(50) The Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women.--The fact stated brings before us another feature of the relations between Jews and Gentiles at this period. They "compassed sea and land to make one proselyte" (Matthew 23:15). They found it easier to make proselytes of women. Such conversions had their good and their bad sides. In many cases there was a real longing for a higher and purer life than was found in the infinite debasement of Greek and Roman society, which found its satisfaction in the life and faith of Israel. (See Notes on Acts 17:4; Acts 17:12.) But with many, such as Juvenal speaks of when he describes (Sat. vi. 542) the Jewish teacher who gains influence over women--
"Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem
Interpres legum Solymarum"--
["The trembling Jewess whispers in her ear,
And tells her of the laws of Solymse,"][3][3] Solymae, of course, stands for Jerusalem.
the change brought with it new elements of superstition and weakness, and absolute submission of conscience to its new directors, and thus the Rabbis were often to the wealthier women of Greek and Roman cities what Jesuit confessors were in France and Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here we get the darker side of the picture. The Jews stir up the women of the upper class, and they stir up their husbands. The latter were content apparently to acquiesce in their wives accepting the Judaism with which they had become familiar, but resented the intrusion of a new and, in one sense, more exacting doctrine.
Raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas.--It lies in the nature of the case that they were not the only sufferers. From the first the Christians of Antioch in Pisidia had to learn the lesson that they must "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). The memory of these sufferings came back upon St. Paul's mind, even in the last months of his life, as something never to be forgotten (2 Timothy 3:11).
Verse 50.- Urged on for stirred up, A.V.; the devout women of honorable estate for the devout and honorable women, A.V. and T.R.; stirred up a for raised, A.V.; cast them out of their borders for expelled them out of their coasts, A.V. Urged on (παρώτρυναν). The word only occurs here in the New Testament, and is not common elsewhere. The devout women of honorable estate: εὐσχήμων is, literally, well-formed; then decent, becoming; and then honorable, well-to-do (comb. Acts 17:4, γυναικῶν τῶν πρώτων). See Mark 15:43, where Joseph of Arimathaea is described as εὐσχήμων βουλευτής, "an honorable counselor." The devout women (αι} σεβόμεναι) were the Gentile proselytes who worshipped God, as in ver. 43. So of Lydia (Acts 16:14), and of "the devout Greeks" (Acts 17:4, 17; Acts 18:7). The chief men (τοὺς πρώτους), as in Acts 17:4
13:42-52 The Jews opposed the doctrine the apostles preached; and when they could find no objection, they blasphemed Christ and his gospel. Commonly those who begin with contradicting, end with blaspheming. But when adversaries of Christ's cause are daring, its advocates should be the bolder. And while many judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, others, who appear less likely, desire to hear more of the glad tidings of salvation. This is according to what was foretold in the Old Testament. What light, what power, what a treasure does this gospel bring with it! How excellent are its truths, its precepts, its promises! Those came to Christ whom the Father drew, and to whom the Spirit made the gospel call effectual, Ro 8:30. As many as were disposed to eternal life, as many as had concern about their eternal state, and aimed to make sure of eternal life, believed in Christ, in whom God has treasured up that life, and who is the only Way to it; and it was the grace of God that wrought it in them. It is good to see honourable women devout; the less they have to do in the world, the more they should do for their own souls, and the souls of others: but it is sad, when, under colour of devotion to God, they try to show hatred to Christ. And the more we relish the comforts and encouragements we meet with in the power of godliness, and the fuller our hearts are of them, the better prepared we are to face difficulties in the profession of godliness.
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women,.... These seem not to be Jewish women; could they be thought to be such, they might easily be concluded to be of the sect of the Pharisees, which was the strictest and most devout sect among the Jews; for there were women Pharisees, as well as men; so we read of , "a woman Pharisee" (b); but these were Gentile women, proselyted to the Jewish religion, and were in their way very religious and devout, and were also "honourable": the word used signifies, not only that they were of a comely form, of a decent habit, and of good manners, as it is by some interpreted; but that they were persons of figure and distinction, of good families; the Syriac version renders it "rich", whose husbands were the principal men of the city; wherefore the Jews applied to these women, and stirred up them to work upon their husbands, who seem to be those next mentioned:
and the chief men of the city; the magistrates and officers in it:
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas; raised the mob, and set them upon them:
and expelled them out of their coasts; drove them out of their city and suburbs.
"Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem
Interpres legum Solymarum"--
["The trembling Jewess whispers in her ear,
And tells her of the laws of Solymse,"][3][3] Solymae, of course, stands for Jerusalem.
the change brought with it new elements of superstition and weakness, and absolute submission of conscience to its new directors, and thus the Rabbis were often to the wealthier women of Greek and Roman cities what Jesuit confessors were in France and Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here we get the darker side of the picture. The Jews stir up the women of the upper class, and they stir up their husbands. The latter were content apparently to acquiesce in their wives accepting the Judaism with which they had become familiar, but resented the intrusion of a new and, in one sense, more exacting doctrine.
Raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas.--It lies in the nature of the case that they were not the only sufferers. From the first the Christians of Antioch in Pisidia had to learn the lesson that they must "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). The memory of these sufferings came back upon St. Paul's mind, even in the last months of his life, as something never to be forgotten (2 Timothy 3:11).
and the chief men of the city; the magistrates and officers in it:
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas; raised the mob, and set them upon them:
and expelled them out of their coasts; drove them out of their city and suburbs.
(b) Misn. Sota, c. 3. sect. 4.