bi hel 8 he ha: ocleny vista ide Gan ele wy Be. Re ee ee Petes os OL 8 at aOR ether Ty eens BN As ome Ox ELS Came eet at oes tees. ’ Att, WT AER ] rteeditS ve 0K S PRPS PRI es" rs wows? : Mire 0 ot atte: co nba tate ot bene wan dane nt he et ee ee rd + Panta deh Tar ete eeeeore A pres Senos penn naee Teor w omy s B eee: eet Sele gh i i 4 3 7. | $ 1 Ff ‘2 i : ; : 4 The vanseth © EN where LHW, Bry LAS ou ite Tee ete, 1 beh end ema babensbig tna wlte! tate se aiibedea, SEEwaar IES FC aoa SS Ashe pe A eel pean OPES AR ee re RUINS OF THE SITE OF EPHESUS. te PEOPLE’S EDITION. THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF BAINT PAUL. il BY THE REV. W J. CONYBEARE, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND THE REV. J. 8. HOWSON, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION, LIVERPOOL, NEW YORK “CHICAGO TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature 1911. PREFAOK TO THE PEOPLE’S EDITION. HOUGH the death of one of ‘the writers of this book has now thrown the sole responsibility of revision on the sur- vivor, the plan of a “People’s Edition” was contemplated by both writers from the time when the first edition was published. The survivor, in doing his best, while his life was yet spared, to prepare for a wider circle of readers a book which has been received with remarkable favor, has found, however, the execu- tion of the plan beset with peculiar difficulties. The simplest course would have been to give the text of the work without the notes; but it was soon seen that many parts of the narrative would thus have been left destitute of important illustration, and many passages of the Epistles would have embarrassed, rather than helped, the mere English reader. On the assumption, then, that some of the notes must be retained, a question arose as to the selection. The writer of this preface might easily have cut down his own notes to a very narrow compass; but how was he to deal with the notes of a friend whom he could not consult? To have omitted nearly all the former, and to have retained all the latter, would have been to disturb the whole symmetry of the book. Then came the ee Ra that, so far as the f7 Vv vi PREFACE TO THE PEOPLE’S EDITION. notes were criticisms of passages in the New Testament, they were, in the two former editions, based on the original text. Ex- clusion or adaptation in all such cases was necessary for the reader who is presumed not to know Greek. But criticisms of this kind are, of course, by far the most frequent in the notes on the Epistles, which were not translated by the present editor: so that ‘some change was most required precisely where, to him, adapta- tion was most difficuit of execution, or where he was naturally most unwilling to resume the responsibility of exclusion. It is hoped, that, under all these circumstances, general appro- bation will be secured for the arrangement which has been adopted. Those readers have throughout been kept in view, who, though well educated, would not find it easy to refer to Greek or German books. Some few technical Greek terms are retained; and here and there there is a reference to classical authors, which has seemed peculiarly important, or which it was hardly worth while to remove: but, on the whole, there are few citations except from books which are easily within reach. The references to Scripture are very frequent; and it is believed that such references can hardly be too frequent. It is presumed that the reader has the Authorized Version before him; at the sama time, it is hoped that the notes will continue to be useful to stu- dents of the Greek New Testament. necessarily, however, be taken for granted; and, in such cases, Some criticisms must occasional reference has been made to the two larger editions.’ In Mr. Conybeare’s part of the work, no alteration whatever has been made, except as regards the verbal adjustments requisite for leaving out the Greek. It is impossible to know whether his 1The first edition, in quarto, and with very numerous illustrations, was com- pleted in 1862; the second, with fewer illustrations, but after careful revision, was published in 1856. In this edition, the illustrations are still fewer ; the text is unaltered, with the exception of slight verbal changes suggested in the course of a thorough reperusal: but besides the modifications mentioned above, the notes in the narrative portion are very considerably retrenched. Thus each of the three editions has a character of its own. PREFACE OF THE PEOPLE'S EDITION. vii translation of some phrases and his interpretation of some texts might have been modified if he had taken part in the revisior. Wherever it has been thought worth while to express a difference of opinion, this is separately indicated.* Such cases are very few. The separate responsibilities of the whole work are clearly stated in the Postscript to the Introduction. The present writer is far from satisfied with the result of what he has done, in this edition, with considerable labor, and to the best of his judgment and ability ; but this he can say with truth, that while he feels the imperfection of his own work, this last revision has left in his mind a higher estimate than ever of the parts written by his fellow-laborer and friend. J. S. H. *This remark applies to the general body of the work. The Appendices, writ- ten by Mr. Conybeare, have been ab- breviated in conformity withthe prin- ciples stated above. Such questions as the verbal peculiarities of the Pastoral Epistles could hardly be presented with clearness to those who have no knowl- edge of Greek; and other retrenchments have been made here in accordance with the special aim of this edition. 3 By notes in square brackets, distin- guished by the letter u. . ‘ , | ¢ vn 6 , ee Coe i FASTEN, cer SEL -b : a a | arora Ee a Ra He Siag wad hd tis “ab Teh ; t . ‘ i wt ’ | rd F's ae. t mm | as . ist * ‘ ary Yi} } - F > i i 4) she Asie) F f LS Oe oe tA SSE t ¥ : Sh & : . i 1 icy oe ? \ ‘ aq ' Piss ‘ i ; ti ey riuetaigizs 3 te w gt) ‘ + Ps 4 eit ava \»4asai 4 } | 3 “a 4 Atty rd T 4 INTRODUCTION. HE purpose of this work is to give a living picture of St. Paul himself, and of the circumstances by which he was surrounded. The biography of the Apostle must be compiled from two sources: first, his own letters; and, secondly, the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles. The latter, after a slight sketch of his early history, supplies us with fuller details of his middle life; and his Epistles afford much subsidiary information concerning his missionary labors during the same period. The light concentrated upon this portion of his course makes darker by contrast the obscurity which rests upon the remainder; for we are left to gain what knowledge we can of his latter years from scattered hints in a few short letters of his own, and from a single sentence of his disciple Clement. But, in order to present anything like a living picture of St. Paul’s career, much more is necessary than a mere transcript of the Scriptural narrative, even where it is fullest. Every step of his course brings us into contact with some new phase of ancient life, unfamiliar to our modern experience, and upon which we must throw light from other sources, if we wish it to form a distinct image in the mind. For example, to comprehend the influences under which he grew to manhood, we must realize the position of a Jewish family in Tarsus; we must understand the kind of education which the son of such a family would receive as a boy in his Hebrew home, or in the schools of his native city, and in his riper youth ‘“‘at the feet of Gamaliel’”’ in Jerusalem; we must be acquainted with the profession for which he was to be prepared by this training, and appreciate the station and duties of an ex- pounder of the Law. And, that we may be fully qualified todo all this, we should have a clear view of the state of the Roman Empire at the time, and especially of its system in the provinces; we should also understand the political position of the Jews of the ‘‘Dispersion’’; we should be (so to speak) hearers in their synagogues; we should be students of their Rabbinical theology. And in like manner, as we follow the Apostle in the different stages of his varied and adventurous career, we must strive continually to bring out in their true brightness the half-effaced forms and coloring of the scene in which he acts; and while he ‘‘becomes all things to all men, that he might by all means save some,’’ we must form to ourselves a living like- ness of the things and of the men among which he moved, if we would rightly estimate his work. Thus we must study Christianity rising in the midst of Juda- ism; we must realize the position of its early churches with their mixed society, to which Jews, Proselytes, and Heathens had each contributed a characteristic 1 [It has been thought better to leave thisIntro- lating to views and illustrations are not strictly daiction quite untouched, though the passagesre- applicable to the present edition.—u_.] ue x INTRODUCTION. ’ . element; we must qualify ourselves to be umpires (if we may so speak) in their violent internal divisions; we must listen to the strife of their schismatic parties, when one said, “Iamof Paul; and another, Iam of Apollos;’’ we must study the true character of those early heresies which even denied the resurrection, and advocated impurity and lawlessness, claiming the right ‘‘to sin that grace might abound.” * “‘defiling the mind and conscience”? of their followers, and making them ‘‘abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate’’;* we must trace the extent to which Greek philosophy, Judaizing formalism, and East- ern superstition, blended their tainting influence with the pure fermentation of that new leaven which was at last to leaven the whole mass of civilized society. Again: to understand St. Paul’s personal history as a missionary to the Heathen, we must know the state of the different populations which he visited; the character of the Greek and Roman civilization at the epoch; the points of intersection be- tween the political history of the world and the scriptural narrative; the social organization and gradation of ranks, for which he enjoins respect; the position of women, to which he specially refers in many of his letters; the relations between parents and children, slaves and masters, which he not vainly sought to imbue with the loving spirit of the gospel; the quality and influence, under the early Empire, of the Greek and Roman religions, whose effete corruptness he denounces with such indignant scorn; the public amusements of the people, whence he draws topics of warning or illustration; the operation of the Roman law, under which he was so frequently arraigned; the courts in which he was tried, and the magistrates by whose sentence he suffered; the legionary soldiers who acted as his guards; the roads by which he travelled, whether through the mountains of Lycaonia or the marshes of Latium; the course of commerce by which his journeys were so often regulated; and the character of that imperfect navigation by which his life was so many times 4 endangered. While thus trying to live in the life of a bygone age, and to call up the figure of the past from its tomb, duly robed in all its former raiment, every help is welcome which enables us to’fill up the dim outline in any part of its reality. Especially we delight to look upon the only one of the manifold features of that past existence which still is living. We remember with pleasure that the earth, the sea, and the sky still combine for us in the same landscapes which passed before the eyes of the wayfaring Apostle. The plain of Cilicia; the snowy distances of Taurus; the cold and rapid stream of the Cydnus; the broad Orontes under the shadow of its steep banks, with their thickets of jasmine and oleander; the hills which “‘stand about Jerusalem,”’ * the ‘‘arched fountains cold’’ in the ravines below, and those ‘‘flowery brooks beneath that wash their hallowed feet”’; the capes and islands of the Grecian Sea; the craggy summit of Areopagus; the land-locked harbor of Syracuse; the towering cone of Atna; the voluptuous loveliness of the Campanian shore,—all these remain to us, the imperishable handiwork of nature. We can still look upon the same trees and flowers which he saw clothing the mountains, giving color to the plains, or reflected in the rivers; we may think of him among the palms of Syria, the cedars of Lebanon, the olives of Attica, the green Isthmian pines of Corinth, whose f leaves wove those ‘‘fading garlands” which he contrasts 8 with the “incorruptible crown,” the prize for which he fought. Nay, we can even still look upon some of the works of man which filled him with wonder, or moved him to indignation. The 1Rom vi. 1. Melita. ? Tit. i. 15. 5“The hills stand about Jerusalem: even so 3 Tit. i. 16. “standeth the Lord round about his people.” Ps 4“Thrice have I suffered shipwreck," 2 Cor. xi. xxxv. 2. 25; and this was before he was wrecked upon ® 1 Cor. ix. 25. ——, INTRODUCTION. XI “temples made with hands” ! which rose before him—the very apotheosis of idola- try—on the Acropolis, still stand in almost undiminished majesty and beauty. The mole on which he landed at Puteoli still stretches its ruins into the blue waters of the bay. The remains of the Baian villas, whose marble porticoes he then beheld glittering in the sunset,—his first specimen of Italian luxury,—still are seen along the shore. We may still enter Rome as he did by the same Appian Road, through the same Capenian Gate, and wander among the ruins of ‘‘Czsar’s palace” ? on the Palatine, while our eye rests upon the same aqeducts radiating over the "Sampagna to the unchanging hills. Those who have visited these spots must often have felt a thrill of recollection as they trod in the footsteps of the Apostle; they must have been conscious how much the identity of the outward scene brought them into communion with him, while they tried to image to themselves the feelings with which he must have looked upon the objects before them. They who have ex- perienced this will feel how imperfect a biography of St. Paul must be without faith- ful representaitons of the places which he visited. It is hoped that the views * which are contained in the present work (which have been diligently collected from various sources) will supply thisdesideratum. And it is evident, that, for the pur- poses of such a biography, nothing but true and faithful representations of the real scenes will be valuable; these are what is wanted, and not ideal representations, even though copied from the works of the greatest masters; for as it has been well said, ‘‘Nature and reality painted at the time, and on the spot, a nobler cartoon of St. Paul’s preaching at Athens than the immortal Rafaelle afterwards has done.’’4 For a similar reason, maps have been given (in addition to careful geographical descriptions), exhibiting with as much accuracy as can at present be attained the physical features of the countries visited, and some of the ancient routes through them, together with plans of the most important cities, and maritime charts of the coasts and harbors where they were required. While thus endeavoring to represent faithfully the natural objects and archi- tectural remains connected with the narrative, it has likewise been attempted to pive such illustrations as were needful of the minor productions of human art as they existed in the first century. For this purpose, engravings of coins have been given in all cases where they seemed to throw light on the circumstances mentioned in the history; and recourse has been had to the stores of Pompeii and Herculaneum, to the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, and to the collections of the Vatican, the Louvre, and especially of the British Museum. But, after all this is done,—after we have endeavored, with every help we can command, to reproduce the picture of St. Paul’s deeds and times,—how small would our knowledge of himself remain if we had no other record of him left us but the story of his adventures! If his letters had never come down to us, we should have known indeed what he did and suffered; but we should have had very little idea of what he was.> Even if we could perfectly succeed in restoring the image of the scenes and circumstances in which he moved; even if we could, as in a magic mirror, behold him speaking in the school of Tyrannus, with his Ephesian hearers in their national costume around him,—we should still see very little of Paul of Tarsus. We must listen to his words, if we would learn to know him. If Fancy did 1 Acts xvii. 24. 2 Phil. i. 13. 4 Wordsworth’s Athens and Aitica, p. 78. 3[See note on p. ix, and the Preface. The 5 For his speeches recorded in the Acts, charac- sentence in the text applies in strictness only to teristic as they are, would by themselves have the quarto edition. In the intermediate edition, been too few and too short to add much to our it was remarked in a note, that, even there, knowledge of St. Paul; but, illustrated as they “‘most of the larger engravings were necessarily now are by his Epistles, they become an import- omitted. on account of their size.””—H.] ant part of his personal biography. XII INTRODUCTION. her utmost, she could give us only his outward, not his inward life. “His bodily presence’’ (so his enemies declared) ‘“was weak and contemptible”; but “‘his letters” (even they allowed) ‘‘were weighty and powerful.” 1 Moreover, an effort of imagin- ation and memory is needed to recall the past; but, in his Epistles, St. Paul is present with us. “His words are not dead words; they are living creatures with hands and feet,” ? touching in a thousand hearts at this very hour the same chord of feeling which vibrated to their first utterance. We, the Christians of the nine teenth century, can bear witness now, as fully as could a Byzantine audience four- teen hundred years ago, to the saying of Chrysostom, that ‘‘Paul by his letters stil: lives in the mouths of men throughout the whole world: by them not only his own converts, but all the faithful even unto this day, yea, and all the saints who are yet to be born until Christ’s coming again, both have been and shall be blessed.”’ His Epistles are to his inward life what the mountains and rivers of Asia and Greece and Italy are to his outward life,—the imperishable part which still remains to us when all that time can ruin has passed away. It is in these letters, then, that we must study the true life of St. Paul, from its inmost depths and springs of action, which were ‘‘hidden with Christ in God,” down to its most minute developments and peculiar individual manifestations. In them we learn (to use the language of Gregory Nazianzene) ‘‘what is told of Paul by Paul himself.’’ Their most sacred contents, indeed, rise above all that is peculiar to the individual writer; for they are the communications of God to man concerning the faith and life of Christians, which St. Paul declared (as he often asserts) by the immediate revelation of Christ himself. But his manner of teaching these eternal truths is colored by his human character, and peculiar to himself. And such indi- vidual features are naturally impressed much more upon epistles than upon any other kind of composition: for here we have not treatises or sermons, which may dwell in the general and abstract, but genuine letters, written to meet the actual wants of living men; giving immediate answers to real questions, and warnings against pressing dangers; full of the interests of the passing hour. And this, which must be more or less the case with all epistles addressed to particular churches, is especially so with those of St. Paul. In his case, it is not too much to say that his letters are himself,—a portrait painted by his own hand, of which every feature may be ‘‘known and read of all men.” It is not merely that in them we see the proof of his powerful intellect, his insight into the foundations of natural theology * and of moral philosophy; * for in such points, though the philosophical expression might belong to himself, the truths expressed were taught him of God. It is not only that we there find models of the sublimest eloquence when he is kindled by the vision of the glories to come, the perfect triumph of good over evil, the manifestation of the sons of God, and their transformation into God’s likeness, when they shall see him no longer ® “in a glass darkly, but face to face,’’—for in such strains as these it was not so much he that spake as the Spirit of God speaking in him,*—but in his letters, besides all this which is divine, we trace every shade, even to the faintest, of his human character also. Here we see that fearless independence with which he “withstood Peter to the face”; 7 that impetuosity which breaks out in his apostrophe to the “‘foolish Galatians”; ® that earnest indignation which bids his converts “beware of dogs, 19 Cor. x. 10. 51 Cor. xiii. 12. ? Luther, as quoted in Archdeacon Hare’s Mts- 6 Matt. x. 20. . ston of the Comforter, p. 449. 7 Gal. ii. 11. 3 Rom. i. 20. 8 Gal. iii. 1. 4 Rom. ii. 14, 15. OE aa INTRODUCTION. XIIL beware of the concision,” ! and pours itself forth in the emphatic “God forbid” which meets every Antinomian suggestion; that fervid patriotism which make him ‘“‘wish that he were himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites;”’ 3 that generosity which looked for nc other reward than ‘‘to preach the Glad-Tidings of Christ without charge,” + and made him feel that he would rather “‘die than that any man should make this glorying void’’; that dread of officious interference which led him to shrink from “building on another man’s foundation”’;° that delicacy which shows itself in his appeal to Philemon, whom he might have commanded, “‘yet for love’s sake rathei beseeching him, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ,” 8 and which is even more striking in some of his farewell greetings, as (for instance) when he bids the Romans “‘salute Rufus, and his mother, who ts also mine”’;* that scrupulous fear of evil appearance which “‘would not eat any man’s bread for nought, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that he might not be chargeable to any of them;”’® that refined courtesy which cannot bring itself to blame till it has first praised,® and which makes him deem it needful almost to apologize for the freedom of giving advice to those who were not person- ally known to him;?° that self-denying love which “‘will eat no flesh while thé world standeth, lest he make his brother to offend’’;“ that impatience of exclusive form- alism with which he overwhelms the Judaizers of Galatia, joined with a forbearance so gentle for the innocent weakness of scrupulous consciences;” that grief for the sins of others, which moved him to tears when he spoke of the enemies of the cross of Christ, ‘‘of whom I tell you even weeping;’’* that noble freedom from jealousy with which he speaks of those, who, out of rivalry to himself, preach Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds,—‘‘What then? notwith- standing every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice;’’* that tender friendship which watches over the health of Timothy even with a mother’s care; that intense sympathy in the joys and sorrows of his converts which could say even to the rebellious Corin- thians, “Ye are in our hearts, to die and live with you;’’!® that longing desire for the intercourse of affection, and that sense of loneliness when it was withheld, which perhaps is the most touching feature of all, because it approaches most nearly to a weakness,—‘‘When I had come to Troas to preach the Glad-Tidings of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother; but I parted from them, and came from thence into Macedonia.” And, “‘when I was come into Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every side: without were fightings, within were fears. But God, who comforts them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus.” 7 ‘“‘Do thy utmost to came to me speedily: for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; only Luke is with me.” ® 1 Phil. iii. 2. unmingled censure conveyed in the whole subs> ? Rem. vi. 2; 1 Cor. vi. 15, &c. It is difficultto sequent part of these Epistles. express the force of the original by any other Eng- 10 Rom. xv. 14, 15. lish phrase. 11] Cor. viii. 13. 3 Rom. ix. 3. 121 Cor. viii. 12, and Rom. xiv. 21. #1 Cor. ix., 15 and 18, 13 Phil. iii. 18. 5 Rom. xv. 20. 14 Phil. i. 15. ® Philemen 9. 154 Tim. v. 23. 7 Rom. xvi. 13. 16 9 Cor. vii. 3. 81 Thess. ii. 9. ; 17 2 Cor. ii. 13, and vii. 5, ® Compare the laudatory expressions im « Cor. 18 2 Tim. iv. 9. L. 5-7, and I Cor. i. 6, 7, with the heavy and almost XIV INTRODUCTION. Nor is it only in the substance, but even in the style, of these writings, that we recognize the man Paul of Tarsus. In the parenthetical constructions and broken sentences, we see the rapidity with which the thoughts crowded upon him, almost too fast for utterance; we see him animated rather than weighed down by “‘the crowd that presses on him daily, and the care of all the churches,” 1 as he pours forth his warnings or his arguments in a stream of eager and impetuous dictation, with which the pen of the faithful Tertius can hardly keep pace.” And, above all, we trace his presence in the postscript to every letter, which he adds as an authen- tication, in his own characteristic handwriting, * ‘‘which is a token in every epistle: thus I write.’’4 Sometimes as he takes up the pen, he is moved with indignation when he thinks of the false brethren among those whom he addresses: ‘‘The saluta- tion of me Paul with my own hand: if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed.””® Sometimes, as he raises his hand to write, he feels it cramped by the fetters which bind him to the soldier who guards him:® “I Paul salute you with my own hand: remember my chains.” Yet he always ends with the same blessing,—‘‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you;’’ to which he some- times adds still further a few last words of affectionate remembrance,—‘‘My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.” 7 But, although the letters of St. Paul are so essential a part of his personal biog- raphy, it is a difficult question to decide upon the form in which they should be given in a work like this. The object to be sought is, that they may really represent in English what they were to their Greek readers when first written. Now, this object would not be attained if the Authorized Version were adhered to; and yet a departure from that whereof so much is interwoven with the memory and deepest feelings of every religious mind should be grounded on strong and sufficient cause. It is hoped that the following reasons may be held such:— 1st, The Authorized Version was meant to be a standard of authority and ulti- mate appeal in controversy: hence it could not venture to depart, as an ordinary translation would do, from the exact words of the original, even where some ampli- fication was absolutely required to complete the sense. It was to be the version unanimously accepted by all parties, and therefore must simply represent the Greek text word for word. This it does most faithfully, so far as the critical knowledge of the sixteenth ® century permitted. But the result of this method is sometimes to produce a translation unintelligible to the English reader. ® Also, if the text admit of two interpretations, our version endeavors, if possible, to preserve the same ambiguity, and effects this often with admirable skill; but such indecision, although a merit in an authoritative version, would be a fault in a translation which had a different object. 2d, The imperfect knowledge existing at the time when our Bible was translated made it inevitable that the translators should occasionally render the original in- correctly; and the same cause has made their version of many of the argumentative portions of the Epistles perplexed and obscure. 3d, Such passages as are affected by the above-mentioned objections, might, it is true, have been recast, and the authorized translation retained in all cases where it js correct and clear; but, if this had been done, a patchwork effect would have been Si Gor ines 2 Rom, xvi. 22. “I Tertius, who wrote this ® Coloss. iv. 18. 71 Cor. xvi. 24. 8 Being executed at the very beginning of the Epistle, salute you in the Lord.” 3 Gal. vi. 11. ‘‘See the size of the characters in which I write to you with my own hand.” 4 2 Thess. iii. 17. : 5 1 Cor. xvi. 22. seventeenth. ® Yet, had any other course been adopted, every sect would have had its own Bible; as it is, this one translation has been all but unanimously received for three centuries. INTRODUCTION. xv produced like that of new cloth upon old garments: moreover, the devotional associations of the reader would have been offended; and it would have been a rash experiment to provoke such a contrast between the matchless style of the Author- ized Version and that of the modern translator, thus placed side by side. 4th, The style adopted for the present purpose should not be antiquated; for St. Paul was writing in the language used by his Hellenistic readers in every-day life. 5th, In order to give the true meaning of the original, something more than a mere verbal rendering is often absolutely required. St. Paul’s style is extremely elliptical, and the gaps must be filled up. And, moreover, the great difficulty in. _understanding his argument is to trace clearly the transitions * by which he passes from one step to another. For this purpose something must occasionally be sup- plied beyond the mere literal rendering of the words. In fact, the meaning of an ancient writer may be rendered into a modern language in three ways: either, first, by a literal version; or, secondly, by a free translation; or, thirdly, by a paraphrase. A recent specimen of the first method may be found in the corrected edition of the Authorized Version of the Corinthians, by Prof. Stanley; of the Galatians and Ephesians, by Prof. Ellicott; and of the Thessalonians, Gala- tians, and Romans, by Prof. Jowett; all of which have appeared since the first edition of the present work. The experiment of these translations (ably executed as they are) has confirmed the view above expressed of the unsatisfactory nature of such a literal rendering; for it cannot be doubted, that though they correct the mistakes of the Authorized Version, yet they leave an English reader in more hopeless bewilderment as to St. Paul’s meaning than that version itself. Of the third course (that of paraphrase), an excellent specimen is to be found in Prof. Stanley’s paraphrases of the Corinthian Epistles. There is, perhaps, no better way than this of conveying the general meaning of the Epistles to an English reader; but it would not be suitable for the biography of St. Paul, in which not only his general meaning, but his every sentence and every clause, should, so far as possible, be given. There remains the intermediate course of a free translation, which is that adopted in the present work: nor does there seem any reason why a translation of St. Paul should be rendered inaccurate by a method which would generally be adopetd in a translation of Thucydides. It has not been thought necessary to interrupt the reader by a note? in every instance where the translation varies from the authorized version. It has been assumed that the readers of the notes will have sufficient knowledge to understand the reason of such variations in the more obvious cases. But it is hoped that no varation which presents any real difficulty has been passed over without explana- tion. It should further be observed, that the translation given in this work does not adhere to the Textus Receptus, but follows the text authorized by the best MSS. Yet, though the Textus Receptus has no authority in itself, it seems undesirable to depart from it without necessity, because it is the text familiar to English readers. Hence the translator has adhered to it in passages where the MSS. of highest authority are equally divided between its reading and some other, and 1 Tn the translation of the Epistles given in the present work, it has been the especial aim of the translator to represent these transitions correctly. They very often depend upon a word which sug- gests a new thought, and are quite lost by a want of attention to the verbal coincidence. Thus, for mstance, in Rom. x. 16, 17,—‘‘Who hath given faith to our teaching? So, then, faith cometh by teaching,’’—how completely is the connection de- ‘stroyed by such inattention in the Authorized Ver sion!—‘*Who hath believed our report? So, then, faith cometh by hearing.’”’ ? [See again note on p. 1x, and the Preface. In this edition, no note appended to the translations has been altered in meaning. Only such changes are made as is required by the omission of Greek words.—4.] xvi INTRODUCTION. also in some cases where the difference between it and the true text is merely verbal. The authorities consulted upon the chronology of St. Paul’s life, the reasons for the views taken of disputed points in it, and for the dates of the Epistles, are stated (so far as seems needful) in the body of the work or in the Appendices, and need not be further referred to here. In conclusion, the authors would express their hope that the biography may, in its measure, be useful in strengthening the hearts of some against the peculiar form of unbelief most current at the present day. The more faithfully we can represent to ourselves the life, outward and inward, of St. Paul, in all its fullness, the more unreasonable must appear the theory hat Christianity had a mythical origin; and the stronger must be our ground for believing his testimony to the divine nature and miraculous history of our Redeemer. No reasonable man can learn to know and love the Apostle of the Gentiles without asking himself the question, ‘‘What was the principle by which, through such a life, he was animated? What was the strength in which he labored with such immense results?” Nor can the most sceptical inquirer doubt for one moment the full sincerity of St. Paul’s belief, that ‘‘the life which he lived in the flesh, he lived by the faith of the Son of God, who died and gave himself for him.’”’ ‘‘To believe in Christ crucified and risen, to serve him on earth, to be with him hereafter,—these, if we may trust the account of his own motives by any human writer whatever, were the chief if not the only thoughts which sustained Paul of Tarsus through all the troubles and sorrows of his twenty-years’ conflict. His sagacity, his cheerfulness, his forethought, his impartial and clear-judging reason, all the natural elements of his strong charac- ter, are not, indeed, to be overlooked: but the more highly we exalt these in our estimate of his work, the larger share we attribute to them in the performance of his mission, the more are we compelled to believe that he spoke the words of truth and soberness when he told the Corinthians, that ‘last of all, Christ was seen of him also;’ that ‘by the grace of God he was what he was’; that ‘whilst he labored more abundantly than all, it was not he, but the grace of God that was in him.’ POSTSCRIPT. T may be well to add, that, while Mr. Conybeare and Dr. Howson have under- taken the joint revision of the whole work, the translation of the Epistles and Speeches of St. Paul is contributed by the former; the historical portion of the work principally, and the geographical portion entirely, by the latter: Dr. Howson having written Chapters I., II., IIJ., IV., V., VI., VIL., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIV., XVI., XX., XXI. (except the earlier portion), XXII. (except some of the later part), XXIII., XXIV., the latter pages of XVII., and the earlier pages of XXVI., with the exception of the Epistles and Speeches therein contained; and Mr. Conybeare having written the introduction and Appendices, and Chapters XIII., XV., XVII. (except the conclusion), XVIII., XIX., XXV., XXVI. (except the introductory and topographical portions), XXVII., XXVIII., the earlier pages of XXI., and some of the later pages of XXII, ——e— Tais seems the proper place for explaining the few abbreviations used. T. R. stands for Textus Receptus; O. T. for Old Testament; N. T. for New Testament; A. V. for Authorized Version; and LX&X.. (after a quotation from the Old Testa- ment! means that the quotation is cited by St. Paul, according to the Septuagint translation, In such references, however, the numbering of verses and chapters according to the Authorised Version (not according to the Septuagint) has been retained, to avoid the causing of perplexity to English readers who may attempt to verify the references. ——_- CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. eareat Men of Great Periods. — Period of Christ’s Apostles. — Jews, Greeks, and Romans. — Religious Civilization of the Jews. — Their History, and its Re- lation to that of the World. — Heathen Preparation for the Gospel. — Char- acter and Language of the Greeks. — Alexander.— Antioch and Alexan- dria. — Growth and Government of the Roman Empire. — Misery of Italy and the Provinces. — Preparation in the Empire for Christianity. — Disper- sion of the Jews in Asia, Africa, and Europe. — Proselytes. — Provinces of Cilicia and Judea.— Their Geography and History.— Cilicia under the Romans. — Tarsus. — Cicero. — Political Changes in Judea.— Herod and his Family.— The Roman Governors.— Conclusion . - . : eee CHAPTER II. Jewish Origin of the Church. — Sects and Parties of the Jews. — Pharisees and Sadducees. — St. Paul a Pharisee. — Hellenists and Aramezans. — St. Paul’s Family Hellenistic, but not Hellenizing.— His Infancy at Tarsus. — The Tribe of Benjamin.— His Father’s Citizenship.— Scenery of the Place. — His Childhood. — He is sent to Jerusalem.— State of Judea and Jerusa- lem. — Rabbinical Schools. — Gamaliel. — Mode of Teaching. — Synagogues. — Student-Life of St. Paul.— His early Manhood.— First Aspect of the Church. — St. Stephen. — The Sanhedrin. — St. Stephen the Forerunner of St. Paul. — His Martyrdom and Prayer - - : . . 29 CHAPTER III Funeral of St. Stephen. —Saul’s continued Persecution. — Flight of the Chris- tians.— Philip and the Samaritans.—Saul’s Journey to Damascus. — Aretas, King of Petra. — Roads from Jerusalem to Damascus. — Neapolis. —Histery and Description of Damascus.— The Narratives of the Mira- ele. —It was a real Vision of Jesus Christ. — Three Days in Damascus. — Ananias. — Baptism and first Preaching of Saul. — He retires into Arabia. — Meaning of the Term “Arabia.””— Petra and the Desert.— Motives to Conversion. — Conspiracy at Damascus.— Escape to Jerusalem. — Barna- bas. — Fortnight with St. Peter. — Conspiracy. — Vision in the Temple. — Saul withdraws tol Syma Ciieta el) ee ho) Te ae CHAPTER IV. Wider Diffusion of Christianity. — Antioch. — Chronology of the Acts. — Reign of Caligula. — Claudius and Herod Agrippa I. —The Year 44. — Conversion xIxX xx CONTENTS. of the Gentiles.— St. Peter and Cornelius.— Joppa and Cwsarea. — St. Peter’s Vision.— Baptism of Cornelius. — Intelligence from Antioch. — Mission of Barnabas.—Saul with Barnabas at Antioch.—The Name “ Christian.” — Description and History of Antioch. — Character of its In- habitants. — Earthquakes. — Famine. — Barnabas and Saul at Jerusalem. — Death of St. James and of Herod Agrippa.— Return with Mark to Antioch. — Providential Preparation of St. Paul. — Results of his Mission to Jerusalem . : . : : : : x : 4 : . 101 CHAPTER V. Second Part of the Acts of the Apostles. — Revelation at Antioch. — Public De- votions. — Departure of Barnabas and Saul.— The Orontes.— History and Description of Selucia.— Voyage to Cyprus. — Salamis. — Roman Provin- cial System.— Proconsuls and Propretors.— Sergius Paulus. — Oriental Impostors at Rome and in the Provinces. —Elymas Barjesus. — History of Jewish Names.— Saul and Paul . . - : + 192 CHAPTER VI. Old and New Paphos.— Departure from Cyprus.— Coast of Pamphylia. — Perga.— Mark’s Return to Jerusalem.— Mountain-Scenery of Pisidia. — Situation of Antioch. — The Synagogue.— Address to the Jews. — Preach- ing to the Gentiles. — Persecution by the Jews. — History and Description of Iconium. — Lycaonia.— Derbe and Lystra.— Healing of the Cripple. — Idolatrous Worship offered to Paul and Barnabas. — Address to the Gentiles. —St. Paul stoned. — Timotheus.— The Apostles retrace their Journey. — Perga and Attaleia. — Return’to Syria . . : . : . 4 - 139 CHAPTER VII. Controversy in the Church. — Separation of Jews and Gentiles. — Difficulty in the Narrative. — Discontent at Jerusalem. — Intrigues of the Judaizers at Antioch. — Mission of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem.— Divine Revela- tion to St. Paul.— Titus.— Private Conferences.— Public Meeting. — Speech of St. Peter.— Narrative of Barnabas and Paul.— Speech of St. James. — The. Decree. — Public Recognition of St. Paul’s Mission to the Heathen. — St. John. — Return to Antioch with Judas, Silas, and Mark. — Reading of the Letter.— Weak Conduct of St. Peter at Antioch. — He is rebuked by St. Paul. — Personal Appearance of the two Apostles. — Their Reconciliation . - - : : : : Aa ic | 5) ee. CHAPTER VIII Political Divisions of Asia Minor. — Difficulties of the Subject. — Provinces in the Reigns of Claudius and Nero.—I. ASIA.—II. BITHYNIA. —III. PAMPHYLIA. —IV. GALATIA.— V. PONTUS.— VI. CAPPADOCIA. — VII. CILICIA. — Visitation of the Churches proposed. — Quarrel and Sep- aration of Paul and Barnabas. — Paul and Silas in Cilicia. — They cross the Taurus. — Lystra.— Timothy.— His Circumcision.—Journey through rygia. — Sickness of St. Paul.— His Reception in Galatia. — Journey to the A°gean. — Alexandria Troas.— St. Paul’s Vision . ’ s : . 208 CHAPTEF IX. Voyage by Samothrace to Neapolis. — Philippi.— Constitution of a Colony. — Lydia.— The Demoniac Slave.— Paul and Silas arrested. —The Prison and the Jailer.— The Magistrates. — Departure from Philippi. — St. Luke. — Macedonia described. — Its Condition as a Province.— The Via Egnatia. CONTENTS. — St. Paul’s Journey through Amphipolis and Apollonia. — Thessalonica. — The Synagogue. — Subjects of St. Paul’s Preaching. — Persecution, Tumult, and Flight.—The Jews at Berea.—St. Paul again persecuted. — Pro- ceeds to Athens : - 4 : - ° : 3 CHAPTER X. Arrival on the Coast of Attica. — Scenery round Athens. — The Pireus and the “Long Walls.” — The Agora. — The Acropolis. — The “ Painted Porch” and he “ Garden.” — The Apostle alone in Athens. — Greek Religion. — The un- known God.—Greek Philosophy.— The Stoics and Epicureans. — Later Period of the Schools. —St. Paul in the Agora. — The Shas —_ rae of St. Paul.— Departure from Athens 5 - - 5 . CHAPTER XI. Letters to Thessalonica written from Corinth. — Expulsion of the Jews from Rome. — Aquila and Priscilla. — St. Paul’s Labors.— Arrival of Timothy and Silas.— First Epistle to the Thessalonians. — St. Paul is opposed by the Jews, and turns to the Gentiles. — His Vision. — Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. — Continued Residence in Corinth : : CHAPTER XII. The Isthmus and Acrocorinthus.— Early History of Corinth.—Its Trade and Wealth. — Corinth under the Romans. — Province of Achaia. — Gallio the Governor.— Tumult at Corinth. — Cenchrea. Tobias by me to Cesarea.— Visit to Jerusalem.— Antioch . - : : CHAPTER XIII. The Spiritual Gifts, Constitution, Ordinances, Divisions, and Heresies of the Primitive Church in the Lifetime of St. Paul 2 : 5 Z CHAPTER XIV. Departure from Antioch. — St. Paul’s Companions. — Journey through Phrygia and Galatia. — Apollos at Ephesus and Corinth. — Arrival of St. Paul at Ephesus. — Disciples of John the Baptist. — The Synagogue. — The School of Tyrannus.—Ephesian Magic. — Miracles. — The Exorcists. — Burning of the Books . . : - 2 - : - 5 : ; . CHAPTER XV. St. Paul pays a short Visit to Corinth. — Returns to Ephesus. — Writes a Let- ter to the Corinthians, which is now lost.— They reply, desiring further Explanations. — State of the Corinthian Church.—St. Paul writes the First Epistle to the Corinthians - * : - CHAPTER XVI. Description of Ephesus. — Temple of Diana: her Image and Worship. — Politi- ‘al Constitution of Ephesus. — The Asiarchs.— Demetrius and the Silver- amiths. — Tumult in the Theatre. — Speech of the Town-Clerk. — St. Paul’s Departure : 5 : : : Z 2 . - : 3 : . 246 S 7) . 333 . 357 . 372 - 402 . 418 46] Xx CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. St. Paul at Troas. — He passes over to Macedonia. — Causes of his Dejection. — He meets Titus at Philippi.— Writes the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. — Collection for the poor Christians in Judea.— Liberality of the Mace- donians. — Titus. — Journey by Illyricum to Greece . ° F ° . CHAPTER XVIII. St. Paul’s Return to Corinth. — Contrast with his First Visit. — Bad news from Galatia. — He writes the Epistle to the Galatians " P - ‘ ° CHAPTER XIX. St. Paul at Corinth.— Punishment of contumacious Offenders. — Subsequent Character of the Corinthian Church.— Completion of the Collection. — Pheebe’s Journey to Rome. — She bears the Epistle to the Romans . ° CHAPTER XxX. Isthmian Games. — Route through Macedonia. — Voyage from Philippi. — Sun- day at Troas. — Assos. — Voyage by Mitylene and Trogyllium to Miletus.— Speech to the Bphesian Presbyters. — Voyage by Cos and Rhodes to Patara. — Thence to Phenicia. — Christians at Tyre. — Ptolemais. — Events at Czs- area. — Arrival at Jerusalem . : e 2 ° ° ° . . ° CHAPTER XXI. Reception at Jerusalem. — Assembling of the Presbyters. — Advice given to St. Paul. — The Four Nazarites. — St. Paul seized at the Festival.— The Tem- ple and the Garrison.— Hebrew Speech on the Stairs.—The Centurion and the Chief Captain.— St. Paul before the Sanhedrin. —The Pharisees and Sadducees. — Vision in the Castle. — Conspiracy. —— St. Paul’s Nephew. —Letter of Claudius Lysias to Felix. ee hie Journey to > ee — Cesarea 3 . 5 ° . . . . . ° CHAPTER XXII History of Judea resumed. — Roman Governors. — Felix. — Troops quartered in Palestine. — Description of Cxsarea.— St. Paul accused there. — Speech before Feliz.— Continued Imprisonment. — Accession of Festus. — Appeal to the Emperor.— Speech before Agrippa . “ e - : ° CHAPTER XXIII. Ships and Navigation of the Ancients.— Roman Commerce in the Mediterra- nean. — Corn-Trade between Alexandria and Puteoli.— Travellers by Sea.— St. Paul’s Voyage from Cesarea, by Sidon, to Myra.— From Myra, by Cnidus and Cape Salmone, to Fair Havens. — Phenix.— The Storm. — Seamanship during the Gale.—St. Paul’s Vision.— Anchoring in the Night. — Shipwreck. — Proof that it took Place in Malta.— Winter in the Island. — Objections considered. Moe eee by ier and Rhegium, to Putedli . . : . ° . . CHAPTER XXIV. The fr am Way.— Appii Forum and the Three Taverns.— Entrance into Rome. — The Pretorian Prefect.— Description of the City.—Its Popals- tion. — The Jews in Rome.— The Roman Church.—St. Paul’s ipo iic=! with the Jews. — His Residence in Rame ‘ } e rg 478 518 539 585 620 652 677 726 See CONTENTS. XXII CHAPTER XXY. Delay of St. Paul’s Trial.— His Occupations and Companions during his Im- prisonment. — He writes the Epistle to Philemon, the Hpistle to the Colos- sians, and the Epistle to the Ephesians (so called) : 3 - . CHAPTER XXVI. The Pretorium and the Palatine. — Arrival of Epaphroditus. — Political Events at Rome.— Octavia and Poppra.—St. Paul writes the Hpistle to the Philippians. — He makes Converts in the Imperial Household b 5 . CHAPTER XXVII. Authorities for St. Paul’s subsequent History.— His Appeal is heard. — His Acquittal.— He goes from Rome to Asia Minor. — Thence to Spain, where he resides two Years. — He returns to Asia Minor and Macedonia. — Writes the First Epistle to Timotheus.— Visits Crete.— Writes the Epistle to Titus. —He winters at Nicopolis.— He is again imprisoned at Rome. — Progress of his Trial. — He writes the Second Epistle to Timotheus.— His Condemnation and Death 4 : . - : C - ° ° CHAPTER XXVIII. The Epistle to the Hebrews. — Its Inspiration not affected by the Doubts concern- ing its Authorship. — Ics Original Readers. — Conflicting Testimony of the Primitive Church concerning its Author.— His Object in writing it.— Translation of the Epistle . fe 5 5 cS ° ° ° ° ° APPENDICES. ApprenpIx I.— (On the Chronology of Gal. ii.) “ . ° ° e ° APPENDIX II.— (On the Date of the Pastoral Epistles) . ° 6 e e Appenpix III.— (Chronological Table and Notes) . ° ° Fy ° ® INDEX ° ° ° e ° e ° e e ® e e « ® . 744 779 799 848 THE © LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. (ee ee CHA PTE ie Breat Men of Great Periods. — Period of Christ’s Apostles. — Jews, Greeks, and Remana — Religious Civilization of the Jews.— Their History and its Relation to that of the World. — Heathen Preparation for the Gospel. — Character and Language of the Greeks. — Alexander. — Antioch and Alexandria. — Growth and Government of the Roman Empire. — Misery of Italy and the Provinces.— Preparation in the Empire for Christianity. — Dispersion of the Jews in Asia, Africa, and Europe. — Proselytes. — Provinces of Cilicia and Judwa.— Their Geography and History.— Cilicia under the Romans. — Tarsus. — Cicero. — Political Changes in Jud#a.— Herod and his Family. — The Roman Governors. — Conclusion. HE life of s great man, in a great period of the world’s history, isa subject to command the attention of every thoughtful mind. Alexander on his Eastern expedition, spreading the civilization of Greece over the Asiatic and African shores of the Mediterranean Sea, — Julius Cesar contending against the Gauls, and subduing the barbarism of Western Europe to the order and discipline of Roman government, — Charlemagne compressing the separating atoms of the feudal world, and reviving for a time the image of imperial unity, — Columbus sailing westward over the Atlantic to discover a new world which might receive the arts and religion of the old,— Napoleon on his rapid campaigns, shattering the ancient system of European States, and leaving a chasm between our present and the past:— these are the colossal figures of history, which stamp with the impress of their personal greatness the centuries in which they lived. The interest with which we look upon such men is natural and im evitable, even when we are deeply conscious that, in their character and their work, evil was mixed up in large proportions with the good, and when we find it difficult to discover the providential design which drew the features of their respective epochs. But this natural fecling 1 we 1 2 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cBar * rises into something higher, if we can be assured that the period we contemplate was designedly prepared for great results, that the work we admire was a work of unmixed good, and the man whose actions we follow was an instrument specially prepared by the hands of Gop. Such a period was that in which the civilized world was united under the first Roman emperors: such a work was the first preaching of the Gospel: and such a man was Paul of Tarsus. Before we enter upon the particulars of his life and the history of his work, it is desirable to say something, in this introductory chapter, cou- cerning the general features of the age which was prepared for him. We shall not attempt any minute delineation of the institutions and social habits of the period. Many of these will be brought before us in detail in the course of the present work. We shall only notice here those circumstances in the state of the world, which seem to bear the traces of a providential pre-arrangement. Casting this general view on the age of the first Roman emperors, which was also the age of Jesus Curist and His Apostles, we find our attention arrested by three great varieties of national life. The Jew, the Greek, and the Roman appear to divide the world between them. The outward condition of Jerusalem itself, at this epoch, might be taken as a type of the civilized world. Herod the Great, who rebuilt the Temple, had erected, for Greek and Roman entertainments, a theatre ‘within the same walls, and an amphitheatre in the neighboring plain.’ His coins, and those of his grandson Agrippa, bore Greek inscriptions : that piece of money, which was brought to our Saviour (Matt. xxii., Mark xii., Luke xx.), was the silver Denarius, the “image” was that of the emperor, the “superscription” was in Latin: and at the same time when the common currency consisted of such pieces as these, — since 2oins with the images of men or with Heathen symbols would have been a profanation to the “ Treasury,’’ — there might be found on the tables of the money-changers in the Temple, shekels and half-shekels with Samaritan letters, minted under the Maccabees. Greek and Roman names were borne by multitudes of those Jews who came up to worship at the festivals. Greek and Latin words were current in the popular “ Hebrew ” of the day: and while this Syro-Chaldaic dialect was spoken by the mass of the people with the tenacious affection of old custom, Greek had long been well known among the upper classes in the larger towns, and Latin was used in the courts of law, and in the official 1 Josern. Ant. xv. 8, 1. War, i. 21, 8. Jewish War, will be very frequent. (ccs Onur reference to the two great works of sionally also we shall refer to hie J/i* and Josephus, the Jewish Antiquities, and the his discourse against Apion. CHAP. I, JEWS, GREEKS, AND ROMANS. a correspondence of magistrates. On a critical occasion of St. Paul’s life,’ when he was standing on the stair between the Temple and the fortress, he first spoke to the commander of the garrison in Greek, and then turned round and addressed his countrymen in Hebrew; while the letter? of Claudius Lysias was written, and the oration® of Tertullus spoken, in Latin. We are told by the historian Josephus,* that on a parapet of stone in the Temple area, where a flight of fourteen steps led up from the outer to the inner court, pillars were placed at equal distances, with notices, some in Greek and some in Latin, that no alien should enter the sacred enclosure of the Hebrews. And we are told by two of the Evangelists, that when our blessed Saviour was crucified, “the super- scription of his accusation” was written above His cross “in letters of Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.” The condition of the world in general at that period wears a similar appearance to a Christian’s eye. He sees the Greek and Roman ele menis brought into remarkable union with the older and more sacred element of Judaism. He sees in the Hebrew people a divinely-laid foundation for the superstructure of the Church, and in the dispersion of the Jews a soil made ready in fitting places for the seed of the Gospel. He sees in the spread of the language and commerce of the Greeks, and in the high perfection of their poetry and philosophy, appropriate means for the rapid communication of Christian ideas, and for bringing them into close connection with the best thoughts of unassisted humanity. And he sees in the union of so many incoherent provinces under the law and government of Rome, a strong framework which might keep together for a sufficient period those masses of social life which the Gospel was in- tended to pervade. The City of God is built at the confluence of three civilizations. We recognize with gratitude the hand of God in the his tory of His world: and we turn with devout feeling to trace the course of these three streams of civilized life, from their early source to the time of their meeting in the Apostolic age. We need not linger about the fountains of the national life of the Jews. We know that they gushed forth at first, and flowed in their appointed channels, at the command of God. The call of Abraham, when one family was chosen to keep and hand down the deposit of divine truth, — the series of providences which brought the ancestors of the Jews into Egypt, —the long captivity on the banks of the Nile, —the work of Moses, 1 Acts xxi. xxii 5 Acts xxiv. Dean Milman (Bampion 2 Acts xxiii. A document of this kind, Lectures, p. 185) has remarked on the peculiar. sent with a prisoner by a subordinate to a ly Latin character of Tertullus’s address. superior officer, would almost certainly be in * War, v. 5,2. Compare vi. 2, 4. Latin. & Luke xxiii. 38; John xix. 20. 4 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. t whereby the bondsmen were made into a nation,—all these things are represented in the Old Testament as occurring under the immediate direction of Almighty power. The people of Israel were taken out of the midst of an idolatrous world, to become the depositaries of a purer knowl- edge of the one true God than was given to any other people. Ata time when (humanly speaking) the world could hardly have preserved a spirit- ual religion in its highest purity, they received a divine revelation enshrined in symbols and ceremonies, whereby it might be safely kept till the time of its development in a purer and more heavenly form. The peculiarity of the Hebrew civilization did not consist in the cul- ture of the imagination and intellect, like that of the Greeks, nor in the organization of government, like that of Rome, — but its distinguishing feature was Leligion. To say nothing of the Scriptures, the prophets, the miracles of the Jews, — their frequent festivals, their constant sacri- fices, — every thing in their collective and private life was connected with a revealed religion: their wars, their heroes, their poetry, had a sacred character, — their national code was full of the details of public worship, — their ordinary employments were touched at every point by divinely- appointed and significant ceremonies. Nor was this religion, as were the religions of the Heathen world, a creed which could not be the common property of the instructed and the ignorant. It was neither a recondite philosophy which might not be communicated to the masses of the peo ple, nor a weak superstition, controlling the conduct of the lower classes, and ridiculed by the higher. The religion of Moses was for the use of all and the benefit of all. The poorest peasant of Galilee had the same part in it as the wisest Rabbi of Jerusalem. The children of all families were taught to claim their share in the privileges of the chosen people. _ And how different was the nature of this religion from that of the contemporary Gentiles! The pious feelings of the Jew were not dissipated and distracted by a fantastic mythology, where a thousand different objects of worship, with contradictory attributes, might claim the attention of the devout mind. “One God,” the Creator and Judge of the world, and the Author of all good, was the only object of adoration. And there was nothing of that wide separation between religion and morality, which among other nations was the road to all impurity. The will and approbation of Jehovah was the motive and support of all holi- ness: faith in His word was the power which raised men above their natural weakness: while even the divinities of Greece and Rome were often the personifications of human passions, and the example and sane- tion of vice. And stall further: — the devotional scriptures of the Jews express that heartfelt sense of infirmity and sin, that peculiar spirit ef prayer, that real communion with God, with which the Christian, in quar. L RELIGIOUS CIVILIZATION OF THE JEWS. § his best moments, has the truest sympathy.’ So that, while the best hymns of Greece* are-only mythological pictures, and the literature of Heathen Rome hardly produces any thing which can be called a prayer, the Hebrew psalms have passed into the devotions of the Christian Church. There is a light on all the mountains of Judga which never shone on Olympus or Parnassus: and the “Hill of Zion,” in which “it pleased God to dwell,” is the type of “the joy of the whole sarth,”* while the seven hills of Rome are the symbol of tyranny and idolatry. ‘He showed His word unto Jacob,— His statutes and ordinances unto Israel. He dealt not so with any nation; neither had the Heathen knowledge of His laws.’’* But not only was a holy religion the characteristic of the civilization of the Jews, but their religious feelings were directed to something in the future, and all the circumstances of their national life tended to fix their thoughts on One that was to come. By types and by promises, their eyes were continually turned towards a Messiah. Their history was a continued prophecy. All the great stages of their national exist ence were accompanied by effusions of prophetic light. Abraham was called from his father’s house, and it was revealed that in him “ all fami- lies of the earth should be blessed.”’ Moses formed Abraham’s descend- ants into a people, by giving them a law and national institutions; but while so doing he spake before of Him who was hereafter to be raised up ‘“‘a Prophet like unto himself.” David reigned, and during that reign, which made so deep and lasting an impression on the Jewish mind, psalms were written which spoke of the future King. And with the approach of that captivity, the pathetic recollection of which became per- petual, the prophecies took a bolder range, and embraced within their widening circle the redemption both of Jews and Gentiles. Thus the pious Hebrew was always, as it-were, in the attitude of expectation: and it has been well remarked that, while the golden age of the Greeks and Romans was the past, that of the Jews was the future. While other nations were growing weary of their gods, — without any thing in their mythology or philosophy to satisfy the deep cravings of their nature, — with religion operating rather as a barrier than a link between the edu- cated and the ignorant,— with morality divorced from theology, — the whole Jewish people were united in a feeling of attachment to their 1 Neander observes that it has been justly remarked that the distinctive peculiarity of the Hebrew nation frem the very first, was, that conscience Was mere alive among them than any ether people. ® There are some exceptions, as in the hymn of the Stoic Cleanthes, who was born at Assos 350 years before St. Panl was there; yet & breathes the sentiment rather of acquiescence . in the determinations of Fate, than of resigna tion to the goodness of Providence. Ses ou Acts xvii. 28. 3 Ps. xlviii. 2, Lxviii 16. * Ps. exlvii 19, 20. 8 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, CHAP. 1, sacred institutions, and found in the facts of their past history a pledge ef the fulfilment of their national hopes. It is true that the Jewish nation, again and again, during several cen- ‘aries, fell into idolatry. It is true that their superiority to other nations gonsisted in the light which they possessed, and not in the use which they made of it; and that a carnal life continually dragged them down from the spiritual eminence on which they might have stood. But the Divine purposes were not frustrated. The chosen people were subjected to the chastisement and discipline of severe sufferings: and they were fitted by a long training for the accomplishment of that work, to the conscious per- formance of which they did not willingly rise. They were hard pressed in their own country by the incursions of their idolatrous neighbors, and in the end they were carried into a distant captivity. From the time of their return from Babylon they were no longer idolaters. They presented to the world the example of a pure Monotheism. And in the active times which preceded and followed the birth of Christ, those Greeks or Romans who visited the Jews in their own land where they still lingered at the portals of the East, and those vast numbers of proselytes whom the dis- persed Jews had gathered round them in various countries, were made fa oniliar with the worship of one God and Father of all. The influence of the Jews upon the Heathen world was exercised — m inly through their dispersion: but this subject must be deferred for a few pages, till we have examined some of the developments of the Gz eek and Roman nationalities. A few words, however, may be allowed in pass ng, upon the consequences of the geographical position of Judea. The situation of this little but eventful country is such, that its in- ha ita ts were brougt* into contact successively with all the civilized na- tions of antiquity. Not to dwell upon its proximity to Egypt on the one hand, and to Assyria on the other, and the influences which those ancient kingdoms may thereby have exercised or received, Palestine lay in the road of Alexander’s Eastern expedition. The Greek conqueror was there before he founded his mercantile metropolis in Egypt, and thence went to India, to return and die at Babylon. And again, when his empire was divided, and Greek kingdoms were erected in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Palestine lay between the rival monarchies of the Ptolemies at Alexandria and the Seleucids at Antioch,—too near to both to be safe from the invasion of their arms or the influence of their customs and their language. And finally, when the time came for the Romans to 1 Humboldt has remarked, in the chapter of Monotheism, and portrays nature, not as en Poetic Descriptions of Nature (Kosmos, self-subsisting, but ever in relation to a Higher Sabine’s Eng. trans., vol. ii. p. 44), that the Power. aescriptive poetry of the Hebrews is a reflex CHAP. I, CHARACTER AND LANGUAGE OF THE GREEKS. 7 embrace the whole of the Mediterranean within the circle of their power, the coast-line of Judza was the last remote portion which was needed to complete the fated circumference.' The full effect of this geographical position of Judza can only be seen by following the course of Greek and Roman life, till they were brought so remarkably into contact with each other, and with that of the Jews: and we turn to those other tw nations of antiquity, th steps of whose progress were successive stages in what is called in the Hpistle to the Ephesians (i.10) “the dispensation of the fulness of time.” If we think of the civilization of the Greeks, we have no difficulty in ‘xing on its chief characteristics. High perfection of the intellect and imagination, displaying itself in all the various forms of art, poetry, lit- erature, and philosophy — restless activity of mind and body, finding its exercise in athletic games or in subtle disputations — love of the beauti- ful — quick perception — indefatigable inquiry —all these enter into the very idea of the Greek race. This is not the place to inquire how far these qualities were due to an innate peculiarity, or how far they grew up, by gradual development, amidst the natural influences of their native” country, —the variety of their hills and plains, the clear lights and warm shadows of their climate, the mingled land and water of their coasts. We have only to do with this national character so far as, under divine Providence, it was made subservient to the spread of the Gospel. We shall see how remarkably it subserved this purpose, if we consider the tendency of the Greeks to trade and colonization. Their mental ac- tivity was accompanied with a great physical restlessness. This clever people always exhibited a disposition to spread themselves. Without aiming at universal conquest, they displayed (if we may use the word) a ‘remarkable catholicity of character, and a singular power of adaptation to those whom they called Barbarians.? In this respect they were strongly contrasted with the Egyptians, whose immemorial civilization was confined to the long valley which extends from the cataracts to the mouths of the Nile. Tie Hellenic® tribes, on the other hand, though they despised foreigners, were never unwilling to visit them and to cul- tivate their acquaintance. At the earliest period at which history en- ' For reflections on the geographical posi- tion of Palestine in relation to its history, see Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, Kurtz’s History of the Old Covenant (in Clark’s “Foreigu Theological Library ”’), and the Quarterly Re- view for October, 1859. 2 In the N. T. the word “ barbarian” is ased in its strict classical sense, ¢.e. for a man who does not speak Greek. See Acts xxviii. 2,4; Rom.i 14; 1 Cor. xiv. 11; Col. iii. 11. 8 “Hellenic” and “ Hellenistic,” corre- sponding respectively to the “Greek” and ~ Grecian” of the Authorized Version, are words which we must often use. See p. 10, a. 3. 8 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. cular. & ables us to discover them, we see them moving about in their ships on the shores and among the islands of their native seas; and, three or four eenturies before the Christian era, Asia Minor, beyond which the Per- sians had not been permitted to advance, was bordered by a fringe of Greek colonies; and Lower Italy, when the Roman republic was just beginning to be conscious of its strength, had received the name of Greece itself! To all these places they carried their arts and literature, their philosophy, their mythology, and their amusements. They carried also their arms and their trade. The heroic age had passed away, and fabulous voyages had given place to real expeditions against Sicily and constant traffic with the Black Sea. They were gradually taking the place of the Phenicians in the empire of the Mediterranean. They were, indeed, less exclusively mercantile than those old discoverers. Their voyages were not so long. But their influence on general civiliza- tion was greater and more permanent. The earliest ideas of scientific navigation and geography are due to the Greeks. The later Greek tray- ellers, Strabo and Pausanias, will be our best sources of information op the topography of St. Paul’s journeys. With this view of the Hellenic character before us, we are prepared to appreciate the vast results of Alexander’s conquests. He took up the meshes of the net of Greek civilization, whick:were lying in disorder on the edges of the Asiatic shore, and spread them over all the countries which he traversed in his wonderful campaigns. The Hast and the West were suddenly brought together. Separated tribes were united under a common government. New cities were built, as the centres of political life. New lines of communication were opened, as the channels of commercial activity. The new culture penetrated the mountain ranges of Pisidia and Lycaonia. The Tigris and Euphrates became Greek rivers. The language of Athens was heard among the Jewish colonies of Babylonia; and a Grecian Babylon* was built by the con- queror in Egypt, and called by his name. The empire of Alexander was divided, but the effects of his cam- paigns and policy did not cease. The influence of the fresh elements of social life was rather increased by being brought into independent ac- tion within the spheres of distinct kingdoms. Our attention is particu- larly called to two of the monarchical lines, which descended from Alex- ander’s generals, —the Ptolemies, or the Greek kings of Egypt, — and the Seloucids, or the Greek kings of Syria. Their respective capitals, Alexandria and Antioch, became the metropolitan centres of commer cial and civilized life in the East. They rose suddenly; and their ver; 1 Magna Grecia. * Alexandria. a@me?. ANTIOCH AND ALEXANDRIA. $ appearance marked them as the cities of a new epoch. Like Berlin and St. Petersburg, they were modern cities built by great kings at a defi- nite time and fora definite purpose. Their histories are no unimportant chapters in the history of the world. Both of them were connected with St. Paul: one indirectly, as the birthplace of Apollos; the other directly, as the scene of some of the most important passages of the Apostle’s own life. Both abounded in Jews from their first foundation. Both became the residence of Roman governors, and both afterwards were patriarchates of the primitive Church. But before they had re ceived either the Roman discipline or the Christian doctrine, they had served their appointed purpose of spreading the Greek language and habits, of creating new lines of commercial intercourse by land and sea, and of centralizing in themselves the mercantile life of the Levant. Even the Acts of the Apostles remind us of the traffic of Antioch with Cyprus and the neighboring coasts, and of the sailing of Alexandrian corn-ships to the more distant harbors of Malta and Puteoli. Of all the Greek elements which the cities of Antioch and Alexandria were the means of circulating, the spread of the language is the most im- portant. Its connection with the whole system of Christian doctrine — with many of the controversies and divisions of the Church — is very momentous. That language, which is the richest and most delicate that the world has seen, became the language of theology. The Greek tongue became to the Christian more than it had been to the Roman or the Jew. The mother-tongue of Ignatius at Antioch, was that in which Philo’ composed his treaties at Alexandria, and which Cicero spoke at Athens. It is difficult to state in a few words the important relation which Alexandria more especially was destined to bear to the whole Christian Church. In that city, the representative of the Greeks of the East, where the most remarkable fusion took place of the peculiarities of Greek, Jewish, and Oriental life, and at the time when all these had been brought in contact with the mind of educated Romans, —a theo logical language was formed, rich in the phrases of various schools, and suited to convey Christian ideas to all the world. It was not an acci- dent that the New Testament was written in Greek, the language which can best express the highest thoughts and worthiest feelings of the in- tellect and heart, and which is adapted to be the instrument of education for all nations: nor was it an accident that the composition of these books and the promulgation of the Gospel were delayed, till the instruc tion of our Lord, and the writings of His Apostles, could be expressed in the dialectof Alexandria. This, also, must be ascribed to the foreknow!- 1 We shall frequently have oceasion to was a contemporary of &t Peal See mention this learned Alexandrian Jew. He p. SM. 10 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cHaP. L edge of Him, who “ winked at the times of ignorance,” but who “ made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” ? We do not forget that the social condition of the Greeks had been falling, during this period, into the lowest corruption. The disastrous quarrels of Alexander’s generals had been continued among their suc- cessors. Political integrity was lost. The Greeks spent their life in worthless and frivolous amusements. Their religion, though beautiful beyond expression as giving subjects for art and poetry, was utterly powerless, and worse than powerless, in checking their bad propensities. Their philosophers were sophists ; their women might be briefly divided into two classes, — those who were highly educated and openly profii- gate on the one side, and those who lived in domestic and ignorant seclusion on the other. And it cannot be denied that all these causes of degradation spread with the diffusion of the race and the language. Like Sybaris and Syracuse, Antioch and Alexandria became almost worse than Athens and Corinth. But the very diffusion and develop- ment of this corruption was preparing the way, because it showed the necessity, for the interposition of a Gospel. The disease itself seemed to call for a Healer. And if the prevailing evils of the Greek popula- tion presented obstacles, on a large scale, to the progress of Christianity, —yet they showed to all future time the weakness of man’s highest powers, if unassisted from above; and there must have been many who groaned under the burden of a corruption which they could not shake off, and who were ready to welcome the voice of Him, who “ took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”* The “Greeks,”’* who are mentioned by St. John as coming to see JEsuS at the feast, were, we trust, the types of a large class; and we may conceive His answer to Andrew and Philip as expressing the fulfilment of the appointed times in the widest sense—‘‘The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.” Such was the civilization and corruption connected with the spread of the Greek language when the Roman power approached to the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. For some centuries this irresistible force had been gathering strength on the western side of the Apennines. Gradually, but surely, and with ever-increasing rapidity, it made to 1 Acts xvii. 30, 26. for a Hellenist, or Grecizing Jew — as in Acts © 2 Matt. viii. 17. vi. 1, ix. 29 — while the word “ Greek” is used * John xii. 20. It ought to be observed for one who was by birth a Gentile, and who here, that the word “ Grecian” in the Author- might, or might not, be a proselyte to Judsism, ized Version of the New Testament is used or a convert to Christianity. Gar, 1. GROWTH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ij itself a wider space—northward into Ktruria, southward into Campania. It passed beyond its Italian boundaries. And six hundred years after the building of the City, the Roman eagle had seized on Africa at the point of Carthage, and Greece at the Isthmus of Corinth, and had turned its eye towards the Hast. The defenceless prey was made secure, by eraft or by war; and before the birth of our Saviour, all those coasts, from Ephesus to Tarsus and Antioch, and round by the Holy Land to Alexandria and Cyrene, were tributary to the city of the Tiber. We have to describe in a few words the characteristics of this new dominion, and to point out its providential connection with the spread and consoli- dation of the Church. In the first place, this dominion was not a pervading influence exerted by a restless and intellectual people, but it was the grasping power of an external government. The idea of law had grown up with the growth of the Romans; and wherever they went they carried it with them. Wherever their armies were marching or encamping, there always attended them, like a mysterious presence, the spirit of the City of Rome. Universal conquest and permanent occupation were the ends at which they aimed. Strength and organization were the characteristics of their sway. We have seen how the Greek science and commerce were wafted, by irregular winds, from coast to coast: and now we follow the advance of legions, governors, and judges along the Roman Roads, which pursued their undeviating course over plains and mountains, and bound the City to the furthest extremities of the provinces. There is no better way of obtaining a clear view of the features and a correct idea of the spirit of the Roman age, than by considering the material works which still remain as its imperishable monuments. Whether undertaken by the hands of the government, or for the osten- tation of private luxury, they were marked by vast extent and accom- plished at an enormous expenditure. The gigantic roads of the Empire have been unrivalled till the present century. Solid structures of all kinds, for utility, amusement, and worship, were erected in Italy and the provinces, — amphitheatres of stone, magnificent harbors, bridges, sepul- chres, and temples. The decoration of wealthy houses was celebrated by the poets of the day. The pomp of buildings in the cities was rivalled by astonishing villas in the country. The enormous baths, by which travellers are surprised, belong to a period somewhat later than that of St. Paul; but the aqueducts, which still remain in the Campagna, were some of them new when he visited Rome. Of the metropolis itself it may be enough to say, that his life is exactly embraced between its two great times of renovation, that of Augustus on the one hand, who (to use his own expression) having found it a city of brick left it a city of marble, 12 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. 4. and that of Nero on the other, when the great conflagration afforded am opportunity for a new arrangement of its streets and buildings. These great works may be safely taken as emblems of the magnitude, strength, grandeur, and solidity of the Empire; but they are emblems, no less, of the tyranny and cruelty which had presided over its formation, and of the general suffering which pervaded it. The statues, with which the metropolis and the Roman houses were profusely decorated, had been brought from plundered provinces, and many of them had swelled the triumphs of conquerors on the Capitol. The amphitheatres were built for shows of gladiators, and were the scenes of a bloody cruelty, which had been quite unknown in the licentious exhibitions of the Greek thea- tre. The roads, baths, harbors, aqueducts, had been constructed by slave-labor. And the country villas, which the Italian traveller lingered to admire, were themselves vast establishments of slaves. It is easy to see how much misery followed in the train of Rome’s advancing greatness. Cruel suffering was a characteristic feature of the close of the Republic. Slave wars, civil wars, wars of conquest, had left their disastrous results behind them. No country recovers rapidly from the effects of a war which has been conducted within its frontier; and there was no district of the Empire which had not been the scene of some recent campaign. None had suffered more than Italy herself. Its old stock of freemen, who had cultivated its fair plains and terraced vine- yards, was utterly worn out. The general depopulation was badly com- pensated by the establishment of military colonies. inordinate wealth and slave factories were the prominent features of the desolate prospect. The words of the great historian may fill up the picture. “ As regards the manners and mode of life of the Romans, their great object at this time was the acquisition and possession of money. Their moral conduct, which had been corrupt enough before the Social war, became still more so by their systematic plunder and rapine. Immense riches were accumu- lated and squandered upon brutal pleasures. The simplicity of the old manners and mode of living had been abandoned for Greek luxuries and frivolities, and the whole household arrangements had become altered. The Roman houses had formerly been quite simple, and were built either of bricks or peperino, but in most cases of the former material; now, on the other hand, every one would live in a splendid house and be sur rounded by luxuries. The condition of Italy after the Social and Civii wars was indescribably wretched. Samnium had become almost a dea ert; and as late as the time of Strabo there was scarcely any town in that country which was not in ruins. But worse things were yet te come.**! 1 Niebuhr’s Lectures on the History of Rome, vol. i. pp. 421, 423. mar, i MISERY OF ITALY AND THE PROVINCES. 18 This disastrous condition was not confined to Italy. In some respects the provinces had their own peculiar sufferings. To take the case of Asia Minor. It had been plundered and ravaged by successive generals, — by Scipio in the war against Antiochus of Syria,—by Manlius in his Galatian campaign, — by Pompey in the struggle with Mithridates. The rapacity of governors and their officials followed that of generals and their armies. We know what Cilicia suffered under Dolabella and his agent Verres: and Cicero reveals to us the oppression of his predecessor Ap- pius in the same province, contrasted with his own boasted clemency. Some portions of this beautiful and inexhaustible country revived under the emperors.! But it was only an outward prosperity. Whatever may have been the improvement in the external details of provincial govern- ment, we cannot believe that governors were gentle and forbearing, when Caligula was on the throne, and when Nero was seeking statues for his golden house. The contempt in which the Greek provincials themselves were held by the Romans may be learnt from the later correspondence of the Emperor Trajan with Pliny the governor of Bithynia. We need not hesitate to take it for granted, that those who were sent from Rome _ to dispense justice at Ephesus or Tarsus, were more frequently like Ap- pius and Verres, than Cicero? and Flaccus,— more like Pilate and Felix, than Gallio or Sergius Paulus. It would be a delusion to imagine that, when the world was reduced under one sceptre, any real principle of unity held its different parts together. The emperor was deified,? because men were enslaved. There was no true peace when Augustus closed the Temple of Janus. The Empire was only the order of external government, with a chaos both of opinions and morals within. The writings of Tacitus and Juvenal remain to attest the corruption which festered in all ranks, alike in the senate and the family. The old severity of manners, and the old faith in the better part of the Roman religion, were gone. The licentious creeds and practices of Greece and the East had inundated Italy and the West: and the Pantheon was only the monument of a compromise among a 1 Niebuhr’s Lect. on Hist. of Rome, vol. i. ® The image of the emperor was at that p- £06, and the note. 7 Much of our best information concerning the state of the provinces is derived from Cicero’s celebrated “‘ Speeches against Verres,” and his own Cilician Correspondence, to which we shall again have occasion to refer. His “ Speech in Defence of Flaccus ” throws much light on the condition of the Jews under the Bomans. We must not place teo much confi- dence in the picture there given ef this Ephe- sian governer. time the object of religious reverence: he was a deity on earth (Dis equa potestas, Juv. iv. 71); and the worship paid to him was a real worship. It is a striking thought, that im those times (setting aside effete forms of reli gion), the only two genuine worships in the civ- ilized world were the worship of a Tiberius o2 s Nero on the one hand, and the worship ef Cunist on the other. 14 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, a multitude of effete superstitions. It is true that a remarkable religious toleration was produced by this state of things: and it is probable that for some short time Christianity itself shared the advantage of it. But still the temper of the times was essentially both cruel and profane; and the Apostles were soon exposed to its bitter persecution. The Roman Empire was destitute of that unity which the Gospel gives to mankind. It was a kingdom of this world; and the human race were groaning for the better peace of “a kingdom not of this world.” Thus, in the very condition of. the Roman Empire, and the miserable state of its mixed population, we can recognize a negative preparation for the Gospel of Christ. This tyranny and oppression called for a Con- soler,| as much as the moral sickness of the Greeks called for a Healer ; a Messiah was needed by the whole Empire as much as by the Jews, though not looked for with the same conscious expectation. But we have no difficulty in going much farther than this, and we cannot hesitate to discover in the circumstances of the world at this period, significant traces of a positive preparation for the Gospel. It should be remembered, in the first place, that the Romans had already become Greek to some considerable extent, before they were the political masters of those eastern countries, where the language, mythology, and literature of Greece had become more or less familiar. How early, how widely, and how permanently this Greek influence pre- vailed, and how deeply it entered into the mind of educated Romans, we know from their surviving writings, and from the biography of eminent men. Cicero, who was governor of Cilicia about half a century before the birth of St. Paul, speaks in strong terms of the universal spread of the Greek tongue among the instructed classes; and about the time of the Apostle’s martyrdom, Agricola, the conqueror of Britain, was receiv- ing a Greek education at Marseilles. Is it too much to say, that the general Latin conquest was providentially delayed till the Romans had been sufficiently imbued with the language and ideas of their predecessors, and had incorporated many parts of that civilization with their own ? And if the wisdom of the divine pre-arrangements is illustrated by the period of the spread of the Greek language, it is illustrated no less _ by that of the completion and maturity of the Roman government. When all parts of the civilized world were bound together in one empire, 1 We may .efer here to the apotheosis of contrast will be found in Scheffer’s modern Augustus with Tiberius at his side, as repre- picture — “‘ Christus Consolator,” — where the sented on the “‘ Vienna Cameo” in the midst Saviour is seated in the midst of those who of figures indicative of the misery and enslave- are miserable, and the eyes of all are turned to ment of the world. An engraving of this Him for relief. Cameo is given in the quarto edition. Its best onAF. I, DISPERSION OF THE JEWS. 15 — when one common organization pervaded the whole —when channels of communication were everywhere opened—when new facilities of travelling were provided,— then was “ the fulness of time” (Gal. iv. 4), then the Messiah came. The Greek language had already been prepared as a medium for preserving and transmitting the doctrine; the Roman government was now prepared to help the progress even of that religion which it persecuted. The manner in which it-spread through the prov- _ inces is well exemplified in the life of St. Paul; his right of citizenship rescued him in Macedonia! and in Judea ;? he converted one governor in Cyprus,’ was protected by another in Achaia,* and was sent from Jerusalem to Rome by a third.’ The time was indeed approaching, when all the complicated weight of the central tyranny, and of the provincial governments, was to fall on the new and irresistible religion. But before this took place, it had begun to grow up in close connection with all departments of the Empire. When the supreme government itself became Christian, the ecclesiastical polity was permanently regulated in conformity with the actual constitution of the state. Nor was the Empire broken up, till the separate fragments, which have become the nations of modern Europe, were themselves portions of the Catholic Church. But in all that we have said of the condition of the Roman world, one important and widely diffused element of its population has not been mentioned. We have lost sight for some time of the Jews, and we must return to the subject of their dispersion, which was purposely deferred till we had shown how the intellectual civilization of the Greeks, and the organizing civilization of the Romans, had, through a long series of remarkable events, been brought in contact with the religious civilization of the Hebrews. It remains that we point out that one peculiarity of the Jewish people, which made this contact almost universal in every part of the Empire. Their dispersion began early ; though, early and late, their attachment to Judza has always been the same. Like the Highlanders of Switzer- land and Scotland, they seem to have combined a tendency to foreign settlements with the most passionate love of their native land. The first scattering of the Jews was compulsory, and began with the Assyrian exile, when, about the time of the building of Rome, natives of Galilee and Samaria were carried away by the Eastern monarchs; and this was followed by the Babylonian exile, when the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were removed at different epochs,— when Daniel was brought to Babylon, and Ezekiel to the river Chebar. That this earliest dispersion was not 1 Acts xvi. 37-39. * Acts xviii. 14-17. 2 Acts xxii. 25. § Acts xxv. 12, xxvii. 1. 5 Acts xiii. 12. 16 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. OHAP, L without influential results may be inferred from these facts ;— that, about the time of the battles of Salamis and Marathon, a Jew was the minister, another Jew the cupbearer, and a Jewess the consort, of a Persian mon- arch. That they enjoyed many privileges in this foreign country, and that their condition was not always oppressive, may be gathered from this, — that when Cyrus gave them permission to return, the majority remained in their new home, in preference to their native land. Thus that great Jewish colony began in Babylonia, the existence of which may be traced in Apostolic times,! and which retained its influence long after in the Talmudical schools. These Hebrew settlements may be fol- _ lowed through various parts of the continental East, to the borders of the Caspian, and even to China. We however are more concerned with the coasts and islands of Western Asia. Jews had settled in Syria and Pheenicia before the time of Alexander the Great. But in treating of this subject, the great stress is to be laid on the policy of Seleucus, who, in founding Antioch, raised them to the same political position with the other citizens. One of his successors on the throne, Antiochus the Great, established two thousand Jewish families in Lydia and Phrygia. From hence they would spread into Pamphylia and Galatia, and along the western coasts from Ephesus to Troas. And the ordinary channels of communication, in conjunction with that tendency to trade which already began to characterize this wonderful people, would easily bring them to the islands, such as Cyprus? and Rhodes. Their oldest settlement in Africa was that which took place after the murder of the Babylonian governor of Judgwa, and which is connected with the name of the prophet Jeremiah.’ But, as in the case of Antioch, our chief attention is called to the great metropolis of the period of the Greek. kings. The Jewish quarter of Alexandria is well known in his- tory; and the colony of Hellenistic Jews in Lower Egypt is of greater importance than that of their Aramaic‘ brethren in Babylonia. Alex- ander himself brought Jews and Samaritans to his famous city ; the first Ptolemy brought many more; and many betook themselves hither of their free will, that they might escape from the incessant troubles which disturbed the peace of their fatherland. Nor was their influence con- fined to Egypt, but they became known on one side in Atthiopia, the country of Queen Candace,’ and spread on the other in great numbers to the “ parts of Libya about Cyrene.’’® 1 See 1 Pet. v. 13. ® See 2 Kings xxv. 22-26, Jer. xlii 3 The farming of the copper mines in Cy- xliv. prus by Herod (Jes. Ant. xvi. 4,5) may have 4 This term is explained in the next chap attracted many Jews. There is a Cyprian ter, see p. 33, note 2. imscription which seems to refer to one of the § Acts viii. 27. Herods. ® Acts ii. 10. The sscond book ef Macca RUINS OF THE NEOROPOLIS OF OYRENE. SELAP, 5. THE JEWS LN KUROPH. rd Under what circumstances the Jews made their first appearance im Europe is unknown ; but it is natural to suppose that those islands of the Archipelago which, as Humboldt has said, were like a bridge for the pas sage of civilization, became the means of the advance of Judaism. The journey of the proselyte Lydia from Thyatira to Philippi (Acts xvi. 14), and the voyage of Aquila and Priscilla from Corinth to Ephesus (Ibid Kvili. 18), are only specimens of mercantile excursions which must have begun at a farearlier period. Philo! mentions Jews in Thessaly, Beeotia, Macedonia, Aitolia, and Attica, in Argos and Corinth, in the other parts of Peloponnesus, and in the islands of Eubcea and Crete: and St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, speaks of them in Philippi, Thessaionica, and Bereea, in Athens, in Corinth, and in Rome. The first Jews came te Rome to decorate a triumph ; but they were soon set free from captivity, and gave the name to the “ Synagogue of the Libertines’? in Jerusalem, They owed to Julius Cxsar those privileges in the Western Capital which they had obtained from Alexander in the Eastern. They became infia- ential, and made proselytes. They spread into other towns of Italy ; and in the time of St. Paul’s boyhood we find them in large numbers in the island of Sardinia, just as we have previously seen them established in that of Cyprus. With regard to Gaul, we know at least that two sons of Herod were banished, about this same period, to the banks of the Rhone; and if (as seems most probable) St. Paul accomplished that journey to Spain, of which he speaks in his letters, there is little doubt that he found there some of the scattered children of his own people. We do not seek to pursue them further; but, after a few words on the proselytes, we must return to the earliest scenes of the Apostle’s career. The subject of the proselytes is sufficiently important to demand a separate notice. Under this term we include at present all who were attracted in various degrees of intensity towards Judaism,— from those who by circumcision had obtained full access to all the privileges of the temple-worship, to those who only professed a general respect for the Mosaic religion, and attended as hearers in the synagogues. Many proselytes were attached to the Jewish communities wherever they were dispersed.‘ Hven in their own country and its vicinity, the number, both in early and later times, was not inconsiderable. The Queen of Sheba, bees is the abridgment of a work written by a Hellenistic Jew of Cyrene. A Jew or prose- tyte of Cyrene bore our Saviour’s cross. And the mention of this city. occurs more than once tm the Acts of the Apostles. 1 See note, p. 9. 3 This body doubtless consisted of manu- witted Jewish slaves. The synagogue or syua- 2 gogues mentioned im Acts vi. 9 are discussed in the next chapter. % In the case of Sardinia, however, they were forcibly sent to the island, te die of the bad climate. * In illustration of this fact, it is easy te adduce abundance of Heathen testimony. 18 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cHaP, I. in the Old Testament; Candace, Queen of Althiopia, in the New; and King Izates, with his mother Helena, mentioned by Josephus, are only royal representatives of a large class. During the time of the Maccabees, some alien tribes were forcibly incorporated with the Jews. This was the case with the Itureans, and probably with the Moabites, and, above all, with the Edomites, with whose name that of the Herodian family is his- torically connected. How far Judaism extended among the vague col- lection of tribes called Arabians, we can only conjecture from the curious history of the Homerites, and from the actions of such chieftains as Aretas (2 Cor. xi. 32). But as we travel towards the West and North, into countries better known, we find no lack of evidence of the moral effect of the synagogues, with their worship of JEHOVAH, and their prophecies of the Messiah. ‘Nicolas of Antioch” (Acts vi. 5) is only one of that “vast multitude of Greeks” who, according to Josephus,’ were attracted in that city to the Jewish doctrine and ritual. In Damas- cus, we are even told by the same authority that the great majority of the women were proselytes; a fact which receives a remarkable illustration from what happened to Paul at Iconium (Acts iii. 50). But all further details may be postponed till we follow Paul himself into the synagogues, where he so often addressed a mingled audience of “ Jews of the disper- sion” and “ devout” strangers. This chapter may be suitably concluded by some notice of the provinces of Cilicia and Judea. This will serve as an illustration of what has been said above, concerning the state of the Roman provinces generally; it will exemplify the mixture of Jews, Greeks, and Romans in the east of the Mediterranean, and it will be a fit introduction to what must imme- diately succeed. For these are the two provinces which require our attention in the early life of the Apostle Paul. Both these provinces were once under the sceptre of the line of the Seleucids, or Greek kings of Syria; and both of them, though originally whabited by a “ barbarous”? population, received more or less of the influence of Greek civilization. If the map is consulted, it will be seen that Antioch, the capital of the Greco-Syrian kings, is situated nearly in the angle where the coast-line of Cilicia, running eastwards, and that of Judea, extended northwards, are brought to an abrupt meeting. It will be seen also, that, more or less parallel to each of these coasts, there is a line of mountains, not far from the sea, which are brought into contact with each other in heavy and confused forms, near the same angle; the principal break in the continuity of either of them being the valley of the Orontes, which passes by Antioch. One of these mountain lines is the 1 War, vii. 3, 3. 2 See p. 7, note. s cwar, L CILICIA UNDER THE ROMANS. 19 range of Mount Taurus, which is so often mentioned as a great geographi- cal boundary by the writers of Greece and Rome; and Cilicia extends partly over the Taurus itself, and partly between it and the sea. The other range is that of Lebanon —a name made sacred by the scriptures and poetry of the Jews; and where its towering eminences subside towards the south into a land of hills and valleys and level plains, there is Judea, once the country of promise and possession to the chosen people, but a Roman province in the time of the Apostles. Cilicia, in the sense in which the word was used under the early Roman emperors, comprehended two districts, of nearly equal extent, but of very different character. The Western portion, or Rough Cilicia, as it was called, was a collection of the branches of Mount Taurus, which come down in large masses to the sea, and form that projection of the coast which divides the Bay of Issus from that of Pamphylia. The inhabitants of the whole of this district were notorious for their robberies: the northern portion, under the name of Isauria, providing innumerable strongholds for marauders by land; and the southern, with its excellent timber, its cliffs, and small harbors, being a natural home for pirates. The Isaurians maintained their independence with such determined obstinacy, that in a later period of the Empire, the Romans were willing to resign all appearance of subduing them, and were content to surround them with a cordon of forts. The natives of the coast of Rough Cilicia began to extend their piracies as the strength of the kings of Syria and Hgypt declined. They found in the progress of the Roman power, for some time, an encouragement rather than 4 hinderance; for they were actively engaged in an extensive and abominable slave-trade, of which the island of Delos was the great market; and the opulent families of Rome were in need of slaves, and were not more scrupulous than some Christian nations of modern times about the means of obtaining them. But the expeditions of these buccaneers of the Mediterranean became at last quite intolerable ; their fleets seemed innumerable ; their connections were extended far beyond their own coasts; all commerce was paralyzed ; and they began to arouse that attention at Rome which the more distant pirates of the Eastern Archipelago not long ago excited in England. A - vast expedition was fitted out under the command of Pompey the Great ; thousands of piratic vessels were burnt on the coast of Cilicia, and the inhabitants dispersed. A perpetual service was thus done to the cause of civilization, and the Mediterranean was made safe for the voyages of merchants and Apostles. The town of Soli, on the borders of the two divisions of Cilicia, received the name of Pompeiopolis,' in honor of the ’ 1 A similar case, on a small scale, is that of the French power, since the accession of of Philippeville in Algeria; and the progress Louis Philippe, in Northern Afiica, is perhaps 20 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar.» great conqueror, and the splendid remains of a colonnade which led from the harbor to the city may be considered a monument of this signal destruction of the enemies of order and peace. The Kastern, or Flat Cilicia, was a rich and extensive plain. Its prolific vegetation is praised both by the earlier and later classical writers, and, even under the neglectful government of the Turks, is still noticed by modern travellers.'. From this circumstance, and still more from its peculiar physical configuration, it was a possession of great political importance. Walled off from the neighboring countries by a high barrier of mountains, which sweep irregularly round it from Pom- peiopolis and Rough Cilicia to the Syrian coast on the North of Antioch, — with one pass leading up into the interior of Asia Minor, and another giving access to the valley of the Orontes,— it was naturally the high road both of trading caravans and of military expeditions. Through this country Cyrus marcbed, to depose his brother from the Persian throne. It was here that th» decisive victory was obtained by Alexander over Darius. This plain nas since seen the hosts ef Western Crusaders; and, in our own day, has been the field of operations of hostile Mohammedan armies, Turkish and Egyptian. The Greek kings of Egypt endeavored, long ago, to tear ; from the Greek kings of Syria. The Romans left it at first in the possession of Antiochus: but the line of Mount Taurus could not permanently arrest them: and the letters of Cicero remain to us among the most interesting, a’ they are among the earliest, monw ments of Roman Cilicia. Situated near the western border of the Cilician plain, where the river Cydnus flows in a cold and rapid stream, from the snows of Taurus to the sea, was the city of Tarsus, the capital of the whole province, and “ no mean city” (Acts xxi. 39) in the history of the ancient world. Its coins reveal to us its greatness through a long series of years: —alike in the period which intervened between Xerxes and Alexander, — and ander the Roman sway, when it exulted in the name of Jfetropolis, —and long after Hadrian had rebuilt it, and issued his new coinage with the old mythological types.? In the intermediate period, which is the nearest parallel in modern times to the hie tory ef a Roman province. As far as regards the pirates, Lord Exmouth, in 1816, really did the work ef Pompey the Great. It may be doubted whether Marshal Bugeaud was more lenient to the Arabs, than Cicero to the Elen- thero-Cilicians. Chrysippus the Stoic, whose father was a native of Tarsus, and Aratus, whom St. Paul quotes, lived at Soli. } Leborde’s illustrated work on Syria and Asia Minor contains some luxuriant specimens of the modern vegetation of Tarsus; but the banana and the prickly pear were introduced into the Mediterranean long after St. Paul’s day. 2 The coin at the end of the chapter was struck under Hadrian, and is preserved in the British Museum. The word Metropolis is con- spicuous on it. The same figures of the Lion and the Bull appear in a fine series of silver coins of Tarsus, assigned by the Duc de map. 1, . TARSUS. 2) that of St. Paul, we have the testimony of a native of this part of Asia Minor, from which we may infer that Tarsus was in the Kastern basin of the Mediterranean, almost what Marseilles was in the Western. Strabe says that, in all that relates to philosophy and general education, it was even more illustrious than Atnens and Alexandria. From his description it is evident that its main character was that of a Greek city, where the Greek language was spoken, and Greek literature studiously cultivated. But we should be wrong in supposing that the general population of the province was of Greek origin, or spoke the Greek tongue. When Cyrus came with his army from the Western Coast, and still later, when Alex- ander penetrated into Cilicia, they found the inhabitants “‘ Barbarians.” Nor is it likely that the old race would be destroyed, or the old language obliterated, especially in the mountain districts, during the reign of the Seleucid kings. We must rather conceive of Tarsus as like Brest, in Brittany, or like Toulon, in Provence,—a city where the language of refinement is spoken and written, in the midst of a ruder population, who use @ different language, and possess no literature of their own. lf we turn now to consider the position of this province and city under the Romans, we are led to notice two different systems of policy which they adopted in their subject dominions. The purpose of Rome was to make the world subservient to herself: but this might be accomplished directly or indirectly. A governor might be sent from Rome to take the absolute command of a province: or some native chief might have a king- dom, an ethnarchy,! or a tetrarchy assigned to him, in which he was nomi nally independent, but really subservient, and often tributary. Some prov- inces were rich and productive, or essentially important in the military sense, and these were committed to Romans under the Senate or the Emperor. Others might be worthless or troublesome, and fit only to reward the services of a useful instrument, or to occupy the energies of a dangerous ally. Both these systems were adopted in the East and in the West. We have examples of both — in Spain and in Gaul — in Cilicia and in Judwa. In Asia Minor they were so irregularly combined, and the territories of the independent sovereigns were so capriciously granted or removed, extended or curtailed, that it is often difficult to ascertain what the actual boundaries of the provinces were at a given epoch. Not to enter into any minute history in the case of Cilicia, it will be enough to say, that its rich and level plain in the east was made & Roman province by Pompey, and so remained, while certain districts in the western portion were assigned, at different periods, to various native chieftains. Thus the territories of Amyntas, King of Galatia, were ex- Luynes to the period between Xerxes end 2 Bee note at the end of Ch. OL Alexander. 22 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, I tended in this direction by Antony, when he was preparing for his great struggle with Augustus: just as a modern Rajah may be strengthened on the banks of the Indus, in connection witli wars against Scinde and the Sikhs. For some time the whole of Cilicia was a consolidated prov- ince under the first emperors: but again, in the reign of Claudius, we find a portion of the same Western district assigned to a king called Polemo II. It is needless to pursue the history further. In St. Paul’s early life the political state of the inhabitants of Cilicia would be that of subjects of a Roman governor: and Roman officials, if not Roman soldiers, would be a familiar sight to the Jews who were settled in Tarsus. We shall have many opportunities of describing the condition of prov- inces under the dominion of Rome; but it may be interesting here to allude to the information which may be gathered from the writings of that distinguished man, who was governor of Cilicia, a few years after its first reduction by Pompey. He was intrusted with the civil and military superintendence of a large district in this corner of the Mediterranean, comprehending not only Cilicia, but Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and the island of Cyprus; and he has left a record of all the details of his policy in a long series of letters, which are a curious monument of the Roman procedure in the management of conquered provinces, and which possess a double interest to us, from their frequent allusions to the same places which St. Paul refers to in his Epistles. This correspond- ence represents to us the governor as surrounded by the adulation of obsequious Asiatic Greeks. He travels with an interpreter, for Latin is the official language; he puts down banditti, and is saluted by the title of Imperator; letters are written, on various subjects, to the _ governors of neighboring provinces, — for instance, Syria, Asia, and Bithynia ; ceremonious communications take place with the independent chieftains. The friendly relations of Cicero with Deiotarus, King of Galatia, and his son, remind us of the interview of Pilate and Herod in the Gospel, or of Festus and Agrippa in the Acts. Cicero’s letters are rather too full of a boastful commendation of his own integrity ; but from what he says that he did, we may infer by contrast what was done by others who were less scrupulous in the discharge of the same re- sponsibilities. He allowed free access to his person; he refused expen- sive monuments in his honor; he declined the proffered present of the pauper King of Cappadocia ;* he abstained from exacting the customary expenses from the states which he traversed on his march ; he remitted 1 Tarsus, as a “ Free City” (Urbs Libera), 4 See Hor. 1 Zp. vi. $9. would have the privilege of being garrisoned by its own soldiers. See next chapter 7 or Bombay under the governor-general who resides at Calcutta. POLITICAL CHANGES IN JUDAA 23 onAY. I. to the treasury the moneys which were not expended on his province ; he would not place in official situations those who were engaged in trade ; he treated the local Greek magistrates with due consideration, and con- trived at the same time to give satisfaction to the Publicans. From all this it may be easily inferred with how much corruption, cruelty, and pride, the Romans usually governed; and how miserable must have been the condition of a province under a Verres or an Appius, a Pilate ora Felix. So far as we remember, the Jews are not mentioned in any of Cicero’s Cilician letters; but if we may draw conclusions from a speech which he made at Rome in defence of a contemporary governor of Asia, he regarded them with much contempt, and would be likely to treat them with harshness and injustice.’ That Polemo II., who has lately been mentioned as a king in Cilicia, was one of those curious links which the history of those times exhibits between Heathenism, Judaism, and Christianity. He became a Jew to marry Berenice,’ who afterwards forsook him, and whose name, after once appearing in Sacred History (Acts xxv., xxvi.), is lastly asso- ciated with that of Titus, the destroyer of Jerusalem. The name of Berenice will at once suggest the family of the Herods, and transport our thoughts to Judza. The same general features may be traced in this province as in that which we have been attempting to describe. In some respects, indeed, the details of its history are different. When Cilicia was a province, it formed a separate jurisdiction, with a governor of its own, immediately responsible to Rome: but Judza, in its provincial period, was only an appendage to Syria. It has been said‘ that the position of the ruler resi- dent at Casarea in connection with the supreme authority at Antioch may be best understood by comparing it with that of the governor of Madras The comparison is in some respects just: and British India might supply a further parallel. We might say that when Judea was not strictly a prov- ince, but a monarchy under the protectorate of Rome, it bore the same relation to the contiguous province of Syria which, before the recent war, the territories of the king of Oude® bore to the presidency of Bengal. 1 This was L. Valerius Flaccus, who had served in Cilicia, and was afterwards made Governor of Asia, — that district with which, and its capital Ephesus, we are so familiar in the Acts of the Apostles. 2 See especially Cic. Flacc. 28; and for the opinion which educated Romans had of the Jews, see Hor. 1 Sat. iv. 143, v. 100, ix. 69. ® He was the last King of Pontus. By Ca- ligula he was made King of Bosphorus; but Claudius gave him part of Cilicia instead of it. Joseph. Ant. xx. 7, 3. * See the introduction to Dr. Traill’s Jcse- phus, a work which was interrupted by the death of the translator during the Irish famine, and was continued by Mr. Isaac‘Taylor. 5 Another coincidence is, that we made the Nabob of Oudea king. He had previously beem hereditary Vizier of the Mogul. 24 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar.» Judsa was twice a monarchy; and thus its history furnishes illustra tions of the two systems pursued by the Romans, of direct and indirect government. Another important contrast must be noticed in the histories of these two provinces. In the Greek period of Judea, there was a time of noble and vigorous independence. Antiochus Epiphanes, the eighth of the line ef the Seleucids, in pursuance of a general system of policy, by which he sought to unite all his different territories through the Greek religion, endeavored to introduce the worship of Jupiter into Jerusalem.’ Such an attempt might have been very successful in Syria or Cilicia: but in Juda it kindled a flame of religious indignation, which did not cease to burn till the yoke of the Seleucidz was entirely thrown off: the name of Antiochus Epiphanes was ever afterwards held in abhorrence by the Jews, and aspecial fast was kept up in memory of the time when the “ abomi- nation of desolation”? stood in the holy place. The champions of the independence of the Jewish nation and the purity of the Jewish religion were the family of the Maccabees or Asmongwans: and a hundred years before the birth of Christ the first Hyrcanus was reigning over @ prosper- gus and independent kingdom. But in the time of the second Hyrcanus and his brother, the family of the Maccabees was not what it had been, and Juda was ripening for the dominion of Rome. Pompey the Great, the same conqueror who had already subjected Cilicia, appeared in Da mascus, and there judged the cause of the two brothers. All the country was full of his fame. In the spring of the year 63 he came down by the valley of the Jordan, his Roman soldiers occupied the ford where Joshua had crossed over, and from the Mount of Olives he looked down upon Jerusalem.? From that day Judza was virtually under the government of Rome. It is true that, after a brief support given to the reigning family, a new native dynasty was raised to the throne. Antipater, a man of Idumwan birth, had been minister of the Maccabwan kings: but they were the Rois Fainéants of Palestine, and he was the Maire du Palais. In the midst of the confusion of the great civil wars, the Herodian family succeeded to the Asmonzan, as the Carlovingian line in France succeeded that of Clovis. As Pepin was followed by Charlemange, so Antipater prepared a crown for his son Herod. At first Herod the Great espoused the cause of Antony; but he cop- 1 Here we may observe that there are ex- tant coins of Antiochus Epiphanes, where the from the religions movement alluded to in the text. head of Jupiter appears on the obverse, in place of the portrait usual in the Alexandrian, Seleucid, and Macedonian series. Since such emblems on ancient coins have always sacred meanings, it is very probable that this arose 2 Pompey heard of the death of Mishridates at Jericho. His army crossed at Scythopolia by the ford immediately below the Lake of Mae. % HEROD AND His FAMILY. 26 trived ts .emedy his mistake by paying a prompt visit, after the battle of Actimm, to Augustus in the island of Rhodes. This singular inter view of the Jewish prince with the Roman conqueror in a Greek island was the beginning of an important period for the Hebrew nation. An exotic civilization was systematically introduced and extended. Those Greek influences, which had been begun under the Seleucids, and not dis continued under the Asmongans, were now more widely diffused: and the Roman customs,’ which had hitherto been comparatively unknown, were now made famiiar. Herod was indeed too wise, and knew the Jews too well, to attempt, like Antiochus, to introduce foreign institu- tions without any regard to their religious feelings. He endeavord to ingratiate himself with them by rebuilding and decorating their national temple ; and a part of that magnificent bridge which was connected with the great southern colunnade is still believed to exist,— remaining, in ita vast proportions and Boman form, an‘ appropriate monument of the Herodian period of Judea.2 The period when Herod was reigning at Jerusalem under the protectorate of Augustus was chiefly remarkable for great architectural works, for the promotion of commerce, the influx of strangers, and the increased diffusion of the two great languages of the heathen world. The names of places are themselves a monument of the spirit of the times. As Tarsus was called Juliopolis from Julius Cwzsar, and Soli Pompeiopolis from his great rival, so Samaria was called Sebaste after the Greek name of Augustus, and the new metropolis, which was built by Herod on the sea-shore, was called Cmsarea in honor of the game Latin emperor: while Antipatris, on the road (Acts xxiii. 31) be tween the old capital and the new,’ still commemorated the name of the King’s Idumaan father. We must not suppose that the internal change in the minds of the people was proportional to the magnitude of these outward improvements. They suffered much; and their hatred grew towards Rome and towards the Herods. A parallel might be drawn between the state of Judza under Herod the Great, and that of Egypt ender Mahomet Ali,‘ where great works have been successfully accom- 1 Antiochus Epiphanes (who was called Epimanes from his mad conduct) is said to have made himself ridiculous by adopting Ro man fashions, and walking about the streets of Antioch in a toga. 7 See the woodcut opposite. The arch ex- tends about fifty feet along the wall, and its tadius must have been about twenty feet. Is is right to say that there is much controversy about it origin. Dr. Robinson assigns it to the epe of Solomon: Mr. Fergusson te that ” Hered: Mr Williams holds it to be s fragment of the great Christian werks eon structed in this southern part ef the Temple area in the age of Justinian. 3 The tracing of the road by which St Paul travelled om this eccasion is one of the most interesting geographical questions which will come before us. * There are many points of resemblance between the character and fortunes of Herod and those of Mahomet Ali: the chief differ- ences are those of the times. Herod secured his position by the influence of Augustus: 26 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. OHAP. I, plished, where the spread of ideas has been promoted, traffic made busy and prosperous, and communication with the civilized world wonderfully increased, — but where the mass of the people has continued to be mis- erable and degraded. After Herod’s death, the same influences still continued to operate in Judza. Archelaus persevered in his father’s policy, though destitute of his father’s energy. The same may be said of the other sons, Antipas and Philip, in their contiguous principalities. All the Herods were great builders, and eager partisans of the Roman emperors: and we are familiar in the Gospels with that Casarea (Cesarea Philippi), which one of them built in the upper part of the valley of the Jordan, and named in honor ° of Augustus, — and with that Ziberias on the banks of the lake of Ge- nesareth, which bore the name of his wicked successor. But while Antipas and Philip still retained their dominions under the protectorate of the emperor, Archelaus had+ been banished, and the weight of the Roman power had descended still more heavily on Judea. It was placed under the direct jurisdiction of a governor, residing at Cesa-. rea by the Sea, and depending, as we have seen above, on the governor of Syria at Antioch. And now we are made familiar with those features which might be adduced as characterizing any other province at the same epoch, — the prztorium,'—the publicans,?— the tribute-money,’ — sol- diers and centurions recruited in Italy, — Cesar the only king,’ and the ultimate appeal against the injustice of the governor.’ In this period the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Curist took place, the first preaching of His Apostles, and the conversion of St.Paul. But once more a change came over the political fortunes of Judeza. Herod Agrippa was the friend of Caligula, as Herod the Great had been the friend of Augustus; and when Tiberius died, he received the grant of an independent principality in the north of Palestine.’ He was able to ingratiate himself with Claudius, the succeeding emperor. Juda was added to his dominion, which now embraced the whole circle of the territory ruled by his grandfather. By this time St. Paul was actively pur- suing his apostolic career. We need not, therefore, advance beyond this Mahomet Ali secured his by the agreement of the European powers. 1 Joh. xviii. 28. 2 Luke iii. 12, xix. 2. 3 Matt. xxii. 19. * Most of the soldiers quartered in Syria were recruited in the province: but the Cohort, to which Cornelius belonged, probably consist- ed of Italian volunteers. The “Ztalian Band” (Acts x. 1) will come under our notice m Chap. IV., and the “Augustan Band” (Ibid. xxvii. 1) in Chap. XXII. 5 Joh. xix. 15. ® Acts xxv. Ll. 7 He obtained under Caligula, first, the te trarchy of his uncle Philip, who died; and then that of his uncle Antipas, who followed his brother Archelaus into banishment. OHAP. 1. CONCLUSION. 27 point, in a chapter which is only intended to be a general introduction to the Apostle’s history. : Our desire has been to give a picture of the condition of the world at this particular epoch: and we have thought that no grouping would be so successful as that which should consist of Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Nor is this an artificial or unnatural arrangement: for these three nations were the divisions of the civilized world. And in the view of a religious mind they were more than this. They were “the three peoples of God’s election; two for things temporal, and one for things eternal. Yet even in the things eternal they were allowed to minister. Greek cultivation and Roman polity prepared men for Christianity.”’ These three peoples stand in the closest relation to the whole human race. The Christian, when he imagines himself among those spectators who stood round the cross, and gazes in spirit upon that “superscription,” which the Jewish scribe, the Greek proselyte, and the Roman soldier could read, each in his own tongue, feels that he is among those who are the representatives of all humanity.? In the ages which precede the cru- cifixion, these three languages were like threads which guided us through the labyrinth of history. And they are still among the best guides of our thought, as we travel through the ages which succeed it. How great has been the honor of the Greek and Latin tongues! They followed the fortunes of a triumphant church. Instead of Heathen languages, they gradually became Christian. As before they had been employed to _ express the best thoughts of unassisted humanity, so afterwards they became the exponents of Christian doctrine and the channels of Chris- tian devotion. The words of Plato and Cicero fell from the lips and pen of Chrysostom and Augustine. And still those two languages are associated together in the work of Christian education, and made the instruments for training the minds of the young in the greatest nations of the earth. And how deep and pathetic is the interest which attaches to the Hebrew! Here the thread seems to be broken. ‘“JxEsus, King of the Jews,” in Hebrew characters. It is like the last word of the Jewish Scriptures, — the last warning of the chosen people. A cloud henceforth is upon the 1 Dr. Arnold, in the journal of his Tour in 1840 (Life, ii. 413, 24 edit.). The passage continues thus:—‘“ As Mahometanism can bear witness; for the Hast, when it abandoned Greece and Rome, could only reproduce Juda- ism. Mahometanism, six hundred years after Christ, proving that the Eastern man could hear nothing perfect, justifies the wisdom of God in Judaism.” 2 This is true in another, and perhaps a higher sense. The Roman, powerful but not happy — the Greek, distracted with the inqui- ries of an unsatisfying philosophy — the Jew, bound hand and foot with the chain of a cere- monial law, all are together round the cross. Curist is crucified in the midst of them— crucified for all. The “superscription of His accusation ” speaks to all the same language of peace, pardon, and love. B THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. L people and the language of Israel. “ Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Once again Jesus, after His ascension, spake openly from Heaven “in the Hebrew tongue ” (Acts xxvi. 14): but the words were addressed to that Apostle who was called to preach the Gospel to the philosophers of Greece, and in the emperor’s palace at Rome.! 1 Ses inscription im the three languages oa a Christian tomb in the Roman Catacombs, ai the ond ef tho velume. Coin of Tarsus. Hadrian. (See p. 20, n. 2) CHAPTER IL Jewish Origin of the Church. — Sects and Parties of the Jews. — Pharisees and Saddueces. — 8t. Raul a Phariscse. — Hellenists and Arammans. — St. Paul’s Family Hellenistic but net Hellenizing. — His Infancy at Tarsus. — The Tribe of Benjamin.— His Father’s Ciitizxen- ship. — Scenery of the Place.— His Childhood.— He is sent to Jerusalem. — State of Judea and Jerusalem.— Rabbinical Schools. — Gamaliel.— Mode of Teaching. — Syne gogues. — Student-Life of St. Panl. — His Early Manhood. — First Aspect of the Church —St. Stephen.— The Sanhedrin. — St. Stephen the Forerunner of St. Paul. — His Martyr dom and Prayer. HRISTIANITY has been represented by some of the modern Jews as a mere school of Judaism. Instead of opposing it as a system antagonistic and subversive of the Mosaic religion, they speak of it as a phase or development of that religion itself, — as simply one of the rich outgrowths from the fertile Jewish soil. They point out the causes which combined in the first century to produce this Christian development o* Judaism. It has even been hinted that Christianity has done a good work in preparing the world for receiving the pure Mosaic principles which will, at length, be universal. We are not unwilling to accept some of these phrases as expressing & great and important truth. Christianity ¢s a school of Judaism: but it is the school which absorbs and interprets the teaching of all others. It 4¢ a development; but it is that development which was divinely foreknown and predetermined. It is the grain of which mere Judaism is now the worthless husk. It is the image of Truth in its full propor tions; and the Jewish remnants are now as the shapeless fragments which remain of the block of marble when the statue is completed. When we look back at the Apostolic age, we see that growth proceed- ing which separated the husk from the grain. We see the image of Truth coming out in clear expressiveness, and the useless fragments falling off like scales, under the careful work of divinely-guided hands. If we are to realize the earliest appearance of the Church, such as it 1 This notion, that the doctrine of Christ Judaism: but a more powerful spell than this wil be re-absorbed in that of Moses, isa curi- philosophy is needed to charm back the stately eas phase of the recent Jewish philosophy. river into the narrow, rugged, picturesque = We are sure,” it has been well said, ‘that ravine, out of which centuries ago it found its Christianity can never disown its seurce in way.” , 30 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. car TL was when Paul first saw it, we must view it as arising in the midst of Judaism ; and if we are to comprehend all the feelings and principles of this Apostle, we must consider first the Jewish preparation of his own younger days. To these two subjects the present chapter will be devoted. We are very familiar with one division which ran through the Jewish nation in the first century. The Sadducees and Pharisees are frequently mentioned in the New Testament, and we are there informed of the tenets of these two prevailing parties. The belief in a future state may be said to have been an open question among the Jews, when our Lord appeared and “brought life and immortality to light.” We find the Sadducees established in the highest office of the priesthood, and pos- sessed of the greatest powers in the Sanhedrin: and yet they did not believe in any future state, nor in any spiritual existence independent of the body. The Sadducees said that there was “no resurrection, neither Angel nor Spirit.” They do not appear to have held doctrines which are commonly called licentious or immoral. On the contrary, they adhered strictly to the moral tenets of the Law, as opposed to its mere formal technicalities. They did not overload the Sacred Books with traditions, or encumber the duties of life with a multitude of minute observances. They were the disciples of reason without enthusi- asm, — they made few proselytes, — their numbers were not great, and they were confined principally to the richer members of the nation.? The Pharisees, on the other hand, were the enthusiasts of the later Judaism. They “‘ compassed sea and land to make one proselyte.” Their power and influence with the mass of the people was immense. The loss of the national independence of the Jews,— the gradual extinction of their political life, directly by the Romans, and indirectly by the family of Herod,— caused their feelings to rally round their Law and their Religion, as the only centre of unity which now remained to them. Those, therefore, who gave their energies to the interpretation and exposition of the Law, not curtailing any of the doctrines which were virtually contained in it and which had been revealed with more or less clearness, but rather accumulating articles of faith, and multiplying the requirements of devotion;—who themselves practised a severe and ostentatious religion, being liberal in alms-giving, fasting frequently, making Jong prayers, and carrying casuistical distinctions into the smallest details of conduct ;— who consecrated, moreover, their best zeal and exertions to the spread of the fame of Judaism, and to the in- 1 Acts xxiii. 8. See Matt. xxii. 23-34. Ant. xiii. 10, 6; xviii. 1, 4, comparing tke 4 See what Josephus says of theSadducees: question asked, John vil. 48. cHAP. ST. PAUL A PHARISEE. 31 crease of the nation’s power in the only way which now was practicable, —could not fail to command the reverence of great numbers of the people. It was no longer possible to fortify Jerusalem against the Heathen: but the Law could be fortified like an impregnable city. The place of the brave is on the walls and in the front of the baitle: and the hopes of the nation rested on those who defended the sacred outworks, and made successful inroads on the territories of the Gen- tiles. Such were the Pharisees. And now, before proceeding to other features of Judaism and their relation to the Church, we can hardly help glancing at St. Paul. He was “a Pharisee, the son of a Phari- see,’* and he was educated by Gamaliel,’ “a Pharisee.”