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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE 


LIFE  AND  WORK 


OP 


ST.  PAUL 


BT 


FEEDEEIC   W.   FAEEAR,   D.D.,   F.E.S. 

LATE    FELLOW    Of    TRINITY    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE, 
DEAN    OF    CANTERBURY 


EJ  KO!   riaf<A.os   Jiv  a\\'  HvBpcairos  -ffv. — ST. 


WITH    16    ILLUSTRATIONS 


CASSELL   AND    COMPANY,    LIMITED 

LONDON,  PARIS,   NEW   YORK  $   MELBOURNE 
1898 

AIL  BI«BT»  MUMVZ0 


College* 
Library 

BS 


TO  THB 

RIGHT   HEY.    J.    B.    LIGHTFOOT,   D.D., 

LORD   BISHOP   Of   DURHAM, 

K)     WHOM     ILL    STUDENTS    OP    BT.     PATJL'S     EPISTLES     AEE     DEEPLY    INDEBTED, 
AND  JTBOM  WHOM  FOB  THIBTY  YEARS  I  HATE  BiSCBIVED  MANY  KINDNESSES, 

3T  Dedicate 

THESE    STUDIES    ON    THS    LIFS    AND    WORK 

or 
THS    APOSTLS    OF    TBS    GENTILES. 


viii  PBBVACB. 

all  students  of  St.  Fanl  most  be  largely  indebted,  and  I  need  not  say  that  my 
own  book  is  not  intended  in  any  way  to  come  into  competition  with  theirs. 
It  has  been  written  in  great  measure  with  a  different  purpose,  as  well  as  from 
A  different  point  of  view.  My  chief  object  has  been  to  give  a  definite,  ac- 
curate, and  intelligible  impression  of  St.  Paul's  teaching ;  of  the  controversies 
in  which  he  was  engaged ;  of  the  circumstances  which  educed  his  statements 
of  doctrine  ami  practice ;  of  the  inmost  heart  of  his  theology  in  each  of  its 
phases ;  of  his  Epistles  as  a  whole,  and  of  each  Epistle  in  particular  as  com- 
plete and  perfect  in  itself.  The  task  is,  I  think,  more  necessary  than  might 
be  generally  supposed.  In  our  custom  of  studying  the  Bible  year  after  year 
in  separate  texts  and  isolated  chapters,  we  are  but  too  apt  to  lose  sight  of 
what  the  Bible  is  as  a  whole,  and  even  of  the  special  significance  of  its 
separate  books.  I  thought,  then,  that  if  I  could  in  any  degree  render  each 
of  the  Epistles  more  thoroughly  familiar,  either  in  their  general  aspect  or 
in  their  special  particulars,  I  should  be  rendering  some  service — however 
humble — to  the  Church  of  God. 

With  this  object  it  would  have  been  useless  merely  to  retranslate  the 
Epistles.  To  do  this,  and  to  append  notes  to  the  more  difficult  expressions, 
would  have  been  a  very  old,  and  a  comparatively  easy  task.  But  to  make  the 
Epistles  an  integral  part  of  the  life — to  put  the  reader  in  the  position  of  those 
to  whom  the  Epistles  were  first  read  in  the  infant  communities  of  Macedonia 
and  Proconsular  Asia — was  a  method  at  once  less  frequently  attempted,  and 
more  immediately  necessary.  I  wish  above  all  to  make  the  Epistles  comprehen- 
sible and  real.  On  this  account  I  have  constantly  deviated  from  the  English 
version.  Of  the  merits  of  that  version,  its  incomparable  force  and  melody,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  speak  with  too  much  reverence,  and  it  only  requires 
the  removal  of  errors  which  were  inevitable  to  the  age  in  which  it  was 
executed,  to  make  it  as  nearly  perfect  as  any  work  of  man  can  be.  But  our 
very  familiarity  with  it  is  often  a  barrier  to  our  due  understanding  of  many 
passages ;  for  "  words,"  it  has  been  truly  said,  "  when  often  repeated,  do 
ossify  the  very  organs  of  intelligence."  My  object  in  translating  without 
reference  to  the  honoured  phrases  of  our  English  Bible  has  expressly  been, 
not  only  to  correct  where  correction  was  required,  but  also  to  brighten  the 
edge  of  expressions  which  time  has  dulled,  and  to  reproduce,  as  closely  as 
possible,  the  exact  force  and  form  of  the  original,  even  in  those  roughnesses, 
turns  of  expression,  and  unfinished  clauses  which  are  rightly  modified  in 
versions  intended  for  public  reading.  To  aim  in  these  renderings  at  rhythm 
or  grace  of  style  has  been  far  from  my  intention.  I  have  simply  tried  to 
adopt  the  best  reading,  to  givo  its  due  force  to  each  expression,  tense,  and 


PREFAOH,  IX 

particle,  and  to  represent  aa  exactly  aa  is  at  all  compatible  with  English  idiom 
what  St.  Paul  meant  in  the  very  way  in  which  he  said  it. 

With  the  same  object,  I  have  avoided  wearying  the  reader  with  those 
interminable  discussions  of  often  unimportant  minutiae — those  endless  refu- 
tations of  impossible  hypotheses — those  exhaustive  catalogues  of  untenable 
explanations  which  encumber  so  many  of  our  Biblical  commentaries.  Both 
as  to  readings,  renderings,  and  explanations,  I  have  given  at  least  a  definite 
conclusion,  and  indicated  as  briefly  and  comprehensively  as  possible  the 
grounds  on  which  it  is  formed. 

In  excluding  the  enumeration  of  transient  opinions,  I  have  also  avoided 
the  embarrassing  multiplication  of  needless  references.  When  any  German 
book  has  been  well  translated  I  have  referred  to  the  translation  of  it  by  its 
English  title,  and  I  have  excluded  in  every  way  the  mere  semblance  of  re- 
search. In  this  work,  as  in  the  Life  of  Christ,  I  have  made  large  use  of 
illustrations  from  Hebrew  literature.  The  Talmud  is  becoming  better  known 
every  day ;  the  Mishna  is  open  to  the  study  of  every  scholar  in  the  mag- 
nificent work  of  Surenhusius;  and  the  most  important  treatises  of  the 
Gemara — such  as  the  Berachoth  and  the  Abhoda  Zara — are  now  accessible  to 
all,  in  French  and  German  translations  of  great  learning  and  accuracy.  I 
have  diligently  searched  the  works  of  various  Jewish  scholars,  such  as  Jost, 
Gratz,  Schwab,  Weill,  Rabbinowicz,  Deutsch,  Derenbourg,  Munk,  and  others ; 
but  I  have  had  two  great  advantages — first,  in  the  very  full  collection  of 
passages  from  every  portion  of  the  Talmud,  by  Mr.  P.  J.  Herson,  in  his 
Talmudic  Commentaries  on  Genesis  and  Exodus — an  English  translation  of 
the  former  of  which  is  now  in  publication — and,  secondly,  in  the  fact  that  every 
single  Talmudic  reference  in  the  following  pages  has  been  carefully  verified 
by  a  learned  Jewish  clergyman — the  Rev.  M.  Wolkenberg,  formerly  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  Jews  in  Bulgaria.  All  scholars  are  aware  that  references  to 
the  Gemara  are  in  general  of  a  most  inaccurate  and  uncertain  character,  but 
I  have  reason  to  hope  that,  apart,  it  may  be,  from  a  few  accidental  errata, 
every  Hebraic  reference  in  the  following  pages  may  be  received  with  absolute 
reliance. 

The  most  pleasant  part  of  my  task  remains.  It  is  to  offer  my  heartfelt 
thanks  to  the  many  friends  who  have  helped  me  to  revise  the  following  pages, 
or  have  given  me  the  benefit  of  their  kind  suggestions.  To  one  friend  in 
particular— Mr.  C.  J.  Monro,  late  Fellow  of  Trin.  Coll.,  Cambridge — I  owe 
the  first  expression  of  my  sincerest  gratitude.  To  the  Rev.  J.  LI.  Davies  and 
the  Rev.  Prof.  Plumptre  I  am  indebted  for  an  amount  of  labour  and  trouble  such 
as  it  can  be  the  happiness  of  few  authors  to  receive  from  scholars  at  once  so 


X  FBKFAfl*. 

competent  and  so  fully  occupied  by  public  and  private  duties.  From  the 
Very  Rev.  Dean  Stanley;  from  Mr.  Walter  Leaf,  Fell,  of  Trin.  Coll., 
Cambridge,  my  friend  and  former  pupil ;  from  the  Rev  J.  E.  Kempe,  Hector 
of  St.  James's,  Piccadilly ;  from  Mr.  R.  Garuett,  of  the  British  Museum ; 
and  from  my  valued  colleagues  in  the  parish  of  St.  Margaret's,  the  Rev.  H. 
H.  Montgomery  and  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Northcote,  I  have  received  valuable 
advice,  or  kind  assistance  in  the  laborious  task  of  correcting  the  proof-sheets. 
The  Bishop  of  Durham  had  kindly  looked  over  the  first  few  pages,  and  but 
for  bis  elevation  to  his  present  high  position,  I  might  have  derived  still  fur- 
ther benefit  from  his  wide  learning  and  invariable  kindness.  If  my  book  fail 
to  achieve  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  written,  I  shall  at  least  have  enjoyed 
the  long  weeks  of  labour  spent  in  the  closest  study  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
next  to  this  I  shall  value  the  remembrance  that  I  received  from  so  many 
friends,  a  self-sacrificing  kindness  which  I  had  so  little  right  to  expect,  and 
am  so  little  able  to  repay. 

I  desire  also  to  express  my  best  obligations  to  my  Publishers,  and  the 
gentlemen  connected  with  their  firm,  who  have  spared  no  labour  in  seeing 
the,  work  through  the  press. 

After  having  received  such  ungrudging  aid  it  would  be  ungrateful  to 
dwell  on  the  disadvantages  in  the  midst  of  which  this  book  has  been  written. 
I  have  done  my  best  under  the  circumstances  in  which  a  task  of  such  dimen- 
sions was  alone  possible ;  and  though  I  have  fallen  far  short  of  my  own  ideal 
— though  I  am  deeply  conscious  of  the  many  necessary  imperfections  of  my 
work — though  it  is  hardly  possible  that  I  should  have  escaped  errors  in  a 
book  involving  so  many  hundreds  of  references  and  necessitating  the  exami- 
nation of  so  many  critical  and  exegetical  questions — I  still  hope  that  the 
work  will  be  accepted  as  furnishing  another  part  of  a  humble  but  faithful 
endeavour  to  enable  those  who  read  them  to  acquire  a  more  thorough  know- 
ledge of  a  large  portion  of  the  Word  of  God. 

F.  W.  FARRAB. 

ST.  MARGARET'S  RECTORY, 

isrs. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


Book  I.— THE   TRAINING   OF   THE   APOSTLE. 

OHAPTEK  I.— INTBODUCTOBY.  VA«* 

Various  types  of  the  Apostolato— St.  Peter  and  St.  John — The  place  of  St. 
Paul  in  the  History  of  the  Church — His  Training  in  Judaism — What  we 
may  learn  of  his  Life — Modern  Criticism  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles — 
Authorities  for  the  Biography  of  St.  Paul — Records,  though  fragmentary, 
suffice  for  a  true  estimate — Grandeur  of  the  Apostle's  Work  .  1 

CHAPTER  n.— BOYHOOD  IK  A  HEATHEN  CITY. 

Date  of  his  Birth— Question  of  Birthplace — Giscala  or  Tarsus  P — The  Scenery 
of  Tarsus — Its  History  and  Trade — Paul's  indifference  to  the  beauties  of 
Nature — His  Parentage — Early  Education — Contact  with  Paganism — Pa- 
ganism as  seen  at  Tarsus — Paganism  as  it  was — A  decadent  culture — 
Impressions  left  on  the  mind  of  St.  Paul — St.  Paul  a  Hebraist — Hia 
supposed  familiarity  with  Classical  Literature  shown  to  be  an  untenable 
opinion  .  .  .  »"  .  •  •  •  •  .  .  .  T 

CHAPTER  HI.— THE  SCHOOL  OF  THS  RABBI. 

Roman  Citizenship — School  Life  at  Tarsus  and  Jerusalem — Gamaliel — Perma- 
nent effects  of  Rabbiuio  training  as  traced  in  the  Epistles — St.  Paul's 
knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament — His  method  of  quoting  and  applying 
the  Scriptures — Instances — Rabbinic  in  form,  free  in  spirit — Freedom 
from  Rabbinic  faults — Examples  of  his  allegoric  method— St.  Paul  a 
Hagadist — The  Hagada  and  the  Halacha  .......  2G 

CHAPTER   IV.— SAUL  ran  PHARISEE 

Early  struggles — The  Minutiae  of  Pharisaism — Sense  of  their  insufficiency — 
Legal  blamelessness  gave  no  peace — Pharisaic  hypocrisies — Troubled 
years — Memories  of  these  early  doubts  never  obliterated — Had  Saul  seen 
Jesus  ? — It  is  almost  certain  that  he  had  not — Was  he  a  married  man  ? 
—Strong  probability  that  he  was  . 35 

CHAPTER  V.— ST.  PETEB  AHD  THE  FIBST  PENTECOST. 

Saul's  First  Contact  with  the  Christians — Source  of  their  energy — The  Resur- 
rection— The  Ascension — First  Meeting — Election  of  Matthias — The  Upper 
Room — Three  Temples — The  Descent  of  the  Spirit  at  Pentecost — Earth- 
quake, Wind,  and  Flame — Tongues — Nature  of  the  Gift — Varying  opinions — 
Ancient  and  Modern  Views — Glossolaly  at  Corinth — Apparent  nature  of  the 
sign — Derisive  Comment — Speech  of  Peter — Immediate  Effects  on  the 
Progress  of  the  Church 46 

CHAPTER  VI.— EABLY  PiBSEOtrnoms. 

Beauty  and  Power  of  the  Primitive  Christian  Life — Alarm  of  the  Sanhedrin — 
Peter  and  John — Gamaliel — Toleration  and  Caution — Critical  Arguments 
against  the  Genuineness  of  his  Speech  examined — The  Tubingen  School  on 
tkeAote 58 


COA  TENTS. 

II. -ST.    STEPHEN    AND    THE    HELLENISTS. 

CHAPTEli   VII.— THE  DIASPORA:  HEBRAISM  Aim  HELLENISM.  PA«I 

Preparation  for  Christianity  by  three  events — Spread  of  the  Greek  Language — 
Rise  of  the  Roman  Empire— Dispersion  of  the  Jews — Ita  vast  Effects- 
Its  Influence  on  the  Greeks  and  Romans — Its  Influence  on  the  Jews  them- 
selves— Worked  in  opposite  directions — Pharisaic  Jews — Growing  Power 
of  the  Scribes — Decay  of  Spirituality — Liberal  Jews — Commerce  Cosmo- 
politan— Hellenes  and  Hellenists — Classes  of  Christians  tabulated — Two 
Schools  of  Hellenism — Alexandrian  Hellenists — Hebraising  Hellenists— 
Hellenists  among  the  Christians — Widows — The  Seven — Stephen  .  .  6f 

CHAPTER  VHL— WOBK  AND  MARTYRDOM  or  ST.  STEPHEN. 
Success  of  the  Seven — Pre-eminent  faith  of  Stephen — Clear  Views  of  the 
Kingdom — Tardier  Enlightenment  of  the  Apostles — Hollow  Semblance  of 
Union  with  Judaism — Relation  of  the  Law  to  the  Gospel — Ministry  of  St. 
Stephen — Hellenistic  Synagogues — Saul — Power  of  St.  Stephen — Rabbinic 
Views  of  Messiah — Scriptural  View  of  *  Suffering  Messiah — Suspected 
Heresies  —  Discomfiture  and  Violence  of  the  Hellenists  —  St.  Stephen 
arrested — Charges  brought  against  him — The  Trial — "The  Face  of  an 
Angel " — The  Speech  delivered  in  Greek — Line  of  Argument — Its  consum- 
mate Skill— Proofs  of  its  Authenticity— His  Method  of  Refutation  and 
Demonstration — Sudden  Outburst  of  Indignation— Lawless  Proceedings— 
"  He  fell  asleep  "—Saul 73 


III.— THE     CONVERSION. 
CHAPTER   IX.— SAUL  THE  PEBSECUTOB. 

Age  of  Saul— His  Violence — Severity  of  the  Persecution  underrated — "  Com- 
polled  them  to  blaspheme  " — Flight  of  the  Christians— Continued  Fury  of 
Saul — Asks  for  Letters  to  Damascus — The  High  Priest  Thcophilus — Aretas  95 

CHAPTER  X.— THE  CONVERSION  OF  SAUL. 

The  Commissioner  of  the  Sanhedrin — The  Journey  to  Damascus — Inevitable 
Reaction  and  Reflection — Lonely  Musings — Kicking  against  the  Pricks — 
Doubts  and  Difficulties— Noon— The  Journey's  End — The  Vision  and  the 
Voice— Change  of  Heart— The  Spiritual  Miracle— Sad  Entrance  into 
Damascus — Ananias — The  Conversion  as  an  Evidence  of  Christianity  .  101 

CHAPTER  XI.— THE  RETIBEHBNT  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Saul  a  "Nazarene" — Records  of  this  Period  fragmentary — His  probable 
Movements  guided  by  Psychological  Considerations — His  Gospel  not  "  of 
man"— Yearnings  for  Solitude— Days  in  Damascus— Sojourn  in  Arabia- 
Origin  of  the  "  Stake  in  the  Flesh  " — Feelings  which  it  caused — Influence 
on  the  Style  of  the  Epistles— Peculiarities  of  St.  PauF»  Language- 
Alternating  Sensibility  and  Boldness 115 

CHAPTER  XII.— THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  LONG  MABTTBDOM. 
"  To  the  Jew  first " — Reappearance  in  Damascus — Saul  in  the  Synagogues — 
No  ordinary  Disputant — The  Syllogism  of  Violence— First  Plot  to  Murder 
him — His  Escape  from  Damascus — Jonrnej  to  Jerusalem   .        .        .        .  125 

CHAPTER  XHI.— SAUL'S  RJSCJBTIOH  AT  JKBUSALEM. 

Visit  to  Jerusalem — Apprehensions  and  Anticipations — St.  Peter's  Goodness 
of  Heart — Saul  and  James— Contrast  of  their  Character  and  Epistles — 
The  Intervention  of  Barnabas — Intercourse  with  St.  Peter — Saul  and  the 
Hellenists— Trance  and  Vision  of  Saul  at  Jerusalem— Plot  to  Murder  him 
—night— Silent  Period  at  Tarsus  ......  .  12d 


CONTENTS.  Xfii 

CHAPTER  XTV.— GAIUS  AND  ««  Jaws — PEACE  OF  THE  CHUBOH.  PAOI 
"Then  had  the  Church  rest" — Surrey  of  the  Period — Tiberius — Accession 
of  Gains  (Caligula) — Herod  Agrippa  I. — Persecution  of  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria — Fall  of  Flaccus  —  Madness  of  Gains — Determined  to  place 
his  Statue  in  the  Temple — Anguish  of  the  Jews — The  Legate  Petronins — 
Embassy  of  Philo — Murder  of  Gaius — Accession  of  Claudius  .  .  .  187 


Boofe  IV.— THE    RECOGNITION    OF    THE    GENTILES. 

OHAPTEE  XV.— THE  SAMABITANS  — THE  EUNUCH— THE  OENTUHION. 
The  brightening  Dawn  of  the  Church — "  Other  Sheep  not  of  this  Fold  " — Conse- 
quence of  Saul's  Persecution — Philip  in  Samaria — Simon  Magus — The 
Ethiopian  Eunuch — Significance  of  his  Baptism — St.  Peter  at  Joppa — 
House  of  Simon  the  Tanner — Two  Problems :  (1)  What  was  the  Eolation 
of  the  Church  to  the  Gentiles  (2)  and  to  the  Levitical  Law  P — Christ  and 
the  Mosaic  Law — Utterances  of  the  Prophets — Uncertainties  of  St.  Peter 
— The  Tanner's  Eoof — The  Trance — Its  Strange  Significance  and  Appro- 
priateness — "This  he  said  .  .  .  making  all  meats  pure" — Cornelius — 
"God  is  no  respecter  of  persons" — Bold  initiative  of  Peter — Ferment 
at  Jerusalem — How  it  was  appeased  .  ......  144 


V.— ANTIOCII. 
CHAPTER  XVI.— THE  SECOND  CAPITAL  OP  CHRISTIANITY. 
Hellenists  boldly  preach   to  the  Gentiles — Barnabas  at  Antioch — Need  of  a 
Colleague — He  brings  Saul  from  Tarsus — The  Third  Metropolis  of  the 
World,  the  Second  Capital  of  Christianity — Site  and  Splendour  of  Antioch 
— Its    Population — Its   Moral   Degradatioii — Scepticism   and   Credulity — 
D&phne  and  its  Asylum — The  Street  Singou — The  Name  of  "  Christian" — 
Its  Historic  Significance — Given  by  Gentiles — Christiani  and  Chrestiani — 
Not  at  once  adopted  by  ike  Church — Marks  a  Memorable  Epoch — Joy  of 
Gentile  Converts  .        .        .    ,     ,;  ...        ,,;  ,   .        .        .        .        .  160 

CHAPTER   XVII.— A  MARTY  JQOM  AND  A  RETRIBUTION. 

A  Year  of  Happy  Work — Another  Vision — Agabns  and  the  Famine —  Collec- 
tions for  Poor  Brethren  of  Jerusalem — Paul  and  Barnabas  sent  with  the 
Qhaluka, — The  Royal  Family  of  Adiabene — The  Policy  of  Herod  Agrippa  I. 
— Martyrdom  of  St.  James  the  Elder — Seizure  and  Escape  of  Peter — 
Agrippa  in  his  Splendour — Smitten  of  God — St.  Mark  •»  .  .  .171 

CHAPTER   XVIII.— JUDAISM  AHD  HEATHENISM. 

The  Church  at  Antioch — Stirrings  of  the  Missionary  Spirit — The  Prophets  and 
the  Gentiles — Difficulties  of  the  Work — Hostility  of  the  Jews  to  the 
Gospel — Abrogation  of  the  Law — A  Crucified  Messiah — Political  Timidity 
••  — Hatred  of  Gentiles  for  all  Jews  and  especially  for  Christian  Jews — 
Depravity  of  the  Heathen  World  —  Influx  of  Oriental  Superstitions — 
Despairing  Prid?  of  Stoicism — The  Voio«  of  the  Spirit  ....  181 


VI.— THE    FIBST  MI8SIONAEY   JOURNEY. 

CHAPTER   XIX.— CTPBUS. 

*  Sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost " — Ancient  Travelling — Prospects  of  the 
Future — Paul,  his  Physical  and  Moral  Nature — His  Extraordinary  Gifts — 
Barnabas — Mark — Arrival  at  Cyprus — The  Pagan  Population — Salamis — 
The  Syrian  Aphrodite — Paphos — Sergius  Paulus — Elymaa — Just  Denuncia- 
tion and  Judgment — "  Sad  who  also  is  called  Paul" 188 


*rr  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XX.— AKTIOCH  IN  PISIDU. 

Perga — Defection  of  Mark — Passes  of  the  Taurus — St.  Paul's  Absorption  in 
his  one  Purpose — Pisidian  Antiooh — Worship  of  the  Synagogue — The 
Parashah  and  Haphtarah — The  Sermon  in  the  Synagogue — Example  of 
Paul's  Method — Power  of  hia  Preaching — Its  Effect  on  the  Jews — Imme- 
diate Results — "  We  turn  to  the  Gentiles  " — Driven  from  the  City  .  .  201 

CHAPTER  XXL— THB  CLOSK  or  TH«  JOUBNKY. 

loonium — Persistent  Enmity  of  the  Jews — Lystra — Healing  of  the  Cripple — 
Unwelcome  Honours — The  Fickle  Mob — The  Stoning — Probable  Meeting 
with  Timothy — Derbe — They  Retrace  their  Steps — Return  to  Antioch — 
Date  of  the  Journey — Effects  of  Experience  on  St.  Paul — The  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles 212 

CHAPTER  XXIL— THB  CONSULTATION  AT  JEBUSALKM. 

"  Certain  from  Judcea  "  visit  Antioch  — A  Hard  Dogma  —  Circumcision— A 
Crushing  Yoke — Paul's  Indignation — Reference  to  Jerusalem — The  Dele- 
gates from  Antioch — Sympathy  with  them  in  their  Journey — The  First 
Meeting — The  Private  Conference — The  Three  won  over  to  St.  Paul's 
Views — Their  Request  about  the  Poor — Titus — Waa  he  Circumcised  ? — 
Strong  Reasons  for  believing  that  he  was — Motives  of  St.  Paul — The 
Final  Synod — Eager  Debate — The  Speech  of  St.  Peter — St.  James  :  his 
Character  and  Speech  —  His  Scriptural  Argument  —  Final  Results — The 
Synod  not  a  "  Council " — The  Apostolic  Letter — Not  a  Comprehensive  and 
Final  "  Decree " — Questions  still  Unsolved — Certain  Genuineness  of  the 
Letter — Its  Prohibitions 224 

CHAPTER  XXIII.— ST.  PETER  AND  ST.  PAUL  AT  ANTIOOH. 
Joy  at  Antioch — Ascendency  of  St.  Paul — St.  Peter  at  Antioch — Arrival  of 
"  certain  from  James  " — "  He  separated  himself  " — Want  of  Moral  Courage 
— Unhappy  Results — Arguments  of  St.  Paul — Character  of  St.  Peter — A 
Public  Rebuke — Effects  of  the  Rebuke — Malignity  of  the  Pseudo  Clemen- 
tine Writings — Mission-Hunger — The  Quarrel  of  Paul  and  Barnabas — 
Results  of  their  Separation — Overruled  for  Good — Barnabas  and  Mark  .  24? 

CHAPTER  XXIV.— BEGINNING  OF  THE  SECOND  MISSIONABT  JOUBNBY— 

PAUL,  SILAS,  TIMOTRT— PAUL  IN  GALATIA. 

i>anl  and  Silas — The  Route  by  Land — The  Cilician  Gates — Derbe — Where  is 
Barnabas  P — Lystra — "  Timothy,  my  Son  " — His  Circumcision  and  Ordina- 
tion —  The  Phrygian  and  Galatian  District  —  Scanty  Details  of  the 
Record — The  Galatians — Illness  of  St.  Paul — Kindness  of  the  Galatians 
— Varied  Forms  of  Religion — Pessinus,  Ancyra,  Tavinm — Their  course 
guided  by  Divine  intimations  — Troaa — The  Vision  — "  Come  over  into 
Macedonia  and  help  us" — Meeting  with  St.  Luke  —  His  Character  and 
Influence .  256 


VII.— CHRISTIANITY   IN    MACEDONIA, 
CHAPTER   XXV.— PHILIPPI. 

The  Sail  to  Neapolis — Philippi — The  Place  of  Prayer — Lydia — Macedonian 
Women— Characteristics  of  Philippian  Converts — The  Girl  with  a  Spirit  of 
Python  —  The  Philippian  Praetors  —  Their  Injustice  —  Scourging  —  The 
Dungeon  and  the  Stocks — Prison  Psalms — The  Earthquake — Conversion 
of  the  Jailer — Honourably  dismissed  from  Philippi  .....  273 

CHAPTER  XXVI.— THBSSALONICA  AND  BEIUBA. 
Thessalonica  and  its  History— Poverty  of  the  Apostles— Philippian  Generosity 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAOB 

— Success  among  the  .Gentiles — Summary  of  Teaching — St.  Paul's  State 
of  Mind — The  Mob  and  the  Politarcha — Attack  on  the  House  of  Jason — 
Flight  to  Bercea — "  These  were  more  noble  " — Sopater — Escape  to  Athens  .  285 


VIII.— CHRISTIANITY    IN   ACHAIA. 
CHAPTER  XXVII.— ST.  PATO  AT  ATHENS. 

The  Spell  of  Athens— Its  Effect  on  St.  Paul— A  City  of  Statues— Heathen  Art 
— Impression  produced  on  the  Mind  of  St.  Panl — Altar  "  to  the  Unknown 
God"  —  Athens  under  the  Empire  —  Stoics  and  Epicureans  —  Curiosity 
excited — The  Areopagus — A  Mock  Trial — -'Speech  of  St.  Paul — Its  Power, 
Tact,  and  Wisdom — Its  many-sided  Applications — Mockery  at  the  Resur- 
rection—Results  of  St.  Paul's  Visit  .  .  .;  .  .  ..  .295 

CHAPTER  XXVHI.— ST.  PAUL  AT  COBINTH. 

Corinth — Its  Population  and  Trade — Worship  of  Aphrodite — Aquila  and 
Prisoilla — Eager  Activity — Crispus — Character  of  the  Corinthian  Converts 
— Effect  of  Experience  on  St.  Paul's  Preaching — Eupture  with  ths  Jews — 
Another  Vision — Gallic — Discomfiture  of  the  Jews — Beating  of  Soathenes 
—Superficial  Disdain  ...  -  ^  :.  ...  ..  i.  ."  *  .  .313 

CHAPTER  XXIX.— THE  FIBST  EPISTM  TO  THB  THKSSALONIANS. 
Timothy  with  St.  Paul — Advantages  of  Epistolary  Teaching — Importance  of 
bearing  its  Characteristics  in  Mind — Vivid  Spontaneity  of  Style — St. 
Paul's  Form  of  Greeting— The  Use  of  "  we  "  and  "  I " — Grace  and  Peace— 
The  Thanksgiving — Personal  Appeal  against  Secret  Calumnies — Going  off 
at  a  Word — Bitter  Complaint  against  the  Jews — Doctrinal  Section — The 
Coming  of  the  Lord — Practical  Exhortations — Unreasonable  Fears  as  regards 
the  Dead — Be  ready — Warning  against  Insubordination  and  Despondency 
— Its  Reception — The  Second  Advent — Conclusion  of  the  First  Epistle  .  325 

CHAPTER  XXX.— THB  SECOND  EPISTLB  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 
News  from  Thessalonica — Effects  of  the  First  Letter — A  New  Danger — Escha- 
tological  Excitement — "  We  which  are  alive  and  remain  "—St.  Paul's 
Meaning — The  Day  of  the  Lord — Destruction  of  the  Roman  and  the 
Jewish  Temples — Object  of  the  Second  Epistle — The  Epistles  Rich  in 
Details,  but  Uniform  in  Method — Consist  generally  of  Six  Sections— The 
Greeting — Doctrinal  and  Practical  Sections  of  the  Epistle  —  Moral 
Warnings — Autograph  Authentication — Passage  respecting  "  the  Man  ol 
Sin  " — Mysterious  Tone  of  the  Language — Reason  for  this — Similar 
Passage  in  Josephns — What  is  meant  by  "  the  Checker  "  and  "  the  Check  " 
— The  rest  incapable  of  present  explanation  ..'•,••  .  .  .  .  SiO 


IX.— EPHESU8. 
CHAPTER  XXXI.— PAUL  AT  EPHKSUS, 

St.  Panl  leaves  Corinth — Nazarite  Vow — Ephesian  Jews — Fourth  Viait  to  Jeru- 
salem— Cold  Reception — Return  to  Antioch — Confirms  Churches  of  Galatia 
and  Phrygia — Re-visits  Epheaus — Its  Commerce,  Fame,  and  Splendour — 
Its  Great  Men — Roman  Rule — Asylum  —  Temple  of  Artemia  —  The 
Heaven-fallen — Megabyzi — Ephesian  Amulets — Apollonius  of  Tyana — 
Letters  of  the  Pseudo-Heraclitus — Apollos — Disciples  of  John —  School  of 
Tyrannus — "  Handkerchiefs  and  Aprons  " — Discomfiture  of  the  Ben! 
Sceva — Burning  of  Magic  Books — Trials  and  Perils  at  Ephesns — Bad 
News  from  Corinth — The  Ephesia — Exasperation  of  the  Artisans — Artemis 
—Demetrius — Attempt  to  seize  Paul — Riot  in  the  Theatre — Gaiofc  and 


MM 

Aristarohns — Speech  of  the  Recorder — Farewell  to  the  Church  at  Ephesus 
— Present  Condition  of  Ephesus         .         .         .         ...        .        .  851 

CHAFFER  XXXII.— FIEST  LSTTBB  TO  THE  CHTJBOH  AT  COBIKTH. 
DifBculties  of  Converts  from  Heathenism — Letter  from  Corinth — Various  En. 
qniries — Disputes  in  the  Church — Apollos'  Party — Petrine  Party — The 
Judaic  Teacher — Disorderly  Scenes  in  Church  Assemblies — The  Agapso — 
Desecration  of  the  Encharistio  Feast — Condonation  of  the  Notorious 
Offender — Steps  taken  by  St.  Paul — Sends  Titna  to  Corinth — Dictates  to 
Sosthenes  a  letter  to  the  Corinthians — Topics  of  Letter — Greeting — Thanks- 
givings— Party-spirit — True  and  False  Wisdom — Sentence  on  the  Notorious 
Offender — Christ  our  Passover — Christian  and  Heathen  Judges — Lawful 
and  Unlawful  Meats — Marriage — Celibacy — Widows — Divorce — Meats 
offered  to  Idols — Digression  on  his  Personal  Self-abnegation,  and  Inference 
from  it — Covering  the  Head — Disorder  at  the  Lord's  Supper — Glossolalia — 
Charity — Rules  about  Preaching — The  Resurrection — Practical  Directions 
— Salutations — Benediction  ...  ...  376 

CHAPTER  XXXIII.— SECOND  LBTTKB  TO  THB  CHURCH  AT  OOBINTH. 

Anxiety  of  St.Paul— Short  Stay  at  Troas — Meeting  with  Titus— Effect  of  First 
Letter  on  the  Corinthians — Personal  Opposition  to  his  Authority — Return 
of  Titus  to  Corinth — Trials  in  Macedonia — Characteristics  of  the  Epistle — 
Greeting — Tribulation  and  Consolation — Self-defence — Explanations — Me- 
taphors— Ministry  of  the  New  Covenant — Eloquent  Appeals — Liberality  of 
the  Churches  of  Macedonia — Exhortation  to  Liberality — Sudden  change  of 
Tone — Indignant  Apology — Mingled  Irony  and  Appeal— False  Apostles — 
Unrecorded  Trials  of  his  Life — Vision  at  his  Conversion — Proofs  of  the 
Genuineness  of  his  Ministry — Salutation — Benediction  ....  401 

CHAPTER  XXXIV.— SECOND  VISIT  TO  COBINTH. 

Second  Sojourn  in  Macedonia — Brief  Notice  by  St.  Luke — Ulyricum  the  furthest 
point  of  his  Missionary  Journey — Institution  of  the  Offertory — His  Fellow 
Travellers  in  the  Journey  to  Corinth — His  Associates  at  Corinth — Condition 
of  the  Church — Two  Epistles  written  at  Corinth 420 

CHAPTER  XXXV. — IMPOBTANCB  OF  THE  EPISTLB  TO  THB  GALATIANS. 
Judaising  Opponents  among  the  Galatian  Converts — Galatian  Fickleness — 
Arguments  against  St.  Paul — Circumcision  the  Battle-ground — Christian 
Liberty  at  Stake — Instances  of  Proselytes  to  Circumcision  among  the 
Heathen  Royal  Families — Courage  and  Passion  of  St.  Paul's  Argument — 
The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  Manifesto  of  Freedom  from  the  Yoke 
of  Judaism 425 

CHAPTER  XXXVI.— THB  EPISTLB  TO  THB  GALATIAHS. 

Brief  Greeting — Indignant  Outburst — Vindication  of  his  Apostolic  Authority — 
Retrospect — Slight  Intercourse  with  the  Apostles — Co-ordinate  Position — 
Eephas  at  Antioch — Second  Outburst — Purpose  of  the  Law — Its  Relation 
to  the  Gospel — Boldness  of  his  Arguments — Justification  by  Faith — Alle- 
gory of  Sarah  and  Hagar — Bondage  to  the  Law — Freedom  in  Christ — 
Lusts  of  the  Flesh — Fruits  of  the  Spirit — Practical  Exhortations — Auto- 
graph Conclusion — Contemplates  another  Visit  to  Jerusalem,  and  a  Letter 
to  Rome  .  .  .  .  .^' ,431 

CHAPTER  XXXVII.— THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS,  AND  THB 

THEOLOGY  or  ST.  PAUL. 

The  Jews  at  Rome — Numbers  of  the  Christian  Converts — Christianity  Intro- 
duced into  Rome — Not  by  St.  Peter — Was  the  Church  mainly  Jewish  or 
Gentile? — Solution  of  Apparent  Contradictions — Note  on  the  Sixteenth 
Chapter — Probably  Part  of  a  Letter  to  Ephesus — Main  Object  of  ths 


OONTSHT6.  rvH 

MMfl 

Epistle — Written  in  »  Peaceful  Mood — Theory  of  Baur  as  to  the  Origin  of 
the  Epistle — Origin  and  Idea  of  the  Epistle — Outlines  of  the  Epistle  .        .445 

II.— GENERAL  THESIS  or  THE  EPISTLE. 

Salutation — Thanksgiving — Fundamental  Theme — The  Just  shall  live  by  Faith 
—Examination  of  the  Meaning  of  the  Phrase  ......  458 

HI.— UNIVEBSALITT  OF  SUT. 

Quilt  of  the  Gentiles — God's  Manifestation  of  Himself  to  the  Gentiles  in  His 
Works — Therefore  their  Sin  inexcusable — Vices  of  Pagan  Life— The  Jew 
more  inexcusable  because  more  enlightened — Condemned  in  spite  of  their 
Circumcision  and  Legal  Obedience  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  4G4 

IV.— OBJECTIONS  AND  CONFIRMATIONS. 

Has  the  Jew  an  Advantage  ? — Can  God  justly  Punish  P — Repudiation  of  False 
and  Malignant  Inferences — Jew  and  Gentile  all  under  Sin — Quotations 
from  the  Psalms  and  Isaiah 470 

:  V.— JUSTIFIOATIOM  BI  FAITH. 

"  The  Righteousness  of  God  "  explained — The  Elements  of  Justification — Faith 
does  not  nullify  the  Law — Abraham's  Faith — Peace  and  Hope  the  Blessed 
Consequences  of  Faith — Three  Moments  in  the  Religious  History  of  Man-T 
kind — Adam  and  Christ — May  we  sin  that  Grace  may  abound  ? — The  Con-j 
oeptiou  of  Life  in  Christ  excludes  the  possibility  of  Wilful  Sin — The  Law"f 
cannot  Justify — The   Law  Multiplies   Transgressions — We  are  not  under  \ 
the  Law,  but  under  Grace — Apparent  Contradictions — Faith  and  Works —  ! 
Dead  to  the  Law — The  Soul's  History — Deliverance — Hope — Triumph      .  472 

CHAPTER    XXXVIII.— PBEBBSTHfATIOK  AUTO  FBM  WILL. 

Rejection  of  the  Jews — Foreknowledge  of  God — The  Resistance  of  Evil — Th« 
Potter  and  the  Clay — Man's  Free  Will — Fearlessness  and  Conciliatoriness 
of  St.  Paul's  Controversial  Method — Rejection  of  Israel — Not  Total  nor 
Final — Gleams  of  Hope — Christ  the  Stone  of  Offence  to  the  Jews — Pro- 
phesies of  a  Future  Restoration — The  Heave-offering — The  Oleaster  and 
the  Olive — The  Universality  of  Redeeming  Grace — Doxology  .  .  .  491 

CHAPTER   XXXIX.— FSurra  OF  FAITH. 

Break  in  the  Letter — Practical  Exhortation — Christian  Graces — Obedience  to 
Civil  Powers — Value  of  Roman  Law — Functions  of  Civil  Governors — Pay- 
ment of  Civil  Dues — Ebionitio  Tendencies — Advice  to  "  Strong  "  and 
"  Weak  " — Entreaty  for  the  Prayers  of  the  Church — Benediction — Reasons 
for  concluding  that  the  Sixteenth  Chapter  was  addressed  to  the  Ephesian 
Church — Concluding  Doxology  .  .  .  ...  .  .  .  501 

CHAPTER  XL. — THE  LAST  JOUBNET  TO  JEBOSALEM. 

Preparing  to  Start  for  Jerusalem — Fury  of  the  Jews — Plot  to  Murder  St.  Paul 
— How  defeated — Companions  of  his  Journey — He  Remains  at  Philippi 
with  St.  Luke  for  the  Passover — Troas — Eutychus — Y,Talk  from  Troas  to 
Assos — Sail  among  the  Grecian  Isles  to  Miletus — Farewell  Address  to  the 
Elders  of  Ephesus— Sad  Parting — Coos— Rhodes— Patara — Tyre— The 
Prayer  on  the  Sea  Shore — Caesarea — Philip  the  Evangelist — The  Prophet 
Agabns — Warnings  of  Danger — Fifth  Visit  to  Jerusalem — Guest  of  Mnason 
the  Cyprian — Assembly  of  the  Elders — James  the  Lord's  Brother — Presen- 
tation of  the  Contribution  from  the  Churches — St.  Paul's  Account  of  his 
Work — Apparent  Coldness  of  his  Reception — An  Humiliating  Suggestion— 
Nazarite  Vow — Elaborate  Ceremonies — St.  Paul  Consents — His  Motives 
and  Justification — Political  State  of  the  Jews  at  this  time — Quarrels  with 
the  Romans— Insolent  Soldiers — Quarrel  with  Samaritans — Jonathan— 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

Felix — Sioarii — St.  Paul  recognised  in  the  Court  of  the  Women— A  Tumult 
— Lysiaa — Speech  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Mob — Preparation  for  Scourging — 
Civis  Romanus  sum — Trial  by  the  Sanhedrin — Ananias  the  High  Priest — 
"  Thou  Whited  Wall " — Apology — St.  Paul  assorts  himself  a  Pharisee — Was 
this  Justifiable  ? — la  told  in  a  Vision  that  he  shall  go  to  Rome — The 
Vow  of  the  Forty  Jews — Conspiracy  revealed  by  a  Nephew — St.  Paul 
conducted  to  Csesarea — Letter  of  Lysias  to  Felix — In  Prison  .  .  .  510 

CHAPTER  XLI.— PAUL  AND  FELIX. 

Trial  before  Felix — Speech  of  Tertullus— St.  Paul's  Defence — The  Trial  post- 
poned— Discourse  of  St.  Paul  before  Felix  and  Drusilla — Eiot  in  Csesarea — 
Felix  recalled — Two  Years  in  Prison  .  .  .<•-.>>»  .  .  .547 

CHAPTER  XLII.— PAUL  BEFORE  FESTUS  AND  AGBIPPA  II. 

Fresh  Trial  before  Porcins  Festus — His  Energy  and  Fairness — St.  Paul  appeals 
to  Caesar — Visit  of  Agrippa  II.  and  Berenice  to  Festus — A  Grand  Occasion 
— St.  Paul' a  Address — Appeal  to  Agrippa  II.,  and  his  Reply — Favourable 
Impression  made  by  St.  Paul 552 

CHAPTER  XLIII.— VOYAQK  TO  ROME  AND  SHIPWBECK. 

Sent  to  Rome  under  charge  of  Julius — The  Augustani — Prisoners  chained  to 
Soldiers — Plan  of  the  Journey — Luke  and  Aristarchus — Day  spent  at 
Sidon — Voyage  to  Myra — The  Alexandrian  Wheat-ship — Sail  to  Crete — 
Windbound  at  Fair  Havena — Advice  of  St.  Paul — Rejected — Julius  decides 
to  try  for  Port  Phoenix — The  Typhoon — Euroaqnilo — Great  Danger — Clauda 
— Securing  the  Boat — Frapping  the  Vessel — Other  measures  to  save  the 
Ship — Misery  caused  by  the  continuous  Gale — St.  Paul's  Vision — He 
encourages  them — They  near  Land — Ras  el  Koura — Attempted  Escape  of 
the  Sailors — The  Crew  take  Food— Final  Shipwreck — The  Soldiers — Escape 
of  the  Crew  •  .  .......  661 


X.— ROME. 

CHAPTER  XLIV.— PAUL  AT  ROMB. 

Received  with  Hospitality  by  the  Natives  of  Melita — A  Viper  fastena  on  his 
Hand— Three  Months  at  Malta— The  Protos— The  Father  of  Pnblius  healed 
— Honour  paid  to  St.  Paul — Embarks  on  board  the  Castor  and  Pollux — 
Syracuse — Rheginm — Puteoli — Journey  towards  Rome — Met  by  Brethren 
at  Appii  Forum — Tres  Tabernaa — The  Appian  Road — Enters  Rome — 
Afranius  Burrus — Observatio — Irksomeness  of  his  Bondage — Summons  the 
Eldera  of  the  Jews — Their  cautious  Reply — Its  Consistency  with  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans — The  Jews  express  a  wish  for  further  Information — 
A  long  Discussion — Stern  Warning  from  the  Apostle — Two  Tears  a 
Prisoner  in  Rome — The  Constancy  of  his  Friends — Unmolestedly  .  .  573 

CHAPTER  XLV. — THE  FIBST  ROMAN  IMPBISONMSNT. 

His  hired  Apartments — His  general  Position — His  state  of  Mind — His  Life  and 
Teaching  in  Rome — Condition  of  various  Classes  in  Rome — I  nprobability 
of  his  traditional  Intercourse  with  Seneca — "  Not  many  noble  ' — Few  Con- 
verts among  the  Aristocracy  of  Rome — Condition  of  Slaves — Settlement  of 
the  Jews  in  Rome — First  encouraged  by  Julius  Caesar — Their  Life  and  Con- 
dition among  the  Roman  Population — The  Character  and  Government  of 
Nero — The  Downfall  of  Seneca — Feniua  Rnfns  and  Tigellinna,  Praetorian 
Prefects 581 

CHAPTER  XLVI.— THE  EPISTLES  OF  THE  CAPTIVITY. 

The  History  of  St.  Paul's  Imprisonment  derived  from  the  Epistles  of  -the 
Captivity — The  four  Groups  into  which  the  Epistles  may  be  divided — The 


CONTENTS.  TIT 

PAGE 

Characteristics  of  those  Groups  —  Key-note  of  eaoh  Epistle  —  The  Order  of 
the  Epistles  —  Arguments  in  favour  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  being: 
the  earliest  of  the  Epistles  of  the  Captivity  —  Parallels  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  —  St.  Paul's  Controversy  with 
Judaism  almost  at  an  end  —  Happier  Incidents  brighten  hia  Captivity  —  Visit 
of  Epaphroditns  —  His  Illness  and  Eeoovery  —  The  Purity  of  the  Philippian 
Church  —  "  Rejoice  "  the  leading  thought  in  tho  Epistle  ....  588 


CHAPTER  XLVIL—  THB  EPISTLB  TO  ran 

Greeting  —  Implied  Exhortation  to  Unity  —  Words  of  Encouragement  —  Even 
Opposition  overruled  for  good  —  Earnest  Entreaty  to  follow  the  Example 
of  Christ  —  His  hopes  of  liberation  —  Epaphroditus  —  Sudden  break  —  Vehe- 
ment Outburst  against  the  Jews  —  Pressing  forward  —  Euodia  and  Syntyche 

—  Syzygus  —  Farewell  and  Rejoice  —  Future  of  Philippian  Church        .         .  596 

CHAPTER  XL  VIII.  —THB  CHUBOHBS  OF  THE  LYOUS  VALLBT. 

Colossians,  "  Ephesians,"  Philemon  —  Attacks  on  their  Genuineness  —  Epaphras  — 
Laodicea,  Hierapolis,  Oolosssa  —  The  Lyons  Valley  —  Onesimus  —  Sad  News 
brought  by  Epaphras  —  A  new  form  of  Error  —  An  Essene  Teaoher  —  St. 
Paul  develops  the  Counter-  truth  —  Christ  alone  —  Oriental  Theosophy  the 
germ  of  Gnosticism  —  The  Christology  of  these  Epistles  —  Universality  and 
Antiquity  of  Gnostic  Speculations  —  Variations  in  the  Style  of  St.  Paul  .  605 

CHAPTER  XLIX.—  EPISTLB  TO  THB  OOLOSSIAHB. 

Greeting  —  Christ  the  Eternal  Son  —  Grandeur  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Gospel  — 
The  Pleroma—  Warnings  against  False  Teaching  —  Practical  Consequences 

—  A  Cancelled  Bond  —  A  needless    Asceticism  —  The  true  Remedy  against 
Sin  —  Practical     Exhortations  —  Personal      Messages  —  Asserted     Eeaotion 
against  Pauline  Teaching  in  Asia  —  Papias  —  Colossaa  .....  615 

CHAPTER  L.—  ST.  PAUL  AND  ONESIMTJS. 

Private  Letters  —  Ouesimns  —  Degradation  of  Slaves  —  A  Phrygian  Eunaway  — 
Christianity  and  Slavery  —  Letter  of  Pliny  to  Sabinianus  —  A  "  Burning 
Question  "—Contrast  between  the  Tone  of  Pliny  and  that  of  St.  Paul  .  622 

CHAPTER  LI.—  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILEMON. 
Paraphrase  of  the  Epistle  —  Comparison  with  Pliny's  appeal  to  Sabinianus  — 

Did  St.  Paul  visit  Colossse  again  ?        ........  628 

CHAPTER  LH.—  THE  EPISTLK  TO  THE  "EFHBSIANS." 

Genuineness  of  the  Epistle  —  Testimonies  to  its  Grandeur  —  Resemblances  and 
Contrasts  between  "  Ephesians  "  and  Colossians  —  Style  of  St.  Paul  — 
Christology  of  the  later  Epistles  —  Doctrinal  and  Practical  —  Grandeur  of 
the  Mystery  —  Recurrence  of  Leading  Words  —  Greeting  —  "  To  the  praise 
of  His  glory  "  —  Christ  in  the  Church  —  Resultant  Duties  —  Unity  in  Christ 

—  The  New  Life  —  Christian  Submissivenesa  —  The  Christian  Armour  —  End 
of  the  Acts   of  the  Apostles  —  St.   Paul's   Expectations  —  The  Neronian 
Persecution        .        .        '.  -      ,        .        .        .,..-,..        •        .  630 

CHAPTER  LIII.—  THB  FIBST  EPISTLB  TO  TMOTHT. 

Did  St.  Paul  visit  Spain  ?  —  Character  of  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  —  Pecu- 
liarities of  the  Greeting  —  False  Teachers  —  Function  of  the  Law  —  Digres- 
sions —  Regulations  for  Public  Worship  —  Qualifications  for  Office  in  the 
Church  —  Deacons  —  Deaconesses  —  The  Mystery  of  Godliness  —  Dnalistic 
Apostasy  —  Pastoral  Advice  to  Timothy  —  Bearing  towards  Presbyters  — 
Personal  Advice  —  Duties  of  Slaves  —  Solemn  Adjuration  —  Last  Appeal  .  650 

CHAPTER  LTV.—  THE  EPISTLB  TO  TITOS. 
Probable  Movements  of  St.  Paul  —  Christianity  in  Crete  —  Missions  of  Tittw—  » 


XX  CONTENTS. 

Greeting—  Character  of  the  Cretans — Sobermindedness — Pastoral  Duties, 
and  Exhortations  to  various  classes — Warnings  against  False  Teachers — 
Personal  Messages — "  Ours  also  " — Titus  .  ......  659 

CHAPTER  LV.— THB  CLOSING  DATS. 

Genuineness  of  the  Pastoral  Epistlea — The  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy — State 
of  the  Church  in  the  last  year  of  St.  Paul — His  possible  Movements — 
Arrest  at  Troas — Trial  and  Imprisonment  at  Ephesus — Parting  with 
Timothy — Companions  of  his  last  Voyage  to  Rome — Closeness  and  Misery 
of  the  Second  Imprisonment — Danger  of  visiting  him — Defection  of  his 
Friends — Loneliness — Onesiphorus — The  Prima  actio — St.  Paul  deserted — 
"  Out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lion  "—The  Trial— Paul  before  Nero— Contrast 
between  the  two — St.  Paul  remanded  .......  664 

CHAPTER  LVL— ST.  PAUL'S  LAST  LBTTBB. 

The  Greeting — Digressions — Christian  Energy — Warnings  against  False  Teachers 
— Solemn  Pastoral  Appeals — Personal  Entreaties  and  Messages — Pudens 
and  Claudia — The  Cloke— The  Papyrus  Books— The  Vellum  Bolls — Parallel 
with  Tyndale — Triumph  over  Melancholy  and  Disappointment — Tone  of 
Courage  and  Hope .  67S 

CHAPTER  LVII.— THJE  Em>. 

The  Last  Trial — The  Martyrdom — Earthly  Failure  and  Eternal  Success — Un- 
equalled Greatness  of  St.  Paul — "  God  buries  His  Workmen,  but  carries  on 
their  Work "  .  .  .685 


APPENDIX. 

EXCURSUS  I. — The  Style  of  St.  Paul  as  Illustrative  of  his  Character         .        .  689 

EXCURSUS  II.— The  Rhetoric  of  St.  Paul 693 

EXCURSUS  III. — The  Classic  Quotations  and  Allusions  of  St.  Paul    .        .        .696 

EXCURSUS  IV. — St.  Paul  a  Hagadist 701 

EXCURSUS  V. — Gamaliel  and  the  School  of  Tubingen 704 

EXCURSUS  VI. — On  Jewish  Stoning *.  706 

EXCURSUS  VII. — On  the  Power  of  the  Sanhedrin  to  Inflict  Capital  Punishment  707 

EXCURSUS  VIII. — Damascus  under  Hareth 708 

EXCURSUS  IX. — Saul  in  Arabia 709 

EXCURSUS  X.— St.  Paul's  "Stake  in  the  Flesh"        ......  710 

EXCURSUS  XI. — On  Jewish  Scourgings      .  ......  715 

EXCURSUS  XIL  — Apotheosis  of  Roman  Emperors      ......  717 

EXCURSUS  XIIL — Burdens  hud  on  Proselytes 718 

EXCURSUS  XTV. — Hatred  of  the  Jews  in  Classical  Antiquity  .  .  .  .719 
EXCURSUS  XV. — Judgment  of  Early  Pagan  Writers  on  Christianity  .  .  720 
EXCURSUS  XVL — The  Proconsulate  of  Sergius  Paulus  .....  721 

EXCURSUS  XyiL— St.  John  and  St.  Paul 723 

EXCURSUS  XV  ill. — St.  Paul  in  the  Clementines        ......  724 

EXCURSUS  XIX.— The  Man  of  Sin  726 

EXCURSUS  XX. — Chief  Uncial  Manuscripts  of  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  .         .730 

EXCURSUS  XXI. — Theology  and  Antinomies  of  St.  Paul 732 

EXCURSUS  XXIL — Distinctive  Words  and  Key-notes  of  the  Epistle.         .        .  733 

EXCURSUS  XXIII. — Letter  of  Pliny  to  Sabinianua 734 

EXCURSUS  XXTV.— TKe  Herods  in  the  Acts 734 

EXCURSUS  XXV. — Phraseology  and  Doctrine  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  ,  739 
EXCURSUS  XXVL — Evidence  as  to  the  Liberation  of  St.  Paul  ....  741 
EXCURSUS  XXVII. — The  Genuineness  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles .  .  .  .  743 
EXCURSUS  XX VIII. — Chronology  of  the  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  .  .  753 
EXCURSUS  XXIX. — Traditional  Accounts  of  St.  Paul's  Personal  Appearance  .  758 


LIST    OF 


STATTTB  OP  ST.  PAUL        ..........        Fronttspwee 

GENERAL  VIEW  OP  TARSUS     .........  To  face  i>'i<i*  10 

OLIVET  AND  JEBUSALEM  .........        .        „       „      48 

MARKET  AT  DAMASCUS     .....       .        .        .        .        .        „       ,.    113 

EUIKS  op  THE  WALLS  OF  ANTIOOH         .        .        ."        .        .        .        .        „       „    162 

THE  COLOSSEUM:,  BOMB    .       ......       •       •      >.       „      „    187 

THE  VALLEY  o:?  THK  RIVEB  CYDNUS,  CILICIA       .....       „       „    243 

SALONICA  (THESSALONICA)        .      ........     -.       „      „    2SC 

SITE  OF  THE  ABEOPAQUB,  ATHENS  .....       .       .       .       „      „    301 

ViKW  ON  THE  BOBDEBS  OF  CAEIA  .......        .       „       „    365 

EPHESTJS,  PBOM  AYaSALOUK     .        .        .........       ,,360 

STBEET  IN  EHODES  ......       .....„„    517 

THE  TOWEB  OP  ANTONIA,  JEEUSALKM    .......„,,    528 

THB  RUINS  OF  GSSABEA         .        .        .        .»,«»,      f       .        „       ,,    546 

QBEAT  MOSQUE  AT  TABSUS      .......       c       .       „       „    683 

SUBSTBUCTUBES  OP  THE  COLOSSEtTM,    ROME  .          .          .  •  ,  ..         ,,      688 


THE 

LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


31. 
THE   TRAINING   OF   THE   APOSTLE. 


CHAPTER     I. 

INTBODtrCTOBY. 
VOT  inXoyrjs  poi  %<TT\V  otros, — ACTS  iz.  16. 

OF  the  twelve  men  whom  Jesus  chose  to  be  Tfi«  companions  and  heraldi 
daring  the  brief  years  of  His  earthly  ministry,  two  alone  can  be  said  to  have 
stamped  upon  the  infant  Church  the  impress  of  their  own  individuality. 
These  two  were  John  and  Simon.  Our  Lord  Himself,  by  the  titles  which  He 
gave  them,  indicated  the  distinctions  of  their  character,  and  the  pre-eminence 
of  their  gif ts.  John  was  called  a  Son  of  Thunder ;  Simon  was  to  be  known 
to  all  ages  as  Kephas,  or  Peter,  the  Apostle  of  the  Foundation  stoned  To 
Peter  was  granted  the  honour  of  authoritatively  admitting  the  first  uncircum- 
cised  Gentile,  on  equal  terms,  into  the  brotherhood  of  Christ,  and  he  has  ever 
been  regarded  as  the  main  pillar  of  the  early  Church^'  John,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  the  Apostle  of  Love,  the  favourite  Apostle  of  the  Mystic,  the  chosen 
Evangelist  of  those  whose  inward  adoration  rises  above  the  level  of  outward 
forms.  Peter  as  the  first  to  recognise  the  Eternal  Christ,  John  as  the  chosen 
friend  of  the  living  Jesus,  are  the  two  of  that  first  order  of  Apostles  whose 
names  appear  to  human  eyes  to  shine  with  the  brightest  lustre  upon  those 
twelve  precious  stones  which  are  the  foundations  of  the  New  Jerusalem.3 

Yet  there  was  another,  to  whom  was  entrusted  a  wider,  a  more  fruitful,  a 
more  Laborious  mission;  who  was  to  found  more  numerous  churches,  to 
endure  intenser  sufferings,  to  attract  to  the  fold  of  Christ  a  vaster  multitude 
of  followers.  On  the  broad  shoulders  of  St.  Peter  rested,  at  first,  the  support 
and  defence  of  the  new  Society ;  yet  his  endurance  was  not  tested  so  terribly 
as  that  of  him  on  whom  fell  daily  the  "  care  of  all  the  churches."  St.  John 
was  the  last  survivor  of  the  Apostles,  and  he  barely  escaped  sharing  with  his 
brother  ,the  glory  of  being  one  of  the  earliest  martyrs ;  yet  even  his  life  of 
long  exile  and  heavy  tribulations  was  a  far  less  awful  trial  than  that  of  him  who 
counted  it  but  a  light  and  momentary  affliction  to  "  die  daily,"  to  be  "in 
deaths  oft."  *  A  third  type  of  the  Apostolate  was  necessary.  Besides  the 
Apostle  of  Catholicity  and  the  Apostle  of  Lore,  the  Church  of  Christ  needed 
also  "  the  Apostle  of  Progress." 

»P«t  iL  4—8.  J  OWL  It  9.  *  B«T.  xxi.  11 

-      «  1  Oor.  xv.  U  i  S  Oor.  zL  S3. 


3  THE  LIVX  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

In  truth  it  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the  extent,  the  permanence, 
the  vast  importance,  of  those  services  which  were  rendered  to  Christianity 
by  Paul  of  Tarsus.  It  would  have  been  no  mean  boast  for  the  most  heroic 
worker  that  he  had  toiled  more  abundantly  than  such  toilers  as  the  Apostles. 
It  would  have  been  a  sufficient  claim  to  eternal  gratitude  to  have  preached 
from  Jerusalem  to  Ulyricum,  from  Ulyricum  to  Rome,  and,  it  may  be,  even  to 
Spain,  the  Gospel  which  gave  new  life  to  a  weary  and  outworn  world.  Yet 
these  are,  perhaps,  the  least  permanent  of  the  benefits  which  mankind  has 
reaped  from  his  life  and  genius.  For  it  is  in  bis*  Epistles — casual  as  was  the 
origin  of  some  of  them — that  we  find  the  earUest  uttMance^of^thatjOhristian 
literature  to  which  the  world  is  indebted  for  its  richest  treasures^qf  poetry 
and  eloquence,  of  moral  wisdom  and  spiritual  consolation.  It  is  to  his 
intellect,  fired  by  tK^ve^anUllliuninatiBrd^byTEe  Spirit  of  his  Lord,  that  we 
owe  the  first  systematic  statement,  in  their  mutual  connexion  and  inter- 
dependence, of  the  great  truths  of  that  Mystery  of  Godliness  which  had 
been  hidden  from  the  ages,  but  was  revealed  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Christ. 
It  is  to  his  undaunted  determination,  his  clear  vision,  his  moral  loftiness, 
that  we  are  indebted  for  the  emancipation  of  religion  from  the  intolerable 
yoke  of  legal  observances — the  cutting  asunder  of  the  living  body  of 
Christianity  from  the  heavy  corpse  of  an  abrogated  Levitism.1  It  was 
he  alone  \vho  was  ,  God's  appointed  instrument_to  render  possible  the 
universal  spread  of  Christianity,  and  to  lay  deep  in  tEeTiearts  of  European 
churches  the  solid  bases  of  Christendom.  As  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
he  was  pre-eminently  and  necessarily  the  Apostle  of  freedom,  of  culture, 
of  the  understanding ;  yet  he  has,  if  possible,  a  higher  glory  than  all  this, 
in  the  fact  that  he  too,  more  than  any  other,  is  the  Apostle  who  made  clear 
to  the  religious  consciousness  of  mankind  the  "  justification  by  faith  "  which 
springs  from  the  mystic  union  of^the  soul  with  Christ — the  Apostle  who 
has  both  brought  home  to  numberless  Christians  in  all  ages  the  sense 
of  their  own  helplessness,  and  pointed  them  most  convincingly  to  the 
blessedness  and  the  universality  of  that  redemption  which  their  Saviour 
wrought.  And  hence  whenever  the  faith  of  Christ  has  been  most  dimmed 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  whenever  its  pure  fires  have  seemed  in  greatest  danger 
of  being  stifled,  as  in  the  fifteenth  century — under  the  dead  ashes  of 
sensuality,  or  quenched,  as  in  the  eighteenth  century,  by  the  chilling  Waste 
of  scepticism,  it  is  mostly  by  the  influence  of  his  writings  thatjeligio*s  lif e 
has-been. revived.2  It  was  one  of  his  searching  moral  precepts — "Let  us 
walk  honestly,  as  in  the  day;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in 
chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying  " — which  became  to 
St.  Augustine  a  guiding  star  out  of  the  night  of  deadly  moral  aberrations.8 
It  was  his  prevailing  -doctrine  of  free  deliverance  through  the  .merits  of 
Christ  which,  as  it  had  worked  in  the  spirit  of  Paul  himself  to  shatter  tbs 
bonds  of  Jewish  formalism,  worked  once  more  in  the  soul  of  Luther  ttv 

*  Gal  IT.  9 ;  Bom.  viii.  3.    (Heb.  vii.  18.)        *  See  Neander.  Planting,  E.T.,  p.  78. 
»  Atig.  Confer.  vliL  12—18 ;  Kreukel,  Pauliu  dtr  Ap.  d,  ffeidcn,  p.  1, 


DTTaODTTCTOBT.  3 

burst  the  gates  of  brass,  and  break  the  bars  of  iron  in  sunder  with  which 
the  Papacy  had  imprisoned  for  so  many  centuries  the  souls  which  God 
made  free. 

It  has  happened  not  unfrequently  in  the  providence  of  God  that  the 
destroyer  of  a  creed  or  jsystem  has  been  bred  and  trained  in  the  inmost 
bosom  of  the  system  which  he  was  destined  to  shake  or  to  destroy.  Sakya 
Mouni  had  been  brought  up  in  Brahminism;  Luther  had  taken  the  vows 
of  an  Augustinian;  Pascal  had  been  trained  as  a  Jesuit;  Spinoza  was  a 
Jew;  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England. 
It  was  not  otherwise  with  St.  Paul.  The  victorious  enemy  of  heathen 
philosophy  and  heathen  worship  had  passed  his  boyhood  amid  the  heathen 
surroundings  of  a  philosophic  city.  The  deadliest  antagonist  of  Judaic 
exclusiveness  was  by  birth  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews.  The  dealer  of  the 
death-wound  to  the  spirit  of  Pharisaism  was  a  Pharisee,  a  son  of  Pharisees  ;  * 
had  been  brought  up  from  his  youth  at  Jerusalem  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  ;  ! 
had  been  taught  according  to  the  perfect  manner  of  the  law  of  the  fathers  ; 
had  lived  "  after  the  most  straitest  sect  "  of  the  Jewish  service.1  As  his  work 
differed  in  many  respects  from  that  of  the  other  Apostles,  so  his  training  was 
wholly  unlike  theirs.  Their  earliest  years  had  been  spent  in  the  villages  of 
Gennesareth  and  the  fisher-huts  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Galileo;  his 
in  the  crowded  ghetto  of  a  Pagan  capital.  They,  with  few  exceptions, 
were  men  neither  of  commanding  genius  nor  strongly  marked  characteristics; 
ho  was  a  man  of  intense  individuality  and  marvellous  intellectual  power. 
They  were  "unlearned  and  ignorant,"  untrained  in  the  technicalities,  in- 
experienced in  the  methods,  which  passed  among  the  Jews  for  theologic 
learning;  he  had  sat  as  a  "disciple  of  the  wise"4  at  the  feet  of  the  most 
eminent  of  the  Rabbis,  and  had  been  selected  as  the  inquisitorial  agent 
of  Priests  and  Sauhedrists  because  he  surpassed  his  contemporaries  in 
burning  zeal  for  the  traditions  of  the  schools.6 

This  is  the  man  whose  career  will  best  enable  ns  to  understand  the 
Dawn  of  Christianity  upon  the  darkness  alike  of  Jew  and  Gentile;  the 
man  who  loosed  Christianity  from  the 


the  world  of  Paganism  with  joy  and  hope.  The  study  of  his  life  wil 
leave  upon  our  minds  a  fuller  conception  of  the  extreme  nobleness  of  the 
man,  and  of  the  truths  which  he  lived  and  died  to  teach.  And  we  must 
consider  that  life,  as  far  as  possible,  without  traditional  bias,  and  with  the 
determination  to  see  it  as  it  appeared  to  his  contemporaries,  as  it  appeared 
to  Paul  himself.  "  For  if  he  was  a  Paul,"  says  St.  Chrysostom,  "he  also 
was  a  man,"  —  nay,  more  than  this,  his  very  infirmities  enhanced  his 
greatness.  He  stands  infinitely  above  the  need  of  indiscriminate  panegyric. 

1  Acts  rsiii.  6  (Phil.  iii.  5).    The  true  reading,  vifc  #api<reu«v  («,  A,  B,  0,  Syr.,  Vulg.): 
he  was  a  Pharisee  of  the  third  generation,  rpufwipto-atoj. 

2  Acts  xxii.  3  ;  xrvi.  4. 

*  Acts  xxvi.  5.    epi)<TK«4a  is  rather  "  colt,"  "  external  service,"  than  "religion.* 

*  The  can  mfflU  of  -whose  praises  and  privileges  the  Talmud  Is  full. 

*  Gal,   i.  14,  wpoiKovro*  tf  rf  'IwSaurp*  (ie.,  in   Jewish  observances),   «»ip,  «.f.A., 


4  TH«  LIFB   AND  WOBK   OP  8T  PAUL. 

If  we  describe  him  as  exempt  from  all  human  weakness — if  we  look  at  his 
actions  as  though  it  were  irreverence  to  suppose  that  they  ever  fell  short 
of  his  own  ideal — we  not  only  describe  an  impossible  character,  but  we 
contradict  his  own  reiterated  testimonies.  It  is  not  a  sinless  example  which 
we  are  now  called  upon  to  contemplate,  but  the  life  of  one  who,  in  deep 
sincerity,  called  himself  "  the  chief  of  sinners ; "  it  is  the  career  of  one 
whose  ordinary  life  (/8foj)  was  human,  not  divine— -human  in  its  impetuosity, 
human  in  its  sensibilities,  human,  perhaps,  in  some  of  its  concessions  and 
accommodations;  but  whose  inner  life  (f«jj)  was  truly  divine  in  so  far  as 
it  manifested  the  workings  of  the  Spirit,  in  so  far  as  it  was  dead 
to  the  world,  and  hid  with  Christ  in  God.1  It  is  utterly  alien  to 
the  purpose  and  manner  of  Scripture  to  present  to  us  any  of  our  fellow- 
men  in  the  light  of  faultless  heroes  or  unapproachable  demi-gods.  The 
notion  that  it  is  irreverent  to  suppose  a  flaw  in  the  conduct  of  an  Apostle 
is  one  of  those  instances  of  "  false  humility  "  which  degrade  Scripture  under 
pretence  of  honouring  it,  and  substitute  a  dead  letter-worship  for  a  living 
docility.  From  idealised  presentments  of  the  lives  of  our  fellow-servants,3 
there  would  be  but  little  for  us  to  learn ;  but  we  do  learn  the  greatest  and 
most  important  of  all  lessons  when  we  mark  in  a  struggling  soul  the 
triumph  of  the  grace  of  God — when  we  see  a  man,  weak  like  ourselves, 
tempted  like  ourselves,  erring  like  ourselves,  enabled  by  the  force  of  a  sacred 
purpose  to  conquer  temptation,  to  trample  on  selfishness,  to  rear  even  upon 
sins  and  failures  the  superstructure  of  a  great  and  holy  life, — to  build 
(as  it  were)  "  the  cities  of  Judah  out  of  the  ruined  fortresses  of  Samaria."  * 
It  may  seem  strange  if  I  say  that  we  know  the  heart  of  St.  Paul  to  its 
inmost  depths.  It  is  true  that,  besides  a  few  scattered  remnants  of  ecclesi- 
astical tradition,  we  have  but  two  sources  whence  to  deiive  his  history — the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  Epistles  of  Paul  himself;  and  the  day  has  gone 
by  when  we  could  at  once,  and  without  further  inquiry,  assume  that  both  of 
these  sources,  in  the  fullest  extent,  were  absolutely  and  equally  to  be  relied  on. 
Since  Baur  wrote  his  Paulus,  and  Zeller  his  Apostelyeschichte,  it  has  become 
impossible  to  make  use  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  thirteen  Epistles 
commonly  attributed  to  St.  Paul,  without  some  justification  of  the  grounds 
upon  which  their  genuineness  is  established.  To  do  this  exhaustively  would 
require  a  separate  volume,  and  the  work  has  been  already  done,  and  is  being 
done  by  abler  hands  than  mine.  All  that  IB  here  necessary  is  to  say  that  I 
should  in  no  instance  make  use  of  any  statement  in  those  Epistles  of  which  the 
genuineness  can  still  be  regarded  as  fairly  disputable,  if  I  did  not  hope  to  state 
some  of  the  reasons  which  appear  sufficient  to  justify  my  doing  so ;  and  that 
if  in  any  cases  the  genuineness  or  proper  superscription  of  any  Epistle,  or  part 
of  an  Epistle,  seems  to  me  to  be  a  matter  of  uncertainty,  I  shall  feel  no  hesita- 
tion in  expressing  such  an  opinion.  Of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  I  shall  have 
various  opportunities  to  speak  incidentally,  and,  without  entering  on  any 

1  Bios,  vita  mum  vivimus ;  6*r,,  vita  qud  vivimus.     (Gal.  1L  20.) 

»  JfeT.  zix.  10,  >  Bonraet  (1  Kings  xv.  22).    Act*  xiv.  16. 


THTBODTTOTOBT.  5 

separate  defence  of  the  book  against  the  assaults  of  modern  critics,  I  will  at 
present  only  express  my  conviction  that,  even  if  we  admit  that  it  was  "  an 
ancient  Eirenicon,"  intended  to  check  the  strife  of  parties  by  showing  that 
there  had  been  no  irreconcilable  opposition  HHween  the  views  and  ordinances 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ; — even  if  we  concede  the  obvious  principle  that 
whenever  there  appears  to  be  any  contradiction  between  the  Acts  and  the 
Epistles,  the  authority  of  the  latter  must  be  considered  paramount; — nay, 
even  if  we  acknowledge  that  subjective  and  artificial  considerations  may  have 
had  some  influence  in  the  form  and  construction  of  the  book ; — yet  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  is  in  all  its  main  outlines  a  genuine  and  trustworthy  history.  Let 
it  be  granted  that  in  the  Acts  we  have  a  picture  of  essential  unity  between  the 
followers  of  the  Judaic  and  the  Pauline  schools  of  thought,  which  we  might  con- 
lecture  from  the  Epistles  to  have  been  less  harmonious  and  less  undisturbed; 
let  it  be  granted  that  in  the  Acts  we  more  than  once  see  Paul  acting  in  a  way 
which  from  the  Epistles  we  should  d  priori  have  deemed  unlikely.  Even 
these  concessions  are  fairly  disputable;  yet  in  granting  them  we  only  say 
what  is  in  itself  sufficiently  obvious,  that  both  records  are  confessedly  frag- 
mentary. They  are  fragmentary,  of  course,  because  neither  of  them  even 
professes  to  give  us  any  continuous  narrative  of  the  Apostle's  life.  That  life 
is — roughly  speaking — only  known  to  us  at  intervals  during  its  central  and 
later  period,  between  the  years  A.~\  36  and  AJD.  66.  It  is  like  a  manuscript 
of  which  the  beginning  and  the  end  are  irrecoverably  lost.  It  is  like  one  of 
those  rivers  which  spring  from  unknown  sources,  and  sink  into  the  ground 
before  they  have  reached  the  sea.  But  more  than  this,  how  incomplete  is  our 
knowledge  even  of  that  portion  of  which  these  records  and  notices  remain !  Of 
this  fact  we  can  have  no  more  overwhelming  proof  than  we  may  derive  from 
reading  that  "  Iliad  of  woes,"  the  famous  passage  of  the  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  where,  driven  against  his  will  by  the  calumnies  of  his  enemies  to 
an  appearance  of  boastf  nlness  of  which  the  very  notion  was  abhorrent  to  him, 
he  is  forced  to  write  a  summary  sketch  of  what  he  had  done  and  suffered.1 
That  enumeration  is  given  long  before  the  end  of  his  career,  and  yet  of  the 
specific  outrages  and  dangers  there  mentioned  no  less  than  eleven  are  not  once 
alluded  to  in  the  Acts,  though  many  others  are  there  mentioned  which  were 
subsequent  to  that  sad  enumeration.  Not  one,  for  instance,  of  the  five  scourg- 
ings  with  Jewish  thongs  is  referred  to  by  St.  Luke ;  one  only  of  the  three 
beatings  with  Roman  rods ;  not  one  of  the  three  shipwrecks,  though  a  later  one 
is  so  elaborately  detailed ;  no  allusion  to  the  night  and  day  in  the  deep ;  two 
only  of  what  St.  Clement  tells  us  were  seven  imprisonments.8  There  are  even 
whole  classes  of  perils  to  which  the  writer  of  the  Acts,  though  he  was  certainly 
at  one  time  a  companion  of  St.  Paul,  makes  no  allusion  whatever — as,  for 
instance,  the  perils  of  rivers,  the  perils  of  robbers,  the  perils  in  the  wilderness, 
the  perils  among  false  brethren,  the  hunger,  the  thirst,  the  fasting,  the  cold, 
the  nakedness.  And  these,  which  are  thus  passed  over  without  notice  in  the 

»  §  Oor.  zL  24—38,  written  about  A.D.  57,  nearly  ten  yean  before  hii  death. 
*  fcrfett  fc<rpA  topfoot  (Ep.  1  ad  Cor.  5). 


tHB  Lira  AND  WORK   OF  8T.   PAUL. 

Acts,  are  in  the  Epistles  mentioned  only  so  cursorily,  so  generally,  so  nn- 
chronologically,  that  scarcely  one  of  them  can  be  dwelt  upon  and  assigned  with 
certainty  to  its  due  order  of  succession  in  St.  Paul's  biography.  If  this,  then, 
is  the  case,  who  can  pretend  that  in  such  a  life  there  is  not  room  for  a  series  of 
events  and  actions — even  for  an  exhibition  of  phases  of  character — in  the 
narrative,  which  neither  did  nor  could  find  place  in  the  letters ;  and  for  events 
and  features  of  character  in  the  letters  which  find  no  reflection  in  the  narra- 
tive P  For  of  those  letters  how  many  are  preserved  P  Thirteen  only — even  if 
all  the  thirteen  be  indisputably  genuine — out  of  a  much  larger  multitude 
which  he  must  undoubtedly  have  written.1  And  of  these  thirteen  some  are 
separated  from  others  by  great  intervals  of  time ;  some  contain  scarcely  a 
single  particular  which  can  be  made  to  bear  on  a  consecutive  biography ;  and 
not  one  is  preserved  which  gives  us  the  earlier  stage  of  his  views  and  ex- 
periences before  he  had  set  foot  on  European  soil  It  is,  then,  idle  to  assume 
that  either  of  our  sources  must  be  rejected  as  untrustworthy  because  it  presents 
us  with  fresh  aspects  of  a  myriad-sided  character ;  or  that  events  in  the  narra- 
tive must  be  condemned  as  scarcely  honest  inventions  because  they  present  no 
primd  facie  accordance  with  what  we  might  otherwise  have  expected  from 
brief  and  scattered  letters  out  of  the  multiplex  correspondence  of  a  varied  life. 
If  there  were  anything  in  the  Acts  which  appeared  to  me  irreconcilable  with 
the  certain  indications  of  the  Epistles,  I  should  feel  no  hesitation  in  rejecting 
it.  But  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  objections  urged  against  the  credibility  of  the 
Acts  appear  to  me — f or  reasons  to  be  hereafter  given — both  frivolous  and 
untenable.  If  there  are  any  passages  in  that  book  which  have  been  represented 
as  throwing  a  shade  of  inconsistency  over  the  character  of  the  great  Apostle, 
there  is  no  such  instance  which,  however  interpreted,  does  not  find  its  support 
and  justification  in  his  own  undoubted  works.  If  men  of  great  learning, 
eminence,  and  acuteness  had  not  assumed  the  contrary,  it  might  have  seemed 
superfluous  to  say  that  the  records  of  history,  and  the  experiences  of  daily  life, 
furnish  us  with  abundant  instances  of  lives  narrated  with  perfect  honesty, 
though  they  have  been  presented  from  opposite  points  of  view  ;  and  of  events 
which  appear  to  be  contradictory  only  because  the  point  of  reconcilement 
between  them  has  been  forgotten.  Further  than  this,  the  points  of  contact 
between  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  are  numberless,  and  it  must  suffice,  once  for 
all,  to  refer  to  Paley's  Horce  Paulina  in  proof  that  even  the  undesigned  coin- 
cidences may  be  counted  by  scores.  To  furnkh  a  separate  refutation  of  all  the 
objections  which  have  been  brought  against  the  credibility  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  would  be  a  tedious  and  interminable  task ;  but  the  actual  narrative 
of  the  following  pages  should  exhibit  a  decisive  answer  to  them,  unless  it  can 
be  shown  that  it  fails  to  combine  the  separate  data,  or  that  the  attempt  to 
combine  them  has  led  to  incongruous  and  impossible  results. 

I  believe,  then,  that  we  have  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  still  left  to  us 
to  show  what  manner  of  life  Paul  lived,  and  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  A 
biography  sketched  in  outline  is  often  more  true  and  more  useful  than  one 

1  I  do  not  reckon  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrew*,  bdlevinf  it  to  be  the  work  of  Apolloa. 


BOYHOOD   III  A  HKATHBN   CITY,  7 

that  occupies  itself  with  minute  detail.     We  do  not  in  reality  know  more  of  A 

great  man  because  we  happen  to  know  the  petty  circumstances  which  made  up 

his  daily  existence,  or  because  a  mistaken  admiration  has  handed  down  to 

posterity  the  promiscuous  commonplaces  of  his   ordinary  correspondence. 

We  know  a  man  truly  when  we  know  him  at  his  greatest  and  his  best  j  we 

realise  his  significance  for  ourselves  and  for  the  world  when  we  see  him  in  the 

noblest  activity  of  his  career,  on  the  loftiest  summit,  and  in  the  .fullest  glory 

of  his  life.    There  are  lives  which  may  be  instructive  from  their  very  littleness, 

aiid  it  may  be  well  that  the  biographers  of  such  lives  should  enter  into  detail. 

But  of  the  best  and  greatest  it  may  be  emphatically  asserted  that  to  know 

more  about  them  would  only  be  to  know  less  of  them.     It  is  quite  possible 

that  if,  in  the  case  of  one  so  sensitive  and  so  impetuous  as  St.  Paul,  a  minute 

and  servile  record  had  preserved  for  us  every  hasty  expression,  every  fugitive 

note,  every  momentary  fall  below  the  loftiest   standard,  the    small    souls 

which  ever  rejoice  at  seeing  the  noblest  of  their  race  degraded,  even  for 

an  instant,  to  the  same  dead  level  as  themselves,  might  have  found  some 

things  over  which  to  glory.    That  such  must  have  been  the  result  we  may 

infer  from  the  energy  and  sincerity  of  self-condemnation  with  which  the 

Apostle  recognises  his  own  imperfections.    But  such  miserable  records,  even 

had  they  been  entirely  truthful,  would  only  have  obscured  for  us  the  true  Paul 

(  — Paul  as  he  stands  in  the  light  of  history ;  Paul  as  he  is  preserved  for  us  in  xj 

\  the  records  of  Christianity ;  Paul  energetic  as  Peter,  and  contemplative  as    [ 

j  John ;  Paul  the  hero  of  unselfishness ;  Paul  the  mighty  champion  of  spiritual    \ 

<  freedom ;  Paul  a  greater  preacher  than  Chrysostom,  a  greater  missionary  than  ( 

;  Xavier,  a  greater  reformer  than  Luther,  a  greater  theologian  than  St.  Thomas   \ 

I  of  Aquinum ;  Paul  the  inspired  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  the  slave  of  the  Lord    ) 

Jesus  Christ. 


OBLAPTER  H. 

BOYHOOD      1»      A      HEATHKW      CITY. 
OVK  a<rr)/j.ou  WXews  iro\lri)s.  —  ACTS  xxi.  39. 

THOUGH  we  cannot  state  with  perfect  accuracy  the  date  either  of  the  birth  01 
death  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  both  may  be  inferred  within 
narrow  limits.  When  he  is  first  mentioned,  on  the  occasion  of  Stephen's 
martyrdom,  he  is  called  a  young  man,1  and  when  he  wrote  the  Epistle  to 
Philemon  he  calls  himself  Paul  the  aged.1  Now,  although  the  words 


»  Acts  vii.  58. 

3  Philem.,  Terse  9.  It  should,  indeed,  b«  mentioned  that  whether  we  read 
rfevpvnp  or  irpecr/JevrTj?,  the  meaning  may  be,  "Paul  an  ambassador,  ay,  and  now  even  a 
chained  ambassador,  of  Jesus  Christ.*  Compare  the  fine  antithesis,  foip  08  *pt<rprf<* 


THB   LIFE   AND   WOBK   Of  ST.   PAUL. 

and  Trpefffrinys  were  used  vaguely  in  ancient  times,  and  though  the  exact  limits 
of  "  youth  "  and  "  age  "  were  as  indeterminate  then  as  they  have  ever  been, 
yet,  since  we  learn  that  immediately  after  the  death  of  Stephen,  Saul  was 
entrusted  with  a  most  important  mission,  and  was,  in  all  probability,  a  member 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  he  must  at  that  time  hare  been  a  man  of  thirty.  Now,  the 
martyrdom  of  Stephen  probably  took  place  early  in  A.D.  37,  and  the  Epistle 
to  Philemon  was  written  about  A.D.  63.  At  the  .latter  period,  therefore,  he 
would  have  been  less  than  sixty  years  old,  and  this  may  seem  too  young  to 
claim  the  title  of  "  the  aged."  But  "  age  "  is  a  very  relative  term,  and  one  who 
had  been  scourged,  and  lashed,  and  stoned,  and  imprisoned,  and  shipwrecked 
— one  who,  for  so  many  years,  besides  the  heavy  burden  of  mental  anguish 
and  responsibility,  had  been  "  scorched  by  the  heat  of  Sirius  and  tossed  by  the 
violence  of  Euroclydon,"1  might  well  have  felt  himself  an  old  and  outworn 
man  when  he  wrote  from  his  Roman  prison  at  the  age  of  threescore  years.* 
It  is,  therefore,  tolerably  certain  that  he  was  born  during  the  first  ten  years 
of  our  era,  and  probable  that  he  was  born  about  A.D.  3.  Since,  then,  our 
received  Dionysian  era  is  now  known  to  be  four  years  too  early,  the  birth  of 
Christ's  greatest  follower  happened  in  the  same  decade  as  that  of  our  Lord 
Himself.8 

But  all  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  the  cradle  and 'infancy  of  the 
infant  Saul  wore  widely  different  from  those  amid  which  his  Lord  had  grown 
to  boyhood.  It  was  in  an  obscure  and  lonely  village  of  Palestine,  amid 
surroundings  almost  exclusively  Judaic,  that  Jesus  "grew  in  wisdom  and 
stature  and  favour  with  God  and  man ;  "  but  Saul  passed  his  earliest  years 
in  the  famous  capital  of  a  Roman  province,  and  must  have  recalled,  with 
his  first  conscious  reminiscences,  the  language  and  customs  of  the  Pagan 
world. 

There  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  doubt  the  entire  accuracy  of  the  expression 
"  born  in  Tarsus,"  which  is  attributed  to  St.  Paul  in  his  Hebrew  speech  to 
the  infuriated  multitude  from  the  steps  of  the  Tower  of  Antonia.4  To  assert 
that  the  speeches  in  the  Acts  could  not  have  attained  to  verbal  exactness  may 
be  true  of  some  of  them,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  on  such  grounds  as 
these  disparage  the  work  of  St.  Luke,  as  a  mere  "  treatise  with  an  object," 
must  bear  in  mind  that  it  would,  in  this  point  of  view,  have  been  far  more  to 
the  purpose  if  he  had  made  St.  Paul  assert  that  he  was  born  in  a  Jewish  town. 
We  must,  therefore,  reject  the  curious  and  twice-repeated  assertion  of  St. 

iv  a\v<rei,  "  I  am  an  ambassador  in  fetter*  "  (Eph.  vi.  20).  The  tone  of  his  later  writing* 
is,  however,  that  of  an  old  man. 

1  Jer.  Taylor. 

2  Roger  Bacon  calls  himself  "senem,"  apparently  at  fifty-three,  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott  speaks  of  himself  as  &  "grey  old  man     at  fifty-five.    (See  Lightfoot,  Oolotsians, 
p.  404.)    According  to  Philo  a  man  was  vtavtas  between  twenty-one  and  twenty-eight ; 
but  his  distinctions  are  purely  artificial    It  seems  that  a  man  might  be  called  vtaviat  and 
even  vtav(<nu>s  till  forty.    (Xen.  Mem.  i.  2,  35;  Kriiger,  Vit.  Zen,  12.) 

3  These  dates  agree  fairly  with  the  statement  of  the  Psendo-Chrysostom  (Oral. 
Encom.  in  Pet.  et  Paul.,  Opp.  vlii.,  ed.  Montfauoon),  that  he  had  been  for  thirty -fiv« 
years  a  servant  of  Christ,  and  was  martyred  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight. 

*  Acts  xxii.  a 


BOYHOOD   IN  A  HEATHEN   CUT.  9 

Jerome,1  that  the  Apostle  was  born  at  Giscala,2  and  had  been  taken  to 
Tarsus  by  his  parents  when  they  left  their  native  city,  in  consequence  of 
its  devastation  by  the  Romans.  The  assertion  is  indeed  discredited  because 
it  is  mixed  up  with  what  appears  to  be  a  flagrant  anachronism  as  to  the 
date  at  which  Giscala  was  destroyed.*  It  is,  however,  worthy  of  attention. 
St.  Jerome,  from  his  thorough  familiarity  with  the  Holy  Land,  in  which 
he  spent  so  many  years  of  his  life,  has  preserved  for  us  several  authentic 
fragments  of  tradition,  and  we  may  feel  sure  that  he  would  not  arbitrarily 
have  set  aside  a  general  belief  founded  upon  a  distinct  statement  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  If  in  this  matter  pure  invention  had  been  at  work, 
it  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  one  should  have  singled  out  for  distinc- 
tion so  insignificant  a  spot  as  Giscala,  which  is  not  once  mentioned  in  the 
Bible,  and  which  acquired  its  solo  notoriety  from  its  connexion  with  the 
zealot  Judas.4  We  may,  therefore,  fairly  assume  that  the  tradition  mentioned 
by  St.  Jerome  is  so  far  true  that  the  parents  or  grand-parents  of  St.  Paul 
had  been  Galilaeans,  and  had,  from  some  cause  or  other — though  it  cannot 
have  been  the  cause  which  the  tradition  assigned — been  compelled  to  migrate 
from  Giscala  to  the  busy  capital  of  Pagan  Cilicia. 

If  this  be  the  case,  it  helps,  as  St.  Jerome  himself  points  out,  to  explain 
another  difficulty.  St.  Paul,  on  every  possible  occasion,  assumes  and  glories 
in  the  title  not  only  of  "an  Israelite,"6  which  may  be  regarded  as  a  "name 
of  honour,"  but  also  of  "a  Hebrew" — "a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews."8 
Now  certainly,  in  its  proper  and  technical  sense,  the  word  "  Hebrew "  is 
the  direct  opposite  of  "  Hellenist/'7  and  St.  Paul,  if  brought  up  at  Tarsus, 
could  only  strictly  be  regarded  as  a  Jew  of  the  Dispersion — a  Jew  of  that 
vast  body  who,  even  when  they  were  not  ignorant  of  Hebrew — as  even  the 
most  learned  of  them  sometimes  were — still  spoke  Greek  as  their  native 
tongue.8  It  may,  of  course,  be  said  that  St.  Paul  uses  the  word  Hebrew 
only  in  its  general  sense,  and  that  he  meant  to  imply  by  it  that  he  was  not 
a  Hellenist  to  the  same  extent  that,  for  instance,  even  so  learned  and 
eminent  a  Jew  as  Philo  was,  who,  with  all  his  great  ability,  did  not  know 

1  Jer.  de  Virit  Ittuttr.  5 :  "  De  tribu  Benjamin  et  oppido  Judaeae  Giscalis  fuit,  quo 
a  Komanis  capto,  com  parcntibus  suis  Tarsum  Ciliciae  commigravit. "    It  has  been  again 
and  again  asserted  that  St.  Jerome  rejects  or  discredits  this  tradition  in  his  Commentary 
on  Philemon  (Opp.  iv.  454),  where  he  says  that  some  understood  the  term  "my  fellow- 
prisoner  "  to  mean  that  Epaphras  had  been  taken  captive  at  Giscala  at  the  same  time 
as  Paul,  and  had  been  settled  hi  Colossse.    Even  Neander  (Planting,  p.  79)  follows  this 
current  error,  on  the  ground  that  Jerome  says,  "  Quis  sit  Epaphras  concaptivus  Pauli 
talem  fabulam  accepimus."    But  that/o&w/o  does  not  here  mean  "  fake  account,"  as  he 
translates  it,  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  fact  that  St.  Jerome  continues,  "  Quod  si  ita 
KST,  possumus  et  Epaphram  illo  tempore  captum  suspicari,  quo  captus  est  Paulus,"  &c. 

2  Giscala,  now  El-Jish,  was  the  last  place  in  Galilee  that  held  out  against  the  Romans. 
(Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  20,  §  6 ;  iv.  2,  §§  1—5.) 

8  It  was  taken  A.D.  67. 

4  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  21,  §  1 ;  Vit.  10.    He  calls  It  noXfcv.,. 

5  John  i.  47 ;  Acts  xiiL  16 ;  Rom.  ix.  4. 

«  2  Cor.  ri.  22  ;  Phil.  iii.  5.  ^  See  Ads  vi  1,  and  infra,  p.  71. 

"  Parentum  conditionem  adolescentulum  Paulum  secutum,  et  sic  posse  stare  illud, 
quod  de  se  ipso  testatur,  'Hebraei  sunt?  et  ego,'  etc.,  quae  ilium  Judaeum  magia 
indicant,  quam  Tarsensem"  (Jer.). 

a 


10  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OB1  ST.  PAUL. 

either  the  Biblical  Hebrew  or  the  Aramaic  vernacular,  which  was  still  called 
by  that  name.1  Perhaps  St.  Paul  spoke  Aramaic  with  even  greater  fluency 
than  he  spoke  Greek  itself ; 2  and  his  knowledge  of  Hebrew  may  be  inferred 
from  his  custom  of  sometimes  reverting  to  the  Hebrew  scriptures  in  the 
original  when  the  LXX.  version  was  less  suitable  to  his  purpose.  It  is  an 
interesting,  though  undesigned,8  confirmation  of  this  fact,  that  the  Divine 
Vision  on  the  road  to  Damascus  spoke  to  him,  at  the  supreme  moment  of  his 
life,  in  the  language  which  was  evidently  the  language  of  his  own  inmost 
thoughts.  As  one,  therefore,  to  whom  the  Hebrew  of  that  day  was  a  sort  of 
mother-tongue,  and  the  Hebrew  of  the  Bible  an  acquired  language,  St.  Paul 
might  call  himself  a  Hebrew,  though  technically  speaking  he  was  also  a 
Hellenist ;  and  the  term  would  be  still  more  precise  and  cogent  if  his  parents 
and  forefathers  had,  almost  till  the  time  of  his  birth,  been  Palestinian  Jews. 

The  Tarsus  in  which  St.  Paul  was  born  was  very  different  from  the  dirty, 
squalid,  and  ruinous  Mohammedan  city  which  still  bears  the  name  and  stands 
upon  the  site.  The  natural  features  of  the  city,  indeed,  remain  unchanged : 
the  fertile  plain  still  surrounds  it;  the  snowy  mountains  of  the  chain  of 
Taurus  still  look  down  on  it;  the  bright  swift  stream  of  the  Cydnus  still 
refreshes  it.4  But  with  these  scenes  of  beauty  and  majesty  we  are  the  less 
concerned,  because  they  seem  to  have  had  no  influence  over  the  mind  of  the 
youthful  Saul.  We  can  well  imagine  how,  in  a  nature  differently  constituted, 
they  would  have  been  like  a  continual  inspiration;  how  they  would  have 
melted  into  the  very  imagery  of  his  thoughts;  how,  again  and  again,  in 
crowded  cities  and  foul  prisons,  they  would  have 

"  Flashed  upon  that  inward  eye 
Which  ia  the  bliss  ot  solitude." 

The  scenes  in  which  the  whole  life  of  David  had  been  spent  were  far  less 
majestic,  as  well  as  far  less  varied,  than  many  of  those  in  which  the  lot  of  St. 
Paul  was  cast;  yet  the  Psalms  of  David  are  a  very  handbook  of  poetic 
description,  while  in  the  Epistles  of  Si.  Paul  we  only  breathe  the  air  of  cities 
and  synagogues.  He  alludes,  indeed,  to  the  Temple  not  made  with  hands,  but 
never  to  its  mountain  pillars,  and  but  once  to  its  nightly  stars.8  To  David  the 
whole  visible  universe  is  but  one  vast  House  of  God,  in  which,  like  angelio 
ministrants,  the  fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapour,  wind  and  storm,  fulfil  His 
word.  With  St.  Paul — though  he,  too,  is  well  aware  that  "the  invisible 
things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  visible,  being  appro- 

1  Philo's  ignorance  of  Hebrew  is  generally  admitted. 

2  Acts  xxi.   40 :  TJ}  'Eflpottt  JiaAticro — i.e.,   of  course,   the  Syriac.      These  Jews  of 
Palestine  would  for  the  most  part  be  able  to  understand  the  Bible,  if  not  in  the  original 
Hebrew,  at  any  rate  through  the  aid  of  a  paraphrast. 

3  E.g.,  in  1  Cor.  iii.  19 ;  2  Cor.  viii.  15  ;  2  Tim.  ii.  19.    Whether  there  existed  any 
Volksbibd  of  extracts  besides  the  T.XX,  I  will  not  discuss.     See  Hilgenfeld,  Zeitschr. 
xviii.  (1875),  p.  118. 

4  The  Cydnus  no  longer,  however,  flows  through  Tersooa  as  it  did  (Strabo,  xiv.  5) 
Plin.  H.  N.  vi.  22  j  Beaufort's  Karamania,  271  tq.), 

«  Acts  xvii.  24 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  41. 


BOYHOOD  IN  A  HEATHEN  CITY,  11 

bended  by  the  things  that  He  hath  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  divinity  * 
—yet  to  him  this  was  an  indisputable  axiom,  not  a  conviction  constantly 
renewed  with  admiration  and  delight.  There  are  few  writers  who,  to  judge 
solely  from  their  writings,  seem  to  have  been  less  moved  by  the  beauties  of  the 
external  world.  Though  he  had  sailed  again  and  again  across  the  blue  Medi- 
terranean, and  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  beauty  of  those  Isles  of 
Greece— 

"  Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sung, 

Where  grew  the  arts  of  war  and  peace, 
Where  Deloa  rose,  and  Phoebus  sprung ;" 

though  he  had  again  and  again  traversed  the  pine-clad  gorges  of  the  Asian 
hills,  and  seen  Ida,  and  Olympus,  and  Parnassus,  in  all  their  majesty;  though 
his  life  had  been  endangered  in  mountain  torrents  and  stormy  waves,  and  he 
must  have  often  wandered  as  a  child  along  the  banks  of  his  native  stream,  to 
see  the  place  where  it  roars  in  cataracts  over  its  rocky  course — his  soul  was  so 
entirely  absorbed  in  the  mighty  moral  and  spiritual  truths  which  it  was  his 
great  mission  to  proclaim,  that  not  by  one  verse,  scarcely  even  by  a  single 
expression,  in  all  his  letters,  does  he  indicate  the  faintest  gleam  of  delight  or 
wonder  hi  the  glories  of  Nature.  There  is,  indeed,  an  exquisite  passage  in  his 
speech  at  Lystra  on  the  goodness  of  "  the  living  God,  which  made  heaven  and 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  things  that  are  therein,"  and  "  left  not  Himself  with- 
out witness,  in  that  He  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from  heaven,  and  fruitful 
seasons,  filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness."1  But  in  this  case 
Barnabas  had  some  share  in  the  address,  which  even  if  it  do  not,  as  has  been 
conjectured,2  refer  to  the  fragment  of  some  choral  song,  is  yet,  in  tone  and 
substance,  directly  analogous  to  passages  of  the  Old  Testament.3  And  apart 
from  this  allusion,  I  cannot  find  a  single  word  which  shows  that  Paul  had  even 
the  smallest  susceptibility  for  the  works  of  Nature.  There  are  souls  in  which 
the  burning  heat  of  some  transfusing  purpose  calcines  every  other  thought, 
<jvery  other  desire,  every  other  admiration ;  and  St.  Paul's  was  one.  His  life 
was  absorbingly,  if  not  solely  and  exclusively,  the  spiritual  life — the  lif e  which 
is  utterly  dead  to  every  other  interest  of  the  groaning  and  travailing  creation, 
the  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  He  sees  the  universe  of  God  only  as  it  is 
reflected  in  the  heart  and  life  of  man.  It  is  true — as  Humboldt  has  shown  in 
his  Cosmos — that  what  is  called  tho  sentimental  love  of  Nature  is  a  modern 
rather  than  an  ancient  feeling.*  In  St.  Paul,  however,  this  indifference  to  the 

»  Acts  xiv.  17. 

2  By  Mr.  Humphry,  ad  loc. 

8  Job  v.  10 ;  Ps.  civ.  15 ;  cxlvii.  8,  9. 

4  Compare  the  surprise  expressed  by  the  Athenian  youth  at  Socrates'  description  of 
the  lovely  scene  at  the  beginning  of  the  Pftaedrus,  §  10,  2«  Se  yt  S>  davpa<ri<  aTon-urai-os  T« 
4>atVci.  There  is  an  admirable  chapter  on  this  subject  in  Friedlander,  Sittengesch.  Boms. 
vii.  5,  §  3.  The  reader  will  recall  the  analogous  cases  _of  St.  Bernard  riding  all  day  along 
tho  Lake  of  Geneva,  and  asking  in  the  evening  where  it  was ;  of  Calvin  showing  no  trace 
of  delight  in  the  beauties  of  Switzerland ;  and  of  WMtefield,  who  seems  not  to  have 
borrowed  a  single  impression  or  illustration  from  bis  thirteen  voyages  across  the  Atlantic 
and  his  travels  from  Georgia  to  Boston. 


12  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OV  ST.  PAUL. 

outer  world  is  neither  due  to  his  antiquity  nor  to  his  Semitic  birth,  but  solely 
to  his  individual  character.  The  poetry  of  the  Old  Testament  is  full  of  the 
tenderness  and  life  of  the  pastures  of  Palestine.  In  the  discourses  and  con- 
versations of  our  Lord  we  find  frequent  allusions  to  the  loveliness  of  the 
flowers,  the  joyous  carelessness  of  birds,  the  shifting  winds,  the  red  glow 
of  morning  and  evening  clouds.  St.  Paul's  inobservance  of  these  things — for 
the  total  absence  of  the  remotest  allusion  to  them  by  way  of  even  passing 
illustration  amounts  to  a  proof  that  they  did  not  deeply  stir  his  heart — was 
doubtless  due  to  the  expulsive  power  and  paramount  importance  of  other 
thoughts.  It  may,  however,  have  boon  due  also  to  that  early  training  which 
made  him  more  familiar  with  crowded  assemblies  and  thronged  bazaars  than 
with  the  sights  and  sounds  of  Nature.1  It  is  at  any  rate  remarkable  that  the 
only  elaborate  illustration  which  he  draws  from  Nature  turns  not  on  a  natural 
phenomenon  but  on  an  artificial  process,  and  that  even  this  process — if  not 
absolutely  unknown  to  the  ancients — was  the  exact  opposite  of  the  one  most 
commonly  adopted.2 

But  if  St.  Paul  derived  no  traceable  influence  from  the  scenery  with  which 
Tarsus  is  surrounded,  if  no  voices  from  the  neighbouring  mountains  or  the 
neighbouring  sea  mingled  with  the  many  and  varied  tones  of  his  impassioned 
utterance,  other  results  of  this  providential  training  may  be  easily  observed, 
both  in  his  language  and  in  his  life. 

The  very  position  of  Tarsus  made  it  a  centre  of  commercial  enterprise  and 
political  power.  Situated  on  a  navigable  stream,  by  which  it  communicated 
with  the  easternmost  bay  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  lying  on  a  fruitful  plain 
under  that  pass  over  the  Taurus  which  was  known  as  "  the  Cilician  gates," 
while  by  the  Amanid  and  Syrian  gates  it  communicated  with  Syria,  it  was  so 
necessary  as  a  central  emporium  that  even  the  error  of  its  having  embraced 
the  side  of  Antony  in  the  civil  war  hardly  disturbed  its  fame  and  prosperity.8 

1  "For  I  was  bred 

In  the  great  city,  pent  'mid  cloisters  dim, 

And  saw  nought  lovely  save  the  sky  and  stars." 

Coleridge. 

8  I  allude  to  the  famous  illustration  of  the  wild  olive  graft  (Rom.  xi.  16 — 25).  St.  Paul's 
argument  requires  that  a  wild  slip  should  have  heen  budded  upon  a  fruitful  tree — viz., 
the  aypie'Atuos  of  heathendom  on  the  eAaia  of  Judaism.  But  it  is  scarcely  needful  to 
remark  that  this  is  never  done,  but  the  reverse — namely,  the  grafting  of  a  fruitful  scion 
on  a  wild  stock.  The  olive  shoot  •would  be  grafted  on  the  oleaster,  not  the  oleaster  on 
the  olive  (Aug.  in  Ps.  LxxiL).  It  is  true  that  St.  Paul  here  cares  solely  for  the  general 
analogy,  and  would  have  been  entirely  indifferent  to  its  non-accordance  with  the  ordinary 
method  of  iynevrpi<rii.6s.  Indeed,  as  ho  says  that  it  is  n-apa  AvVtv  (xi.  24),  it  seems  needless 
to  show  that  this  kind  of  grafting  was  ever  really  practised.  Yet  the  illustration  would, 
under  these  circumstances,  hardly  have  been  used  by  a  writer  more  familiar  with  the 
facts  of  Nature.  The  notion  that  St.  Paul  alluded  to  the  much  rarer  African  custom  of 
grafting  oleaster  (or  Ethiopia  olive)  on  olive,  to  strengthen  the  latter  (cf.  Plin.  H.  N.  xvii. 
18;  Colum.  De  re  Rust.  v.  9;  Palladius;  &c.),  is  most  unlikely,  if  only  for  the  reason 
that  it  destroys  the  whole  force  of  the  truth  which  he  is  desiring  to  inculcate.  (See 
Ewbank,  ii  112 ;  Tholuck,  Bom.  617 ;  Meyer,  343.)  He  may  have  known  the  proverb, 
dxapn-oTcpoK  dypuXaiov.  See,  however,  a  somewhat  different  view  in  Thomson,  Land  and 
Book,  p.  53. 

8  Tarsus  resisted  the  party  of  Brutus  and  Oassius,  but  w«a  conquered  by  Lucius 
Rufus,  B.C.  43,  and  many  Tarsians  were  sold  as  slaves  to  pay  the  fine  of  1,500  talents 


BOYHOOD  IN  A  HEATHEN  CITT.  13 

It  was  here  that  Cleopatra  held  that  famous  meeting  with  the  Roman 
Triumvir  which  Shakspeare  has  immortalised,  when  she  rowed  up  the  silver 
Cydnus,  and 

"  The  barge  she  sat  in  like  a  burnished  throne 

Burnt  on  the  water ;  the  poop  was  beaten  gold, 

Purple  the  sails,  and  so  perfumed  that 

The  winds  were  love-sick  with  them." 

Yet  it  continued  to  flourish  under  the  rule  of  Augustus,  and  enjoyed  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  both  a  capital  and  a  free  city — libera  and  immunis.  It  was 
from  Tarsus  that  the  vast  masses  of  timber,  hewn  in  the  forests  of  Taurus, 
were  floated  down  the  river  to  the  Mediterranean  dockyards ;  it  was  here  that 
the  vessels  were  unladen  which  brought  to  Asia  the  treasures  of  Europe ;  it 
was  here  that  much  of  the  wealth  of  Asia  Minor  was  accumulated  before  it 
was  despatched  to  Greece  and  Italy.  On  the  coins  of  the  city  she  is  repre- 
sented as  seated  amid  bales  of  various  merchandise.  The  bright  and  busy 
life  of  the  streets  and  markets  must  have  been  the  earliest  scenes  which 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  youthful  Saul.  The  dishonesty  which  he  had 
witnessed  in  its  trade  may  have  suggested  to  him  his  metaphors  of  "  huckster- 
ing" and  "adulterating"  the  word  of  life;1  and  he  may  have  borrowed  a 
metaphor  from  the  names  and  marks  of  the  owners  stamped  upon  the  goods 
which  lay  upon  the  quays,2  and  from  the  earnest-money  paid  by  the  pur- 
chasers.3 It  may  even  have  been  the  assembly  of  the  free  city  which  made 
him  more  readily  adopt  from  the  Septuagint  that  name  of  Ecclosia  for  the 
Church  of  Christ's  elect  of  which  his  Epistles  furnish  the  earliest  instances.4 

It  was  his  birth  at  Tarsus  which  also  determined  the  trade  in  which,  during 
so  many  days  and  nights  of  toil  and  self-denial,  the  Apostle  earned  his  daily 
bread.  The  staple  manufacture  of  the  city  was  the  weaving,  first  into  ropes, 
then  into  tent-covers  and  garments,  of  the  hair  which  was  supplied  in 
boundless  quantities  by  the  goat  flocks  of  the  Taurus.6  As  the  making  of 
these  cilicia  was  unskilled  labour  of  the  commonest  sort,  the  trade  of  tent- 
maker8  was  one  both  lightly  esteemed  and  miserably  paid.  It  must  not, 

which  he  inflicted  on  the  city.     (Appian,  Bell.  Civ.  iv.  64.)    Top«vc  ,   .  wa£  BUTOIC  riv 

KoliMv  afioXo7<i>Tanj  jiijrpdiroXis  ovtra.  (Jos.  Anlt.  i.  6,  §  1). 

1  2  Cor.  ii.  17,  «am)X«vovre* ;  iv.  2,  aoXovir«. 

2  Eph.  i.  13 ;  iv.  30.  e<r4>payi<7«7jTe. 
8  2  Cor.  i.  22,  ippa^uv. 

4  bnpr  1  Kings  xii.  2  (LXX.)  The  word  "Church,"  in  its  more  technical  modern 
sense  (as  in  Eph.  and  Col.),  is  developed  out  of  the  simpler  meaning  of  congregation  in 
St.  Paul's  earlier  Epistles. 

s    See  Philo,  DC  Victim.  836 ;  Plin.  H.  N.  v.  32. 

'  ovnjvoiroib?,  Acts  xviii.  3;  o-mivoppdjax,  Ps.  Chrys.  Orat.  Encom.  (Opp.  vui.  8,  Mont- 
fauc.).  When  Chrysostom  calls  him  a  vximrrrfpoti  "leather-cutter"  (Horn.  iv.  3,  p.  864, 
on  2  Tim.  ii.),  this  can  hardly  be  correct,  because  such  a  trade  would  not  be  favoured  by 
strict  Pharisees.  On  the  use  of  cilicium  for  tents  see  Veget.  Milit.  iv.  6 ;  Serv.  ad  Virg. 
Gcorg.  iii.  313.  It  served  for  many  other  purposes,  as  garden  rugs,  mantelets,  shoes,  and 
beds.  (Colum.  xii.  46;  Liv.  xxxviii.  7;  Mart.  riv.  140;  Jer.  Ep.  108.)  To  handle  the 
"dentil  barba  mariti"  could  not  have  been  a  pleasant  trade.  It  waa  "bought  from  the 
ehepherds  of  Taurus,  and  sold  to  Greek  shippers  of  the  Levant."  To  this  day  cilice 
means  hair-cloth  in  French. 


14  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

however,  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  family  of  St.  Paul  were  people  of  low 
position.  The  learning  of  a  trade  was  a  duty  enjoined  by  the  Rabbis  on  the 
parents  of  every  Jewish  boy.1  The  wisdom  of  the  rule  became  apparent  in 
the  case  of  Paul,  as  doubtless  of  hundreds  besides,  when  the  changes  and 
chances  of  life  compelled  him  to  earn  his  own  livelihood  by  manual  labour.  It 
is  clear,  from  the  education  provided  for  Paul  by  his  parents,  that  they  could 
little  indeed  have  conjectured  how  absolutely  their  son  would  be  reduced  to 
depend  on  a  toil  so  miserable  and  so  unremunerative.2  But  though  we  see  how 
much  he  felt  the  burden  of  the  wretched  labour  by  which  he  determined  to 
earn  his  own  bread  rather  than  trespass  on  the  charity  of  his  converts,3  yet  it 
had  one  advantage  in  being  so  absolutely  mechanical  as  to  leave  the  thoughts 
entirely  free.  While  he  plaited  the  black,  strong-scented  goat's  hair,  he  might 
be  soaring  in  thought  to  the  inmost  heaven,  or  holding  high  converse  with 
Apollos  or  Aquila,  with  Luke  or  Timothy,  on  the  loftiest  themes  which  can 
engage  the  mind  of  man. 

Before  considering  further  the  influence  exercised  by  the  birthplace  on  the 
future  fortunes  of  St.  Paul,  we  must  pause  to  inquire  what  can  be  discovered 
about  his  immediate  family.  It  must  be  admitted  that  we  can  ascertain  but 
little.  Their  possession,  by  whatever  means,  of  the  Pi/oman  citizenship — the 
mere  fact  of  their  leaving  Palestine,  perhaps  only  a  short  time  before  Paul's 
birth,  to  become  units  in  the  vast  multitude  of  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion — 
the  fact,  too,  that  so  many  of  St.  Paul's  "  kinsmen "  bear  Greek  and  Latin 
names,4  and  lived  in  Rome  or  in  Ephesus,5  might,  at  first  sight,  lead  us  to  sup- 
pose that  his  whole  family  were  of  Hellenising  tendencies.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  know  nothing  of  the  reasons  which  may  have  compelled  them  to  leave 
Palestine,  and  we  have  only  the  vaguest  conjectures  as  to  their  possession  of 
the  franchise.  Even  if  it  be  certain  that  ffvyyeve'ts  means  "  kinsmen  "  in  our 
sense  of  the  word,  and  not,  as  Olshausen  thinks,  "fellow-countrymen,"6 it  was 
so  common  for  Jews  to  have  a  second  name,  which  they  adopted  during  their 
residence  in  heathen  countries,  that  Androuicus  and  the  others,  whom  he 
salutes  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  may  all  have  been 
genuine  Hebrews.  The  real  name  of  Jason,  for  instance,  may  have  been  Jesus, 

1  On  this  subject  see  my  Life  of  Christ,  i.  p.  82,  n.     Gamaliel  himself  was  the  author 
of  the  celebrated  aphorism,  that  "learning  of  any  kind  (mm  b3,  i.e.,  even  the  advanced 
study  of  the  Law)  unaccompanied  by  a  trade  ends  in  nothing,  and  leads  to  sin  "  (Pirke 
Abhdth,  ii.  2).    R.  Judah  said  truly  that  "labour  honours  the  labourer"  (Nedarim,  f. 
49,  2) ;  R.  Meir  said,  "  Let  a  man  always  teach  his  son  pure  and  easy  trades  "  (Tpseft.  in 
Kidd.  f.  82,  1) ;  R.  Judah  says,  that  not  to  teach  one's  son  a  trade  is  like  teaching  him 
robbery  (Kidduthin,  f.  30,  2). 

2  The  reason  why  he  was  taught  this  particular  trade  may  have  been  purely  local. 
Possibly  his  father  had  been  taught  the  same  trade  as  a  boy.    "A  man  should  not  change 
his  trade,  nor  that  of  his  father,"  says  R.  Yochanan ;  for  it  is  said,  "  Hiram  of  Tyre  was 
a  widow's  son,    .    .    .    and  his  father  was    ...    a  worker  in  brass  "  (1  Kings  vii.  13, 
14).     (Erechin,  f.  16,  2.) 

'  3  1  Thess.  ii.  6,  9  ;  2  Thess.  III.  8  ;  1  Cor.  ix.  12,  15. 

4  Rom.  xvi.  7 ;  Andronicus,  Jnnia,  or  perhaps  Juntas  (=•  Junianus) ;  11,  Herodion ; 
21,  Lucius,  Jason,  Sosipater  (ovyytvels). 

1  See  infra,  ad  loc.,  for  the  question  whether  oh.  xvi,  ii  a  genuine  portion  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

«  Aa  in  Rom.  ix.  3. 


BOYHOOD  IN  A  HEATHEN   CITT.  15 

just  as  the  real  name  of  Paul  was  Saul.1  However  this  may  be,  the  thorough 
Hebraism  of  the  family  appears  in  many  ways.  Paul's  father  and  grandfather 
had  been  Pharisees,2  and  were,  therefore,  most  strict  observers  of  the  Mosaic 
law.  They  had  so  little  forgotten  their  extraction  from  the  tribe  of  Benjamin 
—one  of  the  two  tribes  which  had  remained  faithful  to  the  covenant — that  they 
called  their  son  Saul,3  partly  perhaps  because  the  name,  like  Thesetetus,  means 
"  asked  "  (of  God),  and  partly  because  it  was  the  name  of  that  unfortunate 
hero-king  of  their  native  tribe,  whose  sad  fate  seems  for  many  ages  to  have 
rendered  his  very  name  unpopular.4  They  sent  him,  probably  not  later  than 
the  age  of  thirteen,  to  bo  trained  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  They  seem  to  have 
had  a  married  daughter  in  Jerusalem,  whose  son,  on  one  memorable  occasion, 
saved  Paul's  life.6  Though  they  must  have  ordinarily  used  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Bible,  from  which  the  great  majority  of  the  Apostle's  quotations 
are  taken,6  and  from  which  nearly  his  whole  theological  phraseology  is  derived, 
they  yet  trained  him  to  use  Aramaic  as  his  native  tongue,  and  to  read  the 
Scriptures — an  accomplishment  not  possessed  by  many  learned  Jewish 
Hellenists — in  their  own  venerable  original  Hebrew.7 

That  St.  Paul  was  a  "  Hebraist "  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word  is  clear 
from  almost  every  verse  of  his  Epistles.  He  reckons  time  by  the  Hebrew 
calendar.  He  makes  constant  allusion  to  Jewish  customs,  Jewish  laws,  and 
Jewish  festivals.  His  metaphors  and  turns  of  expression  are  derived  with 
great  frequency  from  that  quiet  family  life  for  which  the  Jews  have  been  in 
all  ages  distinguished.  Though  he  writes  in  Greek,  it  is  not  by  any  means  in 
the  Greek  of  the  schools,8  or  the  Greek  which,  in  spite  of  its  occasional 
antitheses  and  paronomasias,  would  have  been  found  tolerable  by  the 
rhetoricians  of  his  native  city.  The  famous  critic  Longinus  does  indeed,  if 
the  passage  be  genuine,  praise  him  as  the  master  of  a  dogmatic  style ;  but 
certainly  a  Tarsian  professor  or  a  philosopher  of  Athens  would  have  been 
inclined  to  ridicule  his  Hebraic  peculiarities,  awkward  anakolutha,  harshly- 
mingled  metaphors,  strange  forms,  and  irregular  constructions.9  St.  Jerome, 

1  When  a  Greek  or  Roman  name  bore  any  resemblance  in  sound  to  a  Jewish,  one,  it; 
was  obviously  convenient  for  the  Jew  to  make  so  slight  a  change.  Thus  Dosthai  became, 
Dositheus ;  Tarphon,  Tryphon ;  Eliakim,  Alkimos,  &c. 

»  Acts  xxiii.  6.  '  ViNtf,  Shaft!. 

4  It  is  found  as  a  Hebrew  name  in  the  Pentateuch  (Gen.  xxnd.  37 ;  xlvi.  10 ;  Ex.  vi. 
15 ;  Numb,  xxvi  13 ;  but  after  the  death  of  King  Saul  it  does  not  occur  till  the  time  of 
the  Apostle,  and  again  later  in  Joscphua  (Antt.  xjs.  9,  §  4;  B.  J.  ii.  17,  §  4;  Kreukel, 
Paulus,  p.  217). 

5  Acts  Trriii.  16. 

6  There  are  about  278  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  hi  the  New.     Of  these  53 
we  identical  in  the  Hebrew,  Septuagiut,  and  New  Testament ;  in  10  the  Septuagint  is 
correctly  altered;  in  76  it  is  altered .incorrectly  —i.e.,  into  greater  divergence  from  the 
Hebrew ;  in  37  it  is  accepted  where  it  differs  from  the  Hebrew ;  in  99  all  three  differ ;  • 
*nd  there  are  3  doubtful  allusions.     (See  Turpie,  The  Old  Testament  in  the  New,  p.  267, 
and  passim.) 

1  V.  supra,  p.  9. 

8  Among  numerous  explanations  of  the  >n|Xiicotj  ypanftewrtv  of  GaL  vi.  11,  one  Is  that  hur 
Greek  letters  were  so  ill-formed,  from  want  of  practice,  as  to  look  almost  laughable. 

9  See  infra,  Excursus  L,  "The  Style  of  St.  Paul; "and  Excursus  IL,  "Ehetorio 
<rf  St  Paul." 


16  THE  LIFE  AND  TTOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


criticising  the  oi>  tcarfvapK-naa.  vfiuv  of  2  Cor.  xi.  9,  xii.  13  —  which  in  our  version 
is  rendered,  "  I  was  not  burdensome  to  you,"  but  appears  to  mean  literally,  "  I 
did  not  benumb  you  "  —  speaks  of  the  numerous  cilicisms  of  his  style  ;  and  it 
is  probable  that  such  there  were,  though  they  can  hardly  be  detected  with 
certainty  by  a  modern  reader.1  For  though  Tarsus  was  a  city  of  advanced 
culture,  Cilicia  was  as  intellectually  barbarous  as  it  was  morally  despicable. 
The  proper  language  of  Cilicia  was  a  dialect  of  Phoenician,2  and  the  Greek 
Spoken  by  some  of  the  cities  was  so  faulty  as  to  have  originated  the  term 
"  solecism,"  which  has  been  perpetuated  in  all  languages  to  indicate  impossible 
constructions.3 

The  residence  of  a  Jew  in  a  foreign  city  might,  of  course,  tend  to  under- 
mine his  national  religion,  and  make  him  indifferent  to  his  hereditary  customs. 
It  might,  however,  produce  an  effect  directly  the  reverse  of  this.  There  had 
been  abundant  instances  of  Hellenistic  Jews  who  Hellenised  in  matters  far 
more  serious  than  the  language  which  they  spoke  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Jews,  as  a  nation,  have  ever  shown  an  almost  miraculous  vitality,  and  so  far 
from  being  denationalised  by  a  home  among  the  heathen,  they  have  only  been 
confirmed  in  the  intensity  of  their  patriotism  and  their  faith.  We  know  that 
this  had  been  the  case  with  that  numerous  and  important  body,  the  Jews 
of  Tarsus.  In  this  respect  they  differed  considerably  from  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria.  They  could  not  have  been  exempt  from  that  hatred  which  has 
through  so  many  ages  wronged  and  dishonoured  their  noble  race,  and  which 
was  already  virulent  among  the  Romans  of  that  day.  All  that  we  hear  about 
them  shows  that  the  Cilician  Jews  were  as  capable  as  any  of  their  brethren  of 
repaying  hate  with  double  hatred,  and  scorn  with  double  scorn.  They  would 
be  all  the  more  likely  to  do  so  from  the  condition  of  things  around  them.  The 
belief  in  Paganism  was  more  firmly  rooted  in  the  provinces  than  in  Italy,  and 
was  specially  vigorous  in  Tarsus  —  in  this  respect  no  unfitting  burial-place  for 
Julian  the  Apostate.  No  ages  are  worse,  no  places  more  corrupt,  than  those 
that  draw  the  iridescent  film  of  an  intellectual  culture  over  the  deep  stagnancy 
of  moral  degradation.  And  this  was  the  condition  of  Tarsus.  The  seat  of  a 
celebrated  school  of  letters,  it  was  at  the  same  time  the  metropolis  of  a 
province  so  low  in  universal  estimation  that  it  was  counted  among  the  rpta 
the  three  most  villainous  k's  of  antiquity,  Kappadokia, 


1  "Multa  sunt  verba,   quibus   juxta  morem  urbis  et  provinciae  suae,   familiarius 
Apostolus  utitur:    e   quibus    exempli  gratia   pauca   ponenda    sunt."     He    refers   to 

KartvapKijcra.  (2  Cor.  33.  9),  Curb  ivOpwnivrft  ^/x^pas  (1  Cor.  iv.  3),  and  Karaj3pa/3ev«'rci>  (Col.  ii.  18)  ; 

aixd  adds,  "  Quibus,  et  aliis  multis,  usque  bodie  utuntur  Cilices  "  (  Jer.  Ep.  ad  Algas,  qu. 
10).  Wetstein,  however,  adduces  iirovapKaw,  from  Hut.  De  Liber.  Educ.  p.  8,  and  vopK<£« 
occurs  in  tbe  LXX.  (Gen.  xxsii.  25,  32  ;  Job  xxxiii.  19)  and  in  Jos.  Antt.  viii.  8,  §  5  ; 
I'dfjKT]  is  tbe  torpedo  or  yyinrwttis.  Since  Karapapxaw  is  only  found  in  Hippocrates,  Dr. 
Plumptre  thinks  it  may  have  boon  a  medical  word  in  vogue  in  the  schools  of  Tarsus. 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,  on  1  Cor.  xv.  28,  quotes  CK/WOW  (Phil.  ii.  7),  6fi«ipdfi«voi  (1  Thess.  ii.  8), 
irepnepeverat  (1  Cor.  xiii.  4),  tpifleios  (Uoin.  ii.  8),  &c.,  as  instances  of  St.  Paul's  autocracy 
over  words. 

2  See  Hdt.  1.  74,  vii.  91  ;  Xen.  Anab.  b.  ii.  26. 

8  2o\otKt<rfi(fc.    See  Strabo,  p.  663;  Diog.  Laert.  1.  51,    But  the  derivation  from  Soli 
b  not  certain, 


BOTHOOD   IN  A  HEATHEN  CITY.  17 

and  JCreto.  What  religion  there  was  at  this  period  had  chiefly 
assumed  an  orgiastic  and  oriental  character,  and  the  popular  faith  of  many 
even  in  Borne  was  a  strange  mixture  of  Greek,  Roman,  Egyptian,  Phrygian, 
Phc0ni«ian,  and  Jewish  elements.  The  wild,  fanatical  enthusiasms  of  the 
Eastern  cults  shook  with  new  sensations  of  mad  sensuality  and  weird  super- 
stition the  feeble  and  jaded  despair  of  Aryan  Paganism.  The  Tarsiaa 
idolatry  was  composed  of  these  mingled  elements.  There,  in  Plutarch's  time, 
a  generation  after  St.  Paul,  the  sword  of  Apollo,  miraculously  preserved  from 
decay  and  rust,  was  still  displayed.  Hermes  Eriounios,  or  the  luck-bringer, 
still  appears,  purse  in  hand,  upon  their  coins.  JEsculapius  was  still  believed 
to  manifest  his  power  and  presence  in  the  neighbouring  ..ZEgse.1  But  the 
traditional  founder  of  the  city  was  the  Assyrian,  Sardanapalus,  whose  semi- 
historical  existence  was  confused,  in  the  then  syncretism  of  Pagan  worship, 
with  various  representatives  of  the  sun-god  —  the  Asiatic  Sandan,  the  Phoeni- 
cian Baal,  and  the]  Grecian  Hercules.  The  gross  allusiveness  and  origin  of" 
this  worship,  its  connexion  with  the  very  types  and  ideals  of  luxurious 
effeminacy,  unbounded  gluttony,  and  brutal  licence,  were  quite  sufficient  to 
awake  the  indignant  loathing  of  each  true-hearted  Jew  ;  and  these  revolts  of 
natural  antipathy  in.  the  hearts  of  a  people  in  whom  true  religion  has  ever  been 
united  with  personal  purity  would  be  intensified  with  patriotic  disgust  when 
they  saw  that,  at  the  main  festival  of  this  degraded  cult  the  effeminate 
Sardanapalus  and  the  masculine  Semiramis  —  each  equally  detestable  —  wera 
worshipped  with  rites  which  externally  resembled  the  pure  and  thankful 
rejoicings  of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  St.  Paul  must  have  witnessed  this 
festival.  He  must  have  seen  at  Anchiale  the  most  defiant  symbol  of  cynical 
contentment  with  all  which  is  merely  animal  in  the  statue  of  Sardanapalus,, 
represented  as  snapping  his  fingers  while  he  uttered  the  sentiment  engraved 
upon  the  pedestal  — 

"  Eat,  drink,  enjoy  thyself  ;  the  rest  is  nothing."1 

The  result  which  such  spectacles  and  such  sentiments  had  left  upon, 
his  mind  had  not  been  one  of  tolerance,  or  of  blunted  sensibility  to  the, 
horror  of  eviL  They  had  inspired,  on  the  one  hand,  an  overpowering 
sense  of  disgust  ;  on  the  other,  an  overwhelming  conviction,  deepened  by 
subsequent  observation,  that  mental  perversity  leads  to,  and  is  in  its  turn 
aggravated  by,  moral  degradation  ;  that  error  in  the  intellect  involves  an 
ultimate  error  in  the  life  and  in  the  will;  that  the  darkening  of  the 
understanding  is  inevitably  associated  with  the  darkening  of  the  soul 
and  spirit,  and  that  out  of  such  darkness  spring  the  hidden  things  which 
degrade  immoral  lives.  He  who  would  know  what  was  the  aspect  of 
Paganism  to  one  who  had  seen  it  from  his  childhood  upwards  hi  its 


1  De  Def.  Orac.  41  ;  Hansrath,  pp.  7  —  9.    See,  too,  Plutarch,  irepl 
«0e6rr)Tc*,  ii.  ;  Neauder,  Ch.  Hist.  i.  15  sq, 

3  Strabo,  xiv.  4;  Athen.  jrii.,  p.  529  ;  Cic.  Tusc.  Disp.  v.  35.  Eausrath,  p.  7,  finds  a 
reminiscence  of  this  in  1  Cor.  xv.  32,  which  may,  however,  have  bean  quite  as  probably 
derived  from  the  wide-spread  fable  of  the  Epicurean  fly  dying  in  the  honey-pot,' 

uu  /3e'/3/X'jiea  (cat  iremaica  xai  A^Aovjuai  KO.V  arroOarta  aiiStv  jif'Aei  fioi, 


18  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL 

characteristic  developments,  must  read  that  most  terrible  passage  of  all 
Scripture,  in  which  the  full  blaze  of  scorching  sunlight  burns  with  its  fiercest 
flame  of  indignation  upon  the  pollutions  of  Pagan  wickedness.  Under  that 
glare  of  holy  wrath  we  see  Paganism  in  all  its  unnatural  deformity.  No 
halo  of  imagination  surrounds  it,  no  gleam  of  fancy  plays  over  its  glittering) 
corruption.  We  see  it  as  it  was.  Far  other  may  be  its  aspect  when  thej 
glamour  of  Hellenic  grace  is  flung  over  it,  when  "the  lunar  beam  of  Plato's, 
genius  "  or  the  meteoric  wit  of  Aristophanes  light  up,  as  by  enchantment,  its 
revolting  sorceries.  But  ho  who  would  truly  judge  of  it — he  who  would  see  it; 
as  it  shall  seem  when  there  shall  fall  on  it  a  ray  out  of  God's  eternity,  must 
view  it  as  it  appeared  to  the  penetrating  glance  of  a  pure  and  enlightened  eye. 
St.  Paul,  furnished  by  inward  chastity  with  a  diviner  moly,  a  more  potentj 
haemony,  than  those  of  Homer's  and  Milton's  song — unmoved,  untempted, 
unbewitched,  unterrified — sees  in  this  painted  Circe  no  laughing  maiden,  no 
bright-eyed  daughter  of  the  sun,  but  a  foul  and  baleful  harlot;  and,  seizing  her 
by  the  hair,  stamps  deep  upon  her  leprous  forehead  the  burning  titles  of  her 
shame.  Henceforth  she  may  go  for  all  time  throughout  the  world  a  branded 
sorceress.  All  may  read  that  festering  stigma;  none  can  henceforth  deceive  the 
nations  into  regrets  for  the  vanished  graces  of  a  world  which  knew  not  God.1 

But  besides  this  unmitigated  horror  inspired  by  the  lowest  aspect  of 
heathen  life,  St.  Paul  derived  from  his  early  insight  into  its  character  hi  a 
deep  conviction  that  earthly  knowledge  has  no  necessary  connexion  with 
heavenly  wisdom.  If  we  may  trust  the  romance  of  the  sophist  Philostratus, 
and  if  he  is  not  merely  appropriating  the  sentiments  which  he  had  derived 
from  Christianity,  the  youthful  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  who  was  afterwards 
held  up  as  a  kind  of  heathen  parallel  to  Christ,  was  studying  under  the  orator 
Euthydemus  at  Tarsus  at  the  very  time  when  it  must  also  have  been  tke 
residence  of  the  youthful  Paul  ;2  and  even  Apollonius,  at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
was  so  struck  with  the  contrast  between  the  professed  wisdom  of  the  city  and 
its  miserable  morality,  that  he  obtained  leave  from  his  father  to  remove 
to  .ZEgae,  and  so  pursue  his  studies  at  a  more  serious  and  religious  place.* 
The  picture  drawn,  so  long  afterwards,  by  Philostratus,  of  the  luxury, 
buffoonery,  the  petulance,  the  dandyism,  the  gossip,  of  the  life  at 
Tarsus,  as  a  serious  boy-philosopher  is  supposed  to  have  witnessed  it, 
might  have  no  historical  value  if  it  were  not  confirmed  in  every  particular 
by  the  sober  narrative  of  the  contemporary  Strabo.  "  So  great,"  he  says,  "  ia 
the  zeal  of  the  inhabitants  for  philosophy  and  all  other  encyclic  training,  that 
they  have  surpassed  even  Athens  and  Alexandria,  and  every  other  place  ono 
could  mention  in  which  philological  and  philosophical  schools  have  arisen."  * 

1  V.  infra,  on  Rom.  1.  18—82.  s  Philostrat.  Vit.  Apoll.  i.  7. 

8  'O  &  rov  /i«v  SiScUrieoAoc  eivero  rb  M  rfjt  ir^Xews  ^9os  5.TOw6v  n  riyelro  /col  ov  xPT)(rro" 
ifi4>iXotro$>jcrai.  Tpixfirjs  r*  yap  oviafioC  ij,a\Xov  anrovrat,  <TKiam6ka<,  rt  xal  vfipurrai  rrai'Tc? 

(Philostr.  Vit.  Apottvn.,  i.,  p.  8.  chap.  7,  ed.  Clear.  1709). 

<  Strabo.  riv.  4,  pp.  672,  673.  See,  too,  Xen.  Anaib.  L  2,  23 ;  Plin.  v.  22 ;  Q.  Curt. 
Hi.  5,  1.  The  Stoics,  Athenodorus,  tutor  of  Augustus,  and  Nestor,  tutor  of  Tiberias, 
lived  »t  Tarsus ;  and  others  are  mentioned. 


BOYHOOD   IN  A.  HEATHEN   CITY,  19 

The  state  of  affairs  resulting  from  the  social  atmosphere  which  he  proceeds 
to  describe  is  as  amusing  as  it  is  despicable.  It  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the 
professorial  world  in  days  of  Pagan  decadence;  of  a  professorial  world, 
not  such  as  it  now  is,  and  often  has  been,  in  our  English  and  German 
Universities,  where  Christian  brotherhood  and  mutual  esteem  have  taken 
the  place  of  wretched  rivalism,  and  where  good  and  learned  men  devote 
their  lives  to  "  gazing  on  the  bright  countenance  of  truth  in  the  mild  and 
dewy  air  of  delightful  studies,"  but  as  it  was  also  in  the  days  of  the  Poggios, 
Filolfos,  and  Politians  of  the  Renaissance  —  cliques  of  jealous  scwans,  narrow, 
selfish,  unscrupulous,  base,  sceptical,  impure  —  bursting  with  gossip,  scandal, 
and  spite.  "  The  thrones  "  of  these  little  "  academic  gods  "  were  as 
mutually  hostile  and  as  universally  degraded  as  those  of  the  Olympian  deities, 
in  which  it  was,  perhaps,  a  happy  thing  that  they  had  ceased  to  believe.  One 
illustrious  professor  cheated  the  State  by  stealing  oil  ;  another  avenged  himself 
on  an  opponent  by  epigrams  ;  another  by  a  nocturnal  bespattering  of  his 
house  ;  and  rhetorical  jealousies  often  ended  in  bloody  quarrels.  On  this 
•modifying  spectacle  of  littleness  in  great  places  the  people  in  general  looked 
with  admiring  eyes,  and  discussed  the  petty  discords  of  these  squabbling 
sophists  as  though  they  were  matters  of  historical  importance.1  We  can  well 
imagine  how  unutterably  frivolous  this  apotheosis  of  pedantism  would  appear 
to  a  serious-minded  and  faithful  Jew  ;  and  it  may  have  been  his  Tarsian 
reminiscences  which  added  emphasis  to  St.  Paul's  reiterated  warnings  —  that 
the  wise  men  of  heathendom,  "  alleging  themselves  to  be  wise,  became  fools  ;  " 
that  "  they  became  vain  La  their  disputings,  and  their  unintelligent  heart 
was  darkened  ;  ''  2  that  "  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  folly  in  the  sight  of  God, 
for  it  is  written,  He  who  graspeth  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness."  And 
again,  "  the  Lord  knoweth  the  reasonings  of  the  wise  that  they  are  vain."  3 
But  while  he  thus  confirms  his  tenet,  according  to  his  usual  custom,  by 
Scriptural  quotations  from  Job  and  the  Psalms,  and  elsewhere  from  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah,4  he  reiterates  again  and  again  from  his  own  experience  that  the 
Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  and  regard  the  Cross  as  foolishness,  yet  that  the 
foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than  men,  and  the  weakness  of  God  stronger  than 
men,  and  that  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to  confound 
the  wise,  and  the  base  things  of  the  world  to  cosf  ound  the  mighty  ;  and  that 
when,  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God, 
it  pleased  God  by  "the  foolishness  of  the  proclamation"6  —  for  in  his 
strong  irony  he  loves  and  glories  in  the  antitheses  of  his  opponent's  choosing  — 
"  by  the  foolishness  of  the  thing  preached  "  to  save  them  that  believe.8 
If  the  boasted  wisdom  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world  was  such  as  the  young 


rt  OVTOVJ  Sunups  i  Kvivoc,  ty   wapoucdGrivTai,  Ka.0a.irtp  rwy  bpi-idiov  oi  vypoC  (Philostr. 

ubi  supr.). 

2  Horn.  i.  21,  22.  »  1  Cor.  ffi.  18—20. 

4  Job  v.  13;  Ps.  xciv.  11;  Isa.  xiix.  14;  xxxiii.  18;  xliv.  25;  Jer.  viii  9:  1   Cor.  L 
18—27. 

5  1  Cor.  L  21,  SLO.  rfft  Utopias  rov  mipuwaTos. 

•  1  Cor.  L  18—26;  ii  14;  iii.  19;  iv.  10;  2  Cor.  jd.  16,  19. 


20  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

Saul  had  seen,  if  their  very  type  of  senselessness  and  foolishness  was 
tkat  which  the  converted  Paul  believed,  then  Paul  at  least — so  he  says  in 
his  passionate  and  scornful  irony — would  choose  for  ever  to  be  on  the  side  of, 
to  cast  in  his  lot  with,  to  be  gladly  numbered  among,  the  idiots  and  the 
fools. 

"  He  who  hath  felt  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest 
Cannot  confound,  or  doubt  Him,  or  defy ; 
Yea,  with  one  voice,  0  world,  though  thou  deniest, 
Stand  thou  on  that  side — for  on  this  am  I ! " 

St.  Paul,  then,  was  to  the  very  heart  a  Jew — a  Jew  in  culture,  a  Jew  in 
sympathy,  a  Jew  in  nationality,  a  Jew  in  faith.  His  temperament  was  in  no 
sense  what  we  ordinarily  regard  as  a  poetic  temperament ;  yet  when  we  re- 
member how  all  the  poetry  which  existed  in  the  moral  depths  of  his  nature  was 
sustained  by  the  rhythms  and  imagery,  as  his  soul  itself  was  sustained  by  the 
thoughts  and  hopes,  of  his  national  literature — when  we  consider  how  the  star 
of  Abraham  had  seemed  to  shine  on  his  cradle  in  a  heathen  laud,  and  his  boy- 
hood in  the  dim  streets  of  unhallowed  Tarsus  to  gain  freshness  and  sweetness 
"from  the  waving  and  rustling  of  the  oak  of  Mamre"1 — we  can  understand 
that  though  in  Christ  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  circumcision  nor 
uncircuincision,  but  a  new  creation,2  yet  for  no  earthly  possession  would  he 
have  bartered  his  connexion  with  the  chosen  race.  In  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  he  speaks  in  almost  the  very  language  of  the  Talmudist :  "  Israel  hath 
sinned  (Josh.  vii.  11),  but  although  he  hath  sinned,"  said  Rabbi  Abba  bar  Zavda, 
"  he  is  still  Israel.  Hence  the  proverb — A  myrtle  among  nettles  is  still  called 
a  myrtle."3  And  when  we  read  the  numerous  passages  in  which  he  vaunts  his 
participation  in  the  hopes  of  Israel,  his  claim  to  be  a  fruitful  branch  in  the 
rich  olive  of  Jewish  life ;  when  we  hear  him  speak  of  their  adoption,  their 
Shechinah,  their  covenants,  their  Law,  their  worship,  their  promises,  then- 
Fathers,  their  oracles  of  God,  their  claim  of  kinsmanship  with  the  humanity 
of  Christ,4  we  can  understand  to  the  full  the  intense  ejaculation  of  his  patriotic 
fervour,  when — in  language  which  has  ever  been  the  stumbling-block  of  reli- 
gious selfishness,  but  which  surpasses  the  noblest  utterances  of  heroic  self- 
devotion — he  declares  that  he  could  wish  himself  accursed  from  Christ 5  for  his 
brethren,  his  kinsmen,  according  to  the  flesh.6  The  valiant  spirit  of  the  Jews 

1  Hausrath,  p.  20.  *  mV«,  Gal.  vi.  15;  iii.  28. 

3  Sanhedrin,  f.  44,  1.    Rom.  iii.  2;  be.,  passim. 

4  Rom.  ix.  1 — 5 ;  x.  1 ;  xi.  1.  *  Rom.  ix.  8. 

6  Any  one  who  wishes  to  see  the  contortions  of  a  narrow  exegesis  struggling  to 
extricate  itself  out  of  a  plain  meaning,  which  is  too  noble  for  its  comprehension,  may  see 
specimens  of  it  in  commentaries  upon  this  text.  This,  alas  !  is  only  one  instance  of  the 
spirit  which  so  often  makes  the  reading  of  an  ordinary  variorum  Pauline  commentary, 
one  of  the  most  tedious,  bewildering,  and  unprofitable  of  employments.  Strange  that, 
with  the  example  of  Christ  before  their  eyes,  many  erudite  Christian  commentators, 
should  know  so  little  of  the  sublimity  of  unselfishness  as  to  force  us  to  look  to  tho 
parallels  of  a  Moses — nay,  even  of  a  Danton — in  order  that  we  may  be  able  to  conceive 
of  the  true  nobleness  of  a  Paul  I  But  there  are  cases  in  which  he  who  would  obtain  from 
the  writings  of  St.  Paul  their  true,  and  often  quite  simple  and  transparent,  meaning,1 
must  tear  away  with  unsparing  hand  the  accumulated  cobwebs  of  centuries  of  error. 


BOYHOOD   IN  A   HEATHEN   OITT.  21 

of  Tarsus  sent  them  in  hundreds  to  die,  sword  in  hand,  amid  the  carnage  of 
captured  Jerusalem,  and  to  shed  their  last  blood  to  slake,  if  might  be,  the  very 
embers  of  the  conflagration  which  destroyed  the  Temple  of  their  love.  Tho 
same  patriotism  burned  in  the  spirit,  the  same  blood  flowed  in  the  veins,  not 
only  of  Saul  the  Pharisee,  but  of  Paul  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord. 

It  will  be  seen  from  all  that  we  have  said  that  we  wholly  disagree  with 
those  who  have  made  it  their  favourite  thesis  to  maintain  for  St.  Paul  the  early 
acquisition  of  an  advanced  Hellenic  culture.  His  style  and  his  dialectic  method 
have  been  appealed  to  in  order  to  support  this  view.1  His  style,  however,  is 
that  of  a  man  who  wrote  in  a  peculiar  and  provincial  Greek,  but  thought  in 
Syriac ;  and  his  dialectical  method  is  purely  Rabbinic.  As  for  his  deep  know- 
ledge of  heathen  life,  we  may  be  sure  that  it  was  not  derived  from  books,  but 
from  the  fatal  wickedness  of  which  he  had  been  a  daily  witness.  A  Jew  in  a 
heathen  city  needed  no  books  to  reveal  to  him  the  "  depths  of  Satan."  In  this 
respect  how  startling  a  revelation  to  the  modern  world  was  the  indisputable 
evidence  of  the  ruins  of  Pompeii  I  Who  would  have  expected  to  find  the 
infamies  of  the  Dead  Sea  cities  paraded  with  such  infinite  shamelessness  in 
every  street  of  a  little  provincial  town  P  What  innocent  snow  could  over  hide 
the  guilty  front  of  a  life  so  unspeakably  abominabie  P  Could  auything  short 
of  the  earthquake  have  engulfed  it,  or  of  the  volcano  have  burnt  it  up  ?  And 
if  Pompeii  was  like  this,  we  may  judge,  from  the  works  of  Aristophanes  and 
Athenaeus,  of  Juvenal  and  Martial,  of  Petronius  and  Apuleius,  of  Strato  and 
Meleager — which  may  be  regarded  as  the  "  pieces  justificative  "  of  St.  Paul's 
estimate  of  heathendom — what  Tarsus  and  Ephesus,  what  Corinth  and  Miletus, 
were  likely  to  have  been.  In  days  and  countries  when  the  darkness  was  so 
deep  that  the  very  deeds  of  darkness  did  not  need  to  hide  themselves — in  days 
and  cities  where  the  worst  vileuesses  of  idolatry  were  trumpeted  in  its  streets, 
and  sculptured  in  its  market-places,  and  consecrated  in  its  worship,  and  stamped 
upon  its  coins — did  Paul  need  Greek  study  to  tell  him  the  characteristics  of  a 
godless  civilisation  ?  The  notion  of  Baumgarten  that,  after  his  conversion, 
St.  Paul  earnestly  studied  Greek  literature  at  Tarsus,  with  a  view  to  his  mission 
among  the  heathen — or  that  the  "  books  "  and  parchments  which  he  asked  to 
be  sent  to  him  from  the  house  of  Carpus  at  Troas,2  were  of  this  description — 
is  as  precarious  as  the  fancy  that  his  parents  sent  him  to  be  educated  at  Jeru- 
salem in  order  to  counteract  the  commencing  sorcery  exercised  over  his 
imagination  by  Hellenic  studies.  Gamaliel,  it  is  true,  was  one  of  the  few 
Rabbis  who  took  the  liberal  and  enlightened  view  about  the  permissibility  of 
the  Chokmah  Jovanith,  or  "wisdom  of  the  Greeks  " — one  of  the  few  who  held 
the  desirability  of  not  wholly  dissevering  the  white  tallitJi  of  Shein  from  the 
stained  pallium  of  Japhet.3  But,  on  the  one  hand,  neither  would  Gamaliel 

1  See  Schaff,  Hid.  of  Anct.  Christianity,  I.  68.  J  2  Tim.  iv.  13. 

3  See  Life  of  Chmt,  Exc.  IV.  vol.  ii.  461.  The  study  of  Greek  literature  by  the 
House  of  Gamaliel  ia  said  to  have  been  connived  at  by  the  Kabbis,  on  the  plea  that  they 
needed  a  knowledge  of  Greek  in  civil  and  diplomatic  intercourse  on  behalf  of  their 
countrymen  (see  Etheridge,  Heb.  Lit.  p.  45).  Rabban  Shimon  Ben  Gamaliel  is  said  to 
have  remarked  that  there  were  1,000  children  in  his  father's  house,  of  whom  500  studied 


22  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

have  had  that  false  toleration  which  seems  to  think  that  "  the  ointment  of  the 
apothecary  "  is  valueless  without  "  the  fly  which  causeth  it  to  stink ;"  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  Gamaliel  had  allowed  his  pupils  to  handle  such  books,  or 
such  parts  of  books,  as  dwelt  on  the  darker  side  of  Paganism,  Paul  was  not  the 
kind  of  pupil  who  would,  for  a  moment,  have  availed  himself  of  such  "  ruinous 
edification." 1  The  Jews  were  so  scrupulous,  that  some  of  them  held  concern- 
ing books  of  their  own  hagiographa — such,  for  instance,  as  the  Book  of  Esther 
— that  they  were  dubious  reading.  They  would  not  allow  their  youth  even  to 
open  the  Song  of  Solomon  before  the  age  of  twenty-one.  Nothing,  therefore, 
can  be  more  certain  than  that  a  "Pharisee  of  Pharisees,"  even  though  his 
boyhood  were  spent  in  heathen  Tarsus,  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  read — 
barely  even  allowed  to  know  the  existence  of — any  but  the  sweetest  and  soundest 
portions  of  Greek  letters,  if  even  these.2  But  who  that  has  read  St.  Paul  can 
believe  that  he  has  ever  studied  Homer,  or  uEschylus,  or  Sophocles  ?  If  he 
had  done  so,  would  there— in  a  writer  who  often  "  thinks  in  quotations  "— 
have  been  no  touch  or  trace  of  any  reminiscence  of,  or  allusion  to,  epic  or  tragic 
poetry  in  epistles  written  at  Athens  and  at  Corinth,  and  beside  the  very  tumuli 
of  Ajax  and  Achilles  ?  Had  Paul  been  a  reader  of  Aristotle,  would  he  have 
argued  in  the  style  which  he  adopts  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Galatians  and  the 
Romans  ?  *  Had  he  been  a  reader  of  Plato,  would  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the 
first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  have  carried  in  it  not  the  most  remotely  faint 
allusion  to  the  splendid  guesses  of  the  Phaedo  ?  Nothing  can  be  more  clear 
than  that  ho  had  never  been  subjected  to  a  classic  training.  His  Greek  is  not 
the  Greek  of  the  Atticists,  nor  his  rhetoric  the  rhetoric  of  the  schools,  nor  his 
logic  the  logic  of  the  philosophers.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  incomparable 
energy  and  individuality  of  his  style  and  of  his  reasoning  would  not  have  been 

the  law,  and  500  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks,  and  that  of  these  all  but  two  perished  [in 
the  rebellion  of  Bar-cochba?]  (Balha  Kama,  f.  83,  1).  The  author  of  the  celebrated 
comparison,  that  "  because  the  two  sons  of  Noah,  Shem  and  Japhet,  united  to  cover  with 
one  garment  their  father's  nakedness,  Shem  obtained  the  fringed  garment  (talllth),  and 
Japhet  the  philosopher's  garment  (pattium),  which  ought  to  be  united  again,"  was  R. 
Jochanan  Ben  Napuchah  (Midr.  Rdbbah,  Gen.  xxxvi. ;  Jer.  Sotah,  ad  f.;  Selden,  De 
Synedr.  ii.  9,  2;  Biscoe,  p.  60).  On  the  other  hand,  the  narrower  Rabbis  identified 
Greek  learning  with  Egyptian  thaumaturgy ;  and  when  R.  Elieser  Ben  Darna  asked  hia 
uacle,  R.  Ismael,  whether  one  might  not  learn  Greek  knowledge  after  having  studied  the 
entire  law,  R.  Ismael  quoted  in  reply  Josh.  i.  8,  and  said,  "Go  and  find  a  moment  which 
is  neither  day  nor  night,  and  then  abandon  yourself  in  it  to  Greek  knowledge  "  (Mena- 
ck6th,  99,  2). 

1  1  Cor.  viii.  10,  i)  <rwe<£j)<r<9  avrou  i<r6tvovs  oirof  ouco£ofti)&j<rer<u  eis  TO  TO.  ci&uXodvra  IrrSinv. 
Ruinosa  aedificatio,  Calv.  ad  loc. 

2  See  Sota,  49,  6 ;  and  the  strong  condemnation  of  all  Gentile  books  by  R.  Akibha, 
Bab.  Sanhcdr.  90,  a.     (Gfrorer,  Jahrh.  d.  Heils.  i.  114 ;  Philo,  ii.  350 ;  Griitz,  iii.  502 ; 
Derenbourg,  Palest.  114.)    In  Yadayim,  iv.  6,  the  Sadducees  complain  of  some  Pharisees 
for  holding  that  the  Books  of  Ecclesiastes  and  Canticles  "defile  the  hands,"  while  "the 
books  of  Homeros  "  do  not.    The  comment  appended  to  this  remark  shows,  however,  the 
most  astounding  ignorance.    The  two  Rabbis  (in  loco)  take  "Meros"  to  be  the  proper 
name,  preceded  by  the  article,  and  deriving  Meros  from  rasas,  to  destroy,  make  the 
poems  of  Homer  into  books  which  cavil  against  the  Law  and  are  doomed  to  destruction  ! 
Gratz  denies  that  DVon  is  Homer. 

3  "Melius  haec  sibi  convenissent,"  says  Pritzsche,  in  alluding  to  one  of  St.  Paul's 
antinomies,  "si  Apo?jtolus  Aristotelis  non  Gamalielis  alumnus  fuisaet," 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  RABBI. 


merely  enfeebled  and  conventionalised  if  he  bad  gone  tnrough  any  prolonged 
course  of  tbe  only  training  wbich  tbe  Sophists  of  Tarsus  could  have  given 
him.1 


CHAPTER  in. 

THE  SCHOOL  OP  THE  EABBI. 

'H/covaare  yelp  TT\V  ^UTJP  waarpo(pi)v  irore  tv  'louSai'a'/uip,  #TI  ...  vpotKOVTOV 
iv  T(JJ  'lovticiiff/Ay  virep  iroAAotis  ffvi'rj\iKid>Tas  ev  Tq>  yevn  pav. — GAL.  i.  13,  14. 

"  Let  thy  house  he  a  place  of  resort  for  the  wise,  and  cover  thyself  with  the 
dust  of  their  feet,  and  drink  their  words  with  thirstincss." — fir  fit  AbhSth,  i.  4. 

"The  world  was  created  for  the  sake  of  the  Thorah." — Nedarim,  32,  1. 

"Whoever  ia  husied  in  the  law  for  its  own  sake  is  worth  the  whole  world." — 
PEREK  R.  MEIR,  1. 

So  far,  then,  we  have  attempted  to  trace  in  detail,  by  the  aid  of  St.  Paul's 
own  writings,  the  degree  and  the  character  of  those  influences  which  were 
exercised  upon  bio  mind  by  the  early  years  which  he  spent  at  Tarsus,  modified 
or  deepened  as  they  must  have  been  by  long  intercourse  with  heathens,  and 
with  converts  from  heathendom,  in  later  years.  And  already  we  have  seen 
abundant  reason  to  believe  that  the  impressions  which  he  received  from 
Hellenism  wore  comparatively  superficial  and  fugitive,  while  those  of  his 
Hebraic  training  and  nationality  worked  deep  among  the  very  bases  of  his 
life.  It  is  this  Hebraic  side  of  his  character,  so  important  to  any  under- 
standing of  his  life  and  writings,  that  we  must  now  endeavour  to  trace  and 
estimate. 

That  St.  Paul  was  a  Roman  citizen,  that  he  could  go  through  the  world 
and  say  in  his  own  defence,  when  needful  or  possible,  Oivis  Romanus  sum,  is 
stated  so  distinctly,  and  under  circumstances  so  manifestly  probable,  that  the 
fact  stands  above  all  doubt.  There  are,  indeed,  some  difficulties  about  it 
which  induce  many  German  theologians  quietly  to  deny  its  truth,  and  attri- 
bute the  statement  to  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  author  of  the  Acts  "  to 
recommend  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans  as  a  native  Roman,"  or  "  to  remove  the 
reproach  that  the  originators  of  Christendom  had  been  enemies  of  the  Roman 
State."  It  is  true  that,  if  St.  Paul  was  a  free-born  Roman  citizen,  his  legal 
rights  as  established  by  the  Lex  Porcia2  must,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ment, have  been  eight  times  violated  at  the  time  when  he  wrote  the  Second 

1  See  Excursus  I.,  "  The  Style  of  St.  Paul ; "  Excursus  II.,  "  Rhetoric  of  St.  Paul ; " 
and  Eicursiis  III.,  "The  Classic  Quotations  and  Allusions  of  St.  Paul."    I  may  sum  up 
the  conclusion  of  these  essays  by  stating  that  St.  Paul  had  but  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  Greek  literature,  but  that  he  had  very  probably  attended  some  elementary  classes 
in  Tarsus,  in  which  he  had  gained  a  tincture  of  Greek  rhetoric,  and  possibly  even  of 
Stoic  principles. 

2  Porcia  lex  virgaa  ab  omnium  oivium  Komanorum  corpora  amovet "  (do.  »n«,  £*b, 
Sj  Liv.  x,  9), 


24  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  Of  ST.  PATH,. 

Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  j1  while  a  ninth  violation  of  those  rights  was  only 
prevented  by  his  direct  appeal.  Five  of  these,  however,  were  Jewish 
scourgings ;  and  what  we  have  already  said,  as  well  as  what  we  shall  say 
hereafter,  may  well  lead  us  to  suppose  that,  as  against  the  Jews,  St.  Paul 
would  have  purposely  abstained  from  putting  forward  a  claim  which,  from 
the  mouth  of  a  Jew,  would  have  been  regarded  as  an  odious  sign  that  he  was 
willing  to  make  a  personal  advantage  of  his  country's  subjection.  The  Jewish 
authorities  possessed  the  power  to  scourge,  and  it  is  only  too  sadly  probable 
that  Saul  himself,  when  he  was  their  agent,  had  been  the  cause  of  its  infliction 
on  other  Christians.  If  so,  he  would  have  felt  a  strong  additional  reason  for 
abstaining  from  the  plea  which  would  have  exempted  him  from  the  authority 
of  his  countrymen ;  and  we  may  see  in  this  abstention  a  fresh  and,  so  far  as 
I  am  aware,  a  hitherto  unnoticed  trait  of  his  natural  nobleness.  As  to  the 
Roman  scourgings,  it  is  clear  that  the  author  of  the  Acts,  though  well  aware 
of  the  privileges  which  Roman  citizenship  entailed,  was  also  aware  that,  on 
turbulent  occasions  and  in  remote  places,  the  plea  might  be  summarily  set 
aside  in  the  case  of  those  who  were  too  weak  or  too  obscure  to  support  it.  If ' 
under  the  full  glare  of  publicity  in  Sicily,  and  when  the  rights  of  the  "  Civitas" 
were  rare,  a  Verres  could  contemptuously  ignore  them  to  an  extent  much 
more  revolting  to  the  Roman  sense  of  dignity  than  scourging  was — then  very, 
little  difficulty  remains  in  reconciling  St.  Paul's  expression,  "  Thrice  was  I 
beaten  with  rods,"  with  the  claim  which  he  put  forth  to  the  praetors  of 
Philippi  and  to  the  chiliarch  at  Jerusalem.  How  St.  Paul's  father  or  grand- 
father obtained  the  highly-prized  distinction  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining. 
It  certainly  did  not  belong  to  any  one  as  a  citizen  of  Tarsus,  for,  if  so,  Lysiaa 
at  Jerusalem,  knowing  that  St.  Paul  came  from  Tarsus,  would  have  known 
that  he  had  also  the  rights  of  a  Roman.  But  Tarsus  was  not  a  Colonia  or  a 
Municipium,  but  only  an  Urbs  Libera;  and  this  privilege,  bestowed  upon  it 
by  Augustus,  did  not  involve  any  claim  to  the  Civitas.  The  franchise  may 
either  have  been  purchased  by  Paul's  father,  or  obtained  as  a  reward  for  some 
services  of  which  no  trace  remains.9  When  Cassius  punished  Tarsus  by  a 
heavy  fine  for  having  embraced  the  side  of  Antony,  it  is  said  that  many 
iTarsians  were  sold  as  slaves  in  order  to  pay  the  money ;  and  one  conjecture 
is  that  St.  Paul's  father,  in  his  early  days,  may  have  been  one  of  these,  and 
may  have  been  first  emancipated  and  then  presented  with  the  Civitaa  during 
a  residence  at  Rome.  The  conjecture  is  just  possible,  but  nothing  more. 

At  any  rate,  this  Roman  citizenship  is  not  in  any  way  inconsistent  with 
his  constant  claim  to  the  purest  Jewish  descent ;  nor  did  it  appreciably  affect 
•his  character.  The  father  of  Saul  may  have  been  glad  that  he  possessed  an 
inalienable  right,  transmissible  to  his  son,  which  would  protect  him  in  many 
of  those  perils  which  were  only  too  possible  in  such  times;  but  it  made  no 

1  When  he  was  about  fifty-three  years  old. 

*  See  for  such  means  of  acquiring  it,  Suet.  Aug.  47 ;  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  14 ;  Acts  xxil. 
28.  The  possession  of  citizenship  had  to  be  proved  by  a  "diploma"  and  Claudius 
punished  a  false  assumption  of  it  with  death.  (Suet.  Claud.  25 ;  Calig.  28 ;  Nero,  12 ; 
Epictet,  Dissert,  iii.  24.) 


THB  SCHOOL  OF  THE  EABBI.  25 

difference  in  the  training  which  he  gave  to  the  young  Saul,  or  in  the  destiny 
which  he  marked  out  for  him.  That  training,  as  we  can  clearly  see,  was  the 
ordinary  training  of  every  Jewish  boy.  "  The  prejudices  of  the  Pharisaic 
house,  it  has  been  said,  "  surrounded  his  cradle ;  his  Judaism  grew  like  the 
mustard-tree  in  the  Gospel,  and  intolerance,  fanaticism,  national  hatred,  pride, 
and  other  passions,  built  their  nests  among  its  branches."1  At  the  age  of  five 
he  would  begin  to  study  the  Bible  with  his  parents  at  home ;  and  even  earlier 
than  this  he  would  doubtless  have  learnt  the  Shema2  and  the  Hallel  (Psalms 
cxiii. — cxviii.)  in  whole  or  in  part.  At  six  he  would  go  to  his  "  vineyard,"  as  the 
later  Rabbis  called  their  schools.  At  ten  he  would  begin  to  study  those 
earlier  and  simpler  developments  of  the  oral  law,  which  were  afterwards 
collected  in  the  Mishna.  At  thirteen  he  would,  by  a  sort  of  "  confirmation," 
become  a  "  Son  of  the  Commandment."3  At  fifteen  he  would  be  trained  in 
yet  more  minute  and  burdensome  halachoth,  analogous  to  those  which  ulti- 
mately filled  the  vast  mass  of  the  Gemara.  At  twenty,  or  earlier,  like  every 
orthodox  Jew,  he  would  marry.  During  many  years  he  would  be  ranked 
among  the  "  pupils  of  the  wise,"4  and  be  mainly  occupied  with  "  the  traditions 
of  the  Fathers."6 

It  was  in  studies  and  habits  like  these  that  the  young  Saul  of  Tarsus  grew 
np  to  the  age  of  thirteen,  which  was  the  age  at  which  a  Jewish  boy,  if  he  were 
destined  for  the  position  of  a  Rabbi,  entered  the  school  of  some  great  master. 
The  master  among  whose  pupils  Saul  was  enrolled  was  the  famous  Rabban 
Gamaliel,  a  son  of  Rabban  Simeon,  and  a  grandson  of  Hillel,  "  a  doctor  of 
the  law  had  in  reputation  among  all  the  people."6  There  were  only  seven  of 
the  Rabbis  to  whom  the  Jews  gave  the  title  of  Rabban,  and  three  of  these 
were  Gamaliels  of  this  family,  who  each  in  turn  rose  to  the  high  distinction 
of  Nast,  or  President  of  the  School.  Gamaliel  I.,  like  his  grandfather  | 
Hillel,  held  the  somewhat  anomalous  position  of  a  liberal  Pharisee.  A  Pharisee , 
in  heartfelt  zeal  for  the  traditions  of  his  fathers,7  he  yet  had  none  of  the 
narrow  exclusiveness  which  characterised  Shammai,  the  rival  of  his  grand-1 
father,  and  the  hard  school  which  Shammai  had  founded.  His  liberality  of 
intellect  showed  itself  in  the  permission  of  Pagan  literature ;  his  largeness  of 
heart  in  the  tolerance  which  breathes  through  his  speech  before  the  Sanhedrin. 

1  Hausrath,  p.  19. 

3  Strictly  Deut.  vi,  4—9 ;  but  also  xi  13—27  ;  Num.  XT.  87—41. 
8  Bar  Mitsvah. 

4  Pirke  Aijhdlk,  v.  21.    See  too  Dr.  Ginsburg's  excellent  article  on  "  Education  "  in 
Kitto's  Bibl.  Cycl. 

6  Pirke  AbMtii,  1. 1.  The  two  favourite  words  of  the  Pharisees  were  aiepiB«i«  and 
T*  Trdrpta  efrj.  -See  Acts  xxvi.  6;  xxii.  3;  Jos.  B.  /.  ii.  8,  §  14;  i.  5,  §  2;  Antt.  xiii.  10, 
§  6;  rvri.  2,  adfin. 

6  Acts  v.  84,  xiii.  3.    Bee  Gratz,  Gesch.  d.  Juden.  iii.  274. 

7  I  have  noticed  farther  on  (see  Excursus  V.)  the  difficulty  of  being  sure  which  of  the 
Gamaliels  is  referred  to  when  the  name  occurs  in  the  Talmud.    This,  however,  is  less  im- 
portant, since  they  were  all  of  the  same  school,  and  entirely  faithful  to  Mosaism.    We 
may  see  the  utter  change  which  subsequently  took  place  in  St.  Paul's  views  if  we  com- 
pare Bom.  xiv.  5,  Col.  ii.  16,  Gal.  iv.  10,   with  the  following  anecdote: — "Rabban 
Gamaliel's  ass  happened  to  be  laden  with  honey,  and  it  was  found  dead  one  Sabbath 
evening,  because  he  had  been  unwilling  to  unload  it  on  that  day  "  (Shdbbath,  f .  154,  o.  2). 


26  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

There  is  no  authority  for  the  tradition  that  he  was  a  secret  Christian,1  but  we 
see  from  the  numerous  notices  of  him  in  the  Talmud,  and  from  the  sayings 
there  ascribed  to  him,  that  he  was  a  man  of  exactly  the  character  which  we 
should  infer  from  the  brief  notice  of  him  and  of  his  sentiments  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  In  both  sources  alike  we  see  a  humane,  thoughtful,  high- 
minded,  and  religious  man — a  man  of  sufficient  culture  to  elevate  him  above 
vulgar  passions,  and  of  sufficient  wisdom  to  see,  to  state,  and  to  act  upon  the 
broad  principles  that  hasty  judgments  are  dangerously  liable  to  error ;  that 
there  is  a  strength  and  majesty  in  truth  which  needs  no  aid  from  pei-secu- 
tion ;  that  a  light  from  heaven  falls  upon  the  destinies  of  man,  and  that  by 
that  light  God  "  shows  all  things  in  the  slow  history  of  their  ripening." 

At  the  feet  of  this  eminent  Sanhedrist  sat  Saul  of  Tarsus  in  all  pro- 
bability for  many  years;2  and  though  for  a  time  the  burning  zeal  of  his 
temperament  may  have  carried  him  to  excesses  of  intolerance  in  which  he 
was  untrue  to  the  best  traditions  of  his  school,  yet,  since  the  sunlight  of  the 
grace  of  God  ripened  in  his  soul  the  latent  seeds  of  all  that  was  wise  and 
tender,  we  may  believe  that  some  of  those  germs  of  charity  had  been 
implanted  in  his  heart  by  his  eminent  teacher.  So  far  from  seeing  any 
improbability  in  the  statement  that  St.  Paul  had  been  a  scholar  of  Gamaliel, 
it  seems  to  me  that  it  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  character  and  opinions  of 
the  Apostle.  With  the  exception  of  Hillel,  there  is  no  one  of  the  Jewish 
Rabbis,  so  far  as  we  see  them  in  the  light  of  history,  whose  virtues  made  him 
better  suited  to  be  a  teacher  of  a  Saul,  than  Hillel's  grandson.  We  must  bear 
in  mind  that  the  dark  side  of  Pharisaism  which  is  brought  before  us  in  the 
Gospels — the  common  and  current  Pharisaism,  half  hypocritical,  half 
mechanical,  and  wholly  selfish,  which  justly  incurred  the  blighting  flash  of 
Christ's  denunciation — was  not  the  only  aspect  which  Pharisaism  could  wear. 
When  we  speak  of  Pharisaism  we  mean  obedience  petrified  into  formalism, 
religion  degraded  into  ritual,  morals  cankered  by  casuistry;  we  mean  the 
triumph  and  perpetuity  of  all  the  worst  and  weakest  elements  in  religious 
party-spirit.  But  there  were  Pharisees  and  Pharisees.  The  New  Testament 
furnishes  us  with  a  favourable  picture  of  the  candour  and  wisdom  of  a 
Nicodemus  and  a  Gamaliel.  In  the  Talmud,  among  many  other  stately 
figures  who  walk  in  a  peace  and  righteousness  worthy  of  the  race  which 
sprang  from  Abraham,  we  see  the  lovable  and  noble  characters  of  a  Hillol,  of 
a  Simeon,  of  a  Chaja,  of  a  Juda  "the  Holy."  It  was  when  he  thought  of 
such  as  these,  that,  even  long  after  his  conversion,  Paul  could  exclaim  before 
the  Sanhedrin  with  no  sense  of  shame  or  contradiction — "  Men  and  brethren, 
I  am  a  Pharisee,  a  son  of  Pharisees."  He  would  be  the  more  able  to  make 
this  appeal  because,  at  that  moment,  ho  was  expressly  referring  to  the 

1  Recogn.  Clcni.  i.  65;  Phot.  Cod.  171,  p.  199;  Thilo,  Cod.  Apocr.  p.  501  (Meyer  ad 
Acts  v.  34). 

2  Acts  xxii.  3.    The  Jewish  Rabbis  sat  on  lofty  chairs,  and  their  pupils  sat  at  their 
feet,  either  on  the  ground  or  on  benches.    There  is  no  sufficient  ground  for  the  tradition 
thwfc  up  till  the  time  of  Gamaliel's  death  it  had  been  the  custom  for  the  pupils  to  stand. 
(2  Kings  ii.  3 ;  iv.  38 ;  Bab.  Sanhedr.  vii.  2 ;  Biscoe,  p.  77.) 


THE   SCHOOL  OF  THK   BA.BBL  27 

resurrection  of  the  dead,  which  has  been  too  sweepingly  characterised  as  M  the 
one  doctrine  which  Paul  the  Apostle  borrowed  from  Saul  the  Pharisee." 

It  is  both  interesting,  and  for  the  study  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  most 
deeply  important,  to  trace  the  influence  of  these  years  upon  his  character  and 
intellect.  Much  that  ho  learnt  during  early  manhood  continued  to  be,  till  the 
last,  an  essential  part  of  his  knowledge  and  experience.  To  the  day  of  his 
death  he  neither  denied  nor  underrated  the  advantages  of  the  Jew ;  and  first 
among  those  advantages  he  placed  the  possession  of  "the  oracles  of  God."1 
He  had  begun  the  study  of  these  Scriptures  at  the  age  of  six,  and  to  them, 
and  the  elucidations  of  them  which  had  been  gathered  during  many  centuries 
in  the  schools  of  Judaism,  he  had  devoted  the  most  studious  years  of  his  life. 
The  effects  of  that  study  are  more  or  less  traceable  in  every  Epistle  which  he 
wrote ;  they  are  specially  remarkable  hi  those  which,  like  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  were  in  whole  or  in  part  addressed  to  Churches  in  which  Jewish 
converts  were  numerous  or  predominant. 

His  profound  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  shows  how 
great  had  been  his  familiarity  with  them  from  earliest  childhood.  From  the 
Pentateuch,  from  the  Prophets,  and  above  all  from  the  Psalter,  he  not  only 
quotes  repeatedly,  advancing  at  each  step  of  the  argument  from  quotation  to 
quotation,  as  though  without  these  his  argument,  which  is  often  in  reality 
quite  independent  of  them,  would  lack  authority;  but  he  also  quotes,  as  is 
evident,  from  memory,  anil  often  into  one  brief  quotation  weaves  the  verbal 
reminiscences  of  several  passages.2  Like  all  Hellenistic  Jews  he  uses  the 
Greek  version  of  the  LXX.,  but  he  had  an  advantage  over  most  Hellenists  in 
that  knowledge  of  the  original  Hebrew  which  sometimes  stands  him  in  good 
stead.  Tet  though  he  can  refer  to  the  original  when  occasion  requires,  the 
LXX.  was  to  him  as  much  "  the  Bible  "  as  our  English  version  is  to  us ;  and, 
as  is  the  case  with  many  Christian  writers,  he  knew  it  so  well  that  his 
sentences  are  constantly  moulded  by  its  rhythm,  and  his  thoughts  incessantly 
coloured  by  its  expressions. 

And  the  controversial  use  which  he  makes  of  it  is  very  remarkable.  It 
often  seems  at  first  sight  to  be  wholly  independent  of  the  context.  It  often 
seems  to  read  between  the  lines.3  It  often  seems  to  consider  the  mere  words 
of  a  writer  as  of  conclusive  authority  entirely  apart  from  their  original 
application.4  It  seems  to  regard  the  word  and  letter  of  Scripture  as  full  of 
divine  mysterious  oracles,  which  might  not  only  be  cited  in  matters  of  doctrine, 
but  even  to  illustrate  the  simplest  matters  of  contemporary  fact.5  It  attaches 
consequences  of  the  deepest  importance  to  what  an  ordinary  reader  might 

1  Rom.  iii.  2. 

»  E.g.,  Rom.  i.  24,  Iii.  6,  iv.  17,  is.  83, x. 18,  xi.  8 ;  1  Cor.  vi.  2,  ix.  7,  xv.  45 ;  &o. 

»  Rom.  ii.  24,  iii.  10—18,  ix.  15  ;1  Cor.  x.  1—4  ;  Gal.  iv.  24—31;  &c.  This  is  the 
essence  of  the  later  Kabbala,  with  its  Pardes — namely,  Pcsliat,  "  explanation ; "  Remes, 
"hint;"  Derush,  "homily;"  and  Sod,  "mystery."  Yet  in  St.  Paul  there  is  not  a 
trace  of  tke  methods  (Geneth)  of  Gem  atria,  Notarikon,  or  Themcurah,  which  the  Jews 
applied  ve>*y  early  to  Old  Testament  exegesis.  I  have  fully  explained  these  terms  in  a 
paper  on  "Rabbinic  Exegesis,"  Expositor,  May,  1877. 

4  1  Cor.  xiv.  21 ;  Rom.  x.  6—9 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  45.  *  See  Rom.  x.  15—21. 


28  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

regard  as  a  mere  grammatical  expression.1  But  if  the  general  conception  of 
this  style  of  argumentation  was  due  to  Paul's  long  training  in  Rabbinic 
principles  of  exegesis,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  while  these  principles 
often  modified  the  form  of  his  expressions,  they  cannot  in  any  single  instance 
be  said  to  have  furnished  the  essential  matter  of  his  thoughts.  It  was  quite 
inevitable  that  one  who  had  undergone  the  elaborate  training  of  a  Rabbi — one 
who,  to  full  manhood,  had  never  dreamt  that  any  training  could  be  superior  to 
it — would  not  instantly  unlearn  the  reiterated  lessons  of  so  many  years.  Nor 
was  it  in  any  way  necessary  to  the  interests  of  religious  truth  that  he  should 
do  so.  The  sort  of  traditional  culture  in  the  explanation  of  Scripture  which 
he  learnt  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  was  not  only  of  extreme  value  in  all  his 
controversies  with  the  Jews,  but  also  enriched  his  style,  and  lent  fresh  vivid- 
ness to  his  arguments,  without  enfeebling  his  judgment  or  mystifying  his 
opinions.  The  ingenuity  of  the  Jewish  Rabbi  never  for  one  moment  over- 
powers the  vigorous  sense  and  illuminated  intellect  of  the  Christian  teacher. 
Although  St.  Paul's  method  of  handling  Scripture,  undoubtedly,  in  its  general 
features,  resembles  and  recalls  the  method  which  reigns  throughout  the 
Talmud,  yet  the  practical  force,  the  inspired  wisdom,  the  clear  intuition,  of 
the  great  Apostle,  preserve  him  from  that  extravagant  abuse  of  numerical, 
kabbalistic,  esoteric,  and  impossibly  inferential  minutiae  which  make  anything 
mean  anything — from  all  attempt  to  emulate  the  remarkable  exegetical  feats 
of  those  letter-worshipping  Rabbis  who  prided  themselves  on  suspending 
dogmatic  mountains  by  textual  hairs.  He  shared,  doubtless,  in  the  views  of 
the  Liter  Jewish  schools — the  Tanaim  and  Amoraim — on  the  nature  of 
inspiration.  These  views,  which  we  find  also  in  Philo,  made  the  words  of 
Scripture  co-extensive  and  identical  with  the  words  of  God,  and  in  the 
clumsy  and  feeble  hands  of  the  more  fanatical  Talmudists  often  attached  to 
the  dead  letter  an  importance  which  stifled  or  destroyed  the  living  sense. 
But  as  this  extreme  and  mechanical  literalism — this  claim  to  absolute  in- 
fallibility even  in  accidental  details  and  passing  allusions — this  superstitious 
adoration  of  the  letters  and  vocables  of  Scripture  as  though  they  were  the 
articulate  vocables  and  immediate  autograph  of  God — finds  no  encouragement 
in  any  part  of  Scripture,  and  very  direct  discouragement  in  more  than  one  of 
'the  utterances  of  Christ,  so  there  is  not  a  single  passage  in  which  any 
approach  to  it  is  dogmatically  stated  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul.1  Nay,  more 
— the  very  point  of  his  specific  difference  from  the  Judseo-  Christians  was  his 
denial  of  the  permanent  validity  of  the  entire  scheme  of  legislation  which  it 
i  was  the  immediate  object  of  the  Pentateuch  to  record.  If  it  be  asserted 
ithat  St.  Paul  deals  with  the  Old  Testament  in  the  manner  of  a  Rabbi,  let  it 
ibe  said  in  answer  that  he  uses  it  to  emancipate  the  souls  which  Judaism 

»  Gal.  iii.  16. 

2  2  Tim.  iii.  16  is  no  exception ;  even  if  9<6inxv<rros  be  there  regarded  aa  a  predicate, 
nothing  would  be  more  extravagant  than  to  rest  on  that  single  adjective  the  vast  hypo- 
thesis of  literal  dictation  (see  infra,  ad  loc,).  On  this  great  subject  of  inspiration  I  have 
stated  what  I  believe  to  be  the  Catholic  faith  folly  and  clearly  in  the  Bible  Educator,  1, 
190  sq. 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THS  BABBX.  29 

enslaved ;  and  thai  he  deduces  from  it,  not  the  Kabbala  and  the  Talmud — "  a 
philosophy  for  dreamers  and  a  code  for  mummies"1 — but  the  main  ideas  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 

It  will  be  easy  for  any  thoughtful  and  unprejudiced  reader  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  to  verify  and  illustrate  for  himself  the  Apostle's  use  of  Scripture. 
He  adopts  the  current  mode  of  citation,  but  he  ennobles  and  enlightens  it.2 
That  he  did  not  consider  the  method  universally  applicable  is  clear  from  its 
omission  in  those  of  his  Epistles  which  were  intended  in  the  main  for  Gentile 
Christians,3  as  also  in  his  speeches  to  heathen  assemblies.  But  to  the  Jews  he 
would  naturally  address  a  style  of  argument  which  was  in  entire  accordance 
with  their  own  method  of  dialectics.  Many  of  the  truths  which  he 
demonstrates  by  other  considerations  may  have  seemed  to  him  to  acquire 
additional  authority  from  their  assonance  with  certain  expressions  of  Scripture. 
We  cannot,  indeed,  be  sure  in  some  instances  how  far  St.  Paul  meant  his 
quotation  for  an  argument,  and  how  far  he  used  it  as  a  mere  illustrative 
formula.  Thus,  we  feel  no  hesitation  in  admitting  the  cogency  of  his  proof 
of  the  fact  that  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  guilty  in  God's  sight ;  but  we 
should  not  consider  the  language  of  David  about  his  enemies  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifty-third  Psalms,  still  less  his  strong  expressions  "  all "  and  "  no,  not 
one,"  as  adding  any  great  additional  force  to  the  general  argument.  It  is 
probable  that  a  Jew  would  have  done  so;  and  St.  Paul,  as  a  Jew  trained  in 
this  method  of  Scriptural  application,  may  have  done  so  too.  But  what  has 
been  called  his  "  inspired  Targum  "  of  the  Old  Testament  does  not  bind  us  to 
the  mystic  method  of  Old  Testament  commentary.  As  the  Jews  were  more 
likely  to  adopt  any  conclusion  which  was  expressed  for  them  in  the  words  of 
Scripture,  St.  Paul,  having  undergone  the  same  training,  naturally  enwove 
into  his  style — though  only  when  he  wrote  to  them — this  particular  method  of 
Scriptural  illustration.  To  them  an  argument  of  this  kind  would  be  an 
argumentum  ex  concessis.  To  us  its  argumentative  force  would  be  much 
smaller,  because  it  does  not  appeal  to  us,  as  to  him  and  to  his  readers,  with  all 
the  force  of  familiar  reasoning.  So  far  from  thinking  this  a  subject  for 
regret,  we  may,  on  the  contrary,  be  heartily  thankful  for  an  insight  which 
could  give  explicitness  to  deeply  latent  truths,  and  find  in  an  observation  of 
minor  importance,  like  that  of  Habakkuk,  that  "  the  soul  of  the  proud  man 
is  not  upright,  but  the  just  man  shall  live  by  his  steadfastness  "* — i.e.,  that 
the  Chaldeans  should  enjoy  no  stable  prosperity,  but  that  the  Jews,  here 
ideally  represented  as  "  the  upright  man,"  should,  because  of  their  fidelity, 
live  secure — the  depth  of  power  and  meaning  which  we  attach  to  that  palmary 
truth  of  the  Pauline  theology  that  "the  just  shall  live  by  his  faith,"* 

»  Reuss,  Th&ol.  Ckrtt.  i.  268  and  408—421. 

3  See  Jowett,  Romans,  i.  353—362. 

*  There  are  no  Scriptural  quotations  in  1,  2  Thess.,  Phil.,  Col. 

4  Hab.  ii.  4.    (Heb.  tajiDMJ,  by  his  trustworthiness.)    See  Lightfoot  on.  Gal.  iii.  11, 
and  p.  149. 

5  GaL  iii.  11 ;  Eom.  L  17 ;  also  in  Heb.  x.  38.    St.  Paul  omits  the  pov  of  the  LXX,, 
which  is  not  in  the  Hebrew, 


30  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

A  similar  but  more  remarkable  instance  of  this  apparent  subordination  of 
the  historic  context  in  the  illustrative  application  of  prophetic  words  is  found 
in  1  Cor.  xiv.  21.  St.  Paul  is  there  speaking  of  the  gift  of  tongues,  and 
speaking  of  it  with  entire  disparagement  in  comparison  with  the  loftier  gift 
of  prophecy,  i.e.,  of  impassioned  and  spiritual  teaching.  In  support  of  this 
disparaging  estimate,  and  as  a  proof  that  the  tongues,  being  mainly  meant  as 
a  sign  to  unbelievers,  ought  only  to  be  used  sparingly  and  under  definite 
limitations  in  the  congregations  of  the  faithful,  he  quotes  from  Isaiah  xxviii.  II1 
the  verse — which  he  does  not  in  this  instance  borrow  from  the  LXX.  version — • 
"  With  men  of  other  tongues  and  other  lips  will  I  speak  unto  this  people,  and 
yet  for  all  that  will  they  not  hear  me,  saith  the  Lord"  The  whole  meaning 
and  context  are,  in  the  original,  very  interesting,  and  generally  misunderstood. 
The  passage  implies  that  since  the  drunken,  shameless  prieste  and  prophets 
chose,  in  their  hiccoughing  scorn,  to  deride  the  manner  and  method  of  the 
divine  instruction  which  came  to  them,2  God  should  address  them  in  a  wholly 
different  way,  namely,  by  the  Assyrians,  who  spake  tongues  which  they  could 
not  understand ;  and  yet  even  to  that  instruction — the  stern  and  unintelligible 
utterance  of  foreign  victors — they  should  continue  deaf.  This  passage,  in  a 
manner  quite  alien  from  any  which  would  be  natural  to  us,  St.  Paul  embodied 
in  a  pre-eminently  noble  and  able  argument,  as  though  it  illustrated,  if  it  did 
not  prove,  his  view  as  to  the  proper  object  and  limitations  of  those  soliloquies 
of  ecstatic  spiritual  emotion  which  were  known  as  Glossolalia,  or  "  the  Gift  of 
Tongues." 

One  more  instance,  and  that,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable  of  all,  will 
enable  us  better  to  understand  a  peculiarity  which  was  the  natural  result  of 
years  of  teaching.  In  Gal.  iii.  16  he  says,  "  Now  the  promises  were  spoken  to 
Abraham  and  to  his  seed.  He  saith  not,  AND  TO  SEEDS,  as  applying  to 
many,  but,  as  applying  to  one,  AND  TO  THY  SEED — who  is  Christ."  Certainly 
at  first  sight  we  should  say  that  an  argument  of  immense  importance  was 
here  founded  on  the  use  of  the  Hebrew  word  zero,  hi  the  singular,3  and  its 
representative  the  <rirtp/j.a  of  the  LXX. ;  and  that  the  inference  which  St.  Paul 
deduces  depends  solely  on  the  fact  that  the  plural,  zeraim  (ffW/yiara),  is  not 
used ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  promise  of  Gen.  xiii.  15  pointed  from  the  first 
to  a  special  fulfilment  in  ONE  of  Abraham's  descendants.  This  primd  facie 
view  must,  however,  be  erroneous,  because  it  is  inconceivable  that  St.  Paul — a 
good  Hebraist  and  a  master  of  Hellenistic  Greek — was  unaware  that  the  plural 
zeratm,  as  in  1  Sam.  viii.  15,  Dan  i.  12,  and  the  title  of  the  Talmudic  treatise, 
could  not  by  any  possibility  have  been  used  in  the  original  promise,  because 
it  could  only  mean  "various  kinds  of  grain" — exactly  in  the  sense  in  which  he 

1  The  quotation  is  Introduced  with  the  formula,  "It  has  been  written  in  the  Law,"  a 
phrase  which  is  sometimes  applied  to  the  entire  Old  Testament. 

2  They  ridiculed  Isaiah's  repetitions  by  saying  they  were  all  "bid  and  bid,  bid  and 
bid,  forbid  and  forbid,  forbid  and  forbid,"  &c.  (Tsav  la-tsav,  tsav  la-tsav,  kav  la-kav, 
Tear  la-kav,  &c.,  Heb.).      (See  an  admirable  paper  on  this  passage  by  Rev.  S.  Cox, 
Expositor,  L  p.  10L) 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  KABM.  81 

himself  uses  spermaia  in  1  Cor.  xv.  38 — and  that  the  Greek  spervnaia,  in  the 
sense  of  "  offspring,"  would  be  nothing  less  than  an  impossible  barbarism. 
The  argument,  therefore — if  it  bo  an  argument  at  all,  and  not  what  tho 
Rabbis  would  have  called  a  sod,  or  "  mystery  " — does  not,  and  cannot,  turn, 
as  has  been  so  unhesitatingly  assumed,  on  the  fact  that  sperma  is  a  singular 
noun,  but  on  the  fact  that  it  5s  a  collective  noun,  and  was  deliberately  used 
instead  of  "sons"  or  "children;"1  and  St.  Paul  declares  that  this  collective 
term  was  meant  from  the  first  to  apply  to  Christ,  as  elsewhere  he  applies  it 
spiritually  to  the  servants  of  Christ.  In  the  interpretation,  then,  of  this  word, 
St.  Paul  reads  between  the  lines  of  the  original,  and  is  enabled  to  see  in  it 
deep  meanings  which  are  the  true,  but  not  the  primary  ones.  He  does  not 
say  at  once  that  the  promises  to  Abraham  found  in  Christ — as  in  the  purpose 
of  God  it  had  always  been  intended  that  they  should  find  in  Christ 2 — their 
highest  and  truest  fulfilment;  but,  in  a  manner  belonging  peculiarly  to  the 
Jewish  style  of  exegesis,  he  illustrates  this  high  truth  by  the  use  of  a  collective 
noun  in  which  he  believes  it  to  have  been  mystically  foreshadowed.3 

This  passage  is  admirably  adapted  to  throw  light  on  the  Apostle's  use  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Rabbinic  in  form,  it  was  free  in  spirit.  Though  he  does 
not  disdain  either  Amoraic  or  Alexandrian  methods  of  dealing  with  Scripture, 
St.  Paul  never  falls  into  the  f ollios  or  extravagances  of  either.  Treating  the 
letter  of  Scripture  with  intense  respect,  he  yet  made  the  literal  sense  of  it  bend 
at  will  to  the  service  of  the  spiritual  consciousness.  On  the  dead  letter  of  tho 
Urim,  which  recorded  the  names  of  lost  tribes,  he  flashed  a  mystic  ray,  which 
made  them  gleam  forth  into  divine  and  hitherto  undreamed-of  oracles.  The 
actual  words  of  the  sacred  writers  became  but  as  the  wheels  and  wings  of  the 
Cherubim,  and  whithersoever  the  Spirit  went  they  went.  Nothing  is  more 
natural,  nothing  more  interesting,  in  the  hands  of  an  inspired  teacher 
nothing  is  more  valuable,  than  this  mode  of  application.  We  have  not 
in  St.  Paul  the  frigid  spirit  of  Philonian  allegory  which  to  a  great 
extent  depreciated  the  original  and  historic  sense  of  Scripttire,  and  was 
chiefly  bent  on  educing  philosophic  mysteries  from  its  living  page ;  nor  have 
we  a  single  instance  of  Gematria  or  Notarikon,  of  Atbash  or  Albam,  of 
Hillel's  middoth  or  Akibha's  method  of  hanging  legal  decisions  on  the  horns 
of  letters.  Into  these  unreal  mysticisms  and  exegetical  frivolities  it  was 
impossible  that  a  man  should  fall  who  was  intensely  earnest,  and  felt,  in  tho 
vast  mass  of  what  he  wrote,  that  he  had  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  In  no 
single  instance  does  he  make  one  of  these  general  quotations  the  demon- 
strative basis  of  the  point  which  he  is  endeavouring  to  impress.  In  every  instance 

1  See  Lightfopt,  ad  loc.,  p.  139. 

-  As  in  Gen.  iii.  15.  The  Jews  could  not  deny  the  force  of  the  argument,  for  they 
interpreted  Gen.  iv.  25,  &c.,  of  the  Messiah.  But  St.  Jerome's  remark,  "Galatis,  quoa 
paulo  ante  stultos  dbcerat,  factus  est  stultus,"  as  though  the  Apostle  had  purposely  used 
an  "  accommodation  "  argument,  is  founded  on  wrong  principles. 

8  The  purely  illustrative  character  of  the  reference  seems  to  be  clear  from  the 
diif ereut,  yet  no  less  spiritualised,  sense  given  to  the  text  in  Rom.  ir.  13.  16,  18  j  is.  8  ; 
Gal.  jii.  28,  29. 


32  ....        THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  Of  ST.   PAUL. 

he  states  the  solid  argument  on  which  he  rests  his  conclusion,  and  only  adduces 
Scripture  by  way  of  sanction  or  support.  And  this  is  in  exact  accordance 
with  all  that  we  know  of  his  spiritual  history — of  the  genuineness  of  which 
it  affords  an  unsuspected  confirmation.  He  had  not  arrived  at  any  one  of  the 
truths  of  his  special  gospel  by  the  road  of  ratiocination.  They  came  to  him 
with  the  flash  of  intuitive  conviction  at  the  miracle  of  his  conversion,  or  in 
the  gradual  process  of  subsequent  psychological  experience.  We  hear  from 
his  own  lips  that  he  had  not  originally  found  these  truths  in  Scripture, 
or  been  led  to  them  by  inductive  processes  in  the  course  of  Scripture  study. 
He  received  them,  as  again  and  again  he  tells  us,  by  revelation  direct  from 
Christ.  It  was  only  when  God  had  taught  him  the  truth  of  them  that  he 
became  cognisant  that  they  must  be  latent  in  the  writings  of  the  Old 
Dispensation.  When  he  was  thus  enlightened  to  see  that  they  existed  in 
Scripture,  he  found  that  all  Scripture  was  full  of  them.  When  he  knew 
that  the  treasure  lay  hid  in  the  field,  he  bought  the  whole  field,  to  become 
its  owner.  When  God  had  revealed  to  him  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  he  saw — as  we  may  now  see,  but  as  none  had  seen  before  him — that  it 
existed  implicitly  in  the  trustfulness  of  Abraham  and  the  "  life  "  and  "  faith '' 
of  Habakkuk.  Given  the  right,  nay,  the  necessity,  to  spiritualise  the  meaning 
of  the  Scriptures — and  given  the  fact  that  this  right  was  assumed  and 
practised  by  every  teacher  of  the  schools  in  which  Paul  had  been  trained  and 
to  which  his  countrymen  looked  up,  as  it  has  been  practised  by  every  great 
teacher  since — we  then  possess  the  key  to  all  such  passages  as  those  to  which 
I  have  referred ;  and  we  also  see  the  cogency  with  which  they  would  come 
home  to  the  minds  of  those  for  whom  they  were  intended.  In  other  words, 
St.  Paul,  when  speaking  to  Jews,  was  happily  able  to  address  them,  as  it  were, 
in  their  own  dialect,  and  it  is  a  dialect  from  which  Gentiles  also  have  deep 
lessons  to  learn. 

It  is  yet  another  instance  of  the  same  method  when  he  points  to  the  two 
wives  of  Abraham  as  types  of  the  Jewish  and  of  the  Christian  covenant, 
and  in  the  struggles  and  jealousies  of  the  two,  ending  in  the  ejection  of  Agar, 
sees  allegorically  foreshadowed  the  triumph  of  the  new  covenant  over  the 
old.  In  this  allegory,  by  marvellous  interchange,  the  physical  descendants  of 
Sarah  become,  in  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  the  descendants  of  Agar,  and  those 
who  were  Agar's  children  become  Sarah's  true  spiritual  offspring.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  Jerusalem  that  now  is,  though  descended  from  Sarah  and 
Abraham,  are  foreshadowed  for  rejection  under  the  type  of  the  offspring  of 
Ishmael ;  and  the  true  children  of  Abraham  and  Sarah  are  those  alone  who 
are  so  spiritually,  but  of  whom  the  vast  majority  were  not  of  the  chosen  seed. 
And  the  proof  of  this — if  proof  be  in  any  case  the  right  word  for  what 
perhaps  St.  Paul  himself  may  only  have  regarded  as  allegoric  confirmation- 
is  found  in  Isaiah  liv.  1,  where  the  prophet,  addressing  the  New  Jerusalem 
which  is  to  rise  out  of  the  ashes  of  her  Babylonian  ruin,  calls  to  her  as  to 
a  barren  woman,  and  bids  her  to  rejoice  as  having  many  more  children 
than  she  that  hath  a  husband.  The  Jews  become  metamorphosed  into  th? 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  EABBI.  33 

descendants  of  Agar,  the  Gentiles  into  the  seed  of  Abraham  and  heirs  of  the 
Promise.1 

This  very  ranging  in  corresponding  columns  of  type  and  antitype,  or  of 
the  actually  existent  and  its  ideal  counterpart — this  Systoichia  in  which 
Agar,  Ishmael,  the  Old  Covenant,  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  the  unconverted 
Jews,  &c.,  in  the  one  column,  are  respective  counterparts  of  their  spiritual 
opposites,  Sarah,  Isaac,  the  New  Covenant,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the 
Christian  Church,  &c.,  in  the  other  column — is  in  itself  a  Rabbinic  method 
of  setting  forth  a  series  of  conceptions,  and  is,  therefore,  another  of  the  many 
traces  of  the  influence  of  Rabbinic  training  upon  the  mind  of  St.  Paul.  A 
part  of  the  system  of  the  Rabbis  was  to  regard  the  earth  as— 

"  But  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  the  other  like  more  than  on  earth  is  thought." 

This  notion  was  especially  applied  to  everything  connected  with  the  Holy 
People,  and  there  was  no  event  in  the  wanderings  of  the  wilderness  which 
did  not  stand  typically  for  matters  of  spiritual  experience  or  heavenly  hope.8 
This  principle  is  expressly  stated  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,8 
where,  in  exemplification  of  it,  not  only  is  the  manna  made  the  type  of  the 
bread  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  but,  by  a  much  more  remote  analogy,  the  passing 
through  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  being  guided  by  the  pillar  of 
cloud  by  day,  is  described  as  "  being  baptised  unto  Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in 
the  sea,"  and  is  made  a  prefigurement  of  Christian  baptism.4 

But  although  St.  Paul  was  a  Hebrew  by  virtue  of  his  ancestry,  and  by 
virtue  of  the  language  which  he  had  learnt  as  his  mother-tongue,  and  although 
he  would  probably  have  rejected  the  appellation  of  "  Hellenist,"  which  is 
indeed  never  applied  to  him,  yet  his  very  Hebraism  had,  in  one  most  impor- 
tant respect,  and  one  which  has  very  little  attracted  the  attention  of  scholars, 
an  Hellenic  bias  and  tinge.  This  is  apparent  in  the  fact  which  I  have  already 
mentioned,  that  he  was,  or  at  any  rate  that  he  became,  to  a  marked  extent, 
in  the  technical  language  of  the  Jewish  schools,  an  Hagadist,  not  an  Halachist.5 
It  needs  but  a  glance  at  the  Mishna,  and  still  more  at  the  Gemara,  to  see  that 

1  Other  specimens  of  exegesis  accordant  in  result  with  the  known  views  of  the  Rabbis 
may  be  found  in  Rom.  ix.  33  (compared  with  Is.  via.  14,  xxviii.  16  ;  Luke  ii.  34),  since 
the  Eabbis  applied  both  the  passages  referred  to — "  the  rock  of  offence,"  and  "  the 
corner-stone  " — to  the  Messiah ;  and  in  1  Cor.  ix.  9,  where  by  a  happy  analogy  (also 
found  in  Philo,  De  Victimat  Offer entibus,  1)  the  prohibition  to  muzzle  the  ox  that 
treadeth  out  the  corn  is  applied  to  the  duty  of  maintaining  ministers  (1  Cor.  ix.  4, 11 ; 
Eph.  iv.  8).  The  expressions  in  Rom.  v.  12  ;  1  Cor.  xi.  10 ;  2  Cor.  xi.  14  ;  Gal.  iii.  19, 
iv.  29,  find  parallels  in  the  Targums,  &c.  To  these  may  be  added  various  images  and 
expressions  in  1  Cor.  xv.  36 ;  2  Cor.  xii.  2 ;  1  Thess.  iv.  16.  (See  Immer,  Neut.  The  I. 
210 ;  Krenkel,  p.  218.) 

8  "Quicquid  evenit  patribus  slgnum  flliis,"  &c.  (Wetstein,  and  Schottgen  ad  1  Cor. 
x.  11).  (See  Wisd.  xi.,  xvi. — xviii.) 

8  1  Cor.  x.  6,  TOVTO  &  Tvirot  T)/«O?  rftvrj8ii<Ta*'  On  the  manna  (=  0cios  Aoyo;),  compare 
Philo,  De  Leg.  Alleg.  iv.  56  ;  on  the  rock  (=  <nxf>(<t  TOV  0«o«),  id.  ii.  21. 

4  So  Greg.  Naz.  Orat.  39,  p.  688,  Jer.  Ep.  ad  FaUol.  and  most  commentatorB,  fol- 
lowed by  the  collect  in  our  baptismal  service,  "  figuring  thereby  thy  holy  baptism."  But 
observe  that  the  typology  is  quite  incidental,  the  moral  lesson  paramount  (1  Cor.  x.  (J,  11). 

*  See  Excursxu  IV.,  fl  St.  Paul  a  Hagadirt." 


34  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  8T*  PAUL. 

the  question  which  mainly  occupied  the  thoughts  and  interests  of  the  Pales- 
tinian and  Babylonian  Rabbis,  and  which  almost  constituted  the  entire 
education  of  their  scholars,  was  the  Halacha,  or  "  rule ; ''  and  if  we  compare 
the  Talmud  with  the  Midrashim,  we  see  at  once  that  some  Jewish  scholars 
devoted  themselves  to  the  Hagada  almost  exclusively,  and  others  to  the 
Halacha,  and  that  the  names  frequent  in  the  one  region  of  Jewish  literature 
are  rarely  found  in  the  other.  The  two  classes  of  students  despised  each 
other.  The  Hagadist  despised  the  Halachist  as  a  minute  pedant,  and  was 
despised  in  turn  as  an  imaginative  ignoramus.  There  was  on  the  part  of 
some  Babbis  a  jealous  dislike  of  teaching  the  Hagadoth  at  all  to  any  one  who 
had  not  gone  through  the  laborious  training  of  the  Halacha.  "I  hold  from 
my  ancestors,"  said  R.  Jonathan,  in  refusing  to  teach  the  Hagada  to  R.  Samlai, 
"  that  one  ought  not  to  teach  the  Hagada  either  to  a  Babylonian  or  to  a 
southern  Palestinian,  because  they  are  arrogant  and  ignorant."  The  conse- 
quences of  the  mutual  dis-esteem  in  which  each  branch  of  students  held  the 
other  was  that  the  Hagadists  mainly  occupied  themselves  with  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Halachists  with  the  Law.  And  hence  the  latter  became  more  and 
more  Judaic,  Pharisaic,  Rabbinic.  The  seven  rules  of  Hillel  became  the 
thirteen  rules  of  Ishmael,1  and  the  thirty-three  of  Akibha,  and  by  the  inter- 
vention of  these  rules  almost  anything  might  be  added  to  or  subtracted  from 
the  veritable  Law.2  The  letter  of  the  Law  thus  lost  its  comparative  simpli- 
city in  boundless  complications,  until  the  Talmud  tells  us  how  Akibha  was 
seen  in  a  vision  by  the  astonished  Moses,  drawing  from  every  horn  of  every 
letter  whole  bushels  of  decisions.3  Meanwhile  the  Hagadists  were  deducing 
from  the  utterances  of  the  Prophets  a  spirit  which  almost  amounted  to  con- 
tempt for  Levitical  minntise ;  *  were  developing  the  Messianic  tradition,  and 
furnishing  a  powerful  though  often  wholly  unintentional  assistance  to  the 
logic  of  Christian  exegesis.  This  was  because  the  Hagadists  were  grasping 
the  spirit,  while  the  Halachists  were  blindly  groping  amid  the  crumbled 
fragments  of  the  letter.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  Jews  got  to  be  so  jealous 
of  the  Hagada,  as  betraying  possible  tendencies  to  the  heresies  of  the  minim— - 
i.e.,  the  Christians — that  they  imposed  silence  upon  those  who  used  certain 
suspected  hagadistic  expressions,  which  in  themselves  were  perfectly  harmless. 
"  He  who  profanes  holy  things,"  says  Rabbi  Eliezer  of  Modin,  in  the  PirJce 
Abhoth,  "who  slights  the  festivals,  who  causes  his  neighbour  to  blush  in 
public,  who  breaks  the  covenant  of  Abraham,  and  discovers  explanations  of 
the  Law  contrary  to  the  Halacha,  even  if  he  knew  the  Law  and  his  works 
were  good,  would  still  lose  his  share  in  the  life  to  come."  6 

It  is  easy  to  understand  from  these  interesting  particulars  that  if  the 
Hagada  and  the  Halacha  were  alike  taught  in  the  lecture-room  of  Gamaliel, 

1  See  Derenbourg,  Palest,  p.  397. 

2  Even  R.  Tshmael,  who  snares  with  R.  Akibha  the  title  of  Father  of  the  World, 
admits  to  having  found  three  cases  in  which  the  Halacha  was  contrary  to  the  letter  of 
the  Pentateuch.    It  would  not  be  difficult  to  discover  very  many  more. 

3  MenacMth,  29,  2.  «  Isa.  i.  11—15;  Iviii.  5—7;  Jer.  vii.  2L 
*  Pirke  Abh6th,  iii.  8 ;  Gratz,  ill  79, 


SAUL  THE   PHARISEE.  85 

St.  Paul,  whatever  may  have  been  his  original  respect  for  and  study  of  the 
one,  carried  with  him  in  mature  years  no  trace  of  such  studies,  while  ho  by 
no  means  despised  the  best  parts  of  the  other,  and,  illuminated  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God,  found  in  the  training  with  which  it  had  furnished  him  at  least 
an  occasional  germ,  or  illustration,  of  thoso  Christian  and  Messianic  argu- 
ments which  ho  addressed  with  such  consummate  force  alike  to  the  rigid 
Hebraists  and  the  most  bigoted  Hellenists  in  after  years.1 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SAUL    THE    PHARISEE. 

T&V  irarpiKSiv  /JLOV  iropafi&ffswv. — GAL.  i.  14  ;  ACTS  xxii.  3. 

Karh  rty  facpipf<rr<lT-r]v  atptcriv  TTJS  i)/ji.erepa.s  OpTjffKflas  efoffa  Qaptffdios. — ACTS 
rxvi.  5. 

IP  the  gathered  lore  of  the  years  between  the  ages  of  thirteen  and  thirty-three 
has  left,  as  it  must  inevitably  have  left,  unmistakable  traces  on  the  pages  of 
St.  Paul,  how  much  more  must  this  be  the  case  with  all  the  moral  struggles, 
all  the  spiritual  experiences,  all  those  inward  battles  which  are  not  fought 
with  earthly  weapons,  through  which  he  must  have  passed  during  the  long 
period  in  which  "  he  lived  a  Pharisee  "  P 

We  know  well  the  kind  of  life  which  lies  hid  behind  that  expression.  We 
know  the  minute  and  intense  scrupulosity  of  Sabbath  observance  wasting 
itself  in  all  those  aVhotli  and  toldoth — those  primary  and  derivative  rules  and 
prohibitions,  and  inferences  from  rules  and  prohibitions,  and  combinations  of 
inferences  from  rides  and  prohibitions,  and  cases  of  casuistry  and  conscience 
arising  out  of  the  infinite  possible  variety  of  circumstances  to  which  those 
combinations  of  inference  might  apply — which  had  degraded  the  Sabbath 
from  "  a  delight,  holy  of  the  Lord  and  honourable,"  partly  into  an  anxious  and 
pitiless  burden,  and  partly  into  a  network  of  contrivances  hypocritically 
designed,  as  it  were,  in  the  lowest  spirit  of  heathenism,  to  cheat  the  Deity 
with  the  mere  semblance  of  accurate  observance.2  We  know  the  carefulness 
about  the  colour  of  fringes,  and  the  tying  of  tassels,  and  the  lawfulness  of 
meats  and  drinks.  We  know  the  tithings,  at  once  troublesome  and  ludicrous, 
of  mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  and  the  serio-comic  questions  as  to  whether  in 
tithing  the  seed  it  was  obligatory  also  to  tithe  the  stalk.  We  know  the  double 
fasts  of  the  week,  and  the  triple  prayers  of  the  day,  and  the  triple  visits  to  the 
Temple.  We  know  the  elaborate  strainings  of  the  water  and  the  wine,  that 
not  even  the  carcase  of  an  animalcula  might  defeat  the  energy  of  Levitical 
anxiety.  We  know  the  constant  rinsings  and  scourings  of  brazen  cups  and 

1  See  Derenbourg's  Hist,  de  la  Palestine  cTaprtis  les  Thalmudt  (ch.  zrf.  and  xxiii.), 
which  seems  to  me  to  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  views  and  early  training  of  St.  Paul. 
8  See  the  rules  about  the  mixtures  (Erubhtn),  Life  of  Christ,  i.  486,  fi.  472. 


36  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

pots  and  tables,  carried  to  so  absurd  an  extreme  that,  on  the  occasion  of  wash- 
ing the  golden  candelabrum  of  the  Temple,  the  Sadducees  remarked  that  their 
Pharisaic  rivals  would  wash  the  Sun  itself  if  they  could  get  an  opportunity. 
We  know  the  entire  and  laborious  ablutions  and  bathings  of  the  whole  person, 
with  carefully  tabulated  ceremonies  and  normal  gesticulations,  not  for  the 
laudable  purpose  of  personal  cleanliness,  but  for  the  nervously-strained 
endeavour  to  avoid  every  possible  and  impossible  chance  of  contracting  cere- 
monial uncleanness.  We  know  how  this  notion  of  perfect  Levitical  purity 
thrust  itself  with  irritating  recurrence  into  every  aspect  and  relation  of 
ordinary  life,  and  led  to  the  scornful  avoidance  of  the  very  contact  and  shadow 
of  fellow-beings,  who  might  after  all  be  purer  and  nobler  than  those  who 
would  not  touch  them  with  the  tassel  of  a  garment's  hem.  We  know  the 
obtrusive  prayers,1  the  ostentatious  almsgivings,8  the  broadened  phylacteries,3 
the  petty  ritualisms,4  the  professorial  arrogance,5  the  reckless  proselytism,8 
the  greedy  avarice,7  the  haughty  assertion  of  pre-eminence,8  the  ill-concealed 
hypocrisy,9  which  were  often  hidden  under  this  venerable  assumption  of 
superior  holiness.  And  we  know  all  this  quite  as  much,  or  more,  from  the 
admiring  records  of  the  Talmud — which  devotes  one  whole  treatise  to  hand- 
washings,10  and  another  to  the  proper  method  of  killing  a  fowl,u  and  another  to 
the  stalks  of  legumes12 — as  from  the  reiterated  "woes"  of  Christ's  denuncia- 
tion.13 But  we  may  be  sure  that  these  extremes  and  degeneracies  of  the  Pharisaic 
aim  would  be  as  grievous  and  displeasing  to  the  youthful  Saul  as  they  were  to 
all  the  noblest  Pharisees,  and  as  they  were  to  Christ  Himself.  Of  the  seven 
kinds  of  Pharisees  which  the  Talmud  in  various  places  enumerates,  we  may  be 
quite  sure  that  Saul  of  Tarsus  would  neither  be  a  "  bleeding  "  Pharisee,  nor  a 
"mortar"  Pharisee,  nor  a  "Shechemite"  Pharisee,  nor  a  "timid"  Pharwee, 
nor  a  "tumbling"  Pharisee,  nor  a  "painted"  Pharisee  at  all;  but  that  the 
only  class  of  Pharisee  to  which  he,  as  a  true  and  high-minded  Israelite,  would 
have  borne  any  shadow  of  resemblance,  and  that  not  in  a  spirit  of  self -content- 
ment, but  in  a  spirit  of  almost  morbid  and  feverish  anxiety  to  do  all  that 
was  commanded,  would  be  the  Tell-me-anything-more-to-do-and-I-will-do-it 
Pharisee ! 14 

And  this  type  of  character,  which"  bears  no  remote  resemblance  to  that 
of  many  of  the  devotees  of  the  monastic  life— however  erroneous  it  may  be, 
however  bitter  must  be  the  pain  by  which  it  must  be  accompanied, 
however  deep  the  dissatisfaction  which  it  must  ultimately  suffer — is  very 
far  from  being  necessarily  ignoble.  It  is  indeed  based  on  the  enormous 
error  that  man  can  deserve  heaven  by  care  in  external  practices;  that  he 
can  win  by  quantitative  goodness  his  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  God ;  that 

i  Matt.  vi.  5.  »  Matt.  vL  2.  •  Matt,  xxiii.  5 

«  Mark  vii.  4— &  •  John  vii.  49.  •  Matt,  xxiii.  15, 

1  Luke  xs.  47.  •  Luke  xviii.  It  •  Matt.  xxii.  17. 

w  Yadayim.  «  Ckolin.  M  Ozekin. 

»  See  Schottgen,  Hor.  Hebr.  pp.  7,  160,  204. 

14  Jcr.  Berachtith,  jx.  7,  &o.  See  Life  of  Christ,  vol  £  p.  248,  where  these  name*  an 
explained. 


SAUL  THE  PHARISBB.  3? 

that  kingdom  is  meat  and  drink,  not  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in 
believing.  Occasionally,  by  some  flash  of  sudden  conviction,  one  or  two  of 
the  wisest  Doctors  of  the  Law  seem  to  have  had  some  glimmering  of  the 
truth,  that  it  is  not  by  works  of  righteousness,  but  only  by  God's  mercy, 
that  man  is  saved.  But  the  normal  and  all  but  universal  belief  of  the  religious 
party  among  the  Jews  was  that,  though  of  the  248  commands  and  365  prohi- 
bitions of  the  Mosaic  Law  some  were  "  light "  and  some  were  "  heavy," 1  yet 
that  to  one  and  all  alike — not  only  in  the  spirit  but  in  the  letter — not  only 
in  the  actual  letter,  but  in  the  boundless  inferences  to  which  the  letter  might 
lead  when  every  grain  of  sense  and  moaning  had  been  crushed  out  of  it 
under  mountain  loads  of  "  decisions  " — a  rigidly  scrupulous  obedience  was  due. 
This  was  what  God  absolutely  required.  This,  and  this  only,  came  up  to  the 
true  conception  of  the  blameless  righteousness  of  the  Law.  And  how  much 
depended  on  it !  Nothing  less  than  recovered  freedom,  recovered  empire, 
recovered  pre-eminence  among  the  nations ;  nothing  less  than  the  restoration 
of  their  national  independence  in  all  its  perfectness,  of  their  national  worship 
in  all  its  splendour  ;  nothing  less  than  the  old  fire  upon  the  altar,  the  holy  oil, 
the  sacred  ark,  the  cloud  of  glory  between  the  wings  of  the  cherubim ;  nothing 
less,  in  short,  than  the  final  hopes  which  for  many  centuries  they  and  their 
fathers  had  most  deeply  cherished.  If  but  one  person  could  only  for  one  day 
keep  the  whole  Law  and  not  offend  in  one  point — nay,  if  but  one  person  could 
but  keep  that  one  point  of  the  Law  which  affected  the  due  observance  of  the 
Sabbath — then  (so  the  Rabbis  taught)  the  troubles  of  Israel  would  be  ended, 
and  the  Messiah  at  last  would  come.2 

And  it  was  at  nothing  less  than  this  that,  with  all  the  intense  ardour  of 
his  nature,  Saul  had  aimed.  It  is  doubtful  whether  at  this  period  the  utter 
nullity  of  the  Oral  Law  could  have  dawned  upon  him.  It  sometimes  dawned 
even  on  the  Rabbis  through  the  dense  fogs  of  sophistry  and  self-importance, 
and  even  on  their  lips  we  sometimes  find  the  utterances  of  the  Prophets 
that  humility  and  justice  and  mercy  are  better  than  sacrifice.  "  There  was 
a  flute  in  the  Temple,"  says  the  Talmud,  "preserved  from  the  days  of 
Moses ;  it  was  smooth,  thin,  and  formed  of  a  reed.  At  the  command  of  the 
king  it  was  overlaid  with  gold,  which  ruined  its  sweetness  of  tone  until  the 
gold  was  taken  away.  There  were  also  a  cymbal  and  a  mortar,  which  had 
become  injured  in  course  of  time,  and  were  mended  by  workmen  of  Alex- 
andria summoned  by  the  wise  men ;  but  their  usefulness  was  so  completely 
destroyed  by  this  process,  that  it  was  necessary  to  restore  them  to  their 
former  condition."3  Are  not  these  things  an  allegory?  Do  they  not  imply 
that  by  overlaying  the  written  Law  with  what  they  called  the  gold,  but  what 

1  See  Life  of  Christ,  ii.  239.  All  these  distinctions  were  a  part  of  the  Seyyag,  the 
"hedge  of  the  Law,"  which  it  was  the  one  raison  d'etre  of  Kabbinism  to  construct.  The 
object  of  all  Jewish  learning  was  to  make  a  mishmereth  ("ordinance,"  Lev.  xviii.  30)  to 
God'u  mishmereth,  (Tebhamdth,  f.  21,  1). 

3  See  Acts  iii.  19,  where  5rr«s  3*  is  "in  order  that  haply,"  not  "when,"  as  in  E.  V, 
(Shabbath,  f.  118,  6). 

*  EircAin,  t.  10,  2. 


38  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

was  in  reality  the  dross  and  tinsel  of  tradition,  the  Rabbis  had  destroyed  or 
injured  its  beauty  and  usefulness  ?  But  probably  Saul  had  not  realised  this. 
To  him  there  was  no  distinction  between  the  relative  importance  of  the  Written 
and  Oral,  of  the  moral  and  ceremonial  Law.  To  every  precept— and  they 
were  countless — obedience  was  due.  If  it  could  be  done,  he  would  do  it.  If 
on  him,  on  his  accuracy  of  observance,  depended  the  coming  of  the  Mes- 
siah, then  the  Messiah  should  come.  Were  others  learned  in  all  that  con- 
corned  legal  rectitude  ?  he  would  be  yet  more  learned.  Were  others  scrupu- 
lous? he  would  be  yet  more  scrupulous.  Surely  God  had  left  man  free?1 
Surely  He  would  not  have  demanded  obedience  to  the  Law  if  that  obedience 
were  not  possible !  All  things  pointed  to  the  close  of  one  great  aeon  in  the 
world's  history,  and  the  dawn  of  another  which  should  be  the  last.  The  very 
heathen  yearned  for  some  deliverer,  and  felt  that  there  could  be  no  other  end 
to  the  physical  misery  and  moral  death  which  had  spread  itself  over  their 
hollow  societies.2  Deep  midnight  was  brooding  alike  over  the  chosen  people 
and  the  Gentile  world.  From  the  East  should  break  forth  a  healing  light,  a 
purifying  flame.  Let  Israel  be  true,  and  God's  promise  would  not  fail. 

And  we  know  from  his  own  statements  that  if  external  conformity  were  all 
— if  obedience  to  the  Law  did  not  mean  obedience  in  all  kinds  of  mattei-s 
which  escaped  all  possibility  of  attention — if  avoidance  of  its  prohibitions  did 
not  involve  avoidance  in  matters  which  evaded  the  reach  of  the  human  senses 
— then  Saul  was,  touching  the  righteousness  of  the  Law,  blameless,  having 
lived  in  all  good  conscience  towards  God.3  Had  he  put  the  question  to  the 
Great  Master,  "  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  or  been  bidden  to  "  keep  the 
commandments,"  it  is  certain  that  he  would  have  been  able  to  reply  with  the 
youthful  ruler,  "  All  these  have  I  kept  from  my  youth,"  and— he  might  have 
added — "  very  much  besides."  And  yet  we  trace  in  his  Epistles  how  bitterly 
he  felt  the  hollowness  of  this  outward  obedience — how  awful  and  how  burden- 
some had  been  to  him  "  the  curse  of  the  Law."  Even  moral  obedience  could 
not  silence  the  voice  of  the  conscience,  or  satisfy  the  yearnings  of  the  soul; 
but  these  infinitesimal  Levitisms,  what  could  they  do  ?  Tormenting  questions 
would  again  and  again  arise.  Of  what  use  was  all  this  ?  from  what  did  the 
necessity  of  it  spring  ?  to  what  did  the  obedience  to  it  lead  ?  Did  God  indeed 
care  for  the  exact  size  of  a  strip  of  parchment,  or  the  particular  number  of 
lines  in  the  texts  which  were  upon  it,  or  the  way  in  which  the  letters  were 
formed,  or  the  shape  of  the  box  into  which  it  was  put,  or  the  manner  in  which 
that  box  was  tied  upon  the  forehead  or  the  arm  ? 4  Was  it,  indeed,  a  very  im- 
jortant  matter  whether  "between  the  two  evenings"  meant,  as  the  Samaritans 

1  The  Rabbis  said,  "  Everything  is  in  the  hands  of  heaven,  except  the  fear  of  heaven." 
"  All  things  are  ordained  by  God,  but  a  man's  actions  are  his  own.      (Barclay,  Talmud, 
18.) 

2  Virg.  Ed.  iv. ;  Suet.  Aug.  94 ;  Vesp.  4. 

»  2  Cor.  xi.  22 ;  Horn.  xi.  1 ;  Acts  xxii.  3,  xxiii.  1,  6. 

4  I  have  adduced  abundant  illustrations  from  Rabbinic  writers  of  the  extravagant- 
importance  attached  to  minutiae  in  the  construction  of  the  two  phylacteries  of  the  hand 
(.Tephtittn  shd  Yad)  and  of  the  head  (Teph.  skd  Edsh),  in  the  Exposityr,  1877,  No. 


SAUL  THE   PHARISEE.  39 

believed,  between  sunset  and  darkness,  or,  as  the  Pharisees  asserted,  between 
the  beginning  and  end  of  sunset  ?  Was  it  a  matter  worth  the  discussion  of  two 
schools  to  decide  whether  an  egg  laid  on  a  festival  might  or  might  not  be 
eaten  P1  Were  all  these  things  indeed,  and  in  themselves,  important  ?  And 
even  if  they  were,  would  it  be  errors  as  to  those  littlenesses  that  would  really 
kindle  the  wrath  of  a  jealous  God  ?  How  did  they  contribute  to  the  beauty  of 
holiness  ?  in  what  way  did  they  tend  to  fill  the  soul  with  the  mercy  which  was 
better  than  sacrifice,  or  to  educate  it  in  that  justice  and  humility,  that  patience 
and  purity,  that  peace  and  love,  which,  as  some  of  the  prophets  had  found  grace 
to  see,  were  dearer  to  God  than  thousands  of  rams  and  ten  thousands  of  rivers 
of  oil  P  And  behind  all  these  questions  lay  that  yet  deeper  one  which  agitated 
the  schools  of  Jewish  thought — the  question  whether,  after  all,  man  could  reach, 
or  with  all  his  efforts  must  inevitably  fail  to  reach,  that  standard  of  righteous- 
ness which  God  and  the  Law  required  ?  And  if  indeed  he  failed,  what  more 
had  the  Law  to  say  to  him  than  to  deliver  its  sentence  of  unreprieved  condem- 
nation and  indiscriminate  death  ?  2 

Moreover,  was  there  not  mingled  with  all  this  nominal  adoration  of  the  Law 
a  deeply-seated  hypocrisy,  so  deep  that  it  was  in  a  great  measure  unconscious  P 
Even  before  the  days  of  Christ  the  Rabbis  had  learnt  the  art  of  straining  out 
gnats  and  swallowing  camels.  They  had  long  learnt  to  nullify  what  they  pro- 
fessed to  defend.  The  ingenuity  of  Hillel  was  quite  capable  of  getting  rid  of 
any  Mosaic  regulation  which  had  been  found  practically  burdensome.  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees  alike  had  managed  to  set  aside  in  their  own  favour,  by  the  de- 
vices of  the  "  mixtures,"  all  that  was  disagreeable  to  themselves  in  the  Sabbath 
scrupulosity.  The  fundamental  institution  of  the  Sabbatic  year  had  been 
stultified  by  the  mere  legal  fiction  of  the  prosbol.  Teachers  who  were  on  the 
high  road  to  a  casuistry  which  could  construct  "  rules  "  out  of  every  superfluous 
particle  had  found  it  easy  to  win  credit  for  ingenuity  by  elaborating  prescrip- 
tions to  which  Moses  would  have  listened  in  mute  astonishment.  If  there  be 
one  thing  more  definitely  laid  down  in  the  Law  than  another  it  is  the  unclean- 
ness  of  creeping  things,  yet  the  Talmud  assures  us  that  "  no  one  is  appointed 
a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin  who  does  not  possess  sufficient  ingenuity  to  prove 
from  the  written  Law  that  a  creeping  thing  is  ceremonially  clean ;"  3  and  that 
there  was  an  unimpeachable  disciple  at  Jabne  who  could  adduce  one  hundred 
and  fifty  arguments  in  favour  of  the  ceremonial  cleanness  of  creeping  things.4 
Sophistry  like  this  was  at  work  even  in  the  days  when  the  young  student  of 
Tarsus  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel ;  and  can  we  imagine  any  period  of  his  life 
when  he  would  not  have  been  wearied  by  a  system  at  once  so  meaningless,  so 
stringent,  and  so  insincere  P  Could  he  fail  to  notice  that  they  "  hugely  violated 
what  they  trivially  obeyed  P" 

We  may  see  from  St.  Paul's  own  words  that  these  years  must  have  been 
very  troubled  years.  Under  the  dignified  exterior  of  the  Pharisee  lay  a  wildly- 
beating  heart ;  an  anxious  brain  throbbed  with  terrible  questionings  under  the 

»  See  Bltsah,  I  ad  in.  *  Bom.  x.  5 ;  Gal.  til.  10.  »  Sankedr.  f ,  17, 1. 

*  ErubMn,  f .  13,  2, 


40  THE  LIFE  AHD  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

broad  phylactery.  Saul  as  a  Pharisee  believed  in  eternity,  he  believed  in  the 
resurrection,  he  believed  in  angel  and  spirit,  in  voices  and  appearances,  in 
dreaming  dreams  and  seeing  visions.  But  in  all  this  struggle  to  achieve  his 
own  righteousness  —  this  struggle  so  minutely  tormenting,  so  revoltingly  bur- 
densome —  there  seemed  to  be  no  hope,  no  help,  no  enlightenment,  no  satisfaction, 
no  nobility  —  nothing  but  a  possibly  mitigated  and.  yet  inevitable  curse.  God 
seemed  silent  to  him,  and  heaven  closed.  No  vision  dawned  on  his  slumbering 
senses,  no  voice  sounded  in  his  eager  ear.  The  sense  of  sin  oppressed  him  ;  the 
darkness  of  mystery  hung  over  him;  he  was  ever  falling  and  falling,  and  no 
hand  was  held  out  to  help  him  ;  he  strove  with  all  his  soul  to  be  obedient,  and 
he  was  obedient  —  and  yet  the  Messiah  did  not  come. 

The  experience  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  the  heartrending  experience  of  all 
who  have  looked  for  peace  elsewhere  than  in  the  love  of  God.  All  that  Luther 
suffered  at  Erf  urdt  Saul  must  have  suffered  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  record  of 
the  early  religious  agonies  and  awakenment  of  the  one  is  the  best  commentary 
on  the  experience  of  the  other.  That  the  life  of  Saul  was  free  from  flagrant 
transgressions  we  see  from  his  own  bold  appeals  to  his  continuous  rectitude. 
He  was  not  a  convert  from  godlessness  or  profligacy,  like  John  Bunyan  or 
John  Newton.  He  claims  integrity  when  he  is  speaking  of  his  life  in  the 
aspect  which  it  presented  to  his  fellow-men,  but  he  is  vehement  in  self  -accusa- 
tion when  he  thinks  of  that  life  in  the  aspect  which  it  presented  to  his  God. 
Ho  found  that  no  external  legality  could  give  him  a  clean  heart,  or  put  a  right 
spirit  within  him.  He  found  that  servile  -obedience  inspired  no  inward  peace. 
He  must  have  yearned  for  some  righteousness,  could  he  but  know  of  it,  which 
would  be  better  than  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  The 
Jewish  doctors  had  imagined  and  had  directed  that  if  a  man  did  not  feel  inclined 
to  do  this  or  that,  he  should  force  himself  to  do  it  by  a  direct  vow.  "  Yows," 
says  Rabbi  AMbha,1  are  the  enclosures  of  holiness."  But  Saul  the  Pharisee, 
long  before  he  became  Paul  the  Apostle,  must  have  proved  to  the  very  depth 
the  hollowness  of  this  direction.  Vows  might  be  the  enclosures  of  formal 
practice  ;  they  were  not,  and  could  not  be,  the  schooling  of  the  disobedient 
soul  ;  they  could  not  give  calm  to  that  place  in  the  human  being  where  meet  the 
two  seas  of  good  and  evil  impulse2  —  to  the  heart,  which  is  the  battle-field  on 
which  passionate  desire  clashes  into  collision  with  positive  command. 

Even  when  twenty  years  of  weariness,  and  wandering,  and  struggle,  and 
Buffering,  were  over,  we  still  catch  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  the  mournful 
echoes  of  those  days  of  stress  and  storm  —  echoes  as  of  the  thunder  when  its 
fury  is  over,  and  it  is  only  sobbing  far  away  among  the  distant  hills.  We 
hear  those  echoes  most  of  all  in  the  ^Epistle  to  the  Romans.  We  hear  them 
when  he  talks  of  "  the  curse  of  the  law."  We  hear  them  when,  in  accents  of 
deep  self-pity,  he  tells  us  of  the  struggle  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit  ; 
between  the  law  of  sin  in  his  members,  and  that  law  of  God  which,  though 
holy  and  just  and  good  and  ordained  to  life,  he  found  to  be  unto  death.  In 


Pirke  AbMth,  iiL  10. 
*  The  Tetter  tSbh  and  the  Yetier  ha-rd  of  the  Talmud. 


SAUL   THE   PHARISEE.  41 

the  days,  indeed,  when  he  thus  writes,  he  had  at  last  found  peace ;  he  had 
wrung  from  the  lessons  of  his  life  the  hard  experience  that  by  the  works  of 
the  law  no  man  can  be  justified  in  God's  sight,  but  that,  being  justified  by 
faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  though, 
gazing  on  his  own  personality,  and  seeing  it  disintegrated  by  5  miserable 
dualism,  he  still  found  a  law  within  him  which  warred  against  that  inward 
delight  which  he  felt  in  the  law  of  God-^-though  groaning  in  this  body  of 
weakness,  he  feels  like  one  who  is  imprisoned  in  a  body  of  death,  he  can  still, 
in  answer  to  the  question,  "  Who  shall  deliver  me  ?  "  exclaim  with  a  burst  of 
triumph,  "  I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  i  But  if  the  Apostle, 
after  he  has  found  Christ,  after  he  has  learnt  that  "  there  is  no  condemnation 
to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus  "  2  still  felt  the  power  and  continuity  of  the 
inferior  law  striving  to  degrade  his  life  into  that  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin 
from  which  Christ  had  set  him  free,  through  what  hours  of  mental  anguish 
must  he  not  have  passed  when  he  knew  of  no  other  dealing  of  God  with  his 
soul  than  the  impossible,  unsympathising,  deathf  ul  commandment,  "  This  do, 
and  thou  shalt  live !  "  Could  he  "  this  do  "  ?  And,  if  he  could  not,  what 
hope,  what  help  ?  "Was  there  any  voice  of  pity  among  the  thunders  of  Sinai  ?  3 
Could  the  mere  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  be  any  true  propitiation  for  wilful 
sins  ? 

But  though  we  can  see  the  mental  anguish  through  which  Saul  passed  hi 
his  days  of  Parisaism,  yet  over  the  events  of  that  period  a  complete  darkness 
falls ;  and  there  are  only  two  questions,  both  of  them  deeply  interesting,  which 
it  may,  perhaps,  be  in  our  power  to  answer. 

1.  The  first  is,  Did  Saul  in  those  days  ever  see  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  P 

At  first  sight  we  might  suppose  that  the  question  was  answered,  and 
answered  affirmatively,  in  1  Cor.  ix.  1,  where  he  asks,  "  Am  I  not  an  Apostle  P 
Have  I  not  seen  Jesus,  our  Lord  ?  "  and  still  more  in  2  Cor.  v.  16,  where  he 
eays,  "  Yea,  though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth 
know  we  Him  no  more."  * 

But  a  little  closer  examination  of  these  passages  will  show  that  they  do  not 
necessarily  involve  any  such  meaning.  In  the  first  of  them,  St.  Paul  cannot 
possibly  be  alluding  to  any  knowledge  of  Jesus  before  His  crucifixion,  because 
such  mere  external  sight,  from  the  position  of  one  who  disbelieved  in  Him,  so 
far  from  being  a  confirmation  of  any  claim  to  be  an  Apostle,  would  rather  have 
been  a  reason  for  rejecting  such  a  claim.  It  can  only  apply  to  the  appearance 

1  See  Bom.  vl.,  vii.,  viil.,  passim. 

2  Rom.  viii.  1.    The  rest  of  this  verse  in  our  E.  V.  Is  probably  a  gloss,  or  a  repetition, 
since  it  is  not  found  in  ».  B,  C,  D,  F,  G. 

3  "That  man  that  overtook  you,"  said  Christian,  "was  Moses.     He  spareth  none, 
neither  knoweth  he  how  to  show  mercy  to  them  that  transgress  his  law."    (Pilgrim's 
Progress.) 

*  tl icai eyvu>Ka.tJLtv.  It  is  perfectly  true  thatcixoi  (quamqiiam,  "even  though,"  wenn 
auch)  in  classical  writers — though  perhaps  less  markedly  in  St.  Paul — concedes  a  fact, 
whereas  <col  el  (etiam  si,  "even  if,")  puts  an  hypothesis ;  but  the  explanation  here  turns, 
not  on  the  admitted  force  of  the  particles,  but  on  what  is  meant  by  "knowing  Ckriat 
after  the  flesh." 
3 


42  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

of  Christ  to  him  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  or  to  some  similar  and  subsequent 
revelation.1  The  meaning  of  the  second  passage  is  less  obvious.  St.  Paul  has 
there  been  explaining  the  grounds  of  his  Apostolate  in  the  constraining  love  oi 
Christ  for  man.  He  has  shown  how  that  love  was  manifested  by  His  death 
for  all,  and  how  the  results  of  that  death  and  resurrection  are  intended  so 
utterly  to  destroy  the  self-love  of  His  children,  so  totally  to  possess  and  to 
change  their  individuality,  that  "  if  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creation." 
And  the  Christ  of  whom  he  is  here  speaking  is  the  risen,  glorified,  triumphant 
Christ,  in  whom  all  things  are  become  new,  because  He  has  reconciled  man  to 
God.  Hence  the  Apostle  will  know  no  man,  judge  of  no  man,  in  his  mere 
human  and  earthly  relations,  but  only  in  his  union  with  their  risen  Lord.  The 
partisans  who  used,  and  far  more  probably  abused,  the  name  of  James,  to  thrust 
their  squabbling  Judaism  even  into  the  intercourse  between  a  Paul  and  a 
Peter,  and  who  sowed  the  seeds  of  discord  among  the  converts  of  the  Churches 
which  St.  Paul  had  founded,  were  constantly  underrating  the  Apostolic 
dignity  of  Paul,  because  he  had  not  been  an  eye-witness  of  the  human  life  of 
Christ.  The  answer  of  the  Apostle  always  was  that  he  too  knew  Christ  by  an 
immediate  revelation,  that  "  it  had  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  him  that 
he  might  preach  Christ  among  the  Gentiles."  8  The  day  had  been  when  he  had 
known  "  Christ  according  to  the  flesh  " — not  indeed  by  direct  personal  inter- 
course with  Him  in  the  days  of  His  earthly  ministry,  but  by  the  view  which 
he  and  others  had  taken  of  Him.  In  his  unconverted  days  he  had  regarded 
Him  as  a  mesith — an  impostor  who  deceived  the  people,  or  at  the  very  best  as 
a  teacher  who  deceived  himself.  And  after  his  conversion  he  had  not  perhaps, 
at  first,  fully  learnt  to  apprehend  the  Plenitude  of  the  glory  of  the  risen  Christ 
as  rising  far  above  the  conception  of  the  Jewish  Messiah.  All  this  was  past. 
To  apprehend  by  faith  the  glorified  Son  of  God  was  a  far  more  blessed 
privilege  than  to  have  known  a  living  Messiah  by  earthly  intercourse.  Even 
if  he  had  known  Christ  as  a  living  man,  that  knowledge  would  have  been  less 
near,  less  immediate,  less  intimate,  less  eternal,  in  its  character,  than  the  close- 
ness of  community  wherewith  he  now  lived  and  died  in  Him ;  and  although  he 
had  known  Him  first  only  by  false  report,  and  then  only  with  imperfect  realisa- 
tion as  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  earthly  and  human  conception  had  now  passed 
away,  and  been  replaced  by  the  true  and  spiritual  belief.  The  Christ,  there- 
fore, whom  now  he  knew  was  no  "  Christ  after  the  flesh,"  no  Christ  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  no  Christ  in  any  earthly  relations,  but  Christ  sitting  for  ever 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  To  have  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  with  the  eyes  was  of 
itself  nothing — it  was  nothing  to  boast  of.  Herod  had  seen  Him,  and  Annas, 

1  Of.  Acts  rviii.  9,  zxii.  18 ;  2  Cor.  xii.  1.    The  absence  of  such  personal  references  to 
Jesus  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles  as  we  find  in  1  Pet.  ii.  21  sq.,  iii.  18  sq.;  1  John  i.  1 — confirms 
this  view  (Ewald,  Gesch.  vi.  889). 

2  Gal.  i.  16.     I  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Lightfoot  (following  Jerome,  Erasmus,  &c.)that 
iv  e/uol  means  "  a  revelation  made  through  Paul  to  others,"  as  in  ver.  24,  1  Tim.  i.  16,  and 
2  Cor.  xiii.  3 ;  because,  as  a  friend  points  out,  there  is  an  exact  parallelism  of  clauses 
between  i.  11, 12,  and  13 — 17,  and  anwenAttyoi  rbv  vJbv  avrov  iv  tfiol  balances  «»•  ii 

li»<rov  XptoroO  in  ver  12, 


SAUL  THE  PHARISEE.  43 

and  Pilate,  and  many  a  coarse  Jewish  mendicant  and  m*">  f  a  brutal  Roman 
soldier.  But  to  have  seen  Him  with  the  eye  of  Faith — to  have  spiritually 
apprehended  the  glorified  Redeemer — that  was  indeed  to  be  a  Christian. 

All  the  other  passages  which  can  at  all  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  question 
support  this  view,  and  lead  us  to  believe  that  St.  Paul  had  either  not  seen  at 
all,  or  at  the  best  barely  seen,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus.  Indeed,  the  question, 
"  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?" l  preserved  in  all  three  narratives  of  his  conversion, 
seems  distinctly  to  imply  that  the  appearance  of  the  Lord  was  unknown  to 
him,  and  this  is  a  view  which  is  confirmed  by  the  allusion  to  the  risen  Christ 
in  1  Cor.  xv.  St.  Paul  there  says  that  to  him,  the  least  of  the  Apostles,  and 
not  meet  to  be  called  an  Apostle,  Christ  had  appeared  last  of  all,  as  to  tho 
abortive-born  of  the  Apostolic  family.2  And,  indeed,  it  is  inconceivable  that 
Saul  could  in  any  real  sense  have  seen  Jesus  in  His  lifetime.  That  ineffaceable 
impression  produced  by  His  very  aspect ;  that  unspeakable  personal  ascen- 
dency, which  awed  His  worst  enemies  and  troubled  tho  hard  conscience  of  His 
Roman  judge ;  the  ineffable  charm  and  power  in  the  words  of  Him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake,  could  not  have  appealed  to  him  in  vain.  We  feel  an 
unalterable  conviction,  not  only  that,  if  Saul  had  seen  Him,  Paul  would  again 
and  again  have  referred  to  Him,  but  also  that  he  would  in  that  case  have  been 
saved  from  the  reminiscence  which  most  of  all  tortured  him  in  after  days — the 
undeniable  reproach  that  he  had  persecuted  tho  Church  of  God.  If,  indeed, 
we  could  imagine  that  Saul  had  seen  Christ,  and,  having  seen  Him,  had  looked 
on  Him  only  with  the  bitter  hatred  and  simulated  scorn  of  a  Jerusalem 
Pharisee,  then  wo  may  be  certain  that  that  Holy  Face  which  looked  into  the 
troubled  dreams  of  Pilate's  wife — that  the  infinite  sorrow  in  those  eyes,  of 
which  one  glance  broke  the  repentant  heart  of  Peter — would  have  recurred  so 
often  and  so  heartrendingly  to  Paul's  remembrance,  that  his  sin  in  persecuting 
the  Christians  would  have  assumed  an  aspect  of  tenfold  aggravation,  from  the 
thought  that  in  destroying  and  imprisoning  them  he  had  yet  more  openly  been 
crucifying  the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and  putting  Him  to  an  open  shame.  The 
intense  impressibility  of  Paul's  mind  appears  most  remarkably  in  the  effect 
exercised  upon  him  by  the  dying  rapture  of  St.  Stephen.  The  words  of 
Stephen,  though  listened  to  at  the  time  with  inward  fury,  not  only  lingered  in 
his  memory,  but  produced  an  unmistakable  influence  on  his  writings.  If  this 
were  so  with  the  speech  of  the  youthful  Hellenist,  how  infinitely  more  would 
it  have  been  so  with  the  words  which  subdued  into  admiration  even  the  alien 
disposition  of  Pharisaic  emissaries  P  Can  we  for  a  moment  conceive  that 
Paul's  Pharisaism  would  have  lasted  unconsumed  amid  the  white  lightnings  of 
that  great  and  scathing  denunciation  which  Christ  uttered  in  the  Temple  in 
the  last  week  of  His  ministry,  and  three  days  before  His  death  ?  Had 
St.  Paul  heard  one  of  these  hist  discourses,  had  he  seen  one  of  those  miracles, 
had  he  mingled  in  one  of  those  terrible  and  tragic  scenes  to  which  he  must 

1  Acts  Lx.  5  (xxii.  8,  xxvi.  15).    There  is  not  the  shadow  of  probability  in  the  notion  of 
Ewald,  that  St.  Paul  was  the  young  man  clad  in  ft  sindOn,  of  Mark  xiv,  52, 

2  1  Cor.  xv.  9. 


44  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

hard  afterwards  looked  back  as  events  the  most  momentous  in  the  entire 
course  of  human  history,  is  there  any  one  who  can  for  a  moment  imagine  that 
no  personal  reminiscence  of  such  scenes  would  be  visible,  even  ever  so  faintly, 
through  the  transparent  medium  of  his  writings  ? 

We  may,  then,  regard  it  as  certain  that  when  the  gloom  fell  at  mid-day 
over  the  awful  sacrifice  of  Golgotha,  when  the  people  shouted  their  preference 
for  the  murderous  brigand,  and  yelled  their  execration  of  the  Saviour  whoso 
day  all  the  noblest  and  holiest  of  their  fathers  had  longed  to  see,  Saul  was  not 
at  Jerusalem.  Where,  then,  was  he  ?  It  is  impossible  to  answer  the  question 
with  any  certainty.  He  may  have  been  at  Tarsus,  which,  even  after  his 
conversion,  he  regarded  as  his  home.1  Or  perhaps  the  explanation  of  his 
absence  may  be  seen  in  Gal.  v.  11.  He  there  represents  himself  as  having 
once  been  a  preacher  of  circumcision.  Now  we  know  that  one  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  then  Pharisaism  was  an  active  zeal  in  winning  proselytes.  "  Ye 
compass  sea  and  land,"  said  Christ  to  them,  in  burning  words,  "  to  make  one 
proselyte ;  and  when  he  is  made,  ye  make  him  twofold  more  the  child  of 
Gehenna  than  yourselves."2  The  conversion  which  changed  Paul's  deepest 
earlier  convictions  left  unchanged  the  natural  impulse  of  his  temperament. 
Why  may  not  the  same  impetuous  zeal,  the  same  restless  desire  to  be  always 
preaching  some  truth  and  doing  some  good  work  which  marked  him  out  as  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,3  have  worked  in  him  also  in  these  earlier  days,  and 
made  him,  as  he  seems  to  imply,  a  missionary  of  Pharisaism  P  If  so,  he  may 
have  been  absent  on  some  journey  enjoined  upon  him  by  the  party  whose 
servant,  heart  and  soul,  he  was,  during  the  brief  visits  to  Jerusalem  which 
marked  the  three  years'  ministry  of  Christ  on  earth. 

2.  The  other  question  which  arises  is,  Was  Saul  married  ?  Had  he  the 
support  of  some  loving  heart  during  the  fiery  struggles  of  his  youth  P  Amid 
the  to-and-fro  contentions  of  spirit  which  resulted  from  an  imperfect  and 
unsatisfying  creed,  was  there  in  the  troubled  sea  of  his  life  one  little  island 
home  -where  he  could  find  refuge  from  incessant  thoughts  ? 

Little  as  we  know  of  his  domestic  relations,  little  as  he  cared  to  mingle 
more  private  interests  with  the  great  spiritual  truths  which  occupy  his  soul,  it 
seems  to  me  that  we  must  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative.  St.  Paul, 
who  has  been  very  freely  charged  with  egotism,  had  not  one  particle  of  that 
egotism  which  consists  in  attaching  any  importance  to  his  personal  surround- 
ings. The  circumstances  of  his  individual  life  he  would  have  looked  on  as 
having  no  interest  for  any  one  but  himself.  When  he  speaks  of  himself  he 
does  so  always  from  one  of  two  reasons — from  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
against  detraction  his  apostolic  authority,  or  from  the  desire  to  utilise  for 
others  his  remarkable  experience.  The  things  that  happened  to  him,  the 
blessings  and  privations  of  his  earthly  condition,  would  have  seemed  matters 
of  supremo  indifference,  except  in  so  far  as  they  possessed  a  moral  significance, 
or  had  any  bearing  on  the  lessons  which  he  desired  to  teach. 

»  Acts  ix.  30,  xi  25  ;  Gal.  i.  21.  *  Matt.  xxffl.  15. 

»  GaL  i.  16.    (See  Krenkel,  p.  18.) 


SAUL  THE   FHAKISEE.  45 

It  is,  then,  only  indirectly  that  we  can  expect  to  find  an  answer  to  the 
question  as  to  his  marriage.  If,  indeed,  be  was  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin, 
it  follows  that,  by  the  Jewish  requirements  for  that  position,  he  must  hav» 
been  a  married  man.  His  official  position  will  be  examined  hereafter ;  but, 
meanwhile,  his  marriage  may  be  inferred  as  probable  from  passages  in  his 
Epistles.  In  1  Cor.  ix.  5  he  asks  the  Corinthians,  "  Have  we  not  power  to 
lead  about  a  sister,  a  wife,  as  well  as  other  Apostles,  and  as  the  brethren  of 
the  Lord,  and  Keplias  P  "  This  passage  is  inconclusive,  though  it  asserts  his 
right  both  to  marry,  and  to  take  a  wife  with  him  in  his  missionary  journeys 
if  he  thought  it  expedient.1  But  from  1  Cor.  vii.  8  it  seems  a  distinct  inference 
that  he  classed  himself  among  widowers ;  for,  he  says,  "  I  say,  therefore,  to 
the  unmarried  and  widows,  it  is  good  for  them  if  they  abide  (pttvufftr)  even 
as  I."  That  by  "  the  unmarried  "  he  here  means  "  widowers  " — for  which 
there  is  no  special  Greek  word — seems  clear,  because  he  has  been  already 
speaking,  in  the  first  seven  verses  of  the  chapter,  to  those  who  have  never 
been  married.2  To  them  he  concedes,  far  more  freely  than  to  the  others,  the 
privilege  of  marrying  if  they  considered  it  conducive  to  godliness,  though, 
in  the  present  state  of  things,  he  mentions  his  own  personal  predilection  for 
celibacy,  in  the  case  of  all  who  had  the  grace  of  inward  purity.  And  even 
apart  from  the  interpretation  of  this  passage,  the  deep  and  fine  insight  of 
Luther  had  drawn  the  conclusion  that  Paul  knew  by  experience  what  marriage 
was,  from  the  wisdom  and  tenderness  which  characterise  his  remarks  respect- 
ing it.  One  who  had  never  been  married  could  hardly  have  written  on  the 
subject  as  he  has  done,  nor  could  he  have  shown  the  same  profound  sympathy 
with  the  needs  of  all,  and  received  from  all  the  same  ready  confidence.  To 
derive  any  inference  from  the  loving  metaphors  which  ho  draws  from  the 
nurture  of  little  children3  would  be  more  precarious.  It  is  hardly  possible 
that  Paul  ever  had  a  child  who  lived.  Had  this  been  the  case,  his  natural 
affection  could  hardly  have  denied  itself  some  expression  of  the  tender  love 
which  flows  out  so  freely  towards  his  spiritual  children.  Timothy  would  not 
have  been  so  exclusively  "  his  own  true  child  "  in  the  faith  if  he  had  had  son 
or  daughter  of  his  own.  If  we  are  right  in  the  assumption  that  he  was 
married,  it  seems  probable  that  it  was  for  a  short  time  only,  and  that  his  wife 
had  died. 

But  there  is  one  more  ground  which  has  not,  I  think,  been  noticed,  which 
seems  to  me  to  render  it  extremely  probable  that  Saul,  before  the  time  of  his 

1  The  notion  that  the  "  true  yokefellow  M  ( yvtjate  (rv<Jvy«)  of  Phil.  iv.  3  has  any  bearing 
on  the  question  is  an  error  as  old  as  Clemens  Alexandrinus.     (See  Strom,  iii.  7 ;  Ps.  Ignat. 

CM  fhllad.  4,    Os  ITcrpovxtu  Hov\ov  mil  rav  oAAwi'  a.wo<no\.iav  r!av  yafioif  !>iii)(.T)<ro.vT<ov.) 

2  If  BO,  Chaucer  is  mistaken  when  he  says,   "I  wot  wel  the  Apostle  was  amayd,"  i.e., 
wapOfvot,  Rev.  xiv.  4  (Prologue  to  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale).     Ver.  7  does  not  militate  against 
this  view,  because  there  he  is  alluding,  not  to  his  condition,  but  to  the  grace  of  continence. 
It  is  not  true,  as  has  been  said,  that  early  tradition  was  unanimous  in  saying  that  he  had 
never  married.    Tertullian  (De  Monogam.  3)  and  Jerome  (Up.  22)  says  so  ;  but  Origen 
is  doubtful,  and  Methodius  (Conviv.  45),  as  well  as  Clemens  Alex,  and  Ps.  Ignatius  (v, 
tupra),  says  that  he  was  a  widower. 

«  1  Cor.  iii.  2,  rii.  14,  iv.  15 ;  1  Thew.  ii.  7 ;  T.  8, 


46  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

conversion,  had  been  a  married  man.  It  is  the  extraordinary  importance 
attached  by  the  majority  of  Jews  in  all  ages  to  marriage  as  a  moral  duty,  nay, 
even  a  positive  command,  incumbent  on  every  man.1  The  Mishna  fixes  the 
age  of  marriage  at  eighteen,3  and  even  seventeen  was  preferred.  The  Baby- 
lonist  Jews  fixed  it  as  early  as  fourteen.8  Marriage  is,  in  fact,  the  first  of  the 
613  precepts.  They  derived  the  duty  partly  from  the  command  of  Gen.  i.  28, 
partly  from  allusions  to  early  marriage  in  the  Old  Testament  (Prov.  ii.  17; 
v.  18),  and  partly  from  allegorising  explanations  of  passages  like  EccL  xi.  6  ; 
Job  v.  24.*  The  Rabbis  in  all  ages  have  laid  it  down  as  a  stringent  duty  that 
parents  should  marry  their  children  young ; 6  and  the  one  or  two  who,  like 
Ben  Azai,  theoretically  placed  on  a  higher  level  the  duty  of  being  more  free 
from  incumbrance  in  order  to  study  the  Law,  were  exceptions  to  the  almost 
universal  rule.  But  even  these  theorists  were  themselves  married  men.  If 
St.  Paul  had  ever  evinced  the  smallest  sympathy  with  the  views  of  the 
Therapeutse  and  Essenes — if  his  discountenancing  of  marriage,  under  certain 
immediate  conditions,  had  been  tinged  by  any  Gnostic  fancies  about  its 
essential  inferiority — we  might  have  come  to  a  different  conclusion.  But 
he  held  no  such  views  either  before  or  after  his  conversion;*  and  certainly, 
if  he  lived  unmarried  as  a  Jerusalem  Pharisee,  his  case  was  entirely 
exceptional. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ST.   PETER  AND  THE   FIRST  PENTECOST. 


Jiv  T&V  tmoffT&Kw,  ncal  <rr6fiM  r&v  fiaOrjr&r,  Kal 
CHRYS.  In  Joan.  Horn.  88. 

Herpes  f]  &px^l  rns  opQo$o£tas,  i  ptyas  TTJJ  tKK\T\(rias  ItpoipJivrris.  —  Ps.  CHH.YB. 
Orat.  Encom.  9. 

WHATEVER  may  have  been  the  cause  of  Saul's  absence  from  Jerusalem  during 
the  brief  period  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  it  is  inevitable  that,  on  his  return, 
he  must  have  heard  much  respecting  it.  Tet  all  that  he  heard  would  be 
exclusively  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Pharisees,  who  had  so  bitterly 
opposed  ffis  doctrines,  and  of  the  Sadducees,  who  had  so  basely  brought 

1  "A  Jew  who  has  no  wife  is  not  a  man  "  (Gen.  T.  2,  Yebkam&h,  f.  63,  1). 
»  Pirke  Abhdth,  v.  21. 

*  God  was  supposed  to  curse  all  who  at  twenty  were  unmarried  (Kidduskin,  29,  1  ; 
80;  Yebham6tk,  G2,  63).     (See  Hamburger,  Talmud.  Worterb.  s.v.  Ehe,  Verheirathung  ; 
Weill,  La  Morale  du  Judalsme,  49,  seq.)     The  precept  is  inferred  from  "Ho  called 
their  name  man  (sing.),"  and  is  found  in  the  Rabbinic  digest  Tur-Shulchcm  Arucft, 

*  See  Ecclus.  vii.  25  ;  xlii.  9  ;  cf.  1  Oor.  vii.  36. 

8  Early  marriages  are  to  this  day  the  curse  of  the  Jews  in  Eastern  countries.  Some- 
times girla  are  married  at  ten,  boys  at  fourteen  (Frankl,  Jetos  in  East,  ii.  18,  84).  Not 
long  ago  a  Jewish  girl  at  Jerusalem,  aged  fourteen,  when  asked  in  school  why  she  was 
sad,  replied  that  she  had  been  three  times  divorced. 

*  1  Oor.  rii.  9,  86;  1  Tim.  iv.  3;  v.  14. 


ST.  PETER  AND  THE  WEST  PENTECOST.  47 

about  His  death.  But  he  would  have  abundant  opportunities  for  seeing  that 
the  Infant  Church  had  not,  as  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  had  hoped,  been  extin- 
guished by  the  murder  of  its  founder.  However  much  the  news  might  fill 
him  with  astonishment  and  indignation,  he  could  not  have  been  many  days  in 
Jerusalem  without  receiving  convincing  proofs  of  the  energy  of  what  he  then 
regarded  as  a  despicable  sect. 

Whence  came  this  irresistible  energy,  this  inextinguishable  vitality  ?  The 
answer  to  that  question  is  the  history  of  the  Church  and  of  the  world. 

For  the  death  of  Jesus  had  been  followed  by  a  succession  of  events,  the 
effects  of  which  will  be  felt  to  the  end  of  time — events  which,  by  a  spiritual 
power  at  once  astounding  and  indisputable,  transformed  a  timid  handful  of 
ignorant  and  terror-stricken  Apostles  into  teachers  of  unequalled  grandeur, 
who  became  in  God's  hands  the  instruments  to  regenerate  the  world. 

The  Resurrection  of  Christ  had  scattered  every  cloud  from  their  saddened 
souls.  The  despair  which,  for  a  moment,  had  followed  the  intense  hope  that 
this  was  He  who  would  redeem  Israel,  had  been  succeeded  by  a  joyous  and 
unshaken  conviction  that  Christ  had  risen  from  the  dead.  In  the  light  of  that 
Resurrection,  all  Scripture,  all  history,  all  that  they  had  seen  and  heard 
during  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  was  illuminated  and  transfigured.  And  though 
during  the  forty  days  between  the  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension,  the  inter- 
course held  with  them  by  their  risen  Lord  was  not  continuous,  but  brief  and 
interrupted,1  yet — as  St.  Peter  himself  testifies,  appealing,  in  confirmation  of 
his  testimony,  to  the  scattered  Jews  to  whom  His  Epistle  is  addressed — God 
had  begotten  them  again  by  the  Resurrection  unto  a  lively  hope,  to  an  inheri- 
tance incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away.2  But  besides 
this  glorious  truth,  of  which  they  felt  themselves  to  be  the  chosen  witnesses,3 
their  Risen  Lord  had  given  them  many  promises  and  instructions,  and  spoken 
to  them  about  the  things  which  concerned  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  His  last 
address  He  had  specially  bidden  them  to  stay  in  Jerusalem,  and  there  await 
the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  which  they  had  already  heard.4  That  promise 
was  to  be  fulfilled  to  them,  not  only  individually,  but  as  a  body,  as  a  Church ; 
and  it  was  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  same  city  in  which  they  had  witnessed  His 
uttermost  humiliation.  And  they  were  assured  that  they  should  not  have 
long  to  wait.  But  though  they  knew  that  they  should  be  baptised  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire  "  not  many  days  hence,"  yet,  for  the  exorcise  of  their 
faith  and  to  keep  them  watchful,  the  exact  time  was  not  defined.6 

Then  came  the  last  walk  towards  Bethany,  and  that  solemn  parting  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  when  their  Lord  was  taken  away  from  them,  and  "  a  cloud 

1  Acts  i.  3,  iC  ijufpiov  Teo-a-apajcovra.  oirravoufvo*  avTot*.    This  is  the  only  passage  in 
Scripture  which  tells  us  the  interval  which  elapsed  between  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Ascension. 

