{"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":21,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["And finding a ship--their former one going no farther, probably. \n\nto PhÅ“nica--(See on Act 11:19). \n\nwent abroad--One would almost think this extracted from a journal of the voyage, so graphic are its details.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["when we . . . discovered--\"sighted,\" as the phrase is. \n\nCyprus, we left it on the left hand--that is, steered southeast of it, leaving it on the northwest. \n\nsailed into--\"unto\" \n\nSyria, and landed at Tyre--the celebrated seat of maritime commerce for East and West. It might be reached from Patara in about two days. \n\nthere the ship was to unlade her burden--which gave the apostle time for what follows.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["finding disciples--finding out the disciples, implying some search. They would expect such, from what is recorded, Act 11:19. Perhaps they were not many; yet there were gifted ones among them. \n\nwho said to Paul . . . that he should not go up to Jerusalem--(See on Act 20:23; also see on Act 21:11-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["they all brought us on our way with wives and children . . . and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed--(See on Act 20:36). Observe here that the children of these Tyrian disciples not only were taken along with their parents, but must have joined in this act of solemn worship. See on Eph 6:1.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["when we had finished our course--completing the voyage \n\nfrom Tyre, we came--which they would do the same day. \n\nto Ptolemais--anciently called Accho (Jdg 1:31), now St. Jean d'Acre, or Acre. \n\nand saluted the brethren, and abode, &c.--disciples gathered probably as at Tyre, on the occasion mentioned (Act 11:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["next day we that were of Paul's company departed--(The words \"the were of Paul's company\" are omitted in the best manuscripts. They were probably added as the connecting words at the head of some church lessons). \n\nand came to CÃ&brvbrsarea--a run along the coast, southward, of some thirty miles. \n\nPhilip the evangelist--a term answering apparently very much to our missionary [HOWSON], by whose ministry such joy had been diffused over Samaria and the Ethiopian eunuch had been baptized (Acts 8:4-40). \n\none of the seven--deacons, who had \"purchased to himself a good degree\" (Ti1 3:13). He and Paul now meet for the first time, some twenty-five years after that time.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["the same man had four daughters . . . which did prophesy--fulfilling Joe 2:28 (see Act 2:18). This is mentioned, it would seem, merely as a high distinction divinely conferred on so devoted a servant of the Lord Jesus, and probably indicates the high tone of religion in his family.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["tarried there many--\"a good many\" \n\ndays--Finding himself in good time for Pentecost at Jerusalem, he would feel it a refreshing thing to his spirit to hold Christian communion for a few days with such a family. \n\nthere came down from Judea--the news of Paul's arrival having spread. \n\na certain prophet . . . Agabus--no doubt the same as in Act 11:28.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["So shall the Jews bind the man that owneth this girdle, &c.--For though the Romans did it, it was at the Jews' instigation (Act 21:33; Act 28:17). Such dramatic methods of announcing important future events would bring the old prophets to remembrance. (Compare Isa 20:2, &c.; Jer 13:1, and Eze 5:1, &c.). This prediction and that at Tyre (Act 21:4) were intended, not to prohibit him from going, but to put his courage to the test and when he stood the test, to deepen and mature it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["we and they at that place--the CÃ&brvbrsarean Christians. \n\nbesought him--even with tears, Act 21:13. \n\nnot to go to Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart--Beautiful union of manly resoluteness and womanly tenderness, alike removed from mawkishness and stoicism! \n\nI am ready not to be bound only--\"If that is all, let it come.\" \n\nbut to die, &c.--It was well he could add this, for he had that also to do.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["we took up our carriages--\"our baggage.\" \n\nand went up to Jerusalem--for the fifth time after his conversion, thus concluding his third missionary tour, which proved his last, so far as recorded; for though he accomplished the fourth and last part of the missionary plan sketched out (Act 19:21) --\"After I have been at Jerusalem, I must also see Rome\"--it was as \"a prisoner of Jesus Christ.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["went with us . . . and brought with them--rather, \"brought us to.\" \n\nOne Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, &c.--not an \"aged\" disciple, but probably \"a disciple of old standing,\" perhaps one of the three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost, or, more likely still, drawn to the Saviour Himself during His lifetime. He had come, probably, with the other Cyprians (Act 11:20), to Antioch, \"preaching the Lord Jesus unto the Grecians,\" and now he appears settled at Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["PAUL REPORTS THE EVENTS OF HIS THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY--IN THE TEMPLE, PURIFYING HIMSELF FROM A JEWISH VOW, HE IS SEIZED BY A MOB AND BEATEN TO THE DANGER OF HIS LIFE--THE UPROAR BECOMING UNIVERSAL, THE ROMAN COMMANDANT HAS HIM BROUGHT IN CHAINS TO THE FORTRESS, FROM THE STAIRS OF WHICH HE IS PERMITTED TO ADDRESS THE PEOPLE. (Acts 21:17-40)\n\nthe brethren received us gladly--the disciples generally, as distinguished from the official reception recorded in Act 21:18.