KJV: And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.
YLT: And they said unto him, 'We did neither receive letters concerning thee from Judea, nor did any one who came of the brethren declare or speak any evil concerning thee,
Darby: And they said to him, For our part, we have neither received letters from Judaea concerning thee, nor has any one of the brethren who has arrived reported or said anything evil concerning thee.
ASV: And they said unto him, We neither received letters from Judaea concerning thee, nor did any of the brethren come hither and report or speak any harm of thee.
| Οἱ | - |
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Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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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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| οὔτε | neither |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: οὔτε Sense: neither, and not. |
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| γράμματα | letters |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Plural Root: γράμμα Sense: a letter. |
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| περὶ | concerning |
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Parse: Preposition Root: περί Sense: about, concerning, on account of, because of, around, near. |
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| ἐδεξάμεθα | received |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Middle, 1st Person Plural Root: δέχομαι Sense: to take with the hand. |
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| τῆς | - |
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Parse: Article, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| Ἰουδαίας | Judea |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: Ἰουδαία Sense: in a narrower sense, to the southern portion of Palestine lying on this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea. |
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| οὔτε | nor |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: οὔτε Sense: neither, and not. |
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| παραγενόμενός | having arrived |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Middle, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: παραγίνομαι Sense: to be present, to come near, approach. |
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| τις | any |
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Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: τὶς Sense: a certain, a certain one. |
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| τῶν | of the |
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Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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| ἀδελφῶν | brothers |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ἀδελφός Sense: a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother. |
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| ἀπήγγειλεν | reported |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἀγγέλλω Sense: to bring tidings (from a person or a thing), bring word, report. |
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| ἐλάλησέν | said |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἀπολαλέω Sense: to utter a voice or emit a sound. |
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| τι | anything |
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Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: τὶς Sense: a certain, a certain one. |
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| πονηρόν | evil |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: πονηρός Sense: full of labours, annoyances, hardships. |
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Greek Commentary for Acts 28:21
Official documents from the Sanhedrin about the charges against Paul. [source]
Evil (πονηρον ponēron). The three aorists (εδεχαμετα απηγγειλεν ελαλησεν edexamethaapēggeileelalēsen) cover the past. These Jews do not mean to say that they had never heard of Paul. It is hardly likely that they had heard of his appeal to Caesar, “for how could the news have reached Rome before Paul?” (Page). [source]
The three aorists (εδεχαμετα απηγγειλεν ελαλησεν edexamethaapēggeileelalēsen) cover the past. These Jews do not mean to say that they had never heard of Paul. It is hardly likely that they had heard of his appeal to Caesar, “for how could the news have reached Rome before Paul?” (Page). [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 28:21
