Q.-Acts 19:1515And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? (Acts 19:15). Dr. J. B. Lightfoot in his Fresh Revision of the N.T. 4 §3 (p. 60) speaks of “the distinction which is effected by the insertion of the article before the one name and the omission before the other,” &c. But this is not the fact, though he cites the Greek expressly, and wrongly, just before. He was eminently learned, and usually most accurate. How can we account for the statement? R.
A.-It is a striking proof that good Homer sometimes nods. Not only no known MS. bears him out, but the supposed omission would be in this case impossible Greek. The repeated article is even more requisite than the separate verbs, γ. I know or acknowledge, έπ. I am acquainted with. It is to be presumed that in a later edition so glaring and of course unwitting a mistake must have been corrected; I have only the first before me.