The Acts of the Apostles

LANDS, NATIONS, CITIES, AND HOUSES 61
Hellenic culture. Similar phrases occur in inscrip-
tions found in Asia Minor, for instance in the
famous inscription of Abercius : ''E/cXe/cT^9 iroXecog 6
ttoX/tj/?.—In connection with the use of the word
TToX/? the following additional remarks are perhaps
worthy of note.^ The mission was for the most
part carried on in the cities, as also the Jews
^ Let me here point out another small detail which is neverthe-
less of importance in reference to the author's consistency of style.
In general he does not use the article with names of cities. It is
found only in 23 (24) out of about 250 instances, if I have not overlooked
any ; in xxvi. 12 the article is not quite certain (among the
59 instances where Jerusalem is named the article only occurs once
in v. 28). In 13 of these instances the reason of the addition of
the article is obvious (ix. 3, 38 ; x. 8 ; xiii. 14 ; xvii. 13, 16 ; xviii.
1, 21 ; xix. 17 ; xx. 6 ; xx. 17 ; xxii. 6 ; xxiii. 31) ; for the city has
been mentioned just before and is now repeated with the article
(in many cases of course this is not done in spite of the repetition).
The instance in xiv. 21 also belongs to this group, indeed the
passage is especially characteristic : v-n-i