XI.] AT ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA. 105 hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. J. P. 4759. 17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted V. E. 46. the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, Antioch, in Pisidia. f Ex. i. 1. his flock. The rulers of the synagogues were called by various names, expressive of various degrees of power and honour. They first answered Amen to the prayers-they appointed the reader of the Scriptures-the reciter of the prayers-permitted any stranger to preach, a privilege exceedingly useful to the apostles, who were thus legally permitted to address the Jews, before they spoke to the Gentiles. There were many in each congregation, according to its magnitude; they were equal, in the opinion of Vitringa, though not in the opinion of Grotius. In short, they seemed to have filled the various and opposite offices of churchwarden, parish clerk, and justice of the peace; they were partly civil, partly ecclesiastical; an union of characters unknown in the Christian Church in any period of its history. Yet this is the officer whom Vitringa would assimilate to the principal minister in the Christian Church, and Christian congregation. Instead of the divine and simple appointment of bishop, priest, and deacon, he would encumber the primitive Church with all the customs of degenerated Judaism, and surname them the institutions of Christianity : and all this is written in pure zeal for the presbyteral government, in opposition to that of episcopacy. Another officer of the synagogue was the ay now, or angel, or messenger of the congregation. It was his duty to offer up prayers for the whole congregation. This name has been applied in the Book of Revelation to the heads of the Churches in Asia. It has therefore been inferred by Lightfoot, who wished to assimilate the rites of the Christian Church to those of the synagogue, that the name and office of the Bishop or Episcopus were the same as those of the Sheliach Tzibbor, which he identifies with the Chazan. His remarks are fully confuted by Vitringa (h). The may now, says a learned Hebraist, was, 1. To be an example and an instructor. 2. To begin the prayers. 3. To recite the prayers before the ark, in which the law was placed in the synagogue. 4. He recited some peculiar prayers. 5. Read the law. 6. Ordered what was to be done in public worship. 7. After service, directed the priest when to bless the people. 8. And, if the priest was absent, he blessed them himself. 9. Blew the trumpet at the beginning of the new year. 10. Scattered ashes on the fast days. A loud and clear voice-integrity of life-devotion and earnestness-a large family-suitable age -were required (i). Then, Chazan, is generally supposed to have been of inferior rank; the same as the vπnρέrns, who took the book from the reader; as we are told was done in the case of our Lord, when he preached for the first time in the synagogue of Nazareth. He was an attendant only, and does not appear to have been at all analogous to the Christian minister. Then, who took charge of the poor, &c. have been already noticed. The next description of officers in the service of the synagogue, were the rp, or elders. We will yet further inquire what is meant by this word among the Jews, and then what was denoted by its synonym peoẞúrepot, among the Christians. It will, I think, appear that there is not sufficient analogy between them, to warrant a conclusion that one was a counterpart to the other. Both were distinguished by the same name, as both were considered entitled to deference from their age, authority, rank, and piety. They were so named, because they were supposed to possess the influence of age (k). Their offices, however, were in all respects dissimilar. The word, or presbyters, or elders among the Jews, was alike used to describe their learned men, the members of the Sanhedrim, and their literary men. And as education was universal, and a certain proficiency in their sacred literature was deemed essential to all men of respectability, it may be considered as a word applicable to eminent men in general, who were not distinguished by some more particular title. The title was likewise extended to those, who for their acknowledged superiority and piety, were known by the name of 'ɔnn, or "the wise men." It also denoted the powerful men, Matt. xxvi. 3. or the men of influence and authority (7). From this general meaning of the word the Sanhedrim was called the presbytery, Acts xxii. 5. (h) De Synag. Vetere, lib. iii. pars 2. cap. 3. p. 909. (i) Schoetgen Horæ Hebraicæ, vol. i. p. 1089. (k) Sallust says, the deliberative part of the Roman legislature were called fathers-vel ætate, vel curæ similitudine.See note 15, Part X. of this Arrangement. () See on this point Vitringa, De Nominibus Præfectorum Synagogæ et Ecclesiæ-De Synag. Vetere, lib. iii. pars i. cap. i. p. 614. 6 See following page. And about 18 J. P. 4759. 8 and with an high arm brought he them out of it. Pisidia. g Ex. xiii. 14, 16. • Gг. ¿тропоpóρησoev, perhaps for τpopopópnσev, bore, or, fed them, as a nurse beareth, or feedeth her child, Deut. i. 31. 2 Mac. vii. 27. according to the LXX. and so Chrysostom. 