* Both his father and his teacher belonged to this sect. And on three distinct occasions he tells us that he himself was a member of it. Once when at his trial, before a mixed assembly of Pharisees and Sadducees, the words just quoted were spoken, and his connection with the Pharisees asserted with such effect, that the feelings of this popular party were immediately enlisted on his side. “And when he had so said, there - arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the multitude was divided. . . . And there arose a great cry; and the Scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, we find no evil in this man.” * The second time was, when, on a calmer occasion, he was pleading before Agrippa, and said to the king in the presence of Festus: ‘“‘ The Jews knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I liveda Pharisee.”° And once more, when writing from Rome to the Philip- plans, he gives force to his argument against the Judaizers, by telling them that if any other man thought he nad whereof he might trust in the flesh, he himself had more, —“ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee.’® And not only was he himself a Pharisee, but his father also. He was * a Pharisee, the son of a Phari- see.” This short sentence sums up nearly all we know of St. Paul’s parents. If we think of his earliest life, we are to conceive of him as born in a Pharisaic family, and as brought up from his infancy in the “straitest sect of the Jews’ religion.” His childhood was nurtured in the strictest belief. The stories of the Old Testament,— the angelic appearances,— the prophetic visions,—to him were literally true. They needed no Sadducean explanation. The world of spirits was a 1 Acts xxiii. 6. 3 Acts v. 34 § Acts xxvi. 2 Acts xxii. 3. § Acts xxiii, § Philip. iii. 4 82 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL amar. m reality to him. The resurrection of the dead was an article of his faith. And to exhort him to the practices of religion, he had before him the example of his father, praying and walking with broad phylacteries, scrupulous and exact in his legal observances. He had, moreover, as it seems, the memory and tradition of ancestral piety; for he tells us in one of his latest letters, that he served God “ from his fore- fathers.” All influences combined to make him “ more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers,’”’? and “ touching the righteous ness which is in the Law, blameless.” * Every thing tended to prepare him to be an eminent member of that theological party, to which so many of the Jews were looking for the preservation of their national life, and the extension of their national creed. But in this mention of the Pharisees and Sadducees, we are far from ex- hausting the subject of Jewish divisions, and far from enumerating all those phases of opinion which must have had some connection with the growth of rising Christianity, and all those elements which may have contributed to form the character of the Apostle of the Heathen. There was a sect in Judea which is not mentioned in the Scriptures, but which must have acquired considerable influence in the time of the Apostles, as may be inferred from the space devoted to it by Josephus‘ and Philo. These were the Hssenes, who retired from the theological and political distrac tions of Jerusalem and the larger towns, and founded peaceful communi ties in the desert or in villages, where their life was spent in contemple- tion, and in the practices of ascetic piety. It has been suggested that John the Baptist was one of them. There is no proof that this was the case: but we need not doubt that they did represent religious cravings which Christianity satisfied. Another party was that of the Zealots,’ who were as politically fanatical as the Essenes were religiously contemplative, and whose zeal was kindled with the burning desire to throw off the Roman yoke from the neck of Israel. Very different from them were the Hero- dians, twice mentioned in the Gospels,’ who held that the hopes of Juda ism rested on the Herods, and who almost looked to that family for the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Messiah. And if we were simply enumerating the divisions and describing the sects of the Jews, it would be necessary to mention the Therapeute,' a widely-spread community in Egypt, who lived even in greater seclusion than the Essenes in Judea. The Samaritans also would require our attention. But we must turn 12aTimis of the Gospel (Luke vi. 15), though the party 8 Gal. i la was hardly then matured. ® Phil. iti. 6. 6 Mark iii. 6; Matt. xxii. 16: sse Mark * War, ii. 8. xii. 13. % We have the werd in the “ Simon Zelotes ” 7 Described in great detail by Phile. wae, DL HELLENISTS aND ABRAM ALANS. Be from these sects and parties to a wider division, which arose from that dispersion of the Hebrew people, to which some space has been devoted in the preceding chapter. We have seen that early colonies of the Jews were settled in Babylonia and Mesopotamia. Their connection with their brethren in Judza was continually maintained: and they were bound to them by the link of a common language. The Jews of Palestine and Syria, with those who live: op the Tigris and Euphrates, iaterpreted ihe Scriptures through the Targums' or Chaldee paraphrases, and spoke kindred dialects of the lan- guage of Aram:? and hence they were called Aramean Jews. We have also had occasion to notice that other dispersion of the nation through those countries where Greek was spoken. Their settlements began with Alexander’s conquests, and were continued under the successors of those who partitioned his empire. Alexandria was their capital. They used the Septuagint translation of the Bible ;* and they were commonly called Hellenists, or Jews of the Grecian speech. The mere difference of language would account in some degree for the mutual dislike with which we know that these two sections of the Jewish race regarded one another. We were all aware how closely the use of an hereditary dialect is bound up with the warmest feelings of the heart. And in this case the Aramaan language was the sacred tongue of Palestine. It is true that the tradition of the language of the Jews had been broken, as the continuity of their political life had been rudely interrupted. The Hebrew of the time of Christ was not the oldest Hebrew of the Israelites; but it was a kindred dialect, and old enough to command a reverent affection. Though not the language of Moses and David, it was that of Ezra and Nehemiah. And it is not unnatural that the Aramawans should have revolted from the speech of the Greek idolaters and the tyrant Antiochus,‘—a speech which they associated moreover with innovating doctrines and dangerous speculations. For the division went deeper than a mere superficial diversity of speech. it was not only a division, like the modern one of German and Spanish 1 It is uncertain when the written Targums earae inte use, but the practice of paraphrasing erally in Chaldee must have begun soon after the Captivity. 2 Aram — the “ Highlands ” of the Semitic tribes — comprehended the tract of country which extended from Taurus and Lebanon to Wesopotamia and Arabia. There were two main dialects of the Aramman stock, the east- ern or Babylonian, ‘commonly called Chaldee {the “Syrian tongue” of 2 Kings xviii 26; Isai. zxxvi. 11; Hur. iv. 7; Dan. ii 4); end 3 the western, which is the parent of the Syriae, now, like the former, almost a dead langnaze. The first of these dialects began to supplant the older Hebrew of Judwa from the time of the Captivity, and was the “‘ Hebrew ” of the New Testament, Luke xxiii. 838; Jon xix. 20; Acts xxi. 40, xxii. 2, xxvi. 14. Araixe, the most perfect of the Semitic languages, hax now generally overspread those regions. 5 Seo p. 35, a 2. * Bee pp. 24, 25, and netes. ae 84 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. car. Jews, where those who hold substantially the same doctrines have ace1- dentally been led to speak different languages. But there was a diversity of religious views and opinions. This is not the place for examining that system of mystic interpretation called the Cabala,' and for determining how far its origin might be due to Alexandria or to Babylon. It is enough to say, generally, that in the Aramwan theology, Oriental elements pre- vailed rather than Greek, and that the subject of Babylonian influences has more connection with the life of St. Peter than that of St. Paul. The Hellenists, on the other hand, or Jews who spoke Greek, who lived in Greek countries, and were influenced by Greek civilization, are asso- ciated in the closest manner with the Apostle of the Gentiles. They are more than once mentioned in the Acts, where our English translation names them “Grecians,” to distinguish them from the Heathen or prose- lyte ‘“‘ Greeks.” * Alexandria was the metropolis of their theology. Philo was their great representative. He was an old man when St. Paul was in his maturity: his writings were probably known to the Apostles; and they have descended with the inspired Epistles to our own day. The work of the learned Hellenists may be briefly described as this, — to ac- commodate Jewish doctrines to the mind of the Greeks, and to make the Greek language express the mind of the Jews. The Hebrew principles were “disengaged as much as possible from local and national conditions, and presented in a form adapted to the Hellenic world.” All this was hateful to the zealous Aramezans. The men of the East rose up against those of the West. The Greek learning was not more repugnant to the Roman Cato, than it was to the strict Hebrews. They had a saying, “ Cursed be he who teacheth his son the learning of the Greeks.”* We could imagine them using the words of the prophet Joel (iii. 6), “The children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them from their border:” and we cannot be surprised that, even in the deep peace and charity of the Church’s earliest days, this inveterate division re-appeared, and that, “ when the 1 See Ch. XIII. 2 See Chap. I. p. 10, note. 8 This repugnance is illustrated by many passages in the Talmudic writings. Rabbi Levi Ben Chajathah, going down to Cesarea, heard them reciting their phylacteries in Greek, and would have forbidden them ; which when Rabbi Jose heard, he was very angry, and said, “If a man doth not know how to recite in the holy tongue, must he not recite them at allt Let him perform his duty in what language he can.” The fol- lowing saying is attributed to Rabban Simeon, the son of Gamaliel: “There were a thousand boys in my father’s school, of whom five hun- dred learned the law, and five hundred the wisdom of the Greeks; and there is not one of the latter now alive, excepting myself here, and my uncle’s son in Asia.” We learn also from Josephus that a knowledge of Greek wee lightly regarded by the Jews of Palestine. ouar. 0. HELLENISTS AND ARAMAIANS. 30 number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews.’”! It would be an interesting subject of inquiry to ascertain in what proportions these two parties were distributed in the different countries where the Jews were dispersed, in what places they came into the strongest collision, and how far they were fused and united together. In the city of Alexandria, the emporium of Greek commerce from the time of its foundation, where, since the earliest Ptolemies, literature, philosophy, and criticism had never ceased to excite the utmost in. tellectual activity, where the Septuagint translation of the Scripture had been made,? and where a Jewish temple and ceremonial worship had been established in rivalry to that in Jerusalem,>— there is ne doubt that the Hellenistic element largely prevailed. But although (strictly speaking) the Alexandrian Jews were nearly all Hellenists, it does not follow that they were all Hellenizers. In other words, although their speech and their Scriptures were Greek, the theological views of many among them undoubtedly remained Hebrew. There must have been many who were attached to the traditions of Palestine, and who looked suspiciously on their more speculative brethren: and we have no difficulty in recognizing the picture presented in a pleasing German fiction,‘ which describes the debates and struggles of the two tendencies in this city, to be very correct. In Palestine itself, we have every reason to believe that the native population was entirely Aramzan, though there was uo lack of Hellenistic synagogues® in Jerusalem, which at the seasons of the festivals would be crowded with foreign pilgrims, and become the scene of animated discussions. Syria was connected by the link of language with Palestine and Babylonia; but Antioch, its metropolis, commercially and politically, resembled Alexan- dria: and it is probable that, when Barnabas and Saul were establish- ing the great Christian community in that city,® the majority of the Jews were “ Grecians” rather than “ Hebrews.” In Asia Minor we should at first sight be tempted to imagine that the Grecian tendency 1 Acts vi. 1. 2 Tt is useless here to enter into any of the Jegends connected with the number “ seventy.” This translation came into existence from 300 to 150 B.c. Its theological importance cannot be exaggerated. The quotations in the N. T. from the O. T. are generally made from it. See p. 37. * This temple was not in the city of Alex- andria, but at Leontopolis. It was built (or rather it was an old Heathen temple repaired} by Onias, from whose family the high priest- hood had been transferred to the family of the Maccabees, and who had fled into Egypt in the time of Ptolemy Philopator. It remained in existence till destroyed by Vespasian. See Josephus, War, i. 1, 1, vii. 10,3; Ant. xiii. 3. * Helon’s Pilgrimage te Jerusalem, published in German in 1820, translated into English in 1824. § See Acts vi. 9. © Acts xi. 25, &. “Saran ion “=~ Bi) THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL omar. IL, would predominate; but when we find that Antiochus brought Babylonian Jews into Lydia and Phrygia, we must not make too con- fident a conclusion in this direction; and we have grounds for imagin- ing that many Israelitish families in the remote districts (possibly that of Timotheus at Lystra)’ may have cherished the forms of the tradition- ary faith of the Eastern Jews, and lived uninfluenced by Hellenistic novelties. The residents in maritime and commercial towns would not be strangers to the Western developments of religious doctrines: and when Apollos came from Alexandria to Ephesus,’ he would find himself in a theological atmosphere not very different from that of his native city. Tarsus in Cilicia will naturally be included under the same class of cities of the West, by those who remember Strabo’s assertion that, in literature and philosophy, its fame exceeded that of Athens and Alexan- dria. At the same time, we cannot be sure that the very célebrity of its Heathen schools might not induce the families of Jewish residents to retire all the more strictly into a religious Hebrew seclusion. That such a seclusion of their family from Gentile influences was maintained by the parents of St. Paul,is highly probable. We have no means of knowing how long they themselves, or their ancestors, had been Jews of the dispersion. A tradition is mentioned by Jerome that they came originally from Giscala, a town in Galilee, when it was stormed by the Romans. The story involves an anachronism, and contradicts the Acts of the Apostles.? Yet it need not be entirely disregarded ; espe- cially when we find St. Paul speaking of himself as “a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” ‘ and when we remember that the word “‘ Hebrew” is used for an Aramaic Jew, as opposed to a “ Grecian ” or “ Hellenist.”* Nor is it unlikely in itself that before they settled in Tarsus, the family had belonged to the Eastern dispersion, or to the Jews of Palestine. But, however this may be, St. Paul himself must be called an Hellenist ; because the language of his infancy was that idiom of the Grecian Jews in which all his letters were written. Though, in conformity with the 1 Acts xvi. 1; 2 Tim. i. 6, iii. 15. ® Acta xviii. 24. ® Acts xxii. 3. * Phil: iii. 5. Cave sees nothing more in this phrase than that “his parents were Jews, and that of the ancient stock, not entering in by the gate of proselytism, but originally de- scended from the nation.” — Life of St. Paul, 1 2. Benson, on the other hand, argues, from this passage and from 2 Cor. xi. 22, that there was a diSerence between a “ Hebrew” and an “ Israslite.”—“A person might be descended from Israel, and yet not be a Hebrew, but an Hellenist. . . . St. Paul appeareth to me to have plainly intimated, that a man might be of the stock of Israel and of the tribe of Ben- jamin, and yet not be a Hebrew of the He brews ; but that, as to himself, he was, both by father and mother, a Hebrew, or of the race of that sort of Jews which were generally most esteemed by their nation.” — History of the First Planting of the Christian Religien, vol i. p- 117. ® Acts vi. 1, For the absurd Ebionite story that St. Paul was by birth not a Jew at all but a Greek. see the next chapter. . amar. 1. ST. PAUL’S INFANCY AT TARSUS. 37 strong feeling of the Jews of all times, he might learn his earliest sentences from the Scripture in Hebrew, yet he was familiar with the Septuagint translation at an early age. For it is observed that, when he quotes from the Old Testament, his quotations are from that version ; and that, not only when he cites its very words, but when (as is often the case) he quotes it from memory.! Considering the accurate knowledge of the original Hebrew which he must have acquired under Gamaliel at Jerusalem, it has been inferred that this can only arise from his having been thoroughly imbued at an earlier period with the Hellenistic Scrip tures. The readiness, too, with which he expressed himself in Greek, even before such an audience as that upon the Areopagus at Athens, shows a command of the language which a Jew would not, in all proba- bility, have attained, had not Greek been the familiar speech of his childhood.’ But still the vernacular Hebrew of Palestine would not have been a foreign tongue to the infant Saul; on the contrary, he may have heard it spoken almost as often as the Greek. For no doubt his parents, proud of their Jewish origin, and living comparatively near to Palestine, would retain the power of conversing with their friends from thence in the ancient speech. Mercantile connections from the Syrian coast would be frequently arriving, whose discourse would be in Aramaic; and in all probability there were kinsfolk still settled in Judza, as we afterwards find the nephew of St. Paul in Jerusalem. We may com- pare the situation of such a family (so far as concerns their language) te that of the French Huguenots who settled in London after the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes. These French families, though they soon learned to use the English as the medium of their common inter course and the language of their household, yet, for several generations, spoke French with equal familiarity and greater affection.‘ 1 See Tholuck’s Hesay on the early life of St. Paul, Eng. Trans. p. 9. Out of eighty- eight quotations from the Old Testament, Koppe gives grounds for thinking that forty- nine were cited from memory. And Bleek thinks that every one of his citations without exception is from memory. He adds, howev- ex, that the Apostle’s memory reverts occasion- ally to the Hebrew text, as well as to that of the Septuagint. See an article in the Christian Bemembrancer for April, 1848, on Grinfield’s Hellenistic Ed. of the N.T. 2 We must not, however, press these con- siderations too far, especially when we take fnil. iii. 5 into consideration. Dr. Schaff presents the subject under a different view, as follows: “Certain it is that the groundwork of Paul’s intellectual and moral training wes Jewish: yethe had at least some knowledges of Greek literature, whether he acquired it in Tarsus, or in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, who himself was not altogether averse to the Hel- lenistic philosophy, or afterwards in his mis sionary journeyings and his continual inter course with Hellenists.”” — Hist. of the Christian Church. 5 Acts xxiii. 16. * St. Paul’s ready use of the spoken Ars maic appears in his speech upon the stairs of the Castle of Antonia at Jerusalem. “im the Oe BEN Ee NER 88 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL. onAP. IL. Moreover, it may be considered as certain that the family of St. Paul, though Hellenistic in speech, were no Hellenizers in theology; they were not at all inclined to adopt Greek habits or Greek opinions. The manner in which St. Paul speaks of himself, his father, and his ancestors, implies the most uncontaminated hereditary Judaism. ‘ Are they Hebrews? so aml. Are they Israelites? soam JI. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.” !—-“ A Pharisee ” and “the son of a Pharisee.” ?— Cireumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.”’* There is therefore little doubt that, though the native of a city filled with a Greek population and incorporated with the Roman Empire, yet Saul was born and spent his earliest days in the shelter of a home which was Hebrew, not in name only but in spirit. The Roman power did not press upon his infancy: the Greek ideas did not haunt his childhood: but he grew up an Israelitish boy, nurtured in those histories of the chosen people which he was destined so often to repeat in the synagogues,‘ with the new and wonderful commentary supplied by the life and resurrection of a crucified Messiah. ‘ From a child he knew the Scriptures,” which ultimately made him “ wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus,” as he says of Timothy in the second Hpistle Gii. 15). And the groups around his childhood were such as that which he beautifully describes in another part of the same letter to that disciple, where he speaks of “ his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice ” (i. 5). We should be glad to know something of the mother of St. Paul. But though he alludes to his father, he does not mention her. He speaks of himself as set apart by God “ from his mother’s womb,” that the Son of God should in due time be revealed in him, and by him preached to the Heathen.’ But this is all. We find notices of his sister and his sister’s son,* and of some more distant relatives: 7 but we know nothing of her who was nearer to him than all of them. He tells us of his instructor Gamaliel; but of her, who, if she lived, was his earliest and best teacher, he tells us nothing. Did she die like Rachel, the mother of Benjamin, the great ancestor of his tribe; leaving his father to mourn and set a monument on her grave, like Jacob, by the way of Bethlehem?* Or did she live to grieve over her son’s apostasy from the faith of the Pharisees, Hebrew tongue.” This familiarity, however, ® Phil. iii. 5. he would necessarily have acquired during his * Acts xiii. 16-41; see xvii. 2, 3, 10, 12, student-life at Jerusalem, if he had not pos- xxviii. 23. sessed it before. The difficult question of the & Gal. i. 15. “ Gift of Tongues”’ will be discussed in Chap. © Acts xxiii. 16. On. 7 Rom. xvi. 7, 11, 21. 1 2 Cor. xi, 22. ® Gen. xxxv. 16-20, xlviii. 7. ° Acts xxiii. 6. CHAP. U, ST. PAUL’S LNFANCY AT TARSUS. 39 and die herself unreconciled to the obedience of Christ? Or did she believe and obey the Saviour of her son? These are questions which we cannot answer. If we wish to realize the earliest infancy of the Apostle, we must be content with a simple picture of a Jewish mother and her child. Such a picture is presented to us in the short history of Elizabeth and John the Baptist, and what is wanting in one of the inspired Books of St. Luke may be supplied, in some degree, by the other. The same feelings which welcomed the birth and celebrated the naming of a son in the “hill country” of Judea,’ prevailed also among the Jews of the dispersion. As the “ neighbors and cousins” of Elizabeth “ heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and rejoiced with her,’’ — so it would be in the household at Tarsus, when Saul was born. In a nation to which the birth of a Messiah was promised, and at a period when the aspirations after the fulfilment of the promise were continually becoming more conscious and more urgent, the birth of a son was the fulfilment of a mother’s highest happiness: and to the father also Gif we may thus invert the words of Jeremiah) ‘blessed was the man who brought tidings, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him glad.”’? On the eighth day the child was circumcised and named. In the case of John the Baptist, “‘ they sought to call him Zacharias, after the name of his father. But his mother answered, and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.” And when the appeal was made to his father, he signified his assent, in obedience to the vision. It was not unusual, on the one hand, to call a Jewish child after the name of his father ; and, on the other hand, it was a common practice, in all ages of Jewish history, even without a prophetic intimation, to adopt a name expressive of reli- gious feelings. When the infant at Tarsus received the name of Saul, it might be “after the name of his father;” and it was a name of tradi- tional celebrity in the tribe of Benjamin, for it was that of the first king anointed by Samuel.? Or, when his father said “‘ his name is Saul,” it may have been intended to denote (in conformity with the Hebrew deriva- tion of the word) that he was a son who had long been desired, the first born of his parents, the child of prayer, who was thenceforth, like Samuel, to be consecrated to God.‘ “For this child I prayed,” said the wife of filkanah ; “and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth he shal] be lent unto the Lord.’”’® 1 Luke i. 39. were wont to give their children this name 2 Jer. xx. 15. at their circumcision.” — Cave, i. 3; but he 5 “A name frequent and common in the gives no proof. ibe of Benjamin ever since the first King * This is suggested by Neander. f Israel who was of that name, was chosen 5 1 Sam. i. 27, 28. ‘out of that tribe; im memory whereof they # THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cmar mt. Admitted into covenant with God by circumcision, the Jewish child had thenceforward a full claim to all the privileges of the chosen people. His was the benediction of the 128th Psalm : —“‘ The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” From that time, whoever it might be who watched over Saul’s infancy, whether, like king Lemuel,’ he learnt “ the prophecy that his mother taught him,” or whether he was under the care of others, like those whe were with the sons of king David and king Ahab,?— we are at no loss to learn what the first ideas were, with which his early thought was made familiar. The rules respecting the diligent education of children, which were laid down by Moses in the 6th and 11th chapters of Deuteronomy, were doubtless carefully observed : and he was trained in that peculiarly kistorical instruction, spoken of in the 78th Psalm, which implies the eontinuance of a chosen people, with glorious recollections of the past, and great anticipations for the future: “‘ The Lord made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children ; that their posterity might know it, and the children which were yet unborn ; to the intent that when they came up, they might show their children the same: that they might put their trust in God, and wot to forget the works of the Lord, but to keep his commandments.” (ver. 5-7.) The histories of Abraham and Isaac, of Jacob and his twelve sons, of Moses among the bulrushes, of Joshua and Samuel, Elijah, Daniel, and the Maccabees, were the stories of his childhood. The de struction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the thunders of Mount Sinai, the dreary journeys in the wilderness, the land that flowed with milk and honey, — this was the earliest imagery presented to his opening mind. The triumphant hymns of Zion, the lamentations by the waters of Babylon, the prophetic praises of the Messiah, were the songs around his cradle. Above all, he would be familiar with the destinies of his own illustrious tribe. The life of the timid Patriarch, the father of the twelve; the sad death of Rachel near the city where the Messiah was to be born; the loneliness of Jacob, who sought to comfort himself in Benoni “ the son of 1 Prov. xxxi.1l. Cf. Susanna, 3; 2 Tim. which the genealogies were kept, and when we fi. 15, with 1 Tim. i. 5. 2 1 Chron. xxvii. 32; 2 Kingsx 1,5. Cf. Joseph. Life, 76; Ant. xvi. 8, 3. 5 It may be thought that here, and below, p- 50, teo much prominence has been given to the attachment of a Jew in the Apostolic age te his own particular tribe. It is difficult to ascertain how far the tribe-feeling of early @iracs lingered on in combination with the Rational feeling, which grew up after the Cap- dvity. Bus whea we consider the care with find the tribe of Barnabas specified (Acts iv. 36), and also of Anna the prophetess (Luke ii 36), and when we find St. Paul alluding in a pointed manner to his tribe (see Rom. xi. 1 Phil. iii. 5, and compare Acts xiii. 21, and alse Xxxvi. 7), it does not seem unnatural to believe that pious families of so famous @ stock as that of Benjamin should retain the hereditary en thusiasm of their sacred clanship. Sce, more over, Matt. xix. 28; Rev. v. 5, vii. 4—%. ear, TL THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN. 4y her sorrow,” by calling him Benjamin! “ the son of his right hand ;”’ and then the youthful days of this youngest of the twelve brethren, the famine, and the journeys into Egypt, the severity of Joseph, and the wonderful story of the silver cup in the mouth of the sack ; — these are the narratives to which he listened with intense and eager interest. How little was it imagined that, as Benjamin was the youngest and most honored of the Patriarchs, so this listening child of Benjamin should be associated with the twelve servants of the Messiah of God, the last and most illustrious of the Apostles! But many years of ignorance were yet to pass away, befors that mysterious Providence, which brought Benjamin to Joseph in Egypt, should bring his descendant to the knowledge and love of Jxsus, the Son of Mary. Some of the early Christian writers? see in the dying benediction of Jacob, when he said that “‘ Benjamin should raven as a wolf, in the morning devour the prey, and at night divide the spoil,” a prophetic inti- mation of him who, in the morning of his life, should tear the sheep of God, and in its evening feed them, as the teacher of the nations.’ When St. Paul was a child and learnt the words of this saying, no Christian thoughts were associated with it, or with that other more peaceful prophecy of Moses, when he said of Benjamin, “ The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him: and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His shoulders.”‘ But he was familiar with the prophetical words, and could follow in imagination the fortunes of the sons of Benjamin, and knew how they went through the wilderness with Rachel’s other children, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, forming with them the third of the four companies on the march, and reposing with them at night on the west of the encampment.’ He heard how their lands were assigned to them in the promised country along the borders of Judah :* and how Saul, whose name he bore, was chosen from the tribe which was the smallest,’ when “ little Benjamin ” * became the “ ruler ” of Israel. He knew that when the ten tribes revolted, Benjamin was faith- ful:* and he learnt to follow its honorable history even into the dismal years of the Babylonian Captivity, when Mordecai, ‘a Benjamite who had been carried away,” saved the nation: and when, instead of destruction, “the Jews,” through him, “had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor: and in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s com- mandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” 1 Gen. xxxyv. 18. T 1 Sam. ix. 21. 2 Gen. xlix. 27. ® Ps. ixviii. 27. 8 e.g. Tertullian. ® 2 Chron. xi.: see 1 Kings xii. * Deut. xxxiii. 12. 10 Hsther ii. 5, 6. § Numb. il. 18-24; x. 29-~84. 1 Kether viii. 16, 17. * Joshua xviii. 11. 42 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL, car, U. Such were the influences which cradled the infancy of St. Paul; and such was the early teaching under which his mind gradually rose to the realization of his position as a Hebrew child in a city of Gentiles. Of the exact period of his birth we possess no authentic information.' From a passage in a sermon attributed to St. Chrysostom, it has been inferred? that he was born in the year 2 B.c. of our era. The date is not improba- ble; but the genuineness of the sermon is suspected; and if it was the undoubted work of the eloquent Father, we have no reason to believe that he possessed any certain means of ascertaining the fact. Nor need we be anxious to possess the information. We have a better chronology than that which reckons by years and months. We know that St. Paul was a young man at the time of St. Stephen’s martyrdom,’ and therefore we know what were the features of the period, and what the circumstan- ses of the world, at the beginning of his eventful life. He must have been born in the later years of Herod, or the earlier of his son Archelaus. It was the strongest and most flourishing time of the reign of Augustus. The world was at peace; the pirates of the Levant were dispersed ; and Cilicia was lying at rest, or in stupor, with other provinces, under the wide shadow of the Roman power. Many governors had ruled there since the days of Cicero. Athenodorus, the emperor’s tutor, had been one of them. It was about the time when Horace and Mezcenas died, with others whose names will never be forgotten ; and it was about the time when Caligula was born, with others who were destined to make the world miserable. Thus is the epoch fixed in the manner in which the imagination most easily apprehends it. During this pause in the world’s history St. Paul was born. It was a pause, too, in the history of the sufferings of the Jews. That lenient treatment which had been begun by Julius Cesar was continued by Augustus;* and the days of severity were not yet come, when Tibe- rius and Claudius drove them into banishment, and Caligula oppressed them with every mark of contumely and scorn. We have good reason to believe that at the period of the Apostle’s birth the Jews were unmo- lested at Tarsus, where his father lived and enjoyed the rights of a Roman citizen. It is a mistake to suppose that this citizenship was a privilege which belonged to the members of the family, as being natives of this city. Tarsus was not a municipium, nor was it a colonia, like Philippi in 1 As regards the chronology of St. Paul’s life, it is enough to refer to Ch. IV. and es- pecially to Appendix III. 2 This is on the supposition that he died A.D. 66, at the age of 68. 8 Acts vii. 58. It must be remembered, however, that the term vraviag was applied to oJ} men under 40. * Cesar, like Alexander, treated the Jews with much consideration. Suetonius speaks m strong terms of their grief at his death. An- gustus permitted the largess, when it fell on a Sabbath, to be put off till the next day. & Some of the older biographers of St. Paul assume this without any hesitation ; aud CHAR, Ly CITIZENSHIP OF ST. PAUL’S FATHER. 43 Macedonia,' or Antioch in Pisidia ; but it was a“ free city’? (urbs libera), like the Syrian Antioch and its neighbor-city, Seleucia on the sea. Such a city had the privilege of being governed by its own magistrates, and was exempted from the occupation of a Roman garrison, but its citizens did not necessarily possess the cevitas of Rome. Tarsus had received great benefits both from Julius Cesar and from Augustus, but the father of St. Paul was not on that account a Roman citizen. This privilege had been granted to him, or had descended to him, as an individual right; he might have purchased it for a “large sum” of money ;* but it is more probable that it came to him as a reward of services rendered, during the civil wars, to some influential Roman.‘ We should not be in serious error, if we were to say, in language suggested by the narrative of St. Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts vi. 9), that St. Paul’s father was a Ciliczan Libertinus© That Jews were not unfrequently Roman citizens, we learn from Josephus, who mentions in the “ Jewish War” ® some even of the equestrian order who were illegally scourged and crucified by Florus at Jerusalem ; and (what is more to our present point) enumerates cer- tain of his countrymen who possessed the Roman franchise at Hphesus, in that important series of decrees relating to the Jes, which were issued in the time of Julius Cesar, and are preserved in the second book of the Antiquities.”" The family of St. Paul were in the same position at Tarsus as those who were Jews of Asia Minor and yet citizens of Rome at Ephesus; and thus it came to pass, that, while many of his contempo- raries were willing to expend ‘“‘a large sum” in the purchase of “ this freedom,” the Apostle himself was “ free-born.” The question of the double name of “ Saul” and “ Paul” will require our attention hereafter, when we come in the course of our narrative to that interview with Sergius Paulus in Cyprus, coincidently with which the appellation in the Acts of the Apostles is suddenly changed. Many opinions have been held on this subject, both by ancient and modern the mistake is very frequent still. It is enough to notice that the Tribune (Acts xxi. 39, xxii. 24) knew that St. Paul was a Tarsian, without being aware that he was a citizen. 1 Acts xvi. 12. 2 Tt appears that Antony gave Tarsus the privileges of an Urbs libera, though it had pre- viously taken the side of Augustus, and been named Juliopolis. 5 Acts xxii. 28. * Great numbers of Jews were made slaves in the Civil Wars, and then manumitted. A slave manumitted with due formalities became a Roman citizen. Thus it is natural to sup- pose that the Apostle, with other Cilician Jews, may have been, like Horace, libertino patre natus. (Sat. 1. vi. 45.) 5 This suggestion is due to Wieseler, who translates the verse which describes Stephen’s great opponents, so as to mean “ Libertines ” from “ Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia.” We think, as is observed below (p. 56, note), that another view is more natural: but at least we should observe that we find Saul, a Roman citizen, actively co-operating in persecus tion with those who are called Libertini. & War, ii. 14, 6. 7 Ant. xiv. 10, 13. - 44 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL czar. I theologians.’ At present it will be enough to say, that, though we can- not overlook the coincidence, or believe it accidental, yet it is most prob- able that both names were borne by him in his childhood, that “‘ Saul ” was the name of his Hebrew home, and “ Paul” that by which he waz known among the Gentiles. It will be observed that “Paulus,” the name by which he is always mentioned after his departure from Cyprus, and by which he always designates himself in his Epistles, is a Roman, not a Greek, word. And it will be remembered, that, among those whom he calls his ““kinsmen” in the Epistle to the Romans, two of the number, Junia and Lucius, have Roman names, while the others are Greek.? All this may point to a strong Roman connection. These names may have something to do with that honorable citizenship which was an heirloom in the household; and the appellation “ Paulus” may be due to some such feelings as those which induced the historian Josephus to call himself “ Flavius,” in honor of Vespasian and the Fla- vian family. ' If we turn now to consider the social position of the Apostle’s fathe and family, we cannot on the one hand confidently argue, from the pos session of the citizenship, that they were in the enjoyment of affluence and outward distinction. The civitas of Rome, though at that time it could not be purchased without heavy expense, did not depend upon any conditions of wealth, where it was bestowed by authority. On the other hand, it is certain that the manual trade, which we know that St. Paul exercised, cannot be adduced as an argument to prove that his circum- stances were narrow and mean ; still less, as some have imagined, that he lived in absolute poverty. It was a custom among the Jews that all boys __ should _le; a trade. “ What is commanded of a father towards his son?” asks a Talmadi writer. “To circumcise him, to teach him the law, to teach him a trade.” Rabbi Judah saith, “ He that teacheth not his son a trade, doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief;” and Rabban Gamaliel saith, “He that hath a trade in his hand, to what is he like? he is like a vineyard that is fenced.” And if, in compliance with this good and useful custom of the Jews, the father of the young Cilician sought to make choice of a trade, which might fortify his son against idle- ness or against adversity, none would occur to him more naturally than the profitable occupation of the making of tents, the material of which was hair-cloth, supplied by the goats of his native province, and sold in 1 Ongen says that he had both names from Peter, at his ordination in Antioch Bade, the firet; that he used one among the Jews, that he did not receive it till the Proconsul was and the other afterwards. Augustine, that he converted; and Jerome, that it was meant ™ took the mame when he began to preach commemorate that victory. Chrysostom, that he received a new title, like 3 Rom. xvi. 7, 11, 21. amar, i, SCENERY OF TARSUS. 45 the markets of the Levant by the well-known name of cilicium.' The most reasonable conjecture is that his father’s business was concerned with these markets, and that, like many of his scattered countrymen, he was actively occupied in the traffic of the Mediterranean coasts: and the remote dispersion of those relations, whom he mentions in his letter from Corinth to Rome, is favorable to this opinion. But whatever might be the station and employment of his father or his kinsmen, whether they were elevated by wealth above, or depressed by poverty below, the aver- age of the Jews of Asia Minor and Italy, we are disposed to believe that this family were possessed of that highest respectability which is worthy of deliberate esteem. The words of Scripture seem to claim for them the tradition of a good and religious reputation. The strict piety of St. Paul’s ancestors has already been remarked; some of his kinsmen embraced Christianity before the Apostle himself,? and the excellent discretion of his nephew will be the subject of our admiration, when we come to consider the dangerous circumstances which led to the nocturnal journey from Jerusalem to Casarea.’ But, though a cloud rests on the actual year of St. Paul’s birth, and the circumstances of his father’s household must be left to imagination, we have the great satisfaction of knowing the exact features of the scenery in the midst of which his childhood was spent. The plain, the mountains, the river, and the sea still remain to us. The rich har. vests of corn still grow luxuriantly after rains in spring. The same tents of goat’s hair are still seen covering the plains in the busy harvest.‘ There is the same solitude and silence in the intolerable heat and dust of the summer. Then, as now, the mothers and children of Tarsus went out in the cool evenings, and looked from the gardens round the city, or from their terraced roofs, upon the heights of Taurus. The same sunset lingered on the pointed summits. The same shadows gathered in the deep ravines. The river Cydnus has suffered some changes in the course of 1800 years. Instead of rushing, as in the time of Xenophon, like the Rhone at Geneva, in a stream of two hundred feet broad through the city, it now flows idly past it on the east. The Channel, which floated the ships of Antony and Cleopatra, is now filled up; and wide unhealthy lagoons occupy the place of the ancient docks.’ But its upper waters 1 Hair-cloth of this kind is manufactured at * “The plain presented the appearance of the present day in Asia Minor, and the word is still retained in French, Spanish, and Italian. 2 “Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, whe also were in Christ before me.” — Rom. xvi. 7. 5 Acts xxiii. an immense sheet of corn-stubble, dotted with small camps of tents: these tents are made of hair-cloth, and the peasantry reside in them at this season, while the harvest is reaping and the corn treading out.” — Beaufort’s Karama nia, p. 2738. 5 In Strabo’s day there was an inconvenient 46 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, 1). still flow, as formerly, cold and clear from the snows of Taurus: and its waterfalls still break over the same rocks, when the snows are melting, like the Rhine at Schaffhausen. We find a pleasure in thinking that the footsteps of the young Apostle often wandered by the side of this stream, and that his eyes often looked on these falls. We can hardly believe that he who spoke to the Lystrians of the “‘ rain from heaven,” and the “ fruit- ful seasons,” and of the “living God who made heaven and earth and the sea,” could have looked with indifference on beautiful and impressive scenery. Gamaliel was celebrated for his love of nature: and the young Jew, who was destined to be his most famous pupil, spent his early days in the close neighborhood of much that was well adapted to foster such a taste. Or if it be thought that in attributing such feelings to him we are writing in the spirit of modern times; and if it be contended that he would be more influenced by the realities of human life than by the im- pressions of nature,—then let the youthful Saul be imagined on the banks of the Cydnus, where it flowed through the city in a stream less clear and fresh, where the wharves were covered with merchandise, in the midst of groups of men in various costumes, speaking various dialects. St. Basil says, that in his day Tarsus was a point of union for Syrians, Cilicians, Isaurians, and Cappadocians. To these we must add the Greek merchant, and the agent of Roman luxury. And one more must be added, — the Jew, — even then the pilgrim of Commerce, trading with every nation, and blending with none. In this mixed company Saul, at an early age, might become familiar with the activities of life and the diversities of human character, and even in his childhood make some acquaintance with those various races, which in his manhood he was destined to influence. We have seen what his infancy was; we must now glance at his boy- hood. It is usually the case that the features of a strong character display themselves early. His impetuous fiery disposition would some- times need control. Flashes of indignation would reveal his impatience and his honesty.? The affectionate tenderness of his nature would not be without an object of attachment, if that sister, who was afterwards married,’ was his playmate at Tarsus. The work of tent-making, rather an amusement than a trade, might sometimes occupy those young hands, which were marked with the toil of years when he held them to “bar” at the mouth of the Cydnus. Here(as edition of this book, which contains views of in the case of the Pyramus and otherriverson Tarsus and of the falls of the Cydnus. that coast) the land has since that time en- 1 Acts xiv. 17, 15. croached on the sea. The unhealthiness of the 2 See Acts ix. 1, 2, xxiii. 1-5; and com- sea-coast near the Gulf of Scanderoon is noto- pare Acts xiii. 18, xv. 38, with 2 Tim. iv. rious, as can be testified by more than one of 11. those who contributed drawings to the quarto % Acts xxiii. 16, ear! xt ‘st. PAUL’S BOYHOOD. 4] the view of the Elders at Miletus... His education was conducted at home rather than at school: for, though Tarsus was celebrated for its learning, the Hebrew boy would not lightly be exposed to the intiuence uf Gentile teaching. Or, if he went to a school, it was not a Greek school, but rather to some room connected with the synagogue, where a avisy class of Jewish children received the rudiments of instruction, stated on the ground with their teacher, after the manner of Mohamme- dan children in the East, who may be seen or heard at their lessons near the mosque.? At such a school, it may be, he learnt to read and to wiite, going and returning under the care of some attendant, according to that custom which he afterwards used as an illustration in the Epistle to the Galatians* (and perhaps he remembered his own early days while he wrote the passage) when he spoke of the Law as the Slave who coaducts us to the School of Christ. His religious knowledge, as his years advanced, was obtained from hearing the Law read in the syna- gogue, from listening to the arguments and discussions of learned doctors, and from that habit of questioning and answering, which was permitted even to the children among the Jews. Familiar with the pathetic history of the Jewish sufferings, he would feel his heart filled with that love to his own people which breaks out in the Epistle to the Romans (ix. 4, 5) — to that people “ whose were the adoption and the glory and the covenants, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come,” —a love not then, as it was afterwards, blended with love towards all mankind, “ to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile,” —but rather united with a bitter hatred to the Gentile children whom he saw around him. His idea of the Messiah, so far as it was distinct, would be the carnal notion of a temporal prince—a “Christ known after the flesh,’ *—-and he looked forward with the hope of a Hebrew to the restoration of “the kingdom to Israel.”*> He would be known 1 Acts xx. $4. “Ye yourselves know that sound of voices was unceasing. For pictures (hese hands have ministered to my necessities, ind to them that were with me.” Compare xviii. 3; 1 Cor. iv. 12; 1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 8. 2 This is written from the recollection of a Mohammedan school at Bildah in Algeria, where the mosques can now be entered with im- punity. The children, with the teacher, were on a kind of upper story like a shelf, within - the mosque. All were seated on this floor, in the way described by Maimonides below (p. 57). The children wrote cv boards, and re- cited what they wrote; the master addressed them in rapid succession; and the confused of an Egyptian and a Turkish school, see the Bible Cyclopedia, 1841; and the Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, 1847. 3 Gal. iii. 24, where the word inaccurately rendered “ Schoolmaster ” denotes the attend ant slave who accompanied the child to the school. A Jewish illustration of a custom well known among the Greeks and Romans is given by Buxtorf. He describes the child as taken to the preceptor under the skirt of a Rabbi’s cloak, and as provided with honey and honey-cakes, symbolizing such passages ss Deut. xxxii. 13, Cant. iv. 11, Ps. xix. 10. * 2 Cor. v. 16. 5 Acts i. 6. eo) * 48 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. CaP. y at Tarsus as a child of promise, and as one likely to uphold the honor of the Law against the half-infidel teaching of the day. But the time wes drawing near, when his training was to become more exact and systematic. He was destined for the school of Jerusalem. The educa tional maxim of the Jews, at a later period, was as follows: —‘“‘ At five years of age, let children begin the Scripture; at ten, the Mishna; at thirteen, let them be subjects of the Law.”' There is no reasou & suppose that the general practice was very different before the floating maxims of the great doctcrs were brought together in the Mishna It may therefore be concluded, with a strong degree of probability, thas Saul was sent to the Holy City? between the ages of ten and thirteen. Had it been later than the age of thirteen, he could hardly have said that he had been “ brought up” in Jerusalem. The first time any one leaves the land of his birth to visit a foreign and distant country, is an important epoch in his life. In the case of one who has taken this first journey at an early age, and whose character is enthusiastic and susceptible of lively impressions from without, this epoch is usually remembered with peculiar distinctness. But when the country which is thus visited has furnished the imagery for the creams of childhood, and is felt to be more truly the young traveller’s home than the land he is leaving, then the journey assumes the sacrec charac ter of a pilgrimage. The nearest parallel which can be found to the visits of the scattered Jews to Jerusalem, is in the periodical expedition of the Mohammedan pilgrims to the sanctuary at Mecca. Ner is there any thing which ought to shock the mind in such a comparison ; for that localizing spirit was the same thing to the Jews under the hig sest sano- tion, which it is to the Mohammedans through the memory o/ a prophet who was the enemy and not the forerunner of Christ. As the disciples of Islam may be seen, at stated seasons, flocking towards Cairo or Da mascus, the meeting-places of the African and Asiatic caravans, — so Saul had often seen the Hebrew pilgrims from the interior of Asia Minor come down through the passes of the mountains, and join others at Tarsus who were bound for Jerusalem. They returned when the festivals were over; and he heard them talk of the Holy City, of Herod sud the New Temple, and of the great teachers and doctors of the Law. And at length Saul himself was to go,—- to see the land of promise and 1 We learn from Buxtorf that at 13 there 2 That he came from Tarsus at an early was a ceremony something like Christian con- age is implied in Acts xxvi. 4.— “ My manner Grmation. The boy was then called a “Child of life frm my youth, which was at the jirst ef the Law;” and the father declared in the among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know presence of the Jews that his son fully under all the Jews, which knew me from the bogie steod the Law, and was fully responsible for ning.” bis sins. GRAP, II, Hw IM SENT TO JERUSALEM, 48 the City ef David, and grow up a learned Rabbi “at the feet of Gamaliel.” With his father, or under the care of some other friend older thas himself, he left Tarsus and went to Jerusalem. It is not probable that they travelled by the long and laborious land-journey which leads frora the Cilician plain through the defiles of Mount Amauus to Antioch, and thence along the rugged Pheenician shore through Tyre and Sidon to Judea. The Jews, when they went to the festivals, or to carry contri- butions, like the Mohammedans of modern days, would follow the lines of natural traffic:! and now that the Hastern Sea had been cleared of its pirates, the obvious course would be to travel by water. The Jews, though merchants, were not seamen. We may imagine Saul, therefore, setting sail from the Cydnus on his first voyage, in a Phoenician trader, under the patronage of the gods of Tyre; or in company with Greek mariners in a vessel adorned with some mythological emblem, like that Alexandrian corn-ship which subsequently brought him to Italy, “ whose sign was Castor and Pollux.”* Gradually they lost sight of Taurus, and the heights of Lebanon came into view. The one had sheltered his early home, but the other had been a familiar form to his Jewish fore- fathers. How histories would crowd into his mind as the vessel moved on over the waves, and he gazed upon the furrowed flanks of the great Hebrew mountain! Had the voyage been taken fifty years earlier, the vessel would probably have been bound for Ptolemais, which still bore the name of the Greek kings of Egypt;* but in the reign of Augustus or Tiberius, it is more likely that she sailed round the headland of Carmel, and came to anchor in the new harbor of Cw#sarea, — the hand- some city which Herod had rebuilt, and named in honor of the Emperor. To imagine incidents when none are recorded, and confidently to lay down a route without any authority, would be inexcusable in writing on this subject. But to imagine the feelings of a Hebrew boy on his first visit to the Holy Land, is neither difficult nor blamable. During this journey Saul had around him a different scenery and different cultiva- tion from what he had been accustomed to, — not a river and a wide plain covered with harvests of corn, but a succession of hills and valleys, with terraced vineyards watered by artificial irrigation. If it was the time of a festival, many pilgrims were moving in the same direction, with music and the songs of Zion. The ordinary road would probably \ In 1820, Abd-el-Kader went with hisfather Ptolemais was still a busy seaport in St. Paul’s on board a French brig to Alexandria, on their day, though Cassarea had become the most is- way to Mecca. portant harbor, and indeed (politically) the 2 Acts xxviii. 11. most important city, in Palestine. See Acts 5 Bee, for instance 1 Maceab y.15,x.1. xxi. 7. 4 Daas ye 3. 60 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. Ir be that mentioned in the Acts, which led from Casarea through the town of Antipatris' (Acts xxiii. 31). But neither of these places would possess much interest for a “ Hebrew of the Hebrews.” The one was associated with the thoughts of the Romans and of modern times; the other had been built by Herod in memory of Antipater, his Idum@an father. “But objects were not wanting of the deepest interest to a child of Benjamin. Those far hill-tops on the left were close upon Mount Gilboa, even if the very place could not be seen where “ the Philistines fought against Israel . . . and the battle went sore against Saul... and he fell on his sword ... and died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, that same day together.”? After passing through the lots of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, the traveller from Czsarea came to the borders of Benjamin. The children of Rachel were together in Canaan as they had been in the desert. The lot of Benjamin was entered near Bethel, memorable for the piety of Jacob, the songs of Deborah, the sin of Jeroboam, and the zeal of Josiah. Onward a short distance was Gibeah, the home of Saul when he was anointed King,* and the scene of the crime and desolation of the tribe, which made it the smallest of the tribes of Israel.’ Might it not be too truly said concerning the Israelites even of that period: “ They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore the Lord will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins” ?* Ata later stage of his life, such thoughts of the unbelief and iniquity of Israel accompanied St. Paul wherever he went. At the early age of twelve years, all his enthusiasm could find an adequate object in the earthly Jerusalem ; the first view of which would be descried about this part of the journey. From the time when the line of the city wall was seen, all else was forgotten. The further border of Benjamin was almost reached. The Rabbis said that the boundary-line of Benjamin and Judah, the two faithful tribes, passed through the Temple. And this City and Temple was the common sanctuary of all Israelites. ‘ Thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord: to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. There is little Benjamin their ruler, and the princes of Judah their council, the princes of Zebulon and the princes of Naphtali: for there is the seat of judgment, even the seat of the house of David.” And now the Temple’s glittering roof was seen, with the buildings of Zion crowning the eminence above it, and the ridge of the Mount of Olives rising high over all. And now the city gate was passed, with that thrill of the heart which 1 See p. 25,n.3. 7? 1 Sam. xxxi. 1-6. * 1 Sam. x. 26, xv. 34 3 Gen. xxviii. 19; Judg. iv. 5; 1 Kings xii. ® Judges xx. 43, & 39; 2 Kings xxiii. 15. © Hosea ix. 9. ae ee aero. onAP, STATE OF JUDAA. 51 none but a Jew could know. “Our feet stand within thy gates, O Jeru- salem. Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. O God, wonderful art thou in thy holy places: even the God of Israel. He will give strength and power unto His people. Blessed be God.”! And now that this young enthusiastic Jew is come into the land of his forefathers, and is about to receive his education in the schools of the Holy City, we may pause to give some description of the state of Judza and Jerusalem. We have seen that it is impossible to fix the exact date of his arrival, but we know the general features of the period; and we can easily form to ourselves some idea of the political and religious con- dition of Palestine. Herod was now dead. The tyrant had been called to his last account , and that eventful reign, which had destroyed the nationality of the Jews, while it maintained their apparent independence, was over. It is most likely that Archelaus also had ceased to govern, and was already in exile. His accession to power had been attended with dreadful fighting in the streets, with bloodshed at sacred festivals, and with wholesale crucifix- ions; his reign of ten years was one continued season of disorder and dis- content ; and, at last, he was banished to Vienna on the Rhone, that Judea might be formally constituted into a Roman province.2 We suppose Saul to have come from Tarsus to Jerusalem when one of the four governors, who preceded Pontius Pilate, was in power,— either Coponius, or Marcus _ Ambivius, or Annius Rufus, or Valerius Gratus. The governor resided in the town of Casarea. Soldiers were quartered there and at Jerusalem, © and throughout Judea, wherever the turbulence of the people made gar- risons necessary. Centurions were in the country towns;* soldiers on the banks of the Jordan.t There was no longer even the show of inde- pendence. The revolution, of which Herod had sown the seeds, now came to maturity. The only change since his death in the appearance of the country was that every thing became more Roman than before. Roman money was current in the markets. Roman words were incorpo- rated in the popular language. Roman buildings were conspicuous in all the towns. Even those two independent principalities which two sons of Herod governed, between the provinces of Judea and Syria, exhibited 1 See Ps. lxviii. and cxxii. The Herodian family, after their father’s death, 2 While the question of succession was pending, the Roman soldiers under Sabinus bad a desperate conflict with the Jews. Fight- ing and sacrificing went on together. Varus, the governor of Syria, marched from Antioch to Jerusalem, and 2,000 Jews were crucified. had gone to Rome, where Augustus received them in the Temple of Apollo. Archelaus had never the title of king, though his father had desired it. 8 Luke vii. 1-10. * Luke iii. 14. RES i)? oe eel . 7s! ~ 52 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP nL all the general character of the epoch. Philip, the tetrarch of Gaulonitis, called Bethsaida, on the north of the lake of Genesareth, by the name of Julias, in honor of the family who reigned at Rome. Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, built Tiberias on the south of the same lake, in honor of the emperor who about this time (4.p. 14) succeeded his illustrious step-father. These political changes had been attended with a gradual alteration in the national feelings of the Jews with regard to their religion. That the sentiment of political nationality was not extinguished was proved too well by all the horrors of Vespasian’s and Hadrian’s reigns; but there was a growing tendency to cling rather to their Law and Religion as the centre of their unity. The great conquests of the Heathen pow- ers may have been intended by Divine Providence to prepare this change in the Jewish mind. Even under the Maccabees, the idea of the state began to give place, in some degree, to the idea of religious life. Under Herod, the old unity was utterly broken to pieces. The high priests were set up and put down at his caprice; and the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin was invaded by the most arbitrary interference. Under the governors, the power of the Sanhedrin was still more abridged ; and high priests were raised and deposed, as the Christian patriarchs of Constantinople have for some ages been raised and deposed by the Sultan: so that it is often a matter of great difficulty to ascertain who was high priest at Jerusalem in any given year at this period.! Thus the hearts of the Jews turned more and more towards the fulfilment of Prophecy, —to the practice of Religion, — to the interpretation of the Law. All else was now hopeless. The Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Lawyers were growing into a more important body even than the Priests and the Levites;*? and that system of “ Rabbinism ” was beginning, “ which, supplanting the original religion ~ of the Jews, became, after the ruin of the Temple and the extinction of the public worship, a new bond of national union, the great distinctive feature in the character of modern Judaism.” * The Apostolic age was remarkable for the growth of learned Rabbinical schools; but of these the most eminent were the rival schools of Hillel and Schammai. These sages of the law were spoken of by the Jews, and their proverbs quoted, as the seven wise men were quoted by the Greeks. Their traditional systems run through all the Talmudical writ- ings, as the doctrines of the Scotists and Thomists run through the Mid- 1 See Acts xxiii. 5. these schools, some were Levites, as Samuel ; % In earlier periods of Jewish history, the some belonged to the other tribes, 2s Saul and prophets seem often to have been a more influ- David. mtial body than the priests. It is remarkable ® Milman’s History of the Jews, vol. il that we de not read of “Schools of the p. 100. Prophets” in any of the Levitical cities In omar. IL GAMALTEL §3 dle Ages.' Both were Pharisaic schools: but the former upheld the honer of tradition as even superior to the law; the latter despised the tradition- ists when they clashed with Moses. The antagonism between them was so great, that it was said that even “ Elijah the Tishbite would never be able to reconcile the disciples of Hillel and Schammai.” Of these two schools, that of Hillel was by far the most influential in its own day, and its decisions have been held authoritative by the greater number of later Rabbis. The most eminent ornament of this school was Gamaliel, whose fame is celebrated in the Talmud. Hillel was the father of Simeon, and Simeon the father of Gamaliel. It has been imagined by some that Simeon was the same old man who took the infant Saviour in his arms, and pronounced the Vune Dimittis.* Ié is difficult to give a conclusive proof of this; but there is no doubt that this Gamaliel was the same who wisely pleaded the cause of St. Peter and the other Apostles,’ and who had previously educated the future Apostle St. Paul‘ His learning was so eminent, and his character so revered, that he is one of the seven who alone among Jewish doctors have been honored with the title of “ Rabban.”* As Aquinas, among the schoolmen, was called Doctor Angelicus, and Bonaventura Doctor Seraphicus, so Gamaliel was called the “ Beauty of the Law;” and it is a saying of the Talmud, that “since Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the Law has ceased.” He was a Pharisee ; but anecdotes* are told of him, which show that he was not trammelled by the narrow bigotry of the sect. He had no antipathy to the Greek learning. He rose above the prejudices of his party. Our impulse is to class him with the best of the Pharisees, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatheza. Candor and wisdom seem to have been features of his character; and this agrees with what we read of him in the Acts ‘of the Apostles,’ that he was “had in reputation of all the people,” and with his honest and intelligent argument when Peter was brought before the Council. It has been imagined by some that he became a Christian: and why he did not become so is known only to Him who understands the secrets of the human heart. But he lived and died a Jew; and a well-known prayer against Christian heretics was composed or sanctioned See ee ae cile this with the Jewish law, he replied, thas p. 12, and beginning of book the bath was there before the statue ; that the 3 Luke ii. 25-35. bath wan not made for the poddem, but the 5 Acts v. 34-40. statue for the bath. Tholuck, Eng. transl. p. 17. * Acts xxii 3. 7 Acts v.34. Yes Nicodemus and Joseph § This title is the same as “Rabboni” ad- declared themselves the friends of Christ, ézeased to oar Lord by Mary Magdalene. which Gamaliel never did And we should * He bathed once at Ptoiemais im am apart hardly expect to fied a violent persecute sasmt where a statue was emcted to a Heathen among the pupils of 2 really candid aed =p goddess ; and being asked how bs could recom- prejudiced man 5+ THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAF. II. by him.’ He died eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem, about the time of St. Paul’s shipwreck at Malta, and was buried with great honor. Another of his pupils, Onkelos, the author of the cele- brated Targum, raised to him such a funeral-pile of rich materials as had never before been known, except at the burial of a king. If we were briefly to specify the three effects which the teaching and example of Gamaliel may be supposed to have produced on the mind of St. Paul, they would be as follows: — candor and honesty of judgment, —a willingness to study and make use of Greek authors, — and a keen and watchful enthusiasm for the Jewish law. We shall see these traits of character soon exemplified in his life. But it is time that we should inquire into the manner of communicating instruction, and learn some- thing concerning the places where instruction was communicated, in the schools of Jerusalem. Until the formation of the later Rabbinical colleges, which flourished after the Jews were driven from Jerusalem, the instruction in the divinity schools seems to have been chiefly oral. There was a prejudice against the use of any book except the Sacred Writings. The system was one of Scriptural Exegesis. Josephus remarks, at the close of his “ Antiqui- ties,”* that the one thing most prized by his countrymen was power in the exposition of Scripture. ‘“ They give to that man,” he says, “ the testimony of being a wise man, who is fully acquainted with our laws, and is able to interpret their meaning.” So far as we are able to learn from our sources of information, the method of instruction was some- thing of this kind.‘ At the meetings of learned men, some passage of the Old Testament was taken as a text, or some topic for discussion pro- pounded in Hebrew, translated into the vernacular tongue by means of a Chaldee paraphrase, and made the subject of commentary: various inter- pretations were given: aphorisms were propounded: allegories suggested: and the opinions of ancient doctors quoted and discussed. At these dis- cussions the younger students were present, to listen or to inquire, — or, in the sacred words of St. Luke, “‘ both hearing them and asking them questions :” for it was a peculiarity of the Jewish schools, that the pupil was encouraged to catechise the teacher. Contradictory opinions were expressed with the utmost freedom. This is evident from a cursory ex- 1 The prayer is given in Mr. Horne’s Jntro- duction to the Scriptures, 8th ed. vol. iii. p. 261, as follows: ‘‘ Let there be no hope to them who apostatize from the true religion; and let heretics, how many soever they be, ull perish as in a momert. «ind let the kingdom of pride be speedily roeted out and broken in our aays. Blessed art thou. O Lord our God who destroyest the wicked, and bringest down ths proud.” 2 His son Simeon, who succeeded him as president of the Council, perished in the ruins of the city. S\ Anti xeiye: * See Dr. Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Bibieas Literature. art. “ Schools and Synagogues.’’ cuaP, I, BABBINICAL SCHOOLS. 55 amination of the Talmud, which gives us the best notions of the scholastic disputes of the Jews. This remarkable body of Rabbinical jurisprudence has been compared to the Roman body of civil law: but in one respect it might suggest a better comparison with our own English common law, in that it is a vast accumulation of various and often inconsistent prece- dents. The arguments and opinions which it contains, show very plainly that the Jewish doctors must often have been occupied with the most frivolous questions ; — that the “ mint, anise, and cumin’”’ were eagerly discussed, while the “ weightier matters of the law” were neglected : — but we should not be justified in passing a hasty judgment on ancient volumes, which are full of acknowledged difficulties. What we read of the system of the Cabala has often the appearance of an unintelligible jargon: but in all ages it has been true that “the words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies.”' If we could look back upon the assemblies of the Rabbis of Jerusalem, with Gamaliel in the midst, and Saul among the younger speakers, it is pos- sible that the scene would be as strange and as different from a place of modern education, as the schools now seen by travellers in the East differ from contemporary schools in England. But the same might be said of the walks of Plato in the Academy, or the lectures of Aristotle in the Lyceum. It is certain that these free and public discussions of the Jews tended to create a high degree of general intelligence among the people; that the students were trained there in a system of excellent dialectics ; that they learnt to express themselves in a rapid and senten- tious style, often with much poetic feeling; and acquired an admirable acquaintance with the words of the ancient Scriptures.” These “ Assemblies of the Wise” were possibly a continuation of the “ Schools of the Prophets,’ which are mentioned in the historical books of the Old Testament.* Wherever the earlier meetings were held, whether at the gate of the city, or in some more secluded place, we read of no buildings for purposes of worship or instruction before the Captivity. During that melancholy period, when the Jews mourned over their sep- aration from the Temple, the necessity of assemblies must have been deeply felt, for united prayer and mutual exhortation, for the singing of the “Songs of Zion,” and for remembering the ‘‘ Word of the Lord.” When they returned, the public reading of the law became a practice of universal interest: and from this period we must date the erection of 1 Kecles, xii. 11. the punishments were, confinement, floggme, 2 Tt seems that half-yearly examinations and excommunication. were held on four sabbaths of the months Adar 3 1 Sam. x. 5, 6, xix. 20; 2 Kings ii. 3, §, and Elul (February and August), when the iv. 38. scholars made recitations and were promoted: ie Sy 56 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. Synagogues ' in the different towns of Palestine. So that St. James could say, in the council at Jerusalem: “ Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” * To this later period the 74th Psalm may be referred, which laments over “the burning of all the synagogues of God in the land.” — These build- ings are not mentioned by Josephus in any of the earlier passages of his history. But in the time of the Apostles we have the fullest evidence that they existed in all the small towns in Judza, and in all the principal cities where the Jews were dispersed abroad. It seems that the synagogues often consisted of two apartments, one for prayer, preaching, and the efiices of public worship; the other for the meetings of learned men, for discussions concerning questions of religion and discipline, and for purposes ef education. Thus the Synagogues and the Schools cannot be con- sidered as two separate subjects. No doubt a distinction must be drawn between the smaller schools of the country villages, and the great divinity schools of Jerusalem. The synagogue which was built by the Centurion at Capernaum* was unquestionably a far less important place than those synagogues in the Holy City, where “ the Libertines, and Cyrenians,*® and Alexandrians, with those of Asia and Cilicia,’ rose up as one man, and lisputed against St. Stephen.”. We have here five groups of foreign Jews, —two from Africa, two from Western Asia, and one from Europe; and there is no doubt that the Israelites of Syria, Babylonia, and the Hast were mmilarly represented. The Rabbinical writers say that there were 480 synagogues in Jerusalem ; and though this must be an exaggeration, yet no doubt all shades of Hellenistic and Aramaic opinions found a home in the common metropolis. It is easy to see that an eager and enthusiastic student could have had no lack of excitements to stimulate his religious 1 Basmage assigns the erection of synagogues 7 Acts vi. 9. It is difficult to classify with to the time of the Maccabees. Meuschen says that schools were established by Ezra; but he gives no proof. Itis probable that they were mearly contemporaneous. 7 Acta xv. 21. 5 Ps. xxiv. 8. * The place where the Jews met for wor- hip was called Bet-ha-Cneset, as opposed te the Bet-ha-Midrash, where lectures were given. The latter term is still said to be used in Poland and Germany for the place where Jewish lectures are given on the Law § Luke vii 5. * The beautiful coins of Cyrene show how sutirely it was a Greek city, and therefore im- ply that ite Jews were Hellenistic, like those of Absxandria. See above, p. 16, note. confidence the synagogues mentioned in this passage. According to Wieseler’s view, men- tioned above, only one synagogue is intended, belonging to libertini of certain districts in Northern Africa and Western Asia. Others conceive that five synagogues are intended, viz the Asian, Cilician, Alexandrian, Cyrenian, and that of Jewish freedmen from Italy. We think the most natural view is to resolve the five groups into three, and to suppose three syna gogues, one Asiatic, one African, and one European. An “ Alexandrian synagogue,” built by Alexandrian artisans who were ere ployed about the Temple, is mentioned in the Talmud. We have ventured below to use the phrase “Cilician Synagogue,” which canmo» involve any serious inaccuracy. mar. Mh. MODE OF TEACHING. 87 and intellectual activity, if he spent the years of his youth in that city “ at the feet of Gamaliel.” It has been contended, that when St. Paul said he was “ brought up’ in Jerusalem “ at the feet of Gamaliel,”’ he meant that he had lived at the Rabban’s house, and eaten at his table. But the words evidently point to the customary posture of Jewish students at a school. There is a curious passage in the Talmud, where it is said, that “ from the days of Moses te Rabban Gamaliel, they stood up to learn the law; but when Rabban Gamaliel died, sickness came into the world, and they sat down to learn the Law.” We need not stop to criticise this sentence, and it is not easy to reconcile it with other authorities on the same subject. ‘ To sit at the feet of a teacher ” was a proverbial expression ; as when Mary is said to have “sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.”! But the proverbial ex- pression must have arisen from a well-known custom. The teacher was seated*on an elevated platform, or on the ground, and the pupils around him on low seats or on the floor. Maimonides says:—‘* How do the masters teach? The doctor sits at the head, and the disciples surround him like a crown, that they may all see the doctor and hear his words. Nor is the doctor seated on a seat, and the disciples on the ground; but all are on seats, or all on the floor.” St. Ambrose says, in his Commen- tary on the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians (xiv.), that “ it is the tradition of the synagogue that they sit while they dispute; the elders in dignity on high chairs, those beneath them on low seats, and the last of all on mats upon the pavement.” And again Philo says, that the children of the Essenes sat at the feet of the masters, who interpreted the law, and ex- plained its figurative sense. And the same thing is expressed in that maxim of the Jews — “ Place thyself in the dust at the feet of the wise.” In this posture the Apostle of the Gentiles spent his schoolboy days, an eager and indefatigable student. ‘‘ He that giveth his mind to the law of the Most High, and is occupied in the meditation thereof, will seek out the wisdom of all the ancient, and be occupied in prophecies. He will keep the sayings of the renowned men ; and where subtle parables are, he wiil be there also. He will seek out the secrets of grave sentences, and be con- versant in dark parables. He shall serve among great men, and appear among princes: he will travel through strange countries; for he hath tried the good and the evil among men.””? Such was the pattern proposed to himself by an ardent follower of the Rabbis; and we cannot wonder that Saul, with such a standard before him, and with so ardent a tempera- ment, “ outran in Judaism many of his own age and nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his Fathers.”? Intellectually, hie s t Lake x 89; see vill. 35. 2 Ecclus. xxxix. 14. 5 Gal.i 84 rere sy ee ee , ; ¥ Ne 5 58 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAY, II, mind was trained to logical acuteness, his memory became well stored with “ hard sentences of old,” and he acquired the facility of quick and apt quotation of Scripture. Morally, he was a strict observer of the re- quirements of the Law ; and, while he led a careful conscientious life, after the example of his ancestors,’ he gradually imbibed the spirit of a fervent persecuting zeal. Among his fellow-students, who flocked to Jerusalem from Egypt and Babylonia, from the coasts of Greece and his native Cilicia, he was known and held in high estimation as a rising light in Israel. Andif we may draw a natural inference from another sentence of the letter which has just been quoted, he was far from indifferent to the praise of men.? Students of the Law were called “ the holy people ;” and we know one occasion when it was said, “‘ This people who knoweth not the Law are cursed.” * And we can imagine him saying to himself, with all the rising pride of a successful Pharisee, in the language of the Book of Wisdom: “TI shall have estimation among the multitude, and honor with the elders, though I be young. I shall be found of a quick conceit in judgment, and shall be admired in the sight of great men. When I hold my tongue, they shall bide my leisure; and when I speak, _ they shall give good ear unto me.” ‘ While thus he was passing through the busy years of his student-life, nursing his religious enthusiasm and growing in self-righteousness, others - were advancing towards their manhood, not far from Jerusalem, of whom then he knew nothing, but for whose cause he was destined to count that loss which now was his highest gain.» There was one at Hebron, the son of a priest “ of the course of Abia,” who was soon to make his voice heard throughout Israel as the preacher of repentance ; there were boys by the Lake of Galilee, mending their fathers’ nets, who were hereafter to be the teachers of the World; and there was onr, at Nazareth, for the sake of whose love, they, and Saul himself, and thousands of faithful hearts throughout all future ages, should unite in saying : — ‘‘ He must increase, but I must decrease.” It is possible that Gamaliel may have been one of those doctors with whom JEsus was found conversing in the Temple. It is probable that Saul may have been within the precincts of the Temple at some festival, when Mary and Joseph camé up from Galilee. It is certain that the eyes of the Saviour and of His future disciple must often have rested on the same objects, — the same crowd of pilgrims and worshippers, — the same walls of the Holy City, — the same olives on the other side of the valley of Jehoshaphat. But at present they were strangers. The mysterious human life of Jesus was silently advancing towards its great 1 2 Tim.i. 8. once I did) to please men, I should not be the 2 Gal. i. 10. “Am I now seeking to con- servant of Christ.” 8 John vii. 49. ciliate men? ... Nay, if J still strove (as * Wisdom viii. 10-12. © See PL&. iii. 5-7, CHAP, I. STUDENT LIFE OF ST. PAUL. 5§ consummation. Saul was growing more and more familiar with the out- ward observances of the Law, and gaining that experience of the “ spirit of bondage” which should enable him to understand himself, and to teach to others, the blessings of the “spirit of adoption.” He was feeling the pressure of that yoke, whicn, in the words of St. Peter, “ neither his fathers nor he were able to bear.”” He was learning (in proportion as his consci entiousness increased) to tremble at the slightest deviation from the Law as jeopardizing salvation: ‘“ whence arose that tormenting scrupulosity which invented a number of limitations, in order (by such self-imposed restraint) to guard against every possible transgression of the Law.’’! The struggles of this period of his life he has himself described in the seventh chapter of Romans. Meanwhile, year after year passed away. John the Baptist appeared by the waters of the Jordan. The greatest event of the world’s history was finished on Calvary. The sacrifice for sin was offered at a time when sin appeared to be the most triumphant. At the period of the Crucifixion, three of the principal persons who de- mand the historian’s attention are—the Emperor Tiberius, spending his life of shameless lust on the island of Caprez, — his vile minister, Sejanus, revelling in cruelty at Rome,— and Pontius Pilate at Jerusalem, min- gling with the sacrifices the blood of the Galileans.2, How refreshing is it to turn from these characters to such scenes as that where St. Jolin re- ceives his Lerd’s dying words from the cross, or where St. Thomas meets Him after the resurrection, to have his doubts turned into faith, or where St. Stephen sheds the first blood of martyrdom, praying for his murderers ! This first martyrdom has the deepest interest for us; since it is the first occasion when Saul comes before us in his early manhood. Where had he been during these years which we have rapidly passed over in a few lines, —the years in which the foundations of Christianity were laid ? We cannot assume that he had remained continuously in Jerusalem. Many years had elapsed since he came, a boy, from his home at Tarsus. - He must have attained the age of twenty-five or thirty years when our Lord’s public ministry began. His education was completed; and we may conjecture, with much probability, that he returned to Tarsus. When he says, in the first letter to the Corinthians (ix. 1), — “ Have I not seen the Lord?” and when he speaks in the second (v. 16) of having “known Christ after the flesh,” he seems only to allude, in the first case, to his vision on the road to Damascus ; and, in the second, to his carnal opinions concerning the Messiah. It is hardly conceivable, that if he had been at Jerusalem during our Lord’s public ministration there, he should never allude to the fact.’ In this case, he would surely have been among 1 Neander. 2 Luke xiii. 1. _ difficult to write with confidence concerning * In the absence of more information, it is this part of St. Paul’s life. Benson thinks he 1 6) THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL emer. the persecutors of Jesus, and have referred to this as the ground of his remorse, instead of expressing his repentance for his opposition merely to the Saviour’s followers.’ If he returned to the banks of the Cydnus, he would find that many changes had taken place among his friends in the interval which had brought him from boyhood to manhood. But the only change in himself was that he brought back with him, to gratify the pride of his parents, if they still were living, a mature knowledge of the Law, a stricter life, a more fervent zeal. And here, in the schools of Tarsus, he had abundant opportunity for becoming acquainted with that Greek literature, the taste for which he had caught from Gamaliel, and for studying the writings of Philo and the Hellenistic Jews. Supposing him to be thus employed, we will describe in a few words the first beginnings of the Apostolic Church, and the appearance presented by it to that Judaism in the midst of which it rose, and follow its short history to the point where the “ young man, whose name was Saul,” re-appears at Jerusalem, in connection with his friends of the Cilician Synagogue, “ disputing with Stephen.” Before our Saviour ascended into heaven, He said to His disciples: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judawa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.”? And when Matthias had been chosen, and the promised blessing had been re ceived on the day of Pentecost, this order was strictly followed. First the Gospel was proclaimed in the City of Jerusalem, and the numbers of those who believed gradually rose from 120 to 5,000.4 Until the disciples were “ scattered,” ‘ “upon the persecution that arose. about Stephen,” *® Jerusalem was the scene of all that took place in the Church of Christ. We read as yet of no communication of the truth to the Gentiles, nor to the Samaritans; no hint even of any Apostolic preaching in the country parts of Judea. It providentially happened, indeed, that the first outburst of the new doctrine, with all its miraculous evidence, was witnessed by “‘ Jews and proselytes”’ from all parts of the ~ world. They had come up to the Festival of Pentecost from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, of the Nile and of the Tiber, froma the prov- inces of Asia Minor, from the desert of Arabia, and from the islands of the Greek Sea; and when they returned to their homes, they carried with them news which prepared the way for the Glad Tidings about te issue from Mount Zion to “ the uttermost parts of the earth.” But e« yet was a young student during our Lord’s minis. 1 1 Cor. xv. 9; Acts xxii. 28. try, and places a considerable interval between 2 Acts i. 8. the Ascension of Christ and the persecution of 5 Acts i. 15; ti. 41; iv. a Stephen. Lardner thinks that the restraint and * Acts viii. 1. retirement of a student might have kept him in ® Acts xi 19. ignorance of what was going on in the world. § Acts ii 9-11. ar. Be FIRST ASPECT OF THE CHURCH 6) “the Gospel lingered on the Holy Hill. The first acts of the Apostles were “prayer and supplication” in the “upper room;” breaking of bread “from house to house ;’’! miracles in the Temple; gatherings of the people in Solomon’s cloister; and the bearing of testimony in the council chamber of the Sanhedrin. One of the chief characteristics of the Apostolic Church was tie bountiful charity of its members one towards another. Many of the Jews of Palestine, and therefore many of the earliest Christian converts, were extremely poor. The odium incurred by adopting the new doctrine might undermine the livelihood of some who depended on their trade for support, and this would make almsgiving necessary. But the Jews of Palestine were relatively poor, compared with those of the dispersion. We see this exemplified on later occasions, in the contributions which St. Paul more than once anxiously promoted.? And in the very first days of the Church, we find its wealthier members placing their entire posses- sions at the disposal of the Apostles. Not that there was any abolition of the rights of property, as the words of St. Peter to Ananias very well shew. But those who were rich gave up what God had given them, in the spirit of generous self-sacrifice, and according to the true principles of Christian communism, which regards property as intrusted to the possessor, not for himself, but for the good of the whole community, — to be distributed according to such methods as his charitable feeling and conscientious judgment may approve. The Apostolic Church was, in this respect, in a healthier condition than the Church of modern days. But even then we find ungenerous and suspicious sentiments growing up in the midst of the general benevolence. That old jealousy between the Aramaic and Hellenistic Jews re-appeared. Their party feeling was excited by some real or apparent unfairness in the distribution of the fund set apart for the poor. ‘“ A murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,” ‘ or of the Hebrews against the Grecians, had been a com- mon occurrence for at least two centuries; and, notwithstanding the power of the Divine Spirit, none will wonder that it broke out again even among those who had become obedient to the doctrine of Christ. That the widows’ fund might be carefully distributed, seven almoners or deacons * were appointed, of whom the most eminent was St. Stephen, described as a man “ full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost,” and as one ’ Or rather “at home,” Acts ii. 46, — i.e. ® Acts v. 4. m their meetings at the private houses of * Acts vi. 1. Christians, as opposed to the public devotions 5 The general question of the Diaconate im in the Temple. the primitive Church is considered in Chap. 1 Acts xi. 29,30; and again Rum. xv. 25, XIII. 25, compared with Acts xxiv. 17; 1 Cor. xvi twa; @ Cor. viii. I~ pa as ns 1A 62 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL. onar. a, who, “ full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” It will be observed that these seven men have Greek names, and that one was a proselyte from the Greco-Syrian city of Antioch. It was natural, from the peculiar character of the quarrel, that Hellenistic Jews should have been appointed to this office. And this circumstance must be looked on as divinely arranged. For the introduction of that party, which was most free from local and national prejudices, into the very ministry of the Church, must have had an important influence in preparing the way for the admission of the Gen- tiles. Looking back, from our point of view, upon the community at Jerusa- lem, we see in it the beginning of that great society, the Church, which has continued to our own time, distinct both from Jews and Heathens, and which will continue till it absorbs both the Heathen and the Jews. But to the contemporary Jews themselves it wore a very different appear- ance. From the Hebrew point of view, the disciples of Christ would be regarded as a Jewish sect or synagogue. The synagogues, as we have seen, were very numerous at Jerusalem.! There were already the Cilician Synagogue, the Alexandrian Synagogue, the Synagogue of the Liber- tines,” — and to these was now added (if we may use so bold an ex- pression) the Nazarene Synagogue, or the Synagogue of the Galileans. Not that any separate building was erected for the devotions of the Chris- tians; for they met from house to house for prayer and the breaking of bread. But they were by no means separated from the nation:* they attended the festivals; they worshipped in the Temple. They were a new and singular party in the nation, holding peculiar opinions, and interpreting the Scriptures in a peculiar way. This is the aspect under which the Church would first present itself to the Jews, and among others to Saul himself. Many different opinions were expressed in the synagogues concerning the nature and office of the Messiah. These Galileans would be distinguished as holding the strange opinion that the true Messiah was that notorious “ malefactor,” who had been crucified at the last Passover. All parties in the nation united to oppose, and if possible to crush, the monstrous heresy. The first attempts to put down the new faith came from the Sadducees. The high priest and his immediate adherents‘ belonged to this party. 1 See p. 56. The fulfilment of the ancient law was the as- ? See pp. 17, 43, 56. pect of Christianity to which the attention of 3 “The worship of the Temple and the the Church was most directed.” — Prof. Stan: synagogue still went side by side with the ley’s Sermon on St. Peter, p. 92; see James i. prayers, and the breaking of bread from house 2, where the word “synagogue” is applied te to house. . . . The Jewish family life was the Christian assemblies. ghest expression of Christian wiity. . . ¢ Acis iv. 1, v. 17. onaP, 0, THE SANHEDRIN. | 62 They hated the doctrine of the resurrection; and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the corner-stone of all St. Peter’s teaching. He and the other Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin, who in the first instance were content to enjoin silence on them. The order was dis- obeyed, and they were summoned again. The consequences might have been fatal: but that the jealousy between the Sadducees and Pharisees was overruled, and the instrumentality of one man’s wisdom was used, by Almighty God, for the protection of His servants. Gamaliel, the eminent Pharisee, argued, that if this cause were not of God, it would come to nothing, like the work of other impostors; but, if it were of God, they could not safely resist what must certainly prevail; and the Apostles of Jesus Christ were scourged, and allowed to “ depart from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”! But it was impossible that those Phari- sees, whom Christ had always rebuked, should long continue to be protect- ors of the Christians. On this occasion we find the teacher, Gamaliel, taking St. Peter’s part: at the next persecution, Saul, the pupil, is actively concerned in the murder of St. Stephen. It was the same alter- nation of the two prevailing parties, first opposing each other, and then uniting to oppose the Gospel, of which Saul himself had such intimate experience when he became St. Paul.? In many particulars St. Stephen was the forerunner of St. Paul. Up to this time the conflict had been chiefly maintained with the Aramaic Jews; but Stephen carried the war of the Gospel into the territory of the Hellenists. ‘The learned members of the foreign synagogues endeavored to refute him by argument or by clamor. The Cilician Synagogue is particularly mentioned (Acts vi. 9, 10) as having furnished some con- | spicuous opponents to Stephen, who “ were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake.” We cannot doubt, from what fol- lows, that Saul of Tarsus, already distinguished by his zeal and talents among the younger champions of Pharisaism, bore a leading part in the discussions which here took place. He was now, though still “a young man” (Acts vii. 58), yet no longer in the first opening of youth. This is evident from: the fact that he was appointed to an important ecclesiasti cal and political office immediately afterwerds. Such an appointment he could hardly have received from the Sanhedrin before the age of thirty, and probably not so early; for we must remember that a peculiar respect for seniority distinguished the Rabbinical authorities. We can imagine Saul, then, the foremost in the Cilician Synagogue, “disputing” against the new doctrines of the Hellenistic Deacon, in all the energy of vigorous 1 Acts v. 41. 2 See Acts xxiii. 6, 9, 14, 20. 64 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL Guar. & manhood, and with all the vehement logic of the Rabbis. How often must these scenes have been recalled to his mind, when he himself took the place of Stephen in many a Synagogue, and bore the brunt of the like furious assault; surrounded by “‘ Jews filled with envy, who spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”! But this clamor and these arguments were not sufficient to convince or intimidate St. Stephen. False witnesses were then sub- orned to accuse him of blasphemy against Moses and against God, — who asserted, when he was dragged before the Sanhedrin, that they had heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the Temple, and change the Mosaic customs. It is evident, from the nature of this accusation, how remarkably his doctrine was an anticipation of St. Paul’s. As a Helle nistic Jew, he was less entangled in the prejudices of Hebrew nationality than his Aramaic brethren; and he seems to have had a fuller understand- ing of the final intention of the Gospel than St. Peter and the Apostles had yet attained to. Not doubting the divinity of the Mosaic economy, and not faithless to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he yet saw that the time was coming, yea, then was, when the “true worshippers ” should worship Him, not in the Temple only or in any one sacred spot, but everywhere throughout the earth, “in spirit and in truth:” and for this doctrine he was doomed to die. When we speak of the Sanhedrin, we are brought into contact with an important controversy. It is much disputed whether it had at this period the power of inflicting death.? On the one hand, we apparently find the existence of this power denied by the Jews themselves at the trial of our Lord ;* and, on the other, we apparently find it assumed and acted on in the case of St. Stephen. The Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, like the Areopa- gus at Athens, was the highest and most awful court of judicature, es pecially in matters that pertained to religion; but, like that Athenian tribunal, its real power gradually shrunk, though the reverence attached to its decisions remained. It probably assumed its systematic form under the second Hyrcanus ;‘ and it became a fixed institution in the Common- wealth under his sons, who would be glad to have their authority nomi- nally limited, but really supported, by such a council. Under the Herods, 1 Acts xiii. 45. * Most of the modern German critics are of spinion that they had not at this time the power of life and death. A very careful and elaborate argument for the opposite view will ce found in Biscoe’s History of the Acts con- Armed, ch. vi. Dean Milman says that in his “opinion, formed upon the study of the con- temporary Jewish history, the power of the Sanhedrin, at this period of political change and confusion, on this, as well as on other points, was altogether undefined. — History of Christianity, vol. i. p. $40. Compare the nar rative of the death of St. James. Joseph. Ant xx. 9. ® John xvii. $1, xix. 6. * See p. 24. § The word from which “Sanhedrin” ie mar. G. THE TRIAL OF ST. STEPHEN. € and under the Romans, its jurisdiction was curtailed ;' and we are im fcrmed, on Talmudical authority, that, forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, it was formally deprived of the power of inflicting death. if this is true, we must consider the proceedings at the death of St. Stephen as tumultuous and irregular. And nothing is more probable than that Pontius Pilate (if indeed he was not absent at that time) would willingly connive, in the spirit of Gallio at Corinth, at an act of unauthor ized cruelty in “ a question of words and names and of the Jewish law,’”? and unat the Jews would willingly assume as much power as they dared, when the honor of Moses and the Temple was in jeopardy. The council assembled in solemn dnd formal state to try the blas phemer. There was great and general excitement in Jerusalem. “The people, the scribes, and the elders”’ had been “ stirred up” by the mem- bers of the Hellenistic Synagogues.’ It is evident, from that vivid ex- pression which is quoted from the accusers’ mouths, — “‘ this place” — this holy place,’ — that the meeting of the Sanhedrin took place in the close neighborhood of the Temple. Their ancient and solemn room of assembly was the hall Gazith,‘ or the “‘ Stone-Chamber,” partly within the Temple Court and partly without it. The president sat in the less sacred portion, and around him, in a semicircle, were the rest of the seventy judges.’ Before these judges Stephen was made to stand, confronted by his accusers. The eyes of all were fixed upon his countenance, which grew bright, as they gazed on it, with a supernatural radiance and serenity. In the beautiful Jewish expression of the Scripture, “‘ They saw his face as it had been that of an angel.” The judges, when they saw his glorified countenance, might have remembered the shining on the face of Moses,‘ and trembled lest Stephen’s voice should be about to speak the will of Jehovah, like that of the great lawgiver. Instead of being occupied with the faded glories of the Second Temple, they might have recognized in the spectacle before them the Shechinah of the Christian soul, which ® Selden describes the form in which the Sanhedrin sat, and gives a diagram with the “President of the Council” in the middle, the “ Father of the Council” by his side, and “Seribes”’ at the extremities of the semi- derived being Greek, makes it prebable that its systematic organization dates from the Greco- Macedonian (i.e. the Maccabsan) period. 1 We see the beginning of this in the first passage where the council is mentioned by Jo- sephus, Antig. xiv. 9. 2 Acts xviii. 15. 3 Acts vi. 12. * It appears that the Talmudical authorities differ as to whether it was on the south or north side of the Temple. But they agree m placing it to the east of the Most Holy Place. 5 circle. ; ® Exodus xxxiv. 29-35; see 2 Cor. iii. 7, 18. Chrysostom imagines that the angelie brightness on Stephen’s face might be intended to alarm the judges ; for, as he says, it is pos sible for a countenance full of spiritual grace to be awful and terrible te those who are full of hate. | | 66 THE LIE AND HEPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. char. 1, is the living Sanctuary of God. But the trial proceeded. The judicial question, to which the accused was required to plead, was put by the president: “Are these things so?”, And then Stephen answered ; and his clear voice was heard in the silent council-hall, as he went through the history of the chosen people, proving his own deep faith in the sacredness of the Jewish economy, but suggesting, here and there, that spiritual interpretation of it which had always been the true one, and the truth of which was now to be made manifest to all. He began, with a wise discretion, from the call of Abraham, and travelled historically in his argument through all the great stages of their national existence, — from Abraham to Joseph,— from Joseph to Moses,—from Moses to David and Solomon. And as he went on he selected and glanced at those points which made for his own cause. He showed that God’s bless- ing rested on the faith of Abraham, though he had “ not so much as to set his foot on” in the land of promise (v. 5), on the piety of Joseph, though he was an exile in Egypt (v. 9), and on the holiness of the Burn- ing Bush, though in the desert of Sinai (v. 30). He dwelt in detail on the Lawgiver, in such a way as to show his own unquestionable ortho- doxy; but he quoted the promise concerning ‘“ the prophet like unto Moses”’ (v. 37), and reminded his hearers that the Law, in which they trusted, had not kept their forefathers from idolatry (v. 39, &c.). And so he passed on to the Temple, which had so prominent a reference to the charge against him: and while he spoke of it, he alluded to the words of Solomon himself,' and of the prophet Isaiah,? who denied that any temple “made with hands” could be the place of God’s highest worship. And thus far they listened to him. It was the story of the chosen people, to which every Jew listened with interest and pride. It is remarkable, as we have said before, how completely St. Stephen is _ the forerunner of St. Paul, both in the form and the matter of this defence. , J His securing the attention of the Jews by adopting the historical method, is exactly what the Apostle did in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia.* His assertion of his attachment to the true principles of the Mosaic re- ligion is exactly what was said to Agrippa: “‘I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.” ‘ It is deeply inter- esting to think of Saul as listening to the martyr’s voice, as he anticipated those very arguments which he himself was destined to reiterate in syna- gogues and before kings. There is no reason to doubt that he was pres 1 | Kings viii. 27 ; 2 Chron. ii. 6, vi. 18. 8 Acts xiii. 16-22. 5 Ts. Levi. 1, 2. * Acta xxvi. 2e ok CHaP. MARTYRDOM OF ST. STEPHEN, € ent,' although he may not have been qualified to vote’ in the Sanhedrin. And it is evident, from the thoughts which occurred to him in his subse- quent vision within the precincts of the Temple,’ how deep an impression St. Stephen’s death had left on his memory. And there are even verba! coincidences which may be traced between this address and St. Paul’s speeches or writings. The words used by Stephen of the Temple call to mind those which were used at Athens. When he speaks of the Law as received “‘ by the disposition of angels,” he anticipates a phrase in the Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 19). His exclamation at the end, “ Ye stiffmecked and uncircumcised in heart . . . who have received the law . .. and have not kept it,’ is only an indignant condensation of the argument in the Hpistle to the Romans: “ Behold, thou callest thyself a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and knowesi His will. . . . Thou, therefore, that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? . . . He is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of man, but of God.” (ii. 17-29.) The rebuke which Stephen, full of the Divine Spirit, suddenly broke away from the course of his narrative to pronounce, was the signal for a general outburst of furious rage on the part of his judges.° They “ gnashed on him with their teeth’ in the same spirit in which they had said, not long before, to the blind man who was healed — “Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?” * But, in contrast with the malignant hatred which had blinded their eyes, Stephen’s serene faith was supernaturally exalted into a direct vision of the blessedness of the 1 Mr. Humphry, in his accurate and useful Commentary on the Acts, remarks, that it is not improbable we owe to him the defence of St. Stephen as given in the Acts. Besides the re- semblances mentioned in the text, he points out the similarity between Acts vii. 44, and Heb. viii. 5, between Acts vii. 5-8, and Rom. iv. 10-19, and between Acts vii. 60, and 2 Tim. iv. 16. And if the Epistle to the He brews was written by St. Paul, may we not suppose that this scene was present to his mind when he wrote, ‘Jesus suffered without the gate: let us go forth therefore unto Him with- out the camp, bearing His reproach ”’? (xiii, 12, 18.) 2 One of the necessary qualifications of >yembers of the Sanhedrin was, that they & Bald be the fathers of children, because such were suppesed more likely to lean towards mercy. If this was the rule when Stephen was tried, and if Saul was one of the judges, he must have been married at the time. See p- 75, n. 8. ® He said in bis trance, ‘‘ Lord, they know that I imprisoned aud beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee; and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto hie death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.” Acts xxii. 19, 20. 4 Acts xvii. 24. 5 It is evident that the speech was interrupt- ed. We may infer what the conclusion would have been from the analogy ef Si. Paul’s speech at Antioch in Pisidia, Acts xiii. © John ix. 34. s . i Pel AS 63 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL. omar. Redeemed. He, whose face had been like that of an angel on earth, was made like one of those angels themselves, “‘ who do always behold the face of our Father which is in Heaven.”! ‘“ He being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into Heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” The scene before his eyes was no longer the council-hall at Jerusalem and the circle of his infuriated judges; but he gazed up into the endless courts of the celestial Jerusa- lem, with its “innumerable company of angels,” and saw Jesus, in whose righteous cause he was about to die. In other places, where our Saviour is spoken of in His glorified state, He is said to be, not standing, but seated, at the right hand of the Father. Here alone He is said to be standing. It is as if (according to Chrysostom’s beautiful thought) He had risen from His throne, to succor His persecuted servant, and to receive him to Himself. And when Stephen saw his Lord — perhaps with the memories of what he had seen on earth crowding into his mind, —he suddenly exclaimed, in the ecstasy of his vision: “‘ Behold! I see the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God 1?” This was too much for the Jews to bear. The blasphemy of Jesus had been repeated. The follower of Jesus was hurried to destruction. ‘They cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.” It is evident that it was a savage and disorderly con- demnation.? They dragged him out of the council-hall, and, making a sudden rush and tumult through the streets, hurried him to one of the gates of the city,—-and somewhere about the rocky edges of the ravine of Jehoshaphat, where the Mount of Olives looks down upon Gethsemane and Siloam, or on the open ground to the north, which travellers cross when they go towards Samaria or Damascus, —with stones that lay with- out the walls of the Holy City, this heavenly-minded martyr was mur dered. The exact place of his death is not known. There are two tra ditions,*—-an ancient one, which places it on the north, beyond the Damascus gate; and a modern one, which leads travellers through what is now called the gate of St. Stephen, to a spot near the brook Kedron, over against the garden of Gethsemane. But those who look upon 1 Matt. xviii. 10. ® As in Eph. i. 20; Col. iii. 1; Heb. i. 3, viii. 1, x. 12, xii. 2; compsre Rom. viii. 34, ead 1 Pet. iii. 22. ® As to whether it was a judicial sentence at all, sce above, p. 64, n. 2. * It is well known that the tradition which identifies St. Stephen’s gate with the Damas- @us gate, and places the scene of martyrdom on the North, can be traced from an early period to the fifteenth century; and that the modern tradition, which places both the gate and the martyrdom on the Kast, can be traced back to the same century. It is prob able that the popular opinion regarding these sacred gites was suddenly changed by some monks from interested motives CHAR W. PRAYER OF ST. STEPHEN. 69 Jerusalem from an elevated point on the north-east, have both these positions in view; and any one who stood there on that day might have seen the crowd rush forth from the gate, and the witnesses (who accord- ing to the law were required to throw the first stenes') cast off their outer garments, and lay them down at the feet of Saul. The contrast is striking between the indignant zeal which the martyr? had just expressed against the sin of his judges, and the forgiving love which he showed to themselves, when they became his murderers. He first uttered a prayer for himself in the words of Jesus Christ, which he knew were spoken from the cross, and which he may himself have heard from those holy lips. And then, deliberately kneeling down, in that posture of humility in which the body most naturally expresses the supplication of the mind, and which has been consecrated as the attitude of Christian devotion by Stephen and by Paul himself,?— he gave the last few moments of his consciousness to a prayer for the forgiveness of his enemies ; and the words were scarcely spoken when death seized upon him, or rather, in the words of Scripture, “he fell asleep.” “ And Saul was consenting‘ to his death.” A Spanish painter,’ in a picture of Stephen conducted to the place of execution, has represented Saul as walking by the martyr’s side with melancholy calmness. He con- sents to his death from a sincere, though mistaken, conviction of duty; and the expression of his countenance is strongly contrasted with the rage of the baffled Jewish doctors and the ferocity of the crowd who flock to the scene of bloodshed. Literally considered, such a representation is scarcely consistent either with Saul’s conduct immediately afterwards, or with his own expressions concerning himself at the later periods of his life. But the picture, though historically incorrect, is poetically true. The painter has worked according to the true idea of his art in throwing upon the persecutor’s countenance the shadow of his coming repentance. 1 See Deut. xvii. 5-7. The stoning was above (p. 67) that this scene made a deep always outside the city, Levit. xxiv. 14; I Kings xxi. 10, 13. 8 The Christian use of the word martyr begins with St. Stephen. See Mr. Hum- pkry’s note on Acts xxii. 20. See also what lie says on the Christian use of the word ceme- wry, in allusion to Acis vii. 60. ® At Miletus (Acts xx. 86) and at Tyre (Acts xxii. 5). See Acts ix. 40. * The word in Acts viii. 1 expresses far more than mere passive consent. St. Paul himself uses the same expression (Ibid. xxii. 80) when referring to the occurrence. Com- pare ix. 1, and xxvi. 11. Wa have said impression on St. Paul’s mind; but the power of the impression was unfelt or resisted till after his conversion. 5 Vicente Joannes, the founder of the Va- lencian school, one of the most austere of the grave and serious painters of Spain. The pie- ture is one of a series on St. Stephen; it wae ence in the church of St. Stephen at Valen- cia, and is now in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. See Stirling’s Annals of the Artists of Spain, i. 363. § See Acts xxil 4, xxvi. 10; Phil. ii @; 1 Tim. i. 13. 70 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. & We cannot dissociate the martyrdom of Stephen from the conversion of Paul. The spectacle of so much constancy, so much faith, so much love, could not be lost. It is hardly too much to say with Augustine, that “the Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen.” SI STEPHANUS NON ORASSET EOCCLESIA PAULUM NON HABERET. CHAPTER Iii Faneral of St. Stephen. — Saul’s continued Persecution. — Flight of the Christians. — Philip and the Samaritans. — Saul’s Journey to Damascus. — Aretas, King of Petra. — Roads from Jerusalem to Damascus. — Neapolis. — History and Description of Damascus. — The Narratives of the Miracle. —It was « real Vision of Jesus Christ. — Three Days in Damas- cus. — Ananias. — Baptism and first Preaching of Saul. — He retires into Arabia. — Mean- ing of the Term Arabia. — Petra and the Desert. — Motives to Conversion. — Conspiracy at Damascus.— Escape to Jerusalem. — Barnabas. — Fortnight with St. Peter. — Conspiracy. — Vision in the Temple.— Saul withdraws to Syria and Cilicia. HE death of St. Stephen is a bright passage in the earliest history of the Church. Where, in the annals of the world, can we find so perfect an image of a pure and blessed saint as that which is drawn in the concluding verses of the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles? And the brightness which invests the scene of the martyr’s last moments is the more impressive from its contrast with all that has preceded it since the Crucifixion of Christ. The first Apostle who died was a traitor. Tha first disciples of the Christian Apostles whose deaths are recorded were liars and hypocrites. The kingdom of the Son of Man was founded in darkness and gloom. But a heavenly light re-appeared with the martyr- dom of St. Stephen. The revelation of such a character at the moment of death was the strongest of all evidences, and the highest of all encour- agements. Nothing could more confidently assert the Divine power of the new religion ; nothing could prophesy more mnie the certainty of its final victory. To us who have the experience of many centuries of Christian history, and who can look back, through a long series of martyrdoms, to this, which was the beginning and example of the rest, these thoughts are easy and obvious; but to the friends and associates of the murdered Saint, such feelings of cheerful and confident assurance were perhaps more difficult. Though Christ was indeed risen from the dead, His dis- ciples could hardly yet be able to realize the full triumph of the Cross over death. Even many years afterwards, Paul the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, concerning those who had “ fallen asleep”?! more peace- ably than Stephen, that they ought not to sorrow for them as those without hope; and now, at the very beginning of the Gospel, the grief 1 1 Thess. iv. 18. See Acts vii. 60. 71 73 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL omar. rm : of the Christians must have been great indeed, when the corpse of their champion and their brother lay at the feet of Saul the murderer. Yet, amidst the consternation of some and the fury of others, friends of the martyr were found,’ who gave him all the melancholy honors of a Jewish. funeral, and carefully buried him, as Joseph buried his father, “ with great and sore lamentation.” ? After the death and burial of Stephen the persecution still raged in Jerusalem. That temporary protection which had been extended to the rising sect by such men as Gamaliel was now at an end. Pharisees and Sadducees — priests and people —alike indulged the most violent and ungovernable fury. It does not seem that any check was laid upon them by the Roman authorities. | Hither the procurator was absent from the city, or he was willing to connive at what seemed to him an ordinary religious quarrel. The eminent and active agent in this persecution was Saul. There are strong grounds for believing that, if he “ae not a member of the Sanhedrin at the time of St. Stephen’s death, he was elected into that powerful senate soon after; possibly as a reward for the zeal he had shown against the heretic. He himself says that in Jerusalem he not only exercised the power of imprisonment by commission from the High Priests, but also, when the Christians were put to death, gave his vote against them.’ From this expression it is natural to infer that he was a member of that supreme court of judicature. However this might be, his zeal in conducting the persecution was unbounded. We cannot help observing how frequently strong expressions concerning his share in the injustice and cruelty now perpetrated are multiplied in the Scriptures. In St. Luke’s narrative, in St. Paul’s own speeches, in his earlier and later epistles, the subject recurs again and again. He “‘ made havoc of the Church,” invading the sanctuaries of domestic life, “ entering into every house:”* and those whom he thus tore from their homes he “committed to prison ;” or, in his own words at a later period, when 1 Acts viii. 2. Probably they were Helle- pistic Jews impressed in favor of Christian- ity. It seems hardly likely that they were avowed Christians. There is nothing in the expression itself to determine the point. 2 See Gen. |. 10. 8 The word “voice” in the Auth. Vers. should be “vote.” Acts xxvi. 10. If this inference is well founded, and if the qualifica- tien for a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned iw the last chapter (p. 67, n. 2), was a necessa- ry qualification, Saul must have beem a mar- Tied man, and the father of a family. If so, it is probable that his wife and children did not long survive; for otherwise, some notice of them would have occurred in the subsequent Rarrative, or some allusion to them in the Epistles. And we know that, if ever he had a wife, she was not living when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians. (1 Cor. vii.) It was customary among the Jews to marry ai a very early age. Baron Bunsen has expreseed his belief in the tradition that St. Paul was = widower. Hippol. ii. 344. * Acts viii. 3. Ses ix. 2. eMLap. WZ. BAUL’S CONTINUED PERSECUTION. 72 he had recognized as God’s people those whom he now imagined to be His enemies, “ thinking that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth ... in Jerusalem. . . he shut up many of the saints in prison.”! And not only did men thus suffer at his hands, but women also, — a fact three times repeated as a great aggrava tion of his cruelty.2 These persecuted people were scourged — “ often’ scourged—‘“‘in many synagogues.” * Nor was Stephen the only one who suffered death, as we may infer from the Apostle’s own confession.‘ | And, what was worse than scourging or than death itself, he used every effort to make them “ blaspheme ” that Holy Name whereby they were called.’ His fame as an inquisitor was notorious far and wide. Even at Damascus Ananias had heard® “ how much evil he had done to Christ’s saints at Jerusalem.” He was known there’ as “he that destroyed them which call on this Name in Jerusalem.” It was not without reason that, in the deep repentance of his later years, he remembered how he had “ persecuted the Church of God and wasted it,” *— how he had been “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious ;”” *— and that he felt he was “ not meet to be called an Apostle,” because he had “ per- secuted the Church of God.” From such cruelty, and such efforts to make them deny that Nam which they honored above all names, the disciples naturally fled. In consequence of “ the persecution against the Church at Jerusalem, they ‘were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judza and Samaria.” The Apostles only remained." But this dispersion led to great results. The moment of lowest depression was the very time of the Church’s first missionary triumph. ‘ They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word.”™ First the Samaritans, and then the Gentiles, received that Gospel, which the Jews attempted to destroy. Thus did the providence of God begin to accomplish, by unconscious instruments, the prophecy and command which had been given: —‘ Ye shall be witnesses upon Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” | ' Acts xxvi. 9,10. See xxii. 3. 4 Acts viii. 8, ix. 2, xxii. 4. 8 Acts xxvi. 10. 4 —-to the letters of Julian the Apostate, who describes it as “the eye of the Hast,’— and onward through its golden days, when it was the residence of the Ommiad Caliphs, and the metropolis of the Mohammedan world,—and through the period when its fame was mingled with that of Saladin and Tamer- lane, — to our own days, when the praise of its beauty is celebrated hy every traveller from Europe. It is evident, to use the words of Lamar- tine, that, like Constantinople, it was a “‘ predestinated capital.” Nor is it difficult to explain why its freshness has never faded through all this series of vicissitudes and wars. Among the rocks and brushwood at the base of Antilibanus are the fountains of a copious and perennial stream, which, after running a course of no great distance to the south-east, loses itself in a desert lake. But before it reaches this dreary boundary, it has distributed its channels over the intermediate space, and left a wide area behind it, rich with prolific vegetation. These are the “streams from Lebanon,” which are known to us in the imagery of Scripture ;‘— the “ rivers of Damascus,”’ which Naaman not unnaturally preferred to all the “waters of Israel.””> By Greek writers the stream is called Chrysor- rhoas,® or “the river of gold.” And this stream is the inestimable unexhausted treasure of Damascus. The habitations of men must always have been gathered round it, as the Nile has inevitably attracted an immemorial population to its banks. The desert is a fortification round Damascus. The river is its life. It is drawn out into water- courses, and spread in all directions. For miles around it is a wilder- ness of gardens,— gardens with roses among the tangled shrubberies, end with fruit on the branches overhead. Everywhere among the trees 1 The port of Beyroot is now to Damascus the Romans; hence we find it less frequently what Tyre was of old. mentioned than we might expect in Greek and 3 Ezek. xxvii. 16, 18. Roman writers. This arose from the building 5 See above, Ch. I. p. 24. Its relative im- of Antioch and other cities in Northern Syria. portance was not so great when it was under * Song of Sol. iv. 15. a Western power like that of the Seleucids or 5 2Kingsv.12. * Strabo and Ptolemy. a —— 82 THE LI¥E AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. the murmur of unseen rivulets is heard. Even in the city, which is in the midst of the garden, the clear rushing of the current is a perpetual refreshment. Every dwelling has its fountain: and at night, when the sun has set behind Mount mesons: the lights of the city are seen flash- ing on the waters. It is not to be wondered at that the view of Damascus, when the dim outline of the gardens has become distinct, and the city is seen gleaming white in the midst of them, should be universally famous. All travellers in all ages have paused to feast their eyes with the prospect: and the prospect has been always the same. It is true that in the Apostle’s day there were no cupolas and no minarets: Justinian had not built St. Sophia, and the caliphs had erected no mosques. But the white build- ings of the city gleamed then, as they do now, in the centre of a verdant inexhaustible paradise. The Syrian gardens, with their low walls and waterwheels, and careless mixture of fruits and flowers, were the same then as they are now. The same figures would be seen in the green approaches to the town, camels and mules, horses and asses, with Syrian peasants, and Arabs from beyond Palmyra. We know the very time of the day when Saul was entering these shady avenues. It was at mid- jay.1 The birds were silent in the trees. The hush of noon was in the city. The sun was burning fiercely in the sky. The persecutor’s companions were enjoying the cool refreshment of the shade after their journey: and his eyes rested with satisfaction on those walls which were the end of his mission, and contained the victims of his righteous zeal. We have been tempted into some prolixity in describing Damascus. But, in describing the solemn and miraculous event which took place in its neighborhood, we hesitate to enlarge upon the: words of Scripture. _ And Scripture relates its circumstances in minute detail. If the impor- tance we are intended to attach to particular events in early Christianity is to be measured by the prominence assigned to them in the Sacred Records, we must confess that, next after the Passion of our blessed Lord, the event to which our serious attention is especially called is the 1 Acts xxii. 6, xxvi. 18. Notices of the traditionary place where the vision was seen are variously given both by earlier and later travellers. The old writer, Quaresmius, men- tions four theoretical sites: (1) twelve miles south of Damascus, where there is a stream on the right of the road, with the ruins of a church on a rising ground; (2) six miles south on the left of the road, where there are traces ef a church and stones marked with crosses; (3) two miles south on the same road ; (4) half a mile from the city : and this he prefers on the strength of earlier authorities, and because it harmonizes best with what is said of the Apos- tle being led in by the hand. In one of these cases there is an evident blending of the scene of the Conversion and the Escape: and it / would appear from Mr. Stanley’s letter (quot- ed below, p. 93) that this spot is on the eas? and not the south of the city. OHAP, II. THE NARRATIVES OF THE MIRACLE. $3 Conversion of St. Paul. Besides various allusions to it in his own Epistles, three detailed narratives of the occurrence are found in the Acts. Once it is related by St. Luke (ix.),— twice by the Apostle him- self, —in his address to his countrymen at Jerusalem (xxii.),— in his defence before Agrippa at Cesarea (xxvi.). And as, when the same thing is told in more than one of the Holy Gospels, the accounts do uot - verbally agree, so itis here. St. Luke is more brief than St. Paul. And each of St. Paul’s statements supplies something not found in the other. The peculiar difference of these two statements, in their relation to the circumstances under which they were given, and as they illustrate the Apostle’s wisdom in pleading the cause of the Gospel and reasoning with his opponents, will be made the subject of some remarks in the later chapters of this book. At present it is our natural course simply to gather the facts from the Apostle’s own words, with a careful reference to the shorter narrative given by St. Luke. In the twenty-second and twenty-sixth chapters of the Acts we are told that it was “about noon”’— “at mid-day ’’— when the “ great light” shone “ suddenly ” from heaven (xxii. 6, xxvi. 13). And those who have had experience of the glare of a mid-day sun in the East, will best understand the description of that light, which is said to have been “ a light above the brightness of the sun, shining round about Paul and them that journeyed with him.” All fell to the ground in terror (xxvi. 14), or stood dumb with amazement (ix. 7). Suddenly surrounded by a light so terrible and incomprehensible, “they were afraid.” ‘They heard not the voice of Him that spake to Paul” (xxii. 9), or, if they heard a voice, “they saw no man” (ix. 7).! The whole scene wes evidently one of the utmost confusion: and the accounts are such as to express, in the most striking manner, the bewilderment and alarm of the travellers. But while the others were stunned, stupefied and confused, a clear light broke in terribly on the soul of one of those who were prostrated on the ground.? A voice spoke articulately to him, which to the rest was a sound mysterious and indistinct. He heard what they did not hear. He 1 It has been thought both more prudent and more honest to leave these well-known discrepancies exactly as they are found in the Bible. They will be differently explained by different readers, according to their views of the inspiration of Scripture. Those who do not reeeive the doctrine of Verbal Inspiration will find in these discrepancies a confirmation of the general truth of the narrative. Those who lay stress on this doctrine may fairly be permitted to suppose that the stupefied com panions of Saul fell to the ground and then rose, and that they heard the voice but did not understand it. Dr. Wordsworth and Prof. Hackett point out that the word “stood” in ix. 7, need only mean that their progress was arrested. 