KJV: And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
YLT: and having brought them to the magistrates, they said, 'These men do exceedingly trouble our city, being Jews;
Darby: and having brought them up to the praetors, said, These men utterly trouble our city, being Jews,
ASV: and when they had brought them unto the magistrates, they said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
| προσαγαγόντες | having brought up |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: προσάγω Sense: to lead, to bring. |
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| τοῖς | to the |
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Parse: Article, Dative Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| στρατηγοῖς | magistrates |
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Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Plural Root: στρατηγός Sense: the commander of an army. |
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| εἶπαν | they said |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural Root: λέγω Sense: to speak, say. |
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| Οὗτοι | These |
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Parse: Demonstrative Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: οὗτος Sense: this. |
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| οἱ | - |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| ἄνθρωποι | men |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ἄνθρωπος Sense: a human being, whether male or female. |
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| ἐκταράσσουσιν | exceedingly trouble |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural Root: ἐκταράσσω Sense: to agitate, trouble, exceedingly. |
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| ἡμῶν | of us |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Plural Root: ἐγώ Sense: I, me, my. |
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| πόλιν | city |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: πόλις Sense: a city. |
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| Ἰουδαῖοι | Jews |
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Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: Ἰουδαῖος Sense: Jewish, belonging to the Jewish race. |
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| ὑπάρχοντες | being |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ὑπάρχω Sense: to begin below, to make a beginning. |
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Greek Commentary for Acts 16:20
Greek term (στρατοσ αγω stratosΣτρατηγοι agō) for leader of an army or general. But in civic life a governor. The technical name for the magistrates in a Roman colony was duumviri or duumvirs, answering to consuls in Rome. ουτοι οι αντρωποι Stratēgoi here is the Greek rendering of the Latin praetores (praetors), a term which they preferred out of pride to the term duumviri. Since they represented consuls, the praetors or duumvirs were accompanied by lictors bearing rods (Acts 16:35). [source]
Contemptuous use. Being Jews (εκταρασσουσιν Ioudaioi huparchontes). The people of Philippi, unlike those in Antioch (Acts 11:26), did not recognize any distinction between Jews and Christians. These four men were Jews. This appeal to race prejudice would be especially pertinent then because of the recent decree of Claudius expelling Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). It was about a.d. 49 or 50 that Paul is in Philippi. The hatred of the Jews by the Romans is known otherwise (Cicero, Pro Flacco, XXVIII; Juvenal, XIV. 96-106). Do exceedingly trouble Late compound (effective use of ek in composition) and only here in the N.T. [source]
The people of Philippi, unlike those in Antioch (Acts 11:26), did not recognize any distinction between Jews and Christians. These four men were Jews. This appeal to race prejudice would be especially pertinent then because of the recent decree of Claudius expelling Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). It was about a.d. 49 or 50 that Paul is in Philippi. The hatred of the Jews by the Romans is known otherwise (Cicero, Pro Flacco, XXVIII; Juvenal, XIV. 96-106). [source]
Late compound (effective use of ek in composition) and only here in the N.T. [source]
Their usual name was duumviri, answering to the consuls of Rome; but they took pride in calling themselves στρατηγοί , or praetors, as being a more honorable title. This is the only place in the Acts where Luke applies the term to the rulers of a city. See Introduction to Luke. [source]
Who at this time were in special disgrace, having been lately banished from Rome by Claudius (see Acts 18:2). The Philippians do not appear to have recognized the distinction between Christians and Jews.sa40 [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 16:20
Used by Luke alone in the sense of bringing the sick to Christ. He also uses the compound verb προσάγω , which was a common medical term for bringing the sick to a physician, both in that and in other senses. See Luke 9:41; Acts 16:20; Acts 27:27. [source]
