Acts 14:13. But the priest (then officiating) of the Zeus, who is before the city, i.e. of the Zeus (πολιεύς), who had his seat in a temple in front of the city. ἱεροῦ is not to be supplied, with Kuinoel and others (see Bernhardy, p. 184 f.), as τοῦ Διός is the genitive directly belonging to ἱερεύς; but the expression τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλ. is explained from the heathen conception that the god himself is present in his temple, consequently is (ὄντος) at the place where his temple stands: hence the classical expressions παρʼ Διΐ (ad fanum Jovis), παρ ̓ Ἥρῃ (Jacobs, ad Del. epigr. p. 229). Wolf thinks that it is spoken “de Jove, cujus simulacrum (and so not templum) ante urbem erectum erat.” But mere statues had no special priests. See Valckenaer, Opusc. II. p. 295, and Schol. I. p. 509. It does not, however, follow from this passage, that there was also a temple of Jupiter in the city (Olshausen).

ταύρους καὶ στέμματα] bulls and garlands. “Taurus tibi, summe Deorum,” Ovid. Metam. iv. 755. Beza, Calovius, Raphel, Erasmus Schmid, Palairet, Morus, Heinrichs, and others, have quite erroneously assumed a hendiadys for ταύρους ἐστεμμένους. This would come back to the absurd idea: bulls and, indeed, garlands. See Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 856. Winer, p. 585 [E. T. 786]. The destination of the garlands is, moreover, not to be referred to the deified apostles (in opposition to Grotius and Valckenaer), who (like statues, comp. ep. Jerem. 9) were to have been adorned; but to the animals that were to be adorned therewith at the commencement of the sacrifice (see Wetstein and Dougtaeus, Anal. p. 80 ff.; Hermann, gottesd. Alterth. § 24. 7), because the design of the garlands is included in the ἤθελε θύειν.

ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας] to the gates (doors of the gate), namely, of the city. This reference is required by the correlation in which ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας stands to τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς πόλεως. The alleged incarnate gods were in the city, and therefore the sacrifice was to be brought at the gates of the city. The reference to the doors of the temple (οἱ μὲν ἱεροὶ τοῦ νεὼ πυλῶνες, Plut. Tim. 12), or of the house where the apostles lodged, is not in keeping with the context.

Acts 14:13. ὁ δὲ ἱερεὺς. Plural in ; strongly rejected by Blass, with other details. Ramsay defends (p. 118), and points out that at each of the great temples in Asia Minor a college of priests would be in regular service: see also Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 52, 53.—τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς π. αὐτῶν, see critical notes. R.V., omitting αὐτῶν, renders “whose temple was before the city,” i.e., enshrined in the temple outside the gate as the protecting deity. Zöckler, with Ramsay, compares “Ζωῦς Προάστιος” on an inscription at Claudiopolis, cf. also παρὰ Διΐ (= ad fanum Jovis), παρʼ Ἥρῃ, and modern, the name of a church in Rome, “S. Paolo fuori le mura” (see also Holtzmann and Wendt). Here again the reading of [267] seems to bring out the technical force of the phrase more accurately, τοῦ ὄντος Δ. πρὸ πόλεως (so Blass in [268])—possibly = Προπόλεως (cf. an unpublished inscription of Smyrna with the phrase ἱέρεια πρὸ πόλεως or Προπόλεως). In this phrase, as read in , the force of the participle is retained in a way characteristic of Acts, as almost = τοῦ ὀνομαζομένου: see on Acts 13:1, a characteristic lost by the transposition of ὄντος; see on the whole question Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 51 ff., and also on the possible site of the temple. The words cannot refer to the statue of Jupiter (so lately Rendall), to which no priests would be attached. See Blass in Studien u. Kritiken, 1900, p. 27, n. 1.—ταύρους καὶ στέμματα: brought by the ministri who would be included in the generic term priests. On the sacrifice of a bull to Jupiter, Ovid, Met., iv., 755, as also to Mercury, Persius, Sat., ii., 44. On the garlands to wreathe and adorn the victims, Æneid, v., 366; Eur., Heracl., 529, perhaps also for the priests and the altars, the doors, and the attendants; see instances in Wetstein, and cf. Tertullian, De Corona, x. The words do not refer to the Apostles; the aim seems to be indicated in ἤθελε θύειν.—ἐπὶ τοὺς πυλῶνας: some see a reference to the gates of the city, mainly because of the collocation τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ τῆς Π. Blass supposes that the priest came from the temple outside to the city gates, but in that case Ramsay urges that Lucan usage would = πύλη rather than πυλών, cf. Acts 9:24, Acts 16:13. Others take it of the gates of the temple in front of which the altar stood, cf. οἱ μὲν ἱεροὶ τοῦ νεὼ πυλῶνες, Plut., Tim., 12. Ramsay suggests that the priests probably prepared their sacrifices at the outer gateway of the temple grounds, as something beyond the usual ritual, and so not to be performed at one of the usual places, cf. ἐπιθύειν ; St. Paul, p. 119. Others again refer the words to the gates leading into the atrium or courtyard of the house in which the Apostles were lodging, partly on the ground that the word ἐξεπήδησαν is best referred to the house (cf. Jdt 14:17, and Susannah, Acts ver. 39). But the verb may mean that they ran hastily out of the city to the temple, and there mingled with the crowd: in 2Ma 3:18 the same verb is used of a general rush of the people to the temple for supplication to heaven.—ἤθελε θύειν: What was his motive? Was he acting in good faith, or out of complaisant regard to the wishes of the multitude (Ewald), or for the sake of gain? On the attitude of the native priests see Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 144. In the present instance it would appear that they had known of the Apostles’ preaching for some time at all events, and also, it may be, of its success, cf. ., Acts 14:7, critical notes, and apparently they were willing to honour the Apostles with divine honours, and to turn the religious revival to their own ends.