2  1  Pet.  i.  3,  4. 

»  Acts  ii.  32 ;  iii.  15 ;  iv.  33 ;  v.  32 :  x.  40,  41 ;  Luke  xxiv.  48,  &c.  On  this  fact  St. 
Luke  dwells  repeatedly  and  emphatically.  (See  Meyer  on  Acts  i.  22.) 

4  Acts  i.  4 ;  Luke  xxiv.  49. 

*  Chrys.  ad  loc.  "Numerus  dierum  non  definitus  exercebat  fidem  apostolorum " 
(Bengel).  The  reading  !o>*  7%  ir«vr«o<mj«  of  D  and  the  Sahidic  version  is  a  mere  gloss. 


48  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  8*.   PAUL. 

received  Him  out  of  their  sight."  But  even  in  His  last  discourse  He  had 
rendered  clear  to  them  their  position  and  their  duties.  When,  with  lingeringg 
of  old  Messianic  fancies,  they  had  asked  Him  whether  He  would  at  that 
time  re-constitute1  the  kingdom  for  Israel,  He  had  quenched  such  material 
longings  by  telling  them  that  it  was  not  for  them  to  know  "  the  times  or  the 
seasons,"  2  which  the  Father  placed  in  His  own  authority.*  But  though  these 
secrets  of  God  were  not  to  be  revealed  to  them  or  to  any  living  man,  there  was 
a  power  which  they  should  receive  when  the  Holy  Ghost  had  fallen  upon 
them — a  power  to  be  witnesses  to  Christ,  His  sufferings,  and  His  Resurrection, 
first  in  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Holy  Land,  then  to  all  the  world. 

From  the  mountain  slopes  of  Olivet  they  returned  that  Sabbath-day's 
journey4  to  Jerusalem,  and  at  once  assembled  in  the  upper  chamber,6  which 
was  so  suitable  a  place  for  thoir  early  gatherings.  It  was  one  of  those  large 
rooms  under  the  flat  roof  of  Jewish  houses,  which,  for  its  privacy,  was  set 
apart  for  religious  purposes ;  and  in  the  poverty  of  these  Galilaean  Apostles, 
we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  it  was  the  same  room  of  which  they  had  already 
availed  themselves  for  the  Last  Supper,  and  for  those  gatherings  on  the  "  first 
day  of  the  week,"6  at  two  of  which  Jesus  had  appeared  to  them.  Hallowed 
by  these  divine  associations,  it  seems  to  have  been  the  ordinary  place  of 
sojourn  of  the  Apostles  during  the  days  of  expectation.7  Here,  at  stated 
hours  of  earnest  prayer,  they  were  joined  by  the  mother  of  Jesus 8  and  the 
other  holy  women  who  had  attended  His  ministry ;  as  well  as  by  His  brethren, 
of  whom  one  in  particular9  plays  henceforth  an  important  part  in  the  history 
of  the  Church.  Hitherto  these  "  brethren  of  the  Lord "  had  scarcely  been 
numbered  among  those  who  believed  in  Christ,10  or,  if  they  had  believed 
in  Him,  it  had  only  been  in  a  secondary  and  material  sense,  as  a  human 
Messiah.  But  now,  as  we  might  naturally  conjecture,  even  apart  from 
tradition,  they  had  been  convinced  and  converted  by  "  the  power  of  His 
Resurrection."  Even  in  these  earliest  meetings  of  the  whole  Church  of 
Christ  at  Jerusalem  it  is  interesting  to  see  that,  though  the  Apostles  were 
still  Jews  in  their  religion,  with  no  other  change  as  yet  beyond  the  belief  in 

1  Acts  i.  6,  airoicaSurTaveit.  f  Acts  i.  7,  \p&vov*  ij  Kcupovt,  "periods  or  crises." 

*  The  E.Y.  passes  over  the  distinction  between  c£ov<ria  here  ana  ivWfuc  in  the  next 
verse,  and  a  neglect  of  this  distinction  has  led  Bengel  and  others  to  understand  ovv  v^Cu- 
•cm  in  the  sense  that  it  was  not  yet  their  prerogative  to  know  these  things  ("quae 
appstolorum  nondom  erat  nosse" — Beng.),  but  that  it  should  be  so  hereafter.     That 
this,  however,  was  not  the  error  of  our  translators  appears  from  their  marginal  gloss  to 
{vvofiic  in  ver.  8,  "the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  coming  upon  you."    We  shall  see  here- 
after that  St.  Paul,  in  common  with  all  the  early  Christians  (1  Thess.  iv.  16,  17  j 
2  Thess.  ii.  8;  Rom.  xiii.  12;  1  Cor.  xvi.  22;  Phil.  iv.  5;  1  Pet.  iv.  5;  James  v.  8; 
Heb.  x.  37),  hoped  for  the  near  return  of  Christ  to  earth. 

*  2,000  cubits,  between  five  and  six  furlongs,  the  distance  between  the  Tabernacle 
and  the  farthest  part  of  the  camp  (of.  Numb.  xxxv.  5).     This  is  the  only  place  in  which 
it  is  alluded  to  in  the  N.T. 

6  Not  "on  upper  room,"  aa  in  E.Y.    It  Is  probably  the  rnVs?,  or  topmost  room  of  tha 
house,  which  is  called  ivuytov  in  Mark  xiv.  15. 

•  John  xx.  19,  26.  ^  Acts  i.  13,  rf  V«-  *«T«f^orr«  5  T.  ntrp^,  K.T.A. 

•  Here  last  mentioned  In  the  N.T.  •  Jamea.  the  Ixird'a  brother 
19  Matt.  xiii.  46 ;  xiL  65 ;  Mark  vi.  8;  1  Cor.  rv.  7. 


• 


.  .1H  '?•      ;*T., 


BT.   PETER  AND   THE   FIBST   PENTECOST.  49 

Jesus  as  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,1  they  yet  suffered  the  women 
to  meet  with  them  in  prayer,  not  in  any  separate  court,  as  in  the  Temple 
cervices,  not  with  dividing  partitions,  as  in  the  worship  of  the  synagogue,2  but 
5n  that  equality  of  spiritual  communion,  which  was  to  develop  hereafter  into 
the  glorious  doctrine  that  among  Christ's  redeemed  "  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male  and  female,"  but 
that,  in  Christ  Jesus,  all  are  one.8 

During  the  ten  days  which  elapsed  between  the  Ascension  and  Pentecost, 
it  was  among  the  earliest  cares  of  the  Apostles  to  fill  up  the  vacancy  which 
had  been  caused  in  their  number  by  the  death  of  Judas.  This  was  done  at  a 
full  conclave  of  the  believers  in  Jerusalem,  who,  in  the  absence  of  many 
of  those  five  hundred  to  whom  Christ  had  appeared  in  Galilee,  numbered 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty.  The  terrible  circumstances  of  the  traitor's 
suicide,  of  which  every  varied  and  shuddering  tradition  was  full  of  horror,  had 
'left  upon  their  minds  a  deeper  faith  in  God's  immediate  retribution  upon  guilt. 
|He  had  fallen  from  his  high  charge  by  transgression,  and  had  gone  to  his 
,own  place.*  That  his  place  should  be  supplied  appeared  reasonable,  both 
'because  Jesus  Himself  had  appointed  twelve  Apostles — the  ideal  number  of 
the  tribes  of  Israel — and  also  because  Peter,  and  the  Church  generally,  saw  in 
Judas  the  antitype  of  Ahitophel,  and  applying  to  him  a  passage  of  the  109th 
Psalm,  they  wished,  now  that  his  habitation  was  desolate,  that  another  should 
+ftke  his  office.5  The  essential  qualification  for  the  new  Apostle  was  that  he 
should  have  been  a  witness  of  the  Resurrection,  and  should  have  companied 
with  the  disciples  all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  went  in  and  out  among 
them.  The  means  taken  for  his  appointment,  being  unique  in  the  New 
Testament,  seem  to  result  from  the  unique  position  of  the  Church  during  the 
few  days  between  the  Ascension  and  the  Descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As 
though  they  felt  that  the  swift  power  of  intuitive  discernment  was  not  yet 
theirs,  they  selected  two,  Joseph  Barsabbas,  who  in  Gentile  circles  assumed 
the  common  surname  of  Justus,  and  Matthias.6  They  then,  in  accordance 

1  "  The  Church,  so  to  speak,  was  but  half  born ;  the  other  half  was  still  in  the  womb 
of  the  synagogue.     The  followers  of  Jesus  were  under  the  guidance  of  the  Apostles,  but 
continued  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  chair  of  Moses  in  Jerusalem "  (Dr. 
Dollinger,  First  Age,  p.  43). 

2  Jos.  Antt.  xv.  11,  §  5 ;  Philo,  ii.  476.  »  Gal.  iii.  28. 

4  Acts  i.  25,  eU  TOV  roTrov  TOV  ISiov  (aZ.  oucaiov).    This  profound  and  reverent  euphemism 
is  one  of  the  many  traces  of  the  reticence  with  which  the  early  Church  spoke  of  the 
fate  of  those  who  had  departed.    The  reticence  is  all  the  more  remarkable  if  the  word 
"  place  "  be  meant  to  bear  allusive  reference  to  the  same  word  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
text,  where  the  true  reading  is  -rovov  TTJ?  iuueovias  (A,  B,  C,  D),  not  K^pov,  as  in  E.V. 
The  origin  of  this  striking  expression  may  perhaps  be  the  Rabbinic  comments  on  Numb, 
xrir.  25,  where  "Balaam  went  to  his  own  place"  is  explained  to  mean  "  to  Gehenna." 
Cf .  Judg.  ix,  55,  TO'po'j,  and  Targ.  Eccles.  vi.  6 ;  v.  Schottgen,  p.  407  ;  and  cf.  Clem.  Rom 
ad  Cor.  i.  5 ;  Polyc.  ad  Phil.  9 ;  Ignat.  ad  Magnes.  5  (Meyer).    See  too  Dan.  xii.  13. 

5  Ps.  xli.  9  ;  cix.  8.    The  alteration  of  the  T/X"y.  airriov  into  ourov  is  a  good  illustration 
of  the  free  method  of  quotation  and  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  is 
universally  adopted  in  the  New.     The  109th  has  been  called  the  Iscariotic  Psalm. 

6  Of  these  nothing  is  known,  unless  it  be  true  that  they  were  among  the  Seventy 
fEuseb.  If.  E.  i.  12 ;  Epiphan.  Haer.  i.  20);  and  that  Joseph  drank  poison  unharmed 
(Fapias  ap.  Eueeb.  H.  E.  iii.  39).     On  the  uncertain  derivation  of  Barsabbae  (to  in  H,  A, 


50  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

with  Old  Testament  analogies1  and  Jewish  custom,2  prayed  to  God  that  Ho 
would  appoint3  the  one  whom  He  chose.  The  names  were  written  on 
tablets  and  dropped  into  a  vessel.  The  vessel  was  shaken,  and  the  name  of 
Matthias  leapt  out.  He  was  accordingly  reckoned  among  the  twelve 
Apostles.* 

We  are  told  nothing  further  respecting  the  events  of  the  ten  days  which 
elapsed  between  the  Ascension  and  Pentecost.  With  each  of  those  days 
the  yearning  hope,  the  keen  expectation,  must  have  grown  more  and  more 
intense,  and  most  of  all  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  had  dawned.6  It  was  tho 
first  day  of  the  week,  and  tho  fiftieth  day  after  Nisan  16.  The  very  circum- 
stances of  the  day  would  add  to  the  vividness  of  their  feelings.  The 
Pentecost  was  not  only  one  of  the  three  great  yearly  feasts,  and  the  Feast  of 
Harvest,  but  it  came  to  be  identified — and  quite  rightly — in  Jewish  conscious- 
ness with  the  anniversary  of  the  giving  of  the  Law  on  Sinai.6  The  mere 
fact  that  another  solemn  festival  had  come  round,  and  that  at  the  last 
great  festival  their  Lord  had  been  crucified  in  the  sight  of  the  assembled 
myriads  who  thronged  to  the  Passover,  would  be  sufficient  on  this  solemn 
morning  to  absorb  their  minds  with  that  overwhelming  anticipation  which  was 
a  forecast  of  a  change  in  themselves  and  in  the  world's  history — of  a  new  and 
eternal  consecration  to  the  service  of  a  new  law  and  the  work  of  a  new 
life. 

It  was  early  morning.  Before  "the  third  hour  of  the  day"  summoned 
them  to  the  Temple  for  morning  prayer/  tho  believers,  some  hundred  and 
twenty  in  number,  were  gathered  once  more,  according  to  their  custom,  in  the 
upper  room.  It  has  been  imagined  by  some  that  the  great  event  of  this  first 
Whit-Sunday  must  have  taken  place  in  the  Temple.  The  word  rendered 

B,  E),  see  Lightfoot,  HOT.  Hebr.,  ad  loc.  There  is  a  Judas  Barsabbas  in  Acts  xv.  22. 
Matthias  is  said  to  have  been  martyred  (Niceph.  ii.  60),  and  there  were  apocryphal 
writings  connected  with  his  name  (Euseb.  H.  E.  lii.  29  ;  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  ii.  163). 

1  Numb.  xxvi.  55,  56  ;  Josh.  vii.  14  ;  1  Sam.  x.  20 ;  Prov.  xvi.  33.  8  Luke  i.  9. 

8  araStifov,  " appoint, "  not  "show":  Luke  x.  1,  /neri 5« TOVTO. oWSfifrv 6  Kvpiot ,  irtpovs, 
ijSSofiTjKovra.  The  word  is  peculiar  in  the  N.T.  to  St.  Luke.  For  eft/u'fw,  see  Acts  i.  2, 
rots  an-o^ToAoi*  .  .  .  .  ofls  efeAefaro.  I  need  hardly  notice  the  strange  view  that  the 
election  of  St.  Matthias  was  a  sheer  mistake  made  before  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  that 
Paul  was  in  reality  the  destined  twelfth  Apostle  !  (Stier,  Reden  d.  Apost,  i.  15. ) 

*  The  method  in  which  the  lot  was  cast  (see  Lev.  xvi.  8 ;  Ezek.  xxiv.  6)  is  not  certain, 
but  the  expression  Kwxav,  rather  than  tfiaXov  jeA^pous  avrofc  i  goes  against  the  notion  of  their 
casting  dice  as  in  Luke  xxiii.  34.  "  The  lot/eW  on  Matthias  "  is  a  common  idiom  in  all 
languages  (Horn.  II.  v.  316  ;  Od.  E.  209 ;  Ps.  xxii.  18 ;  Jon.  i.  7,  &c.  ;  ut  cujusquc  sors 
exciderat ;  Liv.  xxi.  42).  From  the  use  of  the  word  KArjpos  in  this  passage,  in  ver.  17  and 
in  viii,  21,  xxvi.  18,  is  probably  derived  the  Latin  clerus  and  our  clergy,  clerici,  (cXJjpos  = 
TO  ovanjfia  r&v  SIOKOVUV  na.1  irpevpyrepiav,  (Suid.)  (Wordsworth,  ad.  loc.) 

6  This  is  the  obvious  meaning  of  <rvfi7rAt)pov<rd<u,  not  ' '  was  drawing  near  "  (of.  Eph.  i. 
10),  or,  "had  passed." 

6  It  is  true  that  this  point  is  not  adverted  to  by  either  Philo  or  Josephus.    The  in- 
ference arises,  however,  so  obviously  from  the  comparison  of  Ex.  xii.  2 ;  xix.  1,  that  we 
can  hardly  suppose  that  it  was  wholly  missed.     (See  Schottgen,  ad.  loc.j,  Jer.  Ep.  ad 
Fabiolam,  xii. ;  Aug.  c.  Faustum,  xxxii.  12  ;  Maim  on.  Mor.  Nevoch.  iii.  41.)  TheSimchath 
Tkorah,  or  "Feast  of  the  Joy  of  the  Law,"  is  kept  on  the  last  day  of  the  F«ast  of 
Tabernacles,  when  the  last  Haphtarah  from  the  Pentateuch  is  read. 

7  t.c.,  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  (of.  Luke  xxiv.  53 ;  Acts  ii.  46 ;  iii.  1). 


ST.  PETEB  AND  THE   FIRST  PENTECOST,  51 

"  house"1  might  equally  mean  a  "  chamber,"  and  is  actually  used  by  Josephus 
of  tho  thirty  small  chambers  which  were  attached  to  the  sides  of  Solomon's 
Temple,  with  thirty  more  above  them.2  But  it  is  supremely  improbable 
that  the  poor  and  suspected  disciples  should  have  been  able  to  command 
tho  use  of  such  a  room ;  and  further,  it  is  certain  that  if,  in  the  Herodian 
temple,  these  rooms  were  no  larger  than  those  in  the  Temple  of  Solomon., 
the  size  of  even  the  lower  ones  would  have  been  wholly  inadequate  for  the 
accommodation  of  so  large  a  number.  Tho  meeting  was  probably  one  of  those 
holy  and  simple  meala  which  were  afterwards  known  among  Christians  as  the 
Agapce,  or  Love  feasts.  It  need  hardly  be  added  that  any  moral  significance 
which  might  attach  to  the  occurrence  of  the  event  in  the  Temple  would  be  no 
less  striking  if  we  think  of  the  sign  of  a  new  era  as  having  hallowed  the 
common  street  and  the  common  dwelling-place ;  as  the  visible  inauguration  of 
the  days  in  which  neither  on  Zion  nor  on  Gerizim  alone  were  men  to  worship 
the  Father,  but  to  worship  Him  everywhere  in  spirit  and  in  truth.8 

It  is  this  inward  significance  of  the  event  which  constitutes  its  sacredness 
and  importance.  Its  awfulness  consists  in  its  being  the  solemn  beginning  of 
the  new  and  final  phase  of  God's  dealings  with  mankind.  To  Abraham  He 
gave  a  promise  which  was  the  germ  of  a  religion.  When  He  called  His  people 
from  Egypt  He  gave  them  the  Moral  Law  and  that  Levitical  Law  which  was 
to  serve  as  a  bulwark  for  the  truths  of  the  theocracy.  During  the  two 
thousand  years  of  that  Mosaic  Dispensation  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Temple 
had  been  a  visible  sign  of  His  presence.  Then,  for  the  brief  periqd  of  the  life 
of  Christ  on  earth,  He  had  tabernacled  among  men,  dwelling  in  a  tent  like  ours 
and  of  the  same  material.4  That  mortal  body  of  Christ,  in  a  sense  far  deeper 
than  could  be  true  of  any  house  built  with  hands,  was  a  Temple  of  God.  Last 
of  all,  He  who  had  given  to  mankind  His  Son  to  dwell  among  them,  gave  His 
Spirit  into  their  very  hearts.  More  than  this  He  could  not  give ;  nearer  than 
this  He  could  not  be.  Henceforth  His  Temple  was  to  be  the  mortal  body  of 
every  baptised  Christian,  and  His  Spirit  was  to  prefer 

u  Before  all  temples  the  upright  heart  and  pure." 

He  who  believes  this  in  all  the  fulness  of  its  meaning,  he  whose  heart  and 
conscience  bear  witness  to  its  truth,  will  consider  in  its  true  aspect  the  fulfil- 
ment of  Christ's  promise  in  the  effusion  of  His  Spirit;  and  regarding  the 
outward  wonder  as  the  least  marvellous  part  of  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  will  not, 
as  Neander  says,  be  tempted  to  explain  the  greater  by  the  less,  or  "  consider 
it  strange  that  the  most  wonderful  event  in  the  inner  life  of  mankind  should 
be  accompanied  by  extraordinary  outward  appearances  as  sensible  indications 
of  its  existence." 6 

Suddenly,  while  their  hearts  burned  within  them  with  such  ardent  zeal,  and 
glowed  with  suck  enkindled  hope — suddenly  on  the  rapt  and  expectant 

i  Acts  a.  2,  oW.  »  Jos.  Antt.  viii  3,  §  2.  *  John  iv.  21—23. 

*  Archbishop  Leighton,  John  i.  14,  6  A£yo;  <rap£  ey«V«ro  KM  i<rKri*u<Ttv  iv  ^if. 
5  Neander,  p.  3. 


52  THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

assembly  came  the  sign  that  they  had  desired — the  inspiration  of  Christ's 
promised  Presence  in  their  hearts — the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire — the  transforming  impulse  of  a  Spirit  and  a  Power  from  on  high — the 
eternal  proof  to  them,  and  through  them,  in  unbroken  succession,  to  all  who 
accept  their  word,  that  He  who  had  been  taken  from  them  into  heaven  was 
still  with  them,  and  would  be  with  them  always  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

It  came  from  heaven  with  the  sound  as  of  a  rushing  mighty  wind,  filling 
the  whole  house  where  they  were  sitting,  and  with  a  semblance  as  of  infolded 
flame,1  which,  parting  itself  in  every  direction,8  played  like  a  tongue  of 
lambent  light  over  the  head  of  every  one  of  them.  It  was  not  wind,  but  "  a 
sound  as  of  wind  in  its  rushing  violence ; "  it  was  not  fire,  but  something 
which  seemed  to  them  like  quivering  tongues  of  a  flame  which  gleamed  but 
did  not  burn — fit  symbol  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which,  like  the  wind,  bloweth 
where  it  listeth,  though  we  know  not  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth ; 
and,  like  the  kindled  fire  of  love,  glowing  on  the  holy  altar  of  every  faithful 
heart,  utters,  not  seldom,  even  from  the  stammering  lips  of  ignorance,  the 
burning  words  of  inspiration. 

And  that  this  first  Pentecost  marked  an  eternal  moment  in  the  destiny  of 
mankind,  no  reader  of  history  will  surely  deny.  Undoubtedly  in  every  age 
since  then  the  sons  of  God  have,  to  an  extent  unknown  before,  been  taught  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Undoubtedly  since  then,  to  an  extent  unrealised  before,  we 
may  know  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  dwelleth  in  us.  Undoubtedly  we  may 
enjoy  a  nearer  sense  of  union  with  God  in  Christ  than  was  accorded  to  the 
saints  of  the  Old  Dispensation,  and  a  thankful  certainty  that  we  see  the  days 
which  kings  and  prophets  desired  to  see  and  did  not  see  them,  and  hear  the 
truths  which  they  desired  to  hear  and  did  not  hear  them.  And  this  New 
Dispensation  began  henceforth  in  all  its  fulness.  It  was  no  exclusive 
consecration  to  a  separated  priesthood,  no  isolated  endowment  of  a  narrow 
Apostolate.  It  was  the  consecration  of  a  whole  Church — its  men,  its  women, 
its  children — to  be  all  of  them  "  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy 
nation,  a  peculiar  people ;  "  it  waa  an  endowment,  of  which  the  full  free  offer 
was  meant  ultimately  to  be  extended  to  all  mankind.  Each  one  of  that 
hundred  and  twenty  was  not  the  exceptional  recipient  of  a  blessing  and 
witness  of  a  revelation,  but  the  forerunner  and  representative  of  myriads 
more.  And  this  miracle  was  not  merely  transient,  but  is  continuously  re- 
newed. It  is  not  a  rushing  sound  and  gleaming  light,  seen  perhaps  only  for  a 
moment,  but  it  is  a  living  energy  and  an  unceasing  inspiration.  It  is  not  a 
visible  symbol  to  a  gathered  handful  of  human  souls  in  the  upper  room  of  a 
Jewish  house,  but  a  vivifying  wind  which  shall  henceforth  breathe  in  all  ages 
of  the  world's  history ;  a  tide  of  light  which  is  rolling,  and  shall  roll,  from 

1  Acts  ii.  2,  3,  wcrirep  in/or)?  .   •   >   *xr«  wvpbt.      (Cf.  Lake  ill.  22,  ua-el  mpiOTtpav  ',  Ezek.  i, 

24;  xliii.  2;  1  Kings  six  11.) 

2  yXiao-ai  &ialupi.£6fi.ev<ii,  not  "  cloven  tongues,"  &s  in  the  E.V.,  though  this  view  of  the 
word  is  said  to  have  determined  the  symbolic  shape  of  the   episcopal  mitre.     The 
expression  "tongue  of  lire"  u  found  also  in  Isa.  v.  24,  but  there  it  is  a  devouring 
flame. 


BT.    FETEB  AND  THE   FIEST  PENTECOST  53 

ehore  to  shore  until  the  earth  is  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  tho 
waters  cover  the  sea. 

And  if  this  be  the  aspect  under  which  it  is  regarded,  the  outward  symbol 
sinks  into  subordinate  importance.  They  who  hold  the  truths  on  which  I 
have  been  dwelling  will  not  care  to  enter  into  the  voluminous  controversy  as 
to  whether  that  which  is  described  as  audible  and  visible  was  so  in  seeming 
only — whether  the  something  which  sounded  like  wind,  and  the  something 
which  gleamed  like  flame,1  were  external  realities,  or  whether  they  were  but 
subjective  impressions,  so  vivid  as  to  be  identified  with  the  things  themselves. 
When  the  whole  soul  is  filled  with  a  spiritual  light  and  a  spiritual  fire — when 
it  seems  to  echo,  as  in  the  Jewish  legend  of  the  great  Lawgiver,  with  the 
music  of  other  worlds — when  it  is  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven  and  hoars 
words  which  it  is  not  possible  for  man  to  utter — when,  to  the  farthest  horizon 
of  its  consciousness,  it  seems  as  it  were  filled  with  the  "  rush  of  congregated 
wings  " — when,  to  borrow  the  language  of  St.  Augustine,  the  natural  life  is 
dead,  and  the  soul  thrills,  under  the  glow  of  spiritual  illumination,  with  a  life 
which  is  supernatural — what,  to  such  a  soul,  is  objective  and  what  is  subjective? 
To  such  questions  the  only  answer  it  cares  to  give  is,  "  Whether  in  the  body 
or  out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell.  God  knoweth."  a 

But  when  from  these  mysterious  phenomena  we  turn  to  the  effects  wrought 
by  them  in  those  for  whom  they  were  manifested,  we  are  dealing  with  things 
more  capable  of  being  defined.  Here,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  the  immediate  result  and  the  permanent  inspiration.  The  former 
astounded  a  multitude ;  the  hitter  revived  a  world.  The  former  led  to  an 
immediate  conversion ;  the  hitter  is  the  power  of  a  holy  life.  The  former  was 
a  new  and  amazing  outburst  of  strange  emotion ;  the  hitter  was  the  sustaining 
influence  which  enables  the  soul  to  soar  from  earth  heavenwards  in  steady 
flight  on  the  double  wings  of  Faith  and  Love. 

Yet,  though  there  be  no  manner  of  comparison  between  the  real 
importance  of  the  transient  phenomenon  and  the  continuous  result,  it  is 
necessary  to  a  true  conception  of  the  age  of  the  Apostles  that  we  should 
understand  what  is  told  us  of  the  former.  "  And  they  were  all  immediately 
filled,"  it  is  said,  "with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  began  to  speak  with  other 
tongues  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  to  utter."  * 

The  primd  facie  aspect  of  the  narrative  whicft  follows — apart  from  the 
analogy  of  other  Scriptures — has  led  to  the  belief  that  the  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  at  Pentecost  was  succeeded  by  an  outburst  of  utterance, 
in  which  a  body  of  Galileans  spoke  a  multitude  of  languages  which  they 
had  never  learned  j  and  this  has  led  to  the  inference  that  throughout  their 

*  Aots  ii.  2,  3,  Sxnrtp     .     .     .     ucrci. 

1  "  It  did  me  much  harm  that  I  did  not  then  know  it  was  possible  to  see  anything 
otherwise  than  with  the  eyes  of  the  body  "  (St.  Teresa,  Vida,  vii.  11). 

8  Acts  ii.  4.  XoAeiv,  "to  apeak,"  as  distinguished  from  \iyav,  "to  say,"  points  rather 
to  the  actual  articulations  than  to  the  thoughts  which  words  convey ;  an-tx&de'yyccrdac, 
eloqui,  implies  a  brief  forcible  utterance.  Neither  fr«pat  nor  yAwovat  throw  light  on  the 
nature  of  the  phenomena,  except  as  referring  to  ISA,  xxviii.  11, 


54  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

lives  the  Apostles  possessed  the  power  of  speaking   languages  which  they 
had  not  acquired.1 

But  if  we  examine  other  passages  where  the  same  phenomenon  is  alluded 
to  or  discussed,  they  will  show  us  that  this  view  of  the  matter  is  at  least 
questionable.  In  Mark  xvi.  17 — waiving  all  argument  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  passage — the  word  itcuvds,  "  new,"  is  omitted  in  several  uncials  and 
versions;5  but  if  retained,  it  goes  against  the  common  notion,  for  it  points 
to  strange  utterances,  not  to  foreign  languages.  In  the  other  places  of 
the  Acts3  where  tho  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  alluded  to,  no  hint  is  given 
of  the  use  of  unknown  languages.  In  fact,  that  view  of  the  subject  has 
chiefly  been  stereotyped  in  the  popular  conception  by  the  interpolation  of 
the  word  "  unknown "  in  1  Cor.  xiv.*  The  glossolalia,  or  "  speaking  with 
a  tongue,"  is  connected  with  "prophesying" — that  is,  exalted  preaching — 
and  magnifying  God.  The  sole  passage  by  which  wo  can  hope  to  under- 
stand  it  is  the  section  of  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  to  which 
I  have  just  alluded.6  It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  examine  that  section 
carefully  without  being  forced  to  the  conclusion  that,  at  Corinth  at  any 
rate,  the  gift  of  tongues  had  not  the  least  connexion  with  foreign  languages. 
Of  such  a  knowledge,  if  this  single  passage  of  the  Acts  be  not  an  exception, 
there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  trace  in  Scripture.  That  this  passage  is  not 
an  exception  seems  to  be  clear  from  the  fact  that  St.  Peter,  in  rebutting 
the  coarse  insinuation  that  the  phenomenon  was  the  result  of  drunkenness, 
does  not  so  much  as  make  the  most  passing  allusion  to  an  evidence  so 
unparalleled ;  and  that  the  passage  of  Joel  of  which  he  sees  the  fulfilment 
in  the  outpouring  of  Pentecost,  does  not  contain  the  remotest  hint  of 
foreign  languages.  Hence  the  fancy  that  this  was  the  immediate  result 
of  Pentecost  is  unknown  to  the  first  two  centuries,  and  only  sprang  up 
when  the  true  tradition  had  been  obscured.  The  inference  that  the  gift 
of  unlearnt  languages  was  designed  to  help  the  Apostles  in  their  future 
preaching  is  one  that  unites  a  mass  of  misconceptions.  In  the  first  place, 
such  a  gift  would  be  quite  alien  to  that  law  of  God's  Providence  which 
never  bestows  on  man  that  which  man  can  acquire  by  his  own  unaided 
efforts.  In  the  second  place,  owing  to  the  universal  dissemination  at  thac 
time  of  Greek  and  Latin,  there  never  was  a  period  in  which  such  a  gif« 

-\ 

1  Against  this  view  (which,  with  the  contrast  with  Babel.  &o.,  is  not  found,  I  thinly 
earlier  than  the  Fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries),  see  Herder,  Die  Qabe  rf. 
Sprache ;  Bunsen,  Hippol.  ii.  12 ;  Ewald,  Oesch.  Isr.  vi.  110 ;  Neander,  Planting,  13 
14  ;  De  Wette,  Einleit.  27—37 ;  Hilgenfeld,  Einleit.  275 ;  Reuss,  Hist.  Apost.  50—55 ; 
Olshausen,  ad  loc. ;  De  Pressense,  Trois  prem.  Siicles,  L  355 ;  and  almost  every  un 
biassed  modern  commentator.  Meyer  (ad  loc.)  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  "the  sudden 
communication  of  the  gift  of  speaking  in  foreign  languages  is  neither  logically  possiblt 
nor  psychologically  and  morally  conceivable." 

3  0,  L,  A,  Copt.,  Arm.  Apart  from  these  questions,  the  unlimited  universality  o'. 
the  promise  leads  us  to  believe  that  our  Lord  here,  as  elsewhere,  is  using  the  language 
of  spiritual  metaphor.  Many  a  great  missionary  and  preacher  has,  in  the  highest 
sense,  spoken  "with  new  tongues"  who  has  yet  found  insuperable  difficulty  in  the 
acquisition  of  foreign  languages. 

3  x.  46 ;  xix.  6  (cf.  rf.  15).          «  1  Cor.  xir.  4, 13,  14,  27.         *  1  Cor.  xii.  -xiv.  33. 


ST.   PETER  AND   THE   FIRST   PENTECOST.  55 

would  have  been  more  absolutely  needless.1  In  the  third  place,  though 
all  other  miracles  of  the  New  Testament  found  their  continuance  and 
their  analogies,  for  a  time  at  any  rate,  after  the  death  of  the  Apostles, 
there  is  no  existing  allusion,  or  even  early  legend,  which  has  presumed 
the  existence  of  this  power.*  In  the  fourth  place,  although  Paul  'spoke 
with  a  tongue'3  more  than  all  his  converts,  it  is  clear  from  the  narrative 
of  what  occurred  at  Lycaonia,  that  at  a  most  crucial  moment  he  did  not 
understand  the  Lycaonian  dialect.  In  the  fifth  place,  early  Christian 
tradition  distinctly  asserts  that  the  Apostles  did  not  possess  a  supernatural 
knowledge  of  foreign  tongues,  since  Papias  tells  us  that  Mark  accompanied 
St.  Peter  as  an  '  interpreter '  (fy/irjveur^s),  and  Jerome  that  Titus  was  useful 
to  St.  Paul  from  his  knowledge  of  Greek.4  We  are,  therefore,  forced  to 
look  for  some  other  aspect  of  the  utterance  of  that  inspiration  which 
accompanied  the  heavenly  signs  of  Pentecost.  The  mistaken  explanation 
of  it  has  sprung  from  taking  too  literally  St.  Luke's  dramatic  reproduction 
of  the  vague  murmurs  of  a  throng,  who  mistook  the  nature  of  a  gift  of 
which  they  witnessed  the  reality.  I  do  not  see  how  any  thoughtful 
student  who  has  really  considered  the  whole  subject  can  avoid  the  con- 
clusion of  Neander,  that  "any  foreign  languages  which  were  spoken  on 
this  occasion  were  only  something  accidental,  and  not  the  essential  element 
of  the  language  of  the  Spirit."  6 

In  ancient  times — especially  before  Origen — there  seems  to  have  been 
an  impression  that  only  one  language  was  spoken,  but  that  the  miracle 
consisted  in  each  hearer  imagining  it  to  be  his  own  native  tongue.6  The 
explanation  is  remarkable  as  showing  an  early  impression  that  the  passage 
had  been  misunderstood.  The  modern  view,  developed  especially  by 
Schneckenburger  (following  St.  Cyprian  and  Erasmus),  is  that  the  "tongue" 
was,  from  its  own  force  and  significance,  intelligible  equally  to  all  who 
heard  it.  That  such  a  thing  is  possible  may  be  readily  admitted,  and  it 
derives  some  probability  from  many  analogies  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 

1  For  instance,  the  whole  multitude  from  fifteen  countries  which  heard  the  Apostles 
speak  "in  their  own  tongues"  the  wonderful  worka  of  God,  yet  all  understood  the 
speech  which  St.  Peter  addressed  to  them  in  Greek.  Hence  such  a  power  of  speaking 
unlearnt  foreign  languages  would  have  been  a  "  Luxus-wunder  "  (Immer,  Neut.  Theol. 
195).  Far  different  was  it  with  the  true  glossolaly,  which  in  its  controlled  force  involved 
a  spiritual  power  of  stirring  to  its  inmost  depths  the  heart  of  unbelief.  (1  Cor.  xiv.  22. ) 

-  Middleton,  Mirac.  Powers,  120.  The  passage  of  Ironzeus  (Haer.  v.  6,  1)  usually 
quoted  in  favour  of  such  a  view,  tells  the  other  way,  since  the  object  of  the  irayroSarrai 

yXlxrcrai  is  there  explained  to  be  TO.  «pv(£ia  TO>V  ivSpu-auv  «ls  fyavepbv  ayciv. 

3  1  Cor.  xiv.  18,  yluxTrn  (N,  A,  D,  E,  F,  G). 

4  Papias,  ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  39 ;  cf .  Iren.  iiL  1 ;  interpres.  Tert.  adv.  Marc.  iv.  5. 

8  Planting,  13,  14.  I  havo  not  touched  on  any  modern  analogies  to  these  spiritual 
manifestations,  but  agree  with  the  view  of  Dr.  DSllinger,  who  gays  that  they  have 
occurred  "  in  a  lower  sphere,  and  without  any  miraculous  endowment  ...  an  unusual 
phenomenon,  but  one  completely  within  the  range  of  natural  operations,  which  the  gift 
of  the  Apostolic  age  came  into  to  exalt  and  ennoble  it "  (First  Age  of  Church,  315). 

6  Greg.  Nysa.  DC  Spir.  Sanct.  Bp.  Martensen,  Christl.  Dogm.  381 ;  Ovcrbeck,  App., 
p.  26,  and  many  others.  The  often-repeated  objection  of  Gregory  of  Nazdanzus  (Orat. 
xliv.)  that  this  is  to  transfer  the  miracle  to  the  hearers,  has  no  weight  whatever.  The 
effect  on  the  hearers  waa  solely  due  to  the  power  of  the  new  spiritual  "  tongue." 


56  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKX   OF  ST.   PAUIu 

The  stories  of  St.  Bernard,  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  St.  Vincent  Ferrer, 
St.  Louis  Bertrand,  St.  Franeis  Xavior,  and  others  who  are  said  to  have 
been  endowed  with  the  spiritual  power  of  swaying  the  passions,  kindling 
the  enthusiasm,  or  stirring  the  penitence  of  vast  multitudes  whom  they 
addressed  in  a  language  unintelligible  to  the  majority  of  the  hearers,  are  so 
far  from  being  inventions,  that  any  one  who  has  been  present  at  the  speech 
of  a  great  orator,  though  beyond  the  range  of  his  voice,  can  readily  under- 
stand the  nature  and  the  intensity  of  the  effect  produced.1  But  neither  of 
these  theories  taken  alone  seems  adequate  to  account  for  the  language  used 
by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  Almost  all  the  theories  about  the  glossolali* 
are  too  partial.  The  true  view  can  only  be  discovered  by  a  combination  of 
them.  The  belief  that  languages  were  used  which  were  unknown,  or  only 
partially  known,  or  which  had  only  been  previously  known  to  the  speaker ; 
that  the  tongue  was  a  mystic,  exalted,  poetic,  unusual  style  of  phraseology 
and  utterance ; 2  that  it  was  a  dithyrambic  outpouring  of  strange  and 
rhythmic  praise;  that  it  was  the  impassioned  use  of  ejaculatory  words 
and  sentences  of  Hebrew  Scripture;  that  it  was  a  wild,  unintelligible, 
inarticulate  succession  of  sounds,  which  either  conveyed  no  impression  to 
the  ordinary  hearer,  or  could  only  be  interpreted  by  one  whose  special 
gift  it  was  to  understand  the  rapt  and  ecstatic  strain — none  of  these  views 
is  correct  separately,  all  may  have  some  elements  of  truth  in  their  combina- 
tion. This  is  the  moaning  of  St.  Paul's  expression  "kinds  of  tongues." 
If  we  assume,  as  must  be  assumed,  that  the  glossolalia  at  Corinth  and 
elsewhere  was  identical  with  the  glossolalia  at  Pentecost,  then  we  must 
interpret  the  narrative  of  St.  Luke  by  the  full  and  earnest  discussion  of 
the  subject — written,  be  it  remembered,  at  a  far  earlier  period,  and  in 
immediate  contact  with,  and  even  experience  of,  the  manifestation — by 
St.  Paul.  That  the  glossolaly  at  Corinth  was  not  a  speaking  in  foreign 
languages  is  too  clear  to  need  proof.  St.  Paul  in  speaking  of  it  uses  the 
analogies  of  the  clanging  of  a  cymbal,  the  booming  of  a  gong,8  the  in- 
distinct blare  of  a  trumpet,4  the  tuneless  strains  of  flute  or  harp.6  We 
learn  that,  apart  from  interpretation,  it  was  not  for  the  edification  of  any 
but  the  speaker;6  that  even  the  speaker  did  not  always  understand  it;7  that 
it  was  sporadic  in  its  recurrences;8  that  it  was  excited,  inarticulate, 

1  See  Chaptert  on  Language,  p.  63 ;  Marsh,  Lect.  on  Lang.  486—488 ;  Oic.  de  Orat. 
iii.  216. 

2  rAw(r<ro  sometimes  means  "  an  unusual  expression  "  (Arist.  Khet.  iii.  2,  14).    Of.  our 
"  gloss,"  "  glossology."    See  especially  Bleek,  Stud,  u  Krit.  1829.     "  Linguam  ease  cum 
quis  loquatur  obscuras  et  mysticas  significationes  "  (Aug.  de  Gen.  ad  litt.  xii.  8). 

3  1  Cor.  xiii.  1|  xaA*"«  ^XU3V>  teSpjtukap!  aAaAa£oi>. 

4  xiv.  8,  iav  aS-n^ov  4>*>ci]K  crdAirtyf  «».   St.  Chrysostom  uses  language  equally  disparaging 
of  analogous  outbreaks  in  Constantinople  (Horn,  in  Pi.  vi.  12;   gee  Dr,  Plump  tve'a 
interesting  article  in  Smith's  Diet.  iii.  1560). 

5  xiv.  7,0/twc  TO.  aifjv\a.  ^navi\v  SiSovTo,  K.T.X.,  cap  5ia<JToAr)i>  rot?  <f>0dyyon  fxij  &<f- 

'  xiv.  2,  OVK  ai-0pa.iro«  \a\el.  4,  cavrbf  olKoSontl.  Of;  11.  The  proper  meaning  of  the 
words  AaAnv,  yAuacra,  <j,uv'i],  all  point  in  this  direction,  In  St.  Luke's  phraseology  the 
word  for  a  language  is  not  yAilero-a,  b 

7  xiv.  19.  8  xiv.  27. 


BT.   P2TEB  AND  THE   FIEST   PENTECOST.  57 

astonishing,1  intended  as  a  sign  to  unbelievers  rather  than  as  an  aid  to 
believers,  but  even  on  unbelievers  liable,  when  not  under  due  regulation, 
to  leave  an  impression  of  madness ; a  lastly,  that,  though  controllable  by 
all  who  were  truly  and  nobly  under  its  influence,  it  often  led  to  spurious 
and  disorderly  outbreaks.3  Any  one  who  fairly  ponders  these  indications 
can  hardly  doubt  that,  when  the  consciousness  of  the  new  power  came  over 
the  assembled  disciples,  they  did  not  speak  as  men  ordinarily  speak.  The 
voice  they  uttered  was  awful  in  its  range,  in  its  tone,  in  its  modulations, 
in  its  startling,  penetrating,  almost  appalling  power;4  the  words  they  spoke 
were  exalted,  intense,  passionate,  full  of  mystic  significance ;  the  language 
they  used  was  not  their  ordinary  and  familiar  tongue,  but  was  Hebrew,  or 
Greek,  or  Latin,  or  Aramaic,  or  Persian,  or  Arabic,  as  some  overpowering 
and  unconscious  impulse  of  the  moment  might  direct ;  the  burden  of  their 
thoughts  was  the  ejaculation  of  rapture,  of  amazement,  of  thanksgiving, 
of  prayer,  of  impassioned  psalm,  of  dithyrambic  hymn ;  their  utterances 
were  addressed  not  to  each  other,  but  were  like  an  inspired  soliloquy  of  the 
soul  with  God.  And  among  these  strange  sounds  of  many  voices,  all 
simultaneously  raised  in  the  accordance  of  ecstatic  devotion,6  there  were 
some  which  none  could  rightly  interpret,  which  rang  on  the  air  like  the 
voice  of  barbarous  languages,  and  which,  except  to  those  who  uttered  them, 
and  who  in  uttering  them  felt  carried  out  of  themselves,  conveyed  no 
definite  significance  beyond  the  fact  that  they  were  reverberations  of  one 
and  the  same  ecstasy — echoes  waked  in  different  consciousnesses  by  the 
same  immense  emotion.  Such — as  we  gather  from  the  notices  of  St.  Luke, 
St.  Peter,  and  St.  Paul — was  the  "  Gift  of  Tongues."  And  thus  regarded, 
its  strict  accordance  with  the  known  laws  of  psychology  8  furnishes  us  with 
a  fresh  proof  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  history,  and  shows  us  that  no  sign 
of  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  could  have  been  more  natural,  more 
evidential,  or  more  intense. 

The  city  of  Jerusalem  at  that  moment  was  crowded  by  a  miscellaneous 
multitude  of  Jews  and  Proselytes.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  awful  sound7 
should  arrest  the  astonished  attention,  first  of  one,  then  of  more,  lastly  of  a 
multitude  of  the  inhabitants  and  passers-by.  The  age — an  age  which  was  in 

1  xlv.  2.  *  xiv.  23,  OVK  ipovffw  ort  paii>ta9* ; 

»  xiv.  9,  11,  17,  20-23,  26—28,  33,  40. 

4  So  we  infer  from  St.  Paul's  allusions,  which  find  illustration  in  modern  analogies. 
Archd.  Stopford  describes  the  "  unknown  +ongue"  of  the  Irish  Revivalists  in  1859  as  "  a 
sound  such  as  I  never  heard  before,  unearthly  and  unaccountable." 

'  This  simultaneity  of  utterance  by  people  under  the  same  impressions  is  recorded 
several  times  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  It  was  evidently  analogous  to,  though  not 
perhaps  identical  with  "  glossolalia  — the  eloquence  of  religious  transport  thrilling  with 
rapture  and  conviction. 

6  Compare  in  the  Old  Testament  the  cases  of  Saul,  &c.  (1  Sam.  x.  11 ;  xviiL  10 ;  xix. 
23,  24).  "  C'est  le  langage  brulant  et  mysterieux  de  1'extase  "  (De  PressensS,  L  355). 

*  In  Acts  ii.  6  the  words  ytvo^ivif  tt  r>>  4>urrjt  Tat/rip  do  not  mean  (as  in  the  K  V.) 
"now  when  this  was  noised  abroad,"  but  "when  this  sound  occurred"  (cf.  J5x°*»  vcr-  2; 
John  iii.  8 ;  Kev.  ii,  1).  It  is  evidently  an  allusion  to  the  Bath-kol.  (See  Herzog, 
JUal-Encyd.,  t.v.) 


58  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

keen  expectation  of  some  divine  event;  the  day — the  great  anniversary  of 
Pentecost  and  of  Sinai ;  the  hour — when  people  were  already  beginning  to 
throng  the  streets  on  their  way  to  the  Temple  service — would  all  tend  to  swell 
the  numbers,  and  intensify  the  feelings  of  the  crowd.  Up  the  steps  which  led 
outside  the  house  to  the  "  upper  room  "  they  would  first  begin  to  make  their 
way  in  twos  and  threes,  and  then  to  press  in  larger  numbers,  until  their 
eagerness,  their  obtrusion,  their  exclamations  of  fear,  surprise,  admiration, 
insult,  could  not  fail  to  break  the  spell.  The  Church  for  the  first  time  found 
itself  face  to  face  with  the  world — a  world  loud  in  its  expressions  of  perplexity, 
through  which  broke  the  open  language  of  hate  and  scorn.  That  which  fixed 
the  attention  of  all  the  better  portion  of  the  crowd  was  the  fact  that  these 
"  Galilseans  "  were  magnifying,  in  strange  tongues,  the  mercies  and  power  of 
God.  But  most  of  the  spectators  were  filled  with  contempt  at  what  seemed 
to  them  to  be  a  wild  fanaticism.  "These  men,"  they  jeeringly  exclaimed, 
"  have  been  indulging  too  freely  in  the  festivities  of  Pentecost.1  They  are 
drunk  with  sweet  wine."8 

It  was  the  prevalence  of  this  derisive  comment  which  forced  upon  the 
Apostles  the  necessity  of  immediate  explanation.3  "The  spirits  of  the 
prophets,"  as  St.  Paul  says,  with  that  masculine  practical  wisdom  which  in 
him  is  found  in  such  rare  combination  with  burning  enthusiasm,  "  are  subject 
unto  the  prophets."*  The  Apostles  were  at  once  able  not  only  to  calm  their 
own  exaltation,  but  also,  even  at  this  intense  moment,  to  hush  into  absolute 
silence  the  overmastering  emotion  of  their  brethren.  They  saw  well  that  it 
would  be  fatal  to  their  position  as  witnesses  to  a  divine  revelation  if  anything 
in  their  worship  could,  however  insultingly,  be  represented  as  the  orgiastic 
exhibition  of  undisciplined  fervour.  It  was  a  duty  to  prove  from  the  very 
first  that  the  Christian  disciple  offered  no  analogy  to  the  fanatical  fakeer. 
Clearing  the  room  of  all  intruders,  making  a  space  for  themselves  at  the  top 
of  the  steps,  where  they  could  speak  in  the  name  of  the  brethren  to  the  surging 
throng  who  filled  the  sheet,  the  Apostles  came  forward,  and  Peter 
assumed  the  office  ci.  thoir  spokesman.  Standing  in  an  attitude,  and 
speaking  in  a  tone,  w"lich  commanded  attention,5  he  first  begged  for  serious 
attention,  and  ^olil  the  crowd  that  their  coarse  suspicion  was  refuted  at  once 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  but  nine  o'clock.  He  then  proceeded  to  explain  to  them 
that  this  was  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Joel  that,  among  other  signs 
and  portents  of  the  last  days,  there  should  be  a  special  effusion  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  like  that  of  which  they  had  witnessed  the  manifestations.  It  was  the 
object  of  the  remainder  of  his  speech  to  prove  that  this  Spirit  had  been 

1  See  Deut.  xvi.  11. 

z  yXtuKos  cannot  be  "  new  wine,"  as  in  E.V.,  for  Pentecost  fell  In  June,  and  the 
vintage  was  in  August. 

3  Acts  ii.  15,  is  vjut«s  viroAaji/Jowe.     There  is  a  slight  excuse  for  this  insult,   since 
spiritual  emotion  may  produce  effects  similar  to  those  which  result  from  intoxication  (Eph. 
v.  18;  1  Sam.  x.  10,  11 ;  xviii.  10 — Heh.,  "raved").    Compare  the  German  expression, 
"  Ein  Gott-trunkener  Mann." 

4  1  Cor.  ziv.  32.  *  Acts  ii.  14,  <rrafl*k  ,  .  . 


EARLY  PERSECUTIONS.  59 

outpoured  by  that  same  Jesus  of  Nazareth1  whom  they  had  nailed  to  the  cross, 
but  whose  resurrection  aud  deliverance  from  the  throes  of  death  were  fore- 
shadowed in  the  Psalms  of  His  glorious  ancestor. 

The  power  with  which  this  speech  came  home  to  the  minds  of  the  hearers ; 
the  force  aud  fearlessness  with  which  it  was  delivered  by  one  who,  not  two 
months  before,  had  been  frightened,  by  the  mere  question  of  a  curious  girl, 
into  the  denial  of  his  Lord ;  the  insight  into  Scripture  which  it  evinced  in  men 
who  so  recently  had  shown  themselves  but '  fools  and  slow  of  heart '  to  believe 
all  that  the  prophets  had  spoken  concerning  Christ ; 2  the  three  thousand  who 
were  at  once  baptised  into  a  profession  of  the  new  faith — were  themselves  the 
most  convincing  proofs — proofs  even  more  convincing  than  rushing  wind,  and 
strange  tongues,  and  lambent  flames — that  now  indeed  the  Promise  of  the 
Paraclete  had  been  fulfilled,  and  that  a  new  ceem  had  begun  in  God's  dealings 
with  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VL 

EABLY  PERSECUTIONS. 

"  It  fills  the  Church  of  God ;  it  fillB 

The  sinful  world  around ; 
Only  in  stubborn  hearts  and  wills 
No  place  for  it  is  found." — KEBLE. 

THE  life  of  these  early  Christians  was  the  poetic  childhood  of  the  Church  in 
her  earliest  innocence.  It  was  marked  by  simplicity,  by  gladness,  by  worship, 
by  brotherhood.  At  home,  and  in  their  place  of  meeting,  their  lives  were  a 
perpetual  prayer,  their  meals  a  perpetual  love-feast  and  a  perpetual  eucharist. 
In  the  Temple  they  attended  the  public  services  with  unanimous  zeaL  In  the 
first  impulses  of  fraternal  joy  many  sold  their  possessions  to  contribute  to  a 
common  stock.  The  numbers  of  the  little  community  increased  daily,  and  the 
mass  of  the  people  looked  on  them  not  only  with  tolerance,  but  with  admira- 
tion and  esteem. 

The  events  which  followed  all  tended  at  first  to  strengthen  their  position. 
The  healing  of  the  cripple  in  Solomon's  porch;  the  bold  speech  of  Peter 
afterwards ;  the  unshaken  constancy  with  which  Peter  and  John  faced  the  fury 
of  the  Sadducees ;  the  manner  in  which  all  the  disciples  accepted  and  even 
exulted  in  persecution,  if  it  came  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  duties  ;3  the  power 

1  Acts  ii.  22,  Na£upaiof ,  the  Galilzean  form  of  Na£opato«.  2  Luke  xxiv.  25. 

•  It  is  a  very  interesting  fact  that  on  the  first  summons  of  Peter  and  John  before  the 
Hierarchs,  they  were  dismissed,  with  threats,  indeed,  and  warnings,  but  unpunished, 
because  the  Council  became  convinced  (KaroAo^djuci/oi )  that  they  were  "unlearned  and 
ignorant  men  "  (Acts  iv.  13).  The  words,  however,  convey  too  contemptuous  a  notion  to 
English  readers.  'Aypa^aroi  simply  means  that  their  knowledge  of  Jewish  culture  waa 
confined  to  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  iStuTcu,  that  they  had  never  studied  in  rabbinic  schools. 
The  word  Htdioi  (^(unj?)  occurs  frequently  in  the  Talmud,  and  expresses  a  position  far 


60  SHE   LIFE  AND  WOBK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

with  which  they  witnessed  to  the  resurrection  oi  their  Lord  5  the  beautiful 
spectacle  of  their  unanimity ;  the  awful  suddenness  with  which  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  had  been  stricken  down ;  the  signs  and  wonders  which  were  wrought 
by  the  power  of  faith ;  the  zeal  and  devotion  which  marked  their  gatherings 
in  Solomon's  porch,  caused  a  rapid  advance  in  the  numbers  and  position  of  the 
Christian  brothers.  As  their  influence  increased,  the  hierarchic  clique,  which 
at  that  time  governed  the  body  which  still  called  itself  the  Sanhedrin,  grew 
more  and  more  alanaed.  In  spite  of  the  populace,  whose  sympathy  made  it 
dangerous  at  that  time  to  meddle  with  the  followers  of  Jesus,  they  at  last  sum- 
moned the  two  leading  Apostles  before  a  solemn  conclave  of  the  Sanhedrin 
and  senate.1  Probably,  as  at  the  earlier  session,  the  whole  priestly  party  were 
there — the  crafty  Annas,  the  worldly  Caiaphas,2  the  rich,  unscrupulous,  money- 
loving  body  of  Kamhiths,  and  Phabis,  and  Kantheras,  and  Boethusim,3  the 
Pharisaic  doctors  of  the  law,  with  Gamaliel  at  their  head ;  John,  perhaps  the 
celebrated  Jphanan  Ben  Zakkai;4  Alexander,  perhaps  the  wealthy  brother  of 
the  learned  Philo;6  the  same  body  who  had  been  present  at  those  secret, 
guilty,  tumultuous,  illegal  meetings  in  which  they  handed  over  the  Lord  Jesus 
to  their  Roman  executioners — were  again  assembled,  but  now  with  something 
of  misgiving  and  terror,  to  make  one  more  supreme  effort  to  stamp  out  the 
Galilaean  heresy. 

The  Apostles,  when  first  brought  before  the  Sanhedrin,  had  been  arrested 
in  the  evening  by  the  Captain  of  the  Temple,  and  had  been  released  with 
strong  threats,  partly  because  the  Sadducees  affected  to  despise  ^  them,  but  still 
more  because  they  did  not  know  how  to  gainsay  the  miracle  of  the  healing  of 
the  cripple.  The  Apostles  had  then  openly  declared  that  they  should  be 
compelled  by  the  law  of  a  higher  duty  to  disregard  these  threats,  and  they 
had  continued  to  teach  to  increasing  thousands  that  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion which  filled  the  Sadducees  with  the  greatest  jealousy.  It  was  impossible 
to  leave  them  unmolested  in  their  career,  and  by  the  High  Priest's  order  they 
were  thrust  into  prison.  The  Sanhedrin  met  at  dawn  to  try  them ;  but  when 
they  sent  for  them  to  the  prison  they  found  that  the  Apostles  were  not  there, 
but  that,  delivered  by  "  an  angel  of  the  Lord,"  they  were  calmly  teaching  in 
the  Temple.  In  the  deepest  perplexity,  the  Sanhedrists  once  more  despatched 

superior  to  that  of  the  am  haarcts.  The  lied  lot  is  one  who,  though  not  a  frequenter  of 
the  schools,  still  pays  deference  to  the  authority  of  the  Rabbis ;  the  am-huarets  is  one  who 
hates  and  despises  that  authority.  Hillel  waa  distinguished  for  his  forbearing  condescen- 
sion towards  the  ignorance  of  Hcdiots  (Babha  Meteia,  f.  104,  1).  Compare  John  vii.  15, 
"  How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned  f  " 

1  "Populus  sanior  quam  qui  praesunt  "  (Bengel).     The  use  of  the  word  yepovo-ta  in 
Acts  v.  21  is  somewhat  perplexing,  because  we  know  nothing  of  any  Jewish  "senate" 
apart  from  the  Sanhedrin,  and  because  if  ycpov<ria  be  taken  in  an  etymological  rather  than 
a  political  sense,  the  Sanhedrin  included  the  elders  (iv.  8 ;  xxv.  15).     It  is  impossible,  in 
the  obscurity  of  the  subject,  to  distinguish  between  the  political  and  the  Talmudic  San- 
hedrin.   See  Derenbourg  (Palestine,  213),  who  thinks  that  Agrippa  had  been  the  first  to 
introduce  Rabbis  into  the  Sanhedrin. 

2  Both  of  these  are  mentioned  as  having  been  at  the  earlier  meeting,  and  we  are 
probably  intended  to  understand  they  were  also  present  at  thi*. 

•  On  these,  see  Life  of  Christ,  ii.,  pp.  329—342. 

4  Loghtfoot,  Cent.  Chor.  in  Matt.,  cap,  15.  _ »  Jos,  AnU,  xviii.  8,  §  i. 


XJLBLT   PERSECUTIONS,  61 

the  Lcvitical  officer  to  arrest  them,  but  this  time  without  any  violence,  which 
might  load  to  dangerous  results.  They  offered  no  resistance,  and  were  once 
more  placed  where  their  Lord  had  once  stood — in  the  centre  of  that  threaten- 
ing semicircle  of  angry  judges.  In  reply  te  the  High  Priest's  indignant 
reminder  of  the  warning  they  had  received,  St.  Peter  simply  laid  down  the 
principle  that  when  our  duty  to  man  clashes  with  our  duty  to  God,  it  is  God 
that  must  be  obeyed.1  The  High  Priest  had  said,  "  Ye  want  to  bring  upon  us 
the  blood  of  this  man."  The  words  are  an  awful  comment  on  the  defiant  cry, 
"  His  blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our  children."  Then  the  Sanhedrin  had  not  been 
afraid  of  Jesus ;  now  they  were  trembling  at  the  vengeance  which  might  yet 
be  brought  on  them  by  two  of  the  despised  disciples.  The  phrase  is  also 
remarkable  as  furnishing  the  first  instance  of  that  avoidance  of  the  name  of 
Christ  which  makes  the  Talmud,  in  the  very  same  terms,  refer  to  Him  most 
frequently  as  Peloni* — "so  and  so."  Peter  did  not  aggravate  the  Priests' 
alarm.  He  made  no  allusion  to  the  charge  of  an  intended  vengeance;  he 
only  said  that  the  Apostles,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  who  wrought  in  them,  were 
witnesses  to  the  resurrection  and  exaltation  of  Him  whom  they  had  slain. 
At  these  words  the  Sanhedrin  ground  their  teeth  with  rage,  and  began  to 
advise  another  judicial  murder,  which  would,  on  their  own  principles,  have 
rendered  them  execrable  to  their  countrymen,  as  an  assembly  given  to  deeds 
of  blood.8  This  disgrace  was  averted  by  the  words  of  one  wise  man  among 
them.  How  far  the  two  Apostles  were  protected  by  the  animosities  between 
the  rival  sects  of  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  we  do  not  know,  but  it  was 
certainly  the  speech  of  Gamaliel  which  saved  them  from  worse  results  than 
that  scourging  by  Jewish  thongs — those  forty  stripes  save  one — which  they 
received,  and  in  which  they  exulted.4 

That  speech  of  Gamaliel  was  not  unworthy  of  a  grandson  of  Hillel — of 
one  of  those  seven  who  alone  won  the  supreme  title  of  Rabbanim5 — of  one 
who  subsequently  became  a  President  of  the  Sanhedrin.  It  has  been  strangely 
misunderstood.  The  supposed  anachronism  of  thirty  years  in  the  reference  to 
Theudas  has  led  the  school  of  Baur  to  deny  altogether  the  genuineness  of  the 
speech,  but  it  has  yet  to  be  proved  that  the  allusion  may  not  have  been 
perfectly  correct.  The  notion  that  the  speech  was  due  to  a  secret  leaning  in 
favour  of  Christianity,  and  the  tradition  of  the  Clementine  Recognitions,  that 
Gamaliel  was  in  heart  a  Christian,6  have  no  shadow  of  probability  in  their 
favour,  since  every  allusion  to  him  in  the  Talmud  shows  that  he  lived  and 

1  Cf .  Plat.  Apol.  29.  murofuu  61  e«p  ftoAAov  q  VIM:  "  It  were  better  for  me  to  be 
called  '  fool '  all  the  days  of  my  life,  than  to  be  made  wicked  before  Ha-Makom,"  i.e., 
God  ;  literally  "  the  Place  "  (Edioth,  ch.  v.  6). 

3  In  Spanish  and  Portuguese  fuln.no  (through  the  Arabic).  The  designation  otho  hatsh, 
"that  man,"  is  still  more  contemptuous,  ittr  ( Yeshu)  is  used  as  the  contraction  for  rna», 
and  is  composed  of  the  initial  letters  of  an  imprecation. 

»  "The  Sanhedrin  is  not  to  destroy  life,  but  to  save  "  (Sanhedr.  42  6).  (See  Life  of 
Christ,  ii.  353,  and  infra,  Excursus  VII. 

*  Deut.  xxv.  2. 

*  All  the  Kabbans  except  Johanan  Ben  Zakkai  were  descendant!  of  Gamaliel, 

*  Tbolo,  Cod.  Apocr.,  p.  501, 


62  THE  LIFE  AND  WORE  0?  ST,  FAtftt 

died  a  Pharisee.  Nor,  again,  is  there  the  least  ground  for  Schrader's  in- 
dignation against  his  supposed  assertion  of  the  principle  that  the  success  of  a 
religion  is  a  sufficient  test  of  its  truth.  We  must  remember  that  only  the 
briefest  outline  of  his  speech  is  given,  and  all  that  Gamaliel  seems  to  have 
meant  was  this — •'  Let  these  men  alone  at  present.  As  far  as  we  can  see,  they 
are  only  the  victims  of  a  harmless  delusion.  There  is  nothing  seditious  in 
their  practice,  nothing  subversive  in  their  doctrines.  Even  if  there  were  we 
should  have  nothing  to  fear  from  them,  and  no  need  to  adopt  violent  measures 
of  precaution.  Fanaticism  and  imposture  are  short-lived,  even  when  backed 
by  popular  insurrection ;  but  in  the  views  of  these  men  there  may  be  some- 
thing more  than  at  present  appears.  Some  germ  of  truth,  some  gleam  of 
revelation,  may  inspire  their  singular  enthusiasm,  and  to  fight  against  this 
may  be  to  fight  against  God.'  Gamaliel's  plea  was  not  so  much  a  plea  for 
systematic  tolerance  as  for  temporary  caution.1  The  day  of  open  rupture 
between  Judaism  and  Christianity  was  indeed  very  near  at  hand,  but  it  had 
not  yet  arrived.  His  advice  is  neither  due  to  the  quiescence  of  Pharisaic 
fatalism,  nor  to  a  '  fallacious  laisser  aller  view  of  the  matter,  which  serves  to 
show  how  low  the  Jews  had  sunk  in  theology  and  political  sagacity  if  such 
was  the  counsel  of  their  wisest.' s  There  was  time,  Gamaliel  thought,  to  wait 
and  watch  the  development  of  this  new  fraternity.  To  interfere  with  it 
might  only  lead  to  a  needless  embroilment  between  the  people  and  the 
Sanhedrin.  A  little  patience  would  save  trouble,  and  indicate  the  course 
which  should  be  pursued.  Gamaliel  was  sufficiently  clear-sighted  to  have 
observed  that  the  fire  of  a  foolish  fanaticism  dies  out  if  it  be  neglected,  and 
is  only  kindled  into  fury  by  premature  opposition.  Let  those  who  venture  to 
arraign  the  principle  of  the  wise  Rabbi  remember  that  it  is  practically 
identical  with  the  utterance  of  Christ,  "Every  plant,  which  my  heavenly 
Father  planted  not,  shall  be  plucked  up  by  the  roots."3 

The  advice  was  too  sound,  and  the  authority  of  the  speaker  too  weighty, 
to  be  altogether  rejected.  The  Priests  and  Rabbis,  tortured  already  with 
guilty  anxiety  as  to  the  consequences  of  their  judicial  murder,  renewed  their 
futile  command  to  the  Apostles  to  preach  no  more  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and 
scourging  them  for  disobedience  to  their  former  injunctions,  let  them  go. 
'Neither  in  public  nor  in  private  did  the  Apostles  relax  their  exertions.  The 
.gatherings  still  continued  in  Solomon's  porch ;  the  agapce  were  still  held  in 
the  houses  of  the  brethren.  So  far  from  being  intimidated,  the  two  Apostles 
only  rejoiced  that  they  were  counted  worthy  of  the  honour  of  being  dis- 
honoured for  the  name  of  Him  on  whom  they  believed. 

1  Too  much  has,  perhaps,  been  made  of  the  Uar  j5  j£  avOpurruv  as  contrasted  with 
elSi  CK  e«ov  ecrw.  w.  38,  89;  of.  Gal.  i.  8,  9— (Beng.  «iv  j$  si  fit,  conditionaliter ;  «  9mv 
si  est,  categorice) — as  though  Gamaliel  leaned  to  the  latter  view — "  wornach  der  gesetzte 
zweitt  Fall  als  der  dem  Gamaliel  wahrscheinlichere  erscheint"  (Meyer).  It  merely 
mean* — '  If  it  should  be  from  men,  as  results  will  show,'  and,  '  if,  a  caw  which  I  at 
present  suppose,  from  God.'  (See  Winer.) 

3  Alford,  following  Schroder,  Der  Apostel  Paulus. 

9  See  Matt.  xv.  13.  It  was  in  this  sense  that  Luther  urged  the  advice  of  Gamaliel 
mpon  the  Elector  of  Trevei, 


EARLY  PERSECUTIONS.  63 

And  here  I  must  pause  for  a  moment  to  make  a  remark  on  the  grounds 
which  have  led  many  modern  critics  to  reject  the  authority  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  to  set  it  down  as  a  romance,  written  in  the  cause  of  reconciliation 
between  Judaising  and  Pauline  Christians.  My  object  in  this  volume  is  not 
controversial.  It  has  been  my  endeavour  here,  as  in  my  Life  of  Christ,  to 
diffuse  as  widely  as  I  can  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  Dawn  of  the  Christian 
Faith,  and  to  explain  as  lucidly  as  is  in  my  power  the  bearing  of  its  earliest 
documents.  But  I  have  carefully  studied  the  objections  urged  against  the 
authenticity  and  the  statements  of  the  New  Testament  writings ;  and  I  cannot 
forbear  the  expression  of  my  astonishment  at  the  baselessness  of  many  of  the 
hypotheses  which  have  been  accepted  in  their  disparagement.  Honesty  of 
course  demands  that  we  should  admit  the  existence  of  an  error  where  such  an 
error  can  bo  shown  to  exist ;  but  the  same  honesty  demands  the  rejection  of  all 
charges  against  the  accuracy  of  the  sacred  historian  which  rest  on  nothing 
better  than  hostile  prepossession.  It  seems  to  me  that  writers  like  Baur  and 
Zeller — in  spite  of  their  wide  learning  and  great  literary  acumen — often  prove, 
by  captious  objections  and  by  indifference  to  counter  considerations,  the  funda- 
mental weakness  of  their  own  system.1  Hausrath  altogether  rejects  the 

1  See  Baur,  Paul.  i.  35 ;  Zeller.  Die  Apostelgesch.,  p.  134.  Baur  asserts  that  Gamaliel 
could  not  have  delivered  the  speech  attributed  to  him  because  of  "the  striking  chrono- 
logical error  in  the  appeal  to  the  example  of  Theudas."  And  yet  he  does  not  offer  any 
proof  either  that  the  Theudas  here  alluded  to  is  identical  with  the  Theudas  of  Josephus,  or 
that  Josephus  must  necessarily  be  right  and  St.  Luke  necessarily  wrong.  Zeller,  while 
entering  more  fully  into  the  discussion,  seems  only  to  be  struck  by  the  resemblance 
between  the  two  impostors,  without  allowing  for  the  obvious  differences  in  the  accounts 
of  them ;  and  he  attaches  an  extravagant  importance  to  the  silence  of  Josephus  about 
the  unimportant  movement  of  the  earlier  fanatic  to  whom  Gamaliel  is  supposed  to  allude  ; 
nor  does  he  notice  the  possibility,  admitted  even  by  a  Jewish  writer  ( Jost,  Gfesch.  d.  Jud. 
ii.  76),  that  the  Theudas  of  Gamaliel  may  be  the  Simon,  a  slave  of  Herod,  of  Jos.  Antt. 
xvii.  10,  §  6 ;  Tac.  H.  v.  9.  On  this  identification,  see  Souatag,  Stud.  u.  Krit.,  1837, 
p.  622;  and  Hackett,  ad  loc.  Again,  critics  of  the  Tubingen  school  point  out  the 
supposed  absurdity  of  believing  that  the  Sanhedrin  Trould  admit  "  a  notable  miracle  " 
and  yet  punish  the  men  who  performed  it.  But  this  is  to  reason  from  the  standpoint  of 
modern  times.  The  Jews  have  never  denied  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  but  they  have  not  on 
that  account  believed  in  His  mission.  Just  as  a  modem  Protestant,  familiar  with  the 
peculiarities  of  nervous  maladies,  might  accept  the  narrative  of  wonderful  cures  performed 
at  La  Salette,  without  for  a  moment  admitting  the  reality  of  the  vision  which  is  supposed 
to  have  consecrated  the  place,  so  the  Jews  freely  admitted  the  possibility  of  inconclusive 
miracles,  which  they  attributed  generally  to  kishovf  (i.e.,  thaumaturgy,  miracles  wrought 
by  unhallowed  influence),  or  to  m*s>  nvn«,  phantasmagoria,  or  deception  of  the  eyes. 
(Derenbourg,  Palest.  106,  n.  3 ;  361,  n.  1. )  Thus  they  allowed  miraculous  power  to 
idols  (Abhoda  Zara,  f.  54,  2).  There  is  a  Talmudic  anecdote  (perhaps  a  sort  of  allegory 
on  Eccles.  x.  8)  which  exactly  illustrates  this  very  point.  B.  Ehezer  ben  Dama  was 
bitten  by  a  serpent,  and  Jacob  the  min  (i.e.,  Christian)  offered  to  heal  him  in  the  name  of 
Jesus.  "Ben  Dama,  it  is  forbidden!"  said  his  uncle,  B.  Ismael.  "Let  me  do  it, 
urged  Jacob;  "I  will  prove  to  you  by  the  Law  that  it  is  allowable."  Before  the 
argument  was  over  the  sick  man  died.  "Happy  Ben  Dama !"  exclaimed  his  uncle; 
"  thou  hast  yielded  thy  soul  in  purity,  without  violating  a  precept  of  the  wise  "  (Abhoda 
Zara,  cf.  27,  6 ;  55,  1 ;  Jer.  Shabbath,  14,  4). — When  St.  Luke  makes  Gamaliel  speak  of 
"Judas  of  Galilee,"  whereas  Judas  was  born  at  Gamala,  and  commonly  known  as  Judaa 
the  Gaulonite  (rovXavmjs  avrjp,  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  1,  §  1),  this  trivial  peculiarity  would 
unquestionably  have  been  paraded  by  German  critics  as  a  proof  or  the  unhistorical 
character  of  the  speech,  but  for  the  fortunate  accident  that  Josephus,  with  reference  to 
the  sphere  of  his  activity,  thrioe  calls  hi™  i  FoAiA-iio?  (Antt.  xviii.  1,  §  6 ;  xx.  5,  §  2 ; 
&  J.  ii.  8,  §  1). 


64  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

statement  that  Paul  was  "brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,"  on  tha  ground 
that  Paul  calls  himself  "  a  zealot "  for  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  and  must 
therefore  have  belonged  far  rather  to  the  school  of  Shammai.  He  could  not, 
according  to  this  writer,  have  been  trained  by  a  Rabbi  who  was  remarkable  for 
'tis  mildness  and  laxity.  He  accordingly  assumes  that  the  author  of  the  Acts 
only  invents  the  relations  between  St.  Paul  and  Gamaliel  in  order  to  confer  a 
sort  of  distinction  upon  the  former,  when  the  fame  of  Gamaliel  the  Second, 
founder  of  the  school  of  Jabne,  kept  alive,  in  the  second  century,  the  fame  of 
his  grandfather,  Gamaliel  the  Elder.1  Now  of  what  value  is  a  criticism  which 
contemptuously,  and  I  may  even  say  calumniously,  contradicts  a  writer  whose 
accuracy,  in  matters  where  it  can  be  thoroughly  tested,  receives  striking  con- 
firmation from  the  most  opposite  sources  P  It  would  have  been  rightly  con- 
sidered a  very  trivial  blot  on  St.  Luke's  accuracy  if  he  had  fallen  into  some 
slight  confusion  about  the  enrolment  of  Quirinus,  the  tetrarchy  of  Abilene, 
the  Ethnarch  under  Aretas,  the  Asiarchs  of  Ephesus,  the  "Praetors"  of 
Philippi,  the  "  Politarchs  "  of  Thessalonica,  the  "  Protos  "  of  Malta,  or  the 
question  whether  "  Propraetor,"  or  "  Pro-consul,"  was,  in  the  numerous 
changes  of  those  days,  the  exact  official  title  of  the  Roman  Governor  of 
Cyprus  or  Corinth.  On  several  of  those  points  he  has  been  triumphantly 
charged  with  ignorance  and  error ;  and  on  all  those  points  his  minute  exacti- 
tude has  been  completely  vindicated  or  rendered  extremely  probable.  In  every 
historical  allusion — as,  for  instance,  the  characters  of  Gallic,  Felix,  Festus, 
•Agrippa  II.,  Ananias,  the  famine  in  the  days  of  Claudius,  the  decree  to  expel 
Jews  from  Rome,  the  death  of  Agrippa  L,  the  rule  of  Aretas  at  Damascus,  the 
Italian  band,  &c. — he  has  been  shown  to  be  perfectly  faithful  to  facts.  Are  we 
to  charge  him  with  fraudulent  assertions  about  Paul's  relation  to  Gamaliel  on 
the  questionable  supposition  that,  after  reaching  the  age  of  manhood,  the  pupil 
deviated  from  his  teacher's  doctrines  ?  2  Are  we,  on  similar  grounds,  to  charge 
Diogenes  Laertius  with  falsehood  when  he  tells  us  that  Antisthenes,  the  Cynic, 
and  Aristippus,  the  Cyrenaic,  were  both  of  them  pupils  of  Socrates  ?  A  re- 
markable anecdote,  which  will  be  quoted  farther  on,  has  recorded  the  terrible 
quarrel  between  the  parties  of  Rabbi  Eliezer  and  Rabbi  Joshua,  of  whom  the 
former  is  called  a  Shammaite,  and  the  latter  a  Hillelite  ;3  and  yet  both  of  them 
were  pupils  of  the  same  Rabbi,  the  celebrated  Hillelite,  R.  Johanan  Ben  Zaccai. 
Such  instances  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied.  And  if  so,  what  becomes  of 
Hausrath's  criticism  P  Like  many  of  the  Tiibingen  theories,  it  crumbles  into 
dust.4 

1  Ha-zaken,  as  be  is  usually  called. 

2  Turning  to  Buddaeus,  Philos.  Hebraeorum  (1720),  I  find  that  he  answered  this 
objection  long  ago.    An  interesting  anecdote  in  BeracMth,  f.  16,  2,  shows  that  the 
natural  kindness  of  Gamaliel  was  too  strong  for  the  severity  of  his  own  teaching. 

3  Jer.  Shabbath,  i.  7. 

4  See  Excursus  V.,  "  Gamaliel  and  the  School  of  Tubingen." 


THE   DIASPORA:   HEBRAISM  AND  HELLENISM.  65 


3131. 

ST.   STEPHEN  AND  THE  HELLENISTS, 
CHAPTER  VII. 

TBE    DIASPORA:     HEBRAISM    AND    HELLENISM. 

T6trov  OVK  Jftm  paaitas  evptlf  TT}J  o\KOv^.fvr}3  81  ov  irapaSe'Se/CTat  TOVTO  rb  <f>v\ov, 
jirjS'  (sic)  twiKpa-rtiTou  fa'  avrov.—  STKABO,  ap.  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  7,  §  2.  (Of.  Philo, 
Leg.  ad  Gaium,  36.) 

THE  gradual  change  of  relation  between  tlie  Jews  and  the  Christians  was  an 
inevitable  result  of  the  widening  boundaries  of  the  Church.  Among  the 
early  converts  were  "  Grecians,"  as  well  as  "  Hebrews,"  and  this  fact  naturally 
led  to  most  important  consequences,  on  which  hinged  the  historic  future  of 
the  Cliristian  Faith. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  any  real  comprehension  of  the  work  of 
St.  Paul,  and  of  the  course  of  events  in  the  days  after  Christ,  must  depend 
entirely  on  our  insight  into  the  difference  between  those  two  classes  of  Jews. 
And  this  is  a  point  which  has  been  so  cursorily  treated  that  we  must  here 
pause  while  we  endeavour  to  see  it  in  its  proper  light. 

When  the  successive  judgments,  first  of  the  Assyrian,  then  of  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  had  broken  all  hopes  of  secular  power  and  all  thoughts  of 
secular  pride  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  a  wholly  different  impulse  was  given 
to  the  current  of  their  life.  Settled  in  the  countries  to  which  they  had  been 
transplanted,  allowed  the  full  rights  of  citizenship,  finding  free  scope  for  their 
individual  energies,  they  rapidly  developed  that  remarkable  genius  for  com- 
merce by  which  they  have  been  characterised  in  all  succeeding  ages.  It  was 
only  a  wretched  handful  of  the  nation  —  compared  by  the  Jewish  writers  to 
the  chaff  of  the  wheat  —  who  availed  themselves  of  the  free  permission  of 
Cyrus,  and  subsequent  kings  of  Persia,  to  return  to  their  native  land.1  The 
remainder,  although  they  jealously  preserved  their  nationality  and  their  tradi- 
tions, made  their  homes  in  every  land  to  which  they  had  been  drifted  by  the 
wave  of  conquest,  and  gradually  multiplying  until,  as  Josephus  tells  us,2  they 
crowded  every  corner  of  the  habitable  globe,  formed  that  great  and  remark- 
able body  which  continues  to  be  known  to  this  day  as  "  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion."8 

1  Of  the  whole  nation  only  42,360  returned  ;  and  as  the  separate  Items  of  the  return- 
ing families  given  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  only  amount  to  30,000,  it  was  precariously 
conjectured  by  the  Jews  that  the  surplus  consisted  of  members  of  the  ten  tribes.  As  a 
body,  however,  the  ten  tribes  were  finally  and  absolutely  absorbed  into  the  nations  —  not 
improbably  of  Semitic  origin  —  among  whom  they  were  scattered  (Jos.  Antt.  xL  5,  §  2  ; 
2  Esdr.  xiii.  45).  Such  expressions  as  TO  SuSexd^vAov  of  James  i.  1  ;  Acts  xxvi.  7,  point 
rather  to  past  reminiscences,  to  patriotic  yearnings,  and  to  the  sacredly-treasured  genea- 
logical records  of  a  very  few  families,  than  to  any  demonstrable  reality.  Of  the  priestly 
families  only  four  courses  out  of  the  twenty-four  returned  (Ezra  ii.  36  —  39). 

3  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  7-,  §  2. 

'  The  word  is  first  found  in  this  sense  in  Dent,  xxviii.  25  ;  Pa.  cxlvii.  2,  "  He  shall 


66  THK  LIFE  AJKD  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

This  Dispersion  of  the  Chosen  People  was  one  of  those  three  vast  and 
world-wide  events  in  which  a  Christian  cannot  but  see  the  hand  of  God  so 
ordering  the  course  of  history  as  to  prepare  the  world  for  the  Revelation  of 
Hia  Son.  (i.)  The  immense  field  covered  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander  gave 
to  the  civilised  world  a  Unity  of  Language,  without  which  it  would  have  been, 
humanly  speaking,  impossible  for  the  earliest  preachers  to  have  made  known 
the  good  tidings  in  every  land  which  they  traversed,  (ii.)  The  rise  of  the 
.Roman  Empire  created  a  Political  Unity  which  reflected  in  every  direction  the 
doctrines  of  the  new  faith,  (iii.)  The  dispersion  of  the  Jews  prepared  vast 
multitudes  of  Greeks  and  Romans  for  the  Unity  of  a  pure  Morality  and  a 
monotheistic  Faith.  The  Gospel  emanated  from  the  capital  of  Judaea;  it 
was  preached  in  the  tongue  of  Athens;  it  was  diffused  through  the  empire 
of  Borne :  the  feet  of  its  earliest  missionaries  traversed,  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  the  solid  structure  of  nndeviating  roads  by  which 
the  Roman  legionaries — "  those  massive  hammers  of  the  whole  earth  " 1 — had 
made  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God.  Semite  and  Aryan  had 
been  unconscious  instruments  in  the  hands  of  God  for  the  spread  of  a  religion 
which,  in  its  first  beginnings,  both  alike  detested  and  despised.  The  letters 
of  Hebrew  and  Greek  and  Latin  inscribed  above  the  cross  were  the  prophetic 
and  unconscious  testimony  of  three  of  the  world's  noblest  languages  to  the 
undying  claims  of  Him  who  suffered  to  obliterate  the  animosities  of  the 
nations  which  spoke  them,  and  to  unite  them  all  together  in  the  one  great 
Family  of  God. 

This  contact  of  Jew  with  Greek  was  fruitful  of  momentous  consequences 
both  to  the  Aryan  and  the  Semitic  race.  It  is  true  that  the  enormous  dif- 
ferences between  the  morals,  the  habits,  the  tendencies,  the  religions  systems, 
the  whole  tone  of  mind  and  view  of  life  in  these  two  great  human  families, 
inspired  them  with  feelings  of  mutual  aversion  and  almost  detestation.  Out 
of  the  chaos  of  struggling  interests  which  followed  the  death  of  Alexander, 
there  gradually  emerged  two  great  kingdoms,  the  Egyptian  and  the  Syrian, 
ruled  respectively  by  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucids.  These  dynasties  had 
inherited  the  political  conceptions  of  the  great  Macedonian  conqueror,  and 
desired  to  produce  a  fusion  of  the  heterogeneous  elements  included  in  their 
government.  Both  alike  turned  their  eyes  to  Palestine,  which  became  the 
theatre  of  their  incessant  contentions,  and  which  passed  alternately  undor  the 
sway  of  each.  The  Ptolemies,  continuing  the  policy  of  Alexander,  did  their 
utmost  to  promote  the  immigration  of  Jews  into  Egypt.  The  Seleucids,  both 
by  force  and  by  various  political  inducements,  settled  them  as  largely  as  they 
could  in  their  western  cities.  Alike  the  Lagidse  and  the  Seleucidse  knew  the 
value  of  the  Jews  as  quiet  and  order-loving  citizens.  To  the  shores  of  the 

gather  together  the  outcasts  ('irj} ;  LXX.,  T«  4t<«nropa« )  of  Israel."  It  is  also  found  in 
2  Mace.  i.  27,  "  Gather  together  those  that  are  scattered  from  us,  deliver  them  that  serve 
among  the  heathen."  They  were  originally  called  Sent  Galootha  (Ezra  vi.  16).  In  John 
vii.  35,  TTJK  aicwnropaK  TUP  'i-'.AArji>w»>  means  the  Jews  scattered  over  the  Greek  world.  The 
only  other  passages  where  it  occurs  in  the  N.T.  are  James  i.  1 ;  1  Pet.  i.  1. 
1  Shairp,  Mod.  Culture. 


THE   DIASPORA:   HEBRAISM  AND   HELLENISH.  67 

Mediterranean  flocked  an  ever-increasing  multitude  of  Greek  merchants  and 
Greek  colonists.  "  The  torrent  of  Greek  immigration  soon  met  the  torrrent 
of  Jewish  emigration.  Like  two  rivers  which  poured  their  differently 
coloured  waves  into  the  same  basin  without  mixing  with  one  another,  these 
two  peoples  cast  themselves  on  the  young  Macedonian  cities,  and  there  simul- 
taneously established  themselves  without  intermixture,  continually  separated 
by  the  irreconcilable  diversity  of  their  beliefs  and  customs,  though  continually 
flung  into  connexion  by  community  of  business  and  by  the  uniform  legislation 
which  protected  their  interests."1 

The  effect  of  this  on  the  Greek  was  less  marked  and  less  memorable  than 
its  effect  on  the  Jew.  Judaism  was  more  Hellenised  by  the  contact  than 
Hellenism  was  Judaised.  There  can  be  no  more  striking  proof  of  this  fact 
thaa  the  total  loss  by  the  "  Sons  of  the  Dispersion "  of  their  own  mother 
tongue.  That  the  effects  on  the  Pagan  world  wore  less  beneficial  than  might 
have  been  anticipated  was,  in  great  measure,  the  fault  of  the  Jews  themselves. 
That  sort  of  obtrusive  humility  which  so  often  marks  a  race  which  has  nothing 
to  live  on  but  its  memories,  was  mingled  with  an  invincible  prejudice,  a  rooted 
self-esteem,  an  unconcealed  antipathy  to  those  of  alien  race  and  religion,  which, 
combined  as  it  was  with  commercial  habits  by  no  means  always  scrupulous, 
and  a  success  by  no  means  always  considerate,  alienated  into  disgust  the  very 
sympathies  which  it  should  have  striven  to  win.  The  language  in  which  the 
Jews  are  spoken  of  by  the  writers  of  the  Empire — a  language  expressive  of 
detestation  mingled  with  curiosity — sufficiently  accounts  for  the  outbreaks  of 
mob  violence,  from  which  in  so  many  ages  they  have  been  liable  to  suffer. 
These  outbreaks,  if  not  connived  at  by  the  governing  authorities,  were  too 
often  condoned.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  the  influence  insensibly  exercised  by 
the  Jews  over  the  heathen  among  whom  they  lived  was  full  of  important 
consequences  for  Christianity.  "Victi,"  says  Seneca,  "victoribiis  leges  dede- 
runt."  The  old  Paganism  was,  in  intellectual  circles,  to  a  great  extent  effete. 
Great  Pan  was  dead.  Except  in  remote  country  districts,  the  gods  of  Olympus 
were  idle  names.  In  Home  the  terrors  of  Tartarus  were  themes  for  a  school- 
boy's laughter.  Religion  had  sunk  into  a  state  machinery.2  The  natural 
consequences  followed.  Those  minds  which  were  too  degraded  to  feel  the 
need  of  a  religion  were  content  to  wallow,  like  natural  brute  beasts,  in  the 
Stygian  pool  of  a  hideous  immorality.  Others  became  the  votaries  of  low 
foreign  superstitions,3  or  the  dupes  of  every  variety  of  designing  charlatans. 
But  not  a  few  were  attracted  into  the  shadow  of  \Jhe  synagogue,  and  the 
majority  of  these  were  women,4  who,  restricted  as  was  their  influence,  yet 

1  Rcuss,  TMol.  Ohrtt.  I.  L  93;  and  in  Herzog,  Cyclop,  t.v.  "Hellenism."  On  this 
laopolity  see  Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  4. 

8  See  Juv.  ii.  149 ;  Boissier,  La  ReHgion  Romainc,  L  374 — 450  and  contra  Friedlander, 
SUtengesch.  Horns,  (who  goes  too  far). 

3  Because  these  presented  vaguer  and  more  shadowy  conceptions  of  the  Divine,  more 
possible  to  grasp  than  gross  concrete  images  (see  Hausrath,  Neut.  Zdtg.  ii.  76),  and 
because  Greek  religion  was  too  gay  for  a  sick  and  suffering  world  (Apul.  Metam.  xi.  passim). 
See  Cat.  x.  26 ;  Ov.  F.  iv.  309 :  A.  A.  i.  78 ;  Juv.  vi  489,  623 ;  Tac.  Awn.  xvi.  6,  &c. 

*  The  important  part  played  by  these  proselytes  (who  are  also  called  <re0tf|uityot,  cv<rf0t!f, 


68  THK  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

could  not  fail  to  draw  the  attention  of  their  domestic  circles  to  the  belief 
which  they  had  embraced.  In  every  considerable  city  of  the  Roman  Empire 
the  service  of  the  synagogue  was  held  in  Greek,  and  these  services  were 
perfectly  open  to  any  one  who  liked  to  be  present  at  them.  Greek,  too, 
became  emphatically  the  language  of  Christianity.  Multitudes  of  early  con- 
verts had  been  Jewish  proselytes  before  they  became  Christian  disciples.  They 
passed  from  the  synagogue  of  Hellenists  into  the  Church  of  Christ. 

The  influences  exercised  by  the  Dispersion  on  the  Jews  themselves  were, 
of  course,  too  varied  and  multitudinous  to  be  summed  up  under  one  head ;  yet 
we  may  trace  two  consequences  which,  century  after  century,  worked  in 
opposite  directions,  but  each  of  which  was  deeply  marked.  On  the  one  hand 
they  became  more  faithful  to  their  religion  ;  on  the  other  more  cosmopolitan 
in  their  views.  Although  they  made  their  homo  in  the  heathen  countries  to 
which  they  had  been  removed  by  conquest,  or  had  wandered  in  pursuit  of 
commerce,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  they  were  at  all  ready  to  forfeit  their 
nationality  or  abandon  their  traditions.  On  the  contrary,  the  great  majority 
of  them  clung  to  both  with  a  more  desperate  tenacity.  In  the  destruction  of 
their  independence  they  had  recognised  the  retribution  threatened  in  that 
long-neglected  series  of  prophecies  which  had  rebuked  them  for  their  idola- 
tries. Of  all  polytheistic  tendencies  the  Jew  was  cured  for  ever,  and  as 
though  to  repair  past  centuries  of  rebellion  and  indifference — as  though  to 
earn  the  fulfilment  of  that  great  promise  of  an  Anointed  Deliverer  which  was 
the  centre  of  all  their  hopes — they  devoted  themselves  with  all  the  ardour  of 
their  self-conscious  pride  to  keep  the  minutest  observances  of  their  Law  and 
ritual.  Their  faithfulness — a  complete  contrast  to  their  old  apostasies — was 
due  to  the  work  of  the  Sopherim.  or  Scribes.  It  was  towards  Jerusalem  that 
they  worshipped ;  it  was  to  the  Sanhedrin  of  Jerusalem  that  they  looked 
for  legal  decisions ;  it  was  from  the  Amoraim  and  Tanaim  of  Jerusalem 
that  they  accepted  all  solutions  of  casuistical  difficulties;  it  was  from 
Jerusalem  that  were  flashed  the  fire-signals  which  announced  over  many  lands 
the  true  date  of  the  new  moons ;  it  was  into  the  treasury  of  Jerusalem  that 
they  poured,  not  only  the  stated  Temple-tribute  of  half  a  shekel,  but  gifts  far 
more  costly,  which  told  of  their  unshaken  devotion  to  the  church  of  their 
fathers.  It  was  in  Jerusalem  that  they  maintained  a  special  synagogue,  and 
to  Jerusalem  that  they  made  incessant  pilgrimages.1  The  hatred,  the  sus- 
picion, the  contempt  created  in  many  countries  by  the  exclusiveness  of  their 
prejudices,  the  peculiarity  of  their  institutions,  the  jealousy  of  their  successes, 
only  wedded  them  more  fanatically  to  the  observance  of  their  Levitical  rules 
by  giving  a  tinge  of  martyrdom  to  the  fulfilment  of  obligations.  It  became 

cvXo/3«ts)  may  be  seen  in  Acts  x.  2;  xiii.  43  ;  xvi.  14,  &c.,  and  passim.  Owing  to  the 
painful  and,  to  Hellenic  imagination,  revolting  rite  of  circumcision,  women  were  more 
frequently  converted  to  Judaism  than  men.  Josephus  (B.  J.  ii.  20,  §  2)  tella  us  that 
nearly  all  the  women  of  Damascus  had  adopted  Judaism  ;  and  even  in  the  first  century 
three  celebrated  Rabbis  were  sons  of  heathen  mothers  who  had  embraced  the  faith  of 
Moses  (Derenbourg,  Palest.,  p.  223). 

1  See  Philo,  Legal.  36 ;  in  Flacc.  7 ;  Jos.  4fl#.  *vl.  6,  §  7  ;  rvjii  9,  §  1 ;  Olc. 
28 ;  Shekalim,  7,  4 ;  Rosh  Hashana,  2,  4. 


THE  DIASFOBA:   HEBRAISM  AND   HELLENISM.  69 

with  them  a  point  of  conscience  to  maintain  the  institutions  which  their 
heathen  neighbours  attacked  with  every  weapon  of  raillery  and  scorn.  But 
these  very  circumstances  tended  to  produce  a  marked  degeneracy  of  the 
religious  spirit.  The  idolatry,  which  in  old  days  had  fastened  on  the  visible 
symbols  of  alien  deities,  only  assumed  another  form  when  concentrated  on 
the  dead-letter  of  documents,  and  the  minute  ritualism  of  service.  Gradually, 
among  vast  masses  of  the  Jewish  people,  religion  sank  almost  into 
fetichism.  It  lost  all  power  over  the  heart  and  conscience,  all  its  tender 
love,  all  its  inspiring  warmth,  all  its  illuminating  light.  It  bound  the 
nation  hand  and  foot  to  the  corpse  of  meaningless  traditions.  Even  the 
ethics  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  were  perverted  by  a  casuistry  which  was  at 
once  timid  in  violating  the  letter,  and  audacious  in  superseding  the  spirit. 
In  the  place  of  moral  nobleness  and  genial  benevolence,  Judaism  in  its 
decadence  bred  only  an  incapacity  for  spiritual  insight,  a  self-satisfied  ortho- 
doxy, and  an  offensive  pride.  It  enlisted  murder  and  falsity  in  defence  of 
ignorant  Shibboleths  and  useless  forms.  The  difference  between  the  ideal 
Jew  of  earlier  and  later  times  can  only  be  measured  by  the  difference 
between  the  moral  principles  of  the  Law  and  the  dry  precedents  of  the 
Mishna — by  the  difference  which  separates  the  Pentateuch  from  the  Talmud, 
the  Book  of  Exodus  from  the  Abhuda  Zara.1 

But  while  it  produced  these  results  in  many  of  the  Jewish  communities, 
there  wore  others,  and  there  were  special  individuals  in  all  communities,  in 
whom  the  influence  of  heathen  surroundings  worked  very  differently.  There 
were  many  great  and  beautiful  lessons  to  be  learnt  from  the  better  aspects 
of  the  heathen  world.  If  there  was  a  grace  that  radiated  from  Jerusalem, 
there  were  also  gifts  which  brightened  Athens.  The  sense  of  beauty — the 
exquisiteness  of  art — the  largeness  and  clearness  of  insight — the  perfection 
of  literary  form  which  characterised  the  Greek  of  the  age  of  Pericles,  had 
left  the  world  an  immortal  heritage ;  and  Rome  had  her  own  lessons  to  teach 
of  dignity,  and  law,  and  endurance,  and  colonisation,  and  justice.  Commerce 
is  eminently  cosmopolitan.  The  Jewish  Captivity,  with  the  events  which 
followed  it,  made  the  Jews  a  commercial  people.  This  innate  tendency  of 
the  race  had  been  curbed,  first  by  the  Mosaic  legislation,2  then  by  the  influence 
of  the  prophets.  But  when  these  restrictions  had  been  providentially  re- 
moved, the  Jew  flung  himself  with  ardour  into  a  career  from  which  ho  had 
been  hitherto  restrained.  So  far  from  regarding  as  identical  the  notions  of 
"  merchant"  and  " Canaanite,"3  the  Rabbis  soon  began  to  sing  the  praises  of 

1  "  The  author  of  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Tanatm  moved  in  different  worlds  of  ideas  " 
(Kuenen,  iii.  291). 

2  Deut.  xvi.  16, 17 ;  Lev.  xxv. ;  Ps.  cvii.  23.     See  Jos.  c.  Ap.  i.  12.     The  chapter 

begins  with  the  remark,  i^ftetf  roiwv  OUT*  \u>pav  oiKoCfiev  irapaAioi'  our'  cftiropuut  xatP°Mel>>  °"S* 

rats  irpbt  aAAovs  Sta.  TOVTUV  cnrifu£iatf.  Muuk  (Palest.,  p.  903)  makes  some  excellent  remarks 
on  this  subject,  showing  that  commerce  would  not  only  have  encouraged  intercourse  with 
the  heathen,  but  would  also  have  disturbed  the  social  equilibrium  at  which  Mown  aimed, 
BO  that  it  was  impossible  as  long  as  the  Law  was  rigidly  observed  (Hos.  zii.  8 ;  Amos  viiL 
4-6,  &c.). 

3  Targum  of  Jonathan  (Zech.  xlr.  21). 


70  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OP  ST.  PAITL. 

trade.  "  There  can  be  no  worse  occupation  than  agriculture ! "  said  B.  Eleazar. 
"  All  the  fanning  in  the  world  will  not  make  you  so  remunerative  as  com- 
merce," said  Rabh l  as  he  saw  a  cornfield  bowing  its  golden  ears  under  the 
summer  breeze.2  So  easy  is  it  for  a  people  to  get  over  an  archaic  legislation 
if  it  stands  in  the  way  of  their  interests  or  inclinations !  The  Mosaic  restric- 
tions upon  commerce  were,  of  course,  impracticable  in  dealing  with  Gentiles, 
and  in  material  successes  the  Jews  found  something,  at  any  rate,  to  make  up 
to  them  for  the  loss  of  political  independence.  The  busy  intercourse  of 
cities  wrought  a  further  change  in  their  opinions.  They  began  to  see  that 
God  never  meant  the  nations  of  the  world  to  stand  to  each  other  in  the  posi- 
tion of  frantic  antagonism  or  jealous  isolation.  A  Jerusalem  Rabbi,  ignorant 
of  everything  in  heaven  and  earth  and  under  the  earth,  except  his  own 
Halojcha,  might  talk  of  all  the  rest  of  tha  world  promiscuously  as  an 
"  elsewhere  "  of  no  importance ; 3  but  an  educated  Alexandrian  Jew  would 
be  well  aware  that  the  children  of  heathen  lands  had  received  from  their 
Father's  tenderness  a  share  in  the  distribution  of  His  gifts.  The  silent  and 
imperceptible  influences  of  life  are  often  the  most  permanent,  and  no 
amount  of  exclusiveness  could  entirely  blind  the  more  intelligent  sons  of 
the  Dispersion  to  the  merits  of  a  richer  civilisation.  No  Jewish  boy  familiar 
with  the  sights  and  sounds  of  Tarsus  or  Antioch  could  remain  unaware  that 
all  wisdom  was  not  exhausted  in  the  trivial  discussions  of  the  Rabbis ;  that 
there  was  something  valuable  to  the  human  race  in  the  Greek  science  which 
Jewish  nescience  denounced  as  thaumaturgy ;  that  there  might  be  a  better 
practice  for  the  reasoning  powers  than  an  interminable  application  of  the 
Middoth  of  Hillel;  in  short,  that  the  development  of  humanity  involves 
larger  and  diviner  duties  than  a  virulent  championship  of  the  exclusive  privi- 
leges of  the  Jew-4 

We  might  naturally  have  conjectured  that  these  wider  sympathies  would 
specially  be  awakened  among  those  Jews  who  were  for  the  first  time  brought 
into  close  contact  with  the  great  peoples  of  the  Aryan  race.  That  contact 
was  first  effected  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander.  He  settled  8,000  Jews  in 
the  Thebais,  and  the  Jews  formed  a  third  of  the  population  of  his  new  city  of 
Alexandria.  Large  numbers  were  brought  from  Palestine  by  Ptolemy  I.,  and 
they  gradually  spread  from  Egypt,  not  only  over  "  the  parts  of  Libya  about 

1  Rabh  was  a  contemporary  of  Babbi  (Judah  the  Holy),  and  was  "Head  of  the 
Captivity." 

2  YebhamAth,  f.  63,  1. 

3  pub  mnn,  "  outside  the  land  "  (Frank!,  Jews  in  the  East,  ii.  34).    Something  like  the 
French  M-bas. 

4  Many  of  the  Rabbis  regarded  the  Gentiles  as  little  better  than  BO  much  fuel  for  the 
fires  of  Gehenna.    R.  Jose  construes  Isa.  xxxiii.  12,  "  And  the  peoples  shall  be  a  burning 
Jifajlime."    Rabh  Bar  Shilo  explained  it  "that  they  should  be  burnt  because  of  their 
neglect  of  the  Law,  which  was  written  upon  lime. "    (See  the  curious  Hagadah  in  Sotak, 
t.  35,  2.)    But  the  Hellenist  would  soon  learn  to  feel  that — 

"  All  knowledge  is  not  couch'd  in  Mosea'  Law, 
The  Pentateuch,  or  what  the  Prophets  wrote ; 
The  Gentiles  also  know,  and  write,  ami  teach 
To  admiration,  taught  by  Nature's  light." — HILTON,  Par. 


THE   DIASPOBA:   HEBRAISM  AND  HELLENISM. 


71 


Gyrene,"  but  along  the  whole  Mediterranean  coast  of  Africa.1  Seleucus 
Nicator,  after  the  battle  of  Ipsus,  removed  them  by  thousands  from  Babylonia, 
to  such  cities  as  Antioch  and  Seleucia ;  and,  when  _their  progress  and  pros- 
perity were  for  a  time  shaken  by  the  senseless  persecutions  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  they  scattered  themselves  in  every  direction  until  there  was  hardly 
a  seaport  or  a  commercial  centre  in  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  Greece,  or  the 
Islands  of  the  JEgean,  in  which  Jewish  communities  were  not  to  be  found. 
The  vast  majority  of  these  Jewish  settlers  adopted  the  Greek  language,  and 
forgot  that  Aramaic  dialect  which  had  been  since  the  Captivity  the  language 
of  their  nation. 

It  is  to  these  Greek-speaking  Jews  that  the  term  Hellenist  mainly  and 
properly  refers.  In  the  New  Testament  there  are  two  wozJs,  Hellen  and 
Hellenistes,  of  which  the  first  is  rendered  "  Greek,"  and  the  second  "  Grecian." 
The  word  "  Greek  "  is  used  as  an  antithesis  either  to  "  barbarians  "  or  to 
"Jews."  In  the  first  case  it  means  all  nations  which  spoke  the  Greek 
language;2  in  the  second  case  it  is  equivalent  to  "  Gentiles."3  The  meaning 
of  the  word  Hellenist  or  "  Grecian  "  is  wholly  different.  As  far  as  the  form 
is  concerned,  it  means,  in  the  first  instance,  one  who  "  Grsecises  "  in  language 
or  mode  of  life,  and  it  points  to  a  difference  of  training  and  of  circumstances, 
not  to  a  difference  of  race.4  It  is  therefore  reserved  as  the  proper  antithesis, 
not  to  "  Jews," — since  vast  numbers  of  the  Hellenists  were  Jews  by  birth, — 
but  to  strict  "  Hebrews."  The  word  occurs  but  twice  in  the  New  Testament,6 
and  in  both  cases  is  used  of  Jews  who  had  embraced  Christianity  but  who 
spoke  Greek  and  used  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Bible  instead  of  the 
original  Hebrew  or  the  Chaldaic  Targum  of  any  Interpreter.6 

1  See  Philo,  c.  Fl.  ii.  623 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  7,  §  2 ;  Dr.  Deutsch  in  Kitto's  Cycl.,  ».v. 
"  Dispersion ; "  and  Canon  "Westcott  in  Smitn's  Bible  Diet. 

2  See  Acts  xviii.  17 ;  1  Cor.  i.  22,  23;  Rom.  i.  14.    The  emissaries  of  Abgarus— if  such 
they  were — who  applied  to  Philip  when  they  wished  to  see  Jesus  were  "Greeks,"  not 
"  Grecians  "  (John  xii.  20). 

8  Rom.  i.  16 ;  ii.  9 ;  iii.  9 ;  1  Cor.  x.  32 ;  Gal.  ii.  3.  &c.  Thus  in  2  Mace.  iv.  13, 
•EAA>]vi<7>ib«  is  equivalent  to  aAXo^>v\i<r(xds ;  and  in  iv.  10,  15;  vi.  9,  To'EAArji/Hca^/}  means 
"Paganism  ;"  and  in  Isa.  ix.  12,  " Philistines  "  is  rendered  hy  the  LXX.  *EAA»i/as. 

«  Cf.  Xen.  Anab.  vii.  3,  12. 

s  Acts  vi.  1 ;  ix.  29.     In  xi.  20  the  true  reading  is's/u^os. 

6  Some  of  the  Hebraising  Hellenists  hated  even  the  Septuagint  (Geiger,  Urschr.  419, 
439 ;  Zunz,  Qottesd.  Vort.  95).  The  various  classes  of  Christians  may  be  tabulated  as 
follows : — 

Christians. 


Circumcised. 


Hebraists. 


Hellenists. 


Uncircumcised. 

I 


imci.  Liberal 

-.„.  "Certain    e.g.  Peter, 
from          Acts  xi.  8. 
James," 
Gal  11. 18. 


"  Proselytes  of  "  Proselytes  of           Heathen 

Righteousness."  the  Gate."             Converts. 

e.g.  Nicolas,  e.g.  Cornelius,  e.g.  Trophimua, 

Acts  vi  5.  Acts  x.  2.  Acts  xxi.  29. 


Judaic.  Liberal. 

(Hala-  (Haga- 

chists.)  diste.) 

Acts  ix  e.g.  Paul. 
29. 


72  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Now  this  Hellenism  expressed  many  shades  of  difference,  and  therefore  tha 
exact  meaning  of  the  word  Hellenist  varies  with  the  circumstances  under  which 
it  is  used.  The  accident  of  language  might  make  a  man,  technically  speaking, 
a  Hellenist,  when  politically  and  theologically  he  was  a  Hebrew ;  and  this 
must  have  been  the  condition  of  those  Hellenists  who  disputed  against  the 
arguments  of  St.  Paul  in  his  first  visit  to  Jerusalem.1  On  the  other  hand,  the 
name  might  imply  that  alienation  from  the  system  of  Judaism,  which  in  some 
Jews  extended  into  positive  apostasy,  and  into  so  deep  a  shame  of  their 
Jewish  origin,  as  to  induce  them,  not  only  in  the  days  of  Jason  and  Menelaus,8 
but  even  under  the  Herods,  to  embrace  the  practices  of  the  Greeks,  and  even 
to  obliterate  the  external  sign  of  their  nationality.3  Others  again,  like  the 
astute  Herodian  princes,  were  hypocrites,  who  played  fast  and  loose  with 
their  religion,  content  to  be  scrupulous  Jews  at  Jerusalem,  while  they  could 
be  shameless  heathen  at  Berytus  or  Czesarea.  But  the  vast  majority  of 
Hellenists  lay  between  these  extremes.  Contact  with  the  world  had  widened 
their  intelligence  and  enabled  them  so  far  to  raise  their  heads  out  of  the  heavy 
fog  of  Jewish  scholasticism  as  to  distinguish  between  that  which  was  of 
eternal  and  that  which  was  but  of  transient  significance.  Far  away  from 
Jerusalem,  where  alone  it  was  possible  to  observe  the  Levitical  law,  it  was  a 
natural  result  that  they  came  to  regard  outward  symbols  as  merely  valuable 
for  the  sake  of  inward  truths.  To  this  class  belonged  the  wisest  members  of 
the  Jewish  Dispersion.  It  is  to  them  that  we  owe  the  Septuagint  translation, 
the  writings  of  Philo  and  Josephus,  and  a  large  cycle  of  historical,  poetic,  and 
apocryphal  literature.  Egypt  was  the  main  centre  of  this  Graeco- Jewish 
activity,  and  many  of  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  distinguished  themselves  in  the 
art,  the  learning,  and  the  accomplishments  of  the  Greeks.4  It  is  hardly  to  be 
wondered  at  that  these  more  intellectual  Jews  were  not  content  with  an 
iufructuose  Babbinism.  It  is  not  astonishing  that  they  desired  to  represent 
the  facts  of  their  history,  and  the  institutions  of  their  religion,  in  such  an 
aspect  as  should  least  waken  the  contempt  of  the  nations  among  whom  they 
lived.5  But  although  this  might  be  done  with  perfect  honesty,  it  tended,  no 
doubt,  in  some  to  the  adoption  of  unauthorised  additions  to  their  history,  and 
unauthorised  explanations  of  their  Scriptures — in  one  word,  to  that  style  of 

»  Acts  ix.  29. 

2  See  2  Mace.  iv.  13,  seqq.,  "  Now  such  was  the  height  of  Greek  fashions,  and  increase 
of  heathenish  manners,  through  the  exceeding  prof  oneness  of  Jason,  that  ungodly  wretch, 
and  no  high  priest,  .  .  .  that  the  priests,  .  .  .  despising  the  temple,  .  .  .  hastened  to 
be  partakers  of  the  unlawful  allowance  in  the  place  of  exercise,  after  the  game  of  Discus 
called  them  forth,"  &c.     rwann  ]V  mobo,  "the  abominable  kingdom  of  Javan,"  is  an  ex- 
pression which  stereotypes  the  hatred  for  Greek  fashions. 

3  «ri<nrao>i.6«  (1  Cor.  vii.  18).     The  condition  of  a  TjiteQ  (1  Mace.  L  15 ;  Jos.  Anlt.  xii. 
5,  §  1).     (On  Judaic  Hellenism,  see  Ewald,  Gesch.  v.  §  ii.  4.) 

4  Thus,  an  Ezekiel  wrote  a  tragedy  on  Moses ;  another,  Philo,  wrote  an  Epic  on 
Jerusalem  ;  Theodotus,  a  tragedy  on  the  Rape  of  Dina ;  Demetrius  and  Eupolemos  wrote 
secular  history.    The  story  of  Susanna  is  a  novelette.    But  the  feeling  of  stricter  Jews 
was  sternly  opposed  to  these  forms  of  literary  activity.     In  the  letter  of  Aristeas  we  are 
told  that  Theopompus  was  struck  with  madness,  and  Theodektes  with  blindness,  for 
offences  in  this  direction  (Hausrath,  Newt.  Zeitg.  ii.  180). 

*  Such  was  the  main  object'of  Josephus  in  his  Antiquities. 


THE  DIASPOEA:   HEBRAISM  AND  HELLENISM.  73 

exegesis  which,  since  it  deduced  anything  out  of  anything,  nullified  the  real 
significance  of  the  sacred  records.1  Nor  can  we  be  surprised  that  this  Alex- 
andrian theosophy — these  allegoric  interpretations — this  spirit  of  toleration 
for  the  Pagan  systems  by  which  they  were  surrounded — were  regarded  by  the 
stricter  Jews  as  an  incipient  revolt  from  Mosaism  thinly  disguised  under  a 
hybrid  phraseology.2  Hence  arose  the  antagonism  between  advanced  Hellenists 
and  the  Hebrews,  whose  whole  patriotic  existence  had  concentrated  itself  upon 
the  Mosaic  and  Oral  Law.  The  severance  between  the  two  elements  became 
wider  and  wider  as  the  Jews  watched  the  manner  in  which  Christianity 
spread  in  the  Gentile  world.  The  consciousness  that  the  rapidity  of  that 
diffusion  was  due,  not  only  to  the  offer  of  a  nobler  faith,  but  also  to  the 
loosening  of  an  intolerable  yoke,  only  made  their  exclusiveness  more  obstinate. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  that  there  took  place  in  the  school 
of  R.  Hananiah  Ben  Hiskiah  Ben  Garon,  that  memorable  meeting  at  which 
eighteen  ordinances  were  resolved  upon,  of  which  it  was  the  exclusive  object 
to  widen  the  rift  of  difference  between  Jews  and  Pagans.  These  ordinances, 
to  which  the  Mishna  only  alludes,  are  found  in  a  bara'ita  ("  supplemental 
addition  ")  of  R.  Simeon  Ben  Johai  in  the  second  century,  and  they  consist  of 
prohibitions  which  render  impossible  any  interchange  of  social  relations 
Between  Jews  and  heathen.  It  was  in  vain  that  R.  Joshua  and  the  milder 
Hillelites  protested  against  so  dangerous  a  bigotry.  The  quarrel  passed  from 
words  to  blows.  The  followers  of  Hillel  wore  attacked  with  swords  and  lances, 
and  some  of  them  were  killed.  "  That  day,"  says  the  Jerusalem  Talmud,  "was 
as  disastrous  to  Israel  as  the  one  on  wliich  they  made  the  golden  calf;"  but  it 
seemed  to  be  a  general  opinion  that  the  eighteen  resolutions  could  not  be 
(rescinded  even  by  Elias  himself,  because  the  discussion  had  been  closed  by 
bloodshed;  and  they  were  justified  to  the  national  conscience  by  the  savage 
massacres  which  had  befallen  the  Jews  atBeth-shan,  Csesarea,  and  Damascus.3 
The  feelings  of  Jews  towards  Pagans  were  analogous  to  the  hatred  of 
Hebrews  to  Hellenists.  In  later  days  the  Christians  absorbed  the  entire  fury 
•of  that  detestation  which  had  once  burned  in  the  Jewish  heart  against 
^Hellenism.  When  a  question  arose  as  to  the  permissibility  of  burning  the 
Gospels  and  other  books  of  the  Christians  (Minim),  considering  how  frequently 

1  The  views  of  these  liberal  Hellenists  may  be  seen  represented  in  the  works  of  the 
pseudo-Aristeas,  the  pseudo-Aristobulus,   and  in  the  verses  of  Phocylides   (Kuenen, 
Rdirjwn  of  Israel,  iii.  180).     It  was  the  aim  of  an  entire  cycle  of  literature  to  prove  that 
all  Greek  wisdom  was  derived  from  Jewish  sources,  and  the  names  of  Orpheus  and  the 
Sibyl  were  frequently  given  to  Jewish  forgeries  and  interpolations  (Clem.  Alex.  Strom. 
v.  4 ;  Euseb.  Praep.  Evang.  vii.  14 ;  viii.  10 ;  xiii.  1.2).     Bel  and  the  Dragon,  the  Epistle 
of  Jeremiah,  the  letter  of  pseudo-Heraclitus,  &c.,  belong  to  this  class  of  writings.     See 
too  "Wisd.  of  Solomon  x. — xii. ;  Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  39 ;  Hausrath,  N.  Zeitgesch.  ii.  100,  sq. 
Josephus  says  that  Pythagoras  borrowed  from  Moses  (c.  Ap.  i.  22). 

2  Such  Hebraising  Hellenists  are  the  author  of  "  the  Epistle  of  Jeremiah,"  and  (on  the 
whole)  of  Wisdom  (see  vii.  22,  seq.,  xiii. — xix.).    "The  Liberal  Hellenists  spiritualised  and 
volatilised  the  wall  of  partition  between  Jews  and  Pagans,"  so  that,  although  Philo  said 
that  the  wall  should  still  be  kept  up,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  his  nephew,  the 
Procurator  Tiberius  Alexander,  had  abandoned  Judaism  (Jos.  Antt.  xx.  5,  §  2 ;  Kuenen, 
Rd,  of  Israel,  iii.). 

»  Shabbath,  i  7;  Grata,  iii.  494;  Derenbourg,  Palest.,  p.  274. 
4 


74  THE  LIFE  AND  WOSZ  05  ST.  PAUL. 

they  contained  the  name  of  God,  "  May  I  lose  my  son,"  exclaimed  Rabbi 
Tarphon,  "  if  I  do  not  fling  these  books  into  the  fire  when  thoy  come  into  my 
hands,  name  of  God  and  all.  A  man  chased  by  a  murderer,  or  threatened  by 
a  serpent's  bite,  ought  rather  to  take  refuge  in  an  idol's  temple  than  in  the 
houses  of  the  Minim,  for  these  latter  know  thf*  truth  and  deny  it,  whereas 
idolaters  deny  God  because  they  know  Him  no}^  J 

Such,  then,  being  the  feelings  of  the  Palestinian  Jews  with  regard  to  every 
approach  towards  idolatry,  the  antagonism  between  them  and  the  more  liberal 
Hellenists  rose  from  the  very  nature  of  things,  and  was  so  deeply  rooted  that 
we  are  not  surprised  to  find  a  trace  of  it  even  in  the  history  of  the  Church  ;— 
for  the  earliest  Christians — the  Apostles  and  disciples  of  Jesus — were  almost 
exclusively  Hebrews  and  Israelites,2  the  former  being  a  general,  and  the  latter 
a  religious  designation.  Their  feeling  towards  those  who  were  Hellenists  in 
principles  as  well  as  in  language  would  be  similar  to  that  of  other  Jews,  how- 
ever much  it  might  be  softened  by  Christian  love.  But  the  jealousies  of  two 
sections  so  widely  diverse  in  their  sympathies  would  be  easily  kindled;  and  it  is 
entirely  in  accordance  with  the  independent  records  of  that  period  that,  "when 
the  number  of  the  disciples  was  being  multiplied,"  there  should  have  arisen, 
as  a  natural  consequence, "  a  murmuring  of  the  Grecians  against  the  Hebrews." 

The  special  ground  of  complaint  was  a  real  or  fancied  neglect  of  the  widows 
of  Hellenists  in  the  daily  ministration  of  food  and  assistance.  There  might 
be  some  jealousy  because  all  the  offices  of  the  little  Church  were  administered 
by  Hebrews,  who  would  naturally  have  been  more  cognisant  of  the  claims  of 
their  immediate  compatriots.  Widows,  however,  were  a  class  who  specially 
required  support.  We  know  how  full  a  discussion  St.  Paul  applies  to  their 
general  position  even  at  Corinth,  and  we  have  already  mentioned  that  some  of 
the  wisest  regulations  attributed  to  Gamaliel  wore  devoted  to  ameliorating  the 
Bufferings  to  which  they  were  exposed.  In  the  seclusion  to  which  centuries  of 
custom  had  devoted  the  Oriental  woman,  the  lot  of  a  widow,  with  none  to  plead 
her  cause,  might  indeed  be  bitter.  Any  inequalities  in  the  treatment  of  the 
class  would  awaken  a  natural  resentment,  and  the  more  so  because  previous  to 
their  conversion  these  widows  would  have  had  a  claim  on  the  Corban,  or 
Temple  treasury.3 

But  the  Apostles  mot  these  complaints  in  that  spirit  of  candour  and 
generosity  which  is  the  best  proof  how  little  they  were  responsible  for  any 
partiality  which  may  have  been  shown  to  the  widows  of  tho  Hebrews.  Sum- 
moning a  meeting  of  the  disciples,  thoy  pointed  out  to  them  that  the  day  had 
now  come  in  which  it  was  inconvenient  for  the  Apostles  to  have  anything 
further  to  do  with  the  apportionment  of  charity4 — a  routine  task  which 

1  SJiaVbath,  116  a ;  Derenbourg,  p.  380. 

2  The  Hellenic  names  of  Philip  and  Andrew  prove  nothing,  because  at  this  epoch  such 
names  were  common  among  the  Jews.    But  they  may  have  had  Hellenic  connexions. 
(Johnxii.  20.) 

8  2  Mace.  ill.  10,  "  Then  the  high  priest  told  him  (Heliodorus)  that  there  was  such 
money  laid  up  for  the  relief  of  widows  and  fatherless  children." 

4  Acts.  vi.  2,  JiweowTy  Tpcu-^oij.    That  Tp-irrsfr  baa  not  hero  ite  meaning  of  "bank" 


r.IASFO&A:   HEBRAISM   AND  HELLENISM.  75 

diverted  them  from  more  serious  and  important  duties.  They  therefore  bade 
the  meeting  elect  seven  men  of  blameless  character,  high  spiritual  gifts,  and 
practical  •wisdom,  to  form  what  we  should  call  a  committee  of  management, 
and  relieve  the  Apostles  from  the  burden,  in  order  that  they  might  dovote 
their  energies  to  prayer  and  pastoral  work.  The  advice  was  followed,  and 
seven  were  presented  to  the  Apostles  as  suitable  persons.  They  were  admitted 
to  the  duties  of  their  position  with  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  hands,  which 
have  been  thenceforth  naturally  adopted  in  every  ordination  to  the  office  of  a 
deacon.1 

The  seven  elected  were  Stephen,  Philip,  Prochorus,  Nicanor,  Timoa, 
Parmenas,  and  Nicolas,  a  proselyte  of  Antioch.  The  fact  that  every  one  of 
them  bears  a  Greek  name  has  often  been  appealed  to  as  a  proof  of  the  con- 
ciliatoriness  of  the  Apostles,  aa  though  they  had  elected  every  one  of  thoir 
committee  from  the  very  body  which  had  found  some  reason  to  complain. 
This,  however,  would  have  been  hardly  just.  It  would  have  been  to  fly  into 
au  opposite  extreme.  The  frequency  with  which  the  Jews  of  this  time  adopted 
Greek  names  prevents  us  from  drawing  any  conclusion  as  to  their  nationality. 
But  although  we  cannot  be  certain  about  the  conjecture  of  Gieseler  that  three 
of  them  were  Hebrews,  three  of  them  Hellenists,  and  one  a  proselyte,  it  is  only 
natural  to  suppose  that  the  choice  of  them  from  different  sections  of  the 
Church  would  be  adopted  as  a  matter  of  fairness  and  common  sense.  And  the 
fact  that  a  Gentile  like  Nicolas  should  thus  have  been  selected  to  fill  an  office 
so  honourable  and  so  responsible  is  one  of  the  many  indications  which  mark 
the  gradual  dawn  of  a  new  conception  respecting  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Though  two  alone 2  of  the  seven  are  in  any  way  known  to  us,  yet  this 

(Jos.  Antt.  xii.  2,  §  3 :  of.  Tpair^'ratc,  Matt.  ixv.  27 ;  rpair-^oj',  Luke  xix.  23),  is  clear  from 
the  context.  *  " 

1  The  seven  officers  were  not,  however,  "deacons"  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word, 
nor  were  they  mere  almoners.    The  only  special  title  given  to  any  one  of  them  is 
Evangelist  (Acts  xxi.  8).    Alike  their  gifts  and  their  functions  are  loftier  than  those 
required  for  deacons  in  1  Tim.  iii.     Deacons  in  the  modern  sense  find  their  nearer 
prototypes  in  the  vturepoi  and  ctovtV/cot  (Acts  v.  5,  10 ;  cf.  Luke  xxii.  26),  and  in  the 
ChazzanSm  of  the  synagogue  (Luke  iv.  20).    The  seven,  as  St.  Chrysostom  observes, 
rather  had  the  duties  of  presbyters,  and  must  be  regarded  as  a  body  chosen  only  for  a 
special  purpose — re'wt  eU  TOVTO  ex«poTo»')jei]<raj'.    Another  analogy  for  this  appointment  was 
furnished  by  the  existing  institution  of  three  almoners  (Parnaslm),  who  undertook  the 
collection  and  distribution  of  the  "alms  of  the  cup"  (see  Dr.  Ginsburg  in  Kitto,  s.v. 
"  Synagogue  ")  and  "  alms  of  the  box  "  in  the  Jewish  synagogues ;  and  these  were  always 
chosen  by  the  entire  congregation  of  the  synagogue,  as  the  Apostles  here  suggest  should 
be  done  in  the  case  of  the  new  functionaries. 

2  Nicolas  is  no  exception.     If,  as  early  tradition  asserted,  Luke  was  himself  "a 
proselyte  of  Antioch "  (Euseb.  //.  E,  iii.  4 ;   Jer.  Z>«  Vir.  Jllustr.  7),  this  may  have 
suggested  the  passing  reference  to  him.    The  evidence  which  connects  him  with  "  the  sect 
of  the  Nicolaitanes  "  (Rev.  ii.  6, 15),  and  the  story  that  they  adopted  both  their  name 
and  their  abominable  doctrines  from  a  perversion  of  his  remark  that  we  ought  vapaxpwQ0* 
rjj  ffapxi,  are  insufficient.     s-apaxp^^"*  though  used  of  unrestrained  indulgence  (SuidA 
has  also  the  sense  of  Siaxp^<r9ot,  to  mortify  (Just.  M.  Anol,  49).    Irenaeus  (c.  ffaer.  i.  47), 
followed  by  many  of  the  Fathers  (Hippolytus,  Jl,  H.  vii.  36 ;  Tertullian,  De  Pratscr. 
Hacret.  c.  46),   accepts  the  tradition  of  his  connexion  with   the  sect.      Clemens  of 
Alexandria,  while  defending  him  from  the  charge  of  personal  immorality,  and  admitting 
that  the  meaning  of  his  words  (which,  to  say  the  least,  were  unfortunately  cltosen)  had 

entirely  misunderstood  (1^9  fyKparrtov  TW»  wtpt<rfm>ta.<rnn  qSorav  rfc  "  vaiM-xaiiaQn  rj 


76  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAtTL. 

election  was  s  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  At  the  work  of  Philip  vre 
shall  glance  hereafter,  but  wo  must  now  follow  the  career  of  Stephen,  which, 
brief  as  it  was,  marked  the  beginning  of  a  memorable  epoch.  For  St.  Stephen 
must  be  regarded  as  the  immediate  predecessor  of  him  who  took  the  most  pro- 
minent part  in  bringing  about  his  martyrdom ;  he  must  be  regarded  as  having 
been,  in  a  far  truer  sense  than  Gamaliel  himself,  the  Teacher  of  St  Paul.  St. 
Paul  has,  indeed,  been  called  a  "colossal  St.  Stephen;"  but  had  the  life  of 
St.  Stephen  been  prolonged — had  he  not  been  summoned,  it  may  be,  to  yet 
loftier  spheres  of  activity — we  know  not  to  what  further  heights  of  moral 
grandeur  he  might  have  attained.  "We  possess  but  a  single  speech  to  show  his 
intellect  and  inspiration,  and  we  are  suffered  to  catch  but  one  glimpse  of  his 
life.  His  speech  influenced  the  whole  career  of  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles, 
and  his  death  is  the  earliest  martyrdom. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WORK  AND  MARTYRDOM  OF   ST.   STEPHEN. 

Flai'Acu  &  5t$dffKa\os. — BASIL  SELETJC.  Orat.  de  S.  Sleph. 

Kal  ISoi  ns  iv  rb  \fy6fievov  craipus  tl  rty  o~o<f>ta.t>  rov  ~3,Ttq>a.vov,  tl  rfyv  Tlerpov 
I  rV  Tlav\ov  pv/.i)jv  Ivvo-tifffif,  ircDs  ovSfv  avrovs  ttyfpev  ovSev  v<piffTa.TO,  ob 
Sjjfjieaf  Bv/j.bst  ov  rvpd.vv<av  ttra.va.ffTd.atis,  ov  Sa.t/j.6veav  fVjj9ou\}j,  ov  6a.va.roi  Ka.dr,/j.fpu.'ol. 
i\\'  &(nrfp  7TOTa.ft.ol  iro\\q>  T(f  fiotfo  <f>(p6fjL(i'oi  ovTW  TfafTd  Trapao'vpot'TfS  inn) t a~av. — 
S.  CHRYS.  in  Joan  Horn.  li.  Opp.  viii.  30. 

"  This  farther  only  have  I  to  say,  my  lords,  that  like  as  St.  Paul  was  present  and 
consenting  to  the  death  of  the  proto-martyr  St.  Stephen,  and  yet  they  be  now  twain 
holy  saints  in  heaven,  .  .  .  so  I  verily  trust  we  may  hereafter  meet  in  heaven 
merrily  together,  to  our  everlasting  salvation." — Last  Words  of  Sir  T.  More  to  his 
Judges. 

THE  appointment  of  the  Seven,  partly  because  of  their  zeal  and  power,  and 
partly  because  of  the  greater  freedom  secured  for  the  Apostles,  led  to  marked 
successes  in  the  progress  of  the  Church.  Net  only  was  the  number  of 
disciples  in  Jerusalem  greatly  multiplied,  but  even  a  large  number  of  the 
priests1  became  obedient  to  the  faith.  Up  to  this  time  the  acceptance  of  the 

•rap*!"  chSao-icei,  Strom,  iii.  iv.  26,  ed.  Pott.,  p.  523),  yet  tells  a  dubious,  and  probably 
mistaken,  story  about  his  conduct  when  charged  with  jealousy  of  his  wife.  This  story 
is  repeated  by  Eusebius  (//.  E.  iii.  29),  and  other  Fathers.  For  further  information  on 
the  subject,  and  on  the  identification  by  Cocceius  of  Nicolas  with  Balaam  in  Kev.  ii.,  see 
Gieseler,  Ecc.  Ilist.  i.  86,  E.T. ;  Mansel,  Gnostic  Her.,  p.  72;  Derenbourg,  p.  3C3. 

1  Cf.  John  xii.  42.  Commentators  have  resorted  to  extraordinary  shifts  to  get  rid  of 
this  simple  statement,  which,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  text,  involves  no  improbability. 
Some  would  adopt  the  wholly  worthless  v.  1.  lovScuW  found  in  a  few  cursive  M8S.  and 
the  Philoxenian  Syriac.  Others  accept  Beza's  conjectural  emendation,  iroAus  re  oxAos  K<U 
itp<W  (sc.  rif«).  Others,  again,  follow  Heinsius  and  Eisner  in  the  suggestion  that 
oxAos  -ruiv  icptiov  means  "priests  of  the  common  order,"  "plebeian  priests,"  what  the  Jews 
might  have  called  yiNH  »oy  or  "  people-of-the-land  priests,"  as  distinguished  from  the 
Thalmtdt  kachachdmim,  or  "  learned  priests ; "  but  there  is  no  trace  that  any  such  dis- 
tinction existed,  although  it  is  in  itself  all  but  certain  that  none  of  these  converts  came 


WOBK  AND  MARTYRDOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  77 

Gospel,  so  far  from  involving  any  rupture  with  Judaism,  was  consistent  with 
a  most  scrupulous  devotion  to  its  observances.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  priests  in  Jerusalem,  and  a  few  other  cities,  were  a  multitudinous  body,1 
and  that  it  was  only  the  narrow  aristocratic  clique  of  a  few  alien  families  who 
were  Sadduceea  in  theology  and  Herodians  in  politics.  Many  of  the  lower 
ranks  of  the  priesthood  were  doubtless  Pharisees,  and  as  the  Pharisees  were 
devoted  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection,  there  was  nothing  inconsistent 
with  their  traditions  in  admitting  the  Messiahship  of  a  Risen  Saviour.  Such 
a  belief  would  at  this  time,  and  indeed  long  afterwards,  have  made  little 
difference  in  their  general  position,  although  if  they  were  true  believers  it 
would  make  a  vast  difference  in  their  inward  life.  The  simplicity,  the  fervour, 
the  unity,  the  spiritual  gifts  of  the  little  company  of  Galilaeans,  would  be 
likely  to  attract  the  serious  and  thoughtful.  They  would  be  won  by  these 
graces  far  more  than  by  irresistible  logic,  or  by  the  appeals  of  powerful  elo- 
quence. The  mission  of  the  Apostles  at  this  time  was,  as  has  been  well 
observed,  no  mere  apostolate  of  rhetoric,  nor  would  they  for  a  moment  pretend 
to  bo  other  than  they  were — illiterate  men,  untrained  in  the  schools  of  tech- 
nical theology  and  rabbinic  wisdom.  Had  they  been  otherwise,  the  argument 
for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  is  derived  from  the  extraordinary  rapidity 
of  its  dissemination,  would  have  lost  half  its  force.  The  weapons  of  the 
Apostolic  warfare  were  not  carnal.  Converts  were  won,  not  by  learning  or 
argument,  but  by  the  power  of  a  new  testimony  and  the  spirit  of  a  new  life. 

Up  to  this  period  the  name  of  Stephen  has  not  occurred  in  Christian 
history,  and  as  the  tradition  that  he  had  been  one  of  the  seventy  disciples  is 
valueless,2  we  know  nothing  of  the  circumstances  of  his  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity. His  recognition,  however,  of  the  glorified  figure,  which  he  saw  in  his 
ecstatic  vision,  as  the  figure  of  Him  who  on  earth  had  called  Himself  "  the  Son 
of  Man,"  makes  it  probable  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  had  enjoyed  the 
advantage  of  hearing  the  living  Jesus,  and  of  drawing  from  its  very  fountain- 
head  the  river  of  the  water  of  life.3  We  would  fain  know  more  of  one  who, 
in  so  brief  a  space  of  time,  played  a  part  so  nobly  wise.  But  it  was  with 
Stephen  as  it  has  been  with  myriads  of  others  whose  names  have  been  written 
in  the  Book  of  Life ;  they  have  been  unknown  among  men,  or  known  only 
during  one  brief  epoch,  or  for  one  great  deed.  For  a  moment,  but  for  a 
moment  only,  the  First  Martyr  steps  into  the  full  light  of  history.  Our 
insight  into  his  greatness  is  derived  almost  solely  from  the  record  of  a  single 
speech  and  a  single  day — the  last  speech  he  ever  uttered — the  last  day  of  his 
mortal  life. 

from  the  families  of  the  lordly  and  supercilious  Boethusim,  Kamhiia,  &c.  But  neither 
here  nor  in  i.  15,  o\\.o<s  wo^itiav,  has  6x*o«  a  contemptuous  sense. 

1  4,289  had  returned  with  Ezra  (ii.  36—39). 

2  Epiphan.  Haer.  zl.,  p.  50. 

8  That  he  was  a  Hellenist  is  not  merely  a  precarious  inference  from  the  Greek  form  of 
his  name,  which  may  merely  have  been  a  rendering  of  the  Aramaic  Keltt,  but  is  implied 
by  the  narrative  itself,  and  is  rendered  certain  by  the  character  of  his  speech  ;  but 
whether  he  was  trained  at  Alexandria,  or  was  a  Roman  freedman  (Humptre  on  Acta 
vL  5},  and  what  had  brought  him  to  Jerusalem,  we  cannot  tell. 


78  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

It  was  the/at^  of  Stephen,  together  with  his  loving  eiiergy  and  blameless 
sanctity,  which  led  to  the  choice  of  him  as  one  of  the  Seven.  No  sooner  was 
he  elected  than  he  became  the  most  prominent  of  thsin  all.  The  grace  which 
shone  in  his  colleagues  shone  yet  more  brightly  in  him,1  and  he  stood  on  a 
level  with  the  Apostles  in  the  power  of  working  wonders  among  the  people. 
Many  a  man,  who  would  otherwise  have  died  unknown,  has  revealed  to  others 
his  inherent  greatness  on  being  entrusted  with  authority.  The  immense  part 
played  by  Stephen  in  the  history  of  the  Church  was  due  to  the  development 
of  powers  which  might  have  remained  latent  but  for  the  duties  laid  on  him 
by  his  new  position.  The  distribution  of  alms  seems  to  have  been  a  part  only 
of  the  task  assigned  him.  Like  Philip,  he  was  an  Evangelist  as  well  as  a 
Deacon,  and  tho  speech  which  he  delivered  before  the  Saiihedrin,  showing  as 
it  does  the  logical  force  and  concentrated  firo  of  a  great  orator  and  a 
practised  controversialist,  may  explain  tho  stir  which  was  caused  by  his 
preaching. 

The  scenes  of  that  preaching  were  the  Hellenistic  synagogues  of  Jerusalem, 
To  an  almoner  in  a  city  where  so  many  were  poor,  and  to  a  Hellenist  of 
unusual  eloquence,  opportunities  would  constantly  recur  in  which  he  was  not 
only  permitted,  but  urged,  to  explain  the  tenets  of  the  new  society.  Hitherto 
that  society  was  in  full  communion  with  tho  Jewish  Church.  Stephen  alone 
was  charged  with  utterances  of  a  disloyal  tendency  against  the  tenets  of 
Pharisaism,  and  this  is  a  proof  how  different  was  his  preaching  from  that 
of  the  Twelve,  and  how  much  earlier  ho  had  arrived  at  the  true  appreciation 
of  the  words  of  Jesus  respecting  tho  extent  and  nature  of  His  Kingdom, 
That  which,  in  the  mind  of  a  Peter,  was  still  but  a  grain  of  mustard  seed, 
sown  in  the  soil  of  Judaism,  had  already  grown,  in  the  soul  of  a  Stephen, 
into  a  mighty  tree.  The  Twelve  were  still  lingering  in  the  portals  of  the 
synagogue.  For  them  the  new  wine  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  had  not  yet 
burst  the  old  wine-skins.  As  yet  they  were  only  regarded  as  the  heads  of  a 
Jewish  sect,2  and  although  they  believed  that  their  faith  would  soon  be  the 
faith  of  all  the  world,  there  is  no  trace  that,  up  to  this  time,  they  ever  dreamed 
of  the  abrogation  of  Mosaism,  or  the  free  admission  of  uncircumcised  Gentiles 
into  a  full  equality  of  spiritual  privileges.  A  proselyte  of  righteousness — one 
who,  like  Nicolas  of  Antioch,  had  accepted  the  sign  of  circumcision — might, 
indeed,  be  hold  worthy  of  honour ;  but  one  who  was  only  a  "  proselyte  of  the 
gate," 3  one  who  hold  back  from  the  seal  of  the  covenant  made  to  Abraham, 
would  not  be  regarded  as  a  full  Christian  any  more  than  he  would  be  regarded 
as  a  full  Jew. 

Hence,  up  to  this  time,  the  Christians  were  looked  on  with  no  disfavour 
by  that  Pharisaic  party  which  regarded  the  Sadducees  as  intriguing  apostates. 
They  were  even  inclined  to  make  use  of  the  Pvesurrection  which  the  Christians 
proclaimed,  as  a  convenient  means  of  harassing  their  rivals.  Nor  was  it  they 

1  \-opiTo?  (**,  A,  B,  D,  &«.),  not  irt<rr«**,  Is  the  true  reading  in  Acts  vi.  8. 

>  Acts  xxiv.  5 ;  xxviii.  22,  o'pto-tt. 

•  The  ncwie  did  not  arise  till  later,  but  is  hsro  adopted  for  convenience*  sake. 


WORK  AHD  MARTYRDOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  79 

who  had  been  guilty  of  the  murder  of  Jesus.  They  had  not,  indeed,  stirred 
one  finger  for  His  deliverance,  and  it  is  probable  that  many  of  them — all  those 
hypocrites  of  whom  both  Jesus  and  John  had  spoken  as  a  viper  brood — had 
looked  with  satisfaction  on  the  crime  by  which  their  political  opponents  had 
gilonced  their  common  enemy.  Yet  they  did  not  fear  that  His  blood  would  be 
brought  on  them,  or  that  the  Apostles  would  ever  hurl  on  them  or  their 
practices  His  terrible  denunciations.  Though  the  Christians  had  their  private 
meetings  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  their  special  tenets,  their  sacramental 
institutions,  and  their  common  meal,  there  was  nothing  reprehensible  in  these 
observances,  and  there  was  something  attractive  even  to  Pharisees  in  their 
faitliful  simplicity  and  enthusiastic  communism.1  In  all  respects  they  were 
"  devout  according  to  the  Law."  They  would  havo  shrunk  with  horror  from 
any  violation  of  the  rules  which  separated  clean  from  unclean  meats ;  they  not 
only  observed  the  prescribed  feasts  of  the  Pentateuch  and  its  single  fast,  but 
even  adopted  the  fasts  which  had  been  sanctioned  by  the  tradition  of  the  oral 
Law ;  they  had  their  children  duly  circumcised ;  they  approved  and  practised 
the  vows  of  the  Nazarites;  they  never  omitted  to  be  on  their  knees  in  the 
Temple,  or  with  their  faces  turned  towards  it,  at  the  three  stated  hours 
of  prayer.8  It  needs  but  a  glance  at  the  symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse  to  see 
how  dear  to  them  were  the  names,  the  reminiscences,  the  Levitical  ceremonial, 
the  Temple  worship  of  their  Hebrew  fellow-citizens.  Not  many  years  later, 
the  "  many  myriads  of  Jews  ^vho  believed  were  all  zealous  of  the  Law,"  and 
would  have  thought  it  a  disgrace  to  do  otherwise  than  "  to  walk  orderly." a 
The  position,  therefore,  which  they  held  was  simply  that  of  one  synagogue 
more,  in  a  city  which,  according  to  the  Rabbis,  could  already  boast  that  it 
possessed  as  many  as  480.  They  might  have  been  called,  and  it  is  probable 
that  they  were  called,  by  way  of  geographical  distinction,  "the  Synagogue  of 
tho  Nazarenes." 

But  this  acceptance  with  tho  people  could  only  be  temporary  and  deceptive. 
If,  indeed,  the  early  believers  had  never  advanced  beyond  this  stand-point, 
Christianity  might  have  been  regarded  to  the  last  as  nothing  more  than  a 
phase  of  Pharisaism,  heretical  for  its  acceptance  of  a  crucified  Messiah, 
but  worthy  of  honour  for  the  scrupulosity  of  its  religious  life.  But  had 
Christianity  never  been  ruoro  than  this,  then  the  olive  branch  would  have  died 
with  the  oleaster  on  which  it  was  engrafted.  It  was  as  necessary  for  the 
Church  as  for  the  world  that  this  hollow  semblance  of  unison  between 
religions  which,  hi  their  distinctive  differences,  were  essentially  antagonistic, 
should  be  rudely  dissipated.  It  was  necessary  that  all  Christians,  whether 

1  The  Jewa  would  have  regarded  them  at  that  time  as  Chabertm,  a  body  of  people 
associated,  quite  harmlessly,  for  a  particular  object. 

2  Called  mnrc,  skachritk,  at  9;   nma,  minckah,  at  3.30;  and  l^sn.  mear'b,  at  dark 
(Acts  ii.  1 ;  iii.  1 ;  x.  30). 

3  Acts  xxl.  20,  24.    See  for  the  facts  In  the  previous  paragraphs,  Acts  x.  9,  14,  80 ; 
alii.  2,  3  ;  xviii.  18,  21 ;  xx.  6,  10 ;  xxii.  3 ;  Bom.  riv.  5;  Gal.  iv.  10 ;  v.  2 ;  Phil.  ii>-  2; 
Rev.  ii.  9 ;  iii.  9 ;  vii.  15 ;  xi.  19,  &o. ;  Eeuss.  Th&ol.  Chrit.  i.  291,  who  quotes  Sulpio. 
Sever,  ii  81,  "  Christum  Deura  sub  legia  observatione  credebaat." 


80  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Jews  or  Gentiles,  should  see  how  impossible  it  was  to  put  a  new  patch  on  an 
old  garment. 

This  truth  had  been  preached  by  Jesus  to  His  Apostles,  but,  like  many  othet 
of  His  words,  it  lay  long  dormant  in  their  minds.  After  some  of  His  deepest 
utterances,  in  full  consciousness  that  He  could  not  at  once  be  understood,  He 
had  said,  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."  And  as  they  themselves 
frankly  confess,  the  Apostles  had  not  always  been  among  those  "who  had  ears 
to  hear."  Plain  and  reiterated  as  had  been  the  prophecies  which  He  had 
addressed  to  them  respecting  His  own  crucifixion  and  resurrection,  the  first  of 
these  events  had  plunged  them  into  despair  and  horror,  the  second  had  burst 
upon  them  with  a  shock  of  surprise.  He  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine 
out  of  darkness  had,  indeed,  shined  in  their  hearts  "  to  give  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ;"1  but  still  they 
were  well  aware  that  they  had  this  treasure  "in  earthen  vessels."  To 
attribute  to  them  an  equality  of  endowments,  or  an  entire  unanimity  of 
opinion,  is  to  contradict  their  plainest  statements.  To  deny  that  their  know- 
ledge gradually  widened  is  to  ignore  God's  method  of  revelation,  and  to 
set  aside  the  evidence  of  facts.  To  the  last  they  "  knew  in  part,  and  they 
prophesied  in  part."  2  Why  was  James  the  Lord's  brother  so  highly  respected 
by  the  people  as  tradition  tells  us  that  he  was  P  Why  was  Paul  regarded  by 
them  with  such  deadly  hatred  ?  Because  St.  Paul  recognised  more  fully  than  St. 
James  the  future  universal  destiny  of  a  Christianity  separated  from  Judaic  in- 
stitutions. The  Crucifixion  had,  in  fact,  been  the  protest  of  the  Jew  against 
an  isopolity  of  faith.  "  From  that  moment  the  fate  of  the  nation  was  decided. 
Her  religion  was  to  kill  her.  But  when  the  Temple  burst  into  flames,  that  re- 
ligion had  already  spread  its  wings  and  gone  out  to  conquer  an  entire  world."  s 

Now,  as  might  have  been  expected,  and  as  was  evidently  designed  by  their 
Divine  Master,  the  last  point  on  which  the  Galilsean  Apostles  attained  to 
clearness  of  view  and  consistency  of  action  was  the  fact  that  the  Mosaic  Law 
was  to  be  superseded,  even  for  the  Jew,  by  a  wider  revelation.  It  is  probable 
that  this  truth,  in  all  its  fulness,  was  never  finally  apprehended  by  all  the 
Apostles.  It  is  doubtful  whether,  humanly  speaking,  it  would  ever  have  been 
grasped  by  any  of  them  if  their  powers  of  insight  had  not  been  quickened,  in 
God's  appointed  method,  by  the  fresh  lessons  which  came  to  them  through  the 
intellect  and  faith  of  men  who  had  been  brought  up  in  larger  views.  The 
obliteration  of  natural  distinctions  is  no  part  of  the  divine  method.  The 
inspiration  of  God  never  destroys  the  individuality  of  those  holy  souls  which 
it  has  made  into  sons  of  God  and  prophets.  There  are,  as  St.  Paul  so 
earnestly  tried  to  impress  npon  the  infant  Churches,  diversities  of  gifts, 
diversities  of  ministrations,  diversities  of  operations,  though  it  is  the  same 
Spirit,  the  same  Lord,  the  same  God,  who  worketh  all  things  in  all.*  The 
Hellenistic  training  of  a  Stephen  and  a  Saul  prepared  them  for  the  acceptance 

1  2  Cor.  iv.  6,  7.  »  1  Cor.  xtti.  9.  *  Kuonen,  Rel.  tflsr.  Ill,  281, 

«  1  Cor.  xlL  f-«, 


WORK  AND  MARTYRDOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  81 

of  lessons  which  nothing  short  of  an  express  miracle  could  have  made 
immediately  intelligible  to  a  Peter  and  a  James. 

Now  the  relation  of  tho  Law  to  the  Gospel  had  been  exactly  one  of  those 
subjects  on  which  Jesus,  in  accordance  with  a  divine  purpose,  had  spoken  with 
a  certain  reserve.  His  mission  had  been  to  found  a  kingdom,  not  to  promulgate 
a  theology ;  He  had  died  not  to  formulate  a  system,  but  to  redeem  &  race.  His 
work  liad  been  not  to  construct  the  dogmas  of  formal  creeds,  but  to  purify  the 
soul  of  man,  by  placing  him  in  immediate  relation  to  the  Father  in  Heaven. 
It  required  many  years  for  Jewish  converts  to  understand  the  meaning  of  tho 
saying  that  "  He  came  not  to  destroy  the  Law  but  to  fulfil."  Its  meaning  could 
indeed  only  become  clear  in  the  light  of  other  sayings  of  which  they  overlooked 
tho  force.  The  Apostles  had  seen  Him  obedient  to  the  Law ;  they  had  seen 
Him  worship  in  the  Temple  and  the  Synagogues,  and  had  accompanied  Him  in 
His  journeys  to  the  Feasts.  He  had  never  told  them  in  so  many  words  that  tho 
glory  of  the  Law,  like  the  light  which  lingered  on  the  face  of  Moses,  was  to  be 
done  away.  They  had  failed  to  comprehend  the  ultimate  tendency  and  signifi- 
cance of  His  words  and  actions  respecting  the  Sabbath,1  respecting  outward 
observances,2  respecting  divorce,3  respecting  the  future  universality  of  spiritual 
worship.4  They  remembered,  doubtless,  what  He  had  said  about  the  perma- 
nence of  every  yod  and  horn  of  a  letter  in  the  Law,6  but  they  had  not  remarked 
that  the  assertion  of  the  pre-eminence  of  moral  over  ceremonial  duties  is  one 
unknown  to  the  Law  itself.  Nor  had  they  seen  that  His  fulfilment  of  the  Law 
had  consisted  in  its  spiritualisation ;  that  He  had  not  only  extended  to  infini- 
tude the  range  of  its  obligations,  but  had  derived  their  authority  from  deeper 
principles,  and  surrounded  their  fulfilment  with  diviner  sanctions.  Nor,  again, 
had  they  observed  how  much  was  involved  in  the  emphatic  quotation  by  Christ 
of  that  passage  of  Hosoa,  "  I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice."  6  They  were 
not  yet  ripe  for  the  conviction  that  to  attach  primary  importance  to  Mosaic 
regulations  after  they  had  been  admitted  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  was  to 
fix  their  eyes  upon  a  waning  star  while  the  dawn  was  gradually  broadening  into 
boundless  day. 

About  the  early  ministry  of  Stephen  we  are  told  comparatively  little  in  the 
Acts,  but  its  immense  importance  has  become  more  clear  in  the  light  of  subse- 
quent history.  It  is  probable  that  he  himself  can  never  have  formed  the 
remotest  conception  of  the  vast  results — results  among  millions  of  Christians 
through  centuries  of  progress — which  in  God's  Providence  should  arise  from 
the  first  clear  statement  of  those  truths  which  he  was  the  first  to  perceive. 
Had  he  done  so  he  would  have  been  still  more  thankful  for  the  ability  with 
which  he  was  inspired  to  support  them,  and  for  the  holy  courage  which  pre- 
vented him  from  quailing  for  an  instant  under  the  storm  of  violence  and  hatred 
which  his  words  awoke. 

What  it  was  which  took  him  to  the  synagogues  of  Jewish  Hellenists  we  do 

>  Mark  ii.  27;  John  v.  17,  J  Matt.  ts.  13 ;  xii.  7.  s  Matt.  xix.  3,  6,  8 ;  v.  S2, 

«  John  iv.  22.  "  Matt.  v.  18.  •  Matt.  ix.  13 ;  xii.  7. 


82  THE  LIFE  AND  WOES   OF   ST.   PAUL, 

not  know.  It  may  have  been  the  same  missionary  zeal  which  afterwards 
carried  to  so  many  regions  the  young  man  of  Tarsus  who  at  this  time  was 
among  his  ablest  opponents.  All  that  wo  are  told  is  that  "  there  arose  some 
of  the  synagogue  which  is  called  the  synagogue  of  the  Libertines  and  Cyrenians, 
and  Alexandrians,  and  those  of  CUicia  and  Asia  disputing  with  Stephen." 
The  form  of  the  sentence  is  so  obscure  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  whether  we 
are  meant  to  understand  that  the  opponents  of  Stephen  were  the  members  of 
one  synagogue  which  united  these  widely-scattered  elements ;  of  five  separate 
synagogues ;  of  three  synagogues — namely,  that  of  the  Freedmen,  that  of  the 
African,  and  that  of  the  Asiatic  Hellenists ;  or  of  two  distinct  synagogues,  of 
which  one  was  frequented  by  the  Hellenists  of  Rome,  Greece,  and  Alexandria ; 
the  other  by  those  of  Cilicia  and  Proconsular  Asia.  The  number  of  synagogues 
in  Jerusalem  was  (as  I  have  already  mentioned)  so  large  that  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  believing  that  each  of  these  bodies  had  their  own  separate  place  of 
religious  meeting,1  just  as  at  this  day  in  Jerusalem  there  are  separate  syna- 
gogues for  the  Spanish  Sephardim,  the  Dutch  Anshe  hod,  and  the  German  and 
Polish  Ashkenazim.2  The  freedmen  may  have  been  the  descendants  of  those 
Jews  whom  Pompey  had  sent  captive  to  Italy,  and  Jews  were  to  be  counted  by 
myriads  in  Greece,  in  Alexandria,  and  in  tho  cities  of  Asia.  But  to  us  the 
most  interesting  of  all  these  Greek-speaking  Jews  was  Saul  of  Tarsus,  who, 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  was  a  member  of  tho  synagogue  of  tho  Cilicians.a 
and  who  hi  that  case  must  not  only  have  taken  his  part  in  the  disputes  which 
followed  the  exhortations  of  the  fervid  deacon,*  but  as  a  scholar  of  Gamaliel 
and  a  zealous  Pharisee,  must  have  occupied  a  prominent  position  as  an  uncom- 
promising champion  of  the  traditions  of  the  fathers. 

Though  the  Saul  of  this  period  must  have  differed  widely  from  that  Paul, 
the  slave  of  Jesus  Christ,  whom  we  know  so  well,  yet  the  main  features  of  his 
personality  must  have  been  tho  same.  He  could  not  have  failed  to  recognise 
the  moral  beauty,  the  dauntless  courage,  the  burning  passion  latent  in  the 
tenderness  of  Stephen's  character.  The  white  ashes  of  a  religion  which  had 
smouldered  into  formalism  lay  thickly  scattered  over  his  own  heart,  but  the  fire 
of  a  genuine  sincerity  burned  below.  Trained  as  he  had  been  for  years  in 
Rabbinic  minutiae,  he  had  not  yet  so  far  grown  old  in  a  deadening  system  as  to 
mistake  the  painted  cere-cloths  of  the  mummy  for  the  grace  and  flush  of  healthy 
life.  While  he  listened  to  St.  Stephen,  he  must  surely  have  felt  the  contrast 
between  a  dead  theology  and  a  living  faith ;  between  a  kindling  inspiration  and 
a  barren  exegesis ;  between  a  minute  analysis  of  unimportant  ceremonials  and 
a  preaching  that  stirred  tho  inmost  depths  of  tho  troubled  heart.  Even  the 

1  The  assertion  of  the  Talmud  (cf.  Sanhedr.  f .  58,  1)  that  there  wore  480  synagogues 
in  Jerusalem  is  indeed  valueless,  because  the  remarks  of  the  Kabbis  about  Jerusalem, 
Bethyr,  and  indeed  Palestine  generally,  are  mere  hyperbole ;  but,  as  Kenan  remarks  (Les 
ApCtres,  p.  109),  it  does  not  seem  at  all  impossible  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the 
innumerable  mosques  of  Mahommedan  cities.    We  are  informed  in  the  Talmud  that  each 
synagogue  had  not  only  a  school  for  the  teaching  of  Scripture,  but  also  for  the  teaching 
of  traditions  (nittJDb  TiDbn  m,  Megillah,  f .  73,  4). 

2  Seo  Frankl,  Jews  in  the  East,  ii.  21,  E.  T. 

'  He  may  have  been  a  Libtrtimus  also.  *  Acts  vi.  9, 


WOEK  AND  MAETXKEOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  83 

r&go  whicli  is  often  intensified  by  tho  unconscious  riso  of  an  irresistible 
conviction  could  not  wholly  prevent  him  from  perceiving  that  theso 
preachers  of  a  gospel  which  he  disdained  as  an  execrable  superstition,  had 
found  "in  Christ"  the  secret  of  a  light  and  joy,  and  love  and  peace,  com- 
pared with  which  his  own  condition  was  that  of  one  who  was  chained  indis- 
solubly  to  a  corpse. 

We  catch  but  a  single  glimpse  of  these  furious  controversies.  Their  imme- 
diate effect  was  the  signal  triumph  of  St.  Stephen  in  argument.  The  Hellen- 
ists were  unable  to  withstand  tho  wisdom  and  the  spirit  with  which  he  spako. 
Disdainful  Rabbinists  were  at  onc«  amazed  and  disgusted  to  find  that  he  with 
whom  they  now  had  to  deal  was  no  rude  provincial,  no  illiterate  am  ha-arets, 
no  humble  hediot,  lite  tho  fishermen  and  tax-gatherers  of  Galilee ;  but  one 
who  had  been  trained  in  the  culture  of  heathen  cities  as  well  as  in  the  learning 
of  Jewish  communities — a  disputant  who  could  meet  them  with  their  own 
weapons,  and  speak  Greek  as  fluently  as  themselves.  Steeped  in  centuries  of 
prejudice,  engrained  with  traditions  of  which  the  truth  had  never  been  ques- 
tioned, they  must  have  imagined  that  they  would  win  an  easy  victory,  and 
convince  a  man  of  intelligence  how  degrading  it  was  for  him  to  accept  a  faith 
on  which,  from  the  full  height  of  their  own  ignorance,  they  complacently  looked 
down.  How  groat  must  have  been  their  discomfiture  to  find  that  what  they 
had  now  to  face  was  not  a  mere  personal  testimony  which  they  could  con- 
temptuously set  aside,  but  arguments  based  on  premisses  which  they  them- 
selves admitted,  enforced  by  methods  which  they  recognised,  and  illustrated  by 
a  learning  which  they  could  not  surpass !  How  bitter  must  have  been  their 
rage  when  they  heard  doctrines  subversive  of  their  most  cherished  principles 
maintained  with  a  wisdom  which  differed  not  only  in  degree,  but  even  in  kind, 
from  tho  loftiest  attainments  of  their  foremost  Rabbis — even  of  those  whose 
merits  had  been  rewarded  by  tho  flattering  titles  of  "  Rooters  of  Mountains  " 
and  "  Glories  of  the  Law !" 

At  first  tho  only  discussion  likely  to  arise  would  be  as  to  the  Messiahship 
of  Jesus,  the  meaning  of  His  death,  the  fact  of  His  Resurrection.  Those 
would  be  points  on  which  the  ordinary  Jew  would  have  regarded  argument  as 
superfluous  condescension.  To  him  the  stumbling-block  of  the  Cross  would 
have  been  insurmountable.  In  all  ages  the  Messianic  hope  had  been  pro- 
minent in  the  minds  of  tho  most  enlightened  Jews,  but  during  the  Exile  and 
the  Restoration  it  had  become  tho  central  faith  of  their  religion.  It  was  this 
belief  which,  more  than  any  other,  kindled  their  patriotism,  consoled  their 
sorrows,  and  inspired  their  obedience.  If  a  Shammai  used  to  spend  the  whole 
week  in  meditating  how  ho  could  most  rigidly  observe  the  Sabbath — if  the 
Pharisees  regarded  it  as  the  main  function  of  their  existence  to  raise  a  hedge 
around  the  Law — tho  inspiring  motivo  was  a  belief  that  if  only  for  one  day 
Israel  were  entirely  faithful,  the  Messiah  would  come.  And  what  a  coming ! 
How  should  the  Prince  of  the  House  of  David  smite  the  nations  with  the 
sword  of  his  mouth !  How  should  He  break  them  in  pieces  like  a  potter's 
vessel !  How  should  He  exalt  the  children  of  Israel  into  kings  of  the  earth, 


84  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OB1  ST.  PAUL. 

and  feed  them  with  the  flesh  of  Behemoth,  and  Leviathan,  and  the  bird  Bar 
Juchne,  and  pour  at  their  feet  the  treasures  of  the  sea!  And  to  say  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  promised  Messiah  —  to  suppose  that  all  the  splendid 
prophecies  of  patriarchs,  and  seers,  and  kings,  from  the  Divine  Voice  which 
spoke  to  Adam  in  Paradise,  to  the  last  utterance  of  the  Angel  Halachi  —  all 
pointed  to,  all  centred  in,  One  who  had  been  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  and 
whom  they  had  seen  crucified  between  two  brigands  —  to  say  that  their  very 
Messiah  had  just  been  "hung"1  by  Gentile  tyrants  at  the  instance  of  their 
own  priests  ;  —  this,  to  most  of  the  hearers  in  the  synagogue,  would  have, 
seemed  wicked  if  it  had  not  seemed  too  absurd.  "Was  there  not  one  sufficient 
and  decisive  answer  to  it  all  in  the  one  verse  of  the  Law  —  "  Cursed  by  God  is 
he  that  hangeth  on  a  tree  P"a 

Yet  this  was  the  thesis  which  such  a  man  as  Stephen  —  no  ignorant 
Galilsean,  but  a  learned  Hellenist  —  undertook  to  prove,  and  did  prove  with 
such  power  as  to  produce  silence  if  not  assent,  and  hatred  if  not  conviction. 
For  with  all  their  adoration  of  the  letter,  the  Rabbis  and  Pharisees  had  but 
half  read  their  Scriptures,  or  had  read  them  only  to  use  as  an  engine  of 
religious  intolerance,  and  to  pick  out  the  views  which  most  blended  with  their 
personal  preconceptions.  They  had  laid  it  down  as  a  principle  of  interpreta- 
tion that  the  entire  books  of  the  Canon  prophesied  of  nothing  else  but 
the  days  of  the  Messiah.  How,  under  these  circumstances,  they  could 
possibly  miss  the  conception  of  a  suffering  as  well  as  of  a  triumphaid 
Messiah,3  might  well  amaze  us,  if  there  had  not  been  proof  in  all  ages  that 
men  may  entirely  overlook  the  statements  and  pervert  the  meaning  of  their 
own  sacred  books,  because,  when  they  read  those  books,  the  veil  of  obstinate 
prejudice  is  lying  upon  their  hearts.  But  when  the  view  of  ancient  prophecy, 
which  proved  that  it  behoved  Christ  thus  to  suffer  and  to  enter  into  His 
glory,4  was  forcibly  presented  to  them  by  the  insight  and  eloquence  of  one 
who  was  their  equal  in  learning  and  their  superior  in  illumination,  we  can 
understand  the  difficulties  to  which  they  were  reduced.  How,  for  instance, 
could  they  elude  the  force  of  the  53rd  chapter  of  Isaiah,  to  which  their 
Rabbis  freely  accorded  a  Messianic  interpretation  ?  The  Messianic  applica- 
tion of  what  is  there  said  about  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  and  the  deep  humi- 
liation borne  for  the  sake  of  others,  is  not  only  found  in  the  Targuin  of 
Jonathan  and  in  many  Rabbinic  allusions,  down  even  to  the  Book  Zohar,  but 
seems  to  have  remained  entirely  undisputed  until  the  mediaeval  Rabbis  found 


. 

3  Dent.  xxi.  23,  «.car»)pa/ieV<K  iiro  TOV  e«ou.  The  later  view  of  this,  "He  that  ia 
hanged  is  an  insult  to  God  "  arose  from  the  fact  that  Jewish  patriots  in  the  Jewish  War 
were  crucified  by  scores.  St.  Paul,  in  quoting  the  verse,  omits  the  vrrb  0eoO  (Gal.  ii.  13  ; 
and  Lightfoot,  p.  133). 

3  Of  the  notion  of  a  suffering  Messiah,  Ben  Joseph,  as  distinguished  from  the 
triumphant  son  of  David  (Rashi  on  Isa.  xxiv.  18  ;  Succah,  52,  1,  2,  where  reference  is 
made  to  Zech.  xii.  10,  and  Ps.  ii.,  &c.  ;  see  Otho,  Lex.  Rob.  s.  v.  Messiah),  there  is  no 
trace  in  Jewish  literature  till  long  afterwards.  St.  Paul's  witness  from  Moses  and  the 
Prop  bets—  el  Tra^To*  6  Xpiorbs,  Acts  x?vi.  ?3  —  only  woke  a  sneer  from  Agrippa  IJ. 

•*  Luke  xiiv.  20, 


WORK  AND  MARTYRDOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  85 

themselves  inconvenienced  by  it  in  their  controversies  with  Christians.1  Yet 
this  was  but  an  isolated  prophecy,  and  the  Christiana  could  refer  to  passage 
after  passage  which,  on  the  very  principles  of  their  adversaries,  not  only 
justified  them  in  accepting  as  the  Christ  One  whom  the  rulers  of  the  Jews 
had  crucified,  but  even  distinctly  foreshadowed  the  mission  of  His  Fore- 
runner ;  His  ministry  on  the  shores  of  Gennesareth ;  His  humble  entry  into 
Jerusalem ;  His  rejection  by  His  own  people ;  the  disbelief  of  His  announce- 
ments ;  the  treachery  of  one  of  His  own  followers ;  the  mean  price  paid  for 
His  blood ;  His  death  as  a  malefactor ;  even  the  bitter  and  stupefying  drinks 
that  had  been  offered  to  Him ;  and  the  lots  cast  upon  His  clothes — no  less 
than  His  victory  over  the  grave  by  Resurrection,  on  the  third  day,  from  the 
dead,  and  His  final  exaltation  at  the  right  hand  of  God.2  How  tremendous 
the  cogency  of  such  arguments  would  be  to  the  hearers  of  Stephen  cannot  bo 
shown  more  strikingly  than  by  the  use  made  of  them  by  St.  Paul  after  tho 
conversion  which  they  doubtless  helped  to  bring  about.  It  must  have  been 
from  St.  Stephen  that  he  heard  them  first,  and  they  became  so  convincing  to 
him  that  he  constantly  employs  the  same  or  analogous  arguments  in  his  own 
reasonings  with  his  unconverted  countrymen.3 

It  is  clear  that,  in  the  course  of  argument,  Stephen  was  led  to  adduce  some 
of  those  deep  sayings  as  to  the  purpose  of  the  life  of  Christ  which  the  keen 
insight  of  hate^had  rendered  more  intelligible  to  the  enemies  of  our  Lord  than 
they  had  been  in  the  first  instance  to  His  friends.  Many  of  those  priests  and 
Pharisees  who  had  been  baptised  into  the  Church  of  Christ  with  the  notion 
that  their  new  belief  was  compatible  with  an  unchanged  loyalty  to  Judaism, 
had  shown  less  understanding  of  the  sayings  of  their  Master,  and  loss  appre- 
ciation of  the  grandeur  of  His  mission,  than  the  Sadducees  whose  hatred  had 
handed  Him  over  to  the  secular  arm.  It  did  lie  within  the  natural  interpreta- 
tion of  Christ's  language  that  the  Law  of  Moses,  which  the  Jews  at  once 
idolised  aud  evaded,  was  destined  to  be  annulled ;  not,  indeed,  those  moral 
sanctions  of  it  which  were  eternal  in  obligation,  but  the  complicated  system 
wherein  those  moral  commandments  were  so  deeply  imbedded.  The  Jewish 
race  were  right  to  reverence  Moses  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  to 
lay  tho  deepest  foundations  of  a  national  life.  As  a  Lawgiver  whose  Decaloguo 
is  so  comprehensive  in  its  brevity  as  to  transcend  all  other  codes — as  the  solo 
Lawgiver  who  laid  his  prohibition  against  the  beginnings  of  evil,  by  daring  to 
forbid  an  evil  thought — as  one  who  established  for  his  people  a  monotheistic 
faith,  a  significant  worship,  and  an  undefinable  hope — he  deserved  the  grati- 
tude and  reverence  of  mankind.  _  That  this  under-official  of  an  obscure  sect  of 

1  Proofs  of  this  statement  may  be  found  in  Dr.  A.  Wiinsche's  Die  Leiden  des  Messias, 
and  several  quotations  from  hia  book  may  be  found  in  the  Speaker's  Commentary,  ad  loc. 

2  See  Is.  xl.  3 ;  Mark  i.  3 ;  Mai.  iii.  1 ;  Matt.  xi.  10 ;  Is.  viii.  14 ;  ix.  1 ;  Matt.  iv.  14 ; 
Is.  Ixi.  1 ;  Luke  iv.  18 ;  Ps.  Ixxviii.  2 ;  Matt.  xiii.  35 ;  Ps.  cxviii.  22 ;  Luke  ii.  34 ;  Acts 
iv.  11;   xiii.  41;  Ps.  xli.  9;  Zech.  xi.  12;  John  xiii.  18;  Matt.  xxvi.  15;  xxvii.  9,  10; 
Zech.  xii.  10 ;  John  xis.  37 ;  Isa.  liii.  9 ;  Ps.  xvi.  10 ;  Matt.  xii.  40 ;  Acts  ii.  27 ;  Ps.  ex. 
1;  Acts  ii.  33;  Heb.  i.  13,  &c.    (See  Dariaon,  On  Prophecy,  pattim  ;  Hausrath,  p.  112, 
ueqq.) 

3  Kph.  ii.  20;  Rom.  b,  84;  &c, 


86  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PATH,. 

yesterday  should  dare  to  move  his  tongue  against  that  awful  name,  and 
prophesy  the  abolition  of  institutions  of  which  some  had  been  delivered  to  their 
fathers  of  old  from  the  burning  cragc  of  Sinai,  and  others  had  been  handed 
down  from  the  lips  of  the  mighty  teacher  through  the  long  series  of  priests 
and  prophets,  was  to  them  something  worse  than  folly  and  presumption — it 
was  a  blasphemy  and  a  crime ! 

And  how  did  he  dare  to  speak  one  word  against,  or  hint  one  doubt  as  to  the 
permanent  glory  of,  the  Temple  ?  The  glowing  descriptions  of  the  Talmud 
respecting  its  colossal  size  and  royal  splendour  are  but  echoes  of  the  intense 
love  which  breathes  throughout  the  Psalms.  In  the  heart  of  Saul  any  word 
which  might  sound  like  a  slight  to  "  the  place  where  God's  honour  dwelt " 
would  excite  a  peculiar  indignation.  When  the  conflagration  seized  its  roofs 
of  cedar-wood  and  melted  its  golden  tables,  every  Jew  in  the  city  was  fired 
with  a  rage  which  made  him  fight  with  superhuman  strength — 

41  Through  their  torn  veins  reviving  fury  ran, 
And  life's  last  anger  warmed  the  dying  man." 

Among  those  frenzied  combatants  was  a  body  of  Tarsian  youths  who  gladly 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  rescue  of  Jerusalem.  "What  they  felt  at  that 
supreme  moment  may  show  us  what  such  a  zealot  as  Saul  of  Tarsus  would  feel, 
when  ho  heard  one  who  called  himself  a  Jew  use  language  which  sounded  like 
disparagement  of  "  the  glory  of  the  whole  earth." 

Foiled  in  argument,  the  Hellenists  of  the  synagogues  adopted  the  usual 
resource  of  defeated  controversialists  who  have  the  upper  hand.  They  appealed 
to  violence  for  the  suppression  of  reason.  They  first  stirred  up  the  people — 
whose  inflammable  ignorance  made  them  the  ready  tools  of  any  agitator — and 
through  them  aroused  the  attention  of  the  Jewish  authorities.  Their  plot  was 
soon  ripe.  There  was  no  need  of  the  midnight  secrecy  which  had  marked  the 
arrest  of  Jesus.  There  was  no  need  to  secure  the  services  of  the  Captain  of  the 
Temple  to  arrest  Stephen  at  twilight,  as  he  had  arrested  Peter  and  John. 
There  was  no  need  even  to  suppress  all  semblance  of  violence,  lest  the  people 
should  stone  them  for  their  unauthorised  interference.  The  circumstances  of 
the  day  enabled  them  to  assume  unwonted  boldness,  because  they  were  at  the 
moment  enjoying  a  sort  of  interregnum  from  Roman  authority.  The  approval 
of  the  multitude  had  been  alienated  by  the  first  rumour  of  defective  patriotism. 
When  every  rank  of  Jewish  society  had  been  stirred  to  fury  by  false  witnesses 
whom  these  Hellenists  had  suborned,  they  seized  a  favourable  moment,  sud- 
denly came  upon  Stephen,1  either  while  he  was  teaching  in  a  synagogue,  or 
while  he  was  transacting  the  duties  of  an  almoner,  and  led  him  away — 
apparently  without  a  moment's  pause — into  the  presence  of  the  assembled 
Sanhedrin.  Everything  was  ready ;  everything  seemed  to  point  to  a  foregone 
conclusion.  The  false  witnesses  were  at  hand,  and  confronted  their  victim 
with  the  charge  of  incessant  harangues  against  "this  Holy  Place" — the 
expression  seems  to  show  that  the  Sanhedrin  were  for  this  timo  sitting  in  their 

1  Ada  vi,  12,  fcr;#Tsvrc ;  cf.  rrii  6. 


WX>BX  AND  XASITSDOM  Off  ST.   STEPHEK.  87 

famous  "  Hall  of  Squares," — and  against  the  Law.1  In  support  of  this  general 
accusation,  they  testified  that  they  had  heard  him  say  that  Jesus — "this 
Nazarene,"2  as  they  indignantly  add  to  distinguish  Him  from  others  who  bore 
that  common  name — "  shall  destroy  this  place,  and  shall  change  the  customs 
which  Moses  handed  down  to  us."  It  is  evident  that  these  false  witnesses 
made  some  attempt  to  base  their  accusation  upon  truth.  There  was  good 
policy  in  this,  as  false  witnesses  iu  all  ages  have  been  cunning  enough  to  see. 
Half  truths  are  often  the  most  absolute  of  lies,  because 

"  A  lie  which  ia  half  a  truth  ia  ever  the  blackest  of  lies 
For  a  lie  which  ia  all  a  lie  may  be  met  and  fought  with  outright, 
But  a  lie  which  is  part  a  truth  ia  a  harder  matter  to  fight." 

It  is  certain  that  if  Stephen  had  not  used  the  very  expressions  with  which  they 
charged  him,  he  had  used  others  not  unlike  them.  It  is  his  immortal  glory  to 
have  remembered  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  to  have  interpreted  them  aright. 
Against  the  moral  Law — the  great  Ten  "Words  of  Sinai,  or  any  of  those 
precepts  of  exquisite  humanity  and  tenderness  which  lie  scattered  amid  the 
ceremonial  observances — he  is  not  even  falsely  accused  of  having  uttered  a 
word.  But  against  the  permanent  validity  of  the  ceremonial  Law  he  may 
have  spoken  with  freedom ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  its  destined  abrogation  was 
involved  in  the  very  slight  importance  which  Jesus  had  attached  to  it.  And 
for  the  Oral  Law  it  is  probable  that  Stephen,  whose  training  would  have 
rendered  impossible  any  minute  fulfilment  of  its  regulations,  neither  felt  nor 
professed  respect.  The  expression  used  by  the  witnesses  against  him  seems  to 
show  that  it  was  mainly,  though  not  perhaps  exclusively,  of  this  Oral  Law  that 
he  had  been  thinking.8  It  was  not,  perhaps,  any  doubt  as  to  its  authenticity 
which  made  him  teach  that  Jesus  should  change  its  customs,  for  in  those  days 
the  critical  spirit  was  not  sufficiently  developed  to  give  rise  to  any  challenge  of  a 
current  assertion;  but  ho  had  foreseen  the  future  nullity  of  these  "traditions  of 
the  fathers,"  partly  from  their  own  inherent  worthlessness,  and  partly  because 
he  may  have  heard,  or  had  repeated  to  him,  the  stern  denunciation  which  the 
worst  of  these  traditions  had  drawn  from  the  lips  of  Christ  Himself.* 

But  though  Stephen  must  have  seen  that  the  witnesses  were  really  falsa 
witnesses,  because  they  misrepresented  the  tone  and  the  true  significance 
of  the  language  which  he  had  used— although,  too,  he  was  conscious  how 
dangerous  was  his  position  as  one  accused  of  blasphemy  against  Moses, 
against  the  Temple,  against  the  traditions,  and  against  God — it  naver 
occurred  to  him  to  escape  his  danger  by  a  technicality  or  a  compromise. 
To  throw  discredit  even  upon  the  Oral  Law  would  not  be  without  danger 
in  the  presence  of  an  assembly  whoso  members  owed  to  its  traditions  no 
little  of  the  authority  which  they  enjoyed.6  But  Stephen  did  not  at  all 
intend  to  confine  his  argument  to  this  narrow  range.  Rather  the  conviction 

1  Acts  vi.  13,  ov  iraverai  pr/fiara  XaAuv.  *  Acts  vl.  14,  'IijcrpD*,  o  Natfupato?  ovro«. 

•  Acts  vi  14,  TO  i$y  S.  TrapeSxKtv  jm">  MwvoTjj.    (Cf.  Jos.  Antt.  riii.  10,  §  6,  and  16,  §  2.) 
«  Matt.  xv.  2-6  ;  Mark  vii.  3,  5,  8,  9,  13. 

•  Maimon.JVe/.  to  the  Yad  Hackasakah ;  McOaol,  Old  Paths,  p.  335. 


THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

came  upon  him  that  now  was  the  time  to  speak  out — that  this  was  the 
destined  moment  in  which,  even  if  need  be  to  the  death,  he  was  to  bear 
witness  to  the  inner  meaning  of  the  Kingdom  of  his  Lord.  That  conviction 
— an  inspiration  from  on  high — gave  unwonted  grandeur  and  hcavenliuess 
to  his  look,  his  words,  his  attitude.  His  whole  bearing  was  ennobled,  his 
whole  being  was  transfigured  by  a  consciousness  which  illuminated  his 
very  countenance.  It  is  probable  that  the  unanimous  tradition  of  the 
Church  is  correct  in  representing  him  as  youthful  and  beautiful ;  but  now 
there  was  something  about  him  far  more  beautiful  than  youth  or  beauty 
could  bestow.  In  the  spiritual  light  which  radiated  from  him  he  seemed 
to  be  overshadowed  by  the  Shechinah,  which  had  so  long  vanished  from 
between  the  wings  of  the  Temple  cherubim.  While  the  witnesses  had 
been  delivering  their  testimony,  no  one  had  observed  the  sudden  brightness 
which  seemed  to  be  stealing  over  him;  but  when  the  charge  was  finished, 
and  every  eye  was  turned  from  the  accusers  to  a  fixed  gaze  on  the  accused,1 
all  who  were  seated  in  the  Sanhedrin — and  one  of  the  number,  in  all 
probability,  was  Saul  of  Tarsus — "  saw  his  face  as  it  had  been  the  face 
of  an  angel." 

Jn  the  sudden  hush  that  followed,  the  voice  of  the  High  Priest  Jonathan 
was  heard  putting  to  the  accused  the  customary  and  formal  question — 

"  Are  these  things  so  ?  "  a 

In  reply  to  that  question  began  the  speech  which  is  one  of  the  earliest, 
as  it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting,  documents  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Although  it  was  delivered  before  the  Sanhedrin,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  it  was  delivered  in  Greek,  which,  in  the  bilingual  condition  of  Palestine 
—and,  indeed,  of  the  civilised  world  in  general — at  that  time,  would  be 
perfectly  understood  by  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  which  was 
perhaps  the  only  language  which  Stephen  could  speak  with  fluency.8  The 
quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  follow  the  Septuagint,  even  where  it 
differs  from  the  Hebrew,  and  the  individuality  which  characterises  almost 
every  sentence  of  the  speech  forbids  us  to  look  on  it  as  a  mere  conjectural 
paraphrase.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  its  preservation.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  two  secretaries  were  always  present  at  the  judicial 
proceedings  of  the  Sanhedrin,4  there  are  words  and  utterances  which,  at 
certain  times,  are  branded  indelibly  upon  the  memory  of  their  hearers ;  and 
since  we  can  trace  the  deep  impression  made  by  this  speech  on  the  mind  of 

1  Acts  vi.  15,  aTeviVaire*  «s  OVT&V  airavrw. 

2  St.  Chrysostom  sees  in  the  apparent  mildness  of  the  question  an  indication  that  the 
High  Priest  and  the  Sanhedrin  were  awed  by  the  supernatural  brightness  of  the  martyr's 

look — opos  (of  ficrii  cirieiKetaf  ^  «pu'T7)(7ts  KOI  ovSev  rfwt  ^)OpTi(cby  Ixovo-a  J    (ffomil.  XV.  171  Act.), 

But  the  question  appears  to  have  been  a  regular  formula  of  interrogation.  It  was,  in 
fact,  the  "Guilty  or  Not  Guilty?"  of  the  Jewish  Supreme  Court. 

3  Against  this  view  are  urged — (1)  the  unlikelihood  that  St.  Stephen  would  have 
pleaded  in  Greek  before  the  Sanhedrin ;  (2)  the  use  of  the  Hebraism  ovpavoi  in  Acts  vii. 
58.     But  as  to  1,  if  even  Philo  knew  no  Hebrew,  Stephen  may  have  known  none ;  and, 
2,  the  word  ovpai-ot  points  to  a  special  Jewish  belief,  independent  of  language. 

4  See  Jahn,  Archaeol.  Bibl.  §  248.     He  quotes  no  authority,  and  I  at  first  felt  soma 
doubt  about  the  assertion,  but  I  find  it  so  stated  in  the  Mi  shim,  Sankcdr.  iv.  2. 


WOBK  AND   MABTYBDOM  OF   ST.   STEPHEN.  89 

St.  Paul,  we  find  little  difficulty  in  adopting  the  conjecture  that  its  preserva- 
tion was  due  to  him.  The  Hagadoth  in  which  it  abounds,  the  variations 
from  historical  accuracy,  the  free  citation  of  passages  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment,''the  roughness  of  style,  above  all  the  concentrated  force  which  makes 
it  lend  itself  so  readily  to  differing  interpretations,  are  characteristics  which 
leave  on  our  minds  no  shadow  of  doubt  that  whoever  may  have  been  the 
reporter,  we  have  here  at  least  an  outline  of  Stephen's  speech.  And  this 
speech  marked  a  crisis  in  the  annals  of  Christianity.  It  led  to  consequences  that 
changed  the  Church  from  a  Judaic  sect  at  Jerusalem,  into  the  Church  of  the 
Gentiles  and  of  the  world.  It  marks  the  commencing  severance  of  two  insti- 
tutions which  had  not  yet  discovered  that  they  were  mutually  irreconcilable. 

Since  the  charge  brought  against  St.  Stephen  was  partly  false  and 
partly  true,  it  was  his  object  to  rebut  what  was  false,  and  justify  himself 
against  all  blame  for  what  was  true.  Hence  apology  and  demonstration 
are  subtly  blended  throughout  his  appeal,  but  the  apology  is  only  secondary, 
and  the  demonstration  is  mainly  meant  to  rouse  the  dormant  consciences 
of  his  hearers.  Charged  with  blasphemous  words,  he  contents  himself 
with  the  incidental  refutation  of  this  charge  by  the  entire  tenor  of  the 
language  which  he  employs.  After  his  courteous  request  for  attention,  his 
very  first  words  are  to  speak  of  God  under  one  of  His  most  awful  titles  of 
majesty,  as  the  God  of  the  Shechinah.  On  the  history  of  Moses  he  dwells 
with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  patriotic  admiration.  To  the  Temple  he  alludes 
with  entire  reverence.  Of  Sinai  and  the  living  oracles  he  uses  language 
as  full  of  solemnity  as  the  most  devoted  Rabbi  could  desire.  But  while 
he  thus  shows  how  impossible  it  must  have  been  for  him  to  have  uttered 
the  language  of  a  blasphemer,  he  is  all  the  while  aiming  at  the  establish- 
ment of  facts  far  deeper  than  the  proof  of  his  own  innocence.  The 
consummate  art  of  his  speech  consists  in  the  circumstance  that  while  he 
seems  to  be  engaged  in  a  calm,  historical  review,  to  which  any  Jewish 
patriot  might  listen  with  delight  and  pride,  he  is  step  by  step  leading  up 
to  conclusions  which  told  with  irresistible  force  against  the  opinions  of  his 
judges.  While  he  only  seems  to  be  reviewing  the  various  migrations  of 
Abraham,  and  the  chequered  fortunes  of  the  Patriarchs,  he  is  really  showing 
that  the  covenants  of  God  with  His  chosen  people,  having  been  made  in  Ur 
and  Haran  and  Egypt,  were  all  parts  of  one  progressive  purpose,  which 
was  so  little  dependent  on  ceremonials  or  places  as  to  have  been  anterior 
not  only  to  the  existence  of  the  Tabernacle  and  Temple,  not  only  to  the 
possession  of  the  Holy  Land,  but  even  to  the  rite  of  circumcision  itself.1 

1  What  fruit  the  argument  bore  in  the  mind  of  St.  Paul  we  may  see  in  the  emphasis 
with  which  he  dwells  on  "  that  faith  of  our  father  Abraham  which  he  had  being  yet  un- 
circumcised  "  (Rom.  iv.  12).  How  necessary  it  was  to  point  this  out  will  be  seen  from  the 
opinions  of  succeeding  Rabbis.  "Abraham,"  says  Rabbi — as  "Juda  the  Holy,"  the 
compiler  of  the  Mishna,  is  called,  KOT'  ttoxnv — "was  not  called  perfect  until  he  was  cir- 
cumcised, and  by  the  merit  of  circumcision  a  covenant  was  made  with  him  respecting  the 
giving  of  the  land  "  ( Joreh  Deah,  260,  ap.  McCaul,  Old  Paths,  p.  451 ;  Nedarim,  f .  31,  2). 
It  is  superfluous  to  add  that  the  latter  statement  is  a  flat  contradiction  of  Gen.  xv.  18. 


90  THS  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PATCX. 

While  sketching  tho  career  of  Joseph,  he  is  pointing  allusively  to  tha 
similar  rejection  of  a  deliverer  greater  than  Joseph.  While  passing  in 
review  the  triple  periods  of  forty  years  which  made  up  the  life  of  Moses, 
he  is  again  sketching  the  ministry  of  Christ,  and  silently  pointing  to  the 
fact  that  the  Hebrew  race  had  at  every  stage  been  false  alike  to  Moses  and 
to  God.  This  is  why  he  narrates  tho  way  in  which,  on  the  first  appearance 
of  Moses  to  help  his  suffering  countrymen,  they  rudely  spurned  his 
interference ;  and  how  in  spite  of  their  rejection  he  was  chosen  to  lead 
them  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  In  defiance  of  this  special  commission 
— and  it  is  well  worth  notice  how,  in  order  to  conciliate  their  doepcr 
attention,  this  palmary  point  in  his  favour  is  not  triumphantly  paraded, 
but  quietly  introduced  as  an  incident  in  his  historic  summary — Moses  had 
himself  taught  them  to  regard  his  own  legislation  as  provisional,  by 
bidding  them  listen  to  a  Prophet  like  unto  himself  who  should  come 
hereafter.  But  the  history  of  Moses,  whom  they  trusted,  was  fatal  to 
their  pretence  of  allegiance.  Even  when  he  was  on  Sinai  they  had  been 
disloyal  to  him,  and  spoken  of  him  as  "  this  Moses,"  and  as  one  who  had 
gone  they  knew  not  where.1  And,  false  to  Moses,  they  had  been  yet  more 
false  to  God.  The  Lovitical  sacrifices  had  been  abandoned  from  the  very 
time  of  their  institution,  for  sacrifices  to  tho  host  of  heaven;  and  the 
tabernacle  of  Moloch,  and  the  star  of  Remphan,2  had  been  dearer  to  them 
than  the  Tabernacle  of  Witness  and  the  Shechinah  of  God.  At  last  a 
Jesus — for,  in  order  that  he  might  be  heard  to  due  purpose,  Stephen 
suppresses  the  name  of  that  Jesus  of  whom  his  thoughts  were  full — led 
them  and  their  Tabernacle  into  the  land  of  which  he  dispossessed  the 
Gentiles.  That  Tabernacle,  after  an  obscure  and  dishonoured  history,  had 
passed  away,  and  it  may  perhaps  be  intimated  that  this  was  due  to  their 
indifference  and  neglect.  David — their  own  David — had  indeed  desired  to 
replace  it  by  another,  but  the  actual  building  of  the  House  was  carried  out 
by  the  less  faithful  Solomon.8  But  even  at  the  very  time  the  House  was 
built  it  had  been  implied  in  the  Prayer  of  David,  and  in  the  dedication 
prayer  of  Solomon,4  that  "  the  Most  High  dwelleth  not  hi  temples  made  with 
hands."  And  to  guard  against  the  dangerous  superstition  into  which  the 
reverence  paid  to  material  places  is  apt  to  degenerate — to  obviate  the  trust 
in  lying  words  which  thought  it  sufficient  to  exclaim,  "  The  Temple  of  the 
Lord,  the  Temple  of  the  Lord,  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  are  these"— tho 
great  Prophet  had  cried,  in  God's  name,6  "  Heaven  is  my  throne,  and  earth 
is  my  footstool ;  what  house  will  ye  build  for  me,  saith  the  Lord,  or  what 
is  the  place  of  my  abiding  ?  Did  not  my  hand  make  all  these  things  P " 

1  Perhaps  there  is  a  passing  allusion  to  the  expression,  "Jesus,  this  Nazarene,"  which 
they  had  just  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  false  witnesses. 

5  The  LXX.  reading  for  tho  Hebrew  Chiun. 

8  It  must  remain  doubtful  whether  any  [contrast  Is  intended  between  the 
(r.  Suid,  s.v.)  designed  by  David,  and  the  ofcw  built  by  Solomon. 

*  I  Kings  viii.  27 ;  1  Chron.  xxix.  11 ;  quoted  by  St.  Paol,  Acts  xvii.  24. 

*  Isa.  uvi  1<  S. 


WOBK  AND  MABTYBDOM  OV  ST.  STSPEKH.  01 


The  inference  from  this — that  the  day  must  come,  of  which  Jesus  had 
prophesied  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  in  which  neither  in  Gevizim  nor 
yet  in  Jerusalem  should  men  worship  the  Father,  constituted  a  perfect 
defence  against  the  charge  that  anything  which  ho  had  said  could  be 
regarded  as  a  blasphemy  against  the  Temple. 

Thus  far  he  had  fulfilled  all  the  objects  of  hia  speech,  and  had  shown  that 
injurious  words  had  been  as  far  as  possible  from  his  thoughts.  It  had  become 
clear  also  from  his  summary  of  the  national  story  that  the  principles  which  he 
had  advocated  were  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  those  past  ages ;  that 
the  rejection  of  Christ  by  the  rulers  of  His  nation  was  no  argument  against 
His  chums ;  that  the  Temple  could  not  have  been  meant  to  be  the  object  of  an 
endless  honour;  lastly,  that  if  he  had  said  that  Jesus  should  change  the 
customs  which  Moses  had  delivered,  Moses  himself  had  indicated  that  in 
God's  due  time  his  entire  dispensation  was  destined  to  pass  away.  And  he 
had  stated  the  grounds  from  which  these  conclusions  followed,  rather  than 
urged  upon  them  the  inferences  themselves.  He  had  done  this  in  deference 
to  their  passions  and  prejudices,  and  in  the  hope  of  bringing  the  truth  gently 
into  their  hearts.  He  might  have  continued  the  story  through  centuries  of 
weak  or  apostate  kings,  stained  with  the  blood  of  rejected  prophets,  down  to 
the  great  retribution  of  the  exile ;  and  ho  might  have  shown  how,  after  the 
exile,  the  obsolete  idolatry  of  the  gods  of  wood  and  stone  had  only  been 
superseded  by  the  subtler  and  more  self-complacent  idolatry  of  f ormalism  and 
letter- worship ;  how  the  Book  had  been  honoured  to  the  oblivion  of  the  truths 
which  it  enshrined ;  how  in  the  tithing  of  mint  and  anise  and  cummin  there 
had  been  a  forgetf ulnesa  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  Law ;  how  the  smoke 
of  dead  sacrifices  had  been  thought  of  more  avail  than  deeds  of  living  mercy ; 
how  circumcision  and  Sabbatism  had  been  elevated  above  faith  and  purity; 
how  the  long  series  of  crimes  against  God's  messengers  had  been  consummated 
in  the  murder  of  the  Lord  of  glory.  A  truth  which  is  only  suggested,  often 
comes  homo  to  the  heart  with  more  force  than  one  which  is  put  hi  words,  and 
it  may  have  been  his  original  design  to  guide  rather  than  to  refute.  But  if  so, 
the  faces  of  his  audience  showed  that  his  object  had  failed.  They  were  listening 
with  stolid  self-complacency  to  a  narrative  of  which  the  significant  incidents  only 
enabled  them  to  glory  over  their  f  athers.  It  was,  I  think,  something  in  the  aspect 
of  his  audience — some  sudden  conviction  that  to  such  invincible  obstinacy  his 
words  were  addressed  in  vain — which  made  him  suddenly  stop  short  in  his  review 
of  history,  and  hurl  in  their  faces  the  gathered  thunder  of  his  wrath  and  scorn. 

" Stifc-necked  1 "  he  exclaimed,  "and  uncircumcised  in  your  heart  and  ia 
your  ears,  ye  are  ever  in  conflict  with  the  Holy  Spirit ;  as  your  fathers,  so  ye ! 
Which  of  the  prophets  did  not  yonr  fathers  persecute  P  and  they  killed  those 
who  announced  before  respecting  the  coming  of  the  Just,  of  whom  ye  now 
proved  yourselves  betrayers  and  murderers ;  ye  who  received  the  Law  at  the 
ordinance  of  angels,1  and  kept  it  not  I "  8 

»  Acts  viL  52  ;  leg.  Jy«W*«>  A,  B,  0,  D,  E. 

*  Acts  vii.  53,  «XI££<T«  rt*  tnJuw  eU  fcaraye?  ayy&wv ;  Gal.  Hi.  19,  &  rfjitK  JioTayekSt' 


92  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

A  denunciation  so  scathing  and  so  fearless,  from  the  lips  of  a  prisoner 
whose  life  depended  on  their  will,  might  well  have  startled  them ;  and  this 
strong  burst  of  righteous  indignation  against  those  whom  he  had  addressed  as 
"  brethren  and  fathers,"  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  long-pent  feelings  of 
one  whose  patience  has  been  exhausted.  But  he  could  hardly  have  addressed 
them  in  words  more  calculated  to  kindle  their  fury.  The  very  terms  in  which 
he  characterised  their  bearing,  being  borrowed  from  their  own  Law  and 
Prophets,  added  force  to  the  previous  epitome  of  their  history ; l  and  to  call 
them  nncircumcised  in  heart  and  ears  was  to  reject  with  scorn  the  idle  fancies 
that  circumcision  alone  was  enough  to  save  them  from  God's  wrath,  and  that 
uncircumcision  was  worse  than  crime.2  To  convict  them  of  being  the  true 
sons  of  their  fathers,  and  to  brand  consciences,  already  ulcerated  by  a  sense  of 
guilt,  with  a  murder  worse  than  the  worst  murder  of  the  prophets,  was  not 
only  to  sweep  away  the  prestige  of  an  authority  which  the  people  so  blindly 
accepted,  but  it  was  to  arraign  his  very  judges  and  turn  upon  them  the  tables 
of  accusation.  And  this  he  did,  not  only  in  the  matter  of  their  crucifixion  of 
the  Messiah,  but  also  in  the  matter  of  disobedience  to  that  Law  ordained  by 
angels  of  which  they  were  at  that  very  moment  professing  to  vindicate  the 
sanctity  and  the  permanence. 

It  would  be  difficult  in  the  entire  range  of  literature  to  find  a  speech  more 
skilful,  more  pregnant,  more  convincing ;  and  it  becomes  truly  astonishing  when 
we  remember  that  it  seems  to  have  been  delivered  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.5 

But  the  members  of  the  Sanhedriu  were  roused  to  fury  by  the  undaunted 
audacity  of  Stephen's  final  invective.  The  most  excitable  of  Western  nations 
can  hardly  imagine  the  raging  passion  which  maddens  a  crowd  of  Eastern 
fanatics.4  Barely  able  to  continue  the  semblance  of  a  judicial  procedure,  they 

Dent,  xxxiii.  2 ;  LXX.,  ««  8tf«iv  ovrov  oyyeXoi  firr'  OVTOU  ;  pa.  Ixvii.  18 ;  Heb.  ii.  2.     In  Ps, 

Ixviii.  12  they  read,  '3«bo,  "angels,"  for  'Dbn,  " kings."    (Shabbath,  f.  88,  2.) 

1  Deut.  ix.  6,  13 ;  x.  16 ;  xxx.  6 ;  Neb.  ix.  16 ;  Ezek.  xliv.  7 ;  Jer.  ix.  26. 

2  Rabbi  [Juda  the  Holy]  said  "  that  circumcision  is  equivalent  to  all  tbe  Command- 
ments which  are  in  the  Law  "  (Nedarim,  f.  32,  1). 

3  Tbe  impression  which  it  made  on  the  heart  of  St.  Paul  is  nowhere  noticed  by  Sfc,, 
Luke,  or  by  the  Apostle  himself ;  but  the  traces  of  that  impression  are  a  series  of  coinci- 
dences which  confirm  the  genuineness  of  the  speech.     In  his  earliest  recorded  speech  at 
Antioch  he  adopts  the  same  historic  method  so  admirably  suited  to  insinuate  truth 
without  shocking  prejudice ;  he  quotes  the  same  texts  in  the  same  striking  phraseology 
and  application  (compare  Acts  vii.  48,  51,  with  Acts  xvii.  24,  Rom.  ii.  29) ;  alludes  to  the 
same  tradition  (Acts  vii.  53,  Gal.  iii.  19) ;  uses  the  same  style  of  address  (Acts  vii.  2, 
xxii.  1) ;  and  gives  the  same  marked  significance  to  the  faith  of  Abraham  (Rom.  iv.  9, 
Gal.  iii.  7),  and  to  God's  dealings  with  him  before  the  covenant  of  circumcision  (Acts  vii. 
5 — 8,  Rom.  iv.  10 — 19).    Nor  can  we  doubt  that  2  Tim.  iv.  16  was  an  echo  of  the  last 
prayer  of  Stephen,  breathed  partly  on  his  own  behalf.     There  are  at  least  seven  Hagadtith 
in  the  speech  of  Stephen — Acts  vii.  2  (call  of  Abraham) ;  4  (death  of  Terah) ;  14  (seventy- 
five  souls) ;  16  (burial  of  Patriarchs  at  Shechem) ;  22  (Egyptian  training  of  Moses) ;  23 
(forty  years) ;  42  (desert  idolatry) ;  53  (angels  at  Sinai).    As  for  the  slight  instances  of 
<r<f>oVa  nvrmovucbv  in  6,  7,  14,  16,  they  are  mere"  obiter  dicta,  auctoris  aliud  agentis." 
The  attempt  to  square  them  rigidly  with  the  Old  Testament  has  led  to  much  dishonest 
exegesis.    The  speech  of  St.  Stephen  has  been  called  "  a  compendium  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment drawn  up  in  fragments  of  the  Septuagint "  (Greenfield.  Apol.  for  the  LXX,,  103). 
"  He  had  regard  to  the  meaning,  not  to  the  words  "  (Jerome). 

*  Acts  vii.  54,  i'.nrpt'oiro  T««t  xop&ouf  avritv,  *oi  ejSpvxw  TQVS  Moyr«  hf  a.vr6v. 


WORK  AND   MAETYEDOM  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  93 

expressed  the  agony  of  hatred  which  was  sawing  their  hearts  asunder,  by  out- 
ward signs  which  are  almost  unknown  to  modern  civilisation — by  that  grinding 
and  gnashing  of  the  teeth  only  possible  to  human  beings  in  whom  "  the  ape 
and  the  tiger  "  are  not  yet  quite  dead.  To  reason  with  men  whose  passions 
had  thus  degraded  them  to  the  level  of  wild  beasts  would  have  been  worse 
than  useless.  The  flame  of  holy  anger  in  the  breast  of  Stephen  had  died  away 
as  suddenly  as  the  lightning.  It  was  a  righteous  anger;  it  was  aimed  not  at 
them  but  at  their  infatuation ;  it  was  intended  not  to  insult  but  to  awaken.1 
But  ha  saw  at  a  glance  that  it  had  failed,  and  that  all  was  now  over.  In  one 
instant  his  thoughts  had  passed  away  to  that  heaven  from  which  his  inspiration 
had  come.  From  those  hateful  faces,  rendered  demoniac  by  evil  passion,  his 
earnest  gaze  was  turned  upward  and  heavenward.  There,  in  ecstasy  of  vision, 
he  saw  the  Shechinah — the  Glory  of  God — the  Jesus"  standing  "as  though  to  aid 
and  receive  him  "  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  Transported  beyond  all  thought 
of  peril  by  that  divine  epiphany,  he  exclaimed  as  though  he  wished  his  enemies 
to  share  his  vision :  "  Lo  !  I  behold  the  heavens  parted  asunder,2  and  the  Son 
of  Man  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  At  such  a  moment  he  would  not 
pause  to  consider,  he  would  not  even  be  able  to  consider,  the  words  he  spoke ; 
but  whether  it  was  that  he  recalled  the  Messianic  title  by  which  Jesus  had  so 
often  described  himself  on  earth,  or  that  he  remembered  that  this  title  had 
been  used  by  the  Lord  when  He  had  prophesied  to  this  very  Sanhedrin  that 
hereafter  they  should  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power — 
certain  it  is  that  this  is  the  only  passage  of  the  New  Testament  where  Jesus  is 
called  the  Son  of  Man  by  lips  other  than  His  own.3 

But  those  high  words  were  too  much  for  the  feelings  of  his  audience. 
Stopping  their  ears  as  though  to  shut  out  a  polluting  blasphemy,  thoy  rose  in 
a  mass  from  both  sides  of  the  semi-circular  range  in  which  they  sat,  and  with 
one  wild  yell4  rushed  upon  Stephen.  There  was  no  question  any  longer  of  a 
legal  decision.  In  their  rage  they  took  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  and  then 
and  there  dragged  him  off  to  be  stoned  outside  the  city  gate.5 

"We  can  judge  how  fierce  must  have  been  the  rage  which  turned  a  solemn 
Sanhedrin  into  a  mob  of  murderers.  It  was  true  that  they  were  at  this 
moment  under  Sadducean  influence,  and  that  this  influence,  as  at  the  Trial  of 
Christ,  was  mainly  wielded  by  the  family  of  Hanan,  who  were  the  most 
merciless  members  of  that  least  merciful  sect.  If,  as  there  is  reason  to  believe, 
the  martyrdom  took  place  A.D.  37,  it  was  most  probably  during  the  brief 
presidency  of  the  High  Priest  Jonathan,  son  of  Hanan.  Unhappy  family  of 
the  man  whom  Josephns  pronounces  to  have  been  so  exceptionally  blest !  The 
hoary  father,  and  his  son-in-law  Caiaphas,  imbrued  their  hands  in  the  blood  of 
Jesus ;  Jonathan  during  his  few  months'  term  of  office  was  the  Nasi  of  the 
Sanhedrin  which  murdered  Stephen ;  Theophilus,  another  son,  was  the  High 

*  "  Non  fratri  irascitur  qui  peccato  fratris  irascitur  "  (Aug.). 

1  Acts  vii.  56,  leg.,  in)votyfi«Vovs,  »,  A,  B,  C.  8  See,  however,  Rev.  i.  13 ;  xlv.  14, 

*  Acts  vii.  57,  Kpagavrt*  fysavfi  ftryaAjj. 

*  See  Excursus  VI.,  "Capital  Punishments." 


94  -ffHE  LIFS  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Priest  who,  during  tho  utmost  virulence  of  tlie  first  persecution  gave  Saul  his 
inquisitorial  commission  to  Damascus  ;  Matthias,  another  son,  roust,  from  tho 
date  of  his  elevation,  have  been  one  of  those  leading  Jews  whom  Herod  Agrippa 
tried  to  conciliate  by  the  murder  of  James  the  son  of  Zebedee ;  and  another 
Hunan,  the  youngest  son  of  the  "  viper  brood  "  brought  about  with  illegal 
violence  the  murder  of  James  the  brother  of  the  Lord.1  Thus  all  these  judicial 
murders — so  rare  at  this  epoch — were  aimed  at  the  followers  of  Jesus,  and  all  of 
them  directed  or  sanctioned  by  the  cunning,  avaricious,  unscrupulous  members 
of  a  single  family  of  Sadducean  priests.2 

Stephen,  then,  was  hurried  away  to  execution  with  a  total  disregard  of  the 
ordinary  observances.  His  thoughts  were  evidently  occupied  with  the  sad  scene 
of  Calvary ;  it  would  come  home  to  him  with  all  the  greater  vividness  because 
he  passed  in  all  probability  through  that  very  gate  through  which  Jesus,  four 
short  years  before,  had  borne  His  cross.  It  was  almost  in  the  words  of  his 
Master8  that  when  the  horrid  butchery  began — for  the  precautions  to  render 
death  speedy  seem  to  have  been  neglected  in  the  blind  rage  of  his  murderers 
— ho  exclaimed,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."4  And  when  bruised  and 
bleeding  lie  was  just  able  to  drag  himself  to  his  knees  it  was  again  in  the  spirit 
of  that  Lord  that  ho  prayed  for  his  murderers,  and  even  the  cry  of  his  anguish 
rang  forth  in  the  forgiving  utterance — showing  how  little  malice  there  Lad 
been  in  the  stern  words  ho  had  used  before — "  Lord,  lay  not  to  their  charge 
this  sin."'  With  that  cry  he  passed  from  the  wrath  of  men  to  the  peace  of 
God.  Tho  historian  ends  the  bloody  tragedy  with  one  weighty  and  beautiful 
word,  "  He  fell  asleep."  6 

To  fulfil  their  dreadful  task,  the  witnesses  had  taken  off  their  garments;7 
and  they  laid  them  "  at  the  feet  of  a  young  man  whose  name  was  Saul." 

It  is  the  first  allusion  in  history  to  a  name,  destined  from  that  day  forward 
to  be  memorable  for  ever  in  tho  annals  of  tho  world.  And  how  sad  an 
allusion !  He  stands,  not  indeed  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  death ;  but 
keeping  the  clothes,  consenting  to  the  violence,  of  those  who,  in  this  brutal 

'  Jos.  An.lt.  xviii.  4,  §  3  ;  5,  §  3  ;  xix.  6,  §  2  ;  xx.  9,  §  1. 

2  Every  epithet  I  Lave  used  is  more  than  justified  by  what  we  know  of  this  family 
from  the  Isew  Testament,  from  Josephus,  and,  above  all.  from  the  Talmud.      See 
Excursus  VII.,  "The  Power  of  the  Sanhedrin  to  Inflict  Death." 

3  Luke  xxiii.  34,  46. 

4  tTriKoAdv/xevoc  mcans_^  calling  on  Jesus."    There  is  no  need  for  the  ingenious  con- 
jecture of  Bentley  that  eN  is  lost  by  hoinoeoteleuton  of  the  ON. 

6  This— not  as  ia  the  Received  text— is  the  proper  order  of  the  words  (N.  A,  B,  C,  D). 
" Saevire  videbatur  Stephanus :  lingua  ferox,  cor lene "  (Aug.  Sc-nn.  315).  "Si  Stephanus 
non  orassct  ecclesia  Pauluru  non  habuisset."  With  tho  expression  itself  comp.  Rev.  xiv.  13. 
Perhaps  in  the  word  OTTJCTIJS  we  may  see  an  allusion  to  the  Jewish  notion  that  a  man's  sins 
actually  followed  and  stood  by  him  in  the  world  to  come  (1  Tim.  v.  24 ;  Sot^ih,  f.  3,  2). 

•  So  in.  a  beautiful  epigram  of  the  Anthology,  we  find  the  lines,  Upb^  virvov  xotpaTiu* 
0i»j<7Keiv  fii)  Xeye  TOUS  iyaOoi;?.  It  is  the  A'cshikah  of  the  Jews  (Deut.  xxxiv.  8).  That  the 
solemn  rhythmical  epitrite  d/coi^o.)  is  not  wholly  unintentional  seems  to  be  clear  from  the 
similar  weighty  'oxa>\vTu«  with  which,  as  Bishop  Wordsworth  points  out,  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  ends.  St.  Luke  is  evidently  fond  of  paronomasia,  as  well  as  St.  Paul  (cf. 
KanjfHo0T)<rai'  aTtfuurfftgwu,  Acts  v.  41).  This  is  the  third  recorded  death  in  the  Christian 
community :  the  first  had  been  a  suicide,  the  second  a  judgment,  the  third  a  raartyrdocj, 

i  This  custom  is  not  alluded  to  in  the  Mishna  or  Gemara, 


SAUL  THE   PERSECUTOR,  95 

manner,  dimmed  in  blood  the  light  upon  a  face  which  had  been  radiant  as  that 
of  aii  angel  with  faith  and  love. 

Stephen  was  dead,  and  it  might  well  have  seemed  that  all  tho  truth  which 
was  to  be  the  glory  and  the  strength  o£  Christianity  had  died  with  him.  But 
the  deliverance  of  the  Gentiles,  and  their  free  redemption  by  the  blood  of 
Christ,  were  truths  too  glorious  to  be  quenched.  The  truth  may  be  suppressed 
for  a  time,  even  for  a  long  time,  but  it  always  starts  up  again  from  its  apparent 
grave.  Fra  Dolcino  was  torn  to  pieces,  and  Savonarola  and  Huss  were  burnt, 
but  the  Reformation  was  not  prevented.  Stephen  sank  in  his  blood,  but  his 
place  was  taken  by  the  young  man  who  stood  there  to  incite  his  murderers. 
Four  years  after  Jesus  had  died  upon  the  cross  of  infamy,  Stephen  was  stoned 
for  beiug  His  disciple  and  His  worshipper ;  thirty  years  after  the  death  of 
Stephen,  his  deadliest  ODDonent  died  also  for  the  same  holy  faith. 


THE     CONVERSION.    *; 
CHAPTER  IX. 

SAUL  THE  PEBSECUTOa. 

Horl  Kfrrpov  5^  roi  \axri£e(i.tv 

TeAe'tfet  b\iff6ripos  olpos. — FIND.  fyth.  ii.  173. 

"  AT  a  young  man's  f eot."  The  expression  is  vague,  but  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that  Saul  was  now  not  less  than  thirty  years  old.1  The  reverence 
for  age,  strong  among  all  Orientals,  was  specially  strong  among  the  Jews,  and 
they  iiover  entrusted  authority  to  those  who  had  not  attained  to  full  years  of 
discretion.  "We  may  regard  it  as  certain  that  even  a  scholar  of  Gamaliel,  so 
full  of  genius  and  of  zeal  as  Saul,  would  not  have  been  appointed  a  commis- 
sioner of  the  Sanhcdrin  to  carry  out  a  responsible  inquisition  earlier  than  the 
ago  of  thirty ;  and  if  we  attach  a  literal  meaning  to  tho  expression,  "  When 
they  were  being  condemned  to  death,  I  gave  a  voto  against  them,"2  this 
implies  that  Saul  was  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin.  If  so,  he  was  at  this  time, 
by  the  very  condition  of  that  dignity,  a  married  man.3 

1  Josephus  uses  vtaviat  of  Agrippa  I.  when  he  must  have  been  at  least  forty  (Antt. 
xviii.  »>,  §  i  ;  v.  supra,  p.  7). 

'  Acts  XXV'i.  10,  aratpou/4cViop  re  OLVTWV  xar^i-eyxa  \jirj<j>ov. 

8  Selden,  DC  Syncdr.  ii.  7,  7.  In  the  Mishna  the  only  qualifications  mentioned  for 
membership  of  the  Sanhedrin  axe  that  a  man  must  not  be  a  dicer,  usurer,  pigeon-flyer,  or 
dealer  in  the  produce  of  the  Sabbatical  year  (Sanhedr.  iii.  3) ;  but  in  the  Gemara,  and  in 
later  Jewish  writers,  we  find  that,  besides  the  qualification  mentioned  in  Exod.  xviii.  21, 
and  Deut.  i.  13 — 16,  a  candidate  must  be  free  from  every  physical  blemish,  stainless  in 
character,  learned  in  science,  acquainted  with  more  than  one  language,  and  with  a  family 


96  THE   LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

But  if  the  regulation  that  a  Sanhedrist  must  be  a  married  man  was 
intended  to  secure  the  spirit  of  gentleness,1  the  rule  had  failed  of  its  purpose 
La  the  case  of  Saul.  In  the  terrible  persecution  of  the  Christians  which 
ensued — a  persecution  far  more  severe  than  the  former  attacks  of  the  Sad- 
ducees  on  the  Apostles — he  was  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  endeavour  to  stamp 
out  the  Christian  faith.  Not  content  with  the  flagging  fanaticism  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  he  was  at  once  the  prime  mover  and  the  chief  executor  of  religious 
vengeance.  The  charge  which  had  cost  St.  Stephen  his  life  must  have  been 
partially  valid  against  others  of  the  Hellenistic  Christians,  and  although  their 
views  might  be  more  liberal  than  those  of  the  Galilaean  disciples,  yet  the  bonds 
of  affection  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Church  were  still  so  close  that 
the  fate  of  one  section  could  not  be  dissevered  from  tliat  of  the  other.  The 
Jews  were  not  naturally  fond  of  persecution.  The  Sanhedrin  of  this  period 
had  incurred  the  charge  of  disgraceful  laxity.  The  Sicarii  were  not  sup- 
pressed ;  the  red  heifer  was  slain  no  longer ; 2  the  ordeal  of  the  bitter  water 
had  been  done  away,  because  the  crime  of  adultery  had  greatly  increased.3 
Rabbi  Joshua  Ben  Korcha,  when  R.  Elieser  had  arrested  some  thieves, 
reproached  him  with  the  words,  "  How  long  will  you  hand  over  the  people  of 
God  to  destruction  ?  Leave  the  thorns  to  bo  plucked  up  by  the  Lord  of  the 
vineyard." 4  But  to  the  seducer  (mesith),  the  blasphemer  (megadeph),  and 
the  idolater,  there  was  neither  leniency  nor  compassion.5  By  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  the  Jews  themselves,  Christians  could  not  be  charged  with  the 
crime  of  idolatry; 8  but  it  was  easy  to  bring  them  under  the  penalty  of  stoning, 
which  was  attached  to  the  former  crimes.  The  minor  punishments  of  flagel- 
lation and  excommunication  seem  to  have  been  in  the  power,  not  only  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  but  even  of  each  local  synagogue.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
legal  powers  of  these  bodies,  whatever  licences  the  temporary  relaxation  of 
Roman  supervision  may  have  permitted,7  they  were  used  and  abused  to  the 
utmost  by  the  youthful  zealot.  The  wisdom  of  tho  toleration  which  Gamaliel 
himself  had  recommended  appears  in  tho  fact  that  the  great  persecution, 
which  broke  up  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  was  hi  every  way  valuable  to  the 
new  religion.  It  dissipated  the  Judaism  which  would  have  endangered  the 

of  his  own,  because  such  were  supposed  to  be  less  inclined  to  cruelty,  and  more  likely  to 
sympathise  with  domestic  affections.  (Horepoth,  i.  4  ;  Sankedr.  f.  17,  1,  36,  b.;  Menachdth, 
f.  65,  1 ;  Maimon.  Sanhedr.  ii. ;  Otho,  Lex.  Rabb.  a.  v.)  Whatever  may  be  thought  of 
the  other  qualifications,  it  is  probable  that  this  one,  at  any  rate,  was  insisted  on,  and  it 
adds  force  to  our  impression  that  St.  Paul  had  once  been  a  married  man  (1  Cor.  vii.  8  ; 
v.  supra,  p.  45,  sq.  See  Ewald,  Sendschr.  d.  Ap.  Paul-  p.  161 ;  Gesch.  d.  Apost.  Zeitalt. 
p.  371). 

1  See  Surenhus.  Mishna,  iv.  Praef.  !  Sotah,  f.  47,  1. 

3  Maimon  in  Sotah,  c.  3.  They  quoted  Hoa.  iv.  14  in  favour  of  this  abolition  of  Num. 
v.  18.  Cf.  Matt.  xii.  39 ;  xvi.  4. 

«  Babha  Metzia,  f.  82,  2  ;  Otho,  Lex.  Rabb.,  B.  v.  Synedrium. 

*  Dent.  xiii.  8,  9 ;  Sanhedr.  f.  29,  1 ;  32,  3. 

6  There  is  not  one  word  about  the  Christians  in  the  tract  Alh6da  Za/ra,  or  on  "alien 
worship." 

<  Alarcellus,  who  was  at  this  time  an  ad  interim  governor,  held  the  rank,  not  of  Pro- 
curator, WIIMV,  but  only  of  int(it\i)rfc  (J08-  -AmU.  rriii.  4,  §  2). 


SAUL  THE   PERSECUTOR,  97 

spread  of  Christianity,  and  showed  that  the  disciples  had  a  loftier  mission 
than  to  dwindle  down  into  a  Galilean  synagogue.  The  sacred  fire,  which 
might  have  burnt  low  on  the  hearth  of  the  upper  chamber  at  Jerusalem,  was 
kindled  into  fresh  heat  and  splendour  when  its  brands  were  scattered  over  all 
Judaea  and  Samaria,  and  uncircumcised  Gentiles  were  admitted  by  baptism 
into  the  fold  of  Christ. 

The  solemn  burial  of  Stephen  by  holy  men — whether  Hellenist  Chris- 
tians or  Jewish  proselytes — the  beating  of  the  breast,  the  wringing  of  the 
hands  with  which  they  lamented  him,1  produced  no  change  in  the  purpose 
of  Saul.  The  sight  of  that  dreadful  execution,  the  dying  agonies  and 
crushed  remains  of  one  who  had  stood  before  the  Sanhedrin  like  an  angel  in 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  could  hardly  have  failed  to  produce  an  impression  on 
a  heart  so  naturally  tender.  But  if  it  was  a  torture  to  witness  the  agony  of 
others,  and  to  be  the  chief  agent  in  its  infliction,  then  that  very  torture  became 
a  more  meritorious  service  for  the  Law.  If  his  own  blameless  scrupulosity 
in  all  that  affected  legal  righteousness  was  begiuniag  to  be  secretly  tainted 
with  heretical  uncertainties,  he  would  feel  it  all  the  more  incumbent  on  him 
to  wash  away  those  doubts  in  blood.  Like  Cardinal  Pole,  when  Paul  IV. 
began  to  impugn  his  orthodoxy,  he  must  have  felt  himself  half  driven  to 
persecution,  in  order  to  prove  his  soundness  in  the  faith. 

The  part  which  he  played  at  this  time  in  the  horrid  work  of  persecution 
has,  I  fear,  been  always  underrated.  It  is  only  when  we  collect  the  separate 
passages — they  are  no  less  than  eight  in  number — in  which  allusion  is  made 
to  this  sad  period — it  is  only  when  wo  weigh  the  terrible  significance  of 
the  expressions  used — that  we  feel  the  load  of  remorse  which  must  have 
lain  upon  him,  and  the  taunts  to  which  he  was  liable  from  malignant  ene- 
mies. He  "  made  havoc  of  " — literally,  "  he  was  ravaging  " — the  Church.2 
No  stronger  metaphor  could  well  have  been  used.  It  occurs  nowhere  else 
in  the  New  Testament,  but  in  the  Septuagint,  and  in  classical  Greek,  is 
applied  to  the  wild  boars  which  uproot  a  vineyard.3  Not  content  with  the 
visitation  of  the  synagogues,  he  got  authority  for  an  inquisitorial  visit  from 
house  to  house,  and  even  from  the  sacred  retirement  of  the  Christian  home 
he  dragged  not  only  men,  but  women,  to  judgment  and  to  prison.4  So 
thorough  was  his  search,  and  so  deadly  were  its  effects,  that,  in  referring 
to  it,  the  Christians  of  Damascus  can  only  speak  of  Saul  as  "  he  that 
devastated  in  Jerusalem  them  that  call  on  this  name,"  s  using  the  strong 
word  which  is  strictly  applicable  to  an  invading  army  which  scathes  a  con- 
quered country  with  fire  and  sword.  So  much  St.  Luke  tells  us,  in  giving 
a  reason  for  the  total  scattering  of  the  Church,  and  the  subsequent  bless- 

1  Acts  viii.  2,  KOIMTO*  pcyat.  The  word  is  found  in  the  LXX.,  Gen.  1. 10,  &c.,  but  here 
alone  in  the  New  Testament. 

'  Acts  viii.  3,  VAvfiaiVero  TT)V  <KKXi)<rutv. 

8  Ps.  Ixxix.  14  ;  Callim.  Hymn,  in  iJian.  156,  <n««  epya  <n!«  <J>irra  M/fxaii/oirou. 

4  These  hostile  measures  are  summed  up  in  the  5<ra  xouca  «woiV«  rots  iytW  of  Ananias, 
who  says  that  the  rumour  had  reached  him  from  many  sources  (Acts  is.  13). 

5  Acts  Lr.  21,  o  rrop&;iras. 


98  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKE  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

legs  which  sprang  from  their  preaching  the  Word  in  widor  districts.  The 
Apostles,  he  adds,  remained.  What  was  the  special  reason  for  this  we  do 
not  know ;  but  as  the  Lord's  direct  permission  to  the  seventy  to  fly  before 
persecution1  would  have  sanctioned  their  consulting  their  own  safety,  it 
may  have  been  because  Jesus  had  bidden  them  stay  in  Jerusalem  till 
the  end  of  twelve  years.2  If,  as  St.  Chrysostom  imagines,  they  stayed  to 
support  the  courage  of  others,  how  was  it  that  the  shepherds  escaped  while 
the  flock  was  being  destroyed  ?  Or  are  we  to  infer  that  the  main  fury 
of  the  persecution  foil  upon  those  Hellenists  who  shared  the  views  of 
the  first  martyr,  and  that  the  Apostles  were  saved  from  molestation  by 
the  blameless  Mosaism  of  which  one  of  the  leading  brethren — no  less  a 
person  than  James,  the  Lord's  brother — was  so  conspicuous  an  example  P 
Be  that  as  it  may,  at  any  rate  they  did  not  fall  victims  to  tho  rage  which 
was  so  fatal  to  many  of  their  companions. 

In  two  of  his  speeches  and  four  of  his  letters  does  St.  Paul  revert  to  this 
crime  of  an  erring  obstinacy.  Twice  to  the  Galatians  does  he  use  the  same 
strong  metaphor  which  was  applied  to  his  conduct  by  the  Damascene  believers.3 
He  tells  the  Corinthians4  that  he  was  "the  least  of  the  Apostles,  not 
meet  to  be  called  an  Apostle,  because  he  persecuted  the  Church  of  God." 
Ho  reminds  the  Philippians 5  that  his  old  Hebraic  zeal  as  a  Pharisee  had 
shown  itself  by  his  "  persecuting  the  Church."  And  oven  when  the  shadows 
of  a  troubled  old  age  were  beginning  to  close  around  him,  keen  in  the  sense 
that  he  was  utterly  forgiven  through  Him  who  "  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief,"  ho  cannot  forget  the  bitter  thought  that, 
though  in  ignorance,  he  had  once  been  "  a  blasphemer,  and  persecutor,  and 
injurious."  8  And  when  he  is  speaking  to  those  who  knew  the  worst — hi  his 
speech  to  the  raging  mob  of  Jerusalem,  as  ho  stood  on  the  steps  of  the  Tower 
of  Antonia — he  adds  one  fact  more  which  casts  a  lurid  light  on  the  annals  of 
the  persecution.  He  shows  there  that  the  blood  of  Stephen  was  not  the  only 
blood  that  had  been  shed — not  the  only  blood  of  which  the  stains  had 
incarnadined  his  conscience.  He  tolls  the  mob  not  only  of  the  binding  and 
imprisonment  of  women  as  well  as  men,  but  also  that  he  "  persecuted  this 
way  unto  the  death."1  Lastly,  in  his  speech  at  Csesarea,  he  adds  what  ia 
perhaps  the  darkest  touch  of  all,  for  he  says  that,  armed  with  the  High 
Priest's  authority,  he  not  only  fulfilled  unwittingly  the  prophecy  of  Christ 8 
by  scourging  the  Christians  "  often  "  and  "  in  every  synagogue,"  but  that, 
when  it  came  to  the  question  of  death,  he  gave  his  vote  against  them,  and  that 
ho  did  his  best  to  compel  them  to  blaspheme.9  I  say  "  did  his  best,"  because 

»  Matt.  x.  23. 

2  A  brief  visit  to  Samaria  "to  coiifirm  the  churchea"  (Acts  viil.  14)  would  not 
militate  against  this  command. 

8  Gal.  i.  13,  whore  he  alao  says  that  he  persecuted  them  beyond  measure  (*<& 
virec/'oXKv) :  and  i.  23. 

«  1  Cor.  xv.  9.  •  Phil.  ill.  6.  «  1  Tim.  1.  13.  7  Acts  xxii.  4, 

8  Matt.  x.  17 ;  Mark  xiii.  9. 

•  Acts  xxvi.  11,  wa.yna.Zov  fiXa<r4>i»Mu'.  There  Is  a  possibility  that  In  the  a\pi  Sa.va.rav 
of  the  previous  passage,  and  the  Kcr^viyea  it^cx  of  this,  St.  Paul  may  allude  to  bin 


BATJL  THE   PERSECUTOR.  89 

the  tease  he  uses  implies  effort,  but  not  necessarily  success.  Pliny,  hi  a 
passage  of  his  famous  letter  to  Trajan  from  Bithyuia,1  says  that,  in  question- 
ing those  who,  hi  anonymous  letters,  were  accused  of  being  "  Christians," 
he  thought  it  sufficient  to  test  them  by  making  them  offer  wine  and  incense 
to  the  statues  of  the  gods  and  the  bust  of  the  emperor,  and  to  blaspheme 
the  name  of  Christ-;  and,  if  they  were  willing  to  do  this,  he  dismissed  them 
without  further  inquiry,  because  he  had  been  informed  that  to  no  one  of  these 
things  could  a  genuine  Christian  ever  be  impelled. 

"We  do  not  know  that  in  all  the  sufferings  of  the  Apostle  any  attempt  was 
ever  made  to  compel  him  to  blaspheme.  With  all  the  other  persecutions 
which  he  made  the  Christian  suffer  he  became  in  his  future  life  too  sadly 
familiar.  To  the  last  dregs  of  lonely  and  unpitied  martyrdom  he  drank  the 
bitter  cup  of  merciless  persecution.  Five  times — in  days  when  he  was  no 
longer  the  haughty  Rabbi,  the  self-righteous  Pharisee,  the  fierce  legate  of  the 
Sauhedrin  armed  with  unlimited  authority  for  the  suppression  of  heresy,  but 
was  himself  the  scorned,  hunted,  hated,  half-starved  missionary  cf  that  which 
was  branded  as  an  apostate  sect — five  times,  from  the  authority  of  some  ruler 
of  the  synagogue,  did  he  receive  forty  stripes  save  one.  He,  too,  was  stoned, 
and  betrayed,  and  many  times  imprisoned,  and  had  the  vote  of  death  recorded 
against  him ;  and  in  all  this  ho  recognised  the  just  and  merciful  flame  that 
purged  away  the  dross  of  a  once  misguided  soul — the  light  affliction  which  ha 
had  deserved,  but  which  was  not  comparable  to  the  far  more  eternal  weight  of 
glory.  In  all  this  he  may  have  even  rejoiced  that  he  was  bearing  for  Christ's 
sake  that  which  he  had  made  others  bear,  and  passing  through  the  same 
furnace  which  he  had  once  heated  sevenfold  for  them.  But  I  doubt  whether 
any  one  of  these  sufferings,  or  all  of  them  put  together,  ever  wrung  his  soul 
with  the  same  degree  of  anguish  as  that  which  lay  in  the  thought  that  he  had 
used  all  the  force  of  his  character  and  all  the  tyranny  of  his  intolerance  to 
break  the  bruised  reed  and  to  quench  the  smoking  flax — that  he  had  endea- 
voured, by  the  infamous  power  of  terror  and  anguish,  to  compel  some  gentle 
heart  to  blaspheme  its  Lord. 

The  great  persecution  with  which  St.  Paul  was  thus  identified — and  which, 
from  these  frequent  allusions,  as  well  as  from  the  intensity  of  the  language 
employed,  seems  to  me  to  have  been  more  terrible  than  is  usually  admitted— 
did  not  spend  its  fury  for  some  months.  In  Jerusalem  it  was  entirely  success- 
fal.  There  wore  no  more  preachings  or  wonders  in  Solomon's  Porch ;  no  more 
throngs  that  gathered  in  the  streets  to  wait  the  passing  shadow  of  Peter  and 
John ;  no  more  assembled  multitudes  in  the  house  of  ilary,  the  mother  of  St. 
Mark.  If  the  Christians  met,  they  met  in  mournful  secrecy  and  diminished 
numbers,  and  the  Love-feasts,  if  held  at  all,  must  have  been  held  as  in  the 

own  endeavour  (cf.  Gal.  vi.  12)  to  Lave  them  capitally  punished,  without  implying  that 
the  vote  was  carried.  I  have  translated  the  ivaipoviievtav  so  as  to  admit  of  this  meaning, 
which,  perhaps,  acquires  a  shade  of  additional  probability  from  Hcb.  xii.  4,  "Ye  have  not 
yet  resisted  unto  blood,"  if  that  Epistle  was  specially  addressed  to  Palestinian  Jews. 

1  Plin.  Ep,  x.  97  .  ..."  praeterea  maledicere  Christo ;  quorum  nikil  coyi  pozse  <#• 
euniur  qui  sunt  revera  Chriatiani." 


100  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.    PAUL. 

early  days  before  the  Ascension,  with  doors  closed,  for  fear  of  the  Jews. 
Some  of  the  Christians  had  suffered  cruelly  for  their  religion  ;  the  faithless 
members  of  the  Church  had  doubtless  apostatised  ;  the  majority  had  fled  at 
once  before  the  storm.1 

It  is,  perhaps,  to  indicate  the  continuance  of  this  active  hostility  that  St. 
Luke  here  inserts  the  narrative  of  Philip's  preaching  as  a  fitting  prelude  to 
the  work  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  At  this  narrative  we  shall  glance 
hereafter  ;  but  now  we  must  follow  the  career  of  Saul  the  Inquisitor,  and  see 
the  marvellous  event  which,  by  one  lightning  flash,  made  him  "a  fusile 
Apostle"  —  which  in  one  day  transformed  Saul  the  persecutor  into  Paul  the 
slave  of  Jesus  Christ. 

His  work  in  Jerusalem  was  over.  The  brethren  who  remained  had  either 
eluded  his  search-warrant,  or  been  rescued  from  his  power.  But  the  young 
zealot  was  not  the  man  to  do  anything  by  halves.  If  he  had  smitten  one  head 
of  the  hydra,2  it  had  grown  up  in  new  places.  If  ho  had  torn  up  the  heresy 
by  the  roots  from  the  Holy  City,  the  winged  seeds  had  alighted  on  other 
fertile  ground,  and  the  rank  weed  was  still  luxuriant  elsewhere  ;  so  that,  in  his 
outrageous  madness  —  it  is  his  own  expression3  —  ho  began  to  pursue  them 
even  to  foreign  cities.  Damascus,  ho  had  heard,  was  now  the  worst  nest  of 
this  hateful  delusion,  and  fortunately  in  that  city  he  could  find  scope  for 
action  ;  for  the  vast  multitude  of  Jews  which  it  contained  acknowledged 
allegiance  to  the  Sanhedrin.  To  the  High  Priest,  therefore,  he  went  —  unsated 
by  all  his  previous  cruelties,  and  in  a  frame  of  mind  so  hot  with  rage  that 
again  it  can  only  be  described  by  the  unparalleled  phrase  that  he  was  "  breathing 
threats  and  slaughter  against  the  disciples  of  the  Lord,"4  The  High  Priest  —  • 
in  all  probability  Thowphilus,  who  was  promoted  by  Vitellius  at  the  Pentecost 
of  A.D.  375  —  was  a  Sadducee,  and  a  son  of  the  hated  house  of  Hanan.  Yet  it 
was  with  Saul,  and  not  with  Theophilus,  that  the  demand  originated,  to  pursue 
the  heresy  to  Damascus.6  Not  sorry  to  find  so  thorough  an  instrument  in  one 
who  belonged  to  a  different  school  from  his  own  —  not  sorry  that  the  guilty 
responsibility  for  "  this  man's  blood  "  should  be  shared  by  Sadducees  with  the 
followers  of  Hillel  —  Theophilus  gave  the  lettprs  which  authorised  Saul  to  set 
up  his  court  at  Damascus,  and  to  bring  from  thence  in  chains  all  whom  he 
could  find,  both  men  and  women,  to  await  such  mercy  as  Stephen's  murder 
might  lead  them  to  hope  for  at  the  hands  of  the  supreme  tribunal.7  In  ordinary 


1  This  is  implied  In  the  iv  iKtivy  rfj  ^'p?,  and  in  the  aorist  Sietrirapijo-av  of  Acts  viii.  1. 

2  Domitian  and  Maximin  struck  medals  of  Hercules  and  the  Hydra  with  the  inscrip- 
tion "  Deleta  religione  Christiana  quae  orbem  turbabat." 

3  Acts  XXVI.  11,  irepKTcrw?  cjUTuupopei'Ot  avrotfr 
*  Acts  IX.  1,  tfiirvetav  arr«i.\ii)?  xai  fywov. 

6  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  5,  §  3. 

6  Acts  ix.  2,  "If  he  should  find  any  of  the  way."     The  word  Xpt<m<m<rj«ac  was 
invented  later  (infra,  p.  107).      The  Jewish  writers  similarly  speak  of  the   "dcrck 
ha-Notserim,  "  or  "  way  of  the  Nazareiics." 

7  The  repeated  allusions  to  the  punishment  of  women  shows  not  only  the  keenness  of 
the  search,  out  also  the  large  part  played  by  Christian  women  in  the  spread  of  that 
religion  which  first  elevated  their  condition  from  the  degradation  of  the  harem  and  the 
narrowness  of  the  gynaeceum.    These  women-martyrs  of  the  groat  persecution  were  tha 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  SAUL.  101 

times  when  that  Jewish  autonomy,  which  always  meant  Jewish  intolerance, 
was  repressed  witliiu  stern  limits  by  the  Roman  government — it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  carry  out  so  cruel  a  commission.  This  might  have  been  urged 
as  an  insuperable  difficulty  if  an  incidental  expression  in  2  Cor.  xi.  32  had  not 
furnished  a  clue  in  explanation  of  the  circumstances.  From  this  it  appears 
that  at  this  time  the  city  was  more  or  less  in  the  hands  of  Aretas  or  Hareth, 
the  powerful  Emir  of  Petra.1  Now  there  are  notices  in  the  Talmud  which 
prove  that  Hareth  stood  in  friendly  relations  to  the  Jewish  High  Priest,2  and 
we  can  see  how  many  circumstances  thus  concurred  to  create  for  Saul  an 
exceptional  opportunity  to  bring  the  Christians  of  Damascus  under  the 
authority  of  the  Sanhedrin.  Never  again  might  he  find  so  favourable  an 
opportunity  of  eradicating  the  heresy  of  these  hated  Nazarenes. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE    CONVEBSION    OF    SAUL. 
.  >  .  KaTf\r)<f>9T]t'  u^b  rov  Xpiirrov  'liytrou. — PHIL.  iii.  12. 

"  Opfert  freudig  aus  was  ihr  besesscn 

Was  ihr  einst  gewesen,  was  ihr  seyd ; 
Und  in  einem  seligen  Vergessen 

Schwinde  die  Vergangenlieit." — SCHILLER. 

AEMED  with  his  credentials  Saul  started  from  Jerusalem  for  his  journey  of 
nearly  150  miles.  That  journey  would  probably  be  performed  exactly  as  it  is 
now  performed  with  horses  and  mules,  which  are  indispensable  to  the  traveller 
along  those  rough,  bad  roads,  and  up  and  down  those  steep  and  fatiguing 
hills.  Saul,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  travelling  in  a  manner  very  different 
from  that  of  our  Lord  and  his  humble  followers.  They  who,  in  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor,  assumed  no  higher  earthly  dignity  than  that  of  the 
carpenter  of  Nazareth  and  the  fishermen  of  Galilee,  would  go  on  foot  with 
staff  and  scrip  from  village  to  village,  like  the  other  "  people  of  the  land " 
whom  long-robed  Scribes  despised.  Saul  was  in  a  very  different  position, 
and  the  little  retinue  which  was  assigned  him  would  treat  him  with  all  the 
deference  due  to  a  Pharisee  and  a  Rabbi — a  legate  a  latere  of  Theophilus,  the 
powerful  High  Priest. 

But,  however  performed,  the  journey  could  not  occupy  less  than  a  week, 
and  even  the  fiery  zeal  of  the  persecutor  would  scarcely  enable  him  to  get  rid 

true  predecessors  of  those  Saints  Catherine,  and  Barbara,  and  Lucia,  and  Agnes,  and 
Dorothea,  and  Caecilia,  and  Felicitas,  who  leave  the  light  of  their  names  on  the  annals 
of  Christian  heroism. 

1  See  Excursus  VIII.  :  "Damascus  under  Hareth." 

8  A  story  is  told  that  on  one  occasion  the  High  Priest  Simeon  Ben  Kamhith  was  in, 
capacitated  from  performing  the  duties  of  the  Day  of  Atonement,  because,  while 
familiarly  talking  with  Hareth  on  the  previous  evening,  a  drop  of  the  Emir's  saliva  had 
fallen  on  the  High  Priest's  dress  (cf.  Ifiddah,,  f.  33,  2.) 


102  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

of  the  habitual  leisureliuess  of  Eastern  travelling.  And  thus,  as  they  rnauo 
their  way  along  the  difficult  and  narrow  roads,  Saul  would  be  doomed  to  a 
week  of  necessary  reflection.  Hitherto,  ever  since  those  hot  disputes  in  tho 
synagogues  of  Cilician  Hellenists,  he  had  been  living  in  a  whirl  of  business 
which  could  havo  left  him  but  little  time  for  quiet  thought.  That  active 
inquisition,  those  domiciliary  visits,  those  incessant  trials,  that  perpetual 
presiding  over  the  scourgings,  imprisonments,  perhaps  even  actual  stonings  of 
men  and  women,  into  which  he  had  been  plunged,  must  have  absorbed  his 
whole  energies,  and  left  him  no  inclination  to  face  the  difficult  questions,  or  to 
lay  the  secret  misgivings  which  had  begun  to  rise  in  his  mind,1  Pride — tlie 
pride  of  system,  the  pride  of  nature,  the  rank  pride  of  the  self-styled 
theologian,  the  exclusive  national  Pharisaic  pride  in  which  he  had  been 
trained — forbade  him  to  examine  seriously  whether  he  might  not  after  all  be 
in  the  wrong.  Without  humility  there  can  bo  no  sincerity ;  without  sincerity, 
no  attainment  of  the  truth.  Saul  felt  that  he  could  not  and  would  not  let 
himself  be  convinced ;  he  could  not  and  would  not  admit  that  much  of  the 
learning  of  his  thirty  years  of  life  was  a  mass  of  worthless  cobwebs,  and  that 
all  the  righteousness  with  which  he  had  striven  to  hasten  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah  was  as  filthy  rags.  He  could  not  and  would  not  admit  the  possibility 
that  people  like  Peter  and  Stephen  could  be  right,  while  people  like  himself 
and  the  Sanhedrin  could  be  mistaken;  or  that  the  Messiah  could  bo  a 
Nazarene  who  had  been  crucified  as  a  malefactor;  or  that  after  looking  for 
Hun  so  many  generations,  and  making  their  whole  religious  life  turn  on  His 
expected  Advent,  Israel  should  have  been  found  sleeping,  and  have  murdered 
Him  when  at  hist  He  came.  If  haunting  doubts  could  for  a  moment  thrust 
themselves  into  his  thoughts,  the  vehement  self-assertion  of  contempt  would 
sweep  them  out,  and  they  would  bo  expiated  by  fresh  zeal  against  tho  seductive 
glamour  of  tho  heresy  which  thus  dared  to  insinuate  itself  like  a  serpent  into 
the  very  hearts  of  its  avengers.  What  could  it  be  but  diabolic  influence  which 
made  the  words  and  the  arguments  of  these  blasphemers  of  the  Law  and  the 
Temple  fasten  involuntarily  upon  Ids  mind  and  memory  P  Never  would  he 
too  be  seduced  into  tho  position  of  a  mesiih/  Never  would  ho  degrade  him- 
self to  the  ignorant  level  of  people  who  knew  not  tho  Law  and  were  accursed ! 

1  See  Rom.  vii.  8,  9,  10.  This  picture  of  St.  Paul's  mental  condition  ia  no  mere  ima- 
ginative touch ;  from  all  such,  both  in  this  work  and  in  my  Life  of  Christ,  I  have 
studiously  abstained.  It  springs  as  a  direct  and  inevitable  conclusion  from  his  own 
epistles  and  the  reproof  of  Jesus,  "It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  goads." 
These  words,  following  the  "  Why persecu test  thou  me?"  imply,  with  inimitable  brevity, 
"Seest  thou  not  that  /  am  the  pursuer  and  thou  the  pursued?"  "What  were  those 
goads?  There  were  no  conceivable  goads  for  him  to  resist,  except  those  which  were 
wielded  by  his  own  conscience.  The  stings  of  conscience,  the  anguish  of  a  constant  mis- 
giving, inflicted  wounds  which  should  have  told  him  long  before  that  he  was  advancing  in 
a  wrong  path.  They  were  analogous  to  the  warnings,  both  inward  and  outward,  which 


"revelation."    See  Monod,  Cinq  Dtecowt,  p.  168;  Stier,  Reden  d.  Apoit.  ii,  299;  D« 
Preusense",  Trots  Prem.  Silckt,  i.  434.) 


THE  CONVERSION   OF  SAUL.  103 

But  the  gliosts  of  these  obstinate  questionings  would  not  always  be  so 
laid.  As  long  as  he  had  work  to  do  he  could  crush  by  passion  and  energy 
such  obtruding  fancies.  But  when  his  work  was  done — when  there  were  in 
Jerusalem  no  more  Hellenists  to  persecute — when  even  the  Galilaeans  had  fled 
or  boon  silenced,  or  been  slain — then  such  doubls  would  again  thicken  round 
him,  and  ho  would  hear  the  approach  of  them  like  the  sound  of  a  stealthy 
footfall  on  the  turf.  Was  it  not  this  that  kindled  his  excessive  madness — this 
that  made  him  still  breathe  out  threats  and  blood  ?  Was  not  this  a  part  of 
the  motive  which  had  driven  him  to  the  wily  Sadducoo  with  the  demand  for 
a  fresh  commission  ?  Would  not  this  work  for  the  Law  protect  him  from  the 
perplexing  complications  of  a  will  that  plunged  and  struggled  to  resist  the 
agonising  goad-thrusts  of  a  ruinous  misgiving  ? 

But  now  that  he  was  journeying  day  after  day  towards  Damascus,  how 
could  he  save  himself  from  his  own  thoughts  P  Ho  could  not  converse  with 
the  attendants  who  were  to  execute  his  decisions.  They  wero  mere  sub- 
ordinates— mere  apparitors  of  the  Sanhedrin — members,  perhaps,  of  the 
Temple  guard — ignorant  Lovites,  whose  function  it  would  be  to  dr.ig  with 
them  on  his  retum  the  miserable  gang  of  trembling  heretics.  Wo  may  be 
sure  that  the  vacuity  of  thought  in  which  most  men  live  was  for  Saul  a  thing 
impossible.  Ho  could  not  help  meditating  as  the  sages  bade  the  religious  Jew 
to  meditate,  on  the  precepts  and  promises  of  his  own  Law.  For  the  first  timo 
perhaps  since  he  had  encountered  Stephen  he  had  the  uninterrupted  leisure  to 
face  the  whole  question  calmly  and  seriously,  in  the  solitude  of  thoughts 
which  could  no  longer  be  sophisticated  by  the  applause  of  Pharisaic  partisans. 
He  was  forced  to  go  up  into  the  dark  tribunal  of  his  own  conscience,  and  set 
himself  before  himself.  More  terrible  by  far  was  the  solemnity,  more  im- 
partial the  judgment  of  that  stern  session,  than  those  either  of  the  Jewish 
Sanhedrin,  or  of  that  other  Areopagus  in  wliich  he  would  one  day  stand.  If 
there  be  in  the  character  any  seriousness  at  all ;  if  the  cancer  of  conceit  or 
vice  have  not  eaten  out  all  of  the  heart  that  is  not  frivolous  and  base,  then 
how  many  a  man's  intellectual  conclusions,  how  many  a  man's  moral  life  has 
been  completely  changed — and  for  how  many  would  they  not  at  this  moment 
be  completely  changed — by  the  necessity  for  serious  reflection  during  a  few 
days  of  unbroken  leisure  ? 

And  so  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  day  after  day,  as  he  rode  on  under  the 
morning  sunlight  or  the  bright  stars  of  an  Eastern  night,  the  thoughts  of 
Saul  would  be  overwhelmingly  engaged.  They  would  wander  back  over  the 
past;  they  would  glance  sadly  at  the  future.  Those  were  happy  years  in  Tarsus ; 
happy  walks  in  childhood  beside  "  the  silver  Cydnus ;  "  happy  hours  in  the 
school  of  Gamaliel,  where  there  first  dawned  upon  his  soul  the  glories  of  Moses 
and  Solomon,  of  the  Law  and  the  Temple,  of  the  Priesthood  and  the  chosen 
race.  Those  were  golden  days  when  he  listened  to  the  promised  triumphs  of 
the  Messiah,  and  was  told  how  near  was  that  day  when  the  Holy  Land  should 
be  exalted  as  the  Lady  of  kingdoms,  and  when  the  vaunted  strength  of  Rome, 
which  now  lay  so  heavy  on  his  subjugated  people,  should  be  shattered  like 


104  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUI* 

a  potsherd !  But  had  not  something  of  the  splendour  faded  from  these  more 
youthful  dreams  P  What  had  the  righteousness  of  the  Law  done  for  him  ? 
Ho  had  lived,  as  far  as  men  were  concerned,  an  honourable  life.  He  had  been 
exceedingly  zealous,  exceedingly  blameless  in  the  traditions  of  the  fathers ; 
but  what  inward  joy  had  he  derived  from  them? — what  enlightenment? — 
what  deliverance  from  that  law  of  his  members,  which,  do  what  he  would, 
still  worked  fatally  against  the  law  in  his  mind?  His  sins  of  pride  and 
passion,  and  frailty — would  not  a  jealous  God  avenge  them  P  Was  there  any 
exemption  at  all  from  the  Law's  curse  of  "  death  ?  "  Was  there  any  deliver- 
ance at  all  from  this  ceaseless  trouble  of  a  nature  dissatisfied  with  itself,  and 
therefore  wavering  like  a  wave  of  the  troubled  sea  P 

Would  the  deliverance  be  secured  by  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  ?  That 
advent  for  the  nation  would  be  triumph  and  victory;  would  it  be  for  the 
individual  also,  peace  of  conscience,  justification,  release  from  heavy  bondage, 
forgiveness  of  past  sins,  strength  in  present  weakness  ? 

And  then  it  must  have  flashed  across  him  that  these  Nazarenes,  at  any 
rate,  whom  he  had  been  hunting  and  slaying,  said  that  it  would.  For  them 
the  Messiah  had  come,  and  certainly  they  had  found  peace.  It  was  true  that 
their  Messiah  was  despised  and  rejected ;  but  was  not  that  the  very  thing 
which  had  been  said  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  in  that  prophecy  to  which 
they  always  appealed,  and  which  also  said  that  which  his  troubled  conscience 
needed  most  :— 

"  Surely  He  hath  borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows :  yet  we  did 
esteem  Him  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted.  But  he  was  wounded  for 
our  transgressions,  He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities :  the  chastisement  of  our 
peace  was  upon  him ;  and  with  His  stripes  we  are  healed.  All  we  like  sheep 
have  gone  astray ;  we  have  turned  every  one  to  his  own  way ;  and  the  Lord 
hath  laid  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."1 

This  passage  certainly  gave  a  very  different  aspect  to  the  conception 
of  the  Messiah  from  any  which  he  had  been  taught  to  contemplate.  Tot 
the  Rabbis  had  said  that  all  prophecies  were  Messianic.  Jesus  had  been 
crucified.  A  crucified  Messiah  was  a  horrible  thought ;  but  was  it  worse  than 
a  Messiah  who  should  be  a  leper  ?  Tet  here  the  ideal  servant  of  Jehovah  was 
called  a  leper.2  And  if  His  physical  condition  turned  out  to  be  meaner  than 
Israel  had  always  expected,  yet  surely  the  moral  conception,  the  spiritual  con- 
ception, as  ho  had  heard  it  from  these  hated  Galilseans,  was  infinitely  lovelier! 
They  spoke — and  oh,  undeniably  those  were  blessed  words! — of  a  Messiah 
through  whom  they  obtained  forgiveness  of  sins.  If  this  were  true,  what 
infinite  comfort  it  brought !  how  it  ended  the  hopelessness  of  the  weary 
struggle !  The  Law,  indeed,  promised  life  to  perfect  obedience.3  But  who 
ever  had  attained,  who  could  attain,  to  that  perfect  obedience?4  Did  he  see 
it  in  the  Gentile  world,  who,  though  they  had  not  the  Law  of  Moses  had 

1  Isa.  liii.  4—6. 

»  Isa.  lii.  14,  liii/4,  "stricken,"  Heb. ;  of.  Lev.  xiii.  13,  Sanhedr.  f.  98, 
3  Lev.  xviii.  5 ;  Gal  iii.  12.  4  Bom.  x.  5. 


CHE  CONVERSION  OF  SAUL,  1Q5 

their  own  law  of  nature  P — Did  he  see  it  in  the  Jewish  world  ? — alas,  what  a 
depth  of  disappointment  was  involved  in  the  very  question!  Was  Hanan, 
was  Caiaphas,  was  Theophilus,  was  Ishmael  Ben  Phabi  a  specimen  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  Law  ?  And  if,  as  was  too  true,  Israel  had  not  attained 
—if  he  himself  had  not  attained — to  the  law  of  righteousness,  what  hope  was 
there?1  Oh,  the  blessedness  of  him  whoso  unrighteousness  was  forgiven, 
whoso  sin  was  covered !  Oh,  the  blessedness  of  him  to  whom  the  Lord 
would  not  impute  sin  !  Oh,  to  have  the  infinite  God  who  seemed  so  far  away 
brought  near,  and  to  see  His  face  not  darkened  by  the  cloud,  not  glaring 
through  the  pillar  of  fire,  but  as  a  man  seeth  the  face  of  his  friend !  Oh, 
that  a  Man  were  a  hiding-place  from  the  wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest, 
as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land ! a 

And  so,  again  and  again,  he  would  realise  with  a  sense  of  remorse  that  he 
was  yearning  for,  that  he  was  gliding  into,  the  very  doctrines  which  he  was 
persecuting  to  the  death.  For  to  those  Nazarenes  their  Son  of  Man  was  indeed 
the  image  of  the  Invisible  God.  Could  he  be  right  in  thus  striving  to  stamp 
out  a  faith  so  pure,  so  ennobling  ?  For  whether  it  was  heresy  or  not,  that  it 
was  pure  and  ennobling  he  could  not  fail  to  acknowledge.  That  face  of  Stephen 
which  he  had  seen  bathed  as  with  a  light  from  heaven  until  it  had  been  dimmed 
in  blood,  must  have  haunted  him  then,  as  we  know  it  did  for  long  years  after- 
wards. Would  the  Mosaic  law  have  inspired  so  heavenly  an  enthusiasm  ? 
would  it  have  breathed  into  the  sufferers  so  infinite  a  serenity,  so  bright  a 
hope  ?  And  where  in  all  the  Holy  Pentateuch  could  he  find  utterances  so 
tender,  lessons  so  divine,  love  so  unspeakable,  motives  which  so  mastered  and 
entranced  the  soul,  as  these  had  found  in  the  words  and  in  the  love  of  their 
Lord  ?  Those  beatitudes  which  he  had  heard  them  speak  of,  the  deeds  of 
healing  tenderness  which  so  many  attested,  the  parables  so  full  of  divine  illu- 
mination— the  moral  and  spiritual  truths  of  a  Teacher  who,  though  His  nation 
had  crucified  Him,  had  spoken  as  never  man  spake — oh,  Who  was  this  who 
had  inspired  simple  fishermen  and  ignorant  publicans  with  a  wisdom  unattain- 
able by  a  Hillel  or  a  Gamaliel  ?  Who  was  this  to  whom  His  followers  turned 
their  last  gaze  and  uttered  their  last  prayer  in  death ;  who  seemed  to  breathe 
upon  them  from  the  parted  heavens  a  glory  as  of  the  Shechinah,  a  peace  that 
passed  all  understanding  ?  Who  was  this  who,  as  they  deckred,  had  risen 
from  the  dead;  whose  body  certainly  had  vanished  from  the  rock-hewn  sepulchre 
in  which  it  had  been  laid ;  whom  these  good  Galilseans — these  men  who  would 
rather  die  than  lie — witnessed  that  they  had  seen,  that  they  had  heard,  that  He 
had  appeared  to  them  in  the  garden,  in  the  upper  chamber,  on  the  public  road, 
to  four  of  them  upon  the  misty  lake,  to  more  than  five  hundred  of  them  at  once 
upon  the  Galilaean  hill  ?  Could  that  have  been  a  right  path  which  led  him  to 

1  Rom.  Ix.  31.  When  Rabbi  Eleazar  was  sick,  and  Akibha  rejoiced  because  he  feared 
that  Eleazar  had  been  receiving  his  good  things  in  this  life,  "  Akibha,"  exclaimed  the 
sufferer,  "  is  there  anything  in  the  whole  Law  which  I  have  failed  to  fulfil?  "  "Rabbi," 
replied  Akibha,  "thou  hast  taught  me  'There  is  not  a  just  man  upon  earth  that  doeth 
good,  and  sinneth  not.'"  Eccles.  vii  20.  (Sanhedr.  f.  101,  1.) 

3  Isa.  xxxii.  2. 
9 


106 


THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.  FAtTL: 


persecute  these  P  could  it  bo  God's  will  which  had  driven  him  so  fiercely  along 
a  road  that  was  stained  in  blood  ?  could  he  be  required  to  pass  through  those 
scenes  of  horror  in  which  he  had  haled  the  wife  and  the  mother  to  prison,  and 
seen  the  coarse  menials  of  the  synagogue  remorselessly  scourge  men  whose 


MAP  SHOWING  THE  ROADS  FROM  JERUSALEM  TO  DAMA8CC3. 


life  was  love  and  humility  and  holiness  P  Had  he  after  all  been  mistaking 
pride  for  faithf ulness,  and  rage  for  zeal  ?  Had  he  been  murdering  the  saints 
that  were  upon  the  earth,  and  them  that  excelled  in  virtue  ?  Was  Gamali el 
right  in  suggesting  the  possibility  that  in  meddling  with  these  men  they 
might  haply  be  fighting  against  God  P 

So  day  by  day,  his  mind  filled  more  and  more  with  distracting  doubts,  hia 
imagination  haunted  by  eights  of  cruelty  which,  in  spite  of  all  zeal,  harrowed 


THE  CONVERSION  OP  SAtTL.  107 

up  his  sonl,  he  journeyed  on  the  road  to  Damascus.  Under  ordinary  circum- 
stances he  might  have  felt  an  interest  in  the  towns  and  scenes  through  which 
he  passed — in  Bethel  and  Shiloh — in  the  soft  green  fields,  that  lie  around  the 
base  of  Mount  Gerizim — in  Jacob's  tomb  and  Jacob's  well — in  Bethshean, 
with  its  memories  of  the  miserable  end  of  that  old  king  of  his  tribe  whose 
name  he  bore — in  the  blue  glimpses  of  the  Lake  of  Galileo  with  its  numberless 
memorials  of  that  Prophet  of  Nazareth  whose  followers  he  was  trying  to 
destroy.  But  during  these  days,  if  I  judge  rightly,  his  one  desiro  was  to 
press  on,  and  by  vehement  action  to  get  rid  of  painful  thought. 