It is important to understand the precise sense of this word, because it goes to determine whether Jesus intended an antithesis between Moses' writings and His own words, or simply between Moses ( ἐκείνου ) and Himself ( ἐμοῖς ). Γράμμα primarily means what is written. Hence it may describe either a single character or a document. From this general notion several forms develop themselves in the New Testament. The word occurs in its narrower sense of characters, at Luke 23:38; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Galatians 6:11. In Acts 28:21, it means official communications. Paul, with a single exception (2 Corinthians 3:7), uses it of the letter of scripture as contrasted with its spirit (Romans 2:27, Romans 2:29; Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6). In Luke 16:6, Luke 16:7, it denotes a debtor's bond (A.V., bill ). In John 7:15, Acts 26:24) it is used in the plural as a general term for scriptural and Rabbinical learning. Compare Sept., Isaiah 29:11, Isaiah 29:12) where a learned man is described as ἐπιτάμενος γράμματα , acquainted with letters. Once it is used collectively of the sacred writings - the scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15), though some give it a wider reference to Rabbinical exegesis, as well as to scripture itself. Among the Alexandrian Greeks the term is not confined to elementary instruction, but includes exposition, based, however, on critical study of the text. The tendency of such exegesis was often toward mystical and allegorical interpretation, degenerating into a petty ingenuity in fixing new and recondite meanings upon the old and familiar forms. This was illustrated by the Neo-Platonists' expositions of Homer, and by the Rabbinical exegesis. Men unacquainted with such studies, especially if they appeared as public teachers, would be regarded as ignorant by the Jews of the times of Christ and the Apostles. Hence the question respecting our Lord Himself: How knoweth this man letters ( γράμματα John 7:15)? Also the comment upon Peter and John (Acts 4:13) that they were unlearned ( ἀγράμματοι ). Thus, too, those who discovered in the Old Testament scriptures references to Christ, would be stigmatized by Pagans, as following the ingenious and fanciful method of the Jewish interpreters, which they held in contempt. Some such feeling may have provoked the words of Festus to Paul: Much learning ( πολλά γράμματα ) doth make thee mad (Acts 26:24). It is well known with what minute care the literal transcription of the sacred writings was guarded. The Scribes ( γραμματεῖς ) were charged with producing copies according to the letter ( κατὰ τὸ γράμμα ). -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- The one passage in second Timothy cannot be urged in favor of the general use of the term for the scriptures, especially since the best texts reject the article before ἱερὰ γράμμα , so that the meaning is apparently more general: “thou hast known sacred writings.” The familiar formula for the scriptures was αἱ γραφαὶ ἁγίαι . A single book of the collection of writings was known as βιβλίον (Luke 4:17), or βίβλος (Luke 20:42); never γραφή , which was the term for a particular passage. See on Mark 12:10. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- It seems to me, therefore, that the antithesis between the writings of Moses, superstitiously reverenced in the letter, and minutely and critically searched and expounded by the Jews, and the living words ( ῥήμασιν , see on Luke 1:37), is to be recognized. This, however, need not exclude the other antithesis between Moses and Jesus personally. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
Dative case with πιστυετε pistuete See Luke 16:31 for a like argument. The authority of Moses was the greatest of all for Jews. There is a contrast also between writings Γραμμα Gramma may mean the mere letter as opposed to spirit (2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 2:27, Romans 2:29; Romans 7:6), a debtor‘s bond (Luke 16:6.), letters or learning (John 7:15; Acts 26:24) like αγραμματοι agrammatoi for unlearned (Acts 4:13), merely written characters (Luke 23:38; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Galatians 6:11), official communications (Acts 28:21), once ιερα γραμματα hiera grammata for the sacred writings (2 Timothy 3:15) instead of the more usual αι αγιαι γραπαι hai hagiai graphai Γραπη Graphē is used also for a single passage (Mark 12:10), but βιβλιον biblion for a book or roll (Luke 4:17) or βιβλος biblos (Luke 20:42). Jesus clearly states the fact that Moses wrote portions of the Old Testament, what portions he does not say. See also Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44 for the same idea. There was no answer from the rabbis to this conclusion of Christ. The scribes (οι γραμματεις hoi grammateis) made copies according to the letter (κατα το γραμμα kata to gramma). [source]
