Act 17:7-10 | JFB | STEP | 7. all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, &c.—meaning, probably, nothing but what is specified in the next words. saying . . . there is another king, one Jesus

Acts 17:7-10

7. all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, &c.—meaning, probably, nothing but what is specified in the next words.

saying . . . there is another king, one Jesus—(See on Joh 19:12).

5-9. the Jews . . . moved with envy—seeing their influence undermined by this stranger.

lewd fellows of the baser sort—better, perhaps, "worthless market people," that is, idle loungers about the market-place, of indifferent character.

gathered a company—rather, "having raised a mob."

assaulted the house of Jason—with whom Paul and Silas abode (Ac 17:7), one of Paul's kinsmen, apparently (Ro 16:21), and from his name, which was sometimes used as a Greek form of the word Joshua [GROTIUS], probably a Hellenistic Jew.

sought to bring them—Jason's lodgers.

9. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other—"the others"—probably making them deposit a money pledge that the preachers should not again endanger the public peace.

10-12. the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night—for it would have been as useless as rash to attempt any further preaching at that time, and the conviction of this probably made his friends the more willing to pledge themselves against any present continuance of missionary effort.

unto Berea—fifty or sixty miles southwest of Thessalonica; a town even still of considerable population and importance.