Acts 9:1 - Exposition

But for and, A.V.; breathing for breathing out, A.V.; threatening for threatenings, A.V. Threatening and slaughter. The phrase ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς κ . τ . λ ., is rather a difficult one, and is variously explained. Schleusner takes the genitives in "threatening and slaughter" as genitives of the thing desired, "punting after threatening and slaughter" (comp. Amos 2:7 ). Meyer explains it "out of the threatenings and murder [in his heart] breathing hard at the disciples"—an expression indicating passion. Alford, taking nearly the sense of the A.V., makes "threatenings and slaughter" to be as it were the very material of his breath, whether breathed out or breathed in. Considering that ἐμπνέω means "to breathe in," as distinguished from ἐκπνέω , "to breathe out," and that these two are opposed to each other in Hippocrates (see Schleusner), the A.V. breathing out cannot be justified; nor is it likely that "Luke the physician" would forget the distinction. The difficulty is to explain the genitive case of "threatenings" and "slaughter." The high priest ; probably the same person who is so described in Acts 7:1 (where see note). If the year with which we are now dealing was the year A.D. 35, Caiaphas was high priest. But Alford, Lewin, Farrar, and others place Saul's conversion in A.D. 37, when Theophilus, son of Annas or Ananus, was high priest (Chronicles Table in Alford's 'Proleg. to Acts').