taken notes of all that passed under his own eye, which Luke embodied in his history just as they stood. It is impossible here to refute this gratuitous hypothesis in detail; but the reader will find it done by EBRARD (The Gospel History, sect. 110, Clark's translation; sect. 127 of the original work, Wissenschaftliche Kritik der Evangelische Geschichte, 1850), and by DAVIDSON (Introduction to New Testament, Vol. II, pp. 9-21).\n\nThe undesigned coincidences between this History and the Apostolic Epistles have been brought out and handled, as an argument for the truth of the facts thus attested, with unrivalled felicity by PALEY in his HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr, to which Mr. BIRKS has made a number of ingenious additions in his HorÃ&brvbr ApostolicÃ&brvbr. Exception has been taken to some of these by JOWETT (St. Paul's Epistles, Vol. I, pp. 108 ff.), not without a measure of reason in certain cases--for our day, at least--though even he admits that in this line of evidence the work of PALEY, taken as a whole, is unassailable.\n\nMuch has been written about the object of this history. Certainly \"the Acts of the Apostles\" are but very partially recorded. But for this title the historian is not responsible. Between the two extremes--of supposing that the work has no plan at all, and that it is constructed on an elaborate and complex plan, we shall probably be as near the truth as is necessary if we take the design to be to record the diffusion of Christianity and the rise of the Christian Church, first among the Jews of Palestine, the seat of the ancient Faith, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, with Antioch for its headquarters, until, finally, it is seen waving over imperial Rome, foretokening its universal triumph. In this view of it, there is no difficulty in accounting for the almost exclusive place which it gives to the labors of Peter in the first instance, and the all but entire disappearance from the history both of him and of the rest of the Twelve after the great apostle of the Gentiles came upon the stage--like the lesser lights on the rise of the great luminary. \n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 1\n\n","order":44,"numberOfChapters":28,"sha256":"c94aad3dd7e20061c0935f668f020beecd42d660333a1ba60e42c592e5a6a94e","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":28,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/28.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":28},"totalNumberOfVerses":775},"chapter":{"number":14,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Long time therefore abode they--because in spite of opposition they were meeting with so much success. \n\nspeaking boldly in the Lord--rather, \"in dependence on the Lord,\" that is, on their glorified Head. \n\nwho gave testimony to the word of his grace--a notable definition of the Gospel, whose whole burden is GRACE. \n\nand granted--\"granting,\" that is, who confirmed the Gospel by granting miraculous attestation to it. (The \"and\" is wanting in the best manuscripts).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["an assault made . . . to stone them--rather here, \"an impetuous movement\" with a view to stoning them: for in Co2 11:25, Paul says, \"Once I was stoned,\" and that was at Lystra, as expressly related in Act 14:19. (PALEY'S remarks--HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr--on this singular coincidence between the Epistle and the history are very striking). \n\nfled--(See Mat 10:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["unto Lystra and Derbe--the one some twenty miles to the south, the other some sixty miles to the east of Iconium, somewhere near the bases of what are called the Black Mountains and the roots of Mount Taurus; but their exact position has not yet been discovered.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["AT LYSTRA PAUL HEALING A CRIPPLE, THE PEOPLE ARE SCARCE RESTRAINED FROM SACRIFICING TO THEM AS GODS, BUT AFTERWARDS, THEIR MINDS BEING POISONED, THEY STONE PAUL, LEAVING HIM FOR DEAD--WITHDRAWING TO DERBE, THEY PREACH AND TEACH THERE. (Act 14:8-21)\n\nthere sat there a certain man . . . a cripple from his mother's womb . . . The same heard Paul speak--in the open air and (Act 14:11) to a crowd of people.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["who steadfastly beholding him--as he did Elymas the sorcerer when about to work a miracle on him. \n\nand perceiving that he had faith to be healed--Paul may have been led by the sight of this cripple to dwell on the Saviour's miracles of healing, and His present power; and perceiving from the eagerness with which the patient drank in his words, that he was prepared to put his own case into the Redeemer's hands, the Spirit of the glorified Physician came all upon Paul, and \"with a loud voice\" he bade him \"stand upright upon his feet.\" The effect was instantaneous--he sprang to his feet \"and walked.