LIBRARY OF PRINCETON w THEOLOGICAL SEMINARN 65 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL STUDY OF ST. PAUL HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS i?v S. BARING-GOULD MA. AUTHOR OF "THE TRAGEDY OF THE C^SARS " " MEHALAH " ETC. LIBRARY OF PRINCETON '>' 1 2 rm THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY LONDON ISBISTER AND COMPANY Limited 15 & IG TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN 1897 Printed by 1!allant%'ne, Hanson <^ Co. London &' Edinburgh CONTENTS PREFACE CHRONOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION I. THE TWELVE . H. TARSUS . III. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN IV. THE CONVERSION V. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM VI. ANTIOCH VII. CYPRUS . VIII. GALATIA IX. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM X. THE SECOND JOURNEY GALATIA XI. „ „ MACEDONIA XII. „ „ ATHENS XIII. „ „ CORINTH XIV. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL XV. THE GOSPEL AND THE NATURAL LAW XVI. THE THIRD JOURNEY EPHESUS XVII. THE PERIOD OF CONFLICT XVIII. ST. Paul's mode of argument XIX. THE riot at EPHESUS PAGE vii 13 21 41 58 81 92 111 14.0 153 176 197 210 225 241 257 277 287 299 318 337 vi CONTENTS CHAT. XX. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS XXI. THE VOYAGE TO .lEHUSALEM XXII. THE RIOT AT JERUSALEM XXIII. C/ESAREA . . ... XXIV. HOME ....... XXV. THE LAST YEARS ..... ADDENDA : THE APOSTOLATE (p. 6"5) . RELIGIOUS ECSTASY (p. 1 1()) ANATOLIAN POLYANDRY (p. ]()()) THE GREEKS (]). 1 ().")) " MULIERES SUBlNTRODU(TyE " (p. 174) CIRCUMCISION AMONG THE COP'l'S (p. I()f)) THE " ROBUR " (p. 2]<)) . THE UNKNOWN GOD (p. 2.S*.S) . I'ROPHECIES AND UNKNOUN TONGUES (j). 249) PAULINE ANOMIA (p. 310) INDEX ....... PAGE .'?4.'5 ,Sf)7 381 398 412 428 ^39 443 445 448 450 452 452 453 453 457 46"3 MAPS : I. THE FIRST .lOURNEY OF ST. PAUL. II. THE SECOND .JOURNEY OF ST. PAUL, Erratum. — P. ISl : for "Crete" read "Cyprus." PREFACE The question has been put to me — I have asked it of myself — Is there room for another Life of St. Paul ? I venture to answer that there is. Whether I was the pro})er man to undertake it — that is another question altogether. I did not seek to write it. It was, so to speak, forced upon me. Paul, like Shakespeare and Napoleon, are men of whom the world is never weary, who are ever in its mind, of whom it is always desirous to know more. I do not jjretend to add anything to the vast accumulation of detail that has been piled about the central figure of the Apostle, till his personality is buried under the mass of material collected. For this I have not the learning. For original research, a study of the localities, their relation to the nari-ative in the Acts, and for the rehabilitation of the credibility of the book that had been sharply assailed. Professor Ramsay's works have been epoch-making.^ I have made no explorations in Asia Minor, and so can add nothing. There have been studies of St. Paul, as a figure in a stained glass window, in which drawing and colouring are imreal, and the setting is lead. Such studies may be said to be of the past. But there are others which combine much archteological detail and local colour with a treatment of the Apostle such ' "The Church in the Roman Empire," 4th ed., 1895; "St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen,"' 1S96. viii PREFACE as a Roman client used towards his ])atron, and a seventeenth centuiy author eni))loyed to the nobleman to whom he dedicated his book. He is fawned upon, adulation is " laid on with a trowel/' he is exhibited as incapable of errors of judgment, of feebleness in argument, of doing anything but what is faultlessly right. Unctuous expletives are j)Oured over him, till the precious balms break his head. For such a work I have no stomach. There have been studies, mainly (ierman, in which the critics have treated the great Apostle as the Neolithic men treated a dead chieftain. They ha\'e first exposed him to the birds of prey, then have collected his disjointed bones, scrajjed them, and rearranged them according to their several idiosyncrasies — now adjusting a leg-bone to an arm-socket and then I'ejecting a tibia as too stout or too slim, and relegating it to some other subject. There have been studies, and these French, in Avhich effort has been expended in arranging a stagey effect ; the Apostle has been made to assume picturesque attitudes, surrounded with crowds artistically grouped, in scenery appropriate if somewhat gorgeous. Then there have been studies of Paul by such as were resolved to find in his writings a complete ecclesiastical and theological system, and others by such as wei'e equally deter- mined to see in them nothing but what is amorphous. The line I have adopted is that of a man of the world, of a novelist with some experience of life, and some acquaintance with the springs of conduct that actuate mankind. A novelist, it will be objected, with a shrug, is the last man who should treat such a subject. The historian dreads the play of his imagination, altering facts ; the religious man fears irreverence in handling them ; and the critic disputes his acumen in investigation. His hand is unaccustomed to the scalpel say these, unused to the censer say others. PREFACE ix But this is due to a misconception of what a novelist really is, or should be. He is not properly an enchanter, calling up fantastic visions, a creator of startling situations, and an elaborator of ingenious plots ; least of all is he a mechanical repi'oducer of moving photographs. He is rather one who seeks to sound the depths of human nature, to probe the very heart of man, to stand patiently at his side with finger on pulse. He seeks to discover the prin- ciples that direct man's action, to watch the development of his character, and to note the influence the surroundings have on the genesis of his ideas, and the formation of his convictions. This, then, is the point of view adopted by me. 1 treat the great Apostle as a man. I put aside detail unnecessary to my purpose, archaeological, epigraphical, historical, geograplilcal. My book is not, therefore, a life of St. Paul, if incidents and accidents make up a man's life, but a study of his mind, the formation of his opinions, their modification under new conditions, and the direction taken by his Avork, under pressure of various kinds, and frcjm different sides. At the same time I have used my best endeavour to be accurate in such details as were to my purpose to mention, having had recourse to the latest and best authorities. If I have here and there had occasion to refer to the Talmud, it is because that is accessible to every one, in the translation by Moses Schwab, and that of Beracoth by Chiarini. I have been sparing of references that encumber the foot of a page, like barnacles on the keel of a vessel, and delay progress. With regard to the divine element in the narrative, I hold that to eliminate that is to misconceive the story of Paul altogether, to throw away the only key that can unlock the many problems of his life and labours. But I am indisposed to obtrude the divine and miraculous, wherever the facts of the narrative can be explained without forcible intervention with the natui'al order. X PREFACE I think that certain "ood people, wliose opinions I respect, wliose faith I reverence, and ^vhose piety I love, are disposed to misconceive the nature and function of inspiration, and to regard it as overmastering those who are inspired, neutralis- ing their wills and suppressing their individuality. There are two sorts of action in the world producti\e of results — that which is vital, and that which is mechanical. The first contains in itself almost infinite possibilities of development and adaptation. The second is formal and invariable. The first is a divine gift, the second is a contrivance of man. Wherever and whenever God acts, it is in the first way, by the infusion of life, the production of germs in which the power of expansion, of selection, and of accommodation to shifting conditions, is found to exist. In a word, life as given by God contains in itself the faculty of growth. And I take it that inspiration is of like nature, and that we radically misunder- stand it, if we reduce it to a mere mechanical force, like steam, that sets certain hiunan wheels in motion to produce a certain predestined amount of work, according to a certain pre- ordained pattern. From the point of view I ha\e elected, I am bound to consider St. Paul mainly from the human side. I do not deny the other, the spiritual side (God forbid !), but I think that this latter has been unduly studied to the neglect of the human aspect. A biograjihy that does not take both into account must be a limping and incomplete production. Hut this is not all. Not only does an examination of St. Paul's life in its human aspect assist us in understanding the man himself, but, if the same method be applied to those among whom he moved, whom he gained by his teaching, or won by his abundant charity, and those whom he exasperated i)y his peculiar tactics, then they cease to pass before us like marionettes, but are seen as living men, alive to the smallest interference with PREFACE xi their interests ; men very much hke ourselves, prejudiced, touchy, tenacious t)f traditional rights. So we comprehend better than we could otherwise the secondary causes of Paul's successes, as well as the main motives that produced opposition. The method I propose to follow moreover assists us in penetrating to the root of some of the problems that beset the student of Primitive Church history. The Tiibingen school a fait forhoic out of its discovery of a supposed fiery antagonism between St. James and St. Peter on one side, and St. Paul on the other, resulting in an angry schism that was healed over in the second century, in such a manner as to leave a scar discernible only under the micro- scope. To conceive of such a reconciliation is to suppose a violation of the law governing all schisms, which drives the fractions ever further apart, hardening their peculiarities, .uid rendering the raw edges too irritable ever to reunite. All the indications of heat noted by the thermometer and keen eye of the Tiibingen scholars, and interpreted by them in one way, are capable of interpretation, more naturally, in another. With respect to the chronology of Paul's career there is but one period about which there is any real difficulty. I have ventured to suggest a solution of what has been a crud- to his biographers, and which reconciles all difficulties in a very simple manner. I must express my gratitude to the Rev. R. Gwynne, \ icar of St. Mary's, Charing Cross Road, and to the Rev. .1. B. Hughes, late Master of Blundel School, Tivei'ton, and Vicar of Staverton, Devon, for kindly looking through my proof sheets. S. BARING-GOULD. Lew Trenciiard, Devon. CHKOXOLOGICAT. IXTRODUCTION Ix considering- the chronolo<>v of St. PanPs history we soon discover that there are in it two epochs, one that can be determined with tolerable nicety, the other very difficnlt to arrange. We have to settle everything- between the year 35, when his conversion took ])lace, and 63, when the narrative in the Acts closes. We nuist take the second half of his life first, and work backwards. We know that Paul sailed, a prisoner, for Rome, in the autumn after the appointment of Porcius Festus as ])rocurator, which took place early in 60. He, therefore, sailed in the fall of 60. He had been a prisoner in Cfesarea for three years, from the riot in Jerusalem at Pentecost. That, therefore, took place in 58. At Easter in 58 he was at Philippi. He arrived there from Corinth, where he had spent the winter of 57-58. He had come to Corinth in the autumn of 57, from Ephesus, where he had tarried three years — that is to say, from the spring of 55. He had arrived at Ephesus from Antioch through Galatia, having spent the winter of 54-55 in Antioch. To Antioch he had returned from his second missionary journey through Asia, ^Macedonia, and Achaia, which had lasted probably from 52. We can check this date by that of the ])roconsulship of Gallic in Achaia. 14 CHRONOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION The Council of Jerusalem took })lace some time in the winter of 51-52. So far is fairly certain. The chronology of the earlier portion of St. Paul's career is more difficult to settle satisfactorilv. It is oenerally agreed that his conversion took place in 35. Then he spent three years in Arabia, and after that came up to Jerusalem, in 38. " Then, fourteen years after," he wrote to the Galatians, " I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas.'''' Are we to deduct the three years in Arabia from these fourteen .^ Probably so. Then this gives us the date 49 for the second visit. He was fetched from Tarsus by Barnabas in 48. Now comes the difficulty. We are told (Acts xi. 22-24) that Barnabas was sent by the Ajjostles to Antioch, and that, jjerplexed as to his course, he went on to Tarsus, and fetched Paul thence (xi. 25, 26). Then we hear of proj)hets foretelling a famine, which famine takes place in the reign of Claudius Caesar. The brethren at Antioch resolve on sending relief to the believers in Jerusalem (xi. 27-29), and Barnabas and Paul take it up to Jerusalem (xi. 30). Then conies in — parenthetically — the account of Herod's persecution and of the death of Herod (xii. 1-19; 22-23). Then follows the return of Barnabas and Paul to Antioch (xii. 2.5). All connnentators make Paul and Barnabas go twice to Jerusalem, with an interval of some three years between, and because Paul distinctly asserts that he had not been in Jerusalem till 48, they suppose he went part of the way, and turnetl back for some unknown reason. CHKOXOLOGICAL INTRODUCTIOX 15 Thev have been led to this impotent conchision because satisfied that the prophesied famine took place in 44. But is it not possible, nay, probable, that the famine continued for several years, and the distress prevailed for as manv as five ; that the Church in Antioch sent up alms annualh", but only by the hands of Barnabas and Paul in the last year, 49 ? When Luke set to work to string his notes together into a consecutive record, it was at a distance from Palestine, and many years after the events related. His notes had been taken down from various persons, at different times and occasions, and what he had to do was to piece them together to the best of his ability. All the earlier portion of the Acts was thus composed. The only portion of which he could be sure of the chronological secj^uence was that in which he had been a companion of the Apostle. The account of the fetching of Paul by Barnabas, he had doubtless heard from the former. That of the persecution and the death of the persecutor he had from some Jewish believer ; but how to dovetail this in with Paul's reminis- cences was a matter of pure conjecture; and when he did it — it was clumsily done. Nowadays we can check dates by reference to the files of the Times, or to " Year Books.'' Luke had no such ojjportunities. If, as Professor Ramsay supposes, the xVcts were written about 78, then this was some thirty or thirty- four vears after the famine. This was his collection of notes : a. Barnabas sent to Antioch (xi. 22-24). /3. Barnabas fetches Paul (xi. 25-26). y. Arrival of Prophets at Antioch foretelling famine (xi. 27-28). 16 CHROXOLOGICAL IXTRODUCTIOX ^. A collection made (xi. 29). £. Barnabas and Saul carry it to Jerusalem (xi. JiO). [X,. Persecution of the Church hj Herod (xii. 1-19). J}. Death (fthe Persecutor (xii. 20-23)]. 0. Barnabas and Said return from Jerusalem (xii. 25). Is it not obvious that paragraphs t, and rj are intruded w here they have no right, and that the narrative should continue straightway from t to 0, showing how Barnabas and Saul go up to Jerusalem and then return to Antioch ? Before a we have first the long story of St. Peter and Cornelius, which was no })art of PauPs reminiscences, but which Luke ])robably obtained from Mark. Then comes another note from another source (xi. 19-21) relative to the dispersion of the believers after the persecution in which Stephen perished. Then comes the mission of Barnabas, and then, suggested by the scattering after the first ])ersecution in 35, comes the scattering after the persecution in 44, which sends Agabus and other })rophets to Antioch. The re-arrangement of the text that I }n-o})ose would be this : — Persecution of the Church by Herod. Spring of 44. In consequence of the persecution, the prophets driven from Jerusalem arrive in .Vntioch, where they foretell the approaching failure of the harvest and subsequent famine, A collection resolved on. Death of Herod, 44. News of the progress of the Gosj)el in Antioch reaches the A})ostles. They are now in tranquillity, "The Church has rest," 45-48, and they are able to consider the matter ; thev send Barnabas to Antioch, 48. CHRONOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION 17 Barnabas goes to Tarsus and fetches Paul, 48. Barnabas, ready with his report, takes up the contri- bution, and associates Paul with him, when he makes his report to the Apostles, 49. The report consitlered ; Barnabas and Paul return to Antioch, 49. The persecution accounts for the coming- of the prophets to Antioch, flying from the wrath of Herod. It is inconceivable that the Apostles should have been able to consider the state of affairs in Antioch at the very time that persecution raged. It is far more likely that when it was over, and the period of security had set in, thev began to apjily their minds to the difficulties of the situation at Antioch, and that it was then, and then only, in 48, that they deputed Barnabas to report on it. Josephus by no means limits the famine to one year. He says, "Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus. . . . Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in Avhich queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at great expense, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have already related '^ (Anticj. xx. c. 5). This is plain enough. If it began so early as 44, it lasted on for several years. The prophet Agabus foretold it in 44, and the Chiu'ch in Antioch sent annual contributions till 49, during which time the dearth was chronic. In the last year only did Barnabas and Saul take it up. There is nothing in the text that militates against the supposition that the con- tribution was made annually during the period of distress, and that it was only on the last occasion of transmitting it that the two Apostles conveyed the money to Jerusalem. It seems to me that this simple supposition, coupled 18 CHRONOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION with that of the misplacement of the account of the persecution and death of Herod, explains every difficulty. I append a table of the chronolooy I propose to follow. circa 4 „ i8 .. 25 30 35 37 38 44 Events in St. Paul's Life. Saul alias Paul born. At Jerusalem under Gama- liel (xxii. 3). Returns to Tarsus. Paul returns to Jerusalem (vii. 58 ; viii. i). Stephen stoned (vi. ; vii.). Conversion of Paul (ix. 1-8). He retires into Arabia (Gal. i. 17). Paul re-visits Damascus ; obliged to fly (ix. 20-25y< First visit to Jerusalem after conversion (ix. 2G; Gal. i. 18). Then returns to Tarsus (ix. 26-30 ; Gal. i. iS). Contemporary Events. The Crucifixion. Pilate deposed, i6th March. Persecution at Jerusalem (xii. 1-19). Prophets dis- persed by per- secution come to Antioch and foretell afamine (xi. 27, 28). Harvest fails and famine begins, and lasts inter- mittently for six years. Death of Herod Agrippa (xii. 20-23). Fadus procurator till 46. Then Tiberius Alexander till 48. Composition of Epistles. CHRONOLOGICAL IXTRODUCTION 19 Events in St. Paul's Life. 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 Barnabas sent to Antioch by the Apostles (xi. 22- 24). In the autumn he goes to Tarsus and fetches Paul, who spends with him the winter in Antioch (xi. 25, 26). Barnabas and Paul go up with alms to Jerusalem (xi. 30). Thence they return to Antioch (xi. 30 ; xii. 25) ; but previous to their re- turn Paul has a vision in the Temple (xxii. 17-20). In the spring the ordina- tion of Barnabas and Paul (.\iii. 1-3). Then they undertake the first missionary journey to Cyprus and Galatia (xiii. 4-52 ; xiv. 1-25). Paul and Barnabas in Galatia. They return in the fall of the year to Antioch (xiv. 26-28). In the winter the Council of Jerusalem (xv. 1-30; Gal. ii. i). After it return of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch (xv. 30). In the spring Paul starts on his second missionary journey, through Galatia to Macedonia and Achaia (xvi.-xviii.). Paul at Corinth (xviii. i- Return to Palestine in the spring (xviii. 18). Winter of 54-55 spent in Antioch (xviii. 22). Paul starts on his third missionary journey, and arrives in Ephesus (xviii. 23 ; xix. i). Contemporary Events. Composition of Epistles. Ventidius Cu- manus procura- tor till 52. Jews expelled Rome. Felix procurator till 60. Gallic Proconsul ofAchaia, 53-54. Death of Claudius. Accession of Nero. Epistles to the Thessa- lonians. Epistle to the Galatians. Epistles to the Corinthians. 20 CHRONOLOGIC A L INTIiOD CCTION Date. Events in St. Paul's Life. Contemporary Events. Composition of Epistles. 56 57 At Ephesus (xix. ; xx. i). At Ephesus, but in autumn goes to Corinth, where he winters (xx. 1-3). Epistle to the Romans. 58 At Easter in Philippi, then sails for Jerusalem (xx. 3-38). Riot at Jerusalem at Pen- tecost, and Paul is con- veyed a prisoner to Caesarea (xxi.-xxiii.). 59 In prison at Caesarea(xxiv.) . Epistles to Philemon, to Colossians andtoEphe- sians. The Gospel of St. Luke composed at the advice of St. Paul. 60 In the autumn sails for Rome (xxv.-xxvii.). Festus procura- tor, 60-62. 61 In spring arrives in Rome (xxviii.). 62 Detained prisoner in Rome (xxviii. 30). • Epistle to Philippians. Pastoral epis- tles. 63 Record in Acts closes. 64 (Release of Paul before the burning of Rome.) Burning of Rome, July 19-25. Persecution in Rome. 65 Confirming the Churches. (?)66 Paul beheaded. circ.jg Date of the composition of the Acts of the Apostles. CHAPTER I THE T W E L V E The Twelve limited in their education — The Pentecostal Gift ga\-e zeal and spiritual force, but could not supply educational defects — A possible scheme suggested — The important work effected by the Twelve — Paul's work supplemented theirs — The history of Rabbin- ism — Training of the memory among the Jews — Importance of this for the Twelve — And that they should remain in Jerusalem — Further account of Rabbinism — Illustration of Rabbinic interpretation — The great achievement of the Pharisees — To them was due the unique position of the Jewish nation — Defects in their system — Hatred of the Gentiles— The degradation of the High-priesthood — This tended to make the Synagogue the religious centre — May have helped on the progress of the Gospel — The material on which the Twelve had to work — The proselytes — Cause of the attraction of Mosaism — Few heathens became fully incorporated — Proselytes of the Gate — Spread of Jewish customs in the Old World — The Diaspora — Jews in Alexandria — In Rome — Relaxation of strictness of observance — The fitness of Paul for the office of Apostle to the Diaspora and their converts. The Apostles of Jesus Christ were drawn from the humblest class : some were fishermen, one a tax-gatherer, all without more education than such as was afforded in the Jewish schools, an education calculated to contract the brain and envelop the heart in a cobweb of jjrejudice that would impede its pulsation. They had never been brought into contact with the men outside the prickly hedge of the Law ; they knew nothing of the practical common-sense of the Roman, the subtle and searching mind of the Greek. They had jirobably c m A STUDY OF ST. PAUL never heard of the great river of ])hik)sophy that floweci through the classic world. IMato, that searcher after God, was unknown to them even by name, and their early training had been such as to wholly unfit them to under- stand the nature and to measure the force of that stream when brought to look upon it.^ At Pentecost, indeed, the souls of the Eleven had been flushed M'ith the Holy Ghost, and the divine illumination had lifted their mental and spiritual powers to the highest degree of exaltation attainable by them. But a vessel cannot be filled with more fluid than it is calculated to hold. The gift could not have supplied them \\'\\h what they had not previously gained — experience of the Gentile mind, knowledge of its cravings, experience bred of associa- tion, and with that, sympathy, which springs out of such association. Had the extension of the " kingdom " been left to the first Apostles, it might have assumed a very different form from that it took in the sequel. In a future cha])ter I will endeavour to show how that poss'ihhj the divine intention may have been to retain the Jewish nation as the great evangelising ]io\ver in the world, so that through the seed of Abraham all generations of men, all the nations on earth, might be blessed in a fuller and more perfect manner than actually took ])lace. For such a work the Twelve would have sufficed. Bat as ^ In Acts iv. 13, the Apostles are spoken of as "unlearned" and "ignorant." The word /SttDrat is incorrectly translated "ignorant," as it really means "laymen." The Jews regarded all those who were not trained in the schools of the rabbis as uneducated, although they might have picked up some knowledge of the Law in the village schools which, by a law enacted by Simon Ben Shelach, all Jewish children were bound to attend. THE TWELVE 23 the divine plan, supposing it was such, was frustrated hv the stubbornness wherewith the Jew refused to accept the o-lorioLis mission, then the work of evano-ehsation had to be effected by other means ; and an apostle of another description from that of the Twelve became necessary. Paul, indeed, was not quite all that could have been desired, for he was out of touch with the intellectual life of the classic world ; but he had sympathies wider than the other Apostles, and a somewhat more vigorous intellect. Above all, he was a Hellenic Jew, one born out of Judea, and, in addition, a Roman citizen ; so that, if out of intellectual, he was at all events in political, sympathy with the ruling power. It would have been vastly difficult for the Apostles at Jerusalem to overcome their prejudice against the Gentiles, and they had not the experience in dealing with inquirers from among the heathen that was possessed by the Hellenic Jews. In the sequel I trust to be able to show how very important a work w^as really effected by the Twelve, for which they are not given credit — how that, in fact, Paufs work was supplemental to theirs. He has had the advan- tage, not shared by them, of having a biographer, devoted in his admiration. Conse{|uently he has been given a position in the history of the development of the Church to their disadvantage. It is 1 necessary, in order to understand the mental con- dition of the Jew when the Gospel was first preached, to take a survey of the rise of Rabbinism. In China but one daughter in a family has her feet systematically deformed to prevent her from walking. In Jewry every man-child had 24 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL his brains contracted till they became incapable of liberal thought and of generous emotion. In one of JNIarryafs novels, the father of the hero is represented as the inventor of an apparatus by means of which certain non-existent bumps in the head might be artificially raised, and certain existing protuberances might also be reduced. The entire energy and ingenuity of the sopherim or scribes, since the Ca])ti\ity, had been directed to the contrivance of a similar moral and intellectual apparatus ; and this a})paratus was the school, with its continuation, the synagogue. There was nothing wanton and arbitrary in this. It was forced on the rulers as the only method attainable for the preservation of the national religion and character. Before the Captivity, the people had shown a strange hankering lor the paganism that surrounded them. They were mingled with the heathen and learned their manners. But after the return from exile, all this ceased. Having no political independence, and living under a governor, they sought in tlu! I^aw the sup])ort of their nationality, and zealously carried out its prece})ts as far as was prac- ticable. But the conditions were different from what they had been. Formerly they were an agricultural people; their life had been simple and the horizon of their ideas limited. They had been unreflective and unj)hilosophical. In Babylon they were brought into connexion with a people standing on the higher intellectual stage, a peo})le of many sciences, of splendid culture, of great ])olitical im])ortance, and of considerable counnercial energy. Inevi- tably this connexion altered their character. They were as surely humiliated by their sense of inferiority as by the fact of their captivity. 'J'hey observed the connnerce of THE TWELVE 25 the IJabylonians, took it to heart, and when thev returned to their own land it was with the resolve that they would become traders. The bed of their intellectual life iiad deepened ; they became reflective, and in their impatience at their ])olitical humiliation built their hope, and satis- fied their pride, on the prophecies of a coming INIessiah and a restoration of their j)olitical splendour and im- portance. On the return to the land of Covenant, the first measures adopted by Ezra and Nehemiali were to require the people to ])ut away their strange wives, and then in combination to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. This was a fiaure of the direction thenceforth given to the national character : the Jew was to be cut off from all association with the heathen, every thread of sympathy was to be snapped, and he was to labour at the erection of an impenetrable hedge about him, not so much as a protection against the irru])- tions of the Gentiles as to prevent the breaking forth of those within. The prophet was no more, he was sup- planted by the schoolmaster, and what the prophet had failed to effect by the blast of inspired declamation, that the schoolmaster achieved by dry routine. In olden times, while the children of Israel still possessed a national kingdom, they had felt their isolation keenly ; the Law had been an oppressive yoke to them, which they bore imjjatiently, and endeavoured repeatedly to shake off. They wanted to live as did those about them, to eat, drink and intermarry with them. But now there ensued a complete change in this respect, they devoted their entire energy to the erection of an insurmountable barrier between them and the nations around, and this barrier was " the hedge of the Law." 26- A STUDY OF ST. PAUL 111 consequence of the break-up of the Persian empire, Juchea in time became an integral ])ortion of the Syrian empire under Seleucus Thilopator and Antiochus. These kings promoted the settlement of Greeks and Syrians in Palestine, and a party of Jews threw off more or less of their national customs and their exclusiveness and soon became total renegades. The office of High Priest was trafficked for, and was bought by the highest bidder. Consequently the High-priesthood fell into contempt ; but the scribes were looked upon as the upholders of the Jewish nationality and guardians of the law. The Law was given to the Hebrews w hen they were a pastoral and agricultural people, and it was no longer applicable to them in their new condition as citizens and merchants and handicraftsmen. Life had become more complicated and its conditions were changed. The scribes now undertook to explain the Law so as to meet every contingencv. Their judgments were like the precedents in Lnglish law courts ; they were, however, transmitted orally, and the meiiiory of the scholars was loaded with this mass of traditional interpretation. In later times this was committed to writing and was called the Mishna. But as the precedents or rather explanations in the Mishna were some times conflicting, at others obscure, and as moreover fresh (juestions arose demanding further con- sideration, an additional compilation was made, and this, attached to the Mishna, was entitled the Gemara. As certain rabbis nevertheless did not understand and explain the Law alike, schools came into existence advocating the principles of particular teachers. What tended ])re-emineiitly to the ])o])ularity of this THE TWELVE 27 teaching was that the office of rabbi or scribe was open to every one, and was not restricted, like the priesthood, to a single tribe. Thence arose the saying that the crown of the kingdom rested in Judah, that of the priesthood was with the seed of Aaron, but that the diadem of the Law was common to all Israel. The sphere in which the scribe performed his functions was the school first, and then the svnao-oo-ue. What was brought into life in the former was ripened in the latter. In the school, the scribe read the text of the Law, and then translated it into the vulgar tongue. Then followed the explanation, according to the tradition of the elders. He exacted of his pu})ils a retentive memory, and when from the school they passed to become teachers themselves, then it was laid upon them to abstain from independent exegesis. No scripture was of any private interpretation ; all was traditional. " Every disciple is bound to teach in the same words in which his master has taught " ; and the highest praise that could be accorded to a scholar was that he resembled a cemented cistern which retained every single drop of water that distilled into it. In Hindustan, in like manner, that which was required by the Brahmins of their pupils was memory and not reason— memory developed and trained to such exactitude as to preserve intonation and accent as well as the text of the Vedas. This marvellous discipline of the memory must be con- sidered in relation to the Gospel record and the office of the Twelve. They had accompanied Christ Jesus as dis- ciples, and, like all pupils under a rabbi, they hung on His lips, and retained His teaching to the very words ^8 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL eiuploved. Their great function then, in Jerusalem, was to act as the Hving depository of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to repeat with one voice what they had been taught. They were a living Book, twelve synoptic Gospels ; and till the Church had begun to expand it was all important that they, as witnesses to Christ's acts, and guardians of His words, should remain in the Holy City. I do not think that we take sufficiently into consideration the fact of the enerjjv of a nation for several generations being directed towards the discipline of the memory — and its bearing on the formation of the Four Gospels. Through the incessant reading of newspapers and new books, the memory of man in a civilised European nation is reduced to powerlessness. But the Jew^ was trained to concentrate his attention on every word that fell from his teacher. He was not allowed to write down even notes, everything must be stored in the mind, and everything preserved there literally as spoken by the teacher. If Rabbinism had done nothing else, we have to thank it for having made accuracy of memory an heriditary })ower among the Jews, and so given to us a guarantee of the substantial accuracy of the Gospel record. And we can at once realise what a tremendous testimony to Christ was the presence of twelve certificated witnesses (if I may use the expression), together with some hundreds of others who had heard and seen Christ, but whose reports needed correction and approval by those chosen and set apart to give to the world the authentic record. At first they no more thought of writing it down than did the Jewish rabbis think of consigning ]\Iishna and Gemara to pajier ; but as the Church extended, and as the Gentiles were gathered in who had not undergone cen- THE TWELVE ^9 turies of discipline to train their nieniorios to acciiracv, then it became necessary to issue authenticated iiai latives of Christ's sayings and doings in written form. If the Twelve had scattered directly after Pentecost, the great force of their testimony would have been weakened. It was essential that they should remain as a college together for a while. To return to the narrative of the development of liabbinism. The study of the I^aw became more and more general, and zealously cultivated as the oppression of the rulers became heavier. Indeed, the sole refuge open to the people was in the elucidation of their ancient literature ; their only consolation in their sorrow and shame lay in the ^Messianic prophecies. The desire to study grew so great, that every man whose circumstances allowed him, regarded it as his highest duty to devote himself to it. " It was the chief care of the Israelites,'" says Josephus, "to educate their children aright, and so to imprint the Law in their hearts in chiklhood, that when asked by any one a question relative to it, every child would answer as readily as if ([uestioned concerning its name." The more the exeoesis of the Law claimed the acuteness of the student to find out new logical subtleties, the greater occasion it gave to ambition to strive after distinction, and consequently it was the only ground on which the Jewish child could ac(juire fame, the sole field in which his intellec- tual faculties could exercise themselves. That a great deal of the interpretation was mere hair-splitting is indisputable, and much of the shaping of the Law to adapt it to the circumstances of life in a town was arbitrary and forced. ^0 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL Notliinostles to work. First came the Jews — the Pharisees and those who respected the Pharisee, nine-tenths of the population. Of them nothing further need be said. Outside these was the ring of proselytes. In the attitude of hostility toward Gentiledom assumed by the Jews, one would have supposed that Judaism would have been unsympathetic and repulsive to the Greek and Homan. This, however, was by no means the case. It must be admitted that Judaism did achieve considerable missionary success, due solely to the efforts of the Pharisees, and this is acknowledged even by pagan writers. When Philo says, "The laws of Moses attract the whole world, the barbarian, stranger, and Greek, those who live on the con- tinents and such as inhabit the islands, natives of east and west, of Eurojie and Asia," he may be suspected of exaggera- tion. Josephus more modestly says, " Many Greeks have embraced our laws," and he mentions numerous proselytes in Antiochand Damascus. In the latter city, he says, "almost all the women were attached to the Jewish religion.'''' At Antioch in Pisidia the Jews stirred up the women of high rank against the Apostles, The ado])tion of Israelitish customs became common in Greek cities. Heathen testimony is hardly o])en to suspi- cion. Horace, l)io Cassius, Tacitus remark on the fact that THE TWELVE !55 Judaism ])osscssecl an attractive power, and that nianv pao-ans were drawn to adopt the laws of Moses, Persius and Juvenal tell us that the llonians themselves were quite as ready as the Greeks to be sednced. The Gospel speaks of the zeal of the Pharisee who compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, at the same time that it allows us to see that the qualitv of these converts was not g-ood. The Acts reveal to us the fact that throughout Asia Minor, wherever there was a synagogue, there numbers of pagans were assiduous in their attendance on the public prayers and instructions. Various causes favoured this propaganda : the superiority of monotheism over poly- theism, of the Jewish moral code over religions without any ethic standards whatsoever, and the repulsion exercised on the nobler spirits bv the licentiousness of the legends of their gods, and the same may be said of the rites connected with their cult. To the naturally modest and instinctively chaste soul of woman, a religion which branded all sensual indulgence possessed a rare attraction. AVomen who desired to be shielded from the universal corruption, virgins trem- bling and disgusted at the foulness of pagan life, fled to Mosaism, just as in the turbulent and lawless Middle Ages they hid themselves in the cloister. Again, there was the attraction of novelty, always great to the idle and the dissatisfied, A fever of curiosity more- over had taken possession of the Roman world precisely at this period, a taste for magic, for occult sciences, clandestine ceremonies, and mystical initiations. To this must be added the effect produced by the forged Sibylline oracles, loudly proclaimed and appealed to, and the manifest sincerity with which the Jews expected the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kino-dom over all the world. 36 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL To a large extent the jiroselvtes were recruited from the lower ranks of the peo})le, especially from those vagabond strangers to wliom it offered a religion, a country, and a future. But that which chilled enthusiasm was the severity of the conditions. " The ])rescriptions of the Law," says Jose])hus, " are more difficult to endure than the legislation of Lacedfemon,*" and many converts grew lukewarm, then cold and reiajised. But this was not wholly the case. The Jews were not insensible to the advantage of having ad- herents among the noble and the rich, not only because of the political influence these could use in their favour, but also because of the money contributions to be exacted from them. Probablv those proselytes " of righteousness,"" of whom Dio, Tacitus, Philo, and Juvenal write, men who divested them- selves entirely of the old man to incorporate themselves into the Jewish nation, Avere few in number. To become incorporated into the Jewish religion com- pletely was to become antagonistic to the State, as the Roman mind conceived it, to refuse to take part in the cus- tomary sacrifices and to swear by the genius of the emperor and of Rome, to refuse homage to the eagles, and to the images of the prince, to abstain from a thousand matters of social and municipal and ])olitical custom so intimately linked with religion, that they were inseparable, and must inevitably bring on the Roman citizen who renounced them, the charge of atheism or treason. We do, indeed, hear of an occasional case of this sort, as that of I'omjjonia (Jra'cina, and later of Flavins Clemens and Acilius Glabrio,^ but 1 These two latter were, however, Christians and not Jews. Flavia Domitilla, the wife, or perhaps the niece of Clemens, it is doubtful which, gave her vineyard for the use of the Christians as a cemetery. The hypoge of the Acilii has been found lately in connection with the catacomb of St. Priscilla. See '-Romische Quartal-Schrift," iv. (1890), p. 305. THE TWELVE J57 they were so rare, that we must conckide that the number of those who entirely united themselves to the Jews were very few indeed. \'astly more numerous were the prose- lytes " of the gate," uncircumcised, who were required only to believe in one God, and to observe the precepts given to Noah and his sons (Gen. ix. 2-7). The Jews of the straitest observance never looked with a favourable eye on these converts. One whole sect of the Pharisees, that of the disciples of Shammai, strongly opposed the making of proselytes, except of the highest order, who would submit to the whole Law, and they declared that it was due to the influx of these aliens that the delay was occasioned in the coming of the Messiah. Judaic influence was not limited to the making of converts, it introduced certain of its customs among the heathen, which were adopted unintelligently and without inquiry as to their purport. The Sabbath was observed in Greece and Rome by the pagans, without their knowing w herefore. Josephus says : " One does not find a Greek town, or, for the matter of that, hardly any among the barbarians, in which men do not cease from work on the seventh day, do not light lamps and fast. Many abstain, like us, from eating certain meats, and strive to emulate our unity, our interchange of goods, our industry in the handicrafts, and our constancy in suffering for the observ- ance of our laws." That this is not overdrawn is shown by Persius, and by a well-known saying of Seneca. The latter blames a custom which he admits has become almost universal. And now — it may well be asked, "How is it possible that Jews, despising and hating the Gentiles, should labour to convert them ? " To understand this we nuist remember D 38 A SrrDY OF ST. PAUL that the Jewish ])e()j)le was cleft into two portions — that which reniainetl in the Holy Land, and that which was of the Dispersion. All the missionary work was done by the latter. The dis})ersion of the Hebrews throuo'h oast and west was not a result of the destruction of Jerusalem. It dated, l^erhaps, from the conquests of Alexander, probably from before, and was an accomplished fact in the century of Augustus. The war of extermination imder Titus, waged in Palestine, changed the general situation but slightly. The Macedonian conqueror, flushed with the victory he had gained over Tyre, came to Jerusaleni, where he was received with acclamations, and the High Priest, with politic com- plaisance, showed him the Messianic prophecies, and inter- preted them as finding their fulfilment in himself. The flews eagerly invoked his aid to wreak their long harboured revenge against Babylon ; they strengthened his hands by sending reinforcements to his aid, and inflated his confidence by assurances of success. Whether Alexander divined the commercial aptitude of the Jews, or whether, as is more probable, he assisted and accelerated a movement of emigration already begun, can not be said ; but when he founded the city to be called by his name, at the mouth of the Nile, in the depth of the Mediterranean basin, he invited to it a colony of Jews. In Alexandria they speedily became so numerous, that thev occupied two out of the five quarters of the city. They became vastly wealthy, monopolised the navigation of the Nile, and the corn trade. Antioch had been given the right of citizenship bv Seleucus. The Jews had planted themselves there in considerable munbeis, and drew to themselves the trade that passed througli this town. They THE TWELVE 39 had spread into Asia Minor, and set up their counters wherever ran the hues of connnerce, and where the countei's were, large connnunities o-rew up with schools and syna- gogues. Rome, the centre of the world, could not remain without a settlement of Jewish usurers and merchants. Horace had a friend who was a Jew, and the empress Li via a confidant who belonged to that nation. But in the imperial city they never became as wealthy and powerful as in Alexandria ; they obtained a livelihood as actors, fortune-tellers, and engaged in petty trades. The disrepute into which the High-priesthood had fallen had relaxed its controlling power over the Jew ; and the Svnagogue became the centre of religious life in place of the Temple. To the latter the Jew continued to make his annual pilgrimage, but it had ceased to engage his respect and affection, to a large degree, and the Synagogue had become the predominant factor in his religious life ; and as a svnagogue could be established anywhere, it served to give to the Jew a feeling that he was at home even in the midst of Gentiledom. He still, indeed, enter- tained a lofty contempt for the religion, manner of life, even the persons of the heathen ; but for the sake of gain the Jew condescended to associate with them, and took their money without scruple, though stamped with idola- trous figures, and coming from contaminating hands. Lucri bonus est odor ex re qualibet. But the very fact of living in the midst of those of another race and creed, of daily exchange of courtesies, of occasional reception of good offices, must tend to corrode prejudice and soften harshness of feeling. And the evidence 40 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL that such was the case is seen in the great nunibeis of converts made ; for the Jew would not have striven to bring the Gentile within the fold, unless he had been moved towards him by pity and regard. We are accordingly led to see that if, in the divine purpose, the Gentiles were to be gathered into the Church, the proper agent for carrying to them the sununons, *'Come, for all things are now ready," would be a man of the Diaspora (Dispersion), one who, though a Jew by birth, had been brought up among the Gentiles, and not only knew them, but had a heart full of tenderness towards them. CHAPTER II TARSL'S A.D. 4 — 20 The province of Cilicia — The delta of the Pyramus and Sarus — -Tarsus — On the high road to the East — The manufacture of cilicium — Troubles from robbers and pirates — A municipium — Past history — Population mixed — The trade of Tarsus — The University — The Cydnus — Unhealthiness of the delta — Date of Paul's birth — Roman citizenship — ReHc of St. Paul at Tarsus — The names of Saul and Paul — Earl\- life at Tarsus — Jews kept apart from the Greeks — Strong anti-Gentile feeling — Paul unlikely to have associated with the Greek students — Importance of education to a Jew — Revulsion in later times in Paul's mind against Judaic strictness — Paul sent to Jerusalem for his education — The two schools of Hillel and Sham- mai — Gamaliel — Disputes between the schools — Mode of interpreta- tion of Scripture. Like the Swiss canton of Appenzell, the province of Cihcia is divided into two strongly characterised regions, the one Alpine, ban-en, culminating in snowy peaks tenanted by nigged mountaineei*s, pasturing droves of goats and wild Cappadocian cobs, ^^^th a disposition for brigandage, under favouring circumstances. The other is level, fertile as the Garden of Eden, dense with an agricultural and peaceful population. The latter is a ^lesopotamia in miniatm-e, a rich alluvial delta of two rivers, the Pyramus and Sarus. At one time, very remote, the whole of this tract was sea, a gulf rmming deeper inland than that of Iskanderun, but that was at the da^Ti of the Drift period, before the rise of the veil of historv. 42 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL The great plain of rich red deposit, dashed a\ ith black humus, and streaked, where the Cydnus rolls down its lime- stone rubble, with white, is watered by canals, these combed out into countless flossy rills, and was of inexhaustible fertility. In February it was flushed pink with almond blossom, and was fragTant with citron flowers. It })ro- duced groves of oaks and mulberries, the dark green foliage broken at intervals by the silvery grey of the olive, rising- above the verdvu'e like puff's of wood smoke. The capital, Tarsus, to the west of this delta, planted on the Cydnus, that flowed athwart the city, was sheltered from the north by the serrated range now called the Bulghar Dagh. The town lay in a position of command- ing im})ortance for traffic. It had its port a few miles below, on the Mediterranean, through Avhich trade was carried on with Egypt, Cyprus, and Palestine. It lay on the main road along which travelled the merchandise of the East to the markets of the West, and where marched the cohorts of Home destined for the garrisons of Syria. From Tarsus started the highway that threaded the mountain passes by the Cilician Gates — a natural })ortal — to Central Asia Minor, to Phrygia and Lycaonia on one side, and to Cappadocia on the other. The paved road crossing the ])lain, straight as an arrow, passing by bridges over the two rivers, was trodden inces- santly by caravans and by troops, by the imperial post, and by peasants and mountaineers laden with the produce of the plains and the yield of the rock fastnesses. The suburbs of the town abounded in taverns, where sailors and soldiers, nudeteers, and peasants roystered and drank ; and Egyptian or Greek dancing-girls entertained them to the twanging of a rote or the tinkle of a systrum. TARSUS 43 One whole (juaiter was devoted to the niauufactiire of Imir-cloth, called ciliciuin, and to tanning. There sounded incessantly the rattle of the loom and the thumping of rolled river pebbles used by the fellers in making skins flexible. The cloth made of goat's hair w as a staple of manufac- ture in Tarsus, and this material took its name from the province which furnished both the raw material and the fabricated stuft'. This dark cloth was employed almost universally for the coarse habits worn by fishermen and sailors, as being impervious to wet, and of imperishable endurance. It was likewise used for horsecloths, tents, and sacks. Gaily dyed, it was the substance of which the Phrygian cap was shaped. The mountains of Cilicia maintained vast heids of long- haired goats, that furnished the cloth-weavers of Tarsus with the hair, the tanners with the skins, and the victuallers with cheese. Cyprian cop})er found its way to Tarsus for combina- tion with tin from the mines inland, to make the precious amalgam bronze. At one time wickerwork helmets, covered with felt, and the whole studded with bronze rosettes, formed a peculiar manufacture in this portion of the peninsula, and these caps travelled far into the centre of Europe.^ But the prosperity of Tarsus had long been hekl in check by the pirates who infested the Famphylian sea, cruising up and down the Cilician straits, and falling on the merchant vessels that slipped across the Gulf of Issus ; also by the organised bands of robbers in the mountains, who plimdered the caravans, or took toll of such as they suffered to \\end their way through the fastnesses. ^ " L'Anthropologie," 1896, t. vii. p. 270. 