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present--to \"report himself\" formally to the acknowledged head of the church at Jerusalem, and his associates in office. See on Act 15:13. Had any other of the apostles been in Jerusalem on that occasion, it could hardly fail to have been noted.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["he declared particularly--in detail. \n\nwhat God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry--as on previous occasions (Act 14:27; and see Rom 15:15); no doubt referring to the insidious and systematic efforts of the Judaizing party in a number of places to shrivel the Church of Christ into a Jewish sect, and his own counter-procedure.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["they glorified the Lord, &c.--constrained to justify his course, notwithstanding the Jewish complexion of the Christianity of Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["they are informed . . . that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles--those residing in heathen countries. \n\nto forsake Moses, &c.--This calumny of the unbelieving Jews would find easy credence among the Christian zealots for Judaism.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["we have four men--Christian Jews, no doubt. \n\nwhich have a vow--perhaps kept ready on purpose.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["be at charges with them--that is, defray the expense of the sacrifices legally required of them, along with his own, which was deemed a mark of Jewish generosity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["touching the Gentiles . . . we have written and concluded that they observe no such things, &c.--This shows that with all their conciliation to Jewish prejudice, the Church of Jerusalem was taught to adhere to the decision of the famous council held there (Act 15:19-29).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["to signify--that is, announce to the priest. \n\nthe accomplishment of the days of purification, &c.--(See on Num 6:14-21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["the Jews . . . of Asia--in all likelihood those of Ephesus (since they recognized Trophimus apparently as a townsman, Act 21:29), embittered by their discomfiture (Act 19:9, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["Trophimus--(See on Act 20:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["took Paul, and drew him out of the temple; and forthwith the doors were shut--that the murder they meant to perpetrate might not pollute that holy place.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["tidings came--literally, \"went up,\" that is, to the fortress of Antonia, where the commandant resided. See on Act 21:32. This part of the narrative is particularly graphic.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["the chief captain--\"the chiliarch,\" or tribune of the Roman cohort, whose full number was one thousand men.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["commanded him to be bound with two chains--(See on Act 12:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["some cried one thing--The difficulty would be so to state his crimes as to justify their proceedings to a Roman officer. \n\nto be carried into the castle--rather, perhaps, \"the barracks,\" or that part of the fortress of Antonia appropriated to the soldiers. The fort was built by Herod on a high rock at the northwest corner of the great temple area, and called after Mark Antony.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Away with him--as before of his Lord (Luk 23:18; Joh 19:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["Art not thou that Egyptian, &c.--The form of the question implies that the answer is to be in the negative, and is matter of some surprise: \"Thou art not then?\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["madest an uproar, &c.--The narrative is given in JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews, 2.8.6; 13.5], though his two allusions and ours seem to refer to different periods of the rebellion.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["a citizen of no mean city--(See on Act 16:37).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["stood on the stairs--\"What nobler spectacle than that of Paul at this moment! There he stood, bound with two chains, ready to make his defense to the people. The Roman commander sits by, to enforce order by his presence. An enraged populace look up to him from below. Yet in the midst of so many dangers, how self-possessed is he, how tranquil!\" [CHRYSOSTOM (or in his name) in HACKETT]. \n\na great silence--the people awed at the permission given him by the commandant, and seeing him sitting as a listener. \n\nin the Hebrew tongue--the Syro-Chaldaic, the vernacular tongue of the Palestine Jews since the captivity.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 22\n\n"]}],"introduction":"SAILING FROM EPHESUS, THEY LAND AT TYRE, AND THENCE SAILING TO PTOLEMAIS, THEY PROCEED BY LAND TO CÆSAREA AND JERUSALEM. (Acts 21:1-16)\n\nwe were gotten--\"torn.\" \n\nfrom them--expressing the difficulty and pain of the parting. \n\nwith a straight course--running before the wind, as Act 16:11. \n\nunto Coos--Cos, an island due south from Miletus, which they would reach in about six hours, and coming close to the mainland. \n\nthe day following unto Rhodes--another island, some fifty miles to the southeast, of brilliant classic memory and beauty. \n\nthence unto Patara--a town on the magnificent mainland of Lycia, almost due east from Rhodes. It was the seat of a celebrated oracle of Apollo.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/21.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":21},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/22.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":22},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/20.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":20},"numberOfVerses":34}