Roman towns were of two classes: municipia, or free towns, and colonies. The distinction, however, was not sharply maintained, so that, in some cases, we find the same town bearing both names. The two names involved no difference of right or of privilege. The historical difference between a colony and a free town is, that the free towns were taken into the state from without, while the colonies were offshoots from within. “The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and splendor of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian it was disputed which was the preferable condition, of those societies which had issued from, or those which had been received into, the bosom of Rome” (Gibbon, “Decline and Fall”). The colony was used for three different purposes in the course of Roman history: as a fortified outpost in a conquered country; as a means of providing for the poor of Rome; and as a settlement for veterans who had served their time. It is with the third class, established by Augustus, that we have to do here. The Romans divided mankind into citizens and strangers. An inhabitant of Italy was a citizen; an inhabitant of any other part of the empire was a peregrinusor stranger. The colonial policy abolished this distinction so far as privileges were concerned. The idea of a colony was, that it was another Rome transferred to the soil of another country. In his establishment of colonies, Augustus, in some instances, expelled the existing inhabitants and founded entirely new towns with his colonists; in others, he merely added his settlers to the existing population of the town then receiving the rank and title of a colony. In some instances a place received these without receiving any new citizens at all. Both classes of citizens were in possession of the same privileges, the principal of which were, exemption from scourging, freedom from arrest, except in extreme cases, and, in all cases, the right of appeal from the magistrate to the emperor. The names of the colonists were still enrolled in one of the Roman tribes. The traveller heard the Latin language and was amenable to the Roman law. The coinage of the city had Latin inscriptions. The affairs of the colony were regulated by their own magistrates, named Duumviri, who took pride in calling themselves by the Roman title of praetors (see on Acts 16:20). -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
Note the sharp contrast between “being Jews” in Acts 16:20 and “being Romans” here. This pose of patriotism is all sound and fury. It is love of money that moves these “masters” far more than zeal for Rome. As Roman citizens in a colony they make full use of all their rights of protest. Judaism was a religio licita in the Roman empire, only they were not allowed to make proselytes of the Romans themselves. No Roman magistrate would pass on abstract theological questions (Acts 18:15), but only if a breach of the peace was made (εκταρασσουσιν ημων την πολιν ektarassousin hēmōn tēn polin) or the formation of secret sects and organizations. Evidently both of these last points are involved by the charges of “unlawful customs” by the masters who are silent about their real ground of grievance against Paul and Silas. Ετος Ethos (kin to ητος ēthos 1 Corinthians 15:33) is from ετω ethō to be accustomed or used to a thing. The Romans granted toleration to conquered nations to follow their religious customs provided they did not try to win the Romans. But the Jews had made great headway to favour (the God-fearers) with increasing hatred also. Emperor worship had in store grave peril for both Jews and Christians. The Romans will care more for this than for the old gods and goddesses. It will combine patriotism and piety. [source]
The Silas of the Acts, where alone the form Σίλας occurs. By Paul always Σιλουανός , of which Σίλας is a contraction, as Λουκᾶς from Λουκανός . Similar contractions occur in Class., as Ἁλεξᾶς for Ἁλέξανδρος for Ἁλέξανδρος , and that for Ἁρτεμίδωρος . Silas first appears in Acts 15:22, as one of the bearers of the letter to the Gentile Christians at Antioch. He accompanied Paul on his second missionary tour, and was left behind with Timothy when Paul departed from Macedonia after his first visit. He was probably a Jewish Christian (see Acts 16:20), and was, like Paul, a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37, Acts 16:38). Hence his Roman name. He cannot with any certainty be identified with the Silvanus of 1 Peter 5:12. [source]
Peculiar to John in the New Testament. The absence of the article shows its currency as a proper name. It may mean one who stands against Christ, or one who stands instead of Christ; just as ἀντιστράτηγος may mean either one who stands in the place of a στρατηγός praetora propraetor (see Introd. to Luke, vol. 1, p. 246, and note on Acts 16:20), or an opposing general. John never uses the word ψευδόχριστος falseChrist (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). While the false Christ is merely a pretender to the Messianic office, the Antichrist “assails Christ by proposing to do or to preserve what he did, while denying Him.” Antichrist, then, is one who opposes Christ in the guise of Christ. Westcott's remark is very important, that John's sense of Antichrist is determined by the full Christian conception of Christ, and not by the Jewish conception of the promised Savior. [source]