44 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The stroll"; hands of Auo-ustus and C'yreniiis had tamed the insolence of the mountaineers ; Ponipey and C'tesarhad destroyed the piratical Heets, and had hung and crucified the pirates. Consequently, in the first century, Tarsus was enjoyino; unexampled tranquillity and the prosperity that ensues from it. The wealthy citizens could retire from the heats of summer to their villas on the high ground without fear of molestation, and the passes guarded by forts \\'ere open to the trader. It was not surprising that the citv looked with gratitude to the imperial house, and was staunch in its loyalty. The Caesars in return made Tarsus a municipium, but did not accord it the rights of a colony ; it Avas given the same privileges as Antioch in Syria — it elected its own magis- trates and was not burdened with a garrison. Cilicia had passed under many masters ; it had at one time been held by Egypt, then by the Assyrian, next by the Persian ; it had become a portion of the (Tra-co-Syrian kingdom, and had finally been incorporated as a province into the Roman Empire. The population was mixed. An Argive colony was planted there under the mythical leader Perseus. Un- doubtedly the Phcenicians had fre(|uented its market and had established there their warehouses. Sardanapalus, King of Assyria, was said to ha\e rebuilt the town, and to have died there. A mass of rubble masonry, cased m marble, was shown outside one of the gates as his tomb, and it bore a later inscrij)tioii in Greek, that told how the great king had l)uilt the city in one day, and concluded with the cynical address: "Passer-by, eat. drink, laugh. All else profiteth nothing."" Jn the sti'eets, in the market, all nations met, jostled, and talked in a babel of many tonuues. '^I'liere were TARSUS 45 beautiful straight-nosed, oval-faced Greeks, bullet-headed Romans, dark-eved Armenians, fair-haired fresh-looking Celts from (ialatia, and sallow, almond-eyed men of Turanian ancestry. Huge convoys of goods passed through the town, silks trom Persia, spices from India, metals from the Taurian mines, gangs of Parthian slaves. Not only did the manu- facturers supply sack-cloth, but also skins to serve as bottles for the transport of wine, and for the covering of machines of war. Miinw arrived from Tyre, cochineal from Armenia, and the peasants brought in saffron for the dye works. A brisk exchange of Oriental and Occidental coinage went on at the offices of the money-changers ; and not a little of the vast harvests of barley produced by the alluvial plain found its way to Home through the hands of the Jewish corn-dealers. But Tarsus was something more than an em})orium of trade. It Avas a centre of intellectual life. The schools there rivalled those of Athens and Alexan- dria. The ])oet Aratus was a Cilician, though not a native of Tarsus. He had composed a poem on natural science, in the third century before our era, which Cicero translated into I^atin. The fame of the Tarsian philosophers, gram- marians, and orators reached Rome, and thence was drawn the stoic Athenadorus, preceptor of Octavius, and the academician Nestor. Tarsus was moreover a focus of religious life. In it were temples to many gods, to Athene, Heracles, and Apollo, but the chief cult was that of Baal. The recent apotheosis of Augustus had led to a great explosion of religious enthusiasm ; a temple had been erected to him, and for the moment his worshi]) was the fashion. 46 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL Tarsus was "no mean citv," it liad its theatre, race- course, baths. Probably, hke Poinjjeiopohs and Adona, the main street was lined with colonnades, in which the citizens walked in shade, and inhaled the sea breeze that blew inland daily an hour before noon. The river C'ydnus, clear from its cavern sources in the limestone, traversed the city, with a waft of cool air above it. Precautions had been adopted against flood by the formation of relief channels above the town ; very necessary, for at the melting of the snows on the moun- tains, or after a cloud-break, the river became a torrent. Turkish misrule has allowed these canals to become choked, and now ancient Tarsus is embedded in nearly 20ft. of rubble and nuid bi'ought down by freshets. The modern hovels cluster about the ca})itals of pillars, and stand on the crowns of buried arches. The great plain, which it takes fourteen hours to cross, is mainly com})osed of the Mash of the red conglomerate of the New lied sandstone, brought down by the Pyramus and the Sarus, but this is further enriched by volcanic detritus, and is overlaid in places with black mud, the result of centuries of decomposed water-weed. The plain is unhealthy, it is a hotbed of malaria and low fever ; but it was more salubrious in classic times, when attention was directed to the channels of irrigation and to the drainage. Nevertheless, it was never a safe district in which to tarry after sunset, and large artificial mounds were thrown up at intervals as places of refuge for the peasants who cultivated the land, where they might spend their nights above the malarial steams. Here almost anything grew — cereals, fruit, flowers. Mulberries and vines were cultivated ; crimson clover TARSUS 4n grew rank, spreatling in sheets of blood, alternating with blue rippling fields of flax. The meadows offered to the weavers of carpets patterns of harmonious colours in mar- vellous mixture, produced by the marigold, the poppy, and the intensely blue bugloss ; fluttered over by a thou- sand living fiowers, the butterflies as gorgeous as the petals above which they danced. Such was the Tarsus A\here Paul was born about the year a.d. 4. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and his parents were zealous adherents of the Pharisaic faction. Undoubtedly there was, at this time, in Tarsus a Jewish colony rivalling those of Damascus and Antioch in size. Perhaps the Jews had been first led to establish themselves there as a place of refuge, during the wars of Pompey, Gabinius or Cassius. By what means the father of Paul acquired the right of Boman citizenship is not known. Such a right did not belong to the inhabitants of the town, and it nuist have been either ])urchased or granted as a reward for services rendered. The privilege was one greatly desired by Provincials, and was rare among the Jews. It has been conjectured that the father of the Apostle was a freedman, who had obtained his title of citizen along with his freedom. The Bomans had carried away a great number of Jews after their intervention in Palestine. Cassius conveyed 30,000 from Jarichaea, and Antonius by decree gave their freedom to such of tin? natives of Tarsus as had fallen into captivity and had been sold away from their home. When Paul was in Jerusalem we are expressly told that there were at the time in the holy city, among many strangers, " freedmen of Cilicia," anil it is possible that among these he may have been 48 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL numbered. Bv trade he was a tent-maker, that is to say a weaver of the goats" hair cloth that was used as a coverino- for tents. But a single reHc in Tarsus at the present chiy preserves a reminiscence of the great Apostle, and that is a well. Into this a French explorer descended, and found that the water issued from an arched conduit which bore a Greek inscription, almost illegible, but in which he was able to decipher the name of Paul. It is probable enough, that after the conversion of the family their house became the centre of the young Christian community, and that in later days a church was erected on the site ; and that this spring- may have formed a feeder to the l)aptistery. But this must remain a matter of conjecture. Some day perhaps Tarsus may be excavated from the nuid and pebbles that have buried it, and then possibly some evidences will be discovered of the Church here established, if not by the Apostle, then soon after his time, and that in his ancestral house. It was a dutv imposed on every Jewish father to circumcise his son, to teach him the Law, and to apprentice him to a trade. Accordingly on the eighth day Paul fulfilled the legal requirements, and he was given a double name, that of Saul, by which he was known in the family, and among his co-religionists, and that of Paul for nuuiicipal registra- tion. The one was his religious, the other his profane name. This was bv no means an uiuisual practice, and often that profane name was ado])te(l which bore some resemblance in sound to the name used in the family and the svnagogue, as Joseph-Jason, Hillel-Julius. The adoption of Greek names was general among those of the Diaspora, and some of the Jews who were converted are TARSUS 49 known to us bv these only, as Crispiis, Justus, Niger, Drusilla, Aquila and Apelles. At five years old Paul began to read the Scriptures, at thirteen he studied them with the interpretations of the elders ; at sixteen he was declared to be " subject to the Law," that is to say, capable of understanding it, and bound by its obligations. Was he, during his youth, associated Avith the students in the schools under the Greek dialecti- cians, philosophers and grannnarians ? It is most unlikely that he was. His parents were strict Pharisees, and the Pharisee was uncompromising in the attitude he took up towards Greek studies. As far as might be, the orthodox Jews of the Dispersion lived apart from the Gentiles, following their own reli- gious and national customs, walled off from them, to use St. PauFs own expression, by their pride and exclusiveness. It was held to be a crime to contract friendship with one who was a heathen, to enter his house, and to sit at his table. "I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with vou, and so following ; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you." Shylock did not deviate by a thread from the sentiment of the father of Paul of Tarsus. On leaving the market or the street, the HebreM' washed his hands, to wash off the contamination of having touched Avhat had been fingered by the uncircumcised. The Jews scattered through the cities of Asia Minor entertained for the most part the same prejudices, observed the same isolation as those in Judaea. They stood outside all the social, political and intellectual life of their time. They refused to see, to hear, to know anvthing that did not emanate from one of themselves, or advance their own 50 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL })rofits. The use of avoocI from a Gentile forest, whether for building- or for fuel, was forbidden, but could not be enforced among the Jews of the Dispersion. The uncircumcised were excluded from all sympathy, and this estrangement grew gradually to an intensity of hatred, that drove the doctors to pronounce really atrocious judg- ments, as " the Israelite who kills a stranger is not put to death bv the Sanhedrim, because the Gentile is not to be accounted as a neighbour,"'' and, " if a Gentile fall into the sea, a Jew is not to pull him out ; for it is written, Thou shalt not be gu'dtli of thy neighboii/s blood, but the Gentile is not thy neighbour." The Svnag-oo-ue decreed, " Cursed be he that shall teach Greek science to his son.'"' Josephus assures us that those in Judaea who knew many languages were looked U})on with mistrust. Jews whether at home or scattered abroad, felt, thought and acted alike. The interdict was indeed lifted from the Greek tongue, as also from traffic with strangers, and for the same reason, but all the Hellenistic Jews, to the number of three millions, who made the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, differed from the Hebrews resident in the Holy Land in no other particular than that of language. To both alike Hebrew was a dead tongue, but the former spoke Greek and the latter Chaldee. At Alexandria, indeed, a concilia- tory movement had been made. The Alexandrian Alabarc, Alexander Lysimachus, was a Jew and belonged to a sacerdotal family. He was intimate with Antonia, mother of Gei'inanicus and Claudius, and one of his sons married Berenice, another, Tiberius Alexander, became governor of Judaea. His brother, Philo, laboured to harmonise the Mosaic law with the philosophy of Plato. But the true TARS(\S 51 Jew looked with the utmost repuguauee on this attempt, and the Alexanch'ian school was denounced as a nest of heresy. The Septuagint version of the Scriptures was allowed cin-rencv, but all tampering with the philos()])hic ideas of the Greek was formally condenmed. It is unnecessary to inquire to what extent the concilia- torv attempt of Philo met with approval in other colonies. Nothing leads us to suppose that St. Paul knew anything about it. Indeed, it is not probable that Philo's works were written when he Avas at Tarsus. That among the Je\\s of the Dispersion there were many who were by no means strict in their adhesion to the Law, and above all to the traditions of the rabbis, is true enough ; but Paul would be kept from associating with them by his strict father. That he should have been in any way brought in contact with the current and eddies of thought amono- the Greek students is utterly improbable. In an English University the town tradesmen do not concern themselves about the curriculum of studies in the schools, nor fall upon the examination papers with avidity. Much less likely was the Jew weaver {aKrivoTrouiq) at Tarsus to trouble his head about the disputes among the philo- sophers in the town. That he took pains to have his son educated cannot be doubted any more than that the direction of these studies was remote from those of the students in the porches and academies. Among the rabbis teaching was held to be of supreme importance. " Pei'ish the sanctuary," they said, " but let the children go to school."" The first public school for young boys had been founded 52 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL at Jerusalem a centurv before Christ. It is not probable that there was an elementary school at Tarsus in PauPs time. He learned texts of his mother, and the interpreta- tions from his father, but as he advanced he would be placed under instruction in the traditions, w ith the ruler of the synagogue. One thing that was of supreme importance to him in after life and for the work to which he was to be called, Paul did acquire at Tarsus — the Greek language, which was spoken in his family and in the colony. He did not gain that elegance and Attic polish which is only to be obtained by acquaintance with the best models, but he acquired that facility which is procurable only by familiar usage. The Rabbi Judali said : " If a man does not teach his son a trade, it is as if he taught him to steal.''' Thus every Jew had his trade, and usually it was that of his father. It is, therefore, probable that the tentcloth weaving ^\ hich Paul acquired he acquired from his father ; and as he worked at the loom, the old Pharisee laboured to weave as well his prej udices, interpretations, hatreds and likings into the texture of his son's mind. It is a remarkable fact that when a man deserts the religion of his youth, the swing of the pendulum is to the opposite extreme. One who has been brought up in the straitest school of Calvinistic Presbyterianism, if he breaks away, will seek his rest in Ultramontane Catholicism, and a Romanist who rejects the creed of Pius IV., will fall into Socinianism. One again whose childhood has been restrained bv the harshest bonds, when obtaining freedom does not acknowledge any restraining tie ; and another who has been awarded wide libeitv will seek the satisfaction TARSUS 53 of his deejiest needs in the ahneg-ation of his will and renunciation of all pleasures. We can tolerahiv well measure the extent of defiexion given a mind in youth bv the amount of recoil in after years. Paul launched out ag-ainst the narrowness of Judaic interpretation of duty, with a vehemence almost fury that makes one suspect that this was due to revulsion against a system which had tortured his growing mind. From Tarsus Paul was sent to Jerusalem, to become the disciple of Gamaliel. We may judge from his own words (Acts xxii. 3) that he was still young when he made the journey ; he was probably sixteen. At Jerusalem he had a man-ied sister, and w^th her he almost certainly lodged. It was his father's ambition that he should be brought up to be a rabbi, and he was therefore sent to the foun- tain head of instruction. At Jerusalem, among the sticklers for the Law combined to resist the Sadducees tooth and nail, were two parties, the one a little less naiTow- than the other. The former was that of Hillel, the latter that of Shannnai. " One day a Gentile came to Shammai, and said to him : ' I will be a convert if you can teach me the Law while standing on one foot.' Shammai for all answer struck him with his staff. The Gentile went to Hillel and put to him the same question. Hillel replied : ' Do nothing to thy neighbour that thou wouldest not he should do to thee ; this is the whole Law : all the rest follows therefrom.'" This may be said to be the kev to Hillers principle ; but he carried his laxity somewhat far. Shammai insisted that no man should divorce his wife except in the case of E 54 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL adultery ; but Hillel allowed a man to repudiate her if she "spoiled the roast ^' and proved a sorry cook. Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, and followed him as a teacher. Hillel though somewhat liberal was so only in comparison with Shammai. Each concerned himself with trumpery questions, to the omission of the weightier matters of the Law. The party of Shanunai held that the hands must be Avashed before a cup was filled with wine, for that otherwise the cup and its contents were rendered unclean by the perspiration from the fingers clinging to the vessel. But the party of Hillel insisted that this was not so, and there was a greater cause for fear lest the cup should contaminate the ])erspiration of the fingers. There- fore, they declared that the hands should be washed after the vessel had been filled.^ The adherents of Shammai taught that after the hands were wiped the towel should be put on the table and not on a cushion, lest the sweat from the hands should taint the cushion, which would in turn defile whatever touched it. But Hillel and his school taught that it was a serious matter to ])ut the dirtN' towel on the table, for the table might render the towel imclean, and so infect with legal impurity the perspiration, and through the perspiration, the hands wi])ed upon it."- Another matter of dispute between the two teachers was whether the hands should be washed before usin"- the broom to sweep the house, or after the sweeping was done. Once more. Another matter in dispute between these schools was whether light was one or many ; whether, that is, the light of the sun, and of the stars, the lightning and the flame were one in nature, or distinct. Gamaliel, son of Simeon and grandson of Hillel, was ^ Beracoth, f. 52. " Ibid. TARSUS 55 esteemed the last of the great rabbis of Israel ; and it was e^■en said that the honour of the Law ceased with his death. Before his time the teacher stood to instruct ; he intro- duced the novelty of sitting to give his lessons. Owing to the troubles caused by Judas of Galilee, the founder of the Gaulonite sect from which sprung the Zelots, and by Theudas, as also by the spread of Christianity, Gamaliel composed a prayei- for the extirpation of heresy. From the instances given of his teaching preserved in the Talmud, he seems to have been a man of a fairly liberal mind, and vet a stickler for tradition. He asserted that the evenino- prayer was a matter of duty not of option, and this was disputed by the Rabbi Jehoshua. "Always get an authority to quiet your doubts,""' he laid down ; but he added, " In the matter of tithing grain do it by eye." The night after his wife died he took a bath. His disciples were greatly scandalised : thev charoed him with infrino-ement of the Law. " Suffer me,"'\said he, "I am an old man and not like others." His servant died, and he at once admitted his friends into the house to condole with him. Affain his disciples were offended. " What," said they, " have you not taught us not to seek consolation when we lose our servants ? " " Ah ! " he replied, " my man Tabi was not like others — he was a very worthy fellow." At the feet of this master Saul of Tarsus sat. The pupils were allowed great liberty of discussion ; they might dispute the opinions enunciated by the rabbi, but then they must give a reason for so doing, based on a text. These animated debates, and the treatment of subjects often very subtle, kept interest alive and stinmlated the ingenuity of the pupils. A short example of one of these disputes, at which 56 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL possibly Paul was ])resent, may serve to show their nature. One day there came an Annnonite convert to the door of the school, and sought admittance. Gamaliel, wlio was givino- instruction, at once forbade his entrance, "for," said he, " it has been connnanded (Deut. xxiii. 3), An Ammonite or Moabitc shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.'''' The llabbi Jehoshua, who was present, objected that the man could no longer be termed an Annnonite, because Sennacherib, King of Assyria, had removed the Ammonites out of their land, and that these thus removed had lost their nationality ; as it was written : / have removed the bounds of the people (Is. x. 13), That is to say, every mark of distinction. The Ammonite had, he went on to argue, abandoned his idolatry and sejmrated himself from his people. But Gamaliel met this objection by another text (Jeremiah xlix. 6). Afterxoard I zv'dl bring again the capt'ivity of the children of Ammo7i, saith the Lord. Con- sequently, they are returned and still distinct. The Rabbi Jehoshua then said : " Has it not been said (Amos ix. 14), / xoill bring again the captiv'dy of my people ofLsrael, yet the Israelites are not brought back ; and he tacked on a few words in gloss not in the original text ; they shall return, and the Ammonites cdso. Consequently, the restoration of the Ten Tribes was to precede that of Ammon.^ It will be seen that this is mere hair-splitting. No argument was based on broad principles ; all rested on texts twisted and turned about to suit the purpose of the disputants. St. Paul never emancipated himself from this Rabbinic 1 Babyl. Beracoth, fol. 28. TARSUS 51 method of reasoning.' Nor was the tendency to allegorical or mystical interpretation effaced.^ At the same time, it is worthy of remark how yery little of all this remains. For a time his mind was overloaded with this teaching, but he finally rejected it. ^ Rom. xi. 4, 8, 9, 10, 26; xii. 19; xv. 3 ; i Cor. i. 31 ; 2 Cor. iv. 13; Gal. iii. 10. - Gal. iv. 24, 25 ; i Cor. ix. 9. CHAPTER III THE DEATH OF STEPHEN A.D. 35 Paul not at Jerusalem at the time of the Baptist's preaching, or of Christ's ministry — His return to Tarsus— His qualifications — Paul's mind warped by his education— The citizenship of Paul's father qualified him to take a municipal office — Possible reaction in the mind of Paul — His quotations from the poets — The Church in Jeru- salem — Authorities employed by St. Luke — James, the Lord's brother — His position — As supreme bishop — Tradition quoted by Apollo- nius— Why the Apostles did not separate at once — The Gospel preached first to the Jews — Probability that God designed the Gospel to be made known to the world through the Jew — Frustrated by the obduracy of the Jew — The importance of Jerusalem as a missionary centre— God seems to have two ways of working, a higher and a lower — If through man's wilfulness the higher cannot be taken, then God carries out His purpose by the lower means — Application of this theory — The Church at Jerusalem observant of the Mosaic ritual — The point of difference with the Pharisees— The appointment of Deacons — The character of Stephen's preaching — Paul now at Jeru- salem — Arrest of Stephen — His so-called defence — Analysis — Its offensive character — Difference between Peter and Stephen — The Deacon's death — Paul's conversion not due to Stephen — Massacre at Samaria— Dispersion of the Brethren. For how long* time Saul remained in Jerusalem we cannot tell. If he arrived there in or about a.d. 18, he nmst have left before a.d. 27, which is the date of the baptist's preaching, for he makes no allusion to it in his Epistles, and he can not have returned till after the Crucifixion, which pi'obably took place a.d. '30, or we should have some words employed in his writings to show that he was " THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 59 present, aud a partaker in the bloodguiltiness of those participating- in that drama. Had Paul ^ been in Jerusalem at the time of the Baptises preaching-, it is inconceivable that he should not have gone out into the wilderness to hear him, and he could hardly have heard him without being influenced by his words. AN'here the dates are so uncertain, it is not possible to advance further than this. After having sat at the feet of Gamaliel for some eight years, he returned to Tarsus, to his father's house and to the work of sack-cloth weaving. He was now a man of some consequence. In the synagogue he had a claim to be heard, as a pupil of Gamaliel. He was able to give a reason why Psalm iii. written by David when flying before Absalom precedes Psalm Ivii. composed when hiding- from Saul ;■' also to explain the principle on which when praying in a bath the orthodox Jew was required to kick about his heels so as to ruffle the water,^ He could strengthen the hands of the Hillelites, who, on kindling the lamjxs, blessed God for the llglit not Uglits He had created. Too much stress has been laid on the liberality of Gama- liel, as one of the causes influencing the mind of Paul. But Paul never had a liberal mind ; it was essentially narrow and one-sided. He swung from one pole to the other in his convictions, but he never saw more than one horizon at a time, never allowed gradations ; but of this "'■ I use the name Paul generally in place of Saul, as I consider that it belonged to him equally with that of Saul from the beginning, and that the transition from the Hebrew to the Gentile name in the Acts merely notes the transfer of his activities from Palestine to the Gentile world. - Beracoth, f. lo. '■'' Ibid, f. 25. 60 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL more hereafter. Gamaliel was, indeed, more lax in his adhesion to certain moral principles and traditional usages than were others. But when a question arose relative to heresy his blood turned to phosphorus. The curse he composed to be learned by heart and used as a prayer by the believing Jew is as hateful as a mediaeval ecclesiastical anathema, or as a sentence of outlawry pronounced by a Scandinavian lawman. But although in his own home as at Jerusalem, Saul was subjected to the numbing effect of Babbinism, yet in a provincial town out of Juda-a it was not possible to keep altogether isolated from the Greek world of thought and feeling, and from Boman political ideas. As his father was a citizen and he likewise, they were )iot mere residents {TrapoiKoi) of Tarsus, but enjoyed the })rivileges and position of Boman citizenship. This im- plied " a certain attitude of friendliness towards the Imperial Government (for the new citizens in general, and the Jewish citizens in particular, were warm partisans of their protector, the new Imperial reg'hne), and also of pride in a possession that ensured distinction and rank and general respect."''^ As citizen the Jewish weaver must have been brought into constant relation with the town authorities. He was eligible to high nuniicipal offices. Josephus speaks of Jews who became knights ; that is to say, after having been clothed with functions of ;edile or duumvir, had merited to receive the right to ride a horse, and take a place on the benches of the theatre and circus reserved for those of rank and distinction. Although, as Jews, the tent-maker ' Ramsay: " St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," 1S96, P- 31- THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 61 and his son abstained from theatrical and gladiatorial shows, vet St. Paul alludes so often to the scenes of the racecourse, that it makes it probable he took advantage of having a seat in the circus, and followed the contests with zest.^ In the colonnades, in the baths, Saul could not ftiil to catch something of the talk of the young seekers after the Siimmum Bonum. In their bright intelligent faces, in the eagerness of their words, the flush in their cheeks, as they discussed such questions as the unity of the Godhead and the end of man, there must have been an appeal to the human sym})athv of the Jewish youth. And, indeed, we do know that the Hellenic Jews felt this, for they strove in a thousand wavs to gain the heathen to the truth. ^Vhether Saul attemjjted to win proselytes we do not know, but it is hard to think that he did not. Intensely sincere, thoroughlv convinced as he was, it was almost a necessity of his expansive youthful nature to endeavour to give to others that Avhich he himself so prized. But if he did this, then inevitably and unconsciously the men with whom he reasoned reacted on his own mintl. The result was not apparent then. It manifested itself later. It was at this time, in all likelihood, in this association, that he acquired those smatterings of the poets which he employed in his letters, quotations that no more imply acquaintance with the originals than does the use of a Shakespearian phrase necessitate an intimate knowledge of the plays of the great dramatist. So also, at this time, he may have obtained that inkling of Platonism, which appears in 1 Cor. xv., but was never properly assimilated. A few words must be devoted to the Church in Jerusalem 1 I Cor. ix. 24-27; Gal. v. 7: Eph. vi. 12; Phil. ii. iC ; iii. 14; I Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 5 ; 2 Tim. iv. 7. 6'2 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL cluring the period between the Ascension and the martyr- dom of St. Stephen, a period of five years, the most obscure and difficult to unravel of all those in the history of Christianity. Our only authority for the connnencement of the Christian Church is St. Luke's Acts of the Apostles. This, accordin<>- to Ramsay, was com})osed in or near a.d. 79, conse([uently half a century after the events recorded. Luke had not per- sonally seen or heard anything that he narrates up to his association with St. Paul in a.d. 52. His information was ac(|uired at second hand. He had been at Jerusalem, but only as a visitor, never as a resident. His principal authority was apparently Philip the Evangelist. Li the early part of the history St. Peter is represented as the active and leading- mind ; but he is not said to have been the head of the com- munitv. James, brother of Our Lord, son of Josejih by a first wife as the Eastern Church has ever held, and considerably older than Christ, was the president. He had not been one of the Twelve; he had not believed.^ But to him Christ had appeared at His resurrection,- and according to the Gospel of the Hebrews — a very early version, if not the original of that of St. ]\latthew — it was this \Ision which convinced him. This James, " the Lord's brother,'"' stood at the head of the Church in Jerusalem. To him apply the last words of Peter, when forced to escape from the holy city.-^ To him St. Paul addressed himself when he visited Jerusalem after his journey to Athens, Corinth and Ephesus.^ And with him, quite as much as with Peter and John, Paul laboured to effect an understanding;^ and in the council on circum- 1 John vii. 3-5. - i Cor. xv. 7. ^ Acts xii. 17. ^ Acts xxi. iS. ■'' Gal. ii. 9. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 63 cisioii, it was James, as president, who spoke the decisive word.^ With this corresponds the statement of Hege- sippus preserved by Eusebius, as to "James the Just," as well as a bundle of early traditions found in that Ebionite collection of works, the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, and in the Apostolic Constitutions. It would almost seem as though the authority of James was oecumenical, for it is difficult not to see in him the author of the Canonical E])istle, and that is addressed " to the Ten Tribes which are scattered abroad," an address to all the Churches represented allegorically as the dispersed tribes, to which Jerusalem was the spiritual capital. In the Clementine Homilies, the })refatorial letter from St. Peter to St. James is thus couched : " Peter to James, the lord and bishop of the Holy Church, under the Father of all." And that of Clement is : " To James, tlie lord and bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the Holy City of the Hebrews and the Churches everywhere, excellently founded by the providence of God." Although these letters are apocryphal, yet they show us clearly what was the position assigned to James in the early Church, as head bishop over all the rest. Apollonius, at the end of the second century, relates the tradition that Our Lord Himself gave the Apostles com- mandment not to depart from Jerusalem for twelve years. This may be an attempt made to explain the perplexing fact that the Twelve, instead of dispersing after Pentecost, to fulfil the commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," remained sedentary at the heart of Jewdom. But there is another explanation of this, without the 1 Acts XV. I ;. 64 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL su])position of a niannfacture of a tradition. The coni- maiid may very well have been given, and it was in accord- ance with what seems to have been the divine purpose that it should have been given. The dav of orace for the Jews was not over. The door of repentance was still open.^ In his address on the day of Pentecost, Peter told them plainly that they had denied the Holy One and had slain Him, but that they did it in ignorance, and that time was still accorded them for repen- tance, and for the accomplishment, through them, of the promises of the establishment of the Messianic kingdom over all the earth. The ])romise was still to them and to their children, and to as many as should be called. "Ye," said Peter, " are the children of the pro])hets who foretold the death and future glorification of the Messiah — the Covenant was made ^ith you, through Abraham — that in him and you, his seed, all the kindreds of the earth should be blessed. Therefore, repent, before the time comes for the manifestation of the Messiah and the setting up of His kingdom.''''- Again, before the Sanhedrim: " The God of our Fathers has raised up that same Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.''''^ If the Jews would accept Jesus, acknowledge their error in crucifying Him, and hail Him as the One who was for to come, then He would return, and that shortly, and ^ That those speeches of Peter given in the first part of the Acts are substantially accurate appears from their very individual character, belonging to a transitory phase that had passed away when Luke wrote, and they are quite distinct from the addresses of Stephen and Paul. ^ Acts iii. n-26. '■^ Acts v. ^o, ^i. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN Go restore again the kingxloni to Israel, with Jerusalem as the capital of the world, and the joy of the whole earth. Knowing- how patient and long-suffering is God, does it not seem probable and consistent with His mercy, that before finally abandoning the elect race. He should give the Jews a place for repentance and tears, an opportunity to atone for their great national sin of rejection ? In the second place, Jerusalem was the centre of their religion to all the Jews of the Dispersion, as well as to all their converts. In every commercial town of Asia, Egypt, North Africa, Greece, Italy — even Gaul and Spain, the Jews had their counters, and served as forerunners of the Gospel. They prepared men's minds to accept the unity of the Godhead and a revelation of moral duties. Both were to the generalitv of men new ideas, and such took time to be absorbed and digested. After a while, thought- ful and well-disposed heathen accepted these truths and became more or less affiliated to the synagogues. Then they became imbued with the Messianic expectations of the Hebrew race, and so the soil was prepared for the Gospel. No more effective way of announcing the glad tidings could be found than for the Twelve AVitnesses to remain in Jerusalem, and proclaim — " He, the foretold Christ, is come. AVe are here to testify that God has raised Him from the dead. AA^ith our eyes we have seen Him, with our ears we have heard Him. He hath set a day wherein all who would be saved must repent and believe. '"" Such a proclamation from Jerusalem as the centre sounded to the extremities of the Roman world. Even pil- grims who scoffed returned to their synagogues north antl south, east and west, and reported : " Dreamers have arisen 66 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL at Jerusalem, who declare that the Christ, the Promised One, has already appeared. Him the rulers have slain, but there are twelve men who with one mouth proclaim that He is risen, has ascended into heaven, and will come again to set up His kingdom according to prophecy.*" But this was not all the advantage gained. The idea of a suffering Messiah was so novel that it would take the Jew and })roselyte son)e time to consider this doctrine, to search the Scriptures and see whether the j)rophets had spoken of the One who was to come as One who was to die. Let us suppose that Mohammedanism were to undergo a transformation, that a Kalifa arose who proposed to revolutionise the Mussulman world. Would he not estab- lish his headquarters at Mecca, whither come the caravans ? \Vould he not by so doing adopt the most effectual means possible of propagating his doctrine throughout all nations that acknowledge the prophet ? At a later period he might and would send round his emissaries, but at first he would prepare the Moslem world through the pilgrims, every hadji would become his mouthpiece. This then would seem to have been the reason whv the Twelve for twelve years remained as a constellation of witnesses in Jerusalem, preaching on one tojiic — the resur- rection of Christ as evidence that He was and would be the Messiah, was in suffering, would be in glory. It was like whipping a pool in one spot, it sent rij)ples to its utmost limits. Is it not probable that, in thus acting, they acted on instructions given them bv Christ during the great Forty Days after His resurrection ? The Jewish nation was given, after Pentecost, a grand opportunity of repentance and regeneration. Had the whole ])eople come in a bodv to accejit the Gospel, then THE DEATH OE STEPHEN 67 the STeat work of the Christianisation of the world would have been achieved more rapidly, and the Second Coming would not have been so long delayed. In all God's dealings, whether with nations or with men, in things spiritual and material, it would seem as though He set l)efore Him a high and glorious scheme, ^\■llich would be perfect if carried out, but that when, through man's infirmity and opposition, this fails, then He should carrv out the Mork on a lower level, lacking the complete- ness and perfection of the other. We see this even in nature. There is an ideal type to which every creature and plant develops, but if the en- vironment be unsuitable, the material for building be inaccessible, or should the progress be obstructed by violence, then the work is accomplished, but not on the same high plane as it might have been. Insufficient nourishment, uncongenial surroundings, acci- dent, will stunt but not necessarily stop growth. A limb is dislocated and nature supplies a false joint, not so good as the original, but serviceable. In our own lives we see something of the same thing. We start with keen hope and confidence of success. But we commit errors of judgment, we let slide opportunities not to be recovered, and we have to make the best of cir- cumstances, and rectify our mistakes as far as may be. And this is also true in spiritual matters. Each man has before him the ideal of rectitude, purity, honour ; but how few live up to this ideal, and carry " the white flower of a blameless life *" through the gate of the grave ! Life is made up of regrets over lapses, and resolves against others, and at the end the sjiiritual life is but, in most, a riveted piece of porcelain. 68 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Now consider God's dealing-s with man. There was at first the high ideal of man freely loving and serving God, not tasting of death, existing in unclouded happiness. Adam fell, God continues to deal with man, but on a lower })lane. God led the children of Israel out of Egypt with intent to bring them at once into the Land of Promise. But owing to their rebellion this plan was deflected and they were made to wander forty years in the desert ; Moses died on Pisgah, Aaron on Mount Hor, and of the rest, all but two who came out of Egypt laid their bones in the sand. On entering the land flowing with milk and honey the ideal set before Israel was that of an elect people guided by God, ruled by God, protected by God. It was given an appropriate sanctuary in Shiloh, on a little knoll in a wide plain, an excellent place where a peaceable people might assemble, but one incapable of defence. But Israel could not rise to this ideal, live up to what God had willed for it, and its condition under the Judges was one of apostacy. Then the theocratic government having failed, God suffered the people to pass under kings, and the sanctuary was transferred to Zion, an impregnable hill top, fortified by nature. It would seem, as far as we can judge, to have been the purpose of God to set u}) the Messianic kingdom at Jeru- salem. To this the prophets point. This appears to have been in the minds of the A})ostles. Paul did not wholly abandon the thought. It remained in the imagination of John, and is shown us in the Apocalypse. The action of the A})ostles implies as much ; indeed the appointment of James was significant in this light. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 69 As of the seed of David, the representative of the royal house, he was expected to serve as a rallyino" point for all Israel. The senealoffies in Matthew and Luke on this su})positi()n acquire si<>nificance. They establish the kingly descent of Joseph, and therefore of James, as well as of Jesus, ^ The Maccabees had created a kingdom, Jewish, but not of the seed roval of David. But now one of the true descent from David was placed at the head of the Church, to become the king and high-priest to the elect people of God till ^Messiah Himself should appear and take all power into His own hands. And what a splendid realisation of the prophecies, what a triumph of Christ over all the world that would have been, had the Hebrew race bodily accepted Him and taken the position designed for it by God ! There would have been that highly gifted people, not degraded to money grubbing and unscrupulous in its sordid greed, a source of demoralisation wherever it is, but a great fountain of enlightenment, of inspiration, ever flowing, an ever present witness to the truth ; its wonderful tenacity making it a 1 These genealogies have often puzzled students, and have even been adduced by some critics to show that Christ was a son of Joseph and Mary, and that the miraculous conception was a myth of later importa- tion. This displays a curious ignorance of early conceptions of rela- tionship. The descent was agnatic, not cognatic. The royal authority descended with the patn'a potestas. A woman on marriage passed out of her family into that of her husband, and her son was not counted as akin to the family of his mother, and inherited none of its rights. The principle MuUcr est finis families applied rigorously. Had the evan- gelists given Mary's descent, neither by Jewish, nor by Roman law, would the descent have been considered as anything. A right to the family inheritance did not necessarily entail blood descent, for adoption availed. Jesus, born in wedlock, inherited the rights of the family of David, for He stood under the f atria potestas of Joseph. That was the recognised link, and not blood descent. 70 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL meet <>uarclian of revelation, a whole nation become the spiritual leaders of the world. But they were incapable of rising- to the occasion. Now it is no more the Gentile accepting Christ through the Jew, but the Jew, for the sake of acres, a title, a wife, accepting Christ through the Gentile. God's first j)urpose has been partially frustrated. He is working out to the great end on a lower level, and bv inferior means. And has it not been much the same in the Church .'' " The Church has taken Israel's place as the body in which divine influences mainly dwell, and by means of which the divine work for mankind is meant to be mainly done. And Israel's sad experience of the surrender of high ideals and the necessary working on lower ones, has been repeated in it. As completely as the ideal passed away w^hich should have been realised at Shiloh, so completely has that high theory of the Church's position in the world been shattered which for centuries it was possible to work on, the theory to which good men passionately clung till it perished in the sixteenth century, even as Shiloh did when the deeds of the sons of Eli made the cup of its judgment overflow. The day was, when the picture might have been realised of a Church growing constantly more spiritually minded in the midst of safety and repose ; of a Church gradually learning to fill all the common things of earth with heavenly life, and to consecrate them all to the service of God ; of a Church contending, if forced to contend at all, only as it were upon her borders. No man who under- stands providence or history can hope for, or can aim at, the realising of such an ideal now. Through continued sloth and growing corruption like that w hich the Israel of THE DEATH OE STEPHEN 71 the Judges showed, the gre^it opportunity was lost. The time came when such acceptance of a new ideal and a lower one, was the only theory that could save the Church. Those who led the lleformation had a place to fill like that of Samuel and Saul and David Like them, in greater or smaller measure, with greater faithfulness or less, they saw God's will and did it. But it was on a lower level than the old one that they were forced to work.'i We must realise what has been here laid down to thoroughly grasp the peculiar attitude of the Twelve in Jerusalem, and the beginning of that trouble which later on manifested itself conspicuously and ])ainfully. The first believers by no means severed their connection with the Temjjle and Mosaism. So long as opportunity was afforded to the Jews to repent and take their proper })lace in the economy of the Gospel, the Apostles could not, would not do so. They attended the religious festivals,- took part in the worship of the temple and synagogue ; prayed at the appointed hours.^ They observed the fasts, and imposed on themselves voluntary abstinences, and subjected themselves to vows like other pious Jews.^ They abstained from forbidden meats and from legal pollution,^ and cir- cumcised their sons.*^' They were in a word, what Ananias was in the eyes of the Jews of Damascus, " a devout man according to the law,""' and this strictness drew on them the respect of the people.^ The preaching of the Apostles 1 Miller (W.): "The Least of all Lands." London, i88S. A thoughtful and suggestive book. - Acts ii. I ; xviii. i8 ; xx. 6 ; Rom. xiv. 5. '^ Acts ii. 46 ; iii. i ; v. 42 ; x. g. ■* Acts x. 30 ; xviii. 18 ; xxi. 23. ' Acts X. 14. ^ Acts XV. I ; xvi. 3 ; Gal. v. 2. " Acts xxii. 12. ^^ Acts V. 13. 72 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL did not go beyond tliis : Jesus was the Messiah, sufPering for the sin of men, as the prophets had foretold. Him God raised up on the third day, of whicli we twehe are witness, and beside us if you ask for further evidence there are some five hundred who have seen Him risen, and who are now here present to give their witness.^ This same risen Jesus is the Christ, and He giveth you time for repentance, and then will He come and set u]) His o-lorious kingdom. That was all. The only })oint in which they were at antagonism with the Pharisees was that of the Crucified being the Christ; with the Sadducees they were altogether at variance, in that the base of their preaching was the liesurrection. The Apostles took pains to avoid anv collision with the authorities. Their baptisms and breaking of bread was without ostentation. Their teaching was that the new revelation was the flower and fufilment of Mosaism, not its abroo-ation. Nevertheless Pharisee and Sadducee could not view this new religious phenomenon with a favourable eye. Neither could they regard the growing coimnunity as a sect of Mosaism. Paul saw what it was clearly enough ; and he but reflected the o})inion of Gamaliel and the rest of the Pharisees. To the Galatians he wrote : " Beyond measure I persecuted the Church of (iod, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.''"'^ Never does Paul speak of that past phase in his life without showing how sharply he distinguished the Christian com- numity from the Pharisaic party. The forn)er is always either " the Church of God " or " the Church,"'' and its ^ I Cor. XV. C. Twenty-two years later " some " of these had " fallen asleep." - Gal. i. 13, 14. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 73 adherents are " the Brethren "" or " the Saints."" To the Pharisees it was bitterness to be cliarged with having even unwittingly rejected and slain the Messiah. It was an intolerable affront to their pride. To the Sadducee the insistence of the Apostles on the Kesurrection, the appeal to such a body of witnesses, was exasperating in the last degree. Not only so, but they saw in the ferment of s])irits relative to the kingdom of the Messiah, and in the setting up of a scion of the royal house as head over the com- munity, a menace to the public tranquillity. As the Apostles at first shrank from a breach \\ith Judaism, so did the Sanhedrim, made up of contradictory elements, part Pharisee, part Sadducee, ready to fly at each other''s throats, hesitate about proceeding to violence against the Church. The Pharisees were s'lad to see the Apostles proclaim the Resurrection, and the Sad- ducees hailed Christianity as a wedge driven into the heart of Pharisaism. It was due to the mutual jealousies of those in the Sanhedrim that the Apostles were allowed to escape so easily, when brought up before the Council.^ But this mutual forbearance could not last long. The first verses of the sixth chapter of the Acts reveal to us the beoinnino- of a difference of feeling from the first fra- ternal amity that filled the Church. " There arose a murmuring among the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." The strictly Jewish party, with its unabated intolerance and prejudices, had been favouring the poor and needy of their own native body at the ex])ense of the others. This is probably only one ^ Acts iv. 24 ; V. 41. 74. A STUDY OF ST. PAUL indication of a growing restlessness, inevitable, because none knew how long Divine Mercy would hold out its hand to the Jew, and some thought that it was high time to break A\ith Mosaism, and launch out on a freer course. This first dissension was appeased. Seven deacons were appointed, all bearing Greek names, consequently, all Hel- lenistic Jews. It is hardly likely that as yet a place in the ministry would be given to a proselyte. Of these deacons Philip went among the despised and detested Samaritans ; Stephen held intercourse with the Hellenist Jews from Italy, Cyrene, Lower Egypt, Cilicia and Asia,^ in their synagogues established in Jerusalem. His preaching was in a different tone from that adopted by the Apostles ; and we cannot be far wrong in conjectur- ing that it was due to the aggressive character of the work of the deacons that the persecution against the Church broke out ; for it is significant that no attempt was made to molest the Twelve. It was the exasperating nature of Stejihen's preaching which roused the Cilician and other Hellenists to accuse him before the Sanhedrim. He was charged with speaking " blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law."- " We have heai'd him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us." Although the witnesses are said to have been false, as in the case of Christ, yet in both instances there was a basis of truth. In this instance, no doubt, Stephen had said : " Proceed as you are doing now, oppose the truth, and the ^Mosaic worshij) will be abolished." This, in fact, is what 1 Acts \i. 9. - Acts vi. 13, 14. THE DEATH OF STEPHEN T5 he stated on his trial ; not indeed in so nianv ^\■ol•ds, hnt in his appeal to the historv of the past as a mirror of the future. Paul was now in Jerusalem, and a member of the Hel- lenist synagogue of the Cilicians. He may have been one of the accusers, and in his impetuosity have misunderstood the exact terms employed by Stephen. If not a witness, Paul Avould back up the accusation ; he was a disciple of Gamaliel, who Avas then president of the Sanhedrim, and might be reckoned on to influence his old master. Stephen was drawn before the council, and put on his defence. Havino- heard the chavo-e, the Hio-h Priest would ask, " Are these things so .