3 It is evident from Acts ix. 6, 8, xxvi. 16, that Saul was prostrate on the ground wher Jesus spoke to him. 84 ' THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Omar. = saw what they did not see. To them the awful sound was without s meaning: he heard the voice of the Son of God. To them it was a bright light which suddenly surrounded them: he saw Jesus, whom he was persecuting. The awful dialogue can only be given in the lan- guage of Scripture. Yet we may reverentially observe that the words ‘which Jesus spoke were “in the Hebrew tongue.” The same language, in which, during His earthly life, He spoke to Peter and to John, to the blind man by the walls of Jericho, to the woman who washed His feet with her tears— the same sacred language was used when He spoke from heaven to His persecutor on earth. And as on earth He had always spoken in parables, so it was now. That voice which had drawn lessons from the lilies that grew in Galilee, and from the birds that flew over the mountain slopes near the Sea of Tiberias, was now pleased to call His last Apostle with a figure of the like significance: “ Saul, Saul, why per- secutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” As the ox rebels in vain against the goad? of its master, and as all its struggles do nought but increase its distress—so is thy rebellion vain against the power of my grace. I have admonished thee by the word of my truth, by the death of my saints, by the voice of thy conscience. Struggle no more against conviction, “ lest a worse thing come unto thee.” It is evident that this revelation was not merely an inward impression made on the mind of Saul during a trance or ecstasy. It was the direct perception of the visible presence of Jesus Christ. This is asserted in various passages, both positively and incidentally. In St. Paul’s first let ter to the Corinthians, when he contends for the validity of his own apos- tleship, his argument is, “ Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, the Lord ?” (1 Cor. ix. 1.) And when he adduces the evidence for the truth of the Resurrection, his argument is again, “ He was seen . . . by Cephas . . . by James . . . by all the Apostles . . . last of all by me... as one born out of due time” (xv. 8). By Cepbas and by James at Jerusalem the reality of Saul’s conversion was doubted (Acts ix. 27); but “ Barnabas brought him to the Apostles, and related to them — how he had seen the Lord in the way, and had spoken with Him.” And — similarly Ananias had said to him at their first meeting in Damascus: ‘The Lord hath sent me, even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way as 1 It is only said in one account (xxvi. 14) Amnanias (whose name is Aramaic) seems te that Jesus Christ spoke in Hebrew. But this have addressed Saul in Hebrew, not in Greek sppears incidentally in the other accounts from (ix. 17, xxii. 13). the Hebrew form of the name “Saul” being 2 The “ prick ” of Acts xxvi. 14 is the goaé used where our Lord’s own words are given or sharp-pointed pole, which in southern Ew ‘ix. 4, xxii. 8). In the narrative portion (ix. repe and in the Levant is seen in the hands of i, 8, &e.) it is the Greek, a difference which is those who are ploughing or driving cattle. : | i : | a not noticed in the Authorized Version. Se | emaP, OM, REAL VISION OF JESUS CHRIST. 88 thou camest” (ix. 17). “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth” (xxii. 14). The very words which were spoken by the Saviour, imply the same important truth. He does not say,’ “I am the Son of God — the Eternal Word— the Lord of men and of angels: ”— but, “I am Jesus” (ix. 5, xxvi. 15), “ Jesus of Nazareth” (xxii. 8). “Iam that man, whom not having seen thou hatest, the despised prophet of Naza- reth, who was mocked and crucified at Jerusalem, who died and was buried. But now I appear to thee, that thou mayest know the truth of my Resurrection, that I may convince thee of thy sin, and call thee to be my Apostle.” The direct and immediate character of this call, without the interven- tion of any human agency, is another point on which St. Paul himself, in the course of his apostolic life, laid the utmost stress; and one, therefore, which it is incumbent on us to notice here. “A called Apostle,” “an Apostle by the will of God,”? “an Apostle sent not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead ;”* — these are the phrases under which he describes himself, in the cases where his authority was in danger of being questioned. No human instrumentality intervened, to throw the slightest doubt upon the reality of the communication between Christ Himself and the Apostle of the Heathen. And, as he was directly and miraculously called, so was the work immediately indicated, to which he was set apart, and in which in after years he always gloried, — the work of “ preaching among the Gen- tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Unless indeed we are to con- sider the words which he used before Agrippa‘ as a condensed statement ® of all that was revealed to him, both in his vision on the way, and after- wards by Ananias in the city: “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: but rise, and stand upon thy feet; for to this end I have appeared unto thee, to ordain thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things wherein I will appear unto thee. And thee 1 Chrysostom. 2 See Rom. i.1; 1 Cor.i.1; 2 Cor. i. 1; Bph.i.l; Col. i. 1. These expressions are got used by St. Peter, St. James, St. Jude, or St. John. And it is remarkable that they are Rot used by St. Paul himself in the Epistles addressed to those who were most firmly at- tached tohim. They are found in the letters to the Christians of Achaia, but not in those to the Christians or Macedonia. (See 1 Thess. U1; 2 Thess.i.1; Phil. i. 1). And though im the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, _aot ie that to Philemon, which is known to have been sent at the same time. See Phile- mon, l. 3 Galil. * Eph. iii. 8. See Rom. xi. 18, xv. 16; Gal. ii. 8; 1 Tim. ii. 7; 2 Tim. & 11, &e. 5. Acts xxvi. 15-18. 6 It did not fall in with Panl’s plan in his speech before Agrippa (xxvi.) to mention An- anias, as, in his speech to the Jews at Jerasa- lem (xxii.), he avoided any explicit meuticn ‘of the Gentiles, while giving the narrative of his conversion. 86 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, III, have I chosen from the House of Israel, and from among the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among the sanctified, by faith in Me.”! But the full intimation of all the labors and sufferings that were before him was still reserved. He was told to arise and go into the city, and there it should be told him what it had been ordained? that he should do. He arose humbled and subdued, and ready to obey whatever might be the will of Him who had spoken to him from heaven. But when he opened his eyes, all was dark around him. The brilliancy of the vision had made him blind. Those who were with him saw, as before, the trees and the sky, and the road leading into Damascus. But he was in dark- ness, and they led him by the hand into the city. Thus came Saul into Damascus ;— not as he had expected, to triumph in an enterprise on which his soul was set, to brave all difficulties and dangers, to enter into houses and carry off prisoners to Jerusalem;— but he passed himself like a prisoner beneath the gateway; and through the colonnades® of the street called “Straight,” where he saw not the crowd of those who gazed on him, he was led by the hands of others, trembling and helpless, to the house of Judas,‘ his dark and solitary lodging. Three days the blindness continued. Only one other space of three days’ duration can be mentioned of equal importance in the history of the world. The conflict of Saul’s feelings was so great, and his remorse so piercing and so deep, that during this time he neither ate nor drank.® He could have no communion with the Christians, for they had been terri- fied by the news of his approach. And the unconverted Jews could have no true sympathy with his present state of mind. He fasted and prayed in silence. The recollections of his early years,— the passages of the ancient Scriptures which he had never understood, — the thoughts of his own cruelty and violence, — the memory of the last looks of Stephen, — all these crowded into his mind, and made the three days equal to long years of repentance. Andif we may imagine one feeling above all others to have kept possession of his heart, it would be the feeling suggested by Christ’s expostulation: ‘“‘ Why persecutest thou Me?”® This feeling 1 See notes on the passage in Chap. XXII. 2 This is the expression in his own speech. (xxii. 10.) See ix. 6, and compare xxvi. 16. 3 See Mr. Porter’s Five Years in Damascus (1856). Recent excavations show that a mag- nificent street with a threefold colonnade ex- tended from the Western gate to the Eastern (where a triple Roman archway remains). Mr. Porter ovserves that this arrangement of the street is a counterpart of those of Palmyra and Jerash. We may perhaps add Antioch. See below, p. 115. * Acts ix. 11. § Acts ix 9. § See Matt. xxy. 40, 45. Se ANANIAS. 87 OMAP, ID, would be attended with thoughts of peace, with hope, and with faith. He waited on God: and in his blindness a vision was granted to him. He seemed to behold one who came in to him,—and he knew by revelation that his name was Ananias, — and it appeared to him that the stranger laid his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.' The economy of visions, by which God revealed and accomplished His will, is remarkably similar in the case of Ananias and Saul at Damascus, and in that of Peter and Cornelius at Joppa and Cesarea. The simul- taneous preparation of the hearts of Ananias and Saul, and the simultaneous preparation of those of Peter and Cornelius, — the questioning and hesita- tion of Peter, and the questioning and hesitation of Ananias,— the one doubting whether he might make friendship with the Gentiles, the other doubting whether he might approach the enemy of the Church, — the un- hesitating obedience of each, when the Divine will was made clearly known, —the state of mind in which both the Pharisees and the Centurion were found, — each waiting to see what the Lord would say unto him,—this close analogy will not be forgotten by those who reverently read the two con- secutive chapters, in which the baptism of Saul and the baptism of Cornelius are narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.? And in another respect there is a close parallelism between the two histories. The same exact topography characterizes them both. In the one case we have the lodging with ‘‘ Simon the Tanner,” and the house “ by the seaside ”’ (x. 6),— in the other we have “ the house of Judas,” and “ the street called Straight (ix. 11).” And as the shore, where “the saint beside the ocean prayed,” is an unchanging feature of Joppa, which will ever be dear to the Christian heart ;* so are we allowed to bear in mind that the thoroughfares of Hastern cities do not change,‘ and to believe that the “ Straight Street,” which still extends through Damascus in long per- spective from the Hastern Gate, is the street where Ananias spoke to Saul. More than this we do not venture to say. In the first days of the Church, and for some time afterwards, the local knowledge of the Chris- tians at Damascus might be cherished and vividly retained. But now that through long ages Christianity in the East has been weak and de- 1 Acts ix. 12. 2 Acts ix. and x. Compare also xi. 5-18 with xxii. 12-16. 8 See The Christian Year ; Monday in/Has- ter week. * See Lord Nugent’s remarks on the Jeru- salem Bazaar, in his Sacred and Classical Lands, vol. ii. pp. 40, 41. Quaresmius says that the Straight Street at Damascus is the bazaar, which he describes as a street darkened and covered over, a mile long and as straight as an arrow. He adds that there the house of Judas 4s shown, a commodious dwelling, with traces of having been once a church, and then a mosque. The place of Baptism, he says, isa fountain not far off, near the beginning of the street, where a handsome church has been turned into a mosque. He enters also very fully into the description of the traditionary house of Ananias, and gives a ground plan of it. 8s THE LIFE AND £PISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. graded, and Mohammedanism strong and tyrannical, we can only say that the spots still shown to travellers as the sites of the house of Ananias, and the house of Judas, and the place of baptism, may possibly be true.' We know nothing concerning Ananias, except what we learn from St. Luke or from St. Paul. He wasa Jew who had become a “ disciple ” of Christ (ix. 10), and he was well reputed and held to be “ devout accord- ing to the Law,” among “ all the Jews who dwelt at Damascus” (xxii. 12). He is never mentioned by St Paul in -his Epistles; and the later stories respecting his history are unsupported by proof.? Though he was not ignorant of the new convert’s previous character, it seems evident that he had no personal acquaintance with him; or he would hardly have been described as “ one called Saul, of Tarsus,” lodging in the house of Judas. He was not an Apostle, nor one of the conspicuous members of the Church. And it was not without a deep significance,’ that he, who was called to be an Apostle, should be baptized by one of whom the Church knows nothing, except that he was a Christian “ disciple,” and had been a “ devout” Jew. Ananias came into the house where Saul, faint and exhausted‘ with three days’ abstinence, still remained in darkness. When he laid his hands on his head, as the vision had foretold, immediately he would be yecognized as the messenger of God, even before the words were spoken, © Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.’ These words were followed, as were the words of Jesus Himself when He spoke to the blind, with an instantaneous dissipation of darkness: “ There fell from his eyes as it had been scales :* and he received sight forthwith (ix. 18):” or, in his own more vivid ex- pression, ‘“ the same hour he looked up on the face of Ananias (xxii. 13).” 1 Compare, among the older travellers, Thevenot, parts i. and ii.; Maundrell (1714), p- 36; Pococke, ii. 119. Mr. Stanley says, in a letter to the writer, that there is no street new called Straight except by the Christians, and that the street so called by them does not eontain the traditional house of Judas or of Ananias, which are both shown elsewhere. gee below, p. 93, n. 8. 2 Tradition says that he was one of the seventy disciples, that he was afterwards Bishop of Damascus, and stoned after many tortures under Licinius (or Lucianus) the Gerernor. ® Ananias, as Chrysostom says, was not eme of the leading Apostles, because Paul was eet tw be taught of men. On the other hand, aus very circemstance shows the importance attached by God to baptism. Olshausen, after remarking that Paul was made a member of the Church not by his Divine Call, but by simple baptism, adds that this baptism of Pau! by Ananias did not imply any inferiority or dependence, more than in the case of our Lord and John the Baptist. Observe the strong expression in Acts xxii. 16. * See Acts ix. 19. 5 It is difficult to see why the words “‘ there fell from his eyes as it had been scales,” should be considered merely descriptive by Olshauser and others. One of the arguments for taking them literally is the peculiar exactness of 5) Luke in speaking on such subjects. See + paper on the medical style of St. Luke im the Gentleman’s Magazine for June, 1841 omar, TE. BAPTISM AND FIRST PREACHING OF SAUL. 8S It was a face he had never seen before. But the expression of Christian love assured him of reconciliation with God. He learnt that “ the God of his fathers”’ had chosen him ‘“‘to know His will,’ —‘“ to see that Just One,” —“ to hear the voice of His mouth,’—to be “ His witness unto eil men.”! He was baptized, and “the rivers of Damascus” became more to him than “all the waters of Judah”? had been. His body was strengthened with food ; and his soul was made strong to “suffer great things ” for the name of Jesus, and to bear that Name “ before the Gen- tiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” * He began by proclaiming the honor of that name to the children of Israel in Damascus. He was “not disobedient to the heavenly vision ” (xxvi. 19), but “ straightway preached in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God,’’* — and “ showed unto them that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” His Rabbinical and Pharisaic learning was now used to uphold the cause which he came to destrey. The Jews were astounded. They knew what he had been at Jerusalem. They knew why he had come to Damascus. And now they saw him con- tradicting the whole previous course of his life, and utterly discarding that “‘ commission of the high priests,” which had been the authority of his journey. Yet it was evident that his conduct was not the result of a wayward and irregular impulse. His convictions never hesitated ; his energy grew continually stronger, as he strove in the synagogues, main- taining the truth against the Jews, and “ arguing and proving that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.” * e period of his first teaching at Damascus does not seem to have lasted long. Indeed it is evident that his life could not have been safe, had he remained. The fury of the Jews when they had recovered from their first surprise must have been excited to the utmost pitch ; and they would soon have received a new commissioner from Jerusalem armed with full powers to supersede and punish one whom they must have regarded as the most faithless of apostates. Saul left the city, but not to return to Jerusalem. Ccnscious of his Divine mission, he never felt that it was necessary to consult“ those who were Apostles before him, but he went into Arabia, and returned again into Damascus.” * Many questions have been raised concerning this journey into Arabia. The first question relates to the meaning of the word. From the time when the word “ Arabia” was first used by any of the writers of Greece or Rome, it has always been a term of vague and uncertain import. ) Acts xxii. 14, 15. “Christ” is the true reading. Verse 2 " See 2 Kings v. 12. would make this probable, if the authority of * See Acts iz. 15, 16. the MSS. were not decisive. * Aces ix. 20. Where “Jesus” and not 5 Acts ix. 22. © Gal. 1.17. 90 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Sometimes it includes Damascus; sometimes it ranges over the Lebanon itself, and extends even to the borders of Cilicia. The native geographers usually reckon that stony district, of which Petra was the capital, ag belonging to Egypt, — and that wide desert towards the Euphrates, where the Bedouins of all ages have lived in tents, as belonging to Syria, — and have limited the name to the Peninsula between the Red Sea and the - Persian Gulf, where Jemen, or “‘ Araby the Blest,” is secluded on the south. In the threefold division of Ptolemy, which remains in our popular language when we speak of this still untravelled region, both the first and second of these districts were included under the name of the’ third. And we must suppose St. Paul to have gone into one of the former, either that which touched Syria and Mesopotamia, or that which touched Palestine and Egypt. If he went into the first, we need not suppose him to have travelled far from Damascus. For though the strong powers of Syria and Mesopotamia might check the Arabian tribes, and retrench the Arabian name in this direction, yet the Gardens of Damascus were on the verge of the desert, and Damascus was almost as much an Arabian as a Syrian town. And if he went into Petrean Arabia, there still remains the question of his motive for the journey, and his employment when there. Hither retiring before the opposition at Damascus, he went to preach the Gospel, and then, in the synagogues of that singular capital, which was built amidst the rocks of Edom, whence “ Arabians” came to the festivals at Jerusalem,’ he testified of Jesus: — or he went for the purpose of con- templation and solitary communion with God, to deepen his repentance and fortify his soul with prayer; and then perhaps his steps were turned to those mountain heights by the Red Sea, which Moses and Elijah had trodden before him. We cannot attempt to decide the question. The views which different inquirers take of it will probably depend on their own tendency to the practical or the ascetic life. On the one hand it may be argued that such zeal could not be restrained, that Saul could not be silent, but that he would rejoice in carrying into the metropolis of King Aretas the Gospel which his Ethnarch could afterwards hinder at Damascus.’ On the other hand, it may be said that, with such convic- tions recently worked in his mind, he would yearn for solitude, — that a time of austere meditation before the beginning of a great work is in con- formity with the economy of God,— that we find it quite natural, if Paul followed the example of the Great Lawgiver and the Great Prophet, and 1 Strabo, in his description of Petra, says he says that it was distant three or four days’ that his friend Athenodorus found great num- journey from Jericho. See above, p. 75, n. 8 bers of strangers there. In thesame paragraph, 2 Acts ii. 11. after describing its cliffs and peculiar situation, 8 See 2 Cor. xi. 32. ‘ CHAP. 1 CHAP, OI, SAUL RETIRES INTO ARABIA. 91 of one greater than Moses and Elijah, who, after His baptism and before His ministry, “‘ returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” ! While Saul is in Arabia, preaching the Gospel in obscurity, or prepar ing for his varied work by the intuition of Sacred Truth,— it seems the natural place for some reflections on the reality and the momentous sig- nificance of his conversion. It has already been remarked, in what we nave drawn from the statements of Scripture, that he was called directly by Christ without the intervention of any other Apostle, and that the pur- pose of his call was clearly indicated, when Ananias baptized him. He was an Apostle “ not of men, neither by man,”’? and the Divine will was “to work among the Gentiles by his ministry.”* But the unbeliever may still say that there are other questions of primary importance. He may suggest that this apparent change in the current of Saul’s thoughts, and this actual revolution in the manner of his life, was either the contrivance of deep and deliberate imposture, or the result of wild and extravgant fanaticism. Both in ancient and modern times, some have been found who have resolved this great occurrence into the promptings of self- interest, or have ventured to call it the offspring of delusion. There is an old story mentioned by Epiphanius, from which it appears that the Ebionites were content to find a motive for the change, in an idle story that he first became a Jew that he might marry the High Priest’s daugh- ter, and then became the antagonist of Judaism because the High Priest deceived him.* And there are modern Jews, who are satisfied with saying that he changed rapidly from one passion to another, like those impetuous souls who cannot hate or love by halves. Can we then say that St. Paul was simply a fanatic or an impostor? The question has been so well answered in a celebrated English book,’ that we are content to refer to it. It will never be possible for any one to believe St. Paul to have been a mere fanatic, who duly considers his calmness, his wisdom, his prudence, and, above all, his humility, a virtue which is not less inconsistent with fanati- cism than with imposture. And how can we suppose that he was an im- postor who changed his religion for selfish purposes? Was he influenced by the ostentation of learning? He suddenly cast aside all that he had been taught by Gamaliel, or acquired through long years of study, and took up the opinions of fishermen of Galilee, whom he had scarcely ever 1 Luke iv. 1. iii. and 2 Cor. xi. Barnabas, though a Cypri- 2 Gal. i. 1. This retirement into Arabia an, was a Levite, and why not Paul a Jew, is itself an indication of his independent call. though a Tarsian? And are we to believe, See Prof. Ellicott on Gal. i. 17. he adds, what Ebion says of Paul, or what = Acts xxi. 9. Peter says of him? (2 Pet. iii.) * Epiphanius, after telling the story, argues 5 Lord Lyttelton’s Observations on the Cons, its impossibility from its contradiction to Phil. _ version and Aposileship of St. Paul. 82 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. ym. seen, and who had never been educated in the schools. Was it the love of power which prompted the change? He abdicated in a moment the authority which he possessed, for power “over a flock of sheep driven to the slaughter, whose Shepherd himself had been murdered a little before ;” and “all he could hope from that power was to be marked out in a particular manner for the same knife, which he had seen so bloodily drawn against them.” Was it the love of wealth? Whatever might be his own worldly possessions at the time, he joined himself to those who were certainly poor, and the prospect before him was that which was actually realized, of ministering to his necessities with the jJabor of his hands.' Was it the love of fame? His prophetic power must have been miraculous, if he could look beyond the shame and scorn which then rested on the servants of a crucified Master, to that glory with which Christendom now surrounds the memory of St. Paul. And if the conversion of St. Paul was not the act of a fanatic or an impostor, then it ought to be considered how much this wonderful occur rence involves. As Lord Lyttelton observes, ‘‘the conversion and apostle ship of St. Paul alone, duly considered, is of itself a demonsiratior sufficient to prove Christianity to be a Divine revelation.” Saul wa arrested at the height of his zeal, and in the midst of his fury. Jn the words of Chrysostom, “ Christ, like a skilful physician, heaJod bim when his fever was at the worst:” and he proceeds to remark, io the same elo- quent sermon, that the truth of Christ’s resurrection, and the present power of Him who had been crucified, were shown far more forcibly than they could have been if Paul had been otherwise called. Nor ought we to forget the great religious lessons ws are taught to gather from this event. We see the value set by God upon honesty and integ- rity, when we find that he, “who was before a blasphemer and a perse cutor and injurious, obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.”? And we learn the encouragement given to all sinners whe repent, when we are told that ‘“‘for this cause he obtained mercy, that in him first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.” * We return to the narrative. Saul’s time of retirement in Arabia was 1 Acts xx. 33, 34; 1 Cor. iv. 12; 1 Thess. ii. 9, &e. 4 Tim. i. 18. See Luke xii. 48, xxiii. 34; Acts iii. 17; 1 Cor. ii. 8. On the other hand, “unbelieving ignorance” is often men- tioned in Scripture as an aggravation of sin: «. g. Eph. iv. 18,19; 2 Thess. i. 7,8. A man ie deeply wretched who sins through ignorance ; ‘nnd, as Augustine says, Paul in his uncon- verted state was like a sick man who through madness tries to kill his physician. 8 A. Monod’s “ Cing Discsurs” on St. Paul (Paris, 1852) were published shortly before the completior of the first edition of this work. We have mach pleasure here in referring ts the third of these eloquent and instractive sermons, on the character and results of St Paul’s conversion. CONSPIRACY AT DANASCUS. 3& Gh7. 2, not of long continuance. He was not destined to be the Evangelist of the East. In the Epistle to the Galatians (i. 18),' the time, from his conver sion to his final departure from Damascus, is said to have been “ three years,” which, according to the Jewish way of reckoning, may have been three entire years, or only one year with parts of two others. Meantime Saul had “ returned to Damascus, preaching boldly in the name of Jesus.” (Acts ix. 27.) The Jews, being no longer able to meet him in contre versy, resorted to that which is the last argument of a desperate cause :* they resolved to assassinate him. Saul became acquainted with the con- spiracy: and all due precautions were taken to evade the danger. But the political circumstances of Damascus at the time made escape very difficult. Hither in the course of the hostilities which prevailed along the Syrian frontiers between Herod Antipas and the Romans, on one side, and Aretas, King of Petra, on the other, — and possibly in consequence of that absence of Vitellius,? which was caused by the Emperor’s death, — the Arabian monarch had made himself master of Damascus, and the Jews, who sympathized with Aretas, were high in the favor of his officer, the Ethnarch.* Or Tiberius had ceased to reign, and his successor had as- signed Damascus to the King of Petra, and the Jews had gained over his officer and his soldiers, as Pilate’s soldiers had once been gained over at Jerusalem. St. Paul at least expressly informs us,‘ that “ the Ethnarch kept watch over the city, with a garrison, purposing to apprehend him.” St. Luke says,® that the Jews “ watched the city-gates day and night, with the intention of killing him.” The Jews furnished the motive, the Ethnarch the military force. The anxiety of the “ disciples”’ was doubt less great, as when Peter was imprisoned by Herod, “and prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.”? Their anxiety became the instrument of his safety. From an unguarded part of the wall,*in the darkness of the night, probably where some overhanging 1 Im Acts ix. 23, the time is said to have been “many days.” Dr. Paley has observed in a note on the Hore Pauline a similar in- stance in the Old Testament (1 Kings ii. 38, 39), where ‘‘ many days” is used to denote a space of “three years:”— “And Shimei dwelt at Jerusalem many days ; and it came to pass, at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away.” 2 Chrysostom. 3 See above, p. 76. * Some have supposed that this Ethnarch was merely an officer who regulated the affairs of the Jews themselves, such as we know to have existed under this title in cities with meny Jewish residents (p. 100). See Joseph. Ast. xix. 7,2, and 8,5; War, ii.6,3. Anger imagines that he was an officer of Aretas acci- dentally residing in Damascus, who induced the Roman government to aid in the conspira- cy of the Jews. Neither hypothesis seems very probable. Schrader suggests that the Ethnarch’s wife might, perhaps, be a Jewish proselyte, as we know was the case with a vast number of the women of Damascus. 5 2 Cor. xi. 32. § Acts ix. 24. 7 Acts xii. 5. ® Quaresmius leaves the place in doubt We conclude our notices of these traditional sites, by an extract from a letter received from the Rev. A. P. Stanley, shortly before the pub lication of his Sinai and Palestine. “Tha only spet now pointed eut is a few hundred 94 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. houses, as is usual in Eastern cities, opened upon the outer country, they let him down from a window’ in a basket. There was something of humiliation in this mode of escape ; and this, perhaps, is the reason why, in a letter written “ fourteen years” afterwards, he specifies the details. “ plorying in his infirmities,” when he is about to speak of “his visions and revelations of the Lord.” ? Thus already the Apostle had experience of “ perils by his own country- men, and perils in the city.” Already “ in journeyings often, in weariness and painfulness,”’ * he began to learn “ how great things he was to suffer” for the name of Christ.* Preserved from destruction at Damascus, he turned his steps towards Jerusalem. His motive for the journey, as he tells us in the Epistle to the Galatians, was a desire to become acquainted with Peter.> Not that he was ignorant of the true principles of the Gospel. He expressly tells us that he neither needed nor received any instruction in Christianity from those who were “ Apostles before him.” But he must have heard much from the Christians at Damascus of the Galilean fisherman. Can we wonder that he should desire to see the Chief of the Twelve, — the brother with whom now he was consciously united in the bonds of a common apostleship,— and who had long on earth been the constant companion of his Lorp ? yards from the town walls, on the eastern side of the city, near the traditional scene of the Escape over the wall. It is only marked by a mass of cement in the ground, with a hollow underneath, which the Damascus guides repre- sent as a hole in which after his escape the Apostle concealed himself— and this is the only tradition which in the popular mind at- taches to the place. AJl knowledge or imagi- nation of the Conversion or of its locality has entirely passed away. But the French monks in the Latin convent maintain (and no doubt truly) that this was the spot in earlier times believed to be the scene of that event, and that the remains of cement and masonry round about are the ruins of a Christian church or chapel built in memorial. It is, if I remember right, the fourth of the four places mentioned by Quaresmius. It is highly improbable that it can be the true place [of the Conversion], because there is no reason to believe that the yoad from Jerusalem should have fetched such & compass as to enter Damascus on the east, instead of (as at present) on the west or south.’”’ Mr. Porter (p. 43) says that it is only within the last century that the scene of the Conversion has been transferred, from inter- ested motives, to the east from the west side of the city. His plan of Damascus now gives the means of seeing the traditionary localities very clearly. 1 2 Cor. xi. 33. So Rahab let down the spies ; and so David escaped from Saul. St. Paul’s word is used in the LXX. in both instances. The preposition “through” being used both in Acts and 1 Cor., it is possible that the most exact explanation is that sug- gested by Prof. Hackett. He observed at . Damascus “ windows in the external face of the wall, opening into houses on the inside of the city.” (Comm. on Acts.) In the larger editions is a view of a portion of the wall of modern Damascus, supporting houses which project and faee the open country. 22 Cor. xi. 30, xii. 1-5. Both Schrader and Wieseler are of opinion that the vision mentioned here is that which he saw at Jeru salem on his return from Damascus (Act xxii. 17; see below, p. 97), and which was naturally associated in his mind with the rec- ollection of his escape. ® 2 Cor. xi. 26, 27. * Acts ix. 16. ® Gal. i. 18. onA?P, IL HIS EMOTIONS ON RETURNING TO JERUSALEM. 95 How changed was every thing since he had last travelled this road be sween Damascus and Jerusalem! If, when the day broke, he looked back upon that city from which he had escaped under the shelter of night, as his eye ranged over the fresh gardens and the wide desert, how the remembrance of that first terrible vision would call forth a deep thanks- giving to Him, who had called him to be a “ partaker of His sufferings!” And what feelings must have attended his approach to Jerusalem! “He was returning to it from a spiritual, as Ezra had from a bodily, captivity, and to his renewed mind all things appeared new. What an emotion smote his heart at the first distant view of the Temple, that house of sacrifice, that edifice of prophecy! Its sacrifices had been realized, the Lamb of God had been offered : its prophecies had been fulfilled, the Lord had come unto it. As he approached the gates, he might have trodden the very spot where he had so exultingly assisted in the death of Stephen, and he entered them perfectly content, were it God’s will, to be dragged out through them to the same fate. He would feel a peculiar tie of brotherhood to that martyr, for he could not be now ignorant that the same Jesus who in such glory had called him, had but a little while before appeared in the same glory to assure the expiring Stephen. The ecstatic look and words of the dying saint now came fresh upon his memory with their real meaning. When he entered into the city, what deep thoughts were suggested by the haunts of his youth, and by the sight of the spots where he had so eagerly sought that knowledge which he had now so eagerly abandoned! What an intolerable burden had he cast off! He felt as a glorified spirit may be supposed to feel on revisiting the scenes of its fleshly sojourn.” ? Yet not without grief and awe could he look upon that city of his fore- fathers, over which he now knew that the judgment of God was impending. And not without sad emotions could one of so tender a nature think of the alienation of those who had once been his warmest associates. The grief of Gamaliel, the indignation of the Pharisees, the fury of the Hellenis- tic Synagogues, all this, he knew, was before him. The sanguine hopes, however, springing from his own honest convictions, and his fervent zeal to communicate the truth to others, predominated in his mind. He thought that they would believe as he had believed. He argued thus with himself, —that they well knew that he had “ imprisoned and beaten in every synagogue them that believed in Jesus Christ,” — and that “‘ when the blood of His martyr Stephen was shed, he also was standing by and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him,’ * 1 1 Pet. iv. 13. Temple (Acts xxii. 17-21), when it was re 2 Scripture Biography, by Archdeacon Ey- vealed to him that those in Jerusalem would ans, second series, p. 337. not receive his testimony. * The argument used in his ecstasy in the a) w THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. omar. — and that when they saw the change which had been produced in him, and heard the miraculous history he could tell them, they would not refuse to “ receive his testimony.” Thus, with fervent zeal, and sanguine expectations, “he attempted to join himself to the disciples” of Christ. But, as the Jews hated him, so the Christians suspected him. His escape had been too hurried to allow of his bringing “letters of commendation.” Whatever distant rumor might have reached them of an apparition on his journey, of his conduct at Damascus, of his retirement in Arabia, they could not believe that he was really adisciple. And then it was that Barnabas, already known to us as @ generous contributor of his wealth to the poor,? came forward again as the “ Son of Consolation,” — “ took him by the hand,” and brought him to the Aposties.? It is probable that Barnabas and Saul were acquainted with each other before. Cyprus is within a few hours’ sail from Cilicia. The schools of Tarsus may naturally have attracted one who, though a Levite, was an Hellenist: and there the friendship may have begun, which lasted through many vicissitudes, till it was rudely interrupted in the dis- pute at Antioch.‘ When Barnabas related how “ the Lord” Jesus Christ had personally appeared to Saul, and had even spoken to him, and how he had boldly maintained the Christian cause in the synagogues of Damas- cus, then the Apostles laid aside their hesitation. Peter’s argument must have been what it was on another occasion : “‘ Forasmuch as God hath given unto him the like gift as He did unto me, who am I that I should with stand God ?”?* He and James, the Lord’s brother, the only other Apostle ‘ who was in Jerusalem at the time, gave to him “ the right hands of fellow- ship.” And he was with them, “ coming in and going out,” more than forgiven for Christ’s sake, welcomed and beloved as a friend and a brother. This first meeting of the fisherman of Bethsaida and the tent-maker of Tarsus, the chosen companion of Jesus on earth, and the chosen Pharisee who saw Jesus in the heavens, the Apostle of the circumcision and the Apostles of the Gentiles, is passed over in Scripture in a few words. The Divine record does not linger in dramatic description on those passages which a mere human writing would labor to embellish. What took place in the intercourse of these two Saints, —— what was said of Jesus of Naza- reth who suffered, died, and was buried,— and of Jesus, the glorified Lord, who had risen and ascended, and become “head over all things to 1 Acts ix. 26. Apostles ... and he was with them coming 2 Acta iv. 36. : in and going out at Jerusalem.” (Acts ix. ® Acts ix. 27. 26-28.) “After three years went up te * Acts xv. 39. Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him § Acts xi. 17. fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I 4 “ When Saul was come to Jerusalem... none, save James the Lord’s brother.” (Gal Ssrnabas took him and broaght him to the i 18, 19.) IRAP, 20. SAUL WITHDRAWN FROM THE HOLY CITY. $) the Church,” — what was felt of Christian love and devotion, — what was learnt, under the Spirit’s teaching, of Christian truth, has not been re- vealed, and cannot be known. The intercourse was full of present com- fort, and full of great consequences. But it did not last long. Fifteen days passed away, and the Apostles were compelled to part. The same geal which had caused his voice to be heard in the Hellenistic Synagogues in the persecution against Stephen, now led Saul in the same Syna- gogues to declare fearlessly his adherence to Stephen’s cause. The same fury which had caused the murder of Stephen, now brought the murderer of Stephen to the verge of assassination. Once-more, as at Damascus, the Jews made a conspiracy to put Saul to death: and once more he was rescued by the anxiety of the brethren. Reluctantly, and not without a direct intimation from on high, he re- tired from the work of preaching the Gospel in Jerusalem. As he was praying one day in the Temple, it came to pass that he fell into a trance? and in his ecstasy he saw Jesus, who spoke to him, and said, “Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive ' thy testimony concerning me.” He hesitated to obey the command, his desire to do God’s will leading him to struggle against the hinderances of God’s providence— and the memory of Stephen, which haunted him even in his trance, furnishing him with an argument.’ But the command was more peremptory than before: “ Depart; for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.’”’ The scene of his apostolic victories was not to be Jerusalem. For the third time it was declared to him that the field of his labors was among the Gentiles. This secret revelation to his soul conspired with the outward difficulties of his situation. The care of God gave the highest sanction to the anxiety of the brethren. And he suffered himself to be withdrawn from the Holy City. They brought him down to Czsarea by the sea,‘ and from Casarea they sent him to Tarsus.° His own expression in the Epistle to the Galatians 1 Acta ix. 29, 30. 9 See Acts xxii. 17-21. Though Schrader {8 sometimes laboriously unsucceasful in ex- glaining the miraculous, yet we need not gatirely disregard what he says concerning the ®ppression of spirit, under the sense of being imistrusted and opposed, with which Sanl came t@ pray in the Temple. And we may compare the preparation for St. Peter’s vision, before the conversion of Cornelius. * Compere the similar expostulations of Ansnias, ix. 13, and of Peter, x. 14. * Olhausen is certainly mistaken in sup- q posing that Cesarea Philippi is meant. When- ever “‘Casarea” is spoken of absolutely, it always means Casarea Stratonis. And oven if it is assumed that Saul travelled by land through Syria to Tarsus, this would not have been the natural course. It is true enough that this Cesarea is nearer the Syrian frontier than the other; but the physical character of the country is such that the Apostle would naturally go by the other Cmsarea, unless, indeed, he travelled by Daraascus to Antica, which is highly improbable. 5 Acts ix. 30. 8 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. IA (i. 21) is that he went “into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.” From this it has been inferred that he went first from Caesarea to Antioch, and then from Antioch to Tarsus. And such a course would have been per- fectly natural; for the communication of the city of Cesar and the Herods with the metropolis of Syria, either by sea and the harbor of Seleucia, or by the great coast-road through Tyre and Sidon, was easy and frequent. But the supposition is unnecessary. In consequence of the range of Mount Taurus (p. 19), Cilicia has a greater geographical affinity with Syria than with Asia Minor. Hence it has existed in frequent politi- cal combination with it from the time of the old Persian satrapies to the modern pachalics of the Sultan: and “ Syria and Cilicia” appears in history almost as a generic geographical term, the more important district being mentioned first... Within the limits of this region Saul’s activities were now exercised in studying and in teaching at Tarsus,— or in found- ing those Churches? which were afterwards greeted in the Apostolic lette: from Jerusalem, as the brethren “in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia,” and which Paul himself confirmed after his separation from Barnabas, travelling through “Syria and Cilicia.” Whatever might be the extent of his journeys within these limits, we xnow at least that he was at Tarsus. Once more we find him in the home of his childhood. It is the last time we are distinctly told that he was there. Now at least, if not before, we may be sure that he would come into active intercourse with the Heathen philosophers of the place.* In his last residence at Tarsus, a few years before, he was a Jew, and not only a Jew but a Pharisee, and he looked on the Gentiles around him as outcasts from the favor of God. Now he was a Christian, and not only 1 This is well illustrated by the hopeless feeling of the Greek soldiers in the Anabasis, when Cyrus had drawn them into Cilicia; by various passages in the history of the Seleu- cids; by the arrangements of the Romans with Antiochus; by the division of provinces in the Later Empire ; and by the course of the Mohammedan conquests. 2 Acts. xy. 23,41. When we find the ex- .stence of Cilician Churches mentioned, the obvious inference is that St. Paul founded them during this period. % The passage in Strabo, referred to above, Ch. I. p. 21, is so important that we give a free translation of it here. ‘‘'The men of this piace are so zealous in the study of philosophy and the whole circle of education, that they surpass both Atheris and Alexandria and every place that could he mentioned, where schools of philosophers are found. And the difference amounts to this. Here, those who are fond of learning are al] natives, and stran- gers do not willingly reside here: and they themselves do not remain, but finish their education abroad, and gladly take up their residence elsewhere, and few return. Where- as, in the other cities which I have just men- tioned, except Alexandria, the contrary takes place: for many come to them and live there willingly ; but you will see few of the natives either going abroad for the sake of philosophy, or caring to study it at home. The Alexan- drians have both characters ; for they receive many strangers, and send ont of their own people not a few.” cHaP. m, SAUL IN SYRIA AND CILICIA, 93 a Christian, but conscious of his mission as the Apostle of the Gentiles. Therefore he would surely meet the philosophers, and prepare to argue with them on their own ground, as afterwards in the “market” at Athens with “‘ the Epicureans and the Stoics.””! Many Stoics of Tarsus were men of celebrity in the Roman Empire. Athenodorus, the tutor of Augustus, has already been mentioned. He was probably by this time deceased, and receiving those divine honors, which, as Lucian informs us, were paid to him after his death. The tutor of Tiberius also was a Tarsian and a Stoic. His name was Nestor. He was probably at this time alive: for he lingered to the age of ninety-two, and, in all likelihood, survived his wicked pupil, whose death we have recently noticed. Now among these eminent sages and instructors of Heathen Emperors was one whose teach- ing was destined to survive, when the Stoic philosophy should have per- ished, and whose words still instruct the rulers of every civilized nation. How far Saul’s arguments had any success in this quarter we cannot even guess; and we must not anticipate the conversion of Cornelius. At least, he was preparing for the future. In the Synagogue we cannot believe that he was silent or unsuccessful. In his own family, we may well im- agine that some of those Christian “‘ kinsmen,’’* whose names are handed down to us, — possibly his sister, the playmate of his childhood, and his sister’s son,‘ who afterwards saved his life, were at this time by his exertions gathered into the fold of Christ. Here this chapter must close, while Saul is in exile from the earthly Jerusalem, but diligently occupied in building up the walls of the “ Jerusalem which is above.” And it was not without one great and important consequence that that short fortnight had been spent in Jerusalem. He was now known to Peter and to James. His vocation was fully ascertained and recognized by the heads of the Judean Christians. It is true that he was yet “ unknown by face” to the scattered Churches of Judza.® . But they honored him of whom they had heard so much. And when the news came to them at intervals of all that he was doing for the cause of Christ, they praised God and { Acts xvii. 17, 18. & See Gal. i. 21-24. The form of the Greek 2 See p. 42. ® Rom. xvi. See p. 44 * About twenty years after this time (Acts xxiii. 17, 23) he is called “a young man,” the yery word which is used of Saul himself (Acts vii. 58} at the stoning of Stephen. It is justly remarked by Hemsen that the young man’s anxiety for his uncle (xxiii. 16-23) seems to aopiy a closer affection than that resulting from relationship alone words seems to imply a continued preaching of the Gospel, the intelligence of which came now and then to Jude#a. From whai follows, how- ever (‘‘ Then fourteen years afterwards”), St. Paul appears to describe in i. 23, 24, the effect produced by the tidings not only of his labors in Tarsus, but of his subsequent and more extensive labors as a missionary to the Hea- then. It should be added, that Wieseler thinks he staid only half a year at Tarsus. 100 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL said, “ Behold ! he who was once our persecutor is now bearing the giad tidings of that faith which formerly he labored to root out;” “and they glorified God in him.” 2 Three members of this dynasty come prominently before us in history. The first is mentioned im the annals of the Maccabees. The second was contemporary with the last of the Seleucids. Damascus was once in his power (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 18,3; War, i. 6, 2), and it is his submission to the Roman Scaurus which is represented im the coin. The third is that of St. Paul. As to the Aretas, who is mentioned in 2 Macc. yv. 8, the words used there of the inne vating high priest Jason are so curiously appli- eable to the case of St. Paul, that we cannot forbear quoting them. ‘In the end, therefore, he had an unhappy return, being accused be- fore Aretas the king of the Arabians, fleecing from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a fersaker ef the laws, and being had in ebominatien as an open enemy of his country.” A few words concerning the meaning of the word Ethnarch may fitly conclude this note. It properly demoted the governor of a dependent district, like Simon the high priest under Syria (1 Mace. xiv. 47), or Herod’s soz Archelaus under Rome (Joseph. Ant. xvii. 11, 4). But it was also used as the designation of a magistrate or consul allowed to Jewish residents living under their own laws in Alex- andria and other cities. (See Strabo, as quot ed by Josephus, Ant. xiv. 7, 2.) Some wri- ters (and among them Mr. Lewin, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. i. p. 70) think that the word is used in that sense here. But suck & magistrate would hardly have been called “the Ethnarch of Aretas,” and (as Dean Al- ford observes on 2 Cor. xi. 82) he would not have had the power ef guarding the city ” i: is GHAP. CHAPTER IV. Wider Diffusion of Christianity. — Antioch. —Chronology of the Acts. Reign ef Caligula. — Claudius and Hered Agrippa I.— The Year 44.— Conversion of the Gentiles. — & Peter and Cornelius. — Joppa and Cmsarea. — St. Peter's Vision. —Baptiam of Cornelics. —~ Tatelligence from Antioch. — Mission of Barnabas. — Saul with Barnabas at Antioch. — Tha Name “ Christian.” — Description and History of Antioch. — Character of its Inhabitants. — Earthquakes.— Famine.— Barnabas and Sanl at Jerusalem. — Death of St. James and of Hered Agrippa. — Return with Mark to Antioch. — Providential Preparation of St. Paul. — Results of his Mission to Jerusalem. ITHERTO the history of the Christian Church has been confined within Jewish limits. We have followed its progress beyond the walls of Jerusalem, but hardly yet beyond the boundaries of Palestine. If any traveller from a distant country has been admitted into the commu- nity of believers, the place of his baptism has not been more remote than the “desert” of Gaza. If any “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel ” have been admitted to the citizenship of the spiritual Israelites, they have been “ strangers’ who dwell among the hills of Samaria. But the time is rapidly approaching when the knowledge of Christ must spread more rapidly, — when those who possess not that Book, which caused perplex- ity on the road to Atthiopia, will hear and adore His name, — and greater strangers than those who drew water from the well of Sychar will come nigh to the Fountain of Life. The same dispersion which gathered in the Samaritans, will gather in the Gentiles also. The “ middle wall of partition ” being utterly broken down, _ will be called by the new and glorious name of “ Christian.” And as we follow the progress of events, and find that all movements in the Church begin to have more and more reference to the Heathen, we ebserve that these movements begin to circulate more and more round a new centre of activity. Not Jerusalem, but Antioch,—not the Holy City of God’s ancient people, but the profane city of the Greeks and Romans,—is the place to which the student of sacred history is now directed. During the remainder of the Acts of the Apostles our atten- tion is at least divided between Jerusalem and Antioch, until at last, after following St. Paul’s many journeys, we come with him to Rome. For some time Constantinople must remain a city of tha futnre: but we #1 102 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, CHAP, IV are more than once reminded of the greatness of Alexandria:' and thus even in the life of the Apostle we find prophetic intimations of four of the five great centres of the early Catholic Church.? At present we are occupied with Antioch, and the point before us is that particular moment in the Church’s history, when it was first called “‘ Christian.” Both the place and the event are remarkable: and the time, if we are able to determine it, is worthy of our attention. Though we are following the course of an individual biography, it is necessary to pause, on critical occasions, to look around on what is passing in the Empire at large. And, happily, we are now arrived at a point where we are able distinctly to see the path of the Apostle’s life intersecting the general history of the period. This, therefore, is the right place for a few chronological remarks. A few such remarks, made once for all, may justify what has gone before, and prepare the way for subsequent chapters. Some readers may be surprised that up to this point we have made no attempts to ascertain or to state exact chronological details.* But theo- logians are well aware of the difficulties with which such inquiries are attended, in the beginnings of St. Paul’s biography. The early chapters in the Acts are like the narratives in the Gospels. It is often hardly vossible to learn how far the events related were contemporary or consecu- sive. We should endeavor in vain to determine the relations of time, which subsist between Paul’s retirement into Arabia and Peter’s visit to the converted Samaritans,* or between the journey of one Apostle from Joppa to Caesarea and the journey of the other from Jerusalem to Tarsus.’ Still less have we sufficient data for pronouncing upon the absolute chronology of the earliest transactions in the Church. No one can tell what particular folly or crime was engaging Caligula’s attention, when Paul was first made a Christian at Damascus. No one can tell on what work of love the Christians were occupied when the emperor was inaugurating his bridge at Puteoli,® or exhibiting his fantastic pride on the shores of the British Sea.?’ In a work of this kind it is better to place the events of the Apostle’s life in the broad light cast by the lead- ing features of the period, than to attempt to illustrate them by the help of dates, which, after all, can be only conjectural. Thus we have been 1 See Acts vi. 9 (with ii. 10), xxvii. 6, ® Acts ix. and Acts x. XXviil. 11 ; and compare Acts xviii. 24, xix. 1, & Where St. Paul afterwards landed, Acts with 1 Cor. i. 12, iii. 4-6, and Tit. iii. 13. xxviii. 18. 2 The allusion is to the Patriarchates of 7 Herod was with Caligula in this progress. Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and This emperor’s triumph had no more meaning Constantinople. than Napoleon’s column at Boulogne; but in ® See above, pp. 42, 76, 77, and 93. the next reign Britain was really conquered * Acts viii. and Acts ix. (with Gal. i.) See below. onaP, [v. REIGNS OF CALIGULA ANP CLAUDIUS. 103 content to say, that he was born in the strongest and most flourishing period of the reign of Augustus; and that he was converted from the religion of the Pharisees about the time when Caligula succeeded Tiberius. But soon after we enter on the reign of Claudius we encounter a coincidence which arrests our attention. We must first take a rapid glance at the reign of his predecessor. Though the cruelty of that reign stung the Jews in every part of the empire, and produced an indignation which never subsided, one short paragraph will be enough for all that need be said concerning the abominable tyrant.’ In the early part of the year 37 Tiberius died, and at the close of the same year Nero was born. Between the reigns of these two emperors are those of Caligula and Claudius. The four years during which Caligula sat on the throne of the world were miserable for all the proy- inces, both in the west and in the east. In Gaul his insults were aggra- vated by his personal presence. In Syria his caprices were felt more remotely, but not less keenly. The changes of administration were rapid and various. In the year 36, the two great actors in the crime of the crucifixion had disappeared from the public places of Judza. Pon- tius Pilate* had been dismissed by Vitellius to Rome, and Marcellus sent to govern in his stead. Caiaphas had been deposed by the same secular authority, and succeeded by Jonathan. Now, in the year 37, Vitellius was recalled from Syria, and Petronius came to occupy the governor’s residence at Antioch. Marcellus at Caesarea made way for Marullus: and Theophilus was appointed high priest at Jerusalem in place of his brother Jonathan. Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, was brought out of the prison where Tiberius had confined him, and Caligula gave a royal crown,‘ with the tetrarchies of two of his uncles, to the frivolous friend of his youth. And as this reign began with restless change, so it ended in cruelty and impiety. The emperor, in the career of his blasphemous arrogance, attempted to force the Jews to worship ° him as God. One universal feeling of horror pervaded the scattered Israelites, who, though they had scorned the Messiah promised to their fathers, were unable to degrade themselves by a return to idolatry. 1 The reader is here requested to refer to pp. 26, 27, 42, 43, 51, 52, 59, 65, and the notes. 2 The best portraits of this emperor are 2n the large copper imperial coins. 3 He did not arrive at Rome till after the death of Tiberius. Like his predecessor, he had governed Judsa during ten or eleven years, the emperor having a great dislike te frequent changes in the provinces. * Tiberius had imprisoned him, because of a conversation overheard by a slave, when Ca- ligula and Herod Agrippa were together in a carriage. Agrippa was much at Rome both at the beginning and end of Caligula’s reign. See p. 26, n. 7. 5 It appears from Dio Cassius and Sueto- nius that this was part of a general system for extending the worship of himself through the empire. 164 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL Guar. Tv Petronius, who foresaw what the struggle must be, wrote letters of expostulation to his master: Agrippa, who was then in Italy, implored his patron to pause in what he did: an embassy was sent from Alexan dria, and the venerable and learned Philo! was himself commissioned to stave the inexorable requirements of the Jewish religion. Every thing appeared to be hopeless, when the murder of Caligula, on the 24th ef January, in the year 41, gave a sudden relief to the persecuted people. With the accession of Claudius (4.p. 41) the Holy Land had a king once more. Judw#a was added to the tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas, and Herod Agrippa I. ruled over the wide territory which had been governed by his grandfather. With the alleviation of the distress of the Jews, pro- portionate suffering came upon the Christians. The “ rest” which, in the distractions of Caligula’s reign, the Churches had enjoyed “ throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria,” was now atan end. “ About this time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church.” He slew one Apostle, and “ because he saw it pleased the Jews,” he pro- ceeded to imprison another. But he was not long spared to seek popularity among the Jews, or to murder and oppress the Christians. In the year 44 he perished by that sudden and dreadful death which is recorded in detail by Josephus and St. Luke.? In close coincidence with this event we have the mention of a certain journey of St. Paul to Jerusalem. Uere, then, we have one of those lines of intersection between the sacred history and the general history of the world, on which the attention of intelligent Christians ought to be fixed. This year, 44 a.p., and another year, the year 60 a.p. (in which Felix ceased to be the governor of Judea, and, leaving St. Paul bound at Casarea, was succeeded by Festus), are the two chronological pivots of the apostolic history. By help of tiem we find its exact place in the wider history of the world. Between these 1 See above, pp. 9, $4, and 60. Philo’sac- (see below, p. 117). Anger has shown that count of this embassy is, next after Josephus, the most impertant writing of the period for throwing light on the condition of the Jews in Caligula’s reign. The Jewish envoys had their interview with the emperor at Puteoli, in fhe autumn of the same year (40 a.p.) in which he had made his progress through Gaul te the shore of the ocean. 2 Ant. xix. 8. Acts xii. The proof that his death took place in 44 may be seen in Anger and Wieseler; and, indeed, it is hardly doubted byany. A coincident and corroborative proof ef the time of St. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem is afforded by the mention of the Famine, which is doubtless that recorded by Josephus this famine must be assigred to the interval between 44 and 47; and Wieseler has fixed it more closely to the year 45. Ses the Chron- ological Table at the end of the volume. 5 Tt ought to be stated, that the latter date cannot be established by the same exact proot as the former; but, as a political fact, it must always be a cardinal point of reference in any system of Scripture chronology. Anger and Wieseler, by a careful induction of particulars, have made it highly probable that Fests sno ceeded Felix in the year 60. More ~"l br ssid on this subject when we come t+. 4~s xxiv. 27. amar. I. DATE OF ST. PAUL’S CONVERSION. 108 two limits the greater part of what we are told of St. Paul is situated and included. Using the year 44 as a starting-point for the future, we gain a new light for tracing the Apostle’s steps. It is evident that we have only to ascer tain the successive intervals of his life, in order to see him at every point, in his connection with the transactions of the Empire. We shall observe this often as we proceed. At present it is more important to remark that the same date throws some light on that earlier part of the Apostle’s path which is confessedly obscure. Reckoning backwards, we remember that “three years” intervened between his conversion and return to Jerusa- lem.’ Those who assign the former event to 39 or 40, and those who fix on 37 or some earlier year, differ as to the length of time he spent at Tarsus, or in “ Syria and Cilicia.”? All that we can say with certainty is, that St. Paul was converted more than three years before the year 44. The date thus important for all students of Bible chronology is worthy of special regard by the Christians of Britain. For in that year the Emperor Claudius returned from the shores of this island to the metropo- lis of his empire. He came here in command of a military expedition, to complete the work which the landing of Casar, a century before, had begun, or at least predicted. When Claudius was in Britain, its inhabit ants were not Christian. They could hardly in any sense be said to have been civilized. He came, as he thought, to add a barbarous province to his already gigantic empire; but he really came to prepare the way for the silent progress of the Christian Church. His troops were the instru- ments of bringing among our barbarous ancestors those charities which were just then beginning to display themselves * in Antioch and Jerusalem. A “new name” was faintly rising on the Syrian shore, which was destined to spread like the cloud seen by the Prophet’s servant from the brow of Mount Carmel. A better civilization, a better citizenship, than that of the Roman Empire, was preparing for us and for many. One Apostle at Tarsus was waiting for his call to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. Another Apostle at Joppa was receiving a divine intimation that “God is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.” * 2 Gai. i. 18. 7 Acts ix. 30; Gal. i. 21. Wieseler, with Schrader, thinks that he staid at Tarsus only half year ora year; Anger, that he was there two years, between 41 and 43; Hemsen, that ke spent there the years 40, 41, and 42. Among the English writers, Bp. Pearson imagines that great part of the interval after 39 was passed im Syria; Burton, who places the conversion very carly, is forced to allow nine or ten years for the time spent in Syria and Cilicia, 3 Wieseler places the Conversion im the year 39 or 40. * It may be gathered from Die Cassius, that the emperor left Rome in July, 48, aad returned in January, 45. § See Acts xi. 22-24, and 27-30, S Acts x. 34, 35. 106 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, [¥_ If we could ascertain the exact chronological arrangement of these passages of Apostolical history, great light would be thrown on the cireum- stantial details of the admission of Gentiles to the Church, and on the growth of the Church’s conviction on this momentous subject. We should then be able to form some idea of the meaning and results of the fortnight spent by Paul and Peter together at Jerusalem (p. 97). But it is not permitted to us to know the manner and degree in which the different Apostles were illuminated. We have not been informed whether Paul ever felt the difficulty of Peter, — whether he knew from the first the full significance of his call, — whether he learnt the truth by visions, or by the gradual workings of his mind under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. All we can confidently assert is, that he did not learn from St. Peter the mystery ‘‘ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it was now revealed unto God’s holy Apostles by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel.” ? If St. Paul was converted in 39 or 40, and if the above-mentioned rest of the Churches was in the last years of Caligula (4.p. 39-41), and if this rest was the occasion of that journey to Lydda and Joppa which ulti- mately brought St. Peter to Cxsarea, then it is evident that St. Paul was at Damascus or in Arabia when Cornelius was baptized.? Paul was sum- moned to evangelize the Heathen, and Peter began the work, almost simultaneously. The great transaction of admitting the Gentiles to the Church was already accomplished when the two Apostles met at Jerusa- lem. St. Paul would thus learn that the door had been opened for him by the hand of another; and when he went to Tarsus, the later agree- ment‘ might then have been partially adopted, that he shonld “go to the Heathen,” while Peter remained as the Apostle of “the Circum- cision.” If we are to bring down the conversion of Cornelius nearer to the year 44, and to place it in that interval of time which St. Paul spent at Tarsus,* then it is natural to suppose that his conversations prepared Peter’s mind for the change which was at hand, and sowed the seeds of that revolution of opinion, of which the vision at Joppa was the crisis and completion. Paul might learn from Peter (as possibly also from Barnabas ) many ot the 1 The question touched on here, viz. when the complete truth of Christ was communicat- ed to St. Paul, evidently opens a wide field for speculation. It is well treated by Dr. Davidson (Introd. .vol. ii. pp. 75-80), who believes that the full disclosures of tae gospel were made to him in Arabia. 2 Eph. iii. 4-6. See Col. i. 26, 27. % This is Wieseler’s view; but his argu- ments are not conclusive. By some (as by Schrader) it is hastily taken for granted that St. Paul preached the Gospel ta Gersiles at Damascus. 4 Gal. ii. 9. 5 On the duration of this interval see at ve, p. 105, n. 2. char, tY, 8ST. PETER AND CORNELIUS. 107 details of our blessed Saviour’s life. And Peter, meanwhile, might gather from Paul some of those higher views concerning the Gospel which pre- pared him for the miracles which he afterwards saw in the household of the Roman centurion. Whatever might be the obscurity of St. Paul’s early knowledge, whether it was revealed to him or not that the Gentile converts would be called to overleap the ceremonies of Judaism on their entrance into the Church of Christ, — he could not fail to have a clear understanding that his own work was to lie among the Gentiles. This had been announced to him at his first conversion (Acts xxvi. 17, 18), in _ the words of Ananias (Acts ix. 15): and in the vision preceding his re- tirement to Tarsus (Acts xxii. 21), the words which commanded him to go were, “ Depart, for I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles.” In considering, then, the conversion of Cornelius to have happened after this journey from Jerusalem to Tarsus, and before the mission of Barnabas to Antioch, we are adopting the opinion most in accordance with the independent standing-point occupied by St. Paul. And this, moreover, is the view which harmonizes best with the narrative of Scrip- ture, where the order ought to be reverently regarded as well as the words. In the order of Scripture narration, if it cannot be proved that the preaching of Peter at Caesarea was chronologically earlier than the preacaing of Paul at Antioch, it is at least brought before us theologi- cally, as the beginning of the Gospel made known to the Heathen. When an important change is at hand, God usually causes a silent prenaration in the minds of men, and some great fact occurs, which may be taken as a type and symbol of the general movement. Such a fact was the conversion of Cornelius, and so we must consider it. The whole transaction is related and reiterated with so much minute- ness,! that, if we were writing a history of the Church, we should be - required to dwell upon it at length. But here we have only to do with it as the point of union between Jews and Gentiles, and as the bright start- ing-point of St. Paul’s career. A few words may be allowed, which are suggested by this view of the transaction as a typical fact in the progress of God’s dispensations. The two men to whom the revelations were made, and even the places where the Divine interferences occurred, were charac- teristic of the event. Cornelius was in Cesarea and St. Peter in Joppa; —the Roman soldier in the modern city, which was built and named in the Emperor’s honor,— the Jewish Apostle in the ancient seaport which associates its name with the early passages of Hebrew history, — with the voyage of Jonah, the building of the Temple, the wars of the Maccabees.* 1 See the whole narrative, Actsx. 1-xi.19. the Apocrypha, 1 Esd. v. 55; 1 Macc. x. 75, 2 Jonah i. 3; 2 Chr. ii. 16. See Josh. xiv. 5; 2 Mace. xii. 3, &. xix. 46; Ezra iii. 7, and various passages in 108 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL GmAP. Fy. All the splendor of Caesarea, its buildings and its ships, and the Temple of Rome and the Emperor, which the sailors saw far out at sea, all has long since vanished. Herod’s magnificent city is a wreck on the shore. A few ruins are all that remain of the harbor. Joppa lingers on, like the Jewish people, dejected but not destroyed. Cwsarea has perished, like the Roman Empire which called it into existence. And no men could well be more contrasted with each other than those two men, in whom the Heathen and Jewish worlds met and were recon- ciled. We know what Peter was— a Galilean fisherman, brought up in the rudest district of an obscure province, with no learning but such as ke might have gathered in the synagogue of his native town. All his early days he had dragged his nets in the lake of Genesareth. And now he was at Joppa, lodging in the house of Simon the Tanner, the Apostle of a religion that was to change the world. Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army. No name was more honorable at Rome than that of the Cornelian House. It was the name borne by the Scipios, and by Sulla, and the mother of the Gracchi. In the Roman army, as in the army of modern Austria, the soldiers were drawn from different countries and spoke different languages. Along the coast of which we are speak- ng, maany of them were recruited from Syria and Judea.” But the corps to which Cornelius belonged seems to have been a cohort of Italians sep- arate from the legionary soldiers,* and hence called the “ Italian cohort.” He was no doubt a true-born Italian. Educated in Rome, or some pro- vincial town, he had entered upon a soldier’s life, dreaming perhaps of military glory, but dreaming as little of that better glory which now sur- rounds the Cornelian name,— as Peter dreamed at the lake of Genesa- reth of becoming the chosen companion of the Messiah of Israel, and of throwing open the doors of the Catholic Church to the dwellers in Asia and Africa, to the barbarians on the remote and unvisited shores of Europe, and to the undiscovered countries of the West. n But to return to our proper narrative. When intelligence camc to Jerusalem that Peter had broken through the restraints of the Jewish Law, and had even “eaten” at the table of the Gentiles,‘ there was gen- eral surprise and displeasure among “ those of the circumcision.” But when he explained to them all the transaction, they approved his conduct, and praised God for His mercy to the Heathen.’ And soon news came 1 A full account of Caesarea will be given, when we come to the period of St. Paul’s imprizonment there. 4 Joseph. Ant. xiv. 15,10; War, i. 17, 1. ® Not a cohort of the “ Legio Italica,” and which was raised by Nero. See above, p. 26, mete. Possibly the corps of Cornelius might be certain “Italian volunteers,” mentioned in an inscription as serving in Syria. Akermann’s Numismatic Ill. of the New Test. p. 34. * Acts xi. 8. See x.48. Nosuch freedom of intercourse took place in bis own reception of his Gentile guests, x. 23. 5 Acts xi. 18. q@may. Iv. MISSION OF BARNABAS. 109 from a greater distance, which showed that the same unexpected change was operating more widely. We have seen that the persecution, in which Stephen was killed, resulted in a general dispersion of the Christians. Wherever they went, they spoke to their Jewish brethren of their faith that the promises had been fulfilled in the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This dispersion and preaching of the Gospel extended even to the island of Cyprus, and along the Phenician coast as far as Antioch. For some time the glad tidings were made known only to the scattered children of Israel.! But at length some of the Hellenistic Jews, natives of Cyprus and Cyrene, spoke to the Greeks? themselves at Antioch, and the Divine Spirit gave such power to the Word, that a vast number “believed and turned to the Lord.” The news was not long in travelling to Jerusalem. Perhaps some message was sent in haste to the Apostles of the Church. The Jewish Christians in Antioch might be perplexed how to deal with their new Gentile converts: and it is not unnatural to sup- pose that the presence of Barnabas might be anxiously desired by the fellow-missionaries of his native island. We ought to observe the honorable place which the island of Oyprus was permitted to occupy in the first work of Christianity. We shall soon trace the footsteps of the Apostle of the Heathen in the beginning of his travels over the length of this island; and see here the first earthly potentate converted, and linking his name forever with that of St. Paul.’ Now, while Saul is yet at Tarsus, men of Cyprus are made the instrn- ments.of awakening the Gentiles; one of them might be that ‘‘ Mnason of Cyprus,” who afterwards (then “a disciple of old standing”) was his host at Jerusalem ;‘ and Joses the Levite of Cyprus,® whom the Apostles had long ago called ‘“‘ the Son of Consolation,” and who had removed all the prejudice which looked suspiciously on Saul’s conversion,° is the first teacher sent by the Mother-Church to the new disciples at Antioch. ‘ He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” He rejoiced when he saw what God’s grace was doing; he exhorted’ all to cling fast to the Saviour whom they had found; and he labored himself with abun- 1 See xi. 19, 20. ® Acts xi. 20. We are strengly of opinion that the correct reading here is not “ Grecians” (A.V.), but Greeks, probably in the sense of _ proselyies of the Gate. Thus they were in the samo position as Cornelius. It has been doubted which case was prior in point of time. Seme are of opinion that the events at Antioch took place first. Others believe that those who spoke to the Greeks at Antioch had previously ieard of the conversion of Cornelius. There evems no ebjection to supposing the twe cases nearly simultaneous, that of Cornelius being the great typical transaction en which our attention is to be fixed. % Acts xiii. 6-9. * Acts xxi. 16. 5 Acts iv. 36. but one. ® Acts ix. 27. 7 Acts xi. 23. The “Son of Consolation,” of iv. 36, ought rather to be translated “Son of Exhortation ”” or “Son of Prophecy.” Sea xii. 1. See, however, the next note 110 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. [Vv : dant success. But feeling the greatness of the work, and remembering the zeal and strong character of his friend, whose vocation to this par- ticular task of instructing the Heathen was doubtless well caren to him, “he departed to Tarsus to seek Saul.” Whatever length of time had elapsed since Saul came from Jerusalem to Tarsus, and however that time had been employed by him, —whether he had already founded any of those churches in his native Cilicia, which we read of soon after (Acts xv. 41), — whether (as is highly probable) he had there undergone any of those manifold labors and sufferings , recorded by himself (2 Cor. xi.) but omitted by St. Luke, — whether by active intercourse with the Gentiles, by study of their literature, by travelling, by discoursing with the philosophers, he had been making himself acquainted with their opinions and their prejudices, and so pre- paring his mind for the work that was before him,— or whether he had been waiting in silence for the call of God’s providence, praying for guid- ance from above, reflecting on the condition of the Gentiles, and gazing more and more closely on the plan of the world’s redemption, — how- ever this may be, it must have been an eventful day when Barnabas, having come across the sea from Seleucia, or round by the defiles of Mount Amanus, suddenly appeared in the streets of Tarsus. The last time the two friends had met was in Jerusalem. All that they then hoped, and probably more than they then thought possible, had occurred. “God had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life” (xi. 18). Barnabas had “seen the grace of God” (xi. 23) with his own eyes at Antioch ; and under his own teaching “a great multitude” (xi. 24) had been “added to the Lord.” But he needed assistance. He needed the presence of one whose wisdom was higher than his own, whose zeal was an example to all, and whose peculiar mission had been miraculously declared. Saul recognized the voice of God in the words of Barnabas: and the two friends travelled in all haste to the Syrian metropolis. There they continued “ a whole year,” actively prosecuting the sacred work, teaching and confirming those who joined themselves to the assem- blies! of the ever-increasing Church. As new converts, in vast numbers, came in from the ranks of the Gentiles, the Church began to lose its ancient appearance of a Jewish sect,? and to stand out in relief, as a great self-existent community, in the face both of Jews and Gentiles. Hitherto it had been possible, and even natural, that the Christians should be considered, by the Jews themselves, and by the Heathen whose notice they attracted, as only one among the many theological parties, which prevailed in Jerusalem and in the Dispersion. But when Gen- 1 See Acts xi. 26. 2 See above, pp. 29 and 62. CRAP. Iv, THE NAME ‘“ CHRISTIAN.” 111 tiles began to listen to what was preached concerning Christ, — when they were united as brethren on equal terms, and admitted to baptism without the necessity of previous circumcision,— when the Mosaic features of this society were lost in the wider character of the New Covenant, — then it became evident that these men were something more than the Pharisees or Sadducees, the Hssenes’ or Herodians, or any sect or party among the Jews. Thus a new term in the vocabulary of the human race came into existence at Antioch about the year 44. Thus Jews and Gentiles, who, under the teaching of St. Paul, believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Saviour of the world, “ were first called Christians.” It is not likely that they received this name from the Jews. The “Children of Abraham”? employed a term much more expressive of hatred and contempt. They called them “ the sect of the Nazarenes.”* These disciples of Jesus traced their origin to Nazareth in Galilee: and it was a proverb, that nothing good could come from Nazareth.‘ Besides this, there was a further reason why the Jews would not have called the disciples of Jesus by the name of “ Christians.”” The word “ Christ” has the same meaning with “ Messiah ;”’ and the Jews, however blinded and prejudiced on this subject, would never have used so sacred a word to point an expression of mockery and derision; and they could not have used it in grave and serious earnest to designate those whom they held to be the followers of a false Messiah, a fictitious Christ. Nor is it likely that the ‘‘ Christians” gave this name to themselves. In the Acts of the Apostles, and in their own letters, we find them designating them- selves as “ brethren,” “ disciples,” ‘ believers,” ‘ saints.” *® Only in two places * do we find the term “ Christians ;” and in both instances it is implied to be a term used by those who are without. There is little doubt that the name originated with the Gentiles, who began now to see that this new sect was so far distinct from the Jews, that they might naturally receive a new designation. And the form of the word implies that it came from the Romans,’ not from the Greeks. The word “ Christ” was often in the conversation of the believers, as we know it to have been constantly in their letters. ‘Christ’ was the title of Him, whom they avowed as their leader and their chief. They confessed that 1 See above, p. 32. 7 So’we read in the Civil Wars of ‘“ Mari- 2 Matt. iii. 9; Luke iii. 8 ; John viii. 39. ans’ and “ Pompeians ” for the partisans of ® Acts xxiv. 5. Marius and Pompey ; and, under the Empire, * Johni. 46. See John vii. 41,52; Luke of “ Othonians” and “ Vitellians ” for the par xiii. 2, &e. tisans of Otho and Vitellius. The word “ He ® Acts xv. 23, ix. 26, vy. 14, ix. 82; Rom. rodians ” (Matt. xxii. 16; Mark iii. 6, xii. 13) xv. 25; Col. i. 2, &. is formed exactly in the same way. § Acts xxvi. 28, and 1 Pet. iv. 16. 112 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL this Christ had been crucified ; but they asserted that He was risen from h rm omar. re the dead, and that He guided them by His invisible power. Thus “ Christian” was the name which naturally found its place in the reproachful language of their enemies.' In the first instance, we have every reason to believe that it was a term of ridicule and derision.? And it is remarkable that the people of Antioch were notorious for inventing names of derision, and for turning their wit into the channels of ridi- cule.? In every way there is something very significant in the place where we first received the name we bear. Not in Jerusalem, the city of the Old Covenant, the city of the people who were chosen to the exclusion of all others, but in a Heathen city, the Eastern centre of Greek fashion and Roman luxury; and not till it was shown that the New Covenant was inclusive of all others; then and there we were first called Christians, and the Church received from the world its true and honorable name. In narrating the journeys of St. Paul, it will now be our duty to speak of Antioch, not Jerusalem, as his point of departure and return. Let us look, more closely than has hitherto been necessary, at its character, its history, and its appearance. The position which it occupied near the abrupt angle formed by the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor, and in the opening where the Orontes passes between the ranges of Lebanon and Taurus, has already been noticed.‘ And we have.mentioned the numer- ous colony of Jews which Seleucus introduced into his capital, and raised to an equality of civil rights with the Greeks.* There was every thing in the situation and circumstances of this city, to make it a place of concourse for all classes and kinds of people. By its harbor of Se leucia it was in communication with all the trade of the Mediterranean ; and, through the open country behind the Lebanon, it was conveniently approached by the caravans from Mesopotamia and Arabia. It united the inland advantages of Aleppo with the maritime opportunities of Smyrna. It was almost an oriental Rome, in which all the forms of the civilized life of the Empire found some representative. Through the 1 Tt is a Latin derivative from the Greek term for the Messiah of the Jews. It is con- nected with the office, not the name, oi our Saviour; which harmonizes with the impor- tamt fact, that in the Epistles He is usually called not “ Jesus” but “ Christ.” The word “Jesuit” (which, by the way, is rather Gresk than Latin) did not come into the vocabulary ef the Church till after the lapse of 1,500 years. It is not a little remarkable that the word “Jes- uit” is a proverbial term of reproach, even in Beman-Catholic countries; while the word “ Christian ” is used so proverbially for all that is good, that it has been applied to benev- olent actions in which Jews have participated. 2 Jt is needless to remark that it soon became a title of glory. Julian tried to sub- stitate the term “ Galilean ” for “ Christian.” 3 Apollonius of Tyana was driven out of the city by their insults, and sailed away (like St. Paul) from Seleucia to Cyprus, where he visited Paphos. See Ch. X ¢ P. 19, 5P.16 : : ‘ ‘ a quuar. Iv, ANTIOCH. 118 first two centuries of the Christian era, it was what Constantinople became afterwards, “the Gate of the East.’’ And, indeed, the glory of the city of Ignatius was only gradually eclipsed by that of the city of Chrysostom. That great preacher and commentator himself, who knew them both by familiar residence, always speaks of Antioch with peculiar reverence,' as the patriarchal city of the Christian name. There is something curiously prophetic in the stories which are told of the first founding of this city. Like Romulus on the Palatine, Seleucus is said to have watched the flight of birds from the summit of Mount Casius. An eagle took a fragment of the flesh of his sacrifice, and carried it to a point on the seashore, a little to the north of the mouth of the Orontes. There he founded a city, and called it Seleucta,? after his own name. This was on the 23d of April. Again, on the 1st of May, he sacrificed on the hill Silpius; and then repeated the cere- mony and watched the auguries at the city of Antigonia, which his vanquished rival, Antigonus, had begun and left unfinished. An eagle again decided that this was not to be his own metropolis, and carried the flesh to the hill Silpius, which is on the south side of the river, about the place where it turns from a northerly to a westerly direction. Five or six thousand Athenians and Macedonians were ordered to convey the stones and timber of Antigonia down the river ; and Antioch was founded by Seleucus, and called after his father’s name.’ This fable, invented perhaps to give a mythological sanction to what was really an act of sagacious prudence and princely ambition, is well worth remembering. Seleucus was not slow to recognize the wisdom of Antigonus in choosing a site for his capital, which should place it in ready communication both with the shores of Greece and with his eastern territories on the Tigris and Euphrates; and he followed the example promptly, and completed his work with sumptuous magnificence. Few princes have ever lived with so great a passion for the building of cities ; and this is a feature of his character which ought not to be unnoticed in this narrative. Two at least of his cities in Asia Minor have a close connection with the life of St. Paul. These are the Pisidian Antioch‘ and the Phrygian Laodicewa,’ one called by the name of his father, the other of his mother. He is said to have built in all nine Seleucias, six feen Antiochs, and six Laodicwas. This love of commemorating the 1 Im his homilies on St. M tthew he tells 2 See Acts xiii. 4. the people of Antioch, that though they boasted 5 Some say that Seleucns called the city ef their city’s pre-eminence in having first en- after hie son. joyed the Christian name, they were willing * Acts xiii. 14, xiv. 91; 2 Tim. ii. 12. enough to be surpassed in Christian virtue by 5 Coloss. iv. 18, 15, 16, See Bev. 1 12, wore homely cities. i iii. 14. 114 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. members of his family was conspicuous in his works by the Orontes. { Besides Seleucia and Antioch, he built, in the immediate neighborhood, a Laodicwa in honor of his mother, and an Apamea in honor of his — wife. But by far the most famous of these four cities was the Syrian Antioch. We must allude to its edifices and ornaments only so far as they are due to the Greek kings of Syria and the first five Caesars of Rome.’ If we were to allow our description to wander to the times of Justinian or the Crusaders, though these are the times of Antioch’s greatest glory, we should be trespassing on a period of history which does not belong to us. Strabo, in the time of Augustus, describes the city as a Tetrapolis, or union of four cities. The two first were erected by Seleucus Nicator himself, in the situation already described, between Mount Silpius and the river, on that wide space of level ground where a few poor habita- — tions still remain by the banks of the Orontes. The river has gradually changed its course and appearance, as the city has decayed. Once it flowed round an island which, like the island in the Seine,? by its thor- oughfares and bridges, and its own noble buildings, became part of a magnificent whole. But, in Paris, the Old City is on the island; in Antioch, it was the New City, built by the second Seleucus and the third Antiochus. Its chief features were a palace, and an arch like that of Napoleon. The fourth and last part of the Tetrapolis was built by Antiochus Epiphanes, where Mount Silpius rises abruptly on the south. On one of its craggy summits he placed, in the fervor of his Romanizing mania,’ a temple dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus; and on another, a strong citadel, which dwindled to the Saracen Castle of the first Crusade. At the rugged bases of the mountain, the ground was levelled for a glorious street, which extended for four miles across the length of the city, and where sheltered crowds could walk through continuous colon- nades from the eastern to the western suburb. The whole was surrounded by a wall, which, ascending to the heights and returning tc the river, does not deviate very widely in its course from the wall of the Middle Ages, which can still be traced by the fragments of ruined tow- ers. This wall is assigned by a Byzantine writer to Tiberius, but it seems more probable that the Emperor only repaired what Antiochus Kpiphanes had built. Turning now to the period of the Empire, we find 1 In our larger editions is a plan of the ancient city, adopted (with some modifications) from the plan in the work mentioned below, n. 5. See a fuller account of Antioch in Dr. Smith’s Dict. of Geog. 2 Julian the Apostate suggests a parallel between Paris and Antioch. See Gibbon’s 19th and 23d chapters. 5 See above, p. 25, n. 1. * A comparison has been instituted above between Paris and Antioch: and it is hardly possible now (1860) to revise this paragraph for the press without alluding to the Rue de Rivoli. ® See Miiller, Antig. Antioch. pp. 54 and 81. OLE ee CHAP, IV. CHARACTER OF INHABITANTS OF ANTIOCH. 115 that Antioch had memorials of all the great Romans whose names have been mentioned as yet in this biography. When Pompey was defeated by Czsar, the conqueror’s name was perpetuated in this Eastern city by an aqueduct and by baths, and by a basilica called Cxsarium. In the reign of Augustus, Agrippa’ built in all cities of the Empire, and Herod of Juda followed the example to the utmost of his power. Both found employment for their munificence at Antioch. A gay suburb rose under the patronage of the one, and the other contributed a road and a portico. The reign of Tiberius was less remarkable for great architectural works ; but the Syrians by the Orontes had to thank him for many improvements and restorations in their city. Even the four years of his successor left behind them the aqueduct and the baths of Caligula. The character of the inhabitants is easily inferred from the influences which presided over the city’s growth. Its successive enlargement by the Seleucids proves that their numbers rapidly increased from the first. The population swelled still further, when, instead of the metropolis of the Greek kings of Syria, it became the residence of Roman gov- ernors. The mixed multitude received new and important additions in the officials who were connected with the details of provincial admin- istration. Luxurious Romans were attracted by its beautiful climate. New wants continually multiplied the business of its commerce. Its gardens and houses grew and extended on the north side of the river. Many are the allusions to Antioch, in the history of those times, as a place of singular pleasure and enjoyment. Here and there, an elevating thought is associated with its name. Poets have spent their young days at Antioch,? great generals have died there,’ emperors have visited and admired it. But, for the most part, its population was a worthless rab- ble of Greeks and Orientals. The frivolous amusements of the theatre were the occupation of their life. Their passion for races, and the ridic- ulous party quarrels® connected with them, were the patterns of those which afterwards became the disgrace of Byzantium. The oriental ele- ment of superstition and imposture was not less active. The Chaldean astrologers found their most credulous disciples in Antioch. Jewish 1 This friend of Augustus and Mscenas must be carefully distinguished from that grandson of Herod who bore the same name, and whose death is one of the subjects of this chapter. For the works of Herod the Great at Antioch, see Joseph. Ant. xvi. 5, 3; War, i. 21, 11. 2 See Cic. pro Archia Poeta. 5 All readers of Tacitus will recognize the allusion. (See Ann. ii.72.) It is not possible te write about Antioch without some allusion to Germanicus and his noble-minded wife And yet they were the parents of Caligula. * For all that long series of emperors whose names are connected with Antioch, see Miiller. & The Blue Faction and the Green Faction were notorious under the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. Both emperors patronized the Jetier. § Chrysostom complains that even Chris- tians, in his day, were led away by this passion for horoscopes. Juvenal traces the supersti- 116 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. impostors,’ sufficiently common throughout the East, found their best opportunities here. It is probable that no populations have ever been more abandoned than those of oriental Greek cities under the Roman Empire, and of these cities Antioch was the greatest and the worst. If we wish to realize the appearance and reality of the complicated Heathenism of the first Christian century, we must endeavor to im- agine the scene of that suburb, the famous Daphne,’ with its fountains and groves of bay-trees, its bright buildings, its crowds of licentious votaries, its statue of Apollo, — where, under the climate of Syria and the wealthy patronage of Rome, all that was beautiful in nature and in art had created a sanctuary for a perpetual festival of vice. Thus, if any city, in the first century, was worthy to be called the Heathen Queen and Metropolis of the Hast, that city was Antioch. She was represented, in a famous allegorical statue, as a female figure, seated on a rock and crowned, with the river Orontes at her feet. With this image, which art has made perpetual, we conclude our description. There is no excuse for continuing it to the age of Vespasian and Titus, when Juda@a was taken, and the Western Gate, decorated with the spoils, was called the “Gate of the Cherubim,”’® — or to the Saracen age, when, after many years of Christian history and Christian mythology, we find the “‘ Gate of St. Paul” placed opposite the “‘ Gate of St. George,” and when Duke Godfrey pitched his camp between the river and the city- wall. And there is reason to believe that earthquakes, the constant enemy of the people of Antioch, have so altered the very appearance of its site, that such description would be of little use. As the Vesuvius of Virgil or Pliny would hardly be recognized in the angry neighbor of mod- ern Naples, so it is more than probable that the dislocated crags, which still rise above the Orontes, are greatly altered in form from the fort crowned heights of Seleucus or Tiberius, Justinian or Tancred. Earthquakes occurred in each of the reigns of Caligula and Claudius.* And it is likely that, when Saul and Barnabas were engaged in their tions of Heathen Rome to Antioch. “In 4 For this celebrated statue of the Tézxs Tiberim defluxit Orontes.” ‘ Compare the cases of Simon Magus (Acts viii.), Elymas the Sorterer (Acts xiii.), and the sons of Sceva (Acts xix.). Weshall have eevasion to return to this subject again. 2 Ausonius hesitates between Antioch and Alexandria, as to the rank they occupied in eminence and vice. " Gibbon’s description of Daphne (ch. xxiii.) is well known. The sanctuary was on the high ground, four or five miles to the W.of Antioch. See Smith’s Dic. of the Bible. "Avruyeiac, or Genius of Antioch, so constantly represented on coins, see Miiller, Antig. Anti ech, pp. 35-41. The engraving here given is from Pistolesi’s Vaticano. 5 The Byzantine writer Malalas says, thaé Titus built a theatre at Antioch where eyna gogue had been. * One earthquake, according to Malalas, occurred on the morning of March 25, in the year 87, and another soon afterwards. NP, his sill: & Allegorical Statue of Antioch in Syrin- amar. 1v. FAMINE. — MISSION TO JERUSALEM. 117 apostolic work, parts of the city had something of that appearance which still makes Lisbon dreary, new and handsome buildings being raised in close proximity to the ruins left by the late calamity. It is remarkable how often great physical calamities are permitted by God to follow in close succession to each other. That age, which, as we have seen, had been visited by earthquakes, was presently visited by famine. The reign of Claudius, from bad harvests or other causes, was a period of general distress and scarcity “‘ over the whole world.”! In the fourth year of his reign, we are told by Josephus that the famine was so severe, that the price of food became enormous, and great numbers perished.? At this time it happened that Helena, the mother of Izates, king of Adiabene, and a recent convert to Judaism, came to worship at Jerusalem. Moved with compassion for the misery she saw around her, she sent to purchase corn from Alexandria and figs from Cyprus, for distribution among the poor. Izates himself (who had also been converted by one who bore the same name* with him who baptized St. Paul) shared the charitable feelings of his mother, and sent large sums of money to Jerusalem. While this relief came from Assyria, from Cyprus, and from Africa to the Jewish sufferers in Judwa, God did not suffer His own Christian people, probably the poorest and certainly the most disregarded in that country, to perish in the general distress. And their relief also came from nearly the same quarters. While Barnabas and Saul were evangelizing the Syrian capital, and gathering in the harvest, the first seeds of which had been sown by “ men of Cyprus and Cyrene,” certain prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus an- nounced that a time of famine was at hand.‘ The Gentile disciples felt that they were bound by the closest link to those Jewish brethren whom though they had never seen they loved. “For if the Gentiles had been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty was also to minister unto them in carnal things.”® No time was lost in preparing for the coming distress. All the members of the Christian community, according to their means, “ determined to send relief,’ Saul and Barnabas being chosen to take the contribution to the elders at Jerusalem.° About the time when these messengers came to the Holy City on their errand of love, a worse calamity than that of famine had fallen upon the 1 Besides the famine in Judma, we read of three others in the reign of Claudius; one in Greece, mentioned by Eusebius, and two in Rome, the first mentioned by Dio Cassius, the second by Tacitus. © Ant. iii. 15, 3, xx. 2, 5, and 5, 2. § This Ananias was a Jewish merchant, vbo made proselytes among the women about the court of Adiabene, and thus obtained infic- ence with the king. (Joseph. Ant. xx. 2, 3S.) See what has been said above (pp. 18, and 9S, n. 4) about the female proselytes at Damascus and Iconium. * Acts xi. 28. 5 Rom. xv. 27. ® Acts xi. 29, 80. 118 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Church. One Apostle had been murdered, and another was in prison. There is something touching in the contrast between the two brothers, James and John. One died before the middle of the first Christian cen- tury; the other lived on to its close. One was removed just when his Master’s kingdom, concerning which he had so eagerly inquired,' was be- ginning to show its real character; he probably never heard the word “Christian” pronounced. Zebedee’s other son remained till the anti- Christian * enemies of the faith were “ already come,” and was laboring against them when his brother had been fifty years at rest in the Lord. He who had foretold the long service of St. John revealed to St. Peter that he should die by a violent death. But the time was not yet come. Herod had bound him with two chains. Besides the soldiers who watched his sleep, guards were placed before the door of the prison.‘ And “ after the passover”’® the king intended to bring him out and gratify the people with his death. But Herod’s death was nearer than St. Peter’s. Fora moment we see the Apostle in captivity and the king in the plenitude of his power. But before the autumn a dreadful change had taken place. On the 1st of August (we follow a probable calculation,® and borrow some circumstances from the Jewish historian)‘ there was a great commemora- tion in Caesarea. Some say it was in honor of the Emperor’s safe return from the island of Britain. However this might be, the city was crowded, and Herod was there. On the second day of the festival he came into the theatre. That theatre had been erected by his grandfather? who had murdered the Innocents ; and now the grandson was there, who had mur- dered an Apostle. The stone seats, rising in a great semicircle, tier above tier, were covered with an excited multitude. The king came in, clothed in magnificent robes, of which silver was the costly and brilliant material. It was early in the day, and the sun’s rays fell upon the king, so that the eyes of the beholders were dazzled with the brightness which surrounded him. Voices from the crowd, here and there, exclaimed that it was the apparition of something divine. And when he spoke and made an oration to the people, they gave a shout, saying, “It is the voice of a God and not 1 See Mark x. 35-45; Acts i. 6. 2 | John ii. 18, iv.3; 2 John 7. 8 John xxi. 18-22. See 2 Pet. i. 14. * For the question of the distribution of soldiers on this occasion, we may refer to Hackett’s notes on vy. 4 and y. 40. 5 Inadvertently translated “after Easter” in the A. V. Acts xii. 4. ® That of Wieseler. 7 Compare Acts xii. 20-24 with Josephus, Ant. xix. 8, ° * See Joseph. Ant. xv. 9,6. It is from his narrative (xix. 8, 2) that we know the theatre to have been the scene of Agrippa’s death-stroke. The “throne” (Acts xii. 21) is the official “ tribunal,” as in Acts xviii. 12, 16,17. Josephus says nothing of the quarrel with the Tyrians and Sidonians. Probably it arose simply from mercantile relations /see 1 Kings v. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 17), and their desire for reconciliation (Acts xii. 20) would naturally be increased by the existing famine. HAR, IV. DEATH OF HEROD AGRIPPA I. 119 of aman.” But in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation the angel of God suddenly smote him. He was carried out of the theatre a dying man, and on the 6th of August he was dead. This was that year, 44,1 on which we have already said so much. The country was placed again under Roman governors, and hard times were at hand for the Jews. Herod Agrippa had courted their favor. He had done much for them, and was preparing todo more. Josephus tells us, that “he had begun to encompass Jerusalem with a wall, which, had it been brought to perfection, would have made it impracticable for the Romans to take the city by siege: but his death, which happened at Cexsarea, before he had raised the walls to their due height, prevented him.”? That part of the city, which this boundary was intended to enclose, was a suburb when St. Paul was converted. The work was not completed till the Jews were preparing for their final struggle with the Romans: and the Apostle, when he came from Antioch to Jerusalem, must have noticed the unfinished wall to the north and west of the old Damascus gate. We cannot determine the season of the year when he passed this way. We are not sure whether the year itself was 44 or 45. It is not probable that he was in Jerusalem at the passover, when St. Peter was in prison, or that he was praying with those anxious disciples at the ‘“ house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.” * But there is this link of interesting connection between that house and St. Paul, that it was the familiar home of one who was afterwards (not always‘ without cause for anxiety or reproof) a companion of his journeys. When Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch, they were attended by “‘ John, whose surname was Mark.” With the affection of Abraham towards Lot, his kinsman Barnabas withdrew him from the scene of persecution. We need not doubt that higher motives were added, — that at the first, as at the last, St. Paul regarded him as “ profitable to him for the ministry.” Thus attended, the Apostle willingly retraced his steps towards Antioch. A field of noble enterprise was before him. He could not doubt that God, who had so prepared him, would work by his means great conversions among the Heathen. At this point of his life, we cannot avoid noticing those circumstances of inward and outward preparation, which fitted him for his peculiar position of standing between the Jews and Gentiles. He 1 Roman-Catholic writers here insert vari- to have held the See of Antioch for seven years ous passages of the traditionary life of St. before that of Rome. Peter; his journey from Antioch through 2 War, ii. 11, 6. Asia Minor to Rome ; his meeting with Simon 3 Acts xii. 12. Magus, &¢c., and the other Apostles; their 4 See Acts xiii. 13, xv. 37-39. general separation to preach the Gospel to the 5 Not necessarily “nephew.” See a future _ Gentiles in all parts of the world; the formation note on Col. iv. 10. of the Apostl2s’ Creed, &c. St. Peteris alleged 6 2 Tim. iv. 11. See below. 120 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. ama was not a Sadducee, he had never Hellenized, — he had been educated at Jerusalem,— every thing conspired to give him authority, when he ad- dressed his countrymen as a ‘“ Hebrew of the Hebrews.” At the same time, in his apostolical relation to Christ, he was quite disconnected with the other Apostles ; he had come in silence to a conviction of the truth at a distance from the Judaizing Christians, and had early overcome those prejudices which impeded so many in their approaches to the Heathen. He had just been long enough at Jerusalem to be recognized and welcomed by the apostolic college,’ but not long enough even to be known by face “ unto the churches in Judwa.”? He had been withdrawn into Cilicia till the baptism of Gentiles was a notorious and familiar fact to those very churches.’ He could hardly be blamed for continuing what St. Peter had already begun. And if the Spirit of God had prepared him for building up the United Church of Jews and Gentiles, and the Providence of God had directed all the steps of his life to this one result, we are called on to notice the singular fitness of this last employment, on which we have seen him engaged, for assuaging the suspicious feeling which separated the two great branches of the Church. In quitting for a time his Gentile converts at Antioch, and carrying a contribution of money to the Jewish Chris- tians at Jerusalem, he was by no means leaving the higher work for the lower. He was building for aftertimes. The interchange of mutual benevolence was a safe foundation for future confidence. Temporal com- fort was given in gratitude for spiritual good received. The Church’s first days were christened with charity. No sooner was its new name received, in token of the union of Jews and Gentiles, than the sympa- thy of its members was asserted by the work of practical benevolence. We need not hesitate to apply to that work the words which St. Paul used, after many years, of another collection for the poor Christians in Judwa : —“ The administration of this service not only supplies the need of the Saints, but overflows in many thanksgivings unto God; while they praise God for this proof of your obedience to the Glad Tidings of Christ.” ‘ Coin of Claudius and Agrippa I.° 1 Acts ix. 27. 2 Gal. i. 22. * 3 Cor. ix. 12-14. ® These were the churches of Lydda, Saron, 5 From the British Museum. See p. 130. Feppa, &e., which Peter had been visiting when We may refer here to Dr. Wordsworth’s cxstei es was summoned to Caesarea. Acts ix.32-43. mote on Acts xii. 1. —— oe” = CHAPTER V. Second Part of the Acts of the Apostles. — Revelation at Antioch. — Publie Devetions. — De partare ef Barnabas and Saul. — The Orontes. — History and Description of Seleucia. — Voyage to Cyprus. — Salamis. — Roman Provincial System.— Proconsuls and Propratora. — Sergius Paulus.— Oriental Impostors at Rome and in the Provinces.—Elymas Bar jesus. — History of Jewish Names. — Saul and Paul. HE second part of the Acts of the Apostles is generally reckoned to begin with the thirteenth chapter. At this point St. Paul begins to appear as the principal character; and the narrative, gradually widen- ing and expanding with his travels, seems intended to describe to us, in minute detail, the communication of the Gespel to the Gentiles. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters embrace a definite and separate sub- ject: and this subject is the first journey of the first Christian missiona ries to the Heathen. These two chapters of the inspired record are the authorities for the present and the succeeding chapters of this work, in which we intend to follow the steps of Paul and Barnabas, in their cir cuit through Cyprus and the southern part of Lesser Asia. The history opens suddenly and abruptly. We are told that there were, in the Church at Antioch,! “ prophets and teachers,” and among the rest “‘ Barnabas,” with whom we are already familiar. The others were “Simeon, who was surnamed Niger,” and “ Lucius of Cyrene’ and “ Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch,” — and “ Saul’ who still appears under his Hebrew name. We observe, moreover, not only that he is mentioned after Barnabas, but that he occupies the lowest place in this enumeration of “ prophets and teachers.”” The distinction between these two offices in the Apostolic Church will be discussed hereafter.’ At present it is sufficient to remark that the “ prophecy” of the New Testament does not necessarily imply a knowledge of things to come, but rather a gift of exhorting with a peculiar force of inspiration. In the Church’s early miraculous days the “ prophet” appears to have been ranked higher than the “ teacher.”* And we may perhaps infer that, up to this point of the history, Barnabas had belonged to the rank of “ prophets,” and Saul to that of “teachers: ” which would be in strict 1 Acta xiii. 1. 2 See Ch. XTIL 5 Compare Acts xiii. 1 with 1 Cer. xii. 28, 29; Eph. iv. 11. ist 122 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. V, conformity with the inferiority of the latter to the former, which, as we have seen, has been hitherto observed. Of the other three, who are grouped with these two chosen missiona- ries, we do not know enough to justify any long disquisition. But we may remark in passing that there is a certain interest attaching to each one of them. Simeon is one of those Jews who bore a Latin surname in addition to their Hebrew name, like “John whose surname was Mark,” mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter, and like Saul himself, whose change of appellation will presently oe brought under notice.! Lucius, probably the same who is referred to in the Epistle to the Romans,’ is a native of Cyrene, that African city which has already been noticed as abounding in Jews, and which sent to Jerusalem — our Saviour’s cross-bearer.’ Manaen is spoken of as the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch: this was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee ; and since we learn from Josephus‘ that this Herod and his brother Arche- laus were children of the same mother, and afterwards educated together at Rome, it is probable that this Christian prophet or teacher had spent his early childhood with those two princes, who were now both banished from Palestine to the banks of the Rhone.® These were the most conspicuous persons in the Church of Antioch, when a revelation was received of the utmost importance. The occasion on which the revelation was made seems to have been a fit preparation for it. The Christians were engaged in religious services of peculiar solemnity. The Holy Ghost spoke to them “as they ministered unto the Lord and fasted.”” The word here translated “ ministered,’ has been taken by opposite controversialists to denote the celebration of the ** sacrifice of the mass ” on the one hand, or the exercise of the office of “‘ preaching” on the other. It will be safer if we say simply that the Christian community at Antioch was engaged in one united act of prayer and humiliation. That this solemnity would be accompanied by words of exhortation, and that it would be crowned and completed by the Holy Communion, is more than probable; that it was accompanied 1 See Acts xiii. 9. Compare Col. iy. 11. 2 Rom. xvi. 21. There is no reason what- ever for supposing that St. Luke is meant. The Latin form of his name would be “ Luca- nus,” not “ Lucius.” ® See above, p. 16, n. 6. * Their mother’s name was Malthace, a Samaritan. War,i. 28,4. See Ant. xvii. 1, 3. One of the sect of the Essenes (see p. 32), who bore the name of Manaen or Manaem, is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. xv. 10, 5) as having foretold to Herod the Great, in the days of his obscurity, both his future power and future wickedness. The historian adds, that Herod afterwards treated the Essenes with great kindness. Nothing is more likely than that this Manaen was the father of the com- panion of Herod’s children. Another Jew of the same name is mentioned, at a later period (War, ii. 17, 8,9; Life, 5), as having encour- aged robberies, and come to a violent end. The name is the same with that of the King of Israel. 2 Kings xv. 14-22. ® See above, pp. 26 and 51. | . ——— ee eee ee omar. v, DEPARTURE OF BARNABAS AND SAUL. 123 with Fasting! we are expressly told. These religious services might have had a special reference to the means which were to be adopted for the spread of the Gospel now evidently intended for all; and the words “ separate me now” Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” may have been an answer to specific prayers. How this revelation was made, whether by the mouth of some of the prophets who were present, or by the impulse of a simultaneous and general inspiration, — whether the route to be taken by Barnabas and Saul was at this time precisely indicated’— and whether they had previously received a conscious personal call, of which this was the public ratifi- cation,‘ —it is useless to inquire. A definite work was pointed out, as now about to be begun under the counsel of God; two definite agents in this work were publicly singled out: and we soon see them sent forth to their arduous undertaking, with the sanction of the Church at Antioch. Their final consecration and departure was the occasion of another religious solemnity. A fast was appointed, and prayers were offered up; and, with that simple ceremony of ordination® which we trace through the earlier periods of Jewish history, and which we here see adopted under the highest authority in the Christian Church, “they laid their hands on them, and sent them away.”’ The words are wonderfully simple , but those who devoutly reflect on this great occasion, and on the posi- tion of the first Christians at Antioch, will not find it difficult to imagine the thoughts which occupied the hearts of the Disciples during these first “‘ Ember Days of the Church *— their deep sense of the importance of the work which was now beginning,— their faith in God, on whom they could rely in the midst of such difficulties, —their suspense du- ring the absence of those by whom their own faith had been forti- fied,— their anxiety for the intelligence they might bring on their return. Their first point of destination was the island of Cyprus. It is not necessary, though quite allowable, to suppose that this particular course was divinely indicated in the original revelation at Antioch. Four 1 For the association of Fasting with Ordi- nation, see Bingham’s Antig. of the Christ. Ch. ty. vi. 6, XxI. ii. 8. 2 This little word is important, and should have been in the A. V. * Tt is evident that the course of St. Panl’s journeys was often indeterminate, and regu- fated either by convenient opportunities ‘as in Acts xxi. 2, xxviii. 11), or by compulsion (as in xiv. 6, xvii. 14), or by supernatural admo- nitions (xxii. 21, xvi. 6-10). * St. Paul at least had long been conscious of his own vocation, and could only be waiting to be summoned to his work. 5 It forms no part of the plan of this work to enter into ecclesiastical controversies. It is sufficient to refer to Acts vi. 6; 1 Tim. iy 14, y. 22; 2 Tim.i.6; Heb. vi. 2. * See Bingham, as above. 124 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL reasons at least can be stated, which may have induced the Apostles, in the exercise of a wise discretion, to turn in the first instance to this island. It is separated by no great distance from the mainland of Syria; its high mountain-summits are easily seen! in clear weather from the coast near the mouth of the Orontes; and in the summer season many vessels must often have been passing and repassing between Salamis and Seleucia. Besides this, it was the native-place of Barnabas.’ Since the time when “ Andrew found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus,” * and the Saviour was beloved in the house of “ Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” ‘ the ties of family relationship had not been without effect on the progress of the Gospel. It could not be unnat ural to suppose that the truth would be welcomed in Oyprus, when it was brought by Barnabas and his kinsman Mark * to their own connec tions or friends. Moreover, the Jews were numerous in Salamis.’ By sailing to that city they were following the track of the synagogues Their mission, it is true, was chiefly to the Gentiles; but their surest course for reaching them was through the medium of the Prose lytes and the Hellenistic Jews. To these considerations we must add, in the fourth place, that some of the Cypriotes were already Christians. No one place out of Palestine, with the exception of Antioch, had been so honorably associated with the work of successful evangelization.® The palaces of Antioch were connected with the sea by the rive: Orontes. Strabo says that in his time they sailed up the stream in one day ; and Pausanias speaks of great Roman works which had improved the navigation of the channel. Probably it was navigable by vessels of some considerable size, and goods and passengers were conveyed by water between the city and the sea. Even in our own day, though there is now 2 bar at the mouth of the river, there has been a serious project of uniting it by a canal with the Euphrates, and so of re-establishing one of the old lines of commercial intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Indian Sea. The Orontes comes from the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and does not, like many rivers, vary capriciously between a winter-torrent and a thirsty watercourse, but flows cn continually to the sea. Its waters are not clear, but they are deep ana rapid. Their course has been compared to that of the Wye. They wind reund the bases of high and precipitous cliffs, or by richly 1 Colonel Chesney speaks 0° “the lofty Paul himself. Acts xxiii. 16-88. Compare island of Cyprus as seen to the 3. W.in the 1 Cor. vii. 16. distant horizon,” from the bey of Antioch. ® Acts xiii. 5. See xii. 25, and p. 13? « * Acts iv. 36. 4, above. § John i. 41, 42. * John xi. 5. 7 Acts xiii. 5. See below, pp. 130, 130 * Bee an instance of this in the life of St ® See Acts iv. 36, xi. 19, 20, xxi. 16. OMAR. ¥, OSLO. He DESCRIPTION OF SHLEUCIA. 128 cultivated banks, where the vegetation of the south, —~ the vine and the fig-tree, the myrtle, the bay, the ilex, and the arbutus, —is mingled with dwarf oak and English sycamore.’ If Barnabas and Saul came down by water from Antioch, this was the course of the boat which conveyed them. If they travelled the five or six leagues? by land, they crossed the river at the north side of Antioch, and came along the base of the Pierian hills by a route which is now roughly covered with fragrant and picturesque shrubs, but which then doubtless was a track well worn by travellers, like the road from the Pirswus to Athens, or from Ostia to Rome.’ Seleucia united the two characters of a fortress and a seaport. It was situated on a rocky eminence, which is the southern extremity of an elevated range of hills projecting from Mount Amanus. From the south. east, where the ruins of the Antioch Gate are still conspicuous, the ground rose towards the north-east into high and craggy summits; and round the greater part of its circumference of four miles the city was protected by its natural position. The harbor and mercantile suburb were on level ground towards the west; but here, as on the only weak point at Gibraltar, strong artificial defences had made compensation for the deficiency of nature. Seleucus, who had named his metropolis in his father’s honor (p. 113), gave his own name to this maritime fortress and here, around his tomb,‘ his successors contended for the key of Syria. “ Seleucia by the sea” was a place of great importance under the Seleucids and the Ptolemies ; and so it remained under the sway of the Romans. In consequence of its bold resistance to Tigranes, when he was in possession of all the neighboring country, Pompey gave it the privileges of a “‘ Free City ;”* and a contemporary of St. Paul speaks of it as having those privileges still.’ The most remarkable work among the extant remains of Seleucia is an immense excavation, — probably the same with that which is mentioned by Polybius,— leading from the upper part of the ancient city to the sea. It consists alternately of tunnels and deep open cuttings. It is difficult to give a confident opinion as to the uses for which it wasintended. But 1 For views, with descriptions, see Fisher's € Seleucus was buried here Syria, 1. 5,19, 77, 11. 28. 2 Colonel Chesney says, “‘ The windings give a distance of about forty-one miles, whilst the journey by land is only sixteen miles and a half.” — R. G. J. viii. p. 230. ® Dr. Yates observed traces of Roman pave- ment on the line of road between Antioch and Seleucia. Sce his comprehensive paper on Selencia, in the Museum of Classical Antiquities far Jume, 1852. 5 We may refer especially to tne chapter in which Polybius gives an account of tar siege of Seleucia in the war of Antiochus tn Great with Ptolemy. In these chapters wa find the clearest description both of its milite= importance and of its topography. ® Strabo. Seep. 48. Compare p. 22,m. L. 1 Pliny. 126 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL. the best conjecture seems to be that it was constructed for the purpose of drawing off the water, which might otherwise have done mischief to the houses and shipping in the lower part of the town; and so arranged at the same time, as, when needful, to supply a rush of water to clear out the port. The inner basin, or dock, is now a morass; but its dimensions can be measured, and the walls that surrounded it can be distinctly traced.! The position of the ancient flood-gates, and the passage through which the vessels were moved from the inner to the outer harbor, can be ~ accurately marked. The very piers of the outer harbor are still to be seen under the water. The southern jetty takes the wider sweep, and overlaps the northern, forming a secure entrance and a well-protected basin. The stones are of great size, “some of them twenty feet long, five feet deep, and six feet wide ;”? and they were fastened to each other with iron cramps. The masonry of ancient Seleucia is still so good, that not long since a Turkish Pacha* conceived the idea of clearing out and repairing the harbor. These piers‘ were unbroken when Saul and Barnabas came down to Seleucia, and the large stones fastened by their iron cramps protected the vessels in the harbor from the swell of the western sea. Here, in the midst of unsympathizing sailors, the two missionary Apostles, with their younger companion, stepped on board the vessel which was to convey them to Salamis. As they cleared the port, the whole sweep of the bay of Antioch opened on their left,—the low ground by the mouth of the Orontes,— the wild and woody country beyond it, — and then the peak of Mount Casius, rising symmetrically from the very edge of the sea to a height of five thousand feet.’ On the right, in the south-west horizon, if the day was clear, they saw the island of Cyprus from the first. The current sets north-east and northerly between the island and the Syrian coast.’?. But with a fair wind, a few hours would enable them to run down We CHAP. Y 1 Pococke gives a rude plan of Seleucia, with the harbor, &. A more exact and complete one will be found in the memoir of Dr. Yates. 2 Pococke, p. 183. 8 Ali Pasha, governor of Bagdad in 1835, nee governor of Aleppo. * It seems that the names of the piers still yetain the memory of this occasion. Dr. Yates says that the southern pier is called after the Apostle Paul, in contradistinction to its fellow, the pier of St. Barnabas. ® “The lofty Jebel-el-Akrab, rising 5,318 feet above the sea, with its abutments extend- ing to Antioch.” — Chesney, p. 228. This mountain is, however, a conspicuous and beau- tiful feature of this bay. St. Paul must have seen it in all his voyages to and from Antioch. 8 See above, p. 124, n. 2. 7 “Tn sailing from the southern shores of Cyprus, with the winds adverse, you should endeavor to obtain the advantage of the set of the current, which between Cyprus and the mouths of the Nile always runs to the east- ward, changing its direction to the N. E. and N. as you near the coast of Syria.” — Norie, p. 149. “The current, in general, continues easterly along the Libyan coast, and E. N. E off Alexandria ; thence advancing to the coast of Syria, it sets N. E. arid more northerly ; so that country vessels bound from Damietta to an eastern port of Cyprus have been carried DHAP, V. SALAMIS. L27 from Seleucia to Salamis; and the land would rapidly rise in forms wel! known and familiar to Barnabas and Mark. The coast of nearly every island of the Mediterranean has been minutely surveyed and described by British naval officers. The two islands which were most intimately connected with St. Paul’s voyages have been among the latest to receive this kind of illustration. The soundings of the coast of Crete are now proved to furnish a valuable commentary on the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts: and the chart of Cyprus should at least be consulted when we read the thirteenth chapter. From Cape St. Andrea, the north-eastern point of the island, the coast trends rapidly to the west, till it reaches Cape Grego,! the south-eastern extremity. The wretched modern town of Famagousta is nearer the latter point than the former, and the ancient Salamis was situated a short distance to the north of Famagousta. Near Cape St. Andrea are two or three small islands, anciently called “'The Keys.” These, if they were seen at all, would soon be lost to view. Cape Grego is distinguished by a singular promontory of table land, which is very familiar to the sailors of our merchantmen and ships of war: and there is little doubt that the woodcut given in one of their manuals of sailing directions? represents that very ‘rough, lofty, table-shaped eminence” which Strabo mentions in his description of the coast, and which has been identified with the Idalium of the classical poets. The ground lies low in the neighborhood of Salamis; and tho town _was situated on a bight of the coast to the north of the river Pedizus. This low land is the largest plain in Cyprus, and the Pedizus is the only true river in the island, the rest being merely winter-torrents, flowing in the wet season from the two mountain ranges which intersect it from east to west. This plain probably represents the kingdom of Teucer, which is familiar to us in the early stories of legendary Greece. It stretches in- wards between the two mountain ranges to the very heart of the country, where the modern Turkish capital, Nicosia, is situated.? In the days of historical Greece, Salamis was the capital. Under the Roman Empire, if not the seat of government, it was at least the most important mercantile py the current past the island.” — Purdy, p. 276. After leaving the Gulf of Scanderoon, the current sets to the westward along the south coast of Asia Minor, as we shall have occasion to notice hereafter. A curious illus- tration of the difficulty sometimes experienced in making this passage will be found in Meur- sius, Cyprus, Jc., p. 158; where the decree of an early council is cited, directing the course to be adopted on the death of a bishop in Cyprus, if the vessel which conveyed the new could not cross to Antioch. 1 The Pedalium of Strabo and Ptolemy. 2 See the sketch of Cape Grego “N. W. by W.., six miles,” in Purdy, Pt. ii. p. 253. 8 See Pococke’s description, vol. ii. pp. 214-217. He gives a rude plan of ancient Salamis. The ruined aqueduct which he mentions appears to be subsequent to the time of St. Paul. 123 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL CHAP. ¥. town. We have the best reasons for belivving that the harbor was con- venient and capacious.! Thus we can form to ourselves some idea of the appearance of the place in the reign of Claudius. A large city by the seashore, a wide-spread plain with corn-fields and orchards, and the blue distance of mountains beyond, composed the view on which the eyes of Barnabas and Saul rested when they came to anchor in the bay of Salamis. ~The Jews, as we should have been prepared to expect, were numerous in Salamis. This fact is indicated to us in the sacred narrative; for we learn that this city had several synagogues, while other cities had often only one? The Jews had doubtless been established here in considerable numbers in the active period which succeeded the death of Alexander.’ The unparalleled productiveness of Cyprus, and its trade in fruit, wine, flax, and honey, would naturally attract them to the mercantile port. The farming of the copper mines by Augustus to Herod may probably have swelled their numbers.‘ One of the most conspicuous passages in the history of Salamis was the insurrection of the Jews in the reign of Trajan, when great part of the city was destroyed.’ Its demolition was completed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt by a Christian emperor, from whom it received its mediwval name of Constantia.