66. Age was peculiarly honoured among the ancient Jews (m): and the word which expressed seniors, or elders, was consequently used as an appellation of dignity. Such were the significations of the word "elder" among the ancient Jews; we shall see that the word was never used in this very extensive sense, to denote those persons who were set apart for the service of the primitive Church. The Christian elders were persons appointed to fulfil certain specific duties, of a very different kind and nature. They were prophets, evangelists, teachers, interpreters of tongues; they had been endued, for the most part, with that great diversity of spiritual gifts, which must have fitted them for the infinitely higher duties than the Jewish elders ever fulfilled, even if they had not been further dedicated to the service of Christ by the laying on of the hands of the apostles. As the word presbyter designated the most honourable class among the Jews, it was transferred to the Christians, as the most significant and appropriate appellation for pious, holy, and gifted men. Their offices were different; their names the same. One custom among Christians is more evidently derived from the synagogue. The Jews ordained elders by a triumvirate, or by three elders; with imposition of hands, prayer, and fasting. In the same manner, three bishops are necessary to consecrate a bishop; a circumstance which seems to confirm the opinion, that the episcopal polity was established in large towns. Every synagogue was required to have its consistory of twenty-three or twenty-four elders. But a synagogue was to be built wherever ten men only of leisure could be found to form a congregation. Some synagogues therefore would not be able to supply the consistory. It appears not improbable, therefore, that the consistory would be established in the principal synagogue of a city, and the smaller synagogues refer their civil and ecclesiastical causes to this tribunal. The apostles followed this plan: and ordained in every city those who might ordain others. As the Christian presbyters were endued with miraculous powers; with the gift of tongues and of healing, with the spirit of prophecy, &c. &c. it would be absurd to imagine, that they were to form a council in every Church, as assistant lay counsellors to the officiating minister or Presbyter. Dr. Hammond's hypothesis is more probable than this. He thinks "that the apostles ordained only the two orders of bishop and deacon; of whom the bishop was placed in every city, with power to ordain presbyters under him, as occasion required." When we remember the wonderful gifts with which the early converts were honoured-the exceeding dignity attached to the word presbyter-and the rapid increase of converts in the three first centuries, which the Holy Spirit would have foreseen and provided for, it cannot appear impossible, but rather probable, that the apostles ordained both bishops and presbyters, although the distinct and strict meaning of these words was not originally attached to them. The apostles, for instance, set apart Timothy and Titus, with power to ordain elders; that is, with powers which were granted exclusively to bishops; but it does not appear that this appellation was assigned to either of these eminent disciples. The persons to whom the power of ordaining was committed, did not themselves assume any title, but were indiscriminately called presbyters, bishops, evangelists, or disciples. Their office, however, was eminently superior to those to whom the power of ordaining had not been committed; and in the following age, after the death of the apostles, they were distinguished by the peculiar appellation of bishop, as the power and authority of the apostles seemed to devolve upon them. At this time an evident distinction was made between bishop and presbyter; and here we clearly trace the three orders of the Christian ministry: first in the apostles-bishops, or presbyters, and deacons—and, after the death of the apostles, in bishops, presby. ters, and deacons. And as these three orders were so evidently set apart by the Holy Spirit of God, for the service of the Christian Church, it is advisable to look for the origin of the Christian priesthood from God, and not from man. It was appointed by the delegated ambassadors of Christ, and not from the customs of the synagogue. The subject is too extensive to be further discussed in a note. The reader who has leisure is referred to the laborious and learned volumes of Vitringa, Lightfoot, and Grotius. It is, however, well worthy the attention of the theological student. 6 This oration of St. Paul, the last he addressed peculiarly to the former objects of his patriotic affection, is most worthy the attention of the sons of Israel at present. Nothing can be added to the arguments which the apostles have addressed in their reported sermons and their invaluable epistles, to their beloved countrymen: and their doctrines seem to be all comprised in this address (m) Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Israelites, by Clarke, p. 162. and Schleusner on the word #peoẞúrepos. 