^ " Then Stephen made his celebrated answer — defence it can hartlly be called ; with t^\'o \\'ords he might have cleared himself, but from the moment he stood before the council he seems to have thought of nothing else but of testifying in its presence. This speech given by St. Luke must not be taken as more than a summary of the argument employed by the deacon, as recollected in after years by Paul, and by him communicated to Luke. But the latter probably had another version of it from Philip the deacon. That it is genuine as far as it goes may be admitted ; it has all the characteristics of a real speech made on such an occasion. Of the ability of Stephen there can be no question, the speech is masterly ; the temper of the speaker is hardly less disputable. The orator imposed on himself an historic theme for his discourse, \\hich was, in fact, the application of the parable of the vineyard and the husbandmen. The main epochs in the history of the Je\\ish peojjle formed the great 76 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL divisions in his discourse. The first went from Abraham to INIoscs. He showed Abraham, at the call of God, leaving- kindred and land. So, he im])lied, have we, elect as was Abraham, received a sunnnons to come out from amoni>- you idolaters to the letter of the I^aw, that He may make of us His ])eculiar peo})le. Abraham obeyed, and was the father of the faithful. Nevertheless, his seed had to suffer affliction. So it may be now ; you may afflict us who, by faith, are the true seed of Abraham, but as God delivered the seed of Abraham, so will He free us from your grip. Joseph was envied and betrayed by his brethren. Nevertheless, Gotl was with him, and exalted him, so that his brethren were forced to cringe to him for bread. So with Christ, so with us, you have had a tem])orary triumjih, but we shall see you stooping to us in the end, when the kingdom is set u]). The second e})och is from Moses to David. .\nd now he })roceeds to deej)en the colours wherewith he })aints the antagonism of the enemies of God. Moses, whom the Israelites refused, nevertheless was the chosen of God, and received the "lively oracles." But even though signs from heaven were given, attesting his mission, the Hebrews " would not obey, but tln'ust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.'"' The a])])lication was too obvious to be missed. Even when the Hebrews were brought by Joshua into "the ])ossessi()n of the Gentiles,"" they were rebellious, and went after strange gods. He proceeded : Do not suppose that the ])ossession of the tabernacle in the wilderness, or the tem))le in the Land of Promise, assured to the peo])]e the presence in their midst of the (Jod whom they rejected. When Israel is unfaithful the ])resence is withdi'uwn. Now THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 77 he was en<>;agxtl with the third e])och. God of old hud sworn to Ahrahani, "They shall worship in this place;" lie had fulfilled His promise literally. However ungrateful the ])eo])le may have been, He had been true. The temple was erected. However, that was not final. It led on to a spiritual tem])le. Althouoh the Most High willed the building of the sanctuary, yet this was merely a figure of the great spiritual temple and spiritual worship that were to be for all nations. And as to the material temple. He would forsake it w hen His peo})le became traitors, murderers and breakers of the Law. The defence of Stephen had been no defence at all, but a series of wounding stabs. But this was not all. Regard- less of his own safety, moved by his passionate indignation and desire to insult these doctors of the Law and rulers of the Temple, he burst forth : " Ye stiff-necked and uncir- cumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy (ihost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers })ersecuted .^ and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and mur- derers : who have received the Law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Peter, with all his impetuosity, had never dashed such outrages in the face of the elders of Israel. He had sought to win, not to exasperate. The Acts show us that Stephen was a man without self-control. He spoke truths in the most rasping manner, and couched in the most op})robrious terms. There are two ways in which verities may be conveyed, one in the spirit of love, which was Peters method, the other like that adopted by the ichneumon fly in depositing 78 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL its ego-s, bv (lig-gino- the ovi])o,sit()r into tlio Ht'sli, ])ro(UuMng present pain and after irritation. Gamaliel the Old, who presided at the schools, had shown marked forbearance and moderation on a former occasion, but no court with anv self-respect could endure to be thus addressed. A howl of rage interrupted the testimony of Stephen. Most readers of the Acts have su])posed when it is said that the deacon's face was like that of an angel, that it wore a sort of spiritual beauty, or that a superhuman radiance enhaloed it. It is more ])robable that his countenance flamed with that wrath which lightened the angel, on seeing whom on Easter morning, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. When Peter had spoken, he tempered his rebuke with, " Brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it."" No such concession was made by Stephen. The A]50stle had urged to repentance, with assurance of pardon, but the deacon allowed no loop- hole for esca])e, no gleam of hope. Among the Acts of the Martyrs at a later age, some show us the Christian confessors addressing the magistrates with the same insolence. To certain tempers, where there is no breeding, the 0])portunity of saying oflensive things gives positive satis- faction, rendered acute if those addressed be superiors in })osition and educational endowment. It was, appa- rently, so with Stephen. It would seem as though his conversion had been of the intellect only, and that till the vision was vouchsafed him of Jesus in the ineli'able light, his heart had been untouched. Then a moral re\ iilsion took ])lace in his nature, and falling on his knees he praved, in a verv different tem])er from that in which he THE DEATH OF STEPHEN 79 had addressed the Sanhedrim, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." There is a significant hint in the account of his burial. It was not conducted by the believers, though they lamented his death, but by " devout men,'" a term specially applied to the uncircumcised proselytes. We seem to see here that Stephen had already begun to break fresh ground. His address produced no effect on Paul except exaspera- tion. The conversion of the latter was not due to any of Ste})hen's arguments, certainly not to the offensive manner in which they were thrown out. The decree of death j)ronounced by the Sanhedrim could not properly be carried into effect without the sanction of the Roman procurator ; but the moment was one of con- fusion previous to a change of governors. There had been a movement in Samaria. A set of fanatics believed that the Temple vessels were buried in iVlount Gerizim, and they collected in a crowd to dig them up. Pilate, misunder- standing what this assembly was about, sent troops and massacred a great number. Thereupon the Samaritan Council appealed against him to Lucius Vitellius, Governor of Syria. Vitellius ordered Pilate to go to Rome to answer the charges made against him, and sent a friend of his, Alarcellus, to govern Jerusalem during his absence. It is not possible nicely to fix the date of the massacre, and the subsequent interference of Vitellius, but it was about this time, and if so, the Sanhedrim took the oppor- tunity to carry out its decree and to order a persecution of the Church. At once a good many fled for their lives as far as to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. But no steps Avere taken 80 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL to molest the Twelve; a shar]) line was drawn between those who attended the Temple services, and the hot- blooded vounff Hellenists who declared that Gotl would cast ofi' His people, and <>ive iij) the Teni])le to de- struction. Though scattered by the persecution, they ])reached " unto the Jews only.""^ ^ Acts xi. 19. CHAPTER IV THE CONVERSION A.D. 35 Saul at the death of Stephen — No effect produced on him by that death — On his way to Damascus — His miraculous conversion — Three ac- counts of it— Apparent discrepancies — Easily to be accounted for — Result of the vision — Complete submission of Saul — The subjective side — His apostolic claim based on this vision — Apostleship not an office, but a witnessing — Attempted natural explanations of the conversion — Their failure — Paul's conversion supported by the e\i- dence of Ananias — Paul passes from submission to a system into one of allegiance to a person — Objections made to a commission given in a vision — The similar case of Peter. Saui- had been "" consenting "'"' to the death of Stephen. This implies that he had been made a member of the Sanhedrim, and shows that he was ah'eady a person of consequence. He was probably the junior member, charged with oversight of the execution of the decree of the council. For this reason he was present at the death of Stephen and the executioners laid their clothes at his feet. No feeling of compunction, no inkling that Stephen was in the right and he in the wrong had entered heart or mind of Saul. He " yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the High Priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether thev were men or women, he might bring them bound unto 82 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Jerusalem.""^ The()])liiliis, son of Annas, was the Hi<>;h ]*riest. There was no likehhood of opposition from the Roman authorities in Damascus, for they always supported the jurisdiction of tlie Sanhedrim, even in criminal matters. Whilst Saul was on his way to Damascus his miraculous conversion took ])lace. Whereas to those who accom- ]>anied him the flash of light and crash that followed were an explosion of electric fire, or the fsill of a meteorite, to Paul it was somethin«; nuich more. Of the certainty of his conviction that he both saw and heard Christ there can be no question. It was not the flash nor the sound that converted him, but the reality of the vision and the distinctness of the voice that spake. Once before, when a voice from heaven was heard, the })eople said "that it thundered,"- and so doubtless did the guard, when thev recovered from the shock. We have three accounts of the conversion of St. Paul, and slight discrepancies exist between them, but so slight that it is puerile to make a point of the majority of them. If in one it is said that the soldiers heard no voice, or in another that they did, the reconciliation is ob\ious. They heard a sound, but did not distinguish articulate words. But there is one important discre}mncy between the narra- tive of the conversion as given by St. Luke and Paul's own account before Agrijipa. In the first account, and that also given by him on the stairs when addressing an excited mob, not a Mord is said to intimate that he then received his connnission to the Gentiles. It was to Ananias that the Lord said in vision that Saul was destined by Him to work among the Gentiles. In his s])eech to the mob,-^ Paul distinctly intimated that he was converted on the 1 Acts ix. 1,2. - John xii. 29. " Acts xxii. 5-1 1. THE COXVEKSIOX «;3 wav to Damascus, and that he received his coininissioii later on considerably, in a vision at Jerusalem, in the Temple. '^ Paul as much as savs that he knew nothing" of the divine plan of making him an instrument for the brino-ing- in of the Gentiles, till his visit fourteen years later. But before Agrippa and Festus he alleged that Christ, in apjK'aring to him, said, " I have ajjpeared inito thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee ; deliver- ing thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee.'"- The fusion of two visions into one in the address to Agrippa is comprehensible enough and excusable, if not justifiable. Paul sought to make an imjwession on the king's mind, and not to w-eary him with a long story. He sketched the history of his call and commission in bold lines and put in the colour in patches with a wet brush so that thev ran together. His oratorical effort was like a coloured advertisement on a hoarding designed to arrest attention, without care about accuracy of detail, which detail was unessential at the moment. It may be thought more likely that in speaking to a seething mob, Paul would have run the two visions together. But the mob he addressed was Jewish, and the Jew^s were exasperated because they thought he had intro- duced Gentiles into the Temple. It was therefore most a])])osite that he should tell them that it was in the Temple itself that he had received his conmiission to open the kingdom to members of other nations. Professor Ramsay has remarked that the Oriental mind 1 Acts xxii. 17-21. - Acts xxvi. 13-1S. 84 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL is not liistovical, but artistic ; it groups facts to present an effective whole, and is incapable of reproducing an event in strict chronological sequence. Nevertheless, it Asould have been more satisfactory had Paul been careful to be exact in his statement of the sequence of facts, and had laboured less at rhetorical effect.^ The vision on the way to Damascus produced complete conviction. If there had been the least mistrust in the reality of it, St. Paul never could have undertaken and carried through his great work. Of a progressive growth of opinion in his mind leading to the change there is no trace. The recollection of his conversion through the rest of his life was that of an event sudden and overwhelming, as an earthquake shock, ruining his entire ])ast, but imlike an earthquake, constructive at the same moment. He describes the moral, spiritual convulsion in his Epistle to the Philippians as complete at once.'^ He Avho was once a foe was noA\' carried in chains behind the triumphal car of Christ the Victor.'' He had been reduced from hostility to obedience, so comjjlete that he had no will of his own a])art from that of his Master."* He ■even went beyond this. He represented himself as a mere body, inert, unless vivified by a soul, and that soul in him i The first account of the conversion given in Acts is no doubt that which St.Paul was wont to afford when not labouring under excitement. The second, it is possible Luke may have heard during the riot at Jeru- salem, and, if so, he put down what he remembered of it ; if he did not hear it, then he gave what he was told that Paul had said, or what he believed he had said ; and this account agrees very fairly with the first. The third, spoken in court, was probably taken down in short- hand, and we have exactly Paul's own words, and it speaks well for the scrupulous honesty of St. Luke that he records it as spoken, without correcting the inaccuracies fallen into by Paul. 2 Phil. iii. 7-9. •■ 2 Cor. ii. 14. •* I Cor. ix. 15-18. THE COXVKKSIOX 85 was Christ. "I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless, I Kve ; yet not I, hut Christ hveth in me/'^ Thrice he recurs in his letters to his conversion. In his Epistle to the Galatians,- he speaks of it as the revelation of Christ in him. He knew of Him, not by man or throuii'h man ; nothino- that he had seen of the Christians, nothini>; that he had heard from Stephen, had any effect on him, he was convinced once and for always by the action of divine <>race. " It pleased God — to reveal !^is Son in me.'"'* In this passage Paul sj)eaksof the subjective side of his conversion, and says nothing of the vision revealed to his eves. But it is otherwise in his first letter to the Corinthians. In that he says : " Am I not an A])Ostle ? Have I not .seen Jesus Christ our Lord?''^ And again, after men- tioning the witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he says, " Last of all He was seen of me also, as of an abortive;''^ that is to sav, not in the same order as He was seen by the rest, but by a sudden, violent ])arturition brought to the light of clear day. It was on the reality of this vision that Paul based his claim to be an Apostle. An Apostle was a chosen witness, set apart to bear testimonv to the reality of Christ's resur- rection. It was not an office that could be connnunicated by imposition of hands, or delegated to another. After the fall of Judas, the Eleven chose another, " a .witness A\ith us of His resurrection."'' True, ^\■ith this went the ministry, but not of necessity. ^Matthias was chosen to take part in the ministry and apostleship.*^ ' Gal. ii. 20. - Gal. i. 12-16. ^ Gal. i. 16. ■* I Cor. ix. I. " Ibid. xv. 8. •* Acts i. 22. '' Acts i. 25. 86 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Some confusion exists now in ])eo|)le's minds as to what was meant by an Apo.stle. It is by no means unlikely that such a confusion existed in the first age of the Church. This was due to the Twelve summino- uj) in themselves several offices. An Apostle, as we can gather from the connnission of Christ, was one sent to preach the Gos])el, the good tidings of salvation. But this was not how the Twelve took it, at first. They understood by it a com- mission to act as a body of authoritative AVitnesses to the reality of the Resurrection, and therefore to the Messianic office of Christ. In the passage from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, cjuoted above, Paul bases his right to be regarded as an Apostle on this, that having seen Jesus since His death he was thereby qualified to be a Witness. He appealed to the fact as to one that carried in itself all that was necessary. And it was all that was necessary if an .Vpostle was nothing more than a Witness to the fact that Christ lived although He had died. The Twelve were a college of Witnesses usually stationary at Jerusalem, but he was a roving AA'itness. Yet, in that he had seen Jesus after His death and resurrection, he considered him- self to be as fully (jualified as were they. It was thus, miraculously, not of men, t)r by )nen, that he was con- stituted an Apostle, i.e., a Witness ; but his Ministry he received later on, by and through men, by the im])osition of hands at Antioch, and his special mission was given him by revelation in the Temple at Jerusalem. In order of time, he became an Apostle in a.d. 35, but not a minister till eleven or perhaps fourteen years later.' 1 According as we compute the time from his conversion to the second visit to Jerusalem. THE CONVERSION 87 13ut he very soon found that of an A])ostle souiethino- more was expected than the mere testifying to a fact. An Apostle was expected to have received a commission. And lie could only s])cak as an ambassador of Christ and enforce obedience if he could prove his commission. Then Paul was driven to assert that he had not only been created an Apostle or Witness by having been shown Christ risen from the dead, but also that he had been sent, as had the others ; and to establish this he produced his vision in the Temple. But this he could not fail to see was eminently un- satisfactory. It rested on his bare assertion ; and when it was (questioned, he could })roduce no evidence to substantiate it. Consequently, as we shall see later, he bowed to re- ceive manifest, public connnission by the imjjosition of hands. ^ The objection made to a connnission received by vision Avas strongly felt till nuich later. For in the Clementine Homilies, a work emanating from the Judseo-Christian Church in the third century, this very cjuestion is raised. St. Peter is represented in contest with Simon of Giscala. The latter, like St. Paul, claimed to have received his doc- trine by vision, and to this St. Peter answers that no doctrine or commission so received is to be trusted. What was derived directly from Christ by v/ord of mouth, in the flesh, that was certain and to be relied on ; but a vision was entirely untrustworthy, not only as an uncertain thing in itself, but also as being often a delusion of evil spirits.-^ This argument brought forward by St. Peter is well 1 Acts xiii. 3. - Clem. Homil. xvii. 14-19. 88 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL reasoned and c'onvincin<>-. That this, which in the third century was represented as having been objected against Simon the Sorcerer, was raised by the Judaising party against Paul we know did take })lace, and he was driven to great straits to meet the objection. He made the fact of his success an evidence estabhshing his connnission. His converts were the seal of his office. T^nless he had been sent, how Mas it that he had gained so many adherents ? But this was a })0()r and unworthy argument. It was one that could be brought forward by the originator of any new religion, by any heresiarch who could collect a certain number of followers. But to return to the conversion. It has been explained as due to hallucination. An electric discharge produced in him such a condition of excitement that he fancied he saw Him against whose servants he was waging war. But the conversion is not to be so ex})lained.^ A hallucination would not ])e the efficient cause of a change of conviction, but would be ])roduced, if ])roduced at all, by such a change. If Paul had been doubtful first, and then had arrived at the assuranc-e that he had been ])ursuing a false road, and then had seen the vision, he 1 In connection with Paul's conversion and his hearing of a voice, it is worth noting that Columbus, after his shipwreck on the coast of Por- tugal, when he had swum ashore and lay sick at Belem, believing him- self about to die, heard whilst half awake a voice saying to him, " God will cause thy name to be renowned through all the world, and He will give unto thee the keys of the door of the ocean." He relates this in one of his letters to his Spanish Majesty, after eighteen years of waiting and expectation, without his confidence in the heavenly prognostication failing him. But this is not a parallel case. Columbus was already persuaded that it was his mission to make discoveries to the West. He was in high fever, and his feverish dreams took colour from his con- victions. THE COXVERSIOX ,- in the fiice of Paul recoiled on Peter as well. CHAPTER V ARABIA AND JERUSALEM A.D. 35-3S Paul retires into Arabia — Arabia a term of wide application — Condition of mind of Paul after his conversion — What Paul then knew of Christ — Messianic expectations — Growth of Messianic ideas among the Jews — After the Captivity— Antiochus Epiphanes — The Book of Daniel — TheAsmonsean house — Capture of Jerusalem by Pompey — Confusion of ideas relative to sin — The preaching of the Baptist — The preaching of the Apostles was Messianic — The idea of a suffering Messiah — The testimony of the Apostles to the Messiahship of Jesus — Saul returns to Antioch — Escape from it — Goes to Jerusalem — Is introduced to the Apostles by Barnabas — Learns of Christ from the Apostles — The silence of Luke relative to the spread of the Church to South and East — Did Paul then understand what his mission was to be ? — Peter, in what way concerned with the founding of the Church — The law of development in things spiritual — Memory — Development of theology — Absorbance of the minds of the Apostles in Messianic expectations — The introduction of the Gentiles into the kingdom not fully expected at first — Intellectual growth — The open- ing of the minds of the Twehe to full knowledge. No sooner was Paul healed of his blindness than he retired into Arabia. He had been baptised in Damascus.^ What he had been tauoht we are not told. But, intleed, his mind was not ripe for receiving- instruction, it was storm- tossed, clouded with a thousand problems, held in sus])ense and in constant agitation. What he recjuired was i-epose in which to recover his mental e(|iiilil)riuin and clear his mind. ' Acts ix. iS. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 9^3 The term Arabia is of broad a})})lication, and not only adhered to the Peninsula, but embraced all that portion roamed over by Bedaween tribes, east of Trachonitis and Pertea, and extended to the Euphrates. It is said in Acts that Saul remained certain days with the disciples at Damascus. The writer omits all account of the time spent in Arabia, but goes on, " Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues C but it is not necessary to hold that this was inmiediately on his conversion ; and the mention of Aretas as being at the time in charge of Damascus^ makes it much more probable and chronologically possible, if we take this preaching and the persecution that followed as occurring on his return from Arabia. AVe do not know what Paul did in Arabia. It is possible he may have hid himself in an Essene connnunity. He was in just that condition of soul when such association would suit him. In the midst of the fasting, solitude, continuous prayer and occasional ecstasies of these solitaries he would think over what had taken place, hold connnune with God and search the Scri})tures to see what they said of Christ. His thoughts, we may be quite sure, v/ould take one direc- tion, the solution of the mystery of a suffering Messiah. He knew nothing of our Loril's birth, preaching, miracles, only the broad fact that He had been crucified, and that what the Apostles testified was true — He who was slain was alive again. Of the preaching of the Apostles he knew no more than that in season and out of season they insisted that Jesus was the promised Messiah, who had been slain, but who would come again in power and great glory. The only thought then occupying the minds of Christians was Messianic ; the whole of the controversy with the Jews ^ 2 Cor. xi. 32. 94 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL turned oil the point whether or not Jesus was the expected deliverer. To ))i()j)erly nnderstaiul how ini])ortant, how niono])ohs- iii<>; was the Messianic idea at this time, it will he necessary to take shortly the history of the ]\Iessianic expectations of the Jews. From a very early period, the Hebrews were convinced that they were an elect nation, chosen from amoiio- all others by Jehovah to maintain His worshiji and to ])reser\e nncorru})t the great truth of the unity of the Godhead. Alono-side of this, and intensifying- w ith the deepening of this conviction of the divine nionarchy was the recognition that the nation was not acting worthily of its uni(jue and glorious calling. The })rophets, w ho re])resented the purest and noblest elements in the race, jn-oclaimed this latter truth with vehemence, and warned the nation that unless it walked more worthily it Avould be chastised. Accordino- to them .Jehovah em])loye(l the surrounding nations who oppressed them as scourges wherewith to correct them and bring them to a realisation of their vocation, and to a discharge of their obligations to Him. These two convictions, acting one on the other, resulted in the })roduction of another — that, however greatly crushed the Hebrew j)eo})le might be, it was so precious in the eyes of God, and so coiii])letely assured of His ))rotection, that its sufferings would be correc- tional only, and must lead to the purification of the chosen race, and to its ulterior triinnph. In this belief we have all the elements of the develojMnent of the jNIessianic ex])ectations of Judaism. This is the funda- mental idea of a mighty trial followed by a restoration w liicli insj)ired successively Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Pi/ekiel ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 95 and the great anonymous seer of the Exile m hose prophecies constitute the second part of the Book of Isaiah. As vet ah was vague ; hut such a hope speedily assumed definite form. In the first place, what was desired was the ))olitical exaltation of Israel, partly in order that there might he enjovment of the fat things of the earth and the plunder of the Gentiles, partly also that the Hehrews might have the satisfaction of revenging their national wrongs on their persecutors. As to the moral elevation of the people, that was regarded as a mere means to an end ; desired undoubtedly, because it would lead to triumj)h, but among the vulgar for that only. Prophets and wise men alone desired it for itself, and set righteousness above \\orldly prosperity. Hoa\' and by ^hom the regeneration of Israel was to be effected was a matter of uncertainty. At one moment it was supposed that this ^\ould be due to the personal intervention of Jehovah, who would call to His aid all the most awful phenomena of nature ; then it was believed that some member of the royal race of David \\ ould be raised up to deliver the jieople ; and then all eves turned to a foreign deliverer, now Cyrus, then Alexander. On the return of the ])eo])le from captivity in Babylon, they were sanguine that the great affliction was passed, the day of exaltation was dawning. They began to rebuild .Jerusalem and restore the Temple, and the people, fsxithful and still wincing from the lash of the Babylonians, observed the Law with exactness and became ha[)py and moderately })rosperous. This was not altogether the restoration they had anticipated ; there was no great political pro})aganda achieved, nor had thev the spoil of the nations at their command, but every man could sit under his own vine and 96 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL fig-tree, and thouo-h still called on to remit a small ])oll- tax to the Persian king, he was left j)retty much to himself" and was certainly not tyrannised over. In easier circumstances, the ambition of the Jew flagged, his Messianic expectations became less keen, and the pro})hetic fire died out. From being under Persian domination, the Jewish nation passed without concern and w ithout resistance under (ireek sovereignty. Governed by its High Priests, the little king- dom enjoyed jjractical autonomy, and it would have remained in peace but for the rival ambitions of Egypt and Syria, w hich disputed possession of the soil. C'ontjuered by the Ptolemies, it rested for eighty years (n.c. 301-221) under their sce])tre. 'I'his was a happy period, favourable to the propagation of Jewish religious ideas, and offering to the teeming population opportunities of expansion in the Nile basin. The Messianic idea had lost its attraction, and to those who concerned themselves with it, it was nothing more than a ])romise of indefinite ])rolongation of the present prosperity. This tran(juillity was, however, but the calm that ])recedes the hurricane. The advent of Antiochus Epi])hanes marks the com- mencement at once of a series of terrible sufferings to the Jews and of an explosion of Messianic expectations. Antiochus was resolved on the abolition of the worshij) of Jehovah, and the complete incor))oration of the Jewish people into the Grteco-Svrian system of religion, civilisa- tion and })o]ity.^ With this end in view he abolished the observance of the Sabbath, forbade circumcision, and ])ut down the Temple sacrifices. Nay, furthei-, in December, ' 2 Mace. i\'. 7-20. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 97 B.C. 167, he set up a little altar on the top of the great altar before the sanctuary and offered thereon a sacrifice to Jupiter ()lyni})ius. It was at this terrible time, when the abomination of desolation Mas in the holy place, that the Book of Daniel a})peared in the form Me have it, to revive the drooping courage of the afflicted people of God, and to assure them of an ap])roaching delivery.^ In this book, which may, and j)robably does, contain in- corporated in it an earlier document, visions and revela- tions were added, so explicit of the struggles between Egypt and Syria, and the existing troubles, that the majority of critics have regarded it as a composition of the year li.c. 167. In the visions and prophecies there is an advance in ^Messianic expectation. There are not many allusions to a ])ersonal Messiah,^ but ne\v elements are introduced, as the resurrection to life and to punishment. There is a judg- ment, and after the judgment One like the Son of Man receives dominion and power over the universe. Previous to this, hoAvever, Messiah was to be cut off, though not for Himself."^ He is the Prince of Princes, against whom the great persecuting king would stand ujj. The kingdom of the saints was to be everlasting, and to extend over all the Avorld. The revolt directed by Judas Maccabaeus was crowned by success, and the three years and a half assigned by Daniel for the last sufferings of his people had hardly ela])sed before the profaned Tem])le M'as purified and the worship of God restored, December b.c. 164. Nevertheless, 1 Dan. xi. 24-29, 30, 41. - Dan. ix. 25. ■* Dan. ix. 26. 98 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL the struggle continued, and instead of the Jews obtaining dominion over all the earth, thev had to make desperate battle to maintain their national existence. The victory gained ))V Judas over Nicanor at Adasa was followed by the disaster of Eleasa, in which the great Maccabee fell, B.C. 1()0. His brother Jonathan succeeded and was recog- nised as High Priest, and obtained peace at the jirice of a tribute ])aid to the Syrian king. Simon, the last of the Maccaba^an brothers, followed. \\'ith two of liis sons he Avas minxlered in n.c. 135 ; and one of his sons, who had escaped, John Hyrcanus, succeeded to the government. He subdued Idunuea and Samaria, li.c. 109, destroyed the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim, and made Jerusalem the religious centre of the whole kingdom. Now followed a series of infamous prince-pontiiFs, under whom religion was outraged, and the soil of the Holy City was drenched in Jewish blood, shed in fratricidal war. To the discredited Asmonaean dynasty of pure-blooded Jewish prince-prelates succeeded that of the Idunueans. The ca])ture of Jerusalem by rom})ey, n.c. 63, ])ut a term to the period of Jewish inde})endence, although still for seventy years, till the recall of Ai'chelaus, son of Herod, it maintained an appearance of political liberty. The feel- ing of hatred of the stranger, joined to the tradition of the glory reserved to Israel, took at once an innnense develojj- nient, and it is hard to say whether the apocryphal works then ])roduced were the ex})ression of the feelings and beliefs of the peojile, or were the means of rousing and strengthening them. The idea of a Messiah who should reign over the Jewish j)eople, and make of them the Church of the whole world, now sprang into strong relief. That the humiliation of the ARABIA A XI) JERUSALEM 99 elect race was due to its sins was acknowle{l<)-e(l,^ hut the scrihes liad so confused the hroad outHnes of man's moial and reUgious ohligations that the conception of sin was limited to transgression of some trivial regulation, omission of some ridiculous cerenionv. Against such a conception of national sin the Baptist arose, and j)reaclied repentance, not a more close adhesion to niggling regulations imposed by tradition, but a re\ersion to the plain principles of the Divine Word — ])robitv, sobrietv, gentleness, charitv. The expectation of the Jews was that a son of I)a\ id, also called a son of God, would appear and " restore again the kingdom to Israel." This Messiah was to be preceded bv a forerunner, who ^\ould be the })rophet Elias revived. The ideas of a judgment took sharper outline, but there was a difference of opinion as to whether it would jjrecede the apparition of the Messiah or would succeed it. The general o})inion was that the Roman domination was about to come to an end, and that Messiah's kingdom would take its place by an easy transition. " There is no difference," taught one Rabbi, " between this present age and that of the Messiah, except in this, that in the latter the pagan nations will be reduced to slavery." The Messiah, the Christ, that is, the Anointed, as was now unanimously believed, would be a descendant of David. It was held by some that he would be boiii at Bethlehem;"- but according to others that he would descend from heaven. That this expected King would be a moral reformer concerned very few ; what all looked to was that he should crush the Roman power and put the Jewish nation at the head and make it im])ose its religion on the ^ Talmud, Sanhedr., f. 97 : Sabbath, f. iiS. - Targ. Jonathan in Zech. x. 3-4 ; Isa. xi. i ; Mich. v. 2. 100 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL whole world. Like IVIelchisedec, he w as to be at ouee Kiiii;- of Jerusalem and Priest of the Most Ili^h. His kin«doiu was to last till the vear (jOOO of the Avorld's historv,^ when would come the Jud<>'meut and the enchainment of Satan. The length of Messiah's reign was variously estimated as forty years or four hundred. An opinion was held by some that the Messiah would show himself for a while and then be withdrawn and remain hid till the time was ripe for his manifestation. It will be seen from this sununary that one element which we are accustomed to associate with the Messiah is totally absent — the idea of him as suffering and as a sacrifice for sin. Now the whole energy of the Ajjostles had been directed, as far as we can judge, to convincing the Jews that this was a feature in the Messianic scheme of Redem])tion of Israel. In every speech, in the prayer of Peter that is recorded,'- the dominating idea is that Christ, the Messiah, had appeared, and had been " by cruel hands " slain, and that He was risen, and now in His risen condition was withdrawn and tarrying till those who had in ignorance rejected Him would turn, repent, and prepare for His appearance, when would be fulfilled all that the prophets had said, all that the peo])le expected. Stejihen, in his defence, had gone no further. He had limited himself to the impleasant but very true charge that the Jew ish jjeople had rejected all their ])ro})hets and great men, and that their sin had culminated in the rejection of the Christ. He had not said one word relative to a ho])e of His Second Coming, not allowed a chance of re])entance. If Paul had 1 Or as in the Book of Jubilees, at the close of 85 Jubilee periods. - Acts iv. 24-30. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 101 heard anv of the preachin<;- of the Apostles, which is very unhkely, he had heard no more than this. The Apostles insisted that Christ who had been ])ut to death in Jernsaleni, was yet alive, because thejij luul seen Him. And now Paul was able to occ-u])y the same platform, to insist on the same truth, because he, also, had seen Hhu. At the end of three years Paul returned to Damascus, and pi-eached in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.i " But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring- them bound unto the chief priests ? ""' After a few daAS the exasperation among the Jews at Damascus became so great that they appealed to the o-overnor under Aretas, to have him arrested. Aretas had at this time been given the charge of Damascus, during the interval between the retirement of Lucius Vitellius from the proconsLilship of Syria and the arrival of his successor, Petronius. The gates were watched, but Paul escaped let down the wall in a basket, and thus got safely away,-^ and pro- ceeded at once to Jerusalem. There he w as not known to the brethren other than as one who had been implicated in the execution of Stephen, and had been foremost as a })er- secutor. Of his conversion they knew nothing, owing to his promjit retreat into Arabia after it, and the disturb- ance relative to his testifying in Damascus was of too recent occurrence to have as yet reached their ears. ^ Acts ix. 20, 21 ; Gal. i. 17. - 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. H 102 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Barnabas now became Paul's s})onsor, and he assured the 'rwelve of the reaHty of Saul's conversion. He had pro- bably received letters by the hand of Paul from some brethren in Damascus reconnnendinn' the neophyte to his ii;ood offices. This introduction dissi])ated the suspicion with which at first Paul had been regarded, and he "was with them coming in and going out at Jei-usalem." Peter he saw, and was w ith him in close conference for fifteen days, and he likewise saw James, " the Lord's brother," head of the Church in Jerusalem and throughout Judcea. There was nuicli that St. Paul had to learn from those who had been witnesses of Christ's miracles, death and resurrection, and had heard His teaching — such matters c-ould be learned from none else. No Gospels had as yet been written. All information was oral. Such as desired to hear about Christ nuist come to the college of w itnesses at Jerusalem. Afterwards Paul could not have spoken so decidedly and in such detail about matters of fact in the history of our Lord's life, unless he hatl learned the chief incidents from those who had both seen and heard Him. xVt first sight undoubtedly, in reading the Epistles of Paul, one is sur- prised to find so few allusions to the events of the life of Jesus, so few tpiotations from His discourses. But this is easy of ex})lanation. The E])istles were written late, to those who had received a preliminary instruction. And the letters })resu})])ose this. They take for granted that those receiving them knew both what Christ did and what He tausht. This course of instruction is the tradition to which St. Paul refers more than once.^ He knew of the ' I Cor. xi. 2 : w. 1-9 ; Col. ii. 7 ; 2 Thess. ii. 15 ; Tit. i. 9. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 103 royal descent of Christ,^ of His poverty. In all the details of the Eucharistic institution he was fullv in- structed."- He knew how that He had been betrayed,"* h()\\- that He had been reproached on the cross,* how that He had a superscription attached to the cross. ^ Of the Resurrection he knew more than is detailed in the Gospels.*' So also there are sayings of the Lord which had been connnunicated to him other than are recorded by the Evangelists.' It is often sup})osed that I'aul received his knowledge of the Gospel entirelv bv revelation ; that is to sav, that he was miraculously, in vision, given the record of Christ's life and doctrine, and that he owed nothing to connnunication from the Apostles. But such a notion is not justified either by the words used bv Paul relative to his ministerial commission, or bv the facts of the case. He was at Jerusalem repeatedlv. Are we to su])]iose that he asked no questions of the Twelve relative to Him of A\hom they wei-e the authorised witnesses ? Moreover, a miraculous revelation is not conceivable when unnecessary. To hear all he needed to know about Christ, Paul had but to ask those who had both seen and heard Him. What he did obtain independently was his institution to the Apostolate, to be a witness, and that by the fact of seeing Christ; his connuission he received by laying on of hands, but the field in which he was to worl<,. that was divinely shown him. That Paul was but a fortnight in the Holy City is not ' Rom. i. 3. - I Cor. xi. 23-26. ^ Ibid. 23. ■* Rom. XV. 3. •'' Col. ii. 14. " i Cor. xv. 4-7. " Acts XX. 35 ; I Thess. iv. 15-17. 104 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL necessarily implied bv the words that he uses in Galatians ; but merely that he stayed as a guest for fifteen days in Peter^ house. Many indications show that althouoh the Twelve made Jerusalem their headquarters, most of them were incessantly on the n)ove, making periodical visits, probably to clusters of converts in Mesopotamia and Arabia. It has been weW noticed that Luke is silent relating to the spread of the Church to the East and South. What intei'ested him and entered into the scheme he set himself was to record the gradual expansion of the Church in that part of the Roman world with which he was familiar, and where he was able to obtain trustworthy material for his compilation. He did not come in con- tact with those who had been engaged in the diffusion of the truth in other parts than Asia Minor, Rome and Syria, and therefore, rather than stuff his ])ages with un- substantiated tales, he omitted all reference to the work done in East and South. Now it is jjossible enough that Peter could not spare to Paul more time than a fortnight, and that then he was thrown in the society of James, the bishop. To this period is attributed by many writers the remarkable vision in the Temple recorded in Acts xxii. 17-21, when he received for the first time his connnission to go to the Gentiles, and it is thought that this vision impelled him immediately to leave. But this is in contra- diction with the statement made in Acts, that his leaving Jerusalem was occasioned by a })lot to kill him. "He was with the Apostles coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and dis])uted against the Hellenistic Jew s ; but they went about to kill him. Which when the brethren knew, they ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 105 brought liiiii clown to C;t>sarca, and sent him thence to Tarsus.""^ He (Hd not beo-in his ministry to the Gentiles till ten or c? *.■ eleven years after ; in fact not till after his second visit to Jerusalem, and, I conceive, it was then he saw the vision and received his connnission. If this be the order of events, and it is the only order which does not involve us in difficulties, theii Paul as yet had only the most uncertain ideas as to the purpose of God relative to the conversion of the Gentiles. He had heard from Ananias at Damascus wliat Christ had foretold to him in vision, but probably suj>posed tliat he would proceed on tlie lines followed by the Apostles. That, nevertlieless, some thoughts of Avhat a great door was opening entered his mind, and that he discussed tliem with Peter, and expressed liis opinion freely, is probable enough ; and it is certainly a significant fact that it was very shortly after these interviews that Peter went to Cornelius, who was uncircumcised, and merely a proselyte of the gate, and baptized him. If Peter is to be regarded as a foundation stone of the Church of the Circumcision, in that he made the first con- verts from among the Hellenistic Jews, he must also be held to be a foundation stone of the Church of the Uncir- cumcised, for he was the first to extend the privilege of baptism to a Gentile. This he would not have done had not there been a miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost similar to that at Pentecost, to satisfy him and others that such admission into the Church was with the divine approval. 1 Acts ix. 28-30. Moreover, he would not at this time have under- stood such a commission. It was not for some years that his mind opened to the mystery of the call of the Gentiles. 106 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL It would seem to be a law of God that governs all creation, every form of life, physical, mental and spiritual, that it should not spring, like Athene, fully armed into existence, nor be born like the mythical calf of the Tahnud at the age of three, but grow from small beginnings, " first the seed, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."" Indeed the idea of life to us involves that of succession, and the succession is one of advance to a certain fixed point, when not counteracted by disin- tegrating forces. Evolution, a doctrine now so ardent! v embraced, is the application to the genera and species of the Law we recognise as governing individual exist- ence. Nothing in nature reaches maturity at a bound. The mind unfolds itself leisurely as the body grows. Precocity of intellect in a child very often entails in manhood mental stagnation. It has reached ripeness before the body. The ox and the ass have been yoked together ; they have not kept pace. It is the same in all things spiritual. We see that the Apostles when Avith Christ could not bear to receive at once all the truth He would connnunicate. Time was required for the seed sown to take root down- Avard and the plant to spring upward ; for the human mind to digest and assimilate what it had imbibed before more could be given to it. At Pentecost, an outpouring of the Spirit had been accorded to fire with zeal, inspire with courage, to bring to the xViiostles"" memories what had been taught them, and to guide them into all truth. Zeal, courage were innnediatc requisites. Guidance implies movement, progression. In a contracted human mind memory does not act as a Hash of lightning illumining all things instantaneously, but ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 107 travels like a seareli light bringing into view one object after another. Nor does reason act difterentlv. No man sees the full bearings of a fact at once ; they appear to him by degrees, as circumstances arise to force them on his notice. Thus was it with the Apostles. This was the manner of operation of the Divine Spirit, who is the Spirit of Life, therefore of development and adaptation to circumstances. It led them to the conviction that it was their Master\s will that they should tarry in Jerusalem awhile. Why, they did not clearly discern. And as soon as the ])roper moment arrived, then It guided them to extend their sphere of operations, and finally wafted them to the ends of the earth. At first all they thought of and declared was that Christ — the Christ — was come, had died and risen again. But of A\'hat theologic mysteries were involved in the Incarna- tion, of the depth of significance to all mankind that lay in the death of Christ, they had as yet hardly more than a perception. Of the importance of the Kesurrection they saw^ no more at the first moment than a proof that the Jesus whom they had followed was indeed the promised Messiah. Christian theology — that is to say, the philosojjhy of the facts of the Gospel — began in the most rudimentary form, but develojjed organically and inevitably, as events haj)- pened, as conditions arose calling for applications antl solu- tions. The full bearing of any event is never seen all at once. It cannot be so. In a finite mind, in a series of finite minds, it is seen in a gradual unrolling, in a slow demonstration of sequences, one following on another, as effect on cause. 108 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The Aj)0!stle.s at iinst did not see to what Christ's preach- in^-, death, and resurrection would lead. It was under the ])ressiu"e of events that their faith rose from an elenientary form to a hioher type. They had come to Christ by the Law and the Prophets. It was like a ladder let down from hea\en that led up to God and to Christ. The idea of any contradiction between the Law and the Gosj)el did not occur to them, till forced on their notice. They had not had occasion to renounce the old Covenant to enter into the new ; and this explains w hat we shall see presently, nuicli hesitation and embarrassment when brought face to face with the tremendous revolution which was about to be accomplished. Brought up in Judaism, the whole horizon of which Mas ])ile(l u]) with Messianic cloud figures, they did not seek to do more than show them to be gilded with the sunhght that streamed from the face of Jesus. They accepted the whole of the eschatology of the Pharisees. They declared that they had seen and conversed with Jesus who w as the exj)ected Messiah, and they insisted that He would come again. Apparently for some years the Twehe were ignorant of one of the great purposes of the Incaiiiation, the salvation of the Gentiles — at all events, in any other way than through the gate of Mosaism. This is the more remark- able because this was one of the great subjects of ])ro])hecy in the Old Testament, and it was due to that antipathy to pagans, which they had sucked in with their mothers'' milk, that they were thus blind. So com|)letely were they un- prepared for this revelation, that it re{|uired a vision to St. Peter, thrice repeated,^ before they could l)elieve in its ^ Acts X. II. There was also the baptism oflhc cunucli b}- I'hilip. ARABIA AND JERUSALEM 109 ])ossibilitv, and then tliev would not accept it as authoris- ing- more than the acceptance of one household. For eighteen years it remained a dead fact })roducin<>; no after effects. More than twenty years after the ba})tisni of Cornelius, Paul spoke of the admission of the Gentiles as one of those things not at first made known to the Church, but as a matter of special and later revelation, and as a mys- tery, a puzzle to their minds. It was an " economy of the grace of God," one that e\en principahties in heavenly places were ignorant of, but which \\as revealed to them bv tlie action of the Church.^ Thus we see how that the work of the Spirit w as educa- tive, evolutionary, a gradual expansion ; circumstances forcing the Twelve to act in a manner they had not at first contemplated, and to formulate dogmas out of facts, from which indeed they grew naturally, but nevertheless unex- })ectedly. AVe have not, unhappily, any record of the lives and thoughts of the other Apostles such as we have of St. Paul ; but we know just enough to be siu'e that the same process went on in them as we shall see in the sequel was followed in Paul, though, indeed, in them it cannot have been as vigorous and rapid. I remember, when young, and a puj)il of the late Bishop of Carlisle (Goodwin) when he was a tutor at Cambridge, that he set me Euler's proof of the Binomial Theorem. I laboured at it ineffectually ; it was to me as though I were striking my head against a stone wall. My tutor bade me lay it aside. A twelvemonth later I attacked it again, and now it presented to me no difficulties. Mv reasoning 1 Eph. ii. 3-5. 