Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 23]
to oneself, to rescue) can be either simultaneous action or
antecedent. There is in Greek no such idiom as the aorist
participle of subsequent action (Robertson, _Grammar_, pp.
1112-14). Lysias simply reversed the order of the facts and
omitted the order for scourging Paul to put himself in proper
light with Felix his superior officer and actually poses as the
protector of a fellow Roman citizen.
23:28 {To know} (\epign•nai\). To know fully, \epi\, second
aorist active infinitive. {They accused him} (\enekaloun aut•i\).
Imperfect active indicative, were accusing him (dative),
repeating their charges.
23:29 {Concerning questions of their law} (\peri z•t•mata tou
nomou aut•n\). The very distinction drawn by Gallio in Corinth
(Ac 18:14f.). On the word see on 15:2. {But to have nothing
laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds} (\m•den de axion
thanatou • desm•n echonta enkl•ma\). Literally, "having no
accusation (or crime) worthy of death or of bonds." This phrase
here only in the N.T. \Egkl•ma\ is old word for accusation or
crime from \egkale•\ used in verse 28 and in the N.T. only here
and 25:16. Lysias thus expresses the opinion that Paul ought to
be set free and the lenient treatment that Paul received in
Caesarea and Rome (first imprisonment) is probably due to this
report of Lysias. Every Roman magistrate before whom Paul appears
declares him innocent (Gallio, Lysias, Felix, Festus).
23:30 {When it was shown to me that there would be a plot}
(\m•nutheis•s moi epiboul•s esesthai\). Two constructions
combined; genitive absolute (\m•nutheis•s epiboul•s\, first
aorist passive participle of \m•nu•\) and future infinitive
(\esesthai\ as if \epiboul•n\ accusative of general reference
used) in indirect assertion after \m•nu•\ (Robertson, _Grammar_,
p. 877). {Charging his accusers also} (\paraggeilas kai tois
kat•gorois\). First aorist active participle of \paraggell•\ with
which compare \math•n\ above (verse 27), not subsequent action.
Dative case in \kat•gorois\. {Before thee} (\epi sou\). Common
idiom for "in the presence of" when before a judge (like Latin
_apud_) as in 24:20,21; 25:26; 26:2. What happened to the forty
conspirators we have no way of knowing. Neither they nor the Jews
from Asia are heard of more during the long five years of Paul's
imprisonment in Caesarea and Rome.
23:31 {As it was commanded them} (\kata to diatetagmenon
http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/AC23.RWP.html (11 of 12) [28/08/2004 09:07:39 a.m.]