A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Volume 1: Preliminary lntroduction and Commentary on Acts I-XIV (International Critical Commentary)

718 Pages·1994·36.15 MB·English

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