house," a version which is still supported by many names of high authority; but the attendant circumstances here seem to justify this variation from them. A reference to the passage will show that the historian is speaking of their regular unanimous attendance in the temple, and says, "they attended every day with one accord in the temple," that is, during the regular hours of daily worship, but as they would not suffer untimely devotion to interfere with their reasonable conveniences, he adds, "they broke bread," (a Hebraistic form of expression for simply "taking food,") "at home, and partook of their food in humility and thankfulness." This seems to me, to require a sort of opposition in sense between [Greek: hieron], (hieron,) "temple," and [Greek: oikos], (oikos,) "house" or "home," for it seems as if the writer of the Acts wished in these few words, to give a complete account of the manner in which they occupied themselves, devoting all their time to public devotion in the temple except that, as was most seemly, they returned to their houses to take their neeessary food, which they did humbly and joyfully. But the distributive force which some wish to put upon [Greek: kat' oikon], by translating it "from house to house," is one which does not seem to be required at all by any thing in the connection, and one which needs a vast deal of speculation and explanation to make it appear why they should go "from house to house," about so simple a matter of fact as that of eating their victuals, which every man could certainly do to best advantage at one steady boarding-place. That the expression, [Greek: kat' oikon], most commonly means "at home," is abundantly proved by standard common Greek usage, as shown in the best Lexicons. But [Greek: kata], in connexion with a singular noun, has the distributive force only when the noun itself is of such a character and connection in the sentence as to require this meaning. Thus [Greek: kata mêna], would hardly ever be suspected of any other meaning than "monthly," or "every month," or "from month to month;"—so [Greek: kata poleis] means "from city to city," but the singular [Greek: kata polin], almost uniformly means "in a city," without any distributive application, except where the other words in the sentence imply this idea. (Acts xv. 21: xx. 23.) But here the simple common meaning of the proposition [Greek: kata], when governing the accusative, (that is, the meaning of "at" or "in" a place,) is not merely allowed, but required by the other words in the connection, in order to give a meaning which requires no other explanation, and which corresponds to the word "temple" in the other clause; for the whole account seems to require an opposition in these words, as describing the two places where the disciples passed their time.
There are great names, however, opposed to this view, which seem enough to overpower almost any testimony that can be brought in defense of an interpretation which they reject. Among these are Kuinoel, Rosenmueller, Ernesti, and Bloomfield, whose very names will perhaps weigh more with many, than the hasty statement of the contrary view which I am able here to give. Yet I am not wholly without the support of high authorities; for De Dieu, Bengel, Heinrichs, Hammond, and Oecumenius, reject the distributive sense here.
THE CURE OF THE CRIPPLE.
In the course of these regular religious observances, about the same time or soon after the events just recorded, Peter and John went up to the temple to pray, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the usual hour for the second public prayers. As they went in at the outer gate of the temple, which being made of polished Corinthian brass, was for its splendor called the Beautiful, their attention was called to one of the objects of pity which were so common on those great days of assembly, about the common places of resort. A man, who, by universal testimony, had been a cripple from his birth, was lying in a helpless attitude at this public entrance, in order to excite the compassion of the crowds who were constantly passing into the temple, and were in that place so much under the influence of religious feeling as to