110 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL powers had grown so ;\s to enable me to master what ]n'e- vioiisly mastered me. This is what takes place in all minds, a gradual enlarge- ment of scope and acquisition of power to see more than was seen yesterday. There is but one law aj)])lieable to things sjjiritual as to things mental. AVith the Apostles, however, there was set them no complicated problem to solve, but certain facts of which they were witnesses, the signification of which, the world- wide application of w hich they could not conceive at first. And no wonder. These were the articulate thoug-hts of the mind of God, and how could the human mind see their length and breadth and height and depth at once ? What is Creation but the materialisation of the thoughts of God ? And yet we are ever going further and sounding- deeper, and bringing to light fresh marvels. AVho can say w hat more may not be unfolded out of the mysteries of natural forces.'' And it is the same with spiritual truths. We have not yet reached the end of them. As we are able to bear it, the Spirit continuously reveals to men some- thin<>' risiny; out of those facts to which the Twelve bare witness, as facts and f^u-ts only. CHArTEU VI ANTIOCH A . D . 48 — 49 Paul again at Tarsus — Apparently nothing done by him in his native town — The kinsmen of Paul — The Church in Antioch — The pro- selytes — The burning question of circumcision — The difficulty of the situation — Barnabas sent to Antioch — He goes to Tarsus to fetch Paul — The practical difficulty — The prophets are silent— Paul in an ecstasy — Paul again in Jerusalem — Hesitation of the Apostles — The line adopted by them — That suggested by Paul — The policy of Paul a new departure— The position taken up by the Apostles towards him — The vision in the Temple — Difficulties — Return to Antioch — Three stages in Church development— Importance of understanding this — Religious ecstasy — Its nature — The ecstasies of St. Theresa — Her account of them — Revelations — Tennyson's trances — Phenomena that are inexplicable and demand close inves- tigation — Epilepsy, catalepsy, and trance — The spiritual element. Paul reiiiaiiicd at Tarsus, probably \\'ith his father, for ten years. When, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he is made, in the Authorised Version, to say, " After three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas," we obtain, perhaps, a wrong- impression. The words should be rendered, " In the third year I went up to Jerusalem,"'' and the fourteen years are })erhaps to be reckoned from the Conversion. If he were converted in a.d. 35, which is the date almost all critics fix, then he came to Jerusalem in A.D. 38, and he disa})pears from our view for ten years. These years nuist have been entirely unimportant from 112 A ST my OF ST. PAUL a inissionary point of vie\\', or we should liave been given information relative to tlieni by St. Luke, liut it is a feature of this wiiter to describe the successes of his hero, and pass over entirely, or M'ith fe\\- words, the failures of St. Paul. Paul founded no Church in his native city, and never once alludes to Tarsus in his letters. In his Epistle to the Galatians he mentions his having gone into Syria and Cilicia after his first interview with Peter, but is signi- ficantly silent as to what he had done there.' A jn-ophet is at a disadvantage in his own city, and Paul was no exception. He worked at his trade. Whether he convinced his father and brethren is ([uestionable. Many years later he was rescued through the instrumentality of a nephew at Jerusalem from an attempt to assassinate him, anil this young man could hardly have got wind of the ])lot, had not his family been considered "safe" people, eager to be rid of their heretical kinsman. However, in his Epistle to the Romans, written ten or twelve years later, he inentions his "kinsmen,"'"' Andronicus and Junia, Herodion, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, as believers. They may have been convinced later, as they were not at Tarsus, but in Rome ; it is conceivable that the fact of their believing had made Tarsus too hot for them, and they deemed it advisable to put a stretch of sea between them and their unbelieving relatives. This, how- ever, is all conjecture, The fact remains that Luke is absolutely mute relative to any successes achieved by Paul 1 This has seemed incredible to modern biographers, just as the retired life of Christ up to His ministry seemed incredible to early Christians, and both have filled in the gaps out of their imagination. Geikie devotes a chapter of thirty-four pages to a mythical evangelisa- tion of Cilicia, to which neither Luke's narrative nor the epistles of Paul bear any witness. A XT IOC H 113 in his native ])roviiice. It is true tluit in a.d. 52 the Apostles wi-ote to the Churches of Syria and CiHcia, or rather " to the brethren wliicli are of" the Gentiles," in these two provinces, but this does not prove that I'aul liad had any hand in convincing those in Cilicia ; and they who there beheved were probably such as had heard of Christ at Antioch, for the province extended to within not many miles of that city. That Paul did not in those ten years return to Juda-a is certain, for he says, " I was unknown by face unto the Churches of JucUea which were in Christ ; but thev had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preached the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified God in nie.""^ The occasion of his reappearance was this. At Antioch, the Church had swelled in numbers, and had grown active, and with its increase in numbers and activity a great problem had come to the forefront. Were the converts from the Gentiles to be circumcised jirevious to baptism .'' Was the w-ay into the Church to be through the porch of the Law ? Outside of Judaism was the ring of the proselytes " who feared God," men and women who attended the synagogue, refrained from idolatry and from marriages within the prohibited degrees, and from eating meat with the blood in it. But the men were not circumcised, and none were required to obev the Mosaic ceremonial Law nor observe the traditions. Not the narrowest of the party in the Church which clung to the Law would deny instruction in the perfect way to those " who feared God," but they objected to their ^ Gal. i. 22-24. See on all this the Chronological Introduction. 114 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL admission bv ba])tism to full church nienibersliip and parti- cipation in the Aga])c and the Eucharist. The cases of Cornehus and of the eunuch had, so they argued, been exceptional. The Church of Antioch was made uj) mostly of Hellenic Jews, if not entirely of such, \\ith a huge nebulous ring of ])roselytes about it, men of more or less strict observance, but none circumcised. '^I'he Holv Ghost had not miracu- lously declared that they were to be admitted to baptism, either bv an outpouring of the gift of tongues, or through the pro])hets. AVhat was to be done ? The outer belt was becomino- so extensive as to threaten to contract and over- whelm the heart of true and complete believers, circumcised and baptized. The matter was brought before the Twelve at Jerusalem. Were the Antiochian Christians to await a revelation with regard to these neo])hvtes, or were they to act on instructions from headquarters.^ "He that heareth you, heareth me," Christ had said to His A])ostles, and the Antiochians were willing to obey. Let the Twelve s])eak out. liut the Aj)()stles were in ])erplexity. Such a step as to admit all proselytes was so large that they feared to take it on such a warrant as the effusion o-ranted to Cornelius. Thev nuist ha\e further direc- tion from the S])irit. So they despatched Barnabas to Antioch to investigate the situation, and to rej)()rt on it to them. When he arrived, he was rejoiced at the zeal manifested bv the convei'ts, but he was not invested with authority to settle the matter, the pi'ophets remained silent, and no flickering flames descended. Me exhorted and reasoned, with the result that the outside throng became greater and the pressure on the barriers corresj)ondingly increased. ANTIOCH 115 lianiabus, in his pei})lc'xity, now thought on I'iuil. He was aware of his abihties, and some vague notion may have entered his head that lie was set apart to solve the diffi- culty. Possiblv, .Vnanias of Damascus may liave come to Antioch and have sugo-ested that Paul should be sum- moned. None seem to have seen that the revelation to Peter had settled the (juestion. The Centurion had been baptized, but Me are not told that he was admitted to the Agape and to Communion. The real problem was this. A\ hat was to be done with the " devout men " ? Were they to be incorporated into the Church by baptism, and, if so, were they to be further admitted to the Agape ? Here was one o-iii'. A Jew might not sit down to eat with one who was uncircumcised ; if the proselyte were baptized, then he woidd undoubtedly demand also a place at the table, where all ate in symbol of unity. But then the Jewish members would be put in a dilemma. If they sat with them and ate, thev broke the law, they became defiled. Must they go through a legal purification after every love feast ? If they were obliged to do this, it was in vain for them to regard the Agape as a bond of union, it was a pledge of discord. It must be remembered that the Church was not as yet disentangled from the Synagogue. The Christians attended the Jewish place of worship and instruction, observed the Sabbath and new moons and the ordered feasts, paid the poll-tax to the Temple, were one with the Jews to the general eye, differing from them, apparently in this only, that they superadded observance of the Lord's Day to that of the Sabbath. They attended the synagogue on the 116 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL seventh dav, and then adjourned to continue their pious exercises to a private habitation. And this observance of the Sabbath as well as the Lord's Day as sacred along with it, continued after the separation of the Church from the Synagoo-ue, for two centuries. The presence of Christian Jews in the Synagogue raised difficulties, if it were known that they associated at table with Christian Gentiles, and were therefore subject to impurity. And the rulers had the means of enforcing their judgments and compelling conformity. For the Imperial Government accorded large powers of self-govern- ment, and the right of punishing refractory or trans- gressing members in any way short of life and mutilation. The rulers of the Synagogue might be forced to expel the Believing Jew . But that would be an extreme measure, had recourse to only when others failed, as one driven out of the Synagogue could not be made to pay the Temple-toll, nor the contributions for the support of the Synagogue and the charities connected with it. At the present day, when Christianity is organised entirely apart from Judaism, such Jews as showed Christian tend'.'ucies would be expelled the Synagogue without the smallest scruple. But it was not so at the time of which I write, when Christianity was an opinion and not a sect. Those who believed did not regard tlieniselves as other than Jews holding the " more ])erfect way," as truer Jews than the Jews themselves.^ Their religious assemblies were looked on much as strict Churchmen might regard private prayer-meetings, not as schismatical, in themselves, but as allowable peculiarities. In another chapter I shall show how the .\ga])e 1 Cf. Rev. ii. 9. ANTIOCH 117 originated ; all I recjuire here to indicate is the inipos- sibilitv of a Jewish believer associatino; Avitli a ])r()selvte believer without incurring legal jjollution. In Jerusalem a modus vivendi had been arrived at. The antagonism against the Church was not from the side of the Pharisees, but from that of the Sadducees. In Jerusalem the difficulty relative to contact with believing Gentiles did not occur. It was, the Apostles thought, advisable to avoid or postpone a breach. Such M as the difficulty that had to be met, and Barnabas went to Seleucia, shipped over to Tarsus, and invited Paul to assist him with his comisel at Antioch. A report must be made to the Tw^elve, some practical solution offered ; and time was aggravating the difficulty. The two friends reached Antioch in the early part of A.D. 48. There they remained, watching the operation of the Spirit on the individual souls of the converts, and still no exterior token was given for their direction. Some time previously — probably in a.d. 44 — prophets had announced an approaching famine, and a collection was begun for the poor at Jerusalem. The famine began in A.D. 44, and probably lasted, more or less acutely, for several years.^ It is certainly remarkable and deserving of notice that at this moment, eminently critical, the Holy Spirit should not have spoken and shown the way in which the dispute was to be allayed. This can be explained only on the supposition that jirophetic gifts were accorded in the ^ It is usual to hold that Barnabas fetched Paul in a.d. 44, and that both went up to Jerusalem with the contributions in a.d. 45, and again about the question of the circumcision later. I do not see that this double journey was necessary. See as to the difficulties as to dates what has been said in the Chronological Introduction. 118 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL earliest infancy, and were now ])urposelv withdrawn, that the Church niioht act on its own inherent ])owers. At this juncture, just before starting- from ^Vntioch, Paul fell into an ecstasy, and in this condition received a mysterious communication from on high. He wrote of this some nine years later to the Corinthians : " I knew a man in Christ, whether in the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth ; such an one, caught up to the third heaven .... caught up into Paradise and heard words which it is unlawful for a man to utter.""^ In this trance Paul received instruction relative to the ditHculty in which he and Barnabas and the Twelve were involved, and he was ordered to go up forth- with to Jerusalem, and communicate what had been told him to those who were the heads of the Church.- Accordingly Barnabas and Paul went up to the Holy City, saw the elders, and put into their hands the sum contributed by the believers in Antioch.^ Barnabas then visited James, Peter and John, and made his re})orc to them ; and, acting on his recommendation, Paul was called into consultation. The account of what ensued is given by Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians. It may be thus paraphrased : " On my visit to Jerusalem, after the ^■ision I had at Antioch, I comnumicated to the Apostles my view of the 1 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. '■^ Gal. ii. i, 2. •* One reason why it has been supposed that there were two visits is because Paul speaks in Gal. ii. of seeing the thi-ee Apostles, whereas in Acts xi. 30, it is said that the disciples of Antioch sent the money to the elders, and it is therefore concluded that the Apostles were absent. I do not see this. The elders looked to the business. Professor Ramsay thinks that Paul and Barnabas remained some time in Jerusalem, and themselves supervised the distribution. But surely this would have been an indecent interference with the functions of the elders and deacons, and have taken off the grace of the contribution. ANTIOCH 119 case, and explained to them the nature of my teaching-. This was in a private consultation. I was desirous that all misunderstandings should be cleared away. I had with me Titus, a Greek, who believed, and he was required neither by me, nor by them, to be circumcised, much less was the general princi})le laid down that this Judaic rite was to be exacted as a necessary preliminary to full church membership. There was, however, a set of sneaking- brethren jieering into our proceedings and condenniing them, and insisting that we should adhere to the practice hitherto pursued, which has ]:)roved to be an intolerable bondage. But not for an hour did we yield to them ; either by compliance with what they demanded, or by acquiescence in their arguments. Moreover, the acknow- ledged leaders — be their distinction what it may — gave me no new connnand, but on the contrary, perceiving that I had a special vocation to the uncii'cumcised proselytes, just as Peter's special call seemed to be to the Jews by birth and ritual incorporation ; they, I say, to wit, James and Peter and John, recognised pillars of the Church, gave to me and to Barnabas solemn assurances that they were in full accord with my view ; and they decided that we should go inito the heathen, whereas they would work on, as hereto- fore, among the Jews.'"^ The Apostles, it is clear, were not disposed as yet, them- selves, to make a new departure : it is quite possible that they may have had instructions from Christ not to finally break with the Temple and Synagogue till a sign was given them that there was to be a change in their procedure. But even if we reject this, we can allow that the Spirit had not called on them to change their course of action, and 1 Gal. ii. 1-9. 120 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL that till Ho (listiiictlv spoke thev were ri<2;ht in rcniainino; at Jerusalem and working from thence. Hitherto the synagogues of the Dispersion had swept together vast numbers of pagans ; some of these latter had no doubt only coquetted with Judaism, othei-s were more or less convinced in its Monotheism, and in the cogency of its divinely given Law of the Ten Commandments. Some few, but these were very few, consented to be circumcised. Among the Syrians, Arabians, Egyptians, there was no strong pre- judice against this rite ; indeed, in Egypt it had been custo- mary from time immemorial. But Romans and Greeks would not submit to it. Of these latter manv learned to respect and admire the pure doctrine of Mosaism and there stopped. They were regarded as " righteous men,"" and were not required to do more than observe the so-called Noachian law. Such men did not visit Jerusalem, they remained in their homes. But the true Jews and the zealous and thorough proselytes, some few from the West, but ])lenty from East and South, came annually to Jerusalem. The amount of influence that could be exercised on these was incalculable, and could best be exerted from Jerusalem, But also the true Jews from the West who came to the Holy City came within the range of the teaching of the Twelve, and could therefore be made by them into propa- gators of the truth in the West as well as the East, At the root of the hearts of the Apostles lay the hope, not to be abandoned as yet, that all Israel might accept the truth, and the Synagogue and 'J'emple be transformed into places of })rayer and worship of God as revealed by Jesus, Jerusalem to be the centre of the Christian world, and the Temple the seat of typal worship for all races of men. But Paul saw that the conversion of the w orld mio-ht be ANTIOCU 121 accelerated by siipplcnientin^- tlie .system of the Twelve by another, by that of an itinerant niissioner visiting every synagogue in the lands whither the Jews had been scattered, and of stimulating spiritual conversion therein. He no more thought of gt)ing (Hrectly to the nations than did the Twelve. Ikit he did desire to visit the Jews of the Dispersion, and preach in their synagogues. I do not suppose that the elder A})ostles would at all denuu- to his proposal to visit the believers scattered abroad in every j)lace where were Jewish settlements, but they might hesitate to sanction his pro})osal to use the synagogues in the manner suggested. This had been tried by Stephen at Jerusalem, with the result that there had been disturbance and a persecution. Was it not likely tliat, if Paul ado})ted the same method, the same results would follow t The question, in the first place, was one of prudence. For their part they preached Christ in the porticoes of the Temple ; they no longer lifted up their voices in the synagogues. They were not now invited to do so, and they did not attempt to force themselves on unwdlling con- gregations. What Paul proposed was to take advantage of the unsuspicion and inexperience of the Hellenistic Jews abroad; and the elder Apostles doubted the expediency of such a course. The question, in the second place, was one of principle. Above all, they were desirous of avoid- ing the stirring up of angry passions. AVhen once heated controversy broke out, temper would obscure reason, parties would be formed, and the chances of national submission to Christ would be cut away. Obviously, the Apostles did not altogether trust PauFs account of his vision seen at Antioch. They thought he 122 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL had unwittingly coloured it to suit his own wishes. They niav have argued that for the vision to be satisfactory it should be accorded to them rather than to Paul, A\ho \\as only over eager to make a new departure. They deprecated what might precipitate a schism. So long as the Church was as a pinch of leaven in the midst of the meal of the Synagogue, it was permeating it with new life, and was transforming it. Disengage the Church from it, and it could influence individuals singly, but would be powerless to effect a national religious revolution. Then it was, that, vexed at heart because the Twelve did not respond cordially to his proposals, Paul fell into a trance, whilst praying in the Temple. He saw Christ, who said : " Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem ; for they will not receive thy testimony con- cerning me.''^" These words certainly intimate mistrust in the Twelve as to the fidelity to facts in Paul's statement relative to his connnission received in vision. If Paul's description before Agrijjpa of what he had heard at his conversion be correctly given by Luke, then it must be allowed that he possessed a faculty of giving these matters a partial aspect, and embroidering them to suit his purpose, which is calculated if not to awake suspicion, at all events to call forth reserve. I cannot see how the elder Apostles could have acted in any other manner than they did, if possessed of ordinary intelligence and connnon-sense. They gave him a free hand : probably they saw that imless they gave it he would act in independence. They remained at Jerusalem and continued the work on the lines already laid. If the ^ Acts xxii. iS. ANTIOCH 1^!5 Spirit willed that they should alter their conduct, lie would reveal His will to them ; He had his appointed mouthpieces, the ])ro])hets ; He could address them in vision. Christ, who had specially connnissioned them, would o'ive them some sign as to how they were to act. Were thev to acce])t the assurance of a man of whom all they knew was that he was a weathercock in his religious opinions, and that in a matter of supreme importance ? He indeed asserted that in Antioch he had been told to inform them what the will of Christ was. But they were the inspired, accredited Apostles of Christ, on whom the Spirit had visibly descended, and who had received com- mission and authority and instruction from Christ Himself. In common, everyday matters, no nuxn will alter his con- duct at the advice of a stranger. In courts of law there must be two or three witnesses to establish any case. In a council of war, would the assembled generals reverse their conduct of a campaign because a volunteer came in and said that he had dreamed that the war could be carried out more effectively by new means .'' To return to the vision in the Temple. According to Paul's own account, Christ said to him, " Depart from Jerusalem. They will not receive thy testimony concerning me.'" Then Paul informs us that he answered the Saviour : " Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee ; and when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was stand- ing by and consenting unto his death, and took charge of the garments of the executioners. Therefore they nuist be convinced of my sincerity."" But Christ said to him : " Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the 124 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Gentiles."" When Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians speaks of his apostleship being not of men, neither of his having been connnissioned by men, he refers to this revelation of Jesus Christ,^ afforded him when the Twelve were obstructive, not indeed to his working on the same lines as the Pharisee inissioners, but to his insistance that on the pagans abandoning polytheism and embracing the Gospel, they should at once receive baptism and obtain a right to sit down at the Agape beside the circumcised believers. AVithout further delay Paul and Barnabas returned to ^Vntioch, taking John jVIark Avith them. They had brought up with them Titus, a Greek and inicircumcised, but a believer. Nothing was said by the Twelve about requiring him to be made subservient to the Law, and Paul was constrainetl to remain satisfied with this. But, in fact, nothing had been gained. The whole question was remitted to a further occasion. Very likely the Apostles bade Paul and Barnabas act on their own res})onsibility ; if Paul was convinced that he had been authorised to admit the uncircumcised to baptism, let him act as directed. There were, if I may employ the Hegelian term in this connection, certain moments in the progress of the Church that deserve to be noted, as there ensued friction and heat at the passage from one to the other. The first moment oi" stage was this : — The Church existed as a germ in the midst of the Synagogue, affecting it through every part. The Christians observed the customs and united in the worshij) of the Synagogue, very uiucli as Irvingites now attend the ' Gal. i. II, 12. ANTIOCH 125 services of the Cluueh of England. But they supple- mented the Jewish worship with pious exercises of their own in private houses. But this provoked nuich irritation, through the intimate association of the Christians with uncircamcised behevers. Moreover the Jews, if they chose, could make the posi- tion of the Christian members of the Synagogue (juite intolerable. They could try them for every breach of tra- ditional usage, or for heresy, and punish them by scourging, imprisoning, by all kinds of torture short of death. Consequently there was among the Christians a tendency developed, and constantly acquiring strength, to break loose from the Synaffooue. The only restraining influence affecting the minds of the Jews was a consideration for the money of these restless believers. They did not love them personally, but they did not desire to lose their pecuniary contributions to the Temple, the Synagogue, and the support of their poor. On the other hand the Christians no doubt felt very reluctant to pay Temple, Synagogue and poor rates to a body of men who bullied and maltreated and insulted them. The second moment or stage was this : — The situation became so strained that at last it became intolerable, and the believers broke away from the Syna- gogue entu'ely. Paul no doubt saw that the schism must come sooner or later ; and Avhereas the Apostles at Jerusalem strove by every means in their power to retard this stage, Paul was eager to precipitate it, and in his new foundations started his churches immediately in separation from the synagogues. AVe shall see presently how he effected this, and what profound exasperation he aroused in the minds of the Jews by so doing. 126 y/ STUDY OF ST. PAUL But if he thouoht that bv this course he was soino- to ■steer the Church into still waters, he was vastly mistaken. The Jewish connnunities were under legal protection, the synag'ogues were recognised bv the law, and worshi]) therein was authorised, and the rulers of the synagogues were em- powered to enforce unity and order in their places of worship. Ikit A\hen Paul disentangled his converts from the meshes of Judaism, and planted them in connnunities as raw creations of his own, unattached to the synagogues as they were unaffiliated to the established paganism, these were illegal conventicles, and the members were threatened with as severe handling as were Dissenters under Stuart regime. They at once became members of illicit connmmities. Any Jew might inform against them and }:)ut the la\\- in motion to close their meeting-houses, and imprison their pastors. The Jews were not at all slow to grasp their opportunity, and innnense annoyance was caused thereby. A third moment or stage was attempted, as I believe, by Paul when he appealed to Caesar, and that was to obtain the Imperial recognition of the Christian conventicles, so that they might be })laced under the jiroiection of the law, as well as the synagogues. This Paul possiblv may have succeeded momentarily in obtaining from Nero, hut if so it was at once withdrawn, and the Church did not enter on this stage until the reign of Constantine the Great. With the Church in this position, enjoying protection, we have nothing to do in this volume, lint to properly understand the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul, we must, I conceive, clearly see the Church passing out of the first stage into the second. \i Jeru- salem it was in one condition, in Syria and Asia jNlinor in the other ; and to comjn'ehend the true significance of ANTIOCH ITi PauFs appeal to Home wc must appreciate his desire to lift the Church out of the second stage into the third. At this point we may consider briefly the very difficult question of religious ecstasy. It is a problem that can not be solved, because our knowledge of the mutual relations of soul and bodv is incomplete, if not wholly defective. That in certain physical conditions the Spirit does mani- fest itself in very perplexing phenomena is certain, and it is also certain that intense spiritual exaltation does react on the physical system in a manner difficult to understand. Un(piestionably some persons are constitutionally in- capable of ecstasy, and others most certainly have their spiritual faculties so imperfectly developed as not to be able to conceive that such a condition can actually exist. An hysterical and epileptic state may be said to conduce to it, but will not produce it, unless the soul be in a condition of spiritual tension. In St. Theresa\s autobiography, written reluctantly at the command of her chrector, there is a great deal relative to her experiences in rapture. She was a female counter- part of St. Paul, with the same highly strung nervous temperament, inflexible resolution, tact, and common sense. Just as St. Paul founded churches, so did the female saint found convents, and amidst persecution and oblocjuy very little inferior to what were encoun- tered by the Apostle. Her record of her spiritual ex- periences may be entirely trusted. She is transparently honest, but of course she was cpiite unable to distinguish between what was physical and what was purely psychical. Her narrative is prolix to an intolerable degree, and when she endeavours to give a definition fails, partlv because incajjable of defining what belonged to a sphere 128 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL above ordinary exj)crience, and therefore inexplicable by words, and })artly also from lack of medical instruction as to what to observe and what discard. " The soul," she says, " searching after God finds itself sinking into a condition of sweet and excessive delight, accompanied by a sensation of fainting, so that the breath begins to fail, as also corporeal strength, in such a manner that the hands can not be moved ; the eyes are closed without our having any desire to close them ; and when they are open the soul sees nothing distinctly through them. One may have a book before one, and be able to see the letters, but the faculty of reading is gone. One may hear words spoken, but the power to understand what is spoken is withdrawn. Thus the soul receives no assistance from the senses. As to attempting in such a condition to speak, it is not practicable to form the words, and even if that were done, the power to utter them is not there, l)ecause all bodily strength is gone, while that of the soul is increased. However long the time may seem in which the faculties are in suspense, it is in reality very short. Half an hour is the outside ; for my part I do not think the duration of ecstasy is ever so long. Hours may be spent in prayer before this condition is reached, but M'hen reached, it is like tasting celestial wine that proiluces inebriation, and the })owers of body and mind are lost. But the period during which they are entirely lost is very short. There is nothing of imagination in this. In my judgment, this faculty is entirely in abeyance. On recovery from this condition one is, as it were, stupid for some hours, but little by little the faculties are brought back by God.""^ ' " Life of St. Theresa," c. 19. I have used the translation by Canon Dalton, Lond., 1855, without following it literally, and cutting out a vast amount of rambling matter. A NT IOC H 129 It is not possible in this description to fail to recognise a cataleptic seizure. " I should like to know how to explain the difference between the union of the soul with God and rapture, also called elevation of the soul and ecstasy. These are all different names for one and the same condition. It seems to me that in it the Loixl attracts the soul just as the vapours are drawn aloft from the earth and ascend into heaven. In something in this way He transports the soul upwards and reveals to it the riches of that kingdom which He has prepared for her. In these raptures, the soul seems no longer to animate the body. The natural heat declines, and the body becomes cold, whereas the soul is possessed with great sweetness and light. ^ All power of resistance is taken from one. The soul then seems to be raised to a condition of suspension, and I seemed to under- stand St. PauPs words when he says that he was crucified to the world. I do not say that I felt as if I were cruci- fied, for I was not, only the soul was lifted up between heaven and earth, and suffered acutely. The sense of God, of His infinite greatness, produces excessive pain such as sometimes takes away the senses, and it is as the agony of death itself, and yet withal is accompanied with incom- parable pleasure and content. It is a sharp yet most delightful kind of martyrdom. The first token of the approach of an ecstasy produces alarm. One is afraid of dying under it. Yet when once begun, the soul would be glad to remain in this suffering state for ever, though the pain is almost unendurable. Sometimes I am pulseless, 1 The passage in the original is obscure, inasmuch as St. Theresa does not distinguish between physical heat and spiritual warmth. I think the above renders her real meaning. 130 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL as my sisters infonii me, and the bones (nniscles ?) of mv arms stand out. Mv hands become so stiff that I cannot close them, and I feel a jmin in my wrists till next dav, and indeed my entire body is full of aches afterwards as thoiioh I had been dislocated.""^ TJioii irilt he .sick ir'itJi love, and i/eani fur Hun. And llioii /r//f lude and loatlie thif.self ; and wilt desire To .slink awai/, and hide thee front His sight ; And yet wilt have a longi7ig aye to dwell JVithin the beauty of His countenance. And these two pains, .so counter and .so keen — The longing for Hiin, when thou .seest Him not, The shame of self at thought of seeing Him — Will be thy veriest, sharpe.si purgatonj.- So much for the physical conditions. As to the pain felt by St. Theresa, it is quite probable that she mixed up in her mind the anguish caused by cramp with that occa- sioned by spiritual sensations. She goes on to give some account of the revelations accorded to her in this condition. " There are, when we are in this state, certain A\ords \e\'\ distinctly formed in the soul, which, though not heard with the corporeal ears, are understood more clearly than if they were so heard. Nor can the soul avoid under- standing them and concentrating her attention on them. It is useless to resist, however much we may strive. When in this world we do not wish to hear, we stop our ears or divert our attention elsewhere, liut this is absolutely 1 " Life of St. Theresa," c. xx. - Newman: " The Dream of Gerontius," ed. 1894, p. 48. ANTIOCH 131 impossible when God speaks to the soul. Wa are then made to listen \\hether we will or no."^ " Being one day at prayer, I saw standing near me, or to speak more properly, I felt and perceived — for I saw nothing at all, either with bodily or spiritual eyes — that Christ was close bv me and heard Him speak to me. As up to this time I had been quite ignorant, and without experience in such matters, I was very frightened, and could do nothing but weep. But presently the Lord comforted me, by speaking only one word, and I found myself quieted and in great delight. It seemed to me that Christ was at my side ; but the vision was not imaginary ; that is to say, I saw no form, but I was perfectly conscious that He was there, on mv right hand. I do not know how it was that I knew who it was, but I could not help perfectly understanding who it was. I felt and clearly understood that. I have tried to explain my experience bv a comparison. If a ])erson were blind, he might still be aware that another stood by, through his other senses. But this illustration fails ; for one reason, because there is no sense of darkness. The Lord's presence is impressed on the soul by a token, clearer than the sun itself, and yet no sun or radiance is visible, only a certain light, invisible to the eye, which floods the understanding. Things that we see, we do not always see so clearly that we are not in doubt whether we have made a mistake. But in this condition there is no possibility of error or of hesitation. I admit that this is talking in language that cannot be understood except by such as have had some sort of experience in spiritual things. Our Lord plants in the soul whatever He wills it to understand, and that without 1 '"Life of St. Theresa," c. xxv. 132 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL image seen or form of words, but ecstatically revealed. Sometimes it has seemed to me that neither the powers of the mind nor the bodily senses were taken away ; but this is very unusual. AVhen the senses are lost, as is connnonly the case, then all that conies to us seems to be the work of the Lord. There is no effort on our part. His communi- cation is in us, like food conveyed into the stomach without our having eaten or knowing how it got there.'' ' " The light seen is infused and does not dazzle or weary. It is so different from that of this world, that even the brightness of the sun is dim in comparison, and though seen, yet the eyes can scarce o]:)en to behold it. Not that anv actual sun or natural light is seen — it is beyond that and different in kind. It is a light that never sets, and has no night, but is always constant. Nor can any dis- traction divert us from it, nor any power resist it ; nor, on the other hand, can any wishing to see it and striving after it enable us to attain to it."- This condition of trance is familiar to medical men, but the condition of trance made use of by God for vision and revelation is another matter. If it be a state in which the soul is detached from the body in a very unusual manner, it is one susceptible to divine illumination, but not impetrating it. That entirely dej^ends on the spiritual condition of the person who falls into trance. In certain physical states man is more amenable to spiritual impressions than in others ; but it is only to such as God chooses that this condition is made the vehicle foi" inter- communion. To the experiences of St. Theresa may be added those of Tennyson. In his " In Memoriam"" he alludes to a sort of ' " Life of St. Theresa," c. xxvii. - Ibid. c. xxviii. A NT IOC H 13^J ecstasy into which he had fallen when nnisino- on his departed friend. So word by word, and line bij line, The dead man touch' d me from the past, And all at once it seem'd at last The living soul )ras Jiash'd on mine. And mine in this was wound, and trhirl'd A bold empyreal heights of thought, And came on that which is, and caught The deep pulsations of the world, JEonian music measurins out The steps of Time — the shocks of Chance — The blows of Death. At length my trance Was cancell'd, stricken thro' ?vith doubt. J'ague words ! but all, how hard to frame In matter-moulded forms of speech. Or ev'nfor intellect to reach Thro' memory that which I became.^ In 1874 Tennyson wrote to a friend who had communi- cated to him some strange experiences he had had when recovering from the effects of an;esthetics : " I have never had any revelations througii ana'sthetics, hut a kind of waking trance (this for lack of a hetter name) I have frequently had, cjuite up from boyhootl, when I have been all alone. This has often come u])on nie through repeating my own name to myself silently, till, all at once, as it were out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuahty, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this not a confused 1 " In Meraoriam," xcv. K 134 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL state, but the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyoud Mords, whose death was an almost laughable im- possibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, but only the true life. " I am ashamed of my feeble description. Have I not said the state is utterly beyond M'ords?""^ Tennyson was ready to fight for the truth of this his experience. There are two phenomena — or supposed phenomena — connected A\ith sjjiritual rapture that ought to be here mentioned, as being constant in reports of such cases, yet which are not explicable by any physical laws. One is the lifting of the actual body from the ground, and the othei- is the illumination of the face. It is very easy to deny the jjossibility of such manifesta- tions, as contrary to known laws. One violates that of ffravitation. But the evidence in favour of both is so general, that it would be advisable to hold the judgment in suspense till such phenomena or alleged phenomena have been scientifically investigated. St. Paul certainly hints at such a corporal lifting up, ^\■hen he says that during a trance he was not aware whether he were caught up bodily or not. St. Theresa says : " There comes on one in rapture such a quick and strong imj^etus that one feels as though being elevated between the wings of a soaring eagle. You know that you are carried away, but you know not whither. And the sense of being lifted up is so strong, that I have tried to resist, but it has cost me great pain ; it seemed like struggling against an overmastering power, and left one ' Walters, J. C. : "In Tennyson Land," Lond. 1S90, p. 38. ANTIOCH 135 niucli exhausted. At other times it was impossible to resist, and then the soul was in transport, and with it the whole body was raised from the ground. This happened very seldom ; but it did occur on one occasion when we were all together in the choir and I was on my knees. Once again during a sermon I felt it was coming on, and so threw myself on the ground, and the nuns came round and forcibly held me down."^ In the lives of all the great ecstatic saints there is men- tion of the same singular, not very edifying exhibition, and one might set it down to the lack of accurate observation, and proneness to exaggeration, and love of the marvellous that are common among pious Roman Catholics. But similar occurrences have been reported, in perfect good faith, outside the Roman communion. I Avill mention two only, of Ashich I can guarantee the honesty of those \\'ho reported them to me. One case was this. A worthy young man, a wool-comber in Yorkshire, came to me one day in some agitation to tell me that he had just seen something that had perplexed him greatly. He had been in the church, when he saw a certain clergyman kneeling in ])rivate devotion before the altar. As he did not wish to disturb him, the young wool-comber remained quiet, w hen in observing him who was in prayer, to his astonish- ment, not unmingled with alarm, he saw him rise in kneeling position from the ground, as though drawn up. And the young man said to me : " I know it was so, because I saw the fringe of the altar-cloth continuous between him and the floor." This remained for about three minutes. The narrator knew nothing about ecstatics and the phenomena supposed to be associated with rapture. 1 " Life of St. Theresa," c. xx. 1J5() A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The second case was this. There was an exceedin; of decline in the Yorkshire parish where I \\as curate. She was often in ecstasy whilst lying in her last sickness, and seemed unconscious of all around, though in spirit she \\as in })rayer. One evening her sister came in great })erturhation to the Vicarage and entreated the vicar to come up at once to the cottage, for that something strange was happening A\hich frightened the whole family. He went there immediately and saw a ver}- extraordinary sight. The girl was in fact in ecstasy, raised in a kneeling posture alcove her bed, with arms extended to heaAen before her and she was touch- ing the bed Avith her toes only. The position of the body was one absolutely impossible for any one to main- tain naturally. Her face was in the set and radiant condition of rapture, and her li])s moved, jjouring forth prayer and praise. The vicar looked on thunderstruck, till with a sigh the girl sank back in her bed, unconscious that anything had been observed, that any thing strange had happened to her. I o-ive both these stories at second-hand, but I have not the smallest reason to doubt the good faith of those who^ related them to me. I am convinced that there have been others who have met with similar experiences, but who, afraid of mockery, and shrinking from disbelief, say nothing about what they have witnessed. With respect to the second jjhenonienon, or alleged phenomenon, tliat of the illumination of the countenance, nothing shall be said here, as there is no intimation of this having attended the rapture of St. Paul, though it may be hinted at in the case of St. Stephen. I do not, of course, assert that the elevation of the body ANTIOCH 137 actually takes j)lac-c, only that there is a certain amount of evidence that something' of the sort does take })lace. What A\e naturally desire before admitting' it, is trust- wortiiy evidence, liut it is precisely in such cases that it is not easily procurable. It has been su])j)osed by those who desire to find a natural explanation for everything out of common experi- ence and apparently supernatural, that l*aul was subject to cataleptic iits or to epilepsy. In epilepsy there is foaming at the mouth, clenching of the teeth, and terrible muscular contortion. There is no evidence of any such fits coming on Paul. Catale])sv is difterent. In catalepsy the body becomes rigid, pulsation and breathing cease. When consciousness returns, the mind is a blank as to what took place during the fit. That trance is a form of catalepsy is jiossible enough ; it differs from it as dreamful sleep differs from such as is dreamless. That Paul fell into rigidity of body, Avith loss of sensual perceji- tion and nuiscular control, is possible enough. In a state of perfervid prayer, the spirit may exercise such a strain on the physical system as to induce this condition. But it is not the cataleptic fit that ])roduces the vision, but the spiritual exaltation that superinduces a tem])orary paralysis of the bodily powers. Surrounded as we are at the close of the nineteenth century w ith an atmosphere of imposture, of theosophy and spiritualism, we are overdisposed to deny that the soul can dominate matter, as nothing of the sort falls Avithin the range of our vulgar experience. The holiest souls are most reticent on such matters ; the blatant revelation of divine experiences comes only from the impostor. St. Theresa would never have disclosed ha- 138 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL experiences had she not heen compelled thereto by her superiors. It is mcH that we have her record, as it enables us, in a measure, to understand the very similar condition of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. In him we see the same confidence as to the reality of his visions as there was in St. Theresa. In him also we observe the same shrinking- from speaking of them. At the opening of the chapter (2 Cor. xii.) in which he mentions them, he shows his inten- tion of giving a record of what had been revealetl to him. But he feels uneasy at thus exposing to the ])ublic the inner side of his life, and, in verse 5, this re])ugnance gains the upper hand and abruptly arrests his pen. Instead of glorying in his jn'ivileges, he glories in his weakness. He never related the visions here alluded to ; at the moment when the contem])t and opposition of his adversaries im])el him to do so, he halts, and lets fall the veil over the depths of his spii'itual life which for a moment he was disposed to lift. We may remark that such revelations l-V came to the A])ostle at all the crises of his career. In each \ moment of extreme anxiety of mind, he received sudden illumination. It was so before he went uj) to Jerusalem about the matter of the uncircumcised. ( )n leaving the city, dissatisfied at the caution of the Twelve, again he had a vision. It Avas so once more, A\hen he was on his way into Bithynia — he was turned about by it and sent into Europe. On another occasion, at Ephesus, the parti- culars of which we do not know ; and when he was pros- trated bv discouragement, again he had the consolation of hearing the voice of Christ saying to him, " My grace is sufficient for thee."" There is no class of men less under- stood than the mystic. As the moon has one face turned away from earth, looking into infinitv, a face we never see. ANTIOCH 139 so is it with the mystic. In him there is the spiritual face — mysterious, inexphcable, but one with which we must reckon. And this it is that makes it so (hfficult to properly interpret the man of a constitution Hke PauL We have to allow for a factor in his composition that escapes investigation. CHAPTER VII C Y P R U S A.D. 50 The organisation of the Church in Antioch — The prophets — The office already death-doomed — The ordination of Barnabas and Saul — Modes of election^The qualifications of Paul to be a missionary — His Judaic turn of mind — Paul's method not that of direct appeal to the heathen — For this he was unqualified — His imperfect Greek — His inability to state an argument intelligibly— His mode of preach- ing — His sincerity — Barnabas and Saul reach Cyprus — Cyprus full of Hebrews — At Paphos— Interview with Sergius Paulus — The Magian — The problematical conversion of the proconsul. The return to Antioch m;is followed by a revelation of the S]:)irit to the Church there. Ilithei'to the believers at Antioch are not sjioken of as constitutini;- a Church. Now, however, this term is eni- ])loyed, and it indicates one innnediate result of the return of Paul to the Syrian capital — a separation of the Christians from the Synagogue, that which the Twelve had especially desired to avoid. It may, however, have been forced on the Antiochian Church by the authorities of the Jewish c-onnmniitv. Now those who were circumcised were coni])elled to take a decided line, and sit down beside the uncircumcised at the Agajie, or withdraAv wholly from the connnunitv. And until this step had })een taken, or foived on the Christian comnnmity, no oi'ganic life could take place in it. It had . CYPRUS 141 ivinained in an ciiibryonic condition. This was a birtli, a real birth, to individual existence. This is what Paul had desired. In xVntioch the Church had ])asscd into the second sta<>;e of existence, whereas in Jerusalem it still remained in the first condition. AMth separation from the SYnaear. When the Church at Antioch learned GotFs will relative to Barnabas and Saul, then a special fast was held with ])raver, and the two Avere ordained to their work by the im})osition of hands. Nothins: is said in the sacred text as to who A\ere those who laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul, and gave them conunission, and it has been concluded that this indicates a general imposition of hands by the entire congregation, as tlie plenitude of power was lodged in the body, and not yet concentrated in the person of the bisho]). But it is more likely that the Antiochian Church followed the custom in the Synagogue, from which it had but just disengaged itself. In the latter the office of teacher A\as given by the laying on of hands by three rabbis, \\'\\\\ the words, " Lo ! thou art chosen ; and to thee is connuitted power to judge." The president of the synagogue was always so ordained in the presence of the elders. Moreover, the idea in the primitive Church seems to have been very strong that Christ was the actual head of the body and source of all authority and giver of conunission. .Mthough the Church might elect, the elected had to be submitted to Him, for Him to consecrate. " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,'" said Christ ; and " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Acting on this j)recedent various methods of election were resorted to, but conunission was gi\en bv one or more CYPRUS 143 uutliorised thereto by Christ, and these specially so author- ised were either the Apostles themselves or the pro})hets. Ill the choice of an xVpostle, the Eleven had resorted to the Old Testament method of casting lots into the laj). The lot had fallen on ^Matthias. It is interesting to note that the word cleric, clei-gy, derives from the Greek tcXjipoq signi- fying a lot. But at the choice of the deacons the lots were not cast, and they were chosen by vote. In the case of Barnabas and Saul, neither the lot nor the vote was had recourse to, as they were to be commissioned, not to a con- stituted Church but to form Churches where none existed. Ill the ordination of the two Apostles, probably Simon, Lucius and ]\Ianaen were the prophets who laid their hands on them. The terms used by the Sjnrit in the revelation are re- markable. Instead of declaring that Christ had already chosen and set apart Barnabas and Saul, He instructed the Church to do this. " Do ye set them apart,'" was the connnand, " Do ye ordain them to the work for a\ Inch I have called them." This, in itself, indicates that the day of extraordinary spiritual manifestations was at an end, and that the organic body Avas to act on its innate life by its proper members. The Holy Ghost had been given in such manifest mode as to impress all with the miraculous- iiess of the intervention in the infancy only of the Church. This was now to cease. The Church was to develop her own divinely conferred, indwelling powers. And now, before we see Paul start on his first missionary journey, we may pause to inquire what were his qualifica- tions for the work, what was the Gospel he was about to j)reach, and to whom he purposed addressing himself. His carlv trainino; under Gamaliel had not onlv made him 144 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL thorouo-hlv acciuainted with Holy Scrij)tiirc, it liml also irivcn to liiin subtlety of reasoning, and it had furnished him \vith an entire body of doctrine. It was from the Old Testament that he derived the primary and fundamental notions of his system : the ideas of God, of revelation, of justice, and of sanctity. In nothing did he differ from the Twelve with res])ect to -views relative to the Messianic kingdom, and in expectation of his living to see the return of Christ ;' as already insisted on, the IMessianic appearance as looked for by the A})ostles differed from that ex])ected by the Pharisees only in this, that thev held that Jesus was the ])romised One who would return. Paul was consequently admirably adajited to address the Hellenistic Jews in their synagogues, 'i'hey would muler- stand his appeals to Scripture, his j)hraseology would be comprehensible, and nuich of his doctrine that with which they were familiar. The ])roselytes, moreover, would understand what they had read in the Septuagint trans- lation, and \\ere to a certain extent indoctrinated with Jewish ideas. liut \\hen Paul undertook to address those who were pagans, then the case Mas wholly different. He had not a soil prepared beforehand in which to sow the seed of life. He could not appeal to Scripture, nor use the fsimiliar arguments that told in an address to the synagogue. Many of his theological expressions would be totally unintelligible to such as had not been given a j)i-e\ ious schooling in their significance. We form an altogether erroneous idea, if we sup})Ose I'aul going on his journeys preaching to the j)agans. He 1 I Thess. iv. 15, 17. CYPRUS 145 did nothing" of the sort, except on rare occasions Mhich are noted. Everywhere he went to the synagogues, and wlien the Jews refased to hear, then he ch'ew off as many of the proselytes as lie could entice from the synagogues. It wms not possible for him in the brief visits he paid in each centre to convince and instruct heathens. He did not attempt it ; he worked u])on those already })repared. If the Epistles written by him to the Churches be care- fully considered, it will be seen that they are addressed to such as are saturated with Mosaism, in a way inconceivable unless they had been steeped in the teaching of the Syna- gogue. They presuppose not this only, but such a cling- in"- to habits of mind and ceremonial usages as would be impossible in raw converts. Moreover, Paul was not qualified to succeed as a preacher to the heathen. He could speak Greek passably, but his pronunciation, and his Hebraistic turns, his occasional laj)ses into bad grammar, were such as to subject him to ridicule among the highly cultured and such as A\ere accustomed to listen to the orators in the Forum and the I'orch. Those A\ho heard him, from among the cultured, shrugged their shoulders, and said, " His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."" In his writings he was guilty of many solecisms. He confounded the tenses, putting the })luperfect for the pneterite, the })ra?terite for the present, the infinitive for the imperative ; now one case is employed in place of another, then the substan- tive is taken in place of the adjective; now he makes an irregular use of the particles that serve to tie together the parts of his discourse, taking them in their Hebrew signification, making such confusion in his sense that the ^ 2 Cor. X. 10. 