The INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments GI:NERAL EDITORS J. A. EMERTON. F.B.A. Fdl-of S1 Jt~ltut ·, Ct~llrrr ll¥111., /'rofr1Jtlt of lftllrrw ;,. ,., Utti~•riii.Y 11/ Ctll"lu·itlJr HfHitUIIf'Y C1111tH1 of.$1 Gtt~rJtt's Ct~IMdral, J•r,.solt• C. E. B. CRANFIELD. F.B.A. Ewrrritas Pmf,sor t~/TAtoiDI)' ill tltr Ut~ivnlil:r of D•robl AND G. N. STANTON '"''"""of Ntw Trslfl"""' St•Jirs. Ki•l'l Collrrr. U11ivrrri" o{IJI11du" RlRMERLY UNDER THE EDITORS HIP Of S. R.DRNER A.PLUMMER C. A. BRIGGS A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES BY C. K.BARRETT Em~ritus Profeuor of Divinity in Durham University IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I Preliminary lntroduclion and Commenlary on Acls I-XIV T&T CLARK EDINBURGH TAT CLARK LTD '9 OJ!OROI! STRI!I!T I!DINBURGH EH2 2LQ SCOTLAND Copyri&hl e T&.T Clark Lld. 1994 All rishts reserved. No pan or Ibis publication may be reproduced, Slored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in uy form or by any means. elecrronie. mechanical. photocopying, rccordinJ or otherwise, wilhout the prior permission or T&.T Cl ark Lld. F111t published 1994 ISBN 0 '67 09f63 X Britisb Library Catalo~uing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book " available from the British Library Typeaet by Trinity Typeaeaina. Edinboqb Printed and bound in Great Britain by l'lcc Brndlen. Norwich GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE Much scholarly work has been done on the Bible since the publication in 19S I of the latest volume in the International Critical Commentary (thatofJ. A. Montgomery and H. S. Gebman on the Books of Kings)-and the bulk of the series is, of course, much older. New linguistic, textual, historical, and archaeological evidence has become available, and there have been changes and developments in methods of study. In the last quarter of the twentieth century there will be as great a need as, and perhaps a greater need than, ever for the kind of commentary the Interna tional Critical Commentary seeks to supply. The series has long had a special place among works in English on the Bible, because it has sought to bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis, linguistic and textual no less than archaeological, historical, liter ary, and theological to help the reader to understand the meaning of the books of the Old and New Testaments. In the confidence that such a series meets a need, the publishers and the editors have planned both to commission commentaries on those books of the Bible which have never appeared in the series and to replace some of the older volumes. The worlc of preparing a commentary on such a scale cannot but be slow, and developments in the past quarter of a century have made the commentator's task yet more difficult than before, but it is hoped that the volumes will appear without too great intervals between them. No attempt has been made to secure a uniform theological or critical approach to the problems of the various books, and scholars have been selected for their scholarship and not for their adherence to any school of thought. It is hoped that the new volumes will attain the high standards set in the past, and that they will make a contribution to the under standing of the books of the Bible. Cambridge and Durham, J. A. E. January, 1974 C. E. B. C. PREFACE To one who must approach New Testament Theology by way of New Testament History, the study of the Acts of the Apostles is essential, fascinating, and one may hope, fruitful. It is most likely to be fruitful if it is pursued in the light of the Pauline letters and of that other great quarry of theology, the Fourth Gospel. For this reason I do not regret too deeply the many years over which the writing of this commentary has extended, for the principal cause of delay has been work I could not avoid on Paul and John. The typescript of this first volume was finished at Christmas 1990. Some delay in production is the less to be regretted in that it means that work on Volume li is further advanced than I could have hoped. Of course I cannot and do not claim that I have read everything that I should have liked to read. If a book on such a vast field as this is ever to be completed there comes a time when one must draw a line and put Pontius Pilate in reverse: What I have read, I have read. And there's an end of it. I may be able to include in Volume 11 a few backward glances at Chapters 1-14, seen in the new light that recent authors have thrown on them. I have explained elsewhere (see pp. I f.) why there is no conven tional Introduction to this volume. Something of the kind will be found in Volume 11. The rest of the book follows a fairly conven tional form. Ever since I read, long ago, J. B. Lightfoot's great commentaries it has seemed to me unnecessary to burden a commentary with footnotes. A commentary ought to be straight forwardly readable, like a monograph, though the reader will of course expect, especially in a work that is not specifically aimed at beginners, to encounter references and quotations. not all of which will be expressed in his native tongue. I am deeply grateful to my old friend and colleague Professor C. E. B. Cranfieid who as General New Testament Editor for the International Critical Commentary looked at some early drafts; also to his successor Professor G. N. Stanton, who has made useful suggestions and drawn my attention to literature that I had missed. The pleasing and generous award of a Forschungspreis by the Alexandervon Humboldt-Stiftung encouraged me to spend longer in Tilbingen and MUnster than I otherwise should have done, and I am grateful to the Stiftung, to the Tiibingen libraries and my New PREFACE Testament colleagues there (a number of younger scholars as well as those professors whose names are everywhere known), and to Professor K. and Professor B. Aland and their staff at the Stiftung zur Forderung der neutestamentlichen Textforschung in MUnster. C. K. BARRETT