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Acts 9:33

And there he found a certain man named AEneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.

And there he found a certain man,.... In a house in that city, into which he entered:

named AEneas; which is a Gentile name, and so might the person be; though there is mention made of this name among the Jews. We read of one R. Samuel Bar, ayyna "Aenea, or Aeneas" {l}; but it was more common among the Greeks. Aeneas the Trojan is well known in history, who, after the destruction of Troy, went into Italy, and settled there; and from him the Trojans are sometimes called Aeneadae. The name comes from the Greek word ainw, "ainoo", which signifies "to praise"; and Aeneas is one "worthy of praise": though Jerom {m} takes it to be an Hebrew name, which he interprets "one that answers", or a "poor man", or "misery"; as if it came from the Hebrew word hne, "anah", which signifies "to answer, or to afflict".

which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy; so that the distemper was grown stubborn, and thought incurable; nor perhaps had he, or his friends, any hope of his ever being restored to health again.


{l} T. Hieros. Yebamot, fol. 6. 2. & Midrash Kohelet, fol. 73. 3.
{m} De Nominibus Hebraicis, fol. 105. H.

 

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