Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/173

 injunction. For they went out of the judgment-hall, rejoicing that they were honored by suffering this shameful treatment in their Master's name. They now recalled to mind his early words of encouragement, which he had given them in a wise determination to prepare them for evils of which they had then so little notion. The passage from the sermon on the mount was particularly appropriate to their present circumstances. "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my name's sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you." Comforted by such words as these, they returned to their labors as before, and daily, in the temple, and moreover in private houses, ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ, in the very face of the express prohibition of their thwarted persecutors.

Messenger.—This is a fair and literal interpretation of [Greek: angelos], (angelos,) and one justifiable in every place where it occurs in the Bible. Wherever it is applied to a supernatural being sent from God, the connection will abundantly explain the term, without rendering it by a different word. Thus I have chosen to do, and to leave each reader to judge for himself, from the other attendant circumstances, of the character of the messenger. See Kuinoel in loc.

All the words of this life.—I here follow the common translation, though Kuinoel and most interpreters consider this as a hypallage, and transpose it into "all these words of life." But it does not seem necessary to take such a liberty with the expression, since the common version conveys a clear idea. "The words of this life" evidently can mean only the words of that life which they had before preached, in accordance with their commission; that is, of life from the dead, as manifested in the resurrection of Jesus, which was in itself the pledge and promise of life and bliss eternal, to all who should hear and believe these "words." This view is supported by Storr, and a similar one is advanced by Rosenmueller, in preference to any hypallage.

Change of heart.—I have in general given this translation of [Greek: Metanoeite], (Metanoeite,) as more minutely faithful to the etymology of the word, and also accordant with popular religious forms of expression; though the common translation is unobjectionable.

Deeply wounded.—In the Greek, [Greek: dieprionto], (dieprionto,) from [Greek: diapriô], "to saw through;" in the passive, of course, "to be sawn through," or figuratively, "deeply wounded in the moral feelings." This is the com. trans., "cut to the heart," which I have adopted, with such a variation of the words as will assimilate it most nearly to common modern forms of expression. But Kuinoel prefers the peculiar force of the middle voice, (where this word can be made, owing to the identity of the imp. tenses of the two voices,) given by Hesychius, "to gnash the teeth," doubtless taken from the similarity of sound between "sawing," and "grating the teeth." This sense being also highly appropriate here, to men in a rage, makes the passage perfectly ambiguous, and accordingly great authorities divide on the point. In such cases, it seems to me perfectly fair to consider the phrase as originally intended for an equivoque. Luke was Grecian enough, doubtless, to know the two meanings of this form, and must have been very careless if he did not think of it as he wrote it down; but either meaning is powerfully expressive of the idea here, and why should he reject or explain it? It is rather an advantage and a charm than otherwise, in a language, to possess this ambiguity, making occasionally a richly expressive play of meanings.