Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 16]
for actual result just like the indicative. This old word for
prison house already in Mt 11:2; Ac 5:21,23 which see.
\Themelia\ is neuter plural of the adjective \themelios\, from
\thema\ (thing laid down from \tith•mi\). So already in Lu 6:48;
14:29. If the prison was excavated from rocks in the hillside,
as was often the case, the earthquake would easily have slipped
the bars of the doors loose and the chains would have fallen out
of the walls. {Were opened} (\•ne•ichth•san\). First aorist
passive indicative of \anoig•\ (or \-numi\) with triple augment
(\•, e, •\), while there is no augment in \aneth•\ (first aorist
passive indicative of \ani•mi\, were loosed), old verb, but in
the N.T. only here and 27:40; Eph 6:9; Heb 13:5.
16:27 {Being roused out of sleep} (\exupnos genomenos\). Becoming
\exupnos\ (rare word, only here in N.T., in LXX and Josephus). An
earthquake like that would wake up any one. {Open}
(\ane•igmenos\). Perfect passive participle with double
reduplication in predicate position, standing open. {Drew his
sword} (\spasamenos t•n machairan\). First aorist middle
participle of \spa•\, to draw, as in Mr 14:47, drawing his own
sword himself. Our word spasm from this old word. {Was about}
(\•mellen\). Imperfect active of \mell•\ with both syllabic and
temporal augment and followed here by present infinitive. He was
on the point of committing suicide as Brutus had done near here.
Stoicism had made suicide popular as the escape from trouble like
the Japanese _harikari_. {Had escaped} (\ekpepheugenai\). Second
perfect active infinitive of \ekpheug•\, old verb with perfective
force of \ek\, to flee out, to get clean away. This infinitive
and accusative of general reference is due to indirect discourse
after \nomiz•n\. Probably the prisoners were so panic stricken by
the earthquake that they did not rally to the possibility of
escape before the jailor awoke. He was responsible for the
prisoners with his life (12:19; 27:42).
16:28 {Do thyself no harm} (\m•den prax•is seaut•i kakon\). The
usual construction (\m•\ and the aorist subjunctive) for a
prohibition not to {begin} to do a thing. The older Greek would
probably have used \poi•s•is\ here. The later Greek does not
always preserve the old distinction between \poie•\, to do a
thing, and \prass•\, to practice, though \prassete\ keeps it in
Php 4:9 and \poie•\ is rightly used in Lu 3:10-14. As a
matter of fact \prass•\ does not occur in Matthew or in Mark,
only twice in John, six times in Luke's Gospel, thirteen in Acts,
http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/AC16.RWP.html (15 of 19) [28/08/2004 09:07:01 a.m.]