Picturesque imperfect active of ταυμαζω thaumazō “were wondering.” After all the bluster of the rulers (John 7:13) here was Jesus teaching without interruption. Knoweth letters Second perfect active indicative used as present. Γραμματα Grammata old word from γραπω graphō to write, is originally the letters formed (Galatians 6:11), then a letter or epistle (Acts 28:21), then the sacred Scriptures (John 5:47; 2 Timothy 3:15), then learning like Latin litterae and English letters (Acts 26:24; John 7:15). “The marvel was that Jesus showed Himself familiar with the literary methods of the time, which were supposed to be confined to the scholars of the popular teachers” (Westcott). Having never learned Perfect active participle of μαντανω manthanō with μη mē the usual negative (subjective) with the participle. It is not the wisdom of Jesus that disconcerted the Jewish leaders, but his learning (Marcus Dods). And yet Jesus had not attended either of the rabbinical theological schools in Jerusalem (Hillel, Shammai). He was not a rabbi in the technical sense, only a carpenter, and yet he surpassed the professional rabbis in the use of their own methods of debate. It is sometimes true today that unschooled men in various walks of life forge ahead of men of lesser gifts with school training. See the like puzzle of the Sanhedrin concerning Peter and John (Acts 4:13). This is not an argument against education, but it takes more than education to make a real man. Probably this sneer at Jesus came from some of the teachers in the Jerusalem seminaries. “Christ was in the eyes of the Jews a merely self-taught enthusiast” (Westcott). [source]
Note particularly the absence of the article. Γράμματα is used in N.T. in several senses. Of characters of the alphabet (2 Corinthians 3:7; Galatians 6:11): of a document (Luke 16:6, take thy bill )epistles (Acts 28:21): of the writings of an author collectively (John 5:47): of learning (Acts 26:24, πολλά γράμματρα muchlearning ). In lxx, ἐπιστάμενος γράμματα knowinghow to read (Isaiah 29:11, Isaiah 29:12). The Holy Scriptures are nowhere called ἱερὰ γράμματα in N.T. In lxx, γράμματα is never used of sacred writings of any kind. Both Josephus and Philo use τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα for the O.T. Scriptures. The words here should be rendered sacred learning. The books in the writer's mind were no doubt the Old Testament. Scriptures, in which Timothy, like every Jewish boy, had been instructed; but he does not mean to designate those books as ἱερὰ γράμματα . He means the learning acquired from Scripture by the rabbinic methods, according to which the Old Testament books were carefully searched for meanings hidden in each word and letter, and especially for messianic intimations. Specimens of such learning may be seen here and there in the writings of Paul as 1 Corinthians 9:9f.; 1 Corinthians 10:1f.; Galatians 3:16.; Galatians 4:21f. In Acts 4:13, the council, having heard Peter's speech, in which he interpreted Psalm 118:22and Isaiah 28:16of Christ, at once perceived that Peter and John were ἀγράμματοι , not versed in the methods of the schools. Before Agrippa, Paul drew the doctrine of the Resurrection from the Old Testament, whereupon Festus exclaimed, “much learning ( πολλὰ γράμματα , thy acquaintance with the exegesis of the schools) hath made thee mad” (Acts 26:24). To Agrippa, who was “expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews” (Acts 26:3), the address of Paul, a pupil of Hillel, was not surprising, although he declared that Paul's reasoning did not appeal to him. In John 7:15, when Jesus taught in the temple, the Jews wondered and said: “How knoweth this man letters? ” That a Jew should know the Scriptures was not strange. The wonder lay in the exegetical skill of one who had not been trained by the literary methods of the time. [source]
“Sacred writings” or “Holy Scriptures.” Here alone in N.T., though in Josephus (Proem to Ant. 3; Apion 1, etc.) and in Philo. The adjective ιερος hieros occurs in 1 Corinthians 9:13 of the temple worship, and γραμμα gramma in contrast to πνευμα pneuma in 2 Corinthians 3:6.; Romans 2:29 and in John 5:47 of Moses‘ writings, in Acts 28:21 of an epistle, in Galatians 6:11 of letters (characters). In Ephesus there were Επεσια γραμματα Ephesia grammata that were βεβηλα bebēla (Acts 19:19), not ιερα hiera [source]
Present active indicative, progressive perfect reaching from a babe till now. Would that Christian parents took like pains today. The sacred writings (ιερα γραμματα hiera grammata). “Sacred writings” or “Holy Scriptures.” Here alone in N.T., though in Josephus (Proem to Ant. 3; Apion 1, etc.) and in Philo. The adjective ιερος hieros occurs in 1 Corinthians 9:13 of the temple worship, and γραμμα gramma in contrast to πνευμα pneuma in 2 Corinthians 3:6.; Romans 2:29 and in John 5:47 of Moses‘ writings, in Acts 28:21 of an epistle, in Galatians 6:11 of letters (characters). In Ephesus there were Επεσια γραμματα Ephesia grammata that were βεβηλα bebēla (Acts 19:19), not ιερα hiera To make thee wise First aorist active infinitive of σοπιζω sophizō old verb (from σοπος sophos), in N.T. only here, and 2 Peter 1:16. Which is in (της εν tēs en). Common idiom with the article, “the in.” The use of the Scriptures was not magic, but of value when used “through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” [source]