Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 21]
used twice (19:31,32). The Jews from Ephesus had learned it
from Demetrius the silversmith. {Laid hands on him} (\epebalan
ep' auton tas cheiras\). Second aorist (ingressive, with endings
of the first aorist, \-an\) active indicative of \epiball•\, old
verb to lay upon, to attack (note repetition of \epi\). They
attacked and seized Paul before the charge was made.
21:28 {Help} (\bo•theite\). Present active imperative of
\bo•the•\, to run (\the•\) at a cry (\bo•\), as if an outrage had
been committed like murder or assault. {All men everywhere}
(\panta pantach•i\). Alliterative. \Pantach•i\ is a variation in
MSS., often \pantachou\, and here only in the N.T. The charges
against Paul remind one of those against Stephen (Ac 6:13) in
which Paul had participated according to his confession
(22:20). Like the charges against Stephen and Jesus before him
truth and falsehood are mixed. Paul had said that being a Jew
would not save a man. He had taught the law of Moses was not
binding on Gentiles. He did hold, like Jesus and Stephen, that
the temple was not the only place to worship God. But Paul
gloried himself in being a Jew, considered the Mosaic law
righteous for Jews, and was honouring the temple at this very
moment. {And moreover also he brought Greeks also into the
temple} (\eti te kai Hell•nas eis•gagen eis to hieron\). Note the
three particles (\eti te kai\), {and} (\te\) {still more} (\eti\)
{also} or {even} (\kai\). Worse than his teaching (\didask•n\) is
his dreadful deed: he actually brought (\eis•gagen\, second
aorist active indicative of \eisag•\). This he had a right to do
if they only went into the court of the Gentiles. But these Jews
mean to imply that Paul had brought Greeks beyond this court into
the court of Israel. An inscription was found by Clermont-Ganneau
in Greek built into the walls of a mosque on the Via Dolorosa
that was on the wall dividing the court of Israel from the court
of the Gentiles. Death was the penalty to any Gentile who crossed
over into the Court of Israel (_The Athenaeum_, July, 1871).
{Hath defiled this holy place} (\kekoin•ken ton hagion topon
touton\). Present perfect active of \koino•\, to make common (see
on ¯10:14). Note vivid change of tense, the defilement lasts
(state of completion). All this is the substance of the call of
these shrewd conspirators from Ephesus, Jews (not Jewish
Christians, not even Judaizers) who hated him for his work there
and who probably "spoke evil of the Way before the multitude"
there so that Paul had to separate the disciples from the
synagogue and go to the School of Tyrannus (19:9f.). These
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