And  now  the  journey  was  nearly  over.  Hermon  had  long  been  gleaming 
before  them,  and  the  chain  of  Antilibanus.  They  had  been  traversing 
a  bare,  bleak,  glaring,  undulating  plain,  and  had  reached  the  village  of 
Kankab,  or  "  the  Star."  At  that  point  a  vision  of  surpassing  beauty  bursts 
upon  the  eye  of  the  weary  traveller.  Thanks  to  the  "golden  Abana" 
and  the  winding  Pharpar,  which  flow  on  either  side  of  the  ridge,  the 
wilderness  blossoms  like  the  rose.  Instead  of  brown  and  stony  wastes, 
we  begin  to  pass  under  the  flickering  shadows  of  ancient  olive-trees.  Below, 
out  of  a  soft  sea  of  verdure — amid  masses  of  the  foliage  of  walnuts  and 
pomegranates  and  palms,  steeped  in  the  rich  haze  of  sunshine — rise  the  white 
terraced  roofa  and  glittering  cupolas  of  the  immemorial  city  of  which  the 
beauty  has  been  compared  in  every  age  to  the  beauty  of  a  Paradise  of  God. 
There  amid  its  gardens  of  rose,  and  groves  of  delicious  fruit,  with  the  gleam 
of  waters  that  flowed  through  it,  flooded  with  the  gold  of  breathless  morn,  lay 
the  eye  of  the  East.1  To  that  land  of  streams,  to  that  city  of  fountains, 
to  that  Paradise  of  God,  Saul  was  hastening — not  on  messages  of  mercy,  not 
to  add  to  the  happiness  and  beauty  of  the  world — but  to  scourge  and  to  slay 
and  to  imprison,  those  perhaps  of  all  its  inhabitants  who  were  the  meekest, 
the  gentlest,  the  most  pure  of  heart.  And  Saul,  with  all  his  tenacity  of 
purpose,  was  a  man  of  almost  emotional  tenderness  of  character.2  Though 
zeal  and  passion  might  hurry  him  into  acts  of  cruelty,  they  could  not 
crush  within  him  the  instincts  of  sympathy,  and  the  horror  of  suffering 
and  blood.  Can  we  doubt  that  at  the  sight  of  the  lovely  glittering  city — like 
(if  I  may  again  quote  the  Eastern  metaphor)  "a  handful  of  pearls  in  its 
goblet  of  emerald  " — he  felt  one  more  terrible  recoil  from  his  unhallowed 
task,  one  yet  fiercer  thrust  from  the  wounding  goad  of  a  reproachful 
conscience  ? 

It  was  high  noon — and  in  a  Syrian  noon  the  sun  shines  fiercely  overhead  in 
an  intolerable  blaze  of  boundless  light — the  cloudless  sky  glows  like  molten 
brass ;  the  white  earth  under  the  feet  glares  like  iron  in  the  furnace ;  the 
whole  air,  as  we  breathe  it,  seems  to  quiver  as  though  it  were  pervaded  with 
subtle  flames.  That  Saul  and  liis  comrades  should  at  such  a  moment  have 
still  been  pressing  forward  on  their  journey  would  seem  to  argue  a  troubled 
impatience,  an  impassioned  haste.  Generally  at  that  time  of  day  the  traveller 

1  See  Porter's  Syria,  p.  435. 

*  See  Adolphe  Monoa  s  sermon,  Les  Lannes  fa  St. 


108  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBX  OF  ST.  TAtTL. 

will  be  resting  in  his  khan,  or  lying  under  the  shelter  of  his  tent.  But  it  was 
Saul  who  would  regulate  the  movements  of  his  little  company ;  and  Saul  was 
pressing  on. 

Then  suddenly  all  was  ended — the  eager  haste,  the  agonising  struggle,  the 
deadly  mission,  the  mad  infatuation,  the  feverish  desire  to  quench  doubt 
in  persecution.  Bound  them  suddenly  from  heaven  there  lightened  a  great 
light.1  It  was  not  Saul  alone  who  was  conscious  of  it.  It  seemed  as  though 
the  whole  atmosphere  had  caught  fire,  and  they  were  suddenly  wrapped 
in  sheets  of  blinding  splendour.  It  might  be  imagined  that  nothing  can 
out-dazzle  the  glare  of  a  Syrian  sun  at  noon ;  but  this  light  was  more  vivid 
than  its  brightness,  more  penetrating  than  its  flame.  And  with  the  light 
came  to  those  who  journeyed  with  Saul  an  awful  but  unintelligible  sound. 
As  though  by  some  universal  flash  from  heaven  they  were  all  struck  to  earth 
together,  and  when  the  others  had  arisen  and  had  partially  recovered  from 
their  terror,  Saul  was  still  prostrate  there.  They  were  conscious  that  some- 
thing awful  had  happened.  Had  we  been  able  to  ask  them  what  it  was,  it  is 
more  than  doubtful  whether  they  could  have  said.  Had  it  been  suggested  to 
them  that  it  was  some  overwhelming  sudden  burst  of  thunder,  some 
inexpressibly  vivid  gleam  of  electric  flauie — some  blinding,  suffocating, 
maddening  breath  of  the  sirocco — some  rare  phenomenon  unexperienced 
before  or  since — they  might  not  have  known.  The  vision  was  not  for  them. 
They  saw  the  light  above  the  noonday — they  heard,  and  heard  with  terror, 
the  unknown  sound  which  shattered  the  dead  hush  of  noon ;  but  they  were  not 
converted  by  this  epiphany.  To  the  Jew  the  whole  earth  was  full  of  God's 
visible  ministrants.  The  winds  were  His  spirits,  the  flaming  fires  His 
messengers ;  the  thunder  was  the  voice  of  the  Lord  shaking  the  cedars,  yea, 
shaking  the  cedars  of  Libanus.  The  bath-hoi  might  come  to  him  in  sounds 
which  none  but  he  could  understand  :  others  might  say  it  thundered  when  to 
him  an  angel  spake.2 

But  that  which  happened  was  not  meant  for  those  who  journeyed  with 
Saul : 3  it  was  meant  for  him ;  and  of  that  which  he  saw  and  which  he  heard 
he  confessedly  could  bo  the  only  witness.  They  could  only  say  that  a  light 
had  shone  from  heaven,  but  to  Saul  it  was  a  light  from  Him  who  is  the 
light  of  the  City  of  God — a  ray  from  the  light  which  no  man  can  approach 
unto.4 

And  about  that  which  he  saw  and  heard  he  never  wavered.  It  was  the 
secret  of  his  inmost  being ;  it  was  the  most  unalterable  conviction  of  his  soul : 

1  Acts  ix.  3,  jrtpiTjoTpoufftv,  "  lightened  round."    The  word  is  again  used  in  xxii.  6,  but 
to  not  found  in  the  LXX.,  and  is  unknown  to  classical  Greek. 

2  John  xii.  29. 

3  Acts  ix.  7,  et<m/ic«i<rai>  jxT(S«Va  OtiapowTet.    Cf.  Dan.  x.  7,  "I  Daniel  alone  saw  the 
vision ;  for  the  men  that  were  with  me  saw  not  the  vision ;  but  a  great  quaking  fell 
upon  them,  so  that  they  fled  to  hide  themselves."    So  in  ShemCth  Rabba,  sect.  2,  f.  104. 
3,  it  is  said  that  others  were  with  Moses,  but  that  he  alone  saw  the  burning  bush  (Exod. 
iu.  2).    Similarly  Rashi,  at  the  beginning  of  his  commentary  on  Leviticus,  says  that 
when  God  called  Moses  the  voice  was  heard  by  him  alone. 

4  1  Tim.  vi.  14—16;  2  Cor.  xii.  1. 


THE  CONVERSION  OF   SAUL.  109 

it  was  the  very  crisis  and  most  intense  moment  of  his  life.  Others  might  hint 
at  explanations  or  whisper  doubt:1  Saul  knew.  At  that  instant  God  had 
shown  him  His  secret  and  His  covenant.  God  had  found  him  ;  had  flung  him 
to  the  ground  in  the  career  of  victorious  outrage,  to  lead  him  henceforth 
in  triumph,  a  willing  spectacle  to  angels  and  to  men.2  God  had  spoken 
to  him,  had  struck  him  into  darkness  out  of  the  noonday,  only  that  Ho  might 
kindle  a  noon  in  the  midnight  of  his  heart.  From  that  moment  Saul 
was  converted.  A  change  total,  utter,  final  had  passed  over  him,  had 
transformed  him.  God  had  called  him,  had  revealed  His  Son  in  him,3  had 
given  him  grace  and  power  to  become  an  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  had  sent 
him  forth  to  preach  the  faith  which  he  had  once  destroyed,  had  shone  in  his 
heart  to  give  "  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ."* 

And  the  means  of  this  mighty  change  all  lay  in  this  one  fact : — at  that 
awful  moment  he  had  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.6  To  him  the  persecutor — to 
him  as  to  the  abortive-born  of  the  Apostolic  family  6 — the  risen,  the  glorified 
Jesus  had  appeared.  Ho  had  "been  apprehended  by  Christ."  On  that 
appearance  all  his  faith  was  founded ;  on  that  pledge  of  resurrection — of  im- 
mortality to  himself,  and  to  the  dead  who  die  in  Christ — all  his  hopes  were 
anchored.7  If  that  belief  were  unsubstantial,  then  all  his  life  and  all  his  labours 
were  a  delusion  and  a  snare — he  was  a  wretch  more  to  be  pitied  than  the 
wretchedest  of  the  children  of  the  world.  But  if  an  angel  from  heaven 
preached  a  different  doctrine  it  was  false,  for  he  had  been  taught  by  the  reve- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  this  hope  were  vain,  then  to  him 

"  The  pillared  firmament  was  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble." 

The  strength  of  this  conviction  became  the  leading  force  in  Paul's  future 
life.  He  tells  us  that  when  the  blaze  of  glory  lightened  round  him  he  was 
struck  to  the  earth,  and  there  he  remained  till  the  voice  bade  him  rise,  and 
when  he  rose  his  eyes  were  blinded ; — he  opened  them  on  darkness.  Had  he 
been  asked  about  the  long  controversies  which  have  arisen  in  modern  days,  as 
to  whether  the  appearance  of  the  Risen  Christ  to  him  was  objective  or  sub- 
jective, I  am  far  from  sure  that  he  would  even  have  understood  them.8  He 
uses  indeed  of  this  very  event  the  term  "  vision."  "  I  was  not  disobedient," 
ho  says  to  King  Agrippa,  "  to  the  heavenly  vision."  9  But  the  word  used  for 

1  We  trace  a  sort  of  hesitating  sneer  in  the  Clementine  Homilies,  xvii.  13,  "He  who 
believes  a  vision    ....    may  indeed  be  deceived  by  an  evil  demon,    ....    which 
really  is  nothing,  and  if  he  asks  who  it  is  that  appears  "  [with  an  allusion  to  ils  el,  Ku'ptc; 
(is..  5)],  "  it  can  answer  what  it  will ; " — with  very  much  more  to  the  same  effect. 

2  2  Cor.  ii.  14.  8  Acts  xxii.  21 ;  xxvi.  17,  18 ;  Gal.  L  15, 16. 
4  2  Cor.  iv.  6.                           5  1  Cor.  ix.  1 ;  xv.  8 ;  v.  supra,  p.  41  seq. 

«  1  Cor.  xv.  8.  71  Cor.  xv.  10—29.  8  See  2  Cor.  xii.  1. 

9  Acts  xxvi.  19,  rg  ovpavitf  oirroo-i^.  When  Zacharias  came  out  of  the  Temple  speech- 
less, the  people  recognised  that  he  had  seen  an  imraa-ia  (Luke  L  22).  The  women  returning 
from  the  tomb  say  they  have  seen  an  oirrao-ia  ayye'Xa.i'  (Luke  xxiv.  23).  The  word,  then,  La 
peculiar  to  Luke  and  the  Acts,  as  are  so  many  words.  It  is,  however,  the  word  used  in 


110  THE   LIFE  AND   WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

vision  means  "  a  waking  vision,"  and  in  what  conceivable  respect  could  St. 
Paul  have  been  more  overpoweringly  convinced  that  ho  had  in  very  truth  seen, 
and  heard,  and  received  a  revelation  and  a  mission  from  the  Risen  Christ  ?  Is 
the  essential  miracle  rendered  less  miraculous  by  a  questioning  of  that  objec- 
tivity to  which  the  language  seems  decidedly  to  point  ?  Are  the  eye  and  the 
ear  the  only  organs  by  which  definite  certainties  can  be  conveyed  to  the  human 
soul  ?  are  not  rather  these  organs  the  poorest,  the  weakest,  the  most  likely  to 
be  deceived  ?  To  the  eyes  of  St.  Paul's  companions,  God  spoke  by  the  blind- 
ing light ;  to  their  ears  by  the  awful  sound ;  but  to  the  soul  of  His  chosen 
servant  He  was  visible  indeed  in  the  excellent  glory,  and  He  spoke  in  the 
Hebrew  tongue;  but  whether  the  vision  and  the  voice  came  through  the  dull 
organs  of  sense  or  in  presentations  infinitely  more  intense,  more  vivid,  more 
real,  more  unutterably  convincing  to  the  spirit  by  which  only  things  spiritual 
are  discerned — this  is  a  question  to  which  those  only  will  attach  importance  to 
whom  the  soul  is  nothing  but  the  material  organism — who  know  of  no  indu- 
bitable channels  of  intercourse  between  man  and  his  Maker  save  those  that 
come  clogged  with  the  imperfections  of  mortal  sense — and  who  cannot  imagine 
anything  real  except  that  which  they  can  grasp  with  both  hands.  One  fact 
remains  upon  any  hypothesis — and  that  is,  that  the  conversion  of  St.  Paul  was 
in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word  a  miracle,  and  one  of  which  the  spiritual  con- 
sequences have  affected  every  subsequent  age  of  the  history  of  mankind.1 

For  though  there  may  bo  trivial  variations,  obviously  reconcilable,  and  ab- 
solutely unimportant,  in  the  thrice-repeated  accounts  of  this  event,  yet  in  the 
narration  of  the  main  fact  there  is  no  shadow  of  variation,  and  no  possibility  of 
doubt.2  And  the  main  fact  as  St.  Paul  always  related  and  referred  to  it  was  this 
—that,  after  several  days'  journey,  when  they  were  now  near  Damascus,  some 
awful  incident  which  impressed  them  all  alike  as  an  infolding  fire  and  a  super- 
natural sound  arrested  their  progress,  and  in  that  light,  as  he  lay  prostrate  on 

the  passage  of  the  Corinthians  just  quoted,  and  the  oirraata  there  leaves  him  no  certainty 
as  to  whether  it  was  corporeal  or  spiritual.  The  LXX.  use  it  (Dan.  ix.  23,  &c.)  to  render 
n^no,  which  is  used  of  a  night  vision  in  Gen.  xlvi.  2.  Phavorinus  distinctly  says  that 
opa/xa,  whether  by  day  or  by  night,  is  distinct  from  tmhrvtov  "dream,"  and  it  seems  as  if 
St.  Luke,  at  any  rate,  meant  by  onreuria  something  more  objective  than  he  meant  by 
8po/ia  (Acts  ix.  10 — 12 ;  xi.  5 ;  xii.  9 ;  xvi.  9 ;  xviii.  9)  or  CKOTOO-I?  (Acts  xi.  5  ;  xxii.  17). 
'Opumt,  in  the  N.  T.,  only  occurs  in  Eev.  iv.  3;  ix.  17:  and  in  a  quotation,  Acts 
ii.  17. 

1  At  Buch  moments  the  spirit  only  lives,  and  the  ^vxi,  the  animal  life,  is  hardly 
adequate  as  an  opyavov  topmKw  to  apprehend  such  revelations.     See  Augustine,  De  Gentsi 
ad  Litt.  xii.  3.     "La  chose  essentielle  est  que  nous  ne  perdions  pas  de  rue  le  grand  prin- 
cipe  6vangelique  d'un  contact  direct  de  1'esprit  de  Dieu  avec  celm  de  1'homme,  contact  qui 
echappe  a  1'analyse  du  raisonnement  .   .    .   .   Le  mysticisme  evangelique  en  reVelant  au 
sens  chre'tien  un  monde  de  miracles  incessants,  lui  eparjne  la  peine  do  so  pr6occuper  du 
petit  nombre  de  ceux  qu'  analysent  contradictoirement  le  rationalisme  critique  et  le 
rationalisme  orthodoxe"  (Reuss,  Hist.  Apostolique,  p.  114).     "Christ  stood  before  me," 
said  St.  Teresa.     "I  taw  Him  with  the  eyes  of  the  soul  more  distinctly  than  I  could  have 
teen  Him  with  the  eyes  of  the  body  "  (Vida,  vii.  11). 

2  It  is  superfluous  to  repeat  the  reconciliation  of  these  small  apparent  contradictions, 
because  they  are  all  reconciled  and  accounted  for  in  the  narrative  of  the  text.     Had  they 
been  of  the  smallest  importance,  had  they  been  such  as  one  moment  of  common  sense 
could  fail  to  solve,  a  writer  so  careful  as  St.  Luke  would  not  have  left  them  side  by  Bide. 


THE   CONVEE8ION   OF  SAUL.  Ill 


the  earth,  Saul  saw  a  mortal  shape1  and  heard  a  human  voice  syaing  to 
"  Shaul,  Shaul  "  —  for  it  is  remarkable  how  the  vividness  of  that  impression  is 
incidentally  preserved  in  each  form  of  the  narrative  2  —  "  why  persecutest  thou 
Me  P  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  goads."3  But  at  that  awful  mo- 
ment Saul  did  not  recognise  the  speaker,  whom  on  earth  he  had  never  seen. 
"  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?  "  he  said.  And  He  —  "  I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth  whom 
thou  persecntest." 

"  Jesus  of  Nazareth  1"  Why  did  the  glorified  speaker  here  adopt  the  name 
of  His  obscurity  on  earth  P  Why,  as  St.  Chrysostom  asks,  did  He  not  say,  "  I 
am  the  Son  of  God  ;  the  Word  that  was  in  the  beginning  ;  He  that  sitteth  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father  ;  Ho  who  is  in  the  form  of  God  ;  He  who  stretched 
out  the  heaven  ;  Ho  who  made  the  earth  ;  He  who  levelled  the  sea  ;  He  who 
created  the  angels  ;  He  who  is  everywhere  and  filleth  all  things  ;  He  who  was 
pre-existent  and  was  begotten  P"  Why  did  He  not  utter  those  awful  titles,  but» 
"  I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth  whom  thou  perseeutest  "  —  from  the  earthly  city, 
from  the  earthly  home  ?  Because  His  persecutor  know  Him  not  ;  for  had  he 
known  Him  he  would  not  have  persecuted  Him.  He  knew  not  that  He  had 
been  begotten  of  the  Father,  but  that  He  was  from  Nazareth  he  knew.  Had 
He  then  said  to  him,  "  I  am  the  Son  of  God,  the  Word  that  was  in  the  begin- 
ning, He  who  made  the  heaven,"  Saul  might  have  said,  "  That  is  not  He  whom 
I  am  persecuting."  Had  He  uttered  to  him  those  vast,  and  bright,  and  lofty 
titles,  Saul  might  have  said,  "  This  is  not  the  crucified."  But  that  he  may 
know  that  he  is  persecuting  Him  who  was  made  flesh,4  who  took  the  form  of  a 
servant,  who  died,  who  was  buried,  naming  Himself  from  the  earthly  place, 
He  says,  "  I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth  whom  thou  persecutest."  This,  then,  was 
the  Messiah  whom  he  had  hated  and  despised—  this  was  He  who  had  been  the 
Heavenly  Shepherd  of  his  soul  ;  —  Ho  who  to  guide  back  his  wandering  foot- 
steps into  the  straight  furrow  had  held  in  His  hand  that  unseen  goad  against 
which,  like  some  stubborn  ox,  he  had  struggled  and  kicked  in  vain. 
i  And  when  the  Voice  of  that  speaker  from  out  of  the  unapproachable 

i  l  This,  though  not  in  the  Acts  asserted  in  so  many  words  in  the  direct  narrative, 
seems  to  be  most  obviously  implied  in  the  u^>6ijv  <rol  of  xxvi.  16,  in  the  contrast  of  the 
fj.rjSei'0.  fl«i>poDyr«  of  ix.  7,  in  the  'Ir)<ro0«  o  o^fict's  o-oi  iv  T!J  65<3  of  ver.  17.  in  the  iris  iv  TJ}  oS£ 
ttSey  rbr  Kvptov  of  verse  27,  and  in  the  already  quoted  references  (1  Cor.  ix.  1  ;  xv.  8). 
The  remark  of  Chrysostom,  «al  ^v  OUK  <a<f>6y  oAAa  Sta  npayiidriav  <J><£!hj,  is  meant  to  be 
perfectly  sincere  and  honest,  but  when  compared  with  the  above  passage,  seems  to  show 
less  than  the  great  orator's  usual  care  and  discrimination. 

2  Elsewhere  he  is  always  called  SoCXo?,  but  here  2ao«A. 

3  This  addition  is  genuine  in  Acts  xxvi.  14  ;  and  o  Nofwpcuoj  certainly  in  xxiL  8.     Of 
the  many  illustrations  quoted  by  Wetstein,  and  copied  from  him  by  subseqxient  commen- 
tators, the  most  apposite  and  interesting  are  ^Esch.  Agam.  1633,  Prom.  323,  Eur.  Bacch. 
791,  Ter.  Phorm,  L  22,  7.      It  is,  however,  remarkable  that  though  ox-goads  were 
commonly  used  in  the  East,  not  one  single  Eastern  or  Semitic  parallel  can  be  adduced. 
The  reference  to  Deut.  xxsii.  15  is  wholly  beside  the  mark,  though  goads  are  aUuded  to 
in  Judg.  iii.  31  ;  Ecclus.  xxxviii.  25.     St.  Paul  would  have  been  naturally  familiar  with 
the  common  Greek  proverbs,  and  those  only  will  be  startled  that  a  Greek  proverb  should 
be  addressed  to  him  by  his  glorified  Lord,  who  can  never  be  brought  to  understand  the 
simple  principle  that  Inspiration  must  always  speak  (as  even  the  Rabbis  saw)  "  in  the 
tongue  of  the  sons  of  men.  " 

*  Chrysostora  adds,  rbx  fttr  wnv  9vyarourrpa4(rr<>t  but  this  I  believe  to  be  ft  mistake, 


112  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PATJL. 

brightness  had,  as  it  were,  smitten  him  to  the  very  earth  with  remorse  by  the 
sense  of  this  awful  truth, — "  But  rise,"  it  continued,  and  "  stand  upon  thy 
f eot,  and  go  into  the  city,  and  it  shall  be  told  thee  what  thou  must  do." 

This  is  the  form  in  which  the  words  are,  with  trivial  differences,  given  in 
St.  Luke's  narrative,  and  in  St.  Paul's  speech  from  the  steps  of  Antonia.  In 
his  speech  before  Agrippa,  it  might  seem  as  if  more  had  been  spoken  then. 
But  in  this  instance  again  it  may  be  doubted  whether,  after  the  first  appalling 
question,  "  Shaul,  Shaul,  why  persecutest  thou  Me  ?  "  which  remained  branded 
so  vividly  upon  his  heart,  Paul  could  himself  have  said  how  much  of  the  revela- 
tion which  henceforth  transfigured  his  life  was  derived  from  the  actual  moment 
when  he  lay  blinded  and  trembling  on  the  ground,  and  how  much  from  the 
subsequent  hours  of  deep  external  darkness  and  brightening  inward  light.  In 
the  annals  of  human  lives  there  have  been  other  spiritual  crises  analogous  to 
this  in  their  startling  suddenness,  in  their  absolute  finality.  To  many  the 
resurrection  from  the  death  of  sin  is  a  slow  and  life-long  process ;  but  others 
pass  with  one  thrill  of  conviction,  with  one  spasm  of  energy,  from  death  to 
life,  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God.  Such  moments  crowd  eternity  into 
an  hour,  and  stretch  an  hour  into  eternity. 

"  At  such  high  hours 
Of  inspiration  from  the  Living  God 
Thought  is  not." 

When  God's  awful  warnings  burn  before  the  soul  in  letters  of  flame,  it  can  read 
them  indeed,  and  know  their  meaning  to  the  very  uttermost,  but  it  does  not 
know,  and  it  does  not  care,  whether  it  was  Perez  or  Upharsin  that  was  written 
on  the  wall.  The  utterances  of  the  Eternal  Sibyl  are  inscribed  on  records 
scattered  and  multitudinous  as  are  the  forest  leaves.  As  the  anatomist  may 
dissect  every  joint  and  lay  bare  every  nerve  of  the  organism,  yet  be  infinitely 
distant  from  any  discovery  of  the  principle  of  life,  so  the  critic  and  grammarian 
may  decipher  the  dim  syllables  and  wrangle  about  the  disputed  discrepancies, 
but  it  is  not  theirs  to  interpret.  If  we  would  in  truth  understand  such 
spiritual  experiences,  the  records  of  them  must  be  read  by  a  light  that  never 
was  on  land  or  sea. 

Saul  rose  another  man :  he  had  fallen  in  death,  he  rose  in  life ;  ho  had 
fallen  in  the  midst  of  things  temporal,  he  rose  in  awful  consciousness  of  the 
things  eternal ;  he  had  fallen  a  proud,  intolerant,  persecuting  Jew,  he  rose  a 
humble,  broken-hearted,  penitent  Christian.  In  that  moment  a  new  element 
had  been  added  to  his  being.  Henceforth — to  use  his  own  deep  and  dominant 
expression — ho  was  "  in  Christ."  God  had  found  him ;  Jesus  had  spoken  to 
him,  and  in  one  flash  changed  him  from  a  raging  Pharisee  into  a  true  disciple 
' — from  the  murderer  of  J/he  saints  into  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  It  was  a 
new  birth,  a  new  creation.  As  we  read  the  story  of  it,  if  we  have  one  touch  of 
reverence  within  our  souls,  shall  we  not  take  off  our  shoos  from  ofE  our  feet, 
for  the  place  whorcon  we  stand  is  holy  ground  ? 

Saul  rose,  and  all  was  dark.    The  dazzling  vision  had  pa=»sod  away,  and 


THE   CONVERSION   OF  SAUL.  113 

with  it  also  the  glittering  city,  the  fragrant  gardens,  the  burning  noon.  Amazed 
and  startled,  his  attendants  took  him  by  the  hand  and  led  him  to  Damascus. 
He  had  meant  to  enter  the  city  in  all  the  importance  of  a  Commissioner  from 
the  Sauhedrin,  to  bo  received  with  distinction,  not  only  as  himself  a  great  "pupil 
of  the  wise,"  but  even  as  the  representative  of  all  authority  which  the  Jews 
held  most  sacred.  And  he  had  meant  to  leave  the  city,  perhaps,  amid 
multitudes  of  his  applauding  countrymen,  accompanied  by  a  captive  train  of 
ho  knew  not  how  many  dejected  Nazarenes.  How  different  were  his  actual 
entrance  and  his  actual  exit !  He  is  led  through  the  city  gate,  stricken,  dejected, 
trembling,  no  longer  breathing  threats  and  slaughter,  but  longing  only  to  be 
the  learner  and  the  suppliant,  and  the  lowest  brother  among  those  whom  he 
had  intended  to  destroy.  He  was  ignominiously  let  out  of  the  city,  alone,  in 
imminent  peril  of  arrest  or  assassination,  through  a  window,  in  a  basket,  down 
the  wall. 

They  led  him  to  the  house  of  Judas,  in  that  long  street  which  leads  through 
the  city  and  is  still  called  Straight ;  and  there,  in  remorse,  in  blindness,  iu 
bodily  suffering,  in  mental  agitation,  unable  or  unwilling  to  eat  or  drink,  the 
glare  of  that  revealing  light  ever  before  his  darkened  eyes,  the  sound 
of  that  reproachful  voice  ever  in  his  ringing  ears,  Saul  lay  for  three  days. 
None  can  ever  tell  what  things  in  those  three  days  passed  through  his 
soul;  what  revelations  of  the  past,  what  lessons  for  the  present,  what 
guidance  for  the  future.  His  old  life,  his  old  self,  had  been  torn  up  by 
the  very  roots,  and  though  now  he  was  a  new  creature,  the  crisis  can  never 
pass  over  any  one  without  agonies  and  energies — without  earthquake  and 
eclipse.  At  last  the  tumult  of  his  being  found  relief  in  prayer;  and,  in  a 
vision  full  of  peace,  he  saw  one  of  those  brethren  for  a  visit  from  whom 
ho  seems  hitherto  to  have  yearned  in  vain,  come  to  him  and  heal  him.  This 
brother  was  Ananias,  a  Christian,  but  a  Christian  held  in  respect  by  all 
the  Jews,  and  therefore  a  fit  envoy  to  come  among  the  Pharisaic  adherents 
by  whom  we  cannot  but  suppose  that  Saul  was  still  surrounded.  It  was 
not  without  shrinking  that  Ananias  had  been  led  to  make  this  visit.  He 
had  heard  of  Saul's  ravages  at  Jerusalem,  and  his  fierce  designs  against 
the  brethren  at  Damascus ;  nay,  even  of  the  letters  of  authority  from  tho 
High  Priest  which  wore  still  in  his  hand.  He  had  heard,  too,  of  what  hud 
befallen  him  on  the  way,  but  it  had  not  wholly  conquered  his  not  unnatural 
distrust.  A  divine  injunction  aided  the  charity  of  one  who,  as  u  Christian, 
felt  the  duty  of  believing  all  things,  and  hoping  all  things.  The  Lord, 
appearing  to  him  in  a  dream,  told  him  that  the  zeal  which  had  burned  so 
fiercely  in  the  cause  of  Sadducees  should  henceforth  be  a  fiery  angel  of  tho 
Cross, — that  this  pitiless  persecutor  should  be  a  chosen  vessel  to  carry  the 
name  of  Christ  before  Gentiles,  kings,  and  the  children  of  Israel.  "For 
I  will  show  him,"  said  the  vision,  "how  much  he  must  suffer  for  My 
name." l  The  good  Ananias,  hesitated  no  longer.  Ho  entered  into  tho  house 

1  "Fortia  agerc  Romanum  est;  fortiapati  Christianum  "  (Corn,  a  Lap.). 


114  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

of  Judas,  and  while  his  very  presence  seemed  to  breathe  peaco,  he  addressed  the 
sufferer  by  the  dear  title  of  brother,  and  laying  his  hands  upon  the  clouded 
eyes,  bade  him  rise,  and  see,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  "  Be  baptised," 
he  added,  "  and  wash  away  thy  sins,  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord."  The 
words  of  blessing  and  trust  were  to  the  troubled  nerves  and  aching  heart  of 
the  sufferer  a  healing  in  themselves.  Immediately  "  there  fell  from  his  eyes  as 
it  had  been  scales."  l  He  rose,  and  saw,  and  took  food  and  was  strengthened, 
and  received  from  the  hands  of  his  humble  brother  that  sacrament  by  which 
he  was  admitted  into  the  full  privileges  of  the  new  faith.  He  became  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  extirpation  of  which  had  been  for  months  the 
most  passionate  desire  and  the  most  active  purpose  of  his  life. 

Fruitful  indeed  must  have  been  the  conversation  which  he  held  with 
Ananias,  and  doubtless  with  other  brethren,  in  the  delicious  calni  that  fol- 
lowed this  heart-shaking  moment  of  conviction.  In  those  days  Ananias  must 
more  and  more  have  confirmed  him  in  the  high  destiny  which  the  voice  of 
revelation  had  also  marked  out  to  himself.  "What  became  of  his  commission  ; 
what  ho  did  with  the  High  Priest's  letters  ;  how  his  subordinates  demeaned 
themselves  ;  what  alarming  reports  they  took  back  to  Jerusalem  ;  with  what 
eyes  he  was  regarded  by  the  Judaic  synagogues  of  Damascus,  —  we  do  not 
know  ;  but  we  do  know  that  in  those  days,  whether  they  wore  few  or  many,  it 
became  more  and  more  clear  to  him  that  "  God  had  chosen  him  to  know  His 
will,  and  see  that  Just  One,  and  hear  the  voice  of  His  mouth,  and  be  His 
witness  unto  all  men  of  what  he  had  seen  and  heard."2 

And  here  let  me  pause  to  say  that  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  im- 
portance of  St.  Paul's  conversion  as  one  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity. 
That  he  should  have  passed,  by  one  flash  of  conviction,  not  only  from,  dark- 
ness to  light,  but  from  one  direction  of  life  to  the  very  opposite,  is  not  only 
characteristic  of  the  man,  but  evidential  of  the  power  and  significance  of 
Christianity.  That  the  same  man  who,  just  before,  was  persecuting  Chris- 
tianity with  the  most  violent  hatred,  should  come  all  at  once  to  believe  in  Him 
whose  followers  he  had  been  seeking  to  destroy,  and  that  in  this  faith  he 
should  become  a  "  new  creature  "  —  what  is  this  but  a  victory  which  Chris- 
tianity owed  to  nothing  but  the  spell  of  its  own  inherent  power  ?  Of  all 
who  have  been  converted  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  there  is  not  one  in  whose  case 
the  Christian  principle  broke  so  immediately  through  everything  opposed  to 
it,  and  asserted  so  absolutely  its  triumphant  eupericiity.  Henceforth  to  Paul 
Christianity  was  summed  up  in  the  one  word  Christ.  And  to  what  does 
he  testify  respecting  Jesus  P  To  almost  every  single  primarily  important 
fact  respecting  His  Incarnation,  Life,  Sufferings,  Betrayal,  Last  Supper,  Trial, 
Crucifixion,  Resurrection,  Ascension,  and  Heavenly  Exaltation.3  We  com- 

1  There  is  a  remarkable  parallel  in  Tob.  ad.  13,  K<U  eAewiotfij  an-b  rav  Kav6uv 
avrov  TO. 


3  Acte  xrii.  14,  15. 

8  See,  among  other  passages,  Rom.  viii.  3,  11  ;  1  Tim.  iii.  16  ;  Rom.  Ix.  5  ;  2  Cor.  L  5  ; 
OoL  t  20;  xi.  3;  1  Cor.  i.  23;  ii.  2;  v.  7}  x.  10;  Gal.  vi.  19;  Eph.  It  13;  Horn.  T.  6; 


THE  RETIREMENT  OF  ST.  PAUL.  115 

plain  that  nearly  two  thousand  years  have  passed  away,  and  that  the  bright- 
ness of  historical  events  is  apt  to  fade,  and  even  their  very  outline  to  be 
obliterated,  as  they  sink  into  the  "  dark  backward  and  abysm  of  time."  "Well, 
but  are  we  more  keen-sighted,  more  hostile,  more  eager  to  disprove  the  evi- 
dence, than  the  consummate  legalist,  the  admired  rabbi,  the  commissioner  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  the  leading  intellect  in  the  schools — learned  as  Hillel,  patriotic 
as  Judas  of  Gaulon,  burning  with  zeal  for  the  Law  as  intense  as  that  of 
Shammai  P  He  was  not  separated  from  the  events,  as  we  are,  by  centuries  of 
time.  He  was  not  liable  to  be  blinded,  as  we  are,  by  the  dazzling  glamour  of 
a  victorious  Christendom.  He  had  mingled  daily  with  men  who  had  watched 
from  Bethlehem  to  Golgotha  the  life  of  the  Crucified, — not  only  with  His  simple- 
hearted  followers,  but  with  His  learned  and  powerful  enemies.  He  had  talked 
with  the  priests  who  had  consigned  Him  to  the  cross;  he  had  put  to  death 
the  followers  who  had  wept  beside  His  tomb.  He  had  to  face  the  unutterable 
horror  which,  to  any  orthodox  Jew,  was  involved  in  the  thought  of  a  Messiah 
who  "  liad  hung  upon  a  tree."  He  had  heard  again  and  again  the  proofs 
which  satisfied  an  Annas  and  a  Gamaliel  that  Jesus  was  a  deceiver  of  the 
people.1  The  events  on  which  the  Apostles  relied,  in  proof  of  His  divinity, 
had  taken  place  in  the  full  blaze  of  contemporary  knowledge.  He  had  not  to 
deal  with  uncertainties  of  criticism  or  assaults  on  authenticity.  He  could 
question,  not  ancient  documents,  but  living  men ;  ho  could  analyse,  not  frag- 
mentary records,  but  existing  evidence.  Ho  had  thousands  of  means  close  at 
hand  whereby  to  test  the  reality  or  unreality  of  the  Resurrection  in  which,  up 
to  this  time,  he  had  so  passionately  and  contemptuously  disbelieved.  In 
accepting  this  half -crushed  and  wholly  execrated  faith  he  had  everything  in 
the  world  to  lose — he  had  nothing  conceivable  to  gain;  and  yet,  in  spite  of 
all — overwhelmed  by  a  conviction  which  he  felt  to  be  irresistible — Saul,  the 
Pharisee,  became  a  witness  of  the  Resurrection,  a  preacher  of  the  Cross. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

IKE      RETIREMENT      OF       ST.       PAUL. 

"  Thou  shalt  have  joy  in  sadness  soon, 

The  pure  calm  hope  be  thine, 
That  brightens  like  the  eastern  moon, 
When  clay's  wild  lights  decline." — KEBLE. 

SATJL  was  now  a  "  Nazarone,"  but  many  a  year  of  thought  and  training  had  to 
elapse  before  he  was  prepared  for  the  great  mission  of  his  life. 

If,  indeed,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  were  oar  only  source  of  information 
respecting  him,  wo  should  have  been  compelled  to  suppose  that  he  instantly 

vi.  4,  9  ;  viii.  11 ;  xiv.  15 ;  zv.  3 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  patsim;  Rom.  x.  6 ;  CoL  iiL  1  j  Eph.  ii.  6; 
1  Tiin.  iii.  16,  &c. 

i  John  vii.  12,  47;  ix.  16;  x.  30. 


116  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF   ST.   PAUL. 

plunged  into  the  work  of  teaching.  "  He  was  with  the  disciples  in  Damascus 
certain  days,"  says  St.  Luke ;  "  and  immediately  in  the  synagogues  he  began 
to  preach  Jesus,  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God  j"1  and  he  proceeds  to  narrate  the 
amazement  of  the  Jews,  the  growing  power  of  Saul's  demonstrations,  and, 
after  an  indefinite  period  had  elapsed,  the  plot  of  the  Jews  against  him,  and 
his  escape  from  Damascus. 

But  St.  Luke  never  gives,  nor  professes  to  give,  a  complete  biography. 
During  the  time  that  he  was  the  companion  of  the  Apostle  his  details,  indeed, 
are  numerous  and  exact ;  but  if  even  in  this  later  part  of  his  career  he  never 
mentions  Titus,  or  once  alludes  to  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  wrote  a  single  epistle, 
we  cannot  be  surprised  that  his  notices  of  the  Apostle's  earlier  career  are  frag- 
mentary, either  because  he  knew  no  more,  or  because,  in  his  brief  space,  he 
suppresses  all  circumstances  that  did  not  bear  on  his  immediate  purpose. 

Accordingly,  if  we  turn  to  the  biographic  retrospect  hi  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  in  which  St.  Paul  refers  to  this  period  to  prove  the  independence  of 
his  apostolate,  we  find  that  in  the  Acts  the  events  of  three  years  have  been 
compressed  into  as  many  verses,  and  that,  instead  of  immediately  beginning  to 
preach  at  Damascus,  he  immediately  retired  into  Arabia.2  For  "when,"  he 
says,  "  He  who  separated  me  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called  mo  by  His 
grace,  was  pleased  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  Him  among 
the  Gentiles,  immediately  I  did  not  communicate  with  flesh  and  blood,  nor 
went  I  up  to  Jerusalem  to  those  who  were  Apostles  before  me,  but  I  went 
away  into  Arabia,  and  again  I  returned  to  Damascus." 

No  one,  I  think,  who  reads  this  passage  attentively  can  deny  that  it  gives 
the  impression  of  an  intentional  retirement  from  human  intercourse.  A  multi- 
tude of  writers  have  assumed  that  St.  Paul  first  preached  at  Damascus,  then 
retired  to  Arabia,  and  then  returned,  with  increased  zeal  and  power,  to  preach 
in  Damascus  once  more.  Not  only  is  St.  Paul's  own  language  unfavourable 
to  such  a  view,  but  it  seems  to  exclude  it.  What  would  all  psychological 

1  Acts  ix.  19,  20. 

2  I  understand  the  evOetn  of  Gal.  i.  16  as  immediately  succeeding  St.  Paul's  conversion; 
the  evfle'ws  of  Acts  ix.   20  as  immediately  succeeding  his  return  to  Damascus.     The  re- 
tirement into  Arabia  must  be  interpreted  as  a  lacuna  either  at  the  middle  of  Acts  ix.  19, 
or  at  the  end  of  that  verse,   or    after   verse   21.     The    reasons  why  I  unhesitatingly 
assume  the  first  of  these  alternatives  are  given  in  the  text.     There  is  nothing  to  be  said 
for  supposing  with  Kuinoel  and  Olshausen  that  it  was  subsequent  to  the  escape  from 
Damascus,  which  seems  directly  to  contradict,  or  at  any  rate  to  render  superfluous,  the 
waAif  of  Gal  i.  17.     We  may  be  quite  sure  that  St.  Paul  did  not  talk  promiscuously  about 
this  period  of  his  life.     No  man,  even  with  familiar  friends,  will  make  the  most  solemn 
crises  of  his  life  a  subject  of  common  conversation ;  and  Paul  was  by  no  means  a  man  te 
wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve.     How  many  hundreds  who  read  this  passage  will  by  a 
moment's  thought  become  aware  that  apart  from  written  memoranda,  and  possibly  even 
with  their  aid,  there  is  no  one  living  who  could  write  his  own  biography  with  any  approach 
to  accuracy  ?     What  reason  is  there  for  supposing  that  it  would  have  been  otherwise 
with  St.  Paul?    What  reason  is  there  for  the  supposition  that  he  entrusted  St.  Luke  with 
all  the  important  facts  which  had  occurred  to  him,  when  we  see  that  what  St.  Luke  was 
able  to  record  about  him  neither  portrayed  one-fourth  of  his  character  nor  preserved  a 
memorial  of  one  tithe  of  his  sufferings  ?    And  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  Acts  xxii.  16,  17, 
where  it  had  no  bearing  on  his  immediate  subject,  St.  Paul  himself  omits  all  reference  Vo 
this  retirement  into  Arabia. 


THE   RETIREMENT  OF  ST.  PATTL.          ^  117 

considerations  lead  us  to  think  likely  in  the  case  of  one  circumstanced  as  Sanl 
of  Tarsus  was  after  his  sudden  and  strange  conversion?  The  least  likely 
course — the  one  which  would  place  him  at  the  greatest  distance  from  all  deep 
and  earnest  spirits  who  have  passed  through  a  similar  crisis — would  be  for  him 
to  have  plunged  at  once  into  the  arena  of  controversy,  and  to  have  passed, 
without  pause  or  breathing-space,  from  the  position  of  a  leading  persecutor 
into  that  of  a  prominent  champion.  In  the  case  of  men  of  shallow  nature,  or 
superficial  convictions,  such  a  proceeding  is  possible  ;  but  we  cannot  imagine  it 
of  St.  Paul.  It  is  not  thus  with  souls  which  have  been  arrested  in  mid-career 
by  the  heart-searching  voice  of  God.  Just  as  an  eagle  which  has  been  drenched 
and  battered  by  some  fierce  storm  will  alight  to  plume  its  ruffled  wings,  so 
when  a  great  soul  has  "  passed  through  fire  and  through  water  "  it  needs  some 
safe  and  quiet  place  in  which  to  rest.  The  lifelong  convictions  of  any  man 
may  be  reversed  in  an  instant,  and  that  sudden  reversion  often  causes  a 
marvellous  change ;  but  it  is  never  in  an  instant  that  the  whole  nature  and 
character  of  a  man  are  transformed  from  what  they  were  before.  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  of  any  change  more  total,  any  rift  of  difference  more  deep,  than 
that  which  separated  Saul  the  persecutor  from  Paul  the  Apostle  ;  and  we  are 
sure  that — like  Moses,  like  Elijah,  like  our  Lord  Himself,  like  almost  every 
great  soul  in  ancient  or  modern  times  to  whom  has  been  entrusted  the  task  of 
swaying  the  destinies  by  moulding  the  convictions  of  mankind — like  Sakya 
Mouni,  like  Mahomet  in  the  cave  of  Hira,  like  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  in  his 
sickness,  like  Luther  in  the  monastery  of  Erfurdt — he  would  need  a  quiet 
period  in  which  to  elaborate  his  thoughts,  to  still  the  tumult  of  his  emotions, 
to  commune  in  secrecy  and  in  silence  with  his  own  soul.  It  was  necessary  for 
him  to  understand  the  Scriptures ;  to  co-ordinate  his  old  with  his  new  beliefs. 
It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  if  Saul — ignorant  as  yet  of  many  essential 
truths  of  Christianity,  alien  as  yet  from  the  experience  of  its  deepest  power — 
had  begun  at  once  to  argue  with  and  to  preach  to  others,  he  could  hardly  have 
done  the  work  he  did.  To  suppose  that  the  truths  of  which  afterwards  ho 
became  the  appointed  teacher  were  all  revealed  to  him  as  by  one  flash  of  light 
in  all  their  fulness,  is  to  suppose  that  which  is  alien  to  God's  dealings  with  the 
human  soul,  and  which  utterly  contradicts  the  phenomena  of  that  long  series 
of  Epistles  in  which  we  watch  the  progress  of  his  thoughts.  Even  on  grounds 
of  historic  probability,  it  seems  unlikely  that  Saul  should  at  once  have  been 
able  to  substitute  a  propaganda  for  an  inquisition.  Under  such  circumstances 
it  would  have  been  difficult  for  the  brethren  to  trust,  and  still  more  difficult 
for  the  Jews  to  tolerate  him.  The  latter  would  have  treated  him  as  a  shame- 
less i-enegade,1  the  former  would  have  mistrusted  him  as  a  secret  spy. 

We  might,  perhaps,  have  expected  that  Saul  would  have  stayed  quietly 
among  the  Christians  at  Damascus,  mingling  unobtrusively  in  their  meetings, 
listening  to  them,  learning  of  them,  taking  at  their  love-feasts  the  humblest 
place.  We  can  hardly  suppose  that  he  cherished,  in  these  first  days  of  his 

1  They  would  have  called  him  a  irno,  one  who  had  abandoned  hia  religions  conviction*. 


118  THE  LIFE  JL3TD  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Christian  career,  the  developed  purpose  of  preaching  an  independent  Gospel. 
Assailed,  as  he  subsequently  was,  on  all  sides,  but  thwarted  most  of  all  by  the 
espionage  of  false  brethren,  and  the  calumnies  of  those  who  desired  to  throw 
doubt  on  his  inspired  authority,  it  was  indeed  a  providential  circumstance  that 
the  events  which  followed  his  conversion  were  such  as  to  separate  him  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  appearance  of  discipleship  to  human  instructors.  As  a 
Pharisee  he  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  ;  as  a  Christian  he  called  no  man 
his  master.  He  asserts,  with  reiterated  earnestness,  that  his  teaching  as  well 
as  his  authority,  "  his  Gospel  "  no  less  than  his  Apostleship,  had  been  received 
immediately  from  God.  Indeed,  the  main  object  of  that  intensely  interesting 
and  characteristic  narrative  which  occupies  the  two  first  chapters  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians  is  to  establish  the  declaration  which  he  felt  it  necessary  to 
make  so  strongly,  that  "  the  Gospel  preached  by  him  was  not  a  human  gospel, 
and  that  he  did  not  even  receive  it  from  any  human  being,  nor  was  he  taught 
it,  but  through  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."  l  Had  he  not  been  able  to  assure 
his  converts  of  this  —  had  he  not  been  able  to  appeal  to  visions  and  revelations 
of  the  Lord  —  he  might  have  furnished  another  instance  of  one  whose  opinions 
have  been  crashed  and  silenced  by  the  empty  authority  of  names.  It  was  from 
no  personal  feeling  of  emulation  —  a  feeling  of  which  a  soul  so  passionately  in 
earnest  as  his  is  profoundly  incapable  —  but  it  was  from  the  duty  of  ensuring 
attention  to  the  truths  he  preached  that  he  felt  it  to  be  so  necessary  to  con- 
vince the  churches  which  he  had  founded  how  deep  would  be  their  folly  if 
they  allowed  themselves  to  be  seduced  from  the  liberty  of  his  Gospel  by  the  re- 
trograde mission  of  the  evangelists  of  bondage.  It  was  indispensable  for  the 
dissemination  of  the  truth  that  he  should  be  listened  to  as  an  Apostle  "neither 
of  man,  nor  by  any  man,  but  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  God,  who  raised  him  from 
the  dead."  Had  his  Apostleship  emanated  from  (avb)  the  Twelve,  or  been 
conferred  en  him  by  the  consecrating  act  of  (Sia)  any  one  of  them,8  then  they 
might  be  supposed  to  have  a  certain  superior  commission,  a  certain  coercive 
power.  If,  as  far  as  ho  was  concerned,  they  had  no  such  power,  it  was  because 
ho  had  received  his  commission  directly  from  his  Lord.  And  to  this  indepen- 
dence of  knowledge  he  often  refers.  He  tells  the  Thessalonians,  "  by  the 
Word  of  the  Lord,"  s  that  those  who  were  still  alive  at  the  Second  Advent 
should  not  be  beforehand  with  —  should  gain  no  advantage  or  priority  over  — 
those  that  slept.  He  tells  the  Ephesians  4  that  it  was  by  revelation  that  God 
"  made  known  to  him  the  mystery  which  in  other  generations  was  not  made 
known  to  the  sons  of  men  —  namely,  that  the  Gentiles  are  co-heirs  and  co- 
members  and  co-part  ukers6  of  the  promise  in  Christ  Jesus,  through  the  Gospel 
of  which  he  became  a  minister  according  to  the  gift  of  the  grace  of  God,  which 
was  given  him  according  to  the  mighty  working  of  His  power."  He  tells  the 
Colossians  6  that  he  became  a  minister  of  the  Church  "  in  accordance  with  the 
stewardship  of  God  given  to  him  for  them,  that  he  might  fully  preach  the 


1  Gal.  i.  11,  12.  2  Gal.  1.  1,  owe  air'  ai^pwrwr  ov&  SC  a 

8  1  Thess.  iv.  15,  i»  Myy  Kvpimi.  4  Eph.  iii._3—  6. 

*  ovy»eAj)pov6.'iO  xail  ovtro-wjua  KOI  <n>fiftlroxa>  '  CoL  i.  25, 


THE   EETIKEME2TT  OF  81.   PAUL.  119 

Word  of  God,  the  mystery  hidden  from  the  ages  and  the  generations."  From 
these  and  from  other  passages  it  Beenis  clear  that  what  St.  Paul  meant  to 
represent  as  special  subjects  of  the  revelation  which  he  had  received  were 
partly  distinct  views  of  what  rule  ought  to  be  followed  by  Christiana  in  special 
instances,  partly  great  facts  about  the  resurrection,1  partly  the  direct  vision  of 
a  Saviour  not  only  risen  from  the  dead,  but  exalted  at  the  right  hand  of  God; 
but  especially  the  central  and  peculiar  fact  of  his  teaching  "  the  mystery  of 
Christ " — the  truth  once  secret,  but  now  revealed — the  deliverance  which  He 
had  wrought,  the  justification  by  faith  which  He  had  rendered  possible,  and, 
most  of  all,  the  free  offer  of  this  great  salvation  to  the  Gentiles,  without  the 
necessity  of  their  incurring  the  yoke  of  bondage,  which  even  the  Jew  had 
found  to  be  heavier  than  he  could  bear.2 

It  can  hardly,  therefore,  be  doubted  that  after  his  recovery  from  the  shock 
of  conviction  with  which  his  soul  must  long  have  continued  to  tremble,  Paul 
only  spent  a  few  quiet  days  with  Ananias,  and  any  other  brethren  who  would 
hold  out  to  him  the  right  hand  of  friendship.  He  might  talk  with  them  of 
the  life  which  Jesus  had  lived  on  earth.  He  might  hear  from  them  those 
reminiscences  of  the 

"Sinless  years 
Which  breathed  beneath  the  Syrian  blue," 

of  which  the  most  precious  wore  afterwards  recorded  by  the  four  Evangelists. 
In  listening  to  these  he  would  have  been  fed  with  "the  spiritual  guileless 
milk."3  Nor  can  we  doubt  that  in  those  days  more  than  ever  he  would 
refrain  his  soul  and  keep  it  low — that  his  soul  was  even  as  a  weaned  child. 
But  of  the  mystery  which  he  was  afterwards  to  preach — of  that  which 
emphatically  he  called  "his  Gospel"4 — neither  Ananias  (who  was  himself  a 
rigid  Jew),  nor  any  of  the  disciples,  could  toll  him  anything.  That  was 
taught  him  by  God  alone.  It  came  to  him  by  the  illuminating  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  in  revelations  which  accompanied  each  step  in  that  Divine 
process  of  education  which  constituted  his  life. 

But  he  could  not  in  any  case  have  stayed  long  in  Damascus.  His  position 
there  was  for  the  present  untenable.  Alike  the  terror  with  which  his  arrival 
must  have  been  expected  by  the  brethren,  and  the  expectation  which  it  had 
aroused  among  the  Jews,  would  make  him  the  centre  of  hatred  and  suspicion, 
of  rumour  and  curiosity.  He  may  even  have  been  in  danger  of  arrest  by  the 
very  subordinates  to  whom  his  sudden  change  of  purpose  must  have  seemed 
to  delegate  his  commission.  But  a  stronger  motive  for  retirement  than  all 
this  would  be  the  yearning  for  solitude;  the  intense  desire,  and  even  the 
overpowering  necessity,  to  be  for  a  time  alone  with  God.  He  was  a  stricken 
doer,  and  was  impelled  as  by  a  strong  instinct  to  leave  the  herd.  In  solitude 
a  man  may  trace  to  their  hidden  source  the  fatal  errors  of  the  past ;  he  may 

1  See  1  Cor.  rv.  22 ;  1  Thess.  iv.  15. 

•  See  Col.  iv.  3 ;  Eph.  iii.  3 ;  vi.  19 ;  Rom.  xvi.  25. 

3  1  Pet.  U.  2,  TO  AoyiicbK  oJoXov  yoAa. 

«  1  Cor.  ix.  17;  Gal.  ii.  2,  7j  2  Thess.  ii.  14j  2  Tim.  ii.  8. 


120  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

pray  for  that  light  from  heaven — no  longer  naming  with  more  than  noonday 
fierceness,  but  shining  quietly  in  dark  places — which  shall  enable  him  to 
understand  the  many  mysteries  of  life ;  he  may  wait  the  healing  of  his  deep 
wounds  by  the  same  tender  hand  that  in  mercy  has  inflicted  them ;  he  may 

"  Sit  on  the  desert  stone 
Like  Elijah  at  Horeb's  cave  alone ; 
And  a  gentle  voice  comes  through  the  wild, 
Like  a  father  consoling  his  fretful  child, 
That  banishes  bitterness,  wrath,  and  fear, 
Saying,  'MAN  is  DISTANT,  BUT  GOD  IB  NEAR."' 

And  so  Saul  went  to  Arabia — a  word  which  must,  I  think,  bo  understood  in 
its  popular  and  primary  sense  to  mean  the  Sinaitic  peninsula.1 

He  who  had  been  a  persecutor  in  honour  of  Moses,  would  henceforth  be 
himself  represented  as  a  renegade  from  Moses.  The  most  zealous  of  the 
living  servants  of  Mosaism  was  to  be  the  man  who  should  prove  most 
convincingly  that  Mosaism  was  to  vanish  away.  Was  it  not  natural,  then, 
that  he  should  long  to  visit  the  holy  ground  where  the  bush  had  glowed 
in  unconsuining  fire,  and  the  granite  crags  had  trembled  at  the  voice  which 
uttered  the  fiery  law  ?  Would  the  shadow  of  good  things  look  so  much  of  a 
shadow  if  he  visited  the  very  spot  where  the  great  Lawgiver  and  the  great 
Prophet  had  held  high  communings  with  God  p  Could  he  indeed  be  sure  that 
he  had  come  unto  the  Mount  Sioii,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  thej 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  a  new  covenant,  until  hei 
had  visited  the  mount  that  might  be  touched  and  that  burned  with  fire,  where 
amid  blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest,  and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  and' 
the  voice  of  words,  Moses  himself  had  exceedingly  feared  and  quaked  ? 

How  long  he  stayed,  we  do  not  know.  It  has  usually  been  assumed  that 
his  stay  was  brief ;  to  me  it  seems  far  more  probable  that  it  occupied  no  small 
portion  of  those  "three  years  "2  which  he  tells  us  elapsed  before  he  visited 
Jerusalem.  Few  have  doubted  that  those  "  three  years  "  are  to  be  dated  from 
his  conversion.  It  seems  clear  that  after  his  conversion  he  stayed  but  a  few 
days  (fifj-epat  T«4s)  with  the  disciples ;  that  then — at  the  earliest  practicable 
moment — he  retired  into  Arabia ;  that  after  his  return  he  began  to  preach, 
and  that  this  ministry  in  Damascus  was  interrupted  after  a  certain  period 
(yfufpai  iKaval)  by  the  conspiracy  of  the  Jews.  The  latter  expression  is  translated 
"  many  days  "  in  the  Acts ;  but  though  the  continuance  of  his  preaching  may 
have  occupied  days  which  in  comparison  with  his  first  brief  stay  might  have 
been  called  "  many,"  the  phrase  itself  is  so  vague  that  it  might  be  used  of 
almost  any  period  from  a  fortnight  to  three  years.3  As  to  the  general 
correctness  of  this  conclusion  I  can  feel  no  doubt ;  the  only  point  which  must 
always  remain  dubious  is  whether  the  phrase  "three  years"  means  three 
complete  years,  or  whether  it  means  one  full  year,  and  a  part,  however  short, 
of  two  other  years.  From  the  chronology  of  St.  Paul's  life  we  can  attain  no 

»  See  Excursus  IX.,  "  Saul  in  Arabia."  2  Gal.  i.  18, 

*  It  actually  is  used  of  three  years  in  1  Kings  ii.  88. 


THE  EETIEEMENT  OF  ST.  PATJL.  121 

certainty  on  this  point,  though  such  lights  as  we  have  are  slightly  in  favour  of 
the  longer  rather  than  of  the  shorter  period. 

Very  much  depends  upon  the  question  whether  physical  infirmity,  and 
prostration  of  health,  were  in  part  the  cause  of  this  retirement  and  inactivity. 
And  here  again  we  are  on  uncertain  ground,  because  this  at  once  opens  the 
often  discussed  problem  as  to  the  nature  of  the  affliction  to  which  St.  Paul  so 
pathetically  alludes  as  his  "  stake  in  the  flesh."  I  am  led  to  touch  upon  that 
question  here,  because  I  believe  that  this  dreadful  affliction,  whatever  it  may 
have  been,  had  its  origin  at  this  very  time.1  The  melancholy  through  which, 
like  a  fire  at  midnight,  his  enthusiasm  burns  its  way — the  deep  despondency 
which  sounds  like  an  undertone  even  amid  the  bursts  of  exultation  which 
triumph  over  it,  seem  to  me  to  have  been  in  no  small  measure  due  to  this.  It 
gave  to  St.  Paul  that  painful  self-consciousness  which  is  in  itself  a  daily  trial  to 
any  man  who,  in  spite  of  an  innate  love  for  retirement,  is  thrust  against  his 
will  into  publicity  and  conflict.  It  seems  to  break  the  wings  of  his  spirit,  so 
that  sometimes  he  drops  as  it  were  quite  suddenly  to  the  earth,  checked  and 
beaten  down  in  the  very  midst  of  his  loftiest  and  strongest  flights. 

No  one  can  even  cursorily  read  St.  Paul's  Epistles  without  observing 
that  he  was  aware  of  something  in  his  aspect  or  his  personality  which 
distressed  him  with  an  agony  of  humiliation — something  which  seems  to 
force  him,  against  every  natural  instinct  of  his  disposition,  into  language 
which  sounds  to  himself  like  a  boastfulness  which  was  abhorrent  to  him, 
but  which  he  finds  to  be  more  necessary  to  himself  than  to  other  men.  It 
is  as  though  he  felt  that  his  appearance  was  against  him.  Whenever  he 
has  ceased  to  be  carried  away  by  the  current  of  some  powerful  argument, 
whenever  his  sorrow  at  the  insidious  encroachment  of  errors  against  which 
he  had  flung  the  whole  force  of  his  character  has  spent  itself  in  words  of 
immeasurable  indignation — whenever  he  drops  the  high  language  of  apos- 
tolical authority  and  inspired  conviction — we  hear  a  sort  of  wailing,  pleading, 
appealing  tone  in  his  personal  addresses  to  his  converts,  which  would  be 
almost  impossible  in  one  whose  pride  of  personal  manhood  had  not  been 
abashed  by  some  external  defects,  to  which  he  might  indeed  appeal  as 
marks  at  once  of  the  service  and  the  protection  of  his  Saviour,  but  which 
made  him  less  able  to  cope  face  to  face  with  the  insults  of  opponents  or 
the  ingratitude  of  friends.  His  language  leaves  on  us  the  impression  of 
one  who  was  acutely  sensitive,  and  whoso  sensitiveness  of  temperament  has 
been  aggravated  by  a  meanness  of  presence  which  is  indeed  forgotten  by 
the  friends  who  know  him,  but  which  raises  in  strangers  a  prejudice  not 
always  overcome.  Many,  indeed,  of  the  brethren  in  the  little  churches 
which  he  founded,  had  so  "  grappled  him  to  their  souls  with  hooks  of  steel," 
th  t  he  could  speak  in  letter  after  letter  of  their  abounding  love  and 

••  f4---  ••  lufM    it-*  tr  o'^t^'^fi"   :;    •     •    •>!!•«•         •  M          '- 

1  There  is  nothing  to  exclude  this  hi  the  Wofcj  fioi  of  2  Cor.  xii.  7.  The  affliction 
might  not  have  arrived  at  its  full  intensity  till  that  period,  which  was  some  years  after 
his  conversion,  about  A.D.  43,  when  St.  Paul  was  at  Antioch  or  Jerusalem  or 
T&rsut. 


122  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL 

tenderness  and  gratitude  towards  him1 — that  he  can  call  them  "my  little 
children" — that  he  can  assume  their  intense  desire  to  see  him,  and  can 
grant  that  desire  as  an  express  favour  to  them ;  2  and  that  he  is  even  forced 
to  soothe  those  jealousies  of  affection  which  were  caused  by  his  acceptance 
of  aid  from  one  church  which  he  would  not  accept  from  others.  But  he 
is  also  well  aware  that  he  is  hated  with  a  perfect  virulence  of  hati-ed,  and 
(which  is  much  more  wounding  to  such  a  spirit)  that  with  this  hatred  there 
is  a  large  mixture  of  unjust  contempt.  From  this  contempt  even  of  the 
contemptible,  from  this  hatred  even  of  the  hateful,  he  could  not  but 
shrink,  though  ho  knew  that  it  is  often  the  penalty  with  which  the  world 
rewards  service,  and  the  tribute  which  virtue  receives  from  vice. 

It  is  this  which  explains  the  whole  style  and  character  of  his  Epistles.8 
The  charges  which  his  enemies  made  against  him  have  their  foundation 
in  facts  about  his  method  and  address,  which  made  those  charges  all  the 
more  dangerous  and  the  more  stinging  by  giving  them  a  certain  plausibility. 
They  were,  in  fact,  yet  another  instance  of  those  half-truths  which  are  the 
worst  of  lies.  Thus — adopting  the  taunts  of  his  adversaries,  as  ho  often 
does — he  says  that  he  is  in  presence  "humble"  among  them,4  and  "rude  in 
speech,"6  and  he  quotes  their  own  reproach  that  "his  bodily  presence  was 
weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible."6  Being  confessedly  one  who  strove 
for  peace  and  unity,  who  endeavoured  to  meet  all  men  half-way,  who 
was  ready  to  be  all  things  to  all  men  if  by  any  means  he  might  save  some, 
he  has  more  than  once  to  vindicate  his  character  from  those  charges  of 
insincerity,  craftiness,  dishonesty,  guile,  man-pleasing  and  flattery,7  which 
are,  perhaps,  summed  up  in  the  general  depreciation  which  he  so  indignantly 
rebuts  that  "he  walked  according  to  the  flesh,"8  or  in  other  words  that 
his  motives  were  not  spiritual,  but  low  and  selfish.  He  has,  too,  to  defend 
himself  from  the  insinuation  that  his  self-abasements  had  been  needless 
and  excessive;9  that  even  his  apparent  self-denials  had  only  been  assumed 
as  a  cloak  for  ulterior  views ; 10  and  that  his  intercourse  was  so  marked  by 
levity  of  purpose,  that  there  was  no  trusting  to  his  promises.11  Now  how 
came  St.  Paul  to  be  made  the  butt  for  such  calumnies  as  these  P  Chiefly, 
no  doubt,  because  he  was,  most  sorely  against  his  will,  the  leader  of  a  party, 
and  because  there  are  in  all  ages  souls  which  delight  in  lies — men  "  whose 
throat  is  an  open  sepulchre,  and  the  poison  of  asps  is  under  their  lips ; " 
but  partly,  also,  because  he  regarded  tact,  concession,  conciliatoriness,  as 
Divine  weapons  which  God  had  permitted  him  to  use  against  powerful 
obstacles ;  and  partly  because  it  was  easy  to  satirise  and  misrepresent  a 
depression  of  spirits,  a  humility  of  demeanour,  which  were  either  the  direct 
results  of  some  bodily  affliction,  or  which  the  consciousness  of  this  affliction 

i  Phil,  passim.  a  2  Oor.  i.  15,  23. 

3  See  Excursus  L  :  "  The  Style  of  St.  Paul  as  illustrative  of  his  Character." 

*  2  Cor.  x.  1,2.  8  2  Cor.  x.  2. 

4  2  Cor.  xi.  6,  i&uinp  evA^yw.  '  2  Cor.  xi.  7. 

•  '2  Cor.  x.  10.  «'  2  Cor.  xiL  16. 
1  2  Cor.  U.  17,  iv.  2;  1  Thess.  ii  S-5,  »  2  Cor.  i.  17. 


THE  RETIEEMEN5?  Of  ST.  PAUL.  123 

had  rendered  habitual.  We  foci  at  once  that  this  would  be  natural  to  the 
bowed  and  weak  figure  which  Albrecht  Diirer  has  represented ;  but  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  the  imposing  orator  whora  Raphael  has  placed  on  the 
steps  of  the  Areopagus.1 

And  to  this  he  constantly  refers.  There  is  hardly  a  letter  in  which  he 
does  not  allude  to  his  mental  trials,  his  physical  sufferings,  his  persecutions, 
his  infirmities.  He  tells  the  Corinthians  that  his  intercourse  with  them 
had  been  characterised  by  physical  weakness,  fear,  and  much  trembling.2 
He  reminds  the  Galatians  that  he  had  preached  among  them  in  consequence 
of  an  attack  of  severe  sickness.3  He  speaks  of  the  inexorable  burden  of 
life,  and  its  unceasing  inoan.4  The  trouble,  the  perplexity,  the  persecution, 
the  prostrations  which  were  invariable  conditions  of  his  life,  seem  to  him 
like  a  perpetual  carrying  about  with  him  in  his  body  of  the  mortification— 
the  putting  to  death — of  Christ ; &  a  perpetual  betrayal  to  death  for  Christ's 
sake — a  perpetual  exhibition  of  the  energy  of  death  in  his  outward  life.6  He 
died  daily,  he  was  in  deaths  oft ; 7  he  was  being  killed  all  the  day  long.8 

And  this,  too — as  well  as  the  fact  that  he  seems  to  write  in  Greek  and 
think  in  Syriac — is  the  key  to  the  peculiarities  of  St.  Paul's  language.  The 
feeling  that  he  was  inadequate  for  the  mighty  task  which  God  had  specially 
entrusted  to  him ;  the  dread  lest  his  personal  insignificance  should  lead  any 
of  his  hearers  at  once  to  reject  a  doctrine  announced  by  a  weak,  suffering, 
distressed,  overburdened  man,  who,  though  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  bore 
in  his  own  aspect  so  few  of  the  credentials  of  an  embassy ;  the  knowledge 
that  the  fiery  spirit  which  "  o'erinformed  its  tenement  of  clay "  was  held, 
like  the  light  of  Gideon's  pitchers,  in  a  fragile  and  earthen  vessel,9  seems  to 
be  so  constantly  and  so  oppressively  present  with  him,  as  to  make  all  words 
too  weak  for  the  weight  of  meaning  they  have  to  bear.  Hence  his  language, 
in  many  passages,  bears  the  traces  of  almost  morbid  excitability  in  its 
passionate  alternations  of  humility  with  assertions  of  the  real  greatness  of 
his  labours,10  and  of  scorn  and  indignation  against  fickle  weaklings  and 
intriguing  calumniators  with  an  intense  and  yearning  love.11  Sometimes  his 
heart  beats  with  such  quick  emotion,  his  thoughts  rush  with  such  confused 
impetuosity,  that  hi  anakoluthon  after  anakoluthon,  and  parenthesis  after 
parenthesis,  the  whole  meaning  becomes  uncertain.12  His  feeling  is  so  intense 
that  his  very  words  catch  a  life  of  their  own — they  become  "  living  creatures 
with  hands  and  feet." 13  Sometimes  ho  is  almost  contemptuous  in  his  asser- 
tion of  the  rectitude  which  makes  him  indifferent  to  vulgar  criticism,14  and 
keenly  bitter  in  the  sarcasm  of  his  self-depreciation.16  In  one  or  two 

*  Hausrath,  p.  61.  *  1  Cor.  ii.  8.  »  Gal.  iv.  IS. 

4  2  Cor.  V.  4,  oi  ovrts  iv  T<j!  ffx^vei  OT€i'a£c,uev  ftc.povfj.eyot. 

2  Cor.  IV.  8 — 10,  OXi/Jufxfvoi    .    .    .    ajropovfic^ot    .    .    .    StOK^fieyot    .    .    . 
.    .    .    jrairoT*  TT|v  vfKpua-Lv  ToO  'hjcrou  iv  Tif  tnafiari  vepuf>tpovrff. 
Id.  11,  o«i  yap  Tjueis  oi  {Jiwjre*,  eif  6a.va.-rov  irapa£i2dfieda. 

7  2  Cor.  xi.  23 ;  1  Cor.  rv.  31.  8  Rom>  ^iti.  36. 

»  2  Cor.  iv.  7.  10  1  Cor.  rv.  10.  «  Gal.  and  2  Cor.  passim. 

«  Gal.  iv.  12.  w  Gal.  iv.  14;  1  Cor.  iv.  13;  Phil.  iii.  8. 

*«  1  Cor.  iv.  3.  »  1  Cor.  iy,  10;  x,  16;  2  Cor.  xi.  16—19;  xii.  U. 


124  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATH*, 

instances  an  enemy  might  almost  apply  the  word  "  brutal "  to  the  language 
in  which  he  ridicules,  or  denounces,  or  unmasks  the  impugners  of  his  gospel ; 1 
in  one  or  two  passages  he  speaks  with  a  tinge  of  irony,  almost  of  irritation, 
about  those  "  accounted  to  be  pillars " — the  "  out-and-out  Apostles,"  who 
even  if  they  were  Apostles  ten  times  over  added  nothing  to  him : 2 — but  the 
storm  of  passion  dies  away  in  a  moment;  he  is  sorry  even  for  the  most 
necessary  and  justly-deserved  severity,  and  all  ends  in  expressions  of  tender- 
ness and,  as  it  were,  with  a  burst  of  tears.3 

Now  it  is  true  that  we  recognise  in  Saul  of  Tarsus  the  restlessness,  the 
vehemence,  the  impetuous  eagerness  which  we  see  in  Paul  the  Apostle ; 
but  it  is  hard  to  imagine  in  Saul  of  Tarsus  the  nervous  shrinking,  the 
tremulous  sensibility,  the  profound  distrust  of  his  own  gifts  and  powers 
apart  from  Divine  grace,  which  are  so  repeatedly  manifest  in  the  language  of 
Paul,  the  fettered  captive  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  that  siich  a 
man  as  the  Apostle  became  could  ever  have  been  the  furious  inquisitor, 
the  intruder  even  into  the  sacred  retirement  of  peaceful  homes,  the  eager 
candidate  for  power  to  suppress  a  heresy  even  in  distant  cities,  which  Saul 
was  before  the  vision  on  the  way  to  Damascus.  It  is  a  matter  of  common 
experience  that  some  physical  humiliation,  especially  if  it  take  the  form 
of  terrible  disfigurement,  often  acts  in  this  very  way  upon  human  character.* 
It  makes  the  bold  shrink ;  it  makes  the  arrogant  humble ;  it  makes  the 
self-confident  timid;  it  makes  those  who  once  loved  publicity  long  to  hide 
themselves  from  the  crowd ;  it  turns  every  thought  of  the  heart  from  trust  in 
self  to  humblest  submission  to  the  will  of  God.  Even  a  dangerous  illness 
is  sometimes  sufficient  to  produce  results  like  these;  but  when  the  illness 
leaves  its  physical  marks  for  life  upon  the  frame,  its  effects  are  intensified ; 
it  changes  a  mirthful  reveller,  like  Francis  of  Assisi,  into  a  squalid  ascetic ; 
a  favourite  of  society,  like  Francis  Xavier,  into  a  toilsome  missionary ;  a  gay 
soldier,  like  Ignatius  Loyola,  into  a  rigid  devotee. 

»  Gal.  iii.  1 ;  iv.  17  (in  the  Greek). 

^  Gill.  ii.  6,  TUP  SoKOvvriav  etna  ri, — oiroiai  irore  fi<rav,  ov&tv  fxot  Siatftepti ;  9,  oi  ioKovvrer  (rrvXoi 
(Tvat ;  11,  KaTeyvwcr/ieVoj  V-  1  Cor.  XV.  9  ;  2  Cor.  xi.  5,  TUV  virrpXtav  airomi^av.  2  Cor.  xii.  11, 
oii&ev  inrrepijora  riov  \nrtp\Cav  oTroOToAajv  el  Kai  ovSiv  elfit. 

3  Gal.  iv.  19 ;  2  Cor.  ii.  4 ;  Eom.  be.  1 — 3.  As  bearing  on  this  subject,  every  one  will 
read  with  interest  the  verses  of  Dr.  Newman — 

"  I  dreamed  that  with  a  passionate  complaint 
I  wished  me  born  amid  God's  deeds  of  might, 
And  envied  those  who  had  the  presence  bright 
Of  gifted  prophet  or  strong-hearted  saint, 
Whom  my  heart  loves,  and  fancy  strives  to  paint 
I  turned,  when  straight  a  stranger  met  my  sight, 
Came  as  my  guest,  and  did  awhile  unite 
A!  -  •"  His  lot  with  mine,  and  lived  without  restraint. 
Courteous  he  was,  and  grave  ;  so  meek  in  mien. 
It  seemed  untrue,  or  told  a  purpose  weak  ; 
Yet,  in  the  mood,  could  he  with  aptness  speak 
Or  with  stern  force,  or  show  of  feeling  keen, 
Marking  deep  craft,  methought,  and  hidden  pride; 
Then  came  a  voice,  '  St.  Paul  is  at  thy  side  1 '  " 

*  The  IMOq  of  2  Cor.  xii.  7  shows  that  the  "stake  in  the  flesh"  was  nothing, 
congenital. 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  A  LONG  MARTYRDOM.  125 

What  was  the  nature  of  this  stake  in  the  flesh,  we  shall  examine  fully  in  a 
separate  essay ; l  but  that,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  it  came  to  St.  Paul  as  a 
direct  consequence  of  visions  and  revelations,  and  as  a  direct  counteraction  to 
the  inflation  and  self-importance  which  such  exceptional  insight  might 
otherwise  have  caused  to  such  a  character  as  his,  he  has  himself  informed  us. 
We  are,  therefore,  naturally  led  to  suppose  that  the  first  impalement  of  his 
health  by  this  wounding  splinter  accompanied,  or  resulted  from,  that  greatest 
of  all  his  revelations,  the  appearance  to  him  of  the  risen  Christ  as  he  was 
travelling  at  noonday  nigh  unto  Damascus.  If  so,  we  see  yet  another 
reason  for  a  retirement  from  all  exertion  and  publicity,  which  was  as  necessary 
for  his  body  as  for  his  soul. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   BEGINNING  OF   A  LONG  MARTYRDOM. 

"  Be  bold  as  a  leopard,  swift  as  an  eagle,  bounding  as  a  stag,  brave  as  a  lion,  to 
do  the  will  of  thy  Father  which  ia  in  heaven." — FESACHIM,  f.  112,  2. 

CALMED  by  retirement,  confirmed,  it  may  be,  by  fresh  revelations  of  the  will 
of  God,  clearer  in  his  conceptions  of  truth  and  duty,  Saul  returned  tc 
Damascus.  We  need  look  for  no  further  motives  of  his  return  than  such  as 
rose  from  the  conviction  that  he  was  now  sufficiently  prepared  to  do  the  work 
to  which  Christ  had  called  him. 

He  did  not  at  once  begin  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles.  "  To  the  Jew  first " 
was  the  understood  rule  of  the  Apostolic  teaching,2  and  had  been  involved  in 
the  directions  given  by  Christ  Himself.3  Moreover,  the  Gentiles  were 
so  unfamiliar  with  the  institution  of  preaching,  their  whole  idea  of  worship  was 
so  alien  from  every  form  of  doctrinal  or  moral  exhortation,  that  to  begin 
by  preaching  to  them  was  almost  impossible.  It  was  through  the  Jews  that 
the  Gentiles  were  most  easily  reached.  The  proselytes,  numerous  in  every 
city,  were  specially  numerous  at  Damascus,  and  by  their  agency  it  was  certain 
that  every  truth  propounded  in  the  Jewish  synagogue  would,  even  if  only  by 
the  agency  of  female  proselytes,  be  rapidly  communicated  to  the  Gentile 
agora. 

It  was,  therefore,  to  the  synagogues  that  Saul  naturally  resorted,  and 
there  that  he  first  began  to  deliver  his  message.  Since  the  Christians  were 
still  in  communion  with  the  synagogue  and  the  Toiuple — since  their  leader, 
Ananias,  was  so  devout  according  to  the  law  as  to  have  won  the  willing 
testimony  of  all  the  Jews  who  lived  in  Damascus4 — no  obstacle  would  be  placed 
in  the  way  of  the  youthful  Eabbi ;  and  as  he  had  been  a  scholar  in  the  most 

1  See  Excursus  X.,  "St.  Paul's  'Stake  in  the  Flesh.'" 

2  Rom.  i.  16 ;  Acts  iii.  26 ;  xiii.  38,  39,  46  ;  John  iv.  22. 

*  Luke  xxiv.  47 ;  cf.  Isa.  ii.  2,  3 ;  xlix.  6 ;  Mic.  iv.  2.  4  Acts  xxit.  12. 


126  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

ominent  of  Jewish  schools,  his  earliest  appearances  on  the  arena  of  controversy 
would  be  awaited  with  contention  and  curiosity.  We  have  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  animosity  against  the  Nazarenes,  which  Saul  himself  had 
kept  ah' ve  in  Jerusalem,  had  as  yet  penetrated  to  Damascus.  News  is  slow  to 
travel  in  Eastern  countries,  and  those  instantaneous  waves  of  opinion  which 
flood  our  modem  civilisation  were  unknown  to  ancient  times*  In  the  capital 
of  Syria,  Jews  and  Christians  were  still  living  together  in  mutual  toleration, 
if  not  in  mutual  esteem.  They  had  been  thus  living  in  Jerusalem  until  the 
spark  of  hatred  had  been  struck  out  by  the  collision  of  the  Hellenists  of  the 
liberal  with  those  of  the  narrow  school — the  Christian  Hellenists  of  the 
Hagadoth  with  the  Jewish  Hellenists  of  the  Halacha.  To  Saul,  if  not  solely, 
yet  in  great  measure,  this  collision  had  been  due ;  and  Saul  had  been  on  his 
way  to  stir  up  the  same  wrath  and  strife  in  Damascus,  when  he  had  been 
resistlessly  arrested1  on  his  unhallowed  mission  by  the  vision  and  the 
reproach  of  his  ascended  Lord. 

But  the  authority,  and  the  letters,  had  been  entrusted  to  him  alone,  and 
none  but  a  few  hot  zealots  really  desired  that  pious  and  respectable  persons 
like  Ananias — children  of  Abraham,  servants  of  Moses — should  be  dragged, 
with  a  halter  round  their  necks,  from  peaceful  homes,  scourged  by  the  people 
with  whom  they  had  lived  without  any  serious  disagreement,  and  haled  to 
Jerusalem  by  fanatics  who  would  do  their  best  to  procure  against  them  the 
fatal  vote  which  might  consign  them  to  the  revolting  horrors  of  an  almost 
obsolete  execution. 

So  that  each  Euler  of  a  Synagogue  over  whom  Saul  might  have  been 
domineering  with  all  the  pride  of  superior  learning,  and  all  the  intemperance 
of  flaming  zeal,  might  be  glad  enough  to  see  and  hoar  a  man  who  could  no 
longer  hold  in  terror  over  him  the  commission  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  who  had 
now  rendered  himself  liable  to  the  very  penalties  which,  not  long  before,  he 
had  been  so  eager  to  inflict. 

And  had  Saul  proved  to  be  but  an  ordinary  disputant,  the  placidity  of 
Jewish  self-esteem  would  not  have  been  disturbed,  nor  would  he  have  ruffled 
the  sluggish  stream  of  legal  self-satisfaction.  He  did  not  speak  of  circum- 
cision as  superfluous ;  he  said  nothing  about  the  evanescence  of  the  Temple 
service,  or  the  substitution  for  it  of  a  more  spiritual  worship.  He  did  not 
breathe  a  word  about  turning  to  the  Gentiles.  The  subject  of  his  preaching 
was  that  "Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God."2  At  first  this  preaching  excited  no 
special  indignation.  The  worshippers  in  tho  synagogue  only  felt  a  keen 
astonishment3  that  this  was  the  uiau  who  had  ravaged  in  Jerusalem  thosa 
who  called  on  "  this  name,"4  and  who  had  coine  to  Damascus  for  the  express 
purpose  of  leading  them  bound  to  tho  High  Priest.  But  when  once  self-love 
is  seriously  wounded,  toleration  rarely  survives.  This  was  the  case  with  tho 
Jews  of  Damascus.  They  very  soon  discovered  that  it  was  no  mere  Ananias 

*  Phil.  iii.  12,  icaT«A.!J<J>0jjv  irirb  ToO  Xpiorov  'IrjcroS. 

3  'lipn/vv,  not  xptarbc,  ia  here  the  true  reading  («,  A,  B,  O,  E). 

•  Acts  ix.  21,  ItitrnvTo,  *  V. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  LONG  MARTYBDOM.  127 

with  whom  they  had  to  deaL  It  was,  throughout  life,  Paul's  unhappy  fate  to 
kindle  the  most  virulent  animosities,  because,  though  conciliatory  and  courteous 
by  temperament,  he  yet  carried  into  his  arguments  that  intensity  and  forth- 
lightness  which  awaken  dormant  opposition.  A  languid  controversialist  will 
always  meet  with  a  languid  tolerance.  But  any  controversialist  whose  honest 
belief  in  his  own  doctrines  makes  him  terribly  in  earnest,  may  count  on  a  life 
embittered  by  the  anger  of  those  on  whom  he  has  forced  the  disagreeable  task 
of  re-considering  their  own  assumptions.  No  one  likes  to  be  suddenly 
awakened.  The  Jews  were  indignant  with  one  who  disturbed  the  deep 
slumber  of  decided  opinions.  Their  accredited  teachers  did  not  like  to  be 
deposed  from  the  papacy  of  infallible  ignorance.  They  began  at  Damascus  to 
feel  towards  Saul  that  fierce  detestation  which  dogged  him  thenceforward  to 
the  last  day  of  his  Me.  Out  of  their  own  Scriptures,  by  their  own  methods 
of  exegesis,  in  their  own  style  of  dialectics,  by  the  interpretation  of  prophecies 
of  which  they  did  not  dispute  the  validity,  he  simply  confounded  them.  He 
could  now  apply  the  very  same  principles  which  in  the  mouth  of  Stephen  he 
had  found  it  impossible  to  resist.  The  result  was  an  unanswerable  proof  that 
the  last  aeon  of  God's  earthly  dispensations  had  now  dawned,  that  old  things 
had  passed  away,  and  all  things  had  become  new. 

If  arguments  are  such  as  cannot  be  refuted,  and  yet  if  those  who  hear 
them  will  not  yield  to  them,  they  inevitably  excite  a  bitter  rage.  It  was  so 
with  the  Jews.  Some  time  had  now  elapsed  since  Saul's  return  from  Arabia,1 
and  they  saw  no  immediate  chance  of  getting  rid  of  this  dangerous  intruder. 
They  therefore  took  refuge  in  what  St.  Chrysostom  calls  "  the  syllogism  of 
violence."  They  might  at  least  plead  the  excuse — aud  how  bitter  was  the 
remorse  which  such  a  plea  would  excite  in  Saul's  own  conscience — that  they 
were  only  treating  him  in  the  way  in  which  he  himself  had  treated  all  who 
held  the  same  opinions.  Even-handed  justice  was  thus  commending  to  his 
own  lips  the  ingredients  of  that  poisoned  chalice  of  intolerance  which  he  had 
forced  on  others.  It  is  a  far  from  improbable  conjecture  that  it  was  at  this 
early  period  that  the  Apostle  endured  one,  and  perhaps  more  than  one,  of 
those  five  Jewish  scourgings  which  he  tells  the  Corinthians  that  he  had 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Jews.  For  it  is  hardly  likely  that  they  would 
resort  at  once  to  the  strongest  measures,  and  the  scourgings  might  be  taken 
as  a  reminder  that  worse  was  yet  to  come.  Indeed,  there  are  few  more 
striking  proofs  of  the  severity  of  that  life  which  the  Apostle  so  cheerfully — 
nay,  even  so  joyfully — endured,  than  the  fact  that  in  his  actual  biography  not 
one  of  these  five  inflictions,  terrible  as  we  know  that  they  must  have  been,  is 
so  much  as  mentioned,  and  that  in  his  Epistles  they  are  only  recorded,  among 
trials  yet  more  insupportable,  in  a  passing  and  casual  allusion.2 

But  we  know  from  the  example  of  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  that  no  such 
pain  or  danger  would  have  put  a  stop  to  his  ministry.  Like  them,  he  would 
have  seen  an  honour  in  such  disgrace.  At  last,  exasperated  beyond  all  en- 

*  £cts  Ix.  23,  wtfxu  Uswu.  s  See  Excursus  XI.,  "  On  Jewish  Scourging*.5 


128  THE  LIFE   AND  WOEK  OF   ST.   PAUL. 

durance  at  one  whom  they  hated  as  a  renegade,  and  whom  they  could  uot  even 
enjoy  the  luxury  of  despising  as  a  heretic,  they  made  a  secret  plot  to  kill  him.1 
The  conspiracy  was  made  known  to  Saul,  and  he  was  on  his  guard  against  it. 
The  Jews  then  took  stronger  and  more  open  measures.  They  watched  the 
gates  night  and  day  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  his  escape.  In  this  they 
were  assisted  by  the  Ethnarch,  who  supplied  them  with  the  means  of  doing  it. 
This  Ethnarch  was  either  the  Arab  viceroy  of  Hareth,  or  the  chief  official  of  the 
Jews  themselves,2  who  well  might  possess  this  authority  under  a  friendly  prince. 

There  was  thus  an  imminent  danger  that  Saul  would  be  cut  off  at  the 
very  beginning  of  his  career.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  The  disciples  "  took 
Saul "  3 — another  of  the  expressions  which  would  tend  to  show  that  he  was 
exceptionally  in  need  of  help — and  putting  him  in  a  large  rope  basket,4 
let  him  down  through  the  window  of  a  house  which  abutted  on  the  wall.6 
It  may  be  that  they  chose  a  favourable  moment  when  the  patrol  had 
passed,  and  had  not  yet  turned  round  again.  At  any  rate,  the  escape  was 
full  of  ignominy ;  and  it  may  have  been  this  humiliation,  or  else  the  fact  of 
its  being  among  the  earliest  perils  which  he  had  undergone,  that  fixed  it 
so  indelibly  on  the  memory  of  St.  Paul.  Nearly  twenty  years  afterwards 
he  mentions  it  to  the  Corinthians  with  special  emphasis,  after  agonies  and 
hair-breadth  escapes  which  to  us  would  have  seemed  far  more  formidable.6 

Here,  then,  closed  in  shame  and  danger  the  first  page  in  tliis  chequered 
and  sad  career.  How  ho  made  his  way  to  Jerusalem  must  bo  left  to  con- 
jecture. Doubtless,  as  he  stole  through  the  dark  night  alone — above  all, 
as  he  passed  the  very  spot  where  Christ  had  taken  hold  of  him,  and  into 
one  moment  of  his  life  had  been  crowded  a  whole  eternity — his  heart 
would  be  full  of  thoughts  too  deep  for  words.  It  has  been  supposed,  from 
the  expression  of  which  he  makes  use  in  his  speech  to  Agrippa,  that 
he  may  have  preached  in  many  synagogues  on  the  days  which  were  occu- 
pied on  his  journey  to  Jerusalem.7  But  this  seems  inconsistent  with  his 
own  statement  that  he  was  "  unknown  by  face  to  the  churches  of  Judaea 
which  were  in  Chi-ist."8  It  is  not,  however,  unlikely  that  he  may  some- 
times have  availed  himself  of  the  guest-chambers  which  were  attached  to 
Jewish  synagogues  j  and  if  such  was  the  case,  he  might  have  taught  the 
first  truths  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Jews  without  being  thrown  into  close 
contact  with  Christian  communities. 

1  These  secret  plots  were  fearfully  rife  in  these  days  of  the  Sicarii  (Jos.  Antt.  xi.  8,  §  5). 

*  2  Cor.    xi.    32,    o  cflpapxi?  t^poupei  rrji'  TroAii/ ;   Acts  IX.    24,  01  'lovSaioi  Trapenjpovi'  ras  TrvAas. 

Ethnarch,  as  well  as  Alabarch,  was  a  title  of  Jewish  governors  in  heathen  cities. 

3  Acts  ix.  25.      The  reading  ol  paJBrfrcu,  ovroC,  though  well  attested,  can  hardly  be 
correct. 

4  On  oTrvpis  see  my  Life  of  Christ,  i.  403,  480.     In  2  Cor.  xi.  33  it  is  called  <rapya>r/, 
which  is  denned  by  Hesych.  as  wX^a  TI  «  o^ou/iow. 

s  Such  windows  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Damascus.  For  similar  escapes,  see  Josh.  ii.  15  ; 
1  Sam.  xix.  12. 

6  2  Cor.  xi.  32.     St.  Paul's  conversion  was  about  A.D.  37.    The  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  was  written  A.D.  57,  or  early  in  A.D.  58. 

7  Acts  xxvi  20.  8  Gal.  i.  22. 


SAUL'S   RECEPTION  AT  JERUSALEM  129 

In  any  case,  his  journey  could  not  have  been  much  prolonged,  for  he 
tells  us  that  it  was  his  express  object  to  visit  Peter,  whose  recognition 
must  have  been  invaluable  to  him,  apart  from  the  help  and  insight  which 
he  could  not  but  derive  from  conversing  with  one  who  had  long  lived  in 
such  intimate  friendship  with  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER   XTTT. 

SAUL'S  RECEPTION  AT  JERUSALEM. 

"  Cogitemus  ipsum  Paulum,  licet  caelesti  voce  prostratum  et  instructum,  ad 
hominem  tamen  missum  esse,  ut  sacramenta  perciperet." — AUG.  Dt  Doctr.  Christ., 
Prol 

To  re- visit  Jerusalem  must  have  cost  the  future  Apostle  no  slight  effort.  How 
deep  must  have  been  his  remorse  as  he  neared  the  spot  where  he  had  seen 
the  corpse  of  Stephen  lying  crushed  under  the  stones !  With  what  awful 
interest  must  he  now  have  looked  on  the  scene  of  the  Crucifixion,  and  the 
spot  where  He  who  was  now  risen  and  glorified  had  lain  in  the  garden-tomb ! 
How  dreadful  must  have  been  the  revulsion  of  feeling  which  rose  from  the 
utter  change  of  his  present  relations  towards  the  priests  whose  belief  he 
had  abandoned,  and  the  Christians  whose  Gospel  he  had  embraced !  He 
had  left  Jerusalem  a  Rabbi,  a  Pharisee,  a  fanatic  defender  of  the  Oral  Law ; 
he  was  entering  it  as  one  who  utterly  distrusted  the  value  of  legal  right- 
eousness, who  wholly  despised  the  beggarly  elements  of  tradition.  The 
proud  man  had  become  unspeakably  humble;  the  savage  persecutor  un- 
speakably tender ;  the  self-satisfied  Rabbi  had  abandoned  in  one  moment 
his  pride  of  nationality,  his  exclusive  scorn,  his  Pharisaic  pre-eminence,  to 
take  in  exchange  for  them  the  beatitude  of  unjust  persecution,  and  to  become 
the  suffering  preacher  of  an  execrated  faith.  What  had  he  to  expect  from 
Theophilus,  whose  letters  he  had  perhaps  destroyed  ?  from  the  Sanhedrists, 
whose  zeal  he  had  fired?  from  his  old  fellow-pupils  in  the  lecture-room  of 
Gamaliel,  who  had  seen  in  Saul  of  Tarsus  one  who  in  learning  was  the  glory 
of  the  school  of  Hillel,  and  in  zeal  the  rival  of  the  school  of  Shammai? 
How  would  he  be  treated  by  these  friends  of  his  youth,  by  these  teachers  and 
companions  of  his  life,  now  that  proclaiming  his  system,  his  learning,  his 
convictions,  his  whole  life — and  therefore  theirs  no  less  than  his — to  have 
been  irremediably  wrong,  he  had  become  an  open  adherent  of  the  little  Church 
which  he  once  ravaged  and  destroyed  P 

But  amid  the  natural  shrinking  with  which  he  could  not  but  anticipate  an 
encounter  so  full  of  trial,  he  would  doubtless  console  himself  with  the  thought 
that  he  would  find  a  brother's  welcome  among  those  sweet  and  gentle  spirits 
whose  faith  he  had  witnessed,  whose  love  for  each  other  he  had  envied  while 
he  hated.  How  exquisite  would  be  the  pleasure  of  sharing  that  peace  which 


130  THE  LIFE  AND  WOSK  OS1  ST.  PAUL. 

he  had  tried  to  shatter;  of  urging  on  others  those  arguments  which  had 
been  bringing  conviction  to  his  own  mind  even  while  he  was  most  passionately 
resisting  them ;  of  hearing  again  and  again  from  holy  and  gentle  lips  the 
words  of  Him  whom  he  had  once  blasphemed !  Saul  might  well  have  thought 
that  the  love,  the  nobleness,  the  enthusiasm  of  his  new  brethren  would  more 
than  compensate  for  the  influence  and  admiration  which  he  had  voluntarily 
forfeited ;  and  that  to  pluck  with  them  the  fair  fruit  of  the  Spirit — love,  joy, 
peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance— 
would  be  a  bliss  for  which  he  might  cheerfully  abandon  the  whole  world 
beside.  No  wonder  that  "  he  essayed  to  join  himself  to  the  disciples."1  His 
knowledge  of  human  nature  might  indeed  have  warned  him  that  "  confidence 
is  a  plant  of  slow  growth " — that  such  a  reception  as  he  yearned  for  was 
hardly  possible.  It  may  be  that  he  counted  too  much  on  the  change  wrought 
in  human  dispositions  by  the  grace  of  God.  The  old  Adam  is  oftentimes  too 
strong  for  young  Helancthon. 

For,  alas  !  a  new  trial  awaited  him.  Peter,  indeed,  whom  he  had  expressly 
come  to  see,  at  once  received  him  with  the  large  generosity  of  that  impulsive 
heart,  and  being  a  married  man,  offered  him  hospitality  without  grudging.2 
But  at  first  that  was  all.  It  speaks  no  little  for  the  greatness  and  goodness  of 
Peter — it  is  quite  in  accordance  with  that  natural  nobleness  which  we  should 
expect  to  find  in  one  whom  Jesus  Himself  had  loved  and  blessed — that  he  was 
the  earliest  among  the  brethren  to  rise  above  the  influence  of  suspicion.  He 
was  at  this  time  the  leader  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem.  As  such  he  had  not 
been  among  those  who  fled  before  the  storm.  He  must  haA^e  known  that  it  was 
at  the  feet  of  this  young  Pharisee  that  the  garments  of  Stephen's  murderers 
had  been  hud.  He  must  have  feared  him,  perhaps  even  have  hidden  himself 
from  him,  when  he  forced  his  way  into  Christian  homes.  Nay,  more,  the  heart 
of  Peter  must  have  sorely  ached  when  he  saw  his  little  congregation  skin, 
scattered,  destroyed,  and  the  ccenobitic  community,  the  faith  of  which  had  been 
so  bright,  the  enthusiasm  so  contagious,  the  common  love  so  tender  and  so 
pure,  rudely  broken  up  by  the  pitiless  persecution  of  a  Pupil  of  the  Schools. 
Yet,  with  the  unquestioning  trustfulness  of  a  sunny  nature — with  that  spiritual 
insight  into  character  by  which  a  Divine  charity  not  only  perceives  real  worth, 
but  even  creates  worthiness  where  it  did  not  before  exist— Peter  opens  his  door 
to  one  whom  a  meaner  man  might  well  have  excluded  as  still  too  possibly  a 
wolf  amid  the  fold. 

But  of  the  other  leaders  of  the  Church — if  there  were  any  at  that  time  in 
Jerusalem — not  one  came  near  the  new  convert,  not  one  so  much  as  spoke  to 
him.  He  was  met  on  every -side  by  cold,  distrustful  looks.  At  one  stroke  he 
had  lost  all  his  old  friends ;  it  seemed  to  be  too  likely  that  he  would  gain  no 
new  ones  in  their  place.  The  brethren  regarded  him  with  terror  and  mistrust; 
they  did  not  believe  that  he  was  a  disciple  at  all.3  The  fads  which  accoin- 

l  Acts  ix.  26.  *  Gal.  1. 18. 

*  Acts  be.  26,  iirtipiiTo  KoAXacr&u  TO"?  paJhira.lt' (the  imperfect  marks  an  unsuccessful 
effort)  eci  irorw  t^oSoC-n-o  avrbf,  pq  mffTevorrtt  Sri  fa 


SAUL'S   RECEPTION  AT  JERUSALEM.  131 

panied  his  alleged  conversion  they  may  indeed  have  heard  of ;  but  they  had 
occurred  three  years  before.  The  news  of  his  recent  preaching  and  recent  peril 
in  Damascus  was  not  likely  to  have  reached  them ;  but  even  if  it  had,  it  would 
have  seemed  so  strange  that  they  might  be  pardoned  for  looking  with  doubt  on 
the  persecutor  turned  brother — for  even  fearing  that  the  asserted  conversion 
might  only  be  a  ruse  to  enable  Saul  to  learn  their  secrets,  and  so  entrap  them 
to  their  final  ruin.  And  thus  at  first  his  intercourse  with  the  brethren  in  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem  was  almost  confined  to  his  reception  in  the  house  of 
Peter.  "Other  of  the  Apostles  saw  I  none,"  he  writes  to  the  Galatians, 
"  save  James  the  Lord's  brother."  But  though  he  saw  James,  Paul  seems  to 
have  had  but  little  communion  with  him.  All  that  we  know  of  the  first  Bishop 
of  Jerusalem  shows  us  the  immense  dissimilarity,  the  almost  antipathetic 
peculiarities  which  separated  the  characters  of  the  two  men.  Even  with  the 
Lord  Himself,  if  we  may  follow  the  plain  language  of  the  Gospels,1  the  eldest 
of  His  brethren  seems,  during  His  life  on  earth,  to  have  had  but  little  commu- 
nion. He  accepted  indeed  His  Messianic  claims,  but  ho  accepted  them  in  the 
Judaic  sense,  and  was  displeased  at  that  in  His  life  which  was  most  unmis- 
takably Divine.  If  ho  be  rightly  represented  by  tradition  as  a  Legalist,  a 
Nazarite,  almost  an  Essene,  spending  his  whole  life  in  prayer  in  the  Templo, 
it  was  his  obedience  to  Mosaism — scarcely  modified  in  any  external  particular 
by  his  conversion  to  Christianity — which  had  gained  for  him  even  from  the 
Jews  the  surname  of  "  the  Just*"  If,  as  seems  almost  demonstrable,  he  bo 
the  author  of  the  Epistle  which  bears  his  name,  we  see  how  slight  was  the  ex- 
tent to  which  his  spiritual  life  had  been  penetrated  by  those  special  aspects 
of  the  one  great  truth  which  were  to  Paul  the  very  breath  and  life  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  that  Epistle  we  find  a  stern  and  noble  morality  which  raises  it 
infinitely  above  the  reproach  of  being  "  a  mere  Epistle  of  straw ;" 2  but  we 
nevertheless  do  not  find  one  direct  word  about  the  Incarnation,  or  the  Cruci- 
fixion, or  the  Atonement,  or  Justification  by  Faith,  or  Sanctification  by  the 
Spirit,  or  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead.  The  notion  that  it  was  written  to 
counteract  either  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul,  or  the  dangerous  consequences 
which  might  sometimes  bo  deduced  from  that  teaching,  is  indeed  most 
extremely  questionable ;  and  all  that  wo  can  say  of  that  supposition  is,  that  it 
is  not  quite  so  monstrous  a  chimera  as  that  which  has  been  invented  by  the 
German  theologians,  who  soe  St.  Paul  and  his  followers  indignantly  though 
covertly  denounced  in  the  Balaam  and  Jezebel  of  the  Churches  of  Pergarnos 
and  Thyatira,3  and  the  Nieolaitans  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus,4  and  the 
"  synagogue  of  Satan,  which  say  they  are  Jews,  and  are  not,  but  do  lie,"  of  the 
Church  of  Philadelphia.6  And  yet  no  one  can  road  the  Epistle  of  James  side 
by  side  with  any  Epistle  of  St.  Paul's  without  perceiving  how  wide  were  the 
differences  between  the  two  Apostles.  St.  James  was  a  man  eminently  inflex- 

»  Matt.  xiL  46;  Mark  iii.  31 ;  Luke  vilL  19;  John  vii.  6. 

a  "Ein  reclit  strohern  Epistel,  dcnn  rie  doch  kein  evangeliBch  Art  an  ilia  hat" 
(Luther,  Praef.  N.  T.t  1522) ;  but  he  afterwards  modified  his  opinion. 

•  Bev.  ii,  20.  *  Rev.  il.  6.  «  Kev.  UL  9. 


132  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

ible  ;  St.  Paul  knew  indeed  how  to  yield,  but  then  the  very  points  which  he 
was  least  inclined  to  yield  were  those  which  most  commanded  the  sympathy  of 
James.  What  we  know  of  Peter  is  exactly  in  accordance  with  the  kind  readi- 
ness with  which  he  received  the  suspected  and  friendless  Hellenist.  What  we 
know  of  James  would  have  led  us  a  priori  to  assume  that  his  relations  with 
Paul  would  never  get  beyond  the  formal  character  which  they  wear  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  and  still  more  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  But  let  it  not 
be  assumed  that  because  there  was  little  apparent  sympathy  and  co- operation 
between  St.  Paul  and  St.  James,  and  because  they  dwell  on  apparently  opposite 
aspects  of  the  truth,  we  should  for  one  moment  be  justified  in  disparaging 
either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  divergences  which  seem  to  arise  from  the 
analysis  of  truth  by  individual  minds  are  merged  in  the  catholicity  of  a  wider 
synthesis.  When  St.  Paul  teaches  that  we  are  "justified  by  faith,"  he  is 
teaching  a  truth  infinitely  precious ;  and  St.  James  is  also  teaching  a  precious 
truth  when,  with  a  different  shade  of  meaning  in  both  words,  he  says  that 
"  by  works  a  man  is  justified." l  The  truths  which  these  two  great  Apostles 
were  commissioned  to  teach  were  complementary  and  supplementary,  but  not 
contradictory  of  each  other.  Of  both  aspects  of  truth  we  are  the  inheritors. 
If  it  be  true  that  they  did  not  cordially  sympathise  with  each  other  in  their 
life- time,  the  loss  was  theirs ;  but,  even  in  that  case,  they  were  not  the  first 
instances  in  the  Church  of  God — nor  will  they  be  the  last— in  which  two  good 
men,  through  the  narrowness  of  one  or  the  vehemence  of  the  other,  have  been 
too  much  beset  by  the  spirit  of  human  infirmity  to  be  able,  in  all  perfectness, 
to  keep  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. 

The  man  who  saved  the  new  convert  from  this  humiliating  isolation — an 
isolation  which  must  at  that  moment  have  been  doubly  painful — was  the  wise 
and  generous  Joseph.  He  has  already  been  mentioned  in  the  Acts  as  a  Levite 
of  Cyprus  who,  in  spite  of  the  prejudices  of  his  rank,  had  been  among  the 
earliest  to  join  the  new  community,  and  to  sanction  its  happy  communism  by 
the  sale  of  his  own  possessions.  The  dignity  and  sweetness  of  his  character, 
no  less  than  the  sacrifices  which  he  had  made,  gave  him  a  deservedly  high 
position  among  the  persecuted  brethren ;  and  the  power  with  which  he 
preached  the  faith  had  won  for  him  the  surname  of  Barnabas,  or  "  the  son  of 
exhortation."2  His  intimate  relations  with  Paul  in  after-days,  his  journey  all 
the  way  to  Tarsus  from  Autioch  to  invite  his  assistance,  and  the  unity  of  their 
purposes  until  the  sad  quarrel  finally  separated  them,  would  alone  render  it 
probable  that  they  had  known  each  other  at  that  earlier  period  of  life  during 
which,  for  the  most  part,  the  closest  intimacies  are  formed.  Tradition  asserts 
that  Joseph  had  been  a  scholar  of  Gamaliel,  and  the  same  feeling  which  led 
him  to  join  a  school  of  which  one  peculiarity  was  its  permission  of  Greek 

1  James  U.  24.    It  IB  hardly  a  paradox  to  say  that  St.  James  meant  by  "faith" 
•omething  analogous  to  what  St.  Paul  meant  by  works. 

2  n«ia:  13,  "  son  of  prophecy."    That  he  had  been  one  of  the  Seventy  is  probably  a 
mere  guess.    (Euseb.  H.  E.  L  12;  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  ii.  176.)    "  napa«A>j<rtt  late  patet  j 
obi  deeides  excitat  est  hortatio,  ubi  tristitiae  modetur  est  solatium  "  (Bengel). 


SAUL'S  RECEPTION  AT  JERUSALEM.  133 

learning,  might  hare  led  him  yet  earlier  to  take  a  few  hours'  sail  from  Cyprus 
to  see  what  could  be  learnt  in  the  University  of  Tarsus.  If  so,  he  would 
naturally  have  come  into  contact  with  the  family  of  Saul,  and  the  friendship 
thus  commenced  would  be  continued  at  Jerusalem.  It  had  been  broken  by  the 
conversion  of  Barnabas,  it  was  now  renewed  by  the  conversion  of  Saul. 

Perhaps  also  it  was  to  this  friendship  that  Saul  owed  his  admission  as  a 
guest  into  Peter's  house.  There  was  a  close  link  of  union  between  Barnabas 
and  Peter  in  the  person  of  Mark,  who  was  the  cousin l  of  Barnabas,  and  whom 
Peter  loved  so  tenderly  that  he  calls  him  his  son.  The  very  house  in  which 
Peter  lived  may  have  been  the  house  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Mark.  It  is 
hardly  probable  that  the  poor  fisherman  of  Galilee  possessed  any  dwelling  of 
his  own  in  the  Holy  City.  At  any  rate,  Peter  goes  to  this  house  immediately 
after  his  liberation  from  prison,  and  if  Peter  lived  in  it,  the  relation  of 
Barnabas  to  its  owner  would  have  given  him  some  claim  to  ask  that  Saul 
should  share  its  hospitality.  Generous  as  Peter  was,  it  would  have  required 
an  almost  superhuman  amount  of  confidence  to  receive  at  once  under  his  roof 
a  man  who  had  tried  by  the  utmost  violence  to  extirpate  the  very  fibres  of  the 
Church.  But  if  one  so  highly  honoured  as  Barnabas  was  ready  to  vouch  for 
him,  Peter  was  not  the  man  to  stand  coldly  aloof.  Thus  it  happened  that 
Saul's  earliest  introduction  to  the  families  of  those  whom  he  had  scattered 
would  be  made  under  the  high  auspices  of  the  greatest  of  the  Twelve. 

The  imagination  tries  in  vain  to  penetrate  the  veil  of  two  thousand  years 
which  hangs  between  us  and  the  intercourse  of  the  two  Apostles.  Barnabas, 
we  may  be  sure,  must  have  been  often  present  in  the  little  circle,  and  must 
have  held  many  an  earnest  conversation  with  his  former  friend.  Mary,  the 
mother  of  Mark,  would  have  something  to  telL2  Mark  may  have  been  an  eye- 
witness of  more  than  one  pathetic  scene.  But  how  boundless  would  be  the 
wealth  of  spiritual  wisdom  which  Peter  must  have  unfolded !  Is  it  not  certain 
that  from  those  lips  St.  Paul  must  have  heard  about  the  Divine  brightness  of 
the  dawning  ministry  of  Jesus  during  the  Galilaean  year — about  the  raising  of 
Jairus'  daughter,  and  the  Transfiguration  on  Hermon,  and  the  discourse  in  the 
synagogue  of  Capernaum,  and  the  awful  scenes  which  had  occurred  on  the 
day  of  the  Crucifixion  ?  And  is  it  not  natural  to  suppose  that  such  a  hearer — 
a  hearer  of  exceptional  culture,  and  enlightened  to  an  extraordinary  degree  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God — would  grasp  many  of  the  words  of  the  Lord  with  a 
firmness  of  grasp,  and  see  into  the  very  inmost  heart  of  their  significance 
with  a  keenness  of  insight,  from  which  his  informant  might,  in  his  turn,  be 
glad  to  learn  ? 

It  must  be  a  dull  imagination  that  does  not  desire  to  linger  for  a  moment 
on  the  few  days  during  which  two  such  men  were  inmates  together  of  one 
obscure  house  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  But  however  fruitful  their  inter- 
course, it  did  not  at  once  secure  to  the  new  disciple  a  footing  among  the 

1  Col.  iv.  10. 

2  St.  John  and  other  Apostles  were  probably  absent,  partly  perhaps  as  a  consequence 
of  the  very  persecution  in  which  Paul  had  been  the  prime  mover. 


ISi  IHE  LIFE  AND  WORK  O?  SO?.  PAUL. 

brethren  whose  poverty  and  persecutions  he  came  to  share.  Then  it  was  (h*t- 
Barnabas  canie  forward,  aud  saved  Saul  for  the  work  of  the  Church.  The 
same  discrimination  of  character,  the  same  charity  of  insight  which  afterwards 
made  him  prove  Mark  to  be  a  worthy  comrade  of  their  second  mission,  in  spite 
of  his  first  defection,  now  made  him  vouch  unhesitatingly  for  the  sincerity  of 
Saul.  Taking  him  by  the  hand,  he  led  him  into  the  presence  of  the  Apostles 
—the  term  being  here  used  for  Peter,1  and  James  the  Lord's  brother,2  and  the 
elders  of  the  assembled  church — and  there  narrated  to  them  the  circumstances, 
which  either  they  had  never  heard,  or  of  the  truth  of  which  they  had  not  yet  been 
convinced.  He  told  them  of  the  vision  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  and  of  the 
fearlessness  with  which  Saul  had  vindicated  his  sincerity  in  the  very  city  to 
which  he  had  come  as  an  enemy.  The  words  of  Barnabas  carried  weight,  and 
his  confidence  was^contagious.  Saul  was  admitted  among  the  Christians  on 
a  footing  of  friendship,  "  going  in  and  out  among  them."  To  the  generosity 
and  clear-sightedness  of  Joseph  of  Cyprus,  on  this  and  on  a  later  occasion,  the 
Apostle  owed  a  vast  debt  of  gratitude.  Next  only  to  the  man  who  achieves 
the  greatest  and  most  blessed  deeds  is  he  who,  perhaps  himself  wholly  incap- 
able of  such  high  work,  is  yet  the  first  to  help  and  encourage  the  genius  of 
others.  "We  often  do  more  good  by  our  sympathy  than  by  our  labours,  and 
render  to  the  world  a  more  lasting  service  by  absence  of  jealousy,  and  recog- 
nition of  merit,  than  we  could  ever  render  by  the  straining  efforts  of  personal 
ambition. 

No  sooner  was  Saul  recognised  as  a  brother,  than  he  renewed  the  ministry 
which  he  had  begun  at  Damascus.  It  is,  however,  remarkable  that  he  did  not 
venture  to  preach  to  the  Hebrew  Christians.  He  sought  the  synagogues  of 
the  Hellenists  in  which  the  voice  of  Stephen  had  first  been  heard,  and  disputed 
with  an  energy  not  inferior  to  his.  It  was  incumbent  on  him,  though  it  was  a 
duty  which  required  no  little  courage,  that  his  voice  should  be  uplifted  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  the  places  where  it  had  been  heard  of  old  in 
blasphemy  against  Him.  But  this  very  circumstance  increased  his  danger. 
His  preaching  was  again  cut  short  by  a  conspiracy  to  murder  him.3 

It  was  useless  to  continue  in  a  place  where  to  stay  was  certain  death. 
The  little  Galilcean  community  got  information  of  the  plot.  To  do  the  Jews 
justice,  they  showed  little  skill  in  keeping  the  secret  of  these  deadly 

1  Acts  ix.  27 ;  GaL  i.  19.    The  true  reading  in  GaL  i.  18  seems  to  be  "  Kephas "  (N,  A,  B, 
and  the  most  important  versions)  ;  as  also  in  iL  9,  11,  14.    This  Hebrew  form  of  the 
name  also  occurs  in  1  Cor.  ix.  5  ;  xv.  6.     Although  elsewhere  (e.g.  ii.  7,  8)  St.  Paul  uses 
"Peter"  indifferently  with  Cephas,  as  is  there  shown  by  the  unanimity  of  the  MSS.,  it 
seems  clear  that  St.  Paul's  conception  of  St.  Peter  was  one  which  far  more  identified  him 
with  the  Judaic  Church  than  with  the  Church  in  general.     In  the  eyes  of  St.  Paul,  Simon 
was  specially  the  Apostle  of  the  Circumcision. 

2  Gal.  i.  19,  frepoi/  Se  riav  o.TtotTTo\<av  oiiic  tl&ov  el  fir)  'laKiaflov  .    .    .   It  is   impossibta  from 

the  form  of  the  words  to  tell  whether  James  is  here  regarded  as  in  the  strictest  sense  an 
Apostle  or  not.  The  addition  of  "  the  Lord's  brother  " — TO  o-e^voXdyii/iia,  as  Chrysostom 
calls  it — distinguishes  him  from  Jamea  the  brother  of  John,  and  from  James  the  Less, 
the  son  of  Alphseus. 

3  Acts  ix.  29,  «irex«'pow  airbv  oveXsIc.    We  know  of  at  least  ten  such  perils  of  assassi- 
nation in  the  life  of  St.  Paul. 


SAtft'S  RECEPTION  AT  JERUSALEM,  135 

combinations.  It  was  natural  that  the  Church  should  not  only  desire  to  save 
Said's  life,  but  also  to  avoid  the  danger  of  a  fresh  outbreak.  Tot  it  was  not 
without  a  struggle,  and  a  distinct  intimation  that  auch  was  the  will  of  God, 
that  Saul  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  his  brethren.  How  deeply  he  felt  this 
compulsory  flight  may  be  seen  in  the  bitterness  with  which  he  alludes  to  it1 
even  after  the  lapse  of  many  years.  He  had  scarcely  been  a  fortnight  in 
Jerusalem  when  the  intensity  of  his  prayers  and  emotions  ended  in  a  trance,2 
during  which  he  again  saw  the  Divine  figure  and  heard  the  Divine  voice 
which  had  arrested  his  mad  progress  towards  the  gates  of  Damascus.  "  Make 
instant  haste,  and  depart  in  speed  from  Jerusalem,"  said  Jesus  to  him ;  "  for 
they  will  not  receive  thy  testimony  concerning  Me."  But  to  Saul  it  seemed 
incredible  that  his  testimony  could  be  resisted.  If  the  vision  of  the  risen 
Christ  by  which  he  had  been  converted  was  an  argument  which,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  could  not,  alone,  be  convincing  to  others,  yet  it  seemed  to 
Saul  that,  knowing  what  they  did  know  of  his  intellectual  power,  and 
contrasting  his  present  earnestness  with  his  former  persecution,  they  could 
not  but  listen  to  such  a  teacher  as  himself.  He  longed  also  to  undo,  so  far  as 
in  him  lay,  the  misery  and  mischief  of  the  past  havoc  he  had  wrought.  But 
however  deep  may  have  been  his  yearnings,  however  ardent  his  hopes,  the 
answer  came,  brief  and  peremptory,  "Go!  for  I  will  send  thee  forth  afar  to 
the  Gentiles."3 

All  reluctance  was  now  at  an  end ;  and  we  can  see  what  at  the  time  must 
have  been  utterly  dark  and  mysterious  to  St.  Paul — that  the  coldness  with 
which  he  was  received  at  Jerusalem,  and  the  half-apparent  desire  to 
precipitate  his  departure — events  so  alien  to  his  own  plans  and  wishes,  that  he 
pleads  even  against  the  Divine  voice  which  enforced  the  indications  of 
circumstance — wore  part  of  a  deep  providential  design.  Tears  afterward, 
when  St.  Paul  "  stood  pilloried  on  infamy's  high  stage,"  he  was  able  with  one 
of  his  strongest  asseverations  to  appeal  to  the  brevity  of  his  stay  in 
Jerusalem,  and  the  paucity  of  those  with  whom  he  had  any  intercourse,  in 
proof  that  it  was  not  from  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  that  he  had  received  his 
commission,  and  not  to  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  that  he  owed  his  alle- 
giance. But  though  at  present  all  this  was  unforeseen  by  him,  he  yielded  to 
the  suggestions  of  his  brethren,  and  scarcely  a  fortnight  after  his  arrival  they 
—not,  perhaps,  wholly  sorry  to  part  with  one  whose  presence  was  a  source  of 
many  embarrassments — conducted  him  to  the  coast  town  of  Csesarea  Stratonis4 

1  1  Thess.  ii.  15,  "  who  both  killed  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  their  own  prophets,  and  drove 

US  OUt  "  (jj/iaj  exOKoJarrwy). 

2  Acts  xsii.  17. 

3  Acts  xsii.  17 — 21.    The  omission  of  this  vision  In  the  direct  narrative  of  Acts  ix.  is 
a  proof  that  silence  as  to  this  or  that  occurrence  in  the  brief  narrative  of  St.  Luke  must 
not  be  taken  as  a  proof  that  he  was  unaware  of  the  event  which  he  omits.    "We  may  also 
note,  in  this  passage,  the  first  appearance  of  the  interesting  word  fiaprvt.    Here  doubtless 
it  has  its  primary  sense  of  "  witness ; "  but  it  contains  the  germ  of  its  later  sense  of  one 
who  testified  to  Christ  by  voluntary  death. 

4  That  he  was  not  sent  to  Csesarca  PhUippi  IB  almost  too  obvious  to  need  argument. 
Neither  xaT^yayov,  which  means  a  going  downwards — i.e.,  to  the  coast — nor  efaireVmAa*, 


136  THE   LIFE   AND   WOBK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

to  start  him  on  his  way  to  bis  native  Tarsus.  Of  bis  movements  on  this 
occasion  we  hear  no  more  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  but  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians  he  says  that  he  came  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  but 
remained  a  complete  stranger  to  the  churches  of  Judtea  that  were  in  Christ, 
all  that  they  had  heard  of  him  being  the  rumours  that  their  former  persecutor 
was  now  an  evangelist  of  the  faith  of  which  he  was  once  a  destroyer ;  news 
which  gave  them  occasion  to  glorify  God  in  him.1 

Since  we  next  find  him  at  Tarsus,  it  might  have  been  supposed  that  he 
sailed  there  direct,  and  there  remained.  The  expression,  however,  that  "  ha 
came  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,"  seems  to  imply  that  this  was  not 
the  case.2  Syria  and  Cilicia  were  at  this  time  politically  separated,  and  there 
is  room  for  the  conjecture  that  the  ship  in  which  the  Apostle  sailed  was 
destined,  not  for  Tarsus,  but  for  Tyre,  or  Sidon,  or  Seleucia,  the  port  of 
Antioch.  The  existence  of  friends  and  disciples  of  Saul  in  the  Phoenician 
towns,  and»  the  churches  of  Syria  as  well  as  Cilicia,3  point,  though  only  with 
dim  uncertainty,  to  the  possibility  that  he  performed  part  of  his  journey  to 
Tarsus  by  land,  and  preached  on  the  way.  There  is  even  nothing  impossible 
in  Mr.  Lewin's  suggestion*  that  his  course  may  have  been  determined  by  one 
of  those  three  shipwrecks  which  he  mentions  that  he  had  undergone.  But 
the  occasions  and  circumstances  of  the  three  shipwrecks  must  be  left  to  the 
merest  conjecture.  They  occurred  during  the  period  when  St.  Luke  was  not 
a  companion  of  St.  Paul,  and  he  has  thought  it  sufficient  to  give  from  his  own 
journal  the  graphic  narrative  of  that  Liter  catastrophe  of  which  he  shared  the 
perils.  The  active  ministry  in  Syria  and  Cilicia  may  have  occupied  the  period 
between  Saul's  departure  in  the  direction  of  Tarsus,  and  his  summons  to 
fresh  fields  of  labour  La  the  Syrian  Antioch.  During  this  time  he  may  have 
won  over  to  the  faith  some  of  the  members  of  his  own  family,  and  may  have 
enjoyed  the  society  of  others  who  were  in  Christ  before  him.  But  all  is 
uncertain,  nor  can  we  with  the  least  confidence  restore  the  probabilities  of  a 
period  of  which  even  the  traditions  have  for  centuries  been  obliterated.  The 
stay  of  Saul  at  Tarsus  was  on  any  supposition  a  period  mainly  of  waiting  and 
of  preparation,  of  which  the  records  had  no  large  significance  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  faith.  The  fields  in  which  he  was  to  reap  were  whitening  for 
the  harvest ;  the  arms  of  the  reaper  were  being  strengthened  and  his  heart 
prepared. 

would  at  all  suit  the  long  journey  northwards  to  Caesarea  Philippi ;  nor  is  it  probable 
that  Saul  would  go  to  Tarsus  by  land,  travelling  in  the  direction  of  the  dangerous 
Damascus,  when  he  could  go  so  much  more  easily  by  sea.  It  is  a  more  interesting 
inquiry  whether,  as  has  been  suggested,  these  words  Karriyayov  and  i£ane<rrti\a.v,  imply  a 
more  than  ordinary  amount  of  passivity  in  the  movements  of  Paul ;  and  whether  in  this 
case  the  passiveness  was  due  to  the  attacks  of  illness  which  were  the  sequel  of  his  late 
vision. 

1  Gal.  i.  21 — 24,  fi^yv  ayvoovntvat  .  .  .  iucovovrtf  JI<T<H>  .  .  .  tvayyeAifeTat  .  >  . 
•irdpOti. 

3  Gal.  i.  21.  The  expression  is  not  indeed  decisive,  since  Cilicia  might  easily  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  definitive  addition  to  describe  the  part  of  Syria  to  which  he  went. 
(Ewald,  Gesch.  d.  Apost.  Zeitalt.  p.  439.) 

»  Acts  xxL  2;  xxvii.  3;  xv.  23,  4L  *  St.  Paul,  I  77. 


GAITJS  AND  THE  JEWS— PEACE  OF  THE   CHURCH.  137 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

CAIUS    AND     THE    JEWS  — PEACE     OF    THE    CHTJECE. 
"  Reliqua  ut  de  monstro  narranda  aunt." — SUET.  Calig. 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  hasty  flight  of  Saul  from  Jerusalem,  St.  Luke  adds,1 
"  Then  had  the  church  rest  throughout  the  whole  of  Judaea,  and  Galilee,  and 
Samaria,  being  built  up,  and  walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord ;  and  by  the 
exhortation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  multiplied."  At  first  sight  it  might 
almost  seem  as  though  this  internal  peace,  which  produced  such  happy 
growth,  was  connected  in  the  writer's  mind  with  the  absence  of  one  whose 
conversion  stirred  up  to  madness  the  prominent  opponents  of  the  Church.  It 
may  be,  however,  that  the  turn  of  his  expression  is  simply  meant  to  resume 
the  broken  thread  of  his  narrative.  The  absence  of  molestation,  which  caused 
the  prosperity  of  the  faith,  is  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  events  which 
were  now  happening  in  the  Pagan  world.  The  pause  in  the  recorded  career 
of  the  Apostle  enables  us  also  to  pause  and  survey  some  of  the  conflicting 
conditions  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  life  as  they  were  illustrated  at  this  time  by 
prominent  events.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  such  a  survey  has  an  im- 
mediate bearing  on  the  conditions  of  the  Days  after  Christ,  and  on  the  work 
of  His  groat  Apostle. 

A  multitude  of  concurrent  arguments  tend  to  show  that  Saul  was  con- 
verted early  A.D.  37,  and  this  brief  stay  at  Jerusalem  must  therefore  have 
occurred  in  the  year  39.  Now  in  the  March  of  A.D.  37  Tiberius  died,  and 
Gaius — whose  nickname  of  Caligula,  or  "  Bootling,"  given  him  in  his  infancy 
by  the  soldiers  of  his  father  Germanicus,  has  been  allowed  to  displace  his  true 
name — succeeded  to  the  lordship  of  the  world.  Grim  as  had  been  the 
despotism  of  Tiberius,  he  extended  to  the  religion  of  the  Jews  that  contemp- 
tuous toleration  which  was  the  recognised  principle  of  Roman  policy.  When 
Pilate  had  kindled  their  fanaticism  by  hanging  the  gilt  shields  in  his  palace  at 
Jerusalem,2  Tiberius,  on  an  appeal  being  made  to  him,  reprimanded  the 
officiousness  of  his  Procurator,  and  ordered  him  to  remove  the  shields  to 
Ceesarea.  It  is  true  that  ho  allowed  four  thousand  Jews  to  be  deported  from 
Rome  to  Sardinia,  and  punished  with  remorseless  severity  those  who,  from 
dread  of  violating  the  Mosiac  law,  refused  to  take  military  service.3  This 
severity  was  not,  however,  due  to  any  enmity  against  the  race,  but  only  to  his 
indignation  against  the  designing  hypocrisy  which,  under  pretence  of  prose- 
lytising, had  won  the  adhesion  of  Fulvia,  a  noble  Roman  lady,  to  the  Jewish 
religion ;  and  to  the  detestable  rascality  with  which  her  teacher  and  his  com- 
panions had  embezzled  the  presents  of  gold  and  purple  which  she  had 
entrusted  to  them  as  an  offering  for  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  Even  this  did 

1  Acts  lx.  81,  $  niv  e&v  ««x>)<ria  (*•»,  A,  B,  C,  and  the  chief  versions).  I  follow  what 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  best  punctuation  of  the  verse. 

8  Life  of  Christ,  ii  363.  »  Jos.  Antt.  xviil  3,  §  5 ;  Suet.  Tib.  xxxvL 


138  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

not  prevent  him  from  protecting  the  Jews  as  far  as  he  could  in  their  own 
country ;  and  when  Yitellius,  the  Legate  of  Syria,  had  decided  that  there  was 
primd  facie  cause  for  the  complaints  which  had  been  raised  against  the 
Procurator  in  all  three  divisions  of  his  district,  it  is  probable  that  Pilate,  who 
was  sent  to  Borne  to  answer  for  his  misdemeanours,  would  have  received 
strict  justice  from  the  aged  Emperor.  But  before  Pilate  arrived  Tiberius 
had  ended  his  long  life  of  disappointment,  crime,  and  gloom. 

The  accession  of  Gaius  was  hailed  by  the  whole  Roman  world  with  a  burst 
of  rapture,1  and  there  were  none  to  whom  it  seemed  more  likely  to  introduce  a 
golden  era  of  prosperity  than  to  the  Jews.  For  if  the  young  Emperor  had 
any  living  friend,  it  was  Herod  Agrippa.  That  prince,  if  he  could  command 
but  little  affection  as  a  grandson  of  Herod  the  Great,  had  yet  a  claim  to 
Jewish  loyalty  as  a  son  of  the  murdered  Aristobulus,  a  grandson  of  the 
murdered  Mariamne,  and  therefore  a  direct  lineal  descendant  of  that  great 
line  of  Asmonsean  princes  whose  names  recalled  the  last  glories  of  Jewish 
independence.  Accordingly,  when  the  news  reached  Jerusalem  that  Tiberius 
at  last  was  dead,  the  Jews  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief,  and  not  only  took  with 
perfect  readiness  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Gaius,  which  was  administered  by 
Vitellius  to  the  myriads  who  had  thronged  to  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  but 
offered  speedy  and  willing  holocausts  for  the  prosperity  of  that  reign  which 
was  to  bring  them  a  deeper  misery,  and  a  more  absolute  humiliation,  than  any 
which  had  been  inflicted  on  them  during  the  previous  dominion  of  Rome.2 

Gaius  lost  no  time  in  publicly  displaying  his  regard  for  the  Herodian 
prince,  who,  with  remarkable  insight,  had  courted  his  friendship,  not  only 
before  his  accession  was  certain,  but  even  in  spite  of  the  distinct  recommenda- 
tion of  the  former  Emperor.3 

One  day,  while  riding  in  the  same  carriage  as  Gaius,  Agrippa  was  im- 
prudent enough  to  express  his  wish  for  the  time  when  Tiberius  would  bequeath 
the  Empire  to  a  worthier  successor.  Such  a  remark  might  easily  be  construed 
into  a  crime  of  high  treason,  or  laesa  majestas.  In  a  court  which  abounded 
with  spies,  and  in  which  few  dared  to  express  above  a  whisper  their  real 
thoughts,  it  was  natural  that  the  obsequious  slave  who  drove  the  chariot 
should  seek  an  audience  from  Tiberius  to  communicate  what  he  had  heard; 
and  when  by  the  influence  of  Agrippa  himself  he  had  gained  this  opportunity, 
his  report  made  the  old  Emperor  so  indignant,  that  he  ordered  the  Jewish 

1  Suet.  Calig.  13,  14. 

2  Compare  for  this  entire  narrative  Suet.  Caligula ;  Philo,  Leg.  ad  Gfaium,  and  in 
Flaccwn ;  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  6—8;  I>.  J.  ii.  10,  §1;  Dion  Cass.  lix.  8,  seq. ;  Griitz,  iii. 
270—277  ;  Jahn,  Hebr.  Commonwealth,  174. 

*  The  adventures  of  Herod  Agrippa  I.  form  one  of  the  numerous  romances  which 
give  us  so  clear  a  glimpse  of  the  state  of  society  during  the  early  Empire.  Sent  to  Borne 
by  his  grandfather,  he  had  breathed  from  early  youth  the  perfumed  and  intoxicating 
atmosphere  of  the  Imperial  Court  as  a  companion  of  Drusus,  the  son  of  Tiberius.  On 
the  death  of  Drusus  he  was  excluded  from  Court,  and  was  brought  to  the  verge  of 
suicide  by  the  indigence  which  followed  a  course  of  extravagance.  Saved  from  his 
purpose  by  his  wife  Cypros,  he  went  through  a  series  of  debts,  disgraces,  and  escapades. 
*ntu  he  was  once  more  admitted  to  favour  by  Tiberius  at  Caprese, 


3AIUS  AND  THE   JETfS — PEACE   OF  THE   CHURCH.  139 

prince  to  be  instantly  arrested.  Clothed  as  he  was  in  royal  purple,  Agrippa 
was  seized,  pnt  in  chains,  and  taken  off  to  a  prison,  in  which  he  languished 
for  the  six  remaining  months  of  the  life  of  Tiberius.  Almost  the  first 
thought  of  Gaius  on  his  accession  was  to  relieve  the  friend  who  had  paid  him 
such  assiduous  court  before  his  fortunes  were  revealed.  Agrippa  was  at  once 
released  from  custody.  A  few  days  after,  Gaius  sent  for  him,  put  a  tSadem 
on  his  head,  conferred  on  him  the  tetrarchies  of  Herod  Philip  and  of 
Lysanias,  and  presented  him  with  a  golden  chain  of  equal  weight  with  the 
iron  one  with  which  he  had  been  bound. 

Now,  although  Agrippa  was  a  mere  unprincipled  adventurer,  yet  he  had 
the  one  redeeming  feature  of  respect  for  the  external  religion  of  his  race. 
The  Edomite  admixture  in  his  blood  had  not  quite  effaced  the  more  generous 
instincts  of  an  Asmonaean  prince,  nor  had  the  sty  of  Caprese  altogether  made 
him  forget  that  he  drew  his  line  from  the  Priest  of  Modin.  The  Jews  might 
well  have  expected  that,  under  an  Emperor  with  whom  their  prince  was  a 
bosom  friend,  their  interests  would  be  more  secure  than  they  had  been  even 
under  a  magnanimous  Julius  and  a  liberal  Augustus.  Their  hopes  were 
doomed  to  the  bitterest  disappointment ;  nor  did  any  reign  plunge  them  into 
more  dreadful  disasters  than  the  reign  of  Agrippa's  friend. 

In  August,  A.D.  38,  Agrippa  arrived  at  Alexandria  on  his  way  to  his  new 
kingdom.  His  arrival  was  so  entirely  free  from  ostentation — for,  indeed, 
Alexandria,  where  his  antecedents  were  not  unknown,  was  the  last  city  in 
which  he  would  have  wished  to  air  his  brand-new  royalty — that  though  he 
came  in  sight  of  the  Pharos  about  twilight,  he  ordered  the  captain  to  stay  in 
the  offing  till  dark,  that  he  might  land  unnoticed.1  But  the  presence  in  the 
city  of  one  who  was  at  once  a  Jew,  a  king,  an  Idumsean,  a  Herod,  and  a 
favourite  of  Caesar,  would  not  be  likely  to  remain  long  a  secret ;  and  if  it  was 
some  matter  of  exultation  to  the  Jews,  it  exasperated  beyond  all  bounds  the 
envy  of  the  Egyptians.  Flaccus,  the  Governor  of  Alexandria,  chose  to  regard 
Agrippa's  visit  as  an  intentional  insult  to  himself,  and  by  the  abuse  which  he 
heaped  in  secret  upon  the  Jewish  prince,  encouraged  the  insults  in  which  the 
mob  of  Alexandria  were  only  too  ready  to  indulge.  Unpopular  everywhere, 
the  Jews  were  regarded  in  Alexandria  with  special  hatred.  Their  wealth , 
their  numbers,  their  usuries,  their  exclusiveness,  the  immunities  which  the 
two  first  Caesars  had  granted  them,2  filled  the  worthless  populace  of  a  hybrid 
city  with  fury  and  loathing.  A  Jewish  king  was  to  them  a  conception  at  once 
ludicrous  and  offensive.  Every  street  rang  with  lampoons  against  him,  every 
theatre  and  puppet-show  echoed  with  ribald  farces  composed  in  his  insult, 
At  last  the  wanton  mob  seized  on  a  poor  naked  idiot  named  Carabbas, 
who  had  long  been  the  butt  of  mischievous  boys,  and  carrying  him  off  to 
the  Gymnasium,  clothed  him  in  a  door-mat,  by  way  of  tallith,  flattened  a 

1  Derenbourg  is  therefore  mistaken  (p.  222)  that  Agrippa  "  se  donna  la  pu6rile  satis- 
faction d'etaler  son  luxe  royal  dans  1'endroit  oil  naguere  it  avait  traln6  une  si  honteuse 
misere." 

3  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  7,  §  2 ;  xix.  5.  §  2,  and  xiv.  10,  passim  (Decrees  of  Julius). 


140  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PATH* 

papyrus  leaf  as  his  diadem,  gave  him  a  stalk  of  papyrus  for  a  sceptre,  and 
surrounding  him  with  a  mimic  body-guard  of  youths  armed  with  sticks,  pro- 
ceeded to  bow  the  knee  before  him,  and  consult  him  on  state  affairs.  They 
ended  the  derisive  pageant  by  loud  shouts  of  Moris  I  Maris  I  the  Syriac  word 
for  "  Lord." 

Encouraged  by  impunity  and  the  connivance  of  the  Praefect  they  then 
bribed  him  to  acquiesce  in  more  serious  outrages.  First  they  raised  a  cry 
to  erect  images  of  Gains  in  the  synagogues,  hoping  thereby  to  provoke  the 
Jews  into  a  resistance  which  might  be  interpreted  as  treason.  This  was  to 
set  an  example  which  might  be  fatal  to  the  Jews,  not  only  in  Egypt,  but  in 
all  other  countries.  Irritated,  perhaps,  by  the  determined  attitude  of  the 
Jews,  Flaccus,  in  spite  of  the  privileges  which  had  long  been  secured  to  them 
by  law  and  charter,  published  an  edict  in  which  he  called  them  "  foreigners 
and  aliens,"  and  drove  them  all  into  a  part  of  a  single  quarter  of  the  city  in 
which  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  live.  The  mob  then  proceeded  to  break 
open  and  plunder  the  shops  of  the  deserted  quarter,  .blockaded  the  Jews  in 
their  narrow  precincts,  beat  and  murdered  all  who  in  the  pangs  of  hunger 
ventured  to  leave  it,  and  burnt  whole  families  alive,  sometimes  with  green 
fuel,  which  added  terribly  to  their  tortures.  Flaccus,  for  his  part,  arrested 
thirty-eight  leading  members  of  their  Council,  and  after  having  stripped  them 
of  all  their  possessions,  had  them  beaten,  not  with  rods  by  the  lictors,  but 
with  scourges  by  the  lowest  executioners,  with  such  severity  that  some  of 
them  died  in  consequence.  Their  houses  were  rifled,  in  the  hope  of  finding 
arms ;  but  though  nothing  whatever  was  found,  except  common  table-knives, 
men  and  women  were  dragged  into  the  theatre,  commanded  to  eat  swine's 
flesh,  and  tortured  if  they  refused.1 

But  neither  those  attempts  to  win  popularity  among  the  Gentile  inhabi- 
tants by  letting  loose  their  rage  against  their  Jewish  neighbours,  nor  his 
ostentatious  public  loyalty  and  fulsome  private  flatteries  saved  Flaccus  from 
the  fate  which  ho  deserved.  These  proceedings  had  barely  been  going  on  for 
two  months,  when  Gains  sent  a  centurion  with  a  party  of  soldiers,  who 
landing  after  dark,  proceeded  at  once  to  the  house  of  Stephanion,  a  freed- 
man  of  Tiberius,  with  whom  Flaccus  happened  to  be  dining,  arrested  him 
without  difficulty,  and  brought  him  to  Rome.  Here  he  found  that  two  low 
demagogues,  Isidoras  and  Lampo,  who  had  hitherto  been  among  his  parasites, 
and  who  had  constantly  fomented  his  hatred  of  the  Jews,  were  now  his  chief 
accusers.  He  was  found  guilty.  His  property  was  confiscated,  and  he  was 
banished,  first  to  the  miserable  rock  of  Gyara,  in  the  uEgean,  and  then  to 
Andros.  In  one  of  those  sleepless  nights  which  were  at  once  a  symptom  and 
an  aggravation  of  his  madness, Gains,  meditating  on  the  speech  of  an  exile  whom 
he  had  restored,  that  during  his  banishment  he  used  to  pray  for  the  death  ol 
Tiberius,  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the  crowd  of  distinguished  criminals 
which  imperial  tyranny  had  collected  on  the  barren  islets  of  the  Mediterranean. 

I  There  seem  to  be  distinct  allusions  to  these  troubles  in  3  Mace,  (passim.]. 


QAItJS   AND   THE   JEWS— PEACH   OF  THE   CHURCH.  141 

Flaccus  was  among  the  earliest  victims,  and  Philo  narrates  with  too  gloating 
a  vindictiveness  the  horrible  manner  in  which  he  was  hewn  to  pieces  in  a  ditch 
by  the  despot's  emissaries.1 

Gains  had  begun  his  reign  with  moderation,  bnt  the  sudden  change  from 
the  enforced  simplicity  of  his  tutelage  to  the  boundless  luxuries  and  lusts  of 
his  autocracy — the  sudden  plunge  into  all  things  which,  as  Philo a  says, 
"  destroy  both  soul  and  body  and  all  the  bonds  which  unite  and  strengthen 
the  two " — brought  on  the  illness  which  altered  the  entire  organism  of  his 
brain.  Up  to  that  time  he  had  been  a  vile  and  cruel  man ;  thenceforth  he 
was  a  mad  and  sanguinary  monster.  It  was  after  this  illness,  and  the  im- 
mediately subsequent  murders  of  Tiberius  Gemellus,  Macro,  and  Marcus 
Silanus,  which  delivered  him  from  all  apprehension  of  rivalry  or  restraint, 
that  he  began  most  violently  to  assert  his  godhead.  His  predecessors  would 
have  regarded  it  as  far  less  impious  to  allow  themselves  or  their  fortunes  to 
be  regarded  as  divine,  than  to  arrogate  to  themselves  the  actual  style  and 
attributes  of  existing  deities.3  But  disdaining  all  mere  demi-gods  like  Tro- 
phonius  and  Amphiaraus,  Gains  began  to  appear  in  public,  first  in  the  guise 
of  Hercules,  or  Bacchus,  or  one  of  the  Dioscuri,  and  then  as  Apollo,  or  Mars, 
or  Mercury,  or  even  Venus  (!),  and  demanded  that  choruses  should  be  sung  in 
his  honour  under  these  attributes ;  and,  lastly,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  assert  his 
perfect  equality  with  Jupiter  himself.  The  majority  of  the  Romans,  partly 
out  of  abject  terror,  partly  out  of  contemptuous  indifference,  would  feel  little 
difficulty  in  humouring  these  vagaries ;  but  the  Jews,  to  their  eternal  honour, 
refused  at  all  costs  to  sanction  this  frightful  concession  of  divine  honours  to 
the  basest  of  mankind.  As  there  were  plenty  of  parasites  in  the  Court  of 
Gains  who  would  lose  no  opportunity  of  indulging  their  spite  against  the 
Jews,  an  ingrained  hatred  of  the  whole  nation  soon  took  possession  of  his 
mind.  The  Alexandrians  were  not  slow  to  avail  themselves  of  this  antipathy. 
They  were  well  aware  that  the  most  acceptable  flattery  to  the  Emperor,  and 
the  most  overwhelming  insult  to  the  Jews,  was  to  erect  images  of  Gaius  in 
Jewish  synagogues,  and  they  not  only  did  this,  but  even  in  the  superb  and 
celebrated  Chief  Synagogue  of  Alexandria  *  they  erected  a  bronze  statue  in 
an  old  gilt  quadriga  which  had  once  been  dedicated  to  Cleopatra. 

Of  all  these  proceedings  Gaius  was  kept  informed,  partly  by  his  delighted 
study  of  Alexandrian  newspapers,  which  Philo  says  that  he  preferred  to  all 
other  literature,  and  partly  by  the  incessant  insults  against  the  Jews  distilled 
into  his  ears  by  Egyptian  buffoons  like  the  infamous  Helicon.6 

The  sufferings  of  the  Jews  in  Alexandria  at  last  became  so  frightful  that 
they  despatched  the  venerable  Philo  with  four  others  on  an  embassy  to  the 

1  It  Is  not  impossible  that  Herod  Antipas  may  have  perished  in  consequence  of  thia 
mime  order  of  Gaius.  It  is  true  that  Suetonius  (Calig.  28)  only  says,  "Misit  circum 
insulcu  qui  omnes  (exsules)  trucidarent ; "  but  the  cause  would  apply  as  much  to  all 
political  exiles,  and  Dion  (lix.  18)  distinctly  says  that  he  put  Antipas  to  death  («aT«r<f>af «). 
The  trial  of  Antipas  took  place  at  Puteoli  shortly  before  the  Philonian  embassy,  A.D.  39. 
3  De  Leg.  2.  *  See  Excursus  XII.,  "Apotheosis  of  Roman  Emperors." 

•  The  Dvapleuaton,  *  Philo,  Leg.  John  ad  Gai,  TXT. 


142  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

insane  youth  whom  they  refused  to  adore.  Philo  has  left  us  an  account  of 
this  embassy,  which,  though  written  with  his  usual  rhetorical  diffuseness,  is 
intensely  interesting  as  a  record  of  the  times.  It  opens  for  us  a  little  window 
into  the  daily  life  of  the  Imperial  Court  at  Rome  within  ten  years  of  the  death 
of  Christ. 

The  first  interview  of  the  ambassadors  with  Gaius  took  place  while  he 
was  walking  in  his  mother's  garden  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  and  the 
apparent  graciousness  of  his  reception  deceived  all  of  them  except  Philo  him- 
self. After  having  been  kept  waiting  for  some  time,  the  Jews  were  ordered 
to  follow  him  to  Puteoli,  and  there  it  was  that  a  man  with  disordered  aspect 
and  bloodshot  eyes  rushed  up  to  them,  and  with  a  frame  that  shivered  with 
agony  and  in  a  voice  broken  with  sobs,  barely  succeeded  in  giving  utterance  to 
the  horrible  intelligence  that  Gaius  had  asserted  his  intention  of  erecting  a 
golden  colossus  of  himself  with  the  attributes  of  Jupiter  in  the  Holy  of  Holies 
at  Jerusalem.  After  giving  way  to  their  terror  and  agitation,  the  ambassadors 
asked  the  cause  of  this  diabolical  sacrilege,  and  were  informed  that  it  was  due 
to  the  advice  of  "  that  scorpion-like  slave,"  Helicon,  who  with  "  a  poisonous 
Ascalonite  "  named  Apelles — a  low  tragic  actor — had  made  the  suggestion 
during  the  fit  of  rage  with  which  Gaius  heard  that  the  Jews  of  Jamnia  had 
torn  down  a  trumpery  altar  which  the  Gentiles  of  the  city  had  erected  to  his 
deity  with  no  other  intention  than  that  of  wounding  and  insulting  them. 

So  far  from  this  being  a  transient  or  idle  threat,  Gaius  wrote  to  Petronius, 
the  Legate  of  Syria,  and  ordered  him  to  carry  it  out  with  every  precaution  and 
by  main  force ;  and  though  the  legate  was  well  aware  of  the  perilous  nature  of 
the  undertaking,  he  had  been  obliged  to  furnish  the  necessary  materials  for 
the  statue  to  the  artists  of  Sidon. 

No  sooner  had  the  miserable  Jews  heard  of  this  threatened  abomination  of 
desolation,  than  they  yielded  themselves  to  such  a  passion  of  horror  as  made 
them  forget  every  other  interest.  It  was  no  time  to  be  persecuting  Christians 
when  the  most  precious  heritage  of  their  religion  was  at  stake.  Flocking  to 
Phoenicia  in  myriads,  until  they  occupied  the  whole  country  like  a  cloud,  they 
divided  themselves  into  six  companies  of  eld  men,  youths,  boys,  aged  women, 
matrons,  and  virgins,  and  rent  the  air  with  their  howls  and  supplications,  as 
they  lay  prostrate  on  the  earth  and  scattered  the  dust  in  haudfuls  upon  their 
heads.  Petronius,  a  sensible  and  honourable  man,  was  moved  by  their  abject 
misery,  and  with  the  object  of  gaining  time,  ordered  the  Sidonian  artists  to 
make  their  statue  very  perfect,  intimating  not  very  obscurely  that  he  wished 
them  to  be  as  long  over  it  as  possible.  Meanwhile,  in  order  to  test  the  Jews, 
he  went  from  Acre  to  Tiberias,  and  there  the  same  scenes  were  repeated.  For 
forty  days,  neglecting  the  sowing  of  their  fields,  they  lay  prostrate  on  the 
ground,  and  when  the  legate  asked  them  whether  they  meant  to  make  war 
against  Csesar,  they  said,  No,  but  they  were  ready  to  die  rather  than  see  their 
temple  desecrated,  and  in  proof  of  their  sincerity  stretched  out  their  throats. 
Seeing  the  obstinacy  of  their  resolution,  besieged  by  the  entreaties  of  Aris- 
tobulus  and  Helcias  the  elder,  afraid,  too,  that  a  famine  would  be  caused  by 


OAIUS  AND  THE  JEWS — PEACE   OP  THE  OHTJECH.  143 

fehe  neglect  of  tillage,  Petronius,  though  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  promised  the 
Jews  that  he  would  write  and  intercede  for  them,  if  they  would  separate  peace- 
ably and  attend  to  their  husbandry.  It  was  accepted  by  both  Jews  and  Gentiles 
as  a  sign  of  the  special  blessing  of  God  on  this  bravo  arid  humane  decision, 
that  no  sooner  had  Petronius  finished  his  speech  than,  after  long  drought,  the 
sky  grew  black  with  clouds,  and  there  was  an  abundant  rain.  He  kept  his 
word.  He  wrote  a  letter  to  Gaius,  telling  him.  that  if  the  affair  of  the  statue 
were  pressed  the  Jews  would  neglect  their  harvest  and  there  would  be  great 
danger  lest  he  should  find  tho  whole  country  in  a  state  of  starvation,  which 
might  be  even  dangerous  for  himself  and  his  suite,  if  he  carried  out  his 
intended  visit. 

Meanwhile,  in  entire  ignorance  of  all  that  had  taken  place,  Agrippa  had 
arrived  at  Borne,  and  he  at  once  read  in  tho  countenance  of  the  Emperor  that 
something  had  gone  wrong.  On  hearing  what  it  was,  he  fell  down  in  a  fit, 
and  lay  for  some  time  in  a  deep  stupor.  By  the  exertion  of  his  whole  influence 
with  Gaius  he  only  succeeded  in  procuring  a  temporary  suspension  of  the 
design  j  and  it  was  not  long  before  tho  Emperor  announced  the  intention  of 
taking  with  him  from  Rome  a  colossus  of  gilded  bronze — in  order  to  out  o££ 
all  excuse  for  delay — and  of  personally  superintending  its  erection  in  the 
Temple,  which  would  henceforth  bo  regarded  as  dedicated  to  "  the  new 
Jupiter,  the  illustrious  Gaius."  Even  during  his  brief  period  of  indecision  he 
was  so  angry  with  Petronius  for  the  humanity  that  he  had  shown  that  he 
wrote  him  a  letter  commanding  him  to  commit  suicide  if  he  did  not  want  to 
die  by  the  hands  of  the  executioner. 

These  events,  and  the  celebrated  embassy  of  Philo  to  Gaius,  of  which  he  has 
left  us  so  painfully  graphic  a  description,  probably  took  place  in  the  August 
of  the  year  40.  In  the  January  of  the  following  year  the  avenging  sword  of 
the  brave  tribune  Oassius  Chaerea  rid  the  world  of  the  intolerable  despot.1 
The  vessel  which  had  carried  to  Petronius  the  command  to  commit  suicide, 
was  fortunately  delayed  by  stormy  weather,  and  only  arrived  twenty-seven 
days  after  intelligence  had  been  received  that  the  tp*ant  was  dead.  From 
Claudius — who  owed  his  throne  entirely  to  tho  subtle  intrigues  of  Agrippa — 
tho  Jews  received  both  kindness  and  consideration.  Petronius  was  ordered 
thenceforth  to  suppress  and  punish  all  attempts  to  insult  them  2  in  the  quiet 
exercise  of  their  religious  duties;  and  Claudius  utterly  forbad  that  prayers 
should  be  addressed  or  sacrifices  offered  to  himself.8 

1  Tlie  Jews  believed  that  a  Bath  K61  from  the  Holy  of  Holies  had  announced  his  death 
to  the  High  Priest  (Simon  the  Just),  and  the  anniversary  was  forbidden  to  be  ever 
observed  as  a  fast  day  (MegUlath  Taanith,  §  26  :  Sotah,   f.  S3,  1 ;  Derenbourg,  Palest. 
p.  207). 

2  Sr-e  the  decree  of  Claudius  against  the  inhabitants  of  Dor,  who  had  set  up  his  statue 
In  a  Jewish  synagogue. 

*  Dion  Caas.  Ix.  5. 


144  THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 


THE   RECOGNITION   OF   THE   GENTILES. 
CHAPTER   XV. 

THE    SAMARITANS  —  THE    EUNUCH  —  THE    OENTUBIOH. 

"  Whenever  I  look  at  Peter,  my  very  heart  leaps  for  joy.  If  I  could  paint  a 
portrait  of  Peter  I  would  paint  upon  every  hair  of  his  head  '  I  believe  in  the  for- 
giveness of  sins.' " — LVTHBK. 

"  Quel  Padre  vetusto 
Di  santa  chiesa,  a  cui  Cristo  le  chiavi 
Kacommand6  di  questo  fior  venusto." 

DANTE,  Paradito,  xxxii.  124. 

"  Blessed  is  the  eunuch,  which  with  his  hands  hath  wrought  no  iniquity,  nor 
imagined  wicked  things  against  God  :  for  unto  him  shall  be  given  the  special  gift  of 
faith,  and  an  inheritance  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord  more  acceptable  to  his  mind. 
For  glorious  is  the  fruit  of  good  labours :  and  the  root  of  wisdom  shall  never  fall 
away." — WISD.  iii.  14,  16. 

THE  peace,  the  progress,  the  edification,  the  holiness  of  the  Church,  were 
caused,  no  doubt,  by  that  rest  from  persecution  which  seems  to  have  been  due 
to  the  absorption  of  the  Jews  in  the  desire  to  avert  the  outrageous  sacrilege  of 
Gaius.  And  yet  we  cannot  but  ask  with  surprise  whether  the  Christians 
looked  on  with  indifference  at  the  awful  insult  which  was  being  aimed  at  their 
national  religion.  It  would  mark  a  state  of  opinion  very  different  from  what 
we  should  imagine  if  they  had  learnt  to  regard  the  unsullied  sanctity  of 
Jehovah's  Temple  as  a  thing  in  which  they  had  no  longer  any  immediate 
concern.  Can  we  for  one  moment  suppose  that  James  the  Lord's  brother,  or 
Simon  the  Zealot,  were  content  to  enjoy  their  freedom  from  molestation, 
without  caring  to  take  part  in  the  despairing  efforts  of  their  people  to  move 
the  compassion  of  the  Legate  of  Syria  ?  Is  it  conceivable  that  they  would 
have  stayed  quietly  at  home  while  the  other  Jews  in  tens  of  thousands  were 
streaming  to  his  headquarters  at  Csesarea,  or  flinging  the  dust  upon  their  heads 
as  they  lay  prostrate  before  him  at  Tiberias  P  Or  was  it  their  own  personal 
peril  which  kept  them  from  mingling  among  masses  of  fanatics  who  indignantly 
rejected  their  co-operation  ?  Were  they  forced  to  confine  their  energies  to  the 
teaching  of  the  infant  churches  of  Palestine  because  they  were  not  even 
allowed  to  participate  in  the  hopes  and  fears  of  their  compatriots  ?  We  may 
fairly  assume  that  the  Jewish  Christians  abhorred  the  purposed  sacrilege ;  but 
if  the  schools  of  Hillol  and  Shammai,  and  the  cliques  of  Hauan  and  Herod, 
hated  them  only  one  degree  less  than  they  hated  the  minions  of  Gaius,  it  is 
evident  that  there  could  have  been  nothing  for  the  Apostles  to  do  but  to  rejoice 
over  their  immediate  immunity  from  danger,  and  to  employ  the  rest  thus 
granted  them  for  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  kings  of  the  earth 
might  rage,  and  the  princes  imagine  Tain  things,  but  they,  at  least,  could  kiss 


THE  SAMABITAN8—  THE  ETTNUCH—  THE  CENTURION.  145 

the  Son,1  and  win  the  blessing  of  those  who  trusted  in  the  Lord.  It  was  the 
darkest  midnight  of  the  world's  history,  but  the  Goshen  of  Christ's  Church 
was  brightening  more  and  more  with  the  silver  dawn. 

To  this  ontward  peace  and  inward  development  was  due  an  event  which 
must  continue  to  have  the  most  memorable  importance  to  the  end  of  time  —  the 
admission  of  Gentiles,  as  Gentiles,  into  the  Church  of  Christ.  This  great 
event  must  have  seemed  inevitable  to  men  like  St.  Stephen,  whose  training  as 
Hellenists  had  emancipated  them  from  the  crude  spirit  of  Jewish  isolation. 
But  the  experience  of  all  history  shows  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  mind  to  shako 
itself  free  from  views  which  have  become  rather  instinctive  than  volitional  ; 
and  though  Jesus  had  uttered  words  which  could  only  have  one  logical  explana- 
tion, the  older  disciples,  even  the  Apostles  themselves,  had  not  yet  learnt  their 
full  significance.  The  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  had  been  a  beam  in  the 
darkness.  To  pour  suddenly  upon  the  midnight  a  full  flood  of  spiritual 
illumination  would  have  been  alien  to  the  method  of  God's  dealings  with  our 
race.  The  dayspring  had  risen,  but  many  a  long  year  was  to  elapse  before  it 
broadened  into  the  boundless  noon. 

But  the  time  had  now  fully  come  in  which  those  other  sheep  of  which  Jesus 
had  spoken  —  the  other  sheep  which  were  not  of  this  fold2  —  must  be  brought 
to  hear  His  voice.  Indirectly,  as  well  as  directly,  the  result  was  due  to  St. 
Paul  in  a  degree  immeasurably  greater  than  to  any  other  man.  To  St.  Peter, 
indeed,  as  a  reward  for  his  great  confession,  had  been  entrusted  the  keys  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  ;  and,  in  accordance  with  this  high  metaphor,  to  him  was 
permitted  the  honour  of  opening  to  the  Gentiles  the  doors  of  the  Christian 
Church.  And  that  this  was  so  ordained  is  a  subject  for  deep  thankfulness. 
The  struggle  of  St.  Paul  against  the  hostility  of  Judaism  from  without  and 
the  leaven  of  Judaism  from  within  was  severe  and  lifelong,  and  even  at  his 
death  faith  alone  could  have  enabled  him  to  see  that  it  had  not  been  in  vain. 
But  the  glorious  effort  of  his  life  must  have  been  fruitless  had  not  the  principle 
at  stake  been  publicly  conceded  —  conceded  in  direct  obedience  to  sanctions 
which  none  ventured  to  dispute  —  by  the  most  eminent  and  most  authoritative 
of  the  Twelve.  And  yet,  though  St.  Peter  was  thus  set  apart  by  Divine  fore- 
sight to  take  the  initiative,  it  was  to  one  whom  even  the  Twelve  formally 
recognised  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Uncircumcision,  that  the  world  owes  under 
God  the  development  of  Christian  faith  into  a  Christian  theology,  and  the 
emancipation  of  Christianity  from  those  Judaic  limitations  which  would  have 
been  fatal  to  its  universal  acceptance.3  To  us,  indeed,  it  is  obvious  that  "  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  the  Gentiles  to  adopt  the  bye-laws  of  a 
Ghetto."  If  the  followers  of  Christ  had  refused  thorn  the  right-hand  of 
fellowship  on  any  other  conditions,  then  the  world  would  have  gone  its  own 


1  Ps.  ii.  12,  13-^3,  either  "kiss  the  Son,"  or  "worship  purely."     Which  rendering  ig 
right  has  been  a  disputed  point  ever  since  Jerome's  clay  (Adv.  Ruff.  L).     See  Perowne, 
Psalms,  i.  116. 

2  John  x.  16.    In  thin  verse  it  is  a  pity  that  the  English  version  makes  no  distinction 
between  aiAij,  "fold,"  and  W^,  "  flock." 

3  Immer,  Neut.  Theol,  206 

6* 


146  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

way,  and  Mammon  and  Belial  and  Beelzebub  would  have  rejoiced  in  the 
undisturbed  corruption  of  a  Paganism  which  was  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  abyss  of  shame. 

And  as  this  deliverance  of  the  Gentiles  was  due  directly  to  the  letters  and 
labours  of  St.  Paul,  so  the  first  beginnings  of  it  rose  indirectly  from  the 
consequences  of  the  persecutions  of  which  he  had  been  the  most  fiery  agent. 
The  Ravager  of  the  Faith  was  unconsciously  proving  himself  its  most 
powerful  propagator.  When  he  was  making  havoc  of  the  Church,  its 
members,  who  were  thus  scattered  abroad,  went  everywhere  preaching  the 
word.  To  the  liberal  Hellenists  this  was  a  golden  opportunity,  and  Philip, 
who  had  been  a  fellow-worker  with  Stephen,  gladly  seized  it  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  hated  Samaritans.  The  eye  of  Jesus  had  already  gazed  in  that 
country  on  fields  whitening  to  the  harvests,  and  the  zeal  of  Philip,  aided  by 
high  spiritual  gifts,  not  only  won  a  multitude  of  converts,  but  even  arrested 
the  influence  of  a  powerful  goes,  or  sorcerer,  named  Simon.1  Justin  Martyr 
calls  him  Simon  of  Gitton,  and  he  has  been  generally  identified  with  Simon 
Magus,  the  first  heresiarcn,2  and  with  Simon  the  Cyprian,  whom  Felix 
employed  to  entiap  the  wandering  affections  of  the  Queen  Drusilla.  This 
man,  though — as  afterwards  appeared — with  the  most  interested  and  unworthy 
motives,  went  so  far  as  to  receive  baptism;  and  the  progress  of  the  faith 
among  his  former  dupes  was  so  remarkable  as  to  require  the  immediate  pre- 
sence of  the  Apostles.  St.  Peter  and  St.  John  went  from  Jerusalem  to  confirm 
the  converts,  and  their  presence  resulted  not  only  in  the  public  discomfiture 
of  Simon,3  but  also  in  that  outpouring  of  special  manifestations  which 
accompanied  the  gift  of  the  promised  Comforter. 

But  Philip  had  the  honour  of  achieving  yet  another  great  conversion, 
destined  to  prove  yet  more  decisively  that  the  day  was  at  hand  when  the 
rules  of  Judaism  were  to  be  regarded  as  obsolete.  Guided  by  divine  im- 
pressions and  angel  voices  he  had  turned  his  steps  southward  along  the 
desert  road  which  leads  from  Eleutheropolis  to  Gaza,4  and  there  had  en- 

1  As  I  have  no  space  to  give  an  account  of  the  strange  career  and  opinions  of  this 
"hero  of  the  Eomance  of  Heresy,"  as  given  in  the  Pseudo-Clementine  Homilies  and 
Recognitions,  I  must  content  myself  by  referring  to  Hippolyt.  Philosoph.  p.  161  seq. ; 
Iren.  Haer.  i.  23 ;  Neander,  Ch.  Hist.  i.  454 ;  Planting,  51—64 ;  Gieseler,  Ecd.  Hist.  L 
49 ;  Hansel,  Gnostic  Heresies,  91 — 94 ;  De  Pressense,  i.  396  seq.    The  stories  about  him 
are  fabulous  (Arnob.  Adv.  Gent.  11,  12),  and  the  supposed  statue  to  him  (Just.  Mart. 
Apol.  i.  26,  56 ;  Iren.  Adv.  Haer.  i.  23 ;  Tert.  Apol.  13)  is  believed,  from  a  tablet  found 
in  1574  on  the  Insula  Tiberina,  to  have  been  a  statue  to  the  Sabine  God  Semo  Sancut 
(Baronius,  in  ann.  44 ;  Burton,  Bampt.  Lect.  375).   A  typical  impostor  of  this  epoch  was 
Alexander  of  Abonoteichos  (see  Lucian,  Pseudo-mantis,  10 — 51,  and  on  the  general 
prevalence  of  magic  and  theurgy,  Dollinger,  Judenth.  u.  Heidenth.  viii.  2,  §  7). 

2  na<np  <up«'<rcw«  evpenjs  (Cyril,  Ircn.  adv.  HcEr.  i.  27 ;  ii.  praef.).    "  Gitton  "  may  very 
likely  be  a  confusion  with  Citium,  whence  "Chittim,"  &c. 

3  From  his  endeavour  to  obtain  spiritual  functions  by  a  bribe  IB  derived  the  word 
timony. 

4  The  own)  early  cpi)po$  of  viii.  26  probably  refers  to  the  road.    Gaza  was  not  destroyed 
till  A.D.  65  (Robinson,  BM.  Res.  ii.  640).     Lange's  notion  (Apost.  Zeit.  ii.  109)  that 
JpW"*  means  "a  moral  desert"  is  out  of  the  question.     Although  paronomasia  is  so 
frequent  a  figure  in  the  N.  T.,  yet  I  cannot  think  that  there  ia  anything  intentional  in 
the  cU  iX<tv  of  26,  and  the  rfc  y<^V  of  27. 


THE  SAMARITANS— THE  EUNUCH — THE  CENTURION.  147 

countered  the  retinue  of  a  wealthy  Ethiopian  eunuch,  who  held  the  high 
position  of  treasurer  to  the  Kandake  of  Meroe.1  There  seems  to  be  some 
reason  for  believing  that  this  region  had  been  to  a  certain  extent  converted  to 
Judaism  by  Jews  who  penetrated  into  it  from  Egypt  in  the  days  of 
Psammetiehus,  whose  descendants  still  exist  under  the  name  of  Fal&syan.8 
The  eunuch,  in  pious  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  a  Proselyte  of  the  Gate — and 
his  very  condition  rendered  more  than  this  impossible — had  gone  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  worship,  and  not  improbably  to  be  present  at  one  of  the  great 
yearly  festivals.  As  he  rode  in  his  chariot  at  the  head  of  his  retinue  he 
occupied  his  time,  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  Rabbis,  in  studying  the 
Scriptures,  and  he  happened  at  the  moment  to  be  reading  aloud  in  the  LXX. 
version  3  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  "  Ho  was  led  as  a  sheep  to  slaughter,  and  as 
a  lamb  before  his  shearer  is  dumb,  so  he  openeth  not  his  mouth.  In  his 
humiliation  his  judgment  was  taken  away,  and  his  generation  who  shall 
declare?  for  his  life  is  being  taken  from  the  earth."*  Philip  asked  him 
whether  he  understood  what  he  was  reading  P  The  eunuch  confessed  that  it 
was  all  dark  to  him,  and  after  having  courteously  invited  Philip  to  take  a  seat 
in  his  chariot,  asked  who  it  was  to  whom  the  prophet  was  referring.  Philip 
was  thus  enabled  to  unfold  the  Christian  interpretation  of  the  great  scheme 
of  prophecy,  and  so  completely  did  he  command  the  assent  of  his  listener, 
that  on  their  reaching  a  spring  of  water — possibly  that  at  Bethsoron,  not  far 
from  Hebron6 — the  eunuch  asked  to  be  baptised.  The  request  was  addressed 
to  a  large-hearted  Hellenist,  and  was  instantly  granted,  though  there  were 
reasons  which  might  have  made  a  James  or  a  Simon  hesitate.  But  in  spite 
of  the  prohibition  of  Deuteronomy,6  Philip  saw  that  the  Christian  Church  was 
to  be  an  infinitely  wider  and  more  spiritual  communion  than  that  which  had 
been  formed  by  the  Mosaic  ritual.  Recalling,  perhaps,  the  magnificent 
prediction  of  Isaiah,7  which  seemed  to  rise  above  the  Levitical  prohibition — 
recalling,  perhaps,  also  some  of  the  tender  words  and  promises  of  his  Master, 
Christ — he  instantly  stepped  down  with  the  eunuch  into  the  water.  Without 
any  recorded  confession  of  creed  or  faith — for  that  which  is  introduced  into 
Acts  viii.  37  is  one  of  the  early  instances  of  interpolation8 — he  administered 

1  The  title  of  the  Queen  of  Meroe  (Pliny,  H.N.  vi.  35 ;  Dion  Cass.  liv.  5).     (For  the 
"  treasure  "  of  Ethiopia  see  Isa.  xlv.  14).     Ethiopian  tradition  gives  the  eunuch  the  name 
of  Indich.     On  the  relation  of  the  Jews  with  Ethiopia  see  Zeph.  iii.  10  ;  Ps.  Ixviii.  81 ;  and 
for  another  faithful  Ethiopian  eunuch,  also  a   "king's  servant"  (Ebed-melech),  Jer. 
xxxviii.  7 ;  xxxix.  16. 

2  Kenan,  Les  Apdtret,  p.  158. 

3  Isa.  liii.  7,  8.     The  quotation  in  Acts  viii.  33  is  from  the  LXX.     We  might  have 
supposed  that  the  eunuch  was  reading  the  ancient  Ethiopio  version  founded  on  the  LXX.; 
but  in  that  case  Philip  would  not  have  understood  him. 

4  This  passage  differs  in  several  respects  from  our  Hebrew  text. 

8  Josh.  xv.  58  ;  Neh.  iii.  16 ;  Jer.  Ep.  ciii.  The  spring  is  called  Ain  edh-Dhirweh. 
But  Dr.  Robinson  fixes  the  site  near  Tell  el-Hasy  (Bibl.  Res.  ii.  641).  The  tradition  which 
fixes  it  at  Ain  Haniyeh,  near  Jerusalem,  is  much  later. 

6  Deut.  xxiii.  1.    As  for  the  nationality  of  the  Ethiopian  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  even  Moses  himself  had  onoe  married  an  Ethiopian  wife  (Numb.  xii.  1). 

7  Isa.  Ivi.  3.  8. 

*  It  is  not  found  In  M,  A,  B,  0,  G,  H,  and  the  phrase  rbv  'ITJO-OUF  Xp«rr&>  k  unknown  to 


148  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

to  one  who  was  not  only  (as  is  probable)  a  Gentile  by  birth,  but  a  eunuch  by 
condition,  the  rite  of  baptism.  The  law  of  Deuteronomy  forbade  him  to 
become  a  member  of  the  Jewish  Church,  but  Philip  admitted  him  into  that 
Christian  communion1  in  which  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  male 
nor  female,  neither  bond  nor  free.2 

The  subsequent  work  of  Philip  in  the  towns  of  Philistia  and  the  sea-coast, 
as  well  as  during  his  long  subsequent  residence  at  Csesarea,3  was  doubtless 
fruitful,  but  for  Christian  history  the  main  significance  of  his  life  lay  in  his 
successful  mission  to  detested  Samaritans,  and  in  that  bold  baptism  of  the 
mutilated  alien.  Deacon  though  he  was,  he  had  not  shrunk  from  putting  into 
effect  the  Divine  intimation  which  foreshadowed  the  ultimate  obliteration 
of  exclusive  privileges.  We  cannot  doubt  that  it  was  the  fearless  initiative 
of  Philip  which  helped  to  shape  the  convictions  of  St.  Peter,  just  as  it  was  the 
avowed  act  of  St.  Peter  which  involved  a  logical  concession  of  all  those  truths 
that  were  dearest  to  the  heart  of  St.  Paul. 

In  the  peaceful  visitation  of  the  communities  which  the  undisturbed 
prosperity  of  the  new  faith  rendered  both  possible  and  desirable,  Peter  had 
journeyed  westward,  and,  encouraged  by  the  many  conversions  caused  by  the 
healing  of  JBneas  and  the  raising  of  Tabitha,  he  had  fixed  his  home  at  Joppa, 
in  order  to  strengthen  the  young  but  flourishing  churches  on  the  plain 
of  Sharon.  That  he  lodged  in  the  house  of  Simon,  a  tanner,  is  merely 
mentioned  as  one  of  those  incidental  circumstances  which  are  never  wanting  in 
the  narratives  of  writers  familiar  with  the  events  which  they  describe.  But 
we  may  now  see  in  it  a  remarkable  significance.  It  shows  on  the  one  hand 
how  humble  must  have  been  the  circumstances  of  even  the  chiefest  of  the 
Apostles,  since  nothing  but  poverty  could  have  induced  the  choice  of  such 
a  residence.  But  it  shows  further  that  Peter  had  already  abandoned  Rabbinic 
scrupulosities,  for  we  can  scarcely  imagine  that  he  would  have  found  it 
impossible  to  procure  another  home,4  and  at  the  house  of  a  tanner  no  strict  and 
uncompromising  follower  of  the  Oral  Law  could  have  been  induced  to  dwell. 
The  daily  contact  with  the  hides  and  carcases  of  various  animals  necessitated 
by  this  trade,  and  the  materials  which  it  requires,  rendered  it  impure  and 
disgusting  in  the  eyes  of  all  rigid  legalists.  If  a  tanner  married  without 
mentioning  his  trade,  his  wife  was  permitted  to  get  a  divorce.6  The  law  of 

St.  Luke.  It  is  moreover  obvious  that  while  there  was  to  some  a  strong  temptation  to  insert 
something  of  the  kind,  there  was  no  conceivable  reason  to  omit  it  if  it  had  been  genuine. 

1  The  significance  of  the  act  on  those  grounds  is  probably  the  main  if  not  the  sole 
reason  for  its  narration ;  and  if  tvvoCxos  had  merely  meant     chamberlain,"  there  would 
have  been  no  reason  to  add  the  word  Swatm^  in  ver.  27.    Dr.  Plumptre  ( New  Testament 
Commentary,  in  loc.}  adduces  the  interesting  parallel  furnished  by  the  first  decree  of  the 
first  (Ecumenical  Council  (Cone.  Nic.  Can.  1). 

2  Gal.  iii.  28.     In  Iron.  Haer.  iii.  12,  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  1,  he  is  said  to  have  evangelised 
his  own  country. 

a  Acts.  xxi.  8,  9.  Observe  the  undesigned  coincidence  in  his  welcome  of  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles.  At  this  point  he  disappears  from  Christian  history.  The  Philip  wh» 
died  at  Hierapolis  (Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  31)  is  probably  Philip  the  Apostle. 

4  Lydda  and  Joppa  were  thoroughly  Judaic  (Joa.  B,  J.  ii.  19,  §  1), 

«  KetubMth,  f.  77,  L 


THE  SAMABITANS— THE  EUNUCH — THE   CENTURION.  149 

levirate  marriage  might  be  set  aside  if  the  brother-in-law  of  the  childless 
widow  was  a  tanner.  A  tanner's  yard  must  be  at  least  fifty  cubits  distant 
from  any  town,1  and  it  must  be  even  further  off,  said  Rabbi  Akibha,  if  built 
to  the  west  of  a  town,  from  which  quarter  the  effluvium  is  more  easily  blown- 
Now,  a  trade  that  is  looked  on  with  disgust  tends  to  lower  the  self-respect  of 
all  who  undertake  it,  and  although  Simon's  yard  may  not  have  been  contiguous 
to  his  house,  yet  the  choice  of  his  house  as  a  residence  not  only  proves 
how  modest  were  the  only  resources  which  Peter  could  command,  but 
also  that  he  had  learnt  to  rise  superior  to  prejudice,  and  to  recognise  the 
dignity  of  honest  labour  in  even  the  humblest  trade. 

It  is  certain  that  two  problems  of  vast  importance  must  constantly  have 
been  present  to  the  mind  of  Peter  at  this  time:  namely,  the  relation  of 
the  Church  to  the  Gentiles,  and  the  relation  alike  of  Jewish  and  Gentile 
Christians  to  the  Mosaic,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say — though 
the  distinction  was  not  then  realised — to  the  Levitical  law.  In  the  tanner's 
house  at  Joppa  these  difficulties  were  to  meet  with  their  divine  and  final 
solution. 

They  were  problems  extremely  perplexing.  As  regards  the  first  question, 
if  the  Gentiles  were  now  to  be  admitted  to  the  possession  of  full  and  equal 
privileges,  then  had  God  cast  off  His  people  ?  had  the  olden  promises  failed  ? 
As  regards  the  second  question,  was  not  the  Law  divine  ?  had  it  not  been 
delivered  amid  the  terrors  of  Sinai?  Could  it  have  been  enforced  on  one 
nation  if  it  had  not  been  intended  for  all?  Had  not  Jesus  himself  been 
obedient  to  the  commandments  P  If  a  distinction  were  to  be  drawn  between 
commandments  ceremonial  and  moral,  where  were  the  traces  of  any  distinction 
in  the  legislation  itself,  or  in  the  words  of  Christ  ?  Had  He  not  bidden  the 
leper  go  show  himself  to  the  priest,  and  offer  for  his  cleansing  such  things  as 
Moses  has  commanded  for  a  testimony  unto  them?2  Had  He  not  said 
"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  Law  and  the  Prophets ;  I  am  not 
come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil?"3  Had  He  not  even  said,  "Till  heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the 
law  till  all  be  fulfilled?"4 

These  perplexing  scruples  had  yet  to  wait  for  their  removal,  until,  by  the 
experience  of  missionary  labour,  God  had  ripened  into  its  richest  maturity  tho 
inspired  genius  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  At  that  period  it  is  probable  that  no  living 
man  could  have  accurately  defined  the  future  relations  between  Jewand  Gentile, 
or  met  the  difficulties  which  rose  from  these  considerations.  St.  Stephen, 
who  might  have  enlightened  the  minds  of  the  Apostles  on  these  great 
subjects,  had  passed  away.  St.  Paul  was  still  a  suspected  novice.  The  day 
when,  in  the  great  Epistles  to  the  Galatians  and  the  Romans,  such  problems 
should  be  fully  solved,  was  still  far  distant.  There  is  no  hurry  in  the  designs 

1  Bdbha  Bathra,  t.  25,  1,  16,  2  (where  the  remark  is  attributed  to  Bar  Kappara). 
"No  trade,"  says  Kabbi,  "  will  ever  pass  away  from  the  earth ;  but  happy  be  he  whose 
parents  belong  to  a  respectable  trade  .  .  .  The  world  cannot  exist  without  tanners, 
,  .  .  but  woe  unto  him  who  is  a  tanner  "  (Kiddushtn,  f.  82,  2). 

»  Matt.  viii.  4 ;  Mark  1.  44,  •  Matt.  v.  17.  *  Matt.  T.  18;  Luke  rri.  17, 


150  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

of  God.  It  is  only  when  the  servitude  is  at  its  worst  that  Moses  is  called 
forth.  It  is  only  when  the  perplexity  is  deepest  that  Sanl  enters  the 
arena  of  controversy.  It  was  only  in  the  fulness  of  time  that  Christ  was 
born.  ^ 

But  even  at  this  period  St.  Peter — especially  when  he  had  left  Jerusalem 
— must  have  been  forced  to  see  that  the  objections  of  the  orthodox  Jew  to  the 
equal  participation  of  the  Gentiles  in  Gospel  privileges  could  be  met  by  counter 
objections  of  serious  importance ;  and  that  the  arguments  of  Hebraists  as  to 
the  eternal  validity  of  the  Mosaic  system  were  being  confronted  by  the  logic 
of  facts  with  opposing  arguments  which  could  not  long  be  set  aside. 

For  if  Christ  had  said  that  He  came  to  fulfil  the  Law,  had  He  not  also  said 
many  things  which  showed  that  those  words  had  a  deeper  meaning  than  the 
primd  fade  application  which  might  be  attached  to  them  P  Had  He  not  six 
times  vindicated  for  the  Sabbath  a  larger  freedom  than  the  scribes  admitted  P1 
Had  He  not  poured  something  like  contempt  on  needless  ceremonial  ablutions  P8 
Had  He  not  Himself  abstained  from  going  up  thrice  yearly  to  Jerusalem  to 
the  three  great  festivals  P  Had  He  not  often  quoted  with  approval  the  words 
of  Hoshea :  "  I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice  ?  "8  Had  He  not  repeatedly 
said  that  all  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  hang  on  two  broad  and  simple 
commandments  P4  Had  He  not  both  by  word  and  action,  showed  His  light 
estimation  of  mere  ceremonial  defilement,  to  which  the  Law  attached  a  deep 
importance  P  '  Had  He  not  refused  to  sanction  the  stoning  of  an  adulteress  P 
Had  He  not  even  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  Moses  had  conceded  some  things, 
which  were  in  themselves  undesirable,  only  because  of  the  hardness  of 
Jewish  hearts  P  Had  He  not  said,  "  The  Law  and  the  Prophets  were  UNTIL 

JOHN?"6 

And,  besides  all  this,  was  it  not  clear  that  He  meant  His  Church  to  be  an 
Universal  Church  P  Was  not  this  universality  of  the  offered  message  of  mercy 
and  adoption  clearly  indicated  in  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament  ?  Had 
not  the  Prophets  again  and  again  implied  the  ultimate  calling  of  the  Gentiles?7 
But  if  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  number  of  saints  and  brethren; 
if,  as  Jesus  Himself  had  prophesied,  there  was  to  be  at  last  one  flock  and  one 
Shepherd,8  how  could  this  be  if  the  Mosaic  Law  was  to  be  considered  as  of 
permanent  and  universal  validity?  Was  it  not  certain  that  the  Gentiles,  as  a 
body,  never  would  accept  the  whole  system  of  Mosaism,  and  never  would 
accept,  above  all,  the  crucial  ordinance  of  circumcision  P  Would  not  such  a 
demand  upon  them  be  a  certain  way  of  ensuring  the  refusal  of  the  Gospel 
message  P  Or,  if  they  did  embrace  it,  was  it  conceivable  that  the  Gentiles 
were  never  to  be  anything  but  mere  Proselytes  of  the  Gate,  thrust  as  it  were 
outside  the  portals  of  the  True  Spiritual  Temple  P  If  so,  were  not  the  most 

»  Luke  xiv.  1—6 ;  John  v.  10 ;  Mark  ii.  23;  Matt.  xli.  10 ;  John  ix.  14 ;  Luke  xiii.  14; 
xvi.  16.    (See  Life  of  Christ,  ii.  114.) 
2  Matt.  xv.  20. 

»  Mark  xil.   33  ;  Matt.  ix.  13 ;  xu.  7.  •  Matt.  xix.  8 ;  Mark  x.  5-9, 

*  Matt.  xxii.  40.  7  See  Rom.  XT.  9, 10,  11, 

«  Matt,  xv,  17 ;  Mark  vii.  19,  «  John  x.  16,  ro^n,. 


THE  SAMABITANS — THE  EUNUCH — THE   CENTURION.  151 

primary  conceptions  of  Christianity  cut  away  at  the  very  roots  P  were  not-  its 
most  beautiful  and  essential  institutions  rendered  impossible  P  How  could 
there  be  lore-feasts,  how  could  there  be  celebrations  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  how 
could  there  be  the  beautiful  spectacle  of  Christian  love  and  Christian  unity,  if 
the  Church  was  to  be  composed,  not  of  members  joined  together  in  equal 
brotherhood,  but  of  a  proletariate  of  tolerated  Gentiles,  excluded  even  from 
the  privilege  of  eating  with  an  aristocracy  of  superior  Jews  P  Dim  and 
dwarfed  and  maimed  did  such  an  ideal  look  beside  the  grand  conception  of  the 
redeemed  nations  of  the  world  coming  to  Sion,  singing,  and  with  everlasting 
joy  upon  their  heads ! 

And  behind  all  these  uncertainties  towered  a  yet  vaster  and  more  eternal 
question.  Christ  had  died  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world ;  what  need, 
then,  could  there  be  of  sacrifices  ?  What  significance  could  there  be  any  more 
in  the  shadow,  when  the  substance  had  been  granted? l  Where  was  the  mean- 
ing of  types,  after  they  had  been  fulfilled  in  the  glorious  Antitype  P  What 
use  was  left  for  the  lamp  of  the  Tabernacle  when  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
had  risen  with  healing  in  His  wings  ? 

Such  thoughts,  such  problems,  such  perplexities,  pressing  for  a  decided 
principle  which  should  guide  men  in  their  course  of  action  amid  daily 
multiplying  difficulties,  must  inevitably  have  occupied,  at  this  period,  the 
thoughts  of  many  of  the  brethren.  In  the  heart  of  Peter  they  must  have  as- 
sumed yet  more  momentous  proportions,  because  on  him  in  many  respects  the 
initiative  would  depend.8  The  destinies  of  the  world  during  centuries  of  his- 
tory— the  question  whether,  ere  that  brief  aeon  closed,  the  inestimable  benefits 
of  the  Life  and  Death  of  Christ  should  be  confined  to  the  sectaries  of  an 
obsolete  covenant  and  a  perishing  nationality,  or  extended  freely  to  all  the 
races  of  mankind— the  question  whether  weary  generations  should  be  forced 
to  accept  the  peculiarities  of  a  Semitic  tribe,  or  else  look  for  no  other  refuge 
than  the  shrines  of  Isis  or  the  Stoa  of  Athens — all  depended,  humanly  speak- 
ing, on  the  line  which  should  be  taken  by  one  who  claimed  no  higher  earthly 
intelligence  than  that  of  a  Jewish  fisherman.  But  God  always  chooses  His 
own  fitting  instruments.  In  the  decision  of  momentous  questions  rectitude 
of  heart  is  a  far  surer  guarantee  of  wisdom  than  power  of  intellect.  When 
the  unselfish  purpose  is  ready  to  obey,  the  supernatural  illumination  is  never 
wanting.  When  we  desire  only  to  do  what  is  right,  it  is  never  long  before  we 
hear  the  voice  behind  us  saying,  "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,"  however 
much  we  might  be  otherwise  inclined  to  turn  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the 
left. 

With  such  uncertainties  in  his  heart,  but  also  with  such  desire  to  bo  guided 
aright,  one  day  at  noon  Peter  mounted  to  the  flat  roof  of  the  tanner's  house 
for  his  mid-day  prayer.3  It  is  far  from  impossible  that  the  house  may  have 

l  1  Cor.  xiil.  10:  CoL  il.  17 ;  Heb.  x.  L 

"  Lo  maggior  Padre  di  famiglia  "  (Dante,  Pafad.  xxxii.  136). 

s  Matt.  x.  27 ;  xziv.  17 ;  Luke  xvii,  31.  House-tops  in  old  days  had  been  the  com- 
mon scenes  of  idol-worship  (Jer.  xix.  13  ;  Zeph.  i.  5,  <xc.). 


152  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

been  on  the  very  spot  with  the  one  with  which  it  has  long  been  identified.  It 
is  at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  little  town,  and  the  spring  in  the  courtyard 
would  have  been  useful  to  the  tanner  if  he  carried  on  his  trade  in  the  place 
where  he  lived.  A  fig-tree  now  overshadows  it,  and  there  may  have  been  one 
even  then  to  protect  the  Apostle  from  the  Syrian  sun.  In  any  case  his  eyes 
must  have  looked  on  identically  the  same  scene  which  we  may  now  witness 
from  that  spot :  a  small  Oriental  town  with  the  outline  of  its  flat  roofs  and 
low  square  houses  relieved  by  trees  and  gardens ;  a  line  of  low  dunes  and 
sandy  shore ;  a  sea  stretching  far  away  to  the  Isles  of  the  Gentiles — a  golden 
mirror  burning  under  the  rays  of  the  Eastern  noon  in  unbroken  light,  except 
where  it  is  rippled  by  the  wings  of  the  sea-birds  which  congregate  on  the 
slippery  rocks  beneath  the  town,  or  where  its  lazy  swell  breaks  over  the  line  of 
reef  which  legend  has  connected  with  the  story  of  Andromeda.  It  is  a 
meeting-point  of  the  East  and  West.  Behind  us  lie  Philistia  and  the  Holy 
Land.  Beyond  the  Jordan,  and  beyond  the  purple  hills  which  form  the  eastern 
ramparts  of  its  valley,  and  far  away  beyond  the  Euphrates,  were  the  countries 
of  those  immemorial  and  colossal  despotisms — the  giant  forms  of  empires 
which  had  passed  long  ago  "  on  their  way  to  ruin ; "  before  us — a  highway  for 
the  nations — are  the  inland  waters  of  the  sea  whose  shores  during  long  ages  of 
history  have  been  the  scene  of  all  that  is  best  and  greatest  in  the  progress  of 
mankind.  As  he  gazed  dreamily  on  sea  and  town  did  Peter  think  of  that  old 
prophet  who,  eight  centuries  before,  had  been  sent  by  God  from  that  very  port 
to  preach  repentance  to  one  of  those  mighty  kingdoms  of  the  perishing 
Gentiles,  and  whom  in  strange  ways  God  had  taught? 1 

It  was  high  noon,  and  while  he  prayed  and  meditated,  the  Apostle,  who  all 
his  life  had  been  familiar  with  the  scanty  fare  of  poverty,  became  very  hungry. 
But  the  mid-day  meal  was  not  yet  ready,  and,  while  he  waited,  his  hunger,  his 
uncertainties,  his  prayers  for  guidance,  were  all  moulded  by  the  providence  of 
God,  to  the  fulfilment  of  His  own  high  ends.  There  is  something  inimitably 
natural  in  the  way  in  which  truths  of  transcendent  importance  were  brought 
home  to  the  seeker's  thoughts  amid  the  fantastic  cnidities  of  mental  imagery. 
The  narrative  bears  upon  the  face  of  it  the  marks  of  authenticity,  and  we  feel 
instinctively  that  it  is  the  closest  possible  reflection  of  the  form  in  which 
divine  guidance  came  to  the  honest  and  impetuous  Apostle  as,  in  the  hungry 
pause  which  followed  his  mid-day  supplications,  he  half -dozed,  half -meditated, 
on  the  hot  flat  roof  under  the  blazing  sky,  with  his  gaze  towards  the  West  and 
towards  the  future,  over  the  blazing  sea. 

A  sort  of  trance  came  over  him.2 

The  heaven  seemed  to  open.  Instead  of  the  burning  radiance  of  sky  and 
sea  there  shone  before  him  something  like  a  great  linen  sheet,3  which  was 
being  let  down  to  him  from  heaven  to  earth  by  ropes  which  held  it  at  the 
four  corners.4  In  its  vast  capacity,  as  in  the  hollow  of  some  great  ark,  he  saw 

1  Jonah  1.  3.  3  Acts  X.  10,  fyfV.ro  eV  avrbc  JKOTaalc  (*  A,  B,  0,  E,  &0.). 

3  o66vn  (cf.  John  ill.  40). 

4  This  seems  to  he  implied  In  the  &p\w  (see  Ear.  ffippol.  762,  and  Wetst.  ad  loe.).  Bat 


THE  SAMAEITAN8—  THE  EUNUCH— THE   CENTUBION.  153 

all  the  four-footed  beasts,  and  reptiles  of  the  earth,  and  fowls  of  the  air,1 
while  a  voice  said  to  him,  "Rise,  Peter,  slay  and  eat."  But  even  in  his 
hunger,  kindled  yet  more  keenly  by  the  sight  of  food,  Peter  did  not  forget  the 
habits  of  his  training.  Among  these  animals  and  creeping  things  were  swine, 
and  camels,  and  rabbits,  and  creatures  which  did  not  chew  the  cud  or  divide  the 
hoof — all  of  which  had  been  distinctly  forbidden  by  the  Law  as  articles  of 
food.  Better  die  of  hunger  than  violate  the  rules  of  the  Kashar,  and  eat  such 
things,  the  very  thought  of  which  caused  a  shudder  to  a  Jew.2  It  seemed 
strange  to  Peter  that  a  voice  from  heaven  should  bid  him,  without  exception 
or  distinction,  to  slay  and  eat  creatures  among  which  the  unclean  were  thus 
mingled  with  the  clean ; — nay,  the  very  presence  of  the  unclean  among  them 
seemed  to  defile  the  entire  sheet.3  Brief  as  is  the  narrative  of  this  trance  in 
which  bodily  sensations  assuming  the  grotesque  form  of  objective  images 
became  a  medium  of  spiritual  illumination,4  it  is  clearly  implied  that  though 
pure  and  impure  animals  were  freely  mingled  in  the  great  white  sheet,  it  was 
mainly  on  the  latter  that  the  glance  of  Peter  fell,  just  as  it  was  with 
"  sinners  "  of  the  Gentiles,  and  their  admission  to  the  privileges  of  brother- 
hood, that  his  thoughts  must  have  been  mainly  occupied.  Accordingly,  with 
that  simple  and  audacious  self-confidence  which  in  his  character  was  so  singu- 
larly mingled  with  fits  of  timidity  and  depression,  he  boldly  corrects  the  Voice 
which  orders  him,  and  reminds  the  Divine  Interlocutor  that  he  must,  so  to 
speak,  have  made  an  oversight.6 

"  By  no  means,  Lord ! " — and  the  reader  will  immediately  recall  the  scene 
of  the  Gospel,  in  which  St.  Peter,  emboldened  by  Christ's  words  of  praise, 
took  Him  and  began  to  rebuke  Him,  saying,  "  Be  it  far  from  Thee,  Lord," — 

SeSfnevov  Kol  are  wanting  in  «,  A,  B,  E.  The  Vulgate  has  "  quatuor  initiis  submit li  da 
caelo." 

1  Acts x.  12,  iravm r«t,  "all  the," not  "all  kinds  of,"  which  would  be  navrola.   Augustine 
uses  the  comparison  of  the  ark  (c,  Faust,  xii  15) ;  omit  xai  TO.  (fypia  (N,  A,  B,  &c.). 

2  On  the  Kashar,  see  infra,  p.  245.    The  example  of  Daniel  (i.  8 — 16)  made  the  Jews 
more  particular.    Josephus  (Fit.  3)  tells  us  that  some  priests  imprisoned  at  Borne  lived 
only  on  figs  and  nuts. 

3  In  the  Talmud  (Sanhedr.  f.  59,  coL  2)  there  is  a  curious  story  about  unclean  animals 
Bupernaturally  represented  to  R.  Shimon  Ben  Chalaphtha,  who  slays  them  for  food.    This 
leads  to  the  remark,  "Nothing  unclean  comet  down  from  heaven,"    Have  we  here  aa 
oblique  argument  against  the  significance  of  St.  Peter's  vision  ?    B.  Ishmael  said  that  the 
care  of  Israel  to  avoid  creeping  things  would  alone  have  been  a  reason  why  God  saved 
them  from  Egypt  (Babha  Metzia,  L  61,  2).    Yet  every  Sanhedrist  must  be  ingenious 
enough  to  prove  that  a  creeping  thing  is  clean  (Sanhedrin,  f.  17,  1). 

4  See  some  excellent  remarks  of  Neander,  Planting,  i.  73. 

6  Of.  John  xiii.  8.  Increased  familiarity  with  Jewish  writings  invariably  deepens  our 
conviction  that  in  the  New  Testament  we  are  dealing  with  truthful  records.  Knowing 
as  we  do  the  reverence  of  the  Jews  for  divine  intimations,  we  might  well  have  supposed 
that  not  even  in  a  trance  would  Peter  have  raised  objections  to  the  mandate  of  the  Bath- 
Kol.  And  yet  we  find  exactly  the  same  thing  in  Scripture  (1  Kings  six.  14 ;  Jonah  iv. 
1,  9 ;  Jer.  i.  6),  in  the  previous  accounts  of  Peter  himself  (Matt.  xvi.  22) ;  of  St.  Paul 
(Acts  xxii.  19) ;  and  in  the  Talmudic  writings.  Few  stories  of  the  Talmud  convey  a 
more  unshaken  conviction  of  the  indefeasible  obligatoriness  of  the  Law  than  that  of  the 
resistance  even  to  a  voice  from  heaven  by  the  assembled  Rabbis,  in  Babha  Metzia,  f .  59, 
2  (I  have  quoted  it  in  the  Expositor,  1877).  It  not  only  illustrates  the  point  immediately 
before  us,  but  also  shows  more  clearly  than  anything  else  could  do  the  overwhelming 
forcos  against  which  St.  Paul  had  to  fight  his  way.  -  . ,,  . „ 


154  THK   LIFK  AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

"  for,"  he  added,  with  &  touch  of  genuine  Judaic  pride,  "  I  never  ate  anything 
profane  or  unclean."  And  the  Voice  spake  a  second  time:  "What  God 
cleansed,  'profane'  not  thou;"  or,  in  the  less  energetic  periphrasis  of  our 
Version,  "  What  God  hath  cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  common."  This  was 
done  thrice,  and  then  the  vision  vanished.  The  sheet  was  suddenly  drawn  up 
into  heaven.  The  trance  was  over.  Peter  was  alone  with  his  own  thoughts ; 
all  was  hushed j  there  came  no  murmur  more  from  the  blazing  heaven;  at  his 
feet  rolled  silently  the  blazing  sea. 

What  did  it  mean  P  St.  Peter's  hunger  was  absorbed  in  the  perplexity  of 
interpreting  the  strange  symbols  by  which  he  felt  at  once  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  guiding  him  to  truth — to  truth  on  which  he  must  act,  however 
momentous  were  the  issues,  however  painful  the  immediate  results.  Was  that 
great  linen  sheet  in  its  whiteness  the  image  of  a  world  washed  white,1  and 
were  its  four  corners  a  sign  that  they  who  dwelt  therein  were  to  be  gathered 
from  the  east  and  from  the  west,  from  the  north  and  from  the  south ;  and 
were  all  the  animals  and  creeping  things,  clean  and  unclean,  the  image  of  all 
the  races  which  inhabit  it  P  And  if  so,  was  the  permission — nay,  the  com- 
mand— to  eat  of  the  unclean  no  less  than  of  the  clean  an  indication  that  the 
Levitical  Law  was  now  "ready  to  vanish  away;"3  and  that  with  it  must 
vanish  away,  no  less  inevitably,  that  horror  of  any  communion  with  Gentile 
races  which  rested  mainly  upon  its  provisions  P  What  else  could  be  meant  by 
a  command  which  directly  contradicted  the  command  of  Moses  P8  Was  it 
really  meant  that  all  things  were  to  become  new  ?  that  even  these  unclean 
things  were  to  be  regarded  as  let  down  from  heaven  P  and  that  in  this  new 
world,  this  pure  world,  Gentiles  were  no  longer  to  be  called  "  dogs,"  but  Jew 
and  Gentile  were  to  meet  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality,  cleansed  alike  by 
the  blood  of  Christ  P 

Nor  is  the  connexion  between  the  symbol  and  the  thing  signified  quite  so 
distant  and  arbitrary  as  has  been  generally  supposed.  The  distinction 
between  clean  and  unclean  meats  was  one  of  tho  insuperable  barriers  between 
the  Gentile  and  the  Jew — a  barrier  which  prevented  all  intercourse  between 
them,  because  it  rendered  it  impossible  for  them  to  meet  at  the  same  table  or 
in  social  life.  In  the  society  of  a  Gentile,  a  Jew  was  liable  at  any  moment  to 
those  ceremonial  defilements  which  involved  all  kinds  of  seclusion  and  incon- 
venience ;  and  not  only  so,  but  it  was  mainly  by  partaking  of  unclean  food 
that  the  Gentiles  became  themselves  so  unclean  in  the  eyes  of  the  Jews.  It 
is  hardly  possible  to  put  into  words  the  intensity  of  horror  and  revolt  with 
which  the  Jew  regarded  swine.4  They  were  to  him  the  very  ideal  and  quint- 
essence of  all  that  must  be  looked  upon  with  an  energetic  concentration  of 
disgust.  He  would  not  even  mention  a  pig  by  name,  but  spoke  of  it  as 
dabhar  acheer,  or  "  the  other  thing."  When,  in  the  days  of  Hyrcanus,  a  pig 

1  So  CEcumenius.  *  Heb.  viii.  13.  *  Lev.  ri.  7 ;  Deut.  adv.  8. 

*  Isa.  Ixv.  4 ;  Ixvi.  3 ;  2  Mace.  vL  18,  19 ;  Jos.  e.  Ap.  ii.  14.  The  abhorrence  wa§ 
shared  by  many  Eastern  nations  (Hdt.  ii.  47  ;  Pliny,  If.  N,  viii.  52 ;  Koran).  This  was 
partly  due  to  its  filthy  habits  (2  Pet.  ii.  22), 


THB   8AMABITAN8 — THE   EUNUCH — THE   OENTUBION.  165 

had  been  surreptitiously  put  into  a  box  and  drawn  up  the  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Jews  declared  that  a  shudder  of  earthquake  had  run  through  four  hundred 
parasangs  of  the  Holy  Land.1  Yet  this  filthy  and  atrocious  creature,  which  could 
hardly  even  be  thought  of  without  pollution,  was  not  only  the  chief  delicacy 
at  Gentile  banquets,2  but  was,  in  one  form  or  other,  one  of  the  commonest 
articles  of  Gentile  consumption.  How  could  a  Jew  touch  or  speak  to  a  human 
being  who  of  deliberate  choice  had  banqueted  on  swine's  flesh,  and  who  might 
on  that  very  day  have  partaken  of  tho  abomination  P  The  cleansing  of  all 
articles  of  food  involved  far  more  immediately  than  has  yet  been  noticed  the 
acceptance  of  Gentiles  on  equal  footing  to  equal  privileges. 

And  doubtless,  as  such  thoughts  passed  through  the  soul  of  Peter,  he 
remembered  also  that  remarkable  "  parable  "  of  Jesus  of  which  he  and  his 
brother  disciples  had  once  asked  the  explanation.  Jesus  in  a  few  words,  but 
with  both  of  the  emphatic  formulae  which  Ho  adopted  to  call  special  attention 
to  any  utterance  of  more  than  ordinary  depth  and  solemnity — "  Hearken  unto 
me,  every  one  of  you,  and  understand ;  '•'  "  If  any  man  haih  ears  to  liear,  le,i 
him  hear,"  3 — had  said,  "  There  is  nothing  from  without  a  man  entering  into 
him  which  can  defile  him."  What  He  had  proceeded  to  say — that  what 
truly  denies  a  man  is  that  which  comes  out  of  him — was  easy  enough  to 
understand,  and  was  a  truth  of  deep  meaning;  but  so  difficult  had  it  been 
to  grasp  the  first  half  of  the  clause,  that  they  had  asked  Him  to  explain  a 
"  parable "  which  seemed  to  be  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  Mosaic  Law. 
Expressing  His  astonishment  at  their  want  of  insight,  He  had  shown  them 
that  what  entered  into  a  man  from  without  did  but  become  a  part  of  his 
material  organism,  entering,  "  not  into  the  heart,  but  into  the  belly,  and  so 
passing  into  the  draught."  THIS,  HE  SAID — as  now  for  the  first  time, 
perhaps,  flashed  with  full  conviction  into  the  mind  of  Peter — MAKING-  ALL 
MEATS  PURE  ;  * — as  ho  proceeded  afterwards  to  develop  those  weighty  truths 
about  the  inward  character  of  all  real  pollution,  and  the  genesis  of  all  crime 
from  evil  thoughts,  which  convey  so  solemn  a  warning.  To  me  it  seems  that 
it  was  the  trance  and  vision  of  Joppa  which  first  made  Peter  realise  the  true 
meaning  of  Christ  in  one  of  those  few  distinct  utterances  in  which  he  had 
intimated  the  coming  annulment  o£  the  Mosaic  Law.  It  is,  doubtless,  due  to 
the  fact  that  St.  Peter,  as_the  informant  of  St.  Mark  in  writing  his  Gospel, 

1  Jer.  EeracMth,  iv.  1 ;  Derenbourg,  Palest.  114 ;  Gratz.  iii.  480.  (The  story  IB  also 
told  in  Babha  Kama,  f.  82,  2 ;  Mcnachoth,  f.  64,  2  ;  Sotah,  f.  49,  2.) 

*  Sumen,  in  Plaut.  Cure.  ii.  3,  44 ;  Pers.  i.  53 ;  Plin.  H.  N.  xi.  37.- 
»  Mark  vii.  14,  16. 

*  Mark  vii.  19.    This  interpretation,  due  originally  to  the  early  Fathers — being  found 
in  Chrysostom,  Horn,  in  Matt.  li.  p.  526,  and  Gregory  Thaumaturgus — was  revived,  forty 
years  ago,  by  the  Rev.  F.  Field,  in  a  note  of  his  edition  of  St.  Chrysostom's  Homilies 
(iii.  112).    (See  Expositor  for  1876,  where  I  have  examined  the  passage  at  length.)    Here, 
however,  it  lay  unnoticed,  till  it  gained,  quite  recently,  the  attention  which  it  deserved. 
The  true  reading  is  certainly  Ka.0api&v  not  the  KaBapifrv  of  our  edition — a  reading  due,  in 
all  probability,  to  the  impossibility  of  making  KaiBaplfrv  agree  with  a^ejpira.    The  loss  of 
the  true  interpretation  has  been  very  serious.     Now,  however,  it  is  happily  revived.     It 
has  a  more  direct  bearing  than  any  other  on  the  main  practical  difficulty  of  the  Apostolic 


156  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

and  the  sole  ultimate  authority  for  this  vision  in  the  Acts,  is  the  source  of 
both  narratives,  that  we  owe  the  hitherto  unnoticed  circumstance  that  the  two 
verbs  "cleanse"  and  "profane" — both  in  a  peculiarly  pregnant  sense — are 
the  two  most  prominent  words  in  the  narrative  of  both  events. 

While  Peter  thus  pondered — perplexed,  indeed,  but  with  a  new  light 
dawning  in  his  soul — the  circumstance  occurred  which  gave  to  his  vision 
its  full  significance.  'Trained,  like  all  Jews,  in  unquestioning  belief  of  a 
daily  Providence  exercised  over  the  minutest  no  less  than  over  the  greatest 
events  of  life,  Peter  would  have  been  exactly  in  the  mood  which  was  prepared 
to  accept  any  further  indication  of  God's  will  from  whatever  source  it  came. 
The  recognised  source  of  such  guidance  at  this  epoch  was  the  utterance  of 
voices  apparently  accidental  which  the  Jews  reckoned  as  their  sole  remaining 
kind  of  inspired  teaching,  and  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Bath-Kol.1 
The  first  words  heard  by  Peter  after  his  singular  trance  were  in  the  voices  of 
Gentiles.  In  the  courtyard  below  him  were  three  Gentiles,  of  whom  one  was 
in  the  garb  of  a  soldier.  Having  asked  their  way  to  the  house  of  Simon  the 
Tanner,  they  were  now  inquiring  whether  a  certain  Simon,  who  bore  the 
surname  of  Peter,  was  lodging  there.  Instantly  there  shot  through  his  mind 
a  gleam  of  heavenly  light.  He  saw  the  divine  connexion  between  the  vision 
of  his  trance  and  the  inquiry  of  these  Gentiles,  and  a  Yoice  within  him 
warned  him  that  these  men  had  come  in  accordance  with  an  express  intima- 
tion of  God's  will,  and  that  he  was  to  go  with  them  without  question  or 
hesitation.  He  instantly  obeyed.  He  descended  from  the  roof,  told  the 
messengers  he  was  the  person  whom  they  were  seeking,  and  asked  their 
business.  They  were  the  bearers  of  a  strange  message.  "  Cornelius,"  they 
said,  "  a  centurion,  a  just  man,  and  a  worshipper  of  God,  to  whose  virtues  the 
entire  Jewish  nation  bore  testimony,  had  received  an  angelic  intimation  to 
send  for  him,  and  hear  his  instructions."  Peter  at  once  offered  them  the  free 
and  simple  hospitality  of  the  East ;  and  as  it  was  too  hot  and  they  were  too 
tired  to  start  at  once  on  their  homeward  journey,  they  rested  there  until  the 
following  morning.  Further  conversation  would  have  made  Peter  aware  that 
Cornelius  was  a  centurion  of  the  Italian  band ; 2  that  not  only  he,  but  all  his 
house,  "  feared  God ; "  that  the  generosity  of  his  almsgiving  and  the  earnest- 
ness of  his  prayers  were  widely  known ;  and  that  the  intimation  to  send  for 
Peter  had  been  given  to  him  while  he  was  fasting  on  the  previous  day  at  throe 
o'clock.  He  had  acted  upon  it  so  immediately  that,  in  spite  of  the  heat  and 
the  distance  of  thirty  miles  along  shore  and  plain,  his  messengers  had  arrived 
at  Joppa  by  the  following  noon. 

The  next  morning  they  all  started  on  the  journey  which  was  to  involve 
such  momentous  issues  How  deeply  alive  St.  Peter  himself  was  to  the 
consequences  which  might  ensue  from  his  act  is  significantly  shown  by  his 

1  Liffpf  Christ,  1. 118. 

2  The  Italian  cohort  wa»  probably  one  composed  of  "  Velones,"  Italian  volunteer*. 
"  Cohors  militum  voluntaria,  quae  est  in  Syria"  (Grater,  Inter,  i.  434 ;  Akerman,  Hum, 
niustr.  34).    It  would  be  specially  required  at  Caosarea, 


THE  SAMARITANS— THE  EUNUCH— THE  CENTUfclON.  157 

inviting  no  fewer  than  six  of  the  brethren  at  Joppa  to  accompany  him,  and  to 
be  witnesses  of  all  that  should  take  place.1 

The  journey — since  Orientals  are  leisurely  in  their  movements,  and  they 
could  only  travel  during  the  cool  hours — occupied  two  days.  Thus  it  was  not 
until  the  fourth  day  after  the  vision  of  Cornelius  that,  for  the  first  time 
during  two  thousand  years,  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  met  on  the  broad 
grounds  of  perfect  religious  equality  before  God  their  Father.  Struck  with 
the  sacredness  of  the  occasion — struck,  too,  it  may  be,  by  something  in  the 
appearance  of  the  chief  of  the  Apostles — Cornelius,  who  had  risen  to  meet 
Peter  on  the  threshold,  prostrated  himself  at  his  feet,2  as  we  are  told  that, 
three  hundred  years  before,  Alexander  the  Great  had  done  at  the  feet  of  the 
High  Priest  Jaddua,3  and,  six  hundred  years  afterwards,  Edwin  of  Deira  did 
at  the  feet  of  Paulinus.4  Instantly  Peter  raised  the  pious  soldier,  and,  to  tlie 
amazement  doubtless  of  the  brethren  who  accompanied  him,  perhaps  even  to 
his  own  astonishment,  violated  all  the  traditions  of  a  lifetime,  as  well  as  the 
national  customs  of  many  centuries,  by  walking  side  by  side  with  him  in  free 
conversation  into  the  presence  of  his  assembled  Gentile  relatives.  This  he 
did,  not  from  the  forgetfulness  of  an  enthusiastic  moment,  but  with  the 
avowal  that  he  was  doing  that  which  had  been  hitherto  regarded  as  irreligious,6 
but  doing  it  in  accordance  with  a  divine  revelation.  Cornelius  then  related 
the  causes  which  had  led  him  to  send  for  Peter,  and  the  Apostle  began  his 
solemn  address  to  them  with  the  memorable  statement  that  now  he  perceived 
with  undoubted  certainty  that  "  GOD  is  NO  RESPECTER  OF  PEBSONS,  BUT 

IN  EVERY  NATION  HE  THAT  FEARETH  HlM  AND  WORKETH  RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS IS  ACCEPTABLE  TO  HIM."  6  Never  were  words  more  noble  uttered. 
But  we  must  not  interpret  them  to  mean  the  same  proposition  as  that  which 
is  so  emphatically  repudiated  by  the  English  Reformers,  "  That  e'very  man 
shall  be  saved  by  the  law  or  sect  which  he  prof  esseth,  so  that  he  be  diligent  to 
frame  his  life  according  to  that  law  and  the  light  of  Nature."  Had  this 
been  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle — a  meaning  which  it  would  be  an  immense 
anachronism  to  attribute  to  him — it  would  have  been  needless  for  him  to 
preach  to  Cornelius,  as  he  proceeded  to  do,  the  leading  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  faith ;  it  would  have  been  sufficient  for  him  to  bid  Cornelius  con- 
tinue in  prayer  and  charity  without  unfolding  to  him  "only  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  whereby  men  must  be  saved."  The  indifference  of  nationality 
was  the  thought  in  Peter's  mind;  not  by  any  means  the  indifference  of 

1  Compare  Acts  x.  23  with  xi.  12. 

2  D  and  the  Syr.  have  the  pragmatic  addition,  "And  when  Peter  drew  near  to 
Csesarea,  one  of  the  slaves  running  forward  gave  notice  that  he  had  arrived;  and 
Cornelius  springing  forth,  and  moeting  him,  falling  at  his  feet,  worshipped  him." 

•  See  Jos.  Antt.  xi.  8,  §  5. 

•  The  story  is  told  in  Bede,  Ecd,  Hist.  Angl.  ii.  12. 

•  Acts  x.  28,  adiiurov ;  of.  John  xviii.  28.     Lightf.  Hvr.  Hebr.  ad  Matt,  xyiii.  17. 

•  St.  Peter's  words  are  the  most  categorical  contradiction  of  the  Rabbinic  comments 
on  Prov.  xiv.  34,  which  asserted  that  any  righteous  acts  done  by  the  Gentiles  were  sin  to 
them.     Such  was  the  thesis  maintained  even  by  Hiflelites  like  Gamaliel  II,  aud  K, 
Eliezer  of  Modin  (Babha  Bathra,  f.  10,  2).     (V,  infra,  pp.  429,  454.) 


158  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

religions.  All  who,  to  the  utmost  of  the  opportunities  vouchsafed  to  them, 
fear  and  love  God  with  sincerity  of  heart,  shall  be  saved  by  Christ's  redemp- 
tion ;  some  of  them — many  of  them — will  He  lead  to  a  knowledge  of  Him  in 
this  life ;  all  of  them  shall  see  Him  and  know  Him  in  the  life  to  come.1 

Accordingly  Peter  proceeded  to  recall  to  these  Gentiles  all  that  they  had 
heard  a  of  the  preaching  of  peace  by  Jesus  Chriet  the  Lord  of  all ;  of  His  life 
and  ministry  after  the  baptism  of  John ;  how  God  anointed  Him  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  with  power ;  how  He  went  about  doing  good,  and  healing  all 
who  were  under  the  tyranny  of  the  devil ;  and  then  of  the  Crucifixion  and 
Resurrection  from  the  dead,  of  which  the  disciples  were  the  appointed  wit- 
nesses, commissioned  by  the  Voice  of  their  risen  Lord  to  testify  that  He  is  the 
destined  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  And  while  Peter  was  proceeding  to  show 
from  the  Prophets  that  all  who  believed  on  Him  should  through  His  name 
receive  remission  of  sins,  suddenly  on  these  unbaptised  Gentiles  no  less  than 
on  the  Jews  who  were  present,  fell  that  inspired  emotion  of  superhuman 
utterance  which  was  the  signature  of  Pentecost.  "  The  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon 
them."  The  six  brethren  who  had  accompanied  Peter  from  Joppa  might  well 
be  amazed.  Here  were  men  unbaptised,  uncircumcised,  unclean — men  who 
had  been  idolaters,  dogs  of  the  Gentiles,  eaters  of  the  unclean  beast,  whose 
touch  involved  ceremonial  pollution — speaking  and  praising  God  in  the 
utterances  which  could  only  come  from  hearts  stirred  by  divine  influence  to 
their  most  secret  depth.  With  bold  readiness  Peter  seized  the  favourable 
moment.  The  spectacle  which  ho  had  witnessed  raised  him  above  ignoble 
prejudices,  and  the  rising  tide  of  conviction  swept  away  the  dogmas  and 
habits  of  his  earlier  years.  Appealing  to  this  proof  of  the  spiritual  equality 
of  the  Gentile  with  the  Jew,  he  asked  "  whether  any  one  could  forbid  water 
for  their  baptism  ?  "  No  one  cared  to  dispute  the  cogency  of  this  proof  that 
it  was  God's  will  to  admit  Cornelius  and  his  friends  to  the  privileges  of 
Christian  brotherhood.  Peter  not  only  commanded  them  to  be  baptised  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  but  even  freely  accepted  their  invitation  "  to  tarry  with 
them  certain  days." 

The  news  of  a  revolution  so  astounding  was  not  long  in  reaching  Jerusalem, 
and  when  Peter  returned  to  the  Holy  City  he  was  met  by  the  sterner  zealots 
who  had  joined  Christianity,  by  those  of  whom  we  shall  henceforth  hear  so 
often  as  "  those  of  the  circumcision,"  with  the  fierce  indignant  murmur, 
"  Thou  wentest  into  the  house  of  men  uncircumcieed,  and  didst  SAT  WITH 
THEM/"3  To  associate  with  them,  to  enter  their  houses,  was  not  that  pol- 
lution enough  P  to  touch  in  familiar  intercourse  men  who  had  never  received 
the  seal  of  the  covenant,  to  be  in  daily  contact  with  people  who  might,  no  one 
knew  how  recently,  have  had  "  broth  of  abominable  things  in  their  vessels  ''— 

»  Of.  Rom.  ii.  6,  10, 14,  15. 

J  Acts  x.  86.  To  understand  it*  Arfyov  here  in  the  Johannino  sense  seem*  to  me 
utterly  uncritical. 

*  "  He  who  eats  with  an  unoircumclsed  person,  eats,  as  it  were,  with  a  dog ;  he  who 
touches  him,  touches,  as  it  were,  a  dead  body ;  and  he  who  bathes  in  the  same  place  with 
him,  bathes,  as  it  were,  with  a  leper  "  (Pirke  Eabbi  Slieter,  29). 


THE  SAMABITANS— THE  EUNUCH— THE  CENTURION.  159 

was  not  this  sufficiently  horrible?  Bnt  "to  eat  with  them" — to  eat  food 
prepared  by  Gentiles — to  taste  meat  which  had  been  illegally  killed  by  Gentile 
hands — to  neglect  the  roles  of  the  Kashar — to  take  food  from  dishes  which 
any  sort  of  unclean  insect  or  animal,  nay  even  "  the  other  thing,"  might  have 
denied — was  it  to  be  thought  of  without  a  shudder?1 

Thus  Peter  was  met  at  Jerusalem  by  something  very  like  an  impeachment, 
but  he  confronted  the  storm  with  perfect  courage.3  What  he  had  done  he 
had  not  done  arbitrarily,  but  step  by  step  under  direct  divine  guidance.  He 
detailed  to  them  his  vision  on  the  roof  at  Joppa,  and  the  angelic  appearance 
which  had  suggested  the  message  of  Cornelius.  Finally  he  appealed  to  the 
outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  had  been  manifested  in  these  Gentiles 
by  the  very  same  signs  as  in  themselves.  Was  not  this  the  promised  baptism 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  was  it  not  a  proof  that  God  accepted  these  Gentiles 
no  less  fully  than  He  accepted  them  1  "  What  was  I  that  I  could  withstand 
God?" 

The  bold  defence  silenced  for  a  time  the  adversaries  of  an  innovation  which 
they  regarded  as  unscriptural  and  disloyal.  They  could  not  dispute  facts 
authenticated  by  the  direct  testimony  of  their  six  brethren — whom  Peter, 
conscious  of  the  seriousness  of  the  crisis,  had  very  prudently  brought  with 
him  from  Joppa — nor  could  they  deny  the  apparent  approval  of  heaven. 
The  feeling  of  the  majority  was  in  favour  of  astonished  but  grateful  acquies- 
cence. Subsequent  events  prove  only  too  plainly  that  there  was  at  any  rate 
a  displeased  minority,  who  were  quite  unprepared  to  sacrifice  their  monopoly 
of  precedence  in  the  equal  kingdom  of  God.  Even  in  the  language  of  the 
others3  we  seem  to  catch  a  faint  echo  of  reluctance  and  surprise.  Nor  would 
they  admit  any  general  principle.  The  only  point  which  they  conceded  was — 
not  that  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  admitted,  without  circumcision,  to  full  com- 
munion, still  less  that  Jews  would  be  generally  justified  in  eating  with  them, 
as  Peter  had  done — but  only  that  "  God  had,  it  seemed,  to  the  Gentiles  also 
granted  repentance  unto  life." 

Meanwhile,  and,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  in  entire  independence  of  these 
initial  movements,  the  Church  had  been  undergoing  a  new  and  vast  develop- 
ment in  Syria,  which  transferred  the  position  of  the  metropolis  of  Christianity 
from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  as  completely  as  it  was  to  be  afterwards  trans- 
ferred from  Antioch  to  Borne. 

1  To  this  day  orthodox  Jews  submit  to  any  inconvenience  rather  than  touch  meat 
killed  by  a  Gentile  butcher  (McOaul,  Old  Paths,  397,  seq.).    This  leads  sometimes  not 
only  to  a  monopoly,  but  even  to  a  downright  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  butcher  who 
has  the  kadima  (Frankl,  Jews  in  the  East,  ii. ). 

2  Acts  xi.  2.  SuKpivovro  irpbs  avTov.  Cf.  Jud.  9, 
*  Acts  xi.  18,  apayt  KCU  TOIS  i9vt<rur. 


160  THB  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


ANTIOOH, 
CHAPTER   XVI. 

THK   SECOND   CA.PITJLL  OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

"  Quos,  per  flagitia  invisos,  vulgus  Christianas  appellabat." — TAC.  Ann.  xv.  44. 

~X.piffTia.v6s  eifjil. — Mart.  Polyc.  iii. 

'E.v-XapKTTOvfi.fv  ffol  Sn  ri>  OVQJJ.O.  rov  Xptffrov  crov  twiKfK\ijTai  £<p  TJHUS,  fol  ffol 
irpofftf>Kfi<£[4f0a. — CLEM.  Koxi. 

QVK  avrbt  f}\aff<pripovffi  rb  Ka\bt>  tvofj.0.  rb  iviK\i)Sfv  3<f>'  vfj.iis; — JAS.  ii.  7- 

El  ovei8t£fffOe  tv  ov6fj.an  Xpurrov,  jjuucdpioi. — 1  PET.  iv.  14. 

"  Nomen  .  .  .  quod  sicut  unguentum  diffusum  longe  lateque  redolet." — GAL. 
Tyr.  iv.  9. 

"  Oditur  ergo  in  hominibus  innocuis  etiam  nemen  innocuum." — TERT.  Apol.  3. 

THE  overruling  Providence  of  God  is  so  clearly  marked  in  the  progress  of 
human  events  that  the  Christian  hardly  needs  any  further  proof  that  "there 
is  a  hand  that  guides."  In  the  events  of  his  own  little  life  the  perspective  of 
God's  dealings  is  often  hidden  from  him,  but  when  he  watches  the  story  of 
nations  and  of  religions  he  can  clearly  trace  the  divine  purposes,  and  see  the 
lessons  which  God's  hand  has  written  on  every  page  of  history.  What  seems 
to  be  utter  ruin  is  often  complete  salvation;  what  was  regarded  as  cruel 
disaster  constantly  turns  out  to  be  essential  blessing. 

It  was  so  with  the  persecution  which  ensued  on  the  death  of  Stephen. 
Had  it  been  less  inquisitorial,  it  would  not  have  accomplished  its  destined 
purpose.  The  Saul  who  hud  in  ruins  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  was  uncon- 
sciously deepening  the  foundations  of  circumstance  on  which  hereafter — the 
same  and  not  the  same — he  should  rear  the  superstructure  of  the  Church  of 
God.  Saul  the  persecutor  was  doing,  by  opposite  means,  the  same  work  as 
Paul  the  Apostle. 

For  when  the  members  of  the  infant  Church  fled  terror-stricken  from  the 
Holy  City,  they  carried  with  them  far  and  wide  the  good  tidings  of  the 
Jerusalem  above.  At  first,  as  was  natural,  they  spoke  to  Jews  alone.  It1 
would  be  long  before  they  would  hear  how  Philip  had  evangelised  Samaria, 
and  how,  by  his  baptism  of  the  eunuch,  he  had  admitted  into  the  Church  of 
Christ  one  whom  Moses  had  excluded  from  the  congregation  of  Israel.  The 
naptism  of  the  pious  soldier  had  taken  place  still  later,  and  the  knowledge  of 
it  could  not  at  once  reach  the  scattered  Christians.  In  Phoenicia,  therefore, 
and  in  Cyprus,  their  preaching  was  confined  at  first  within  the  limits  of 
Judaism;  nor  was  it  until  the  wandering  Hellenists  had  reached  Antioch 
that  they  boldly  ventured  TO  PREACH  TO  THB  GEOTILES.1  Whether  these 

1  Acts  xi.  20.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  •EAAijvaf,  and  not  'EAAqvurrac  (which  IB 
accepted  by  our  version,  and  rendered  "Grecians")  is  the  true  reading.  (1)  External 


THE  SECOND   CAPITAL  OP  CHRISTIAKITY.  161 

Gentiles  were  such  only  as  had  already  embraced  the  "  Noachian  dispensation," 
or  whether  they  included  others  who  had  in  no  sense  become  adherents  of  the 
synagogue,  we  are  not  told.  Greek  proselytes  were  at  this  period  common  in 
every  considerable  city  of  the  Empire,1  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
they  furnished  a  majority,  at  any  rate,  of  the  new  converts.  However  this 
may  have  been,  the  work  of  these  nameless  Evangelists  was  eminently 
successful.  It  received  the  seal  of  God's  blessing,  and  a  large  multitude  of 
Greeks  turned  to  the  Lord.  The  fact,  so  much  obscured  by  the  wrong  read- 
ing followed  by  our  English  Version,  is  nothing  less  than  the  beginning,  on  a 
large  scale,  of  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles.  It  is  one  of  the  great  momenta 
in  the  asceusive  work  begun  by  Stephen,  advanced  by  Philip,  authorised  by 
Peter,  and  finally  culminating  in  the  life,  mission,  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

When  the  news  reached  Jerusalem,  it  excited  great  attention,  and  the 
members  of  the  Church  determined  to  despatch  one  of  their  number  to  watch 
what  was  going  on.  Their  choice  of  an  emissary  showed  that  as  yet  the  counsels 
of  the  party  of  moderation  prevailed,  for  they  despatched  the  large-hearted  and 
conciliatory  Barnabas.  His  Levitical  descent,  and  the  sacrifice  which  he  had 
made  of  his  property  to  the  common  fund,  combined  with  his  sympathetic 
spirit  and  liberal  culture  to  give  him  a  natural  authority,  which  he  had  always 
used  on  the  side  of  charity  and  wisdom. 

The  arrival  of  such  a  man  was  an  especial  blessing.  This  new  church, 
which  was  so  largely  composed  of  Gentiles,  was  destined  to  be  a  fresh  starting, 
point  in  the  career  of  Christianity.  Barnabas  saw  the  grace  of  God  at  work, 
and  rejoiced  at  it,  and  justified  his  happy  title  of  "  the  son  of  exhortation," 

evidence  in  favour  of  *EAAi)[><«  is  indeed  defective,  since  it  is  only  found  in  A  (which  also 
has  'EXAi^M,  even  in  is.  29,  where  EXA/nncras  is  the  only  possible  reading)  and  D.  N  has 
««ayyeX«rra!,  which  has  been  altered  into  'EXA^a*;  hut  both  N  and  B  read  *al  before 
cAaAovp,  which  indicates  a  new  and  important  statement.  Some  of  the  most  important 
versions  are  valueless  as  evidence  of  reading  in  this  instance,  because  they  have  no 
specific  word  by  which  to  distinguish  'E\\tivi<na.l  and  'E\A»ji>««.  CEcumenius  and  Theophy- 
lact  read  'EXATJI'IO-TOS,  and  so  does  Chrysostom  in  his  text,  but  in  his  commentary  he 
accepts  'EAAjjra*,  as  does  Eusebius.  But  (2)  if  we  turn  to  internal  evidence  it  is  clear 
that  "  Greeks,"  not  "  Grecians  " — i.e.,  Gentiles,  not  Greek-speaking  Jews — is  the  only 
admissible  reading ;  for  (i.)  Hellenists  were,  of  course,  Jews,  and  as  it  is  perfectly 
certain  that  the  'lovScuW  of  the  previous  verse  cannot  mean  only  Hebraists,  this  verse 
20  would  add  nothing  whatever  to  the  narrative  if  "  Hellenists  "  were  the  right  reading, 
(ii.)  The  statement  comes  as  the  sequel  and  crowning  point  of  narratives,  of  which  it  has 
been  the  express  object  to  describe  the  admission  of  Gentiles  into  the  Church.  The 
reading  "  Hellenists "  obscures  the  verse  on  which  the  entire  narrative  of  the  Acts 
hinges,  (iii.)  The  conversion  of  a  number  of  Hellenists  at  Antioch  would  have  excited 
no  special  notice,  and  required  no  special  mission  of  inquiry,  seeing  that  the  existing 
Church  at  Jerusalem  itself  consisted  largely  of  Hellenists.  The  entire  context,  therefore, 
conclusively  proves  that  'EXArji/a?  is  the  right  reading,  and  it  has  accordingly  been  received 
into  the  text,  in  spite  of  the  external  evidence  against  it,  by  all  the  best  editors — 
Griesbach,  Lachmann,  Scholz,  Tischendorf,  Meyer,  Alford,  &c.  The  reason  for  the 
corruption  of  the  text  seems  to  have  been  an  assumption  that  this  narrative  is  retrospec- 
tive, and  that  to  suppose  the  admission  of  Gentiles  into  the  faith  before  Peter  had  opened 
to  them  the  doors  of  the  kingdom  would  be  to  derogate  from  his  authority.  But  thii 
preaching  at  Antioch  may  have  been  subsequent  to  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  ;  and  it 
was,  in  any  case,  the  authority  of  Peter  which  for  the  majority  of  the  Church  incon- 
trovertibly  settled  the  claim  of  the  Gentiles. 
1  See  Acts  xiv.  1 ;  xviii.  4 ;  John  xii,  20. 


162  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PATTL. 

by  exhorting  the  believers  to  cleave  to  the  Lord  with  purpose  of  heart. 
His  ministry  won  over  converts  in  still  lai'ger  numbers,  for,  as  Luke  adds 
with  emphatic  commendation,  "  he  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  faith." 

The  work  multiplied  in  his  hands,  and  needed  so  much  wisdom,  knowledge, 
and  energy,  that  he  soon  felt  the  need  of  a  colleague.  Doubtless,  had  he 
desired  it,  he  could  have  secured  the  co-operation  of  one  of  the  Apostles,  or  of 
their  trusted  adherents.  But  Barnabas  instinctively  perceived  that  a  fresher 
point  of  view,  a  clearer  insight,  a  wider  culture,  a  more  complete  immunity 
from  prejudices  were  needed  for  so  large  and  delicate  a  task.  Himself  a 
Grecian,  and  now  called  upon  to  minister  not  only  to  Grecians  but  to  Greeks, 
he  longed  for  the  aid  of  one  who  would  maintain  the  cause  of  truth  and 
liberality  with  superior  ability  and  more  unflinching  conviction.  There  was 
but  one  man  who  in  any  degree  met  his  requirements — it  was  the  delegate  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  the  zealot  of  the  Pharisees,  the  once  persecuting  Saul  of  Tarsus. 
Since  his  escape  from  Jerusalem,  Saul  had  been  more  or  less  unnoticed  by  the 
leading  Apostles.  We  lose  sight  of  him  at  Csesarea,  apparently  starting  on  his 
way  to  Tarsus,  and  all  that  Barnabas  now  know  about  him  was  that  he  was 
living  quietly  at  home,  waiting  the  Lord's  call.  Accordingly  ho  set  out,  to 
seek  for  him,  and  the  turn  of  expression  seems  to  imply  that  it  was  not  with- 
out difficulty  that  he  found  him.  Paul  readily  accepted  the  invitation  to 
leave  his  seclusion,  and  join  his  friend  in  this  new  work  in  the  great  capital  of 
Syria.  Thus,  twice  over,  did  Barnabas  save  Saul  for  the  work  of  Christianity. 
To  his  self -effacing  nobleness  is  due  the  honour  of  recognising,  before  they 
had  yet  been  revealed  to  others,  the  fiery  vigour,  the  indomitable  energy,  the 
splendid  courage,  the  illuminated  and  illuminating  intellect,  which  were 
destined  to  spend  themselves  in  the  high  endeavour  to  ennoble  and  evangelise 
the  world. 

No  place  could  have  been  more  suitable  than  Antioch  for  the  initial  stage 
of  such  a  ministry.  The  queen  of  the  East,  the  third  metropolis  of  the  world, 
the  residence  of  the  imperial  Legate  of  Syria,  this  vast  city  of  perhaps  500,000 
souls  must  not  be  judged  of  by  the  diminished,  shrunken,  and  earthquake- 
shattered  AntaMeh  of  to-day.1  It  was  no  mere  Oriental  town,  with  low  flat 
roofs  and  dingy  narrow  streets,  but  a  Greek  capital  enriched  and  enlarged  by 
Roman  munificence.  It  is  situated  at  the  point  of  junction  between  the  chains 
of  Lebanon  and  Taurus.  Its  natural  position  on  the  northern  slope  of  Mount 
Silpius,  with  a  navigable  river,  the  broad,  historic  Orontes,  flowing  at  its  feet, 
was  at  once  commanding  and  beautiful.  The  windings  of  the  river  enriched 
the  whole  well-wooded  plain,  and  as  the  city  was  but  sixteen  miles  from  the 
shore,  the  sea-breezes  gave  it  health  and  coolness.  These  natural  advantages 
had  been  largely  increased  by  the  lavish  genius  of  ancient  art.  Built  by  the 
SeleucidsB2  as  the  royal  residence  of  their  dynasty,  its  wide  circuit  of  many 
miles  was  surrounded  by  walls  of  astonishing  height  and  thickness,  which  had 

1  It  IB  now  a  fifth-rate  Turkish  town  of  6,000  inhabitants.    (Porter's  Syria,  p.  668.) 
8  B.O.  301,  Apr,  23, 


RUINS     OF     THE     WALLS     OF     ANTIOCH, 


THE  SECOND  CAPITAL  OF  CHBISTIANITY.  163 

been  carried  across  ravines  and  over  mountain  summits  with  such  daring 
magnificence  of  conception  as  to  give  the  city  the  aspect  of  being  defended  by 
its  own  encircling  mountains,  as  though  those  gigantic  bulwarks  were  but  its 
natural  walls.  The  palace  of  the  kings  of  Syria  was  on  an  island  formed  by 
an  artificial  channel  of  the  river.  Through  the  entire  length  of  the  city,  from 
the  Golden  or  Daphne  gate  on  the  west,  ran  for  nearly  five  miles  a  fine  corso 
adorned  with  trees,  colonnades,  and  statues.  Originally  constructed  by 
Seicucus  Nicator,  it  had  been  continued  by  Herod  the  Great,  who,  at  once  to 
gratify  his  passion  for  architecture,  and  to  reward  the  people  of  Antioch  for 
their  good-will  towards  the  Jews,  had  paved  it  for  two  miles  and  a  half  with 
blocks  of  white  marble.1  Broad  bridges  spanned  the  river  and  ite  various 
affluents;  baths,  aqueducts,  basilicas,  villas,  theatres,  clustered  on  the  level 
plain,  and,  overshadowed  by  picturesque  and  rugged  eminences,  gave  the 
city  a  splendour  worthy  of  its  fame  as  only  inferior  in  grandeur  to  Alex- 
andria and  Rome.  Mingled  with  this  splendour  were  innumerable  signs 
of  luxury  and  comfort.  Under  the  spreading  plane-trees  that  shaded  tho 
banks  of  the  river,  and  among  gardens  brightened  with  masses  of  flowers, 
sparkled  amid  groves  of  laurel  and  myrtle  the  gay  villas  of  the  wealthier 
inhabitants,  bright  with  Greek  frescoes,  and  adorned  with  every  refinement 
which  Roman  wealth  had  borrowed  from  Ionian  luxury.  Art  had  lent  its  aid 
to  enhance  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  one  colossal  crag  of  Mount  Silpius, 
which  overlooked  the  city,  had  been  carved  into  human  semblance  by  the  skill 
of  Le'ios.  In  the  days  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  a  pestilence  had  ravaged  the 
kingdom,  and  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods,  the  king  had  ordered  the 
sculptor  to  hew  tho  mountain-mass  into  one  vast  statue.  The  huge  grim  face, 
under  the  rocky  semblance  of  a  crown,  stared  over  the  Forum  of  the  city,  and 
was  known  to  tho  Antiochenes  as  tho  Charonium,  being  supposed  to  represent 
the  head  of 

"  That  grim  ferryman  which  poets  write  of," 

who  conveyed  the  souls  of  the  dead  in  his  dim-gleaming  boat  across  the  waters 
of  tho  Styx. 

It  was  natural  that  such  a  city  should  attract  a  vast  multitude  of  inhabi- 
tants, and  those  inhabitants  were  of  very  various  nationalities.  The  basis  of 
the  population  was  composed  of  native  Syrians,  represented  to  this  day  by  the 
Maronites ; 2  but  the  Syrian  kings  had  invited  many  colonists  to  people  their 
Presidenco,  and  the  most  important  of  these  were  Greeks  and  Jews.  To  these, 
after  the  conquest  of  Syria  by  Poinpey,  had  been  added  a  garrison  of  Romans.3 
The  court  of  tho  Legato  of  Syria,  surrounded  as  it  was  by  military  pomp, 
attracted  into  its  glittering  circle,  not  only  a  multitude  of  rapacious  and 
domineering  officials,  but  also  that  large  retinue  of  flatterers,  slaves,  artists, 
literary  companions,  and  general  hangers-on,  whoso  presence  was  deemed 

1  Jos,  Antt.  xvi.  5,  §  3.  2  Kenan,  Lea  Apdtres,  p.  228. 

'  Syria  was  made  a  Roman  province  B.C.  64,  M.  JEmil.  Scaurus  went  there  aa 
Quaestor  pro  fraetore  B.C.  62, 


164  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

essential  to  the  state  of  an  imperial  viceroy.  The  autonomy  of  the  city,  and 
its  consequent  freedom  from  the  property  tax,  made  it  a  pleasant  place  of 
abode  to  many  others.  The  soft,  yielding,  and  voluptuous  Syrians,  the 
cunning,  versatile,  and  degraded  Greeks,  added  their  special  contributions  to 
the  general  corruption  engendered  by  an  enervating  climate  and  a  frivolous 
society.  Side  by  side  with  these — governed,  as  at  Alexandria,  by  their  own 
Archon  and  their  own  mimic  Sanhedrin,  but  owing  allegiance  to  the  central 
government  at  Jerusalem — lived  an  immense  colony  of  Jews.  Libanius  could 
affirm  from  personal  experience  that  he  who  sat  in  the  agora  of  Antioch  might 
study  the  customs  of  the  world. 

Cities  liable  to  the  influx  of  heterogeneous  races  are  rarely  otherwise  than 
immoral  and  debased.  Even  Rome,  in  the  decadence  of  its  Caesarism,  could 
groan  to  think  of  the  dregs  of  degradation — the  quacks,  and  pandars,  and 
musicians,  and  dancing-girls — poured  into  the  Tiber  by  the  Syrian  Orontes. 
Her  satirists  spoke  of  this  infusion  of  Orientalism  as  adding  a  fresh  miasma 
even  to  the  corruption  which  the  ebbing  tide  of  glory  had  left  upon  the 
naked  sands  of  Grecian  life.1  It  seems  as  though  it  were  a  law  of  human 
intercourse,  that  when  races  are  commingled  in  large  masses,  the  worst 
qualities  of  each  appear  intensified  in  the  general  iniquity.  The  mud  and 
silt  of  the  combining  streams  pollute  any  clearness  or  sweetness  they  may 
previously  have  enjoyed.  If  the  Jews  had  been  less  exclusive,  less  haughtily 
indifferent  to  the  moral  good  of  any  but  themselves,  they  might  have 
checked  the  tide  of  immorality.  But  their  disdainful  isolation  either  pre- 
vented them  from  making  any  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  their 
fellow-citizens,  or  rendered  their  efforts  nugatory.  Their  synagogues — one, 
at  least,  of  which  was  a  building  of  some  pretensions,  adorned  with  brazen 
spoils  which  had  once  belonged  to  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,2  and  had  been 
resigned  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  in  a  fit  of  remorse,  to  the  Jews  of 
Antioch — rose  in  considerable  numbers  among  the  radiant  temples  of  the 
gods  of  Hellas.  But  the  spirit  of  those  who  worshipped  in  them  rendered 
them  an  ineffectual  witness;  and  the  Jews,  absorbed  in  the  conviction  that 
they  were  the  sole  favourites  of  Jehovah,  passed  with  a  scowl  of  contempt, 
or  "  spat,  devoutly  brutal,  in  the  face  "  of  the  many  statues  which  no  ckssic 
beauty  could  redeem  from  the  disgrace  of  being  "  dumb  idols."  There  were 
doubtless,  indeed,  other  proselytes  besides  Nicolas  and  Luke ;  but  those 
proselytes,  whether  few  or  many  in  number,  had,  up  to  this  period,  exercised 
no  appreciable  influence  on  the  gay  and  guilty  city.  And  if  the  best  Jews 
despised  all  attempts  at  active  propagandism,  there  were  sure  to  be  many 
lewd  and  wicked  Jews  who  furthered  their  own  interests  by  a  propaganda  of 
iniquity.  If  the  Jewish  nationality  has  produced  some  of  the  best  and  greatest, 

>  "  Jam  prldem  Syrus  In  Tiberiin  defluxit  Orontes 
Et  linguam,  et  mores,  et  cum  tibicine  chordas 
Obliquas,  necnon  gentilia  tympana  secum 
Vexit,  et  ad  circum  jussas  prostare  puellas." 

Juv.  Sat.  ill.  «-«. 
*  Jot.  B.  J.  vii.  3,  §  8, 


THE   SECOND   CAPITAL  OF   CHRISTIANITY.  165 

it  has  also  produced  some  of  the  basest  and  vilest  of  mankind.  The  Jews  at 
Antioch  were  of  just  the  same  mixed  character  as  the  Jews  at  Alexandria,  or 
Borne,  or  Paris,  or  London ;  and  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  there  must  have 
been  many  among  them  who,  instead  of  witnessing  for  Jehovah,  would  only 
add  a  tinge  of  original  wickedness  to  the  seething  mass  of  atheism,  idolatry, 
and  polluted  life. 

And  thus  for  the  great  mass  of  the  population  in  Antioch  there  was  nothing 
that  could  be  truly  called  a  religion  to  serve  as  a  barrier  against  the  ever-rising 
flood  of  Roman  sensuality  and  Graeco-Syrian  suppleness.  What  religion  there 
was  took  the  form  of  the  crudest  nature-worship,  or  the  most  imbecile  super- 
stition. A  few  years  before  the  foundation  of  a  Christian  Church  at  Antioch, 
iu  the  year  37,  there  had  occurred  one  of  those  terrible  earthquakes  to  which, 
in  all  ages,  the  city  had  been  liable.1  It  might  have  seemed  at  first  sight 
incredible  that  an  intellectual  and  literary  city  like  Antioch— a  city  of  wits  and 
philosophers,  of  casuists  and  rhetoricians,  of  poets  and  satirists — should  at  once 
have  become  the  dupes  of  a  wretched  quack  named  Debborius,  who  professed 
to  avert  such  terrors  by  talismans  as  ludicrous  as  the  famous  earthquake-pills 
which  so  often  point  an  allusion  in  modern  literature.  Yet  there  is  in  reality 
nothing  strange  in  such  apparent  contrasts.  History  more  than  once  has 
shown  that  the  border-lands  of  Atheism  reach  to  the  confines  of  strange 
credulity.3 

Into  this  city  of  Pagan  pleasure — into  the  midst  of  a  population  pauperised 
by  public  doles,  and  polluted  by  the  indulgences  which  they  procured — among 
the  intrigues  and  ignominies  of  some  of  the  lowest  of  the  human  race  at  one 

1  Our  authorities  for  the  description  and  condition  of  Antioch  are  unusually  rich. 
The  chief  are  Josephus,  B.  J.  vii.  3,  §  3 ;  Antt.  xii.  3,  §  1 ;  xvi.  5,  §  3 ;  c.  Ap.  ii.  4 ; 
1  Mace.  iii.  37 ;  xi.  13 ;  2  Mace.  iv.  7—9,  33 ;  v.  21 ;  xi.  36 ;  Philostr.  Vit.  Apollon.  iii.  58 ; 
Libaniiis,  Antioch.  pp.  355,  356 ;  Chrysost.  Hvm.il.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  vii.,  in  Matth.,  et 
passim  ;  Julian,  Misopogon  ;  Pliny,  H.  N.  v.  18 ;  and,  above  all,  the  Chronographia,  of 
John  of  Antiocn,  better  known  by  his  Syriac  surname  of  Malala,  or  the  Orator.     C.  O. 
Muller,  in  his  Antiquitates  Antiockenae  (Gott.  1830),  has  diligently  examined  all  these 
and  other  authorities.    Some  accounts  of  modern  Antioch,  by  travellers  who  have  visited 
it,  may  be  found  in  Pocock's  Descript.  of  the  East,  ii.  192;  Chesney,  Euphrates  Expedition, 
i.  425,  seqq. ;  Bitter,  Palast.  u.  Syria,  iv.  2.    Its  hopeless  decline  dates  from  1268,  when 
it  was  reconquered  by  the  Mohammedans. 

2  The  state  of  the  city  has  been  described  by  a  master-hand.    "It  was,"  says  M.  Kenan 
• — rendered  still  more  graphic  in  his  description  by  familiarity  with  modern  Paris — "an 
unheard-of  collection  of  jugglers,  charlatans,  pantomimists,  magicians,  thaumaturgists, 
sorcerers,  and  priestly  impostors ;  a  city  of  races,  of  games,  of  dances,  of  processions,  of 
festivals,  of  bacchanalia,  of  unchecked  luxury ;  all  the  extravagances  of  the  East,  the 
most  unhealthy  superstitions,  the  fanaticism  of  orgies.     In  turns  servile  and  ungrateful, 
worthless  and  insolent,  the  Antiochenes  were  the  finished  model  of  those  crowds  devoted 
to  Csesarism,  without  country,  •without  nationality,  without  family  honour,  without  a 
name  to  preserve.    The  great  Corso  which  traversed  the  city  was  like  a  theatre,  in  which 
all  day  long  rolled  the  waves  of  a  population  empty,  frivolous,  fickle,  turbulent,  some- 
times witty,  absorbed  in  songs,  parodies,  pleasantries,  and  impertinences  of  every  descrip- 
tion.    It  was, "  he  continues,  after  describing  certain  dances  and  swimming-races,  which, 
if  we  would  understand  the  depravity  of  Gentile  morals,  we  are  forced  to  mention,  "like 
an  intoxication,  a  dream  of  Sardanapalus,  in  which  all  pleasures,  all  debaucheries,  unfolded 
themselves  in  strange  confusion,  without  excluding  certain  delicacies  and  refinements  " 
(Les  Apdtres,  p.  221).    The  Orontes  never  flowed  with  fouler  mud  than  when  there  began 
to  spring  up  upon  its  banks  the  sweet  fountain  of  the  river  of  the  water  of  life. 


166  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEI  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

of  the  lowest  periods  of  human  history l— passed  the  eager  spirit  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus.  On  his  way,  five  miles  from  the  city,  he  must  have  seen  upon  the 
river-bank  at  least  the  fringe  of  laurels,  cypresses,  and  myrtles  that  marked 

" that  sweet  grove 

Of  Daphne  by  Orontes,"1 

and  caught  sight,  perhaps,  of  its  colossal  statue  of  Apollo,8  reared  by  Seleucus 
Nicator.  But  it  was  sweet  no  longer,  except  in  its  natural  and  ineffaceable 
beauty,  and  it  is  certain  that  a  faithful  Jew  would  not  willingly  hare  entered 
its  polluted  precincts.  Those  precincts,  being  endowed  with  the  right  of 
asylum,  were,  like  all  the  asylums  of  ancient  and  modern  days,  far  more  a 
protection  to  outrageous  villany  than  to  persecuted  innocence;*  and  those 
umbrageous  groves  were  the  dark  haunts  of  every  foulness.  For  their  scenic 
loveliness,  their  rich  foliage,  their  fragrant  herbage,  their  perennial  fountains, 
the  fiery -hearted  convert  had  little  taste.  He  could  only  have  recalled  with  a 
sense  of  disgust  how  that  grove  had  given  its  title  to  a  proverb  which  expressed 
the  superfluity  of  naughtiness,6  and  how  its  evil  haunts  had  flung  away  the  one 
rare  chance  of  sheltering  virtue  from  persecution,  when  the  good  Onias  was 
tempted  from  it  to  be  murdered  by  the  governor  of  its  protecting  city.6 

Such  was  the  place  where,  in  the  street  Singon,  Saul  began  to  preach.  He 
may  have  entered  it  by  the  gate  which  was  afterwards  called  the  Gate  of  the 
Cherubim,  because  twenty-seven  years  later7  it  was  surmounted  by  those 
colossal  gilded  ornaments  which  Titus  had  taken  from  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem.  It  was  a  populous  quarter,  in  close  proximity  to  the  Senate 
House,  the  Forum,  and  the  Amphitheatre ;  and  every  time  that  during  his 
sermon  he  raised  his  eyes  to  the  lower  crags  of  Mount  Silpius,  he  would  be 
confronted  by  the  stern  visage  and  rocky  crown  of  the  choleric  ferryman  of 
Hades.  But  the  soil  was  prepared  for  his  teaching.  It  is  darkest  just  before 
the  dawn.  When  mankind  has  sunk  into  hopeless  scepticism,  the  help  of  God 
is  often  very  nigh  at  hand.  "  Bitter  with  weariness,  and  sick  with  sin,"  there 
were  many  at  any  rate,  even  among  the  giddy  and  voluptuous  Antiochenes, 
who,  in  despair  of  all  sweetness  and  nobleness,  were  ready  to  hail  with 
rapture  the  preaching  of  a  new  faith  which  promised  forgiveness  for  the  past, 
and  brought  ennoblement  to  the  present.  The  work  grew  and  prospered,  and 
for  a  whole  year  the  Apostles  laboured  in  brotherly  union  and  amid  constant 
encouragement.  The  success  of  their  labours  was  most  decisively  marked  by 

1  Ausonius  saya  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria, 

"Turbida  vulgo 

Utraque  et  amentia  populi  malesana  tumultu  "  (Ordo  Nob.  Urb.  ill.). 
3  See  the  celebrated  passage  in  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fatt,  ch.  xxiii. 

3  Now  Beit-al-Ma?a — a  secluded  glen.     A  few  dilapidated  mills  mark  a  spot  where  thu 
shrine  of  Apollo  once  gleamed  with  gold  and  gems.     When  Julian  the  Apostate  paid  it  a 
solemn  visit,  he  found  there  a  solitary  goose  !    The  Bab  Boles,  cr  "  Gate  of  Paul,"  is  on 
the  Aleppo  road.   The  town  still  bears  a  bad  name  for  licentiousness,  and  only  contains  a 
few  hundred  Christians.     (See  Carne's  Syria,  i.  5,  &c.) 

4  2  Maco.  iv.  83.  *  "Daphnici  more*."  »  Joa.  Antt.  xii.  5,  §  V 
*  A.D.  70, 


THB  SECOND  CAPITAL  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  167 

the  coinage  of  a,  new  word,  destined  to  a  glorious  immortality ;— the  disciplea 
were  first  called  CHRISTIANS  at  Antioch. 

It  is  always  interesting  to  notice  the  rise  of  a  new  and  memorable  word, 
but  not  a  few  of  those  which  have  met  with  universal  acceptance  have  started 
into  accidental  life.  It  is  not  so  with  the  word  "  Christian."  It  indicates  a 
deeisive  epoch,  and  was  the  coinage  rather  of  a  society  than  of  any  single 
man.  More,  perhaps,  than  any  word  which  was  ever  invented,  it  marks,  if  I 
may  use  the  expression,  the  watershed  of  all  human  history.  It  signalises  the 
emergence  of  a  true  faith  among  the  Gentiles,  and  the  separation  of  that  faith 
from  the  tenets  of  the  Jews.  All  former  ages,  nations,  and  religious 
contribute  to  it.  The  conception  which  lies  at  the  base  of  it  is  Semitic,  and 
sums  up  centuries  of  expectation  and  of  prophecy  in  the  historic  person  of 
One  who  was  anointed  to  be  for  all  mankind  a  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King. 
But  this  Hebrew  conception  is  translated  by  a  Greek  word,  showing  that  the 
great  religious  thoughts  of  which  hitherto  the  Jewish  race  had  been  the 
appointed  guardians,  were  henceforth  to  be  the  common  glory  of  mankind, 
and  were,  therefore,  to  be  expressed  in  a  language  which  enshrined  the  world's 
most  peiiect  literature,  and  which  had  been  imposed  on  all  civilised  countries 
by  the  nation  which  had  played  by  far  the  most  splendid  part  in  the  secular 
annals  of  the  past.  And  this  Greek  rendering  of  a  Hebrew  idea  was  stamped 
with  a  Roman  form  by  receiving  a  Latin  termination,1  as  though  to  fore- 
shadow that  the  new  name  should  be  co-extensive  with  the  vast  dominion 
which  swayed  the  present  destinies  of  the  world.  And  if  the  word  was  thus 
pregnant  with  all  the  deepest  and  mightiest  associations  of  the  past  and  of  the 
present,  how  divine  was  to  be  its  future  history !  Henceforth  it  was  needed 
to  describe  the  peculiarity,  to  indicate  the  essence,  of  all  that  was  morally  the 
greatest  and  ideally  the  most  lovely  in  the  condition  of  mankind.  From  the 
day  when  the  roar  of  the  wild  beast  in  the  Amphitheatre  was  interrupted  by 
the  proud  utterance,  Christianua  sum — from  the  days  when  the  martyrs,  like 
"  a  host  of  Scsevolas,"  upheld  their  courage  by  this  name  as  they  bathed  their 
hands  without  a  shudder  in  the  bickering  fire — the  idea  of  all  patience,  of  all 
heroic  constancy,  of  all  missionary  enterprise,  of  all  philanthropic  effort,  of  all 
cheerful  self -sacrifice  for  the  common  benefit  of  mankind  is  in  that  name. 
How  little  thought  the  canaille  at  Antioch,  who  first  hit  on  what  was  to  them 
a  convenient  nickname,  that  thenceforward  their  whole  city  should  be  chiefly 
famous  for  its  "  Christian  "  associations ;  that  the  fame  of  Seleucus  Nicator 
and  Antiochus  Epiphanes  should  be  lost  in  that  of  Ignatius  and  Chrysostom ; 
and  that  long  after  the  power  of  the  imperial  legates  had  been  as  utterly 

1  The  Greek  adjective  from  Xpion-b?  would  have  been  Xpi<mios.  It  is  true  that 
IVOT  and  ivbs  are  Greek  terminations,  but  anus  is  mainly  Roman,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  is  due — not  to  the  Doric  dialect !— but  to  tho  prevalence  of  Roman  termi- 
nology at  Antioch,  even  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  spread  of  the  Empire  had  by  this  time 
made  anus  a  familiar  termination  throughout  the  East  (cf.  Mariani,  Pompeiani,  &c.). 
"  Christianity  "  (xpumar lo^bs)  first  occurs  in  Ignatius  (ad  Philad.  6),  as  was  natural  in  a 
Bishop  of  Antioch;  and  probably  "  Catholic  "  (Ignat.  ad  Smyrn.  8)  was  invented  in  ths 
Same  city  (id.  78).  See  Bingham,  Antt.  II.  i.  §  4. 