146 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL antecedent seems to be the consequent, and conclusions take the })lace of ])rennsses. He rambles from his jioint in an aroument, is easily led away from his threatl of reasoning u})on a side issue, and it is sometimes very difficult to understand his drift.^ Now if this is so in a letter that has been carefully revised, what must it have been in his extempore discourse ? So hard to be followed is his reasoning in his Epistles that for nearly two thousand years students have laboured on them to try to discover the line of argument pursued, and it may fairly be said that it is only in the last half century with our extended knowledge that we are in a position at last to unravel his meaning. Happily, in addressing the heathen, the necessity of the case forced him to simplicity. We have given us in Acts three discourses, one at Antioch in Pisidia,- one at Lystra,-^ and one at Athens.^ The first of these was addressed to the Jews, the other two to the ])agans. ]Moreover, he has left us a summary of his apostolic preaching in the First Epistle to the Corinthians : " I declare unto you the gospel which I preached .... For I delivered unto you first of all, how that Christ died for our sins, according- to the Scriptures ; and that he Mas buried, and that he rose again the third day ticcording to the Scriptures ; and tliat he was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve,"" &c.^ It is apparent from this and similar passages, that he recited the events of the Passion and of the Resurrection, and argued from a scriptural basis that this was as foretold. Take away ' Sabatier, " L'Apotre Paul," 1896, p. 150; Renan, "St. Paul," 1893, p. 231 ; Farrar, " Life and Work of St. Paul," excursus ii. - Acts xiii. 16-41 ; 46-47. ^ Acts xiv. 15-17. •• Acts xvii. 22-31. '•> I Cor. xv. 1-9. CYPRUS 147 the scriptural argument as inajipropriate for heathens, and his preaching consisted, when ad(hessing the Gentiles, in a series of assertions of fects. To the Jews, all turned on textual evidence, and so Paul is spoken of by the author of the Acts as disputing in the synagogue of Thessalonica from a scriptural starting-point. But in speaking to such as knew not the prophets he was forced to adopt another method. And in the Epistle to the Romans we see what his line of reasoning was. He insisted on the Gentiles having lost the knowledge of God originally given to man ; and, losing that, their moral conscience became clouded. Nevertheless conscience still spoke spasmodically, and did not leave the heathen in repose.^ Such was his groundwork. The address at Lystra is very brief, it goes no further than to insist on the testimony of the moral and religious conscience of mankind to the unity and good- ness of God. That at Athens was more carefully thought out and is preserved at greater length. We shall have something to say about it later on. But with Paul, what constituted his strength and enabled him to convince minds was his thorough sincerity, and this sincerity gave to him an eloquence that carried away his hearers, and made them overlook his inaccuracies in grammar and colonial dialect. However poor in style, incorrect in })hraseology, and inconsequent in argument, his speech like his own frail body, " an earthen vessel," seemed to be rent by the force of the soul a\ ithin ; as in the case of the broken pitchers of Gibeon, the sherds were forgotten in the flash of the light that blazed through their interstices. His eloquence may be conjectured from his Epistles, written in the heat of controversy. It is like ^ Rom. i. 18-32 ; ii. 15. 148 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL ;i torrent that (H<)s out its own bed, and overthrows all harriers. Unfinished sentences, daring achnissions, rabbinic subtleties, half thought out arguments, biting sneers, violent aj)ostrophes, original ideas, all are whirled along on tlie waves, jostling each other, the significance of each lost in the irresistibility of the current which hurries them down. The discourses given us in Acts are but faded and dried- up specimens, as nuich like the original as the plants in a herbarium resemble the same w hen living and blooming on the mountain side or in the hedge-row . Yet, as already intimated, Paul rarely addressed the heathen ; never if he could help it. His congregations w ere those of the wholly, or half-converted to Judaism in the synagogues. When he had formed a separate community out of these, then he placed over them men of Greek, or, at all events, non-Jewish, origin, more capable than himself of converting those who were weary of the monstrosities of pagan worship and the emptiness and inconclusiveness of classic philoso])hies. When he got off the familiar ground of Old Testament ])rophecies, and where he could not cjuote texts, when he was not battling against Judaistic tendencies in his converts, he was helplessly at sea. Early in March a.d. 46, Barnabas and Saul, taking John Mark with them, sailed from Seleucia for Cy])rus, and, the wind being favourable, they shortly reached the island, and disembarked at Salamis. Barnabas was a native of Cyprus, and doubtless he had suggested to Paul the advisability of commencing operations there. It almost seems as though a sort of agreement had been come to with the Tw elve that Barnabas and Paul should try their method at a distance, and then return and report on it whether it ans\\ered or CVPUrS 149 not, whether the Divine Spirit manifestly favoin-ed tlieir mode of })rocedure. Paul and Barnabas did not attempt to convince the pao-ans on reaching- Cy})rus. They went at once and solelv to the Jews and their satelHtes, the " be- Hevino- men"" in the synago<>ue. Tliis we are j)lainly told. They attem])ted "to preach the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews only."^ The thought of direct missionary woik among the pagans never occurred to them. That could not be undertaken in a flving visit. A flower will often remain furled for days till a sunbeam touches it, when instantly it will expand. This was all Paul sought, either in Cyprus or elsewhere, in his after journeys — to touch with conviction those whose hearts were like a closed blossom. But he never sought to dig the ground, sow the seed, or tarry till ripe, \\here there was no preparation.^ The Law, as he afterwards said, was a pedagogue leading to Christ ; and so he used the Synagogue as an academy in which he might give to those instructed in the prophecies the announcement of their fulfilment in Christ. Cyprus swarmed with Hebrews, who were sufficiently numerous to be a menace. They monopolised the trade, and they held the pleasure-loving natives in their grip as usurers. Cypriots and Jews lived in simmering hate. Fifty years later, in an outburst of fanatical detestation, the Jews rose and massacred, so it is said, 240,000 of the natives. Barnabas and Paul went through the island, halting at every to^^ u on their way where there were a ghetto and a synagogue. That they met with no success is implied by ' Acts xiii. 5. - Rom. XV. 20 and 2 Cor. x. 13-16 may be objected, but they do not apply. In these passages he refers to his working on ground already occupied by other Apostles, not ground prepared by the Synagogue. L 150 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL the iiiaiURM- in which Luke hurric's over the narrative to ^•ive ail ac-c-ount of a nK'e'tin<;- hetwci'ii Paul and a sorcerer before tlie <>-overn()r of the ishiiul. On reaching Paphos in the west, the two Apostles recei\e(l an order from the proconsul to show themselves to him at New Pajjhos, where was his residence. This pro- consul was Ser();ius Panlus. Pliny, about a (juarter of a century later, mentions one of this name as an authority in natural history, and the same still later is commended by Galen. AmoniT those who formed the retinue of the iioxernor was a magian impostor named Bar-Jesus, or Elymas — the same word as that used now for the ITlemas, doctors of the law amon<>- the Mohammadans. Elymas occupied a position of some importance in the house of the proconsul. It was customary at the time for every noble and wealthy family to maintain a philoso})her, \s ho acted as friend, comforter, and guide, holdino- a sort of chaj)laincy in the house, combined with a tutorship of the sons. Inquirint;- minds turned towards the East, and astrologers and charlatans of all sorts flocked from C'hakhea. It would appear from the ])rcsence of Elymas in the house- hold of Sergius Paulus that this was the case here. If this ])roconsul be the searcher into natui'al science ])raised by Galen and referred to by Pliny, then we can quite under- stand that there should be in his retinue a man who ])ro- fessed a knowledge of the stars. " The magian represented in his single ]>ersonality both the modern fortune-teller and the modern man of science, and he had a religious as well as a merely superstitious aspect to the outer world. No strict line could then be drawn between lawful, honourable scrutinising of the secret CYPRUS 151 powers of nature and illicit attempts to Yivy into tlicni for selfish ends ; between science and magic, chemistrv and alchemy, bet\\een astronomy and astrology. The t\\() sides of investigation passed by hardly perceptible degrees into one another."^ Paul most certainly addressed the proconsul on the ti'uths he believed. We may take his speech at Athens as the type of those he would ein])loy on such occasions. He i-ould not fall back on Scripture, for Sergius Paulus knew it not, and he could not claim the great poets as thinkers — as later did Clement of Alexandria — because he himself was ac(piainted with them only by such snatches of their lines as had passed into connnon usage. But just as at Athens he seized on a local object illustrative of the religious bewilderment of the Greek mind on which to hang his dis- course, so doubtless would he do now. He would point to the vileness of the cult of Venus in the isle — there in that Paphian temple on the height, white against the gentian- blue sky — and from this show that it must be false, odious in the sight of God, who was, as the conscience of man proclaimed, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. That the magian rudely endeavoured to interrupt him is likely. He is rejiresented as "seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith,"" and "pervert the right ways of the Lord." The Bezan revision of the text says that he did so " because the proconsul was listening with much pleasure to Paul." The Apostle at last, irritated at the interference of the man, turned on him, and, fixing his eyes steadily on him, exclaimed, " O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? 1 Ramsay: "St. Paul," p. 78. 152 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Aiul now, behold, tlu' hand of the Lord is uj)on thee, and thou shalt be bHnd, not seeing- the sun for a season."" Innnediatelv a mist and a darkness fell on the magician, and he was seen groping his way, to lind a hand that would lead him forth.' Sergius Paulus, we are told, " believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord." We are not told tliat he was baptized, nor that anv of his house believed. He expressed courteous acquiescence in what l*aul had said. It agreed with his own views. It deepened his disgust for the obscenities of the worship of the Paphian Aphrodite, but it went no further. We hear no more of this })roconsul, either at Rome or elsewhere, and Christian history and legend are equally silent concerning him. It has been often said that Paul now assumed that name in conqiliment to his first Gentile convert. But it is far more probable that Paul was his name from the begin- ning, by which he was known among Greeks and Romans. Up to this point Saul had been among Hebrews, and there- fore bore the Hebrew name only ; but when he left Palestine, and came among Hellenic Jews, the author of the Acts droj)s the Hebrew name and for the rest of his narrative enq)loys that by w hich he was conunonly known out of the Holy Land. That so far the labours of Paul had been without i-esult may be concluded, not only from the silence of Luke relative to any conversions in the synagogues, but from the way in which he makes the most of the incident at l^aphos. From this time the lelative j)ositions of l*aul and liai'- nabas are altered. Hitherto the latter had taken the lead ; now he fell into the second place. ' Acts xiii. 7-1 1. CHArTEU Mil G A L A 1" 1 A A.D. 50-51 Paul and Barnabas in Pamphylia — Desertion of Mark — Probable cause — The scheme of Paul — The thorn in the flesh — Probably low fever — Professor Ramsay's account of it — The character of central Asia Minor — Plan of Paul to stud the trade route from the East with missionary stations — Ethnology and religion of Anatolia — Original stock — Primitive condition of Polyandry — Inheritance through the mothers — The political organisation of the people — The religion — Papas or Men — The goddess Leto — Sabazios — "The Divine Life" — Mystery plays — The demoralising nature of the Anatolian religion — Feeling of the cultured towards the dominant superstition — The attraction of Judaism — Its repellent side — The Anatolian cult of the dead — Judaism impotent to meet the craving for knowledge as to the life after death — Reasons inducing the Anatolians to accept the Gospel — The Greek element in Asia Minor— The important part played by the Greek in the diffusion of the Gospel — Dean Church on the Greek — The Gaul in Asia Minor — Paul never penetrated into Galatia proper — The Jews in Asia Minor — Paul in Pisidian Antioch — Paul's sermon in the synagogue — Disturbance and expulsion of Paul — Iconium — Paul and Thecla — The Acts of St. Thecla — Mulicres subliitrodiictiC — Paul driven from Iconium — Lystra — Derbe — Perga — Return to Antioch in Syria. EiiOM Pa})hos Paul sailed with Barnabas and John Mark for Asia Minor, and landed in the port of Per();a in Pam- phylia. And here at once a ru})tiu-e took j)lace with Mark. The occasion is not told us. The desertion by Mark rankled in the mind of Paul for years. Various explanations have been offered, but it is most j)robable that the withdrawal of ^Vlark was due to a 154 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL difference of ojiiuioii connected with the direction in which Paul })i'oposed to go. Mark had doubtless supposed that the two A})Ostles would go on with the work in Paniphvlia that thev had attempted in Cyprus. They would be among a population of the same race, same culture. But Paul had resolved to begin operations in Galatia, among the proselytes from a people of entirely different blood, language, and character, thinly scattered over a high tableland, walled off from the sea and from civilisation by ranaes of mountains. Perhaps Paul may not have plainly told his intentions to his companions before starting. Perhaps dissatisfaction at the miserable or no results of the Cyjirus campaign had so worked in him, that when he reached Asia Minor he resolved to go to a people as opposite in every description as he could find to those he had failed to reach in Cyprus. Barnabas, always self-diffident and yielding, raised no objections. But it was other with John ]\Iark ; and Paul was not a man who could endure to have his will crossed. The situation was nmch as if Messrs. Moody and Sankey had landed in Liverpool with the object of evangelising England, and one of them had proposed to begin with Cumberland. Why did Paul at the outset commence work in the most sparsely peopled district in Anatolia, and among' almost the most backward in civilisation therein ? Prom Jei'usalem the Twelve sent out \\a\e after \\ave of converts, and the rijjples ran to the limits of the Morld. Here was the A})ostlc to the Gentiles starting operations where apjjarently the effect would be reduced to a mininunn. The determination of St. Paul has seemed so astonishing that apologists have sought in various ways to accoinit for it. Professor Ramsay supposes that the A})ostle caught GALATIA 155 malarial fever in Perga, and went to the hills as a health- resort. But the tableland of Phrygian and Lycaonian Galatia is the most malarial, unhealthy region he could have selected, far worse than the rocky sea-coast of Pam- j)hylia. " In sunnner nine-tenths of it is an arid waste, bearing salicornia, wormwood, and similar plants, and broken up by great marshes and Avide patches of salt, Avhile in the wintei- season inundations cover the whole distance from Koniah (Iconium) on the west, to Tyana on the east, so that some- times the whole district is like an inland sea, and perfectly impassable. To this is owing the extreme unhealthiness of Lycaonia, for the rivers and streams which descend from the many mountain ranges bordering the plain, have no visible outlet ; and, as summer advances, and the inundations begin to disappear, a deadly malaria is generated from the half- dry surface of the marshes."^ " Only the Minds from south and north are healthy ; all others blow across marshes, and therefore come laden Avith malaria. This, combined with the gi'eat dampness of the place from the plenteous supply of water, and the sudden and extreme changes of tempera- ture between day and night, cause deadly dysenteries and fevers. Severe congestive fevers, cold fevers (or pernicious fevers, as they are called in Alexandria) are connnon and very fatal.'"' ^ Professor Ramsay shows good reason for the opinion that the " Thorn in the Flesh,'' of which St. Paul complained, and which is first noticed in connection with the Galatian mission, was malarial fever. He says : — " In some constitutions malarial fever tends to reciu' in very distressing and prostrating paroxysms, whenever one's ^ Davis : " Life in Asiatic Turkey," 1879, p. 237. - Ibid. p. 241. 156 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL oiieri'-ies arc taxed for a oreat effort. Such an attack is for the time absolutely iuca})acitatiii<»; : the sufferer can only lie and feel himself a shaking and helpless weakling, when he ought to be at work. lie feels a contempt and loathing for self, and bi'lieves that others feel e(jual contempt and loathing. In evei-y paroxysm, and they might recur daily, Paul (in the publicity of Oriental life) Mould lie exposed to the pitv or the contempt of strangers. If he were first seen in a Galatian village, or house, lying in the nuid on the shady side of a wall for two hours shaking like an aspen leaf, the gratitude that he expresses to the Galatians, because they 'did not despise nor reject his infirmity,'' was natural and deserved. Fresh light is thrown on this subject by an observation of Mr. Hogarth, niv companion in many joiu'neys. In })ublishing a series of insci-iptions recording examples of punishment inflicted by the god on those who had a})proached the sanctuary in im})urity, he suggests that malarial fever was often the penalty sent by the god. The paroxysms, recurring suddenly with over- powering strength, and then passing off, seemed due to the direct visitation of God. This gives a striking effect to Paufs words in Gal. iv. 14, 'You did not des])ise nor reject my physical infirmity, but received me as an angel of God ': though the Galatians might have turned him away from their door as a })erson accursed and afflicted by God, they received him as God's messenger. A strong corroboration is found in tlie ])hrase, 'a stake in the flesh,'' which Paul uses about his malady (2 Cor. xii. 7). That is a ])eculiar headache which accompanies the paroxysms. Within my experience several ])ersons innocent of Pauline theorising, have described it as ' like a red-hot bar thrust through the forehqatl.*' .\s soon as fever connected itself with Paul in GALATIA 157 my niind, the 'stake in the flesh"" impressed me as a stnkinain hranched hefore reaching- Iconiuni, and by Lystra and Derhe led through the Taurus to the sea at Trachaean Seleucia, and so along the coast to "i'arsus and through the Syrian Gates to Syrian Antioch, or else by sea across the Cilician Gulf to Syrian Seleucia. Paul considered that his most suitable plan would be to thread mission stations along the great trade route between Syria and Rome. We know that when at Pisidian Antioch he desired to go down the Lycus valley to the coast, but was prevented by the Spirit ; and we know that afterwards he did effect his object of dotting clunrhes along the road, at Derbe, Lystra, Pisidian Antioch, Colossa>, Laodiciea, Ephesus, and Corinth. So also he dotted them along the Egnatian Hoad. This seems to me to have been in accord- ance with a definite plan. Each station would not oiilv serve to evangelise the neighbourhood, but might be cal- culated on doing something to influence the swarms of travellers who passed along the highway, and might be made the vehicles for conveying the seeds of the truth to the ends of the earth. The scene of Paul's labours for some time, nearly two years, was the Thibet of Asia Minor, an elevated table- laud ])artly of chalk, j)ai-tlv of red sandstone, vast and monotonous, strewn with salt lakes and marshes. It lies high, from three to five thousand feet above the sea, and the contrasts in temperature are extreme. The winter is long and bitter, the sumiuer short and burning. In early .spring it is a field of waving flowers, the air is sweet with GALATIA lo9 thvine, rosemary and lavender; but when the .sun becomes strong all is burnt up, except along the watercourses, where poplars grow, in which sing innmnerablc nightin- gales. This vast plain extends to the horizon, with a faint blue haze hanging over it, caused by evaporation from the lakes and swamps, and out of this start boldly the conical volcanoes of Kara Dagh, the Black Mountain, and Hassan Dagh shooting into two pyramidal summits, ca])pctl \\\W\ snow. Far a^way the plain is bounded by ridges ever wreathed in glaciers. In places small cones of eruptive scoria mark volcanic vents, but there are now no active volcanoes in xVnatolia. The whole plateau has been heaved up by the internal fires between the cold lips of the limestone and conglomerate and gi'anite ridges that run along the north and south, and rise rapidly out of the Mediterranean on one side and the Euxine on the other. " This elevated region is as the bridge connecting Europe and Asia. Across this bridge the religion, art and civilisa- tion of the East found their way into Greece ; and the civilisation of Greece, under the guidance of Alexander the Macedonian, passed back again across the same bridge to concj^uer the East and revolutionise Asia as far as the heart of India." ^ If this foct be well appreciated, we shall see the wisdom of the Apostle in laying hold of the bridge in the name of Jesus Christ. Now let us pass to another point of perhaps greater importance than the geographical position of Paul's first settlements, and that is the peculiar disposition of the inhabitants of Anatolia at the moment that the Apostle came among them. For the understanding of this, a few pages nuist be * Ramsay; " The Historical Geography of Asia Minor," 1S90, p. 23. 160 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL devoted to tlie ethnolon'v and religion and social condition of the Anatolians. At sonic ])criod vastly remote, Asia Elinor received its population tVoni the East. To what stock it belonged, Semitic or Turanian, cannot be stated with confidence. They were a nomad race, and tliis fixed their social institu- tions for a considerable time. ^V migratory race takes with it few women, and the result is that these women become conunon property. It was so with the Picts of North Britain, it was so with the iiatives of the South Pacific Isles. The toilsome migration over wintry plains, or the long sea voyage in canoes necessitated the reduction of the number of Avomen to, at the outside, one to ten men, and when the wanderers settled, each woman belonged thenceforth to ten men at least. Actually, the few females were the connnon property of all the men. When established in settlements, then a certain form of organisation took })lace; property in land and in habita- tions was acquired, but as polyandry still existed, all riglit of inheritance devolved through the woman; and an insti- tution which Avas morally degrading to the female, socially elevated her, as being the sole channel through whom real property could be accjuired. As the race became more cultured, probably by its own sj)ontaneous advance in moral and social organisation, perhaps also through contact with the (ireeks, the family became articulate, and each man had his own wife and home, and could recognise his own childicn. The political oi-ganisation of the jjcople kept pace with its social development. A number of villages were iniiti'd, like the old (ierman gaii, with as centiv a liicron, a tc-mple endowed with lands, sei-\e(l by a fixed body of priests and GALATIA IGl priestesses resident in a sacred villa<»;e near the temple. The worsliip tlirou^hout Anatolia was much the same, but with local variations, and the deities were also the same inider different names. AVhen the Greeks arrived, and settled in the land, they gave to these deities names that identified them with some of the Hellenic Olympus, and settled down to worship them in the fashion of the natives. Above all was the great god, Men or Pa})as, but vague I \' a))j)rehended, whom the Greeks at once labelled Zeus. Then came the niighty goddess, variously called Leto, Cvbele, xVrtemis or Demeter. Through fraud she became by the gTeat god a mother and brought forth a divine son, variously called Sabazios, Sozon, now identified with Helios, as the giver of light, then with iEsculapius, as the source of health, with Poseidon, the earthshaker, A\ho ])roduced the seismic shocks, with Dionysus, as the giver of the vine, and with Heracles, as the concpieror over the jiowers of destruction. But this son is none other than the father in a new foiin, with the same characteristics and the same nature, and consequentlv the one A\as often confused with the other. There Avas a further myth, that the mother gave birth to a daughter Kora or Persephone, who in turn became a mother and bore Sabazios, bv the same father. From the Greek colonists who settled in cities in the midst of the native race, the Anatolians obtained no religious ideas whatever ; instead they infected their con(juerors. " Let us now look at the character of the Anatolian religion,"'"' writes Professor Ramsay. " Its essence lies in the adoration of the life of nature — that life subject 162 J STUDY OF ST. PACT apparenth' to death, yd never dyin^: ])ut ve])rodiU'in<;- i I self ill new forms. The annihihxtion of deatli through the ]K)\vor of self-reproduction was the object of an enthusiastic wor- ship, characterised by remarkable self-abandonment and iiinnersion in the Divine, bv a mixture of obscene symbolism and sul^linie truth, by negation of the moral distinctions and family ties that exist in a more develojied society, but do not exist in the free life of nature." ^ In an earlier condition of social organisation, every male and every female was doubtless recpiired at certain periods to serve in the temple, the men by cultivating the lands belonging to it, the women by reverting to the condition of polyandry. But as the populaticm advanced in numbers and civilisation, this was ])erhaps no longer exacted ; but any woman at any time might vow herself for a month or more to the " divine life,"" and then return to her home with a re])utation, from a religious point of view, unsoiled. Not only so, but every disease, accident, loss was attri- buted to the wrath of the gods, and was to be atonetl for by a vow of service in the temple. A husband or wife might thus devote him or herself, or so devote a child or a servant. Nor was this all. The religious ceremonial in the temples at certain festivals consisted in the solemn performance in mystery play of the deception of the goddess and of the birth of the son-god. Such a condition of religion was at once an anachronism, and a repulsive anachronism. It was the consecration of the early condition of life out of which the race had emerged ; it must have been felt as intolerable by the nobler spirits among the men, and as a horror and infamy by the women instinctively modest. ' " Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," 1S95, p. 87. GALATIA 163 The Greek colonists could '^■ive the Anatolians nothing- better. The Roman emperors introduced, indeed, the worship of Augustus, and of the genius of Rome, but this was as a political cult, a bond of union through the emj)ire among the many races and nations it combined, antl had no religious effect on the mind and morals. The condition of feeling in Anatolia may be in a measure understood by comparison with that now existing in France. There, educated Frenchmen and intelligent Frenchwomen regard the established Romanism with contempt and dislike — with contempt because of its puerile sujjerstitions, its Lourdes and La Salette miracles ; with dislike because of its clericalism and meddlesomeness in the affairs of a family. But the Roman Catholic religion tends to purity and sanctity, whereas the Anatolian religion was grossly demoralising. We must therefore add to the Frenchman''s contempt for superstition, and dislike of priestly interference, the super- added sense of contamination introduced into every house- hold. We shall not be far wrong in concluding that there was, at the time when Paul was in Asia Minor, a desire to be rid of the established religion, and to have it replaced by another that met and fostered the best instincts of humanity. This it is which accounts for the wide circle of proselytes, more or less attached, that engirdled every synagogue. In the Jewish religion these men and women of Galatia and Phrygia found a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and a divinely promulgated moral law. But Judaism had its repellent side ; it was purely national . No man could be thoroughly identified with it in its hopes who was not of the seed of Abraham, and submission to circumcision did not wholly ingraft him into the sacred stock. 1(n A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Mosai.sin was a neoative system ; a denial of the plurality of gods and a condemnation of certain acts. It gave no positive assurances of a future life to the individual. It prophesied solely the coming exaltation of the race. There was another cause predisposing the Anatolians to embrace Christianitv. Like the Dolmen buildei-s of Europe and India, and the Chinese, the original inhabitants of Asia Minor were deejily, intensely imbued with the conviction of there being a life after death, and a consequent reverence for the dead, who, on passing into the higher life of spirit, became entitled to a certain amount of worship. The structure and mainte- nance of tombs with them was of the highest imj)ortance, and was a sacred duty. The exjiectation of a better life after death robbed the grave of all its terrors. The Greek, on subjugating the native poj)ulation, con- tributed nothing towards the elucidation of the mvsterv of the life beyond the grave ; on the contrary, he troid)led the established, ingrained conviction. He introduced, if not scepticism, at all events a doubt, and the Anatolian felt himself carried off' his feet where he thought he stood on firm rock. The Jew could not offer him nuich comfort. The Old Testament Scriptures are singularlv barivn of jiromises to be construed to the benefit of the individual. It was only through the Gospel that life and immortality were brought to light. AVe can therefore vmderstand how the preaching of the ResuiTection exactly met a craving in the Anatolian mind, and blew away the clouds of doulit which had begun to darken his sky. There must have been some strong reason or reasons that induced the natives of Asia Minor to acce])t the (iospel GALATIA 165 with such enthusiasm, and caused it to run Hke wildfire throughout the peninsula and lay such hold of the people that even in Pliny's day the temples were deserted, and for three centuries Anatolia became the religious focus of Christianity. ^\nd I believe that the causes of this ready, enthusiastic rece|)tion of the Gospel are to be found in the revulsion of the moral sense of the people against the })redominant religion, and in the Gospel providing their ancient inrooted conviction of an after life with a new security. But we must not think of Asia Minor as occupied by a purelv Oriental race. That race was overlaid and altered bv the Greek colonists, who had established Hellenic cities with Greek municipal government in every district, and who had made Greek to be the language of civilisation and of literature. The Gra?cism was, however, superficial, a veneer, and nothing more. In Greece itself the Greek had become degenerate. He retained his cleverness, but had lost the power of using his natural gifts to any useful end. The Roman conquerors wontlered at his ability and despised him for his levity. He was a wayward, witty, graceful child, and had no manli- ness in him and no power of political organisation. But in Asia Minor the Greek had acquired a new vigour, and, with an infusion of Anatolian native blood, gave promise of a future. The Greek was the civilising element of the original races of Asia Minor, and to the Greek these races largely owed their moral uprising, and therewith the faculty to appreciate and receive Christianity. In thinking of PauFs mission to Anatolia, Ave must not lay too much stress on the non-Aryan element in the population. M l()f) A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The (iospel was sent to the Jew, and then to the Greek ; and only after the Greek and through the Greek to the Latin races. If the first converts were Jews, the next were Greeks or Ilellenised Asiatics. Look through the catacombs of Rome, and on all sides you see the inscriptions in (ireek, those in Latin being the more modern. .Vfter Paul passes away, we see the figure of St. John at Ephesus giving to the Greek Church the rudiments of its philosophy of Christianity and its ecclesiastical form. ITie Epistles to the Churches are addressed to Greek Chiu'ches only. The Greek apologists and fathers occupy the scene, and only in the third century make room for African writers. Considering what the Greek race was — decaying; what its character — ^false, frivolous, flexible, and tortuous — one might have thought that Paid and John A\'ould have done better to have addressed themselves to the Romans. lint in that we should err. The Greek is with us to the ])resent day, an indestructible race ; and where shall we look for the modern representative of the Roman ? Not certainlv in Italy. The race, as a race, is gone from the face of the earth. " It was the Greeks,"" says Dean Church, " a })CO})le ind)ued with Greek ideas, who first welcomed Christianity. It was in their language that it first spoke to the world, and its first home was in Greek households and in Greek cities. It was in a Greek atmos])here that the divine stranger from the East, in many resj)ects so widely different from all the (ireeks were accustomed to, first grew up to strength and shape ; first showed its power of assimilating and leconciling; first showed what it Mas to be in human society. Its earliest nurselings were Greeks ; Greeks first took in the meaning and measure of its amazing and . GALATIA 167 eventful announcements; Greek sympathies first awoke and vibrated to its appeals ; Greek obedience, Greek courage, Greek suffering first illustrated its new lessons. Had it not first gained over Greek mind and Greek belief, it is hard to see how it would have made its further \\ ay. And to that first welcome the Greek race has been jwo- foundly and unalterably faithful. They have passed through centuries for the most part of adverse fortune. They have been in some respects the most ill-treated race in the world. To us in the West, at least, their Christian life seems to have stopped in its growth at an early period ; and, compared A\ith the energy and fruitfulness of the religious principle in those to whom they passed it on, their Christianity disappoints, perhaps repels us. But to their first faith — as it grew up, substantially the same, in Greek society .... they still cling.'" ^ In nature there is nothing preserved to which there is not a destiny allotted. That which has fulfilled its function decays and passes away ; but that Avhich is continued in a state of suspended animation has a future predestined to it. So may it be also for the Greek nation and the Greek Church. They may have their inission in the future, as may have the Jewish nation. There is one element of the amalgam of races in Asia Minor of which so far nothing has been said, and that is the Celtic. In b.c. 279, a great migration of Gauls had taken place from Europe across the Bosphorus. They had wandered over Asia Minor, plundering, subduing, devas- tating. But in B.C. 240 they had been defeated by Attains I., and forced to settle down in the mountains. In Northern Galatia they maintained their customs, language, ' " The Influence of Christianity on National Character," 1873, p. 14. 168 A srrDY OF ST. PAUL and tribal and clan oro-anisation ; but as they hired them- selves as mercenaries, they gradually learned the use of the Greek lanounue. Thev were obliged at last to submit tO' Rome, having been c-()n([uered bv Manlius n.c. 187. From that time they became faithful in their allegiance. Augustus converted their land into a province, with Ancyra as the capital, and into it were incorporated portions of Lycaonia and Phrygia. But we cannot think that the infusion of Gaulish blood was strong in that j)ortion of the province — its extreme south — traversed by Taul. Some writers have been j)leased to detect in the peculiar faults of the Galatians, as revealed by the epistle of Paul, characteristic Celtic failings ; but this is far-fetched, and the attempt was made when the range of PauPs travels was extended into Galatia ])ro])er. Now it is pretty well established that he never went further into the province than Iconium ; that he confined his labours to a strij) of land about 110 miles long and not twenty wide. In Phrygian and Lvcaonian Galatia there \\ere jn'obably very few Gauls — not enough to temper in any way the native character. The Celtic element may thei'efore be left out of consideration. The high table-land nourished great flocks of goats and sheep, the former a sacred animal to the Anatolian, and its flesh consecrated to the gods. The mountains possessed veins of silver, lead, and tin, and in the wash from the granite peaks was found gold. Moreover, near Derbe, the mountains yielded a niarl)le, white and crystalline as refined sugar, nuich in rcciuest by sculptors. The towns in Central Asia Minor were fi'w and fxr between, nor were they wealthy. The Jews, who went only where money abounded,. GALATIA 169 , and is an incrustation about the earlier Acts written much about the same time as those by St. Luke of the journeys of St. Paul. The substratum is this. At Iconium, a virgin of the GALATIA 171 name of Thecla, whilst in her room at the window, heard Paul preach, was stirred to the heart, and when he was imprisoned, hribed the gaoler with her bracelets and a silver mirror to admit her, and was found in the mornino- sitting- at the feet of the Apostle, listening to his instruc- tions. When her mother and others attempted to draw her away, she clung to Paul " in a manner that excited among the spectators suspicions devoiil of all foundation '"■ — in a word, that he had bewitched her with philtres. Paul A\as ex})elled the town and concealed himself in an old tomb. When nearly famished, he sent two disciples into the city for food ; they found Thecla wandering about, and brought her to Paul. She resolved to cut her hair, dress as a boy and follow him. He objected, but she was so resoh ed that at length he yielded, and she attended him ^\here^■er he went, till at Antioch she was arrested and exposed in the arena, but escaped mainly through the interest taken in her by Tryphaena, queen mother of Polemon, King of Pontus, a distant cousin of Claudius, who was residing in Antioch. Then, dressed as a boy, laden with presents, she went after Paul to Mvra in Lycia. There can be no doubt now entertained that there is a very strong basis of fact in this story. ^ ^ Professor Ramsay points out and establishes that, i. The Acts of Paul and Thecla go back ultimately to a document of the first century ; 2. That this original document mentioned facts of history and antiqui- ties which had probably passed quite out of knowledge before the end of the first century ; 3. That this document, not being protected by canonical character, was subjected to alterations, due partly to change of views in the Church, partly to the growth of the Thecla legend. He shows that the original document must have been composed on the spot in Phrygian Galatia, and that Queen Tryphaena is an historical person living at the time indicated, yet known only through coins and inscrip- tions ; also that the description of the change in Thecla's dress would, as described, be unintelligible after the first century. — Ramsay : " The Church in the Roman Empire," 1893, cap. xvi. 172 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL The fame of Tliecla was great in the early Church, and some of licr ])roeeecIiiigs, such as baptizing, not meeting apjjroval, the story was altered to suit changed ecclesiastical views. It was further expanded by having interminable speeches and absurd mii-acles intruded into it. But if the storv be in the main true, how is it that St. Luke j)asses it over without a word ? There must have been a reason, and the reason in all likelihood was that ])rofane and flippant persons might comment on it as did the mother and others when they found the girl in the prison of raul. There is one feature which comes out very distinctly in the " Acts of Paul and Thecla," that she was not a voung person who Mould be denied having her own way.^ It may have been injudicious on the part of Paul to take the girl with him. He pointedly told her it would be so, but she forced herself on him, and would not be sent back. He saw no other way of delivering her from pagan surround- ings and an unbelieving husband, and allowed her to accompany him till he was able to ])lace her under the care of a respectable matron. It is difficult not to see an allusion to this incident in PauPs first Epistle to the ^ According to tradition St. Thecla spent the rest of her days in a cave near Seleucia in Cilicia, and here the Emperor Zeno built a basilica over her grotto and grave. But it is remarkable that at Rome, close to the cemetery of Lucina, in which St. Paul was laid after his martyrdom, is the early catacomb of St. Thecla, with a subterranean church or basi- lica. In this have been found pagan tombs, one of the date of Claudius. But the tombs, so far as can be judged from the rare remains of inscrip- tions that are attributable to Christians, belong to the third century. Is it possible that Thecla followed Paul to Rome and suffered there ? And that the Oriental reverence for the grotto at Seleucia is due to her having resided, and not died there? — See Romische Quaytul Schrift, vol. iii. p. 343, 1889, in which is an account of the exploration of this catacomb in 1889. GALATIA 173 Corintliiaiis.^ The .story had reached Corinth and was commented on there unfavourably ; and Paul there- upon entered on a tliscus.sion as to the difference between a female companion and a wife. We know that actually the usage of a presbyter main- taining a MuUcr .snh'introducta was tolerably general some- what later. Indeed, in the middle of the third century the usage had to be forbidden. The intimate association of a priest with a young female, who passed to the world under the name of a virgin, called forth the re-iterated and strong condenmation of Jerome, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chry- sostom. The C'oimcil of Nic;ea finally, by canon, sto})ped the practice.- As Hefele says: '■ In the first ages of the Church, some Christians, clerical and lay, contracted spiritual alliances with unmarried women. They lived together, it is true, but their connection was purely spiritual, and they encouraged each other in the practice of Christian virtues.*'"'"' St. Paul addresses himself to this custom, in writing to the Corinthians, and his words may be thus paraphrased : " There is a difference between a wife and a female com- panion. It is nuich better to be attended by the latter, and to live in })latonic affection, because then the time of the woman is not taken up with domestic affairs. But if one so living finds that his affection is ripening into love, by all means let him marry her. There is no harm in his so doing. Yet the former is, to my mind, the condition, under present circumstances, most to be reconnnended.''"' ^ I Cor. vii. 34-40 ; compare i Cor. ix. 5. "^ Can. iii. ^ Hefele : " Hist, des Conciles," i. 370. 174 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The passage reveals a condition so opposed to onr nine- teenth century notions of pro})riety, that connnentators have laboured to torture it into meaning something quite unobjectionable to modern feeling.' AMien we find an usage fully established at the end of the second and in the third centuries, Ave may be (piite sine that its roots are to be sought in the first. Men of exalted enthusiasm and sim])licity of heart are liable to do acts of indiscretion, from which it is difficult for men of the world to extricate them. But during the first and second centuries, it is quite certain that such a practice did not so much cause scandal as provoke admira- tion. Moreover, in the case of Paul, what was a paramount consideration was the salvation of Thecla. It was but an early example of incidents that have occurred ever since, wherever there is proselvtism, as in the " little Mortara '"' case, and one much more recent in which " General "" Booth was concerned. Irom Iconium the Apostles m ere driven as they had been from Antioch, and thev betook themselves to Lystra, where at first they were regarded as gods and so honoured, and then, with the versatility of unreason, cast out and stoned. From Lystra, accordingly, they departed to Derbe, where ap})arently they tarried a considerable time, till the excite- ment at Lystra and Iconium had abated, when they returned over the same ground, confirming the little knots of believers in each town, and giving to each community an organic life by ordaining presbyters to each. After having thus settled the Churches in Derbe, Lystra, Iconiiun, and Antioch, they recrossed the boundary range 1 See, for instance, Geikie : " Life and Epistles of St. Paul," ii. 160-1. The attempt is grotesque. GALATIA 175 of the Taurus, and descended to the sea coast autl preached the word in Ferga, no douht, as was Paul's invariable rule, in the synagogue, detaching from it the " hearers " and forming of them an independent church. From Perga, Paul and Barnabas sailed for Seleucia, and on landing there, at once made their way to Antioch. CHAPTER IX THE COUNCIL AT JEIIUSAL1:M A.D. 52 The question of circumcision reaches a crisis — The proselytes' objection to circumcision — The difficulty of the Rule of Meats — And of the Law of Purifications — Laxity of practice — The delegates from Jeru- salem — Their function — Illustration — In the synagogues of the Dis- persion were no trained scribes — Consequently little of the Rigorist feeling — Paul's method of preaching— Uses the synagogue as a means — The result was that he carried away from it nearly all the proselytes — This the real cause of offence — Condition of affairs in Jerusalem — Impossibility of dissociating the Church from the Law — Excommunication — Sayings of Jesus Christ relative to the Law — Some Rigorists visit Antioch — Peter dissociates himself from the proselytes — Is reproved by Paul — The great practical difficulty of the case— The matter referred to the Apostles — What Paul asked for — Arrival at Jerusalem-- The case of the Rigorists — Its strength — The council — The decision pronounced by James — The encyclical epistle — Constitution of such a council — The decision not a com- promise. It was well that Paul and Baniabiis had returned to Antioch. The difficulties about the admission of the j)ro- selytes had reached a crisis. \ determination as to whether they should be received into com})iete connnunion could no longer be delayed, and a decision could not be reached without their presence. The (juestion ^as one of much more difficulty, and involved more issues than is generally supposed. To imderstand the dilliculty we nuist consider what was the tem})er of mind of the Jews of the Diaspora, and what. