--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 400 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/400/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 400. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/400/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 400. Acts · 26 of 76 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/400/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/400/#p-N [¶0] The great question to be determined, for the conviction of the Jews, was that Jesus was the Son of God. That the Christ, or Messiah, was to be the Son of God, they all believed. Saul was now convinced that Jesus, whom they had crucified, and who had appeared to him on the way, was the Son of God, or Messiah; and therefore as such he proclaimed him. The word Christ should be changed for Jesus, as the latter is, without doubt, the genuine reading. [¶1] The first offers of the grace of the Gospel were uniformly made to the Jews. Saul did not at first offer Jesus to the heathens at Damascus; but to the synagogues of the Jews. ### Verse 21 [¶3] Is not this he that destroyed them - Ὁ πορθησας. The verb πορθειν has three acceptations in the Greek writers: [¶4] 1. To treat one as an enemy, to spoil him of his goods. [¶5] 2. To lead away captive, to imprison. [¶6] 3. To slay. [¶7] Paul was properly πορθων, a destroyer, in all these senses. [¶8] 1. He acted as the most determined enemy of the Christians: Being exceedingly mad against them, he persecuted them to strange cities, [Act 26:11]. [¶9] 2. He shut up many of the saints in prison, [Act 8:3]; [Act 9:14]; [Act 26:10]. [¶10] 3. He persecuted them unto death - gave his voice against them that they might be destroyed, and was a principal instrument in the martyrdom of Stephen. He breathed threatenings and slaughter. See [Act 7:58]; [Act 8:1]; [Act 9:1]; [Act 26:10], [Act 26:11]. [¶11] Therefore these three meanings of the original word are all exemplified in the conduct of Saul. ### Verse 22 [¶13] Confounded the Jews - Συνεχυνε, Overwhelmed them so with his arguments that they were obliged to blush for the weakness of their own cause. [¶14] Proving that this - Οὑτος, This person, viz. Jesus, is very Christ; εϚιν ὁ ΧριϚος, Is the Christ, or Messiah. See on [Act 9:21] (note). ### Verse 23 [¶16] And after that many days were fulfilled - What follows relates to transactions which took place about three years after his conversion, when he had come a second time to Damascus, after having been in Arabia. See [Gal 1:17], [Gal 1:18]. What he did in Arabia we know not; he probably preached Christ in different Jewish synagogues; but with what fruit we are not told. St. Luke, who could not have been ignorant of this part of his history, passes it over in silence; and any assertion, at this distance of time, Relative to his employment in Arabia for those three years, must be both foolish and impertinent. ### Verse 24 [¶18] They watched the gates day and night to kill him - At this time Damascus was under the government of Aretas, king of Arabia, who was now at war with Herod, his son-in-law, who had put away his daughter in order to marry Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. As Herod was supported by the Romans, Saul's enemies might intimate that he was in league with them or Herod; and, as the gates of the city were constantly watched and shut, that no spy might enter, and no fugitive get away, they thought it would be easy to apprehend him; and doubtless got orders for the different officers at the gates to be on the look-out that he might not be permitted to escape. ### Verse 25 [¶20] Let him down, by the wall - Favoured, probably, by a house built against or upon the wall, through the window of which they could lower him in a basket; and by this means he made his escape. His escape was something similar to that of the spies at Jericho, [Jos 2:15]. ### Verse 26 [¶22] He assayed to join himself to the disciples - Επειρατο κολλασθαι, He endeavored to get closely united to them, to be in religious fellowship with them. [¶23] Believed not that he was a disciple - They did not suppose it possible that such a person could be converted to the faith of Christ. The full power of Divine grace, in the conversion of the soul, was not yet completely known. ### Verse 27 [¶25] Barnabas - brought him to the apostles - That is, to Peter and James; for others of the apostles he saw none, [Gal 1:19]. It appears that he went up at this time to Jerusalem merely to see Peter, with whom he abode fifteen days, [Gal 1:18]. How it came that the apostles and Church at Jerusalem had not heard of Saul's conversion, which had taken place three years before, is not easy to be accounted for. The following considerations may help; [¶26] 1. It is certain that intelligence did not travel speedily in those primitive times; there were few open roads, and no regular posts, except those between military stations. [¶27] 2. Though there were many Jews in Damascus, and several Christians, yet the city was heathen, and under a heathen king, with whom the Jews at Jerusalem could have little commerce. [¶28] 3. Though Herod had married the daughter of Aretas, yet, as he had put her away, there were great animosities between the two courts, which at last broke out into an open war; this must have prevented all social and commercial