168  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

crumbled  into  the  dust  of  oblivion  as  the  glittering  palace  of  the  Seleucidae  in 
which  they  dwelt,  the  world  would  linger  with  unwearied  interest  on  every 
(detail  of  the  life  of  the  obscure  Cypriot,  and  the  afflicted  Tarsian,  whose 
preaching  only  evoked  their  wit  and  laughter !  How  much  less  could  they 
have  conceived  it  possible  that  thenceforward  all  the  greatest  art,  all  the 
greatest  literature,  all  the  greatest  government,  all  the  greatest  philosophy, 
all  the  greatest  eloquence,  all  the  greatest  science,  all  the  greatest  colonisation 
—and  more  even  than  this — all  of  what  is  best,  truest,  purest,  and  loveliest  in 
Ithe  possible  achievements  of  man,  should  be  capable  of  no  designation  so 
distinctive  as  that  furnished  by  the  connotation  of  what  was  intended  for  an 
impertinent  sobriquet !  The  secret  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Greek,  and  the 
fervour  of  the  Latin,  fathers,  and  the  eloquence  of  both,  is  in  that  word ;  and 
the  isolation  of  the  hermits,  and  the  devotion  of  the  monks,  and  the  self- 
denial  of  the  missionaries,  and  the  learning  of  the  schoolmen,  and  the 
grand  designs  of  the  Catholic  statesmen,  and  the  chivalry  of  the  knights, 
and  the  courage  of  the  reformers,  and  the  love  of  the  philanthropists,  and 
the  sweetness  and  purity  of  northern  homes,  and  everything  of  divine  and 
noble  which  marks — from  the  squalor  of  its  catacombs  to  the  splendour 
of  its  cathedrals — the  story  of  the  Christian  Church.  And  why  does  all 
this  lie  involved  in  this  one  word  P  Because  it  is  the  standing  witness  that 
the  world's  Faith  is  centred  not  in  f  ormulse,  but  in  historic  realities — not  in 
a  dead  system,  but  in  the  living  Person  of  its  Lord.  An  ironic  inscription 
on  the  Cross  of  Christ  had  been  written  in  letters  of  Greek,  of  Latin,  and 
of  Hebrew;  and  that  Cross,  implement  as  it  was  of  shame  and  torture, 
became  the  symbol  of  the  national  ruin  of  the  Jew,  of  the  willing  allegiance 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  of  the  dearest  hopes  and  intensest  gratitude 
of  the  world  of  civilisation.  An  hybrid  and  insulting  designation  was 
invented  in  the  frivolous  streets  of  Antioch,  and  around  it  clustered  for  ever 
the  deepest  faith  and  the  purest  glory  of  mankind. 

I  have  assumed  that  the  name  was  given  by  Gentiles,  and  given  more  or 
less  in  sport.  It  could  not  have  been  given  by  the  Jews,  who  preferred  the 
scornful  name  of  "  Galilaean,"  l  and  who  would  not  in  any  case  have  dragged 
through  the  mire  of  apostasy — for  so  it  would  have^seemed  to  them — the  word 
in  which  centred  their  most  cherished  hopes.  Nor  was  it  iu  all  probability  a 
term  invented  by  the  Christians  themselves.  In  the  New  Testament,  as  is 
well  known,  it  occurs  but  thrice ;  once  in  the  historical  notice  of  its  origin, 
and  only  in  two  other  places  as  a  name  used  by  enemies.  It  was  employed 
by  Agrippa  the  Second  in  his  half -sneering,  half -complimentary  interpellation 
to  St.  Paul;2  and  it  is  used  by  St.  Peter  as  the  name  of  a  charge  under  which 
the  brethren  were  likely  to  be  persecuted  and  impeached.3  But  during  the 

1  Or,  Nazarine.     Acts  xxiv.  5  (cf.  John  i.  46 ;  Luke  xiii.  2).     Cyril,  Catcch.  x. 

*  Acts  xxvi.  28.  This  (which  was  twenty  years  later)  is  the  first  subsequent  allusion 
to  the  name.  Epiphanius  (Nacr.  29,  n.  4)  says  that  an  earlier  name  for  Christian  was 
I«(r<Tat<H. 

8  1  Pet.  iv.  16. 


THE  8ECOND  CAPITAL  OF  CHBISTIANKre.  169 

life-time  of  the  Apostles  it  does  not  seem  to  hare  acquired  any  currency 
among  the  Christians  themselves,1  and  they  preferred  those  vague  and  loving 
appellations  of  "the  brethren,"2  "the  disciples,"3  "the  believers,"*  "the 
saints,"6  "the  Church  of  Christ,"6  "those  of  the  way,"7  "the  elect,"8 
"  tho  faithf ul,"  9  which  had  been  sweetened  to  them  by  so  much  tender  and 
hallowed  intercourse  during  so  many  heavy  trials  and  persecutions.  After- 
wards, indeed,  when  the  name  Christian  had  acquired  a  charm  so  potent  that 
the  very  sound  of  it  was  formidable,  Julian  tried  to  forbid  its  use  by  edict,10 
and  to  substitute  for  it  the  more  ignominious  term  of  "  Nazarene,"  which  is 
still  universal  in  the  East.  A  tradition  naturally  sprang  up  that  the  name 
had  been  invented  by  Evodius,  the  first  Bishop  of  Autioch,  and  even  adopted 
at  a  general  synod.11  But  what  makes  it  nearly  certain  that  this  is  an  error, 
is  that  up  to  this  time  "  Christ  "  was  not  used,  or  at  any  rate  was  barely 
beginning  to  be  used,  as  a  proper  name ;  and  tho  currency  of  a  designation 
which  marked  adherence  to  Jesus  as  though  Christ  were  His  name  and  not 
His  title,  seems  to  be  due  only  to  the  ignorance  and  carelessness  of  Gentiles, 
who  without  further  inquiry  caught  up  the  first  prominent  word  with  which 
Christian  preaching  had  made  them  familiar.12  And  even  this  word,  in  tho 
prevalent  itacism,  was  often  corrupted  into  the  shape  Chrestiani,  as  though 
it  came  from  the  Greek  Chrestos,  "excellent,"  and  not  from  Christos, 
"  anointed." 13  The  latter  term — arising  from  customs  and  conceptions 
which  up  to  this  time  were  almost  exclusively  Judaic — would  convey  little 
or  no  meaning  to  Greek  or  Boman  ears.  We  may  therefore  regard  it  as 
i  certain  that  the  most  famous  of  all  noble  words  was  invented  by  the  wit 
'for  which  the  Antiochenes  were  famous  in  antiquity,  and  which  often  dis- 
played itself  in  happy  appellations.14  But  wliatever  may  have  been  the 
spirit  in  which  the  name  was  given,  the  disciples  would  not  be  long  in 
welcoming  so  convenient  a  term.  Bestowed  as  a  stigma,  they  accepted  it 
as  a  distinction.  They  who  afterwards  gloried  in  the  contemptuous  re- 

1  The  allusion  to  it  in  Jas.  ii.  7  is,  to  say  the  least,  dubious. 

2  Acts  xv.  1 ;  1  Cor.  vii.  12.  »  Acts  ix.  26 ;  xL  29. 
4  Acts  v.  14.                   s  Rom.  viii.  27 ;  xv.  25.  «  Eph.  v.  25. 

1  Acts  xix.  9,  23.     Compare  the  name  Methodist,  8  2  Tim.  ii.  10,  &c. 

9  Eph.  i.  1,  &c.    Later  names  ]ike  pisciculi,  &c.,  had  some  vogue  also. 

10  Greg.  Naz.   Oral.  iii.  81;  Julian,  Epp.  vii.,  be.;    Gibbon,  v.  312,  ed.  Milman; 
Kenan,  Lcs  Apdtres,  235. 

11  Suid.  ii.   3930  o,  ed.   Gaisford ;   Malala,   Ckronpgr.  10,   p.  318,    ed.  Mill.      Dr. 
riumptre  (Paul  in  Asia,  74)  conjectures  that  Evodius  and  Ignatius  may  have  been 
contemporary  presbyter-episcopi  of  the  Judaic  and  Hellenist  communities  at  Antioch. 
Babylas  the  martyr  and  Paul  of  Samosata,  the  heresiarchs,  were  both  Bishops  of 
Antioch,  as  was  Meletius,  who  baptised  St.  Chrysostom. 

12  "  Christus  non  proprium  nomen  est,  sed  nuncupatio  potestatis  et  regni  "  (Lact.  Div. 
I'nstt.  iv.  7 ;  see  Life  of  Christ,  i.  287,  n.).    The  name  "Christian"  expressed  contemp- 
tuous indifference,  not  definite  hatred.      Tacitus  uses  it  with  dislike — "quos  vvlgus 
Christianos  appellabat "  (Ann.  xv.  44). 

u  In  1  Pet.  ii.  3,  some  have  seen  a  sort  of  allusion  to  "the  Lord"  being  both  XP«TTO« 
and  xpt]<TT&,  just  as  there  seems  to  be  a  play  on  larot  and  'hja-oOs  in  Acts  ix.  34 ;  x.  88. 

14  See  Julian,  Afis&pogon  (an  answer  to  their  insults  about  his  beard) ;  Zotim,  iii.  11 ; 
Procop.  B.  P.  ii.  8,  yeWott  n  K»\  aro{i>  MAW  «XOVT«I.  Fhilostr.  Vit,  Apotton.  iii.  16 ; 
Conyb.  and  Hows.  1.  190. 


170  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL, 

proaehes  which  branded  them  as  sarmenticii  and  semaxii,1  from  the  fagots 
to  which  they  were  tied  and  the  stakes  to  which  they  were  bound,  would 
not  be  likely  to  blush  at  a  name  which  was  indeed  their  robe  of  victory, 
their  triumphal  chariot.8  They  gloried  in  it  all  the  more  because  even  the 
ignorant  mispronunciations  of  it  which  I  have  just  mentioned  were  a  happy 
women  et  omen.  If  the  Greeks  and  Romans  spoke  correctly  of  Christus, 
they  gave  unwilling  testimony  to  the  Universal  King ;  if  they  ignorantly 
said  Chrest^ts,  they  bore  witness  to  the  Sinless  One.  If  they  said  Chris- 
Hani,  they  showed  that  the  new  Faith  centred  not  in  a  dogma,  but  in  a 
Person ;  if  they  said  Chrestiani,  they  used  a  word  which  spoke  of  sweetness 
and  kindliness.8  And  beyond  all  this,  to  the  Christians  themselves  the  name 
was  all  the  dearer  because  it  constantly  reminded  them  that  they  too  were 
God's  anointed  ones — a  holy  generation,  a  royal  priesthood;  that  they  had  an 
unction  from  the  Holy  One  which  brought  all  truth  to  their  remembrance.4 

The  name  marks  a  most  important  advance  in  the  progress  of  the  Faith. 
Hitherto,  the  Christians  had  been  solely  looked  upon  as  the  obscure  sectarians 
of  Judaism.  The  Greeks  in  their  frivolity,  the  Romans  in  their  superficial 
disdain  for  all  "  execrable "  and  "  foreign  superstitions,"  never  troubled 
themselves  to  learn  the  difference  which  divided  the  Jew  from  the  Christian, 
but  idly  attributed  the  internal  disturbances  which  seemed  to  be  agitating 
the  peace  of  these  detested  fanaticisms  to  the  instigations  of  some  un- 
known person  named  Chre'stus.6  But  meanwhile,  here  at  Antioch,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  third  city  in  the  Empire  had  seen  that  there  was 
between  the  two  systems  an  irreconcilable  divergence,  and  had  brought  that 
fact  prominently  home  to  the  minds  of  the  Christians  themselves  by  im- 
posing on  them  a  designation  which  seized  upon,  and  stereotyped  for  ever, 
the  very  central  belief  which  separated  them  from  the  religion  in  which  they 
had  been  born  and  bred. 

i  Tert.  Apol.  50. 

3  1  Pet.  iv.  16,  el  8c  <os  XpuTTiaj-d?,  JXTJ  td<Txwi<r9<a,  So£a£«T<o  Se  roc  6tov  eirl  TW  oydfian  (A,  B, 
&c.,  not  /xe'pci  as  in  E.  V.)  TOVTU.  The  mere  name  became  a  crime.  Atuxovo-t  roiW  ^.5? 

OVK  aSixovs  etitu  KaraAa/Sdiref  aAX"  avT<jj  fxovw  r<f  Xpioriayou?  etvai  TOV  fiiov  a&uctiv  viroXafi./3avoiTc?t 

K.  T.  X.  (Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  iv.  11,  §  81). 

8  "  Bed  quum  et  perperam  Chrestiani  nuncupamur  a  vobis  (nam  nee  nominis  certa 
eat  notitia  penes  vos)  de  suavitate  et  beniynitate  compositum  est "  (Tert.  Apol.  3).  oi  «!$ 
XpierTw  ir«ri<rr«vit(5T«  xp>)<rro'  T«  •*°"*  *°^  Myoirai  (Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  ii.  4,  §  18).  See  Just, 
Mart.  Apol.  2. 

*  This  was   &  beautiful  after-thought,     ravrav  tvtMV   KoAovjxcda  Xpicrncum   ore   vpidfieda 

iXoiov  e«ov.  (Theoph.  ad  Autol.  1.  12;  Tert.  Apol.  3.)  Compare  the  German  Christen 
{Jer.  Taylor,  Disc,  of  Corfirm.,  §  3).  There  are  similar  allusions  in  Ambr.  De  Obit. 
Valent.,  and  Jerome  on  Ps.  cv.  15  ("  Nolite  tangere  Chrisfws  meos  '0.  See  Pfearson,  On 
the  Creed,  Art.  ii. 

5  Even  in  Epioiwtus  (Dissert,  iv.  7,  6)  and  Marcus  Aureliua  (xi.  3),  Keuan  (Les  Apotren, 
232)  thinks  that  "Christians"  means  sicwrii.  This  seems  to  me  very  doubtful. 
Sulpicius  Severus  (ii.  30)  preserves  a  phrase  in  which  Tacitus  says  of  Christianity  and 
Judaism,  "Has  superstitiones,  licet  contrarias  sibi,  '  iisdem  tamen  auctoribus  profectas.' 
Chriatianos  a  Judaeis  exstitisse"  (Bernays,  Ueber  die  Ckronik  Snip.  Sev.,  p.  57).  See 
Spartianus,  Sept.  Sever.  16 ;  Caracalla,  1 ;  Lampridius,  Alex.  Sev.  22— 45,  51.  Vopiaciu, 
Saturn.  8.  The  confusion  was  most  unfortunate,  and  peaceful  Christians  were  con- 
stantly persecuted  while  turbulent  Jews  were  protected.  {Tert.  Apol.  2,  3 ;  Ad  Nat.  [, 
3 ;  Justin,  Apol.  1.  4 — 7,  n.) 


A  MABTYBDOM  AND  A  BETBIBUTION.  171 

The  necessity  for  such  a  name  marks  clearly  the  success  which  attended 
the  mission  work  of  these  early  Evangelists.  They  could  not  have  tilled  a 
soil  which  was  more  likely  to  be  fruitful.  "With  what  a  burst  of  joy  must 
the  more  large-hearted  even  of  the  Jews  have  hailed  the  proclamation  of  a 
Gospel  which  made  them  no  longer  a  hated  colony  living  at  drawn  daggers 
with  the  heathen  life  that  surrounded  them !  How  ardently  must  the  Gentile 
whose  heart  had  once  been  touched,  whose  eyes  had  once  been  enlightened; 
have  exulted  in  the  divine  illumination,  the  illimitable  hope !  How  must  his 
heart  have  been  stirred  by  the  emotions  which  marked  the  outpouring  of 
the  Spirit  and  accompanied  the  grace  of  baptism !  How  with  the  new  life 
tingling  through  the  dry  bones  of  the  valley  of  vision  must  he  have  turned 
away — with  abhorrence  for  his  former  self,  and  a  divine  pity  for  his  former 
companions — from  the  poisoned  grapes  of  Heathendom,  to  pluck  the  fair 
fruits  which  grow  upon  the  Tree  of  Life  in  the  Paradise  of  God !  How,  in 
one  word,  must  his  heart  have  thrilled,  his  soul  have  dilated,  at  high  words 
like  these  : — "  Such  things  were  some  of  you  ;  but  ye  washed  yourselves,  but 
ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye  are  justified,  by  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by 
the  Spirit  of  our  God." l 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A  MABTTBDOM  AND  A  BETBIBTJTION. 

"  0  great  Apostle !  rightly  now 

Thou  readest  all  thy  Saviour  meant, 
What  time  His  grave  yet  gentle  brow 
In  sweet  reproof  on  th.ee  was  bent." — KEBLB. 

THUS  it  was  that  at  Antioch  the  Church  of  Christ  was  enlarged,  and  the 
views  of  its  members  indefinitely  widened.  For  a  whole  year — and  it  may 
well  have  been  the  happiest  year  in  the  life  of  Saul — he  worked  here  with  his 
beloved  companion.  The  calm  and  conciliatory  tact  of  Barnabas  tempered 
and  was  inspirited  by  the  fervour  of  Saul.  Each  contributed  his  own  high 
gifts  to  clear  away  the  myriad  obstacles  which  still  impeded  the  free  flow  of 
the  river  of  God's  grace.  In  the  glory  and  delight  of  a  ministry  so  richly 
successful,  it  is  far  from  impossible  that  Saul  may  have  enjoyed  that 
rapturous  revelation  which  he  describes  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
during  which  he  was  caught  up  into  Paradise  as  far  as  the  third  heaven,2  and 
heard  unspeakable  words  which  man  neither  could  nor  ought  to  utter.  It 
was  one  of  those  ecstasies  which  the  Jews  themselves  regarded  as  the 

1  1  Cor.  VI.  11.      Taura  riftt  J/re  oAX'  anskovyaurdt,  K.r.A. 

2  The  "third  heaven"  is  called  "Zevul"  by  Bashi  (cf.  Ckagiffah,  f.  12,  2).    In  such 
visions  the  soul  "  hath  no  eyea  to  see,  nor  ears  to  hear,  yet  sees  and  hears,  and  is  all  eye, 
all  ear."    St.  Teresa,  in  deseribing.her  visions  as  indescribable,  says,  "The  restless  little 
butterfly  of  the  memory  has  its  wings  burnt  now,  and  it  cannot  fly."   { Vi/da,  xvili.  18.) 


;172  HR   MFB   AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  FATrt* 

'highest  form  of  revelation — one  of  those  moments  of  inspiration  in  which  the 
soul,  like  Moses  on  Sinai,  sees  God  face  to  face  and  does  not  die.  St.  Paul,  it 
must  be  remembered,  had  a  work  to  perform  which  required  more  absolute 
self-sacrifice,  more  unwavering  faith,  more  undaunted  courage,  more  un- 
clouded insight,  more  glorious  superiority  to  immemorial  prejudices,  than  any 
man  who  ever  lived.  It  needed  moments  like  this  to  sustain  the  nameless 
agonies,  to  kindle  the  inspiring  flame  of  such  a  life.  The  light  upon  the 
countenance  of  Moses  might  die  away,  like  the  radiance  of  a  mountain  peak 
which  has  caught  the  colour  of  the  dawn,  but  the  glow  in  the  heart  of  Paul 
could  never  fade.  The  utterance  of  the  unspeakable  words  might  cease  to 
vibrate  in  the  soul,  but  no  after-influence  could  obliterate  the  impression  of 
the  eternal  message.  Amid  seas  and  storms,  amid  agonies  and  energies,  even 
when  all  earthly  hopes  had  ceased,  we  may  bo  sure  that  the  voice  of  God  still 
rang  in  his  heart,  the  vision  of  God  was  still  bright  before  his  spiritual  eye.  ; 

The  only  recorded  incident  of  this  year  of  service  is  the  visit  of  certain 
brethren  from  Jerusalem,  of  whom  one,  named  Agabus,  prophesied  the  near 
-occurrence  of  a  general  famine.  The  warning  note  which  he  sounded  was 
not  in  vain.  It  quickened  the  sympathies  of  the  Christians  at  Antioch,  and 
enabled  the  earliest  of  the  Gentile  Churches  to  give  expression  to  their 
reverence  for  those  venerable  sufferers  in  the  Mother  Church  of  Jerusalem 
who  "  had  seen  and  heard,  and  whose  hands  had  handled  the  Word  of  Life."1 
A  contribution  was  made  for  the  brethren  of  Judaea.  The  inhabitants  of  that 
country,  and  more  especially  of  the  Holy  City,  have  been  accustomed  in  all 
ages,  as  they  are  in  this,  to  rely  largely  on  the  chaluka?  or  alms,  which  are 
willingly  contributed  to  their  poverty  by  Jews  living  in  other  countries.  The 
vast  sums  collected  for  the  Temple  tribute  flowed  into  the  bursting  coffers  of 
the  Bent  Haitian — much  as  they  now  do,  though  in  dwindled  rills,  into  those 
of  a  few  of  the  leading  AsJikenaeim  and  Ansche  hod.  But  there  would  be 
little  chance  that  any  of  these  treasures  would  help  to  alleviate  the  hunger  of 
the  struggling  disciples.  Priests  who  starved  their  own  coadjutor*3  would 
hardly  be  inclined  to  subsidise  their  impoverished  opponents.  The  Gentiles, 
who  had  been  blessed  by  the  spiritual  wealth  of  Jewish  Christians,  cheerfully 
returned  the  benefit  by  subscribing  to  the  supply  of  their  temporal  i»\?eds.4 
The  sums  thus  gathered  were  entrusted  by  the  Church  to  Barnabas  and  SauJ.- 
The  exact  month  in  which  these  two  messengers  of  mercy  arrived  to  assist 
their  famine-stricken  brethren  cannot  be  ascertained,  but  there  can  be  but 
little  doubt  that  it  was  in  the  year  44.  On  their  arrival  they  found  the 
Church  in  strange  distress  from  a  new  persecution.  It  is  not  impossible  tb#t 
the  fury  of  the  onslaught  may  once  more  have  scattered  the  chief  Apostles., 
for  we  hear  nothing  of  any,  intercourse  between  them  and  the  two  great 

lJohni.1.  :V   :: 

^rankl  (Jcws  *»  tte  East,  ii.  31)  a  sum  of  818,000  piastres  finds  ite 

It  is  distributed 


A  HAETYSDOM   AND   A   RETEIBUTION.  173 

leaders  of  the  Church  of  Antioch.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  the  alms  were 
handed  over,  not  to  the  Apostles,  but  to  the  Elders.  It  is  true  that  Elders 
may  include  Apostles,  but  the  rapid  and  purely  monetary  character  of  the 
visit,  and  the  complete  silence  as  to  further  details,  seem  to  imply  that  this 
was  not  the  case. 

The  Church  of  Antioch  was  not  the  sole  contributor  to  the  distresses  of 
Jerusalem.  If  they  helped  their  Christian  brethren,  the  Jews  found  benefac- 
tors in  the  members  of  an  interesting  household,  the  royal  family  of  Adiabene, 
whose  history  is  much  mingled  at  this  time  with  that  of  Judaea,  and  sheds 
instructive  light  on  the  annals  of  early  Christianity. 

Adiabene,  once  a  province  of  Assyria,  now  forms  part  of  the  modern  Kurdis- 
tan. Monobazus,  the  king  of  this  district,  had  married  his  sister  Helena,  and 
by  that  marriage  had  two  .sons,  of  whom  the  younger,  Izates,  was  the  favourite  of 
his  parents.1  To  save  him  from  the  jealousy  of  his  other  brothers,  the  king  and 
queen  sent  him  to  the  court  of  Abennerig,  king  of  the  Charax-Spasini,  who  gave 
him  his  daughter  in  marriage.  While  he  was  living  in  this  sort  of  honourable 
exile,  a  Jewish  merchant,  named  Hananiah,  managed  to  find  admission  into 
the  harem  of  Abennerig,  and  to  convert  some  of  his  wives  to  the  Jewish  faith. 
In  this  way  he  was  introduced  to  Izates,  of  whom  he  also  made  a  proselyte. 
Izates  was  recalled  by  his  father  before  his  death,  and  endowed  with  the 
princedom  of  Charrae;  and  when  Monobazus  died,  Helena  summoned  the 
leading  men  of  Adiabene,  and  informed  them  that  Izates  had  been  appointed 
successor  to  the  crown.  These  satraps  accepted  the  decision,  but  advised 
Helena  to  make  her  elder  son,  Monobazus,  a  temporary  sovereign  until  the 
arrival  of  his  brother,  and  to  put  the  other  brothers  in  bonds  preparatory 
to  their  assassination  in  accordance  with  the  common  fashion  of  Oriental 
despotism.2  Izates,  however,  on  his  arrival,  was  cheerfully  acknowledged  by 
his  elder  brother,  and  set  all  his  other  brothers  free,  though  he  sent  them  as 
hostages  to  Rome  and  various  neighbouring  courts.  I  shall  subsequently 
relate  the  very  remarkable  circumstances  which  led  to  his  circumcision.3  At 
present  I  need  only  mention  that  his  reign  was  long  and  prosperous,  and  that 
he  was  able  to  render  such  important  services  to  Artabanus,  the  nineteenth 
Arsacid,  that  he  received  from  him  the  kingdom  of  Nisibig,  as  well  as  the 
right  to  wear  the  peak  of  his  tiara  upright,  and  to  sleep  in  a  golden  bed — 
privileges  usually  reserved  for  the  kings  of  Persia.  Even  before  these  events, 
Helena  had  been  so  much  struck  with  the  prosperity  and  piety  of  her  sou, 
that  she  too  had  embraced  Judaism,  and  at  this  very  period  was  living 
in  Jerusalem.  Being  extremely  wealthy,  and  a  profound  admirer  of  Jewish 
iustitutious,  she  took  energetic  measures  to  alleviato  the  severity  of  tho 
famine ;  and  by  importing  large  quantities  of  corn  from  Alexandria,  and 
of  dried  figs  from  Cyprus,  she  was  happily  able  to  save  many  lives.  Her 

1  Josephus  (Antt.  xx.  2,  §  1)  attributes  this  partiality  to  a  prophetic  dream. 
3  Hence  we  are  told  that  "  '  King '  Mumbaz  made  golden  handles  for  the  vessels  used 
In  the  Temple  on  the  Day  of  Atonement "  ( Yoma,  37  a). 
3  Infra,  p.  429. 


174  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

royal  bounty  was  largely  aided  by  the  liberality  of  Izates,1  whose  contributions 
continued  to  be  of  service  to  the  Jews  long  after  the  arrival  of  Saul  and 
Barnabas  with  the  alms  which  they  had  brought  from  Antioch  for  their 
suffering  brethren. 

It  is  clear  that  they  arrived  shortly  before  the  Passover,  or  towards  the 
end  of  March ;  for  St.  Luke  fixes  their  visit  about  the  time  of  Herod's  perse- 
cution, which  began  just  before,  and  would,  but  for  God's  Providence,  have 
been  consummated  just  after,  that  great  feast.  Indeed,  it  was  apriori  probable 
that  the  Apostles  would  time  their  visit  by  the  feast,  both  from  a  natural 
desire  to  be  present  at  these  great  annual  celebrations,  and  also  because  that 
was  the  very  time  at  which  the  vast  concourse  of  visitors  would  render  their 
aid  most  timely  and  indispensable. 

They  arrived,  therefore,  at  a  period  of  extreme  peril  to  the  little  Church  at 
Jerusalem,  which  had  now  enjoyed  some  five  years  of  unbroken  peace.2 

Herod  Agrippa  I.,  of  whom  we  have  already  had  some  glimpses,  was  one 
of  those  singular  characters  who  combine  external  devotion  with  moral  laxity. 
I  have  elsewhere  told  the  strange  story  of  the  part  which  on  one  memorable  day 
he  played  in  Roman  history,3  and  how  his  supple  address  and  determination 
saved  Rome  from  a  revolution,  and  placed  the  uncouth  Claudius  on  his 
nephew's  throne.  Claudius,  who  with  all  his  pedantic  and  uxorious  eccentricity 
was  not  devoid  either  of  kindness  or  rectitude,  was  not  slow  to  recognise  that 
he  owed  to  the  Jewish  prince  both  his  life  and  his  empire.  It  was  probably 
due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  influence  of  Agrippa  that  shortly  after  his  accession 
he  abolished  the  law  of  "Impiety"  on  which  Gaius  had  so  vehemently 
insisted,4  and  which  attached  the  severest  penalties  to  any  neglect  of  the 
imperial  cult.  But  the  further  extension  of  the  power  of  Agrippa  was 
fraught  with  disastrous  consequences  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  For  the  Jews 
were  restored  to  the  fullest  privileges  which  they  had  ever  enjoyed,  and 
Agrippa  set  sail  for  Palestine  in  the  flood-tide  of  imperial  favour  and  with 
'the  splendid  additions  of  Judaea  and  Samaria,  Abilene,  and  the  district 
of  Lebanon6  to  Herod  Philip's  tetrarchy  of  Trachonitis,  which  he  had 
received  at  the  accession  of  Gains.6 

It  is  natural  that  a  prince  of  Asmonaean  blood,7  who  thus  found  himself  in 

1  Oros.  vii.  6 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  2,  §  5.     Helena  is  also  said  to  have  given  to  the  Temple 
a  golden  candlestick,  and  a  golden  tablet  inscribed  with  the  "  trial  of  jealousy  "  { Yoma, 
37  a). 

2  Caligula's  order  to  place  his  statue  in  the  Temple  was  given  in  A.D.  39.    Herod 
Agrippa  died  in  A.D.  44. 

3  Se6kers  after  God,  p.  76.  *  Dion.  be.  3,  5, 

*  Jos.  Antt.  xix.  5,  §§  2,  3.  «  Id.  xviii.  5,  §  4. 

7  Agrippa  I.  was  the  grandson  of  Herod  the  Great  and  Mariamne.  Mariamne  was  the 
granddaughter  of  Hyrcanus  II.,  who  was  a  grandson  of  Hyrcanus  I.,  who  was  a  son  of 
Simon,  the  elder  brother  of  Judas  Maccabseus.  Some  of  the  Rabbis  were,  however, 
anxious  to  deny  any  drop  of  Asmonaean  blood  to  the  Herodian  family.  They  relate  that 
Herod  the  Great  had  been  a  slave  to  one  of  the  Asmonseans,  and  one  day  heard  a  Bath 
Kol  saying,  "  Every  slave  that  now  rebels  will  succeed."  Accordingly,  he  murdered  all 
the  family,  except  one  young  maiden,  whom  he  reserved  for  marriage.  But  she  mounted 
to  the  root,  cried  out  that  "  anyjme  who  asserted  himself  to  be  of  the  Asmonsean  Louso 


A  MAETYEDOH  AND  A  EETfilBUTION.  175 

possession  of  a  dominion  as  extensive  as  that  of  his  grandfather  Herod  tho 
Great,  should  try  to  win  the  favour  of  the  people  whom  he  was  sent 
to  govern.  Apart  from  the  subtle  policy  of  facing  both  ways  so  as  to  please 
the  Jews  while  he  dazzled  the  Romans,  and  to  enjoy  his  life  in  the  midst 
of  Gentile  luxuries  while  he  affected  the  reputation  of  a  devoted  Pharisee, 
Agrippa  seems  to  have  been  sincere  in  hie  desire  to  be — at  any  rate  at  Jeru- 
salem— an  observer  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  St.  Luke,  though  his  allusions  to  him 
are  so  brief  and  incidental,  shows  remarkable  fidelity  to  historic  facts  in 
presenting  him  to  us  in  both  these  aspects.  In  carrying  out  his  policy, 
Agrippa  paid  studious  court  to  the  Jews,  and  especially  to  the  Pharisees.  He 
omitted  nothing  which  could  win  their  confidence  or  flatter  their  pride,  and 
his  wife,  Cyprus,1  seems  also  to  have  been  as  much  attached  to  the  party  a* 
her  kinswoman,  Salome,  sister  of  Herod  the  Great.2 

It  is  clear  that  such  a  king — a  king  who  wished  to  foster  the  sense  of 
Jewish  nationality,3  to  satisfy  the  Sadducees,  to  be  supported  by  the  Pharisees, 
and  to  be  popular  with  the  multitude — could  not  have  lived  long  in  Jerusalem, 
which  was  his  usual  place  of  residence,4  without  hearing  many  complaints 
about  the  Christians.  At  this  time  they  had  become  equally  distasteful  to 
every  section  of  the  Jews,  being  regarded  not  only  as  fanatics,  but  as  apostates, 
some  of  whom  sat  loosely  to  the  covenant  which  God  had  made  with  their 
fathers.  To  extirpate  the  Christians  would,  as  Agrippa  was  well  aware,  be  the 
cheapest  possible  way  to  win  general  popularity.  It  was  accordingly  about  the 
very  time  of  the  visit  of  the  two  Apostles  to  the  Passover,  as  delegates  from 
Antioch,  that  "  he  laid  hands  on  certain  of  the  Church  to  injure  them  ;  and  he 
slew  James,  the  brother  of  John,  with  the  sword;  and  seeing  that  it  was 
pleasing  to  the  Jews,  proceeded  to  arrest  Peter  also."1  Thus  in  a  single 
touch  does  St.  Luke  strike  the  keynote  of  Agrippa's  policy,  which  was  an  un- 
scrupulous desire  for  such  popularity  as  could  be  earned  by  identifying  himself 
with  Jewish  prejudices.  In  the  High  Priests  of  the  day  he  would  find  willing 
coadjutors.  The  priest  for  the  time  being  was  probably  Elionaeus,  whom 
Josephns  calls  a  sou  of  Kanthera,  but  whom  the  Talmud  calls  a  son  of 
Caiaphas.8  If  so,  he  would  have  been  animated  with  an  hereditary  fury 

henceforth  would  be  a  slave,  for  that  she  alone  of  that  house  was  left ;"  and  flinging 
herself  down  was  killed.  Some  say  that  for  seven  years  Herod  preserved  her  hody  in 
honey,  to  make  people  believe  that  he  was  married  to  an  Asmonsean  princess.  Angry 
with  the  Rabbis,  who  insisted  on  Deut.  xvii.  15,  he  killed  them  all,  except  the  Babha  Ben 
Buta  (whom  he  blinded  by  binding  up  his  eyes  with  the  skin  of  a  hedgehog),  that  he 
might  hare  one  counsellor  left.  Staving  disguised  himself,  and  tried  in  vain  to  tempt 
Babha  Ben  Buta  to  say  something  evil  of  him,  he  revealed  himself,  and  asked  what  he 
ought  to  do  by  way  of  expiation.  The  blind  man  answered,  "Thou  hast  extinguished  tho 
light  of  the  world  (see  Matt.  v.  14) ;  rekindle  it  by  building  the  Temple  "  (Babha  £atkra, 
f.  3,  2,  seqq.). 

1  Cypros  was  the  name  of  the  wife  of  Antipater  and  mother  of  Herod  the  Great.  She 
was  descended  from  a  Nabathean  family  ;  her  name,  which  is  probably  connected  with 
-C3  (Kepher),  was  borne  by  several  Herodian  Princesses  (Dereabourg,  Palest.,  p.  210). 

•  See  Excursus  XXIV.,  "The  Herods  in  the  Acts." 
»  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  1,  §  1. 

•  Id.  xix.  7,  §  3.  *  Acts  xil.  1-8. 

•  Jos.  B,  J,  rix.  8,  §  1 ;  Para,  ill.  5  j  P,t?i  ffatfcaiph;  Dereabourg,  p.  215. 


176  THB  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.    PAT/I*. 

against  the  followers  of  Christ,  and  would  have  been  an  eager  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  Herod.  When  such  allies  were  in  unison,  and  Agrippa  in  the 
very  plenitude  of  his  power,  it  was  easy  to  strike  a  deadly  blow  at  the  Naza- 
renes.  It  was  no  bold  Hellenist  who  was  now  singled  out  as  a  victim,  no 
spirited  opponent  of  Jewish  exclusiveness.  James,  as  the  elder  brother  of  the 
beloved  disciple,  perhaps  as  a  kinsman  of  Christ  Himself,  as  one  of  the  earliest 
and  one  of  the  most  favoured  Apostles,  as  one  not  only  of  the  Twelve,  but  of 
the  Three,  as  the  son  of  a  father  apparently  of  higher  social  position  than  the 
rest  of  the  little  band,  seems  to  have  had  a  sort  of  precedence  at  Jerusalem  ; 
and  for  this  reason  alone — not,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  from  being  personally 
obnoxious — he  was  so  suddenly  seized  and  martyred  that  no  single  detail  or 
circumstance  of  his  martyrdom  has  been  preserved.  Two  words 1  are  all  the 
space  devoted  to  recount  the  death  of  the  first  Apostle  by  the  historian  who 
had  narrated  at  such  length  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen.  It  may  be  merely  due 
to  a  sense  of  inadequacy  in  this  brief  record  that  Christian  tradition  told  how 
the  constancy  and  the  harangues  of  James  converted  his  accuser,  and  caused 
him  to  become  a  voluntary  sharer  of  his  death.8  But  perhaps  we  are  meant  to 
see  a  spiritual  fitness  in  this  lonely  and  unrecorded  end  of  the  son  of  Thunder. 
He  had  stood  by  Jesus  at  the  bedside  of  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  and  on  the 
holy  mount,  and  in  the  agony  of  the  garden ;  had  once  wished  to  call  down  fire 
from  heaven  on  those  who  treated  his  Lord  with  incivility ;  had  helped  to  urge 
the  claim  that  he  might  sit  in  closest  proximity  to  His  throne  of  judgment. 
There  is  a  deep  lesson  in  the  circumstance  that  he  should,  meekly  and  silently, 
in  utter  self-renouncement,  with  no  visible  consolation,  with  no  elaborate 
eulogy,  amid  no  pomp  of  circumstance,  with  not  even  a  recorded  burial,  perish 
first  of  the  faithful  few  who  had  forsaken  all  to  follow  Christ,  and  so  be  the 
first  to  fulfil  the  warning  prophecy  that  he  should  drink  of  His  bitter  cup,  and 
be  baptised  with  His  fiery  baptism. 

It  was  before  the  Passover  that  James  had  been  doomed  to  feel  the  tyrant's 
sword.  The  universal  approbation  of  the  fact  by  the  Jews — an  approbation 
which  would  be  all  the  more  conspicuous  from  the  presence  of  the  vast  throngs 
who  came  to  Jerusalem  to  celebrate  the  Passover — stimulated  the  king,  to 
whom  no  incense  was  so  sweet  as  the  voice  of  popular  applause,  to  inflict  a 
blow  yet  more  terrible  by  seizing  the  most  prominent  of  all  the  Apostles. 
Pet'er  was  accordingly  arrested,  and  since  there  was  no  time  to  finish  his  trial 
before  the  Passover,  and  the  Jews  were  not  inclined  to  inflict  death  by  their 
own  act  during  the  Feast,  he  was  kept  in  prison  till  the  seven  sacred  days  had 
elapsed  that  ho  might  then  be  put  to  death  with  the  most  ostentations  pub- 
licity.8 Day  after  day  the  Apostle  remained  in  close  custody,  bound  by  either 
arm  to  two  soldiers,  and  guarded  by  two  others.  Aware  how  irreparable  would 
be  the  loss  of  one  so  brave,  so  true,  so  gifted  with  spiritual  fervour  and  wisdom, 

1  Acts  xil.  2,  di/«iX«   .    .    .    paxcupf. 

9  Clem.  Alex.  ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii  9.  The  Apostle,  it  to  said,  looked  at  him  for  ft 
little  time,  and  then  kissed  him,  with  the  words,  "Peace  be  with  you,"  just  before  they 
both  were  killed. 

»  Acts  xii.  4, 


A  MABTYBDOM  AND  A  BETEIBtJTIOtf.  177 

the  Christians  of  Jerusalem  poured  out  their  hearts  and  souls  in  prayer  for  his 
deliverance.  But  it  seemed  as  if  all  would  be  in  vain.  The  last  night  of  the 
Feast  had  come ;  the  dawn  of  the  morning  would  see  Peter  brought  forth  to 
the  mockery  of  trial,  and  the  certainty  of  death.  It  seemed  as  if  the  day  had 
already  come  when,  as  his  Lord  had  told  him,  another  should  gird  him,  and 
carry  him  whither  he  would  not.  But  in  that  hist  extremity  God  had  not  for- 
saken His  Apostle  or  His  Church.  On  that  last  night,  by  a  divine  deliverance, 
so  sudden,  mysterious,  and  bewildering,  that  to  Peter,  until  he  woke  to  the 
sober  certainty  of  his  rescue,  it  seemed  like  a  vision,1  the  great  Apostle  was 
snatched  from  his  persecutors.  After  briefly  narrating  the  circumstances  of 
his  deliverance  to  the  brethren  assembled  in  the  house  of  Mary,  the  mother  of 
John  Mark  the  Evangelist,  he  entrusted  them  with  the  duty  of  bearing  the 
same  message  to  James,  the  Lord's  brother,  and  to  the  other  Christians  who 
were  not  present,  and  withdrew  for  a  time  to  safe  retirement,  while  Herod  was 
left  to  wreak  his  impotent  venge«once  on  the  unconscious  quaternion  of  soldiers. 

It  might  well  seem  as  though  the  blood  of  martyrdom  brought  its  own 
retribution  on  the  heads  of  those  who  cause  it  to  be  spilt.  We  have  seen 
Agrippa  in  the  insolent  plenitude  of  his  tyranny ;  the  next  scene  exhibits  him 
in  the  horrible  anguish  of  his  end.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  April,  A.D.  44, 
that  he  had  slain  James  and  arrested  Peter ;  it  was  probably  the  very  same 
month  which  ended  his  brief  and  guilty  splendour,  and  cut  him  off  in  the 
flower  of  his  life. 

Versatile  and  cosmopolitan  as  was  natural  in  an  adventurer  whose  youth 
and  manhood  had  experienced  every  variety  of  fortune,  Agrippa  could  play  the 
heathen  at  Csesarea  with  as  much  zeal  as  he  could  play  the  Pharisee  at  Jerusa- 
lem. The  ordinary  herd  of  Eabbis  and  hierarchs  had  winked  at  this  phase 
of  his  royalty,  and  had  managed  to  disintegrate  in  their  imaginations  the 
Herod  who  offered  holocausts  in  the  ^Temple  from  the  Herod  who  presided 
in  amphitheatres  at  Berytus ;  the  Herod  who  wept,  because  he  was  only  half 
a  Jew,  in  the  Temple  at  the  Passover,  and  the  Herod  who  presided  at 
Pagaa  spectacles  at  Caesarean  jubilees.2  One  bold  Pharisee — Simon  by 
name — did  indeed  venture  for  a  time  to  display  the  courage  of  his  opinions. 
During  an  absence  of  Agrippa  from  Jerusalem,  he  summoned  an  assembly,  and 
declared  the  king's  actions  to  be  so  illegal  that,  on  this  ground,  as  well  as  on 
the  ground  of  his  Idumaean  origin,  he  ought  to  be  excluded  from  the  Temple. 
As  it  was  not  Agrippa's  object  to  break  with  the  Pharisees,  he  merely  sent  for 
Simon  to  Csesarea,  made  him  sit  by  his  side  in  the  theatre,  and  then  asked  him, 
•gently,  "  whether  he  saw  anything  there  which  contradicted  the  law  of  Moses  P" 
Simon  either  was  or  pretended  to  be  convinced  that  there  was  no  overt  infrac- 
tion of  Mosaic  regulations,  and  after  begging  the  king's  pardon  was  dismissed 
with  a  small  present. 

It  was  in  that  same  theatre  that  Agrippa  met  his  end.  Severe  troubles 
had  arisen  in  the  relations  between  Judaea  and  the  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre 

'  Acts  xii  9.  2  Jos.  Antt.  xix.  7,  §  4. 


178  THE  LIFE  AJTD  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUI,. 

and  Sidon,  and  since  that  maritime  strip  of  coast  depends  entirely  for  its 
subsistence  on  the  harvests  of  Palestine,  it  was  of  the  extremest  importance 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  merchant  cities  that  they  should  keep  on  good  terms 
with  the  little  autocrat.1  The  pressure  of  the  famine,  which  would  fall  on 
them  with  peculiar  severity,  made  them  still  more  anxious  to  bring  about  a 
reconciliation,  and  the  visit  of  Agrippa  to  Csesarea  on  a  joyful  occasion 
furnished  them  with  the  requisite  opportunity. 

That  occasion  was  the  news  that  Claudius  had  returned  in  safety  from  his 
expedition  to  Britain,  and  had  been  welcomed  at  Borne  with  an  outburst  of 
flattery,  in  which  the  interested  princelings  of  the  provinces  thought  it  politic 
to  bear  their  part.2  Agrippa  was  always  glad  of  any  excuse  which  enabled 
him  to  indulge  his  passion  for  gladiatorial  exhibitions  and  the  cruel  vanities  of 
Boman  dissipation.  Accordingly  he  hurried  to  Caesarea,  which  was  the 
Roman  capital  of  Palestine,  and  ordered  every  preparation  to  be  made  for  a 
splendid  festival.  To  this  town  came  the  deputies  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  taking 
care  to  secure  a  friend  at  court  in  the  person  of  Blastus,  the  king's  groom  of 
the  bedchamber.8 

It  was  on  the  second  morning  of  the  festival,  at  the  early  dawn  of  a 
burning  day  in  the  Syrian  spring,  that  Agrippa  gave  audience  to  the 
Phoanician  embassy.  It  was  exactly  the  time  and  place  and  occasion  in  which 
he  would  be  glad  to  display  his  magnificence  and  wealth.  Accordingly  he 
entered  the  theatre  with  his  royal  retinue  in  an  entire  robe  of  tissued  silver, 
and  taking  his  seat  on  the  bema,  made  to  the  Tyrians  and  Sidonians  a  set 
harangue.  As  he  sat  there  the  sun  blazed  on  his  glittering  robe,  and  seemed 
to  wrap  him  in  a  sheet  of  splendour.  The  theatre  was  thronged  with  his 
creatures,  his  subjects,  the  idle  mob  whose  amusement  he  was  supplying  with 
profuse  liberality,  and  the  people  whose  prosperity  depended  on  his  royal 
favour.  Here  and  there  among  the  crowd  a  voice  began  to  be  heard  shouting 
that  it  was  a  god  who  was  speaking  to  them,4  a  god  whose  radiant  epiphany 
was  manifested  before  their  eyes.  In  the  prime  of  life,  and  of  the  manly 
beauty  for  which  his  race  was  remarkable,  at  the  zenith  of  his  power,  in  the 
seventh  year  of  his  reign,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  wealth,5  an  autocrat  by  his 
own  position,  and  an  autocrat  rendered  all  but  irresistible  by  the  support  of 
the  strange  being  whom  his  supple  address  had  saved  from  the  dagger  to  seat 
him  on  the  imperial  throne — surrounded,  too,  at  this  moment  by  flatterers  and 
parasites,  and  seated  in  the  very  midst  of  the  stately  buildings  which  Jews  and 
Gentiles  alike  knew  to  have  been  conferred  upon  the  city  by  the  architectural 
extravagance  of  his  race — the  feeble  intellect  of  Agrippa  was  turned  by  this 
intoxicating  incense.  He  thought  himself  to  be  the  god  whom  they  declared. 

1  Of.  1  Kings  v.  9 ;  Ezek.  xxvii.  17 ;  Ezra  ill.  7. 

2  Dion  Cass.  Lc.  23 ;  Suet.  Claud.  17 ;  Philo,  Leg.  45.    See  Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri* 
§§  1668, 1674  ;  and  contra  Wieseler,  Chron.  d.  Apost.  Zeit.  130. 

8  tiri  TOU  /toirciws,  cubicularius,  praefectus  cubicnlL 

4  See  JOB.  Antt.  xix.  8,  §  2,  which  closely  confirms  the  narrative  of  Acts  xii. 
*  His  revenue  in  stated  to  have  been  12,000,000  of  drachma,  or  more  than  £425,000 
ft  year, 


A  MARTYRDOM   AND   A  BETKIBUTION.  179 

Why  should  not  he  accept  the  apotheosis  BO  abjectly  obtruded  on  a  Caligula 
or  a  Claudius  P  He  accepted  the  blasphemous  adulation,  which,  as  a  King  of 
the  Jews,  he  ought  to  have  rejected  with  indignant  horror.  At  that  very 
moment  his  doom  was  sealed.  It  was  a  fresh  instance  of  that  irony  of 
heaven  which  often  seems  to  place  men  in  positions  of  superlative  gorgeous- 
ness  at  the  very  moment  when  the  fiat  is  uttered  which  consigns  them  to  the 
most  pitiable  and  irrecoverable  fall.1 

There  was  no  visible  intervention.  No  awful  voice  sounded  in  the  ears 
of  the  trembling  listeners.  No  awful  hand  wrote  fiery  letters  upon  the  wall. 
St.  Luke  says  merely  that  the  angel  of  God  smote  him.  Josephus  introduces 
the  grotesque  incident  of  an  owl  seated  above  him  on  one  of  the  cords  which 
ran  across  the  theatre,  which  Agrippa  saw,  and  recognised  in  it  the  predicted 
omen  of  impending  death.2  Whether  he  saw  an  owl  or  not,  he  was  carried 
from  the  theatre  to  his  palace  a  stricken  man — stricken  by  the  hand  of  God. 
In  five  days  from  that  time — five  days  of  internal  anguish  and  vain  despair,8 
in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  fourth  of  his  reign  over  the  entire 
dominion  of  his  grandfather — Agrippa  died.  And  whatever  may  be  the 
extent  to  which  he  had  won  the  goodwill  of  the  Jews  by  his  lavish  benefac- 
tions, the  Gentiles  hated  him  all  the  more  because  he  was  not  only  a  Jew  but 
an  apostate.  A  consistent  Jew  they  could  in  some  measure  tolerate,  even 
while  they  hated  him ;  but  for  these  hybrid  renegades  they  always  express  an 
unmitigated  contempt.  The  news  of  Agrippa's  death  was  received  by  the 
population,  and  especially  by  the  soldiers,  both  at  Csesarea  and  Sebaste  with 
feastings,  carousals,  and  every  indication  of  indecent  joy.  Not  content  with 
crowning  themselves  with  garlands,  and  pouring  libations  to  the  ferryman  of 
the  Styx,  they  tore  down  from  the  palace  the  statues  of  Agrippa's  daughters, 
and  subjected  them  to  the  most  infamous  indignities.  The  foolish  inertness 
of  Claudius  left  the  insult  unpunished,  and  these  violent  and  dissolute  soldiers 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  evils  which  not  many  years  afterwards 
burst  over  Judaea  with  a  storm  of  fire  and  sword.* 

1  See  Bishop  Thirl  wall's  Essay  on  the  Irony  of  Sophocles. 

2  He  says  that  an  owl  was  sitting  on  a  tree  on  the  day  of  Agrippa's  arrest  at  Capreae, 
and  that  a  German  soothsayer  had  foretold  that  he  should  become  a  king,  hut  should  bo 
near  his  death  when  he  saw  that  owl  again.    See  also  Euseb.  H.E.  ii.  10,  who  substitutes 
the  angel  for  the  owl. 

8  JOS.  Antt.  xix.  8,  $  2,  ynorpoj  oAyiJ/otao-i  8i*pya<r9«s.'  Acts  xii.  23,  o-/ca>AijK<$|3p<oTO?  amdavi-v. 
Whether  there  be  any  disease  which  can  strictly  be  described  as  the  phthiriasis,  morbiis 
pedicularis,  is,  as  I  hare  mentioned  in  my  Life  of  Christ,  i.  47,  more  than  doubtful.  The 
death  of  Herod  Agrippa,  like  that  of  his  grandfather,  has  been  so  called,  but  not  by  the 
sacred  historians.  It  is,  however,  an  historic  fact  that  many  cruel  tyrants  have  died  of 
ulcerous  maladies,  which  the  popular  rumour  described  much  as  Laotantius  describes  them 
in  his  tract  De  MortQws  pcrsecutorum.  Instances  are — Pheretima  (Herod,  iv.  205,  eirAeW 
«!«'£0<7ev,  where  the  retributive  appropriateness  of  the  disease  is  first  pointed  out) ; 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  (2  Mace.  v.  9) ;  Herod  the  Great  (Jos.  Antt.  xvii.  6,  §  5,  B.  J.  i.  33, 
§  §  8,  9) ;  Maximius  Galerius  (Euseb.  H.  E.  viii.  16) ;  Maximin  (id.  ix.  10,  11 ;  Lack  De. 
Mort.  persec.  xxxiii.);  Claudius  Lucius  Herminianus  (Tertull.  ad  Scap.  iii.  cum  vivus 
vermibus  ebulliisset  "Nemo  uciat"  dicebat,  "ne  gaudeant  Ohriatiani ") ;  Duke  of 
Alva ;  &c. 

*  Jos.  Antt,  xix.  9,  §  1. 


180  ?BE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

Of  these  scenes  Saul  and  Barnabas  may  have  been  eye-witnesses  OB  their 
return  journey  from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch.  The  order  of  events  in  St.  Luke 
may  indeed  be  guided  by  the  convenience  of  narrating  consecutively  all  that 
he  had  to  say  about  Herod  Agrippa,  and  above  all  of  showing  how  the  sudden 
onslaught  on  the  Church,  which  seemed  to  threaten  it  with  nothing  short  of 
extermination,  was  checked  by  the  deliverance  of  Peter,  and  arrested  by  the 
retribution  of  God.  This  would  be  the  more  natural  if,  as  there  seems  to  be 
good  reason  to  believe,  the  ghastly  death  of  Herod  took  place  in  the  very  same 
month  in  which,  by  shedding  the  blood  of  the  innocent  in  mere  pursuit  of 
popularity,  he  had  consummated  his  crimes.1  If  Saul  and  Barnabas  were  at 
Jerusalem  during  Peter's  imprisonment,  they  may  have  been  present  at  the 
prayer  meeting  at  the  house  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Mark,  and  the  kinswoman 
of  Barnabas.  If  so  we  can  at  once  account  for  the  vivid  minuteness  of  the 
details  furnished  to  St.  Luke  respecting  the  events  of  that  memorable  time.2 

In  any  case,  they  must  have  heard  the  death  of  Agrippa  discussed  a 
thousand  times,  and  must  have  recognised  in  it  a  fresh  proof  of  the  immediate 
governance  of  God.  But  this  was  to  them  a  truth  of  the  most  elementary 
character.  Their  alleged  indifference  to  public  questions  simply  arose  from 
their  absorption  in  other  interests.  Their  minds  were  full  of  deeper  concerns 
than  the  pride  and  fall  of  kings ;  and  their  visit  to  Jerusalem  was  so  purely 
an  episode  in  the  work  of  St.  Paul  that  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  he 
passes  it  over  without  a  single  allusion.3  There  is  nothing  surprising  in  the 
omission.  It  is  the  object  of  the  Apostle  to  show  his  absolute  independence 
of  the  Twelve.  This  second  visit  to  Jerusalem  had,  therefore,  no  bearing  on 
the  subject  with  which  he  was  dealing.  More  than  eleven  years  had  already 
elapsed  since  the  Crucifixion,  and  a  very  ancient  tradition  says  that  twelve 
years  (which  to  the  Jews  would  mean  anything  above  eleven  years)  was  the 
period  fixed  by  our  Lord  for  the  stay  of  the  Apostles  in  the  Holy  City.* 
Even  if  we  attach  no  importance  to  the  tradition,  it  is  certain  that  it  approxi- 
mates to  known  facts,  and  we  may  therefore  assume  that,  about  this  time,  the 
Apostles  began  to  be  scattered  in  various  directions.  St.  Paul  passes  over 
this  eleemosynary  visit,  either  because  in  this  connexion  it  did  not  occur  to 
his  memory,  or  because  the  mention  of  it  was  wholly  unimportant  for  his 
purpose. 

Yet  there  was  one  circumstance  of  this  visit  which  was  fraught  with 

1  Saul  and   Barnabas  seem  to  have  started  from  Antioch  with    the    intention    of 
arriving  at  Jerusalem  for  the  Passover  of  April  1,  A.D.  44.    The  martyrdom  of  James 
immetliately  preceded  the  Passover,  and  the  imprisonment  of  Peter  took  place  during 
the  Paschal  week  (Acts  xii.  3 — 6).     It  was  immediately  afterwards  that  Herod  started 
for  Csesarea ;  and  if  the  object  of  his  visit  was  to  celebrate  the  return  of  Claudius  from 
Britain,  it  must  have  been  in  this  very  month.    For  Claudius  returned  early  in  A.D.  44, 
and  it  would  take  some  little  time  for  the  news  to  reach  Jerusalem.    Further,  Josephus 
says  that  Agrippa  reigned  seven  years  (Antt.  xix.  8,  §  2),  and  as  he  was  appointed  in 
April,  A.D.  37,  these  seven  years  would  end  in  April,  A.D.  44.     See  the  question  fully 
examined  in  Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri,  p.  280. 

2  In  D  is  mentioned  even  the  number  of  steps  from  Peter's  prison  to  the  street. 
»  Gal.  ii.  1. 

«  See  Apollon.  ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  18;  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vL  p.  762,  ed.  Potter. 


JOT>AISM  AND   HEATHENISM.  181 

future  consequences  full  of  sadness  to  both  the  Apostles.  Barnabas,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  nearly  related  to  John  Mark,  son1  of  that  Mary  in  whose 
house  was  the  upper  room.  It  would  be  most  natural  that  he,  and  therefore 
that  Saul,  should,  during  their  short  visit,  be  guests  in  Mary's  house,  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  her  son  may  well  have  been  kindled  by  the  glowing  spirit 
of  his  cousin  and  the  yet  more  fiery  ardour  of  his  great  companion.  The 
danger  of  further  persecution  seemed  to  be  over,  but  Peter,  Mark's  close 
friend  and  teacher,  was  no  longer  in  Jerusalem,  and,  in  spite  of  any  natural 
anxieties  which  the  prevalent  famine  may  have  caused,  the  Christian  mother 
consented  to  part  with  her  son,  and  he  left  Jerusalem  in  the  company  of  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 


CHAPTER  XYIH. 

JUDAISM     AND     HEATHENISM. 

"  Whoso  breaketh  a  hedge  [applied  by  the  Eabbis  to  their  Seyyag  la  Thorah,  or 
'hedge  for  the  Law  '],  a  serpent  shall  bite  him." — ECCLES.  x.  8 

« '  Gods  of  Hellas !  Gods  of  Hellas ! 
Said  the  old  Hellenic  tongue  ; 
Said  the  hero-oaths,  as  well  as 

Poets'  songs  the  sweetest  sung ! 
1  Have  ye  grown  deaf  in  a  day  ? 
Can  ye  speak  not  yea  or  nay — 
Since  Pan  is  dead  ? ' " — B.  BARRETT  BROWNING. 

u  Die  Gfitter  sanken  vom  Himmelsthron 
Es  stiirtzten  die  herrlichen  Saiilen, 
Und  geboren  wiirde  der  Jungfrau  Sohn 

Die  Gebrechen  der  Erde  zu  heilen; 
Verbannt  ward  er  Sinne  fliichtige  Lust 
Und  der  Mensch  griff  denkend  in  seine  Brust." 

SCHILLER. 

WHEN  Barnabas  and  Saul  returned  to  Antioch  they  found  the  Church  still 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  happy  activity.  It  was  evidently  destined  to 
eclipse  the  importance  of  the  Holy  City  as  a  centre  and  stronghold  of  the 
Faith.  In  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  there  were  many  sources  of  weakness 
which  were  wanting  at  Antioch.  It  was  hampered  by  depressing  poverty. 
It  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  earliest  persecutions.  Its  lot  was  cast  in  the 
very  furnace  of  Jewish  hatred;  and  yet  the  views  of  its  most  influential 
elders  were  so  much  identified  with  their  old  Judaic  training  that  they  would 
naturally  feel  less  interest  in  any  attempt  to  proselytise  the  Gentiles. 

At  Antioch  all  was  different.  There  the  prejudices  of  the  Jews  wore  an 
aspect  more  extravagant,  and  the  claims  of  the  Gentiles  assumed  a  more 
overwhelming  importance.  At  Jerusalem  the  Christians  had  been  at  the 

1  Col.  IT.  10,  i  axtytof  means  "cousin,"  not  "slater's  son."  which  would 


182  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF   ST.  PAUL. 

mercy  of  a  petty  Jewish  despot.  At  Antioch  the  Jews  were  forced  to  meet 
the  Christians  on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  under  the  impartial  rule  of 
Roman  law.1 

Of  the  constitution  of  the  early  Church  at  Antioch  nothing  is  said,  but  we 
are  told  of  a  little  group  of  prophets  and  teachers  2  who  occupied  a  prominent 
position  in  their  religious  services.  These  were  Barnabas,  Simeon  (surnamed, 
for  distinction's  sake,  Niger,  and  possibly,  therefore,  like  Lucius,  a  native  of 
Cyrene),  Manaen,  and  Saul.  Of  Simeon  and  Lucius  nothing  whatever  is 
known,  since  the  suggestion  that  Lucius  may  be  the  same  person  as  Luke  the 
Evangelist  is  too  foundationless  to  deserve  a  refutation.  Of  Manaeu,  or,  to 
give  him  his  proper  Jewish  name,  Meuahem,  we  are  told  the  interesting  cir- 
cumstance that  ho  was  the  foster-brother  of  Herod  Antipas.  It  has,  therefore, 
been  conjectured  that  he  may  have  been  a  son  of  the  Essene  who  lent  to 
Herod  the  Great  the  influence  of  his  high  authority,3  and  who,  when  Herod 
was  a  boy  at  school,  had  patted  him  on  the  back  and  told  him  he  should  one 
day  be  king.4  If  so,  Menahem  must  have  been  one  of  the  few  early  converts 
who  came  from  wealthy  positions ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  he  was 
thus  connected  with  the  celebrated  Essene,  and  in  any  case  he  can  hardly  have 
been  his  son.5 

It  was  during  a  period  of  special  service,  accompanied  by  fasting,  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  brought  home  to  their  souls  the  strong  conviction  of  the  new  work 
which  lay  before  the  Church,  and  of  the  special  commission  of  Barnabas  and 
Saul.6  The  language  in  which  this  Divine  intimation  is  expressed  seems  to 
imply  a  sudden  conviction  following  upon  anxious  deliberation ;  and  that 
special  prayer  and  fasting 7  had  been  undertaken  by  these  prophets  and  teachers 
in  order  that  they  might  receive  guidance  to  decide  about  a  course  which  had 
been  already  indicated  to  the  two  Apcetles. 

1  "  Eruditissimis  hominibus  liberalissimisque  studiis  affluens"  (Cic.  pro  Archid,  iii.). 

2  The  accurate  distinction  between  "prophets"  and  "teachers"  is  nowhere  laid  down, 
but  it  is  clear  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  it  was  well  understood  (1  Cor.  xii.  28 ;  Eph.  iv. 
11).    But  the  question  naturally  arises  whether  it  is  meant  that  Barnabas  and  Saul  were 
"prophets"  or  "teachers" — or  whether  they  were  both.     The  latter,  perhaps,  is  the 
correct  view.    The  prophet  stood  higher  than  the  teacher,  was  more  immediately  inspired, 
spoke  with  a  loftier  authority ;  but  the  teacher,  whose  functions  were  of  a  gentler  and 
humbler  nature,  might,  at  great  moments,  and  under  strong  influences,  rise  to  the  power 
of  prophecy,  while  the  prophet  also  might  on  ordinary  occasions  fulfil  the  functions  of  a 
teacher.     (See  Neander,  Planting,  p.  133,  seqq.) 

3  Jos.  Antt.  xv.  10,  §  5. 

4  Incidents  of  this  kind  are  also  told  of  Galba  (Tac.  Ann.  vi.  20 ;  Suet.  Galb.  4  ;  Jos. 
Antt.  xviii.  6,  §  9),  of  Henry  VII.,  and  of  Louis  Philippe. 

5  Because  Manaen  the  Essene  must  have  attained  middle  age  when  Herod  the  Great 
was  a  boy,  and  since  we  have  now  reached  A.D.  45,  this  Manaen  could  only  have  been 
born  when  the  other  was  in  extreme  old  age. 

6  Acts  xiii.   2,  'A^opiVar*  &j,   "Come,   set  apart  at  once."     The  meaning  of  the 
bciTovpyovvriav  (hence  our  word  "liturgy")  is  probably  general.     Chrysostom  explains  it  by 
KripvTTovTw.    For  other  instances  of  the  word,  see  Luke  i.  23 ;  Rom.  xv.  16 ;  2  Cor.  ix.  12 ; 
Phil.  ii.  30.    The  &  7rpoo-(c«Aij^ai  aurou?  implies,  of  course,  that  Barnabas  and  Saul  had 
already  received  a  summons  to  the  work  (cf.  Acts  ix.  15  ;  xxii.  21 ;  Rom.  i.  1 ;  Gal.  i.  1). 
Hooker  thinks  that  Paul  was  made  an  Apostle  because  James  could  not  leave  Jerusalem ; 
and  Barnabas  to  supply  the  place  of  James  the  brother  of  John  (Eccl.  Pol.  VII.  iv.  2). 

7  On  fasting  in  Ember  weeks  see  Bingham  xxi.  ch.  2. 


JUDAISM  AND  HEATHENISM.  183 

Si  Paul,  indeed,  must  long  have  yearned  for  the  day  in  which  the  Lord 
should  Bee  fit  to  carry  out  His  own  promise  "  to  send  him  far  hence  to  the 
Gentiles."1  The  more  deeply  he  thought  over  his  predicted  mission,  the  more 
would  he  realise  that  it  had  been  predestined  in  the  councils  of  God.  Gentiles 
worshipped  idols,  but  so  had  their  own  fathers  done  when  they  dwelt  beyond 
Euphrates.  Jewish  Rabbis  had  admitted  that,  after  all,  Abraham  himself 
was  but  the  earliest  of  the  proselytes.2  If,  as  legend  told,  Terah  had  been  a 
maker  of  idols,  and  if  Abraham  had  received  his  first  call,  as  Stephen  had 
said,  while  yet  living  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  why  should  not  thousands  of  the 
heathen  be  yet  numbered  among  the  elect  of  God  ?  Had  not  God  made  of 
one  blood  all  the  nations  upon  earth  ?  Had  not  the  aged  Simeon  prophesied 
that  the  infant  Jesus  should  be  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  no  less  than  the 
glory  of  His  people  Israel  ?  And  were  there  not  to  be  reckoned  among  His 
human  ancestors  Rahab,  the  harlot  of  Jericho,  and  Ruth,  the  loving  woman  of 
the  accursed  race  of  Hoab  ?  Had  not  Hadassah  been  a  sultana  in  the  seraglio 
of  Xerxes  P  Had  not  Moses  himself  married  a  woman  of  Ethiopia  ?  3  And 
among  the  great  doctors  of  recent  days  was  it  not  asserted  that  Shammai  was 
descended  from  Hainan  the  Amalekite  ?  4  And,  however  necessary  had  been 
the  active  hostility  to  mixed  marriages,  and  all  other  close  intercourse  with  the 
heathen  in  the  reforming  period  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  had  not  Zephaniah 
declared  in  the  voice  of  prophecy  that  "  men  should  worship  Jehovah  every 
one  from  his  place,  even  all  the  isles  of  the  heathen?"6  Nay,  did  no  deeper 
significance  than  was  suggested  in  the  vulgar  exegesis  lie  in  the  ancient 
promise  to  Abraham,  that  "in  him  all  families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed  P  "  8 
Did  the  prophecy  that  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  should  see  the  salvation  of  our 
God J  merely  mean  that  they  should  see  it  as  excluded  aliens,  or  as  wanderers 
doomed  to  perish  P  If  the  Gentiles  were  to  come  to  the  light  of  Zion,  and 
kings  to  the  brightness  of  her  dawn — if  the  isles  were  to  wait  for  God,  and  the 
ships  of  Tarshish 8— did  this  merely  mean  that  the  nations  were  but  to  be 
distant  admirers  and  tolerated  servants,  admitted  only  to  the  exoteric  doctrines 
and  the  less  peculiar  blessings,  and  tolerated  only  as  dubious  worshippers  in 
the  Temple's  outmost  courts  ?  Would  not  this  be  to  them  a  blessing  like  the 
blessing  of  Esau,  which  was  almost  like  a  curse,  that  their  dwelling  should  be 
away  from  the  fatness  of  the  earth,  and  away  from  the  dew  of  blessing  from 
above  P9  Or,  after  all,  if  such  reasonings  were  inconclusive — if,  however  con- 

i  Acts  ix.  15, 16. 

3  Josh.  xxiv.  2.  The  apologue  of  the  gazelle  feeding  among  a  flock  of  sheep,  found 
in  the  Talmud,  and  attributed  to  Hillel,  beautifully  expresses  the  toleration  of  the  wiser 
and  more  enlightened  Rabbis ;  but  the  proselytism  contemplated  is,  of  course,  that 
purchased  by  absolute  conformity  to  Jewish  precepts. 

3  The  Eabbis,    to  get  over   this   startling  fact,   interpreted     koosith  ("Ethiopian 
woman")  by  Gematria,  and  made  it  mean     fair  of  face;"  since    ikooitth  =  736  =  the 
Hebrew  words  for  "fair  of  eyes." 

4  Similarly  it  was  said  that  Akibha  descended  from  Sisera. 

s  Zeph.  ii.  11.  »  Gen.  xii.  3 ;  Gal.  iii.  14. 

«  Isa.  Iii.  10.  3  isa.  k.  3}  9. 

7  Gen.  xxvii.  39,  "Behold,  toithout  the  fatness  of  the  earth  shall  be  thy  dwelling, 
and  without  the  dew  of  heaven  from  above"  (v.  Kalisoh,  in  loc.). 


184  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

elusive,  they  wore  still  inadequate  to  break  down  that  barrier  of  prejudice 
which  was  au  obstacle  more  difficult  to  surmount  than  the  middle  wall  of  par- 
tition — was  any  argument  needful,  when  they  had  heard  so  recently  the 
command  of  their  Lord  that  they  were  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,1  and  the  prophecy  that  they  should  be  witnesses  unto 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  ?  2 

Such  convictions  may  have  been  in  the  heart  of  Paul  long  before  he  could 
persuade  others  to  join  in  giving  effect  to  them.  It  is  matter  of  daily  ex- 
perience that  the  amount  of  reasoning  which  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  produce* 
immediate  action  is  often  insufficient  to  procure  even  a  languid  assent.  But 
the  purpose  of  the  Apostle  was  happily  aided  by  the  open-hearted  candour  of 
Barnabas,  the  intellectual  freshness  of  the  Church  of  Antioch,  and  the 
immense  effect  produced  by  the  example  of  Peter,  who  had  won  even  from  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem  a  reluctant  acquiescence  in  the  baptism  of  Cornelius. 

And  apart  from  the  all  but  ineradicable  dislike  towards  the  heathen  which 
must  have  existed  in  the  minds  of  Jews  and  Jewish  Christians,  as  a  legacy  of 
six  centuries  of  intolerance — even  supposing  this  dislike  to  be  removed  from 
within — yet  the  attempt  to  win  over  to  the  new  faith  the  vast  opposing  forces 
of  Judaism  and  heathenism  without  the  fold  might  well  have  seemed  fantastic 
and  impossible.  Could  any  but  those  whose  hearts  were  lit  with  a  zeal  which 
consumed  every  difficulty,  and  dilated  with  a  faith  to  which  it  seemed  easy  to 
remove  mountains,  listen  without  a  smile  to  the  proposal  of  evangelising  the 
world  which  was  then  being  advanced  by  two  poor  Jews — Jews  who,  as  Jews 
by  birth,  were  objects  of  scorn  to  the  Gentiles,  and  as  Jews  who  sat  loose  to 
what  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  essence  of  Judaism,  were  objects  of 
detestation  to  Jews  themselves  ?  Is  it  possible  to  imagine  two  emissaries  less 
likely  to  preach  with  acceptance  "  to  the  Jew  first,  and  afterwards  to  the 
Greek  ?"  And  if  the  acceptance  of  such  a  mission  required  nothing  short  of 
the  religious  genius  and  ardent  faith  of  Paul,  surely  nothing  short  of  the  im- 
mediate aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  could  have  given  to  that  mission  so 
grand  and  eternal  a  success. 

For  even  had  the  mission  been  to  the  Jews  exclusively,  the  difficulties  which 
it  presented  might  well  have  seemed  insuperable.  It  must  utterly  fail  unless 
the  Jew  could  be  persuaded  of  two  things,  of  which  one  would  be  most  abhor- 
*"«nt  to  his  pride,  the  other  most  opposed  to  his  convictions,  and  both  most  alien 
to  his  deepest  prejudices.  To  become  a  Christian  he  would  be  forced  to  admit 
that  all  his  cherished  conceptions  of  the  Messiah  had  been  carnal  and  erroneous, 
and  that  when,  after  awaiting  His  advent  for  twenty  centuries,  that  Lord  had 
<:ome  suddenly  to  His  Temple,  the  Jews  had  not  only  rejected  but  actually 
crucified  Him,  and  thereby  filled  up  the  guilt  which  their  fathers  had  incurred 
by  shedding  the  blood  of  the  Prophets.  Further,  he  would  have  to  acknow- 
ledge that  not  only  his  "  hereditary  customs,"  but  even  the  Law — the  awful 
fiery  Law  which  he  believed  to  have  been  delivered  by  God  Himself  from  the 

i  Mark  xvi.  15.  *  Acts  1.  8, 


JUDAISM  AND  HEATHENISM.  185 

shrouded  summit  of  Sinai — was  destined,  in  all  the  facts  which  he  regarded  as 
most  distinctive,  to  be  superseded  by  the  loftier  and  more  spiritual  revelation 
of  this  crucified  Messiah.  Lastly,  he  would  have  to  resign  without  a  murmur 
those  exclusive  privileges,  that  religious  haughtiness  by  which  he  avenged 
himself  on  the  insults  of  his  adversaries,  while  he  regarded  God  as  being  "  a 
respecter  of  persons,"  and  himself  as  the  special  favourite  of  Heaven. 

And  fear  would  be  mingled  with  hatred.  Under  certain  conditions,  in  the 
secrecy  of  Oriental  seraglios,  in  the  back-stairs  intercourse  of  courts  and 
gyncecea,  in  safe  places  like  the  harem  of  Abennerig  and  the  audience-room  of 
Helen  of  Adiabene,  with  Mary  of  Palmyra,  or  Fulvia,  the  wife  of  Saturninus, 
or  Poppsea  in  the  Golden  House,1  a  Jew  was  glad  enough  to  gain  the  ear  of  an 
influential  proselyte,  and  the  more  moderate  Jews  were  fully  content  in  such 
cases  with  general  conformity.  They  found  it  easy  to  devour  widows'  houses 
and  make  long  prayers.  But  they  were  well  aware  that  every  widely  success- 
ful attempt  to  induce  Gentile  proselytes  to  practise  the  outward  ceremonies  of 
their  religion  would  be  fraught  with  the  extremest  peril  to  their  communities,2 
and  would  lead  in  every  city  of  the  Empire  to  a  renewal  of  such  scenes  as 
those  of  which  Alexandria  had  lately  been  the  witness.  It  is  probable  that 
they  would  have  checked  any  impolitic  zeal  on  the  part  of  even  an  orthodox 
Rabbi ;  but  it  filled  them  with  fury  to  see  it  displayed  by  one  who,  as  a 
schismatic,  incurred  a  deadlier  odium  than  the  most  corrupted  of  the  heathen. 
To  them  a  Paul  was  oven  more  hateful  than  a  Flaccus,  and  Paul  was  all  the 
more  hateful  because  he  had  once  been  Saul.  And  that  this  audacious  pervert 
should  not  only  preach,  but  preach  to  the  heathen ;  and  preach  to  the  heathen 
a  doctrine  which  proposed  to  place  him  on  a  level  with  the  Jew ;  and,  worse 
still,  to  place  him  on  this  level  without  any  acceptance  on  his  part  of  the 
customs  without  which  a  Jew  could  hardly  be  regarded  as  a  Jew  at  all — this 
thought  filled  them  with  a  rage  which  year  after  year  was  all  but  fatal  to  the 
life  of  Paul,  as  for  long  years  together  it  was  entirely  fatal  to  his  happiness 
and  peace.3 

Yet  even  supposing  these  obstacles  to  be  surmounted,  supposing  that  the 
missionaries  were  successful  in  converting  their  own  countrymen,  and  so  were 
enabled,  by  means  of  the  "  Proselytes  of  the  Gate,"  to  obtain  their  first  point 
of  contact  through  the  synagogue  with  the  heathen  world,  might  it  not  seem 
after  all  as  if  their  difficulties  had  then  first  begun  ?  What  hopes  could  they 
possibly  entertain  of  making  even  the  slightest  impression  on  that  vast  welter- 
ing mass  of  idolatry  and  corruption  ?  Now  and  then,  perhaps,  they  might  win 
the  heart  of  some  gentle  woman,  sick  to  death  of  the  cruelty  and  depravity  of 

»  JOB.  Antt.  xiii.  9,  §  1 ;  11,  §  3;  15,  §4;  xviiL  3,  §  5;  xx.  2,  §  4;  B.  J.  ii.  17,  §  10 ; 
C.  Ap.  ii.  39 ;  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  85 ;  H.  v.  5 ;  Hor.  Sat.  I.  iv.  142 ;  Dion  Cass.  xxxviL  17,  &c. ; 
Juv.  Sat.  vi.  546.  See  too  Derenbourg,  Palestine,  p.  223,  seq. 

-  As  early  as  B.C.  139  Jews  had  been  expelled  from  Rome  for  admitting  proselytes  to 
the  Sabbath  (Mommsen,  Rom.  Gesch.  ii.  429).    On  the  wider  spread  of  Sabbatism  even 
among  heathens,  see  Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  11,  §  29.    There  appear  to  be  some  traces  of  tho  Jews 
taking  pains  annually  to  secure  one  proselyte  (fva  vpo<rr,\urov,  Matt.  *x"i,  15),  to  typify  the 
stability  of  the  Gentiles  (Taylor,  Pirke  AbMth,  p.  36). 

*  See  Excursus  XIII.,  "  Burden*  laid  on  Proselyte*," 


186  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST;  PAUL, 

which  she  was  forced  to  be"a  daily  witness ;  here^and  there,  perhaps,  of  some 
slave,  oppressed  and  ignorant,  and  eager  to  find  a  refuge  from  the  intolerable 
indignities  of  ancient  servitude ; — but  even  if  they  could  hope  for  this,  how 
far  had  they  then  advanced  in  the  conversion  of  Heathendom,  with  all  its 
splendid  worldliness  and  glittering  fascination  P 

For  to  the  mass  of  the  heathen,  as  I  have  said,  their  very  persons  were 
hateful  from  the  mere  fact  that  they  were  Jews.1  And  so  far  from  escaping 
this  hatred,  the  missionaries  were  certain  to  be  doubly  hated  as  Christian  Jews. 
For  during  the  first  century  of  Christianity,  the  ancients  never  condescended 
to  inquire  what  was  the  distinction  between  a  Jew  and  a  Christian.2  To  them 
a  Christian  was  only  a  more  dangerous,  a  more  superstitious,  a  more  outrage- 
ously intolerable  Jew,  who  added  to  the  follies  of  the  Jew  the  yet  more  inex- 
plicable folly  of  adoring  a  crucified  malefactor.  It  is  to  the  supposed  turbulence 
of  One  whom  he  ignorantly  calls  Chrestus,  and  imagines  to  have  been  still 
living,  that  Suetonius  attributes  the  riots  which  cost  the  Jews  their  expulsion 
from  Rome.  The  stolid  endurance  of  agony  by  the  Christians  under  persecu- 
tion woke  a  sort  of  astonished  admiration ; 3  but  even  Pliny,  though  his  candid 
account  of  the  Christians  in  Bithynia  refutes  his  own  epithets,  could  only  call 
Christianity  "  a  distorted  and  outrageous  superstition  ;"  and  Tacitus  and 
Suetonius,  using  the  substantive,  only  qualify  it  by  the  severer  epithets  of 
"  deadly,"  "  pernicious,"  and  "  new."  4 

The  heathen  world  into  which,  "  as  lambs  among  wolves,"  the  Apostles 
were  going  forth,  was  at  that  moment  in  its  worse  condition.  The  western 
regions,  towards  which  the  course  of  missions  took  its  way,  were  prevalently 
Greek  and  Roman ;  but  it  was  a  conquered  Greece  and  a  corrupted  Rome. 
It  was  a  Greece  which  had  lost  its  genius  and  retained  its  falsity,  a  Rome 
which  had  lost  its  simplicity  and  retained  its  coarseness.  It  was  Greece  in 
her  lowest  stage  of  seducer  and  parasite ;  it  was  Rome  at  the  epoch  of  her 
most  gorgeous  gluttonies  and  her  most  gilded  rottenness.  The  heart  of  the 
Roman  Empire  under  the  Caesars  was  "  a  fen  of  stagnant  waters."  Csesarism 
has  found  its  modern  defenders,  and  even  a  Tiberius  has  had  his  eulogists 
among  the  admirers  of  despotic  power;  but  no  defence  can  silence  the 
damning  evidence  of  patent  facts.  No  advocacy  can  silence  the  awful 
indictment  which  St.  Paul  writes  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  imperial  city.5  If 
such  things  were  done  in  the  green  tree,  what  was  done  in  the  dry  ?  What 
was  the  condition  of  the  thistles,  if  this  was  the  code  of  the  forest-trees  ?  If 
St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse  describes  Rome  as  the  harlot  city  which  had  made 
the  nations  drunk  with  the  cup  of  the  wine  of  her  fornications,  he  uses 

1  See  Excursus  XTV.,  "Hatred  of  the  Jews  in  Classical  Antiquity." 

3  In  Dio  (Irvii.  12—14)  the  Christian  (?)  martyr  Aottius  Glabrio  is  called  a  Jew, 

3  Marc.  Aurel.  xi.  3 ;  Mart.  x.  25 ;  Epict.  Dissert,  iv.  8. 

4  Plin.  Ep.  x.  97,  "  superstitionem  pravam  efc  immodicam ; "  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  44,  "exitia- 
bilis  superstitio ;"  Suet.  Nero.  16,  "novae  et  maleficae  superstitionis."  See  Excursus XV., 
"Judgments  of  Early  Pagan  "Writers  on  Christianity." 

6  See  Friedliinder,  Sittengcech.  Horns.  B.  v.    Denis,  Icttt*  Morale*  data 
ii.  218-236t 


JUDAISM  AXD   HEATHENISM.  187 

language  no  whit  severer  than  that  of  Seneca,  who  speaks  of  Rome  as  a 
cesspool  of  iniquity;1  or  than  that  of  Juvenal,  who  pictures  her  as  a  filthy 
sewer,  into  which  have  flowed  the  abominable  dregs  of  every  Achaean  and 
Syrian  stream.8  Crushed  under  the  ignominies  inflicted  on  her  by  the 
despotism  of  madmen  and  monsters ; 3  corrupted  by  the  pollutions  of  the 
stage,  and  hardened  by  the  cruelties  of  the  amphitheatre;  swarming  with 
parasites,  impostors,  prisoners,  and  the  vilest  slaves;  without  any  serious 
religion;  without  any  public  education;  terrorised  by  insolent  soldiers  and 
paiiperised  mobs,  the  world's  capital  presents  at  this  period  a  picture  un- 
paralleled for  shame  and  misery  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  But,  reduced  as 
it  was  to  torpor  under  the  night-mare  of  an  absolutism  which  it  neither  could 
nor  would  shake  off,  the  Roman  world  had  sought  its  solace  in  superstition, 
in  sensuality,  or  in  Stoicism.  The  superstition  mainly  consisted  in  the 
adoption  of  cunning  systems  of  priestcraft,  impassioned  rituals,  horrible 
expiations  borrowed  from  the  degrading  mythologies  of  Egypt  or  from  the 
sensual  religions  of  Galatia  and  Phrygia.4  So  rife  were  these,  and  so 
dangerous  to  morality  and  order,  that  long  before  this  age  the  Senate  had 
vainly  attempted  the  suppression  of  the  rites  offered  to  Sabazius,  to  Isis,  and 
to  Serapis.5  The  jingling  of  sistra,  and  the  cracked  voices  of  beardless  Galli, 
were  familiar  in  every  Roman  town.8  The  sensuality  was  probably  more 
shameful,  and  more  shameless,  than  has  ever  been  heard  of  in  history.  And 
amid  this  seething  corruption,  it  was  the  few  alone  who  retained  the  virtue 
and  simplicity  of  the  old  family  life  and  worship.  The  Stoicism  in  which  the 
greater  and  more  suffering  spirits  of  the  epoch — a  Cremutius  Cordus,  a 
Thrasea  Paetus,  an  Helvidius  Prisons,  an  Annaeus  Cornutus,  a  Musonins 
Rufus,  a  Barea  Soranus — found  refuge,  was  noble  and  heroic,  but  hard  and 
unnatural.  He  who  would  estimate  the  reaction  of  man's  nobler  instincts 
against  the  profligacy  of  Pagan  life — he  who  would  judge  to  what  heights  the 
Spirit  of  God  can  aid  those  who  unconsciously  seek  Him,  and  to  what  depths 
the  powers  of  evil  can  degrade  their  willing  votaries — must  bridge  over  the 
gulf  which  separates  a  Petronius  and  an  Appuleins  from  the  sweetness 
and  dignity  of  "  minds  naturally  Christian,"  like  those  of  an  Epictetus  and  an 
Aurelius.  He  who  would  further  estimate  the  priceless  services  which 
Christianity  can  still  render  even  to  souls  the  most  naturally  exalted,  must 
once  more  compare  the  chill,  the  sadness,  the  painful  tension,  the  haughty 

1  Cf.  Sail.  Cat.  xxxvii.  5,  "Hi  Eomam  sicut  in  sentinam  confluxerunt." 

3  Juv.  iii.  62 ;  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  44. 

8  Cf.  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  85;  iv.  55,  56 ;  Suet.  Tib.  35;  Ov.  Fast.  ii.  497,  teq, 

4  Such  were  the  taurobolies  and  kriobolies — hideous  blood  baths. 

'  Valerius  Maximus  (I.  iii.  3)  relates  that  when  the  Senate  had  ordered  the  demolition 
of  a  Serapeum  at  Home  (A.U.C.  535),  no  workman  could  be  induced  to  obey  the  order, 
and  the  Consul  had  himself  to  burst  open  the  door  with  an  axe  (see,  too,  Liv.  TTTJT, 
8—18 ;  Cic.  De  Legg.  ii.  8 ;  Dion.  Halic.  ii.  20 ;  Dion  Cass.  xL  47 ;  Tert.  Apol.  6 ;  Adv. 
Nat.  L  10,  quoted  by  Kenan,  Lea  Apdtrea,  p.  316,  and  for  Isis  worship,  AppuL  Metam. 
xi.). 

6  Firmicius  Maternus,  in  the  days  of  Constantino,  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to 
refute  Greek  and  Eoman  mythology  (De  Errore  Profanae  Rtlig.),  but  only  the  rites  of 
Isis,  Mithras,  Cybele,  &o. 


188  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

exclusiveness,  the  despairing  pride  of  Stoicism  with  the  warmth,  the  glow,  the 
radiant  hope,  the  unbounded  tenderness,  the  free  natural  emotion,  the  active 
charities,  the  peaceful,  infinite  contentment  of  Christianity  as  it  shines  forth 
with  all  its  living  and  breathing  sympathies  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

And  this  difference  between  Stoicism  and  Christianity  is  reflected  in  the 
lives  of  their  disciples.  While  the  last  genuine  representatives  of  Roman 
statesmanship  and  Roman  virtue  were  thinking  it  a  grand  thing  to  hold 
aloof  from  the  flatteries  into  which  the  other  senators  plunged  with  such 
headlong  baseness — while  they  were  being  regarded  as  models  of  heroism  for 
such  acts  as  rising  and  walking  out  of  the  senate  when  some  more  than 
usually  contemptible  flattery  was  being  proposed — while  they  were  thus 
eating  away  their  own  hearts  in  the  consciousness  of  an  ineffectual  protest, 
and  finding  it  difficult  to  keep  even  their  own  souls  from  "  the  contagion  of 
the  world's  slow  stain  " — two  Jews  of  obscure  name,  of  no  position,  without 
rank,  without  wealth,  without  influence,  without  either  literary,  political,  or 
military  genius,  without  any  culture  but  such  as  a  Roman  noble  would  have 
despised  as  useless  and  grotesque — but  mighty  in  the  strength  of  a  sacred 
cause,  and  irresistible  in  the  zeal  of  a  conscious  inspiration — set  forth 
unnoticed  on  the  first  of  those  journeys  which  were  destined  to  convert  the 
world.  For  He  who  made  and  loved  the  world,  and  knew  the  needs  of  the 
world  which  He  died  to  save,  had  sent  them  forth ;  and  if  He  had  sent  them 
forth  without  any  apparent  means  for  the  fulfilment  of  His  great  design,  it 
was  because  He  willed  to  choose  "  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to  confound 
the  wise,  and  the  weak  things  to  confound  the  mighty,  and  things  which  are 
not  to  bring  to  nought  things  which  are,  that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  His 
presence."1 

Vast,  then,  as  was  the  task  before  them,  and  hedged  around  by  apparently 
insuperable  difficulties,  the  elders  of  the  Church  of  Antioch  were  convinced 
that  Barnabas  and  Saul  had  indeed  been  summoned  on  a  Divine  mission,  and 
that  they  dared  no  longer  delay  the  distinct  manifestation  of  the  will  of  the 
Spirit.  They  held  one  more  special  prayer  and  fast,2  laid  on  the  heads  of 
their  two  great  brethren  the  hands  of  consecration,  and  sent  them  on  their 
way.  Already,  in  his  vision,  Paul  had  been  predestined  to  be  an  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles ; 3  henceforth,  after  this  solemn  ordination,  he  receives  the  title 
of  an  Apostle  in  its  more  special  significance.*  For  a  time,  as  in  his  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians,  he  modestly  abstains  from  himself  adopting  it;  but 
when  his  name  was  vilified,  when  his  teaching  was  thwarted,  when  his 
authority  was  impugned,  he  not  only  adopted  it,5  but  maintained  his  indepen- 
dent position  as  a  teacher,  and  his  right  to  be  regarded  as  in  nowise  inferior 
to  the  very  chief  est  of  the  Twelve. 

>  1  Cor.  i.  27,  28. 

8  Acts  xiii.  3,  njorrevo-airef     .    .     •     »rpo<revfafievot. 

*  Acts  xxvi.  17,  «fatpou)jt«v6s  vt  «c  TOU  AooO  icol  rS>v  I9v3>v  et»  ov$  rya>  «rj  ojroore'AA*. 

*  Acts  xiv.  4,  14  (cf.  John  xvii.  18  ;  Heb.  iii.  1). 

8  Except  in  the  few  purely  private  lines  which  he  wrote  to  Philemon,  Mid  in  the  letter 
to  his  beloved  Philippisna  who  needed  no  assertion  of  his  claim, 


CYPRUS.  189 


tioott    »|. 

THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CYPRUS. 

1l  \4yeis',    Kal  Uavhos  t<f>ofit?To  KtvSvvovs  ]    'E<po&ei-ro  Kal    <r<p6Spa   tStSoixei.      Ei 
ya.p  teal  IlaGAos  ?iv  &AA.'  &v6p<airos  -f\v  .  .   .  Ei  7«p   ou*c  iipo&firo  iroia  Kaprepla  rb  rovs 


pfiv  ;    Ey>  yap  Ka      i    rovro  aurv    avfu  n  (po 

aAAa    »cal    refj.a>v   TOIIS    Kivtifoovs  Sib    tra.vr'bs    £8a/u«   <TT«$>a.vovp.fVos    Kal 


rai'Taxov  rJ>  KJjpvypa  ffirelpwv.  —  CHRYSOST.  Opp.  x.  44,  erf.  Montfaucon. 

"  The  travelled  ambassador  of  Christ,  who  snatched  Christianity  from  the  hands 
of  a  local  faction,  and  turned  it  to  a  universal  faith,  whose  powerful  word  shook  all 
the  gods  from  Cyprus  to  Gibraltar,  who  turned  the  tide  of  history  and  thought, 
giving  ua  the  organisation  of  Christendom  for  the  legions  of  Kome,  and  for  Zeno 
and  Epicurus,  Augustine,  Eckhart,  and  Luther."  —  MABTINEAU,  Hours  of  Thought, 
p.  88. 

"  SENT  forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit"  —  more  conscious  instruments,  perhaps,  of 
God's  will  than  has  ever  been  the  case  before  or  since,  and  starting  on  a 
journey  more  memorable  in  its  issues  than  any  which  had  ever  been  under- 
taken by  man  —  Saul  and  Barnabas,  accompanied  by  their  more  youthful 
attendant,  John  Mark,  started  on  their  way.  What  thoughts  were  in  their 
minds  as  they  turned  their  backs  on  the  street  Sing6n,  where  they  had 
preached  with  such  acceptance  and  success  P  There  were  myriads  of  heathen 
and  thousands  of  Jews  in  that  gay  voluptuous  city  who  had  not  accepted 
Christianity;  but  the  two  Apostles  were  summoned  to  other  work.  They 
passed  between  the  theatre  and  the  amphitheatre,1  crossed  the  main  thorough- 
fare of  the  city  with  its  trees  and  statues  and  colonnades,  passed  the  Roman 
sentries  who  guarded  the  residence  of  the  Legate  of  Syria  in  the  old  palace  of 
the  Seleucidse,  crossed  the  bridge  over  the  Orontes,  and  leaving  the  grove  of 
Daphne  on  their  right  upon  the  further  bank  of  the  river,  made  their  way, 
through,  the  oleanders  and  other  flowering  shrubs  which  form  a  gorgeous 
border  to  its  purple  rocks,  along  the  sixteen  miles  which  separated  them  from 
the  port  of  Seleucia.  History  has  contemptuously  obliterated  from  her 
annals  the  names  of  countless  kings  who  have  set  forth  from  their  capitals 
!for  the  scourge  or  conquest  of  nations  at  the  head  of  armies,  and  with  all  the 
ipomp  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war  ;  but  centuries  after  those  conquerors 
are  in  their  turn  forgotten  whom  she  still  deigns  to  commemorate,  she  will 
preserve  in  the  grateful  memory  of  mankind  the  names  of  these  two  poor 
Jews,  who  started  on  foot,  staff  in  hand,  with  little,  perhaps,  or  nothing  in 
their  scrip  but  the  few  dates  that  suffice  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  Eastern 
traveller. 

From  Antioch  they  might  have  made  their  way  to  Tarsus.    But  Paul  had 

1  See  the  elaborate  plans  and  pictures  of  ancient  and  modern  Antioch  in  Mr.  Lewin's 
St.  Paul,  i.,  pp,  92-95. 


190  SHS  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OP  BT.  PAUL. 

in  all  probability  preached  already  in  bis  native  Cilicia,1  and  as  Barnabas  was 
by  birth  a  Cypriote,  they  bent  their  voyage  thitherward.  It  was  towards  the 
west,  towards  Chittim  and  the  Isles  of  the  Gentiles,  that  the  course  of  missions 
naturally  tended.  All  land  routes  were  more  or  less  dangerous  and  difficult. 
Roads  were,  with  few  exceptions,  bad;  vehicles  were  cumbrous  and  ex- 
pensive ;  robbers  were  numerous  and  insolent.  But  the  total  suppression  of 
piracy  by  Pompey  had  rendered  the  Mediterranean  safe,  and  in  the  growth 
of  navigation  it  had  become  "the  marriage-ring  of  nations."2  Along  the 
eastern  coast  of  Asia  Minor  the  Jews  had  long  been  scattered  in  numbers  far 
exceeding  those  to  be  found  there  at  the  present  day ;  and  while  the  extension 
of  the  Greek  language  furnished  an  easy  means  of  communication,  the  power 
of  Roman  law,  which  dominated  over  the  remotest  provinces  of  the  Empire, 
afforded  the  missionaries  a  free  scope  and  a  fair  protection.  Accordingly 
they  descended  the  rocky  stairs  which  led  down  to  the  port  of  Seleucia,3  and 
from  one  of  its  two  piers  embarked  on  a  vessel  which  was  bound  for  Cyprus. 
And  thus  began  "  the  great  Christian  Odyssey."  *  The  Apostolic  barque  has 
spread  her  sails;  the  wind  breathes  low,  and  only  aspires  to  bear  upon  its 
wings  the  words  of  Jesus.  If  Rome  has  but  too  good  reason  to  complain  of 
the  dregs  of  moral  contamination  which  the  Syrian  Orontes  poured  forth  to 
mingle  with  her  yellow  Tiber,  on  this  occasion,  at  any  rate,  the  Syrian  river 
made  ample  amends  by  speeding  on  their  way  with  its  seaward  current  these 
messengers  of  peace  and  love. 

As  they  sail  south-westward  over  the  hundred  miles  of  that  blue  sea  which 
one  of  them  was  destined  so  many  tunes  to  traverse — the  sea  which  four 
times  wrecked  him  with  its  unregardful  storms,  and  tossed  him  for  a  night 
and  a  day  on  its  restless  billows ;  as  they  sit  at  the  prow  and  cast  their  wistful 
gaze  towards  the  hills  which  overshadow  the  scene  of  their  future  labours, — 
or,  resting  at  the  stern,  not  without  a  glance  of  disgust  at  its  heathen  images, 
look  back  on  the  rocky  cone  of  Mount  Casing,  "  on  which  three  centuries  later 
smoked  the  last  pagan  sacrifice,"5  they  must  have  felt  a  deep  emotion  at  the 
thought  that  now  for  the  first  time  the  Faith,  on  which  depended  the  hopes  of 
the  world,  was  starting  for  fresh  regions  from  its  native  Syria.  Little  did 
St.  Paul  know  how  trying  in  its  apparent  failures,  how  terrible  in  its  real 
hardships,  was  the  future  which  lay  before  him !  That  future — the  fire  of 
the  furnace  in  which  the  fine  gold  of  his  heroic  spirit  was  to  be  purged  from 
every  speck  of  dross — was  mercifully  hidden  from  him,  though  in  its  broad 

1  Gal.  i.  21 ;  Acts  ix.  30 ;  xi.  26.    That  there  were  churches  in  Cilicia  appears  from 
Acts  xv.  41. 

2  See  some  good  remarks  in  Kenan,  Lcs  Ap6tres,  p.  280,  tcq. ;  and  for  an  exhaustive 
treatment,  Herzf eld,  Geach.  d.  jvdi&chen  Harwlds. 

»  Polyb.  v.  59. 

4  Renan,  Les  Apdto'et,  p.  386 ;  of.  St.  Paul,  p.  13,  "  Oe  fut  la  seconde  po6sie  du 
Christianisme.  Le  lac  de  Tiberiade  et  les  barques  de  pedicure  avaient  found  la  premiere. 
Maintenant  un  souffle  plus  puissant  des  aspirations  ven  lea  torres  plus  lointaines  nous 
entralne  en  haute  mer." 

*  El  Djebel  el  Akra,  "the  bald  mountain"  (Cheaney,  Euphrat.  1.  386;  A  mm.  Marcoll, 
xxii.  14,  §  8 ;  Julian,  Misop,  861). 


CYPEUS.  191 

outlines  he  must  have  been  but  too  well  able  to  conjecture  something  of  its 
trials.  But  had  he  foreseen  all  that  was  before  him — had  he  foreseen  the 
scourgings,  the  flagellations,  the  stoning,  the  shipwrecks,1  the  incessant  toil- 
ings  on  foot  along  intolerable  and  dangerous  roads,  the  dangers  from  swollen 
rivers  and  rushing  watercourses,  the  dangers  from  mountain  brigands,  the 
dangers  from  Jews,  from  Gentiles,  from  false  Christians  in  city  and  wilder- 
ness and  sea, — the  frantic  crowds  that  nearly  tore  him  to  pieces,  the  weary 
nights,  the  chill,  naked,  thirsty,  famine-stricken  days,  the  incessant  wearing 
responsibility,  the  chronic  disease  and  weakness, — all  the  outrages,  all  the 
insults,  all  the  agitating  bursts  of  indignation  against  those  who  pat  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  paths  of  the  weak,2  the  severe  imprisonments,  the  incessant 
death,  and  all  ended  by  desertion,  failure,  loneliness,  chains,  condemnation, 
the  chilly  dungeon,3  the  nameless  martyrdom — had  he  foreseen  all  this,  could 
he  have  borne  it?  His  human  spirit  might  indeed  have  shrunk  at  all  the 
efforts  and  the  agonies  which  lay  before  him — greater  probably  than  have  ever 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  man;  yet  even  at  this  early  phase  of  his  missionary 
career  I  doubt  not  that  the  hero's  heart  would  have  boldly  uttered,  "  I  hold 
not  my  life  dear  unto  myself,"  and  the  faith  of  the  Christian  would  have 
enabled  him  to  say,  "  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  that  strengthened  me." 

Yet  to  all  human  judgment  how  ill  qualified,  physically,  was  the  Apostle 
for  the  vast  and  perilous  work  which  lay  before  him.  The  strongest 
athlete  might  well  have  quailed  as  he  thought  of  the  toil,  the  sleeplessness, 
the  manual  labour,  the  mental  anxiety.  The  most  imposing  orator  might 
have  trembled  at  the  thought  of  facing  so  many  hostile  potentates  and 
raging  crowds.  The  finest  moral  courage  might  have  entreated  to  be  spared 
the  combined  opposition  alike  of  false  friends  and  furious  enemies.  But 
Paul  was  no  Milo,  no  Demosthenes,  no  Scipio  Af ricanus ;  he  was  physi- 
cally infirm,  constitutionally  nervous,  painfully  sensitive.  His  bodily  pre- 
sence was  weak,  his  speech  despised,  his  mind  often  overwhelmed  with 
with  fear.  But  over  the  feeble  body  and  shrinking  soul  dominated  a  spirit 
so  dauntless  that  he  was  ready  all  his  life  long  to  brave  torture,  to  con- 
front mobs,  to  harangue  tribunals,  to  quail  as  little  before  frowning  tyrants 
as  before  stormy  seas.  He  might  have  addressed  his  ailing  body  in  the 
words  of  the  great  hero  as  he  rode  into  the  thick  of  battle,  "Aha,  you 
tremble !  but  you  would  tremble  far  more  if  you  knew  whither  I  meant  to 
take  you  to-day."  * 

The  concurrent  testimony  of  tradition,  and  the  oldest  attempts  at  repre- 
sentation, enable  us  to  summon  up  before  us  the  aspect  of  the  man.  A 
modern  writer,  who  cannot  conceal  the  bitter  dislike  which  mingles  with 
bis  unwilling  admiration,  is  probably  not  far  wrong  in  characterising  him 
as  a  small  and  ugly  Jew.6  You  looked  on  a  man  who  was  buffeted  by  an 

1  2  Cor.  li.  23 — 33.  *  2  Cor.  Jd.  29,  ri«  o-Kav&a\l£tTcu.,  «<u  ov'/c  eyi>  K-vpovfMU. 

8  Clem.  Rom.  Ep.  ad  loc.  i  5.  4  Marshal  Turenne. 

Even  Luther  described  St.  Paul  u  "em  armea  diirres  Miiimlein  trie  unser  Philippiu " 


192  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

angel  of  Satan.  And  yet  when  you  spoke  to  him ;  when  the  prejudice  inspired 
by  his  look  and  manner  had  been  overcome ;  when,  at  moments  of  inspiring 
passion  or  yearning  tenderness,  the  soul  beamed  out  of  that  pale,  distressful 
countenance ;  when  with  kindling  enthusiasm  the  man  forgot  his  appearance 
and  his  infirmity,  and  revealed  himself  in  all  the  grandeur  of  his  heroic  force ; 
when  triumphing  over  weakness  he  scathed  his  enemies  with  terrible  invective, 
or  rose  as  it  were  upon  the  wings  of  prophecy  to  inspire  with  consolation  the 
souls  of  those  he  loved — then,  indeed,  you  saw  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 
It  was  Paul  seated,  as  it  were,  on  sunlit  heights,  and  pouring  forth  the 
glorious  paean  in  honour  of  Christian  love ;  it  was  Paul  withstanding  Peter 
to  the  face  because  he  was  condemned ;  it  was  Paul  delivering  to  Satan  the 
insolent  offender  of  Corinth ;  it  was  Paul  exposing  with  sharp  yet  polished 
irony  the  inflated  pretensions  of  a  would-be  wisdom;  it  was  Paul  rolling 
over  the  subterranean  plots  of  Judaisers  the  thunders  of  his  moral  indignation; 
it  was  Paul  blinding  Elymas  with  the  terror  of  his  passionate  reproof ;  it  was 
Paul  taking  command,  as  it  were,  of  the  two  hundred  and  seventy  souls  in  the 
driven  dismantled  hulk,  and  by  the  simple  authority  of  natural  pre-eminence 
laving  his  injunctions  on  the  centurion  and  the  Roman  soldiers  whose  captive 
ho  was ;  it  was  Paul  swaying  the  mob  with  the  motion  of  his  hand  on  the 
steps  of  Antonia ;  it  was  Paul  making  even  a  Felix  tremble ;  it  was  Paul 
exchanging  high  courtesies  in  tones  of  equality  with  governors  and  kings ;  it 
was  Paul  "  fighting  with  wild  beasts  "  at  Ephesus,  and  facing  "  the  lion  " 
alone  at  Borne.  When  you  saw  him  and  heard  him,  then  you  forgot  that  the 
treasure  was  hid  in  an  earthen  vessel;  out  of  the  shattered  pitcher  there 
blazed  upon  the  darkness  a  hidden  lamp  which  flashed  terror  upon  his  enemies 
and  shone  like  a  guiding  star  to  friends. 

So  that,  if  ugliness,  and  fear  and  trembling,  and  ill-health,1  and  the 
knowledge  that  he  belonged  to  a  hated  sect,  and  was  preaching  a  des- 
pised foolishness — if  these  were  terrible  drawbacks,  they  were  yet  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  possession  of  unequalled  gifts.  Among  his 
slighter  outward  advantages  were  a  thorough  training  in  the  culture  of  his 
own  nation,  a  good  mastery  of  Greek,  the  knowledge  of  a  trade  by  which 
he  could  support  himself,  and  familiarity  with  the  habits  of  men  of  every  class 
and  nation,  derived  from  long  residence  both  in  Jewish  and  Gentile  cities.  As 
widower  and  childless,  he  was  unencumbered  by  any  domestic  ties,  and  could 
only  suffer  an  individual  anguish  without  risking  those  who  depended  on  him. 
Lastly,  the  possession  of  the  Roman  citizenship,  though  inadequate  to  protect 
him  against  provincial  tumults,  and  though  he  probably  waived  the  appeal  to 
it  among  his  own  countrymen,  yet  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  more  than 
one  dangerous  crisis.  But  these  would  have  been  less  than  nothing  without 
the  possession  of  other  and  far  higher  gifts.  Such  were  the  astonishing 
endurance  which  no  trials  could  exhaust,  and  which  enabled  the  most  physi- 
cally weak  of  the  Apostles2  to  become  the  most  ceaselessly  active;  the 

1  See  2  Cor.  x.  10 ;  Gal.  iv.  13 ;  1  Cor.  ii.  3 ;  2  Cor.  iv.  7 ;  vii.  5 ;  xi.  6 ;  xii.  passim. 
*  'A.<rttvrfi  is  the  key-note  of  2  Cor.  xiii.  3—9. 


CTPRUS.  196 

high  conrietiofl  tliat  God  had  called  him  to  a  special  Apostolate  "  to  make 
the  Gentiles  obedient  by  word  and  deed ;" 1  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity," 
which  made  him  ready  to  associate,  for  their  souls'  sake,  whether  with  men 
who  had  once  been  thieves  and  drunkards,  or  with  sweet,  innocent,  and  gentle 
women ;  2  the  courtesy  which  made  him  equally  at  home  among  slaves  and 
among  kings ;  the  power  of  style  which  rose  or  fell  with  the  occasion,  some- 
times condescending  to  the  humblest  colloquialism,  sometimes  rising  to  the 
most  impassioned  eloquence ;  the  clearness  of  insight  which  always  kept  one 
end  in  view,  and  sacrificed  all  minor  points  to  attain  it;  3  the  total  emancipa- 
tion from  that  slavery  to  trifles  which  is  the  characteristic  of  small  minds, 
and  is  ever  petrifying  religion  into  formulae,  or  frittering  it  away  into  cere- 
monial ;  the  spirit  of  concession ;  the  tact  of  management ;  the  willingness  to 
bear  and  forbear,  descend  and  condescend ;  the  tolerance  of  men's  prejudices ; 
the  contented  acceptance  of  less  than  was  his  due. — And  there  were  in  the 
soul  of  Paul  qualities  more  precious  for  his  life's  work  than  even  these. 
There  was  the  tenderness  for  his  converts  which  makes  his  words  ever  sound 
as  though  he  were  ready  to  break  into  sobs  as  he  thinks  on  the  one  hand  of 
their  affection,  on  the  other  of  their  ingratitude ;  4  there  was  the  conviction 
which  makes  him  anticipate  the  very  fiat  of  the  throne  of  judgment,5  and 
vehemently  to  exclaim  that  if  an  angel  were  to  preach  a  different  gospel  it 
would  be  false ;  6  there  was  the  missionary  restlessness  so  often  found  in  the 
great  pioneers  of  salvation,  which  drives  him  from  city  to  city  and  continent 
to  continent  in  the  cause  of  God ;  there  was  the  ardent  and  imaginative  im- 
pulse which  made  it  the  very  poetry  of  his  life  to  found  churches  among  the 
Gentiles  as  the  first  messenger  of  the  Gospel  of  peace  ; 7  and  last,  but  per- 
haps most  important  of  all,  there  was  the  perfect  faith,  the  absolute  self- 
sacrifice,  self-obliteration,  self-annihilation,  which  rendered  him  willing,  nay 
glad,  to  pour  out  his  whole  life  us  a  libation — to  be  led  in  triumph  from  city 
to  city  as  a  slave  and  a  captive  at  the  chariot-wheels  of  Christ. 

The  immense  personal  ascendency  of  St.  Paul  has  almost  effaced  the  recol- 
lection of  the  fellow- workers  to  whose  co-operation  he  owed  so  much ;  but  we 
must  not  forget  that  throughout  the  perilous  initiatives  of  this  great  work,  he 
had  Barnabas  ever  at  his  side,  to  guide  him  by  his  calm  wisdom,  and  support 
him  by  his  steady  dignity.  Barnabas,  the  friend  of  his  youth,  perhaps  the 
school-fellow  of  his  studies, — who  had  taken  him  by  the  hand ;  who  had  drawn 
him  from  his  obscure  retirement;  who  had  laboured  with  him  at  Antioch; 
who  had  been  his  fellow-almoner  at  Jerusalem — was  still  sharing  his  difficul- 
ties, and  never  envied  or  murmured  when  he  saw  himself  being  gradually  sub- 
jugated by  the  powerful  individuality  of  a  younger  convert.  To  us  Barnabas 
must  always  be  a  less  memorable  figure  than  Paul,  but  let  us  not  forget  that 
up  to  this  time  he  had  held  a  higher  rank,  and  wielded  a  more  authoritative 

»  Rom.  iv.  18.  »  1  Cor.  vi.  9— 11.  »  1  Cor.  Ix.  19. 

*  1  Thess.  il.  7,  11 ;  Gal.  ir.  19 ;  1  Cor.  ir.  15 ;  Philem.  10. 

s  Bom.  ii.  16.  «  Gal.  i.  8. 

'  Rom.  x.  18;  XT.  18;  Gal.  i.  16;  1  Cor.  L  1;  lii.  10;  ix.  16;  2  Cor.  xt  3. 


194  THE:  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

influence.  As  a  Levite,  as  a  prophet,  as  one  who  for  the  needs  of  the  com. 
mnnity  had  cheerfully  sacrificed  his  earthly  goods,  as  one  who  enjoyed  to  a 
very  high  degree  the  confidence  of  the  Apostles,  Barnabas,  in  these  early  days, 
was  enabled  to  lend  to  St.  Paul's  conceptions  a  weight  which  they  could 
hardly  otherwise  have  won.  It  is  only  when  the  work  has  actually  begun  that 
Barnabas  seems  naturally  to  sink  to  a  subordinate  position.  No  sooner  have 
they  left  Salamis  than  the  very  order  of  the  names  is  altered.  Sergius  Paulus 
sends  for  "  Barnabas  and  Saul,"  but  it  is  Saul  who  instantly  comes  to  the 
front  to  meet  the  opposition  of  Elymas  ;  it  is  "  Paul  and  his  company  "  who 
sail  from  Paphos  to  Perga  ;  it  is  Paul  who  answers  the  appeal  to  speak  at 
Antioch  in  Pisidia  ;  it  is  Paul  who  is  stoned  at  Lystra  ;  and  thenceforth,  it  is 
"  Paul  and  Barnabas  "  throughout  the  rest  of  the  history,  except  in  the  circular 
missive  from  James  and  the  Church  at  Jerusalem.1 

Nor  must  we  altogether  lose  sight  of  the  younger  of  the  three  voyagers- 
John,  whose  surname  was  Mark,  who  went  with  them  in  the  capacity  of  their 
minister,  corresponding,  perhaps,  in  part  to  our  notion  of  a  deacon.3  The  pre- 
sence of  an  active  attendant,  who  could  make  all  arrangements  and  inquiries, 
would  be  almost  necessary  to  a  sufferer  like  Paul.  If  Barnabas  shared  with 
Paul  the  reluctance  to  administer  in  person  the  rite  of  baptism,8  we  may  sup- 
pose that  this  was  one  of  the  functions  in  which  Mark  would  help  them.  Nor 
was  it  an  unimportant  circumstance  to  both  of  them  that  Mark,  as  the  avowed 
friend  and  protege  of  Peter,  would  have  been  unlikely  to  share  in  any  mission 
which  did  not  command  the  entire  approval  of  his  illustrious  leader.  In  this 
and  many  other  ways,  now  as  at  the  close  of  his  life,  Paul  doubtless  felt  that 
Mark  was,  or  could  be,  "  profitable  to  him  for  ministry."  His  nature  im- 
periously demanded  the  solace  of  companionship  ;  without  this  he  found  his 
work  intolerable,  and  himself  the  victim  of  paralysing  depression.4  The  prin- 
ciples which  he  adopted,  his  determination  that  under  no  circumstances  would 
he  be  oppressive  to  his  converts,  the  missionary  boldness  which  constantly  led 
him  into  such  scones  of  danger  as  none  but  a  man  could  face,  deprived  him  of 
that  resource  of  female  society  —  a  sister,  a  wife  —  which  other  Apostles 
enjoyed,  and  which  has  been  found  so  conducive  to  the  usefulness  of  even 
stich  devoted  missionaries  as  Adoniram  Jndson  or  Charles  Mackenzie.  But 
Paul  was  a  missionary  of  the  type  which  has  been  reproduced  in  Francis 
Xavier  or  Coleridge  Patteson  ;  and  whatever  he  may  have  been  in  the  past,  he 
was  now,  at  any  rate,  a  lonely  man. 

Such  were  the  three  humble  Christian  emissaries  whose  barque,  bending  its 
prow  to  the  south-west,  sailed  towards  the  mountains  of  Cyprus,  and,  leaving 

1  Acts  xv.  25  ;  and  Acts  xiv.  14,  where  Barnabas  is  taken  for  the  superior  deity. 
n  Luke  iv.  20  the  wmipenj?  is  the  Chazzan  of  the  Synag 


*  Acts  xiii.  5,  un-qp-'nj?.     In  Luke  iv.  20  the  wmipenj?  is  the  Chazzan  of  the  Synagogue. 
Mark,  like  Barnabas,  may  have  been  connected  with  the  tribe  of  Levi;  on  the  name 
KoAo/3o£aKTvAc*  and  traditions  about  him,  see  Ewald,  Gesch.  vi.  445. 

3  1  Cor.  i.  13— 

*  1  These,  iii.  1  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  13  ;  Phil.  ii.  19,  20  ;  2  Tim.  IT.  11.    It  has  been  said  thai 
St.  Paul  "had  a  thousand  friends,  and  loved  each  as  his  own  soul,  and  seemed  to  live  a 
thousand  lives  in  them,  and  to  die  a  thousand  deaths  when  he  must  quit  them." 


OTPBUf.  195 

the  long  promontory  of  Dinaretum  on  the  right,  sailed  into  the  bay  of  Salainis. 
The  scene  must  have  been  very  familiar  to  Barnabas.  Before  them  lay  the 
flourishing  commercial  town,  conspicuous  for  its  temple  of  the  Salaminian 
Jupiter,  which  tradition  assigned  to  Teucer,  son  of  Telamon.  Beyond  the 
temple  there  stretched  away  to  the  circle  of  enclosing  hills  a  rich  plain,  watered 
by  the  abundant  streams  of  the  Pediaeus.  The  site  of  the  town,  which  our 
recent  acquisition  of  the  island  has  rendered  so  familiar,  is  now  marked  by  a 
few  ruins  about  four  miles  to  the  north  of  the  modern  Famagosta.  The 
ancient  town  never  entirely  recovered  the  frightful  injuries  which  it  under- 
went, first  from  an  insurrection  of  tho  Jews  in  the  roign  of  Trajan,  and  after- 
wards from  an  earthquake.  But  when  the  Apostles  stepped  ashore,  upon  one 
of  tho  ancient  piers  of  which  the  ruins  are  still  visible,  it  was  a  busy  and 
important  place,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  Barnabas  would  find  many  to  greet 
him  in  his  old  home.  Doubtless,  too,  there  would  bo  some  to  whom  their  visit 
was  peculiarly  welcome,  because,  ever  since  the  persecution  of  Stephen,  Cyprus 
had  been  connected  with  the  spread  of  Christianity.1 

That  Barnabas  had  had  a  considerable  voice  in  thus  repaying  to  his  native 
island  the  service  which  it  had  rendered  to  Antioeh,2  may  be  conjectured 
from  the  fact  that  subsequently,  when  he  had  parted  from  Paul,  he  and 
Mark  once  more  chose  it  as  the  scene  of  their  missionary  labours.  After  this 
first  visit,  Paul,  often  as  he  passed  in  sight  of  it,  seems  never  to  have  landed 
there,  disliking,  perhaps,  to  build  on  other  men's  foundations;  nor  does  he 
allude  to  Cyprus  or  to  other  Cypriotes  in  any  of  his  Epistles.  Whether  there 
be  any  truth  or  not  in  the  legend  which  says  that  Barnabas  was  martyred  in 
the  reign  of  Nero,  and  buried  near  Salainis,  it  is  quite  fitting  that  the  church 
and  grotto  near  it  should  be  dedicated  to  him. 

But  apart  from  any  facilities  which  may  have  been  derived  from  his 
connexion  with  the  island,  it  was  without  doubt  an  excellent  place  to  form  a 
starting-point  for  the  evangelisation  of  the  world.  One  of  the  largest  islands 
in  the  Mediterranean,  possessed  of  a  fertile  soil,  varied  in  physical  formation, 
and  within  easy  reach  of  the  three  great  continents,  it  had  been  marked  out 
by  nature  as  a  convenient  centre  for  extensive  traffic.  The  trade  in  natural 
products — chiefly  metals  and  wine — together  with  the  fact  that  Augustus  had 
farmed  the  copper-mines  to  Herod  the  Great,  had  attracted  a  large  Jewish 
population.  So  vast,  indeed,  were  their  numbers,  that  in  the  reign  of  Trajau 
(A.D.  116)  they  rose  upon  the  native  inhabitants,  under  a  certain  Artemio,  and 
slew  240,000  of  them  in  one  terrible  massacre.  The  revolt  was  suppressed  by 
Hadrian  with  awful  severity,  and  after  that  time  no  Jew  might  set  foot  upon 
the  shore  of  Cyprus  on  pain  of  death.3 

Of  their  work  at  Salamis  we  are  told  nothing,  except  that  "  they  continued 

1  Acts  ixi.  16.  »  Acts  xl.  20. 

*  Strabo,  xiv.  682 ;  Tao,  H.  II.  2,  4;  Jos.  Antt.  xiii.  10,  §  4;  xvl.  4,  §  5 ;  xvil.  12,  §§ 
1,  2 ;  B.  J.  ii.  7,  §  2 ;  Philo,  Leg.,  p.  587 ;  Milman,  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii.  111.  For  its  ancient 
history  see  Meursius,  Opp.  iii. ;  for  its  modern  condition,  now  so  interwkiiig  to  us,  see 
General  Cteuola's  Cyprua, 


196  THE  LIVE  AND  WOSfC  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

preaching  the  word  of  God  in  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews." l  It  appears 
from  this  that  Salamis  was  one  of  the  towns  whore  the  Jews'  quarter  was 
sufficiently  populous  to  maintain  several  synagogues;  and  if  the  Apostles 
came  in  contact  with  the  heathen  at  all,  it  would  only  be  with  proselytes. 
But  the  notices  of  this  part  of  their  journey  are  scant,  nor  is  any  indication 
given  of  the  length  of  their  stay  in  Cyprus.  Any  work  among  the  Gentiles 
was  doubtless  hindered  by  the  apotheosis  of  sensuality  for  which  the  island 
was  noted.  The  contact  of  Greeks  with  Phoenicians  had  caused  a  fusion 
between  the  subtle  voluptuousness  of  the  Hellenic  race  and  the  more  burning 
passion  of  the  Phoenicians  and  other  Orientals ;  and  the  maritime  population 
who  touched  at  the  island  from  every  civilised  country  were  ready  learners  in 
the  school  of  degradation.  Yenus  was  the  presiding  goddess;  and  as  she 
received  from  this  fact  her  name  of  Cypris,  so  she  was  most  commonly 
alluded  to  in  the  poets  as  the  Paphian,  Amathusian,  or  Idalian,  from  her 
temples  in  various  parts  of  the  island.  She  was 

"  Idalian  Aphrodite,  beautiful, 
Fresh  as  the  foam,  new  bathed  in  Paphian  wells." 

It  was  hitherward  that  she  came  as  Aphrodite  Anadyomeue,  when 

"  From  the  sea 

She  rose  and  floated  in  her  pearly  shell, 
A  laughing  girl." 

It  was  by  these  "  purple  island  sides  "  that  she  first 

"  Fleeted  a  double  light  in  air  and  wave." 

Yet  in  the  Paphian  temple,  where  no  blood  was  offered,  where  her  immemorial 
shrine,  famous  even  in  the  days  of  Homer,2  breathed  from  a  hundred  altars 
the  odour  of  perpetual  incense,3  and  where  kings  and  emperors  turned  aside  to 
do  her  homage,  the  image  which  was  enshrined  in  her  adytum  was  110 
exquisite  female  figure  sculptured  by  the  hand  of  a  Phidias  or  a  Scopas,  but 
a  coarse  truncated  cone  of  white  marble4 — a  sort  of  Asherah — such  as  might 
naturally  serve  as  the  phallic  symbol  of  the  Assyrian  and  Sidonian  deity  from 
whom  this  form  of  nature-worship  was  derived.6  And  as  her  temples  had  the 
right  of  asylum — a  right  which  was  certain  to  crowd  their  vicinity  with 
criminals  of  every  variety — we  might  have  conjectured,  apart  from  direct 
testimony,  that  the  worship  was  to  the  last  degree  debasing ;  that  the  Paphian 

1  Acts  xiii.  5,  KarfrftUuv.  s  Horn.  Od.  8,  362.  8  Virg.  Mn.  1.  417. 

4  As  it  was  white  (TO  S*  ayoA/ua  OVK  a.v  ciiedarai?  aAAw  no  i)  nvpajuu'St  AevKjj)  there  cannot  be 
much  doubt  that  it  was  of  marble,  though.  Maximus  Tyr.  adds  >'(  S«  v\r\  ayvod-rai.  (Di&t. 
8,  8).  "  Apud  Cyprios  Venus  in  modum  umbilici,  vel  ut  quidam  volunt,  Metae,  colitur  " 
(Serv.  ad  JSn.  i.  724). 

8  Tac.  H.  ii.  3 ;  Strabo,  xiv.  683 ;  Athen.  XT.  18.  The  crescent  and  star  represented 
on  coins  as  adorning  the  front  of  the  Temple  are  perhaps  a  trace  of  the  Phoenician  origin 
of  the  worship,  and  of  the  connexion  between  the  Paphian  Venus  and  the  Phoenician 
Asherah  (Movers.  Phim.  607).  The  sun,  at  Eme&a,  had  a  similar  KovomStt  irxnn*  (Herodian. 
v.  3),  a  sort  of  potTvXioK  JuireTrfJ.  Models  of  it  were  sold  (ayoV<"iov  omffafuaibi'i  Athen. 
rv.  18). 


CTPETJ8.  197 

divinity  was  no  Aphrodite  Ourania,1  but  the  lowest  kind  of  Aphrodite  Fan- 
demos  ;  that  her  worship  was  simply  the  prostitution  of  religion  to  the  excuse 
of  lust.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  under  such  circumstances  there  should  he 
deadly  opposition  between  the  Jews  and  the  Greek  or  Phoenician  inhabitants, 
such  as  existed  of  old  between  the  Jews  and  Canaanites.  The  mutual  hatred 
thus  engendered  culminated  in  the  internecine  war  which  so  soon  broke  out 
between  the  rival  populations ;  it  may  have  been  one  of  the  reasons  why  in 
Cyprus  we  read  of  no  preaching  to  the  heathen. 

After  their  residence  in  Salamis  the  three  missionaries  traversed  the  whole 
island.8  It  is  about  a  hundred  miles  in  length  from  Salamis  to  New  Paphos ; 
and  they  probably  followed  a  main  road  along  the  coast,  diverging  to  places 
like  Citium,  the  birthplace  of  Zeno  the  Stoic ;  Amathus,  one  of  the  shrines  of 
Venus  ;  and  any  towns  where  they  would  find  the  little  Ghettos,  whoso 
conversion  to  the  faith  was  their  prime  object.  But  not  one  incident  of  their 
journey  is  preserved  for  us  until  they  reached  the  town  of  Paphos.  By  this 
name  is  intended,  as  the  narrative  shows,  not  the  old  and  famous  Paphos,  the 
modern  Kuklia,  to  which  wanton  pilgrimages  were  yearly  made  in  honour  of 
the  old  shrine  so  "  famous-infamous "  for  many  ages,  but  Nea-Paphos,3  the 
modern  Baffa,  now  a  decayed  and  mouldering  village,  but  then  a  bustling 
haven,  and  the  residence  of  the  Boman  Proconsul  Sergius  Paulus.* 

It  does  not  in  any  way  impugn  the  claim  of  Sergius  Paulus  to  be  regarded 
as  a  person  of  intelligence  that  he  had  with  him,  apparently  residing  in  his 
house,  a  Jewish  impostor  named  Bar- Jesus,  who  had  arrogated  to  himself  the 
complimentary  title  of  Elymas,  the  Ulemah,  or  "Wizard.5  A  notorious  infidel 
like  Philippe  £galite*,  though  in  other  respects  a  man  of  ability,  could  yet  try 
to  presage  his  fate  by  the  sort  of  cup-augury  involved  in  examining  the 
grounds  of  coffee  (K.v\nco/j.dt>Tfta ;  cf .  Gen.  xliv.  5).  A  belief  in  some  personal 
Power,  the  arbiter  of  man's  destiny,  above  and  beyond  himself,  is  a  primary 
necessity  of  the  human  mind.  Mankind  can  never  dispense  with  this  belief, 
however  superfluous,  in  certain  cases,  and  for  a  time,  it  may  seem  to  be  to  the 
individual.  The  noble  Romans  who  had  lost  all  firm  hold  on  the  national 
religion,  felt  themselves  driven  by  a  kind  of  instinctive  necessity  to  get  such  a 
connexion  with  the  unseen  world  as  could  be  furnished  them  by  the  mysticism 
of  Oriental  quacks.  A  Marius  had  resorted  to  the  prognostications  of  the 
Jewess  Martha.  At  this  particular  epoch  augurs,  haruspices,  Babylonians, 

1  The  Virgin  Mary  is  adored  by  Cypriotes  under  the  name  Aphrodvtissa  I    (Lohber, 
Cyprus,  p.  105.) 

2  Acts  xiii.  6,  tu\06rm  M  5\r,v  -njv  tnj<n»>  M,  A,  B,  0,  D,  E.     In  omitting  °^  our  version 
follows  G,  H. 

3  "  The  dance,  music,  and  song  of  the  sacred  processions  of  3,000  years  ago  have  been 
replaced  by  the  coo-coo-vaie  of  the  owl,  and  wild  cries  of  other  night-birds,  and  the 

*•  -.i^"1118  bark  of  famished  dogs,  left  behind  by  no  less  famished  masters,  to  roam  the 
8.1 .         '  village  in  search  of  carrion.    This  is  the  Paphos  of  to-day "  (Cesnola's  Cyprus, 

P-  2}®'    „  -  XVL,  "  The  Proconsulate  of  Sergius  Paulua." 

tf81**  -      -^ys,  "  filim  ou  sage  ....  mot  arabe  dont  le  pluriel  est  ovttma. 
owever,  ^.      ,«,u  ,j  en  aramgen .  ce  QUJ  ren<j  fort  douteuse  cette  6tymologie 


198  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  Off  ST.  PAUL. 

mathematici,  astrologers,  magians,  soothsayers,  casters  of  horoscopes,  fortune- 
tellers, ventriloquists,  dream-interpreters,1  flocked  to  Rome  in  such  multitudes! 
and  acquired  such  vogue,  as  to  attract  the  indignant  notice  of  both  satirists 
and  historians.  A  few  of  them — like  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  and  at  a  later 
period,  Alexander  of  Abonoteichos,  and  the  cynic  Peregrinus — attracted 
universal  attention.  There  was  scarcely  a  Roman  family  that  did  not  keep  or 
consult  its  own  foreteller  of  the  future ;  and  Juvenal  describes  the  Emperor 
Tiberius  as  seated  "with  a  herd  of  Chaldseans"  on  his  rock  at  Capri.2  Nothing 
would  be  more  natural  than  that  an  intelligent  and  inquiring  Roman,  in  the 
ennui  of  the  smallest  of  the  provinces,  and  finding  himself  amid  a  mixed  popu- 
lation, half  of  Phoenician  origin,  and  devoted  to  strange  forms  of  religion, 
should  have  amused  his  leisure  by  inquiries  into  the  bizarre  superstitions  by 
which  he  was  surrounded.3  The  prevalence  of  earthqnf>Kes  in  Cyprus  would 
be  likely  to  give  to  the  minds  of  the  residents  that  g/fi-omy  and  credulous  tinge 
which  is  often  found  in  countries  liable  to  such  terrible  inflictions ;  and  New 
Paphos  had  been  devastated  by  an  earthquake  sufficiently  recent4  to  have  left 
a  deep  impression.  Perhaps  from  this,  perhaps  from  other  causes,  Bar-Jesus 
had  acquired  unusual  influence ;  but  it  is  an  additional  confirmation  of  the 
accuracy  of  St.  Luke— one  of  those  remote  and  incidental,  and  therefore 
unsuspected  confirmations,  which  so  often  occur  to  establish  the  veracity  of  the 
sacred  writers — that  we  find  Cyprus  to  have  been  specially  famous  for  its 
schools  of  religious  imposture,  of  which  one  was  professedly  Jewish.  Simon 
Magus  was  in  all  probability  an  inhabitant  of  Citium.6  There  is  a  most 
singular  passage  of  Pliny,  which,  when  we  combine  it  with  his  reference  to  a 
Sergius  Paulus,  may  be  regarded  as  a  confused  echo  in  the  mind  of  the  Roman 
litterateur  of  these  very  events,  heard  from  the  very  Proconsul  about  whom 
we  are  at  present  reading.  He  tells  us  that  there  were  at  Paphos  two  schools 
of  soothsayers,  one  of  which  professed  connexion  with  Moses,  Jamnes,  and 
Jotapes,  who  were  Jews,  and  a  much  more  recent  Cyprian  one.6  To  this 
school  Bar- Jesus  must  have  belonged,  and  Pliny's  allusion  throws  once  more 
a  singular  light  on  the  fidelity  of  the  careful  Evangelist.7 

The  same  feelings  which  had  induced  Sergius  Paulus  to  domicile  the  Jewish 
sorcerer  in  the  proconsular  residence  would  naturally  induce  him  to  send  for 
the  new  teachers,  whose  mission  had  evidently  attracted  attention  by  that 
loving  earnestness  which  differed  so  widely  from  the  contemptuous  neutrality 

1  Juv.  iii.  27.     "Augur,  schoenobates,  medicus,  magus." 

»  Tac.  H.  v.  3;  Hor.  Sat.  I.  ii.  1 ;  Od.  I.  xi.  2 ;  JUT.  Sat.  ffl.  42,  60;  vi.  543,  553,  562; 
x.  93;  Suet.  Tib.  36,  69;  Axil.  Gell.  L  9;  JOB.  Antt.  viii.  2;  xx.  5,  §  1 ;  B.  J.  vi.  5,  §  L 
Compare  Matt.  xxiv.  23,  24 ;  Acts  viii  9 ;  xvi  16 ;  xix.  19 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  13  (tfots} ;  Rev. 
xix.  20. 

»  See  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  7,  §  2. 

4  In  the  reign  of  Augustus  (Dion  Cass.  fiv.  23).  *  Supra,  p.  146. 

8  Tac.  H.  v.  3.  Plin.  H.  N.  xxx.  2, 6,  "Est  et  alia  factio  a  Mose  et  Jamne  et  Jotape 
Judaeis  pendens,  sed  multis  millibus  post  Zoroastrem.  Tcmto  recentior  est  Cypria."  In 
Jamnes  and  Jotapes  there  seems  to  be  some  dim  confusion  of  supposed  Jews  with  the 
traditional  Egyptian  magicians  Jannes  and  Jambiea  (2  Tim,  iii.  8). 

7  Lake  i.  3,  a«pi0wf  irapi|xoAov0>}KOTi< 


CYPRUS.  199 

of  the  synagogue.  But  the  position  of  soothsayer  to  s  Roman  Proconsul— 
even  though  it  conld  only  last  a  year1 — was  too  distinguished  and  too  lucrative 
to  abandon  without  a  struggle.  Elymas  met  the  Apostles  in  open  controversy, 
and  spared  neither  argument  nor  insult  in  his  endeavour  to  persuade  Sergius 
of  the  absurdity  of  the  new  faith.  Instantly  Saul — and  this  is  the  moment 
seized  by  the  historian  to  tell  us  that  he  was  also  called  by  the  name  of  Paul, 
which  henceforth  he  exclusively  uses — came  to  the  front  to  bear  the  full  force 
of  the  sorcerer's  opposition.  A  less  convinced  or  a  less  courageous  man  might 
well  have  shrunk  from  individual  collision  with  a  personage  who  evidently 
occupied  a  position  of  high  consideration  in  the  immediate  household  of  the 
noble  Roman.  But  to  a  spirit  like  St.  Paul's,  while  there  could  be  infinite 
compassion  for  ignorance,  infinite  sympathy  with  infirmity,  infinite  tenderness 
towards  penitence,  there  could,  on  the  other  hand,  be  no  compromise  with  im- 
posture, no  tolerance  for  cupidity,  no  truce  with  Canaan.  He  stood  up,  as  it 
were,  in  a  flame  of  fire,  his  soul  burning  with  inspired  indignation,  against  a 
man  whose  cowardice,  greed,  and  worthlessness  he  saw  and  wished  to  expose. 
Fixing  on  the  false  prophet  and  sorcerer  that  earnest  gaze  which  was  perhaps 
rendered  more  conspicuous  by  his  imperfect  sight,2  he  exclaimed,  "  O  full  of 
all  gnile  and  all  villainy,  thou  son  of  the  devil,3  thou  foe  of  all  righteousness, 
cease,  wilt  thou,  thy  perversion  of  the  Lord's  straight  paths."  And  then, 
perceiving  the  terror  produced  on  the  mind  of  the  unmasked  hypocrite  by  this 
bold  and  blighting  invective,  he  suddenly  added,  "  And  now,  see,  the  Lord's 
hand  is  upon  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  blind,  not  seeing  the  sun  for  a  time."4 
The  denunciation  instantly  took  effect ;  the  sorcerer  felt  in  a  moment  that  his 
impostures  were  annihilated,  that  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  an  avenging 
justice.  A  mist  swam  before  his  eyes,  followed  by  total  darkness,  and 
groping  with  outstretched  hands  he  began  to  seek  for  some  one  to  lead  and 
guide  him. 

Nor  was  it  strange  that  a  display  of  spiritual  power  so  startling  and  so 
irresistible  should  produce  a  strong  conviction  on  the  mind  of  the  Proconsul.6 
How  far  his  consequent  belief  was  deep-seated  or  otherwise  wa  have  no  evidence 
which  would  enable  us  to  judge.  But  the  silence  of  St.  Luke  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  he  was  not  baptised,  and  we  can  hardly  look  on  him  as  a  deep  and 
lifelong  convert,  since  otherwise  we  should,  in  the  rarity  of  great  men  in  the 
Christian  community,  have  as  certainly  heard  of  him  in  their  records  as  we 

1  Dion  Cassius  tells  us  that  them  senatorial  appointments  were  «rmj<r«>i  «al  n^purei 
(UiL13). 

s  Cf.  Acts  xriii.  1. 

8  Possibly  in  allusion  to  his  name  Bar-Jesus — as  though  he  had  said,  "  called  the  son 
of  the  salvation  of  Jehovah,  but  really  the  son  of  the  devil,  and  the  enemy  of  all 
righteousness."  For  £io/3dAot  of.  John  viii.  44.  The  reading  of  the  Peshito  Ba/r-Skfirna, 
"  son  of  a  wound  "  or  "son  of  a  name,"  is  hard  to  account  for,  unless  it  be  by  euphemism 
(Castell,  Lex  Syr.  s.  v.). 

4  Acts  xiii.  11,  axpi  /taipov,  literally,  "  until  an  opportunity,"  or,  as  we  should  say,  "  foi 
the  present."  "Sciebat  Apostolus,  sui  memor  exempli,  de  tenebris  oculorum,  mentis 
posse  resurgere  ad  luoem ; "  Bede,— following  the  hint  of  St.  Chrysostom  that  ov  noXa^ww 
V  TO  pnua  oAA'  ciricrrpciocroti 

*  Aot3«ii.l2. 


200  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL, 

hear  of  the  very  few  who  at  this  period — like  Flavins  Clemens  of  Flavia  Domi- 
tilla — joined  the  Church  from  the  ranks  of  the  noble  or  the  mighty. 

The  question  has  been  often  asked  why  it  is  at  this  point  in  the  narrative 
that  the  name  Saul  is  finally  replaced  by  the  name  PauL1  The  old  answer 
supplied  by  St.  Jerome,  that  he  took  the  name  as  a  trophy  of  his  conversion  of 
Sergius  Paulus,  has  long  and  deservedly  been  abandoned ;  there  would  have 
been  in  it  an  element  of  vulgarity  impossible  to  St.  Paul.  Nor  is  there  any- 
thing to  urge  in  favour  of  the  fancy  that  he  took  the  name  as  a  token  of 
his  humility,  to  signify  that  he  was  "  the  least  of  the  Apostles."  2  It  is  much 
more  probable  that  he  had  either  possessed  from  the  first  an  alternative 
name  for  facility  of  intercourse  among  the  heathen,  or  that  this  Roman 
designation  may  point  to  his  possession  of  the  Roman  franchise,  and  perhaps 
to  some  bond  of  association  between  his  father  or  grandfather  and  the 
./Emilian  family,  who  bore  the  cognomen  of  Paulus.  If  he  adopted  the  name 
on  the  present  occasion  it  may  have  been  because  it  was  to  a  slight  extent 
alliterative  with  his  Hebrew  name  Shaul,  which  would,  in  its  Grecised  form, 
be  represented  by  Saulos ;  but  that  was  a  form  which  he  could  not  use 
in  intercourse  with  the  Greeks,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  word  in  Greek 
would  be  a  sort  of  slang  term  for  "  uppish,"  or  wanton.  The  mere  changing 
of  his  name  was  so  little  unusual  that  it  had  been  from  the  earliest  ages 
a  custom  among  his  countrymen.  Joseph  had  been  known  to  the  Egyptians 
as  Zaphnath  Paaneah ;  Daniel  to  the  Assyrians  as  Belteshazzar ;  Hadassah  to 
the  Persians  as  Esther;  Jesus,  Hillel,  Onias,  Joseph,  Tarpho  to  the  Greeks 
as  Jason,  Pollio,  Menelas,  Hegesippus,  and  Trypho.  When  not  assonant  the 
name  was  sometimes  a  translation,  as  Peter  is  of  Cephas,  and  Didymns 
of  Thomas.  Sometimes,  however,  this  name  for  use  among  the  Gentiles  was 
due  to  accidental  relations,  as  when  Josephus  took  the  praenomem  of  Flavins 
in  honour  of  Vespasian.  Of  this  we  have  other  instances,  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  in  the  persons  of  John  and  Joses,  who  were  known  by  the  Latin 
designations  of  Marcus  and  Justus.  In  Paul's  case,  however,  as  ancient 
Christian  writers  have  pointed  out,  the  change  of  name  marks  also  a  total 
change  in  all  the  conditions  of  his  life.  "  Paul  suffers  what  Saul  had  inflicted ; 
Saul  stoned,  and  Paul  was  stoned;  Saul  inflicted  scourgings  on  Christians, 
and  Paul  five  times  received  forty  stripes  save  one ;  Saul  hunted  the  Church 
of  God,  Paul  was  let  down  in  a  basket ;  Saul  bound,  Paul  was  bound."8 

1  "  A  primo  ecclesiae  spolio  Proo.  Serg.  Paulo  victoriae  suae  trophaea  retulit,  erexitque 
vexillum  ut  Paulus  a  Saulo  vocaretur  "  (Jer.  ad  Philem.  1).    In  the  Toldoth  Jeshu  the 
name  is  connected  with  ^Q,  "  he  worked."    If  so,  both  words  being  passive  participles, 
the  change  would  be  like  a  change  from  "sought"  to  "wrought;"  and  I  cannot  nelp 
thinking  that  the  true  explanation  may  lie  here.    Heinrichs  explains  SavAo?  6«,  6  «u 
DaOXos     der  auch,  so  wie  der  Proconsul,  ebenfalls  Paulus  hiess." 

2  Paulus.  a  contraction  of  Pauxillus,  means  "least."    "Paulus  enim  parvus  "  (Aug. 
Serm.  clxix.).     "  Non  ob  aliud,  quantum  mihi  videtur  hoc  nomen  elegit  nisi  ut  se  osten- 
deret  tamquam  minimum  Apostolorum"  (Aug.  De  Spir.  et  Lit.  xii.).    With  his  usual 
exuberancei>f  fancy  he  contrasts  the  "  little  "  Saul  of  Benjamin,  with  the  tall  persecuting 
king.     But  in  Conf.  viii.  4  he  leans  to  the  other  theory,  "Ipse  minimus  Apostolorum 
tuorum,  &c.     .    .    .    Paulus  vocari  amavit  ob  tarn  magnae  insigne  victoriae. 

•  Ap.  Aug.  Append,  Serm.  204. 


OT   PISIDIA.  201 


CHAPTER  XX. 

ANTIOCH    IN    PISIDIJL 

"  Kespondebit  tibi  Evangelica  tuba.  Doctor  Gentium,  vas  auroum  in  toto  orbe 
reeplendens."  —  JER.  Adv.  Pelag,  Dial,  iii.,  p.  645. 

HAVING  now  traversed  Cyprus,  "  Paul  and  his  company"  —  to  uso  the  expres- 
sion by  which  St.  Luke  so  briefly  intimates  that  the  whole  force  of  the 
mission  was  now  identified  with  one  man  —  weighed  anchor  from  Paphos  f.u- 
Perga  in  Patnphylia.  Whether  they  chose  Perga  as  thoir  destination  in 
accordance  with  any  preconceived  plan,  or  whether  it  was  a  part  of  "  God's 
unseen  Providence  by  men  nicknamed  chance,"  we  do  not  know.  It  was  not 
easy  for  an  ancient  traveller  to  go  exactly  in  what  direction  he  liked,  and  ha 
was  obliged,  in  the  circumscribed  navigation  of  those  days,  to  be  guided  in  his 
movements  by  the  accident  of  finding  vessels  which  were  bound  for  particular 
ports.1  Now  between  Paphos,  the  political  capital  of  Cyprus,  and  Perga,  the 
capital  of  Pamphylia,  there  was  in  that  day  a  constant  intercourse,  as  would 
probably  still  be  the  case  between  Satalia  and  the  western  port  of  Cyprus  but 
for  the  dangerous  character  of  the  now  neglected  harbour  of  Baffa.  For  Perga 
then,  the  missionaries  embarked.  They  sailed  into  the  deep  bight  of 
Attaleia,  and  up  the  broad,  and  in  those  days  navigable,  stream  of  the  Cesfcrua, 
and  anchored  under  the  cliffs,  which  were  crowned  by  the  acropolis  of  the 
bright  Greek  city  and  the  marble  pillars  of  its  celebrated  Temple  of 
Artemis, 

But  at  Porga  they  made  no  stay,  and  thoir  visit  was  only  marked  by 
a  single  but  disheartening  incident.  This  was  the  desertion  by  John  Mark  of 
the  mission  cause  ;  "  separating  from  them,  ho  returned  to  Jerusalem."  The 
causes  which  led  him  thus  to  look  back  after  he  had  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough  are  not  mentioned,  but  it  is  evident  that  to  the  ardent  soul  of  Paul,  at 
any  rate,  they  appezirod  blameworthy,  for  we  shall  see  that  he  subsequently 
refused  the  companionship  of  one  who  had  shown  such  deficient  resolution.2 
It  is,  however,  but  too  easy  to  conjecture  the  mixed  motives  by  which 
Mark  was  actuated.  He  was  young.  The  novelty  of  the  work  had  worn  oif  . 
Its  hardships,  even  under  the  favourable  circumstances  in  Cyprus,  had  not 
been  slight.  His  mother  was  at  Jerusalem,  perhaps  alono,  perhaps  exposed  to 
persecution.  It  may  be.  too,  that  the  young  man  saw  and  resented  the  growing 
ascendency  of  Paul  over  his  cousin  Barnabas.  And  besides  all  this,  Mark, 
bred  up  in  the  very  bosom  of  tho  Church  at  Jerusalem,  may  lave  felt  serious 
misgivings  about  tho  tendency  of  that  liberal  theology,  that  broad 
universalism  of  proffered  admission  into  tho  Church,  which  seemed  to  throw 
into  the  background  tho  immemorial  sanctity,  not  only  of  tho  oral  but  ovou  of 
the  written  Law.  Such  may  have  been  tho  yearnings,  tho  misgivings, 
the  half-unconscious  jealousies  and  resentments  which  filled  his  mind,  ami 

1  See  the  chapter  on  ancient  modes  of  travel  in  Friedlander,  Siltetigesch.  Earns. 
*  Acts  rv.  38. 


202  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

whatever  may  have  been  the  qualms  of  conscience  which  might  otherwise 
have  troubled  his  desertion  of  the  sacred  task,  these  excuses  and  arguments 
for  doing  so  must  have  met  with  a  powerful  ally  in  the  circumstances  which 
were  evidently  before  them. 

For  as  Mark  gazed  on  the  mighty  chain  of  Taurus,  and  remembered  that 
they  were  now  about  to  penetrate  countries  of  shifting  languages,  of  unsettled 
government,  of  semi -barbarous  populations,  of  strangely  mingled  worships, 
the  brigand  fastnesses  of  Pamphylians,  Selgonses,  Pisidians,  Lycaonians, 
Isauriaus,  Cilicians,  Cliti,  Homotlanensos,1  he  may  not  have  been  sorry  to 
conceal  dislike  to  the  task  on  which  he  had  entered  under  the  plea  of 
filial  duty.  At  the  time  his  defection  must  have  been  to  Paul,  even  more 
thnn  to  Barnabas,  a  positive  misfortune.  Barnabas,  though  he  clung  to  his 
friend  and  fellow-labourer  with  entire  whole-heartedness,  must  yet  have 
missed  the  genial  brightness,  the  graphic  utterance,  the  quick  spirit  of 
observation  with  which  his  cousin  relieved  the  sombre  absorption  of  Paul  in 
his  immediate  purpose ;  and  Paul,  who  ever  loved  the  personal  services  of 
younger  companions,  must  have  been  a  little  embittered,  as  daily  worries, 
became  more  trying  in  the  absence  of  a  vigorous  comrade.  There  must  have 
been  in  his  heart  a  feeling  of  indignation  against  one  who  forsook  them  at 
the  very  moment  when  ho  could  least  bo  replaced,  and  when  the  difficulties 
which  he  could  so  greatly  have  lightened  began  to  assume  their  most  formid- 
able shape. 

So  Mark  left  them,  and  the  Apostles  at  once  made  their  way  towards  the 
interior.  Although  we  are  not  told  of  any  synagogue  at  Perga,  yet,  since 
they  preached  there  on  their  return  journey,  there  must  have  been  some 
special  reason  for  their  now  leaving  the  place.  This  reason  has  been  found  in 
the  probability  that  they  reached  the  town  towards  the  middle  of  spring,8 
when  the  entire  population  of  the  cities  on  the  plain  and  sea-coast  are  in  the 
habit  of  moving  inland  to  the  yailahs,  or,  as  they  would  be  called  in  Switzer- 
land, "  aZps,"  or  mountain  pastures,  which  enable  them  to  escape  the  fierce 
and  malarious  heat  of  the  lower  regions.3  It  would  be  useless  to  preach  in 
Perga  at  the  very  time  that  its  main  population  were  deserting  it ;  and  any  of 
the  numerous  caravans  or  family-migrations,  which  wore  filling  the  roads  and 
passes  with  mules  and  camels  and  herds  of  cattle,  would  furnish  the  Apostles 
with  company  and  protection.  Without  such  escort  it  would  have  boon  im- 
prudent, if  not  impossible,  for  them  to  make  their  way  by  those  dangerous 
roads  where  it  is  probable  that  the  snow-drifts  still  lay  in  many  places,  and 
they  might  often  find  the  bridges  shattered  and  swept  away  by  tho  sudden 
spates  of  rushing  streams. 

The  few  modern  travellers  who  have  visited  these  parts  of  Asia  Minor 

1  Strabo,  xii.  6,  7.     See  Lewin,  1.  130,  sqq. 

2  Con.  and  Howson,  i.  177,  who  quote  Spratt  and  Forbes,  Travels  in  Lycia,  i.  43,  242, 
213  ;  Fellowes,  Lycia,  238. 

*  A  striking  description  of  snch  a  migration  among  the  Kirghiz  Tartars  may  be  found 
In  Mr.  Atkinson's  Travels. 


ANTIOCH   IN   PISIDLA.  208 

have  furnished  us  with  minute  and  picturesque  descriptions  of  the  abrupt 
stone-paved  ascents;  the  sarcophagi  and  sculptured  tombs  among  the  pro- 
jecting rocks ;  the  narrowing  valleys  through  which  the  rivers  descend,  and 
over  which  frown  precipices  perforated  with  many  caves  ;  the  sudden  bursts 
of  magnificent  prospect  in  which  you  gaze  "  from  the  rocky  stops  of  the 
throne  of  winter  upon  the  rich  and  verdant  plain  of  summer,  with  the 
blue  sea  in  the  distance ; "  the  constant  changes  of  climate ;  the  zones  of 
vegetation  through  which  the  traveller  ascends ;  the  gleam  of  numberless 
cascades  caught  hero  and  there  amid  the  dark  pine  groves  that  clothe  the 
lower  slopes ;  the  thickets  of  pomegranate  and  oleander  that  mantle  the  river- 
beds ;  the  wild  flowers  that  enamel  the  grass  with  their  rich  inlay ;  the 
countless  ilocks  of  cattle  grazing  over  pastures  whose  interminable  expanses 
are  only  broken  by  the  goat's-hair  huts  of  the  shepherd,  made  to  this  day  of 
the  same  material  as  that  by  the  manufacture  of  which  St.  Paul  earned  his 
daily  bread.  And  when  the  traveller  has  emerged  on  the  vast  central  plateau 
of  Asia  Minor  they  describe  the  enchanting  beauty  of  the  fresh  and  salt  water 
lakes  by  which  the  road  often  runs  for  miles ;  the  tortoises  that  sun  them- 
selves in  the  shallow  pools ;  the  flights  of  wild  swans  which  now  fill  the  air 
with  rushing  wings,  and  now  "  ruffle  their  pure  cold  plumes "  upon  the 
waters ;  the  storks  that  stand  for  hours  patiently  fishing  in  the  swampy  pools. 
Such  must  have  been  the  sights  which  everywhere  greeted  the  eyes  of  Paul 
and  Barnabas  as  they  made  their  way  from  Perga  to  the  Pisidian  Antioch. 
They  would  have  filled  a  modern  missionary  with  rapture,  and  the  feelings  of 
gratitude  and  adoi'ation  with  which  a  Martyn  or  a  Heber  would  have  "  climbed 
by  these  sunbeams  to  the  Father  of  Lights  "  would  have  gone  far  to  help 
them  in  the  endurance  of  their  hard  and  perilous  journeys.  Mungo  Park,  in 
a  touching  passage,  has  described  how  his  soul,  fainting  within  him  to  the 
very  point  of  death,  was  revived  by  seeing  amid  the  scant  herbage  of  the 
desert  a  single  tuft  of  emerald  moss,  with  its  delicate  filaments  and  amber 
spores;  and  the  journals  of  those  whose  feet  in  recent  days  have  been 
beautiful  upon  the  mountains  over  which  they  carried  the  message  of  peace, 
abound  in  passages  delightfully  descriptive  of  the  scenes  through  which  they 
passed,  and  which  they  regarded  as  aisle  after  aisle  iu  the  magnificent  temple 
of  the  one  true  God.  But,  as  wo  have  already  noticed,  of  no  such  feeling  is 
there  a  single  trace  in  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  or  of  his  historian.  The 
love  of  natural  scenery,  which  to  moderns  is  a  source  of  delight  so  continuous 
and  so  intense,  was  little  known  to  the  ancients  in  general,  and  in  spite 
of  a  few  poetic  exceptions,  was  known  perhaps  to  the  Semites  of  that  ago 
least  of  all.1  How  often  did  Paul  climb  the  mountain  passes  of  the  Taurus ; 
how  often  had  ho  seen  Olympus 

"  Soaring  snow-clad  through  its  native  sky ;" 
how  often  had  he  passed  on  foot  by  "  the  great  rivers  that  move  like  God's 

1  St.  Paul  was  eminently  a  homo  desideriorum  ;  a  man  who,  like  all  the  beat 
lived  in  the  hopes  of  the  future  (Kom.  riii.  24 ;  xv.  4;  Tit.  ii.  13,  &c.). 


204  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

eternity  ;  "  how  often  had  his  barque  furrowed  the  blue  waters  of  the 
among  those 

"  Sprinkled  isles, 

Lily  on  lily,  which  o'erlace  the  sea, 

And  laugh  their  pride  when  the  light  wave  lisps  Greece  !  " 

But  all  these  scenes  of  glory  and  loveliness  left  no  impression  upon  his  mind, 
or  have  at  least  left  no  trace  upon  his  page.1  We  might  pity  the  loss  which 
he  thus  suffered,  and  regret  the  ineffectualness  of  a  source  of  consolation 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  ever  at  hand,  were  it  not  that  to  St.  Paul 
such  consolations  were  needless.  The  soul  that  lived  in  heaven,2  the  thoughts 
which  were  full  of  immortality,  the  conviction  that  the  Lord  was  at  hand,  the 
yearning  for  the  souls  for  which  Clirist  died  —  made  up  to  him  for  all  besides. 
God  would  have  granted  all  other  consolations  had  he  needed  them  ;  but  the 
steps  which  were  ever  on  the  golden  streets  of  the  New  Jerusalem  trod  heed- 
lessly over  the  volcanic  soil  of  a  world  treasured  up  with  the  stores  of  fire  which 
should  hereafter  reduce  it  to  ashes.3  The  goblet  which  was  full  of  the  new 
wine  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  had  no  room  in  it  for  the  fruit  of  the  vine  of 
even  those  earthly  pleasures  which  are  of  all  others  the  most  innocent,  the 
most  universal,  and  the  most  blest. 

Nor  must  we  fail  to  see  that  there  was  an  advantage  as  well  as  a  disadvan- 
tage in  this  absorption.  If  St.  Paul  never  alludes  to  the  transcendent  beauties 
of  the  lands  through  which  ho  travelled,  so  neither  does  one  word  escape  him 
about  the  recurrent  annoyances,  the  perpetual  minor  discomforts  and  vex- 
ations of  travel.  The  journals  of  modern  wanderers  tell  us  of  the  drenching 
rains,  the  glaring  heats,  the  terrible  fatigues,  the  incessant  publicity,  tho  stings 
of  insects,  tho  blinding  storms  of  dust,  the  trying  changes  of  season,  the 
scarcity  and  badness  of  provisions.  But  to  Paul  all  these  trivial  burdens, 
which  often,  nevertheless,  require  more  heroism  for  their  patient  endurance 
than  those  more  serious  perils  which  summon  up  all  our  fortitude  for  their 
conquest  or  resistance,  were  as  nothing.  He  felt  the  tedium  and  the  miseries 
of  travel  as  little  as  he  cared  for  its  rewards.  All  these  things  had  no  bearing 
on  his  main  purpose  ;  they  belonged  to  the  indifferent  things  of  life. 

And  so  the  Apostles  made  their  way  up  the  valley  of  the  Oestrus,  passed 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  tho  large  and  beautiful  Like  Eyerdir,  and  af  tor  a 
journey  of  some  forty  leagues,  which  probably  occupied  about  a  week,  they 
arrived  at  the  flourishing  commercial  town  of  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  or  Autiochia 
Caesarea.  Wo  learn  from  Strabo  that  it  had  been  founded  by  the  Magnetos, 
re-founded  by  Seleucus,  and  subsequently  made  a  Eoinan  colony,  with  free 
municipal  government,  by  Augustus.  The  centrality  of  its  position  on  roads 


1  There  are  some  excellent  remarks  on  this  subject  in  Friedliinder,  Sittcn<jcsch> 
vii.  5,  3.  He  shows  that  the  ancients  rather  noticed  details  than  general  elfccts.  They 
never  allude  to  twilight  colours,  or  the  blue  of  distant  hills,  or  aerial  perspective. 
Landscape  painting,  the  culture  of  exotic  plants,  and  the  poetry  of  natural  history  have 
developed  those  feelings  in  the  moderns  (Humboldt's  Cosmos,  ii.). 

s  Phil.  iii.  20  ;  Eph.  ii.  6,  &c.  »  2  Pet.  iii.  7. 


ANTIOCH  IN   PISIDIA.  205 

which  communicated  southwards  with  Perga  and  Attaleia,  westwards  with 
Apamea,  northwards  with  tho  great  towns  of  Galatia,  and  eastwards  with 
Iconium  and  the  Cilician  gates,  made  it  a  great  commercial  emporium  for  the 
trade  of  Asia  Minor  in  wood,  oil,  skins,  goat's  hair,  and  Angola  wool.  Its 
triio  position — for-  it  had  long  been  confused  with  Ak-sher,  tho  ancient  Philo- 
raclium — was  discovered  by  Mr.  Arundell  in  1833.1  Conspicuous  among  its 
ruins  are  the  remains  of  a  noble  aqueduct,  which  shows  its  former  importance. 
Its  coins  are  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  prominence  given  on  the  one  hand  to 
its  colonial  privileges,  and  on  the  other  to  its  very  ancient  worship  of  the  moon 
as  a  masculine  divinity  under  the  title  of  Men  Archaios.  This  worship  had  in 
former  days  been  very  flourishing,  and  the  temple  of  Men  had  been  thronged 
with  Hieroduli,  who  lived  on  its  estates  and  revenues.  Strabo  tells  us  that, 
some  seventy  years  before  this  time,  on  the  death  of  King  Amyntas,  to  whom 
Pisidia  had  been  assigned  by  Mark  Antony,  this  temple  had  been  abolished  ; 
but  though  tho  worship  may  have  been  entirely  shorn  of  its  ancient  splendour, 
it  probably  still  lingered  among  tho  ignorant  and  aboriginal  population. 

But  the  message  of  the  Apostles  was  not  in  the  first  instance  addressed  to 
the  native  Pisiilians,  nor  to  the  Greeks,  who  formed  the  second  stratiiin  of  the 
population,  nor  to  the  Romans,  who  were  the  latest  occupants,  but  primarily  to 
the  Jews  who  had  come  thither  with  the  stream  of  Latin  immigration,  which 
secured  them  equal  privileges  with  the  other  inhabitants.  Doubtless  the  first 
care  of  the  Apostles — and  this  was  the  work  in  which  Mark  might  have  been 
specially  useful — was  to  repair  to  the  "  strangers'  rooms  "  attached  to  ther 
synagogue,  and  then  to  find  convenient  lodgings  in  the  Jews'  quarter,  and  to 
provide  means  of  securing  a  sale  for  the  cilicium,  by  the  weaving  of  which 
Paul  honourably  lived.  The  trade  only  occupied  his  hands,  without  interrupt- 
ing either  his  meditations  or  his  speech,  and  we  may  reasonably  suppose  that 
not  a  few  of  the  converts  who  loved  him  best,  were  won  rather  by  the  teach- 
ing  and  conversations  of  the  quiet  rooms  where  he  sat  busily  at  work,  than  by 
the  more  tumultuous  and  interrupted  harangues  in  the  public  synagogues. 

But  the  mission  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  was  not  meant  for  the  few  alone. 
They  always  made  a  point  of  visiting  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  and 
seizing  any  opportunity  that  offered  itself  to  address  the  congregation.  The 
visit  to  Antioch  in  Pisidia  is  rendered  interesting  by  the  scenes  which  led  to 
tho  first  sermon  of  St.  Paul  of  which  the  record  has  been  preserved. 

The  town  possessed  but  a  single  synagogue,  which  must,  therefore,  have 
been  a  Large  one.  The  arrangements  were  no  doubt  almost  identical  with 
those  which  exist  in  the  present  day  throughout  the  East.  As  they  entered 
the  low,  square,  unadorned  building,  differing  from  Gentile  places  of  worship 
by  its  total  absence  of  interior  sculpture,  they  would  see  on  one  side  the  lattice- 
work partition,  behind  which  eat  a  crowd  of  veiled  and  silent  women.  In  front 
of  these  would  be  the  reader's  desk,  and  in  its  immediate  neighbourhood, 

1  It  is  near  the  insignificant  modern  town  of  Jalobatz,  and  its  identity  is  rendered 
certain  by  coins  and  inscriptions.  (See  Arundell,  Asia  Mi'iwr,  ch.  xii.  ;  Hamilton, 
Rcteaarche*  in  Asia  Minor,  i.,  ch.  xxrii. ;  in  Con.  and  Hows.  i.  182.) 


206  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL* 

facing  the  rest  of  the  congregation,  those  chief  seats  which  Rabbis  and 
Pharisees  were  so  eager  to  secure.  The  Killeh,  or  sacred  direction  towards 
which  all  prayer  was  offered,  was  Jerusalem ;  and  on  that  side  would  be  the 
curtain,  behind  which  was  the  ark  containing  the  sacred  rolls.1  Paul,  as  a 
former  Sanhedrist,  aud  Barnabas,  as  a  Levite,  and  both  of  them  as  men  of 
superior  Jewish  education,  might  fairly  have  claimed  to  sit  in  the  chairs  or 
benches  set  apart  for  the  elders.  But  perhaps  they  had  been  told  what  their 
Lord  had  said  on  the  subject,  and  took  their  seats  among  the  ordinary  wor- 
shippers.2 

Each  as  he  entered  covered  his  head  with  his  tallith,  and  the  prayers 
began.  They  were  read  by  the  Sheliach  or  "  apostle  of  the  congregation,3  who 
stood  among  the  standing  congregation.  The  language  employed  was  pro- 
bably Greek.  Hebrew  had  long  been  to  the  Jews  a  learned  language,  under- 
stood only  by  the  few,  and  in  remote  places,  like  Antioch  of  Pisidia,  known 
possibly  to  only  one  or  two.  In  spite  of  the  stiff  conservatism  of  a  few 
Rabbis,  the  Jews  as  a  nation  had  the  good  sense  to  see  that  it  would  be  useless 
to  utter  prayers  unless  they  were  "  understanded  of  the  people."  *  After  the 
prayers  followed  the  First  Lesson,  or  Parashah,  and  this,  owing  to  the  sanctity 
which  the  Jews  attached  to  the  very  sounds  and  letters  of  Scripture,  was  read 
in  Hebrew,  but  was  translated  or  paraphrased  verse  by  verso  by  the  fifeturge- 
man,  or  interpreter.  The  Chazzdn,  or  clerk  of  the  synagogue,  took  the 
Thorah-roU  from  the  ark,  and  handed  it  to  the  reader.  By  the  side  of  the 
reader  stood  the  interpreter,  unless  he  performed  that  function  for  himself,  aa 
could  be  easily  done,  since  the  Septuagint  version  was  now  universally  dis- 
seminated. After  the  Parasliah,  was  read  the  short  Haphtarah,  or  what  we 
should  call  the  Second  Lesson,  from  the  Prophets,  the  translation  into  the 
vernacular  being  given  at  the  end  of  every  three  verses.  After  this  followed 
the  Midrash,  the  exposition  or  sermon.  It  was  not  delivered  by  one  set 
minister,  but,  as  at  the  present  day  any  distinguished  stranger  who  happens 
to  be  present  is  asked  by  way  of  compliment  to  read  the  TJiorah,  so  in  those 
days  the  Bosh  ha-Keneseth  might  ask  any  one  to  preach  who  seemed  likely  to 
do  so  with  profit  to  the  worshippers.6 

Accordingly  on  this  occasion  when  the  Haphtarah  and  Parashah  were 
ended,  the  Batlanim — the  "  men  of  leisure  "  who  managed  the  affairs  of 
the  synagogue,  and  corresponded  to  our  churchwardens — sent  the  Chazzdn 
to  ask  the  strangers  if  they  had  any  word  of  exhortation  to  the  people. 
Some  rumour  that  they  were  preachers  of  a  new  and  remarkable  doctrine 
must  already  have  spread  in  the  little  Jewish  community,  and  it  was  evidently 

3  Matt,  xxiii.  6,  «-pu>TOKo8eJpi<u,  VTinp.  Philo  makes  frequent  allusions  to  the  order  and 
arrangements  of  synagogue- worship  at  this  period. 

»  13  rrto.  4  BeracMtk,  f .  8,  1 ;  Sola,  f.  21,  1. 

*  irpoe\9uv  Si  o  irpt<rf)vTa.Tot  Ktu.  ruv  Joyfiarw  </iir«ipoTaTof  JiaAry«Tai  (Philo,  Quod  OffMV 
Prob.  12).  Dr.  Frankl,  in  his  Jews  in  the  East,  tells  us  that  he  was  constantly  called 
upon  to  perform  this  function.  Full  details  of  synagogue  worship  may  be  found  in 
Maimonides,  Jad  Hachezaka  (Hilch.  Tephil.  viii.  10—12),  and  s.  T.  Haphtarah  and 
Synagogue  In  Kitto's  Cyclopadia,  by  Dr.  Ginsburg. 


ANTIOCH   IN   PISIDIA.  207 

expected  that  thoy  would  be  called  upon.  Paul  instantly  accepted  the  invi- 
tation.1 Usually  a  Jewish  preacher  sat  down  during  the  delivery  of  hia 
sermon,1  as  is  freely  doue  by  Roman  Catholics  abroad ;  but  Paul,  Instead  of 
going  to  the  pulpit,  seems  merely  to  have  risen  in  his  place,  and  with  uplifted 
arm  and  beckoning  finger 3 — in  the  attitude  of  one  who,  however  much  ho 
may  sometimes  have  been  oppressed  by  nervous  hesitancy,  is  proved  by  the 
addresses  wliich  have  been  preserved  to  us,  to  have  been  in  moments  of 
emotion  and  excitement  a  bold  orator — he  spoke  to  the  expectant  throng. 

The  sermon  in  most  instances,  as  in  the  case  of  our  Lord's  address  at 
Nazareth,  would  naturally  take  the  form  of  a  Midrash  on  what  tho  congre- 
gation had  just  heard  in  one  or  other  of  tho  two  lessons.  Such  seems  to 
have  been  the  line  taken  by  St.  Paul  in  this  his  first  recorded  sermon.  The 
occurrence  of  two  words  in  this  brief  address,  of  which  one  is  a  most  un- 
usual form,4  and  the  other  is  employed  in  a  most  unusual  meaning,5 
and  the  fact  that  these  two  words  are  found  respectively  in  the  first  of 
Deuteronomy  and  the  first  of  Isaiah,  combined  with  the  circumstance  that 
tho  historical  part  of  St.  Paul's  sermon  turns  on  the  subject  alluded  to  iu 
the  first  of  these  chapters,  and  the  promise  of  free  remission  is  directly 
suggested  by  the  other,  would  make  it  extremely  probable  that  those  were 
the  two  chapters  which  he  had  just  heard  road.  His  sermon  in  fact,  or  rather 
the  heads  of  it,  wliich  can  alone  be  given  in  tho  brief  summary  of  St.  Luke,6 
is  exactly  the  kind  of  masterly  combination  and  application  of  these  two 
Scripture  lessons  of  the  day  which  we  should  expect  from  such  a  preacher. 
And  when  turning  to  the  Jewish  Lectionary,  and  bearing  in  mind  its  ex- 
treme antiquity,  we  find  that  these  two  very  lessons  are  combined  as  tho 
Parashah  and  Haphtarah  of  the  same  Sabbath,  we  see  an  almost  convincing 
proof  that  those  were  the  two  lessons  which  had  been  read  on  that  Sabbath 
Day  in  the  synagogue  of  Antioch  more  than  1,800  years  ago.7  Here  agaiu 
we  find  another  minute  and  most  unsuspected  trace  of  the  close  faithfulness 
of  St.  Luke's  narrative,  as  well  as  an  incidental  proof  that  St.  Paul  spoke 
in  Greek.  The  latter  point,  however,  hardly  needs  proof.  Greek  was  at 
that  time  the  language  of  the  civilised  world  to  an  extent  far  greater  than 

1  We  can  hardly  imagine  that  he  showed  the  feigned  reluctance  inculcated  by  tho 
r&bbis  (Scrachdtk,  34,  1). 

2  Luke  iv.  20.  »  Cf .  Acts  xii.  17  ;  xxi.  40 ;  xxvi.  1. 

4  Acts  xiii.  18,  tTpo$o$&pi)<rtv  (A,  0,  E),  "carried  them  as  a  man  carries  his  little  son." 
LXX.,  Deut.  i.  31 ;  cf.   Ex.   xix.  4 ;  Isa.  Ixiii.  9 ;  Am.   ii.  10,  &c.     He  is  not  here 
reproaching  them,  but  only  speaking  of  God's  mercy  to  them.     The  word  also  occurs  in 
2  Mace,  vii.  27. 

5  Acts  xiii.  17,  ity<o<r«v,  in  the  sense  of  "  he  brought  them  up  "  (Isa.  1.  2) ;  whereas 
elsewhere  it  means  "elevated  "or  "raised  up"  (Luke  i.  52;  2  Cor.  xi.  7).     In  verso  10 
he  uses  K^eK.\i\pov&^<rev  (A,  A,  B,  0,  D,  E,  G,  H,  &c.)  in  the  rare  sense  of  "  divided  sis 
an  inheritance  "  (where  our  text  follows  the  correction,  KaTeK^poSo-rria-ev),  as  in  Deut.  i.  38. 

6  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  no  single  address  of  St.  Paul  in  the  Acts  would  take 
more  than  five  minutes  in  delivery. 

7  They  are  read  on  the  Sabbath  which,  from  the  first  word  of  the  chapter  in  Isaiah,  is 
called  the  Sabbath  Hazon.     In  the  present  list  of  Jewish  lessons,  Deut.  i. — iii.  22  and 
Isa.  i.  1—22,  stand  forty-fourth  in  order  tinder  the  Masoretic  title  of  onm.  This  brilliant 
conjecture  is  due  to  EengeL 


208  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

French  is  the  common  language  of  tho  Continent.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
all  the  Jews  would  have  understood  it;  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  more 
than  a  few  of  them  would  have  understood  the  Pisuliau  dialect ;  it  is  to  the 
last  degree  improbable  that  Paul  knew  anything  of  Pisidiau ;  and  that  he 
suddenly  acquired  it  by  the  gift  of  tongues,  can  only  be  regarded  as  an 
exploded  fancy  due  to  an  erroneous  interpretation. 

St.  Paul's  sermon  is  not  only  interesting  as  a  sign  of  the  more  or  less 
extemporaneous  tact  with  which  he  utilised  the  scriptural  impressions  which 
were  hist  and  freshest  in  the  minds  of  his  audience,  but  far  more  as  a 
specimen  of  the  facts  and  arguments  which  he  urged  in  his  first  addresses 
to  mixed  congregations  of  Jews  and  Proselytes.  The  numerous  and  exclu- 
sively Pauline  expressions 1  in  which  it  abounds,  show  that  either  notes  of  it 
must  have  been  preserved  by  some  Antiochene  Christian,  or  that  he  must 
himself  have  furnished  an  outline  of  it  to  St.  Luke.2  It  is  further  important 
as  an  indication  that  even  at  this  early  period  of  his  career  Paul  had  been  led 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  if  not  to  the  full  comprehension,  at  least  to  the  germ, 
of  those  truths  which  he  afterwards  developed  with  such  magnificent  force 
and  overwhelming  earnestness.  The  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  and  of 
the  inutility  of  the  works  of  the  law  to  procure  remission  of  skis,  lie  clearly 
involved  in  this  brief  but  striking  sermon,  which  also  gives  us  some  insight 
into  Paul's  method  of  applying  Scripture ;  into  his  adoption  of  the  current 
chronology  of  his  nation ; 3  and,  lastly,  into  the  effects  which  had  been  pro- 

1  See  (in  tho  Greek)  Acts  xiii.  25  compared  with  xx.  24,  2  Tim.  iv.  7  ;  26  with  xx.  82 ; 
27  with  xxiv.  21 ;  39  with  Rom.  vi.  7  ;  39  with  Rom.  v.  9,  Gal.  iii.  11,  and  others,  in 
Alford's  references.     Compare,  too,  the  thoughts  and  expressions  of  33,  34  with  Rom.  i.  4, 
ri.  9 ;  and  39  with  Rom.  viii.  3,  Gal.  iii.  11. 

2  Perhaps  a  better  hypothesis  is  that  in  general  outline  the  three  main  sections  of  it 
(Acts  xiii.  1G— 22,  23—31,  32—41)  may  have  been  often  repeated.     (Ewald,  vi.  658.) 

8  For  instance,  in  verse  20  he  makes  the  period  of  the  Judges  last  450  years.  It  is 
true  that  here  the  best  uncial  MSS.  transpose  the  Ireo-i  T«TpaKo<r<oif  iea.1  irevTqKoy-ra.  to  the 
previous  verse  (N,  A,  B,  G,  and  the  Coptic,  Sahidic,  and  Armenian  versions).  Eat  this 
is  exactly  one  of  the  instances  in  which  the  "paradiplomatic"  evidence  entirely  outweighs 
that  of  the  MSS.  For  the  reading  of  the  text  is  found  in  K,  G,  II,  and  many  other 
MSS. ;  and  while  we  see  an  obvious  reason  why  it  should  have  been  altered,  we  see  none 
vrhy  the  other  reading  should  have  been  tampered  with.  The  case  stands  thus.  The 
chronology  which  gives  a  period  of  450  years  to  the  Judges  is  in  direct  contradiction  to 
1  Kings  vi.  1,  which  makes  the  fourth  year  of  Solomon's  reign  fall  in  the  480th  year 
after  the  Exodus.  Why,  then,  do  modern  editors  adopt  it  in  spite  of  the  oldest 
uncials?  Not,  as  Bishop  Wordsworth  says,  out  of  "arbitrary  caprice,"  or  "to  gratify 
a  morbid  appetite  of  scepticism  by  contradictions  invented  by  itself,  and  imputed 
to  Holy  "Writ,"  or  "an  inordinate  love  of  discovering  discrepancies  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture ; "  but  for  reasons,  of  which  he  must  surely  have  been  aware — viz.,  because 
U)  the  same  erroneous  chronology  is  also  found  in  Josephus  (Antt.  viii.  3,  §  1,  and 
potentially  in  xx.  10,  §  1),  and  is,  therefore,  obviously  the  current  one  among  the 
Jews;  and  was  current  (2)  because  it  is  the  exact  period  given  by  the  addition  of 
the  vague  and  often  synchronous  periods  given  in  the  Book  of  Judyes  itself.  And  (3)  even 
if  we  accept  the  corrected  reading — which  can  only  be  done  in  the  teeth  of  the  rule, 
"  Facilion  lectioni  praestat  ardua" — we  only  create  fresh  chronological  difficulties. 
On  such  subjects  the  knowledge  of  St.  Paul  and  the  Apostles  never  professes  to  be  mora 
than  the  knowledge  of  their  time.  To  attribute  to  them  a  miraculous  superiority  to  the 
notions  of  their  day  in  subjects  within  tho  reach  of  man's  unaided  research,  is  an  error 
which  all  tho  greatest  modern  theologians  have  rightly  repudiated  as  pregnant  with 
mischief.  Similarly,  in  verse  33,  tv  T<J>  rp^ry  t^oXp£,  though  only  found  in  D,  is  un- 


ANTIOCH  IK  FISIDIA.  209 

daced  upon  his  mind  by  the  speeches  he  had  hoard  from  St.  Peter  and  from 
St.  Stephen.  From  the  latter  of  these  he  borrows  his  use  of  what  may  be 
called  the  historic  method;  from  the  former,  the  remarkable  Messianic 
argument  for  the  Resurrection  which  he  founds  on  a  passage  in  the  Second 
Psalm.1 

Beginning  with  a  courteous  address  to  the  Jews  and  Proselytes,  and 
bespeaking  their  earnest  attention,  he  touched  first  on  that  providence  of  God 
in  the  history  of  Israel  of  which  they  had  just  been  reminded  in  the  Haphtarah. 
He  had  chosen  them,  had  nurtured  them  in  Egypt,  had  delivered  them  from  its 
bondage,  had  carried  them  like  a  nursing  father  in  the  wilderness,  had  driven 
out  seven  nations  of  Canaan  before  them,  had  governed  them  by  judges  for 
450  years,  and  then  for  forty  years,  as  tradition  said,  had  granted  them  for 
their  king  one  whom — with  an  allusion  to  his  own  name  and  tribe  which  is 
inimitably  natural— he  calls  "  Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  of  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin."  Then  fusing  three  separate  passages  of  scriptural  encomium  oik 
David  into  one  general  quotation  (13-22)  he  announces  the  central  truth  which 
it  was  his  mission  to  preach  :  that,  of  David's  seed,  God  had  raised  up  accord- 
ing to  His  promise  One  who,  as  His  very  name  signified,  was  a  Saviour,  and  to 
whom  the  groat  acknowledged  prophet,  John  the  Baptist,  had  borne  direct 
witness.  It  was  true  that  the  rulers  of  Jerusalem — and  on  this  painful  side  of 
the  subject  he  dwells  but  lightly — had,  less  from  deliberate  wickedness  than 
from  ignorance,  put  Him  to  death,  thereby  fulfilling  the  direct  prophecies  of 
Scripture.  But — and  this  was  the  great  fact  on  which  ho  relied  to  remove  the 
terrible  offence  of  the  Cross — GOD  HAD  EAISED  HIM  FKOM  THE  DEAD  (23-31). 
This  was  an  historic  objective  fact,  to  which,  as  a  fact  tested  by  their  living 
senses,  many  could  bear  witness.  And  lest  they  should  hesitate  about  this 
testimony,  he  proceeded  to  show  that  it  was  in  accordance  with  all  those  pro- 
phecies which  had  been  for  centuries  tho  most  inspiring  part  of  their  nation's 
faith.  The  Resurrection  to  which  they  testified  was  the  highest  fulfilment  of 
the  Psalm  in  which  God  had  addressed  David  as  His  son.  And  there  were 
two  special  passages  which  foreshadowed  this  groat  truth.  One  was  in  Isaiah, 
where  the  Prophet  L;td  promised  to  God's  true  children  tho  holy,  the  sure, 
mercies  of  David;  tho  other  was  that  on  which  St.  Peter  had  dwelt  in  his 
speech  at  Pentecost — the  confident  hope  expressed  in  that  Michtain  or  "  Golden 
Psalm  " — that  God  would  not  leave  his  eoul  in  hell,  or  suffer  His  holy  one  to 
see  corruption.  More  must  have  been  involved  in  that  yearning  conviction 
than  could  possibly  all'oct  David  himself.  He  had  died,  he  had  seen  corrup- 
tion ;  but  He  of  the  seed  of  David  whom  God  had  raised — of  Him  alone  was 
it  true  that  His  soul  was  not  left  in  the  unseen  world,  and  His  flesh  had  not 
seen  corruption.  What  they  had  to  preach,  then,  was  forgiveness  of  sins 

doubtedly  the  right  reading,  as  against  Snrtpsf,  which  is  found  in  M  and  the  other  uncials, 
which  is  simply  a  correction,  because  the  quotation  is  from  Psalm  ii.  7 ;  and  it  was  over- 
looked that  among  the  Jews  in  St.  Paul's  time  the  Second  Psalm  was  regarded  as  tht 
First,  the  First  being  "  an  introduction  to  the  Psalter." 

1  Compare  Acts  xiii.  35—37  with  St.  Peter's  speech  in  Acts  ii.  87. 

8» 


210  THE   LIFfi  AltD  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

through  Him.  In  the  Mosaic  Law — and  once  more  Paul  touched  but  lightly, 
and  in  language  least  likely  to  cause  offence,  upon  this  dangerous  ground- 
remission  of  sins  was  not  to  be  found ;  but  there  was  not  only  remission,  but 
justification,  for  all  who  believed  in  Jesus.  A  quotation  from  Ilabakkuk 
formed  the  striking  conclusion  of  a  sermon  which  had  been  thus  weighted  with 
awful  truths  and  startling  testimony.  It  warned  them  that  however  startling 
that  testimony  might  be,  yet  if  they  disbelieved  it  as  their  fathers  had  dis- 
believed the  threat  of  Chaldean  retribution,  the  contempt  of  insolent  derision 
might  bo  followed  by  the  astonishment  of  annihilating  doom  (32-41).1 

Thus,  from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  heard  him — commenting  on  the 
passages  which  had  jast  sounded  in  their  ears — appealing  to  the  prophecies  in 
which  they  believed — quoting,  or  alluding  to,  the  Scriptures  which  they  held 
so  sacrod — relying  on  the  history  to  which  they  clung  with  such  fond  affection, 
and  pouring  his  flood  of  light  on  those  "  dark  speeches  upon  the  harp  "  which 
had  hitherto  wanted  their  true  explanation — thus  mingling  courtesy  and  warn- 
ing, the  promises  of  the  past  and  their  fulfilment  in  the  present — thus  drowning 
the  dark  horror  which  lay  in  the  thought  of  a  crucified  Messiah  in  the  dawning 
light  of  His  resurrection — did  St.  Paul  weave  together  argument,  appeal,  and 
testimony  to  convince  them  of  the  new  and  mighty  hope  which  he  proffered, 
and  to  foreshadow  that  which  was  so  difficult  for  them  to  accept — the  doing 
away  of  the  old  as  that  which,  having  received  its  divine  fulfilment,  must  now 
be  regarded  as  ineffectual  symbol  and  obsolete  shadow,  that  in  Christ  all  things 
might  become  new." 

It  was  not  surprising  that  a  discourse  so  powerful  should  produce  a  deep 
effect.  Even  the  Jews  were  profoundly  impressed.  As  they  streamed  out  of 
the  synagogue,  Jew  and  Gentile  alike3  begged  that  the  same  topics  might  be 
dwelt  on  in  the  discourse  of  the  next  Sabbath;*  and  after  the  entire  breaking 
up  of  the  congregation,  many  both  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Proselytes  of  the 
Gate  followed  Paul  and  Barnabas  for  the  purpose  of  further  inquiry  and  con- 
versation. Both  at  that  time  and  during  the  week  the  Apostles  did  all  they 
could  to  widen  the  knowledge  of  these  inquirers,  and  to  confirm  their  nascent 
faith.6  Meanwhile  the  tidings  of  the  great  sermon  spread  through  the  city. 

•••i    »•»  .1     j   •].•   i     ,\-j*    it  .1,1  «     j...     j j.«i  >    r.i,tt      null"    rill  I        i.|<l'',l      Ii.     • 

1  Acts  xiil.  41,  "ye  despfsers  "  corresponds  to  " among  the  heathen " in  the  original  of 
Hab.  i.  5,  because  the  LXX.  which  St.  1'aul  here  quotes  seems  to  have  read  O'"uia 
(j)ogSdtm),  "  arrogantes,"  for  D'jaa  (baffgotm),  by  one  of  the  numberless  instances  of  variant 
readings  in  the  Hebrew  of  which  the  Greek  version  affords  so  striking  a  proof. 

2  Paul  speaks  slightingly  of  his  own  eloquence ;  but  we  see  by  the  recorded  specimens 
of  his  sermons  to  barbarians  in  Pisidia,  to  philosophers  at  Athens,  and  to  Jews  at  Jeru- 
salem, how  powerful  was  his  method  ;  and  we  are  sure  that  there  must  also  have  been 
the  "  vividus  vultus,  vividae  manus,  vividi  oculi,  denique  omnia  vivida." 

8  Acts  xiii.  42.  The  E.  V.  has  "the  Gentiles  besought ;"  but  TO.  «flnj  is  an  idle  gloss, 
not  found  in  M,  A,  B,  O,  D,  E,  &c. 

4  «i«  TO  j«Tafv  <ra/3/3o.Toi'.  The  use  of  puTa£v  for  "next  following"  has  puzzled  commen- 
tators, and  led  them  to  such  erroneous  renderings  as  "  for  the  intervening  week  ;  "  but  it 
is  found  in  late  Greek  (Jos.  B.  J.  v.  4,  §  2 ;  c.  Ap.  i.  21 ;  Plut.  Inst.  Lac.  42),  and  la 
»  mere  extension  of  the  classical  Greek  idiom.  (See  my  Brief  Greek  Syntax,  §  82,  iv.) 

*  Acts  xiii.  43,  "  urged  them  to  abide  by  the  grace  of  God ; "  of.  xx.  24.  The  expret- 
•Ion  ii  thoroughly  Pauline.  (1  Cor.  xv.  10 ;  2  Cor.  vi.  1,  &o.) 


ANTIOCH   IN    PISIDIA.  211 

On  the  following  Sabbath  a  vast  crowd,  of  all  ranks,  nationalities,  and  classes, 
thronged  the  doors  of  the  synagogue.  Immediately  the  haughty  exclusivenc.ss 
of  the  Jews  took  the  alarm.  They  wore  jealous  that  a  single  address  of  this 
dubious  stranger,  with  his  suspicious  innovations,  should  have  produced  a 
greater  effect  than  their  years  of  prosolytism.  They  wore  indignant  that  ono 
who  scorned  to  have  suddenly  dropped  down  among  them  from  the  snows  of 
Taurus  with  an  astonishing  gospel  should,  at  a  touch,  thrill  every  heart  with 
the  electric  sympathy  of  love,  and  achieve  more  by  one  message  of  free  salva- 
tion than  they  had  achieved  in  a  century  by  raising  a  prickly  hedge  around  the 
exclusive  sanctity  of  their  Law.  Paul  —  again  the  chief  speaker  —  no  longer 
met  with  attentive  and  eager  listeners  ;  he  was  interrupted  again  and  again  by 
flat  contradiction  and  injurious  taunts.1  At  last  both  the  Apostles  saw  that 
the  time  was  come  to  put  an  end  to  the  scene,  and  to  cease  a  form  of  ministra- 
tion which  only  led  to  excited  recriminations.  Summoning  up  all  their  courage 
—and  few  acts  are  more  courageous  than  the  unflinching  announcement  of  a 
most  distasteful  intention  to  an  infuriated  audience  —  they  exclaimed  that  now 
they  had  done  their  duty,  and  discharged  their  consciences  towards  their  own 
countrymen.  They  had  made  to  them  the  offer  of  eternal  life,  and  that  offer 
had  been  disdainfully  repudiated.*  "  Lo  !  you  may  be  astonished  and  indig- 
nant, but  now  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles.  In  doing  so  we  do  but  fulfil  the 
prophecy  of  Isaiah,  who  said  of  our  Lord  that  He  was  ordained  for  a  Light  of 
the  Gentiles,  and  for  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

Gladly  and  gratefully  did  the  Gentiles  welcome  the  mission  which  now 
to  them  exclusively  made  free  offer  of  all,  and  more  than  all,  the  blessings 
of  Judaism  without  its  burdens.  All  who,  by  the  grace  of  God,  decided  to 
range  themselves  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  desired  eternal  life3  accepted  the 
faith.  More  and  more  widely*  the  word  of  the  Lord  began  to  spread.  But 
the  Jews  were  too  powerful  to  bo  easily  defeated.  They  counted  among 
their  proselytes  a  large  number  of  women,  of  whom  some  were  of  high 
rank.6  Their  commercial  ability  had  also  secured  them  friends  among 
the  leading  people  of  the  city,  who  were  the  municipal  Roman  authorities. 
Tolerant  of  every  legalised  religion,  the  Romans  had  a  profound  distaste 
for  religious  embroilments,  and  so  long  as  the  Jews  behaved  peaceably,  were 
quite  willing  to  afford  them  protection.  Knowing  that  all  had  gone  smoothly 


l  Acts  xiii.  45, 

*  Acts  xiii.  46,  OVK  ifc'ovs  Kpivtrt  iavrovs  r>}«  alavCov 

1  So-oi  7t<rav  TtTaVfieVoi  e!s  f.  at.  Those  only  will  find  in  this  expression  a  hard  Calvinism 
who  overlook  the  half-middle  visage  of  the  participle  which  is  found  in  xx.  13  (cf.  ii.  47) 
and  in  Philo.  In  a  Calvinistic  sense,  moreover,  the  words  are  in  direct  antinomy  with 
xiii.  46.  The  E.V.  followed  Tyndale,  but  the  Rhemish  "pre-ordained"  ia  even  stronger. 
The  close  juxtaposition  of  the  two  phrases  shows  the  danger  of  building  unscriptural 
•ystems  on  the  altered  perspective  of  isolated  expressions. 

4  Acts  xiii.  49,  8t<4>«'p<ro. 

*  Jos.  B.  J.  iL  20,  §  2  ;   cf.  Strab.  vil.  2  ;    Z*arm  rqt  JtwrtAujiovtot  opxrryodf  <MOVT<U  rit 
ywaocat  ;  cf.  Juv.  Sat.  vi  542.    In  Ps.  Ixviii.  11,  "  The  Lord  gave  the  word  :  great  waa 
the  company  of  the  preachers"  (lit.  "the  female  messengers,"  *vayy«Ai<jTj>i<M,  LXX.), 
fantastic  commentators  of  the  literalist  type  find  In  the  fact  that  nVv^i^n  u  feminine,  ao 
indication  of  the  prominent  agency  of  women  In  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 


212  THE  LIFX  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATH. 

till  those  new-comers  had  appeared,  they  were  readily  induced  to  look  on 
them  with  dislike,  especially  since  they  were  viewed  with  disfavour  by  the 
ladies  of  their  families.1  They  joined  in  the  clamour  against  the  Apostles, 
and  succeeded  in  getting  them  banished  out  of  their  boundaries.  The  Apostles 
shook  off  their  feet  the  deep  dust  of  the  parched  roads  in  testimony  against 
them,*  and  passed  on  to  Iconium,  where  they  would  bo  under  a  different 
jurisdiction.3  But  the  departure  did  not  destroy  the  infant  Church  which 
they  had  founded.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  they  would  leave 
gloom  and  despondency  among  their  discouraged  converts ;  but  it  was  not 
so.  They  left  behind  them  the  joy  of  a  new  hope,  the  inspiration  of  a  new- 
faith,  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  had 
learnt  of  the  heavenly  promise. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

*HE  CLOSE  OF  THE  JOURNEY. 

u.-k». 
'ATJOTO*  y&p  Avitaovft  &s  teal  'A.piffrort\ri5  (ictprvpti. — ScHOL.  tn  Honi- 11.  iv.  88. 

"  WHEN  they  persecute  you  in  this  city,  flee  ye  to  another,"  our  Lord  had 
said  to  His  twelve  Apostles  when  He  sent  them  forth  as  lambs  among 
wolves.4  Expelled  from  Antioch,5  the  Apostles  obeyed  this  injunction.  They 
might  have  crossed  the  Paroreian  range  to  Philomelium,  and  so  have  made 
t  heir  way  westwards  to  Synnada  and  the  Phrygian  cities,  or  to  Colossoa  and 
Laodicea.  What  circumstances  determined  their  course  we  cannot  tell,  bnt 
they  kept  to  the  south  of  the  Pai'oreia,  and,  following  a  well- traversed  road, 
made  their  way  to  the  pleasant  city  of  Iconium.  For  a  distance  of  about  sixty 
miles  the  road  runs  south-eastwards  over  bleak  plains,  scoured  by  wild  asses 
r:nd  grazed  1-y  countless  hnrds  of  sheep,  until  it  reaches  the  green  oasis  on 
which  stands  the  city  of  Iconinm.6  It  is  the  city  so  famous  through  the 
Lliddle  Ages,  iinder  the  name  of  Konieh,  as  the  capital  of  the  Sultans  of  Roum, 
« ad  the  scene  of  the  romantic  siege  by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon.  Here,  on  the 
edge  of  an  interminable  steppe,  and  nearly  encircled  by  snow-clad  .hills,  they 
bad  entered  the  district  of  Lycaonia,  and  found  themselves  in  the  capital  city 
of  an  independent  tetrarchy.  The  diversity  of  political  governments  which  at 
this  time  prevailed  in  Asia  Minor  was  so  far  an  advantage  to  the  Apostles, 

1  avrai  8«  r.ai  rovt  nrJpas  irpoKaXovrrai  (Strabo,  I.e.).  For  the  indulgence  of  the  Romans 
t-j  wards  the  Jews  in  the  provinces,  Kenan  refers  to  Jos.  Antt,  xiv.  10,  §  11 ;  xvi.  6,  §§2, 
4,6.7;  Cic.  pro  Flacco,  28,  &o. 

*  Matt.  x.  14. 

3  Antioch  was  a  Roman  colony,  under  the  general  jurisdiction  of  the  Propraetor  of 
Gtvlatia.    Iconium  was  under  a  local  tetrarch.     (Plin.  H.  N.  v.  27.) 

4  Matt.  x.  25.  5  Acts  xiii.  61,  ittp*\ov  wrote. 

6  Strabo,  xii.  6.  Mentioned  in  Xen.  Anab.  i.  2,  19 ;  Cic.  ad  Fam,  Hi.  8 ;  v.  20  j  XT.  ^ 
&G  lying  &i  the  intersection  of  important  roads  between  Ephesus  and  Tarsus,  &c- 


XHS  CLOSE  OP  THE  JOUBNBY,  213 

that  it  rendered  them  more  able  to  escape  from  one  jurisdiction  to  another. 
Tlieir  ejection  from  Antioch  must  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  colonial 
authorities,  who  were  under  the  Propraetor  of  Galatia ;  but  at  Iconiuin  they 
were  beyond  the  Propraetor's  province,  in  a  district  which,  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  belonged  to  the  robber-chief  Amyntas,  and  was  still  an  independent 
tetrarchy  of  fourteen  towns.1 

Doubtless,  as  at  Antioch,  their  first  care  would  be  to  secure  a  lodging  among 
their  fellow-countrymen,  and  the  means  of  earning  their  daily  subsistence.  On 
the  Sabbath  they  entered  as  usual  the  one  synagogue  which  sufficed  the  Jewish 
population.  Invitations  to  speak  were  at  first  never  wanting,  and  they  preached 
with  a  fervour  which  won  many  converts  both  among  Jews  and  proselytes. 
TkeBatlanim,  indeed,  and  the  Ruler  of  the  Synagogue  appear  to  have  been 
against  them,  but  at  first  thoir  opposition  was  in  some  way  obviated.8  Soim? 
cf  the  Jews,  however,  stirred  up  the  minds  of  tha  .Gentiles  against  them.3 
Over  the  Proselytes  of  the  Gate  the  Apostles  would  be  likely  to  gain  a  strong 
influence.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  shake  their  interest  in  such  teaching,  or  their 
gratitude  to  those  who  were  sacrificing  all  that  made  life  dear  to  their  desire 
to  proclaim  it.  But  when  Jewish  indignation  waa  kindled,  when  the  synagogue 
became  the  weekly  scene  of  furioua  contentions,4  it  would  be  easy  enough  to 
persuade  the  Gentile  inhabitants  of  tho  city  that  these  emissaries,  who  had 
already  been  ejected  from  Antioch,  were  dangerous  incendiaries,  who  every- 
where disturbed  the  peace  of  cities.  In  spite,  however,  of  these  gathering 
storms  tho  Apostles  held  their  ground,  and  their  courage  was  supported  by  the 
evident  blessing  which  was  attending  their  labour.  So  long  as  they  wore  able 
not  ouly  to  sway  the  souk  of  their  auditors,  but  to  testify  the  power  of  their 

1  Plin.  N.II.  v.  25.    Some  doubt  seems  to  rest  on  this,  from  tho  existence  of  a  com 
of  the  reign  of  Nero  in  which  it  is  called  Claudiconium,  and  of  a  coin  of  Gallienus  in 
which  it  is  called  a  colony ;  but  the  adoption  of  the  name  of  Claudius  may  have  been 
gratuitous  flattery,  and  the  privilege  conceded  long  afterwards. 

2  Although  not  authentic,  there  may  be  some  basis  of  tradition  in  the  reading  of  I> 
and  (in  part)  Syr.  marg.,  ol  it  dpxisrwvoywyoi  rdv  'lovSaitw  KO.\  o«  opxoire?  nji  owaywyrjs  cmryayw 
fSrrolt  £uoyy.ci-  tcara  riav  tmaliav    .    .     .    .    6  £(  xvpios  e£'j>KCV  ra^u  etpiji/i;:'. 

3  This  seems  to  be  suggested  by  the  contrast  of  'EAAr^i/  in  verse  1  witheflviy  in  verse  2. 

4  Beuan  compares  the  journey  of  the  Apostles  from  Ghetto  to  Ghetto  to  those  of  the 
Arab  Ibn  Batoutah,  and  the  mediaeval  traveller  Benjamin  of  Tudela.    A  more  recent 
analogy  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Frankl's  Jews  in  the  Hast.    The  reception  of  these  Christian 
teachers  by  remote  communities  of  Jews  has  been  exactly  reproduced  in  modem  times  by 
the  bursts  of  infuriated  curses,  excommunications,  mobs,  and  stone-throwings  with  which 
modem  Jews  have  received  missionaries  in  some  of  their  larger  Moldavian  communities. 
Uere  is  the  description  of  one  such  scene  by  a  missionary : — "  Fearful  excommunications 
were  issued  in  the  synagogue,  pronouncing  most  terrible  judgments  on  any  Jew  holding 
communication  with  us ;  or  who,  on  receiving  any  of  our  publications,  did  not  at  once 
consign  them  to  the  flames.  The  stir  and  commotion  were  so  great  that  I  and  my  brother 
missionaries  were  obliged  to  hold  a  consultation,  whether  we  should  face  the  opposition 
or  fly  from  the  town.    "We  resolved  to  remain  and  face  the  danger  in  the  name  of  God, 
and  the  next  day  being  Saturday,  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  we  went  out  with  a  stock  of  our 
publication*.  When  we  got  near  the  synagogue  we  were  driven  away  by  a  yelling,  cursiu  .•;, 
blaspheming  crowd,  who  literally  darkened  the  air  with  the  stones  they  threw  at  us. 
We  were  in  the  greatest  danger  of  being  killed.     Ultimately,  however,  we  faced  them, 
and  by  dint  of  argument  and  remonstrance  gained  a  hearing."    (Speech  oj  the  Jtev.  M. 
WolterJberg  at  Salisbury,  August  8, 1876.) 


214  THE   LIFE   AND   WOKK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

mission  by  signs  and  wonders,  they  folk  that  it  was  not  tho  time  to  yield  to 
opposition.  Their  stay,  therefore,  was  prolonged,  and  the  whole  population  of 
the  city  was  split  into  two  factions — the  one  consisting  of  their  enemies,  the 
other  of  their  supporters.  At  length  the  spirit  of  faction  grow  so  hot  that  the 
leaders  of  the  hostile  party  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  made  a  plot  to  murder 
the  Apostles.1  Of  this  they  got  timely  notice,  and  once  more  took  flight. 
Leaving  the  totrarchy  of  Iconium,  they  still  pursued  the  great  main  road,  and 
made  their  way  some  forty  miles  into  the  district  of  Antiochus  IV.,  King  of 
Commagene,  and  to  the  little  town  of  Lystra  in  Lycaonia. 

The  site  of  Lystra  has  never  been  made  out  with  perfect  certainty,  but 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  at  a  place  now  known  as  Bui  Bir 
.Kilisseh,  or  tho  Thousand  and  One  Churches, — once  the  see  of  a  bishop,  and 
rowdod  with  the  ruins  of  sacred  buildings.  It  lies  in  the  northern  hollows  of 
,he  huge  isolated  mass  of  an  extinct  volcano,  "rising  like  a  giant  from  a  plain 
level  as  tho  sea."  *  It  is  called  the  Kara  Dagh,  or  Black  Mountain,  and  is 
still  the  haunt  of  dangerous  robbers. 

Both  at  Lystra  and  in  the  neighbouring  hamlets  the  Apostles  seem  to 
have  preached  with  success,  and  to  have  stayed  for  some  little  time.  On  one 
occasion  Paul  noticed  among  his  auditors  a  man  who  had  been  a  cripple  from 
his  birth.  His  evident  eagerness3  marked  him  out  to  the  quick  insight  of  the 
Apostle  as  one  on  whom  a  work  of  power  could  bo  wrought.  It  is  evident  on 
the  face  of  the  narrative  that  it  was  not  every  cripple  or  every  sufferer  that 
Paul  would  have  attempted  to  heal ;  it  was  only  such  as,  so  to  speak,  met 
half-way  tho  exertion  of  spiritual  power  by  their  own  ardent  faith.  Fixing 
hie  eyes  on  him,  Paul  raised  his  voico  to  its  full  compass,  and  cried — "  Rise 
on  thy  feet  upright."  Thrilled  with  a  divine  power,  the  man  sprang  up ;  he 
began  to  walk.  The  crowd  who  were  present  at  the  preachings,  which  seem 
on  this  occasion  to  have  been  in  the  open  air,  were  witnesses  of  the  miracle, 
and  reverting  in  their  excitement,  perhaps  from  a  sense  of  awe,  to  their  rude 
native  Lycaouian  dialect4 — just  as  a  Welsh  crowd,  after  being  excited  to  an 
overpowering  degree  by  tho  English  discourse  of  some  great  Methodist,  might 
express  its  emotions  in  Welsh — they  cried  :  '  The  gods  have  come  down  to  us 
in  the  likeness  of  men.  The  tall  and  venerable  one  is  Zeus ;  the  other,  the 
younger  and  shorter  one,  who  speaks  so  powerfully,  is  Hermes.'  *  Ignorant 

1  The  Af.la  Pauli  et  Thcdae,  of  which  the  scene  IB  laid  at  Iconium,  are  BO  purely 
apocryphal  as  hardly  to  deserve  notice.    They  are  printed  in  Grabe,  Spicilcg.  1 ;  Tischen- 
dorf,  A  ctn  Apost.  Apocr.  p.  40.    Tertullian  says  that  a  presbyter  in  Asia  was  deposed  for 
having  forged  the  atory  out  of  love  for  1'aul  (Dt  Bapt,  17)  ;  St.  Jerome  adda  that  it  was 
St.  Jolin  who  deposed  him. 

2  Kinneir,  Travel*  in  Karamnnia,  p.  212. 

*  Acts  xiv.  9,   ijxov*  TOW  HavAov  AaAovirof. 

4  Jftblotisld,  in  his  monograph  Dt  Linyitd  Lycaonid,  concluded  that  It  waa  a  corrupt 
Assyrian,  and  therefore  Semitic  dialect ;  Guhling,  that  it  was  Greek,  corrupted  with 
Syriac.  The  only  Lycaonian  word  we  know  IB  i<A/3«i«,  which  means  "  a  juniper,"  as  we 
find  in  Stcph.  JJyzant. 

*  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  produce  classical  quotation  to  show  that  Hermes  was  the 
god  of  eloquence  (Hor.  Od.  i.  10 ;  Macrob.  Saturn,  i.  8).    Hence  his  epithet  A^yiot  (Qrph. 
Hymn,  xxvii.  6).     "  Quo  didioit  culie  lingua  fav«nte  loqui "  (Ov.  F.  v.  6G8). 


THE    CLOSE    OF   THK   JOUBNEY.  215 

of  the  native  dialect,  the  Apostles  did  not  know  what  the  crowd  were  saying,1 
and  withdrew  to  their  lodging.  But  meanwhile  the  startling  rumour  had 
spread.  Lycaonia  was  a  remote  region  where  still  lingered  the  simple  faith 
in  the  old  mythologies.*  Not  only  were  there  points  of  resemblance  in  Central 
Asia  between  their  own  legends  and  the  beliefs  of  the  Jews,3  but  this  region  was 
rendered  famous  as  the  scone  of  more  than  one  legendary  Epiphany,  of  which 

the  most  celebrated — recorded  in  the  beautiful  tale  of  Philemon  and  Baucis4 

was  said  to  have  occurred  in  this  very  neighbourhood.  Unsophisticated  by  the 
prevalent  disbelief,  giving  ready  credence  to  all  tales  of  marvel,  and  showing 
intense  respect  for  any  who  seemed  invested  with  special  sacrodnoss,6  the 
Lycaoniaus  eagerly  accepted  the  suggestion  that  they  were  once  more  favoured 
by  a  visit  from  the  old  gods,  to  whom  in  a  faithless  age  they  had  still  been 
faithful.  And  this  being  so,  they  at  least  would  not  be  guilty  either  of  the 
Impious  scepticism  which  had  ended  in  the  transformation  into  a  wolf  of  their 
eponymous  prince  Lycaon,  or  of  the  inhospitable  carelessness  which  for  all 
except  one  aged  couple  had  forfeited  what  might  have  been  a  source  of 
boundless  blessings.  Before  the  gate  of  the  town  was  a  Temple  of  Zeus,  their 
guardian  deity.  The  Priest  of  Zeus  rose  to  the  occasion.  While  the  Apostles 
remained  in  entire  ignorance  of  his  proceedings  he  had  procured  bulls  and 
garlands,  and  now,  accompanied  by  festive  crowds,  came  to  the  gates  to  do 
them  sacrifice.9  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  the  last  to  hear  that  they  were 
about  to  be  the  centres  of  an  idolatrous  worship,  but  when  they  did  hear  it 
they,  with  their  sensitive  conceptions  of  the  awful  majesty  of  the  one  true 
God,  were  horror-stricken  to  an  extent  which  a  Gentile  could  hardly  have 
understood.7  Bending  their  garments,  they  sprang  out  with  loud  cries  among 
the  multitude,  expostulating  with  them,  imploring  them  to  believe  that  they 
were  but  ordinary  mortals  like  themselves,  and  that  it  was  the  very  object  of 
their  mission  to  turn  them  from  these  empty  idolatries  to  the  one  living  and 
true  God,  who  made  the  heaven,  and  the .  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  that  in 
them  is.  And  so,  as  they  gradually  gained  more  of  the  ear  of  the  multitude, 
they  explained  that  during  past  generations  God  had,  as  it  were,  suffered  all 
the  heathen  to  walk  in  their  own  ways,8  and  had  not  given  them  special 

1  See  Chrysost.  Horn.  xxx.  The  notion  of  St.  Jerome,  that  the  power  of  the  Apostles 
to  speak  to  the  Lycaoniana  in  their  own  language  was  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  people 
took  them  for  gods,  is  utterly  baseless. 

3  Some  remarkable  proofs  are  given  by  Dollinger  (Judcnth.  u.  Htidenth.  bk.  viii.  2,  §  5). 
1  For  instance,  the  sort  of  dim  tradition  of  the  Deluge  at  Apamea  Kibotos. 

4  Ov.  Met.  viii;   626,  seq. ;  Fatt.  r.  495 ;  Dio.  Chrysost.  Oral,  xxxiii.  408.     On  the 
common  notion  of  these  epiphanies,  we  Horn.  Od,  xvi.  484 ;  Hes.  Opp.  et  D.  247 ; 
Cat.  Ixv.  384. 

•  Tyana,  the  birthplace  of  the  contemporary  thaumaturge,  ApolloniuB,  who  was 
everywhere  received  with  so  deep  a  reverence,  is  not  far  to  the  east  of  Lystra  and  Derbe. 

•  Probably  the  gates  of  the  house,  cf.  xii.  13,  JuL  Poll.  Onomatt.  L  8,  77  (cf.  Virg. 
Eel.  iii.  487 ;  Tert.  De  Cor.  Mil.  x.). 

1  Mcncxcnus,  the  physician  of  Alexander,  claimed  to  be  a  god,  as  did  Alexander  of 
Abonoteichus,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Divi  CaMret. — 'Ef^nj&iirar,  K,  A,  B,  C.D,  E,  &c. 
Barnabas  is  put  first  because  he  is  most  reverenced  aa^etu  Poliauchot.  In  the  itory  at 
liaucis  and  Philemon  the  miracle  at  once  led  to  *  sacrifioa. 

•  Acts  xiv.  16,    wiw  ri  i«r+  ^ui  9'i 


•216  THJB  LIFE  AND  WORK  O*  ST.  PAUL. 

revelations;  and  yet  even  in  those  days  Ho  had  not  left  Himself  without 
witness  by  the  mercies  which  He  then  sent,  as  He  sends  them  now,  "by 
giving  us  from  heaven  rains  and  fruitful  seasons,  by  filling  our  hearts  with 
food  and  gladness." 

Such  was  the  strong  yet  kindly  and  sympathetic  protest  uttered  by  the 
Apostles  against  the  frank  superstition  of  these  simple  Lycaonians.  It  was 
no  time  now,  in  the  urgency  of  the  moment,  to  preach  Christ  to  them,  the  sole, 
object  being  to  divert  them  from  an  idolatrous  sacrifice,  and  to  show  the  futile 
character  of  the  polytheism  of  which  such  sacrifices  formed  a  part.  Paul, 
who  was  evidently  the  chief  speaker,  does  this  with  that  inspired  tact  which 
can  always  vary  its  utterances  with  the  needs  of  the  moment.  No  one  can 
read  the  speech  without  once  more  pereciviug  its  subtle  and  inimitable  coin- 
cidence with  his  thoughts  and  expressions.1  The  rhythmic  conclusion  is  not 
nnaccordant  with  the  style  of  his  most  elevated  inoocls ;  and  besides  the  appro- 
priate appeal  to  God's  natural  gifts  in  a  town  not  in  itself  unhappily  situated, 
but  surrounded  by  a  waterless  and  treeless  plain,  we  may  naturally  suppose 
that  the  "  filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness "  was  suggested  by  the 
garlands  and  festive  pomp  which  accompanied  the  bulls  on  which  the  people 
would  afterwards  have  made  their  common  banquet.  Nor  do  I  think  it 
impossible  that  the  words  may  be  an  echo  of  lyric  songs 2  sung  as  the  pro- 
cession made  its  way  to  the  gates.  To  use  them  in  a  truer  and  loftier  con- 
nexion would  be  in  exact  accord  with  the  happy  power  of  seizing  an  argument 
which  St.  Paul  showed  when  he  turned  into  the  text  of  his  sermon  at  Athens 
the  vague  inscription  to  the  Unknown  God. 

But  the  Lyetrenians  did  not  like  to  be  baulked  of  their  holiday  and  of 
their  banquet ;  and  those  who  had  been  most  prominent  in  proclaiming  the 
new  epiphany  of  Zeus  and  Hermes  were  probably  not  a  little  ashamed. 
M.  Kenan  is  right  in  the  remark  that  the  ancient  heathen  had  no  conception 
of  a  miracle  as  the  evidence  of  a  doctrine.  If,  then,  the  Apostles  could  work 
a  miracle,  and  yet  indisputably  disclaim  all  notion  of  being  gods  in  disguise, 
what  were  they,  and  what  became  of  their  miracle  P  The  Lycaouiaas,  in  the 
sulky  revulsion  of  their  feelings,  and  with  a  somewhat  uneasy  sense  that  they 
had  put  themselves  into  a  ridiculous  position,  were  inclined  to  aveoige  their 
error  on  those  who  had  innocently  caused  it.  They  were  a  faithless  and 
fickle  race,  liable,  beyond  the  common  wont  of  mobs,  to  sudden  gusts  of  feeling 

1  Compare  liv.  15,  curb  TOVTWV  rS>V  fn.a.ta.itav  iirurrpefaiv  im  Qcov  £S>vra.  with  1  Thess.  i.  9, 
iirc<rrp4$ale  irpbj  TOV  Qcov  airb  TUV  tiSiatov,  K.T.A.,  and  the  anarthrous  Gtov  £<aiTa  with  Koni.  ix. 

26,  &c.  Compare  too  the  very  remarkable  expression  and  thought  of  ver.  1C  with 
the  speech'  at  Athens,  xvii.  30,  Rom.  i.  20,  ii.  15,  &c.,  and  ver.  17  with  Horn.  i.  19,  20. 
The  readings  "us"  and  "our  hearts"  (qplv  and  iunuv,  A,  B,  G,  H,  and  the  Coptio  and 
Ethiopian  versions)  are  net  certain,  since  these  are  exactly  points  in  which  diplomatic 
evidence  can  hardly  be  decisive ;  but  they  arc  surely  much  more  in  St.  Paul's  manner, 
and  illustrate  the  large  sympathy  with  which  he  was  always  ready  to  become  all  thinga 
to  all  men,  and  therefore  to  Gentiles  to  speak  as  though  he  too  were  a  Gentile. 

3  Mr.  Humphry  in  loc.  not  unnaturally  took  this  for  the  fragment  of  some  lyrio 
•ong,  and  though  most  editors  have  rejected  his  conjecture,  I  think  that  its  apparent 
improbability  may  partly  be  removed  by  the  suggestion  in  the  text  (infra,  Excursus  III., 
P.  6%). 


THE   CLOSE   OF  THE   JOTTENKT.  217 

and  impulse.1  In  their  disappointment  they  would  be  Inclined  to  assume 
that  if  theso  two  mysterious  strangers  were  not  gods  they  were  despicable 
Jews ;  and  if  their  miracle  was  not  a  sign  of  their  divinity,  it  belonged  to  the 
malefic  arts  of  which  they  may  well  have  heard  from  Roman  visitors.  And 
on  the  arrival  of  the  Jews  of  Antioch  and  Iconium  at  Lystra,  with  the  express 
purpose  of  buzzing  their  envenomed  slanders  into  the  ears  of  these  country 
people,  the  mob  were  only  too  ripe  for  a  tumult.  They  stoned  Paul  and,  when 
they  thought  he  was  dead,  dragged  him  outside  their  city  gates,  leaving  him, 
perhaps,  in  front  of  the  very  Temple  of  Jupiter  to  which  they  had  been  about 
to  conduct  him  as  an  incarnation  of  their  patron  deity.  But  Paul  was  not 
dead.  This  had  not  been  a  Jewish  stoning,  conducted  with  fatal  deliberate- 
ness,  but  a  sudden  riot,  in  which  the  mode  of  attack  may  have  been  due  to 
accident.  Paul,  liable  at  all  times  to  tho  swoons  which  accompany  nervous, 
organisations,  had  been  stunned,  but  not  killed;  and  while  the  disciples  stood! 
in  an  agonised  group  around  what  they  thought  to  be  his  corpse,  he  recovered 
his  consciousness,  and  raised  himself  from  the  ground.  The  mob  meanwhile 
had  dispersed;  and  perhaps  in  disguise,  or  under  cover  of  evening — for  all 
these  details  were  as  nothing  to  Paul,  and  are  not  preserved  by  his  biographer 
—he  re-entered  tho  little  city. 

Was  it  in  the  house  of  Eunice  and  Loia  that  ho  found  the  sweet  repose 
and  tender  ministrations  which  he  would  need  more  than  ever  after  an 
experience  so  frightful?  If  Lystra  was  thus  the  scene  of  one  of  his  intensost 
sufi-ermgs,  and  one  which,  lightly  as  it  is  dwelt  upon,  probably  left  on  his 
already  enfeebled  constitution  its  lifelong  traces,  it  also  brought  him,  by  the 
merciful  providence  of  God,  its  own  immense  compensation.  For  it  was  at 
Lystra  that  he  converted  the  son  of  Eunice,  then  perhaps  a  boy  of  fifteen,2  for 
whom  he  conceived  that  deep  affection  which  breathes  through  every  line  of 
tho  Epistles  addressed  to  him.  This  was  the  Timothens  whom  he  chose  as  tho 
companion  of  his  future  journeys,  whom  he  sent  on  his  most  confidential 
messages,  to  whom  he  entrusted  the  oversight  of  his  most  important  churches, 
whom  he  summoned  as  the  consolation  of  his  last  imprisonment,  whom  ha 
always  regarded  as  tho  son  in  tho  faith  who  -was  nearest  aiid  dearest  to  his 
heart.  If  Luke  had  been  with  St.  Paul  in  this  his  first  journey,  ho  would 
probably  hava  mentioned  a  circumstance  which  the  Apostlo  doubtless  regarded 
as  one  of  God's  best  blessings,  and  as  one  which  would  help  to  obliterate  in  a 
feeling  of  thankfulness  even  the  bitter  memories  of  Lystra.3  But  we  who, 
from  scattered  allusions,  can  see  that  it  was  here  and  now  that  St.  Paul  first 
mot  with  the  gentlest  and  clearest  of  all  his  converts,  may  dwell  with  pleasure 
on  the  thought,  that  Timotheus  stood  weeping  in  that  group  of  disciples  who 

1  Commenting  on  the  treachery  of  Pandarus,  in  77.  iv,  88 — 92,  the  Scholiast  quotes 
tlie  testimony  of  Aristotle  to  the  untrustworthy  character  of  the  Lycaonians ;  and  see 
Cic.  £f>p.  ad  Att.  Y.  21,  &c.,  who  speaks  of  the  natives  of  these  regions  with  great 
con  tempt. 

2  This  can  hardly  he  regarded  KB  In  any  way  doubtful  if  ire  compare  1  Tim.  i.  2, 18 
and  2  Tim.  ii.  1  with  Act*  xvi.  1, 

a  2  Tim.  iii.  11. 


218  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  O»  BT.  PAUL. 

surrounded  the  bleeding  missionary,  whose  hearts  glowed  with  amazement 
and  thankfulness  when  they  saw  him  recover,  who  perhaps  helped  to  convey 
him  secretly  to  his  mother's  house,  and  there,  it  may  be,  not  only  bound  his 
wounds,  bnt  also  read  to  him  in  the  dark  and  suffering  hours  some  of  the 
precious  words  of  those  Scriptures  in  which  from  a  child  he  had  been  trained. 

But  after  so  severe  a  warning  it  was  scarcely  safe  to  linger  even  for  a 
single  day  in  a  town  where  they  had  suffered  such  brutal  violence.  Even  if 
the  passion  of  the  mob  had  exhausted  itself,  the  malignity  of  the  Jews  was 
not  so  likely  to  bo  appeased.  Once  more  the  only  safety  seemed  to  be  in 
flight;  once  more  they  took  refuge  in  another  province.  From  Lystra  in 
Lycaonia  they  started,  under  the  grey  shades  of  morning,  while  the  city  was 
yot  asleep,  for  the  town  of  Derbe,1  which  was  twenty  miles  distant,  in  the 
district  of  Isaurica.  It  is  grievous  to  think  of  one  who  had  been  so  cruelly 
treated  forced  to  make  his  way  for  twenty  miles  with  his  life  in  his  hand,  and 
still  all  battered  and  bleeding  from  the  horrible  attack  of  the  day  before. 
But  if  the  dark  and  rocky  summit  of  Kara  Dagh,  the  white  distant  snows  of 
Mount  JEgaeus,3  and  the  silver  expanse  of  the  White  Lake  had  little  power 
to  delight  his  wearied  eyes,  or  calm  his  agitated  spirit,  we  may  be  sure  that 
He  was  with  him  whom  once  he  had  persecuted,  but  for  whose  sake  he  waa 
now  ready  to  suffer  all;  and  that  from  hour  to  hour,  as  he  toiled  feebly  and 
wearily  along  from  the  cruel  and  fickle  city,  "  God's  consolations  increased 
upon  his  soul  with  the  gentleness  of  a  sea  that  caresses  the  shore  it  covers." 

At  Derbe  they  were  suffered  to  rest  unmolested.  It  may  be  that  the 
Jews  were  ignorant  that  Paul  was  yet  alive.  That  secret,  pregnant  with 
danger  to  the  safety  of  the  Apostle,  would  bo  profoundly  kept  by  the  little 
band  of  Lystrenian  disciples.  At  any  rate,  to  Derbe  the  Jews  did  not  follow 
him  with  their  interminable  hate.  The  name  of  Derbe  is  omitted  from  the 
mention  of  places  where  he  reminds  Timothy  that  he  had  suffered  afflictions 
and  persecutions.  His  work  seems  to  have  been  happy  and  successful, 
crowned  with  the  conversion  of  those  disciples  whom  he  ever  regarded  as 
"  his  hope  and  joy  and  crown  of  rejoicing."  Here,  too,  he  gained  one  more 
friend  in  Gains  of  Dorbe,  who  afterwards  accompanied  him  on  his  last  visit  to 
Jerusalem.3 

And  now  that  they  were  so  near  to  Cybistra  (the  modern  Eregli),  through 

1  It  appears  from  the  evidence  of  coins  compared  with.  Dio  Cass.  lix.  8,  that  both 
Derbe  and  Lystra,  were  under  Antiochus  IV.  of  Commagene  (Eckhcl,  iii.  255 ;  Lewin, 
Fasti  Sacri,  p.  250).     If  tbe  inference  be  correct  they  could  not,  even  in  a  political  sense, 
be  called  "  Churches  of  Galatia." 

2  The  site  of  Derbo  is  still  doubtful.     Strabo  (xii.  6)  calls  it  a  foovpiov  lo-awpta?  «<u  AIM*, 
where  it  has  long  been  seen  that  the  true  reading  must  be  AI'MI-^,  and  if  so  the  lake  must 
be  Ak  Ghieul,  or  the  "White  Lake."    Near  this  place  Hamilton  found  a  place  called 
Divle,  which  would  be  an  easy  metathesis  for  the  name  AfA^ei'a,  by  which  the  town  was 
sometimes  called  ;  but  another  site  much  more  to  the  north,  where  he  found  the  ruins  of 
an  Acropolis,   seems  more  likely.     This,   which  is  the  site  marked  in  Kiepert's  mnp, 
answers  the  requirements  of  Strabo,  xii.  6,  since  it  is  on  the  confines  of  Isaurica  and 
Cappadocia,  on  a  lake,  and  not  far  from  Laranda  (Karawan).     See  Lewin,  i.  151. 

3  Acts  xx.  4.     The  Gaiua  of  xix.  29  waa  a  Macedonian,  and  of  Horn,  xvi,  23  and  1  Cor. 
L  14  a  Corinthian. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   JOURNKT.  219 

which  a  few  stages  would  have  brought  them  to  the  Cilician  gates,  and  so 
through  Tarsus  to  Antioch,  it  might  have  been  assumed  that  this  would  have 
been  the  route  of  their  return.  Why  did  they  not  take  it  P  There  may  be 
truth  in  the  ingenious  suggestion  of  Mr.  Lewin,1  "  that  the  road — as  is  some- 
times still  the  case — had  been  rendered  impassable  by  the  waters  of  Ak  Ghieul, 
swollen  by  the  melting  of  the  winter  snows,  and  that  the  way  through  the 
mountains  was  too  uncertain  and  insecure."1  But  they  may  have  had  no 
other  reason  than  their  sense  of  what  was  needed  by  the  infant  Churches 
which  they  had  founded.  Accordingly  they  went  back,  over  the  wild  and 
dusty  plain,  the  twenty  miles  from  Dorbe  to  Lystra,  the  forty  miles  from 
Lystra  to  Iconium,  the  sixty  miles  from  Iconium  to  Antioch.  It  may  well 
be  supposed  that  it  needed  no  slight  heroism  to  face  once  more  the  dangers 
that  might  befall  them.  But  they  had  learnt  the  meaning  of  their  Lord's 
saying,  "  He  who  is  near  Me  is  near  the  fire."  Precautions  of  secrecy  they 
doubtless  took,  and  cheerfully  faced  the  degrading  necessity  of  guarded 
movements,  and  of  entering  cities,  perhaps  in  disguise,  perhaps  only  at  late 
nightfall  and  early  dawn.  The  Christians  had  early  to  learn  those  secret 
trysts  and  midnight  gatherings  aid  private  watchwords  by  which  alone  they 
could  elude  the  fury  of  their  enemies.  But  the  Apostles  accomplished  their 
purpose.  They  made  their  way  back  in  safety,  everywhere  confirming  the 
disciples,  exhorting  them  to  constancy,  preparing  them  for  the  certainty  and 
convincing  them  of  the  blessing  of  the  tribulations  through  which  we  must 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God.3  And  as  some  organisation  was  necessary  to 
secure  the  guidance  and  unity  of  these  little  bodies  of  converts,  they  held 
solemn  meetings,  at  which,  with  prayer  and  fasting,  they  appointed  elders,4 
before  they  bestowed  on  them  a  last  blessing  and  farewell.  In  tliis  manner 
they  passed  through  Lycaonia,  Iconium,  and  Pisidia,  and  so  into  Painphylia; 
and  since  on  their  first  journey  they  had  boon  unable  to  preach  in  Perga,  they 
did  so  now.  Possibly  they  found  no  ship  ready  to  sail  down  the  Cestrus  to 
their  destination.  They  therefore  made  their  way  sixteen  miles  overland  to 
the  flourishing  seaport  of  Attaleia,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Katarrhaktes,  which  at 
that  time  found  its  way  to  the  sea  over  a  range  of  cliffs  in  floods  of  foaming 
waterfall ;  and  from  thence — for  they  never  seem  to  have  lingered  among  the 
fleeting  and  mongrel  populations  of  these  seaport  towns — they  took  ship  to 
Seleucia,  saw  once  more  the  steep  cone  of  Mount  Casius,  climbed  the  slopes  of 
Coryphaeus,  and  made  their  way  under  the  pleasant  shade  of  ilex,  and  myrtle, 
and  arbutus,  on  the  banks  of  the  Oroutes,  until  once  more  they  crossed  the 
well-known  bridge,  and  saw  the  grim  head  of  Charon  staring  over  the  street 
Singon,  in  which  neighbourhood  the  little  Christian  community  wore  prepared 
to  welcome  them  with  keen  interest  and  unbounded  love. 

1  Referring  to  Hamilton  (Retcarchcs,  li.  313),  who  found  the  road  from  Eregli  im- 
passable from  this  cause. 

2  Strabo,  XII.  vi.  2—5 ;  Tac.  Ann.  iil.  48 ;  xii.  55  ;  Cic.  ad  Alt.  v.  20,  5,  &c. 

8  Acts  xiv.  22.    The  fob  may  imply  a  general  Christian  sentiment.    It  cannot  in  this 
connexion  be  relied  on  as  showing  the  presence  of  St.  Luke. 

4  Acts  xiv.  23,  x«ipoTo»VaxT«  is  perfectly  general,  as  in  2  COT.  viii  19. 


220  THE    LIFE   ANI>   WORK   OF  ST,   PAUL. 

So  ended  the  first  mission  journey  of  the  Apostle  Paul — the  first  flight  as 
it  were  of  the  eagle,  which  was  soon  to  soar  with  yet  bolder  wing,  in  yet  wider 
circles,  among  yet  more  raging  storms.  We  have  followed  him  by  the  brief 
notices  of  St.  Luke,  but  we  have  no  means  of  deciding  either  the  exact  date 
of  the  journey,  or  its  exact  duration.  It  is  only  when  the  crises  in  the  history 
of  the  early  Church  synchronise  with  events  of  secular  history,  that  we  can 
ever  with  certainty  ascertain  the  date  to  which  they  should  be  assigned.1 
We  have  seen  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  visited  Jerusalem  about  the  time  of 
Herod  Agrippa's  death,  and  this  took  place  in  April  A.D.  44.  After  this 
they  returned  to  Antioch,  and  the  next  thing  wo  are  told  about  them  is  theii* 
obedience  to  the  spiritual  intimation  which  marked  them  out  as  Evangelists  to 
the  heathen.  It  is  reasonable  to  believe,  therefore,  that  they  spent  about  a 
year  at  Antioch,  since  they  could  not  easily  find  vessels  to  convoy  them  from 
place  to  place  except  in  tho  months  during  which  the  sea  was  regarded  as 
open.  Now  navigation  with  the  ancients  began  with  the  rising  of  the 
Pleiades,  that  is,  in  the  mouth  of  March;  and  we  may  assume  with  fair 
probability  that  March,  A.D.  45,  is  the  date  at  which  they  began  their 
evangelising  labours.  Beyond  this  all  must  be  conjecture.  They  do  not  seem 
to  have  spent  more  than  a  mouth  or  two  in  Cyprus ; 2  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia 
their  stay  was  certainly  brief.  At  Iconium  they  remained  "a  considerable 
tmie ;  "  but  at  Lystra  again,  and  at  Derbe,  and  on  their  return  tour,  and  at 
Perga  and  Attaleia,  the  narrative  implies  no  long  residence.  Taking  into 
account  the  time  consumed  in  travelling,  we  are  hardly  at  liberty  to  suppose 
that  the  first  circuit  occupied  much  more  than  a  year,  and  they  may  have 
returned  to  the  Syrian  Antioch  in  the  late  spring  of  A.D.  46.3 

1  See  Chronological  Excursus,  infra,  p.  753. 

*  Acts  xiv.  3,  Ixavov  xp°w-  This  ma7  mean  anything,  from  a  month  or  two,  up  to  a 
year  or  more.  It  is  a  phrase  of  frequent  occurrence  in  St.  Luke  (see  Acts  viii.  11 ;  xxvii. 
9 ;  Luke  viii.  27 ;  xx.  9). 

3  That  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  Iconium,  Derbe,  and  Lystra  were  not  the  churches  of 
Galatia,  as  has  been  suggested  by  Boitger  (Eeiti-agc,  i.  28,  sq.),  Renan,  Hausrath,  and 
others,  is  surely  demonstrable.  Galatia  had  two  meanings — the  first  ethnographical,  the 
second  political.  The  ethnographic  use  was  the  popular  and  the  all  but  universal  one. 
•  It  meant  that  small  central  district  of  Asia  Minor,  about  200  miles  in  length,  which  was 
occupied  by  the  three  Gallic  tribes — the  Trocmi,  the  Tolistobogii,  the  Tectosages — with 
the  three  capitals,  Tavium,  Pessinus,  and  Ancyra.  Politically  it  meant  a  "department," 
an  "administrative  group,"  a  mere  agglomeration  of  districts  thrown  into  loose  cohesion 
by  political  accidents.  In  this  political  meaning  the  Roman  province  of  Galatia  was 
based  on  the  kingdom  of  Amyntas  (Dion  Cass.  liii.  26),  a  wealthy  grazier  and  freebooter, 
who  had  received  from  Mark  Antony  the  kingdom  of  Pisidia,  and  by  subsequent  additions 
had  become  possessed  of  Galatia  Proper,  Lycaonia,  parts  of  Pamphytta,  and  Cilicia 
Aspera.  On  his  death  various  changes  occurred,  but  when  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  on 
their  first  journey  Pamphylia  was  under  a  propraetor ;  Iconium  was  a  separate  tetrarchy ; 
Lystra  and  Derbe  belonged  to  Antiochus  IV.  of  Commageno.  Galatia,  Pisidia  north  of 
the  Paroreia,  and  the  greater  part  of  Lycaonia  formed  the  Roman  province  of  Galatia. 
But  even  if  we  grant  that  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  might  have  used  the  word  Galatia  in 
its  artificial  sense,  even  then  Antioch  in  Pisidia  appears  to  be  the  only  town  mentioned 
in  this  circuit  which  is  actually  in  the  Roman  province.  This  alone  seems  sufficient  to 
disprove  the  hypothesis  that  in  the  first  journey  we  have  a  narrative  of  the  founding  of 
the  Galatian  Church.  Further,  a«  far  as  St.  Luke  is  concerned,  it  would  be  a  confused 
method,  unlike  his  careful  accuracy,  to  use  the  words  Pisidia,  Lycaonia,  Pamphylia,  and 
later  in  his  narrative  Mysia,  and  other  districts  in  their  geographical  sense,  and  then 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  JOTJBNEY.  221 

But  brief  as  was  the  period  occupied,  the  consequences  were  immense. 
For  though  Paul  returned  from  this  journey  a  shattered  man — though  twenty 
years  afterwards,  through  a  vista  of  severe  afflictions,  he  still  looks  back,  as 
though  they  had  happened  but  yesterday,  to  the  "persecutions,  afflictions, 
which  came  upon  him  at  Antioch,  at  Iconinm,  at  Lystra ;  what  persecutions 
he  endured,  and  yet  from  all  the  Lord  delivered  him"1— though  the  journey- 
ings  and  violence,  and  incessant  menace  to  life,  which  has  tried  even  men 
of  such  iron  nerves  as  Oliver  Cromwell,  had  rendered  him  more  liable  than 
ever  to  fits  of  acute  suffering  and  intense  depression,8  yet,  in  spito  of  all,  he 
returned  with  the  mission -hunger  in  his  heart;  with  the  determination 
more  strongly  formed  than  ever  to  preach  the  word,  and  be  instant  in  season 
and  out  of  season ;  with  the  fixed  conviction  that  the  work  and  destiny  in  life 
to  which  God  had  specially  called  him  was  to  bo  the  Apostle  of  the  heathen.3 

That  conviction  had  been  brought  unalterably  home  to  his  soul  by  the 
experience  of  every  town  at  which  they  had  preached.  Up  to  a  certain  point, 
and  that  point  not  very  far  within  the  threshold  of  his  subject,  the  Jews  were 
willing  to  give  him  a  hearing;  but  when  they  began  to  perceive  that  the 
Gospel  was  universal — that  it  preached  a  God  to  whom  a  son  of  Abraham 
was  no  whit  dearer  than  any  one  in  any  nation  who  feared  Him  and  loved 
righteousness— that  it  gave,  in  fact,  to  the  title  of  "son  of  Abraham"  a 
significance  so  purely  metaphorical  as  to  ignore  all  special  privilege  of  blood — 
their  anger  burnt  like  Same.  It  was  the  scorn  and  indignation  of  the  elder 
brother  against  the  returning  prodigal,  and  his  refusal  to  enjoy  privileges 
which  henceforth  he  must  share  with  others.4  The  deep-seated  pride  of  the 

-t'iVir.LJ  iU  <i ;>U"  i.Vfhi.    lv    ^MiJ    tt>'.\    ;/'?..      i.   VJJr>.!..i»..!.,i»i   :-.-,..'     ,.-•»   -nii.'.fc  . 

suddenly,  without  any  notice,  to  use  Galatia  in  Acts  xvi.  in  its  political  sense,  especially 
as  this  political  sense  was  shifting  and  meaningless.  It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that 
since  he  must  hundreds  of  times  have  heard  St.  Paul  mention  the  churches  of  Galatia, 
he  should,  if  these  were  the  churches  of  Galatia,  never  drop  a  hint  of  the  fact,  and, 
ignoring  the  Roman  province  altogether,  talk  of  Antioch  "of  Pisidia,"  and  Lystra  and 
Derbe,  "cities  of  Lycaonia."  I  should  be  quite  content  to  rest  an  absolute  rejection  of 
the  hypothesis  on  these  considerations,  as  well  as  on  the  confusion  which  it  introduces 
into  the  chronology  of  St.  Paul's  life.  The  few  arguments  advanced  in  favour  of  this  view 
—e.g.,  the  allusion  to  Barnabas  in  Galatians  ii.  1 — are  wholly  inadequate  to  support  it 
against  the  many  counter  improbabilities.  Indeed,  almost  the  only  serious  consideration 
urged  in  its  favour — namely,  the  very  cursory  mention  in  Acts  xvi.  6  of  what  we  learn 
from  the  Epistle  was  the  founding  of  a  most  important  body  of  churches — is  nullified  by 
the  certainty  which  meets  us  at  every  step  that  the  Acts  does  not  furnish  ua  with  a 
complete  biography.  In  other  instances  also— as  in  the  case  of  the  churches  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia — he  leaves  us  in  doubt  about  the  tune  and  manner  of  their  first  evangeli- 
sation. The  other  form  of  this  theory,  which  sees  the  founding  of  the  Galatian  churches 
in  the  words  K<H  rr\v  ircplx<apov  (Acts  xiv.  6),  escapes  some  of  these  objections,  but  offers 
far  greater  difficulties  than  the  common  belief  which  sees  the  evangelisation  of  Galatia 
in  the  cursory  allusion  of  Acts  xvi.  6. 

1  2  Tim.  iii.  11.  *  Gal.  vi.  17. 

»  1  Cor.  Ls.  21 ;  Gal.  v.  11 ;  Rom.  XT.  16 ;  Eph.  iii.  6,  &c. 


In  BeracMth, 

is  far  off,  and , 

prodigals  are  dearer  to  God  (as  being  here  addressed  first)  than  Pharisees  and  elder 
brothers ;  hut  it  is  the  penitents  of  Israel  who  are  contemplated,  just  as  some  of  the 
Fathers  held  out  hopes  to  Catholics  and  Christians  (merely  on  the  ground  of  that 
privilege)  which  they  denied  to  others.  (Jer.  in  Isa.  Ixvi.  16,  in  Eph.  iv.  12,  &o.) 


222  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  O*1  St.   PAtTL. 

Jews  rose  in  arms.  Who  were  these  obscure  innovators  who  dared  to  run 
counter  to  the  cherished  hopes  and  traditional  glories  of  well-nigh  twenty 
centuries  ?  Who  were  these  daring  heretics,  who,  in  the  name  of  a  faith 
which  all  the  Rabbis  had  rejected,  were  thus  proclaiming  to  the  Gentiles  the 
abandonment  of  all  exclusive  claim  to  every  promise  and  every  privilege  which 
generations  of  their  fathers  had  held  most  dear  ? 

But  this  was  not  all.  To  abandon  privileges  was  unpatriotic  enough ;  but 
what  true  Jew,  what  observer  of  the  Halachah,  could  estimate  the  atrocity  of 
apostatising  from  principles?  Had  not  Jews  done  enough,  by  freely  ad- 
mitting into  their  synagogues  the  Proselytes  of  the  Gate  ?  Did  they  not 
even  offer  to  regard  as  a  son  of  Israel  every  Gentile  who  would  accept  the 
covenant  rite  of  circumcision,  and  promise  full  allegiance  to  the  Written  and 
Oral  Law  ?  But  the  new  teachers,  especially  Paul,  seemed  to  use  language 
which,  pressed  to  its  logical  conclusion,  could  only  be  interpreted  as  an 
utterly  slighting  estimate  of  the  old  traditions,  nay,  even  of  the  sacred  rite  of 
circumcision.  It  is  true,  perhaps,  that  they  had  never  openly  recommended 
the  suppression  of  this  rite ;  but  it  was  clear  that  it  occupied  a  subordinate 
place  in  their  minds,  and  that  they  were  disinclined  to  make  between  their 
Jewish  and  Gentile  converts  the  immensity  of  difference  which  separated  a 
Proselyte  of  Righteousness  from  a  Proselyte  of  the  Gate. 

It  is  very  possible  that  it  was  only  the  events  of  this  journey  which  finally 
matured  the  views  of  St.  Paul  on  this  important  subject.  The  ordinary  laws 
of  nature  had  not  been  reversed  in  his  case,  and  as  he  grew  in  grace  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so  his  own  Epistles,1  though  each  has 
its  own  divine  purpose,  undoubtedly  display  the  kind  of  difference  in  his  way 
of  developing  the  truth  which  we  should  ordinarily  attribute  to  growth  of 
mind.  And  it  is  observable  that  St.  Paul,  when  taunted  by  his  opponents 
with  having  once  been  a  preacher  of  circumcision,  does  not  meet  the  taunt  by 
a  denial,  but  merely  by  saying  that  at  any  rate  his  persecutions  are  a  sign  that 
now  that  time  is  over.  In  fact,  he  simply  thrusts  aside  the  allusion  to  the  past 
by  language  which  should  render  impossible  any  doubts  as  to  his  sentiments  iu 
the  present.  In  the  same  way,  in  an  earlier  part  of  his  Epistle,2  he  anticipates 
the  charge  of  being  a  time-server — a  charge  which  he  know  to  be  false  in 
spirit,  while  yet  the  malignity  of  slander  might  find  some  justification  of  it  in 
his  broad  indifference  to  trifles — not  by  any  attempt  to  explain  his  former  line 
of  action,  but  by  an  outburst  of  strong  denunciation  which  none  could  mistake 
for  men-pleasing  or  over-persuasiveness.  Indeed,  in  the  second  chapter  of 
the  Galatians,  St.  Paul  seems  distinctly  to  imply  two  things.  The  one  is  that 
it  was  the  treacherous  espionage  of  false  brethren  that  first  made  him  regard 
the  question  as  one  of  capital  importance;  the  other  that  his  views  on 
the  subject  were  at  that  time  so  far  from  being  final,  that  it  was  with  & 
certain  amount  of  misgiving  as  to  the  practical  decision  that  he  went  up  to  the 

1  2  Cor.  v.  16  ;  1  Cor.  xiii.  9 — 12.    Bengel  says  that  when  tlie  Epistles  are  arranged- 
chronologically,  "  incrementum  apostoli  spirituals  cognoscitur  "  (p.  5S3), 
*  Gal.  i.  10. 


THE   CLOSE  OF   THE  JOURNEY.  223 

consultation  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  the  result  of  this  interview— tho  discovery 
that  James  and  Kephas  had  nothing  to  contribute  to  any  further  solution  of 
the  subject — which  first  made  him  determined  to  resist  to  the  utmost  the 
imposition  of  the  yoke  on  Gentiles,  and  to  follow  the  line  which  he  had 
generally  taken.  But  he  had  learnt  from  this  journey  that  nothing  but  the 
wisdom  of  God  annihilating  human  foolishness,  nothing  but  the  gracious 
Spirit  of  God  breaking  the  iron  sinew  in  the  nock  of  carnal  ob.sliuacy,  could 
lead  the  Jews  to  accept  the  truths  he  preached.  Paul  saw  that  the  husband- 
men in  charge  of  tho  vineyard  would  never  be  brought  to  confess  that  they 
had  slain  the  Heir  as  they  had  slain  well-nigh  all  who  went  before  Him. 
Though  He  had  come  first  to  His  own  possessions,  His  own  people  refused  to 
receive  Him.1  Israel  after  the  flesh  would  not  condescend  from  their  haughty 
self-satisfaction  to  accept  the  free  gift  of  eternal  life. 

And,  therefore,  he  was  now  more  than  ever  convinced  that  his  work  would 
lie  mainly  among  the  Gentiles.  It  may  be  that  the  fury  and  contempt  of  the 
Jews  kindled  in  him  too  dangerously  for  the  natural  man — kindled  in  him  in 
spite  of  all  tender  yearnings  and  relen tings — too  strong  an -indignation,  too 
fiery  a  resentment.  It  may  be  that  he  felt  how  much  more  adapted  others 
were  than  himself  to  deal  with  these  ;  others  whose  affinities  with  them  wore 
stronger,  whose  insight  into  tho  inevitable  future  was  less  clear.  Tho  Gentiles 
•were  evidently  prepared  to  receive  tho  Gospel.  For  these  other  sheep  of  God 
evidently  the  fulness  of  time  had  come.  To  those  among  them  who  were 
disposed  for  eternal  life  the  doctrine  of  a  free  salvation  through  the  Son  of  God 
was  infinitely  acceptable.  Not  a  few  of  them  had  found  in  the  Jewish 
teaching  at  least  an  approach  to  ease.2  But  tho  acceptance  of  Judaism  could 
only  be  accomplished  at  the  cost  of  a  heavy  sacrifice.  Even  to  become  a 
"Proselyte  of  the  Gato"  subjected  a  man  to  much  that  was  distasteful;  but 
to  become  a  Proselyte  of  the  Gate  was  nothing.  It  was  represented  by  all  the 
sterner  bigots  of  Judaism  as  a  step  so  insignificant  as  to  be  nearly  worthless- 
And  yet  how  could  any  man  stoop  to  that  which  could  alone  make  him 
a  Proselyte  of  Righteousness,  and  by  elevating  him  to  this  rank,  place  on  him 
a  load  of  observances  which  were  dead  both  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  letter, 
and  wliich  yet  would  most  effectually  make  his  life  a  burden,  and  separate 
him — not  morally,  but  externally — from  all  which  he  had  loved  and  valued 
most  ?3  The  sacrifices  which  an  African  convert  has  to  make  by  abandoning 
polygamy — which  a  Brahmin  has  to  make  by  sacrificing  caste — are  but  a  small 
measure  of  what  a  Gentile  had  to  suffer  if  he  made  himself  a  Jew.  How 

1  John  i.  11,  eli  TO.  ISia.  ,  .  .  ol  HIM* 

2  Further  than  the  outermost  pale  of  Judaism  they  could  not  approach.    Religions 
thoughtfulness  in  a  Gentile  was  a  crime,  "A  Gentile  who  studies  the  Law  (beyond  the 
seven  Noachian  precepts)  is  guilty  of  death;"  for  it  is  said  (Deut.  x.xxiii.  4)  "Moses 
commanded  us  a  Law,  even  the  inheritance  of  the  congregation  of  Jacob  ;"  but  not  of 
Gentiles  (and,  therefore,  Rashi  adds  it  is  robbery  for  a  Gentile  to  study  the  Law). 
(Sanhedrin,  i.  59,  l.j    This  ia  embodied  by  Maimonides,  Dig.  Hilchoth  Menachin,  x.  9. 

*  "A  Gentile  who  offers  to  submit  to  all  the  words  of  tho  Law  except  one  is  not 
received."  Rabbi  Jose  Ben  Rabbi  Jehudah  said,  "Even  if  he  rejects  one  of  the 
HalacMtk  of  the  Scribes  "  (BenchorCth,  I.  30,  2). 


224  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

eagerly  then  would  such  an  inquirer  embrace  a  faith  which,  while  it  offered 
him  a  purer  morality,  and  a  richer  hope  for  the  future,  and  a  greater  strength 
for  the  present,  and  a  more  absolute  remission  for  the  past,  offered  him  these 
priceless  boons  unaccompanied  by  the  degradation  of  circumcision  and  the 
hourly  worry  of  distinctions  between  meats !  Stoicism  might  confront  him 
with  the  ban-en  inefficiency  of  "  the  categorical  imperative ;  "  the  Gospel 
offered  him,  as  a  force  which  needed  no  supplement,  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
Christ.  Yes,  St.  Paul  felt  that  the  Gentiles  could  not  refuse  the  proffered 
salvation.  He  himself  might  only  live  to  see  the  green  blade,  or  at  best  to 
gather  a  few  weak  ears,  but  hereafter  he  was  confident  that  the  full  harvest 
would  be  reaped.  Henceforth  he  knew  himself  to  be  essentially  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles,  and  to  that  high  calling  he  was  glad  to  sacrifice  his  life, 


CHAPTER 

'•w.tii!  t'-jr  "T-.xf  J 

THE  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM. 

IK  -xAvruv,  vuffiv  ifiavrby  'EAOTAQ2A, 
1  COB.  ix.  19. 

THE  first  step  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  on  their  arrival  at  Antioch  had  been  to 
summon  a  meeting  of  the  Church,  and  give  a  report  of  their  mission  and  its. 
success,  dwelling  specially  on  the  proof  which  it  afforded  that  God  had  now 
opened  to  the  Gentiles  "  a  door  of  faith."  God  Himself  had,  by  His  direct 
blessing,  shown  that  the  dauntless  experiment  of  a  mission  to  the  heathen  was 
in  accordance  with  His  will. 

For  some  time  the  twa  Apostles  continued  to  rest  from  their  toils  ami 
perils  amid  the  peaceful  ministrations  of  the  new  metropolis  of  Christianity. 
But  it  is  not  intended  that  unbroken  peace  should  ever  in  this  world  continue 
for  long  to  bo  the  lot  of  man.  The  Church  soon  began  to  be  troubled  by  a 
controversy  which  was  not  only  of  pressing  importance,  but  which  seemed 
likely  to  endanger  the  entire  destiny  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Jewish  and  Gentile  converts  were  living  side  by  sido  at  Antioeh,  waiving 
the  differences  of  view  and  habit  which  sprang  from  their  previous  training, 
and  united  heart  and  soul  in  the  bonds  of  a  common  love  for  their  common 
Lord.  Had  they  entered  into  doubtful  disputations,1  they  would  soon  have 
found  themselves  face  to  face  with  problems  which  it  was  difficult  to  solve ; 
but  they  preferred  to  dwell  only  on  those  infinite  and  spiritual  privileges  of 
which  regarded  themselves  as  equal  sharers. 

Into  this  bright  fraternal  community  came  the  stealthy  sidelong  intrusion 
of  certain  personages  from  Judaea,2  who,  for  a  time,  profoundly  disturbed  the 
peace  of  the  Church.  Pharisees  scarcely  emancipated  from  their  Pharisaism 

1  Rom.  xiv.  1,  fir)  (if  tltxplvtlf  jiaXoyiffJl"1'* 

3  Gal.  ii.  4,  tropntr^AOor ;  of.  Judo  4,  wofMio'ttvow,  "eneaked  in." 


THE  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM.  225 

—Jews  still  in  bondage  to  their  narrowest  preconceptions — brethren  to  whom 
the  sacred  name  of  brethren  could  barely  be  conceded1 — they  insinuated 
themselves  into  the  Church  in  the  petty  spirit  of  jealousy  and  espionage,2  not 
with  any  high  aims,  but  with  the  object  of  betraying  the  citadel  of  liberty, 
and  reducing  the  free  Christiana  of  Antioeh  to  their  own  bondage.  St.  Luke, 
true  to  his  conciliatory  purpose,  merely  speaks  of  them  as  "certain  from 
Judaea;"  but  St.  Paul,  in  the  heat  of  indignant  controversy,  and  writing 
under  a  more  intense  impression  of  their  mischievous  infhicnco,  vehemently 
calls  them  "  the  false  brethren  secretly  introduced."  3  But  though,  through- 
cut  their  allusions  to  this  most  memorable  episode  in  the  history  of  early 
Christianity,  the  Apostle  and  the  Evangelist  are  writing  from  different  points 
of  view,  they  are  in  complete  accordance  as  regards  the  main  facts.  The 
combination  of  the  details  which  they  separately  furnish  enables  us  to  re- 
produce the  most  important  circumstances  of  a  contest  which  decided  for 
ever  the  future  of  the  Gentile  Church.* 

These  brethren  in  name,  but  aliens  in  heart,  came  with  a  hard,  plausible, 
ready-made  dogma — one  of  those  shibboleths  in  which  formalists  delight,  and 
which  usually  involve  the  death-blow  of  spiritual  religion.  It  demanded 
obedience  to  the  Law  of  Moses,  especially  the  immediate  acceptance  of  cir- 
cumcision5 as  its  most  typical  rite;  and  it  denied  the  possibility  of  salvation 
on  any  other  terms.  It  is  possible  that  hitherto  St.  Paul  may  have  regarded 
circumcision  as  a  rule  for  Jews,  and  a  charitable  concession  on  the  part  of 
Gentiles.  On  these  aspects  of  the  question  ho  was  waiting  for  the  light  of 
God,  which  came  to  him  in  the  rapid  course  of  circumstances,  as  it  carno  to 
the  whole  world  in  the  fall  of  Jerusalem.  But  even  among  the  Jews  of  the 
day,  the  more  sensible  and  the  more  enlightened  had  seen  that  for  a  pious 
Gentile  a  mere  external  mutilation  could  not  possibly  be  essential.  Ananias, 
who  had  the  honour  of  converting  the  royal  family  of  Adiabene,  had  distinctly 
advised  Izates  that  it  was  not  desirable  to  risk  his  crown  by  external  com- 
pliance to  a  needless  rite.6  It  was  only  when  men  like  Eleazar — fierce  and 

1  This  is  expressly  stated  in  the  margin  of  the  later  Syriao  version,  and  in  two  cursive 
SISS.  8,  137.      Epiphanius  says  that  "their  leaders  -were  Cerinthus,  the  subsequent 
Gnostic  opponent  of  St.  John,  and  'Ebion'"  (Haer.  2S,  30).    But  Ebion  is  a  mere 
"mythical  eponymus"  (Mansel,  Gnostic  Her.  125 ;  Tert.  De  praescr.  Haeret.  33).   Ebionite 
is  an  epithet  (Epiphan.  ffaer.  xxx.),  and  means  "poor"  (Orig.  <?.  Cdi,  ii.  1;  Neander, 
Ch.  Hist.  ii.  14). 

2  Gal.  ii.  4,  KarntrKo^a-ai.    I  suppose  that  the  title  nrraits  (moomhah)— one  authorised 
by  a  diploma  to  give  decisions — would  have  been  technically  claimed  by  these  visitors. 

3  Gal.  ii.  4,  TOU?  wapfi<ra.KTovs  $<v5aM\<j>ovs,  "falsos  et  supcrinducticiosfratres"  (Tert.  adv. 
Marc.  v.  3).    The  strongly  f    ' 

"false  teachers  -who  shall  t 

4  The  addition  in  D  ana 0 , ,  ..       .    . 

the  Constituti&nes  Apostdicae,  «<u  TCIS  I0e<rt?  o's  fccr-afaro,  though  not  genuine,  yet  show 
what  was  felt  to  be  implied. 

6  Acts  xv.  1,  npLTwOtfrt,  "  be  once  circumcised ; "  M,  A,  B,  0,  D.  Even  Joscphus  (see 
next  note)  seems  to  think  that  the  horrible  death  of  Apion  was  a  punishment  in  kind  for 
hisridicule  of  circumcision  (e.  Ap.  ii.  14).  From  this  anecdote  we  can  measure  the  courage 
of  St.  Paul,  and  the  intense  hatred  which  his  views  excited. 

«"  .Josephus,  as  a  liberal  Pharisee,  held  tfce  same  view  (Antt.  xx.  2,  §  4 ;  Tit.  23, 31).  Th« 
Talmud  mentions  a  certain  Akiles  (whom  some  identify  with  Aqnila,  the  Greek  translator 


228  THE  LIFE  AND   WOEK  OF  ST.   PAtTL. 

narrow  litoralists  of  the  school  of  Shammai — intervened,  that  Proselytes  of 
the  Gate  -were  taught  that  their  faith  and  their  holiness  were  valueless  unless 
they  assumed  the  badge  of  Proselytes  of  Righteousness.1  Izates  and  Mono- 
bazus,  as  was  sure  to  be  the  case  with  timid  and  superstitious  natures,  had 
risked  all  to  meet  the  views  of  these  uncompromising  zealots,  just  as  from 
baser  motives  Aziz,  King  of  Emesa,  and  Polemo  of  Cilicia  had  yielded  in 
order  to  win  the  hands  of  the  wealthy  and  beautiful  princesses  of  the  house  of 
Herod.2  But  it  was  quite  certain  that  such  an  acceptance  of  Mosaism  would 
continue  to  bo,  as  it  always  had  been,  extremely  exceptional ;  and  Paul  saw 
that  if  Christianity  was  to  be  degraded  into  the  mere  superimposition  of  a 
belief  in  Christ  as  the  Jewish  Messiah  upon  the  self-satisfaction  of  Sham- 
maite  fanaticism,3  or  even  on  the  mere  menace  of  the  Law,  it  was  not  possible, 
it  was  not  even  desirable,  that  it  should  continue  to  exist.  The  force  of  habit 
might,  in  one  who  had  been  born  a  Jew,  freshen  with  the  new  wine  of  the 
Gospel  the  old  ceremonialism  which  had  run  to  the  lees  of  Rabbinic  tradition. 
In  Jerusalem  a  Christian  might  not  be  sensible  of  the  loss  ho  suffered  by 
chaining  his  new  lif e  to  the  corpse  of  meaningless  halachoth ;  but  in  Antioch, 
at  any  rate,  and  still  more  in  the  new  missionfields  of  Asia,  such  bondage 
could  never  be  allowed. 

