Acts 1:13 - Exposition
The upper chamber for an upper room, A.V.; where they were abiding for where abode, A.V.; son of James for brother of James, A.V. The upper chamber ; perhaps the same room where they had eaten the Passover with Christ ( Luke 22:12 ); but this is very uncertain, though affirmed by Epiphanius, and by Nicephorus, who further relates that the very house in which the upper chamber was built into the back part of the temple which the Empress Helena erected on Mount Sion. The word here is ὑπερῷον , there it is ἀνώγεον . The ὑπερῷον (Hebrew הָיּלעֲ , 2 Kings 4:10 , 2 Kings 4:11 ) was the room immediately under the roof; the ἀνώγεον was synonymous. Where they were abiding. A slight change in the order of the words, as adopted in the text of the R.V., makes Peter and the other apostles the nominative case to the verb "went up," instead of, as in the A.V., to "abode." In regard to the list of the apostles which follows, it may be noticed first, that it is identical with that of Luke 6:14-16 , except in the omission of Judas Iscariot and the order in which the apostles are named. The order in Luke seems to have followed that of natural birth and association. The brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, are classed together; Philip and Bartholomew, or Nathanael, go together, and so on. But in this list John follows Peter, his close companion in missionary work ( Acts 3:1 , etc.; Acts 4:12 ; Acts 8:14 ); James follows instead of preceding John; and others are classed somewhat differently, for reasons probably analogous, but which we know not. Of the other lists that in Mark 3:16-19 agrees most nearly with that before us. In all, Simon Peter stands first. The Jude of Luke 6:16 (comp. Jud Luke 1:1 ) and Acts 1:13 is called Thaddaeus in Matthew 10:3 (" Lebbaeus whose surname was Thaddaeus," A.V.) and in Mark 3:18 ; but no doubt the persons are the same. In all the lists Philip stands fifth. In three Bartholomew is sixth, while in the list in Acts his being named after Thomas makes him seventh. In all the lists James the son of Alphaeus is ninth, and Judas Iscariot the last, except in the Acts, where he is not named, being already dead. The underwritten columns give the four lists in one view:—
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