intercourse. [¶29] 4. The Christians were at that time greatly persecuted by the Jews, and therefore the few that dwelt at Damascus could have little connection, if any, with their brethren at Jerusalem. [¶30] 5. It might be the interest of the Jews at Jerusalem, supposing they had heard of it, to keep the fact of Saul's conversion as quiet as possible, that the Christian cause might not gain credit by it. [¶31] 6. They might have heard of his conversion; but either did not fully credit what they had heard, or were not satisfied that the person who now presented himself was the man; for it is not likely that all the Christians at Jerusalem had been personally acquainted with Saul. ### Verse 28 [¶33] He was with them coming in and going out - Freely conversing and associating with them; but this seems to have continued only fifteen days. See [Gal 1:18]. ### Verse 29 [¶35] Disputed against the Grecians - That is, the Hellenistic Jews, viz. those who lived in Grecian cities, spoke the Greek language, and used the Septuagint version for their scriptures. And thus the Syriac version has interpreted this place. See the note on [Act 6:1], where this subject is largely explained. ### Verse 30 [¶37] They brought him down to Caesarea - Calmet contends that this was Caesarea of Palestine, and not Caesarea Philippi; it being his opinion, and indeed that of others, that where this word occurs without any addition, in the New Testament, Caesarea of Palestine is meant, and not Caesarea Philippi. See on [Act 8:40] (note). [¶38] Sent him forth to Tarsus - This was his own city; and it was right that he should proclaim to his own countrymen and relatives that Gospel through which he was become wise to salvation. ### Verse 31 [¶40] Then had the Churches rest - Instead of ἱα εκκλησιαι, the Churches, ABC, several others, the Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate, have ἡεκκλησια, the Church. Every assembly of God's people was a Church; the aggregate of these assemblies was The Church. The wordειρηνην, which we translate rest, and which literally signifies peace, evidently means, in this place, prosperity; and in this sense both it and the Hebrew שלום shalom are repeatedly used. But what was the cause of this rest or success? Some say, the conversion of Saul, who before made havoc of the Church; but this is not likely, as he could not be a universal cause of persecution and distress, however active and virulent he might have been during the time of his enmity to the Christian Church. Besides his own persecution, related above, shows that the opposition to the Gospel continued with considerable virulence three years after his conversion; therefore it was not Saul's ceasing to be a persecutor that gave this rest to the Churches. Dr. Lardner, with a greater show of probability, maintains that this rest was owing to the following circumstance: Soon after Caligula's accession to the imperial dignity, the Jews at Alexandria suffered very much from the Egyptians in that city; and at length their oratories were all destroyed. In the third year of Caligula, a.d. 39, Petronius, who was made president of Syria in the place of Vitellius, was sent by the emperor to set up his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. This was a thunder-stroke to the Jews, and so occupied them that they had no time to think of any thing else; apprehending that their temple must be defiled, and the national religion destroyed, or themselves run the risk of being exterminated if they rebelled against the imperial decree. [¶41] The account given by Josephus will set this in a clear point of view. "Caligula sent Petronius to go with an army to Jerusalem, to set up his statues in the temple, enjoining him if the Jews opposed it, to put to death all that made resistance, and to make all the rest of the nation slaves. Petronius therefore marched from Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and a large body of auxiliaries raised in Syria. All were hereupon filled with consternation, the army being come as far as Ptolemais. The Jews, then, gathering together, went to the plain near Ptolemais, and entreated Petronius in the first place for their laws, in the next place for themselves. Petronius was moved with their solicitations, and, leaving his army and the statues, went into Galilee, and called an assembly of the heads of the Jews at Tiberias; and, having exhorted them without effect to submit to the emperor's orders, said, 'Will ye then fight against Caesar?' They answered that they offered up sacrifices twice every day for the emperor and the Roman people; but that if he would set up the images, he ought first of all to sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to submit themselves, their wives and children, to the slaughter." Philo gives a similar account of this transaction. See Lardner's Credibility, Works, vol. i. p. 97, etc. [¶42] It appears, therefore, that, as these transactions took place about the time mentioned in the text, their persecution from the Romans diverted them from persecuting the Christians; and Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria; the terror occasioned by the imperial decree having spread itself through all those places. [¶43] Were edified - Οικοδομουμεναι, A metaphor taken from a building. [¶44] 1. The ground is marked out;