"Wo  can  imagine  the  indignant  grief  with  which  St.  Paul  watched  this 
continuous,  this  systematic*  attempt  to  undo  all  that  had  been  done,  and  to 
render  impossible  all  further  progress.  Was  the  living  and  life-giving  spirit 
to  be  thus  sacrificed  to  the  dead  letter  ?  Were  these  new  Pharisees  to  coin- 
pass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  only  that  they  might  add  the  pride 
of  the  Jew  to  the  vice  of  the  Gentile,  and  make  him  ten  times  more  narrow 
than  themselves  ?  Was  the  superstitious  adoration  of  dead  ordinances  to 
dominate  over  the  heaven-sent  liberty  of  the  children  of  God?  If  Moses 
had,  under  Divine  guidance,  imposed  upon  a  nation  of  sensual  and  stiff- 
necked  slaves  not  only  a  moral  law  of  which  Christ  Himself  had  indefinitely 
deepened  the  obligation,  but  also  the  crushing  yoke  of  "  statutes  which  wert 

of  the  Bible)  as  having  submitted  to  circumcision,  and  also  a  Roman  senator  (Abhdda  Zara, 
10 ;  Hamburger,  s.v.  "  Beschneidung  ").  The  Roman  Metilius  saved  his  life  by  accepting 
circumcision  (Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  17,  §  10).  Antoninus  forbade  it  injthe  case  of  Gentile  proselytes 
(Gieseler,  i.,  §  38). 

1  "  So  great  is  circumcision,"  said  Rabbi  [Jehnda  Hakkadosh],  "that  but  for  it  tha 
Holy  One,  blessed  be  He,  would  not  have  created  the  world ;  for  it  is  said  (Jer.  xxxiii.  25), 
'But  for  My  covenant  [i.e.,  circumcision]  I  would  not  have  made  day  and  night,  and  the 
ordinance  of  heaven  and  earth'"  (Ncdarim,  f.  31,   2).      "Abraham  was  not  called 
'  perfect '  till  he  was  circumcised.     It  is  as  great  as  all  the  other  commandments  "  (Exod. 
xxxiv.  27),  (Id.  f.  32,  1).    It  was  one  of  the  laws  in  the  case  of  which  the  Jews  preferred 
death  to  disobedience  (Shabbath,  f.  130,  1).    The  "good  king"  in  Pseudo-Baruch  (§§  61, 
66)  is  one  who  does  not  allow  the  existence  of  an  uncircumcised  person  on  the  earth. 

2  Izates  and  Monobazus  would  have  been  called  "lion-proselytes,"  and  Aziz  and 
Polemo  "Shechemite  proselytes." 

3  "  How  many  laws  have  you  ?"  asked  a  Gentile  of  Shammai.  "Two,  "said  Shammai, 
"  the  written  and  the  oral."     "  I  believe  the  former,"  said  the  Gentile,  "  not  the  latter ; 
accept  me  as  a  proselyte  on  condition  of  learning  th»  written  law  only."    Shammai 
ejected  him  with  a  curse  (Shablath,  f,  31,  1), 

4  Acts  XT.  1 


THK  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM.  22? 

not  good,  and  ordinances  whereby  they  could  not  live,"1  was  this  yoke — now 
that  it  had  boon  abolished,  now  that  it  had  become  partly  impossible  and  mostly 
meaningless — to  be  disastrously  imposed  on  necks  for  which  its  only  effect 
would  be  to  madden  or  to  gall?8  Was  a  Titus,  young,  and  manly,  and  free, 
and  pure,  with  the  love  of  Christ  burning  like  a  fire  on  the  altar  of  his  soul, 
to  be  held  at  arm's  length  by  some  unregenerate  Pharisee,  who  while  he  wore 
broad  tepMllin,  and  tsitsith  with  exactly  the  right  number  of  threads  and 
knots,  was  yet  an  utter  stranger  to  the  love  of  Christ,  and  ignorant  as  a  child 
of  His  free  salvation  P  Were  Christians,  who  were  all  brethren,  all  a  chosen 
generation  and  a  royal  priesthood,  to  be  treated  by  Jews,  who  had  no  merit 
beyond  the  very  dubious  merit  of  being  Jews,  as  though  they  were  unclean 
creatures  with  whom  it  was  not  even  fit  to  eat  P  The  Jews  freely  indulged  in 
language  of  contemptuous  superiority  towards  the  proselytes,  but  was  such 
language  to  be  for  one  moment  tolerated  in  the  brotherhood  of  Christ  ?s 

It  is  easy  to  understand  in  what  a  flame  of  fire  Paul  must  often  have  stood 
up  to  urge  these  questions  during  the  passionate  debates  which  immediately 
arose.*  It  may  be  imagined  with  what  eager  interest  the  Gentile  proselytes 
would  await  the  result  of  a  controversy  which  was  to  decide  whether  it  was 
enough  that  they  should  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit — love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance — or  whether 
they  must  also  stick  up  mezuzoth  on  their  houses,  and  submit  to  a  concision, 
and  abstain  from  the  free  purchases  of  the  market,  and  not  touch  perfectly 
harmless  kinds  of  food,  and  petrify  one  day  out  of  every  seven  with  a  rigidity 
of  small  and  conventionalised  observances.  To  us  it  may  seem  amazing  that 
the  utterances  of  the  prophets  were  not  sufficient  to  show  that  the  essence  of 
religion  is  faith,  not  outward  service ;  and  that  so  far  from  requiring  petty 
accuracies  of  posture,  and  dress,  and  food,  what  the  Lord  requires  of  us  is  that 
we  should  do  justice,  and  love  mercy,  and  wait  humbly  with  our  God.6  But 
the  Judaisers  had  tradition,  authority,  and  the  Pentateuch  on  their  side,  and 
the  paralysis  of  custom  rendered  many  Jewish  converts  incapable  of  resisting 
conclusions  which  yet  they  felt  to  be  false.  So  far  as  they  were  true  Christians 
at  all,  they  could  not  but  feel  that  the  end  of  the  commandment  was  love  out 
of  a  good  heart  and  a  pure  conscience,  and  faith  unfeigned ;  but  when  their 
opponents  flourished  in  their  faces  the  Thorah-rolls,  and  asked  them  whether 
they  dared  to  despise  the  immemorial  sanctities  of  Sinai,  or  diminish  the 
obligation  of  laws  uttered  by  Moses  amid  its  burning  glow,  the  ordinary  Jew 

l  Ezek.  xx.  25. 

3  "  Circumcidere  genitalia  instituere  ut  divcrsitate  noscantur,"  says  Tacitus     (Hist.  T4 
5  ),and  adds  as  an  aggravation  "  Transgressi  in  morem  eorum  idem  usurpant." 

s  Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  language  of  Jewish  Rabbis  towards  proselytes  :  "  Prose- 
lytes and  those  who  sport  with  children  [the  meaning  is  dubious]  delay  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah.  As  for  proselytes,  it  is  explained  by  Rabh  Chelbo's  remark,  that  they  are  as 
injurious  to  Israel  as  a  scab  (since  in  Isa.  xiv.  1  it  is  said,  '  strangers'  vrill  be  joined  to 
them  (inDDJi),  and  nnco  means  '  a  scab ') ;  because,  says  Rashi,  they  are  not  up  to  the 
precepts,  and  cause  calamities  to  Israel "  (Niddah,  f.  13,  2). 

4  Acts  xv.  2. 

«  Mio.  vi.  8 ;  Deut.  z.  12 ;  HOB,  vL  6 ;  1  Sam.  XT.  22. 


22$  -THE  LTFS  AND  WOHE  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


and  the  ordinary  Gentile  were  perplexed.  On  these  points  the  words  of  Jesus 
had  been  hat  a  beam  in  tha  darkness,  certain  indeed  to  grow,  but  as  yet  only 
shining  aniid  deep  midnight.  They  did  not  yet  understand  that  Christ's  fulfil- 
ment of  the  Law  was  its  abrogation,  and  that  to  maintain  the  type  in  tho 
presence  of  the  antitype  was  to  hold  up  superfluous  candles  to  tho  sun.  From 
this  imminent  peril  01  absorption  in  exclusive  ritual  one  man  saved  the  Church, 
and  that  man  was  Paul.  With  all  the  force  of  his  argument,  with  all  the 
weight  of  his  authority,  he  affirmed  and  insisted  that  the  Gentile  converts 
should  remain  in  the  free  conditions  tinder  which  they  had  first  accepted  the 
faith  of  Christ.1 

When  there  appeared  likely  to  be  no  end  to  the  dispute,2  it  became 
necessary  to  refer  it  to  the  decision  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  and  especially 
of  those  Apostles  who  had  lived  with  the  living  Jesus.  It  is  far  from  im- 
probable that  this  plan  was  urged  —  nay,  demanded  —  by  the  Judaisera  them- 
selves,8 who  must  have  been  well  aware  that  the  majority  of  that  Church 
looked  with  alarm  and  suspicion  on  what  they  regarded  as  anti-Judaic  innova- 
tions. There  may  even  have  been  a  certain  insolence  (which  accounts  for  the 
almost  irritable  language  of  St.  Paul  long  afterwards)  in  their  manner  of 
parading  their  immensely  superior  authority  of  living  witnesses  of  the  life  of 
Jesus  like  James  and  Kephas.  They  doubtless  represented  the  deputation  to 
Jerusalem  as  a  necessary  act  of  submission,  a  going  up  of  Paul  and  Barnabas 
to  be  judged  by  the  Jerusalem  synod.4  At  this  period  Paul  would  not  openly 
repudiate  the  paraded  superiority  of  the  Twelve  Apostles.  When  he  says  to 
the  Galatians  that  "he  consulted  them  about  the  Gospel  he  was  preaching,  lest 
he  might  be,  or  had  been,  running  to  no  purpose,"  he  shows  that  at  this  period 
he  had  not  arrived  at  the  quite  unshaken  conviction,  which  made  him  subse- 
quently say  that  "  whether  he  or  an  angel  from  heaven  preached  any  other 
gospel,  let  him  be  anathema."6  In  point  of  fact  it  was  at  this  interview  that 


'  Comp.  MS.  D,  i\eysv  yap  o  HavAos  fievtiv  QVTUS  icd.9as  liri'orevcw  8t~<r 

^  The  expressions  of   Acts  XV.   2,    ycrcfievij?  o5v  ard<retaf  KOI  av^rnireta^  OVK  oAi'yjj?,  K.T.X.» 

aro  very  sti-cng.    5ro«n«  is  "insurrection"  (Mark  xv.  7;  Luke  xxih.  19).    For  avfijnjo-if 

see  Acts  vi.  9  ;  xxviii.  29  j  Mark  be.  14. 

3  As  is  again  asserted  in  D,  jrapijyyeiXa*'  auTotc  TO>  TtavXw  Ko.1  ><p  Bcipj'a/5a  Vai  rimy  aAAm? 
avaflcuveiv  irpbs  TOVS  dirooroXovj,  K.T.X.,  3w«u«  Kptduxrtp  err*  auTCis  7r«pt  TOV  jTjnjfioTOS  TOWTOV. 

4  See  the  previous  extract  from  D. 

8  I  have  here  assumed  without  hesitation  that  the  visit  to  Jerusalem  of  Gal.  il.  1  —  10, 
though  there  mentioned  as  though  it  were  a  second  visit,  was  identical  with  that  of  Acta 
xv.,  and  therefore  was  in  reality  his  third  visit.  There  are  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
five  visits  of  St.  Paul  to  Jerusalem  —  viz.,  (1)  after  his  conversion  (ix.  26);  (2)  with  the 
Antiochene  contribution  (xi.  30)  ;  (3)  to  consult  the  Apostles  about  the  necessity  of 
circumcision  for  the  Gentiles  (xv.  2)  ;  (4)  after  his  second  missionary  journey  (xviii.  22)  ; 
(5)  before  his  imprisonment  at  Csesarea  (xxi.).  Now  this  visit  of  Gal.  ii.  could  not 
possibly  have  been  the  first  ;  nor,  as  is  proved  by  Gal.  ii.  7,  as  well  as  by  the  whole 
chronology  of  his  life,  could  it  have  been  the  second  ;  nor,  as  we  see  from  the  presence 
of  Barnabas  (comp.  Gal.  ii.  1  with  Acts  xv.  39),  could  it  have  been  the  fourth  ;  for  no 
one  can  assume  that  it  was  without  accusing  St.  Paul  of  disingenuous  suppression  when 
he  spoke  to  the  Galatians  of  this  sole  intercourse  which  he  had  had  with  the  Apostles  ; 
and  that  it  was  not  tho  fifth  is  quite  decisively  proved  by  Gal.  ii.  11.  By  the  exhaustive 
method,  therefore,  we  see  that  the  visit  dwelt  on  in  Gal.  ii.  must  have  been  the  third. 
It  would,  indeed,  be  conceivable  that  it  was  come  visit  cot  recorded  by  tha  author  of  i  ha 


THE  CONSULXAIXOK   AX  JERUSALEM.  229 

ha  learnt  that  his  own  insight  and  authority  were  fully  equal  to  those  of  the 
Apostles  who  were  in  Christ  before  him ;  that  they  had  nothing  to  tell  him  and 
nothing  to  add  to  him ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  there  were  spheres  of  work  which 
belonged  rather  to  him  than  to  them,  and  in  wliich  they  stood  to  him  in  the 
position  of  learners;1  that  Jesus  had  fulfilled  His  own  promise  that  it  was 
better  for  His  children  that  He  should  go  away,  because  His  communion  with 
them  by  the  gift  of  His  Holy  Spirit  was  closer  and  more  absolute  than  by  Hia 
actual  presence.2  But  even  now  Pan!  must  have  chafed  to  submit  the  decision 
of  truths  which  ho  felt  to  bo  true  to  any  human  authority.  But  for  one  cir- 
cumstance he  must  have  felt  like  an  able  Roman  Catholic  bishop — a  Stross- 
meyer  or  a  Dupanloup — who  has  to  await  a  decision  respecting  tenets  which  he 
deems  irrefragable,  from  a  Pope  in  all  respects  his  inferior  in  ability  and  in 
enlightenment.  That  circumstance  was  the  inward  voice,  the  spiritual  intima- 
tion which  revealed  to  him  that  this  course  was  wise  and  necessary.  St.  Luke, 
of  course,  tells  the  external  side  of  the  event,  which  was  that  Paul  went  by 
desire  of  the  Church  of  Antioch ;  but  St.  Paul  himself,  omitting  this  as 
irrelevant  to  his  purpose,  or  regarding  it  as  an  expression  of  the  will  of 
Heaven,  tells  his  converts  that  he  went  up  "  by  revelation."  Prom  Paul  also 
we  learn  the  interesting  circumstance  that  among  those  who  accompanied  him-j 
self  and  Barnabas  was  Titus,  perhaps  a  Cretan  Gentile  whom  he  had  converted 
at  Cyprus  during  his  first  journey. 3  Paul  took  him  as'a  Gentile  representative 
of  his  own  converts,  a  living  pledge  and  witness  that  uncircumciscd  Greeks, 
seeing  that  they  wore  equal  partakers  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were  not 
to  be  treated  as  dogs  and  outcasts.  The  declared  approval  of  God  was  not  to 
be  set  aside  for  the  fantastic  demands  of  man,  and  the  supercilious  tolerance 
or  undisguised  contempt  of  Jews  for  proselytes  was  at  once  a  crime  and  an 
ignorance  when  displayed  towards  a  brother  in  the  faith. 

Acts  if  there  were  any  reason  whatever  for  such  a  supposition ;  but  when  we  consider 
bow  impossible  it  was  that  such  a  visit  should  have  occurred  without  the  knowledge  of 
St.  Luke,  and  how  eminently  the  facts  of  it  accorded  with  the  views  which  he  wished  to 
further,  and  how  difficult  it  is  to  find  any  other  occasion  on  which  such  a  visit  would 
have  been  natural,  we  have  no  valid  reason  for  adopting  such  an  hypothesis.  Nor, 
indeed,  can  anything  be  much  clearer  than  the  identity  of  circumstances  in  the  visits 
tlius  described.  In  the  two  narratives  the  same  people  go  up  at  the  same  time,  from 
the  same  place,  for  the  same  object,  in  consequence  of  the  same  interference  by  the  same 
agitators,  and  with  the  same  results.  Against  the  absolute  certainly  of  the  conclusion 
that  the  visits  described  were  one  and  the  same  there-  is  nothing  whatever  to  ecfc  but 
trivial  differences  of  detail,  every  one  of  which  is  accounted  for  in  the  text.  As  for 
fc)t.  Paul's  non-allusion  to  the  so-called  "decree,"  it  is  sufficiently  explained  by  its  local, 
partial,  temporary — and,  so  far  as  principles  were  concerned,  indecisive — character ;  by 
the  fact  that  the  Galatiana  were  not  asklny  for  concessions,  but  seeking  bondage ;  and  by 
tha  Apostle's  determination  not  to  settle  such  questions  by  subordinating  his  Apoutolic 
independence  to  any  authority  which  could  be  described  as  cither  "  of  man  or  by  man," 
l.y  anything,  in  short,  except  the  principles  revealed  by  the  Spirit  of  God  Himself. 
1'rof.  Jowett  (Gal.  i.  253)  speaks  of  tho  unbroken  imago  of  harmony  presented  by  the 
narrative  of  the  Acts  contrasted  with  the  tone  of  Gal.  ii.  2 — 6;  but  "an  unbroken  imago 
of  harmony "  is  not  very  accordant  with  the  TO.U.;)  av^Tr,^t  of  Acts  xv.  7,  which  is  an 
obvious  continuation  of  the  ati<j<.^  ta.1  ^r-qnK  OVE  oA.i'yij  of  ^er.  2.  Tho  extent  to  which  the 
Acts  "casts  thereil  of  time  over  the  diilerences  of  the  Apostles "  seems  to  mo  to  b« 
often  exaggerated. 

»  Gal.  ii.  7—9.  *  John  yvi.  7.  s  Ewald,  Ocsch.  vi.  455. 


230  THE   LIFE   AND   WOEK   OF  8T.   PAUL. 

Alike  the  commencement  and  the  course  of  their  overland  journey  were 
cheered  by  open  sympathy  with  their  views.  From  Antioch  they  were 
honourably  escorted  on  their  way;  and  as  they  passed  through  Berytus, 
Tyre,  Sidon,  and  Samaria,  narrating  to  the  Churches  the  conversion  of  the 
Gentiles,  they — like  Luther  on  his  way  to  the  Diet  of  Worms — were  en- 
couraged by  unanimous  expressions  of  approval  and  joy.  On  arriving  at 
Jerusalem  they  were  received  by  the  Apostles  and  elders,  and  narrated  to 
thorn  the  story  of  thoir  preaching  and  its  results,  together  with  the  inevit- 
able question  to  which  it  had  given  rise.  It  was  on  this  occasion  appa- 
rently that  some  of  the  Christian  Pharisees  at  once  got  up,  and  broadly 
insisted  on  the  moral  necessity  of  Mosaism  and  circumcision,  implying, 
therefore,  a  direct  censure  of  the  principles  on  which  Paul  and  Barnabas 
had  conducted  their  mission.1  The  question  thus  stated  by  the  opposing 
parties  was  far  too  grave  to  be  decided  by  any  immediate  vote ;  the  deli- 
berate judgment  of  the  Church  on  so  momentous  a  problem  could  only  be 
pronounced  at  a  subsequent  meeting.  Paul  used  the  interval  with  his 
usual  sagacity  and  power.  Knowing  how  liable  to  a  thousand  varying 
accidents  are  the  decisions  arrived  at  by  promiscuous  assemblies — fearing 
lest  the  voice  of  a  mixed  gathering  might  only  express  the  collective  in- 
capacity or  the  collective  prejudice — he  endeavoured  to  win  over  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  by  a  private  statement  of  the  Gospel  which  he  preached. 
Those  leaders  were,  he  tells  us,  at  this  time,  James,2  who  is  mentioned 
first  because  of  his  position  as  head  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  and 
Peter  and  John.  These  he  so  entirely  succeeded  in  gaining  over  to  his 
cause — he  showed  to  them  with  such  unanswerable  force  that  they  could 
not  insist  on  making  Gentile  Christians  into  orthodox  Jews  without  in- 
curring the  tremendous  responsibility  of  damming  up  for  ever  the  free 
river  of  the  grace  of  God — that  they  resigned  to  his  judgment  the  mission 
to  the  Gentiles.  Eminent  as  they  were  in  their  own  spheres,  great  as 
was  their  force  of  character,  marked  as  was  their  individuality,  they  could 
not  resist  the  personal  ascendency  of  Paul.  In  the  presence  of  one  whose 
whole  nature  evinced  the  intensity  of  his  inspired  conviction,  they  felt  tliat 
they  could  not  assume  the  position  of  superiors  or  guides.3  Whatever  may 
have  been  their  original  prejudices,  these  noble-hearted  men  allowed  neither 
their  private  predilections  nor  any  fibro  of  natural  jealousy  to  deter  their 
acknowledgment  of  their  great  fellow-workers.  They  gave  to  Paul  and 
Barnabas  the  right  hands  of  fellowship,  and  acknowledged  them  as  Apostles 
to  tho  Gentiles.  One  touching  request  alone  they  made.  The  Church  of 
Jerusalem  had  been  plunged  from  tho  first  in  abject  poverty.  It  had 
suffered  perhaps  from  the  temporary  experiment  of  communism;  it  had 

1  The  irapeM\9ri<rav  v«b  TTJ*  «KKA»)<7ias  of  Acts  xv.  4  implies  a  preliminary  meeting 
distinct  from  the  <rv»TJx<h7<™u'  n  of  ver.  6. 

3  Not  here  characterised  as  "  the  Lord's  brother,"  because  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee, 
was  dead,  and  James,  the  son  of  Alphffius,  was  an  Apostle  of  whom  nothing  is  known. 

1  Gal.  JL  7,  ii6m<  ;  9,  yv4irr«. 


THE   CONSULTATION  AT  JEKU8ALEM.  231 

suffered  certainly  from  the  humble  rank  of  its  first  converts,  the  persecu- 
tions which  they  had  endured,  and  the  chronic  famine  to  which  their  city 
was  liable.  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  working  in  wealthy  Antioch,  and 
were  likely  to  travel  among  Gentiles,  who,  if  not  rich,  were  amply  supplied 
with  the  means  of  livelihood.  Would  they  forget  Jerusalem?  Would  they 
suffer  those  to  starve  who  had  walked  with  Jesus  by  the  Lake  of  Galileo,  and 
sat  beside  His  feet  when  He  preached  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  Already 
once  they  had  brought  from  Antioch  the  deeply  acceptable  Chaluka,1  which 
in  the  fiercest  moment  of  famine  and  persecution  had  as  much  relieved  the 
brethren  as  the  royal  bounties  of  Helena  had  sustained  the  Jews.  Surely 
they  would  not  let  religious  differences  prevent  them  from  aiding  the  hunger- 
bitten  Church  ?  It  might  be  that  they  had  been  treated  by  Jerusalem  Chris- 
tians of  the  Pharisaic  party  with  surreptitious  opposition  and  undisguised 
dislike,  but  surely  this  would  not  weigh  with  them  for  a  moment.  The  three 
heads  of  the  afflicted  Church  begged  the  missionaries  to  the  luxurious  world 
"that  they  would  remember  the  poor."  It  was  a  request  in  every  respect 
agreeable  to  the  tender  and  sympathetic  heart  of  Paul.2  Apart  from  all 
urging,  he  had  already  shown  spontaneous  earnestness  3  in  his  holy  work  of 
compassion,  and  now  that  it  came  to  him  as  a  sort  of  request,  by  way  of 
acknowledging  the  full  recognition  which  was  being  conceded  to  him,  he  was 
only  too  glad  to  have  such  means  of  showing  that,  while  he  would  not 
yield  an  inch  of  essential  truth,  he  would  make  any  amount  of  sacrifice  in  the 
cause  of  charity.  Thenceforth  Paul  throw  himself  into  the  plan  of  collecting 
alms  for  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem  with  characteristic  eagerness.  There 
was  scarcely  a  Church  or  a  nation  that  he  visited  which  he  did  not  press  for 
contributions,  and  the  Galatians  themselves  could  recall  the  systematic  plan 
of  collection  which  he  had  urged  upon  their  notice.4  In  the  very  hottest 
moment  of  displeasure  against  those  who  at  any  rate  represented  themselves 
as  emissaries  of  James,  he  never  once  relaxed  his  kindly  efforts  to  prove  to 
the  Church,  which  more  than  all  others  suspected  and  thwarted  him,  that  even 
theological  differences,  with  all  their  exasperating  bitterness,  had  not  dulled 
the  generous  sensibility  of  a  heart  which,  by  many  a  daily  affliction,  had  learnt 
to  throb  with  sympathy  for  the  afflicted. 

One  part,  then,  of  his  mission  to  Jerusalem  was  fulfilled  when  the  Lord's 
brother,  and  he  to  whom  He  had  assigned  "the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  and  he  who  had  leaned  his  head  at  tho  Last  Supper  upon  His  breast, 
had  yielded  to  him  their  friendly  acknowledgment.  It  is  on  this  that  ho 
chiefly  dwells  to  the  Galatians.  In  their  Churches  brawling  Judaisers  had 
dared  to  impugn  his  commission  and  disparage  his  teaching,  on  the  asserted 


s  GaL  ii,  10.  6  ical  i<nroM<ura.  aM  irovro  rroirjo-ai  ',  lit.,  "  which  also  I  was  eager  to  do  at 
once  that  very  tiling."  "  Quod  etiam  sollicitus  fui  hoc  ipsum  facere."  (Vulg.) 

s  Acts  xi.  29. 

*  1  Cor.  xvi.  3;  cf.  2  Cor.  viii.,  ix.  ;  Rom.  rv.  27.  Even  many  years  after  we  find 
St.  Paul  still  most  heartily  fulfilling  this  part  of  the  mutual  compact  (Acts  xxiv.  17), 
Phrygia  alone  seems  to  have  contributed  nothing. 


232  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAT7Z* 

authority  of  the  mother  Church  and  its  bishop.  It  was  Paul's  oLjocfc  to  prors 
to  them  that  his  sacred  independence  had  been  acknowledged  by  the  very  men 
who  were  now  thrust  into  antagonism  with  his  sentiments.  There  may  be  in 
his  language  a  little  sense  of  wrong ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  no  candid  reader 
can  fail  to  see  that  a  fair  summary  of  the  antagonism  to  which  he  alludes  is 
this — "  Separation,  not  opposition;  antagonism  of  the  followers  rather  than  of 
the  leaders ;  personal  antipathy  of  the  Judaisers  to  St.  Paul  rather  than  of 
St.  Paul  to  the  Twelve."1 

But  St.  Luko  is  dealing  with  another  side  of  this  visit.  To  him  the 
authority  of  Paul  was  not  a  subject  of  doubt,  nor  was  it  seriously  questioned 
by  those  for  whom  he  wrote;  but  with  the  teaching  of  Paul  it  was  far 
different,  and  it  was  Luke's  object  to  show  that  the  main  principles  involved, 
so  far  from  being  dangerous,  had  received  the  formal  sanction  of  the  older 
Apostles.  That  there  was  a  severe  struggle  he  does  not  attempt  to  conceal, 
but  ho  quotes  an  authentic  document  to  prove  that  it  ended  triumphantly  in 
favour  of  the  Apostle  of  tho  Gentiles. 

A  concrete  form  was  given  to  this  debate  by  the  presence  of  Titus  as  one 
of  Paul's  companions.  Around  this  young  man  arose,  it  is  evident,  a  wild 
clamour  of  controversy.  The  Judaisers  insisted  that  he  should  be  circumcised. 
So  long  as  he  remained  uncircumcised  they  refused  to  eat  with  him,  ov  to 
regard  Ir'm  as  in  any  true  sense  a  brother.  They  may  eYCu  have  been  indig- 
nant with  Paul  for  his  freo  companionship  with  this  Gentile,  as  they  had 
previously  been  with  Peter  for  sharing  the  hospitality  of  Cornelius.  The 
Agapae  were  disturbed  with  these  contentions,  and  with  them  the  celebration 
of  the  Holy  Communion.  Alike  Titus  and  Paul  must  have  had  a  troubled 
time  amid  this  storm  of  conflicting  opinions,  urged  with  the  rancorous  intensity 
which  Jews  always  display  when  their  religious  fanaticism  is  aroused.  Even 
after  the  lapse  of  five  or  six  years 2  St.  Paul  cannot  speak  of  this  episode  in 
his  life  without  an  agitation  which  affects  his  knguage  to  so  extraordinary  a 
degree  as  to  render  uncertain  to  us  the  result,  of  which  doubtless  the  Galatians 
were  aware,  but  about  which  we  should  be  glacl  to  have  more  complete 
certainty.  The  question  is,  did  Paul,  in  this  particular  instance,  yield  or  not  ? 
In  other  words,  was  Titus  circumcised?  In  the  case  of  Timothy,  Paul 
avowedly  took  into  account  his  Jewish  parentage  on  the  mother's  side,  aud 
therefore  circumcised  him  sis  a  Jew,  and  not  as  a  Gentilo,  because  otherwise  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  secure  his  admission  ainoHg  Jews.  Evcu  this 
might  bo  enough  to  givo  rise  to  tho  charges  of  inconsistency  with  which  we 
kuow  him  to  have  been  assailed.  But  if  he  had  indeed  bowed  to  tho  storm  in 
tho  case  of  Titus — if  he,  the  firmest  champion  of  Christian  unciicumcibion,  the 
foremost  preacher  of  the  truth  that  in  Christ  Jesus  neither  circumcision  was 
anything  nor  uneircuiucioion,  but  faith  which  workoth  by  lovo,had  still  allowed 

1  Joweti,  fiomans,  &c.,  i.  326.    lu  this  essay,  and  that  of  Dr.  Lightfoot  on  "  St.  Paul 
aud  the  Three"  (GaL  276—316),  the  reader  will  find  the  facts  fairly  appreciated  and 
carefully  (stated. 

2  Tlie  date  of  the  "Council"  at  Jerusalem  is  about  A.D.  61 ;  that  of  the  Epistle  to 
tLe  Galatians  about  A.D.  53, 


THE  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM.  233 

an  adult  Gentile  convert  to  submit  to  a  Jewish  rite  which  had  no  meaning 
except  as  an  acknowledgment  that  he  was  bound  to  keep  the  Mosaic  Law — 
then,  indeed,  he  might  be  charged  with  having  sacrificed  the  very  point  at 
issue.  He  might  of  course  urge  that  he  had  only  done  it  for  the  moment  by  way 
of  peace,  because  otherwise  the  very  life  of  Titus  would  have  been  endangered, 
or  because  his  presence  in  the  Holy  City  might  otherwise  have  caused  false 
rumours  and  terrible  riots,1  as  the  presence  of  Trophimus  did  in  biter  years. 
He  might  say,  "  I  circumcised  Titus  only  because  there  was  no  other  chance  of 
getting  the  question  reasonably  discussed ;"  but  if  he  yielded  at  all,  however 
noble  and  charitable  may  have  been  his  motives,  he  gave  to  his  opponents  a 
handle  against  him  which  assuredly  they  did  not  fail  to  use. 

Now  that  he  was  most  vehemently  urged  to  take  this  step  is  clear,  and 
perhaps  the  extraordinary  convulsiveness  of  his  expressions  is  only  due  to  the 
memory  of  all  that  he  must  have  undergone  in  that  bitter  straggle.2  In  hold- 
ing out  to  the  last  he  had,  doubtless,  been  forced  to  encounter  the  pressure  of 
nearly  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  including  almost  certainly 
all  who  were  living  of  the  twelve  Apostles,  and  their  three  leaders.  Perhaps 
even  Barnabas  himself  might,  as  afterwards,  have  lost  all  firm  grasp  of  truths 
which  seemed  sufficiently  clear  when  he  was  working  with  Paul  alone  on  the 
wild  uplands  of  Lycaonia.  Certainly  St.  Paul's  moral  courage  triumphed  over 
the  severest  tost,  if  he  had  the  firmness  and  fortitude  to  hold  out  against  this 
mass  of  influence.  It  would  have  been  far  bolder  than  Whitofield  standing 
before  a  conclave  of  Bishops,  or  Luther  pleading  his  cause  at  Rome.  As  far 
as  courage  was  concerned,  it  is  certain  that  no  fear  would  ever  have  induced 
him  to  give  way ;  but  might  he  not  have  yielded  ad  interim,  and  as  a  charitable 
concession,  in  order  to  secure  a  permanent  result  P 

Let  us  consider,  in  all  its  roughness,  his  own  language.  "  Then,"  he  says, 
"  fourteen  years  after,3  I  again  went  up  to  Jerusalem  with  Barnabas,  taking 

1  This  element  of  the  decision  has  been  universally  overlooked.    Gentiles  of  course 
there  were  in  Jerusalem,  but  for  a  Jew  deliberately  to  introduce  an  uncircumcised 
Gentile  a*  a  full  partaker  of  all  rclif/ious  rites  in  a  Judceo- Christian  community  was  a 
terribly  dangerous  experiment.     If  all  the  power  and  influence  of  Josephus  could  hardly 
save  from  massacre  two  illustrious  and  hiyhly -connected  Gentiles  who  had  f.ed  to  him  for 
rcfui/e — although  there  was  no  pretence  of  extending  to  them  any  religious  privileges — 
because  the  multitude  said  that  "  they  ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  live  if  they  would  not 
change  their  religion  to  the  religion  or  those  to  whom  they  fled  for  safety"  (Vit.  31),  how 
could  Paul  answer  for  the  life  of  Titus  f 

2  This  is  the  view  of  Dr.  Lightfoot  (Gal.  p.  102),  who  says,  "The  counsels  of  the 
Apostles  of  the  circumcision  are  the  hidden  rock  on  which  the  grammar  of  the  sentence 
is  wrecked;"  and  "the  sensible  undercurrent  of  feeling,  the  broken  grammar  of  the  sen- 
tence, the  obvious  tenour  of  particular  phrases,  all  convey  the  impression  that,  though  the 
final  victory  was  complete,  it  was  not  attained  without  a  struggle,  in  which  St.  Paul 
maintained,  at  one  time  almost  single-handed,  the  cause  of  Gentile  freedom."    I  give  my 
reason  afterwards  for  adopting  a  different  conclusion.     The  sense  of  a  complete  victory 
contemplated  years  afterwards  would  hardly  produce  all  this  agitation.    It  would  have 
been  alluded  to  with  the  calm  modesty  of  conscious  strength.    Not  so  an  error  of  judg- 
ment involving  serious  consequences  though  actuated  by  the  best  motives.    If  Titus  wot 
not  circumcised,  why  does  not  Paul  plainly  say  sot 

8  Gal.  ii.  1—6.    Fourteen  years  after  his  first  visit, 


334  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

mith  me  aiso  Titus.1  Now,  I  went  up  in  accordance  with  a  revelation,  and  I 
referred  to  them2  the  Gospel  which  I  am  preaching  among  the  Gentiles — 
privately,  however,  to  those  of  repute,  lest  perchance  I  am  now  running,3  or 
wren  had  run,  to  no  purpose.4  But  not  even  Titus,  who  was  with  me,  Greek 
•  hough  he  was,  was  obliged  to  be  circumcised;  but  [he  was  only  circumcised?] 
because  of  the  stealthily-introduced  false  brethren— people  who  came  secretly 
in  to  spy  out  our  liberty  which  we  have  in  Christ  Jesus,  in  order  that  they 
shall6  utterly  enslave  us,  [(to  whom)  not  even]6  for  an  hour  did  we  yield  by 
way  of  submission — in  order  that  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  may  remain  entirely 
with  you;7  from  those,  however,  who  are  reputed8  to  be  something — whatever 
they  were  *  makes  no  matter  to  mo — God  accepts  no  man's  face — well,  to  me 

1  And  some  others,  whom,  however,  he  could  hardly  be  said  to  "  take  with  him " 
(Acts  xv.  2). 

2  ivtOeniiv  OUTOCS,   "communicated"    or  "referred   to  them" — not  "placed  in  their 
hands"  (cf.  Acts  xxv.  14).     Tertullian  says  "ad  patrocinium  Petri,  <fcc.,"  which  is  too 
strong. 

3  I  take  Tpe'xu  as  an  indie.,  but  it  may  be  the  subjunctive,  as  in  1  Thess.  iii.  5,  and  for 
the  metaphor  Phil.  ii.  16. 

4  Dr.  Lightfoot  takes  this  to  mean  "that  my  past  and  present  labours  might  not  be 
thwarted  by  opposition  or  misunderstanding."    So  Theophylact,  ad  loc.,  Iva.  w  ardo-is 
•yc'njrai  »tai  tea  ap0jj  TO  <TKa.vSa\ov.     The  context  seems  to  me  to  show  that  it  implies  a  desire 
on  St.  Paul's  part  to  know  whether  anything  valid  could  be  urged  against  his  own  personal 
conviction.    And  so  Tert.  adv.  Marc.  i.  20  ;  v.  3 ;  iv.  2.     The  admission  of  the  possibility 
of  a  misgiving  as  to  the  practical  issue  only  adds  strength  to  the  subsequent  confirma- 
tion.   To  St.  Paul's  uncertainty  or  momentary  hesitation  I  would  compare  that  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist  (Matt.  xi.  3). 

5  Ka.raSov\^tTov<r>.  («,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E).     I  have  literally  translated  the  bold  solecism, 
which  was  not  unknown  to  Hellenistic  Greek,  and  by  which  it  gains  in  vividness  (cf.  iv.  17, 

Iva.  AjAoun). 

•  In  the  insertion,  omission,  or  variation  of  these  two  words  ots  ov5e  the  MSS.  and 
quotations  become  as  agitated  and  uncertain  as  the  style  of  the  writer.  If  we  could 
believe  that  the  word  ovfie — "not  even  " — was  spurious  it  would  then,  I  think,  be  obvious 
that  St.  Paul  meant  to  say,  "  Owing  to  these  false  brethren  /  did,  it  is  true,  make  a 
temporary  concession  (n-pos  <upai-),  but  only  with  a  view  of  ultimately  securing  for  you 
a  permanent  liberty"  (Sianetvy  npix  vna<;) ;  "ostendens,"  as  Tertullian  says,  propter  quid 
fecerit  quod  nee  fecisset  nee  ostendisset,  si  illxid  propter  quod  fecit  non  accidisset  "  (adv. 
Marc.  v.  3).  ,  But  admittedly  the  evidence  of  the  manuscripts  is  in  favour  of  retaining 
the  negative,  though  it  is  omitted  in  Irenams,  is  absent  from  many  Latin  copies,  is 
declared  on  the  doubtful  authority  of  Victorinns  to  have  been  absent  from  the  majority 
of  Latin  and  Greek  manuscripts,  and  is  asserted  by  Tertullian  to  have  been  fraudulently 
introduced  by  the  heretic  Marcion.  Surely  the  uncertainty  which  attaches  to  it,  joined 
to  the  fact  that  even  its  retention  by  no  means  excludes  the  supposition  that  Paul,  to  his 
own  great  subsequent  regret,  had  given  way  under  protest  while  the  debate  was  pending, 
are  arguments  in  favour  of  this  having  been  the  case.  If  this  view  be  right  it  would  give  a 
far  deeper  significance  to  such  passages  as  Gal.  i.  10  ;  iv.  11.  In  that  case  his  vacillation 
was  an  error  of  policy,  which  we  have  no  more  reason  to  believe  was  impossible  in  his 
case  than  a  moral  error  was  in  that  of  St.  Peter  at  Antioch ;  but  it  would  have  been  an 
error  of  practical  judgment,  not  of  unsettled  principle ;  an  error  of  noble  self-abnegation, 
not  of  timid  complaisance.  And  surely  St.  Paul  would  have  been  the  very  last  of  men 
to  claim  immunity  from  the  possibility  of  error.  "  The  fulness  of  divine  gifts,"  says  Dr. 
Newman,  "  did  not  tend  to  destroy  what  is  human  in  him,  but  to  spiritualise  and 
perfect  it." 

7  SiafxeiVr].  8  JoKoGires,  "seem,"  not  "seemed,"  as  in  E.V. 

9  Kenan  and  others  see  in  this  a  covert  allusion  to  the  former  disbelief  of  James ; 
this  is  utterly  unlikely,  seeing  that  the  reference  is  also  to  Peter  and  John.  It  means, 
rather,  "however  great  their  former  privilege  in  nearness  to  the  living  Christ"  (cf. 
2  Cor.  vi.  16).  Indeed,  it  is  better  to  join  the  >ror«  to  the  oiwoi,  "  qualescunque." 


IHE  CONSULTATION  AT  JEETJSALEM.  235 

these  in  repute  added  nothing."  Such  is  a  literal  translation  01  his  actual 
words  in  this  extraordinary  sentence ;  and  he  then  proceeds  to  narrate  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  Three,  that  his  authority  was  in  no  sense  disparate 
with  theirs ;  nay,  that  in  dealing  with  the  Gentiles  he  was  to  be  regarded  as 
specially  endowed  with  Divine  guidance. 

But  does  he  mean  that,  "  I  never  for  a  moment  yielded  and  circumcised 
Titus,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  pressure  which  was  put  upon  ine  "  ?  or  does  he 
mean,  "  I  admit — grieved  as  I  am  to  admit  it — that  in  the  case  of  Titus  I  did 
yield.  Titus  was  circumcised,  but  not  under  compulsion.  I  yielded,  but  not 
out  of  submission.  The  concession  which  I  made— vast  as  it  was,  mistaken  as 
it  may  have  been — was  not  an  abandonment  of  principle,  but  a  stretch  of 
charity  "  ? 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Paul  "cared  for  ideas,  not  for  forms;"  the 
fact  that  circumcision  was  a  matter  in  itself  indifferent — the  admitted  truth 
that  men  could  be  saved  by  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  that 
alone — may  have  induced  him,  under  strong  pressure,1  to  concede  that  the  rite 
should  be  performed — with  the  same  kind  of  half -contemptuous  indifference  to 
the  exaggeration  of  trifles  which  makes  him  say  to  the  Galatians  in  a  burst  of 
bitter  irony,  "  I  wish  that,  while  they  are  about  it,  these  Judaisers,  who  make 
so  much  of  circumcision,  would  go  a  little  farther  still  and  make  themselves 
altogether  like  your  priests  of  Agdistis."2  When  Paul  took  on  him  the 
Nazarite  vow,  when  he  circumcised  Timothy,3  he  did  it  out  of  a  generous  desire 
to  remove  all  needless  causes  of  offence,  and  not  to  let  his  work  be  hindered 
by  a  stiff  refusal  to  give  way  in  things  unimportant.  We  know  that  it  was  his 
avowed  principle  to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  if  so  be  ho  might  win  some. 
His  soul  was  too  large  to  stickle  about  matters  of  no  moment.  Can  we  not 
imagine  that  in  the  wild  strife  of  tongues  which  made  Jerusalem  hateful  so 
long  as  the  uncircumcised  Titus  was  moving  among  the  members  of  the 
Church,  Paul  might  have  got  up  and  said,  "  I  have  come  here  to  secure  a 
decision  about  a  matter  of  vast  moment.  If  the  presence  of  Titus  looks  to 
you  like  an  offensive  assertion  of  foregone  conclusions — well,  ifc  is  only  an 
individual  iushinco — and  while  the  question  is  still  undecided,  I  will  have  him 
circumcised,  and  wo  shall  then  be  able  to  proceed  more  calmly  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  general  question  "  ?  Might  he  not  have  regarded  this  as  a  case  in 
Yi-hich  it  was  advisable  "  reculer  pour  mieux  sauter  "  ?  and  to  his  own  friends 
who  shared  his  sentiments  might  he  not  have  said,  "  What  does  it  matter  Lti 
this  particular  instance?  It  can  mean  nothing.  Titus  himself  is  generous 
enough  to  wish  it  for  the  sake  of  peace ;  he  fully  understands  that  he  is  merely 
yielding  to  a  violent  prejudice.  It  may  be  most  useful  to  him  in  securing 
future  admission  to  Jewish  assemblies.  To  him,  to  us,  it  will  bo  regarded  as 
'concision,'  not  'circumcision;'  an  outward  observance  submitted  to  from 
voluntary  good  nature ;  not  by  any  means  a  solemn  precedent,  or  a  significant 
rite  "  ?  And  would  not  Titus  have  also  urged  the  Apostle  not  to  be  deterred 

)  Acts  xv.  10.  *    GaL  Y  IT  In  the  Creek).  »ActsxvL& 


236  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  SI.  PAUL. 

by  any  consideration  for  him?  Might  he  not  naturally  have  said,  "I  am 
grieved  that  there  should  be  all  this  uproar  and  heart-burning  on  my  account, 
and  I  am  quite  willing  to  allay  it  by  becoming  a  proselyte  of  righteousness  "  ? 
If  Titus  took  this  generous  line,  Paul's  reluctance  to  take  advantage  of  his 
generosity  might  have  been  increased,  and  yet  an  additional  argument  would 
have  been  supplied  to  his  opponents.  "  Moses,"  they  would  have  said, 
"  commanded  circumcision ;  we  cannot  let  this  Gentile  sit  at  our  Agapze  without 
it ;  he  is  himself,  much  to  his  credit,  quite  ready  to  consent  to  it ;  why  do  you 
persist  in  troubliug  our  Israel  by  your  refusal  to  consent  P  " 

For  whatever  may  be  urged  against  this  view,  I  cannot  imagine  why,  if 
Paul  did  not  yield,  he  should  use  language  so  ambiguous,  so  involved,  that 
whether  we  retain  the  negative  or  not  his  language  has  still  led  many — as  it 
did  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  Church — to  believe  that  he  did  the  very  thing 
which  he  is  generally  supposed  to  be  denying.  Nothing  could  have  been 
easier  or  pleasanter  than  to  say,  '•'  I  did  not  circumcise  Titus,  though  every 
possible  effort  was  made  to  force  me  to  do  so.  My  not  doing  so — even  at 
Jerusalem,  even  at  the  beginning  of  the  whole  controversy,  even  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Judfeo-Christian  tyranny,  even  in  the  face  of  the  evident  wish 
of  the  Apostles — proves,  once  for  all,  both  my  independence  and  my  con- 
sistency." But  it  was  immensely  more  difficult  to  explain  why  he  really  had 
given  ivay  in  that  important  instance.  It  may  be  that  Titus  was  by  his  side 
while  he  penned  this  very  paragraph,  and,  if  so,  it  would  be  to  Paul  a  yet 
more  bitter  reminder  of  a  concession  which,  more  than  aught  else,  had  been 
quoted  to  prove  his  subjection  and  his  insincerity.  He  is  therefore  so  anxious 
to  show  why  ho  did  it,  and  what  were  not  his  motives,  that  ultimately  he  uncon- 
sciously omits  to  say  it  in  so  many  words  at  all.1  And  if,  after  the  decision 
of  the  meeting,  and  the  battle  which  ho  had  fought,  Paul  still  thought  it 
advisable  to  circumcise  Timothy  merely  to  avoid  offending  the  Jews  whom  he 
was  about  to  visit,  would  not  the  same  motives  work  with  him  at  this  earlier 
period  when  he  saw  how  the  presence  of  Titus  threw  the  whole  Church  into 
confusion?  If  the  false  inferences  which  might  be  deduced  from  the  con- 
cession were  greater  in  the  case  of  a  pure-bloodod  Gentile,  on  the  other  hand 
the  necessity  for  diminishing  offence  was  also  more  pressing,  and  tho  obliga- 
tormess  of  circumcision  had  at  that  timo  been  loss  seriously  impugned.  And 
it  is  even  doubtful  whether  such  a  course  was  not  overruled  for  good.  But 
for  this  step  would  it,  for  instance,  have  been  possible  for  Titus  to  be  overseer 
of  tho  Church  of  Crete  ?  Would  any  circumcised  Jew  have  tolerated  at  this 
epoch  the  "  episcopate "  of  an  uncircuincised  Gentile  ?  I  have  dwelt  long 

1  "Cette  transaction  cofttA  bcaucoup  a  Paul,  ct  la  phrase  Jans  laquelle  il  en  parlo  est 
\iiic  dcs  plus  originales  qu'il  ait  ccritca.  Lc  mot  qui  lui  couto  scmble  ne  pouvoir  couler 
do  sa  plurao.  La  phrase  au  premier  coup  d'oiil  parait  dire  que  Titus  ne  fut  p;is  circoncis, 
t.iiidis  qu'eile  implique  qu'il  le  fut"  (lienan,  St.  Paul,  p.  92).  It  need  hardly  be  said  that 
tliore  ia  no  question  of  suppression  here,  because  I  assume  that  the  fact  was  perfectly  well 
known.  We  find  a  similar  characteristic  of  style  and  character  in  Rom.  ix.  Baur,  on  the 
other  hand  (but  on  very  insufficient  grounds),  thinks  that  "nothing  can  bo  more  absurd." 
Yet  it  wa.3  the  view  of  Tertullian  (c.  Marc.  Y.  3),  and  Baur  equally  disbelieves  the  ex- 
pressly asserted  circumcision  of  Timothy  f 


THB  CONSULTATION  AT  JEBUSALEM.  237 

npon  this  incident  because,  if  I  ain  right,  there  are  few  events  in  the  biography 
of  St.  Paul  more  illustrative  alike  of  his  own  character  and  of  the  circum- 
stances of  his  day.  He  would  rather  have  died,  would  rather  have  suffered  a 
schism  between  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  and  the  Churches  of  her  Gentile 
converts,  than  admit  that  there  could  be  no  salvation  out  of  the  pale  of 
Mosaism.  In  this  or  that  instance  he  was  ready  enough — perhaps,  in  tho 
largeness  of  his  heart,  too  ready  for  his  own  peace — to  go  almost  any  length 
rather  than  bring  himself  and,  what  was  infinitely  more  dear  to  him,  the 
Gospel  with  which  ho  had  been  entrusted,  into  collision  with  the  adamantine 
walls  of  Pharisaic  bigotry.  But  ho  always  let  it  be  understood  that  his 
principle  remained  intact — that  Christ  had  in  every  senso  abolished  tho  curse 
of  the  Law — that,  except  in  its  universal  moral  precepts,  it  was  no  longer 
binding  on  the  Gentiles — that  the  "  traditions  of  the  fathers  "  had  for  them 
no  further  significance.  He  intended  at  all  costs,  by  almost  unlimited  con- 
cession in  the  case  of  individuals,  by  unflinching  resistance  when  principles 
were  endangered,  to  establish,  as  far  at  any  rate  as  the  Gentiles  were  con- 
cerned, the  truth  that  Christ  had  obliterated  the  handwriting  in  force  against 
us,  and  taken  it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  the  torn  fragments  of  its  decrees  to 
His  cross.1 

And  so  the  great  debate  came  on.  The  Apostles — at  any  rate,  their 
leaders — had  to  a  great  extent  been  won  over  in  private  conferences;  the 
opponents  had  been  partially  silenced  by  a  personal  concession.  Paul  must 
have  looked  forward  with  breathless  interest  to  the  result  of  the  meeting 
which  should  decide  whether  Jerusalem  was  still  to  be  the  metropolis  of  the 
Faith,  or  whether  she  was  to  be  abandoned  to  the  isolation  of  unprogressive 
literalism,  while  the  Gospel  of  Christ  started  on  a  new  career  from  Antioeh 
and  from  the  West.  One  thing  only  must  not  be.  She  must  not  swathe  the 
daily-strengthening  youth  of  Christianity  in  the  dusty  cerements  of  an 
abolished  system  ;  she  must  not  make  Christianity  a  religion  of  washings  and 
eleansings,  of  times  and  seasons,  of  meats  and  drinks,  but  a  religion  of  holi- 
ness and  of  the  heart — a  religion  in  which  men  might  eat  or  not  as  they 
pleased,  and  might  regard  every  day  as  alike  sacred,  so  that  they  strove  with 
all  their  power  to  reveal  in  their  lives  a  love  to  man  springing  out  of  the  root 
of  love  to  God. 

We  are  not  surprised  to  hear  that  there  was  much  eager  and  passionate 
debate.2  Doubtless,  as  in  all  similar  gatherings  of  the  Church  to  settle  dis- 
puted questions,  there  were  mutual  recriminations  and  misunderstandings, 
instances  of  untenable  argument,  of  inaccurate  language,  of  confused  concep- 
tions. The  Holy  Spirit,  indeed,  was  among  them  then,  as  now,  in  all  gatherings 
of  faithful  Christian  men  :  He  was  with  them  to  guide  and  to  inspire.  But 
neither  then  nor  now — as  we  see  by  the  clearest  evidence  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment then,  and  as  we  see  by  daily  experience  now — did  His  influence  work 
to  the  miraculous  extinction  of  human  differences,  or  obliteration  of  human 


Col  it.  14.  »  See  on  this  dissension  Hooker,  Bed.  Pol.  IV.  xi  4 


238  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OB1  ST.   PAUL. 

imperfections.  Those  who  supported  the  cause  of  Paul  rendered  themselves 
liable  to  those  charges,  so  terrible  to  a  Jew,  of  laxness,  of  irreligion,  of  apostasy, 
of  unpatriotism,  of  not  being  believers  in  revealed  truth.  Was  not  Moses 
inspired  P  Was  the  Sacred  Pentateuch  to  be  reduced  to  a  dead  letter  ? 
Were  all  the  curses  of  Ebal  to  be  braved  ?  Were  the  Thorah-rolls  to  be  flung 
contemptuously  into  the  Dead  Sea  ?  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  main- 
tained the  necessity  of  circumcision  and  of  obedience  to  the  Law,  laid  them- 
selves open  to  the  fatal  question,  "  If  the  Law  is  essential  to  salvation,  what, 
then,  has  been  the  work  of  Christ  ?  " 

But  when  the  subject  had  been  amply  discussed,  Peter  arose.1  Which 
side  he  would  take  could  be  hardly  doubtful.  He  had,  in  fact,  already  braved 
and  overborne  the  brunt  of  a  similar  opposition.  But  an  exceptional  instance 
•was  felt  to  be  a  very  different  thing  from  a  universal  rule.  It  was  true  that 
Peter  did  not  now  stand  alone,  but  found  the  moral  support,  which  was  so 
necessary  to  him,  in  the  calm  dignity  of  Barnabas  and  the  fervid  genius  of 
Paul.  But  in  all  other  respects  his  task  was  even  more  difficult  than  it  had 
been  before,  and,  rising  to  the  occasion,  he  spoke  with  corresponding  boldness 
and  force.2  His  speech  was  in  accordance  with  the  practical,  forthright,  non- 
argumentative  turn  of  his  mind.  Filled  with  energetic  conviction  by  the 
logic  of  facts,  he  reminded  them  how,  long  ago,3  the  question  had  been  prac- 
tically settled.  God  had  selected  him  to  win  over  the  first  little  body  of 
converts  from  the  Gentile  world ;  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  to  them  had 
showed  that  they  were  cleansed  by  faith.  To  lay  on  them  the  burden  of  the 
Law — a  burden  to  the  daily  life  which  it  surrounded  with  unpractical  and 
often  all  but  impracticable  observances — a  burden  to  the  conscience  because 
it  created  a  sense  of  obligation  of  which  it  could  neither  inspire  the 
fulfilment  nor  remedy  the  shortcoming — a  burden  which  had  therefore  been 
found  intolerable  both  by  their  fathers  and  themselves4 — was  simply  to 
tempt  God  by  hindering  His  manifest  purposes,  and  resisting  His  manifest 
will.  In  one  doctrine  all  present  were  agreed ;  6  it  was  that  alike  the  Jews 
and  the  Gentile  converts  should  be  saved  only  by  the  grace  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  inference  then  was  obvious,  that  they  were  not  and  could 
not  be  saved  by  the  works  of  the  Law.  In  the  observance  of  those  works  the 
Jews,  on  whom  they  were  originally  enjoined,  might  naturally  persevere  till 
fresh  light  came  ;  but  these  hereditary  customs  had  never  been  addressed  to 
the  Gentiles,  and,  since  they  were  unnecessary  to  salvation,  they  must 

1  On  the  views  of  St.  John,  see  Excursus  XVII.,  "  St.  John  and  St.  Paul." 

2  Acts  xv.  7 — 11.     Again  we  have  to  notice  the  interesting  circumstance  that  in  this 
brief  speech  the  language  is  distinctly  Petrine.     Such  minute  marks  of  authenticity  are 
wholly  beyond  the  reach  of  a  forger. 

3  The  expression  o<J>'  i\^tpS>v  <ipx<uW  would  naturally  refer  to  the  ipxn  of  the  Gospel  (cf. 
xL  15 ;  xxL  16 ;  Phil.  iv.  15).    But  if  the  conversion  of  Cornelius  took  place  during  the 
"  rest "  procured  for  the  Church  by  the  absorption  of  the  Jews  in  their  attempt  to  rebut 
the  mad  impiety  of  Gaius,  A.D.  40,  that  was  not  twelve  years  before  this  time. 

4  Gal.  v.  3.    The  Law  was  a  fvyis  Sov\tiat,  the  Gospel  a  £uyfc  xp7|crr<fc, 
(Matt.  xi.  29,  30). 

•  Cf.  Acts  xi.  17, 


THE   CONSULTATION   AT  JERUSALEM.  289 

obviously  be  to  the  Gentiles  not  burdensome  only,  but  a  positive  stumbling- 
block. 

The  weight  of  Peter's  dignity  had  produced  silence  in  the  assembly.  The 
excitement  was  now  so  far  calmed  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  at  least 
listened  to  without  interruptions.  Barnabas — who,  in  the  Jewish  Church, 
still  retained  his  precedence,  and  who  was  as  acceptable  to  the  audience  from 
his  past  liberality  as  Paul  was  unacceptable  from  his  former  persecutions — 
spoke  first ;  but  both  he  and  Paul  seem  to  have  abstained  from  arguing  the 
question.  All  the  arguments  had  been  urged  at  private  conferences  when 
words  could  be  deliberately  considered.  They  were  not  there  to  impress 
their  own  views,  but  to  hear  those  of  the  Apostles  and  of  the  Church  they 
governed.  Barnabas  never  seems  to  have  been  prominent  in  debate,  and  Paul 
was  too  wise  to  discuss  theological  differences  before  a  promiscuous  audience. 
They  confined  themselves,  therefore,  to  a  simple  history  of  their  mission, 
dwelling  especially  on  those  "  signs  and  wonders "  wrought  by  their  hands 
among  the  Gentiles,  which  were  a  convincing  proof  that,  though  they  might 
not  win  the  approval  of  man,  they  had  all  along  enjoyed  the  blessing  of 
God. 

Then  rose  James.  Every  one  present  must  have  felt  that  the  practical 
decision  of  the  Church — Paul  must  have  felt  that,  humanly  speaking,  the 
future  of  Christianity — depended  on  his  words.  A  sense  of  awe  clung  about 
him  and  all  he  said  and  did.  Clothed  with  a  mysterious  and  indefinable 
dignity  as  "  the  brother  of  the  Lord,"  that  dignity  and  mystery  were  enhanced 
by  his  bearing,  dress,  manner  of  life,  and  entire  appearance.  Tradition,  as 
embodied  in  an  Ebionite  romance,  and  derived  from  thence  by  Hegesippus,1 
represents  him  as  wearing  no  wool,  but  clothed  in  fine  white  linen  from  head  to 
foot,  and — either  from  some  priestly  element  in  his  genealogy,  or  to  symbolise 
his  "  episcopate  "  at  Jerusalem — as  wearing  on  his  forehead  the  petalon,  or 
golden  plate  of  High-priesthood.2  It  is  said  that  he  was  so  holy,  and  so  highly 
esteemed  by  the  whole  Jewish  people,  that  he  alone  was  allowed,  like  the 
High  Priest,  to  enter  the  Holy  Place ;  that  he  lived  a  celibate 3  and  ascetic 
life ;  that  he  spent  long  hours  alone  in  the  Temple  praying  for  the  people, 
till  his  knees  became  hard  and  callous  as  those  of  the  camel ;  that  he  had  the 
power  of  working  miracles ;  that  the  rain  fell  in  accordance  with  his  prayers  ; 
that  it  was  owing  to  his  merits  that  God's  impending  wrath  was  averted  from 
the  Jewish  nation;  that  he  received  the  title  of  "the  Just"  and  Obliam,  or 
"  Rampart  of  the  People ;  and  that  he  was  shadowed  forth  in  the  images  of  ^ 

1  "The  Ascent  of  James."     The  narrative  of  Hegesippus  Is  quoted  at  length  by 
Eusebius,  H.  E,  ii.  23.     Other  passages  which  relate  to  him  are  Epiphan.     Haer. 
bocviii.  7,  13,  14  ;  Jor.  De  Ftrr.  Ittustr.  2 ;  Comm.  in  Gal.  i.  19. 

2  Epiphan.  Haer.  xxix.  4.     The  same  story  Is  told  of  St.  John,  on  the  authority  of 
Polycrates,  Bishop  of  Ephesus  (Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  31 ;  v.  24).     Either  Polycrates  haa 
taken  literally  some  metaphorical  allusion,  or  John  really  did  sometimes  adopt  a  symbol 
of  Christian  High-priesthood.    The  former  seems  the  more  probable  supposition. 

8  This  is  rendered  doubtful  by  1  Cor.  ix.  5,  unless  he  was  an  exception  to  the  other 
Desposyni, 


240  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL, 

the  prophets.1  Some  of  these  details  must  be  purely  imaginative ;  but  legends, 
as  has  well  been  said,  are  like  the  clouds  that  gather  upon  the  mountain  sum- 
mits, and  show  the  height  and  take  the  shapes  of  the  peaks  about  which  they 
cling.  We  may  readily  believe  that  he  was  a  Nazarite,  perhaps  even  an 
ascetic — one  who,  by  the  past  affinities  of  his  character,  was  bound  rather  to 
B.anns,  and  John  Baptist,  and  the  strict  communities  of  the  Essenes,  than  to 
the  disciples  of  One  who  came  eating  and  drinking,  pouring  on  social  life  the 
brightness  of  His  holy  joy,  attending  the  banquet  of  the  Pharisee  at  Caper- 
naum, and  the  feast  of  the  bridegroom  at  Cana,  not  shrinking  from  the  tears 
with  which  Mary  of  Hagdala  or  the  perfumes  with  which  Mary  of  Bethany 
eiabathed  his  feet. 

Such  was  the  man  who  now  rose  to  speak,  with  the  long  locks  of  the 
Nazarite  streaming  over  his  white  robe,  and  with  all  the  sternness  of  aspect 
which  can  hardly  have  failed  to  characterise  one  who  was  so  rigid  in  his 
convictions,  so  uncompromising  in  his  judgments,  so  incisive  in  his  speech. 
The  importance  of  his  opinion  lay  in  the  certainty  that  it  could  hardly  fail  to 
be,  at  least  nominally,  adopted  by  the  multitude,  among  whom  he  exercised  an 
authority,  purely  local  indeed  and  limited,  but  within  those  limits  superior 
even  to  that  of  Peter.  The  most  fanatical  of  bigots  could  hardly  refuse  to  be 
bound  by  the  judgment  of  one  who  was  to  the  very  depth  of  his  being  a  loyal 
Jew ;  to  whom  even  unconverted  Jews  looked  up  with  reverence ;  to  whom 
the  "  Law,"  which  neither  St.  Peter  nor  St.  John  so  much  as  mention  in  their 
Epistles,  was  so  entirely  the  most  prominent  conception  that  he  does  not 
once  mention  the  Gospel,  and  only  alludes  to  it  under  the  aspect  of  a  law, 
though  as  "the  perfect  law  of  liberty."2 

His  speech — which,  as  in  so  many  other  instances,  bears  internal  marks  of 
authenticity3 — was^thoroughly  Judaic  in  tone,  and  yet  showed  that  the  private 
arguments  of  the  Apostles  of  the  Gentiles  had  not  been  thrown  away  on  a 
mind  which,  if  in  comparison  with  the  mind  of  a  Paul,  and  even  of  a  Peter,  it 
was  somewhat  stern  and  narrow,  was  yet  the  mind  of  a  remarkable  and  holy 
man  who  would  not  struggle  against  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 
Peter,  in  one  of  those  impetuous  outbursts  of  generous  conviction  which 
carried  him  beyond  his  ordinary  self,  had  dauntlessly  laid  down  broad 
principles  which  are,  perhaps,  the  echo  of  thoughts  which  Paul  had  impressed 
upon  his  mind.  It  would  have  been  too  much  to  expect  that  James  would 
speak  with  equal  breadth  and  boldness.  Had  he  done  so,  we  should  have  felt 
at  once  that  he  was  using  language  unlike  himself,  unlike  all  that  we  know  of 

1  Dan.  i.  8,  12 ;  Tob.  i.  11,  12.     i?  ol  *po$qrat  &jAov<n  atpl  OVTOV  (Heges.  ubi  gupr.). 
This,  perhaps,   refers  to  Isa.  iii.  10.     If  he  be   the  Jacob  of  Kephur  Sechaniah  he  is 
indeed  regarded  as  a  Min,  yet  he  is  represented  as  having  various  dealings  with  orthodox 
Eabbis  (Gratz,  Gnostic,  u.  Judaism,  p.  25).     The  name  Oblias,  rr'jyin,  is  explained  by 
Hausrath  to  mean  "Jehovah  my  chain,"  with  allusion  to  the  Nazarite  vow.     Hitzig. 
(.K7.  Propheten)  thinks  the  name  may  refer  to  the  staff  called  "  bands  "  in  Zcch.  xi.  7. 
Is  it  possible  the  name  may  be  some  confusion  of  Abh  learn,  "father  of  the  people"} 

2  James  i.  25 ;  ii.  12. 

*  E.g.,  "  on  whom  my  name  has  been  called ; "  cf.  James  11  7. 


THE  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM,  241 

him,  unlike  the  language  of  his  own  Epistle.  But  though  his  speech  is  as 
different  from  St.  Peter's  as  possible  —  though  it  proposed  restrictions  where 
he  had  indicated  liberty  —  it  yet  went  farther  than  could  have  been  hoped; 
farther  than  bigots  either  liked  or  cordially  accepted;  and,  above  all,  It 
conceded  the  main  point  at  issue  hi  implying  that  circumcision  aud  the 
ceremonial  law  were,  as  a  whole,  non-essential  for  the  Gentiles. 

Requesting  their  attention,  he  reminded  them  that  Symeon1—  as,  using  the 
Hebrew  form  of  the  name,  he  characteristically  calls  his  brother  Apostle  —  had 
narrated  to  them  the  Divine  intimations  which  led  to  the  call  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  this  ho  shows  was  in  accordance  with  ancient  prophecy,  and,  therefore, 
with  Divine  fore-ordination,2  -But  obviously  —  this  was  patent  to  all  Jewa 
alike  —  the  Gentiles  would  never  accept  the  whole  Mosaic  Law.  His  au- 
thoritative decision,3  therefore,  took  the  form  of  "  a  concession  and  a  reserve." 
He  proposed  to  release  the  converted  Gentiles  from  all  but  four  restrictions  — 
which  belonged  to  what  was  called  the  Noachian  dispensation4  —  abstinence, 
namely,  from  things  polluted  by  being  offered  to  idols,5  and  from  fornication, 
and  from  anything  strangled,  and  from  blood.8  "  For,"  he  adds,  hi  words 
which  are  pregnant  with  more  than  one  significance,  "  Moses  from  of  old  hath 
preachers  in  the  synagogues  in  every  city,  being  read  every  Sabbath  day." 
By  this  addition  he  probably  meant  to  imply  that  since  Moses  was  universally 
read  in  synagogues  attended  both  by  Jews  and  by  Gentile  converts,  we  will 
tell  the  Gentiles  that  this  Law  which  they  hear  read  is  not  universally 
binding  on  them,  but  only  so  far  as  charity  to  the  Jew  requires;  and  we  will 
tell  the  Jewa  that  we  have  no  desire  to  abrogate  for  them  that  Law  to  whose 
ordinances  they  bear  a  weekly  witness. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  points  in  this  speech  is  the  argument  deduced 
from  the  prophecy  of  Amos,  which  was  primarily  meant  as  a  prophecy  of  the 
restoration  of  Israel  from  captivity,  but  which  St.  James,  with  a  large 
insight  into  the  ever-widening  horizons  of  prophecy,  applies  to  the  ideal 
restoration,  the  reception  of  Jehovah  as  their  common  Father  by  the  great 
family  of  man.  In  the  rebuilding  of  the  ruined  tabernacle  of  David  he  sees 
the  upraising  of  the  Church  of  Christ  as  an  ideal  temple  to  which  the  Gentiles 
also  shall  be  joined.  Nor  is  it  a  little  striking  that  in  adducing  this  prophecy 
he  quotes,  not  the  Hebrew,  but  mainly  the  Septuagint.7  The  Greek  differs 


seems  to 


1  As  in  2  Peter  i.  1.    This  is  the  last  mention  of  Peter  in  tha  Acts. 

8  Amos  ix.  11,  12.     The  true  reading  here,  among  numberless  divergences, 
be  yviavra.  OLTT  aluvot  (*»,  B,  C),  "it  has  been  known  of  old."    James  affirms  what  Amos 
prophesied,  but  bis  speech  is  not  free  from  difficulties.     (See  Baur,  Paul.  i.  124.) 

•  fyii  (cpiVw,  but  he  was  onlypranws  inter  pares.    (See  Acts  xv.  ft;  xxi.  25.) 

4  See  Gen.  ix.  4. 

6  Acts  XV.  30,  AXicr/i^ara  rS>v  «iSiiAwv  =  el&<a\69vTa.  (ver.  29  ;  XXI.  25)  •AAuryAi  -  goal,  to 
redeem  with  blood"  (Dan.  i.  8 ;  Mai.  i.  7).  We  are  told  that  the  Jews  in  the  days  of 
Antiochus  were  ready  to  die  rather  than  fl$io\o6vr<av  aTrvffve<r9a.i. 

6  These  two  restrictions  are  practically  identical,  the  m  t«ra  being  only  forbidden 


eTv  (ver,  19)  occurs  only  in  the  LXX. 

i* 


242  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OP  Si,  FAUt. 

essentially  from  the  Hebrew,  and  differs  from  it  in  the  essence  of  thtS 
interpretation,  which  lies  not  only  in  the  ideal  transference  from  the  Temple 
to  the  Church,  but  in  direct  reference  to  the  Gentiles — viz. : 

"  That  the  residue  of  men  might  seek  after  the  Lord,  and  all  the  Gentiles 
upon  whom  My  name  is  called,  saith  the  Lord." 

But  the  Hebrew  says,  much  less  appositely  to  the  purpose  of  the  speaker, 

"  That  they  may  possess  the  remnant  of  Edom,  and  of  all  the  heathen 
npon  whom  My  name  is  called,  saith  the  Lord." 

The  difference  is  due  to  one  of  those  numberless  and  often  extraordinary 
variations  of  the  original  text  of  which  the  Septuagint  is  so  decisive  a  proof, 
aud  which  makes  that  version  so  interesting  a  study.1  This  application  of 
James  may  be  regarded  as  implicitly  involved  even  in  the  Hebrew,  and  is  yet 
more  directly  supported  by  other  passages ; 2  but  the  fact  that  here  and  else- 
where the  New  Testament  writers  quote  and  argue  from  the  undeniably 
variant  renderings  of  the  Septuagint,  quoting  them  from  memory,  and  often 
differing  in  actual  words  both  from  these  and  from  the  Hebrew,  shows  how 
utterly  removed  was  their  deep  reverence  for  Scripture  from  any  superstition 
about  the  literal  dictation  of  mere  words  or  letters. 

The  debate  was  now  at  an  end,  for  all  the  leaders  had  spoken.  The 
objections  had  been  silenced ;  the  voice  of  the  chief  elder  had  pronounced  the 
authoritative  conclusion.  It  only  remained  to  make  that  conclusion  known  to 
those  who  were  immediately  concerned.  The  Apostles  and  Elders  and  the- 
whole  Church  therefore  ratified  the  decision,  and  selected  two  of  their  own 
body,  men  of  high  repute — Judas  Barsabas  and  Silas3 — to  accompany  the 
emissaries  from  the  Church  of  Antioch  on  their  return,  and  to  be  pledges 
for  the  genuineness  of  their  written  communication.  The  letter  which  they 
sent  embodied  their  resolutions,  and  ran  as  follows : — "  The  Apostles  and 
Elders4  and  brethren  to  the  brethren  from  the  Gentiles  in  Antioch  and)  Syria- 


1  The  LXX.  seema  clearly  to  have  read  OTH  (ad&m),  "man,"  for  D'n>«  (cddm).    Dt, 
Davidson,  Sacr.  Hermen.  p.  462,  goes  BO  far  as  to  suppose  that  the  Jews  have  here' 
altered  the  Hebrew  text. 

2  E.g.,  Ps.  Lsxxvi.  9 ;  xxii.  31 ;  cii.  18 ;  Isa.  xliii.  7. 

3  The  Silas  of  Acts  ia,  of  course,  the  Silvanus — the  name  being  Romanised  for  con-- 
venience — of  the  Epistles  (1  Thess.  i.  1 ;  2  Thess.  i.  1),  and  perhaps  of  1  Pet.  v.  12.    He 
is  not  mentioned  in  the  Acts  after  the  first  visit  of  St.  Paul  to  Corinth,  and  in  undesigned 
coincidence  with  this  his  name  disappears  in  the  superscription  of  the  Epistles  after  that 
time.    (See  Wordsworth,  Phil.  i.  1.) 

4  Although  jcal  ol  is  omitted  (M,  A,  B,  0,  the  Vulgate  and  Armenian  versions, 
Irenseus,  and  Origen,  and  the  /ecu.  by  D),  I  still  believe  them  to  be  genuine.    The  diplo- 
matic evidence  seems  indeed  to  be  against  them,  the  weight  of  the  above  Uncials,  &o., 
being  superior  to  that  of  E,  G,  H,  the  majority  of  Cursives,  and  the  Syriac,  Coptic,  and 
yEthiopic  versions.     But  objection  to  the  apparent  parity  assigned  to  the  brethren 
might  have  led,  even  in  early  days,  to  their  omission,  while  if  not  genuine  it  is  not  easy 
to  see  why  they  should  have  been  inserted.     They  also  agree  better  with  ver.  22,  "  with 
the  whole  Church,"  and  ver.  24,  "going  out  from  among  us."    The  importance  of  the 
reading  is  shown  by  its  bearing  on  such  debates  as  the  admission  of  laymen  into  ecclesi- 
astical conferences,  &o.     Wordsworth  quotes  from  Beveridge,  Codex  Canonum  Vindi- 
catus,  p.  20,  the  rule  "Laid  adjudicium  de  doctrina  aut  disciplina,  Eccksiastica  ferendum 
nunquam  admissi  sunt."  .  ,  ...  ••;   _    . 


TH«  CONSULTATION  AT  JfiBtTSALSfc.  243 

and  Cilicia,  greeting.1  Since  we  heard  that  some  who  went  out  from  among  na 
troubled  you  with  statements,  subverting1  your  souls,  who  received  no 
injunction  from  ns,s  we  met  together,  and  decided  to  select  men  and  send  them 
to  you  with  our  beloved  Barnabas  and  Paul,4  persons5  who  have  given  up 
their  lives  for  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.8  We  have  therefore 
commissioned  Judas  and  Silas  to  make  in  person  the  same  announcement  to  you 
by  word  of  mouth  —  namely,  that  it  is  our  decision,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,7  to  lay  no  further  burden8  upon  you  beyond  these  necessary 
things  :  to  abstain  from  things  offered  to  idols,  and  from  blood,  and  from 
strangled,  and  from  fornication,  in  keeping  yourselves  from  which  it  shall  be 
well  with  you.  Farewell."9 

It  will  bo  observed  that  throughout  this  account  I  have  avoided  the  terms 
"  Council  "  and  "  decree."  It  is  only  by  an  unwarrantable  extension  of  terms 
that  the  meeting  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  can  be  called  a  "  Council,"  and 
the  word  connotes  a  totally  different  order  of  conceptions  to  those  that  were 
prevalent  at  that  early  time.  The  so-called  Council  of  Jerusalem  in  no  way 
resembled  the  General  Councils  of  the  Church,  either  in  its  history,  its 
constitution,  or  its  object.  It  was  not  a  convention  of  ordained  delegates,  but 
a  meeting  of  the  entire  Church  of  Jerusalem  to  receive  a  deputation  from 
the  Church  of  Antioch.  Even  Paul  and  Barnabas  seem  to  have  had  no  vote 
in  the  decision,  though  the  votes  of  a  promiscuous  body  could  certainly 
not  be  more  enlightened  than  theirs,  nor  was  their  allegiance  due  in  any  way 
to  James.  The  Church  of  Jerusalem  might  out  of  respect  be  consulted,  but 
it  had  no  claim  to  superiority,  no  abstract  prerogative  to  bind  its  decisions  on 
the  free  Church  of  God.10  The  "  decree  "  of  the  "  Council  "  was  little  more 
than  the  wise  recommendation  of  a  single  synod,  addressed  to  a  particular  dia- 

. 
1  vaiptw,  lit.  "rejoice."    It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  the  Greek  salutation  —  for 


, 

the  Hebrew  salutation  would  be  DiV^,  "  Peace  "  —  is  only  found  in  the  letter  of  a  Gentile, 
Claudius  Lysias  (xxiii.  26),  and  in  the  letter  of  him  who  must  have  taken  a  main  part  in 
drawing  up  this  letter  (James  i.  1). 

2  o.vatrKeva£ovrt*,  lit.,  "digging  up  from  the  foundations"  (Thuc.  iv.  116). 

3  This  disavowal  is  complete,  and  yet  whole  romances  about  counter-missions  in  direct 
opposition  to  St.  Paul,  ana  organised  by  James,  are  securely  built  on  the  expression  in 
Gal.  ii.  12,  Tii>a?  awb  'laK<i/3ov,  though  it  is  very  little  stronger  than  the  rim  KareMovKs  in-b 
rijs  'loviat'os  of  xv.  1,  and  not  so  strong  as  the  TIWS  «f  TIHUV  i£t\6ovrrs  here. 

*  In  order,  of  course,  that  no  possible  suspicion  might  attach  to  the  letter  as  an 
expression  of  their  real  sentiments. 

5  I  have  expressed  the  difference  of  avSpaf  and  ivQpuravt,  but  the  only  difference 
Intended  is  that  the  latter  expression  is  more  generic. 

6  They  were  martyrs  at  least  in  will  (Alf.). 

7  Cf.  Ex.  xiv.  81;  1  Sam.  xii.  18.    Hence  the  "Sancto  Spiritu  suggerente,"  com- 
monly prefixed  to  decrees  of  Councils. 

8  This  word  (cf.  ver.  10)  seems  to  show  the  hand  of  Peter  (cf.  Rev.  ii.  24). 

9  D,  followed   by  some  versions,  and   many  Cursives,   has   the   curious  addition, 
"  and  whatsoever  ye  do  not  wish  to  be  done  to  yourselves,  do  not  to  another.    Farewell, 
walking  in  the  Holy  Spirit."     With  these  minimum  requirements,  intended  to  put 
Gentiles  on  the  footing  of  Proselytes  of  the  Gate,  compare  Lev.  xvii.  8—16  ;  xviii.  20. 

10  See  Article  xxi.      Pope  Benedict  XTV.  says,   "Speticm  quandam  et  imaginem 
Synodi  in  praedicta  congregatione  eminere"  (De  Synod.  i.  1—5;  op  Denton,  Act* 
ii.  82). 


244  THE  LIFB  AND  WOES  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

triet,  and  possessing  only  a  temporary  validity.1  It  was,  in  fact,  a  local 
concordat.  Little  or  no  attention  has  been  paid  by  the  universal  Church  to 
two  of  its  restrictions ;  a  third,  not  many  years  after,  was  twice  discussed  and 
settled  by  Paul,  on  the  same  general  principles,  but  with  a  by  no  means 
identical  conclusion.8  The  concession  which  it  made  to  the  Gentiles,  in  not 
insisting  on  the  necessity  of  circumcision,  was  equally  treated  as  a  dead  letter 
by  the  Judaising  party,  and  cost  Paul  the  severest  battlo  of  his  lifetime  to 
maintain.  If  this  circular  letter  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  binding  and  final 
decreo,  and  if  tho  meeting  of  a  single  Church,  not  by  delegates  but  in  the 
person  of  all  its  members,  is  to  bo  regarded  as  a  Council,  never  was  the 
decision  of  a  Council  less  appealed  to,  and  never  was  a  decree  regarded  as  so 
entirely  inoperative  alike  by  those  who  repudiated  the  validity  of  its  conces- 
sions,3 and  by  those  who  discussed,  as  though  they  were  still  an  open  question, 
no  less  than  three  of  its  four  restrictions.4 

The  letter  came  to  the  Churches  like  a  message  of  peace.  I;  Its  very  limita- 
tion was,  at  the  time,  the  best  proof  of  its  inspired  wisdom.  Considering  the 
then  state  of  the  Church,  no  decision  could  have  more  clearly  evinced  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.5  It  was  all  the  more  valuable  because 
there  were  so  many  questions  which  it  left  unsolved.  The  heads  of  the 
Church  admitted — and  that  was  something — that  circumcision  was  non- 
essential  to  Gentiles,  and  they  may  seem  to  have  indulged  in  an  extreme 
liberality  in  not  pressing  tho  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean  moats, 
and,  above  all,  in  not  insisting  on  the  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of  swine.  By 
these  concessions  they  undoubtedly  removed  great  difficulties  from  the  path  of 
Gentile  converts.  But,  after  all,  a  multitude  o£  most  pressing  questions 
remained,  and  left  au  opening  for  each  party  to  hold  almost  exactly  the  same 
opinions  as  before.  A  Gentile  was  not  to  be  compelled  to  circumcision  and 
Hosaism.  Good ;  but  might  it  not  be  infinitely  better  for  him  to  accept  them  P 
Might  there  not  have  been  in  the  minds  of  Jewish  Christians,  as  in  those  of 
later  Rabbis,  a  belief  that  "  even  if  Gentiles  observe  the  seven  Noachiaa  pre- 
cepts, they  do  not  receive  the  same  reward  as  Israelites  ?  "  a  It  is,  at  any  rate, 
clear  that  neither  now  nor  afterwards  did  the  Judaisers  admit  Paul's  dogmatic 
principles,  as  subsequently  stated  to  the  Galatians  and  Romans.  Probably 

. 

i  Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.  IV.  xi.  5.  2  Rom.  xiv. ;  1  Cor.  viii. 

3  Gal.  iii.  1 ;  v.  2,  and  passim.  It  is  astonishing  to  find  that  even  Justin  declares  the 
eating  of  fl8<a\o6vTa  to  be  as  bad  as  idolatry,  and  will  hold  no  intercourse  with  those  who 


do  it  (Dial.  c.  Tryph.  35) ;  but  the  reason  was  that  by  that  time  (as  in  the  days  of  the 
Maccabees)  it  had  been  adopted  by  the  heathen  aa  a  test 
1  Cor.  x.  20,  21.     (Ritschl,  Alt.  Kath.  Kirch,  310,  2nd  ed.) 


St.  Paul  discusses  tho  question  of  meats  offered  to  idols  without  the  remotest 
reference  to  this  decree,  and  the  Western  Church  have  never  hold  themselves  bound  to 
abstain  "from  things  strangled,"  and  from  blood  (Aug.  c.  Faust,  xxxii.  13).  St.  Paul's 
gilenco  about  the  decree  when  he  writes  to  the  Romans  perhaps  rises  from  its  pro- 
visional and  partial  character.  It  was  only  addressed  to  the  Gentile  converts  of 
"  Antioch,  Syria,  and  Cilicia." 

6  "Ha  virent  que  le  seul  moyen  d'e*ohapper  aux  grands  questions  est  de  ne  pas  lea 
rlsoudre  .  .  .  de  laisser  lea  problems*  I'oaer  et  moorir  faute  de  raison  d'etre  "  (Ren  in, 
St.  P.  93). 

«  Abhtda  Zara,  i .  8,  L 


THB  CONSULTATION  AT  JERUSALEM.  245 

they  regarded  him,  at  the  best,  as  the  Ananias  for  futnre  Eleazers.1  Above 
all,  the  burning  question  of  social  relations  remained  untouched.  Titus  had 
been  circumcised  as  the  only  condition  on  which  the  members  of  the  Church 
at  Jerusalem  would  let  him  move  on  an  equal  footing  among  themselves.  It 
was  all  very  well  for  them  to  decide  with  more  or  less  indifference  about 
"  clioois  learets,"  "  the  outer  world,"  "  people  elsewhere,"  "  those  afar,"  3  as 
though  they  could  much  more  easily  contemplate  the  toleration  of  uncircum- 
cised  Christians,  provided  that  they  were  out  of  eight  and  out  of  mind  in 
distant  cities ;  but  a  Jew  was  a  Jew,  even  if  he  lived  in  the  wilds  of  Isauria 
or  the  burnt  plains  of  Phrygia ;  and  how  did  this  decision  at  Jerusalem  help 
him  to  face  the  practical  question,  "  Am  I,  or  am  I  not,  to  share  a  common 
table  with,  to  submit  to  the  daily  contact  of  people  that  eat  freely  of  that 
which  no  true  Jew  can  think  of  without  a  thrill  of  horror — 'the  unclean 
beast  ?" 

These  were  the  questions  which,  after  all,  could  only  be  left  to  the  solution 
of  time.  The  prejudices  of  fifteen  centuries  could  not  be  removed  in  a  day. 
Alike  the  more  enlightened  and  the  more  bigoted  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  con- 
tinued to  think  very  much  as  thoy  had  thought  before,  until  the  darkness  of 
prejudice  was  scattered  by  the  broadening  light  of  history  and  of  reason. 

The  genuineness  of  this  cyclical  letter  is  evinced  by  its  extreme  naturalness. 
A  religious  romancist  could  not  possibly  have  invented  anything  which  left  so 
much  unsolved.  And  this  genuineness  also  accounts  for  the  startling  appear- 
ance of  a  grave  moral  crime  among  things  so  purely  ceremonial  as  particular 
kinds  of  food.  There  is  probably  no  other  period  iu  the  history  of  the  world 
at  which  the  Apostles  would  have  found  it  needful  to  toll  their  Gentile  con- 
verts to  abstain  from  fornication,  as  well  as  from  things  offered  to  idols,  things 
strangled,  and  blood.  The  first  of  these  four  prohibitions  was  perfectly  intel- 
ligible, because  it  must  have  boon  often  necessary  for  a  Gentilo  Christian  to 
prove  to  his  Jewish  brethren  that  he  had  no  hankering  after  the  "  abominable 
idolatries "  which  he  had  so  recently  abandoned.  The  two  next  prohibitions 
were  desirable  as  a  concession  to  the  indefinable  horror  with  which  the  Jews 
and  many  other  Eastern  races  regarded  the  eating  of  the  blood,  which  they 
considered  to  bo  "  the  very  life."3  But  only  at  such  a  period  as  this  could  a 
moral  pollution  have  been  placed  on  even  apparently  the  sama  footing  as 
matters  of  purely  national  prejudice.  That  the  reading  is  correct,*  and  that 

*  See  Plleiderer,  ii.  13.  *  Acta  ii.  39,  oi  €«  j««pa.< ;  Col.  iv.  5,  oi  «£•». 

8  Gen.  ix.  4 ;  Lev.  xvii.  14.  So  too  Koran,  Sur.  v.  4.  See  Biihr,  SyttudZk,  ii.  207. 
On  the  other  hand,  "  the  blood"  was  a  special  delicacy  to  the  heathen  (Horn.  Od,  iii. 
470;  xviii.  44;  Ov.  Met.  xii.  154);  and  hence  "things  strangled"  were  with  them  a 
common  article  of  food.  Rutilius  calls  the  Jew,  "Huinauis  animal  dissocial ecib is''  (It.  i. 
884).  Even  this 'restriction  involved  a  most  inconvenient  necessity  for  nerer  eating  any  meat 
but  kosher,  t.f.,  meat  prepared  by  Jewish  butchers  in  special  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
slaughtering  (moTTO).  It  would  more  or  less  necessitate  what  would  be,  to  »  Gentile  at 
any  rate,  most  repellent— the  "  cophinus  foenumque  supellex"  (Juy-  &*<•  "i-  1^)»  which 
were,  for  these  reasons,  the  peculiarity  of  the  Jew  (Sidon.  Up.  vii.  C). 

4  There  is  not  the  faintest  atom  of  probability  In  Bentley  a  conjecture  of  noontut.  At 
the  same  time,  it  must  be  noted  as  an  extraordinary  stretch  of  liberality  on  the  part  of 
the  Judaisers  not  to  require  the  abstention  from  rmne's  flesh  by  their  Gentile  brethren 


246  THK  LIFE  AND   WORK  O»  ST.  PAT7I* 

the  thing  forbidden  is  the  sin  of  fornication,1  not  idolatry,  or  mixetd  marriages, 
or  marriages  between  blood  relations  (1  Cor.  v.  1),  or  second  marriages 
(1  Tim.  iii.  2),  or  any  of  the  other  explanations  in  which  an  astonished  exegesis 
has  taken  refuge,  must  be  regarded  as  certain.  How,  then,  can  the  fact  be 
accounted  for  ?  Only  by  the  boundless  profligacy  of  heathendom ;  only  by 
the  stern  purity  of  Christian  morals.  The  Jews,  as  a  nation,  were  probably 
the  purest  among  all  the  races  of  mankind ;  yet  even  they  did  not  regard  this 
sin  as  being  the  moral  crime  which  Christianity  teaches  us  to  consider  it;  * 
and  they  lived  in  the  midst  of  a  world  which  regarded  it  as  so  completely  a 
matter  of  indifference  that  Socrates  has  no  censure  for  it,3  and  Cicero  declares 
that  no  Pagan  moralist  had  ever  dreamt  of  meeting  it  with  an  absolute  pro- 
hibition.4 What  is  it  that  has  made  the  difference  in  the  aspect  which  sensu- 
ality wears  to  the  ancient  and  to  the  modern  conscience  P  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  answering  that  the  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  purity  which  every  page  of 
the  New  Testament  breathes  and  inspires,  and  specially  in  the  words  of  our 
Blessed  Lord,  and  in  the  arguments  of  St.  Paul.  If  the  blush  of  modesty  on 
youthful  cheeks  is  a  holy  thing,  if  it  be  fatal  alike  to  individuals  and  to  nations 
"  to  burn  away  in  mad  waste  "  the  most  precious  gifts  of  life,  if  debauchery 
be  a  curse  and  stain  which  more  than  any  other  has  eaten  into  the  heart  of 
human  happiness,  then  the  saintly  benefactor  to  whose  spirituality  we  owe  the 
inestimable  boon  of  having  impressed  these  truths  upon  the  youth  of  every 
Christian  land  is  he  who — taught  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord — showed  more 
clearly,  more  calmly,  more  convincingly  than  any  human  being  has  ever 
shown,  the  true  heinousness,  the  debasing  tendency,  the  infusive  virulence  of 
sins  which,  through  the  body,  strike  their  venom  and  infix  their  cancer  into 

('lov«ato«  Qarrov  o.v  an-odavoi  ij  \oipelov  <f>a.yoi,  Sext.  Emp. ;  see  Tac.  H,  v.  4 ;  Sen.  Ep.  108,  22 ; 
Macrob.  Sat.  ii.  4).  This  abstinence  was  common  in  the  East  (Dion  Cass.  Ixxix.  11). 

,  '  The  notion  that  Tropi'ei'a  can  mean  things  told  (wtpvyiu)  in  the  market  after  idol  feast* 
is  also  utterly  untenable.  See  the  question  examined  by  Baur,  Paul.  i.  14G,  teq. 
Besides,  the  four  prohibitions  correspond  to  those  attributed  to  Peter  in  Ps.  Clem.  Horn, 

Vil.  4,  Where  ^.7)  atcaSapria^  filovv  =  iropvfia. 

5  In  point  of  fact  the  Jews  probably  regarded  the  other  three  things  with  infinitely 
greater  horror  than  tliis.  The  practice  even  of  their  own  Rabbis,  though  veiled  under 
certain  decent  forms,  was  far  looser  than  it  should  have  been,  as  is  proved  by  passages 
in  the  Talmud  (Gittin,  f.  90 ;  Joma,  f.  18,  2 ;  Selden,  Ux.  Hebr.  iii.  17). 

s  Xen.  Mem.  iii.  13. 

*  This  passage  is  remarkable  as  coming  from  one  of  the  purest  of  all  ancient  writers 
(Cio.  pro  Gael.  xx. ;  cf.  Ter.  Addph,  i.  2,  21).  The  elder  Cato  was  regarded  as  a  model 
of  stern  Roman  virtue,  yet  what  would  be  thought  in  Christian  days  of  a  man  who  spoke 
and  acted  as  he  did?  (I [or.  Sat.  i.  2,  31.)  If  Cato  could  so  regard  the  sin,  what  must 
have  been  the  vulgar  estimate  of  it?  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  letter  was 
addressed  to  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike  familiar  with  an  epoch  in  which,  as  indeed  for 
many  previous  centuries,  this  crtme,  and  crimes  yet  more  heinous,  formed  a  recognised 
part  of  the  religious  worship^  of  certain  divinities  {cf.  Baruch  vi.  43;  Strabo,  viii.  6); 
and  in  which  the  pages  of  writers  who  reek  with  stains  like  these  formed  a  port -of  the 
current  literature.  Few  circumstances  can  show  more  clearly  the  change  which  Christi- 
anity has  wrought.  But  to  every  reader  of  the  letter  the  immediate  link  of  connexion 
between  «iJw\o0vTa  and  iroprei'a  would  be  but  too  obvious.  Further,  it  should  be  steadily 
observed  that  the  allusions — stern  yet  tender,  uncompromising  yet  merciful— of  St. 
Paul's  own  Epistles  to  the  preraleuce  of  this  sin,  show  most  decidedly  that  if  conversion 
at  once  revealed  to  Christians  its  true  heinousness,  it  often  failed  to  shield  them  against 
temptation  to  its  commission. 


8T«  PETER   AND   ST.   PAUL  AT  ANTIOCH.  247 

the  soul ;  of  sins  which  have  this  peculiar  sin  fulness — that  thoy  not  only 
destroy  the  peace  and  endanger  the  salvation  of  the  soul  which  is  responsible 
for  itself,  but  also  the  souls  of  others,  which,  in  consequence  of  tho  sinner's 
guilty  influence,  may  remain  impenitent,  yet  for  the  sake  of  which,  no  less  than 
for  bis  own,  Christ  died. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ST.  PETER  AND  ST.  PAUL  AT  ANTIOCH.  | 

r     "Separati  epulis,  discreti  cubilibus." — TAC.  H.  T.  6. 

"  At  ais  Ecclesia  est  sancta,  Patres  sunt  sancti.  Bene ;  Bed  Ecclesia  quamlibet 
sancta  tamen  cogitur  dicere  Remitte  nobis  peccata  nostra.  Sic  Patres  quamlibet 
Bancti  per  remissionem  peccatorum  salvati  sunt." — LUTHER,  Comm.  on  Galat.  i. 

SUCH,  then,  was  the  result  of  the  appeal  upon  which  the  Judaisors  had 
insisted ;  and  so  far  as  the  main  issue  was  concerned  the  Judaisers  had  been 
defeated.  The  Apostles,  in  almost  indignantly  repudiating  the  claim  of  these 
men  to  express  their  opinions,  had  given  them  a  rebuff.  They  had  intimated 
their  dislike  that  the  peace  of  Churches  should  be  thus  agitated,  and  had 
declared  that  circumcision  was  not  to  be  demanded  from  the  Gentiles.  It 
needed  but  a  small  power  of  logic  to  see  that,  Christianity  being  what  it  was, 
the  decision  at  least  implied  that  converts,  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  were  to 
bear  and  forbear,  and  to  meet  together  as  equals  in  all  religious  and  social 
gatherings.  The  return  of  the  delegates  was  therefore  hailed  with  joy  in 
Antioch,  and  the  presence  of  able  and  enlightened  teachers  like  Judas  and 
Silas,  who  really  were  what  the  Pharisaic  party  had  falsely  claimed  to  be — 
the  direct  exponents  of  the  views  of  the  Apostles — diffused  a  general  sense  of 
unity  and  confidence.  After  a  brief  stay,  these  two  emissaries  returned  to 
Jerusalem.1  On  Silas,  however,  the  spell  of  Paul's  greatness  had  been  so 
powerfully  exercised  that  he  came  back  to  Antioch,  and  threw  in  his  lot  for 
some  time  with  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles2. 

Paul,  in  fact,  by  the  intensity  of  his  convictions,  the  enlightenment  of  his 
nnderstanding,  the  singleness  of  his  purpose,  had  made  himself  completely 
master  of  the  situation.  He  had  come  to  the  very  forefront  in  the  guidance 
of  the  Church.  The  future  of  Christianity  rested  with  the  Gentiles,  and  to 
the  Gentiles  the  acts  and  writings  of  Paul  were  to  be  of  greater  importance 
than  those  of  all  the  other  Apostles.  His  Apostokte  had  been  decisively 
recognised.  He  had  met  Peter  and  John,  and  even  the  awe-inspiring  brother 

1  The  true  reading  is  not  irpbs  TOUS  'Airoo-roXow,  as  in  our  version,  but   "  to  those  who 

•ent  them  "  (n-pbs  TOV?  anxxrTeiAarras  avrouv — N,  A,  B,  C,  D). 

'-The  reading  of  our  version,  ver.  34,  "Notwithstanding  it  pleased  Silas  to  abide 
there  still,"  is  the  pragmatic  gloss  of  a  few  MSS.,  to  which  D  adds  ,i6m  £«  'Iou&»s  it-op  v0ij. 
It  is  not  found  in  n,  A,  B,  G,  E,  H.  Of  course,  either  this  fact  or  the  return  of 
Silas  is  implied  by  ver.  40,  but  the  separate  insertion  of  it  is  exactly  one  of  those 
trivialities  which  ancient  writers  are  far  less  apt  than  moderns  to  record. 


248  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.  PAUL. 

of  the  Lord,  in  conference,  and  found  himself  so  completely  their  equal  in  the 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  resist  his 
credentials.  He  had  greatly  enlarged  their  horizon,  and  they  had  added 
nothing  to  him.  He  had  returned  from  Jerusalem  more  than  ever  conscious 
of  himself,  conscious  of  his  own  power,  clear  in  his  future  purposes.  He 
inspired  into  the  Church  of  Antioch  his  own  convictions  with  a  force  which 
no  one  could  resist. 

But  since  the  letter  from  Jerusalem  suggested  so  many  inquiries,  and  laid 
down  no  universal  principle,  it  was  inevitable  that  serious  complications 
should  subsequently  arise.  A  scene  shortly  occurred  which  tested  to  the 
extremest  degree  the  intellectual  firmness  and  moral  courage  of  St.  Paul.  St. 
Peter  seems  about  this  time  to  have  begun  that  course  of  wider  journeys 
which,  little  as  we  know  of  them,  carried  him  in  some  way  or  other  to  his 
final  martyrdom  at  Rome.  "We  do  not  again  hear  of  his  presence  at  Jerusalem. 
John  continued  there  in  'all  probability  for  many  years,  and  Peter  may  have 
felt  his  presence  needless ;  nor  is  it  unlikely  that,  as  Peter  dwelt  on  the  wider 
views  which  he  had  learnt  from  intercourse  with  his  brother  Apostle,  ho  may 
have  found  himself  less  able  to  sympathise  with  the  more  Judaic  Christianity 
of  James.  At  any  rate,  we  find  him  not  long  after  this  period  at  Antioch,  and 
there  so  frankly  adopting  the  views  of  St.  Paul,  that  he  not  only  extended  to 
all  Gentiles  the  free  intercourse  which  he  had  long  ago  interchanged  with 
Cornelius,  but  seems  in  other  and  more  marked  ways  to  have  laid  aside  the 
burden  of  Judaism.1  Paul  could  not  but  have  rejoiced  at  this  public  proof 
that  the  views  of  the  Apostle  of  the  circumcision  were,  on  this  momentous 
subject,  identical  with  his  own.  But  this  happiness  was  destined  to  be 
seriously  disturbed.  As  tho  peace  of  the  Church  of  Antioch  had  been  pre- 
viously troubled  by  "  certain  which  came  down  from  Jerusalem,"  so  it  was 
uow  broken  by  the  arrival  of  "  certain  from  James."  Up  to  this  time,  in  the 
Agapw  of  Antioch,  the  distinction  of  Jew  and  Gentile  had  been  merged  in  a 
common  Christianity,  and  this  equal  brotherhood  had  been  countenanced  by 
the  presence  of  the  Apostle  who  had  lived  from  earliest  discipleship  in  the 
closest  intercourse  with  Christ.  But  now  a  cloud  suddenly  came  over  this 
frank  intercourse.3  Under  the  influence  of  timidity,  the  plastic  nature  of 
Peter,  susceptible  as  it  always  was  to  the  impress  of  the  moment,  began  to 
assume  a  new  aspect.  His  attitude  to  the  Gentile  converts  was  altered.  "  He 
began  to  draw  away  and  separate  himself,"  in  order  not  to  oft'end  the  rigid 
adherents  of  the  Lord's  brother.3  It  is  not  said  that  they  claimed  any  direct 
authority,  or  were  armed  with  any  express  commission ;  but  they  were  strict 
Jews,  who,  however  much  they  might  tolerate  the  non-observance  of  the  Law 
by  Gentiles,  looked  with  suspicion — perhaps  almost  with  horror — on  any  Jew 

1  Gal.  ii.  14,  tfcucwt  xal  ov\  'lovScuxwf  6Js.     Nothing  definite  can  be  made  of  the 
tradition  that  St.  Peter  was  first  Bishop  of  Antioch. 

2  If  the  reading  ifAflo/  in  GaL  ii.  12  were  right  it  could  only  point  to  James  himself  ; 
but  this  would  have  been  a  fact  which  tradition  could  not  have  forgotten,  and  Jamei 
seems  never  to  have  left  Jerusalem. 

8  Gal.  ii.  12,  vircVreAAey  KCU  i.<f>iapi(w 


ST.   PETER  AND  ST.   PAUL  AT  ANTIOCH.  249 

who  repudiated  obligations  which,  for  him  at  any  rate,  they  regarded  as 
stringent  and  sacred.1  A  false  shame,  a  fear  of  what  these  men  might 
say,  dislike  to  face  a  censure  which  would  acquire  force  from  those 
accumulated  years  of  habit  which  the  vision  of  Joppa  had  modified,  but  not 
neutralised — perhaps  too  a  bitter  recollection  of  all  he  had  gone  through  on  a 
former  occasion  when  he  "  had  gone  in  unto  men  uucircumcised  and  eaten 
with  them  " — led  Peter  into  downright  hypocrisy.2  Without  any  acknowledged 
change  of  view,  without  a  word  of  public  explanation,  he  suddenly  changed  his 
course  of  life,  and  it  was  almost  inevitable  that  the  other  Jewish  Christians 
should  follow  this  weak  and  vacillating  example.  The  Apostle  who  "  seemed 
to  be  a  pillar  "  proved  to  be  a  "  reed  shaken  with  the  wind." 3  To  the  grief 
and  shame  of  Paul,  even  Barnabas — Barnabas,  his  fellow-worker  in  the 
Churches  of  the  Gentiles — even  Barnabas,  who  had  stood  side  by  side  with  him 
to  plead  for  the  liberty  of  the  Gentiles  at  Jerusalem,  was  swept  away  by  the 
flood  of  inconsistency,  and  in  remembering  that  he  was  a  Levite  forgot  that  he 
was  a  Christian.  In  fact,  a  strong  Jewish  reaction  set  in.  There  was  no 
question  of  charity  here,  but  a  question  of  principle.  To  eat  with  the  Gentiles, 
to  live  as  do  the  Gentiles,  was  for  a  Jew  either  right  or  wrong.  Interpreted  in 
the  light  of  those  truths  which  lay  at  the  very  bases  of  the  Gospel,  it  was 
right ;  and  if  the  Church  was  to  be  one  and  indi visible,  the  agreement  that  the 
Gentiles  were  not  to  put  on  the  yoke  of  Mosaism  seemed  to  imply  that  they 
were  not  to  lose  status  by  declining  to  do  so.  But  to  shilly-shally  on  the 
matter,  to  act  in  one  way  to-day  and  in  a  different  way  tc-morrow,  to  let  the 
question  of  friendly  intercourse  depend  on  the  presence  or  absence  of  people 
who  were  supposed  to  represent  the  stern  personality  of  James,  could  not  under 
any  circumstances  bo  right.  It  was  monstrous  that  the  uucircumcised  Gontiln 
convert  was  at  one  time  to  be  treated  as  a  brother,  and  at  another  to  be  shunned 
as  though  ho  were  a  Pariah.  This  was  an  uncertain,  underhand  sort  of  pro- 
cedure, which  St.  Paul  could  not  for  a  moment  sanction.  He  could  not  stand 
by  to  see  the  triumph  of  the  Pharisaic  party  over  the  indecision  of  men  like 
Peter  and  Baraabas.  For  the  moral  weakness  which  succumbs  to  impulse  he 
had  the  deepest  tenderness,  but  he  nover  permitted  himself  to  maintain  a  truce 
with  the  interested  selfishness  which,  at  a  moment's  notice,  would  sacrifice  a 
duty  to  avoid  an  inconvenience.  Paul  saw  at  a  glance  that  Kophas*  (and  tho 
Hebrew  name  seemed  best  to  suit  the  Hebraic  defection)  was  wrong—wrong 

1  How  anxious  James  was  to  conciliate  the  inflammable  multitude  who  were  "zealous 
for  tlie  Law  "  is  apparent  from  Acts  xxi.  24. 

-  The  forger  of  the  letter  of  Peter  to  James,  printed  at  the  head  of  the  Clementina 
Homilies,  deeply  resents  the  expression,  §  2.  But  St.  Peter's  "  hypocrisy  "  consisted  in 
"having  impHed  an  objection  which  he  did  not  really  feel,  or  which  his  pr0™""  «i«tnm 


did  notlustify  "  (Jowett,  Ghd,  i.  246).  It  is  idle  to  say  that  this  shows  the  non-existence 
of  the  "decree;"  that,  as  I  have  shown,  left  the  question  of  intercourse  with  th« 
Gentiles  entirely  undefined. 

3  See  Hausrath,  p.  252.    "  Boldness  and  timidity — first  boldness,  then  timidity — were, 
the  characteristics  of  his  nature"  (Jowett,  i.  243).    See  aJso  Excursus  XVIL,  "  Bt.  John 
and  St.  Paul." 

4  Gal.  il.  11,  K>54>a«  (H.  A,  B,  G): 


250  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  051  81.   PAUL. 

intellectually,  if  not  morally — and  that  he  was  mainly  responsible  for  the  wrong 
into  which  the  others  had  been  betrayed  by  his  example.  Ho  did  not,  there- 
fore, hesitate  to  withstand  him  to  the  face.  It  was  no  occasion  for  private 
remonstrance ;  the  reproof  must  be  as  public  as  the  wrong,  or  the  whole  cause 
might  be  permanently  imperilled.  Perhaps  few  things  demand  a  firmer  reso- 
lution than  the  open  blame  of  those  who  in  age  and  position  are  superior  to 
ourselves.  For  one  who  had  been  a  fierce  persecutor  of  Christians  to  rebuke 
one  who  had  lived  in  daily  intercourse  with  Christ  was  a  very  hard  task.  It 
was  still  more  paiuf ul  to  involve  Barnabas  and  other  friends  in  the  same  cen- 
sure ;  but  that  was  what  duty  demanded,  and  duty  was  a  thing  from  which 
Paul  never  shrank. 

Rising  at  somo  public  gathering  of  the  Church,  at  which  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles  were  present,  he  pointedly  addressed  Peter  in  language  well  calculated 
to  show  him  that  he  stood  condemned.1  "  If  thou,"  he  said  before  them  all, 
"  being  a  born  Jew,  art  living  Gentile  fashion  and  not  Jew  fashion,  how2  canst 
thou  try3  to  compel  the  Gentiles  to  Judaise  P  " *  So  far  his  language  complained 
of  his  brother  Apostle's  inconsistency  rather  than  of  his  present  conduct.  It 
was  intended  to  reveal  the  inconsistency  which  Peter  had  wished  to  hide.  It 
directly  charged  him  with  having  done  the  very  thing  which  his  present  with- 
drawal from  Gentile  communion  was  meant  to  veil.  "  You  have  been  living  as 
a  Gentile  Christian  in  the  midst  of  Gentile  Christians ;  you  may  alter  your 
line  at  this  moment,  but  such  has  been  your  deliberate  conduct.  Now,  if  it  is 
unnecessary  for  you,  a  born  Jew,  to  keep  the  Law,  how  can  it  be  necessary, 
even  as  a  counsel  of  perfection,  that  the  Gentiles  should  do  so  ?  Yet  it  must 
be  necessary,  or  at  least  desirable,  if,  short  of  this,  you  do  not  even  consider 
the  Gentiles  worthy  of  your  daily  intercourse.  If  your  present  separation 
means  that  you  consider  it  to  be  a  contamination  to  eat  with  them,  you  are 
practically  forcing  them  to  be  like  you  in  all  respects.  Be  it  so,  if  such  is  your 
view ;  but  let  that  view  be  clearly  understood.  The  Church  must  not  be  de- 
ceived as  to  what  your  example  has  been.  If  indeed  that  conduct  was  wrong, 
then  say  so,  and  let  us  know  your  reasons  ;  but  if  that  conduct  was  not  wrong, 
then  it  concedes  the  entire  equality  and  liberty  which  in  the  name  of  Christ  we 
claim  for  our  Gentile  brethren,  and  you  have  left  yourself  no  further  right  to 
cast  a  doubt  on  this  by  your  present  behaviour."  It  has  been  the  opinion  of 
some  that  St.  Paul's  actual  speech  to  Peter  ended  with  this  question,  and  that 
the  rest  of  the  chapter  is  an  argument  addressed  to  the  Galatians.  But 
though,  in  his  eager  writing,  Sfc,  Paul  may  unconsciously  pass  from  what  he 

1  Gal.  ii.  11,  KaTeyvGxrfwVo?  fa.  This  is  the  word  which  gives  such  bitter  offence  to  the 
forger  of  the  Clementine  Homilies,  xvii.  18,  19.  "  Thou  didst  withstand  me  as  an  oppo- 
nent (ivavruK  av8(<miica.s  /not)  .  .  .  If  thou  caUest  me  condemned  ((tarryi/w^eVos)  thou  accusewt 
God  who  revealed  Christ  to  me,"  &c.,  and  much  more  to  the  same  effect. 

*  »rco«. 

3  Gal.  ii.  14.    The  wrong  aspirate  in  oux'IovSaiVi*  may  be  a  Ciliciam.    But  surely  the 
editors  should  give  iis  !ovSaiV«fc.   The  {</>'  tAn-i'Si  of  the  best  MSS.  in  1  Cor.  ix.  10  is  supported 
by  the  occurrence  of  eAtrt?  in  inscriptions. 

4  avayico^eif,  "are  by  your  present  conduct  practically  obliging."     "He  was  half  a 
Gentile,  and  wanted  to  make  the  Gentiles  altogether  Jewi  "  (Jowett,  Qalat.  i.  244), 


BT.  PKTEB  AND  ST.   PAUL  AT  AKTIOCH.  251 

said  in  the  assembly  at  Antioch  to  the  argument  which  he  addressed  to  apos- 
tatising converts  in  Galatia,  yet  he  can  hardly  have  thrown  away  the  opportunity 
of  impressing  his  clear  convictions  on  this  subject  upon  Peter  and  the  Church 
of  Antioch.  He  wished  to  drive  home  the  sole  legitimate  and  logical  conse- 
quence of  the  points  already  established ;  and  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  he 
used  on  this  occasion  some  of  those  striking  arguments  which  we  shall 
subsequently  examine  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.1 

They  all  turn  on  the  great  truth  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit  had  now  given 
him  so  firm  a  grasp — the  truth  of  Justification  by  Faith  alone.  If  no  man 
could  see  salvation  save  by  means  of  faith,  and  on  account  of  Christ's  mercy, 
then  even  for  the  Jew  the  Law  was  superfluous.  The  Jew,  however,  might, 
on  grounds  of  national  patriotism,  blamelessly  continue  the  observances  which 
were  ancient  and  venerable,2  provided  that  he  did  not  trust  in  them.  But  the 
Gentile  was  in  no  way  bound  by  them,  and  to  treat  him  as  an  inferior  because 
of  this  immunity  was  to  act  in  contradiction  to  the  first  principles  of  Christian 
faith.  The  contrasted  views  of  St.  Paul  and  of  the  Judaists  were  here 
brought  into  distinct  collision,  and  thereby  into  the  full  liglit  on  which 
depended  their  solution.  Faith  without  the  Law,  said  the  Judaists,  means  a 
state  of  Gentile  "  sinfulness."  Faith  with  the  Law,  replied  St.  Paul,  means 
that  Christ  has  died  in  vain.3  Among  good  and  holy  men  love  would  still  be 
'the  girdle  of  perf ectness ;  but  when  the  controversy  waxed  fierce  between 

1  See  on  GaL  ii.  16—21,  infra,  p.  436. 

9  See  some  admirable  remarks  on  the  subject  in  Augustine,  Ep.  Ixxxii.  He  argues 
that,  after  the  revelation  of  faith  in  Christ,  the  ordinances  of  the  Law  had  lost  their 
life :  but  that  just  as  the  bodies  of  the  dead  ought  to  be  honourably  conducted,  with  no 
feigned  honour,  but  with  real  solemnity  to  the  tomb,  and  not  to  be  at  once  deserted  to 
the  abuse  of  enemies  or  the  attacks  of  dogs — so  there  was  need  that  the  respect  for  the 
Mosaic  Law  should  not  be  instantly  or  rudely  flung  aside.  But,  he  says,  that  even  for  a 
Jewish  Christian  to  observe  what  could  still  be  observed  of  the  Law  after  it  had  been 
abrogated  by  God's  own  purpose  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  would  be  to  act  the 
part,  not  of  one  who  honours  the  dead,  but  of  one  who  tears  out  of  their  resting- 
places  the  buried  ashes  of  the  slain. 

1  Holstein,  Protestantenbibel,  729.  This  dissension — if  dissension  it  could  be  called — 
between  the  two  great  Apostles  will  shock  those  only  who,  in  defiance  of  all  Scripture, 
persist  in  regarding  the  Apostles  as  specimens  of  supernatural  perfection.  Of  course,  the 
'errors  of  good  men,  eren  if  they  be  mere  errors  of  timidity  On  one  side  and  vehemence  on 
jthe  other,  will  always  expose  them  to  the  taunts  of  infidels.  But  when  Celsus  talks  of 
'the  Apostles  "inveighing  against  each  other  so  shamefully  in  their  quarrels,"  he  is 
jguilty — so  far  as  the  New  Testament  account  of  the  Apostles  is  concerned — of  gross 
calumny  (op.  Orig.  c.  Celt.  v.  64).  The  "blot  of  error,"  of  which  Porphyry  accused  St. 
Peter,  shows  only  that  he  was  human,  and  neither  Gospels  nor  Epistles  attempt  to 
conceal  his  weaknesses.  The  "petulance  of  language  "  with  which  he  charges  St.  Paul 
finds  no  justification  in  the  stern  and  solemn  tone  of  this  rebuke;  stud  to  deduce  from 
this  dispute  "  the  lie  of  a  pretended  decree  "  is  a  mere  abuse  of  argument.  We  may  set 
aside  at  once,  not  without  a  feeling  of  shame  and  sorrow,  the  suggestion  (Clem.  Alex.  a». 
Euseb.  H.  E.  i.  12)  that  this  Kephas  was  not  St.  Peter,  but  one  of  the  Seventy  ;  and  the 
monstrous  fancy — monstrous,  though  stated  by  no  less  a  man  than  Origen  (op.  Jer.  Ep. 
cxii.),  and  adopted  by  no  less  a  man  than  Chrysostom  (ad  loc.),  and  for  a  time  by 
Jerome — that  the  whole  was  a  scene  acted  between  the  two  Apostles  for  a  doctrinal  pur- 
pose 1  As  if  such  dissimulation  would  not  have  been  infinitely  more  discreditable  to 
them  than  a  temporary  disagreement  in  conduct  1  The  way  in  which  St.  Peter  bore  the 
rebuke,  and  forgave  and  loved  him  who  administered  it,  Is  ten-thousandfold  more  to  his 
honour  than  the  momentary  inconsistency  i»  to  his  disgrace. 


252  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

inspired  conviction  on  the  one  side,  and  designing  particularism  on  the  other, 
hard  terms  were  used.  "  Your  principle  ia  a  nullification  of  Moses,  of  inspira- 
tion, of  religion  itself,"  said  the  Judaists ;  "  it  is  downright  rationalism ;  it  is 
rank  apostasy."  "  Your  Gospel,"  replied  the  Apostle,  "  is  no  Gospel  at  all ; 
it  is  the  abnegation  of  the  Gospel ;  it  is  a  bondage  to  carnal  rudiments ;  it  is  a 
denial  of  Christ." 

A  reproof  is  intolerable  when  it  is  administered  out  of  pride  or  hatred,  but 
the  wounds  of  a  friend  are  better  at  all  times  than  the  precious  balms  of  an 
enemy  that  break  the  head.  We  are  not  told  the  immediate  effect  of  Paul's 
words  upon  Peter  and  Barnabas,  and  in  the  case  of  the  latter  we  may  fear 
that,  even  if  unconsciously,  they  may  have  tended,  since  human  nature  is  very 
frail  and  weak,  to  exasperate  the  subsequent  quarrel  by  a  sense  of  previous 
difference.  But  if  Peter's  weakness  was  in  exact  accordance  with  all  we  know 
of  his  character,  so  too  would  bo  the  rebound  of  a  noble  nature  which  restored 
him  at  once  to  strength.  The  needle  of  the  compass  may  tremble  and  be 
deflected,  but  yet  it  is  its  nature  to  point  true  to  the  north ;  and  if  Peter  was 
sometimes  swept  aside  from  perfectness  by  gusts  of  impulse  and  temptation ; 
if  after  being  the  first  to  confess  Christ's  divinity  he  is  the  first  to  treat  Him 
with  presumption  ;  if  at  one  moment  he  becomes  His  disciple,  and  at  another 
bids  Him  depart  because  ho  is  himself  a  sinful  man ;  if  now  he  plunges  into 
the  sea  all  faith,  and  now  sinks  into  the  waves  all  fear;  if  now  single-handed 
he  draws  the  sword  for  His  Master  against  a  multitude,  and  now  denies  Him 
with  curses  at  the  question  of  a  servant-maid — we  are  not  surprised  to  find 
that  one  who  on  occasion  could  be  the  boldest  champion  of  Gentile  equality 
was  suddenly  tempted  by  fear  of  man  to  betray  the  cause  which  ho  had  helped 
to  win.1  But  the  best  proof  that  he  regretted  his  weakness,  and  was  too 
noble-hearted  to  bear  any  grudge,  is  seen  in  the  terms  of  honour  and  affection 
iu  which  he  speaks  of  Paul  and  his  Epistles.2  It  is  still  more  clearly  sbown 
by  his  adopting  the  rery  thoughts  and  arguments  of  Paul,  and  in  his  reference, 
while  writing  among  others  to  the  Galatians,  to  the  very  words  of  the  Epistle 
iu  which  his  own  conduct  stood  so  strongly  condemned.3  The  legend  which 
is  commemorated  in  the  little  Church  of  "  Domine  quo  vadis  "  near  Home,  is 
another  interesting  proof  either  that  this  tendency  to  vacillation  in  Peters 
actions  was  well  understood  in  Christian  antiquity,  or  that  he  continued  to  tho 
last  to  bo  the  same  Peter — "  consistently  inconsistent,"  as  he  has  most  happily 
bcen  called — 'liable  to  weakness  and  error,  but  ever  ready  to  confess  himself  in 
tho  wrong,  and  to  repent,  $nd  to  amend : — 

"  And  as  tha  water-lily  starts  and  slides 

TT  it,     i        T  •      i-ii  n:       t      •     i 

Upon  the  level  in  little  putts  of  wind, 

Though  anchored  to  the  bottom—  such  was  ho." 

' 

1  At  each  tn  epoch  of  transition  it  was  inevitable  that  charges  of  inconsistency 
Bhovtld  be  freely  bandied  about  on  both  sides,  and  with  a  certain  amount  of  plausibility. 
Cf.  Gal.  vi.  13. 
«  2Pet.iii.  15. 

3  Comp.  1  Pet.  il.  16, 17  with  Gal.  v.  1, 13,  14,  and  1  Pet,  H.  24  with  a  passage  of  this 
rery  remonstrance  (Gal.  ii.  20). 


ST.  PBTBK  AND   ST.  FAUX.  AT  ANTIOOH.  253 

Bat  while  to  a  simple  and  lofty  soul  like  that  of  Peter  there  might  almost 
be  something  of  joy  in  the  frank  acknowledgment  of  error  and  the  crushing 
down  of  all  anger  against  the  younger,  and,  at  that  period,  far  less  celebrated 
man  who  had  publicly  denounced  him,  such  was  by  no  means  the  case  with  the 
many  adherents  who  chose  to  elevate  him  into  the  head  of  a  faction.1  What 
may  have  been  the  particular  tenets  of  the  Kephaa-party  at  Corinth,  we  have 
no  means  for  deciding,  and  the  only  thing  which  we  can  imagine  likely  wag 
that  their  views  were  identical  with  those  of  the  least  heretical  Ebionites,  who 
held  the  Mosaic  Law  to  be  binding  in  its  entirety  on  all  Jews.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  action  of  James,  or  of  those  who  assumed  his  authority,2  neither 
in  the  New  Testament,  nor  in  the  earliest  Christian  writings,  is  there  any  trace 
of  enmity  between  Paul  and  Peter,  or  of  radical  opposition  between  their 
views.3  The  notion  that  there  was,  has  simply  grown  up  from  the  pernicious 
habit  of  an  over-ingenious  criticism  which  "  neglects  plain  facts  and  dwells 
on  doubtful  allusions."  Critics  of  this  school  have  eagerly  seized  upon  the 
Clementines  —  a  malignant  and  cowardly  Ebionite  forgery  of  iincertaiu  date  — 
as  furnishing  the  real  clue  to  the  New  Testament  history,  while  they  deliber- 
ately ignore  and  set  aside  authority  incomparably  more  weighty.  Thus  the 
silence*  of  Justin  Martyr  about  the  name  and  writings  of  St.  Paul  is 
interpreted  into  direct  hostility,  while  the  allusions  of  the  genuine  Clement, 
which  indicate  the  unanimity  between  the  Apostles,  are  sacrificed  to  the  covert 
attacks  of  the  forger  who  assumes  his  name.  But  St.  Paul's  whole  argument 
turns,  not  on  the  supposition  that  he  is  setting  up  a  counter-gospel  to  the 
other  Apostles,  b*t  on  Peter's  temporary  treason  to  his  own  faith, 
hia  own  convictions,  his  own  habitual  professions;5  and  all  subsequent 
facts  prove  that  the  two  Apostles  held  each  other  in  the  highest  mutual 

1  "  And  I  of  Kephas  ;"  but  when  Paul  again  refers  to  the  parties,  with  the  delicate 
consideration  of  true  nobleness,  he  omits  the  name  of  Kephas.    -  ttty 

2  The  minute  accounts  of  a  counter-mission  inaugurated  by  James  are  nothing  more 
or  less  than  an  immense  romance  built  on  a  single  slight  expression  (T^O?  0*0  'Ia«<i/3ou), 
applicable  only  with  any  certainty  to  the  one  occasion  to  which  it  is  referred.    In  Gal.  ii. 
12  ;  iv.  16  ;  1  Cor.  L  12  ;  ix.  1,  3,  7  ;  2  Cor.  iii.  1  ;  x.  7  J  Phil.  L  15,  17,  we  see  the  tracer 
of  a  continuous  opposition  to  St.  Paul  by  a  party  which,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must 
have  had  its  head-quarters  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  of  course  the  leaders  at  Jerusalem  could 
not  remain  wholly  uninfluenced  by  the  tone  of  thought  around  them,  and  the  views 
which  were  in  the  very  atmosphere  which  they  daily  breathed.    Yet  they  publicly 
disavowed  the  obtrusive  members  of  their  community  (Acts  xv.  24),  and  towards  St. 
Paul  personally  they  always,  as  far  as  we  know,  showed  the  most  perfect  courtesy  and 
kindness,  and  to  them  personally  he  never  utters  one  single  disrespectful  or  unfraternal 
word.    There  is  not  a  trace  of  that  stern  or  bitter  tone  of  controversy  between  them  and 
him  which  we  find  interchanged  by  Bernard  and  Abelard,  Luther  and  Erasmus,  Fcnclon 
and  Bossuet,  Wesley  and  Whitefield.      He  always  speaks  of  them  with  gentleness  and 
respect  (1  Cor.  ix.  5  ;  Eph.  iii.  5,  &c.). 

^  Even  the  Praedicatio  Pauli  (preserved  in  Cyprian,  De  Rebaptismate)  implies  that 
they  were  reconciled  at  Rome  before  their  martyrdom,  "  postremo  in  urbe,  quasi  tuno 
primum,  invicem  sibi  esse  cognitos." 

4  On  the  explanation  of  this  silence,  which  does  not,  however,  exclude  apparent 
allusions,  see  Westcott,  Canon.,  p.  135;  Lightfoot,  Gal.,  p.  310.  Who  can.suppose  that 


. 

Justin's  yMvOt  a*  £•>»  on  xayi,  ifoi>)v  <*$  wwts  (Cohort,  ad  Grate.,  p.  40)  beam  only  an  acci- 
dental resemblance  to  Gal.  iv.  12  7 
8  JUaurice,  Unity,  497. 


254  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  Of  ST.   PAUL. 

csteom ;  they  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  and  in  death  they  were 
not  divided.1  , 

Thug,  then,  thanks  to  St..  Paul,  the  battle  was  again  won,  and  the  Judaisers, 
who  wore  so  anxious  to  steer  the  little  ship  of  the  Church  to  certain  wreck  and 
ruin  on  the  rocks  of  national  bigotry,  could  no  longer  claim  the  sanction  of  the 
relapsing  Peter.  But  no  sooner  was  all  smooth  in  the. Church  of  Antioch  than 
the  old  mission -hunger  seized  the  heart  of  Paul,  and  urged  him  with  noble 
restlessness  from  the  semblance  of  inactivity.  Going  to  his  former  comrade 
Barnabas,  he  said,  "  Come,  let  us  re-traverse  our  old  ground,  and  see  for  our- 
selves how  our  brethren  are  hi  every  city  in  which  we  preached  the  word  of  the 
Lord."  Barnabas  readily  acceded  to  the  proposal,  but  suggested  that  they 
should  take  with  them  his  cousin  Mark.2  But  to  this  Paul  at  once  objected. 
The  young  man  who  had  suddenly  gone  away  home  from  Pamphylia,  and  left 
them,  when  it  was  too  kte  to  get  any  other  companion,  to  face  the  difficulties 
and  dangers  of  .the  journey  alone,  Paul  did  not  think  it  right  to  take  with 
them.  Neither  would  give  way;  neither  put  in  practice  the  exquisite  and 
humble  Christian  lesson  of  putting  up  with  less  than  his  due.  A  quarrel  rose 
between  these  two  faithful  servants  of  God  as  bitter  as  it  was  deplorable,3  and 
the  only  hope  of  peace  under  such  circumstances  lay  in  mutual  separation. 
They  parted,  and  they  suffered  for  their  common  fault.  They  parted  to  forgive 
each  other  indeed,  and  to  love  and  honour  each  other,  and  speak  of  each  other 
hereafter  with  affection  and  respect,  but  never  to  work  together  again ;  never 
to  help  each  other  and  the  cause  of  God  by  the  union  of  their  several  gifts ; 
never  to  share  with  one  another  in  the  glory  of  Churches  won  to  Christ  from 
the  heathen ;  and  in  all  probability  to  rue,  in  the  regret  of  lifelong  memories, 
the  self-will,  the  want  of  mutual  concession,  the  unspoken  soft  answer  which 
turueth  away  wrath,  which,  in  a  few  bitter  moments,  too  late  repented  of, 
robbed  them  both  of  the  inestimable  solace  of  a  friend. 

Which  was  right  ?  which  was  wrong ?  We  are  not  careful  to  apportion 
between  them  the  sad  measure  of  blame,4  or  to  dwell  on  the  weaknesses 
which  marred  the  perfection  of  men  who  have  left  the  legacy  of  bright 
examples  to  all  the  world.  In  the  mere  matter  of  judgment  each  was  partly 
right,  each  partly  wrong ; 6  their  error  lay  in  the  persistency  which  did  not 

1  See  Excursus  XVIII.,  "The  Attacks  on  St.  Paul  in  the  Clementines."  In  the  Romish 
Church  the  commemoration  of  St.  Paul  is  never  separated  from  that  of  St.  Peter.   On  the 
feast-days  set  apart  to  each  saint,  the  other  ia  invariably  honoured  in  the  most  prominent 
way. 

2  The  true  reading  of  Acts  xv.  37  Is  «/3ovA<Tt>,  «,  A,  B,  C,  E,  Syr.,  Copt.,  <Eth.,  &o. 
(Vulg.    volffat).       The  word  is   characteristically  mild  compared    with  the  eqoally 
characteristic  vehemence  of  the  ^fi'ov    .    .    .    JIT)  of  St.  Paul. 

*  Notice  the  emphatic  tone  of  the  original  in  Acts  XT.  39.  The  word  frapofv0>b; 
(=  " exacerbatio,"  provocation")  implies  the  interchange  of  sharp  language;  but  it 
also  implies  a  temporary  ebullition,  not  a  permanent  quarrel.  Elsewhere  it  only 
occurs  iu  Heb.  x.  24 ;  Deut.  xxix.  28  (LXX.). 

4  "  Viderint  ii  qui  de  Appstolis  judicant ;  mihi  non  tarn  bene  est,  immo  non  tarn 
maid  est,  ut  Apostolos  committam  "  (Tert.  De  Praescr.  24). 

''  Paul  us  severior,  Barnabas  clementior ;  uterque  in  BUO  sensu  abtmdat ;  et  tameo 
duscnsio  habet  aliquid  humauae  f ragilitatia "  (Jer.  Adv.  Pclay.  ii.  522). 


ST.   PETER  AWD  ST.  PAUL  AT  ANTIOCH.  255 

admit  of  mutual  accommodation.  Each  was  like  himself.  St.  Barnabas  may 
have  suffered  himself  too  strongly  to  be  influenced  by  partiality  for  a  relative ; 
St.  Paul  by  the  memory  of  personal  indignation.  Barnabas  may  have  erred 
on  the  side  of  leniency ;  Paul  on  the  side  of  sternness.  St.  Paul's  was  so  far 
the  worst  fault,  yet  the  very  fault  may  have  risen  from  his  loftier  ideal.1 
There  was  a  "  severe  earnestness  "  about  him,  a  sort  of  intense  whole-hearted- 
ness,  which  could  make  no  allowance  whatever  for  one  who,  at  the  very  point 
at  which  dangers  began  to  thicken,  deserted  a  great  and  sacred  work.  Mark 
had  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  had  looked  back ;  and,  conscious  of  the 
serious  hindrance  which  would  arise  from  a  second  defection,  conscious  of  the 
lofty  qualities  which  were  essential  to  any  one  who  was  honoured  with  such 
Divine  responsibilities,  St.  Paul  might  fairly  have  argued  that  a  cause  must 
not  be  risked  out  of  tenderness  for  a  person.8  Barnabas,  on  the  other  hand, 
might  have  urged  that  it  was  most  unlikely  that  one  who  was  now  willing  to 
face  the  work  again  should  again  voluntarily  abandon  it,  and  he  might  fairly 
have  asked  whether  one  failure  was  to  stamp  a  lifetime.  Both  persisted,  and 
both  suffered.  Paul  went  his  "way,  and  many  a  time,  in  the  stormy  and 
agitated  days  which  followed,  must  he  have  sorely  missed,  amid  the  provoking 
of  all  men  and  the  strife  of  tongues,  the  repose  and  generosity  which  breathed 
through  the  life  and  character  of  the  Son  of  Exhortation.  Barnabas  went  his 
way,  and,  dissevered  from  the  grandeur  and  vehemence  of  Paul,  passed  into 
comparative  obscurity,  in  which,  so  far  from  sharing  the  immortal  gratitude 
which  embalms  the  memory  of  his  colleague,  his  name  is  never  heard  again, 
except  in  the  isolated  allusions  of  the  letters  of  his  friend. 

For  their  f  riendship  was  not  broken.  Barnabas  did  not  become  a  Judaiser, 
or  in  any  way  discountenance  the  work  of  Paul.  The  Epistle  which  passed 
by  his  name  is  spurious,3  but  its  tendency  is  anti-Judaic,  which  would  not 
have  been  the  case  if,  after  the  dispute  at  Antioch,  he  had  permanently  sided 
with  the  anti-Pauline  faction.  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  he  is  not  again 
mentioned.  Whether  he  confined  his  mission-work  to  his  native  island, 
whither  he  almost  immediately  sailed  with  Mark,  or  whether,  as  seems  to  be 
implied  by  the  allusion  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  he  extended  it  more 
widely,  he  certainly  continued  to  work  on  the  same  principles  as  before,  taking 
with  him  no  female  companion,  and  accepting  nothing  from  the  Churches  to 
<which  he  preached.4 

And  though,  so  far  as  they  erred,  the  Apostles  suffered  for  their  error, 

1  'O  n«OXos  I&TCI  rb  Stxatov,  4  Bapvo/So?  rb  QiXdvDpuirov  (Chrya. ).  *  Prov.  xxv.  19. 

*  It  is  examined  and  rejected,  among  others,  by  Hefele,  Dot  Sendschr.  d.  Ap. 
iSarnabas  (TUbingen,  1840). 

4  1  Cor.  ix.  6 ;  Gal.  ii.  9.  It  has  been  inferred  from  the  mention  of  Mark  as  known 
.-.to  the  Churches  of  Bithynia,  Pontus,  Cappadocia,  Galatia  (1  Pet.  i.  1;  v.  13),  and 
•Colossse  (Col.  iv.  10),  and  his  presence  long  afterwards  in  Asia  Minor  (2  Tim.  iv.  11), 
tthat,  if  he  continued  to  accompany  his  cousin  Barnabas,  Asia  Minor,  and  especially  its 
-eastern  parts,  may  have  been  the  scene  of  their  labours  (Lewin,  i.  165).  Tne  allusion 
.in  Col.  iv.  10  has  been  taken  to  imply  that  by  that  time  (A.D.  63)  Barnabas  was  no  longer 
f1  living.  Nothing  certain  is  known  about  the  place,  manner,  or  time  of  his  death.  The 
Acta  ct  Passio  Barnaljae  in  Cypro  is  apocryphal.  St.  Mark  is  said  to  have  been  martyred 
-«t  Alexandria. 


256  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  O*  ST.  PAUL. 

God  overruled  evil  for  good.  Henceforth  they  were  engaged  in  two  spheres 
of  mission  action  instead  of  one,  and  henceforth  also  the  bearing  and  the  views 
of  Paul  were  more  free  and  vigorous,  lees  shackled  by  associations,  less  liable 
to  reaction.  Hitherto  his  position  in  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  had  depended 
much  upon  the  countenance  of  Barnabas.  Henceforth  he  had  to  stand  alone, 
to  depend  solely  on  himself  and  hia  own  Apostolic  dignity,  and  to  rely  on  no 
favourable  reception  for  his  views,  except  such  as  ho  won  by  the  force  of  right 
and  reason,  and  by  the  large  benefits  which  accrued  to  the  Church  of  Jerusalem 
from  the  alms  which  ho  collected  from  Gentile  Churches. 

And  Mark  also  profited  by  the  difference  of  which  he  was  the  unhappy 
cause.  If  the  lenient  partiality  of  one  Apostle  still  kept  open  for  him  the 
missionary  career,  the  stern  judgment  of  the  other  must  have  helped  to  make 
him  a  more  earnest  man.  All  that  we  henceforth  know  of  him  shows  alike 
his  great  gifts  and  his  self-denying  energy.  In  his  Gospel  he  has  reflected 
for  us  with  admirable  vividness  the  knowledge  and  experience  of  his  friend 
and  master  St.  Peter,  to  whom,  in  his  later  years,  he  stood  in  the  samo 
relation  that  Timothy  occupied  towards  St.  Paul.1  But  even  St.  Paul  saw 
good  cause  not  only  to  modify  his  unfavourable  opinion,  but  to  invite  him 
again  as  a  fellow-labourer.1  He  urges  the  Colossians  to  give  him  a  kindly 
welcome,3  and  even  writes  to  Timothy  an  express  request  that  he  would  bring 
him  to  Borne  to  solace  his  last  imprisonment,  because  he  had  found  him — that 
which  he  had  once  failed  to  be — "profitable  to  him  for  ministry."* 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

ti  t^n-t  ttit  n*v*i  *v.M. 

BEGINNING  OP  THE  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY:    PAUL 
IN  GALATIA. 

"  Come,  let  us  get  up  early  to  the  vineyards ;  let  us  see  if  the  vines  flourish."— 
CANT.  vii.  12. 

THE  significant  silence  as  to  any  public  sympathy  for  Barnabas  and  Mark, 
together  with  the  prominent  mention  of  it  in  the  case  of  Paul,  seems  to  show 
that  the  Church  of  Antioch  in  general  considered  that  St.  Paul  was  in  the 
right.  Another  indication  of  the  same  fact  is  that  Silas  consented  to  become 
his  companion.  Hitherto  Silas  had  been  so  closely  identified  with  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem  that  ho  had  been  one  of  the  emissaries  chosen  to  confirm  the- 
genuineness  of  the  circular  letter,  and  in  the  last  notice  of  him  which  occurs- 
in  Scripture  we  find  him  still  in  the  company  of  St.  Peter,  who  sends  him. 
from  Babylon  with  a  letter  to  some  of  the  very  Churches  which  he  had  visited 
with  St.  Paul.5  His  adhesion  to  the  principles  of  St.  Paul,  iu  spite  of  the 

»  1  Pet.  v.  13.  »  Philem.  24. 

»  Col.  iv.  10.  «  2  Tim.  ir.  11,  «l«  Scoria* 

•  1  Pet.  T.  12.    The  identity  cannot,  however,  be  regarded  as  certain. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOUBNEY.  257 

close  bonds  wliieh  united  him  with  the  Jewish  Christians,  is  a  sufficient  proof 
that  he  was  a  man  of  large  nature ;  and  as  a  recognised  prophet  of  Jerusalem 
and  Antioch,  his  companionship  went  far  to  fill  up  the  void  left  in  the  mission 
by  the  departure  of  Barnabas.  His  name  Silvanus,1  and  the  fact  that  ho, 
too,  seems  to  have  been  a  Eoman  citizen,2  may  perhaps  show  that  he  had  some 
connexion  with  the  Gentile  world,  to  which,  therefore,  he  would  be  a  more 
acceptable  Evangelist.  In  every  respect  it  was  a  happy  Providence  which 
provided  St.  Paul  with  so  valuable  a  companion.  And  as  they  started  on  a 
second  great  journey,  carrying  with  them  the  hopes  and  fortunes  of  Chris- 
tianity, they  were  specially  commended  by  the  brethren  to  the  grace  of  God. 

St.  Paul's  first  object  was  to  confirm  the  Churches  which  he  had  already 
founded.  Such  a  confirmation  of  proselytes  was  an  ordinary  Jewish  con- 
ception,3 and  after  the  vacillations  of  opinion  which  had  occurred  even  at 
Antioch,  Paul  would  be  naturally  anxious  to  know  whether  the  infant  com- 
munities continued  to  prosper,  though  they  were  harassed  by  persecutions 
from  without,  and  liable  to  perversion  from  within.  Accordingly  he  began 
his  mission  by  visiting  the  Churches  of  Syria  and  Cilicia.  It  is  probable  that 
ho  passed  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Issus,  and  through  the 
Syrian  and  Ainanid  Gates  to  the  towns  of  Alexandria  and  Issus.4  There  the 
road  turned  westward,  and  led  through  Mopsuestia  and  Adana  to  Tarsus. 
From  Tarsus  three  routes  were  open  to  him — one  running  along  the  shore  of 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  Cilician  Seleucia,  and  then  turning  inland  through 
the  Lycaonian  Laranda  to  Derbo ;  the  other  a  narrow  and  unfrequented  path 
through  the  mountains  of  Isauria ;  the  third,  which  in  all  probability  he  chose 
as  the  safest,  the  most  frequented  and  the  most  expeditious,  through  the 
famous  Cilician  Gates,6  which  led  direct  to  Tyana,  and  then  turning  south- 
westward  ran  to  Cybistra,  and  so  to  Derbe,  along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Ak  Ghieul.8  And  if,  indeed,  Paul  and  Silas  took  this  route  and  passed 
through  the  narrow  gorge  under  its  frowning  cliffs  of  limestone,  clothed  here 
and  there  with  pine  and  cedar,  which  to  the  Crusaders  presented  an  appear- 
ance so  terrible  that  they  christened  it  the  Gates  of  Judas,  how  far  must  they 
have  been  from  imagining,  in  their  wildest  dreams,  that  their  footsteps — the 
footsteps  of  two  obscure  and  persecuted  Jews — would  lead  to  the  traversing 
of  that  pass  centuries  afterwards  by  kings  and  their  armies.  How  little  did  they 
dream  that  those  warriors,  representing  the  haughtiest  chivalry  of  Europe,  would 
hold  the  name  of  Jews  in  utter  execration,  but  would  be  sworn  to  rescue  the 
traditional  tomb  of  that  Christ  whom  they  acknowledged  as  their  Saviour, 

1  Silas  may  be  of  Semitic  origin.  Josephus  mentions  four  Orientals  of  the  name 
(Krenkel,  p.  78). 

3  Acts  xvi.  20,  87.  3  See  Schleusner,  s.v.  <mjpi'f«. 

4  The  Syrian  gates  are  now  called  the  Paaa  of  Beylan ;  the  Amanid  Gates  are  th« 
Kara-Kapu. 

5  Now  the  Klilek-Boghaz. 

8  For  further  geographical  details,  see  Con.  and  Howson,  ch.  viil.,  and  Lewin,  ch.  x. 
It  is  humiliating  to  think  that  the  roads  in  St.  Paul's  day  were  incomparably  better,  and 
better  kept,  than  they  are  at  this  moment,  when  the  mere  cUbrii  of  them  suffice  for 
peoples  languishing  under  the  withering  atrophy  of  Turkish  rule. 


258 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


from  the  hands  of  a  mighty  people  who  also  recognised  Him  as  a  Prophet, 
though  they  did  not  believe  Him  to  bo  Divine ! 

Whatever  road  was  taken  by  Paul  and  Silas,  they  must  have  been  their 
own  messengers,  and  announced  their  own  arrival.  And  we  can  well  hnngine 
the  surprise,  the  emotion,  the  delight  of  the  Christians  in  the  little  Isauric 
town,  when  they  suddenly  recognised  the  well-known  figure  of  the  missionary, 
who,  arriving  in  the  opposite  direction,  with  the  wounds  of  the  cruel  stonings 
fresh  upon  him,  had  first  taught  them  the  faith  of  Christ.  Can  we  not  also 
imagine  the  uneasiness  which,  during  this  visitation  of  the  Churches  which  he 
loved  so  well,  must  often  have  invaded  the  heart  of  Paul,  when  almost  the 
first  question  with  which  he  must  have  been  greeted  on  all  sides  would  be, 
"  And  where  is  Barnabas  ?  "  For  Barnabas  was  a  man  born  to  be  respected 


THE  COUNTRY   ROUND   TARSUS. 


and  loved;  and  since  Silas — great  as  may  have  been  his  gifts  of  utterance, 
and  high  as  were  his  credentials1 — would  come  among  them  as  a  perfect 
stranger,  whom  they  could  not  welcome  with  equal  heartiness,  we  may  be  sure 
that  if  Paul  erred  in  that  sad  dissension,  he  must  have  been  reminded  of  it, 
and  have  had  cause  to  regret  it  at  every  turn. 

From  Derbe  once  more  they  passed  to  Lystra.  Only  one  incident  of  their 
visit  is  told  us,  but  it  happily  affected  all  the  future  of  the  great  Apostle.  In 
his  former  visit  he  had  converted  the  young  Tiinothous,  and  it  was  in  the 
house  of  the  boy's  mother  Eunice,8  and  his  grandmother  Lois,  that  he  and 
Silas  were  probaby  received.  These  two  pious  women  were  Jewesses  who 
had  now  accepted  the  Christian  faith.  The  marriage  of  Eunice  with  a  Greek,8 

1  •npofy-rfrtfi  (Acts  XV.  32). 

3  The  name  Eunice  being  purely  Greek  might  seem  to  indicate  previous  association 
with  Gentiles. 

8  At  the  same  time,  mixed  marriages  were  far  less  strictly  forbidden  to  women  than 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOUKNET.  259 

and  the  non-circumcision  of  her  son,  indicate  an  absence  of  strict  Judaism 
which,  since  it  was  not  inconsistent  with  "  unfeigned  faith,"  must  have  made 
them  more  ready  to  receive  the  Gospel ;  and  Paul  himself  bears  witness  to 
their  earnest  sincerity,  and  to  the  careful  training  in  the  Scriptures  which 
they  had  given  to  their  child. 

"We  are  led  to  suppose  that  Eunice  was  a  widow,  and  if  so  she  showed  a 
beautiful  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  in  parting  with  her  only  son.  The  youthful 
Timothy  is  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  lovable  of  that  little  circle  of 
companions  and  followers — chiefly  Gentile  converts — who  are  henceforth 
associated  with  the  wanderings  of  St.  Paul.  Of  the  many  whom  Paul  loved, 
none  were  dearer  to  him  than  the  young  disciple  of  Lystra.  Himself  without 
wife  or  child,  he  adopted  Timothy,  and  regarded  him  as  a  son  in  all  affec- 
tionate nearness.  "To  Timothy,  my  son;"  "my  true  son  in  the  faith" — such 
are  the  terms  in  which  he  addresses  him;1  and  he  reminds  the  Philippians 
how  well  they  knew  "  that,  as  a  son  with  a  father,  he  had  slaved  with  him  for 
the  Gospel."2  And  slight  as  are  the  touches  which  enable  us  to  realise  the. 
character  of  the  young  Lystrenian,  they  are  all  wonderfully  graphic  and  con- 
sistent. He  was  so  blameless  in  character  that  both  in  his  native  Lystra  and 
in  Iconium  the  brethren  bore  warm  and  willing  testimony  to  his  worth.8  In 
spite  of  a  shyness  and  timidity  which  were  increased  by  his  youthfuluess,  he 
was  so  entirely  united  in  heart  and  soul  with  the  Apostle  that  among  his 
numerous  friends  and  companions  he  found  no  one  so  genuine,  so  entirely  un- 
selfish, so  sincerely  devoted  to  the  furtherance  of  the  cause  of  Christ.*  He 
was,  in  fact,  more  than  any  other  the  alter  ego  of  the  Apostle.  Their  know- 
ledge of  each  other  was  mutual ;  6  and  one  whose  yearning  and  often  lacerated 
heart  had  such  deep  need  of  a  kindred  spirit  on  which  to  lean  for  sympathy, 
and  whose  distressing  infirmities  rendered  necessary  to  him  the  personal 
services  of  some  affectionate  companion,  must  have  regarded  the  devoted 
tenderness  of  Timothy  as  a  special  gift  of  God  to  save  him  from  being 
crushed  by  overmuch  sorrow.  And  yet,  much  as  Paul  loved  him,  he  loved  his 
Churches  more ;  and  if  any  Church  needs  warning  or  guidance,  or  Paul  him- 
eelf  desires  to  know  how  it  prospers,  Timothy  is  required  to  overcome  his 

ko  men.  Brasilia  and  Berenice  married  Gentile  princes,  but  compelled  them  first  to 
accept  circumcision.  The  omission  of  the  covenant  rite  in  the  case  of  Timothy  may  have 
been  owing  to  the  veto  of  the  child's  Greek  father. 

1  1  Tim.  i.  2, 18 ;  2  Tim.  ii.  2.  2  PhiL  ii  22,  Wov'Aevow  ««  TO  evayyAiof. 

3  Whether  Timothy  belonged  to  Lystra  or  to  Derbe  is  a  matter  of  small  importance, 
but  that  in  point  of  fact  he  did  belong  to  Lystra  seems  so  clear  from  a  comparison  of  Acts 
xvi.  1,  2 ;  xr.  4 ;  and  2  Tim.  iii.  11,  that  it  is  strange  there  should  have  been  so  much 
useless  controversy  on  the  subject.    The  notion  that  "  Gaius  "  in  Acts  xx.  4  could  not  bo 
"  of  Derbe,"  because  there  is  a  Gaius  of  Macedonia  in  xix.  29  (who  may  or  may  not  be 
the  Gaius  of  Rom.  xvi.  23 ;  1  Cor.  i.  14),  is  like  arguing  that  there  could  not  be  a  Mr. 
Smith  of  Monmouth  and  another  Mr.  Smith  of  Yorkshire ;  and  the  transference  on  thia 
ground  of  the  epithet  Asp/Solos  to  Ttj*60«o«  in  the  absence  of  all  evidence  of  MSS.  is  mere 
frivolity. 

4  Phil.  ii.  20,  ovStva.  yap  e\a>  \.< 
favTJpy  '&frov(riv,  ov  TO  ITJCTOU  Xptorov. 

|0  2  Tim.  iii  10,  2i  8J  irop 


260  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

shrinking  modesty,1  to  console  the  persecuted  Churches  of  Macedonia,2  or 
face  the  conceited  turbulence  of  Corinth,3  or  to  be  the  overseer  of  the  Church 
of  Ephesus,4  with  its  many  troubles  from  without  and  from  within.  In  fact, 
no  name  is  so  closely  associated  with  St.  Paul's  as  that  of  Timothy.  Not 
only  were  two  Epistles  addressed  to  him,  but  he  is  associated  with  St.  Paul  in 
the  superscription  of  five ; 6  he  was  with  the  Apostle  during  great  part  of  his 
second  missionary  journey;6  he  was  with  him  at  Ephesus:7  he  accompanied 
him  in  his  last  voyage  to  Jerusalem ; 8  he  helped  to  comfort  his  first  imprison- 
ment at  Borne ; 9  he  is  urged,  in  the  Second  Epistle  addressed  to  him,  to  hasten 
from  Ephesus,  to  bring  with  him  the  cloak,  books,  and  parchments  which  St. 
Paul  had  left  with  Carpus  at  Troas,  and  to  join  him  in  his  second  imprison- 
ment before  it  is  too  late  to  see  him  alive.10  Some  sixteen  years  had  elapsed 
between  the  days  when  Paul  took  Timothy  as  his  companion  at  Lystra,11  and 
the  days  when,  in  the  weary  desolation  of  his  imprisoned  ago,  he  writes  once 
more  to  this  beloved  disciple.12  Tet  even  at  this  latter  date  St.  Paul  addresses 
him  as  though  he  were  the  same  youth  who  had  first  accompanied  him  to  the 
hallowed  work.  "  To  him,"  says  Hausrath,  "  as  to  the- Christian  Achilles,  the 
Timotheus -legend  attributes  eternal  youth;"  this  being,  according  to  the 
writer,  one  of  the  signs  that  the  two  pastoral  Epistles  addressed  to  Timothy 
were  the  work  of  a  writer  in  the  second  century.13  But  surely  it  is  obvious 
that  if  Timothy,  when  St.  Paul  first  won  him  over  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  was 
not  more  than  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  old,  he  would  be  still  far  short  of  the 
prime  of  life  when  the  Second  Epistle  was  addressed  to  him ;  and  that,  even 
if  he  were  older,  there  is  no  more  familiar  experience  than  an  old  man's 
momentary  f orgetfulness  that  those  whom  he  has  known  as  boys  have  grown 
up  to  full  manhood.14 

This  was  the  youth  whose  companionship  Paul  now  secured.  Young  as 
he  was,  the  quick  eye  of  Paul  saw  in  him  the  spirit  of  loving  and  fearful 
duty — read  the  indications  of  one  of  those  simple,  faithful  natures  which 
combine  the  glow  of  courage  with  the  bloom  of  modesty.  When  Jesus  had 
sent  forth  His  disciples  He  had  sent  them  forth  two  and  two ;  but  this  was 
only  in  their  native  land.  It  was  a  very  different  thing  to  travel  in  all 
weathers,  through  the  blinding  dust  and  bnrniug  heat  of  the  plains  of 
Lycaonia,  and  over  the  black  volcanic  crags  and  shelterless  mountain  ranges 
of  Asia.  He  had  suffered  from  the  departure  of  Mark  in  Pisidia,  and  hence- 

,,«.,.,«  -  •"'•  'juTJ-:  ••">••- 

1  1  Cor.  iv.  17 ;  xvi.  10,  o<J><5£<o«. 

2  Acts  xix.  22 ;  1  Thoss.  iii.  2 ;  PliiL  ii.  18—20.  »  1  Cor.  xvi  10. 
«  1  Tim.  i.  3.                                           5  1,  2  Thess.,  2  Cor.,  PhiL,  Col. 

6  Acts  xvi.  3 ;  xvii.  14 ;  xviil.  5.  ?  1  Cor.  iv.  17 ;  xvi.  10. 

s  Acts  xx.  4.  »  Phil.  ii.  18—20.  w  2  Tim.  iv.  9,  13. 

11  Circ.  A.D.  51.  »3  Circ.  A.D.  66. 

13  Hausrath,  p.  259.    He  admits  that  they  "contain  important  historic  indications." 

14  It  has  always  been  recognised  as  a  most  natural  touch  in  Tennyson's  poem,  "The 
Grandmother,"  that  she  speaks  of  her  old  sons  as  though  they  were  still  lads.     But  even 
if  Timotheua  had  reached  the  age  of  forty  by  the  time  he  waa  appointed  "Bishop"  of 
Ephesus,  there  would  be  nothing  incongruous  in  saying  to  him,  M7jSe/j  trov  rfc  j-eonp-ot 
KaTa^poceiVco  (1  Tim.  iv.  12),  or  rac  fie  rewrepiKat  t-.n0v/xi'as  <f>«Dye  (2  Tim.  ii.  22),  especially  as 
these  were  written  not  many  years  after  the  ^  TH  otv  OVT&V  tlovfa^vg  of  1  Cor,  xvi.  11. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE   SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOUBNEY.  261 

forth  we  never  find  him  without  at  least  two  associates — at  this  time 
Silas  and  Timothy ;  afterwards  Titus  and  Timothy  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia, 
and  Luke  and  Aristarchus  in  his  journey  to  Rome. 

It  may  surprise  us  that  the  first  step  he  took  was  to  circumcise  Timothy ; 
and  that  since  the  rite  might  be  performed  by  any  Israelite,  ho  did  it  with  hia 
own  hands.1  Wo  have,  indeed,  seen  that  he  was  in  all  probability  driven  to 
circumcise  tho  Gentile  Titus ;  but  we  are  not  told  of  any  pressure  put  upon 
him  to  perform  the  same  rite  for  Timothy,  who,  though  the  son  of  a  Jewess, 
had  grown  up  without  it.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that,  in  St.  Paul's 
opinion,  circumcision  was  valueless.  His  conduct,  therefore,  can  only  be  re- 
garded as  a  second  conces-sion  to.  or  rather  a  prevention  and  anticipation  of, 
prejudices  so  strong  that  they  might  otherwise  have  rendered  his  work  im- 
possible. St.  Luke  says  that  it  was  done  "  on  account  of  the  Jews  in  those 
regions  j  for  they  all  knew  that  his  father  was  a  Greek."  Now,  if  this  was 
generally  known,  whereas  it  was  not  so  widely  known  that  his  mother  was  a 
Jewess,  St.  Paul  felt  that  Timothy  would  everywhere  be  looked  upon  as  an 
lincircumeised  Gentile,  and  as  such  no  Jew  would  eat  with  him,  and  it  would 
be  hppeless  to  attempt  to  employ  him  as  a  preacher  of  tho  Messiah  in  the 
synagogues,  which  they  always  visited  as  the  beginning  of  their  labours.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  were  known  that  he  was  by  birth  a  Jewish  boy — since 
the  rule  was  that  nationality  wont  by  the  mother's  side2 — an  uncir- 
cuincised  Jew  would  be  in  every  Ghetto  an  object  of  execration.  If, 
then,  Timothy  was  to  bo  ordained  to  tho  work  of  the  ministry,  his  circum- 
cision was  indispensable  to  his  usefulness,  and  his  Jewish  parentage  was  suffi- 
cient to  deprive  the  act  of  the  dangerous  significance  which  might  much  moro 
easily  bo  attached  to  it  in  the  case  of  Titus.  Obviously,  too,  it  was  better 
that  Paul  should  do  it  spontaneously  than  that  it  should  receive  a  factitious 
importance  by  being  once  more  extorted  from  him  in  spite  of  protest.  Ho 
did  it,  not  in  order  to  please  himself,  but  that  ho  might  condescend  to  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak.3 

The  circumcision  was  follovred  by  a  formal  ordination.  Tiie  whole  Church 
was  a-^scinbled ;  the  youth  niado  tho  public  profession  oi:  his  faith ; 4  tho  elders 
aud  Paul  htaiself  solomuly  laid  their  liands  upon  his  head;5  the  prophetic 
voices  which  had  marked  him  out  for  a  great  work6  were  confirmed  by 
those  who  now  charged  him  with  the  high  duties  vrhich  lay  before  him, 
and  at  the  same  time  warned  him  of  tho  dangers  wliich  those  duties 

1  By  none,  however,  except  an  Israelite  (AlltAda  Zara.,  f.  27,  1). 

3  "  Partus  sequitur  veutrem "  is  tho  rule  of  the  Talmud  (£echvroth,  1,  4,  «c.  ; 
\Vetst.  ad.  foe.).  If  the  Jews  knew  that  his  moLher  was  a  Jewess,  aud  yet  that  he  had 
uot  received  the  "seal  of  the  covenant,"  they  would  have  treated  hiui  as  a  - 
(See  Ewald,  AllcrUi.  257.) 

'o  Koia.  xv.  1 ;  1  Cor.  ix.  20. 

*  1  Tini.  vi.  12,  ifioX&yijiTos  rr)v  KoXrji'  <>ii.o\oyiav~_lv>&iriov  iroXAii'  ftop rupuv. 

5  1  Tiin.  iv.  14,  rb  x*Pt<r/ia  °  «S°0>)  <roi  Sia  jrpo<f>T)Te'ias  fieri  ejri0e'<reu!  rioy  \tifiav  TOV 
«p«iu.    2  Tim.  i.  6,  Jia  rij;  effiOe'cretoS  rStv  \i:pS>v  pov. 

6  ITiin.  i.  18,  KOTO  rij  Tpooyovo-a?  irttre  *po$v*k*'    Compare  the  happy  prognostica- 
tions of  Staupitz  about  the  work  of  Luther, 


262  THE   LIFE  AND   WOKE   OF  ST.   TATTL. 

involved ; l  tho  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  like  a  flame  into  his  heart,* 
and  the  gentle  boy  of  Lystra  was  henceforth  the  consecrated  companion  of 
toils  and  wanderings,  of  which  the  issue  was  the  destined  conversion  of  the 
world. 

The  mission  opened  with  every  circumstance  of  encouragement.  The 
threefold  cord  of  this  ministry  was  not  quickly  broken.  At  each  city  which 
they  visited  they  announced  the  decisions  arrived  at  by  the  Apostles  and 
elders  at  Jerusalem,3  and  the  Churches  were  strengthened  in  the  faith,  and 
grew  in  number  daily. 

In  this  way  they  traversed  "  the  Phrygian  and  Galatian  district."  *  There 
has  been  much  speculation  as  to  the  towns  of  Phrygia  at  which  they  rested, 
but  in  the  absolute  silence  of  St.  Luke,  and  in  the  extreme  looseness  of  the 
term  "  Phrygian,"  we  cannot  be  sure  tliat  St.  Paul  preached  in  a  single  town 
of  the  region  which  is  usually  included  under  that  term.  That  he  did  not 
found  any  church  seems  clear  from  the  absence  of  allusion  to  any  Phrygian 
community  in  the  Now  Testament.  The  coujecturo  that  he  travelled  on  this 
occasion  to  the  far  distant  Colosste  is  most  improbable,  even  if  it  be  not  ex- 
cluded by  the  obvious  inference  from  his  own  language.6  All  that  we  can 
reasonably  suppose  is  that  after  leaving  Iconium  he  proceeded  to  Antioch  in 
Pisidia— since  there  could  be  no  reason  why  he  should  neglect  to  confirm  the 
Church  which  he  had  founded  there — and  then  crossed  the  ridge  of  the 
Paroreia  to  Philomelium,  from  which  it  would  have  been  possible  for  him 
either  to  take  the  main  road  to  the  great  Phrygian  town  of  Synnada,  and 
then  turn  north-eastwards  to  Pessinus,  or  else  to  enter  Galatia  by  a  shorter 
and  less  frequented  route  which  did  not  run  through  any  Phrygian  town  of 
the  slightest  importance.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  part  of  St.  Paul's 
plan  to  evangelise  Phrygia.  Perhaps  he  may  have  originally  intended  to  make 
his  way  by  the  road  through  Apamea,  to  Colossae  and  Laodicea,  and  to  go 
down  the  valley  of  the  Maeandor  to  Ephesus.  But  if  so,  this  intention  was 
hindered  by  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.8  Such  providential  hindrances 
to  a  course  which  seemed  so  obvious  may  well  have  been  mysterious  to  St. 
Paul ;  but  they  appear  less  so  to  us  when,  viewing  them  in  tho  light  of  history, 

*  1  Tim.  L  18,  ii/a  crrpaTevi}  ft>  ourai?  TIJI'  KO.)C>I%>  trrparfiav  ',  cf.  IV.  14  ',  vi.  12. 

3  2  Tim.  i.  6,  ava^u-rrupftv  (=  "  to  fan  into  fresh  flame,"  xvpt'u?  roii?  avOpajctif  4>u<rac,  Suid. ; 

fftftoSportpov  TO  irvp  fpyd£effOai,  Theophyl.)  TO  ^pia/na  TOV  0eov,  o  t<mvev  <roi,  ic.T.X. 

3  In  a  loose  way  even  Antioch  and  Iconium  might  be  regarded  as  Churches  of  Cilicia, 
Tarsus  (as  appears  from  coins,  Lewin,  i.  171)  being  regarded  as  a  capital  of  Lycaonia, 
Isauria,  and  even  of  Caria.    Further,  the  circular  letter  had  been  drawn  up  with  more  or 
less  express  reference  to  what  had  taken  place  in  these  Churches  (Acts  xv.  12). 

4  The  true  reading  is  rijv  Qpvyiav  K<U  ToJwrtiaiv  \<*>p<u>  (w,  A,  B,  C,  D). 
8  Col.  i.  4,6,7;  ii.  1. 

6  It  will  be  seen  that  I  take  the  clause  KuXv&Vrec,  K.T.A.  (Acts  xvi.  6)  retrospectively— 
i.e.,  as  the  reason  assigned  for  their  divergence  into  the  Phrygian  and  Galatian  district. 
If  they  entertained  the  design  of  preaching  in  Asia-j-t.e.,  in  Lydia — the  natural  road  to 
it  would  have  been  from  Antioch  of  Pisidia,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  that  they  would  have 
intentionally  turned  aside  to  the  semi-barbarous  regions  of  Phrygia  and  Galatia  first ; 
indeed,  we  have  St.  Paul's  own  express  admission  (Gal.  iv.  13)  that  his  evangelisation  of 
Galatia  was  tho  result  of  an  accidental  sickpess.  The  permission  to  preach  in  Asia  wag 
only  delayed  (Acts  xix.  10), 


BEGINNING  OF  THE   SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY  263 

we  see  that  otherwise  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  might  never  have  been 
written,  and  that  thus  the  whole  course  of  Christian  theology  might  have  been 
entirely  changed. 

Of  any  work  in  Phrygia,  therefore,  there  was  nothing  to  narrate ; l  but  we 
may  well  deplore  St.  Luke's  non-acquaintance  with  the  details  of  that  visit  to 
Galatia,  which  were  deeply  interesting  and  important,  and  of  which  we  are 
now  left  to  discover  the  incidents  by  piecing  the  fragmentary  notices  and  allu- 
sions of  the  Epistle. 

We  may  suppose  that  on  finding  it  impossible  to  preach  at  this  time  in  the 
preat  cities  of  Lydian  Asia,2  St.  Paul  and  his  companions  next  determined  to 
make  their  way  to  the  numerous  Jewish  communities  on  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine.  They  seem  to  have  had  no  intention  to  preach  among  a  people  so 
new  to  them,  and  apparently  so  little  promising,  as  the  Galatians.  But  God 
had  other  designs  for  them ;  they  were  detained  in  Galatia,  and  their  stay  was 
attended  with  very  memorable  results. 

St.  Luke,  who  uses  the  ordinary  geographical  term,  must  undoubtedly 
have  meant  by  the  term  Galatia  that  central  district  of  the  Asian  peninsula* 
which  was  inhabited  by  a  people  known  to  the  ancient  world  under  the  names 
of  Celts,  Galatians,  Gauls,  and  (more  recently)  Gallo-Greeks.  Their  history 
was  briefly  this.  When  the  vast  tide  of  Aryan  migration  began  to  set  to  the 
westward  from  the  valleys  of  the  Oxus  and  the  plains  of  Turkestan,  the  Celtic 
family  was  among  the  earliest  that  streamed  away  from  their  native  seats.4 
They  gradually  occupied  a  great  part  of  the  centre  and  west  of  Europe,  and 
various  tribes  of  the  family  were  swept  hither  and  thither  by  different 
currents,  as  they  met  with  special  obstacles  to  their  unimpeded  progress.  One 
of  their  Brennuses,6  four  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  inflicted  on  Rome 
its  deepest  humiliation.  Another,  one  hundred  and  eleven  years  later,6  filled 
Northern  Greece  with  terror  and  rapine,  and  when  his  hordes  were  driven 
back  by  the  storms  and  portents  which  seconded  the  determined  stand  of  the 
Greeks  at  Delphi,  they  joined  another  body  under  Loonnorius  and  Lutarius,* 

1  That  some  converts  were  made  is  implied  by  Acts  xviii.  23.    The  absence  of  a 
definite  Phrygian  Church  is  seen  in  the  silence  about  any  collection  there. 

2  ''Asia    in  the  Acts  (cf.  Catull.  xlvi.  5)  seems  always  to  mean  the  region  round  the 
old  "Asian  meadow"  of  Homer  (II.  ii.  461) — Le.,  the  entire  valley  and  plain  of  the 
Cayster — i.e.,  Lydia.    Every  one  of  "  the  seven  churches  which  are  in  Asia  "  (Rev.  i. — iii.) 
is  Lydian. 

3  The  term  Asia  Minor  is  first  used  by  Orosius  in  the  fourth  century  (Oros.  i.  2). 

4  On  the  Celtic  migrations,  see  the  author's  Families  of  Speech,  2nd  ed.  (reprinted  in 
Language  and  languages),  p.  329. 

5  B.C.  390.     The  word  Brennus  is  a  Latinised  form  of  the  title  which  is  preserved  in 
the  Welsh  brenin,  "  king." 

6  B.C.  279. 

7  Liv.  xxxviii.  16.    These  names — Celtic  words  of  obscure  origin  with  Latin  termina- 
tions— are  eagerly  seized  on  by  German  travellers  and  commentators,  and  identified  with 
Leonard  and  Lothair  (Luther),  in  order  to  prove  that  the  people  of  Galatia  were  not  Celts, 
but  Teutons.    Why  both  French  and  Germans  should  be  so  eager  to  claim  affinities  with 
these  not  very  creditable  Galatians  I  cannot  say ;  but  meanwhile  it  must  be  regarded  aa 
certain  that  the  Galatae  were  Celts,  and  not  only  Celts,  but  Cymric  Celts.    The  only 
other  arguments,   besides  these  two  names,  adduced  by  Wieseler  and  other  German 
writers  are — (1)  The  name  Gfermanopoli3—&  late  and  hideous  hybrid  which,  at  the  beat, 


264  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

struggled  across  the  Hellespont  in  the  best  way  they  could,  and  triumphantly 
established  themselves  in  the  -western  regions  of  Asia  Minor.  But  their  exactions 
soon  roused  an  opposition  which  led  to  an  effectual  curbing  of  their  power,  and 
they  were  gradually  confined  in  tho  central  region  which  is  partly  traversed  by 
the  valleys  of  the  Sangarius  and  the  Halys.  Here  we  find  them  in  three  tribes, 
each  of  which  had  its  own  capital.  Bordering  on  Phrygia  were  the  Tolisto- 
bogii,  with  their  capital  Pessinus ;  in  the  centre  tho  Tectosages,  with  their 
capital  Ancyra ;  and  to  the  eastward,  bordering  on  Pontus,  were  the  Trocmi, 
with  their  capital  Tavium.1  Originally  the  three  tribes  were  each  divided 
into  four  tetrarchies,  but  at  length  they  were  united  (B.C.  65)  under  Deiotarus, 
tetrarch  of  the  Tolistobogii,  the  Egbert  of  Galatian  history.2  The  Romans 
under  Cn.  Manlius  Yulso  had  conquered  them  in  B.C.  189,3  but  had  left  them 
nominally  independent ;  and  in  B.C.  36  Mark  Antony  made  Amyutas  king. 
On  his  death,  in  B.C.  25,  Galatia  was  joined  to  Lycaouia  and  part  of  Pisidia, 
and  made  a  Roman  province ;  and  since  it  was  cno  of  the  Imperial  provinces, 
it  was  governed  by  a  Propraetor.  This  was  its  political  condition  when  Paul 
entered  Pessinus,  which,  though  one  of  the  capitals,  lies  on  the  extreme 
frontier,  and  at  that  time  called  itself  Sebaste  of  the  Tolistobogii.* 

The  providential  cause  which  led  to  St.  Paul's  stay  in  the  country  was,  as 
he  himself  tells  us,  a  severe  attack  of  illness :  and  the  manner  in  which  ha 
alludes  to  it  gives  us  reason  to  infer  that  it  was  a  fresh  access  of  agony  from 
that  "  stake  in  the  flesh "  which  1  believe  to  have  been  acute  ophthalmia, 
accompanied,  as  it  often  is,  by  violent  cerebral  disturbance.5  In  his  letter  to 
his  Galatian  converts  he  makes  a  touching  appeal,  which  in  modern  phraseology 
might  run  as  follows  :6 — "  Become  as  I  am,  brethren,  I  beseech  you  "  (i.e.,  free 

only  points  to  the  settlement  of  some  Teutonic  community  among  the  Gauls ;  (2)  the 
tribe  of  Tsutobcdiaci,  about  whom  we  know  too  little  to  say  what  the  name  means  ;  and 
(3)  the  assertion  of  St.  Jerome  that  the  Galatians  (whom  he  had  personally  visited) 
spoke  a  language  like  the  people  of  Treves  (Jer.  in  Ep.  Gal.  ii.  praef.).  This  argument, 
however,  tells  precisely  in  the  opposite  direction,  since  the  expressions  of  Gusar  and 
Tacitus  decisively  prove  that  the  Treveri  wore  Gauls  (Tac.  Ann.  i.  43,  II.  iv.  71 ;  Ca;s. 
B.  G.  ii.  4,  &c.),  though  they  aped  Teutonic  peculiarities  (Cojs.  U.  G.  viii.  25;  Tac. 
Gcrni.  28).  Every  trait  of  their  character,  every  certain,  phenomenon  of  their  language, 
every  proved  fact  of  their  history,  shows  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  the  Galat*, 
or  Gauls,  were  not  Slavs,  nor  Teutons,  but  Celts ;  and  it  is  most  probable  that  the  names 
Galatae  and  Celtse  are  etymologically  identical.  The  ingenuity  which  elaborately  sets 
itself  to  overthrow  accepted  and  demonstrated  conclusions  leads  to  endless  waste  of  time 
and  space.  Any  who  are  curious  to  see  more  on  the  subject  will  find  it  in  the  Excursus 
of  Dr.  Lightfoot's  Galatians,  pp.  229—240. 

1  Tolktobogii,  or  Tolosatcbogii,  seems  to  combine  the  elements  of  Tolosa  (Toulouse) 
and  Boii.  The  etymologies  of  Tectosages  (who  also  occur  in  Aquitaine,  Ca;s.  B.  G.  vi.  24 ; 
Strabo,  p.  187)  and  Trocmi  are  uncertain.  Other  towns  of  the  Galatte  were  Abrostola, 
Amorium,  Tolosochoriou,  towns  of  the  Tolistobogii ;  Corbeus  and  Aspona,  of  the  Tecto- 
.sa^<'s  ;  Mithradatium  and  Danala,  of  the  Trocmi. 

-  Strabo,  p.  5G7. 

3  Liv.  xxxviii.  12.     "  Hi  jam  degeneres  suiit ;  inixti  et  Gallogracci  vere,  quod  appel- 
l.u;tur." 

4  It  is  now  a  mere  heap  of  ruins. 

s  On  this  subject  see  infra,  Excursus  XI.,  "The  Stake  in  the  Flesh." 
6  Gal.  iv.  12 — 14.    This  passage  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  necessity  of  a  new  English 
version  founded  on  better  readings.    Thus  in  verse  12,  the  "  be  "  of  our  version  should  be 


BEGINNING   OF    THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY.  265 

from  the  yoke  of  external  and  useless  ordinances),  "  for  I,  too,  made  myself  as 
you  are.1  Jew  that  I  was,  I  placed  myself  on  the  level  of  you  Gentiles,  and 
now  I  want  you  to  stand  with  me  on  that  same  level,  instead  of  trying  to 
make  yourselves  Jews.  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  by  way  of  complaint  about 
you.  Tou  never  did  me  any  personal  wrong.8  Nay,  you  know  that  when  I 
preached  the  Gospel  among  you,  on  my  first  visit,  it  was  in  consequence  of  an 
attack  of  sickness,  which  detained  me  in  the  midst  of  a  journey;  you  could 
not,  therefore,  feel  any  gratitude  to  me  as  though  I  had  come  with  the  express 
purpose  of  preaching  to  you ;  and  besides,  at  that  time  weak,  agonised  with 
pain,  liable  to  fits  of  delirium,  with  my  eyes  red  and  ulcerated  by  that  disease 
by  which  it  pleases  God  to  let  Satan  buffet  me,  you  might  well  have  been 
tempted  to  regard  me  as  a  deplorable  object.  My  whole  appearance  must 
have  been  a  trial  to  you — a  temptation  to  you  to  reject  me.  But  you  did 
not ;  you  were  very  kind  to  me.  You  might  have  treated  me  with  con- 
temptuous indifference ; 3  you  might  have  regarded  me  with  positive  loathing ;  * 
but  instead  of  this  you  honoured,  you  loved  me,  you  received  me  as  though 
I  was  an  angel — nay,  even  as  though  I  were  the  Lord  of  angels,  as  though  I 
wore  even  He  whom  I  preached  unto  you.  How  glad  you  were  to  see  me ! 
How  eagerly  you  congratulated  yourselves  and  mo  on  the  blessed  accident- 
nay,  rather,  on  the  blessed  providence  of  God,  which  had  detained  me  amongst 
you!5  So  generous,  so  affectionate  wore  you  towards  me,  that  I  bear 
yon  witness  that  to  aid  me  as  I  sat  in  misery  in  the  darkened  rooms, 
unable  to  bear  even  a  ray  of  light  without  excruciating  pain,  yon  would, 


rendered  "become;"  and  the  "Jam  as  you  are"  should  be  "I  became;"  the  "havenot 
injured  "  should  be  "  did  not  injure,"  since  the  tense  is  an  aorist,  not  a  perfect,  and  the 
allusion  is  to  some  fact  which  we  do  not  know.  In  verse  13  the  S«  ought  not  to  be  left 
unnoticed;  "through  infirmity  of  the  flesh"  is  a  positive  mistake  (since  this  would 
require  Ji'  o<r0evet<w, per)  for  "on  account  of  an  attack  of  illness,"  as  in  Thuc.  vi.  102; 

> n*.^}inKl-n-  man-no  '* +>MS  -fruTYinr  +.iTYi«  "  nnf  *'nt  f,"hft  firfifc  '*      In  vftrsfi  14  thfi  best 


TO  irpdrepot-  probably  means  "  the  former  time,"  not  "at  the  first."  In  verse  14  the  best 
reading  is  not  Tbc  neipavrfv  jiou,  but  TOV  *.  V/IWK  (»,  A,  B,  C,  D,  F,  G,  &c.,  and  "  faciliori 
lectioni  praestat  ardua") ;  and  e^TrrvVar*  is  stronger  than  "  rejected."  In  verse  15,  not, 
not  TIS,  is  probably  the  right  reading,  and  fy  should  certainly  be  omitted — and  the  mean- 
ing is  not  "where  is  the  blessedness  ye  spake  of,"  but  "your  self-congratulation  on  my  arrival 
among  you ; "  the  iv  should  certainly  be  omitted  with  efuou'faT*,  as  it  makes  the  Greek 
idiom  far  more  vivid,  although  inadmissible  in  English  (cf.  John  xv.  22  ;  xbc.  11).  In 
verse  16  the  wore  draws  a  conclusion,  "so  that,"  which  is  suddenly  and  delicately  changed 
into  a  question,  "have  I?"  instead  of  "I  have."  It  is  only  by  studying  the  intensely 
characteristic  Greek  of  St.  Paul  that  we  are  ablo,  as  it  were,  to  lay  our  hands  oil  his 
breast  and  feel  every  beat  of  his  heart. 

i  GaL  ii.  17 ;  1  Cor.  ix.  21. 

8  Cf .  2  Cor.  ii.  5,  ov*  « 


nobly  careless  expressions, —  .,--    , 

means  "You  did  not  loathe," &c.,  "me,  though  my  bodily  aspect  was  a  temptation  to 
you  "  "  Grandia  tentatio  discipulis,  si  magister  infirmetur  "  (Primas.).  On  the  possible 
'connexion  of  €f«™VaTe  with  epilepsy  see  infra,  p.  713.  It  would  be  most  accurately  ex- 
-plained  by  ophthalmia.  .  .  ,  .  , 

'  *  The  sufferings  of  St.  Paul  from  travels  when  in  a  prostrate  condition  of  body  have 
been  aptly  compared  by  Dean  Howson  to  those  of  St.  Chrysostom  and  Henry  Mortyn  in 
Poufcus.  They  both  lie  buried  at  Tocat  (Comana).  (C.  and  H.  i.  295.) 


266  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

if  that  could  Lave  helped  me,  have  plucked  out  your  eyes  and  given  them 
tome."1 

Nothing  is  more  natural  than  that  the  traversing  of  vast  distances  over  the 
burning  plains  and  freezing  mountain  passes  of  Asia  Minor — the  constant 
changes  of  climate,  the  severe  bodily  fatigue,  the  storms  of  fine  and  blinding 
dust,  the  bites  and  stings  of  insects,  the  coarseness  and  scantnoss  of  daily 
fare — should  have  brought  on  a  return  of  his  malady  to  one  whose  health  was 
so  shattered  as  that  of  Paul.  And  doubtless  it  was  the  anguish  and  despair 
arising  from  the  contemplation  of  his  own  heartrending  condition,  which 
added  to  his  teaching  that  intensity,  that  victorious  earnestness,  which  made 
it  BO  all-prevailing  with  the  warm-hearted  Gauls.8  If  they  were  ready  to 
receive  him  as  Christ  Jesus,  it  was  because  Christ  Jesus  was  the  Alpha  and 
the  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  his  teaching  to  them.  And 
hence,  in  his  appeal  to  thoir  sense  of  shame,  he  uses  one  of  his  own  inimitably 
picturesque  words  to  say,  "  Senseless  Galatians,  what  evil  eye  bewitched 
you  ?3  befoi-e  whose  eyes,  to  avert  them  from  such  evil  glances,  I  painted  as  it 
were  visibly  and  large  the  picture  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified."* 

But  the  zealous  readiness  of  the  Galatians,  their  impulsive  affection,  the 
demonstrative  delight  with  which  they  accepted  the  now  teaching,  was  not 
solely  due  to  the  pity  which  mingled  with  the  admiration  inspired  by  the  new 
teacher.  It  may  liave  been  due,  in  some  small  measure,  to  the  affinities 
presented  by  the  new  religion  to  the  loftiest  and  noblest  parts  of  their  old 
beliefs ;  and  at  any  rate,  being  naturally  of  a  religious  turn  of  mind,5  they  may 
have  been  in  the  first  instance  attracted  by  the  hearing  of  a  doctrine  which 
promised  atonement  in  consequence  of  a  shedding  of  blood.  But  far  more 
than  this,  the  quick  conversion  of  the  Galatians  was  due  to  the  mighty  out- 

1  No  one  disputes  that  this  in  itself  may  be  a  metaphorical  expression  for  any  severe 
sacrifice,  as  in  Cat.  Isxxii.  : — 

"  Quinti  si  tibi  vis  oculos  debere  Catullum, 
Aut  aliuil  si  quid  carius  est  oculls." 

But  how  incomparably  more  vivid  and  striking,  and  how  much  more  germane  to  th» 
occasion,  does  the  expression  become  if  it  was  an  attack  of  ophthalmia  from  which  Paul 
was  suffering !  I 

3  No  doubt  the  Galatians  with  whom  he  had  to  deal  were  not  the  Gallic  peasants  who 
•were  despised  and  ignorant  ("paene  servorum  loco  habentur,"  Caes.  B.  G.  vi.  13);  but 
the  Gallo-grseci,  the  more  cultivated  and  Hellenised  Galli  of  the  towns.  (Long  in  Diet. 
Gcogr.  s.v.) 

3  Gal.  iii.  1.  Omit  rjj  aA>)0«t<f  ^  *ti6t<rt<u.  with  «,  A,  B,  D,  E,  F,  G,  &o.,  and  iv  v^Iv 
with  M,  A,  B,  C. 

*  GaL   iii.   1,    ots  KO.T  o^floAfiovs  'Ijj<ro0s  XPKTTO?  irporypa<J>»)  cVTavpu/xeyof.       It   is   trU9   that 
rrpoypa^eiy  is  elsewhere  always  used  in  the  sense  of  "  to  write  before "  (Horn.  xv.  5  ; 
Eph.  iii.  8),  and  not  "to  post"  or  "placard"  (Ar.  Av.  450),  even  in  Hellenistic  and  late 
Greek  (1  Mace.  x.  36 ;  Jude  4  ;  Justin,  Apol.  ii.  52,  B) ;  but  the  sense  and  the  context 
here  seem  to  show  that  St.  Paxil  used  it — as  we  often  find  modern  compounds  used — in 
a  different  sense  (rrpof£wypo^rj0>j).     The  large  picture  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified  was  set  up 
before  the  mental  vision  of  these  spiritual  children  of  Galatia  ("  Dicitur  fascinus  proprie 
infantibus  nocere" — Prinias.)  to  avert   their  wandering   glances    from  the   dangerous 
witchery  (T«  v/aos  «/3<x<rieai-«v)  of  the  evil  eye(]'j?3Ti,  Prov.  x.viii.  6;  Ecclus.  xiv.  6,  &c. ; 
pd<nca.voi,  JElian.  H.  A.  i.  53).    "We  may  be  reminded  of  the  huge  emblazoned  banner! 
with  which  Augustine  and  his  monks  caught  the  eye  of  Ethelbert  at  Canterbury. 

*  "Natio  est  omnis  Gallorum  admodnm  dedita  religionibus  "  (Cses.  B.  G.  vi.  16). 


BEGINNING  O?  THE  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOUBKET.  267 

I    ' 

pouring  of  the  Spirit  which  followed  Paul's  preaching,  and  to  the  now  powers1 
which  wore  wrought  in  his  converts  by  their  admission  into  the  Church.  But 
while  these  were  the  results  among  the  truer  converts,  there  must  have  also 
boon  many  whose  ready  adhesion  was  due  to  that  quick  restlessness,  that 
eager  longing  for  change,  which  characterised  them,8  as  it  characterised  the 
kindred  family  of  Greeks  with  which  they  were  at  this  time  largely  mingled. 
It  was  the  too  quick  springing  of  the  good  seed  on  poor  and  shallow  soil ;  it 
was  the  sudden  flaming  of  fire  among  natures  as  light,  as  brittle,  as  inflammable 
as  straw.  The  modification  of  an  old  religion,  the  hearty  adoption  of  a  new 
one,  the  combination  of  an  antique  worship  with  one  which  was  absolutely 
recent,  and  as  unlike  it  as  is  possible  to  conceive,  had  already  been  illustrated 
in  Galatian  history.  As  Celts  they  had  brought  with  them  into  Asia  their 
old  Druidism,  with  its  haughty  priestcraft,  and  cruel  expiations.3  Yet  they 
had  already  incorporated  with  this  the  wild  nature-worship  of  Agdistis  or 
Cybele,  the  mother  of  the  gods.  They  believed  that  the  black  stone  which 
Lad  fallen  from  heaven  was  her  image,  and  for  centuries  after  it  had  been 
carried  off  to  Borne4  they  continued  to  revere  her  venerable  temple,  to  give 
alms  to  her  raving  eunuchs,  to  tell  of  the  vengeance  which  she  had  inflicted 
on  the  hapless  Atys,  and  to  regard  the  pine  groves  of  Dindymus  with 
awe.5  But  yet,  while  this  Phrygian  cult  was  flourishing  at  Pessinus,  and 
commanding  the  services  of  its  hosts  of  mutilated  priests,  and  while  at 
Tavium  the  main  object  of  worship  was  a  colossal  bronze  Zeus  of  the  ordinary 
Greek  type,6  at  Ancyra,  on  the  other  hand,  was  established  the  Roman 
deification  of  the  Emperor  Augustus,  to  whom  a  temple  of  white  marble, 
still  existing  in  ruins,  had  been  built  by  the  common  contributions  of 
Asia.7  Paul  must  have  seen,  still  fresh  and  unbroken,  the  celebrated 
Monumcntum  Ancyranum,  the  will  of  Augustus  engraved  ou  the  marble  of 

1  Gal.  lii.  5,  6  smx*wyur  (=  abundantly  supplying ;  cf.  Phil.  L  19 ;  2  Pet.  i.  5) 
tVti>  rb  rrvtvfjLa.  ica.1  tvepytav  Swififit  iv  vfu»-.  The  latter  clause  may  undoubtedly  mean 
"working  miracles  among  you ;"  but  the  parallels  of  1  Cor.  xii.  10;  Matt.  xiv.  2,  seem 
to  show  that  it  means  "working  powers  in  you."  See,  too,  Isa.  xxvi.  12 ;  Heb.  xiii.  21. 
ivipywa  means,  as  Bishop  Andrewes  says,  "  a  work  inwrought  in  us."  In  1  Cor.  xii.  10 
the  "  operations  of  powers"  are  distinguished  from  the  "  gifts  of  healings." 

3  Caesar  complains  of  their  "mobifitas,"  "levitas,"  and  "infirmitas  animi,"and  says, 
"in  consiliis  capiendis  mobiles  et  novis  plerumque  rebus  studentes"  (£.  G.  ii.  1 ;  iv.  5 ; 
iii.  10 ;  and  Liv.  x.  28). 

3  Strabo,  xii.  5,  p.  567,  who  tells  us  that  they  met  in  council  at  Drynemetum,  or 
"  Oak-shrine"  (drw  cf.  «pv?,  and  nemed,  "temple   ),  as  Vernemetum  =  "Great-shrine" 
(Venant.  Fortun.  i.  9),  and  Augustonemetum  =  "Augustus-shrine." 

4  B.C.  204.    See  Liv.  wii,  10,  11.    The  name  of  the  town  was  dubiously  connected 
with  Tieaelv.     (Herodian.  i.  11.) 

5  Liv.  xxxviii.  18 :  Strabo,  p.  489 ;  Diod.  Sic.  iii.  58.    Jiilian  found  the  worship  of 
Cybele  still  languishing  on  at  Pessinus  in  A.D.  363,   and  made  a  futile  attempt  to 
galvanise  it  into  life  (Amm.  Marc.  xxii.  9).     The  lucrative  features  in  the  worship  ^of 
Cybele — the  sale  of  oracles  and  collection  of  alms — may  have  had  their  attraction  for  the 
avaricious  Gauls. 

6  Strabo,  xii.  5.    The  very  site  of  Taviiim  is  unknown. 

7  Ancyra — then  called  Sebaste  Tectosagum,  in  honour  of  Augustus — is  now  th« 
flourishing  commercial  town  of  Angora.    The  Baulos-Dagh— Paul-Mountain— near  Angora 
still  reminds  the  traveller  of  St.  Paul's  visit  to  these  cities,  which  is  also  rendered  more 
probable  by  their  having  been  early  episcopal  sees, 


268  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL, 

the  temple,  and  copied  from  the  inscription  set  up  by  his  own  command  upon 
bronze  tablets  in  front  of  his  mausoleum ;  but  while  ho  may  have  glanced  at  it 
with  interest,  and  read  with  still  deeper  pleasure  on  one  of  the  pillars  the 
decree  in  which  the  Emperor  had  rewarded  the  f riendlinesa  of  the  Jews  by  a 
grant  of  religious  immunity,1  he  must  have  thought  with  some  pity  and  indig- 
nation of  the  frivolity  of  spirit  which  could  thus  readily  combine  the  oldest 
and  the  newest  of  idolatrous  aberrations — the  sincere  and  savage  orgies  of 
Dindymene  with  the  debasing  flattery  of  an  astute  intriguer — the  passionate 
abandonment  to  maddening  religious  impulse,  and  the  calculating  adoration 
of  political  success.  In  point  of  fact,  the  three  capitals  of  the  three  tribes 
furnished  data  for  an  epitome  of  their  history,  and  of  their  character.  In 
passing  from  Pessinus  to  Ancyra  and  Tavium  the  Apostle  saw  specimens  of 
cults  curiously  obsolete  side  by  side  with  others  which  wore  ridiculously  now. 
He  passed  from  Phrygian  nature-worship  through  Greek  mythology  to 
Roman  conventionalism.  He  could  not  but  have  regarded  this  as  a  bad  sign, 
and  he  would  have  seen  a  sad  illustration  of  the  poorer  qualities  which  led  to 
his  own  enthusiastic  reception,  if  he  could  have  read  the  description  in  a  Greek 
rhetorician  long  afterwards  of  the  Galatians  being  so  eager  to  seize  upon  what 
was  new,  that  if  they  did  but  get  a  glimpse  of  the  cloak  of  a  philosopher, 
they  caught  hold  of  and  clung  to  it  at  once,  as  steel  filings  do  to  a  magnet.1 
In  fact,  as  he  had  bitter  cause  to  learn  afterwards,  the  religious  views  of  the 
Gauls  were  more  or  less  a  reflex  of  the  impressions  of  the  moment,  and  their 
favourite  sentiments  the  echo  of  the  language  used  by  the  last  comer.  But 
on  lus  first  visit  their  faults  all  seemed  to  be  in  the  background.  Their  ten- 
dencies to  revelries  and  rivalries,  to  drunkenness  and  avarice,  to  vanity  and 
boasting,  to  cabals  and  fits  of  rage,  were  in  abeyance,3 — checked  if  not  mastered 
by  the  powerful  influence  of  their  now  faith,  and  in  some  instances,  we  may 
hope,  cured  altogether  by  the  grace  of  tho  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  All  that  he 
saw  was  their  eagerness  and  affection,  their  absence  of  prejudice,  and  willing- 
ness to  learn — all  that  vivacity  and  warmheartedness  which  wore  redeeming 
points  in  their  Celtic  character.4 

How  long  he  was  detained  among  them  by  his  illness  we  are  not  told,  but 
it  was  long  enough  to  found  several  churches,  one  perhaps  in  each  of  the  three 
capitals,  and  it  may  be  in  some  of  the  minor  towns.  His  success  was  clearly 

1  Jos.  Antt.  xvi.  6,  §  2.     On  Caesar-worship  see  Tac.  Ann.  iv.  55,  66. 
5  Tkemistius,  Or.  xxiii.,  p.  299 ;  ap.  Wetstein  in  Gal.  i.  6.    <c<u  rpi^avCov  iraotubaviimi 
iKKpcp.a.vTo.1,  evfli/s  uirirep  rij;  \idov  ra  <7i£i;pta. 

3  GaL  v.  7,  15,  21,  26.     Diodonis  Siculus  says  that  they  were  BO  excessively  drunken 
(xaroiroi  Kaff  vjrcpSoAijv)  that  they  drenched  themselves  with  the  raw  wine  imported  by 
merchants,  and  drank  with  such  violent  eagerness  as  either  to  stupefy  themselves  to 
sleep  or  enrage  themselves  to  madness  (v.  26 ;  cf .  Ammian.  Marc.  xv.  12).     He  also  calls 
them  "extravagantly  avaricious"  (v.  27;  Liv.  xxxviii.  27)  and  testifies  to  their  disorderly 
and  gesticulative  fits  of  rage  (v.  31;  Ammian.  Marc.  I.e.). 

4  The  vitality  of  traits  of  character  in  many  races  is  extraordinary,  and  every  one 
will  recognise  some  of  these  Celtic  peculiarities  in  the  Welsh,  and  others  in  the  Irish. 
Ancient  testimonies  to  their  weaknesses  and  vices  have  often  been  collected,  but  the 
brighter  features  which  existed  then,  aa  they  do  still,  Are  chiefly  witnessed  to  by  St. 
Paul. 


BEGINNING  Ol1  THB  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY.  269 

among  the  Gauls ;  and  in  the  absence  of  all  personal  salutations  in  his  Epistle, 
•wo  cannot  tell  whether  any  of  the  aboriginal  Phrygians  or  Greek  settlers, 
or  of  the  Koman  governing  class,  embraced  the  faith.  But  though  he  is 
avowedly  writing  to  those  who  had  been  Gentiles  and  idolaters,1  there  must 
have  been  a  considerable  number  of  converts  from  the  large  Jewish  popu- 
lation 2  which  had  been  attracted  to  Galatia  by  its  fertility,  its  thriving  com- 
merce, and  the  privileges  which  secured  them  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  These  Jews,  and  their  visitors  from  Jerusalem,  as  we  shall  see  here- 
after, proved  to  be  a  dangerous  element  in  the  infant  Church. 

The  success  of  this  unintended  mission  may  have  detained  St.  Paul  for  a 
little  time  even  after  his  convalescence ;  and  as  he  retraced  his  journey  from 
Tavium  to  Pessiuus  he  would  have  had  the  opportunity  which  he  always 
desired  of  confirming  his  recent  converts  in  the  faith.  From  Pessinus  the 
missionaries  went  towards  Mysia,  and  laid  their  plans  to  pass  on  to  the 
numerous  and  wealthy  cities  of  western  Bithynia,  at  that  time  a  senatorial 
province.  But  once  more  their  plans,  in  some  way  unknown  to  us,  were 
divinely  overruled.  The  "Spirit  of  Jesus"3  did  not  suffer  them  to  enter  a 
country  which  was  destined  indeed  to  be  early  converted,  but  not  by  them, 
and  which  pkys  a  prominent  part  in  the  history  of  early  Christianity.*  Once 
more  divinely  thwarted  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  designs,  they  made  no 
attempt  to  preach  in  Mysia,6  which  in  its  bleak  and  thinly  populated  uplands 
offered  but  few  opportunities  for  evangelisation,  but  pressed  on  directly  to 
Troas,  where  an  event  awaited  them  of  immense  importance,  which  was 
sufficient  to  explain  the  purpose  of  Him  who  had  shaped  the  ends  which  they 
themselves  had  so  differently  rough-hewn. 
\  From  the  slopes  of  Ida,6  Paul  and  Silvanus  with  their  young  attendant 

1  Gal.  iv.  8;  v.  2;  vL  12,  &c.    On  the  other  hand,  iv.  9  has  been  quoted  (Jowett, 
I.  187)  as  "an  almost  explicit  statement  that  they  were  Jews ; "  this  is  not,  however, 
necessarily  the  case.    Doubtless,  writing  to  a  church  in  which  there  were  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  St.  Paul  may  use  expressions  which  are  sometimes  more  appropriate  to  one 
class,  sometimes  to  the  other,  but  "the  weak  and  beggarly  elements"  to  which  the 
converts  are  returning  may  include  Gentile  aa  well  as  Jewish  ritualisms ;  and  some  of 
them  may  have  passed  through  both  phases. 

2  St.  Peter  in  addressing  the  Diaspora  of  Galatia  and  other  districts  (1  Pet.  i.  1)  must 
have  had  Jews  as  well  as  Gentiles  in  view.    The  frequency  of  Old  Testament  quotations 
and  illustrations  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  perhaps  a  proof  that  not  a  few  of  the 
converts  had  been  originally  proselytes.    Otherwise  it  would  be  impossible  to  account 
for  the  fact  that  "  in  none  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  has  the  cast  of  the  reasoning  a  more 
Jewish  character  "  (Jowett,  L  186).     GaL  iii.  27,  28  may  allude  to  the  existence  of  con- 
verts from  both  classes. 

3  Acts  ivi.  7.    This  «ro£  A«yrf/««'ov,  which  is  the  undoubtedly  correct  reading  («,  A,  B, 
C2,  D,  E,  and  many  versions  and  Fathers),  perhaps  indicates  that  St.  Luke  is  here  using 
some  document  which  furnished  him  with  brief  notes  of  this  part  of  Paul's  journeys. 
The  remarkable  fact  that  in  the  FUioque  controversy  neither  side  appealed  to  this  expres- 
sion shows  how  early  the  text  had  been  altered  by  the  copyists. 

*  See  Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan  (x.  97),  when  he  was  Proconsul  of  Bithynia,  asking 
advice  how  to  deal  with  the  Christians. 

8  This  must  be  the  meaning  of  irap«\flon-«  (=o0«Vre«,  "neglecting").  It  cannot  be 
translated  "passing  through,"  which  would  be  SieMoms,  though  a  glance  at  the  map  will 
•how  that  they  must  have  passed  through  Mysia  without  stopping.  The  absence  of 
•ynagogues  and  the  remote,  unknown  character  of  the  region  account  for  this. 

*  Acts  xvi.  8. 


270  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

descended  the  ravino  which  separated  the  mountain  from  the  port  and  colony. 
They  were  on  classic  ground.  Every  step  they  took  revealed  scenes  to  which 
the  best  and  brightest  poetry  of  Greece  had  given  an  immortal  interest.  As 
they  emerged  from  the  pine  groves  of  the  many-fountained  hill,  with  its 
exquisite  legend  of  (Enone  and  her  love,  they  saw  beneath  them  the 

"  Ringing  plains  of  windy  Troy," 
where  the  great  heroes  of  early  legend  had  so  often 

"  Drunk  delight  of  battle  with  their  peers.** 
But  if  they  had  ever  heard  of 

"The  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships, 
Or  sacked  the  topmost  towers  of  Ilion," 

or  looked  with  any  interest  on  the  Siniois  and  the  Scamander,  and  the  huge 
barrows  of  Ajax  and  Achilles,  they  do  not  allude  to  them.  Their  minds  were 
full  of  other  thoughts. 

The  town  at  which  they  now  arrived  had  been  founded  by  the  successors  of 
Alexander,  and  had  been  elevated  into  a  colony  with  the  Jus  Italicuin.  This 
privilege  had  been  granted  to  the  inhabitants  solely  because  of  the  romantic 
interest  which  the  Romans  took  in  tho  legendary  cradle  of  their  greatness,  an 
interest  which  almost  induced  Constantino  to  fix  there,  instead  of  at  Byzantium, 
the  capital  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  Of  any  preaching  in  Alexandria  Troas 
nothing  is  told  us.  On  threo  separate  occasions  at  least  St.  Paul  visited  it.1 
It  was  there  that  Carpus  lived,  who  was  probably  his  host,  and  he  found  it  a 
place  peculiarly  adapted  for  the  favourable  reception  of  tho  Gospel.9  On  this 
occasion,  however,  his  stay  was  very  short,3  because  he  was  divinely  commanded 
to  other  work. 

St.  Paul  had  now  been  labouring  for  many  years  among  Syrians,  Ciliciuns, 
and  the  mingled  races  of  Asia  Minor ;  but  during  that  missionary  activity  he 
had  been  at  Roman  colonies  like  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  and  must  have  been 
thrown  very  frequently  into  the  society  of  Greeks  and  Latins.  He  was  himself 
a  Roman  citizen,  and  the  constant  allusions  of  his  Epistles  show  that  he,  like 
St.  Luke,  must  have  been  struck  with  admiration  for  the  order,  the  discipline, 
the  dignity,  the  reverence  for  law  which  characterised  the  Romans,  and 
especially  for  the  bravery,  the  determination,  the  hardy  spirit  of  self-denial 
which  actuated  the  Roman  soldier.4  He  tells  us,  later  in  his  life,  how 
frequently  his  thoughts  had  turned  towards  Rome  itself,*  and  as  he  brooded 

1  Acts  XX.  1,  2,  compared  with  2  Cor.  11.  12;  1  Cor.  rvi.  5 — 9;  and  Acts  rx.  6;  and 
2  Tim.  iv.  13. 

3  2  Cor.  ii.  12. 

*  Acts  xvi.  10,  tiCt'ws  e£7)ri$crap«'  implies  that  they  took  the  first  ship  which  they  could 
find  for  a  voyage  to  Macedonia. 

4  This  is  shown  by  the  many  military  and  agonistic  metaphors  in  his  Epistles. 

*  Acts  xix.  21;  cf.  Rom.  i.  13 — "Oftentimes  I  purposed  to  come  to  you ;"  xv.  23— 
"I  have  had  a  great  desire  these  many  years  to  come  to  you."    These  passagea  were 
writ  ten  from  Achaia — probably  from  Corinth— six  or  seven  years  after  this  date. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOUBNET.  271 

on  the  divinely  indicated  future  of  Christianity,  we  cannot  doubt  that  whilo 
Wandering  round  the  then  busy  but  now  land-locked  and  desolate  harbour  of 
Troas,  he  had  thrown  many  a  wistful  glance  towards  the  hills  of  Imbroa  and 
Samothrace ;  and  perhaps  when  on  some  clear  evening  the  colossal  peak  of  Athos 
was  visible,  it  seemed  like  some  vast  angel  who  beckoned  him  to  carry  the 
good  tidings  to  the  west.  The  Spirit  of  Jesus  had  guided  him  hitherto  in  his 
journey,  had  prevented  him  from  preaching  in  the  old  and  famous  cities  of 
Asia,  had  forbidden  him  to  enter  Bithynia,  had  driven  the  stake  deeper  into 
his  flesh,  that  he  might  preach  the  word  among  the  Gauls.  Anxiously  must 
he  have  awaited  further  guidance ; — and  it  came.  In  the  night  a  Macedonian 
soldier1  stood  before  him,  exhorting  him  with  those  words,  "  Cross  over  into 
Macedonia  and  help  us."  When  morning  dawned,  Paul  narrated  the  vision  to 
his  companions,2  "  and  immediately  we  sought,"  says  the  narrator,  who  here, 
for  the  first  time,  appears  as  the  companion  of  the  Apostle,  "  to  go  forth  into 
Macedonia,  inferring  that  the  Lord  has  called  us  to  preach  tho  Gospel  to 
them."  With  such  brevity  and  simplicity  is  the  incident  related  which  of  &11 
others  was  the  most  important  in  introducing  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  the  most 
advanced  and  active  races  of  the  world,  and  among  them  to  those  races  in 
whose  hands  its  future  destinies  must  inevitably  rest. 

The  other  incident  of  this  visit  to  the  Troas  is  the  meeting  of  Paul  with 
Luke,  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Gospel.  This 
mooting  is  indicated  with  profound  modesty  by  the  sudden  use  of  tho 
pronoun  "  we ; "  but  even  without  this  the  vivid  accuracy  of  detail  in  tha 
narrative  which  immediately  ensues,  is  in  such  striking  contrast  with  tho 
meagreness  of  much  that  has  gone  before,  that  we  should  have  been  driven  to 
conjecture  the  presence  of  the  writer  on  board  the  little  vessel  that  now 
slipped  its  hawsers  from  one  of  the  granite  columns  which  wo  still  see  lying 
prostrate  on  the  lonely  shores  of  the  harbour  of  Troas. 

And  this  meeting  was  a  happy  ono  for  Paul ;  for,  of  all  the  follow- workers 
with  whom  he  was  thrown,  Timothens  alone  was  dearer  to  him  than  Luke. 
From  the  appearance  and  disappearance  of  the  first  personal  pronoun  in  the 
subsequent  chapters  of  the  Acts,*  we  see  that  he  accompanied  St.  Paul  to 
Philippi,  and  rejoined  him  there  some  seven  years  afterwards,  never  again  to 
part  with  him  so  long  as  we  are  able  to  pursue  his  history.  How  deeply  St. 
Paul  was  attached  to  liim  appears  in  tho  title  "  the  beloved  physician ;  "  how 
entire  was  his  fidelity  is  seen  in  the  touching  notice,  "  Only  Luke  is  with  me." 

1  The  o»-i)p  and  the  «<TT*K,  and  the  Instant  recognition  that  it  was  a  Macedonian, 
perhaps  imply  this.  It  fa  called  an  opa.ua,  which  ia  used  of  impressions  more  distinct 
than  those  of  dreams.  Acts  x.  3,  h>  ipa^on  <J.ai/«pi*.  Malt.  xvii.  9  (the  Transfigura- 
tion). 

3  D,  SirvtpSelt  oZv  8ujyi)<roTo  TO  opaij-a.  iifiiv  (Acta  xvl,  10). 

»  The  ''we "  begins  in  Acts  xvi.  10 ;  it  ends  when  Paul  leaves  Philippi,  xvii.  1.  ] 
resumed  at  Philippi  at  the  close  of  the  third  missionary  journey,  xx.  5,  and  continues  till 
the  arrival  at  Jerusalem,  xxi.  IS.  It  again  appears  in  xxvii.  1,  and  continues  throughout 
the  journey  to  Rome.  Luke  was  also  with  the  Apostle  during  his  first  (Col.  iv.  14  ; 
Philem.  24)  and  second  imprisonments  (2  Tim.  Iv,  11).  It  ia  La  from  certain  thai 
2  Cor.  viii.  18  refers  to  him. 


272  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PA01. 

He  shared  his  journeys,  his  dangers,  his  shipwreck;  he  shared  and  cheered 
his  long  imprisonments,  first  at  Csesarea,  then  at  Rome.  More  than  all,  he 
became  the  biographer  of  the  Great  Apostle,  and  to  his  allegiance,  to  his 
ability,  to  his  accurate  preservation  of  facts,  is  due  nearly  all  that  we  know  of 
one  who  laboured  more  abundantly  than  all  the  Apostles,  and  to  whom,  more 
than  to  any  of  them,  the  cause  of  Christ  is  indebted  for  its  stability  and  its 
dissemination. 

Of  Luke  himself,  beyond  what  we  learn  of  his  movements  and  of  his  cha- 
racter from  his  own  writings,  we  know  but  little.  There  is  no  reason  to  reject 
the  unanimous  tradition  that  he  was  by  birth  an  Antiochene,1  and  it  is  clear 
from  St.  Paul's  allusions  that  he  was  a  Gentile  convert,  and  that  he  had  not 
been  circumcised.2  That  he  was  a  close  observer,  a  careful  narrator,  a  man  of 
cultivated  intellect,  and  possessed  of  a  good  Greek  style,3  we  see  from  his  two 
books  ;  and  they  also  reveal  to  us  a  character  gentle  and  manly,  sympathetic 
and  self-denying.  The  incidental  allusion  of  St.  Paul  shows  us  that  he  was  a 
physician,  and  this  allusion  is  singularly  confirmed  by  his  own  turns  of  phrase.1 
The  rank  of  a  physician  in  those  days  was  not  in  any  respect  so  high  as  now 
it  is,  and  does  not  at  all  exclude  the  possibility  that  St.  Luke  may  have  been  a 
f  reedman ;  but  on  this  and  all  else  which  concerns  him  Scripture  and  tradition 
leave  us  entirely  uninformed.  That  he  was  familiar  with  naval  matters  ia 
strikingly  shown  in  his  account  of  the  shipwreck,  and  it  has  even  been  con- 
jectured that  he  exercised  his  art  in  the  huge  and  crowded  merchant  vessels 
which  were  incessantly  coasting  from  point  to  point  of  the  Mediterranean.5 
Two  inferences,  at  any  rate,  arise  from  the  way  in  which  his  name  is  intro- 
duced :  one  that  he  had  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  St.  Paul,  perhaps 
at  Antioch ;  the  other  that,  thmigh  he  had  some  special  connexion  with 
Philippi  and  Troas,  his  subsequent  close  attachment  to  the  Apostle  in  his 

1  Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  4;  Jcr.  De  Virr.  Illustr.     Such  allusions  as  "Nicolas,  a  proselyte 
of  Antioch,"  and  the  mention  of  Christians  important  there,  but  otherwise  anknown, 
lend  probability  to  this  tradition  (cf.  xi.  20;  xiii.  1,  &c.).    If  we  could  attach  any  im- 
portance to  the  reading  of  D  in  Acts  xi.  28  ((rwearpa/j^ti/wv  «<  w£>v),  it  would  show  that 
Luke  had  been  at  Antioch  during  the  year  when  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  working  there 
before  the  famine.    The  name  Lucas  is  an  abbreviation  of  Lucaiius,  as  Silas  of  Silvanus ; 
but  the  notion  that  they  were  the  same  person  is  preposterous. 

2  Col.  iv.  10,  11,  14. 

3  As  an  incidental  confirmation  that  he  was  a  Gentile,    Bishop  "Wordsworth  (on 
1  Thess.  ii.  9)  notices  that  he  says  "day  and  night"  (Acts  ix.  24),  whereas  when  he  is 
reporting  the  speeches  of  St.  Paul  (Acts  xx.  31 ;  xxvi.  7,  in  the  Greek)  he,  like  St.  Paul 
himself  (1  Thess.  iii.  10 ;  2  Thess.  iii.  8 ;  1  Tim.  v.  5,  &c.),  always  says  "  night  and  day," 
in  accordance  with  the  Jewish  notion  that  the  night  preceded  the  day.    A  more  decisive 
indication  that  Luke  was  a  Gentile  ia  Acts  i.  19,  rfj  iS(a  Sut\tKT<f  avruv,  slipped  into  St. 
Peter's  speech.     "Lucas,  medicus  Antiochensis,  ut  scripta  ejus  indicant"  (Jer.). 

4  See  a  highly  ingenious  paper  by  Dr.  Plumptre  on  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul  (The 
Expositor,  No.  xx.,  Aug.,  1876).     He  quotes  the  following  indications  of  medical  know- 
ledge : — The  combination  of  feverish  attacks  with  dysentery  (Acts  xxviii.  8),  and  the 
use  of  rifxtj  in  the  sense  (?)  of  honorarium ;  pda-eis  and  afyvpa.  in  Acts  iii.  7  (cf.  Hippocrates, 
p.  637) ;  the  incrustation  caused  by  ophthalmia  (Acts  ix.  18) ;  «ic<rra<yi?  (Acts  x.  9,  10) ; 
oxwArjKo/JfxoTos  (Acts  xii.  23);  "Physician,  heal  thyself,"  only  In  Luke  iv.  23;  tponfrx. 
(Luke  xiii.  44),  &c. 

6  Smith,  Voy.  and  Shipwreck,  p.  15,  who  shows  that  St.  Luke's  nautical  knowledge  is 
at  once  accurate  and  unprofessional. 


273 

journeys  aiid  imprisonments  may  have  arisen  from  a  dosire  to  give  him  the 
benefit  of  medical  skill  and  attention  in  Ms  frequent  attacks  of  sickness.1  Tlie 
lingering  remains  of  that  illness  which  prostrated  St.  Paul  in  Galatia  may 
have  furnished  the  first  reason  why  it  became  necessary  for  Luke  to  accom- 
pany him,  and  so  to  begin  the  fraternal  companionship  which  must  have  bcon 
one  of  the  richest  blessings  of  a  sorely  troubled  life. 


833. 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  MACEDONIA. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

PHILIPPI. 

"  The  day  is  short  ;  the  work  abundant  ;  the  labourers  are  remiss  ;  the  reward  is 
great  ;  the  master  presses."  —  PIRKB  ABH^TH,  ii. 

So  with  their  hearts  full  of  the  high  hopes  inspired  by  the  consciousness  that  they 
were  being  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  two  Apostles,  with  Luke  and  Timo- 
theus,  set  sail  from  the  port  of  Troas.  As  the  south  wind  sped  them  fast  upon 
their  destined  course,  they  may  have  seen  a  fresh  sign  that  He  was  with  them 
who  causes  the  east  wind  to  blow  in  the  heavens,  and  by  His  power  brings  in 
the  south  wind.2  Owing  to  this  favourable  breeze,  they  traversed  in  two  days 
the  distance  which  occupied  five  days  when  they  returned.3  On  the  first  day 
they  ran  past  Tonedos  and  Imbros  straight  for  Samothraco,  and  anchored  for 
the  night  to  leeward  of  it.  Did  Paul  as  he  gazed  by  starlight,  or  at  early 
dawn,  on  the  towering  peak  which  overshadows  that  ancient  island,  think  at 
all  of  its  immemorial  mysteries,  or  talk  to  his  companions  about  the  Cabiri,  or 
question  any  of  the  Greek  or  Roman  sailors  about  .the  strange  names  of 
Axiochoros,  Axiochersos,  and  Axiochersa  p  We  would  gladly  know,  but  wo 
have  no  data  to  help  us,  and  it  is  strongly  probable  that  to  all  such  secondary 
incidents  he  was  habitually  indifferent. 

1  Dr.  Plumptre  (ubi  supra)  tries  to  show  that  the  intercourse  of  Luke,  the  Physician, 
left  its  traces  on  St.  Paul's  own  language  and  tone  of  thought  —  e.g.,  the  frequent  use  of 


(1  Tim.  i.  10  ;  vi.  3,  &c.,  in  eight  places),  which  is  found  three  times  in  St.  Luke, 
;  voo-w  (1  Tim.  vi.  4)  ;  yayypa.iva.  (2  Tim.  ii.  17)  ;  TV</>OO>  (1  Tim. 
rruVot  (1  Tim.  iv.  2)  ;  Kvr,e6^»o<.  (2  Tim.  iv.  3)  ;  Hippocr.,  p. 
444  ;  yv/avao-ia  (1  Tim.  iv.  8)  ;  ordfiaxos  (1  Tim.  v.  23)  ;  the  anti-ascetic  advico  of  Col.  ii.  23 


(which  means  that  "ascetic  rules  have  no  value  in  relation  to  bodily  fulness  "  —  i.e.,  are 
no  remedy  against  its  consequences  in  disordered  passions)  ;  Kararo^  (Phil.  iii.  2)  ; 
o-Ku'jSaAa  (Phil.  iii.  8,  &c.).  The  facts  are  curious  and  noticeable,  even  if  they  will  not 
fully  bear  out  the  inference. 

2  See  Con.  and  Hows.  i.  305.  The  description  of  the  voyage  by  St.  Luke,  however 
brief,  is,  as  usual,  demonstrably  accurate  In  the  minutest  particular*. 

*  Acts  xx.  6 

10* 


274  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAITI* 

On  the  next  day,  still  scudding  before  the  wind,1  they  passed  the  mouth  of 
the  famous  Nestus ;  sailed  northward  of  Thasos  amid  the  scenes  so  full  to  us 
of  the  memory  of  Thucydides ;  gazed  for  the  first  time  on  the  "  gold-veined 
crags  "  of  Pangaeus ;  saw  a  rocky  promontory,  and  on  it  a  busy  seaport,  over 
which  towered  the  marble  Maiden  Chamber  of  Diana ;  and  so,  anchoring  in 
the  roadstead,  set  foot — three  of  them  for  the  first  time— on  European  soil. 
The  town  was  Noapolis,  in  Thrace — the  modern  Kavala — which  served  as  the 
port  of  the  Macedonian  Philippi.  Here  St.  Paul  did  not  linger.  As  at 
Scleueia,  and  Attaleia,  and  Perga,  and  Peiraeus,  and  Cenchreie,  he  seemed  to 
regard  the  port  as  being  merely  a  starting-point  for  the  inland  town.2  Accord- 
ingly, ho  at  once  left  Neapolis  by  the  western  gate  and  took  the  Egnatian  road, 
which,  after  skirting  the  shore  for  a  short  distance,  turns  northward  over  a 
narrow  pass  of  Mount  Pangaeus,  and  so  winds  down  into  a  green  delicious 
plain, — with  a  marsh  on  one  side  where  herds  of  largo-horned  buffaloes  wallowed 
among  the  reeds,  and  with  meadows  on  the  other  side,  which  repaid  the  snowa 
of  Hsemus,  gathered  in  the  freshening  waters  of  the  Zygactes,  with  the  bloom 
and  odour  of  the  hundred-petal  rose.  At  a  distance  of  about  seven  miles  they 
would  begin  to  pass  through  the  tombs  that  bordered  the  roadsides  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  all  ancient  cities,  and  one  inilo  further  brought  them  to 
Philippi,  whose  Acropolis  had  long  been  visible  on  the  summit  of  its  pre- 
cipitous and  towering  hill.3 

The  city  of  Philippi  was  a  monumental  record  of  two  vast  empires.  It  had 
once  been  an  obscure  place,  called  Krenides  from  its  streams  and  springs ;  but 
Philip,  the  father  of  Alexander,  had  made  it  a  frontier  town,  to  protect  Mace- 
donia from  the  Thracians,  and  had  helped  to  establish  his  power  by  the 
extremely  profitable  working  of  its  neighbouring  gold  mines.  Augustus,  proud 
of  the  victory  over  Brutus  and  Cassius, — won  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which 
it  stands,  and  on  the  summit  of  which  Cassius  had  committed  suicide, — elevated 
it  to  the  rank  of  a  colony,  which  made  it,  as  St.  Luke  calls  it,  if  not  the  first 
yet  certainly  "  a  first  city  of  that  district  of  Macedonia."  *  And  this,  probably, 
was  why  St.  Paul  went  directly  to  it.  When  Perseus,  the  last  successor  of 
Alexander,  had  been  routed  at  Pydna  (June  22,  B.C.  168),  Macedonia  had 
been  reduced  to  a  Roman  province  in  four  divisions.  These,  in  accordance 

1  St.  Luke  most  accurately  orcita  ei0uSpo;«j(ra/iei>  of  the  second  day's  voyage;  a  S.S.K. 
wind — and  such  are  prevalent  at  times  in  this  part  of  the  ^Egean — Avould  speed  them 
direct  to  Samothrace.  but  not  quite  in  so  straight  a  course  from  Samothrace  to  Neapclia. 

2  V.  supra,  p.  219. 

8  Appian,  iv.  105.    On  the  site  of  it  is  a  small  Turkish  village,  called  Filibedjik. 

4  The  full  title,  "Colonia  Augusta  Julia  Victrix  Philippensium,"  is  found  on  inscrip- 
tions (Miss.  ArcMol.,  p.  18).  A  great  deal  has  been  written  about  f,ns  for!  ir/xinj  ITJ* 
p«pi'2oc  rfc  MoucfSoioas  JT&UJ  Ko\t»via.  A  favourite  explanation  is  that  it  means  "the  first 
city  of  Macedonia  they  came  to,"  regarding  Neapolis  as  being  technically  in  Thrace. 
Both  parts  of  the  explanation  are  most  improbable :  if  irp^n)  only  meant  "  the  first 
they  came  to,"  it  would  be  a  frivolous  remark,  and  would  require  the  article  and  the 
imperfect  tense;  and  Neapolis,  as  the  port  of  Philippi,  was  certainly  regarded  as  a 
Macedonian  town.  TJpun)  is  justifiable  politically — for  Philippi,  though  not  the  capital  of 
Macedonia  Prima,  was  certainly  more  important  than  Amphipolis.  Bp.  Wordsworth, 
makes  it  mean  "  the  chief  city  of  the  frontier  of  Macedonia"  (of.  Ezek.  xlv.  7). 


PHILIPPI.  275 

with  the  astute  and  machiavellic  policy  of  Rome,  were  kept  distinct  from  each 
other  by  differences  of  privilege  and  isolation  of  interests  which  tended  to 
foster  mutual  jealousies.  Beginning  eastwards  at  the  river  Nestus,  Macedonia 
Prima  reached  to  the  Strymon ;  Macedonia  Secunda,  to  the  Axius ;  Macedonia 
Tertia,  to  the  Peueus ;  and  Macedonia  Quavta,  to  Illyricum  and  Epirus.1  The 
capitals  of  these  divisions  respectively  were  Amphipolis,  Thessalonica, — at 
which  the  Proconsul  of  the  entire  province  fixed  his  residence, — Pella,  ami 
Pekgouia.  It  is  a  very  reasonable  conjecture  that  Paul,  in  answer  to  tho 
appeal  of  the  Vision, had  originally  intended  to  visit — as,  perhaps,  ho  ultimately 
did  visit — all  four  capitals.  But  Araphipolis,  in  spite  of  its  historic  celebrity 
had  sunk  into  comparative  insignificance,  and  the  proud  colonial  privileges  of 
Philippi  made  it  in  reality  the  more  important  town. 

On  the  insignia  of  Roman  citizenship  which  hero  met  his  gaze  on  every 
side — the  S.P.Q.R.,  the  far-fainod  legionary  eagles,  the  panoply  of  the  Roman 
soldiers  which  ho  was  hereafter  so  closely  to  describe,  the  two  statues  of 
Augustus,  one  in  the  paludament  of  an  Imperator,  one  in  the  seini-nude 
cincture  of  a  divinity — Paul  could  not  have  failed  to  gaze  with  curiosity ;  and 
as  they  passed  up  the  Egnatian  road  which  divided  the  city,  they  must  havo 
looked  at  the  figures  of  tutelary  deities  rudely  scratched  upon  the  rock,  which 
showed  that  the  old  mythology  was  still  nominally  accepted.  Can  we  suppose 
that  they  were  elevated  so  far  above  the  sense  of  humour  as  not  to  aniile  with 
their  comrade  Silvanus  as  they  passed  the  temple  dedicated  to  the  rustic  god 
whose  name  ho  bore,  and  saw  the  images  of  the  old  man, 

"  So  surfeit-swollen,  BO  old,  and  so  profane,** 

whom  the  rural  population  of  Italy,  from  whom  these  colonists  had  been  drawn, 
worshipped  with  offerings  of  fruit  and  wine  P 

They  had  arrived  in  the  middle  of  the  week,  and  their  first  care,  as  usual, 
was  to  provide  for  their  own  lodging  and  independent  maintenance,  to  which 
Luke  would  doubtless  be  able  to  contribute  by  the  exercise  of  his  art.  They 
might  have  expected  to  find  a  Jewish  community  sheltering  itself  under  the 
wings  of  the  Roman  eagle ;  but  if  so  they  wore  disappointed.  Philippi  was  a 
military  and  agricultural,  not  a  commercial  town,  and  the  Jews  were  so  fow 
tliat  they  did  not  even  possess  a  synagogue.  If  during  those  days  they  made 
any  attempt  to  preach,  it  could  only  have  been  in  the  privacy  of  their  rooms, 
for  when  the  Sabbath  came  they  were  not  even  sure  that  the  town  could  boast 
of  a  proseucha,  or  prayer-house.2  They  know  enough,  however,  of  the  habits 
of  the  Jews  to  feel  sure  that  if  there  wore  one,  it  would  be  on  the  river-bank, 
outside  the  city.  So  they  made  their  way  through  the  gate3  along  the  ancient 
causeway  which  led  directly  to  the  Gangites,4  and  under  the  triumphal  arch 

1  Liv.  xlv.  18—29.     We  cannot  be  sure  that  these  divisions  were  still  retained. 

2  Acts  xvi.  13.    This  is  the  sense  which  I  extract  from  the  various  readings  of  »,  A, 
B  (?),  C,  D,  and  from  the  versions. 

3  Acts  xvi.  13,  irv'Xr*,  «,  A,  B,  C,  D,  &c. 

4  Perl-ays  from  the  same  root  as  Ganges  (Renan,  p. 


276  THE  LIFE  AtfD  WORK  OF  ST.  PAtJL. 

-jhich  commemorated  the  great  victory  of  Philippi  ninety-four  years  before.1 
That  victory  had  finally  decided  the  prevalence  of  the  imperial  system,  which 
was  f raught  with  such  vast  consequences  for  the  world.  In  passing  to  the 
banks  of  the  river  the  missionaries  were  on  the  very  ground  on  which  tb> 
battle  had  been  fought,  and  near  which  the  camps  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  had 
stood,  separated  by  the  river  from  the  army  of  Octavianus  and  Antony. 

But  when  they  reached  the  poor  open-air  proseucha*  strange  to  say,  they 
only  found  a  few  women  assembled  there.  It  was  clearly  no  time  for  formal 
orations.  They  simply  sat  down,  and  entered  into  conversation  with  the  little 
group.8  Their  words  were  blessed.  Among  the  women  sat  a  Lydian 
proselytess,  a  native  of  the  city  of  Thyatira,  who  had  there  belonged  to  the 
guild  of  dyers.4  The  luxurious  extravagance  of  the  age  created  a  large  demand 
for  purple  in  the  market  of  Rome,  and  Lydia  found  room  for  her  profitable 
trade  among  the  citizens  of  Philippi.  As  she  sat  listening,  the  arrow  of  con- 
viction pierced  her  heart.  She  accepted  the  faith,  and  was  baptised  with  her 
slaves  and  children.6  One  happy  fruit  her  conversion  at  once  bore,  for  she 
used  hospitality  without  grudging.  "  If  you  have  judged  me,"  she  said,  "  to 
be  faithful  to  the  Lord,  come  to  my  house,  and  stay  there."  To  accede  to  the 
request,  modestly  as  it  was  urged,  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
which  the  great  Apostle  had  laid  down  to  guide  his  conduct.  Fully  acknow- 
ledging the  right  of  every  missionary  of  the  faith  to  be  maintained  by  those 
to  whom  he  ministered,  and  even  to  travel  about  with  a  wife,  or  an  attendant 
deaconess,  he  had  yet  not  only  foregone  this  right,  but  begged  as  a  personal 
favour  that  it  might  not  be  pressed  upon  him,  because  he  valued  that  proof  of 
his  sincerity  which  was  furnished  by  the  gratuitous  character  of  his  ministry. 
Lydia,  however,  would  not  be  refused,  and  she  was  so  evidently  one  of  those 
generous  natures  who  have  learnt  how  far  more  blessed  it  is  to  give  than  to 
receive,  that  Paul  did  not  feel  it  right  to  persist  in  his  refusal.  The  trade  of 
Lydia  was  a  profitable  one,  and  in  her  wealth,  joined  to  the  affection  which  he 
cherished  for  the  Church  of  Philippi  beyond  all  other  Churches,  we  see  the 
probable  reason  why  he  made  other  Churches  jealous  by  accepting  pecuniary 
aid  from  his  Philippian  converts,  and  from  them  alone.6 

There  is  some  evidence  that,  among  the  Macedonians,  women  occupied  a 
more  independent  position,  and  were  held  in  higher  honour,  than  in  other 

1  Called  Kiemer  (Miss.  ArcfiM.tp.  118). 

2  Proseuchae  were  circular-shaped  enclosures  open  to  the  air  (Epiphan.  Haer.  TXTT,  1), 
often  built  on  the  sea-shore  or  by  rivers  (Phil,  in  Flacc.  14  ;  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  10,  §  23;  Tert. 
ad  Nat.  i.  13 ;  Juv.  Sat.  iii.  12),  for  the  facility  of  the  frequent  ablutions  which  Jewish 
worship  required. 

3  Acts  Xvi.  13,  (\u\ovfiev  ',  14,  TOIS  XoAov/xei'Oif. 

4  The  province  of  Lydia  was  famous  for  the  art  of  dyeing  in  purple  (Horn.  H.  vi.  14^  ? 
Claud.  Rapt.  Proserp.  i.  270 ;  Strabo,  xiii.  4, 14).     Sir  G.  Wheler  found  an  inscription  at 
Thyatira  mentioning  "  the  dyers"  (oi  /3a^e«). 

s  Acts  xvi.  14,  •jjKove-y  .  .  .  Strjvoigev.  How  unlike  invention  is  the  narrative  that,  mim- 
jnoned  by  a  vision  to  Macedonia,  his  first  and  most  important  convert  is  a  woman  of  the 
Asia  in  which  the  Spirit  had  forbidden  him  to  preach  ! 

6  1  Thess.  ii.  5,  7,  9 ;  twice  in  Thessalonica,  Phil.  iv.  16 ;  once  ia  Athens,  2  C«.  xi.  9  j 
once  in  Hume,  Phil.  iv.  10, 


PHILIPPI.  277 

parts  of  the  world.1  In  his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  St.  Paul  makes  promi- 
nent mention  of  two  ladies,  Euodia  and  Syntychc,  who  were  well  known  hi  the 
Christian  community,  although  unhappily  they  could  not  agree  with  each  other.2 
The  part  that  women  played  in  the  dissemination  of  the  Gospel  can  hardly  be 
exaggerated,  and  unless  it  was  a  mere  accident  that  only  women  were  assembled 
in  the  proseucha  on  the  first  Sabbath  at  Philippi,  we  must  suppose  that  not  a 
few  of  the  male  converts  mentioned  shortly  afterwards  3  were  originally  won 
over  by  their  influence.  The  only  converts  who  are  mentioned  by  name  are 
Epaphroditus,  for  whom  both  Paul  and  the  Philippian  Church  seem  to  have 
felt  a  deep  regard;  Clemens,  and  Syzygos,  or  "yokefellow,"*  whom  Paul 
addresses  in  a  playful  paronomasia,  and  entreats  him  to  help  the  evangelising 
toils — the  joint  wrestlings  for  the  Gospel — of  Euodia  and  Syntyche.  But 
besides  those  there  were  other  unnamed  fellow-workers  to  whom  St.  Paul 
bears  the  high  testimony  that  "  their  names  were  in  the  book  of  life." 

Yery  encouraging  and  very  happy  must  these  weeks  at  Philippi  have 
been,  resulting,  as  they  did,  in  the  founding  of  a  Church,  to  whose  members 
he  finds  it  needful  to  give  but  few  warnings,  and  against  whom  ho  does 
not  utter  a  word  of  blame.  The  almost  total  absence  of  Jews  meant  an 
almost  total  absence  of  persecution.  The  Philippians  were  heart-whole  in 
their  Christian  faith.  St.  Paul's  entire  Epistle  to  them  breathes  of  joy, 
affection,  and  gratitude.  He  seems  to  remember  that  he  is  writing  to  a 
colony,  and  a  military  colony — a  colony  of  Roman  "  athletes."  Ho  reminds 
them  of  a  citizenship  loftier  and  more  ennobling  than  that  of  Rome;6  ho  calls 
Epaphroditus  not  only  his  fellow-worker,  but  also  his  fellow-soldier,  one  who 
had  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  him  in  the  now  Macedonian  phalanx, 
which  was  to  join  as  of  old  in  an  advance  to  the  conquest  of  the  world.  He 
derives  his  metaphorical  expressions  from  the  wrestling-ground  and  the  race.8 
Alike  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  seem  to  rejoice  in  the  strong,  manly  Roman 
nature  of  these  converts,  of  whom  many  were  slaves  and  f  reedmen,  but 
of  whom  a  large  number  had  been  soldiers,  drawn  from  various  parts  of 
Italy  in  the  civil  wars — men  of  the  hardy  Marsian  and  Pelignian  stock- 
trained  in  the  stem,  strong  discipline  of  the  Roman  legions,  and  un- 
sophisticated by  the  debilitating  Hellenism  of  a  mongrel  population.  St.  Paul 
loved  them  more  and  honoured  them  more  than  he  did  the  dreamy,  super- 
stitious Ephesians,  the  fickle,  impulsive  Gauls,  or  the  conceited,  factious 
Achaians.  In  writing  to  Thessalonica  and  Philippi  he  had  to  deal  with  men 
of  a  larger  mould  and  manlier  mind — more  true  and  more  tender  than  the  men 

M  r 
l  See  Lightfoot,  Philip.,  p.  55.  J  Phil.  iv.  2.  s  Acts  xvi.  40. 

4  It  is  true  that  the  name  does  not  occur  elsewhere,  but  I  cannot  for  a  moment  believe 
with  Clemens  Alex.  (Strom,  iii.  6,  §  53)  and  Epiphanius  (H.  E.  iii.  30)  that  the  word 
2u£vye  means  "wife."    Lydia  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Epistle,  unless  the  name  of  this 
Lydian  lady  was  Euodia  or  Syntyche.    She  may  have  died,  or  have  returned  to  her  native 
city  in  the  intervening  years.     She  most  assuredly  would  have  been  named  if  the  Epistle 
had  been  a  forgery. 

5  Phil.  i.  27,  woAiTev'cotfe  ;   iii.  20,  iroXirevfio.  I 

6  Phil.  i.  27,  oT^Ktr*;    iii.  12,  J«u«>;    14,   iv\  ro  8pa0«u>i>j    Iv.  3,  <n>nj0A>|<rw'}   L  27, 

UJ.  16,  TV  OVT*  <rr<n\t~,v> 


273  THE   LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

of  Corinth,  with  their  boastful  ignorance  which  took  itself  for  knowledge,  01 
tho  men  of  Asia,  with  their  voluptuous  mysticisms  and  ceremonial  pettiness. 
He  was  now  thrown  for  the  first  time  among  a  race  which  has  been  called  the 
soundest  p&rt  of  the  ancient  world,1  a  race  which  shone  forth  like  torches  in 
narrow  and  winding  streets,  like  stars  that  beamed  their  light  and  life  in  the 
dark  firmament — blameless  children  of  God  amid  the  dwarfed  and  tortuous 
meanness  of  a  degenerate  race.8 

Their  stay  in  this  fruitful  field  of  labour  was  cut  short  by  an  unforeseen 
circumstance,  which  thwarted  the  greed  of  a  few  interested  persons,  and 
enlisted  against  Paul  and  Silas  the  passions  of  the  mob.  For  there  is  this 
characteristic  difference  between  the  persecutions  of  Jews  and  Gentiles — that 
the  former  were  always  stirred  up  by  religious  fanaticism,  the  latter  by 
personal  and  political  interests  which  were  accidentally  involved  in  religions 
questions.  Hitherto  the  Apostles  had  laboured  without  interruption,  chiefly 
because  the  Jews  in  the  place,  if  there  wore  any  at  all,  were  few  and  un- 
influential ;  but  one  day,  as  they  were  on  their  way  to  the  proseucha,  they 
were  mot  by  a  slave-girl,  who,  having  that  excitable,  perhaps  epileptic  diathesis 
which  was  the  qualification  of  tho  Pythonesses  of  Delphi,  waa  announced  to 
bo  possessed  by  a  Python  spirit.3  Nothing  was  less  understood  in  antiquity 
than  these  obscure  phases  of  mental  excitation,  and  the  strange  flashes  of 
sense,  and  even  sometimes  of  genius,  out  of  the  gloom  of  a  perturbed  intellect, 
were  regarded  as  inspired  and  prophetic  utterances.  As  a  fortune-teller  and 
diviner,  this  poor  girl  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  credulous  vulgar  of  the 
town.*  A  slave  could  possess  no  property,  except  such  peculium  as  his  master 
allowed  him,  and  tho  foe  for  consulting  this  unofficial  Pythoness  was  a 
lucrative  source  of  income  to  tho  people  who  owned  her.  To  a  poor  afflicted 
girl  like  this,  whose  infirmities  had  encircled  her  with  superstitions  reverence, 
more  freedom  would  be  allowed  than  would  have  been  granted,  even  in 
Philippi,  to  ordinary  females  in  the  little  town ;  and  she  would  bo  likely — 
especially  if  she  were  of  Jewish  birth — to  hear  fragments  of  information  about 

1  See  the  excellent  remarks  of  Hansrath,  p.  281,  stqq,  •  Phil.  ii.  15. 

8  Acts  zvi.  16,  irvevti-a.  UvOiava.  («,  A,  B,  0,  D,  &c.).  The  corresponding  Old  Testament 
expression  is  3i«  olh  (Lev.  xx.  6).  It  points  to  the  use  of  ventriloquism,  as  I  have 
shown,  s.v.  "  Divination,"  in  Smith,  Bill.  Diet.  A*  this  period,  and  long  before,  people 
•..f  this  class — usually  women — were  regarded  as  prophetesses,  inspired  by  the  Pythian 
Apollo  (irvOotaprroi).  Hence  they  were  called  nuftwe?,  and  Ei'pvK\cr«,  from  an  ancient 
.soothsayer  named  Eurycles  and  fyymrrpfpitfot,  from  the  convulsive  heavings,  aad  the 
speaking  as  out  of  the  depths  of  the  stomach,  which  accompanied  their  fits  (Sophocles, 
Fr.  oTfpvdjieurif).  See  Plutarch,  De  Defect.  Orac.  9;  Galen,  Qloss.  Hippocr.  ('Eyya<rrp.>u0ot' 
01  KexAcKr/icVov  TOU  <rro/.iaTos  ^>(?eyydf/£toi  S«i  TO  SoKtiv  CK  TT-S  yiurTpbc  $0eyyc(rCai. )  Hesych,  S.V. 
Schol.  ad  Ar.  Vcsp.  1019,  and  Tertullian,  Apd.  23,  who  distinctly  defines  them  &• 
people  "qui  de  Deo  pati  existimantur,  qui  anhclando  pracfantur."  Neander  quotes 
from  Ellis  the  interesting  fact  that  the  priest  of  Obo,  in  the  Society  Isles,  found  himself 
unable  to  reproduce  his  former  convulsive  ecstasies  of  supposed  inspiration,  after  his 
conversion  to  Christianity  (Planfy,,  p.  176). 

4  "We  know  that  "an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world,"  and  therefore  the  expression  that 
this  girl  had  "a  Python  spirit"1  is  only  an  adoption  of  the  current  Pagan  phraseology 
about  her.  Hippocrates  attributed  epileptic  diseases  to  possession  by  Apollo,  Cybcle, 
Poseidon,  &c.,  De  Morbo  Sacr.  (C.  and  H.  i.  321). 


PHILIPPL  279 

Paul  and  his  teaching.  They  impressed  themselves  on  hor  imagination,  and 
on  meeting  the  men  of  whom  she  had  heard  snch  solemn  things,  she  turnod 
round l  and  followed  them  towards  the  river,  repeatedly  calling  out — perhaps 
in  the  very  phrases  which  she  had  heard  used  of  them — "  These  people  are 
slaves  of  the  Most  High  God,  and  they  are  announcing  to  us  the  way  of 
salvation."  2  This  might  ho  tolerated  once  or  twice,  but  at  last  it  hccame  too 
serious  a  hindrance  of  their  sacred  duties  to  be  any  longer  endured  in  silence. 

In  an  outburst  of  pity  and  indignation3 — pity  for  the  sufferer,  indignation 
at  this  daily  annoyance — Paul  suddenly  turned  round,  and  addressing  the 
Pytho  by  whom  the  girl  was  believed  to  be  possessed,  said,  "  I  enjoin  thee,  in 
*,hc  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  go  out  of  her."  The  effect  was  instantaneous. 
The  calm  authoritative  exorcism  restored  the  broken  harmony  of  her  being. 
'No  more  paroxysms  could  bo  expected  of  her ;  nor  the  wild  unnatural  scream- 
ing utterances,  so  shrill  and  unearthly  that  they  might  very  naturally  be  taken 
for  Sibylline  frenzies.  Her  masters  ceased  to  expect  anything  from  her  oracles. 
Their  hope  of  further  gain  "  went  out "  with  the  spirit.4  A  piece  of  property 
so  rare  that  it  could  only  be  possessed  by  a  sort  of  joint  ownership  wag 
rendered  entirely  valueless. 

Thus  the  slave-masters  were  touched  in  their  pockets,  and  it  filled  them 
with  fury.  They  could  hardly,  indeed,  go  before  the  magistrates  and  tell 
them  that  Paul  by  a  single  word  had  exorcised  a  powerful  demon ;  but  they 
were  determined  to  have  vengeance  somehow  or  other,  and,  in  a  Roman 
colony  composed  originally  of  discharged  Antonian  soldiers,  and  now  occupied 
partly  by  their  descendants,  partly  by  enfranchised  freodmen  from  Italy,5 
it  was  easy  to  raise  a  clamour  against  one  or  two  isolated  Jews.  It 
was  the  more  easy  because  the  Philippians  might  have  heard  the  news  of 
disturbances  and  riots  at  Rome,  which  provoked  the  decree  of  Claudius 
banishing  all  Jews  from  the  city.8  They  determined  to  seize  this  opportunity, 
and  avail  themselves  of  a  similar  plea.7  They  suddenly  arrested  Paul  and 
Silas,  and  dragged  them  before  the  sitting  magistrates.8  Those  seem  to  have 
relegated  the  matter  to  the  duumviri,6  who  were  the  chief  authorities  of  the 

1  Acts  xvi.  16,  diratT>j<r<u  ;  17,  jcarcucoXovfl/jaaera. 

8  Slaves ;  cf.  Acts  iv.  29 ;  Horn.  i.  1 ;  Tit.  i.  1. 

8  Acts  xvi.  18,  Sioirovrjec-is.  Tho  same  word  is  used  of  the  strong  threats  of  the  priests 
at  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem  (Acts  iv.  2). 

4  Acts  xvi.  19,  i£r>\B(v  r)  eAwlj  rfc  c>ya<r<'ac  OVTUV.  The  use  of  the  same  word  after  the 
iffjAScv  (TO  irvJujLio)  oirn  rfj  «>p<f  is  perhaps  intentional. 

6  This  is  proved  by  the  inscriptions  found  at  Philippi,  which  record  the  donors  to  the 
Temple  of  Suvanus,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  slaves  or  freedmen  (Miss.  ArcMol.,  p.  7i>). 

6  Acts  xviii.  2 ;  Suet.  Claud.  25.     See  Ewald,  vi.  488. 

7  Judaism  was  a  rdigio  licita,  but  anything  like  active  proselytism  was  liable  to  stern 
suppression.     See  Paul.  Scntent.,  21;  Scrv.  Virg.  jEn.  viii.  187:  and  the  remarkable 
advice  of  Maecenas  to  Augustus  to  dislike  and  punish  all  religious  innovators  (TOUT  &< 

fevifoird?  TI  irtpi  curb  [TO  Cetov]  icai  jilVet  Kai  icoXafe.      Dio.    Cass.    vii.   36).      "Quoties,"   says 

Livy,  "  hoc  patrum  avorumque  aetate  negotium  est  ut  sacra  extorna  fieri  vetarent,  sac:  i- 
ficulos  vatesque  foro,  circo,  urbe  prohiberent "  (Liv.  xxxix.  16). 

8  Possibly  the  aediles  (Miss.  Archto?.,  p.  71). 

'  Actsivi.  19.   tiAicvo-avjrpbs  n)i>  iyopav  «TTI  TOV»  S.p\ovTas:  20,  KOU  vpoirn.yn.'farTts  avrovt 

rt£t  <TTpoT>,yol9.  The  different  verbs— of  which  the  second  is  so  much  milder— and  the 
different  titles  surely  imply  what  is  said  in  the  text. 


280  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

colony,  and  who,  aping  the  manners  and  the  titles  of  Imperial  Rome,  had  the 
impertinence  to  call  themselves  "Praetors."1  Leading  their  prisoners  into 
the  presence  of  these  "  Praetors,"  they  exclaimed,  "  These  fellows  are  utterly 
troubling  our  city,  being  mere  Jews ;  and  they  are  preaching  customs  which 
it  is  not  lawful  for  us,  who  are  Romans,  to  accept  or  to  practise."2  The  mob 
knew  the  real  state  of  the  case,  and  sympathised  with  the  owners  of  the  slave 
girl,  feeling  much  as  the  Gadarenos  felt  towards  One  whose  healing  of  a 
demoniac  had  interfered  with  their  gains.  In  tho  minds  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  there  was  always,  as  we  have  seen,  a  latent  spark  of  abhorrence 
against  the  Jews.  These  sweepings  of  tho  Agora  vehemently  sided  with  the 
accusers,  and  the  provincial  duumvirs,  all  the  more  dangerous  from  being 
pranked  out  in  tho  usurped  peacock-plumes  of  "  praetorian  "  dignity,  assumed 
that  tho  mob  must  be  right,  or  at  any  rate  that  people  who  were  Jews  must  be 
so  far  wrong  as  to  deserve  whatever  they  might  got.  They  were  not  sorry  at 
so  cheap  a  cost  to  gratify  tho  Roman  conceit  of  a  city  which  could  boast  that 
its  citizens  belonged  to  tho  Yoltiuian  tribe.3  It  was  another  proof  that— 

"  Man,  proud  man, 
Dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority, 
Plays  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven 
As  makes  the  angels  weep,  who,  with  our  spleens, 
Would  all  themselves  laugh  mortal." 

Paul  and  Silas  had  not  here  to  do  with  the  haughty  impartiality  and  super- 
cilious knowledge  which  guided  the  decisions  of  a  Gallic,  but  with  the 
"  justice's  justice  "  of  the  Vibiuses  and  Floruses  who  at  this  time  fretted 
their  little  hour  on  the  narrow  stage  of  Philippi.  Conscious  of  their  Roman 
citizenship,  they  could  not  have  expected  so  astounding  a  result  of  their  act  of 
mercy,  as  that  their  political  franchise  should  bo  ignored,  and  they  themselves, 
after  condemnation  without  trial,  ignominiously  hurried  off  into  the  punish- 
ments reserved  for  the  very  meanest  malefactors.4  Such,  however,  was  the 
issue  of  the  hearing.  Their  Prretorships  would  imitate  the  divine  Claudius, 
and  wreak  on  these  wandering  Israelites  a  s^iare  of  the  punishment  which  the 

1  Acts  xvi.  20.    orpaTTjyb?  is  the  Greek  version  of  the  originally  military  title  ' '  Prsetor ;" 
and  it  was  also  a  Greek  title  in  vogue  for  the  chief  magistrates  in  little  cities  (Ar.  Polit. 
vii.  8).     The  fashion  seems  to  have  been  set  in  Italy,  where  Cicero,  a  hundred  years 
before  this  time,  notices  with  amusement  the  "  cupiditas  "  which  had  led  the  Capuan 
Duumviri  to  arrogate  to  themselves  the  title  of  "Pne tors,"  and  he  supposes  that  they 
will  soon  have  the  impudence  to  call  themselves  "  Consuls."    He  notices  also  that  their 
"lictors"  carried  not  mere  staves  (bacilli),  but  actual  bundles  of  rods  with  axes  inside 
them  (fasces)  as  at  Rome  (De  Leg,  Agrar.  34).     The  name  stradigo  lingered  on  in  some 
cities  till  modern  days  ("Wetst.  in  loc.). 

2  Acts  xvi.  20,  'lovSaioi ujrapxovr«s ',  21,  Pwfiaioi*  o5<ri.     Since  neither  "exorcism"  nor 
"Judaism  "  (though  they  regarded  Judaea  as  a  "  suspiciosa  et  maledica  civitas,"  Cic.  pro 
Flacc.  28,  and  generally  teterrima,  Tac.  H.  v.  8)  were  cognisable  offences,  tho  slave-owners 
have  to  take  refuge  in  an  undefined  charge  of  innovating  proselytism. 

J  Miss.  ArcMol.t  p.  40. 

4  The  Jews,  who  were  so  infamously  treated  by  Flaccus,  felt  this,  as  Paul  himself  did 
(1  Thess.  ii.  2,  vfipi(r6(VTtt,  ««  olSaTt,  iv  *<Ai7nroiv),  to  be  a  severe  aggravation  of  their 
Bufferings  (Philo,  in  Flacc,  10,  •iitur^vj*  p*<m£iv  a*t  «§oj  mvs  xiucfvpy^v  »onj<x>T«(Tovf 


PHILIPPL  281 

misdeeds  of  their  countrymen  had  brought  upon  them  at  Rome.  As  the  pro- 
ceedings wore  doubtless  in  Latin,  with  which  Paul  and  Silas  had  littlo  or 
no  acquaintance,  and  in  legal  formulae  and  procedures  of  which  they  were 
ignorant,  they  either  had  no  time  to  plead  their  citizenship  until  they  wore 
actually  in  the  hands  of  the  lictors,  or,  if  they  had,  their  voices  wore  drowned 
in  the  cries  of  the  colonists.  Before  they  could  utter  one  word  in  their  own 
defence,  the  sentence — " summovet e,  lictores,  despoliate,  verberate" — was 
uttered ;  the  Apostles  wore  seized ;  their  garments  were  rudely  torn  off  their 
backs ; 1  they  were  hurried  off  and  tied  by  their  hands  to  the  palus,  or  whip- 
ping-post in  the  forum ;  and  whether  they  vainly  called  out  in  Greek  to  their 
infuriated  enemies,  "  Wo  are  Roman  citizens,"  or,  which  is  far  more  likely, 
bore  their  frightful  punishment  in  that  grand  silence  which,  in  moments  of 
high  spiritual  rapture,  makes  pain  itself  seem  painless2 — in  that  forum  of 
which  ruins  still  remain,  in  the  sight  of  the  lowest  dregs  of  a  provincial  out- 
post, and  of  their  own  pitying  friends,  they  endured,  at  the  hands  of  these 
low  lictors,  those  outrages,  blows,  strokes,  weals,  the  pangs  and  butchery,  the 
extreme  disgrace  and  infamy,  the  unjust  infliction  of  which  even  a  hard- 
headed  and  hard-hearted  Gentile  could  not  describe  without  something  of 
pathos  and  indignation.3  It  was  the  first  of  three  such  scourgings  with  the 
rods  of  Roman  lictors  which  Paul  endured,  and  it  is  needless  to  dwell  even 
for  one  moment  on  its  dangerous  and  lacerating  anguish.  We,  in  those 
modern  days,  cannot  read  without  a  shudder  even  of  the  flogging  of  some 
brutal  garottor,  and  our  blood  would  run  cold  with  unspeakable  horror  if  one 
such  incident,  or  anything  which  remotely  resembled  it,  had  occurred  in  the 
life  of  a  Henry  Martyn  or  a  Coleridge  Patteson.  But  such  horrors  occurred 
eight  times  at  least  in  the  story  of  one  whose  frame  was  more  frail  with  years 
of  suffering  than  that  of  our  English  missionaries,  and  in  whose  life  these 
pangs  were  but  such  a  drop  in  the  ocean  of  his  endurance,  that,  of  the  eight 
occasions  on  which  he  underwent  these  horrible  scourgings,  this  alone  has 
been  deemed  worthy  of  even  passing  commemoration. 4 

1  On  this  tearing  off  of  the  garments  see  Liv.  viii.  32  ;  Tac.  H.  iv.  27  ;  Val.  Max.  il. 
7,   8;  Dion.  Halic.  ix.  39.    The  verbs  used  are  scindcre,  spoliare,  lacerare  (also  the 
technical  word  for  the  laceration  of  the  back  by  the  rods),  TrepixoTopp^ai,  showing  that  it 
was  done  with  violence  and  contumely. 

2  A  much  lower  exaltation  than  that  of  the  Apostle's  would  rob  anguish  of  half  its 
sting  (cf.  Cic.  in  Verr.  ii.  v.  62,  "  Hac  se  commemoratione  civitatis  omnia  verbera  depul- 
surum,  cruciatumque  a  corpore  dejecturum  arbitrabatur  "). 

3  Cato  ap.  Aul.  Gell.  x.  3. 

•«  The  five  Jewish  scourgings  were  probably  submitted  to  without  any  protest  (v.  supra, 
p.  24).  From  a  fourth  nearly  consummated  beating  with  thongs  (?)  he  did  protect  him- 
self by  his  political  privilege  (Acts  xxii.  25).  Both  that  case  and  this  show  how  easily, 
in  the  midst  of  a  tumult,  a  Roman  citizen  might  fail  to  make  his  claim  heard  or  under- 
stood ;  and  the  instance  mentioned  by  Cicero,  who  tells  how  remorselessly  Verres  scourged 
a  citizen  of  Messana,  though  "inter  dolorem  crepitumque  plagarum,"  he  kept  exclaiming 
"  Civis  Itomanus  mm,"  shows  that  in  the  provinces  the  insolence  of  power  would  some- 
times deride  the  claim  of  those  who  were  little  likely  to  find  an  opportunity  of  enforcing 
it  (Cic.  in  Verr.  L  47 ;  v.  62,  &c.).  Moreover,  the  reverence  for  the  privilege  must  have  been 
ronph  weakened  by  the  shameless  sale  of  it  to  freedmen  and  others  by  the  infamous  Blessa- 


282  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL, 

Nor  was  this  all.  After  seeing  that  a  scourging  of  extreme  severity  had 
been  inflicted,  the  duumvirs,  with  the  same  monstrous  violation  of  aU  law, 
flung  Paul  and  Silas  into  prison,  and  gave  the  jailer  special  orders  to  keep 
them  safely.  Impressed  by  this  injunction  with  the  belief  that  his  prisoners 
must  have  been  guilty  of  something  very  heinous,  and  determined  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure,  the  jailer  not  only  thrust  them,  into  the  dank,  dark, 
loathsome  recesses  of  the  inner  prison,  but  also  secured  their  feet  into  "  the 
wood."  "  The  wood  "  was  an  instrument  of  torture  used  in  many  countries, 
wad  resembling  our  "  stocks,"  or  rather  the  happily  obsolete  "  pillory,"  in 
having  five  holes — four  for  the  wrists  and  ankles,  and  one  for  the  nock.1  The 
jailer  in  this  instance  only  secured  their  feet;  but  we  cannot  be  surprised 
that  the  memoiy  of  this  suffering  lingered  long  years  afterwards  in  the  mind 
of  St.  Paul,  when  we  try  to  imagine  what  a  poor  sufferer,  with  the  rankling 
sense  of  gross  injustice  in  his  soul,  would  feel  who — having  but  recently 
recovered  from  a  trying  sickness — after  receiving  a  long  and  frightful  flagel- 
lation as  the  sequel  of  a  violent  and  agitated  scone,  was  thrust  away  out  of 
the  jeers  of  the  mob  into  a  stifling  and  lightless  prison,  and  sat  there  through 
the  long  hours  of  the  night  with  his  feet  in  such  durance  as  to  render  it- 
impossible  except  in  some  constrained  position  to  find  sleep  on  the  foul  bare 
floor.8 

Yet  over  all  this  complication  of  miseries  the  souls  of  Paul  and  Silas  rose 
m  triumph.  With  heroic  cheerfulness  they  solaced  the  long  black  hours  of 
midnight  with  prayer  and  hymns.3  To  every  Jew  as  to  every  Christian,  the 
Psalms  of  David  furnished  an  inexhaustible  storehouse  of  sacred  song.  That 
night  the  prison  was  •wakeful.  It  may  be  that,  as  is  usually  the  case,  there 
was  some  awful  hush  and  heat  in  the  air — a  premonition  of  the  coming  catas- 
trophe ;  but,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  criminals  of  the^Philippian  prison  were 
listening  to  the  sacred  songs  of  the  two  among  them,  who  deserving  nothing 
had  suffered  most.  "  The  prison,"  it  has  been  said,  "  became  an  Odeum  ;" 


lina  (Diou  Gass.  Ix.  676).    Further  than  this,  it  would  be  quite  easy  to  stretch  the  law  so 
far  as  to  make  it  appear  that  they  had  forfeited  the  privilege  by  crime.    At  any  rate  it 


endured  the  inevitable  trials  which  canio  before  him  in  the  performance  of  duty  (2  Cor. 
xi.  23).  I  do  not  believe  that  he  would  have  accepted  anguish  or  injustice  which  he  had  t 
perfect  right  to  escape. 