® It appears that the proclamation of the Gospel was confined by Barnabas and Saul to the Jews and the synagogues. We have neo in- formation of the length of their stay, or the success of their labors. Some stress seems to be laid on the fact that John (7. e. Mark) “ was their minister.” Perhaps we are to infer from this, that his hands baptized the Jews and Proselytes, who were convinced by the preaching of the Apostles. From Salamis they travelled to Paphos, at the other extremity of the 4 Bee especially the account in Diodorus Siculus of the great naval victory off Salamis, won by Demetrius Poliorcetes over Ptolemy. Secylax also says that Salamis had a good harbor. 2 Acts xiii. 5. Compare vi. 9, *x. 20, and nee xvii. 1, xviii. 4. * Philo speaks of the Jews of Cyprus. * See abeve, p. 16, n. 2. 5 “ Vhe flame spread to Cyprus, where the Jews were numerous and wealthy. One Arte mio placed himself a: their head. They rose and massacred 240,000 of their fellow-citizens ; the whole populous city of Salamis became a desert. The revolt of Cyprus was first sup- pressed ; Hadrian, afterwards emperor, landed en the island, and marched to the assistance of the few inhabitants who had béen able te act on ths defensive. He defeated the Jews, expe’led them from the island, to whose bean- tiful coasta no Jew was ever after permitted to approach. If one were accidentally wrecked on the inhospitable shore, he was instantly put to death.” — Milman, iii. 111, 112. The author sayn above (p. 104), that the Rabbinical tradi- tiors ars full of the sufferings of the Jews im this period. In this island there was a masse cre before the time of the rebellion, “and the ses. that broke upon the shores of Cyprus was tinged with the red hue of carnage.” © Jerome speaks of it under this name. mal. ¥, ROMAN PROVINCIAL SYSTEM. 328 island. The two towns were probably connected together by a woll travelled and frequented road.’ It is indeed likely that, even under the Empire, the islands of the Greek part of the Mediterranean, as Crete and Cyprus, were not so completely provided with lines of internal commu- nication as those which were nearer the metropolis, and had been longer under Roman occupation, such as Corsica and Sardinia. But we cannot help believing that Roman roads were laid down in Cyprus and Crete, after the manner of the modern English roads in Corfu and the other Ionian islands, which islands, in their social and political condition, pre- sent many points of resemblance to those which were under the Roman sway in the time of St. Paul. On the whole, there is little doubt that hie journey from Salamis to Paphos, a distance from east to west of not more than a hundred miles, was accomplished in a short time and without difficulty. Paphos was the residence of the Roman governor. The appearance of the place (if due allowance is made for the differences of the nineteenth century and the first) may be compared with that of the town of Corfu in the present day, with its strong garrison of imperial soldiers in the midst of a Greek population, with its mixture of two languages, with its symbols of a strong and steady power side by side with frivolous amusements, and with something of the style of a court about. the residence of its governor. All the occurrences, which are mentioned at Paphos as taking place on the arrival of Barnabas and Saul, are grouped so entirely round the governor’s person, that our attention must be turned for a time to the condition of Cyprus as a Roman province, and the position and character of Sergius Paulus. From the time when Augustus united the world under his own power, the provinces were divided into two different classes. The business of the first Emperor’s life was to consolidate the imperial system under the show of administering a republic. He retained the names and semblances of those liberties and rights which Rome had once enjoyed. He found twe names in existence, the one of which was henceforth inseparably blended with the Imperial dignity and Military command, the other with the authority of the Senate and its Civil administration. The first of these names was “ Pretor,”’ the second was “‘ Consul.” Both of them were retained in Italy ; and both were reproduced in the Provinces as “‘ Proprs- tor” and “ Proconsul.”? He told the senate and people that he would 1 On the west of Salamis, in the direction marked between Salamis and Paphos in the ef Paphos, Pecocke saw a church and monas- Peutingerian Table. | tery dedicated to Barnabas, and a grotto where 2 It is important, as we shall see presently, he is said to have been buried, after suffering te notice Dio Cassius’s further statement, that waartyrdom in the reign of Nero. A read is all governors of the Henate’s proviness wars te 9 “ nt 130 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. ¥, relieve them of all the anxiety of military proceedings, and that he would resign to them those provinces where soldiers were unnecessary to secure the fruits of a peaceful administration.’ He would take upon himself all the care and risk of governing the other provinces, where rebellion might be apprehended, and where the proximity of warlike tribes made the presence of the legions perpetually needful. These were his professions to the Senate: but the real purpose of this ingenious arrangement was the disarming of the Republic, and the securing to himself the absolute con- trol of the whole standing army of the Empire.? The scheme was suf- ficiently transparent; but there was no sturdy national life in Italy to resist his despotic innovations, and no foreign civilized powers to arrest the advance of imperial aggrandizement ; and thus it came to pass that Augustus, though totally destitute of the military genius either of Crom- well or Napoleon, transmitted to his successors a throne guarded by an invincible army, and a system of government destined to endure through several centuries. Hence we find in the reign, not only of Augustus, but of each of his successors, from Tiberius to Nero, the provinces divided into these two classes. On the one side we have those which are supposed to be under the Senate and people. The governor is appointed by lot, as in the times of the old republic. He carries with him the lictors and fasces, the insignia of a Consul; but he is destitute of military power. His office must be resigned at the expiration of a year. He is styled “‘ Proconsul,” and the Greeks, translating the term, call him “4r6izarog.2 On the other side are the provinces of Cesar. The Governor may be styled “ Propre- tor,” or “Avuoreatyyos ; but he is more properly “ Legatus,” or IMpecpeuris, — the representative or “‘ Commissioner ” of the Emperor. He goes out from Italy with all the pomp of a military commander, and he does not return till the Emperor recalls him.‘ And to complete the symmetry and consistency of the system, the subordinate districts of these imperial provinces are regulated by the Emperor’s “ Procurator ” (‘Emitgoneg), or “ High Steward.” The New Testament, in the strictest conformity with Acts xiii. 7. be called Proconsuls, whatever their previous office might have been, and all governors of the Emperor’s provinces were to be styled Legati or Propretors, even if they had been Consuls. 1 The “unarmed provinces” of Tacitus, in his account of the state of the Empire at the death of Nero. Hist. i. 11. 2 Suetonius and Dio Cassius. % Which our English translators have ren- @ered by the ambiguous word “ deputy.” “The deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus.” “Gallio was the deputy of Achaia,” Ibid. xviii. 12. “‘ There are deputies,” Thid. xix. 38. * All these details are stated, and the two kinds of governors very accurately distin- guished, in the 53d Book of Dio Cassius, ch. 13. It should be remarked that érapyia (the word still used for the subdivisions of the modern Greek Kingdom) is applied indisermi- nately to both kinds of provinces. CHAP. ¥. SERGIUS PAULUS. 131 the other historical authorities of the period, gives us examples of both kinds of provincial administration. We are told by Strabo, and by Dic Cassius, that “‘ Asia” and ‘ Achaia” were assigned to the Senate; and the title, which in each case is given to the Governor in the Acts of the Apostles, is “ Proconsul.”! The same authorities inform us that Syria was an imperial province,’ and no such title as “‘ Proconsul”’ is assigned by the sacred writers to ‘‘ Cyrenius Governor of Syria,” * or to Pilate, Festus, and Felix, the Procurators of Judea, which, as we have seen (p. 23), was a dependency of that great and unsettled province. Dio Cassius informs us, in the same passage where he tells us that Asia and Achaia were provinces of the Senate, that Cyprus was retained by the Emperor for himself.® If we stop here, we naturally ask the question, — and some have asked the question rather hastily, — how it comes to pass that St. Luke speaks of Sergius Paulus by the style of “ Pro- consul”’? But any hesitation concerning the strict accuracy of the sacred historian’s language is immediately set at rest by the very next sentence of the secular historian,’ —in which he informs us that Augustus restored ‘Cyprus to the Senate in exchange for another district of the Empire, —a statement which he again repeats in a later passage of his work.’ It is evident, then, that the governor’s style and title from this time forward would be “ Proconsul.” But this evidence, however satisfactory, is not all that we possess. The coin, which is engraved at the end of the chap- ter, distinctly presents to us a Cyprian Proconsul of the reign of Claudius. And inscriptions, which could easily be adduced,’ supply us with the names of additional governors,? who were among the predecessors or successors of Sergius Paulus. It is remarkable that two men called Sergius Paulus are described in very similar terms by two physicians who wrote in Greek, the one a Heathen, the other a Christian. The Heathen writer is Galen. He ‘speaks of his contemporary as a man interested and well versed in philos- ophy.” The Christian writer is St. Luke, who tells us here that the § Along with Syria and Cilicia. ® Dio Cass. liii. 12. 7 Thid. liv. 4. ® One is given in the larger editions of this 1 ’AvGirarec, XVili. 12, xix. 38. 2 Strabo and Dio. § Luke ii. 2.: ) * The word invariably used in the New Testament is ‘Hyeudv. This is a general term, like the Roman “ Prases ” and the Eng- lish “ Governor ; ” as may be seen by compar- ing Luke ii. 2 with iii. 1, and observing that the very same word is applied to the offices of the Procurator of Judssa, the Legatus of Syria, and the Emperor himself. Josephus | generally uses ‘Enirpomoc for the Procurator of Fades, and ‘Hyeudv for the Legatus of Syria. work. ® When we find, either on coins and inscrip- tions, or in Scripture, detached notices of provincial governors not mentioned elsewhere, we should bear in mind what has been said above (p. 131), that the Proconsul was ap- pointed annually. ji 10 The two were separated hy an interval of a hundred years. 1382 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. ¥. 1 governor of Oyprus was a “ prudent” man, who “ desired to hear the Word of God.” This governor seems to have been of a candid and in- quiring mind; nor will this philosophical disposition be thought inconsis- tent with his connection with the Jewish impostor, whom Saul and Barnabas found at the Paphian court, by those who are acquainted with the intellectual and religious tendencies of the age. For many years before this time, and many years after, impostors from the East, pretending to magical powers, had great influence over the Roman mind. All the Greek and Latin literature of the empire, from Horace to Lucian, abounds in proof of the prevalent credulity of tlfis sceptical period. Unbelief, when it has become conscious of its weakness, is often glad to give its hand to superstition. The faith of educated Romans was utterly gone. We can hardly wonder, when the East was thrown open, — the land of mystery, — the fountain of the earliest migra- tions, — the cradle of the earliest religions, — that the imagination both of the populace and the aristocracy of Rome became fanatically excited, and that they greedily welcomed the most absurd and degrading super stitions. Not only was the metropolis of the empire crowded with “ hungry Greeks,” but “ Syrian fortune-tellers”’ flocked into all the haunts of public amusement. Athens and Corinth did not now contribute the greatest or the worst part of the “dregs” of Rome ; but (to adopt Juvenal’s use of that river of Antioch we have lately been describing) “ the Orontes itself flowed into the Tiber.” Every part of the East contributed its share to the general superstition. The gods of Egypt and Phrygia found unfailing votaries. Before the close of the republic, the temples of Isis and Serapis had been more than once erected, destroyed, and renewed. Josephus tells us that certain disgrace- ful priests of Isis! were crucified at Rome by the second Emperor; but — this punishment was only a momentary check to their sway over the Roman mind. The more remote districts of Asia Minor sent their : itinerant soothsayers ; Syria sent her music and her medicines ; Chaldza her “ Babylonian numbers” and “ mathematical calculations.”* To these corrupters of the people of Romulus we must add one more Asiatic nation, — the nation of the Israelites ; and it is an instructive employ- ment to observe that, while some members of the Jewish people were rising, by the Divine power, to the highest position ever occupied by 1 Ant. xviii. 3, 4. Gellius, i. 9. “ Vulgus, quos gentilitio vocab 4 Babylonii Numeri, Hor. 1. Od. xi. 2. alo Chaldmos dicere oportet, mathematicos — Chaldaice rationes, Cic. Div. fi. 47. See the dicit.” There is some account of their pre whole passage 4247. The Chaldean astrol- coedings at the beginning of the fourteent) egers were called “ Mathematici” (Juv. vi. book of the Noctes Attics. 568, xiv 948). Seo the definition im Aulus SUAP. V- ORIENTAL DMPOSTOBS. 188 men on earth, others were sinking themselves, and others along with them, tc the lowest and most contemptible degradation. The treatment and influence of the Jews at Rome were often too similar to those of other Orientals. One year we find them banished ;' another year we see thom quietly re-established.? The Jewish beggar-woman was the gypsy of the first century, shivering and crouching in the outskirts of the city, and telling fortunes,’ as Ezekiel said of old, “ for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread.’’‘ All this catalogue of Oxiental impostors, whose influx into Rome was a characteristic of the period, we can gather from that re- volting satire of Juvenal, in which he scourges the follies and vices of the Roman women. But not only were the women of Rome drawn aside into this varied and multiplied fanaticism ; but the eminent men of the declin- ing republic, and the absolute sovereigns of the early Empire, were tainted and enslaved by the same superstitions. The great Marius had in his camp a Syrian, probably a Jewish,’ prophetess, by whose divinations he regulated the progress of his campaigns. As Brutus, at the beginning of the republic, had visited the oracle of Delphi, so Pompey, Crassus, and Cesar, at the close of the republic, when the oracles were silent, sought information from Oriental astrology. No picture in the great Latin satirist is more powerfully drawn than that in which he shows us the Emperor Tiberius “ sitting on the rock of Capri, with his flock of Chal- dgans round him.”* No sentence in the great Latin historian is more bitterly emphatic than that in which he says that the astrologers and sorcerers are @ Class of men who “ will always be discarded and always cherished.” ® What we know, from the literature of the period, to have been the case in Rome and in the Empire at large, we see exemplified in a province in the case of Sergius Paulus. He had attached himself to “a certain sor- cerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus, and who had given himself the Arabic name of “ Elymas,” or “The Wise.” But the Proconsul was not so deluded by the false prophet,’ as to be unable, or unwilling, to listen to the true. “He sent for Barnabas and Saul,” of whose arrival he was informed, and whose free and public declaration of the “‘ Word of God” attracted his inquiring mind. Elymas used every exertion to resist them, and to hinder the Proconsul’s mind from falling under the influence of their Divine doctrine. Truth and falsehood 1 Acts xviii. 2. 5 Tac. Hist. i. 22. 4 Acts xxviii. 17. ® For the good and bad senses in which the & Juv. Sat. ii. 18-16, vi. 542-546. word Mayor was used, see Professor Trench’s { Ezek, xiii. 19. recent book on the Second Chapter of St 6 Niebuhr thinks she wae a Jewess. Her Matthew. It is worth observing, that Simon aame wes Martha. Magnus was a Cyprian, if he is the person © Cie. Div. ii. 47. T Juv. Sat. x. %. mentioned by Josephus. Ant. xx. 5, 2. ae 134 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. were brought into visible conflict with each other. It is evident, from the graphic character of the narrative, — the description of Paul “ setting his eyes”! on the sorcerer,—‘‘ the mist and the darkness” which fell on Barjesus,—the “ groping about for some one to lead him,”’?— that the opposing wonder-workers stood face to face in the presence of the Pro consul, —as Moses and Aaron withstood the magicians at the Egyptian court. — Sergius Paulus being in this respect different from Pharaoh, that he did not “ harden his heart.” The miracles of the New Testament are generally distinguished from those of the Old by being for the most part works of mercy and restora- tion, not of punishment and destruction. Two only of our Lord’s mira- cles were inflictions of severity, and these were attended with no harm to the bodies of men. The same law of mercy pervades most of those interruptions of the course of nature which He gave His servants, the Apostles, power to effect. One miracle of wrath is mentioned as worked in His name by each of the great Apostles, Peter and Paul; and we can see sufficient reasons why liars and hypocrites, like Ananias and Sapphira, and powerful impostors, like Elymas Barjesus, should be publicly pun- ished in the face of the Jewish and Gentile worlds, and made the exam- ples and warnings of overy subsequent age of the Church.’ A different passage in the life of St. Peter presents a parallel which is closer in some respects with this interview of St. Paul with the sorcerer in Cyprus. As Simon Magus, — who had “long time bewitched the people of Samaria with his sorceries,’— was denounced by St. Peter “as still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity,’ and solemnly told that “ his heart was not right in the sight of God ;”*—so St. Paul, conscious of his apostolic power, and under the impulse of immediate inspiration, rebuked Bar- jesus, as a child of that Devil who is the father of lies,® as a worker 1 The word in Acts xiii. 9 is the same which is used in xxiii. 1 for “to look in- tently.” Our first impression is, that there perhaps, the statement in Gal. iv. 14-16, and was something searching and commanding in the allusion to his large handwriting, Gal. yi. St. Paul’s eye. Butif the opinion is correct 11. (See our Preface.) thought that “the thorn in his flesh,” 2 Cor. xii. 7, was an affection of the eyes. Hence, CHAP. ¥, that he suffered from an affection of the eyes, this word may express a peculiarity connected with his defective vision. See the Bishop of Winchester’s note (Ministerial Character of Christ, p. 555), who compares the LXX. in Numb. xxxiii. 55, Josh. xxiii. 13, and applies this view to the explanation of the difficulty in Acts xxiii. 1-5. And it is remarkable, that, in both the traditional accounts of Paul’s per- sonal appearance which we possess (viz. those of Malalas and Nicephorus), he is said to have had contracted eyebrows. Many have 2 Tt may be added that these phrases seem to imply that the person from whence they came was an eye-witness. Some have inferred that Luke himself was present. 3 Jt is not necessary to infer from these passages, or from 1 Cor. v. 3-5, 1 Tim. i. 20, that Peter and Paul had power to inflict these judgments at their will. Though, even if they had this power, they had also the spirit of love and supernatural knowledge to guide them in the use of it. * Acts viii. 21-23. & John viii. 44. Omar. Y. ELYMAS BARJESUS. 135 of deceit and mischief,’ and as one who sought to pervert and distort that which God saw and approved as right.?, He proceeded to denounce an instantaneous judgment ; and, according to his prophetic word, the ** hand of the Lord” struck the sorcerer, as it had once struck the Apostle him- self on the way to Damascus ;— the sight of Elymas began to waver} and presently a darkness settled on it so thick, that he ceased to behold the sun’s light. This blinding of the false prophet opened the eves of Sergius Paulus. That which had been intended as an opposition 10 the Gospel, proved the means of its extension. We are ignorant of the degree of this extension in the island of Cyprus. But we cannot doubt that when the Proconsul was converted, his influence would make Uhris- tianity reputable ; and that from this moment the Gentiles of the isiand, as well as the Jews, had the news of salvation brought home to them. And now, from this point of the Apostolical history, PAUL appears as the great figure in every picture. Barnabas, henceforward, is always in the background. The great Apostle now enters on his work as the preacher to the Gentiles; and simultaneously with his active occupation of the field in which he was called to labor, his name is suddenly changed. As “ Abram” was changed into “ Abraham,” when God promised that he should be the “ father of many nations;”— as “Simon” was changed into “ Peter,” when it was said, “ On this rock I will build my church ;” — so “ Saul” is changed into “ Paul,” at the moment of his first great victory among the Heathen. What “the plains of Mamre by Hebron” were to the patriarch, — what “‘ Czsarea Philippi,” ‘ by the fountains of the Jordan, was to the fisherman of Galilee,— that was the city of “ Paphos,” on the coast of Cyprus, to the tent-maker of Tarsus. Are we to suppose that the name was now really given him for the first time, — that he adopted it himself as significant of his own feelings, — or that Sergius Paulus conferred it on him in grateful commemoration of the benefits he had received, — or that “ Paul,” having been a Gentile form of the Apostle’s name in early life conjointly with the Hebrew “ Saul,” was now used to the exclusion of the other, to indicate that he had receded from his position as a Jewish Christian, to become the friend and teacher of the Gentiles? All these opinions have found their supporters both in ancient and modern times. The question has been alluded to before in this work (p. 43). It will be well to devote some further space to it aow, once for all. 1 The word in Acts xiii. 10 expresses the of the blindness. Compare the account of the cleverness of a successful imposture. recovery of the lame man in iii. 8. 2 With Acts xiii. 10 compare viii. 21. * See Gen. xiii. 18, xvii. 5; Matt. xvi. 13- 8 Acts xiii. 11. This may be used, in 18; and Prof. Stanley’s Sermon on St. Peter. Luke’s medical manner, to express the stages 188 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cmap. v. It cannot be denied that the words in Acts xiii. 9——“ Saul who is also Paul ”— are the line of separation between two very distinct portions of St. Luke’s biography of the Apostle, in the former of which he is uniformly called “ Saul,” while in the latter he receives, with equal consistency, the name of “ Paul.” It must also be observed that the Apostle always speaks of himself under the latter designation in every one of his Epistles, with- out any exception; and not only so, but the Apostle St. Peter, in the only passage where he has occasion to allude to him,’ speaks of him as “ our beloved brother Paul.” We are, however, inclined to adopt the opinion that the Cilician Apostle had this Roman name, as well as his other Hebrew name, in his earlier days, and even before he was a Christian. This adop- tion of a Gentile name is so far from being alien to the spirit of a Jewish family, that a similar practice may be traced through all the periods of Hebrew History. Beginning with the Persian epoch (B.c. 550-350) we find such names as ‘“‘ Nehemiah,” “ Schammai,” “ Belteshazzar,” which betray an Oriental origin, and show that Jewish appellatives followed the growth of the living language. In the Greek period we encounter the names of “ Philip,” * and his son “ Alexander,” * and of Alexander’s suc cessors, “ Antiochus,” ‘“ Lysimachus,” “ Ptolemy,” “ Antipater;”* the names of Greek philosophers, such as “ Zeno,” and “ Epicurus;”*® even Greek mythological names, as “ Jason ” and “‘ Menelaus.” *® Some of these words will have been recognized as occurring in the New Testament itself. When we mention Roman names adopted by the Jews, the coincidence is still more striking. ‘“ Crispus,”’’ “ Justus,”® “ Niger,’® are found in Josephus * as well as in the Acts. “ Drusilla” and “ Priscilia” might have been Roman matrons. The “ Aquila” of St. Paul is the counter- part of the “ Apella”’ of Horace." Nor need we end our survey of Jewish names with the early Roman empire; for, passing by the destruction of Jerusalem, we see Jews, in the earlier part of the Middle Ages, calling themselves, “ Basil,”’ ‘* Leo,” “ Theodosius,” “ Sophia ;” and, in the latter part, “ Albert,” “ Benedict,” “ Crispin,” ‘“ Denys.” We might pursue 1 2 Pet, iii. 15. § Jason, Joseph. Ant. xii. 10, 6; perhaps 2 Matt. x. 3; Acts vi. 5, xxi. 8; Joseph. Acts xvii. 5-9; Rom. xvi. 21; Menelaus, Ast. xiv. 10, 22. Joseph. Ant. xii. 5,1. See 2 Macc. iv. 5. * Acts xix. 38, 34. Seo 2 Tim. iv. 14. 7 Acts xviii. 8. Alexander was a common name among the ® Acts i. 23. Asmonmans. It is said that when the great ® Acts xiii. 1. eonqueror passed through Judwa, a promise 10 Joseph. Life, 68, 65, War, iv. 6, 1 was made to him that all the Jewish children Compare 1 Cor. i 14; Acts xviii. 7; Col born that year should be called “‘ Alexander.” _ iv. 11. * 1 Macc. xii. 16, xvi. 11; 2 Mace. iv. 29; Hor. x. Sat. v. 100. Priscilla eppoarr Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10. under the abbreviated form “ Prises,” 2 Tix § These names are in the Mischna and the _ iv. 19. amas. ¥. HISTORY OF JEWISH NAMES. 133 our inquiry into the nations of modern Europe ; but enough has been said to show, that as the Jews have successively learnt to speak Chaldee, Gree, Latin, or German, so they have adopted into their families the appellation: of those Gentile families among whom they have lived. It is indeed remarkable that the Separated Nation should bear, in the very names recorded in its annals, the trace of every nation with whom it has come in contact and never united. It is important to our present purpose to remark that double names often occur in combination, the one national, the other foreign. The earliest instances are “ Belteshazzar-Daniel,’” and ‘“ Esther-Hadasa.”’! Frequently there was no resemblance or natural connection between the two words, as in “ Herod-Agrippa,” “ Salome-Alexandra,” “ Juda-Aristo- bulus,” “Simon-Peter.” Sometimes the meaning was reproduced, as in “ Malich-Kleodemus.” At other times an alliterating resemblance of sound seems to have dictated the choice, as in “‘ JoseJason,” “ Hillei- Julus,” “ Saul-Paulus ” —“ Saul, who is also Paul.” Thus it seems to us that satisfactory reasons can be adduced for the double name borne by the Apostle,— without having recourse’ to the hypothesis of Jerome, who suggests that, as Scipio was called Africanus from the conquest of Africa, and Metellus called Creticus from the con quest of Crete, so Saul carried away his new name as a trophy of his victory over the Heathenism of the Proconsul Paulus —or to that notion, which Augustine applies with much rhetorical effect in various parts of his writings, where he alludes to the literal meaning of the word “ Paulus,’ and contrasts Saul, the unbridled king, the proud self-confi- dent persecutor of David, with Paul, the lowly, the penitent, — who delib- erately wished to indicate by his very name, that he was “the least of the Apostles,”? and “less than the least of all Saints.”* Yet we must not neglect the coincident occurrence of these two names in this narrative of the events which happened in Cyprus. We need not hesitate to dwell on the associations which are connected with the name of “ Paulus,’ — or on the thoughts which are naturally called up, when we notice the criti- cal passage in the sacred history, where it is first given to Saul of Tarsus. It is surely not unworthy of notice that, as Peter’s first Gentile convert was a member of the Cornelian House (p. 108), 80 the surname of the noblest family of the Zmilian House* was the link between the Apostle 1 Dan. x. 1; Esther ii. 7. So Zerubabbel 3 1 Cor. xv. 9. was called Sheshbazzar. Compare Ezra v. 16 * Eph. iii. 8. with Zech. iv. 9. The Oriental practice of 5 Paulus was the cognomen of a family ex adopting names which were significant must the Gens Aimilia. The stemma is given iz Bot be left out of view. Smith’s Dictionary ef Classical Biography § Bea p. 43, 2. 7. ender Paulus Hmilius. The name must of 138 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. of the Gentiles and his convert at Paphos. Nor can we find a nobler Christian version of any line of a Heathen poet, than by comparing what Horave says of him who fell at Canne,—“‘ anime magne prodigum Paulum,’ — with the words of him who said at Miletus, “JZ cownt not my life dear unto myself, so that 1 might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.”’? And though we imagine, as we have said above, that Saul had the name of Paul at an earlier period of his life, — and should he inclined to conjecture that the appellation came from some connection of his ances- tors (perhaps as manumitted slaves) with some member of the Roman family of the Aimilian Pauli ;*?— yet we cannot believe it accidental that the words,’ which have led to this discussion, occur at this particular point of the inspired narrative. The Heathen name rises to the surface at the moment when St. Paul visibly enters on his office as the Aposile of the Heathen. The Roman name is stereotyped at the moment when he converts the Roman governor. And the place where this occurs is Paphos, the favorite sanctuary of a shameful idolatry. At the very spot which was notorious throughout the world for that which the Gospel for- bids and destroys, — there, before he sailed for Perga, having achieved his victory, the Apostle erected his trophy,t— as Moses, when Amalek was discomfited, ‘built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah- Nissi, — the Lord my Banner.’’* Proconsular coin of Cyprus.6 5 Bxod. xvii. 15. 8 The woodcut is from Akerman’s Numie- matic Illustrations, p. 41. Specimens of the coin are in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna, and in the Bibliothéque du Roi. There are other Cyprian coins of the Imperial age, with PROCOS in Roman characters. Many Cyp- course have been given to the first individual who bore it from the smallness of his stature. It should be observed, that both Malalas and Nicephorus (quoted above) speak of St. Paul as short of stature. 1 Bor. 1. Od. xii. 87; Acts xx. 24. pare Phil. iii. 8. Com- CHAP. V; 2 Compare the case of Jesephus, alluded to above, p. 43. 5 Acts xiii. 9. £ 'The words of Jerome alluded to above avo: “ Victories sus tropea retulit, erexitaue varius.” rian coins of the reign of Claudius are of the red copper of the island: a fact peculiarly interesting to us, if the notion, mentioned p. 16, n. 2. and p. 128, be correct. a CHAPTER VL Old and New Paphos. — Departure from Cyprus.— Coast of Pamphylis. — Perga. — Mark’s Return to Jerusalem. — Mountain Scenery of Pisidia. — Situation of Antioch.— The Synsa- gogue. — Address to the Jews. —Preaching to the Gentiles. — Persecution by the Jews. — History and Description of Iconium.— Lycaonia.— Derbe and Lystra.— Healing of the Cripple. —Idolatrous Worship offered to Paul and Barnabas.— Address to the Gentiles. —St. Paul stoned. — Timotheus.— The Apostles retrace their Journey. — Perga and Attaleia. — Return to Syria. HE banner of the Gospel was now displayed on the coasts of the Heathen. The Glad Tidings had “ passed over to the isles of Chit- tim,”! and had found a willing audience in that island, which, in the vocabulary of the Jewish Prophets, is the representative of the trade and civilization of the Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus was the early meeting- place of the Oriental and Greek forms of social life. Originally colon- ized from Pheenicia, it was successively subject to Egypt, to Assyria, and to Persia. The settlements of the Greeks on its shores had begun in a remote period, and their influence gradually advanced, till the older links of connection were entirely broken by Alexander and his successors. But not only in political and social relations, by the progress of conquest and commerce, was Cyprus the meeting-place of Greece and the Hast. Here also their forms of idolatrous worship met and became blended together. Paphos was, indeed, a sanctuary of Greek religion: on this shore the fabled goddess first landed, when she rose from the sea: this was the scene of a worship celebrated in the classical poets, from the age of Homer, down to the time when Titus, the son of Vespasian, visited the spot in the spirit of a Heathen pilgrim, on his way to subjugate Judza.? But the polluted worship was originally introduced from Assyria or Pheenicia: the Oriental form under which the goddess was worshipped is represented on Greek coins:* the Temple bore a curious 1 The general notion intended by the phrases “isles” and “coasts” of “ Chittim ” seems to have been “the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean to the west and north- west of Judea.” Numb. xxiv. 24; Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6. See Gen. x. 4,5; Isai. xxiii. 1; Dan. xi. 30. But primarily the mame is believed to have been connected with Citium, which was a Phenician colony in Cyprus. 2 Tac. Hist. ii. 2-4. Compare Suet. Tit. 5. Tacitus speaks of magnificent offerings pre- sented by kings and others to the Temple at Old Paphos. 8 A specimen is given in the larger edi- tions. 1389 140 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CRAY. v1. resemblance to those of Astarte at Carthage or Tyre: and Tacitus pauses to describe the singularity of the altar and the ceremonies, before he pro- ceeds to narrate the campaign of Titus. And here it was that we have seen Christianity firmly established by St. Paul, —in the very spot where the superstition of Syria had perverted man’s natural veneration and love of mystery, and where the beautiful creations of Greek thought had administered to what Athanasius, when speaking of Paphos, well de scribes as the “ deification of lust.” The Paphos of the poets, or Old Paphos, as it was afterwards called, was situated on an eminence at a distance of nearly two miles from the sea. New Paphos was on the seashore, about ten miles to the north.’ But the old town still remained as the sanctuary which was visited by Heathen pilgrims; profligate processions, at stated seasons, crowded the road between the two towns, as they crowded the road between Antioch and Daphne (p. 116); and small models of the mysterious image were sought as eagerly by strangers as the little “silver shrines” of Diana at Ephesus. (Acts xix. 24.) Doubtless the position of the old town was an illustration of the early custom, mentioned by Thucydides, of building at a safe distance from the shore, at a time when the sea was infested by pirates ; and the new town had been established in a place convenient for commerce, when navigation had become more secure. It was situated on the verge of a plain, smaller than that of Salamis, and watered by a scantier stream than the Pedi@us.? Not long before the visit of Paul and Barnabas it had been destroyed by an earthquake. Augustus had rebuilt it; and from him it had received the name of Augusta, or Sebaste.? But the old name still retained its place in popular usage, and has descended to modern times. The “Paphos” of Strabo, Ptolemy, and St. Luke, became the “ Papho” of the Venetians and the “ Baffa” of the Turks. A second series of Latin architecture has crumbled into decay. Mixed up with the ruins of palaces and churches are the poor dwellings of the Greek and Mohammedan inhabitants, partly on the beach but chiefly on a low ridge of sandstone rock, about two miles* from the 1 Or rather the north-west. See the Admi- ralty Chart. 2 See p. 127. * The Greek form Sebaste, instead of Au- gusta, occurs in an inscription found on the spot, which is further interesting as containing the name of another Paulus. * This is the distance between the Ktema and the Marina given by Captain Graves. In Purdy’s Sailing Directions (p. 251), it is stated to be only half a mile. Captain Graves says: “Im the vicimity are numerous rains and ancient remains; but when so many towns have existed, and so many have severally been destroyed, all must be Jeft to conjecture. A mumber of columns broken and much muti- lated are lying about, and some substantial and well-built vaults, or rather subterraneous communications, under a hill of slight eleva tion, are pointed out by the guides as the remains of a temple dedicated to Venus. Then there are numerous excayations in the sand- atone hills, which probably served at various periods the double purpose of habitations and eae, Vi. COAST OF PAMPHYLIA. 14] ancient port; for the marsh, which once formed the limit of the port, makes the shore unhealthy during the heats of summer by its noxious exhalations. One of the most singular features of the neighborhood consists of the curious caverns excavated in the rocks, which have been used both for tombs and for dwellings. The harbor is now almost blocked up, and affords only shelter for boats. “The Venetian strong- hold, at the extremity of the Western mole, is fast crumbling into ruins. The mole itself is broken up, and every year the massive stones of which it was constructed are rolled over from their original position into the port.”! The approaches to the harbor can never have been very safe, in consequence of the ledge of rocks? which extends some distance into the sea. At present, the eastern entrance to the anchorage is said to be the safer of the two. The western, under ordinary circumstances, would be more convenient for a vessel clearing out of the port, and about to sail for the Gulf of Pamphylia. We have remarked in the last chapter, that it is not difficult to imagine the reasons which induced Paul and Barnabas, on their departure from Seleucia, to visit first the island of Cyprus. It is not quite so easy to give an opinion upon the motives which directed their course to the coast of Pamphylia, when they had passed through the native island of Barnabas, from Salamis to Paphos. It might be one of those circum- stances which we call accidents, and which, as they never influence the actions of ordinary men without the predetermining direction of Divine Providence, so were doubtless used by the same Providence to determine the course even of Apostles. As St. Paul, many years afterwards, joined at Myra that vessel in which he was shipwrecked,’ and then was con- veyed to Puteoli in a ship which had accidentally wintered at Malta‘— so on this occasion there might be some small craft in the harbor at Paphos, bound for the opposite gulf of Attaleia, when Paul and Barnabas were thinking of their future progress. The distance is not great, and frequent communication, both political and commercial, must have taken place between the towns of Pamphylia and those of Cyprus.® It is tombs. Several monasteries and churches now in ruins, of a low Gothic architecture, are more easily identified; but the crumbling fragments of the sandstone with which they were constructed, only add to the incongruous heap around, that now covers the palace of the Paphian Venus.” — MS. note by Captain Graves, B.N. 1 Captain Graves, MS. 3 “& great ledge of rocks lies in the entrance to Papho, extending about s league; you may sail in either to the eastward er westward of it, but the eastern passage is the widest and best.” — Purdy, p. 251. The soundings may be seen in the Admiralty Chart. 8 Acts xxvii.5,6. ‘4 Acts xxviii. 11-13. % And perhaps Paphos more especially, as the seat of government. At present Khalan- dri (Gulnar), to the south-east of Attaleia and Perga, is the port from which the Tatars from Constantinople, conveying governmen despatches, usually cross to Cypras. 142 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAS, VI. possible that St. Paul, having already preached the Gospel in Cilicia," might wish now to extend it among those districts which lay more im- mediately contiguous, and the population of which was, in some respects, similar to that of his native province.? He might also reflect that the natives of a comparatively unsophisticated district might be more likely to receive the message of salvation, than the inhabitants of those provinces which were more completely penetrated with the corrupt civilization of Greece and Rome. Or his thoughts might be turning to those numerous families of Jews, whom he well knew to be settled in the great towns beyond Mount Taurus, such as Antioch in Pisidia, and Iconium in Lycaonia, with the hope that his Master’s cause would be most successfully advanced among those Gentiles, who flocked there, as everywhere, to the worship of the Synagogue. Or, finally, he may have had a direct revelation from on high, and a vision, like that which had already appeared to him in the Temple,’ or like that which he afterwards saw on the confines of Europe and Asia,* may have directed the course of his voyage. Whatever may have been the calculations of his own wisdom and prudence, or whatever supernatural intimations may have reached him, he sailed, with his companions Barnabas and John, in some vessel, of which the size, the cargo, and the crew, are unknown to us, past the promontories of Drepanum and Acamas, and then across the waters of the Pamphylian Sea, leaving on the right the cliffs’ which are the western boundary of Cilicia, to the innermost bend of the bay of Attaleia. This bay is a remarkable feature in the shore of Asia Minor ; and it is not without some important relations with the history of this part of the world. It forms a deep indentation in the general coast-line, and is bordered by a plain, which retreats itself like a bay into the mountains. From the shore to the mountains, across the widest part of the plain, the distance is a journey of eight or nine hours. Three principal rivers intersect this level space: the Catarrhactes, which falls over sea-cliffs near Attaleia, in the waterfalls which suggested its name; and farther to the east the Cestrus and Eurymedon, which flow by Perga and Aspen- dus to a low and sandy shore. About the banks of these rivers, and on - the open waters of the bay, whence the eye ranges freely over the ragged mountain summits which enclose the scene, armies and fleets had engaged in some of those battles of which the results were still felt in the day of St. Paul. From the base of that steep shore on the west, where a 1 See pp. 98-100. 6 About C. Anamour (Anemurium, the 2 Strabo states this distinctly. southernmost point of Asia Minor), and Alaya ® Acts xxii. 17-21. See p. 97. (the ancient Coracesium), there are cliffs of * Acts xvi. 9. 500 and 600 feet high. opar. v1. THE CITY OF PERGA. 143 rugged knot of mountains is piled up into snowy heights above the rocks of Phaselis, the united squadron of the Romans and Rhodians sailed across the bay in the year 190 B.C.; and it was in rounding tai promontory near Side on the east, that they caught sight of the ships of Antiochus, as they came on by the shore with the dreadful Hannibal on board. And close to the same spot where the Latin power then defeated the Greek king of Syria, another battle had been fought at an earlier period, in which the Greeks gave one of their last blows to the retreating force of Persia, and the Athenian Cimon gained a victory both by land and sea; thus winning, according to the boast of Plutarch, in one day the laurels of Platwa and Salamis. On that occasion a large navy sailed up the river Hurymedon as far as Aspendus. Now, the bar at the mouth of the river would make this impossible. The same is the case with the river Cestrus, which, Strabo says, was navigable in his day for sixty stadia, or seven miles, to the city of Perga. Ptolemy calls this city an inland town of Pamphylia; but so he speaks of Tarsus in Cilicia. And we have seen that Tarsus, though truly called an inland town, ag being some distance from the coast, was nevertheless a mercantile har- bor. Its relation with the Cydnus was similar to that of Perga with the Cestrus ; and the vessel which brought St. Paul to win more glorious victories than those of the Greek and Roman battles of the Kurymedon came up the course of the Cestrus to her moorings near the Temple of Diana. : All that Strabo tells us of this city is that the Temple of Diana was on an eminence at some short distance, and that an annual festival was held in honor of the goddess. The chief associations of Perga are with the Greek rather than the Roman period: and its existing remains are described as being “ purely Greek, there being no trace of any later inhabitants.” ! Its prosperity was probably arrested by the building of Attaleia? after the death of Alexander, in a more favorable situation on the shore of the bay. Attaleia has never ceased to be an important town since the day of its foundation by Attalus Philadelphus. But when the traveller pitches his tent at Perga, he finds only the encampments of shepherds, who pasture their cattle amidst the ruins. These ruins are walls and towers, columns and cornices, a theatre and a stadium, a broken aque- duct incrusted with the calcareous deposit of the Pamphylian streams, and tombs scattered on both sides of the site of the town. Nothing else remains of Perga, but the beauty of its natural situation, “ be- tween and upon the sides of two hills, with an extensive valley in front, 1 Perhaps some modification is requisite tural details of the theatre and stadium are here. Mr. Falkener noticed that the architec. Roman. 2 Acts xiv. 25. 144 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. watered by the river Oestrus, and backed by the mountains of the Taurus.”? The coins of Perga are a lively illustration of its character as a city of the Greeks.? We have no memorial of its condition as a city of the Romans; nor does our narrative require us to delay any longer in describing it. The Apostles made no long stay in Perga. This seems evident, not only from the words used at this point of the history,’ but from the marked manner in which we are told that they did stay,‘ on their return from the interior. One event, however, is mentioned as occurring at Perga, which, though noticed incidentally and in few words, was attended with painful feelings at the time, and involved the most serious consequences. It must have occasioned deep sorrow to Paul and Barnabas, and possibly even then some mutual estrangement: and afterwards it became the cause of their quarrel and separation.’ Mark “departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.” He came with them up the Cestrus as far as Perga; but there he forsook them, and, taking advantage of some vessel which was sailing towards Palestine, he “returned to Jerusalem,’”’* which had been his home in earlier years.’ We are not to suppose that this implied an absolute rejection of Christianity. A soldier who has wavered in one battle may live to obtain a glorious victory. Mark was afterwards not unwilling to accompany the Apostles on a second missionary journey ; * and actually did accompany Barnabas again to Cyprus.’ Nor did St. Paul always retain his unfavorable judgment of him (Acts xv. 38), but long afterwards, in his Roman imprisonment, commended him to the Colossians, as one who was “a fellow-worker unto the Kingdom of God,” and “a comfort” to himself:-and in his latest letter, just before his death, he speaks of him again as one “ profitable to him for the ministry.”" Yet if we consider all the circumstances of his life, we shall not find it difficult to blame his conduct in Pamphylia, and to see good reasons why Paul should afterwards, at Antioch, distrust the steadiness of his character. The child of a religious mother, who had sheltered in her house the Christian Disciples in a fierce persecution, he had joined himself to Barnabas and Saul, when they travelled from_ 1 This description is quoted or borrowed from Sir C. Fellows’s Asia Minor, 1839, pp. 190-193. Perga, they went down, &.”—Acte xiv 25. § Acts xv. 37-39. 2 One of them, with Diana and the stag, is © Acts xiii. 13. ) given im the larger edition. 7 Acts xii. 19, 35. ® This will be seen by comparing the Greek * Acts xv. 37. of Acts xiii. 14 with xiv. 24. Similarly, a ® Acts xy. 39. ® Col. iv. 10. rapid journey is implied in xvii. 1. « “Whee they had preached the Werd in 11 Or rather, “profitable to minister” him. 3 Tim. iv. 11. AP. VL, PERILS OF TRAVEL IN PiSIDLA. 14% Jerusalem to Antioch, on their return from 4 mission of charity. He had been a close spectator of the wonderful power of the religion of Christ, —he had seen the strength of faith under trial in his mother’s home, — he had attended his kinsman Barnabas in his labors of zeal and love, — he had seen the word of Paul sanctioned and fulfilled by miracles, — he had even been the “ minister’ of Apostles in their sue cessful enterprise ;! and now he forsook them, when they were about to proceed through greater difficulties to more glorious success. We are not left in doubt as to the real character of his departure. He wag drawn from the work of God by the attraction of an earthly home.? As he looked up from Perga to the Gentile mountains, his heart tailed him, and he turned back with desire towards Jerusalem. He could not resolve to continue persevering, “ in journeyings often, in perils of rivera, in perils of robbers.”’* “Perils of rivers” and “perils of robbers” — these words express the very dangers which St. Paul would be most likely to encounter om his journey from Perga in Pamphylia to Antioch in Pisidia. The lew- less and marauding habits of the population of those mountains which separate the table-land in the interior of Asia Minor from the plains om the south coast, were notorious in all parts of ancient history. Strabe uses the same strong language both of the Isaurians‘ who separated Cappadocia from Cilicia, and of their neighbors the Pisidians, whose native fortresses were the barrier between Phrygia and Pamphylia. We have the same character of the latter of these robber-tribes in Xenophon, who is the first to mention them; and in Zosimus, who relieves the history of the later empire by telling us of the adventures of a robber- chief, who defied the Romans, and died a desperate death in these mountains. Alexander the Great, when he heard that Memnon’s fleet was in the Agean, and marched from Perga to rejoin Parmenio in Phrygia, found some of the worst difficulties of his whole campaign in penetrating through this district. The scene of one of the roughest campaigns connected with the wars of Antiochus the Great was among the hill-forts near the upper waters of the Cestrus and Eurymedon. N population through the midst of which St. Paul ever travelled, abound _ more in those “ perils of robbers,” of which he himself speaks, than wild and lawless clans of the Pisidian Highlanders. 1 See Acts xiii. 5. | * Matthew Henry pithily remarks: “ Hi- _ ther he did not like the work, or he wanted to go and see his mother.” 5 2 Cor. xi. 26. * See p 19. 10 5 The beautiful story of St. John and the robber (Euseb. Keel. Hist. iti. 23) will nate- rally occur to the reader. See also the fre quent mention of Isaurian robbers im the latter part of the life of Chrysostom, prefixed te the Benedictine edition of his works. 146 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. And if on this journey he was exposed to dangers from the attacks of men, there might be other dangers, not less imminent, arising from the natural character of the country itself. To travellers in the East there is a reality in “ perils of rivers,” which we in England are hardly able to understand. Unfamiliar with the sudden flooding of thirsty watercourses, we seldom comprehend the full force of some of the most striking images in the Old and New Testaments.’ The rivers of Asia Minor, like all the rivers in the Levant, are liable to violent and sudden changes.? And no district in Asia Minor is more singularly characterized by its ‘* water fioods”’ than the mountainous tract of Pisidia, where rivers burst vut at the bases of huge cliffs, or dash down wildly through narrow ravines. The very notice of the bridges in Strabo, when he tells us how the Cestrus and EKurymedon tumble down from the heights and precipices of Selge to the Pamphylian Sea, is more expressive than any elaborate description. We cannot determine the position of any bridges which the Apostle may have crossed ; but his course was never far from the channels of these two rivers: and it is an interesting fact, that his name is still traditionally connected with one of them, as we learn from the information recently given to an English traveller by the Archbishop of Pisidia.? Such considerations respecting the physical peculiarities of the country now traversed by St. Paul, naturally lead us into various trains of thought concerning the scenery, the climate, and the seasons.‘ And there are certain probabilities in relation to the time of the year when the Apostle may be supposed to have journeyed this way, which may well excuse some remarks on these subjects. And this is all the more allowable, because we are absolutely without any data for determining the year in which - this first missionary expedition was undertaken. All that we can assert with confidence is that it must have taken place somewhere in the interval — between the years 45 and 50.2 But this makes us all the more desirous : 1 Thus the true meaning of 2 Cor. xi. 26 had continued its course so far, is lost in the is lost in the English translation. Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. vii. 25, 27), the word for “rivers” is translated “floods,” and the image confused. See Ps. X=zxii. 6. 2 The crossing of the Halys by Croesus, as told by Herodotus, is an illustration of the difficulties presented by the larger rivers of Asia Minor. 8 “ About two hours and a half from Is- barta, towards the south-east, is the village of Sav, where is the source of a river called the Say-Sou. Five hours and a half beyond, and still towards the south-east, is the village of Paoli (St. Paw); and here the river, which mountains, &c.”” — Arundell’s Asia Minor, vol. — ii. p. 31. The river is probably the Euryme- don. * The descriptive ‘passages which follow are chiefly borrowed from “ Asia Minor, 1839,” and “ Zycia, 1841,” by Sir C. Fellows, and — “ Travels in Lycia, 1847,” by Lieutenant Spratt, — R.N., and Professor E. Forbes. The va desires also to acknowledj’e his obligations to— various travellers, especial’y to the ince Professor Forbes, also to Mr. Falkener, and Dr. Wolff. : 5 See the Chronological Table in Ap pendix III. omar, VI. MOUNTAIN-SCENERY OF PISIDIA. 147 to determine, by any reasonable conjectures, the movements of the Apostle in reference to a better chronology than that which reckons by successive years, —the chronology which furnishes us with the real imagery round his path, — the chronology of the seasons. Now we may well suppose that he might sail from Seleucia to Salamis at the beginning of spring. In that age and in those waters, the com mencement of a voyage was usually determined by the advance of the season. The sea was technically said to be “open” in the month of March. If St. Paul began his journey in that month, the lapse of two months might easily bring him to Perga, and allow sufficient time for all that we are told of his proceedings at Salamis and Paphos. If we suppose him to have been at Perga in May, this would have been exactly the most natural time for a journey to the mountains. Larlier in the spring, the _ passes would have been filled with snow.! In the heat of summer the weather would have been less favorable for the journey. In the autumn the disadvantages would have been still greater, from the approaching difficulties of winter. But again, if St. Paul was at Perga in May, a further reason may be given why he did not stay there, but seized all the advantages of the season for prosecuting his journey to the interior. The habits of a people are always determined or modified by the physical pe- culiarities of their country ; and a custom prevails among the inhabitants of this part of Asia Minor, which there is every reason to believe has been unbroken for centuries. At the beginning of the hot season they move up from the plains to the cool basin-like hollows on the mountains. These yatlahs or summer retreats are always spoken of with pride and satisfac- tion, and the time of the journey anticipated with eager delight. When the time arrives, the people may be seen ascending to the upper grounds, men, women, aud children, with flocks and herds, camels and asses, like the patriarchs of old? If then St. Paul was at Perga in May, he would 1 “ March 4.— The passes to the Yailahs seer make of such a pilgrimage! The snowy from the upper part of the valley being still shut up by snow, we have no alternative but _ to prosecute our researches amongst the low country and valleys which border the coast.” — Sp. and F.1. p. 48. The valley referred to is that of the Xanthus, in Lycia. 2 « April 30. — We passed many families en route from Adalia to the mountain plains for the summer.” — Sp. and F. 1. p. 242. Again, p- 248 (May 8). See p. 64. During a halt im the valley of the Xanthus (May 10), Sir C. Fellows says that an almost uninterrupted tram of cattle and people (nearly twenty fami- lies) passed by. “ What a picture would Land- ‘ tops of the mountains were seen through the lofty and dark-green fir-trees, terminating in abrupt cliffs. . . . From clefts in these gushed out cascades . . . and the waters were carried away by the wind in spray over the green woods. ... Ina zigzag course up the wood lay the track leading to the cool places. In advance of the pastoral groups were the strag- gling goats, browsing on the fresh blossoms of the wild almond as they passed. In more steady courses followed the small black cattle . . . then came the flocks of sheep, and the camels .. . bearing piled loads of ploughs, tent-poles, kettles . . . and amidst this rustic 143 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PATL. onan. 6 find the inhabitants deserting its hot and silent streets. They would be moving in the direction of his own intended journey. He would be under ~ no temptation to stay. And if we imagine him as joining’ some such - company of Pamphylian families on his way to the Pisid‘an mountains, it — gives much interest and animation to the thought of thie part of his prog- ress. Perhaps it was in such company that the Apostle entered the first passes of the mountainous district, along some road formed part'y by artificial pavement, and partly by the native marble, with high cliffs frowning on either hand, with tombs and inscriptions, even then ancient, on the pro jecting rocks around, and with copious fountains bursting ovt “ among thickets of pomegranates and oleanders.”? The oleander, “ the favorite fower of the Levantine midsummer,” abounds in the lower watercourses ; and in the month of May it borders all the banks with a line of »rilliant erimson.? As the path ascends, the rocks begin to assume the wilder grandeur of mountains, the richer fruit-trees begin to disappear, avd the pine and walnut succeed; though the plane-tree still stretches its wide leaves over the stream which dashes wildly down the ravine, crossing and recrossing the dangerous road. The alteration of climate which attends on the traveller’s progress is soon perceptible. A few hours will make the difference of weeks, or even months. When the corn is in the ear on the lowlands, ploughing and sowing are hardly well begun upon the highlands. Spring flowers may be seen in the mountains by the very edgo of the loed was always seen the rich Turkey carpet and damask cushions, the pride even of the tented Turk.” — Lycia, pp. 238, 289. 1 It has always been customary for travel- lers in Asia Minor, as in the patriarchal East, to join caravans, if possible. $ In ascending from Limyra, a small plain oa the coast not far from Phaselis, Spratt and Forbes mention “a rock-tablet with a long Greek inscription . . . by the side of an an- cient paved road, at a spot where numerous and copious springs gush out among thickets of pomegranates and oleanders.” (1. p. 160.) Fellows, in coming to Attaleia from the north, “suddenly entered a pass between the moun- tains, which diminished in width until cliffs almost perpendicular enclosed us on either side. The descent became so abrupt that we were compelled to dismount and walk for two hours, during which time we continued rapidly descending am ancient paved road, formed principslly ef the mative marble rock, but which had been perfected with large stones af & very remote age; the deep ruts of chariot wheels were apparent in many plates. The road is much worn by time; and the people ef a later age, diverging from the track, have formed a road with stones very inferior both in size and arrangement. About half an hour before I reached the plain . . . a view burst upon me through the cliffs. ...I looked down from the rocky steps of the throne of winter upon the rich and verdant plain of summer, with the blue sea in the distance. . . . Nor was the foreground without its interest; on each projecting rock stood an ancient sar- cophagus, and the trees half concealed the lids and broken sculptures uf innumerable tombs.” — A. M. pp. 174, 175. This may very probe bly have been the pass and road by whick St. Paul ascended. ® See the excellent Chapter on the “ Bota ny of Lycis” im Spratt and Forbes, vol m ch. xiii. OMAR, FE TABLE-LAND OF ASIA MINOR. 143 snow, when the anemone is withered in the plain, and the pink veins in the white asphodel flower are shrivelled by the heat. When the cottages are closed and the grass is parched, and every thing is silent below in the purple haze and stillness of midsummer, clouds are seen drifting among the Pisidian precipices, and the cavern is often a welcome shelter from a cold and penetrating wind.? The upper part of this district is a wild region of cliffs, often isolated and bare, and separated from each other by valleys of sand, which the storm drives with blinding violence among the shivered points. The trees become fewer and smaller at every step. Three belts of vegetation are successively passed through in ascending from the coast: first the oak-woods, then the forests of pine, and lastly the dark scattered patches of the cedar-juniper: and then we reach the treeless plains of the interior, which stretch in dreary extension to the north and the east. After such a journey as this, separating, we know not where, from the companions they may have joined, and often thinking of that Christian companion who had withdrawn himself from their society when they needed him. most, Paul and Barnabas emerged from the rugged mountain- passes, and came upon the central table-land of Asia Minor. The whole interior region of the peninsula may be correctly described by this term ; for, though intersected in various directions by mountain-ranges, it is, on the whole, a vast plateau, elevated higher than the summit of Ben Nevis above the level of the sea.’ This is its general character, though a long journey across the district brings tho traveller through many varieties of scenery. Sometimes he moves for hours along the dreary margin of an inland sea of salt,‘— sometimes he rests in a cheerful hospitable town 1 4 May 9. — Ascending through a winterly climate, with snow by the side of our path, and only the crocus and anemones in bloom ... we beheld a new series of cultivated plains to the west, being im fact table-lands, nearly upon a level with the tops of the mountains which form the eastern boundary of the valley of the Xanthus. ... Descending to the plain, probably 1,000 feet, we pitched our tent, after 8 ride of 74 hours... . Upon boiling the thermometer, I found that we were more than 4,900 feet above the sea, and, cutting down some dead trees, we provided against the _ coming cold of the evening by lighting three large fires around eur encampment.” — Fell. Tyecia, p. 234. This was in descending from Almales, in the great Lycian yailah, to the south-cast of Cibyre. 4 For further illustrations of the change of | waenm eauesd by difference of elevation, ses Sp. and F. 1. p. 242. Again, p. 293, “ Every step led us from spring into summer;” and the following pages. See also Fellows: “Two months since at Syria the corn was beginning to show the-ear, whilst here they have only in a few places now begun to plough and sew.” — A. M.158. “The corn, which we had the day before seen changing color for the her- vest, was here not an inch above the ground, and the buds of the bushes were not yet burst- ing.” — Lycia, p. 226. 8 The yailah of Adalia is 3,500 feet above the sea: Sp. and F. 1. p. 244. The vast plain, “ ot least 50 miles long and 20 wide,” seuth of Kiutayah in Phrygia, is about 6,000 feet above the sea. Fell. A. M@. p. 155. This may be overstated, but the pisin ef Ersercem ix quite as muck. 4 We shall have occasion to mention the salt lakes hereafter. 150 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, YI, by the shore of a fresh-water lake.! In some places the ground is burnt and volcanic, in others green and fruitful. Sometimes it is depressed into watery hollows, where wild swans visit the pools, and storks are seen fishing and feeding among the weeds:? more frequently it is spread out into broad open downs, like Salisbury Plain, which afford an inter- minable pasture for flocks of sheep.’ To the north of Pamphylia, the elevated plain stretches through Phrygia for a hundred miles from Mount Taurus to Mount Olympus. The southern portion of these bleak up- lands was crossed by St. Paul’s track, immediately before his arrival at Antioch in Pisidia. The features of human life which he had around him are probably almost as unaltered as the scenery of the country, — dreary villages with flat-roofed huts and cattle-sheds in the day, and at night an encampment of tents of goat’s hair,—tents of ciliciwm (see p- 45), —a blazing fire in the midst, — horses fastened around, — and in the distance the moon shining on the snowy summits of Taurus.® The Sultan Tareek, or Turkish Royal Road from Adalia to Kiutayah and Constantinople, passes nearly due north by the beautiful lake of Buldur.* The direction of Antioch in Pisidia bears more to the east. After passing somewhere near Selge and Sagalassus, St. Paul approached by the margin of the much larger, though perhaps not less beautiful, lake of Eyerdir.’’ The position of the city is not far from the northern shore of this lake, at the base of a mountain-range which stretches through Phrygia in a south-easterly direction. It is, however, not many years since this statement could be confidently made. Strabo, indeed, de- scribes its position with remarkable clearness and precision. His words are as follows: —“ In the district of Phrygia called Paroreia, there is a certain mountaimridge, stretching from east to west. On each side there is a large plain below this ridge: and it has two cities in its neigh- borhood ; Philomelium on the north, and on the other side Antioch, called ~ Antioch near Pisidia. The former lies entirely in the plain, the latter (which has a Roman colony) is on a height.” With this description 1 The two lakes of Buldur and Eyerdir are mentioned below. Both are described as very beautiful. 2 « March 27 (near Kiutayah).—I counted 180 storks fishing or feeding in one small swampy place not an acre in extent. The land here is used principally for breeding and grazing cattle, which are to be seen in herds of many hundreds.” Fell. Asta Minor, p. 155. “ May 8.— The shrubs are the rose, the bar- bary, and wild almond; but all are at present fally six weeks later than those in the country we have lately passed. I observed on the Jake many stately wild swans (near Almalee, 3,000 | feet above the sea).” — Fell. Lycia, p. 228. | 8 We shall have occasion to return pres- ently to this character of much of the interior of Asia Minor when we come to the mention of Lycaonia (Acts xiv. 6). * Fellows’s Asia Minor, p. 155, &. 5 See Fellows’s Asia Minor, p. 177, and es- pecially the mention of the goat’s-hair tents. 8 See above, n. 1. 7 See the descriptions in Arundell’s Asia Minor, ch. xiii., and especially ch. xy. OHAP, VI, SITUATION OF ANTIOCH. 15} before him, and taking into account certain indications of distance furnished by ancient authorities, Colonel Leake, who has perhaps done more for the elucidation of Classical Topography than any other man, felt that Ak-Sher, the position assigned to Antioch by D’Anville and other geographers, could not be the true place: Ak-Sher is on the north of the ridge, and the position could not be made to harmonize with the Tables.'_ But he was not in possession of any information which could lead him to the true position; and the problem remained unsolved till Mr. Arundell started from Smyrna, in 1833, with the deliberate purpose of discovering the scene of St. Paul’s labors. He successfully proved that Ak-Sher is Philomelium, and that Antioch is at Yalobatch, on the other side of the ridge. The narrative of his successful journey is very interesting : and every Christian ought to sympathize in the pleasure with which, knowing that Antioch was seventy miles from Apamea, and forty- five miles from Apollonia, he first succeeded in identifying Apollonia ; and then, exactly at the right distance, perceived, in the tombs near a fountain, and the vestiges of an ancient road, sure indications of his ap- proach to a ruined city ; and then saw, across the plain, the remains of an aqueduct at the base of the mountain; and, finally, arrived at Jalobatch, ascended to the elevation described by Strabo, and felt, as he looked on the superb ruins around, that he was “really on the spot con- secrated by the labors and persecution of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas.”’? The position of the Pisidian Antioch being thus determined by the con- vergence of ancient authority and modern esearch, we perceive that it lay on an important line of communication, westward by Apamea with the valley of the Meander, and eastward by Iconium with the country behind the Taurus. In this general direction, between Smyrna and Ephesus on the one hand, and the Cilician Gates which lead down to Tarsus on the other, conquering armies and trading caravans, Persian— satraps, Roman proconsuls, and Turkish pachas, have travelled for cen- turies.2 The Pisidian Antioch was situated about half way between these extreme points. It was built (as we have seen in an earlier chapter, IV. 1 See Leake’s Asta Minor, p. 41. The 3 In illustration of this we may refer to the same difficulties were perceived by Mannert. 2 See Arundell’s Asia Minor, ch. xii., xiii., xiy., and the view as given in our quarto edi- tion. There is also a view in Laborde. The opinion of Mr. Arundell is fully confirmed by ' Mr. Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, vol. 1. ch. xxvii. The aqueduct conveyed water 40 the town from the Sultan Dagh (Strabo’s “mountain ridge ”’). caravan routes and Persian military roads as indicated in Kiepert’s Hellas, to Xenophon’s Anabasis, to Alexander’s campaign and Cice- ro’s progress, to the invasion of Tamerlane, and the movements of the Turkish and Egyp« tian armies in 1832 and 1838, 156 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL ema p- 118) by the founder of the Syrian Antioch; and in the age of the Greek kings of the line of Seleucus it was a town of considerable impor— tance. But its appearance had been modified, since the campaigns of Scipio and Manlius, and the defeat of Mithridates,! by the introduction of Roman usages, and the Roman style of building. This was true, to a certain extent, of all the larger towns of Asia Minor: but this change had probably taken place in the Pisidian Antioch more than in many cities of greater importance ; for, like Philippi,” it was a Roman Colonia. Without delaying, at present, to explain the full meaning of this term, we may say that the character impressed on any town in the Empire which had been made subject to military colonization was particularly Roman, and that all such towns were bound by a tie of peculiar closeness te the Mother City. The insignia of Roman power were displayed more conspicuously than in other towns in the same province. In the prov- inces where Greek was spoken, while other towns had Greek letters on their coins, the money of the colonies was distinguished by Latin supers scriptions. Antioch must have had some eminence among theeastern colonies, for it was founded by Augustus, and called Casarea.? Such coins as that represented at the end of this chapter were in circulation ~ here, though not at Pergsa or Jeonium, when St. Paul visited these cities: and, more than at any other city visited on this journey, he would hear Latin spoken side by side with the Greek and the ruder Pisidian= dialect.‘ Along with this population of Greeks, Romans, and native Pisidians, . @ greater or smaller number of Jews was intermixed. They may not have been a very numerous body, for only one synagogue® is mentioned> in the narrative. But it is evident, from the events recorded, that they were an influential body, that they had made many proselytes, and that they had obtained some considerable dominion (as in the parallel cases of Damascus recorded by Josephus,’ and Berea and Thessalonica in the Acts of the Apostles)’ over the minds of the Gentile women. — Qn the Sabbath days the Jews and the proselytes met in the synagogue. oxen, which illustrate the Roman mode of marking out by a plough the colonial limita. 1 Seo p. 18. 2 Acts xvi. 12. The constitution of a Co onia will be explained when we come to this passage. ® Wo should learn this from the inscription on the coins, COL. CHS. ANTIOCHIAZ, if we did not learn it from Strabo and Pliny. Mr. Hamilton feund an inscription at Yalo- betch, with the letters ANTIOCH EAE CAESARE. Another coin of this colony, exhibiting the wolf with Romulus and Remus, 'g engraved in this velume. Others exhibit two * We shall have to return to this subject of language again, in speaking of the “ speech of Lycaonia.” Acts xiv. Il. § See remarks on Salamis, p. 127. ® The people of Damascus were obliged ts use caution in their scheme of assassinating the Jews;— ‘through fear of their women. all of whom, except a few, were attached ow the Jewish worshippers.” — War, ii. 20, 2. 7 Acts xvii. 4, 12. war. VL : 7 182 THE SYNAGOGUE. It is evident that at this time full liberty cf public worship was permitted to the Jewish people in all parts of the Roman Empire, whatever limite tions might have been enacted by law or compelled by local opposition, as relates to the form and situation of the synagogues. We infer from Epiphanius that the Jewish places of worship were often erected in open and conspicuous positions.! This natural wish may frequently have been checked by the influence of the Heathen priests, who would not will- ingly see the votaries of an ancient idolatry forsaking the temple for the synagogue: and feelings of the same kind may probably have hindered the Jews, even if they had the ability or desire, from erecting religious edifices of any remarkable grandeur and solidity. No ruins of the synagogues of imperial times have remained to us, like those of the tem- ples in every province, from which we are able to convince ourselves of the very form afid size of the sanctuaries of Jupiter, Apollo, and Diana. There is little doubt that the sacred edifices of the Jews have been modi- fied by the architecture of the remote countries through which they have been dispersed, and the successive centuries through which they have con- tinued a separated people. Under the Roman Empire it is natural to suppose that they must have varied, according to circumstances, through _ all gradations of magnitude and decoration, from the simple proseucha at Philippi? to the magnificent prayer-houses at Alexandria.’ Yet there . are certain traditional peculiarities which have doubtless united together by a common resemblance the Jewish synagogues of all ages and coun- tries.‘ The arrangement for the women’s places in a separate gallery, or behind a partition of lattice-work,— the desk in the centre, where the Reader, like Ezra in ancient days, from his “ pulpit of wood,” may “ open the Book in the sight of all the people . . . and read in the Book the Law of God distinctly, and give tie sense, and cause them to under- stand the reading,” * — the carefully closed Ark on the side of the build- ing nearest to Jerusalem, for the preservation of the rolls or manuscripts of the Law — the seats all round the building, whence “ the eyes of all them that are in the synagogue” may be “fastened” on him who speaks,' — the “chief seats,’’ which were appropriated to the “ruler” or 1 He is speaking of the synagogue at Na- 4 Besides the works referred to in the notes blous. Such buildings were frequently placed ' by the water-side for the sake of sblutioa. Compare Acts xvi. 13, with Joseph. Ant. xiv. 16, 23. 3 Acts xvi. 13. The question of the iden- tity or difference of the preseucha and synagogue will be considered hereafter. Probably the former is a genera] term. * Montioned by Philo. to Ch. II, Allen’s Modern Judaism and Ber- nard’s Synagogue and Church may be consulted with advantage on subjects connected with the synagogue. & Nehem. viii. 4-8. ® See Luke iv. 20. 7 These chief seats (Matt. xxiii. 6; seem te have faced the rest of the congregation. Ses Jam. ii. 3. TALE, een vy ee 154 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. vr, “rulers” of the synagogue, according as its organization might be more or less complete! and which were so dear to the hearts of those who professed to be peculiarly learned or peculiarly devout, —these are some of the features of a synagogue, which agree at once with the notices of Scripture, the descriptions in the Talmud, and the practice of modern Judaism. The meeting of the congregations in the ancient synagogues may be easily realized, if due allowance be made for the change of costume, by those who have seen the Jews at their worship in the large towns of Modern Europe. On their entrance into the building, the four-cornered Tallith ? was first placed like a veil over the head, or like’a scarf over the shoulders. The prayers were then recited by an officer called the “« Angel,” or “ Apostle,” of the assembly.‘ These prayers were doubtless many of them identically the same with those which aré found in the present service-books of the German and Spanish Jews, though their liturgies, in the course of ages, have undergone successive developments, the steps of which are not easily ascertained. It seems that the prayers were sometimes read in the vernacular language of the country where the synagogue was built; but the Law was always read in Hebrew. The sacred roll® of manuscript was handed from the Ark to the Reader by the Chazan, or ‘ Minister;”* and then certain portions were read according to a fixed cycle, first from the Law and then from the Proph- ets. It is impossible to determine the period when the sections from these two divisions of the Old Testament were arranged as in use at present ;7 but the same necessity for translation and explanation existed then as now. The Hebrew and English are now printed in parallel columns. Then, the reading of the Hebrew was elucidated by the Targum or the Septuagint, or followed by a paraphrase in the spoken 1 With Luke xiii. 14, Acts xviii. 8, 17, compare Luke vii. 8, Mark v. 22, and Acts xiii. 15. Some are of opinion that the smaller synagogues had one “ruler,” the larger many. It is more probable that the “chief ruler” with the “elders” formed a congregational council, like the kirk-session in Scotland. 2 The use of the Tallith is said to have arisen from the Mosaic commandment direct- ing that fringes should be worn on the four corners of the garment. 8 When we read 1 Cor. xi. 4, 7, we must feel some doubt concerning the wearing of the Tallith on the head during worship at that period. De Wette says that “it is certain that im the Apostolic ‘age the Jews did not veil their heads during their exhortations in the synagogues.” It is quite possible that the Tallith, though generally worn in the congre- gation, might be removed by any one who rose to speak or who prayed aloud. * Vitringa, who compares Rev. ii. 1. -6 The words in Luke iy. 17, 20, imply the acts of rolling and unrolling. See 1 Mace. iii. 48. ® Luke iv. 17, 20. 7 A full account both of the Paraschioth or Sections of the Law, and the Haphtaroth or Sections of the Prophets, as used both by the Portuguese and German Jews, may be seen in Horne’s Introduction, vol. iii. pp. 254-258. GMAP. VI. THE SYNAGOGUE. 155 language of the country.! The Reader stood’ while thus employed, and all the congregation sat around. The manuscript was rolled up and returned to the Chazan.? Then followed a pause, during which strangers or learned men, who had “ any word of consolation ”’ or exhortation, rose and addressed the meeting. And thus, after a pathetic enumeration of the sufferings of the chosen people‘ or an allegorical exposition’ of some dark passage of Holy Writ, the worship was closed with a benediction and a solemn “ Amen.” ® To such a worship in such a building a congregation came together at Antioch in Pisidia, on the Sabbath which immediately succeeded the arrival of Paul and Barnabas. Proselytes came and seated themselves with the Jews: and among the Jewesses behind the lattice were “‘ honor- — able women ”’’ of the colony. The two strangers entered the synagogue, and, wearing the Tallith, which was the badge of an Israelite,® “ sat down” ® with the rest. The prayers were recited, the extracts from “ the Law and the Prophets” were read; the “ Book” returned to the “ Minister,” " and then we are told that “the rulers of the synagogue” sent to the new-comers, on whom many eyes had already been fixed, and invited them to address the assembly, if they had words of comfort or instruction to speak to their fellow-Israelites.2 The very attitude of St. Paul, as he answered the invitation, is described to us. He “rose”’ from - his seat, and, with the animated and emphatic gesture which he used on other occasions,!® “‘ beckoned with his hand.” _ After thus graphically bringing the scene before our eyes, St. Luke gives us, if not the whole speech delivered by St. Paul, yet at least the substance of what he said. For into however short a space he may have condensed the speeches which he reports, yet it is no mere outline, no dry analysis of them, which he gives. He has evidently preserved, if not all the words, yet the very words uttered by the Apostle ; nor can we fail to 1 See p. 34. In Palestine the Syro-Chal- daic language would be used; in the Disper- sion, usually the Greek. Lightfoot seems to think that the Pisidian language was used here. Strabo speaks of a dialect as peculiar to this district. 2 Acts xiii. 16. On the other hand, our Lord was seated during solemn teaching, Luke iv. 20. ® See Luke iv. 20. * The sermon in the synagogue in “ He- ton’s Pilgrimage ” is conceived in the true Jew- ish feeling. Compare the address of St. Stephen 5 We see how an inspired Apostle uses al- fegory. Gal. iv. 21-31. 6 See Neh. viii. 6; 1 Cor. xiv. 16. 7 Acts xiii. 50. 8 « As I entered the synagogue [at Blidah in Algeria], they offered me a Tallith, saying in French, ‘ Etes-vous Israélite?’ I could not wear the Tallith, but I opened my English Bible and sat down, thinking of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia.” — Extract jJrom a private journal. ® Acts xiii. 14. 10 Acts xiii. 15. lt Luke iv. 20 2 Acts xiii. 15. The word is the same as that which is used in the descriptive title of Barnabas, p. 115. 18 Acts xxvi. 1, xxi. 40. See xx. 34, 1! Acts xiii. 16. 4ar8 HEI. 16 17 13 156 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL recognize in all these speeches a tone of thought, and even of expres sion, which stamps them with the individuality of the speaker. On the present occasion we find St. Paul beginning his address by connecting the Messiah whom he preached with the preparatory dis pensation which ushered in His advent. He dwells upon the previous history of the Jewish people, for the same reasons which had led St. Stephen to do the like in his defence before the Sanhedrin. He endeay- ors to conciliate the minds of his Jewish audience by proving to them that the Messiah whom he proclaimed was the same whereto their own prophets bare witness ; come, not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil; and that His advent had been duly heralded by His predicted messenger. He then proceeds to remove the prejudice which the rejection of Jesus by the authorities at Jerusalem (the metropolis of their faith) would naturally raise in the minds of the Pisidian Jews against His divine mission. He shows that Christ’s death and resurrection had accomplished the ancient prophecies, and declares this to be the “Gled Tidings” which the Apostles were charged to proclaim. Thus far the speech contains nothing which could offend the exclusive spirit of Jewish nationality. On the contrary, St. Paul has endeavored to carry his hearers with him by the topics on which he has dwelt ; the Saviour whom be declares is “a Saviour unto Israel ;”” the Messiah whom he announces is the fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets. But having thus concili- ated their feelings, and won their favorable attention, he proceeds in a bolder tone to declare the Catholicity of Christ’s salvation, and the antithesis between the Gospel and the Law. His concluding words, as St. Luke relates them, might stand as a summary representing in outline the early chapters of the Epistle to the Romans; and therefore, con- versely, those chapters will enable us to realize the manner in which St. Paul would have expanded the heads of argument which his disciple here records. The speech ends with a warning against that bigoted rejection of Christ’s doctrine, which this latter portion of the address was so likely to call forth. The following were the words (so far as they have been preserved te us) spoken by St. Paul on this memorable occasion : — “ Men of Israel, and ye, proselytes of the Gentiles, who #ddress te worship the God of Abraham, give audience. chau 3 God’s choice “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and raised of Iersel to up His people, when they dwelt as strangers in the land of {yliheSro Egypt ; and with an high arm brought He them out therefrom. feasts And about the time of forty years, even as a nurse beareth her child, Gel. Ve so bare He them!’ through the wilderness. ADDRESS TO THE JEWS. 197 nations in the land of Canaan, and gave their land as a portion unto His people. And after that He gave unto them Judges about the 20 space” of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the Prophet; then desired they a king, and He gave unto them Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin,® to rule them for forty years. And when He had removed Saul, He raised up unto them David to be 22 their king; to whom also He gave testimony, and said: J babe fount Rabid, the son of Jesse, x man after my oto heart, which shall - fulfil sll mp foill.* Of this man’s seed hath God, according to His 28 promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus. Jenn the B tist was His. “And John was the messenger tobo teent before Bis face’ to prepare Sis tay before Him, and he preached the a tism of repentance to all the people of Israel. course ® his saying was, ‘ Whom think ye that I am? And as John fulfilled his I am not He. behold there cometh one after me whose shoes’ latchet I am not worthy to Loose.’ 7 ‘“‘ Men and Brethren,’ whether ye be children of the stock of 28 Abraham, or proselytes of the Gentiles, to you have been sent =e the. seat the tidings of this salvation: for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 37 and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read in their synagogues every Sabbath day, have ful- filled the Scriptures in condemning Him. And though they foundin Him gg no cause of death, yet besought they Pilate that He should be slain. And 1 The beauty of this metaphor has been test to the Authorized Version on account of the reading adopted in the Received Text. There is an evident allusion to Dent. i. 31. 2 We need not trouble our readers with the diffieulties which have been raised concerning the chronology of this passage. Supposing it could be proved that St. Panl’s knowledge of ancient chronology was imperfect, this need set surprise us; for there seems no reason to suppose (and we have certainly no right to assume a priort) that Divine inspiration would instruct the Apostles in truth discoverable by uninspired research, and non-essential to their teligiezs mission. See note on Galatians iii. 47. ® [for the speaker's own connection with the tribe of Benjamin, see pp. 41, 42, and 49.— H.] * Compare Ps. Iixxxix. 20, with 1 Sam xiii. 14. The quotation is from the LXX., but not verbatim, being apparently made from memory. § Mal. iii. 1, as quoted Matt. xi. 10, not exactly after the LXX., but rather according to the literal translation of the Hebrew. § [Here, and in the speech at Miletus (xii 25), it is worthy of notice that St. Panl uses one of his favorite and characteristic metaphors drawn from the feot-race. — H.] 7 The imperfect is used here. 5 Literally “men that are my brethren.” Sa in Acts xvii. 22, — “men of Athens.” It might bs rendered simply “ Brethres.” And He destroyed seven 18 But 28 29 when they had fulfilled all which was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre. “‘ But God raised Him from the dead. “‘ And He was seen for many days by them who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now! His witnesses to the people of Israel.? “« And while they ® proclaim it in Jerusalem, we declare unto you the same Glad Tidings concerning the promise which was made to our fathers ; even that God hath fulfilled the same unto Ci us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus from the 30 81 32 158 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, CHAP, VI, His REsUR- RECTION, Attested by many wit- nesses, The Glad Tidings of the promises. 33 dead ;* as it is also written in the second psalm, Chou art my Son, 34 this day bube J begotten thee.” And whereas He hath raised Him from the grave, no more to return unto corruption, He hath said on this wise, The blessings of Duabid twill FJ yibe pou, eben the blessings twobich. 35 stand fast in boliness.* Wherefore it is written also in another psalm, 86 Chou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’ Now David, after he had ministered in his own generation® to the will of God, fell 87 asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption ; but He whom 88 40 God raised from the dead saw no corruption.® “ Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Jesus is declared unto you the forgiveness of sins. 89 And in Him all who have faith are justified from all transgres- Catholi of Chris cat the Gospel and the Law. sions, wherefrom in the Law of Moses ye could not be justified. ‘¢ Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken Final warning, 1 The word for “now,” evidently very important here, is erroneously omitted by the Textus Receptus. 2 «The people” always means the Jewish people. 8 Observe, “we preach to you” emphati- cally contrasted with ine preceding “they to the Jewish nation ” (Humphry). * “ Raised up from the dead.” We cannot agree with Mr. Humphry that the word can here (consistently with the context) have the same meaning as in vii. 37. 6 Ps, ii. 7, according to LXX. trans. 6 Isaiah ly. 8 (LXX.). The verbal connec- tion (holy— Hely One) between vy. 34 and 35 should be carefully noticed. 7 Ps. xvi. 10 (LXX.). 5 David’s ministration was performed (like that of other men) in his own generation; but the ministration of Christ extended to all generations. The thought is similar to Heb. vii. 23, 24. We depart here from the Author- ized Version, because the use of the Greek words, for “to serve one’s own generation,” does not accord with the analogy of the N. T. ® We are here reminded of the arguments of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, just as the beginning of the speech recalls that of St. Stephen before the Sanhedrin. Possibly, St. Paul himself had been an auditor of the first, as he certainly was of the last. 7 : { ee CHAP, Vi. SDDBESS TO THE JEWS. in the Prophets, Pebold, ve Despisers, and toonder, and perish ; for 4° 3 work 2 fork in pour days, 2 work which ve shall in no bose beliebe, though a man declare itt unto pou.”* This address made a deep and thrilling impression on the audience. While the congregation were pouring out of the synagogue, many of them * crowded round the speaker, begging that “‘ these words,’ which had moved their deepest feelings, might be repeated to them on their next occasion of assembling together.? And when at length the mass of the people had dispersed, singly or in groups, to their homes, many of the Jews and . proselytes still clung to Paul and Barnabas, who earnestly exhorted them Gn the form of expression which we could almost recognize as St. Paul’s, from its resemblance to the phraseology of his Epistles) “‘ to abide in the grace of God.” ‘‘ With what pleasure can we fancy the Apostles to have observed these hearers of the Word, who seemed to have heard it in such earnest! How gladly must they have talked with them, — entered into various points more fully than was possible in any public address, — appealed to them in various ways which no one can touch upon who is speaking to a mixed multitude! Yet with all their pleasure and their hope, their knowledge of man’s heart must have taught them not to be over-confident ; and therefore they would earnestly urge them to continue in the grace of God; to keep up the im- pression which had already outlasted their stay within the synagogue ; — to feed it, and keep it alive, and make it deeper and deeper, that it should remain with them forever. What the issue was we know not, — nor does that concern us, — only we may be sure that here, as in other instances, there were some in whom their hopes and endeavors were disappointed ; there were some in whom they were to their fullest extent realized.” ® The intervening week between this Sabbath and the next had not only its days of meeting in the synagogue,® but would give many opportunities for exhortation and instruction in private houses; the doctrine would be noised abroad, and, through the proselytes, would come to the hearing of the Gentiles. So that “on the following Sabbath almost the whole city 1 Habak. i. 5 (LXX.). 2 The words rendered “ Gentiles” (Auth. Vers.) in the Textus Receptus have caused a great confusion in this passage. They are omitted in: the best MSS. See below, p. 164, a, 2. ® It is not quite certain whether we are to understand the words in v. 42 to mean “the next Sabbath” or some intermediate days of meeting during the week. The Jews were accustomed to meet in the synagogues or Monday and Thursday as well as on Saturday * Acts xiii. 43. Compare Acts xx. 24; I Cor. xv. 10; 2-Cor. vi. 1; Gal. ii. 2}. 5 Dr. Arnold’s Twenty-fourth Sermon on the Interpretation of Scripture. 5 See n. 3 on this page. 160 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL cuar, v2, came together to hear the Word of God.” The synagogue was crowded.’ Multitudes of Gentiles were there in addition to the Proselytes. This was more than the Jews could bear. Their spiritual pride and exclusive bigotry was immediately roused. They could not endure the notion of others being freely admitted to the same religious privileges with them selves. This was always the sin of the Jewish people. Instead of realiziny, their position in the world as the prophetic nation for the good of the whole earth, they indulged the self-exalting opinion, that God’s highest blessings were only for themselves. Their oppressions and their dispersions had not destroyed this deeply-rooted prejudice ; but they rather found comfort under the yoke, in brooding over their religious isolation: and even in their remote and scattered settlements, they clung with the utmost tenacity to the feeling of their exclusive nationality. Thus, in the Pisidian Antioch, they who on one Sabbath had listened with breathless interest to the teachers who spoke to them of the promised Messiah, were on the next— Sabbath filled with the most excited indignation, when they found that this Messiah was “ a light to lighten the Gentiles,” as well as “ the glory of His people Israel.”” They made an uproar, and opposed the words of Paul? with all manner of calumnious expressions, “ contradicting and blaspheming.”’ Then the Apostles, promptly recognizing in the willingness of the Gentiles and the unbelief of the Jews the clear indications of the path of duty, followed that.bold* course which was alien to all the prejudices of a Jewish education. They turned at once and without reserve to the Gentiles. St. Paul was not unprepared for the events which called for this decision. The prophetic intimations at his first conversion, his vision in the Temple at Jerusalem, his experience at the Syrian Antioch, his recent success in the island of Cyprus, must have led him to expect the Gentiles to listen to that message which the Jews were too ready to scorn. The words with which he turned from his unbelieving countrymen were these: “It was. needful that the Word of God should first be spoken unto you: but inas- much as ye reject it, and deem yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles.” And then he quotes a prophetical passage from their own sacred writings. ‘ For thus hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salvation to the ends of the earth.‘ This is the first recorded instance of a scene which was often re-enacted. It is the course which St. Paul himself defines in his Epistle to the Romans, when he describes the Gospel 1 Acta xiii. 44. ® Compare | Thess. ii. 2, where the circum * The words in Acts xiii. 45 imply indi- stances appear to have been very similar. eectly that Paul was the “chief speaker,” as * Isai. xlix. 6, quoted with a slight variation 2 are told, xiv. 12. from the LXX. See Isai. xlii.6; Luke ii 32 ’ cuz, Vi. PREACHING TO THE GENTILES. 18} as coming first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile ;' and it is the course which he followed himself on various occasions of his life, at Corinth,’ at Ephesus,’ and at Rome.‘ _ That which was often obscurely foretold in the Old Testament, — that those should “ seek after God who knew Him not,” and that He should be honored by “those who were not a people ; ”’*— that which had already seen its first fulfilment in isolated cases during our Lord’s life, as in the centurion and the Syrophcenician woman, whose faith had uo parallel in all the people of “ Israel ;”’* — that which had received an express ac- complishment through the agency of two of the chiefest of the Apostles, in Cornelius, the Roman officer at Casarea, and in Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor at Paphos, — began now to be realized on a large scale ‘in a whole community. While the Jews blasphemed and rejected Christ, the Gentiles “‘ rejoiced, and glorified the Word of God.” The counsels of God were not frustrated by the unbelief of His chosen people. A new “ Israel,” a new “ election,” succeeded to the former.’ A Church was formed of united Jews and Gentiles ; and all who were destined to enter the path of eternal life* were gathered into the Catholic brotherhood of the hitherto separated races. The synagogue had rejected the inspired missionaries, but the apostolic instruction went on in some private house or public building belonging to the Heathen. And gradually the knowl- edge of Christianity began to be disseminated through the whole vicinity.” The enmity of the Jews, however, was not satisfied by the expulsioun— of the Apostles from their synagogue. What they could not accomplish by violence and calumny, they succeeded in effecting by a pious intrigue. That influence of women in religious questions, to which our attention will be repeatedly called hereafter, is here for the first time brought— before our notice in the sacred narrative of St. Paul’s life. Strabo, whe was intimately acquainted with the social position of the female sex in the towns of Western Asia, speaks in strong terms of the power which they possessed and exercised in controlling and modifying the religious~ opinions of the men. This general fact received one of its most striking illustrations in the case of Judaism. We have already more than once alluded to the influence of the female proselytes at Damascus: * and the good service which women contributed towards the early progress of 1 Rom. i. 16, ii. 9. Compare xi. 12, 25. passage has been made the subject of much 2 Acts xviii. 6. 5 Acts xix. 9. controversy with reference te the doctrine of * Acts xxviii. 28. predestination. Its bearing on the question is 5 See Hosea, i. 10, ii. 23, a8 quoted inRom. very doubtful. The same participle is used in *x. 25, 26. Acts xx. 18, and also in Luke iii. 13, and * Matt. viti. 5-10, xv. 21-28. Rom. xiii. 1. ’ See Rom. xi. 7; and Gal. vi. 16. ® Acts xiii. 49. * Acts xiii. 48. It is well known that this © See above, p. 18, and p 152, n. 6. Bel 162 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Christianity is abundantly known both from the Acts and the Epistles.! Here they appear in a position less honorable, but not less influential. The Jews contrived, through the female proselytes at Antioch, to win over to their cause some influential members of their sex, and through them to gain the ear of men who occupied a position of eminence in the city. Thus a systematic persecution was excited against Paul and Barnabas. Whether the supreme magistrates of the colony were in- duced by this unfair agitation to pass a sentence of formal banishment, we are not informed ;? but for the present the Apostles were compelled to retire from the colonial limits. In cases such as these, instructions had been given by our Lord himself how His Apostles were to act. During His life on earth, He had said to the Twelve, “‘ Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily, I say. unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.” * And while Paul and Barnabas thus fulfilled our Lord’s words, shaking off from their feet the dust of the dry and, sunburnt road,‘ in token of God’s judgment on wilful unbelievers, and turning their steps eastwards in the direction of Lycaonia, another of the sayings of Christ was fulfilled, in the midst of those who had been obedient to the faith : “‘ Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”® Even while their faithful teachers were removed from them, and travelling across the bare uplands® which separate Antioch from the plain of Iconium, the disciples of the former city received such manifest 1 See Acts xvi. 14, xviii. 2; Philipp. iv. 3 ; 5 Matt. v. 11, 12. 1 Cor. vii. 16. 2 We should rather infer the contrary, since they revisited the place on their return from Derbe (xiv. 21). 8 Mark vi. 11; Matt. x. 14, 15; Luke ix. 5. For other symbolical acts expressing the same thing, see Nehem. v. 13; Acts xviii. 6. It was taught in the schools of the Scribes that the dust of a Heathen land defiled by the touch. Hence the shaking of the dust off the feet implied that the city was regarded as profane. * “Literally may they have shaken off the dust of their feet, foreven now (Nov. 9) the roads abound with it, and in the summer months if must be a plain of dust.’”’ — Arun- dell’s Asta Minor, vol. 1. p. $29. 5 Leake approached Iconium from the northern side of the mountains which separate Antioch from Philomelium (see p. 204). He says: “On the descent from a ridge branching eastward from these mountains, we came in sight of the vast plain around Konieh, and of the lake which occupies the middle of it; and we saw the city with its mosques and ancient walls, still at the distance of twelve or fourteen miles from us,” p. 45. Ainsworth travelled in the same direction, and says: “ We trav- elled three hours along the plain of Konieh, always in sight of the city of the Sultans of Roum, before we reached it.” — Trav. in Ama Minor, ii. p. 58. - CHAP, VI. ICONIUM. 163 tokens of the love of God, and the power of the “ Holy Ghost,” that they were “ filled with joy” in the midst of persecution. Iconium, has obtained a place in history far more distinguished than— that of the Pisidian Antioch. It is famous as the cradle of the rising power of the conquering Turks.’ And the remains of its Mohammedan architecture still bear a conspicuous testimony to the victories and strong government of a tribe of Tatar invaders. But there are other features in the view of modern Konieh which to us are far more interesting. To the traveller in the footsteps of St. Paul, it is not the armorial bearings of the Knights of St. John, carved over the gateways in the streets of Rhodes, which arrest the attention, but the ancient harbor and the view across the sea to the opposite coast. And at Konieh his interest is awakened, not by minarets and palaces and Saracenic gateways, but by the vast plain and the distant mountains.’ These features remain what they were in the first century, while the town has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, and its architectural character entirely altered. Little, if any thing, remains of Greek or Roman Iconium, if we except the ancient inscriptions and the fragments of sculp- tures which are built into the Turkish walls.’ At a late period of the Empire it was made a Colonia, like its neighbor, Antioch; but it was— not so in the time of St. Paul. These is no reason to suppose that its character was different from that of the other important towns on the principal lines of communication through Asia Minor. The elements of its population would be as follows: —a large number of trifling and frivo- lous Greeks, whose principal places of resort would be the theatre and the Inarketplace ; some remains of a still older population, coming in occa- sionally from the country, or residing in a separate quarter of the town; some few Roman officials, civil or military, holding themselves proudly aloof from the inhabitants of the subjugated province; and an old established colony of Jews, who exercised their trade during the week, and met on the Sabbath to read the Law in the Synagogue. The same kind of events took place here as in Antioch, and almost in 1 Tconium was the capital of the Seljukian Sultans, and had a great part in the growth of the Ottoman empire. ? “Konieh extends to the east and south _ over the plain far beyond the walls, which are about two miles in circumference. . . . Moun- tains covered with snow rise on every side, excepting towards the east, where a plain, as flat as the desert of Arabia, extends far be- yond the reach of the eye.” — Capt. Kinneir. % “The city wall is said to have been erected by the Seljukian Sultans: it seems to have been built from the ruins of more an- cient buildings, as broken columns, capitals pedestals, bass-reliefs, and other pieces ot sculpture, contribute towards its construction. It has eighty gates, of a square form, each known by a separate name, and, as well as most of the towers, embellished with Arabic inscriptions. ...I observed a few Greek characters on the walls, but they were in so elevated a situation that I could not de cipher them.” — Capt. Kinneir. 164 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL omar. va the same order.' The Apostles went first to the Synagogue, and the effect of their discourses there was such, that great numbers both of the Jews and Greeks (i.e. Proselytes or Heathens, or both)? believed the j Gospel. The unbelieving Jews raised up an indirect persecution by exciting the minds of the Gentile population against those who received — the Christian doctrine. But the Apostles persevered and remained in th city some considerable time, having their confidence strengthened by the — miracles which God worked through their instrumentality, in attestation — of the truth of His Word. There is an apocryphal narrative of certain events assigned to this residence at Iconium:* and we may innocently — adopt so much of the legendary story, as to imagine St. Paul preaching ~ long and late to crowded congregations, as he did afterwards at Assos,* and his enemies bringing him before the civil authorities, with the cry — that he was disturbing their households by his sorcery, or with complaints — like those at Philippi and Ephesus, that he was “ exceedingly troubling their city,” and “turning away much people.”® We learn from an in- — spired source® that the whole population of Iconium was ultimately — divided into two great factions (a common occurrence, on far less impor- — tant occasions, in these cities of Oriental Greeks), and that one party — took the side of the Apostles, the other that of the Jews. But here, as at Antioch, the influential classes were on the side of the Jews. A determined attempt was at last made to crush the Apostles, by loading © them with insult and actually stoning them. Learning this wicked con- spiracy, in which the magistrates themselves were involved,’ they fled to some of the neighboring districts of Lycaonia, where they might be more — secure, and have more liberty in preaching the Gospel. It would be a very natural course for the Apostles, after the cruel treatment they had experienced in the great towns on a frequented route, to retire into a wilder region and among a ruder population. In any ° country, the political circumstances of which Soecmile tole of Asia Minor under the early emperors, there must be many districts, into which the civilization of the conquering and governing people has hardly — penetrated. An obvious instance is furnished by our Eastern presi- — dencies, in the Hindoo villages, which have retained their character with- out alteration, notwithstanding the successive occupations by Moham- medans and English. Thus, in the Eastern provinces of the Roman 1 See Acts xiv. 1-5. * Acts xx. 7-11. 3 Perhaps “Greeks” (vy. 1) may mean & Acts xvi. 20, xix. 26. “ preselytes,” as opposed to the “ Gentiles ” of § Acts xiv. 4. . v. 3. 7 It is impossible to determine exactly the — * The legend of Paul and Thecla. The meaning ef the word rendered “rulers.” stery will be found im Jones on the Canon (vel. fi. pp. 353-463). i aHAP, VI. LYCAONIA. 166 Empire there must have been many towns and villages where local customs were untouched, and where Greek, though certainly understood, was not commonly spoken. Such, perhaps, were the places which now come before our notice in the Acts of the Apostles, — small towns, with a rude dialect and primitive superstition’—“ Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia.”’? The district of Lycaonia extends from the ridges of Mount Taurus and the borders of Cilicia, on the south, to the Cappadocian hills, on the— north. It is a bare and dreary region, unwatered by streams, though in — parts liable to occasional inundations. Strabo mentions one place where water was even sold for money. In this respect there must be a close resemblance between this country and large tracts of Australia. Nor is this the only particular in which the resemblance may be traced. Both regions afford excellent pasture for flocks of sheep, and give opportunities ~_ for obtaining large possessions by trade in wool. It was here, on the downs of Lycaonia, that Amyntas, while he yet led the life of a nomad chief, before the time of his political clevation,? fed his three hundred flocks. Of the whole district Iconium‘* was properly the capital: and the plain round Iconium may be reckoned as its great central space, situated midway between Cilicia and Cappadocia. This plain is spoken of as the largest in Asia Minor.® It is almost like the steppes of Great Asia, of which the Turkish invaders must often have been reminded,® when they came to these level spaces in the west; and the camels which convey modern travellers to and from Konieh, find by the side of their path tufts of salt and prickly herbage, not very dissimilar to that which grows in their native deserts.” Across some portion of this plain Paul and Barnabas travelled before as well as after their residence in Iconium. After leaving the high land to the north-west, during a journey of several hours before arriving at the city, the eye ranges freely over a vast expanse of level ground to the south and the east. The two most eminent objects in the view are cer- tain snowy summits,® which rise high above all the intervening hills in the direction of Armenia, —and, in the nearer horizon, the singular 1 Acts xiv. 11, 12, &. as he crossed this plain, eagerly eating the tufts 2 Acts xiv. 6. ef Mesembryanthemum and Salicornia, “re 5 See above, Ch. I. p. 21. minding them of plains with which they were * Xenophon, whe is the first to mention probably more familiar than those of Asia Teonium, calls it “the last city of Phrygia,” Minor.” The plain, however, is naturally in the direction ef “ Lycaonia.” rich. 5 See Leake, p. 93. _ 5 See above, p. 150. 6 The remark is made by Texier im his ® Leake supposed these summits to be those “ Asie Mineure.” of Mount Argssus, but Hamilton thinks ks 1 Ainsworth (ii. p. 68) describes the camels, was in error. 166 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, vr mountain mass called the ‘“ Kara-Dagh,” or “ Black Mount,” south- eastwards in the direction of Cilicia.) And still these features continue to be conspicuous after Iconium is left behind, and the traveller moves on over the plain towards Lystra and Derbe. Mount Argeus still rises far to the north-east, at the distance of one hundred and fifty miles. The Black Mountain is gradually approached, and discovered to be an isolated mass, with reaches of the plain extending round it like channels of the sea.? bases of the Black Mountain. physical characteristics of this part of Lycaonia, because the positions of its ancient towns have not been determined. We are only acquainted with the general features of the scene. While the site of Iconium has never been forgotten, and that of Antioch in Pisidia has now been clearly identified, those of Lystra and Derbe remain unknown, or at best are extremely uncertain.’ No conclusive coins or inscriptions have been discovered ; nor has there been any such convergence of modern investi- gation and ancient authority as leads to an infallible result. See Leake, p. 45. “To the south-east the same plains extend as far as the mountains of Karaman (Laranda). At the south-east ex- tremity of the plains beyond Konieh, we are much struck with the appearance of a remark- able insulated mountain, called Kara-Dagh {Black Mountain), rising to a great height, covered at the top with snow [Jan. 31], and appearing Jike a lofty island in the midst of the sea. It is about sixty miles distant.” The tines marked on the Map are the Roman roads mentioned in the Itineraries. A view of the Kara-Dagh is given ia Ch. Vit. 2 See Leake, pp. 98-97. “(Feb.1. From Konieh te Tshumra.)—Our road pursues a perfect level for upwards of twenty miles. (Feb. 2. From Tshumra to Kassaba.) — Nine honrs over the same uninterrupted level of the finest soil, but quite uncultivated, except in the immediate neighborhood of a few widely dispersed villages. It is painful to behold such desolation in the midst of a region so highly favored by nature. Another character- istic of these Asiatic plains is the exactness of the level, and the peculiarity of their extend- ing, without any previous slope, to the foat of the mountains, which rise from them like lofty islands out of the surface of the ocean. The Karamanian ridge seems to recede as we ap- proach it, and the snowy summits of Argesus Of the [t] are still to be seen to the north-east. . . At three or four miles short of Kassaba, we are abreast of the middle of the very lofty insulated mountain already mentioned, called Kara-Dagh. It is said to be chiefly inhabited by Greek Christians, and to contain 1,001 churches ; but we afterwards learnt that these 1,001 churches (Bin-bir-Kilisseh) was a name given to the extensive ruins of an ancient city at the foot of the mountain. (Feb. 3. From Kassaba to Karaman.) — Four hours; the road still passing over a plain, which towards the mountains begins to be a little intersected with low ridges and ravines... . Between these mountains and the Kara-Dagh there is a kind of strait, which forms the communica- tion between the plain of Karaman and the great levels lying eastward of Konieh.... Advancing towards Karaman, I perceive a passage into the plains to the north-west, round the northern end of Kara-Dagh, similar to that on the south, so that this mountain is com- pletely insulated. We still see to the north- east the great snowy summit of Argeus, |*} which is probably the highest point of Asia Minor.” See a similar description of the iso- lation of the Kara-Dagh in Hamilton (11. 315, 320), who approached it from the east. 5 Col. Leake wrote thus in 1824: “ Noth ing can more strongly show the little progress that has hitherto been made in a knowledge EEE The cities of Lystra and Derbe were somewhere about the— We have dwelt thus minutely on the a re WENA omy Tif capt \) oh pr \ SS"; A yadrue 5 mn : > whl (lt ws Many tii AA Hl \\\\ ps ft A\\ I 5 —tmmn SJ1IW HSIMON] ot S2 ay st o Ss as RY saIIW NVAWOU AY IT UvaN sav SIVTSHOUV's RAP, Yl. ST. PAUL AT LYSTRA. 167 different hypotheses which have been proposed, we have been content in the accompanying map to indicate those! which appear the most probable. _ We resume the thread of our narrative with the arrival of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. One peculiar circumstance strikes us immedi- ately in what we read of the events in this town; that no mention occurs of any synagogue f It is natural to infer that there were few Israelites in the place, though (as we shall see hereafter) it would be a mistake to imagine that there were none. We are instantly brought in contact with a totally new subject, with Heathen superstition and mythology ; yet not the superstition of an educated mind, as that of Ser- gius Paulus,— nor the mythology of a refined and cultivated taste, like that of the Athenians,— but the mythology and superstition of a rude and unsophisticated people. Thus does the Gospel, in the person of St. Paul, successively clash with opposing powers, with sorcerers and philoso- phers, cruel magistrates and false divinities. Now it is the rabbinical master of the Synagogue, now the listening proselyte from the Greeks, of the ancient geography of Asia Minor, than that, of the cities which the journey of St. Paul has made so interesting to us, the site of one only (Iconium) is yet certainly known. Perga, Antioch of Pisidia, Lystra, and Derbe, remain to be discovered.” — P.103. We have seen that two of these four towns have been fully identified, —Perga by Sir C. Fellows, and Antioch by Mr. Arundell. It is to be hoped that the other two will yet be clearly ascertained. . 1 The general features of the map here given are copied from Kiepert’s large map of Asia Minor, and his positions for Lystra and Derbe are adopted. Lystra is marked near the place where Leake conjectured that it might be, some twenty miles S. of Iconium. It does not appear, however, that he saw any ruins on the spot. There are very remarkable Chris- sian ruins on the N. side of the Kara-Dagh, at Bin-bir-Kilisseh (“‘the 1,001 churches ’’), and Leake thinks that they may mark the site of Derbe. We think Mr. Hamilton’s conjec- ture much more probable, that they mark the site of Lystra, which has a more eminent ec- clesiastical reputation than Derbe. While this was passing through the press, the writer received an indirect communication fom Mr. Hamilton, which will be the best commentary on the map. “There are ruins {though slight) at the spot where Derbe ss marked on Kiepert’s map, and as this spot is certainly ona line of Roman road, it is not unlikely that it may represent Derbe. He did not actually visit Divlé, but the coincidence of name led him to think it might be Derbe. He does not know of any ruins at the place where Kiepert writes Lystra, but was not op that spot. There may be ruins there, but he thinks they cannot be of importance, as he did not hear of them, though in the neighbor- hood; and he prefers Bin-bir-Kilisseh as the site of Lystra.” The following description of the Bin-bir Kilisseh is supplied by a letter from Mr. E. Falkener. “The principal group of the Bin- bir-Kilisseh lies at the foot of Kara-Dagh. .. . Perceiving ruins on the slope of the mountain, I began to ascend, and on reaching these dis- covered they were churches; and, looking upwards, descried others yet above me, and climbing from one to the other I at length gained the summit, where I found two church- es. On looking down, I perceived churches om all sides of the mountain, scattered about in various positions. The number ascribed to them by the Turks is of course metaphorical ; but including those in the plain below, there are about two dozen in tolerable preservation, and the remains of perhaps forty may be traced altogether. ... The mountain must have been considered sacred ; all the ruins are of Christian epoch, and, with the exception of a huge palace, every building is a church.” 165 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL. CHAP. vi that is resisted or convinced, — now the honest inquiry of a Roman efficer, now the wild fanaticism of a rustic credulity, that is addressed with bold and persuasive eloquence. It was a common belief among the ancients that the gods occasionally visited the earth in the form of men. Such a belief with regard to Jupi- ter, ‘“‘the father of gods and men,” would be natural in any rural dis trict: but nowhere should we be prepared to find the traces of it more than at Lystra; for Lystra, as it appears from St. Luke’s narrative,’ was under the tutelage of Jupiter, and tutelary divinities were imagined to haunt the cities under their protection, though elsewhere invisible. The temple of Jupiter was a conspicuous object in front of the city gates :? what wonder if the citizens should be prone to believe that their “ Jupiter, which was before the city,’ would willingly visit his favorite people? Again, the expeditions of Jupiter were usually represented as attended by Mercury. He was the companion, the messenger, the ser- vant of the gods.’ Thus the notion of these two divinities appearing tegether in Lycaonia is quite in conformity with what we know of the popular belief. But their appearance in that particular district would be welcomed with more than usual credulity. Those who are acquainted with the literature of the Roman poets are familiar with a beautiful tra- dition of Jupiter and Mercury visiting in human form these very regions* in the interior of Asia Minor. And it is not without a singular interest that we find one of Ovid’s stories re-appearing in the sacred pages of the Acts of the Apostles. In this instance, as in so many others, the Scrip- tare, in its incidental descriptions, of the Heathen world, presents “undesigned coincidences”? with the facts ascertained from Heathen memorials. These introductory remarks prepare us for considering the miracle recorded in the Acts. We must suppose that Paul gathered groups of the Lystrians about him, and addressed them in places of public resort, as @ modern missionary might address the natives of a Hindoo village.* 1 It is more likely that a temple than a statue of Jupiter is alluded to. The temple ef the tutelary divinity was outside the walls at Perga (see p. 148) and at Ephesus, as we learn from the story in Herodotus (1. 26), who tells us that in a time of danger the citizens pat themselves under the protection of Diana, by attaching her temple by a rope to the city wall. 3 Acts xiv. 18. 3 See the references in Smith’s Dictionary af Classical Biography and Mythology, under “ Fiermes.”” We may remark here that we have always used the nearest Latin equivalents for the Greek divinities, te. Jupiter, Mercury, Diana, Minerva, for Zeus, Hermes, Artemis, Athene. * See the story of Baucis and Philemon, Ovid. Met. viii. 611, &. Even if the Lycao- nians were a Semitic tribe, it is not unnatural to suppose them familiar with Greek mythoio- gy. An identification of classical and “ bar. barian ” divinities had taken place in innumer able instances, as in the case of the Tyriap Hercules and Paphian Venus. & See for instance Fox’s Chapters on Missions p- 1538, &e. es OHAF, Yi. HEsLING OF THE CRIPPLE. 18¢ But it would not be necessary in his case, as in that of Schwartz or Mar. tyn, to have learnt the primitive language of those to whom he spoke. He addressed them in Greek, for Greek was well understood in this border-country of the Lystrians, though their own dialect was either 4 barbarous corruption of that noble language, or the surviving remainder of some older tongue. He used the language of general civilization, az English may be used now in a Welsh country-town like Dolgelly or Car- marthen. The subjects he brought before these illiterate idolaters of Lycaonia were doubtless such as would lead them, by the most natural steps, to the knowledge of the true God, and the belief in His Son’s resurrection. He told them, as he told the educated Athenians,’ ef Him whose worship they had ignorantly corrupted; whose unity, power, and goodness they might have discerned through the operations of nature ; whose displeasure against sin had been revealed to them by the admoni- tions of their natural conscience. On one of these occasions? St. Paul observed a cripple, who was earnestly listening to his discourse. He was seated on the ground, for he had an infirmity in his feet, and had never walked from the hour of his birth. St. Paul looked at him attentively, with that remarkable expression of the eye which we have already noticed (p. 134). The same Greek word is used as when the Apostle is described as “ ear- nestly beholding the council,” and “as setting his eyes on Elymas the sorcerer.”? Qn this occasion that penetrating glance saw, by the power of the Divine Spirit, into the very secrets of the cripple’s soul. Paul perceived “that he had faith to be saved.”* These words, implying so much of moral preparation in the heart of this poor Heathen, rise above all that is told us of the lame Jew, whom Peter, “‘ fastening his eyes upon him with John,” had once healed at the temple gate in Jerusalem.’ In ether respects the parallel between the two cases is complete. As Peter said in the presence of the Jews, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Naza- reth, rise up and walk,” so Paul said before his idolatrous audience at Lystra, “Stand upright on thy feet.’’ And in this case, also, the word which had been suggested to the speaker by a supernatural intuition was followed by a supernatural result. The obedient alacrity in the spirit and the new strength in the body, rushed together simultaneously. The lame man sprang up in the joyful consciousness of a power he had never felt before, and walked like those who had never had experience of infirmity. ; 1 It is very important to compare together * Acts xiv. 9. The word is the same as in the speeches at Lystra and Athens, and both xvi. 80. with the first chapter of the Romans. See 5 Acts iii. Wetstein remarks on the greatsr pp. 171, 172. faith manifested by the Heathen at Lystra thar ® Acts xiv. 8, Ke. Acts xxiii.1, xiii.9. the Jew at Jerusalem. 170 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL omar. vr And now arose a great tumult of voices from the crowd. Such a cure of a congenital disease, so sudden and so complete, would have con- founded the most skilful and sceptical physicians. An illiterate people would be filled with astonishment, and rush immediately to the conclu sion that supernatural powers were present among them. These Lyca- — onians thought at once of their native traditions, and erying out vocifer~ — ously in their mother-tongue,! — and we all know how the strongest feel- ings of an excited people find vent in the language of childhood, — they exclaimed that the gods had again visited them in the likeness of men, — that Jupiter and Mercury were again in Lycaonia,— that the persua- sive speaker was Mercury, and his companion Jupiter. They identified Paul with Mercury, because his eloquence corresponded with one of that divinity’s attributes. Paul was the “ chief speaker,’ and Mercury was the god of eloquence. And if it be asked why they identified Barnabas with Jupiter, it is evidently a sufficient answer to say that these two divinities were always represented as companions? in their terrestrial expeditions, though we may well believe (with Chrysostom and otkers) that there was something majestically benignant in his appearance, while the personal aspect of St. Paul (and for this we can quote his own state- ments)* was comparatively insignificant. How truthful and how vivid is the scene brought before us! and how many thoughts it suggests to those who are at once conversant with Heathen mythology and disciples of Christian theology! Barnabas, identified with the Father of Gods and Men, seems like a personification of mild beneficence and provident care ;‘ while Paul appears invested with more active attributes, flying over the world on the wings of faith and love, with quick words of warning and persuasion, and ever carry- ing in his hand the purse of the ‘“ unsearchable riches.”* The news of a wonderful occurrence is never long in spreading through a small country town. At Lystra the whole population was presently in an uproar. They would lose no time in paying due honor to their heavenly visitants. The priest attached to that temple of Jupiter before the city gates, to which we have before alluded,* was summoned to do sacrifice to the god whom he served. Bulls and garlands, aad whatever— 1 Some are of opinion that the “ speech of * See Acts iv. 36, 37, ix. 27, xi. 22-25, 30. Lycaonia” was a Semitic language; others that it was a corrupt dialect of Greek. See the Dissertations of Jablonski and Giihling in Tken’s Thesaurus 2 See, for instance, Ovid. Fast. v. 495. 5 See 2 Cor. x. 1, 10, where, however, we cust remember that he is quoting the state- ments of his adversaries. It is also very possible that Barnabas was older, and therefore more venerable in appearance, than St. Paul. 5 The winged heels and the purse are the well-known insignia of Mercury. 6 Pp. 168. ADDRESS TO THE GENTILES. 171 onaP, VL else was requisite to the performance of the ceremony, were duly pre- pared, and the procession moved amidst crowds of people to the residence of the Apostles. They, hearing the approach of the multitude, and learn- ing their idolatrous intention, were filled with the utmost horror. They *‘yent their clothes,” and rushed out! of the house in which they lodged,— and met the idolaters approaching the vestibule.? There, standing at tie doorway, they opposed the entrance of the crowd; and Paul expressed his abhorrence of their intention, and earnestly tried to prevent their fulfilling it, in a speech of which only the following short outline is recorded by St. Luke : — “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men, of like pas- 4c sions with you; and we are come to preach to you the Glad Tidings, 15 that you may turn from these vain idols to the living God, who made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all things that For in the generations that are past, He suffered all 16 the nations of the Gentiles to walk in their own ways. Never- theless He left not Himself without witness, in that He blessed 13 you, and gave you rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling are therein. 993 your hearts with food and gladness. This address held tiem listening, but they listened impatiently. Even with this energetic disavowal of his divinity and this strong appeal to their reason, St. Paul found it difficult to dissuade the Lycaonians from offering to him and Barnabas an idolatrous worship. There is no doubt that St. Paul was the speaker, and, before we proceed further in the narrative, we cannot help pausing to observe the essentially Pauline character which this speech manifests, even in so condensed a summary of its conients. It is full of undesigned coincidences in argument, and even in the expressions employed, with St. Paul’s language in other parts of the Acts, and in his own Epistles. Thus, as here he declares the object of his preaching to be that the idolatrous Lystrians should 1 “ Ran out,” not “ran in,” is the reading sanetioned by the later critics on full manu- seript authority. See Tischendorf. 2 The word used here does not mean the gate of the city, but the vestibule or gate which gave admission from the public street into the court of the house. So it is used, Matt. xxvi. 71, for the vestibule of the high priest’s palace; Luke xvi 20, for that of Dives; Acts x. 17, of the house where Peter lodged at Joppa; Acts xii. 13, of the house of Mary the mother of John Mark. It is nowhere used for the gate of a city except in the Apocalypse. Moreover, it seems obvious that if the priest had only brought the victims to sacrifice them at the city gates, it would have been no offering to Paul and Barnabas. 8 “You” and “your” are the correct readings, not “us” and “ our.” * Acts xiv. 18. 