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.The word implies a private or confidential hintor reminder.Compare chapter 12:5; Acts 9:16; 20:35.8.Fruits (karpoutwn).Imperfect tense, indicating the frequent repetitionof these questions.Coats (citw~nav).See on Matthew 5:40.12.Publicans (telw~nai).From te>lov, a tax, and wjne>omai, to buy.Thecollectors of Roman imposts.The Romans farmed out the direct taxes andcustoms duties to capitalists, on their payment of a certain sum inpublicum, into the public treasury, whence they were called publicani,publicans.Sometimes this sum, being greater than any one person couldpay, was paid by a company.Under these were the submagistri, living inthe provinces; and under these again the portitores, or actual custom houseofficers, who are referred to by the term telw~nai in the New Testament.They were often chosen from the dregs of the people, and wee sonotorious for their extortions that they were habitually included in thesame category with harlots and sinners. If a Jew could scarcely persuadehimself that it was right to pay taxes, how much more heinous a crimemust it have been in his eyes to become the questionably honestinstrument for collecting them.If a publican was hated, how still moreintense must have been the disgust entertained against a publican who was 316also a Jew (Farrar, Life of Christ ).The word publican, as a popularterm of reproach, was used even by our Lord (Matthew 18:17).Even theGentiles despised them.Farrar cites a Greek saying, All publicans arerobbers. 13.Exact (pra>ssete).The change of the Rev., to exhort is unfortunate.The word is used of the exaction of legal tribute, and excessive exaction isexpressed by the following words: John would hardly have commandedthem to extort in any case.14.Soldiers (strateuo>menoi).Strictly, soldiers on service: hence theparticiple, seving as soldiers, instead of the more comprehensive termstratiw~tai, soldiers by profession.Some explain it of soldiers engaged inpolice inspection in connection with the customs, and hence naturallyassociated with the publicans.What shall we do? The we in the Greek is emphatic, closing the question.Hence Rev., very aptly, and we, what must we do?Do violence (diasei>shte).Only here in New Testament.Lit., to shakeviolently; hence to agitate or terrify; and so to extort money from one byterrifying him.The corresponding Latin word concutere is used by laterwriters in the same sense.Xenophon says of Socrates: I know of his oncehaving heard from Crito that life at Athens was a hard thing for a man whodesired to mind his own business. For, said he, they bring actionsagainst me, not because they are wronged by me, but because they think Iwould rather pay money than have any trouble ( Memorabilia, 2:9, 1).For this process of blackmail, sei>w, to shake, was used.ThusAristophanes ( Knights, 840): Thou shalt make much money byfalsely accusing and frightening (sei>wn te kai~ tara>ttwn).And again ( Peace, 639): And of their allies they falsely accused (e]seion) the substantial and rich 317The word in this passage of Luke has the later, secondary meaning,toextort; and therefore the American Revisers rightly insist on, extort fromno man by violence.It is used by medical writers, as, for instance, byHippocrates, of shaking the palsied or benumbed limbs of a patient; or of ashaking by which the liver was relieved of an obstruction.Luke also usestwo other compounds of the verb sei>w: katasei>w, to beckon, Acts 12:17(peculiar to Luke); and ajnase>iw, to stir up, which occurs also in Mark15:11.Both these are also used by medical writers.Accuse any falsely (sukofanth>shte).The common explanation of thisword is based on the derivation from su~kon, a fig, and fai>nw, to makeknown; hence of informing against persons who exported figs from Attica,contrary to the law, or who plundered sacred fig trees.As informers weretempted to accuse innocent persons by the reward paid for pointing outviolators of the law, the verb acquired the meaning to accuse falsely.Suchis the old explanation, which is now rejected by scholars, though the realexplanation is merely conjectural.The fig tree was the pride of Attica,ranking with honey and olives as one of the principal products, and thereis no authority for the statement that there was a time when figs werescarce, and required legal protection against export.Neither is it proventhat there was a sacred kind of fig.Rettig, in an interesting paper in the Studien und Kritiken (1838), explains that, as tribute in Attica was paidin kind as well as in money, and as figs represented a great deal ofproperty, there was a temptation to make false returns of the amount offigs to the assessors; and that thus a class of informers arose who detectedand reported these false returns, and received a percentage of the finewhich was imposed.These were known as fig-shewers.Another writerhas suggested that the reference is to one who brings figs to light byshaking the tree; and so, metaphorically, to one who makes rich men yieldup the fruits of their labor or rascality by false accusation [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]