8  If  by  the  Tullianum  at  Rome  we  may  judge  of  other  prisons — and  it  seems  that  the 
name  was  generic  for  the  lowest  or  inmost  prison,  even  of  provincial  towns  (Appul.  Met. 
ix.  183 ;  C.  and  H.  i.  326) — there  is  reason  to  fear  that  it  must  have  been  a  very  horrible 
place.  And,  indeed,  what  must  ancient  Pagan  provincial  prisons  have  been  at  the  best, 
when  we  bear  in  mind  what  English  and  Christian  and  London  prisons  were  not  fifty 
years  ago  ? 

8  "The  log  feels  nothing  in  the  stocks,"says  Tertnllian,  "when  thesoul  is  in  heaven; 
though  the  body  is  held  fast,  to  the  spirit  all  is  open. "  Christian  endurance  was  sneered 
at  as  "sheer  obstinacy."  ID  a  Pagan  it  would  have  been  extolled  as  magnificent  heroism. 


and  the  guilty  listened  with  envy  and  admiration  to  the  "  songs  in  the  night  " 
with  which  God  inspired  the  innocent.  Never,  probably,  had  such  a  scene 
occui'rcd  before  in  the  world's  history,  and  this  perfect  triumph  of  the  spirit  of 
peace  and  joy  over  shame  and  agony  was  an  omen  of  what  Christianity  would 
afterwards  effect.  And  while  they  sang,  and  while  the  prisoners  listened, 
perhaps  to  verses  which  "  out  of  the  deeps  "  called  on  Jehovah,  or  "  fled  to  Him 
before  the  morning  watch,"  or  sang — 

"  The  plowers  plowed  upon  my  back  and  made  long  furrows, 
But  the  righteous  Lord  hath  hewn  the  snares  of  the  ungodly  hi  pieces  "— 

or  triumphantly  told  how  God  had  "  burst  the  gates  of  brass,  and  smitten 
the  bars  of  iron  in  sunder" — suddenly  there  was  felt  a  great  shock  of 
earthquake,  which  rocked  the  very  foundations  of  the  prison.  The  prison 
doors  were  burst  open;  the  prisoners'  chains  were  loosed  from  the  staples 
in  the  wall.1  Star!  led  from  sleep,  and  catching  sight  of  the  prison  doors 
standing  open,  the  jailor  instantly  drew  his  sword,  and  was  on  the  point  of 
killing  himself,  thinking  that  his  prisoners  had  escaped,  and  knowing  that 
he  would  have  to  answer  for  their  production  with  his  life.2  Suicide  was 
the  common  refuge  of  the  day  against  disaster,  and  might  have  been  re- 
garded at  Philippi  as  an  act  not  only  natural  but  heroic.3  Paul,  however, 
observed  his  purpose,  and,  always  perfectly  self-possessed  oven  in  the  midst 
of  danger,  called  out  to  him  in  a  loud  voice,  "Do  thyself  no  harm,  for  we 
are  all  hero."  The  entire  combination  of  circumstances — the  earthquake, 
the  shock  of  sudden  terror,  the  revulsion  of  joy]  which  diverted  his  intention 
of  suicido,  tho  serene  endurance  and  calm  forgiveness  of  his  prisoners — 
all  melted  the  man's  heart.  Demanding  lights,  he  sprang  into  tho  inner 
prison,  and  flung  himself,  in  a  tremor  of  agitation,  at  tho  feet  of  Paul  and 
Silas.  Then,  releasing  their  feet  from  tho  stocks,  and  leading  them  out  of 
their  dark  recess,  he  exclaimed,  "  Lords  (Kvpioi),  what  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ? "  His  mode  of  address  showed  deep  reverence.  His  question 
echoed  the  expression  of  tho  demoniac.4  And  the  Apostles  answered  him 
partly  in  the  terms  which  he  had  used.  *'  Believe,"  they  said,  "on  the  Lord 
(Kvpiov)  Jesus  Christ,  and  thon  shalt  be  saved,  and  thy  house."  Deeply  im- 
pressed,  the  man  at  once  assembled  his  household  in  a  little  congregation, 
and,  worn  and  weary  and  suffering  as  they  were,  Paul  and  Silas  spoke  to  them 
of  Him  by  whom  they  wero  to  find  salvation.6  Then  the  jailor,  pitying  their 
condition,  washed  their  bruised  backs,  and  immediately  afterwards  was,  with 
his  whole  house,  baptised  in  tho  faith.9  All  this  seems  to  have  taken  place  in 

»  Acts  xvi.  26. 

*  See  tlis  Dig.  De  custodia  ct  exhibition*  rcorum,  xlriil.,  iii.  12  and  16. 

3  Sen.  De  Prov.  ii.  6 ;  Ep.  58 ;  Diog.  Laert.  vii.  130 ;  Cic.  DC  Fin.  i.  15,  &o, 

*  Acts  xvi.  17,  bSov  trwTTipias ;  ver.  30,  iva.  <n>65>. 

s  "E\ovow  KOI  eAoitfij,  "  he  washed  and  was  washed,"  says  Chrysostom.  JFor  the  hearing 
of  the  expression  oi  OVTOV  iravrn  (Acts  xvi.  83),  and  5  O"KO«  avrijs  (ver.  15),  cf.  xviii.  8 ; 
1  Cor.  i.  16.  On  infant  baptism,  see  Coleridge,  Aids  to  Reflection,  The  Church  of  England 
wisely  makes  no  direct  use  of  this  argument  in  Art.  xxrii.  But  though  Bengal's  remark, 


284  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

the  prison  precincts.  Not  till  then  did  they  think  of  food  or  rest.  Leading 
them  upstairs  into  hia  house,  he  set  a  table  before  them,  and  in  that  high 
hour  of  visitation  from  the  Living  God,  though  he  had  but  heard  words  and 
been  told  of  a  hope  to  come,  he  and  his  whole  house  felt  that  flow  of  elevated 
joy  which  sprang  naturally  from  a  new  and  inspiring  faith.1 

Day  dawned,  and  the  duumvirs  were  troubled.  Whether  they  had  felt 
the  earthquake,2  and  been  alarmed  lest  these  "  slaves  of  the  Most  High  God  " 
should  be  something  more  than  the  poor  Jewish  wanderers  that  they  seemed 
to  bo,  or  whether  the  startling  events  of  the  night  had  reached  their  ears—- 
they had  at  any  rate  become  heartily  ashamed  of  their  tumultuary  injustice. 
They  felt  it  incumbent  on  them  to  hush  up  the  whole  matter,  and  get  rid  as 
quickly  as  possible  of  these  awkward  prisoners.  Accordingly,  they  sent  their 
lictors,  no  longer  to  use  their  rods  in  outrageous  violation  of  justice,  but  to 
"  set  those  people  free."  The  jailer  hurried  to  Paul  with  the  message  of 
peaceful  liberation,  which  no  doubt  he  thought  would  be  heartily  welcomed. 
But  Paul  felt  that  at  least  some  reparation  must  be  offered  for  an  intolerable 
wrong,  and  that,  for  the  sake  of  others  if  not  for  his  own,  these  provincial 
justices  must  bo  taught  a  lesson  not  to  be  so  ready  to  prostitute  their  autho- 
rity at  the  howling  of  a  mob.  Sending  for  the  lictors  themselves,  he  sternly 
said,  in  a  sentence  of  which  every  word  was  telling,  "  After  beating  us 
pxiblicly  un  condemned,  Romans  though  we  are  by  right,  they  flung  us  into 
prison ;  and  now  they  are  for  casting  us  out  secretly.  No  such  thing.  Let 
them  come  in  person,  and  conduct  us  out." 3  The  lictors  took  back  the 
message  to  the  "  Praetors,"  and  it  filled  them  with  no  small  alarm.  They 
had  been  hurried  by  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  pride  of  office  into  glaring 
offences  against  the  Roman  law.4  They  had  condemned  two  Roman  citizens 
without  giving  them  their  chartered  right  to  a  fair  trial ;  6  and,  on  condemning 
them,  had  further  outraged  the  birthright  and  privilege  of  citizenship  by 
having  them  bound  and  scourged ;  and  they  had  thus  violated  the  Porcian 
law  6  in  the  presence  of  the  entire  mob  of  the  forum,  and  in  sight  of  some  at 
least  who  would  be  perfectly  able  to  take  the  matter  up  and  report  their  con- 
duct in  high  quarters.  Their  worships  had  simply  flagellated  in  public  the  law 

"Quis  credat  in  tot  familiis  nullum  fuisse  infantem?"  is  not  decisive,  the  rest  of  his 
observation,  "  Et  Judaeos  circumcidendis,  Gentiles  lustnuidis  illis  nssuetos,  non  etium 
obtnlisse  illos  baptismo?  "  has  much  weight. 

1  Acts  xvi.  34,  tjyoAAtaro,  impf.  C,  D  various  versions,  &c.     K<UT<H  ovStv  ty  oAAa  p>juaT« 
liovov  KOJ.  i\rri5(S  xpyjcrrai. 

2  In  Acts  Xvi.  35,  D  adds  a.v<niv^<r6ivrt<:  TOV  <r«io>ibv  TOV  yeyovora. 

3  Acts  xvi.  37.     The  'Pw/xo/ov?  vva.pxovra^  is  perhaps  an  allusion  to  the  insolent  'lovSoroi 
\>r<ip\oi>w  and  PwfiouW  o5<nx  of  the  accusers  (ver.  21).     See  the  Lex  Cornelia,  Diet,  of 
A  nit.,  p.  638 ;  Paulus,  Instt.,  let.  iv. ;  X>e  incuriis,  §  8. 

*  ZeUer  starts  (Hilgenfdd?»  Ztitsch.  1864,  p.  103)  the  amazing  theory  that  this  is  a 
reproduction  of  the  story  found  in  Lucian's  Toxaris  (27 — 34),  about  a  Greek  medical 
student  named  Antiphilus,  who  is  imprisoned  in  Egypt  with  his  servant  on  a  false  charge 
of  theft  from  a  temple.     Krenkel  (p.  221)  characterises  it  as  "a  subtle  conjecture  "  that 
the  narrative  of  the  Acts  is  an  imitation  of  this  story.     And  this  is  criticism  1 

«  Cic.  in  Verr.  ii.  1,  9;  TJaut.  (7t<ra«Z.  v.  3,  16;  Tac.  #.  j,  & 

•  Cic.  pro  Rabir,  3, 


THESSALONICA.  AND  BEfiCEA.  285 

and  majesty  of  Ilome.1  They  did  not  at  all  like  the  notion  of  being  them- 
selves summoned  before  the  Proconsul's  court  to  answer  for  their  flagrant 
illegality ;  so,  trusting  to  the  placability  of  the  Jewish  character  as  regards 
mere  personal  wrongs,  they  came  in  person,  accompanied,  says  one  manu- 
script, by  many  friends.2  Entreating  the  pardon  of  their  prisoners,  they 
urged  them,  with  reiterated  requests,  to  leave  the  city,  excusing  themselves 
on  the  plea  that  they  had  mistaken  their  true  character,  and  pleading  that, 
if  they  stayed,  there  might  be  another  ebullition  of  public  anger.3  Paul  and 
Silas,  however,  were  courageous  men,  and  had  no  intention  to  give  any  colour 
of  justice  to  the  treatment  they  had  received  by  sneaking  out  of  the  city. 
From  the  prison  they  went  straight  to  the  house  of  Lydia ;  nor  was  it  till 
they  had  seen  the  assembled  brethren,  and  given  them  their  last  exhortation, 
that  they  turned  their  backs  on  the  beautiful  scenes  where  a  hopeful  work 
had  been  rudely  ended  by  their  first  experience  of  Gentile  persecution.  But, 
in  accordance  with  a  frequent  custom  of  St.  Paul,*  they  left  Luke  behind 
them.6  Perhaps  at  Philippi  he  had  found  favourable  opportunities  for  the 
exercise  of  his  art,  and  he  could  at  the  same  time  guide  and  strengthen 
the  little  band  of  Philippian  converts,  before  whom  days  and  years  of  bitter 
persecution  were  still  in  store.8 


CHAPTER   XXVL 

THESSALONICA  AND   BEKffiA. 

yap  aS«A^>ol  rdv  ic6irov  ijfiiav  KA\  rbv  (i.6xOov. — 1  TIIESS.  ii.  9. 
".In  oppidum  devium  Berocam  profugisti." — Cic.  in  Pis.  36. 

LEAVING  Philippi,  with  its  mingled  memories  of  suffering  and  happiness, 
Paul  and  Silvanus  and  Timotheus  took  an  easy  day's  journey  of  about  thrce- 
and-thirty  miles  to  the  beautiful  town  of  Amphipolis.  It  lies  to  the  south  of 
a  splendid  lake,  under  sheltering  hills,  three  miles  from  the  sea,  and  on  (ho 
edge  of  a  plain  of  boundless  fertility.  The  strength  of  its  natural  position, 

1  "Facinus  cat  vinciri  civem  Romanum,  scclua  verberari,"  Cic.  in  Vtrr.  v.  66. 

*  Acts  XVI.  39,  L),  jrapayevo/xeVot  jucra  §iX<av  iroAAjoK  ei?  Ti)P  ^ivAaiojP. 

'  All  this  is  intrinsically  probable,  otherwise  I  would  not,  of  course,  insert  it  on  the 
Bole  and  fantastic  authority  of  D,  eiirdtres  'Hyvojjcraiiiei'  ra  naff  vfiaii  Sri  <<rr<  av&ptf  Juuuot,  &c., 
and  fiijirdre  jroA.iv  <7V0Tpa<J>u><rii>  ^>ui>  cirtxpa^oprc?  Koff  vpiav. 

*  Cf.  xvii.  14 ;  xviii.  19 ;  Titus  i.  5 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  20. 

6  The  third  person  is  resumed  in  Acts  xvii.  1,  and  the  first  person  only  recurs  in 
Acts  xx.  5. 

*  Phil.  i.  28 — 30.   Although  here  and  there  the  Apostles  won  a  convert  of  higher  rank, 
it  was  their  glory  that  their  followers  were  mainly  the  babes  and  sucklings  of  human 
'intellect — not  many  wise,  not  many  noble,  not  many  rich,  but  the  weak  things  of  the 
world.     "Philosophy,"  says  Voltaire,  "was  never  meant  for  the  people.    The  canaille  of 
to-day  resembles  in  everything  the  canaille  of  the  last  4,000  years.     We  have  never  cared 
to  enlighten  cobblers  and  maid-servants.     That  is  the  work  of  Apostles."    Yes ;  and  it  wa* 
the  work  of  Christ. 


236  THE  LIIfE  AND   WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

nearly  eucirclod  by  a  great  bend  of  the  river,  tho  mines  which  wero  near  it,  and 
the  neighbouring  forests,  wliich  furnished  to  the  Athenian  navy  90  man? 
pines,  fit 

"  To  be  the  mast 
Of  some  groat  ammiral," 

made  it  a  position  of  high  importance  during  the  Peloponnosian  wars.  If  St. 
Paul  had  ever  read  Herodotus  he  may  have  thought  with  horror  of  the  human 
sacrifice  of  Xerxes1 — the  burial  alive  at  this  place  of  nine  youths  and  nine 
maidens;  and  if  he  had  read  Thucydides — which  is  excessively  doubtful,  in 
spite  of  a  curtain  analogy  between  their  forms  of  expression — he  would  have 
gazed  with  peculiar  interest  on  tho  sepulchral  mound  of  Brasidas,  and  the 
hollowing  of  the  stones  in  tho  way-worn  city  street  which  showed  tho  feet  of 
men  and  horses  under  the  gate,  and  warned  Kloon  that  a  sally  was  intended.1 
If  he  could  read  Livy,  which  is  by  no  means  probable,  ho  would  recall  tho  fact 
that  in  this  town  Paulas  JEmilius3 — one  of  tho  family  from  whom  his  own 
father  or  grandfather  may  have  derived  his  name — had  hero  proclaimed,  in 
the  name  of  Rome,  that  Macedonia  should  be  free.  But  all  this  was  little  or 
nothing  to  tho  Jewish  missionaries.  At  Amphipolis  there  was  no  synagogue, 
and  therefore  no  ready  means  of  addressing  either  Jews  or  Gentiles.*  They 
therefore  proceeded  the  next  day  thirty  miles  farther,  through  scenery  of  sur- 
passing loveliness,  along  the  Strymonic  Gulf,  through  the  wooded  pass  of 
Aulon,  where  St.  Paul  may  have  looked  at  the  tomb  of  Euripides,  and  along 
the  shores  of  Lake  Bolbe  to  Apollonia.  Here  again  they  rested  for  a  night, 
and  the  next  day,  pursuing  their  journey  across  tho  neck  of  the  promontory  of 
Chalcidice,  and  leaving  Olynthus  and  Potidaea,  with  their  heart-stirring 
memories,  far  to  the  south,  they  advanced  nearly  forty  miles  farther  to  tho 
far-famed  town  of  Thessalonica,  the  capital  of  all  Macedonia,  and  though  a 
free  city,5  tho  residence  of  the  Roman  Proconsul 

Its  position  on  the  Egnatian  road,  commanding  the  entrance  to  two  great 
inland  districts,  and  at  the  head  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf,  had  made  it  an 
important  seat  of  commerce.  Since  the  days  when  Cassander  had  re-founded 
it,  and  changed  its  name  from  Therina  to  Thessalonica  in  honour  o*  his  wife, 
who  was  a  daughter  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  it  had  always  been  a  flourishing 
city,  with  many  historic  associations.  Here  Cicero  had  spent  his  days  of 
melancholy  exile.8  Here  a  triumphal  arch,  still  standing,  commemorates  tho 
victory  of  Octavianus  and  Antony  at  Philippi.  From  hence,  as  with  the  blast 
of  a  trumpet,  not  only  in  St.  Paul's  days,7  but  for  centuries  afterwards,  the 
Word  of  God  sounded  forth  among  tho  neighbouring  tribes.  Here  Theodosius 
was  guilty  of  that  cruel  massacre,  for  which  St.  Ambrose,  with  heroic  faith- 
fulness, kept  him  for  eight  months  from  tho  cathedral  of  Milan.  Hero  its 
good  and  learned  Bishop  Eustathius  wroto  those  scholia  on  Homer,  which 

i  Hdt.  vii.  114.  8  Thuc.  iv.  103—107,  v.  6—11.          »  lav.  xly.  30. 

4  The  town  had  become  so  insignificant  that  Strabo  does  not  even  mention  it. 

1  Plin.  H.  N.  iv.  17.  •  Cic.  Pro.  Plane.  41.  1  1  Thess.  i.  8,  itfatfn* 


THESSALO3TICA  AND  BERCEA,  287 

place  him  in  tlio  first  rank  of  ancient  commentators.  It  received  the  title  of 
"  the  orthodox  city,"  because  it  was  for  centuries  a  bulwark  of  Christendom, 
but  it  was  taken  by  Amurath  IE.  in  1430.  Salouiki  is  still  a  great  commercial 
port  of  70,000  inhabitants,  of  whom  nearly  one-third  are  Jews;  and  the 
outrage  of  Mohammedan  fanaticism  which  has  brought  its  name  into  recent 
prominence  is  but  the  beginning  of  events  which  will  yet  change  the  map  and 
the  destinies  of  Southern  Europe. 

At  this  city — blighted  now  by  the  curse  of  Ishm,  but  still  beautiful  on  the 
slopes  of  its  vine-clad  hills,  with  Pelion  and  Olympus  full  in  view — the 
missionaries  rested,  for  hero  was  the  one  Jewish  synagogue  which  sufficed  for 
the  entire  district.1  After  securing  the  means  of  earning  their  daily  bread, 
wliich  was  no  easy  matter,  they  found  a  lodging  in  the  house  of  a  Jew,  who 
had  Gracised  tho  common  name  of  Jesus  into  Jason.2  Even  if  their  quarters 
were  gratuitously  allowed  them,  St.  Paul,  accepting  no  further  aid,  was  forced 
to  daily  and  nightly  labour  of  tho  severest  description3  to  provide  himself 
with  the  small  pittance  which  alone  sufficed  his  wants.  Even  this  was  not 
sufficient.  Poor  as  ho  was — for  if  ho  ever  possessed  any  private  means  ho  had 
now  lost  them  all4 — the  expenses  of  the  journey  from  Philippi  had  probably  left 
him  and  his  companions  nearly  penniless,  and  but  for  the  timely  liberality  of 
the  Philippians  it  would  have  fared  hardly  with  the  Apostle,  and  he  might 
even  have  boon  loft  without  means  to  pursue  his  further  journeys.5  There 
is  no  contradiction  between  the  two  contributions  from  Philippi  and  the 
Apostle's  account  of  his  manual  labours ;  for  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he 
only  stayed  in  Thessalouica  a  little  more  than  three  weeks.6  In  addition  to  the 
fact  that  the  second  contribution  would  be  partly  wanted  for  his  new  journeys, 
we  find  that  at  this  time  a  famine  was  raging,  which  caused  the  price  of  wheat 
to  rise  to  six  times  its  usual  rate.7  However  much  this  famine  may  have 
enhanced  the  difficulties  of  St.  Paul  and  his  companions,  it  must  have  confirmed 
him  in  the  purpose  of  placing  the  motives  of  his  ministry  above  suspicion  by 
making  it  absolutely  gratuitous.  Such  disinterestedness  added  much  to  tho 
strength  of  his  position,  especially  in  the  "  deep  poverty "  which  must  have 
prevailed  in  such  times  among  tho  low-born  proselytes  of  a  despised  religiou. 
If  St.  Paul  did  not  refuse  the  contributions  from  Philippi,  it  was  because  they 
came  spontaneously,  at  an  hour  of  bitter  need,  from  those  who  could  spare  the 
money,  and  who,  as  ho  well  knew,  would  bo  pained  by  any  refusal  of  their 

1  Acts  xvii.  1.    4  mva-po-rf  is  probably  the'right  reading,  though  the  ij  ia  wanting  in 
»,  A,  B,  D.     In  any  case  it  is  evidently  meant  that  there  was  but  one  synagogue,  and 
tradition  still  points  out  the  mosque — once  the  Church  of  St.  Demetrius,  which  Li  sup- 
posed to  stand  upon  its  site.      There  are  now   nearly  forty  Jewish  synagogues  in 
Baloniki. 

2  Kom.  xvi.  21. 

8  1  Thess.  ii.  9,  j/vsris  yap  <cai  i}/si«pa«  «pyafd/icvoi,  irpos  Tb  f«|  «ri/3apr'j<r<u  Tiva  vfitay,  K.T.A. 
<  Phil.  iii.  8,  ra  .rawa  i^i^O^.  5  *Ml  iv-  15»  16- 

•  He  can  hardly  have  failed  to  stay  much  longer,  for  Philippi  was  a  hundred  miles 
from  Thessalonica,  and  it  would  taka  time  for  news  to  travel  and  the  to-and-fro  journey 
to  be  made. 

1  Pointed  out  by  Mr.  Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri,  p.  290;  St.  Paid,  i.  231. 


288  *Hfi  LifE  ANto  wofcK  of  st.  PAtfL. 


proffered  aid.  Tefc  all  who  knew  him  knew  well  that  the  aid  canie  unsought, 
and  that,  asjfar  as  Paul's  own  personal  life  was  concerned,  he  was  utterly 
indifferent  to  privations,  and  set  the  example  of  an  unflinching  endurance 
rendered  easy  by  a  perfect  trust  in  God.1 

For  three  Sabbaths  in  succession  he  went  to  the  synagogue,  and  argued 
with  the  Jews.  It  might  well  have  been  that  the  outrage  at  Philippi,  and  its 
still  lingering  effects,  would  have  damped]  his  zeal,  and  niado  him  shrink  from 
another  persecution.  But,  fresh  as  he  was  from  such  pain  and  peril,  he 
earned  on  his  discussions  with  undiminished  force  and  courage,5  explaining 
the  prophecies,  and  proving  from  them  that  the  Messiah  was  to  suffer,  and  to 
rise  from  the  dead,  and  that  "  this  is  the  Messiah,  Jesus,  whom  I  am  preaching 
to  you."3  The  synagogue  audience  was  mainly  composed  of  Jews,  and  of 
these  some  wore  convinced  and  joined  the  Church.4  Conspicuous  among 
them  for  his  subsequent  devotion,  and  all  the  more  conspicuous  as  being 
almost  the  only  warmly-attached  convert  whom  St.  Paul  won  from  the  ranks 
of  "the  circumcision,"  was  Aristarchus,  the  sharer  of  St.  Paul's  perils5  from 
mob-violence  at  Ephesus,  of  his  visit  to  Jerusalem,  of  his  voyage  and  ship. 
wreck,  and  of  his  last  imprisonment.  A  larger  number,  however,  of  proselytes 
and  of  Greeks  accepted  the  faith,8  and  not  a  few  women,  of  whom  some  were 
in  a  leading  position.  This  inveterate  obstinacy  of  the  Jews,  contrasting 
sadly  with  the  ready  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  and  especially  of  women,  who 
in  all  ages  have  been  more  remarkable  than  men  for  religious  earnestness,  is  a 
phenomenon  which  constantly  recurs  in  the  early  history  of  Christianity. 
Nor  is  this  wholly  to  be  wondered  at.  The  Jew  was  at  least  in  possession  of 
a  religion,  which  had  raised  him  to  a  height  of  moral  superiority  above  his 
Gentile  contemporaries  ;  but  the  Gentile  of  this  day  had  no  religion  at  all 
worth  speaking  of.  If  the  Jew  had  more  and  more  mistaken  the  shell  of 
ceremonialism  for  the  precious  truths  of  which  that  ceremoaialism  was  but  the 
integument,  he  was  at  least  conscious  that  there  were  deep  truths  which  lay 
enshrined  behind  the  rites  and  observances  which  |  he  so  fanatically  cherished. 
But  on  what  deep  truths  could  the  Greek  woman  rest,  if  her  life  were  pure, 
and  if  her  thoughts  had  been  elevated  above  the  ignorant  domesticisrn  which 
was  the  only  recognised  virtue  of  her  sex  P  What  comfort  was  there  for  her 
in  the  cold  grey  eyes  of  Athene,  or  the  stereotyped  smile  of  the  voluptuous 
Aphrodite?  And  when  the  Thossalonian  Greek  raised  his  eyes  to  the 

1  Phil.  iv.  11,  12. 

2  1  Thess.  ii.  2,  en-appqa-iacrdfXTji/  ;  Acts  xvii.  2,  SieAcVeTo  avrotf.    The  teaching  of  the  syna- 
gogue admitted  of  discussions  and  replies  (John  vi.  25,  &c.)  :  as  it  does  to  this  day  in  the 
Rabbinic  synagogues. 

*  Acts  Xvii.  3,  Sicu'Otycoi'  ical  irapariBfucvos. 

4  One  of  these  was  Secundus  (Acts  xx.  4),  and,  perhaps,  a  Gaius  (xix.  29).  The  names 
are  common  enough,  but  it  is  a  curious  coincidence  to  find  them,  as  well  as  the  name 
Sosipater,  inscribed  among  the  Tolitarchs  on  the  triumphal  arch  of  Thessalonica. 

6  Acts  six.  29  ;  xx.  4  ;  Col.  iv.  10,  <rvvaixn<i\toTos  ;  Philem.  24. 

6  In  Acts  xvii.  4,  even  if  there  be  insufficient  MSS.  evidence  in  favour  of  the  reading 
Tirre  (refto^tvuv  K  ol  'EAAijwoi-  (A,  D,  Vulg.,  Copt.),  yet  tke  Epistles  prove  decidedly  that 
Gentiles  predominated  among  the  converts", 


XHE3SALONICA  AJtD   BEBCEA,  289 

dispeopled  heaven  of  the  Olympus,  which  towered  over  the  blue  gulf  on  which 
his  city  stood — when  his  imagination  could  no  longer  place  the  throne  of 
Zeus,  and  the  session  of  his  mighty  deities,  on  that  dazzling  summit  where 
Cicero  had  remarked  with  pathetic  irony  that  he  saw  nothing  but  snow  and 
ice — what  compensation  could  he  find  for  the  void  left  in  his  heart  by  a  dead 
religion  P l  By  adopting  circumcision  he  might  become,  as  it  were,  a  Helot  of 
Judaism ;  and  to  such  a  sacrifice  he  was  not  tempted.  But  the  Gospel  which 
Paul  preached  had  no  esoteric  doctrines,  and  no  supercilious  exclusions,  and 
no  repellent  ceremonials;  it  came  with  a  Divine  Example  and  a  free  gift 
to  all,  and  that  free  gift  involved  all  that  was  most  precious  to  the  troubled 
and  despondent  soul.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  Church  of  Thessalonica  was 
mainly  Gentile,  as  is  proved  by  the  distinct  language  of  St.  Paul,2  and  the 
total  absence  of  any  Old  Testament  allusion  in  the  two  Epistles.  In  the 
three  weeks  of  synagogue  preaching,  St.  Paul  had  confined  his  argument  to 
Scripture;  but  to  Gentile  converts  of  only  a  few  months'  standing  such 
arguments  would  have  been  unintelligible,  and  they  wore  needless  to  those 
who  had  believed  on  the  personal  testimony  to  a  risen  Christ. 

After  mentioning  the  first  three  Sabbaths,  St.  Luke  furnishes  us  with  no 
further  details  of  the  stay  at  Thessalonica.  But  we  can  trace  several  interest- 
ing facts  about  their  further  residence  from  the  personal  allusions  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles.  The  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians — the  earliest  of  all  his 
letters  which  have  come  down  to  us — was  written  within  a  month  or  two 
of  his  departure.  We  trace  in  it  the  tone  of  sadness  and  the  yearning  for 
a  brighter  future  which  were  natural  to  one  whose  habitual  life  at  this  time 
was  that  of  a  hated  and  hunted  outcast.  We  see  that  the  infant  Church  was 
remarkable  for  a  faithfulness,  love,  and  patience  which  made  it  famous  as 
a  model  church  in  all  Macedonia  and  Achaia.3  It  shone  all  the  more  brightly 
from  the  fierce  afflictions  which  from  the  first  encompassed  the  brethren,  but 
failed  either  to  quench  their  constancy  or  dim  their  joy.4  St.  Paul  dwells 
much  on  his  own  bearing  and  example  among  them;  the  boldness  which 
he  showed  in  spite  of  present  opposition  and  past  persecutions;  the  total 
absence  of  all  delusive  promises  in  a  teaching  w4iich  plainly  warned  them  that 
to  be  near  Christ  was  to  be  near  the  fire ; 6  the  conviction  wrought  by  the 
present  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  testifying  to  his  words ; 6  the  simplicity  and 
sincerity  which  enabled  him  to  appeal  to  them  as  witnesses  that  his  Gospel 
was  not  stained  by  the  faintest  touch  of  deceitful  flattery,  or  guilty  motive,  or 
vain-glorious  self-seeking;7  the  independence  which  he  had  maintained ; 8  the 
self-sacrificing  tenderness  which  he  had  showed ;  the  incessant  severity  of  his 
industry;9  the  blameless  purity  of  his  life;  the  individual  solicitude  of  his 

1  "  Subversae  Deorum  arae,  lares  a  quibusdam  in  publicum  abjecti "  (Suet.  Calig.  5). 
"  Plures  nusquam  jam  Deos  ullos  interpretabantur  "  (Plin.  Epp.  vi  20 ;  supra,  p.  17). 

2  1  Thesa.  i.  9 ;  ii.  14.  »  1  Thess.  i.  2,  3,  &-8. 
*  2  Thess.  L  4,  5 ;  1  Thess.  ii.  14 ;  i.  6. 

s  1  Thess.  iii.  4,  "We  told  you  before  that  we  should  suffer  tribulation.      b  fyyifc  ftoS 
TOU  iru/xfc  (saying  of  our  Lord.    Orig.  Horn,  in  Jerem.  iii.  778). 
Id.  ii  1,  2.         '  Id.  L  5.         8  Id.  ii.  3—6.         »  Id.  ii.  9  ;  2  Thess.  iii.  8—10. 


290  THE   LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PATTX. 

instructions.1  And  this  high  example  had  produced  its  natural  effects,  for 
they  had  embraced  his  teaching  with  passionate  wholo-hoartedness  as  a  divine 
message,2  and  inspired  him  with  an  affection  which  made  their  image  ever 
present  to  his  imagination,  though  untoward  hindrances  had  foiled  a  twice- 
repeated  attempt  to  visit  them  again. 

The  Epistle  also  throws  light  on  that  special  feature  of  St.  Paul's  teaching 
•which  was  ultimately  made  the  ground  for  the  attack  upon  him.  His  suffer- 
ings had  naturally  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  future  ;  tho  cruelty  of  man  had 
tended  to  fix  his  faith  yet  more  fervently  on  the  help  of  God ;  the  wickedness 
of  earthly  rulers,  and  the  prevalence  of  earthly  wrongs,  had  combined  with 
circumstances  on  which  we  shall  touch  hereafter,  to  fill  his  teaching  with  the 
hopes  and  prophecies  of  a  new  kingdom  and  a  returning  King.  His  expec- 
tation of  the  rapid  revelation  of  that  Second  Advent  had  boon  a  theme  of 
encouragement  under  incessant  afflictions. 

Few  indeed  wore  the  untroubled  periods  of  ministry  in  the  life  of  St.  Paul, 
The  jealousy  and  hatred  which  had  chased  him  from  city  to  city  of  Pisidia  and 
Lycaonia  pursued  him  here.  The  Jews  from  first  to  last — the  Jews  for  whom 
ho  felt  in  his  inmost  heart  so  tender  an  affection — were  destined  to  be  the  plague 
and  misery  of  his"  suffering  life.  At  Antioch  and  Jerusalem,  Jews  nominally 
within  the  fold  of  Christ  opposed  his  teaching  and  embittered  his  days ;  in  all 
other  cities  it  was  the  Jews  who  contradicted  and  blasphemed  the  holy  name 
which  he  was  preaching.  In  the  planting  of  his  Churches  he  had  to  fear  their 
deadly  opposition ;  in  the  .watering  of  them,  their  yet  more  deadly  fraternity. 
The  Jews  who  hated  Christ  sought  his  life ;  tho  Jews  who  professed  to  love 
Him  undermined  his  efforts.  The  one  faction  endangered  his  existence,  the 
other  ruined  his  peace.  Never,  till  death  released  him,  was  he  wholly  free 
from  their  violent  conspiracies  or  their  insidious  calumnies.  Without,  they 
sprang  upon  him  at  every  opportunity  like  a  pack  of  wolves ;  within,  they  hid 
themselves  in  sheep's  clothing  to  worry  and  tear  his  flocks.  And  at  Thossalonica 
he  had  yet  a  now  form  of  persecution  against  which  to  contend.  It  was  not 
purely  Jewish  as  in  Palestine,  or  purely  Gentile  as  at  Philippi,  or  combined  as 
at  Iconium,  but  was  simply  a  brutal  assault  of  the  mob,  hounded  on  by  Jews  in 
the  background.  Jealous,3  as  usual,  that  the  abhorred  preaching  of  a  crucified 
Messiah  should  in  a  few  weeks  have  won  a  greater  multitude  of  adherents  than 
they  had  won  during  many  years  to  the  doctrines  of  Moses — furious,  above 
all,  to  see  themselves  deprived  of  the  resources,  the  reverence,  and  the  adhesion 
of  leading  women — they  formed  an  unholy  alliance  with  the  lowest  dregs  of 
the  Thossalonian  populace.  0  wing  to  the  dishonour  in  which  manual  pursuits 
were  held  in  aucient  days,4  every  largo  city  had  a  superfluous  popiilation  of 
worthless  idlers — clients  who  lived  on  the  doles  of  the  wealthy,  flattei-ers  who 


»  1  Thess.  it.  11.  s  Id.  U.  13. 

8  This  is  sufficiently  obvious,  whether  we  read  ^KMramtt  la  Aots  xvil.  5  (A,  B,  E,  and 
many  versions)  or  not. 

*  "  llliberales  autem  et  sordidi  quacstus  mercenariorum  omniumqne  quorum  opcrae 
non  ortea  sunt ;  est  enim  ipsa  mercca  auetoramcutum  servi^itia  "  (Cic-,  De  Off.  i.  42). 


THESSALONICA  AND  BEROSA,  291 

fawned  at  the  feet  of  the  influential,  the  lazzaroui  of  streets,  more  loafers  and 
loiterers,  the  hangers-oa  of  forum,1  the  claqueurs  of  law-courts,  the  scum  that 
gathered  about  the  shallowest  outmost  waves  of  civilisation.  Hiring  the 
assistance  of  theso  roughs  and  scoundrels,2  the  Jews  disturbed  the  peace  of 
the  city  by  a  fanatical  riot,  and  incited  the  mob  to  attack  the  house  of  Jason. 
in  order  to  bring  the  Apostles  before  the  popular  Assembly.  But  Paul  had 
received  timely  warning,  and  he  and  his  companions  were  in  safe  concealment. 
Foiled  in  this  object,  they  seized  Jason  and  one  or  two  others  whom  they 
recognised  as  Christians,  and  dragged  them  before  the  Poiitarchs,3  or  pre- 
siding magistrates  of  the  free  city  of  Thessalonica.  "  Theso  fellows,"  they 
shouted,  '•  these  seditions  agitators  of  the  civilised  world*  have  found  thoir 
way  here  also.  Jason  has  received  them.  The  whole  set  of  them  ought  to 
be  punished  on  a  crimen  majcstatis,  for  they  go  in  the  teeth  of  Caesar's 
decrees,  and  say  that  there  is  a  different  king,  namely  Jesus."6  But  the  mob 
did  not  altogether  succeed  in  carrying  thoir  point.  In  dealing  with  the  seven 
Poiitarchs,  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  proconsular  residence,  they  were 
dealing  with  people  of  much  higher  position,  and  much  more  imbued  with  the 
Roman  sense  of  law,  than  the  provincial  duumviri  of  Philippi.  Neither  the 
magistrates  nor  the  general  multitude  of  the  city  liked  the  aspect  of  affairs. 
It  was  on  the  face  of  it  too  ludicrous  to  suppose  that  hard-working  artisans 
like  Jason  and  his  friends  could  bo  seriously  contemplating  revolutionary 
measures,  or  could  be  really  guilty  of  laesa  majestas.6  A  very  short  hearing 
sufficed  to  show  them  that  this  was  some  religious  opinion  entertained  by  a 
few  poor  people,  and  so  far  from  taking  strong  measures  or  inflicting  any 
punishment,  they  contented  themselves  with  making  Jason  and  the  others  give 
some  pecuniary  security J  that  they  would  keep  the  peace,  and  so  dismissed 

1  Sulrostrani  (Cic.  Epp.  Fam.  viii.  1,  2),  Sulbasilicani  (Plant.  Capt.  Iv.  2,  35),  turba 
fwftaii.     "Lewd"  (A.S.  Ixwede)  means  (1)  lay,  (2)  ignorant,  (3)  bad. 

2  Acts  xvii.  5,  TWV  iyopaiwv  av&pas  nyAs  jroKTjpou?.     Cf.  AT.  Eg.  181 ;  Sen.  De  Sencf.  7. 

3  This  name  is  unknown  to  classical  literature.     It  would  have  furnished  tine  scope 
for  the  suspicious  ingenuity  of  Baur  and  Zeller,  had  it  not  been  fortunately  preserved  as 
the  title  of  the  Thessalonian  magistrates  on  a  still  legible  inscription  over  the  triumphal 
arch  at  Thessalonica,  known  as  the  Vardar  gate  (Bockh.  Inscr.  19G7).     This  arch  was 
recently  destroyed,  but  the  fragments  were  saved  by  our  Consul,  and  were  brought  to  tha 
British  Museum  in  1876.     There  are  seven,  and  among  them  the  names  of  Sosipater, 
Giiius,  and  Secundus.     There  are  no  soi-disant  orpanfyol  or  pa£5oOx<"  In  tho  Urla  Libert 
Thessalonica,  as  there  were  at  the  colony  Philippi,  but  there  was  a  Srjufn  and  n-o,\iT4px-ai. 

4  The  expression  shows  how  widely  Christianity  was  spreading,  and  perhaps  alludes 
to  the  recent  events  at  Rome,  which  may  have  been  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  Jews 
themselves  to  keep  rather  in  the  background,  and  incite  the  Gentiles  to  get  the  Apostles 
expelled. 

5  The  half  truth,  which  made  this  accusation  all  the  more  of  a  lie,  is  seen  in  St. 
Paul's  preaching  of  the  Second  Advent  (1,  2  Thess.  pasthn.)  and  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
(1  Thes.s.  ii.  12 ;  2  Thess.  i.  5),  and  not  impossibly  in  some  distortion  of  what  he  hail  toll 
them  of  i  KaTe'xw!'  and  TO  *o.nxov  (2  Thess.  ii.  6,  7).    The  "  nee  Caeaar&us honor  "  is  one  of 
the  complaints  of  Tacitus  against  the  Jews  (Hist.  v.  5).    .,   •"«   h 

6  "We  see  in  tho  pages  of  Tacitus  that  it  was  the  endless  elasticity  of  this  charge— the 
cnmcn  r/wy'esiatw— which  made  it  so  terrible  an  engine  of  tyranny  (Ann.  iii.  38).     Tho 
facts  hero  mentioned  strikingly  illustrate  this.     Any  one  who  chose  to  turn  delator  might 
thus  crush  an  obscure  Jew  as  easily  as  he  could  crush  a  powerful  noble. 

7  Acts  xvii.  9,  \a£i'jT«  TO  i/faroc  sounds  like  a  translation  of  the  Latin  phrase  "Satis- 


292  THE  LIFE   AND   WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

thorn.  But  this  was  a  sufficient  sign  that  for  the  present  further  mission  work 
would  be  impossible.  No  magistrates  like  the  presence  of  even  an  innocently 
disturbing  element  in  their  jurisdiction,  and  if  Paul  and  Silas  were  brought 
in  person  before  them,  they  might  not  escape  so  easily.  Nor,  in  the  defective 
police  regulations  of  antiquity,  was  it  at  all  certain  that  the  moderation  of  the 
magistrates  would  be  an  efficient  protection  to  two  poor  Jews  from  the  hatred 
and  violence  of  a  mob.  In  any  case  it  is  probable  that  they  would  be  unwilling 
to  run  the  risk  of  impoverishing  Jason  and  their  other  friends  by  causing  a 
forfeiture  of  the  scant  and  mnch-needed  earnings  which  they  had  been  obliged 
to  pledge.  The  brethren,  therefore,  devised  means  to  secure  the  escape  of 
Paul  and  Silas  by  night.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Timotheus  stayed  among 
them  for  a  time,  to  teach  and  organise  the  Church,  and  to  add  those  last 
exhortations  which  should  nerve  them  to  bear  up  against  the  persecutions  of 
many  years.1  For  in  the  Church  of  the  Thessalonians,  wliich  was  in  some 
respects  the  fairest  gain  of  his  mission,  St.  Paul  felt  an  intense  solicitude, 
manifested  by  the  watchful  care  with  which  he  guarded  its  interests.2 

When  night  had  fallen  over  the  tumult  which  had  been  surging  through 
the  streets  of  Thessalouica,  news  of  the  issue  of  the  trial  before  the  Politarohs 
was  brought  to  Paul  and  Silas  in  their  concealment.  The  dawn  might  easily 
witness  a  still  more  dangerous  outbreak,  and  they  therefore  planned  an 
immediate  escape.  They  gathered  together  their  few  poor  possessions,  and 
under  the  cover  of  darkness  stole  through  the  silent  and  deserted  streets 
under  the  triumphal  Arch  of  Augustus,  and  through  the  western  gate. 
Whither  should  they  now  turn?  From  Philippi,  the  virtual  capital  of 
Macedonia  Prima,  they  had  been  driven  to  Thessalonica,  the  capital  of  Mace- 
donia Secunda.  An  accidental  collision  with  Gentile  interests  had  cost  them 
flagellation,  outrage,  and  imprisonment  in  the  colony;  the  fury  of  Jewish 
hatred  had  imperilled  their  lives,  and  caused  trouble  and  loss  to  their  friends 
in  the  free  city.  Should  they  now  make  their  way  to  Pella,  the  famous  birth- 
place of  the  young  Greek  who  had  subdued  the  world,  and  whose  genius  had 
left  an  indelible  impress  on  the  social  and  political  conditions  which  they 
everywhere  encountered?  To  do  this  would  be  obviously  useless.  The 
Jewish  synagogues  of  the  dispersion  were  in  close  connexion  with  each  other, 
and  the  watchword  would  now  be  evidently  given  to  hound  the  fugitives  from 
place  to  place,  and  especially  to  silence  Paul  as  the  arch-apostate  who  was 
persuading  all  men  everywhere,  as  they  calumniously  asserted,  to  forsake  the 
Law  of  Moses.  Another  and  loss  frequented  road  would  lead  them  to  a  com- 
paratively unimportant  town,  which  lay  off  the  main  route,  in  which  their  pre- 

datione  accepta."  Cf.  Lev.  xrv.  26  (LXX.).  It  was  the  Jewish  sense  that  the  Romans 
loved  justice  which  made  them  all  the  more  readily  accept  their  yoke  (Jos.  Anit.  xvii.  9, 
§  4,  and  13,  §  2 ;  B.  J.  vi.  6,  §  2 ;  Dion  Cass.  aounri.  37).  Titus  upbraided  them  with 
all  the  generous  favours  which  they  had  received  from  Rome  (Jos.  B.  J.  vi.  2,  §  4). 

1  I  agree  with  Alford  in  thinking  that  the  mention  of  Timothy  in  the  superscription 
of  both  Epistles,  and  his  mission  to  them  from  Athens,  prove  that  he  was  with  St.  Paul 
during  this  visit. 

'  Thcss.  ii.  18. 


TKESSALONICA  AND  BERCEA.  293 

senco  might,  for  a  time  at  any  rate,  remain  unsuspected.  Striking  off  from  the 
great  Via  Egnatia  to  one  which  took  a  more  southerly  direction,  the  two  f  ugitivea 
mado  their  way  through  the  darkness.  A  night  escape  of  at  least  fifty  miles,  along1 
an  unknown  road,  involving  the  dangers  of  pursuit  and  the  crossing  of  large  and 
frequently  flooded  rivers  like  the  Axius,  the  Echidorus,  the  Lydias,  and  some 
of  the  numerous  affluents  of  the  Haliacmon,  is  passed  over  with  a  single  word. 
Can  we  wonder  at  the  absence  of  all  allusion  to  the  beauties,  delights,  and 
associations  of  travel  in  the  case  of  one  whose  travels  were  not  only  the 
laborious  journeys,  beset  with  incessant  hardships,  of  a  sickly  Jewish  artisan, 
but  also  those  of  one  whoso  life  in  its  endless  trials  was  a  spectacle  unto  the 
universe,  to  angels  and  to  men  ?l 

The  town  which  they  had  in  view  as  a  place  of  refuge  was  Borcea,1  and 
their  motive  in  going  there  receives  striking  and  unexpected  illustration  from 
a  passage  of  Cicero.  In  his  passionate  philippic  against  Piso  he  says  to  him 
that  after  his  gross  maladministration  of  Macedonia,  ho  was  so  unpopular  that 
he  had  to  slink  into  Thossalonica  incognito,  and  by  night;3  and  that  from 
thence,  unable  to  boar  the  concert  of  wailers,  and  the  hurricane  of  complaints, 
he  left  the  main  road  and  fled  to  the  out-of-the-way  town  of  Bercea.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  this  comparatively  secluded  position  was  the  reason  why 
Paul  and  Silas  chose  it  as  safer  than  the  more  famous  and  frequented  Pella. 

And  as  they  traversed  the  pleasant  streets  of  the  town — "  dewy,"  like 
those  of  Tivoli,  "  with  twinkling  rivulets  " — it  must  have  been  with  sinking 
hearts,  in  spite  of  all  their  courage  and  constancy,  that  Paul  and  Silas  onca 
more  made  their  way,  as  their  first  duty,  into  the  synagogue  of  the  Jews. 
But  if  tho  life  of  the  Christian  missionary  has  its  own  breadths  of  gloom,  it 
also  has  its  lights,  and  after  all  the  storms  which  they  had  encountered  they 
were  cheered  in  their  heaviness  by  a  most  encouraging  reception.  The  Jews 
of  this  synagogue  were  loss  obstinate,  less  sophisticated,  than  those  whom  St. 
Paul  ever  found  elsewhere.  When  he  had  urged  upon  them  those  arguments 
from  the  Psalms,  and  from  Isaiah,  and  from  Habakkuk,  about  a  Messiah  who 
was  to  die,  and  suffer,  and  rise  again,  and  about  faith  as  the  sole  means  of 
justification,  the  Jews,  instead  of  turning  upon  him  as  soon  as  they  under- 
stood tho  full  scope  and  logical  conclusions  of  his  arguments,  proved  them- 
selves to  be  "nobler"4  than  those  of  Thessalonica — more  generous,  more 
simple,  more  sincere  and  truth-loving.  Instead  of  angrily  rejecting  this  new 
Gospel,  they  daily  and  diligently  searched  the  Scriptures  to  judge  Paul's 
arguments  and  references  by  the  word  and  the  testimony.  The  result  was 
that  many  Jews  believed,  as  well  as  Greeks — men  and  women  of  the  more 
respectable  classes.  They  must  have  spout  some  weeks  of  calm  among  these 

»  1  Cor.  lv.  9. 

*  Bercea  is  perhaps  a  Macedonian  corruption  for  Pheroea  (cf.  BtXmroc  for  »tAunro«). 
It  is  now  called  Kara  Pheria. 

3  Cic.  in  Pis.  36.     Adduced  by  "Wetstein  ad  loc. 

4  Acts  xvii.  11,  tvyevtmepoi.     The  expression  is  interesting  as  an  instance  of  tvyeify, 
used  (as  in  modern  times)  in  a  secondary  and  moral  sense.    The  best  comment  on  it  u 
the  "  Nobilitas  solo,  eat  atqne  unica  virtus." 


294  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST. 

open-minded  Berceans,  for  twice  during  the  stay  St.  Paul  conceived  the  design 
of  going  back  to  his  beloved  Thessalonians.  Untoward  obstacles  prevented 
this,1  and  so  heavily  did  the  interests  of  the  persecuted  Church  rest  on  hia 
mind  that  either  from  Bercea,  or  subsequently  from  Athens,  ho  sent  Timothy 
to  inquire  into  and  report  their  state.  One  permanent  friend,  both  to  St. 
Paul  and  to  Christianity,  was  gained  in  the  person  of  Sopater,  of  Bercea. 

But  it  would  have  been  too  much  to  hope  that  all  should  be  thus  open  to 
conviction,  and  the  news  was  soon  unfavourably  reported  to  the  Synagogue  of 
Thossalonica.  The  hated  name  of  Paul  acted  like  a  spark  on  their  inflam- 
mable rage,  and  they  instantly  despatched  emissaries  to  stir  up  storms  among 
the  mob  of  Bercea.2  Once  more  Paul  received  timely  notice  from  some  faith- 
ful friend.  It  was  impossible  to  face  this  persistent  and  organised  outburst 
of  hatred  which  was  now  pursuing  him  from  city  to  city.  And  since  it  was 
clear  that  Paul,  and  not  Silas,  was  the  main  object  of  persecution,  it  was 
arranged  that,  while  Paul  made  good  his  escape,  Silas  and  Timothy — who 
may  have  joined  his  companions  during  their  residence  at  Bercea — should 
stay  to  set  in  order  all  that  was  wanting,  and  water  the  good  seed  which  had 
begun  to  spring. 

And  so — once  more  in  his  normal  condition  of  a  fugitive — St.  Paul  loft 
Bercea.  He  was  not  alone,  and  either  from  the  weakness  of  his  eyesight  or 
from  3iis  liability  to  epilepsy,  all  his  movements  were  guided  by  others.  "  The 
brethren  "  sent  him  away  to  go  seawards,3  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
they  led  him  sixteen  miles  to  the  colony  of  Dium,4  whence  he  sailed  fro 
Athens.  That  he  did  not  proceed  by  land  seems  certain.  It  was  the  longer, 
the  more  expensive,  the  more  dangerous,  and  the  more  fatiguing  route.  If 
St.  Paul  was  so  little  able  to  make  his  way  alone  that,  even  by  the  sea 
route,  some  of  the  Beroean  brethren  were  obliged  to  accompany  him  till 
they  left  him  safe  in  lodgings  at  Athens,  it  is  clear  that  by  the  land  route  their 
difficulties,  to  say  nothing  of  the  danger  of  pursuit,  would  have  been  much 
increased.  The  silence  of  St.  Luke  as  to  any  single  town  visited  on  the  journey 
is  conclusive,6  and  we  must  suppose  that  some  time  in  autumn,  St.  Paul  em- 
barked on  the  stormy  waves  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  saw  the  multitudinous 
and  snowy  peaks  of  Olympus  melt  into  the  distant  blue.  He  sailed  along 
shores  of  which  every  hill  and  promontory  is  voiceful  with  heroic  memories ; 
past  Ossa  and  Pelion,  past  the  coast  of  Thermopylae,  along  the  shores  of  Eubcea,6 

1  1  Thess.  ii.  18.  *  Acts  xyii.  13,  <roAevoi'T«  TOWS  5x\ow. 

3  Acts  xvii.  14,  w?  firl  TV  6*\a.o-ffa.v  is  a  mere  pleonastic  phrase  for  "in  the  direction  of 
the  sea  "  (Strabo,  xvi.  2,  &c.).  *E«s,  the  reading  of  N,  A,  B,  F,  and  other  variations  of  the 
text,  seem  to  have  arisen  from  the  comparative  rarity  of  the  expression.    The  notion  that 
he  only  made  a  feint  of  going  to  the  sea,  and  then  turned  landwards  to  foil  pursuit,  arises 
from  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  tho  phrase. 

4  Perhaps  to  Alorus  or  Methone.     (Renan,  St.  Paul,  p.  166,  quoting  Strabo,  vii.,  pp. 
20,  22  ;  Leake,  iii.  435.) 

s  The  addition  of  D,  jrapTJXfov  <«  TIJV  6e<r<raAi<u'  *Ku\v8ii  yap  «lj  avrovt  mjpvfai  rov  Xoyor, 
throws  no  light  on  the  question. 

•  Whether  St.  Paul  sailed  down  the  Euripua  or  to  the  eaet  of  Eubcea  is  uncertafaj, 
The  former  route  was  the  more  common. 


ST.  PA.XTL  AT  ATHENS.  295 

round  the  "  marbled  steep "  of  Suniuin,  where  the  white  Temple  still  stood 
entire,  until  his  eye  caught  the  well-known  glimpse  of  the  crest  and  spear- 
head  of  Athene  Promaehos  on  tho  Acropolis,1 — the  helm  was  turned,  and, 
entering  a  lovely  harbour,  his  ship  dropped  anchor  in  full  sight  of  the  Par- 
thenon and  the  Propylsea. 


CHRISTIANITY  IN  ACHAIA, 

'A  TO!  \twapal  KU\  ioffrttjxiyoi  iced.  kolStuot 

!pe«r/ta,  xActral  'ABu.va.1,  OM/J.OVIOV  irro\lfOoov.  —  Pnn>.  fr.  47« 


Totourov  airots  'Apeoj  eC/JouXoi'  irdyov 

4yw  ffvvri$7)  %Q6viov  tv&,  8s  OVK  t$ 

ToioDo-5'  oA^To*  Tj?8'  Sfiov  voieiv  iroAei.  —  SOPH.  (Ed.  Col.  947. 

IIoO   vvv  TTJJ  'EA  \a5oj   6  rv<pos  ;  irov  riav  'A8rtv<av  r}>   6fOfj.a  ;  wov  recv  (piXocrAcpwy  4 
;  &  6.irj  FoXiXafar,  6  aiirb  'BrjOffaiSa,  6  &ypoiKos  •RO.VTWV  littlvwv  irepieyfi>tro. 

CHBYS.  Horn.  iv.  in  Act.  iii.  (Opp.  ix.  38,  ed.  Montfaucon). 

CHAPTER  XXVIL 

ST.     PAUL     AT     ATHENS. 

"  Immortal  Greece,  dear  land  of  glorious  lays, 
Lo,  here  the  Unknown  God  of  thine  unconscious  praise."  —  KEBLE. 

ATHENS  !  —  with  what  a  thrill  of  delight  has  many  a  modern  traveller  been 
filled  as,  for  the  first  time,  he  stepped  upon  that  classic  land  !  With  what  an 
eager  gaze  has  he  scanned  the  scenery  and  outline  of  that  city 


-"  on  the  .5Sgean  shore, 


Built  nobly,  pure  the  air,  and  light  the  soil, 
Athens,  tlie  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts 
And  eloquence." 

As  he  approached  the  Acropolis  what  a  throng  of  brilliant  scenes  has  passed 
across  his  memory;  what  processions  of  grand  and  heroic  and  beautiful 
figures  have  swept  across  the  stage  of  his  imagination  !  As  he  treads  upon 
Attic  ground  he  is  in  "  the  Holy  Land  of  the  Ideal; "  he  has  reached  the  most 
sacred  shrine  of  the  "  fair  humanities  "  of  Paganism.  It  was  at  Athens  that 
the  human  form,  sedulously  trained,  attained  its  most  exquisite  and  winning 
beauty ;  there  that  human  freedom  put  forth  its  most  splendid  power ;  there 
that  human  intellect  displayed  its  utmost  subtlety  and  grace ;  there  that  Art 
reached  to  its  most  consummate  perfection ;  there  that  Poetry  uttered  alike 
its  sweetest  and  its  sublimest  strains;  there  that  Philosophy  attuned  to  tho  most 

»  Pausan.  Attic.  1.28,2;  Herod,  v.  77. 


296  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

perfect  music  of  human  expression  its  loftiest  and  deepest  thoughts.  Had  it 
been  possible  for  the  world  by  its  own  wisdom  to  know  God ;  had  Jit  been  in 
the  power  of  man  to  turn  into  bread  the  stones  of  the  wilderness ;  had  perma- 
nent happiness  lain  within  the  grasp  of  sense,  or  been  among  the  rewards  of 
culture ;  had  it  been  granted  to  man's  unaided  power  to  win  salvation  by  the 
gifts  and  qualities  of  his  own  nature,  and  to  make  for  himself  a  new  Paradise 
in  lieu  of  that  lost  Eden,  before  whose  gate  still  waves  the  fiery  sword  of  the 
Cherubim, — then  such  ends  would  have  been  achieved  at  Athens  in  the  day  of 
her  glory.  No  one  who  has  been  nurtured  in  the  glorious  lore  of  that  gay  and 
radiant  city,  and  has  owed  some  of  his  best  training  to  the  hours  spent  in 
reading  the  history  and  mastering  the  literature  of  its  many  noble  sons,  can  ever 
yisit  it  without  deep  emotions  of  gratitude,  interest,  and  love.1 

And  St.  Paul  must  have  known  at  least  something  of  the  city  in  whose 
language  he  spoke,  and  with  whose  writers  he  was  not  wholly  unfamiliar. 
The  notion  that  he  was  a  finished  classical  scholar  is,  indeed,  as  we  have  shown 
already,  a  mere  delusion ;  and  the  absence  from  his  Epistles  of  every  historical 
reference  proves  that,  like  the  vast  mass  of  his  countrymen,  he  was  indifferent 
to  the  history  of  the  heathen,  though  profoundly  versed  in  the  history  of 
Israel.  He  was,  indeed,  no  less  liberal  and  cosmopolitan — nay,  in  the  best 
sense,  far  more  so — than  the  most  advanced  Hellenist,  the  most  cultivated 
Hagadist  of  his  day.  Yet  he  looked  at  "  the  wisdom  of  Javan"  as  something 
altogether  evanescent  and  subsidiary — an  outcome  of  very  partial  enlighten- 
ment, far  from  pure,  and  yet  graciously  conceded  to  the  ages  of  ignorance.  It 
was  with  no  thrill  of  rapture,  no  loyal  recognition  of  grace  and  greatness,  that 
Paul  landed  at  Phalerum  or  Peiraeus,  and  saw  the  crowning  edifices  of  the 
Acropolis,  as  it  towered  over  the  wilderness  of  meaner  temples,  stand  out  in 
their  white  lustre  against  the  clear  blue  sky.  On  the  contrary,  a  feeling  of 
depression,  a  fainting  of  the  heart,  an  inward  unrest  and  agitation,  seems  at 
once  to  have  taken  possession  of  his  susceptible  and  ardent  temperament; 
above  all,  a  sense  of  loneliness  which  imperiously  claimed  the  solace  of  that 
beloved  companionship  which  alone  rendered  his  labours  possible,  or  sustained 
him  amid  the  daily  infirmities  of  his  troubled  life.  As  he  bade  farewell  to  the 
faithful  Bercean  brethren  who  had  watched  over  his  journey,  and  had  been  to 
him  in  the  place  of  eyes,  the  one  message  that  he  impresses  on  them  is 
urgently  to  enjoin  Silas  and  Timotheus  to  come  to  him  at  once  with  all  possible 
speed.  In  the  words  of  St.  Luke  we  still  seem  to  catch  an  echo  of  the  yearning 
earnestness  which  shows  us  that  solitude8 — and  above  all  solitude  in  such  a 
place — was  the  one  trial  which  he  found  it  the  most  difficult  to  bear. 

But  even  if  his  two  friends  were  able  instantly  to  set  out  for  Athens,  a  full 
week  must,  at  the  lowest  computation,  inevitably  elapse  before  Silas  could  reach 

1  We  read  the  sentiments  of  Cicero,  Sulpicius,  Germanicus,  Pliny,  Apollonius,  &c.,  in 
Cic.  Ep.  ad  Quint,  jratr.  i.  1 ;  Epp.  Fam,  iv.  5  ;  ad  Att.  v.  10 ;  vi.  1 ;  Tao.  Ann.  ii.  53 ; 
Plin.  Ep.  viii.  24 ;  Pliilostr.  Vit.  ApoU.  v.  41 ;  Renaii,  St.  Paul,  1G7 ;  but,  aa  he  adds, 
"Paul  belonged  to  another  world ;  his  Holy  Land  was  elsewhere." 

2  Acts  Xvii.  15,  \af6yrn  «*  r«\»ix  irp&s  rw  St'Aav  «at  -rbv  Tinedtov  Iv*  «s  Taxiwra  fAflwaw  irpof 

•Mk 


ST.   PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  297 

him  from  Boroea,  and  a  still  longer  period  before  Timothy  could  come  from 
Thessalonica  ;  and  during  those  days  of  weary  and  restless  longing  there  was 
little  that  he  could  do.  It  is  probable  that,  when  first  he  was  guided  by  his 
friends  to  his  humble  lodging,  he  would  have  had  little  heart  to  notice  the 
sights  and  sounds  of  those  heathen  streets,  though,  as  he  walked  through  the 
ruins  of  the  long  walls  of  Themistocles  to  the  Peiraic  gate,  one  of  the  brethren, 
more  quick-eyed  than  himself,  may  have  pointed  out  to  him  the  altars  bearing 
the  inscription,  'AFNnSTOlS  0EOI2,1  which  about  the  same  time  attracted  the 
notice  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  and  were  observed  fifty  years  afterwards  by 
the  traveller  Pausanias,  as  he  followed  the  same  road.2  But  when  the  brethren 
had  left  him  —  having  no  opportunity  during  that  brief  stay  to  labour  with  his 
own  hands  —  he  relieved  his  melancholy  tedium  by  wandering  hither  and 
thither,  with  a  curiosity3  largely  mingled  with  grief  and  indignation.* 

The  country  had  been  desolated  by  the  Eoman  dominion,  but  the  city  still 
retained  some  of  its  ancient  glories.  No  Secundus  Carinas  had  as  yet  laid  his 
greedy  and  tainted  hand  on  the  unrivalled  statues  of  the  Athens  of  Phidias. 
It  was  the  multitude  of  these  statues  in  a  city  where,  as  Petronius  says,5  it 
was  more  easy  to  meet  a  god  than  a  man,  which  chiefly  absorbed  St.  Paul's 
attention.  He  might  glance  with  passing  interest  at  the  long  colonnades  of 
shops  glittering  with  wares  from  every  port  in  the  j3Egean  ;  but  similar  scenes 
had  not  been  unfamiliar  to  him  in  Tarsus,  and  Antioch,  and  Thessalonica. 
He  might  stroll  into  the  Stoa  Poecilo,  and  there  peer  at  the  paintings, 
still  bright  and  fresh,  of  Homeric  councils  of  which  he  probably  knew 
nothing,  and  of  those  Athenian  battles  about  which,  not  even  excepting 
Marathon,  6  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  felt  any  interest.  The  vast 
enlargement  of  his  spiritual  horizon  would  not  have  brought  with  it 
any  increase  of  secular  knowledge,  and  if  Paul  stood  in  these  respects 
on  the  level  of  even  the  Gamaliels  of  his  day,  he  knew  little  or 
nothing  of  Hellenic  story.7  And  for  the  same  reason  he  would  have  been 
indifferent  to  the  innumerable  busts  of  Greeks  of  every  degree  of  emin- 
ence, from  Solon  and  Epimenides  down  to  recent  Sophists  and  Cosmetae, 


1  Pausan.  I.  i.  4  ;  Hesych.  s,  v.  ,  'Ayvwr**  fleet  :  v.  infra,  p.  301). 

2  They  lay  on  the  road  between  the  Phaleric  port  and  the  city,  and  St.  Paul  may 
possibly  have  landed  at  Phalerum,  the  nearest  though  not  the  most  frequented  harbour 
for  vessels  sailing  from  Macedonia. 

*  Acts  xvii.  23,  Sitp\oi^fvot  ««u  ivaffaapuv  ra  (Te^atrfj-ara  viiaJv. 

4  Id.    16,    Tropwfvi/tfTO    TO    Tri/eOfia    O.VTOV.        Cf.    1    Cor.    Xlii.    5,   mi    n-apo^vVtrat,    "is    not 

exasperated." 

5  Petron.  Sat.  17. 

•  Mr.  Martineau,  after  remarking  that  modern  lives  of  St.  Paul  have  been  too  much 
of  the  nature  of  "  illustrative  guide-books,  so  instructive,  that  by  far  the  greatest  part  of 
their  information  would  have  been  new  to  St.  Paul  himself,"  adds  that  "in  the_  vicinity 
of  Salamis  or  Marathon  he  would  probably  recall  the  past  no  more  than  a  Brahmin  would 
in  travelling  over  the  fields  of  Edgehill  or  Marston  Moor"  (Studies  in  Christianity, 
p.  417). 

7  Nothing  in  the  Talmud  is  more  amazing  than  the  total  absence  of  the  geographic, 
chronological,  and  historic  spirit.  A  genuine  Jew  of  that  Pharisaic  class  in  the  midst  of 
which  St.  Paul  had  been  trained,  cared  more  for  some  pedantically  minute  halacha,  about 
the  threads  in  a  tsttstth,  than  for  all  the  Pagan  history  in  the  world. 

11 


298  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

and  still  more  indifferent  to  the  renal  intrusions  which  Athenian  servility 
had  conceded  to  Roman  self-importance.  A  glance  would  have  boon  more 
than  enough  for  Greek  statues  decapitated  to  furnish  figures  for  Roman 
heads,  or  pedestals  from  which  the  original  hero  had  been  displaced  to 
make  room  for  the  portly  bulk  and  bloated  physiognomy  of  some  modern 
Proconsul.  Some  Jew  might  take  a  certain  pride  in  pointing  out  to  him 
the  statues  of  Hyrcanus,  the  Asmonaean  High  Priest,  and  of  that  beautiful 
Berenice  before  whom  he  little  thought  that  he  should  one  day  plead  his 
cause.1  But  his  chief  notice  would  be  directed  to  the  bewildering  multipli- 
city of  temples,  and  to  the  numberless  "  idols "  which  rose  on  every  side. 
Athens  was  the  city  of  statues.  There  were  statues  by  Phidias,  and  Myron, 
and  Lysicles,  and  statues  without  number  of  the  tasteless  and  mechanical 
copyists  of  that  dead  period  of  the  Empire ;  statues  of  antiquity  as  vene- 
rable as  the  olive-wood  Athene  which  had  fallen  from  heaven,  and  statues 
of  yesterday  ;  statues  colossal  and  diminutive ;  statues  equestrian,  and  erect, 
and  seated;  statues  agonistic  and  contemplative,  solitary  and  combined, 
plain  and  coloured ;  statues  of  wood,  and  earthenware,  and  stone,  and  mar- 
ble, and  bronze,  and  ivory,  and  gold,  in  every  attitude,  and  in  all  possible 
combinations ;  statues  starting  from  every  cave,  and  standing  like  lines  of 
.sentinels  in  every  street.2  There  were  more  statues  in  Athens,  says  Pau- 
sanias,  than  in  all  the  rest  of  Greece  put  together,  and  their  number  would 
be  all  the  more  startling,  and  even  shocking,  to  St.  Paul,  because,  during 
the  long  youthful  years  of  his  study  at  Jerusalem,  he  had  never  seen  so 
much  as  one  representation  of  the  human  form,  and  had  been  trained  to 
regard  it  as  apostasy  to  give  the  faintest  sanction  to  such  violations  of  God's 
express  command.  His  earlier  Hellenistic  training,  his  natural  large-hearted- 
ness,  his  subsequent  familiarity  with  Gentile  life,  above  all,  the  entire 
change  of  his  views  respecting  the  universality  and  permanence  of  the  Mosaic 
Law,  had  indeed  indefinitely  widened  for  him  the  shrunken  horizon  of  Jewish 
intolerance.  But  any  sense  of  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  Pagan  art  was  im- 
possible to  one  who  had  been  trained  in  the  schools  of  the  Rabbis.3  There  was 
nothing  in  his  education  which  enabled  him  to  admire  the  simple  grandeur  of 
the  Propylsea,  the  severe  beauty  of  the  Parthenon,  the  massive  proportions  of 
the  Theseum,  the  exquisite  elegance  of  the  Temple  of  the  Wingless  Victory. 
From  the  nude  grace  and  sinewy  strength  of  the  youthful  processions  por- 
trayed on  frieze  or  entablature,  he  would  have  turned  away  with  something 
of  impatience,  if  not  with  something  even  of  disgust.  When  the  tutor  of 
Charles  the  Fifth,  the  good  Cardinal  of  Tortosa,  ascended  the  Papal  throne 
Under  the  title  of  Adrian  the  Sixth,  and  his  attendants  conducted  him  to  the 
Vatican  to  show  him  its  splendid  treasures  of  matchless  statuary,  his  sole 

1  Jos.  Antt.  xix.  8,  §  5. 

2  "Athenae  simulacra  Dcorum  hominumque  habcntes  omul  genere  et  materiae  et 
artium  insignia  "  (Liv.  xlv.  27). 

3  The  reader  will  recall  the  censure  passed  on  Gamaliel  for  having  merely  entered  a 
bath  in  which  was  a  statue  of  Aphrodite  (in/ra,  p.  705). 


ST.  PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  299 

remark,  in  those  uncouth  accents  which  excited  so  much  hatred  and  ridicule 
in  his  worthless  subjects,  was 

"SUNT   IDOLA  ANTIQUOBUM!"1 

It  was  made  a  scoff  and  a  jest  against  him,  and  doubtless,  in  a  Pontiff  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  it  shows  an  intensity  of  the  Hebraising  spirit  singularly 
unsoftened  by  any  tinge  of  Hellenic  culture.  But,  as  has  been  admitted  even 
by  writers  of  the  most  refined  aesthetic  sympathies,  the  old  German  Pope  was 
more  than  half  right.  At  any  rate,  the  sort  of  repugnance  which  dictated  his 
disparaging  remark  would  have  been  not  only  natural,  but  inevitable,  hi  a 
Pharisee  in  the  capital  of  Judaism  and  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Temple 
of  the  Most  High.  "We  who  have  learnt  to  see  God  in  all  that  is  refined  and 
beautiful;  whom  His  love  has  lifted  above  the  perils  of  an  extinct  paganism; 
whom  His  own  word  has  taught  to  recognise  sunbeams  from  the  Fountain  of 
Light  in  every  grace  of  true  art  and  every  glow  of  poetic  inspiration,  may 
thankfully  admire  the  exquisite  creations  of  ancient  genius; — but  had  Paul 
done  so  he  could  not  have  been  the  Paul  he  was.  "  The  prejudices  of  the 
iconoclastic  Jew,"  says  lienan,  with  bitter  injustice,  "  blinded  him ;  he  took 
these  incomparable  images  for  idols.  '  His  spirit,'  says  his  biographer,  '  was 
embittered  within  him  when  he  saw  the  city  filled  with  idols.'  Ah,  beautiful 
and  chaste  images ;  true  gods  and  true  goddesses,  tremble !  See  the  man 
who  will  raise  the  hammer  against  yon.  The  fatal  word  has  been  pronounced : 
you  are  idoh.  The  mistake  of  this  ugly  little  Jew  will  be  your  death-warrant."  J 
Yes,  their  death-warrant  as  false  gods  and  false  goddesses,  as  "  gods  of  the 
heathen  "  which  "  are  but  idols,"3  but  not  their  death-warrant  to  us  as  worka 
of  art;  not  their  death-warrant  as  the  imaginative  creations  of  a  divinely- 
given  faculty ;  not  their  death-warrant  as  echoes  from  within  of  that  outward 
beauty  which  is  a  gift  of  God ;  not  in  any  sense  their  death-warrant  as  stand- 
ing for  anything  which  is  valuable  to  mankind.  Christianity  only  discouraged 
Art  so  long  as  Art  was  the  handmaid  of  idolatry  and  vice ;  the  moment  this 
danger  ceased  she  inspired  and  ennobled  Art.  It  is  all  very  well  for  senti. 
mentalists  to  sigh  over  "  the  glory  that  was  Greece,  and  the  grandeur  that  was 
Rome ;"  but  Paganism  had  a  very  ragged  edge,  and  it  was  this  that  Paul  daily 
witnessed.  Paganism,  at  its  best,  was  a  form  assumed  by  natural  religion, 
and  had  a  power  and  life  of  its  own ;  but,  alas !  it  had  not  in  it  enough  salt  of 
solid  morality  to  save  its  own  power  and  life  from  corruption.  St.  Paul 
needed  no  mere  historical  induction  to  convince  him  that  the  loftiest  heights 
of  culture  are  compatible  with  the  lowest  abysses  of  depravity,  and  that  a 
shrine  of  consummate  beauty  could  be  a  sink  of  utter  infamy.  Nay,  more,  he 

1  He  walled  up,  and  never  entered,  the  Belvedere  (Symonds,  Renaissance,  p.  377). 

3  St.  Paul,  p.  172.    The  word  KardSvUov  is,  however,  St.  Luke's,  not  St.  Paul's. 

3  "The  pagan  worship  of  beauty  .  .  .  had  ennobled  art  and  corrupted  nature; 
extracted  wonders  from  the  quarries  of  Pentelicus,  and  horrors  from  the  populace  of 
Rome  and  Corinth  ;  perfected  the  marbles  of  the  temple,  and  degraded  the  humanity  of 
the  worshipper.  Heathenism  had  wrought  into  monstrous  ^combination  plrf  sical  beauty 
Wid  moral  deformity ):  (Martineau,  Hourt  of  Thoitght,  p.  306), 


300  THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

knew  by  personal  observation,  what  we  may  only  be  led  to  conjecture  by 
thoughtful  comparison,  that  there  was  no  slight  connexion  between  the  super- 
ficial brightness  and  the  hidden  putrescence ;  that  the  flowers  which  yielded 
the  intoxicating  honey  of  ancient  art  were  poisoned  flowers ;  that  the  perfect- 
ness  of  sculpture  might  have  been  impossible  without  the  nude  athleticism 
which  ministered  to  vice.  For  one  who  placed  the  sublime  of  manhood  in 
perfect  obedience  to  the  moral  law,  for  one  to  whom  purity  and  self-control 
were  elements  of  the  only  supreme  ideal,  it  was,  in  that  age,  impossible  to 
love,  impossible  to  regard  even  with  complacence,  an  Art  which  was  avowedly 
the  handmaid  of  Idolatry,  and  covertly  the  patroness  of  shame.  Our  regret 
for  the  extinguished  brilliancy  of  Athens  will  be  less  keen  when  we  bear  in 
mind  that,  more  than  any  other  city,  she  has  been  the  corruptress  of  the  world. 
She  kindled  the  altars  of  her  genius  with  unhallowed  incense,  and  fed  them 
with  strange  fires.  Better  by  far  the  sacred  Philistinism — if  Philistinism  it 
were — for  which  this  beautiful  harlot  had  no  interest,  and  no  charm,  than  the 
veiled  apostasy  which  longs  to  recall  her  witchcraft  and  to  replenish  the  cup 
of  her  abomination.  Better  the  uncompromising  Hebraism  which  asks  what 
concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial  and  the  Temple  of  God  with  idols,  than  the 
corrupt  Hellenism  which,  under  pretence  of  artistic  sensibility  or  archaeological 
information,  has  left  its  deep  taint  on  modern  literature,  and  seems  to  be  never 
happy  unless  it  is  raking  amid  the  embers  of  forgotten  lusts. 

Nor  was  Paul  likely  to  be  overpowered  by  the  sense  of  Athenian  greatness. 
Even  if  his  knowledge  of  past  history  were  more  profound  than  we  imagine 
it  to  have  been,  yet  the  Greece  that  he  now  saw  was  but  a  shadow  and  a 
corpse — "  Greece,  but  living  Greece  no  more."1  She  was  but  trading  on  the 
memory  of  achievements  not  her  own  ;  she  was  but  repeating  with  dead  lips 
the  echo  of  old  philosophies  which  had  never  been  sufficient  to  satisfy  the 
yearnings  of  the  world.  Her  splendour  was  no  longer  an  innate  effulgence, 
but  a  lingering  reflex.  Centuries  had  elapsed  since  all  that  was  grand  and 
heroic  in  her  history  had  "  gone  glimmering  down  the  dream  of  things  that 
were ;"  and  now  she  was  the  weak  and  contemptuously  tolerated  dependent  of 
an  alien  barbarism,2  puffed  up  by  the  empty  recollection  of  a  fame  to  which 
she  contributed  nothing,  and  retaining  no  heritage  of  the  past  except  its 
monuments,  its  decrepitude,  and  its  corruption.  Among  the  things  which  he 
saw  at  Athens  there  were  few  which  Paul  could  naturally  admire.  He  would 

1  See  Apollonius,  Ep.  Ixx.  (uli  supr.).  'EAAijm  o'ecrdc  2et?  ivopaftvAuT.  .  .  <L\A  vy-Stv  y<  ovie 
«i  bvofiara  fievei  ro's  TroAAots,  aAA'  v— b  vtas  ravnjc  riijatpoi'iat  (the  patronage  of  Rome), 
ciroAtoAexaurt  ra  rtov  irpo^6v<av  0Vfi/3oAa. 

2  The  nominal  freedom  of  Athens  had  been  spared  by  successive  conquerors.  Though 
she  had  always  been  on  the  defeated  side  with  Mithridates,  Pompey,  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
and  Anthony,  yet  the  Roman  Emperors  left  her  the  contemptuous  -boon  of  an  unfettered 
loquacity.  This  was  her  lowest  period.  "  She  was  no  longer  tha  city  of  Theseus;  she 
was  not  yet  the  city  of  Hadrian  "  (Renan,  p.  178).  About  this  very  time  the  city  was 
visited  by  the  thaumaturgist  Apollonius,  and,  according  to  Philostratus,  the  estimate 
which  he  formed  of  the  city  was  most  unfavourable  .  .  .  oJ  pcWiret  *EAA7)vt«  am*  Se  o« 

fttfovrtt  ry*»  fypiiata,  Teptav  <ro<f>of  ovfietf  'Aftptuot    ...    6  K<5Aa£  irapa  Tats  nv'Aaif ,  6  avKCaJMvnjf  jrp_b 
» ii-v  TniAwv,  6  (icurrpoirbs  trpb  T!OV  fiaicplav  rt<.\!av,  o  iropa<rtTos  irpb  TTJS  Movvvgnp  cat  trpb  rov  Ile 

•  W*  W  ovto  SouViov  e"x«  (0|pp.  Philos^r.  ed.  Clear,  ii.  406). 


ST.  PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  301 

indeed  have  read  with  interest  the  moral  inscriptions  on  the  Henna  which 
were  presented  to  her  citizens  by  the  tyrant  Hipparchus,1  and  would  have 
looked  with  something  of  sympathy  on  such  altars  as  those  to  Modesty  and 
to  Piety.  But,  among  the  many  altars  visible  in  every  street,  there  was  one 
by  which  he  lingered  with  special  attention,  and  of  which  he  read  with  the 
deepest  emotion  the  ancient  inscription— 


"To  the  unknown  God."» 

The  better-known  altars,  of  which  the  inscriptions  were  in  the  plural,  and 
which  merely  bore  witness  to  the  catholicity  of  Paganism,  would  have  had  less 
interest  for  him.  It  is  merely  one  of  the  self-confident  assertions  which  are 
too  characteristic  of  'Jerome3  that  St.  Paul  misquoted  the  singular  for  the 
plural.  The  inscription  to  which  he  called  attention  on  the  Areopagus  was 
evidently  an  ancient  one,  and  one  which  he  had  observed  on  a  single  altar.4 
Whether  that  altar  was  one  of  those  which  Epimeuides  had  advised  the 
Athenians  to  build  to  whatever  god  it  might  be  —  rf  rpoffriKorrt  e«<£  —  wherever 
the  black  and  white  sheep  lay  down,  which  he  told  them  to  loose  from  the 
Areopagus  ;  or  one  dedicated  to  some  god  whose  name  had  in  course  of  time 
become  obliterated  and  forgotten  ;  *  or  one  which  the  Athenians  had  erected 
under  some  visitation  of  which  they  could  not  identify  the  source6  —  was  to 
St.  Paul  a  matter  of  indifference.  It  is  not  in  the  least  likely  that  he  sup- 
posed  the  altar  to  have  been  intended  as  a  recognition  of  that  Jehovah7  who 
seemed  so  mysterious  to  the  Gentile  world.  He  regarded  it  as  a  proof  of  the 
confessed  inadequacy,  the  unsatisfied  aspirations,  of  heathendom.  He  saw  in 
it,  or  liked  to  read  into  it,  the  acknowledgment  of  some  divinity  after  whom 
they  yearned,  but  to  the  knowledge  of  whom  they  had  been  unable  to  attain  ; 
and  this  was  He  whom  he  felt  it  to  be  his  own  mission  to  make  known.  It 
was  with  this  thought  that  he  consoled  his  restless  loneliness  in  that  uncon- 
genial city;  it  was  this  thought  which  rekindled  his  natural  ardour  as  he 
wandered  through  its  idol-crowded  streets.8 


1   Such  as  MI/T;  ua  roj  "Imrapxov1  <rmx«  Socaia  QpovSiv,  Or  Mcijjia  roS  "Imrapxow  '  pi)  ^lAor  (fairara. 

3  This,  and  not  "  to  an  unknown  God,"  is  the  right  rendering. 

8  "  Inscriptio  arae  non  ita  erat  ul  Paulus  cuaeru.it  Ignoto  Dei  ;  sed  ita  ;  Diis  Asiae  et 
Europae  et  Africae,  Diis  ignotis  et  peregrinia.  Verum  quia  Paulas  non  pluribus  Diis 
ignotis  indigebat  sed  uno  tantum  ignoto  Deo,  singulari  verbo  us  us  eat."  Jer.  ad  Tit.  i.  12 
(-see  Biscoe,  p.  210). 

4  Acts  xvii.  23,  po,^  £  ejreyeypoirro.    The  fact  that  Pausanias  (Attic.  1.  1),  Philostratus 
(Vit.  Apotton.  vi.  3),  and  others  (Diog.  Laert.  i.  x.  100,  &c.),  mentions  altars,  ifi«#rr<a» 
2<ujuu>i>wt<,  does  not  01  course  prove  that  there  was  no  altar  with  the  singular  inscription  ; 
nor,  indeed,  is  it  certain  that  these  words  may  not  mean  altars  on  each  of  which  was  an 
inscription,  'Ayviicrry  0ecp,  as  Winer  understands  them.   Dr.  Plumptre  favours  the  view  that 
it  means  "  to  the  Unknowable  God;"  and  compares  it  with  the  famous  inscription  on  the 
veil  of  Isis,  and  the  Mithraic  inscription  found  on  an  altar  at  Ostia,  "Signum  indeprehen- 
sibili*  Dei,"  and  1  Cor.  i.  21. 

6  Eichhorn.  *  Chrysostom. 

1  Called  by  the  Gentilea  &  ravcpvAot  (Just.  Mart.  Paraenet  ad.  Graceos,  38  ;  Apol.  U. 
10;  Philo,  Leg.  §44). 

8  Acts  xvii.  16.  And  yet  his  high  originality  was  shown  In  the  fact  that  he  did  not, 
like  his  race  in  general,  vent  his  indignation  in  insults,  "Gens  contumelia  numinum 
insignia  "  (Plin.  H.  N.  xiii.  9  ;  Cio.  p.  Flacc.  67).  Claudius,  In  confirming  theii  privi- 


302  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

His  work  among  the  Jews  was  slight.  He  discoursed,1  indeed,  not  unfre- 
qnently  with  them  and  their  proselytes  in  the  synagogue  or  meeting-room* 
which  they  frequented ;  but  it  is  probable  that  they  were  few  hi  number,  and 
we  find  no  traces  either  of  the  teaching  which  he  addressed  to  them  or  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  received  it.  It  was  in  the  market-place  of  Athens — the 
very  Agora  in  which  Socrates  had  adopted  the  same  conversational  method  of 
instruction  four  centuries3  before  him — that  he  displayed  his  chief  activity  in 
a  manner  which  he  seems  nowhere  else  to  have  adopted,  by  conversing  daily 
and  publicly  with  all  comers.  His  presence  and  his  message  soon  attracted 
attention.  Athens  had  been  in  all  ages  a  city  of  idlers,  and  even  in  her 
prime  her  citizens  had  been  nicknamed  Gapenians,4  from  the  mixture  of  eager 
curiosity  and  inveterate  loquacity  which  even  then  had  been  their  conspicuous 
characteristics.  Their  greatest  orator  had  kurled  at  them  the  reproach  that, 
instead  of  flinging  themselves  into  timely  and  vigorous  action  in  defence  of 
their  endangered  liberties,  they  were  for  ever  gadding  about  asking  for  the 
very  latest  news;'  and  St.  Luke — every  incidental  allusion  of  whose  brief 
narrative  bears  the  mark  of  truthfulness  and  knowledge — repeats  the  same 
characteristic  under  the  altered  circumstances  of  their  present  adversity. 
Even  the  foreign  residents  caught  the  infection,  and  the  Agora  buzzed  with 
inquiring  chatter  at  this  late  aud  decadent  epoch  no  less  loudly  than  in  the 
days  of  Pericles  or  of  Plato. 

Among  the  throng  of  curious  listeners,  some  of  the  Athenian  philosophers 
were  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  seen.  The  Stoa  Pceeile,  which  Zeno  had 
made  his  school,  and  from  which  the  Stoics  derived  their  name,  ran  along  one 
side  of  the  Agora,  and  not  far  distant  were  the  gardens  of  Epicurus.  Besides 
the  adherents  of  these  two  philosophical  schools,  there  were  Academics  who 
followed  Plato,  and  Peripatetics  who  claimed  the  authority  of  Aristotle,  and 
Eclectics  of  every  shade.6  The  whole  city,  indeed,  was  not  unlike  one  of  our 


leges,  warned 


means 


them,  fuf  rat  tvv  oAAwv  iQvCiv  jeKrtSat.uocuif  e£ov6evi£et.>i  (Jos.  Antt.  XJX,  5.  §  S). 
is  "full  of  idols,"  not  as  in  the  E.  V.,  "wholly  given  to  idolatry;"  "noc 


________  ,    ________  ___  __  _____     „  ____  _    _    ______  „  , 

timulacris  dedita,  Bed  simulacris  refcrta  "  (Henn.  ad  Vig.  p.  638)  of.  Kardfin-eAoc,  K*T&Sfv&pos. 
The  word  receives  most  interesting  illustration  from  Wetstein,  from  whom  all  succeeding 
commentators  have  freely  borrowed. 

1  Acts  xvii.  17,  «t«A«'yrro,  not  "  disputed,"  but  "  conversed." 

2  No  trace  of  any  building  which  could  have  been  a  synagogue  has  been  found  at 
Athens.    It  has  been  inferred  from  passages  in  the  Talmud  that  Jews  were  numerous  in 
Athens  ;  but  these  passages  apply  to  a  much  later  period,  and  in  any  case  the  Talmud  is 
perfectly  worthless  as  a  direct  historic  guide. 

3  Socrates  died  B.C.  399. 

4  Kt\riva.loi,  AT.  Eg.,  1262.     Demades  said  that  the  crest  of  Athens  ought  to  be  a  great 
tongue.     "  Alexander  qui  quod  cuique  optimum  est  eripuit  Lacedaemona  tervire  jubet, 
Atxheuas  facerc"  (Sen.   Ep.   94;  see  Demosth.  Phil,  iv.)  njv  v6\iv  ivavrt\  ruv  'EAA^i- 
viro\a.fiftavovariv  tut  AcAdXoydv  T«  itrriv  K<U  roAv>  '•y;*  (Plat.  Lcgg.  i.  11). 

*  Kaivortpov  (ci.  Matt.  xiii.  52).  "hi  ova  statim  sordebant,  novivra  quaerebantur  " 
(Bengel).  Gill  says  that  a  similar  question  Nmn  TO  was  common  in  the  Rabbinic  schools 
(Bammidbar  Italia,  f.  212,  4). 

'  "  From  whooe  mouth  i.-.aued  forth 

Mellifluous  strenrr.s  that  watered  all  the  achooli 

Of  Academics  old  and  new,  with  those 

Surnamed  Peripatetics,  and  the  school 

Epicurean,  and  the  Stoic  severe."    (Milton,  Par.  Btg,) 


8T.   PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  303 

University  towns  at  the  deadest  and  least  productive  epochs  of  their  past.  It 
was  full  of  professors,  rhetors,  tutors,  arguers,  discoursers,  lecturers,  gram- 
marians, pedagogues,  and  gymnasts  of  every  description  ;  and  among  all  these 
Sophists  and  Sophronists  there  was  not  one  who  displayed  the  least  particle  of 
originality  or  force.  Conforming  sceptics  lived  in  hypocritical  union  with 
atheist  priests,  and  there  was  not  even  sufficient  earnestness  to  arouse  any 
antagonism  between  the  empty  negations  of  a  verbal  philosophy  and  the 
hollow  professions  of  a  dead  religion.1  And  of  this  undistinguished  throng 
of  dilettanti  pretenders  to  wisdom,  not  a  single  name  emerges  out  of  the 
obscurity.  Their  so-called  philosophy  had  become  little  better  than  a  jingle 
of  phrases2 — the  languid  repetition  of  effete  watchwords — the  unintelligent 
echo  of  empty  formulae.  It  was  in  a  condition  of  even  deeper  decadence  than 
it  had  been  when  Ciearo,  on  visiting  Athens,  declared  its  philosophy  to  be  all 
a  mere  chaos — &vu  K&rw — upside  down.3  Epicureans  there  were,  still  main- 
taining the  dictum  of  their  master  that  the  highest  good  was  pleasure ;  and 
Stoics  asserting  that  the  highest  good  was  virtue;  but  of  these  Epicureans 
some  had  forgotten  the  belief  that  the  best  source  of  pleasure  lay  in  virtue, 
and  of  these  Stoics  some  contented  themselves  with  their  theoretic  opinion 
with  little  care  for  its  practical  illustration.  With  the  bettor  side  of  both 
systems  Paul  would  have  felt  much  sympathy,  but  the  defects  and  degene- 
racies of  the  two  systems  rose  from  the  two  evil  sources  to  which  all  man's 
sins  and  miseries  are  mainly  due — namely,  sensuality  and  pride.  It  is  true 
indeed  that— 

M  When  Epicurus  to  the  world  had  taught 

That  pleasure  was  the  chiefest  good, 

His  life  he  to  his  doctrines  brought, 

And  in  a  garden's  shade  that  sovran  pleasure  sought ; 

Whoever  a  true  Epicure  would  be, 

May  there  find  cheap  and  virtuous  luxury." 

Bat  the  famous  garden  where  Epicurus  himself  lived  in  modest  abstinence  * 
soon  degenerated  into  a  scene  of  profligacy,  and  his  definition  of  pleasure,  as 
consisting  in  the  absence  of  physical  pain  or  mental  perturbation  (arapa^a),  had 
led  to  an  ideal  of  life  which  was  at  once  effeminate  and  selfish.  He  had  mis- 
placed the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  moral  system,  and  his  degenerate  followers, 

1  See  Eenan,  St.  Paid,  p.  186,  who  refers  to  Cio.  ad  Fan.  xvi.  21 ;  Lucian,  Dial. 
Mori.  xx.  5  ;  Philostr.  Apollon.  iv.  17. 

2  SiAoero^iafEXAjjixuv  Adycuv  </>6<£o?.    Terttillian  asks,  "Quid  simile  philosophus  et  Chria- 
tianus  ?"  (Tert.  Apol.  46) ;  but  Paul,  catholic  and  liberal  to  all  truth,  would  have  hailed 
the  truths  which  it  was  given  to  Greek  philosophers  to  see  (Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vi.  8, 
§  65,  and  passim).     xPiaifU}  trpbs  0<fO<r<-'0eiov  yiveroi  trpojraifiei'a  TI*  oCaa  (Id.  i.  5,  §  28  ;  Aug.  Dt 
Civ.  Dei,  ii.  7). 

8  We  can  the  better  estimate  this  after  reading  such  a  book  as  Schneider's  Christtiche 
flange  aits  dem  Oriech.  und  Rom.  Classikern  (1865).  The  independence,  cheerfulness, 
royalty,  wealth  of  the  true  Christian  recall  the  Stoic  "kingliness,"  aiTop««ta— the  very 
word  which  St.  Paul  often  uses  (2  Cor.  ix.  8;  Phil.  iv.  11—18;  1  Cor.  iv.  8—10,  &c., 
compared  with  Cio.  De  Mn.  iii.  22 ;  Hor.  Sat.  L  iii.  124  — 136 ;  Sen.  Ep.  Mor.  ix.). 
But  what  a  difference  is  there  between  these  apparent  resemolances  when  we  look  at  the 
Stoic  and  Christian  doctrines— i.  in  their  real  significance ;  and  ii.  in  their  gurrounrlinga. 
«  Juv.  Sat.  xiii.  172 :  xiv.  319. 


804  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  Of  ST.  PAUL. 

•while  they  agreed  with  him  in  avowing  that  pleasure  should  be  the  aim  of 
mortal  existence,  selected  the  nearer  and  coarser  pleasures  of  the  senses  in 
preference  to  the  pleasures  of  the  intellect  or  the  approval  of  the  conscience. 
The  sterner  and  loftier  Epicureans  of  the  type  of  Lucretius  and  Cassius  were 
rare;  the  school  was  more  commonly  represented  by  the  base  and  vulgar 
Hedonists  who  took  as  their  motto,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die." l  On  the  other  hand,  their  great  Stoic  rivals  had  little  reason  to  boast 
the  efficacy  of  their  nobler  theory.  Aiming  at  the  attainment  of  a  complete 
supremacy  not  only  over  their  passions,  but  even  over  their?circumstances 
— professing  fictitious  indifference  to  every  influence  of  pain  or  sorrow,8 
standing  proudly  alone  in  their  unaided  independence  and  self-asserted 
strength,  the  Stoics,  with  their  vaunted  apathy,  had  stretched  the  power 
of  the  will  until  it  cracked  and  shrivelled  tinder  the  unnatural  strain ;  and 
this  gave  to  their  lives  a  consciousness  of  insincerity  which,  in  the  worse 
sort  of  them,  degraded  their  philosophy  into  a  cloak  for  every  form  of  am- 
bition and  iniquity,  and  which  made  the  nobler  souls  among  them  melancholy 
with  a  morbid  egotism  and  an  intense  despair.  In  their  worst  degeneracies 
Stoicism  became  the  apotheosis  of  suicide,  and  Epicureanism  the  glorification 
of  lust.8 

How  Paul  dealt  with  the  views  and  arguments  of  these  rival  sects—- 
respectively  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  of  the  pagan  world* — we  do  not 
know.  Perhaps  these  philosophers  considered  it  useless  to  discuss  philo- 
sophical distinctions  with  one  whose  formal  logic  was  as  unlike  that  of 
Aristotle  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine — who  had  not  the  least  acquaintance 
with  the  technicalities  of  philosophy,  and  whom  they  would  despise  as  a  mere 
barbarous  and  untrained  Jew.  Perhaps  he  was  himself  so  eager  to  introduce 
to  their  notice  the  good  news  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  that  with  him  all 
questions  as  to  the  moral  standpoint  were  subordinate  to  the  religious  truth 
from  which  he  was  convinced  that  morality  alone  could  spring.  They  may 
have  wanted  to  argue  about  the  swrnmum  bonum ;  but  he  wanted  to  preach 
Christ.  At  any  rate,  when  he  came  to  address  them  he  makes  no  allusion  to 
the  more  popularly  known  points  of  contrast  between  the  schools  of  philosophy, 
but  is  entirely  occupied  with  the  differences  between  their  views  and  his  own 
as  to  the  nature  and  attributes  of  the  Divine.  Even  to  the  philosophers  who 

»  Cf .  Eccles.  v.  18 ;  Wisd.  ii.  7—9. 

*  "For  there  was  never  yet  philosopher 

That  could  endure  the  toothache  patiently."    (Shakespeare.) 

8  The  ancient  philosophers  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  («  mayunxx  cro^oi, 
Fhoenicides  ap.  Heineke,  Com.  Fr.  iv.  511 ;  Lucian,  Eun.  8 ;  Lact.  Instt.  iii.  25 ; 
Bactroperitae,  Jer.  in  Matt.  xi.  10,  &c.)  had  as  a  body  sunk  to  much  the  same  position 
as  the  lazy  monks  and  begging  friars  of  the  Middle  Ages  (see  Sen.  Ep.  Mor.  v. 
1,  2 ;  Tac.  Ann.  xvi  32 ;  Juv.  iii.  116 ;  Hor.  Sat.  I  3,  35,  133).  The  reproaches  ad- 
dressed to  them  by  the  Roman  satirists  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  those  with  which 
Chaucer  lashed  the  mendicant  preachers,  and  Ulrie  von  Hutten  scathed  the  degenerate 
monks. 

4  Josephus  evidently  saw  the  analogy  between  the  Pharisees  and  the  Stoics  (Jos. 
Antt.  xiii.  1,  §  5 ;  xviii.  1,  §  2 ;  B.  J.  ii.  8,  §§  2—14) ;  and  "  Epicureans  "  is  a  constant  name 
for  heretics,  &c.,  in  the  Talmud. 


8*.  PAUL  AT  ATHSN8.  305 

talked  with  him  in  the  market-place1  the  subject-matter  of  his  conversation 
had  been  neither  pleasure  nor  virtue,  but  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection.*  The 
only  result  had  been  to  create  a  certain  amount  of  curiosity — a  desire  to  hear 
a  more  connected  statement  of  what  he  had  to  say.  But  this  curiosity  barely 
emerged  beyond  the  stage  of  contempt.  To  some  he  was  "apparently  a 
proclaimer  of  strange  deities;"8  to  others  he  was  a  mere  "sparrow,"  a  mere 
"seed-pecker"* — "a  picker-up  of  learning's  crumbs,"  a  victim  of  unoriginal 
hallucinations,  a  retailer  of  second-hand  scraps.  The  view  of  the  majority  of 
these  frivolous  sciolists  respecting  one  whose  significance  for  the  world 
transcended  that  of  all  their  schools  would  have  coincided  nearly  with  that  of 

"  Cleon  the  poet  from  the  sprinkled  isles," 
which  our  poet  gives  in  the  following  words  :— 

"  And  for  the  rest 
I  cannot  tell  thy  messenger  aright, 
Where  to  deliver  what  he  hears  of  thine, 
To  one  called  Faulua — we  have  heard  his  fame 
Indeed,  if  Christus  be  not  one  with  him — 
I  know  not  nor  am  troubled  much  to  know. 
Thou  canst  not  think  a  mere  barbarian  Jew, 
As  Paulus  proves  to  be,  one  circumcised, 
Hath  access  to  a  secret  shut  from  us  ? 
Thou  wrongest  our  philosophy,  O  King, 
In  stooping  to  inquire  of  such  an  one, 
As  if  his  answer  could  impose  at  all. 
He  writeth,  doth  he  ?  well,  and  he  may  write ! 
O,  the  Jew  findeth  scholars  !  certain  slaves, 
Who  touched  on  this  same  isle,  preached  him  and  Christ ; 
And  (as  I  gathered  from  a  bystander) 
Their  doctrines  could  be  held  by  no  sane  man."  * 

1  When  Apollonius  landed  at  the  Peiraeus  he  is  represented  as  finding  Athens  very 
crowded  and  intensely  hot.     On  his  way  to  the  city  he  met  many  philosophers,  some 
reading,  spine  perorating,  and  some  arguing,  all  of  whom  greeted  him.     rrap;/«i  Si  ovS*k 

O.VTOV,  aAA.0.  TeK/iTjpo/xevoi    iriiirT*?  lift   tin    'AiroAAwpioC   avvavea-rpi&wro  ft  Hal  q<rira£o>TO   xaiporTcc 

(Philostr.  Vit.  iv.  17). 

2  Acts  xvii.  18.    The  word  "virtue"  occurs  but  once  in  St.  Paul  (Phil.  iv.  8),  and 
f,Soi')j,  in  the  classic  sense  only  in  Tit.  iii.  3.    The  notion  that  the  philosophers  took 
' '  the  Resurrection "  to  be  a  new  goddess  Anastasis,  though  adopted-  by  Chrysostom, 
Theophylact,  CEcumenius,  &c.,  and  even  in  modern  times  by  Renan  ("Plusieurs  a  ce 
qu'il  paraifc,  prirent  Anastasi*  pour  un  nom  de  deesse,  et  crurent  quo  Jesus  et  Anastasis 
e  talent  quelque  nouveau  couple  divin  quo  ces  reveurs  orientaux  venaient  prficher,"  St. 
Paul,  p.  190),  seems  to  me  almost  absurd.    It  would  argue,  as  has  been  well  said,  either 
utter  obscurity  in  the  preaching  of  St.  Paul,  or  the  most  incredible  stupidity  in  hia 
hearers. 

3  It  is  almost  impossible  to  suppose  that  St.  Luke  is  not  mentally  referring  to  the 
charge  against  Socrates,  iSnc«r  SujKparin    .    .    .    luuva.  ftaipdrta  curfc'pwp  (Xen.  Mem.  I.  i.). 

4  2ir«p/ioAdyo?,  a  seed-pecking  bird,  applied  as  a  contemptuous  nickname  to  Athenian 
shoplifters  and  area  sneaks  (Eustath.  ad  Od.  v.  490),  and  then  to  babblers  who  talked  of 
things  which  they  did  not  understand.     It  was  the  very  opprobrium  which  Demosthenes 
iad  launched  against  Jischines  (Pro  {7wv»<S,  p.  269,  td  faiskt}.    Compare  the  terms 
gobemouche,  engouleveut,  &c. 

*  Browning,  Men  and  Women, 
11  • 


806  THE  LIFE  AND  -WORK  OF  ST. 

With  some  heavers,  however,  amusement  and  curiosity  won  the  (lay.  So 
far  as  they  could  understand  him  ho  seemed  to  be  announcing  a  new  religion. 
The  crowd  on  the  level  space  of  the  Agora  rendered  it  difficult  for  all  to  hear 
him,  and  as  the  Areopagus  would  both  furnish  a  convenient  area  for  an 
harangue,  and  as  it  was  there  that  the  court  met  which  had  the  cognizance  of; 
all  matters  affecting  the  State  religion,  it  was  perhaps  with  some  sense  ofj 
burlesque  that  they  led  him  up  the  rock-hewn  steps — which  still  exist — to  the. 
level  summit,  and  placed  him  on  the  "  Stone  of  Impudence,"  from  which  the 
defendants  before  the  Areopagus  were  wont  to  plead  their  cause.1  Then,  with; 
a  politeness  that  sounds  ironical,  and  was,  perhaps,  meant  by  the  volatile  ring-; 
leaders  of  the  scene  as  a  sort  of  parody  of  the  judicial  preliminaries,  they 
began  to  question  him  as  ia  old  days  their  ancestors  had  tried  and  condemned' 
Anaxagoras,  Diagoras,  Protagoras,  and  Socrates,  on  similar  accusations.* 
They  said  to  him,  "  May  we  ascertain  from  you  what  is  this  new  doctrine 
about  which  you  have  been  talking  P  You  are  introducing  some  strange  topic 
to  our  hearing.  We  should  like,  then,  to  ascertain  what  these  things  mighti 
mean  P"  And  so  the  audience,  keenly  curious,  but  brimming  over  with  ill- 
suppressed  contempt  and  mirth,  arranged  themselves  on  the  stone  steps,  and 
wherever  they  could  best  hear  what  sort  of  novelties  could  be  announced  by 
this  strange  preacher  of  a  new  faith.  : 

But  it  was  in  no  answering  mood  of  levity  that  St.  Paul  met  their  light 
inquiries.  The  "  ugly  little  Jew,"  who  was  the  noblest  of  all  Jews,  was, 
perhaps,  standing  on  the  very  stone  where  had  once  stood  the  ugly  Greek  who 
was  the  noblest  of  all  Greeks,  and  was  answering  the  very  same  charge.  And; 
Socrates  could  jest  even  in  immediate  poril  of  his  life ;  but  St.  Paul,  though 
secure  in  the  tolerance  of  indifference,  had  all  the  solemnity  of  his  race,  and 
was  little  inclined  to  share  in  any  jest.  His  was  one  of  those  temperaments 
which  are  too  sad  and  too  serious  for  light  humour ;  one  of  those  characters 
which  are  always  and  overwhelmingly  in  earnest.  To  meet  badinage  by 
badinage  was  for  him  a  thing  impossible.  A  modern  writer  is  probably  correct 
when  he  says  that  in  ordinary  society  St.  Paul  would  certainly  not  have  beeu 
regarded  as  an  interesting  companion.  Ou  the  other  hand,  he  was  too  deeply 
convinced  of  his  own  position  as  one  to  which  he  had  been  called  by  the  very 
voice  and  vision  of  his  Saviour  to  be  in  the  least  wounded  by  frivolous 
innuendos  or  disdainful  sneers.  He  was  not  overawed  by  the  dignity  of 
his  judicial  listeners,  or  by  the  reputation  of  his  philosophic  critics,  or 
by  the  stern  associations  of  the  scene  in  the  midst  of  which  he  stood. 


1  Acts  xvii.  19,  ciriA.ajSofxci'oi  av-rov.  It  Is  quite  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  any  violence  ia 
Intended.  Cf.  ix.  27.  Pausaniaa  (Attic,  i.  28,  5)  is  our  authority  for  the  \C8os '  Ai-atfo/oj. 

3  It  was  the  express  function  of  the  Areopagus  to  take  cognizance  of  the  introduction 
of  «iri0rra  Upa.  Many  writers  hold  that  this  waa  a  judicial  proceeding,  and  Wordsworth 
that  it  might  have  been  an  Anakrisia ;  and  our  translators,  from  their  marginal  note, 
"  it  was  the  highest  court  in  Athens,"  probably  shared  the  same  view.  The  narrative, 
however,  gives  a  very  different  impression.  The  Athenians  were  far  less  in  earnest  aboui 
their  religion  than  Anytus  and  Meletus  had  been  in  the  days  of  Socrates,  and  if  this  was 
exeaut  for  a  trial  it  could  only  have  been  by  way  of  conscious  parody,  as  I  have  suggested, 


ST.  PAUL  AT  ATHEKS.  307 

Above  him,  to  the  height  of  ono  hundred  foot,  towered  the  rock  of  the 
Acropolis  like  the  vast  altar  of  Hellas — that  Acropolis  which  was  to  the 
Greek  what  Mount  Sion  was  to  the  Hebrew,  the  splendid  boss  of  the  shield 
ringed  by  the  concentric  circles  of  Athens,  Attica,  Hellas,  and  the  world.1 
Beneath  him  was  that  temple  of  the  awful  goddesses  whose  presence  was 
specially  supposed  to  overshadow  this  solemn  spot,  and  the  dread  of  whose 
name  had  been  sufficient  to  prevent  Nero,  stained  as  he  was  with  the  guilt  of 
matricide,  from  setting  foot  within  the  famous  city.2  But  Paul  was  as  little 
daunted  by  the  terrors  and  splendour  of  Polytheism  in  the  scat  of  its  grandest 
memorials  and  the  court  of  its  most  imposing  jurisdiction,  as  he  was  by  the 
fame  of  the  intellectual  philosophy  by  whose  living  representatives  he  was 
encompassed.  He  know,  and  his  listeners  knew,  that  their  faith  in  these  gay 
idolatries  had  vanished.3  He  knew,  and  his  listeners  knew,  that  their  yearn- 
ing after  the  unseen  was  not  to  bo  satisfied  either  by  the  foreign  superstitions 
which  looked  for  thoir  votaries  in  the  ignorance  of  the  gynaeceum,  or  by  those 
hollow  systems  which  wholly  failed  to  give  peace  even  to  the  few.  He  was 
standing  under  the  blue  dome  of  heaven,4  a  vaster  and  diviner  temple  than 
any  which  man  could  rear.  And,  therefore,  it  was  with  the  deepest  serious- 
ness, as  well  as  with  the  most  undaunted  composure,  that  he  addressed  them  : 
"Athenians!  "5  he  said,  standing  forth  amongst  them,  with  the  earnest  gaze 
and  outstretched  hand  which  was  his  attitude  when  addressing  a  multitude, 
"  I  observe  that  in  every  respect  you  are  unusually  religious."8  Their  atten- 
tion would  naturally  be  won,  and  even  a  certain  amount  of  personal  kindliness 
towards  the  orator  be  enlisted,  by  an  exordium  so  courteous  and  so  entirely  in 
accordance  with  the  favourable  testimony  which  many  writers  had  borne  to 
their  city  as  the  common  altar  and  shrine  of  Greece/  "  For,"  he  continued, 

i  Aristid.  Panatken.  i.  99 ;  0.  and  H.  i.  383. 
8  The  Semnae,  or  Eumenides.     (Suet.  Net:  34.) 

8  It  is  Lard  to  conceive  the  reality  of  a  devotion  which  laughed  at  the  Infamous  gibea 
of  Aristophanes  against  the  national  religion  (Lysintr.  750). 

4  "Yircufipioi  fSiiea£o»To  (Pollux,  viii.  118). 

8  *Av8p«  'Afrprcuot,  &c.  It  was  the  ordinary  mode  of  beginning  a  speech,  and  it  seems 
to  be  strangely  regarded  by  the  author  of  Supernatural  Religion,  iii.  82,  aa  a  sign  that 
these  speeches  are  not  genuine. 

8  Acts  xvii.  22,  S(i<riSatnove<rrepovt.  "Quasi  BUperstitiores,"|Vulg. ;  "someway  religious," 
Hooker;  "very  devout,"Lardner;  "very  much  disposed  to  the  worship  of  divine  Ecings," 
Whateley;  "Le  plus  religieux  des  peuples,"  Renan;  "  exceedingly  scrupulous  in  your 
religion,"  Humphry.  The  word  is  used  five  times  by  Josephus,  and  always  in  a  respectful 
sense,  as  it  is  in  Acts  xxv.  19.  Of  the  many  unfortunate  translations  in  this  chapter 
"  too  superstitious  "  (allzu  dberglaubisch,  Luth.)  is  the  most  to  be  regretted.  It  at  once 
alters  the  key-note  of  the  speech,  which  is  one  of  entire  conciliatoriness.  The  value  of 
it  as  a  model  for  courteous  polemics — a  model  quite  as  necessary  in  these  days  as  at  any 
past  period— is  greatly  impaired  in  the  E.  V.  It  is  possible  to  be  "uncompromising" 


(Philostr.  Vit,  vi.  3). 

5A>|  pup.*,  6to,  flvjia  e«n«  (tai  iva^a  (Xen.  De  Sep.  Athcn. ;  Alcib.  ii.  p.  97 ;  Pausan. 
Attic.  24).  TOW  cio-^eoraTovr  ™v  'EAA^  (Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  12;  Isocr.  Paneg.  33 ;  Thuc.  u. 
88 ;  j3£lian,  Far.  Hist.  v.  17 ;  Pausan.  xxiv.  3).  When  Apollonius  landed  at  Athens 
Philostratus  says,  -ntv  tiiv  «5)  wpurqv  S<.a\e£<.v  iatiSr,  <f>iAoWT«  TOVJ  'A.ftji'oiovr  ettev,  vrff  ufmr 
(Vit.  vi.  2),  $0o3<ot  fA<&wrTa  tturw  tlffi  (JuL 


308  THE  Lira  AND  wpfiX  o?  si. 

"  in  wandering  through  your  city,  and  gazing  about  me  on  the  objects  of 
devotion,1  1  found  among  them2  an  altar  on  which  had  been  carved  an  inscrip- 
tion,  "To  THE  UNKNOWN  Goo."3  That,  then,  which  ye  unconsciously* 
adore,  that  am  I  declaring  unto  yon.  The  God  who  made  the  universe  and  all 
things  in  it,  He  being  the  natural6  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in 
temples  made  with  hands,6  nor  is  He  in  need  of  anything7  so  as  to  receive 
service8  from  human  hands,  seeing  that  He  is  Himself  the  giver  to  all  of  life 
and  breath  and  all  things;  and  He  made  of  one  blood9  every  nation  of  men 
to  dwell  on  the  whole  face  of  the  earth,  ordaining  the  immutable  limits  to  the 
times  and  extents  of  their  habitation,10  inspiring  thorn  thereby  to  seek  God,  if 
after  all  they  might  grope  in  thoir  darkness  u  and  find  Him,  though,  in 
reality,12  He  is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us  ;  for  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
are,  as  some13  also  of  your  own  poets  have  said  — 

«  (We  need  Him  all,) 
For  we  are  e'en  His  offspring." 

1  Not,  as  in  E.V.,  "  your  devotions  "  (cf.  Philostr.  Vit.  Apollon.  iv.  19,  p.  156). 

*  KOI.    For  avaOeupuv  D  reads  Suvropuw,  perspiciens,  d.    The  jireyrypairro  implies  per* 
manence,  and  perhaps  antiquity. 

*  5  ...  TOUTO,  N,  A,  B,  D,  with  Origen  and  Jerome.    Cf.  Hor.  Epod.  v.  1.     "  At  O 
Deorum  quicquid  in  caelo  regit;"  and  the  frequent  piacular  inscription,  "Soi  Deo  Sei 
Deae."    The  vague  expression  "  the  Divine  "  is  common  in  Greek  writers. 

4  Ver.  23,  iyvood/ref,  not  "ignorautly,"  which  would  have  been  unlike  Paul's  urbanity, 
but  "  without  knowing  Who  He  is,"  with  reference  to  iyvuxmf  (cf.  Horn.  i.  20).  The  word 
nvfptln  also  implies  genuine  piety. 

*  virapvwv. 

8  An  obvious  reminiscence  of  the  speech  of  Stephen  (viL  48  ;  of.  Eurip.  Fragm.  ap 
Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  V.  ii.  76). 

1  A  proposition  to  which  the  Epicureans  would  heartily  assent. 

8  eepajmiereu,  "is  served,"  not  "is  worshipped,"  which  is  meaningless  when  applied 
to  "hands."  It  means  by  off  erings  at  the  altar,  &o.  (cf.  II.  i.  39,  el  ITOT«  TOI  \apUyr'  itrl 

Vnov  fpc\ff<x). 

*  ai/uiTot  is,  to  say  the  least,  dubious,  being  omitted  in  N,  A,  B,  the  Coptic,  and  Sahi  die 
Versions,  &c.     On  the  other  hand,  as  Meyer  truly  observes,  ive^vnu  would  have  been  a 
more  natural  gloss  than  at/xaro*  ;  and  the  Jews  used  to  say  that  Adam  was  D^S  te  Nm, 
"the  blood  of  the  world." 

»«  Job  xii.  23. 

11  ^TjXa<{>Si>,  to  fumble,  like  a  blind  man,  or  one  hi  the  dark  (Arist.  Pax.  691  ;  Gen. 
jcxvii.  21  ;  Isa.  lix.  10  ;  cf.  Rom.  i.  21,  x.  6—8)  :— 

•'  I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  gropt 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff,  and  call 
To  what  1  feel  is  Lord  of  all, 
And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope."  —  Tennyson. 

12  He  means  to  imply  that  the  necessity  for  this  groping  was  their  own  fault  —  wan 
due  to  their  withdrawal  to  a  distance  from  God,  not  His  withdrawal  from  them. 

13  The  poet  actually  quoted  is  Aratus  of  Cilicia,  perhaps  of  Tarsus,  and  thejhie  come* 
from  the  beginning  of  his  4><uco^eva  :  — 


vdvrg  8«  Aif  K 
Tou  yap  *ai  yivot 


But  he  Bays  nw«,  because  the  same  sentiment,  in  almost  the  Bame  words,  is  found  in 
Kleanthes,  Hymn  in  Jov.  5,  «V  trov  y«p  yeW  «<r>«V,  and  it  was,  not  improbably,  a  noble 
common-place  of  other  sacred  and  liturgical  poems.  Cf.  Virg.  Oeorg.  iv.  221—220. 
Bentley  remarked  that  this  chapter  alone  proves  "that  St.  Paul  was  a  great  master  in  all 
the  learning  of  the  Greeks  "  (Boyle  Lecturet,  iii.).  This  u  »  very  great  exaggeration, 
Bee  Excursus  III.,  p.  696,  seq. 


ST.   PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  309 

Since,  then,  we  are  the  offspring  of  God,  we  ought  not  to  think  that  the  Divine 
is  like  gold  or  silver  or  brass,  the  graving  of  art  and  of  man's  genius."1 

Condensed  as  this  speech  evidently  is,  lot  us  pause  for  an  instant,  before 
we  give  its  conclusion,  to  notice  the  consummate  skill  with  which  it  was 
framed,  the  pregnant  meanings  infused  into  its  noble  and  powerful  sentences. 
Such  skill  was  eminently  necessary  in  addressing  an  audience  which  attached 
a  primary  importance  to  rhetoric,  nor  was  it  less  necessary  to  utilise  every 
moment  during  which  he  could  hope  to  retain  the  fugitive  attention  of  that 
versatile  and  superficial  mob.  To  plunge  into  any  statements  of  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  or  to  deal  in  that  sort  of  defiance  which  is  the  weapon 
of  ignorant  fanaticism,  would  have  been  to  ensure  instant  failure ;  and  since 
his  solo  desire  was  to  win  his  listeners  by  reason  and  love,  he  aims  at  becoming 
as  a  heathen  to  the  heathen,  as  one  without  law  to  them  without  law,  and 
speaks  at  once  with  a  large-hearted  liberality  which  would  have  horrified 
the  Jews,  and  a  classic  grace  which  charmed  the  Gentiles.  In  expres- 
sions markedly  courteous,  and  with  arguments  exquisitely  conciliatory, 
recognising  their  piety  towards  their  gods,  and  enforcing  his  views  by 
an  appeal  to  their  own  poets,  he  yet  manages,  with  the  readiest  power 
of  adaptation,  to  indicate  the  fundamental  errors  of  every  class  of  his 
listeners.  While  seeming  to  dwell  only  on  points  of  agreement,  he  yet 
practically  rebukes  in  every  direction  their  natural  and  intellectual  self-com- 
placency.2 The  happy  Providence — others,  but  not  St.  Paul;  might  have  said 
the  happy  accident3 — which  had  called  his  attention  to  the  inscription  on  th» 
nameless  altar,  enabled  him  at  once  to  claim  them  as  at  least  partial  sharers  in 
the  opinions  which  he  was  striving  to  enunciate.  His  Epicurean  auditors  be- 
lieved that  the  universe  had  resulted  from  a  chance  combination  of  atoms ;  he 
tells  them  that  it  was  their  Unknown  God  who  by  His  fiat  had  created  the 
universe  and  all  therein.  They  believed  that  there  were  many  gods,  but  that 
they  sat  far  away  beside  their  thunder,  careless  of  mankind ;  he  told  them  that 
there  was  but  one  God,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  Around  them  arose  a 
circle  of  temples  as  purely  beautiful  as  hands  could  make  them — yet  there, 
under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Propylsaa  and  the  Parthenon,  and  with  all  those 
shrines  of  a  hundred  divinities  in  full  view  with  their  pillared  vestibules  and 
their  Pentelic  marble,  he  tells  the  multitude  that  this  God  who  was  One,  not 

»  "Judaea  gens  Deum  sine  simulacro  colit"  (Varro,  Fr.  p.  229).  Hence  the  "Nil 
praeter  nubes  et  caeli  numen  adorat "  of  Juv.  iiv.  97  and  "  Dedita  sacris  Incerti  Judaea 
Dei "  of  Luc.  ii.  592 ;  Tac.  H.  v.  6. 

2  Paul  had  that  beautiful  spirit  of  charity  which  sees  the  soul  of  good  even  in  things 
evil.  Hostile  as  he  was  to  selfish  hedonism,  and  to  hard  "apathy,"  he  may  yet  have 
seen  that  there  was  a  good  side  to  the  philosophy  both  of  Epicurus  and  Zeno,  in  so  far 
as  Epicurus  taught  "  the  happiness  of  a  cultivated  and  self-contented  mind,  and  Zeno 
contributed  to  diffuse  a  lofty  morality.  "Encore  quo  les  philosophes  soient  les  pro- 
tecteurs  de  1'erreur  toutefois  Us  ont  frappe  a  la  porte  de  la  verit&  (Veritatis  forea 
pulsant.  Tert.)  S'ils  ne  sont  pas  entr&i  dans  son  sanctuaire,  a i  us  n  ont  pas  eu  le  bonneur 
de  la  voir  et  de  1'adorer  dans  son  temple,  Us  se  sont  quelquefois  pr6sentes  a  sea  portiqueft, 
qt  lui  ont  rendu  de  loin  quelque  hommage  "  (Bossuet,  Panty.  &  Ste.  flntof****- 

'  The  word  TV'^I  does  not  oQW  }n  the  J?.T- 


310  THE  LIFE  AND  WOUK  OF  ST.  FATTL. 

many,  dwelt  not  in  their  toil-wrought  temples,1  but  in  the  eternal  temple  of 
His  own  creation.— But  while  he  thus  denies  the  Polytheism  of  the  multitude, 
his  words  tell  with  equal  force  against  the  Pantheism  of  the  Stoic,  and  the 
practical  Atheism  of  the  Epicurean.  While  he  thus  de-consecrated,  as  it 
were,  the  countless  temples,  the  Stoics  would  go  thoroughly  with  him ; a  when 
he  said  that  God  needeth  not  our  ritualisms,  the  Epicurean  would  almost 
recognise  the  language  of  his  own  school ; 3  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  laid  the 
axe  at  the  root  of  their  most  cherished  convictions  when  he  added  that  Matter 
was  no  eternal  entity,  and  God  no  impersonal  abstraction,  and  Providence  no 
mere  stream  of  tendency  without  us,  which,  like  a  flow  of  atoms,  makes  for 
this  or  that ;  but  that  He  was  at  once  the  Creator  and  the  Preserver,  the  living 
and  loving  Lord  of  the  material  universe,  and  of  all  His  children  in  the 
great  family  of  man,  and  of  all  the  nations,  alike  Jew  and  Gentile,  alike  Greek 
and  barbarian,  which  had  received  from  His  decrees  the  limits  of  then*  endur- 
ance and  of  their  domains.  In  this  one  pregnant  sentence  he  also  showed  the 
falsity  of  all  autochthonous  pretensions,  and  national  self-glorifications,  at  the 
expense  of  others,  as  well  as  of  all  ancient  notions  about  the  local  limitations 
of  special  deities.  The  afflicted  Jew  at  whom  they  were  scoffing  belonged  to 
a  race  as  dear  to  Him  as  the  beautiful  Greek ;  and  the  barbarian  was  equally 
His  care,  as  from  His  throne  Ho  beholds  all  the  dwellers  upon  earth.  And 
when  ho  told  them  that  God  had  given  them  the  power  to  find  Him,  and  that 
they  had  but  dimly  groped  after  Him  in  the  darkness — nnd  when  he  clenched 
by  the  well-known  hemistich  of  Aratus  and  Cleanthes  (perhaps  familiar  to 
them  at  their  solemn  festivals)  the  truth  that  we  are  near  and  dear  to  Him, 
the  people  of  His  pasture  and  the  sheep  of  His  hand,  they  would  be  prepared 
for  the  conclusion  that  all  these  cunning  effigies — at  which  he  pointed  as  he 
spoke — all  these  carved  and  molten  and  fictile  images,  were  not  and  could  not 
be  semblances  of  Him,  and  ought  not  to  be  worshipped*  were  they  even  as 
venerable  as  the  "heaven-fallen  image" — the  Aiotrerls  &ya\fia — of  their 
patron-goddess,  or  glorious  as  the  chryselephantine  statue  on  which  Phidias 
had  expended  his  best  genius  and  Athens  her  richest  gifts. 

Thus  far,  then,  with  a  considerateness  which  avoided  all  offence,  and  a 
power  of  reasoning  and  eloquence  to  which  they  could  not  be  insensible,  he 
had  demonstrated  the  errors  of  his  listeners  mainly  by  contrasting  them  with 
the  counter-truths  which  it  was  his  mission  to  announce.5  But  lest  the  mere 

1  2  Chron.  Vi.  32,  33.  iroto?  S'  a.v  O!KO«  rettroviav  wXo«rO«U  VTO  A«V*«  TO  Selov  ircpt/JoAoi  TOI^M* 
mxM ;  (Eur.  ap.  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  V.  xi.  76). 

*  Seneca,  ap.  Lact.  Instt.  vi.  25,  and  Ep,  Mor.  x.xxi.  11. 

•/'Omnis  enim  per  se  Divom  natura  necesse  est 
Immortal!  aevo  sumiuft  cum  pace  fruatur    .    .   . 
Ipsa  suis  pollens  opibus,  nihil  indigo,  nosiri." — Lucr.  11.  850. 

Cf.  Sen.  Ep.  95,  47.  St.  Paul,  however,  more  probably  derived  the  sentiment,  If  from 
any  source,  from  2  Mace.  xiv.  35,  or  from  Ps.  1.  11,  12 ;  Job  xli.  11. 

4  See  for  the  Pagan  view  Cic.  de  Nat.  Dew.  i.  18. 

5  Tiie  Epicurean  notion  of  happiness  as  the  result  of  coarser  atoms  was  as  marterial  as 
Paley's,  who  considers  it  to  be  "a  certain  state  of  the  nervous  system  in  that  part  of  the 
system  in  which  we  feel  joy  and  grief  .  .  .  which  may  be  the  upper  region  of  the  stomach 
or  the  fine  net-work  lining  the  whole  region  of  the  praecordia  '  (Moral  Philos,  ch.  vi.). 


ST.   PAUL  AT  ATHENS.  311 

demonstration  of  error  should  end  only  in  indifference  or  despair,  he  desired 
to  teach  the  Stoic  to  substitute  sympathy  for  apathy,  and  humility  for  pride, 
aud  the  confession  of  a  weakness  that  relied  on  God  for  the  assertion  of  a 
self-dependence  which  denied  all  need  of  Him ;  and  to  lead  the  Epicurean  to 
prefer  a  spiritual  peace  to  a  sensual  pleasure,  and  a  living  Saviour  to  distant 
and  indifferent  gods.  He  proceeded,  therefore,  to  tell  them  that  during  long 
centuries  of  their  history  God  had  overlooked  or  condoned1  this  ignorance, 
but  that  now  the  kingdom  of  heaven  had  come  to  them — now  He  called  them 
to  repentance — now  the  day  of  judgment  was  proclaimed,  a  day  in  which  the 
world  should  be  judged  in  righteousness  by  One  whom  God  had  thereto 
appointed,  even  by  that  Jesus  to  whose  work  God  had  set  His  seal  by  raising 
Him  from  the  dead  " 

That  was  enough.  A  burst  of  coarse  derision  interrupted  his  words.3 
The  Greeks,  the  philosophers  themselves,  could  listen  with  pleasure,  even  with 
something  of  conviction,  while  he  demonstrated  the  nullity  of  those  gods  of 
the  Acropolis,  at  which  even  their  fathers,  four  centuries  earlier,  had  not  been 
afraid  to  jeer.  But  now  that  he  had  got  to  a  point  at  which  he  mixed  up 
mere  Jewish  matters  and  miracles  with  his  predication — now  that  he  began  to 
tell  them  of  that  Cross  which  was  to  them  foolishness,  and  of  that  Resurrection 
from  the  dead  which  was  inconceivably  alien  to  their  habits  of  belief — all 
interest  was  for  them  at  an  end.  It  was  as  when  a  lunatic  suddenly  introduces 
a  wild  delusion  into  the  [midst  of  otherwise  sane  and  sensible  remarks.  The 
"strange  gods"  whom  they  fancied  that  he  was  preaching  became  too 
fantastic  even  to  justify  any  further  inquiry.  They  did  not  deign  to  waste  on 
such  a  topic  the  leisure  which  was  important  for  less  extraordinary  gossip.8 
They  were  not  nearly  serious  enough  in  their  own  belief,  nor  did  they  consider 
this  feeble  wanderer  a  sufficiently  important  person  to  make  them  care  to 
enforce  against  St.  Paul  that  decree  of  the  Areopagus  which  had  brought 
Socrates  to  the  hemlock  draught  in  the  prison  almost  in  sight  of  them ;  but 
they  instantly  offered  to  the  great  missionary  a  contemptuous  toleration  more 
fatal  to  progress  than  any  antagonism.  As  they  began  to  stream  away,  some 
broke  into  open  mockery,  while  others,  with  polite  irony,  feeling  that  such  a 

1  Ver.  30,  vncpi&iav.    "Winked  at"  is  a  somewhat  unhappy  colloquialism  of  the  E.  V. 
(cf.  Rom.  i.  24).     It  also  occurs  in  Ecclus.  xxx.  11.     "Times  of  ignorance"  is  a  half- 
technical  term,  like  the  Arabic  jahilujya  for  the  time  before  Mahomet. 

2  Acts  xvii.  32.    "  The  moment  they  heard  the  words  '  resurrection  of  the  dead, 'some 
began  to  jeer."    'ExA«uX°",  which  occurs  here  only  in  the  N.T.,  is  a  very  strong  word. 
It  means  the  expression  of  contempt  by  the  lips,  as  /uvKTTjpi'fw  by  the  nostrils.    It  is  used 
by  Aquila  in  Prov.  xiv.  9,  for  "Fools  make  a  mock  at  sin."    Not  that  the  ancients  found 
anything  ludicrous  in  the  notion  of  the  resurrection  of  the  soul ;  it  was  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  which  seemed  so  childish  to  them.    See  Plin.  N.  H.  vii.  55 ;  Lucian,  De  Mart. 
Percgr.  13.    The  heathen  Caecilius  in  Minucius  Felix  (Oct.  11, 34)  says,     OraotUw  fabulas 
adstruunt.    Kenasci  se  ferunt  j>os<  mortem  el  cineres  ctfavillas,  et  netcio  qua  fiducid  wtm- 
dacii*  invicem  credunt."    See  Orig.  c.  Celt,  v.  14;  Arnob.  ii.  13;  Athenag.  De  Rtsurr. 
lii.  4 ;  Tert.  De  Cam.  Christi,  15 ;  &c.  ..  . 

3  There  is  a  sort  of  happy  play  of  words  in  the  tuxm'pow  of  Acts  xvii.  21.     It  is  not  a 
classical  word,  but  implies  that  they  were  too  busy  to  spare  time  from  the  important 
occupation  of  gossiping. 


312  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ST.  PATTL. 

speaker  deserved  at  least  a  show  of  urbanity,  said  to  him,  "  Enough  for  one 
day.  Perhaps  some  other  time  we  will  listen  to  you  again  about  Ilim."  But 
even  if  they  were  in  earnest,  the  convenient  season  for  their  curiosity  recurred 
no  more  to  them  than  it  did  afterwards  to  Felix.1  On  that  hill  of  Ares, 
before  that  throng,  Paul  spoke  no  more.  He  went  from  the  midst  of  them, 
Borry,  it  may  be,  for  their  jeers,  seeing  through  their  spiritual  incapacity,  but 
conscious  that  in  that  city  his  public  work,  at  least,  was  over.  He  could  brave 
opposition ;  he  was  discouraged  by  indifference.  One  dignified  adherent,  indeed, 
he  found — but  one  only2 — in  Dionysins  the  Areopagite;3  and  one  more  in  a 
woman — possibly  a  Jewess — whose  very  name  is  uncertain:4  but  at  Athens  he 
founded  no  church,  to  Athens  he  wrote  no  epistle,  and  in  Athens,  often  as  ho 
passed  its  neighbourhood,  ho  never  set  foot  again.  St.  Luke  has  no  pompous 
falsehoods  to  tell  us.  St.  Paul  was  despised  and  ridiculed,  and  ho  does  not  for  a 
moment  attempt  to  represent  it  otherwise ;  St.  Paul's  speech,  so  far  as  any  im- 
mediate effects  were  concerned,  was  an  all  but  total  failure,  and  St.  Luke  does  not 
conceal  its  ineffectiveness.6  He  shows  us  that  the  Apostle  was  exposed  to  the 
ridicule  of  indifforentism,  no  less  than  to  the  persecutions  of  exasperated  bigotry. 
And  yet  his  visit  was  not  in  vain.  It  had  been  to  him  a  very  sad  one. 
Even  when  Timothous  had  come  to  cheer  his  depression  and  brighten  his 
solitude,  he  felt  so  deep  a  yearning  for  his  true  and  tried  converts  at 
Thessalonica,  that,  since  they  were  still  obliged  to  face  the  storm  of  persecu- 
tion, he  had  sacrificed  his  own  feelings,  and  sent  him  back  to  support  and 
comfort  that  struggling  Church.6  He  left  Athens  as  he  had  lived  in  it,  a 
despised  and  lonely  man.  And  yet,  as  I  have  said,  his  visit  was  not  in  vain. 
Many  a  deep  thought  in  the  Epistle  to  tho  Romans  may  have  risen  from  the 
Apostle's  reflections  over  the  apparent  failure  at  Athens.  The  wave  is  flung 
back,  and  streams  away  in  broken  foam,  but  the  tide  advances  with  irresistible 
majesty  and  might.  Little  did  those  philosophers,  in  their  self-satisfied 
superiority,  suppose  that  the  trivial  incident  in  which  they  had  condescended 
to  take  part  was  for  them  the  beginning  of  the  end,7  Xerxes  and  his  Persians 

1  Acts  xxiv.  25. 

8  "  Le  p6dagogue  est  le  moins  convertissable  dcs hommea  "  (Kenan,  p.  199).  "  (Test  qu'il 
faut  plus  d'un  miracle  pour  convertir  a  Fhumilite'  de  la  croix  un  sage  uu  siecle  "  (Quesnel). 

3  Christian  tradition  makes  him  a  bishop  and  martyr  (Euseb.  H.E.  iii.  4  ;  iv.  23 ; 
Nic^ph.  iii,  11),  and  he  is  gradually  developed  into  St.  Denys  of  France.     The   books 
attributed  to  him,  On  the  Heavenly  Hierarchy,  On  the  Divine  Names,  &c.,  are  not  earlier 
than  the  fifth  century. 

4  Aa/j0Ai?,  "heifer,"  would  be  a  name  analogous  to  Dorcas,  &c.  ;  Damaria  occurs 
nowhere  else,  and  is  probably  a  mere  difference  of  pronunciation.     It  can  have  nothing 
to  do  with  Sa/xap,  and  has  led  to  the  conjecture  that  she  was  a  Syrian  metic.     Absolutely 
nothing  is  known  about  her. 

*  Yet  we  are  constantly  asked  to  believe,  by  the  very  acute  and  impartial  criticism  of 
sceptics,  that  St.  Luke  is  given  to  inventing  the  names  of  illustrious  converts  to  do  credit 
to  St.  Paul.  If  any  one  will  compare  Philostratus's  Life  of  Apollonius  with  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  he  will  soon  learn  to  appreciate  the  difference  between  the  cloudy  romance 
of  a  panegyrist  and  the  plain  narrative  of  a  truthful  biographer. 

'  As  may  be  inferred  from  1  Thess.  iii.  2.  Did  Silas  also  join  him  at  Athens,  and  was  he 
also  sent  back  (to  Bercea)  ?  The  >jj«r«  is  in  favour  of  the  supposition,  the  jxdi-ot  is  against  it. 

7  Renan  alludes  to  the  Edict  of  Justinian  suppressing  the  Athenian  chair  of  Philosophy 
474  years  after. 


ST.   PAUL  AT  CORINTH.  813 

had  encamped  on  the  Areopagus,  and  devoted  to  the  flames  the  temples  on  the 
Acropolis  on  the  very  grounds  urged  by  St.  Paul,  "  that  the  gods  could  not  be 
shut  within  walls,  and  that  the  whole  universe  was  their  home  and  temple." l 
Yet  the  sword  and  fire  of  Xerxes,  and  all  the  millions  of  his  vast  host,  have 
been  utterly  impotent  in  then*  effects,  if  we  compare  them  to  the  results  which 
followed  from  the  apparent  failure  of  this  poor  and  insulted  tent-maker. 
Of  all  who  visit  Athens,  myriads  connect  it  with  the  name  of  Paul  who 
never  so  much  as  remember  that,  since  the  epoch  of  its  glory,  it  has  been 
trodden  by  the  feet  of  poets  and  conquerors  and  kings.  They  think  not  of 
Cicero,  or  Virgil,  or  Germanicus,  but  of  the  wandering  tent-maker.  In 
all  his  seeming  defeats  lay  the  hidden  germ  of  certain  victory.  He  founded 
no  church  at  Athens,  but  there — it  may  be  under  the  fostering  charge  of  the 
converted  Areopagite — a  church  grew  up.  In  the  next  century  it  furnished 
to  the  cause  of  Christianity  its  martyr  bishops  and  its  eloquent  apologists.2 
In  the  third  century  it  flourished  hi  peace  and  purity.  In  the  fourth  century 
it  was  represented  at  Nicaea,  and  the  noble  rhetoric  of  the  two  great  Christian 
friends  St.  Basil  and  St.  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  was  trained  in  its  Christian 
schools.  Nor  were  many  centuries  to  elapse  ere,  unable  to  confront  the 
pierced  hands  which  held  a  wooden  Cross,  its  myriads  of  deities  had  fled  into 
the  dimness  of  outworn  creeds,  and  its  tutelary  goddess,  in  spite  of  the 
flashing  eyes  which  Homer  had  commemorated,  and  the  mighty  spear  which 
had  been  moulded  out  of  the  trophies  of  Marathon,  resigned  her  maiden 
chamber  to  the  honour  of  that  meek  Galilsean  maiden  who  had  lived  under 
the  roof  of  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth — the  virgin  mother  of  the  Lord.3 


CHAPTER    XXYIIL 

ST.   PAUL  AT  CORINTH. 

"  Men,  women,  rich  and  poor,  in  the  cool  hours 
Slmffled  their  feet  along  the  pavement  white, 
Companioned  or  alone  ;  while  many  a  light 
Flared  here  and  there  from  wealthy  festivals, 
And  threw  their  moving  shadows  on  the  walls, 
Or  found  them  clustered  in  the  corniced  shade 
Of  some  arched  temple-door  or  dusky  colonnade." 

KEATS,  Lamia. 
"Ecdtsia  Dei  in  Corintho  :  Isetum  et  ingens  paradoxon." 

BENGKL,  in  1  Cor.  i.  2. 

0  NNOTICED  as  he  had  entered  it — nay,  even  more  unnoticed,  for  he  was  now 
alone— St.  Paul  left  Athens.  So  little  had  this  visit  impressed  him,  that  he 
only  once  alludes  to  it,  and  though  from  the  Acroeorinthus  he  might  often 

8  Publiua,  A.D.  179;  Quadratus,  Euseb.  H.  B.  iv.  23;  Aristidea,  A.D.  126;  Athena- 
goras,  circ.  A.D.  177. 

3  It  was  probably  in  the  sixth  century,  when  Justinian  closed  the  schools  of  philo- 
sophy, that  the  Parthenon  wa*  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  the  Thesenm  to  Sfc 
George  of  Cappadocia. 


314  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

have  beheld  its  famed  Acropolis,  he  never  felt  the  smallest  inclination  to  enter 
it  again.  This  was  his  only  recorded  experience  of  intercourse  with  the 
Gentile  Pharisaism  of  a  pompons  philosophy.  There  was  more  hope  of  raging 
Jews,  more  hope  of  ignorant  barbarians,  more  hope  of  degraded  slaves,  than  of 
those  who  had  become  fools  because  in  their  own  conceit  they  wore  exceptionally 
wise ;  who  were  alienated  by  a  spiritual  ignorance  born  of  moral  blindness ; 
•who,  because  conscience  had  lost  its  power  over  them,  had  become  vain  in  their 
imaginations,  and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened. 

He  sailed  to  Corinth,  the  then  capital  of  Southern  Greece,  which  formed 
the  Roman  province  of  Achaia.  The  poverty  of  his  condition,  the  desire  to 
waste  no  time,  the  greatness  of  his  own  infirmities,  render  it  nearly  certain 
that  he  did  not  make  his  way  over  those  forty  miles  of  road  which  separate 
Athens  from  Corinth,  and  which  would  have  led  him  through  Eleusis  and 
Megara,  but  that  he  sailed  direct,  in  about  five  hours,  across  the  Saronic  bay, 
and  dropped  anchor  under  the  low  green  hills  and  pine- woods  of  Cenchreae. 
Thence  he  made  his  way  on  foot  along  the  valley  of  Hexamili,  a  distance  of 
some  eight  miles,  to  the  city  nestling  under  the  huge  mass  of  its  rocky  citadel. 
Under  the  shadow  of  that  Acrocorinthus,  which  darkened  alternately  its  double 
seas,1  it  was  destined  that  St.  Paul  should  spend  nearly  two  busy  years  of  hia 
eventful  life. 

It  was  not  the  ancient  Corinth — the  Corinth  of  Periander,  or  of  Thucydides, 
or  of  Tiinoleon — that  ho  was  now  entering,  but  Colonis  Julia,  or  Laus  Juli 
Corinthus,  which  had  risen  out  of  the  desolate  ruins  of  the  older  city.  When 
the  Hegemony  had  passed  from  Sparta  and  Athens,  Corinth  occupied  their 
place,  and  as  the  leader  of  the  Achaean  league  she  was  regarded  as  the  light 
nnd  glory  of  Greece.  Flamininus,  when  the  battle  of  Cynoscephalae  had 
destroyed  the  hopes  of  Philip,  proclaimed  at  Corinth  the  independence  of 
Hellas.2  But  when  the  city  was  taken  by  L.  Mummius,  B.C.  146,  its  inhabi- 
tants had  been  massacred,  its  treasures  carried  off  to  adorn  the  triumph  of  the 
conqueror,  and  the  city  itself  devastated  and  destroyed.  For  a  hundred  years 
it  lay  in  total  ruin,  and  then  Julius  Caesar,  keenly  alive  to  the  beauty  and 
importance  of  its  position,  and  desiring  to  call  attention  to  the  goddess  for 
whose  worship  it  had  been  famous,  and  whoso  descendant  he  professed  to  be, 
rebuilt  it  from  its  foundations,  and  peopled  it  with  a  colony  of  veterans  and 
freedmen.8 

It  sprang  almost  instantly  into  fame  and  wealth.  Standing  on  the  bridge 
of  the  double  sea,  its  two  harbours — Lechaeum  on  the  Corinthian  and  Cenchreae 
m  the  Saronic  Gulf — instantly  attracted  the  commerce  of  the  east  and  west. 
The  Diolkos,  or  laud-channel,  over  which  ships  could  be  dragged  across  the 
Isthmus,  was  in  constant  use,  because  it  saved  voyagers  from  the  circum- 
navigation of  the  dreaded  promontory  of  Malea.4  Jews  with  a  keen  eye  to 

i  Stat.  Theb.  vii.  106.  s  B.C.  196. 

*  B.C.  44.    Pausan.  ii.  1,  8 ;  Plut.  Caes.  57 ;  Strabo/  viii.  6. 

*  Cape  Matapan.     The  Greeks  had  a  proverb,  MoAe'oj  irtpurMtov  «ri\o0ow  rav  ooc«3« — M 
r»  might  say,   "Before  sailing  round  Malea,  make  your  will"  (Strab.  riii.  p.  368). 
"Formidatum  Maleae  caput"  (Stat.  Theb.  ii.  33). 


ST.  PA.TJL  AT  COEINTH.  315 

the  profits  of  merchandise,  Greeks  attracted  by  the  reputation  of  the  site  and 
the  glory  of  the  great  Isthmian  games,  flocked  to  the  protection  of  the  Roman 
colony.  The  classic  antiquities  found  amid  the  debris  of  the  conflagration,  and 
the  successful  imitations  to  which  they  led,  were  among  the  earliest  branches 
of  the  trade  of  the  town.  Splendid  buildings,  enriched  with  ancient  pillars  of 
marble  and  porphyry,  and  adorned  with  gold  and  silver,  soon  began  to  rise 
side  by  side  with  the  wretched  huts  of  wood  and  straw  which  sheltered  the 
mass  of  the  poorer  population.1  Commerce  became  more  and  more  active. 
Objects  of  luxury  soon  found  their  way  to  the  marts,  which  were  visited  by 
every  nation  of  the  civilised  world — Arabian  balsam,  Egyptian  papyrus, 
Phoenician  dates,  Libyan  ivory,  Babylonian  carpets,  Cilician  goats'-hair,  Lycao- 
nian  wool,  Phrygian  slaves.  With  riches  came  superficial  refinement  and 
literary  tastes.  The  life  of  the  wealthier  inhabitants  was  marked  by  self- 
indulgence  and  intellectual  restlessness,  and  the  mass  of  the  people,  even  down 
to  the  slaves,  were  more  or  less  affected  by  the  prevailing  tendency.  Corinth 
was  the  Vanity  Fair  of  the  Roman  Empire,  at  once  the  London  and  the  Paris 
of  the  first  century  after  Christ. 

It  was  into  the  midst  of  this  mongrel  and  heterogeneous  population  of 
Greek  adventurers  and  Roman  bourgeois,  with  a  tainting  infusion  of  Phoeni- 
cians— this  mass  of  Jews,  ex-soldiors,  philosophers,  merchants,  sailors, 
freedmon,2  slaves,  tradespeople,  hucksters,  and  agents  of  every  form  of  vice — 
a  colony  "  without  aristocracy,  without  traditions,  without  well-established 
citizens  " — that  the  toil-worn  Jewish  wanderer  made  his  way.  He  entered  it 
as  he  had  entered  Athens — a  stricken  and  lonely  worker ;  but  here  he  was 
lost  even  more  entirely  in  the  low  and  careless  crowd.  Yet  this  was  the  city 
from  which  and  to  whose  inhabitants  he  was  to  write  those  memorable  letters 
which  were  to  influence  the  latest  history  of  the  world.  How  little  we  under- 
stand what  is  going  on  around  us !  How  little  did  the  wealthy  magnates  of 
Corinth  suspect  that  the  main  historic  significance  of  their  city  during  this 
epoch  would  be  centred  in  the  disputes  conducted  in  a  petty  synagogue,  and 
the  thoughts  written  in  a  tent-maker's  cell  by  that  bent  and  weary  Jew,  so 
solitary  and  so  wretched,  so  stained  with  the  dust  of  travel,  so  worn  with  the 
attacks  of  sickness  and  persecution !  How  true  it  is  that  the  living  world 
often  knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men ! 

For  when  wo  turn  to  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  and  Corinthians, 
and  trace  the  emotions  which  during  this  period  agitated  the  mind  of  the 
Apostle,  we  find  him  still  suffering  from  weakness  3  and  anxiety,  from  outward 
opposition  and  inward  agonies.  He  reminds  the  Thessaloniana  that  he  had 
prepared  thorn  for  his  tribulations  and  their  own,  and  speaks  touchingly  of  the 
comfort  which  he  had  received  from  the  news  of  their  faith  in  the  midst  of  his 
afflictions.*  Had  he  possessed  tho  modern  temperament  he  might  often  have 
been  helped  to  peace  and  calm  as  he  climbed  the  steep  Acrocorinthus  and  gazed 

i  1  Cor.  iii.  12 ;  Hausrath,  p.  317. 

3  'EiroiKOU*  TOV  an-eXfvflcfHicou  Wvou«  irX«<rrovs  (Strab.  viil.  6). 

•  Probably  another  attack  of  his  malady  (1  Cor.  ii.  3),  «  1  The*s.  111.  4,  7. 


316  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

from  its  lofty  summit  on  the  two  seas  studded  with  the  white  sails  of  many 
lands,  or  watched  the  glow  of  sunset  bathing  in  its  soft  lustre  the  widespread 
pageant  of  islands  and  mountains,  and  groves  of  cypress  and  pine.  But  all 
his  interest  lay  in  those  crowded  streets  where  his  Lord  had  much  people,  and 
in  the  varied  human  surroundings  of  his  daily  life.  How  deeply  he  was 
impressed  by  these  may  be  seen  in  the  Corinthian  Epistles.  His  illustrations 
are  there  chiefly  drawn  from  Gentile  customs — the  wild-beast  fights,1  which 
Athens  would  never  admit  while  she  had  an  Altar  to  Pity ;  the  lovely  stadium, 
in  which  he  had  looked  with  sympathy  on  the  grace  and  strength  and  swiftness 
of  many  a  youthful  athlete ;  the  race  2  and  the  boxing-matches,3  the  insulting 
vanity  of  Roman  triumph,4  the  long  hair  of  effeminate  dandies,5  the  tribunal 
of  the  Proconsul,6  the  shows  of  the  theatre,7  the  fading  garland  of  Isthmian  pine.8 
But  there  was  one  characteristic  of  heathen  life  which  would  come  home 
to  him  at  Corinth  with  overwhelming  force,  and  fill  his  pure  soul  with  infinite 
pain.  It  was  the  gross  immorality  of  a  city  conspicuous  for  its  depravity 
even  amid  the  depraved  cities  of  a  dying  heathenism.9  Its  very  name  had 
become  a  synonym  for  reckless  debauchery.  This  abysmal  profligacy  of 
Corinth  was  due  partly  to  the  influx  of  sailors,  who  made  it  a  trystiug-plaee 
for  the  vices  of  every  land,  and  partly  to  the  vast  numerical  superiority  of  the 
slaves,  of  which,  two  centuries  later,  the  city  was  said  to  contain  many  myriads.10 
And  so  far  from  acting  as  a  check  upon  this  headlong  immorality,  religion 
had  there  taken  under  its  immediate  protection  the  very  pollutions  which  it 
was  its  highest  function  to  suppress.  A  thousand  Hierodouloi  were  conse- 
crated to  the  service  of  Impurity  in  the  infamous  Temple  of  Aphrodite 
Pandemos.  The  Lais  of  old  days,  whose  tomb  at  Corinth  had  been  marked 
by  a  sphinx  with  a  human  head  between  her  claws,  had  many  shameless  and 
rapacious  representatives.  East  and  west  mingled  their  dregs  of  foulness  in 
the  new  Gomorrah  of  classic  culture,11  and  the  orgies  of  the  Paphian  goddess 
were  as  notorious  as  those  of  Isis  or  of  Ashorah.  It  was  from  this  city  and 
amid  its  abandoned  proletariate  that  the  Apostle  dictated  his  frightful  sketch 
of  Paganism.12  It  was  to  the  converts  of  this  city  that  he  addressed  most 
frequently,  and  with  most  solemn  warning  and  burning  indignation,  his  stern 
prohibitions  of  sensual  crime.18  It  was  to  converts  drawn  from  the  reeking 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  32  ;  Lucian,  Demonax,  57  ;  Philostr.  Apollon.  Iv.  22. 
s  1  Cor.  ix.  24. 

•  Id.  ver.  27.  •  1  Cor.  xi.  14.  '  1  Cor.  iv.  9. 

*  2  Cor.  ii.  14—16.  «  2  Cor.  v.  10.  *  1  Cor.  ix.  25. 

9  Hesych.  s.  v.  Kop«v8iof«»*<u.  Wetstein  (the  great  source  of  classical  quotations 
In  illustration  of  the  New  Testament,  whose  stores  have  been  freely  rifled  by  later 
authors)  and  others  refer  to  Ar.  flat.  149 ;  llor.  Epp.  I.  xvii.  36 ;  Athen.  vii.  13 ;  xiii. 
21,  32,  54  ;  Strabo,  viii.  6,  20—21 ;  xii.  3,  36 ;  Cic.  De  Rep.  ii.  4 ;  and  Aristid.  Or.  III., 
p.  39,  &c. 

10  On  the  numbers  of  slaves  in  ancient  days,  see  Athenaeus  vi.  p.  275  (ed.  Casaubon). 

11  Juv.  viii.  112  ;  Hor.  Ep.  I.  xvii.  36;  Strdbo,  viii.  6;  Athen.  xiii.  p.  573,  ed.  Casaubon. 
A  reference  to  the  immorality  of  the  city  may  still  be  heard  in  the  use  of  the  trcn?d 
"  Corinthians  "  for  profligate  idlers. 

»  Rom.  i.  21—32. 

»lCor.  T.  l;  vi,  9-20;  x.  7,  8;  2 Cor.  vt.  14;  vU.  1, 


8*.  PAtTL  AT  CORINTH.  817 

haunts  of  its  slaves  and  artisans  that  lie  writes  that  they  too  Lad  once  been 
sunk  in  the  lowest  depths  of  sin  and  shame.1  It  is  of  this  city  that  we  hear  the 
sorrowful  admission  that  in  the  world  of  heathendom  a  pure  life  and  an  honest 
life  was  a  thing  well-nigh  unknown.8  All  sins  are  bound  together  by  subtle 
links  of  affinity.  Impurity  was  by  no  means  the  only  vice  for  which  Corinth 
was  notorious.  It  was  a  city  of  drunkards ;  3  it  was  a  city  of  extortioners  and 
cheats.  But  the  worse  the  city,  the  deeper  was  the  need  for  his  labours,  and 
the  greater  was  the  probability  that  many  in  it  would  be  yearning  for  delivery 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 
In  such  a  place  it  was  more  than  ever  necessary  that  St.  Paul  should  not 
only  set  an  example  absolutely  blameless,  but  that  he  should  even  abstain  from 
tilings  which  were  perfectly  admissible,  if  they  should  furnish  a  handle  to  the 
enoinies  of  Christ.  And  therefore,  lest  these  covetous  shopkeepers  and  traders 
should  be  able  to  charge  him  with  seeking  his  own  gain,  he  determined  to 
accept  nothing  at  their  hands.  There  seemed  to  be  a  fair  chance  that  he 
would  be  able  to  earn  his  bread  by  tent-making  in  a  port  so  universally  fre- 
quented. In  this  respect  he  was  unusually  fortunate.  He  found  a  Jew  of 
Pontus,  named  Aquila,4  who  worked  at  this  trade  with  his  wife  Priscilla. 
As  nothing  is  said  either  of  their  baptism  or  their  conversion,  it  is  probable 
that  they  wore  already  Christians,  and  Paul  formed  with  them  a  lifelong 
friendship,  to  which  he  owed  many  happy  hours.  This  excellent  couple  were 
at  present  living  in  Corinth  in  consequence  of  the  decree  of  Claudius,  expelling 
all  Jews  from  Rome.6  Tyrannous  as  the  measure  was,  it  soon  became  a  dead 
letter,  and  probably  caused  but  little  inconvenience  to  those  exiles,  because 

» 1  Cor.  vi.  9—11 ;  2  Cor.  xii.  2L  s  1  Cor.  v.  9,  10. 

3  Corinthians  were  usually  introduced  drunk  on  the  stage  (-(Eliau.  V.  II.  iii.  15;  Atlien. 
x.  438,  iv.  137  ;  1  Cor.  xi.  21 ;  Hausrath,  p.  323). 

4  The  Aquila,  a  Jew  of  Pontus,  who  translated  the  Old  Testament  into  Greek  more  liter- 
ally than  the  LXX.,  lived  more  than  half  a  century  later,  and  may  conceivably  have  been 
a  grandson  of  this  Aquila.    Pontius  Aquila  was  a  noble  Roman  name  (Cic.  ad  Fain.  x.  33; 
Suet.  Jul.  78) ;  but  that  Aquila  may  have  been  a  freedrnan  of  that  house,  and  that  Luke 
has  made  a  mistake  in  connecting  him  with  Pontus,  is  without  the  shadow  of  probability 
(cf.  Acts  ii.  9 ;  1  Pet.  i.  1).     His  real  name  may  have  been  Onkdos  (Deutsch,  Lit.  Item., 
p.  330),  Hebraised  from  'A/cvAo.?,  or  may  have  been  "\CJ,  Latinised  into  Aquila ;  but  these 
are  mere  valueless  conjectures.     He  was  a  tent-maker,  married  to  an  active  and  kindly 
wife,  who  lived  sometimes  at  Rome,  sometimes  at  Corinth,  and  sometimes  at  Ephesus 
(Acts  xviii.  26 ;    1  Cor.  xvL  19 ;    Horn.  xvi.  3 ;  2  Tirn.  iv.  19) ;  and  they  were  much 
beloved  by  St.  Paul,  and  rendered  extraordinary  services  to  the  cause  of  Christianity. 
Priscilla  was  probably  the  more  energetic  of  the  two,  or  she  would  not  be  mentioned 
first  in  Acts  xviii.  IS,  26;  Rom.  xvi.  3;  2  Tim.  iv.  19.     {Ewald,  vi.,  p.  489;  Plumptre, 
Jiibl.  Studies,  p.  417.) 

5  In  A.D.  52  the  relations  of  Judjca  to  Rome  began  to  be  extremely  unsettled  (Tac. 
Ann.  xii.  54),  and  just  as  the  Gauls  and  Celts  were  expelled  from  Rome  (A.D.  9)  on 
receipt  of  the  news  about  the  loss  of  Varus  and  his  legions,  so  the  Jews  were  now 
ordered  to  quit  Rome.     Suetonius  says,   "Judaeos  impulsore  Chresto  assidue  tumul- 
tuantes  Roma  expulit"  (Claud.  25).     Whether  Chrestos  was  some  unknown  ringleader 
of  tumult  among  the  immense  Jewish  population  of  Rome — so  immense,  that  from  their 
Ghetto  across  the  Tiber  no  less  than  8,000  had  petitioned  against  the  succession  of 
Archelaus  (Jos.  Antt.  xvii.  11,  §  1} — or  an  ignorant  misreading  of  the  name  of  Christ, 
cannot  be  ascertained.      We  know  that  Christianity  was  very  early  introduced  into 
Rome  (Rom.  xvi.  7 ;  Acts  xxviii.  14),  and  we  know  that  wherever  it  was  introduced, 
Jewish.  tumultB  followed  (Acts  xvii.  13 ;  xiv.  19 ;  xiil  50),  and  that  the  Romans  never 


318  THE  Lira  AHD  WORK  o?  ST.  PAUL. 

the  nature  of  their  trado  seems  to  have  made  It  desirable  for  them  to  move 
from  place  to  place.  At  Corinth,  as  subsequently  at  Ephcsus,  Paul  worked 
in  their  employ,  and  shared  in  their  profits.  These  profits,  unhappily,  were 
scanty.  It  was  a  time  of  general  pressure,  and  though  the  Apostle  toiled 
night  and  day,  all  his  exertions  were  unable  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.1 
He  knew  what  it  was  to  suffer,  even  from  the  pangs  of  hunger,  but  not  even 
when  he  was  thus  starving  would  he  accept  assistance  from  his  Achaian  eon- 
verts.  He  had  come  to  an  absolute  determination  that,  while  willing  to  receive 
necessary  aid  from  churches  which  loved  him,  and  which  he  loved,  he  would 
forego  at  Corinth  the  support  which  he  considered  to  be  the  plain  right  of  an 
Apostle,  lest  any  should  say  that  he  too,  like  the  mass  of  traffickers  around 
him,  did  but  seek  his  own  gain.2  Contentedly,  therefore — nay,  even  gladly,  did 
he  become  a  fellow-labourer  with  the  worthy  pair  who  were  both  compatriots 
and  brethren ;  and  even  when  he  was  working  hardest,  he  could  still  bo  giving 
instruction  to  all  who  sought  him.  But  now,  as  ever,  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath 
furnished  him  with  his  chief  opportunity.  On  that  day  he  was  always  to  be 
found  in  the  Jewish  synagogue,  and  his  weekly  discourses  produced  a  deep 
impression  both  on  Jews  and  Greeks.  ,-l...i,{; 

But  when  the  peiiod  of  his  solitude  was  ended  by  the  arrival  of  Silas  from 
Beroea,  and  Tiinotheus  from  Thessalonica,  he  was  enabled  to  employ  a  yet 
more  intense  activity.  Not  only  did  he  find  their  presence  a  support,  but  they 
also  cheered  him  by  favourable  intelligence,  and  brought  him  a  contribution 
from  the  Philippians,8  which  alleviated  his  most  pressing  needs.  Accordingly, 
their  arrival  was  followed  by  a  fresh  outburst  of  missionary  zeal,  and  he  bore 
witness  with  a  yet  more  impassioned  earnestness  to  his  Master's  cause.*  At 
this  period  his  preaching  was  mainly  addressed  to  the  Jews,  and  the  one  object 
of  it  was  to  prove  from  Scripture  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus.'  But  with  them 

took  the  trouble  to  draw  any  distinction  between  Jews  and  Christians.  It  is,  therefore, 
quite  possible  that  these  incessant  riots  may  have  arisen  in  disputes  about  the  Messiah. 
Dion  Cassius,  indeed,  corrects  Suetonius,  and  says  that  the  Jews  were  so  numerous  that 
they  could  not  be  expelled  without  danger,  and  that  Claudius  therefore  contented  himself 
with  closing  their  synagogues  (Dion,  bt.  6).  Perhaps  the  decree  was  passed,  but  never 
really  enforced;  and  Aquila  may  have  been  one  of  the  Jews  who  obeyed  it  without  difficulty 
for  the  reasons  suggested  in  the  text.  Nay,  more,  he  may  have  been  selected  for  special 
banishment  as  a  ringleader  in  the  agitation,  if,  as  some  suppose,  he  and  his  wife  were 
the  founders  of  Christianity  at  Home.  In  any  case  its  operation  was  brief,  for  shortly 
afterwards  we  again  find  the  Jews  in  vast  numbers  at  Home  (Rom.  rvi.  3 ;  Acts  xxviii. 
17).  It  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  the  edict  may  have  been  identical  with,  or  a  part 
of,  that  De  Mathematicis  Italid  pdhndia  which  Tacitus  mentions  as  atrox  et  irritum. 


»  2  Cor.  xi.  9 ;  1  Cor.  iv.  11, 12 ;  ix.  4. 

2  See  Acts  xx.  34 ;  1  Cor.  ix.  12 ;  2  Cor.  vii.  2;  1  Thess.  ii.  9  ;  2  Thess.  ffi.  8. 

»  Phil  iv.  15 ;  2  Cor.  xi.  9. 


"was  engrossed  "  (Vulg.,  instabat  verlo),  but  less  correctly.     '•  Sensus  est,  majore  vehe- 
mentia  fuisse  impulsum  ut  iibere  palamque  de  Christo  dissereret "  (Calvin), 
6 1  Cor.  xv.  3. 


8T.  PAXTL  AT  COSINTH.  819 

be  made  no  further  progress.  Crispus,  indeed,  the  governor  of  the  synagogue, 
had  been  converted  with  all  his  house ;  and — perhaps  during  the  absence  of 
his  companions — Paul  abandoned  his  usual  rule  by  baptising  him  "with  his 
own  hands.1  But,  as  a  body,  the  Jews  met  him  with  an  opposition  which  at 
last  found  expression  in  the  sort  of  language  of  which  the  Talmud  furnishes 
some  terrible  specimens.3  No  further  object  could  bo  served  by  endeavouring 
to  convince  them,  and  at  last  he  shook  off  the  dust  of  his  garments,  and  calling 
them  to  witness  that  he  was  innocent  of  their  blood,3  he  announced  that  from 
that  day  forth  he  should  preach  only  to  the  Gentiles. 

Already  he  had  converted  some  Gentiles  of  humble  and  probably  of  slavish 
origin,  the  first  among  these  being  the  household  of  Stephanas.4  With  Crispus 
and  these  faithful  converts,  ho  migrated  from  the  synagogue  to  a  room  close  by, 
which  was  placed  at  his  disposal  by  a  proselyte  of  the  name  of  Justus.6  In 
this  room  he  continued  to  preach  for  many  months.  The  entire  numbers  of 
the  Corinthian  converts  were  probably  small — to  be  counted  rather  by  scores 
than  by  hundreds.  This  is  certain,  because  otherwise  they  could  not  have  met 
in  a  single  room  in  the  small  houses  of  the  ancients,  nor  could  they  have  been 
all  present  at  common  meals.  The  minute  regulations  about  married  women, 
widows,  and  virgins  seem  to  show  that  the  female  element  of  the  little  con- 
gregation was  large  in  proportion  to  the  men,  and  it  was  even  necessary  to 
lay  down  the  rule  that  women  were  not  to  teach  or  preach  among  them,  though 
Priscilla  and  Phoebe  had  been  conspicuous  for  their  services.8  And  yet,  small 
&s  was  the  congregation,  low  as  was  the  position  of  most  of  them,  vile  as  had 
been  the  antecedents  of  some,  the  method  and  the  topics  of  the  Apostle's  preach- 
ing had  been  adopted  with  much  anxiety.  He  was  by  no  means  at  homo 
among  these  eager,  intellectual,  disputatious,  rhetoric-loving,  sophisticated 
Greeks.  They  had  none  of  the  frank  simplicity  of  his  Thessalonians,  none 
of  the  tender  sympathy  of  his  Philippians,  none  of  the  emotional  suscep- 
tibility of  his  Galatian  converts.  They  were  more  like  the  scoffing  and  self- 
satisfied  Athenians.  At  Athens  he  had  adopted  a  poetic  and  finished  style, 
and  it  had  almost  wholly  failed  to  make  any  deep  impression.  At  Corinth, 
accordingly,  he  adopted  a  wholly  different  method.  HI  and  timid,  and  so 
nervous  that  he  sometimes  trembled  while  addressing  them  7 — conscious  that 
his  bodily  presence  was  mean  in  the  judgment  of  these  connoisseurs  in  beauty, 

1  1  Cor.  L  14. 

2  Acts  xviii.  6,  atmnuriroiitvav .    '*   i   *al  facurfanov-srur.    gee  "  Life  of  Christ,"  il.  4591 
*  Ezek.  xxxiii.  4. 

4  1  Cor.  xvi.  15,  "the  firstf raits  of  Achaia"  (in  Rom.  xvi.  5  the  true  reading  is  "of 
Alia").  Fortanjitus  and  Achaicus  were  probably  slaves  or  freedmen,  as  were  "  Chloe's 
household  " ;  Tertius— who  had  the  high  honour  of  being  the  amanuensis  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans— and  Ouartus  were  probably  descendants  of  the  Roman  veterans  who  were 
the  first  colonists,  and  may  have  been  younger  brothers  of  Secundus.  Lucius,  Jason, 
and  Sosipater  were  Jews  (Rom.  xvi.  21).  . 

*  There  is  no  sufficient  ground  for  calling  him  Titius  Justus  on  the  strength  of  K  and 
one  or  two  versions ;  it  seems  to  be  simply  due  to  the  homoeoteleuton  in  ii-d/ian.  Theie 
la  etiil  less  ground  for  identifying  him  with  Titus. 

«  Horn,  xvi.  L.  2.  71Cor.it  8. 


320  TOE  LIFE  AND   WOBK  O»  KT.  PAUL. 

and  his  speech  contemptible  in  the  estimation  of  these  judges  of  eloquence1-* 
thinking,  too,  that  he  had  little  in  the  way  of  earthly  endowment,  unless  it 
were  in  his  infirmities,2  he  yet  deliberately  decided  not  to  avoid,  as  he  had 
done  at  Athens,  the  topic  of  the  Cross.3  From  Corinth  he  could  see  the  snowy 
summits  of  Parnassus  and  Helicon  ;  but  he  determined  never  again  to  adorn 
his  teaching  with  poetic  quotations  or  persuasive  words  of  human  wisdom,4 
but  to  trust  solely  to  the  simple  and  unadorned  grandeur  of  his  message,  and 
to  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  by  which  he  was  sure  that  it  would  be  accom- 
panied. There  was,  indeed,  a  wisdom  in  his  words,  but  it  was  not  the  wisdom 
of  this  world,  nor  the  kind  of  wisdom  after  which  the  Greeks  sought.  It  was 
a  spiritual  wisdom  of  which  he  could  merely  reveal  to  them  the  elements — not 
strong  meat  for  the  perfect,  but  milk  as  for  babes  in  Christ.  He  aimed  at 
nothing  but  the  clear,  simple  enunciation  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  crucified.* 
But  what  was  lacking  in  formal  syllogism  or  powerful  declamation  was  more 
than  supplied  by  power  from  on  high.  Paul  had  determined  that,  if  converts 
were  won,  they  should  be  won,  not  by  human  eloquence,  but  by  Divine  love. 
Nor  was  he  disappointed  in  thus  trusting  in  God  alone.  Amid  all  the  sufferings 
which  marked  his  stay  among  the  Achaians,  he  appeals  to  their  personal 
knowledge  that,  whatever  they  may  have  thought  or  said  among  themselves 
about  the  weakness  of  his  words,  they  could  not  at  least  deny  the  "  signs,  and 
wonders,  and  powers"8  which, by  the  aid  of  the  Spirit,  were  conspicuous  in  his 
acts.  They  must  have  recalled  many  a  scene  in  which,  under  the  humble  roof 
of  Justus,  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  of  religious  feeling  wero  broken  up, 
the  strange  accents  of  "  the  tongues"  echoed  through  the  thrilled  assembly, 
and  deeds  were  wrought  which  showed  to  that  little  gathering  of  believers 
that  a  Power  higher  than  that  of  man  was  visibly  at  work  to  convince  and 
comfort  them.  And  thus  many  Corinthians — the  Gentiles  largely  exceeding 
the  Jews  in  number — were  admitted  by  baptism  into  the  Church.r  The 
majority  of  them  were  of  the  lowest  rank,  yet  they  could  number  among 
them  some  of  the  wealthier  inhabitants,  such  as  Gains,  and  perhaps  Chloe, 
and  even  Erastus,  the  chamberlain  of  the  city.  Nor  was  it  in  Corinth  only 
that  Christians  began  to  be  converted.  Paul,  like  Wesley,  "  regarded  all  the 
world  as  his  parish,''  and  it  is  little  likely  that  his  restless  zeal  would  have 
made  him  stay  for  nearly  two  years  within  the  city  walls.  We  know  that 
there  was  a  church  at  Cenchresa,  whose  deaconess  afterwards  "  carried  under 
the  folds  of  her  robe  the  whole  future  of  Christian  theology;"8  and  saints 
were  scattered  in  small  communities  throughout  all  Achaia.9 

And  yet,  though  God  was  thus  giving  the  increase,  it  must  have  required 

'  2  Cor.  T.  1, 10.    Luther,  who  seems  to  have  entered  into  the  very  life  of  St.  Paul, 
calls  him  "  Em  armes  din-res  Mannlein  wie  unaer  Philippua  "  (Melaucthon), 
2  2  Cor.  xii.  5,  9. 

1  Cor.  i.  23;  ii.  2. 

1  Cor.  ii.  1 — 5.    ivBpiairivjfi  fs  a  good  explanatory  gloss  of  A,  0,  J,  &o, 

1  Cor.  L  17  ;  ii.  2 ;  2  Cor.  i.  18. 

2  Cor.  xii.  12.  7  Acts  xviii.  8.  8  Renan,  p.  219. 

2  Cor.  i.  1 ;  Rom.  xvi.  1.    The  nearest  Achaian  towns  would  be  Leclueum,  Schoenus, 
Cenchreae,  Crommyon,  Sioyon,  Argos. 


8T.  PAUL  AT  CORINTH.  321 

no  small  courage  in  such  a  city  to  preach  such  a  doctrine,  and  the  very  vicinity 
of  the  synagogue  to  the  house  of  Justus  must  have  caused  frequent  and  pain- 
ful  collisions  between  the  Jews  and  the  little  Christian  community.  Among 
all  the  sorrows  to  which  St.  Paul  alludes  whenever  he  refers  to  this  long  stay 
at  Corinth,  there  is  none  that  finds  more  bitter  expression  than  his  complaint 
of  his  fellow-countrymen.  He  speaks  of  them  to  the  Thessalonians  in  words  of 
unusual  exasperation,  saying  that  they  pleased  not  God,  and  were  contrary 
to  all  men,  and  that  by  their  attempts  to  hinder  the  preaching  to  the  Gentiles 
of  the  Christ  whom  they  had  murdered,  they  had  now  filled  up  the  measure 
of  their  sins.1  The  rupture  was  open  and  decisive.  If  they  had  excommu- 
nicated him,  and  he  was  filled  with  such  anger  and  despair  when  he  thought 
of  them,  it  is  certain  that  the  struggle  between  them  must  have  been  a  constant 
source  of  anxiety  and  peril.  This  might  even  have  ended  in  Paul's  with- 
drawal to  now  fields  of  labour  in  utter  despondency  but  for  the  support  which 
again,  as  often  at  his  utmost  need,  he  received  from  a  heavenly  vision.  The 
Lord  whom  he  had  seen  on  the  road  to  Damascus  appeared  to  him  at  night, 
and  said  to  him :  "  Fear  not,  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  at  last  the  contest  between  the  Jews  and  the  Christians  came  to  a 
head.  The  Proconsul  of  Achaia  2  ended  his  term  of  office,  and  the  Proconsul 
appointed  by  the  emperor  was  Marcus  Anuseus  Novatus,  who,  having  been 
adopted  by  the  friendly  rhetorician  Lucius  Junius  Gallic,  had  taken  the  name 
of  Lucius  Junius  Annseus  Gallio,  by  which  he  is  generally  known.  Very 
different  was  the  estimate  of  Gallio  by  his  contemporaries  from  the  mistaken 
one  which  has  made  his  name  proverbial  for  indiff erentism  in  the  Christian 
world.  To  the  friends  among  whom  he  habitually  moved  he  was  the  moat 
genial,  the  most  lovable  of  men.  The  brother  of  Seneca,  and  the  uncle  of 
Lucan,  he  was  the  most  universally  popular  member  of  that  distinguished 
family.  He  was  pre-eminently  endowed  with  that  light  and  sweetness  which 
are  signs  of  the  utmost  refinement,  and  "  the  sweet  Gallio  "  is  the  epithet  by 
which  he  alone  of  the  ancients  is  constantly  designated.3  "  No  mortal  man 
is  so  sweet  to  any  single  person  as  he  is  to  all  mankind,"  4  wrote  Seneca  of  him. 

»  1  Thess.  ii.  14—16. 

3  The  term  Proconsul  is  historically  exact.     The  Government  of  Achaia  had  been  BO 
Incessantly  changed  that  a  mistake  would  have  been  excusable.  Achaia  had  been  Procon- 
sular under  Augustus  ;  imperial,  for  a  time,  under  Tiberius  (Tac.  Ann.  L  76) ;  Procon- 
sular, after  A.D.  44,  under  Claudius  (Suet.  Claud,  xxv.) ;  free  under  Nero  (Suet.  Ner. 
24) ;  and  again  Proconsular  under  Vespasian  (Suet.  Yap.  viiL).    See  supra,  p.  197,  md 
Excursus  XVI. 

8  "  Dulcis  Gallio  "  (Stat.  Sylv.  IL  7,  32).  See  Seekert  after  God,  16— 2L  I  need  not 
here  recur  to  the  foolish  notion  that  Gallio  sent  some  of  St.  Paul's  writings  to  his 
brother  Seneca.  On  this  see  Aubertin,  Seneque  et  St.  Paul,  p.  117.  Nor  need  I 
recur  to  the  resemblance  between  the  Roman  philosopher  and  the  Apostle,  which  I  have 
examined  in  Seekers  after  God,  174—183,  and  which  is  fully  treated  by  Dr.  Ughtfoot 
(Phil.  pp.  268—331). 

4  "Nemo  mortal iu m  unl  tarn  dulcis  est  quam  hie  omnibus"  (Sen.   Quaest.  N*A.  IT. 
praef.  §  11).    He  dedicates  to  him  his  De  Ira  and  Dt  Vita  Beata,  and  alludes  tc  him 
in  Ep.  civ.  Consol.  ad  Udv.  16. 


322  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

"  Even  those  who  love  my  brother  Gallic  to  the  very  utmost  of  their  power 
yet  do  not  love  him  enough,"  l  ho  says  in  another  placo.  Ho  was  the  very 
flower  of  pagan  courtesy  and  pagan  culture  —  a  Roman  with  all  a  Roman's 
dignity3  and  seriousness,  and  yot  with  all  the  grace  and  versatility  of  a 
polished  Greek.8 

Such  was  the  man  on  whoso  decision  the  fortunes  of  Paul  were  to  depend. 
Whoever  the  former  Proconsul  had  been,  he  had  not  been  one  with  whom  the 
Jews  could  venture  to  trifle,  nor  had  they  once  attempted  to  get  rid  of  their 
opponent  by  handing  him  over  to  the  secular  arm.  But  now  that  a  new  Pro- 
consul had  arrived,  who  was  perhaps  unfamiliar  with  the  duties  of  his  office,  and 
whose  desire  for  popularity  at  the  beginning  of  his  government  might  havo 
made  him  complaisant  to  prosperous  Jews,  they  thought  that  they  could  with 
impunity  excite  a  tumult.  They  rose  in  a  body,  seized  Paul,  and  dragged  him 
before  the  tesselated  pavement  on  which  was  set  the  curule  chair  of  the  Pro- 
consul. It  was  evident  that  they  had  presumed  on  his  probable  inexperience, 
and  on  his  reputation  for  mildness;  and,  with  all  the  turbulent  clamour  of 
their  race,  they  charged  Paul  with  "  persuading  men  to  worship  God  contrary 
to  the  Law."  Though  Claudius  had  expelled  them  from  Rome,  their  religion 
was  a  religio  licita  —  i.e.,  it  was  licensed  by  the  State  ;  but  the  religion  of 
"  this  fellow,"  they  urged,  though  it  might  pass  itself  off  under  the  name  of 
Judaism,  was  not  Judaism  at  all  —  it  was  a  spurious  counterfeit  of  Judaism, 
which  had  become  a  religio  illicita  by  running  counter  to  its  Mosaic  Law.4 
Such  was  the  charge  urged  by  a  hubbub  of  voices,  and,  as  soon  as  it  had 
become  intelligible,  Paul  was  on  the  point  of  making  his  defence.  But  Gallio 
was  not  going  to  trouble  himself  by  listening  to  any  defence.  He  took  no 
notice  whatever  of  Paul,  and,  disregarding  him  as  completely  as  though  he 
had  been  non-existent,  replied  to  the  Jews  by  a  contemptuous  dismissal  of 
them  and  their  charge.  With  a  thorough  knowledge  of,  and  respect  for,  the 
established  laws,  but  with  a  genuinely  Roman  indifference  for  conciliatory 
language,  and  a  more  than  Roman  haughtiness  of  demeanour  towards  a 
people  whom,  like  his  brother,  he  probably  despised  and  detested,  he  stopped 
the  proceedings  with  the  remark  that  their  accusation  against  St.  Paul,  as  a 
violator  of  any  law,  Mosaic  or  otherwise,  which  he  could  recognise,  was 
utterly  baseless.  "  Had  this  been  a  matter  of  civil  wrong  or  moral  outrage  5 
it  would  have  been  but  right  for  me  to  put  up  with  you,  and  listen  to  these 
charges  of  yours  ;  but  if  it  be  a  number  of  questions  6  about  an  opinion,  and 


1  "  Giillionera,  fratrem  meum.  quern  nemo  non  parum  amat  etiam  qui  amare  plus  non 
potcst  "  (Nat.  Qu.  iv.  pracf.  §  10). 


adA.U.C.  818). 

»  Dion  Casa.  be.  35. 

*  Hence  though  Topi  rbv  r6^ov,  ver.  13,  means  "contrary  to  the  Jewish  law  "  (of.  ver. 
15),  it  might  in  this  way  come  under  the  cognisance  of  the  Roman  law. 

*  Ver.  14,  iiunjfia,  a  legal  injury  ;  pq&ovpyw"1.  a  moral  offence. 

8  £jmfaaTa  infr.  A,  B,  D2,  E,  Coptic,  Sahidic,  Armenian,  &c.     "My  lord's"  Roman 
disdain  for  the  yens  sceleratissima  is  heard  in  every  accent. 


ST.   PAUL  AT  COEINTH.  323 

about  mere  names,  and  your  law,  see  to  it  yourselves ;  for  a  judge  of  these 
matters  I  do  not  choose  to  be."  Having  thus,  as  we  should  say,  quashed 
the  indictment,  "  my  Lord  Gallio  "  ordered  his  lictors  to  clear  the  court.  We 
may  be  sure  they  made  short  work  of  ejecting  the  frustrated  but  muttering 
mob,  on  whose  disappointed  malignity,  if  his  countenance  at  all  reflected  the 
feelings  expressed  by  his  words,  he  must  have  been  looking  down  from  his 
lofty  tribunal  with  undisguised  contempt.1  It  took  the  Romans  nearly  two 
centuries  to  learn  that  Christianity  was  something  infinitely  more  important 
than  the  Jewish  sect  which  they  mistook  it  to  be.  It  would  have  been  better 
for  them  and  for  the  world  if  they  had  tried  to  got  rid  of  this  disdain,  and 
to  learn  wherein  lay  the  secret  power  of  a  religion  which  they  could  neither 
eradicate  nor  suppress.  But  while  we  regret  this  unphilosophic  disregard,  let 
us  at  least  do  justice  to  Roman  impartiality.  In  Gallio,  in  Lysias,  in  Felix, 
in  Festus,  in  the  centurion  Julius,  even  in  Pilate,2  different  as  were  their 
degrees  of  rectitude,  wo  cannot  but  admire  the  trained  judicial  insight  with 
which  they  at  once  saw  through  the  subterranean  injustice  and  virulent  ani- 
mosity of  the  Jews  in  bringing  false  charges  against  innocent  men.  Deep  as 
was  his  ignorance  of  the  issues  which  were  at  stake,  the  conduct  of  Gallio 
was  in  accordance  with  the  strictest  justice  when  "  he  dravo  them  from  his 
judgment-seat." 

But  the  scene  did  not  end  here.  The  volatile  Greeks,3  though  they 
had  not  dared  to  interfere  until  the  decision  of  the  Proconsul  had  been 
announced,  were  now  keenly  delighted  to  see  how  completely  the  malice  of 
the  Jews  had  been  foiled ;  and  since  the  highest  authority  had  pronounced 
the  charge  against  St.  Paul  to  be  frivolous,  they  seized  the  opportunity  of 
executing  a  little  Lynch  law.  The  ringleader  of  the  Jewish  faction  had 
been  a  certain  Sosthenes,  who  may  have  succeeded  Crispus  in  the  function 
of  Ruler  of  the  Synagogue,  and  whose  zeal  may  have  been  all  the  more 
violently  stimulated  by  the  defection  of  his  predecessor.*  Whether  the 
Corinthians  knew  that  St.  Paul  was  a  Roman  citizen  or  not,  they  must  at 
least  have  been  aware  that  he  had  separated  from  the  synagogue,  and  that 

1  Perhaps  no  passage  of  the  ancient  authors,  full  as  they  are  of  dislike  to  the 
Jews  (see  infra,  Excursus  XIV.),  expresses  so  undisguised  a  bitterness,  or  ia  so 
thoroughly  expressive  of  the  way  in  which  the  Romans  regarded  this  singular  people, 
as  that  in  which  Tacitus  relates  how  Tiberius  banished  4,000  freedmen  "infected  with 
that  superstition  "  into  Sardinia,  to  keep  down  the  brigands  of  that  island,  with  the 
distinct  hope  that  the  unhealthy  climate  might  help  to  get  rid  of  them — "  et  si,  ob 
gravitatem  caeli  interissent,  vile  damnum  "  (Ann.  ii.  85).  Suetonius  tells  us,  with  yet 
more  brutal  indifference,  that  Tiberius,  on  pretext  of  military  service,  scattered  them 
among  all  the  unhealthiest  provinces,  banishing  the  rest  on  pain  of  being  reduced  to 
slavery  (Suet.  Tib.  86 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  3,  §  5). 

1  Acts  xxiii.  29 ;  xxv.  19.  The  ignorant  provincialism  of  the  justices  at  Philippi  was 
of  too  low  a  type  to  understand  Roman  law. 

»  Acts  xviii.  17,  vavTft.  The  OC'EAATJW  Of  D,  E  is  a  gloss,  though  a  correct  one.  If 
this  Sosthenes  is  identical  with  the  Sosthenes  of  1  Cor.  i.  1,  he  must  have  been  sub- 
sequently converted ;  but  the  name  is  a  common  one,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  that  two 
rulers  of  the  synagogue  would  be  converted  in  succession. 

*  I  give  the  view  which  seems  to  me  the  most  probable,  pjwrfng  over  masses  of  idle 
conjectures. 


334  THE  LIFE  AJTD  WO&K  OF  ST   PAUI» 

many  Gentiles  espoused  his  views.  They  thought  it  intolerable  that  Jews 
should  try  to  trump  up  charges  against  one  who  in  some  measure  belonged 
to  themselves.  The  opportunity  to  show  these  Jews  what  they  thought  of 
them,  and  give  them  a  lesson  as  to  the  way  in  which  they  should  behave  in 
the  future,  was  too  tempting.  Accordingly  they  seized  Sosthenes,  and  gave 
him  a  beating  in  the  actual  basilica  in  front  of  the  tribunal,  and  under  the 
very  eyes  of  the  Proconsul.  An  ancient  gloss  says  that  he  pretended  not 
to  see  what  they  were  doing,1  but  the  text  implies  that  he  looked  on  at  the 
entire  proceeding  with  unfeigned  indifference.  So  long  as  they  w*r&  not 
guilty  of  any  serious  infraction  of  the  peace,  it  was  nothing  to  him  how 
they  amused  themselves.  He  had  been  familiar  with  similar  disturbances  in 
Borne.  The  Jews  were  everywhere  a  turbulent,  fanatical  race.  What  was 
it  to  him  if  the  Greek  gamins  liked  to  inflict  a  little  richly-deserved  casti- 
gation  ?  It  would  be  so  much  the  better  if  they  taught  this  Sosthenes  and 
any  number  more  of  these  Jews  a  severe  lesson.  They  would  be  more  likely 
(he  thought)  to  keep  order  in  future,  and  less  likely  to  trouble  him  again 
with  their  meanness  and  their  malevolence,  their  riots  and  their  rancours.2 

There  is  one  thing  that  we  cannot  but  deeply  regret  It  is  that  Gallio'a 
impatient  sense  of  justice  has  deprived  us  of  another  speech  by  St.  Paul 
which,  delivered  under  such  circumstances,  and  before  such  a  judge,  would 
have  been  of  the  deepest  interest.  But  Gallio  dismissed  the  whole  scene 
from  his  mind  as  supremely  unimportant.  Had  he  ever  thought  it  worth 
alluding  to,  in  any  letter  to  his  brother  Seneca,  it  would  have  been  in  some 
such  terms  as  these  : — "  I  had  scarcely  arrived  when  the  Jews  tried  to  play 
on  my  inexperience  by  dragging  before  me  one  Panlus,  who  seems  to  be  an 
adherent  of  Chrestus,  or  Christus,  of  whom  we  heard  something  at  Rome. 
I  was  not  going  to  be  troubled  with  their  malefic  superstitions,  and  ordered 
them  to  be  turned  out.  The  Greeks  accordingly,  who  were  favourable  to 
Paulus,  beat  one  of  the  Jews  in  revenge  for  their  malice.  You  would  have 
smiled,  if  you  had  been  present,  at  these  follies  of  the  turba  forensis.  Bed 
haec  hactenus." 

But  the  superficiality  which  judges  only  by  externals  always  brings  its 
own  retribution.  It  adores  the  mortal  and  scorns  the  divinity ;  it  welcomes 
the  impostor  and  turns  the  angel  from  its  door.  It  forms  its  judgment  on 
trivial  accidents,  and  ignores  eternal  realities.  The  haughty,  distinguished, 
and  cultivated  Gallio,  brother  of  Seneca,  Proconsul  of  Achaia,  the  most 
popular  man  and  the  most  eminent  litterateur  of  his  day,  would  have  been 
to  the  last  degree  amazed  had  any  one  told  him  that  so  paltry  an  occurrence 
would  be  for  ever  recorded  in  history ;  that  it  would  be  the  only  scene  in  bis 
life  in  which  posterity  would  feel  a  moment's  interest ;  that  he  would  owe 

1  "Tune  Gallio  fingebat  enim  non  videre"  (MS.  <f). 

*  Paley  (/Tor.  Paul.)  points  out  the  honesty  with  which  St.  Lake  narrates  the  roper 
cilious  indifference  of  great  men  to  the  circumstances  which  affected  the  life  of  th« 
Apostle.  The  "things,"  however,  for  which  Gullio  "did  not  care"  were  not  "the 
things  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  but  the  beating  of  &  Jew  by  Greek*, 


THE   FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIAWS.  325 

to  it  any  immortality  he  possesses;  that  he  -would  for  all  time  be  mainly 
judged  of  by  the  glimpse  we  get  of  him  on  that  particular  morning  ;  that 
he  had  flung  away  the  greatest  opportunity  of  his  life  when  he  closed  the 
lips  of  the  haggard  Jewish  prisoner  whom  his  decision  rescued  from  the 
clutches  of  his  countrymen  ;  that  a  correspondence  between  that  Jew  Shaul, 
or  Paulus,  and  his  great  brother  Seneca,  would  be  forged  and  would  go  down 
to  posterity;1  that  it  would  be  believed  for  centuries  that  that  wretched 
prisoner  had  converted  the  splendid  philosopher  to  his  own  "  execrable  super- 
stition," and  that  Seneca  had  borrowed  from  him  the  finest  sentiments  of 
his  writings  ;  that  for  all  future  ages  that  bent,  ophthalmic,  nervous,  unknown 
Jew,  against  whom  all  other  Jews  seemed  for  some  inconceivably  foolish 
reason  to  be  so  infuriated,  would  be  regarded  as  transcendently  more  impor- 
tant than  his  deified  Emperors  and  immortal  Stoics;  that  the  "parcel  of 
questions  "  about  a  mere  opinion,  and  names,  and  a  matter  of  Jewish  law, 
which  he  had  so  disdainfully  refused  to  hear,  should  hereafter  become  the 
most  prominent  of  all  questions  to  the  whole  civilised  world. 

And  Paul  may  have  suspected  many  of  these  facts  as  little  as  "  the  sweet 
Gallic"  did.  Sick  at  heart  with  this  fresh  outrage,  and  perhaps  musing 
sadly  on  the  utterance  of  his  Master  that  He  came  not  to  send  peace  on  earth 
but  a  sword,  he  made  his  way  back  from  the  bema  of  the  great  Proconsul  to 
the  little  congregation  in  the  room  of  Justus,  or  to  his  lodging  in  the  squalid 
shop  of  Aquila  and  Priscilla. 


^rraio^eKjp  hnt/,     .t»n*w  ••••    -    i  }r*  -r«"i«rj  I,T 

terf   odJ   B&it*  .fie    io   tr*  &>iiiir   ~"^>  V  ••-?   '  •"  '     •"  -  '• 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE     FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE    THESSALONIAWS. 
"Ergo  latet  ultimus  dies  ut  observentur  omnes  dies."  —  ADO. 

AT  some  period  during  his  stay  in  Corinth,  and  probably  before  his  arrest  by 
the  Jews  early  in  the  year  53,  or  at  the  close  of  A.D.  52,°an  event  had  taken 
place  of  immense  significance  in  the  life  of  the  Apostle  and  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  faith.  He  had  written  to  the  Thessalonians  a  letter  which  may 
possibly  have  been  the  first  he  wrote  to  any  Christian  church,8  and  which 

i  No  one  in  these  days  doubts  that  the  letters  of  St.  Paul  and  Seneca  (Fleury,  St. 
Paul  and  Slneque,  ii.  300  ;  Aubertin,  Seneque  et  St.  Paul,  409  ;  Lightfoot,  Phil.  327  ; 
Boissier,  La  Religion  Bomaine,  ii.  52—104)  are  spurious.  On  the  real  explanation  of  the 
resemblances  between  the  two,  see  Seekers  after  God,  p.  270,  tq.,  and  passim.  It  will 
there  be  seen  how  small  ground  there  is  for  Tertullian's  expression  Seneca  tacpe 
noster" 

J  I  only  put  this  as  &  possibility.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  (see  1  Cor.  v.  9  ;  2  Cor. 
x.  9)  that  I  regard  it  as  certain  that  St.  Paul  wrote  other  letters,  of  which  some—  perhaps 
many_have  perished  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  (for  instance)  he  wrote  no  word 
of  thanks  to  the  Philippians  for  the  contributions  which  they  had  twice  sent  to  him  at 
Thessalonica,  or  that  he  wrote  nothing  to  the  Thessalonians  themselves  when  he  sent 
Timothy  to  them  from  Athens.  Does  not  the  whole  style  of  these  Epistles  show  that 
they  could  not  have  been  the  first  specimens  of  their  kind  ?  We  cannot  be  surprised  that, 


326  THE  LIFE  AND   WOKK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

certainly  is  the  earliest  of  those  that  have  come  down  to  us.  He  had  begun, 
therefore,  that  new  form  of  activity  which  has  produced  effects  so  memorable 
to  all  generations  of  the  Christian  world. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Paul  had  left  Timotheus  in  Macedonia,  had 
been  joined  by  him  in  Athens,  and  had  once  more  parted  from  him,  though 
with  deep  reluctance  and  at  great  self-sacrifice,  because  his  heart  yearned  for 
his  Thessalonian  converts,  and  he  had  been  twice  prevented  from  carrying  out 
his  earnest  desire  to  visit  them  once  more.  After  doing  all  that  he  could  to 
comfort  and  support  them  in  their  many  trials,  Timotheus  had  returned,  in 
company  with  Silas,  to  Corinth,  and  doubtless  there  the  Apostle  had  talked 
with  them  long  and  earnestly  about  the  friends  and  brethren  who  had  been 
won  to  Christ  in  the  Macedonian  city.  There  was  deep  cause  for  thankfulness 
in  their  general  condition,  but  there  was  some  need  for  advice  and  consolation. 
Paul  could  not  send  Timothy  again.  There  was  other  work  to  be  done.  Other 
Churches  required  his  own  personal  services.  Nor  could  he  spare  the  com- 
panions of  his  toils  in  the  midst  of  a  city  which  demanded  his  whole  energy 
and  strength.  But  since  he  could  neither  come  to  the  Thessalonians  himself, 
nor  send  them  back  his  truest  and  dearest  fellow- workers,  he  would  at  least 
write  to  them,  and  let  his  letter  supply,  as  far  as  possible,  the  void  created  by 
his  absence.  It  was  a  very  happy  Providence  which  inspired  him  with  this 
thought.  It  would  come  quite  naturally  to  him,  because  it  had  been  a  custom 
in  all  ages  for  Jewish  communities  to  correspond  with  each  other  by  means  of 
travelling  deputations,  and  because  the  prodigious  development  of  intercourse 
between  the  chief  cities  of  Italy,  Greece,  and  Asia  rendered  it  easy  to  send  one 
or  other  of  the  brethren  as  the  bearer  of  his  missives.  And  epistolary 
correspondence  was  the  very  form  which  was  of  all  others  the  best 
adapted  to  the  Apostle's  individuality.  It  suited  the  impetuosity  of 
emotion  which  could  not  have  been  fettered  down  to  the  composition  of 
formal  treatises.  It  could  be  taken  up  or  dropped  according  to  the 
necessities  of  the  occasion  or  the  feelings  of  the  writer.  It  permitted 
of  a  freedom  of  expression  which  was  far  more  intense  and  far  more 
natural  to  the  Apostle  than  the  regular  syllogisms  and  rounded  periods  of  a 
book.  It  admitted  something  of  the  tenderness  and  something  of  the 
familiarity  of  personal  intercourse.  Into  no  other  literary  form  could  he  have 
infused  that  intensity  which  made  a  Christian  scholar  truly  say  of  him  that  he 
alone  of  writers  seems  to  have  written,  not  with  fingers  and  pen  and  ink,  but 
with  his  very  heart,  his  very  feelings,  the  unbared  palpitations  of  his 
inmost  being ;  *  which  made  Jerome  say  that  in  his  writings  the  words 
were  all  so  many  thunders ; 2  which  made  Luther  say  that  his  expressions 
were  like  living  creatures  with  hands  and  feet.  The  theological  importance  of 
this  consideration  is  immense,  and  has,  to  the  deep  injury  of  the  Church,  been 

amid  the  disorders  of  the  times,  letters  written  on  fugitive  materials  should  have  perished, 
especially  as  many  of  them  may  have  been  wholly  undoctrinal.  In  2  Thess.  iii.  17  could 
St.  Paul  say  3  «<"•»  cnmtlov  «•  tracrp  errnrroArJ,  if  he  had  only  written  one  f 

i  Casaubon,  Adversaria  ap.  Wolf.,  p.  135.  8  Jer.  ad  Pammach.  Ep.  48, 


THE   FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  THESSALONIAH8.  327 

too  much  neglected.  Theologians  have  treated  the  language  of  St.  Paul  as 
though  he  wrote  every  word  with  the  accuracy  of  a  dialectician,  with  the 
scrupulous  precision  of  a  school-man,  with  the  rigid  formality  of  a  philosophic 
dogmatist.  His  Epistles  as  a  whole,  with  thoir  insoluble  antinomies,  resist 
this  impossible  and  injurious  method  of  dealing  with  them  as  absolutely  as 
does  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  epistolary  form  is  eminently  spontaneous, 
personal,  flexible,  emotional.  A  dictated  epistle  is  like  a  conversation  taken 
down  in  shorthand.  In  one  word,  it  best  enabled  Paul  to  be  himself,  and  to 
recall  most  vividly  to  the  minds  of  his  spiritual  children  the  tender,  suffering, 
inspired,  desponding,  terrible,  impassioned,  humble,  uncompromising  teacher, 
who  had  first  won  them  to  become  imitators l  of  himself  and  of  the  Lord,  and 
to  turn  from  hollow  ritualisms  or  dead  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God, 
and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven,  whom  He  raised  from  the  dead,  even 
Jesus  who  delivereth  us  from  the  coming  wrath. 

And  one  cause  of  this  vivid  freshness  of  style  which  he  imparted  to  his 
Epistles  was  the  fact  that  they  were,  with  few  if  any  exceptions,  not  deeply 
premeditated,  not  scholastically  regular,  but  that  they  came  fresh  and  burning 
from  the  heart  in  all  the  passionate  sincerity  of  its  most  immediate  feelings. 
He  would  even  write  a  letter  in  the  glow  of  excited  feeling,  and  then  wait  with 
intense  anxiety  for  news  of  the  manner  of  its  reception,  half  regretting,  or 
more  than  half  regretting,  that  he  had  ever  sent  it.2  Had  he  written  more 
formally  ho  would  never  have  moved  as  he  Tiers  moved  the  heart  of  the  world. 
Take  away  from  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  the  traces  of  passion,  the  invective, 
the  yearning  affection,  the  wrathful  denunciation,  the  bitter  sarcasm,  the  dis- 
tressful boasting,  the  rapid  interrogatives,  the  affectionate  entreaties,  the  frank 
colloquialisms,  the  personal  details — those  marks  of  his  own  personality  on 
every  page  which  have  boon  ignorantly  and  absurdly  characterised  as  intense 
egotism — and  they  would  never  have  been,  as  they  are,  next  to  the  Psalms  of 
David,  the  dearest  treasures  of  Christian  devotion ; — next  to  the  four  Gospels 
the  most  cherished  text-books  of  Christian  faith.  We  cannot  but  love  a  man 
whose  absolute  sincerity  enables  us  to  feel  the  very  beatings  of  his  heart ;  who 
knows  not  how  to  wear  that  mask  of  reticence  and  Pharisaism  which  enables 
others  to  use  speech  only  to  conceal  their  thoughts ;  who,  if  he  smites  under 
the  fifth  rib,  will  smite  openly  and  without  a  deceitful  kiss ;  who  has  fair  blows 
but  no  precious  balms  that  break  the  head ;  who  has  the  feelings  of  a  man, 
the  language  of  a  man,  the  love,  the  hate,  the  scorn,  the  indignation  of  a  man  ; 
who  is  no  envious  cynic,  no  calumnious  detractor,  no  ingenious  polisher  of 
plausible  hypocrisies,  no  mechanical  repeater  of  worn-out  shibboleths,  but  who 
will,  if  need  be,  seize  his  pen  with  a  burst  of  tears  to  speak  out  the  very 
tiling  he  thinks ;  s  who,  in  the  accents  of  utter  truthf ulness  alike  to  friend  and 
to  enemy,  can  argue,  and  denounce,  and  expose,  and  plead,  and  pity,  and 
forgive ;  to  whose  triumphant  faith  and  transcendent  influence  has  been  due 

i  1  Thess.  1.  6,  f"^*!,  not  "  followers,"  as  in  E. V.  See  Excursus  L,  on  "  The  Style 
of  St.  Paul  as  Illustrative  of  his  Character,"  p.  ,  »3- 

3  2  Cor.  vii  8.  *  2  Car.  iL  4. 


328  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATTL. 

in  no  small  measure  that  fearless  and  glad  enthusiasm  which  pervaded  the 
life  of  the  early  Church. 

And  thus,  when  Timothy  had  told  him  all  that  he  had  observed  among  the 
brethren  of  Thessalonica,  we  may  feel  quite  sure  that,  while  his  heart  was  full 
of  fresh  solicitude,  he  would  write  to  guide  and  comfort  them,1  and  that  many 
days  would  not  elapse  before  he  had  dictated  the  opening  words  : — 

"  Paul,  and  Silvanns,  and  Timotheus  to  the  Church  2  of  the  Thessalonians 
in  God  the  Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  grace  to  you,  and  peace  [from 
God  our  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 3  ]." 

This  opening  address  is  in  itself  an  interesting  illustration  of  St.  Paul's  cha- 
racter. Though  his  letters  are  absolutely  his  own,  yet  with  that  shrinking  from 
personal  prominence  which  we  often  trace  in  him,  he  associates  with  himself  in 
the  introduction  not  only  the  dignified  Silas,4  but  even  the  youthful  Timothy;5 
and  in  these  his  earlier,  though  not  in  his  later  Epistles,  constantly  uses  "  we  " 
for  "  I."  By  "  we  "  he  does  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  words  are  conjointly 
those  of  his  two  fellow-labourers,  since  he  adopts  the  expression  even  when  he 
can  only  be  speaking  of  his  individual  self;6  but  he  is  actuated  by  that  sort  of 
modesty,  traceable  in  the  language  and  literature  of  all  nations,  which  dislikes 
the  needlessly  frequent  prominence  of  the  first  personal  pronoun.7  In  hia 
letters  to  all  other  Churches,  except  to  the  Philippians,  to  whom  the  designa- 
tion was  needless,  he  calls  himself  Paul  an  Apostle,  but  he  does  not  use  the 

1  That  the  external  evidence  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians 
is  amply  sufficient  may  be  seen  in  Alford,  iii.,  Prolegom. ;  Davidson,  Introduct.  i.  19 — 28; 
Westcott,  On  the  Canon,  68,  n. ,  168,  &c.    The  internal  evidence  derived  from  style,  &c. , 
is  overwhelming  (Jowett,  i.  15—26).    The  counter-arguments  of  Kern,  Schrader,  Baur, 
&c.,  founded,  as  usual,  alike  on  divergences  and  coincidences,  on  real  similarities  and 
supposed  discrepancies,  on  asserted  references  and  imaginary  contradictions  to  the  Acts, 
are  silently  met  in  the  text.     They  carry  no  conviction  with  them,  and  have  found  few 
followers ;  Baur  (Paul,  ii.  85 — 97),  to  a  great  extent,  furnishing  positive  arguments 
against  his  own  conclusion.     (See  Lunemann,  Br.  an  die  Thessal.  10 — 15.)    Grotius, 
Ewald,  Baur,  Bunsen,  Davidson,  &c.,  consider  that  the  First  Epistle  is  really  the  second ; 
but  the  hypothesis  is  against  external  and  internal  evidence,  is  wholly  needless,  and 
creates  obvious  difficulties.     It  would  require  many  volumes  to  enter  into  all  these  dis- 
cussions for  every  Epistle ;  but  though  I  have  no  space  for  that  here,  I  have  respectfully 
and  impartially  considered  the  difficulties  raised,  and  in  many  cases  shown  incidentally 
my  grounds  for  disregarding  them.     One  most  inimitable  mark  of  genuineness  is  the 
general  resemblance  of  tone  between  the  Epistle  and  that  written  ten  years  later  to  the 
other  chief  Macedonian  Church — Philippi.    (See  Laghtfoot  in  Smith's  Bibl.  Diet.) 

2  So  in  1,  2  Thess.,  1,  2  Cor.,  and  Gal.     But  in  the  other  Epistles  rote  iyiois. 

3  This  addition  is  probably  spurious.     It  belongs  to  2  Thess.  i.  2,  and  was  added 
because  the  greeting  is  so  short.     As  we  have  now  reached  St.  Paul's  first  Epistle  I  must 
refer  the  reader  to  the  Excursus  which  gives  the  Uncial  Manuscripts  of  the  Epistles,  infra, 
Excursus  XX. 

*  Acts  xv.  22,  32,  34. 

6  Silas  and  Timothy  are  associated  with  him  in  2  Thess. ;  Sosthenes  in  1  Cor. ;  Timothy 
In  2  Cor.,  Phil.,  Col.,  and  Philem.  Paul  writes  in  his  own  name  only  to  the  Romans  and 
Laodiceaus,  which  Churches  he  had  not  personally  visited.  Origen  says  that  the  con- 
currence of  Paul  and  Silas  flashed  out  the  lightning  of  these  Epistles  (Horn,  v.  in  Jerein. 
588  6). 

6  In  1  Thess.  iii.  2,  6,  and  in  Phil.  ii.  19,  Timothy  is  spoken  of,  though  associated 
with  Paul  in  the  greeting.     1  Thess.  ii.  18,  "we    .    .    even  I  Paul." 

7  "We  "  is  chiefly  characteristic  of  1,  2  Thess.     In  2  Thess.  the  only  passage  which 
relapses  into  "  I "  to  ii.  6. 


THE   FIRST   EPISTLE   TO   THE   THE3SALONIANS.  32£ 

title  directly l  to  the  Thessalonians,  because  his  claim  to  if  in  its  more  special 
sariso  had  not  yet  been  challenged  by  insidious  Judaisers.*  In  his  five  earlier 
Epistles  he  always  addresses  "the  Church;"  in  his  later  Epistles  "the  Saints," 
and  tho  reason  for  this  is  not  clear ;  *  but  to  all  Churches  alike  he  repeats  this 
opening  salutation,  "  Grace  and  peace."4  It  is  a  beautiful  and  remarkable 
blending  of  the  salutations  of  the  Jew  and  the  Greek,  the  East  and  the  West, 
with  their  predominant  ideals  of  calm  and  brightness.  The  solemn  greeting 
of  the  Jew  was  SHALOM,  "  Peace  be  to  you ; "  the  lighter  greeting  of  the 
Greek  was  xa'Peiv,  "  Rejoice ; "  the  Church  of  Christ — possessed  of  ft  joy  that 
defied  tribulation,  heir  to  a  peace  that  passeth  understanding — not  only  com- 
bined the  two  salutations,  but  infused  into  both  a  deeper  and  more  spiritual 
significance.6 

After  this  salutation '  he  opens  his  letter  with  that  expression  of  thankful- 
ness on  their  behalf  which  he  addresses  even  to  tho  Corinthians,  whose  deeds 
were  so  sad  a  contrast  to  their  ideal  title  of  saints,  and  which  is  never  wanting, 
except  in  tho  burning  letter  to  the  apostatising  Galatians.  So  invariable  i* 
this  characteristic  of  hia  mind  and  style  that  it  has  acquired  a  technical 
description,  and  Gorman  writers  call  it  the  DanJcsagung  of  the  Epistles.7  It 
was  no  mere  insincere  compliment  or  rhetorical  artifice.  Those  to  whom  he 
wrote,  however  much  they  might  sink  below  their  true  ideal,  wore  still  converts, 
were  a  Church,  were  saints,  were  brethren.  There  might  be  weak,  there  might 

,    „.        .  ™  ..     ..  •   .»'!•>'!>  '••    !'-*<    ••":':'   *'"<  **•'•  ••..J:viitTU!1« 

1  See  1  Thes*.  11.  6. 

-  It  would  have  been  inapprop riate  in  the  private  note  to  Philemon. 

3  Another  slight  peculiarity  is  that  in  his  first  two  Epistles  he  says  "  the  Church  of 
the  Thessaloniaus ;"  whereas  in  the  next  three  he  prefers  the  expression  "  the  Church  in  " 
such  and  sucli  a  city.    This  may  be  a  mere  trifle. 

4  In  hia  Pastoral  Epistles  he   acids  the  word  t.^rt,  "mercy."    We  may  thus  sum 
up  the  peculiarities  of  the  salutations: — i.  "An  Apostle,"  in  all  except  Philem.  and 
Phil.  ii.  "To  the  Church,"  in  1,  2  Thess.,  1,  2  Cor.,  Gal.  iii.     "To  the  Church  of  the," 
1,  2Thesg. ;  but  "to  the  Church  which  is  in,"  1,  2  Cor.,  Gal.    In  all  other  Epistles 
liTothe  taints."    iv.  "Grace  and  peace,  "in  all  but  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  which  have 
"  Grace,  mercy,  and  peace." 

»  Xipis,  quae  est  prmcipium  omnis  boni ;  tlrfrq,  quae  est  finale  bonorum  omnium 
(Tho.  Aquin.). 

6  The  Epistle,  which  is  mainly  personal  and  practical,  may  be  analysed  as  follows  : — 
l.f. — iii.  Historical ;  II.  iv.,  v.  Hortatory  ;  each  ending  with  a  prayer.  (I.)  i.  1.  Brief 
greeting,  i.  2 — 10.  Thanksgiving  for  their  conversion  and  holiness,  ii.  1 — 12.  Appeal 
to  them  as  to  the  character  of  his  ministry,  ii.  13—16.  Renewed  expression  of  thanks- 
giving for  their  constancy  under  persecutions,  and  bitter  complaint  of  the  Jews.  ii. 
17 — iii.  10.  His  personal  feelings  towards  them,  and  the  visit  of  Timothy,  iii.  11 — 13. 
His  prayer  for  them.  (II.)  iv.  1—8.  "Warning  against  impurity,  iv.  9,  10.  Exhortation 
to  brotherly  love ;  and  11, 12.  honourable  diligence,  iv.  13— v.  11.  The  only  doctrinal 
part  of  the  Epistle,  iv.  13—18.  Consolation  about  the  dead.  v.  1—11.  Dufr^r  of  watch- 
fulness, sinc«  the  Lord's  advent  is  near,  and  the  time  uncertain,  v.  12—15.  Their  duties 
to  one  another.  16—22.  Spiritual  exhortations.  23,  24.  His  prayer  for  them.  25—28. 
Last  words  and  blessing.  The  Epistle  is  characterised  by  simplicity  of  style,  and  the 
absence  of  controversy  and  of  developed  doctrine.  Its  keynote  is  "hope,"  as  the  keynote 
cf  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  joy." 

"  Ewald,  Die  Sendsc&rcilen  da  Ap.  Pauliu,  19,30,  &o.  It  may  perhaps  be  urged  that 
some  of  these  peculiarities  may  be  due  to  the  ordinary  stereotyped  formula  of  corresjion- 


how  little  he  was  inclined  to  mere  formula. 
12 


330  THE   LIFE   AND   WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

be  false,  there  might  be  sinful  members  among  them,  but  as  a  body  they  were 
w.islied  and  sanctified  and  justified,  and  the  life  of  even  those  who  were  un- 
worthy of  their  high  vocation  yet  presented  a  favourable  contrast  to  the  lives 
of  the  heathen  around  them.  But  the  expression  of  thankfulness  on  behalf 
of  the  Thessalonians  is  peculiarly  full  and  earnest.  It  is  an  overflow  of 
heartfelt  gratitude,  as  indeed  the  special  characteristic  of  the  letter  is  its  sweet- 
ness.1 St.  Paul  tells  them  that  he  is  always  giving  thanks  to  God  for  them  all, 
mentioning  them  in  his  prayers,  filled  with  the  ever-present  memory  of  the 
activity  of  their  faith,  the  energy  of  their  love,  the  patience  of  their  hope.* 
He  reminds  them  of  the  power  and  fulness  and  spiritual  unction  which  had 
accompanied  his  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  how  they  had  become3  imitators* 
of  him  and  of  Christ  with  such  spiritual  gladness  in  the  midst  of  such  deep 
affliction6  that  they  had  become  models  to  all  the  Churches  of  Northern  and 
Southern  Greece,  and  their  faith  had  been  as  a  trumpet-blast8  throngh  all  the 
Mediterranean  coasts.  So  universally  was  their  belief  in  God  known  and 
spread  abroad,  that  there  was  no  need  for  St.  Paul  or  his  companions  to  tell 
how  they  had  worked  at  Thessalonica,  because  every  one  had  heard  of  their 
conversion  from  idolatry  to  belief  in  the  very  and  living  God/  and  to  the 
waiting  for  the  return  of  that  risen  Saviour  who  delivereth  us  from  the  coming 
wrath.8 

He  appeals  to  them,  therefore,  as  to  unimpeachable  witnesses  of  the 
earnestness  of  his  visit  to  them,  and  of  the  boldness  with  which  he  had  faced 
the  dangers  of  Thessalonica,  after  such  recent  and  painful  experience  of  the 

1  "  Habet  haec  Epistola  meram  quandam  dulcedinem  "  (Bengel). 

s  Of.  Gal.  v.  6.  Thus  in  the  very  first  lines  which  we  possess  from  his  pen  we  meet 
with  his  fundamental  trilogy  of  Christian  virtues — faith,  hope,  love.  Of.  v.  8 ;  Col. 
i.  4 ;  Eph.  i.  15,  18 ;  iii.  17, 18,  20,  &c.  See  Reuss,  TJUol.  Chret.  ii.  240. 

3  St.  Paul,  like  many  emotional  and  impressible  writers,  is  constantly  haunted  by 
the  same  word,  which  he  then  repeats  again  and  again— ^TU  aetSoir«r<ri  vturant  ap^im ATJTOU 
jucovovTeao-i.    He  uses  the  verb  yiVo/uai  no  less  than  eight  times,  although,  as  Bishop 
Ellicott  points  out,  it  only  occurs  twelve  times  in  all  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament, 
except  in  quotations  from  the  LXX.    "Un  mot  I'obse'de,  il  le  ramene  dans  une  page  a  tout 
propos.     Ce  n'est  pas  de  la  ste'rilitS  :  c'est  de  la  contention  de  1'esprit  et  une  complete 
insouciance  de  la  correction  du  style  "  (Kenan,  p.  233). 

4  fti/xijrai,  E.V.  "  followers." 

5  L  6.    The  reader  will  notice  the  exquisite  originality  of  conception  in  the  words 
lv  8\tyei.  iroAAj}  fxera  x°P"T  iii'tvunros  'Ayiov.    It  is  uo  rhetorical  oxymoron,  but  the  sign  of 
a  new  aeon  in  the  world's  history. 

6  i.  8,  efTJxrp-ai.    *><r  eirl  <r<iAjriyyo?  Aafijrpbv  qx0"'"!*  (Theoph.).    Admitting  for  the  warmth 
of  feeling  which  dictated  the  expression,  it  suggests  no  difficulty  when  we  remember  that 
a  year  may  have  elapsed  since  his  visit,  and  that  Thessalonica  was  "posita  in  gremio 
imperii  Romani "  (Cic. ),  and  stood  "on  a  level  with  Corinth  and  Ephesus  in  its  share 
of  the  commerce  of  the  Levant." 

7  i.  10,  'AA»)0u«p  (1  John  v.  20).     ZUVTI  M  contrasted  with  dead  men  and  idols  ("Wisd. 
xiv.  15 ;  Gal.  iv.  8),  which  are  mere  elilim,  "  nullities "  (Lev.  xix.  4),  and  hakhalim, 
"  vapours."    The  expression  shows  that  the  Thessalonian  Church  was  mainly  composed 
of  Gentiles,  which  accords  with  Acts  xvii.  4,  if  we  read  «<u  'EAArjvwv  (supra,  p.  288).     If  we 
omit  «ai  there  is  still  no  contradiction,  for  obviously  many  Gentiles,  especially  women, 
were  converted,  and  even  the  proselytes  had  once  been  idolaters. 

8  Not  as  in  E.  V.,  "who  delivered  (pvo^evov)  us  from  the  wrath  to  come"  (epxatnenit, 
not  f*«AAov<ri)0'     The  deliverance  is  continuous  ("Christus  nos  semcl  fA»i>xio-aTo  semper 
0v«T«u  " —  Bengel) ;  the  wrath  works  as  a  normal  law  (i.  1 — 10). 


THE   FIRST   EPISTLE   TO  THB  THESSALONIAXS.  331 

outrages  of  Philippi.  It  has  been  evident,  even  through  these  opening  sen- 
tences of  thanksgiving,  that  there  is  in  his  words  an  undercurrent  of  allusion 
to  some  who  would,  if  they  could,  have  given  a  very  different  account  of  his 
conduct  and  motives.1  These  appeals  to  their  knowledge  of  the  life  and 
character  and  behaviour  of  Paul  and  his  two  fellow-missionaries  would  have 
been  needless  if  they  had  never  been  impugned.  But  it  is  easy  to  understand 
that  alike  the  Jews  in  their  eagerness  to  win  back  the  few  members  of  the 
synagogue  who  had  joined  the  brethren,  and  the  Gentiles  vexed  at  the  silent 
rebuke  against  their  own  sins,  would  whisper  calumnies  about  the  new  teachers, 
and  try  to  infuse  into  others  their  own  suspicions.  The  cities  of  that  age 
swarmed  with  every  kind  and  denomination  of  quack  and  impostor.  Might 
not  these  three  poor  Jews — that  silent  and  dignified  elder,  the  shy,  gentle 
youth,  and  the  short  enthusiast  of  mean  aspect — might  they  not  be  only  a 
new  variety  of  the  genus  goes — like  the  wandering  Galli  and  worshippers  of 
Isis,  or  Chaldaei,  or  Mathematici,  or  priests  of  Mithras  ? 2  Were  they  not  a 
somewhat  suspicious-looking  trio  1  What  was  their  secret  object  ?  Was  it  with 
sinister  motives  that  they  gathered  into  their  communities  those  widows  and 
maidens  ?  Were  they  not  surreptitiously  trying  to  get  hold  of  money  ?  or 
might  it  not  be  their  own  exaltation  at  which  they  were  aiming? — Now 
there  were  some  charges  and  attacks  which,  in  after  days,  as  we  shall  see, 
filled  Paul  with  bitter  indignation ;  but  insinuations  of  this  nature  he  can 
afford  to  answer  very  calmly.  Such  calumnies  were  too  preposterous  to  be 
harmful ;  such  innuendos  too  malevolent  to  be  believed.  In  order  to  disprove 
them  he  had  but  to  appeal  at  once  to  notorious  facts ;  and,  indeed,  no  elaborate 
disproof  was  needed,  for  his  Thessalonian  friends  knew,  and  God  was  witness,8 
that  there  had  been  no  deceit,  no  uncleanness,  no  base  motives,  no  secret 
avarice,  no  desire  to  win  favour,  no  fawning  flattery  in  the  exhortations  of  the 
missionaries.  They  had  come,  not  for  selfishness,  but  for  sacrifice ;  not  for 
glory,  but  to  pour  out  their  hearts'  tenderness,  and  spend  their  very  lives  for 
the  sake  of  their  converts,4  cherishing  them  as  tenderly 5  as  a  nursing  mother 
fosters  her  children  in  her  warm  bosom,6  yet  waiving  their  own  rights,  and 
taking  nothing  wliatever  from  them,  nor  laying  the  smallest  burden  upon 
them.7  The  brethren  knew  that  while  they  were  preaching  they  regarded 

1 1  Thess.  ii.  5,  9.  These  phrases  are  not  accounted  for  by  contrast  with  heathen 
deceptions.  The  viiiv-roi*  irierr«vov<nv  of  verse  10  means  "  though  others  did  not  so  regard 
our  conduct. '" 


vene  5,  irXeo^e^'a  ( Acts  xx.  33 ;  1  Cor.  ix.  15 ;  2  Cor.  xii.  14). 

3  1  Thess.  ii.  5. 

4  ii.  8,  leg.  V«po/t«roi,  «>  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  G,  "clinging  to  you;"  .rpoo-fcif^oi  (Theoph.); 
mvrrxontvoi  i>nlair  (CEcumen.). 

'  ii.  7,  iirtoi,  found  also  in  2  Tim.  ii.  24.  The  ^TTIOI  of  »,  B,  C,  D,  F,  G,  is  an  obviooi 
instance  of  mere  homoeoteleuton. 

1  ii.  7,  SoAiTj. 

7  n  ftdpti  etrai,  "  oneri  ease  "  (Vuhj.).  It  may  mean  to  be  dictatorial  (-.XA^t  iroAavrw 
*»«*— Chrys.),  but  see  verse  9  ;  2  Cor.  xi.  9 ;  xiL  16 ;  2  Thess.  iii  8. 


332  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATJL. 

their  mission  as  a  glorious  privilege  ;  l  and  because  their  one  desire  was  to 
please  God,  they  endured  and  laboured  2  night  and  day  3  to  win  their  own 
bread,  setting  blameless  examples  of  holiness  towards  God,  and  righteousness 
towards  men,  and  all  the  while  exhorting  their  followers  one  by  one  4  to  live 
lives  worthy  of  God  and  of  the  kingdom  of  His  Christ.5 

And  this  was  why,  thank  God,  the  Thessalouians  had  accepted  their  preach- 
ing for  what  it  was  —  a  divine  and  not  a  human  message  ;  and  had  borne 
suffering  at  the  hands  of  their  Gentile  neighbours  with  the  same  exemplary 
courage  as  the  Churches  of  Judasa,  who  in  like  manner  had  been  persecuted 
by  the  Jews.  And  here  Paul,  as  be  so  constantly  does,  "  goes  off  at  a  word." 
The  mere  incidental  mention  of  Jews  makes  him  digress  to  denounce  them, 
writing  as  he  did  in  the  very  heat  of  those  conflicts  which  ended  in  his  indig- 
nant withdrawal  from  their  synagogue  at  Corinth,  and  recalling  the  manner 
in  which  these  murderers  of  the  Lord  and  of  the  Prophets,8  displeasing  ?  to 
God  and  the  common  enemies  of  man,8  chased  him  from  city  to  city,  and  tried 
to  prevent  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles.  And  it  is  thus,  ho  sayg,  that  they 
are  always  filling  up  the  measure  of  guilt,  and  the  wrath  camo  upon  them  to 
the  end  —  potentially  overtook  thorn  —  in  that  sudden  consummation  of  thoir 
sins.  Thoir  very  sin,  ho  seems  to  say,  in  hindering  the  proclamation  of  the 
Gospel,  was  itself  their  punishment;  their  wrath  against  Christ  was  God's  wrath 
against  them  ;  their  dementation  would  be,  and  was,  their  doom.  * 

And  having  been  thus  diverted  by  bis  feeling  of  indignation  against  thorn 

1  ii.  4.  5s8o.ajaio-f«0a.  *  H.  9,  rfvos,  "  active  toil  ;  "  M^X^S,  "steady  endurance  of  toil." 
1  St.  Paul  uses  the  ordinary  Hebrew  expression  (iii.  10;  2  TLess.  iii.  8,  &c.),  which 
arose  from  the  notion,  found  in  an  old  border  oath,  that  "  God  made  the  earth  in  six  days 
and  seven  nights."  Hence  too  the  term  wx^tpov.  St.  Luke,  writing  in  his  own  person. 
says,  "day  and  night  "  (Acts  ix.  24).  The  fact  that  there  were  wealthy  and  distinguished 
women  among  the  proselytes  (Acts  xvii.  4)  made  this  self-denial  the  more  striking. 

*  ii.  11,    iva.  Zxurrov  vfiip.      Cbjysostom   says,   fidfiai  iv  TOCTOVTU  x\f,9n  juTjSeVa  tmoa\tVi[y  ', 

but  probably  the  Christians  in  Thessalonica  would  have  made  an  exceedingly  small 
modern  pariah. 

*  ii.  1-12. 

6  Omit  la.'ovs,  «,  A,  B,  D,  &o.  "Suos  adjectio  eat  haeretiei"  (i.e.,  of  Marcion}—  Teri, 
adv.  Marc.  v.  15. 


7  /i5j  cpta-K6vru»>.  The^'j,  though  "the  prevailing  New  Testament  combination  with 
the  participle  "  (Ellicott),  is  slightly  less  severe  than  if  he  had  used  OVK. 

s  The  momentary  exacerbation  against  the  Jews  in  the  mind  of  St.  Paul  must  have 
been  unusually  intense  to  wring  from  him  such  words  as  these.  We  almost  seem  to  catch 
the  echo  of  the  strong  condemnation  uttered  against  them  by  Gentiles  as  a  God-detested 
race,  who  hated  all  men  ("odium  generis  humani"  —  Tac.  H.  v.  5  ;  Juv.  Sat.  xiv.  100), 
and  such  a  view  of  them  (which  Lunemann  here  fails  to  overthrow)  must  have  caused  a 
deep  pang  to  one  who  remained  at  heart  a  genuine  patriot.  (See  Horn.  ix.  1  —  5.)  But 
the  triumph  of  the  Jews  over  the  impious  attempts  of  Caligula  had  caused  a  great  recru- 
descence of  fanaticism  among  them. 

9  ii.  14  —  16.  Baur,  in  arguing  that  this  could  only  have  been  written  after  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem,  makes  a  double  mistake.  First,  he  takes  I^Oaucy  in  the  sense  of 
•f&wtt-  (like  the  E.  V.  "  has  come  "),  which  is  the  erroneous  gloss  of  B.  D  ;  and  secondly, 
he  does  not  see  the  ethical  conception  which  I  have  here  tried  to  bring  out.  The  wrath  of 
God  found  its  full  consummation  in  the  fulness  of  their  criminality  (Matt,  xxvii.  25); 
the  fiat  of  their  doom  had  then  gone  forth.  It  was  not  finally  consummated  till  the  foil 
of  Jerusalem,  eighteen  years  later,  but  signs  were  already  obvious  that  its  execution 
wonld  not  long  be  delayed.  To  the  prescient  eye  of  St.  Paul  the  commencing  troubles 
in  Palestine  —  and  the  recent  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Borne  —  would  be  ample  to 


THE  FIRST  EPI3TLE  TO  THK  THESSALONIAHg.  333 

from  the  topic  of  self-defence — on  which,  indeed,  nothing  more  was  necessary 
to  be  said — he  goes  on  to  tell  them  that  regarding  them  as  his  glory  and  joy 
»nd  crown  of  boasting 1  at  the  coming  of  Christ — feeling,  in  his  absence  from 
them,  like  a  father  bereaved  of  his  children 2 — he  had  twice  purposed  to  coma 
to  them,  and  had  twice  been  hindered  by  Satan.3  He  had,  however,  done  the 
next  best  thing  he  could.  He  had  parted  from  Timothy  in  Athens,  and  sent 
him  to  prevent  them  from  succumbing  *  to  those  fierce  afflictions,  of  the  cer- 
tainty of  which  they  had  been  faithfully  forewarned ;  and  to  ascertain  their 
faith,  as  shown  by  the  dubious  result  of  too  definite  temptations.4  When 
Timothy  rejoined  him  at  Corinth,  the  news  which  he  had  brought  back  was 
BO  reassuring — he  was  able  to  give  so  good  an  account  of  their  faith,  and  love, 
and  steadfastness,  and  affection — that  it  had  cheered  the  Apostle  in  the  midst 
of  his  own  heavy  afflictions,  and  been  to  him  like  a  fresh  spring  of  life.  No 
thanks  to  God  could  be  too  hearty  for  this  blessing,  and  it  added  intensity  to 
his  prayer  that  God  would  yet  enable  him  to  come  and  see  them,  and  to  perfect 
all  deficiencies  of  their  faith.  Ho  concludes  this  historic  or  personal  section 
of  his  Epistle  with  the  fervent  prayer  that  God  would  deepen  the  spirit  of 
love  which  already  prevailed  among  them,  and  so  enable  them  to  stand  before 
Him  in  blameless  holiness  at  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  with  all  His  saints.8 
From  these  earnest  and  loving  messages  he  turns  to  the  practical  part  of 
his  letter.  He  beseeches7  and  exhorts  them  not  to  be  stationary,  but  to 
advance  more  and  more  in  that  Christian  course  which  he  had  marked  out 
for  them.  And  then  he  enters  on  those  special  injunctions  which  he  knew  to 
be  most  needful.  First  and  foremost  he  puts  the  high  virtue  of  purity. 

justify  bis  expression.  In  the  true  prophetic  spirit  he  regards  the  inevitable  as  the 
actual.  It  is  possible,  too,  that  St.  Paul  may  be  alluding  to  the  great  discourse  of 
Christ  (Matt,  xsiii.  37—39 ;  xxiv.  6,  16.  Of.  Kom.  i.  18 ;  Dan.  be.  24), 

1  Ezek.  xvi.  12  (LXX.).  :  ii.  17,  «rop4<m<7£liT«f  i<p'  vpS>v. 

3  Once  apparently  at  Bercea,  once  at  Athena.    The  Satanic  hindrance  may  have  been 
In  Bercea  Jewish  persecutions,  in  Athens  feeble  health.    (Of.  llom.  iv.  22.)    He  is  writing 
to  Gentile  converts,  to  whom  it  will  be  observed  that  he  does  not  adduce,  in  either 
Epistle,  a  single  quotation  from  the  Old  Testament,  with  which  they  could  have  been 
as  yet  but  little  familiar ;  but  the  immediate  reference  of  trials,  sickness,  and  hindrances 
to  Satan  is  found  to  this  day  in  all  Oriental  forms  of  speech.     Even  in  the  Bible  the 
term  Satan  is  sometimes  applied  to   "any  adversary     or  "opposing  influence"  (cf. 
1  Chron.  Xii.  1  with  2  Sam.  x_xiv.  1).     "The  devil,"  &i«£/3oAo;,  aa  distinguished  from 
unclean  spirits,  Jei^dno,  is  only  used  by  St.  Paul  in  Eph.  iv.  27 ;  vi.  11;  and  three  times 
in  the  letters  to  Timothy.    Where  he  regarded  the  hindrance  as  Satanic  he  carries  oat 
his  purpose  another  time,  but  where  it  is  a  divine  prohibition  (Acts  xvi.  6,  7)  he  finally 
gives  it  up.    Acts  xii.  4  is  only  an  apparent  exception. 

4  He  here  uses  the  metaphor  ftuWfru.  derived  from  the  fawning  cowardice  of  frightened 
animals;  elsewhere  he  uses  the  metaphor  nYXX«rf<u,  "to  furl  the  sails  in  a  high  wind." 
He  calls  Timothy  "a  fellow-worker  with  God"  (ovvtpyw  roC  e«oO,  D),  an  expression  only 
altered  in  the  MSS.  because  of  its  boldness  (L  Cor.  iii.  9;  2  Cor.  vi.  1). 

5  Hi.  5,  jijj  >rws  «ir«i'pa<r<rF    .     .     .    KM  ««  ttxvw  yevijrac. 

8  ii.  17— iii.  13.  Parousia  occurs  six  times  in  these  two  Epistles,  and  only  besides  in 
1  Cor.  xv.  23.  The  word  "  advent "  is  said  to  occur  first  in  Tert.  De  JRaurrect,  24.  Ths 
"  saints  "  seems  to  be  a  reference,  not  to  angels  (Ps.  Ixxxix.  7;  Matt,  xvi  27;  Jude  14,  &c. ), 
because  St.  Paul  does  not  use  this  term  of  angels,  but  to  those  mentioned  in  iv.  16; 
1  Cor.  vi.  2. 

.  l  ipuTuncv,  as  In  T.  12 ;  2  Thess.  ii.  1 ;  only  elsewhere  to  hit  other  Macedonian 
Church  (Phil.  iv.  3). 


334  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAT7I* 

These  converts  had  but  recently  been  called  out  of  a  heathenism  which  looked 
very  lightly  on  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  The  mastery  over  lifelong  habits  of 
corruption  was  not  to  be  won  in  a  day.  They  were  still  in  danger  of  relaps- 
ing into  sensual  crime.  It  was  necessary  to  remind  them  that,  however  small 
might  be  the  censure  which  Gentiles  attached  to  fornication,1  and  even  to 
yet  darker  and  deadlier  sins,2  they  were  in  direct  opposition  to  the  command, 
and  would  immediately  deserve  the  retribution  of  that  God  whose  will  was 
their  sanctification,  and  who  laid  on  them  the  duty,  however  difficult,  of  ac- 
quiring a  secure  and  tranquil  mastery  over  their  body  and  its  lusts.3  If  then 
any  one  among  them  professed  to  despise  these  precepts  as  though  they  were 
merely  those  of  the  Apostle,  he  must  now  be  reminded  that  he  was  thereby 
despising,  not  any  human  teacher,  but  God,  who  called  them,  not  for  un- 
cleanliness,  but  in  sanctification,4  and  by  giving  them  His  Holy  Spirit,  not 
only  deepened  the  duty,  but  also  inspired  them  with  the  power  to  sanctify  His 
Temple  in  their  hearts.6 

The  next  Christian  virtue  of  which  he  speaks  is  brotherly  love.  He  feels 
it  unnecessary  to  do  so,9  for  God  Himself  had  taught  them  both  to  recognise 
that  duty  and  to  put  it  in  practice,  not  only  towards  the  members  of  their 
own  church,  but  towards  all  Macedonian  Christians  (vs.  9,  10). 

Further,  they  should  make  it  their  ambition  to  be  quiet/  working  with 

1  Cic.  pro  Caelio,  48 ;  Hor.  Sal.  I.  ii.  32 ;  Ter.  Adelpk.  I.  ii.  21 ;  Jer.  Ep.  77 ;  Aug. 
De  Civ.  Dei.  xiv.  18. 

s  Ver.  7,  ou  .  .   .  ciri  «Ko0apm'f  oAA'  iv  ayia<rfi<j>. 

*  iv.  4.  The  exact  meaning  of  tlSfvtu  ficacr-rov  vpiav  rb  iavrov  iTKfvos  K-ra.aBa.1,  K.T.A.,  must 
remain  uncertain.  It  is  wrongly  translated  in  the  E.V.  "that  erery  one  of  you  should 
know  ho  w  to  possess  his  vessel, "  &c. ,  for  KrZ<r6<u  is  ' '  to  acquire. "  I  have  given  what  would 
be  a  very  fine  and  forcible  meaning  of  the  words,  but  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  certain 
that  viuvot  means  "body"  (of.  2  Cor.  iv.  7,  Chrys.,  Theoph.,  CEcumen.,  Theod.,  Tert., 
and  most  modern  writers).  I  regard  it,  however,  as  by  far  the  most  probable  interpreta- 
tion (cf.  1  Sam.  xxi.  5 ;  2  Cor.  iv.  7).  So  ayydov  is  used  for  "body  "  in  Philo,  and  vas  in 
Latin  writers  (see  Cic.  T,  Disp.,  i.  22 ;  Lucr,  iii.  44).  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and 
Augustine  make  it  mean  "  his  own  wife ; "  and  then  it  would  be  a  recommendation  to 
the  spirit  of  chastity  at  once  preserved  and  continued  In  a  holy  marriage  (Heb.  xili.  4X 
This  view  has  been  recently  adopted  by  De  Wette,  Schott,  &c.,  act  it  was  by  Aquinas 
and  Estius.  In  favour  of  it  are  the  Hebrew  ^3  for  wife  (see  Rabbinic  instances  in 
Schoettgen,  Hor.  Hebr.,  ad  loc.),  and  the  phrase  KravSai yvvaina.  (Ecclus.  xxxvi.  29.  Cf. 
Eph.  v.  28 ;  1  Cor.  vii.  2 ;  1  Pet.  iii.  7).  But  would  the  Thessalonians,  whose  women 
held  a  much  higher  and  freer  position  than  Oriental  women,  have  been  aware  of  this 
somewhat  repulsive  Orientalism  ?  Would  the  use  of  it  have  been  worthy  of  St.  Paul's 
refinement?  and  is  he  not,  as  Theodoret  observes,  speaking  to  celiba^s  and  to  women  as 
well  as  to  men  ? 

4  Leg.  ittovra,  M,  B,  D,  E,  F,  G. 

*  iv.  1 — 8.  The  dark  warning  of  iv.  6  is  lost  in  the  E.  V.,  because,  though  it  would 
be  but  too  intelligible  to  Pagan  converts,  St.  Paul  veils  it  under  the  delicate  euphemisms, 
the  konesta  aposiopesis,  familiar  to  his  sensitive  refinement  (cf.  1  Cor.  v.  1,  2;  2  Cor.  vii.  11, 
&c. ;  Eph.  v.  3, 12).  At  any  rate,  the  Greek  commentators,  who  would  here  be  most 
likely  to  see  bis  meaning,  take  him  to  mean  not  only  adultery,  but  yet  deeper  abysses  of 
wickedness.  It  cannot  be  "business,"  which  would  be  TOIS  jrpayjuacriK.  (See  Dollinger, 
Judcnth.  «.  Heidentk.) 

'  This  sort  of  irapaA«t<Jus  (or  praeteritio),  noticed  here  by  Theophylact,  is  a  rhetorical 

figure  characteristic  of  St.  Paul's  kindliness  (see  v.  1 ;  2  Cor.  ix.  1 ;  Philem.  19).    But  the 

phrase  also  implies  that  it  is  easier  to  teach  Christian  virtue  than  to.eradicate  habitual  vice. 

7  One  of  St.  Paul's  happy  turns  of  expression  (oxymoron,  Bom.  xii.  11  ;  cf.  Isa.  xxx.  7). 


THE   FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE   THESSALONIANS, 

their  own  hands,1  and  not  to  meddle  with  others,  and  not  to  rely  on  the 
assistance  of  others,  but  to  present  to  the  outer  world  a  spectacle  of  honour- 
able and  active  independence  (vs.  11,  12). 

And  now,  by  these  moral  exhortations,  by  thus  recalling  them  from  over- 
eschatological  excitement  to  the  quiet  fulfilment  of  the  personal'  duties  which 
lay  nearest  at  haud,  he  has  prepared  the  way  for  the  removal  of  a  serious 
doubt  which  had  troubled  some  of  them.  Since  he  loft  them  there  had  been 
deaths  in  the  littlo  community,  and  these  deaths  had  been  regarded  by  some 
of  the  survivors  with  a  peculiar  despondency.  They  had  been  taught  again 
and  again  to  hope  for,  to  look  unto,  the  coming  of  Christ.  That  blessed 
Presence  was  to  be  for  them  the  solution  of  all  perplexities,  the  righting 
of  all  wrongs,  the  consolation  for  all  sufferings.  What  the  hopes  of  the 
birth  of  the  Messiah  had  been  to  the  Jew,  that  the  hope  of  His  return  with 
all  His  saints  was  to  the  early  Christian.  And  it  was  natural  that  such  a 
topic  should  be  prominent  in  the  addresses  to  a  church  which,  from  its  very 
foundation,  had  been,  and  for  years  continued  to  be,  peculiarly  afflicted.2 
*"*WTiat,  then,  was  to  be  said  about  those  who  had  died,  and  therefore  had  not 
t,een  the  promise  of  Christ's  coming  ?  What  could  be  said  of  those  whose 
life  had  ended  like  the  common  life  of  men — no  wrongs  righted,  no  miseries 
consoled?  Had  not  they  been  beguiled  of  their  promise,  disappointed  in 
their  hope,  deceived,  even,  as  to  the  event  on  which  they  had  fixed  their 
faith  ?  And  if  they,  why  not  others  ?  If  the  dead  were  thus  frustrated  in 
their  expectation,  why  might  not  the  living  be  ?  St.  Paul  has  already  given 
them  the  advice  which  would  prevent  them  from  brooding  too  much  on  that 
one  uncertain  moment  of  Christ's  coming.  He  has  bidden  them  be  pure,  and 
loving,  and  diligent,  and  live  their  daily  lives  in  simple  honour  and  faithful- 
ness. He  would  have  eminently  approved  the  quiet  good  sense  of  that 
president  of  the  Puritan  assembly,  who,  when  a  dense  darkness  came  on, 
and  some  one  proposed  that  they  should  adjourn  because  it  might  be  the 
beginning  of  the  Day  of  Judgment,  proposed  rather  that  caudles  should  be 
lighted,  because  if  it  was  to  be  the  Day  of  Judgment,  they  could  not  be  found 
better  employed  than  in  the  quiet  transaction  of  duty.  But  Paul  does  not 
leave  his  converts  in  their  perplexity  about  their  departed  friends.  He  tells 
them,  in  words  which  have  comforted  millions  of  mourners  since,  not  to  sor- 
row as  those  that  have  no  hope,3  for  that  "  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and 

I  This  shows  that  the  Thessalonian  converts  were  mainly  artisan*. 

II  2  Cor.  vii.  5. 

3  That  the  Gentiles  were  at  this  time,  as  a  rule,  despondent  in  their  views  of  death, 
in  spite  of  dim  hopes  and  splendid  guesses,  is  certain.  "  Mortuus  nee  ad  DCOB,  nee  ad 
homines  acceptus  est"  (Corp.  Inscr.  i.  118;  Boissier,  La  Rd.  Rom,  L  304,  teq.).  See, 
for  the  more  ancient  Greek  view,  Jisch.  Eumen.  648,  &o.  The  shade  of  Achilles  says  to 
Ulysses  in  Hades : 

"  '  Talk  not  of  reigning  In  this  dolorous  gloom, 

JJor  think  vain  words/  he  cried,  '  can  ease  my  doom ; 

Better  by  fax  laboriously  to  bear 

A  weight  of  woes,  and  breathe  the  vital  air 

Slave  to  the  meanest  hiud  that  begs  his  bread. 

Than  reign  the  sceytred  monarch  of  the  deafl.. 


336  THS   LIFE   AND   WORK   Of   ST.   PAUL, 

rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  had  been  laid  asleep  by  Jesus  will  God 
bring  with  Him."1  He  even  enters  into  details.  He  tells  them  "  by  the  word 
of  the  Lord  " 2  that  death  would  practically  make  no  difference  whatever  be- 
tween the  living  and  the  dead,  for  that  in  the  tremendous  "  MOW  "  of  the  Day 
of  Judgment 3  the  Lord  Himself  should  descend  from  heaven  with  a  cry  of 
summons,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,1  and  with  the  trump  of  God,3  and 
that  then  the  dead  in  Christ  should  rise  first,  and  we  who  are  alive  and 
remain6  be  caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  and  so  be  for  ever  with 
Him.  " "Wherefore,"  he  says, "  comfort  one  another  with  these  words."7 

But  when  should  this  beP — after  what  period,  at  what  critical  moment  P3 
That  was  a  question  which  he  need  not  answer,  because  they  themselves  knew 
precisely9  the  only  answer  which  could  be  given,  which  was  that  the  day  of 
the  Lord  should  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  overwhelming  those  that  chose 
darkness  with  sudden  destruction.  But  they  were  not  of  the  darkness, 
but  children  of  light ;  so  that,  however  suddenly  it  came,  that  day  could 
not  find  them  unprepared.10  For  which  purpose  let  them  be  sober  and 
vigilant,  like  soldiers,  armed  with  faith  and  love  for  a  breastplate,  and  the 
hope  of  salvation  for  a  helmet ; u  since  God  had  not  appointed  them  for  wrath, 
but  to  obtain  salvation  through  Him  who  had  died  in  order  that  they,  whether 
in  life  or  in  death,  might  live  with  Him  for  ever.13  The  Thessalonians  are 
bidden  to  continue  edifying  and  comforting  one  another  with  these  words. 
Did  none  of  them  ask,  "  But  what  will  become  of  the  Jews  P  of  the  heathen  ? 
of  the  sinners  and  backsliders  among  ourselves  ?  "  Possibly  they  did.  But 
here,  and  in  the  Romans,  and  in  the  Corinthians,  St.  Paul  either  did  not 
anticipate  such  questions,  or  refused  to  answer  them.  Perhaps  he  had  heard 
the  admirable  Hebrew  apophthegm,  "Learn  to  say, '  I  do  not  know.' "  This 
at  least  is  certain,  that  with  him  the  idea  of  the  resurrection  is  so  closely 
connected  with  that  of  faith,  and  hope,  and  moral  regeneration,  that  when  he 
speaks  of  it  he  will  speak  of  it  mainly,  indeed  all  but  exclusively,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  resurrection  of  the  saints.13 

<">  y/jjj  .h;'JiU.,j.rj;T>  Jo  ^Jj(j    .-,ilj  ftii  01   *Jt'\i  it  ij  (j'PKVaf  .!»H 

I  iv.  14.     If  the  Sia  rov  'Iriirov  be  taken  with  Koi/oDjfleWo*,  "laid  asleep  by  Jesus."    Cf, 
Acts  iiL  16  ;  Rom.  i.  8 ;  v.  11 ;  2  Cor.  i.  5,  &c. 

3  "  Quasi  Eo  ipso  loquente  "  (Beza).  As  this  can  hardly  be  referred  to  Matt.  xxiv.  31, 
and  must  be  compared  with  the  Hebrew  phrase  (1  Kings  xx.  35,  &c.),  wo  can  only  under- 
stand it  either  of  a  traditional  utterance  of  Christ  or  a  special  revelation  to  the  Apostle. 
Ewald,  however,  sayi  (Sendschr.  48),  "Aus  Christusworten  die  ihuen  gewisa  auoh 
schriftlich  vorlagen." 

3  Luther.  4  Archangel  only  here  and  iu  Jud.  9. 

4  The  imagery  is  borrowed  from  Ex.  xix.  16. 
'  These  words  will  be  explained  infra. 

^  iv.  13—18.    These  verses  furnish  one  leading  nwtwe  of  the  Epistle. 

*  V.  1,  irepl  U  luv  Xp6v<av  (toi  rwcKaipuv.  '  V.  2,  ixpi/Sij. 

10  v.  4,  A,  B,  read  uX^raf,  which  would  bs  a  slight  change  of  metaphor.  "  Weil  dei 
Dieb  nur  in  und  mit  der  Nacht  kommt,  vom  Tage  aber  uberrascht  wird  "  (Ewald).  Cf . 
Matt.  xxiv.  87 ;  Rom.  xiii.  11 — 14. 

II  The  germ  of  the  powerful  and  beautiful  figure  of  the  Christian's  panoply  which  ia 
elaborated  in  Eph.  vi.  IS— 17 ;  Rom.  xiii.  12.    (Cf.  AVisd.  v.  IS  :  Baruch.  r.  12.) 

»*  v.  1—11. 

"  Pfleiderer,  1.  275 ;  Rom,  vl.  23 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  22, 4c.    See  lieuss,  Thcol  Chret.  ii.  214. 


337 

To  the  thoughts  suggested  by  St.  Paul's  treatment  of  this  weighty  topic 
•we  shall  revert  immediately.  He  ends  the  Epistle  with  moral  exhortations — 
all,  doubtless,  suggested  by  the  needs  of  the  Church — of  extraordinary  fresh- 
ness, force,  and  beauty.  There  wore  traces  of  insubordination  among  them, 
and  he  bids  them  duly  respect  and  love,  for  their  work'*  sake,  the  spiritual 
labourers  and  leaders  of  their  gommunity,1  and  to  be  at  peace  among  them- 
selves. He  further  tells  them — perhaps  in  these  last  verses  especially 
addressing  the  presbyters — to  warn  those  unruly  brethren  who  would  not  obey. 
There  was  despondency  at  work  among  them,  and  he  bids  them  "  comfort  the 
feeble-minded,  take  the  weak  by  the  hand,  be  patient  towards  all  men."  They 
•^ere  to  avoid  all  retaliations,  and  seek  after  all  kindness  2  (vers.  12 — 15).  Then 
follow  little  arrow-flights  of  inestimably  precious  exhortation.  Waa  depression 
stealing  into  their  hearts  P  Let  them  meet  it  by  remembering  that  God's 
will  for  them  in  Christ  Jesus  was  perpetual  joy,  unceasing  prayer,  universal 
thanksgiving.  Had  there  been  any  collisions  of  practice,  and  differences  of 
opinion,  among  the  excited  enthusiasts  whose  absorption  in  the  expected  return 
of  Christ  left  them  neither  energy  nor  wish  to  do  their  daily  duties,  while  it 
made  them  also  set  very  little  store  by  the  calmer  utterances  of  moral 
exhortation  P  Then,  besides  the  exhortation  to  peace,  and  the  noble  general 
rule  to  avoid  every  kind  of  evil,8  he  warns  them  that  they  should  neither 
quench  the  Spirit  nor  despise  prophesyings — that  is,  naither  to  stifle  an 
impassioned  inspiration  nor  to  undervalue  a  calm  address  4 — but  to  test  all 
that  was  said  to  them,  and  hold  fast  what  was  good.* 

Then,  once  more,  with  the  affirmation  that  God's  faithfulness  would  grant 
the  prayer,  he  prays  that  God  would  sanctify  them  wholly,  and  preserve  their 
bodies,  their  wills  and  affections,  their  inmost  souls,6  blamelessly  till  that 
coming  of  the  Lord  to  which  he  has  so  often  alluded.  He  asks  their  prayers 
for  himself ;  bids  them  salute  all  the  brethren  with  a  holy  kiss ; r  adjures 
them  by  the  Lord  8  that  his  letter  be  read  to  the  entire  community ;  and  so 

1  These  vague  terms  seem  to  show  that  ilia  ecclesiastical  organisation  of  the  Church 
was  as  yet  very  flexible. 

2  v.  15,  contrast  this  with  Soph.  Philoct.  679. 

3  Not  "  every  appearance  of  evil "  (E.  V.),  grand  a»  such  an  exhortation  undoubtedly 
U.     It  may  perhaps  be  "  from  every  evil  appearance,"  everything  which  has  an  ill  look  : 
possibly  it  refers  to  bad  y«V>?  of  spiritual  teaching, 

<  1  Cor.  xiv.  39. 

*  Vers.  16—21.  What  they  needed  was  the  *t«pi!n»  wvivntrav  (1  Cor.  xil.  10 ;  Hsb. 
v,  14),  and  to  be  66*11*01  Tpair«fiTai. 

6  v.  23,  <ri)ia,  "body;"  ^x^  the  entire  human  life  and  faculties;  <rv«vM=,  the  divinely 
imbreathed  spirit,  the  highest  region  ef  life.    4A.oT«A«Is,  oXoicAipot  (James  L  4).  (Trench. 
Synon,  p.  70.) 

7  The  TOVS  oSeA^ois  n-airas  must  mean  "  one  another, ''  as  in  Eom.  ivi.  16;  1  Cor.  ivi, 
20;  2  Cor.  xiii.  12;  1  Pet.  v.  14,  unless  these  few  concludicg  lines  are  addressed  specially 
to  the  elders.    On  the  "kiss  of  charity" — an  Oriental  custom — soe  Bingham,  Antiq.  iii 
3,  3 ;  Hooker,  Prcf.  iv.  4. 

8  The  very  strong  adjuration  may  have  been  rendared  necessary  by  som*  of  the 
differences  between  the  converts  and  the  leading  members  of  the  community,  at  which 
the  Apostle  hints  in  v.  12—15.     Some  influential  persons,  to  vrhorn  th«  letter  was  first 
handed,  might  be  inclined  to  suppress  any  parts  of  it  with  which  they  disagreed,  or  which 
seemed  to  condemn  their  views  or  conduct,    Timothy  may  have  brought  the  news  that 

12* 


338  THE    LIFE   AND   WORK   OF   ST.   PATTL. 

concludes  with  his  usual  ending,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be 
with  you.  Amen." l  These  last  three  verses  were  probably  written  in  his 
own  hand. 

It  may  easily  be  imagined  with  what  rapture  the  arrival  of  such  a  letter 
would  be  hailed  by  a  yoxing,  persecuted,  and  perplexed  community ;  how 
many  griefs  it  would  console ;  how  many  doubts  it  would  resolve ;  how  much 
joy,  and  hope,  and  fresh  enthusiasm  it  would  inspire.  It  could  not  but  have 
been  delightful  in  any  case  to  be  comforted  amid  the  storm  of  outward 
opposition,  and  to  be  inspirited  amid  the  misgivings  of  inward  faithlessness, 
by  the  words  of  the  beloved  teacher  whose  gospel  had  changed  the  whole 
current  of  their  lives.  It  was  much  to  feel  that,  though  absent  from  them  in 
person,  he  was  present  with  them  in  heart,2  praying  for  them,  yearning  over 
them,  himself  cheered  by  the  tidings  of  their  constancy ;  but  it  was  even  more 
to  receive  words  which  would  tend  to  heal  the  incipient  disagreements  of  that 
small  and  loving,  but  inexperienced,  and  as  yet  but  half-organised  community, 
and  to  hear  the  divinely  authoritative  teaching  which  silenced  their  worst  fears. 
And  further  than  this,  if  the  words  of  St.  Paul  shine  so  brightly  to  us  through 
the  indurated  dust  of  our  long  familiarity,  how  must  they  have  sparkled  for 
them  in  their  fresh  originality,  and  with  heaven's  own  light  shining  on  those 
oracular  gems  !  "  Having  received  the  word  in  much  affliction  with  joy  of 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  "  * — that  was  no  mere  artificial  oxymoron,  but  an  utterance 
which  came  from  a  new  world,  of  which  they  were  the  happy  lords.  "  Jesus 
which  delivereth  us  from  the  coming  wrath ; "  *  "  God  who  called  you  unto 
His  kingdom  and  glory ;  "  *  "  This  is  the  will  of  God,  even  your  sanctifica- 
tion ; "  '  "  So  shall  we  ever  bo  with  the  Lord  ;"T  "  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  the 
light  and  the  children  of  the  day ; "  8  "  See  that  none  render  evil  for  evil  unto 
any ;"  '  "  Rejoice  evermore." 10  What  illimitable  hopes,  what  holy  obligations, 
what  golden  promises,  what  glorious  responsibilities,  what  lofty  ideals,  what 

gome  previous  letter  of  the  Apostle  to  this,  or  other  churches,  had  not  properly  been 
made  known.  How  easily  such  an  interference  was  possible  we  see  from  3  John  9,  "I 
wrote  to  the  Church,  but  Diotrephes,  who  loveth  to  have  the  pre-eminence  among  them, 
receiveth  us  not "  (see  Ewald,  Sendschr,  p.  51).  Dionysius  of  Corinth  deplores  the  falsi- 
fication of  his  own  letters  (Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  23).  St.  Paul  generally  asked  for  a  prayer 
himself  towards  the  close  of  a  letter  (Eph.  vi.  19 ;  Col.  iv.  3  ;  2  Thess.  iii.  1). 

1  This  yvwpicTfi*  or  badge  of  cognisance  is  found,  with  slight  variations,  at  the  close  of 
all  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  Thus  :— 

(a.)  In  1  Thess.  v.  28 ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  23  we  have,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you,"  to  which  the  word  "all"  is  added  in  2  Thess.  iii.  18;  Horn.  xvi.  24  ; 
PhiL  iv.  23. 

03)  In  Philem.  25 ;  Gal.  vi.  18  we  have,  "The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 
your  spirit "  ("  brethren,"  Gal.). 