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["in the speech of Lycaonia--whether a corruption of the Greek tongue, which was well enough understood in this region, or the remains of some older tongue, is not known. \n\nThe gods are come down to us in the likeness of men--the language of an unsophisticated people. But \"that which was a superstition in Lycaonia, and for which the whole \"creation\" groaned, became a reality at Bethlehem\" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["they called Barnabas, Jupiter--the father of the gods, from his commanding mien (CHRYSOSTOM thinks). \n\nand Paul, Mercurius--the god of eloquence and the messenger and attendant of Jupiter, in the heathen mythology.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city--that is, whose temple stood \n\nbefore their city, brought oxen and garlands--to crown the victims and decorate, as on festive occasions, the porches.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["when . . . Barnabas and Paul heard--Barnabas is put first here, apparently as having been styled the \"Jupiter\" of the company. \n\nthey rent their clothes and ran in--rather (according to the true reading), \"ran forth.\" \n\namong the people, crying out . . . Sirs, why do ye these things?--This was something more than that abhorrence of idolatry which took possession of the Jews as a nation from the time of the Babylonish captivity: it was that delicate sensibility to everything which affects the honor of God which Christianity, giving us in God a reconciled Father, alone can produce; making the Christian instinctively feel himself to be wounded in all dishonor done to God, and filling him with mingled horror and grief when such gross insults as this are offered to him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["We . . . are men of like passions, &c.--How unlike either imposture or enthusiasm is this, and how high above all self-seeking do these men of Christ show themselves to be! \n\nunto the living God--This is the most glorious and distinctive of all the names of God. It is the familiar phraseology of the Old Testament. which, in such contrast with all that is to be found within the literature of heathenism, is shown to be, with its sequel, the New Testament, the one Book of the true religion. \n\nwho made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all . . . therein--This idea of creation, utterly unknown alike to rude and to cultivated heathenism, would not only define what was meant by \"the living God,\" but open up a new world to the more thoughtful part of the audience.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways--that is, without extending to them the revelation vouchsafed to the seed of Abraham, and the grace attending it; compare Act 17:30; Co1 1:21. Yet not without guilt on their part was this privation (Rom 1:20, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Nevertheless he left not himself without witness--Though the heinousness of idolatry is represented as so much less in the heathen, by how much they were outside the pale of revealed religion, he takes care to add that the heathen have divine \"witness\" enough to leave them \"without excuse.\" \n\nhe did good--scattering His beneficence everywhere and in a thousand forms. \n\nrain from heaven, and fruitful seasons--on which human subsistence and all human enjoyment depend. In Lycaonia, where, as ancient writers attest, rain is peculiarly scarce, this allusion would have all the greater effect. \n\nfilling our hearts with food and gladness--a natural colloquialism, the heart being gladdened by the food supplied to the body.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["with these sayings scarce restrained they the people that they had not done sacrifice to them--In spite of this,and Peter's repudiation of all such honor (Act 10:26), how soon idolatrous tendencies began to show themselves in the Christian Church, at length to be systematized and enjoined in the Church of Rome!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium--Furious zeal that would travel so far to counteract the missionaries of the Cross! \n\npersuaded the people--\"the multitudes.\" \n\nand having stoned Paul--(See on Act 14:5). Barnabas they seem to have let alone; Paul, as the prominent actor and speaker, being the object of all their rage. The words seem to imply that it was the Jews who did this; and no doubt they took the lead (Act 14:19), but it was the act of the instigated and fickle multitudes along with them. \n\ndrew him out of the city--By comparing this with Act 7:58 it will be seen that the Jews were the chief actors in this scene.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["as the disciples stood round about him--sorrowing. So his labors here had not been in vain: \"Disciples\" had been gathered, who now rallied around the bleeding body. And one appears to have been gained on this occasion, of far more importance than all the rest--TIMOTHEUS. See on Act 16:1-3. (It could scarcely have been at the subsequent visit, Act 14:21, for the reason given in Ti2 3:10-11; while at the third visit, Act 16:1-3, he was already a Christian). \n\nhe rose up--It is possible that this recovery was natural; the insensibility occasioned by such treatment as he had received sometimes passing away of itself, and leaving the patient less hurt than appeared. But certainly the impression naturally left on the mind by the words is that the restoration was miraculous; and so the best interpreters understand the words. This is confirmed by what follows. \n\ncame into the city--Noble intrepidity! \n\nnext day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe--a journey for which he could hardly be fit if his recovery had been natural. (As to Derbe, see on Act 14:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["and when they had preached . . . to that city and had taught many--rather, \"had made many disciples\" (Margin); but probably without suffering any persecution, as Derbe is not mentioned along with Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra (Ti2 3:11).