To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.
To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest. [Lachmann and Tischendorf leave out pantes (G3956), but all the leading, manuscripts have it; and instead of being inserted to 'fill up the sense,' as Alford says, it was far more likely to be left out just because the sense was filled up by what follows.]
Saying, This man is the great power of God - or, according to the reading which has far the greatest authority [of 'Aleph (') A B C D E, etc., the Vulgate, and other ancient versions], 'This is that power of God which is called great' х Houtos (G3778) estin (G2076) hee (G3588) dunamis (G1411) tou (G3588) Theou (G2316) hee (G3588) kaloumenee (G2564) megalee (G3173)]; that power which is by all of us acknowledged to be pre-eminent-a sort of incarnation of divinity. The learned efforts to identify this impostor, and to collect the particulars of his life and opinions have issued in little that is satisfactory. All that probably can be depended on is, what Justin Martyr (himself a native of this region) attests, that he was a Samaritan. That after his exposure and rejection by the apostles he attempted to combine a corrupt form of Christianity with Oriental or Grecian philosophy (Irenoeus, in the second century, calls him the master and progenitor of all heretics) - is simply not improbable, in which case he may be considered as heralding other and more systematic efforts in the same direction afterward. The Tubingen critics, as might be expected, take advantage of the legendary character of some of these traditions, and the uncertainty attaching to all of them, to impugn the historical credibility of this whole narrative-a method of criticism which would destroy the credit of much in ancient history that rests on the surest evidence.