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 177 was the relation in which the be hevers stood to Mosaisni in Jerusalem. xVniong the Jews of the Dispersion, the Rigorist .sect, which at Jerusalem \\as represented by the Pharisees, was in the minority. Hebrews living in Greek cities and in Rome were insensibly affected bv their surroundings. They were cut off from association with the heathen l)y circumcision, by the Rule of Meats, and by that of Purifica- tions. They could not attend the public baths, nor exercise in the gymnasia, without becoming the objects of galling pleasantries, and that disinclination for water which seems to affect the Jew when he has not acquired our Gentile habits, is due largely to this shrinking from being seen naked. Instead of looking on circumcision ^\ ith pride, as a pledge of covenant, the Jew learned to blush at it, if he ventured into the baths. As the neophytes could not, and would not do without their baths, they positivelv, stub- bornly refused to submit to circumcision. The Rule of INIeats presented another difficulty. Unless the jjhetto was sufficiently laroe to maintain its own butcher, it was plunged in difficulties ; and even if it had its own flesher, the Jew dealer in meat was sufficiently alive to the fact that there was no competition to regulate his charges accordingly. It was intolerably irksome for the Hebrew to have to institute a series of minute inquiries before each meal, as to whether all the blood had been run out of the beef, and the fowls had been decapitated not strangled ; whether inquiries had been made at the shambles as to whence proceeded the meat ; and whether the butcher''s word could be trusted that none of it had come from a sacrifice. The Hebrews of the Dispersion were obliged in a thousand cases to shut their eyes, and ask no questions for conscience sake. 178 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The Law of Purifications was c(]ually harassinor. If carried out to the letter, it required the Jew to be washing himself all day long, to scrub off e^ery contaminating touch of man or thing. It interfered with social intercourse. No Jew could offer to a Greek or Roman the least hospitality, and he was A\holly precluded from acceptance of any offered to him. Most serious of all — it stood in the way of effect- ing: many a o-ood bargain. Conse(|ucntlv much laxity of practice prevailed. In every connnunity of Jews there was a kernel of Rigorists, but the bulk of the Hellenistic Jews managed to slip one shoulder from under the yoke. They argued that the regulations made for a nomad people, necessary to maintain them in health, were inapplicable and unnecessary to those engaged in commerce, and living in well-drained towns provided with baths and shambles. They recognised that the grandeur of the nation, and the excellence of their religion, did not derive from a series of petty observances, but consisted in the recognition of the monarchy of Jehovah and the possession of a moral code. They saw that it was precisely these two elements which -were the lode-stones attracting the wise and noble from paganism to the Syna- ffoffue, whereas the ceremonial restrictions alienated and disgusted them. Rut this liberality of opinion and practice was not allowed to pass unnoticed. Delegates, apostles of Judaism, went forth " travelling over sea and land," visiting the several synagogues, with authority to investigate into these matters, to rebuke, exhort, and, if need be, exconnnunicate. There is haj)))ily an illustration at hand, given us by Jose]ihus. At this very time, Jazates, King of Adiabene, had been conxiuced of the ti'uth of monotheism by a Jewish THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 179 merchant named Ananias. This man advised the kin<>; to disref>ard ciirunieision as an em])ty ceremony, and as likelv to damage his authority over his subjects. But one of the emissaries of the orthodox Je\\s at Jerusalem arrived in Adiabene, and vehemently opposed Ananias ; he so worked on the mind of the king as finally to induce him to submit to circumcision. The broad views of the liberal party naturally inclined them to accept the Gospel, and all the heathens mIio had been drawn to Judaism by its pure faith and moral la^ , embraced with enthusiasm a doctrine which dispensed with the vexatious requirements of the Rabbis. The j)reaching of Paul drove a wedge into the heart of Judaism, dis- membering it, detaching from the Pharisees all the best in Israel, and the entire body of proselytes. There \\as another cause tending in the same direction. In the com- nnmities of the Diaspora, there were no colleges of Scribes, as at Jerusalem. In the synagogues any one might address the congregation who had a gift of speech, or had acquired respect on account of age, wealth, or piety. No ordination was required, as in Palestine, no proof of knowledge — nothing save that the preacher should be over thirteen years, and not exhibit himself in rags.' Usually those called upon to speak were the " men of leisure,"" Mell-to-do merchants and money-lenders, who had little time for study, and did not concern themselves about the hair-splitting debates of the rabbis. When the Sabbath was over they returned to their counters just as naturally as the rich merchants of Cairo, affiliated to the dancing dervishes, after the accom- plishment of their teetotum exercise, lay aside their \\'hite veils and resume business in the bazaars. Such doctors had 1 " Mishna Megilla," iv. 6. 180 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL their heads occupied witli .s()inethin<>: more profitable than the subtilties of the rabbis. They laid hold of the invec- tives of the prophets and the Messianic promises. Their preachino- was limited to the great and siin])lc verities of religion and morality just suited to a people to whom was impracticable the rigid observance of the Law jiossible onlv in Jerusalem. Indifference to the minuti;e of the Law led to forgetful- ness, to contempt. The Jews of the Dis})ersion, or the majority of them, limited their obedience to the observance of the Sabbath, of circumcision, of the great festivals, and to the restrictions on marriage, and abstention from idol sacrifices. We do not find that the Jews in Lvcaonia and I'hrvgia were offended at Paul for insisting on the spirit of the Law beino- reo-arded and not the letter. That A\hich exasperated them was the manner in which he alienated the Gentile converts from them. This meant the diversion of their subscriptions. More than that. Through the proselytes, the Jewish merchants and traders A\ere able to draw a good deal of business into their hands, and they resented Paul's action as dej)ri\ing them of a great com- mercial advantage. And there was this additional aggra- vation, that Paul had used their pulpits, their synagogues, for the purj)ose of de])riving them of their clients. Wc can see that they were sent to be vuiconscious John the Baptists, and to make sti'aight the way ; but this they could not see, and \\lu)lly failed to relish. Sup})ose that for half a century the Wesleyans in Fiji had been lalwiu'ing to convert the natives, and had drawn away thousands from fetishism, and that some Jesuits arrived on the island without credentials, but professing to have received their THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM LSI education at llichmond Methodist College, at the feet of some eminent Wesleyan ; and on the strength of this obtained the use of the pulpits, which was gi'aciously accorded them, and seized on the opportunity to declare that Weslevanism was heresy, and that there was no salvation save in obedience to the Pope. Would the Wesley ans like it ? especially if they found themselves suddenly deserted ? This was in fact the mode of operation everywhere adopted by Paul. He nowhere addressed himself directly to the Gentiles, made no attempt to gather to him the heathen. He went always, at once, to the synagogues, and employed them for his purpose. I shall have more to say concerning this later. Suffice it here to indicate that it was his system of carrying on his missionary work. At Damascus he had initiated it. " Straightway he ]jreached Christ in the synagogues.'"'^ In Crete, on his first missionary voyage, he and Barnabas, who acquiesced, " preached the Word in the synagogues of the Jews." - At Antioch, he " went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down " ; and when the rulers incautiously said, " Ye men and brethren, if ye have any Avord of exhortation for the people, say on '"' ; then he seized on the occasion to harangue on what lay near his heart. ^ Driven thence, he and Barnabas proceeded to Iconium A\'here " They M'ent both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed.""* Expelled from Iconium the Apostles went to Lystra and Derbe, where almost certainly they pursued the same tactics. 1 Acts ix. 20. - Ihicl. xiii. 5. 2 Ibid. xiii. 14, 15, iG. ■* Ibid. xiv. i. 182 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL On the second journey it w.-vs the same. At Philippi there was, indeed, no synagogue, only a proseuche, and only women attended it, so Paul met Avith no difficulty, but at Thessalonica " where was a synagogue of the Jews, Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath davs reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." ^ Expulsion was the inevitable result. At Beroea it was probably the same ; at Corinth it was undoubtedly so ; - and so also at Ephesus,^ where he was treated with really astonishing forbearance. From his own point of view, Paul acted rightly. The synagogue, as Paul viewed it, was not the private property of the Jews, to be used as a vehicle for making jiroselytes who might become customers and bring them in nuich gain. It was the House of God, and he, as coming from God, had a just right to use it. Moreover it was God's will that the Gospel should first of all be offered to the Jews, and that then, and then only, vhen they had rejected it, was it to be presented to the Gentiles. He was accordingly bound by his connnission to go to the Jew, and go to him where he was to be found, in the synagogue. And if the congregation had been composed of Hebrews only, they would have listened with etpianimity ; even if they refused to accept his message, they would have dis- missed him with courtesy. But the congregation was mixed. To such a number of Jews there were so many, pcrhajis double the number, of Greek and Syrian " hearers." And when Paul shook off the dust of his feet against the incredulous Jews, he carried off with him all, or nearly all, ' Acts xvii. 2. - Ibid, xviii. 4. ■^ Ibid. xix. 8. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 183 their converts. It was a secession of over half the con- gregation, and that of their best customers. From his own point of view Paul was justified, but it is obvious that from that occupied by the Jews, staring with blank countenances at the empty places, and feeling at once in their pockets that they had come to suffer financiallv from PauPs preaching, a sense of resentment inevitably resulted, and that they should use every means in their power to rid themselves of Paul is not to be wondered at. In Jerusalem the Church remained as thoatrh fixed in a vice. Many of the priests had joined, and in the Church made their influence felt. Even if the Apostles had wished to have it otherwise, they could not so have it. In Judaea the synagogues, in Jerusalem the Sanhedrim, exercised tremendous powers of compulsion, allowed them by the Roman State, which was glad that they should administer their own affairs without troubling the proconsular court with matters that in no way interested the Roman governor or concerned the State. The Law had its stronghold and guarantee of its continuance in the existence of the Jewish polity. So long as the Temple stood, and the Jewish communities were accorded powers of self-government, it was absolutely impossible for the Church to manifest independent life. The ceremonial law was also the civil laAv, and the Jew could no more live in disregard of the former than could any man in England live in daily violation of the common and criminal laws of the land. The condition was much that in which the Spaniards were during the worst period of the Inquisition, but with this aggi'avation, that every synagogue was an inquisitorial court, and every Jew was required to be 184 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL a delator. None could disregard the ceremonial law, not even the Sadducees, who despised it and made mock of it. All alike were held in its iron meshes. Neglect was visited by expulsion from the Synagogue. There were three degrees of excomnnmication. For a first offence a delin- quent was cast out for thirty days. If at the end of that time he was still contumacious, he was pronounced " de- voted to God,'' corresponding to the Roman "sacer" — i.c.^ doomed to tleath — and a coin-t of ten then pronounced a solenm malediction and final sentence. He was either strangled or stoned to death. Properly the Jews might not execute those whom they had sentencetl, but were retpiired to hand them over to the })roconsul ; but that they did so in certain cases appears from the case of the woman taken in adultery, and from the martyrdom of Stephen. But even if unable to carry out their own sentence they coidd make life inn)ossible, for the excomnnmicated was denied food and drink antl shelter. No Jew might speak to or touch him, and to live he nnist escape from the land. Consequently it was not left to the o})tion of believers in Ju(kea whether they would observe the Law or not. To do so was a necessity. And in this necessity James, Peter, and John recognised the hand of God, requiring them to con- tinue in the fullest sense Israelites, only distinguished from the Pharisees in the one point of believing that Messiah had already come, but willingly conforming in all other res[)ects to the existing order." ' This was obvious to the heathen at a later date, that Celsus said : " It is folly for Jews and Christians to strive with each other. It is like fighting over the emperor's beard. There is nothing of importance in their controversy ; both believe that the Divine Spirit foretold the coming of a Redeemer, and the question between them is solely this — Has He or has He not come ? " — " Orig. Cont. Celsum," iii. i. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 185 Men are never divinely connnanded to do impossibilities, and it was an impossibility to act in anv other way in Jerusalem. That the Apostles saw in this the finger of God indicating His will, the course they were to adopt, and the great end designed, the national conversion of the race, is certain. They superadded to the services of the Temple and Synagogue that of the Eucharist celebrated in pi'ivate houses. They did nothing else. The time was not come for independent articulate life. If it were God's will that such life should begin. He would make it possible. James knew how that the Lord had said that He came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it. " Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." The sticklers Mould have it that the Saviour had thrown the mantle of his sanction over the glosses of the Scribes. *' I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."" To them the term righteousness signified minute ceremonial observance, and they held that the saying of Christ exacted a still closer obedience to the traditions of the rabbis than that of Scribes and Pharisees. These latter, said Christ, " sit in Moses' seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do."'' Tidings of the freedom assumed by Paul and Barnabas at Antioch reached Jerusalem. Certain of the narroA\ fac- tion thereupon went to the city on the Orontes to observe their conduct, and counteract the tendency of their teach- ing:. " Certain men came down from Judsea, and taujrht 186 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL the brethren, that except ye be circumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." ' " False brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty."- They gave out that James, the head of the Churcli, was in accord with them. Peter was, as it chanced, in Antioch at the time,"^ and he at first yieldetl to these new comers, misled by their f;\lse representations of being sent by James, whose opinion he considered himself bound to respect. The situation Mas> in fact, extremely perplexing. In Juda'a and Samaria, as alreadv show n, observance of the Law, with its svstem of taboo and purification was enforced in such a manner that neither James nor Peter could \\ithdraw from it ; and by living in strict observance, considered it a matter of duty to do so — as ordered by God. But Peter's mind was nuich opened bv his vision at Ca'sarea, and when he came to Antioch he was readv enough to accej)t the new condition of things which was possible out of Juda>a, but not possible in it. In fact, the Church was sinuiltaneouslv existing in Jewry in one, and that the lowest and most inarticulate, proto- plasmic form, and out of Jewry, at Antioch at all events, in the second stage, Avherein traces of a vertebral colunni and ^ Acts x\-. I. '-' Gal. ii. 4. ^ There is considerable difficulty in settling the sequence of events- mentioned in Acts and Galatians. I have at this point followed that proposed by Professor Ramsay. The usual arrangement leads to in- extricable difficulties. It is alleged that the rebuke administered to Peter was after the council at Jerusalem. It is incredible that he who had taken part in the council, and signed the encyclical, should directl)- after violate the conciliatory judgment there given. It has been sup- posed that there were two visits to Antioch, and that twice the same difficulty arose. The arrangement followed solves all perplexities. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 187 differentiation of members were beoinnino- to manifest themselves. Now it was very hard for an elder A})ostle to see that the march forward was to be<>in at the wing and not from the centre, that development of organic life was to show at the margin and not at the core of the Christian community. Yet Peter accepted the fact as he found it. When, however, delegates from Jerusalem arrived at Antioch and tlemurred to this, and pointed out that James, the divinely constituted viceroy of the new kingdom of David, observed the law of purification, and did not eat with the uncircumcised, at once Peter, with his natural sclf-diflfidence, which was mixed up with much impulsive- ness, swung about and submitted to what he believed to be the opinion of James, as in duty bound to the vicegerent of Christ. Even Barnabas, a timid, gentle man, began to waver. But Paul at once faced Peter, and said to him, " Why compellest thou the Gentiles to conform to Jewish cere- monial when thou, a Jew, hast been consorting with and eating with them ? " That is to say, he pointed out to Peter that his conduct was not that of a man acting on principle, and was that of a feeble follower of expediency. Peter at once saw the force of what Paul said, and yielded. To quite understand the circumstances, we nuist take a look at the development in organisation that had already taken place in the Antiochian Church. At first the belie\ers had attended the synagogue on the Sabbath, and at the conclusion of the service, at the same hour as that of the evening sacrifice in the Temple, ensued a feast, in which the Jews did honour to the dav as to a 188 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL departino- king-. This feast was hold in the synao;o<>ue, and was the Btlirvov^ or prandhnn of the Romans. When discord broke ont in the synaj^ogues, the Jew behevers were forced to absent themselves from this meal, as men rendered polluted by their association with the uncircumcised Christians ; and then the Agape was insti- tuted in Christian houses, early in the afternoon, at 3 r.M. in the })lace of the ^dirvov in the synagogue. But .some of the stricter of the Jewish believers remained in communion ^\ith the Synagogue and continued to eat of the Sabbath feast there, ^\■hereas the rest of the believers, those unqualified through uncircumcision or legal impurity, ate the Agaj)e at the same time in a Christian household. This was an unsatisfactory condition of affairs, and \\as eminently subversive of unity, or rather it brought the w ant of agreement between the parties to open day. Peter on arriving at Antioch had partaken of the Aga])e, but when the delegates from Jerusalem arrived and pointed out that he was splitting from the Synagogue, after purifi- cation he went back into connnunion with the latter, ate of the Sabbatical feast, and reconformed to the mode of life practised at Jerusalem. This was not a condition of affairs that was tolerable. In Jerusalem and throughout Judues of the l)is])ei-sion. A rupture at head- quarters would close them all to him, and frustrate his favourite scheme. Besides, it is by no means improbable that he agreed with the elder Apostles in believino- that a conversion en masse might take place at Jerusalem, and that therefore a condition of affairs that \\as intolerable elsewhere might be allowed to continue at the religious capital of the Jewish world. All, therefore, that he sought was the recognition of the emancipation of the Gentile converts from the law of ceremonies — above all, from circumcision, which was the one difficulty that was ])redominant standing in the way of the heathen and of the jjroselytes accepting Christ. The Jewish converts might go on as before, attending the synagogue, partaking of the Sabbatical feast, with- drawing from the Christian Agaj)e ; he would not concern himself with them — he left them to I'eter. But he did demand liberty for the converts from among the nations, and he foresaw that in time, the restriction of circumcision having been removed, the influx woukl be so great that the Jews would be swamped and the neophytes would be able to dictate their own terms to them, in place of being admitted, as hitherto, on sufferance. To Jerusalem, then, as the court of final a])])eal, Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, as also the false brethren, went up. " And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders, and they rehearsed all things that (xod had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, w Inch believed, saying. It is needful to circumcise the Gentile THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 191 believers, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses, Antl the Apostles and Elders were gathered together to consider this matter/*' We cannot follow exactly the phases of the dispute ; but if we look at the matter debated from the side of those who urged the observance of the whole legal system, we can see that they had a very strong case. I shall have occasion to speak of it again when we come to PauPs polemical epistles ; suffice it here to indicate the main outline of their argument. They pointed out that the Law A\as given by God, and that nothing was said of its transitory nature ; that God was innnutable, and that therefore the Law partook of His innnutability. Nay, further, there were passages of Scrip- ture that declared the Old Covenant to be everlasting, and its obligations to be perpetually binding.^ They went on to say that Christ Himself had observed the Law. He had been circumcised, and that it was the duty of every follower of Christ to conform to His example in all things. Next they appealed to His words, to His solemn and reiterated asseveration that He had not come to abrogate the Law, but to fulfil it ; that is to say, to obey it in every nicest particular. How could they be justified in repealing the paramount institution of the Law when He had declared that not a jot or tittle should be abrogated? Where, when, had He pronounced that the Mosaic revelation of the will of God was set aside .^ Had He done so after His ^ Julian the Apostate, in his book against Christianity, urged this. " If the Christians accepted the Pentateuch, wliy did they disregard its provisions ? And why ignore its declarations of being eternally bind- ing ? " — "Cyril c. Julianum," ix. The texts to which he refers are Deut. iv. 2; vi. 17; xxvii. 26; &c. 192 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL rosiuTcction ? Had the S})irit done so by i-evelation ? No — so far from that, the prophets had been mute, touching this matter. Till a miraculous interposition assured them that the Law which God gave and declared to be eternal, was to be done away with, and superseded by another, they wei-e in duty bound to go on as hitherto. The case could hardly have been stronger. Everything was in favour of the Judaisers except the force of circumstances. God speaks by the irresistible pressure of events as well as through signs and wonders. His finger can be seen pointing the way as door after door opens and fresh horizons manifest themselves. When the Twelve and the Elders were gathered together to decide in this matter, there sounded no voice from heaven, there gleamed no miraculous flames, there was heard no rushing wind ; but the Apostles had been provided with common-sense and the indwelling Spirit to direct them aright, and with authority to decide in such questions, when given the power to bind and loose. The first to speak was Peter. His address has been preserved to us by St. Luke, and on its face hears the impress of genuineness. The words of Paid spoken to him at ^Vutioch had eaten into his heart, and he reproduced them substantially in his speech. " Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear .^ '' When Peter had ceased, then Paul and ]Jarnabas gave an account of their work, and a highly coloured picture of their success in Central Anatolia. 'I'hey showed how that the Gentiles were crying out for rece})ti()n into the (.'hurch. THE COrNCIL AT JERUSALEM ia'5 how that they showed tokens of sincerity, and that the presence of the Spirit was manifest in those ha})ti/ed yet uncircunicised. Then James, as president, gave judgment. " Simeon hath declared how at the first God took care to gather from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets ; as it is written, I will huild again the tabernacle of David, that the residue of men may seek the Lord, and all the nations upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who revealeth ihese things continuously from the beginning of time." ^V^e can see through these words into the very mind of James. He held inflexibly to the belief that it was to be through the Jews that all nations were to be brought to God, that the Davidic kingdom was about to be re- instituted, and that Jerusalem, with Christ reigning therein, \\ould become the axle about \\hich the whole world would revolve. Then James concluded : " Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles turn to God, but send instructions to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from the use of blood as food. For,'' he added, " Moses from ancient generations hath in every city a congregation of Jews in which he is preached and read every Sabbath day." The council at once decided to issue an encyclical to this effect : — " The Apostles and Elders and Brethren unto the brethren which are of the nations in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting. Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting 194 J STTDY OF ST. PAUL your souls : to whom we ffave no c-oniniaTulmcnt ; it seemed o'ood unto us, having come to one accord, to clioose out men and send them unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,' men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also shall tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things — that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication ;"^ from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well." For a proper understanding of this gathering at Jeru- salem, we nnist lay aside our modern ideas of a question being put to the vote, and the chairman delivering judg- ment according as the "Ayes" or "Noes" have it. This was foreign to the practice in both Roman and flewish courts and assemblies. There was a jiresident, with assessors or advisers, who recommended what they held to be the proper judgment, but could not impose their opinion on the president. Practically he took the sense of the meeting, and did not oppose it, but he was under no constraint so to do. Peter on this occasion gave his opinion as an ^ Observe that natural touch. In Galatia it was Paul and Barnabas, but the Church in Jerusalem knew them as Barnabas and Paul, Bar- nabas being the senior in dignity or calling. - Baur suggests, and Professor Ramsay accepts, as the explanation, " Marriage within forbidden degrees," but surely this is a prohibition against one of the great temptations of Syrian idolatry. In the "Clementine Homilies" we have the rule insisted on twice; vii. 4: " Abstain from the table of devils, nor taste flesh of beasts that have died, nor blood; and purify yourselves from all pollution." vii. 8: "Abstain from the table of devils, that is from food offered to idols, from animals that have been suffocated, and from blood, and live no more impurely." THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM 195 assessor, and it weighed with James, but it was with Jaines that the decision lay. All commentators unite in considering the decision of the council as a compromise, and some go so far as to treat it as a cowardly postponement of a vital question. I think this is a mistake. Paul got all he wanted : he did not ask for the Jewish believers to be forbidden to partake of the Sabbatical meal in the synagogue ; he did not hope that at once the rift would be healed. All he asked for was that he might have a free hand with his proselytes. He knew — for he had put his finger on their pulses — that they detested circumcision, and would never submit to it; and that, with this bugbear removed, they would come like an avalanche, and bury Jewdom under it. If it were God's will that the Jewish nation should be converted altogether, this would not be affected by his work, which was outside that. The elder Apostles also saw that an advantage would be gained in the same contingency, for in every city there would be the synagogue converted into a Judaeo-Christian church, to be a nucleus for the neighbourhood; just as Jerusalem would be the nucleus of the whole world. Every synagogue would be the cathedral, so to speak, of a wide district, giving the type of worship, regulating the order, and sending out its ministers. And, above all, the spring of all jurisdiction would be Jerusalem, with Christ en- throned in the seat of David, enlightening, ruling, instruct- ing, disciplining the entire kingdom of mankind through His officials, the Jewish race. Neither Paul nor James thought that the decision gave a party advantage. It was a judgment which was exactly what was necessary; temporary, doubtless — all such 196 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL j udo-ments must be tcniporaiy — till it was made certain whether the Jews woidd accept the place to which they were called, or refuse it.^ 1 Considerable doubt exists as to whether on this visit to Jerusalem Paul took Titus with him. To do so would have been to exasperate feelings before the Council met, and would have been as injudicious as it would have been in bad taste. This has appeared so obvious to some commentators that they have supposed the reference in Gal. ii. i, to apply to a former period, perhaps even to a later. I can hardly believe that one so ready to consider prejudice, and so eager to avoid causing unnecessary irritation, should have wilfully provoked offence, and have committed, moreover, such a tactical blunder. CHAPTER X THE SECOND JOURNEY— GALATIA SUMMER, A.D. 52 Return of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, attended by Judas and Silas — The latter becomes a companion of Paul — Quarrel between Paul and Barnabas — Barnabas in Cyprus — Disappearance of Peter — His epistle from Babylon — Where was Babylon ? — Did Peter found the Church in Rome ? — Legends — Semo Sancus — Peter cannot have been in Rome prior to the date a.d. 63 — Difficulty in thinking that his having founded the Roman Church is a matter of importance — Silence of Scripture — The real supremacy in the hands of James — Paul in Cilicia — Again in Galatia — Timothy^His character suitable to Paul — Why Timothy was circumcised — Paul's intention to visit Bithynia frustrated — Arrives at Troas — Makes the acquaintance of Luke — Remedies for low fever and epilepsy — Luke converted. The assembly ended, to the satisfaction of all save the extremists, Paul and Barnabas departed for Antioch, accompanied by Judas Barsabas and Silvanus or Silas, deputies from the Apostles at Jerusalem to Antioch, to inform the Church there of the decision of the council at Jerusalem and to present the letter. Arrived in Antioch, these deputies executed their commission, and then Judas prepared to return. Not so Silas, who had completely fallen under the fascination of Paul's conunanding character. He was a Hebrew by birth, apparently, but a Roman citizen, like Paul, and this Roman side of him rendered him one who might be useful to Paul in his further travels and mission work. o 198 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL The great difficulty at Antioch settled, Paul resolved to return into AsialMinor and revisit the connnunities he had founded in Phryo-ian Galatia. He connnunicated his inten- tion to Parnahas, who consented to accompany him, and proposed to take with them his kinsman John Mark. To this Paul objected. He harboured something very much like personal resentment against the man who had ventured to differ from him in opinion three or four years before ; and he had already made up his mind to take Silas as his companion, one who had no will of his own apart from that of his leader. Barnabas was offended, and resented this slight cast on his relative, and the contention (St. Luke uses a strong expression — the paroxysm') was so great that the two Apostles saw it was no longer possible for them to work together, and they separated never to meet again. Years after, when Paul was a prisoner at liome, this same Mark came to him along with Timothy, and the aged Apostle then, maybe, regretted his earlier violence, and corrected his hasty judgment. " He is profitable,"'"' said he then, " to me for the ministrv." Barnabas drops out of the sacred record. He is thought to have gone to his native island, Cyprus, and there to have organised the Church and ended his days. A late tradition says that when, long after, his sarcophagus was oj)ened, he was found therein with a copy of the Gos])el of St. Matthew on his breast, which it was thought he had transcribed with his own hand. An epistle was attributed to him, and by most of the fathers regarded as genuine, thou<>h not taken into the canon. But modern criticism unanimously puts it down to an ^Vlexandrine forger. It 1 Acts XV. 39. THE SECOND JOURNEY— GALATI A 199 could not have been written by a Levite, blundering as it does about matters coneernino- the Temple worship ; and the ideas belong purely to the school that grew out of Philo's Jucheo-Platonism. Mark attached himself to Peter. It is interesting to observe that, in the Egyptian Church he founded and organised, circumcision as well as ba})tism was instituted. In the Abyssinian Church, an offshoot of that in Egypt, circumcision is still practised, as among the Copts to this day. But neither Copt nor Abyssinian retrards circumcision as sacramental ; he treats it as of no other value than a following of the example of Christ. A more remarkable disappearance from the Acts than that of Barnabas is that of Peter. After he had given the right hand of fellowshij) to Paul, he steps into the back- ground and into obscurity. It is advisable at this point to treat briefly of his relation to Paul, and his position in the Church. With him, as already shown, the Church had received its initiatory impulse, both at Jerusalem and at Ca^sarea. After that Paul rises above the horizon, he is eclipsed. Two epistles written by him to the Churches of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia remain, wi-itten from Babylon ; where this Babylon was is a matter of conjecture. Had it been of vital importance, some word would have been dropped to explain its whereabouts. At the Babylon in Mesopotamia was a large colony of the Jews. Indeed, by no means all those Avhich had been in captivity thei-e returned to the Land of Promise. They flourished there, in trades and in merchandise, and had no inclination to shut up their shops and return to ploughing and land-dressing. Consequently the colony in Mesopotamia remained large and imj^ortant. It is probable that, as Peter regarded himself as Apostle 200 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL to the Circumcision, he may have devoted himself to the evangehsation of the ]Mcsopotamian Hebrews. liut there was another Babylon in llgypt near Memphis, and this was esteemed the mother whence the Mesopotamia!! colonists swarmed at a remote period. As Mark was the companion of St. Peter, and Mark was the evangelist of Egypt, it is conceivable that he may have gone there with Peter, and that it was thence that Cephas wrote his letter. But there is another claimant — Rome. The Papacv, in its eagerness to show that it rests on Peter, insists that the Babylon of the epistle is Bome. It may be so. The author of the Apocalypse used the same euphemism. But then, if so, the epistle must have been written at a late period. Without entering into criticism here, it is sufficient to say that, to any one endowed with the critical faculty, it is plain that the First Epistle can only have been written about A.D. 80. It is either falsely attributed to the Apostle Peter or he lived on to a much later date than is generally supposed, and, instead of suffering in the persecution of Nero, A.D. ()4,' died in that of Domitian. That St. Peter was martyred at Bome may be fairly allowed ; the evidence in favour of his tomb being there is tolerably good. And if he was buried there, he probably had something to do with the Church there, or, rather, with the Jewish believers there. Ikit, then, this must have been late, after the Church had been founded and established in Home by St. Paul. This may have been after the death of Paul in the Neronian persecution, whereas he himself did not suffer till the Flavian period. 1 The question of the date of i Peter has been investigated by Pro- fessor Ramsay in " The Church in the Roman Empire." THE SECOND JOURXEY—GALATIA 201 From the Epistles of St. Paul we learn nothing about Peter save the interesting fact that he always travelled about with his wife. Dionysius, who was Bishop of Corinth circa a.d. 170, says that Peter was there, but this is probably due to a misunderstanding of Paul's words (1 Cor. i. 12). Irenteus states that Peter and Paul preached together at Home, and founded the church there. TertuUian alludes to Peters death at Rome, and Caius the Priest refers to the trophies of the Apostles, meaning their tombs, near the city, and adds that these two established the Roman Church. These are the only early testimonies. All later statements are Avorthless. There is reason to suspect that the tradition rests on a misajjprehension. In Acts we read that the Apostle silenced Simon Magus at Samaria, and prophesied against him. It was supposed that Snnon must have practised his magical arts elsewhere, and a wonderful series of romances was produced purport- ing to show Simon flying from Peter who j)ursued him from town to town, disputing with him, till at last they came to Rome, where a final dispute arose. Simon attemptetl to fly, and like Daedalus fell, but not because his waxen wings melted, but because Peter prayed that his attempt might be frustrated. The people, exasperated at the death of the sorcerer, who had bewitched them, rose against Peter, denounced him to the praetor of the city, and he was executed on the cross. The romance was invented for the purpose of using the dialogue as a vehicle for argument against Gnosticism ; and is heretical, as Peter is made an exponent of Ebionitism. Now there was an old Sabine deity Semo Sancus — some statues of him are now in the Vatican — and Justin ]\Iartvr 202 J STrnV OF ST. PAUL (a.d. 167) actually su]){)osed that this Semo Sancus was none other than Simon the Sorcerer, deified by the Roman peo})le. Justin puts the coming of Peter to Rome as occurring in the reign of Claudius. Modern Roman writers assume that he went there after his escape from ])rison in a.d. 44, and that he returned to Jerusalem when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in a.d. 49, and so was able to be present at the council. But this first coming of Peter to Rome in the reign of Claudius must be regarded as entirely against evidence. The Epistles which Paul wrote from the city show that no Apostle had been there before, or was there along with him. They contain no allusion whatever to Peter. On the contrary, Paul expressly says that he strives to build on no other man's foundation. In Paul's Epistle to the Romans no salutation is sent to Peter, no allusion is made to his work among them. The character of the letter is certainly not that of one Apostle meddling with a Church under the direction of another. These considerations certainly disprove the sujjposition that Peter was at Rome either in the reign of Claudius or before the writing of the Ejiistle to the Romans. If Peter ever was there, it was after a.d. 6'3. From a religious point of view there is another consider- ation relative to this matter that deserves attention. It is contended by the Roman Church, that its right to supre- macy over all churches is due to the fact that it was founded by St. Peter, to whom the words were spoken " On this Rock will I build my Church,''"' and to the grant of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Supposing that the Rock in question was intended to be Peter, and supposing that the THE SECOND JOUUXEY—GALATIA 203 gift of supremacy was made to him, then, surely divine providence would have .su})]ilied such evidence that Peter did organise and establish the Church at Rome as would be indisputable. Is it conceivable, if it be necessary to recognise the Roman See as the head See over Christendom, and the source of jurisdiction, that Holy Scripture should, as it were, studiously avoid telling us that Peter went to Rome at all and had a part in the founding of that Church ? Is it conceivable, on the Roman supposition, that Scripture should represent I'eter as set aside to make way for Paul, and then that we should be allowed no other glimpse of him than as retired, probably with his good wife, to Baby- lon, and not furnish us with any hint as to where that Babylon was, nay, rather go out of the way to make obscurity around the place of his retreat ? We can account for the tradition of his having had a hand in the conversion of certain in Rome without sup- posing that he went there. Every year numbers of Jews and proselytes from Rome came to Jerusalem, and after the issue of the edict of Claudius expelling the former, doubtless many Jews did arrive there. When in Jerusalem, Peter very probably instructed them in the truth, and so may have established a loose claim to be regarded as the founder of Christianity in Rome. It is surely significant enough that in speaking of Paul's coming to the capital of the world, St. Luke never alludes by half a word to Peter, never intimates that the Church there had an apostolic founder. Is it conceivable, had Peter been in Rome, and his work there in establishing a primatial See been regarded as an important fact, that Luke should have said nothinu' about it '* 204 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL Surely had Peter's visit to llonie and work there been of consequence to the Church, and to the salvation of mankind, divine providence would not have left such a matter to repose on conjecture and evidence hardly worth quotation. One word in Holy Scripture to establish the link between Peter and Kome would have sufficed, but that one word is withheld. The withholding that Mord is significant. We can show from Scripture that Peter was at Jerusalem, that he worked at Antioch, that he was at some place — Babylon that may be in Mesopotamia, or in Egy})t or Rome — but we cannot be sure that in Rome he ever was. The hold ins: back of this one \nece of evidence by the Divine Spirit, absolutely breaks down the pretensions of the Papal See to represent the authority and supremacy of Peter.' What is certainly remarkable is the ])osition given to James as head over the Church, and that at a time when, as all ecclesiastical critics are agreed, the episcopal office was un- developed, and that moreover in the most nebulous Church of all, that of Jerusalem. This I conceive can only be explained on the grounds of his being of the royal race of David, and the })Osition accorded him as viceroy till the Messiah should appear. From Antioch, Paul, attended by Silas, crossed the ridge that divided the Syrian plain from the J^-ovince of Cilicia, and descended into the plain — the delta of the Pyramos and Saros, and across its wide tract, waving with flowers, saw the gleaming limestone temples of his native Tarsus. Although there were Churches in Cilicia, Paul does not ^ We may go further. Holy Scripture pointedly shows us James exercising pontifical rights, and not Peter, and Peter set to rights by an Apostle of an inferior order, Paul. THE SECOND JOURNEY— GALATIA 205 seem to have had anything to do with their fomulation, or Luke would certainly have said so. What had become of the old weavino- establishment ? Was his father still alive ? AVith what eye did his kinsfolk regard Paul ? Whose was now the old house, and had the factory e-one into other hands ? PauFs father had been in comfortable circumstances, and had been able to give his son what we should call a university education. But now we find Paul very poor, and obliged to work at his trade wherever he halted, so as to maintain himself. Supplies from home for some reason or another were cut off. From Tarsus Paul and his companion threaded a defile of the Taurus to the Cilician Gates, a natural portal in the rocks that was closed at night against bandits. The road was defended by stations of soldiers at intervals. It mounted continuously, till at length it reached the elevated plain, with its salty marshes, damp chill atmosphere, and fevers — ^where Paul had worked and shivered and been encouraged on his first visit. First he came to Derbe, where he was cordially received, then, having exhorted the brethren, he went on to Lystra, some thirty-five miles north-west. At Lystra, previously, he had converted an old Jewish lady named Lois and her daughter Eunice, who, with the laxity into which many Hellenic Jews had fallen, had con- tracted marriage with a Gentile and a heathen. Eunice had a son, Timothy, and the two women had taken vast pains to educate the boy in the knowledge of the Books of Moses and the Prophets.' Undoubtedly they followed the manner of the liberal school in leaning on the moral and ^ 2 Tim. iii. 1=;. 206 A STCDV OF ST. PAUL thooloo-ieal tenchiuo-s of Scripture, and in passing over slightly the ^Mosaic ritual and jjurific-atory legislation. On his first visit, Paul had haptized Timothy, although uncir- cunicised. Timothy was now grown to man's estate, he was well spoken of in Lystra and Iconium, and Paul decided on associating him with himself in his labours. The young- man was enthusiastically devoted to his father in the faith, and was not a man of such independence of cha- racter that Paul might fear any contrariety of opinion from him. Timothy was ready to follow with blind docility, as Paul wrote of him after, " As a son with the father, he hath served with me in the Gospel."^ But the young man was not of a robust constitution;- inclined to be lachrymose ;^ evidently a tender-hearted, gentle, sensitive person, whose bringing up by two women, and whose delicate health, made him wanting in initiati^■e. This was precisely the sort of })erson Paul liked to have about him ; one who would obey without ([uestioning and follow without murnmr. It is a general characteristic with men of innnense personality that they cannot endure contradiction, and surround themselves with creatures of moderate abilities antl pliant tempers, and alienate those with as strong wills and as able heads as themselves. It was so with Cromwell, Napoleon, Bismarck. Paul was the same. He could make followers, but not substitutes. He had now with him two humble admirers and faithful servants, Silvanus and Timothy. Paul now took a stej) that has surprised some critics, who have accused him of inconsistency — he had Timothy ^ Phil. ii. 22. - I Tim. v. 23. ■' 2 Tim. i. 4. THE SECOND JOUHNEY—GALATIA 207 circumcised. They cannot understand why he should have refused to allow Titus to do that which he allowed in the case of Timothy. But the explanation is simple. Timothy was half a Jew, Titus wholly Greek. But more than that. Paul was now entering on a fresh missionary field, and purposed working, as heretofore, in the synagogues. But the un- circumcision of Timothy would not only so irritate the Jews against him as to cause them to refuse him a hearing, but might be the occasion of their denying him speech in the synagogues. If he had Timothy circumcised, it was to facilitate his work among the Jews, or rather the proselytes through the Jews. From Lystra Paul went to Iconium, and thence to Phrygian Antioch, under the great range of the Sultan Dagh. He was now on the confines of the province of Asia, and it was his intention to preach along the great road that followed the Lye us, at Apaniciea, Colossa?, Laodica^a ; and then, entering the valley of the Maeander, to harangue in the synagogue of Tralles and, with a divergence, at Ephesus. But he was arrested by a conunand from above. He was " forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in [the province of] Asia."' Accordingly he changed his course, and crossing the mountains to the north, made his way towards Bithynia. He and his companions had probably reached Kotiaion, aiming at Nica^a and Nicomedia, when again he was mysteriously arrested, " The Spirit suffered them not " to go on. Then, instead of taking the north road, the little party 1 Acts xvi. 6. 208 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL tunicd jsharply round to the west, and passing through Mysia came to Troas. Here it was that Paul made a fresh disciple, and secured not only a companion, but an historian of his work, Luke tlie physician, afterwards evangelist. Perhaps Paul, suffering from a relapse of his fever, consulted I^ike as a medical man, and took advantage of the occasion to convert him and withdraw him from his business. AVhat the remedies would be that Luke would em})loy we may gather from Pliny. xVgainst fever and against shivers he would reconnnend the burning of incense in the hollow of a canine tooth of a crocodile, and an ap])lication of crocodile fat.' For the headache attending malaria he Mould prescribe the rust from door-hinges dissolved in vinegar, the touch of an elephant's trunk, or the rope with M'hich a man has been hung.- If, however, Paul consulted the ])hysician relative to epileptic fits, froni which it is not certain that he suffered, then the infallible recipe was the sloughed skins of newts.^ It may be that Luke had become conscious that the medical science of his day was mere ([uackery, and was glad to cast it from him. He was, it is thought, a native of Philip]ii, in ^Macedonia, and after his conversion he spoke to Paul of the field that was open there. The ^Vpostle listened, and then dreamt that he saw a Macedonian appear to him, extending his arms and praving, "Come over and help us."'^ It is significant of a new cha})ter being opened in the history of Paul's work that it was ))refaced by three super- ^ Plin. : " Hist. Nat." xxviii. S. - Ibid. c. 4. •' Appuloius: "Disc, on Magic." ■* Acts .\vi. 9. THE SECOND JOURNEY— GALATIA 209 natural tokens — two warnings not to take the road which Paul had purposed takin<>;, and then a distinct intimation as to the \\a,y in which he was to go. Luke was a proselyte and uncircunicised,^ of a gentle and enthusiastic character, and, like Timothy, seems to have been expressly adapted to be PauPs companion.