7 See following page. XI.] AT ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA. 20 land of Chanaan 1, he divided their land to them by lot. after that he gave unto them judges about the space of 21 hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. of St. Paul. He reminds them of the former mercies of God to the family of Abraham, and the prediction that their Messiah should be descended from David; and asserts that this Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth. He appeals to the well-known fact of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, as the principal evidence of the truth of his declaration, and concludes with enforcing that one important truth, in which the whole human race are so immediately interested, that forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed through Him alone; and that Christ alone can justify the Christian, not only from those offences, from which they were typically purified by the ceremonial law, but from those sins also for which that law had made no provision. For we have now the comfortable hope that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, through the mercy and intercession of Christ; on the condition of sincere repentance, amendment of life, and faith in the great atonement. ? The word in the original ought rather to have been rendered, for forty years" he carried them in his arms, in the wilderness." It is used in a similar sense in the Alexandrian septuagint version, Deut. i. 31. ἐτροφοφόρησε σε Κύριος, ὡς εἴ τις τροφοφορήσαι ἄνθρωπος τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ. "The Lord bare thee, as a man doth bear his son," is the translation in the authorized version. For irporоpóρησεv, the common reading which our translators have rendered" He bare their manners," Griesbach would insert erpopopópηoɛv, as the undoubted reading. He is supported by the authority of Pfafflus, Casaubon, Hammond, Mill, Matthæi, Ernesti, Rosenmüller, and Valckenaer. Ap. Kuinoel, in lib. Hist. N. T. Comment. vol. iv. p. 445. See, however, Whitby in loc., who does not consider the alteration necessary; and interprets the words in the present Greek Vulgate, in the same manner as if Griesbach's reading had been adopted. He quotes Origen as explaining ἐτροποφόρησεν, by ἁρμόζεσθαι σὲ πρὸς τὸ ἀσθενὲς, “ to accommodate himself to the infirmities of children." The Apostle seems here to contradict the account in 1 Kings vi. 1. "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, he began to build the house of the Lord." Sir Norton Knatchbull, in his Annotations upon difficult Texts, has considered the various solutions proposed by learned men, of the difficulty before us; and concludes, that the words of the Apostle should not be understood as meaning how long God gave them judges, but when he gave them ; and therefore proposes that the first words of this verse, Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ὡς ἔτεσι τετρακοsiog kai Tevτýkovτa, should be referred to the words going before, ver. 17. that is, to the time when the God of the children of Israel chose their fathers. Now this time, wherein God may properly be said to have chosen their fathers, about four hundred and fifty years before he gave them judges, is to be computed from the birth of Isaac, in whom God may properly be said to have chosen their fathers; for God, who had chosen Abraham out of all the people of the earth, chose Isaac at this time out of the children of Abraham, in whose family the covenant was to rest. To make this computation evident, let us observe, that from the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob are sixty years; from thence to their going into Egypt, one hundred and thirty; from thence to the Exodus, two hundred and ten; from thence to their entrance into Canaan, forty; from that to the division of the land (about which time it is probable they began to settle their government by Judges), seven years: which sums make four hundred and forty-seven, viz. 60 +130 +210+40 +7=447. And should this be reckoned from the year before the birth of Isaac, when God established his covenant between himself and Abraham, and all his seed after him, Gen. xvii. 19. at which time God properly chose their fathers, then there will be four hundred and forty-eight years, which brings it to within two years of the four hundred and fifty; which is sufficiently exact to bring it within the Apostle's wg, "about," or "nearly." Some have made the period four hundred and fifty-two years; which, though two years more than the Apostle's round number, is still sufficiently reconcileable with his qualifying particle wc, "about." And, it may be added, that the most correct writers often express a sum totally, but not exactly. Calmet has paraphrased these passages nearly to the same sense: the text may be thus connected, ver. 19. "And having destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot, about one hundred and fifty years after. And afterwards he gave them judges, to the time of Samuel the prophet." The paraphrase of Calmet is the following: "The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers in the person of Abraham; he promised him the land of Canaan; and, Pisidia. 13. 20. n Is. xi. 1. o Matt. iii. 1. p John i. 20, 27. n J. P. 4759. afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul V. E. 46. the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of Antioch, in forty years. And when he had removed him, 1he raised up 22 11 Sam. xvi. unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave tesm Ps. lxxxix. timony, and said, m I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this 23 man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: when John had first preached before his 24 coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, P Whom think ye that 25 I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Men and 26 brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, be- 27 cause they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death 28 in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And 29 when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took q Matt.xxvii. 