172 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cuar. vi. “turn from these vain idols to the living God,” so he reminds the Thessalonians how they, at his preaching, had “turned from idols te serve the living and true God.” ! Again, as he tells the Lystrians that “God had, in the generations that were past, suffered the nations of the Gentiles to walk in their own ways,” so he tells the Romans that “‘ God in His forbearance had passed over the former sins of men, in the times that were gone by;”’* and so he tells the Athenians,’ that “the past times of ignorance God had overlooked.” Lastly, how striking is the similarity between the natural theology with which the present speech concludes, and that in the Epistle to the Romans, where, speaking of the Heathen, he says that atheists are without excuse; “ for that which can be known of God is manifested in their hearts, God himself haying shown it to them. For His eternal power and Godhead, though they be invisi- ble, yet are seen ever since the world was made, being understood by the works which He hath wrought.” The crowd reluctantly retired, and led the victims away without ~ offering them in sacrifice to the Apostles. It might be supposed that at least a command had been obtained over their gratitude and reverence, which would not easily be destroyed ; but we have to record here one of these sudden changes of feeling, which are humiliating proofs of the weakness of human nature and of the superficial character of religious excitement. The Lycaonians were proverbially fickle and faithless; but we may not too hastily decide that they were worse than many others might have been under the same circumstances. It would not be diffi- cult to find a parallel to their conduct among the modern converts from idolatry to Christianity. And certainly no later missionaries have had more assiduous enemies than the Jews whom the Apostles had every- where to oppose. Certain Jews from Iconium, and even from Antioch,‘ followed in the footsteps of Paul and Barnabas, and endeavored to excite the hostility of the Lystrians against them. When they heard of the miracle worked on the lame man, and found how great an effect it had produced on the people of Lystra, they would be ready with a new interpretation of this occurrence. They would say that it had been accomplished, not by Divine agency, but by some diabolical ic; ag once they had said at Jerusalem, that He who came “ to destroy the works of the Devil” cast out devils “‘ by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”.> And this is probably the true explanation of that sudden 1 1 Thess. i. 9. The coincidence is more in the Authorized Version entirely alters w striking in the Greek, because the very same meaning. verb is used in each passage, and is intransi- 5 Acts xvii. 30. tive in both. * Acts xiv. 19. 3 Rom. iii. 25: the mistranslation of which 5 Matt. xii. 24. oa ST. PAUL STONED. 173 4P, VI. change of feeling among the Lystrians, which at first sight is very surprising. Their own interpretation of what they had witnessed having been disavowed by the authors of the miracle themselves, they would readily adopt a new interpretation, suggested by those who appeared to be well acquainted with the strangers, and who had followed them from distant cities. Their feelings changed with a revulsion as violent as thas which afterwards took place among the “barbarous people” of Malta! who first thought St. Paul was a murderer, and then a God. The Jews, taking advantage of the credulity of a rude tribe, were able to accom- plish at Lystra the design they had meditated at Iconium.? St. Paul was stoned, — not hurried out of the city to execution like St. Stephen,’ the — memory of whose death must have come over St. Paul at this moment with impressive force, — but stoned somewhere in the streets of Lystra, and then dragged through the city-gate, and cast outside the walls, under the belief that he was dead. This is that occasion to which the Apostle afterwards alluded in the words, “ once I was stoned,‘ in that long catalogue of sufferings, to which we have already referred in this chapter.° Thus was he “ in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the Heathen,’”’ — “in deaths oft,’ — “ always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his body. . . . Alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal flesh.” * On the present occasion these last words were literally realized, for by the power and goodness of God he rose from a state of apparent death as if by a sudden resurrection.’ Though “ persecuted,” he was not “ for- saken,” — though “ cast down,” he was “ not destroyed.” ‘As the disciples 1 Acts xxviii, 4-6. ® Acts xiv. 5. that Paul and his companions were ‘ aware of the danger and fied,’ a contradiction between ® See the end of Ch. Il. At Jerusalem the law required that these executions should take place outside the city. It must be re- membered that stoning was a Jewish punish- ment, and that it was proposed by Jews at Iconium, and instigated and begun by Jews at Lystra. * See Paler’s remark on the expression “once I was stoned,” in reference to the pre- vious design of stoning St. Paul at Iconium. “Had the assault been completed, had the history related that a stone was thrown, as it relates that preparations were made both by Jews and Gentiles to stone Paul and his com- panions, or even had the account of this trans- action stopped, without going on te inform us the history and the epistles would have ensued. Truth is necessarily consistent; but it is scarcely possible that independent accounts, not having truth to guide them, should thus advance to the very brink of contradiction without falling into it.” — Hore Pauline, p- 69. 5 See pp. 145, 146. § Compare 2 Corinthians iv. 8-12 and xi. 23-27. 7 The natural inference from the narrative is, that the recovery was miraculous ; and it is evident that such a recovery must have pro duced a strong effect on the minds of the Christians who witnessed it. 174 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. ouar. VI, stood about him, he rose up, and came into the city.” ! We see from this expression that his labors in Lystra had not been in vain. He had found some willing listeners to the truth, some “ disciples” who did not hesitate to show their attachment to their teacher by remaining near his body, which the rest of their fellow-citizens had wounded and cast out. These courageous disciples were left for the present in the midst of the enemies __ of the truth. Jesus Christ had said,’ ‘“‘ when they persecute you in one ~ city, flee to another ;” and the very ‘next day”’* Paul “ departed with Barnabas to Derbe.” But before we leave Lystra, we must say a few words on one spectator of St. Paul’s sufferings, who is not yet mentioned by St. Luke, but who was destined to be the constant companion of his after-years, the zealous follower of his doctrine, the faithful partner of his danger and distress. St. Paul came to Lystra again after the interval of one or two years, and— on that occasion we are told‘ that he found a certain Christian there, ‘whose name was Timotheus, whose mother was a Jewess, while his father was a Greek,” and whose excellent character was highly esteemed by his fellow-Christians of Lystra and Iconium. It is distinctly stated that at the time of this second visit Timothy was already a Christian ; and since we know from St. Paul’s own expression, —“‘ my own son in the faith,” °— that he was converted by St. Paul himself, we must suppose this change to have taken place at the time of the first visit. And the reader will remember that St. Paul in the second Epistle to Timothy Gii. 10, 11) reminds him of his own intimate and personal knowledge of the sufferings he had endured, “at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,” — the places (it will be observed) being mentioned in the exact order in which they were visited, and in which the successive persecutions took place. We have thus the strongest reasons for believing that Timothy was a witness of St. Paul’s injurious treatment, and this too at a time of life when the mind receives its deepest impressions from the spectacle of innocent suffering and undaunted courage. And it is far from impossible : that the generous and warm-hearted youth was standing in that group of disciples, who surrounded the apparently lifeless body of the Apostle at the utside of the walls of Lystra. We are called on to observe at this point, with a thankful acknowledg- | 1 Acts xiv. 20. through the recollection of St. Paul’s suffer : 2 Matt. x. 238. ings; but the common view is the most natu- | 8 Acts xiv. 20. * Thid. xvi. 1. ral. See what is said 1 Cor. iv. 14,15: “ As . *1Tim i.2. Compare i.18 and 2 Tim. my beloved sons I warn you; for though ye ii. 1. It is indeed possible that these expres- have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet sions might be used, if Timothy became a have ye not many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus Christian by his mother’s influence, and I have begotten you through the Gospel.” OwAe, WI, TIMOTHEUS. — DERBE. 175 ment of God’s providence, that the flight from Iconium, and the cruel per- secution at Lystra, were events which involved the most important and beneficial consequences to universal Christianity. {t was bere, mm ithe midst of barbarous idolaters, that the Apostle of the Gentiles found an associate, who became to him and the Church far more than Barnabas. the companion of his first mission. As we have observed above,! there appears to have been at Lystra no synasogue, no community of Jews and proselytes, among whom such an associate might naturally have been ex- pected. Perhaps Timotheus and his relations may have been almost the only persons of Jewish origin in the town. And his “ grandmother Lois ” and *“* mother Kunice ”? may have been brought there originally by some accidental circumstance, as Lydia® was brought from Thyatira to Philippi. And, though there was no synagogue at Lystra, this family may have met with a few others in some proseucha, like that in which Lydia and her fellow-worshippers met “ by the river-side.””> Whatever we conjecture concerning the congregational life to which Timotheus may have been accustomed, we are accurately informed of the nature of that domestic life which nurtured him for his future labors. The good soil of his heart was well prepared before Paul came, by the instructions® of Lois and Eunice, to receive the seed of Christian truth, sown at the Apostle’s first visit, and to produce a rich harvest of faith and good works before the time of his second visit. Derbe, as we have seen, is somewhere not far from the “ Black Moun- tain,” which rises like an island in the south-eastern part of the plain of » Lycaonia. A few hours would suffice for the journey between Lystra and _its neighbor-city. We may, perhaps, infer from the fact that Derbe is not mentioned in the list of places which St. Paul? brings to the recollec- tien of Timothy as scenes of past suffering and distress, that in this town | the Apostles were exposed to no persecution. It may have been a quiet resting-place after a journey full of toil and danger. It does not appear _ that they were hindered in “evangelizing” the city: and the fruit of their labors was the conversion of “ many disciples.” * And now we have reached the limit of St. Paul’s first missionary journey. About this part of the Lycaonian plain, where it approaches, through gradual undulations,’ to the northern bases of Mount Taurus, he 1 See p. 167. 7 2 Tim. iii. 11. 29 Timi. 5 5 Acts xiv. 21. ® Acts xvi. 14. ® So Leake describes the neighborhood of * See also the remarks on the Jews settled Karaman (Laranda), pp. 96, 97. Hamilton, in Asia Minor, Ch. I. p.16; and on the Hel- speaking of the same district, mentions “low lenistic and Aramean Jews, Ch. II. p. 35. ridges of cretaceous limestone, extending inte ® Acts xvi. 18. § 2 Tim. i. 5. the plain from the mountains.” 11. 324. 176 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES Of ST. PAUL. was not far from that well-known pass! which leads down from the central table-land to Cilicia and Tarsus. But his thoughts did not centre in an earthly home. He turned back upon his footsteps; and revisited the places, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,? where he himself had beer reviled and persecuted, but where he had left, as sheep in the desert, the disciples whom his Master had enabled him to gather. They needed — building up and strengthening in the faith,* comforting in the midst of their inevitable sufferings, and fencing round by permanent institutions. Therefore Paul and Barnabas revisited the scenes of their labors, un- daunted by the dangers which awaited them, and using words of encouragement, which none but the founders of a true religion would have ventured to address to their earliest converts, that “we can only enter the kingdom of God by passing through much tribulation.” But not only did they fortify their faith by passing words of encouragement ; they ordained elders in every church after the pattern of the first Christian communities in Palestine,‘ and with that solemn observance which had attended their own consecration,’ and which has been trans- mitted to later ages in connection with ordination, —“ with fasting and prayer,” — they “‘made choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred ministry of the Church.” ° Thus, having consigned their disciples to Him “in whom they had believed,” and who was “able to keep that which was intrusted to Him,”’* Paul and Barnabas descended through the Pisidian mountains to the plain of Pamphylia. If our conjecture is correct (see pp. 147, 148), that they went up from Perga in spring, and returned at the close of autumn,® and spent all the hotter months of the year in the elevated dis- tricts, they would again pass in a few days through a great change of seasons, and almost from winter to summer. The people of Pamphylia would have returned from their cold residences to the warm shelter of the plain by the seaside; and Perga would be full of its inhabitants. The Gospel was preached within the walls of this city, through which the Apostles had merely passed ® on their journey to the interior. But from 1 The “Cilician Gates,” te which we shall § Ch. V. p. 123. return at the beginning of the second mission- 6 The First Collect for the Ember Weeks. ary journey (Acts xv. 41). See the Map. T Acts xiv. 23. Compare 2 Tim. i. 12. 2 Mentioned (Acts xiv. 21) in the inverse 8 Wieseler thinks the events on this journey order from that in which they had been visited must have occupied more than one year. It before (xiii. 14, 51, xiv. 6). ia evident that the case does not admit of any 5 Acts xiv. 22. thing more than conjecture. * The first mention of presbyters in the ® See above, p. 143, and notes. Christian, opposed to the Jewish sense, occurs Acts xi. 30, in reference to the church at Jsru-. salem. Seo Chapter XIII. GAP, Yi, PEBGA AND ATTALELA. LT? St. Luke’s silence it appears that the preaching was attended with ne marked results. We read neither of conversions nor persecutions. The Jews, if any Jews resided there, were less inquisitive and less tyrannical than those at Antioch and Iconium ; and the votaries of “ Diana before the city” at Perga (see p. 143) were less excitable than those who worshipped “‘ Jupiter before the city’ at Lystra.' When the time came for returning to Syria, they did not sail down the Cestrus, up the channel of which river they had come on their arrival from Cyprus,’ but travelled across the plain to Attaleia,? which was situated on the edge of the Pamphylian gulf. Attaleia had something of the same relation to Perga which Oadiz has to Seville. In each case the latter city is approached by a river-voyage, and the former is more conveniently placed on the open sea. Attalua Philadelphus, king of Pergamus, whose dominions extended from the north-western corner of Asia Minor to the Sea of Pamphylia, had built this city in a convenient position for commanding the trade of Syria or _ Egypt. When Alexander the Great passed this way, no such city was im existence: but since the days of the kings of Pergamus, who inherited a fragment of his vast empire, Attaleia has always existed and flourished, retaining the name of the monarch who built it.‘ Behind it is the plain through which the calcareous waters of the Catarrhactes flow, perpetually constructing and destroying and reconstructing their fantastic channels. In front of it, and along the shore on each side, are lony lines of cliffs,* over which the river finds its way in waterfalls to the sea, and which conceal the plain from those who look toward the land from the inner waters of the bay, and even encroach on the prospect of the mountains themselves. When this scene is before us, the mind reverts to another band of Christian warriors, who once sailed from the bay of Satalia to the Syrian Antioch. Certain passages, in which the movements of the Crusaders and Apostles may be compared with each other, are among the striking contrasts of history. Conrad and Louis, each with an army consisting at first of 70,000 men, marched through part of the same districts which were traversed by Paul and Barnabas alone and unprotected. The shattered remains of the French host had come down to Attaleia through 1 Acta xiv. 13. 3 Pp. 148, 144. * Tts modern name is Satalia, 8 A view may be seen in the work of Ad- § See Spratt and Forbes for a full account miral Beaufort, who describes the city as of the irregular deposits and variations of “beautifully situated round a small harbor, channel observable in this river. the streets appearing to rise behind each other * There are also ancient sea-cliffs at sume _ like the seats of a theatre ... with a double distance behind the prosent coazt-line. wall and a series of square towers on the level smmumit ef the hill.” . 12 {78 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. “the abrupt mountain-passes and the deep valleys” which are so well - described by the contemporary historian.' They came to fight the battle of the Cross with a great multitude, and with the armor of human power: their journey was encompassed with defeat and death; their arrival at Attaleia was disastrous and disgraceful; and they sailed to Antioch a broken and dispirited army. But the Crusaders of the first century, the Apostles of Christ, though they too passed “ through much tribulation,” advanced from victory to victory. Their return to the place “‘ whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled,” ? was triumphant and joyful, for the weapons of their warfare were “not carnal.”* The Lord Himself was their tower and their shield. Coin of Antioch in Pisidia,* 2 William of Tyre. Acts xiv. 26. ‘°*See 2 Cor. x. 4. ‘See note, p. 162. CHAPTER VIL Controversy in the Church. — Separation of Jews and Gentiles. — Difficulty in the Narrative. — Discontent at Jerusalem. — Intrigues of the Judaizers at Antioch. — Mission of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem.— Divine Revelation to St. Paul. — Titus. — Private Conferences. — Public Meeting. — Speech of St. Peter. — Narrative of Barnabas and Paul. — Speech of St. James. — The Decree. — Public Recognition of St. Paul’s Mission to the Heathen. — St. John. — Return to Antioch with Judas, Silas, and Mark. — Reading of the Letter. — Weak Conduct of St. Peter at Antioch. — He is rebuked by St. Paul. — Personal Appearance of the two Apostles. — Their Reconciliation. F, when we contrast the voyage of Paul and Barnabas across the bay of Attaleia with the voyage of those who sailed over the same waters in the same direction, eleven centuries later, our minds are power- fully drawn towards the pure age of early Christianity, when the power of faith made human weakness irresistibly strong ; — the same thoughts are not less forcibly presented to us, when we contrast the reception of the Crusaders at Antioch, with the reception of the Apostles in the same city. We are told by the chroniclers, that Raymond, “ Prince of Antioch,” waited with much expectation for the arrival of the French king; and that when he heard of his landing at Seleucia, he gathered together all the nobles and chief men of the people, and went out to meet him, and brought him into Antioch with much pomp and magnificence, showing him all reverence and homage, in the midst of a great assemblage of the clergy and people. All that St. Luke tells us of the reception of the Apostles after their victorious campaign, is, that they entered into the city and “ gathered together the Church, and told them how God had worked with them, and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.””! Thus the kingdom of God came at the first “without observation,’*— with the humble acknowledgment that all power is given from above,—and with a thankful recognition of our Father’s merciful love to all mankind. No age, however, of Christianity, not even the earliest, has been with- out its difficulties, controversies, and corruptions. The presence of Judas among the Apostles, and of Ananias and Sapphira among the first dis- ciples,’ were proofs of the power which moral evil possesses to combine 1 Acta xiv. 27 2 Luke xvii. 20. 5 Acts vy. 179 7 ay « 180 THE LIFE AND EPISTUES OF 8ST. PAUL. omar. itself with the holiest works. The misunderstanding of “the Grecians and Hebrews” in the days of Stephen,! the suspicion of the Apostles when Paul came from Damascus to Jerusalem, the secession of Mark at the beginning of the first missionary journey,’ were symptoms of the preju- dice, ignorance, and infirmity, in the midst of which the Gospel was to win its way in the hearts of men. And the arrival of the Apostles at Antioch at the close of their journey was presertly followed by a troubled controversy, which involved the most momentous consequences to all future ages of the Church; and led to that visit to Jerusalem which, next after his conversion, is perhaps the most impertant passage in St. Paul’s life. We have seen (Ch. I.) that great numbers of Juws had long been dispersed beyond the limits of their own land, and were at this time distributed over every part of the Roman Empire. ‘ Moses had of old time, in every city, them that preached him, being read in the syna- gogues every Sabbath day.”‘ In every considerable city, both of the East and West, were established some members of that mysterious peo- ple, — who had a written Law, which they read and re-read, in the midst of the contempt of those who surrounded them, week by week, and year by year,— who were bound everywhere by a secret link of affection to one City in the world, where alone their religious sacrifices could be offered, — whose whole life was utterly abhorrent from the temples and images which crowded the neighborhood of their Synagogues, and from the gay and licentious festivities of the Greek and Roman worship. In the same way it might be said that Plato and Aristotle, Zene and Hpicurus,’ “ had in every city those that preached them.” Side by side with the doctrines of Judaism, the speculations of Greek philoso phers were — not indeed read in connection with religious worship — but orally taught and publicly discussed in the schools. Hence the Jews, in their foreign settlements, were surrounded, not only by an idolatry which shocked all their deepest feelings, and by a shameless profligacy unfor- bidden by, and even associated with, that which the Gentiles called religion,— but also by a proud and contemptuous philosophy that alienated the more educated classes of society to as great a distance as the unthinking multitude. Thus a strong line of demarcation between the Jews and Gentiles ran through the whole Roman Empire. Though their dwellings were often contiguous, they were separated from each other by deep-rooted feelings of aversion and contempt. The “ middle wall of partition ’* was built 1 P. 61. ® P. 145. 6 See Acts xvii. 18. 5 P. 96. * Acts xy, 31. ¢ Eph. ii 14. amAP, YH. SEPARATION OF JUWS AND GENTILES. 183 up by diligent hands on both sides. This mu‘ual alienation existed, not- withstanding the vast number of proselytes, who were attracted to the Jewish doctrine and worship, and who, as we have already observed (Ch. I.), were silently preparing the way for the ultimate union of the two races. The breach was even widened, in many cases, in consequence of this work of proselytism: for those who went over to the Jewish camp, or hesitated on the neutral ground, were looked on with some suspicion by the Jews themselves, and thoroughly hated and despised by the Gentiles. It must be remembered that the separation of which we speak was both religious and social. The Jews had a divine Law, which sanctioned the principle, and enforced the practice, of national isolation. They could not easily believe that this Law, with which all the glorious passages of their history were associated, was meant only to endure for a limited period: and we cannot but sympathize in the difficulty they felt in accepting the notion of a cordial union with the uncircumcised, even after idolatry was abandoned and morality observed. And again, the peculiar character of the religion which isolated the Jews was such as to place insuperable obstacles in the way of social union with other men. Their ceremonial observances precluded the possibility of their eating with the Gentiles. The nearest parallel we can find to this barrier be- tween the Jew and Gentile, is the institution of caste among the ancient populations of India, which presents itself to our politicians as a perplex- ing fact in the government of the presidencies, and to our missionaries as the great obstacle to the progress of Christianity in the Hast! A Hindoo cannot eat with a Parsee, or a Mohammedan, — and among the Hindoos themselves the meals of a Brahmin are polluted by the presence of a Pariah,— though they meet and have free intercourse in the ordinary transaction of business. So it was in the patriarchal age. It was “an abomination for the Egyptians to eat bread with the Hebrews.”? The same principle was divinely sanctioned for a time in the Mosaic In- stitutions. The Israelites, who lived among the Gentiles, met them freely in the places of public resort, buying and selling, conversing and disputing: but their families were separate: in the relations of domestic life, it was “ unlawful,” as St. Peter said to Cornelius, “fora man that was a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation.’’’ When St. Peter returned from the centurion at Cxsarea to his brother Christians at Jerusalem, their great charge against him was that he had 1 See for instance the Memoir of the Rev. -erning the slaughtering of animals for food 4. W. Foz (1850), pp. 128-125. A short and the sale of the meat, is given in Allen’s statement of the strict regulations of the mod- Modern Judaism, ch. xxii. sra Jews, in their present dispersed state, con- 2 Gen. xliii. $2. 3 Acts x. 28. 182 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL, cHar. vt “gone in to men uncircumcised, and had eaten with them:” and the - weak compliance of which he was guilty, after the true principle of social unity had been publicly recognized, and which called forth the stern rebuke of his brother-apostle, was that, after eating with the Gentiles, he “‘ withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the ircumcision.””? How these two difficulties, which seem to forbid the formation of a nited Church on earth, were ever to be overcome, — how the Jews and Gentiles were to be religiously united, without the enforced obliga- tion of the whole Mosaic Law, —nhow they were to be socially united as equal brethren in the family of a common Father, — the solution of this — problem must in that day have appeared impossible. And without the direct intervention of Divine grace it would have been impossible. We — now proceed to consider how that grace gave to the minds of the Apostles the wisdom, discretion, forbearance, and firmness which were required ; and how St. Paul was used as the great instrument in accomplishing a work necessary to the very existence of the Christian Church. We encounter here a difficulty, well known to all who have examined this subject, in combining into one continuous narrative the statements in the Epistle to the Galatians and in the Acts of the Apostles. In the atter book we are informed of five distinct journeys made by the Apostle Jerusalem after the time of his conversion;— first, when he escaped om Damascus, and spent a fortnight with Peter ;* secondly, when he ook the collection from Antioch with Barnabas in the time of the famine ;* thirdly, on the occasion of the Council, which is now before us in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts; fourthly, in the interval between his sec- ond and third missionary journeys ;° and, fifthly, when the uproar was made in the Temple, and he was taken into the custody of the Roman garrison. In the Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul speaks of two jour neys to Jerusalem, — the first being ‘three years” after his conversion,’ the second “fourteen years” later,® when his own Apostleship was asserted and recognized in a public meeting of the other Apostles.® Now, while we have no difficulty in stating, as we have done (p. 95), that the first journey of one account is the first journey of the other, theologians have been variously divided in opinion, as to whether the sec- ond journey of the Epistle must be identified with the second, third, or 1 Acts xi. 8. § Acts xviii. 22. conversion. This question, as well as that 2 Gal. ii. 12. ® Acts xxi. &. of the reading “‘ four,” is discussed in Appen- + P. 9b. 7 Gal. i. 18. dix I. See also the Chronological Table in sign Ulf Appendix IIL 8 We take the “‘ fourteen” (Gal. ii. 1) to * Gal. ii. 1-10. refer to the preceding journey. and not to the CHAP WI. DIFFICULTY IN THE NARRATIVE. 188 fourth of the Acts; or whether it is a separate journey, distinct from any of them. It is agreed by all that the fifth cannot possibly be intended.’ The view we have adopted, that the second journey of the Hpistle is the third of the Acts, is that of the majority of the best critics and commen- tators. For the arguments by which it is justified, and for a full discus- sion of the whole subject, we must refer the reader to Appendix I Some of the arguments will be indirectly presented in the following nar rative. So far as the circumstances combined together in the present chapter appear natural, consecutive and coherent, so far some reason will be given for believing that we are not following an arbitrary assumption or a fanciful theory. It is desirable to recur at the outset to the first instance of a Gentile’s conversion to Christianity. After the preceding remarks, we are prepared to recognize the full significance of the emblematical*® vision which St. Peter saw at Joppa. The trance into which he fell at the moment of his hunger,—the vast sheet descending from heaven,—the promiscuous assemblage of clean and unclean animals,‘— the voice from heaven which said, “ Arise, Peter, kill and eat,” — the whole of this imagery is invested with the deepest meaning, when we recollect all the details of, religious and social life, which separated, up to that moment, the Gentile from the Jew. The words heard by St. Peter in his trance came like a shock on all the prejudices of his Jewish education. He had never so broken the Law of his forefathers as to eat any thing it condemned as unclean. And though the same voice spoke to him “a second time,’’§ and “answered him from heaven,” ?— ‘ What God has made clean that call not thou common,’ — it required a wonderful combination of natu- ral* and supernatural evidence to convince him that God is “ no respecter of persons,” but “in every nation” accepts «1m that “ feareth Him and 1 Some writers, e.g. Paley and Schrader, have contended that an entirely different jour- ney, not mentioned in the Acts, is alluded to. This also is discussed in Appendix I. 2 Acts x., xi. 8 The last emblematical visions (properly so called) were those seen by the prophet Zachariah. * See Levit. xi. 5 The feeling of the Jews in all ages is well illustrated by the following extract from a modern Jewish work: “If we disregard this precept, and say, ‘ What difference can it make to God if I eat the meat of an ox or swine?’ we offend against His will, we pollute our- selves by what goes into the mouth, and can consequently lay no longer a claim to holiness ; for the term ‘holiness,’ applied to mortals, Means only a framing of our desires by the will of God. . .. Have we not enough to eat without touching forbidden things ? Let me beseech my dear fellow-believers not to deceive themselves by saying, ‘there is no sin in eating of aught that lives;’ on the con- trary, there is sin and contamination too.” —~ Leeser’s Jews and the Mosaic Law; ch. on “« The forbidden Meats.” Philadelphia, 5594. 8 Acts x. 15. 7 Acts xi. 9. 8 The coincidence of outward events and inward admonitions was very similar to the cir- cumstances connected with St. Paul’s baptism by Ananias at Damascus. See above, p. 87. ee 184 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL omar. worketh righteousness,”'— that all such distinctions as depend on “meat and drink,” on “ holydays, new moons, and sabbaths,” were to pass away, — that these things were only “a shadow of things to come,” —that “the body is of Christ,””— and that “‘in Him we are complete . . . circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands . . . buried with Him in baptism,” and risen with Him through faith? The Christians “ of the circumcision,’’* who travelled with Peter from Joppa to Caesarea, were “ astonished” when they saw “the gift of the Holy Ghost poured out” on uncircumcised Gentiles: and much dissatis- faction was created in the Church, when intelligence of the whole trans- action came to Jerusalem. On Peter’s arrival, his having “ gone in to men uncircumcised, and eaten with them,” was arraigned as a serious violation of religious duty. When St. Peter “rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order,” appealing to the evidence ef the “six brethren” who had accompanied him,—his accusers were silent; and so much conviction was produced at the time, that they expressed their gratitude to God, for His mercy in “ granting to the Gentiles repentance unto life.”‘ But subsequent events too surely proved that the discontent at Jerusalem was only partially allayed. Hesitation and perplexity began to arise in the minds of the Jewish Christians, with scrupulous misgivings concerning the rectitude of St. Peter’s conduct, and an uncomfortable jealousy of the new converts. And nothing could be more natural than all this jealousy and perplexity. To us, with our present knowledge, it seems that the slightest relaxation ef a ceremonial law should have been willingly and eagerly welcomed. But the view from the Jewish standing-point was very different. The religious difficulty in the mind of a Jew was greater than we can easily imagine. We can well believe that the minds of many may have been perplexed by the words and the conduct of our Lord Himself: for He had not been sent “save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and He had said that it was “ not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to dogs.”* Until St. Paul appeared before the Church in his true character as the Apostle of the uncircumcision, few understood that “the law of the commandments contained in ordinances” had been abolished by the cross of Christ;* and that the “other sheep,” not of the Jewish fold, should be freely united to the “one flock” by the “One Shepherd.”’' The smouldering feeling of discontent, which had existed from the first, increased and became more evident as new Gentile converts were admitted 1 Acts x. 34, $5. £ See Col. ii. 8-23. ® Matt. xv. 24, 26. * Acts x. 45 with xi. 12. - © Eph. if. 15. * Act xi. 1-18. 7 Not literally “one fold.” John x. (4. omar, VIL DISCONTENT AT JERUSALEM. 185 into the Church. To pass over all the other events of the interval which had elapsed since the baptism of Cornelius, the results of the recent journey of Paul and Barnabas through the cities of Asia Mipor must have excited a great commotion 4mong the Jewish Christians. “A door of faith” had been opened “ unto the Gentiles.”! “He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision, the same had been mighty in Paul toward the Gentiles.”? And we cannot well doubt that both he and Barnabas had freely joined in social intercourse with the Gentile Christians, at Antioch in Pisidia, at Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, as Peter “at the first”* “a good while ago”‘ had eaten with Cornelius at Cawsarea. At Antioch in Syria, it seems evident that both parties lived together in amicable intercourse and in much “ freedom.’ Nor, indeed, is this the city where we should have expected the Jewish controversy to have come to a crisis: for it was from Antioch that Paul and Barnabas had first been sent as missionaries to the Heathen: * and it was at Antioch that Greek proselytes had first accepted the truth,’ and that the united body of believers had first been called “ Chris- tians.” ° Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jewish world. The exclusive feelings which the Jews carried with them wherever they were diffused were concentrated in Jerusalem in their most intense degree. It was there in the sight of the Temple, and with all the recollections of their ancestors surrounding their daily life, that the impatience of the Jewish Christians kindled into burning indignation. They saw that Christianity, instead of being the purest and holiest form of Judaism, was rapidly becoming a universal and indiscriminating religion, in which the Jewish element would be absorbed and lost. This revolution could not appear to them in any other light than as a rebellion against all they had been taught to hold inviolably sacred. And since there was no doubt that the great instigator of this change of opinion was that Saul of Tarsus whom they had once known as a young Pharisee at the “ feet of Gamaliel,” the con- test took the form of an attack made by “certain of the sect of the Pharisees” upon St. Paul. The battle which had been fought and lost in the “ Cilician synagogue” was now to be renewed within the Church itself. Some of the “ false brethren” (for such is the name which St. Paal gives to the Judaizers)*® went down “from Judza” to Antioch.” The course they adopted, in the first instance, was not that of open antagonism to St. Paul, but rather of clandestine intrigue. They came as “ spies” ) Arte xiv.27. * Actsxv 14. © See GaliL a T Acts xi. 19-3. ° Gal i 4. > Gel. ii. 8. * Actsxvy 7. ° Acts xik 1, &. ® Acts xi % % Acts xv } 186 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. into an enemy’s camp, creeping in “‘ unawares,”’! that they mighi ascertain how far the Jewish Law had been relaxed by the Christians at Antioch; their purpose being to bring the whole Church, if possible, under the “bondage” of the Mosaic yoke. It appears that they remained some considerable time at Antioch,’ gradually insinuating, or openly inculcat- ing, their opinion that the observance of the Jewish Law was necessary to salvation. It is very important to observe the exact form which their teaching assumed. They did not merely recommend or enjoin, for prudential reasons, the continuance of certain ceremonies in themselves indifferent : but they said, “ Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”” Such a doctrine must have been instantly opposed by St. Paul with his utmost energy. He was always ready to go to the extreme verge of charitable concession, when the question was one of peace and mutual understanding: but when the very foundations of Christianity were in danger of being undermined, when the very con- tinuance of “the truth of the Gospel” * was in jeopardy, it was impossible that he should “ give place by subjection,” even ‘‘ for an hour.” The “ dissension and disputation,’* which arose between Paul and Barnabas and the false brethren from Judea, resulted in a general anxiety and perplexity among the Syrian Christians. The minds of “ those who — from among the Gentiles were turned unto God” were “ troubled” and unsettled. Those “words” which ‘“ perverted the Gospel of Christ” tended also to“ subvert the souls” of those who heard them. It was determined, therefore, ‘“‘ that Paul and Barnabas, with certain others, | should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and elders about this ques- — tion.”” It was well known that those who were disturbing the peace of — the Church had their headquarters in Judwa. Such a theological party — could only be successfully met in the stronghold of Jewish nationality. | Moreover, the residence of the principal Apostles was at Jerusalem, and — the community over which “ James” presided was still regarded as the : Mother Church of Christendom. | In addition to this mission with which St. Paul was intrusted by the Church at Antioch, he received an intimation of the Divine Will, com- | municated by direct revelation. Such a revelation at so momentous a crisis must appear perfectly natural to all who believe that Christianity — was introduced into the world by the immediate power of God. If “a man of Macedonia” appeared to Paul in the visions of the night, when ~ he was about to carry the Gospel from Asia into Europe :" if “ the angel — 1 Gal. ii. 4. * Acts xv. 2. 2 This may be inferred from the imperfect 5 Acts xv. 19. in the Greek. Compare xiv. 28. 6 Gal. i. 7. Acts xv. 24. 3 Gal. ii. 5. 7 Acts xvi. 9 CHAP. YI. DIVINE REVELATION TO ST. PAUL. 187 of God” stood by him in the night, when the ship that was conveying him to Rome was in danger of sinking ;' we cannot wonder when he tells us that, on this occasion, when he “ went up to Jerusalem with Barna- bas,” he went “ by revelation.” ? And we need not be surprised, if we find that St. Paul’s path was determined by two different causes; that he went to Jerusalem partly because the Church deputed him, and partly because he was divinely admonished. Such a combination and co-opera- tion of the natural and the supernatural we have observed above,’ in the ease of that vision which induced St. Peter to go from Joppa to Cesarea. Nor in adopting this view of St. Paul’s journey from Antioch to Jerusalem, need we feel any great difficulty —from this circumstance, that the two motives which conspired to direct him are separately mea- tioned in different parts of Scripture. It is true that we are told in the Acts‘ simply that it was “ determined” at Antioch that Paul should go to Jerusalem; and that in Galatians® we are informed by himself that he went “ by revelation.” But we have an exact parallel in an earlier journey, already related,* from Jerusalem to Tarsus. In St. Luke’s narrative’ it is stated that “the brethren,” knowing the conspiracy against his life, “ brought him down to Cesarea and sent him forth ;” while in the speech of St. Paul himself? we are told that in a trance he saw Jesus Christ, and received from Him a command to depart * quickly out of Jerusalem.” Similarly directed from without and from within, he travelled to Jerusalem on the occasion before us. It would seem that his companions were carefully chosen with reference to the question in dispute. On the one hand was Barnabas,’ a Jew and “a Levite” by birth,” a good repre- sentative of the church of the circumcision. On the other hand was Titus now first mentioned” in the course of our narrative, a convert from Heathenism, an uncircumcised “ Greek.” From the expression used of the departure of this company it seems evident that the majority of the Christians.at Antioch were still faithful to the truth of the Gospel. Had the Judaizers triumphed, it would hardly have been said that Paul and his fellow-travellers were “ brought on their way by the Church.” * 1 Thid. xxvii. 28. 2 Gal. ii. 2. Schrader (who does not, how- ever, identify this journey with that in Acts 8 Acts xxii. 17, 18. ® Acts xy. 2. 10 Acts iv. 36. 1 Gal. ii. 1-5. xy.) translates thus — “to make a revelation,” which is a meaning the words can scarcely bear. ® Pp. 183, 184. * Acts xv. 2. 5 Gal. ii. 2. ‘Ch. III. p.97. 7 Acts ix. 30. 12 Titus is not mentioned at all in the Acts of the Apostles, and besides the present Epistle and that to Titus himself, he is only mentioned in 2 Cor. and 2 Tim. In a later part of this work he will be noticed more particularly as St. Paul’s “fellow-laborer ” (2 Cor. viii. 23). 18 Acts xv.3. So the phrase in xv. 40 may 188 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL omar, va Their course was along the great Roman Road, which followed the Pheenician coast-line, and traces of which are still seen on the cliffs over hanging the sea:! and thence through the midland districts of Samaria and Judwa. When last we had occasion to mention Phenice, we were alluding to those who were dispersed on the death of Stephen, and preached the Gospel “to Jews only” on this part of the Syrian coast. Now, it seems evident that many of the heathen Syro-Pheenicians had been converted to Christianity: for, as Paul and Barnabas passed through, “ declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, they caused great joy unto all the brethren.” As regards the Samaritans,’ we cannot be surprised that they who, when Philip first “‘ preached Christ unto them,” had received the Glad Tidings with “ great joy,” should be ready to express their sympathy in the happiness of those who, like themselves, had recently been “ aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.” Fifteen years‘ had now elapsed since that memorable journey, when St. Paul left Jerusalem, with all the zeal of a Pharisee, to persecute and destroy the Christians in Damascus.’ He had twice entered, as a Chris- tian, the Holy City again. Both visits had been short and hurried, and surrounded with danger. The first was three years after his conversion, when he spent a fortnight with Peter, and escaped assassination by a pre cipitate flight to Tarsus. The second was in the year 44, when Peter himself was in imminent danger, and when the messengers who brought the charitable contribution from Antioch were probably compelled to be reasonably adduced as a proof that the feeling of the majority was with Paul rather than Barnabas. 1 Dr. Robinson passed two Roman mile- stones between Tyre and Sidon (iii. 415), and observed traces of a Roman road between Sidon snd Beyrout. See also Fisher’s Syria (i. 40) for a notice of the Via Antonina between Beyrout and Tripoli. 2P. 109. Acts xi. 19, 20. It may be interesting here to allude to the journey of 2 Jew in the Middle Ages from Antioch to Jerusalem. It is probable that the stations, the road, and the rate of travelling, were the same, and the distribution of the Jews not very different. We find the following passage in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled in 1163. “Two days bring us from Antioch to Lega, which is Latachia, and con- tains about 200 Jews, the principal of whom are R. Chiia and R. Joseph... .. One day's joerney to Gebal of the children of Ammon ; it contains about 150 Jews... . Two days hence is Beyrut. The principal of its 50 Jewish inhabitants are R. Solomon, R. Obs- diah, and R. Joseph. It is hence one day’s journey to Saids, which is Sidon of Scripture [Acts xxvii. 3], a large city, with about 20 Jewish families. ... One day’s journey to New Sur [Tyre, Acts xxi. 3], a very beautiful city. ... The Jews of Sur are shipowners and manufacturers of the celebrated Tyrian glass. . . . It is one day hence to Acre [Ptole- mais, Acts xxi. 7]. It is the frontier town of Palestine; and, in consequence of its situa- tion on the shore of the Mediterranean, and of its large port, it is the principal place of disembarkation of all pilgrims who visit Jern- salem by sea.” — Karly Travels to Palestine, pp- 78-81. 3 See p. 74. ; * Gal. ii. 1, where we ought probably reckon inclusively. See Appendix I. § Bee Ch. I. © P. 94. Compare p. 122. iat, VEL JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 4188 eeturn immediately.’ Now St. Paul came, at a more peaceful period of the Church’s history, to be received as the successfu: champion of the Gospel, and as the leader of the greatest revolution which the world has seen. It was now undeniable that Christianity had spread to a wide extent in the Gentile world, and that he had been the great instrument in advancing its progress. He came to defend his own principles and practice against an increasing torrent of opposition, which had disturbed him in his distant ministrations at Antioch, but the fountain-head of which was among the Pharisees at Jerusalem. The Pharisees had been the companions of St. Paul’s younger days. Death had made many changes in the course of fifteen years; but some must have been there who had studied with him “at the feet of Gamaliel.”” Their opposition was doubtless imbittered by remembering what he had been before his conversion. Nor do we allude here to those Pharisees who opposed Christianity. These were not the enemies whom St. Paul came to resist. The time was past when the Jews, unassisted by the Roman power, could exercise a cruel tyranny over the Church. [ts safety was no longer dependent on the wisdom or caution of Gamaliel. The great debates at Jerusalem are no longer between Jews and Chris tians in the Hellenistic synagogues, but between the Judaizing an spiritual parties of the Christians themselves. Many of the Pharisees, after the example of St. Paul, had believed that Jesus was Christ.2 But they had not followed the example of their school-companion in the surrender of Jewish bigotry. The battle, therefore, which had once been fought without, was now to be renewed within, the Church. It seems that, at the very first reception of Paul and Barnabas at Jerusalem, some of these Pharisaic Christians “ rose up,” and insisted that the observance of Judaism was necessary to salvation. They said that it was absolutely * needful to circumcise” the new converts, and to “command them to keep the Law of Moses.” The whole course of St. Paul’s procedure among the Gentiles was here openly attacked. Barnabas was involved in the same suspicion and reproach; and with regard to Titus, who was with them as the representative of the Gentile Church, it was asserted that, without circumcision, he could not hope to be partaker of the bless- ings of the Gospel. Bat far more was involved than any mere opposition, however factious, to individual missionaries, or than the severity of any conditions imposed on individual converts. The question of liberty or bondage for all future ages was to be decided; and a convention of the whole Church at Jeru- salem was evidently called for. In the mean time, before “ the Apostles 1 P.117. Compare p. 182. ® Acts xv. 6. 190 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. CHAP. Vi. and elders came together to consider of this matter,”! St. Paul had private conferences with the more influential members of the Christian community,’ and especially with James, Peter, and John,’ the Great Apostles and “ Pillars” of the Church. Extreme caution and manage- ment were required, in eonsequence of the intrigues of the “ false — brethren,” both in Jerusalem and Antioch. He was, moreover, himself the great object of suspicion; and it was his duty to use every effort to remove the growing prejudice. Thus, though conscious of his own in- spiration, and tenaciously holding the truth which he knew to be essential, he yet acted with that prudence which was characteristic of hig whole life,‘ and which he honestly avows in the Epistle to the Galatians. If we may compare our own feeble imitations of Apostolic zeal and prudence with the proceedings of the first founders of the Church of Christ, we may say that these preliminary conferences were like the pri vate meetings which prepare the way for a great religious assembly in Eng- land. Paul and Barnabas had been deputed from Antioch; Titus war with them as a sample of Gentile conversions, and a living proof of their reality ; and the great end in view was to produce full conviction in the Church at large. At length the great meeting was summoned,’ which was to settle the principles of missionary action among the Gentiles. It was a scene of earnest debate, and perhaps, in its earlier portion, of angry “ disputing : ” ® but the passages which the Holy Spirit has caused to be recorded for our instruction are those which relate to the Apostles them- selves, — the address of St. Peter, the narrative of Barnabas and Paul, and the concluding speech of St. James. These three passages must be separately considered in the order of Scripture. St. Peter was the first of the Apostles who rose to address the assembly.7?' He gave his decision against the Judaizers, and in favor of St. Paul. He reminded his hearers of the part which he himself had taken in admitting the Gentiles into the Christian Church. They were well aware, he said, that these recent converts in Syria and Cilicia were 1 Acts xv. 6. ‘however, in this verse, is disputed. See note 2 Gal. ii. 2. below, on the superscription of the decree, p. 3 Gal. ii. 9. 197.] Hence we must suppose, either that * See, for instance, the sixth and seventeenth verses of Acts xxiii. & This meeting is described (Acts xv. 6) as consisting of the “ Apostles and Elders;” but the decision afterwards given is said to be the decision of “ the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church” (ver. 22), and the decree was sent in the names of ‘the Apostles, and Eld- ers, and Brethren ” (ver. 23). |The reading, the decision was made by the synod of the Apostles and Elders, and afterwards ratified by another larger meeting of the whole Church, or that there was only one meeting, in which the whole Church took part, although only the “ Apostles and Elders” are men- tioned. 5 Acts xv. 7. 7 Acts xv. 7-11. oar, va. PUBLIC MEETING. 195 not the first Heathens who had believed the Gospel, and that he himself had been chosen by God to begin the work which St. Paul had only been continuing. The communication of the Holy Ghost was the true test of God’s acceptance: and God had shown that He was no respecter of per sons, by shedding abroad the same miraculous gifts on Jew and Geutile and purifying by faith the hearts of both alike. And then St. Petei went on to speak, in touching language, of the yoke of the Jewish Law. Its weight had pressed heavily on many generations of Jews, and was well known to the Pharisees who were listening at that moment. They had been relieved from legal bondage by the salvation offered through faith ; and it would be tempting God, to impose on others a burden which neither they nor their fathers had ever been able to bear. The next speakers were Paul and Barnabas. There was great silence through all the multitude, and every eye was turned on the missionaries, while they gave the narrative of their journeys. Though Barnabas is mentioned here before Paul,’ it is most likely that the latter was “ the chief speaker. But both of them appear to have addressed the audience.* They had much to relate of what they had done and seen together: and especially they made appeal to the miracles which God had worked among the Gentiles by them. Such an appeal must have been a persuasive argu ment to the Jew, who was familiar, in his ancient Scriptures, with many Divine interruptions of the course of nature. These interferences had signalized all the great passages of Jewish history. Jesus Christ had proved His Divine mission in the same manner. And the events at Paphos,‘ at Iconium,° and Lystra,‘ could not well be regarded in ary other light than as a proof that the same Power had been with Paul and Barnabas, which accompanied the words of Peter and John in Jerusalem and Judea.’ But the opinion of another speaker still remained to be given. This was James, the brother of the Lord,’ who, from the austere sanctity of his character, was commonly called, both by Jews and Christians, “‘ James the Just.” No judgment could have such weight with the Judaizing party as his. Not only in the vehement language in which he denounced the 1 Acts xy. 12. The imperfect, which is here used, implies attention to a continued narrative. E 2 This order of the names in the narrative, xy. 12, and in the letter below, ver. 25 (not in * Acts xiii. 11. ® Acts xiv. 3. § Acts xiv. 8. 7 Acts ii., v., ix. 5 See Acts xy. 18-22. It is well known ver. 22), is a remarkable exception to the phrase “ Paul and Barnabas,” which has been usual since Acts xiii. See below, p. 197, n. 4. 5 See ver. 18, “after they were silent.” that there is much perplexity connected with those apostles who bore the name of James. We are not required here to enter into the investigation, and are content to adopt the opinion which is most probable. 192 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL omar. va, sins of the age, but even in garb and appearance, he resembled John the Baptist, or one of the older prophets, rather than the other Apostles of the new dispensation. ‘ Like the ancient saints, even in outward aspect, with the austere features, the linen ephod, the bare feet, the long locke and unshorn head of the Nazarite,” '— such, according to tradition, was the man who now came forward, and solemnly pronounced that Mosaic rites were not of eternal obligation. After alluding to the argument of Peter (whose name we find him characteristically quoting in its Jewish form),? he turns to the ancient prophets, and adduces a passage from — Amos? to prove that Christianity is the fulfilment of Judaism. And then he passes to the historical aspect of the subject, contending that this ful- filment was predetermined by God Himself, and that the Jewish dispen- sation was in truth the preparation for the Christian.* Such a decision, pronounced by one who stood emphatically on the confines of the two dispensations, came with great force on all who heard it, and carried with — it the general opinion of the assembly to the conclusion that those ‘“‘ whe from among the Gentiles had turned unto God ” should not be “ trou- bled” with any Jewish obligations, except such as were necessary for peace and the mutual good understanding of the two parties. The spirit of charity and mutual forbearance is very evident in the decree which was finally enacted. Its spirit was that expressed by St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians. He knew, and was persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. He knew that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. But all men have not this knowledge: some could not eat that which had been offered in sacrifice to an idol without defiling their con- acience. It is good to abstain from every thing whereby a weaker brother may be led to stumble. To sin thus against our brethren is to sin against Christ. In accordance with these principles it was enacted that the Gen tile converts should be required to abstain from that which had been polluted by being offered in sacrifice to idols, from the flesh of animals which had been strangled, and generally from the eating of blood. The reason for these conditions is stated in the verse to which particular 1 Stanley’s Sermons and Essays, &., p. ecy to the future destiny of the Jews; but we 295. We must refer here to the whole of the must observe, that the Apostles themselves ap Sermon on the Epistle of St. James, and of the ply such prophecies as this to the Christian Eseay on the Traditions ef James the Just, espe- Dispensation. See Acts ii. 17. cially pp. 292, $02, 327. 4 “Known from the beginning,” &., 18 2 Acts xy.14. So St. Peter names himself Compare Acts xvii. 26; Rom. i 2; Eph i 16, at the beginning of his Second Epistle. fii. 9, 10; Col. i. 26. ® Amos ix. 11,12. We are not required to 5 Rom. xiv; 1 Cor. vidi xecpress any opinion on the application of proph- quar. ra. THE DECREE. 183 allusion hss been made at the beginning of the present chapter.’ The Law of Moses was read every Sabbath in all the cities where the Jews were dispersed? A due consideration for the prejudices of the Jews made it reasonable for the Gentile converts to comply with some of the restrie- tions which the Mosaic Law and ancient custom had imposed on every Jewish meal. In no other way could social intercourse be built up and cemented between the two parties. If some forbearance were requisite: on the part of the Gentiles in complying with such conditions, not less forbearance was required from the Jews in exacting no more. And to the Gentiles themselves the restrictions were a merciful condition: for it helped them to disentangle themselves more easily from the pollutions connected with their idolatrous life. We are not merely concerned here with the question of social separation, the food which was a delicacy* to the Gentile being abominated by the Jew, —nor with the difficulties of weak and scrupulous consciences, who might fear too close a contaet between “the table of the Lord ” and “ the table of Demons,” ‘— but this controversy had an intimate connection with the principles of univer. sal morality. .The most shameless violations of purity took place in con- nection with the sacrifices and feasts celebrated in honor of Heathen divinities.* Every thing, therefore, which tended to keep the Gentile converts even from accidental or apparent association with these scenes of vice, made their own recovery from pollution more easy, and enabled the Jewish converts to look on their new Christian brethren with less suspicion and antipathy. This seems to be the reason why we find an acknowledged sin mentioned in the decree along with ceremonial observ- ances which were meant to be only temporary‘ and perhaps local.’ We 1 Above, p. 180. There is some difference of opinion as to the connection of this verse _ with the context. Some consider it to imply that, while it was necessary to urge these con- ditions on the Gentiles, it was needless to say any thing to the Jews on the subject, since they had the Law of Moses, and knew its require- ments. Dean Milman infers that the regula- tions were made because the Christians in gene- ral met in the same places of religious worship with the Jews. “‘ These provisions were neces- sary, because the Mosaic Law was universally read, and from immemorial usage, in the synagogue. The direct violation of its most vital principles by any of those who joined in the common worship would be incongruous, and of course highly offensive to the more sealous Mosaists.” — Hist. ef Christianity, vel. 13 3 Acts xv. 21. 5 We learn from Athensus that the mead from “things strangled” was regarded as a delicacy among the Greeks. #1 Cor’x: St. 5 See Tholuck in his Nature and Moral In Sluence of Heathenism, part iii. § We cannot, however, be surprised that one great branch of the Christian Church takes a different view. The doctrine of the Greek Church, both Ancient and Modern, is in har mony with the letter, as well as the spirit, of the Apostolic council. T At least the decree (Acts xv. 23) is ed- dressed only to the churches of “‘ Syria aad Cilicia ;” and we do not see the subject alladed to again after xvi. 4. 194 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. vib must look on the whole subject from the Jewish point of view, and con- sider how violations of morality and contradictions of the ceremonial law were associated together in the Gentile world. It is hardly necessary to remark that much additional emphasis is given to the moral part of the — decree, when we remember that it was addressed to those who lived in — close proximity to the profligate sanctuaries of Antioch and Paphos.' We have said that the ceremonial part of the decree was intended for a temporary and perhaps only a local observance. It is not for a moment — implied that any Jewish ceremony is necessary to salvation. On the con-— trary, the great principle was asserted, once for all, that man is justified, — not by the law, but by faith: one immediate result was that Titus, the — companion of Paul and Barnabas, “was not compelled to be circum-— cised.”? His case was not like that of Timothy at a later period,’ whose circumcision was a prudential accommodation to circumstances, without — endangering the truth of the Gospel. To have circumcised Titus at the time of the meeting in Jerusalem, would have been to have asserted that — he was “bound to keep the whole law.’”’* And when the alternative was between “ the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,” and the re- imposition of “the yoke of bondage,” St. Paul’s language always was,* that if Gentile converts were circumcised, Christ could “profit them nothing.” By seeking to be justified in the law, they fell from grace.* In this firm refusal to comply with the demand of the Judaizers, the case of all future converts from Heathenism was virtually involved. It was asserted once for all, that in the Christian Church there is “neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free: but that Christ is all and in all.”*7 And St. Paul obtained the vie tory for that principle, which, we cannot doubt, will hereafter destroy the distinctions that are connected with the institutions of slavery in America and of caste in India. i Certain other points decided in this meeting had a more direct personal reference to St. Paul himself. His own independent mission had been called in question. Some, perhaps, said that he was antagonistic to the Apostles at Jerusalem, others that he was entirely dependent on them.® All the Judaizers agreed in blaming his course of procedure among the Gentiles. This course was now entirely approved by the other Apostles. His independence was fully recognized. Those who were universally regarded as “ pillars of the truth,” James, Peter, and John,’ gave to him 1 See above, pp 116 and 140. ® The charges brought against St. Paul by 3 Gal. ii. 3. ® Acts xvi. 8. the Judaizers were very various at differenr * Gal. v. 8. ® Gal. v. 2. times. * Gal. v. 4. ® It should be carefully observed here thar 7 Col. tii. 11. James is mentioned first of these Apostles who onAP, VI. RECOGNITION OF ST. PAUL’S MISSION. 195 and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, and agreed that they should be to the Heathen what themselves were to the Jews. Thus was St. Paul publicly acknowledged as the Apostle of the Gentiles, and openly placed in that position from which “he shall never more go out,” as a pillar of the Temple of the “ New Jerusalem,” inscribed with the “ New Name” which proclaims the union of all mankind in one Saviour. One of those who gave the right hand of fellowship to St. Paul was the “beloved disciple” of that Saviour.?. This is the only meeting of St. Paul and St. John recorded in Scripture. It is, moreover, the last notice which we find there of the life of St. John, until the time of the apoca- lyptic vision in the island of Patmos. For both these reasons the mind seizes eagerly on the incident, though it is only casually mentioned in the Epistle to the Galatians. Like other incidental notices contained in Scrip- ture, it is very suggestive of religious thoughts. St. John had been silent during the discussion in the public assembly; but at the close of it he expressed his cordial union with St. Paul in “the truth of the Gospel.’’® That union has been made visible to all ages by the juxtaposition of their Epistles in the same Sacred Volume. They stand together among the pillars of the Holy Temple; and the Church of God is thankful to learn. how Contemplation may be united with Action, and Faith with Love, in the spiritual life. To the decree with which Paul and Barnabas were charged, one con- dition was annexed, with which they gladly promised to comply. We have already had occasion to observe (p. 61) that the Hebrews of Judea were relatively poor, compared with those of the dispersion, and that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were exposed to peculiar sufferings from poverty ; and we have seen Paul and Barnabas once before the bearers of a contribution from a foreign city for their relief (p. 118). They were exhorted now to continue the same charitable work, and in their journeys among the Gentiles and the dispersed Jews, “‘to remember the poor” at Jerusalem.* In proof of St. Paul’s faithful discharge of this were “pillars,” and that Peter is mentioned by the name of Cephas, as in 1 Cor. i. 12. 1 See Rev. iii. 12. The same metaphor is found in 1 Tim. iii. 15, where Timothy is called (for this seems the natural interpretation) “a pillar and support of the truth.” In these passages it is important to bear in mind the peculiarity of ancient architecture, which was characterized by vertical columns, supporting horizontal entablatures. Inscriptions were often. engraved on these columns. Hence the words in the passage quoted from Revelation: ‘I will write upon him. . . my new name.” 2 Gal. ii. 9. 5 Gal ii. 5. * “ Only that we should remember the poor ; which also I was forward to do.” Gal. ii. 10, where the change from the plural to the singu- lar should be noticed. Is this because Barnabas was soon afterwards separated from St. Paul (Acts xv. 39), who had thenceforth to prose- cute the charitable work alone ? 196 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL ‘ ouar, promise, we need only allude to his zeal in making “the contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem” in Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia,’ and to that last journey to the Holy Land, when he went, “after many years,” to take “alms to his nation.”* It Gs more important here to consider (what indeed we have mentioned before) the effect which this charitable exertion would have in binding together the divided parties in the Church. There cannot be a doubt that the Apostles had this result in view. Their anxiety on this subject is the best commentary on the spirit in which they had met on this great occasion; and we may rest assured that the union of the Gentile and Jewish Christians was largely promoted by the benevolent efforts which attended the diffusion of the Apostolic Decree. Thus the controversy being settled, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles being fully recognized, and his method of communicating the Gospel approved by the other Apostles, and the promise being given, that, in their journeys among the Heathen, they would remember the necessities of the Hebrew Christians in Judsa, the two missionaries returned from Jerusalem to Antioch. They carried with them the decree which was to give peace to the consciences that had been troubled by the Judaizing agitators; and the two companions, Judas and Silas,’ who travelled with them, were empowered to accredit their commission and character. It seems also that Mark was another companion of Paul and Barnabas on this journey ; for the last time we had occasion to mention his name was when he withdrew from Pamphylia to Jerusalem (p. 144), and presently we see him once more with his kinsman at Antioch.‘ The reception of the travellers at Antioch was full of joy and satis- faction.’ The whole body of the Church was summoned together to hear the reading of the letter; and we can well imagine the eagerness with which they crowded to listen, and the thankfulness and “ consolation ” with which such a communication was received, after so much anxiety and perplexity. The letter indeed is almost as interesting to us as te them, not only because of the principle asserted and the results secured, but also because it is the first document preserved to us from the acts of the Primitive Church. The words of the original document, literally translated, are as follows : — 1 « As I have given order to the Churches © Acts xxiv. 17. of Galatia,” &c., 1 Cor. xvi 1-4, “It hath ® Acts xy. 23, 27, 32. : pleased thom of Macedonia and Achaia,” &0 * Acts xv. 87. © Acts xv. $i. : Bom. xv. #5, 26. See 3 Cor. viii, ix THE LETTER. 197 “Tua APOSTLES, AND THE ELDERS, AND THE BRETHREN,’ TO THE Gun. 40° TILE BRETHREN IN ANTIOCH, AND SypRia, aND Oricia, Greeting? “* Whereas we have heard that certain men who went out from us have 3 troubled you with words, and unsettled your souls* by telling you to cir- sumcise yourselves and keep the Law, although we gave them no such comunission : “It has been determined by us, being assembled with one accord, to 25 choose some from amongst ourselves and send them to you with our beloved‘ Barnabas and Saul, men that have offered up their lives for the 38 name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, 27 who themselves also® will tell you by word the same which we tell you by letter. “ For it has been determined by the Holy Spirit and by us, to lay upon $8 you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from 99 meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. Wherefrom if ye keep yourselves it chall be well with you. FaREWwEL..” The encouragement inspired by this letter would be increased by the sight of Judas and Silas, who were ready to confirm its contents by word of mouth. These two disciples remained some short time at Antioch, They were possessed of that power of “ prophecy” which was one of the forms in which the Holy Spirit made His presence known: and the 1 We adhere to the Textus Receptus, al- though the “and” before “ Brethren ” is omit- tedin many weighty MSS. But it is supported by Chrysostom, by several of the uncial MSS., and by many of the most ancient versions. Its omission might have been caused by hierarchi- eal tendencies. It should be observed that the phrase without the conjunction is entirely un- known elsewhere, which is s strong argument against its being the correct reading here. Also the omission appears to render the super- ecription of this document inconsistent with the enumeration of the three distinct parties to it in verse 22. 2 2 “Greeting.” The only other place where this salutation occurs is James i.1; an unde- signed coincidence tending to prove the geaw- imenesa of this docursent. 8 Although the best MSS. omit the words “by telling... Law,” yet we think they cannot possibly be an interpolation. 4 It is another undesigned coincidence that the names of these two Apostles are here in the reverse order to that which, in St. Luke’s nar- rative (except when he speaks of Jerusalem), they have assumed since chap. xiii. In the view of the Church at Jerusalem, Paul’s name would naturally come after that of Barnabas. See above, p. 191, n. 2. 5 The present participle may be explained by the ancient idiom of letter-writing, by which the writer transferred himself into the time of the reader. 198 THE LIFE ANI) EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, vt, Syrian Christians were “exhorted and confirmed ” by the exercise of this miraculous gift.' The minds of all were in great tranquillity when the time came for the return of these messengers “ to the Apostles ” at Jeru- salem. Silas, however, either remained at Antioch, or soon came back — thither. He was destined, as we shall see, to become the companion of — St. Paul, and to be at the beginning of the second missionary journey — what Barnabas had been at the beginning of the first. } Two painful scenes were witnessed at Antioch before the Apostle : started on that second journey. We are informed ® that Paul and Barna- bas protracted their stay in this city, and were dilligently occupied, with many others, in making the glad tidings of the Gospel known, and in the general work of Christian instruction. It is in this interval of time that we must place that visit of St. Peter to Antioch,‘ which St. Paul men- tions in the Epistle to the Galatians,’ immediately after his notice of — the affairs of the Council. It appears that Peter, having come to Antioch for some reason which is unknown to us,‘ lived at first in free and unre- strained intercourse with the Gentile converts, meeting them in social friendship, and eating with them, in full consistency with the spirit of the — recent decree, and with his own conduct in the case of Cornelius. At this time certain Jewish brethren came “ from James,” who presided over the Church at Jerusalem. Whether they were really sent on some mission by the Apostle James, or we are merely to understand that they came from Jerusalem, they brought with them their old Hebrew repug- — nance against social intercourse with the uncircumcised ; and Peter in their society began to vacillate. In weak compliance with their preju- dices, he “ withdrew and separated himself” from those whom he had lately treated as brethren and equals in Christ. Just as in an earlier — ———— > ee eee ee 1 Acts xv. 32. Compare xiii. 1. 2 Acts xv. 34. The reading here is doubt- ful. The question, however, isimmaterial. If the verse is genuine, it modifies the phrase they were let go ”’ in the preceding verse ; if not, we have merely to suppose that Silas went to Jerusalem and then returned. ® Acts xv. 35. * Neander places this meeting of Peter and Panl later; but his reasons are far from satis- factory. From the order of narration in the Epistle to the Galatians, it is most natural to infer that the meeting at Antioch took place soon after the Council at Jerusalem. Some writers wish to make it anterior to the Council, from an unwillingness to believe that St. Peter would have acted in this manner after the de- ormee. But it is a sufficient answer to this objection to say that his conduct here was — equally inconsistent with his own previous con- duct in the case of Cornelius. . Abp. Whately (in the work quoted below, p. | 201, n. 1) assumes that Peter went to meet — Paul at Jerusalem after the scene at Antioch, . and sees a close resemblance between Peter's words (Acts xv. 11) and those of Paul {Gal. i. : 14-16). : 5 Gal. ii. 11, &e. ® The tradition which represents Peter as having held the See of Antioch before that of — Rome has been mentioned before, p. 119, n. 1. Tillemont places the period of this episcopate — about 36-42, 4.p. He says it is “une chose © assez embarrassée ;” and it is certainly difficult to reconcile it with Scripture. CHAP, VO. f ST. PETER KEBUKED BY ST. PAUL. 199 part of his life he had first asserted his readiness to follow his Master to death, and then denied Him through fear of a maid-servant,— so now, after publicly protesting against the notion of making any difference between the Jew and the Gentile, and against laying on the neck of the latter a yoke which the former had never been able to bear,! we find him contradicting his own principles, and “through fear of those whc were of the circumcision”? giving all the sanction of his example to the introduction of caste into the Church of Christ. Such conduct could not fail to excite in St. Paul the utmost indigna- tion. St. Peter was not simply yielding a non-essential point, through a tender consideration for the consciences of others. This would have been quite in accordance with the principle so often asserted by his brother-Apostle, that “it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is made weak.” Nor was this proceeding a prudent and innocent accommodation to circum- stances, for the sake of furthering the Gospel, like St. Paul’s conduct in -circumcising Timothy at Iconium ;* or, indeed, like the Apostolic Decree itself. St. Peter was acting under the influence of a contemptible and sinful motive, — the fear of man: and his behavior was giving a strong sanction to the very heresy which was threatening the existence of the Church ; namely, the opinion that the observance of Jewish ceremonies was necessary to salvation. Nor was this all. Other Jewish Christians, as was naturally to be expected, were led away by his example: and even Barnabas, the chosen companion of the Apostle of the Gentiles, who had been a witness and an actor in all the great transactions in Cyprus, in Pisidia, and Lycaonia, — even Barnabas, the missionary, was “ carried away ” with the dissimulation of the rest.*. When St. Paul was a spectator of such inconsistency, and perceived both the motive in which _ it originated and the results to which it was leading, he would have been a traitor to his Master’s cause, if he had hesitated (to use his own emphatic words) to rebuke Peter “ before all,” and to “ withstand him to the face.”’ ® It is evident from St. Paul’s expression, that it was on some public occasion that this open rebuke took place. The scene, though slightly mentioned, is one of the most remarkable in Sacred History: and the mind naturally labors to picture to itself the appearance of the two men. It is, therefore, at least allowable to mention here that general notion of the forms and features of the two Apostles, which has been handed 1 Acts xv. 9, 10. 2 Gal. ii. 12. early writers, that the whole scene was pre- ® Acts xvi. 3. * Gal. ii. 18. arranged between Peter and Paul, and that 5 Gal. ii. 14, 11. there was no real misunderstanding. Even We can only allude to the opinion of some Chrysostom advocates this unchristian view, 00 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. vm down in tradition, and was represented by the early artists. St. Paul® is set before us as having the strongly marked and prominent features of a Jew, yet not without some of the finer lines indicative of Greek thought. His stature was diminutive, and his body disfigured by some lameness or distortion, which may have provoked the contemptuous expressions of his enemies.’ His beard was long and thin. His head was bald. The characteristics of his face were, a transparent complexion, which visibly betrayed the quick changes of his feelings, a bright gray eye under thickly overhanging united eyebrows,‘ a cheerful and winning expression of countenance, which invited the approach and inspired the confidence of strangers. It would be natural to infer,’ from his contin- ual journeys and manual labor, that he was possessed of great strength ef constitution. But men of delicate health have often gone through the greatest exertions: * and his own words on more than one occasion show that he suffered much from bodily infirmity.’ St. Peter is represented to us as a man of larger and stronger form, as his character was harsher and more abrupt. The quick impulses of his soul revealed themselves in the flashes of a dark eye. The complexion of his face was pale and sallow: and the short hair, which is described as entirely gray at the time of his death, curled black and thick round his temples and his chin, when the two Apostles stood together at Antioch, twenty years before their martyrdom. Believing, as we do, that these traditionary pictures have probably some foundation in truth, we gladly take them as helps to the imagina- tien. 1 For the representations of St. Peter and St. Paul in early pictures and mosaics, see the first volume of Mrs. Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art, especially pp. 145, 159, 161, 162, 301. They correspond with the traditionary descriptions referred to in the nextnote. “St Peter is a robust old man, with a broad fore- head, and rather coarse features, an open un- daunted countenance, short gray hair, and short thick beard, curled, and of @ silvery white. Panl was a man of small and meagre stature, with an aquiline nose, and sparkling eyes: in the Greek type the face is long and oval, the ferchead high and bald; the hair brown, the beard long, flowing, and pwinted.... These traditional characteristic types of the features and person of the two greatest Apostles were long adhered to. We find them most strictly Sllowed in the old Greek mosaics, in the early Christian sculpture. and the early pictures, im And they certainly assist us in realizing a remarkable scene, all which the sturdy dignity and broad rustic features of St. Peter, and the elegant contem- plative head of St. Paul, who looks like a Greek philosopher, form a most interesting and sug gestive contrast.” The dispute at Antioch is the subject of a picture by Guido. See p. 187. 2 The descriptions of St. Paul’s appearance by Malalas and Nicephorus are given at length in the larger editions. 3 See above, p. 170. * See above, p. 134, 2. 1. 5 See Acts xx. 7; 1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Theee fii. 8; 2 Cor. xi. 23-28. See Tholuck’s Essay on St. Paul’s early Life, for some speculations on the Apostle’s temperament. ® The instance of Alfred the Great may be rightly alluded to. His biographer, Asser, says that from his youth to his death he was always either suffering pain or expecting it 7 See 2 Cor. xii. 7; Gal. iv. 18, 14 @aaP. VIL THEIR BECONCILIATION. 201 where Judaism and Christianity, in the persons of two Apostles, sre for a moment brought before us in strong antagonism. The worde addressed by St. Paul to St. Peter before the assembled Christians at Antioch, contain the full statement of the Gospel as opposed to the Law. “Tf thou, being born a Jew, art wont to live! according to the customs of the Gentiles and not of the Jews, why wouldest thou now constrain the Gentiles to keep the ordinances of the Jews? We are Jews by birth, and not unhallowed Gentiles ; yet, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we ourselves also have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”” These sentences contain in a condensed form the whole argument of the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans. Though the sternest indignation is expressed in this rebuke, we have no reason to suppose that any actual quarrel took place between the two Apostles. It is not improbable that St. Peter was immediately convinced of his fault, and melted at once into repentance. His mind was easily susceptible of quick and sudden changes ; his disposition was loving and generous: and we should expect his contrition, as well as his weakness, at Antioch, to be what it was in the high priest’s house at Jerusalem. Yet, when we read the narrative of this rebuke in St. Paul’s epistle, it is a relief to turn to that passage at the conclusion of one of St. Peter’s ’ letters, where, in speaking of the “long-suffering of our Lord” and of the prospect of sinless happiness in the world to come, he alludes, in touching words, to the Epistles of “our beloved brother Paul.”* We see how entirely all past differences are forgotten, — how all earthly misun- 1 A spiritual sense is assigned to the word “live,” in this passage, by Abp. Whately (Lec- tures en the Characters of our Lord’s Apostles, 1853, p. 193), and by Bp. Hinds (Scripture and the Authorized Version, 1853, p. 18). The Archbishop says, rather strongly, that he be- lieves that “any competent judge, who care- fally examines the original,” will acknowledge the following to be the true sense of the passage : “Tf thou, though a Jew by birth, yet hast life (i. e. spiritual life) on the same terms as the Gentiles, and not by virtue of thy being a Jew, why dost thou urge the Gentiles to Judaize?” It is, however, certain that many competent persons have examined the passage carefully without coming to this conclusion; and we eannot seo that there is any real difficulty in taliowing the natural translation of the words : — “Tf thou art in the habit of living with the freedom of a Gentile, and not the strictness of a Jew, why dost thou attempt to coeree the Gen- tiles into Judaism?” 2 The quotation is from Psalm cxliii. 3, which is also quoted in the same connection, Rom. iii. 20. There is much difference of opinion among commentators on Gal. ii. as %& the point where Paul’s address to Peter termi nates. Many writers think it continues to the end of the chapter. We are inclined to believe that it ends at v. 16; and that the words which follow are intended to meet doctrinal objec- tions (similar to those in Rom. iii. 3, 5, vi. 1, 15, vii. 7, 18) which the Galatians might nate rally be supposed to make. 5 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. 202 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. vin derstandings are absorbed and lost in the contemplation of Christ and eternal life. Not only did the Holy Spirit overrule all contrarieties, so that the writings of both Apostles teach the Church the same doctrine : but the Apostle who was rebuked “ is not ashamed to call the attention of the Church to epistles in one page of which his own censure is recorded.” ! It ig an eminent triumph of Christian humility and love. We shall not again have occasion to mention St. Peter and St. Paul together, until we come to the last scene of all.? But, though they might seldom meet whilst laboring in their Master’s cause, their lives were united, “ and in their deaths they were not divided.” 7 My HVS MG Coin of Antioch.® 1 Dr. Vaughan’s Harrew Sermons (1846), * From the British Museum. See Mr. p. 410. Scharf’s drawing above, p. 116, and what is 2 The martyrdom at Rome. See Mrs. said there of the emblematical representation Jameson’s Work, especially pp. 180-183, 1988— of Antioch. On this coin the seated figure bears 195. a palm-branch, as the emblem of victory. CHAPTER VII Political Divisions of Asia Minor. — Difficulties of the Subject. — Provinces m the Reigns of Claudius and Nero.—I. ASIA.—II. BITHYNIA.— Il. PAMPHYLIA. —IV. GALA. TIA.—V. PONTUS.— VI. CAPPADOCIA. — VII. — CILICIA. — Visitation of the Churches proposed. — Quarrel and Separation of Paul and Barnabas. — Paul and Silas in Cilicia. — They cross the Taurus. — Lystra. — Timothy. — His Circumcision. — Journey through Phrygia. — Sickness of St. Paul. — His Reception in Galatia.—Journey to the Aigean. — Alexandria Troas. — St. Paul’s Vision. VFNHE life of St. Paul being that of a traveller, and our purpose being to give a picture of the circumstances by which he was surrounded, it is often necessary to refer to the geography, both physical and political, of the countries through which he passed. This is the more needful in the case of Asia Minor, not only because it was the scene of a very great portion of his journeys, but because it is less known to ordinary readers than Palestine, Italy, or Greece. We have already described, at some Jength, the physical geography of those southern districts which are in the immediate neighborhood of Mount Taurus.! And now that the Apostle’s travels take a wider range, and cross the Asiatic peninsula from Syria to the frontiers of Europe, it is important to take a general view of the political geography of this part of the Roman Empire. Unless such a view is obtained in the first place, it is impossible to understand the topographical expressions employed in the narrative, or to conjecture the social relations into which St. Paul was brought in the course of his jour- neys” through Asia Minor. It is, however, no easy task to ascertain the exact boundanes of the Roman provinces in this part of the world at any given date between Augustus and Constantine. In the first place, these boundaries were con- tinually changing. The area of the different political districts was liable to sudden and arbitrary alterations. Such terms as “ Asia,” ® “¢ Pam- phylia,”’ * &c., though denoting the extent of a true political jurisdiction, implied a larger or smaller territory at one time than another. And again, we find the names of earlier and later periods of history mixed 1 Ch. I. pp. 19-21. Ch. VI. pp. 141, 8 Acts ii. 9, vi. 9, xvi. 6, xix. 10, 27, 31, 42. xx. 16, 18, xxvii, 2; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; 2 Cor. i: 24. ¢. the journeys in Acts xvi.and Acts 8; 2 Tim.i.15; 1 Pet.i. 1. viii. * Acts ii. 10, xiii. 13, xv. 38, xxvii. 5. 203 204 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL Omar, WIL. up together in inextricable confusion. Some of the oldest geographical terms, such as “ AMolis,” “ Ionia,” “ Caria,” “ Lydia,” were disappearing from ordinary use in the time of the Apostles:' but others, such as “ Mysia”* and “Lycaonia,”* still remained: Obsolete and existing divisions are presented to us together: and the common maps of Asia Minor‘ are as unsatisfactory as if a map of France were set before us, distributed half into provinces and half into departments. And in the third place, some of the names have no political significance at all, but express rather the ethnographical relations of ancient tribes. Thus, “ Pisidia” * denotes a district which might partly be in one province and partly in another; and “ Phrygia”’* reminds us of the diffusion of an ancient people, the broken portions of whose territory were now under the juris- diction of three or four distinct governors. Cases of this kind are, at first sight, more embarrassing than the others. They are not merely similar to the twofold subdivision of Ireland, where a province, like Ulster, may contain several definite counties: but a nearer parallel is to be found in Scotland, where a geographical district, associated with many historical recollections, — such as Galloway or Lothian, — may be partly in one county and partly in another. Our purpose is to elucidate the political subdivisions of Asia Minor as they were in the reigns of Claudius and Nero, — or, in other words, to enumerate the provinces which existed, and to describe the boundaries which were assigned to them, in the middle of the first century of the Christian era. The order we shall follow is from West to East, and in so doing we shall not deviate widely from the order in which the provinces were successively incorporated as substantive parts of the Roman Empire. We are not, indeed, to suppose that St. Luke and St. Paul used all their topegraphical expressions in the strict political sense, even when such a sense was more or less customary. There was an exact usage anda popular usage of all these terms. But the first step towards fixing our geographical ideas of Asia Minor, must be to trace the boundaries of the provinces. When this is done, we shall be better able to distinguish those terms which, about the year 50 a.p., had ceased to have any true political significance, and to discriminate between the technical and the popular language of the sacred writers. a ST elle ee —— 1 Tacitus, Vitruvius, Justin, &c., speak of political divisions of three er four different Pergemus, Ephesus, Cnidus, Thyatira, &.,a9 periods are confused together. In some ef towns of Asia, not of Aolis, Ionia, Caria, the more recent, the Roman provincial divis- Lydia, &., respectively. See Acts xxvii. 2, ions are indicated, and the emperor’s® ané em Rev. i. 11. ate’s provinces distinguished. 2 Acts xvi. 7, 8. ® Acts xiv. 6, 11. ® Acts xiii. 14, xiv. 24. * In the ordimary maps, ethnographical and ® Acta ii. 10, xvi. 6, xviii. 23. ASIA. 205 omar. Fill, I. Asts.— There is sometimes a remarkable interest associated with the history of a geographical term. One case of this kind is suggested by the allusion which has just been made to the British islands. Early writers speak of Ireland under the appellation of “ Scotia.’’ Certain of its inhabitants crossed over to the opposite coast :' their name spread along with their influence: and at length the title of Scotland was entirely trans- ferred from one island to the other. In classical history we have a simi- lar instance in the name of “Italy,” which at first only denoted the southernmost extremity of the peninsula: then it was extended so as to include the whole with the exception of Cisalpine Gaul: and finally, crossing the Rubicon, it advanced to the Alps; while the name of “ Gaul ” retreated beyond them.: Another instance, on a larger scale, is presented to us on the south of the Mediterranean. The “ Africa” of the Romans spread from a limited territory on the shore of that sea, till it embraced the whole continent which was circumnavigated by Vasco diGama. And similarly the term, by which we are accustomed to designate the larger and more famous continent of the ancient world, traces its derivation to the ‘“‘ Asian meadow by the streams of the Cayster,’”’* celebrated in the poems of Homer. This is the earliest occurrence of the word “ Asia.” We find, how- ever, even in the older poets, the word used in its widest sense to denote all the countries in the far East. Hither the Greeks, made familiar with the original Asia by the settlement of their kindred in its neighborhood, applied it as a generic appellation to all the regions beyond it: ‘ or the extension of the kingdom of Lydia from the banks of the Cayster to the Halys as its eastern boundary, diffused the name of Asia as far as that river, and thus suggested the division of Herodotus into “ Asia within the Halys” and “ Asia beyond the Halys.”* However this might be, the term retained, through the Greek and Roman periods, both a wider and a narrower sense ; of which senses we are concerned only with the latter. The Asia of the New Testament is not the continent which stretches into the remote East from the Black Sea and the Red Sea, but simply the western portion of that peninsula which, in modern times, has received the name of “‘ Asia Minor.” * What extent of country, and what political 1 See beginning of Bede’s History. ® Virgil adopts the phrase from Homer. It dees not appear that the Roman prose writers ever used the word in its primitive and mar- rowest sense. ® As in AXtschylus. * Haying the same general meaning as our phrase “The East.” The words “ Levant” amd “ Anadoli” (the modern name of Agia Minor) have come imto use im the same way. 5 We may compare the case of “ Prles- tine,” which at first meant only the country of the Philistines, and then was used by the Greeks and Romans to designate the whole of the land of Canaan. ¢ The psnineula whick we call Asia Minos was never treated by the ancients as a goo Eee ee 206 THH LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. Vit. significance, we are to assign to the term, will be shown by a statement of a few historical changes. The fall of Croesus reduced the Lydian kingdom to a Persian satrapy. With the rest of the Persian empire, this region west of the Halys fell before the armies of Alexander. In the confusion which followed the conqueror’s death, an independent dynasty established itself at Pergamus, not far from the site of ancient Troy. At first their territory was nar- row, and Attalus I. had to struggle with the Gauls who had invaded the peninsula, and with the neighboring chieftains of Bithynia, who had invited them.’ Antagonists still more formidable were the Greek kings of Syria, who claimed to be “ Kings of Asia,” and aimed at the possession of the whole peninsula.? But the Romans appeared in the Hast, and ordered Antiochus to retire beyond the Taurus, and then conferred substantial rewards on their faithful allies. Rhodes became the mistress of Caria and Lycia, on the opposite coast ; and Eumenes, the son of Attalus, received, in the West and North-west, Lydia and Mysia, and a good portion of that vague region in the interior which was usually denominat- ed ‘“ Phrygia,” *— stretching in one direction over the district of Lycaonia.* Then it was that, as 150 years since the Margraves of Bran- denburg became Kings of Prussia, so the Princes of Pergamus became “Kings of Asia.” For a time they reigned over a highly-civilized territory, which extended from sea to sea. The library of Pergamus was the rival of that of Alexandria: and Attaleia, from whence we have lately seen the Apostle sailing to Syria® (Acts xiv. 25, 26) and Troas, from whence we shall presently see him sailing to Europe (Acts xvi. 11), were the southern and northern (or rather the eastern and western) harbors of King Attalus Il. At length the debt of gratitude to the Romans was paid by King Attalus II]., who died in the year 133 B.c., and left by testament the whole of his dominions to the benefactors of graphical whole. The common divisions were, “Asia within the Halys” and “Asia be- yond the Halys” (as above); or, “ Asia with- in the Taurus” and “ Asia beyond the Tau- rus.” It is very important to bear this in mind: for some interpreters of the New Tes- - tament imagine that the Asia there spoken of is the peninsula of Lesser Asia. The term “ Asia Minor ” is first found in Orosius, a writer of the fourth century, though “ Asia Major” is used by Justin to denote the remote and eastern parts of the continent. 1 See below, p. 207. 2 In the first book of Maccabees (viii. 6) we find Antiochus the Great called by this title. And even after his succeseors were driven beyond the Taurus by the Romans, we see it retained by them, as the title of “ King of France ” was retained by our own mon- archs until a very recent period. See 1 Mace. xi. 13, xii. 39, xiii. $32; 2 Mace. iii. 3. 8 The case of Mysia, in consequence of the difficulties of Acts xvi. 7, 8, will be ex- amined particularly, when we come to this part of St. Paul’s journey. * Thus Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe were probably once in “ Asia.” See below, under Galatia. 5 Pp. 177, 178. Another Scripture city, the Philadelphia of Rev. i. 11, iii. 7, was also built by Attalus II. (Philadelphus). cBAr, VIE, BITHYNIA. 207 his house And now the “ Province of Asia” appears for the first time as a new and significant term in the history of the world. The newly- acquired possession was placed under a pretor, and ultimately a pro- consul.’ The letters and speeches of Cicero make us familiar with the names of more than one who enjoyed this distinction. One was the orator’s brother, Quintus; another was Flaccus, whose conduct as governor he defended before the Senate. Some slight changes in the extent of the province may be traced. Pamphylia was withdrawn from this jurisdiction. Rhodes lost her continental possessions, and Caria was added to Asia, while Lycia was declared independent. The boundary on the side of Phrygia is not easily determined, and was probably variable.? But enough has been said to give a general idea of what is meant in the New Testament by that “Asia,” which St. Paul attempted to enter (Acts xvi. 6), after passing through Phrygia and Galatia; which St. Peter addressed in his First Epistle (1 Pet. i. 1), along with Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia; and which embraced the “seven churches ” (Rev. i. 11) whose angels are mentioned in the Revelation of St. John. I]. Brraynia. — Next to Asia, both in proximity of situation and in the order of its establishment, was the province of Bithynia. Nor were the circumstances very different under which these two provinces passed under the Roman sceptre. Asa new dynasty established itself after the death of Alexander on the north-eastern shores of the Aigean, so an older dynasty secured its independence at the western edge of the Black Sea. Nicomedes I. was the king who invited the Gauls with whom Attalus I. had to contend: and as Attalus III., the last of the House of Pergamus, paid his debt to the Romans by making them his heirs, so the last of the Bithynian House, Nicomedes III., left his kingdom as a legacy to the same power in the year 75. It received some accessions on the east after the defeat of Mithridates ; and in this condition we find it in the list given by Dio of the provinces of Augustus; the debatable land between it and Asia being the district of Mysia, through which it is neither easy nor necessary to draw the exact frontier-line.* Stretching inland from the 1 We learn from Acts xix. 38 — “there are proconsuls (deputies) ” — that it was a pro- consular or senatorial province. The impor- tant distinction between the emperor’s and the senate’s provinces has been carefully stated in Ch. V. pp. 129-31. The incidental proof in the Acts is confirmed by Strabo and Dio, who lus that Augustus made Asia a proconsular Provinces. y 2 Hence we find both the sacred and heathen writers of the period sometimes including Phrygia in Asia and sometimes excluding it. In 1 Pet. i. 1 it seems to be included; in Acts ii. 9, 10, xvi. 6, it is expressly excluded. 3 See below, on Acts xvi. 7, 8. 208 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL oma?. VIE shores of the Propontis and Bosphorus, beyond the lakes near the cities of Nicwa and Nicomedia, to the upper ravines of the Sangarius, and the snowy range of Mount Olympus, it was a province rich in all the chauges of beauty and grandeur. Its history is as varied as its scenery, if we trace it from the time when Hannibal was an exile at the court of Prusias,’ to — the establishment of Othman’s Mohammedan capital in the city which — still bears that monarch’s name. It was Hadrian’s favorite provmce, and many monuments remain of that emperor’s partiality.” But we cannot — say more of it without leaving our proper subject. We have uo reason to believe that St. Paul ever entered it, though once he made the attempt.’ Except the passing mention of Bithynia in this and one cther place,‘ it — has no connection with the apostolic writings. The firs: great passage of — its ecclesiastical history is found in the correspondence vi Trajan with its governor Pliny, concerning the persecution of the Christians. The second is the meeting of the first general council, when tie Nicene Oreed was drawn up on the banks of the Lake Ascanius. IM. Pampuayia.— This province has been aeady mentioned (Chap. VI.) as one of the regions traversed by St. Paui in his first missionary journey. But though its physical features bave been described, its political limits have not been determined. The true Pamphylia of the earliest writers is simply the plain which borders the Bay of Attaleia, and which, as we have said (p. 142), retreats itsulf like a bay into the moun- tains. How small and insignificant this territory was, may be seen from the records of the Persian war, to which Herodotus says that it sent only thirty ships; while Lycia, on one side, coutributed fifty, and Cilicia, on the other, a hundred. Nor do we find the name invested with any wider significance, till we approach the frontier of the Roman period. A singular dispute between Antiochus and the king of Pergamus, as te whether Pamphylia was really within or beyond Mount Taurus, was de cided by the Romans in favor of their ally.’ This could only be effected by a generous inclusion of a good portion of the mountainous country within the range of this geographical term. Henceforward, if not before, Pamphylia comprehended some considerable part of what was anciently called Pisidia. We have seen that the Romans united it to the kingdom 1 The town of Broussa reminds us of this feeling. Hadrian took it from the senate another illustrious African exile, Abd-cl-Kader, and placed it under his own jurisdiction. Bui. who since the earthquake (after visiting Paris) when St. Paul passed this way, it was undas has been permitted to withdraw to Damascus the senate, as may be proved by coins beth of (1855). the reign of Claudius and subsequent dates 2 It was the birthplace of his favorite An- ® Acts xvi. 7, tineus; and coins are extaut which illustrate 41 Pet.il. 5 Bee p. 206. ouAP, VIE, PAMPHYLIA, — GALATIA. 209 of Asia. It was, therefore, part of the province of Asia at the death of Atialus. It is difficult to trace the steps by which it was detached from that province. We find it (along with certain districts of Asia) included in the military jurisdiction of Cicero, when he was governor of Cilicia.! It is spoken of as a separate province in the reign of Augustus.’ Its boundary on the Pisidian side, or in the direction of Phrygia,’ must be left indeterminate. Pisidia was included in this province: but, again, Pisidia is itself indeterminate: and we have good reasons for believing that Antioch in Pisidia was really under the governor of Galatia. Cilicia was contiguous to Pamphylia on the east. Lycia was a separate region on the west, first as an appendage to Rhodes‘ in the time of the republis, and then as a free state under the earliest emperors ; but about the very time when Paul was travelling in these countries, Claudius brought it within the provincial system, and united it to Pamphylia:® and inscrip- tions make us acquainted with a public officer who bore the title of “ Proconsul of Lycia and Pamphylia.” IV. Gauatia.— We now come to a political division of Asia Minor, which demands a more careful attention. Its sacred interest is greater than that of all the others, and its history is more peculiar. The Chris tians of Galatia were they who received the Apostle “as if he had been an angel,” — who, “if it had been possible, would have plucked out their eyes and given them to him,” —and then were “so soon removed” by new teachers “from him that called them, to another Gospel,” — whe began to “run well,”’ and then were hindered, — who were “ bewitched ” by that zeal which compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, — and who were as ready, in the fervor of their party spirit, to “bite and de- vour one another,” as they were willing to change their teachers and their gospels.’7_ It is no mere fancy which discovers, in these expressions of St. Paul’s Epistle, indications of the character of that remarkable race of mankind, whick all writers, from Cesar to Thierry, have de- scribed as susceptible of quick impressions and sudden changes, with a fGickleness equal to their courage and enthusiasm, and a constant liability 1 Ep. ad Ait. v. 21. 2 Dio Cassius tells us that the Pamphylian districts bestowed on Amyntas were restored by Augustus to their own province. The - game author is referred to below (n. 5) a a change in the reign of Claudius. ® Pisidia was often reckoned as a part of Phrygia, under the neme of “Pisidian Phry- aq 77 £ See abova n 206 a 5 This we have on the authority of Dio Cassius and Suetonius. The latter writer says, that about the same time Claudias made ever to the senate the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia. Hence we fine a proeonsul at Corinth. Acts xviii. 12. 6 At a later period Lycia was a distinet province, with Myra as its eapital. See Ch SXTIL 7 Gal. iv. 15, i 6. v. 7, i 1, i. 7. v- 15. 210 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. to that disunion which is the fruit of excessive vanity, — that race, which has not only produced one of the greatest nations of modern times,’ but which, long before the Christian era, wandering forth from their early European seats, burnt Rome and pillaged Delphi, founded an empire in Northern Italy more than co-extensive with Austrian Lombardy,’ and another in Asia Minor, equal in importance to one of the largest pachalics. For the “ Galatia” of the New Testament was really the “ Gaul” of the Hast. The “ Epistle to the Galatians ”’ would more literally and more correctly be called the “ Epistle to the Gauls.” When Livy, in his account of the Roman campaigns in Galatia, speaks of its inhabitants, he always calls them “ Gauls.”’* When the Greek historians speak of the inhabitants of ancient France, the word they use is “ Galatians.”* The two terms are merely the Greek and Latin forms of the same “ bar- barian ”’ appellation.® That emigration of the Gauls, which ended in the settlement in Asia Minor, is less famous than those which led to the disasters in Italy and Greece: but it is, in fact, identical with the latter of these two emigra- tions, and its results were more permanent. The warriors who roamed over the Cevennes, or by the banks of the Garonne, re-appear on the Halys and at the base of Mount Dindymus. They exchange the super- stitions of Druidism for the ceremonies of the worship of Cybele. The very name of the chief Galatian tribe is one with which we are familiar in the earliest history of France ; and Jerome says that, in his own day, the language spoken at Ancyra was almost identical with that of Tréves.* The Galatians were a stream from that torrent of barbarians which poured into Greece in the third century before our era, and which recoiled in — confusion from the cliffs of Delphi. Some tribes had previously separated — from the main army, and penetrated into Thrace. There they were joined by certain of the fugitives, and together they appeared on the coasts, which are separated by a narrow arm of the sea from the rich plains and valleys of Bithynia. The wars with which that kingdom was 1 The French travellers (as Tournefort and “Kelts ” are the same word. See Arnold’ : Texier) seem to write with patriotic enthusi- asm when they touch Galatia; and we have found our Lest materials in Thierry’s history. 2 This was written before 1859. 8 The country of the Galatians was some- times called Gallogracia. * Some have even thought that the word translated “‘ Galatia” in 2 Tim. iv. 10, means the country commonly called Gaul. & And we may add that “Galate” and Rome, i. 522. 6 It, is very likely that there was some Teu- tonic element in these emigrating tribes, but it is hardly possible now to distinguish it from the Keltic. The converging lines of distinct nationalities become more faint as we ascend ~ towards the point where they meet. Thierry considers the Tolistoboii, whose leader was Lutarius (Luther or Clothair?), to have been a Teutonic tribe. CHAP. VII, GALATIA. 211 harassed, made their presence acceptable. Nicomedes was the Vortigern of Asia Minor: and the two Gaulish chiefiains, Leonor and Lutar, may be fitly compared to the two legendary heroes of the Anglo-Saxon in- vasion. Some difficulties occurred in the passage of the Bosphorus, which curiously contrast with the easy voyages of our piratic ancestors. But once established in Asia Minor, the Gauls lost no time in spreading over the whole peninsula with their arms and devastation. In their first crossing over we have compared them to the Saxons. In their first occu- pation they may be more fitly compared to the Danes. For they were a movable army rather than a nation, — encamping, marching, and plun- dering at will. They stationed themselves on the site of ancient Troy, and drove their chariots in the plain of the Cayster. They divided nearly the whole peninsula among their three tribes. They levied tribute on cities, and even on kings. The wars of the Hast found them various occupation. They hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers. They were the royal guards of the kings of Syria, and the mamelukes of the Ptolemies in Egypt. The surrounding monarchs gradually curtailed their power, and re- pressed them within narrower limits. First Antiochus Soter drove the Tectosages,? and then Eumenes drove the Trocmi and Tolistobii, into the central district which afterwards became Galatia. Their territory was definitely marked out and surrounded by the other states of Asia Minor, and they retained a geographical position similar to that of Hungary in the midst of its German and Sclavonic neighbors. By degrees they coalesced into a number of small confederate states, and ultimately into one united kingdom.* Successive circumstances brought them into can- tact with the Romans in various ways: first, by a religious embassy sent from Rome to obtain peaceful possession of the sacred image of Cybele; secondly, by the campaign of Manlius, who reduced their power and left them a nominal independence; and then through the period of hazardous alliance with the rival combatants in the Civil Wars. The first Deiotarus ‘was made king by Pompey, fled before Casar at the battle of Pharsalia, and was defended before the conqueror by Cicero, in a speech which still ‘remains to us. The second Deiotarus, like his father, was Cicero’s friend, and took charge of his son and nephew during the Cilician campaign. 1 Even in the time of Julius Casar, we 8 This does not seem to have been effectu- find four hundred Gauls (Galatians), who had ally the case till after the campaign of Manlius. previously been part of Cleopatra’s body- - The nation was for some time divided inte guard, given for the same purpose to Herod. four tetrarchies. Deiotarus was the first sole Joseph. War, xx. 3. ruler; first as tetrarch, then as king. 2 His appellation of Soter or “the Sa- viour” was derived from this victory. 212 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omas. ve Amyntas, who succeeded him, owed his power to Antony,' but prudently went over to Augustus in the battle of Actium. At the death of Amyntas, Augustus made some modifications in the extent of Galatia, and placed it under a governor. It was now a province, reaching from the borders of Asia and Bithynia to the neighborhood of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, “ cities of Lycaonia.” ? . Henceforward, like the Western Gaul, this territory was a part of the Roman empire, though retaining the traces of its history in the character and language of its principal inhabitants. There was this difference, however, between the Eastern and the Western Gaul, that the latter was more rapidly and more. completely assimilated to Italy. It passed from its barbarian to its Roman state, without being subjected to any interme- diate civilization? The Gauls of the East, on the other hand, had long been familiar with the Greek language and the Greek culture. St. Paul’s Epistle was written in Greek. The contemporary inscriptions of the province are usually in the same language. The Galatians them- selves are frequently called Gallo-Grecians;‘ and many of the inhab- itants of the province must have been of pure Grecian origin. Another section of the population, the early Phrygians, were probably numerous, but in a lower and more degraded position. The presence of great num- bers of Jews* in the province, implies that it was, in some respects, fa- vorable for traffic; and it is evident that the district must have been constantly intersected by the course of caravans from Armenia, the Hel- fespont, and the South.£ The Roman itineraries inform us of the lines of communication between the great towns near the Halys and the other parts of Asia Minor. These circumstances are closely connected with the ; 1 He received some parts ef Lycaonia and Pamphylia in addition to Galatia Proper. See above, Ch. I. p. 22. 2 The Pamphylian portion was removed (see above), but the Lycaonian remained. Thus we find Pliny reckoning the Lystreni in Gala- tia, though he seems to imply elsewhere that the immediate neighborhood of Iconium was in Asia. It is therefore quite possible, so far as geographical difficulties are concerned, that the Christian communities in the neighbor- hood of Lystra might be called “ Churches of Galatia.” We think, however, as will be shown in the Appendix, that other difficul- ties are decisive against the view there men- tioned. * The immediate neighborhood ef Mar seilles, which was thoroughly imbued with a knowledge of Greek, must of course be excepted. * See above, p. 210, n. 8. & See in Josephus (Ant. xvi. 6) the letter which Augustus wrote in favor of the Jews of Ancyra, and which was inscribed on a pillar in the temple of Cesar. We shall have occa- sion hereafter to mention the “ Monumentum Ancyranum.” 6 Gordium, one of the minor towns near the western frontier, was ® considerable empo- rium. So was Tavium, the capital of the Eastern Galatians, the Trocmi, who dwelt beyond the Halys. The Tolistoboii were the western tribe, near the Sangarius, with Pessi- nus as their capital. The chief town of the Tectosages in the centre, and the metgopolis of the nation, was Ancyra. anaP, VIN. PONTUS. 213 spread of the Gospel, and we shall return to them again when we describe St. Paul’s first reception in Galatia. VY. Pontus. —The last independent dynasties in the north of the Pen- insula have hitherto appeared as friendly or subservient to the Roman power. Asia and Bithynia were voluntarily ceded by Attalus and Nico- medes ; and Galatia, on the death of Amyntas, quietly fell into the station of a province. But when we advance still farther to the Hast, we are reminded of a monarch who presented a formidable and protracted opposition to Rome. The war with Mithridates was one of the most serious wars in which the Republic was ever engaged ; and it was not till after a long struggle that Pompey brought the kingdom of Pontus under the Roman yoke. In placing Pontus among the provinces of Asia Minor at this exact point of St. Paul’s life, we are (strictly speaking) guilty of an anachronism. For long after the western portion of the empire of Mithridates was united partly with Bithynia and partly with Galatia, the region properly calied Pontus? remained under the government of inde- pendent chieftains. Before the Apostle’s death, however, it was really made a province by Nero.* Its last king was that Polemo II. who was alluded to at the beginning of this work, as the contemptible husband of one of Herod’s grand-daughters.* In himself he is quite unworthy of such particular notice, but he demands our attention, not only because, as the last independent king in Asia Minor, he stands at one of the turn- ing-points of history, but also because, through his marriage with Bere- nice, he must have had some connection with the Jewish population of Pontus, and therefore probably with the spread of the Gospel on the shores of the Euxine. We cannot forget that Jews of Pontus were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost,’ that the Jewish Christians of Pontus were addressed by St. Peter in his first epistle,* and that ‘‘ a Jew born in independent monarchs had ceased to reign. In the division of Constantine, Pontus formed 1 See above, under Pamphylia, for the uddition to that province. A tract of country, uear the Halys, henceforward called Pontus (ialaticus, was added to the kingdom of Beiotarus. 2 Originally, this district near the Euxine was considered a part of Cappadocia, and called “Cappadocia on the sea (Pontus).” The name Pontus gradually came into use, with the rising power of the ancestors of Mithridates the Great. 8 Jt is probably impossible to determine the boundary which was ultimately arranged hetween the two contiguous provinces of Pon- mus and Cappadocia, when the last of the two provinces, one called Helenopontus in honor of his mother, the other still retaining the name of Pontus Polemoniacus. * P. 22, and p. 23, n. 8. In or about the year 60 a.p. we find Berenice again with Agrippa in Judwa, on the occasion of St. Paul’s defence at Caesarea. Acts xxv., xxvi. It is probable that she was with Polemo in Pontus about the year 52, when St. Paul was travelling in the neighborhood. 5 Acts ii. 9. § 1 Pet.i 1. \ 214 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. OHAP, VTL Pontus ”’' became one of the best and most useful associates of the Apos- tle of the Gentiles. VI. Cappapocia. — Crossing the country southwards from the birth- place of Aquila towards that of St. Paul, we traverse the wide and varied region which formed the province of Cappadocia, intermediate between Pontus and Cilicia. The period of its provincial existence began in the reign of Tiberius. Its last king was Archelaus,’ the contemporary of the — Jewish tetrarch of the same name.’ Extending from the frontier of Galatia to the river Euphrates, and bounded on the south by the chain — of Taurus, it was the largest province of Asia Minor. are celebrated in ecclesiastical history.‘ But in the New Testament it is only twice alluded to, once in the Acts,° and once in the Hpistles.® VII. Cricia. —A single province yet remains, in one respect the most interesting of all, for its chief city was the Apostle’s native town. For this reason the reader’s attention was invited long ago to its geography and history.’ It is therefore unnecessary to dwell upon them further. We need not go back to the time when Servilius destroyed the robbers in the mountains, and Pompey the pirates on the coast. And enough has been said of the conspicuous period of its provincial condition, when Cicero came down from Cappadocia through the great pass of Mount Taurus,’ and the letters of his correspondents in Rome were forwarded from Tarsus to his camp on the Pyramus. Nearly all the light we possess concerning the fortunes of Roman Cilicia is concentrated on that particular time. We know the names of hardly any of its later governors. One of the few al- lusions to its provincial condition about the time of Claudius and Nero, which we can adduce from any ancient writer, is that passage in the Acts, where Felix is described as inquiring “ of what province” St. Paul was. The use of the strict political term’ informs us that it was a separate province ; but the term itself is not so explicit as to enable us to state whether the province was under the jurisdiction of the Senate or the Em- peror." 1 Acts xviii. 2. © Acts ii. 9. 2 He was made king by Antony, and fifty ®.1 Pet. i. 1. years afterwards was summoned to Rome by 7 Pp. 19-28. See also 45, 46. Tiberius, who had been offended by some § Pp. 19, 20. disrespect shown to himself in the island of Rhodes. 3 Matt. ii. 22. * Especially Nyssa, Nazianzus, and Neocses- * See below, pp. 222, 223, 10 ’"Exapxia. Acts xxiii. 84, the only pas- sage where the word occurs in the New Testa- ment. For the technical meaning of the term, area, the cities of the three Gregories, and Csarea, the city of Basil,—to say nothing of Tyana and Ssmosata. see above, p. 130, n. 4. 11 We should be disposed to infer from a passage in Agrippa’s speech to the Jews (Jo- Some of its cities — ouaP, VII, VISITATION OF THE CHURCHES PROPOSED. 215 With this last division of the Heptarchy of Asia Minor we are brought to the starting-point of St. Paul’s second missionary journey. Cilicia is contiguous to Syria, and indeed is more naturally connected with it than with the rest of Asia Minor.! We might illustrate this connection from the letters of Cicero; but it is more to our purpose to remark that the Apostolic Decree, recently enacted at Jerusalem, was addressed to the Gentile Christians “in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia,” ? and that Paul and Silas travelled ‘‘ through Syria and Cilicia ’* in the early part of their progress. This second missionary journey originated in a desire expressed by Paul to Barnabas, that they should revisit all the cities where they had preached the Gospel and founded churches.‘ He felt that he was not called to spend a peaceful, though laborious, life at Antioch, but that his true work was “ far off among the Gentiles.”° He knew that his cam- paigns were not ended, — that, as the soldier of Jesus Christ, he must not rest from his warfare, but must ‘“ endure hardness,” that he might please Him who had called him.§ As a careful physician, he remembered that they, whose recovery from sin had been begun, might be in danger of relapse; or, to use another metaphor, and to adopt the poetical lan- guage of the Old Testament, he said,— “‘ Come, let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish.””* The words actually re corded as used by St. Paul on this occasion are these : —‘* Come, let us turn back and visit our brethren in every city, where we have announced the word of the Lord, and let us see how they fare.”* We notice here, for the first time, a trace of that tender solicitude concerning his con- verts, that earnest longing to behold their faces, which appears in the letters which he wrote afterwards, as one of the most remarkable, and one of the most attractive, features of his character. The feelings of Barnabas might not be so speaker, and not Barnabas. deep, nor his anxiety so urgent.° seph. War, ii. 16, 4), where he says that Cilicia, as well as Bithynia, Pamphylia, &c., was “kept tributary to the Romans without an army,” that it was one of the Senate’s provinces. Other evidence, however, tends the other way, especially an inscription found at Caerleon in Monmouthshire. For fuller details we must refer to the larger editions. 1 See p. 98, comparing Acts ix. 30 with Gal. i. 21. 2 Acts xv. 23. * Acis xy. 36. * 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4. 7 Cant. vii. 12, quoted by Matthew Henry. 3 Acts xy. 41. 5 Acts xxii. 21. Paul was the Paul thought doubtless of the See his excellent remarks on the whole 5 ously cocur to us. : omar. YEE OIRCUMOISION OF TIMOTHY. 229 Judaism :' if, indeed, he were not already deceased, and Eunice a widow. This very circumstance, however, of his mixed origin gave to Timothy an intimate connection with both the Jewish and Gentile worlds. Though far removed from the larger colonies of Israclitish families, he was brought up in a thoroughly Jewish atmosphere: his heart was at Jeru- salem while his footsteps were in the level fields near Lystra, or on the volcanic crags of the Black Mount: and his mind was stored with the Hebrew or Greek? words of inspired men of old in the midst of the rude idolaters, whose language was “the speech of Lycaonia.” And yet he could hardly be called a Jewish boy, for he had not been admitted within the pale of God’s ancient covenant by the rite of circumcision. He was in the same position, with respect to the Jewish Church, as those, with respect to the Christian Church, who, in various ages, and for various reasons, have deferred their baptism to the period of mature life. And “the Jews which were in those quarters,” * however much they may have respected him, yet, knowing “ that his father was a Greek,” and that he himself was uncircumcised, must have considered him all but an “ alien from the commonwealth of Israel.” Now, for St. Paul to travel among the Synagogues with a companion in this condition, and to attempt to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, When his associate and assistant in the work was an uncir cumcised Heathen, -— would evidently have been to encumber his prog- ress and embarrass his work. We see in the first aspect of the case a complete explanation of what to many has seemed inconsistent, and what some have ventured to pronounce as culpable, in the conduct of St. Paul. “He took and circumcised Timotheus.” How could he do otherwise, if he acted with his usual far-sighted caution and deliberation? Had Timothy not been circumcised, a storm would have gathered round the Apostle in his further progress. The Jews, who were ever ready to per- secute him from city to city, would have denounced him still more violently in every Synagogue, when they saw in his personal preferences, and in the co-operation he most valued, a visible revolt against the law of his forefathers. To imagine that they could have overlooked the absence of circumcision in Timothy’s case, as a matter of no essential importance, is to suppose they had already become enlightened Chris- 1 The expression in the original (xvi. 3) But the Hellenistic element would be likely te means, “he was a born Greek.” The most predominate. In reference to this subject, Mr. Satoral inference is, that his fathe: was living, Grinfield, in his recent work on the Septuagint, and most probably not a proselyte of righteous- p. 53, notices the two quotations from shat neas, if a proselyte at all. version in St. Paul’s letters to Timothy 1 2 We cannot tell how far this family isto be Tim. v. 18; 2 Tim. ii. id. reckoned Hellenistic or Aramaic { see Ch. IL). ® Acts xvi. 3. 230 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cmar. VID . tians. Even in the bosom of the Church we have seen! the difficulties — which had recently been raised by scrupulousness and bigotry on this very subject. And the difficulties would have been increased tenfold in the untrodden field before St. Paul by proclaiming everywhere on his very arrival that circumcision was abolished. His fixed line of procedure was to act on the cities through the synagogues, and to preach the Gospel first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile? He had no intention of abandoning this method, and we know that he continued it for many years.* But such a course would have been impossible had not Timothy been circumcised. He must necessarily have been repelled by that people — who endeavored once (as we shall see hereafter) to murder St. Paul, because they imagined he had taken a Greek into the Temple.‘ The very intercourse of social life would have been hindered, and made almost im- possible, by the presence of a half-heathen companion: for, however far the stricter practice may have been relaxed among the Hellenizing Jews of the dispersion, the general principle of exclusiveness everywhere remained, and it was still “an abomination ” for the circumcised to eat with the uncircumcised.’ it may be thought, however, that St. Paul’s conduct in circumcising Timothy was inconsistent with the principle and practice he maintained at Jerusalem when he refused to circumcise Titus.6 But the two cases were entirely different. Then there was an attempt to enforce circum- cision as necessary to salvation: now it was performed as a voluntary act, and simply on prudential grounds. Those who insisted on the ceremony in the case of Titus were Christians, who were endeavoring to burden the Gospel with the yoke of the Law: those for whose sakes Timothy became obedient to one provision of the Law were Jews, whom it was desirable not to provoke, that they might more easily be delivered from bondage. By conceding in the present case, prejudice was conciliated and the Gospel furthered: the results of yielding in the former case would have been disastrous, and perhaps ruinous, to the cause of pure Christianity. If it be said that even in this case there was danger lest serious results should follow,— that doubt might be thrown on the freedom of the Gospel, and that color might be given to the Judaizing propensity ; — it is enough to answer that indifferent actions become right or wrong according to our knowledge of their probable consequences, — and that St. Paul was a better judge of the consequences likely to follow from Timothy’s circumcision than we can possibly be. Are we concerned 1 Ch. VII. * Acts xxi. 29 with xxii. 22. 3 Acts xiii. 5,14, xiv. 1, xvii. 1, 2, 10, xviii, § See pp 181, 182. ¢, 19, xix. 8, 9; and compare Rom. i. 16, ii. 9, 10. § Gal. ii 3. See p. 194. 5 See Acts xxviii. EE re Oe Oe EEE CHAP, VII. PLACE OF TIMOTHY’S ORDINATION. 231 about the effects likely to have been produced on the mind of Timotheus himself? There was no risk, at least, lest he should think that circum- cision was necessary to salvation, for he had been publicly recognized as a Christian before he was circumcised ;! and the companion, disciple, and minister of St. Paul was in no danger, we should suppose, of becom- ing a Judaizer. And as for the moral results which might be expected to follow in the minds of the other Lycaonian Christians,— it must be remembered that at this very moment St. Paul was carrying with him and publishing the decree which announced to all Gentiles that they were not to be burdened with a yoke which the Jews had never been able to bear. St. Luke notices this circumstance in the very next verse after the mention of Timothy’s circumcision, as if to call our attention to the con- tiguity of the two facts.? It would seem, indeed, that the very best arrangements were adopted which a divinely enlightened prudence could suggest. Paul carried with him the letter of the Apostles and elders, that no Gentile Christian might be enslaved to Judaism. He circum- cised his minister and companion, that no Jewish Christian might have his prejudices shocked. His language was that which he always used, — * Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. The renova- tion of the heart in Christ is every thing.