(y)  In  Col.  iv.  18 ;  1  Tim.  vi.  21 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  22  we  have  the  shortest  form,  "  Grace 
be  with  you  "  (thee),  to  which  Titus  iii.  15  adds  "  all. " 

(8)  In  Eph.  vi.  24  we  have  the  variation,  "  Grace  be  with  all  them  that  love  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,"  and  in  2  Cor.  xiii.  14  alone  the  full  "  Apostolic  benediction.'' 

The  subscriptions  added  to  the  Epistles  at  a  much  later  period  are  mostly  valueless 
(see  Paley,  Horae  Paulinae,  chap.  xv.). 

8  1  Thess.  ii.  17. 

•i.  6.  M.  10.  »1i:ll  •  :IT.  3. 

*  iv.  17.  •  ».  5.  •  ».  1&,  K>  r.  16. 


THE    FIRST   EPISTLE   TO   THE   THESSALONIANS.  339 

reaches  of  morality  beyond  any  which  their  greatest  writers  had  attained, 
what  strange  renovation  of  the  whole  spirit  and  meaning  of  life,  lay  hidden 
for  them  in  those  simple  words  ! 1  The  brief  Epistle  brought  home  to  them 
the  glad  truth  that  they  could  use,  for  their  daily  wear,  that  glory  of  thought 
which  had  only  been  attained  by  the  fewest  and  greatest  spirits  of  their 
nation  at  their  rarest  moments  of  inspiration ;  and  therewith  that  grandeur  of 
life  which,  in  its  perfect  innocence  towards  God  and  man,  was  even  to  these 
unknown. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  this  Epistle  St.  Paul  alludes  no  less  than 
four  times  to  the  coming  of  Christ,2  and  uses,  to  describe  it,  the  word  parousia 
— "  presence  " — which  also  occurs  in  this  sense  in  the  second  Epistle,3  but 
in  only  one  other  passage  of  all  his  other  Epistles.4  Whether,  after  the 
erroneous  conclusions  which  the  Thessaloiiians  drew  from  this  letter,  and  the 
injurious  effects  which  this  incessant  prominence  of  eschatology  produced  in 
their  characters,  he  subsequently  made  it  a  less  salient  feature  of  his  own 
teaching,  we  cannot  tell.  Certain,  however,  it  is  that  the  misinterpretation  of 
his  first  letter,  and  the  reprehensible  excitement  and  restlessness  which  that 
misinterpretation  produced,6  necessitated  the  writing  of  a  second  very  shortly 
after  he  had  received  tidings  of  these  results.6  It  is  equally  certain  that,  from 
this  time  forward,  the  visible  personal  return  of  Christ  and  the  nearness  of 
the  end,  which  are  the  predominant  topics  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  sink  into  a  far  more  subordinate  topic  of  reference  ;  and  that, 
although  St.  Paul's  language  in  the  letter  was  misunderstood,  yet  the  mis- 
understanding was  not  a  wilful  but  a  perfectly  natural  one ;  and  that  in  his 
later  letters  he  anticipates  his  own  death,  rather  than  the  second  Advent,  as 
his  mode  of  meeting  Christ.  The  divine  and  steady  light  of  history  first 
made  clear  to  the  Church  that  our  Lord's  prophetic  warnings  as  to  His 
return  applied  primarily  to  the  close  of  the  Jewish  dispensation,  and  the 
winding  up  of  all  the  past,  and  the  inauguration  of  the  last  great  aeon  of 
God's  dealings  with  mankind. 

1  Baur  (Paul,  ii.),  Kein(Tiib.  Zeitschr.  1839),  Van  der  Vaier  (Lie  beiden  Brief  en  aan 
de  Thessal.),   De  Wette  (Einleit.),   Volkmar,   Zeller,   &c.,   and  the  Tubingen  school 
generally,  except  Hilgenfeld  (Die  Thessalonicherbnefe),  reject  both  Epistles  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  as  ungenuine,  and  Baur  calls  the  First  Epistle  a  "  mattes  Nachwerk."    I  have 
carefully  studied  their  arguments,  but  they  seem  to  me  so  slight  as  to  be  scarcely 
deserving  of  serious  refutation.     The  difficulties  which  would  be  created  by  rejecting 
these  Epistles  are  ten  times  as  formidable  as  any  which  they  suggest.     If  an  unbiassed 
scholar,  familiar  with  the  subject,  cannot  fed  the  heart  of  St.  Paul  throbbing  through 
every  sentence  of  these  Epistles,  it  is  hardly  likely  that  argument  will  convince  him. 
External  evidence  (Iron.  Haer.  v.  6,  1 ;  Clem.  Alex.  Paedag.  L,  p.  109,  ed.  Potter ;  Tert. 
De  Resurrect.  Carnis,  cap.  24),  though  sufficiently  strong,  is  scarcely  even  required,    ^ot 
only  Bunsen,  Ewald,  &c.,  but  even  Hilgenfeld  (I.e.),  Holtzmann  (Thessalon.  in  Schenkel, 
Bibel-lexikon),  Pfleiderer  (Paulinism,  29),  Hausrath,  Weisse,  Schmidt,  &«.,  accept  the  first. 

2  ii.  19 ;  iii.  13  ;  iv.  15  ;  v.  23.  •  2  Thess.  ii.  1,  8.  *  1  Cor.  xv.  23 

6  We  find  in  St.  Paul's  own  words  abundant  proof  that  his  teaching  was  distorted 
and  slandered,  and  St.  Peter  gives  us  direct  positive  assurance  that  such  was  the  case 
(2  Pet.  iii.  16).  .  _ 

4  Tradition  should  have  some  weight,  and  rpos  e«r<r<tAovi«i«  P  is  the  reading  of  A,  B, 
D,  E,  F,  G.  The  internal  evidences  also,  to  some  of  which  I  have  called  attention, 
feem  to  me  decisive. 


340  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  Or  ST.  PAUL. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  SECOND  EPISTLE   TO  THE   THESSALONIAN8. 
"  A«i  yap  raiira  ycvcVdct  wpG~ov,  iAA"  eux  f vQiios  ro  WXos.  — LUJCX  xzi.  9. 

MANY  months  could  not  have  elapsed  before  the  Apostle  heard  that  the 
Thcssalonians,  with  all  their  merits  and  virtues,  were  still,  and  even  more 
than  previously,  hindered  in  moral  growth  by  esehatological  enthusiasms. 
When  he  wrote  to  them  before,  they  were  tempted  to  despond  about  the  death 
of  friends,  whom  they  supposed  likely  ta  be  thus  deprived  of  part  at  least  of 
the  precious  hopes  which  were  their  main,  almost  their  sole,  support  in  the 
fiery  furnace  of  affliction.  The  Apostle's  clear  assurance  seems  to  have 
removed  all  anxiety  on  this  jtppic,  but  now  they  regarded  the  immediate  coming 
of  Christ  as  a  thing  so  certain  that  some  of  them  were  tempted  to  neglect  his 
exhortations,  and  to  spend  their  lives  in  aimless  religious  excitement.1  St. 
Paul  felt  how  fatal  would  be  such  a  temperament  to  all  Christian  progress, 
and  the  main  object  of  his  second  letter  was  to  control  into  calm,  and  shame 
into  diligence,  the  gossiping  enthusiasm  which  fatally  tended  towards  irregu- 
larity and  sloth.  They  were  not  to  desert  the  hard  road  of  the  present  for  the 
mirage  which  seemed  to  bring  so  close  to  them  the  green  Edens  of  the  future ; 
they  were  not  to  sacrifice  the  sacreduess  of  immediate  duty  for  the  dreamy 
sweetness  of  unrealised  expectations.  The  Advent  of  Christ  might  be  near 
at  hand ;  but  it  was  not  so  instant  as  they  had  been  led  to  imagine  from  an 
erroneous  view  of  what  he  had  said,  and  by  mistaken  reports — possibly 
even  by  written  forgeries — which  ascribed  to  him  words  which  he  had 
never  used,  and  opinions  which  he  had  never  held. 

The  expression  on  which  the  Apocalyptic  fanaticism  of  the  less  sensible 
Theesalonians  seems  to  have  fastened  was  that  which  occurs  in  1  Thess.  iv. 
15 — "  WE.  which  are  alive  and  remain  to  tfoe  presence  of  the  Lord,  sliall 
certainly  not  anticipate  those  that  have  fallen  asleep."  It  was  not  unnatural 
that  they  should  interpret  this  to  mean  that  their  teacher  himself  exjpected  to 
survive  until  the  Epiphany  of  their  Lord's  presence.2  If  so,  it  must  be  very 
close  at  hand;  and  again,  if  so,  of  what  use  were  the  petty  details  of  daily 
routine,  the  petty  energies  of  daily  effort  ?  Was  it  not  enough  to  keep  them- 
selves alive  anyhow  until  tho  dawn  of  that  near  day,  or  the  shadows  of  that 
rapidly  approaching  night,  which  might  be  any  day  or  any  night,  on  which  all 
earthly  interests  should  be  dissipated  for  ever  as  soon  as  the  voice  of  God  and 
the  trumpet  of  the  dead  should  sound  P 

Now,  we  ask,  had  this  been  tho  real  tssaning  of  the  words  of  St.  Paul  P 

1  The  reader  will  be  struck  with  the  close  analogy  of  this  temptation  to  that  which 
did  BO  much  mischief  among  the  Anabaptiati  and  other  sects  in  the  days  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  Thes&alonian  Church  may  have  had  its  Carls tadts  whom  St.  Paul  felt  ifc 
necessary  to  warn,  just  as  Luther  fought,  with  all  the  force  of  big  manly  sense,  against 
the  crudities  of  the  religious  errors  which  had  derived  their  impulse  from  a  perversion  of 
bis  own  teaching. 

*  'JL.T^'.  i;  J;«L  Tip 


THI   SECOND  EPISTLE   TO   THE   THES8ALONU.NS  341 

The  question  has  been  voluminously  and  angrily  debated.  It  lias  tnen  made, 
in  fact  (and  very  needlessly),  the  battle-ground  as  to  the  question  of  verbal 
inspiration.  Some  have  tried  to  maintain  the  desperate  and  scarcely  honest 
position  that  neither  St.  Paul  nor  the  Apostles  generally  had  aiiy  expectation 
of  the  near  visible  advent  of  Christ  ;  others  that  they  were  absolutely 
convinced  that  it  would  take  place  in  their  own  generation,  and  even  in  their 
own  lifetime. 

Not  in  the  interests  of  controversy,  but  in  those  of  truth,  1  will  endeavour 
to  prove  that  neither  of  these  extreme  theses  can  be  maintained.  If  the  view 
of  the  Thessalonians  had  been  absolutely  groundless,  it  woiild  have  been  easy 
for  St.  Paul  to  eay  to  them,  as  modern  commentators  have  said  for  him, 
"  You  mistook  my  general  expression  for  a  specific  and  individual  one.  When 
I  said  '  tc«  which  are  alive  and  remain  '  at  the  presence  of  Christ,  I  did  not 
mean  either  myself,  or  you,  in  particular,  but  merely  '  the  living  '  —  the  class 
to  which  we  at  present  belong  —  as  opposed  to  the  dead,  about  whose  case  I 
was  speaking  to  you.1  You  are  mistaken  in  supposing  that  I  meant  to  imply 
a  conviction  that  before  my  own  death  the  Lord  would  reappear."  Now,  he  doea 
not  say  this  at  all  ;  *  he  only  tells  them  not  to  be  drifted  from  their  moorings, 
not,  as  he  expresses  it,  to  be  tossed  from  their  sound  sense  3  by  the  supposition 
tliat  he  had  spoken  of  the  actual  instancy  4  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.  He  tells 
them  plainly  that  certain  events  must  occur  before  that  day  came  ;  and  these 
as  certainly  are  events  which  precluded  all  possibility  of  the  Second  Advent 
taking  place  for  them  to-morrow  or  the  next  day.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
does  not  tell  them  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  was  not  near  (^rx^).  If  he  had 
done  BO  he  would  have  robbed  of  their  meaning  the  exhortations  which  had 
formed  the  staple  of  his  preaching  at  Thessalonica,  as  they  constituted  the 
only  prominent  doctrinal  statement  of  his  First  Epistle.5  If  we  are  to  judge 
of  St.  Paul's  views  by  his  own  language,  and  not  by  the  preconceptions  of 
scholasticism,  wo  can  divine  what  would  have  been  his  answer  to  the  plain 
question,  "  Do  yon  personally  expect  to  live  till  the  return  of  Christ  ?  "  At 
this  period  of  his  life  his  answer  would  have  been,  "  I  cannot  speak  positively 
on  the  matter.  I  see  clearly  that,  before  His  return,  certain  things  must  take 
place  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  I  do  expect  it,"  But  at  a  later  period  of  his  life  he 
would  have  said  in  substance,  "  It  may  bs  so  ;  I  cannot  tell.  On  the  whole, 
however,  I  no  longer  hope  to  survive  till  that  day  ;  nor  does  it  seem  to  me  of 
any  importance  whether  I  do  or  not.  At  that  day  the  quick  will  have  no 
advantage  over  the  dead.  What  I  now  look  forward  to,  what  I  sometimes  even 
yearn  for,  is  my  own  death.  I  know  that  when  I  die  I  shall  be  with  Christ, 


1  1  These.  IT.  15.    ^tit  .  .  .   «0  irepl  Jovrov  frpiv—  aXXi  rvin  rumO*  Wyt»  (Chrys.). 

3  It  is  never  his  method  to  explain  away  hii  views  because  they  have  been  perverted, 
but  merely  to  bring  them  out  in  their  full  and  proper  meaning. 

*  fiSj  Tox<fws  ffoAfvfl^ai  iir'o  ToO  vote  (2  ThftSS.  li.  2).  4  ivift^Ktv. 

6  At  Baur  rightly  observes  (Paulut,  ii.  94)  :  but  to  assume  that  thereiore  the  EpistU 
cannot  be  St.  raul  •  is  to  the  last  degree  uncritical.  Moreover,  though  there  are  no 
other  "dogmatic  ideas"  brought  forward  with  very  ipeeial  prominence,  there  we 
"  dogmatic  ideas  "  Attuned  in  ever;  ilm>. 


342  THE   LIFE    AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

and  it  is  for  that  pathway  into  His  presence  that  I  am  now  watching.  In  the 
earlier  years  of  my  conversion  we  all  anticipated  a  speedier  development  of 
Antichrist,  a  speedier  removal  of  the  restraining  power,  a  speedier  brightening 
of  the  clouds  about  the  flaming  feet  of  our  Saviour.  That  for  which  I  now 
look  is  far  more  the  spiritual  union  with  my  Lord  than  His  visible  manifesta- 
tion. It  may  be,  too,  that  He  cometh  in  many  ways.  If  we  ever  mistook  the 
nearer  for  the  farther  horizons  of  His  prophecy,  it  is  but  a  part  of  that 
ignorance  which,  as  He  Himself  warned  us,  should,  as  regards  the  details  of 
this  subject,  be  absolute  and  final.  For  said  He  not  when  He  was  yet  with 
us,  '  Of  that  day  and  that  hour  knoweth  no  man ;  no,  not  the  angels  which 
are  in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father '  ?  But  whether  He  come  so 
soon  as  we  have  expected,  or  not,  yet  in  one  form  or  another  assuredly  now 
and  ever  '  the  Lord  is  at  hand  ; '  and  the  lesson  of  His  coming  is  that  which 
He  also  taught  us,  and  which  we  have  taught  from  Him — '  Take  ye  heed, 
watch  and  pray,  for  ye  know  not  when  the  time  is.' " 

That  these  were  tho  views  of  St.  Paul  and  of  other  Apostles  on  "  the  crises 
and  the  periods"  respecting  which,  if  they  ventured  to  hold  any  definite 
opinion  at  all,  they  could  not  but,  according  to  their  Lord's  own  warning,  be 
liable  to  be  mistaken,  will,  I  think,  be  evident  to  all  who  will  candidly  weigh 
and  compare  with  themselves  the  passages  to  which  I  here  refer.1 

Now  BO  far  as  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  passing  of  doom  upon 
the  Jewish  race  was  "  a  day  of  the  Lord,"  so  far  even  the  most  literal  accep- 
tation of  their  words  is  in  close  accordance  >viik  the  actual  results.  Nor 
should  this  remarkable  coincidence  be  overlooked.  On  December  19th,  A.D.  69, 
the  Capitoline  Temple  was  burnt  down  in  the  war  between  Vitellius  and  Ves- 
pasian, which  Tacitus  calls  the  saddest  and  most  shameful  blow,  and  a  sign  of 
the  anger  of  the  gods.  On  August  10,  A.D.  70,  a  Roman  soldier  flung  a 
brand  within  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  "  Thus,"  says  Dolliuger,2  "  within  a 
few  months  the  national  sanctuary  of  Rome  and  the  Temple  of  God,  the  two 
most  important  places  of  worship  in  the  old  world,  owed  their  destruction 
to  Roman  soldiers — thoughtless  instruments  of  the  decrees  and  -judgment  of 
a  higher  power.  Ground  was  to  bo  cleared  for  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  The  heirs  of  the  two  temples,  the  Capitoline  and  the  Jewish — a 
handful  of  artisans,  beggars,  slaves,  and  women — were  dwelling  at  the  time 
in  some  of  the  obscure  lanes  and  alleys  of  Rome ;  and  only  two  years  before. 

•^Allusions  to  a  near  Advent,  1  Thess.  i.  9,  10,  "ye  turned  to  God  ....  to  wait 
for  His  Son  from  heaven  ;  "  1  Cor.  i.  7,  "  To  wait  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  " 
(cf.  2  Theus.  iii.  5) ;  1  Cor.  xv.  51,  "  We  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed  " 
(cf.  1  Thess.  iv.  15 — 17) ;  James  v.  8, 9,  "The  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh  .  .  .  The 
judge  standeth  before  the  door ; "  1  Pet.  iv.  7,  "  The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand ; " 
1  John  ii.  18,  "  Even  now  are  there  many  antichrists,  whereby  we  know  that  it  is  the  last 
time ; "  Rev.  xxii.  20,  "  Surely  I  come  quickly."  On  the  sayings  of  our  Lord,  on  which 
the  expectation  was  perhaps  founded  (Matt.  xxiv.  29,  SO,  34),  see  my  Life  of  Christ,  ii. 
257,  sq.  On  the  other  hand,  if  St.  Paul  contemplated  the  possibility  of  being  alive  at 
the  Day  of  the  Lord,  he  also  was  aware  that  though  near,  it  would  not  be  immediate 
(2  Cor.  iv.  14 ;  2  Thess.  ii. ;  Horn.  xi.  24 — 27),  and  at  a  later  period  looked  forward  to 
hi*  own  death  (Phil.  i.  20—23). 
8  Judenth.  u.  Heidenth.  ix.  ad.  f. 


THE   SECOND  3SPISTLK   TO  THE   THESSALONLA.N3.  343 

when  they  had  first  drawn  public  attention  to  themselves,  a  number  of  them 
wore  sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive  in  the  imperial  gardens,  and  others  to  be 
torn  in  pieces  by  wild  beasts." 

We  may,  then,  say  briefly  that  the  object  of  the  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Thessaloniang  was  partly  to  assure  them  that,  though  St.  Paul  believed  the 
day  of  the  Lord  to  be  near — though  he  did  not  at  all  exclude  the  possibility 
of  their  living  to  witness  it — yet  it  was  not  so  instantaneous  as  in  the  least  to 
justify  a  disruption  of  the  ordinary  duties  of  life.1  He  had  as  little  meant 
positively  to  assert  that  he  would  survive  to  the  Advent  when  he  said  "tee 
that  are  alive,"  than  he  meant  positively  to  assert  that  he  should  die  before  it 
occurred,  when,  years  afterwards,  he  wrote,  "  He  which  raised  up  the  Lord 
Jesus  sliall  raise  up  us  also  by  Jesus." 2  That  the  "  we  "  in  these  instances 
was  generic  is  obvious  from  the  fact  that  he  uses  it  of  the  dead  and  of  the 
living  in  the  same  Epistle, saying  in  one  place,  "  We  shall  not  all  sleep,"*  and 
in  another,  "  God  will  also  raise  up  u$  by  His  own  power."  * 

On  the  nearness  of  the  final  Messianic  Advent,  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian 
world  were  at  one ;  and  even  the  Heathen  were  in  a  state  of  restless  anticipa- 
tion. The  trials  of  the  Apostle  had  naturally  led  him  to  dw«ll  on  this  topic 
both  in  his  preaching  at  Thessalonica,  and  in  his  earlier  Epistle.  His  Second 
Epistle  follows  the  general  outlines  of  the  First,  which  indeed  formed  a 
model  for  all  the  others.  Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  way  in  which 
the  Epistles  combine  a  singular  uniformity  of  method  with  a  rich  exuberance 
of  detail*  In  this  respect  they  are  the  reflex  of  a  life  infinitely  varied  in  its 
adventures,  yet  swayed  by  one  simple  and  supremely  dominant  idea.  Except 
when  special  circumstances,  as  in  the  Epistles  to  Ihe  Corinthians,  modify  his 
ordinary  plan,  his  letters  consist,  as  a  rule,  of  six  parts,  viz. : — i.  a  solemn 
salutation ;  ii.  an  expression  of  thankfulness  to  God  for  His  work  among  those 
to  whom  he  is  writing ;  iii.  a  section  devoted  to  religious  doctrine ;  iv.  a  section 

CV  «£!i    -^ 

1  The  dread  of  some  imminent  world- catastrophe,  preluded  by  prodigies,  was  at  thi« 
time  universal  (Tac.  Ann.  vi.  28 ;  xii.  43,  64 ;  xiv.  12,  22 ;  xv.  22 ;  Hist.  i.  3 ;  Suet. 
Nero,  36,  39;  Dion  Cass.  Ix.  35;  Ixi.  16—18,  &c.).  Hausrath,  N.  Zeitgtsch.  ii.  108. 
Kenan  L'Antechritt,  p.  35  :  "  On  ne  parlait  que  de  prodiges  et  de  malheurs." 

J  2  Cor.  iv.  14.  3  1  Cor.  xv.  51,  on  the  reading,  v.  infra,  p.  399. 

4  1  Cor.  vi.  14.  Here,  as  in  so  many  cases,  a  passage  of  the  Talmud  throws  most 
valuable  light  on  the  opinions  of  St.  Paul,  which,  on  such  a  subject — where  all  special 
illumination  was  deliberately  withdrawn — were  inevitably  coloured  by  the  tone  of  opinion 
prevalent  in  his  own  nation  : — "  '  When  will  Messiah  come  ?'  asked  R.  Joshua  Ben  Laive 
of  Elijah  the  Tishbite.  '  Go  and  ask  Himself.'  '  Where  is  He  ? '  'At  the  gateway  of 
Rome. '  '  How  shall  I  know  Him  ? '  'He  sits  among  the  diseased  poor.'  (Rashi  quotes 
Isa.  liii.  5.)  '  All  the  others  change  the  bandages  of  their  sores  simultaneously,  but  Hd 
change*  them  successively,  lest,  if  called,  His  coming  should  be  delayed.'  R.  Joshua 
Ben  Laive  went  to  Him,  and  saluted  Him  with  the  words  '  Peace  be  to  thee,  my  Rabbi, 
my  teacher.'  'Peace  be  unto  thee,  Son  of  Laive,'  was  the  answer  of  Messiah.  'When 
will  the  Master  come  ? '  asked  the  Rabbi.  '  TO-DAY,'  was  the  answer.  By  the  time  the 
Rabbi  had  finished  telling  the  story  to  Elijah,  the  sun  had  set.  '  How?  said  the  Rabbi ; 
'  He  has  not  come  !  Has  H«  lied  unto  me ?  '  'No,'  said  Elijah.  ' He  meant  " To-DAY,  IT 
YE  WILL  HMA»  His  YOic*  " '  (Ps.  xcv.  7)."  (Sanhedrin,  f .  98,  1.)  This  involves  the  same 
truth  as  the  famous  remark  of  St.  Augustine,  "  Ergo  latet  ultimas  dies,  ut  observentur 
oiimei  dies,"  which  was  also  said  by  R.  Eliczor. 

•  See  Reuse,  TMol.  Chret.  ii.  11. 


344  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OP  ST.    PAUL. 

devoted  to  practical  exhortation ;  v.  a  section  composed  of  personal  details 
and  greetings ;  and,  vi.  the  final  autograph  benediction  which  served  to  mark 
the  authenticity  of  the  Epistle.  We  have  already  noticed  that  this  is  the 
general  structure  of  the  First  Epistle,  and  it  will  be  observed  no  less  in  the 
subjoined  outline  of  the  Second.1 

After  the  greeting,  in  which,  as  in  the  last  Epistle,,  he  associates  Silas  and 
Timothy  with  himself,*  he  thanks  God  once  more  for  the  exceeding  increase* 
of  their  faith,  and  the  abounding  love  which  united  them  with  one  another, 
which  enabled  him  as  well  as  others  *  to  hold  them  up  in  the  Churches  of  God6 
as  a  model  of  faith  and  patience,  and  that,  too,  under  special  tribulations. 
Those  tribulations,  he  tells  them,  are  an  evidence  that  the  present  state  of 
things  cannot  be  final ;  that  a  time  is  coming  when  their  persecutors  will  be 
punished,  and  themselves  have  relaxation  from  endurance  6 — which  time  will 
be  at  the  Epiphany,  in  Sinaitic  splendour,7  of  the  Lord  Jesus  with  His  mighty 
angels,  to  inflict  retribution  on  the  Gentile  ignorance  which  will  not  know 
God,  and  the  disobedient  obstinacy  which  rejects  the  Gospel.  That  retribu- 
tion shall  be  eternal*  cutting  off  from  the  presence  and  glorious  power  of 
Christ e  when  He  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  His  saints  and  to  be  wondered 

1  i.  The  greeting,  2  Thesa.  i.  1,  2.    li  The  thanksgiving,   or  Eushariitie  section, 
mingled  with  topics  of  consolation    derived  from  the   coming    of    Christ,  i.  3 — 12. 
iii.  The  dogmatic  portion,  which,  in  this  instance,  is  the  remarkable  and  indeed  unique 
section  about  the  Man  of  Sin,  ii.  1 — 12 ;  the  thanksgiving  renewed  with  exhortations 
and  ending  in  a  prayer,  ii.  13—17.    iv.  The  practical  part,  consisting  of  a  request  for 
their  prayers  (iii.  1 — 5).    v.  Exhortations,  and  messages,  also  ended  by  a  prayer,  iii.  6—16. 
vi.  The  autograph  conclusion  and  benediction,  iii.  17,  18.     These  divisions,  however,  an 
not  rigid  and  formal ;  one  section  flows  naturally  into  another,  with  no  marked  separa- 
tion.   Each  of  the  prayers  (ii.  16 ;  iii.  1C)  begins  with  the  same  words,  Avrtt «  6  Kv'pip?. 

2  This  accurately  marks  the  date  of  the  letter,  as  having  been  written  at  Corinth 
shortly  after  the  former.     Silas  ceases  to  be  a  fellow- worker  with  Paul,  and  apparently 
loins  Peter,  after  the  visit  to  Jerusalem  at  the  close  of  the  two  years'  sojourn  at  Corinth. 
It  is  probable  that  the  mental  and  religious  affinities  of  Silas  were  more  closely  in  accor- 
dance with  the  old  Apostles  who  had  sent  him  to  Antioch  than  with  St.  Paul. 

a  vrr.-pavfayci,  It  is  a  part  of  St.  Paul's  emphatic  style  that  he  delights  in  compounds 
of  i"fep,  a*  virtpax^,  vrrspXfav,  virepjSaXAw,  vrreptxvtpitrffov,  &C, 

4  2  Thess,  i.  4,  nitis  avrovt. 

6  This  is  a  strong  argument  against  Ewald's  view  that  the  Epistle  was  written  from 
Ecvoea  ;  but  it  does  not  prove,  as  Chrysostom  says,  that  a  considerable  time  must  have 
elapsed.  Writing  from  Corinth,  there  were  Churches  both  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia  to 
which  St.  Paul  alludes.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Epistle  was  written  late  in 
A.D.  53  or  early  in  A.D.  54. 

fi    ivi<TiV- 

1  Ei.  iii.  2  ;  rfx.  18  j  ndv.  17  J  2  Chr.  vil.  1,  &c.  *,  A,  K,  L,  have  m>P\  <£Aoyfc.  The 
eomma  should  be  after  jfre.not,  as  in  E.V.,  after  "  angels." 

8  i.  9.  It  is  clear  that  ijrb  here  means  "separation  from,"  not  "  immediately  after," 
or  "  by."  Thia  is  the  only  passage  in  all  St.  Paul's  Epistles  where  his  eschatology  even 
seems  to  touch  on  the  future  of  the  impenitent.  When  Chrysostom  triumphantly  asks, 
"Where,  then,  are  the  Origenists?  He  calls  the  destruction  alwtov  ;"  his  own  remarks 
in  other  places  show  that  he  could  hardly  have  been  unaware  that  this  rhetoric  of 
'  ueconomy  "  might  sound  convincing  to  the  ignorant  and  the  superficial,  but  had  no  bearing 
whatever  on  the  serious  views  of  Origen.  Observe,  i.  JiSoyai  txSwojo-tj'  (cf.  2  Sam.  xxii. 
48,  LXX.)  does  not  mean  "take  vengeance."  ii.  The  fire  is  not  penal  fire,  but  is  the 
Shechinah-glory  of  Advent  (Dan.  vii.  9;  Ex.  iii.  2).  iii.  Those  spoken  of  are  not 
•inners  in  general,  but  wilful  enemies  and  persecutors,  iv.  The  retribution  is  not 
'•  destruction,"  but  "  destruction-from-the-Preseace  of  the  Lord,"t.e.,  a  cutting  off  from 


THE  SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE   THESS1LONIA.N8.  345 

at  In  all  that  "believed  in  Him.1  And  that  they  may  attain  to  this  glory,  he 
prayed  that  God  may  count  them  worthy  of  their  calling,  and  bring  to  fulfil- 
ment the  goodness  in  which  they  delight,2  and  the  activity  of  their  faith,  both 
to  the  glory  of  their  Lord  and  to  their  own  glory,  as  granted  by  His  grace.3 

Then  follows  the  most  remarkable  section  of  the  letter,  and  tha  one  for 
the  sake  of  which  it  was  evidently  written.  He  had,  in  his  first  letter,  urged 
them  to  calmness  and  diligence,  but  the  eagerness  of  expectation,  unwittingly 
increased  by  his  own  words,  had  prevailed  over  his  exhortations,  and  it  was 
now  hia  wish  to  give  them  further  and  more  definite  instruction  on  this  great 
subject.  This  was  rendered  more  necessary  by  the  fact  that  their  hopes 
had  been  fanned  into  vivid  glow,  partly  by  prophecies  which  claimed  to  be 
inspired,  and  partly  by  words  or  letters  which  professed  to  be  stamped  with 
his  authority.  He  writes,  therefore,  in  language  of  which  I  have  attempted 
to  preserve  something  of  the  obvious  mystery  and  reticence.4 


we  beseech  you,  brethren,  touching*  the  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  our  gathering6  to  meet  Him,  that  ye  be  not  quickly  tossed  from  your 
state  of  mind,'  nor  even  be  troubled  either  by  spirit,8  or  l>y  word,  or  by  letter  pur- 
porting to  come  from  us,'  as  though  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  here.10  Let  no  one  deceive 
you  in  any  way,  because  u  —  unless  the  apostasy  1S  come  first,  and  the  man  of  sin 

Beatific  Vision,    v.  The  "  tfonian  exclusion  "  of  this  passage  takes  place  at  Christ's  First 
Advent,  not  at  the  final  Judgment  Day. 

1  They  will  inspire  wonder,  because  they  will  in  that  day  reflect  His  brightness. 

2  i.  11,  irXTi/jwcTjtvSoiciov  <xy»»u<r»x7)9.    Not  as  in  E.V.,  "  fulfil  all  the  good  pleasure  of 
hit  goodness,     but   "honestatis    dulcedinem"  —  i.e.,    "honestatem,    qua  recreemini." 
EiJoKia,  indetd,  is  often  referred  to  God  (Eph.  i.  5,  9,  &c.);  but  «.ya<?»j<rv»ij,  used  four 
times  in  St.  Paul,  is  "  moral  and  human  goodness,"  the  classic  xp>j<rron)s.    It  is  borrowed 
from  the  LXX.     (See  Eccl.  ix.  18.) 

3  2  Thess.  i.  3—12. 

4  Neither  this  nor  any  other  passage  which  I  translate  apart  from  theE.V.  is  intended 
as  a  specimen  of  desirable  translation.     I  merely  try  to  translate  in  such  terms  as  shall 
most  easily  explain  themselves  to  the  modern  reader,  while  they  reproduce  as  closely  as 
possible  the  form  of  the  original. 

s  i^-p,  not  an  adjuration  in  the  New  Testament,  yet  a  little  stronger  than  >repi. 

6  An  obvious  allusion  to  1  Thess.  iv.  17.  The  substantive  tvurvvaytart  only  occurs  in 
Rob.  x.  25,  but  the  verb  in  Matt,  xxiii.  37  ;  xxiv.  31,  "as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings  :>  (cf.  John  xi.  52). 

'  "Fro  youre  witte  "  (Wicl.)  ;  "  from  your  sense  "  (Rhemish  version). 

8  i.e.,  by  utterance  professing  to  be  inspired.    The  "  discerning  of  spirits,"  or  testing 
of  what  utterances  were,  and  what  were  not,  inspired,  was  one  of  the  most  important 
xapto>i«Ta  in  the  early  Church. 

9  The  commentators  from  Chrysostom  and  Theodoret  downwards  are  almost  unani- 
mous in  taking  this  to  mean  that  a  letter  on  these  subjects  had  been  forged  in  St.  Paul's 
name,  and  had  increased  the  excitement  of  the  Thessalonians.     It  seems  to  me  that  the 
requirements  of  the  expression  are  fulfilled  if  we  make  the  surely  more  probable  suppo- 
sition that  some  letter  had  been  circulated  amone  them  —  perhaps  anonymous,  perhaps 
with  perfectly  honest  intentions—  which  professed  to  report  his  exact  opinions,  while  m 
reality  it  misunderstood  them. 

10  This,  rather  than  "is  immediately  imminent,"  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  ivi<m,ztv 

{Rom.   viii.    38  ;   Gal.    i.  4,  ic.  ).      T,v««  yip  n-po^Tj-m'av  viroKpiroiMyot  jirAarwr  rt>v  Xftiv   w  f   »j  S  >f 

s-apbvTosToCKvpi'ov  (Theod.).  At  any  rate,  the  word  implies  the  closest  possible  proximity. 
TJ  ivt<rrur<i  means  "things  present."    (See  Rom.  viii.  88;  1  Cor.  iii.  22). 

11  He  purposely  suppresses  the  discouraging  words  "The  Lord  will  not  cc<me," 
**  Certainly  not  "  the  revolt  of  the  Jews," 


346  THE    LIFK   AND   WORK    OF  ST.   PAUL. 

be  revealed,1  the  son  of  destruction,1  who  oppoaeth,1  and  exalteth  himself  above  and 
against  every  one  who  is  called  God,4  or  is  an  object  of  worship,  so  that  he  enters 
and  seats  himself  in  the  shrine  of  God,*  displaying  himself  that  he  is  God.  Do 
you  not  recall  that,  while  I  was  still  with  you,  I  used  to  tell  you  this  ?  And  now 
the  restraining  power — you  know  what  it  is — which  prevents  his  appearing — that 
he  may  appear  in  his  own  due  time  [and  not  before].  For  the  mystery  of  the  law- 
lessness is  already  working,  only  he  who  restrains  now — until  he  be  got  out  of  the 
way.8  And  then  shall  be  revealed  the  lawless  one,  whom  the  Lord  Jesus  shall 
destroy  with  the  breath  of  His  mouth,  and  shall  annihilate  with  the  Epiphany  of 
His  presence ; 7  whose  presence  is  in  accordance  with  the  energy  of  Satan  in  all 
power,  and  signs,  and  prodigies  of  falsehood,  and  in  all  deceitfulness  of  iniquity 
for  the  ruin  of  those  who  are  perishing,*  because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the 
truth  that  they  might  be  saved.  And,  because  of  this,  God  is  sending 9  them  an 
energy  of  error,  so  that  they  should  believe  the  lie I0  that  all  may  be  judged  who 
believed  not  the  truth,  but  took  pleasure  in  unrighteousness.11 

Of  this  strange  but  unquestionably  genuine  passage,  which  is  nevertheless 
so  unlike  anything  else  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  I  shall  speak  immediately.  He 
proceeds  to  tell  them  that  their  case,  thank  God,  was  very  different  from  that 
of  these  doomed  dupes  of  Antichrist,  seeing  that  God  had  chosen  and  called 
them  from  the  beginning1*  to  sanctification  and  salvation  and  glory.13  He 
exhorts  them  therefore,  to  stand  fast,  and  hold  the  teaching  which  they  had 
received  from  his  words  and  his  genuine  letter,  and  prays  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  God  our  Father  may  comfort  them  and  stablish  them  in  all  goodness.1* 

1  The  apocalypse  of  the  Antichrist. 

3  Whose  end  is  destruction  (Phil.  iii.  19  ;  John  xvii.  12). 

*  A  human  Satan  or  adversary  (Renan,  p.  255). 

4  vr«p«upoM«v<K    .    .    .    «JT«,  perhaps  "exceedingly  exalteth  himself  against."     Dan. 
xi.  86,  speaking  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 

6  (cafliVot    .    .    .    tit.    A  conttruciio  praegnans.     (See  my  Brief  Greek  Syntax,  §  89). 
Omit  w$  tt&v,  X,  A,  B,  D,  &c.     v«bv  stronger  than  ifp6v,  and  could  only  be  naturally  under- 
stood of  the  Jewish  Temple. 

*  "  Tantum  qui  nunc  tenet  (teneat)  donee  de  medio  fiat"(Tert.  De  Retur.   Cam. 
25).     I  have  attempted  to  preserve  the  unfinished  clauses  (anakolutfui)  of  the  original, 
which  are  full  of  meaning.  The  6  K*ri\ntv  may,  however,  be  merely  misplaced  by  hyperbaton. 

7  Isa.  xi.  4  ;    "Wisd.   xi.   20,   21.     A  rabbinic    expression.     "  Prima  adventus  ipsiua 
emicatio  "  (Bengal). 

8  I  so  render  rols  airoAAvn.«Voi.*  because  it  is  the  dative  of  " disadvantage."    The  «•  is 
probably  spurious,  being  omitted  in  H,  A,  B,  D,  F,  G. 

I  Leg.  jr^iirei,  «,  A,  B,  D,  F,  G.      The  "  strong  delusion  "  of  the  E.V.  is  a  happy 
expression  ;  it  is  penal  blindness,  judicial  infatuation,  the  dementation  before  doom. 

w  1  Tim.  iv.  1,  2. 

II  2  Thess.  ii.  1 — 12.    In  the  E.V.  there  are  the  following  five  or  six   obvious  errors, 
which  I  have  corrected: — Ver.  1,  Oirep  TTJS  irapov<r»'«,  "by  the  coming;"  ver.  2,  in-b  TOU 
vabs,  " in  mind  ; "  tvf'irn))c«,  "  is  at  hand"  (which  is  not  strong  enough,  and  contradicts 
1 '  Maranatha,"  o  mipios  ryyus) ;  ver.  3,  ^  a*-o<rro<ria,  "a  falling  away;"  ver.  4,  «»•«.  irdvrm.,  K.  r.  A., 
"above  all,  &c.,"  instead   of  "against  every  one,"  though  this  is  perhaps  defensible — 
is  e*bi',  ' '  as  God, "  is  probably  spurious,  not  being  found  in  >*,  A,  B,  D ;  ver.  5,  «Aryor, 
"I  told;"  ver.  11,  r<3  </»evJ«,  "a  lie;"  ver.  12,  Kpidixn,  "be  damned."    There  are  also 
minor  inaccuracies.  But  while  calling  attention  to  these,  let  me  not  be  supposed  to  speak 
with  any  feeling  but  admiration  and  gratitude  of  our  English  version.     It  needs  the  re- 
vision which  it  is  receiving,  but  it  is  magnificent  with  all  its  defects  ;  and  while  those 
defects  are  far  fewer  than  might  have  been  reasonably  expected,  there  is  incomparable 
merit  in  its  incessant  felicity  and  noble  rhythm. 

"  aw'  ipxi*  (Eph.  i.  4).     B,  F,  G  have  «T«px>i>',  "as  a  firstfruit;"  but  this  was    not  * 
fa«t  (Acts.  xvi.). 

13  eis  rvpin-o.Vi.'  aifijs,  "  to  the  obtaining  of  glory  ;"  of.  1  The**,  v.  9:  Heb.  x.  39. 
i«  2  Thegs.  ii.  13—17. 


THE  SECOND   EPISTLE   TO  THE   THE8S1.LONU.N8.  347 

Beginning  the  practical  section  of  the  Epistle,  he  asks  their  prayers  that 
the  Gospel  may  have  free  coarse  among  others  as  among  them,  and  that  ha 
may  be  delivered  from  perverse  and  wicked  men ; l  and  expressing  his  trust 
in  God,  and  his  confidence  in  them,  prays  that  the  Lord  may  guide  their 
hearts  into  the  love  of  God  and  the  patience  of  Christ.2  That  patience  was 
lacking  to  some  of  them  who,  he  had  been  told,  were  walking  disorderly,  not 
following  the  precepts  he  had  given,  or  the  example  he  had  set.  The  rule  he  had 
given  was  that  a  man  who  would  not  work  had  no  right  to  eat,  and  the  example 
he  had  set,  as  they  well  knew,  had  been  one  of  order,  manly  self-dependence, 
strenuous  diligence,  in  that  he  had  voluntarily  abandoned  even  the  plain  right 
of  maintenance  at  their  hands.3 

He  therefore  commands  and  exhorts*  in  the  name  of  Christ  those  who 
were  irregular,  and  whose  sole  business  was  to  be  busybodies,6  to  be  quiet 
and  diligent,  and  earn  their  own  living ;  and  if,  after  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
any  one  refused  obedience  to  his  advice,  they  were  to  mark  that  man  by  avoid- 
ing his  company  that  he  might  be  ashamed ;  not,  however,  considering  him 
as  an  enemy,  but  admonishing  him  as  a  brother.  As  for  the  rest,  let  them 
not  be  weary  in  fair-doing ;  6  and  he  again  concludes  with  a  prayer  that  the 
Lord  of  Peace  Himself  may  give  them  peace  perpetually,  and  in  every  way. 
The  Lord  be  with  them  all ! J 

And  having  dictated  so  far — probably  to  his  faithful  Timothy — the  Apostle 
himself  takes  the  pen,  for  the  use  of  which  his  weak  sight  so  little  fitted  him, 
and  bending  over  the  papyrus,  writes : — 

"  The  salutation  of  me  Paul  with  my  own  hand,  which  autograph  salutation 
is  the  proof  of  genuineness  in  every  Epistle.8  This  is  how  I  mite.  The  Grace 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  alL"j* 

.  y?-.       p-fvp'.'        ,.;        ,.    _jc_,  j    ^     _       TtiA     Fr.fTr-' -T    v     • 

1  An  allusion  to  his  struggles  with  the  Jews  at  Corinth.     "  Synagogas  Judaeorum 
fontes  persecutionum  "  (Tert.  Scorp,  10).    aroiros  only  in  Luke  xxiii.  41,  and  Act*,  xxviii.  6. 

2  i.e.,  a  patience  like  His  patience.     The  "patient  waiting  for  Christ,"  of  the  E.V., 
though  partially  sanctioned  by  Chrysostom  and  Theophylact,  can  hardly  be  tenable,  and 
they  prefer  the  meaning  here  given. 

5  iii.  1—11. 

4  These  injunctions  are  more  emphatic,  authoritative,  and  precise  than  thoie  of  the 
First  Epistle  ;   another  sign  that  this  followed  it.     n-apayyf'AAw,  »o  much  stronger  than 
«POJTU>,  occurs  four  times  in  this  Epistle  (iii.  4,  6,  10,  12),  and  only  elsewhere,  of  hia 
Epistles,  in  1  Thess.  iy.  11;  1  Tim.  ri.  13;  1  Cor.  vii.  10;  xi.  17. 

5  2  Thess.  iii.  11,  »VK  <pyo£o/x<><ov?  iAAi  ir«pie|>y<i£ofi«Vovs  (gee  infra,  p.  695.  "  The  Rhetoric 
of  St.  Paul"). 

«  Ka\oirotov»r«»,  "beautiful  conduct;"  not  exactly  iyo*o»,  "well-doing"  (cf.  2  Cor. 
viii.  21). 

7  iii.  12-16. 

8  iii.  17,  18.    This  emphatic  autograph  signature,  not  necessary  in  the  first  letter, 
had  been  rendered  necessary  since  that  letter  was  written  by  the  credence  given  to  the 
unauthorised  communication  alluded  to  in  ii.  2.    The  "tvtry  Epistle"  shows  that  St. 
Paul  meant  henceforth  to  write  to  Churches  not  unfrequently.     Of  course,  Epistles  sent 
by  accredited  messengers  (e.g.,  2  Cor.  and  Phil.)  would  not  need  authentication.     The 
ordinary  conclusion  of  letters  was  «ppw<r8«,  "farewell."    On  this  authenticating  signat-.n* 
see  Cic.  a.d  Att.  viiL  1 ;  Suet.  Tib.  21,  32. 

9  The  "  all "  is  only  found  in  2  Cor.,  Rom.,  and  Tit.  (cf.  Kph.  vi.  24  and  Heb.  liii. 
25),  but  was  peculiarly  impressive  here,  because  hi*  last  word*  have  been  mainly  those 
of  censure. 


348  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

Valuable  to  us,  and  to  all  time,  a«  are  the  practical  exhortations  of  this 
brief  Epistle,  'the  distinctly*  cause  f  qr  it«  being  written  was  the  desire  to  dispel 
delusions  abont  the  instantaneous  appearance  of  Christ,  which  prevented  the 
weak  and  excitable  from  a  due  performance  of  their  duties,  and  so  tended  to 
diminish  that  respect  for  them  among  the  heathen  which  the  blamelessness 
of  the  early  Christians  was  well  calculated  to  inspire.  To  the  Thessalonians 
the  paragraph  on  this  subject  would  have  had  the  profoundest  interest.  To 
ns  it  is  less  immediately  profitable;  because  no  one  has  yet  discovered,  or  ever 
will  discover,  what  was  St.  Paul's  precise  meaning;  or,  in  other  words,  because 
neither  in  bis  time,  nor  since,  have  any  events  as  yet  occurred  which  Christians 
have  unanimously  been  able  to  regard  as  fulfilling  the  conditions  which  he 
lays  down.  We  need  not,  however,  be  distressed  if  this  passage  must  be 
ranked  with  the  very  few  others  in  the  Now  Testament  which  must  remain  to 
us  in  the  condition  of  insoluble  enigmas.  It  was  most  important  for  the 
Thcssalonians  to  know  that  they  did  not  need  to  get  up  every  morning  with 
the  awe-inspiring  expectation  that  the  sun  might  be  darkened  before  it  set, 
and  the  air  shattered  by  the  archangelic  trumpet,  and  all  earthly  interests 
smitten  into  indistinguishable  ruin.  So  far  St.  Paul's  assurance  was  perfectly 
distinct.  Nor,  indeed,  is  there  any  want  of  clearness  in  his  language.  Th« 
difficulties  of  the  passage  arise  exclusively  from  our  inability  to  explain  it  by 
subsequent  events.  But  these  one  or  two  obscure  passages  in  no  wise  affect 
the  value  of  St.  Paul's  writings.1  Since  his  one  object  is  always  edification, 
we  may  be  sure  that  subjects  which  are  with  him  purely  incidental,  which 
are  obscurely  hinted  at.  or  only  partially  worked  out,  and  to  which  he  scarcely 
ever  afterwards  recurs,  are  non-essential  parts  of  the  central  truths,  to  the 
dissemination  of  which  he  devoted  his  life.  To  the  Messianic  surroundings 
of  a  Second  personal  Advent  he  barely  again  alludes.  He  dwells  more  and 
more  on  the  mystic  oneness  with  Christ,  less  and  less  on  His  personal  return. 
He  speaks  repeatedly  of  the  indwelling  presence  of  Christ,  and  the  believer's 
incorporation  with  Him,  and  hardly  at  all  of  that  visible  meeting  in  the  air 
which  at  this  epoch  was  most  prominent  in  his  thoughts.8 

"We  may  assume  it  as  a  canon  of  ordinary  criticism  that  a  writer  intends 
to  be  understood,3  and,  as  a  rule,  so  writes  as  to  be  actually  understood  by 
those  whom  he  addresses.  "We  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  wliat  St.  Paul 
here  says  to  the  Thessalonians  ia  that  Christ's  return,  however  near,  was  not 
BO  instantaneous  as  they  thought,  because,  before  it  could  occur,  there  must 
come  "  the  apostasy,"  which  will  find  its  personal  and  final  development  in  the 
apocalypse  of  "  the  man  of  sin  "  —  a  human  Satan  who  thrust  himself  into  the 
temple  of  God  and  into  rivalry  with  Him.  Then,  with  an  air  of  mystery  and 
secrecy  which  reminds  ns  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  and  the  Revelation  of  St. 

»  See  Reuss,  Thtel.  Chrit.  ii.,  p.  10. 

*  1  Cor.  viii.  6;  Gal.  iii.  28:  Eph.  Iv.  8,  &c. 


.       .  .     .  .     .   ,      . 

^  "No  man  write*  unintelligibly  on  purpose"  (Pal«y,  HOT.  Pairfinae).  He  acutely 
points  out  how  the  very  obscurity  or  this  passage  furnishes  one  strong  argument  for  tJEre 
gcnuinencM  of  the  Epistle,  which  I  note  by  way  of  curiosity  that  Hilgenfeld  regards  aa 
Tl  a  little  Ptui:«e  Apocalypse  of  the  last  year  of  Trajau  "  (Einleit,  6421 


THE   SECOND   EPISTLE   TO   THE   THESSALONIA.N8.  349 

Johu,1  and  with  a  certain  involved  enibarrasBment  of  language,  he  reminds 
them  of  his  repeated  oral  toachings'about  something,  and  some  person,2  whose 
power  must  first  be  removed  before  this  mystery  of  iniquity  conld  achieve  its 
personal  and  final  development.  They  knew,  he  says,  what  was  "  the  check  " 
to  the  full  development  of  this  opposing  iniquity,  which  was  already  working, 
aad  would  work,  until  ;the  removal  of  "  the  checker."  After  that  removal, 
with  power  and  lying  portents  winning  the  adherence  of  those  who  were 
doomed  to  penal  delusion,  the  Lawless  One  should  be  manifested  in  a  power 
which  the  brnath  and  brightness  of  Christ's  Pr-esonee  should  utterly  anni- 
hilate. Between  the  saved,  therefore,  and  tho  Second  Advent  there  lay  two 
events  —  "  the  removal  of  the  restrainer,"  and  the  appearance  of  the  Lawless 
One.  The  destruction  of  the  latter  would  be  simultaneous  with  the  event 
which  they  had  so  often  been  bidden  to  await  with  longing  expectation. 

This  is  what  St.  Paul  plainly  says;  but  how  is  it  to  bo  explained?  and 
why  is  it  so  enigmatically  expressed  P 

The  second  question  is  easily  answered.  It  is  enigmatically  expressed  for 
two  reasons  —  first,  because  all  that  is  enigmatical  in  it  for  us  had  been  orally 
explained  to  the  Theesaloniane,  who  would  therefore  clearly  understand  it  ; 
and  secondly,  because  there  was  some  obvious  danger  in  committing  it  to 
writing.  This  is  in  jitself  a  sufficient  proof  that  he  is  referring  to  the  Roman 
Empire  and  Emperor.  The  tone  of  St.  Pa»l  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  of 
Josephus,  when  he  explains  tke  prophecy  of  Daniel.  All  Jews  regarded  the 
Fourth  Empire  as  the  Roman  ;  but  when  Josephus  comes  to  the  stone  which  is 
to  dash  the  image  to  pieces,  he  stops  short,  and  says  that  "  he  does  not  think 
proper  to  explain  it,"  3  —  for  tho  obvious  reason  that  it  would  have  been  politi- 
cally dangerous  for  him  to  do  so. 

Now  this  reason  for  reticence  at  once  does  away  with  the  conjecture  that 
"  the  check,"  or  "  tho  checker,"  was  some  distant  power  or  person  which  did 
not  for  centuries  come  on  the  horizon,  even  if  we  could  otherwise  adopt  the 
notion  that  St.  Paul  was  uttering  some  far-off  vaticination  of  event*  which, 
though  they  might  find  their  fulfilment  in  distant  centuries,  could  have  no 
meaning  for  the  Thcssaloniaus  to  whom  ho  wrote.  When  a  few  Roman 
Catholic  commentators  say  that  the  Reformation  was  the  Apostasy,  and 
Luther  tho  Man  of  Sin,  and  the  Germau  Empire  "  tho  chock  ;"  or  when  a 
mass  of  Protestant  writers  unhesitatingly  identify  the  Pope  with  the  Man  of 
oiu  —  one  can  only  aak  whether,  apart  from  traditional  exegesis,  they  have 
really  brought  themselves  to  hold  such  a  view?  If,  as  we  have  Been,  St.  Paul 
undoubtedly  held  .that  the  day  of  the  Lord  was  ai  hand,  though  not 

1  These  secrets  and  dim  allusions  (cf.  Dan.  xii.  10)  current  among  the  early  Christiana 


rounded  them  on  every  side.    The  years  which  elapsed  between  the  Epistle  and  tha 
Apocalypse  had  made  the  views  of  the  Christiana  as  to  Antichrist  much  moro 
(Eenan,  L1  Antichrist,  p.  1^7,  &c.). 

•  2  ThesS.  ii.  6,  7,  6  ratrexui/  —  TO  xa.TfX.ov. 

9  Sjee  the  instructive  passage,  Jop.  4-ntt,  x.  10,  §  1 


350  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEZ   OF  ST.   PAUI* 

immediate,  do  they  really  suppose,  on  the  one  hand,  that  St.  Paul  had  any 
conception  of  Luther  P  or,  on  the  other,  that  the  main  development  of 
lawlessness,  the  main  human  representative  of  the  power  of  Satan,  is  the 
succession  of  the  Popes?  Can  any  sane  man  of  competent  education  seriously 
argue  that  it  is  the  Papacy  which  pre-eminently  arrays  itself  in  superiority  to, 
and  antagonism  against,  every  one  who  is  called  God,  or  every  object  of 
worship  ? l  that  its  essential  characteristic  marks  are  lawlessness,  lying  won- 
ders, and  blasphemous  self -exaltation  ?  or  that  the  annihilation  of  the  Papacy 
— which  has  long  been  so  physically  and  politically  weak — "  by  the  breath  of 
His  mouth  and  the  brightness  of  His  coming,"  is  to  be  one  main  result  of 
Christ's  return  P  Again,  do  they  suppose  that  St.  Paul  had,  during  his  first 
visit,  repeatedly  revealed  anything  analogous  to  the  development  of  the 
Papacy — an  event  which,  in  their  sense  of  the  word,  can  only  be  regarded 
as  having  taken  place  many  centuries  afterwards — to  the  Thessalonians  who 
believed  that  the  coming  of  Christ  might  take  place  on  any  day,  and  who 
required  two  epistles  to  undeceive  them  in  the  notion  P  If  these  suppositions 
do  not  sink  under  the  weight  of  their  own  intrinsic  unreasonableness,  let  them 
in  the  name  of  calm  sense  and  Christian  charity  be  consigned  henceforth  to 
the  vast  limbo  of  hypotheses  which  time,  by  accumulated  proofs,  has  shown  to 
be  utterly  untenable.2 

To  that  vast  limbo  of  exploded  exegesis — the  vastest  and  the  dreariest  that 
human  imagination  has  conceived — I  have  no  intention  of  adding  a  fresh  con- 
jecture. That  "  the  check  "  was  the  Roman  Empire,  and  "  the  checker  "  the 
Roman  Emperor,  may  bo  regarded  as  reasonably  certain ;  beyond  this,  all  U 
uncertain  conjecture.  In  the  Excursus  I  shall  merely  mention,  in  the  briefest 
possible  manner,  as  altogether  doubtful,  and  most  of  them  as  utterly  valueless, 
the  attempts  hitherto  made  to  furnish  a  definite  explanation  of  the  expressions 
lined ;  and  shall  then  content  myself  with  pointing  out,  no  less  briefly,  the 

1  St.  Paul's  "  Lawless  One,"  and  "Man  of  Sin,"who  is  to  be  destroyed  by  the  advent 
of  Christ  must  have  some  chronological  analogy  to  St.  John's  Antichrist.   Now  St.  John's 
Antichrist  in  the  Epistles  is  mainly  Gnostic  heresy  ("omnis  haereticus  Antichristus  " — 
Luther),  and  the  denial  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  (1  John  iv.  3).     In  the 
Apocalypse  it  is  Nero.     In  the  Old  Testament  Antichrist  is  Antiochus  Epiphanes.     What 
has  this  to  do  either  with  the  Papacy  or  with  the  Reformation  ? 

2  If  it  be  urged  that  this  was  the  view  of  Jewell  and  Hooker,  Andrewes  and  Sander- 
son, &c. ,  the  answer  is  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Church  is  not  stationary  or  stereotyped. 
The  Spirit  of  God  is  with  her,  and  is  ever  leading  her  to  wider  and  fuller  knowledge  of 
the  truth.     Had  those  great  men  been  living  now,  they  too  would  h»ve  enlarged  many 
of  their  views  iu  accordance  with  the  advance  now  made  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Scripture.    Few  can  have  less  sympathy  than  I  have  with  the  distinctive  specialities  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  ;  but  in  spite  of  what  we  hold  to  be  her  many  and  most  seriou* 
errors  she  is,  by  the  free  acknowledgment  of  our  own  formularies,  a  Church,  and  a  Chris- 
tian Church,  and  has  been  pre-eminently  a  mother  of  saints,  and  many  of  her  Popes  have 
been  good,  and  noble,  and  holy  men,  and  vast  benefactors  of  the  world,  and  splendid 
maintainers  of  the  Faith  of  Christ ;  and  I  refuse  to  regard  them  as  "  sons  of  perdition," 
or  representatives  of  blasphemy  and  lawlessness,  or  to  consider  the  destruction  of  their 
line  with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  as  the  one  thing  to  be 
looked  forward  to  with  joy  at  the  coming  of  Him  who  we  believe  will  welcome  many  of 
them,  and  myriads  of  those  who  accept  their  rule,  into  the  blessed  company  of  Hu) 
redeemed. 


PAUL  IT  EPHESTJS.  351 

regions  in  which  we  must  look  for  illustrations  to  throw  such  light  as  is 
possible  on  the  meaning  of  St.  PauL1  As  to  the  precise  details,  considering 
the  utter  want  of  unanimity  among  Christian  interpreters,  I  am  content  to 
say,  with  St.  Augustine,  "I  confess  that  I  am  entirely  ignorant  what  the 
Apostle  meant." 


*  o  o  i     |  J. 

EPHESUS. 
CHAPTER      XXXI. 

PAUL  AT  EPHESUS. 

They  say  this  town  it  full  of  cozenage  ; 
Af,  nimbling  jugglers  that  deceive  the  eye, 
Disguised  cheaters,  prating  mountebank*, 
And  many  luch-like  liberties  of  sin." 

SHAKSP.  Comedy  of  Error*. 
"Diana  Ephesia  ;  cujus  nomen  unicum  ....  totus  veneratur  orbis." 

APPUL.  Metam. 

THE  justice  of  Gallic  had  secured  for  St.  Paul  an  unmolested  residence  in 
Corinth,  such  as  had  been  promised  by  the  vision  which  had  encouraged  him 
amid  his  earlier  difficulties.  He  availed  himself  of  this  pause  in  the  storm  of 
opposition  by  preaching  for  many  days — perhaps  for  some  months — and  then 
determined  to  revisit  Jerusalem,  from  which  he  had  now  been  absent  for  nearly 
three  years.  It  may  be  that  he  had  collected  something  for  the  poor  ;  but  in 
any  case  he  felt  the  importance  of  maintaining  amicable  relations  with  the 
other  Apostles  and  with  the  mother  church.  He  wished  also  to  be  present  at 
the  approaching  feast — in  all  probability  the  Pentecost — and  thereby  to  show 
that,  in  spite  of  his  active  work  in  heathen  cities,  and  the  freedom  which  he 
claimed  for  Gentile  converts,  in  spite,  too,  of  that  deadly  opposition  of  many 
synagogues  which  had  already  cost  him  so  dear,  he  was  still  at  heart  a  loyal 
although  a  liberal  Jew.  Accordingly,  he  bade  farewell  to  the  friends  whom 
he  had  converted,  and,  accompanied  by  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  set  out  for 
Cenchreae.  At  that  busy  seaport,  where  a  little  church  had  been  already 
formed,  of  which  Phcebe  was  a  deaconess,  he  gave  yet  another  proof  of  his 
allegiance  to  the  Mosaic  law.  In  thanksgiving  for  some  deliverance2 — perhaps 
from  an  attack  of  sickness,  perhaps  from  the  Jewish  riot — he  had  taken  upon 
him  the  vow  of  the  temporary  Nazarite.  In  accordance  with  this,  he  abstained 

1  See  infra,  Excursus  XIX.,  "The  Man  of   Sin."    For  the  symbols  employed,  see 
Ezek.  xixviii.  16,  17  ;  Dan.  vii.  10,  11,  23^26 ;  xi.  31,  36. 

2  See  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  15,  §  1,  and  the  Minima  treatise  Nazir,  ii.  8.     Spencer  (De  Leg, 
Hebr.  iii.  6,  $  1)  thinks,  most  improbably,  that  it  was  done  to  obtain  a  fair  voyage.     Cf. 
JUT.  Sat.  xii.  8L 


352  THE   LIFE  AND   WOBK   OJF   ST.   PAUL. 

from  wise,  and  let  his  hair  grow  long.  At  the  legal  purification  which  formed 
the  termination  of  the  vow,  the  head  could  only  be  shaved  at  Jerusalem  ;  but 
as  it  was  often  impossible  for  a  foreign  Jew  to  reach  the  Holy  City  at  the  exact 
time  when  the  period  of  his  vow  concluded,  it  seems  to  hare  been  permitted 
to  the  Nazarite  to  cut  his  hair,1  provided  that  he  kept  the  shorn  locks  until  he 
offered  the  burnt-offering,  foe  sin-offering,  and  the  peace-offering  in  the 
Temple,  at  which  time  his  head  was  shaved,  and  all  the  hair  burnt  in  the  fire 
under  the  sacrifice  of  the  peace-offerings.  Accordingly,  Paul  cut  his  hair  at 
Cenchreae,  and  set  sail  for  Ephesus.  The  mention  of  the  fact  is  not  by  any 
means  trivial  or  otiose.  The  vow  which  St.  Paul  undertook  is  highly 
significant  as  a  proof  of  his  persoruil  allegiance  to  the  Levitic  institutions,  and 
his  desire  to  adopt  a  policy  of  conciliation  towards  the  Jewish  Christians  of 
the  Holy  City.2 

A  few  days'  sail,  if  the  weather  was  ordinarily  propitious,  would  enable  his 
vessel  to  anchor  in  the  famous  haven  of  Panormus,  which  was  then  a  forest  of 
masts  at  the  centre  of  all  the  Mediterranean  trade,  but  is  now  a  reody  swamp 
in  a  region  of  desolation.  His  arrival  coincided  either  with  the  eve  of  a 
Sabbath,  or  of  one  of  the  three  weekly  meetings  of  the  synagogue,  and  at  once, 
with  his  usual  ardour  and  self-forgetfulness,  he  presented  himself  among  the 
Ephesian  Jews.  They  were  a  numerous  and  important  body,  actively  engaged 
in  the  commerce  of  the  city,  and  had  obtained  some  special  privileges  from 
the  Roman  Emperors.3  Not  only  wsw  their  religion  authorised,  but  their 
youth  were  exempted  from  military  service.  One  of  their  number,  the 
"  Chaldean  "  or  "  astrologer  "  Balbillus,  had  at  this  period  availed  himself  of 
the  deepening  superstition  which  always  accompanies  a  decadent  belief,  and 
had  managed  to  insinuate  himself  into  the  upper  circles  of  Roman  society 
until  he  ultimately  became  the  confidant  of  Nero.*  Accustomed  in  that 
seething  metropolis  to  meet  with  opinions  of  every  description,  the  Jews  at 
first  offered  no  opposition  to  the  arguments  of  the  wandering  Rabbi  who 
preached  a  crucified  Messiah.  Nay,  they  even  begged  him  to  stay  longer  with 
them.  His  desire  to  reach  Jerusalem  and  pay  his  vow  rendered  this  impossible  ; 
but  in  bidding  them  farewell  he  promised  that,  God  willing,5  he  would 


1  The  word  used  U  *«ipof*«vo«,  "polling,"  not  £vpri<r<infvot,  "shaving,"  or  aa  in  B.  V. 
"having  shaved"  (see  1  Cor.  xi.  14;  St.  Paul  dislikes  long  hair).  The  notion  that  it 
Tvas  Aquila  and  not  Paul  who  made  the  vow  may  be  finally  dismissed  ;  it  merely  arosa 
from  the  fact  that  Aquila  is  mentioned  after  his  wife  ;  but  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is  also 
the  case  in  2  Tim.  IT.  19  ;  Hem.  xri.  3,  and  is  an  undesigned  coincidence,  probably  due  to 
her  greater  zeal. 

"  Ho  that  makea  a  voy  builds,  aa  it  were,  a  private  altar,  and  if  be  kesps  it.  offer*. 
£5  it  were,  a  sacrifice  upon  it  "  (  Y<jbhar,icth,  f.  109,  2  ;  Nedartm,  f.  59,  1).  The  views  cf 
the  Rabbis  about  vows  may  be  found  in  Erulhin,  f  .  64,  2  ;  Chasigak,  f.  10,  1  ;  fic*h 
Hoihaiwh,  f.  10,  1  ;  Ncdariiit,  f.  2,  1  ;  f.  SO,  2,  &c.  They  Lave  been  collected  by  Mr.  P. 
J.  Hershon  in  his  Hebrew  commentary  on  Genesis  exclusively  drawn  from  the  Talmud, 
in  the  synoptical  note  on  Gen.  xxviii.  20.  They  throw  very  little  light  on  St.  Paul's  vow. 
The  rule  is  that  all  votive  terms,  whether  corbdn,  conem,  cones,  or  concch,  are  equally 
binding  (Nedari  m,  f.  2,  1).  Perhaps  Paul  liked  the  temporary  ascetic  element  in  the  vow 
(1  Cor.  ix.  25  ;  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  15,  {  I). 

*  Jot.  Antt.  riv.  10.  <  Suet.  Nero,  40;  Dion  Casa-jv},  9.         *  James  iv.  15, 


PAUL  AT   EPHESUS.  363 

return.  Once  more,  therefore,  lie  weighed  anchor,  and  sailed  to  Csesarea. 
From  thence  he  hastened  to  Jerusalem,  which  he  wag  now  visiting  for  the 
fourth  time  after  his  conversion.  He  had  entered  it  once  a  changed  man ; l 
he  had  entered  it  a  second  time  with  a  timely  contribution  from  the  Church  of 
Antiooh  to  the  famine- stricken  poor ; a  a  third  time  he  had  come  to  obtain  a 
decision  of  the  loud  disputes  between  the  Judaic  and  the  liberal  Christians 
which  threatened,  even  thus  early,  to  rend  asunder  the  seamless  robe  of  Christ.3 
Four  years  had  now  elapsed,  and  he  came  one*  more,  a  weak  and  persecuted 
missionary,  to  seek  the  sympathy  of  the  early  converts,*  to  confirm  his  faithful 
spirit  of  unity  with  them,  to  tell  them  the  momentous  tidings  of  churches 
founded  during  this  his  second  journey,  not  only  iu  Asia,  but  for  the  first  time 
la  Europe  also,  and  even  at  places  so  important  as  Philippi,  Thessalcnica, 
and  Corinth.  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  these 
perilous  and  toilsome  journeys — had  they  but  seen  how  insignificant,  compared 
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 
stfecfion  and  admiration  would  they  have  welcomed  him  !  How  would  they  have 
striven,  by  «very  form  of  kindness,  of  encouragement,  of  honour,  of  heartfelt 
pa-ayer,  to  arm  and  strengthen  him,  and  to  fire  into  yet  brighter  lustre  his  grand 
enthusiasm,  so  as  to  prepare  him  ia  the  future  for  sacrifices  yet  more  heroic, 
for  efforts  yet  more  immense  !  Had  anything  of  the  kind  occurred,  St.  Luke, 
in  the  interests  of  his  great  Christian  Eirenicon — St.  Paul  himaelf,  in  his 
account  to  the  Galatiana  of  his  relations  to  the  twelve— eould  hardly  have  failed 
to  tell  us  about  it.  So  far  from  this,  St.  Luke  hurries  over  the  brief  visit  in 
the  three  words  that  "  he  saluted  the  Church,"6  not  even  pausing  to  inform  ua 
that  he  fulfilled  his  vow,  or  whether  any  favourable  impression  as  to  his  Judaic 
orthodoxy  was  created  by  the  fact  that  he  had  undertaken  it.  There  :is  too 
much  reason  to  fear  that  his  reception  was  cold  and  ungracious ;  that  even  if 
James  received  him  with  courtesy,  the  Judaic  Christians  who  surrounded 
"  the  Lord's  brother "  did  not ;  and  even  that  a  jealous  dislike  or  that  free 
position  towards  the  Law  which  he  established  amongst  his  Gentile  converts, 
led  to  that  determination  on  the  part  of  some  of  them  to  follow  in  his  track 
and  to  undermine  his  influence,  which,  to  the  intense  embittormont  of  his  latter 
days,  was  so  fatally  successful.  It  must  have  been  with  a  sad  heart,  with 
something  even  of  indignation  at  this  unsympathetic  coldness,  that  St.  Paul 
hurriedly  terminated  his  visit.  But  none  of  these  things  moved  him.  He  did 
but  share  them  with  his  Lord,  whom  the  Pharisees  had  hated  and  the  Sadduccoa 
had  slain.  He  did  but  share  them  with  every  great  prophet  and  every  true 
thinker  before  and  since.  Not  holding  even  his  ike  dear  unto  himself,  it  is  not 
likely  that  the  peevishness  of  unprogressive  tradition  or  the  non-appreciation 
of  suspicious  narrowness,  should  make  him  swerve  from  his  divinely  appointed 

»  About  A.D.  37.  s  A.D.  44.  »  About  A.D.  50.  «  About  A.D.  54. 

'  St.  Luke  does  not  10  much  as  mention  the  word  Jerusalem,  bat  the  word  d^f-a* 
dieproTes  the  fancy  that  Paul  went  no  further  than  Csesarea* 


354  THE    LIFE   AND  WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

course.  God  bad  counted  him  worthy  of  being  entrusted  with  a  sacred  cause. 
He  had  a  work  to  do ;  he  had  a  Gospel  to  preach.  If  in  obeying  this  call  of 
God  he  met  with  human  sympathy  and  kindness,  well ;  if  not,  it  was  no  great 
matter.  Life  might  be  bitter,  but  life  was  short,  and  the  light  affliction  which 
was  but  for  a  moment  was  nothing  to  the  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory.  Once  more  he  set  forth  for  a  new,  and,  as  it  turned  out,  for  the  most 
brilliantly  energetic,  for  the  most  eternally  fruitful,  for  the  most  overwhelm- 
ingly afflictive  period  of  his  life  of  toil. 

From  Jerusalem  he  went  to  Antioch,  where  we  can  well  imagine  that  a 
warmer  and  kindlier  greeting  awaited  him.  In  that  more  cordial  environment 
he  rested  for  some  little  time ;  and  thence,  amid  many  a  day  of  weariness  and 
struggle,  but  cheered  in  all  probability  by  the  companionship  of  Timothy  and 
Titus,  and  perhaps  also  of  Gains,  Aristarchns,  and  Erastus,  he  passed  once  more 
through  the  famous  Cilician  gates  of  Taurus,1  and  travelled  overland  through 
the  eastern  region  of  Asia  Minor,2  confirming  on  his  way  the  Churches  of 
Galatia  and  Phrygia.  In  Galatia  he  ordered  collections  to  be  made  for  the 
poor  at  Jerusalem  by  a  weekly  offertory  every  Sunday.3  He  also  found  it 
necessary  to  give  them  some  very  serious  warnings ;  and  although,  as  yet, 
there  had  been  no  direct  apostasy  from  the  doctrines  which  he  had  taught,  he 
could  trace  a  perceptible  diminution  of  the  affectionate  fervour  with  which  he 
had  been  at  first  received  by  that  bright  but  fickle  population.*  Having  thus 
endeavoured  to  secure  the  foundations  which  he  had  laid  in  the  past,  he 
descended  from  the  Phrygian  uplands,  and  caught  a  fresh  glimpse  of  the 
Marseilles  of  the  ^Egean,  the  hostelry  and  emporium  of  east  and  west,5  the 
great  capital  of  Proconsular  Asia.  Very  memorable  were  the  results  of  his 
visit.  Ephesus  was  the  third  capital  and  starting-point  of  Christianity.  At 
Jerusalem,  Christianity  was  born  in  the  cradle  of  Judaism ;  Antioch  had  been 
the  starting-point  of  the  Church  of  the  Gentiles ;  Ephesus  was  to  witness  its 
full  development,  and  the  final  amalgamation  of  its  unconsolidated  elements 
in  the  work  of  John,  the  Apostle  of  Love.  It  lay  one  mile  from  the  Icarian 
Sea,  in  the  fair  Asian  meadow  where  myriads  of  swans  and  other  waterfowl 
disported  themselves  amid  the  windings  of  Cayster.8  Its  buildings  were 
clustered  under  the  protecting  shadows  of  Coressus  and  Prion,  and  in  the 
delightful  neighbourhood  of  the  Ortygian  Groves.  Its  haven,  which  had  once 
been  among  the  most  sheltered  and  commodious  in  the  Mediterranean,  had 
been  partly  silted  up  by  a  mistake  in  engineering,  but  was  still  thronged  with 
vessels  from  every  part  of  the  civilised  world.  It  lay  at  the  meeting-point  of 
great  roads,  which  led  northwards  to  Sardis  and  Troas,  southwards  to  Magnesia 
and  Antioch,  and  thus  commanded  easy  access  to  the  great  river- valleys  of  the 
Hermus  and  Maeander,  and  the  whole  interior  continent.  Its  seas  and  rivers 

1  From  Antioch  to  the  Cilician  gates,  through  Tarsus,  is  412  miles, 
9  ai-tartpuca  ig  practically  equivalent  to  ivaro^iKa. 

*  1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  2.     But  the  collection  does  not  seem  to  have  been  sent  with  that  of 
the  Grecian  churches  (Rom.  xv.  25,  26).     Perhaps  the  Judaic  emissaries  got  hold  of  it. 

«  Gal.  iv.  16  ;  v.  21.  *  Kenan,  p.  337. 

*  Now  the  Kutschuk  Menclerr,  or  Little  Maeander. 


PATTL  AT   EPHESUS.  355 

were  rich  with  fish ;  its  air  was  salubrious ;  its  position  unrivalled ;  its  popu- 
lation multifarious  and  immense.  Its  markets,  glittering  with  the  produce  of 
the  world's  art,  were  the  Vanity  Fair  of  Asia.  They  furnished  to  the  exile  of 
Patmos  the  local  colouring  of  those  pages  of  the  Apocalypse  in  which  ho  speaks 
of  "  the  merchandise  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  and  of  psarls, 
and  fine  linen,  and  purple,  and  silk,  and  scarlet,  and  all  thyme  wood,  and  all 
manner  vessels  of  ivory,  and  all  manner  vessels  of  most  precious  wood,  and  of 
brass,  and  iron,  and  marble,  and  cinnamon,  and  odours,  and  ointment  and 
frankincense,  and  wine,  and  oil,  and  fine  flour,  and  wheat,  and  beasts,  aud 
sheep,  and  horses,  and  chariots,  and  slaves,  and  souls  of  men"  l 

And  Ephesus  was  no  less  famous  than  it  was  vast  and  wealthy.  Perhaps 
no  region  of  the  world  has  been  the  scene  of  so  many  memorable  events  in 
ancient  history  as  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor.  The  whole  coast  was  in  all 
respects  the  home  of  the  best  Hellenic  culture,  and  Herodotus  declares  that  it 
was  the  finest  site  for  cities  in  the  world  of  his  clay.2  It  was  from  Lesbos,  and 
Smyrna,  and  Ephesus,  and  Halicarnassus  that  lyric  poetry,  and  epic  poetry, 
and  philosophy,  and  history  took  their  rise,  nor  was  any  name  more  splendidly 
emblazoned  in  the  annals  of  human  culture  than  that  of  the  great  capital  of 
Ionia.3  It  was  here  that  Anacreon  had  sung  the  light  songs  which  so 
thoroughly  suited  the  soft  temperament  of  the  Greek  colonists  in  that  luxurious 
air ;  here  that  Mimnermos  had  written  his  elegies  ;  here  that  Thales  had  given 
the  first  impulse  to  philosophy ;  here  that  Anaximander  and  Anaximenes  had 
learnt  to  interest  themselves  in  those  cosmogonic  theories  which  shocked  the 
simple  beliefs  of  the  Athenian  burghers ;  here  that  the  deepest  of  all  Greek 
thinkers,  "  Heracleitus  the  Dark,"  had  meditated  on  those  truths  which  he 
uttered  in  language  of  such  incomparable  force ;  here  that  his  friend  Hermo- 
dorus  had  paid  the  penalty  of  virtue  by  being  exiled  from  a  city  which  felt 
that  its  vices  were  rebuked  by  his  mere  silent  presence  ;  *  here  that  Hipponax 
had  infused  into  his  satire  such  deadly  venom ;  6  here  that  Parrhasius  and 
Apelles  had  studied  their  immortal  art.  And  it  was  still  essentially  a  Greek 
city.  It  was  true  that  since  Attalus,  King  of  Pergamos,  nearly  two  hundred 
years  before,  had  made  the  Romans  heirs  to  his  kingdom,  their  power  had 
gradually  extended  itself  in  every  direction,  until  they  were  absolute  masters 
of  Phrygia,  Mysia,  Caria,  Lydia,6  and  all  the  adjacent  isles  of  Greece,  and  that 
now  the  splendour  of  Ephesus  was  materially  increased  by  its  being  the 
residence  of  the  Roman  Proconsul.  But  while  the  presence  of  a  few  noble 
Romans  and  their  suites  added  to  the  gaiety  and  power  of  the  city,  it  did  not 
affect  the  prevailing  Hellenic  cast  of  its  civilisation,  which  was  far  more  deeply 
imbued  with  Oriental  than  with  Western  influences.  The  Ephesians  crawled 
at  the  feet  of  the  Emperors,  flattered  them  with  abject  servility,  built  temples 

>  Rev.  xviii.  12, 13. 

J  Hist.  i.  142.     For  full  accounts  of  Ephesus  tee  Guhl's  Ephetiaca  (Berl.  1843). 

*  See  Hausrath,  p.  339,  teqq.  *  See  Strabo,  xiv.,  p.  612. 

*  Cic.  ad  Fam.  vii.  24. 

*  Cio.  pro  Flacco  27 ;  Plin.  H.  N.  v.  28 ;  ap.  Hauirath,  I.e. 


358  THE   LIFE  AND    WORK   OF  ST.   PAXTL. 

to  their  crime  or  their  feebleness,  deified  them  on  their  inscriptions  and  coins.1 
Even  the  poor  simulacrum  of  the  Senate  came  in  for  a  share  of  their  fulsome- 
ness,  and  received  its  apotheosis  from  their  complaisance.2  The  Romans, 
seeing  that  they  had  nothing  to  fear  from  these  degenerate  lonians,  helped 
them  with  subsidies  when  they  had  suffered  from  earthquakes,  flung  them 
titles  of  honour,  which  were  in  themselves  a  degradation,  left  them  a  nominal 
autonomy,  and  let  them  live  without  interference  the  bacchanalian  lives  which 
passed  in  a  round  of  Paniouic,  Ephesian,  Arteniisian,  and  Lucullian  games. 
Such  then  was  the  city  in  which  St.  Paul  found  a  sphere  of  work  unlike  any 
in  which  he  had  hitherto  laboured.  It  was  more  Hellenic  than  Antioch,  more 
Oriental  than  Corinth,  more  populous  than  Athens,  more  wealthy  and  more 
refined  than  Thessalcnica,  more  sceptical  and  more  superstitious  than  Ancyra 
or  Pessinus.  It  was,  with  the  single  exception  of  Rome,  by  far  the  most 
important  scene  of  all  his  toils,  and  was  destined,  in  after-years,  to  become  not 
only  the  first  of  the  Seven  Churches  of  Asia,  but  the  seat  of  one  of  those  great 
(Ecumenical  Councils  which  defined  the  faith  of  the  Christian  world. 

The  character  of  the  Ephesians  was  theu  in  very  bad  repute.  Ephesus 
was  the  head- quarters  of  many  defunct  superstitions,  which  owed  their  main- 
tenance to  the  self-interest  of  various  priestly  bodies.  South  of  the  city,  and 
brightened  by  the  waters  of  the  Cenchrius,  was  the  olive  and  cypress  grove  of 
Leto,3  where  the  ancient  olive-tree  was  still  shown  to  which  the  goddess  had 
clung  when  she  brought  forth  her  glorious  '•'  twin-born  progeny." 4  Here  was 
the  hill  on  which  Hermes  had  proclaimed  their  birth ;  here  the  Curetes,  with 
clashing  spears  and  shields,  had  protected  their  infancy  from  wild  beasts ; 
here  Apollo  himself  had  taken  refuge  from  the  wrath  of  Zeus  after  he  had 
slain  the  Cyclopes ;  here  Bacchus  had  conquered  and  spared  the  Amazons 
during  his  progress  through  the  East.  Such  were  the  arguments  wliioh  the 
Ephesian  ambassadors  had  urged  before  the  Roman  Senate  in  arrest  of  a 
determination  to  limit  their  rights  of  asylum.  That  right  was  mainly  attached 
to  the  great  world-renowned  Temple  of  Artemis,  of  which  Ephesus  gloried  ia 
calling  herself  the  sacristan.8  Nor  did  they  see  that  it  was  a  right  which  was 
ruinous  to  the  morals  and  well-being  of  the  city.  Just  as  the  mediaeval 
Sanctuaries  attracted  all  the  scum  and  villainy,  all  the  cheats  and  debtors  and 
murderers  of  the  country  round,  and  inevitably  pauperised  and  degraded  the 
entire  vicinity  6 — just  as  the  squalor  of  the  lower  purlieus  of  Westminster  to 
this  clay  is  accounted  for  by  its  direct  affiliation  to  the  crime  and  wretchedness 
which  sheltered  itself  from  punishment  or  persecution  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Abboy—  so  the  vicinity  of  the  great  Temple  at  Ephesus  reeked  with  the 
congregated  pollutions  of  Aaia.  Legend  told  how,  when  the  temple  was 

1  Bee  the  Corpus  Inter.  Gr.  2957;  2961,  &o.  (Renan,  p.  338,  who  also  quotes  Plui 
Tit.  Anton.  21).  Chandler,  Travdt,  \.  25  ;  Falkener,  Ephetut,  p.  Ill ;  4>ac<r«/3a<rr<«  and 
'  ' '  up  are  common  in  Epheaian  inscriptions. 


PP 


3  «tbc  or  lepa.  SvyicArjTik  on  coins,  &c.  (Renun,  p.  352). 

»  Strabo,  xiv.,  p.  947.  *  Tac.  Ann.  iii.  61.  6  Acts  xii.  85,  v«w«o/x. 

•  I  hare  already  pointed  out  this  fact  in  speaking  of  Daphne  and  raphoe,  tupra, 
.  166,  196.    This  TTM  vbj  Tiberius  tried  to  abolish  all  "aayla  "  (Suet  Tib.  37). 


PAUL  AT  KPHESUS.  357 

finished,  Mithridates  stood  on  its  summit  and  declared  that  the  right  of  asylum 
Bliould  extend  in  a  circle  round  it  as  far  as  he  could  shoot  an  arrow,  and  the 
arrow  miraculously  flew  a  furlong's  distance.  The  consequence  was  that 
Ephosus,  vitiated  by  the  influences  which  affect  all  great  sea-side  commercial 
cities,  had  within  herself  a  special  source  of  danger  and  contagion.1  Ionia  had 
been  the  corruptress  of  Greece,4  Ephesus  was  the  corruptress  of  Ionia — the 
faYourite  scene  of  her  most  voluptuous  love-tales,  the  lighted  theatre  of  her 
most  ostentatious  sins. 

Tho  temple,  which  was  the  chief  glory  of  the  city  and  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world,3  stood  in  fall  view  of  the  crowded  haven.  Ephesus  was  the  most 
magnificent  of  what  Ovid  calls  "  the  magnificent  cities  of  Asia,"  4  and  the 
temple  was  its  most  splendid  ornament.  The  ancient  temple  had  been  burnt 
down  by  Herostratus — an  Ephssiau  fanatic  who  wished  his  name  to  be 
recorded  in  history — on  the  nigut  of  the  birth  of  Alexander  the  Great.  It  had 
been  rebuilt  with  ungrudging  magnificence  out  of  contributions  furnished  by 
all  Asia — the  very  women  contributing  to  it  their  jewels,  as  the  Jewish  womei* 
had  done  of  old  for  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Wilderness.  To  avoid  the  danger 
of  earthquakes,  its  foundation*  were  built  at  vast  cost  on  artificial  foundations 
of  skin  aud  charcoal  laid  over  the  marsh.*  It  gleamed  far  off  with  a  star-like 
radiance.6  Its  peristyle  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  pillars  of  tho 
Ionic  order  hewn  out  of  Parian  marble.  Its  doors  of  carved  cypress-wocd 
were  surmounted  by  transoms  so  vast  and  solid  that  the  aid  of  miracles  was 
invoked  to  account  for  their  elevation.  The  staircase  which  led  to  the  roof 
was  said  to  have  been  cut  out  of  a  single  vine  of  Cyprus.  Some  of  the  pillars 
were  carved  with  designs  of  exquisite  beauty.7  Within  were  the  masterpieces 
of  Praxiteles  and  Phidias,  and  Scopas  and  Polycletus.  Paintings  by  the 
greatest  of  Greek  artists,  of  which  one — the  likeness  of  Alexander  the  Great 
by  Apelles —  had  been  bought  for  a  sum  said  to  be  equal  in  value  to  £'5,000 
of  modern  money,  adorned  the  inner  walls.  The  roof  of  the  temple  itself  was 
of  ccMlar-wood,  supported  by  columns  of  jasper  on  bases  of  Parian  marble.8 
On  these  pillars  hung  gifts  of  priceless  value,  the  votive  offerings  of  grateful 
superstition.  At  the  end  of  it  stood  the  great  altar  adorned  by  the  bas-reiiaf 

1  This  is  pointed  out  by  Philostratus  in  the  person  of  Apollonius.  He  praises  them 
for  their  banquets  and  ritual,  and  adds  jie^nroi  £e  CTUKH«H  rj  Cs<*  VVXTIK  ?t  na.1  imtpws  ij  OVK  iv 
o  eA«Vnj5  TS  (tat  ATJOTT)*  icat  dvSpairoiKrrtjf  «at  JTOS  tt  TIS  aSi/co;  T\  irpticrvXoc  Jjv  bpiiufifvot  avr69tv.  rt  ydp 
rif  a-s-00-Tepo-^iTt.-y  Tttvos  etrnv.  See,  too,  Strabo.  xiv.  1,  23. 

3  Hence  the  proverb  "  Ionian  effeminacy.  On  their  gorgeous  apparel,  see  A  then. 
p.  525.  "  Taught  by  the  soft  loniana  "  (Dyor,  Ruins  of  Home). 

3  Fhilo,  Byzaut.  DC  Sept.  orbit  miracidis,  7,  M*""«  «"*  fc"*  "Ixas.  Falkener's  Epkcsus, 
pp.  210-346. 

<  Ov.  Pont.  II.  x.  21. 

3  See  Plin.  H.  N.  xxxvi.  21  ;  Dio^.  Laert.  ii.  8  ;  Aug.  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  4.  Old 
London  Bridge  was  built,  not  "on  woolsacks,"  but  out  of  the  proceeda  of  a  tax  on  wool. 
The  anecdote  of  the  discovery  of  the  white  marble  by  Pisidonis  is  given  ia  Yitrav,  x.  7. 

'  fieTewpo^xu'H. 

7  One  splendid  example  of  the  drum  of  one  of  these  "  columnae  caelataa  "  (Plin.)  is 
now  in  the  British  Museum.  For  a  complete  and  admirable  account  of  the  temple  and  ii* 
excavation,  see  Wood's  Epkesut.  p.  237,  tea. 

9  Now  in  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia. 


358  THE   J.1FJB   AND   WORK    OF   ST.    PAUL. 

of  Praxiteles,  behind  which  fell  the  vast  folds  of  a  purple  curtain.  Behind 
this  curtain  was  the  dark  and  awful  adytum  in  which  stood  the  most  sacred 
idol  of  classic  heathendom  ;  and  again,  behind  the  adytum  was  the  room  which, 
inviolable  under  divine  protection,  was  regarded  as  the  wealthiest  and  securest 
bank  in  the  ancient  world. 

The  image  for  which  had  been  reared  this  incomparable  shrine  was  so  ancient 
that  it  shared  with  the  Athene  of  the  Acropolis,  the  Artemis  of  Tauris,  the 
Demeter  of  Sicily,  the  Aphrodite  of  Paphos,  and  the  Cybele  of  Pessinus,  the 
honour  of  being  regarded  as  a  Aioircrij "A-yoA/xa — "an  image  that  fell  from 
heaven."  l  The  very  substance  of  which  it  was  made  was  a  matter  of  dispute ; 
some  said  it  was  of  vine-wood,  some  of  ebony,  some  of  cedar,  and  some  of 
stone.2  It  was  not  a  shapeless  meteorite  like  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca,  or  the 
Hercules  of  Hyettus,8  or  the  black-stone  of  Pessinus ;  nor  a  phallic  cone  like 
the  Phoenician  Aphrodite  of  Paphos ;  *  nor  a  mere  lump  of  wood  like  the 
Cadmean  Bacchus ; 6  but  neither  must  we  be  misled  by  the  name  Artemis  to 
suppose  that  it  in  any  way  resembled  the  quivered  "  huntress  chaste  and 
fair"  of  Greek  and  Roman  mythology.  It  was  freely  idealised  in  many  of  the 
current  representations,8  but  was  in  reality  a  hideous  fetish,  originally  meant 
for  a  symbol  of  fertility  and  the  productive  power  of  nature.  She  was 
represented  on  coins — which,  as  they  bear  the  heads  of  Claudius  and  Agrip- 
pina,  must  have  been  current  at  this  very  time,  and  may  have  easily  passed 
through  the  hands  of  Paul — as  a  figure  swathed  like  a  mummy,  covered  with 
monstrous  breasts,7  and  holding  in  one  hand  a  trident  and  in  the  other  a  club. 
The  very  ugliness  and  uncouthness  of  the  idol  added  to  the  superstitious  awe 
which  it  inspired,  and  just  as  the  miraculous  Madonnas  and  images  of 
Uomanisin  are  never  the  masterpieces  of  Raphael  or  Bernardino  Luini,  but 
for  the  most  part  blackened  Byzantine  paintings,  or  hideous  dolls  like  the 
Bambino,  so  the  statue  of  the  Ephesian  Artemis  was  regarded  as  far  more 
awful  than  the  Athene  of  Phidias  or  the  Jupiter  of  the  Capitol.  The  Jewish 
feelings  of  St.  Paul — though  he  abstained  from  *'  blaspheming  "  the  goddess 8 
~would  have  made  him  regard  it  as  pollution  to  enter  her  temple  ;  but  many 
a  time  on  coins,  and  paintings,  and  in  direct  copies,  ho  must  have  seen  the 
strange  image  of  the  great  Artemis  of  the  Ephesians,  whose  worship,  like 
that  of  so  many  fairer  and  more  human  idols,  his  preaching  would  doom  to 
swift  oblivion.8 

1  Pliny  (H.  N.  xvi.  79)  and  Athenagoras  (Pro  Chritt.  14)  say  it  was  made  by  Eudaeus, 
the  pupil  of  Daedalus. 

1  Vitruv.  ii.  9  ;  Callim.  Hymn  Dian.  239.        3  Pausan.  Lc.  24.        4  V.  tupra,  p.  196. 

5  Pausan.  ix.  12.      See  Guhl,   JSphcsiaca,  p.    185;    Falkener,   Ephesu*,   287.     The 
Chaevonean  Zeus  was  a  sceptre  (Pausan.  be.  40) ;   the  Cimmerian  Mars,  a  scimitar 
(Hdt.  iv.  62). 

6  E.y.t  in  the  statue  preserved  in  the  Museo  Borbouico  at  Naples,  which,  if  we  may 
judge  from  coins,  is  a  very  unreal  representative  of  the  venerable  ugliness  of  the  actual 
(statue. 

7  woAiVao-Tos,  multimarnma  ;  "  omnium  bestiarum  et  viventium  nutrii  "  (Jer.  Proem, 
tn  Kp.  ad  Eph.). 

*  Acts  xir.  37,  •&«  /SXao-^toiWas  TIJP  feoi/  vfiur. 

•  "  What  u  become  of  the  Temple  of  Diana  ?    Can  a  Trader  of  the  earth  be  vanish^ 


PAUL  AT   EPHK8U8.  359 

Though  the  Greeks  had  vied  with  the  Persians  in  lavish  contributions  for 
the  re-erection  of  the  temple,  the  worship  of  this  venerable  relic  was  essen- 
tially Oriental.  The  priests  were  amply  supported  by  the  proceeds  of  wide 
domains  and  valuable  fisheries,  and  these  priests,  of  Megabyzi,  as  well  as  the 
"  Essen,"  l  who  was  at  the  head  of  them,  were  the  miserable  Persian  or 
Phrygian  eunuchs  who,  with  the  Melissae,  or  virgin-priestesses,  and  crowds  of 
idle  slaves,  were  alone  suffered  to  conduct  the  worship  of  the  Mother  of  the 
Gods.  Many  a  time,  in  the  open  spaces  and  environs  of  Ephesus,  must  Paul 
have  seen  with  sorrow  and  indignation  the  bloated  and  beardless  hideousness 
of  these  coryphaei  of  iniquity.2  Many  a  time  must  he  have  heard  from  the 
Jewish  quarter  the  piercing  shrillness  of  their  flutes,  and  the  harsh  jangling  of 
their  timbrels ;  many  a  time  have  caught  glimpses  of  their  detestable  dances 
and  corybantic  processions,  as  with  streaming  hair,  and  wild  cries,  and  shaken 
torches  of  pine,  they  strove  to  madden  the  multitudes  into  sympathy  with 
that  orgiastic  worship,  which  was  but  too  closely  connected  with  the  vilest 
debaucheries.3  Even  the  Greeks,  little  as  they  were  liable  to  be  swept  away 
by  these  bursts  of  religious  frenzy,  seem  to  have  caught  the  tone  of  these  dis- 
graceful fanatics.  At  no  other  city  would  they  have  assembled  in  the  theatre 
in  their  thousands  to  yell  the  same  cry  over  and  over  again  for  "  about  the 
space  of  two  hours,"  as  though  they  had  been  so  many  Persian  dervishes  or 
Indian  yogis.  This  senseless  reiteration  was  an  echo  of  the  screaming 
ulnlatus  which  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  cult  of  Diudymene  and 
Pessinus.4 

We  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  under  the  shadow  of  such  a  worship 
superstition  was  rampant.  Ephesus  differed  from  other  cities  which  Paul 
had  visited  mainly  in  this  respect,  that  it  was  pre-eminently  the  city  of 
astrology,  sorcery,  incantations,  amulets,  exorcisms,  and  every  form  of  magical 
imposture.  On  the  statue  of  the  goddess,  or  rather,  perhaps,  on  the  inverted 
pyramid  which  formed  the  basis  for  her  swathed  and  shapeless  feet,  were 
inscribed  certain  mystic  formulae  to  which  was  assigned  a  magic  efficacy. 
This  led  to  the  manufacture  and  the  celebrity  of  those  "Ephesian  writings," 

like  a  phantom,  without  leaving  a  trace  behind  ?  We  now  seek  the  temple  in  vain ;  the 
city  is  prostrate  and  the  goddess  gone  "  (Chandler ;  see  Sibyll.  Orac.  v.  293 — 305).  The 
wonder  is  deepened  after  seeing  the  massiveness  of  the  superb  fragments  in  the  British 
Museum.  That  the  Turkish  name  Ai'a  Solouk  is  a  corruption  of  'Ay/a  ecaAdyov,  and 
therefore  a  reminiscence  of  St.  John,  is  proved  by  the  discovery  of  coins  bearing  this 
inscription,  and  struck  at  Ayasaluk  (Wood,  p.  183).  Perhaps  St.  John  originally  received 
the  name  by  way  of  contrast  with  the  Theologi  of  the  Temple. 

1  The  resemblance  of  the  word  and  character  to  the  "  Essenes  "  is  accidental.    It 
means  "a king  (queen)  bee." 

2  Quint,  v.  12.     What  sort  of  wretches  these  were  may  be  seen  in  Juv.  vi.  512; 
Prop.  ii.  18,  15;  Appuleius,  Metamorph. 

*  Apollonius,  in  nis  first  address  to  the  Ephesians,  delivered  from  the  platform  of 
the  temple,  urged  them  to  abandon  their  idleness,  folly,  and  feasting,  and  turn  to  the 
study  01  philosophy.     He  speaks  of  these  dances,  and  says  *v\av  n<v  n-awa  fwori  V.  /*f<rri 

i«  avSpayvviav,  fieg-ra.  S<  KTuiriav,  <c.T.A_     (Philostr.    Vit.  Apoll.  iv.  2,  p.  141).      He  praises  them, 

however,  for  their  philosophic  interests,  ko.  (viii.  8,  p.  339).  Incense-burners,  flute-players, 
and  trumpeters  are  mentioned  in  an  inscription  found  by  Chandler  (Inter.  Ant.,  p.  11). 

*  Hausrath,  p.  342. 


btiU  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PA17L. 

which  were  eagerly  supplied  by  greedy  imposture  to  gaping  credulity. 
Among  them  were  the  worda  aekion,  katasJeion,  Use,  tetras,  damnameneut, 
and  aisia,1  which  for  sense  and  efficiency  were  about  on  a  par  with  the  dariet, 
dcrdarie*,  tutatariee,  or  ista,pista,  rista,  which  Cato  the  elder  held  to  be  a 
sovereign  remedy  for  a  sprain,*  or  the  sliavriri,  vriri,  iriri,  riri,  iri,  ri,  ac- 
companied with  knockings  on  the  lid  of  a  jug,  which  tho  Rabbis  taught  as  an 
efficacious  expulsion  of  the  demon  of  blindness,8 

Stories,  which  elsewhere  would  hare  been  received  with  ridicule,  at 
Ephesus  found  ready  credence.  About  the  very  time  of  St.  Paul's  visit  it  is 
probable  that  the  city  was  visited  by  Apollonhia  of  Tyana;  and  it  is  here  that 
his  biographer  Philcstratus  places  tho  seeno  of  some  of  his  exploits.  One  of 
these  is  all  the  more  interesting  because  it  is  said  to  have  taken  place  in  that 
very  theatre  into  which  St.  Paul,  though  in  imminent  peril  of  being  torn  to 
pieces,  could  scarcely  be  persuaded  not  to  enter.  During  his  visit  to  Epliesus, 
the  thaumaturge  of  Tyana  found  the  plague  raging  there,  and  in  consequence 
invited  the  population  to  meet  him  in  tho  theatre.  When  they  were  assem- 
bled, he  rose  and  pointed  out  to  them  a  miserable  and  tattered  old  man  a-j 
the  cause  of  the  prevailing  pestilence.  Instantly  th»  multitude  seized  atones 
arid,  in  spitd  of  the  old  man's  remonstrances,  atoned  him  to  death.  When 
the  heaped  stones  were  removed,  they  found  the  carcase  of  a  Molossian 
hound,  into  which  the  demon  had  transformed  himself;4  and  on  this  spot 
they  reared  a  statue  of  Herakles  Apotropaios !  Philoatratus  did  not  write 
iiis  romance  till  A.D.  218,  and  his  hero  Apollonius  has  be«n  put  forth  by 
medern  infidels  as  a  sort  of  Pagan  rival  to  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels.  Let  any 
one  read  this  wretched  production,  and  judge  !  The  Pagan  sophist,  with  all 
his  vaunted  culture  and  irritating  euphuism,  abounds  in  anecdotes  which 
would  have  been  regarded  as  pitiably  foolish  if  they  had  been  narrated  by  tha 
unlettered  fisherman  of  Galilee,  strangers  as  they  were  to  all  cultivation,  asd 
writing  as  they  did  &  century  and  a  half  before. 

Another  and  a  far  darker  glimpse  of  the  Ephesus  of  this  day  may  bo 
obtained  from  the  letter  of  the  pseudo-Heraclitus.  Some  cultivated  and  abl« 
Jew,5  adopting  the  pseudonym  of  the  great  ancient  philosopher,  wrote  some 
letters  in  which  he  is  supposed  to  explain  the  reason  why  he  was  called  "  ths 
weeping  philosopher,"  and  why  he  was  never  seen  to  laugh.  In  these  he  fully 
justifies  his  traditional  remark  that  the  whole  Ephesian  population  deserved 
to  be  throttled  man  by  man.  He  here  asks  how  it  is  that  their  state  flourishes 
in  spite  of  its  wickedness ;  and,  in  the  inmost  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament,  he 
sees  in  that  prosperity  the  irony  <md  the  curse  of  Heaven.  For  Artemis  and 

»  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  v.  46. 

3  Onto,  De  Re  Ruttiea  Pr.  160  (gee  Donaldson,  Tarron.,  p.  234). 
•  Abhoda  Zara,  f.  12,  2. 

4  V'it.  Apoll.  iv.  10,  p.  147.    Alexander  of  Abonoteichoa,  a  much  more  objection:  V 
Impostor  than  Apollonius,  lived  till  old  age  on  the  wealth  got  out  of  his  dupes,  ;.-;.> 
seriously  persuaded  the  world  that  the  mother  of  hi*  daughter  wa*  the  goddess  of  ilu 
inoon  ! 

1  The  theory  of  Bernays  U  that  the  l«ttera  were  written  by  a  Pagan,  but  ii 
by  a  Jew. 


PAUL  A.T  EPHE8T7S.  361 

her  worship  he  has  no  scorn  too  intense.  The  dim  twilight  of  hor  auytum  is 
symbolical  of  a  vileuess  that  hateth  the  light.  He  supposes  that  her  image 
is  "  stonen  "  in  the  contemptuous  sense  in  •which  the  word  is  used  by  Homer 
— i.e.,  idiotic  and  brutish.  He  ridicules  the  inverted  pyramid  on  which  she 
stands.  He  says  that  the  morals  which  flourish  under  her  protection  are 
worse  than  those  of  beasts,  seeing  that  even  hounds  do  not  mutilate  each 
other,  as  her  Megabyzus  has  to  be  mutilated,  because  she  is  too  modest  to  be 
served  by  a  man.  But  instead  of  extolling  her  modesty,  her  priests  ought 
rather  to  curse  her  for  lewdness,  which  rendered  it  unsafe  otherwise  to  ap- 
proach her,  and  which  had  cost  them  so  dear.  As  for  tho  orgies,  and  the 
torch  festivals,  and  the  antique  rituals,  he  has  nothing  to  eay  of  them,  except 
that  they  are  the  cloak  for  every  abomination.  These  things  had  rendered 
him  a  lonely  man.  This  was  the  reason  why  he  could  not  langh.  How  could 
he  laugh  when  he  heard  the  noises  of  these  infamous  vagabond  priests,  and 
was  a  witness  of  all  the  nameless  iniquities  which  flourished  so  rankly  in  con- 
sequence of  their  malpractices — the  murder,  and  waste,  and  lust,  and  gluttony 
and  drunkenness  ?  And  then  he  proceeds  to  moral  and  religious  exhortations, 
which  show  that  we  are  reading  the  work  of  some  Jewish  and  unconverted 
A  polios,  who  is  yet  an  earnest  and  eloquent  pvoclaimer  of  the  one  God  and 
the  Noaehian  law. 

In  this  city  St.  Paul  saw  that  "  a  great  door  and  effectual  was  open  to 
him,"  though  there  were  "  many  adversaries."  l  During  his  absence  an  event 
had  happened  which  was  to  be  of  deep  significance  for  the  future.  Among  the 
myriads  whom  business  or  pleasure,  or  what  is  commonly  called  accident,  had 
brought  to  Ephesus,  was  a  Jew  of  Alexandria  named  Apollonius,8  or  Apollos, 
who  not  only  shared  the  culture  for  which  the  Jews  of  that  city  were  famous- 
in  tho  age  of  Philo,  but  who  had  a  profound  knowledge  of  Scripture,  and  a 
special  gift  of  fervid  eloquence.3  He  was  only  so  far  a  Christian  that  he 
knew  and  had  accepted  tho  baptism  of  John;  but  though  thus  imperfectly  ac- 
quainted with  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  he  yet  spoke  and  argued  in  the 
synagogue  with  a  power  and  courage  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
Jewish  tent-makers  Priscilla  and  Aquila.  They  invited  him  to  their  house, 
and  showed  him  the  purely  initial  character  of  John's  teaching.  It  may  have 
been  the  accounts  of  the  Corinthian  Church  which  he  had  heard  from  them 
that  made  him  desirous  to  visit  Achaia,  and  perceiving  how  useful  such  a 
ministry  as  his  might  be  amoug  the  subtle  and  intellectual  Greeks,  thsy  not 
only  encouraged  his  wish,4  but  wrote  for  him  "  letters  of  commendation  "  5  to 
the  Corinthian  elders.  At  Corinth  his  eloquence  produced  a  great  sensation, 
and  he  became  a  pillar  of  strength  to  the  brethren.  He  had  so  thoroughly 
profited  by  that  reflection  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  which  he  had  caught  from 
Priscilla  and  Aquila,  that  in  his  public  disputations  with  the  hostile  Jews 
ha  proved  from  their  own  Scriptures,  with  an  irresistible  cogency,  the 

1  ICor.  ivi.  9.  •  SoinD. 

s  Acts  xviii.  25,  &iav  *%  T^u^an  (cf.  Rom.  xii.  11). 

4  vjwprjrlpa'Oi,  80.  *Mv  (Acts  xvili.  27).  5  <rv<rT<mitT|  «ri»rofcj  (2  Cor.  iiL  1). 

13 


3C2  THE    LIFE   A.KD   WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL 

Hossiabship  of  Christ,  and  thus  was  as  acceptable  to  the  Christians  as  ho  was 
formidable  to  the  Jews.  He  watered  what  Paul  had  planted.1 

By  the  time  of  St.  Paul's  arrival,  Apollos  had  already  started  for  Corinth. 
He  had,  however,  returned  to  Ephesus  before  St.  Paul's  departure,  and  the 
Apostle  must  have  gazed  with  curiosity  and  interest  on  this  fervid  and  gifted 
convert.  A  meaner  soul  might  have  been  jealous  of  his  gifts,  and  all  the 
more  so  because,  while  less  valuable,  they  were  more  immediately  dazzling 
and  impressive  than  his  own.  St.  Paul  was  of  too  noble  a  spirit  to  leave 
room  for  the  slightest  trace  of  a  feeling  so  common,  yet  so  ignoble.  Apollos 
had  unwittingly  stolen  from  him  the  allegiance  of  some  of  his  Corinthian  con- 
verts ;  his  name  had  become,  in  that  disorderly  church,  a  watchword  of 
faction.  Yet  St.  Paul  never  speaks  of  him  without  warm  sympathy  and 
admiration,2  and  evidently  appreciated  the  high-mindod  delicacy  which  made 
him  refuse  to  revisit  Corinth,3  in  spite  of  pressing  invitations,  from  the, 
obvious  desire  to  give  no  encouragement  to  the  admiring  partisans  who  had, 
elevated  him  into  unworthy  rivalry  with  one  so  much  greater  than  himself. 

Ephesus,  amid  its  vast  population,  contained  specimens  of  every  form  of 
belief,  and  Apollos  was  not  the  only  convert  to  an  imperfect  and  half -developed 
form  of  Christianity.  Paul  found  there,  on  his  arrival,  a  strange  backwater 
of  religious  opinion  in  the  persons  of  some  twelve  men  who,  like  Apollos, 
and  being  perhaps  in  some  way  connected  with  him,  were  still  disciples  of  the 
Baptist.  Although  there  were  some  in  our  Lord's  time  who  stayed  with 
their  old  teacher  till  his  execution,  and  though  the  early  fame  of  his  preaching 
had  won  him  many  followers,  of  whom  some  continued  to  linger  on  in 
obscure  sects,4  it  was  impossible  for  any  reasonable  man  to  stop  short  at  this 
position  except  through  ignorance.  St.  Paul  accordingly  questioned  them, 
and  upon  finding  that  they  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  final  phase  of  John's 
teaching,  or  of  the  revelation  of  Christ,  and  were  even  ignorant  of  the  very 
name  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  gave  them  further  instruction  until  they  were 
fitted  to  receive  baptism,  and  exhibited  those  gifts  of  the  Spirit — the  speak- 
ing with  tongues  and  prophecy — which  were  the  accepted  proofs  of  full  and 
faithful  initiation  into  the  Church  of  Christ.6 

For  three  months,  in  accordance  with  his  usual  plan,  he  was  a  constant 
visitor  at  the  synagogue,  and  used  every  effort  of  persuasion  and  argument  to 
ripen  into  conviction  the  favourable  impressions  he  had  at  first  created.  St. 
Luke  passes  briefly  over  the  circumstances,  but  there  must  have  been  many 

1  1  Cor.  iii  6.  There  can  be  little  reasonable  doubt  that  Apollos  was  the  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  In  reading  that  Epistle  (which  cannot  be  dealt  with  in  this 
volume)  it  is  easy  to  see  that,  essentially  Pauline  as  is  much  of  its  phraseology,  the 
main  method  is  original,  and  would  probably  be  more  pleasing  and  convincing  to  Jews 
than  any  which  St.  Paul  was  led  to  adopt.  Some  have  seen  a  distinction  between  hia 
pupils  and  St.  Paul's  in  Titus  iii.  14,  oi  ^/xeVepot,  but  see  infra,  ad  loc. 

*  Tit.  iii.  13,  *  1  Cor.  TV!  12. 

*  Sabacans,  Mendaeans,  &c.  (Neander,  Ch..  Hist.  ii.  57).  We  find  from  the  Clementine 
Recognitions  that  there  were  some  of  John's  disciples  who  continued  to  preach  him  <*» 
the  Messiah. 

*  Cf.  Heb.  vt  4— & 


PAT/1,  AT  EPHESUS.  3f»3 

an  anxious  hour,  many  a  bitter  struggle,  many  an  exciting  debate,  before  tho 
Jews  finally  adopted  a  tone  not  only  of  decided  rejection,  but  even  of  so 
fierce  an  opposition,  that  St.  Paul  was  forced  once  more,  as  at  Corinth,  openly 
to  secede  from  their  communion.  We  do  not  sufficiently  estimate  the  paiu 
which  such  circumstances  must  have  caused  to  him.  His  life  was  so  beset  with 
trials,  that  each  trial,  however  heavy  in  itself,  is  passed  over  amid  a  multitude 
that  were  still  more  grievous.  But  we  must  remember  that  St.  Paul,  though  a 
Chn?«*ian,  still  regarded  himself  as  a  true  Israelite,  and  ho  must  hav*  felt,  at 
least  as  severely  as  a  Luther  or  a  Whiteficld,  this  involuntary  alienation  from 
the  religious  communion  of  his  childhood.  We  must  conjecture,  too,  that  it 
was  amid  these  early  struggles  that  he  once  more  voluntarily  submitted  to  the 
recognised  authority  of  synagogues,  and  endured  some  of  those  five  beatings 
by  the  Jews,  any  one  of  which  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  terrible  episode 
in  an  ordinary  life. 

As  long  as  opposition  confined  itself  to  legitimate  methods,  St.  Paul  was 
glad  to  be  a'  worshipper  in  the  synagogue,  and  to  deliver  the  customary 
Midrash ;  but  when  the  Jews  not  only  rejected  and  reviled  him,  but  even 
endeavoured  to  thwart  all  chance  of  his  usefulness  amid  their  Gentile  neigh- 
bours, he  saw  that  it  was  time  to  withdraw  his  disciples  from  among  them ; l 
and,  as  their  number  was  now  considerable,  he  hired  the  school  of  Tyraimus 
— some  heathen  sophist  of  that  not  very  uncommon  name.*  It  was  one  of 
those  schools  of  rhetoric  and  philosophy  wliich  were  common  in  a  city  like 
Ephesus,  where  there  were  many  who  prided  themselves  on  intellectual  pursuits. 
This  new  pkco  of  worship  gave  him  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  meet  the 
brethren  daily,  whereas  in  the  synagogue  this  was  only  possible  three  times  a 
week.  His  labours  and  his  preaching  were  not  unblessed.  For  tvr?  full 
years  longer  he  continued  to  make  Ephesus  the  centre  of  his  missionary 
activity,  and,  as  tho  fame  of  his  Gospel  began  to  spread,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  he  himself  took  short  journeys  to  various  neighbouring  places, 
trntil,  in  the  strong  expression  of  St.  Luke,  "  all  they  that  dwelt  in  Asia  heard 
the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  both  Jews  and  Greeks."  3  In  Ephesus  itself 
his  reputation  reached  an  extraordinary  height,  in  consequence  of  the  unusual 
works  of  power  which  God  wrought  by  his  hands.4  On  this  subject  he  is 
himself  silent  even  by  way  of  allusion,  and  though  ho  speaks  to  the  Ephe- 
siaii  elders  6  of  his  tears,  and  trials,  and  dangers,  he  does  not  say  a  word  as 

1  Epametus  (Rom.  xvi.  5,  leg.  Aaias)  was  his  first  convert  in  Asia. 

3  Jos.  B.  J.  i.  26,  §  3 ;  2  Mace.  iv.  40.  It  is  very  unlikely  that  this  was  a  Beth 
Midrash  (Meyer),  as  it  was  St.  Paul's  object  to  withdraw  from  the  Jews.  There  was  a 
Sophist  Tyrannus  mentioned  by  Suidas.  The  m/o*  is  spurious  (n,  A,  B),  which  shows 
that  this  Tyrannus  was  known  in  Ephesus  (see  Helusen,  Paul  us,  218). 

3  Hence  forty  years  later,  inBithynia,  Pliny  (Ep.  96)  writes,  "Neque  enim  civitates 
tan  turn,  sed  vicos  etiam  atque  agros  superstitionis  istius  contagio  pervay:ita  est." 

4  Acts  xix.  11,  Jvva/if  i?  ou  TO?  Tv\ovsaf. 

s  The  "  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,"  being  a  circular  letter,  naturally  contains  but  few 
ipccifio  allusions — which,  if  intelligible  to  one  Christian  community,  would  not  have 
been  so  to  another.  We  should  have  expected  such  allusions  in  his  speech  ;  but 
"ouiittit  Doctor  gentium  narrare  miracula,  narrat  labores,  narrat  aerumna*,  narrat 


384  TEE   LIFE  AND  WOES  Of  St.  PAUL. 

to  the  signs  and  wonders  which  in  writing  to  the  Corinthians  he  distinctly 
ckims.  Although  St.  Paul  believed  that  God,  for  the  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel,  did  allow  him  to  work  "  powers  "  beyond  the  range  of  human  expe- 
rience, and  in  which  he  humbly  recognised  the  work  of  the  Spirit  granted  to 
faith  and  prayer,  yet  he  by  no  means  frequently  exercised  these  gifts,  and 
never  for  his  own  relief  or  during  the  sickness  of  his  dearest  friends.  But 
it  was  a  common  thing  in  Ephesus  to  use  all  kinds  of  magic  remedies  and 
curious  arts.  Wo  are  not,  therefore,  surprised  to  hear  that  articles  of  dress 
which  had  belonged  to  Paul,  handkerchiefs  which  he  had  used,  and  aprons 
with  which  he  had  been  girded  in  the  pursuit  of  his  trade,1  were  assumed  by 
the  Ephesians  to  have  caught  a  magic  efficacy,  and  were  carried  about  to 
sick  people  and  demoniacs.  St.  Luke  was  not  with  the  Apostle  at  Ephesns, 
and  enters  into  no  details ;  but  it  is  clear  that  his  informant,  whoever  he  was, 
had  abstained  from  saying  that  this  was  done  by  St.  Paul's  sanction.  But 
since  Ephesus  was  the  head-quarters  of  diabolism  and  sorcery,  the  use  of  St. 
Paul's  handkerchiefs  or  aprons,  whether  authorised  by  him  or  not,  was  so  far 
overruled  to  beneficial  results  of  healing  as  to  prove  the  superiority  of  the 
Christian  faith  in  the  acropolis  or  Paganism,  and  to  prepare  tho  way  for  holy 
worship  in  the  stronghold  of  Eastern  fanaticism  and  Grecian  vice.  He  who 
"  followed  not  Jesus,"  and  yet  was'  enabled  to  cast  out  devils  in  His  name, 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  the  prototype  of  others  who,  though  they  acted  without 
sanction,  were  yet,  for  good  purposes,  and  in  that  unsearched  borderland 
which  lies  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  enabled  by  God's  provi* 
dence  to  achieve  results  which  tended  to  the  furtherance  of  truth. 

But  lest  any  sanction  should  be  given  to  false  and  superstitious  notions, 
wo  can  hardly  fail  to  see  in  the  next  anecdote  which  St.  Luke  has  preserved 
for  us  a  direct  rebuke  of  mechanical  thaumr»turgy.  Exorcism  was  a  prac- 
tice which  had  long  been  prevalent  among  the  Jews,  and  it  was  often  connected 
with  the  grossest  credulity  and  the  most  flagrant  imposture.*  Now  there  was 
a  Jewish  priest  of  some  distinction  of  the  name  of  Sceva,3  whose  seven  sons 
wandered  about  from  place  to  place  professing  to  eject  demons ;  and  on  learn- 
ing the  reputation  of  St.  Paul,  and  hearing  doubtless  of  the  cures  effected  by 
the  application  of  his  handkerchiefs,  they  thought  that  by  combining  his  name 
with  that  of  Jesus,  they  could  effect  cures  in  the  most  virulent  cases,  which 
defeated  even  the  ring  and  root  of  Solomon.4  Encouraged  possibly  by  some 
apparent  initial  success — so  at  least  the  story  seems  to  imply — two  of  these 

tribulationes  quae  Paulo  Paulique  imitatoribua  ipsis  miraculis  sunt  clariores  "(Nova- 
rinus). 

1  crovfapia,  sudnria  ;  ^fiiiuVtfta,  scmicinct-a. 

2  Jos.  Antt.  viii.  2,  §  5.     For  this  ridiculous  jugglery,  which  seems  to  have  deceived 
Vespasian,  see  my  Life  of  Christ,  i.  237.     The  prevalence  of  Jewish  exorcists  ia  attested 
by  Justin  Martyr,  Dial.  85. 

3  Acts  xix.  14,  «px'«p«*»« — a  general  expression ;  perhaps  a  head  of  one  of  the  twenty- 
four  courses. 

4  JOB.  Antt.  I.e.    We  find  many  traces  of  this  kind  of  superstition  in  the  Talmudio 
writings  :  e.g.,  the  belief  that  the  Minim  could  cure  the  bites  of  serpents  by  the  name 
of  Jesus  (v.  tupra,  p.  63).      In  the  ToUfith  J«Att,  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  are  ex- 


AT  ErHESTJS.  365 

seven  itinerant  impostors 1  visited  a  man  who  waa  evidently  a  raving  maniac, 
but  who  had  those  sufficiently  lucid  perceptions  of  certain  subjects  which 
many  madmen  still  retain.  Addressing  the  evil  demon,  they  exclaimed,  "  We 
exorcise  you  by  Jesus,  whom  Paul  preacheth."  In  this  instance,  however,  the 
adjuration  proved  to  be  a  humiliating  failure.  The  maniac  astutely  replied, 
"  Jesus  I  recognise,  and  Paul  I  know ; 2  but  who  are  you  ?"  and  then  leaping 
upon  them  with  tho  superhuman  strength  of  madness,  he  tore  their  clothes 
off  their  backs,  and  inflicted  upon  them  such  violent  injuries  that  they  were 
glad  to  escape  out  of  the  house  stripped  and  wounded. 

So  remarkable  a  story  could  not  remain  unknown.  It  spread  like  wildfire 
among  the  gossiping  Ephesians,  and  produced  a  remarkable  feeling  of  dread 
and  astonishment.  One  result  of  it  was  most  beneficial.  We  have  had  re- 
peated occasion  to  observe  that  the  early  Christians  who  had  been  redeemed 
from  heathendom,  either  in  the  coarsenesses  of  slave-life  or  in  the  refined 
abominations  of  the  higher  classes,  required  a  terrible  struggle  to  deliver 
themselves  by  the  aid  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  from  the  thraldom  of  past  cor- 
ruption. The  sternly  solemn  emphasis  of  St.  Paul's  repeated  warnings — 
the  actual  facts  which  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  early  churches — show 
conclusively  that  tho  early  converts  required  to  be  treated  with  extreme  for- 
bearance, while,  at  the  same  time,  they  were  watched  over  by  their  spiritual 
rulers  with  incessant  vigilance.  The  stir  produced  by  the  discomfiture  of  the 
Beni  Sceva  revealed  the  startling  fact  that  some  of  the  brethren  in  embracing 
Christianity  had  not  abandoned  magic.  Stricken  in  conscience,  these  secret 
dealers  in  the  superstitious  trumpery  of  "  curious  arts  "  now  came  forward  in 
the  midst  of  the  community  and  confessed  their  secret  malpractices.  Nor 
was  it  only  the  dupes  who  acknowledged  the  error.  Even  the  deceivers  came 
forward,  and  gave  the  most  decisive  proof  of  their  sincerity  by  rendering 
impossible  any  future  chicanery.  They  brought  the  cabalistic  and  expensive 
books3  which  had  been  the  instruments  of  their  trado,  and  publicly  burned 

plained  by  an  unutterably  silly  story  as  to  the  means  by  which  He  possessed  himself  of 
the  Shzmluimephoresk:  or  sacred  name.  Witchcraft  had  in  all  ages  been  prevalent  among 
the  Jews  (Ex.  xxii.  18 ;  1  Sam.  xxviii.  3,  9 ;  Mio.  v.  12) ;  it  continued  to  be  so  at  the 
Christian  era,  and  it  was  necessary  even  to  warn  converts  against  any  addiction  to  it 
(Gal.  v.  20 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  13,  yd^r«). 

1  In  verse  16  the  reading  a^^oT.'po*  of  N>  A,  B,  D,  is  almost  certainly  correct.  They 
•were  actuated  by  exactly  tho  same  motives  as  Simon  Magus,  but  had  shown  leac  cun- 
ning in  trying  to  cany  them  out. 

•  Acts   SIX.   15,   To*  'h}ffoC»>  yiypwericu  Kail  rw  IlaOAov^tirurrafiai;    Vulg.,  "Jesum   novi  t)t 

Paiilum  scio." 

3  On  these  £<£«««  ypafj^ara  see  the  illustrations  adduced  by  Wetstein.  Some  of  them 
were  copies  of  the  mystic  words  and  n.vnos  engraved  in  enigmatic  formulae  (<up<y/j.<iTuj<us 
— Eustath.  in  Od.  xiv.  p.  1864)  on  the  crown,  girdle,  and  feet  of  the  statue  of  Artemis. 
Whole  treatises  were  written  in  explanation  of  them,  wliich  resemble  certain  Chinese 
treatises.  An  addiction  to  magic,  therefore,  assumed  almost  necessarily  a  eecret 
belief  in  idolatry.  One  of  the  titles  of  Artemis  was  Mvujos.  Balbillus  (Suet.  Ner.  36) 
and  Maximus  (Gibbon,  ii.  291,  ed.  Milmau)  were  both  Ephesian  astrologers.  Eustathius 
(!.c. — cf.  Philostr,  Vit.  Apol.  vii.  39)  tells  us  that  Crcssus  was  saved  by  reciting 
them  on  the  pyre,  and  that  in  a  wrestling  bout  a  Milesian,  who  could  not  throw 
sn  Ephesian,  found  that  he  had  Ephesian  incantations  engraved  on  a  die.  When 
this  waz  taken  from  him  the  Milesian  threw  him  thirty  times  in  succession. 


366  THE   LIFE   AND   WOBK   OF   ST.    PAITL. 

them.  It  was  like  the  Monte  dell  a  Pieta  reared  by  the  repentant  Florentines 
4t  the  bidding  of  Savonarola ;  and  so  extensive  had  been  this  secret  evil-doing, 
that  the  value  of  the  books  destroyed  by  the  culprits  in  this  fit  of  penitence 
was  no  less  than  fifty  thousand  drachms  of  silver,  or,  in  our  reckoning,  about 
£2,030.1  This  bonfire,  which  must  have  lasted  some  time,2  was  so  striking  a 
protest  against  the  prevalent  credulity,  that  it  was  doubtless  one  of  the  cir- 
cumstances which  gave  to  St.  Paul's  preaching  so  wide  a  celebrity  throughout 
all  Asia. 

This  little  handful  of  incidents  is  all  that  St.  Luke  was  enabled  to  preserve 
for  us  of  this  great  Ephesian  visit,  which  Paul  himself  tells  us  occupied  a 
period  of  three  years.3  Had  we  nothing  else  to  go  by,  we  might  suppose  that 
until  the  final  outbreak  it  was  a  period  of  almost  unbroken  success  and  pros- 
perity. Such,  however,  as  we  find  from  the  Epistles4  and  from  the  Apostle's 
speech  to  the  Ephesian  elders,6  was  very  far  from  being  the  case.  It  was 
iudeed  an  earnest,  incessant,  laborious,  house-to-house  ministry,  which  carried 
its  exhortations  to  each  individual  member  of  the  church.  But  it  was  a 
ministry  of  many  tears ;  and  though  greatly  blessed,  it  was  a  time  of  such 
overwhelming  trial,  sickness,  persecution,  and  misery,  that  it  probably  sur- 
passed in  sorrow  any  other  period  of  St.  Paul's  life.  We  nmst  suppose  that 
during  its  course  happened  not  a  few  of  those  perils  which  he  recounts  with 
such  passionate  brevity  of  allusion  in  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 
Neither  from  Jews,  nor  from  Pagans,  nor  from  nominal  Christians  was  he, 
safe.  He  had  suffered  alike  at  the  hands  of  lawless  banditti  and  stately 
magistrates ;  he  had  been  stoned  by  the  simple  provincials  of  Lystra,  beaten 
by  the  Roman  colonists  of  Philippi,  hunted  by  the  Greek  mob  at  Ephesus, 
seized  by  the  furious  Jews  at  Corinth,  maligned  and  thwarted  by  the  Pharisaic 
professors  of  Jerusalem.  Bobbers  he  may  well  have  encountered  in  the 
environs,8  as  tradition  tells  us  that  St.  John  the  Evangelist  did  in  later  days, 
as  well  as  in  the  interior,  when  he  travelled  to  lay  the  foundation  of  various 
churches.7  Perils  among  his  own  countrymen  we  know  befell  him  there,  for 
he  reminds  the  elders  of  Ephesus  of  what  he  had  suffered  from  the  ambus- 
cades of  the  Jews.8  To  perils  by  the  heathen  and  in  the  city  he  must  have 

Hence  the  E<f>eVia  ypawiara  were  sometimes  engraved  on  seals  ( Atlien.  xii.  584).  Kenan 
says  (p.  345)  that  the  names  of  the  "  seven  sleepers  of  Ephesus "  are  still  a  common 
incantation  in  the  East. 

1  On  the  almost  certain  supposition  that  the  "pieces  of  silver"  were  Attic  drachms 
of  the  value  of  about  9|d.     If   they  were  Roman  denarii  the  value  would  he  £1,770. 
Classic  parallels  to  this  public  abjuration  of  magic  are  quoted  from  Lir.  xl.  29 ;    Suet. 
Aug.  31;  Tac.  Ann.  xiii.  50;  Agric.  2. 

2  ica.TfKa.iav,  impf. 

3  Acts  xx.  31 ;  but  owing  to  the  Jewish  method  of  reckoning  any  part  of  time  to  the 
•whole,  the  period  did  not  necessarily  much  exceed  two  years. 

*  Chiefly  those  to  the  Corinthians.    On  the  Epistle  to  "  the  Ephesians  "  see  infra,  p. 
5  Acts  xx.  18—35.  «  2  Cor;  xi.  26. 

7  He  had  not,  however,  visited  Laodicea  or  Colossre,  where  churches  were  founded  by 
Philemon  and  Epaphras  (Col.  i.  7;  iv.  12 — 16).     But  he  may  well  have  made  journeys  to 
.Smyrna,  Pergamos,  Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  &c.     (See  1  Cor.  xvi.  19.) 

8  Acts  xx.  19  ;  which  again  shows  the  fragmentary  nature  of  the  narrative  aa  regard* 
»ll  particulars  of  personal  suffering. 


PAUL  AT   EPHESUS.  367 

often  been  liable  in  the  narrow  streets.  Of  his  perils  among  false  brethren, 
like  Phygellus,  and  Hermogenes,  and  Alexander,  we  may  see  a  specimen  in 
the  slanders  against  his  person,  and  the  internecine  opposition  to  his  doctrine, 
of  which  we  shall  meet  with  future  proofs.  Perils  in  the  wilderness  and  in 
the  sea  Avere  the  inevitable  lot  of  one  who  travelled  over  vast  districts  in  those 
days,  when  navigation  was  so  imperfect  and  intercourse  so  unprotected.  It 
was  very  shortly  after  his  departure  from  Ephesus  that  he  wrote  of  all 
these  dangers,  and  if,  as  is  possible,  he  took  more  than  one  voyage  from  the 
haA'en  of  Ephesus  to  various  places  on  the  shores  of  the  Levant,  it  may  have 
been  at  this  time  that  ho  suffered  that  specially  perilous  shipwreck,  in  the 
escape  from  which  lie  floated  a  day  and  a  night  upon  the  stormy  waves.1  And 
all  this  time,  with  a  heart  that  trembled  with  sympathy  or  burned  with  indig- 
nation,2 he  was  carrying  out  the  duties  of  a  laborious  and  pastoral  ministry,3 
and  bearing  the  anxious  burden  of  all  the  churches,  of  which  some,  like  the 
churches  of  Corinth  and  Galatia,  caused  him  the  most  acute  distress.  Nor 
were  physical  cares  and  burdens  wanting.  True  to  hia  principle  of  refusing 
to  eat  the  bread  of  dependence,4  he  had  toiled  incessantly  at  Ephosus  to  sup- 
port, not  himself  only,  but  even  Aristarchus  and  the  others  who  were  with 
him  ;  and  not  even  all  his  weariness,  and  painfulness,  and  sleepless  nights  of 
mingled  toil  and  danger,5  had  saved  him  from  cold,  and  nakedness,  and  the  con- 
stant pangs  of  hunger  during  compulsory  or  voluntary  fasts.8  And  while  he 
was  taking  his  place  like  a  general  on  a  battle-field,  with  his  eye  on  every 
weak  or  endangered  point ;  while  his  heart  was  constantly  rent  by  news  of 
the  defection  of  those  for  whom  lie  would  gladly  have  laid  down  his  life ; 
while  a  new,  powerful,  and  organised  opposition  was  working  against  him  in 
the  very  churches  which  ho  had  founded  with  such  peril  and  toil;7  while  he 
was  being  constantly  scourged,  and  mobbed,  and  maltreated,  and  at  the  same 
time  suffering  from  repeated  attacks  of  sickness  and  depression ;  while  he 
was  at  once  fighting  a  haud-to-haud  battle  and  directing  the  entire  campaign  ;-— 
he  yet  found  time  to  travel  for  the  foundation  or  confirming  of  other  churches, 
and  to  write,  as  with  his  very  heart's  blood,  the  letters  which  should  rivet  the 
attention  of  thousands  of  the  foremost  intellects,  eighteen  centuries  after  he 
himself  had  been  laid  in  the  nameless  grave.  In  these  we  find  that  at  the 
very  hour  of  apparent  success  he  was  in  the  midst  of  foolishness,  weakness, 
shame — "  pilloried,"  as  it  were,  "  on  infamy's  high  stage,"  the  sentence  of 
death  hanging  ever  over  his  head,  cast  down,  perplexed,  persecuted,  troubled 
on  every  side,  homeless,  buffeted,  ill-provided  with  food  and  clothes,  abused, 

1  Whether  a  brief  and  unsatisfactory  visit  to  Corinth  was  among  these  journeys  is  a 
disputed  point,  which  depends  on  the  interpretation  given  to  2  Cor.  i.  15,  1C ;  xiii.  1,  and 
which  will  never  be  finally  settled.     A  multitude  of  authorities  may  be  quoted  on  both 
sides,  and  fortunately  the  question  is  not  one  of  great  importanca 

2  2  Cor.  xi.  29.     '        3  Acts  xx.  20,  31.  *  Acts  xx.  34.  s  2  Cor.  xi.  27. 

*  And  that,  too,  although  the  tents  made  at  Ephesus  had  a  special  reputation,  and 
were  therefore  probably  in  some  demand  (Plut.  Alcib.  12 ;  Athen.  xii.  47). 

7  Perhaps  tne  Judaic  Christians  were  more  content  to  leave  him  alone  while  he  was 
working  in  Europe,  and  were  only  aroused  to  opposition  by  his  resumption  of  work  in 
Aaia  (Krenkel,  Paulus,  p.  183). 


368  THE   LIFE    A.ND   WORK   OF  ST.   PATTL, 

persecuted,  slandered,  made  as  it  were  the  dung  and  fiHh  of  all  the  world.1  Nay, 
more,  he  was  in  jeopardy  not  only  every  day,  but  every  hour ;  humanly  speak- 
ing, he  had  fought  with  wild  beasts  in  the  great  voluptuous  Ionic  city;  he  was 
living  every  day  a  living  death.  He  tells  us  that  he  was  branded  like  some 
guilty  slave  with  the  stigmata  of  the  Lord  Jesus ; 8  that  ho  was  being  "  Mlied 
all  the  day  long;3  that  ho  was  "in  deaths  oft;"  *  that  he  was  constantly 
carrying  about  with  >nm  the  deadness  of  the  crucified  Christ;6  his  life  aa 
endless  mortification,  his  story  an  inscription  on  a  cross.  What  wonder  if, 
amid  these  afflictions,  there  were  times  when  the  heroic  soul  gave  way?  What, 
wonder  if  he  speaks  of  tears,  and  trembling,  and  desolation  of  heart,  and 
nttor  restlessness ;  of  being  pressed  out  of  measure,  above  strength,  despair- 
ing of  life  itself,6  tried  almost  beyond  tho  extreme  of  human  endurance 
— without  fightings,  within  fears  ?  What  wonder  if  ho  is  driven  to  declare 
that  if  this  is  all  the  life  belonging  to  our  hopo  in  Christ,  he  would  be  of 
all  men  the  most  miserable  ? T  And  yet,  in  the  strength  of  the  Saviour,  how 
triumphantly  he  stemmed  the  overwhelming  tide  of  these  afflictions  ;  in  the 
panoply  of  God  how  dauntlessly  ha  continued  to  fling  himself  into  the 
never-ending  battle  of  a  warfare  which  had  no  discharge.8  Indomitable 
spirit !  fiung  down  to  earth,  chained  like  a  captive  to  the  chariot- wheels  of  his 
Lord's  triumph,9  haled  as  it  wore  from  city  to  city,  amid  bonds  and  afflictions,10 
as  a  deplorable  spectacle,  amid  the  incenso  which  breathed  through  the  streets 
in  token  of  tho  victor's  might — he  yet  thanks  God  that  he  is  thus  a  captive, 
and  glories  in  his  many  infirmities.  Incomparable  and  heroic  soul !  many 
eaiute  of  God  have  toiled,  and  suffered,  and  travelled,  and  preached,  and  been 
execrated,  and  tortured,  and  imprisoned,  and  martyred,  in  the  cause  of  Christ. 
Singly  they  towor  above  tho  vulgar  herd  of  selfish  and  comfortable  men  ;  but 
yet  the  collective  labours  of  sonio  of  their  greatest  would  not  equal,  nor  would 
their  collective  sufferings  furnish  a  parallel  to  those  of  Paul,  and  very  few  of 
them  have  been  what  he  was — a  great  original  thinker,  as  well  as  a  devoted 
practical  worker  for  his  Lord. 

But  of  this  period  we  learn  from  the  Acts  only  one  closing  scene,11  and  it 
is  doubtful  whether  even  this  is  painted  for  us  in  colours  half  so  terrible  as  tho 
reality.  Certain  it  is  that  somo  of  the  allusions  which  we  have  been  noticing 
must  bear  reference  to  this  crowning  peril,  and  that,  accustomed  though  ho  was 
to  the  daily  aspect  of  danger  in  its  worst  forms,  this  particular  danger  and 
tho  circumstances  attending  it,  which  are  rather  hinted  at  than  detailed,  had 
mado  a  most  intense  impression  upon  the  Apostle's  mind. 

At  the  close  of  about  two  years,  his  restless  fervour  made  him  feel  that  ha 
could  stay  no  longor  in  the  school  of  Tyrannus.  He  formed  the  plau  of 
starting  after  Pentecost,  and  visiting  once  more  the  churches  of  Macedonia 

1  1  Coiv  iv.  8—18  ;  2  Cor.  iv.  8,  9.  «  2  Cor.  i.  8. 

z  Gal.  vi.  17.  7  1  Cor.  xv.  19. 

*  Rom.  viii.  36.  8  See  Greg.  Naz.  Oral.  ii.  3S— 40. 

*  2  Cor.  3d.  23.  »  2  Cor.  ii.  14—16. 

*  2  Cor.  iv.  10.  10  Acts  xx.  23. 

11  There  are  further  hinti  in  the  farewell  speech  to  the  Epherian  elders  (Act*  xx.  18—85). 


PAUL  AT  BPHESTTS.  369 

and  Achaia,  which  he  had  founded  in  his  second  journey,  and  of  sailing  from 
Corinth  to  pay  a  fifth  visit  to  Jerusalem,  after  which  he  hoped  to  see  Home, 
the  great  capital  of  the  civilisation  of  the  world.1  In  furtherance  of  this 
purpose  he  had  already  despatched  two  of  his  little  hand  of  fellow- workers, 
Timothy  and  Erastus,  to  Macedonia  with  orders  that  they  were  to  rejoin  him 
at  Corinth.  Erastus  a — if  this  be  the  chamberlain  of  the  city — was  a  person 
of  influence,  and  would  have  been  well  suited  both  to  provide  for  the  Apostle's 
reception  and  to  superintend  the  management  of  the  weekly  offertory,  about 
which  St.  Paul  was  at  present  greatly  interested.  The  visit  to  Jerusalem  was 
rendered  necessary  by  the  contribution  for  the  distressed  Christians  of  that 
city,  which  he  had  been  collecting  from  the  Gentile  churches,  and  which  he 
naturally  desired  to  present  in  person,  as  the  best  possible  token  of  forgiveness 
and  brotherhood,  to  the  pillars  of  the  unfriendly  community.  This  had  not 
been  his  original  plan.3  He  had  originally  intended,  and  indeed  had  announced 
his  intention,  in  a  letter  no  longer  extant,4  to  sail  straight  from  Ephesus  to 
Corinth,  make  his  way  thence  by  kind  to  the  churches  of  Macedonia,  sail  back 
from  thence  to  Corinth,  and  so  sail  once  more  from  Corinth  to  Jerusalem. 
Weighty  reasons,  which  we  shall  see  hereafter,  had  compelled  the  abandon- 
ment of  this  design.  The  ill  news  respecting  the  condition  of  the  Corinthian 
churches  which  he  had  received  from  the  slaves  of  Chloe  compelled  him  to 
write  his  first  extant  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  in  which  ho  tacitly  abandons  his 
original  intention,  but  sends  Titus,  and  with  him  "  the  brother,"  to  regulate 
to  the  best  of  their  power  the  gross  disorders  that  had  arisen.6  Probably  at 
the  same  time  he  sent  a  message  to  Timothy — uncertain,  however,  whether  it 
would  reach  him  in  time — not  to  go  to  Corinth,  but  either  to  return  to  him  or 
to  wait  for  him  in  Macedonia.  The  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  was  written 
about  the  time  of  the  Passover  in  April,  and  probably  in  the  very  next  month 
an  event  occurred  which,  at  the  hist  moment,  endangered  his  stay  and  precipi- 
tated his  departure. 

It  was  now  the  month  of  May,  and  nothing  seemed  likely  to  interfere  with 
the  peaceful  close  of  a  troubled  ministry.  But  this  month  was  specially 
dedicated  to  the  goddess  of  Ephesus,  and  was  called  from  her  the  Artemisian.6 
During  the  mouth  was  held  the  great  fair — called  Ephcsia — which  attracted 
an  immense  concourse  of  people  from  all  parts  of  Asia,  aiid  was  kept  with  all 
possible  splendour  and  revelry.  The  proceedings  resembled  the  Christmas 
iestivities  of  the  middle  ages,  with  their  boy  bishops  and  abbots  of  misrule. 
The  gods  were  personated  by  chosen  representatives,  who  received  throughout 
the  month  a  sort  of  mock  adoration.  There  was  an  Alytarch,  who  represented 
Zeus  j  a  Grammateus,  who  played  the  part  of  Apollo;  an  Amphithales,  who  per- 

l  Cf.  Eom.  L  15 ;  xv.  23—28 ;  Acts  xix.  21. 

i  Eom.  xvi.  23 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  20,  but  there  is  no  certainty  in  the  matter.  The  name 
was  common. 

3  2  Cor.  i.  1C— 23.  «  V.  infra,  p.  3S3.  5  1  Cor.  xvi.  5—7. 

6  The  decree  dedicating  the  entire  month  to  Artemis  has  been  found  by  Chandler  on 
a  slab  of  white  marble  near  the  aqueduct,  and  is  given  by  Boeck,  Corp.  J?wcr.  2954.    It 
is  nearly  contemporary  with  the  time  of  St.  Paul, 
13  » 


370  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

eonated  Hermes ;  and  in  the  numberless  processions  and  litanies,  and  sacrifices, 
they  paced  the  streets,  and  were  elevated  in  public  places,  arrayed  in  robes  of 
pure  white  or  of  tissued  gold,  and  wearing  crowns  which  were  set  with  car- 
buncles and  pearls.  The  theatre  and  stadium  wore  densely  crowded  by  festive 
throngs  to  listen  to  the  musical  contests,  to  watch  the  horse-races,  and  the 
athletic  exhibitions,  or  to  look  on  with  thrills  of  fiercer  emotion  at  the  horrible 
combats  of  men  and  beasts.  The  vast  expense  of  these  prolonged  festivities  and 
superb  spectacles  was  entirely  borne  by  the  College  of  the  ten  Asiarchs,  who 
thus  fulfilled  tho  same  functions  as  those  of  the  Curule  jEdiles  at  Rome.  They 
were  men  of  high  distinction,  chosen  annually  from  the  wealthiest  citizens  of 
the  chief  cities  of  Asia,  and  it  was  their  duty  to  preside  over  the  games,  and  to 
keep  order  in  the  theatre.  The  heavy  pecuniary  burden  of  the  office  was 
repaid  in  honorary  privileges  and  social  distinctions.  Their  names  were 
recorded  on  coins  and  in  public  inscriptions,  and  the  garlands  and  purple  robes 
which  distinguished  them  during  the  continuance  of  the  feast  were  the  external 
marks  of  tho  popular  gratitude.1 

During  the  sacred  month  the  city  rang  with  every  sort  of  joyous  sounds ; 
gay  processions  were  constantly  sweeping  to  the  famous  temple  ;  drunkenness 
and  debauchery  wore  rife  ;  even  through  the  soft  night  of  spring  tho  Agora 
hummed  with  the  busy  throngs  of  idlers  and  revellers.2  It  was  inevitable  that 
at  such  a  time  there  should  be  a  recrudescence  of  fanaticism,  and  it  is  far  from 
improbable  that  the  worthless  and  frivolous  mob,  incited  by  the  Eunuch  priests 
and  Hierodules  of  Artemis,  may  have  marked  out  for  insult  the  little  congre- 
gation which  met  in  tho  school  of  Tyrannus,  and  their  well-known  teacher. 
This  year  there  was  a  perceptible  diminution  in  the  fast  and  furious  mirth  of 
the  Artemisian  season,  and  tho  cause  of  this  falling  off  was  perfectly  notorious.8 
Not  only  in  Ephesus,  but  in  all  the  chief  cities  of  Proconsular  Asia,  deep 
interest  had  been  excited  by  the  preaching  of  a  certain  Paulus,  who,  in  the 
very  metropolis  of  idolatry,  was  known  to  be  quietly  preaching  that  they  were 
no  gods  which  were  made  with  hands.  Many  people  had  been  persuaded  to 
adopt  his  views ;  many  more  had  so  far  at  least  been  influenced  by  them  as  to 
feel  a  growing  indifference  for  mummeries  and  incantations,  and  even  for 
temples  and  idols.  Consequently  there  arose  in  Ephesus  "  no  small  stir  about 
that  way."  Paul  and  his  preaching,  the  brethren  and  their  assemblages,  were 
in  all  men's  mouths,  and  many  a  muttered  curse  was  aimed  at  them  by 
Megabyzos  and  Melissae,  and  the  hundreds  of  hangers-on  which  gather  around 
every  great  institution.  At  last  this  ill-concealed  exasperation  came  to  a  head. 
The  chief  sufferer  from  the  diminished  interest  in  the  goddess  and  her 

»  These  particulars  are  mainly  derived  from  the  account  of  Malalaa. 

»  Achill.  Tat.  5. 

*  No  one  will  be  astonished  at  this  who  reads  Pliny's  account  of  the  utter  neglect  into 
which  heathen  institutions  had  fallen  half  a  century  after  this  time,  in  the  neighbouring 
jirovinee  of  Bithynia,  as  a  direct  consequence  of  Christian  teaching,  and  that  though  the 
<  Christians  were  a  persecuted  sect.  There,  also,  complaints  came  from  the  priests,  the 
purveyors  of  the  sacrifices,  and  other  people  pecuniarily  interested.  They  had  $he 
sai^city  to  see  that  their  peril  from  Christianity  lay  in  its  universality, 


PAUL  AT  EPHESUS.  371 

Hieromenia,  had  been  a  certain  silversmith,  named  Demetrius,  who  sold  to  the 
pilgrims  little  silver  shrines  and  images  in  memorial  of  their  visits  to  Ephesus ' 
and  her  temple.  They  were  analogous  to  the  little  copies  in  alabaster  or  silver 
of  the  shrine  of  Loretto,  and  other  famous  buildings  of  Italy ;  nor  was  it  only 
at  Ephesus,  but  at  every  celebrated  centre  of  Pagan  worship,  that  the  demand 
for  such  memorials  created  the  supply.  Demetrius  found  that  his  trade  waa 
beginning  to  be  paralysed,  and  since  the  emasculate  throng  of  sacred  slaves 
and  musicians  dared  not  strike  a  blow  for  the  worship  which  fed  their  lazy 
vice,  he  determined,  as  far  as  he  could,  to  stop  the  mischief.  Calling  together 
a  trades-union  meeting  of  all  the  skilled  artisans  and  ordinary  workmen  who 
were  employed  in  this  craft,2  he  made  them  a  speech,  in  which  he  first  stirred 
up  their  passions  by  warning  them  of  the  impending  ruin  of  their  interests,3 
and  then  appealed  to  their  latent  fanaticism  to  avenge  the  despised  greatness 
of  their  temple,  and  the  waning  magnificence  of  the  goddess  whom  all  Asia 
and  the  world  worshipped.4  The  speech  was  like  a  spark  on  inflammable 
materials.  Their  interests  wore  suffering,6  and  their  superstition  was  being 
endangered;  and  the  rage  which  might  have  been  despised  if  it  had  only 
sprung  from  greed,  looked  more  respectable  when  it  assumed  the  cloak  oi 
fanaticism.  The  answer  to  the  speech  of  Demetrius  was  a  unanimous  shout 
of  the  watchword  of  Ephesus,  "  Great  is  Artemis  of  the  Ephesians ! "  So 
large  a  meeting  of  the  workmen  created  much  excitement.  Crowds  came 
flocking  from  every  portico,  and  agora,  and  gymnasium,  and  street.  The  whole 
city  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  riot,  and  a  rush  was  made  for  the  Jewish 
quarter  and  the  shop  of  Aquila.  What  took  place  we  are  not  exactly  told, 
except  that  the  life  of  the  Apostle  was  in  extremest  danger.  The  mob  was, 
however,  balked  of  its  intended  prey.  Paul,  as  in  the  similar  peril  at  Thos- 
Balonica,  was  either  not  in  the  house  at  the  time,  or  had  been  successfully 
concealed  by  Priscilla  and  her  husband,  who  themselves  ran  great  risk  of 
being  killed  in  their  efforts  to  protect  him.6  Since,  however,  the  rioters  could 

1  Called  in<f>i&pvna.To.  vat&uu  aediculae.  Chrysostom  says  «T<DS  us  Kifiiapia.  jiucpa.  Similar 
images  and  shrines  are  mentioned  in  Ar.  Nub.  598  ;  Dio.  Sic.  i.  15  ;  iv.  49 ;  Dion  Cass. 
xxxix.  20 ;  Dion.  Hal.  ii.  22  ;  Amm.  Marcell.  xxii.  13  ;  Petron.  29.  The  custom  is  an 
extremely  ancient  one.  "  The  tabernacle  of  Moloch,  and  the  star  of  your  god  llemphaii, " 
which  the  Israelites  took  up  in  the  wilderness,  were  of  the  same  description.  Little 
images  of  Palbis  (iroAAa&a  TrepiaMrwftopa.)  Demeter,  &c.,  were  in  special  request,  and  an 
interesting  earthenware  aedicula  of  Cybele  found  at  Athens  is  engraved  in  Lewin,  i.  414. 
Appuleius  (Metam.  xi.)  says  that  at  the  end  of  the  festival  small  silver  images  of  Artemis 
were  placed  on  the  temple  steps  for  people  to  kiss. 

3  We  learn  from  numerous  inscriptions  that  guilds  and  trades-unions  (irvvepyamLai, 
oT>juj3i<i<r€«)  were  common  in  Ionia  (see  Kenan,  p.  355).  "  rf^vlrai,  artifices  nobiliores, 
ipya.Ta.1,  operarii  "  (Bengel). 

3  Cf.  Acts  xvi.  19. 

4  "Diana  Ephesia,  cujus  nomen  unicum,  multiformi  specie,  ritu  vario,  nomine  mul- 
tijugo,  totus  veneratur  orbit "  (Appul.  Metam.  ii.).    Pliny  calls  the  temple  "  orbis  terrarum 
miraculum  "  (H.  N.  xxxvi.  14) ;  and  the  image  and  temple  are  found  on  the  coins  of 
many  neighbouring  cities. 

5  Compare  the  case  of  the  Philippians  (Acts  zvi.  19).     They  were,  as  Calvin  says, 
fighting  for   their   "hearths"  quite  as  much  as  their  "altars,"  "ut  scilicet   culinam 
habeant  bene  calentem." 

6  Rom.  xvi.  4, 


372  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

not  find  tho  chief  object  of  tbeir  search,  they  seized  two  of  his  companions— 
Gaius  of  Macedonia,1  and  the  faithful  Aristarchus.8  "With  these  two  men  in 
their  custody,  the  crowd  rushed  wildly  into  the  vast  space  of  the  theatre,3 
which  stood  ever  open,  and  of  which  the  still  visible  ruins — "  a  wreck  of 
immense  grandeur  " — show  that  it  was  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world,  and 
could  easily  have  accommodated  30,000  spectators.4  Paul,  wherever  he  lay 
hidden,  was  within  reach  of  coiainunieation  from  the  disciples.  Full  of 
anxiety  for  the  unknown  fate  of  his  two  companions,  he  eagerly  desired  to 
make  his  way  into  the  theatre  and  there  address  the  rioters.  There  is, 
perhaps,  no  courage  greater  than  that  which  is  required  from  one  who,  in 
imminent  danger  of  being  torn  to  pieces,  dares  to  face  tho  furious  insults  and 
raging  passions  of  an  exasperated  crowd.  But  the  powers  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Apostle  always  rose  to  a  great  occasion,  and  though  ha  was  so  sensitive  that 
he  could  not  write  a  severe  letter  without  floods  of  tears,  and  so  nervous  that 
he  could  scarcely  endure  to  be  left  for  even  a  few  days  alone,  he  was  quite 
capable  of  this  act  of  supreme  heroism.  He  always  wished  to  be  in  the  fore- 
front of  battle  for  his  Master's  cause.  But  his  friends  better  appreciated  the 
magnitude  of  the  danger.  Gaius  and  Aristarchus  were  too  subordinate  to  be 
made  scapegoats  for  the  vengeance  of  the  crowd ;  but  they  were  sure  that  the 
mere  appearance  of  that  bent  figure  and  worn  aiid  wasted  face,  which  had 
become  so  familiar  to  many  of  the  cities  of  Asia,  would  be  the  instant  signal  for 
a  terrible  outbreak.  Their  opposition  was  confirmed  by  a  friendly  message 
from  some  of  the  Asiarchs,6  who  rightly  conjectured  the  chivalrous  impulse 
which  would  lead  the  Apostle  to  confront  the  storm.  Anxious  to  prevent 
bloodshed,  and  save  the  life  of  one  whose  gifts  and  greatness  they  had 
learnt  to  admire,  and  well  aware  of  the  excitability  of  an  Ephesian  mob,  they 
sent  Paul  an  express  warning  not  to  trust  himself  into  the  theatre. 

The  riot,  therefore,  spent  itself  in  idle  noise.  The  workmen  had,  indeed, 
got  hold  of  Gaius  and  Aristarchus ;  but  as  the  crowd  did  not  require  theso 
poor  Greeks,  whose  aspect  did  not  necessarily  connect  them  with  what  was 
generally  regarded  as  a  mere  Jewish  sect,  they  did  not  know  what  to  do  with 
them.  The  majority  of  that  promiscuous  assemblage,  unable  to  make  any- 
thing of  the  discordant  shouts  which  were  rising  on  every  side,  could  only 
guess  why  they  were  there  at  all.  There  was,  perhaps,  a  dim  impression  that 
some  one  or  other  was  going  to  be  thrown  to  tho  wild  beasts,  and  doubtless 
among  those  varying  clamours  voices  were  not  wanting  like  those  with  which 
the  theatre  of  Smyrna  rang  not  many  years  afterwards — at  the  martyrdom  of 
Polycarp— of  "Paul  to  the  lions!"  "The  Christians  to  the  lions!"'  One 

»  Not  Gaius  of  Derbe  (xx.  4)  or  "mine  host "  (Rom.  xvi.  23). 

5  Aristarchus  of  Thessalonica  is  mentioned  in  xx.  4 ;  xxvii.  2 ;  Col.  iv.  10  ;  Philem.  24. 
8  Cf.  Acts  xii.  21 ;  Tac.  II.  ii.  80 ;  Cic.  ad  Fam.  viii.  2 ;  Corn.  Nep.  TwnoL  iv.  2; 

Jos.  B.  J.  vii.  3,  §  3.     The  theatre  was  the  ordinary  scene  of  such  gatherings. 
4  Felloweu,  Asia  Minor,  p.  274.    "Wood  says  25,000  (Ephct.  p.  68). 

6  It  was  the  Asiarch  Philip  at  Smyrna,  who  resisted  the  cry  of  the  mob,  Iva.  tVo^jj 
rioXuicdpTra)  Xeoi/ro  (Euseb.  H.  E,  iv.  15). 

6  See  1  Cor.  iv.  9 ;  1  Cor.  XT.  32 ;  Act.  Mart.  Polycarp,  12.  The  stadium  where  the 
Bestiarii  fought  wag  near  the  theatre,  and  the  Temple  of  Artemis  was  in  full  view  of  it. 


PAUL  AT  EPHE3U8.  373 

thing,  however,  was  generally  known,  winch  was,  that  the  people  whose  pro- 
ceedings were  the  cause  for  the  tumult  were  of  Jewish  extraction,  and  a 
Greek  mob  was  never  behindhand  in  expressing  its  detestation  for  the 
Jewish  race.  The  Jews,  on  the  other  hand,  felt  it  hard  that  they,  who  had 
long  been  living  side  by  side  with  the  Ephesians  in  the  amicable  relations  of 
commerce,  should  share  the  unpopularity  of  a  sect  which  they  hated  quite  as 
much  as  the  Greeks  could  do.  They  were  anxious  to  explain  to  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  a  lesson  which  they  could  not  get  them  to  learn — namely,  that 
tho  Jews  were  not  Christians,  though  the  Christians  might  be  Jews.  Accord- 
ingly they  urged  Alexander  to  speak  for  them,  and  explain  how  matters  really 
stood.  This  man  was  perhaps  the  coppersmith  who,  afterwards  also,  did 
Paul  much  evil,  and  who  would  be  likely  to  gain  the  hearing  of  Demetrius 
and  his  workmen  from  similarity  of  trade.  This  attempt  to  shift  tho  odium 
on  the  shoulders  of  tho  Christians  entirely  failed.  Alexander  succeeded  in 
struggling  somewhere  to  the  front,  and  stood  before  the  mob  with  outstretched 
hand  in  the  attempt  to  win  an  audience  for  his  oration.  But  no  sooner  had 
the  mob  recognised  the  well-known  traits  of  Jewish  physiognomy  than  they 
vented  their  hate  in  a  shout  of  "  Great  is  Artemis  l  of  the  Ephesians!"  which 
was  caught  up  from  lip  to  lip  until  it  was  reverberated  on  every  side  by  the 
rocks  of  Prion  and  Coressus,  and  drowned  all  others  in  its  one  familiar  and 
unanimous  roar. 

For  two  hours,  as  though  they  had  been  howling  dervishes,  did  this  mongrel 
Greek  crowd  continue  incessantly  their  senseless  yell.2  By  that  time  they 
were  sufficiently  exhausted  to  render  it  possible  to  get  a  hearing.  Hitherto 
the  authorities,  afraid  that  these  proceedings  might  end  in  awakening  Roman 
jealousy  to  a  serious  curtailment  of  their  privileges,  had  vainly  endeavoured  to 
stem  the  torrent  of  excitement ;  but  now,  availing  himself  of  a  momentary 
lull,  the  Recorder  of  the  city — either  the  mock  officer  of  that  name,  who  was 
chosen  by  the  Senate  and  people  for  tho  Artemisia,  or  more  probably  the 
permanent  city  official — succeeded  in  restoring  order.8  It  may  have  been  all 

It  is,  however,  very  unlikely  that  St.  Paul  actually  fought  with  wild  beasts.  The  ex- 
pression was  recognised  as  a  metaphorical  one  (2  Tim.  iv.  17),  avb  Svpt'as  /ue'xpi  Pw/-"i* 
^npioitaxS,  (Ignat.  Horn,  c.  5) ;  oloty  eijpiW  naxo^efla  (Appian,  Bell.  Civ.  p.  273).  A  legend 
naturally  attached  itself  to  the  expression  (Niceph,  H.  E.  ii.  25).  The  pseudo-Heraclitus 
(Ep.  vii.),  writing  about  this  time,  says  of  the  Ephesians,  «|  avdpuTnav  %>ia  yeytn-dTes. 
Moreover,  St.  Paid  uses  the  expression  in  a  letter  written  before  this  wild  scene  at  Ephesus 
had  taken  place. 

1 1  preserve  the  Greek  name  because  their  Asian  idol,  who  was  really  Cybele,  had  still 
less  to  do  with  Diana  than  with  Artemis. 

2  They  probably  were  so  far  corrupted  by  the  contact  with  Oriental  worship  as  to 
regard  their  "vain  repetitions  in  the  light  of  a  religious  function  "  (see  1  Bangs  xviii.  2G ; 
Matt.  vi.  7).  Moreover,  they  distinctly  believed  that  the  glory,  happiness,  and  perpetuity 
of  Ephesus  was  connected  with  the  maintenance  of  a  splendid  ritual.  On  the  discovered 
inscription  of  the  decree  which  dedicated  the  entire  month  of  May  to  the  Artemisian 
Paneguris,  are  these  concluding  words  : — OVTU  yap  «rl  rb  apeivov  TTJ«  OpijancfMS  yu'Oju.&Tjs  ^  »r<5Ais 

illi.lv  cr&otoripa  Tt  KOJ.  eviat/uunv  tit  rbv  irdvro.  Stafitvei  xpovov  (Boeckh,  2,954).      It  is  probable  that 

St.  Paul  may  have  read  this  very  inscription,  which  seems  to  be  of  the  age  of  Tiberius. 

8  The  Proconsul  of  Asia  was  practically  autocratic,  being  only  restrained  by  the  dread 
of  being  ultimately  brought  to  law.  Subject  to  hia  authority  the  chief  towns  of  Asia 
were  autonomous,  managing  their  domestic  affairs  by  the  decisions  of  a  Boul6  and 


374  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUIi. 

the  more  easy  for  him,  because  one  who  was  capable  of  making  so  admirably 
skilful  and  sensible  a  speech  could  hardly  fail  to  have  won  a  permanent 
respect,  which  enhanced  the  dignity  of  his  position.  "  Ephesians !"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  what  human  being  is  there  who  is  unaware  that  the  city  of  the 
Ephesians  is  a  sacristan 1  of  the  great  Artemis,  and  the  Heaven-fallen  ? 
Since,  then,  this  is  quite  indisputable,  your  duty  is  to  maintain  your  usual 
calm,  and  not  to  act  in  the  precipitate  way  in  which  you  have  acted,2  by 
dragging  here  these  men,  who  are  neither  temple-robbers,3  nor  blasphemers 
of  your  goddess.4  If  Demetrius  and  his  fellow-artisans  have  any  complaint 
to  lod^e  against  any  one,  the  sessions  are  going  on,6  and  there  are  proconsuls;' 
let  them  settle  the  matter  between  them  at  law.  But  if  you  are  making  any 
further  inquisition  about  any  other  matter,  it  shall  be  disposed  of  in  the 
regular  meeting  of  the  Assembly.7  For,  indeed,  this  business  renders  us  liable 
to  a  charge  of  sedition,  since  we  shall  be  entirely  unable  to  give  any  reasonable 
account  of  this  mass  meeting." 

The  effect  of  this  speech  was  instantaneous. 

"He  called 
Across  the  tumult,  and  the  tumult  fell," 

The  sensible  appeal  of  the  "  vir  pietate  gravis  "  made  the  crowd  repent  of 
their  unreasoning  uproar,  and  afraid  of  its  possible  consequences,  as  the 
Recorder  alternately  flattered,  intimidated,  argued,  and  soothed.  It  reminded 

Ekklesia.  The  Recorder  acted  aa  Speaker,  and  held  a  very  important  position.  The 
historic  accuracy  of  St.  Luke  cannot  be  more  strikingly  illustrated  than  it  is  by  one  of 
the  Ephesian  inscriptions  in  Boeckh,  No.  2,960,  which  records  how  the  "  Avyustus-loving" 
(<{>iAocrf'/3aoTos-)  senate  of  the  Ephesians,  and  its  temple-adorning  (fcuxdpo?)  Demos  conse- 
crated a  building  in  the  Proconsulship  («n-i  a.v0vira.Tov)  of  Peducseus  Priscinus,  and  by  the 
decree  of  Tiberius  Claudius  Italicus,  the  "Recorder"  (ypaftnareus)  of  the  Demos. 

1  vtaiKopov,  "temple-sweeper."     It  was  an  honorary  title  granted  by  the  Emperor  to 
various  cities  in  Asia,  and  often  recorded  on  coins. 

2  Acts   xix.    36,    Ka.Tt<TTa\ti.tvmis    inrapxtiv   ical   ^ujSev    wpoitfTts    iroitiv.      Cicero  (pro  FldCCo) 

gives  a  striking  picture  of  the  rash  and  unjust  legislation  of  Asiatic  cities,  "quum  in 
theatro  imperiti  homines  rerum  omnium  rudes  ignarique  considerant "  (cf.  Tac.  H.  ii.  80). 

3  Wood,  p.  14.    This,  strange  to  say,  was  a  common  charge  against  Jews  (see  on 
Rom.  ii.  22). 

4  Another  striking  indication  that  St.  Paul's  method  as  a  missionary  was  not  to  shock 
the  prejudices  of  idolaters.    Chrysostom  most  unjustly  accuses  the  Recorder  of  here 
making  a  false  and  claptrap  statement. 

4  iyopatot  ayoiTou,  "  Conventus  peraguntur  " — not  as  in  E.  V.,  "the  law  is  open."  Every 
province  was  divided  into  districts  (SKHK>JO-«I?,  conventus),  which  met  at  some  assize  town. 
''  Ephesum  vero,  alterum  lumen  Asioe,  remotiores  conveniunt  "  (1'lin.  H.  N.  v.  31). 

*  There  was  under  ordinary  circumstances  only  one  Proconsul  in  any  province.  The 
plural  may  be  generic,  or  may  mean  the  Proconsul  and  his  assessors  (consiliarii),  as  iy»/noi/« 
means  "the  Procurator  or  his  assessors"  in  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  16,  §  1.  But  Basnage  has 
ingeniously  conjectured  that  the  allusion  may  be  to  the  joint  authority  of  the  Imperial 
Procurators,  the  knight  P.  Celer,  and  the  freedman  Helius.  In  the  first  year  of  Nero, 
A.D.  54,  they  had,  at  the  instigation  of  Agrippina,  poisoned  Junius  Silanus,  Proconsul 
of  Asia,  whose  gentle  nature  did  not  preserve  him  from  the  peril  of  his  royal  blood  (Tac. 
Ann.  xiii.  1).  As  P.  Celer  at  any  rate  did  not  return  to  Rome  till  the  year  A.D.  57, 
it  is  conjectured  that  he  and  Helius  may  have  been  allowed  to  be  Vice-Proconsuls  till 
this  period  by  way  of  rewarding  them  for  their  crimes  (Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri,  1806, 1838 ; 
Biscoe,  On  the  Acts,  pp.  282—285). 

"  There  were  three  regular  meetings  of  the  Ausembly  (fwo^oi  «itK\r;<ri<u)  every  month 
(and  see  Wood,  p.  50). 


PAUL  AT  EPHESUS.  3?5 

them  very  forcibly  that,  since  Asia  was  a  senatorial,  not  an  imperial  province, 
and  was  therefore  governed  by  a  Proconsul  with  a  few  officials,  not  by  a 
Propraetor  with  a  legion,  they  were  responsible  for  good  order,  and  would 
most  certainly  be  held  accountable  for  any  breach  of  the  peace.  A  day  of 
disorder  might  forfeit  the  privileges  of  years.  The  Recorder's  speech,  it  has 
been  said,  is  the  model  of  a  popular  harangue.  Such  excitement  on  the  part 
of  the  Ephesians  was  undignified,  as  the  grandeur  of  their  worship  was  nnim- 
peached ;  it  was  unjustifiable,  as  they  could  prove  nothing  against  the  men  ; 
it  was  unnecessary,  as  other  means  of  redress  were  open ;  and,  finally,  if 
neither  pride  nor  justice  availed  anything,  fear  of  the  Roman  power 1  should 
restrain  them.  They  felt  thoroughly  ashamed,  and  the  Recorder  was  now 
able  to  dismiss  them  from  the  theatre. 

It  is  not,  however,  likely  that  the  danger  to  St.  Paul's  person  ceased,  in  a 
month  of  which  he  had  spoiled  the  festivity,  and  in  a  city  which  was  thronged, 
as  this  was,  with  aggrieved  interests  and  outraged  superstitions.  Whether 
he  was  thrown  into  prison,  or  what  were  the  dangers  to  which  he  alludes,  or 
in  what  way  God  delivered  him  "  from  so  great  a  death,"  *  we  cannot  tell.  At 
any  rate,  it  became  impossible  for  him  to  carry  out  his  design  of  staying  at 
Ephesus  till  Pentecost.3  All  that  we  are  further  told  is  that,  when  the  hubbub 
had  ceased,  he  called  the  disciples  together,  and,  after  comforting  them,4  bade 
the  Church  farewell — certainly  for  many  years,  perhaps  for  ever.*  He  set 
out,  whether  by  sea  or  by  land  wo  do  not  know,  on  his  way  to  Macedonia.  From 
Silas  he  had  finally  parted  at  Jerusalem.  Timothy,  Titus,  Luke,  Erastus,  were 
all  elsewhere;  but  Gaius  and  Aristarchus,  saved  from  their  perilous  position 
in  the  theatre,  were  still  with  tihem,  and  he  was  now  joined  by  the  two 
Ephesians,  Tychicus  and  Trophimus,  who  remained  faithful  to  him  till  the 
very  close  of  his  career. 

The  Church  which  he  had  founded  became  the  eminent  Christian  metro- 
polis of  a  line  of  Bishops,  and  there,  four  centuries  afterwards,  was  held  the 
great  (Ecumenical  Council  which  deposed  Nestorius,  the  heretical  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople.6  But  "  its  candlestick  "  has  been  for  centuries  "  removed  out 
of  his  place ; " 7  the  squalid  Mohammedan  village  which  is  nearest  to  its  site 
does  not  count  one  Christian  in  its  insignificant  population ; 8  its  temple  is  a 

1  Hackett,  p.  246.  There  was  nothing  on  which  the  Romano  looked  with  such  jealousy 
as  a  tumultuous  meeting,  "  Qui  coetum  et  conceutum  fecerit  capitals  sit"  (Sen.  Conlrov. 
iii.  8).  The  hint  would  not  be  likely  to  be  lost  on  Demetrius. 

*  2  Cor.  i.  10. 

s  The  period  of  his  stay  at  Ephesus  was  rpttrCav  oAiji/  (Acts  xx.  31).  The  ruin  called 
"the  prison  of  St.  Paul"  may  point  to  a  true  tradition  that  he  was  for  a  time  confined, 
and  those  who  see  in  Rom.  xvi.  3  —20,  the  fragment  of  a  letter  to  Ephesus,  suppose  that 
his  imprisonment  was  shared  by  his  kinsmen  Andronicus  and  Juntas,  who  were  "  of  note 
among  the  Apostles,"  and  earlier  converts  than  himself. 

4   Acts  XX.  1,  *-apa/caAc'<rat  (A,  B,  D,  E). 

*  It  was  only  the  elders  whom  he  saw  at  Miletua.      '/ovr-it* 

*  A.D.  431.  7  Rev.  II.  5. 

8  V.  supra  p.  358.  See,  for  the  present  condition  of  Ephesus,  Arundell,  Seven  Churches 
of  Asia,  p.  27 ;  Fellowes,  Asia  Minor,  p.  274 ;  Falkener,  Ephesus  and  the  Temple  of 
j>iana;  and  especially  Mr.  J.  T.  Wood's  Discoveries  at  Ephesus.  The  site  of  the  temple 
has  first  been  established  with  certainty  by  Mr.  "Wood's  excavation*. 


376  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAITI* 

mass  of  shapeless  ruins ;  its  harbour  is  s  reedy  pool ;  the  bittern  booms  amid 
its  pestilent  and  stagnant  marshes ;  and  malaria  and  oblivion  reign  supreme 
over  the  place  where  the  wealth  of  ancient  civilisation  gathered  around  the 
scenes  of  its  grossest  superstitions  and  its  most  degraded  sins.  "  A  noisy 
flight  of  crows,"  says  a  modern  traveller,  "  seemed  to  insult  its  silence ;  we 
heard  the  partridge  call  in  the  area  of  the  theatre  and  the  Stadium," l 


CHAPTER  XXXIL 

CONDITIOK  O»  THE   CHURCH  AT  COEINTH. 

"  Hopes  have  precarious  life  ; 
They  are  oft  blighted,  withered,  snapt  sheer  off  }— 
But  faithfulness  can  feed  on  suffering, 
And  knows  no  disappointment." — Spanish  Gipsy, 

No  one  can  realise  tne  trials  and  anxieties  which  beset  the  life  of  the  great 
Apostle  during  his  stay  at  Ephesus,  without  bearing  in  mind  how  grave  were 
the  causes  of  concern  from  which  he  was  suffering,  in  consequence  of  the 
aberrations  of  other  converts.  The  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  was 
written  during  the  latter  part  of  his  three  years'  residence  at  the  Ionian 
metropolis;2  and  it  reveals  to  us  a  state  of  things  which  must  have  rent  his 
heart  in  twain.  Any  one  who  has  been  privileged  to  feel  a  deep  personal 
responsibility  for  some  great  and  beloved  institution,  will  best  appreciate  how 
wave  after  wave  of  affliction  must  have  swept  across  his  sea  of  troubles  as  he 
heard  from  time  to  time  those  dark  rumours  from  Galatia  and  Corinth,  which 
showed  how  densely  the  tares  of  the  enemy  had  sprung  up  amid  the  good 
wheat  which  he  had  sown. 

Apollos,  on  his  return  to  Ephesus,  must  have  told  him  some  very  un- 
favourable particulars.  St.  Paul  had  now  been  absent  from  the  Corinthians 
for  nearly  three  years,  and  they  may  well  have  longed — as  we  see  that  they  did 
long — for  his  presence  with  an  earnestness  which  even  made  them  unjust 
towards  him.  The  little  band  of  converts — mostly  of  low  position,  and  some 
of  them  of  despicable  antecedent? — not  a  few  of  them  slaves,  and  some  of 
them  slaves  of  the  most  degraded  rank — were  left  in  the  midst  of  a  heathen- 
dom which  presented  itself  at  Corinth  under  the  gayest  and  most  alluring 
aspects.  It  is  not  in  a  day  that  the  habits  of  a  life  can  bo  thrown  aside.  Even 
those  among  them  whose  conversion  was  most  sincere  had  yet  a  terrible  battle 
to  fight  against  two  temptations:  the  temptation  to  dishonesty,  which  had 
mingled  with  their  means  of  gaining  a  livelihood ;  and  the  temptation  to  sen- 
suality, which  was  interwoven  with  the  very  fibres  of  their  being.  With 
Christianity  awoke  conscience.  Sins  to  which  they  had  once  lightly  yielded 

*  See  Chandler,  pp.  109—137.  *  Probably  about  April,  A.D.  S7, 


CONDITION  OF  THE  CHDECH  AT  CORINTH.  377 

as  matters  of  perfect  indifference,  now  required  an  intense  effort  to  resist  and 
overcome,  and  every  failure,  so  far  from  being  at  the  worst  a  venial  weakness, 
involved  the  agonies  of  remorse  and  shame.  And  when  they  remembered  the 
superficially  brighter  and  easier  lives  which  they  had  spent  while  they  were 
yet  pagans  ;*  when  they  daily  witnessed  how  much  sin  there  might  bo  with  so 
little  apparent  sorrow ;  when  they  felt  the  burdens  of  their  life  doubled,  and 
those  earthly  pleasures  which  they  had  once  regarded  as  its  only  alleviations 
rendered  impossible  or  wrong — while  as  yet  they  were  unable  to  realise  the 
exquisite  consolation  of  Christian  joy  and  Cliristian  hope — they  were  tempted 
either  to  relapse  altogether,  or  to  listen  with  avidity  to  any  teacher  whose 
doctrines,  if  logically  developed,  might  help  to  relax  the  stringency  of  their 
sacred  obligations.  While  Paul  was  with  them  they  were  comparatively  safe. 
The  noble  tyranny  of  his  personal  influence  acted  on  them  like  a  spell ;  and 
with  his  presence  to  elevate,  his  words  to  inspire,  his  example  to  encourage 
them,  they  felt  it  more  easy  to  fling  away  all  that  was  lower  and  viler,  because 
they  could  realise  their  right  to  what  was  higher  and  holier.  But  when  he 
had  been  so  long  away — when  they  were  daily  living  in  the  great  wicked 
streets,  among  the  cunning,  crowded  merchants,  in  sight  and  hearing  of 
everything  which  could  quench  spiritual  aspirations  and  kindle  carnal  desires; 
when  the  gay,  common  life  went  on  around  them,  and  the  chariot- wheels  of  the 
Lord  were  still  afar — it  was  hardly  wonderful  if  the  splendid  vision  began  to 
fade.  The  lustral  water  of  Baptism  had  been  sprinkled  on  their  foreheads; 
they  fed  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ ;  but,  alas  !  Corinth 
was  not  heaven,  and  the  prose  of  daily  life  followed  on  the  poetry  of  their 
first  enthusiasm,  and  it  was  difficult  to  realise  that,  for  them,  those  living 
streets  might  be  daily  brightened  with  manna  dews.  Their  condition  was  like 
the  pause  and  sigh  of  Lot's  wife,  as,  amid  the  sulphurous  storm,  she  gazed 
back  on  the  voluptuous  ease  of  the  City  of  the  Plain.  Might  they  no  longer 
taste  of  the  plentiful  Syssiiia  on  some  festive  day  ?  Might  they  not  walk  at 
twilight  in  the  laughing  bridal  procession,  and  listen  to  the  mirthful  jest  ? 
Might  they  not  watch  the  Hieroduli  dance  at  some  lovely  festival  in  the  Tem- 
ples of  Acrocorinth  ?  Was  all  life  to  be  hedged  in  for  them  with  thorny 
scruples  ?  Were  they  to  gaze  henceforth  in  dreaming  phantasy,  not  upon 
bright  faces  of  youthful  deities,  garlanded  with  rose  and  hyacinth,  but  on  the 
marred  visage  of  One  who  was  crowned  with  thorns  ?  Oh,  it  was  hard  to 
choose  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  hard  to  remember  that  now  they  were  delivered 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt ;  hard  for  their  enervation  to  breathe  the  eager  and 
difficult  air  of  the  pure  wilderness.  It  was  hard  to  give  up  the  coarse  and 
near  for  the  immaterial  and  the  far ;  hard  not  to  lust  after  the  reeking  flesh- 
pots,  and  not  to  loathe  the  light  angel  food ;  hard  to  give  up  the  purple  wine 
In  the  brimming  goblet  for  the  cold  water  from  the  spiritual  rock ;  hard  to 

. 
l  "  In  the  young  pagan  world 

Men  deified  the  beautiful,  the  glad, 

The  strong,  the  boastful,  and  it  came  to  nought ; 

We  have  raised  pain  and  Borrow  into  heaven  "  (Athelv/old). 


378  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OV  ST.  PAUL. 

curb  and  crucify  passions  which  once  they  had  consecrated  under  guise  of 
religion ;  hard  not  to  think  all  these  temptations  irresistible,  and  to  see  the 
way  of  escape  which  God  had  appointed  them  for  each ;  hard  to  be  bidden  to 
rejoice,  and  not  to  be  suffered  even  to  murmur  at  all  these  hardnesses  of  life. 
And  the  voice  which  had  taught  them  the  things  of  God  had  now  for  so  long 
been  eilent;  for  three  years  they  had  not  seen  the  hand  which  pointed  them  to 
Heaven.  It  was  with  some  of  them  as  with  Israel,  when  Moses  was  on  Sinai: 
they  sat  down  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play.  Many,  very  many — 
some  in  shame  and  secrecy,  others  openly  justifying  their  relapse  by  the  devil- 
doctrines  of  perverted  truth — had  plunged  once  more  into  the  impurity,  the 
drunkenness,  and  the  selfishness,  as  though  they  had  never  heard  the  heavenly 
calling,  or  tasted  the  eternal  gift. 

So  much  even  Apollos  must  have  told  the  Apostle ;  and  when  he  had 
occasion,  in  a  letter  now  lost l — probably  because  it  was  merely  a  brief  and 
businesslike  memorandum  —  to  write  and  inform  them  of  his  intended,  but 
subsequently  abandoned,  plan  of  paying  them  a  double  visit,  and  to  bid  them 
contribute  to  the  collection  for  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem,  he  had,  in  a 
message  which  required  subsequent  explanation,  briefly  but  emphatically 
bidden  them  not  to  keep  company  with  fornicators.8 

And  now  a  letter  had  come  from  Corinth.  So  far  from  dwelling  on  the 
ruinous  disorders  into  which  many  members  of  the  Church  had  fallen,  it  was 
entirely  self-complacent  in  tone ;  and  yet  it  proved  the  existence  of  much 
doctrinal  perplexity,  and,  in  asking  advice  about  a  number  of  practical 
subjects,  had  touched  upon  questions  which  betrayed  some  of  the  moral 
and  intellectual  errors  which  the  Church,  in  writing  the  letter,  had  so  dis- 
ingenuously concealed.3 

1.  After  greeting  him,  and  answering  him,  hi  words  which  he  quotes,  that 
"  they  remembered  him  in  all  things,  and  kept  the  ordinances  as  he  delivered 
them,"  4  they  had  asked  him  a  whole  series  of  questions  about  celibacy  and 
marriage,  which  had  evidently  been  warmly  discussed  in  the  Church,  and 
decided  in  very  different  senses.    Was  married  life  in  itself  wrong,  or  if  not 
wrong,  yet  undesirable  ?   or,  if  not  even  undesirable,  still  a  lower  and  less 
worthy  condition  than  celibacy  ?     When  persons  were  already  married,  was  it 
their  duty,  or,  at  any  rate,  would  it  be  saiutlier  to  live  together  as  though  they 
were  unmarried  ?     Might  widows  and  widowers  marry  a  second  time  ?  Were 
mixed  marriages  between  Christians  and  heathens  to  be  tolerated,  or  ought 
a  Christian  husband  to  repudiate  a  heathen  wife,  and  a  Christian  wife  to  leave 
a  heathen  husband  ?  and  ought  fathers  to  seek  marriages  for  their  daughters, 
or  let  tiiem  grow  up  as  virgins  ? 

2.  Again,  what  were  they  to  do  about  meats  offered  to  idols  P    They  had 

1  The  spurious  letter  of  the  Corinthians  to  St.  Paul,  and  hia  answer,  preserved  in 
Armenian,  are  perfectly  valueless. 

2  Seel  Cor.  x.5— 14. 

*  The  interchange  of  such  letters  (nY^H)  on  disputed  points  of  doctrine  between  the 
synagogues  was  common, 
«  1  Cor.  zi.  2. 


CONDITION  OP  THE  CHUECH  AT  COBINTH.  379 

prefaced  thoir  inquiry  on  this  subject  with  the  conceited  remark  that  "  they 
all  had  knowledge,"  *•  and  had  perhaps  indicated  their  own  opinion  by  the 
argument  that  an  idol  was  nothing  in  the  world,  and  that  all  things  were 
lawful  to  their  Christian  freedom.  Still,  they  wished  to  know  whether  they 
might  ever  atteud  any  of  the  idol  festivals  ?  The  question  was  an  important 
one  for  the  poor,  to  whom  a  visceratio 2  was  no  small  help  and  indulgence. 
Was  it  lawful  to  buy  meat  in  the  open  market,  which,  without  their  knowing 
it,  might  have  been  offered  to  idols  ?  Might  they  go  as  guests  to  their  heathen 
friends  and  relations,  and  run  the  risk  of  partaking  of  that  which  had  been 
part  of  a  sacrifice  ?  3 

3.  Then,  too,  a  dispute  had  risen  among  them  about  the  rule  to  be  observed 
in  assemblies.     Was  it  the  duty  of  men  to  cover  their  heads  ?     Might  women 
appear  with  their  heads  uncovered  ?   And  might  they  speak  and  teach  in  public  ? 

4.  They  had  difficulties,  also,  about  spiritual  gifts.     Which  was  the  more 
important,  speaking  with  tongues  or  preaching  ?     When  two  or  three  began 
at  the  same  time  to  preach  or  speak  with  tongues,  what  were  they  to  do  ? 

5.  Further,  some  among  them  had  been  perplexed  by  great  doubts  about 
the  Resurrection.     There  were  even  some  who  maintained  that  by  the  Resur- 
rection was  meant  something  purely  spiritual,  and  that  it  was  past  already. 
This  view  had  arisen  from  the  immense  material  difficulties  which  surrounded 
the  whole  subject  of  a  resurrection  of  the  body.    Would  Paul  give  them  his 
solution  of  some  of  their  difficulties  ? 

6.  He  had  asked  them  to  make  a  collection  for  the  poor  in  Judaea :  they 
would  be  glad  to  hear  something  more  about  this.     What  plans  would  he 
recommend  to  them  ? 

7.  Lastly,  they  were  very  anxious  to  receive  Apollos  once  moro  among 
them.     They  had  enjoyed  his  eloquence,  and  profited   by  his  knowledge. 
Would  Paul  try  to  induce  him  to  come,  as  well  as  pay  them  his  own  promised 
visit? 

Such,  we  gather  from  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  were  the  in- 
quiries of  a  letter  which  had  been  brought  to  the  Apostle  at  Epheeus  by 
Stephanas,  Fortunatus,  and  Achaicus.  It  was  inevitable  that  St.  Paul  should 
talk  to  these  worthy  slaves  about  the  Church  of  which  they  were  the  delegates. 
There  was  quite  enough  in  the  letter  itself  to  create  a  certain  misgiving  in 

1  1  Cor.  viii.  1. 

a  Public  feasts  at  funerals  or  idol  festivals,  £c.,  Cic.  Off.  ii.  16 ;  Liv.  viii.  32,  &c. 
They  played  a  large  part  in  the  joy  and  plenty  of  ancient  life.  Arist.  Eth.  viii.  9,  5 ; 
Thuc.  ii.  33. 

3  The  Jews  had  strong  feelings  on  this  subject  (cf.  Num.  xxv.  2  ;  Ps.  cvi.  28  ;  Tob.  i. 
10 — 14) ;  but  it  is  monstrous  to  say  that  St.  Paul  here  teaches  the  violation  of  such 
scruples,  or  that  he  is  referred  to  in  Rev.  ii.  14.  On  the  contrary,  he  says,  "  Even  if 
you  as  Gentiles  think  nothing  of  it,  still  do  not  do  it,  for  the  sake  of  others  ;  only  the 
concession  to  the  weak  need  not  become  a  tormenting  scrupulosity."  It  is  doubtful 
whether  even  St.  Peter  and  St.  John  would  not  have  gone  quite  as  far  as  this.  So  strict 
were  Judaic  notions  on  the  subject  that,  in  the  case  of  wine,  for  instance,  not  only  did 
a  cask  of  it  become  undrinkable  to  a  Jew  if  a  single  heathen  libation  had  been  poured 
from  it,  but  "  even  a  touch  with  the  presumed  intention  of  pouring  away  a  little  to  the 
gods  is  enough  to  render  it  unlawful, '  This  is  called  the  law  of  fD> 


380  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

his  mitid,  and  some  of  its  queries  woro  sufficient  to  betray  an  excited  state  of 
opinion.  But  -when  ho  came  to  talk  with  these  visitants  from  Chloo's  house- 
hold, and  they  told  him  the  simple  truth,  he  stood  aghast  with  horror,  and 
was  at  the  same  time  overwhelmed  with  grief.  Reluctantly,  bit  by  bit,  in 
answer  to  his  questionings,  they  revealed  a  state  of  things  which  added  dark- 
ness to  the  night  of  his  distress*. 

8.  First  of  all,  he  learnt  from  them  that  the  Church  which  he  had  founded 
was  split  up  into  deplorable  factions. 

It  was  the  result  of  visits  from  various  teachers  who  had  followed  in  the 
wake  of  Paul,  and  built  upon  his  foundations  very  dubious  materials  by  way 
of  superstructure.  "  Many  teachers,  much  strife,"  had  been  one  of  the  wise 
and  pregnant  sayings  of  the  great  Hillel,  and  it  had  been  fully  exemplified 
at  Corinth,  where,  in  the  impatient  expression  of  St.  Paul,  they  had  had  "  ten 
thousand  pedagogues."  The  great  end  of  edification  had  been  lost  sight  of  in 
the  violences  of  faction,  and  all  deep  spirituality  had  been  evaporated  in  dis- 
putatious talk.  He  heard  sad  rumours  of  "  strifes,  heartburnings,  rages, 
dissensions,  backbitings,  whisperings,  inflations,  disorderiiness."  l 

i.  It  became  clear  that  even  the  visit  and  teaching  of  Apollos  had  done 
harm — harm  which  he  certainly  had  not  intended  to  do,  and  which,  as  a  loyal 
friend  and  follower  of  Paul,  he  was  the  first  to  regret.  Paul's  own  preaching 
to  these  Corinthians  had  been  designedly  simple,  dealing  with  the  great  broad 
fact  of  a  Redeemer  crucified  for  sin,  and  couched  in  language  which  made  no 
pretence  to  oratorical  ornament.  But  Apollos,  who  had  followed  him,  though 
an  able  man,  was  an  inexperienced  Christian,  and  not  only  by  the  natural  charm 
of  his  impassioned  oratory,  but  also  by  the  way  in  which  he  had  entered  into 
the  subtle  refinements  so  familiar  to  the  Alexandrian  intellect,  had  uninten- 
tionally led  them  first  of  all  to  despise  the  unsophisticated  simplicity  of  St. 
Paul's  teaching,  and  next  to  give  the  rein  to  all  the  sceptical  fancies  with 
which  their  faith  was  overlaid.  Both  the  manner  and  the  matter  of  the  fervid 
convert  had  so  delighted  them  that,  with  entire  opposition  to  his  own  wishes, 
they  had  elevated  him  into  the  head  of  a  party,  and  had  perverted  his  views 
into  dangerous  extravagances.  These  Apollonians  were  so  puffed  up  with 
the  conceit  of  knowledge,  so  filled  with  the  importance  of  their  own  in- 
tellectual emancipation,  that  they  had  also  begun  to  claim  a  fatal  moral  h'bsrty. 
They  had  distracted  the  Sunday  gatherings  with  the  egotisms  of  rival  oratory  j 
had  shown  a  contemptuous  disregard  for  the  scruples  of  weaker  brethren ; 
had  encouraged  women  to  harangue  in  the  public  assemblies  as  the  equals  of 
men;  were  guilty  of  conduct  which  laid  them  open  to  the  charge  of  the 
grossest  inconsistency ;  and  even  threw  the  cloak  of  sophistical  excuse  over 
one  crime  so  heinous  that  the  very  heathen  were  ready  to  cry  shame  on  the 
offender.  In  the  accounts  brought  to  him  of  this  Apollos-party,  St.  Paul 
could  not  but  see  the  most  extravagant  exaggeration  of  his  own  doctrines— 
the  hilf  truths,  which  ara  ever  the  most  dangerous  of  errors.  If  it  was  poa- 

i  2  Cor.  lii.  20. 


CONDITION  OF  THE   CHUECH   AT   COEINTH.  381 

sible  to  wrest  the  truths  which  he  himself  had  taught  into  the  heretical  notions 
which  were  afterwards  promulgated  by  Marcion,  his  keen  eye  could  detect  in 
the  perversions  of  the  Alexandrian  eloquence  of  Apollos  the  deadly  germs  of 
what  would  afterwards  develop  into  Antinomian  Gnosticism. 

ii.  But  Apollos  was  not  the  only  teacher  who  had  visited  Corinth.  Some 
Judaic  Christians  had  come,  who  had  been  as  acceptable  to  the  Jewish  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  as  Apollos  was  to  the  Greeks.1  Armed  with  commendatory 
letters  from  some  of  the  twelve  at  Jerusalem,  they  claimed  the  authority  of 
Peter,  or,  as  they  preferred  to  call  him,  of  Kephas.  They  did  not,  indeed,  teach 
the  necessity  of  circumcision,  as  others  of  their  party  did  in  Galatia.  There 
the  local  circumstances  would  give  some  chance  of  success  to  teaching  which 
in  Corinth  would  have  been  rejected  with  contempt ;  and  perhaps  these  parti- 
cular emissaries  felt  at  least  some  respect  for  the  compact  at  Jerusalem.  But 
yet  their  influence  had  been  very  disastrous,  and  had  caused  the  emergence  of 
a  Potrino  party  in  the  Church.  This  party — the  ecclesiastical  ancestors  of 
those  who  subsequently  vented  their  hatred  of  Paul  in  the  Pseudo-Clemen- 
tines— openly  and  secretly  disclaimed  his  authority,  and  insinuated  disparage- 
ment of  his  doctrines.  Kephas,  they  said,  was  the  real  head  of  the  Apostles, 
and  therefore  of  the  Christians.  Into  his  hands  had  Christ  entrusted  the  keys 
of  the  kingdom ;  on  the  rock  of  his  confession  was  the  Church  of  the  Messiah 
to  be  built.  Paul  was  a  presumptuous  interloper,  whose  conduct  to  Kephaa 
at  Antioch  had  been  most  unbecoming.  For  who  was  Paul  ?  not  an  Apostle 
at  all,  but  an  unauthorised  innovator.  Ho  had  been  a  persecuting  Sanhedrist, 
and  he  was  an  apostate  Jew.  What  had  he  been  at  Corinth  ?  A  preaching 
tent- maker,  nothing  more.  Kephas,  and  other  Apostles,  and  the  brethren  of 
the  Lord,  when  they  travelled  about,  were  accompanied  by  their  wives  or  by 
ministering  women,  and  claimed  the  honour  and  support  to  which  they  were 
entitled.  Why  had  not  Paul  done  the  same  ?  Obviously  because  he  felt  the 
insecurity  of  his  own  position.  And  as  for  his  coming  again,  a  weak,  vacillat- 
ing, unaccredited  pretender,  such  as  he  was,  would  take  care  not  to  come 
again.  And  these  preachings  of  his  were  heretical,  especially  in  their  pro- 
nounced indifference  to  the  Levitic  law.  Was  he  not  breaking  down  that 
hedge  about  the  law,  tho  thickening  of  which  had  boen  the  life-long  task  of 
centuries  of  eminent  Rabbis  ?  Very  different  had  been  the  scene  after 
Peter's  preaching  at  Pentecost !  It  was  tho  speaking  with  tongues — not  mere 
dubious  doctrinal  exhortation — which  was  the  true  sign  of  spirituality.  We 
are  more  than  sure  that  the  strong,  and  tender,  and  noble  nature  of  St.  Peter 
would  as  little  have  sanctioned  this  subterranean  counter-working  against  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  as  Apollos  discountenanced  the  impious  audacities 
•which  sheltered  themselves  under  his  name. 

1  The  circumstances  of  Corinth  were  very  similar  when  Clement  wrote  them  his  first 
Epistle.  He  had  still  to  complain  of  that  "strange  and  alien,  and,  for  the  elect  of  God, 
detestable  and  unholy  spirit  of  faction,  which  a  few  rash  and  self-willed  persons 
(irpoawira)  kindled  to  such  a  pitch  of  dementation,  that  their  holy  and  famous  reputation, 
BO  worthy  of  all  men's  love,  was  greatly  blasphemed  "  (Ep.  ad.  Cor,  i.), 


382  THE  LIFE   AND   WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

iii.  And  then  had  come  another  set  of  Judaisers — one  man  in  particular— 
to  whom  the  name  of  even  Kephas  was  unsatisfactory.  He  apparently  was—- 
or, what  is  a  very  different  thing,  he  professed  to  be — an  adherent  of  James,1 
and  to  him  even  Peter  was  not  altogether  sound.  He  called  himself  a 
follower  of  Christ,  and  disdained  any  other  name.  Perhaps  he  was  one  of 
the  Desposyni.  At  any  rate,  he  prided  himself  on  having  seen  Christ,  and 
known  Christ  in  the  flesh.  Now  the  Lord  Jesus  had  not  married,  and  James, 
the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  was  unmarried ;  and  this  teacher  evidently  shared 
the  Essene  abhorrence  of  marriage.  He  it  was  who  had  started  all  the 
subtle  refinements  of  questions  respecting  celibacy  and  the  married  life.  He 
it  was  who  gathered  around  him  a  few  Jews  of  Ebionite  proclivities,  who 
degraded  into  a  party  watchword  even  the  sacred  name  of  Christ.2 

9.  Thus,  as  St.  Paul  now  learnt  fully  for  the  first  time,  the  Church  of  Corinth 
was  a  scene  of  quarrels,  disputes,  partisanships,  which,  in  rending  asunder 
its  unity,  ruined  its  strength.     On  all  these  subjects  the  Corinthians,  in  their 
self-satisfied  letter,  had  maintained  a  prudent  but  hardly  creditable  silence. 
Nor  was  this  all  that  they  had  concealed.     They  had  asked  questions  about 
spiritual  gifts ;    but  'it  was  left  for  the  household  of  Chloe  to  break  to  St. 
Paul  the  disquieting  news  that  the  assemblies  of  the  Church  had  degenerated 
into  scenes  so  noisy,  so  wild,  so  disorderly,  that  there  were  times  when  any 
heathen  who  dropped  in  could  only  say  that  they  were  all  mad.     Sometimes 
half  a  dozen  enthusiasts  were  on  their  legs  at  once,  all  pouring  forth  wild 
series  of  sounds  which  no  human  being  present  could  understand,  except  that 
sometimes,  amid  these  unseemly — and  might  they  not  at  times,  with  some  of 
these  Syrian  emissaries,  be  these  half-simulated — ecstasies,  there  were  heard 
words  that  made  the  blood  run  cold  with   shuddering  horror.3     At  other 
times,  two  or  three  preachers  would  interrupt  each  other  in  the  attempt  to 
gain  the  ear  of  the  congregation  all  at  the  same  moment.     Women  rose  to 
give  their  opinions,  and  that  without  a  veil  on  their  heads,  as  though  they 
were  not  ashamed  to  be  mistaken  for  the  Hetairae,  who  alone  assumed  such  an 
unblushing  privilege.     So  far  from  being  a  scene  of  peace,  the  Sunday  ser- 
vices had  become  stormy,  heated,  egotistic,  meaningless,  unprofitable. 

10.  And  there  was  worse  behind.     It  might  at  least  have  been  supposed 
that  the  A  gapae  would  bear  some  faint  traditional  resemblance  to  their  name, 
and  be  means  of  reunion  and  blessedness  worthy  of  their  connexion  with  the 
Eucharistic  feast !     Far  from  it !     The  deadly  leaven  of  selfishness — display- 

»  We  cannot  for  a  moment  believe  that  Peter  and  James  really  approved  of  the 
methods  of  these  men,  because  to  do  so  would  have  been  a  flagrant  breach  of  their  own 
compact  (Gal.  ii.  9).  But  it  is  matter  of  daily  experience  that  the  rank  and  file  of 
parties  are  infinitely  less  wise  and  noble  than  their  leaders. 

2  About  the  Christ  party  there  have  been  three  main  views :— (1)  That  they  were 
adherents  of  James  (Storr,  &c.) ;  (2)  that  they  were  neutrals,  who  held  aloof  from  all  parties 
(Eichhorn,  &c. ) ;  (3)  that  they  were  a  very  slight  modification  of  the  Peter-party  (Baur, 
Paul.  i.  272 — 292).     It  is  remarkable  that  to  this  day  there  is  in  England  and  America 
a  sect,  which,  professing  to  disdain  human  authority,  usurps  the  exclusive  name  of 
"  Chriatians  "  (see  Schaff .  Apost.  Ch.  i.  339). 

3  1  Cor.  xii.  3  (cf.  1  John  ii.  22 ;  iv.  1—3) ;  'A 


CONDITION   OF   THE   CHUECH  AT  COEINTH.  88S 

ing  itself  in  its  two  forms  of  sensuality  and  pride — had  insinuated  itself  even 
into  these  once  simple  and  charitable  gatherings.  The  kiss  of  peace  could 
hardly  be  other  than  a  hypocritical  form  between  brethren,  who  at  the  very 
moment  might  be  impleading  one  another  at  law  before  the  tribunal  of  a 
heathen  Praetor  about  some  matter  of  common  honesty.  The  rich  brought 
their  luxurious  provisions,  and  greedily  devoured  them,  without  waiting  for 
any  one ;  while  the  poor,  hungry-eyed  Lazaruses — half -starved  slaves,  who 
had  no  contributions  of  their  own  to  bring — watched  them  with  hate  and 
envy  as  they  sat  furnishing  and  unrelieved  by  their  full-fed  brethren.  Greedi- 
ness and  egotism  had  thus  thrust  themselves  into  the  most  sacred  unions ; 
and  Ihe  besetting  Corinthian  sin  of  intoxication  had  been  so  little  restrained 
that  men  had  boon  soon  to  stretch  drunken  hands  to  the  very  chalice  of  the 
Lord! 

11.  Last  and  worst,  not  only  had  uncleanness  found  its  open  defenders,  so 
that  Christians  were  not  ashamed  to  be  seen  sitting  at  meat  amid  the  lasci- 
vious surroundings  of  heathen  temples,  but  one  prominent  member  of  the 
Church  was  living  in  notorious  crime  with  his  own  stepmother  during  the 
lifetime  of  his  father ;  and,  though  the  very  Pagans  execrated  this  atrocity, 
yet  he  had  not  been  expelled  from  the  Christian  communion,  not  even  made 
to  do  penance  in  it,  but  had  found  brethren  ready,  not  merely  to  palliate  his 
offence,  but  actually  to  plume  themselves  upon  leaving  it  unpunished.  This 
man  seems  to  have  been  a  person  of  distinction  and  influence,  whom  it  was 
advantageous  to  a  Church  largely  composed  of  slaves  and  women  to  count 
among  them.  Doubtless  this  had  facilitated  his  condonation,  which  may  have 
been  founded  on  some  antinonian  plea  of  Christian  liberty;  or  on  some  Rabbinic 
notion  that  old  ties  were  rendered  non-existent  by  the  new  conditions  of  a 
proselyte ;  or  by  peculiarities  of  circumstance  unknown  to  us.  But  though 
this  person  was  the  most  notorious,  ho  was  by  no  moans  the  only  offender,  and 
there  were  Corinthian  Christians — even  many  of  them — who  wore  impeiii- 
tently  guilty  of  uncleaimess,  fornication,  and  lasci  riousness.1  In  none  of 
his  writings  are  the  Apostle's  warnings  against  this  sin — the  besetting  sin  of 
Corinth — more  numerous,  more  solemn,  or  more  emphatic.2 

Truly,  as  he  heard  this  catalogue  of  iniquities — while  he  listened  to  the  dark 
tale  of  the  shipwreck  of  all  his  fond  hopes  which  he  had  learnt  to  entertain 
during  the  missionary  labour  of  eighteen  mouths — the  heart  of  St.  Paul  must 
have  sunk  within  him.  He  might  well  have  folded  his  hands  in  utter  despair. 
He  might  well  have  pronounced  his  life  and  his  preaching  a  melancholy 
failure.  He  might  well  have  fled  like  Elijah  into  utter  solitude,  and  prayed, 
"  Now,  O  Lord,  take  away  my  life,  for  I  am  not  better  than  my  fathers." 
But  it  was  not  thus  that  the  news  affected  this  indomitable  man.  His  heart, 
indeed,  throbbed  with  anguish,  his  eyes  were  streaming  with  tears,  as,  having 
heard  to  the  bitter  end  all  that  the  slaves  of  Chloe  had  to  tell  him,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  make  his  plans.  First,  of  course,  his  intended  brief  immediate 

»  2  Cor,  *ii,  2L  >  1  Cor.  T.  11 ;  ri.  15-18 ;  x.  8 ;  xv.  33,  34, 


384  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

yisit  to  Corinth  must  be  given  up.  Neither  he  nor  they  were  yet  in  a  mood 
in  wLicli  their  meeting  could  be  otherwise  than  infinitely  painful  He  must 
at  once  despatch  Titus  to  Corinth  to  inform  them  of  his  change  of  plan,  to 
arrange  about  the  collection,  and  to  do  what  little  he  could,  before  rejoining 
him  at  Troas.  He  must  also  despatch  a  messenger  to  Timothy  to  tell  him  not  to 
proceed  to  Corinth  at  present.  And  then  he  might  have  written  an  apocalyptic 
letter,  full  of  burning  denunciation  and  fulminated  anathemas ;  he  might  have 
blighted  these  conceited,  and  lascivious,  and  quarrelsome  disgracors  of  the  name 
of  Christian  with  withering  invectives,  androUed  over  their  trembling  consciences 
thunders  as  loud  as  those  of  Sinai.  Not  such,  however,  was  the  tone  he  adopted, 
or  the  spirit  in  which  he  wrote.  In  deep  agitation,  which  he  yet  managed 
almost  entirely  to  suppress,  summoning  all  the  courage  of  his  nature,  forgetting 
all  the  dangers  and  trials  which  surrounded  him  at  Ephesus,  asking  God  for  the 
wisdom  and  guidance  which  he  so  sorely  needed,  crushing  down  deep  within 
him  all  personal  indignations,  every  possible  feeling  of  resentment  or  egotism 
at  the  humiliations  to  which  he  had  personally  been  subjected,  he  called 
Sosthenes  to  his  side,  and  flinging  his  whole  heart  into  the  task  immediately 
before  him,  began  to  dictate  to  him  one  of  the  most  astonishing  and  eloquent 
of  all  his  letters,  the  first  extant  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  Varied  as  are 
the  topics  with  which  it  deals,  profound  as  were  the  difficulties  which  iiad 
been  suggested  to  him,  novel  as  were  the  questions  which  he  had  to  face, 
alienated  as  were  many  of  the  converts  to  whom  he  had  to  appeal,  we  see  at 
once  that  the  Epistle  was  no  laborious  or  long-polished  composition.  En- 
lightened by  the  Spirit  of  God,  St.  Paul  was  in  possession  of  that  insight 
which  sees  at  once  into  the  heart  of  every  moral  difficulty.  He  was  as  capable 
of  dealing  with  Greek  culture  and  Greek  sensuality  as  with  Judaic  narrow- 
ness and  Judaic  Pharisaism.  He  shows  himself  as  great  a  master  when  he 
is  applying  the  principles  of  Christianity  to  the  concrete  and  complicated 
realities  of  life,  as  when  he  is  moving  in  the  sphere  of  dogmatic  theology. 
The  phase  of  Jewish  opposition  with  which  he  has  here  to  deal  has  been  modified 
by  contact  with  Hellenism,  but  it  still  rests  on  grounds  of  ezternalisni,  and 
must  be  equally  met  by  spiritual  truths.  Problems  however  dark,  details 
however  intricate,  bocoino  lucid  and  orderly  at  onco  in  tho  light  of  external 
distinctions.  In  teaching  his  converts  St.  Paul  had  no  need  to  burn  the  mid- 
night oil  in  long  studies.  Even  his  most  elaborate  Epistles  were  in  reality 
not  elaborate.  They  leapt  like  vivid  sparks  from  a  heart  in  which  the  fire 
of  love  to  God  burnt  until  death  with  an  ever  brighter  and  brighter  flame. 

1.  His  very  greeting  shows  th.3  fulness  of  his  heart.  As  his  authority  had  been 
impugned,  he  calls  himself  "  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God,"  and 
addresses  them  as  a  Church,  as  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  called  to  be  saints, 
uniting  with  them  in.  the  prayer  for  grace  and  peace  all  who,  whatever  their  differ, 
ing  shades  of  opinion  or  their  place  of  abode,  call  upon  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Ciiriflt,  both  theirs  and  ours.1  Thus,  in  his  very  address  to  them,  lie  strikes  the 

i  "Est  enim  haec  periculosa  tentatio  nullam  Ecclesiam  putare  ubi  non  apparent  perfects 
puritas"  (Calvin).     The  absence  of  fixed  ecclesiastical  organisation  is  clew,  as  fie  addresses  tt$ 


CONDITION    OP   THE   CHTJECH   AT   CORINTH.  385 

kav-note  of  his  own  claim  to  authority,  and  of  the  unity  and  holiness  which  they  so 
deeply  needed.  "  Observe,  too,"  says  St.  Chrysostom,  "  how  he  ever  nails  them 
down  to  the  name  of  Christ,  not  mentioning  any  man — either  Apostle  or  teacher — 
but  continually  mentioning  Him  for  whom  they  yearn,  as  men  preparing  to  awaken 
those  who  are  drowsy  after  a  debauch.  For  nowhere  in  any  other  Epistle  ia  the 
name  of  Christ  so  continuously  introduced ;  here,  however,  it  is  introduced  frequently, 
and  by  means  of  it  ho  weaves  together  almost  his  whole  exordium."1 

2.  Although  he    has  united  Sosthonos*  with  him  in  the  superscription,  he 
continues  at  once  in  the  first  person  to  tell  them  that  ho  thanks  God  always  for  the 
grace  given  them  in.  Christ  Jesus,  for  the  eloquence  and  knowledge  with  which 
they  were  enriched  in  Hun,  so  that  in  waiting  for  the  Apocalypse  of  Christ,  they 
were  behindhand  in  no  spiritual  gift ;  and  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed 
among  them,  so  should  Christ  confirm  them  to  be  blameless  unto  the  end,  since  God 
was  faithful,  who  had  called  them  unto  the  communion  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.* 

3.  That  communion  leads  him  at  once  to  one  of  the  subjects  of  which  hia  heart- 
is  full.    He  has  heard  on  indisputable  authority,  and  not  from  one  person  only,  of 
schisms  and  strifes  among  them,  and  he  implores  them  by  the  name  of  Christ  to 
strive  after  greater  unity  in  thought  and  action.4    They  were  saying,  "  I  am  cf 
Paul,  and  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Kephas,  and  I  of  Christ."    What!  has  Christ  been 
parcelled  into  fragments  r6      Some  of  them  called  themselves  his  party ;  but  had  hs 
been  crucified  for  thorn  ?  had  they  been  baptised  into  Aw  namo  ?    It  may  be  that 
Apollos,  fresh  from  his  discipleship  to  John's  baptism,  had  dwelt  very  prominently 
on  the  importance  of  that  initial  rite ;  but  so  liable  were  men  to  attach  importance 
to  the  mere  human  minister,  that  Paul,  like  his  Master,  had  purposely  abstained 
from  administering  it,  and  except  Crispus  and  Gaius — and,  as  he  afterwards  recalls, 
Stephanas  and  his  household — ho  cannot  remember  that  he  has  baptised  any  of  them. 
Christ  had  sent  him  not  to  baptise,  but  to  preach ;  and  that  not  in  wisdom  of  utter- 
ance, that  Christ's  cross  might  not  bo  rendered  void.     The  mention  of  preaching 
brings  him  to  the  aberrations  of  the  Apollonian  party.    They  had  attached  immense 
importance  to  eloquence,  logic,  something  which  they  called  and  exalted  as  wisdom. 
He  shows  them  that  they  were  on  a  wholly  mistaken  track.     Such  human  wisdom, 
such  ear-flattering  eloquence,  such  superficial  and  plausible  enticements,  he  had 
deliberately  rejected.     Of  human  wisdom  he  thought  little.     It  lay  under  the  ban 
of  revelation.6    It  had  not  led  the  world  to  the  knowledge  of  God.     It  had  not 
saved  the  world  from  the  crucifixion  of  Christ.     And,  therefore,  he  had  not  preached 
to  them  about  the  Logos,  or  about  JEons,  or  in  Philonian  allegories,  or  with  philo- 
sophical refinements.     He  had  offered  neither  a  sign  to  the  Jews,  nor  wisdom  to  the 
Greeks.    What  he  had  to  preach  was  regarded  by  the  world  as  abject  foolishness — 
it  was  the  Cross — it  was  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Messiah,  which  was  to  the  Jews 
revolting ;  of  a  crucified  Saviour,  which  was  to  the  Greeks  ridiculous ;  but  it  pleased 

entire  community,  and  holds  no  "  bishops  "  responsible  for  the  disorders,  and  fox  carrying  out  the 
axcommunication. 

1  1  Cor.  i.  1—3.    The  name  of  Christ  occurs  no  less  than  nino  times  iu  the  first  nine  verses. 

*  Whether  the  Sosthencs  of  Acts  xviii.  17,  who  may  have  been  subsequently  converted  (Wetst. 
H.  57(5),  or  an  unknown  brother,  we  do  not  know.    He  may  have  been  one  of  the  bearers  of  the 
Corinthian  letter  to  Ephcsus ;  "  ona  ef  ths  seventy,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of  Colophon  "  (Euseb. 
H .  B.  i.  12). 

*  1.  4—9.    Observe  the  perfect  sincerity  of  tho  Apostle,    lie  desires,  aa  always,  to  thank  God 
on  behalf  ef  his  converts  ;  here,  however,  ho  has  no  moral  praise  to  imply.    Tho  Corinthians  have 
received  rioh  spiritual  blessings  and  ebaowittjfaitf.  but  he  CPU  not  speak  of  thorn  as  he  does  cf  tiia 
Thessalouians  or  Philippians. 

*  Ver.  10,  vot  KOI  .  .  .  yv<uLi.-r>,  "  iutus  in  crcdeudis,  et  Bfintentia  prolati  in  agendis  "  (Bengel). 

*  It  is  deeply  instructive  to  observe  that  St.  Paul  here  refuses  to  eater  Into  the  differences  of 
view  from  which  the  parties  sprang.     He  does  not  care  to  decide  which  section  of  wrangling 
"  theologians  "  or  "  churchmen  "  is  right  and  which  is  wrong.     He  denounces  the  tpMt  of  party  as 
a  sin  and  a  shame  where  unity  between  Christians  is  the  first  of  duties  and  the  greatest  of 
advantages. 

6  i.  20.  »rov  <rv£»«fTi)j  K.  T,  &,,  but  is  Is»,  zxziU,  IS  (of.  Ps.  xlviii,  13),  "  wktn  is  he  v:ha  ooitnttth 
&£  toirsrs  }  " 


336  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF   ST.    PAUL. 

God  to  save  believers  by  the  foolishness  (in  the  world's  view)  of  the  thing  preached,1 
and  it  was  to  those  who  were  in  the  way  of  salvation  the  wisdom  and  the  power  of 
God.  They  wore  not  the  wise,  and  the  mighty,  and  the  noble  of  the  world,  but,  as 
a  rule,  the  foolish,  and  the  weak,  and  the  despised.2  It  was  not  with  the  world's 
power,  but  with  its  impotences  ;  not  with  its  strength,  but  with  its  feebleness ;  not 
with  its  knowledge,  but  with  its  ignorance ;  not  with  its  rank,  but  its  ignobleness ; 
not  with  kings  and  philosophers,  but  with  slaves  and  women,  that  its  divine  forces 
were  allied ;  and  with  them  did  God  so  purpose  to  reveal  His  power  that  no  glory 
could  accrue  to  man,  save  from  the  utter  abasement  of  human  glory.  That  was 
why  Paul  had  come  to  them,  not  with  rhetoric,  but  with  the  simple  doctrine  of 
Christ  crucified ; s  not  with  oratorio  dignity,  but  in  weakness,  fear,  and  trembling ; 
not  with  winning  elocution,  but  with  spiritual  demonstration  and  spiritual  power — 
so  that  man  might  be  utterly  lost  in  God,  and  they  might  feel  the  origin  of  their 
faith  to  be  not  human  but  divine.4 

4.  Yet  thev  must  not  be  misled  by  his  impassioned,  paradox  into  the  notion  that 
the  matter  and  method  of  his  teaching  was  really  folly.     On  the  contrary,  it  was 
wisdom  of  the  deepest  and  loftiest  kind — only  it  was  a  wisdom  of  God  hidden  from 
the  wise  of  the  world ;  a  wisdom  of  insight  into  things  which  eye  hath  not  seen  nor 
ear  heard,  and  which  had  never  set  foot  on  human  heart,*  but  which  were  revealed 
to  him  by  that  Spirit  which  alone  searcheth  the  depths  of  God,8  and  which  he  had 
taught  in  words  not  learnt  from  wisdom,  but  from  that  same  Spirit  of  God,  com- 
bining spirituals  with  spirituals.7     And  this  spiritual  wisdom  was,  to  the  natural 
man,8  folly,  because  it  could  be  only  discerned  by  a  spiritual  faculty  of  which  the 
natural  man  was  absolutely  devoid.     It  was  to  him  what  painting  is  to  the  blind,  or 
music  to  the  deaf.9     But  the  spiritual  man  possesses  the  requisite  discernment,  and, 
sharing  the  mind  of  Christ,  is  thereby  elevated  above  the  reach  of  merely  natural 
judgment. 

5.  And  then,  with  wholesome  irony,  he  adds  that  this  divine  condition,  which 
was  earthly  folly,  he  could  only  teach  them  in  its  merest  elements ;  in  its  perfection 
it  was  only  for  the  perfect,  but  they,  who  thought  themselves  so  wise  and  learned, 
were  in  spiritual  wisdom  fleshen  babes,  needing  milk  such  as  he  had  given  them, 
not  meat,  which  they — being  fleslily — were  still  too  feeble  to  digest.10     These  might 
soem  hard  words,  but  while  there  were  envy,  and  strife,  and  divisions  among  them, 
how  could  they  be  regarded  as  anything  but  fleshy  and  unspiritual  P     Paul  and 
Apollos !  who  were  Paul  and  Apollos  but  mere  human  ministers  ?     Paul  planting, 
Apollos   watering — neither  of  them  anything  in  himself,  but  each   of   them   one 
in  their  ministry,  and  each  responsible  for  his  own  share  in  it.      God  only  gave  the 
harvest.    "  God's  fellow- workers  are  we ;  God's  acre,  God's  building  are  ye."    Paul, 

1  i.  21,  tiii  TTJ?  niapia.s  roC  *7)pu'y|u.aTo«,  not  "the  foolishness  of  preaching"  (icypJ£e<a<;).  In  23,  24 
"  cross,"  "  Btumblingblock,"  "  folly,"  "  power  "  would  be  respectively  nceel,  mitcol,  mashcal,  secel, 
an-!  some  see  in  it  a  sign  that  St.  Paul  had  in  his  thoughts  a  Syriac  paronomasia  (Winer,  N.  T. 
Grumm.,  E.  T.,  p.  658). 

*  A  needful  warning  to  "  Corinthios  non  minus  las ci via,  quam  opuUntid,  tt  philosophiac  studio 
insignes  "  (Cic.  Dt  Leg.  Ayr.  ii.  32). 

J  All  the  more  remarkable  because  "  a  Corinthian  style  "  meant  "  a  polished  style "  (Wetst. 
orf  Joe.). 

*  i.  19  ;  H.  5 ;  cf.  Jer.  ix.  23,  24  ;  Isa.  xxxiii.  18,  Is  freely  cited  from  the  LXX. 

*  Possibly  a  rogue  echo  of  Isa.  Ixiv.  4  (cf.  Hi.  15,  and  Ixv.  17)  ;  or  from  some  lost  book  (Chrys.) 
like  the  "  Revelation  of  Elias,"  iiri  unpSidv  aveftrj,  37  V?  rfrf.    Both  explanations  are  possible,  for 
the  lost  book  may  hare  echoed  Isaiah.     A  modern  theory  regards  the  words  as  liturgical. 

8  Ver.  10.    The  attempt  to  make  Rev.  ii.  24  an  ironical  reference  to  this  is  most  baseless. 
'  Ver.  13,  wvevnariKolt  ircfufiartxa  (rvvKpiVotres,  others  render  it  "  explaining  spiritual  things  to 
spiritual  men  "  (Gen.  xl.  8  ;  Dan.  v.  12  ;  LXX.)  or  "  in  spiritual  words." 

*  Ver.  14,  I^VYIKOC,  "  homines  solius  auimae  et  caruis  "  (Tert.  Dejejun.  17). 

*  ii.  6 — 16.    lie  refutes  the  Alexandrian  teaching  by  accepting  its  very  terms  and  principle— 
"  mystery,"  "  initiated,"  "  spiritual  man,"  Ac.,  but  showing  that  it  is  an  eternal  universal,  reality, 
not  some  apprehension  of  particular  men  (see  Maurice,  Unity,  p.  40S). 

"  iii.  2,  o-opicirot ;  4,  <rapKi*otf .  A  severe  blow  at  Alexandrian  conceit.  He  has  to  treat  them 
not  as  adepU  but  as  novices,  not  as  hierophants  but  as  uninitiated,  not  a»  "  theologians,"  but  ad 
ratechnmens,  fur  tht  wry  rrxunn  tli.it  they  thought  »o  much  of  the mselvet  (cf.  the  exactly  analogous 
of  our  Lord  in  John  ix.  41). 


CONDITION  OF   THE   CHTJBCH  AT  COEINTH.  387 

as  a  wise  master-builder,  has  laid  the  foundation ;  others  were  building  on  it  all 
sorts  of  superstructures.  But  the  foundation  was  and  could  be  only  one — namely, 
Christ — and  the  gold,  silver,  precious  marbles,  logs,  hay,  stubble,  built  on  it  should 
be  made  manifest  in  its  true  quality  in  God's  ever- revealing  fire,1  and  if  worthless, 
should  be  destroyed,  however  sincere  the  builder  might  be.  If  his  superstructure 
was  sound,  he  would  be  rewarded  ;  if  perishable,  it  would  be  burnt  in  the  consuming 
flame,  and  he  should  suffer  loss,  though  he  himself,  since  he  had  built  on  the  true 
foundation,  would  be  saved  as  by  fire.1  Did  they  not  know  then  that  they  were  a 
temple,  a  holy  temple  for  the  spirit  of  God  ?  If  any  man  destroy  God's  temple,  God 
shall  destroy  him.  And  human  wisdom  might  destroy  it,  for  before  God  human 
wisdom  was  folly.  The  mere  human  wisdom  of  this  or  that  favourite  teacher  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  real  building.  If  a  man  wanted  Divine  wisdom,  let  him 
gain  it  by  the  humble  paths  of  what  was  regarded  as  human  folly.  How  unworthy, 
then,  to  be  boasting  about  mere  human  teachers — how  unworthy  was  it  of  their  own 
immense  privilege  and  hope — when  all  things  were  theirs — Paul,  Apollos,  Kephas, 
the  universe,  life,  death,  the  immediate  present,  the  far  future — all  theirs,  and  they 
Christ's,  and  Christ  God's.  Their  party  leaders  were  but  poor  weak  creatures  at 
the  best,  of  whom  was  required  one  thing  only — faithfulness.  As  for  himself  ha 
regarded  it  as  a  matter  utterly  trivial  whether  he  were  judged  by  their  tentative 
opinions  or  by  man's  insignificant  feeble  transient  day;*  nay,  he  even  judged  not 
himself.  lie  was  conscious  iiidi-od  of  no  sin  as  regards  his  ministry;4  but  even  on 
that  he  did  not  rely  as  his  justification,  depending  only  on  the  judgment  of  the  Lord. 
"  So  then  be  not  ye  judging  anything  before  the  due  time  until  the  Lord  come,  who 
shall  both  illuminate  the  crypts  of  darkness  and  reveal  the  counsels  of  the  heart." 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  shall  the  praise  which  he  deserves,  and  no  other  praise, 
accrue  to  each  from  God.* 

6.  He  had,  with  generous  delicacy,  designedly  put  into  prominence  his  own 
name  and  that  of  Apollos  (instead  of  those  of  Kephas  or  the  Jerusalem  emissary)  aa 
unwilling  loaders  of  factions  which  they  utterly  deprecated,  that  the  Corinthians 
might  learn  in  their  case  not  to  estimate  them  above  the  warrant  of  their  actual 
words,'  and  might  see  that  he  was  actuated  by  no  mere  jealousy  of  others,  when  he 
denounced  their  inflated  exasperation  amongst  themselves  in  the  rival  display  of 
what  after  all,  even  when  they  existed,  where  not  intrinsic  merits,  but  gifts  of  God.r 
And  what  swelling  self-appreciation  they  showed  in  all  this  party  spirit !  For 
them  the  hunger,  and  the  poverty,  and  the  struggle,  are  all  over.  What  plentitude 
and  satiety  of  satisfaction  you  have  gained  ;  how  rich  you  are ;  what  thrones  you 
sit  on ;  and  all  without  us.  Ah,  would  it  were  really  so,  that  we  might  at  least 
share  your  royal  elevation  1  For  the  position  of  us  poor  Apostles  is  very  different. 
"  God,  I  think,  displayed  us  last  as  condemned  criminals,3  a  theatric  spectacle  to  the 
universe,  both  angels  and  men.  We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake,  but  ye  are  wise  in 
Christ ;  we  weak,  but  ye  strong ;  ye  glorious,  but  we  dishonoured.  Up  to  this  very 

1  iii.  IS,  an-oKoAvirrerai,  By  calling  this  &  vraeseni  futuroKxnt,  and  not  recognising  the  normal, 
unceasing  operation  of  the  moral  laws  of  God,  commentators  have  missed  a  great  truth  (cf.  Matt. 
Iii.  10 ;  Col.  iii.  6 ;  Eph.  v.  fi). 

*  St.  Paul  does  not  care  to  make  his  metaphor  "  run  on  all  fours."     The  general  application  in 
sufficient  for  him.    (See  Keruss,  Let  Xjpttres,  t.  189.) 

*  ir.   8,  rn.raxpi.8ia.     An  onakn'jw  was  an  examination  preliminary  to  trial.      ij*i<'p«c»  this 
forcible  expression  has  been  explained  M  a  Hebraism  (Jer.  xvii.  16),  a  Cilicitm  (Jer.  oti  Alyat.  10), 
and  a  Latlnism  (diem  dicere,  &c.,  Grot.). 

*  Ver.  4.  outer  .  .  .  iu.a.vrta  <n!foiia,  "  I  am  conscious  of  no  guilt "  ("  Nil  conseire  sibi,"  Hor. 
Ep.  I.  i.  61).       "  I  know  nothing  by  myself,"  in  this  sense  is  old  English.      "  I  am  norry  that  each 
fault  can  b«  proved  by  the  queen  "  (Cranmer,  Letter  to  Henry  VIII.). 

*  iv.  1—4. 

'  iv.  6.  The  word  bpovilv  is  omitted  by  th«  chief  Uncials.  I  take  nit  vwip  5  -ycypmrrai  to  be  a 
sort  of  proverb,  like  "  keep  to  your  written  evidence."  Throughout  this  section  St.  Paul's  mind  is 
full  of  the  word  "  inflation  "  (4>v<ri.ov<rtt  ;  ver.  18,  i^vo-iciftjcrav  ;  19,  irefyvaiKiiivtav ;  v.  2,  •tra^va-uait.ivoi. ; 
viii.  1,  rj  yiWis-  fviTioi ;  xiii.  4,  >)  •y«mf  «v  ^va-i»0r<u).  This  is  because  when  St.  Paul  comes  to 
them,  he  is  afraid  of  finding  this  vice  of  a  conceited  theology.  2  Cor.  xil.  20,  4>vo-iw<m{ .  Else  where 
the  word  only  occur*  in  Col.  ii.  18. 

'  if.  7,  T«  W  <rJ  JiaitpiVft  ; 

*  IT.  9.  ws  nriSoi-aTtovf,  "  velutt  Stftiarloi"  Tert.  Dt  Fwfie.  14). 


3S8  THS   LIFE   AND   TVOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

hour  we  both  hunger  and  thirst,  and  are  ill-clad,1  and  aro  buffeted,  and  are  hustled 
from  place  to  place,  and  toil,  -working  with  our  own  hands ;  being  abused,  we  bless ; 
being  persecuted,  we  endure ;  being  reviled,  we  entreat :  as  refuse  of  the  universe2 
are  we  become,  the  offscouring  of  all  things  till  now."  These  are  bitter  and  ironical 
words  of  contrast  between  you  and  us,  I  know ;  but  I  write  not  as  shaming  you.  I 
am  only  warning  you  as  my  beloved  children.  For,  after  all,  you  are  my  children. 
Plenty  of  teachers,  I  know,  have  followed  ma ;  but  (and  here  comes  one  of  his 
characteristic  impetuosities  of  expression)  even  if  you  have  a  myriad  pedagogues8 
in  Christ — however  numerous,  or  stern,  or  authoritative — you  have  not  many 
fathers.  It  was  I  who  begot  you  through  the  Gospel  in  Christ  Jeans,  and  I  there- 
fore entreat  you  to  follow  my  example ;  and  on  this  account  I  sent  you  my  beloved 
and  faithful  son  Timothy,  to  remind  you  of  my  invariable  practice  and  teaching.4 
Do  not  think,  however,  that  I  am  afraid  to  confront  in  person  the  inflated  opposition 
of  some  who  say  that  I  do  not  really  moan  to  come  myself.  Come  I  will,  and  that 
soon,  if  the  Lord  will ;  and  will  ascertain  not  what  these  inflated  critics  say,  but 
what  they  arc;  not  their  power  of  talk,  but  of  action.  "  But  what  will  ye  ?  Am  I 
to  come  to  you  with  a  rod,  or  in  love  and  the  spirit  of  gentleness  P"* 

7.  One  thing  at  least  needs  the  rod.  A  case  of  incest — of  a  son  taking  his 
father's  wife — BO  gross,  that  it  does  not  exist  even  among  the  heathen,8  is  absolutely 
notorious  among  you,  and  instead  of  expelling  the  offender  with  mourning  and 
shame,  you — oh !  strange  mystery  of  the  invariable  connexion  between  sensuality 
and  pride — have  been  inflated  with  sophistical  excuses  about  the  matter.*  "  I,  at 
any  rate,  absent  in  body,  but  present  in  spirit,  have  already  judged  as  though 
actually  present  the  man  who  acted  thus  in  this  thing,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  ChrLst — you  being  assembled  together,  and  my  spirit  which  is  present  with 
you,  though  my  body  is  absent — with  the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  hand 
over  such  a  man  to  Satan,  for  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved 
in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."8  If  any  passage  of  the  letter  was  written 
with  sobs,  which  are  echoed  in  his  very  words,  as  Sosth&nes  wrote  them  down  from 
his  lips,  it  is  this.  He  summons  up  the  scene  and  sentence  of  excommunication. 
He  is  absent,  yet  he  is  there ;  and  there,  with  the  power  of  Christ,  he  pronounces 
the  awful  sentence  which  hands  over  the  offender  to  Satan  in  terrible  mercy,  that  by 
destruction  of  hia  flesh  he  may  bo  saved  in  the  spirit.  And  then  he  adds,  "  The 
subject  of  your  self-glorification  is  hideous.9  Know  ye  not  that  a  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump  ?  Purge  out  then  at  once  the  old  leaven,  that  ye  may  be 
a  new  lump,  as  ye  are  (ideally)  unleavened.10  For  indeed  our  Passover  is  slain  n— 

»  Cf.  3  Cor.  xi.  27. 

*  irepiKdUfapfiara,  purgamenta, '"  things  rile,  and  worthless,  and  to  be  flung  awav,"  not "  piaeular 
offerings,"  r«o;'^rj(xo.    The  Scholiast  on  Ar.  Pint.  456,  says,  that  in  famines  and  plagues  It  -was  an 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  custom  to  wipe  off  guilt  by  throwing  wretches  into  the  sea,  with  the 
words  "  Bewmi  our  j/erifwma,."    The  reference  here  is  probably  less  specific,  but  of.  Prov.  mn,  13  • 
*\$~\3  (L2QC-),  Tob.  v.  IS.    iyia  a-epA^ia  <rov  became  (from  this  view)  &  common  Christian  expression 
(Wordsworth,  ad  lot.). 

*  iV.  15,  7T<u5a-yu>yoi"? 

*  St.  Paul  liad  already  gent  him,  before  the  necessity  had  arisen  for  the  more  immediate  despatch 
of  Titus ;  but  he  seems  to  have  countermanded  t!;e  order,  uncertain,  however,  whether  the  mcssen- 
got  would  reach  him  in  time,  and  ratlier  expecticg  that  Timothy  would  arrive  among  them  before 
himself  ("  if  TimotheiiB  come,"  xvl  10).     In  any  ca.ss  the  Corinthians  would  have  hoard  that 
Timothy  had  been  sent  to  come  to  them  through  Macedonia,  and  Paul's  enemies  drew  very 
unfavourable  inferences  from  tbLj. 

«  iv.  6—21. 

*  The  oi'o/iifrrai,  "ia  named,"  of  cmrtext  is  spurious,  being  omitted  in  ^,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  P,  G. 
AM  to  tho  fact  Illustrated  by  tho  almost  local  trsgfdy  of  Tlirp  o'.ytus,  scs  C'ic.  pro  Cluent.  5,  "  0  mulieris 
acelus  ino»dibile  et  praeter  hauc  unarn  in  omui  vita  maudittuii"  (Wetst.  ad  Joe.). 

i  This  might  seem  inconceivable  ;  but  v.  tupra,  p.  388. 

*  It  was  the  last  awful,  reluctant  declaration,     that  a  man  who  has  wilfully  chosen  an  evil 


for  UB,"  virep  ji£>r  i-s  a  doctrinal  gloss 


lot  found  in  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  G. 


CONDITION  OP  THE  CHURCH   AT  COEIXTH.  889 

Christ.     Let  us,  then,  keep  tho  feast,  not  with  the  old  leaven,  neither  with  leaven 
of  vice  and  wickedness,  but  with  unleavenodness  of  sincerity  and  truth."  * 

And  here  he  pauses  to  explain  a  clause  in  his  last  Epistle  which  had  excited 
surprise.  In  it  he  had  forbidden  them  to  associate  with  fornioators.  This  had  led 
them  to  ask  the  astonished  question2  whether  it  was  really  their  duty  to  go  out  of 
the  world  altogether  ?  His  meaning  was,  as  he  now  tells  them,  that  if  any  Chrittian 
wero  notoriously  guilty,  either  of  fornication  or  any  ether  deadly  sin,3  with  such 
they  were  not  to  associate, — not  even  to  sit  at  table  with  thorn.  They  really  need 
not  have  mistaken  his  meaning  on  this  point.  What  had  he,  what  had  they,  to  do 
with  judging  the  outer  world ':  This  passage  reads  like  a  marginal  addition,  and  he 
adds  the  brief,  uncompromising  order,  "Put  away  at  once  that  wicked* man  from 
among  yourselves."4 

8.  The  allusion  to  judging  naturally  leads  him  to  another  point.    Dare  they,  the 
destined  judges  of  the  world  and  of  angels,  go  to  law  about  mere  earthly  trifles,  and 
that  before  the  heathen?    Why  did  they  not  rather  set  up  the  very  humblest 
members  of  the  Church  to  act  as  judges  in  such  matters  ?     Shame  on  them !      So 
wise  and  yot  no  one  of  them  wise  enough  to  bo  umpire  in  mere  trade  disputes  ? 
Better  by  far  have  no  quarrels  among  themselves,  but  suffer  wrong  and  loss;   but, 
alas !  instead  of  this  some  of  them  inflicted  wrong  and  loss,  and  that  on  their  own 
brethren.     Then  follows  a  stern  warning — the  unj  ust  should  not  inherit  tho  kingdom 
of  God — "  Be  not  deceived" — the  formula  by  which  ha  always  introduces  his  most 
solemn  passages — neither  sensual  sinners  in  all  their  hideous  varieties,  nor  thieves, 
nor  over-reachers,  nor  drunkards,  nor  rovilers,  nor  extortioners,  shall  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.    "And  these  abject  things  some  of  you  wore;*  but  ye  washed 
yourselves,  but  ye  wore  sanctified,  but  ye  were  justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  the  Spirit  of  our  God."     It  is  evident  that  some  of  them  were  liable  to  be 
deceived ;  that  they  liked  to  be  deceived  on  this  point,  and  they  seem  to  have  boldly 
said  that  the  Christian  is  free,  that  "  all  things  are  lawful"  to  him  because  he  is  no 
longer  under  the  law,  but  under  grace.     "  All  things  are  lawful  to  me."     Yes,  says 
St.  Paul,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient.     "  All  things  are  lawful  to  me."  Yes,  but 
I  will  not  become  the  slave  of  the  fatal  tyranny  of  anything.     The  case  of  meats, 
which  perhaps  they  adduced  to  show  that  they  might  do  as  they  liked,  irrespective 
of  the  Mosaic  law,  was  not  a  case  in  point.     They  were  a.5td<popa — matters  01  indif- 
ference about  which  each  man  might  do  as  ho  liked ;   they,  and  the  belly  which 
assimilated  them,  were  transient  things,  destined  to  be  done  away  with.     Not  BO  the 
body ;  that  was  not  erented  for  fornication,  but  for  tho  Lord,  and  as  God  had  raised 
Christ  BO  should  He  raise  the  bodies  of  Christ's  saints.     And  then — thus  casually  as 
it  were  in  this  mere  passing  reference — he  lays  down  for  all  time  the  eternal  princi- 
ples which  underlie  the  sacred  duty  of  chastity.     lie  tolls  them  that  their  bodies, 
their  members,  are  not  their  own,  but  Christ's  ; — that  the  union  with  Christ  13 
destroyed  by  unions  of  uncleanness ; — that  sensuality  is  a  sin  against  a  man's  own 
body ;  that  a  Christian's  body  is  not  his  own,  but  a  temple  of  the  indwelling  Spirit, 
and  that  he  is  not  his  own,  but  bought  with  a  price.     "  Therefore,"  he  says,  feeling 
that  he  had  now  laid  down  truths  which  should  be  impregnable  against  all  scepticism, 
"  glorify  God  in  your  body."  8 

9.  This  paragraph,  touching  as  it  has  done  on  the  three  topics  of  chastity,  meats 
offered  to  idols,  ana  the  resurrection,  introduces  very  naturally  his  answers  to  their 
inquiries  on  these  subjects,  and  nobly  wise  they  are  in  their  charity,  their  wisdom, 
their  large-heartedneas.     He  is  not  speaking  of  marriage  in  the  abstract,  but  of 

*  V.  1—9.  *  V.  10,  «r«  o^tiAerc  apa,  r.  T.  A. 

»  Ver.  11,  "OP  KL  idolater."  Evidently  as  In  z.  7 ;  CoL  Hi.  5  ;  otherwise  how  could  he  be  a 
Christian?  Unless  he  is  thinking  of  iome  hybrid  Christian  of  the  type  of  Constantine,  who  "  bowed 
in  the  house  of  Rimmon." 

*  v.  9—13,  'E£opaT*.    The  «al  (omitted  in  «,  A,  B,  C,  V,  O)  is  spurious,  ani  spoils  the  character- 
istic abruptness. 

*  vt  11,  TO.VTO.  rive?  f,Tt. 

6  Ti.  1—20.    The  words  which  follow  in  our  version,  K<U  «•  T£  irvfjficwi  i/xay,  Snrd.  ttmro 
tK,  omitted  in  «,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  O.  . "  ' 


890  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

marriage  regarded  with  reference  to  the  near  advent  of  Christ,  and  relating  to  th« 
circumstances  and  conditions  of  the  most  corrupt  city  of  ancient  Greece.  The 
Corinthian  letter  seems  to  have  been  written  by  those  members  of  the  Church  who, 
partly  it  may  be  in  indignant  revolt  against  the  views  of  the  small  faction  which 
had  adopted  Antinomian  opinions,  seem  to  have  regarded  celibacy  as  the  only  perfect 
form  of  life.  In  the  abstract,  somewhat  hesitatingly,  and  with  the  confession  that 
here  he  is  not  sure  of  his  ground,  and  is  therefore  offering  no  authoritative  decision, 
St.  Paul  on  the  whole  agrees  with  them.1  "  He  quotes,  with  something  of  approval, 
their  dictum  that  the  maiden  life  is  the  best,2  and  utters  the  wish  that  all  had  the 
same  spiritual  grace*  —  the  charisma  of  continence  —  as  he  himself.  But  since  this 
was  not  the  case,  as  a  permitted  remedy  against  the  universal  prevalence  of  un- 
chastity,  he  recommended  (but  not  by  way  of  distinct  injunction)  that  Christians 
should  live  together,  and  with  no  long  ascetic  separations,  in  the  married  state.4  As 
regards  widowers5  and  widows  their  celibacy  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  would  be  an 
honourable  state,  but  immediate  marriage  would  be  better  than  long-continued 
desires.'  Divorce  had  been  discouraged  by  Christ  himself,  and  on  that  analogy  he 
pronounced  against  any  voluntary  dissolution  of  unions  already  existing  between 
Pagans  and  Christians,  since  the  children  of  such  unions  were  holy,  and  therefore 
the  unions  holy,  and  since  the  believing  wife  or  husband  might  win  to  the  faith 
the  unbelieving  partner.  The  general  rule  which  he  wished  all  Christians  to 
observe  was  that  they  should  abide  in  the  state  in  which  they  were  called, 
whether  circumcised  or  uncircumcised,  since  "  circumcision  is  nothing,  and 
uncircumcision  is  nothing,  but  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God."7  Even 
if  a  Christian  were  a  slave  and  might  obtain  bis  freedom,  it  would  be  better 
for  him  to  brook  slavery,8  seeing  that  earthly  relations  were  utterly  insignificant 

1  "  If  we  compare  the  letter  of  Gregory  the  Great  to  Augustine  (in  Bede),  in  answer  to  inquiries 
not  altogether  dissimilar,  respecting  the  Anglo-Saxon  converts,  we  see  at  once  how  immeasurably 
more  decisive  and  minute  the  Pope  Is  than  the  Apostle"  (Maurice,  Unity,  p.  423).  The  chapter  ia 
the  best  manual  for  the  din-tor  duiit-mtium,  because  it  teat-lies  him  "  that  he  must  not  give  himself 
airs  of  certainty  on  points  where  certainty  is  not  to  be  had"  (id.  429).  See  Kuencn,  Profeten,  ii.  67 
ttq.,  and  Lord  Lyttelton  in  Contemp.  Rev.  xxl.  p.  91". 

'  vti.  1,  KoXoo  dfffpun-ai  yvvcucbf  ^  airrrcrOat.  St.  Jerome's  characteristic  comment  is  that  "  If  It 
Is  good  for  a  man  not  to  toich  a  woman,  It  must  be  bad  to  do  so,  and  therefore  marriage  is,  to  say 
the  least,  inferior  to  celibacy."  Si  Paul's  own  distinct  permission,  and  in  some  cases  injunction,  to 
marry,  might  have  shown  him  hpw  false  and  dangerous  are  the  results  which  spring  from  the  undue 
pressure  of  incidental  words  (Eph.  v.  24  ;  1  Tim.  ii.  15,  4c.)  St.  Paul  does  not  say  "good"  (a-yoflov), 
but  "fair"  (which  he  afterwards  limits  by  the  present  need,  ver.  26),  as  we  might  say,  "  there  is  in 
holy  celibacy  a  certain  moral  beauty."  Hence  Jerome's  "  Suspecta  est  mihi  bonitas  rei  quam  mag- 
nitude alterius  mail  tnaluin  cogit  esse  infer!  us"  (adv.  Jovin.  i.  9)  is  a  mistake.  Celibacy  is  ta\ov, 
but  there  are  tome  for  whom  marriage  is  even  xoAAiov.  See  for  the  use  of  xoAos  Matt,  xvill.  8,  xxvl. 
24  ;  1  Tim.  L  8.  It  is  curious  to  see  the  ascetic  tendency  at  work  in  vii.  3  (o^>«iXoM<i^v  ««Wav,  and 
6,  nij  vijcrmo  xai,  and  crxoAa<njr*  and  oWpxiprtfc  for  ^re).  The  true  readings  are  found  In  k,  A,  B,  0, 
D,  F,  though  not  followed  in  our  version. 

3  vii.  7,  C.'Au,  but  in  later  years  his  deliberate  decision  OouXo/uu)  wag  that  younger  widowf 
should  marry  (1  Tim.  v.  14). 

*  TiL  1—7. 

*  roif  ayoifioic,  «.  rupra,  pp.  45,  46. 

'  Ver.  9,  yofujavu  (aor.),  >)  irvpoucrtfcu  (pree.). 

1  1  Cor.  vu.  IS,  19.  The  M>!  «jri<rir<i<r0u>  refers  to  a  method  of  obliterating  the  sign  of  the  covenant 
adopted  by  apostate  Jews  in  times  of  persecution  (1  Mace.  i.  15  ;  Jos.  Antt.  xii.  5,  §  1),  and  which  a 
Christian  might  be  tempted  to  adopt  to  save  him  from  that  ridicule  which  the  manners  of  ancient 
life  brought  upon  Jews  (Mart.  xvii.  29).  The  Rabbis  decided  that  one  who  had  done  this  must  be 
re-circumcised.  R.  Jehudah  denied  this,  because  of  the  danger;  but  the  wise  men  replied  that  it 
had  been  frequently  done  with  no  injurious  results  in  the  days  of  Bar-Coziba  (YebhamAth,  t.  72,  1  ; 
Buztorf,  Ice.  Cluild.,  8.  v.  -rco,  methooklm  =  recutiti). 

*  1  Cor.  vii.  21,  oAA'  fi  cat  jurourcu  (Xtvdcpof  ytvtvOtu,  p.aAAor  XP1<r<u-       I  have  taken  iotiXeif  U 
the  word  to  be  understood  with  Chrysostorn.  Theodoret,  Luther,  Rungel,  De  Wette,  Meyer,  &e.  ;  cf. 
1  Tim.  ri.  2.    I  take  this  view—  i.  Because  the  whole  argument  turns  on  the  desirability  of  itaying 
in  the  present  condition,  whatever  it  is,  with  a  view  to  the  nearness  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.    ii. 
Because  this  was  the  view  arrived  at  also  by  the  lofty  Stoic  moralists  who,  like  Bptctetus,  knew  that 
even  a  slave  could  live  a  noble  life  (Epictet.  DUsert.  iii.  20  ;  Erich,  x.,  xxxii.).     Earthly  conditions 
were  but  a  xpij<rit  ^tamfiinr;  cf.  CoL  iii.  22.     iii.  Because  St.  Paul  may  have  been  thinking  at  the 
•lomcnt  of  the  Christian  slaves  of  Christian  masters  who  would  Lie  treated  aa  bro 


, 

yp-r)<7flai,  rather  implies  the  continuance  of  an  existing  th-iu  the  acceptance  of  a  new  condition. 
Otherwise  we  can  hardly  imagine  his  giving  such  advice.  sin't  •'  a  "w  is  to  abide  in  his 


thers,  iv.  Because 
a  new  condition. 
in  his  calling  if  ii 


CONDITION   OF   THK   CHURCH   AT   COBINTH.  391 

when  regarded  from  the  spiritual  standpoint.1  As  to  virgins  he  could  only 
give  his  opinion  that,  considering  the  present  distress,  and  the  nearness  of  the  end, 
and  the  affliction  which  marriage  at  such  a  period  brought  inevitably  in  its  train,  it 
was  better  for  them  not  to  marry.  Marriage,  indeed,  he  told  them  distinctly,  waa 
no  sin,  but  he  wished  to  spare  them  the  tribulation  it  involved ;  he  did  not  wish 
them,  now  that  the  time  was  contracted,3  and  the  fleeting  show  of  the  world  waa 
passing  away,  to  bear  the  distracting  burden  of  transient  earthly  ani  human  cares, 
or  to  use  the  world  to  the  full,*  but  to  let  their  sole  care  be  fixed  on  God.*  If  then 
a  father  determined  not  to  give  his  maiden  daughter  in  marriage,  he  did  well ;  but 
if  a  lover  sought  her  hand,  and  circumstances  pointed  that  way,  he  was  not  doing 
wrong  in  letting  them  marry."  Widows  might  re-marry  if  they  liked,  but  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  which  he  had  been  laying  down,  he  thought  they  would 
be  happier  if  they  did  not.  It  was  but  his  wish  and  advice ;  he  asserted  no  Divine 
authority  for  it ;  yet  in  giving  it  he  thought  that  he  too  had — as  other  teachers  had 
claimed  to  have — the  spirit  of  God.8 

10.  As  to  the  pressing  question — a  question  which  bore  on  their  daily  life7 — about 
meats  offered  to  idols,  he  quotes,  but  only  by  way  of  refutation,  their  self-satisfied 
remark  that  they  "all  had  knowledge" — knowledge  at  the  best  was  a  much  smaller 
thing  than  charity,  and  the  very  claim  to  possess  it  was  a  proof  of  spiritual  pride 
and  ignorance.  If  they  knew  that  an  idol  was  nothing  in  the  world,  and  their 
conscience  as  to  this  matter  was  quite  clear  and  strong,  it  was  no  sin  for  them 
personally  to  eat  of  these  sacrifices  ;  but  if  others,  whose  consciences  were  weak, 
saw  them  feasting  in  idol  temples,  and  were  led  by  this  ostentatious  display  of 
absence  of  scruple  8  to  do  by  way  of  imitation  what  they  themselves  thought  wrong, 
then  this  knowledge  and  liberty  of  theirs  became  a  stumbling-block,  an  edification 
of  ruin,9  a  source  of  death  to  the  conscience  of  a  brother ;  and  since  thus  to  smite 
the  sick  conscience  of  a  brother  was  a  sin  against  Christ,  he  for  one  would  never 
touch  flesh  again  while  the  world  lasted  rather  than  be  guilty  of  putting  a  fatal 
difficulty  in  a  brother's  path.10 

be  not  hurtful  to  faith  and  morals"  (Aug.  ad  Gal.  H.  11);  but  that  could  hardly  be  said  of  slavery. 
"  Impudicitia  ...  in  servo  uccessifcis"  (Sen.  Uontrov.  iv.,  I'raef.).  "  Enfants,  ils  grandissaient  en 
desordre ;  vieillards,  ils  mouraient  souvent  <lans  la  misere  "  (Wallon,  De  I'Esclayage,  i.  332). 

1  vii.  10 — 24.  Verses  17 — 24  are  a  little  digression  on  the  general  principle  that  it  is  best  to 
remain  contentedly  in  our  present  lot.  In  ver.  23  he  says,  with  a  fine  play  on  words,  "  You  are  slaves 
in  one  sense  ;  do  uot  become  so  in  another." 

•  Ver.  29,  <rvv«rr<i\ii.fvos. 

1  Ver.  31,  Karaxpuntvoi ;  cf.  ix.  12.  18.    ii.iptfj.vq,  niiraptSpov,  aircp«rira<rrw;  ;  cf.  Luke  3C.  41. 

•  Alone  of  nations  the  Jews  implied  the  sanctity  of  marriage  by  every  name  that  they  gave  it. 
Kiddvshin  from  kadosh,  "to  sanctify  ;"  mekadesh,  "  a  bridegroom,"  &c.    The  phrase  Hare  ath  mekoo- 
desheth  It,  "  Behold  tliou  art  sanctified  for  mo,"  la  still  addressed  by  the  bridegroom  to  the  brida 
(Rahbinowicz,  Ltgislat.  Criminelle  du  Talmud,  p.  227). 

•  vii.  25.     On  the  rights  of  Jewish  fathers  over  their  unmarried  daughters  see  Ktt\ihh6tH,  f.  46, 2. 
They  were  so  absolute  that  he  might  even  *•//  his  daughter  (A'l'MuyAin.  M  l> ;  Ketiihhnth,  46  h).     When 
however  she  reached  the  "flower  of  her  age,"  she  might  refuse  any  husband  given  her  l>efore  she 
was  really  nulile.     Her  refusal  was  technically  called  mit'm  -.v^(Yel,luanoth,  107  J>).     bhe  niyJU  even 
be  married  while  yet  a  kttanal — i.e.,  not  yet  twelve.    When  she  reached  that  age  she  was  called 
naarah  (mrj),  and  six  months  later  was  held  to  have  reached  her  full  maturity,  and  become  a  bag- 
roth,  rvnj}-     See  the  Talmndic  authorities  in  Rabbinowicz,  Trad,  des  Traitfs  Synhedrin,  <Cc.,  Legis- 
lation Criminelle  du  Talmud,  p.  214  ;  Weill,  La  Femmt  Juive,  pp.  11—14.    On  the  car*  for  widows, 
id.  p.  72. 

«  vii.  1—40. 

7  To  this  day  the  Jewish  slaughterer,  who  must  pass  a  coarse  of  study,  practically  decides  what 
is  clean  (thor)  and  unclean  (t&mf).  When  he  has  discovered  that  an  animal  has  no  legal  blemish  he 
attaches  to  it  a  leaden  seal  with  the  word  ' '  lawful "  (kdehAr)  on  it ;  (Disraeli,  Cent  ut  of  J  uJaim,  158  ; 
Diet.  Bibl.  s.  v.  Pharisee* ;  McCaul,  Old  Paths,  380— 3S6,  396 — i02 ;  ».  tupra,  p.  245. 

•  Ver.  10.    Such  feasts  were  often  in  temples  : 

"  Hue  illia  curia  temp]  urn, 
Hue  lacris  eedei  epulia;  bin  r.riVtx  caeco 
P.Tpcttils  loliti  r»trc«  oiliBidcre  mi>u«»."        (-#».  vii.  174J 
Cf.  Hdt.  1.  81  ;  Judg.  IT.  27  ;  2  Kings  xix.  37. 

•  Tert.  De  Pratscr.  Haer.  8. 

10  viii.  1 — 13.  Here,  as  usual,  St.  Paul  shows  himself  transcendently  superior  to  the  Rabbis. 
In  Alhoda  Za.ro.  t.  8,  1,  R.  Ishmael  lays  down  the  rule  that  if  Israelites  "  outside  the.  land  "  are 


392  THE   LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

11.  And  at  this  point  begins  a  remarkable  digression,  which,  though  a  digression, 
iudirectly  supported  the  position  which  some  of  his  adversaries  had  impugned,  and 
though  personal  in  its  details,  is,  in  Paul's  invariable  manner,  made  subservient  to 
eternal  truths.  They  might  object  that  by  what  he  had  said  he  was  curtailing  their 
liberty,  and  mating  tho  conscience  of  the  weak  a  fetter  upon  the  intelligence  of  the 
strong.  Well,  without  putting  their  objection  in  so  many  words,  he  would  show 
them°that  he  practised  what  he  taught.  He,  too,  was  free,  and  an  Apostle,  their 
Apostle  at  any  rate,  and  had  every  right  to  do  aa  the  other  Apostles  did— the 
Desposyni,  and  Kephas  himself — in  expecting  Churches  to  support  them  and  their 
wives.1  That  right  he  even  defends  at  some  length,  both  by  earthly  analogies  of 
the  soldier,  husbandman,  and  shepherd,2  and  by  a  happy  Rabbinic  midrash  on  the 
non-muzzling  of  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  tho  corn ; s  and  by  tho  ordinary  rules  of 
gratitude  for  benefits  received  ;4  and  by  the  ordinance  of  the  Jewish  Temple,5  and 
the  rule  of  Christ;6  yet  plain  as  the  right  was,  and  strenuously  as  he  maintained  it, 
he  had  never  availed  himself  of  it,  and,  whatever  his  enemies  might  say,  he  never 
would.  He  must  preach  the  Gospel ;  he  could  not  help  himself ;  his  one  reward 
would  be  the  power  to  boast  that  lie  had  not  claimed  his  rights  to  the  fuU,  but  had 
made  the  Gospel  free,  and  so  removed  a  possible  source  of  hindrance.  Free,  then, 
aa  he  was,  he  had  made  himself  a  slave  (as  in  one  small  particular  he  was  asking 
them  to  do)  for  the  sake  of  others ;  a  slave  to  all,  that  he  might  gain  the  more ; 
putting  himself  in  their  place,  meeting  their  sympathies,  and  even  their  prejudices, 
half  way ;  becoming  a  Jew  to  the  Jews,  a  legalist  to  legalists,  without  law  to  those 
without  law  (never,  however,  forgetting  his  real  allegiance  to  the  law  of  Christ)/ 
weak  to  the  weak,  all  things  to  all  men  in  order  by  alf  means  to  save  somo.  And  if 
he  thus  denied  himself,  should  not  they  also  deny  themselves  ?  8  In  their  Isthmian, 
games  each  strove  to  gain  the  crown,  and  what  toil  and  temperance  they  endured  to 
win  that  fading  wreath  of  pine !  Paul  did  the  same.  He  ran  straight  .  <3  goal. 
Ho  aimed  straight  blows,  and  not  in  feint,  at  the  enemy ;  *  nay,  he  even  ;kened 
his  body  with  blows,  and  led  it  about  as  a  slave,10  lest  in  any  way  after  a^  -ng  as 
herald  to  others  he  himself  should  be  rejected  from  the  lists.11 

If  he  had  to  strive  so  hard,  could  the y  afford  to  take  things  so  easily  P  The 
Israelites  had  not  found  it  so  in  the  wilderness ;  they,  too,  were  in  a  sense  baptised 
unto  Moses  in  the  cloudy  pillar  and  the  Eed  Sea  waves  ;12  they,  too,  in  a  sense  par- 
took  of  the  Eucharist  in  eating  the  heavenly  manna,  and  drinking  of  the  sym "•  ilic 
following  rock  ;18  yet  how  many14  of  them  fell  because  of  gluttony,  and  idolatry,  ^nd 

tsked  to  a  Gentile  funeral  they  "  eat  of  the  sacrifices  of  the  dead,"  even  if  they  take  with  them  thsir 
own  food  and  are  waited  on  by  their  own  servants.  In  confirmation  of  which  hard  and  bigoted  da- 
cision  he  refers  to  Ex.  xxxiv.  15,  from  which  ha  inferred  that  the  acceptance  of  the  invitation  was 
equivalent  to  eating  the  sacrifice.  R.  Joehanan  the  Choronite  would  not  eat  moist  olives,  even  in  a 
time  of  famine,  if  bundled  by  an  am  haarets,  because  they  might  hava  absorbed  water,  and  so 
become  unclean  (YelHanoth,  f.  15,  2). 