22. four hundred and fifty years after this promise, and the birth of Isaac, who was the son and heir of the promise, he put them in possession of that land which he had promised so long before (a)." Lightfoot remarks on this passage :-" Amongst the many things that are offered upon this difficulty, I would choose this; that in this number are reckoned the years of the judges, and the years of those tyrants that oppressed Israel, computing them disjunctly and singly; which, at first sight, any one would think ought to be so reckoned, but that 1 Kings, vi. 1. gives a check to a too large computation." The years of the judges and tyrants, thus distinguished, answer the sum exactly: So that reckoning three hundred and thirty-nine, and one hundred and eleven together, the sum amounts exactly to four hundred and fifty. The construction of this verse is difficult. The word кpivavrɛç should be taken with rourOV, and ȧyvonoɑvres with ràc pwvác. In which case it would run thus-" They that dwell at Jerusalem, in condemning him, not having known the voices of the prophets, which are read every sabbath-day, have fulfilled (the prophecies)." But see more on the passage in Knatchbull, Hammond, and the references and discussion in Kuinoel, in lib. Hist. N. T. Comment. vol. iv. p. 455. (a) Hebrew and Talmudical Exerc. on the Acts. Lightfoot, vol. viii. p. 466. See Dr. A. Clarke in loc.Whitby-Doddridge-Bowyer's Crit. Conj. and particularly the Critici Sacri on 1 Kings vi. 18, XI.] AT ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA. 109 V. Æ. 46. Pisidia. 6. Ps. ii, 7. Heb. i. 5. 30 him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God J.P.4759. 31 raised him from the dead: and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are Antioch, in 32 his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad Matt.xxviii. tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second 34 Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you 35 the sure mercies of David 10. Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm, u Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see 36 corruption. For David, + after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his 37 fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. 38 that tIs. lv. 3. holy, or just word the Is. lv. 3. and in others, use for that which is in the Hebrew mercies. + Or, after he age served the 10. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: u Ps. xvi. 10. 39 and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from had in his own 40 which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware will of God. therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the Kings ii. 41 prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I y Hab. i. 5. work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise be42 lieve, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath ", Gr. in the 43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. 44 11. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city toge week between or in the sabbath between. 10 The sure mercies of David are everlasting life, of which the resurrection was a pledge, and the blessings of the redemption of Christ an earnest, even in this world. The expression rà öσia, "holy," or "just things," is the word used by the LXX. in Isa. Iv. 3. and in other places, for the word "pn, "mercies." The covenant which God established with David, 2 Sam. vii. 11, 12. which is explained by Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4. xxviii. 29–36. implies that the house of David should never be extinct. It should endure as the days of heaven, and as the sun, to all generations. As far as relates to this earth, his family has long been extinct; the prophecy must, therefore, receive another interpretation. 11 In this verse there is a great number of various readings: instead of "when the Jews were going out of the synagogue," several manuscripts of great repute, with all the Syriac, the Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and Italian, read, "As they were going out, they intreated that these words should be preached unto them in the course of the week, or the next sabbath:" so that, according to this well accredited reading, the words ἐκ τῆς συναγωγῆς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, are left out in the first clause, avrov being put in their place, and rà 0vn, the Gentiles, is wholly omitted in the second clause. The most eminent critics approve of this reading; indeed it stands on such authority, as to render it almost indubitable. Of the avrov," them," which is substituted for the first clause, Professor White says, lectio indubie genuina; this reading is undoubtedly genuine and of the rà Ovn sic, he says, certissime delenda: they should certainly be expunged. We are, therefore, to understand the words thus: that "as they were going out," on the breaking up of the assembly, some of them desired that they might have these doctrines preached to them on the ensuing week, or sabbath. |