^ ^ Col. iv. 14, 15. - Phil, ii, 20. CHAPTER XI THE SECOND JOURNEY— MACEDONIA A.D. 52 Paul crosses to Macedonia — Philippi — Position of woman in Mace- donia — No synagogue at Philippi — Only female worshippers — Lydia — Supposed marriage of Paul— The pythoness — Silenced by Paul — Disturbance — Paul and Silas in prison — The Robin- — The earth- quake — Paul's release — Leaves Philippi — Thessalonica — Preaches the Second Coming — This expected to be immediate— Portents — Renewal of disturbances — Their real cause. FuoM Troas by ship, Paul, with his companions, crossed the head of the .Egean Sea, by the island of Samothrace, to Neapolis, the port of Philippi, and at once made their way to this town. Amphipolis had been the chief city of the di\ision to which both belonged, but Philippi was fast outstri])ping it in prosperity, and the two places stood to each other much in the relation of iMinneapolis and St. Paul in the State of Minnesota at the present day. A low range divides Philippi from the port of Neapolis. Paul and his companions crossed this and saw before them the fertile plain, witli white marble crags rising into lofty mountains to the north, curving round this plain, nuich as the heights enclosed that at the edge of which stood Tarsus. But the situation of Philippi was other than that of PauFs native city. It was built on a ridge, and was dominated by its acropolis and by its agora and temples. Down the side flowed the city to the level ground, where THE SECOXD JOURNEY -MACEDONIA 211 the military highway traversed it. and where were the taverns, hosteh'ies, and warehouses. The soil ahout Philippi was ever moist with oozing springs, and willows, poplars, mulberries formed a belt of gi-een about its white buildings. In the lower part of the town, moreover, the miners congregated from their gold- washing diggings — rough, roystering fellows — and gangs of slaves, driven by a steward {ergastular'ius)^ who searched them after leaving work, and the dav^s toil ended, locked them up for the night in the crgastulum, where they herded till, with the break of dawn, they were roused to renewed drudgery. So abundant was the gold in the granite rubble that it was believed it grew as fast as collected, just as grass sprang up in the fields after it was mown. Octavius had recognised the importance of the situation Avhen he won the battle of Philippi, and as soon as he was master of the empire he planted there a colony and granted it the Jus Italicum. The old soldiers settled there, relics of the army of Antony, natives of Italy, brought to the frontiers of Macedon and Thrace their probity, gravity of manner, and frankness of speech. Along with their native characteristics they brought their rustic tutelary deities. Sylvanus was accorded a temple and a college. But there were also shrines of Minerva, Diana, Mercury, and Hercules; the Syrian ]VIen, the Moon-god, had also a sanctuary, and the oriental Sabazius was there honoured and his mysteries frequented. The gross worship of licentious native deities, so universal in Asia Minor, was supplanted here by purer rites, and in the temples were chanted those orphic hymns which attracted the admiration of the early Christians, hymns that extolled the unity of the Godhead, the immortality of the soul, and exalted the heart to the 212 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL pursuit of true virtue. Descent in Macedonia was by the spindle; the woman was the true head of the family. The wife, the mother occu])ied there a higher place than even the Homan matron. She enjoyed right of property, and })ublic monuments were erected in her honour. That the Phili])})ians were a pious people and very cosmo]5olitan in their devotions is attested by the sculptures on the marble rocks, which bear the statues of gods and goddesses or are scooped out in niches to receive them, and are scored over with inscriptions in their honour. When Paul arrived in Fhilippi he was disapjiointed to find there no ghetto, and that the very few Jews settled there had no synagogue. Nevertheless there Avere some " devout men '"' and more pious women who had been attracted to Judaism, and these met by the river side in a proscucJu', an enclosure, a yard, or a garden, on the Sabbath, for prayer. The Via Egnatia, the main thoroughfare to the east, ran through Philippi. The gold-dust from its mines was conveyed by Amphipolis, the old capital, to Thessalonica, and thence across the })eninsula to Dvrrachium, where it was shipped for BruncUisium. The points between which the line of vessels ran were this Dyrrachium and Egnatia, that gave its name to the road. There is but one stream, the Gangas, in the Philippian plain that enters it from a deep gorge. It passes to the west of Philippi, and loses itself in a marsh. Paul and his three companions walked along the paved highway between the tond)s of wealthy and noble citizens, till they came out among gardens near the river, where bloomed the centifoil rose, A\hich was indigenous to the Pangaean mountains behind the town. THE SECOND JOURNEY— MACEDONIA 213 On reaching the place of jn-ayer, Paul was a little dis- com-aged to find the attendance almost wholly made up of women. But among these was one of consequence, a Lydian of Thyatira. She was a dealer in dyed cloth, especially in that which was purple, a costly commodity and a luxury of the wealthy. She was probably a widow, as her husband is not named, but with the independence of the country, she kept her shop and managed the business. Although his audience was entirely composed of women, Paul did not disdain to speak to them and expose the Way of the Lord. The heart of the woman Lydia was opened " and she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul."'' ^ We need not suppose that she was baptized the same day. Paul certainly tarried some time in Philippi. But baptized she was, and she invited Paul and his companions to lodge in her house. She did more than invite, " she constrained us," says St. Luke. Paul had been very particular not to be a charge to the believers in the cities where he went. He was perhaps unreasonably touchy on this point, but here he could not refuse. The stronger will of the well-to-do, peremptory, and hospitable woman prevailed. And now if we may trust certain indications, PauFs course of missionary expeditions was nearly brought to an end, and his sphere of labour limited to Macedonia. There ai'e reasons to surmise that Lydia's religious ardour got mellowed with personal affection ; and that she and Paul were either married at Philippi or would have been so but for untoward circumstances. The reasons for this conjecture are, that from her and the Philippians alone he 1 Acts xvi. 14. P 214 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL condescended to receive remittances of money ; that in his E})istle to the Phiiippians he does not name her in his salutations, but he does send a special message to his " true voke-fellow "" to " help those women which laboured with me in the Gosj)el.''' ' That Paul was married is attested by several early writers. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philadelphians says " Peter and Paul, and the rest of the Apostles, were married men."" Clement of Alexan- dria and Eusebius both understand the " true yoke-fellow " in the sense of " trusty wife." Nor does the passage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians exclude this. There Paul says that it was in his })ower, had he willed it, to " lead about a believing wife, as well as other Apostles."- This does not imply that he had none, but that he was not of so uxorious a nature as Peter, who could go nowhere without his good woman at his side. Another passage which seems to militate against the idea of his being married is 1 Cor. vii. 7, 8. He is advising husband and wife to separate for a period " lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency," in order that this period may be devoted to prayer and fasting. Then he adds, "For I would that all men were even as I myself. . . . . I say, therefore, to the luimarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I." In the first ])lace he seems to hint that the married would be better if they, although married, lived apart from their wives, wholly devoted to asceticism ; and in the second, that the unmarried and widows should remain disena'ajjed from earthly affection. It is, however, more probable that Paul did not marry Lydia, but maintained an affectionate remembrance of her. 1 Phil. V. 3. -I Cor. ix. 5. THE SECOND JOURNEY— MACEDONIA 215 With the " true voke-f'ellow " who was to look after the women in Phihppi, Paul mentions other females there, Euodias and Syntyche. Five or six years later some men had joined this Philippian Church, Epaphroditus, "my brother and companion in labour and fellow-soldier," but from this it would appear that he was an importation not a convert there. Clement was another " whose name was in the book of life." ' But at the outset there appear to have been only women, unless Lydia induced the freed man who attended to her business, kept her books and counted the bales, to accept the Gospel. If the widow and Paul were married, which is doubtful, they must have been an incongruous pair, she, thriving- — and like all Jewesses when youth is past, stout ; he, frail, pallid, short of stature, with bandy legs, a long nose, and head already inclining to baldness.^ In vision Paul had seen a man of Macedonia inviting him over ; so far he had found only women. But Lydia could influence her household — the slaves under her actual control and her needy hangers-on. Some of these, doubt- less, were sincere, others suffered themselves to be baptized out of complaisance to their mistress, and with a politic eye to future favours. The situation of Paul at Philippi was not one of the most dignified, with a train of female admirers hanging on his lips, and under the more or less despotic control of the 1 Phil. V. 3-4. " The personal description is from the Acts of St. Paul and Thecla ; and the anonymous author of the dialogue " Philopatris " (a.d. 363), relying on tradition, makes Kritias say of St. Paul: "I met with a bald-headed, long-nosed Galilean, who .... had been up into the third heaven." 216 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL rich shopkeeper, Lydia. He was delivered from it by a very peculiar circumstance, and the Church of Philippi was given a chance of growth independent of his presence. As Paul went to the oratory through the lower town, he daily passed where a slave-girl was shown off', who was possessed by a python — that is to say, she was hysterical, half crazy, and had a gift of ventriloquism. She was managed by a company, which shared the jirofits of her divination ; and these were considerable. The gold miners were credulous, and wished for advice where to find nuggets, or to have the thief pointed out who had robbed them of their store. Mothers whose sons were about to cross the ^Egean, anxiously inquired what would be the weather, and asked if their sons would return in health ; merchants desired news of their convoys, even citizens standing for election, sought to know beforehand what were their chances of being chosen to the magistracy. Where there is a demand, there is always a supply ; the age was superstitious, and there ^\•ere always men and women ready to make money out of the credulous. The girl \\as not a conscious impostor, but an hysterical subject. Very probably she was one of the Bachanals employed about the oracle of Dionysos in the hills among the Satroe, but purchasetl as a speculation by a company of Philippians who utilised her for profit. Dionysos was undoubtedly the prophet-god of the Thracians.' We shall not be fur wrong in regarding her as an hysterical jierson, possessed with low cunning and inordinate vanity. Such creatures exist to the present day, and to at- tract a little attention are capable of committing any folly. 1 b ixavTis dpTf^L, Eurip.: Hcc. 1267. THE SECOND JOUKXEY—MACEDOXIA 217 As Paul and his companions went to prayer, this girl worried them by shouting after them, " These men are the serv'ants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation.'" It is improbable that she had listened to any of PauFs teaching, directly from his lips, but she may have heard people talking about him, and what he had said. Her words did not mean to those who heard her what they imply to us. " The Most High God " was a common pagan expression, applied to various deities in their pantheon, and " the way of salvation " in her mouth meant no more than good luck on voyages, escape from robbers and pirates, from shipwreck and from disease ; in mining, it signified the finding of nuggets. She perhaps may have meant no more than to invite Paul and his companions to unite with her in the working of the concern, and derive a revenue from the sale of amulets, and the performance of incantations. That was to be their department, and hers the discovery of secrets and the foretelling of the future. They would have played into each other's hands and driven a flourishing business. That something of the kind was in her head would seem to be implied by the anger of St. Paul. A victim to hysteria and delusions would be a subject for pity, not wrath ; but anything like conscious fraud, and an invitation to participate in it, roused his indignation. Paul turned at last on her, after this annoyance had been of long continuance, and said to the spirit, " I com- mand thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.'' At once all her powers failed her. The rebuke, the manifest superiority of the Apostle quelled her. '' She was utterly disconcerted, and lost her faith in herself, and 218 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL with it her ])o\ver. Along with her })ower, her hold on the superstitions of the populace disappeared ; and people ceased to come to her to have their fortunes read, to get help in finding things they had lost, and so on."^ In all hysterical delusions a peremptory and threaten- ing address is the only means of dissipating them ; to humour them is to encourage their growth and mastery over the patient. The company that had shares in this girl A\'as very indignant ; the source of their gains was dried up. The dupes, the populace, were also angry, and a tumult arose. A moh swept off Paul and Silas to the Agora, and clamoured for the magistrates to hear the case, and punish the two Jews who were upsetting the populace with their novel teachings. The owners of the girl did not sue the Apostles for an indenmification of their loss ; they were sufficiently shrewd to seize on an accusation nuich more likely to be promptly dealt with. The crime of prose- lytism to an unauthorised religion was a serious one ; in the case of a patrician it entailed deportation, in that of one of the lower classes it was cajiital.-' The magistrates in such a colonial town as Philippi were citizens, rich merchants, landowners, proprietors of the mines, and were elected by their fellow citizens. They were timorous, dreading to offend their townsfolk, and terribly afraid of being called to order by the central authority of the province, still more so of being a]:)})ealed ao-ainst to Rome. In the clamour that was raised, PauFs voice, asserting 1 Ramsay: "St. Paul," p. 216. ■- Jul, Paulus, Sentent. v. 21 ; Servius, Ad. Virg. /Eneid, viii. 187 ; Dion Cassius, vii. 36. THE SECOND JOURNEY—MACEDONIA 219 the citizenship of himself and Silvanus, was not listened to, perhaps not heard, and all these fussy, frightened magistrates thought of was how best to pacify the mob and send it home quietly. They at once ordered Paul and his companion to be scourged and then thrown into prison. They did not even go through the legal form of calling the prisoners rei^ and then of hearing evidence for and against them. The Apostles were accordingly taken to the prison- house, and thrust into the Rubur or Lignum. Here were the stocks, so contrived that the legs could be distended to such an extent as to almost dislocate the hips. They had in them as many as five holes.' Outside the Rohur was a court. No light entered the prison save through the door when open, and the stench in the place was one of its worst discomforts, as it com- municated with the sewer. During the night, whilst the Apostles were singing hymns, an earthquake shook the prison ; the doors flew open, and the chains which were stapled into the walls fell down. The gaoler, who was responsible for the prisoners, in alarm came from his house, and seeing the doors open, thought that the captives had taken advantage of the op})ortunity and had escaped. They could easily hide in the mountains, or, by hastening to Neapolis, get away in a sailing or rowing boat. The first impulse of the gaoler Avas to kill himself. Paul and Silas within, in the dark ^ A representation of the stocks has been found at Pompeii. Le Blant : " Revue Archeologique," 1889, p. 149. The Robiir was the place in which the executions took place. It was pitch dark. Festus uses the expression " a place into which a set of malefactors is precipitated which had already been imprisoned in strongholds." 220 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL prison chamber, saw him without, guessed his intention, and called to assure him that they were there. Then he cried out for a light and came in, brought them into his house, and washed their wounds and set food before them. Paul then preached to him the Word of God, and he and his whole house believed. By next morning the praetors had come to the conclusion that they had done a very stupid thing, and had laid them- selves open to a grave charge. No doubt that Lydia and her friends had represented the matter to them, and had insisted on the citizenship of Paul and Silvanus. Accord- ingly these magistrates, who knew as little of the law as many an English justice of peace, were frightened, and sent to the prison to have Paul and his companion set free. But it did not suit Paul's plans to be snuiggled out of the gaol in that way. He saw clearly enough that he and Silas could not remain in Philippi, but he had made up his mind to leave his companions Luke and Timothy behind, and also to revisit the town himself as soon as possible. It was advisable, therefore, to let the magistrates feel what they had done, and give them a good wholesome lesson not to meddle unnecessarily and illegally. Paul said : " They have beaten us oj)enly, untried, being Roman citizens [and the Li'.v Fonia forbids the beating of citizens] ; they have cast us into the Rohur, have put us in the stocks ; and now do they thrust us out privily ? Nay verily ; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.'"'' To this these Philippian Dogberries were obliged to submit. As it was no longer possible for Paul and Silas to remain THE SECOND JOURXEY— MACEDONIA 221 in Philip})!, they departed along the Egnatian road, but left lAike and Timothy behind to get the little Church into something like shape, and to give the converts some rudimentary teaching. It was, to Paul, perhaps unfortunate that he -was obliged to go on without Luke, but as he was resolved to con- tinue on the same course, addressing the synagogues and, through the Jews, Avorking upon his proselytes and such as were being influenced by them, it did not so greatly matter. Had Luke been with him he might possibly have tarried at Amphipolis and Apollonia, both important places ; but as there was no ghetto in either, he was without a foothold, and knew not how to address the Gentiles. He and Silas pushed on to Thessalonica, where was a large Jewish settlement with a synagogue. Thessalonica was at that period almost as important a centre as is Saloniki now. In all Greece, Corinth only excepted, there was not so excellent a harbour ; sheltered by the Chalcedonic peninsula from winds, the water in it was glassy as oil, and there was good anchorage. But Thessalonica was not merely a great port and a station on the highway ; it had its hot baths, and was therefore in resort by the infirm, and it was, above all, a busy manufac- turing town, much like Tarsus, where the loom rattled all day ; a great quantity of cloth was made, of bright dyed wool and of coarse goats''-hair. Paul was in a place where he could earn his livelihood, and he took up his quarters with a Jew named Jason, probably a dealer in woollen and goats' -hair stuffs. There he worked at his loom both night and day,' so as to be ^ I Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8. A STUDY OF ST. PAUL charji-eable to none. On the Sabbath days he visited the synagogue. His subject-matter is summed up in one verse by St. Luke. He argued that the prophecies declared that the Messiah should suffer; then he showed that Christ Jesus had suffered and risen again, and then he went on to declare that the expectations of Israel would be accom- plished on the second coming of Christ, which would shortly take place. He reasoned with great gentleness and patience, trying to instruct and lead those who heard him, just as a mother or a nurse trains a babe.' And what he said was well received, not as the word of men, but as the word of God.2 About this time men's minds were in a ferment of alarm and expectation. The feeble brain of Claudius was becoming- weak to imbecility, and he was com})letely dominated by his wife and niece, the younger Agri})pina, and by the ])alace eunuchs. The Rome of Augustus and Tiberius was sinking into an abyss of impotence and infomy, and sinister presages were noted. The earthquake that had occurred atPhili])])i had been felt in many other places.'^ There had been a general failure of the crops. Birds of ill omen Avere seen to perch on the Capitol. l*erhaps at this time Paul was particularly impressive in his declaration that the end of all things A\as at hand. Later, when he wrote his Epistles to the Thessalonians, the prodigies had been more marked, and the conse([uent excitement greater. Light- ning had struck the military ensigns, a swarm of bees had settled upon the cupola of the Capitol, and a pig farrowed with the talons of a hawk.** A comet was seen ; the ^Vrcli 1 I Thess. ii. 7. - Ibid. ii. 13. » Tacit. Ann. xii. 43. * Ibid. xii. 64. THE SECOND JOURNEY— MACEDONIA 223 of Drusus was struck. Then Paul wrote, accentuating the fears and expectations of his converts, "We which are aHve and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds."" The second E})istle to the same Church is full of these prognostications, but somewhat apologetic, because the great Day had not arrived quite when he had led the Thessalonians to expect. That in his apocalyptic prophecies Paul had let slip some expressions relative to the Messiah coming to rule all nations, and be King above the princes of the earth, is shown by the commotion caused, and the charges made against Paul and Silas, that they did contrary to the decrees of Caesar, and proclaimed the advent of another King, one Jesus. The Jews which believed not were the movers in this disturbance, and the cause is not far to seek. Of the devout j^roselytes, "a great multitude" clave to the Apostles, " and of the chief women not a few." These commercial Jews, as elsewhere, were most unwilling to have their hold over the believing Greeks relaxed, lest it should interfere with their profits. Josephus tells us how that a wily Jew in Rome per- suaded a noble lady, Fulvia, to send rich gifts to the Temple, and to entrust them to him to take for her, and how that he sold the goods and pocketed the money. There is no reason for supposing the Thessalonican Jews 1 I Thess. iv. 15-17. 224 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL guilty of any such roguery, but they, no doubt, Hked to carry up abundant gifts to Jerusalem as the donations of " our converts," and they little relished the idea of this stream being dried up. The result was that Paul and Silas were expelled from BercBa. CHAPTER XII THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHENS A.D. 52 Paul leaves Beroea — Arrived in the Piraeus — The Macedonian mission — Luke and Timothy left in Macedonia — A new scene — Incapacity of Paul to appreciate the art or philosophy of Greece — Indifference to Nature — Paul's entry into Athens — The Agora — The Acropolis — The Areopagus — Paul drawn before the Areopagus — ^His address — Mistakes at the outset — The unknown gods — The rest of the address — Misconceived by the hearers — Two converts only — What Christ- ianity owes to Greek philosophy — Second mistake — The speech a failure — Character of his hearers — The cross on the Areopagus. From Beroea, Paul was again obliged to escape, being sent away by the brethren, and he went by sea to the Piraeus, the port of Athens. The mission to Macedonia had given him gi-eat hopes. He liked the people, their frankness, and especially the independence of the women, and their amenability to his preaching. He wrote to the Thessa- lonians that they were his hope, his joy, his crown ; and he used the same expression relative to the Philippians.^ From ariiong them he drew some of his truest friends and companions, Secundus, who was with him in his last journey, and Aristarchus, who followed him to Rome, and shared his prison.- Nowhere, neither in Syria nor in Galatia, had he found hearts so open to conviction, so generous in disposition, and so resolute in their adhesion to ^ I Thess. ii. 19; Phil. iv. i. ^ Acts XX. 4 ; Col. iv. 10 ; Philem. 24. 226 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL the truth. These Macedonians were the Yorkshiremen of Greece. At Thessalonica, Paul had been rejoined by Timothy, but when he left Beroea, he did not take either him or Silas with him, but left them behind to organise his work, establish in the faith those whom he had convinced, and they were to come on to him later to Athens, and advise him what prospect there was of his return to Macedonia. His heart was warm towards the good zealous people of Thessalonica and Philippi. He was eager " once and again" to return to them, but either the attitude of the magistrates at Philippi or his reluctance to bring trouble on Jason at Thessalonica, who had stood security for him, prevented his revisiting these places for some years. He went to Athens, not because called by the Spirit, but as a mere waiting-place, till he could go back to the scene of his late successes. At Athens he was in a new scene, among new surround- ings, yet in a place where there was a Jewish colony. At Tarsus, indeed, there had been famous schools, that turned out men of ability, but as a university it stood to Athens much in the relation of Durham to Oxford. At Tarsus, Paul had been entirely outside the circle of studies, and his mind was untrained by the great men of Greek philo- sophy. He was willing enough now to be " all things to all men," but he was incapable of being a philosopher among philosophers. An attempt to lecture to the Athenians would be as great a blunder as a man standing up in the theatre of Oxford to discuss Roman literature, when he made false quantities in his first quotation, and revealed the fact that all he knew of the writers was through magazine articles. THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHENS 227 Paul was as incapable of appreciating the art treasures of Athens as he was of givino- ])ro})er value to its philosophy. He looked not even with intlifference at the glorious statuary, the work of Phidias, Agoracritus of Samos, and Alcamenes, or the bronzes of Praxiteles. To Paul these were idols, and idols only. He had no more notion of these sculptors strain- ing after the ideal of beauty than he had of the philosophers striving after the ideal of truth. That these men had used their God-given faculties to do the best they could, that did not come within the compass of his perception. These incomparable achievements of art, instead of filling him with admiration, made him angry : " His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city full of idols." AVe are told he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the " devout ])ersons,'''' i.r., the proselytes, and in the market daily with those that met with him. It is interesting to note the gaps there were in Paid's mental and perspective powers. As he had no appreciation of art, so had he none for Nature. Whereas the Divine Master incessantly appealed to the teachings of creation, to bird and flower, to the harvest field, the fig tree and the vine, Paul passed all by as though he did not see them. He did indeed once allude to the stars, and once to the growth of the seed, but so defective was his observation, that when he came to speak of the grafting which must have gone on under his eyes repeatedly, he blundered egre- giously, and spoke of the wild olive as grafted on to the cultivated tree, and becoming good thereby, and founded an argument upon this extraordinary misstatement. So, he was ignorant of Greek history, and out of svm- pathy with the noble struggles of the past. As Dean Farrar admits, " he might stroll into the Stoa Pcecile, and 228 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL there peer at the paintings, still brio-ht and fresh, of Homeric councils of which he probably knew nothing, and of those Athenian battles about which, not even excepting Marathon, there is no evidence that he felt any interest." He nuist in Athens have been as much out of harmony with the whole tenour of thought and feeling of the Greek as were two Essex artisans with whom I once A\'ent through the British Museum. Nothing interested them, nothing awoke admiration, or inquiry, and their verdict on leaving was, " They must have been blokes who made all those things, and they were blokes who took the trouble to collect them, and blokes and only blokes those who go to look at them." The entire system of training under Gamaliel had been stunting to the finer qualities of the mind. As Dean Farrar again says, " Nothing in the Talmud is more amazing than the total absence of the geographic, chronological, and historic spirit. A genuine Jew of tliat Pharisaic class in the midst of which St. Paul had been trained, cared more for some pedantically minute halacha, about the threads in a tsitsith, than for all the pagan history in the world." Athens was at the time no longer a great focus of liberty and democracy, but it was a nuiscum antl a sanctuary. The worship of the Olympian deities had been given a halo and eternal youth through the genius of the sculptors and architects. On his landing in the PinKus,^ Paul saw temples, statues on all sides, altars erected to foreign gods, even to 1 Some have supposed that he landed at the port of Phalerus, but this is not a harbour into which any but a tiat-bottomed boat could enter. THE SECOXl) JOURNEY—ATHEXS 229 such as were unknown by name, with a sort of generous hospitahty, a readiness in this great sanctuary of religion to welcome all strange deities from Syria, Asia, and Egypt. As he paced up the long walk from the Piraeus to Atliens, he observed the tombstones, on which the fleeting soul was figured as a butterfly, or the extinction of life was symbol- ised by an inverted torch ; where Hermes Psychopompos was represented conveying away the little darlings from the outstretched arms of their parents, or the wife from the distracted husband. On entering Athens, his eyes fell on the statues of the tutelary deities of the city, standing by the gate, Athene and Poseidon. Not far off was the Temple of Demeter adorned by the masterpieces of Praxiteles. Following the fii'st street he reached the Agora. This had been originally, like the Forum of Rome, an open space between the hills of the Acropolis, the Areopagus, the Pnyx, and the Museum height. It lay at the foot of the upper town, and was the market-place of primitive Athens ; but it had been encroached upon by buildings, and it noA\- formed the most busy quarter of the city, and was crowded with as many statues as there were living men who moved in it. There Paul might have seen the image of a Jew in pontifical habits, the High Priest Hyrcanus, friend of the Athenians ; and a little beyond the statue of a Jewish princess, the beautiful and dissolute Berenice, before whom a few years later he would plead in chains. Above the Agora towered the Acropolis, with its marble piles, the Parthenon, the Erectheion, and the Propyhea. Under the shadow of trees planted on the Agora by Cimon, stood the white statues of Solon, Conon, Demosthenes, Theseus, and Heracles. In the centre of the square rose 230 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL the altar of the twelve great deities. The hill of thePnyx was eonsecrated to Zeus, the theatre to Dionysos; the prison was a temple of Cybele, the senate-house contained an altar to Ilestia, and statues of Zeus and xV])ollo. Traditional <>'ods and o-oddesses did not suffice the Athenians, they imported Serapis from Egypt. They deified and adored abstract virtues, also vices ; pity, modesty, fame, persuasion, religion, but likewise impudence. The })latform of the Acropolis was crowded with objects of j)riceless value, in marble, bronze, ivory, even gold. The Here formed out of the spoil of Marathon was twenty-five feet high, and stood on a pedestal of twenty feet. There were to be seen Theseus fighting with the Minotaur, Heracles strangling serpents. Aphrodite rising out of the Avaves, Apollo bending his bow. Pausanias, who visited Athens nearly a century after St. Paul, and who has left us a record of what he saw, declares that there was more statuary in Athens than in all the rest of Greece, and he adds that nowhere were })eo})le more enthusiastic in their religion. A sort of superstitious intoxication laid hold of all minds, and although the philosophers scoffed, and the comic play- wrights ridiculed, the hold of the traditional religion on the people was indestructible. After a while the accredited lecturers in the ITniversity heard that there was a Jew who did not confine himself to haranguing his fellows from Palestine, but who had the audacity to speak in })ublic to Greeks and strangers. " Certain powers were vested in the Council of Areopagus to appoint or invite lecturers at Athens and to exercise some general control over the lecturers, in the interests of public order and morality. There is an almost com})lete lack of evidence what were the advantages and the lee:al THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHENS 231 rights of a lecturer thus appointed, and to what extent or in what way a strange teacher could find freedom to lecture in Athens. There existed something in the way of privileges vested in the recognised lecturers The scene described in Acts xvii. 18—34 seems to prove that the recognised lecturers could take a strange lecturer before the Areopagus and require him to give an account of his teaching and pass a test as to its character."' Some of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers said of Paul, "What would this rag-and-patch man say.^*"- Others said, " He is apparently introducing certain foreign divinities."* The tribunal Avas held on Mars'' Hill, a red conglomerate outcrop on which, according to fable, the gods assembled to judge Ares. The court sat in the open air, on benches cut in the rock ; at the foot of the nodule was the sanctuary of the Furies. Usually, trials were there held at night, so that the judges might hear, not see, the accused ; and the accuser stood on a block dedicated to Implacability. But this was no criminal trial, and would not therefore be heard in the night. Outside the ring of the seats of the judges and assessors was the corona, the dense circle of the populace always present on such an occasion, as in the Forum at Rome, as in the National Assembly during the Revolution at Paris ; and here, as in Rome and Paris, the orator talked rather to the people outside than to those within, as an actor may ^ Ramsay: " St. Paul," p. 246. - Spermologos, a word of Attic slang, meaning in the first place a bird that picks up among the offal in the streets, then a rag and bone man, and lastly one who gets hold of scraps of learning and uses them ignorantly. Ramsay translates " a bounder." 232 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL strut and rant to the <>;allerio.s for the sake of the cheap aj)plause. St. I'aul had now such an audience as he had never before had a chance of addressing, and that he made a great effort to succeed cannot be doubted. If he failed, it Mas due partly to his inability to understand the minds of those to whom he spoke, mainly to their indifference to truth. " Ye men of Athens [it was ad i)ojmlu7/i], I observe that you are more than others respectful of what is divine. For as I was going through your city and surveying the monuments of your worship, I found also an altar with the inscription, ' To the unknown God.' That divine nature, then, which you worship, not knowing wliat it is, that is it which I declare unto you."" Unable, as with Jews and proselytes, to appeal to Scrip- ture, he went direct to this inscription. And here, un- happily, he made his first blunder. He had misread, and wholly misconceived, the dedication. When the Vikings sailed to harry a foreign coast, they put the heads of dragons or other monsters as figureheads to their vessels, with the object of scaring away the land- vaiir, the deities of the country they proposed invading, and so leaving it improtected. When they came peacefully, they shipped their figureheads. The Greeks had as childish notions, which took a some- what different form. Our ships now have figureheads and names connected \\ith these heads. These figures and names replace the saints or gods under whose protection vessels were anciently put, whose iJwiis or statues were placed on the poops and received daily worshij). When strange vessels from foreign lands came into the ports of Athens, the Greeks recei\ed the gods who were THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHENS 233 supposed to travel along with the shijjs under their ])ro- tection, and accorded them worship, lest these deities should be offended and retaliate for neglect by inflicting pestilence, earthquake, or fire on the port or town. The altars erected in the Phaleron and the Piraeus were greetings to these "unknown travelling gods,"' In like manner, when the Greeks besieged a city they set up altars and invited to them the gods and goddesses, known and unknown, of the beleaguered city, that they might leave the besieged and come over to the besiegers. Paul, then, it would seem, had misread the text and misconceived the drift. Steeped in Jewish ideas, he thought that the inscription was an appeal of the human soul away from polytheism to the one unknown and supreme Deity. Not a Greek had such a thought. Consequently the opening of his address fell flat. He was moving in one plane of ideas, to which the minds of his audience had not reached. There is, however, a chance that he may have actually seen an altar to the Nameless God that was erected after Epimenides had purified the city. The occasion w as this : A pestilence raged in Athens e.c. 560, and the citizens sent to Crete to invite Epimenides to their city to ex})el the plague. He came and ordered a sheep, half black, half white, to be procured, and an altar to be erected on the spot where the sheep lay down. This was done, and the plague ceased. As the Athenians did not know who the god was who had afflicted them, and who had been appeased, this altar was nameless. 1 " Inscriptio aras non erat ut Paulus asseruit : Ignoto Deo, sed ita : Diis Asia ct Europe, Diis ignotis ct pcregrinis : verum quia Paulus non pluribus indigebat diis ignotis, sed uno tantum Deo ignoto, singular! verbo usus est." — St. Jerome, in Tit. i. 12. 234 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Even if Paul had seen this altar, and referred to it, his ap]:)Hcation was without point, for no Greek would con- sider this god who had plagued them capriciously as a supreme deity above the Olympian divinities, but rather as some mischievous demon. Paul proceeded : " The God that made the world and all things therein, He, the Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and is not served by human hands as needing anything, since He Himself giveth to all life and breath. And He made of one nature every race of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and fixed determinate limits of time and place for their habitation, that they should seek the God, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, although indeed He is not distant from any one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your poets have said, ' For we are also His offspring." Being thus the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and device of man."" Thus far, what Paul said was not aiijthing \yith which the philosophers following Plato could disagree. His cpiotation, given somewhat vaguely, anus from Aratus, a Cilician j)oet, and therefore a compatriot ; but something of the same sort is also found in a hynni of Cleanthes to Zeus, which he was not likely to know. Paul had been asked to give an account of his doctrine, and he therefore went on to what was special in his teaching. " Now the times of ignorance God overlooked, but at present He chargeth all men everywhere to repent, inas- much as He hath set a day on which He will judge the THE SECOXD JOURNEY— ATHENS 235 world in rig-hteousness, in the ])erson of the INIan whom He hath ordained for this office. And that Man is Jesus Christ whom I preach. If you desire a guarantee, you have it in this — tliat this same Jesus, after He had declared the will of God, died, and was raised from the dead." The speech, of which this is but a sunnnary, was A\ell- reasoned, m asterly, and admirably co nceived. Nearly all ^ the points of his doctinne were in it. God is One, God is good, God is immaterial, God is to be worshi})ped in spirit, God is just and He will judge the world, and judge it by One whom He has set a})art for the ])urpose, and that all may know who this One is, in Him God hath wrought a miracle in raising Him from the dead. The only vital point omitted was forgiveness of sins through the name of Jesus Christ, but to that he was certainly coming when interru})ted. He had already warned the people who heard him that God required rejientance. How to repent and obtain pardon and restoration would have folloAved had not a howl of tlerision risen at the mention of resurrection from the dead. To the Greek death was associated with cremation, the reduction of the body to a handful of ashes. Without stay- ing to think whether resurrection could be a less startling- phenomenon in a case of carnal interment, the populace broke into jeers, interrupted the hearing, and the tribunal declared it had heard sufficient. A few who had listened sided with Paul, and asked to hear more. But these exceptions must not lead us to doubt that this first apparition of Christianity among the enlightened classes of Athens, excited nothing but surprise and contempt. It was no doubt the recollection of this reception Avhich, a '2im A STUDY OF ST. PAUL few years later, induced Paul to exclaim in a tone of disappointment, if not of irritation, " It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring- to nothing the understanding- of the understanding ones. Where is the wise ? Where is the grannnarian ? AVhere is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.''''^ In a few years, the doctrine of the Logos, of which Paul was })robably ignorant, or if he knew it, despised it — this doctrine, enunciated by Plato, would be the foundation of Christian philosophy laid by the author of the fourth gospel, developed and apjjlied by Augustine ; long after, the teachings of Aristotle would become the basis of the learning of the Christian schoolmen. It Mould be out of Athenian philosophy, not dry Rabbinism, that Christian ajDologists would seek their weapons wherewith to combat paganism. Paul was stepping off a reef into deep water when from addressing- Jews he spoke to Greeks, and the summary given by Luke of his speech shows the flexibility of his mind, and his desire to come into touch with the Greek intellect, I^ut this was not ])()ssible for him with his defective education. That he was pleased with his attempt is certain, or Luke could not have embodied it in his nari-ative. Paul had no companions with him at the time to recollect it. He must have written it out and sent it to Luke. He made a second and a serious error in attem})ting to embody his entire scheme in one s})eech. It was unneces- 1 I Cor. i. 17-22. THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHEXS 237 sarv, and was the occajsion of his expulsion from Athens. All that was requisite was for him to have argued against idolatry, to have insisted on the unity and j ustice of the Godhead ; then he might have gone on to say that God would not leave Himself without witness, and that He had sent His Son, Jesus' Christ, into the world to reveal to man what was His will. So much his audience could have digested. The Epicureans would have been disgusted, but not so the Stoics. But he tried to bring in t^o o^much, , , his entire system, '-^^ and to introduce mysteries his audience was totally un- ^/^C^-^^ pre})ared to receive. How l ittle the Greeks compreh ended his words about ^^^^ / the resurrection {Anastasis), or were likely to compre- hend them, is shown by the early Greek fathers, who would certainly understand the pagan mind, when they explain that those who heard Paul supposed he was preaching about a male and female pair of deities, Jesus and Anastasis. That may have been the case, and the outcry may have been raised against him as a bringer-in of new gods. This was much like the charge brought against Socrates. It was against Roman law. A man might worship what god he would in private, but not invite publicly to unauthorised devotions. There can be no disguising the fact that this defence of 9i<^^ St. Paul was a failure, and he himself felt that it Avas so. ul^^t^t^ He left Athens precipitately. He wrote no epistle to the y^-'<'<^ Athenians, never mentioned the Church or the converts there in either of his letters to the Corinthians, and on his next voyage he avoided Athens. Nevertheless the address was not absolutely resultless. 238 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Dionysius the Areopagite — one would like to know whether an archon or the mere keeper and cleaner of the court — and a woman of doubtful character' were convinced. A few men professed a willingness to hear more, but nothing further is told us of Paul attempting to address an audience in Athens, and their languid desire to hear more subsided in a day or two. Yet the cause of Paul's want of success lay not so much in his de ficiencie s as in the defect in seriousness and sin- cerity in his hearers. " The i^edagogue,'' says Renan, *' is the least convertible of men ; for he has a religion of his own, and that is his routine, his belief in his old authors, and his taste is for literary exercises. That quite contents him and extin- guishes in his heart every other dcsii-e." - Athens in its decline had become an arena for logistic contests. It was a place of lecturei's, theorisers, school- masters, who without seriousness threw out their systems like soap bubbles. These (xreeks of Athens had accpiired a habit of listening with one ear to the talkers who harangued in succession, as wavelet follows wavelet laj)ping the sand, and each effaces the rip])le mark left bv the wavelet preceding it. Ours is the novel-reading age. U'he ^ Professor Ramsay says : " It was impossible in Athenian society for a woman of respectable position and family to have any opportunity of hearing Paul ; and the name Damaris (probably a vulgarism for dainalis, a heifer) suggests a foreign woman, perhaps one of the class of educated Hetaivai, who might very well be in his audience." But it is quite as likely that the woman was a Jewess or Syrian, and that her name was Tamar, which was Gra:cised into Damaris. Anyhow it is not easy to conceive of a reputable woman being with the crowd listening to the defence of the Apostle. A Greek woman could not have done this. - Renan : "Vie de St. Paul," p. igg. THE SECOND JOURNEY— ATHENS ^39 romance with us takes the place of the disputes in the schools. What serious work, written with purpose, produces a lasting effect on the devourers of light literature ? AVhat leading article, however powerful, is not effaced in its effect on mind and conscience hy those read immediately after in other j ournals, or forgotten in the interest of those on the day succeeding ? The mental and moral quality of the Greeks was already in decadence. In Paul's age Athens had in it no men of commanding ability ; and as the philosophers degenerated into pedants, the professors of equitation and pugilism rose into importance. In another century a range of busts of the hairdressers and costumiers who frizzed and depiled and dressed the young student fops would be erected about the agora in the place of philosophers and historia,ns and poets.' The Greeks were a people of high artistic culture, but of no depth of character. Among the Galatian Phrygians Paul had found enthusiasm, but fickleness ; among the Macedonians an almost Teutonic strength of purpose ; but here was but a degenerate and hlase race, out of which all power of rejuvenescence was gone; a noble race in appearance, brilliant in parts, refined in taste, but in heart deceitful, selfish, shifty, vain. A butterfly nature was in the people, loving sunshine, sipping honey, without a thought of the grave, and solicitude as to what was beyond it. Could Paul have thought, could these shallow sciolists have conceived it possible, that the badly exj^ressed words in which he professed his convictions Mould outlast and overmaster all their cobweb-spinning, and that in a few ' Now in the museum of the Archaeological Society at Athens. 240 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL years, deep into the rock where Paul stood and received their jeers, the cross would be cut, that cross which w-as to the Greeks fooHshness, and that churches to Christ w^ould be reared out of the ruins of their temples, and all their festivals foi-gotten in the supreme joy of the annual com- memoration of the Anastasis ? CHAPTER XTII THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH A.D. 53 Paul goes to Corinth — The city of Corinth — The character of its popu- tion — Paul lodges with Aquila and Priscilla — He preaches in the synagogue — Reminiscences of the failure at Athens— Quarrels with the heads of the synagogue — Irritating behaviour — Converts — The moral character of his converts — Discouragement — Violent language towards the Jews — An uproar — Gallio — Paul is charged before him with high treason — He is discharged — Sosthenes maltreated as an informer — Renan on Paul before Gallio — Organisation of the Mace- donian Churches — Unorganised condition of the Corinthian Church — Development a law of God — Early Christianity amorphous — Development of doctrine — And of Church organisation — The Agape at Corinth — Moral mischief arising out of it — Impossibility of restor- ing a developed Church to its primitive condition — Arrested develop- ments. Fro:m Athens Paul went precipitately to Corinth. It was like going from Cambridge to Newmarket; but it was more than Newmarket, it was Chicago and New- market in one, a great mercantile centre, and a place for jockeys' and athletes; it was more, it was a Paris also, the seat of every description of profligacy. The East sent thither its licentiousness, Rome its brutality. Corinth was that one town in Greece that was least Greek. It swarmed with settlers of every nationality ; its streets were noisy all night with drunken men. Jew pedlars, 1 Chariot drivers, not riders. 242 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Levant sailors, gangs of slaves, prostitutes, wrestlers, and racing men — such was the })opulation of Corinth. The old Greek city had been destroyed by Munimius, B.C. 146, and left a heap of ashes. It had remained deso- late till Julius Caesar sent thither a colony from Italy, composed for the most part of freed men. The position was not one to be neglected. Situated in the furrow between the Saronic Bay and the Gulf of Corinth, it was as Xenojihon termed it, " The gate of the Peloponnesus."" It was, moreover, a halfway house between Italy and the East, and it was dominated by the Acropolis, two thousand feet above the sea, garrisoned by four hundred soldiers and fifty dogs. Ships from Italy reached the port of Lechasum, and on rollers were drawn by oxen along a straight and even road, five miles long, to Diolcus, where they were again floated to continue their voyage to the East. Or, if the vessels were too large, then their lading was transferred to pack- horses, tumbrils, and the backs of porters, to be carried across the isthnnis and re-shipped at the other port. Necessarily Corinth was full of sailors drifting east or west and of soldiers on their way to Syria and Asia Minor, or returning to Italy. The little Iloman colony planted by Ctesar was soon engulfed in the floods of strangers who came to Corinth scenting gain. Some of the old Greeks returned, but too few and too poor to constitute an aristocracy. In such a town, power, position, were in the hands of the rich merchants, the contractors, and jobbers. On the Acrocorinth was the temple of Venus Pandemos, served by a thousand beautiful priestesses, all courtesans. But indeed the whole town was a pandemonium, in which the vilest orgies were perpetrated with utter shamelessness. THE SECOND JOURNEY -CORINTH !243 There, and there only in Greece, were to be seen the butcheries of the gladiatorial shows and the fights with beasts. Every third year were held the Isthmian games, by the temple of Poseidon, near the town; and for some time previous the streets were resonant with the twanging of strings, the twittering of j)ipes and the screaming of singers running up and down the chromatic scales. ^Vthletes went into training and wrestled and leaped and threw quoits, women even stripped to contend for prizes in the circus. Beasts for the amphitheatre were landed from Africa and Asia, and attended by crowds of boys from the landing-place to their cavea\ The knowing ones watched the horses being; trained and made books for the coming- races. In the squares, in the midst of a ring, mountebanks exhibited, like that man described by Appuleius, who swal- lowed the head of a pike and made a little boy twirl on ti})toe at the other end of the shaft. For a while the whole place went mad with excitement, and every restraint of order and decency was cast aside. It was a Barthlemy Fair carried to a pitch incredible to a Northern mind. On reaching Corinth, Paul took up his abode with Aquila and Priscilla, he a Jew of Pontus, who had been settled in Rome, but had left it on account of the edict of Claudius against the Jews. By trade Aquila was a tent- maker, and as he was already a Christian, he and his wife gladly welcomed the Apostle. They do not seem to have been disposed to settle permanently in Corinth, for we meet with them later at Ephesus ; then they returned to Corinth, and finally passed into Asia. Evidently at the time this worthy couple was not well off, and Paul suffered from want, till relieved by money sent him by his converts in Macedonia. 