* Let every man be persuaded in his own mind.”* No innocent prejudice was ever treated roughly by St. Paul. To the Jew he became a Jew, to the Gentile a Gentile: ‘he was all things to all men, if by any means he might save some.”’® Iconium appears to have been the place where Timothy was circumcised. The opinion of the Christians at Iconium, as well as those at Lystra, had been obtained before the Apostle took him as his companion. These towns were separated only by the distance of a few miles ;*® and constant communication must have been going on between the residents in the two places, wliether Gentile, Jewish, or Christian. Iconium was by far the more populous and important city of the two,— and it was the point of intersection of all the great roads in the neighborhood.’ For these reasons we conceive that St. Paul’s stay in Iconium was of greater mo- 1 xvi, 1-3. 2 See vv. 3, 4. § Gal. v. 6, vi 15. St. Panl’s own conduct on the confines of Galatia is a commentary on the words he uses to the Galatians. * Rom. xiv. 5. 5 1 Cor. ix. 20-22. ® To what has been said before (pp. 163, 165, &c.), add the following note from a MS. Journal already quoted. “ Oct. 6.— Left Konieh at 12. Traversed the enormous plains for 54 hours, when we reached a small Turco- man village. . . . Oct 7.— At 11.30 we ap- proached the Kara-Dagh, and in about an hour began to ascend its slopes. We were thus about 11 hours crossing the plain from Konieh. This, with 2 on the other side, made in all 13 hours. We were heartily tired of the plain.” 7 Roads from Iconium to Tarsus in Cilicia, Side in Pamphylia, Ephesus in Asia, Angora in Galatia, Cesarea in Cappadocia, &c., are all mentioned in the ancient authorities. THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL ment than his visits to the smaller towns, such as Lystra. Whether the ordination of Timothy, as well as his circumcision, took place at this par- ticular place and time, is a point not easy to determine. But this view is at least as probable as any other that can be suggested: and it gives a new and solemn emphasis to this occasion, if we consider it as that to which reference is made in the tender allusions of the pastoral letters, — where St. Paul reminds Timothy of his good confession before “ many witnesses,” of the “ prophecies ” which sanctioned his dedication to God’s service,’ and of the “ gifts” received by the laying-on of “ the hands of the presbyters””’* and the Apostle’s “own hands.”* Such references to the day of ordination, with all its well-remembered details, not only were full of serious admonition to Timothy, but possess the deepest interest for us.’ And this interest becomes still greater if we bear in mind that the “ wit- nesses”’ who stood by were St. Paul’s own converts, and the very “ brethren” who gave testimony to Timothy’s high character at Lystra and Iconium ;* — that the “ prophecy” which designated him to his office was the same spiritual gift which had attested the commission of Barnabas and Saul at Antioch,’ — and that the College of Presbyters,® who, in conjunction with the Apostle, ordained the new minister of the Gospel, consisted of those who had been “ordained in every Church”’® at the close of that first journey. On quitting Iconium St. Paul left the route of his previous expedition ; unless indeed he went in the first place to Antioch in Pisidia, — a journey to which city was necessary in order to complete a full visitation of the churches founded on the continent in conjunction with Barnabas. It is certainly most in harmony with our first impressions, to believe that this city was not unvisited. No mention, however, is made of the place, and it is enough to remark that a residence of a few weeks at Iconium as his headquarters would enable the Apostle to see more than once all the Christians at Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe.” It is highly probable that he did so : for the whole aspect of the departure from Iconium, as itis related 2} Tha. vi 12, $1 Tim. i. 18. 8 | Tim. iv. 14, © 3 Tim. i. 6. 5 This is equally true, if the ordination is te be considered coincident with the “laying-on of hands,” by which the miraculous gifts of the Hoty Ghost were first communicated, as in the easa of Cornelius (Acts x. 44). the Somaritans (viii. 17), the disciples at Ephesus (xix. §}, and St. Paul himself (ix. 17). See the Eessy on Ghe Apostolical Office in Stanley’s Sermons and Eesays, especially p. 71. These gifts doubtless pointed out the offices to which individuals were specially called. Compare together the three — important passages : Rom. xii. 6-8; 1 Cor. xii 28-30 ; Eph. iv. 11,12; also 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. * Compare Acts xvi. 2 with Acts xiii. 51- xiv. 21. 7 Compare | Tim. i. 18 with Acts xiii. 1-3. §\ Tim. iv. 14 Sae? Tim i 6. * Acis xiv. 25. 10 Tt would also be very easy for St. Pan! te visit Antioch on his route from Iconium throug? Phrygia and Galatia. See below, p. 234. EE — % agar, YUL DEPARTURE FROM ICONIUM. 238 to us in the Bible, is that of a new missionary enterprise, undertaken afte: the work of visitation was concluded. St. Paul leaves Iconium, as for- merly he left the Syrian Antioch, to evangelize the Heathen in new countries. Silas is his companion in place of Barnabas, and Timothy is with hima “ for his minister,” as Mark was with him then. Many roads were before him. By travelling westwards he.would soon cross the fron- tier of the province of Asia,’ and he might descend by the valley of the Meander to Ephesus, its metropolis: * or the roads to the south’ mighi have conducted him to Perga and Attaleia, and the other cities on the coast of Pamphylia. But neither of these routes was chosen. Guided by the ordinary indications of Providence, or consciously taught by the Spirit of God, he advanced in a northerly direction, through what is called, in the general language of Scripture, ‘“‘ Phrygia and the region of Galatia.”’ We have seen‘ that the term “ Phrygia” had no political significance in the time of St. Paul. It was merely a geographical expression, denot- ing a debatable country of doubtful extent, diffused over the frontiers of the provinces of Asia and Galatia, but mainly belonging to the former. We believe that this part of the Apostle’s journey might be describe under various forms of expression, according as the narrator might speak politically or popularly. A traveller proceeding from Cologne to Hano ver might be described as going through Westphalia or through Prussia The course of the railroad would be the best indication of his real path So we imagine that our best guide in conjecturing St. Paul’s path through this part of Asia Minor is obtained by examining the direction of the ancient and modern roads. We have marked his route in our map along the general course of the Roman military way, and the track of Turkish caravans, which leads by Laodicea, Philomelium, and Synnada, — or, te use the existing terms, by Ladik, Ak-Sher, and Eski-Karahissar. Thie road follows the northern side of that ridge which Strabo describes as sepa- rating Philomelium and Antioch in Pisidia, and which, as we have seen,! materially assisted Mr. Arundell in discovering the latter city. If St. Paul revisited Antioch on his way,‘ — and we cannot be sure that he did not, — he would follow the course of his former journey,’ and then regain 1 It is impossible, as we have seen (p. 207), to determine the exact frontier. 2 The great road from Ephesus to the Eu- phrates ascended the valley of the Mseander to the neighborhood of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosass (Col. iv. 13-16), and thence passed by Apamea to Iconium. This was Cicero’s route, when he travelled from Ephesus to Cilicia. * The Peutinger Table has a direct road from Iconium to Side, on the coast of Pam- phylia. Thence arother road follows the coast to Perga, and'goes thence across Westert Pisidia to the valley of the Msander. None of the Itineraries mention any direct road from Antioch in Pisidia to Perga and Attaleia, corresponding to the journeys of Paul and Barnabas. Side was a harbor of considerable importance. 4 Pp. 204, 206, 207, 209, &c., and the notes 5 See pp. 150, 151. 5 See above, p. 232, n. 16. 1 Acts xiv. 234 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. | omar, yo. the road to Synnada by crossing the ridge to Philomelium. We must again repeat that the path marked down here is conjectural. We have nothing either in St. Luke’s narrative or in St. Paul’s own letters to lead us to any place in Phrygia, as certainly visited by him on this occasion, and as the home of the converts he then made. One city indeed, which is commonly reckoned among the Phrygian cities, has a great place in St. Paul’s biography, and it lay on the line of an important Roman road.’ But it was situated far within the province of Asia, and for several reasons we think it highly improbable that he visited Colosse on this journey, if indeed he ever visited it at all. The most probable route is that which lies more to the northwards in the direction of the true Galatia. The remarks which have been made on Phrygia, must be repeated, with some modification, concerning Galatia. Itis true that Galatia was a province: but we can plainly see that the term is used here in its popular sense, — not as denoting the whole territory which was governed by the Galatian propretor, but rather the primitive region of the te- trarchs and kings, without including those districts of Phrygia or Lycao- nia which were now politically united with it.2 There is absolutely no city in true Galatia which is mentioned by the Sacred Writers in connec- tion with the first spread of Christianity. From the peculiar form of expression * with which the Christians of this part of Asia Minor are addressed by St. Paul in the Epistle which he wrote to them,* and alluded to in another of his Epistles,,— we infer that “ the churches of Galatia” were not confined to any one city, but distributed through various parts of the country. If we were to mention two cities, which, both from their intrinsic importance, and from their connection with the leading roads,* are likely to have been visited and revisited by the Apostle, we should be inclined to select Pessinus and Ancyra. The first of these cities retained some importance as the former capital of one of the Galatian tribes,’ and its trade was considerable under the early Emper- 1 Xenophon reckons Colosss in Phrygia. So Strabo. It was on the great road mentioned above, from Iconium to Ephesus. We come here upon a question which we need not antici- pate ; 3iz. whether St. Paul was ever at Colossa. 2 See p. 211, and the notes. 3 “ The churches of Galatia,” in the plural. The occurrence of this term in the salutation gives the Epistle to the Galatians the form of a circular letter. The same phrase, in the Sec- oud Epistle to the Corinthians, conveys the impression that there was no great central church in Galatia, like that of Corinth in ‘Achaia, or that of Ephesus in Asia. * Gal. i. 2. 5 1 Cor. xvi. 1. ® The route is conjecturally laid down in the map from Synnada to Pessinus and Ancyra. Mr. Hamilton travelled exactly along this line, and describes the bare and dreary country at length. Near Pessinus he found an insertption relating to the repairing of the Roman road, on a column which had probably been « mile stone. Both the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries give the road between Pessinus an? Ancyra, with the intermediate stages. 7 The Tolistoboii, or Western Galatians. SICKNESS OF ST. PAUL. 235 » Vii. ers. Moreover, it had an ancient and wide-spread renown, as the seat of the primitive worship of Cybele, the Great Mother.! Though her oldest and most sacred image (which, like that of Diana at Ephesus? had “fallen down from heaven”) had been removed to Rome,— her wership continued to thrive in Galatia, under the superintendence of her effeminate and fanatical priests or Galli,’ and Pessinus was the object of one of Julian’s pilgrimages, when Heathenism was on the decline.‘ Ancyra was a place of still greater moment: for it was the capital of the province.© The time of its highest eminence was not under the Gaulish but the Roman government. Augustus built there a magnificent temple of marble,’ and inscribed there a history of his deeds, almost in the style of an Asiatic sovereign.’ This city was the meeting-place of all the great roads in the north of the peninsula.* And, when we add that Jews had been established there from the time of Augustus,’ and probably earlier, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the Temple and Inscrip- tion at Angora, which successive travellers have described and copied during the last three hundred years, were once seen by the Apostle of the Gentiles. However this may have been, we have some information from his own pen, concerning his first journey through “ the region of Galatia.” We know that he was delayed there by sickness, and we know in what spirit the Galatians received him. St. Paul affectionately reminds the Galatians ® that it was “ bodily sick- ness which caused him to preach the Glad Tidings to them at the first.” The allusion is to his first visit: and the obvious inference is, that he was passing through Galatia to some other district (possibly Pontus," where we know that many Jews were established), when the state of his bodily health arrested his progress.“ Thus he became, as it were, the Evangelist of Galatia against his will. But his zeal to discharge the duty that was 1 See above, p. 210. 2 Herodian’s expression concerning this the recently deciphered record of the victories of Darius Hystaspes on the rock at Behistoun. image is identical with that in Acts xix. 35. 3 Jerome connects this term with the name of the Galatians. See, however, Smith’s Dic- 5 This appears from its coins at this period. It was also called “‘ Sebaste,”’ from the favor ef Augustus. * This temple has been described by a long seties of travellers, from Lucas and Tournefort to Hamilton and Texier. _ 7 Full comments on this inscription will be found in Hamilton. We may compare it with See Vaux’s Nineveh and Persepolis. ® Colonel Leake’s map shows at one glance what we learn from the Itineraries. We see there the roads radiating from it in every direction. 9 See the reference to Josephus, p. 212, n. 5. 10 Gal. iv. 13. U See above, p. 213. 2 There can be no doubt that the literal translation is, “on account of bodily weakness.” And there seems no good reason why we should translate it differently, though most of the English commentators take a different view. Bétiger, in harmony with his hypothesis 236 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL omar. VIL laid on him did not allow him to be silent. He was instant “in season and out of season.” ‘“ Woe” was on him if he did not preach the Gospel. The same Providence detained him among the Gauls, which would not allow him to enter Asia or Bithynia:' and in the midst of his weakness he made the Glad Tidings known to all who would listen to him. We cannot say what this sickness was, or with absolute certainty identify with that “ thorn in the flesh”*® to which he feelingly alludes in his Epistles, as a discipline which God had laid on him. But the remembrance — of what he suffered in Galatia seems so much to color all the phrases in this part of the Epistle, that a deep personal interest is connected with the circumstance. Sickness in a foreign country has a peculiarly depress- ing effect on a sensitive mind. And though doubtless Timotheus watched over the Apostle’s weakness with the most affectionate solicitude, — yet those who have experienced what fever is in a land of strangers will know how to sympathize, even with St. Paul, in this human trial. The climate and the prevailing maladies of Asia Minor may have been modified with the lapse of centuries: and we are without the guidance of St. Luke’s medical language,* which sometimes throws a light on diseases alluded to in Scripture: but two’Christian sufferers, in widely different ages of the Shurch, occur to the memory as we look on the map of Galatia. We could hardly mention any two men more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of St. Paul than John Chrysostom and Henry Martyn.‘ And when we read how these two saints suffered in their last hours from fatigue, pain, rudeness, and cruelty, among the mountains of Asia Minor which sur- round the place ® where they rest, — we can well enter into the meaning of St. Paul’s expressions of gratitude to those who received him kindly in the hour of his weakness. The Apostle’s reception among the frank and warm-hearted Gauls was peculiarly kind and disinterested. No Church is reminded by the Apostle so tenderly of the time of their first meeting. The recollection is used by him to strengthen his reproaches of their mutability, and to enforce the pleading with which he urges them to return to the true Gospel. that St. Luke’s Galatia means the neighbor- hoed of Lystra and Derbe, thinks that the bodily weakness here alluded to was the result of the stoning at Lystra. Acts xiv. 1 Acts xvi. 6, 7. 22 Cor. xii. 7-10. Paley (on Gal. iv. 11-16) assumes the identity, and he is probably right. ® See the paper alluded to, p. 88, n. 5. * There was a great similarity in the last sufferings of these apostolic men;—the same imtolerable pain im the head, the same inclem- ent weather, and the same cruelty on the part ef those who arged on the journey. Im the larger editions, the details of Martyn’s last journal are compared with similar passages im the Benedictine life of Chrysostom. 6 It is remarkable that Chrysostom and Martyn are buried in the same place. They both died on a journey, at Tocat er Comana in Pontus. ® The references have been gives sbove in the account of Galatia, p. 209. t eke. ‘van. JOURNEY TO THE AGEAN. 231 That Gospel had been received in the first place with the same affection which they extended to the Apostle himself And the subject, the manner, and the results of his preaching are not obscurely indicated in the Epistle iwelf. The great topic there, as at Corinth and everywhere, was “ the cross of Christ’ —“ Christ crucified” set forth among them.! The Divine evidence of the Spirit followed the word, spoken by the mouth of the Apostle, and received by “the hearing of the ear.”? Many were con- verted, both Greeks and Jews, men and women, free men and slaves. The worship of false divinities, whether connected with the old supersti- tion at Pessinus, or the Roman idolatry at Ancyra, was forsaken for that of the true and living God.‘ And before St. Paul left the “ region of Galatia” on his onward progress, various Christian communities’ were added to those o1 Cilicia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia. In following St. Paul on his departure from Galatia, we come to a pas- sage of acknowledged difficulty in the Acts of the Apostles.‘ Not that the words themselves are obscure. The difficulty relates, not to grammatical construction, but to geographical details. The statement contained in St. Luke’s words is as follows : — After preaching the Gospel in Phrygia and Galatia they were hindered from preaching it in Asia; accordingly, when in Mysia or its neighborhood, they attempted to penetrate into Bithynia; and this also being forbidden by the Divine Spirit, they passed by Mysia, and came down to Troas. Now every thing depends here on the sense we assign to the geographical terms. What is meant by the words “ Mysia,” “ Asia,” and “ Bithynia”? It will be remembered that all these words had a wider and a more restricted sense.* They might be used popularly and vaguely; or they might be taken in their exacter political meaning. It seems to us that the whole difficulty disappears by understanding them in the former sense, and by believing (what is much the more probable, @ priori) that St. Luke wrote in the usual popular language, without any precise reference to the provincial boundaries. We need hardly mention Bithynia ; for, whether we speak of it traditionally or politically, it was exclusive both of Asia and Mysia.* In this place it is 1 Mempare Gal. iii. 1 with 1 Cer. i 13, 17, T See above, p. 204. ii. 2, &e. 5 Mysia was at one time an apple of discord 2 Gal. fi. 2. Se at Thesselonica’ 2 between the kings of Pergamus and Bithynia; Thess. ii. 13. and the latter were for a certain period masters * Gal. iii. 27, 28. ef aconsiderable tract on the shore of the * Ses the remarks above (p. 221), im refer- Propontis. But this was at an end when the euca to Tarsus. Romans began to interfere in the affairs of * The plural (Gal. i. 2 and 1 Cor. xvi. 1) the East. implies this. See p. 234. It may be well to add a few words on the his- * Acts xvi. 6,7. Fora similar accumula- tory of Mysia, which was purposely deferred to ton of participles, see Acts xxv. 6-8. this place. See p. 206, 2.3. Under the Persians 238 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. evident that Mysia is excluded also from Asia, just as Phrygia is above ;’ not because these two districts were not parts of it in its political character of a province, but because they had a history and a traditional character of their own sufficiently independent to give them a name in popular usage. As regards Asia, it is simply viewed as the western portion of Asia Minor. Its relation to the peninsula has been very well described by say- ing that it occupied the same relative position which Portugal occupies with regard to Spain.” The comparison would be peculiarly just in the passage before us. For the Mysia of St. Luke is to Asia what Gallicia is to Portugal; and the journey from Galatia and Phrygia to the city of Troas has its European parallel in a journey from Castile to Vigo. We are evidently destitute of materials for laying down the route of St. Paul and his companions. All that relates to Phrygia and Galatia must be left vague and blank, like an unexplored country in a map (as in fact this region itself is in the maps of Asia Minor),’ where we are at liberty to imagine mountains and plains, rivers and cities, but are unable to furnish any proofs. As the path of the Apostle, however, approaches the Aigean, it comes out into comparative light: the names of places are again mentioned, and the country and the coast have been explored and described. The early part of the route then must be left indistinct. Thus much, however, we may venture to say,— that since the Apostle usually turned his steps towards the large towns, where many Jews were established, it is most likely that Ephesus, Smyrna, or Pergamus was the point at which he aimed, when he sought “ to preach the Word in Asia.” There is nothing else to guide our conjectures, except the boundaries of the provinces and the lines of the principal roads. Angora ‘ in the general direction above pointed out, he would cross the river Sangarius near Kiutaya,® which is a great modern thoroughfare, and has heen mentioned before (Ch. VI. p. 150) in connection with the : If he moved from > 4 route from Adalia to Constantinople ; and a little farther to the west, near Aizani, he would be about the place where the boundaries of Asia, this corner of Asia Minor formed the satrapy 2 Paley’s Hore Pauline. (1 Cor. No. 2.) of Little Phrygia: under the Christian Emper- ~ ors it was the province of The Hellespont. In the intermediate period we find it called “ Mys- ‘a,” and often divided into two parts: viz. Little Mysia on the north, called also Mysia on the Hellespont, or Mysia Olympene, because it lay to the north of Mount Olympus; and Great Mysia, or Mysia Pergamene, to the south and east, containing the three districts of Troas, Molis, and Teuthrania. 1 Acts xvi. 6. 8 Kiepert’s map, which is the best, shows this. Hardly any region in the peninsula has been less explored than Galatia and Northern Phrygia. * Mr. Ainsworth mentions a nill near Angora in this direction, the Baulos-Dagh which is named after the Apostle. 5 Kiutaya (the ancient Cotysum) is now one of the most important towns in the penin- sula. It lies too on the ordinary road between Broussa and Konieh. owar. VDI. JOURNEY TO THE ZXGEAN. Ys Bithynia, and Mysia meet together, and on the water-shed which separates the waters flowing northwards to the Propontis, and those which feed the rivers of the Aigean. Here then we may imagine the Apostle and his three companions to pause, — uncertain of their future progress, — on the chalk downs which lie between the fountains of the Rhyndacus and those of the Hermus, — in the midst of scenery not very unlike what is familiar to us in Eng- land! The long range of the Mysian Olympus to the north is the boundary of Bithynia. The summits of the Phrygian Dindymus on the south are on the frontier of Galatia and Asia. The Hermus flows through the province of Asia to the islands of the Aigean. The Rhyn- dacus flows to the Propontis, and separates Mysia from Bithynia. By following the road near the former river they would easily arrive at Smyrna or Pergamus. By descending the valley of the latter and then crossing Olympus,” they would be in the richest and most prosperous part of Bithynia. In which direction shall their footsteps be turned ? Some Divine intimation, into the nature of which we do not presume to inquire, told the Apostle that the Gospel was not yet to be preached in the populous cities of Asia.* The time was not yet come for Christ to be made known to the Greeks and Jews of Ephesus, — and for the churches of Sardis, Pergamus, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Thyatira, and Laodicea, to be admitted to their period of privilege and trial, for the warning of future generations. This also is forbidden. 1 See Mr. Hamilton’s account of the course of the Rhyndacus, his comparison of the dis- trict of Azanitis to the chalk scenery of Eng- land, and his notice of Dindymus, which seems to be part of the water-shed that crosses the country from the Taurus towards Ida, and separates the waters of the Mediterranean and #igean from those of the Euxine and Propon- tis. In the course of his progress up the Rhyndacus he frequently mentions the aspect of Olympus, the summit of which could not be reached at the end of March in consequence of the snow. 2-The ordinary road from Broussa to Kintayah crosses a part of the range of Olympus. The Peut. Table has a road join- ing Broussa with Pergamus. 8 Tt will be observed that they were merely forbidden to preach the Gospel in Asia. We are not told that they did not. enter Asia. Their road lay entirely through Asia (politi- tally speaking) from the moment of leaving Shall they turn, then, in the direction of Bithynia ? ‘ St. Paul (so far as we know) never crossed the Galatia till their arrival at Troas. On the other hand, they were not allowed to enter Bithynia at all. Meyer’s view of the word “ Asia” in this passage is surprising. He holds it to mean the eastern continent as opposed to “Europe.” (See p. 205, &c.) He says that the travellers, being uncertain whether Asia in the more limited sense were not intended, made a vain attempt to enter Bithynia, and finally learned at Troas that Europe was their destination. * The route is drawn in the map past Aizani into the valley of the Hermus, and then northwards towards Hadriani on the Rhyndacus. This is merely an imaginary line, to express to the eye the changes of plan which occurred successively to St. Paul. The scenery of the Rhyndacus, which is interesting as the frontier river, has been fully explored and described by Mr. Hamilton, who ascended the river to its source, and thes crossed over to the fountains of the Hermus THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Mysian Olympus, or entered the cities of Nicwa and Chalcedon, illus trious places in the Christian history of a later age. By revelations, which were anticipative of the fuller and clearer communication at Troas, the destined path of the Apostolic Company was pointed out, through the intermediate country, directly to the West. Leaving the greater part of what was popularly called Mysia to the right," they came ts the shores of the AMgean, about the place where the deep gulf of Adramyttium, over against the island of Lesbos, washes the very base of — Mount Ida.’ At Adramyttium, if not before, St. Paul is on the line of a great Roman road.’ We recognize the place as one which is mentioned again in the description of the voyage to Rome. (Acts xxvii. 2.) It was a mercantile town, with important relations both with foreign harbors, and the cities of the interior of Asia Minor.‘ From this point the road follows the northern shore of the gulf,— crossing a succession of the streams which flow from Ida,’ — and alternately descending to the pebbly beach and rising among the rocks and overgreen brushwood, — while Lesbos appears and re-appears through the branches of the rich forest trees,*— till the sea is left behind at the city of Assos. This also is a city of St. Paul. The nineteen miles of road’ which lie between it and Troas is the distance which he travelled by land before he rejoined the ship which had brought him from Philippi (Acts xx. 13): and the town across the strait, on the shore of Lesbos, 1s Mytilene,® whither the vessel proceeded when the Apostle and his companions met on board. and Msander, near which he saw an ancient road, probably connecting Smyrna and Phila- delphia with Angora. 1 The phrase in Acts xvi. 8 need not be pressed too closely. They passed along the frontier of Mysia, as it was popularly under- stood, and they passed by the whole district, without staying to evangelize it. Or, as a German writer puts it, they hurried through Mysia, because they knew that they were not to preach the Gospel in Asia. 2 Hence it was sometimes called the Gulf of Ida. * The characteristics of this bay, as seen from the water, will be mentioned hereafter when we come to the voyage from Assos to Mytilene (Acts xx. 14). At present we allude only to the reads along the coast. Two roads converge at Adramyttium: one which follows the shore from the sonth, mentioned in the Peutingerian Table; the other from Pergamus and the interior, mentioned also in the Anto- aine Itimerary. The united route then pro ceeds by Assos to Alexandria Troas, and se to the Hellespont. * Fellows says that there are no traces of antiquities to be found there now, except a few coins. He travelled in the direction just mea- tioned, from Pergamus by Adramyttium and Assos to Alexandria Troas. 5 Poets of all ages— Homer, Ovid, Ten- nyson — have celebrated the streams which flow from the “ many-fountained” cliffs of Ida. ® See the description in Fellows. He was two days in travelling from Adramit to Assos. He says that the hills are clothed with ever greens to the top, and therefore vary little with the season; and he particularly mentions the flat stones of the shingle, and the woods of large trees, especially planes. T This is the distance given in the Antonine Itinerary. 5 The strait between Assos and Methymna — is narrow. Strabo calls it 60 stadia; Pliny? miles. Mytilene is farther to the south. =P, VEL ALEXANDRIA TROAS. 24\ But to return to the present journey. Troas is the name either of a district or atown. As a district it had a history of its own. Though geographically a part of Mysia, and politically a part of the province of Asia, it was yet usually spoken of as distinguished from both. This small region,’ extending from Mount Ida to the plain watered by the Simois and Scamander, was the scene of the Trojan war; and it was due to the poetry of Homer that the ancient name of Priam’s kingdom should be retained. This shore has been visited on many memorable oc- easions by the great men of this world. Xerxes passed this way when he undertook to conquer Greece. Julius Caxsar was here after the battle of Pharsalia. But, above all, we associate the spot with a European von- queror of Asia, and an Asiatic conqueror of Europe; with Alexander of Macedon and Paul of Tarsus. For here it was that the enthusiasm of Alexander was kindled at the tomb of Achilles, by the memory of hia heroic ancestors ; here he girded on their armor; and from this goal he started to overthrow the august dynasties of the East. And now the great Apostle rests in his triumphal progress upon the same poetic shore: here he is armed by heavenly visitants with the weapons of a warfare that is not carnal; and hence he is sent forth to subdue all the powers of the West, and bring the civilization of the world into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Turning now from the district to the city of Troas, we must remember that its full and correct name was Alexandria Troas. Sometimes, as in the New Testament, it is simply called Troas;? sometimes, as by Pliny and Strabo, simply Alexandria. It was not, however, one of those cities (amounting in number to nearly twenty) which were built and named by the conqueror of Darius. This Alexandria received its population and its name under the successors of Alexander. It was an instance of that centralization of small scattered towns into one great mercantile city, which was characteristic of the period. Its history was as follows: — Antigonus, who wished to leave a monument of his name on this classical ground, brought together the inhabitants of the neighboring towns to one point on the coast, where he erected a city, and called it Antigonia Troas. Lysimachus, who succeeded to his power on the Dardanelles, increased and adorned the city, but altered its name, calling it, in honor of “ the man of Macedonia’ * (if we may make this application of a phrase which 1 If we are not needlessly multiplying img, a district which has retained a distinctive topographical illustrations, we may compare name, and has feund its own historian. the three principal districts of the province of ® Acts xvi. 8, 11, me. 5; 2 Cor. ff. 18; Ama, vis. Phrygia, Lydia, and Mysia, to the 2 Tim. iv. 13. three Ridings of Yorkshire. Troas will ther ® Not the Vir Maceds of Herace (Qc. mn be im Mysia what Craven is in the West Rid- 16 242 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL Holy Writ! has associated with the place), Alexandria Troas. his name was retained ever afterwards. When the Romans began their eastern wars, the Greeks of Troas espoused their cause, and were thence- forward regarded with favor at Rome. But this willingness to recom- pense useful service was combined with other feelings, half poetical, half political, which about this time took possession of the mind of the Romans. They fancied they saw a primeval Rome on the Asiatic shore. The story of Aineas in Virgil, who relates in twelve books how the glory of Troy was transferred to Italy?—the warning of Horace, who ad- mouishes his fellow-citizens that their greatness was gone if they rebuilt the ancient walls,’ — reveal to us the fancies of the past and the future, which were popular at Rome. Alexandria Troas was a recollection of the city of Priam, and a prophecy of the city of Constantine. The Ro- mans regarded it in its best days as a‘‘ New Troy: ” ‘ and the Turks even now call its ruins “‘ Old Constantinople.” > Itis said that Julius Caesar, in his dreams of a monarchy which should embrace the East and the West, turned his eyes to this city as his intended capital: and there is no doubt that Constantine, “‘ before he gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, had conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derived their fabulous” origin.” * Augustus brought the town into close and honorable connec- tion with Rome by making it a colonia,’ and assimilated its land to that of Italy by giving it the jus Jtaliewm.2 When St. Paul was there, it had xvi. 14), the Macedenian Man of Demosthenes attracted the notice of all who sailed through (Phi. 1.), but his more eminent son. 1 See Acts xvi. 9. - Bee especially Book vi. “ Ne nimium pii Tecta velint reparare Trojx.” Od. 111. iii. * This name applies more strictly to New Ilium, which, after many vicissitudes, was made a place of some importance by the Ro- mans, and exempted from all imposts. The strong feeling of Julius Cxsar for the people of lium, his sympathy with Alexander, and the influence of the tradition which traced the origin of his nation, and especially his own family, to Troy, are described by Strabo. Wew Ilium, however, gradually sank into in- significance, and Alexandria Troas remained as the representative of the Roman partiality for the Troad. 5 Eski-Stamboul. ® Gibbon, ch. xv11. He adds that, “though the undertaking was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers the Hellespont.” 7 Its full name on coins of the Antonines is, “ Col. Alexandria Augusta Troas.” 8 Deferring the consideration of colonial privileges to its proper place, in connection with Philippi (Acts xvi. 12), we may state here the general notion of the Jus Italicum. It was a privilege entirely relating to the /and. The maxim of the Roman law was: “ Ager Italicus immunis est : ager provincialis vecti- galis est.” “Italian land is free: provincial land is taxed.’’ The Jus Italicum raised pro- vincial land to the same state of immunity from taxation which belonged to land in Italy. But this privilege could only be enjoyed by those who were citizens. Therefore it would have been an idle gift to any community not pos- sessing the civitas ; and we never find it giver except to a celonia. Conversely, however, all colonies did not possess the Jus Italicum. Carthage was a colony for two centuries before it received it. OHA, VII. ST, PAUL’S VISION. 243 not attained its utmost growth as a city of the Romans. The great aqueduct was not yet built, by which Herodes Atticus brought water from the fountains of Ida, and the piers of which are still standing.’ The enclosure of the walls, extending above a mile from east to west, and near a mile from north to south, may represent the limits of the city in the age of Claudius. The ancient harbor, even yet distinctly traceable, and not without a certain desolate beauty, when it is the foreground of a picture with the hills of Imbros and the higher peak of Samothrace in the distance,’ is an object of greater interest than the aqueduct and the walls. All further allusions to the topography of the place may be de- ferred till we describe the Apostle’s subsequent and repeated visits.* At present he is hastening towards Europe. LHvery thing in this part of our narrative turns our eyes to the West. When St. Paul’s eyes were turned towards the West, he saw that remarkable view of Samothrace over Imbros, which has just been mentioned. And what were the thoughts in his mind when he looked towards Europe across the Aijgean? Though ignorant of the precise nature of the supernatural intimations which had guided his recent journey, we are led irresistibly to think that he associated his future work with the distant prospect of the Macedonian hills. We are re- minded of another journey, when the Prophetic Spirit gave him partial revelations on his departure from Corinth, and on his way to Jerusalem. “ After I have been there I must also see Rome *’—I have no more place in these parts* —I know not what shall befall me, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth that bonds and afflictions abide me.”’? Such thoughts, it may be, had been in the Apostle’s mind at Trozs, when the sun set beyond Athos and Samothrace,’ and the shadows fell 1 See Clarke’s Travels. 2 See Pococke’s Travels. 8 The author of Hothen was much struck by the appearance of Samothrace seen aloft over Imbros, when he recollected how Jupiter is described in the Iliad as watching from thence _ the scene of action before Troy. “Now I | knew,” he says, “that Homer had passed along here, — that this vision of Samothrace Over-towering the nearer island was common to him and to me.” — P. 64. The same train of thought may be extended to our present _ subject, and we may find a sacred pleasure in : looking at any view which has been common | to St. Paul and to us. * Acts xvi., xx; 2 Cor. ii.; 2 Tim. iv. 5 Acts xix. 21. * Rom. xv. 23. It will be remembered that the Epistle to the Romans was written just before this departure from Corinth. 7 Acts xx. 22, 23. 8 Athos and Samothrace are the highest points in this part of the Migean. They are the conspicuous points from the summit of Ida, along with Imbros, which is nearer. (Wal- pole’s Memoirs, p. 122.) Seethe notes at the beginning of the next chapter. “Mount Athos is plainly visible from the Asiatic coast at sunset, but not at other times. Its distance hence is about 80 miles. Reflecting the red rays of the sun, it appears from that coast like a huge mass of burnished gold. . . . Mx. Turner, being off the N. W. end of Mytilene (Lesbos) 22d June, 1814, says, ‘The evening being clear, we plainly saw the immense Mount Athos, which appeared in the form of AR 244 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. on Ida and settled dark on Tenedos and the deep. With the view of the distant land of Macedonia imprinted on his memory, and the thought of Europe’s miserable Heathenism deep in his heart, he was prepared, like Peter at Joppa,' to receive the full meaning of the voice which spoke to him in a dream. In the visions of the night, a form appeared to come and stand by him;? and he recognized in the supernatural visitant “a man of Macedonia,’* who came to plead the spiritual wants of his country. It was the voice of the sick inquiring for a physician, — of the ignorant seeking for wisdom, — the voice which ever since has been call- ing on the Church to extend the Gospel to Heathendom, — “ Come over and help us.” Virgil has described an evening‘ and a sunrise * on this coast, before and after an eventful night. That night was indeed eventful in which St. Paul received his commission to proceed to Macedonia. The com mission was promptly executed. The morning-star appeared over the cliffs of Ida. The sun rose and spread the day over the sea and the islands as far as Athos and Samothrace. The men of Troas awoke to their trade and their labor. Among those who were busy about the shipping in the harbor were the newly-arrived Christian travellers, seeking for a passage to Europe, — Paul, and Silas, and Timotheus, — and that new companion, “ Luke! the beloved Physician,” who, whether by pre-arrangement, or by a providential meeting, or (it may be) even in consequence of the Apostle’s delicate health,* now joined the mission, of which he afterwards wrote the history. God provided a ship for the messengers He had chosen: and (to use the language of a more sacred poetry than thai an equilateral triangle.’” Sailing Directory, oma. vm, en the significance of this vision are well p. 150. In the same page a sketch is given of Mount Athos, N. by W. } W.,45 miles. Com- pare Mr. Bowen’s recent work, p. 26. “ At sunset we were half way between Tenedos and the rngged Imbros. In the disk of the setting sun I distinguished the pyramidal form of Mount Athos.” 1 See the remarks on St. Peter’s vision, p. 87. See also p. 97, n. 2, and p. 183. 2 Acts xvi. 9. 5 St. Paul may have known, by his dress, or by his words, or by an immediate intuition, that he was “a man of Macedonia.” Grotius suggests the notion of a representative or gnerdian angel of Macedonia, as the “ prince of Persia,” &., in Dan. x. The words “‘heip es.” imply that the man who appeared to St. Pavl was a representative of many. This is mmarked by Baumgarten, whose observations worth considering. Apostelgesch., ii. p. 19% (Eng. Trans. ii. 110.) * din. 11. 250, 6 #n. 1. 801. 5 Acts xvi. 10. 7 We should notice here not only the ehange of persen from the third to the first, but the simultaneous transition (as it has been well expressed) from the historical to the aw toptical style, as shown by the fuller enumera- tion of details. We shall returm to this mb ject again, when we come to the point where St. Luke parts from St. Panl at Philippi: meantime we may remark that itis highly prob able that they had already met and labored together at Antioch. 5 We must remember the recent sickness & Galatis, p. 235. See below, p. 286. geese i, ——— rrr ORCSSING OVER TO EUEOPE. zi$ which has made those coasts illustrious)! “ He brought the wind eut of His treasuries, and by His power He breught in the south wind,” ‘ and prospered the voyage of His servants. 2The classical reader will remember that the throne of Neptune in Homer, whenee he iooks over Ida and the scene of the Trojan war, is on the peak of Samofhrace (J]. xm. 10-14), and his eave deep under the water between Im- bros and Tenedos (Jl. xm. 32-35). Rs. exxxy. 7, Ixxviii. 26. For argu- ments to prove that the wind was liter- ally a south wind in this ease, see the beginning of the next chapter. ‘From the British Museum. It may be observed that this coin illustrates the mode of strengthening sails by rope- bands, mentioned in Mr. Smith’s impor- tant work on the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, 1848, p. 163. CHAPTER IX. Voyage by Samothrace to Neapolis. — Philippi. — Constitution of a Colony. — Lydia. — The Demoniac Slave.— Paul and Silas arrested.— The Prison and the Jailer.— The Magis- trates. — Departure from Philippi. — St. Luke. — Macedonia described. — Its Condition as « Province. — The Via Egnatia. — St. Paul’s Journey through Amphipolis and Apollonia. — Thessalonica. — The Synagogue. — Subjects of St. Paul’s Preaching. — Persecution, Tumult, and Flight. — The Jews at Berwa.— St. Paul again persecuted. — Proceeds to Athens. HE weather itself was propitious to the voyage from Asia to Europe. It is evident that Paul and his companions sailed from Troas with a fair wind. On a later occasion we are told that five days were spent on the passage from Philippi to Troas.1_ On the present occasion the same voyage, in the opposite direction, was made in two. If we attend to St. Luke’s technical expression,’ which literally means that they “ sailed before the wind,” and take into account that the pas- sage to the west, between Tenedos and Lemnos, is attended with some risk,? we may infer that the wind blew from the southward. The southerly winds in this part of the Archipelago do not usually last long, but they often blow with considerable force. Sometimes they are sufficiently strong to counteract the current which sets to the southward — from the mouth of the Dardanelles.’ However this might be on the day — 1 Compare Acts xvi. 11, 12, with xx. 6. For the expression, “sailed from Philippi” (xx. 6), and the relation of Philippi with its harbor, Neapolis, see below, p. 249, n. 4. 2 It oceurs again in Acts xxi. 1, evidently im the same sense. 2 “ All ships should pass to the eastward of Tenedos. . . . Ships that go to the west- ward in calms may drift on the shoals of Lem- nos, and the S. E. end of that island being very low is not seen above nine miles off. . . . It is also to be recollected, that very dangerous ' shoals extend from the N. W. and W. ends of Tenedos.” —Purdy’s Sailing Directory, pp. 158,189. Captain Stewart says (p. 63): “ To work up to the Dardanelles, I prefer going in- side of Tenedos ... you cau go by your tead, and, during light winds, you may anchor 246 anywhere. If you go outside of Tenedos, and — it falls calm, the current sets you towards the shoal off Lemnos.” (The writer has heard this and what follows confirmed by those who have had practical experience in the merchant- service in the Levant.) * The same inference may be drawn from ~ the fact of their going to Samothrace at all Had the wind blown from the northward or the eastward, they probably would not have done so. Had it blown from the westward, they could not have made the passage in two days, especially as the currents are contrary. This consistency in minute details shonli he carefully noticed, as tending to confirm the veracity of the narrative. 5 “The current from the Dardanelles h-cins © to run strongly to the southward at Teredos, MAAN | i ) i iathis hata RDA ANH RC be i RU Wan ea ee CMa Cite ’ 7 Me tan : CHAP. XX. SAMOTHERACK. 247 when St. Paul passed over these waters, the vessel in which he sailed would soon cleave her way through the strait between Tenedos and the main, past the Dardanelles, and near the eastern shore of Imbros. On rounding the northern end of this island, they would open Samothrace, which had hitherto appeared as a higher and more distant summit over the lower mountains of Imbros.’ The distance between the two islands is about twelve miles.? Leaving Imbros, and bearing now a little to the west, and having the wind still (as our sailors say) two or three points abaft the beam, the helmsman steered for Samothrace ; and, under the shelter of its high shore, they anchored for the night.*, Samothrace is the highest land in the north of the Archipelago, with the exception of Mount Athos.‘ These two eminences have been in all ages the familiar landmarks of the Greek mariners of the Algean. Even from the neighborhood of Troas, Mount Athos is seen towering over Lemnos, like Samothrace over Imbros.° And what Mount Athos is, in another sense, to the superstitious Christian of the Levant,® the peak of Samothrace was, in the days of Heathenism, to his Greek ancestors in the same seas. It was the “ Monte Santo,” on which the Greek mariner looked with awe, as he gazed on it in the distant horizon, or came to anchor under the shelter of its coast. It was the sanctuary of an ancient superstition, which was widely spread over the neighboring continents, and the history of which was vainly investigated by Greek and Roman writers. If St. Paul had staid here even a few days, we might be justified in saying something of the “ Cabiri;” but we have no reason to suppose that he even landed on the island. At present it possesses put there is no difficulty in turning over it with a breeze.” — Purdy, p. 159. “ The cur- rent in the Archipelago sets almost contin- ually to the southward, and is increased or re- tarded according to the winds. In lying at Tenedos, near the north of the Dardanelles, I have observed a strong south wind entirely stop it; but it came strong to the southward the moment the gale from that point ceased.” — Captain Stewart, ib. p. 62. For the winds, see pp. 63 and 163. 1 “The island Imbro is separated from Samothraki by a channel twelve miles in breadth. Itis much longer and larger, but not so high, as that island.” Purdy, p. 152. 2 See the preceding note. 3 Acts xvi. 11. * “Samothraki is the highest land in the Archipelago, except Candia and Mount Athos.” — Puiay, p. 152. * Aw evening view has been quoted before (p- 248, n. 4). The following is a morning view. ‘“ Nov. 26, 1828, 8, a. um. — Morning beautifully clear. Lemnos just opening Mount Athos was at first taken for an island about five leagues distant, the outline and shades appearing so perfectly distinct, though nearly fifty miles off. The base of it was covered with haze, as was the summit soon afterward ; but toward sunset it became clear again. It is immensely high; and, as there is no other mountain like it to the northward of Negropont, it is an excellent guide for this part of the coast.” — Purdy, p. 150. ® See the account of Mount Athos (Monte Santo) in Curzon’s Monasteries of the Levant, Pt. ry., and the view, p. 327. In his sail from the Dardanelles to the mountain, — the breeze, the shelter and smooth water on the shore of Lemnos, &c.,— there are points ef resem: blance with St. Paul’s voyage. THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL no good harbor, though many places of safe anchorage :' and if the wind was from the southward, there would be smooth water anywhere on the north shore. The island was, doubtless, better supplied with artificial advantages in an age not removed by many centuries from the flourishing period of that mercantile empire which the Pheenicians founded, and the Athenians inherited, in the Algean Sea. The relations of Samothrace with the opposite coast were close and frequent, when the merchants of Tyre had their miners at work in Mount Pangswus, and when Athens diffused her citizens as colonists or exiles on all the neighboring shores.’ Nor can those relations have been materially altered when both the Phoenician and Greek settlements on the sea were absorbed in the wider and continental dominion of Rome. Ever since the day when Perseus fied to Samothrace from the Roman conqueror,‘ frequent vessels had been passing and repassing between the island and the coasts of Mace donia and Thrace. The Macedonian harbor at which St. Paul landed was Neapolis. Ite direction from Samothrace is a little to the north of west. But a southerly breeze would still be a fair wind, though they could not literally “run before it.” A run of seven or eight hours, notwithstand- ing the easterly current,’ would bring the vessel under the lea of the island of Thasos, and within a few miles of the coast of Macedonia. The shore of the mainland in this part is low, but mountains rise to a considerable height behind. To the westward of the channel which separates it from Thasos, the coast recedes and forms a bay, within which, on a promontory with a port on each side,’ the ancient Neapolis was situated. : Some difference of opinion has existed concerning the true position of this harbor :* but the traces of paved military roads approaching the peomontory we have described, in two directions corresponding with those — Santo (Athos), from the 8. W., a the castward, by Thasse.” — p. 152. - ®§ Bee Purdy, p. 152, and the accurate delineation of the coast in the Admiralty — charts ? 1 See Purdy, p. 152. 2 Herod. vii. 112. Thasos was the head- quarters of the Phenician mining operations in this part of the Aigean. Herodotus visited tae island, and was much struck with the traces of their work (vi. 47). ® It is hardly necessary to refer to the for- mation of the commercial empire of Athens before the Peloponnesian war, to the mines of Scapte Hyle, and the exile of Thucydides. Bee Grote’s Greece, ch. xxvi., xlvii., &e. * Liv. xlv. 6. 5 “Inside ef Thasso, and past Samothraki, the current sets to the oastward.” — Purdy, p. 2. “The current at times tarns by Monte 7 Clarke’s Thavels, ch. xii. and xili. An important paper on Neapolis and Philippi bas — been written (after a recent visit to these places) by Prof. Hackett, in the Br. Sacra for — October, 1860. 8 Cousinéry, in his Veyage dans la Mace — deine, identifies Neapelis with Eski-Cavallo, » harbor more to the west; but his argumons are quite inconclusive. Colonel Leake, whose opinion is of great weight, though he did sof : on 29, Ul. NEAPOLIb. 24% indicated in the ancient itineraries; the Latin inscriptions which have been found on the spot; the remains of a great aqueduct on two tiers of Roman arches, and of cisterns like those at Baiz near the other Neapolis on the Campanian shore, seem to leave little doubt that the small Turkish village of Cavallo is the Naples of Macedonia, the “ Neapolis” at which St. Paul landed, and the seaport of Philippi,— the “ first city”! which the traveller reached on entering this “‘ part of Macedonia,” and a city of no little importance as a Roman military “ colony.” * A ridge of elevated land, which connects the range of Pangewus with the higher mountains in the interior of Thrace, is crossed between Neapolis and Philippi. The whole distance is about ten miles. The ascent of the ridge is begun immediately from the town, through a defile formed by some precipices almost close upon the sea. When the higher ground is attained, an extensive and magnificent sea-view is opened towards the south. Samothrace is seen to the east; Thasos to the south-east; and, more distant and farther to the right, the towering summit of Athos.‘ When the descent on the opposite side begins and the sea is lost to view, another prospect succeeds, less extensive, but not less worthy of our nutice. We look down on a plain, which is level as an inland sea, and which, if the eye could range over its remoter spaces, would be seen winding far within its mountain-enclosure, to the west and the north.’ Its appearance is either exuberantly green, — for its fertility has been always famous, — or cold and dreary, — for the streams which water it are often diffused into marshes, — according to the season when we visit this corner of Mace- personally visit Philippi aud Neapolis, agrees with Dr. Clarke. 1 Acts xvi. 12. _? For the meaning of these terms ses p. 251, &e. 5 Hence it was unnecessary for Meyer te deride Olshansen’s remark, that Philippi was the “ first city” in Macedonia visited by the Apostle, because Neapolis was its harbor. Olshausen was quite right. The distance of Neapolis from Philippi is only twice as great as that from the Pireus to Athens, not much greater than that from Cenchrea te Corinth, and less than that from Seleucia to Antioch, ez from Ostia to Reme. * We may quote here twe passages from Dr. Clarke, one describing this approach te Neapolis from the neighborhood, the other his departure in the direction of Constantine- ple. ‘ Ascending the mountainous boundary ef the plain on its north-eastern side by a teond ancient paved way, we had not daylight enough to enjoy the fine prospect of the 22a and the town of Cavallo upon a promontory. At some distance lies the isle of Theses, now ealled Tasso. It was indistinctly discerned by us; but every other object, excepting the town, began to disappear as we descended toward Cavallo.” — Ch. xii. “Upon quitting the town, we ascended a part of Mount Pan- gmus by a paved road, and had a fine view of the bay of Neapolis. The top of the hill, towards the left, was covered with ruined walls, and with the ancient aqueduct, which here crosses the road. From hence we de- seended by a paved road as before . . . the isle ef Thasos being in view towards the S. E. Looking te the E., we saw the high top of Samothrace, which makes such a conspicuous figure from the plains of Troy. To the S., towering above a region of clouds, appeared the loftier summit of Mount Athos.” — 5 See the very full descriptions of the plait 250 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. donia; whether it be when the snows are white and chill on the summits of the Thracian Hemus,' or when the roses, of which Theophrastus and — Pliny speak, are displaying their bloom on the warmer slopes of the Pangwan hills.? This plain, between Hamus and Pangeus, is the plain of Philippi, where the last battle was lost by the republicans of Rome. The whole region around is eloquent of the history of this battle. Among the moun- tains on the right was the difficult path by which the republican army penetrated into Macedonia; on some part of the very ridge on which we stand were the camps of Brutus and Cassius ;* the stream before us is the river which passed in front of them ;‘ below us, “‘ upon the left hand of the even field,” ° is the marsh* by which Antony crossed as he approached his antagonist ; directly opposite is the hill of Philippi, where Cassius died ; behind us is the narrow strait of the sea, across which Brutus sent his body to the island of Thasos, lest the army should be disheartened before the final struggle.’ The city of Philippi was itself a monument of the termination of that struggle. It had been founded by the father of Alexander, in a place called, from its numerous streams, “The Place of Fountains,” to commemorate the addition of a new province to his king- dom, and to protect the frontier against the Thracian mountaineers. For similar reasons the city of Philip was gifted by Augustus with the privi- leges of a colonia. It thus became at once a border-garrison of the prov- ince of Macedonia, and a perpetual memorial of his victory over Brutus.* And now a Jewish Apostle came to the same place, to win a greater vic- tory than that of Philippi, and to found a more durable empire than that of Augustus. It is a fact of deep significance, that the “ first city” at which St. Paul arrived,’ on his entrance into Europe, should be that of Serrés, in the various parts of its extension, given by Leake and Cousinéry. 1 Lucan’s view is very winterly. i. 680. 2 The “ Rosa centifolia,” which the latter mentions as cultivated in Campania and in Greece, near Philippi. 3 The republicans were so placed as to be in communication with the sea. The triremes were at Neapolis. * The Gangas or Gangites. 5 Julius Cesar, act v. sc. i. phy of Shakspeare is perfectly accurate. In this passage Octavius and Antony are looking at the field from the opposite side. 6 The battle took place in autumn, when the plain would probably be inundated. Phars. Leake, p. 217. The topogra- — 7 Plutarch’s Life of Brutus. 8 The full and proper Roman name was Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis. See the coin engraved at the end of Ch. XXVL Cousinéry (ch. x.) enters fully into the pres- ent condition of Philippi, and gives coins and inscriptions. ® We regard the phrase in Acts xvi. 12 as meaning the first city in its geographical rela- tion to St. Paul’s journey ; not the first politi- cally (“chief city,” Auth. Vers.), either of Macedonia or a part of it. The chief city of the province was Thessalonica ; and, even if we suppose the subdivisions of Macedonia Prima, Secunda, &c., to have subsisted at this time, the chief city of Macedonia Prima was not Philippi, but Amphipolis. onar, Ix, PHILIPPI. 251 “ colony,’ which was more fit than any other in the empire to be con- sidered the representative of Imperial Rome. The characteristic of a colonia was, that it was a miniature resemblance of Rome. Philippi is not the first city of this kind to which we have traced the foosteps of St. Paul; Antioch in Pisidia (p. 152), and Alex- andria Troas (p. 242), both possessed the same character : but this is the first place where Scripture calls our attention to the distinction ; and the events which befell the Apostle at Philippi were directly connected with the privileges of the place as a Roman colony, and with his own privileges as a Roman citizen. It will be convenient to consider these two subjects together. A glance at some of the differences which subsisted among individuals and communities in the provincial system will enable us to see very clearly the position of the citizen and of the colony. We have had occasion (Ch. I. p. 21) to speak of the combination of actual provinces and nominally independent states through which the power of the Roman emperor was variously diffused ; and again (Ch. V. p. 129), we have described the division of the provinces by Augustus into those of the Senate, and those of the Emperor. Descending now to ex- amine the component population of any one province, and to inquire into the political condition of individuals and communities, we find here again a complicated system of rules and exceptions. As regards individuals, the broad distinction we must notice is that between those who were citizens and those who were not citizens. When the Greeks spoke of the inhabitants of the world, they divided them into “ Greeks” and “ Bar- barians,”’! according as the language in which poets and philosophers had written was native to them or foreign. Among the Romans the phrase was different. The classes into which they divided mankind consisted of those who were politically ‘“‘ Romans,” ? and those who had no link (except that of subjection) with the City of Rome. The technical words were Cives and Peregrint, — “ citizens” and “strangers.”” The inhabitants of Italy were “‘ citizens ;”” the inhabitants of all other parts of the Empire (until Caracalla extended to the provinces* the same privileges which Julius Cxsar had granted to the peninsula) * were naturally and essentially “strangers.” Italy was the Holy Land of the kingdom of this world. We may carry the parallel further, in order to illustrate the difference which existed among the citizens themselves. Those true-born Italians, who were diffused in vast numbers through the provinces, might be called 1 Thus St. Paul, in writing his Greek epis- politically in the New Testament. John xi- (les, uses this distinction. Rom. i. 14; Col. 48; Acts xvi, xxii., xxiii., xxviii. iti. 11. Hence, also, Acts xxviii. 2, 4; 1 Cor. 3 See Milman’s Gibbon, i. p. 281 and note. xty. 11. * By the Julia Lex de Civitate (s.c. 90), 2 The word “Roman” is always used supplemented by other laws. 352 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL Citizens of the Dispersion ; while those strangers who, at various and for various reasons, had received the gift of citizenship, were in the condition of political Proselytes. Such were Paul and Silas,’ in their re lation to the empire, among their fellow-Romans in the colony of Philippi. Both these classes of citizens, however, were in full possession of the same privileges ; the most important of which were exemption from scourging, and freedom from arrest, except in extreme cases; and in all cases = right of appeal from the magistrate to the Emperor.’ The remarks which have been made concerning individuals may be extended, in some degree, to communities in the provinces. The City of Rome might be transplanted, as it were, into various parts of the empire, and reproduced as a colonia ; or an alien city might be adopted, under the title of a municipiwm,* into a close political communion with Rome. Leavy- ing out of view all cities of the latter kind (and indeed they were limited entirely to the western provinces), we will confine ourselves to what was called a colonia. A Roman colony was very different from any thing which we usually intend by the term. It was no mere mercantile factory, such as those which the Pheenicians established in Spain,‘ or on those very shores of Macedonia with which we are now engaged ;* or such as moderna nations have founded in the Hudson’s Bay territory or on the coast of India. Still less was it like those incoherent aggregates of human beings which we have thrown, without care or system, on distant islands and continents. It did not even go forth, as a young Greek republic left its parent state, carrying with it, indeed, the respect of a daughter for a mother, but entering upon a new and independent existence. The Roman colonies were primarily intended as military safeguards of the fron- tiers, and as checks upon insurgent provincials. Like the military roads, they were part of the great system of fortification by which the Empire 1We can hardly help inferring, from the narrative of what happened at Philippi, that Silas was a Roman citizen as well as St. Paul. As to the mode in which he obtained the citi- zenship, we are more ignorant than in the case of St. Paul himself, whose father was a citizen (Acts xxii. 28). All that we are able to say on this subject has been given before, pp. 42-44. * Two of these privileges will come more particularly before us, when we reach the nar- rative of St. Paul’s arrest at Jerusalem. It appears that Paul and Silas were treated with a cruelty which was only justifiable in the case of a slave, and was not usually allowed in the case of any freeman. It would seem, that an accused citizen could only be imprisoned before trial for a very heinous offence, or when evidently guilty. Bail was generally allowed, or retention in a magistrate’s house was held sufficient. 8 The privilege of a colonia was transplanted citizenship, that of a muntcipium was ingrafted citizenship. We have nothing to do, however, — with municipia in the history of St. Paul. We are more concerned with liber@ civitates, and we shall presently come to one of them in the case of Thessalonica. ‘ Especially in the mountains on the coast between Cartagena and Almeria. 5 See above p. 248, n. 2. — a oe, Li CONSTITUTION OF A COLONY. 253 was made safe. They served also ac convenient possessions for rewarding veterans who had served in the wars, and for establishing freedmen and other Italians whom it was desirable to remove to a distance. The colo nists went out with all the pride of Roman citizens, to represent and re produce the City in the midst of an alien population. They proceeded to their destination like an army with its standards ;' and the limits of the anew city were marked out by the plough. Their names were still enrolled in one of the Roman tribes. Every traveller who passed through a colonia saw there the insignia of Rome. He heard the Latin language, and was amenable, in the strictest sense, to the Roman law. The coinage of the city, even if it were in a Greek province, had Latin inscriptions.? Cyprian tells us that in his own episcopal city, which once had been Rome’s greatest enemy, the Laws of the XII Tables were inscribed on brazen tableta in the market-place.? Though the colonists, in addition to the poll-tax, which they paid as citizens, were compelled to pay a ground-taz (for the land on which their city stood was provincial land, and therefore tributary, unless it were assimilated to Italy by a special exemption) ;* yet they were entirely free from any intrusion by the governor of the prov- ince. Their affairs were regulated by their own magistrates. These officers were named Duumviri; and they took a pride in cailing them selves by the Roman title of Prestors (orgarjyos).° The primary settlers in the colony were, as we have seen, real Italians; but a state of things seems to have taken place, in many instances, very similar to what hap pened in the early history of Rome itself. A number of the native pro- vincials grew up in the same city with the governing body ; and thus two. (or sometimes three) co-ordinate communities were formed, which ulti- mately coalesced into one, like the Patricians and Plebeians. Instances of this state of things might be given from Corinth and Carthage, and from the colonies of Spain and Gaul; and we have no reason to suppose that Philippi was different from the rest. Whatever the relative proportion of Greeks and Romans at Philippi may have been, the number of Jews was small. This is sufficiently accounted for, when we remember that it was a military, and not a mercantile, city. There was no synagogue in Philippi, but only one of those buildings called Proseuche, which were distinguished from the 1 See the standards on one of the coms of a contrast with the coins of Philippi we may Antioch in Pisidia, p. 178. The wolf, with mention those of Thessalonica. Kormulus and Remus, which will be observed 8 De Grat. Dei, 10. on the other coin, was common on colonial « Philippi had the Jus Italicum, like Alex- moneys. Philippi was in the strictest sense a andria Troas. This is explained above, p. 242. wilitary colony, formed by the establishment § An instance of this is mentioned by Cics of a cohers preteria emerita. ro in the case of Capus. See Hor. Sat. 5 S ‘This has been noticed before, p. 152. As vi. 254 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. regular places of Jewish worship by being of a more slight and tem- porary structure, and frequently open to the sky.’ For the sake of greater quietness, and freedom from interruption, this place of prayer was “outside the gate;” and, in consequence of the ablutions? which — were connected with the worship, it was ‘by the river-side,” on the bank of the Gaggitas,’ the fountains of which gave the name to the city before the time of Philip of Macedon,‘ and which, in the great battle of the Romans, had been polluted by the footsteps and blood of the contend- ing armies. The congregation, which met here for worship on the Sabbath, con- sisted chiefly, if not entirely, of a few women;* and these were not all of Jewish birth, and not all residents at Philippi. Lydia, who is men- tioned by name, was a proselyte;* and Thyatira, her native place, was a 1 Extracts to this effect might be quoted from Epiphanius. A Proseucha may be con- sidered as a place of prayer, as opposed to a Synagogue, or a heuse of prayer. It appears, however, that the words were more or less convertible, and some consider them nearly ‘equivalent. Josephus (Life, § 54) describes a Proseucha as “a large building, capable of holding a considerable crowd:” and Philo mentions, under the same denomination, build- ings at Alexandria, which were so strong that it was difficult to destroy them. Probably, it was the usual name of the meeting-place of Jewish congregations in Greek cities. Other passages in ancient writers, which bear upon the subject, are alluded to in the following extract from Biscoe: ‘‘ The seashore was esteemed by the Jews a place most pure, and therefore proper to offer up their prayers and thanksgiving to Almighty God. Philo tells us that the Jews of Alexandria, when Flaccus the governor of Egypt, who had been their great enemy, was arrested by order of the Emperor Cains, not being able to assemble at their synagogues, which had been taken from them, crowded out at the gates of the city early in the morning, went to the neigh- boring shores, and standing in a most pure place, with one accord lifted up their voices in praising God. Tertullian says, that the Jews in his time, when they kept their great fast, left their synagogues, and on every shore sent forth their prayers to heaven: and in another place, among the ceremonies used by the Jews, mentions orationes littorales, the prayers they made upen the shores. And long before Ter- tullian’s time there was a decree made at Hali- carnassus in favor of the Jews, which, among other privileges, allows them to say their prayers near the shore, according to the custom of their country. (Joseph. Ant. xiy. 10, 23.) It is hence abundantly evident, that it was common with the Jews to choose the shore as a place highly fitting to offer up their prayers.” P. 251. He adds that the words in Acts xvi. 13 “ may signify nothing more than that the Jews of Philippi were wont to go and offer up their prayers at a certain place by the river- side, as other Jews who lived near the sea were accustomed to do upon the seashore.” See Acts xxi. 5. 2 See the passage adduced by Biscoe from Josephus. 3 Many eminent German commentators make a mistake here in saying that the river — was the Strymon. The nearest point on the Strymon was many miles distant. This mis- take is the more marked when we find that “out of the gate” and not “out of the city ” is probably the right reading. No one would describe the Strymon as a stream outside the © gate of Philippi. We may add that the men- tion of the gate is an instance of St. Luke’s autoptical style in this part of the narrative. It is possible that the Jews worshipped outside — the gate at Philippi, because the people would — not allow them to worship within. Compare what Juvenal says of the Jews by the fountain outside the Porta Capena at Rome (iii. 11). * Crenides was the ancient name. § Acts xvi. 18. ® Acts xvi. 14 ee LYDIA. 258 eity of the province of Asia.1 The business which brought her to Philipp’ was connected with the dyeing trade, which had flourished from a very early period, as we learn from Homer,’ in the neighborhood ot Thyatira, and is permanently commemorated in inscriptions which relate to the “ guild of dyers”’ in that city, and incidentally give a singular confirmation of the veracity of St. Luke in his casual allusions.* In this unpretending place, and to this congregation of pious women, the Gospel was first preached by an Apostle within the limits of Europe.‘ St. Paul and his companions seem to have arrived in the early part of the week ; for “some days” elapsed before “ the sabbath.” On that day the strangers went and joined the little company of worshippers at their prayer by the river-side. Assuming at once the attitude of teachers, they ‘‘ sat down,” * and spoke to the women who were assembled together. The Lord, who had summoned His servants from Troas to preach the Gospel in Macedonia,’ now vouchsafed to them the signs of His presence, by giving Divine energy to the words which they spoke in His name. lydia “‘ was one of the listeners,’”’” and the Lord “ opened her heart, that she took heed to the things that were spoken of Paul.” ® Lydia. being convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, and having made a profession of her faith, was forthwith baptized. The place of her ‘aptism was doubiless the stream which flowed by the proseucha. The waters of Europe were “ sanctified to the mystical washing-away of sin.” With the baptism of Lydia that of her “household” was associated. Whether we are to understand by this term her children, her slaves, or the work-people engaged in the manual employment connected with her. trade, or all these collectively, cannot easily be decided.® But we may 1 See Rev. i. 11. 2 Ti, iv. 141. 5 We may observe that the communication at this period between Thyatira and Philippi was very easy, either directly from the harbor _ of Pergamus, or by the road mentioned in the last chapter, which led through Adramyttium to Troas. * At least this is the first historical account of the preaching of an apostle in Europe. The traditions concerning St. Peter rest on no real proof. We do not here inquire into the knowledge of Christianity which may have spread, even to Rome, through those who returned from Pentecost (Acts ii.), or those who were dispersed in Stephen’s persecution (Acts viii.), or other travellers from Syria to the West. 5 Acts xvi. 13. end Luke iv. 20. Compare Acts xiii. 14, § Acts xvi. 10. 7 The verb is in the imperfect. Acts. xvi. 14, From the words used here we infer that Lydia was listening to conversation rather than preach- ing. The whole narrative gives us the impres- sion of the utmost modesty and simplicity in Lydia’s character. Another point should be noticed, which exemplifies St. Luke’s abnegation of self, and harmonizes with the rest of the Acts; viz. that, after saying “‘ we spake”’ (v. 13), he sinks his own person, and says that Lydia took heed “to what was spoken by Paul” (v.14). Paul was the chief speaker. The phrase and the inference are the same at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts xiii. 45), when Barnabas was with St. Paul. See p. 160, n. 2. 8 y. 14. 9 Meyer thinks they were female assistants in the business connected with her trade. Ii Omar. ts. 256 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL observe that it is the first passage in the life of St. Paul where we have an example of that family religion to which he often alludes in his Epistles. The ‘ connections of Chloe,”? the “ household of Stephanas,’’ * the “ Church in the house” of Aquila and Priscilla,’ are parallel cases, to which we shall come in the course of the narrative. It may also be tightly added, that we have here the first example of that Christian hospitality which was so emphatically enjoined, and so lovingly prac- tised, in the Apostolic Church. The frequent mention of the “ hosts ” who gave shelter to the Apostles,’ reminds us that they led a life of hard- ship and poverty, and were the followers of Him “ for whom there was no room im the inn.” The Lord had said to His Apostles, that, when they entered into a city, they were to seek out “ those who were worthy,” and with them to bide. The search at Philippi was not difficult. Lydia voluntarily pvesented herself to her spiritual benefactors, and said to them, earnestiy and humbly,* that, “ since they had regarded her as a believer on the Lord,” her house should be their home. She admitted of no refusal to her request, and “ their peace was on that house.”’7 Thus the Gospel had obtained a home in Europe. It is true that the family with whom the Apostles lodged was Asiatic rather than European ; and the direct influence of Lydia may be supposed to have contributed more to the establishment of the church of Thyatira, addressed by St. John,® than to that of Philippi, which received the letter of St. Paul. But still the doctrine and practice of Christianity were established in Europe; and nothing could be more calm and tranquil than its first beginnings on the shore of that continent, which it has long overspread. The scenes by the river-side, and in the house of Lydia, are beautiful prophecies of the holy influence which women,’ elevated by Christianity to their true position, and enabled by Divine grace to wear “ the orna- ment of a meek and quiet spirit,” have now for centuries exerted over domestic happiness and the growth of piety and peace. If we wish te see this in a forcible light, we may contrast the picture which is drawn ‘s well known that this is one of the passages often adduced in the controversy concerning infant baptism. We need not urge this view of it: for the belief that infant baptism is ‘most agreeable with the institution of Christ” ‘Art. xxvii.) does not rest oa this text 1 1 Cori. il. 2 1 Cor. i. 16, xvi. 15. * Rom. xvi. 5. Compare Philem. 2. * Heb. xiii. 2. 1 Tim. vy. 10, &e. ® Rom. xvi. 23, &. Gee above, p. 255,m.7. * Mast x. 38. 8 Rev. ii ® Observe the frequent mention of women in the salutations in St. Paul’s epistles, and more particularly in that to the Philippians Rilliet, in his Commentary, makes a jos remark on the peculiar importance of female agency in the then state of society : — “ L’or. ganisation ue la société civile faisait des femmes uu intermédiaire néceseaire pour que la prédication de ’Evangile parvint jusqu’ans personnes da leur sexe.” Ses Quarterly Re wiow, for Oct. 1960 : OMAP, 3. BELIEF IN EVIL SPIRITS. : 207 for us by St. Luke — with another representation of women in the same neighborhood given by the Heathen poets, who tell us of the frantie excitement of the Edonian matrons, wandering, under the name of religion, with dishevelled hair and violent cries, on the banks of the Strymon.! Thus far all was peaceful and hopeful in the work ef preaching the Gospel to Macedonia: the congregation met in the house or by the river- side ; souls were converted and instructed; and a Church, consisting both of men and women,’ was gradually built up. This continued for “ many days.” It was difficult to foresee the storm which was to over cast so fair a prospect. A bitter persecution, however, was unexpectedly provoked: and the Apostles were brought into collision with heathen superstition in one of its worst forms, and with the rough violence of the colonial authorities. As if to show that the work of Divine grace is advanced by difficulties and discouragements, rather than by ease and prosperity, the Apostles, who had been supernaturally summoned to a new field of labor, and who were patiently cultivating it with good success, were suddenly called away from it, silenced, and imprisoned. In tracing the life of St. Paul we have not as yet seen Christianity directly brought into conflict with Heathenism. The sorcerer who had obtained influence over Sergius Paulus in Cyprus was a Jew, like the Apostle himself.? The first impuise of the idolaters of Lystra was to worship Paul and Barnabas; and it was only after the Jews had per verted their minds, that they began to persecute them.‘ But as we travel farther from the East, and especially through countries where the Israelites were thinly scattered, we must expect to find Pagan creeds im immediate antagonism with the Gospel; and not merely Pagan creeds, but the evil powers themselves which give Paganism its supremacy over the minds of men. The questions which relate to evil spirits, false divinities, and demoniacal possession, are far too difficult and extensive to be entered on here. We are content to express our belief, that in 1 Hor. Od. 11. vii. 27, &e. modation to popular belief; the other that 2 This is almost necessarily implied in “the brethren ” (v. 40) whom Paul and Silas vis- ited and exhorted in the house of Lydia, after their release from prison. 8 Ch. V. p. 133. * Ch. VI. pp. 170, &. 5 The arguments on the two sides of this question — one party contending that the demoniacs of Scripture were men afflicted with insanity, melancholy, and epilepsy, and that the language used of them is merely an accom- 17 these unhappy sufferers were really possessed by evil spirits— may be seen in a series of pamphlets (partly anonymous) published im London in 1737 and 1738. For a candid state- ment of both views, see the article on “ Demo- niacs” in Dr. Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Titerature. Compare that on the word “ Bes- essene,’ in Winer’s Real-Worterbuch; and, above all, Dean Trench’s profound remarks im his work on the Miracles, pp. 150, &. 258 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 87. PAUL. the demoniacs of the New Testament allusion is really made to persona) spirits who exercised power for evil purposes on the human will. The unregenerate world is represented to us in Scripture as a realm of darkness, in which the invisible agents of wickedness are permitted to hold sway under conditions and limitations which we are not able to define. The degrees and modes in which their presence is made visibly apparent may vary widely in different countries and in different ages.' In the time of © Jesus Curist and His Apostles, we are justified in saying that their workings in one particular mode were made peculiarly manifest.? As it was in the life of our Great Master, so it was in that of His imme-— diate followers. The demons recognized Jesus as “the Holy One of : God ;” and they recognized His Apostles as the “ bondsmen of the Most — High God, who preach the way of salvation.” Jesus “cast out de- mons ;”’ and, by virtue of the power which He gave, the Apostles were able to do in His name what He did in His own. If in any region of Heathendom the evil spirits had pre-eminent sway, it was in the mythological system of Greece, which, with all its beautiful imagery and all its ministrations to poetry and art, left man powerless against his passions, and only amused him while it helped him to be anholy. In the lively imagination of the Greeks, the whole visible and invisible world was peopled with spiritual powers or demons. The same terms were often used on this subject by Pagans and by Christians. But in the language of the Pagan the demon might be either a beneficent or a malignant power; in the language of the Christian it always denoted what was evil. When the Athenians said‘ that St. Paul was introdu- cing “‘ new demons” among them, they did not necessarily mean that he was in league with evil spirits; but when St. Paul told the Corinthians‘ that though “idols” in themselves were nothing, yet the sacrifices offered to them were, in reality, offered to “‘ demons,” he spoke of those false divinities which were the enemies of the True.® 1 For some suggestions as to the probable interlinked; and it is nothing wonderful that reasons why demoniacal possession is seldom witnessed now, see Trench, p. 162. 2 Trench says, that “if there was any thing that marked the period of the Lord’s coming in the flosh, and that immediately succeeding, it was the wreck and confusion of men’s spir- itual life . . . the sense of utter disharmony. /. .. The whole period was the hour and power of darkness ; of a darkness which then, immediately before the dawn of a new day, was the thickest. It was exactly the crisis for such soul-maladies as these, in which the spiritual and bodily should be thus strangely they should have abounded at that time.” — P. 162. Neander and Trench, however, both refer to modern missionary accounts of some- thing like the same possession among heathen nations, and of their cessation on conversion to Christianity. ® This is expressly stated by Origen and Augustine; and we find the same view in Josephus. * Acts xvii. 18. 5 1 Cor. x. 20. ® It is very important to distinguish the word AviBodos (‘* Devil’’), which is only used cuaP, PRETERNATURAL AGENCY. 25$ Again, the language concerning physical changes, especially in the human frame, is very similar in the sacred and profane writers. Some- times it conteats itself with stating merely the facts and symptoms of disease ; sometimes it refers the facts and symptoms to invisible persona! agency.' One class of phenomena, aifecting the mind as well as the body, was mor? particularly referred to preternatural agency. These were the prophetic conditions of mind, showing themselves in stated oracles or in more irregular manifestations, and accompanied with con- vulsions and violent excitement, which are described or alluded to by almost all Heathen authors. Here again we are brought to a subject which is surrounded with difficulties. How far, in such cases, imposture was combined with real possession; how we may disentangle the one from the other; how far the supreme will of God made use of these prophetic powers and overruled them to good ends; such questions inevitably suggest themselves, but we are not concerned to answer them here. It is enough to say that we sve no reason to blame the opinion of those writers, who believe that a wicked spiritual agency was really exerted in the prophetic sanctuaries and prophetic personages of the Heathen world. The heathens themselves attributed these phenomena to the agency of Apollo,’ the deity of Pythonic spirits; and such phenomena were of very frequent occurrence, and displayed themselves under many varieties of place and circumstance. Sometimes those who were pos- sessed were of the highest condition; sometimes they went about the streets like insane impostors of the lowest rank. It was usual for the prophetic spirit to make itself known by an internal muttering or ven- triloquism.? We read of persons in this miserable condition used by others for the purpose of gain. Frequently they were slaves; and there were cases of joint proprietorship in these unhappy ministers of public superstition. In the case before us it was a “ female slave ’* who was possessed with ‘a spirit of divination: ”* and she was the property of more than one in the singular, from daivev or daovev (“demon”), which may be singular or plural. lepsy as the result of supernatural possession. Some symptoms, he says, were popularly attrib- The former word is used, for instance, in Matt. xxy. 41; John viii. 44; Acts xiii. 10; 1 Pet. y. 8, &c.; the latter in John vii. 20; Luke x. 17; 1 Tim. iv. 1; Rev. ix. 20; also James ii. 15. For farther remarks on this subject, see below on Acts xvii. 18. 1 This will be observed in the Gospels, if we carefully compare the different accounts of our Lord’s miracles. Among heathen writers we may allude particularly to Hippocrates, since he wrote against those who treated epi- uted to Apollo, some to the Mother of the Gods, some to Neptune, &c. 2 Python is the name of Apollo in his oracular character. ® Such persons spoke with the mouth closed, and were called Pythons (the very word used here by St. Luke, Acts xvi. 16). * Acts xvi. 16. The word is the same m xii. 13. 5 Literally “a spirit of Python” or “x Pythonic spirit.” 260 THE LIVE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL master, who kept her for the purpose of practising on the credulity of the Philippians, and realized “ much profit” in this way. We all know the kind of sacredness with which the ravings of common insanity are apt to be invested by the ignorant; and we can easily understand the notoriety which the gestures and words of this demoniac would obtain in Philippi. It was far from a matter of indifference, when she met the members of the Christian congregation on the road to the prosewcha, and began to follow St. Paul, and to exclaim (either because the words she had overheard mingled with her diseased imaginations, or because the evil spirit in her was compelled! to speak the truth): “These men are the bondsmen of the Most High God, who are come to announce unto you the way of salvation.” This was continued for “ several days,” and the whole city must soon have been familiar with her words. Paul was well aware of this; and he could not bear the thought that the credit even of the Gospel should be enhanced by such unholy means. Possibly one reason why our Blessed Lord Himself forbade the demoniaes to make Him known was, that His holy cause would be polluted by resting on such evidence. And another of our Saviour’s feelings must have found an imitation in St. Paul’s breast, — that of deep compassion for the poor victim of demoniac power. At length he could bear this Satanic inter ruption no longer, and, “ being grieved, he commanded the evil spirit to come out of her.’ It would be profaneness to suppose that the Apostle — spoke in mere irritation, as it would be ridiculous to imagine that Divine ~ help would have been vouchsafed to gratify such a feeling. No doubt there was grief and indignation, but the grief and indignation of an Apostle may be the impulses of Divine inspiration. He spoke, not in his own name, but in that of Jesus Christ, and power from above attended — his words. The prophecy and command of Jesus concerning His Apostles were fulfilled: that “in His name they should cast out demons.” It was as it had been at Jericho and by the Lake of Genesareth. The demoniac at Philippi was restored “to her right mind.” Her natural — powers resumed their course; and the gains of her masters were gone. Violent rage on the part of these men was the immediate result. They © saw that their influence with the people, and with it “all hope” of any 1 See what Trench says on the demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes. “We find in the demoniac the sense of 4 misery in which he does not acquiesce, the deep feeling of inward discord, of the true life utterly shattered, of an alien power which has mastered him wholly, and now is cruelly lording over him, and ever drawing farther away from him in whom only any created intelligence can find rest and peace. His state is, in the truest sense, ‘a possession ;” é another is ruling in the high places of his soul, ; and has cast down the rightful lord from his seat; and he knows this: and out of his con- ‘ sciousness of it there goes forth from him a ery for redemption, so soon as ever a glimpse of hope is etioded, an unlooked-for a draws near.” — p. 159. ot he Sl ok wap. m. PAUL AND SILAS ARRESTED. 281 future profit, was at end. They proceeded therefore to take » summary revenge. Laying violent hold of Paul and Silas (for Timotheus and Luke were not so evidently concerned in what had happened), they dragged them into the forum’ before the city authorities. The case was brought before the Pretors (so we may venture to call them, since this was the title which colonial Duumviri were fond of assuming ;)? but the complainants must have felt some difficulty in stating their grievance. The slave that had lately been a lucrative possession had suddenly be- come valueless ; but the law had no remedy for property depreciated by exorcism. The true state of the case was therefore concealed, and an ac- eusation was laid before the Pretors in the following form. ‘ These men are throwing the whole city into confusion; moreover they are Jews;’ and they are attempting to introduce new religious observances,‘ which we, being Roman citizens, cannot legally receive and adopt.” The accu- sation was partly true and partly false. It was quite false that Paul and Silas were disturbing the colony; for nothing could have been more calm and orderly than their worship and teaching at the house of Lydia, or in the proseucha by the water-side. In the other part of the indictment there was a certain amount of truth. The letter of the Roman law, even under the Republic, was opposed to the introduction of foreign religions and though exceptions were allowed, as in the case of the Jews them selves, yet the spirit of the law entirely condemned such changes in worship as were likely to unsettle the minds of the citizens, cr to produce any tumultuous uproar; and the advice given to Augustus, which both he and his successors had studiously followed, was, to check religious in- novations as promptly as possible, lest in the end they should undermine the Monarchy. Thus Paul and Silas had undoubtedly been doing what in some degree exposed them to legal penalties; and were beginning a change which tended to bring down, and which ultimately did bring down, the whole weight of the Roman law on the martyrs of Chris- tianity.. The force of another part of the accusation, which was adroitly introduced, namely, that the men were “Jews to begin with,” will be fully apprehended, if we remember, not only that the Jews were general- 1 Acts xvi. 19. 2 See above, p. 258, an. 5. The word etparnyac is the usval Greek translation of pretor. It is, however, often used generally for the supreme magistrates of Greek towns. Weitstein tells us that the mayor in Messina was in his time still called stradigo. 5 “ Being Jews to begin with,” is the most exact translation. The verb is the same as in Gal. ii. 14, “being born a Jew, ’ p. 201. * The word is similarly used Acts vi. 14 xxvi. 8, xxviii. 17. 5 See the account of the martyrs of Gaul in Eusebius, v. 1. The governor, learning that Attalus was a Roman citizen, ordered him to be remanded to prison till ke should learn the emperor's commands. These who had the citizenship were beheaded. The rest were sent to the wild beasts. 262 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. ly hated, suspected, and despised,’ but that they had lately been driven out of Rome in consequence of an uproar,’ and that it was incumbent vn Philippi, as a colony, to copy the indignation of the mother city. Thus we can enter into the feelings which caused the mob to rise against Paul and Silas,’ and tempted the Praetors to dispense with legal formalities and consign the offenders to immediate punishment. The mere loss of the slave’s prophetic powers, so far as it was generally known, was enough to cause a violent agitation: for mobs are always more fond of excitement and wonder than of truth and holiness. The Philippians had been willing to pay money for the demoniac’s revelations, and now strangers had come and deprived them of that which gratified their superstitious curiosity. And when they learned, moreover, that these strangers were Jews, and were breaking the laws of Rome, their discontent became fanatical. It seems that the prztors had no time to hesitate, if they would retain their popularity. The rough words were spoken:‘ Go, lictors: strip off their garments: let them be scourged.”’® The order was promptly obeyed, and the heavy blows descended. It is happy for us that fow modern countries know, by the example of a simi- lar punishment, what the severity of a Roman scourging was. The Apos- tles received “‘ many stripes ;”’ and when they were consigned to prison, bleeding and faint from the rod, the jailer received a strict injunction “ to keep them safe.” Well might St. Paul, when at Corinth, look back to this day of cruelty, and remind the Thessalonians how he and Silas had “ suffered before, and were shamefully treated at Philippi.” ® The jailer fulfilled the directions of the magistrates with rigorous and conscientious cruelty. Not content with placing the Apostles among such other offenders against the law as were in custody at Philippi, he “thrust them into the inner prison,’* and then forced their limbs, lacerated as they were, and bleeding from the rod, into a painful and constrained posture, by means of an instrument employed to confine and torture the bodies of the worst malefactors.* Though we are ignorant of 1 Cicero calls them “ suspiciosa ac maledica cessary. It is quite a mistake to imagine that CHAP,:2, civitas.”” — Flac, 28. Other authors could be quoted to the same effect. 2 Acts xviii. 2; which is probably the same occurrence as that which is alluded to bv Suetonius, Claud. 25:— “Judsos mmpuisore Christo assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit. See pp. 287, 335. 8 Acts xvi. 22. * The official order is given by Seneca. Some commentators suppose that the duumviri vore off the garments of Paul and Silas with thetr own hands; but this supposition is unne- they rent their own garments, like the high- priest at Jerusalem. 5 The original word strictly denotes “to best with rods,” as it is translated in 2 Cor x1. 2. © 1 Thess. it. =. 7 Acts xvi. 24. ® The SAov was what the Romans called nervus. See the note in the Pictorial Bible on Job xiii. 27, and the woodcut of stocks used in India from Roberts’s Oriental IMustra tions. Fa oHAP, IX. PAUL AND SILAS IN PRISON. 263 the exact reJation of the outer and inner prisons,’ and of the connection of the jailer’s “ house” with both, we are not without very good notions of the misery endured in the Roman places of captivity. We must picture to ourselves something very different from the austere comfort of an English jail. It is only since that Christianity for which the Apostles bled has had influence on the hearts of men, that the treatment of felons has been a distinct subject of philanthropic inquiry, and that we have learnt to pray “for all prisoners and captives.” The inner prisons of which we read in the ancient world were like that “dungeon in the court of the prison,” into which Jeremiah was let down with cords, and where “he sank in the mire.”? They were pestilential cells, damp and cold, from which the light was excluded, and where the chains rusted on the limbs of the prisoners. One such place may be seen to this day on the slope of the Capitol at Rome.’ It is known to the readers of Cicero and Sallust as the place where certain notorious conspirators were executed. The Tullianum (for so it was called) is a type of the dungeons in the provinces; and we find the very name applied, in one instapce, to a dungeon in the province of Macedonia.* What kind of torture was inflicted by the “stocks,” in which the arms and legs, and even the necks, of offenders were confined and stretched, we are sufhi- ciently informed by the allusions to the punishment of slaves in the _ Greek and Roman writers;* and to show how far the cruelty of Heathen persecution, which may be said to have begun at Philippi, was afterwards carried in this peculiar kind of torture, we may refer to the sufferings “‘ which Origen endured under an iron collar, and in the deepest recesses of the prison, when, for many days, he was extended and stretched io the distance of four holes on the rack.” ® A few hours had made a serious change from the quiet scene by the water-side to the interior of a stifling dungeon. But Paul and Silas had 1 A writer on the subject (Walch) says that in a Roman prison there were usually three distinct parts: (1) the communiora, where the prisoners had light and fresh air; (2) the inée- ‘ora, shut off by iron gates with strong bars and locks; (3) the Tullianum, or dungeon. if this was the case at Philippi, Paul and Silas were perhaps in the second, and the other pris- oners in the first part. The third was rather a place of execution than imprisonment. Walch says that in the provinces the prisons were not 890 systematically divided into three parts. He adds that the jailer or commentariensis had asually optiones to assist him In Acts xvi. only one jailer is mentioned. 2 «Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Ham- melech, which was in the court of the prison; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.” — Jer. xxxviii. 6. See the note in the Pictorial Bible. 3 For an account of it see Sir W. Gell’s work on Rome, also Rich’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, from which the woodcut at the end of this chapter is taken. * In Apuleius, where the allusion is ta Thessaly. 5 Especially in Plautus. § Euseb. Hist. Eccl. vi 39. 264 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL. learnt, ‘‘ in whatever state they were, therewith to be content.”! They were even able to “ rejoice” that they were “ counted worthy to suffer” for the name of Christ.2 And if some thoughts of discouragement came ever their minds, not for their own sufferings, but for the cause of their Master; and if it seemed “‘ a strange thing” that a work to which they had been beckoned by God should be arrested in its very beginning; yet they had faith to believe that His arm would be revealed at the appointed time. Joseph’s feet, too, had been “hurt in the stocks,”* and he became a — prince in Egypt. Daniel had been cast into the lions’ den, and he was made ruler of Babylon. Thus Paul and Silas remembered with joy the “Lord our Maker, who giveth songs in the night.” * Racked as they were with pain, sleepless and weary, they were heard, “ about midnight,” from the depth of their prison-house, “ praying and singing hymns to God.” * What it was that they sang, we know not; but the Psalms of David have ever been dear to those who suffer; they have instructed both Jew and Christian in the language of prayer and praise. And the Psalms abound in such sentences as these: — ‘‘ The Lord looketh down from His sanc- tuary : out of heaven the Lord beholdeth the earth: that He might hear the mournings of such as are in captivity, and deliver the children appointed unto death.” —“ Oh! let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners eome before thee: according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou : those that are appointed to die.”” —“‘ The Lord helpeth them to right that — waffer wrong: the Lord looseth men out of prison: the Lord helpeth them that are fallen: the Lord careth for the righteous.”* Such sounds — as these were new in a Roman dungeon. Whoever the other prisoners — might be, whether they were the victims of oppression, or were suffering — the punishment of guilt, — debtors, slaves, robbers, or murderers, — they — listened with surprise to the voices of those who filled the midnight of the prison with sounds of cheerfulness and joy. Still the Apostles con- tinued their praises, and the prisoners listened.’ “‘ They that sit in dark- ness, and in the shadow of death; being fast bound in misery and iron ; when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, He delivered them out of their distress. For He brought them out of darkness, and out of the 1 Phil. iv. 11. for the word, see Matt. xxvi. 30, Mark xiv. 26. 2 Acts v. 41. The psalms sung on that occasion are believed 8 Ps, cv. 18, Prayer-Book Version. Philo, to be Ps. cxiii—cxviii. Compare Eph. v. 19; writing on the history of Joseph (Gen. xxxix. ol. iii. 16. Also Heb. ii. 12. 21), has some striking remarks on the cruel 6 Ps. cii. 19, 20, xxix. 12, cxlvi. 6-8. Ses eharacter of jailers, who live among thieves, also Ps. cxlii. 8, 9, lxix. 34, exvi. 14, lxviii. 6. robbers, and murderers, and mever see any 7 The imperfects used in this passage imply — thing that is good. continuance. The Apostles were singing, and — * Job xxxv. 10. the prisoners were listening, when the earth 5 Acts xvi. 25. The tense is imperfect: quake came. i ome. Ix. THE JAILER. 285 shadow of death, and brake their bonds in sunder. Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and declare the wonders that He doeth for the children of men: for He hath broken the gates of brass, and smitten the bars of iron in sunder.”! When suddenly, as if in direct answer to the prayer of His servants, an earthquake shook the very foun- dations of the prison,’ the gates were broken, the bars smitten asunder and the bands of the prisoners loosed. Without striving to draw a line between the natural and supernatural in this occurrence, and still less endeavoring to resolve what was evidently miraculous into the results of ordinary causes, we turn again to the thought suggested by that single but expressive phrase of Scripture, “‘ the prisoners were listening.” * When we reflect on their knowledge of the Apostles’ sufferings (for they were doubtless aware of the manner in which they had been brought in and thrust into the dungeon),‘ and on the wonder they must have experienced on hearing sounds of joy from those who were in pain, and on the awe which mast have overpowered them when they felt the prison shaken and the chains fall from their limbs ; and when to all this we add the effect produced on their minds by all that happened on the following day, and especially the fact that the jailer himself became a Christian ; we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the hearts of many “of those unhappy bondsmen were prepared that night to receive the Gospel, that the tidings of spiritual liberty came to those whom, but for the captivity of the Apostles, it would never have reached, and that the jailer himself was their evangelist and teacher. The effect produced by that night on the jailer’s own mind has been fully related to us. Awakened in a moment by the earthquake, his first thought was of his prisoners :* and in the shock of surprise and alarm, — “seeing the doors of the prison open, and supposing that the prisoners were fled,’’ — aware that inevitable death awaited him,’ with the stern and desperate resignation of a Roman official, he resolved that suicide was better than disgrace, and “ drew his sword.” Philippi is famous in the annals of suicide. Here Cassius, unable to survive defeat, covered his face in the empty tent, and ordered his freed- men to strike the blow.’ His messenger Titinius held it to be “a Ro- man’s part’ ® to follow the stern example. Here Brutus bade adieu te his friends, exclaiming, “ Certainly we must fly, yet not with the feet, but 1 Ps. evii. 10-16. 2 Acts xvi. 26. 5 Ses above. * See above, on tne form of ancient prisons. * Acts xvi. 27. 5 By the Roman law, the jailer was to undergo the same punishment which the male factors who escaped by his negligence were to have suffered. Biscoe, p. 330. 7 Plat. Brutus, 43. 8 Julius Coear, act v. s¢. iti. 266 THE LIFE AND KPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, with the hands ;”! and many, whose names have never reached us, ended their last struggle for the republic by self-inflicted death. Here, too, another despairing man would have committed the same crime, had not his hand been arrested by an Apostle’s voice. Instead of a sudden and hopeless death, the jailer received at the hands of his prisoner the gift both of temporal and spiritual life. The loud exclamation’ of St. Paul, *“ Do thyself no harm; for we are all here,” gave immediate re-assurance to the terrified jailer. He laid aside his sword, and called for lights, and rushed * to the “ inner prison,” where Paul and Silas were confined. But now a new fear of a higher kind took possession of his soul. The recollection of all he had heard before concerning these prisoners and all that he had observed of their demeanor when he brought them into the dungeon, the shuddering thought of the earthquake, the burst of his gratitude towards them as the preservers of his life, and the consciousness that even in the darkness of midnight they had seen his intention of suicide, —all these mingling and conflicting emotions made him feel that he was in the presence of a higher power. He fell down before them, and brought them out, as men whom he had deeply injured and insulted, to a place of greater freedom and comfort;° and then he asked them, with earnest anxiety, what he must do to be saved. We see the Apostle here self-possessed in the earthquake, as afterwards in the storm at sea,® able to overawe and control those who were placed over him, and calmly turning the occa- sion to a spiritual end. It is surely, however, a mistake to imagine that the jailer’s inquiry had reference merely to temporal and immediate danger. The awakening of his conscience, the presence of the unseen world, the miraculous visitation, the nearness of death, — coupled per- haps with some confused recollection of the “ way of salvation” which these strangers were ‘said to have been proclaiming, — were enough to CLAY, 1X, suggest that inquiry which is the most momentous that any human soul can make: ‘“ What must I do to be saved?’’' faithful Apostles. Lord.”’ ® Their answer was that of They preached “ not themselves, but Christ Jesus the “Believe, not in us, but in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be 1 Plut. Brutus, 52. the entrance to the jailer’s dwelling, if indeed 2 “ The majority of the proscribed who sur- vived the battles of Philippi put an end to their own lives, as they despaired ot being par- doned.”” — Niebuhr’s Lectures, ii. 118. 5 Acts xvi. 28. * The whole phraseology seems to imply that the dungeon was subterraneous. Prof. Hackett, however, takes a different view. § Hither the outer prison or the space about they were not identical. § Acts xxvii. 20-25. 7 We should compare v. 30 with y. 17. The words “save” and “salvation” must have been frequently in the mouth of St. Paul. It is probable that the demoniac, and possible that the jailer, might have heard them. See p. 260. 5 2 Cor. iv. 5 | THE MAGISTRATES. 267 saved ; and not only thou, but the like faith shall bring salvation to all thy house.” From this last expression, and from the words which follow, we infer that the members of the jailer’s family had crowded round him and the Apostles.'_ No time was lost in making known to them “ the word of the Lord.’’ All thought of bodily comfort and repose was postponed to the work of saving the soul. The meaning of “ faith in Jesus” was explained, and the Gospel was preached to the jailer’s family at midnight, while the prisoners were silent around, and the light was thrown on anxious faces and the dungeon-wall. And now we have an instance of that sympathetic care, that inter- change of temporal and spiritual service, which has ever attended the steps of true Christianity. As it was in the miracles of our Lord and Saviour, where the soul and the body were regarded together, so has it always been in His Church. ‘In the same hour of the night’’? the jailer took the Apostles to the well or fountain of water which was within or near the precincts of the prison, and there he washed their wounds, and there also he and his household were baptized. He did what he could to assuage the bodily pain of Paul and Silas, and they admitted him and his, by the “ laver of regeneration,” ® to the spiritual citizenship of the kingdom of God. The prisoners of the jailer were now become his guests. His cruelty was changed into hospitality and love. “He took them up‘ into his house,” and, placing them in a posture of repose, set food before them,> and refreshed their exhausted strength. It was a night of happiness for all. They praised God that His power had been made effectual in their weakness; and the jailer’s family had their first experience of that joy which is the fruit of believ- ing in God. At length morning broke on the eventful night. In the course of that night the greatest of all changes had been wrought in the jailer’s rela- tions to this world and the next. From being the ignorant slave of a Heathen magistracy he had become the religious head of a Christian family. A change, also, in the same interval of time, had come over the minds of the magistrates themselves. Wither from reflecting that they 1 The preaching of the Gospel to the jailer and his Jamily seems to have taken place imme- mately op coming out of the prison (vv. 30—- 32); then the baptism of the converts, and the washing of the Apostles’ stripes (v. 32); and finally the going-up into the house, and tne hospitable refreshment there affoided. It does not appear certain that they returned from the jailer’s house into the dungeon before they were taken out of custody (v. 40). 2 Acts xvi. 33. Here and inv. 34, a change of place is implied. 8 Tit. iii. 5. * Acts xvi. 34. The word implies at least that the house was higher than the prison. See p. 266, n. 4. € Tue custom of Greek and Roman meals must be borne ik mind. Guests were placed on couches, and tasles, with the different courses of food, were brought and removed in succession. 268 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL amar. ix had acted more harshly than the case had warranted, or from hearing a more accurate statement of facts, or through alarm caused by the earth- quake, or through that vague misgiving which sometimes, as in the case of Pilate and his wife,’ haunts the minds of those who have no distinct religious convictions, they sent new orders in the morning to the jailer. The message conveyed by the lictors was expressed in a somewhat con- temptuous form, “Let those men go.”? But the jailer received it with the utmost joy. He felt his infinite debt of gratitude to the Apostles, not — vnly for his preservation from a violent death, but for the tidings they aad given him of eternal life. He would willingly have seen them freed irom their bondage ; but he was dependent on the will of the magistrates, and could do nothing without their sanction. When, therefore, the lictore brought the order, he went with them’ to announce the intelli- gence to the prisoners, and joyfully told them to leave their dungeon and “go in peace.” But Paul, not from any fanatical love of braving the authorities, but calmly looking to the ends of justice and the establishment of Chris tianity, refused to accept his liberty without some public acknowledgment of the wrong he had suffered. He now proclaimed a fact which had 1itherto been unknown, — that he and Silas were Roman citizens. . Two Roman laws had been violated by the magistrates of the colony in the scourging inflicted the day before. And this, too, with signal aggrava- tions. They were “ uncondemned.” There had been no form of trial, without which, in the case of a citizen, even a slighter punishment would have been illegal. And it had been done “ publicly.” In the face of the colonial population, an outrage had been committed on the majesty of the name in which they boasted, and Rome had been insulted in her citizens. “No,” said St. Paul; “they have oppressed the innocent and violated the law. Do they seek to satisfy justice by conniving at a secret escape? Let them come themselves and take us out of prison. They have pub- licly treated us as guilty; let them publicly declare that we are in- nocent.”’ ® ‘“‘ How often,” says Cicero, “ has this exclamation, Jam a Roman citi- zen, brought aid and safety even among barbarians in the remotest parts of the earth! ’’—The lictors returned to the pretors, and the preetors were alarmed. They felt that they had committed an act which, if di- 1 Matt. xxvii. 19. for St. Paul spoke “‘ to them ;” on which they 2 Or, as it might be translated, “Let those went and told the magistrates (v. 38). fellows go.” * The Lex Valeria (B. 0. 508) and the Lex 5 It is evident from v. 37 that theycame Porcia (B. c. 300). into the prison with the jailer, or found the § y. 87. prisoners in the jailer’s house (p. 267, n. 1) ‘ * As al * Sa at! mar. Ix. ST. LUKE. 268 vulged at Rome, would place them in the utmost jeopardy. They had good reason to fear even for their authority in the colony ; for the people of Philippi, “being Romans,” might be expected to resent such a viola- tion of the law. They hastened, therefore, immedidtely to the prisoners, and became the suppliants of those whom they had persecuted. They brought them at once out of the dungeon, and earnestly “ besought them to depart from the city.””} The whole narrative of St. Paul’s imprisonment at Philippi sets before us in striking colors his clear judgment and presence of mind. He might have escaped by help of the earthquake and under the shelter of the dark- ness ; but this would have been to depart as a runaway slave. He would not do secretly what he knew he ought to be allowed to do openly. By such a course his own character and that of the Gospel would have been disgraced, the jailer would have been cruelly left to destruction, and all religious influence over the other prisoners would have been gone. As regards these priseners, his influence over them was like the sway he ob tained over the crew in the sinking vessel.? It was so great, that not one of them attempted to escape. And not only in the prison, but in the whole town of Philippi, Christianity was placed on a high vantage-ground by the Apostle’s conduct that night. It now appeared that these per- secuted Jews were themselves sharers in the vaunted Roman privilege. _ Those very laws had been violated in their treatment which they them- selves had been accused of violating. That no appeal was made against this treatment, might be set down to the generous forbearance of the Apostles. Their cause was now, for a time at least, under the protection of the law, and they themselves were felt to have a claim on general sympathy and respect. They complied with the request of the magistrates. Yet, even in their departure, they were not unmindful of the dignity and self-possession which ought always to be maintained by innocent men in a righteous cause. They did not retire in any hasty or precipitate flight, but pro- ceeded “ from the prison to the house of Lydia;”* and there they met the Christian brethren, who were assembled to hear their farewell words of exhortation; and so they departed from the city. It was not, how- ever, deemed sufficient that this infant church at Philippi should be left alone with the mere remembrance of words of exhortation. Two of the Apostolic company remained behind: Timotheus, of whom the Philip- pians “ learned the proof” that he honestly cared for their state, that he was truly like-minded with St. Paul, “serving him in the Gospel as a son serves his father ;”’* and “‘ Luke the Evangelist, whose praise is in the 1 vy. $8, 39. 2 Acts xxvii. ® Acts xvi. 40. * Phil. ii. 19~25. 270 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Gospel,” though he never praises himself, or relates his own labors, and though we only trace his movements in connection with St. Paul by the change of a pronoun,' or the unconscious variation of his style. Timotheus seems to have rejoined Paul and Silas, if not at Thessa lonica, at least at Bereea.?, But we do not see St. Luke again in the Apos- tle’s company till the third missionary journey and the second visit to Macedonia.’ At this exact point of separation, we observe that he drops the style of an eye-witness and resumes that of an historian, until the second time of meeting, after which he writes as an eye-witness till the arrival at Rome, and the very close of the Acts. To explain and justify the remark here made, we need only ask the reader to contrast the de- tailed narrative of events at Philippi with the more general account of what happened at Thessalonica.t It might be inferred that the writer of the Acts was an eye-witness in the former city and not in the latter, even if the pronoun did not show us when he was present and when he was absent. We shall trace him a second time, in the same manner, when he rejoins St. Paul in the same neighborhood. He appears again on a voyage from Philippi to Troas (Acts xx. 56), as now he has appeared on a voyage from Troas to Philippi. It is not an improbable conjecture that his vocation as a physician® may have brought him into connection with these contiguous coasts of Asia and Europe. It has even been imagined, on reasonable grounds,® that he may have been in the habit of exercising his professional skill as a surgeon at sea. However this may have been, we see no reason to question the ancient opinion, stated by Kusebius and Jerome, that St. Luke was a native of Antioch. Such a city was a likely place for the education of a physician.’ 1 In ch. xvii. the narrative is again in the third person; and the pronoun is not changed again till we come to xx.5. The modesty with which St. Luke leaves out all mention of his own labors need hardly be pointed out. 2 Acts xvii. 14. He is not mentioned in the journey to Thessalonica, nor in the ac- count of what happened there. 3 Acts xx. 4-6. * Observe, for instance, his mention of run- ning before the wind, and staying for the night at Samothrace. Again, he says that Philippi was the first city they came to, and that it was acolony. He tells us that the place of prayer was outside the gate and near a river-side. There is no such particularity in the account of what took place at Thessalonica. See above, p. 134, n. 2. Similar remarks might be made on the other autoptic passages of the It is also natural to suppose Acts, and we shall return to the subject again. A careful attention to this difference of style is enough to refute a theory lately advanced (Dr. Kitto’s Journal of Sacred Literature, Sept. 1850), that Silas was the author of the Acts. Silas was at Thessalonica as well as Philippi. Why did he write so differently concerning the two places ¢ 5 See Tate’s Continuous History, p. 41. Compare the end of the preceding chapter. ® This suggestion is made by Mr. Smith in his work on the Shipwreck, §<., p. 8. It is justly remarked, that the ancient ships wer often so large that they may reasonably be supposed to have sometimes had surgeons on board. See p. 244. 7 Alexandria was famous for the education of physicians, and Antioch was in many re spects a second Alexandria Ana Tear ea CHAP, IX. MACEDONIA DESCRIBED. 272 that he may have met with St. Paul there, and been converted at an earlier period of the history of the Church. His medical calling, or his zeal for Christianity, or both combined (and the combination has ever been beneficial to the cause of the Gospel), may account for his visits to the North of the Archipelago:! or St. Paul may himself have directed his movements, as he afterwards directed those of Timothy and Titus.’ All these suggestions, though more or less conjectural, are worthy of our thoughts, when we remember the debt of gratitude which the Church owes to this Evangelist, not only as the historian of the Acts of the Apostles, but as an example of long-continued devotion to the truth, and of unshaken constancy to that one Apostle, who said with sorrow, in his latest trial, that others had forsaken him, and that “only Luke” was with him.* Leaving their first Macedonian converts to the care of Timotheus and Luke, aided by the co-operation of godly men and women raised up among the Philippians themselves,‘ Paul and Silas set forth on their journey. Before we follow them to Thessalonica, we may pause to take a general survey of the condition and extent of Macedonia, in the sense in which the term was understood in the language of the day. It has been well said that the Acts of the Apostles have made Macedonia a kind of Holy Land ;° and it is satisfactory that the places there visited and revisited by St. Paul and his companions are so well known, that we have no difficulty in representing to the mind their position and their relation to the surrounding country. Macedonia, in its popular sense, may be described as a region bounded by a great semicircle of mountains, beyond which the streams flow westward to the Adriatic, or northward and eastward to the Danube and the Huxine.6 This mountain barrier sends down branches to the sea on the eastern or Thracian frontier, over against Thasos and Samothrace ;’ 1 Compare the case of Democedes in He- tudotus, who was established first in Atgina, then in Athens, and finally in Samos. At a period even later than St. Luke, Galen speaks of the medical schools of Cos and Cnidus, of Rhodes and of Asia. 21 Tim.i.8; 2 Tim. iv. 9, 21; Tit. i. 5, iii. 12. 3 2 Tim. iv. 11. St. Luke’s Day. * The Christian women at Philippi have been alluded to before, p. 256. See especially Phil. iv. 2, 3. We cannot well doubt that nresbyters also were appointed, as at Thessa- Jonica. See below Compare Phil. i. 1. See the Christian Year: § “The whole of Macedonia, and in par- ticular the route from Berea to Thessalonica and Philippi, being so remarkably distin guished by St. Paul’s sufferings and adven tures, becomes as a portion of Holy Land.” — Clarke’s Travels, ch. xi. * The mountains on the north, under the names of Scomius, Scordus, &c., are connected with the Hzmus or Balkan. Those on the west run in s southerly direction, and are con- tinuous with the chain of Pindus. 7 These are the mountains near the river Nestus, which, after the time of Philip, was considered the boundary of Macedonia and Thrace. 272 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. mm and on the south shuts out the plain of Thessaly, and rises near the shore to the high summits of Pelion, Ossa, and the snowy Olympus.' The space thus enclosed is intersected by two great rivers. One of these is Homer’s “ wide-flowing Axius,’’ which directs its course past Pella, the ancient metroplis of the Macedonian kings, and the birthplace of Alexan- der, to the low levels in the neighborhood of Thessalonica, where other — rivers? flow near it into the Thermaic gulf. The other is the Strymon, which brings the produce of the great inland level of Serres* by Lake © Cercinus to the sea at Amphipolis, and beyond which was Philippi, the | military outpost that commemorated the successful conquests of Alexan- der’s father. Between the mouths of these two rivers a remarkable — tract of country, which is insular rather than continental,‘ projects into . the Archipelago, and divides itself into three points, on the farthest of — which Mount Athos rises nearly into the region of perpetual snow.’ © Part of St. Paul’s path between Philippi and Bercea lay across the neck — of this peninsula. The whole of his route was over historical ground. — At Philippi he was close to the confines of Thracian barbarism, and on — the spot where the last battle was fought in defence of the Republic. At Borea he came near the mountains, beyond which is the region of Clas- sical Greece, and close to the spot where the battle was fought which ~ reduced Macedonia to a province.® If we wish to view Macedonia as a province, some modifications must be introduced into the preceding description. It applies, indeed, with — sufficient exactness to the country on its first conquest by the Romans.’ The rivers already alluded to define the four districts into which it was divided. Macedonia Prima was the region east of the Strymon, of which 1 The natural boundary between Macedonia and Thessaly is formed by the Cambunian hills, ranning in an easterly direction from the central chain of Pindus. The Cambunian range is vividly described in the following view from the “giddy height” of Olympus, which rises near the coast. ‘‘I seemed to stand perpendicularly over the sea, at the height of 10,000 feet. Salonica was quite dis- tinguishable, lying North-East. Larissa [in Thessaly] appeared under my very feet. The whole horizon from North to South -West was occupied by mountains, hanging on, as tt were, to Olympus. This is the range that runs West ward along the North of Thessaly, ending in Pindus.” — Urquhart’s Spirit of the East, vol. i. p. 429. 3 The Haliacmon, which flows near Berea, is the most important of them ® This is the great inland plain at one ex tremity of which Philippi was situated, and which has been mentioned above (p. 250). Ite principal town at present is Serres, the resi- dence of the governor of the whole district, and a place. of considerable importance, often mentioned by Cousinéry, Leake, and other travellers. * The peninsula anciently called Chalcidice. & The elevation of Mount Athos is between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. The writer has heard English sailors say that there is almost always snow on Athos and Olympus, and that, though the land generally is higher in this part of the Atgean, these mountains are by far the most conspicuous. 6 Pydna is within a few miles of Berea, on the other side of the Haliacmon. 7 See Liv. xlv. 29. bl 4 EOMAN MACEDONIA. 278 Amphipolis was the capital ;! Macedonia Secunda lay between the Strymon and the Axius, and Thessalonica was its metropolis ; and the other two re- gions were situated to the south towards Thessaly, and on the mountains te the west. This was the division adopted by Paulus Amilius after the battle of Pydna. But the arrangement was only temporary. The whole of Macedonia, along with some adjacent territories, was made one province, and centralized under the jurisdiction of a proconsul,‘ who resided at Thessalonica. This province included Thessaly,’ and extended over the mountain-chain which had been the western boundary of ancient Mace- donia, so as to embrace a seaboard of considerable length on the shore of the Adriatic. The political limits, in this part of the Empire, are far more easily discriminated than those with which we have been lately occupied (Chap. VIII.). Three provinces divided the whole surface which extends from the basin of the Danube to Cape Matapan. All of them are familiar to us in the writings of St. Paul. The extent of Macedonia has just been defined. Its relations with the other provinces were as follows. On the north-west it was contiguous to Illyricum,* which was spread down the shore of the Adriatic nearly to the same point to which the Austrian territory now extends, fringing the Moham- medan empire with a Christian border.’ A hundred miles to the south- ward, at the Acroceraunian promontory, it touched Achaia, the boundary of which province ran thence in an irregular line to the bay of Ther mopyle and the north of Eubeea, including Epirus, and excluding Thessaly. Achaia and Macedonia were traversed many times by the Apostle ;* and he could say, when he was hoping to travel to Rome, that he had preached the Gospel “‘ round about unto Ilyricum.”” 1 See above. 2 Macedonia Tertia was between the Axius snd Peneus, with Pella for its capital. Pela gonia was the capital of Macedonia Quarta. It is remarkable that no coins of the third division have been found, but only of the first, second, and fourth. = By Metellus. * At first it was one of the Emperer’s prov- inces, but afterwards it was placed under the Senate. 5 Thessaly was subject to Macedonia when the Roman wars began. At the close of the first war, under Flaminius, it was declared free; but ultimately it was incorporated with the province. $ At first the wars of Rome with the peo- ple of this coast merely led to mercantile treaties for the free navigation of the Adriatic. Julius Cesar and Augustus concluded the 18 series of wars which gradually reduced it to a ViRCe. ™ The border town was Lissus, the medera Alessio, not far frem Scutari. ® Except in the western portien, the bound- ary nearly coincided with that of the moderm kingdom of Greece. The previncial arrange ments of Achaia will be alluded te more par ticularly hereafter. ® Observe how these previness are mam tlened together, Rom. xv. 26; 2 Cor. ix. 2, xi 9, 10; also 1 Thess. i. 7, 8 20 Rom. xv. 19. Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 16) was a district in this prevince. Ses ch. XVIL. Nicopolis (Tit. iii. 12) was in Epirus, whieh, as we have seen, was a district in the provimes of Achaia, but it was connected by a branch road with the Via Egnatia from Dyrrhachium, which is mentioned below. 