[267] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[268] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

13. the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city] i.e. “whose temple was before their city.” He was their tutelar divinity, and it was to his priest that the people ran with their cry, and brought him, with all the preparations for a sacrifice, to the gate of the house where the Apostles were lodged.

brought oxen and garlands] The latter were sometimes put on the heads of the victims, and sometimes used by the worshippers for their own decorations at religious rites. Probably in this case they were meant to make gay some temporary altar.

unto the gates] The word here used in the original is the same which is used for the porch or vestibule of the house of Mary the mother of John Mark (Mark 12:14), and that is its sense here. The Apostles were within the house, and as it was meet to offer the victims to the supposed gods in their presence rather than on the altar at Jupiter’s temple, it was to the house of their host that the procession came.

Acts 14:13. Τοῦ ὄντος πρὸ, which was before) Therefore they had an idol and shrine outside the gate.—ταύρους, bulls) A bull especially used to he immolated to Jupiter.—στέμματα, garlands) to be placed upon the bulls. They were in haste.—θύειν, to sacrifice) to perform divine worship.

Verse 13. - And for then, A.V.; whose temple was before the city for which was before their city, A.V. and T.R.; the multitudes for the people, A.V., as in ver. 12. The priest of Jupiter. The words, ὁ δὲ ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ ὄντες κ.τ.λ., may be construed in two ways - either as in the A.V., or the priest of the temple of Jupiter, etc., understanding, by a common ellipse, ἱεροῦ, or, ναοῦ, after Διός, as in the Latin phrase," Ubi ad Dianae veneris;" "When you come to the temple of Diana," etc. But it is not a Greek phrase to speak of Jupiter being before the city, meaning the temple of Jupiter. Therefore the proper way of translating is to take the full phrase as being ὁ ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διός ναοῦ or ἰεροῦ, the article τοῦ belonging to ναοῦ, and Διός being, as in so many instances, without the article (see Matthew, 'Gr. Gr.,' 281). The gates; viz. of the city. The temple was just outside the gates; the lame man, it is likely, sat inside near the gates through which men were passing in and out. Paul and Barnabas would address the -people in the square or open space inside the gates. Seeing a stir at the gates, and hearing that it was the priest of Jupiter coming with oxen and garlands to sacrifice to them, they immediately ran forward to prevent it. The ox was the proper sacrifice for Jupiter. Acts 14:13Of Jupiter (τοῦ Διὸς)

Properly, the Jupiter, the tutelary deity of Lystra. It is unnecessary to supply temple, as Rev. The god himself was regarded as present in his temple.

The gates (πυλῶνας)

What gates are intended is uncertain. Some say, the city gates; others, the temple gates; and others, the doors of the house in which Paul and Barnabas were residing. See on Acts 12:13.

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