244 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL As soon as Paul was in lodg-in<;s, lie went on the Sabbath to the synagogue, as a large Jewish settlement was at Corinth, "and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sab- bath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greek jiroselvtes.''"" He was now on familiar ground, he could go over his old ai'guments, (|uote the same much-used prophecies, confident of the same success that had followed elsewhere. He had done with the method ventured' on to the Greeks of Athens. " Brethren, a\ hen I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom [as I did at Athens], but declared to you the testimony of God My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man''s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of po\\cr; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this A\'orld, that come to nought.""- The first Epistle to the Corinthians was not written till two or three years later, and yet it is clear that the recollection of the dismal failure at Athens still rankled in his heart. The epistle abounds in thrusts and gibes at secular wisdom.^ Presently Timothy and Silas arrived from Macedonia, and then Paul took a bolder line. Hitherto, so as not to be burdensome on his hosts, he had worked for his living, and had but the Sabbath day in which to address the Jews, and then only when suffered by the rulers of the syna- gogue.^ But on the receipt of money from Thessalonica and Philippi, he was at greater liberty, and gave himself up wholly to preaching, " testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ."" 1 Acts xviii. 4. - I Cor. ii. i-6. * I Cor. i. 17-28 ; ii. 1-8, 12-16 ; iv. 10. ■* 2 Cor. xi. g. THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH 245 The heads of the ghetto at Corinth, rich merchants and money-lenders, now began to stir themselves, and he found himself excluded from the synagogue. Thereupon he ])ursued a course vastly aggravating. " He shook his raiment and said to them. Your blood be upon vour own heads : I am clean : from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Titius Justus, a godfearing proselyte, whose house joined hard to the synagogue ; but Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house ; and many of the people of Corinth used to hear and believe and receive baptism."'"'^ As Professor Ramsay says, " It must be acknowledged that Paul had not a very conciliatory way with the Jews when he became angry. The shaking out of his garments was undoubtedly a very exasperating gesture, and the occupying of a meeting-house next door to the synagogue, with the former archlsynagogos as a prominent officer, was more than human nature could stand."^ Paul certainly at Corinth met with considerable sviccess, so that he was induced to remain there eighteen months. In addition to Aquila and Priscilla, there was Erastus, the treasurer, apparently the only man of consequence whom he gained ; Crispus, the elder in the synagogue ; and Caius, baptized by St. Paul with his own hands, as were Stephanas and his family, he who received Paul into his house on the second visit of the Apostle to Corinth. There were others, probably descendants of the legionaries of Ca?sar, Quartus, and Tertius, and freed men, Achaicus and Fortunatus. All the rest belonged to the lowest class, 1 Acts xviii. 6-8. - Ramsay: "St. Paul," p. 256. K 246 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL poor and humble, inanv of them slaves,' sick and infirm persons as well,- " not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,'' ^ an euphemism for none at all. AVomen joined him in numbers, always inclined to cling to and find refuge in a religion of purity. One, Chloe, had a large household, and slaves who Avere sent with messages to and fro between Corinth and Ephesus;'^ another, Phoebe? had the honour of carrying the Apostle's letter to the Romans hidden in the folds of her Jihnafion. Mary also, Tryphena and Tryphosa, and Persis " the well-beloved,'" may have been Corinthian converts who returned to Rome when the edict of Claudius had become a dead letter.^ But in his single-minded enthusiasm and readiness to accept any one who professed conviction, Paul seems to have admitted some of the very scum of the city — " forni- cators, adulterers, effeminate, those guilty of unnatural crimes, thieves, extortioners, drunkards, revilers,"" *^ — to discover afterwards that he had been too precipitate. Notwithstanding his success, he had failures of heart ; perhaps the hostility of the Jews caused him to fear, or he may have doubted whether all this rabble of professing Christians, with their ugly past and hardly abated passions, steeped in dissolute habits, coidd be got into shape, and would not in the end bring discredit on the cause. "I was with you," he wrote, " in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."'^ At one time his discouragement became so great that he thought of leaving the place. *' Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, ^ I Cor. vii. 21 ; xii. 13. " i Cor. xi. 30. 3 I Cor. i. 26. ■^ I Cor. i. 11. ^ Rom. xvi. 6, 12. •* i Cor. vi. 9-1 1. '' i Cor. ii. 3. THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH 247 Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee, to hurt thee : for I have much people in this city.'"^ But it was against the Jews that he turned the flame of his resentment. When Seneca called the Israelite a rascally race, and Tacitus rejjroached the Jews as the enemies of humanity, these heathens did not express themselves with greater harshness than did Paul against those of his own flesh and country. From Corinth he wrote his First Epistle to the Thessalonians ^ the second had already been sent, written from Beroea. The First Epistle was composed when his blood was boiling against the Jews of Corinth. " They have killed the Lord Jesus," he wrote, " and their own prophets, and have cast us out [of the synagogue] ; and they please not God, and are perverse with all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to All up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."^ Both epistles breathe the expectation of the immediate coming of Christ. At length the Jews caused an uproar. The province of Achaia was under a proconsul who resided at Corinth. This was Marcus Annfcus Novatus Gallio, brother of Seneca, and uncle of Lucan, the poet. He had been adopted by the rhetorician Junius Gallio, and had assumed his name. He was regarded as one of the most able men of his time, as well versed in literature as in the natural sciences ; he was a man of exquisite courtesy of manner, nobility of mind, and he was much beloved in the literary circle to which he and his brother belonged. As at Thessalonica, so here at Corinth, the Jews, led by Sosthenes, the new ruler of the synagogue, charged Paul 1 Acts xviii. g-io. - i Thess. ii. 14-16, 248 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL with hioh treason, with having- sj^oken of the approaching death of the Emperor, and the coming of Jesus as King. At this time, in Home, Furius Scribonianus was sentenced to exile for having consulted the magicians as to how much longer Claudius was likely to reign, and the Senate issued an edict ordering all soothsayers to be expelled from Italy. But Gal Ho must have instituted inquiries and discovered the true character of the opposition against Paul, and when the accusation was heard, the case against him resolved itself into a question of the law, whereupon Gallio contemptuously dismissed it as one out of his department. It was a matter for the Jews to settle among themselves. No sooner was the court cleared than some Greek roughs fell upon Sosthenes and beat him. They hated the Jews and were glad of an excuse for maltreating one of them. And the excuse was there. The charge of high treason was one peculiarly obnoxious, and a delator was looked upon as a public enemy. Gallio took no notice of this piece of lynch law ; probably he was glad that the mob had taken the occasion of expressing its objection to this sort of delation. A charge of high treason dismissed by a magis- trate subjected him to the risk of himself being accused of lack of zeal for the Imperial safety and honour. There is a fine passage in Renan's " Life of St. Paul " relative to the Apostle before the judgment-seat of the Roman procurator that merits not merely quoting, but well considering. " How often are clever men lacking in foresight ! Here, face to face, were two, one certainly foremost among the ablest men of his day, and gifted with a very active intelli- o-ence ; the other, a man of the strongest and most original character of the time. They passed each other without THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH 249 coming- in contact. One of the causes why men of the world commit most of their faults is a superficial dislike inspired in them by under-educated or under-bred individuals. Manners are a mere outside form, and those who do not affect them have sometimes good reason on their side. The man of society, with his frivolous disdain for what is not up to the mark, almost invariably passes by the man who is about to give shape and im})ress to the future without even seeing him. They are not men of the same world, and the common error of all ' in society ' is to think that no other world exists of any account except their own."" ' St. Paul now resolved to leave Corinth. He had remained there longer than was usual with him, and from Corinth he was in communication with the Macedonian Churches. To the latter some sort of organisation was given ; Luke was at Fhilippi, Timothy had been left for a while at Thessalonica, and Paul could w rite of " bishops and deacons " in the Macedonian Churches. But he seems to have done nothing to articulate and shape the Corinthian connnunity. He mentions neither presbyters there nor president. He advises " subjection " towards the household of Stephanas and all such as assisted in the work and labour of the Church. Something nuist have been done, but not much. There were, indeed, prophets whose prophecies had not as yet been put to the test, those who spake with tongues, making- unintelligible noises ; some had more or less the word of wisdom, others a certain amount of knowledge, others again made great profession of their faith. But there does not seem as yet to have been any organised life. The Church of Corinth was in a sort of jelly-fish condition, without i " Vie de St. Paul," p. 224. 250 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL differentiation of members and distribution of offices. It is the law of God, imposed on life in every manifestation, vital, mental, or spiritual, that there shall be advance from the protoplasmic to the highly articulate. Every living organism passes out of the larva condition into that of pifjja, out of a state without structure into radiate or verte- brate life. It was the same, it could not f\xil to he the same, with Christianity. As I have said in the Preface, there are two kinds of organisation, that which is vital, and that which is mechanical ; the former derives from God, the latter from man. Man puts together the parts of a machine that he has schemed, and until every wheel and connection is in place, and the force is applied, the whole thing is motionless ; moreover, in the machine itself there is no progress, only deterioration through friction and decay. But with those creatures which God calls into existence it is altogether different. They are none of them put together of already contrived pieces, but are existences having in themselves the faculty of development up to a pre-ordained type. Americans can turn out artificial eggs, but not such as can hatch into birds. In an early condition of life the members are not develo])ed, nor are their functions determined. We find on the watercress of the brook a transparent lump, like a piece of jelly. It is the ama'ba. It has no parts ; it absorbs food through its pores, but it has no particular stomach, nor any brain. It has no eyes and no feet. It assimilates its food in the lump that thinks in a rudimentary fashion, and moves to suitable positions by means of the gelatinous mass that is at once head, stomach, hand, foot, and mouth. THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH 251 It was so, though not in so extreme a fashion, with early Christianity. It was, if we may employ the expression, in its grub condition. It is supposed by some that every after-expansion must be a violation of God's will because it did not exist at the outstart. But in the child the teeth are a development, and a natural one. So are intellect and a rational soul ; so are the wings of the butterHy ; so is the transformation from yelk and albumen into the articulate animate bird ; so is the plant from the seed, the planet from the nebulous mass without form. Where there is life, God's great gift to the world, there must there be growth and articulation. " First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." It is inevitable. For a body to be at a standstill is for it to be deathstruck. Compare the last Gospel with the first. St. Matthew's is a bare record of the verba and Juda of Christ. St. John's passes over historic facts to plunge into theology. It is cast in a totally different mould. In the first years, when the recollection of the incidents of Our Lord's ministry, death, and resurrection were fresh in the minds of the Apostles, they laid stress on them. It was to these that they were appointed to act as witnesses. But after a while, when these facts were accepted and became the foundation of belief, then out of them naturally and inevitably sprang up Christian dogma. Men ceased to ask. Did these things take place ? and inquired instead, What do these things mean ? We may take an example of growth of ideas from the Messianic expectations of the first believers. They were firmly convinced that Christ would shortly return, so shortly that they doubted the advantage of ])reaching a 252 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL general resurrection of the dead, as they expected that all would be alive at the second coming. But when year passed after year, and the sign of the Son of Man did not appear in heaven, then, and only then, did they begin to under- stand the doctrine of the Resurrection and to see that Christ was the firstfruits of a mighty harvest-field. So with Church organisation. It was inchoate. After the Ascension, the Apostles met in an upper room, but they attended the daily Temple worship, and this con- nection with the Temple continued as long as the latter lasted. It could not be other in Jerusalem, and it was only when the Temple was destroyed that God revealed the new direction to be taken. So also with the ministry. It was in abeyance. The Apostles could not set up a rival priesthood to that of Aaron, and direction was spasmodic and vague through the prophets. In the Didachc, a work of the first century, we get a glimpse of the primitive Church in Judiea in its initiatory stage, just escaping from its swaddling clothes. In it we see the first budding out of a hierarchy, bishops and deacons a})])ear, but on the same level with j)ro})hets and teachers, and their several functions not neatly dis- tinguished. Appuleius, in his Apology, cjuotes an unknown jjoet, who says : / hate precoc'iOKS irisdoni hi _i/oiing hoi/.s; That is because it is unnatural ; mental and physical growth to be wholesome and lovely should keep })ace. So in a commvmity divinely given life. It grows like a child, it reasons as a child, it uses its limbs like a child, it will employ its left hand as readily as the right, and its toes as THE SECOND JOURNEY— CORINTH 253 freely as fingers, but none well. As the connnunity becomes strong and manly, it becomes intelligent, and it employs its every part for a particular purpose. The worship of the early Church in like manner was inchoate. I have already pointed out how that at Antioch the Agape grew out of circumstances, the Christian love- feast was the counterpart then of the synagogue feast of farewell to the Sabbath, at the close of the sabbatical worship. But it had a different meaning at Jerusalem, it was there a commemoration of the Last Supper. The Agape was carried on till midnight, with hymns and exliortations, the utterance of j^rophecies ; and when midnight was passed and the hymn of midnight sung,' then ensued the celebration of the Eucharist. Such was the order at Troas, as appears in the account in Acts.- But it was inevitable that these gatherings, lasting from the ca')ia at 3 p.ji. till just before daybreak on the follow- ing morning, should give umbrage to the heathen. Pagan husbands very strongly, very naturally, and perhaps rightly, objected to their wives absenting themselves for so long and at night, and returning in the early hours of the ensuing morning, their breath smelling of wine. Even if nothing objectionable took place at these noc- turnal, promiscuous gatherings, still they did not bear the appearance of being respectable. No wonder that the heathen thought badly of the assemblies. Nor were they wholly unjustified, for grave scandals did occur. 1 " It was at midnight that thou didst perform thy most mighty works. At the beginning of the midnight watch, this night, didst thou give to thine elect the victory. It was at midnight that thou didst speak in dream to the King of Gerar." And so on with a series of memorials. - Acts XX. 7-1 1. 254 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL This was inevitable. So slig-lit is the tihn that separates rehgious fervour from sensual passion, that the former when allowed its freedom roars readily into a blaze of hcentiousness. It is this which makes revivalism of every descri})tion so dangerous. The spiritual element in man is most beautiful and pure, like those placid tarns, crystal clear and icy cold, that sleep in the vents of ancient volcanoes. But we never know but that a throb, a shock, may at any moment convert them into boiling geysers or raging- craters. The otherwise inexplicable strictness with which the Church from the third century insisted on fasting Com- munion can only be understood as due to the shudder and recoil at the orgies which had taken place under the old system at the love feasts. When Paul left Corinth he left the community of believers there almost wholly unorganised, to develop itself, healthily and naturally, as he trusted, through the indwelling life. It was unfortunate that it was so, for afterwards he was constrained to write to this Corinthian connnunity and remind it of the fable of the Body and its Members. It was, however, a body only, without limbs, one projection serving indiscriminately for this or that ])ur])ose. The condition was, in fact, very little above that of the basest forms of physical existence. " If the whole body were an eye,'''' Paul \\'rote, " where were the hearing .-" If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling P .... If they were all one member, where were the the body ?""' The attem})t has often been made to reduce theology, 1 I Cor. xii. 17. THE SECOXD JO rKXEY— CORINTH 255 ])ublic worshi}), church organisation, to primitive i)ulp. But although out of such vitahsed matter order springs in se(piential growth, you cannot throw back an ah-eady differentiated body into an amorphous condition witliout detriment to its vitaHty. By pulHng off' the wings of a butterfly, plucking out its antenna?, shearing its legs to stmnps, the insect may be reduced to something more or less like the caterpillar out of which it s])rang, but at the expense of everything that makes life beautiful and precious. And so also, under the blov\'-pipe, it is possible to reduce the diamond to its constituents, destroy its translucency and its iridescent facets ; but the result is the attainment of something absolutely worthless. Reformation is a different process altogether, and not to be mistaken for mutilation, unless ruthlessly carried out. The latter is an excision of organic parts ; the former, a removal of supergrowths that impede vital action. Paul was somewhat disposed to over-estimate the virtues of those who followed him, as he was to disparage and decrv those who could not accept his leadership. So con- fident was he in the vigour of his new foundation, because of the gush and unction of his converts, that he left this strange congeries of questionable characters to shape itself haphazard into a Church. Such confidence was sadly mis- placed. There are in nature such phenomena as arrested develop- ments. In Christianity it is not otherwise. In the Ebionite Church of Palestine, on the one side, and the Marcionite communities of Greece and Asia, on the other, we have two such examples. The first shows us a Judaising Church, stunted in its growth, and with consequent doctrinal 256 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL aberrations and constitutional malformation. In the INlarcionite sects we have, on the other hand, Churches very much like that at Corinth when the presence of the Apostle was withdrawn. ]\Iarcion was himself a moral man, but some of the sects professing the same belief were grossly licentious. In his entire conviction that the seed of the Word of God had in it the germ of life, Paul sowed it in Corinth, and trusted it to spring up a beautiful and fruit-bearing plant. But he forgot one important truth, that a germ of life will only act healthfully upon wholesome material. On that wliich is not so it serves as a ferment, and a process of cleansing is gone through, which brings the scum to the top and develops noxious and unsavoury gases. Later on we shall see more of this. At present no signs of mischief appeared. The accumulation of street-sweep- ings was too newly raked together to manifest its nature in the short period during which Paul was at Corinth — eighteen months from first to last. No missionary nowadays would admit a convert to full Christian privileges till he had his sincerity tested. Paul does not seem to have allowed of gradations in goodness, and when these worn-out sensualists accepted the Gospel, being in quest of a new sensation, or under the depression caused by temporary disgust at their past, he took them into the Church, just as they were, and, more astonishing still, left them to themselves. His overflowing charity and single-minded faith were destined to bitter disillusionment. CHAPTER XIV THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL A.D. 55-5S Paul resolves to visit Jerusalem — The vow of the Nazarite — Goes to Ephesus — Arrival in Jerusalem — Coolly received — Reason of this — Reports of disorders provoked by him — The Apostles desire peace — Their method successful — The question of circumcision again arises — The difficulties of the converts — The disciplinary difficulty — The difficulty of principle — How Paul endeavoured to meet these — How he might have answered objections but did not — He establishes a distinction between the Promise and the Law — The Roman process of adoption — He argues that the Law was given to convince the Jew of sin — This argument opposed by fact — How the Gnostics laid hold on this doctrine — Inspiration does not affect arguments — The world not turned or led by argument. Paul now deemed it advisable to visit Jerusalem ao-ain. He took on him the vow of a Nazarite : for what reason we are not told. Perhaps he had learned that his conduct had been mis- represented to the Apostles, and he may have been aware that a feeling of estrangement and misunderstanding might grow acute unless he made a personal explanation. Then to furnish himself with an excuse and to cut off occasion for his friends to attempt to dissuade him, he adopted this method, which made his departure irrevocable. By the vow he was obliged to abstain from wine during thirty days, and then to shave his head. The Nazir who had not arrived in Jerusalem before the expiration of the month kept his hair that had been cut off till he reached 258 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL the Holy City. When there, after seven days spent in purification, he had his head sha\ed again, and threw both crops of hair into the flames of the sacrifice. The month of the Nazarite came to an end at the moment when Paul was ready to sail. He bade farewell to the brethren at Corinth, and submitted his head to a barber at Cenchra^a.^ That his proceeding in the matter of the vow is incon- sistent with the strong Hne adopted by him towards the Law and the traditions of the Kabbis can hardly be disputed. But he acted to allay suspicion roused against him. Atjuila and Priscilla accompanied him as far as Ephesus. Their business had not prospered in Corinth. Ephesus, long famous as a place of manufacture of tents and goats'- hair fabrics, seemed more likely to afford them occupation ; and the departure of the Apostle from Corinth determined them to leave along with him. At Ephesus Paul separated from these attached com- panions, but the vessel tarried sufficiently long in the port for him to visit the synagogue and say a few words there. Thence he sailed for Cfesarea, where he disembarked, and whence he pursued his way to Jerusalem. It is not difficult to see from the reserve with which I^uke deals with this visit, not even mentioning the name of Jerusalem, that his hero was not received there with effusive cordiality. At the same time we may be mistaken if we attribute this to a divergence of views as to doctrine between him and Peter, James, and the rest. At this point almost all writers of the Life of St. Paul pause to administer a lecture to the A})ostles for their 1 Acts xviii. 1 8. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 259 narrowness and shortsightedness in not recognising the incomparable superiority of Paul, and in not submitting themselves unreservedly to his dictation. Here is the way in which that mouther of common opinion, Dean Farrar, scolds : " Had James, and the circle of which he was the centre, only understood how vast for the future of Christianity would be the issues of his ])erilous and toil- some journeys, had they but seen how insignificant, com- pared with the labours of St. Paul, would be the part which they themselves were playing in furthering the universality of the Church of Christ, with what affection and admiration Avould they have welcomed him ! " This is begging the whole question. How can we say that the work of the Apostles at Jerusalem was not as great, if not indeed greater, in its result than that of Paul ? They sat at the centre, forming as it were a powerful battery sending out shock after shock to the limits of the /■ civilised world. But their method was not so striking in 2, story as the comet-like whirls of Paul. They strewed the \^J seed over every tidal wave that rolled to Jerusalem at ' every feast, and then retreated to the ends of the earth, whereas he darted about dropping grains here and there. He has had his story told by an admirer whom he furnished Avith biographical details ; not so they. But in the realm of grace it is not always such as are most advertised who have achieved the greatest things for God, but the silent and hidden workers whose labours have been unrecorded. We can imderstand the coolness with which Paul was \ received without supposing that this was due to difference of doctrine. The incessant influx of Jews and proselytes from all cpiarters, rising to a veritable spring-tide at the Passover, 260 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL brought them acquainted with Paul's mode of initiating his missions in the several towns he visited. This would be represented to them in adverse colours heightened by resentment. The Jews from Galatia and Macedonia would complain that his process was little better than that of conveving into his own basket all the fish other men had caught. They would also, with great truth, affirm that the result of his })roceedings was to jjroduce a riot and to stir up angrv feelings. The Apostles remembered that they had had experience of this sort of thing with Stephen ; and they were almost certain to call for an explanation from Paul. I do not see that we need assume a doctrinal difference, of which there is so little trace in the Acts and the Epistles. Inevitably his conduct with its results would reach their ears, and as inevitably would they entertain doubts as to whether he was justified in adopting and pursuing his method. Having still at heart the design of making of the Jewish nation, with its ramifications throughout the world, the missionary jiower whereby the nations were to be brought to Christ, at least of giving to it the oppor- tunity of becoming so, the Apostles mav have thought that Paul was unnecessarily interfering with and ruiming counter to their design. There is a chapter in Renan's " Life of St. Paul '' headed " Propagation sourde du Christianisme," and others beside him have been led to remark on the singular and a]ij)arently inexplicable manner in which Christianity radiated every- where without any Paul or Barnabas rushing about found- ing churches. But this was entirely due to the })lan adopted by the A})ostles from the first. It was extra- THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 261 ordinarily successful, and so long as it succeeded they considered themselves justified in pursuing it. But some of the Twelve had already departed to plant centres else- where, and those still in Jerusalem could not object to a method of diffusion of the Truth that was obviously of advantage. They desired, as sincerely as did Paul, that the nations should be brought within the one fold, but they saw in the peculiar position of the Jewish race, in its dispersion and in the influence it evervwhere gained over the minds of the well disposed — in this they saw a provi- dential means of enlightening the entire world, and they were extremely reluctant to make of the Jews enemies to the Gospel instead of evangelists. I think, therefore, that the coolness felt towards Paul is explicable without having recourse to the theory of doctrinal antagonism proposed by Baur. The Tubingen school have assumed that a split occurred between Peter and James on one side and Paul on the other, and that this is thinly veiled in the Epistles and disguised in the Acts. This latter work they pretend was written with intent to falsify facts, so as to represent the Apostolic ChiuTh as harmonious, whereas it was torn by furious faction. Without such a violent assumption, we can understand that there should exist a slight uneasiness relative to Paul's conduct in starting a mission, of which uneasiness indeed traces remain ; as also that there might be impatience on his part relative to the long-suffering exhibited by the elder Apostles towards the Jews. There were questions rising to the surface that provoked differences of opinion and of conduct in facing them, but none calculated to produce lasting estrangement. s 262 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL The new wine in the old bottles was working-, and was rending the sides and oozing forth. The Gospel and the Law could not unite without chemical action and the development of a corresponding heat, but when the com- bination was effected the heat would subside. The first manifestation of heat was over the question of circumcision. Was it obligatory as a preliminary to baptism, or was it not ? Tliis the Apostles had decided by virtue of their authority to bind and loose. But, inevitably, the question started up again in connection with the Agape. Were the uncircumcised to be admitted to the Lord's table ? There can be no dispute as to the fact of there having been a Judaising party in the Church. But that which I venture to dispute is that James and Peter were moving springs in it. They may have foreseen, they probably did foresee, that at some future time a rupture would ensue between Church and Synagogue, but the privilege offered to Jewdom was so great, and the advantage to the Church of a national conversion so incalculable, that they Avere unwilling to precipitate it. They were disposed in small matters to concede to Jewish prejudice; but it was precisely as to what were small matters and which were matters of prin- ciple that difference of opinion might arise. It is admitted bv the Tid)ingen school that there is no evidence of real antagonism of o})inion to be traced in the Epistles of James and Peter, and therefore these letters are scornfully rejected as fabrications composed to give a false appearance of unity where discord actually })revailed. The cpiestion could not fail to be ventilated in every Chiu-ch composed of .lew and Gentile converts, to what THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 263 extent the Law was repealed ; wliether, indeed, it was at all repealed. It was a question that would start up in every mind and trouble every conscience. So prepossessed are \\e against the Judaisers, so easy do we feel under the solution of the problem arrived at eventually, that we have come to regard the Judaic faction as impracticable and bigoted, and to suppose that what is obvious now to every National School child was as clear to the early believers. In the Middle Ages there was a controversy that caused infinite trouble, excited furious partisanship, and which lasted for over half a century. It concerned investiture. The Emperor claimed the right to invest a prelate with his office by the givnig of staff and ring, and the Pope resisted this as a sacrilegious encroachment by the temporal power. All at once, after fifty years of conflict and the shedding of much blood, it suddenly occurred to each party that there was right on both sides. All the Sovereign demanded was the power to confer temporal jurisdiction over the See, and he made no claim whatever to the giving of spiritual authority. A reconciliation followed at once. The entire struggle had been due to misconception. So now the strife about the position of the Law was one due to misconception. Directly this was perceived the waves sank. The difficulty in the mind of the Judaisers was very real and very justifiable. They asked but one thing — to be given a convincing reason why they should neglect certain commands that had been imposed by God. Paul was of an excitable nature, irritable under oppo- sition, and incapacitated by his rabbinic education for 264 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL thinking clearly, so that he was unahle to furnish the reason which would at once have set nien''s minds at ease and cooled down all the heat. He no more saw the strength and sincerity of the op])osition, and that it was based on a real right, than did Greoorv ^'II. when he launched excommunication aoainst Henry IV. The line that Paid might have taken seems to us so obvious that we are surprised it never occurred to him. We will come to that later. Let us now see what the difficulties were that perplexed the converts. I. The DincipJinary Difficulty. This has been already touched on. But in order that the reader may be able to understand that the objections raised by the Judaisers were not captious, and that they really sprang out of conscientious scruples, it is as well to recapitulate shortly what has been said before. The Jew believer was put in a dilennna by his associa- tion at the Agape and Eucharist with the Gentile convert. If he ate with him then he became ceremonially imclean, and must undergo ])urification that was irksome to him- self and implied a slight on the Christianity of the Gentile brother. It did more than that. It introduced an element of discord ; in practice it denied the unity of the members of the one body. There were two ways of getting over the difficulty. One was boldly to jiroclaim the abolition of circumcision, and forbid the Jewish converts from ])urifying themselves after connnunion with their uncircumcised brethren. The other was to make the acceptance of circumcision a cjualification for communion. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL m5 Paul would have undoubtedly declared for the first alter- native. But there were others who would answer : You may be right in principle, but is not this a case in which charity recommends a compromise ? Practically, the whole thing resolved itself into this shape. Was the Church to be made up of communicants only, or might it consist of communicants and an outer body of baptized believers ? We, at the jiresent day, have no hesitation in saying that the latter is preferable to the Elizabethan summary system of enforcing communion on every English adult under pain of imprisonment and confiscation of goods. As the Apostles at Jerusalem, perhaps acting by divine guidance, did all in their power to maintain amicable rela- tions with the Pharisees, was it not advisable, for a time at all events, to reserve to the circumcised the right to sit down at the Agajie ? Let the others, the bajitized, occupy the same position in the Church as did the " righteous men '' in the Synagogue. The acceptance of circumcision needed not to be enforced as a matter of principle as, in itself, conveying grace, but as a charitable concession. By submitting thereto such neophytes as were sincere would give the best possible evidence of their being in love and tenderness of heart to others, and A\'ould deserve the bless- ing specially pronounced on the jDeacemakers. They would further have the satisfaction of knowing that they were acting in accord with the feelings of the Apostles in Jerusalem who desired to prevent broils and to stave off a schism. I do not pretend that we have this argument textual ly produced, but I do think that such a line is one which must have been adopted. It is one which the party would 266 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL be forced to employ. But the clisci])linarv difficulty over- lay another of more serious nature. It was but the foam cresting the wave and not the wave itself. At bottom lay a principle, and this it was which gave real gravity to the opposition. II. — The d'lfficuliy relative to j)r'nieij)Ie. The much abused and misunderstood Judaising faction argued as follows : 1. God gave the law in a peculiarly solemn and mani- fest manner, on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 2. He then said nothing to imply that its nature was provisional, and that it was to be, in time, repealed. 3. God in His nature is eternal and innnutable. What He promises He fulfils. What He reveals partakes of His eternity and immutability, A. Therefore : There is a prhnd feme improbability that the Law should be abrogated. Again : 1. Christ, when on earth, did not abolish the Law. On the contrary, He emjihatically declared that He had come to fulfil, that is to obey, it, and not to destroy it. He had declared that not a jot or tittle of the Law was to pass away. 2. Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, who is set before man as an example whom they should follow, observed the I^aw when He lived on earth. He was circumcised on the eighth day. He attended in the synagogues. He worshipped in the Temple. He observed the feasts. 3. Moses ascended into the Mount, and received the THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 267 Law, and came down with radiant face. Christ went up into the Mount and was transfigured. But He brouijht down no new law. He was transfigured between Moses and Ehas, in token of ratification of the Law and sanction of the prophets. B. Therefore, we conchide from the Lord's acts and words that He did not abrogate the Law. But again, it )nay be urged, that although He did not do so, yet He purposed that it should be swept aside, and that this Avas to be done by His Apostles to whom He committed " all power in heaven and in earth," when He breathed on them, and conferi'ed commission and authority. But :— 1. The Spirit conferred on the Church has not pro- nounced openly and solemnly and unmistakably that the Law is repealed. 2. The Spirit speaks through the prophets, an order ordained to serve as channels of communication and direction. They have been mute. 3. The Apostles were specially instituted by Christ, received the plenitude of His power, and in the Great Forty Days between His resurrection and ascension were fully instructed by Him in all things concerning His kingdom, the Church. They also have remained silent. C. Therefore, we conclude from the silence of the Spirit and of the authorised expounders of Christ's will that the Law was not to be abrogated by the Church. From this, later, the opponents of St. Paul went on to disputing his apostolic character. But this personal opposition we will consider in another chapter. 268 J STUDY OF ST. PAUL A\'hat we have })ut into incisive form was a question that arose intlejicndent of hiin^that sprang up in Rome, where he had not set foot, as well as in Antioch and Galatia, where he had made his influence felt. It was a question that flashed out wherever the Law and Gospel met, as when steel and flint are struck together. How the Apostles at Jerusalem answered the questions put to them we do not know. But such questions arose inevitably, and arose out of the consciences of sincere men. Indeed their sincerity would have been very doubtfid, or their intelligences altogether stunted, unless they had asked them. Now let us see what should have been PauPs response. He might have dissipated the trouble agitating the Churches and rac^king men's consciences, ui a very few words. He might have said this : The Moral Law is of imiversal application. God has given to all animals instinct wherebv they fulfil the law of their destiny. But man has not such a clear and controlling instinct ; conse([uently he must have been given an exterior law at the time when he was created. Such is the Law which was reimposed on Sinai. It was no new law, it was old as man. Man as a creature, and a rational creature, has duties that he owes to his Maker. Him he must reverence, worshij), and obey. The fact of his existence, and of his having an intelligence whereby he knows that he owes his existence to God, necessitates a first Table of Command- ments, relative to his duties to God. But man is also a social being, and his happiness and THE LAW AXD THE GOSPEL 269 progress in civilisation necessitate a second Table of Com- mandments, regulating his duties to his fellow men. Admit that man is an intelligent creature of God, and made to live in connn unity with his brethren, then the imposition of a law ruling his relations to his Creator and to his fellows becomes a logical necessity. It was through forgetfulness of this law that idolatry and its associated evils arose on one side, and violence and licentiousness on the other. But the law of rites and ceremonies stands on another footing altogether. It is not of universal obligation, for it is not required by any necessity of man's nature. It was given to one nation only, and that for special reasons, (a) to preserve it as a guardian and witness in the world to the truth ; and (/3) as leading up to and finding its interpretation in Christ. So soon as He came to dispense the knowledge of the truth to all the world, then the function of the Jewish nation was at an end. And so soon as the ceremonial law •had led up to that which it foreshadowed, its office was also at an end.^ It had accomplished its purpose and expires. To understand the perplexities of men's minds at the time of the promulgation of the Gospel, we must put ourselves back mentally into that period. So only do they })resent themselves to us, but it is far easier to see the cause of these distresses and questionings than it is, with our experience, to understand the difficulty in reaching often very simple solutions. It is instructive to see how Paul, confronted with these problems, strove to find his way out of them. 1 This Paul did see. Col. ii. 17. 270 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL Instinctively Paul percci\e(l that the ceremonial law, the law of purification and of initiation into covenant, was an anachronism, that it never was designed to be of imiversal application, and that to insist on or recommend it to the neophvtes from among the Gentiles would wreck the Church as she left port. But how to disengage this ceremonial law from the moral law, how to disallow the first and establish the second he did not know. He beat about for arguments, and caught at the most inconclusive, because he failed to perceive the very simple and elemen- tary reason for distinguishing them that lay under his eyes. But is it not so in all men's perplexities, not religious only, but social and political as well, that to escape from the labyrinth, he lays hold of every thread but the clue of Ariadne ; that in trying to make his way out of the wood of errors, he takes every path except that which conducts directly into the clear H Let us now see how Paul endeavoured to meet the difficulty that arose as to the overlaj)ping or mutually destructive elements of Law and Gospel. 1. He attempted to establish a distinction between the Promise and the Law. The Promise was made to Abraham, whilst he was in uncircumcision. The Law was given later to his de- scendants by natural blood relationship. Now there are two modes of fiiiatioii : there is the descent by generation from father to son, and there is a s])iritual filiation. He referred to the custom of adoption so connnon in Roman society. A man took another into his family, and by making him a partaker of the family cult, the worship of the ancestral Ijtrcs, he became legally and to every intent THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 271 a son. The person to be adopted was emancipated by his natural father, who surrendered all natural rights over him, and the adoption created the legal relation of father and son, just as if the adopted son were born of the blood of the adopted father in lawful marriage. The adopted child assumed the name of his adoptive father. For instance, P. Cornelius Scipio ^Emilianus was the son of L. J^milius Paullus, but he was adopted by P. Cornelius Scipio, whose name he accordingly assumed, retaining only a trace of his natural descent in the .Emilianus. The real bond in the Roman family was participation in the ancestral worship of the household gods. Naturally a son united in this, but another man taken into the family and associated in this cult became a son as truly as the other. This is the idea that was in Paul's mind when he worked out his scheme of spiritual descent from Abraham. The Jew was Abraham's child by nature, the believer his child by partaking in the ancestral cult, that is to say, by the nexus of faith. Now as the Promise of Christ was given to Abraham in uncircumcision, his cult became that of Christ and the means — faith. All those, out of every nation, who partake in the same cult, by the same means, faith, become the sons of Abraham, by adoption indeed, but adoption is as real a relationship as that of blood. The argument, if only Paul had drawn it out more clearlv, would have been very telling at the time. To us, who do not understand the Roman principle of family worship constituting a spiritual but very real and legal tie, the argument is unintelligible and pointless. Moreover, Paul tangled up his argument with rabbinic subtleties relative to re-marriage after the death of the 272 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL first husbantU and to mystic ideas concerning Agar and Sarah, Mount Sinai and Jerusalem,- which could weigh only with rabbinic scholai-s. By this line of argument he laboured to show that as the I^aw was imposed on the natural descendants of Abraham at a later period, it could not bind the spiritual descendants. The aro-Liment laboured inider two disadvantao-es. 1. It presupposed that the Roman law of adoption, and relationship through observance of the family cult of the Lar pater, applied to Abraham and to all mankind. In a word, it elevated this Roman law into one of divine institution. 2. The only moral law under which Abraham lived was that of Nature ; at least, we know of no other. Consequently his children by adoption, by spiritual generation, have no other moral obligation than instinctive, natural law\ For instance, any son of Abraham by faith might live in polygamy, like his father, the patriarch. The second was a moral objection. The first vitiated the entire argument till Paul had succeeded in establishing the divine itistitution of adoption. II. — A second method i)itroduced a dangerous principle. Paul urged that the Law was ordained by God to bring man to a consciousness of sin. At first he had upheld that the Law was given as a barrier to j)revent the Jew from falling into such corruption of life as existed among the heathen. Rut he threw away this exjilanation of the func- tion of the Law and declared that it was an ordinance given by God, not to retain man from sin, but to convince 1 Rom. vii. 4-6. ^ Gal. iv. 22-26. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 273 him that he was sinful, and powerless to avoid sin. Regu- lations were multiplied to increase transgression, and torture man with a sense of his impotence. The Law, he said, is holy, just and good,^ but it is powerless to do good. It has but one object, the multiplication of sin.'- It holds man fast, like a jailer, in the bondage of sin. The Law shows man what God's righteousness is, but does not help him to attain it. It is like a flash of lightning flaring in his eyes, not to show him the way, but to convince him that he is lost. Its function is to carry sin to its highest maturity. In this sense it is '■' the power of sin.'''' ^ Till the Law came there was no consciousness of sin, and where no consciousness is, there no sin exists. Unhappily for this theory, it was completely falsified by facts. According to Paul, the Gentile having no Law, must be unwrung by a sense of transgression, whereas the Jew set in a thicket of prickles must be wincing and crying out in agony for escape. But practically just the opposite was the case. The Jew, to whom the Law had been given to cultivate in him an acute sense of sin, was lapped in self- satisfaction, and had no feeling of transgression, no desire for a Saviour. On the other hand, the Gentile, outside the Law, who, according to PauPs theory ought to be incapable of the sense of contrition, cried out in agony of mind for redemption. The Law had acted precisely, according to Paul, as it was not predestined to act. It had hardened the Jew ; and where there was no Law there men were ripe for the Gospel. ^ Rom. vii. 12. " Rom. v. 20 ; vii. 7-1 1 ; Gal. iii. 19. 3 I Cor. XV. 56. 274 A STUDY OF ST. PAUL But there was something" so re])ulsive in his view of God creatino- a law for the sake of torturing man, that one cannot he surprised that it led to consequences he had never anticipated. Be it so, said the later Gnostics. The Law is sin. It produced sin in the world, where, without the Law, there would have been no sin,^ as sin has no positive existence, but is found only where there is consciousness of transgres- sion. Does not this imply, said these Gnostics, that God is the author of sin ? Consequently the Giver of the Law is a malignant deity. And then because they held that the Creator of the world was evil, since matter is evil, they added that it was He, the God of the World, the Demiurge, who was also the Giver of the Law, and that He was in constant antagonism with the supreme and good God, the Father of spirits. Paul did not originate Gnosticism. It existed as a philo- sophic and theologic system before he was born, but when this Magian religion took into it Judaic and Christian elements, its teachers laid hold of the handle thus incau- tiously offered them by Paul. What he meant is obvious enough, that the Law was given so as to ripen in the minds of the Jews that sense of need, that broken and contrite heart without which man would not value the message of salvation. If that were its sole purpose, it had failed, and the failure was due to man's perversity. " When we consider,'' says Baur, " the position which the Apostle assigns to the Law, and the terms he uses to describe its distinctive character, we see that the law is here degraded from its absolute value, and reduced to the ^ Rom. iii. 20 ; vii. 7-9. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 275 rank in a subordinate stage. Thus we can easily understand how Gnostics of the most pronounced Antinoniianisni appealed to our Apostle's authority/"'' We hold that Paul was divinely inspired for the work he undertook, and that his writings were also inspired. iVW But inspiration does not affect arguments, nor transform ^, ' a man's intellectual capacities. What the Apostle received from God, that he communicated ; and in his c