274 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. When we allude to Rome, and think of the relation of the City to provinces, we are inevitably reminded of the military roads; and here, across the breadth of Macedonia, was one of the greatest roads of the Empire. It is evident that, after Constantinople was founded, a line of communication between the Eastern and Western capitals was of the utmost moment; but the Via Egnatia was constructed long before that period. Strabo, in the reign of Augustus, informs us that it was regu- larly made and marked out by milestones, from Dyrrhachium on the Adriatic, to Cypselus on the Hebrus in Thrace; and, even before the close of the republic, we find Cicero speaking, in one of his orations, of “that military way of ours, which connects us with the Hellespont.” Certain districts on the European side of the Hellespont had been part of the legacy of King Attalus,! and the simultaneous possession of Macedonia, Asia, and Bithynia, with the prospect of further conquests in the East, made this line of communication absolutely necessary. When St. Paul was on the Roman road at Troas? or Philippi, he was on a road which led to the gates of Rome. It was the same pavement which he afterwards trod at Appii Forum and the Three Taverns.* The nearest parallel which the world has seen of the imperial roads is the present European railway system. The Hellespont and the Bosphorus, in the reign of Claudius, were what the Straits of Dover and Holyhead are now; and even the passage from Brundusium in Italy, to Dyrrhachium and Apollonia‘ in Macedonia, was only a tempestuous ferry, — only one of those difficulties of nature which the Romans would have overcome if they could, and which the boldest of the Romans dared to defy. From Dyrrhachium and Apollonia, the Via Egnatia, strictly so called, extended a distance of five hundred miles, to the Hebrus, in Thrace. Thes- 1 See the preceding chapter, under “Asia.” 2 See what is said of the road between Troas and Pergamus, &c., p. 240. 5 Acts xxviii. 15. For notices of the Via Appia, where it approaches the Adriatic, in the neighborhood of Egnatia (‘‘ Gnatia lym- phis iratis extructa”), whence, according to some writers, the Macedonian continuation received its name, see Horace’s journey, Sat. 1. vy. Dean Milman’s Horace contains an ex- pressive representation of Brundusium, the harbor ea the Italian side of the water. 47. e. Apollonia on the Adriatic, which must be carefully distinguished from the other town of the same name, and on the same road, between Thessalonica and Amphipolis (Acts xvii, 1). 5 See the anecdotes of Cxsar’s bold pro- ceedings between Brundusium and the oppo- site side of the sea in Plutarch. The same writer tells us that Cicero, when departing on his exile, was driven back by a storm into Brundusium. See below, p. 278,n. 3. The great landing-place on the Macedonian side was Dyrrhachium, the ancient Epidamnus, © called by Catullus “‘ Adris Tabernsy.” ® The roads from Dyrrhachium and Apollo- nia met together at a place called Clodiana. and thence the Via Egnatia passed over the mountains to Heraclea in Macedonia. It entered the plain at Edessa (see below), and — thence passed by Pella to Thessalonica. Ths stations, as given by the Antonine and Jern- salem Itineraries and the Peutinger Table, will be found in Cramer’s Ancient Greece, v. i. pp. 81-84. cuaP, Ix. THE VIA EGNATIA. 275 salonica was about half way between these remote points, and Philippi was the last} important town in the province of Macedonia. Our con- cern is only with that part of the Via Egnatia which lay between the two last-mentioned cities. The intermediate stages mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles are Amphipolis and Apollonia. The distances laid down in the Itineraries are as follows: — Philippi to Amphipolis, thirty-three miles ; Amphipolis to Apollonia, thirty miles; Apollonia to Thessalonica, thirty-seven miles. These distances are evidently such as might have been traversed each in one day ; and since nothing is said of any delay on the road, but every thing to imply that the journey was rapid, we conclude (unless, indeed, their recent sufferings made rapid travelling impossible) that Paul and Silas rested one night at each of the intermediate places, and thus our notice of their journey is divided into three parts. From Philippi to Amphipolis, the Roman way passed across the plain to the north of Mount Pangeus. A traveller, going direct from Neapolis to the mouth of the Strymon, might make his way through an opening in the mountains? nearer the coast. This is the route by which Xerxes brought his army,’ and by which modern journeys are usually made.‘ But Philippi was not built in the time of the Persian war, and now, under the Turks, it is a ruined village. Under the Roman emperors, the position of this colony determined the direction of the road. The very productiveness of the soil,® and its liability to inundations,* must have caused this road to be carefully constructed. The surface of the plain, which is intersected by multitudes of streams, is covered now with plantations of cotton and fields of Indian corn,’ and the villages are so numerous, that, when seen from the summits of the neighboring moun- tains, they appear to form one continued town. Not far from the coast, 2 See above, p. 249, n. 3, and p. 250, n. 9. 2 This opening is the Pieric valley. See Leake, p. 180. ‘“ Though the modern route from Cavyalla to Orphano and Saloniki, leading by Pravista through the Pieric valley along the southern side of Mount Pangssum, exactly in the line of that of Xerxes, is the most direct, it does not coincide with the Roman road or the Via Egnatia, which passed along the northern base of that mountain, probably for the sake of connecting both these impor- tant cities, the former of which was a Roman colony.” 8 Herod. vil. 112. * Dr. Clarke and Cousinéry both took this route. the dearest wishes of his heart were thwarted. The providence of God permitted “ Satan’”’ to hinder him from seeing his dear Thessalonian converts, whom “ once and again’ he had desired to revisit.* The divine counsels were accomplished by means of the antagonism of wicked men; and the path of the Apostle was urged on, in the midst of trial and sorrow, in the direction pointed out in the vision at Jerusalem,” “far hence unto the Gentiles.” An immediate departure was urged upon the Apostle; and the Church of Bercea suddenly * lost its teacher. But Silas and Timotheus remained behind,’ to build it up in its holy faith, to be a comfort and support in its trials and persecutions, and to give it such organization as might be necessary. Meanwhile some of the new converts ac- companied St. Paul on his flight;* thus adding a new instance to those we have already seen of the love which grows up between those who have taught and those who have learnt the way of the soul’s salvation.® Without attempting to divine all the circumstances which may have concurred in determining the direction of this flight, we can mention some obvious reasons why it was the most natural course. To have returned in the direction of Thessalonica was manifestly impossible. To before the news from the latter place could 7 Acts xvii.14. The last mention of Tim- have summoned the Jews from the former. But we must take into account, not merely the distance between the two cities, but the pecu- liarly close communication which subsisted among the Jewish synagogues. See, for in- Stance, Acts xxvi. 11. 1 See pp. 172, 178. 2.“ There also,” Acts xvii. 18. Compare y. 5. 3 See the remarks on the vision at Jerusa- fem, p. 97. * See the preceding page. 5 Acts xvii. 17-21. 6 See v. 14. othy was at Philippi, but it is highly probable that he joined St. Paul at Thessalonica. See above, p. 292. Possibly he brought some of the contributions from Philippi, p. 284. We shall consider hereafter the movements of Silas and Timothy at this point of St. Paul’s journey. See note, p. 338. Meantime, we may observe that Timotheus was very proba- bly sent to Thessalonica (1 Thess. iii.) from Berea, and not from Athens. § Acts xvii. 14, 15. ® See above, on the jailer’s conversion, pp. 266, 267. Also p. 117. 296 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL. have pushed over the mountains, by the Via Egnatia, towards Ilyricum and the western parts of Macedonia, would have taken the Apostle from those shores of the Archipelago to which his energies were pri- marily to be devoted. Mere concealment and inactivity were not to be — thought of. Thus the Christian fugitives turned their steps towards the ~ sea,' and from some point on the coast where a vessel was found, they embarked for Athens. In the ancient tables two roads? are marked which cross the Haliacmon and intersect the plain from Beroea, one pass- ing by Pydna,? and the other leaving it to the left, and both coming to the coast at Dium near the base of Mount Olympus. The Pierian level (as this portion of the plain was called) extends about ten miles in breadth from the woody falls of the mountain to the seashore, forming a narrow passage from Macedonia into Greece.‘ Thus Dium was “ the great bulwark of Macedonia on the south;” and it was a Roman colony, like that other city which we have described on the eastern frontier. No city is more likely than Dium to have been the last, as Philippi was “‘ the first,” through which St. Paul passed in his journey through the province. Here then,—where Olympus, dark with woods, rises from the plain by the shore, to the broad summit, glittering with snow, which was the throne of the Homeric gods,*— at the natural termination of Macedo nia, — and where the first scene of classical and poetic Greece opens on our view, — we take our leave, for the present, of the Apostle of the Gen- tiles. The shepherds from the heights’? above the vale of Tempe may have watched the sails of his ship that day, as it moved like a 1 The words (Acts xvii. 14) translated “as it were to the sea” in the Authorized Version do not imply that there was any strat- agem, but simply denote the intention or the direction. It seems very likely that in the first instance they had no fixed plan of going to Athens, but merely to the sea. Their further course was determined by providential circum- stances; and, when St. Paul was once arrived at Athens, he could send a message to Tim- othy and Silas to foliow him (v.15). Those are surely mistaken who suppose that St. Paul travelled from Macedonia to Attica by land. 2 The distance in the Antonine Itinerary is seventeen miles. A Byzantine writer says that Bercea is 160 stadia from the sea. 3 Mr. Tate (Continuous History, gc.) sug- gests that St. Paul may have sailed from Pydna. But Pydna was not a seaport, and, for other reasons, Dium was more convenient- ly situated for the purpose. * Leake describes the ruins of Dium, among whieh are probably some remains of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, who was honored here in periodical games. Mount Olympus he describes as a conspicuous object for all the country round, as far as Saloniki, and as deriving from its steepness an increase of grandeur and apparent height. 5 See above, on Philippi. ® The epithets given by Homer to this poetic mountain are as fully justified by the accounts of modern travellers, as the descrip- tions of the scenery alluded to at the close of the preceding chapter, p. 243, n. 3. ™ See Dr. Wordsworth’s Greece, p. 197 and Mr. Urquhart’s Spirit of the East, vol. i p. 426 “are 7=yY OHAP, IX, VOYAGE TO ATHENS. 297 white speck over the outer waters of the Thermaic Gulf. The sailors, looking back from the deck, saw the great Olympus rising close above them in snowy majesty.! The more distant mountains beyond Thessa- lonica are already growing faint and indistinct. As the vessel approaches the Thessalian archipelago,? Mount Athos begins to detach itself from the isthmus that binds it to the main, and, with a few other heights of Northern Macedonia, appears like an island floating in the hori- zon.? SEK Ke LZZZZLAL LE KKK = SSSSSSSSSS SSS The Tullianum at Rome.* 1 Compare p. 272,n. 1, and p. 272,n. 5. See also Purdy’s Sailing Directory, p. 148: “To the N. W. of the Thessalian Isles the extensive Gulf of Salonica extends thirty leagues to the north-westward, before it changes its direction to the north-eastward and forms the port. The country on the west, part of the ancient Thessaly, and now the province of Tricala, exhibits a magnificent range of mountains, which include Pelton, now Patras, Ossa, now Kissova, and Olym- pus, now Elymbo. The summit of the latter is six thousand feet above the level of the sea.” 2 The group of islands off the north end of Eubes, consisting of Sciathos, Scopelos, Peparethos, &c. For an account of them, see Purdy, pp. 145-148. ® Cousinéry somewhere gives this descrip- tion of the appearance of heights near Sa- loniki, as seen from the Thessalian islands. For an instance of a very unfavorable voyage in these seas, in the month of December, thirteen days being spent at sea between Ss lonica and Zeitun, the reader may consuli Holland’s Travels, ch. xvi. * From Rich’s Dictionary of Greek and Ro man Antiquities. CHAPTER X. Arrival on the Coast of Attica.—Scenery round Athens.— The Pirgus and the “Long Walls.” — The Agora. — The Acropolis. — The “Painted Porch” and the “ Garden.” — The Apostle alone in Athens.— Greek Religion. — The Unknown God. — Greek Philoso- phy. — The Stoics and Epicureans. — Later Period of the Schools. — St. Paul in the Agora. — The Areopagus. — Speech of St. Paul. — Departure from Athens. N the life of Apollonius of Tyana,! there occurs a passage to the following effect : — “‘ Having come to anchor in the Pirzus, he went up from the Harbor to the City. Advancing onward, he met several of the Philosophers. In his first conversation, finding the Athenians much devoted to Religion, he discoursed on sacred subjects. This was at Athens, where also altars of Unknown Divinities are set up.” To draw a parallel between a holy Apostle and an itinerant Magician would be unmeaning and profane: but this extract from the biography of Apollo- nius would be a suitable and comprehensive motto to that passage in St. Paul’s biography on which we are now entering. The sailing into the Pireus, — the entrance into the city of Athens, — the interviews with philosophers, — the devotion of the Athenians to religious ceremonies -— the discourse concerning the worship of the Deity, — the ignorance 1 He has been alluded to before, p. 112, n.3. ‘ His life by Philostratus is a mass of incongruities and fables;” but it is an impor- tant book aa reflecting the opinions of the age in which it was written. Apollonius himself produced a great excitement in the Apostolic age. See Neander’s General Church History (Eng. Trans.), pp. 40-43, and pp. 236-238. ii was the fashion among the anti-Christian writers of the third century to adduce him as # rival of our Blessed Lord; and the same profane comparison has been renewed by some of our English freethinkers. Without alluding to this any further, we may safely find some interest in putting his life by the side of that of St. Paul. They lived at the same time, and travelled through the same countries; and the life of the magician illus- 298 trates that peculiar state of philosophy and superstition which the Gospel preached by St. Paul had to encounter. Apollonius was partly educated at Tarsus; he travelled from city to city in Asia Minor; from Greece he went to Rome, in the reign of Nero, about the time when the magicians had lately been ex- pelled; he visited Athens and Alexandria, where he had a singular meeting with Vespa sian: on a second visit to Italy he vanished miraculously from Puteoli: the last scene of his life was Ephesus, or, possibly, Crete or Rhodes. See the Life in Smith’s Dictionary of Biography. It is thought by many that St. Paul and Apollonius actually met in Ephesus and Rome. Burton’s Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, pp. 157, 240. omar, &. ARRIVAL ON THE COAST OF ATTICA. 299 implied by the altars to unknown Gods,' — these are exactly the subjects which are now before us. If a summary of the contents of the seven- teenth chapter of the Acts had been required, it could not have been “more conveniently expressed. The city visited by Apollonius was the Athens which was visited by St. Paul: the topics of discussion — the character of the people addressed — the aspect of every thing around — were identically the same. The difference was this, that the Apostle could give to his hearers what the philosopher could not give. The God whom Paul “ declared” was worshipped by Apollonius himself as “ igno- rantly”’ as by the Athenians. We left St. Paul on that voyage which his friends induced him to undertake on the flight from Berea. The vessel was last seen among the Thessalian islands.? About that point the highest land in Northern Macedonia began to be lost to view. Gradually the nearer heights of the snowy Olympus ® itself receded into the distance as the vessel on her prog- ress approached more and more near to the centre of all the interest of classical Greece. All the land and water in sight becomes more eloquent as we advance ; the lights and shadows, both of poetry and history, are on every side ; every rock is a monument; every current is animated with some memory of the past. For a distance of ninety miles, from the con- fines of Thessaly to the middle part of the coast of Attica, the shore is protected, as it were, by the long island of Eubea. Deep in the inner- most gulf, where the waters of the Algean retreat far within the land, over against the northern parts of this island, is the pass of Thermopylae, where a handful of Greek warriors had defied all the hosts of Asia. In the crescent-like bay on the shore of Attica, near the southern extrem- ty of the same island, is the maritime sanctuary of Marathon, where the battle was fought which decided.that Greece was never to be a Per sian Satrapy.* When the island of Hubeea is left behind, we soon reach the southern extremity of Attica,— Cape Colonna,-—Sunium’s high promontory, still crowned with the white columns of that temple of Minerva, which was the landmark to Greek sailors, and which asserted the presence of Athens at the very vestibule of her country.° After passing this headland, our course turns to the westward across the waters of the Saronic Gulf, with the mountains of the Morea on our left, and the islands of Aigina and Salamis in front. To one who travels 1 This subject is fully entered into below. § See Wordsworth’s Athens and Attica, ch. 2 Above, p. 297. xxvii. A description of the promontory and 3 See the preceding chapter, p. 296, also ruins will be found in Mure’s Journal of a 272. Tour in Greece. See Falconer’s Shipwreck, * See Quarterly Review for September, 1846, _ iii. 526. and the first number of the Classical Museum. 300 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, x in classical lands no moment is more full of interest and excitement than when he has left the Cape of Sunium behind, and eagerly looks for the ~ first glimpse of that city “ built nobly on the Aigean shore,” which was © “‘ the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence.” ! To the traveller in classical times its position was often revealed by the flashing of the light on the armor of Minerva’s colossal statue, which stood with shield and spear on the summit of the citadel.’ At the very first sight of Athens, and even from the deck of the vessel, we obtain a vivid notion of the characteristics of its position. And the place where it stands is so re- markable — its ancient inhabitants were so proud of its climate and its scenery —that we may pause on our approach to say a few words on Attica and Athens, and their relation to the rest of Greece. Attica is a triangular tract of country, the southern and eastern sides of which meet in the point of Sunium ; its third side is defined by the high mountain ranges of Citheron and Parnes, which separate it by a strong barrier from Beotia and Northern Greece. Hills of inferior ele- vation connect these ranges with the mountainous surface of the south- east, which begins from Sunium itself, and rises on the south coast to the round summits of Hymettus, and the higher peak of Pentelicus near Marathon on the east. The rest of Attica is a plain, one reach of which comes down to the sea on the south, at the very base of Hymettus. Here, about five miles from the shore, an abrupt rock rises from the level, like the rock of Stirling Castle, bordered on the south by some lower eminences, and commanded by a high craggy peak on the north. This rock is the Acropolis of Athens. These lower eminences are the Areopagus, the Pnyx, and the Museum, which determined the rising and falling of the ground in the ancient city. That craggy peak is the hill of Lycabet- tus,’ from the summit of which the spectator sees all Athens at his feet, and looks freely over the intermediate plain to the Pireus and the sea. Athens and the Pirwus must never be considered separately. One was the city, the other was its harbor. Once they were connected together by a continuous fortification. Those who looked down from Lycabettus in the time of Pericles could follow with the eye all the long line of wall from the temples on the Acropolis to the shipping in the port. Thus we are brought back to the point from which we digressed. We were approaching the Pireus; and, since we must land in maritime ' Paradise Regained, iv. 240. burgh and its neighborhood, and there is so 2 This is stated by Pausanias. much resemblance between Edinburgh Castle ® The relation of Lycabettus to the crowded and the Acropolis, that a comparison between buildings below, and to the surrounding land- the city of the Saronic gulf and the city of the scape, is so like that of Arthur’s Seat to Edin- . Forth has become justly proverbial. . left, with steep cliffs at the water’s edge, is Aigina. onar. x SCENERY ROUND ATHENS. 301 Athens before we can enter Athens itself, let us return once more to the yessel’s deck, and look round on the land and the water. Theisland on our The distant heights beyond it are the mountains of the Morea. Before us is another island, the illustrious Salamis; though in the view it is hardly disentangled from the coast of Attica, for the strait where the battle was fought is narrow and winding. The high ranges behind stretch beyond Eleusis and Megara, to the left towards Corinth, and to the right along the frontier of Beotia. This last ridge is the mountain-line of Parnes, of which we have spoken above. Clouds’ are often seen to rest on it at all seasons of the year, and in winter it is usually white with snow. The dark heavy moun- tain rising close to us on the right immediately from the sea is Hymettus. Between Parnes and Hymettus is the plain; and rising from the plain is the Acropolis, distinctly visible, with Lycabettus behind, and seeming in the clear atmosphere to be nearer than it is. The outward aspect of this scene is now what it ever was. The lights and shadows on the rocks of Aigina and Salamis, the gleams on the dis- tant mountains, the clouds or the snow on Parnes, the gloom in the deep dells of Hymettus, the temple-crowned rock and the plain beneath it, — are natural features, which only vary with the alternations of morning and evening, and summer and winter. Some changes indeed have taken place: but they are connected with the history of man. The vegetation is less abundant,’ the population is more scanty. In Greek and Roman times, bright villages enlivened the promontories of Sunium and gina, and all the inner reaches of the bay. Some readers will indeed remem- ber a dreary picture which Sulpicius gave his friend Atticus of the deso- lation of these coasts when Greece had ceased to be free ;‘ but we must make some allowances for the exaggerations of a poetical regret, and must recollect that the writer had been accustomed to the gay and busy life of the Campanian shore. After the renovation of Corinth,’ and in the reign of Claudius, there is no doubt that all the signs of a far more numerous population than at present were evident around the Saronic Gulf, and that more white sails were to be seen in fine weather plying @eross its waters to the harbors of Cenchrea* or Pirazus. Now there is indeed a certain desolation over this beautiful bay: ' See the passage from the Clouds of Aristophanes quoted by Dr. Wordsworth. Athens and Attica, p. 58. 2 This is written under the recollection of the aspect of the coast on a cloudy morning in winter. It is perhaps more usually seen under the glare of a hot sky. % Athens was not always as bare as it is now. Plato complains that in his day the wood was diminishing. * Cic. Ep. Fam. iv. 5. 5 Corinth was in ruins in Cicero’s time. For the results of its restoration, see the next chapter. © See Acts xviii. 18. Rom. xvi. 1. 302 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar, x Corinth is fallen, and Cenchrea is an insignificant village. The Pireus is probably more like what it was, than any other spot upon the coast. It remains what by nature it has ever been, —a safe basin of deep water, concealed by the surrounding rock; and now, as in St. Paul’s time, the proximity of Athens causes it to be the resort of various shipping. We know that we are approaching it at the present day, if we see, rising — above the rocks, the tall masts of an English line-of-battle ship, side by side with the light spars of a Russian corvette! or the black funnel of a French steamer. The details were different when the Mediterranean was a Roman lake. The heavy top-gear? of corn-ships from Alexandria or the Euxine might then be a conspicuous mark among the small coasting- vessels and fishing-boats ; and one bright spectacle was then pre-eminent, which the lapse of centuries has made cold and dim, the perfect buildings on the summit of the Acropolis, with the shield and spear of Minerva Promachus glittering in the sun. But those who have coasted along be- neath Hymettus,—and past the indentations in the shore,‘ which were sufficient harbors for Athens in the days of her early navigation, — and round by the ancient tomb, which tradition has assigned to Themistocles,* into the better and safer harbor of the Piraus,— require no great effort of the imagination to picture the Apostle’s arrival. For a moment, as we near the entrance, the land rises and conceals all the plain. Idlers come down upon the rocks to watch the coming vessel. The sailors are all on the alert. Suddenly an opening is revealed; and a sharp turn of the helm brings the ship in between two moles,’ on which towers are erected. We are in smooth water; and anchor is cast in seven fathoms in the basin of the Pireus.’ The Pirgwus, with its suburbs (for so, though it is not strictly accurate, we may designate the maritime city), was given to Athens as a natural 1 This was written in 1850. 2 See Smith’s Shipwreck, ge. The entrance lies E. by S. and W. by N., and has in it nine and ten fathoms. There are 8 See above, p. 300. * The harbors of Phalerum and Munychia. & For the sepulchre by the edge of the water, popularly called the “tomb of Themis- tocles,” see Leake’s Athens, pp. 379, 380, and the notes. § Some parts of the ancient moles are re- maining. Leake, p. 272. the colossal lions (now removed to Venice) which gave the harbor its modern name, p. 254. 7 “ The entrance of the Pirseus (Port Leoni) is known by a small obelisk, built on a low point by the company of H. M. ship Cambria, tm 1820, on the starboard hand going in. . . See what is said of three moleheads, two of which you have on the starboard hand, and one on the larboard. When past these moleheads, shorten all sail, luff up, and anchor in seven fathoms. The ground is clear and good. There is room enough for three frigates. As the place is very narrow, great care is required. . . . During the summer months the sea-breezes blow, nearly all day, directly into the harbor... . The middle channel of the harbor, with a depth of 9 or 10 fathoms, is 110 feet in breadth; the starboard channel, with 6 fathoms, 40 feet ; the larboard, with 2 fathoms, only 28 feet.”’ — Purdy’s Sailing Directions, p. 83. Tha. F omar. x. THE “LONG WALLS.” 302 advantage, to which much of her greatness must be traced. It consists of a projecting portion of rocky ground, which is elevated above the neighboring shore, and probably was originally entirely insulaied in the sea. The two rivers of Atheus-—the Cephisus and Ilissus—seem to have formed, in the course of ages, the low marshy ground which now connects Athens with its port. The port itself possesses all the advan- tages of shelter and good archorage, deep water, and sufficient space.’ Themistocles, seeing that the pre-eminence of his country could only be maintained by her maritime power, fortified the Piraus as the outpost of Athens, and enclosed tke basin of the harbor as a dock within the walls. in the long period through which Athens had been losing its political power, these defences had been neglected and suffered to fall into decay, or had been used as materials for other buildings: but there was still 2 fortress ou the highest point ;? the harbor was still a place of some re- sort ;* and 2 considerable number of seafaring people dwelt in the streets about the seashore. When the republic of Athens was flourishing, the sailors were a turbulent and worthless part of its population. And the Pirreus under the Romans was not without some remains of the same disorderly class, as it doubtless retained many of the outward features of its earlier appearance : — the landing-places and covered porticoes ;‘ the warehouses where the corn from the Black Sea used to be laid up; the stores of fish brought in daily from the Saronic Gulf and the Aégean ; the gardens in the watery ground at the edge of the plain; the theatres* into which the sailors used to flock to hear the comedies of Menander ; and the temples ® where they were spectators of a worship which had no Seneficial effect on their characters. Had St. Paul come to this spot four hundred years before, he would have been in Athens from the moment of his landing at the Pireus. At » that time the two cities were united together by the double line of fortifi- eation, which is famous under the name of the “ Long Walls.” The space included between these two arms’ of stone might be considered (as, indeed, it was sometimes called) a third city ; for the street of five miles in length thus formed across the plain was crowded with people, 1 See the preceding note. 2 The height of Munychia. 3 Strabo speaks of the population living in “villages about the port.” One of them was probably near the theatre of Munychia, on the low ground on the east of the main harbor. Leake, p. 396. Even in the time of Alexander the Pirzeus had so much declined that a comic Writer compared it to a great empty walnut. Leake, p. 402. * We read especially of the “long portico,” ~hnch was also used as a market. § Tn one of the theatres near the harbor we have the mention of a great meeting during the Peloponnesian war. Leake, p. 394. ® See Pausanias. It is here that Pausanias mentions the altars to the unknown gods. T “Theses brachia longa vis,” as they are called by Propertius (iii. 20, 24). But the name by which they were usually known at Athens was “ the Long legs.” 804 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, 2 whose habitations were shut out from all view of the country by the vast wall on either side. Some of the most pathetic passages of Athenian history are associated with this “longomural” enclosure: as when, in the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the plague broke out in the autumn weather among the miserable inhabitants, who were crowded here to suffocation ;! or, at the end of the same war, when the news came of the defeat on the Asiatic shore, and one long wail went up from . the Pireus, “and no one slept in Athens that night.”? The result of — that victory was, that these long walls were rendered useless by being partially destroyed ; and though another Athenian admiral and states- : man * restored what Pericles had first completed, this intermediate fortifi- — cation remained effective only for a time. In the incessant changes which fell on Athens in the Macedonian period, they were injured and became unimportant.‘ In the Roman siege under Sulla, the stones were used as materials for other military works. So that when Augustus was on the throne, and Athens had reached its ultimate position as a free city of the province of Achaia, Strabo, in his description of the place, speaks of the Long Walls as matters of past history ; and Pausanias, a century later, says simply that “ you see the ruins of the walls as you go up from the Pireus.”” Thus we can easily imagine the aspect of these defences in the time of St. Paul, which is intermediate to these two writers. On each side of the road were the broken fragments of the rectangular masonry put together in the proudest days of Athens ; more conspicuous than they are at present (for now’ only the foundations can be traced here and there acro:s the plain), but still very different from what they were when two walls of sixty feet high, with a long succession of towers,‘ stood to bid defiance to every invader of Attica. The consideration of the Long Walls leads us to that of the city walls themselves. Here many questions might be raised concerning the ex- tent of the enclosure,’ and the positions of the gates,® when Athens was 1 Thucyd. ii. 17. 2 Xen. Heil. ii. 2, 3. = Conon. * Livy speaks of their ruins being objects of admiration in the time of 2m. Paulus. 5 See Leake, Wordsworth, and other mod- ern travellers. It seems from what Spon and Wheler say, that, in 1676, the remains were larger and more continuous than at present. 8 « There is no direct evidence of the height of the Long Walls; but, as Appian informs us that the walls of the Peiraic city were forty cubits high, we may presume those of the Long Walls were not less. Towers were absolutely necessary to such a work; and the inscription relating to the Long Walls leaves no question as to their having existed.” — Leake. 7 Our plan of Athens is taken from that of Kiepert, which is based on Forchammer’s argu- ments. It differs materially from that of Leake, especially in giving a larger area to the city on the east and south, and thus bringing the Acropolis into the centre. Forchammer thinks that the traces of ancient walls which are found on the Pnyx, &., do not belong to the fortification of Themistocles, but to some later defences erected by Valerian. 8 For various discussions on the gates, ges Leake, Wordsworth, and Forchammer. cuar. x. OBJECTS SEEN BY ST. PAUL 305 under the Roman dominion. But all such inquiries must be entirely dismissed. We will assume that St. Paul entered the city by the gate which led from the Pirzeus, that this gate was identical with that by which Pausanias entered, and that its position was in the hollow between the outer slopes of the Pnyx and Museum.’ It is no ordinary advantage that we possess a description of Athens under the Romans, by the tray- eller and antiquarian whose name has just been mentioned. The work of Pausanias? will be our best guide to the discovery of what St. Paul saw. By following his route through the city, we shall be treading in the steps of the Apostle himself, and shall behold those very objects which excited his indignation and compassion. Taking, then, the position of the Peiraic gate as determined, or at least resigning the task of topographical inquiries, we enter the city, and, with Pausanias as our guide, look round on the objects which were seen by the Apostle. At the very gateway we are met with proofs of the peculiar ‘tendency of the Athenians to multiply their objects both of art and de- votion.* Close by the building where the vestments were laid up which were used in the annual procession of their tutelary divinity Minerva, is an image of her rival Neptune, seated on horseback, and hurling his tri- dent. We pass by a temple of Ceres, on the walls of which an archaic inscription informs us that the statues it contains were the work of Praxiteles. We go through the gate: and immediately the eye is at- tracted by the sculptured forms of Minerva, Jupiter, and Apollo, of Mer- cury and the Muses, standing near a sanctuary of Bacchus. We are already in the midst of an animated scene, where temples, statues, and altars are on every side, and where the Athenians, fond of publicity and the open air, fond of hearing and telling what is curious and strange,§ are enjoying their climate and inquiring for news. A long street is before us, with a colonnade or cloister on either hand, like the covered arcades of Bologna or Turin. At the end of the street, by turning to exception of the new buildings erected by Hadrian. ® Acts xvii. 23. * We have used the terms “ Minerva, Nep- 1 Pausanias does not mention the Peuraic gate by that name. See Leake, Wordsworth, and Forchammer. The first of these authori- ties places it where the modern road from the Pireus enters Athens, beyond all the high ground to the north of the Pnyx; the second places it in the hollow between the Pnyx and the Museum ; the third in the same direction, but more remote from the Acropolis, in conformity with his view concerning the larger circum- ference of the walls. 2 Pausanias visited Athens about fifty years after St. Paul. It is probable that very few changes had taken place in the city, with the 20 tune,” &c., instead of the more accurate terms “ Athene, Poseidon,” &c., in accommodation to popular language. So before (Ch. VI.), in the case of Jupiter and Mercury. See note p. 168, n. 3. 5 Acts xvii. 21. 6 Forchammer makes this comparison. It is probable, however, that these covered walks were not formed with arches, but with pillars bearing horizontal entablatures. The posi- 206 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL. omar, the left, we might go through the whole Ceramicus,' which leads by tombs of eminent Athenians to the open inland country and the grovee of the Academy. But we turn to the right into the Agora, which was the centre of a glorious public life, when the orators and statesmen, the poets and the artists of Greece, found there all the incentives of their noblest enthusiasm ; and still continued to be the meeting-place of philosophy, of idleness, of conversation, and of business, when Athens could only be proud of her recollections of the past. On the south side is the Pnyx,? a sloping hill partially levelled into an open area for political assemblies ; on the north side is the more craggy eminence of the Areopagus ;* before us, towards the east, is the Acropolis,‘ towering high above the scene of which it is the glory and the crown. In the valley enclosed by these heights is the Agora,’ which must not be conceived of as a great “ market” (Acts xvii. 17), like the bare spaces in many modern towns, where little attention has been paid to artistic decoration, — but is rather to be com: pared to the beautiful squares of such Italian cities as Verona and Flor- ence, where historical buildings have closed in the space within narrow limits, and sculpture has peopled it with impressive figures. Among the buildings of greatest interest are the porticoes or cloisters, which were dec- orated with paintings and statuary, like the Campo Santo at Pisa. We think we may be excused for multiplying these comparisons: for though they are avowedly imperfect, they are really more useful than any at- tempt at description could be, in enabling us to realize the aspect of ancient Athens. Two of the most important of these were the Portico of the King, and the Portico of the Jupiter of Freedom.’ On the roof of the former were statues of Theseus and the Day: in front of the latter was the divinity to whom it was dedicated, and within were allegorical paintings illustrating the rise of the Athenian democracy. One characteristic of the Agora was, that it was full of memorials of actual history. Among the plane-trees planted by the hand of Cimon tion we nave assigned to this street is in accordance with the pian of Forchammer, who places the wall and gate more remotely from the Agora than our English topographers. 1 This term, in its full extent, included not only the road between the city wall and the Academy, but the Agora itself. See plan of Athens. 2 It is remarkable that the Pnyx, the fomous meeting-place of the political assem- blies of Athens, is not mentioned by Pausanias. This may be because there were no longer any such assemblies, and therefore his attention was not called to it; or, perhaps, it is omitted because it was simply a level space, without any work of art to attract the notice of an antiquarian. 3 See this more fully described below. * See above, p. 300. & We adopt the view of Forchammer, which is now generally received, that the posi- tion of the Agora was always the same. The hypothesis of a new Agora to the north of the Areopagus was first advanced by Meursius, and has been adopted by Leake. ® In the plan, these two porticoes are places side by side, after Kiepert. ity. AP a ae Re »)) , ouar, x. THE AGOBA. 307 were the statues of the great men of Athens—such as Solon the law: giver, Conon the Admiral, Demosthenes the orator. But among her his- torical men were her deified heroes, the representatives of her mythology — Hercules and Theseus — and all the series of the Eponymi on their elevated platform, from whom the tribes were named, and whom an ancient custom connected with the passing of every successive law. And among the deified heroes were memorials of the older divinities, — Mer- euries, which gave their name to the street in which they were placed, — statues dedicated to Apollo, as patron of the city,’ and her deliverer from plague,” — and, in the centre of all, the Altar of the Twelve Gods, which was to Athens what the Golden Milestone was to Rome. If we look up to the Areopagus, we see the temple* of that deity from whom the eminence had received the name of “ Mars’ Hill” (Acts xvii. 22); and we are aware that the sanctuary of the Furies‘ is only hidden by the projecting ridge beyond the stone steps and the seats of the judges. If we look forward to the Acropolis, we behold there, closing the long per- spective, a series of little sanctuaries on the very ledges of the rock, — shrines of Bacchus and Adsculapius, Venus, Earth, and Ceres, ending with the lovely form of that Temple of Unwinged Victory ° which glittered by the entrance of the Propylea above the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton.6 Thus, every god in Olympus found a place in the Agora. But the religiousness of the Athenians (Acts xvii. 22) went even further. For every public place and building was likewise a sanctuary. The Record-House was a temple of the Mother of the Gods. The Council- House held statues of Apollo and Jupiter, with an altar of Vesta.’’ The Theatre at the base of the Acropolis, into which the Athenians crowded to hear the words of their great tragedians, was consecrated to Bacchus.® The Pnyx, near which we entered, on whose elevated platform they Wheler. Subsequent travellers found that it had disappeared. In 1835 the various portions were discovered in an excavation, with the 1 Apollo Patrous. His temple was called Pythium. In this building the naval car, used in the Panathenaic procession, was laid up after its festal voyages, to be exhibited to travellers ; ‘‘as the Ducal barge of Venice, the Bucentoro, in which the Doge solemnized the annual marriage with the sea, is now preserved for the same purpose in the Venetian arsenal.” Wordsworth, p. 189. 2 Apollo Alexicacus, who was believed to have made the plague to cease in the Pelopon- nesian war. 5 See the plan. * The sanctuary was in a deep cleft in the front of the Areopagus, facing the Acropolis. See below. 5 The history of this temple is very curious. In 1676 it was found entire by Spon and exception of two, which are in the British Museum. It is now entirely restored. The original structure belongs to the period of the close of the Persian wars. § For their position, see Pausanias. These statues were removed by Xerxes; and Alexan- der, when at Babylon, gave an order for their restoration. Images of Brutus and Cassius were at one time erected near them, but proba- bly they were removed by Augustus. 7 For these two buildings, the Metroum and Bouleuterium, see the plan. 8 Tts position may be seen on the pian, on the south side of the Acropolis. 308 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. x listened in breathless attention to their orators, was dedicated to Jupiter on High,' with whose name those of the Nymphs of the Demus were grace. fully associated. And, as if the imagination of the Attic mind knew no bounds in this direction, abstractions were deified and publicly honored. Altars were erected to Fame, to Modesty, to Energy, to Persuasion, and to Pity.” This last altar is mentioned by Pausanias among “ those objects in the Agora which are not understood by all men: for,” he adds, “the — Athenians alone of all the Greeks give divine honor to Pity.”* It is needless to show how the enumeration which we have made (and which is no more than a selection from what is described by Pausanias) throws — light on the words of St. Luke and St. Paul; and especially how the : groping after the abstract and invisible, implied in the altars alluded to last, illustrates the inscription “ To the Unknown God,” which was used : by Apostolic wisdom (Acts xvii. 23) to point the way to the highest truth. — What is true of the Agora is still more emphatically true of the — Acropolis, for the spirit which rested over Athens was concentrated here. — The feeling of the Athenians with regard to the Acropolis was well, though fancifully, expressed by the rhetorician who said that it was the middle space of five concentric circles of a shield, whereof the outer four were Athens, Attica, Greece, and the world. The platform of the Acropolis was a museum of art, of history, and of religion. The whole was “one vast composition of architecture and sculpture, dedicated to the national glory and to the worship of the gods.” By one approach only — through the Propylea built by Pericles — could this sanctuary be entered. If St. Paul went up that steep ascent on the western front of the rock, past the Temple of Victory, and through that magnificent portal, we know nearly all the features of the idolatrous spectacle he saw before him. At the entrance, in conformity with his attributes, was the statue of Mercurius Propyleus. Farther on, within the vestibule of the beautiful enclosure, were statues of Venus and tue Graces. The re- covery of one of those who had labored among the edifices of the Acropolis was commemorated by a dedication to Minerva as the goddess of Health. There was a shrine of Diana, whose image had been wrought by Praxiteles. Intermixed with what had reference to divinities were tre 1 This is attributed to the elevated position Cicero speaks of a temple or altar to Contn- of the Pnyx as seen from the Agora. Words- mely. In the temple of Minerva Polias, ™ worth’s Athens and Attica, p. 72. the Acropolis, Plutarch mentions an altar q” 2 It is doubtful in what part of Athens Oblivion. the altars of Fame, Modesty, and Energy were 8 He adds, that this altar was nal se much placed. AMschines alludes to the altar of due to their human sympathy as to their peculiar Fame. The altar of Persuasion was on the piety towards the gods; and he confirms this ascent of the Acropolis. There were many opinion by proceeding to mention the altare other memorials of the same kind in Athens. of Fame, Modesty, and Energy. ASCRIBED TO THE SEVENTH CENTURY B. 0. SUPPOSNHD TEMPLE OF MINERVA AT CORINTH ; oHAaP. x. THE PARTHENON. 30¢ memorials of eminent men and of great victories. The statue of Peri- cles, to whom the glory of the Acropolis was due, remained there for centuries. Among the sculptures on the south wall was one which recorded a victory we have alluded to, — that of Attalus over the Gala- tians.' Nor was the Roman power without its representatives on this proud pedestal of Athenian glory. Before the entrance were statues of Agrippa and Augustus ;? and at the eastern extremity of the esplanade a temple was erected in honor of Rome and the Emperor.’ But the main characteristics of the place were mythological and religious, and truly Athenian. On the wide levelled area were such groups as the fol- lowing : — Theseus contending with the Minotaur; Hercules strangling the serpents; the Earth imploring showers from Jupiter; Minerva causing the olive to sprout while Neptune raises the waves. The mention of this last group raises our thoughts to the Parthenon, — the Virgin’s House, —the glorious temple which rose in the proudest period of Athenian history to the honor of Minerva, and which ages of war and decay have only partially defaced. The sculptures on one of its pedimenis represented the birth of the goddess: those on the other depicted her contest with Neptune.* Under the outer cornice were groups exhibiting the victories achieved by her champions. Round the inner frieze was the long series of the Panathenaic procession.» Within was the colossal statue o: ivory and gold, the work of Phidias, unrivalled in the world, save only }1y the Jupiter Olympius of the same famous artist. This was not the only statue of the Virgin Goddess within the sacred precincts; the Acropolis boasted of three Minervas.6 The oldest and most venerated was in the small irregular temple called the Erec- theium, which contained the mystic olive-tree of Minerva and the mark of Neptune’s trident. This statue, like that of Diana at Ephesus (Acts xix. 35), was believed to have fallen from heaven.’ The third, though 1 See p. 206. Several of the statues seen by Pausanias in Athens were those of the Greek kings who reigned over the fragments of Alexander’s empire. 2 One pedestal is still standing in this posi- tion, with the name of Agrippa inscribed on it. There is some reason to believe that some earlier Greek statues had been converted in this instance, as in so many others, into mon- uments of Augustus and Agrippa. Cicero, in one of his letters from Athens, speaks indig- nantly of this custom. ® Some fragments remain, and among them she inscription which records the dedication. Augustus did not allow the provinces to ded- icate any temple to him except in conjunction with Rome. There was a temple of this kind at Casarma. See p. 107. * For descriptive papers on these pediments, see the Classical Museum, Nos. VI., XVIII., and XXII. With the remains themselves, in the Elgin Room at the British Museum, the restoration of Mr. Lucas should be sindied. 5 For these sculptures, it is only necessary to refer to the Elgin Room in the British Museum. § See here, especially, Dr Wordsworth’s chapter on the three Minervas. 7 Its material was not marble nor metal but olive-wood. 310 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. less sacred than the Minerva Polias, was the most conspicuous of all.’ Formed from the brazen spoils of the battle of Marathon, it rose in gigantic proportions above all the buildings of the Acropolis, and stood with spear and shield as the tutelary divinity of Athens and Attica. It was the statue which may have caught the eye of St. Paul himself, from — the deck of the vessel in which he sailed round Sunium to the Pireus.? Now he had landed in Attica, and beheld all the wonders of that city which divides with one other city all the glory of Heathen antiquity. Here, by the statue of Minerva Promachus, he could reflect on the meaning of the objects he had seen in his progress. His path had been among the forms of great men and deified heroes, among the temples, the statues, the altars of the gods of Greece. He had seen the creations — of mythology represented to the eye, in every form of beauty and grandeur, by the sculptor and the architect. And the one overpowering result was this: —‘“* His spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city crowded with idols.” But we must associate St. Paul, not merely with the Religion, but with the Philosophy, of Greece. And this, perhaps, is our best opportunity for doing so, if we wish to connect together, in this respect also, the ap- pearance and the spirit of Athens. If the Apostle looked out from the pedestal of the Acropolis over the city and the open country, he would see the places which are inseparably connected with the names of those — who have always been recognized as the great teachers of the pagan world. In opposite directions he would see the two memorable suburbs where Aristotle and Plato, the two pupils of Socrates, held their illustri- ous schools. Their positions are defined by the courses of the two rivers to which we have already alluded.*? The streamless bed of the Dlissus © passes between the Acropolis and Hymettus in a south-westerly direction, till it vanishes in the low ground which separates the city from the Pireus. Looking towards the upper part of this channel, we see (or- we should have seen in the first century) gardens with plane-trees and thickets of agnus-castus, with “ others of the torrent-loving shrubs of Greece.” * At one spot, near the base of Lycabettus, was a sacred en- closure. Here was a statue of Apollo Lycius, represented in an attitude of repose, leaning against a column, with a bow in the left hand and the i For the position of this statue, see coin * Leake, p. 275. See Plato’s Phedrus. at end of the chapter. The pedestal appears The Lyceum was remarkable for its plane- to have been twenty feet, and the statue fifty- trees. Socrates used to discourse under them, five feet, in height. Leake, p. 351. The and Aristotle and Theophrastus afterwards lower part of the pedestal has lately been dis- enjoyed their shade. We cannot tell how far covered. these groves were restored since the time of 2 See above, pp. 800, 302. Sulla, who cut them down. * Above, p. 303. THE “PAINTED CLOISTER.’ 31] CHAP. x. right hand resting on his head. The god gave the name to the Lyceum. Here among the groves, the philosopher of Stagirus,' the instructor of Alexander, used to walk. Here he founded the school of the Peripatetics. To this point an ancient dialogue represents Socrates as coming, outside the northern city-wall, from the grove of the Academy. Following, therefore, this line in an opposite direction, we come to the scene of Plato’s school. Those dark olive-groves have revived after all the disas- ters which have swept across the plain. The Cephisus has been more highly favored than the Ilissus. Its waters still irrigate the suburban gardens of the Athenians.? Its nightingales are still vocal among the twinkling olive-branches.* The gnarled trunks of the ancient trees of our own day could not be distinguished from those which were familiar with the presence of Plato, and are more venerable than those which had grown up after Sulla’s destruction of the woods, before Cicero‘ visited the Academy in the spirit of a pilgrim. But the Academicians and Peripatetics are not the schools to which our attention is called in consid- ering the biography of St. Paul. We must turn our eye from the open coun- try to the city itself, if we wish to see the places which witnessed the rise of the Stoics and Hpicureans. Lucian, in a playful passage, speaks of Phi- losophy as coming up from the Academy, by the Ceramicus, to the Agora: “ and there,” he says, ‘‘ we shall meet her by the Stoa Peecile.”” Let us follow this line in imagination, and, having followed it, let us look down from the Acropolis into the Agora. There we distinguish a cloister or colonnade, which was not mentioned before, because it is more justly described in connection with the Stoics. The Stoa Pecile,® or the “ Painted Cloister,” gave its name to one of those sects who encountered the Apostle in the Agora. It was decorated with pictures of the legen- dary wars of the Athenians, of their victories over thei: fellow-Greeks, and of the more glorious struggle at Marathon. Originally the meeting- place of the poets, it became the school where Zeno met his pupils, and founded the system of stern philosophy which found adherents both among Greeks and Romans for many generations. The system of Epicurus was matured nearly at the same time and in the same neighborhood. The site of the philosopher’s Garden* is now unknown, but it was well known in the time of Cicero;7 and in the time of St. Paul it could not 1 See an allusion to his birthplace above, p. 277. 2 The stream is now divided and distrib- * Cicero, at one time, contemplated the erection of a monument to show his attach- ment to the Academy. Ai. vi. 1. uted, in order to water the gardens and olive- trees. Plutarch calls the Academy the best wooded of the suburbs of Athens. 3 See the well-known chorus in Sophocles. Ed. Col. 668. & ra worxiAn, — hence “ Stoic.” 6 This garden was proverbially known among the ancients. See Juvenal, xiii. 172, xiv. 319. 7 On his first visit to Athens, at the age 812 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL have been forgotten, for a peculiarly affectionate feeling subsisted among the Epicureans towards their founder. He left this garden as a legacy to the school, on condition that philosophy should always be taught there, . and that he himself should be annually commemorated. The sect had dwindled into smaller numbers than their rivals, in the middle of the first century. But it is highly probable that, even then, those who looked down from the Acropolis over the roofs of the city could distinguish the quiet garden where Epicurus lived a life of philosophic contentment, and taught his disciples that the enjoyment of tranquil pleasure was the highest end of human existence. The spirit in which Pausanias traversed these memorable places and scrutinized every thing he saw, was that of a curious and rather supersti- tious antiquarian. The expressions used by Cicero, when describing the same objects, show that his taste was gratified, and that he looked with satisfaction on the haunts of those whom he regarded as his teachers. The thoughts and feelings in the mind of the Christian Apostle, who came to Athens about the middle of that interval of time which separates the visit of Pausanias from that of Cicero, were very different from those of criticism or admiration. “as he went through the city,’ he saw dishonored on every side. He was melted with pity for those who, notwithstanding their intellectual — greatness, were ‘ wholly given to idolatry.’ His eye was not blinded to the reality of things, by the appearances either of art or philosophy. Forms of earthly beauty and words of human wisdom were valueless in his judgment, and far worse than valueless, if they deified vice and made falsehood attractive. He saw and heard with an earnestness of convic- tion which no Epicurean could have understood, as his tenderness of affection was morally far above the highest point of the Stoic’s impassive dignity. It is this tenderness of affection which first strikes us, when we turn He burned with zeal for that Gop whom, — of twenty-eight, Cicero lodged with an Epi- curean. On the occasion of his second visit, the attachment of the Epicureans to the gar- den of their founder was brought before him in a singular manner. ‘There lived at this time in exile at Athens C. Memmius. . . The figure which he had borne in Rome gave him great authority in Athens; and the coun- cil of Areopagus had granted him a piece of ground to build upon, where Epicurus for- merly lived, and where there still remained the old ruins of his walls. But this grant had given great offence to the whole body of the Enicureans, to see the remains of their master in danger of being destroyed. They had written to Cicero at Rome, to beg him to intercede with Memmius to consent to a resto ration of it; and now at Athens they renewed their instances, and prevailed on him to write about it. ... Cicero’s letter is drawn with much art and accuracy ; he laughs at the tri- fling zeal of these philosophers for the old rub- bish and paltry ruins of their founder, yet earnestly presses Memmius to indulge them in a prejudice contracted through weakness, nov wickedness.” — Middleton’s Life of (Cucere. Sect. viz. omar. x. : ST. PAUL ALONE IN ATHENS. ola from the manifold wonders of Athens to look upon the Apostle himself. The existence of this feeling is revealed to us in a few words in the Epistle to the Thessalonians.’ He was filled with anxious thoughts con- cerning those whom he had left in Macedonia, and the sense of solitude weighed upon his spirit. Silas and Timotheus were not arrived, and it was a burden and a grief to him to be “ left in Athens alone.” Modern travellers have often felt, when wandering alone through the streets of a foreign city, what it is to be out of sympathy with the place and the peo- ple. The heart is with friends who are far off; and nothing that is merely beautiful or curious can effectually disperse the cloud of sadness. If, in addition to this instinctive melancholy, the thought of an irreligious world, of evil abounding in all parts of society, and of misery following everywhere in its train, —if this thought also presses heavily on the spirit, —a state of mind is realized which may be some feeble approxi- mation to what was experienced by the Apostle Paul in his hour of dejection. But with us such feelings are often morbid and nearly allied to discontent. We travel for pleasure, for curiosity, for excitement. It is well if we can take such depressions thankfully, as the discipline of a worldly spirit. Paul travelled that he might give to others the knowledge of salvation. His sorrow was only the cloud that kindled up into the bright pillar of the divine presence. -He ever forgot himself in his Mas- ter’s cause. He gloried that God’s strength was made perfect in his weakness. It is useful, however, to us, to be aware of the human weak- ness of that heart which God made strong. Paul was indeed one of us. He loved his friends, and knew the trials both of anxiety and loneliness. As we advance with the subject, this and similar traits of the man ad- vance more into view, — and with them, and personified as it were in him, touching traits of the religion which he preached, come before us, — and we see, as we contemplate the Apostle, that the Gospel has not only deliverance from the coarseness of vice, and comfort for ruder sorrows, but sympathy and strength for the most sensitive and delicate minds. No were pensive melancholy, no vain regrets and desires, held sway over St. Paul, so as to hinder him in proceeding with the work appointed to him. He was “in Athens alone,” but he was there as the Apostle of God. No time was lost; and, according to his custom, he sought out his brethren of the scattered race of Israel. Though moved with grief and indignation when he saw the idolatry all around him, he deemed that his 1] Thess. iii. 1. It may be thought that chapter), and the depression and sense of too much is built here on this one expression. isolation evidently experienced by St. Paul But we think the remarks in the text will be when he was without companions. See, es justified by those who consider the tone of pecially, Acts xxviii. 15; and 2 Cor. ii. t3 tbe Epistles to the Thessalonians (see next vii.6. Compare the Introduction. 314 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. ' CHAP, x first thought should be given to his own people. They had a synagogue at Athens, as at Thessalonica; and in this synagogue he first proclaimed his Master. Jewish topics, however, are not brought before us promi- nently here. They are casually alluded to; and we are not informed whether the Apostle was welcomed or repulsed in the Athenian syna- gogue. The silence of Scripture is expressive: and we are taught that the subjects to which our attention is to be turned are connected, not with Judaism, but with Paganism. Before we can be prepared to con- sider the great speech, which was the crisis and consummation of this meeting of Christianity and Paganism, our thoughts must be given for a few moments to the characteristics of Athenian Religion and Athenian Philosophy. The mere enumeration of the visible objects with which the city of the — Athenians was crowded, bears witness (to use St. Paul’s own words) to their “‘ carefulness in Religion.””! The judgment of the Christian Apostle agreed with that of his Jewish contemporary Josephus, — with the proud boast of the Athenians themselves, exemplified in Isocrates and Plato, — — and with the verdict of a multitude of foreigners, from Livy to Julian, — all of whom unite in declaring that Athens was peculiarly devoted to religion. Replete as the whole of Greece was with objects of devotion, — the antiquarian traveller informs us that there were more gods in Athens than in all the rest of the country; and the Roman satirist hardly exag- gerates, when he says that it was easier to find a god there than a man. But the same enumeration which proves the existence of the religious sentiment in this people, shows also the valueless character of the religion which they cherished. It was a religion which ministered to art and amusement, and was entirely destitute of moral power. Taste wag gratified by the bright spectacle to which the Athenian awoke every morning of his life. Excitement was agreeably kept up by festal sea- sons, gay processions, and varied ceremonies. But all this religious dissipation had no tendency to make him holy. It gave him no victory over himself: it brought him no nearer to God. A religion which ad- dresses itself only to the taste is as weak as one that appeals only to the intellect. The Greek religion was a mere deification of human attributes and the powers of nature. It was doubtless better than other forms of idolatry which have deified the brutes ; but it had no real power to raise him to a higher position than that which he occupied by nature. It could not even keep him from falling continually to a lower degradation. To the Greek this world was every thing: he hardly even sought to rise above it. And thus all his life long, in the midst of every thing to gratify his taste and exercise his intellect, he remained in ignorance of God. ES 1 See below, on the Speech, p. $27. GREEK RELIGION. 315 otAP. x, This fact was tacitly recognized by the monuments in his own religious city. The want of something deeper and truer was expressed on the yery stones. As we are told by a Latin writer that the ancient Romans, when alarmed by an earthquake, were accustomed to pray, not to any specilied divinity, but to a god expressed in vague language, as avowedly Unknown ; so the Athenians acknowledged their ignorance of the True Deity by the altars ‘‘ with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GoD,” which are mentioned by Heathen writers,’ as well as by the inspired historian. Whatever the origin of these altars may have been,’ the true significance of the inscription is that which is pointed out by the Apostle himself.* The Athenians were ignorant of the right object of worship. But if we are to give a true account of Athenian religion, we must go beyond the darkness of mere ignorance into the deeper darkness of corruption and sin. The most shameless profligacy was encouraged by the public works of art, by the popular belief concerning the character of the gods, and by the ceremonies of the established worship. Authorities might be crowded in proof of this statement, both from Heathen and Christian writings.‘ It is enough to say with Seneca, that “ no other effect could pos- sibly be produced, but that all shame on account of sin must be taken away from men, if they believe in such gods ;”’ and with Augustine, that “ Plato himself, who saw well the depravity of the Grecian gods, and has seriously censured them, better deserves to be called a god, than those ministers of sin.” It would be the worst delusion to infer any good of the Grecian religion from the virtue and wisdom of a few great Athe- nians whose memory we revere. The true type of the character formed by the influences which surrounded the Athenian, was such a man as Alcibiades, — with a beauty of bodily form equal to that of one of the consecrated statues,— with an intelligence quick as that of Apollo or Mercury, — enthusiastic and fickle, — versatile and profligate,— able to admire the good, but hopelessly following the bad. And if we turn to the one great exception in Athenian history, — if we turn from Alcibiades to 1 The two Heathen writers who mention these altars are Pausanias and Philostratus. _ See above, pp. 298 and 308. 2 It is very probable that they originated from a desire to dedicate the altar to the god under whose censure the dedicator had falien, whom he had unwittingly offended, or whom, mm the particular case, he ought to propitiate. Richhorn thinks that these altars belonged to a period when writing was unknown, and that the inscription was added afterwards by those who were ignorant of the deity to which they were consecrated Jerome says that the in- scription was not as St. Paul quoted it, but in the form of a general dedication to all un- known gods. But unless St. Paul quoted the actual words, his application of the inscrip- tion would lose nearly all its point. Some have fancifully found in the inscription an al- lusion to the God of the Jews. For some of the notions of the older antiquarians concern- ing the “temple” of the Unknown God, see Leake. 5 Acts xvii. 23. * A great number of passages are collected together by Tholuck, in his Essay on the Nature and Moral Influence of Heathenism. 316 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. cas the friend who nobly and affectionately warned him, — whc, conscio of his own ignorance, was yet aware that God was best known. hy listen ing to the voice within, — yet even of Socrates we cannot say more than has been said in the following words: “* His soul was certainly in some alliance with the Holy God ; he certainly felt, in his demon or guardian spirit, the inexplicable nearness of his Father in heaven ; but he was des- titute of a view of the divine nature in the humble form of a servant, the Redeemer with the crown of thorns; he had no ideal conception of that true holiness, which manifests itself in the most humble love and the most affectionate humility. Hence, also, he was unable to become fully acquainted with his own heart, though he so greatly desired it. Hence, too, he was destitute of any deep humiliation and grief on ac count of his sinful wretchedness, of that true humility which no longer allows itself a biting, sarcastic tone of instruction; and destitute, like- wise, of any filial, devoted love. These perfections can be shared only by the Christian, who beholds the Redeemer as a wanderer upon earth in the form of a servant; and who receives in his own soul the sanctifying power of that Redeemer by intercourse with Him.” ! When we turn from the Religion of Athens to take a view of its Philosophy, the first name on which our eye rests is again that of Socra- tes.2. This is necessarily the case, not only because of his own singular and unapproached greatness ; but because he was, as it were, the point to which all the earlier schools converged, and from which the later rays of Greek philosophy diverged again. The earlier philosophical systems, such as that of Thales in Asia Minor, and Pythagoras in Italy, were limited to physical inquiries: Socrates was the first to call man to the contemplation of himself, and became the founder of ethical science.’ A new direction was thus given to all the philosophical schools which succeeded ; and Socrates may be said to have prepared the way for the gospel, by leading the Greek mind to the investigation of moral truth. He gave the impulse to the two schools, which were founded in the Lyceum and by the banks of the Cephisus,‘ and which have produced such vast results on human thought in every generation. We are not called here to discuss the doctrines of the Peripatetics and Academicians. Not that they are unconnected with the history of Christianity: Plato and Aristotle have had a great work appointed to them, not only as the | 1 Tholuck’s Essay on Heathenism, as above, maturité, elle change de caractére et de diree — p. 163. tion, et elle devient une philosophie morals, © 2 For Socrates, see especially the eighth sociale, humaine. C’est Socrate qui ouvre © volume of Grote’s History, and the Quarterly cette nouvelle ére, et qui en représente le ¥ — Review for December, 1830. ractére eu sa personne.” — Victor Cousin. 8 « La philosophie grecque avait été d’abord * See above, pp. 810 311. une philosophie de la nature; arrivée & sa coe auar, §, GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 317 eathen pioneers of the Truth before it was revealed, but as the educa tors of Christian minds in every age: the former enriched human thought with appropriate ideas for the reception of the highest truth in the highest form ; the latter mapped out all the provinces of human ‘nowledge, that Christianity might visit them and bless them: and the liistorian of the Church would have to speak of direct influence exerted on the Gospel by the Platonic and Aristotelian systems, in recounting the conflicts of the parties of Alexandria, and tracing the formation of the theology of the Schoolmen. But the biographer of St. Paul has only to speak of the Stoics and Epicureans. They only, among the various philosophers of the day, are mentioned as having argued with the Apostle ; and their systems had really more influence in the period in which the Gospel was established, though, in the Patristic and Medie- yal periods, the older systems, in modified forms, regained their sway. The Stoic and Epicurean, moreover, were more exclusively limited than other philosophers to moral investigations! —a fact which is tacitly im- plied by the proverbial application of the two words to moral principles and tendencies which we recognize as hostile to true Christianity. Zeno, the founder of the Stoie school, was a native of the same part of the Levant with St. Paul himself? He came from Cyprus to Athens at a time when patriotism was decayed and political liberty lost, and when a system, which promised the power of brave and self-sustaining endurance amid the general degradation, found a willing acceptance among the nobler minds. Thus in the Painted Porch, which, as we have said, had once been the meeting-place of the poets, those who, instead of yielding to the prevailing evil of the times, thought they were able to resist it, formed themselves into a school of philosophers. In the high tone of this school, and in some part of its ethical language, Stoicism was an apparent approximation to Christianity ; but on the whole, it was a hostile system, in its physics, its morals, and its theology. The Stoics condemned the worship of images and the use of temples, regarding them as nothing better than the ornaments of art. But they justified the popular polytheism, and, in fact, considered the gods of mythology as minor developments of the Great World-God, which summed up their 1 “Te caractére commun du Stoicisme et ee YEpicuréisme est de réduire presque en- titrement la philosophie @ la morale.” — V. Cousin * Ge was bom et Citium in Cyprus. See p- 189. His aitenticn was turned to phileso- phy by the books brought from Athens by his father, who was a merchant. Somewhere between the ages of twenty and thirty he was shipwrecked near the Pireus, and settled in Athens. The exact dates of his birth and death are not known, but he lived through the greater part of the century between B Cc. 350 and B.c. 250. A portrait-bust at Naples is as- signed to him, but there is some doubt whether it is to be referred to him or to Zeno the Eleatic. 318 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. belief concerning the origin and existence of the world. The § were Pantheists; and much of their language is a curious anticipatio of the phraseology of modern Pantheism. In their view, God was merel the Spirit or Reason of the Universe. The world was itself a rationa soul, producing all things out of itself, and resuming them all to itself again. Matter was inseparable from the Deity. He did not create: He only organized.! He merely impressed law and order on the substance, which was, in fact, himself. The manifestation of the Universe was only a period in the development of God. In conformity with these notions of the world, which substitute a sublime destiny for the belief in a per- sonal Creator and Preserver, were the notions which were held concern- ing the soul and its relations to the body. The soul was, in fact, cor- poreal. The Stoics said that at death it would be burnt, or return to be absorbed in God. Thus, a resurrection from the dead, in the sense in which the Gospel has revealed it, must have appeared to the Stoics irrational. Nor was their moral system less hostile to “the truth as it is in Jesus.” The proud ideal which was set before the disciple of Zeno was, a magnanimous self-denial, an austere apathy, untouched — by human passion, unmoved by change of circumstance. To the Wise man all outward things were alike. Pleasure was no good. Pain was no evil. All actions conformable to Reason were equally good; all actions contrary to Reason were equally evil. The Wise man lives according to Reason ; and living thus, he is perfect and self-sufficing. He reigns supreme as a king:? he is justified in boasting as a god. Nothing can well be imagined more contrary to the spirit of Christianity. Nothing could be more repugnant to the Stoic than the news of a “‘ Saviour,’ who has atoned for our sin, and is ready to aid our weakness. Christianity is the School of Humility: Stoicism was the Education of Pride. Christianity is a discipline of life: Stoicism was nothing better than an apprenticeship for death. And fearfully were the fruits of its principle illustrated both in its earlier and later disciples. Its first two leaders * died by their own hands; like the two Romans*® whose names 1 “Te Dieu des Stoiciens n’a pas créé la nature, ii l’a formée et organisée.”— V. Cousin: who, however, will not allow the Stoical system to be Pantheistic. 2 Hor. Sat. t. iii., Ep. 1. i. ® “Te Stoicisme est essentiellement soli- taire ; c’est le soin exclusif de son &me, sans regard & celle des autres; et, comme la seule chose importante est la pureté de l’4me, quand eette pureté est trop en péril, quand on déses- pere d’étre victorieux dans la lutte, on peut la terminer comme |’a terminée Caton. Ainsi la philosophie n’est plus qu’un apprentissage de la mort et non de la vie ; elle tend & la mort par son image, l’apathie et l’ataraxie, et se résout défini- tivement en un €goisme sublime.”” —V. Cousin. * Zeno and Cleanthes. And yet Cleanthes was the author of that hymn which is, per- haps, the noblest approximation to a Christian hymn that heathenism has produced. In the speech below (Acts xvii. 28) there is some doubt whether the Apostle quotes from Cleanthes or Aratus. See the note there 5 Cato and Seneca. STOICS AND EPICUREANS. 319 first rise to the memory when the school of the Stoics is mentioned. But Christianity turns the desperate resolution, that seeks to escape disgrace by death, into the anxious question, “‘ What must I do to be saved?” ! It softens the pride of stern indifference into the consolation of mutual sympathy. How great is the contrast between the Stoic idea! and the character of Jesus Christ! How different is the acquiescence in an iron destiny from the trust in a merc.ful and watchful Providence ! How infinitely inferior is that sublime egotism, which looks down with contempt on human weakness, to the religion which tells us that “ they who mourn are blessed,” and which commands us to “ rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep”! If Stoicism, in its full development, was utterly opposed to Christianity, the same may be said of the very primary principle of the Epicurean? school. If the Stoics were Pantheists, the Epicureans were virtually Atheists. Their philosophy was a system of materialism, in the strictest sense of the word. In their view, the world was formed by an accidental concourse of atoms, and was not in any sense created, or even modified, by the Divinity. They did indeed profess a certain belief in what were called gods; but these equivocal divinities were merely phantoms, — im pressions on the popular mind, — dreams, which had no objective reality, or at least exercised no active influence on the physical world or the business of life. The Epicurean deity, if self-existent at all, dwelt apart, in serene indifference to all the affairs of the universe. The universe was a great accident, and sufficiently explained itself without any reference to a higher power. The popular mythology was derided, but the Epicureans had no positive faith in any thing better. As there was no creator, so there was no moral governor. All notions of retribution and of judg- ment to come were of course forbidden by such a creed. The principles of the atomic theory, when applied to the constitution of man, must have caused the resurrection to appear an absurdity. The soul was nothing without the body ; or rather, the soul was itself a body, composed of finer atoms, or at best an unmeaning compromise between the material and immaterial. Both body and soul were dissolved together and dissipated into the elements; and when this occurred, all the life of man was ended. —e There are some difficulties and differences of opinion, with regard to the movements of Siles and Timotheus, between the time when St. Paul left them in Macedonia and their rejoining him in Achaia. The facts which are distinctly stated are as follows. (1.) Silas and Timotheus were left at Bercea (Acts xvii. 14) when St. Paul went to Athens. We are not told why they were left there, or what commissions they received ; but the Apostle sent a message from Athens (Acts xvii. 15) that they should follow him with all speed, and (Acts xvii. 16) he waited for them there. (2.) The Apostle was rejoined by them when at Corinth (Acts xviii. 5). ‘We are not informed how they had been em- ployed in the interval, but they came “from Macedonia.” It is not distinctly said that they came together, but the impression at first sight is that they did. (3.) St. Paul informs us (1 Thess. iii. 1) that he was “left in Athens alone,” and that this solitude was in consequence of Timothy having been sent to Thessalonica (1 Thess. iii. 2). Though it is not expressly stated that Timothy was sent from Athens, the first impression is that he was. Thus there is a seeming discrepancy be tween the Acts and Epistles; a journey of Timotheus to Athens, previous to his arriva} with Silas at Corinth, appearing to be men- tioned by St. Paul, and to be quite unnoticed by St. Luke. Paley, in the Hore Pauline, says that the Epistle “ virtually asserts that Timothy came to the Apostle at Athens,” and assumes that it is “necessary” to suppose this, in order to reconcile the history with the Epistle. And he points out three intimations in the history, which make the arrival, though not expressly mentioned, extremely probable:— first, the message that they should come with all speed ; secondly, the fact of his waiting for them; thirdly, the absence of any appearance of haste in his departure from Athens to Corinth. ‘Paul had ordered Timothy to follow him with- out delay: he waited at Athens on purpose that Timothy might come up with him, and he staid there as long as his own choice led him to continue.” This explanation is satisfactory. But twe others might be suggested, which would equally remove the difficulty. It is not expressly said that Timotheus wa GBS aes amar, XL ARRIVAL OF SILAS AND TIMOTHEUS. 339 energy with which St. Paul resisted the opposition, which was even now beginning to hem in the progress of the truth. The remarkable word’ which is used to describe the “ pressure” which he experienced at this moment in the course of his teaching at Corinth, is the same which is employed of our Lord Himself in a solemn passage of the Gospels? when He says, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished !” us human help to aid us in what He requires us to do. He who felt our human difficulties has given When St. Paul’s companions rejoined him, he was re-enforced with new earnestness and sent from Athens to Thessalonica. St. Paul was anxious, as we have seen, to revisit the Thessalonians; but since he was hindered from doing so, it is highly probable (as Hem- sen and Wieseler suppose) that he may have sent Timotheus to them from Berea. Silas wight be sent on some similar commission, and this would explain why the two companions were left behind in Macedonia. This would necessarily cause St. Paul to be “left alone in Athens.” Such solitude was doubtless pain- ful to him ; but the spiritual good of the new converts was at stake. The two companions, after finishing the work intrusted to them, finally rejoined the Apostle at Corinth. [We should observe that the phrase is “from Macedonia,” not “from Berea.”] That he “waited for them” at Athens need cause us no difficulty : for in those days the arrival of travellers could not confidently be known be- forehand. When he leit Athens and pro- ceeded to Corintli, be knew that Silas and Timothens could easily ascertain his move ments, and follow his steps, by help of infor- mation obtained at the synagogue. But, again, we may reasonably suppose, that, in the course of St. Paul’s stay at Corinth, he may have paid a second visit to Athens, after the first arrival of Timotheus and Silas from Macedonia; and that during some such visit he may have sent Timotheus to Thessalonica. This view may be taken without our supposing, with Boéttger, that the First Epistle to the Thessalonians was written at Athens. Schrader and others imagine a visit to that city at a later period of his life; but this view cannot be admitted without de- ranging the arguments for the date of 1 Thess., which was evidently written soon after leay- ing Macedonia. Two further remarks may be added. (1.) If Timothy did rejoin St. Paul at Athens, we need not infer that Silas was not with him, from the fact that the name of Silas is not mentioned. It is usually taken for granted that the second arrival of Timothy (1 Thess. iii. 6) is identical with the coming of Silas and Timotheus to Corinth (Acts xviii. 5) ; but here we see that only Timothy is men- tioned, doubtless because he was most recently and familiarly known at Thessalonica, and per- haps, also, because the mission of Silas was to some other place. (2.) On the other hand, it is not neccessary to assume, because Silas and Timotheus are mentioned together (Acts xviii. 5), that they came together. All condi- tions are satisfied if they came about the same time. If they were sent on missions to two different places, the times of their return would not necessarily coincide. [Something may be implied in the form of the Greek phrase, ‘‘ Silas as well as Timotheus.”] In considering 2l] these jourmers, it is very need- ful to take into account that they would be modified by the settled or unseitled siate of the country with regard to bandits, and by the various opportunities of travelling, which depend on the season and the weather, and the sailing of vessels. Hinderances connected with some such considerations may be referred to in Phil. iv. 10. 1 The state of mind, whatever it was, is clearly connected with the coming of Timo- thy and Silas, and seems to imply increasing zeal with increasing opposition. ‘“‘ Instabat verbo.” Compare avdyxy, 1 Thess. iii. 7. The A. V. rests on an incorrect reading, though the general resuli is the same. Hack- ett’s note is very much to the purpose. “He was engrossed with the word. The arrival of his associates relieved him from anxiety which had pressed heavily upon him; and he could now devote himself with unabated energy te his work.” 2 Luke xii. 50. 840 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar, 3 vigor in combating the difficulties which met him. He acknowledges himself that he was at Corinth “in weakness, and in fear and much trembling ;” ' but “ God, who comforteth those that are cast down, com- forted him by the arrival” * of his friends. It was only one among many instances we shall be called to notice, in which, at a time of weakness, “he saw the brethren and took courage.” ® But this was not the only result of the arrival ‘of St. Paul’s com panions. Timotheus*‘ had been sent, while St. Paul was still at Athens, to revisit and establish the Church of Thessalonica. The news he brought on his return to St. Paul caused the latter to write to these be- loved converts; and, as.we have already observed, the letter which he sent them is the first of his Epistles which has been preserved to us. It seems to have been occasioned partly by his wish to express his earnest affection for the Thessalonian Christians, and to encourage them under their persecutions ; but it was also called for by some errors into which they had fallen. Many of the new converts were uneasy about the state of their relatives or friends, who had died since their conversion. They feared that these departed Christians v lose the happihess of witness- ing their Lord’s second coming, which they expected soon to behold. In this expectation others had given themselves up to a religious excitement, under the influence of which they persuaded themselves that they need not continue to work at the business of their callings, but might claim support from the richer members of the Church. Others, again, had yielded to the same temptations which afterwards influenced the Corin- thian Church, and despised the gift of prophesying® in comparison with those other gifts which afforded more opportunity for display. These reasons, and others which will appear in the letter itself, led St. Paul to write to the Thessalonians as follows : — FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.® PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, TO THE CHURCH saiutation. OF THE THESSALONIANS, in God our Father, and our Lord Jesus © Christ. 1 1 Cor. ii. 38. 2 2 Cor. vii. 6. 3 Acts xxviii. 15. tude in Athens, p. 313. * See above, p. 331. 5 1 Thess. v. 20. 5 The correctness of the date here assigned to this Epistle may be proved as follows : — (1.) It was written not long after the conver- See above on his soli- sion of the Thessalonians (1 Thess. i. 8, 9), while the tidings of it were still spreading (the verb is in the present tense) through Macedo- nia and Achaia, and while St. Paul could speak of himself as only taken from them for a short season (1 Thess. ii. 17). (2.) St. Paul had been recently at Athens (iii. 1), and had already preached in Achaia (i. 7,8). (8.) Timotheus and Silas were just returned (iii. ‘uf be * CHAP, XI, Grace! be to you and peace.’ Thanksgiving for their cop - version. FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 341 I give* continual thanks to God for you all, and make i. mention of you in my prayers without ceasing ; remembering, in the presence of our God and Father, the working of your faith, and the labors of your love, and the steadfastness of your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Brethren, beloved by God, I know how God has chosen you; for my Glad-tidings came to you, not only in word, but also in power ; with the might of the Holy Spirit, and with the full assurance of belief.> As you, likewise, know the manner in which I behaved my- self among you, for your sakes. Moreover, you followed in my steps, and 6) from Macedonia, which happened (Acts xviii. 5) seon after St. Paul’s first arrival at Corinth. We haye- already observed (Ch. IX. p. 285), that the ch r of these Epistl the Thessalonians proves ho predominalt was the Gentile element in that church, and that they are among the very few letters of St. Paul in which not a single qkotation from the Old Testament is to be found. The use, however, of the word “Satan” (1 Thess. ii. 18, and 2 Thess. ii. 9) might be adduced as implying some previous knowledge of Juda- ism in those to whom the letter was addressed. See also the note on 2 Thess. ii. 8. 1 This salutation occurs in all St. Panl’s Epistles, except the three Pastoral Epistles, where it is changed into “Grace, mercy, and peace.” 2 The remainder or this verse has been introduced into the Textus Receptus by mis- take in this place, where it is not found in the best MSS. It properly belongs to 2 Thess. 2. 8 Jt is imporiant to observe in this place, once for all, that St. Paul uses “we,” accord- ing to the idiom of many ancient writers, where a modern writer would use “J.” Great confusion is caused in many passages by not translating, according to his true meaning, in the first person singular ; for thus it often hap- pens, that what he spoke of himself individ- ually appears to us as if it were meant for a general truth: instances will occur repeatedly of this in the Epistles to the Corinthians, especially the Second. It might have been supposed, that when St. Paul associated others with himself in the salutation at the beginning of an epistle, he meant to indicate that the epistle proceeded from them as well as from himself; but an examination of the body of the Epistle will always convince us that such was not the case, but that he was the sole author. For example, in the present Epistle, Silvanus and Timotheus are joined with him in the salutauon; but yet we find (ch. iii. 1, 2) — “we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother.” Now, who was it who thought fit to be left at Athens alone? Plainly St. Paul himself, and he only ; neither Timotheus (who is hers expressly excluded) nor Silvanus (who proba- bly did not rejoin St. Paul till afterwards at Corinth, Acts xviii. 5, and see the note, p- 338) being included. Ch. iii. 6 is not less decisive —“ but now that Timotheus is just come to us from you’’— when we remember that Silvanus came with Timotheus. Several other passages in the Epistle prove the same thing, but these may euffice. It is true, that sometimes the ancient idiom in which a writer spoke of himself in the plu- ral is more graceful, and seems less egotistical, than the modern usage; but yet (the modern usage being what it is) a literal translation of the jyuei¢ very often conveys a confused idea of the meaning ; and it appears better, therefore, to translate according to the modern idiom. * St. Paul is here referring to the time when he first visited and converted the Thessalo- nians ; the “ hope ” spoken of was the hope of our Lord’s coming. 5 Jn illustration of the word here we may refer to Rom. xiv. 5, and Heb. x. 22. bS on THY § 342 in the steps of the Lord; and you received the word in great tribula- tion,’ with joy which came from the Holy Spirit. become patterns to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST, PAUL. And thus you have from you the word of the Lord has been sounded forth,’ and not only has its sound been heard in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place the tidings of your faith towards God have been spread abroad, so that I have no need to speak of it at all. For others are telling of their own accord,’ concerning me, what welcome you gave me, and how you~ forsook your idols, and turned to serve God, the living and the true; and to wait for His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath. For, you know yourselves, brethren, that my coming He reminds them of his amongst you was not fruitless; but after I had borne suffer- °w™ example ing and outrage (as you know) at Philippi, I trusted in my God, and boldly declared to you God’s Glad-tidings, in the midst of great conten-— For my exhortations are not prompted by imposture, nor by tion. lasciviousness, nor do I speak in guile.‘ But as God has proved my fitness for the charge of the Glad-tidings, so I speak, not seeking to please men, but God, who proves our hearts. For never did I use flatter- ing words, as you know; nor hide covetousness under fair pretences, (God is witness) ; nor did I seek honor from men, either from you or others; although I might have been burdensome, as Christ’s apostle.’ For | I : But I behaved myself among you with gentleness; and as a nurse cherishes her own children,’ so in my fond affection it was my joy to give you not only the Glad-tidings of God, but my own life also, because you~ were dear to me. 1 This tribulation they brought on them- selves by receiving the Gospel. 2 See p. 279, n. 8. 8 « Themselves,” emphatic. * In this and the following verses, we have allusions to the accusations brought against St. Paul by his Jewish opponents. He would of course have been accused of imposture, as the preacher of a miraculous revelation; the charge of impurity might also have been sug- gested to impure minds, as connected with the conversion of female proselytes; the charge of seeking to please men was repeated by the Juda- vers in Galatia. See Gal. i. 10. 5 One of the grounds upon which St. Panl’s For you remember, brethren, my toilsome labors; Judaizing opponents denied his apostolic au- | thority was the fact that he (in general) refused to be maintained by his converts, whereas our Lord had given to His apostles the right of — being so maintained. St. Paul fully explains — his reasons for not availing himself of that right in several passages, especially 1 Cor. ix. ; and he here takes care to allude to his posses- sion of the right, while mentioning his renun- ciation of it. Cf. 2 Thess. iii. 9. § « Her own children.” See p. 284, n. 4 It will be observed, also, that we adopt a different punctuation from that which has led to the received version. OHALP. XI. FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 343 how I worked both night and day, that I might not be burdensome to any of you, while I proclaimed to you the message’ which I bore, the Glad-tidings of God. witness, how holy, and just, and unblamable were my dealings towards you that believe. You know how earnestly, as a father his own children, I exhorted, and entreated, and adjured each one among you to walk worthy of God, by whom you are called into His own kingdom and glory. Wherefore I also give continual thanks to God, because, when you heard from me the spoken word? of God, you received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God; who Himself works effectually in you that believe. For you, brethren, followed in the steps of the churches of God in Judza, which are in Christ Jesus, inasmuch as you suffered the like persecution from your own countrymen, which they endured from the Jews; who killed both the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and who have driven me forth [from city to city*]; a people displeasing to God, and enemies to all mankind, who would hinder me from speaking to the Gentiles for their salvation; continuing always to fill up the measure of their sins ; but the wrath [of God] has overtaken them to destroy them.‘ But I, brethren, having been torn from you for a short season (in presence, not in heart), sought very earnestly to behold you [again] face to face.® Wherefore I, Paul (for my own part), desired to visit you once and again; but Satan hindered me. For what is my hope or joy? what is the crown wherein I glory ? what but your own selves, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His appearing ? ® Yea, you are my glory and my joy. And his joy in hearing of their well- doing from Timotheus. mined willingly to be left at Athens alone; and I sent Timo- theus, my brother, and God’s fellow-worker’? in the Glad-tidings of Christ, that he might strengthen your constancy, and exhort you con- 1 The original word involves the idea of a herald proclaiming a message. 2 Literally word received by hearing, i. e. spoken word, Cf. Rom. x. 16. 8 Referring to his recent expulsion from Thessalonica and Bercea. * More literally, ‘‘ to make an end of them.” ® See what is said in the preceding chapter in connection with Berea. ® The anticipative blending of the future with the present here is parallel with and explains Rom. ii. 15, 16. 7 There is some doubt about the reading here. That which we adopt is analogous to 1 Cor. iii. 9. The boldness of the expression probably led to the variationin the MSS. On the fact mentioned in these two verses, see the) note at p. 338 above. Ye are yourselves witnesses, and God also isii.1@ ie vy *5 20 Therefore, when I was no longer able to forbear, I deter- iii. 1 2 344 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8ST. PAUL ii. 8 cerning your faith, that none of you should waver in these afflictions ; since 4 you know yourselves that such is our appointed lot, for when I was with you, I forewarned you that affliction awaited us, as you know that it befell. © a Mo mm 6 For this cause, I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent to learn tidings of your faith ; fearing lest perchance the tempter had tempted you, — and lest my labor should be in vain. But now that Timotheus has returned from you to me, and has brought me the glad tidings of your faith and love, and that you still keep an affectionate remembrance of me, © longing to see me, as I to see you— I have been comforted, brethren, on your behalf, and all my own tribulation and distress! has been lightened by your faith. For now I live,’ if you be steadfast in the Lord. What thanksgiving can I render to God for you, for all the joy which you cause me in the presence of my God? Night and day, I pray exceeding earnestly to see you face to face, and to complete what is yet wanting in your faith. Now, may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus,’ direct my path towards you. Meantime, may the Lord cause you tc increase and abound in love to one another and to all men; even as | to you. And so may He keep your hearts steadfast and unblamable in holiness, in the presence of our God and Father, at the appearing of ow Lord Jesus, with all his saints. Furthermore, brethren, I beseech and exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus, that, as I taught you how to walk that “U4 you might please God, you would do so more and more. For you know what commands I delivered to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. This, then, is the will of God, even your sanctification ; that you should keep yourselves from fornication, that each of you should learn to master his body,‘ in sanctification and honor; not in lustful passions, like the Heathen who know not God; that no man wrong his brother in this matter by transgression.’ All such the Lord will punish, as I forewarned you by my testimony. For God called us not to uncleanness, but His 1 See p. 339, and note. may be said to gain possession of his own body 2 Compare Rom. vii. 9. when he subdues those lusts which tend to 8 The word for “ Christ” is omitted by the destroy his mastery over it. Hence the inter best MSS. both here and in verse 15. pretation which we have adopted. * The original cannot mean to possess; it 5 The reading adopted in the Receiver means, to gain possession of, to acquire for one’s ‘Text is allowed by all modern critics to be mon use. The use of “vessel” for body is wrong. The obvious translation is, “in the coramon, aud found 2 Cor.iv.7. Nowaman matter in question.” JHAP. XI, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 345 ealling is a holy calling.’ despises not man, but God, who also has given unto me? His Holy Spirit. Eanoration, Concerning brotherly love it is needless that 1 should write oa to you; for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another ; as you show by deeds towards all the brethren through the whole of Macedonia. But I exhort you, brethren, to abound still more; and be it your ambition to live quietly, and to mind your own concerns ;* and to work with your own hands (as I commanded you); that the seemly order of your lives may be manifest to those without, and that you may need help from no man.’ But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not like other men, who have no hope.> For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also will God, through Jesus,’ bring back those who sleep, together with Him. This I declare to you, in the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who survive to the appearing of the Lord, shall not come before those who sleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the shout of war,’ the Archangel’s voice, and the trumpet of God; and first the dead in Christ® shall rise ; then we the living, who remain, shall be caught up with them among the clouds*® to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall be forever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort” one another with these words. Happiness of e Chris The sudden- coming. 8, 0 should write to you. For yourselves know perfectly that the Vv" day of the Lord will come as a robber in the night ; and while fulness. Wherefore, he that despises these my wordsiy 1 Literally “in holiness,” not “unto holi- ness,” asin A. V. 2 We have retained “us” with the Re ceived Text, on the ground of context; al- though the weight of MS. authority is in favor of “‘ you.” % The original expression is almost equiva- lent to “ ne ambitious to be unambitious.” + Tt seems better to take this as masculine than as neuter. We may compare with these verses the similar directions in the speech at Miletus, Acts xx. 5 This hopelessness in death is illustrated by the funeral-inscriptions found at Thessa- toniea, referred to p. 286. § This connection is more natural than that of the Authorized Version. 7 The word denotes the shout used in baitle. 8 Equivalent to “they that sleep in Christ” (1 Cor. xv. 18). ® “7 Borne aloft from earth by upbearing clouds,” as it is rendered by Professor Ellicott in his Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord, p. 234. See his note there, and in his Comm. on 1 Thess. ii. — 3.] 10 This verb, originally to call to one’s side, thence sometimes to comfort, more usually te exhort, must be translated according to the context. (See on Barnabas, pp. 109, 155, and notes. — B.) on Ld =] 10 11 12 13 14 15 1€ 17 18 But of the times and seasons, brethren, you need not that Iv. 1 2 3 y.4 13 14 15 346 men say Peace and Safety, destruction shall come upon them in moment, as the pangs of travail upon a woman with child; and they shall find no escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that The Day should come upon you as the robber on sleeping men;' for you are al the children of the light and of the day. of darkness; therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober ; for they who slumber, slumber in the night ; and they who are drunken, are drunken in the night; but let us, who are of the day, sober ; putting on faith and love for a breastplate ; and fora helmet, the For not to abide His wrath, but to obtain salvation hath God ordained us, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with Him. Wherefore exhort one another, and build one another up, even as you hope of salvation. already do. I beseech you, brethren, to acknowledge those who are labor- The Prosbyter ing among you; who preside over you in the Lord’s name, garded. I beseech you to esteem them very highiy in And maintain peace among yourselves. and give you admonition. love, for their work’s sake. Postscript [ADDRESSED TO THE PRESBYTERS (?) ].* But you, brethren, I exhort ; admonish the disorderly, en- courage the timid, support the weak, be patient with all. Take *™*?7*™ heed that none of you return evil for evil, but strive to do good always, both to one another and to all men. 1 There is some authority for the accusative plural, — “‘as the daylight surprises robbers ; ” and this sort of transition, where a word sug- gests a rapid change from one metaphor to another, is not unlike the style of St. Paul. We may add that the A. V. in translating the word “‘ thief,” both here and elsewhere, gives an inadequate conception of the word. It is in fact the modern Greek “klepht,” and de- notes a bandit, who comes to murder as well as to steal. For the meaning of “the Day ” (the great day, the day of Judgment), compare 1 Cor. iii. 18. 2 The full meaning is, “build one another up, that you may all together grow into a temple of God.” The word is frequently used by St. Paul in this sense, which is fully ex- THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. We are not of the night, nor Duties of the Rejoice evermore; pray without plained 1 Cor. iii. 10-17. It is very difficult to express the meaning by any single word in English, and yet it would weaken the expres- sion too much if it were diluted into a pe riphrasis fully expressing its meaning. 8 It appears probable, as Chrysostom thought, that those who are here directed “to admonish” are the same who are described immediately before (v. 12) as “giving admo- nition.’’ Also they are very solemnly directed — (v. 27) to see that the letter be read to all the Christians in Thessalonica; which seems to imply that they presided over the Christian assemblies. At the same time it must be ad-— mitted that many of the duties here enjoined are duties of all Christians. EE OWAP. XI. THE MALEVOLENCE OF THE JEWS. 847 _ceasing; continue to give thanks, whatever be your lot; for this is the v.17 will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not [the manifes-18,19 tation of | the Spirit; think not meanly of! prophesyings; try all [which 20 the prophets utter]; reject? the false, but keep the good; hold your- 21 selves aloof from every form of evil.’ 22 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; 28 and may your spirit and soul and body all together be preserved Concluding prayers and salutations. blameless at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who 24 calls you; He will fulfil my prayer. Brethren, pray for me. Greet all the brethren with the kiss of holi- 25 ness. I adjure you,’ in the name of the Lord, to see that this letter be 926 read to all the ® brethren. 27 Autograph = The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.* 28 The strong expressions used in this letter concerning the malevolence of the Jews, lead us to suppose that the Apostle was thinking not only of their past opposition at Thessalonica,’ but of the difficulties with which they were beginning to surround him at Corinth. At the very time of his writing, that same people who had “killed the Lord Jesus and their 1 We know, from the First Epistle to Corinth, that this warning was not unneeded in the early church. (See 1 Cor. xiv.) The gift of prophesying (7. e. inspired preaching) had less the appearance of a supernatural gift then several of the other Charisms; and hence it was thought little of by those who sought more for display than edification. 2 This word includes the notion of reject- ing that which does not abide the test. 8 Not “appearance” (A. V.), but species under a genus. 4 This alludes to the same custom which is referred to in Rom. xvi. 16; 1 Cor. xvi. 20; 2 Cor. xiii. 12. We find a full account of it, as it was practised in the early church, in the Apestolic Constitutions (book ii. ch. 57). The men and women were placed in separate parts of the building where they met for worship; and then, before receiving the Holy Com- munion, the men kissed the men, and the women the women: before the ceremony, ® proclamation was made by ‘the principal - deacon ; — “‘ Let none bear malive against any ; {et none do it in hypocrisy.” |“ Then,” it is added, “let the men salute one another, and the women one another, with the kiss of the Lord.” It should be remembered by English readers, that a kiss was in ancient times (as, indeed, it is now in many foreign countries) the ordinary mode of salutation between friends when they met. 5 Whom does he adjure here? Plainly those to whom, in the first instance, the letter was addressed, or rather delivered. Now these must probably have been the Presbyters. § The word for “holy” is omitted in the best MSS. ’ 7 It should be remarked, that this conclud- ing benediction is used by St. Paul at the end of the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians (under a longer form in 2 Cor.), Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Thessalonians. And, in a shorter form, it is used also at the end of all his other Epistles. It seems (from what he says in 2 Thess. iii. 17, 18) to have been always written with his own hand. 5 The “Amen” of the Received Text is « later addition, not found in the best MSS. % See above, Chap. IX. 348 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. own prophets,” and had already driven Paul “ from city to city,” wer showing themselves “a people displeasing to God, and enemies to all mankind,” by endeavoring to hinder him from speaking to the Gentiles for their salvation (1 Thess. ii. 15, 16). Such expressions would natu- rally be used in a letter written under the circumstances described in the Acts (xviii. 6), when the Jews were assuming the attitude of an organ- ized and systematic resistance,’ and assailing the Apostle in the language of blasphemy,? like those who had accused our Saviour of casting out devils by Beelzebub. Now, therefore, the Apostle left the Jews, and turned to the Gentiles. He withdrew from his own people with one of those symbolical actions, which, in the East, have all the expressiveness of language,’ and which, having received the sanction of our Lord Himself,‘ are equivalent to the denunciation of woe. He shook the dust off his garments,> and pro- claimed himself innocent of the blood * of those who refused to listen to the voice which offered them salvation. A proselyte, whose name was Justus,’ opened his door to the rejected Apostle ; and that house became thenceforward the place of public teaching. While he continued doubt less to lodge with Aquila and Priscilla (for the Lord had said * that His Apostle should abide in the house where the “Son of peace” was), he met his flock in the house of Justus. Some place convenient for general meeting was evidently necessary for the continuance of St. Paul’s work in the cities where he resided. So long as possible, it was the Synagogue. When he was exiled from the Jewish place of worship, or unable from other causes to attend it, it was such a place as providential circumstances might suggest. At Rome it was his own hired lodging (Acts xxviii. 30): © at Ephesus it was the School of Tyrannus (Acts xix. 9). Here at Corinth it was a house “contiguous to the Synagogue,” offered on the emergency for the Apostle’s use by one who had listened and believed. It may readily be supposed that no convenient place could be found in the manufactory of Aquila and Priscilla. There, too, in the society of Jews lately exiled from Rome, he could hardly have looked for a congregation of Gentiles; whereas Justus, being a proselyte, was exactly in a position to receive under his roof, indiscriminately, both Hebrews and Greeks. Special mention is made of the fact, that the house of Justus was — ‘contiguous to the Synagogue.” We are not necessarily to infer from — ‘ St. Luke here uses a military term. 7 Nothing more is known of him. The * Compare Matt. xii. 24-81. name is Latin. 5 See Acts xiii. 51 [p. 162]. 8 Luke x. 6,7. St. Paul “abode” (imp.) * Mark vi. 11. 5 Acts xviii. 6. in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (vy. 3), — ® See Acts v.28, xx. 26. Also Ezek. xxxiii. | while it is merely said that he “went to” &. 9; and Matt. xxvii. 24. (aor.) that of Justus (v. 7). BaP. Kl, CORINTHIANS REFEREED TO BY 8ST. PAUL. 3439 this that St. Paul had any deliberate motive for choosing that locality. Though it might be that he would show the Jews, as in a visible symbol, that “ by their sin salvation had come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy,” !'— while at the same time he remained as near to them as possible, to assure them of his readiness to return at the moment of their repentance. Whatever we may surmise concerning the motive of this choice, certain consequences must have followed from the contiguity of the house and the Synagogue, and some incident resulting from it may have suggested the mention of the fact. The Jewish and Christian con- gregations would often meet face to face in the street ; and all the success of the Gospel would become more palpable and conspicuous. And even if we leave out of view such considerations as these, there is a certain interest attaching to any phrase which tends to localize the scene of Apos- tulical labors. When we think of events that we have witnessed, we always reproduce in the mind, however dimly, some image of the place where the eyents have occurred. This condition of human thought is common to us and to the Apostles. The house of John’s mother at Jerusalem (Acts xii.), the proseucha by the water-side at Philippi (Acts xvi.), were asso- ciated with many recollections in the minds of the earliest Christians. And when St. Paul thought, even many years afterwards, of what occurred on his first visit to Corinth, the images before the “inward eye” would be not merely the general aspect of the houses and temples of Corinth, with the great citadel overtowering them, but the Synagogue and the house of Justus, the incidents which happened in their neighbor- hood, and the gestures and faces of those who encountered each other in the street. If an interest is attached to the places, a still deeper interest is attached to the persons, referred to in the history of the planting of the Church. In the case of Corinth, the names both of individuals and families are mentioned in abundance. The family of Stephanas is the first that occurs to us; for they seem to have been the earliest Corinthian converts. St. Paul himself speaks of that household, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (xvi. 15), as “ the first-fruits of Achaia.”? Another Chris- tian of Corinth, well worthy of the recollection of the church of after- ages, was Caius (1 Cor. i. 14), with whom St. Paul found a home on his next visit (Rom. xvi. 23), as he found one now with Aquila and Priscilla. We may conjecture, with reason, that his present host and hostess had now given their formal adherence to St. Paul, and that they left the 1 Rom. xi. 11. ia” were retained, we should be at liberty to 2 In Rom. xvi. 5 we hold “ Asia” to be suppose that Epenetus was a member of the undoubtedly the right reading. See note on household of Stephanas, and thus we might the passage. If however, the reading“ Acha- reconcile 1 Cor. xvi. 15 with Rom. xvi. 5. 850 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. Synagogue with him. After the open schism had taken place, we find the Church rapidly increasing. ‘ Many of the Corinthians began to be- lieve when they heard, and came to receive baptism.” (Acts xviii. 8.) We derive some information from St. Paul’s own writings concerning the character of those who became believers. Not many of the philosophers, —not many of the noble and powerful (1 Cor. i. 26),— but many of those who had been profligate and degraded (1 Cor. vi. 11), were called. The ignorant of this world were chosen to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong. From St. Paul’s language we infer that the Gentile converts were more numerous than the Jewish. Yet one signal victory of the Gospel over Judaism must be mentioned here, the conversion of Crispus (Acts xviii. 8), who, from his position as “ruler of the Synagogue,” may be presumed to have been a man of learning and high character, and who now, with all his family, joined himself to the new community. His conversion was felt to be so impor- tant, that the Apostle deviated from his usual practice (1 Cor. i. 14-16), and baptized him, as well as Caius and the household of Stephanas, with his own hand. ; Such an event as the baptism of Crispus must have had a great effec in exasperating the Jews against St. Paul. Their opposition grew with his success. As we approach the time when the second letter to the Thessalonians was written, we find the difficulties of his position increas- ing. In the first Epistle the writer’s mind is almost entirely occupied with the thought of what might be happening at Thessalonica: in the second, the remembrance of his own pressing trial seems to mingle xaore conspicuously with the exhortations and warnings addressed to those who are absent. He particularly asks for the prayers of the Thessalonians, that he may be delivered from the perverse and wicked men around him, who were destitute of faith. It is evident that he was in a condition of fear and anxiety. This is further manifest from the words which were heard by him in a vision vouchsafed at this criti- cal period.2 We have already had occasion to observe, that such timely visitations were granted to the Apostle, when he was most in need of supernatural aid.’ In the present instance, the Lord, who spoke to him in the night, gave him an assurance of His presence,‘ and a promise of safety, along with a prophecy of good success at Corinth, and a command” io speak boldly without fear, and not to keep silence. From this we may infer that his faith in Christ’s presence was failing, that fear was beginning to produce hesitation, —and that the work of extending the 7 » See below, 2 Thess. iii. 2. ® See p. 243. * Acts xviii. 9, 10 * Compare Matt. xxviii. 20- THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD. 30] Gospel was in danger of being arrested.’ The servant of God received conscious strength in the moment of trial and conflict; and the divine words were fulfilled in the formation of a large and flourishing church at Corinth, and in a safe and continued residence in that city, through the space of a year and six months. Not many months of this period had elapsed when St. Paul found it necessary to write again to the Thessalonians. The excitement which he had endeavored to allay by his first Epistle was not arrested, and the fanatical portion of the church had availed themselves of the impres sion produced by St. Paul’s personal teaching to increase it. It will be remembered that a subject on which he had especially dwelt while he was at Thessalonica,’ and to which he had also alluded in his first Epistle,’ was the second advent of our Lord. We know that our Saviour Him- self had warned His disciples that “ of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father only;”’ and we find these words remarkably fulfilled by the fact that the early Church, and even the Apostles themselves, expected‘ their Lord to come again in that very generation. St. Paul himself shared in that expecta- tion, but, being under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, he did not deduce therefrom any erroneous practical conclusions. Some of his disciples, on the other hand, inferred that if indeed the present world were so soon to come to an end, it was useless to pursue their common earthly employments any longer. They forsook their work, and gave themselves up to dreamy expectations of the future; so that the whole framework of society in the Thessalonian Church was in danger of dis- solution. Those who encouraged this delusion, supported it by imagina- ry revelations of the Spirit: * and they even had recourse to forgery, and circulated a letter purporting to be written by St. Paul,* in confirmation of their views. To check this evil, St. Paul wrote his second Episile. In this he endeavors to remove their present erroneous expectations of Christ’s immediate coming, by reminding them of certain signs which must precede the second advent. He had already told them of these signs when he was with them; and this explains the extreme obscurity of his description of them in the present Epistle ; for he was not giving new information, but alluding to facts which he had already explained te 1 Observe the strong expressions which St. Paul himself uses (1 Cor. ii. 3) of his own State of mind during this stay at Corinth. 2 As he himself reminds his readers (2 Thess. ii. 5), and as we find in the Acts (xvii. 7). See p. 282. ® 1 Thess. y. 1-11. * [Professor Ellicott, in his note on 1 Thess. iv. 15, deprecates the inference that the Apos tle definitely expected the second Advent to eccur in his own lifetime. — 5.] 5 2 Thess. ii. 2. 6 2 Thess. ii. 2. Compare iii. 17. Per- haps, however, these expressions may admit of being explained as referring to the ramoz of a letter. 10 852 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. them at an earlier period. It would have been well if this had beer remembered by all those who have extracted such numerous and dis- cordant prophecies and anathemas from certain passages in the followi Epistle. SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.' PAUL, and Silvanus, and 'Timothous, TO THE CHURCH Sattation OF THE THESSALONIANS, in God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I? am bound to give thanks to God continually on your be- half, brethren, as is fitting, because of the abundant increase ander their under the secutions from | Sint of your faith, and the overflowing love wherewith you are ~" *” filled, every one of you, towards each other. So that I myself boast of you among the churches of God, for your steadfastness and faith, in all the persecutions and afflictions which you are bearing. And these things are a token that the righteous judgment of God will count you worthy of His kingdom, for which you are even now suffering. For doubtless God’s righteousness cannot but render back trouble to those who trouble you, and give to you, who now are troubled, rest with me,? when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of His might, in flames of fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, and will not hearken to the Glad-tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ. And from‘ the presence of the Lerd, and from the brightness of His glorious majesty, they shail receive their righteous doom, even an everlasting destruction, in that day when He shall come 1 Tt is evident that this Epistle was writen at the time here assigned to it, soon after the first, from the following considerations : — (1) The state of the Thessalonian Church described in both Epistles is almost exactly the same. (A.) The same excitement pre- rails concerning the expected advent of our Lord, only in a greater degree. (B.) The same party continued fanatically to neglect their ordinary employments. Compare 2 Thess. iii. 6-14 with 1 Thess. iv. 16-12, and 1 Thess. ii. 9. (2) Silas and Timotheus were still with St. Paul. 2 Thess. i. 1. It should be observed — that Timotheus was next with St. Paul at Ephesus; and that, before then, Silas disap pears from the history. 2 See note on 1 Thess. i. 3. 8 On the use of the plural pronoun, see — note on 1 Thess. i. 8. ¥ * The preposition here has the sense of “ proceeding from.” SECOND EPISTLE T@ THE THESSALONIANS. 353 JHaP. XI. to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all believers; [and you are of that number], for you believed my testimony. To this end I prayi.1! continually on your behalf, that our God may count you worthy of the calling wherewith He has called you, and mightily perfect within you all the content of goodness! and the work of faith. ‘That the name of our 12 Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and that you may be glorified? in Him, according to the grace of our God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Warning But concerning* the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, i.1 mediate ex» and our gathering together to meet Him, I beseech you, 3 ?s com- brethren, not rashly to be shaken from your soberness of mind, nor to be agitated either by spirit,‘ or by rumor, or by letter ° attributed to me,’ saying that the day of the Lord is come.? Let no one deceive youby 3 any means ; for before that day, the falling-away must first have come, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes himself 4 and exalts himself against all that is called God, and against all worship ; even to seat himself* in the temple of God, and openly declare himself a God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I often® told 5 you this? And now you know the hinderance why he is not yet revealed, 6¢ in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness * is already working, 7 only he, whe now hinders, will hinder till he be taken out of the way ; and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume § with the breath of His mouth," and shall destroy with the brightness of 1 The same word is used in the sense ef good will, geod pleasure, satisfaction, in Luke ii. 14 and Rom. x.i. The A. V. here would require a word to be supplied. 2 The glory of our Lord at His coming will be manifested in His people (see vy. 10) ; that is, they, by virtue of their union with Him, will partake of His glorious likeness. C£ Rom. viii. 17, 18,19. And, even in this world, this glorification takes place partially, by their moral conformity to His image. See Rem. viii. 30, and 2 Cor. iii. 18. 3 In respect of, or perhaps (as Prof. Jowett takes it) en behalf of, as though St. Paul were pleading in honor of that day; it is wrongly translated in A. V. as an adjuration. * 7%. e. any pretended revelation ef these who claimed inspiration. 5 See the preceding remarks upen the occasion of this Epistle. 23 o § Literally ‘“‘as theugh eriginated by me:” the words may include both “ spirit,” “ ra- mor,” and “ letter.” 7 Literally “is present.” So the verb is always used in the New Testament. See Rom. viii. 88; 1 Cor. iii. 22; Gal. i. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 1; Heb. ix. 9. ® The received text interpolates here “ as Ged,” but the MSS. do not confirm this read- ing. ® The verb is in the imperfect. 1° The proper meaning of avouec is one un- restrained by law: hence it is often used as a transgressor, or, generally, @ wicked man, as éveuia is used often simply for iniquity ; but in this passage it seems best to keep to the origi- nal meaning of the word. y ll This appears to be an allusion to (al- though not an exact quotation of) Isaiah xi. 4;— “ With the breath of His lips He shall 13 \7 fii. 1 [o) 2 354 THE LIFE AND EFISTLES OF 8T. PAUL His appearing. But the appearing of that lawless one evw! be in the strength of Satan’s working, with all the might and signs and yonders of falsehood, and all the delusions of unrighteousness, for those wo are in the way of perdition; because they received not the love of the truth, whereby they might be saved. For this cause, God will send upon them an inward working of delusion, making them believe in lies, that all should be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in unrighteousness. . But for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, 1 am bound to ie cae thank God continually, because He chose you from the first 1, stex unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the °“™* truth. And to this He called you through my Glad-tidings, that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, bretl.ren, bs steadfast, and hold fast the teaching which has been delivered ‘o you, whether by my words or by my letters. And may our Lord Jesus Chris’ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and has given us i? His grace a consolation that is eternal, and a hope that cannot fai) — comfort your hearts, and establish you in all goodness both of word anc deed. Finally, brethren, pray for me, that the word of the Lord = Jesus may hold its onward course, and that its glory may be Prayers. . shown forth towards others as towards you; and that I may be delivered from the perverse and wicked ; for not all men have faith. But the Lor¢ is faithful, and He will keep you steadfast, and guard you from evil. Ané I rely upon you in the Lord, that you are following and will follow my precepts. And may the Lord guide your hearts to the love of God, and to the steadfastness of Christ. I charge you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus oe Christ, to withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks {Oeciet, disorderly, and not according to the rules which I delivered. =e a For you know yourselves the way to follow my examvle; you know that © my life among you was not disorderly, nor war J fed by any man’s ' bounty, but earned my bread by my own labor, toiling night and day. a oe ee ee e destroy the impious man.” (LXX. version.) Paul’s thoughts) to the Messiah’s coming, and \ Some of the Rabbinical commentators applied _interpreted “‘ the impious ” to mean an individ- this prophecy (which was probably in St. ual opponent of the Messiah. CHAP, XI. CHRISTIAN CORRESPONDENCE. 355 that I might not be burdensome to any of you.! And this I did, not ii % because I am without the right? [of being maintained by those to whom I minister], but that I might make myself a pattern for you to imitate. For when I was with you I often® gave you this rule: “ If any man will 10 not work, neither let him eat.”” Whereas I hear that some among you il are walking disorderly, neglecting their own work, and meddling‘ with that of others. Such, therefore, I charge and exhort, by the authority of 12 our Lord Jesus Christ, to work in quietness, and eat their own bread. Mode of deal: But you, brethren, notwithstanding,’ be not weary of doing 13 wo reuse good. If any man be disobedient to my written word, mark 14 that man, and cease from intercourse with him, that he may be brought to shame. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a 15 brother. And may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace in all ways 16 and at all seasons. The Lord be with you all. An autograph The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, which is my 17 postscript the i d sign of genu- token in every letter. Thus I write.’ ineness, ¥ eudiog The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ 12 Such was the second of the two letters which St. Paul wrote to Thes- salonica during his residence at Corinth. Such was the Christian cor- respondence now established, in addition to the political and commercial correspondence existing before, between the two capitals of Achaia and Macedonia. Along with the official documents which passed between the governors of the contiguous provinces,’ and the communications between the merchants of the Northern and Western Aigean, letters were now sent, which related to the establishment of a “kingdom not of this world,” and to “ riches ”’ beyond the discovery of human enterprise.” 7 « 7. e. although your kindness may have been abused by such idle trespassers on your bounty. § Literally, my word [sent] by the letter, which probably refers to the directions sent in the former letter, 1 Thess. iv. 11, 12. Soa previous letter is referred to, 1 Cor. v. 9, and 2 Cor. vii. 8. St. Paul’s letters were written by an amanuen- sis, with the exception of an autograph post- script. Compare Rom. xvi. 22. 8 « Amen ”’ here (as in the end of 1 Thess. } is a subsequent addition. ® Cicero’s Cilician Correspondence fur- nishes many specimens of the letters which passed between the governors of neighboring provinces. 10 John xviii. 36. u Eph. iii. 8. 