\nPAUL AND BARNABAS RETRACE THEIR STEPS, RETURN TO ANTIOCH IN SYRIA, AND THUS COMPLETE THEIR FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY. (Act 14:21-28)\n\nthey returned . . . to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls, &c.--At Derbe, Paul was not far from the well-known pass which leads down from the central tableland to Cilicia and Tarsus. But his thoughts did not center in an earthly home. He revisited the places where he had been reviled and persecuted, but where he had left as sheep in the desert the disciples whom his Master had enabled him to gather. They needed building up and strengthening in the faith, comforting in the midst of their inevitable suffering, and fencing round by permanent institutions. Undaunted therefore by the dangers that awaited them, our missionaries return to them, using words of encouragement which none but the founders of a true religion would have ventured to address to their earliest converts, that \"we can only enter into the kingdom of God by passing through much tribulation\" [HOWSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["when they had ordained them elders--literally, \"chosen by show of hands.\" But as that would imply that this was done by the apostles' own hands, many render the word, as in our version, \"ordained.\" Still, as there is no evidence in the New Testament that the word had then lost its proper meaning, as this is beyond doubt its meaning in Co2 8:19, and as there is indisputable evidence that the concurrence of the people was required in all elections to sacred office in the earliest ages of the Church, it is perhaps better to understand the words to mean, \"when they had made a choice of elders,\" that is, superintended such choice on the part of the disciples. \n\nand had prayed with fasting--literally, \"fastings,\" thus setting them solemnly apart. This last clause confirms our interpretation of the former. For if \"ordination\" was by prayer and fasting (see Act 13:3), why should it be said they first \"ordained elders,\" and after that \"prayed with fasting?\" Whereas if the first clause refer to the choice and the second to the ordination, all is natural. \n\nthey commended--\"committed\" \n\nthem--that is, all these churches. \n\nto the Lord--Jesus.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["when they had preached the word in Perga--now doing what, for some reason, they had not done on their former visit, but probably with no visible fruit. \n\nthey went down into Attaila--a seaport on the Gulf of Pamphylia, drawing to itself the commerce of Egypt and Syria.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended--(See on Act 13:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["when they had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, &c.--As their call and mission had been solemn and formal, in the presence of and by the Church as well as the Holy Ghost, they dutifully, and no doubt with eager joy, convened the church and gave their report of \"all that God had done with them,\" that is, by and for them. \n\nand how--in particular. \n\nhe had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles--to such even as before had not been proselytes. (See on Act 11:21; and on the language, see Co1 16:9; Co2 2:12; Col 4:3). The ascribing directly to God of such access to the Gentiles is to be noted.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["there they abode long time--\"no little time.\" From the commencement of the mission till they left Antioch to go up to attend the council at Jerusalem, some four or five years elapsed; and as the missionary journey would probably occupy less than two years, the rest of the time would be the period of their stay at Antioch. (But see Chronological Table.)\n\n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 15\n\n"]}],"introduction":"MEETING WITH SIMILAR SUCCESS AND SIMILAR OPPOSITION AT ICONIUM, PAUL AND BARNABAS FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES TO LYSTRA AND DERBE, AND PREACH THERE. (Act 14:1-7)\n\nthey went both together into the synagogue--Though Paul was now the prominent speaker and actor, yet in everything Barnabas went along with him. \n\na . . . multitude . . . of the Greeks believed--meaning probably the religious proselytes, as opposed to \"the Gentiles\" mentioned Act 14:2.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/14.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":14},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/15.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":15},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/13.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":13},"numberOfVerses":21}