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:13; 7:9; 13:45; 14:2,19; 18:12 Pr 14:30 Isa 26:11 Mt 27:18 1Co 3:3

Verse 5. The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them] Instead of this sentence, the most correct MSS. and versions read simply, proslabomenoi de oi ioudaioi. But the Jews taking, &c., leaving out the words, zhlwsantev, apeiqountev, which believed not, moved with envy: these words do not appear to be genuine; there is the strongest evidence against them, and they should be omitted.

Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort] This is not a very intelligible translation. The original is, twn agoraiwn tinav andoav ponhrouv. The word agoraioi, which we translate the baser sort, is by Hesychius explained, oi en agora anastrefomenoi, those who transact business in courts of justice. The same word is used by the Jews in Hebrew letters to signify judges; and �ywg l� twayrwga agorioth shel goyim, signifies judges of the Gentiles. These were probably a low kind of lawyers, what we would call pettifoggers, or attorneys without principle, who gave advice for a trifle, and fomented disputes and litigations among the people.

The Itala version of the Codex Bezae calls them quosdam forenses, certain lawyers. As the Jews, from their small number, could not easily raise up a mob, they cunningly employed those unprincipled men, who probably had a certain degree of juridical credit and authority, to denounce the apostles as seditious men; and this was, very likely, the reason why they employed those in preference to any others. They were such as always attended forensic litigations, waiting for a job, and willing to defend any side of a question for money. They were wicked men of the forensic tribe.

Gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar] And, after having made this sedition and disturbance, charged the whole on the peaceable and innocent apostles! This is precisely the same way that persecution against the truth and followers of Christ is still carried on.

Some wicked man in the parish gets a wicked attorney and a constable to head a mob, which they themselves have raised; and, having committed a number of outrages, abusing men and women, haul the minister of Christ to some magistrate who knows as little of his office as he cares for the Gospel; they there charge the outrages which themselves have committed on the preacher and his peaceable hearers; and the peacemaker, appointed by a good king, according to the wise and excellent regulations of a sound constitution, forgetting whose minister he is, neither administers justice nor maintains truth; but, espousing the part of the mob, assumes, ex officio, the character of a persecutor. The preacher is imprisoned, his hearers fined for listening to that Gospel which has not only made them wise unto salvation, but also peaceable and orderly citizens, and which would have had the same effect on the unprincipled magistrate, the parish squire, and the mob, had they heard it with the same reverence and respect.

Had I not witnessed such scenes, and such prostitution of justice, I could not have described them.

Assaulted the house of Jason] This was the place where the apostles lodged; and therefore his goods were clear spoil, and his person fair game.

This is a case which frequently occurs where the Gospel is preached in its spirit and power. And, even in this moat favoured kingdom, the most scandalous excesses of this kind have been committed, and a justice of the peace has been found to sanction the proceedings; and, when an appeal has been made to the laws, a grand jury has been found capable of throwing out the true bill!

Ver. 5. But the Jews which believed not , etc.] The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions leave out the words, �which believed not�; but whether this character is expressed or not, it is certain that the unbelieving Jews are here intended: moved with envy ; at the success of the apostles, many of their own people and of their proselytes, and some of the better sort being converted by them: or �with zeal�; for what they called the glory of God, but it was not according to knowledge; it was a blind and ignorant zeal, a zeal for the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, and for the traditions of the elders: took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort ; or of the market folks, who sat and sold things in the market, and were generally of the meaner and vulgar sort, as the word may signify; or who stood idle in the market place, squandering away their time in an idle manner, not caring to work, and so were fit persons, and who could easily be gathered together, for such service as the unbelieving Jews employed them in; or they were a sort of officers and servants, that attended courts of judicature, and cited persons thither, and assisted in the business done there, and who were commonly men of profligate and abandoned lives: and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar ; they raised a mob, and made a clamour, which brought people out of their houses to inquire what was the matter, and so gave great disturbance and uneasiness to the inhabitants: and assaulted the house of Jason : who by what follows appears to have been a disciple of Christ, a believer in him, and the host of the apostle and his companions, who being an inhabitant of Thessalonica, at least having a dwelling house there, received them into it. This Jason is said to be one of the seventy disciples, and afterwards bishop of Tarsus, but this is not certain; nor whether he was a Jew or a Greek, very probably the former: we read of Jason the brother of Onias the high priest, a Jew, ``But after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias laboured underhand to be high priest,� (2 Maccabees 4:7) whose name was Jesus, the same with Joshua, but as Josephus says, he called himself Jason; and so this man�s Hebrew name might be Jesus or Joshua, and his Greek name Jason; and very likely he was a believer in Christ before the apostle came to Thessalonica, and it may be is the same who is spoken of in ( Romans 16:21). (See Gill on � Romans 16:21�). Some of the ancients make mention of a disputation between Jason, a Christian Hebrew, and Papiscus, an Alexandrian Jew, but there is no reason to believe that he is the Jason here spoken of: and sought to bring them out to the people ; they expected to have found Paul and Silas in Jason�s house, where they lodged, and their intention was to have dragged them out and exposed them to popular fury, to be beaten or stoned by the people; and so the Arabic version reads, �requiring those two apostles, that they might set them before the people�; or put them into the hands of the mob, which they had gathered, to do as they would with them.