856 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. The influence of great cities has always been important on the wid movements of human life. We see St. Paul diligently using this in fluence, during a protracted residence at Corinth, for the spreading an strengthening of the Gospel in Achaia and beyond. As regards th province of Achaia, we have no reason to suppose that he confined his activity to its metropolis. The expression used by St. Luke’ need only denote that it was his headquarters, or general place of residence. Com- munication was easy and frequent, by land or by water,’ with other parts of the province. Two short days’ journey to the south were the Jews of Argos,’ who might be to those of Corinth what the Jews of Berea had been to those of Thessalonica.! About the same distance to the east was the city of Athens,° which had been imperfectly evangelized, and could be visited without danger. Within a walk of a few hours, along a road busy with traffic, was the seaport of Cenchrea, known to us as the resi- dence of a Christian community. These were the “ Churches of God” (2 Thess. i. 4), among whom the Apostle boasted of the patience and the faith of the Thessalonians,’ — the homes of “ the saints in all Achaia” (2 Cor. i. 1), saluted at a later period, with the Church of Corinth,’ in a letter written from Macedonia. These Churches had alternately the blessings of the presence and the letters — the oral and the written teach- ing —of St. Paul. The former of these blessings is now no longer granted to us; but those long and wearisome journeys, which withdrew the teacher so often from his anxious converts, have resulted in our pos- session of inspired Epistles, in all their freshness and integrity, and with all their lessons of wisdom and love. Coin of Thessalonica.? 1 Acts xviii. 11. 2 Much of the intercourse in Greece has always gone on by small coasters. Pouque- ville mentions traces of a paved road between Corinth and Argos. 8 See pp. 17 and 335. * See above, p. 293. 5 We have not entered into the question of St. Paul’s journey from Athens to Corinth. He may have travelled by the coast road through Eleusis and Megara; or a sail of a few hours, with a fair wind, would take him from the Pirsus to Cenchrea. 6 Rom. xvi. 1. i 7 Compare 1 Thess. i. 7, 8. 8 It is possible that the phrase “in every” place” (1 Cori. 2) may have the same meaning. ® From the British Museum. For a long series of coins of this character, see Mionnet and the Supplement. ¢ | | . | 3 CHAPTER XIL The Isthmus and Acrecerinthus.— Early Histery of Corinth.—Its Trade and Wealth. — Corinth under the Romans.— Province of Achaia.—Gallio the Governor.— Tumult at Corinth. — Cenchrea. — Voyage by Enhesus to Cexsarea.— Visit to Jerusalem. — Antioch. OW that wo ave entered upon the first part of the long series of St. Paul’s letters, we seem to be arrived at a new stage of the Apostle’s biography. The materials for a mors intimate knowledge are before us. More life.is given to the picture. We have advanced from the field of geographical description and general history to the higher interest of per- sonal detail. Even such details as relate to the writing materials employed in the Epistles, and the mode in which these epistles were transmitted from city to city, —all stages in the history of an Apostolic letter, from the hand of the amanuensis who wrote from the author’s inspired dicta- tion, to the opening and reading of the document in the public assembly © of the Church to which it was addressed, have a sacred claim on the Christian’s attention. For the present we must defer the examination of such particulars.' We remain with the Apostle himself, instead of follow- ing the journeys of his letters to Thessalonica, and tracing the effects which the last of them produced. We have before us a protracted resi- dence in Corinth,’ a voyage by sea to Syria,’ and a journey by land from Antioch to Ephesus,‘ before we come to the next group of St. Paul’s Epistles. We must linger first for a time in Corinth, the great city where he staid a longer time than at any point on his previous journeys, and from which, or to which, the most important of his letters were written.° And, according to the plan we have hitherto observed, we proceed to elucidate its geographical position, and the principal stages of its history. The Jsthmus® is the most remarkable feature in the Geography of Greece ; and the peculiar relation which it established between the land and the water—and between the Morea and the Continent —had the 1 See a note on this subject in Ch. XXVL - 3t is from this Greek “bridge of the 2 Acts xviii. 11-18. % Acts xviii. 18-22. sea that the name isthmus has been given te * Acts xviii. 23. See xix. 1. Overy similar neck of land in the world. ® The Epistles to the Thessalonians, Corin- thians, and Romans. 857 858 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. utmost effect on the whole course of the History of Greece. When we were considering the topography and aspect of Athens, all the associa- tions which surrounded us were Athenian. Here at the Isthmus, we are, as it were, at the centre of the activity of the Greek race in general. It has the closest connection with all their most important movements, beth military and commercial. In all the periods of Greek history, from the earliest to the latest, we see the military importance of the Isthmus. The phrase of Pindar is, that it was “the bridge of the sea:” it formed the only line of mare: for an invading or retreating army. Xenophon speaks of it as “ the gate of the Peloponnesus,” the closing of which would make all ingress and egress impossible. And we’ find that it was closed at various times, by being fortified and re-fortified by a wall, some traces of which remain to the present day. In the Persian war, when consternation was spread amongst the Greeks by the death of Leonidas, the wall was first built. In the Peloponnesian war, when the Greeks turned fratricidal arms against each other, the Isthmus was often the point of the conflict between the Athe- nians and their enemies. In the time of the Theban supremacy, the wall again appears as a fortified line from sea to sea. When Greece became Roman, the provincial arrangements neutralized, for a time, the military importance of the Isthmus. But when the barbarians poured in from the North, like the Persians of old, its wall was repaired by Valerian. Again it was rebuilt by Justinian, who fortified it with a hundred and fifty towers. And we trace its history through the later period of the Venetian power in the Levant, from the vast works of 1463, to the peace of 1699, when it was made the boundary of the territories of the Re- public. Conspicuous, both in connection with the military defences of the Isthmus, and in the prominent features of its scenery, is the Acrocorinthus or citadel of Corinth, which rises in form and abruptness like the rock of Dumbarton. But this comparison is quite inadequate to express the magnitude of the Corinthian citadel. It is elevated two thousand feet? above the level of the sea; it throws a vast shadow across the plain at its base; the ascent is a journey involving some fatigue; and the space of ground on the summit is so extensive, that it contained a whole town,’ 1 The wall was not built in a straight line, bat followed the sinuosities of the ground. ‘The remains of square towers are visible in some places. The eastern portion abutted on the Sanctuary of Neptune, where the Isth- mian games are held. * Dodwell. The ascent is by a zigzag yoad, which Strabo says was thirty stadia in iwagth. “ Looking down upon the isthmus, the shadow of the Acrocorinthus, of a conical shape, extended exactly half across its length, the point of the cone being central between the two seas.” — Dr. Clarke. 3 Dodwell and Clarke. The city, accord- ing to Xenophon, was forty stadia in circum-— ference without the Acropolis, and eighty-five with it. CHAP, XH, THE ACROCORINTAODS. 359: which, under the Turkish dominion, had several mosques. Yet notwith- standing its colossal dimensions, its sides are so precipitous, that a few soldiers are enough to guard it.! The possession of this fortress has been the object of repeated struggles in the latest wars between the Turks and the Greeks, and again between the Turks and the Venetians. It was said to Philip, when he wished to acquire possession of the Morea, that the Acro corinthus was one of the horns he must seize, in order to secure the heifer. Thus Corinth might well be called “the eye of Greece” in a military sense, as Athens has often been so called in another sense. If the rock of Minerva was the Acropolis of the Athenian people, the mountain of the Isthmus was truly named “ the Acropolis of the Greeks.” It will readily be imagined that the view from the summit is magnifi- cent and extensive.? A seais on either hand. Across that which lies on the east, a clear sight is obtained of the Acropolis of Athens, at a dis- tance of forty-five miles? The mountains of Attica and Beotia, and the islands of the Archipelago, close the prospect in this direction. Beyond the western sea, which flows in from the Adriatic, are the large masses of the mountains of north-eastern Greece, with Parnassus towering above Delphi. Immediately beneath us is the narrow plain which separates the seas. The city itself is on a small table-land‘ of no great elevation, connected with the northern base of the Acrocorinthus. At the edge of the lower level are the harbors which made Corinth the em- porium of the richest trade of the Hast and the West. We are thus brought to that which is really the characteristic both of Corinthian geography and Corinthian history, its close relation to the commerce of the Mediterranean. Plutarch says, that there was a want \ 1 Plutarch says that it was guarded by 400 ‘tered up and down it, is none of the least of soldiers, 50 dogs, and as many keepers. the ornaments of this prospect. The town 2 Wheler’s description is as follows: — also that lieth north of the castle, in little “We mounted to the top of the highest point, knots of houses, surrounded with orchards and had one of the most agreeable prospects and gardens of oranges, lemons, citrons, and in the world. On the right hand of us the cypress-trees, and mixed with cornfields between, Saronic Gulf, with all its little islands strewed is asightnot less delightful. So that it is hard up and down it, to Cape Colonne on the to judge whether this plain is more beautiful to Promontory Sunium. Beyond that the is- the beholders or profitable to the inhabitants.” lands of the Archipelago seemed to close up This was in 1675, before the last conflicts of the mouth of the Gulf. On the left handofus the Turks and Venetians. we had the Gulf of Lepanto or Corinth, as 3“ As from the Parthenon at Athens we far as beyond Sicyon, bounded northward with had seen the citadel of Corinth, so now we all these famous mountains of old times, with had a commanding view, across the Saronic the Isthmus, even to Athens, lying in a row, Gulf, of Salamis and the Athenian Acrop- and presenting themselves orderly to our view. lis.” — Dr. Clarke. See above, under The plain of Corinth towards Sicyon or Athens. Basilico is well watered by two rivulets, well * Leake’s description entirely corresponds tilled, well planted with olive-yards and vine- with Strabo’s. yards, and, having many little villages scat- 360 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. of good harbors in Achaia; and Strabo speaks of the circumnavigatio of the Morea as dangerous.! Cape Malea was proverbially formidable and held the same relation to the voyages of ancient days which th Cape of Good Hope does to our own.? Thus, a narrow and level isth mus,° across which smaller vessels could be dragged from gulf to gulf} was of inestimable value to the early traders of the Levant. And th two harbors, which received the ships of a more maturely develo trade, — Cenchrea® on the Eastern Sea, and Lecheum® on the Western with a third and smaller port, called Schcenus,’ where the isthmus w narrowest, — form an essential part of our idea of Corinth. Its commo title in the poets is “the city of the two seas.”*® It is allegoricall represented in art as a female figure on a rock, between two othe figures, each of whom bears a rudder, the symbol of navigation an trade.® It is the same image which appears under another form in th words of the rhetorician, who said that it was “ the prow and the stern of Greece.” ” As we noticed above a continuous fortress which was carried across the Isthmus, in connection with its military history, so here we have to mention another continuous work which was attempted, in connection with its mercantile history. This was the ship canal ;— which, after being often projected, was about to be begun again near the very time of St. Paul’s visit." Parallels often suggest themselves between the relation of the parts of the Mediterranean to each other, and those of the Atlantic and Pacific: for the basins of the “‘ Midland Sea” were to the Greek and Roman trade what the Oceanic spaces are to ours. And 1 He adds that the Sicilian sea was avoided by mariners as much as possible. 2 A proverb said of this south-eastern point of the Morea: “ When you are round Cape Malea, forget all you have at home.” 5 See above, note on the word “ Isthmus.” * Hence the narrowest part of the Isthmus was called by a word which in meaning and in piratic associations corresponds with the Yar- bert of Scotch geography. The distance across is about three miles; nearer Corinth it is six miles, whence the name of the modern village of Hexamili. 5 For Cenchrea, see below, pp. 366, 367. It was seventy stadia distant from the city. § Lechseum was united to Corinth by long walls. Itwas about twelve stadia distant from the city. 7 Schenrs was at the point where the Isthmus was narrowest, close to the Sanctuary of Neptune and the eastern portion of the Isthmian wall. The ship is described as sail- ing to this port in the early times when Athens had the presidency of the games. 5 One phrase which was used of it is that which we find in Acts xxvii. 41. ® See this on the coin at the end of Chap. xii. 10 The phrase seems to have been pro- verbial. . Demetrius Poliorcetes, Julius Cesar, and Caligula had all entertained the notion of cut ting through the Isthmus. Nero really began the undertaking in the year 52, but soon de sisted. See Leake (pp. 297-302), who quoter all the authorities. The portion of the trench which remains is at the narrowest part, near the shore of the Corinthian Gulf. Dodwel) came upon it, after crossing Mount Geraneia from Attica. oar, xm. COMMERCE AND WEALTH OF CORINTH. $61 it is difficult, in speaking of a visit to the Isthmus of Corinth in the year 52,1 — which only preceded by a short interval the work of Nero’s engi- neers, — not to be reminded of the Isthmus of Panama in the year 1852, during which active progress was made in an undertaking often project ed, but never yet carried into effect.” There is this difference, however, between the Oceanic and the Medi- terranean Isthmus, that one of the great cities of the ancient world always existed at the latter. What some future Darien may be destined to be- come, we cannot prophesy: but, at a very early date, we find Corinth celebrated by the poets for its wealth. This wealth must inevitably have grown up, from its mercantile relations, even without reference to its two seas, — if we attend to the fact on which Thucydides laid stress, that it was the place through which all ingress and egress took place between Northern and Southern Greece, before the development of commerce by water But it was its conspicuous position on the narrow neck of land between the Avgean and Ionian Seas, which was the main cause of its commercial greatness. The construction of the ship Argo is assigned by mythology to Corinth. The Samians obtained their shipbuilders from her. The first Greek triremes,—the first Greek sea-fights,— are con- nected with her history. Neptune was her god. Her colonies were spread over distant coasts in the East and West; and ships came from every sea to her harbors. Thus she became the common resort and the universal market of the Greeks.* Her population and wealth were fur- ther augmented by the manufactures in metallurgy, dyeing, and porce- lain, which grew up in connection with the import and export of goods. And at periodical intervals the crowding of her streets and the activity of her trade received a new impulse from the strangers who flocked to the Isthmian games ; — a subject to which our attention will often be called hereafter, but which must be passed over here with a simple allusion.‘ If we add all these particulars together, we see ample reason why the wealth, luxury, and profligacy of Corinth were proverbial® in the ancient world. In passing from the fortunes of the earlier, or Greek Corinth, to its his- tory under the Romans, the first scene that meets us is one of disaster 1 The arguments for this date may be seen in Wieseler. We shall return to the subject 2 Our first edition was published in 1852. At that time the various plans for an inter- eceanic canal were very much before the pub- lic. Now at least the railway is open for traffic from ocear to ocean. * One writer in another place compares Corinth to a ship loaded with merchandise. and says that a perpetual fair was held yearly and daily at the Isthmus. * See the beginnmg of Chap. XX., and the plan of the Posidonium there given. 5 “Non cuivis homini contingit adire Co- rinthum.” — Hor. Ep. i. 17, 36. The word “ Corinthianize ” was used proverbially for ar immoral life. 362 THE LIVE AND: EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL. omar, and ruin. The destruction of this city by Mummius, about the s time that Carthage! was destroyed by Scipio, was so complete, that, like its previous wealth, it passed into a proverb. Its works of skill and Iux- ury were destroyed or carried away. Polybius, the historian, saw Roman soldiers playing at draughts on the pictures of famous artists; and the exhibition of vases and statues that decorated the triumph of the Capitol introduced a new era in the habits of the Romans. Meanwhile, the very place of the city from which these works were taken remained desolate for many years. The honor of presiding over the Isthmian games was given to Sicyon; and Corinth ceased even to be a resting-place of travel- lers between the East and the West.* But a new Corinth rose from the ashes of the old. Julius Cxsar, recognizing the importance of the Isth- mus as a military and mercantile position, sent thither a colony of Italians, who were chiefly freedmen.* This new establishment rapidly increased by the mere force of its position. Within a few years it grew, as Sinca- pore® has grown in our days, from nothing to an enormous city. The Greek merchants, who had fled on the Roman conquest to Delos and the — neighboring coasts, returned to their former home. The Jews settled themselves in a place most convenient both for the business of commerce - and for communication with Jerusalem.* Thus, when St. Paul arrived at Corinth after his sojourn at Athens, he found himself in the midst of a- numerous population of Greeks and Jews. They were probably far more numerous than the Romans, though the city had the constitution of a colony,’ and was the metropolis of a province. It is commonly assumed that Greece was constituted as a province un- der the name of Achaia, when Corinth was destroyed by Mummius. But this appears to be a mistake. There seems to have been an intermediate period, during which the country had a nominal independence, as was the case with the contiguous province of Macedonia. The description 1 See Chap. I. p. 13. 32 “Nevertheless,” says Colonel Leake, “the site, I conceive, cannot have been quite uninhabited, as the Romans neither destroye the public buildings nor persecuted the religion of the Corinthians. And as many of those buildings were still perfect in the time of Pansanias, there must have heen some persons who had the care of them during the century of desolation.” 5 We have noticed above (p. 383, n. 4) that on Cicero’s journey between the East and West, we find him resting, not at Corinth, bat at Athens. In the time of Ovid, the city qwas rising again. 7 * Professor Stanley notices the great num- ber of names of Corinthian Christians (Caius, Quartus, Fortunatus, Achaicus, Crispus, Jus- — tus), which indicate “either a Roman or @ servile origin.” Pref. to Corinthians. | 5 See the Life of Sir Stamford Raffles and — later notices of the place in Rajah Brooke’s — journals, &e. : 6 See the preceding chapter for the estab- lishment of the Jews at Corinth. | 7 See the Latin letters on its coins. Its — full name was “Colonia Laus Julia Corin thus.” See coin at the end of this chapter. 3 3 | omar, XO. ROMAN PROVINCE OF ACHATA. 363 which has been given of the political limits of Macedonia (Ch. IX.) de- fines equally the extent of Achaia. It was bounded on all other sides by the sea, and was nearly co-extensive with the kingdom of Modern Greece. The name cf A faia was given to it, in consequence of the part played by the Achzar league in the last independent struggles of ancient Greece ; and Corinth, the head of that league, became the metropolis. The province experienced changes of government, such as those which have been alluded to in the case of Cyprus.? At first it was proconsular. Afterwards it was placed by Tiberius under a procurator of his own. But in the reign of Claudius it was again reckoned among the “ unarmed provinces,” * and governed by a proconsul One of the proconsuls who were sent out to govern the province of Achaia in the course of St. Paui’s second missionary journey was Gallio.* His original name was Anneus Novatus, and he was the brother of -Annzus Seneca the philospher. The name under which he was known to us in sacred and secular history was due to his adoption into the family of Junius Gallio the rhetorician. The time of his government at Corinth, as indicated by the sacred historian, must be placed between the years 52 and 54, if the dates we have assigned to St. Paul’s movements be correct. We have no exact information on this subject from any secular source, nor is he mentioned by any Heathen writer as having been proconsul of Achaia. But there are some incidental notices of his life, which give rather a curious confirmation of what is advanced above. We are informed by Tacitus and Dio that he died in the year 65. Pliny says that after his consulship he had a serious illness, for the removal of which he tried a sea-voyage: and from his brother Seneca we learn that it was in Achaia that he went on shipboard for the benefit of his health. If we knew the year of Gallio’s consu'ship, our chronological result would be brought within narrow limits. We do not possess this informa- tion ; but it has been reasonably conjectured that his promotion, if due to his brother’s influence, would be subsequent to the year 49, in which the philospher returned from his exile in Corsica, and had the youthful Nero placed under his tuition. The interval of time thus marked out between the restoration of Seneca and the death of Gallio, includes the narrower period assigned by St. Luke to the proconsulate in Achaia. The coming of a new governor to a province was an event of great im- portance The whole system of administration, the general prosperity, the state of political parties, the relative position of different sections of 1 Ritter says that this is the meaningof which were proconsular and required the Gorinthus Achaiz urbs,” in Tac. Hist. ii.1. presence of no army. See p. 214, m il. 2 See Ch. V. ~* Kets xviii. 12. * A phrase applied _to _those provinces ay ey 864 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL the population, were necessarily affected by his personal character. Th provincials were miserable or happy, according as a Verres or a Cicero was sent from Rome. As regards the personal character of Gallio, inference we should naturally draw from the words of St. Luke closely corresponds with what we are told by Seneca. His brother speaks of him with singular affection, not only as a man of integrity and honesty, but as one who won universal regard by his amiable temper and popular manners.! His conduct on the occasion of the tumult at Corinth is quite in harmony with a character so described. He did not allow himself, lik Pilate, to be led into injustice by the clamor of the Jews ;? and yet he overlooked, with easy indifference, an outbreak of violence which a sterner and more imperious governor would at once have arrested.* The details of this transaction were as follows : — The Jews, anxious to profit by a change of administration, and perhaps encouraged by the well- known compliance of Gallio’s character, took an early opportunity of accusing St. Paul before him. They had already set themselves in battle array ‘ against him, and the coming of the new governor was the signal for a general attack.’ It is quite evident that the act was preconcerted and the occasion chosen. Making use of the privileges they enjoyed as a separate community, and well aware that the exercise of their worship was protected by the Roman State,* they accused St. Paul of violating their own religious Law. They seem to have thought, if this violation of Jewish law could be proved, that St. Paul would become amenable to the criminal law of the Empire; or, perhaps, they hoped, as afterwards at Jerusalem, that he would be given up into their hands for punishment. Had Gallio been like Festus or Felix, this might easily have happened ; and then St. Paul’s natural resource would have been to appeal to the — Emperor, on the ground of his citizenship. But the appointed time of — his visit to Rome was not yet come, and the continuance of his missionary — labors was secured by the character of the governor, who was providen- tially sent at this time to manage the affairs of Achaia. The scene is set before us by St. Luke with some details which give us a vivid notion of what took place. Gallio is seated on that proconsular — chair? from which judicial sentences were pronounced by the Roman Jews were citizens under their Ethnarch, like 1 The same character is given of him by the poet Statius. 2 Acts xviii. 14. 8 Acts xviii. 17. * See p. 348, n. 1. 5 Acts xviii. 12. * Compare Joseph. War, ii. 14, 4, on Cwsarea. In Alexandria, there were four dis- tinct classes of population. among which the the Romans under their Juridicus. We need not discuss here the later position of the Jews, after Caracalla had made all freemen citizens. 7 This chair, or tribunal, “ the indispensa- ble symbol of the Roman judgment-seat,” as it has been called, is mentioned three times in the course of this narrative. It was of two kinds: (1) fixed in some open and public \ . omar, XI. ST. PAUL ACCUSED BEFORE GALLIO. 365 magistrates. To this we must doubtless add the other insignia of Roman power, which were suitable to a colony and the metropolis of a province. Before this Heathen authority the Jews are preferring their accusation with eager clamor. Their chief speaker is Sosthenes, the successor of Crispus, or (it may be) the ruler of another synagogue.! The Greeks? are standing round, eager to hear the result, and to learn something of the new governor’s character; and, at the same time, hating the Jews, and ready to be the partisans of St. Paul. At the moment when the Apostle is “‘ about to open his mouth,” * Gallio will not even hear his (defence; but pronounces a decided and peremptory judgment. His answer was that of a man who knew the limits of his office, and felt that be had no time to waste on_ the religious technicalities of the Jews. Had it been a case in which the Roman law had been violated by any breach of the peace or any act of dishonesty, then it would have been reasonable and right that the matter should have been fully investi- gated; but since it was only a question of the Jewish law, relating to the disputes of Hebrew superstition,‘ and to names of no public interest, he utterly refused to attend to it. They might excommunicate the offend- er, or inflict on him any of their ecclesiastical punishments; but he would not meddle with trifling quarrels, which were beyond his juris- diction. And without further delay he drove the Jews away from before his judicial chair.® The effect of this proceeding must have been to produce the utmost rage and disappointment among the Jews. With the Greeks and other bystanders® the result was very different. Their dislike of a supersti- tious and misanthropic nation was gratified. They held the forbearance of Gallio as a proof that their own religious liberties would be respected under the new administration ; and, with the disorderly impulse of a mob which has been kept for some time in suspense, they rushed upon the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in the very presence of the procon- sular tribunal. Meanwhile, Gallio took no notice’ of the injurious pun- 2 See note 6, below. place; (2) movable, and taken by the Roman magistrates to be placed wherever they might sit in a judicial character. Probably here and in the case of Pilate (John xix. 13) the former kind of seat is intended. See Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities, under “ Sella.” 1 Whether Sosthenes had really been elected to fill the place of Crispus, or was only a co-ordinate officer in the same or some other synagogue, must be left undetermined. On the organization of the synagogues, see Ch. VI. p. 154. It should be added, that we can- not confidently identify this Sosthenes with the “ brother” whose name occurs 1 Cor. i. 1. 3 Acts xviii. 14. * Acts xviii. 15. We recognize here tha: much had been made by the Jews of the name of “Christ” being given to Jesus. 5 Acts xviii. 16. ® The true reading here does not specify who the persons were who beat Sosthenes. It cannot, however, be well doubted that they were Greeks. The reading “ Jews,” found in some MSS., is evidently wrong. 7 Acts xviii. 17. See above on Gallio’s character. 866 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. ishment thus inflicted on the Jews, and with characteristic indifferen left Sosthenes to his fate. ' Thus the accusers were themselves involved in disgrace; Gallic obtained a high popularity among the Greeks, and St. Paul was enabled to pursue his labors in safety. Had he been driven away from Corinth, the whole Christian community of the place might have been put in jeopardy. But the result of the storm was to give shelter to the infant Church, with opportunity of safe and continued growth. As regards the Apostle himself, his credit rose with the disgrace of his opponents. So far as he might afterwards be noticed by the Roman governor or the Greek inhabitants of the city, he would be regarded as an injured man. As his own discretion had given advantage to the holy cause at Philippi, by involving his opponents in blame,! so here the most imminent peril was providentially turned into safety and honor. Thus the assurance communicated in the vision was abundantly fulfilled. Though bitter enemies had “ set on” Paul (Acts xviii. 10), no one had “hurt” him. The Lord had been “ with him,” and “ much people” had been gathered into His Church. At length the time came when the Apostle deemed it right to leave Achaia and revisit Judea, induced (as it would appear) by a motive which often guided his journeys, the desire to be present at the great gathering of the Jews at one of their festivals,? and possibly also influenced by the movements of Aquila and Priscilla, who were about to proceed from Corinth to Ephesus. Before his departure, he took a solemn farewell of the assem- bled Church.* How touching St. Paul’s farewells must have been, espe- cially after a protracted residence among his brethren and disciples, we may infer from the affectionate language of his letters; and one specimen is given to us of these parting addresses, in the Acts of the Apostles. From the words spoken at Miletus (Acts xx.), we may learn what was said and felt at Corinth. He could tell his disciples here, as he told them there, that he had taught them “ publicly and from house to house ; ” * that he was “ pure from the blood of all men;”’* that by the space of a year and a half he had “ not ceased to warn every one night and day with tears.” ® And doubtless he forewarned them of “ grievous - wolves entering in among them, of men speaking perverse things arising * of themselves, to draw away disciples after them.” And he could appeal 1 See p. 269. ® Acts xviii. 18. 2 See Acts xviii. 21. There is little doubt * Acts xx. 20. that the festival was Pentecost. We should 5 y, 26. Compare xviii. 6, and see p. 348. not, however, leave unnoticed that it is doubt- 6 y. 31. Compare what is said of his tears ful whether this allusion to the festival ought at Philippi. Philip. ili. 10. to be in the text. 7 vy. 29, 80. emAY. EI. CENCHREA. 367 to them, with the emphatic gesture of “ those hands” which had labored at Corinth, in proof that he had “ coveted no man’s gold or silver,”’ and in ° confirmation of the Lord’s words, that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” ! Thus he departed, with prayers and tears, from those who “accompanied him to the ship” with many misgivings that they might “see his face no more.” ? The three points on the coast to which our attention is called in the brief notice of this voyage contained in the Acts,’ are Cenchrea, the harbor of Corinth; Ephesus, on the western shore of Asia Minor; and Casarea Stratonis, in Palestine. More suitable occasions will be found hereafter for descriptions of Czesarea and Ephesus. The present seems to require a few words to be said concerning Cenchrea. After descending from the low table-land on which Corinth was situ- ated, the road which connected the city with its eastern harbor extended a distance of eight or nine miles across the Isthmian plain. Cenchrea has fallen with Corinth ; but the name‘ still remains to mark the place of the port, which once commanded a large trade with Alexandria and Antioch, with Ephesus and Thessalonica, and the other cities of the Aigean. ‘That it was a town of some magnitude may be inferred from the attent‘on which Pausanias devotes to it in the description of the en- virons of Corinth; and both its mercantile character, and the pains which had been taken in its embellishment, are well symbolized in the coin * which represents the port with a temple on each enclosing promon- tory, and a statue of Neptune on a rock between them. From this port St. Paul began his voyage to Syria. But before the vessel sailed, one of his companions performed a religious ceremony which must not. be unnoticed, since it is mentioned in Scripture. Aquila‘ had bound himself by one of those vows, which the Jews often volunta- rily took, even when in foreign countries, in consequence of some mercy received, or some deliverance from danger, or other occurrence which had produced a deep religious impression on the mind. The obligations of these vows were similar to those in the case of Nazarites, — as regards abstinence from strong drinks and legal pollutions, and the wearing of 1 Compare vv. 33-35 with xviii. 3, and with 1 Qor. iv. 12. 3 6-38. ® Acts xviii. 18-22. * The modern name is Kichries. § An engraving of this coin will be given nt the end of Ch. XIX. ® This is left as it stood in the earlier edi- tions. Jt must be admitted that the argu- ments from the structure of the original are rather in favor of referring the vow, not to Aquila, but to St. Paul. The difficulty lies not so much in supposing that Paul took a Jewish vow (see Acts xxi. 26), as in suppos- ing that he made himself conspicuous for Jew- ish peculiarities while he was forming a mixed church at Corinth. But we are ignorant of the circumstances of the case. 568 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. the hair uncut till the close of a definite length of time. Aguila coul not be literally a Nazarite; for, in the case of that greater vow, the cut ting of the hair, which denoted that the legal time was expired, could - only take place at the Temple in Jerusalem, or at least in Judea. In this case the ceremony was performed at Cenchrea. Here Aquila—_ who had been for some time conspicuous, even among the Jews and Christians at Corinth, for the long hair which denoted that he was under a peculiar religious restriction— came to the close of the period of obligation ; and, before accompanying the Apostle to Ephesus, laid aside the tokens of his vow. From Corinth to Ephesus, the voyage was among the islands of th Greek Archipelago. The Isles of Greece, and the waters which break on their shores, or rest among them in spaces of calm repose, always prese themselves to the mind as the scenes of interesting voyages, — whether we think of the stories of early legend, or the stirring life of classical times, of the Crusades in the middle ages, or of the movements of modern travellers, some of whom seldom reflect that the land and water roun¢ them were hallowed by the presence and labors of St. Paul. One great purpose of this book will be gained, if it tends to associate the Apostle of the Gentiles with the coasts, which are already touched by so many other ~ historical recollections. No voyage across the AWgean was more frequently made than between Corinth and Ephesus. They were the capitals of the flourishing and peaceful provinces of Achaia and Asia,’ and the twog mercantile towns on opposite sides of the sea. If resemblances may aga be suggested between the ocean and the Mediterranean, and between an cient and modern times, we may say that the relation of these cities of the Eastern and Western Greeks to each other was like that between New York and Liverpool. Even the time taken up by the voyages constitutes a point of resemblance. Cicero says that, on his eastward passage, which was considered a long one, he spent fifteen days, and that his return was accomplished in thirteen.? A fair wind, in much shorter time than either thirteen or fifteen angal would take the Apostie across, from Corinth, to the city on the other side of the sea. It seems that the vessel was bound for Syria, and staid — only a short time in harbor at Ephesus. Aquila and Priscilla remained — there while he proceeded. But even during the short interval of his stay, Paul made a visit to his Jewish fellow-countrymen, and (the Sab-— bath being probably one of the days during which he remained) he held i 1 See how Achaia and Asia are mentioned 2 The voyage was often accomplished ia by Tacitus, Hist. ii. 8. three or four days. See Thuc. iii. 8. ® Acts xviii. 19. OHAP, Xi, VOYAGE TO SYRIA. 363 a discussion with them in the synagogue concerning Christianity.!_ Their curiosity was excited by what they heard, as it had been at Antioch in Pisidia ; and perhaps their curiosity would speedily have been succeeded by opposition, if their visitor had staid longer among them. But he was not able to grant the request which they urgently made. He was anxious to attend the approaching festival at Jerusalem;? and, had he not proceeded with the ship, this might have been impossible. He was so far, however, encouraged by the opening which he saw, that he left the Ephesian Jews with a promise of his return. This promise was limited by an expression of that dependence on the divine will which is characteristic of a Christian’s life,? whether his vocation be to the labors of an Apostle, or to the routine of ordinary toil. We shall see that St. Paul’s promise was literally fulfilled, when we come to pur- sue his progress on his third missionary circuit. The voyage to Syria lay first by the coasts and islands of the Mgean to Cos and Cnidus, which are mentioned on subsequent voyages,‘ and then across the open sea by Rhodes and Cyprus to Cesarea.® This city has the closest connection with some of the most memorable events of early Christianity. We have already had occasion to mention it, in alluding to St. Peter and the baptism of the first Gentile convert. We shall afterwards be required to make it the subject of a more elaborate notice, when we arrive at the imprisonment which was suffered by St. Paul under two successive Roman governors.’ The country was now no longer under native kings. Ten years had elapsed since the death of Herod Agrippa, the last event alluded to (Ch. IV.) in connection with Cesarea. Felix had been for some years already procurator of Judza.® If the aspect of the country had become in any degree more national under the reign of the Herods, it had now resumed all the appearance of a Roman province.’ Czsarea was its military capital, as well as the harbor by which it was approached by all travellers from the West. From this city, roads" had been made to the Egyptian frontier on the south, and northwards along the coast by Ptolemais, Tyre, and Sidon, to Antioch, as well as across the interior by Neapolis or Antipatris to Jeru- salem and the Jordan. The journey from Czsarea to Jerusalem is related by St. Luke in a single word." No information is given concerning the incidents which 1 The aorist (v. 19) should be contrasted 5 See Acts xxi. 1-3. with the imperfect used (v. 4) of the continued ® See p. 113. Compare p. 49. discussions at Corinth. 7 Acts xxi. &. 2 Acts xviii. 21. See above. 5 Tac. Ann. xiv. 54, and Josephus. = «Tf God will.” See Jamesiv.15. “If » See pp. 26 and 51. the Lord will, we shall live,” &c. 10 See the remarks, pp. 78, 79. * Acts xxi. 1, xxvii. 7. il “When he had gone up,” Acts xviii 24 Sou 870 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, CHAP, X1 occurred there: — no meetings with other Apostles, —no controversies on disputed points of doctrine, — are recorded or inferred. We are not even sure that St. Paul arrived in time for the festival at which he de- sired to be present.!. The contrary seems rather to be implied ; for he is said simply to have ‘‘ saluted the Church,’ and then to have proceeded to Antioch. Itis useless to attempt to draw aside the veil which con. ceals the particulars of this visit of Paul of Tarsus to the city of his forefathers. As if it were no longer intended that we should view the Church in connection with the centre of Judaism, our thoughts are turned immediately to that other city,? where the name “ Christian ”’ was” first conferred on it. From Jerusalem to Antioch it is likely that the journey was accom: plished by land. It is the last time we shall have occasion to mention ¢ road which was often traversed, at different seasons of the year, by St. Paul and his companions. Two of the journeys along this Pheenician coast have been long ago mentioned. Many years had intervened since the charitable mission which brought relief from Syria to the poor in Judea (Ch. IV.), and since the meeting of the council at Jerusalem, and the joyful return at a time of anxious controversy (Ch. VII.). When we allude to these previous visits to the Holy City, we feel how widely the Church of Christ had been extended in the space of very few years. The course of our narrative is rapidly carrying us from the East towards the West. We are now for the last time on this part of the Asiatic shore. For a moment the associations which surround us are all of the primeval past. The monuments which still remain along this coast remind us of the ancient Phcenician power, and of Baal and Ashtaroth,? — or of the Assyrian conquerors, who came from the Eu phrates to the West, and have left forms like those in the palaces of Nineveh sculptured on the rocks of the Mediterranean,‘ — rather than of any thing connected with the history of Greece and Rome. The moun-— tains which rise above our heads belong to the characteristic imagery of — the Old Testament; the cedars are those of the forests which were hew by the workmen of Hiram and Solomon; the torrents which cross the roads are the waters from “ the sides of Lebanon.” * But we are taking 22. Some commentators think that St.Paul voyage (Acts xx., xxi.), that he could not did not go to Jerusalem at all, but that this participle merely denotes his going up from the ship into the town. of Cxsarea: but, inde- pendently of his intention to visit Jerusalem, it is hardly likely that such a circumstance would have been specified in a narrative so briefly given. 1 We shall see, in the case of the later have arrived in time for the festival, had not the weather been peculiarly favorable. 2 Acts xviii. 22. 8 The ruins of Tortosa and Aradus. * The sculptures of Assyrian figures om the coast road near Beyrout are noticed in works of many travellers. 5 These torrents are often flooded, so as onar. xc. THE CENTRE OF THE CHURCH. 371 our last view of this scenery ; and, as we leave it, we feel that we are passing from the Jewish infancy of the Christian Church to its wider expansion among the Heathen. Once before we had occasion to remark that the Church had no longer now its central point in Jerusalem, but in Antioch, a city of the Gen- tiles! The progress of events now carries us still more remotely from the land which was first visited by the tidings of salvation. The world through which our narrative takes us begins to be European rather than Asiatic. So far as we know, the present visit which St. Paul paid to Antioch was his last.2 We have already seen how new centres of Ciris- tian life had been established by him in the Greek cities of the Mgean. The course of the Gospel is farther and farther towards the West; and the inspired part of the Apostle’s biography, after a short period of deep interest in Judea, finally centres in Rome. re Coin of Corinth . be extremely dangerous; so that St. Paul ? Antioch is not mentioned in the Acts may have encountered “ perils of rivers” after xviii. 22. in this district. Maundrell says that the * From the British Museum. The head traveller Spor lost his life in one of these is that of Julius Cesar himself, torrents. 1Pp. 101, 102. CHAPTER XML The Spiritual Gifts, Constitution, Ordinances, Divisions, and Heresies of the Primitive Church im the Lifetime of St. Paul. E are now arrived at a point in St. Paul’s history when it seems needful for the full understanding of the remainder of his career, and especially of his Epistles, to give some description of the internal condition of those churches which looked to him as their father in the faith. Nearly all of these had now been founded, and, regarding the early development of several of them, we have considerable information from his letters and from other sources. This information we shall now endeavor to bring into one general view; and in so doing (since the Pauline Churches were only particular portions of the universal Church), we shall necessarily have to consider the distinctive peculiarities and internal condition of the primitive Church generally, as it existed in th time of the Apostles. The feature which most immediately forces itself upon our notice, as distinctive of the Church in the Apostolic age, is its possession of super- natural gifts. Concerning these, our whole information must be derived from Scripture, because they appear to have vanished with the disap- pearance of the Apostles themselves, and there is no authentic account of their existence in the Church in any writings of a later date than th books of the New Testament. This fact gives a more remarkable and impressive character to the frequent mention of them in the writings of the Apostles, where the exercise of such gifts is spoken of as a matter of ordinary occurrence. Indeed, this is so much the case, that these miracu- lous powers are not even mentioned by the Apostolic writers as a class apart (as we should now consider them), but are joined in the same classification with other gifts, which we are wont to term natural endow- ments or “ talents.”! Thus St. Paul tells us (1 Cor. xii. 11) that 1 The two great classifications of them in Class 3. j oa kinds of tongues. St. Paul’s writings are as follows : — to another. | (Yq) interpretation of tongues. II. (1 Cor. xii. 28.) I. (1 Cor. xii. 8.) Leos gee (84): | Class 1. a1) the word of wisdom. 2. prophets. See ( to one. { he the calf Aer 8. teachers ; including (21) and (ag) perhaps. (81) faith. 4. miracles. See (Bg 2, | (8a) gifs of healing (1) grits See (8). Class 2. 82) working of méracl | ‘9 another Be) m ophecy. 5. be folks tet} hee of spirits, 4 Scoarline cf tongues, See (74): 872 oHA?, XII. SPIRITUAL GIFTS, 373 these charisms, or spiritual gifts, were wrought by one and the same Spirit, who distributed them to each severally according to His own will : and among these he classes the gift of Healing, and the gift of Tongues as falling under the same category with the talent for administrative use fulness, and the faculty of Government. But though we learn from this to refer the ordinary natural endowments of men, not less than the super- natural powers bestowed in the Apostolic age, to a divine source, yet, since we are treating of that which gave a distinctive character to the Apostolic Church, it is desirable that we should make a division between the two classes of gifts, the extraordinary and the ordinary; although this division was not made by the Apostles at the time when both kinds ef gifts were in ordinary exercise. The most striking manifestation of divine interposition was the power of working what are commonly called Miracles, that is, changes in the usual operation of the laws of nature. This power was exercised by St. Paul himself very frequently (as we know from the narrative in the Acts), as well as by the other Apostles; and in the Epistles we find repeated allusions to its exercise by ordinary Christians.’ As examples of the operation of this power, we need only refer to St. Paul’s raising Eutychus from the dead, his striking Elymas with blindness, his healing the sick at Ephesus,’ and his curing the father of Publius at Melita.* The last-mentioned examples are instances of the exercise of the gift ef healing, which was a peculiar branch of the gift of miracles, and sometimes apparently possessed by those who had not the higher gift. The source of all these miraculous powers was the charism of faith ; namely, that peculiar kind of wonder-working faith spoken of in Mait. xvii. 20, 1 Cor. xii. 9, and xiii. 2, which consisted in an intense belief that all obstacles would vanish before the power given. This must of course be distinguished from that disposition of faith which is essential to the Christian life. It may be remarked, that the following divis- iexs are in I., and not in II.; viz. 8;, 8;, and Ya: @, and ag, though not explicitly in IL, yet are probably included in it as necessary gifts for “apostles,” and perhaps alse fer “teachers,” as Neander supposes. It is difficult to observe any principle which runs through these classifications ; probably I. Was not meant as a systematic classification at all; I1., however, certainly was in some meas- ure, because St. Paul uses the words “ jirst, second, third,” Sc. It is very difficult to arrive at any certain conclusion on the subject, because ef our im- perfect understanding ef the nature of the charisms themselves: they are alluded to only as things well known to the Corinthians, and ef course without any precise description of their nature. In Rom. xii. 6-8, another unsystematie enumeration of four charisms is given; viz. (1) prophecy, (2) ministry, (8) teaching, (4) ez- hertation. 1 Gal. iii. 5 (where observe the present tense) is one of many examples. 2 Acts xix. 11, 12. ® On this latter miracle see the excellent remarks in Smith’s Veyaye and Shipwreck of St. Paul, p. 115. B74 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar, xxx We have remarked that the exercise of these miraculous powers spoken of both in the Acts and Epistles as a matter of ordinary occur- rence, and in that tone of quiet (and often incidental) allusior in which we mention the facts of our daily life. And this is the case, not in narrative of events long past (where unintentional exaggeration might be supposed to have crept in), but in the narrative of a contemporary, writing immediately after the occurrence of the events which he records, and of which he was an eye-witness; and yet farther, this phenomenon occurs in letters which speak of those miracles as wrought in the daily sight of the readers addressed. Now the question forced upon every intelligent mind is, whether such a phenomenon can be explained except by the assumption that the miracles did really happen. Is this assump- tion more difficult than that of Hume (which has been revived with an air of novelty by modern infidels), who cuts the knot by assuming that whenever we meet with an account of a miracle, it is ipso facto to be rejected as incredible, no matter by what weight of evidence it may be supported ? Besides the power of working miracles, other supernatural gifts of a less extraordinary character were bestowed upon the early Church. The most important were the gift of tongues, and the gift of prophecy. With regard to the former there is much difficulty, from the notices of it in Scripture, in fully comprehending its nature. But from the passages where it is mentioned’ we may gather thus much concerning it: first, that it was not a knowledge of foreign languages, as is often supposed ; we never read of its being exercised for the conversion of foreign nations, nor (except on the day of Pentecost alone) for that of individual foreign- ers; and even on that occasion the foreigners present were all Jewish proselytes, and most of them understood the Hellenistic? dialect. See- ondly, we learn that this gift was the result of a sudden influx of super- natural inspiration, which came upon the new believer immediately after his baptism, and recurred afterwards at uncertain intervals. Thirdly, we find that while under its influence the exercise of the understanding was suspended, while the spirit was rapt into a state of ecstasy by the imme-— diate communication of the Spirit of God. In this ecstatic trance the believer was constrained by an irresistible* power to pour forth his feel-— 1 Viz. Mark xvi. 17; Acts ii. 4, &., Acts x. 46, Acts xi. 15-17, Acts xix. 6; 1 Cor. xii., and 1 Cor. xiv. We must refer to the notes on these two last-named chapters for some further discussion of the difficulties con- nected with this gift. 2 This must probably have been the case with all the foreigners mentioned, except the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Arabians, and the Jews from these latter countries woald — probably understand the Aramaic of Palestine. — [For a different view of the gift of tongues we may refer to Dr. Wordsworth’s note on Acts — ii. 4.—H.] 5 % His spirit was not subject to his will. See 1 Cor. xiv. 82. [Some power of selfcon- — trol does appear distinctly implied in this pas — sage and y. 28. —H.] bh CHAP, XIN, THE GIFT OF PROPHECY. 376 ings of thanksgiving and rapture in words; yet the words which issued from his mouth were not his own; he was even (usually) ignorant of their meaning. St. Paul desired that those who possessed this gift should not be suffered to exercise it in the congregation, unless some one present possessed another gift (subsidiary to this), called the interpretation of tongues, by which the ecstatic utterance of the former might be ren- dered available for general edification. Another gift, also, was needful, for the checking of false pretensions to this and some other charisms, viz. the gift of discerning of spirits, the recipients of which could distinguish between the real and the imaginary possessors of spiritual gifts.’ From the gift of tongues we pass, by a natural transition, to the gift of prophecy.’ It is needless to remark that, in the Scriptural sense of the term, a prophet does not mean a foreteller of future events, but a revealer af God’s will to man; though the latter sense may (and sometimes does) include the former. So the gift of prophecy was that charism which _ enabled its possessors to utter, with the authority of inspiration, divine strains of warning, exhortation, encouragement, or rebuke ; and to teach and enforce the truths of Christianity with supernatural energy and effect. The wide diffusion among the members of the Church of this prophetical inspiration was a circumstance which is mentioned by St. Peter as distinctive of the Gospel dispensation ;* in fact, we find that in the family of Philip the Evangelist alone,‘ there were four daughters who exercised this gift; and the general possession of it is in like manner implied by the directions of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The latte: Apostle describes the marvellous effect of the inspired addresses thus spoken.® He looks upon the gift of prophecy as one of the great instru- ments for the conversion of unbelievers, and far more serviceable in this respect than the gift of tongues, although by some of the new converts it was not so highly esteemed, because it seemed less strange and won- derful. Thus far we have mentioned the eztraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were vouchsafed to the Church of that age alone; yet (as we have before said) there was no strong line of division, no “ great gulf fixed” between these, and what we now should call the ordinary gifts, or natural endow- ments of the Christian converts. Thus the gift of prophecy cannot easily be separated by any accurate demarcation from another charism often mentioned in Scripture, which we should now consider an ordinary talent, 1 This latter charism seems to have been sufficient to refer to such passages as Acts xi, requisite for the presbyters. See 1 Thess. vy. 27, 28. 8 Acts ii. 17, 18. 22. 4 Acts xxi. 9. 2 If it be asked why we class this as among 5 1 Cor. xi. 4, and 1 Cor. xiv. 24, $1, 34. the supernotura’ or extraordinary gifts, it will be § 1 Cor. xiv. 25. te 376 namely, the gift of teaching. The distinction between them appears t THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. have been that the latter was more habitually and constantly exercised by its possessors than the former : prophet ; in the faith. Other gifts specially mentioned as charisms are the gift of gov By the former, certain persons were spe- cially fitted to preside over the Church and regulate its internal order; by the latter its possessors were enabled to minister to the wants of their brethren to manage the distribution of relief among the poorer members of the Church, to tend the sick, and carry out other practical works of piety. The mention of these latter charisms leads us naturally to consider the offices which at that time existed in the Church, to which the possessors of these gifts were severally called, according as the endowment which they had received fitted them to discharge the duties of the respective We will endeavor, therefore, to give an outline of the con- stitution and government of the primitive Christian churches, as it existed in the time of the Apostles, so far as we can ascertain it from the informa- tion supplied to us in the New Testament. . Amongst the several classifications which are there given of church officers, the most important (from its relation to subsequent ecclesiastical history) is that by which they are divided into Apostles, Presbyters, and and the gift of ministration.’ functions. 1 The “charism” of “ministry” or of “help.” 2 “Apostles and Presbyters” are men- tioned Acts xv. 2, and elsewhere; and the two classes of ‘‘Presbyters and Deacons ” are mentioned Phil. i.1. See p. 378, n. 2. The following are the facts concerning the use of the word dréortodoc in the New Testament. It occurs — once in St. Matthew ; — of the Twelve. once in St. Mark; — of the Twelve. 6 times in St. Luke; —5 times of the Twelve, once in its general etymological sense. once in St. John; —in its general etymologi- cal sense. 30 times in Acts;—(always in plural) 28 times of the Twelve, and twice of Paul and Barnabas. times in Romans;— twice of St. Paul, once of Andronicus. ce we are not to suppose, however, it was necessarily given to different persons; on the contrary, an excess of divine inspiration might at any moment cause the teacher to speak as a and this was constantly exemplified in the case of the Apostles, who exercised the gift of prophecy for the conversion of their unbeliey- ing hearers, and the gift of teaching for the building-up of their converts 16 times in Corinthians;—14 times of St Paul or the Twelve, twice in etymological sense, viz. 2 Cor. viii. 23, and xi. 13. 3 times in Gal.;—of St. Paul and the Twelve. 4 times in Ephes.;—of St. Paul and the Twelve. once in Philip. ; — etymological sense. once in Thess. ; —of St. Paul. 4 times in Timothy ;— of St. Paul. once in Titus ;—of St. Paul. once in Hebrews (iii. 1) ; — of Christ Himself. 8 times in Peter; —of the Twelve. once in Jude ;— of the Twelve. 3 times in Apocalypse;—either of “false apostles”’ or of the Twelve. Besides this, the word droordAn is used to signify the Apostolic office, once in Acts and three times by St. Paul (who attributes it to himself). cBAP, XO. CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURUH. 377 Deacons. The monarchical, or (as it would be now called) the episcopal 2lement of church government was, in this first period, supplied by the authority of the Apostles. This title was probably at first confined to “ the Twelve,’ who were immediately nominated to their office (with the excep- tion of Matthias) by our Lord himself. To this body the title was limited by the Judaizing section of the Church ; but St. Paul vindicated his own claim to the Apostolic name and authority as resting upon the same com- mission given him by the same Lord ; and his companion, St. Luke, applies the name to Barnabas also. In a lower sense, the term was applied to all the more eminent Christian teachers; as, for example, to Andronicus and Junias.! And it was also sometimes used in its simple etymological sense of emissary, which had not yet been lost in its other and more technical meaning. Still those only were called emphatically the Aposiles who had received their commission from Christ himself, including the eleven who had been chosen by Him while on earth, with St. Matthias and St. Paul, who had been selected for the office by their Lord (though in different ways) after His ascension. In saying that the Apostles embodied that element in church govern- ment, which has since been represented by episcopacy, we must not, however, be understood to mean that the power of the Apostles was sub- ject to those limitations to which the authority of bishops has always been subjected. The primitive bishop was surrounded by his council of presbyters, and took no important step without their sanction; but this was far from being the case with the Apostles. They were appointed by Christ himself, with absolute power to govern His Church; to them He had given the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, with authority to admit or to exclude ; they were also guided by His perpetual inspiration, so that all their moral and religious teaching was absolutely and infallibly true; they were empowered by their solemn denunciations of evil, and their in- spired judgments on all moral questions, to bind and to loose, to remit and to retain the sins of men.? This was the essential peculiarity of their office, which can find no parallel in the after-history of the Church. But, so far as their function was to govern, they represented the monarchical ele- ment in the constitution of the early Church, and their power was a full counterpoise to that democratic tendency which has sometimes been atiributed to the ecclesiastical arrangements of the Apostolic period. Another peculiarity which distinguishes them from all subsequent rulers of the Church is, that they were not limited to a sphere of action defined 1 Rom. xvi. 7. now, but it is in quite a secondary sense; viz. 2 No doubt, in a certain sense, this poweris only so far as it is exercised in exact accord- sheared (according to the teaching of our ance with the imspired teaching of the Ordination Service) by Christian ministers Apostles. 378 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAOL. by geographical boundaries: the whole world was their diocese, and the bore the Glad-tidings, east or west, north or south, as the Holy Spirf might direct their course at the time, and governed the churches which) they founded wherever they might be placed. Moreover, those charisms which were possessed by other Chrstians singly and severally, were collec tively given to the Apostles, because all were needed for their work. gift of miracles was bestowed upon them in abundant measure, that they might strike terror into the adversaries of the truth, and win, by outwa wonders, the attention of thousands, whose minds were closed by igne rance against the inward and the spiritual. They had the gift of prophee as the very characteristic of their office, for it was their especial commis sion to reveal the truth of God to man; they were consoled in the mids of their labors by heavenly visions, and rapt in supernatural ecstasies, i which they ‘spake in tongues” “to God, and not to man.”! They had the “gift of government,” for that which came upon them daily was “ the care of all the Churches ;” the “ gift of teaching,” for they must build up their converts in the faith; even the “gift of ministration” was no unneeded by them, nor did they think it beneath them to undertake the humblest offices of a deacon for the good of the Church. When need ful, they could “serve tables,” and collect arms, and work with their own hands at mechanical trades, “ that so laboring they might support the weak ;”’ inasmuch as they were the servants of Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Of the offices concerned with Church government, the next in rank to that of the Apostles was the office of Overseers or Elders, more usually known (by their Greek designations) as Bishops or Presbyters. These terms are used in the New Testament as equivalent, the former (éicxonog) denoting (as its meaning of overseer implies) the duties, the latter (noeopitegos) the rank, of the office. The history of the Church leaves us no room for doubt that on the death of the Apostles, or perhaps at an earlier period (and, in either case, by their directions), one amongst the Presbyters of each Church was selected to preside over the rest, and to him was applied emphatically the title of the bishop or overseer, which had previously belonged equally to all; thus he became in reality (what he was sometimes called) the successor of the Apostles, as exercising (though in a lower degree) that function of government which had formerly belonged to them.’ But in speaking of this change we are anticipating ; 1 Ses note on 1 Cor. xiv. 18. Also see (Acts xx.17). See also the Pastoral Epistles, 2 Cor. xii. 12. passim. 2 Thus, in the address at Miletus, the same 3 Baron Bunsen (whom no one can suspect persons are called émoxémove (Acts xx. 28) of hierarchal tendencies) expressed his con” who had iust before been named mpecBurépove currence in this view. He says: “St. Jobu OHAP, XIII. ‘CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 379 for at the time of which we are now writing, at the foundation of the Gentile Churches, the Apostles themselves were the chief governors of the Church, and the presbyters of each particular society were co-ordi- nate with one another. We find that they existed at an early period in Jerusalem, and likewise that they were appointed by the Apostles upon the first formation of a church in every city. The same name, “ Elder,” was attached to an office of a corresponding nature in the Jewish syna- gogues, whence both title and office were probably derived. The name of Bishop was afterwards given to this office in the Gentile churches at a somewhat later period, as expressive of its duties, and as more familiar than the other title to Greek ears.! The office of the Presbyters was to watch over the particular church in which they ministered, in all that regarded its external order and internal purity ; they were to instruct the ignorant,? to exhort the faith- ful, to confute the gainsayers,’ to “‘ warn the unruly, to comfort the feeble-minded, to support the weak, to be patient towards all.”* They were “ to take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers, to feed the Church of God which He had purchased with His own blood.” * In one word, it was their duty (as it has been the duty of all who have been called to the same office during the nineteen centuries which have succeeded) to promote to the utmost of their ability, and by every means within their reach, the spiritual good of all those committed to their care.® The last of the three orders, that of Deacons, did not take its place in the ecclesiastical organization till towards the close of St. Paul’s life ; or, at least, this name was not assigned to those who discharged the func- tions of the Diaconate till a late period; the Epistle to the Philippians being the earliest in which the term occurs’ in its technical sense. In established or sanctioned the institution of siugle Rectors, called Overseers (éioxomor), a8 presidents of the Presbytery. This form of government, as being the more perfect and practical, particularly in such difficult times, s00n spread over the Christian world.” — Bun- sen’s Hppolytus, 2d ed. ii. 360. 1 ’Eioxoroc was the title of the Athenian commissioners to their subject allies. wim. ii. 2. 3 Tit. i. 9. * 1 Thess. v. 14. 5 Acts xx, 28. § Other titles, denoting their office, are ap- plied to the presbyters in some passages; e. g. Rom. xii 8: and 1 Thess. v. 12; Heb. xiii. 7; Eph. v 11; 1 Cor. xii. 28. It is, indeed, possible ‘as Neander thinks) that the “teachers ” may at first have been sometimes different from the “presbyters,” as the “charism of teaching” was distinct from the “charism of governing;” but those whe possessed both gifts would surely have been chosen presbyters from the first, if they were to be found; and, at all events, in the time of the Pastoral Epistles we find the offices united. (1 Tim. iii. 2.) See, however, the note on 1 Tim. v. 17. 7 In Romans xvi. 1, it is applied to a wo- man; and we cannot confidently assert that it is there used technically to denote an office, especially as the word didxovog is so constantly used in its non-technical sense of one who ministers in any way to others. [See next note’ but one. — H.] iy ae. 380 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 8T. PAUL. fact the word (ééxores) occurs thirty times in the New Testament, a only three times (or at most four) is it used as an official designation ; | all the other passages it is used in its simple etymological sense of ministering servant. It is a remarkable fact, too, that it never once occ u in the Acts as the title of those seven Hellenistic Christians who are ze erally (though improperly) called the seven deacons, and who were ¢ elected to supply a temporary emergency.! But although the title ; the Diaconate does not occur till afterwards, the office seems to hs existed from the first in the Church of Jerusalem (see Acts v. 6, 10 those who discharged its duties were then called the young men, in co! tradistinction to the presbyters or elders; and it was their duty to assi the latter by discharging the mechanical services requisite for the being of the Christian community. Gradually, however, as the Chur increased, the natural division of labor would suggest a subdivision o the ministrations performed by them; those which only required bodil labor would be intrusted to a less educated class of servants, and thos which required the work of the head as well as the hands (such, example, as the distribution of alms) would form the duties of the de cons ; for we may now speak of them by that name, which became appr priated to them before the close of the Apostolic epoch. There is not much information given us, with regard to their functic in the New Testament: but, from St. Paul’s directions to Timothy con cerning their qualifications, it is evident that their office was one of c siderable importance. He requires that they should be men of gra character, and “not greedy of filthy lucre;” the latter qualificati relating to their duty in administering the charitable fund of the Church He desires that they should not exercise the office till after their ch: had been first subjected to an examination, and had been found free from all imputation against it. If (as is reasonable) we explain these intima. tions by what we know of the Diaconate in the succeeding century, may assume that its duties in the Apostolic Churches (when their organi zation was complete) were to assist the presbyters in all that concer j the outward service of the Church, and in executing the details of thos measures, the general plan of which was organized by the presbyters. And, doubtless, those only were selected for this office who’ had received the gift of ministration previously mentioned. It is a disputed point whether there was an order of Deaconesses to minister among the women in the Apostolic Church ; the only proof of » See Chap. IL p. 61. We observe, also, much higher importance than that held oy ¢ . that when any of the seven are referred to, it subsequent deacons. {Still it can hardly be is never by the title of deacon; thus Philip is doubted that we have here the beginum, of called “the evangelist” (Acts xxi. 8). In the official diaconate in the Church. — 8.; fact, the office of “the seven” was one of | mar. x CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHUECH 331 _ their existence is the epithet attached to the name of Phetbe,' which may _be otherwise understood. At the same time, it must be acknowledged _ that the almost Oriental seclusion in which the Greek women were kept 'would render the institution of such an office not unnatural m the churches of Greece, as well as in those of the East. Besides the three orders of Apostles, Presbyters, and Deacons, we fini another classification of the ministry of the Church in the Epistle to the _ Ephesians,? where they are divided under four heads, viz.,? Ist, Apostles; | 2dly, Prophets ; 3dly, Evangelists; 4thly, Pastors and Teachers. By the fourth class we must understand * the Presbyters to be denoted, and we then have two other names interpolated between these and the _ Apostles ; viz. Prophets and Evangelists. By the former we must under- _ stand those on whom the gift of prophecy was bestowed in such abundant measure as to constitute their peculiar characteristic, and whose work it was to impart constantly to their brethren the revelations which they _ received from the Holy Spirit. The term Hvangelixt is applied to those “missionaries, who, like Philip,» and Timothy,’ travelled from place te place, to bear the Glad-tidings of Christ to unbelieving nations or individ- uals. Hence it follows that the Apostles were all Evangelists, although there were also Evangelists who were not Apostles. [It is needless to add that our modern use of the word Evangelist (as meaning writer of a Gospel) is of later date, and has no place here. | All these classes of Church-officers were maintained (so far as they re- quired it) by the contributions of those in whose service they labored. _ St. Paul lays down, in the strongest manner, their right to such main- tenance ;* yet, at the same time, we find that he very rarely accepted the _ offerings, which, in the exercise of this right, he might himself have claimed. He preferred to labor with his own hands for his own support, _ that he might put his disinterested motives beyond the possibility of _ suspicion ; and he advises the presbyters of the Ephesian Church to follow _ his example im this respect, that so they might be able to contribute, by _ their own exertions, to the support of the helpless. _ The mode of appointment to these different offices varied with the _ mature of the office. The Apostles, as we have seen, received their com- mission directly from Christ himself; the Prophets were appointed by 2 Rom. xvi. 1. See p. 3793, m 7. It a different view is held of the Scriptural _ should be observed, however, that the ““wid- amthority for a female disconate. —5_] uws ” mentioned | Tim. v. 9 were practically = Eph. iv. il. _ Deaeonesses, although they do not seem, at 3 A similar classification eeears 1 Cor. xi. _ the time of the Pastoral Epistles, to have beem (28; viz., Ist, Apostles; 2dly, Prophets; Sully, called by that name. [For a general diseus Teachers. * See shove, p. 373, m 6 _ sion of this subject, see the Quarterly Renew 3 Acts xxi 8. * 2 Tim iv. 5. for Oetober, 1860, especially pp. 357, 358, where T | Cor. ix. T-14. 382 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CRAP. 51 that inspiration which they received from the Holy Spirit, yet their claim would be subjected to the judgment of those who had received the gift o ‘ discernment of spirits. The Evangelists were seut on particular mission from time to time, by the Christians with whom they lived (but not with out a special revelation of the Holy Spirit’s will to that effect), as th Church of Antioch sent away Paul and Barnabas to evangelize Oypre The Presbyters and Deacons were appointed by the Apostles themselve; (as at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia),' or by their deputies, < in the case of Timothy and Titus; yet, in all such instances, it is ne improbable that the concurrence of the whole body of the Church we obtained ; and it is possible that in other cases, as well as in the appoin ment of the seven Hellenists, the officers of the Church may have bee elected by the Church which they were to serve. In all cases, so far as we may infer from the recorded instances in Acts, those who were selected for the performance of Church offices we solemnly set apart for the duties to which they devoted themselves. 8 ordination they received, whether the office to which they were called ¥ permanent or temporary. The Church, of which they were members, voted a preparatory season to “ fasting and prayer;” and then those wha were to be set apart were consecrated to their work by that solemn ané¢ touching symbolical act, the laying-on of hands, which has been eve: since appropriated to the same purpose and meaning. And thus, iz answer to the faith and prayers of the Church, the spiritual gifts neces- sary for the performance of the office were bestowed ? by Him who is “ the Lord and Giver of Life.” Having thus briefly attempted to describe the Offices of the Apostolic Church, we pass to the consideration of its Ordinances. Of these, the chief were, of course, those two sacraments ordained by Christ Himself, which have been the heritage of the Universal Church throughout all succeeding ages. The sacrament of Baptism was regarded as the door of entrance into the Christian Church, and was held to be so indisper sable that it could not be omitted even in the case of St. Paul. We have seen that although he had been called to the apostleship by the direct intervention of Christ Himself, yet he was commanded to receive baptism at the hands of a simple disciple. In ordinary cases, the solo condition required for baptism was, that the persgns to be baptized should acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah,’ “declared to be the Son of \ 1 Acts xiv. 21-28. pear as if only applicable to Jews or Jewish 2 Compare 2 Tim.i.6. “The giftof God _proselytes, who already were looking for a which is in thee by the putting-on of my Messiah; yet, since the acknowledgment of hands.” Jesus as the Messiah involves in itself, when 5 This condition would (at first sight) ap- rightly understood, the whole of Christianity, » ouar. x10. ORDINANCES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 383 God with power, by His resurrection from the dead.” In this acknowl- edgment was virtually involved the readiness of the new converts to submit to the guidance of those whom Christ had appointed as the Apostles and teachers of His Church; and we find! that they were subsequently instructed in the truths of Christianity, and were taught the true spiritual meaning of those ancient prophecies, which (if Jews) they had hitherto interpreted of a human conqueror and an earthly kingdom. This instruction, however, took place after baptism, not before it; and herein we remark a great and striking difference from the subsequent usage of the Church. For, not long after the time of the Apostles, the primitive practice in this respect was completely reversed; in all cases the convert was subjected to a long course of preliminary instruction before he was admitted to baptism, and in some instances the catechumen remained unbaptized till the hour of death; for thus he thought tc ‘escape the strictness of a Christian life, and fancied that a death-bed baptism would operate magically upon his spiritual condition, and insure his salvation. The Apostolic practice of immediate baptism would, had it been retained, have guarded the Church from so baneful a superstition. It has been questioned whether the Apostles baptized adults only, or whether they admitted infants also into the Church; yet we cannot but think it probable that infant baptism? was their practice. This appears, not merely because (had it been otherwise) we must have found some traces of the first introduction of infant baptism afterwards, but also it was a sufficient foundation for the faith of Gentiles also. In the case both of Jews and Gentiles, the thing required, in the first in- stance, was a belief in the testimony of the Apostles; that “ this Jesus had God raised up,” and thus had “‘ made that same Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ.” The most important passages, as bearing on this subject, are the baptism and confirmation of the Samaritan converts (Acts viii.), the account of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts viii.), of Cornelius (Acts x.), of the Philippian jailer (Acts xvi.) (the only case where the baptism of a non-proselyted Heathen is recorded), of John’s disciples at Ephesus (Acts xix.), and the statement in Rom. x. 9, 10. 1 This appears from such passages as Gal. vi. 6; 1 Thess. v. 12; Acis xx. 20, 28, and many others. 2 Tt is at first startling to find Neander, with his great learning and candor, taking an opposite view. Yet the arguments on which he grounds his opinion, both in the Planting and Leading and in the ‘Church History, seem plainly inconclusive. He himself acknowl- edges that the principles laid down by St. Paul (1 Cor. vii. 14) contain a justification of infant baptism, and he admits that it was practised in the time of Irenzus. His chief reason against thinking it an Apostolical practice (Church History, sect. 3) is, that Tertullian opposed it ; but Tertullian does not pretend to call it an innovation. It is need- less here to do more than refer to the well known passages of Origen which prove that infant baptism prevailed in the church of Alexandria as early as the close of the second century. Surely if infant baptism had not been sanctioned by the Apostles, we should have found some one at least among the many ohurches of primitive Christendom resisting its introduction. 384 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUI. because the very idea of the Apostolic baptism, as the entrance Christ’s kingdom, implies that it could not have been refused tv infant without violating the command of Christ: “ Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. - Again, St. Paul expressly says that the children of a Christian pare were to be looked upon as consecrated to God (awe) by virtue of thei: very birth;' and it would have been most inconsistent with this view, ¢ well as with the practice in the case of adults, to delay the reception of infants into the Church till they had been fully instructed in Christiz doctrine. We know from the Gospels? that the new converts were baptized “i the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Ané after the performance’ of the sacrament, an outward sign was given tha God was indeed present with His Church, through the mediation of Th Son, in the person of The Spirit; for the baptized converts, when th Apostles had laid their hands on them, received some spiritual gift either the power of working miracles, or of speaking in tongues, be stowed upon each of them by Him who “divideth to every mat severally as He will.” It is needless to add that baptism was (unles in exceptional cases) administered by immersion, the convert being plunged beneath the surface of the water to represent his death the life of sin, and then raised from this momentary burial to repre sent his resurrection to the life of righteousness. It must be a subjec of regret that the general discontinuance of this original form o baptism (though perhaps necessary in our northern climates) has rendered obscure to popular apprehension some very important passages of Scripture. With regard to the other sacrament, we know both from the Acts ang the Epistles how constantly the Apostolic Church obeyed their’ Lord’: command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Indeed it would seem that originally their common meals were ended, as that memorable feas at Emmaus had been, by its celebration ; so that, as at the first to those two disciples, their Lord’s presence was daily ‘“‘ made known unte them in the breaking of bread.” * Subsequently the Communion was admirz 1 1 Cor. vii. 14. baptism. The answer of St. Paul to the 2 Matt. xxviii. 19. We cannot agree with Neander (Planting and Leading, 1. 25, and 288) that the evidence of this positive com- mand is at all impaired by our finding baptism deseribed in the Acts and Epistles as baptism tnto the name of Jesus; the latter seems a con- densed expression which would naturally be employed, just as we now speak of Christian ciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus ( xix. 3), is a strong argument that the name the Holy Ghost occurred in the baptismal “7 mula then employed. 8 The case of Cornelius, in which the vite of the Holy Spirit were hestowed before bap- tiem. was an exception tc the ordinary rule. . * Luke xxiv. #5 cuaP, xm. ORDINANCES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 385 istered at the close of the public feasts of love (Agape!) at which the Christians met to realize their fellowship one with another, and to par- take together, rich and poor, masters and slaves, on equal terms, of the common meal. But this practice led to abuses, as we see in the case of the Corinthian Church, where the very idea of the ordinance was vio lated by the providing of different food for the rich and poor, and where some of the former were even guilty of intemperance. Consequently a change was made, and the communion administered before instead of after the meal, and finally separated from it altogether. The festivals observed by the Apostolic Church were at first the same with those of the Jews; and the observance of these was continued, especially by the Christians of Jewish birth, for a considerable time. A higher and more spiritual meaning, however, was attached to their cele- bration ; and particularly the Paschal feast was kept, no longer as a shadow of good things to come, but as the commemoration of blessings actually bestowed in the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus we already see the germ of our Easter festival in the exhortation which St. Paul gives to the Corinthians concerning the manner in which they should celebrate the Paschal feast. Nor was it only at this annual feast that they kept in memory the resurrection of their Lord; every Sunday likewise was a festival in memory of the same event; the Church never failed to meet for common prayer and praise on that day of the week ; and it very soon acquired the name of the “ Lord’s Day,” which it has since retained. But the meetings of the first converts for public worship were not con- fined to a single day of the week; they were always frequent, often daily. The Jewish Christians met at first in Jerusalem in some of the courts of the temple, there to join in the prayers and hear the teaching of Peter and John. Afterwards the private houses? of the more opulent Christians were thrown open to furnish their brethren with a place of assembly; and they met for prayer and praise in some “‘ upper chamber,” ® with the “ door shut for fear of the Jews.”” The outward form and order of their worship differed very materially from our own, as indeed was necessarily the case where so many of the worshippers were under the miraculous influence of the Holy Spirit. Some were filled with prophetic inspiration ; some constrained to pour forth their ecstatic feelings in the exercise of the gift of tongues, “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” We see, from St. Paul’s directions to the Corinthians, that there was 1 Jude 12. This is the custom to which 2 See Rom. xvi. 5, and 1 Cor. xvi. 19, and Pliny alludes, when he describes the Chris- Acts xviii. 7. tians meeting to partake of cibus promiscuus et $3 “The upper chamber where they were innoxius. ie gathered together.” — Acts xx. 8. 386 danger even then lest their worship should degenerate into a scene ¢ confusion, from the number who wished to take part in the public min trations; and he lays down rules which show that even the exercise of supernatural gifts was to be restrained, if it tended to violate the orderh THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. celebration of public worship. He directs that not more than two or three should prophesy in the same assembly ; and that those who had gilt of tongues should not exercise it, unless some one present had gift of interpretation, and could explain their utterances to the congre rae tion. teaching, had fitted for the task. But whatever were the other acts of devotion in which these assem- blies were employed, it seems probable that the daily worship always con- cluded with the celebration of the Holy Communion.* the members of the Church expressed and realized the closest fellowship, not only with their risen Lord, but also with each other, so it was ij “omary to symbolize this latter union by the interchange of the kiss peace before the sacrament, a practice to which St. Paul frequently alludes.‘ He also forbids women (even though some of them might prophetesses) ! to speak in the public assembly; and desires that the should appear veiled, as became the modesty of their sex. In the midst of so much diversity, however, the essential parts public worship were the same then as now, for we find that prayer was made, and thanksgiving offered up, by those who officiated, and that the congregation signified their assent by a unanimous Amen.? were chanted, doubtless to some of those ancient Hebrew melodies whic have been handed down, not improbably, to our own times in the s plest form of ecclesiastical music; and addresses of exhortation or instruction were given by those whom the gift of prophecy, or the gift of Psalms also” And as in It would have been well if the inward love and harmony of the Church had really corresponded with the outward - manifestation of it in this touching ceremony. But this was not the case, even while the Apostles themselves poured out the wine and broke the bread whi symbolized the perfect union of the members of Christ’s body. The 1 Acts xxi. 9. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 16. % This seems proved by 1 Cor. xi. 20, where St. Paul appears to assume that the very object of ‘coming together in Church” was ‘‘to eat the Lord’s Supper.” As the Lord’s Supper was originally the conclusion of the Agape, it was celebrated in the even- ing; and probably, therefore, evening was the fice, on ordinary occasions, for the meeting or the Church. This was certainly the case in Acts xx. 8; a passage which Neander must have overlooked when he says (Church History, sect. 8) that the church service in the time of the Apostles was held early in the morning. There are obvious reasons why the evening would have been the most proper time for 4 service which was to be attended by those whose day was spent in working with thew hands, * See note on I Thess. v. 26. AP. xu. DIVISIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 387 iss of peace sometimes only veiled the hatred of warring factions. So t. Paul expresses to the Corinthians his grief at hearing that there were ‘divisions among them,” which showed themselves when they met ogether for public worship. The earliest division of the Christian (Church into opposing parties was caused by the Judaizing teachers, of hose factious efforts in Jerusalem and elsewhere we have already spoken. Their great object was to turn the newly-converted Christians into Jewish proselytes, who should differ from other Jews only in the recognition of Jesus as the Messiah. In their view the natural posterity of Abraham were still as much as ever the theocratic nation, entitled to God’s exclusive favor, to which the rest of mankind could only be admit ted by becoming Jews. Those members of this party who were really sin cere believers in Christianity, probably expected that the majority of thei: countrymen, finding their own national privileges thus acknowledged and maintained by the Christians, would on their part more willingly acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah; and thus they fancied that the Christian Church would gain a larger accession of members than could ever accrue to it from isolated Gentile converts: so that they probably justified their opposition to St. Paul on grounds not only of Jewish but of Christian policy ; for they imagined that by his admission of uncir- cumcised Gentiles into the full membership of the Church he was repel- ling far more numerous converts of Israelitish birth, who would otherwise have accepted the doctrine of Jesus. This belief (which in itself, and seen from their point of view, in that age, was not unreasonable) might have enabled them to excuse to their consciences, as Christians, the bit- terness of their opposition to the great Christian Apostle. But in consid- ering them as a party, we must bear in mind that they felt themselves more Jews than Christians. They acknowledged Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, and so far they were distinguished from the rest of their countrymen ; but the Messiah himself, they thought, was only a “Saviour of His people Israel ;” and they ignored that true meaning of the ancient prophecies, which St. Paul was inspired to reveal to the Universal Church, teaching us that the “ excellent things” which are spoken of the people of God, and the city of God, in the Old Testa- ment, are to be by us interpreted of the “ household of faith,” and “ the heavenly Jerusalem.” We have seen that the Judaizers at first insisted upon the observance of the law of Moses, and especially of circumcision, as an absolute requisite for admission into the Church, “ saying, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” But after the decision of the “Council of Jerusalem” it was impossible for them to require this con- dition ; they therefore altered their tactics, and as the decrees of the 888 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP, x Council seemed to assume that the Jewish Christians would continue & observe the Mosiac Law, the Judaizers took advantage of this to insis on the necessity of a separation between those who kept the whole La and all others; they taught that the uncircumcised were in a lower con dition as to spiritual privileges, and at a greater distance from God; and that only the circumcised converts were in a state of full acceptance with Him: in short, they kept the Gentile converts who would not submit t circumcision on the same footing as the proselytes of the gate, and treate the circumcised alone as proselytes of righteousness. When we compre hend all that was involved in this, we can easily understand the energeti opposition with which their teaching was met by St. Paul. It was n mere question of outward observance, no matter of indifference (as it might at first sight appear), whether the Gentile converts were circum cised or not ; on the contrary, the question at stake was nothing less tha this, whether Christians should be merely a Jewish sect under the bondage of a ceremonial law, and only distinguished from other Jews by believing that Jesus was the Messiah, or whether they should be the Catholic Church of Christ, owing no other allegiance but to him, freed from the bondage of the letter, and bearing the seal of their inheritance no longe: in their bodies, but in their hearts. We can understand now the truth of his indignant remonstrance, “If ye be circumcised, Christ shal profit you nothing.” And we can understand also the exasperation whie his teaching must have produced in those who held the very antithesi of this, namely, that Christianity without circumcision was utterly worth less. Hence their long and desperate struggle to destroy the influence of St. Paul in every Church which he founded or visited, in Antioch, in Galatia, in Corinth, in Jerusalem, and in Rome. For as he was in tru the great prophet divinely commissioned to reveal the catholicity of the Christian Church, so he appeared to them the great apostate, urged by the worst motives! to break down the fence and root up the hedge, which separated the heritage of the Lord from a godless world. We shall not be surprised at their success in creating divisions in the Churches to which they came, when we remember that the nucleus of all those Churches was a body of converted Jews and proselytes. The Ju- daizing emissaries were ready to flatter the prejudices of this influenti body ; nor did they abstain (as we know both from tradition and from his -own letters) from insinuating the most scandalous charges against theix ¢¥ 1 That curious apocryphal book, the Clem- entine Recognitions, contains, in a modified form, a record of the view taken by the Juda- izers of St. Paul, from the pen of the Judaiz- ing party itself, in the pretended epistle of Peter to James. The English reader should consult the interesting remarks of Prof. Stan- ley on the Clementines (Stanley’s Sermons, p. 374, &.), and also Neander’s Church Hi (American translation, vol. ii. p. 35, &e.). cHAP, XII. DIVISIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 389 great opponent.! And thus, in every Christian church established by St. Paul, there sprang up, as we shall see, a schismatic party, opposed to his teaching and hostile to his person. This great Judaizing party was of course subdivided into variuus sec- tions, united in their main object, but distinguished by minor shades of difference. Thus, we find at Corinth that it comprehended two factions, the one apparently distinguished from the other by a greater degree of violence. The more moderate called themselves the followers of Peter, or rather of Cephas, for they preferred to use his Hebrew name.” These dwelt much upon our Lord’s special promises to Peter, and the necessary inferiority of St. Paul to him who was divinely ordained to be the rock whereon the Church should be built. They insinuated that St. Paul felt doubts about his own Apostolic authority, and did not dare to claim the right of maintenance,’ which Christ had expressly given to His true Apostles. They also depreciated him as a maintainer of celibacy, and contrasted him in this respect with the great Pillars of the Church, “ the brethren of the Lord and Cephas,” who were married. And no doubt they declaimed against the audacity of a converted persecutor, “born into the Church out of due time,” in “ withstanding to the face” the chief of the Apostles. A still more violent section called themselves, by a strange misnomer, the party of Christ.» These appear to have laid great stress upon the fact, that Paul had never seen or known our Lord while on earth; and they claimed for themselves a peculiar connection with Christ, as having either been among the number of His disciples, or at least as being in close connection with the “ brethren of the Lord,” and especially with James, the head of the Church at Jerusalem. To this subdivision probably belonged the emissaries who professed to come “ from James,” ® and who created a schism in the Church of Antioch. Connected to a certain extent with the Judaizing party, but yet to be carefully distinguished from it, were those Christians who are known in the New Testament as the “ weak brethren.” * These were not a factious or schismatic party ; nay, they were not, properly speaking, a party at all. 1 We learn from Epiphanius that the Ebi- onites accused St. Paul of renouncing Juda- ism because he was a rejected candidate for the hand of the High Priest’s daughter. See p- 91. 2 The MS. reading is Cephas, not Peter, in those passages where the language of the Judaizers is referred to. See note on Gal. i. 18. 8 1 Cor. ix. 4,6, 2 Cor. xi. 9, 10. eel Cor. 1x: 5 5 Such appears the most natural explana- tion of the “Christ” party (1 Cor. i. 12). As to the views held by some eminent com- mentators on the passage, it is a question _ whether they are consistent with 2 Cor. x. 7. Surely St. Paul would neyer have said, “As those who claim some imaginary communion with Christ belong to Christ, so also do / belong to Christ.” 6 Gal. ii. 12. 7 Rom. xiv. 1,2; Rom. xv. 1; 1 Cor vui 7, ix. 22. 390 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. They were individual converts of Jewish extraction, whose minds not as yet sufficiently enlightened to comprehend the fulness of “ liberty with which Christ had made them free.” Their conscience was sensitive, and filled with scruples, resulting from early habit and old prejudices ; but they did not join in the violence of the Judaizing bigots, and there was even a danger lest they should be led, by the example o: their more enlightened brethren, to wound their own conscience, by join- ing in acts which they, in their secret hearts, thought wrong. Nothing is more beautiful than the tenderness and sympathy which St. Paul shoy towards these weak Christians. While he plainly sets before them thei mistake, and shows that their prejudices result from ignorance, yet he has no sterner rebuke for them than to express his confidence in their further enlightenment: “If in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this also unto you.””! So great is his anxiety lest the liberty which they witnessed in others should tempt them to blunt the delicacy of their moral feeling, that he warns his more enlightened converts to abstai from lawful indulgences, lest they cause the weak to stumble. “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.”? “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” * “ Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.’’ 4 These latter warnings were addressed by St. Paul to a party very differ- ent from those of whom we have previously spoken ; a party who called themselves (as we see from his epistle to Corinth) by his own name, and professed to follow his teaching, yet were not always animated by his spirit. There was an obvious danger lest the opponents of the Judaizing section of the Church should themselves imitate one of the errors of their antagonists, by combining as partisans rather than as Christians. © St. Paul feels himself necessitated to remind them that the very idea of — the Catholic Church excludes all party combinations from its pale, and that adverse factions, ranging themselves under human leaders, involve a - contradiction to the Christian name. ‘Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized into the name of Paul?” “ Who, | then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed ?”* The Pauline party (as they called themselves) appear to have ridiculed — the scrupulosity of their less enlightened brethren, and to have felt for them a contempt inconsistent with the spirit of Christian love. And in 1 Phil. iii. 15. 5 1 Cor. i. 18, and 1 Cor. iii. 5. 2 1 Cor. viii. 13. 6 Rom. xiv. 10. ‘‘ Why dost thou despise 3 Gal. v. 13. thy brother?” is a question addressed to this * Rom. xiv. 15. party. CHAP, XI, DIVISIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 391 their opposition to the Judaizers, they showed a bitterness of feeling and violence of action,! too like that of their opponents. Some of them, also, were inclined to exult over the fall of God’s ancient people, and to glory in their own position, as though it had been won by superior merit. These are rebuked by St. Paul for their “ boasting,” and warned against its consequences. ‘ Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.”? One sec- tion of this party seems to have united these errors with one still more dangerous to the simplicity of the Christian faith; they received Chris- tianity more in an intellectual than a moral aspect; not as a spiritual religion, so much as a new system of philosophy. This was a phase of error most likely to occur among the disputatious*® reasoners who abounded in the great Greek cities; and, accordingly, we find the first trace of its existence at Corinth. There it took a peculiar form, in con- sequence of the arrival of Apollos as a Christian teacher, soon after the departure of St. Paul. He was a Jew of Alexandria, and as such had received that Grecian cultivation, and acquired that familiarity with Greek philosophy, which distinguished the more learned Alexandrian Jews. Thus he was able to adapt his teaching to the taste of his philos- ophizing hearers at Corinth far more than St. Paul could do; and, indeed, the latter had purposely abstained from even attempting this at Corinth.! Accordingly, the School which we have mentioned called themselves the followers of Apollos, and extolled his philosophic views, in opposition to the simple and unlearned simplicity which they ascribed to the style of St. Paul. It is easy to perceive in the temper of this portion of the Church the germ of that rationalizing tendency which afterwards developed itself into the Greek element of Gnosticism. Already, indeed, although that heresy was not yet invented, some of the worst opinions of the worst Gnostics found advocates among those who called themselves Christians; there was, even now, a party in the Church which defended fornication > on theory, and which denied the resurrection of the dead.® These heresies probably originated with those who (as we have observed) embraced Christianity as a new philosophy ; some of whom attempted, with a perverted ingenuity, to extract from its doctrines a justification of the immoral life to which they were addicted. Thus, St. Paul had taught that the law was dead to true Christians; meaning thereby, that those who were penetrated by the Holy Spirit, and made one with Christ, worked righteousness, not in consequence of a law of precepts and penal- 1 See the admonitions addressed to the 3 The “disputers of this world,” 1 Cor. i. “ spiritual” in Gal. v. 13, 14, 26, and Gal. vi. 20. £1 Cor. ii. 1. 1-5. 5 See 1 Cor. vi. 9-20. 2 Rom. xi. 17-22 5 See 1 Cox. xv. 12. 892 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. OHAP, Xu ties, but through the necessary operation of the spiritual principle with them. For, as the law against theft might be said to be dead to a ri¢ man (because he would feel no temptation to break it), so the whole moral law would be dead to a perfect Christian ;! hence, to a real Chri tian, it might in one sense be truly said that prohibitions were abolished® But the heretics of whom we are speaking took this proposition in a sense the very opposite to that which it really conveyed ; and whereas St. Pa taught that prohibitions were abolished for the righteous, they maintained that all things were lawful to the wicked. ‘ The law is dead ”’*® was their motto, and their practice was what the practice of Antinomians in all ages has been. “ Let us continue in sin, that grace may abound,” we their horrible perversion of the Evangelical revelation that God is love. “Tn Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncire cision.” ‘ ‘ The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”* “ Meat com mendeth us not to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we eat not are we the worse;”® “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” * Such were the words in which St. Paul expressed the grea truth, that religion is not a matter of outward ceremonies, but of inwa life. But these heretics caught up the words, and inferred that all out- ward acts were indifferent, and none could be criminal. They advocated the most unrestrained indulgence of the passions, and took for their maxim the worst precept of Epicurean atheism, ‘ Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die.” It is in the wealthy and vicious cities of Rome and Corinth that we find these errors first manifesting themselves; an in the voluptuous atmosphere of the latter it was not unnatural that en should be some who would seek in a new religion an excuse for their ol vices, and others who would easily be led astray by those “ evil communi- cations” whose corrupting influence the Apostle himself mentions as the chief source of this mischief. The Resurrection of the Dead was denied in the same city and by the same ® party ; nor is it strange that as the sensual Felix trembled when Paul preached to him of the judgment to come, so these profligate cavil- lers shrank from the thought of that tribunal before which account must be given of the things done in the body. Perhaps, also (as some have inferred from St. Paul’s refutation of these heretics), they had misunder 1 This state would be perfectly realized if 2 Compare 1 Tim. i. 9, —“‘the Law is not the renovation of heart were complete; andit made for a righteous man.” is practically realized in proportion as the 8 « All things are lawful unto me,” 1 Cor Christian’s spiritual union with Christ ap- vi. 12. * Gal. v. 6. proaches its theoretic standard. Perhaps it 5 2 Cor. iii. 6. ® 1 Cor. viii. & was perfectly realized by St. Paul when he 7 Rom. xiv. 17. wrote Gal. ii. 20 8 This is proved by 1 Cor. xv. 35. cmAP, XII. HERESIES IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 393 stood the Christian doctrine, which teaches us to believe in the resurrec tion of a spiritual body, as though it had asserted the re-animation of “this vile body ”’ of “ flesh and blood,”’ which “ cannot inherit the king. dom of God ;” or it is possible that a materialistic philosophy! led them to maintain that when the body had crumbled away in the grave, or been consumed on the funeral pyre, nothing of the man remained in being in either case, they probably explained away the doctrine of the Res urrection as a metaphor, similar to that employed by St. Paul when he says that baptism is the resurrection of the new convert;? thus they would agree with those later heretics (of whom were Hymenzus and Philetus) who taught “ that the Resurrection was past already.” Hitherto we have spoken of those divisions and heresies which appear to have sprung up in the several Churches founded by St. Paul at the earliest period of their history, almost immediately after their conversion. Beyond this period we are not yet arrived in St. Paul’s life; and from his conversion even to the time of his imprisonment, his conflict was mainly with Jews or Judaizers. But there were other forms of error which harassed his declining years; and these we will now endeavor (although anticipating the course of our biography) shortly to describe, so that it may not be necessary afterwards to revert to the subject, and at the same time that particular cases, which will meet us in the Epistles, may be understood in their relation to the general religious aspect of the time. We have seen that, in the earliest epoch of the Church, there were two elements of error which had already shown themselves ; namely, the bigoted, exclusive, and superstitious tendency, which was of Jewish origin; and the pseudo-philosophic, or rationalizing tendency, which was of Grecian birth. In the early period of which we have hitherto spoken, and onwards till the time of St. Paul’s imprisonment at Rome, the first of these tendencies was the principal source of danger; but after this, as the Church enlarged itself, and the number of Gentile converts more and more exceeded that of Jewish Christians, the case was altered. The catholicity of the Church became an established fact, and the Judaizers, properly so called, ceased to exist as an influential party anywhere except in Palestine. Yet still, though the Jews were forced to give up their exclusiveness, and to acknowledge the uncircumcised as “ fellow-heirs and of the same body,” their superstition remained, and became a fruitful source of mischief. On the other hand, those who sought for nothing more in Christianity than a new philosophy, were naturally 1 If this were the case, we must suppose Gnostics, who denied the Resurrection. them to have been of Epicurean tendencies, 2 Col. ii. 12. Compare Rom. vi. 4. and, so far, different from the later Platonizing a THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL, oRAP, increased in number, in proportion as the Church gained converts fre the educated classes; the lecturers in the schools of Athens, the * wi dom-seekers” of Corinth, the Antinomian perverters of St. Paul teaching, and the Platonizing rabbis of Alexandria, all would share this tendency. The latter, indeed, as represented by the learned Phi had already attempted to construct a system of Judaic Platonism, whie explained away almost all the peculiarities of the Mosaic theology in accordance with the doctrines of the Academy. And thus the way wa already paved for the introduction of that most curious amalgam Hellenic and Oriental speculation with Jewish superstition, which ws afterwards called the Gnostic heresy. It is a disputed point at what tim this heresy made its first appearance in the Church: some! think that had already commenced in the Church of Corinth when St. Paul warne them to beware of the knowledge (Gnosis) which puffeth up; other maintain that it did not originate till the time of Basilides, long afte the last Apostle had fallen asleep in Jesus. Perhaps, however, we ma) consider this as a difference rather about the definition of a term thai the history of a sect. If we define Gnosticism to be that combination o} Orientalism and Platonism held by the followers of Basilides or Valen tinus, and refuse the title of Gnostic to any but those who adopted the systems, no doubt we must not place the Gnostics among the heretics o the Apostolic age. But if, on the other hand (as seems most natural) we define a Gnostic to be one who claims the possession of a peculie “ Gnosis” (7. e. a deep and philosophic insight into the mysteries of theology, unattainable by the vulgar), then it is indisputable that Gnos- ticism had begun when St. Paul warned Timothy against those who lai claim to a “ knowledge (Gnosis)? falsely so called. And, moreover, w find that, even in the Apostolic age, these arrogant speculators had begun to blend with their Hellenic philosophy certain fragments of Jewish superstition, which afterwards were incorporated into the Cabala.° 1 This is the opinion of Dr. Burton, the great English authority on the Gnostic heresy. (Lectures, pp. 84, 85.) We cannot refer to this eminent theologian without expressing our obligation to his writings, and our admi- cation for that union of profound learning with clear good sense and candor which dis- tinguishes him. His premature death robbed tte Church of England of a writer, who, had his life been spared, would have been inferior to none of its brightest ornaments. 2 Neander well observes, that the essential feature in Gnosticism is its re-establishing an aristocracy of knowledge in religion, and reject- ing the Christian principle which recognizes no religious distinctions between rich and poor, learned and ignorant. (Church History, sect. 4.) So in Hippolytus’s recently-discovere “ Refutation of Heresies,” we find that som of the earlier Gnostics are represented as im- terpreting the “good ground” in the parable of the Sower to mean the higher order of intellects. 8 Thus the “genealogies” mentioned im the Pastoral Epistles were probably those speculations about the emanations of spiritual | beings found in the Cabala; at least, such is Burton’s opinion. (Pp. 114 and 413.) Ard cua xin, HERESIES IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 395 spite, however, of the occurrence of such Jewish elements, those heresies which troubled the later years of St. Paul, and afterwards of St. John, were essentially rather of Gentile’ than of Jewish origin. So far as they agreed with the later Gnosticism, this must certainly have been the ease, for we know that it was a characteristic of all the Gnostic sects to despise the Jewish Scriptures. Moreover, those who laid claims to « Gnosis” at Corinth (as we have seen) were a Gentile party, who pro- fessed to adopt St. Paul’s doctrine of the abolition of the law, and per- verted it into Antinomianism: in short, they were the opposite extreme to the Judaizing party. Nor need we be surprised to find that some of these philosophizing heretics adopted some of the wildest super- stitions of the Jews; for these very superstitions were not so much the natural growth of Judaism as ingrafted upon it by its Rabbinical corrupters and derived from Oriental sources. And there was a strong uffinity between the neo-Platonic philosophy of Alexandria and the Oriental theosophy which sprang from Buddhism and other kindred systems, and which degenerated into the practice of magic and incanta- lons. It is not necessary, however, that we should enter into any discussion of the subsequent development of these errors; our subject only re- quires that we give an outline of the forms which they assumed during the lifetime of St. Paul; and this we can only do very imperfectly, oecause the allusions in St. Paul’s writings are so few and so brief, that they give us but little information. Still, they suffice to show the main features of the heresies which he condemns, especially when we compare jkem with notices in other parts of the New Testament, and with the history of the Church in the succeeding century. We may consider these heresies, first, in their doctrinal, and, secondly, in their practical aspect. With regard to the former, we find that their yeneral characteristic was the claim to a deep philosophical insight into the mysteries of religion. Thus the Colossians are warned against the false teachers who would deceive them by a vain affectation of “‘ Philoso- phy,’ and who were “ puffed up by a fleshly mind.” (Col. ii. 8, 18.)° So, in the Epistle to Timothy, St. Paul speaks of these heretics as falsely claiming “ knowledge ” (Gnosis). And in the Epistle to the Ephesians the Angel worship at Colosse belonged to the same Class of superstitions. Ithas been shown »y Dr. Burton (pp. 304-306), as well as by Neander and other writers, that the later Gnostic theories of ons and emanations were ierived, in some measure, from Jewish sources, ulthough the essential character of Gnosticism s entirely Anti-Judaical. 1 In the larger editions is an Appendix on the “‘ Heretics of the later Apostolic Age.” 2 Dr. Burton says:—“‘ We find all the Gnostics agreed in rejecting the Jewish Scrip- tures, or at least in treating them with con- tempt.” — P. 39. 3 Compare 1 Cor. viii. 1: “ Knowledge (gnosis) puffeth up.” 396 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. omar. x (so called) he seems to allude to the same boastful assumption, when speaks of the love of Christ as surpassing “ knowledge,” in a passag which contains other apparent allusions! to Gnostic doctrine. Connect ed with this claim to a deeper insight into truth than that possessed the uninitiated, was the manner in which some of these heretics explain away the facts of revelation by an allegorical interpretation. Thus | find that a piokas and Philetus maintained that “ the Resurrectic was past already.”” We have seen that a heresy apparently identical ¥ this existed at a very early period in the Church of Corinth, among free-thinking, or pseudo-philosophical, party there; and all the Gnost sects of the second century were united in denying the resurrection o the dead.? Again, we find the Colossian heretics introducing a worsh of angels, “intruding into those things which they have not seen :” ar so, in the Pastoral Epistles, the “ self-styled Gnostics” (1 Tim. vi. 2 are occupied with “endless genealogies,” which were probably fancifi myths, concerning the origin and emanation of spiritual beings.* latter is one of the points in which Jewish superstition was blended w Gentile speculation ; for we find in the Cabala,‘ or collection of Jewi traditional theology, many fabulous statements concerning such ema tions. It seems to be a similar superstition which is stigmatized in # Pastoral Epistles as consisting of ‘“ profane and old wives’ fables ;”’* a again, of “‘ Jewish fables and commandments of men.” * The Gnosties ¢ the second century adopted and systematized this theory of emanations and it became one of the most peculiar and distinctive features of the heresy. But this was not the only Jewish element in the teaching ¢ these Colossian heretics ; we find also that they made a point of conscience of observing the Jewish Sabbaths" and festivals, and they are che with clinging to outward rites (Col. ii. 8, 20), and making distinctio between the lawfulness of different kinds of food. 1 Eph. iii. 19. See Dr. Burton’s remarks, Lectures, pp. 83 and 125. 2 Burton, p. 131. 8 See p. 394, n. 8. According to the Cabala, there were ten Sephiroth, or emana- tions proceeding from God, which appear to have suggested the Gnostic sons. Upon this theory was grafted a system of magic, con- sisting mainly of the use of Scriptural words to produce supernatural effects. 4 St. Paul denounces “the tradition of men” (Col. ii. 8) as the source of these errors ; and the word Cabala means tradition. Dr. Burton says, ‘ The Cabala had certainly grown into a system at the time of the de- struction of Jerusalem; and there is also evidence that it had been cultivated by the Jewish doctors long before.” — P. 298. [See above, Ch. II. p. 55.—.] 5 1 Tim. iv. 7. § Tit. i. 14. 7 This does not prove them, however, # have been Jews, for the superstitious Heathen were also in the habit of adopting some of the rites of Judaism, under the idea of their producing some magical effect upon them; a we find from the Roman satirists. Compare Horace, Sat. 1. 9, 71 (“ Hodie tricesima sab- bata,” &e.), and Juv. vi. 542-547. See also some remarks on the Colossian heretics im our introductory remarks on the Epistle to t Colossians. "i * ved mar, XI. HERESIES IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 397 In their practical results, these heresies which we are considering had a twofold direction. On one side was an ascetic tendency, such as we find at Colosse, showing itself by an arbitrarily invented worship of God, an affectation of self-humiliation and mortification of the flesh. So, in the Pastoral Epistles, we find the prohibition of marriage,’ the enforced abstinence from food, and other bodily mortifications, mentioned as characteristics of heresy.* If this asceticism originated from the Jewish element which has been mentioned above, it may be compared with the practice of the Essenes,‘ whose existence shows that such asceticism was not inconsistent with Judaism, although it was contrary to the views of the Judaizing party properly so called. On the other hand, it may have arisen from that abhorrence of matter, and anxiety to free the soul from the dominion of the body, which distinguished the Alexandrian Plato- nists, and which (derived from them) became a characteristic of some of the Gnostic sects. But this asceticism was a weak and comparatively innocent form, in which the practical results of this incipient Gnosticism exhibited them- selves. Its really dangerous manifestation was derived, not from its Jewish, but from its Heathen element. We have seen how this showed itself from the first at Corinth; how men sheltered their immoralities under the name of Christianity, and even justified them by a perversion of its doctrines. Such teaching could not fail to find a ready audience wherever there were found vicious lives and hardened consciences. Ac- cordingly, it was in the luxurious and corrupt population of Asia Minor,® that this early Gnosticism assumed its worst form of immoral practice defended by Antinomian doctrine. Thus, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul warns his readers against the sophistical arguments by which certain false teachers strove to justify the sins of impurity, and to per- suade them that the acts of the body could not contaminate the soul,— “Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things 1 “ Will-worship.” — Col. ii. 23. 2 Which certainly was the reverse of the Judaizing exaltation of marriage. ® St. Panl declares that these errors shall come “in the last days” (2 Tim. iii. 1); but St. John says “the last days” were come in his time (1 John ii. 18); and it is implied by St. Paul’s words that the evils he denounces were already in action; just as he had said before to the Thessalonians, “ the mystery of lawlessness is already working” (2 Thess. li. 7), where the peculiar expressions “‘ lawless- ness” and “‘ the lawless one” seem to point to the Antinomian character of these heresies. * [See above, Ch. II. p. 32. —u.] 5 Both at Colosss and in Crete it seems to have been the Jewish form of these heresies which predominated: at Colosse they took an ascetic direction; in Crete, among a sim pler and more provincial population, the false teachers seem to have been hypocrites. who encouraged the vices to which their followers were addicted, and inoculated them with foolish superstitions (Tit. i. 14, iii. 9); bur we do not find in these Epistles any mention of the theoretic Antinomianism which existed in some of the great cities. 898 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. CHAP. cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”! H menezus and Philetus are the first leaders of this party mentioned | name: we have seen that they agreed with the Corinthian Antinomiz in denying the Resurrection, and they agreed with them no less in p tice than in theory. Of the first of them it is expressly said that he* had “ cast away a good conscience,” and of both we are told that they showed themselves not to belong to Christ, because they had not His seal ; this seal being described as twofold, — “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” and “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart fro iniquity.”* St. Paul appears to imply that though they boasted the “ knowledge of God,” yet the Lord had no knowledge of them; as o Saviour had himself declared that to the claims of such false disciples E would reply, “‘ I never knew you ; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity But in the same Epistle where these heresiarchs are condemned, St. Pa intimates that their principles were not yet fully developed; he we Timothy ‘ that an outburst of immorality and lawlessness must be short expected within the Church beyond any thing which had yet been e3 perienced. The same anticipation appears in his farewell address to th Ephesian presbyters, and even at the early period of his Epistles to Thessalonians; and we see from the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude and from the Apocalypse of St. John, all addressed (it should be remem bered) to the Churches of Asia Minor, that this prophetic warning ¥ soon fulfilled. We find that many Christians used their liberty as a clos of maliciousness ;° “ promising their hearers liberty, yet themselves th slaves of corruption ; ”’® “¢ turning the grace of God into lasciviousness ; ” that they were justly condemned by the surrounding Heathen for thei crimes, and even suffered punishment as robbers and murderers.’ The} were also infamous for the practice of the pretended arts of magic ani witchcraft,’ which they may have borrowed either from the Jewish sooth sayers ” and exorcisers," or from the Heathen professors of magical arts who so much abounded at the same epoch. Some of them, who are called the followers of Balaam in the Epistles of Peter and Jude, and Nicolaitans (an equivalent name) in the Apocalypse, taught their folloy ers to indulge in the sensual impurities, and even in the idol-feasts, of the 1 Eph. v. 6. See also the whole of the § 2 Pet. ii. 19. warnings in Eph. vy. The Epistle, though not 7 Jude 4. addressed (at any rate not exclusively) to the 8 1 Pet. iv. 15. Ephesians, was probably sent to several other cities in Asia Minor. 2 1 Tim. i. 19, 20. 3 2 Tim. ii. 19. « 2 Tim. iii. * 1 Pet, ii. 16. ® Rev. ii. 20. Compare Rev. ix. 21, Rey. xxi. 8, and Rev. xxii. 15. 10 Compare Juy. vi. 546: “ Quali voles Judei somnia vendunt.” [See abo Ch. V. pp. 132, 1338. — #.] 11 See Acts xix. 18. he xu, 399 r HERESIES IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. Heathen.’ We find, moreover, that these false disciples, with their licentiousness in morals, united anarchy in politics, and resistance to law and government. They “ walked after the flesh in the lust of uuciean- ness, and despised governments.” And thus they gave rise to those charges against Christianity itself, which were made by the Heathen writers of the time, whose knowledge of the new religion was naturally taken from those amongst its professors who rendered themselves notori- ous by falling under the judgment of the Law. | When thus we contemplate the true character of these divisions and heresies which beset the Apostolic Church, we cannot but acknowledge that it needed all those miraculous gifts with which it was endowed, and ali that inspired wisdom which presided over its organization, to ward off dangers which threatened to blight its growth and destroy its very exist- ance. In its earliest infancy, two powerful and venomous foes twined themselves round its very cradle; but its strength was according to its day ; with a supernatural vigor it rent off the coils of Jewish bigotry and stifled the poisonous breath of Heathen licentiousness ; but the peril was mortal, and the struggle was for life or death. Had the Church’s fate oeen subjected to the ordinary laws which regulate the history of earthly sommonwealths, it could scarcely have escaped one of two opposite desti- nies, either of which must have equally defeated (if we may so speak) the world’s salvation. Hither it must have been cramped into a Jewish sect, according to the wish of the majority of its earliest members, or (having escaped this immediate extinction) it must have added one more to the innumerable schools of Heathen philosophy, subdividing into a hundred branches, whose votaries would some of them have sunk into / _ 1 Such, at least, seems the natural explana- not impute to them sin.” And Epiphanius tion of the words in Rev. ii. 20; for we can scarcely suppose so strong a condemnation if the offence had been only eating meat which had once formed part of a sacrifice. It is re- markable how completely the Gnostics of the second century resembled these earlier heretics in ail the points here mentioned. Their im- orality is the subject of constant animadver- sion in the writings of the Fathers, who tell that the calumnies which were cast upon fhe Christians by the Heathen were caused by the vices of the Gnostics. Irengus asserts that they said, “as golii deposited in mud does ot lose its beauty, so they themselves, what- ever may be their outward immorality, can- not be injured by it, nor lose their spiritual é. a And so Justin Martyr speaks of heretics, who said ‘‘taat though they live sin- ‘al lives, yet. if they know God, the Lord will gives the most horrible details of the enor- mities which they practised. Again, their addiction to magical arts was notorious. And their leaders, Basilides and Valentinus, are accused of acting like the Nicolaitans of the Apocalypse, to avoid persecution. Such ac- cusations may, no doubt, be slanders, as far as those leaders were individually concerned. The increased knowledge of them which we have lately derived from the publication of Hippolytus’s “ Refutation of Heresies” leads us to think of them as bold speculators, buf not as bad men. Yet we cannot doubt that their philosophical speculations degenerated into the most superstitious theosophy in the hands of their followers. And the details furnished by Hippolytus prove that many of the Gnostics fully deserved the charges of immorality commonly brought against them. 400 THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. THAR, Oriental superstitions, others into Pagan voluptuousness. If we ne any proof how narrowly the Church escaped this latter peril, we ha only to look at the fearful power of Gnosticism in the succeeding centr And, indeed, the more we consider the elements of which every Chris community was originally composed, the more must we wonder | the little flock of the wise and good! could have successfully resisted ¢ overwhelming contagion of folly and wickedness. In every city 4 nucleus of the Church consisted of Jews and Jewish proselytes; on ( foundation was superadded a miscellaneous mass of Heathen conver almost exclusively from the lowest classes, baptized, indeed, into the na of Jesus, but still with all the habits of a life of idolatry and vice clir ing to them. How was it, then, that such a society could escape the t temptations which assailed it just at the time when they were most Ji to be fatal? While as yet the Jewish element preponderated, a fanatic party, commanding almost necessarily the sympathies of the Jewish pi tion of the society, made a zealous and combined effort to redu Christianity to Judaism, and subordinate the Church to the Synagogu Over their great opponent, the one Apostle of the Gentiles, they won temporary triumph, and saw him consigned to prison and to death. He was it that the very hour of their victory was the epoch from wich ¥ date their failure? Again,—this stage is passed,—the Church thrown open to the Gentiles, and crowds flock in, some attrazted | wonder at the miracles they see, some by hatred of the governmert un¢ which they live, and by hopes that they may turn the Church into organized conspiracy against law and order; and even the beut, as y unsettled in their faith, and ready to exchange their new belief for newer, “carried about with every wind of doctrine.” At such an epoch, a systematic theory is devised, reconciling the profession of Cl.ristianil with the practice of immorality ; its teachers proclaim that Christ I freed them from the law, and that the man who has attained tru) spiritu enlightenment is above the obligations of outward morality : and will this seducing philosophy for the Gentile they readily combine the Cah listic superstitions of Rabbinical tradition to captivate the