Vincent's NT Word Studies
22. They gave him audience (hkouon). The imperfect. Up to this word they were listening.Lifted up their voice, etc. "Then began one of the most odious and despicable spectacles which the world can witness, the spectacle of an oriental mob, hideous with impotent rage, howling, yelling, cursing, gnashing their teeth, flinging about their arms, waving and tossing their blue and red robes, casting dust into the air by handfuls, with all the furious gesticulations of an uncontrolled fanaticism" (Farrar). Hackett cites Sir John Chardin ("Travels into Persia and the East Indies") as saying that it is common for the peasants in Persia, when they have a complaint to lay before their governors, to repair to them by hundreds or a thousand at once. They place themselves near the gate of the palace, where they suppose they are most likely to be seen and heard, and there set up a horrid outcry, rend their garments, and throw dust into the air, at the same time demanding justice. Compare 2 Sam. xvi. 13.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
22:22 {They gave him audience} (ekouon). Imperfect active, they kept on listening, at least with respectful attention. {Unto this word} (acri toutou tou logou). But " this word" was like a spark in a powder magazine or a torch to an oil tank. The explosion of pent-up indignation broke out instantly worse than at first (#21:30). {Away with such a fellow from the earth} (aire apo tes ges ton toiouton). They renew the cry with the very words in #21:36, but with "from the earth" for vehemence. {For it is not fit} (ou gar kaqeken). Imperfect active of kaqekw, old verb to come down to, to become, to fit. In the N.T. only here and #Ro 1:28. The imperfect is a neat Greek idiom for impatience about an obligation: It was not fitting, he ought to have been put to death long ago. The obligation is conceived as not lived up to like our "ought" (past of owe). See Robertson, _Grammar_, p. 886.