I  I  have  here  endeavoured  to  make  clear  the  by  no  means  obvious  connexion  of  thought  which 
runs  through  these  chapters.    Possibly  there  may  have  been  some  accidental  transposition.     Those 
who  consider  2  Cor.  vi.  14 — vii.  1,  to  be  misplaced,  find  an  apt  space  for  it  here. 

*  IT.  7.  »  is.  8—10.  *  11, 12.  *  13.  «  14. 

7  He  describes  the  concessions  (<royicaTa0a(ric)  of  love.  "  Paulus  non  fuit  aaomus,  nedum 
antinomus"  (Bengel).  "The  Lawless"  is  the  name  by  which  be  is  covertly  calumniated  in  the 
spurious  letter  of  Peter  to  James  (CUmcntinss,  ch.  ii.). 

»  In  these  paragraphs  exhortations  to  the  general  duty  of  self-denial  are  closely  mingled  with 
the  arguments  in  favour  of  the  particular  self-denial — concession  to  the  weak — which  he  Is  urging 
'throughout  this  section.  "  In  the  one  party  faith  was  not  strong  enough  to  beget  a  liberalising 
knowledge,  not  strong  enough,  in  the  other  to  produce  a  brotherly  love"  (Kling). 

»  His  was  no  shain  fight  (o-x  ta^aWa) ;  he  struck  anything  rather  than  the  air  (is  ovie  if  pa  &4p*n>). 
The  B.V.  renders  as  though  it  were  OVY  w;  ««pa  Stpuv.  Cf.  yEn.  v.  446,  and  Wetst.  ad  loc. 

10  vroiriafw;  lit.,  "blacken  with  blows  under  the  eyes,  as  in  a  fight."  " Lividum  facio  corpus 
ineum  et  in  servitutem  rodigo"  (Ircn.  iv.  7). 

II  lx.  1 — 27 ;  Mipvt'of,  the  Christian  herald  of  the  laws  of  the,  contest,  is  alao  a  candidate  in  it. 
l*  FiduciA  verbi  Mosu  commiscrant  se  aqnis  (Melanethon). 

u  *.  4 — xi.  1.  Th«  division  of  chapters  here  stops  a  verse  too  short.  OB  St.  Paul's  spiritualisa- 
tton  and  praotioal  application  of  Old  Testament  history,  gee  sttura,  PP.  37—83.  For  other  instances 
toe  v.  T ;  GaL  IT.  M :  Heb.  vil.  Ac.). 

u  x.  a.     ••«  Twenty-t?w««  thousand."    Perhaps  a  o-#«LV^a  pmtpwucbi'  for  24,000  (Num.  sxv.  9}. 


CONDITION   OF  THE   CfitTRCH  A.T  COfclNTH.  393 

iust,  and  rebellion,  and  murmuring,  and  were  awful  warnings  against  overweening 
eetf -confidence !  Yea,  the  path  of  duty  was  difficult,  but  not  impossible,  and  no 
temptation  waa  beyond  human  power  to  resist,  because  with  the  temptation  God 
provided  also  the  escape.  Let  them  beware,  then,  of  all  this  scornful  indifference 
about  idolatry.  As  the  Eucharist  united  them  in  closest  communion  with  Christ, 
and  with  one  another,  so  that  by  all  partaking  of  the  one  bread  they  became  one 
body  and  one  bread,  so  the  partaking  of  Gentile  sacrifices  was  a  communion  with 
demons,1  The  idol  was  nothing,  as  they  had  urged,  but  it  represented  an  evil  spirit:8 
and  fellowship  with  demons  was  a  frightful  admixture  with  their  fellowship  in 
Christ,  a  dangerous  trilling  with  their  allegiance  to  God.  He  repeats  once  more 
that  what  ia  lawful  ia  not  always  either  expedient  or  edifying.  Let  sympathy,  not 
selfishness,  be  their  guiding  principle.  Over-scrupulosity  was  not  required  of  them. 
They  might  buy  in  the  market,  they  might  eat,  at  the  private  tables  of  the  heathen, 
what  they  would,  and  ask  no  questions ;  but  if  their  attention  was  prominently  drawm 
to  the  fact  that  any  dish  waa  part  of  an  idol-offering,  then— though  they  might  urge 
that  "the  earth  waa  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof,"  and  that  it  was  hard  for 
them  to  be  judged,  or  their  liberty  abridged  in  a  purely  indifferent  act,  which  they 
might  even  perform  in  a  religious  spirit — still  let  them  imitate  Paul's  own  example, 
which  he  had  just  fully  explained  to  them,  which  was,  indeed,  Christ's  example,  and 
consisted  in  being  absolutely  unselfish,  and  giving  no  wilful  offence  either  to  Jews 
or  Gentiles,  or  the  Church  of  God. 

In  this  noble  section  of  the  Epistle,  so  remarkable  for  its  tender  consideration 
and  its  robust  good  sense,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  whole  sympathies  of  St.  Paul  are 
theoretically  with  the  strong,  though  he  seems  to  fool  a  sort  of  practical  leaning  to 
the  ascetic  side.  He  does  not,  indeed,  approve,  under  any  circumstances,  of  an 
ostentatious,  defiant,  insulting  liberalism.  To  a  certain  extent  the  prejudices — even 
the  absurd  and  bigoted  prejudices — of  the  weak  ought  to  be  respected,  and  it  was 
selfish  and  wrong  needlessly  to  wound  them.  It  was  above  all  'wrong  to  lead  them 
by  example  to  do  violence  to  their  own  conscientious  scruples.  But  when  these 
scruples,  and  this  bigotry  of  the  weak,  became  in  their  turn  aggressive,  then  St. 
Paul  quite  sees  that  they  must  be  discouraged  and  suppressed,  lest  weakness  should 
lay  down  the  law  for  strength.  To  tolerate  the  weak  was  one  thing ;  to  let  them 
tyrannise  was  quite  another.  Their  ignorance  was  not  to  be  a  limit  to  real  know- 
ledge ;  their  purblind  gaze  waa  not  to  bar  up  the  horizon  against  true  insight ;  their 
slavish  superstition  waa  not  to  fetter  the  freedom  of  Christ.  In  matters  where  a 
little  consideratocess  and  self-denial  would  save  oSence,  there  the  strong  should  give 
up,  and  do  less  than  they  might ;  but  in  matters  which  affected  every  day  of  every 
year,  like  the  purchase  of  meat  in  the  open  market,  or  the  acceptance  of  ordinary 
invitations,  then  the  weak  must  not  attempt  to  be  obtrusive  or  to  domineer.  Some, 
doubtless,  would  use  hard  words  about  these  concessions.  They  might  charge  St. 
Paul,  as  they  had  charged  St.  Peter,  with  violating  the  awful  and  fiery  law.  They 
might  call  him  "  the  lawless  one,"  or  any  other  ugly  nick-name  they  liked ;  he  waa 
not  a  man  to  be  "feared  with  bugs,"  or  to  give  up  a  clear  and  certain  principle  to 
avoid  an  impertinent  and  senseless  clamour.  Had  he  been  charged  with  controver- 

1  Cf.  2  Cor.  vi.  14  sea.  Evil  spirits  occupied  a  large  part  of  the  thoughts  and  teaching  of  Jewish 
Rabbis  ;  e.g.,  Lilith,  Adam's  first  wife,  was  by  him  the  mother  of  all  demons  (Psachim,  f.  112, 2).  Ag 
the  Lord's  Supper  puts  the  Christian  in  mystical  union  wiin  Christ,  so  partaking  of  idol  feasts  puts 
the  partaker  into  symbolic  allegiance  to  devils.  Pfleiderer  con  pares  the  Greek  legend  that  by  eating 
&  fruit  of  the  nether  world  a  man  is  given  over  to  it  (PaiMnlsm,  I.  239). 

8  The  heathen  gods  as  idols  were  tlSui\a,  Elilvm,  supposititious,  unreal,  imaginary  ;  but  tn 
another  aspect  they  were  demons.  The  Rabbis,  in  the  same  way,  regard  idols  from  tiro  points  <4 
view— viz.,  as  dead  material  things,  and  as  demons.  "  Callest  thou an  idol  a  dog?"  said  "a philoso- 
pher" to  Rabban  Gamaliel.  "  An  idol  is  really  something."  "  What  is  it?"  asked  Gamaliel.  "Thew 
was  once  a  conflagration  in  our  town,"  said  the  philosopher,  "  and  the  temple  of  the  idol  remaitia.J 
Intact  when  every  house  was  burnt  down."  At  this  remark  the  Rabban  is  silent  (Abhoda,  Za.ro,  t  5^ 
SV  Almost  in  the  very  words  of  St  Paul,  £onan  once  said  to  R.  Akibha,  "  Both  thou  and  I  know 
that  an  idol  hath  nothing  in  it ;"  but  he  proceeds  to  ask  how  it  ia  that  miracles  of  healing  are  un- 
doubtedly wrought  at  idol  shrines  ?  Akibha  makes  the  healing  a  mere  accidental  coincidence  with 
the  time  when  the  chastisements  would  naturally  have  been  withdrawn  (Athoda  Zara,  t.  55, 1). 
14 


394  TflE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  FATTL. 

ting  the  wise  and  generous  but  local  and  temporary  agreement  which  has  been 
exalted  into  "the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Jerusalem,"  he  would  have  quietly 
answered  that  that  was  but  a  recommendation  addressed  to  a  few  predominantly 
Jewish  Churches;  that  it  did  not  profess  to  have  any  universal  or  permanent 
authority ;  and  that  he  was  now  arguing  the  case  on  its  own  merits,  and  laying 
down  principles  applicable  to  every  Church  in  which,  as  at  Corinth,  the  Gentiles 
formed  the  most  numerous  element. 

12.  A  minor  point  next  claimed  his  attention.    Some  men,  it  appears,  had  sat 
with  covered  heads  at  their  assemblies,  and  some  women  with  uncovered  heads,  and 
they  had  asked  his  opinion  on  the  matter.    Thanking  them  for  their  kind  expres- 
sions of  respect  for  his  rules  and  wishes,  he  at  once  decides  the  question  on  the 
highest  principles.    As  to  men  it  might  well  have  seemed  perplexing,  since  the 
Jewish  and  the  Eoman  custom  was  to  pray  with  covered,  and  the  Greek  eustom  to 
to  pray  with  uncovered,  heads.     St.  Paul  decides  for  the  Greek  custom.     Christ  is 
the  head  of  the  man,  and  man  might  therefore  stand  with  unveiled  head  before  God, 
and  if  he  veiled  his  head  he  did  it  needless  dishonour,  because  he  abnegated  the  high 
glory  which  had  been  bestowed  on  him  by  Christ's  incarnation.     Not  so  with  the 
woman.    The  head  of  the  woman  is  the  man,  and  therefore  in  holy  worship,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  of  her  lord,  she  ought  to  appear  with  veiled  head.1     Nature 
itself  taught  that  this  was  the  right  decision,  giving  to  the  woman  her  veil  of  hair, 
and  teaching  the  instinctive  lesson  that  a  shorn  head  was  a  disgrace  to  a  woman,  as 
long  hair,  the  sign  of  effeminacy,  was  a  disgrace  to  a  man.     The  unveiled  head  of 
the  man  was  also  the  sign  of  his  primeval  superiority,  and  the  woman  having  been 
'the  first  to  sin,  and  being  liable  to  be  seduced  to  sin,  ought  to  wear  "  power  on  her 
head  because  of  the  angels."*    Man  and  woman  were  indeed  one  in  Christ,  but  for 
that  very  reason  these  distinctions  of  apparel  should  be  observed.     At  any  rate, 
St.  Paul  did  not  mean  to  enter  into  any  dispute  on  the  subject.    If  nature  did 
not  teach  them  that  he  had  decided  rightly,  he  could  only  refer  them  to  the 
authority  of  custom,  and  that  ought  to  be  decisive,  except  to  those  who  loved 
contentiousness.1 

13.  Then  follows  a  stern  rebuke — all  the  sterner  for  the  self-restraint  of  its  twice- 
repeated  "I  praise  you  not" — for  the  shameful  selfishness  and  disorder  which  they 
had  allowed  to  creep  into  the  love-feasts  which  accompanied  the  Supper  of  the  Lord 
— especially  the  gluttony,  drunkenness,  and  ostentation  of  the  wealthier  members  of 
the  community,  and  the  contemptuous  indifference  which  they  displayed  to  the  needs 
and  sensibilities  of  their  poorer  neighbours.     The  simple  narrative  of  the  institution 
and  objects  of  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  which  he  had  received  from  the  Lord  and 
delivered  unto  them,  and  the  solemn  warning  of  the  danger  which  attended  ita 
profanation,  and  which  was  already  exhibited  in  the  sickness,  feebleness,  and  deaths 
of  many  among  them,  is  meant  to  serve  as  a  remedy  against  their  gross  disorders. 
He  tells  them  that  the  absence  of  a  discrimination  (SidKptons)  in  their  own  hearts  had 
rendered  necessary  a  judgment  (icpl(j.a)  which  was  mercifully  meant  as  a  training 

1  For  tamaian,  see  Stanley,  Corinth,  ad  tee.  The  attempts  to  read  exiousa,  &c.,  are  absurd.  The 
word  may  be  a  mere  colloquialism,  and  if  so  we  may  go  far  astray  in  trying  to  discover  the  explana- 
tion of  it  If  St.  Paul  invented  it,  it  may  be  a  Hebraism,  or  be  meant  to  Imply  her  own  true  power, 
•which  rests  in  accepting  the  sign  of  her  husband's  power  over  her.  Chardin  says  that  in  Persia  a 
veil  is  the  sign  that  married  women  "  are  under  subjection."  Compare  Milton's— 

"She  as  a  yell  down  to  the  slender  waist 
Her  unadorned  goUlcn  tresses  wore       .       . 
As  the  vine  waves  Us  tendrils,  which  implied. 
Subjection,  but  required  with  gentle  sway, 
And  by  ber  yielded,  by  him  best  received." 

See  Tert  De  Vel.  Virg.  7, 17 ;  and  in  illustration  of  Chrysostom's  view  there  alluded  to.  we  Tob.  xtL 
12 ;  Ps.  exxxviii.  1  (LXX.);  Epb,  Hi.  10. 

*  For  the  explanation  of  this  allusion  v,  infra,  Excursus  IV. 

*  xi.  1—17.    The  hist  phrase— interesting  as  showing  St  Paul's  dislike  to  needless  and  disturb- 
ing innovations— is  like  the  Rabbinic  phrase,  "  Our  Halacha  is  otherwise :"  yourcuatom  is  a  Thekanah, 
or  novelty,  a  •ertri  (BaWw  Uetiia,  t.  113). 


CONDITION  Ot  THE  CHURCH  At  CORINTH.  395 

)  to  save  them  from  final  condemnation  (xa.TdKpiiJ.ci).1  All  minor  matters 
about  \vhich  they  may  have  asked  him,  though  they  kept  back  the  confession  of  this 
their  shame,  are  left  by  the  Apostlo  to  be  regulated  by  himself  personally  on  his 
arrival.* 

14.  The  next  three  chapters — of  which  the  thirteenth,  containing  the  description 
of  charity,  is  the  most  glorious  gem,  even  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul — are  occupied 
with  the  answer  to  their  inquiries  about  spiritual  gifts.  Amid  the  wild  disorders 
which  we  have  been  witnessing  we  are  hardly  surprised  to  find  that  the  Glossolalia 
had  been  terribly  abused.  Some,  we  gather — either  because  they  had  given  the  reins 
to  the  most  uncontrollable  excitement,  and  were  therefore  the  impotent  victims  of 
any  blasphemous  thought  which  happened  for  the  moment  to  sweep  across  the 
troubled  horizon  of  their  souls;  or  from  some  darkening  philosophical  confusion, 
which  endeavoured  to  distinguish  between  the  Logos  and  Him  that  was  crucified, 
between  the  Man  Jesus  and  the  Lord  Christ ;  or  perhaps  again  from  some  yet  un- 
solved Jewish  difficulty  about  the  verse  "  Cursed  is  he  that  hangeth  on  a  tree  ;"* — 
amid  their  unintelligible  utterances,  had  been  heard  to  exclaim,  Anathema  lesou*, 
"  Jesus  is  accursed ;''  and,  having  as  yet  very  vague  notions  as  to  the  true  nature  of 
the  "  gift  of  tongues,"  the  Corinthians  had  asked  Paul  in  great  perplexity  what  they 
were  to  think  of  this  ?  His  direct  answer  is  emphatic.  \Vhcn  they  were  the  igno- 
rant worshippers  of  dumb  idols  they  may  have  been  accustomed  to  the  false  inspira- 
tion of  the  Pythia,  or  the  Sibyl — the  possessing  mastery  by  a  spiritual  influence 
which  expressed  itself  in  the  broken  utterance,  and  streaming  hair,  and  foaming  lip, 
and  which  they  might  take  to  be  the  spirit  of  Python,  or  Trophonius,  or  Dis.  But 
now  he  lays  down  the  great  principles  of  that  "  discernment  of  spirits,"  which 
should  enable  them  to  distinguish  the  rapt  utterance  of  divine  emotion  from  the 
mechanical  and  self -induced  frenzy  of  feminine  feebleness  or  hypocritical  supersti- 
tion. Whatever  might  be  the  external  phenomena,  the  utterances  of  the  Spirit  were 
one  in  import.  No  man  truly  inspired  by  Him  could  say,  "  Anathema  is  Jesus ; "  *  or 
uninspired  by  Him  could  say  from  the  heart,  "  Jesus  is  the  Lord."  The  charismata, 
or  gifts,  were  different ;  the  "administrations"  of  them,  or  channels  of  their  working, 
were  different ;  the  operations,  energies,  or  effects  of  them  were  different ;  but  the 
source  of  them  was  One — one  Holy  Ghost,  from  whom  they  are  all  derived ;  one 
Lord,  by  whom  all  true  ministries  of  them  are  authorised;  one  God,  who  worketh 
all  their  issues  in  all  who  possess  them.5  And  this  diverse  manifestation  of  one 
Spirit,  whether  practical  wisdom  or  scientific  knowledge ;  whether  the  heroism  of 
faith  with  its  resultant  gifts  of  healing,  or  energies  of  power,  or  impassioned  utter- 
ance, or  the  ability  to  distinguish  between  true  and  false  spiritual  manifestations ; 
or,  again,  kinds  of  tongues,  or  the  interpretation  of  tongues,6  were  all  subordinated 
to  one  sole  end — edification.  And,  therefore,  to  indulge  in  any  conflict  between  gifts, 
any  rivalry  in  their  display,  was  to  rend  asunder  the  unity  which  reigned  supreme 
through  this  rich  multiplicity ;  to  throw  doubt  on  the  unity  of  their  origin,  to  ruin 
the  unity  of  their  action.  The  gifts,  whether  healings,  helps,  governments,  or 
tongues,  occurred  separately  in  different  individuals ;  but  each  of  these — whether 

1  These  distinctions,  so  essential  to  the  right  understanding  of  the  passage,  are  hopelessly 
obliterated  in  the  E.V.,  which  also  swerves  from  its  usual  rectitude  by  rendering  ij  "and"  instead 
of  "or"  inver.  27,  thatit  might  not  seem  to  sanction  "  communion  in  one  kind."  The  "unworthily" 
In  ver.  29  is  perhaps  a  gloss,  though  a  correct  one.  The  K\U>II*VOV,  "  broken,"  of  ver.  24  seems  to  have 
been  tampered  with  from  dogmatic  reasons.  It  is  omitted  in  m,  A,  B,  C,  and  D  reads  Opvirroiievov, 
perhaps  because  of  John  xix.  36. 

»  xi.  17—34.  i  Deut  xxi.  23. 

*  Perhaps  a  gross  and  fearful  abuse  of  the  principle  Involved  in  2  Cor.  v.  16,  as  though  people  of 
spiritual  intuitions  were  emancipated  from  the  mere  acknowledgment  of  Jesus.    One  could  easily 
expect  this  from  what  we  know  of  the  "  everlasting  Gospel "  In  the  thirteenth  century,  and  of  similar 
movements  in  different  times  of  the  Church  (Maurice,  Unity,  445).     How  startling  to  these  illuminati 
to  be  told  that  the  highest  operation  of  the  Spirit  was  to  acknowledge  Jesus  I 

*  James  i.  17. 

*  rii.  8 — 10.    I  have  indicated,  without  dwelling  on,  the  possible  classification  hinted  at  by  the 
trtp*  (9, 10),  as  contrasted  with  the  &  niv  and  aM«.    "Knowledge  (yvwats)  as  distinguished  from 

,"  deals  with  "mysteries"  (xiii.  2;  xv.  51 ;  viii.  passim). 


396  THB   LIS-B  AND  WOEK  OS1  ST.   PAtJL. 

Apostle,  or  prophet,  or  teacher — was  but  a  baptised  member  of  the  one  body  of 
Christ ;  and  by  a  fresh  application  of  the  old  classic  fable  of  Menenius  Agrippa,  he 
once  more  illustrates  the  fatal  results  which  must  ever  spring  from  any  strife 
between  the  body  and  its  members.1  Let  them  covet  the  better  gifts — and  tongues, 
in  which  thev  gloried  most,  he  has  studiously  set  last — and  yet  he  is  now  about  to 
point  cut  to  them  a  path  more  transcendent  than  any  gifts.  And  then,  rising  on  the 
wings  of  inspired  utterance,  he  pours  forth,  as  from  the  sunlit  mountain  heights, 
his  glorious  hymn  to  CHRISTIAN  LOVE.  Without  it  a  man  may  speak  with  human, 
aye,  and  even  angelic  tongues,  and  yet  have  become  but  as  booming  gong  or  clang- 
ing cymbal.*  "Without  it,  whatever  be  his  unction,  or  insight,  or  knowledge,  or 
mountain-moving  faith,  a  man  is  nothing.  Without  it  he  may  dole  away  all  hia 
possessions,  and  give  bis  body  to  be  burned,  yet  is  profited  nojhing.  Thoa  follows 
that  description  of  love,  which  should  be  written  in  letters  oi  gold  on  every 
Christian's  heart — its  patience,  its  kindliness ;  its  freedom  from  envy,  vaunting  self- 
assertion,8  inflated  arrogance,  vulgar  indecorum ;  its  superiority  to  self-seeking ;  its 
calm  control  of  temper ;  its  oblivion  of  wrong ;«  its  absence  of  joy  at  the  wrongs  of 
others ;  its  sympathy  with  the  truth ;  its  gracious  tolerance ;  its  trustfulness ;  its 
hope ;  its  endurance.*  Preaching,  and  tongues,  and  knowledge,  are  but  partial,  and 
thall  be  done  away  when  the  perfect  has  come ;  but  love  is  a  flower  whose  petals 
never  fall  off.*  Those  are  but  as  the  lispings,  and  emotions,  and  reasonings  of  a 
child ;  but  this  belongs  to  the  perfect  manhood,  when  we  shall  see  God,  not  as  in  the 
dim  reflection  of  a  mirror,  but  face  to  face,  and  know  him,  not  in  part,  but  fully, 
even  as  now  we  are  fully  known.  Faith,  and  hope,  and  love,  are  all  three,  not 
transient  gifts,  but  abiding  graces ;  but  the  greatest  of  these — the  greatest  because 
it  is  the  root  of  the  other  two ;  the  greatest  because  they  are  for  ourselves,  but  love 
is  for  others ;  the  greatest  because  neither  in  faith  nor  in  hope  is  the  entire  and 
present  fruition  of  heaven,  but  only  in  the  transcendent  and  illimitable  blessedness 
of  "faith  working  by  love;"  the  greatest  because  faith  and  hope  are  human,  but 
love  is  essentially  divine — the  greatest  of  these  is  love.7 

15.  On  such  a  basis,  so  divine,  so  permanent,  it  was  easy  to  build  the  decision 
about  the  inter-relation  of  spiritual  gifts ;  easy  to  see  that  preaching  was  superior 
to  glossolaly ;  because  the  one  was  an  introspective  and  mostly  unintelligible  exercise, 
the  other  a  source  of  general  advantage.  The  speaker  with  tongues,  unless  he  could 
also  interpret,  or  unless  another  could  interpret  for  him  his  inarticulate  ecstacies, 
did  but  utter  indistinct  sounds,  like  the  uncertain  blaring  of  a  trumpet  or  the  con- 
fused discordances  of  a  harp  or  flute.  Apart  from  interpretation  "  tongues"  were  a 
mere  talking  into  air.  They  were  as  valueless,  as  completely  without  significance, 
as  the  jargon  of  a  barbarian.  Since  they  were  so  proud  of  these  displays,  let  them 
pray  for  ability  to  interpret  their  rhapsodies.  The  prayer,  the  song  of  the  spirit, 
should  be  accompanied  by  the  assent  of  the  understanding,  otherwise  the  "tongue" 
was  useless  to  any  ordinary  worshipper,  nor  could  they  claim  a  share  in  what  was 
said  by  adding  their  Ainen*  to  the  voice  of  Eucharist.  Paul,  too — and  he  thanked 

1  xil.  1—31.  See  a  noble  passage  in  Maurice,  !7««y,469,  seq.,  contrasting  this  conception  with 
the  artificial  view  of  society  in  Hobbes'  Leviathan.  The  absolute  unity  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  (ver.  13) 
exhibited  in  baptism  and  toe  Lord's  Supper, — whence  it  resulted  that  the  Jews  would  henceforth  be 
but  "  a  dwindling  majority  in  the  Messianic  kingdom," — was,  with  the  Cross,  the  chief  Btvuiibling- 
block  to  the  Jews. 

'  "Ephyreia  aera"  (Virg.  Georg.  1L  464);  Corinthian  brass  (Plin.  H.  N.  34,  2,  8). 

*  Ver. 4,ov irepirtpoJeTot.  Perperus,  "abraggart."  "Heavens!  howI«/iow«ioif(eVe»r«?iU(><a'o-a/iJjJ') 
before  my  new  auditor,  Pompeius  1"  (Cio.  ad  Alt.  i.  14). 

*  Kiii.  5,  "  does  not  reckon  the  wrong."    The  opposite  of  "  all  his  faults  observed,  set  in  a  note- 
book." 

*  Ver.  7,  «rrrfy«  means  "bears,"  "endures."    Its  classic  meaning  Is  "holds  water;"  and  this  is 
also  true  of  love  with  its  gracious  reticences  and  suppressions,  oufiev  fiou'avtrov  iv  ay an^  (Clem.  Rom.). 

'  Ver.  8,  oiStnoTt  cxiriirret.  So  we  may  understand  the  metaphor,  as  in  James  i.  11,  c£«r«rt 
(Tsa.  xrviii.  4) ;  others  prefer  the  classic  sense,  "is  never  hissed  off  the  stage ; "  has  its  part  to  play 
on  the  stage  of  eternity. 

1  xil.  §1— xiii.  13. 

*  xiv.  I6,w»ttfpsi  TO  'Ajuijv,    "He  who  gays  Amen  la  greater  than  be  who  blesses"   (BtracMth, 
yiii.  8), 


CONDITION  OF  THE  CHTTECH   AT  CORINTH.  39? 

Gk»d  that  he  was  capable  of  this  deep  spiritual  emotion — was  more  liable  to  the  im- 
pulse of  gloseolaly  than  any  of  them;1  yet  so  little  did  he  value  it — we  may  evsn 
Bay  so  completely  did  he  disparage  it  as  a  part  of  public  worship— that  after  telling 
them  that  he  had  rather  speak  five  intelligible  words  to  teach  others  than  ten 
thousand  words  in  "  a  tongue,"1  he  bids  them  not  to  be  little  children  in  intelligence, 
but  to  be  babes  in  vice,  and  quotes  to  them,  in  accordance  with  that  style  of  adapta- 
tion with  which  his  Jewish  converts  would  have  been  familiar,  a  passage  of  Isaiah,8 
in  which  Jehovah  threatens  the  drunken  priests  of  Jerusalem  that  since  they  would 
not  listen  to  the  simple  preaching  of  the  prophet,  he  would  teach  them — and  that, 
too,  ineffectually — by  conquerors  who  spoke  a  tongue  which  they  did  not  understand. 

tFrom  this  he  argues  that  "tongues"  are  not  meant  for  the  Church  at  all,  but  are  a 
sign  to  unbelievers;  and  that,  it  exercised  ia  the  promiscuous  way  which  was  coming 
into  vogue  at  Corinth,  would  only  awaken,  even  in  unbelievers,  the  contemptuous 
remark  that  they  were  a  set  of  insane  fanatics,  whereas  the  effect  of  preaching  might 
be  intense  conviction,  prostrate  worship,  and  an  acknowledgment  of  the  presence  of 
God  among  them.4 

16.  The  disorders,  then,  in  the  Corinthian  Church  had  sprung  from  the  selfish 
struggle  of  each  to  show  off  his  own  special  gift,  whether  tongue,  or  psalm,  or  teach- 
ing, or  revelation.  If  they  would  bear  in  mind  that  edification  was  the  object  of 
werii'dp,  such  scenes  would  not  occur.  Only  a  few  at  a  time,  therefore,  were  to 
spe  :k  witfc  tongues,  and  only  in  case  some  one  could  interpret,  otherwise  they  were 
to  suppress  the  impulse.  Nor  were  two  people  ever  to  be  preaching  at  the  same  time. 
If  the  rivalry  of  unmeaning  sounds  among  the  glossolalists  had  been  fostered  by 
eoine  Syrian  enthusiast,  the  less  intolerable  but  still  highly  objectionable  disorder  of 
rival  preachers  absorbed  in  the  "egotism  of  oratory"  was  an  abuse  introduced  by 
the  admirers  of  Apollos.  In  order  to  remedy  this,  he  lays  down  the  rule  that  if  one 
preacher  was  speaking,  and  another  felt  irresistibly  impelled  to  say  something,  the 
first  was  to  cease.  It  was  idle  to  plead  that  they  could  not  control  themselves.  The 
spirits  which  inspire  the  true  prophet  are  under  the  prophet's  due  control,  and  God 
is  the  author,  not  of  confusion  but  of  peace.  Women  were  not  to  speak  in  church 
at  all ;  and  if  they  wanted  any  ezplanations  they  must  ask  their  husbands  at  homo. 
This  was  the  rule  of  all  Churches,  and  who  were  thev  that  they  should  alter  these 
wise  and  good  regulations  ?  Were  they  the  earliest  Church  ?  Were  they  the  only 
Church  ?  A  true  preacher,  a  man  truly  spiritual,  would  at  once  recognise  that  these 
were  the  commands  of  the  Lord ;  and  to  invincible  bigotry  and  obstinate  ignorance 
Paul  has  no  more  to  say.  The  special  conclusion  is  that  preaching  is  to  be  encou- 
raged, and  glossolaly  not  forbidden,  provided  that  it  did  not  mtprf ero  with  the  general 
rule  that  everything  is  to  be  done  in  decency  and  order.  It  is,  however,  extremely 
probable  that  the  almost  contemptuous  language  of  the  Apostle  towards  "the 
tongues" — a  manifestation  at  first  both  sacred  and  impressive,  but  liable  to  easy 
simulation  and  grave  abuse,  and  no  longer  adapted  to  serve  any  useful  function — 
tended  to  suppress  the  display  of  emotion  which  he  thus  disparaged.  Certain  it  ia 
that  from  this  time  forward  we  hear  little  or  nothing  of  "  the  gift  of  tongues."  It 
— or  something  which  on  a  lower  level  closely  resembled  it — has  re-appeared  again 
and  again  at  different  places  and  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  Christiam  Church.  It 
scorns,  indeed,  to  be  a  natural  consequence  of  fresh  and  overpowering  religions 
emotion.  But  it  can  be  so  easily  imitated  by  the  symptoms  of  hysteria,  and  it  leads 
to  consequences  BO  disorderly  and  deplorable,  that  except  as  a  rare  and  isolated 
phenciiianoa  it  haa  been  generally  discountenanced  by  that  seaso  o£  tho  neccssity 

1  Why  does  he  thank  God  for  a  gift  which  he  is  rating  so  low  «a  an  element  of  worship  ?  Because 
the  highest  value  of  it  was  tubJKtivt.  He  who  was  capable  of  it  was,  at  any  rate,  not  dei-l  :  hi» 
heart  was  not  petrified ;  he  was  not  past  feeling ;  he  could  feel  the  direct  influence  of  the  Bpiiil  o! 
God  upon  Jiis  spirit. 

'  "Rather  half  of  ten  of  tho  edify  ing  sort  than  a  thonaand  times  ten  of  the  other"  (Beeser). 

»  itv.  SI,  Iv  T<?  vo^w.    So  Ps.  Ixsxii.  0  ia  quoted  as  "the  Law"  in  John  x.  31.     On  iUs  pas 
v.  twpra,  p.  SO. 

•  sir.  l-2«. 


898  THE   LIFE   AND   WOBK   OF   ST.  PAtTI» 

for  decency  and  order  which  the  Apostle  here  lays  down,  anl  which  has  been 
thoroughly  recognised  by  the  calm  wisdom  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  control 
and  suppression  of  the  impassioned  emotion  which  expressed  itself  in  glossolaly  is 
practically  its  extinction,  though  this  in  no  way  involves  the  necessary  extinction  of 
the  inspiring  convictions  from  which  it  sprang.1 

17.  Then  follows  the  immortal  chapter  in  which  he  confirms  their  faith  in  the 
resurrection,  and  removes  their  difficulties  respecting  it.  If  they  would  not  nullify 
their  acceptance  of  the  Gospel  in  which  they  stood,  and  by  which  they  were  saved, 
they  must  hold  fast  the  truths  which  he  again  declares  to  them,  that  Christ  died  for 
our  sins,  was  buried,  and  had  been  raised  the  third  day.  He  enumerates  His  appear- 
ances to  Kephas,  to  the  Twelve,  to  more  than  five  hundred  at  once  of  whom  the 
majority  were  yet  living,  to  James,  to  all  the  Apostles ;  last,  as  though  to  the  abor- 
tive-born, even  to  himself.2  "  For  I  am  the  least  of  the  Apostles,  who  am  not 
adequate  to  be  called  an  Apostle,  because  I  persecuted  the  Church  of  God.  Yet  by 
the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am,  and  His  grace  towards  me  has  not  proved  in  vain, 
but  more  abundantly  than  all  of  them  I  laboured — yet.  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God 
which  was  with  me ;  whether,  then,  it  be  I  or  they,  so  we  preach,  and  so  ye 
believed."  * 

If,  then,  Christ  had  risen,  whence  came  the  monstrous  doctrine  of  some  of  them 
that  there  was  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  The  two  truths  stood  or  fell  together. 
If  Christ  had  not  risen,  their  faith  was  after  all  a  chimera,  their  sins  were  unf orgiven, 
their  dead  had  perished ;  and  if  their  hope  in  Christ  only  was  a  hope  undestined  to 
fruition,  they  were  the  most  pitiable  of  men.  But  since  Christ  had  risen,  we  also 
shall  rise,  and  as  all  men  share  the  death  brought  in  by  Adam,  so  all  shall  be  quick- 
ened unto  life  in  Christ.4  But  each  in  his  own  rank.  The  firstfruits  Christ ;  then 
His  redeemed  at  His  appearing,  when  even  death,  the  last  enemy,  shall  be  reduced 
to  impotence ;  then  the  end,  when  Christ  shall  give  up  His  mediatorial  kingdom, 
and  God  shall  be  all  in  all.  And  if  there  were  no  resurrection,  what  became  of  their 
practice  of  getting  themselves  baptised  for  the  dead? 6  And  why  did  the  Apostles 
brave  the  hourly  peril  of  death  ?  By  his  boast  of  them  in  Christ  he  asseverates 
that  his  life  is  a  daily  dying.  And  if,  humanly  speaking,  he  fought  beasts  at 
Ephesus,8  what  would  be  the  gain  to  him  if  the  dead  rise  not  ?  The  Epicureans 
would  then  have  some  excuse  for  their  base  sad  maxim,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die."  Was  it  intercourse  with  the  heathen  that  produced  their 
dangerous  unbelief  ?  Oh,  let  them  not  be  deceived !  let  them  beware  of  this 
dangerous  leaven  !  "  Base  associations  destroy  excellent  characters."  Let  them 
awake  at  once  to  righteousness  out  of  their  drunken  dream  of  disbelief ,  and  break  off 
the  sinful  habits  which  it  engendered !  Its  very  existence  among  them  was  an 
ignorance  of  God,  for  which  they  ought  to  blush.7 

i  Jdv.  26-40. 

*  xv.  8,  r<f  inrpiaiLari.  (cf.  Num.  xil.  12,  LXX. ;  see  also  Ps.  lyill.  8). 

*  xv.  1—12  (cf.  Epict.  Diss.  iii.  1,  80). 

*  "  Even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."    Here  is  one  of  the  antinomies  which  St.  Paul 
leaves  side  by  side.    On  the  one  hand,  "lift;  in  Christ"  is  co-extensive  with  "death  in  Adam  ;"  on 
the  other,  only  those  who  are  "  in  Christ"  shall  be  made  alive.    Life  here  can  hardly  mean  less  than 
salvation.    But  it  is  asserted  of  all  universally,  and  Adam  and  Christ  are  contrasted  as  death  and 
life.    Certainly  in  this  and  other  places  the  Apostle's  language  suggests  the  natural  conclusion  that 
"  the  principle  which  has  come  to  actuality  in  Christ  is  of  sufficient  energy  to  quicken  all  men  for  the 
resurrection  to  the  blessed  life  "    (Baur,  Paul.  ii.  219).    But  if  we  desire  to  arrive  at  a  rigid  eschato- 
logical  doctrine  we  must  compare  one  passage  with  another.    See  Excursus  XXI.,    "Theology  and 
Antinomies  of  St.  Paul." 

s  Perhaps  this  is  only  a  passing  argumentumad  Juminem;  if  so  it  shows  St.  Paul's  large  tolerance 
that  he  does  not  here  pause  to  rebuke  so  superstitious  a  practice.  It  needs  no  proof  that  "baptism 
for  the  dead"  means  "  baptism  for  the  dead,"  and  not  the  meanings  which  commentators  put  into  it, 
who  go  to  Scripture  to  support  tradition,  not  to  seek  for  truth. 

6  Of  course  metaphorically,  or  he  would  have  mentioned  it  in  2  Cor.  xi.  His  three  points  in  29 
— 34  are— if  there  be  no  resurrection  (1)  why  do  some  of  you  get  yourselves  baptised  to  benefit  your 
relatives  who  have  died  uubapt.ised  ?— -(2)  Why  do  we  live  in  such  self-sacrifice  ?  (:<)  What  possibility 
would  there  be  of  resisting  Ei>ii;urc£u  views  of  life  tiuotu{  men  in  general  f 

1  JY.  12-25. 


CONDITION   OV  THE   CHUBCH  AT  COBINTH.  399 

And  aa  for  material  difficulties,  Paul  does  not  merely  fling  them  aside  with  a 
"  Senseless  one ! "  but  says  that  the  body  dies  as  the  seed  dies,  and  our  resurrection 
bodies  shall  differ  as  the  grain  differs  with  the  nature  of  the  sown  seed,  or  as  one 
star  differs  from  another  in  glory.  The  corruption,  the  indignity,  the  strengthless- 
ness  of  the  mortal  body,  into  which  at  birth  the  soul  is  sown,  shall  be  replaced  by 
the  incorruption,  glory,  power  of  the  risen  body.  The  spiritual  shall  follow  the 
natural ;  the  heavenly  image  of  Christ's  quickening  spirit  replace  the  earthly  image 
of  Adam,  the  mere  living  souL1  Thus  in  a  few  simple  words  does  St.  Paul  sweep 
away  the  errors  of  Christians  about  the  physical  identity  of  the  resurrection-body 
with  the  actual  corpse,  which  have  given  rise  to  so  many  scornful  materialist  objec- 
tions. St.  Paul  does  not  say  with  Prudentius —  . . 

"He  nee  dente,  nee  ungne 
Vraodatum  redimet  patefacti  foen  Kpulcri;" 

but  that  "  flesh  and  blood"  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God ;  that  at  Christ's 
coining  the  body  of  the  living  Christian  will  pass  by  transition,  that  of  the  dead 
Christian  by  resurrection,  into  a  heavenly,  spiritual,  and  glorious  body.3 

The  body,  then,  was  not  the  same,  but  a  spiritual  body  ;  so  that  all  coarse 
material  difficulties  were  idle  and  beside  the  point.  In  one  moment,  whether  quick 
or  dead,  at  the  sounding  of  the  last  trumpet,  we  should  be  changed  from  the 
corruptible  to  incorruption,  from  the  mortal  to  immortality.  "  Then  shall  be 
fulfilled  the  promise  that  is  written,  Death  is  swallowed  up  into  victory.  Where,  O 
death,  is  thy  sting  ?  where,  O  death,  thy  victory  ?*  The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  the 
power  of  sin  is  the  law.  But  thanks  be  to  God,  who  is  giving  us  the  victory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore,  my  brethren  beloved,  prove  yourselves  steadfast, 
immovable,  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  always,  knowing  that  your  toil  ia 
not  fruitless  in  the  Lord."4 

So  ends  this  glorious  chapter — the  hope  of  millions  of  the  living,  the  consolation 
for  the  loss  of  millions  of  the  dead.  And  if,  as  we  have  seen,  Paul  was  the  most 
tried,  in  this  life  the  most  to  be  pitied  of  men,  yet  what  a  glorious  privilege  to  him 
in  his  trouble,  what  a  glorious  reward  to  him  for  all  his  labours  and  sufferings,  that 
he  should  have  been  so  gifted  and  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit  as  to  be  enabled 
thus,  incidentally  as  it  were,  to  pour  forth  words  which  rise  to  a  region  far  above 
all  difficulties  and  objections,  and  which  teach  us  to  recognise  in  death,  not  the 
curse,  but  the  coronation,  not  the  defeat,  but  the  victory,  not  the  venomous  serpent, 

1  xv.  35 — 50.  In  this  chapter  there  is  the  nearest  approach  to  natural  (as  apart  from  wrcMUctural 
and  agonistic)  metaphors.  Dean  Howson  (Charact.  of  St.  P.  6)  point*  out  that  there  is  more  imagery 
from  natural  phenomena  in  the  single  Epistle  of  St.  James  than  in  all  St.  Paul's  Epistles  put 
together. 

»  Ver.  52.  "  The  dead  shall  be  raised,  we  (the  living)  shall  be  changed."  Into  the  question  of 
the  intermediate  state  St.  Paul,  expecting  a  near  coming  of  Christ,  scarcely  enters.  Death  was 
Koiiiacrdat,  resurrection  was  <rvi>&ota.<r8f)v<u..  Did  he  hold  that  there  was  an  intermediate  provisional 
building  of  God's  which  awaited  us  in  heaven  after  the  stripping  off  of  our  earthly  tent  t  The  nearest 
allusion  to  the  question  may  be  found  in  2  Cor.  v. ;  1—4  (Pfleiderer,  L  261). 

»  Swart  (not  o^T)),  M  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  P,  G. 

4  xv.  60 — 58.  "  It  is  very  evident  that  the  Apostle  here  regards  the  whole  history  of  the  world 
and  men  as  the  scene  of  the  conflict  of  two  principles,  one  of  which  has  sway  at  first,  but  is  then 
attacked  and  conquered,  and  finally  destroyed  by  the  other.  The  first  of  these  principles  is  death  ; 
the  history  of  the  world  begins  with  this,  and  comes  to  a  close  when  death,  and  with  death  the 
dualism  of  which  history  U  the  development,  has  entirely  disappeared  from  it"  (Baur,  Paul.  ii.  225). 
In  this  chapter  the  only  resurrection  definitely  spoken  of  is  a  resurrection  "hi Christ"  On  fb&final 
destiny  of  those  who  are  now  perishing  (ajroAAufww>i)  St  Paul  never  touches  with  any  deflniteness. 
But  he  speaks  of  the  final  conquest  of  death,  the  last  enemy— where  "  death  "  seems  to  be  used  in  its 
deeper  spiritual  and  scriptural  sense  ;  he  says  (Rom.  viii.  19 — 23)  that  "the  whole  creation  (iraou  ij 
KTIO-IS)  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God ; "  he  contrasts  the  universality  of  man's  disobedience  with  the  universality  of  God's  mercy  ;  ha 
says  where  sin  abounded  there  grace  did  much  more  abound  (Rom.  v.  20) ;  he  speaks  of  God's  will  to 
bestow  universal  favour  commensurate  with  universal  sin  (Rom.  xi.  32) ;  he  dwells  on  the  solution  of 
dualism  in  unity  and  the  tending  of  all  things  into  God  (tit  O.VTOV  TO.  wdvra,  Rom.  xi.  30—36)  ;  hig 
whole  splendid  philosophy  of  history  consists  in  showing  (Rom.  Gal.  passim)  that  each  lower  and 
sadder  stage  and  moment  of  man's  condition  is  a  necessary  means  of  achieving  the  higher ;  and  he 
says  that  God,  at  last,  "  shall  bo  all  in  all."  Whatever  antinomies  may  be  left  unsolved,  let  Christians 
<My  -weigh  th«gB  truth* 


'400  TBTB  LIFE  AITD  WORK  OP  BT.  FA.VL. 


but  tile  vetted  aagel,  not  the  worst  enemy,  but  the  greatest  birthright  of  mankind. 
Not  by  denunciation  of  unorthodoxy,  not  by  impatient  crushing  of  discussion,  not  by 
the  stunning  blows  of  indignant  authority,  does  he  meet  an  unbelief  even  so  strange, 
and  so  closely  affecting  the  very  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity,  as  a  denial  of 
t&o  resurrection ;  but  by  personal  appeals,  by  helpful  analogies,  by  calm  and  lofty 
reasoning,  by  fervent  exhortations,  by  the  glowing  eloquence  of  inspired  convictions. 
Anathema  would  have  been  worse  than  useless ;  at  excommunication  he  does  not 
BO  much  aa  hint ;  but  the  refutation  of  perilous  error  by  the  presentation  of  ennobling 
truth  has  won,  in  the  confirmation  of  the  faith,  in  the  brightening  of  the  hope  oi 
centuries,  its  high  and  permanent  reward. 

Let  us  also  observe  that  St.  Paul's  inspired  conviction  of  the  Resurrection  rests, 
like  all  his  theology,  on  the  thought  that  the  life  of  the  Christian  is  a  life  "  in  Christ." 
On  Plato's  fancies  about  our  reminiscence  of  a  previous  state  of  being  he  does  not 
touch ;  but  for  the  unfulfilled  ideas  on  which  Plato  builds  he  offers  the  fulfilled  ideal 
of  Christ.  He  founds  no  arguments,  as  Kant  does,  on  the  failure  of  mankind  to 
obey  the  "  categorical  imperative"  of  duty ;  but  he  points  to  the  Sinless  Man.  He 
does  not  follow  the  ancients  in  dwelling  on  false  analogies  like  the  butterfly  ;  nor  is 
he  misled  like  hia  very  ablest  contemporaries  and  successors  by  the  then  prevalent 
fable  of  the  Phoenix.  He  does  not  argue  from  the  law  of  continuity,  or  the  inde- 
structibility of  atoms,  or  the  permanence  of  force,  or  the  general  belief  ef  mankind. 
But  his  main  thought,  his  main  argument  is — Ye  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  risen  ; 
if  ye  died  with  him  to  sin,  ye  shall  also  live  with  him  to  righteousness  here,  and 
therefore  to  glory  hereafter.  The  life  ye  now  live  is  lived  in  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  and  being  eternal  in  its  very  nature,  contains  in  itself  the  pledge  of  its  own 
inextinguishable  vitality.  He  teaches  us  alike  in  the  phenomena  of  human  sin  and 
of  human  sanctity  to  see  the  truth  of  the  Resurrection.  For  tho  forgiveness  of  sin 
Christ  died  ;  for  the  reward  and  the  hope  and  the  support  of  holiness  he  lives  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.  He  does  not  so  much  argue  in  favour  of  the  Eesurrection  a9 
represent  it,  and  make  us  feel  its  force.  The  Christian's  resurrection  from  the  death 
of  sin  to  the  life  of  righteousness  transcends  and  involves  the  lesser  miracle  of  his 
resurrection  from  the  sleep  of  death  to  the  life  of  heaven. 

18.  The  Epistle  closes  with  practical  directions  and  salutations.  He  establishes 
a  weekly  offertory,  as  he  had  done  in  Galataa,  for  the  saints  at  Jerusalem.  He  tella 
them  that  he  will  either — should  it  be  worth  while— tako  it  himself  to  Jerusalem, 
or  entrust  it  with  commendatory  letters  from  them,  to  any  delegates  whom  they 
might  approve.  He  announces  without  comment  his  altered,  intention  of  not  taking 
them  en  route  as  he  went  to  Macedonia,  as  well  as  on  his  return,  and  so  giving  them 
a  double  visit,  but  tells  them  that  he  should  come  to  them  by  way  of  Macedonia,  and 
probably  spend  the  winter  with  them,  that  they  might  help  Ixim  on  his  further 
journey ;  and  that  he  means  to  remain  in  Ephesus  till  Pentecost,  because  a  great 
door  is  open  to  him,  and  there  are  many  adversaries. 

Timothy  will  perhaps  come  to  them.  If  so  they  are  not  to  despise  hia  youth,  or 
alarm  his  timidity  by  opposition,  but  to  aid  his  holy  work,  and  to  help  him  peacefully 
on  his  way  to  the  Apostle  with  those  who  accompanied  him.  They  had  asked  that 
Apollos  might  visit  them.  St.  Paul  had  done  his  best  to  second  their  wishes,  but 
Apollos — though  holding  out  hopes  of  a  future  visit — declined  to  come  at  present, 
actuated  in  all  probability  by  a  generous  feeling  that,  under  present  circunistaneoi, 
Ilia  visit  would  do  more  harm  than  good.1 

Then  a  brief  vivid  exhortation.  ""Watch!  stand  in  the  faith  I  be  men!  bo 
strong !  let  all  your  affairs  be  in  love." 

Then  a  few  words  of  kindly  eulogy  of  Stephanas,  Fortunatus,  and  Achaicus— of 
whom  Stephanas  had  been  the  earliest  Achaian  convert— who  devoted  themselves  to 
ministry  to  the  saints,  and  by  their  visit  had  consoled  A»»»for  his  absence  from  them, 
and  them  by  eliciting  this  Epistle.  He  urges  thorn  to  pay  due  regard  and  deference 
to  all  such  true  labourers.  It  is  not  impossible  that  these  few  words  may  have  been 

.:•)'.'  7=.  ,i      '  .lir  i'.ftfatvi  ||--«t»  '•*•'•' 

1  zvt  U>.MA-{fM  dow  not  mean  "  Apollos'  will,"  but  (probably)  "God's  irilL* 


SECOND   EPISTLE  TO  THE  COSINTHIANS.  401 

added  by  an  afterthought,  lest  the  Corinthians  should  suppose  that  it  was  from  these 
— especially  if  they  were  of  Chloe's  household — that  St.  Paul  had  heard  such  dis- 
tressing accounts  of  the  Church,  and  so  should  he  inclined  to  receive  them  badly  on 
their  return.  Then  the  final  autograph  salutation : — 

"The  salutation  of  me,  Paul,  with  my  own  hand ; "  but  before  he  can  pen  the 
final  benediction,  there  is  one  more  outburst  of  strong  and  indignant  feeling.  "  If 
any  one  loveth  not  the  Lord,  let  him  be  Anathema ; 1  Maranatha,  the  Lord  is  near. 
The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you."  That  would  have  been  the 
natural  ending,  but  he  had  had  so  much  to  reprobate,  so  many  severe  thinga  to  Bay, 
that  to  show  how  unabated,  in  spite  of  all,  was  his  affection  for  them,  he  makes  the 
.unusual  addition,  "  My  love  be  with  you  oil  in  Christ  Jesus.  Amen."  s  So  ends  the 
longest  and,  in  some  respects,  the  grandest  and  most  characteristic  of  his  Epistles. 
He  had  suppressed  indeed  all  signs  of  the  deep  emotion  with  which  it  Lad  I^en 
written ;  but  when  it  was  despatched  he  dreaded  the  results  it  might  produce- 
dreaded  whether  he  should  have  said  too  much ;  dreaded  the  possible  alienation,  by 
any  over-severity,  of  those  whom  he  had  only  desired  to  win.  His  own  soul  was  au 
quivering  with  its  half -stifled  thunder,  and  he  was  afraid  lest  the  flash  which  he  had 
sent  forth  should  scathe  too  deeply  the  souls  at  which  it  had  b*?en  hurled.  He  would 
even  have  given  much  to  recall  it,3  and  awaited  with  trembling  anxiety  the  earliest 
tidings  of  the  manner  in  which  it  would  be  received.  But  God  overruled  all  for 
good ;  and,  indeed,  the  very  writings  which  spring  most  naturally  and  spontaneously 
from  a  noble  and  sincere  emotion,  are  often  those  that  produce  the  deepest  impres- 
sion upon  the  world,  and  are  less  likely  to  be  resented — at  any  rate,  aro  more  likely 
to  be  useful — than  the  tutored  and  polished  utterances  which  are  carefully  tamed 
down  into  the  limits  of  correct  conventionality.  Not  only  the  Church  of  Corinth, 
but  the  whole  world,  has  gained  from  the  intensity  of  the  Apostle's  feelings,  and  the 
impetuous  spontaneity  of  the  language  in  which  they  were  expressed. 


CHAPTER  XXXIIL 

SECOND  EPISTLE  TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

"There  are  three  crowns :  the  crown  of  the  Law,  the  crown  of  the  Priesthood,  and 
the  crown  of  Royalty  :  but  the  crown  of  a  good  name  mounts  above  thsin  all." — Pi,*,-Le 
AbJitik,  iv.  19. 

WHEN  St.  Paul  left  Ephesus  he  went  straight  to  Troas,  with  tho  same  high, 
motive  by  which  he  was  always  actuated — that  of  preaching  tho  Gospel  cf 
Christ.4  He  had  visited  the  town  before,  but  his  stay  there  had  been 
shortened  by  the  imploring  vision  of  tho  man  of  Macedon,  which  had  decided 
his  great  intention  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  Europe.  But  though  his  preaeh- 

1  I  cannot  pretend  to  understand  what  St.  Paul  exactly  meant  by  this.  Commentators  call  it  aa 
"Imprecation  ;T*  bat  such  an  "  imprecation"  does  not  seem  to  ms  like  St.  Paul.  Anathema  is  the 
Hebrew  cherem  of  Lev.  xxvii.  29  ;  Num.  xxi.  2,  3  {Hannah)  ;  Josh.  vi.  17.  Bat  the  later  Jews  used 
ft  for  "  excommunication,"  whether  of  the  temporary  sort  (nidui)  or  the  severe.  The  severest  form 
was  calted  Shematha.  The  Fathers  mostly  take  it  to  mean  "  excommunication"  here,  and  in  Gal.  i. 
8,  9,  and  soms  seo  in  Maranatha  an  allusion  to  Shem  atha  (the  name  eometh).  But  probably  thcaa 
are  after-thoughts.  It  is  a  sudden  expression  of  deep  feeling ;  and  that  it  is  less  terrible  tlian  it 
sounds  we  may  hope  from  1  Cor.  v.  5 ;  1  Tim.  i  20,  where  the  object  is  amendment,  not  wrath.  For 
"anathematise"  see  Matt.  xxvi.  74 ;  Acts  xxiii.  12. 

*  The  subscription  is,  as  usual,  spurious.  It  arose  from  a  mistaken  inference  from  xvi.  5.  Tho 
letter  itself  shows  that  it  was  written  in  Ephesus  (xvi.  .8),  and  though  Stephanos,  Fortunatus,  and 
Achaiaeus  may  have  been  its  bearora,  Tunotheus  could  not  have  been. 

»  2  Cor.  vii.  8.  *  2  Gor.  11. 12, 13. 

H* 


402  THE    LIFE   A.ND   WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

ing  was  now  successful,  and  "a  door  was  opened  for  him  in  the  Lord,"1  he 
could  not  stay  there  from  extreme  anxiety.  "  He  had  no  rest  for  his  spirit, 
because  he  found  not  Titus  his  brother."  Titus  had  been  told  to  rejoin  him 
at  Troas ;  but  perhaps  the  precipitation  of  St.  Paul's  departure  from  Ephesus 
had  brought  him  to  that  town  earlier  than  Titus  had  expected,  and,  in  the 
uncertain  navigation  of  those  days,  delays  may  easily  have  occurred.  At  any 
rate,  he  did  not  come,  and  Paul  grew  more  and  more  uneasy,  until  in  that 
intolerable  oppression  of  spirit  he  felt  that  he  could  no  longer  continue  his 
work,  and  left  Troas  for  Macedonia.  There,  at  last,  he  met  Titus,  who 
relieved  his  painful  tension  of  mind  by  intelligence  from  Corinth,  which, 
although  chequered,  was  yet  on  the  main  point  favourable.  From  Titus  he 
learnt  that  his  change  of  plan  about  the  visit  had  given  ground  for  tin- 
favourable  criticism,2  and  that  many  injurious  remarks  on  his  character  and 
mode  of  action  had  been  industriously  disseminated,  especially  by  one  Jewish 
teacher.3  Still,  the  effect  of  the  first  Epistle  had  been  satisfactory.  It  had 
caused  grief,  but  the  grief  had  been  salutary,  and  had  issued  in  an  outburst  of 
yearning  affection,  lamentation,  and  zeal.4  Titus  himself  had  been  received 
cordially,  yet  with  fear  and  trembling.5  The  offender  denounced  in  his  letter 
had  been  promptly  and  even  severely  dealt  with,6  and  all  that  St.  Paul  had 
said  to  Titus  in  praise  of  the  Church  had  been  justified  by  what  he  saw.7 
Accordingly,  he  again  sent  Titus  to  them,8  to  finish  the  good  work  which  he 
had  begun,  and  with  him  he  sent  the  tried  and  faithful  brother  "  whose  praise 
is  in  the  Gospel  through  all  the  Churches ;"  8  and  this  time  Titus  was  not 
only  ready  but  even  anxious  to  go.10 

In  what  town  of  Macedonia  St.  Paul  had  met  with  Titus,  and  also  with 
Timothy,  we  do  not  know.  Great  uncertainty  hangs  over  the  details  of  their 
movements,  and  indeed  all  the  events  of  tliis  part  of  the  journey  are  left  in 
obscurity  :  we  can  only  conjecture  that  during  it  St.  Paul  had  even  travelled 
as  far  as  Illyricum.11  At  some  point  in  the  journey,  but  probably  not  at 
Philippi,  as  the  subscription  to  the  Epistle  says — because,  as  is  evident  from 
the  Epistle  itself,  he  had  visited  most  of  the  Churches  of  Macedonia,12 — he 
•wrote  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  From  it  we  learn  that,  whatever 
may  have  been  in  this  region  the  special  nature  of  his  affliction — whether 
grievous  sickness,  or  external  persecutions,  or  inward  anxieties,  or  apparently 
all  of  these  combined — his  stay  in  Macedonia  had  suffered  from  the  same 
overwhelming  distress  which  had  marked  the  close  of  his  residence  in  Ephesus, 

1  The  use  of  this  expression  by  St.  Luke  is  one  of  the  many  interesting  traces  of  Ma 
personal  intercourse  with  St.  Paul.     (See  1  Cor.  xvi.  9.) 

2  2  Cor.  i.  17.  •  ii-  5—10. 
»  iii.  1 ;  v.  11 ;  vii.  2,  3 ;  r.  10 ;  xi.  18—20.  7  vii.  14. 

4  yii.  6—11.  8  viii.  6. 

*  vii.  13,  15.  •  viii.  18,  23. 

10  viii.  17.    That  there  was  a  slight  unwillingness  the  first  time  seems  to  be  shown  by 
the  way  in  which  St.  Paul  felt  himself  obliged  to  encourage  him  in  his  mission. 

11  Rom.  rv.  19. 

12  2  Cor.  viii.  1 ;  ix.  2.    Philippi,  on  the  other  hand,  would  be  the  first  city  which  he 
•vould  reach. 


SECOND   EPISTLE   TO  THE   CORINTHIANS.  403 

and  which  had  driven  him  out  of  Troas.1  The  Churches  were  themselves  in  a 
state  of  affliction,  which  Paul  had  naturally  to  share,2  and  he  describes  his 
condition  as  one  of  mental  and  physical  prostration  :  "  Our  flesh  had  no  rest, 
but  we  are  troubled  on  every  side ;  from  without  fightings,  from  within 
fears."  *  And  this  helps  to  explain  to  us  the  actual  phenomena  of  the  letter 
written  amid  such  circumstances.  If  HOPE  is  the  key-note  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Thessalonians,  JOY  of  that  to  the  Philippians,  FAITH  of  that  to  the 
Romans,  and  HEAVENLY  THINGS  of  that  to  the  Ephesians,  AFFLICTION  is 
the  one  predominant  word  in  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.4  The 
Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  contain  his  views  on  the  Second  Advent ;  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  his  trumpet-note  of  indignant  defiance  to  retro- 
grading Judaisers ;  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  the  systematic  and,  so  to 
speak,  scientific  statement  of  his  views  on  what  may  be  called,  in  modern 
language,  the  scheme  of  salvation ;  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  his  out- 
pouring of  tender  and  gladdened  affection  to  his  most  beloved  converts ;  the 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  shows  us  how  he  applied  the  principles  of 
Christianity  to  daily  life  in  dealing  with  the  flagrant  aberrations  of  a  most 
unsatisfactory  Church ;  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  opens  a  window 
into  the  very  emotions  of  his  heart,  and  is  the  agitated  self-defence  of  a 
wounded  and  loving  spirit  to  ungrateful  and  erring,  yet  not  wholly  lost  or 
wholly  incorrigible  souls."  5 

And  this  self-defence  was  not  unnecessary.  In  this  Epistle  we  find  St. 
Paul  for  the  first  time  openly  confronting  the  Judaising  reaction  which 
assumed  such  formidable  dimensions,  and  threatened  to  obliterate  every 
distinctive  feature  of  the  Gospel  which  he  preached.  It  is  clear  that  in  some 
of  the  Churches  which  he  had  founded  there  sprang  up  a  Judaic  party,  whose 
hands  were  strengthened  by  commendatory  letters  from  Jerusalem,  and  who 
not  only  combated  his  opinions,  but  also  grossly  abused  his  character  and 
motives.  By  dim  allusions  and  oblique  intimations  we  trace  their  insidious 
action,  and  in  this  Epistle  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  them  and  their 
unscrupulous  opposition.  It  differs  greatly  from  the  one  that  preceded  it. 
St.  Paul  is  no  longer  combating  the  folly  of  fancied  wisdom,  or  the  abuse  of 
true  liberty.  He  is  no  longer  occupied  with  the  rectification  of  practical  dis- 
orders and  theoretical  heresies.  He  is  contrasting  his  own  claims  with  those 
of  his  opponents,  and  maintaining  an  authority  which  had  been  most  rudely 
and  openly  impugned. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  attack  had  boon  suggested  by  St.  Paul's 

»  viii.  2.  s  iv.  8—12.  *  vii.  5. 

<  e.\c>s,  e\i'BoM<u  (2  Cor.  i.  4,  6,  8 ;  ii.  4 ;  iv.  8 ;  viii.  13). 

*  "  The  Apostle  pours  out  his  heart  to  them,  and  beseeches  them,  in  return,  not  for 
a  cold,  dry,  critical  appreciation  of  his  eloquence,  or  a  comparison  of  his  with  other 
doctrines,  but  the  sympathy  of  churchmen,  if  not  the  affection  of  children."  Parts  of 
,the  Epistle,  taken  alone,  might  seem  to  be  " almost  painfully  personal,"  and  we  "might 
'  have  thought  that  the  man  had  got  the  better  of  the  ambassador.  But  when  we  learn 
how  essentially  the  man  and  the  ambassador  are  inseparable,  then  the  'folly,'  the 
boasting,  the  shame,  are  not  mere  revelations  of  character,  but  revelations  of  the  close 
bonds  by  which  one  man  is  related  to  another  "  (JIaurice,  Unity,  488). 


404  tKJS  LI£'E  AND    VfORK  OF  ST. 


sentence  on  the  incestuous  offender.1  His  caso  seems  to  have  originated  a 
quarrel  among  the  Corinthian  Christians,  of  whom  some  sided  with  him  and 
some  with  his  father.  It  is  clear  upon  the  face  of  things  that  we  do  not  know 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  since  it  is  all  but  inconceivable  that,  had 
there  been  no  extenuating  fact,  he  should  have  found  defenders  for  a  crime 
which  excited  the  horror  of  the  very  heathen.  Even  those  who  placed' 
sensuality  on  the  same  level  as  eating  meats  offered  to  idols,  and  therefore 
regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  indifference  —  whose  view  St.  Paul  so  nobly  refutes 
in  his  first  Epiatle  —  could  not  have  sided  with  this  person  if  there  were  no 
palliating  element  in  his  offence.  And,  indeed,  if  this  had  not  been  the  case, 
he  would  scarcely  have  ventured  to  continue  in  Church  membership,  and  to 
be,  with  his  injured  father,  a  frequenter  of  their  love-feasts  and  partaker  in 
their  sacraments.  It  may  be  quite  true,  and  indeed  the  allusions  to  him  in  the 
Second  Epistle  show,  that  he  was  weak  rather  than  wicked.  But  even  this 
would  have  been  no  protection  to  him  in  a  wrong  on  which  Gallic  himself 
would  have  passed  a  sentence  of  death  or  banishment,  and  which  the  Mosaic 
law  had  [punished  with  excision  from  the  congregation.3  There  must  there- 
fore have  been  something  which  could  be  urged  against  the  heinonsness  of  his 
transgression,  and  St.  Paul  had  distinctly  to  tell  the  Corinthians  that  there 
was  no  personal  feeling  mixed  up  with  Ids  decision.3  His  words  had  evidently 
implied  that  the  Church  was  to  be  assembled,  and  there,  with  his  spirit 
present  with  them,  to  hand  him  over  to  Satan,  so  that  judgment  might  come 
on  his  body  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  That  is  what  he  practically  tells  the 
Church  to  do.  Did  they  do  it  P  It  seems  to  be  at  least  doubtful.  That  they 
withdrew  f  rom  his  communion  is  certain  ;  and  the  veiy  threat  of  excommuni- 
cation which  hung  over  him  —  accompanied,  as  he  and  the  Church  thought 
that  it  would  be,  with  supernatural  judgments  —  was  sufficient  to  plunge  him 
into  the  depths  of  misery  and  penitence.  Sickness  and  death  were  at  this 
time  very  prevalent  among  the  Corinthian  converts,  and  St.  Paul  told  them 
that  this  was  a  direct  punishment  of  their  profanation  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
It  is  clear  that  the  offender  was  not  contumacious,  and  in  his  Second  Epistle 
St.  Paul  openly  forgives  him,  and  remits  his  sentence,  apparently  on  the 
ground  that  the  Corintliians  had  already  done  so.  In  fact,  since  the  desirorl 
end  of  the  man's  repentance,  and  the  purging  of  the  Church  from  all  com- 
plicity with  or  immoral  acquiescence  in  his  crime  had  been  attained  without 
resorting  to  extreme  measures,  St.  Paul  even  exhorts  the  Corinthians  to 
console  and  forgive  the  man,  and,  in  fact,  restore  him  to  full  Church  mem- 
bership. Still,  it  does  seem  as  if  they  had  not  exactly  followed  the  Apostle's 

1  The  theory  that  the  offender  of  the  second  Epistle  is  an  entirely  different  person, 
alluded  to  in  some  lost  intermediate  letter,  seems  to  me  untenable,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
eensus  of  eminent  critics  (De  Wette,  Bleek,  Credner,  Olshausen,  Neander,  Ewald,  &c.  ), 
•vv  ho,  iu  some  form  or  other,  adopt  such  a  hypothesis.  I  see  nothing  inconsistent  with 
the  older  view  either  in  the  tone  of  1  Cor.,  or  the  effect  it  produced,  or  in  St.  Paul's 
excitement,  or  m  the  movements  of  Titus,  or  in  the  language  about  the  offence.  Bat  I 
have  not  space  to  enter  more  fully  into  the  controversy. 

'•  Lev.  ii.  11  ;  Dcut.  xjvii.  20.  *  2  Cor.  vil  11,  J|, 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS.  405 

advice,  and  as  if  tlio  party  opposed  to  him  had,  BO  to  speak,  turned  upon  him 
and  repudiated  his  authority.  They  said  that  he  had  not  come,  and  he  would 
not  como.  It  was  all  very  well  to  write  stern  and  threatening  letters,  but  it 
was  not  by  letters,  but  by  the  exercise  of  miraculous  power,  that  Kephas  had 
avenged  the  wrongs  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Spirit  on  Ananias  and  Sap- 
phira,  and  on  Suaon  Magus.  Paul  could  not  do  this.  How  could  it  bo 
expected  of  a  man  so  mean  of  aspect,  so  vacillating  in  purpose,  so  inefficient 
in  speech  ?  It  was  not  Paul  who  had  been  chosen  as  the  twelfth  Apostle,  nor 
was  ho  an  Apostle  at  all.  As  the  abuses  among  his  followers  showed  that 
his  teaching  was  dangerous,  so  his  inability  to  rectify  them  was  a  proof  that 
his  authority  was  a  delusion.  Tha  very  fact  that  ho  had  claimed  no  support 
from  his  converts  only  marked  how  insecure  he  felt  his  position  to  be.  What 
the  Church  really  wanted  was  the  old  stringency  of  the  Mosaic  Law; 
some  one  from  Jerusalem ;  some  true  Apostle,  with  his  wife,  who  would  rule 
them  with  a  real  supremacy,  or  at  least  some  emissary  from  James  and  the 
brethren  of  the  Lord,  to  preach  "  another  Gospel,"  more  accordant  with,  the 
will  of  Jesus  Himself.1  Paul,  they  implied,  had  never  known  Jesus,  and 
misrepresented  Him  altogether ; 2  for  He  had  said  that  no  jot  or  tittle  of  the 
law  should  pass,  and  that  the  children's  bread  should  not  bo  cast  to  dogs. 
Paul  preached  himself,3  and  indeed  seemed  to  be  hardly  responsible  for  what 
ho  did  preach.  He  waa  half  demented ;  and  yet  there  was  some  method  in 
his  madness,  which  showed  itself  partly  in  self-importance  and  partly  in 
avarice,  both  of  which  were  very  injurious  to  the  interests  of  his  followers.* 
What,  for  instance,  could  be  more  guileful  and  crafty  than  his  entire  conduct 
about  this  collection  which  he  was  so  suspiciously  eager  to  set  on  foot  ?  *  He 
had  ordered  them  to  get  up  a  subscription  in  his  first  letter;8  had,  in 
answer  to  their  inquiries,7  directed  that  it  should  be  gathered,  as  in  the  Gala- 
tian  Churches,  by  a  weekly  offertory,  and  had,  since  this,  sent  Titus  to 
stimulate  zeal  in  the  matter.  Now  certainly  a  better  emissary  could  not 
possibly  have  been  chosen,  for  Titus  was  himself  a  Greek,  and  therefore  well 
fitted  to  manage  matters  among  Greeks ;  and  yet  had  visited  Jerusalem,  so 
that  he  could  speak  from  ocular  testimony  of  the  distress  which  was  prevalent 
among  the  poorer  brethren ;  and  had  further  been  present  at  the  great  meet- 
ing in  Jerusalem  at  which  Paul  and  Barnabas  had  received  the  special  request 
to  be  mindful  of  the  poor.  Yet  even  this  admirably  judicious  appointment, 
and  the  transparent  independence  and  delicacy  of  mind  which  had  made  Paul 
— with  an  insight  into  their  character  which,  as  events  showed,  was  but  too 
pi-escient— entirely  to  refuse  all  support  from  them,  was  unable  to  protect 
him  from  the  coarse  insinuation  that  this  waa  only  a  cunning  device  to  hide 
his  real  intentions,  and  give  him  a  securer  grasp  over  their  money.  Such 

»  See  Hausrath,  p.  420.  »  2  Cor.  xi.  4.  »  2  Cor.  xii.  5. 

*  V.    13,    eir«  yip  e£ i<nr>tiev'  si.  1,   KJK\OV  qvfl\s:<r8e  uovfiixpiSf  Ti  rq«  o<£po<rvvij$*    16,  fiq  TIS  fit 
{off,  a^pova  ttvai  (cf.  xii-  6). 

6  sil.  16.  vvapxw  n-aioupyo?  S6\i?  fyiSs  ftopor.     Evidently  the  quotation  of  a  slander, 
which  he  proceeds  to  refute. 

*  The  one  DO  longer  extant  7  1  Cor,  xvi.  1 — 4- 


406  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.    PAUL. 

were  the  base  and  miserable  innuendoes  against  which  even  a  Paul  had 
deliberately  to  defend  himself !  Slander,  like  some  vile  adder,  has  rustled  iu 
the  dry  leaves  of  fallen  and  withered  hearts  since  the  world  began.  Even 
the  good  are  not  always  wholly  free  from  it,  and  the  early  Christian  Church, 
so  far  from  being  the  pure  ideal  bride  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  we  often 
imagine  her  to  be,  was  (as  is  proved  by  all  the  Epistles)  in  many  respects  as 
little  and  in  some  respects  even  less  pure  than  ours.  The  chrisom-robe  of 
baptism  was  not  preserved  immaculate  either  in  that  or  in  any  other  age. 
The  Church  to  which  St.  Paul  was  writing  was,  we  must  remember,  a  com- 
munity of  men  and  women  of  whom  the  majority  had  been  familiar  from  the 
cradle  with  the  meanness  and  the  vice  of  the  poorest  ranks  of  heathenism  in 
the  corruptest  city  of  heathendom.  Their  ignorance  and  weakness,  their  past 
training  and  their  present  poverty,  made  them  naturally  suspicious ;  and 
though  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  were  morally  the  best  of  the  class  to  which 
they  belonged,  thoiigh  there  may  have  been  among  them  many  a  voiceless 
Epictetus — a  slave,  but  dear  to  tho  immortals — and  though  their  very  re- 
ception of  Christianity  proved  an  aspiring  heart,  a  tender  conscience,  an 
enduring  spirit,  yet  many  of  them  had  not  got  beyond  the  inveteracy  of  life- 
long habits,  and  it  was  easy  for  any  pagan  or  Judaic  sophister  to  lime  their 
"  wild  hearts  and  feeble  wings."  But  God's  mercy  overrules  evil  for  good, 
and  we  owe  to  the  worthless  malice  of  obscure  Judaic  calumniators  the  lessons 
which  we  may  learn  from  most  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.1  A  trivial  characteristic 
will  often  show  better  than  anything  else  the  general  drift  of  any  work,  and 
as  we  have  already  pointed  out  the  prominence  in  this  Epistle  of  the  thought 
of  "  tribulation,"  so  we  may  now  notice  that,  though  "  boasting "  was  of  all 
things  the  most  alien  to  St.  Paul's  genuine  modesty,  the  most  repugnant  to 
his  sensitive  humility,  yet  the  boasts  of  his  unscrupulous  opponents  so  com- 
pletely drove  him  into  the  attitude  of  self-defence,  that  the  word  "  boasting  " 
occurs  no  less  than  twenty -nine  times  in  these  few  chapters,  while  it  is  only 
found  twenty-six  times  in  all  the  rest  of  St.  Paul's  writings.3 

The  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  those  to  the  Galatians  and 
Romans,  represent  the  three  chief  phases  of  his  controversy  with  Judaism. 
In  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  he  overthrew  for  ever  the  repellent  demand 
that  the  Gentiles  should  be  circumcised ;  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  he 
established  for  ever  the  thesis  that  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  equally  guilty,  and 
could  be  justified  only  by  faith,  and  not  by  works.  In  both  these  Epistles  he 
establishes,  from  different  points  of  view,  the  secondary  and  purely  dis- 
ciplinary functions  of  the  law  as  a  preparatory  stage  for  the  dispensation  of 
free  grace.  In  both  Epistles  he  shows  conclusively  that  instead  of  the  falso 
tL>»(4  .^.t..;.  i.  .Jj  •;,..'•  ^-a"'x  •:;»•' c~-  .?  -r  .•<  -5*' 

1  The  authenticity  of  the  letter  has  never  been  questioned.  The  tliree  main  divisions 
are :  i. — viL  Hortatory  and  retrospective,  with  an  under-current  of  apology,  viii. ,  ix. 
Directions  about  the  contribution,  x. — xiii.  Defence  of  his  Apostolic  position.  The 
more  minute  analysis  will  be  seen  as  we  proceed.  But  it  is  the  least  systematic,  as  tue 
i'irst  is  the  most  systematic  of  all  his  writings. 

J  Especially  in  2  Cor.  x.,  ii.,  xii.  This  finds  Its  illustration  In  the  proiiinence  of 
' '  inflation  "  in  1  Cor.  passim  ;  but  only  elsewhere  in  Col.  ii.  18. 


SECOND   EPISTLE   TO  THE   COIUXTHIAN3.  407 

assertion  that  "  it  is  in  vain  to  be  a  Christian  without  being  a  Jew,"  should  bo 
substituted  the  very  opposite  statement,  that  it  is  in  vain  to  be  a  Christian  if, 
as  a  Christian,  one  relies  on  being  a  Jew  as  well.  But,  however  irresistible 
his  arguments  might  be,  they  would  be  useless  if  the  Judaists  succeeded  in 
impugning  his  Apostolic  authority,  and  proving  that  he  had  no  right  to  be 
regarded  as  a  teacher.  The  defence  of  his  claims  was,  therefore,  very  far 
from  being  a  mere  personal  matter;  it  involved  nothing  less  than  a  defence  of 
the  truth  of  his  Gospel.  Yet  this  defence  against  an  attack  so  deeply  wound- 
ing, and  so  injnriotis  to  his  cause,  was  a  matter  of  insuperable  difficulty.  His 
opponents  could  produce  their  "  commendatory  letters,"  and,  at  least,  claimed 
to  possess  the  delegated  authority  of  the  Apostles  who  had  lived  with  Jesus 
(2  Cor.  iii.  1 — 18).  This  was  a  thing  which  Paul  could  not  and  would  not  do. 
He  had  not  derived  his  authority  from  the  Twelve.  His  intercourse  with 
them  had  been  but  slight.  His  Apostolate  was  conferred  on  him,  not 
mediately  by  them,  but  immediately  by  Christ.  He  had,  indeed,  "  seen  the 
Lord  "  (1  Cor.  ix.  1),  but  on  this  he  would  not  dwell,  partly  because  his  direct 
intercourse  with  Christ  had  been  incomparably  smaller  than  that  of  a  Peter 
or  a  James ;  and  partly  because  he  clearly  saw,  and  wished  his  converts  to  see, 
that  spiritual  union  was  a  thing  far  closer  and  more  important  than  personal 
companionship.  To  two  things  only  could  he  appeal :  to  the  visions  and 
revelations  which  he  had  received  from  the  Lord,  above  all,  his  miraculous 
conversion  ;  and  to  the  success,  the  activity,  the  spiritual  power,  which  set  a 
seal  of  supernatural  approval  to  his  unparalleled  ministry.1  But  the  first  of 
these  claims  was  deliberately  set  aside  as  subjective,  both  in  his  own  lifetime 
and  a  century  afterwards.2  The  difficulty  of  convincing  his  opponents  on  this 
subject  reflects  itself  in  his  passion,  a  passion  which  rose  in  part  because  it 
forced  upon  him  the  odious  semblance  of  self-assertion.  His  sole  irresistible 
weapon  was  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God." 

I  will  now  proceed  to  give  an  outline  of  this  remarkable  letter,  which, 
from  the  extreme  tension  of  mind  with  which  it  was  written,  and  the  constant 
struggle  between  the  emotions  of  thankfulness  and  indignation,8  la  more 
difficult  in  its  expressions  and  in  its  causal  connections  than  any  other.  The 
kbouring  style, — the  interchange  of  bitter  irony  with  pathetic  sincerity, — the 
manner  in  which  word  after  word — now  "  tribulation,"  now  "consolation," 
now  "  boasting,"  now  "  weakness," — now  "simplicity,"  now  "  manifestation," 
takes  possession  of  the  Apostle's  mind — serve  only  to  throw  into  relief  the 

*  2  Cor.  ii.  14 ;  iii.  2 ;  xi.  21—23 ;  1  Cor.  be.  1 ;  xv.  10,  &c. 

*  Pr.  Clement.   Ifom.  XVil.  13,  SC<J.     JTW?  81  <roi  xoi  iruTTtvtroiJitv  O.VT&  ,     .     .  ;  jris  8e  <ro<  <r«* 
<u<J>07)  OTTOTJ  O.VTOV  TOL  jfarria  TTJ  iiiaaxaAi'a  tppoveii; ; 

3  But,  as  Dean  Stanley  observes  (Cor.,  p.  348),  "  the  thankfulness  of  the  first  part  is 
darkened  by  the  indignation  of  the  third,  and  even  the  directions  about  the  business  of 
the  contribution  are  coloured  by  the  reflections  both  of  his  joy  and  of  his  grief.  And  in 
all  those  portions,  though  in  themselves  strictly  personal,  the  Apostle  is  borne  away  into 
the  higher  region  in  which  he  habitually  lived,  so  that  this  Epistle  becomes  the  most 
striking  instance  of  what  is  the  case  more  or  less  with  all  his  writings,  a  new  philosophy 
of  life  poured  forth  not  through  systematic  treatises,  but  through  occasional  bursts  of 
human  feeling." 


408 

frequent  bursts  uf  impassioned  eloquence.  The  depth  of  tenderness  winch  is 
here  revealed  towards  all  who  were  noblo  and  true,  may  serve  as  s  measure 
for  the  insolence  and  wrong  which  provoked  in  the  concluding  chapters  so 
stern  an  indignation.  Of  nil  the  Epistles  it  13  the  one  -winch  enables  ns  to 
look  deepest  into  the  Apostle's  heart. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  letter  has  been  observed  by  tho  quick  insight 
of  Bengel.  "  The  whole  letter,"  he  says,  "  reminds  H3  of  an  itinerary,  but 
interwoven  with  the  noblest  precepts,"  "Tho  very  stages  of  his  journey  are 
impressed  upon  it,"  says  Dean  Stanley,  "the  troubles  at  Ephesns,  the  anxiety 
of  Troas,  tho  consolations  of  Macedonia,  tho  prospect  of  moving  to  Corinth."1 

After  the  greeting,  in  which  he  associates  Timothy — who  was  probably  his 
amanuensis — with  himself,  and  with  brief  emphasis  styles  himself  an 
"  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God,"  he  begins  the  usual  expression 
of  thankf  uliicss,  in  which  the  words  "  tribulation  "  and  "  consolation  "  are 
inextricably  intertwined,  and  in  which  ha  claims  for  the  Corinthians  a  union 
with  him  in  both. 
"••"•"<  «  1°  lf!/f*  '  •':  l;.''ft*- YJ'hfc"/!'?!'""1*' -: '  !t"*»'t  uBZTtiftFJtfO  'i1'".'  ;:; 

"  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of 
mercies,  and  God  of  all  consolation,  who  consoleth.  us  in  all  our  tribulation,  that  we 
may  bo  al-lo  to  console  those  in  all  tribulation,  by  the  consolation  wherewith 
v/e  are  ourselves  consoled  by  God.  For  as  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound  towards 
us,  so  by  Christ  aboundeth  also  our  consolation.  But  whether  we  are  troubled,  it 
is  for  your  consolation  and  salvation  which  worketh  in  the  endurance  of  the  same 
sufferings  which  we  also  suffer,  and  our  hope  is  sure  on  your  behalf  ;3  or  whether 
V.-C-  are  consoled,  it  is  for  your  consolation  and  salvation,  knowing  that  as  ye  ara 
^uvtakers  of  the  sufferings,  eo  also  of  the  consolation."3 

He  then  alludes  to  the  fearful  tribulation,  excessive  and  beyond  his  strength, 
whether  caused  by  outward  enemies  or  by  sickness,  through  which  he  has  just 
passed  in  Asia,  which  has  brought  him  to  the  verge  of  despair  and  of  the  grave,  in 
order  that  be  may  trust  solely  in  Him  who  raiseth  the  dead.  "Who  from  such  a 
death  rescued  us,  and  will  rescue,  on  whom  we  have  hoped  that  even  yet  will  Hs 
rescue."  And  as  it  was  the  supplication  of  many  which  had  won  for  him  this  great 
charism,  ho  asks  that  their  thanksgivings  may  be  added  to  those  of  maay,  and  that 
their  prayers  may  still  be  continued  in  his  behalf.4 

For  however  vils  might  be  the  insinuations  against  Kim,  he  is  proudly  conscious 
cf  tho  simplicity8  and  sincerity  of  his  relations  to  all  men,  and  especially  to  them, 
"  not  in  carnal  wisdom,  but  in  the  grace  of  God."  Some  had  suspected  him  of 
writing  private  letters  and  secret  messages,  of  intriguing  in  fact  with  individual 
members  of  his  congregation  ;  but  he  tells  them  that  ho  wroto  nothing  except  what 
they  are  now  reading,  and  fully  recognise,  as  he  hopes  they  will  continue  to 
recognise,  and  even  moro  fully  than  heretofore,  even  as  some  of  them6  already 
recognised,  that  they  and  he  are  a  mutual  subject  of  boasting  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord.  Thit  was  the  reason  why  ho  had  originally  intended  to  pay  them  two  visits 
instead  of  one.  Had  he  then  been  guilty  of  the  levity,  the  fickleness,  the  caprice 

1  The  thread  of  the  Epistle  is  historical,  but  It  is  interwoven  with  digressions.    The  brokaa 
threads  of  narrative  will  be  found  in  i.  8,  15  ;  ii.  1, 12, 13;  vii.  5 ;  via.  1;  is.  2;  xiii.  1. 
1  Verse  6.    This  is  the  position  of  these  words  in  most  uncial*. 
1  "  Coromanlo  sanctorum,"  Phil.  li.  26  (Bengel). 

*  1.  1 — 11 ;  i.  8.  £<rre  efo.mjpijSfjt'flu,  though  generally  he  was  aircpovpevos  ov*  «fairopovn«««, 
Iv.  8.    d»4«jji/x«  row  fiaraTov  to  the  question,  "  How  will  it  all  end  T  "  the  only  answer  seemed  to  b* 
"Daath."    Koff  inrtppo>*r,i>,  iv.  17  ;  Rom.  vii.  13 ;  1  Cor.  xii.  31 ;  Gal.  I.  13. 

*  i.  12.    airAorfc,  iu  answer  to  the  charge  of  duplicity,  ts  a  characteristic  word  erf  thl* 
(viii.  2 ;  is.  11,  13  ;  xi.  8) ;  but  here,  H,  A,  B,  0,  K,  read  ay«>T^r4. 

'  i.  14,  ana  /Mpovt, 


SECOND  EPISTLE   TO  THE  CORINTHIANS.  409 

with  which  he  had  been  charged  in  changing  his  plan?  Did  the  "Yes,  yes  "of 
his  purposes  mean  much  the  same  thing  as  "  No,  no,"  like  the  mere  shifting  feeble- 
ness of  an  aimless  man  F 1  Well,  if  they  choso  to  say  this  of  him  as  a  man,  at  any 
rate,  there  was  one  emphatic  "  Yes,"  one-  unalterable  fixity  and  affirmation  about 
him,  and  that  was  his  preaching  of  Christ.  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  preached 
by  him  and  Silvanus  and  Timotheus,  had  proved  Himself  to  be  not  "  Yes "  and 
"No;  "but  in  Him  was  God's  infinite  "  Yes,"  and  therefore  also  the  Christian's 
everlasting  Amen  to  all  God's  promises.2  Ho  who  confirmed  all  of  them  alike  into 
the  Anointed  (efr  xPlc"ro*')>  an^  anointed  them  (xpi'<ras),  was  God,  who  also  eet  His 
seal  on  them,  and  gave  them  in  their  hearts  tho  earnest  of  His  Spirit.3  Ho  called 
God  to  witness  upon  his  own  BOU!  that  it  waa  with  a  desire  to  spare  them  that  he 
no  longer  ciime  *  to  Corinth.  And  then,  conscious  that  jealous  eyes  would  dwell  on 
every  phrase  of  his  Irtter,  and  if  possible  twist  its  meaning  against  him,  ho  tells 
them  that  by  using  tho  expression  "  sparing  them,"  ho  does'not  imply  any  claim  to 
lord  it  over  their  faith,  for  faith  is  free  and  by  it  they  stand;  but  that  ho  is  speaking 
as  a  fellow- worker  of  their  joy,  and  therefore  he  had  decided  that  his  secona  visit  to 
them  should  not  b«  in  grief.5  Was  it  natural  that  he  should  like  to  grieve  those 
who  caused  him  joy,  or  be  grieved  by  those  from  whom  he  ought  to  receive  joy  ? 
His  joy,  he  felt  sure,  was  theirs  also,  and  therefore  he  had  written  to  them  instead 
of  coming  ;  and  that  previous  letter — sad  as  were  its  contents — had  not  been  written 
to  grieve  them,  but  had  been  written  in  much  tribulation  and  compression  of  heart 
and  many  tears,  that  they  might  recognise  how  more  abundantly  he  loved  them. 
Grief,  indeed,  there  had  been,  and  it  had  fallen  on  him,  but  it  had  not  come  on  him 
only,  but  partly  on  them,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  press  heavily  on  them  all.6  And 
the  sinner  who  had  caused  that  common  grief  had  been  sufficiently  censured  by  the 
reprobation  of  the  majority  of  them  ;  7  so  that  now,  on  the  contrary,  they  should 
forgive  and  comfort  him,  that  a  person  such  as  he  was — guilty,  disgraced,  but  now 
sincerely  penitent — may  not  be  swallowed  up  by  his  excessive  grief.  Let  them 
no.w  assure  him  of  their  love.  The  object  of  'the  former  letter  had  been  fulfilled 
iu  testing  their  obedience.  If  they  forgave  (as  they  had  partially  done  already,  in 
not  strictly  carrying  out  his  decision),  so  did  he ;  "  and  what  I  have  forgiven,  if 

1  I  have  IUVCT  been  even  approximately  satisfied  with  any  explanation  of  this  passage. 
St.  Chiysostoia  makes  it  mean,  "  Did  I  show  levity,  or  do  I  plan  after  tho  flesh  that  tho  yea  with 
ine  must  be  always  yea,  and  the  nay  always  nay,  as  it  is  with  a  man  of  the  world  who  makes  Ids 
plans  independently  of  God's  over-ruling  of  them  ?  "  As  there  are  no  emphatic  affirmations  in  the 
case,  Matt.  v.  37,  James  v.  12,  throw  no  light  on  the  passage,  unless  sorna  such  words  had  been 


V,  with  N,  A,  B,  C,  D,  F,  Q. 

3  appojSiy,  earnest-money,  part-payment,  ffpoxarapoAi} ;  an  ancient  (Jfaw»  Gen.  jcoEviil.  17, 18 ; 
arfliabo— Plant.  Rud.  Prol.  46)  and  modern  word  (Pr.  arrhes)  made  current  fey  Semitic  commerce. 
(Cf.  oircpxJ),  Bom.  viii.  23.) 

4  t  23.    Here,  and  as,  I  believe,  In  it.  1  and  xiii.  1,  lie  speaks  of  his  intended  visit  as  a  real 
one.    The  B.  V.  mistakes  ofcito,  "no  longer,"  for  OVTOJ,  "not  yet; "but  the  expression  really 
illustrates  the  much-disputed  verses  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  inclines  me  to  tho  opinion  tLat 
St.  Paul  had  not  visited  Corinth  more  than  once  when  this  letter  was  written.    But  the  question  is 
one  of  very  small  importance,  though  so  much  has  been  written  on  it. 

5  Lit,,  "  not  again  to  come  to  you  in  grief,"  as  he  would  be  doing  i/he  had  visited  them  once  in 


carried  it  out,  would  have  been  in  grief— had  been  a  real  visit.  The  ird\iv  is  even  omitted  in  D,  E, 
P,  G.  Theocloret,  who  ought  to  know  what  Greek  means,  takes  ira\.w  Z\9w  merely  in  the  sense  of 
"  re-visit,"  separating  it  from  ev  AUBTJ  altogether. 

6  This  is  another  of  those  ambiguous  expressions— due  to  tho  emotion  of  the  writer  and  the 
delicacy  of  the  subjects  of  which  he  is  treating,  and  his  desire  to  be  kind  and  just  though  there  was 
so  much  to  blame— about  which  it  is  impossible  to  feel  any  certainty  of  the  exact  explanation.  I 
have  partly  followed  the  view  of  St.  Chrysostom. 

1  Some  had  evidently  been  recalcitrant.  In  ii.  6  the  word  for  "  punishment  is  cmrijuut,  not 
KoAaaisor  Ti^copia  ;  but  the  general  meaning  is  that  of  punishment  (Wisd.  iii.  10.  Philo,  ircct  a.S\a>v 
Kui  liriTiiuuv,  "  on  rewards  and  punishments,"  .  _.„... 


410  THE   LIFE  AND   WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

I  have  forgiven  anything,1  is  for  your  sakes,  in  the  presence*  of  Christ,  that  we 
may  not  be  over-reached  by  Satan,  for  we  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices."  * 

Well,  he  did  not  come  to  them,  and  he  did  write,  and  what  was  the  consequence? 
His  anxiety  to  know  the  effect  produced  by  his  letter  and  change  of  plan  was  so 
intense,  that  it  almost  killed  him.  Successful  as  was  the  opening  which  he  found 
for  the  Gospel  of  Christ  at  Troas,  he  abandoned  his  work  there,  because  he  could 
not  endure  the  disappointment  and  anguish  of  heart  which  the  non-arrival  of  Titus 
caused  him.  He  therefore  went  to  Macedonia.  There  at  last  he  met  Titus,  but  he 
omits  to  say  so  in  his  eagerness  to  thank  God,  who  thus  drags  him  in  triumph  in 
the  service  of  Christ.  Everywhere  the  incense  of  that  triumph  was  burnt;  to 
gome  it  was  a  sweet  savour  that  told  of  life,  to  others  a  sign  of  imminent  death. 
St.  Paul  is  so  possessed  by  the  metaphor  that  he  does  not  even  pause  to  disentangle 
it.  He  is  at  once  the  conquered  enemy  dragged  in  triumph,  and  the  incense  burned 
in  sign  of  the  victor's  glory.  The  burning  incense  is  a  sign  to  some  of  life  ever- 
renewed  in  fresh  exultation ;  to  others  of  defeat  ever  deepening  into  death.  To  him- 
self, at  once  the  captive  and  the  sharer  in  the  triumph,  -it  is  a  sign  of  death,  and  of 
daily  death,  and  yet  the  pledge  of  a  life  beyond  life  itself.4  And  who  is  sufficient 
for  such  ministry  ?  For  he  is  not  like  the  majority 5 — the  hucksters,  the  adultera- 
ters,  the  fraudulent  retailers  of  the  Word  of  God, — but  as  of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God 
— in  the  presence  of  God  he  speaks  in  union  with  Christ.' 

Is  this  self-commendation  to  them  ?  Does  he  need  letters  of  introduction  to 
them  ?  7  And  here,  again,  follows  one  of  the  strangely  mingled  yet  powerful  meta- 
phors so  peculiar  to  the  greatest  and  most  sensitive  imaginations.  "  Ye  are  our 
Epistle,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  written  on  our  hearts,  recognised  and  read  by  all  men, 
being  manifestly  an  Epistle  of  Christ,  ministered  by  us,  written  not  mth  ink,  but 
with  the  spirit  of  the  living  God ;  not  on  stonen  tablets,  but  on  fleshen  tablets — 
hearts."8  He  does  not  need  a  commendatory  letter  to  them;  they  are  themselves 
his  commendatory  letter  to  all  men;  it  is  a  letter  of  Christ,  of  which  he  is  only  the 
writer  and  carrier ; '  and  it  is  not  engraved  on  granite  like  the  Laws  of  Moses,  but 
on  their  hearts.  Thus  they  are  at  once  the  commendatory  letter  written  on 
Paul's  heart,  and  they  have  a  letter  of  Christ  written  on  their  own  hearts  by  the 
Spirit,  and  of  that  letter  Paul  has  been  the  human  agent.10 

It  was  a  bold  expression,  but  one  which  sprang  from  a  confidence  which  Christ 
inspired,  and  had  reference  to  a  work  for  God.  That  work  was  the  ministry  of  the 
New  Covenant — not  of  the  slaying  letter  but  of  the  vivifying  spirit,"  for  which 

1  li.  10.  The  best  reading  seems  to  be  5  Kexaptoviai,  ci  n  ««xapio>ai,  y,  A,  B,  C,  F,  O. 
Evidently  we  are  here  in  the  dark  about  many  circumstances ;  but  we  infer  that  St.  Paul's  sentence 
of  excommunication,  as  ordered  in  his  former  letter,  had  not  been  carried  out,  partly  because  some 
opposed  it,  but  also  in  part  because  the  man  repented  in  consequence  of  his  exclusion  from  tha 
communion  of  the  majority  of  the  Church.  St.  Paul  might  have  been  angry  that  his  plain  order 
had  been  disobeyed  by  the  Church  as  such ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  he  is  satisfied  with  their  partial 
obedience,  and  withdraws  his  order,  which  timely  repentance  had  rendered  needless. 

*  Cf.  Prov.  viii.  30,  LXX. 
.  »  i.  12— ii.  11. 

4  On  this  metaphor,  v.  infra,  Excursus  III.    The  last  great  triumph  at  Rome  had  been  that  of 
Claudius,  when  Caradoc  was  among  the  captives. 

5  ii.  17.    oi  iroXXot  is  a  strong  expression,  but  oi  Xoiirol,  "the  rest,"  the  reading  of  D,  B,  F,  Q, 
J,  Is  still  more  impassioned.    It  is  possible  that  this  may  have  been  softened  into  the  other  reading, 
Just  as  oi  iroAAol  has  been  softened  into  jroAAoi.     We  must  remember  how  many  and  diverse  were 
the  elements  of  error  at  Corinth— conceit,  faction,  Pharisaism,  licence,  self-assertion;  and  St.  Paul 
(Rom.  v.)  seems  to  use  oi  iroAAol  peculiarly 

«  ii.  12—17  (cf.  Isa.  i.  22,  LXX.). 

7  iii.  1.    It  is  astonishing  to  find  Ebionite  hatred  still  burning  against  St.  Paul  in  the  second 
century,  and  covertly  slandering  him  because  he  had  no  <irt<rro\di  o-vo-T<mitai  from  James.   All  who 
came  without  such  letters  were  to  be  regarded  as  false  prophets,  false  apostles,  &c.    (Cf.  2  Cor.  xl. 
13 ;  Gal.  ii.  12.)    (Ps.  Clem.  Recogn.  iv.  34 ;  Horn.  xi.  85.) 

8  Read  capJiais,  u,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  G.    For  the  metaphor  compare  Prov.  iii.  3  ;  vii.  8  :  Ezek* 
XL  19  ;  Ex.  xviii.  18. 

•  Compare  the  identification  of  the  seed  sown  and  the  hearts  that  receive  it  in  Mark  iv.  18. 
»«  iii.  1—3. 

»  iii.  fl,  o»roKT€iV« ;  Rom.  Iv.  15;  vll.  (5,  7, 10, 11 ;  Gal.  til.  10;  John  yl.  63.  faxnroui.  Rom.  vt 
4, 11 ;  viii.  2, 10 ;  Gal.  v.  S. 


SECOND   EPISTLE   TO  THE   CORINTHIANS,  411 

God  gave  the  sufficiency.  And  what  a  glorious  ministry!  If  the  ministry  of  the 
Law — tending  in  itself  to  death,  written  in  earthly  letters,  graven  on  granite  slabs, 
— yet  displayed  itself  in  such  glory  that  the  children  of  Israel  could  not  gaze  on 
the  face  of  Moses  because  of  the  glory  of  his  countenance,  which  was  rapidly  fading 
away,1  how  much  more  glorious  was  the  Ministry  of  Life,  of  Righteoxisness,  of  the 
Spirit,  which  by  comparison  outdazzles  that  other  glory  into  mere  darkness,2  and  is 
not  transitory  (8<&  86£ris)  but  permanent  (tt>  S6^r>).  It  was  the  sense  of  being 
entrusted  with  that  ministry  which  gave  him  confidence.  Moses  used  to  put  a  veil 
over  his  face  that  the  children  of  Israel  might  not  see  the  evanescence  of  the  transient ; 
and  the  veil  which  he  wore  on  his  bright  countenance  when  he  spoke  to  them  reminds 
him  of  the  veil  which  they  yet  wore  on  their  hardened  understandings  when  his 
Law  was  read  to  them,  which  should  only  begin  to  be  removed  the  moment  they 
turned  from  Moses  to  Christ,3  from  the  letter  to  the  spirit,  from  slavery  to  freedom. 
But  he  and  all  the  ministers  of  Christ  gazed  with  no  veil  upon  their  faces  upon  His 
glory  reflected  in  the  mirror  of  His  Gospel ;  and  in  their  turn  seeing  that  image  as 
in  a  mirror,4  caught  that  ever-brightening  glory  as  from  the  Lord,  the  Spirit. 
How  could  one  entrusted  with  such  a  ministry  grow  faint-hearted  ?  How  could 
he — as  Paul's  enemies  charged  him  with  doing — descend  into  "  the  crypts  of 
shame  ? "  Utterly  false s  were  such  insinuations.  He  walked  not  in  craftiness ; 
he  did  not  adulterate  the  pure  Word  of  God ;  but  his  commendatory  letter,  the 
only  one  he  needed,  was  to  manifest  the  truth  to  all  consciences  in  God's  sight. 
There  was  no  veil  over  the  truths  he  preached ;  if  veil  there  was,  it  was  only  in  the 
darkened  understandings  of  the  perishing,  so  darkened  into  unbelief  by  the  god  of 
the  present  world,6  that  the  brightness  of  the  gospel  of  the  glory  of  Christ  could 
not  illuminate  them.  He  it  is — Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  the  image  of  God — He  it  is, 
and  not  ourselves,  whom  Paul  and  all  true  Apostles  preached.  He  had  been  ac- 
cused of  self-seeking  and  self-assertion.  Such  sins  were  impossible  to  one  who 
estimated  as  he  did  the  glory  of  His  message.  All  that  he  could  preach  of  himself 
was  that  Christ  was  Lord,  and  that  he  was  their  slave  for  Christ's  sake.  For  God 
had  shone  in  the  hearts  of  His  ministers  only  in  order  that  the  bright  knowledge 
which  they  had  caught  from  gazing,  with  no  intervening  veil,  on  the  glory  of 
Christ,  might  glow  for  the  illumination  of  the  world.7 

A  glorious  ministry  ;  but  what  weak  ministers !  Like  the  torches  hid  in  Gideon's 
pitchers,  their  treasure  of  light  was  in  earthen  vessels,8  that  the  glory  of  their  victory 
over  the  world  and  the  world's  idolatries  might  be  God's,  not  theirs.  This  was  why 
they  were  at  once  weak  and  strong — weak  in  themselves,  strong  in  God — "in  every- 
thing being  troubled,  yet  not  crushed ;  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair ;  persecuted, 
but  not  forsaken ;  flung  down,  but  not  destroyed ;  always  carrying  about  in  our 
body  the  putting  to  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  order  that  also  the  life  of  Jesus 
may  be  manifested  in  our  body.  For  we,  living  as  we  are,  are  ever  being  handed 
over  to  death  for  Jesus'  sake,  in  order  that  the  life  of  Jesus  also  may  be  manifested 
in  our  moiial  flesh.  So  that  death  is  working  in  us — seeing  that  for  Christ's  sake 
and  for  your  sakes  we  die  daily — but  life  in  you.  The  trials  are  mainly  ours  ;  the 
blessings  yours.  Yet  we  know  that  this  daily  death  of  ours  shall  be  followed  by  a 
resurrection.  He  who  raised  Christ  shall  also  raise  us  from  the  daily  death  of  our 

1  ill.  7.  The  word  "  till  "  in  the  E.V.  of  Ex.  miv.  83  seems  to  be  a  mistake  for  "  when."  He 
put  on  the  veil,  not  to  dim  the  splendour  while  he  spoke,  but  (so  St.  Paul  here  implies)  to  veil  the 
evanescence  when  he  had  ended  his  words— KarapyoG/xcu  (1  Cor.  i.  23 ;  ii.  6 ;  vi.  13  ;  xiiL  8,  11 ; 
xv.  24^-4wenty-two  times  in  this  group  of  Epistles). 

*  iii.  10,  11,  ou  JeSofaarai  TO  Se5o£a<Tf<.«Vov  «'»  TOUTW  r<f  ju*p«t. 

*  iii.  16,  eirMrrpe^rrj     ...     ir«ptaip«iTO4. 

4  iii.  18,  (toToirrpi^ojitevoi.    Chrysostom,  tec.,  make  it  mean  "  reflecting,"  but  there  seems  to  be 
no  instance  of  that  sense. 

5  iv.  2.    Cf.  1  Cor.  iv.  5.    Hence  the  prominence  of  the  word  <^avepow  In  this  Epistle  (11.  14 ; 
lit.  8 ;  iv.  10  ;  v.  10,  11 ;  vii.  12 ;  xi.  6). 

s  Cf.  John  ziv.  30 ;  Eph.  ii.  2.    "  GrandU  sed  horribilis  descriptio  Satanae  "  (Bengel). 
1  iii.  4— iv.  6. 

8  He  was  a  oxo/os  «Xoynj  (Acts  Ix.  15),  but  the  VKWOS  wai  Itself  cm-paxtrcv.  "  Lo  VM  d'  clezioas" 
(Dante,  Inf.  ii  28). 


412  THE  LIFE  AITD  WOBE  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

afflicted  lives'  and  from  the  deatk  in  which  they  end,  and  shall  present  us,  with  you, 
to  God's  glory,  by  the  increase  of  grace  and  more  abundant  increase  of  thanksgiving. 
For  this  reason  we  do  not  play  the  coward,  but  even  if  our  outward  man  is  being 
destroyed,  yet  the  inward  man  is  being  renewed  day  by  day.  For  the  lightness  of 
our  immediate  affliction  is  working  out  for  us,  in  increasing  excess,  an  eternal  weight 
of  glory,  since  our  eyes  are  fixed  not  on  the  visible,  but  on  the  invisible ;  for  the 
things  visible  are  transient,  but  the  things  invisible  are  eternal.2  The  tents  of  cur 
earthly  bodies  shall  be  done  away,  but  thon  we  shall  have  an  eternal  building.  "We 
groan,  we  are  burdened  in  this  tent  of  i3osh,s  wo  long  to  put  on  over  it,  aa  a  robe, 
our  house  from  heaven — if,  as  I  assume,  we  shall  not  indeed  be  found  bodiless4 — that 
the  mortal  mav  be  swallowed  up  by  life.8  And  God,  who  wrought  us  for  this  end, 
Jias  given  us  the  earnest  of  His  Spirit  that  it  shall  be  so.  Henco,  since  we  walk  by 
faith,  death  itself  has  for  us  lost  all  terrors ;  it  will  be  but  an  admission  into  the 
nearer  presence  of  our  Lord.  To  please  Him  is  our  sole  ambition,  because  we  shall 
each  8tand  before  His  tribtinal  to  receive  the  things  dono  by  the  body ; — to  be  paid 
in  kind  for  our  good  and  evil,  not  by  arbitrary  infliction,  but  by  natural  result." 
This  is  our  awful  belief,  and  we  strive  to  make  it  yours.7  To  God  our  sincerity  ia 
manifest  already,  and  we  hope  that  it  will  bo  to  your  consciences,  since  we  tell  you 
all  this  not  by  way  of  commending  ourselves,  but  that  you  may  have  something  of 
which  to  boast  about  us  against  thoso  whose  boasts  are  but  of  superficial  things.  They 
call  us  mad,8 — well,  if  so,  it  is  for  God ;  or  if  we  be  sober-minded,  it  is  for  you.9  Our 
one  constraining  motive  is  Christ's  love.  Since  He  died  for  all,  all  in  His  death  died 
to  sin,  and  therefore  the  reason  of  His  death  was  that  we  may  not  live  to  ourselves, 
but  to  Him  who  died  and  rose  again  for  us.  From  henceforth,  then,  we  recognise 
no  relation  to  Him  which  is  not  purely  spiritual.  Your  Jerusalem  emissaries  boast 
that  they  knew  the  living  Christ ;  and  in  consequence  maintain  their  superiority  to 
us.  If  we  ever  recognised  any  such  claim — if  we  ever  relied  on  having  seen  the 
living  Christ — we  renounce  all  such  views  from  this  moment.10  'He  who  is  in  Christ 
is  a  new  creation ;  the  old  things  are  passed  away ;  lo !  all  things  have  become  new.' 
It  is  the  spiritual  Christ,  the  glorified  Christ — whom  God  made  to  be  sin  for  ua — in 

»  "God  exhibits  deati  in  the  living,  life  In  the  dying"  (AL'ordl 

*  Cf.  Plat.  Fhaedo,  79. 

8  Wisd.  ix.  15,  "  the  earthly  tabernacle  (yeiSes  tr/c^os)  weigheth  down  the  mind." 

*  T.  3.    So  I  understand  this  difficult  clause.     It  seems  to  imply  some  condition  which  is  no< 
thst  of  disembodied  spirits,  between  the  death  of  the  mortal  and  the  reception  of  the  resurrection 
body  (cf.  Hdt.  v.  92  ;  Thuo.  iii.  58). 

*  Again,  notice  the  strange  confusion  of  metaphors.    It  is  only  the  very  greatest  writers  who  can 
ventnro  to  write  thus  ;  only  those  whose  thoughts  are  like  a  flame,  that  cracks  the  enclosing  laic?  of 
language  that  it  may  emit  more  heat  and  light. 

'  It  is  not  easy  to  see  the  exact  correlation  between  the  Judicial  process  of  result  according  to 
good  and  evil  conduct—  even  as  regards  saints — and  that  free  absolute  justification  by  faith  in  Christ, 
that  complete  forgiveness  cf  sins,  and  tearing  up  of  the  bond  which  ia  against  us,  on  which  St.  Paul 
dwells  in  v.  19,  21 ;  Rom.  iii.  25 ;  Col  ii.  14.  But  faith  Is  as  little  troubled  by  unsojved  antinomies 
in  the  kingdom  of  grace  as  in  that  of  nature  (see  infra,  Excursus  XXL,  p.  732). 

1  r.  11.  So  Chrysostom,  &a,  but  it  is  one  of  tho  many  verses  in  this  Epistle  about  which  no 
absolute  certainty  is  attainable.  Itmaymean  "knowing  that  tho  fear  of  God  (timorem  Domini,  Vuljj.) 
is  the  principle  of  my  own  life,  I  try  to  persuade  you  of  this  truth  ;  that  it  is  so  God  knows  already. 

*  Cf.  Acts  xxvi.  24. 

»  "  My  revelations,  ecstacies,  glossolaly,  are  phases  of  intercourse  of  niy  soul  with  God;  my 
practical  sense  and  tact  are  for  you." 

10  2  Cor.  v.  16,  OTTO  TOU  vvv.  In  Gal  1. 15, 16,  St.  Paul  hag  said  that  "it  pleased  God  to  reveal  His 
Son  in  him,"  and  in  his  view  "the  oi.iire,  absolute  importance  of  Christianity  resided  in  the  person 
of  Christ.  God  had  disclosfl  to  him  aa  the  S<-n  of  God  that  Jesus  whom  he  had  opposed  as  a  false 
Meaiiah.  But  the  resurrection  had  elevated  his  historic  Christ  far  above  a  Jewish  Messiah  (1  Cor. 
rv.  8).  The  death  of  Christ  had  severed  Hl»  connexion  with  mere  national  elements,  and  He  was 
then  manifested  in  the  universal  and  spiritual  sphere  in  which  all  absolute  importance  of  Judaism 
was  obliterated.  St  Paul  here  says  that  since  he  began  to  live  for  Christ,  who  died  and  rose,  Jesus 
ia  no  longer  for  him  A  Messiah  after  the  flesh.  That  conception  of  Him  is  now  purged  of  all  sensuous, 
Judaic,  personal  limitations,  and  Christ  becomes  not  only  one  who  lived  and  died  in  Judtea,  but  who 
lives  and  reigns  in  tha  heart  of  every  Christian  on  tho  absolute  principle  of  the  spiritual  life."  (Baur, 
Paul.  ii.  12(5.)  When  Paul  had  once  shaken  himself  free,  first  from  his  unconverted  Pharisaism,  then 
from  the  Judxo-ChrUtian  stage  of  his  earlier  convictions,  he  grasped  the  truth  that  the  risen  and  as- 
cended Lord  of  all  dwarfed  and  shamed  the  notion  of  all  reero  local,  and  family,  and  national  restric- 
tion*. 


8ECOSD  EPISTLB  TO  THE  COSINTHIANS.  413 

whom  God  reconciled  the  world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto 
them — whom  we  preach ;  and  our  ministry  is  the  Ministry  of  Reconciliation  which 
God  entrusted  to  us,  and  in  virtue  of  which  we,  as  ambassadors  on  Christ's  behalf, 
entreat  you  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  '  Him  who  knew  not  sin  He  made  sin  on  our 
behalf,  that  we  may  become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him.'  *  AB  His  fellow, 
workers  we  entreat  you,  then,  not  to  render  null  the  acceptance  of  His  grace  in  this 
the  day  of  salvation,  and  that  this  our  ministry  may  not  be  blamed,  we  give  no 
legitimate  cause  of  oifence  in  anything,  but  in  everything  commend  ourselves*  as 
minibters  of  God  "  in  much  endurance,  in  tribulations,  in  necessities,  in  pressure  of 
circumstance,  in  blows,  in  prisons,  in  tumults,  in  toils,  in  spells  of  sleeplessness,  in 
fastings,  in  purenees,  in  knowledge,  in  long-suffering,  in  kindness,  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  in  love  unfeigned,  in  the  word  of  truth,  in  the  power  of  God,  by  the  arms  of 
righteousness  on  the  right  and  left,  by  glory  and  dishonour,  by  ill  report  and  good 
report ;  as  deceivers  and  yet  true,  as  being  ignored  and  yet  recognised,  as  dying  and 
behold  we  live,  as  being  chastened  yet  not  being  slain,  as  being  grieved  and  yet  re- 
joicing, as  paupers  yet  enriching  many,  as  having  nothing  yet  as  having  all  things 
in  full  possession."* 

He  may  well  appeal  to  this  outburst  of  impassioned  eloquence  as  a  proof  that  his 
mouth  is  open  and  his  heart  enlarged  towards  them,  and  as  the  ground  of  entreaty 
that,  instead  of  their  narrow  jealousies  and  suspicions,  they  would,  as  sons,  love  him 
with  the  same  large-heartednoss,  and  so  repay  him  in  kind,  and  separate  themselves 
from  their  incongruous  yoke-fellowship  with  unbelief4 — the  unnatural  participations, 
symphonies,  agreements  of  righteousness  and  light  with  lawlessness  and  darkness, 
of  Christ  with  worthlessness,*  of  God's  temple  with  idols,  which  forfeited  the  glorious 
promises  of  God.6  Let  them  cleanse  themselves  from  these  corruptions  from  within 
and  from  without.  And  then,  to  clench  all  that  he  has  said,  and  for  the  present  to 
conclude  the  subject,  he  cries,  'Receive  us!  we  wronged  nobody,  ruined  nobody,  de- 
frauded nobody — such  charges  against  us  are  simply  false.  I  do  not  allude  to  them 
to  condemn  you.  I  have  said  already  that  you  are  in  my  heart  to  die  together  and 
live  together.  I  epeak  thus  boldly  because  of  the  consolation  and  superabundant 
joy — in  the  midst  of  all  the  tribulations — which  came  on  me  in  Macedonia  with  over- 
whelming intensity — without,  battles ;  within,  fears.  But  God,  who  consoleth  tho 
humble,?  consoled  us  by  the  coming  of  Titus,  and  tho  good  news  about  your  reception 
of  my  letter,  and  the  yearning  for  me,  and  the  lamentation,  and  the  zeal  which  it 
awoke  on  my  behalf.  At  one  time  I  regretted  that  I  had  written  it,  but,  though  it 
pained  you,  I  regret  it  no  longer,  because  the  pain  was  a  holy  and  a  healing  pain, 
which  awoke  earnestness  in  you — self-defence  and  indignation  against  wrong,  and  a 
fear  and  yearning  towards  me,  and  zeal  for  God,  and  punishment  of  the  offender. 
It  was  not  to  take  either  one  side  or  the  other  in  the  quarrel  that  I  wrote  to  you,  but 
that  your  allegiance  and  love  to  me  might  be  manifested  to  yourselves8  before  God. 
I  did  not  care  for  those  people — their  offence  and  quarrel.  I  cared  only  for  you. 
And  you  stood  the  test.  You  justified  all  that  I  had  boasted  to  Titus  about  you, 
and  the  respect  and  submission  with  which  you  received  hira  have  inspired  me  with 

*  The  meaning  of  this  verse  will  be  brought  out  infra,  p.  472,  stq. 

'  The  reader  will  observe  how  much  the  mention  of  the  mxrraTucal  cvurroXat  has  dominated 
throughout  this  m^eatic  self-defence.  The  statement  of  the  nature  and  method  of  Hit  ministiy  is 
the  only  commendatory  letter  which  to  them,  at  least,  Paul  will  deign  to  use.  Yet  in  makiag  a  self- 
defence  so  utterly  distasteful  to  him,  observe  how  noble  sad  eternal  are  the  thought*  on  which  be 
dwells,  and  the  principles  upon  which  ha  insists. 

*  iv.  7-vi.  10. 

*  An  allusion  to  the  "  diverge  kinds,"  and  ox  and  ass  ploughing  together  (Lev.  six.  19  ;   Dent. 
xxii.  10).    I  am  unable  to  ace  so  strongly  as  othcra  the  digressive  and  parenthetic  character  of  vL 
H-vii.  1. 

5  vi.  15,  /SeAi'ap.  Belial  is  not  originally  a  proper  natne  (Prov.  vi  12,  "  a  naughty  person "  La 
Adam  belial) ;  and  this  is  why  there  was  no  worship  of  BeliaL 

«  These  are  given  (vi.  18)  in  "  a  mosaic  of  citations  "  from  2  Sam.  vii.  14,  8 ;  la.  xliil.  6  (Plumptre) ; 
perhaps,  however,  St.  Paul  had  in  his  mind  also  Jer.  rxxi.  3 — 33 ;  Ezek.  xxxvi  23. 

i  Cf.  x.  1.    He  touphingly  accepta  the  term  applied  to  him. 

(  yij.  12.    The  reading  seems  to  be  rrtv  (nravSijp  VULUV  njc  vn-cp  ^uiv  rcbj  v/iij.    (C,  E.  J.  K.) 


411  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

deep  joy  on  his  account,  and  him  with  a  deep  affection  for  you.    I  rejoice,  then, 
that  in  everything  I  am  in  good  heart  about  you.' ' 

He  proceeds  to  give  them  a  proof  of  it.  The  churches  of  Macedonia  he  tells  them, 
poor  as  they  are,2  afflicted  as  they  are,  yet  -with  a  spontaneous  liberality,  absolute 
self-devotion,  and  affectionate  enthusiasm  for  his  wishes,  giving  themselves  first  to 
God  beyond  his  hopes,  had  not  only  subscribed  largely  to  the  collection  for  the  saints, 
but  had  entreated  him  to  take  part  in  its  management.  Encouraged  by  this,  he  had 
asked  Titus  to  finish  the  arrangement  of  this  matter  with  the  rest  of  his  good  work 
among  them.  As  they  abounded  in  so  many  gifts  and  graces,  let  them  abound  in 
this.  He  did  not  want  to  order  them,  he  only  told  them  what  others  had  done,  and 
asked  (not  on  his  own  behalf)  a  proof  of  their  love,  even  as  Christ  had  set  them  the 
example  of  enriching  others  by  His  own  poverty.  They  had  begun  the  collection 
first,  but  Macedonia  had  finished  it.  They  need  not  give  more  than  they  could 
afford,  for  God  looked  not  to  the  gift,  but  to  the  spirit  of  the  giver.  Nor  did  he 
wish  to  pauperise  them  in  order  to  set  others  at  ease,  but  only  to  establish  between 
Jewish  and  Gentile  churches  a  reciprocity  of  aid  in  time  of  need.  Titus  had  gladly 
accepted  the  commission,  and  with  him  he  sent  the  brother,  whose  praise  in  the 
Gospel  is  known  in  all  the  churches,  and  who  has  been  specially  elected  by  the 
churches  to  this  office ;  sinco  so  great  was  Paul's  determination  to  give  not  the 
slightest  handle  to  mean  insinuations,  that  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
money  himself.3  With  Titus  and  this  brother  he  sent  a  third,  whose  earnestness  had 
been  often  tested  in  many  circumstances,  and  who  was  now  specially  stimulated  by 
his  confidence  in  the  Corinthians.  If  they  wanted  to  know  anything  about  those 
three  visitors,  Titus  was  his  partner  and  fellow- worker  towards  them ;  the  other  two 
brethren  were  delegates  of  the  churches,4  the  glory  of  Christ.  Let  the  Corinthians 
give  a  proof  of  their  love,  and  a  justification  to  all  churches  of  his  boasting  about 
them.  As  to  the  general  desirability  of  the  collection  he  surely  need  say  nothing. 
He  had  been  boasting  of  their  zeal,  and  had  told  the  Macedonian  churches  that  the 
Achaians  had  been  ready  a  year  ago.  In  this  there  was  some  reason  to  fear  that  he 
had  been  in  error,  having  mistaken  their  ready  professions  for  actual  accomplish- 
ment. He  had  therefore  sent  on  these  brethren,  lest,  if  Macedonians  came  with  him 
on  his  arrival,  and  found  them  unprepared,  he — to  say  nothing  of  them — should  be 
ashamed  of  a  boast  which  would  turn  out  to  be  false.  He  exhorts  them,  therefore, 
to  willing  liberality,  trusting  that  God  would  reward  them.  Let  them  give  benefi- 
cently, not  grudgingly.  "  But  (notice)  this — Ho  who  soweth  sparingly,  sparingly 
also  shall  reap,  and  he  who  soweth  with  blessings,  with  blessings."6  "And  God  ia 
able  to  make  all  grace  abound  towards  you,  that  in  everything,  always,  having  all 
sufficiency,  ye  may  abound  to  every  good  work."  And  this  collection  was  not  only 
for  the  aid  of  the  saints,  but  also  for  the  glory  of  God  by  the  thanksgiving  to  Him, 
and  pra3'er  for  them  which  it  called  forth.  The  recipients  would  glorify  God  for  it 
as  a  sign  of  genuine  religion,  and  would  yearn  towards  them  in  love,  because  of  the 
grace  of  God  abounding  in  them.  "  Thanks,"  he  says,  identifying  himself  with  the 
feelings  of  the  gvateful  recipients — "  thanks  to  God  for  His  unspeakable  gift."6 

At  this  point  the  whole  tone  of  the  Epistle  changes — changes  so  com- 
pletely that,  in  this  section  of  it  (x.  i. — xiii.  10),  many  have  not  only  seen  an 
entirely  separate  letter,  but  have  even  with  much  plausibility  identified  it 

'  vi.  11— vii.  16. 

*  Dean  Stanley  refers  to  Arnold,  Rom.  Commonwealth,  ii.  SS2. 

»  viiL  20  (cf.  Prov.  ill.  8,  LXX.),  aiponj?,  lit.  "  ripeness."  These  hapax  legomena  occur  freely  In 
Paul's  unquestioned  Epistles.  lie  readily  took  up  new  words.  lie  may,  for  instance,  have  picked 
\tp  the  word  iiri\opr^!av  (first  used  in  ix.  10,  and  then  in  Gal.  iii.  5  ;  Col.  ii.  19 ;  Eph.  iv.  16)  at 
Athens.  It  is  unknown  to  the  LXX.  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  only  found  in  Ecelua.  xxv.  22. 

*  Lit.  "apostles,"  but  here  in  its  untechnical  sense  of  "authorised  delegates."     Who  these  tw<» 
brethren  were  is  quite  uncertain  ; — perhaps  Luke  and  Trophimus. 

*  ix.  6,  en-'  evAoyiais,  i.e.,  in  a  large,  gracious,  liberal  spirit  (Prov.  xt.  24 ;  Txil.  M. 

*  viii.  1— is.  15. 


SECOND   EPISTLE   TO   THE   COBINTHU.NS.  415 

with  that  stern  missive  alluded  to  in  vii.  8 — 12,  which  caused  the  Corinthians 
so  much  pain,  and  stirred  them  up  to  such  vigorous  exertion,  which  is  usually 
identified  with  the  first  extant  Epistle.1  It  is  difficult  to  accept  any  such 
hypothesis  in  the  teeth  of  the  evidence  of  all  manuscripts ;  and  when  we 
remember  the  perpetual  interchange  of  news  between  different  Churches,  it 
is  a  much  simpler  and  more  natural  supposition  that,  as  the  first  part  of  the 
letter  had  been  wrjtten  while  he  was  in  anxiety  about  them,  and  the  second 
after  his  mind  had  been  relieved  by  the  arrival  of  Titus,  so  this  third  part  of 
the  letter  was  written  after  the  arrival  of  some  other  messenger,  who  bore 
the  disastrous  tidings  that  some  teacher  had  come  from  Jerusalem  whose 
opposition  to  St.  Paul  had  been  more  marked  and  more  unscrupulous  than  any 
with  which  he  had  yet  been  obliged  to  deal  However  that  uiay  be,  certain  it 
is  that  these  chapters  are  written  in  a  very  different  mood  from  the  former.3 
There  is  in  them  none  of  the  tender  effusiveness  and  earnest  praise  which  we 
have  been  hearing,  but  a  tone  of  suppressed  indignation,  in  which  tenderness, 
struggling  with  bitter  irony,  in  some  places  renders  the  language  laboured 
and  obscure,3  like  the  words  of  one  who  with  difficulty  restrains  himself  from 
saying  all  that  his  emotion  might  suggest.  Tet  it  is  deeply  interesting  to 
observe  that  "  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ  "  reigns  throughout  all 
this  irony,  and  he  utters  no  word  of  malediction  like  those  of  the  Psalmists. 
And  there  is  also  a  tone  of  commanding  authority,  which  the  writer  is  driven 
to  assume  as  a  last  resource,  since  all  forbearance  has  been  so  grievously  mis- 
understood. Some  among  them — one  person  in  particular  4 — had  been  passing 
their  censures  and  criticisms  on  St.  Paul  very  freely,  saying  that  his 
person  was  mean ; 6  that  he  was  untutored  in  speech ;  °  that  ho  was  only 
bold  in  letters,  and  at  a  distance ;  that  ho  walked  "  according  to  thp 
flesh ; " J  that  he  was  certainly  a  weakling,  and  probably  a  madman.8 
They  had  been  urging  their  own  near  connexion  with  Christ  as  a  sub- 
ject of  self -commendation ; 9  had  been  preaching  another  Jesus,  and  a 
different  Gospel,  and  imparting  a  different  spirit ; 10  had  been  boasting  im- 
measurably of  their  superiority,  though  they  were  thrusting  themselves  into 

1  If  .such  a  supposition  were  at  all  probable,  we  should  rather  infer  from  xii.  18  that 
this  section  was  an  Epistle  written  after  the  mission  of  Titus  and  the  brother  alluded  to 
in  viii.  18.  But  the  suggestion  in  the  text  seems  to  me  to  meet  most  of  the  difficulties. 

s  A  change  of  tone  of  an  analogous  character — from  a  more  distant  and  respectful 
to  a  more  stern  and  authoritative  style — is  observable  in  Rom.  xiv.,  xv.  (v.  infra,  p.  450). 
So  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  apologetic  and  the  aggressive  part  of  Demos- 
thenes, De  Corond  (Hug).  Semler  was  the  first  to  suggest  that  this  Epistle  was  an 
amalgamation  of  three,  which  is  also  the  view  of  "Weisse.  The  Avrbs  Si  iyit  HaCXos  of  x.  1 
(cf .  GaL  v.  2 ;  Eph.  iii.  1 ;  Philem.  19)  at  once  marks  the  change. 

8  Theodoret  says  of  x.  12 — 18  that  St.  Paul  wrote  it  obscurely  (io-o^is)  from  a  desire 
not  to  expose  the  offenders  too  plainly. 

*  x.  2,  rivas  ;  7,  rl  T«  iriiroiBtv  iaMTif  ',  10,  (jxprt,  "  says  he  ;  "  11,  6  TOIOVTOS  ;  12,  nai ;  18, 
a  iavr'ov  avvuniav  ',  xL  4,  6  cpxo/upot. 

*  x.  1,  10.  8  xi.  6. 

7  x.  2,  Kara  cap**,  i.e.,  with  mere  earthly  motives  ;  that  he  was  timid,  complaisant, 
inconsistent,  self-seeking. 

8  xi.  16,  17,  19.     Compare  the  blunt  "  Thou  art  mad,  Paul !  "  of  Festui. 

*  x.  7. 

w  xi.  4,  iAAnv  'Iij<rovr    .    .    •    trtpov  nvevftm    .    .    .    cv'ayye'Xiov  cr«por, 


416  THE  LIFK  AND  WOEK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

spheres  of  work  in  which  they  had  not  laboured ; l  and  by  whispered  sedcc- 
tions  had  been  beguiling  the  Corinthians  from  the  simplicity  of  their  original 
faith.1  In  contrast  to  the  self -supporting  toils  and  forbearance  of  St.  Paul, 
these  men  and  their  coryphaeus  had  maintained  their  claim  to  Apostolic 
authority  by  an  insolence,  rapacity,  and  violence,3  which  made  Paul  ironically 
remark  that  his  weakness  in  having  any  consideration  for  his  converts,  instead 
of  lording  it  over  them,  had  been  a  disgrace  to  him.  And,  strange  to  say, 
the  ministry  and  doctrine  of  this  person  and  his  clique  had  awakened  a  distinct 
echo  in  the  hearts  of  the  unstable  Corinthians.  They  had  taken  thorn  at  their 
own  estimate ;  had  been  dazzled  by  their  outrageous  pretensions  ;  benumbed 
by  the  "  torpedo-touch  "  of  their  avarice ;  and  confirmed  in  a  bold  disregard 
for  the  wishes  and  regulations  of  their  true  Teacher.* 

It  is  at  these  intruders  that  St.  Paul  hurls  his  indignant,  ironical,  unanswerable 
apology.  "Mean  as  he  was  of  aspect,"4  he  entreats  them  by  the  gentleness  aud 
mildness  of  Christ  that  when  he  came  he  might  not  be  forced  to  show  that  if  "  lie 
walked  after  the  flesh,"  at  any  rate  the  weapons  he  wielded  were  not  after  the  flesh, 
but  strong  enough  to  humble  insolence,  and  punish  disobedience,  and  rase  the  strong- 
holds of  opposition,  and  take  captive  every  thought  into  the  obedience  of  Christ. 
Did  they  judge  by  outward  appearance  ?  They  should  find  that  he  was  as  near  to 
Christ  as  any  member  of  the  party  that  used  His  name.  They  should  find  that  his 
personal  action,  founded  on  a  power  of  which  he  well  might  boast,  but  which  God 
had  given  him  for  their  edification,  not  for  destruction,  could  be  as  weighty  and 
powerful,  as  calculated  to  terrif y  them,  as  his  letters.6  He  would  not,  indeed,  venture 
to  enter  with  them  into  the  mean  arena  of  personal  comparisons,7  which  proved  the 
unwisdom  of  his  opponents ;  nor  would  lie  imitate  them  in  stretching  his  boasts  to 
an  illimitable  extent.  He  would  confine  these  boasts  to  the  range  of  the  measuring- 
line  which  God  had  given  him,  and  which  was  quite  large  enough  without  any  over- 
straining to  reach  to  them,  even  as  His  Gospel  had  first  reached  them ;  for,  unlike 
his  opponents,  he  was  not  exercising  these  boasts  in  spheres  of  labour  not  his  own, 
but  had  hope  that,  as  their  faith  enlarged,  he  would  be  still  more  highly  esteemed, 
and  the  limit  of  his  work  extended  to  yet  wider  and  untried  regions.  Let  the  boaster 
then  boast  in  the  Lord,  since  the  test  of  a  right  to  boast  was  not  in  self-commenda- 
tion, but  in  the  commendation  of  the  Lord.s 

He  entreats  them  to  bear  with  him,  just  a  little,  in  this  folly— nay,  he  is  sure  they 
do  so.9  He  feels  for  thcia  a  godly  jealousy,  desiring  to  present  thorn  as  a  chaste 
virgin  to  Christ,  but  fearful  lest  they  should  be  seduced  from  their  simplicity  as  tho 
eerpent  beguiled  Eve.  It  would  have  been  easy  for  them  (it  appears)  to  tolerate  this 
new  preacher10  if  he  is  preaching  another  Jesus,  a  different  spirit,  a  different  gospel; 
but  he  professes  to  preach  the  same,  and  such  being  the  caso  be  had  no  more 

i  1. 13.  »  si.  8.  •  si.  20,  21.  «  x.  13 ;  si.  3,  20 ;  xii.  13,14, 

•  Mauv  of  these  expressions,  as  St.  Chiysosloin  saw,  are  quotations  of  the  sneers  of  his  oppo- 
nents— KOT  eipiMtiav  <t*i<ri  TO.  iicsCvtov  £0eyyofispos.    For  traces  of  similar  irony,  see  1  Cor.  iv.  8—11 ; 
TL  3-8 ;  ix.  1— 1C ;  xv.  6. 

•  x.  1 — 11.    This  comparison  of  his  letters  and  his  personal  conduct  (ver.  10)  is  quoted  from  the 
Jerusalem  emissary  (^TJO-IV,  "he  says  ;"  7,  TI$;  11,  TOIOVTOS). 

1  x,  12,  €YKpZv<u  17  ovyKpivai,  an  untranslatable  paronomasia. 

•  x.  12 — 18.    The  haunting  word  is,  as  in  so  many  parts  of  the  Epistle,  "boast"  and  "commen- 
dation "(Hi-  1 ;  iv.  2;  v.  12;  x.  12,  16, 17, 18;  xi  10,  12.  18,  SO;  xii.  1,  5,  6,  11),  with  especial  refer- 
ence to  the  commendatory  letters.    It  was  an  easy  thing,  he  hints,  for  these  Judaisers  to  cuino 
comfortably  with  "letters"  from  Jerusalem  to  Corinth,  and  there  be  supported  by  admiring 
Adherents  whom  his  toils  had  converted ;  a  very  different  thing  to  traverse  the  world  as  a  friendless 
missionary,  and  sow  the  seed  of  the  Gospel  in  virgin  eoiL 

•  xi.  1,  fiiKpov  TI    .    .    .  iAAa  KOI.     This  Epistle  is  characterised  by  haunting  words,  aud  the 
V.ey  words  of  this  chapter  are  avc'xopai  (1,  4, 19,  20)  and  fypwv  (1, 16, 17, 19,  21 ;  xii.  6,  11).     Dr. 
1  luiiptre  seea  in  this  the  echo  of  some  taunt  which  Titus  l)ad  reported— "  His  folly  is  becoming 
Intolerable."  ^-  —  ••  r-^» 

»•  ti.  i,  6  «px<&fifvo». 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS.  417 

authority  than  Paul,  who  claimed  that  he  had  in  no  respect  fallen  short  of  the  most 
super-apostolic  Apostles.i  A  mere  laic  in  eloquence  he  might  be,  but  there  was  at 
any  rate  no  defect  in  his  knowledge  ;  and  the  proof  of  this  as  regards  them  was 
obvious  in  everything  among  all  men,*  unless,  indeed,  he  had  transgressed  by  humi- 
liating himself  for  their  exaltation  by  preaching  to  them  gratuitously.  Other 
Churches  he  plundered,  preaching  to  the  Corinthian,  and  being  paid  his  wages  by 
others.  And  though  he  was  in  positive  want  while  among  them,  he  did  not  benumb 
them  with  his  exactions,  as  though  he  were  some  gymnotus,  but  was  helped  by 
Macedonians,  and  kept  and  would  keep  himsolf  from  laying  any  burden  whatever 
on  them.  That  boast  no  one  should  obstruct,3  not  (God  knows)  because  he  did  not 
love  them,  but  because  he  would  cut  off  the  handle  from  those  who  wanted  a  handle, 
and  that,  in  this  topic  of  boasting,  he  and  his  opponents  might  be  on  equal  grounds. 
The  last  remark  is  a  keen  sarcasm,  since,  if  they  charged  Paul  with  taking  money, 
they  charged  him  with  the  very  thing  which  he  did  not  do,  and  which  they  did.* 
"For  such,"  ho  adds  with  passionate  severity,  "are  false  Apostles,  deceitful  workers, 
transforming  themselves  into  Apostles  of  Christ  {  nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at,  for 
Satan  himself  transforms  himself  into  an  angel  of  light.*  It  is  no  great  thing  then, 
if  alsp  His  ministers  transform  themselves  as  ministers  of  righteousness,  whose  end 
shall  be  according  to  their  works.  Again  I  say,  Let  no  one  think  mo  a  fool  ;  or,  if 
you  do,  receive  me  even  as  you  would  receive  a  fool,  that  I  too,  as  well  as  they,  may 
boast  a  little."  He  claims  nothing  lofty  or  sacred  or  spiritual  for  this  determined 
boasting.  It  was  a  folly,  but  not  one  of  his  own  choosing.  Since  many  adopted 
this  worldly  style  of  boasting,  he  would  meet  them  with  their  own  weapons  ;  and  the 
Corinthians,  since  they  were  so  wise,  would,  he  was  sure,  gladly  tolerate  mere  harm- 
less fools,  seeing  that  they  tolerated  people  much  more  objectionable  —  people  who 
enslaved,  devoured,5  took  them  in  —  people  who  assumed  the  most  arrogant  preten- 
sions —  people  who  smote  them  in  tho  face.'  "  Of  course  all  this  ia  to  my  discredit, 
it  shows  how  weak  I  was  in  not  adopting  a  similar  line  of  conduct.  Yet,  speaking 
in  this  foolish  way,  I  possess  every  qualification  which  inspires  them  with  this 
audacity.  I,  like  them,  am  a  Hebrew,  an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  8  I  ani 
not  only,  as  they  claim  to  be,  a  minister  of  Christ,  but  (I  am  speaking  in  downright 
madness)  something  more."  And  then  follows  the  most  marvellous  fragment  ever 
written  of  any  biography  ;  a  fragment  beside  which  the  most  imperilled  lives  of  the 
most  suffering  saints  shrink  into  insignificance,  and  which  shows  us  how  fractional 
at  the  best  is  onr  knowledge  of  the  details  of  St.  Paul's  life  —  "in  toils  moro 
abundantly,  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons  more  abundantly,  in  deaths  oft  ;  of 
tho  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty  stripes  save  one  ;  thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods  ; 
once  was  I  stoned  ;  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck  ;  a  night  and  day  have  I  spent  in 
the  deep;9  in  journeyings  often  ;  in  perils  of  rivers,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils 


i  xi.  5,  ruv  vtrepXiof  'AworToAaM/j  literally  "  the  extra-super  Apostles."  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  sense  qf  indignation  in  the  use,  twice  over,  of  t&is  strange  colloquialism  ;  but  it  is  aimed,  not  at  the 
Twelve,  with  whom  St.  Paul's  relations  were  always  courteous  and  respectful,  but  at  tho  extravagant 
and  purely  human  claims  (mere  superiority,  Kara,  <rap«a)  asserted  for  them  by  these  emissaries.  H* 
compares  himself  with  them  in  knowledge  (xi.  6),  in  self-denial  about  support  (xi.  6  —  21),  ia  privilege  J 
of  birth  (22),  in  Labours  and  perils  (23  —  33),  in  ths  feet  that  his  weakness  resulted  from  pre-enainei^i 
revelations  (xii.  1  —  10),  and  in  the  supernatural  signs  of  Apostlcship  (siL  11,  12). 

a  xi.  6.  If  ^avepuxravm  («,  B,  F,  G)  be  the  right  reading,  it  means  "manifesting  it  (».€.,  Know- 
bjige)  to  you  in  everything  among  alL" 

*  Xi.  10.  leg.  <|>pay>}<7crai. 

*  How  long  this  vile  calumny  continued  may  be  seen  ia  tie  identification  of  alia  with  Simon 
Magus  in  the  Clementines. 

8  This  incidentally  alludes  to  a|Hagadah  respecting  Job.  i.  6,  or  tho  angel  wha  wrestled  with 
•Jacob  (Eisenmenger,  Entd.  Judenth.  i.  845). 

*  It  is  very  probable  that  the  Claudian  famine  had  made  many  needy  Jewish  Christians  from 
Jerusalem  go  the  round  of  the  Churches,  demanding  and  receiving  the  Chaluka. 

i  Cf.  1  Kings  mi.  24;  Matt  v.  39  ;  Luke  xxii.  64  ;  Acts  xxiii.  2.  Even  teachers  could  act  thus. 
1  Tim.  iiL  8  ;  Titus  1.  7. 

*  We  can  hardly  Imagine  that  the  Ebionite  lie  that  St.  Paul  was  a  Gentile,  who  had  got  liimso/f 
circumcised  in  okler  to  marry  the  High  Priest's  daughter,  had  as  yet  been,  invented  ;  yet  the  Tarsian 
birth  and  Roman  franchise  may  have  led  to  whispered  insinuations. 

*  Iz.  xv.  5(LXX.).  Theopbylact  makes  it  mean  "in  Bythos,"  a  place  near  Ljstrs,  after  the  stoning. 


418  THB    LIFE  AND  WORK  O!  ST.   PAUL. 

from  my  own  race,  in  perils  from  Gentiles,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the 
•wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false  brethren ;  in  toil  and  weariness, 
in  sleeplessness  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often ;  besides  the  things 
additional  to  all  these,  the  care  which  daily  besets  me,i  my  anxiety  for  all  the 
Churches.  Who  is  weak,  and  I  share  not  his  weakness  ?  who  is  made  to  stumble, 
and  I  do  not  burn  with  indignation?  If  I  must  boast,  I  will  boast  of  this,  the 
weakness  to  which  I  alluded.  The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
is  blessed  for  evermore,  knoweth  that  I  am  not  lying.  In  Damascus  the  ethnarch 
of  Aretas  the  king  was  guarding  the  city  of  the  Damascenes,  wishing  to  seize  me ; 
and  through  a  window  in  a  large  basket,  I  was  let  down  through  the  wall,  and 
escaped  his  hands."8 

Such  had  been  his  "preparation  of  feebleness,"  without  which  he  could  neither 
have  been  what  he  was,  nor  have  done  what  he  did.  Such  is  one  glimpse  of  a  life 
never  since  equalled  in  self-devotion,  as  it  was  also  "  previously  without  precedent 
in  the  history  of  the  world."  Here  he  breaks  off  that  part  of  the  subject.  Did  he 
intend  similarly  to  detail  a  series  of  other  hair-breadth  escapes  ?  or  glancing  retro- 
spectively at  his  perils,  does  he  end  with  the  earliest  and  most  ignominious  ?  Or 
was  it  never  his  intention  to  enter  into  such  a  narrative,  and  did  he  merely  mention 
the  instance  of  ignominious  escape  at  Damascus,  so  revolting  to  the  natural  dignity 
of  an  Oriental  and  a  Rabbi,  as  a  climax  of  the  disgraces  he  had  borne  ?  We  cannot 
tell.  At  that  point,  either  because  he  was  interrupted,  or  because  his  mood  changed, 
or  because  it  occurred  to  him  that  he  had  already  shown  his  ample  superiority  in  the 
"  weakness  "  of  voluntary  humiliation  to  even  the  most  "  super-apostolic  Apostles," 
he  here  stops  short,  and  so  deprives  us  of  a  tale  inestimably  precious,  which  the 
whole  world  might  have  read  with  breathless  interest,  and  from  which  it  might 
have  learnt  invaluable  lessons.  However  that  may  be,  he  suddenly  exclaims,  "  Of 
course  it  is  not  expedient  for  me  to  boast.8  I  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations 
of  the  Lord."  I  know  a  man  in  Christ  fourteen  years  ago  (whether  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body  *  I  know  not,  God  knows)  snatched  such  an  one  as  far  as  the  third 
heaven.5  And  I  know  such  a  man  (whether  in  the  body  or  apart  from  the  body  I 
know  not,  God  knows)  that  he  was  snatched  into  Paradise,  and  heard  unspeakable 
utterances  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  man  to  speak.  Of  such  an  one  I  will  boast — • 
but  of  myself  I  will  not  boast  except  in  these  weaknesses ;  for  even  should  I  wish 
to  boast  I  shall  not  be  a  fool ;  for  I  will  speak  the  truth.  But  I  forbear  lest  any 
one  should  estimate  about  me  above  what  he  sees  me  to  be,  or  hoars  at  all  from  me. 
And  to  prevent  my  over-exaltation  by  the  excess  of  the  revelation,  there  was  given 
me  a  stake  in  the  flesh,*  a  messenger  of  Satan  to  buffet  me,  that  I  may  not  be 
over-exalted.  About  this  I  thrice  besought  the  Lord  that  it  (or  he)  may  stand  off 
from  me.  And  He  has  said  to  me,  '  My  grace  sufficeth  thee ;  for  my  power  is 
perfected  in  weakness.'  Most  gladly  then  will  I  rather  boast  in  my  weaknesses  that 
the  power  of  Christ  may  spread  a  tent  over  me7  That  is  why  I  boast  in  weaknesses, 
insults,  necessities,  persecutions,  distresses,  for  Christ's  sake.  For  when  I  am  weak, 
then  I  am  mighty.  I  have  become  a  fool  in  boasting.  You  compelled  me.  For  I 
ought  to  be  '  commended '  by  you.  For  in  no  respect  was  I  behind  the  '  out  and 
out '  Apostles,8  even  though  I  am  nothing.  Certainly  the  signs  of  an  Apostle  were 

1  xi.  28,  <Vi<rTtt(Tis  (N,  B,  B,  E,  F,  G). 

1  xL  1—33.    On  the  escape  from  Damascus,  see  tvpra,  p.  128. 

*  8ij  is  the  most  forcible  and  natural  reading,  and  here  th«  MSS.  variation*  $i  fa  D)  and  tft 
(B,  E,  P,  G)  are  probably  due  to  itacism  or  misapprehension.  The  6Jj  implies,  "  You  will  see  from 
the  humiliating  escape  to  which  I  have  just  so  solemnly  testified  that  in  my  case  boasting  is  not 
expedient."    If  the  following  "  for  "  (D)  be  correct,  it  is  due  to  counter-currents  of  feeling  ;  but  it 
is  omitted  in  A,  B,  G. 

*  xii.  8.  leg.  xwp«,  B,  D,  B.    The  physical  condition  was  probably  identical  with  that  to  which 
Hindu  psychologists  give  the  name  of  Ttirga, — a  fourth  state,  bwides  those  of  waking,  dreaming, 
and  slumber.    The  Hindu  yogis  call  it  VvlilM  sthiti,  and  dwell  rapturously  on  it  in  their  mystio 
writings  and  songs. 

1  The  "  third  heaven  "  occurs  here  only.    For  paradise,  see  Luke  xxiii.  43. 

*  On  this  "  stake  in  tho  flesh,"  v.  infra,  Excursus  X.  Ko\a.<f>i£y,  lit.  "  should  «l»p  in  the  fso?." 

'  Xii.  9,  «77icnc>7i>cu(<T)  eir*  ifit. 

*  xiL  1—11.    The  colloquialism  closely  reproduce!  that  of  St.  Paul. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THB  CORINTHIANS.  419 

wrought  among  you  in  all  patience,  by  signs,  and  portents,  and  poweri.  The  single 
fact  that  I  did  not  benumb  you  with  exactions  is  your  sole  point  of  inferiority  to 
other  Churches.  Forgive  me  this  injustice  !  See,  a  third  time  I  am  ready  to  coma 
to  you,  and  I  will  not  benumb  you,  for  I  seek  not  yours  but  you.  Children 
ought  to  treasure  up  for  their  parents,  but  so  far  from  receiving  from  you, 
I  will  very  gladly  spend  and  be  utterly  spent  for  your  souls,  even  though 
the  more  exceedingly  I  love  you,  the  less  I  am  loved.  But  stop  !  though  I  did  not 
burden  you,  yet  '  being  a  cunning  person  I  caught  you  by  guile.'  Under  the  pre- 
text of  a  collection  I  got  money  out  of  you  by  my  confederates !  I  ask  you,  is  that 
a  fact  ?  Did  Titus  or  the  brother  whom  I  have  sent  with  him  over-reach  you  in 
any  respect  ?  Did  not  they  behave  exactly  as  I  have  done  ?  You  have  long  been 
fancying  that  all  this  is  by  way  of  self-defence  to  you.1  Do  not  think  it !  You  are 
no  judges  of  mine.  My  appeal  is  being  made  in  the  presence  of  God  in  Christ ;  yet, 
beloved,  it  has  all  been  for  your  edification.  It  was  not  said  to  defend  myself,  but 
to  save  us  from  a  miserable  meeting,  lest  we  mutually  find  each  other  what  we 
should  not  wish ;  lest  I  find  you  buzzing  with  quarrels,  party  spirit,  outbreaks  of 
rage,  self-seekings,  slanders,  whisperings,  inflations,  turbulences ;  and  lest,  on  my 
return  to  you,  my  God  humble  me  in  my  relation  to  you,  and  I  shall  mourn  over 
many  of  those  who  have  sinned  before  and  not  repented  for  the  uncleanness,  forni- 
cation, and  wantonness  which  they  practised.  It  is  the  third  time  that  I  am  intending 
to  visit  you  ;2  it  will  be  like  the  confirming  evidence  of  two  or  three  witnesses.  I 
have  forewarned,  and  I  now  warn  these  persons  once  more  that,  if  I  come,  I  will  not 
spare.  Since  you  want  a  proof  that  Christ  speaks  in  me,  ye  shall  have  it.  He  was 
crucified  in  weakness;  we  share  His  death  and  His  weakness,  but  we  shall  also  share 
His  life  and  power.  Prove  yourselves,  test  yourselves.  Is  Christ  in  you,  or  are  you 
spurious  Christians,  unable  to  abide  the  test  ?  You  will,  I  hope,  be  forced  to  recog- 
nise that  I  am  not  spurious ;  but  my  prayer  is  that  you  may  do  no  evil,  not  that  my 
genuineness  may  be  manifested  ;  that  you  may  do  what  is  noble,  even  if  therewith 
we  be  regarded  as  spurious.  Against  the  truth,  against  genuine  faithf ulness,  I  have 
no  power,  but  only  for  it.  Be  true  to  the  Gospel,  and  I  shall  be  powerless;  and  you 
will  be  mighty,  and  I  shall  rejoice  at  the  result.  I  ever  pray  for  this,  for  your 
perfection.  That  is  why  I  write  while  still  absent,  in  order  that  when  present  I 
may  have  no  need  to  exercise  against  you  with  abrupt  severity  s  the  power  which  the 
Lord  gave  me,  and  gave  me  for  building  up,  not  for  rasing  to  the  ground."4 

He  would  not  end  with  words  in  which  such  uncompromising  sternness  mingled 
with  his  immense  and  self-sacrificing  forbearance.  He  adds,  therefore,  in  his  own 
hand — "  Finally,  brethren,  farewell ;  be  perfect,  be  comforted,  be  united,  be  at 
peace';  then  shall  the  God  of  love  and  peace  be  with  you.  Salute  one  another  with 
a  holy  kiss.  All  the  saints  salute  you."  And  then  follows  the  fullest  of  his  Apos- 
tolic benedictions,  "  thence  adopted  by  the  Church  in  all  ages  as  the  final  blessing 
of  her  services  " — "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all."* 

i  TroAoi  («,  A,  B,  F,  G,  Vulg.). 

1  xii.  14.  He  has  been  atTCorinth  once ;  is  now  going  a  second  time  (ira\iv) ;  and  had  once  in- 
tended to  go.  This  is  like  a  thing  attested  by  two  or  three  witnesses,  and  will  certainly  be  fulfilled. 
I  agree  with  Banr  in  saying,  "  Let  ua  give  up  the  fiction  of  a  journty  for  which  we  can  find  no 
reasonable  grounds  "  (Paul.  ii.  320). 

*  iiroTOfjuas  only  in  Titus  i.  13,  not  in  LXX.    The  metaphor  is  either  "  by  way  of  amputation" 
or  "  precipitately,"  as  in  Wiad.  v.  23  ;  in-oro/ita  (Rom.  xi.  22). 

*  xii.  13— xiii.  10. 

*  xiii.  11 — 13.    As  these  are  the  last  extant  words  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  It  is  interest- 
Ing  to  see  what  was  the  condition  of  the  Church  when  St.  Clement  of  Rome  wrote  to  them  thirty- 
five  years  later.    We  find  that  they  were  still  somewhat  turbulent,  somewhat  disunited,  somewhat 
sceptical,  and  St.  Clement  has  to  recall  to  them  the  examples  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.    On  the 
whole,  however,  we  can  see  that  the  appeals  and  arguments  of  the  Apostle  in  these  two  letters  havs 
not  been  in  vain.    About  A.D  135  the  Church  was  visited  by  Hegesippns  (Euseb.  H.E.  iy.  22),  who 
spoke  favourably  of  their  obedience  and  liberality.    Their  Bishop  Dionysius  was  exercising  a  wide- 
spread influence.    In  speaking  of  the  Resurrection,  St.  Clement  alludes  to  the  Phoenix  (ad  Roin.  i. 
£4,  25),  which  in  that  age  excited  much  interest  (Tac.  Ann.  vi.  28  ;  Plin.  H.  N,  x,  2).    Can  any  one 
fail  to  see  a  "  grace  of  superintendence  "  in  the  absence  of  such  illustrations  from  the  page  of  the 
Apostles  ? 


420  THE  UM  AND  YTOBK  OF  ST.  PATTL, 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE    SECOND    VISIT    TO    COEINTH, 

AtiaKTueby,  avsfiKajtor.  —  2  TUJ.  ii.  24 

ST.  LUKE  passes  over  with  the  exi-remest  brevity  the  second  sojourn  of  Si 
Paul  in  Tilaeedonia.  The  reason  for  his  silence  may  have  been  that  the  period 
was  not  iiis  iked  by  any  special  events  sufficiently  prominent  to  find  room  in 
his  pages.  I'  *raa  no  part  of  his  plan  to  dwell  on  the  sources  of  inward 
sorrow  •which  weighed  so  heavily  upon  the  mind  of  St.  Paul,  or  to  detail  the 
afflictions  which  formed  the  very  groundwork  of  his  ordinary  life.  It  was 
the  experience  of  St.  Paul,  more  perhaps  than  that  of  any  man  who  has  erer 
lived  —  even  if  we  select  those  who  have  made  their  lives  a  sacrifice  to  some 
great  cause  of  God  —  that  life  was  a  tissue  of  minor  trials,  diversified  by  greater 
and  heavier  ones.  But  St.  Luke  —  not  to  speak  of  the  special  purposes  which 
seem  to  have  guided  his  sketch  —  only  gives  us  full  accounts  of  the  events 
which  he  personally  witnessed,1  or  of  those  which  he  regarded  of  capital 
importance,  and  about  which  he  could  obtain  information  which  he  knew  to 
be  trustworthy.  It  is  one  of  the  many  indications  of  the  scantiness  of  his 
biography  that  he  does  not  even  once  mention  a  partner  and  fellow-worker 
of  St.  Paul  so  dear  to  him,  so  able,  so  energetic,  and  so  deeply  trusted  as  the 
Greek  Titus,  of  whose  activity  and  enthusiasm  the  Apostle  made  so  much 
uee  in  furthering  the  Offertory,  and  in  the  yet  more  delicate  task  of  dealirsg 
with  the  Christian  Corinthians  at  this  most  unsatisfactory  crisis  of  their 
troubled  history. 

St.  Luke  accordingly,  passing  over  the  distress  of  mind  and  the  outward 
persecution  which  St.  Paul  tells  us  he  had  at  this  time  encountered,  says 
nothing  about  the  many  agitations  of  which  we  are  able  from  the  Epistles 
to  supply  the  outline.  All  that  he  tells  us  is  that  Paul  passed  through  those 
regions,  and  encouraged  them  with  much  exhortation.  He  does  not  even 
mention  tho  interesting  circumstance  that  having  preached  during  his  second 
journey  at  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  and  Bercea,  tho  capitals  respectively  of 
Macedonia  Prima,  Secunda,  and  Tertia,  he  now  utilised  the  intentional  post- 
ponement of  his  visit  to  Corinth  by  going  through  Macedonia  Quarta  as  far 
aa  Hlyricum.  Whether  he  only  went  to  the  borders  of  Illyricnra,  or  whether 
ho  entered  it  and  reached  as  far  as  Dyrrachium,  and  even  as  Nicopolis,  and 
•whether  by  Illyricum  is  meant  tho  Greek  district  or  the  Roman  province3 
that  went  by  that  name,  we  cannot  tell;  but  at  any  rats  St.  Paul  mentions  this 
country  as  marking  the  circumference  of  the  outermost  circle  of  those  mis- 
sionary journeys  of  which  Jerusalem  was  the  centre. 

That  the  Offertory  greatly  occupied  his  time  and  thoughts  is  clear  from 

1  So  tho  Muratorian  Canon  :  "  act*  autS  omiriu  apostolorum  sub  uno  libro  ecribta  sunt 
lucaa  optime  theofile  comprindit  quia  mb  praesentia  ejus  singula  g3rebantur<" 
•  "Titus  unto  Dahnatia,"  2  Tim.  IT.  10. 


THE  SECOND  VISIT  TO  COKIrfTH.  421 

his  own  repeated  allusions  and  the  prominence  which  he  gives  to  this  subject 
in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.  It  must  have  been  one  of  his  trials  to 
be  perpetually  pleading  for  pecuniary  contributions,  among  little  bodies  of 
converts  of  whom  the  majority  were  not  only  plunged  in  poverty,  but  who 
had  already  made  the  most  conspicuous  sacrifices  on  behalf  of  their  Christian 
faith.  It  was  clear  to  him  that  this  fact  would  be  unscrupulously  used  as  a 
handle  against  him.  However  careful  and  businesslike  his  arrangements 
might  be — however  strongly  he  might  insist  on  having  no  personal  share  in 
tho  distribution,  or  even  the  treasurership  of  these  funds — persons  would  not 
bo  wanting  to  whisper  the  base  insinuation  that  Paul  found  his  own  account 
in  them  by  means  of  accomplices,  and  that  even  the  laborious  diligence  with 
which  he  worked  day  and  night  at  his  trade,  .and  failed  even  thus  to  ward  off 
the  pains  of  want,  was  only  the  cloak  for  a  deep-laid  scheme  of  avarice  and 
eelf -aggrandisement.  It  was  still  worse  when  these  charges  came  from  the 
emissaries  of  the  very  Church  for  the  sake  of  whose  poor  he  was  facing  this 
disagreeable  work  of  begging.1  But  never  was  there  any  man  in  this  world 
— however  innocent,  ho wever  saintly — who  has  escaped  malice  and  slander; 
iudeed,  the  virulence  of  this  malice  and  the  persistency  of  this  slander  are 
often  proportionate  to  the  courage  wherewith  he  confronts  the  baseness  of 
the  world.  St.  Paul  did  not  profess  to  be  indifferent  to  these  stings  of  hatred 
and  calumny;  he  made  no  secret  of  the  agony  which  they  caused  him.  He  was, 
on  the  contrary,  acutely  sensible  of  their  gross  injustice,  and  of  the  hindrance 
which  they  caused  to  the  great  work  of  his  life ;  and  the  irony  and  passion 
with  which,  on  fitting  occasions,  he  rebuts  them  is  a  measure  of  the  suffering 
which  they  caused.  But,  as  a  rule,  he  left  them  unnoticed,  and  forgave  those 
by  whom  they  wore  perpetrated:— 

"  Assailed  by  slander  and  the  tongue  of  strife 
1 !  ia  only  answer  was  a  blameless  life ; 
Ami  he  that  forged  and  he  that  flung  the  dart, 
Had  each  a  brother's  interest  in  his  heart." 

For  he  was  not  the  man  to  neglect  a  duty  because  it  was  disagreeable,  or 
because  his  motives  in  undertaking  it  might  be  misinterpreted.  And  the 
motives  by  which  he  was  actuated  ia  this  matter  were  peculiarly  sacred.  In 
the  first  place,  the  leading  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  had  bound  Mm  by  a  special 
promise  to  take  care  of  their  poor,  almost  as  a  part  of  the  hard- wrung  compact 
by  which  their  Church  had  consented  to  waive,  in  tho  case  of  Gentile  converts, 
the  full  acceptance  of  legal  obligations.  In  the  second  place,  the  need  really 
existed,  and  was  even  urgent;  and  it  was  entirely  in  consonance  with  St. 
Paul's  own  feelings  to  give  them  practical  proof  of  that  brotherly  love  which 
he  regarded  as  the  loftiest  of  Christian  virtues.  Then,  further,  in  his  early 
days,  his  ignorant  zeal  had  inflicted  on  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  a  deadly 
injury,  and  he  would  fain  show  the  sincerity  and  agony  of  his  repentance  by 

»  To  thia  day  the  Chaluka  and  Kadima  at  Jerusalem  are  the  source  of  endless  heart- 
burnings and  jealousies,  and  cause  no  particle  of  gratitude,  but  are  accepted  by  the  Jews 
as  a  testimonial  to  the  high  desert  of  living  in  the  Holy  City, 


4122  THE  LiirE  AUD  wofcs  or  ST. 


doing  all  he  could,  again  and  again,  to  repair  it.  Lastly,  lie  had  a  hope-* 
sometimes  strong  and  sometimes  weak  —  that  so  striking  a  proof  of  disin- 
terested generosity  on  the  part  of  the  Gentile  Churches  which  he  had  founded 
would  surely  touch  the  hearts  of  the  Pharisaic  section  of  the  mother  Church, 
and  if  it  eonld  not  cement  the  differences  between  the  Christians  of  Judsea 
and  Heathendom,  would  at  least  prevent  the  needless  widening  of  the  rift 
which  separated  them.  At  moments  of  deeper  discouragement,  writing  from 
Corinth  to  Rome,1  while  he  recognises  the  ideal  fitness  of  an  effort  on  the 
part  of  Gentile  Christians  to  show,  by  help  in  temporal  matters,  their  sense 
of  obligation  for  the  spiritual  blessings  which  had  radiated  to  them  from 
the  Holy  City,  and  while-  he  looks  on  the  contribution  as  a  harvest  gathering 
to  prove  to  Jewish  Christians  the  genuineness  of  the  seed  sown  among  the 
heathen,  he  yet  has  obvious  misgivings  about  the  spirit  in  which  even  this 
offering  may  be  accepted,  and  most  earnestly  entreats  the  Romans  not  only 
to  agonise  with  him  in  their  prayers  to  God  that  he  may  be  delivered  from 
Jewish  violence  in  Judsea,  but  also  that  the  bounty  of  which  he  was  the  chief 
minister  might  be  graciously  received.  It  may  be  that  by  that  time  experi- 
ences of  conflict  with  the  Judaisers  in  Corinth  may  have  somewhat  damped 
the  fervour  cf  his  hopes  ;  for  before  his  arrival  there,2  he  gives  expression  to 
glowing  anticipations  that  their  charitable  gifts  would  not  only  relieve  un- 
deserved distress,  but  would  be  a  proof  of  sincere  allegiance  to  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  and  would  call  forth  deep  thankfulness  to  God.3  Alas  !  those  glowing 
anticipations  were  doomed  —  there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  —  to  utter  dis- 
appointment. 

Having  finished  his  work  in  the  whole  of  Macedonia,  and  finding  no  more 
opportunity  for  usef  ulness  in  those  parts,4  he  at  last  sot  out  on  Ids  way  to 
Corinth.  It  was  probably  towards  the  close  of  the  year  57,  but  whether  Paul 
travelled  by  sea  or  land,  and  from  what  point  he  started,  we  do  not  know. 
After  his  journey  into  Macedonia  Quarta,  he  perhaps  returned  to  Thessalonica, 
which  was  a  convenient  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  various  brethren  who 
now  accompanied  him.  The  number  of  his  associates  makes  it  most  probable 
that  he  chose  the  less  expensive,  though,  at  that  late  season  of  the  year, 
more  dangerous  mode  of  transit,  and  took  ship  from  Thessalonica  to  Cenchreae, 
The  care  of  the  money,  and  his  own  determination  Co  have  nothing  to  do  with 
it,  rendered  it  necessary  for  the  treasurers  appointed  by  the  scattered  com- 
munities to  accompany  his  movements.  The  society  of  these  fellow-travellere 
must  have  been  a  source  of  deep  happiness  to  the  over-tried  and  over-wearied 
Apostle,  and  the  sympathy  of  such  devoted  friends  must  have  fallen  like  dew 
upon  his  soul.  There  was  the  young  and  quiet  Timothy,  the  beloved  com- 
panion of  his  life  ;  there  was  Tychicus,  who  had  been  won  in  the  school  of 
Tyrannus,  and  remained  faithful  to  him  to  the  very  last  ;  6  there  was  Gaius  of 
Derbe,  a  living  memorial  of  the  good  work  done  in  his  earliest  missionary 

1  Rom.  xv.  25—32.  *  2  Cor.  viii.  24  ;  ix.  12—15. 

•  2  Cor.  ix.  14,  *  Bom.  XV.  23,  JU^KCTI  TOTTOV  l\<av  iv  rots  icAifAaO'i  rovrotf 

6  2  Tim.  iv.  12, 


THE  SECOND  VISIT  TO  COfclNTH.  423 

journey.  Theasalonica  had  contributed  no  less  than  three  to  the  little  band — 
Jason,  his  fellow-countryman,  if  not  his  kinsman,  whose  house  at  St.  Paul's 
first  visit  had  been  assaulted  by  a  raging  mob,  which,  failing  to  find  his  guest, 
had  dragged  him  before  tho  Politarchs ;  Aristarchus,  who  had  shared  with 
him  the  perils  of  Ephesus,  as  ho  subsequently  shared  his  Toyage  and  shipwreck ; 
aiid  Secundus,  of  whom  no  particulars  are  known.  Besides  these,  Beroea  had 
despatched  Sopater,  a  Jewish  convert,  who  is  one  of  those  who  sends  his 
greetings  to  the  Roman  Christians.1  In  Corinth  itself  he  was  again  looking 
forward  to  a  meeting  with  some  of  his  dearest  friends — vith  Titus,  whose 
courage  and  good  sense  rendered  him  so  invaluable ;  with  Luke  the  beloved 
physician,  who  was  in  all  probability  the  delegate  of  Philippi;  with  Trophimus, 
an  Ephesian  Greek,  the  fatal  but  innocent  cause  of  St.  Paul's  arrest  at  Jeru- 
salem, destined  long  afterwards  to  start  with  him  on  his  voyage  as  a  prisoner, 
but  prevented  from  sharing  his  last  sufferings  by  an  illness  with  which  he 
was  seized  at  Miletus ; a  and  with  the  many  Corinthian  Christians — Justus, 
Sosthenes,  Erastns,  TertiuB,  Quartus,  Stephanas,  Fortunatus,  Achaicus,  and 
lastly  Gaius  of  Corinth,  with  whom  St.  Paul  intended  to  stay,  and  whose  open 
house  and  Christian  hospitality  were  highly  valued  by  the  Church. 

The  gathering  of  so  many  Christian  hearts  could  not  fail  to  be  a  bright 
point  in  the  cloudy  calendar  of  the  Apostle's  life.  What  happy  evenings 
they  must  have  enjoyed,  while  the  toil  of  his  hands  in  no  way  impeded  the 
outpouring  of  his  soul !  what  gay  and  genial  intercourse,  such  as  is  possible 
in  its  highest  degree  only  to  pure  and  holy  souls!  what  interchange  of 
thoughts  and  hopes  on  the  deepest  of  all  topics  !  what  hours  of  mutual  con- 
solation amid  deepening  troubles ;  what  delightful  Agapse ;  what  blessed 
partaking  of  the  Holy  Sacrament;  what  outpourings  of  fervent  prayer! 
For  three  months  St.  Paul  stayed  at  Corinth,  and  during  these  three  months 
he  wrote,  in  all  probability,  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  and  certainly 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — two  of  the  most  profound  and  memorable  of  all 
his  writings.3  And  since  it  was  but  rarely  that  he  was  his  own  amanuensis— 

1  Rom.  xvi.  21.    The  exact  sense  which  St.  Paul  attributed  to  ov/ye^t  ia  uncertain. 

2  2  Tim.  iv.  20. 

*  The  subtle  indications  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  was  written  nearly  at  the 
same  time  as  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  consist  of  casual  reflections  of  the 
same  expression  and  pre-occupation  with  the  same  order  of  thought.  The  tone,  feeling, 
style,  and  mode  of  argument  show  the  greatest  similarity.  Compare,  for  instance — 

2  CORINTHIANS.  GALATIANS. 

xi.  2 iv.  17. 

xi.  20 v.  15. 

xii.  20,  21 v.  20,  21. 

ii.  7    vi.  1. 

xiii.  5 vi.  4. 

ix.  6 vi.8. 

v.  17 vi.  15. 


2  CORINTHIANS.  GALATIANS. 


i.  1 

xi.  4... 
v.  11 
xii.  11 


.  1. 

6. 

.10. 
ii.  6. 


v.  15       ...    ...     ii.  20. 

viii.  6      ii.  3. 

v.  21       lii.  13. 


These  are  but  specimens  of  coincidence  in  thought  and  expression,  which  might  be  almost 
indefinitely  multiplied.  To  dwell  on  the  close  resemblance  between  Galatians  and 
Romans  is  needless.  It  was  noticed  a  thousand  years  ago.  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
is  the  rough  sketch,  that  to  the  Romans  the  finished  picture.  The  former  is  an  im- 
passioned controversial  personal  statement  cf  the  relation  of  Gentile  Christians  mainly 
to  one  legal  obligation — circumcision  ;  the  latter  is  a  calm,  systematic,  general  treatise 


424  SEK  IIFB  AND  WORK  OF  Si.   PAtJL. 

since  it  is  his  custom  to  associate  one  or  more  and  sometimes  the  whole  body 
01  Ms  fellow-travellers  with  himself  in  the  superscriptions  of  his  letters,  as  well 
as  to  send  greetings  from  them — may  we  not  regard  it  as  certain  that  those 
letters  were  read  aloud  to  the  little  knot  of  friends,  and  formed  fruitful  topics 
of  long  and  earnest  discussion  ?  Did  even  St.  Paul  anticipate  that  those  few 
rolls  of  papyrus  would  be  regarded  to  the  latest  ages  of  the  world  as  a  price- 
less treasure? 

But  what  was  the  state  of  things  which  the  Apostle  found  when  he 
stepped  out  of  the  house  of  Gains  into  the  house  of  Justus?  It  waa  St. 
Luke's  object  to  show  the  fundamental  unity  which  existed  among  Christians, 
and  not  to  dwell  upon  the  temporary  differences  which  unhappily  divided 
them.  Ho  does  not,  indeed,  conceal  the  existence  of  discordant  elements,  but 
his  wish  seems  to  have  been  to  indicate  the  essential  harmony  which  these 
discords  might  disturb,  but  not  destroy.  He  has  not,  therefore,  told  us  a 
single  detail  of  St.  Paul's  encounter  with  the  false  Apostles,  the  deceitful 
workers  who  had  huckstered  and  adulterated  the  Word  of  God,  or  with  that 
one  insolent  and  overbearing  emissary,  who  with  his  stately  presence,  trained 
utterance,  and  immense  pretensions,  backed  with  credentials  from  Jerusalem 
and  possibly  with  the  prestige  of  a  direct  knowledge  of  Christ,  had  denied 
St.  Paul's  Apostleship,  and  omitted  no  opportunity  of  blackening  his 
character.  Did  this  man  face  St.  Panl  ?  Did  his  followers  abide  by  the 
defiance  which  they  had  expressed  towards  him  ?  Was  there  a  crisis  in  which 
it  was  decisively  tested  on  which  side  the  true  power  lay  ?  Did  he  after  all 
come  with  a  rod,  or  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  ?  waa  the  proof  of  his  Apostle- 
ship  given  by  the  exercise  of  discipline,  and  the  utterance  of  excommunica- 
tions which  struck  terror  into  flagrant  apostates,  or  did  the  returning  allegiance 
of  the  erring  flock,  and  the  increase  of  holiness  among  them,  render  it  un- 
necessary to  resort  to  stringent  measures  ?  To  all  these  questions  we  can 
return  no  certain  answer.  We  may  imagine  the  hush  of  awful  expectation 
with  which  the  little  community  gathered  in  the  room  of  Justus  would 
receive  the  first  entrance  and  the  first  utterances  of  one  whose  love  they 
had  so  terribly  tried,  and  against  whose  person  they  had  levelled  such  un- 
worthy sarcasms.  Personal  questions  would,  however,  weigh  least  with  him. 
They  knew  well  that  it  was  not  for  party  opposition  but  for  moral  contumacy 
that  his  thunders  would  be  reserved.  Since  many  of  them  were  heinous 
offenders,  since  many  had  not  even  repented  after  serious  warnings,  how  must 
they  have  shuddered  with  dread,  how  must  their  guilty  consciences  have 
made  cowards  of  them  all,  when  at  last,  after  more  than  three  years,  they 
etood  face  to  face  with  one  who  could  hand  them  too  over  to  Satan  v/ithall  the 
fearful  consequences  which  that  sentence  entailed!  Over  all  these  scenes 
the  veil  of  oblivion  has  fallen.  The  one  pen  that  might  have  recorded  them 
has  written  nothing,  nor  do  we  hear  a  single  rumour  from  any  other  source. 

on  the  relations  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Law.  An  instructive  comparison  of  Gal.  iii.  6— 
29  with  Bom,  ir.,  &c.,  will  be  found  in  Lightfoot's  Galatiwu,  pp.  11  16. 


IMFORTANOEjOF  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIA.NS.  425 

Bnt  that  for  the  time  the  Apostle  triumphed  —  that  whether  in  consequence  of 
an  actual  exertion  of  power,  or  of  a  genuine  repentance  on  the  part  of  his 
opponents,  his  authority  was  once  more  firmly  established  —  we  may  infer  from 
his  hint  that  until  the  Corinthian  difficulties  were  removed  he  could  take  no 
sther  task  in  hand,  and  that  in  the  Epistles  which  he  wrote  during  these 
three  months  of  his  residence  at  the  Achaian  capital  ho  contemplates  yet 
wider  missions  and  freely  yields  himself  to  new  activities.! 

Yet,  amid  our  ignorance  of  facts,  we  do  possess  the  means  of  reading 
the  inmost  thoughts  which  were  passing  through  the  soul  of  St,  Paul.  The 
two  Epistles  which  he  despatched  during  those  three  months  were  in  many 
'respects  the  most  important  that  he  ever  wrote,  and  it  inspires  us  with  the 
highest  estimate  of  his  intellectual  power  to  know  that,  within  a  period  so 
short  and  so  much  occupied  with  other  duties  and  agitations,  he  yet  found 
time  to  dictate  the  Letter  to  the  Galatians,  which  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  and  the  Letter  to  the  Romans,  which  may  well  be 
regarded  as  the  most  important  of  all  contributions  to  the  system  of  its 
theology. 

_  ^__^^ 

'toiH 

fj  KOIJJOICO  ot  l^ih'ifi  itfiitfi-uJI  ^.ij^'iJO  <*• 
CHAPTER  XXXV. 

'.  i    wlillj    nil    tutH  it        .11.' 

IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE   OALATIAH3. 

"  In  Ex.  xxxiL  16,  for  charuth,  l  graven,'  read  chertrth,  '  freedom,'  for  thou  wflt 
find  no  freeman  but  him  who  is  engaged  in  the  Thorah."  —  R.  HEIR  (Perek.  2). 

"  He  is  a  freeman  whom  THE  TRUTH  makes  frf 
And  all  are  slaves  beside." 

s     .     .     .     ?rapaKi'<f  u*  ds  )>6luo>>  ri\tiov  rdv  Tqs  t*.tu9fplas     .     .     •      (JAKES  i,  25). 


WE  have  already  seen  that  in  his  brief  second  visit  to  the  Churches  of 
Galatia,  on  his  road  to  Ephesus,  St.  Paul  seems  to  have  missed  the  bright 
enthusiasm  which  welcomed  his  first  preaching.  His  keen  eye  marked  the 
germs  of  coming  danger,  and  the  warnings  which  he  uttered  weakened  the 
warmth  of  his  earlier  relationship  towards  them.  But  he  could  hardly  have 
expected  the  painful  tidings  that  converts  once  so  dear  and  so  loving  had 
relapsed  from  everything  which  was  distinctive  in  his  teaching  into  the 
shallowest  coremonialism  of  his  Judaising  opponents.  Already,  whoever 
sanctioned  them,  these  men  had  spoilt  his  best  work,  and  troubled  his  happy 
disciples  at  Autioch  and  at  Corinth,  and  they  had  their  eye  also  on  Ephesus. 
Thus  to  intrude  themselves  into  other  men's  labours  —  thus  to  let  him  bear  the 
brunt  of  all  dangers  and  labours  while  they  tried  to  monopolise  the  result  —  to 
watch  indifferently  and  unsympathetieally  while  the  sower  bore  forth  bis  good 

»  Bom,  i.  13;  iv.  24,  32. 
15 


426  THE   LIFE  AKD  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

seed,  weeping,  and  then  securely  to  thrust  their  blunt  and  greedy  sickles  into 
the  ripening  grain — to  dog  the  footsteps  of  the  bold,  self-sacrificing  missionary 
with  easy,  well-to-do  men-pleasers,  who,  with  no  personal  risk,  stole  in  his 
absence  into  the  folds  which  he  had  constructed,  in  order  to  worry  with  privy 
paws  his  defenceless  sheep — to  trouble  with  their  petty  formalisms  and 
artificial  orthodoxies  the  crystal  water  of  Christian  simplicity  and  Christian 
happiness — to  endanger  thus  the  whole  future  of  Christianity  by  trying  to 
turn  it  from  the  freedom  of  a  universal  Gospel  into  the  bondage  of  a  Judaic 
law — to  construct  a  hedge  which,  except  at  the  cost  of  a  cutting  in  the  flesh, 
should  exclude  the  noblest  of  the  Gentiles  while  it  admitted  the  vilest  of  the 
Jews — all  this,  to  the  clear  vision  of  St.  Paul,  seemed  bad  enough.  But  thus 
to  thrust  themselves  among  the  little  communities  of  his  Galatian  converts — 
to  take  advantage  of  their  warm  affections  and  weak  intellects — to  play  on  the 
vacillating  frivolity  of  purpose  which  made  them  such  easy  victims,  especially 
to  those  who  offered  them  an  external  cult  far  more  easy  than  spiritual 
religion,  and  bearing  a  fascinating  resemblance  to  their  old  ceremonial 
paganism — this  to  St.  Paul  seemed  intolerably  base. 

Vexed  at  this  Galatian  fickleness,  and  stung  with  righteous  indignation  at 
those  who  had  taken  advantage  of  it,  he  seized  his  pen  to  express  in  the  most 
unmistakable  language  his  opinion  of  the  falsity  and  worthlessness  of  the 
limits  into  which  these  Christian  Pharisees  wished  to  compress  the  principles 
of  Christianity — the  worn-out  and  burst  condition  of  the  old  bottles  in  which 
they  strove  to  store  the  rich,  fresh,  fermenting  wine.  It  was  no  time  to 
pause  for  nice  inquiries  into  motives,  or  careful  balancing  of  elements,  or 
vague  compromise,  or  polished  deference  to  real  or  assumed  authority.  It 
was  true  that  this  class  of  men  came  from  Jerusalem,  and  that  they  belonged 
to  the  very  Church  of  Jerusalem  for  whose  poorer  members  he  was  making 
such  large  exertions.  It  was  true  that,  in  one  flagrant  instance  at  any  rate, 
they  had,  or  professed  to  have,  the  authority  of  James.  Could  it  be  that 
James,  in  the  bigotry  of  lifelong  habit,  had  so  wholly  failed  to  add  under- 
standing and  knowledge  to  his  scrupulous  holiness,  that  he  was  lending  the 
sanction  of  his  name  to  a  work  which  St.  Paul  saw  to  be  utterly  ruinous  to 
the  wider  hopes  of  Christianity  ?  If  so,  it  could  not  be  helped.  James  was 
but  a  man — a  holy  man  indeed,  and  a  man  inspired  with  the  knowledge  of 
great  and  ennobling  truths — but  no  more  faultless  or  infallible  than  Peter  or 
than  Paul  himself.  If  Peter,  more  than  once,  had  memorably  wavered,  James 
also  might  waver ;  and  if  so,  James  in  this  instance  was  indubitably  in  the 
wrong.  But  St.  Paul,  at  least,  never  says  so ;  nor  does  he  use  a  word  of  dis- 
respect to  "  the  Lord's  brother."  The  Church  of  Jerusalem  had,  >  m  a 
previous  occasion,  expressly  repudiated  others  who  professed  to  speak  in  llieir 
name;  nor  is  there  any  proof  that  they  had  ever  sanctioned  this  sort  of 
counter-mission  of  espionage,  which  was  subversive  of  all  progress,  of  all 
liberty,  and  even  of  all  morals.  For,  whoever  may  have  been  these  Judaic 
teachers,  vanity,  party  spirit,  sensuality,  had  followed  in  their  wake.  They 
must  be  tested  by  their  fruits,  and  those  fruits  were  bitter  and  poisonous. 


IMPOBTAWCE   OP  THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE  OALATIANS.  427 

Some  of  them,  at  least,  were  bad  men,  anxious  to  stand  well  with  everybody, 
and  to  substitute  an  outward  observance  for  a  true  religion.  Greed,  self-im- 
portance, externalism,  were  everything  to  them ;  the  Cross  was  nothing.  If 
they  had  not  been  bad  men  they  would  not  have  been  BO  grossly  inconsistent 
as  to  manipulate  and  evade  the  Law  to  which  they  professed  allegiance. 
If  they  had  not  been  bad  men  they  would  not  have  made  the  free  use  they 
did  of  the  vilest  of  controversial  weapons — surreptitious  sneers  and  personal 
slanders.  Yet  by  such  base  means  as  those  they  had  persistently  tried  to 
undermine  the  influence  of  their  great  opponent.  They  systematically  dis- 
paraged his  authority.  He  was,  they  said,  no  Apostle  whatever;  he  was 
certainly  not  one  of  the  Twelve ;  he  had  never  seen  Jesus  except  in  a  vision, 
and  therefore  lacked  one  essential  of  the  Apostolate ;  all  that  ho  knew  of 
Christianity  he  had  learnt  at  Jerusalem,  and  that  he  had  wilfully  perverted ; 
his  Gospel  was  not  the  real  Gospel;  such  authority  as  he  had  was  simply 
derived  from  the  heads  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  to  whom  his  doctrines 
must  be  referred.  Many  of  his  present  developments  of  teaching  were  all 
but  blasphemous.  They  were  a  daring  apostasy  from  the  oral  and  even  from 
the  written  Law;  a  revolt  against  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  and  even 
against  Moses  himself.  "Was  not  his  preaching  a  denial  of  all  inspiration? 
Could  they  not  marshal  against  him  an  array  of  innumerable  texts  ?  "Was 
not  well-nigh  every  line  of  the  five  books  of  Moses  against  him  ?  "Who  was 
this  Paul,  this  renegade  from  the  Rabbis,  who,  for  motives  best  known  to 
himself,  had  become  a  nominal  Christian  from  a  savage  persecutor  ?  Who 
was  he  that  he  should  set  himself  against  the  Great  Lawgiver  ? 1  If  he 
argued  that  the  Law  was  abrogated,  how  could  he  prove  it?  Christ  had 
never  said  so.  On  the  contrary,  He  had  said  that  not  a  fraction  of  a  letter  of 
the  Law  should  pass  till  all  was  fulfilled.  To  that  the  Twelve  could  bear 
witness.  They  kept  the  Law.  They  were  living  at  peace  with  their  Jewish 
brethren  who  yet  did  aot  recognise  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  Must  not  Paul's 
opinions  be  antagonistic  to  theirs,  if  he  was  the  only  Christian  who  could 
not  show  his  face  at  Jerusalem  without  exciting  the  danger  of  a  tumult  ? 
Besides,  he  was  really  not  to  be  trusted.  He  was  always  shifting  about,  now 
saying  one  thing  and  now  another,  with  the  obvious  intention  of  pleasing  men. 
"What  could  be  more  inconsistent  than  his  teaching  and  conduct  with  regard 
to  circumcision  ?  He  had  told  the  Galatians  that  they  need  aot  be  circum- 
cised, and  yet  he  himself  had  once  preached  circumcision — aye,  and  more  than 
preached  it,  he  had  practised  it !  "Would  he  answer  these  two  significant 
questions — "Who  circumcised  Timothy  ?  "Who  circumcised  Titus  ? 

St.  Paul  saw  that  it  was  time  to  speak  out,  and  he  did  speak  out.  The 
matter  at  issue  was  one  of  vital  importance.  The  very  essence  of  the  Gospel 

1  The  elements  of  the  above  paragraph  are  drawn  partly  from  the  "Galatians,"  partly 
from  the  "Corinthians."  For  the  Ebionite  slanders  against  St.  Paul,  see  Iren.  Adv. 
Haer.  i.  28 ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  27 ;  Epiphan.  Haer.  xxx.  25 ;  Ps.  Clem.  Horn.  ii.  17—19. 
"  Totius  mundi  odio  me  oneravi,"  says  Luther,  "  qui  olim  eram  tutissimus.  Ministerium 
Ecclesiae  omnibus  periculis  cxpositum  eat,  Diaboli  insultationibus,  mundi  ingratitudini, 
•ectarum  blasphemiis  "  (Colloq.  i.  13). 


428  T2E  LIFE  AND  WORK  Of  ST.  PAUL. 

the  very  liberty  which  Christ  had  given — the  very  redemption  for  which 

He  had  died— was  at  stake.  The  fate  of  the  battle  hung  apparently  upon  his 
single  arm.  He  alone  was  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  To  him  alone  had  it 
been  granted  to  see  the  full  bearings  of  this  question.  A  new  faith  must  not 
be  choked  at  its  birth  by  the  past  prejudices  of  its  nominal  adherents.  Its 
^rave-clothes  must  not  thus  be  made  out  of  its  swaddling-bands.  The  hour 
had  come  when  concession  was  impossible,  and  there  must  ba  no  facing  both 
ways  in  the  character  of  his  conciliatoriness.  Accordingly  he  flung  all  reti- 
cence and  all  compromise  to  the  winds.  Hot  with  righteous  anger,  he  wrote 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  It  was  his  gage  of  battle  to  the  incompetence 
of  traditional  authority — his  trumpet-note  of  defiance  to  all  the  Pharisees  of 
Christianity,  and  it  gave  no  uncertain  sound.1 

Happily,  he  could  give  distinctness  to  his  argument  by  bringing  it  to  bear 
on  one  definite  point.  In  recovering  the  lost  outwork  of  Galatia  he  would 
carry  the  war  into  the  camp  of  Jerusalem.  The  new  teachers  asserted,  as  at 
Antioch,  the  necessity  of  circumcision  for  Gentile  Christians.  If  Paul  could 
storm  that  bastion  of  Judaising  Christianity,  he  knew  that  the  whole  citadel 
must  fall.  Circumcision  was  the  very  badge  of  Jewish  nationality — the  very 
nucleus  of  Jewish  ceremonialism ;  the  earliest,  the  most  peculiar,  the  most 
ineffaceable  of  Jewish  rites.  Adam,  Noah,  Jacob,  Joseph,  Moses,  Balaam, 
had  all  been  born  circumcised.2  So  completely  was  it  the  seal  of  the  Cove- 
nant, that  it  had  been  given  not  even  to  Moses,  but  to  Abraham.  Joseph  had 
seen  that  it  was  duly  performed  in  Egypt.  Moses  had  insisted  upon  it  at  all 
risks  in  Midian.  Joshua  had  renewed  it  in  Canaan ;  and  so  sacred  was  it 
deemed  to  be  that  the  stone  knives  with  which  it  had  been  performed  were 
buried  in  his  grave  at  Timnath  Serah.  Was  there  a  king  or  prophet  who  had 
not  been  circumcised  P  Had  not  Jesus  Himself  submitted  to  circumcision  P 
Was  not  Elias  supposed  to  be  always  present,  though  unseen,  to  witness  its 
due  performance  ?  Was  not  the  mechanical  effacement  of  it  regarded  as  the 
most  despicable  of  Hellenising  apostasies  ?  It  was  true  that  in  the  temporary 
and  local  letter  which  the  Apostles  had  sanctioned  they  had  said  that  it  was 
not  indispensable  for  Gentile  converts;  but  a  thing  might  not  be  indis- 
pensable, and  yet  might  be  pre-eminently  desirable.  Let  them  judge  for 
themselves.  Did  they  not  hear  the  Law  read  ?  Was  not  the  Law  inspired  P 
If  so,  how  could  they  arbitrarily  set  it  aside  P  * 

1  "It  was  necessary  that  the  particularisms  of  Judaism,  which  opposed  to  the  heathen 
world  so  repellent  a  demeanour  and  such  offensive  claims,  should  be  uprooted,  and  the 
baselessness  of  its  prejudices  and  pretensions  fully  exposed  to  the  world  s  eye.  This  was 
the  service  which  the  Apostle  achieved  for  mankind  by  his  magnificent  dialectic  "  (Baur, 
JFirst  Three  Centuries,  i.  73). 

8  AbMth  of  Rabbi  Nathan,  ch.  ii. 

8  "But  for  circumcision,  heaven  and  earth  could  not  exist :  for  it  is  said,  '  Save  for 
(the  sign  of)  my  covenant,  I  should  not  have  made  day  and  night  the  ordinances  of 
heaven  and  earth ' "  (Nedarim,  f .  32,  coL  1,  referring  to  Jerem.  train.  25).  The  same 
remark  is  made  about  the  whole  Law.  Rabbi  (Juda  Hakkadosh)  says  how  great  is 
circumcision,  since  it  is  equivalent  to  all  the  commandments  of  the  Law,  for  it  is  said. 
"  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which  the  Lord  hath  made  with  you,  concerning  all 
ofew  all)  these  wwrds  "  (Ex.  xxiv.  S).—Nedarim,  f.  32,  1.  Angela  so  detest  an 


IMPORTANCE  OP  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIAJJ8.  429 

It  was  ever  thus  that  Judaism  worked,  beginning  with  the  Psalms  and 
pure  Monotheism,  and  then  proceeding  to  the  knife  of  circumcision,  and  the 
yoke  of  the  Levitic  Law,  in  which  they  entangled  and  crushed  their  slaves.1 
It  was  ever  thus  that  they  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and 
when  they  had  got  him,  made  him  ten  times  more  the  child  of  Gehenna  than 
themselves.  There  was  iiotliing  at  which  the  Jew  gloried  so  much  as  thus 
leaving  his  mark  on  the  very  body  of  the  despised  and  hated  heathen — hardly 
less  despised  and  hated,  almost  even  more  so,  if  he  had  hoped  to  equal  them 
and  their  privileges  by  consenting  to  become  a  Jew.  It  was  thus  that  they 
had  got  into  their  net  the  royal  family  of  Adiabeue.  Helena,  the  amiably 
qtteoa  who  fed  the  paupers  of  Jerusalem  with  dried  figs  and  grapes  in  the 
famine  of  Claudius,  and  who  now  lies  interred  with  some  of  her  children  in 
the  Tombs  of  the  Kings,  had  taken  upon  her  the  vow  of  the  Nazarite  for 
eeven  years.  Just  before  the  completion  of  the  vow  at  Jerusalem,  she  had — 
was  it  accidentally,  or  by  some  trickery  P — touched  a  corpse,  and  therefore 
had  to  continue  the  vow  for  seven  years  more.  Once  more  at  the  conclusion 
of  this  term  she  had  again  incurred  some  trivial  pollution,  and  had  again  to 
renew  it  for  yet  seven  years  more.  Ananias,  a  Jewish  merchant,  in  pursuance 
of  his  avocations,  had  got  access  to  the  seraglio  of  King  Abennerig,  and  there 
had  made  a  proselyte  of  the  queen,  and,  through  her  influence,  of  her  two 
sons,  Izates  and  Monobazus.  But  he  had  had  the  good  sense  and  large- 
heartedness  to  tell  them  that  the  essence  of  the  Law  was  love  to  God  and  love 
to  man.  He  was  probably  a  Hagadist,  who  valued  chiefly  the  great  broad 
truths  of  which  the  outward  observances  of  Mosaisni  were  but  the  temporary 
casket ;  and  he  had  the  insight  to  know  that  for  the  sake  of  an  outward  rite, 
which  could  not  affect  the  heart,  it  was  not  worth  while  to  disturb  a  people 
and  imperil  a  dynasty.  His  advice  must  not  be  confused  with  the  cynical 
and  immoral  indifference  which  made  Henri  IV.  observe  that  "  Paris  was  well 
worth  a  mass."  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  an  enlightenment  which  would  not 
confound  the  shadow  with  the  substance.8  It  was  the  conviction  that  the 
inscription  on  the  Chel  should  be  obliterated,  and  the  Chel  itself  broken  down.3 
But  on  the  steps  of  the  enlightened  Ananias  came  a  narrow  bigot,  the  Rabbi 
Eliczer  of  Galilee,  and  ho  employed  to  the  facile  weakness  of  the  young 
princes  the  very  argument  which  the  Judaising  teacher,  whoever  he  was, 
employed  to  the!  Galatians :  "  My  king,  yon  are  sinning  against  the  Law,  and 
therefore  against  God.  It  is  not  enough  to  read  the  La\v ;  you  must  do  the 
Law.  Read  for  yourself  what  it  says  about  circumcision,  and  you  will  see 

pncircumcised  person  that,  when  God  spoke  to  Abraham  before  circumcision,  He  spoLo 
in  Aramaic,  which,  it  appears,  tlie  angels  do  not  understand  (Yalkuih  Chadask,  f. 
117,  3). 

1  See  Hausrath,  p.  263. 

2  Josephus  had  the  good  sense  to  take  tho  same  line  when  "  two  great  men  "  came 
to  him  from  Trachonitis ;  bxit  though  for  tho  time  he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Jeivs 
not  to  force  circumcision  upon  them^yet  afterwards  these  fugitives  ;v  ere  nearly  massacred 
by  a  fanatical  mob,  and  could  cnly  secure  their  livea  by  a  hasty  flight.    See  tlio  very 
instructive  passage  in  Vit.  Jos.  23,  31. 

•  Eph.  ii.  14. 


430  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PATTL. 

how  wrong  yon  are."  l  Prince  Izatos  was  so  much  struck  with  this  "  uncom- 
promising orthodoxy "  that  he  secretly  withdrew  into  another  chamber,  and| 
there  had  the  rite  performed  by  his  physician.  Not  long  after  he  and  his' 
brother  were  reading  the  Pentateuch,  and  came  to  the  passage  about  circum- 
cision in  Ex.  xii.  48.  Monobazus  looked  up  at  his  brother,  and  said,  "  I  amj 
sorry  for  you,  my  brother,"  and  Izates  made  the  same  remark  to  him.  This, 
led  to  a  conversation,  and  the  brothers  confessed,  first  to  each  other,  and  then! 
to  Queen  Helena,  that  they  had  both  been  secretly  circumcised.  The  queen  j 
was  naturally  alarmed  and  anxious,  and  dangerous  consequences  ensued.  But! 
these  were  nothing  to  the  Jewish  fanatic.  They  would  only  be  a  fresh  source; 
of  publicity,  and  therefore  of  glorifying  in  the  flesh  of  his  proselyte.  Again., 
we  read  in  the  Talmud  that  Rabbi2  was  a  great  friend  of  "the  Emperor 
Antoninus."  On  one  occasion  the  Emperor  asked  him,  "  Wilt  thou  give  me  a 
piece  of  Leviathan  in  the  world  to  come  P  " — since  the  flesh  of  Leviathan  and! 
of  the  bird  Barjuchneh  are  to  be  the  banquet  of  the  blessed  hereafter.  "  Yes," 
answered  Rabbi.  "  But  why  dost  thou  not  allow  me  to  partake  of  the| 
Paschal  Lamb  ?  "  "  How  can  I,"  answered  Rabbi,  "  when  it  is  written  thatj 
'  no  uncircumcisod  person  shall  eat  thereof '  ?  "  Upon  hearing  this  Antoaiuusi 
submitted  to  the  rite  of  circumcision,  and  embraced  Judaism.  The  imagination 
of  Rabbis  and  Pharisees  was  flattered  by  the  thought  that  even  emperors! 
were  not  too  great  to  accept  their  Halachoth.  What  would  be  their  f  eelingsj 
towards  one  who  offered  the  utmost  blessings  of  the  Chosen  People  without  a 
single  Judaic  observance  to  the  meanest  slave  ? 

Self-interest  was  an  additional  and  a  powerful  inducement  with  these, 
retrogressive  intruders.  Although  Christian,  they,  like  the  Twelve,  like  even, 
Paul  himself,  were  still  Jews.  At  Jerusalem  they  continued  regularly  to| 
attend  the  services  at  the  Temple  and  the  gatherings  of  their  synagogue., 
lo  be  excommunicated  from  the  synagogue  in  little  Jewish  communities  like] 
those  that  were  congregated  in  Ancyra  and  Pessinus  was  a  very  serious 
matter  indeed.  It  was  infinitely  more  pleasant  for  them  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  the  Jews,  by  making  proselytes  of  righteousness  out  of  St.  Paul's 
converts.  Thus  circumcision  was  only  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge.3  It 
obviated  the  painful  liability  to  persecution.  It  would  naturally  lead  to  the 
adoption  of  all  the  observances,  which  the  converts  would  constantly  hear 
read  to  them  in  the  Jewish  service.  But,  if  not,  it  did  not  much  matter.  It 
was  not  really  necessary  for  them  to  keep  the  whole  Law.  A  sort  of  decent 
external  conformity  was  enough.  So  long  as  they  made  "a  fair  show 

1  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  2.  §  4.     This  interesting  royal  family  had  a  house  in  Jerusalem  (Joa. 
B.J.  v.  6, ,  §1;  vi.  6,  §3). 

2  Rabbi  Juda  Hakkadosh  is  thus  called  KO.T  itoxnv.  The  anecdote  is  from  Jer.  Megillah, 
cap.  i.     For  another  wild  story  about  their  intercourse,  see  Ahhoda  Zara,  f.  10,  2.    The, 
Talmud  being  the  most  utterly  unhistorical  and  unchronological  of  books,  it  is  difficult  to 
say  which  Emperor  is  the  one  alluded  to  in  this  and  a  multitude  of  similar  fables  about 
his  supposed  intercourse  with  Rabbi.    It  cannot  be  Antoninus  Pius,  who  never  left  Rome ; 
nor  M.  Aurelius,  who  was  unfavourable  both  to  Jews  and  Christians.   Possibly  the  worth- 
less Caracalla  may  be  alluded  to,  since  he  once  visited  Palestine.     Heliogabalus  appears 
to  be  alluded  to  in  some  passages  of  the  Talmud  as  "  the  yotipger  Antoninus,"  and  he,  too, 
u  said  to  have  accepted  circumcision. 

«  Gal.  y.  3,  6,  l£-14. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  THE   GALATIANS.  431 

in  the  flesh,"  they  might  in  reality  do  pretty  much  as  they  liked.  It 
was  against  all  this  hypocrisy,  this  retrogression,  this  cowardice,  this 
mummery  of  the  outward,  this  reliance  on  the  mechanical,  that  Paul 
used  words  which  were  half  battles.  There  should  be  no  further  doubt 
as  to  what  he  really  meant  and  taught.  He  would  leap  ashore  among  his 
enemies,  and  burn  his  ships  behind  him.  He  would  draw  his  sword  against 
this  false  gospel,  and  fling  away  the  scabbard.  What  Luther  did  when  he 
nailed  his  Theses  to  the  door  of  the  Cathedral  of  Wittenberg,  that  St.  Paul 
did  when  he  wrote  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  It  was  the  manifesto 
of  emancipation.  It  marked  an  epoch  in  history.  It  was  for  the  early  days 
of  Christianity  what  would  have  been  for  Protestantism  the  Confession 
of  Augsburg  and  the  Protest  of  Spires  combined;  but  it  was  these  "expressed 
in  dithyrambs,  and  written  in  jets  of  flame ; "  and  it  was  these  largely 
intermingled  with  an  intense  personality  and  impassioned  polemics.  It  was  a 
De  Corona,  a  Westminster  Confession,  and  an  Apologia  in  one.  If  we  wish 
to  find  its  nearest  parallel  in  vehemence,  effectiveness,  and  depth  of  conviction, 
we  must  look  forward  for  sixteen  centuries,  and  read  Luther's  famous  treatise, 
De  Captivitate  Sabylonica,  in  which  he  realised  his  saying  "  that  there  ought 
to  be  set  aside  for  this  Popish  battle,  a  tongue  of  which  every  word  is  a 
thunderbolt." l  To  the  Churches  of  Gahitia  he  never  came  again ;  but  the 
words  scrawled  on  those  few  sheets  of  papyrus,  whether  they  failed  or  not  of 
their  immediate  effect,  were  to  wake  echoes  which  should  "roll  from  soul  to 
soul,  and  live  for  ever  and  for  ever." 


. 

CHAPTER  XXXVL 

THE   EPISTLE  TO  THE   GALATIANS. 

"  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  my  Epistle ;  I  have  betrothed  myself  to  it :  it 
ifl  my  wife." — LUTHER. 

"Principalis  adversus  Judaismum  Epistola." — TERT.  adv.  Mare.  v.  2. 

"  DiscrimenLegis  et  Evangelii  est  depictum  in  hoc  dicto '  posteriora  me  a  videMtis, 
faciem  means  non  videbitis.' 


( Dorsum      \ 
\  Ira  f 

^jPeccatum   (  Evangelium 
(  Inflrmitas  ) 


Fades 
Gratia 
Donum 
Perfectio." 


LUTHER,  Colhq.  i.,  p.  20,  ed.  1571. 

"  Judaism  was  the  narrowest  (i.e.  the  most  special)  of  religions,  Christianity 
the  most  human  and  comprehensive.  In  a  few  years  the  latter  was  evolved  out  of 
the  former,  taking  all  its  intensity  and  durability  without  resort  to  any  of  its  limi- 
tations. ...  In  St.  Paul's  Epistles  we  see  the  general  direction  in  which 
thought  and  events  must  have  advanced :  otherwise  the  change  would  seem  as 
violent  and  inconceivable  as  a  convulsion  which  should  mingle  the  Jordan  and  the 
Tiber." — MARTINEAU,  Stttdies  of  Chrittianity,  p.  420. 

IN  the  very  first  line  of  the  Apostle's  greeting  a  part  of  his  object — the  vin- 

1  Luther,  Tisch-Reden,  249.  But  though  Luther  constantly  defends  his  polemical 
ferocity  by  the  example  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Paul  never  (not  even  in  Gal.  T.  12)  shows  the 
violence  and  coarseness  which  deface  the  stylo  of  Luther. 


432  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

dication  of  his  Apostolic  authority — becomes  manifest.1  In  the  Epistles  toj 
the  Thessalonians  he  had  adopted  no  title  of  authority;  but  since  those j 
Epistles  had  been  written,  the  Judaists  had  developed  a  tendency  to  limit  thei 
term  Apostle  almost  exclusively  to  the  Twelve,  and  overshadow  all  others  j 
with  their  immense  authority.  The  word  had  two  technical  senses.  lu  the! 
lower  sense  it  merely  meant  a  messenger  or  worker  in  the  cause  of  the  Gospel, 
and  as  an  equivalent  to  the  common  Jewish  title  of  Sheliach,  was  freely 
bestowed  on  comparatively  unknown  Christians,  like  Andronicus  and  Junias.* 
Now  Paul  claimed  the  title  in  the  highest  sense,  not  from  vanity  or  self- 
assertion,  but  because  it  was  necessary  for  the  good  of  his  converts.  He  had 
the  primary  qualification  of  an  Apostle  in  that  he  had  seen  Christ,  though 
for  reasons  which  he  explained  in  the  last  Epistle  he  declined  to  press  it.  He 
had  the  yet  further  qualification  that  his  Apostolate  and  that  of  Barnabas 
had  been  publicly  recognised  by  the  Church  of  Jerusalem.  But  this  claim 
also  he  wished  to  waive  as  unreal  and  even  misleading ;  for  his  Apostolato 
was  derived  from  no  merely  human  authority.  Writing  to  the  Corinthians, 
some  of  whom  had  impugned  his  rights,  he  had  intentionally  designated  him- 
self  as  "  a  called  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God."  Writing  to 
these  weak  and  apostatising  Galatians  it  was  necessary  to  be  still  more  explicit, 
and  consequently  he  addresses  them  with  his  fullest  greeting,  in  which  ha 
speaks  both  of  his  own  authority  and  of  the  work  of  Christ.  By  impugning 
the  first  they  were  setting  temporary  relations  above  spiritual  insight ;  by 
errors  respecting  the  hitter  they  were  nullifying  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross. 

"  Paul,  an  Apostle,  not  from  men,  nor  by  the  instrumentality  of  any  man,  but 
by  Jesus  Christ  and  God  our  Father,  who  raised  Him  from  the  dead,  and  all  ths 
brethren  with  me,3  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia.  Grace  to  you  and  Peace  from  God 
the  Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins  that  He  may 

1  The  general  outline  of  the  Epistle  is  as  follows : — It  falls  into  three  divisiots — 1. 
Personal  (an  element  which  recurs  throughout) ;  2.  Dogmatic ;  3.  Practical.  In  the  first 
part  (i.,  ii.)  he  vindicates  his  personal  independence  (a)  tveya&ively,  by  showing  that  b.« 
vas  an  Apostle  before  any  intercourse  with  the  Twelve  (i.  17,  18) ;  and  (£)  positively, 
since  he  had  secured  from  the  Apostles  the  triumphant  recognition  of  his  own  special 
principles  on  three  occasions,  viz.,  (i.)  in  an  association  on  perfectly  e<jual  terms  with 
Peter  (18, 19);  (ii.)  when  they  were  compelled  by  facts  to  recognise  his  equal  mission 
(ii.  9,  10) ;  and  (iii.)  when  he  convinced  Peter  at  Antioch  that  he  was  thoroughly  in  the 
wrong  (it  11 — 21).  2,  Passing  naturally  to  the  dogmatic  defence  of  justification  by  faith, 
he  proves  it  (a)  by  the  Christian  consciousness  (iii.  1 — 5),  and  (p)  from  the  Old  Testament 
(iii.  6 — 18).  This  leads  him  to  the  question  as  to  the  true  position  of  the  Law,  which  he 
shows  to  be  entirely  secondary,  (*)  objectively,  by  the  very  nature  of  Christianity  (iii.  19— 
29) ;  and  (ft)  subjectively,  by  the  free  spiritual  life  of  Christians  (iv.  1 — 11).  After  affec- 
tionate warnings  to  them  about  those  who  had  led  them  away  (iv.  11 — 30),  ho  passes  to — 
3.  The  practical  exhortation  to  Christian  freedom  (v.  1 — 12),  and  warnings,  both  genera! 
(13—18)  and  special  (v.  16 — vi.  10),  against  its  misuse.  Then  follows  the  closing  summary 
and  blessing  (vL  11—18). 

J  Rom.  xvi.  7 }  of.  Phil.  ii.  25 ;  2  Cor.  yiii.  23.  Similarly  the  title  Imperator  -was  used 
by  Cicero  and  other  Romans  down  to  Junius  Blaesus,  long  after  its  special  sense  had  been 
isolated  to  connote  the  absolute  head  of  the  state. 

3  At  this  time  he  was  accompanied  by  a  larger  number  of  brethren  than  at  any  other. 
This  is  one  of  the  minute  circumstances  which  support  the  all-but-certain  inference  that 
the  Epistle  was  written  at  this  particular  period,  during  St.  Paul's  three  months'  stay  at 
Corinth,  towards  the  close  of  A.D.  57, 

'  ft3{.TW}n  • 


T3E  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS.  433 

deliver  us  from  this  present  evil  state  of  the  world,  according  to  the  will  of  our  Gbd 
and  Father,  to  whom  is  His  due  glory 1  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen."  8 

This  greeting  is  remarkable,  not  only  for  the  emphatic  assertion  of  his  in- 
dependent Apostleship,  and  for  the  skill  with  which  he  combines  with,  this 
subject  of  his  Epistle  the  great  theologic  truth  of  our  free  deliverance s  by 
the  death  of  Christ,  but  also  for  the  stern  brevity  of  the  terms  with  which  he 
greets  those  to  whom  he  is  writing.  A  seuso  of  wrong  breathes  through  Uv« 
fulness  of  his  personal  designation,  and  the  scantiness  of  the  address  to  kis 
converts.  He  had  addressed  the  Thessalonians  as  "  the  Church  of  the 
Thessalonians  iu  God  our  Eather  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  He 
had  written  "to  the  Churdi  of  God  which  is  in  Corinth,  to  the 
sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be  saints."  About  this  very  time 
he  wrote  to  the  Romans  'as  "beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints." 
To  the  Fhilippians,  Ephosians,  Colossians,  he  adds  the  words  "saints  in 
Christ  Jesus,'1  and  "  saints  and  faithful  brethren ;  "  but  to  these  Galatians 
alone,  in  his  impetuous  desire  to  deal  at  once  with  their  errors,  he  uses  only 
the  brief,  plain  address,  "  To  the  Churches  of  Galatia." 

And  then  without  one  word  of  that  thanksgiving  for  their  holiness,  or 
their  gifts,  or  the  grace  of  God  bestowed  on  them,  which  is  found  iu  every 
one  of  his  other  general  Epistles,  he  bursts  at  once  into  the  subject  of  which 
his  mind  is  so  indignantly  full. 

-.-' 

"  I  am  amazed  that  you  are  so  quickly  shifting  from  him  who  called  you  in  the 
grace  of  Christ  into  a  different  Gospel,  which  is  not  merely  another,*  only  there  are 
some  who  are  troubling  you,  and  wanting  to  reverse  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  But 
even  though  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  should  preach  contrary  to  what  we 
preached  to  you,  let  him  be  accursed.*  As  we  have  said  before,  so  now  again  I  ear 
deliberately,  If  any  one  is  preaching  to  you  anything  contrary  to  what  ye  received, 
LET  HIM  BE  ACCURSED.6  Well,  am  I  NOW  trying  to  be  plausible  to  men,  or  to  conci- 
liate God  Himself  f  Had  I  still  been  trying  to  ba  a  man-pleaser,  I  should  not  havs 
been  what  I  am — a  slave  of  Christ."7 

Such  was  the  startling  abruptness,  such  the  passionate  plainness  with  which 
he  showed  them  that  the  time  for  conciliation  was  past,  Their  Jewish  teachers 
said  that  Paul  was  shifty  and  complaisant,  and  that  he  did  not  preach  the  real 
Gospel.  He  tells  them  that  it  is  they  who  are  perverters  of  the  Gospel,  and 
that  if  they,  or  any  one  of  thorn,  or  any  one  else,  eten  an  artgel,  preaches 
.  .. 

l  4  Mi*,  sub.  &«,,.    Matt.  vi.  13 ;  1  Pet.  iv.  11.  *  1. 1-5.  < 

*  i.  4,  C^-'XJJTOI.  "Deliver  strikes  the  key-note  of  the  Epistle"  (Lightfoot).  ev^rrwros, 
'present,  Horn.  vui.  SS. 

4  If  pTaTt'0e<r0«  is  really  a  mental  pun  (as  Jerome  thought)  on  Galatoe  and  V>3,  we 
might  almost  render  it  galatising.  For  «T«pc>',  "different,'  and  <L\XO,  "another,"  see 
2  Cor.  xi.  4.  Hence  «Wpo«  came  to  mean  "  bad  ; "  flarepoi'  is  the  opposite  to  "  good." 


Probably  Paul  had  been  accused  of  emancipating  tl 
out  of  mere  complaisance. 

'  L  1—10,  in,  "aftey  ajl  I  have  endured ;"  v,  11 ;  vt  17;  1  Cor.  XT.  SO -32, 


434  THE   LIFE  AKD  WOKK   OP   ST.   PAUL. 

contrary  to  what  he  has  preached,  let  the  ban — the  cherem— fall  on  him.  He 
has  said  this  before,  and  to  show  them  that  it  is  not  a  mere  angry  phrase,  he 
repeats  it  more  emphatically  now,  and  appeals  to  it  as  a  triumphant  proof  that 
whatever  they  conld  charge  him  with  having  done  and  said  before,  now,  at  any 
rate,  his  language  should  be  unmistakably  plain. 

"  Now  I  declare  to  you,  brethren,  as  to  the  Gospel  preached  by  me  that  it  is  not 
a  mere  human  Gospel.  For  neither  did  I  myself  receive  it  from  man,  nor  was  I 
taught  it,  but  by  revelation  from  Jesus  Christ.  For  you  heard  my  manner  of  life 
formerly  in  Judaism,  that  I  extravagantly  i  persecuted  the  Church  of  God,  and 
ravaged  it,  and  was  making  advance  in  Judaism  above  many  my  equals  in  age  in  my 
own  race,  being  to  an  unusual  degree  a  zealot  for  the  traditions  of  my  fathers.  But 
when  He  who  set  me  apart  even  from  my  mother's  womb  and  called  me  by  His  grace 
thought  good  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me  that  I  should  preach  Him  among  the  Gentiles, 
immediately  I  did  not  confer  with  mere  human  teachers,  nor  did  I  go  away  to 
Jerusalem  to  those  who  were  Apostles  before  me,  but  I  went  away  into  Arabia,  and 
again  returned  to  Damascus. 

"  Next,  after  three  years,  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  visit  Kephas,  and  I  stayed 
at  his  house  fifteen  days ;  but  not  a  single  other  Apostle  did  I  see,  except  James,  the 
Lord's  brother.2  Now  in  what  I  am  writing  to  you,  see,  before  God,  I  am  not  lying.3 

"  Next  I  came  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia ;  and  was  quite  unknown,  by 
person  to  the  Churches  of  Juda?a  which  were  in  Christ,  only  they  were  constantly 
being  told  that  our  former  persecutor  is  now  a  preacher  of  the  faith  which  once  he 
ravaged.  And  they  glorified  God  in  me.4 

"  Next,  after  fourteen  years,  I  again  went  up  to  Jerusalem  with  Barnabas,  taking 
with  me  Titus  also.5  And  I  went  up  by  revelation,  and  referred  to  them  the  Gospel 
which  I  preach  among  he  Gentiles,6  privately  however  to  those  of  repute,  lest  per- 
chance I  might  be  running,  or  even  ran,  to  no  purpose.'  But  not  even  Titus,  who 
was  with  me,  being  a  Greek,  was  compelled  to  be  circumcised — but  because  of  the 
false  brethren  secretly  introduced,  who  slank  in  to  spy  out  our  liberty  which  wo  have 
in  Christ  Jesus  that  they  might  utterly  enslave  us — [to  whom  not  even  (?)]  for  an 
hour  we  yielded  by  way  of  the  subjection  they  wanted,  in  order  that  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel  may  permanently  remain  with  you.8  From,  those,  however,  who  are  reputed 
to  be  something — whatever  they  once  were,  makes  no  matter  to  me,  God  cares  for  no 
man's  person  9 — for  to  me  those  in  repute  contributed  nothing,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
seeing  that  I  have  been  entrusted  with  the  Gospel  of  the  uncircumcision,  as  Peter  of 
the  circumcision — for  He  who  worked  for  Peter  for  the  Apostolate  of  the  circum- 
cision, worked  also  for  me  towards  the  Gentiles — and  recognising  the  grace  granted 

1  i.  13,  Kaff  v7rep|3oAj)i',  A  outrance. 

3  Who  in  one  sense  was,  and  in  another  was  not,  an  Apostle,  not  being  one  of  the 
Twelve. 

3  V.  supra,  pp.  131  — 134.  As  I  have  already  examined  many  of  the  details  of 
this  Epistle  for  biographical  purposes,  I  content  myself  with  referring  to  the  passages. 
The  strong  appeal  in  i.  20  shows  that  Paul's  truthfulness  had  been  questioned. 
(Cf.  1  Thess.  v.  27.) 

*  i.  11— 24. 

5  V.  supra,  pp.  232  —  237.      Paul's  purpose  here  is  not  the  tedious  pedantry  of 
chronological  exactitude. 

6  ii.  2,  ivtOtiaiv,  not  to  submit  to  their  decision,  but  with  the  strong  belief  that  he 
could  win  their  concurrence.     (Cf.  Acts  xxv.  14.) 

7  Phil.  ii.  16.     I  have  already  explained  the  probable  meaning  of  this — "  that  I  might 
feel  quite  BUI  a  of  the  truth  and  practicability  of  my  views."    Even  Luther  admits, 
"  Sathan  saepe  mihi  dixit,  quid  si  falsum  esset  dogma  tuurn?"  (Colloq.  ii.  12.) 

,7*  8  V.  supra,  p.2S4. 

9  ii.  6,  ©eb«  avOprfirov.  The  position  is  emphatic.  This  seems  to  glance  at  the  absurdity 
of  founding  spiritual  authority  on  mere  family  or  external  claims.  (See  Martineau* 
Studies  in  Christianity,  p.  428.) 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALA.TIANS  43& 

to  me,  James,  and  Kephas,  and  John,  who  are  in  repute  as  pillars,  gave  right  hands 
of  fellowship  to  me  and  Barnabas,  that  we  to  the  Gentiles,  and  they  to  the  circum- 
cision— only  that  we  should  bear  in  mind  the  poor,  which  very  thing  I  was  of  my 
own  accord  even  eager  to  do.1 

"  But  when  Kephas  came  to  Antioch  I  withstood  him  to  the  face,  because  he  was 
a  condemned  man.2  For  before  the  arrival  of  certain  from  James 8  he  used  to  eat 
with  the  Gentiles ;  but  on  their  arrival4  he  began  to  withdraw  and  separate  himself, 
being  afraid  of  these  Jewish  converts.  And  the  rest  of  the  Jews  joined  in  this 
hypocrisy,  so  that  even  Barnabas  was  swept  away  by  their  hypocrisy.5  But 
when  I  perceived  that  they  were  not  walking  in  the  straight  truth  of  the 
Gospel,  I  said  to  Kephas,  before  them  all,  If  you,  a  born  Jew,  are  living 
Gentile-wise  and  not  Judaically,  how  can  you  try  to  compel  the  Gentiles  to  Judaiso  ? 
We,  Jews  by  birth  and  not  '  sinners '  of  the  Gentiles,'  but  well  aware  that  no  man 
is  justified  as  a  result  of  the  works  of  the  Law,  but  only  by  means  of  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ — even  we  believed  on  Jesus  Christ  that  we  may  be  justified  as  a  result  of  faith 
in  Christ,  and  not  of  the  works  of  Law ;  for  from  works  of  Law  '  no  flesh  shall  bo 
justified.'  7  But  (you  will  object)  if,  while  seeking  to  be  justified  in  Christ,  we  turn 
out  to  be  even  ourselves  '  sinners '  (men  no  better  than  the  Gentiles),  is  then  Christ 
a  minister  of  sin  ?  8  Away  with  the  thought !  For  if  I  rebuild  the  very  things  I 
destroyed,  t  fan  I  prove  myself  to  be  not  only  a  '  sinner '  but  a  transgressor."  The 
very  rebuilding  (he  means)  would  prove  that  the  previous  destruction  was  guilty ; 
"  but  it  was  not  so,"  he  continues  to  argue,  "  for  it  was  by  Liw  that  I  died  to 
Law ;"  in  other  words,  it'  was  the  Law  itself  which  led  me  to  sec  its  own  nullity, 
and  thereby  caused  my  death  to  it  that  I  might  live  to  God.9  "  I  have  b^en  crucified 
with  Christ ;"  my  old  sins  are  nailed  to  His  cross,  no  less  than  my  old  Jewish 

1  ii.  1 — 10,  It  was,  as  Tertullian  says,  a  distributio  officii,  not  a  separatio  evangelti 
(De  Pmescr.  Haer.  28).  He  had  already  shown  his  care  for  the  poor  (Acts  xi.  30). 

3  ii.  11,  (careyc.  Manifestly  and  flagrantly  in  the  wrong.  Of.  Rom.  xiv.  23.  To 
make  KOTO  irpderwnw  mean  "  by  way  of  mask, "  and  treat  the  scene  as  one  got  up  (KO.TO.  crxrjiia.) 
between  the  Apostles — as  Origen  and  Chrysostom  do— or  to  assume  that  Kephas  does 
not  mean  Peter — as  Clemens  of  Alexandria  does — is  a  deplorable  specimen  of  the  power 
of  dogmatic  prejudice  to  blind  men  to  obvious  fact.  St.  Peter's  weakness  bore  other 
bitter  fruit.  It  was  one  ultimate  cause  of  Ebionite  attacks  on  St.  Paul,  and  of  Gnostic 
attacks  on  Judaism,  and  of  Porphyry's  slanders  of  the  Apostles,  and  of  Jerome's  quarrel 
with  Augustine.  (See  Lightfoot,  pp.  123 — 126.) 

3  Cf.  Acts  xv.  24. 

4  ii.  12,  foe™  (H,  B,  D,  F,  G),  if  St.  Paul  really  wrote  it,  could  only  mean  "  when 
James  came  ; "  and  so  Origen  understood  it  (c.  Cels.  ii.  1). 

4  We  can  scarcely  even  imagine  the  deadly  offence  caused  by  this  boldness,  an  offence 
felt  a  century  afterwards  (Ireii.  Haer.  i.  26  ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  27 ;  Epiphan.  Haer.  xxx. 
16  ;  Baur,  Ch.  Hist.  89,  98).  Even  when  the  Pseudo-Clementine  Homilies  were  written 
the  Jewish  Christians  had  not  forgiven  the  word  Ka.rfyviaa-iJ.evas.  Ei  lan^vui^^ivov  ue  Xe'vets 
eeoO  oiro<caA.ityaiTos  uoi  T'OV  Xpurrbv  icanjyopets  (Clem.  Horn.  xvii.  19).  And  yet,  however 
bitter  against  unscrupulous  Judaism,  St.  Paul  is  always  courteous  and  respectful  when 
he  speaks  of  the  Twelve.  The  Praedicatio  Petri  (in  Cyprian,  De  Rebapt.)  says  that  Petei 
and  Paul  remained  unreconciled  till  death. 

6  Cf.  Bom.  ix.  30,  iev-n  ra  an  Suaxovra  &IKO.IOOTJIHIV  \  Luke  vi.  32,  33 :  Matt.  v.  47 ;  ix. 
10,  11. 

7  Ps.  cxliii.  2.     St.  Paul's  addition  <py<ns  i/o/xov  is  an  obvious  inference.    The  accentua- 
tion of  meaning  on  ritual  or  moral  observance  must  depend  on  the  context.    Here  tht 
latter  is  mainly  in  question  (Neander,  Planting,  i.  211). 

s  It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  of  this  argument  was  actually  addressed  to  Peter. 
itr,  yeVoiro,  rMp ',  of.  Gen.  xliv.  7, 17. 

9  The  Latin  fathers  and  Luther  understand  it  "by  the  law  (of  Christ)  I  am  dead  to 
the  law  (of  Moses)."  The  best  commentary  is  Eom.  vii  1 — 11.  Expressions  like  this 
led  to  the  charge  of  antinomianism,  which  St.  Paul  sets  aside  in  1  Cor.  ix.  21.  Celsus 
taunts  the  Apostles  with  the  use  of  such  language  while  yet  they  could  denounce  each 
other  (ap.  Orig.  v.  64).  But  they  did  not  profess  tor  have  attained  their  own  ideal 
(Phil.  iii.  13). 


436  THE  LIFE  AND  WOSK  OF  ST.  PATTL. 

obligations ;  vet  this  death  is  life — not  mine,  however,  but  the  life  of  Christ  in  me  \ 
and  so  far  as  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  in  faith  on  the  Son  of  God  who  loved  me, 
and  gave  Himself  up  for  me.  I  am  not.  therefore,  Betting  at  nought  the  grace  of 
God  by  proclaiming  my  freedom  from  the  Levitical  Law  ;  you  are  doing  that,  not  I ; 
"  for  had  righteousness  been  at  all  possible  by  Law,  then  it  seems  Christ's  death  wag 
superfluous."1 

He  hag  now  sufficiently  vindicated  his  independent  Apostleship,  and  since 
this  nullification  of  the  death  of  Christ  was  tho  practical  issue  of  the  Gal  at  ia  a 
retrogression  into  Jewish  ritualism,  he  passes  naturally  to  the  doctrinal  truth 
on  which  he  had  also  touched  in  his  greeting,  and  he  does  eo  with  a  second 
burst  of  surprise  and  indignation  :— . 

"  Dull  Galatians  !2  who  bewitched  you  with  his  evij  eye, — you  before  whcss  eyes 
Jesus  Christ  crucified  was  conspicuously  painted  ?3  This  is  the  only  thing  I  vrarit 
to  learn  of  you; — received  ye  the  Spirit  as  a  result  of  works  of  Law,  or  of  faithful 
hearing  ?  Are  ye  so  utterly  dull  ?  After  beginning  the  sacred  rite  spiritually,  will 
ye  complete  it  carnally  ?  Did  ye  go  through  so  many  experiences  ia  vain  ?*  ii  it  be- 
indeed  iu  vain.  He  then  that  abundantly  supplieth  to  you  the  Spirit,  and  worketh 
powers  in  you,  does  he  do  so  as  a  result  of  works  of  Law  or  of  faithful  hearing  ?  Of 
faith  surely — just  as '  Abraham  believed  God  and  it  was  accounted  to  him  for  righte- 
ousness.' Eecogniae  then  that  they  who  start  from  faith,  they  are  sons  of  Abraham. 
And  the  Scripture  foreseeing5  that  God  justifies  the  Gentiles  as  a  result  of  faith,' 
preached  to  Abraham  as  an  anticipation  of  the  Gospel, '  In  thee  shall  all  the  Gentiles 
be  blessed.'  So  they  who  start  from  faith  are  blessed  with  the  faithful  Abraham. 
For  as  many  as  start  from  works  of  law  are  under  a  curse.  For  it  stands  written, 
'  Cursed  is  every  one  who  does  not  abide  by  all  the  things  written  in  tho  book  of  the 
Law  to  do  them.'  But  that  by  Law  no  man  is  justified  with  God  is  clear  because 
'  The  just  shall  live  by  faith.'  But  the  Law  is  not  of  faith,  but  (of  works,  for 
its  formula  is)  he  that  doth  these  things  shall  live  by  them.  Christ  ransomed  us 
from  the  curse  of  the  Law, — becoming  on  our  behalf  a  curse,  since  it  is  written. 
'  Cursed  is  every  one  who  hangeth  on  a  tree '  7 — that  the  blessing  of  Abraham  may 
by  Christ  Jesus  accrue  to  the  Gentiles,  that  we  may  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit 
by  means  of  faith."' 

Then  came  some  of  the  famous  arguments  by  which  he  establishes  these 
weighty  doctrines — arguments  incomparably  adapted  to  convince  thcsa  to 

1  ii.  11—21.    For  an  examination  of  this  paragraph,  v.  supra-,  pp.  250,  251. 

2  iii.  1,  avdjjToii  as  in  Luke  xxiv.  25.    So  far  from  being  dull  in  things  not  spiritual, 
Themistius  calls  them  6|««  *ol  ayxiVot  xal  cVfia&aTopot  ruv  ayai»  'KAXrji/wv  (Plat.  23). 

3  If  irpaypdtjxa  has  here  tho  same  sense  as  in  Rom.  xv.  4,  Eph.  iii.  3,  Jude  4,  it  :nuai 
mean  "prophesied  of ; "  but  this  gives  a_  far  weaker  turn  to  the  clause. 

4  iii.  4,  eTro&re  seems  here  to  have  its  more  general  sense,  as  in  Mark  v.  28 ;  if  iha 
common  sense  "  suffered  "  be  retained,  it  must  cllude  to  troubles  caused  by  Judaisers. 

*  A  Hebraic  personification.  "What  saw  the  Scripture?"  is  a  Rabbinic  formula 
Schottg.  ad  loc.).  The  passages  on  which  the  argument  is  founded  are  Gen.  xv.  6 ; 
(xii.  3  5  Deut.  xxvii.  26 ;  xxi.  23 ;  Lev.  xviii.  5 ;  Hab.  ii.  4.  The  reasoning  will  be  t  jttc. 
understood  from  2  Cor.  v.  15—21 ;  Rom.  vi.  3—23. 

9  IK  wiVrctoT,  "from  faith  "  as  a  cause ;  or  SiA  rrjs  irurreut,  per  filler^  "by  means  of 
faith  aa  an  instrument ; "  never  Sia.  wlimv,  propter  Jidem,  "  on  account  of  faith  "  as  a 
merit. 

7  The  original  reference  is  to  the  exposure  of  the  body  on  a  stake  after  death  (Deut. 
xxi.  23;  Josh.  x.  26).  St.  Paul  omits  the  words  "of  God"  after  "cursed,"  which 
would  have  required  long  explanation,  for  the  notion  that  it  meant  "  a  curse,  or  insuli 
%gainst  God  "  is  a  later  uoss.  Hence  the  Talmud  speaks  of  Christ  as  "the  hung  "  (%v 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  THE   GALATIANS  437 

whom  he  wrote,  because  they  were  deduced  from  their  own  principles,  aud 
grounded  on  their  own  methods,  however  startling  was  the  originality  of  the 
conclusions  to  which  they  lead.  Merely  to  translate  them  without  brief 
explanatory  comment  would  add  very  little  to  the  reader's  advantage.  I  will 
endeavour,  thereforo,  to  throw  them  into  a  form  which  shall  supply  what  is 
necessary  to  render  them  intelligible. 

"  Brethren,"  hs  says,  "  I  will  give  you  an  every-day  illustration.1  No  one 
annuls,  or  vitiates  by  additions,  even  a  inero  human  covenant  -when  it  han  been  once 
ratified.  Now  tha  Promises  weiie  uttered  to  Abraham  '  and  to  his  seed.'  The  word 
employed  is  neither  plural  iu  form  nor  in  significance.  A  plural  word  might  have 
been  used  hud  many  been  referred  to;  the  reason  for  the  use  of  a  collective  term  is 
pre-eminently  radicated,  and  that  one  person  is  Christ.2  What  I  mean  is  this : 
God  made  and  ratified  a  covenant  with  Abraham ;  and  the  Law  which  came  four 
hundred  and  thirty  yeara  afterwards*  cannot  possibly  nullify  the  covenant  or  abro- 
gate tho  promise.  Now  God  has  bestowed  the  gift  on  Abraham  by  promise,  and 
therefore  clearly  it  was  not  bestowed  as  a  result  ot  obedience  to  a  law.4 

"  \Vhy,  then,  was  the  Law  P  you  ask ;  of  what  use  was  it  P  "  Very  briefly  St. 
Paul  gives  them  the  answer,  which  in  the  Epistle  to  tho  Romans  he  elaborates  with 
so  much  more  f  ulness. 

Practically,  the  answer  may  be  summed  up  by  saying  that  tho  Law  was  damnatory, 
temporary,  mediate,  educational.6  It  was  added  to  create  in  the  soul  the  sense  of  sin, 
und  so  lead  to  tho  Saviour,  who  in  due  time  should  come  to  render  it  no  more 
necessary;  6  and  it  was  given  by  the  ministry  of  angola?  and  a  human  mediator. 
It  was  not,  therefore,  a  promise,  but  a  contract ;  and  a  promise  direct  from  God 
is  far  superior  to  a  contract  made  by  the  agency  of  a  human  mediator  between  God 
and  man.8  The  Law,  therefore,  waa  but  "  supplementary,  parenthetical,  provisional, 

1  iii.   15.   Kara  aiS^-tv,  i.e.,  i(  a.v6fujriinav  irapafciyf*aT*>y  (Chrys,). 

2  V.  supra,  pp.  30,  SL 

8  In  Qen.  xv.  13,  Acts  vii.  6,  &o.,  the  period  in  Egypt  seems  to  count  from  Abraham's 
visit.  *  iii.  15—18. 

5  iii.  15,  eTriSiaras-o-eTai  |  19,  irpoireT^Sij ;  Rom.  V.   20,  irap€tcrr>9ev.     The  LftW  Was  (1)  TWV 
Tapa£a<r«oy  \6.pw,  restricted  and  conditioned ;  (2)  SXPIS  cv,  K.T.\.,  temporary  and  provisional; 
(3)  fiiaraycls,  ic.r.A..,  mediately  (but  not  immediately)  given  by  God ;  (4)  «V  Xetp!  /meo-.,  me- 
tiiitely  (not  immediately)  received  from  God  (Bp.  EUicott,  ad  loc.).    The  Law  is  a  harsh, 
imperious  incident  in  a  necessary  divine  training. 

6  iii.  19.  irapajSoureov  ^a-fiv  means  "to  bring  transgression  to  a  head."    See  Eom.  v.  20; 
1  Cor.  xv.  58.    The  fact  is  here  stated  in  all  its  harshness,  but  in  Eom.  vii.  7, 13,  the 
Apostle  shows  by  a  masterly  psychological  analysis  in  what  way  this  was  true-^-namely, 
because  (i.)  law  actually  tends  to  provoke  disobedience,  and  (ii.)  it  gives  the  sting  to  the 
disobedience  by  making  us  fully  conscious  of  its  heinousness.    The  Law  thus  brought  the 
disease  of  sbi  to  a  head,  that  it  might  then  bo  cured.    Wo  might  not  be  able  to  follow 
these  pregnant  allusions  of  tue  Ep_istle  if  we  did  not  possess  the  Epistle  to  ths  Romans  aa 
a  commentary  upon  it.   The  Galatians  could  only  have  understood  it  by  the  reminiscences 
of  Paul's  oral  teaching. 

7  Jos.  Antt.  iv.  5,  §  S ;  Acts  vii.  53 ;  Deut.  xxxiii.  2.     These  angels  at  Sinai  are 
often  alluded  to  in  the  Talmud.    K.  Joshua  Ben  Lovi  rendered  Psalm  Ixviii.  12,  "  Th3 
Angels  ('SN'ja)  of  hosts  kept  moving  "  the  Children  of  Israel  nearer  to  Sinai  when  they 
retired  from  it  (Shalbath,  f .  88,  2). 

8  iii.  19,  20.    A  "  mediator  "  in  Jewish  language  meant  one  who  stands  in  the  middle 
position  between  two  parties. 

"  The  voice  of  God 

To  mortal  ear  is  dreadful.    They  beseech 
That  Moses  might  repeat  to  them  Hla  will 
And  terror  cease."  (Milton,  P.  L.  xii.  235.) 

Moses  receives  tha  Law  direct  from  God  (lv  x««pt)i  an<^  hands  it  to  man  (Ex.  xx.  19).  He 
therefore  was  not  one  cf  the  contracting  parties ;  but  God  is  cne,  i, .-'.,  lie  is  no  mediator, 


438  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAtTL. 

manuductory."  How  startling  would  such  arguments  be  to  those  who  had,  from 
their  earliest  childhood,  been  taught  to  regard  the  Law  as  the  one  divine,  inspired, 
perfect,  and  eternal  thing  on  earth  ;  the  one  thing  which  alone  it  was  worth  the 
labour  of  long  lives  to  study,  and  the  labour  of  long  generations  to  interpret  and  to 
defend  !  And  how  splendid  the  originality  which  could  thus  burst  the  bonds  of 
immemorial  prejudice,  and  the  courage  which  could  thus  face  the  wrath  of  outraged 
conviction  !  It  was  the  enlightenment  and  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  ; 
yes,  but  the  Spirit  works  by  the  human  instruments  that  are  fitted  to  receive  His 
indwelling  power  ;  and,  in  the  admirable  saying  of  the  Chinese  philosopher,  "The 
light  of  heaven  cannot  shine  into  an  inverted  bowl."  To  many  a  thoughtful  and 
candid  Jew  it  must  have  come  like  a  flash  of  new  insight  into  the  history  of  hia 
nation,  and  of  mankind,  that  he  had  elevated  the  Law  to  too  exclusive  a  position  ; 
that  the  promise  to  Abraham  was  an  event  of  far  deeper  significance  than  the  legis- 
lation of  Sinai  ;  that  the  Promise,  not  the  Law,  was  the  primary  and  original  element 
of  Judaism;  and  that  therefore  to  fall  back  from  Christianity  of  Judaism  was 
to  fall  back  from  the  spirit  to  the  letter  —  an  unnatural  reversion  of  what  God  had 
ordained. 

But  he  proceeds,  "  Is  there  any  opposition  between  the  Law  and  the  Promise  f 
Away  with  the  thought  !  In  God's  ceconomy  of  salvation  both  are  united,  and  the 
Law  is  a  relative  purpose  of  God  which  is  taken  up  into  His  absolute  purpose  as  a 
means.1  For  had  a  Law  been  given  such  as  could  give  life,  righteousness  would  in 
reality  have  been  a  result  of  law  ;  but  the  Scripture  shut  up  all  things  under  sin, 
that  the  promise  which  springs  from  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  may  be  given  to  all  who 
believe.  For  before  the  faith  came  we  were  under  watch  and  ward  of  Law,  till  the 
faith  which  was  to  be  revealed.  So  the  Law  became  our  tutor  unto  Christ,  the  stern 
slave  guiding  us  from  boyish  immaturity  to  perfect  Christian  manhood,2  in  order 
that  we  may  be  justified  as  a  result  of  faith.  But  when  the  faith  came  we  are  no 
longer  under  a  tutor.  For  by  the  faith  ye  are  all  sons  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ. 
For  as  many  of  you  as  were  baptised  into  Christ,  put  on  Christ.  There  is  no  room 
for  Jew  or  Greek,  no  room  for  slave  or  free,  no  room  for  male  or  female  ;  for  ye  are 
all  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  3  and  if  ye  are  of  Christ  then  it  seems  ye  are  Abraham's 
seed,  heirs  according  to  promise.4 

"  Now,  what  I  mean  is,  that  so  long  as  the  heir  is  an  infant  he  differs  in  no 


but  one  of  the  parties  to  the  covenant  (Sia&jio)).  It  Is  only  under  a  different  aspect  that 
Christ  is  a  mediator  (1  Tim.  ii.  5).  The  passage  has  no  reference  to  the  eternal  unity  of 
God,  which  is  not  at  all  in  question,  but  to  the  fact  that  He  stands  by  Himself  as  one 
of  the  contracting  parties.  The  "Law,"  then,  has  the  same  subordinate  position  as  the 
"Mediator"  Moses.  The  Promise  stands  above  it  as  a  "  covenant,"  in  which  God  stands 
alone-j-"is  one  "  —  and  in  which  no  mediator  is  concerned.  Such  seems  to  be  the  clear 
and  simple  meaning  of  this  endlessly-disputed  passage.  (See  Baur,  Paul,  ii.  198.) 
Obviously,  (1)  the  Promise  had  a  wider  and  nobler  scope  than  the  Law  ;  (2)  the  Law  was 
provisional,  the  Promise  permanent  ;  (3)  the  Law  was  given  directly  by  angels,  the 
Promise  directly  by  God  ;  but,  while  he  leaves  these  three  points  of  contrast  to  be 
inferred,  he  adds  the  fourth  and  most  important,  that  (4)  the  Promise  was  given,  without 
any  mediating  human  agency,  from  God  to  man.  On  the  sources  of  the  (perfectly 
needless)  "three  hundred  explanations  "  of  a  passage  by  no  means  unintelligible,  see 
Keuss,  Les  Epitres,  i.  109. 

1  iii.  19,  20.     Holsten,  Inhalt  des  Briefs  an  die  GaJater,  p.  30. 

2  iii.  24,  iroiSaywyb?  «s  xptoror.    The  waiSaycoyb?  was  often  the  most  valueless  of  the 
slaves.    Perikles  appointed  the  aged  Zopyrus  as  the  »rac.Jayco-yb«  of  Alkibiades.    This  fact 
can,  however,  hardly  have  entered  into  St.  Paul's  meaning.     The  world,  until  Christ 
came,  was  in  its  pupilage,  and  the  Law  was  given  to  hold  it  under  discipline,  till  a  new 
period  of  spiritual  freedom  dawned.     The  more  inward  relation  between  Law  and  sin, 
and  its  power  to  bring  sin  more  to  our  conscience,  and  so  bring  about  the  possibility  of 
its  removal,  are,  as  we  shall  see,  worked  out  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

3  Contrast  this  with  the  Jewish  morning  prayer,  in  which  in  three  benediction!  * 
man  blesses  God  who  has  not  made  him  a  Gentile,  a  slave,  or  a  woman. 

«  m.  21—29, 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS.  439 

respect  from  a  slave,  though  he  is  lord  of  all,  but  is  under  tutors  and  stewards  till 
the  term  fized  by  his  father.  So  we,  too,  when  we  were  infants,  were  enslaved 
under  elements  of  material  teaching ;  but  when  the  fulness  of  time  came  God  sent 
forth  His  Son — born  of  a  woman,  that  we  may  receive  the  adoption  of  sons ; 1  born 
under  Law,  that  He  may  ransom  those  under  Law.  But  because  ye  are  sons,  God 
sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  our  hearts  crying,  Abba,  our  Father !  So  thou 
art  no  longer  a  slave  but  a  son,  and  if  a  son,  an  heir  also  by  God's  means.  Well, 
in  past  time  not  knowing  God  ye  were  slaves  to  those  who  by  nature  are  not  gods, 
but  now  after  recognising  God — nay,  rather  being  recognised  by  God — how  can  yo 
turn  back  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  rudiments,2  to  which  again  from  the 
beginning  ye  want  to  be  slaves  ?  Ye  are  anxiously  keeping  days  and  months  and 
seasons  and  years.  I  fear  for  you  that  I  have  perhaps  totted  for  you  in  vain."  * 

In  this  clause  the  boldness  of  thought  and  utterance  is  even  more  striking. 
He  not  only  urges  the  superiority  of  the  Christian  covenant,  but  speaks  of  the 
Jewish  as  mere  legal  infancy  and  actual  serfdom ;  nay,  more,  he  speaks  of  the 
ceremonial  observances  of  the  Levitical  Law  as  "weak  and  beggarly  rudi- 
ments ; "  and,  worse  than  all,  he  incidentally  compares  them  to  the  ritualisms 
of  heathendom,  implying  that  there  is  no  essential  difference  between  observing 
the  full  moon  in  the  synagogue  and  observing  it  in  the  Temple  of  Men; 
between  living  in  leafy  booths  in  autumn,  or  striking  up  the  wail  for  Altis  in 
spring ;  nay,  even  between  circumcision  and  the  yet  ghastlier  mutilations  of 
the  priests  of  Cybele.*  Eighteen  hundred  years  have  passed  since  this  brief 
letter  was  written,  and  it  has  BO  permeated  all  the  veins  of  Christian  thought 
that  in  these  days  we  accept  its  principles  as  a  matter  of  course ;  yet  it  needs 
no  very  violent  effort  of  the  imagination  to  conceive  how  savage  would  be  the 
wrath  which  would  be  kindled  in  the  minds  of  the  Jews — aye,  and  even  of  the 
Jewish  Christians — by  words  which  not  only  spoke  with  scorn  of  the  little 
distinctive  observances  which  were  to  them  as  the  very  breath  of  their 
nostrils,  but  wounded  to  the  quick  their  natural  pride,  by  placing  their 
cherished  formalities,  and  even  the  antique  and  highly- valued  badge  of  their 
nationality,  on  a  level  with  the  pagan  customs  which  they  had  ever  regarded 
with  hatred  and  contempt.  Yet  it  was  with  no  desire  to  waken  infuriated 
prejudice  that  St.  Paul  thus  wrote.  The  ritualisms  of  heathen  worship,  so 
far  as  they  enshrined  or  kept  alive  any  spark  of  genuine  devotion,  were  not 
objectionable — had  a  useful  function ;  in  this  respect  they  stood  on  a  levoJ 
with  those  of  Judaism.  The  infinite  superiority  of  the  Judaic  ritual  arose 
from  its  being  the  shadow  of  good  things  to  come.  It  had  fulfilled  its  task, 

1  Iv.  4,  5.  Notice  the  chiasmus  of  the  original  which  would  not  suit  the  English 
idiom.  Notice,  too,  the  importance  of  the  passage  as  showing  that  men  did  not  begin  to 
be  eons  of  God,  when  they  were  declared  sons  of  God,  just  as  the  Roman  act  of  emanci- 
pation did  not  cause  sons  to  be  sons,  but  merely  put  them  in  possession  of  their  rights 
(Maurice,  Unity,  p.  504). 

J  iv.  3,  <rroixe'a  To«  Kotrpov ;  9,  acrOcvii  xal  irrw^a  oroide"*,  physical  elements  of  religion, 
symbols,  ceremonies  (cf.  Col.  ii.  8),  &c.,  which  invest  the  natural  with  religious  signi- 
ficance. Both  in  Judaism  and  heathenism  religion  was  so  much  bound  up  with  the 
material  and  the  sensuous  as  to  place  men  in  bondage.  In  neither  was  God  recognised 
as  a  Spirit  (Baur,  New  Test.  Theol.,  p.  171).  Or  the  notion  may  be  that  ritualism  is  only 
the  elementary  teaching,  the  A  B  0  of  religion. 

»  iv.  1—11.     Cf.  Col.  ii.  16.  *  Hausrath,  p.  2G8. 


±40  THE  LIPS   AND  YfORS  O*  ST.  FATTI* 

and  ought  now  to  be  suffered  to  drop  away.  It  is  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
calyx,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  corolla,  that  we  cultivate  the  flower,  and  the 
calyx  may  drop  away  when  the  flower  is  fully  blown.  To  cling  to  the  shadow 
when  it  had  been  superseded  by  the  substance  was  to  reverse  the  order 
of  God. 

Then  comes  a  strong  and  tender  appeal. 

"  Become  as  I,  because  I  too  became  as  you,  brethren,  I  beseech  you,1  It  is  not 
I  whom  you  wronged  at  all,  by  your  aberrations.  Nay,  to  me  you  were  always 
kind.  You  know  that  the  former  time  it  was  in  consequence  of  a  sickness  that  I 
preached  to  you :  and  though  my  personal  condition  might  welj  have  been  a  trial  to 
you,  ye  despised  me  not,  nor  loathed  me,2  but  as  an  angel  of  God  ye  received  me, 
SB  Christ  Jesus.  What,  then,  has  become  of  your  self -felicitation  ?  for  I  bear  you 
•witness  that,  if  possible,  ye  dug  out  your  very  eyes  and  gave  them  me.  So,  have 
I  become  your  enemy  by  speaking  the  truth  to  you  ?8 

M  Mere  alien  teachers  are  paying  court  to  you  assiduously,  but  not  honourably  ; 
nay,  they  want  to  wall  you  up  from  every  one  else,  that  you  may  pay  court  "to 
them.4  Now,  to  have  court  paid  to  you  is  honourable  in  an  honourable  cause 
always,  and  not  only  when  I  am  with  you,5  my  little  children  whom  again  I  travail 
with,  until  Christ  be  formed  in  you.  But  I  could  have  wished  to  be  with  you  now, 
and  to  change  my  voice  to  you,6  for  I  am  quite  at  a  loss  about  you."? 

Then,  returning  as  it  were  to  the  attack,  he  addresses  to  them  the  curious 
allegory  of  the  two  wives  of  Abraham,  Sarah  and  Hagar,  and  their  sons 
Ishmael  and  Isaac.8 

These  are  types  of  the  two  covenants— Hagar  represents  Sinai,  corresponds  to,  or 
is  under  the  same  head  with  bondage,  with  the  Law,  with  the  Old  Covenant,  and 
therefore  with  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  which  is  in  bondage  under  the  Law ;  but 
Sarah  corresponds  to  freedom,  and  the  promise,  and  therefore  to  the  New  Covenant, 
and  to  the  New  Jerusalem  which  is  tie  free  mother  of  us  all.  There  must  ba 
antagonism  between  the  two,  as  there  was  between  the  brother-sons  of  the  slave  and 
the  free-woman ;  but  this  ended  in  the  son  of  the  slave-woman  being  cast  out.  So 
it  is  now ;  the  unbelieving  Jews,  the  natural  descendants  of  the  real  Sarah,  are  tha 
spiritual  descendants  of  Hagar,  the  ejected  bondwoman  of  the  Sinaitic  wilderness, 
and  they  persecute  the  Gentiles,  who  are  the  prophesied  descendants  of  tbe  spiritual 
Sarah.  The  spiritxial  descendants  of  Sarah  shall  inherit  the  blessing  of  which  those 
Jews  who  are  descended  physically  from  her  should  have  no  share.  Isaac,  the 
supernatural  child  of  promise,  represents  the  spiritual  seed  of  Abraham, — that  is 
Christ,  and  all  who,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile,  are  in  Him.  "  Therefore,  brethren, 
we,"  he  adds — identifying  himself  far  more  entirely  with  Gentiles  than  with  Jews, 
"  are  not  children  of  a  slave- woman,  but  of  the  free.  In  the  freedom  wherewith 
Christ  freed  us,  stand  then,  and  bo  not  again  enyoked  with  the  yoke  of  slavery." 

1  i.e.,  free  from  the  bondage  of  Judaism. 

2  iv.  14,  t&jrrvVare — lit.,      spat  out,"  Krenkel  (v.  infra.  Excursus  X.J  explains  this 
of  the  "  spitting  "  to  avert  epilepsy.    "  Despuimus  comitiales  morbos  "  (Pun.  xxviiL  4,  7 ; 
Plant.  Capt.  iii.  4, 18,  21). 

3  iv.  12—16.    On  this  passage,  ».  infra,  Excursus  X. 

4  iv.  17,  Iva.— ftXovre  (ind.),  but  probably  meant  for  a  subjunctive ;  tlie  apparent  sole- 
cism is  probably  due  to  the  difficulty  of  remembering  the  inflexions  of  the  contract  verb ; 
cf.  1  Cor.  iv.  6. 

4  He  seems  to  mean,  "  I  do  not  blame  zealous  attachment,  provided  it  be  (as  mine  to 
you  waa)  from  noble  motives,  and  provided  it  be  not  terminated  (as  yours  to  me  w&s)  by 
a  temporary  separation." 

'  t.c.,  to  speak  to  you  In  gentler  tones. 

7  iv.  17—20.  8  On  this  allegory  see  fupra,  p.  83. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS.  441 

Again,  how  strange  and  how  enraging  to  the  Jews  would  be  such  an  allegory  ! 
it  was  Philonian,  Eabbinic;  but  it  was  more  admirable  than  any  allegory  in  Philo, 
because  it  did  not  simply  merge  the  historical  in  the  metaphorical  ;  and  more  full  of 
ability  and  insight  than  any  in  the  Rabbis.1  This  was,  indeed,  "  to  steal  a  feather 
from  the  spicy  nest  of  the  Phoenix  "  in  order  to  wing  the  shaft  which  should  pierce 
her  breast.  The  Jews,  the  descendants  of  Sarahj  by  the  irresistible  logic  of  their 
own  most  cherished  method,  here  find  themselves  identified  with  the  descendants  of 
tho  despised  and  hated  Hagar,  just  as  before  they  had  heard  the  proof  that  not  they 
but  the  converted  Gentiles  were  truly  Abraham's  seed  !  3 

And  tho  Galatiana  must  be  under  no  mistake  ;  they  cannot  serve  two  masters  ; 
they  cannot  combine  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  Nor  must  they  fancy  that  they  could 
escape  persecution  by  getting  circumcised  and  stop  at  that  point.  "  See,"  he  aaye, 
"  I,  Paul  —  who,  as  they  tell  you,  onco  preached  circumcision  —  I,  Paul,  tell  you  that, 
ix  you  hanker  after  reliance  on  circumcision,  Christ  shall  profit  you  nothing.  Nay, 
I  protest  again  to  every  person  who  gets  himself  circumcised,  that  he  is  a  debtor  to 
keep  the  whole  Law.  Ye  are  nullified  from  Christ,  ye  who  seek  justification  in 
Law,  ye  are  banished  from  His  grace;  for  we  spiritually,  as  a  consequence  of 
faith,  earnestly  await  tho  hope  of  righteousness.  For  in  Christ  neither  circumcision 
availeth  anything,  nor  uncircumcision,  but  faith  working  by  means  of  love."  *  "In 
these,"  as  Bengel  says,  "  stands  all  Christianity." 

"  Ye  were  running  bravely.  Who  broke  up  your  path  to  prevent  your  obeying 
truth  P  This  persuasion  is  not  from  Him  who  calleth  you.  It  is  an  alien  intrusion 
—it  comes  only  from  one  or  two  —  yet  beware  of  it.  A  little  leaven  loaveneth  tho 
whole  lump.  I  feel  confident  with  respect  to  you  *  in  the  Lord  that  you  will  adopt 
ray  views  ;  and  he  who  troubles  you  shall  bear  the  burden  of  his  judgment,  be  he 
who  he  may.  And  as  for  me,  if  I  am  still  preaching  circumcision,  why  am  I  still 
an  object  of  persecution  ?  The  stumbling-block  of  the  cross  has  been  done  away 
with,  it  appears  !  They  are  not  persecuted,  —  just  because  they  preach  circumcision  ; 
why  then  should  I  be,  if  as  they  say  I  preach  it  too  ?  Would  that  these  turners  of 
you  upside  down  would  go  a  little  further  than  circumcision,  and  make  themselves 
like  the  priests  of  Cybele  !  B 

"  I  cannot  help  this  strong  language  ;  for  ye  were  called  for  freedom,  brethren; 
cnly,  not  freedom  for  a  handle  to  the  flesh,  but  by  love  be  slaves  to  one  another.8 
For  the  whole  Law  is  absolutely  fulfilled  7  in  one  word  in  the  '  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself.'  But  if  ye  are  biting  and  devouring  one  another,  take  heed 
that  ye  be  not  consumed  by  one  another. 


1  It  was  no 

ticular  case 


no  mere  pretty  application  of  a  story,  it  was  the  detection  In  one  par- 
of a  divine  law,  vrhich  might  be  traced  through  every  fact  ci  the  divine 
history  (Maurice,  Unity,  50S).  How  different  from  Philo's  allegory,  in  which  CLarrau 
is  the  senses  ;  Abraham,  the  soul  ;  Sarah,  divine  wisdom  ;  Isaac,  human  wisdom  j 
l&hmael,  sophistry;  &o. 

2  iv.  21—31.  *  V.  1—6.  *  V.   10,  ty,  ntmSa.  els  vpas. 

*  v.  7  —  12,  ajraxo^ovrat  ;  cf.  curoKCKopp<w,  Deut.  xsiii.  1.  I  Lave  givea  the  only 
admissible  meaning.  Keuss  calls  it  "line  phrase  affreuse,  qui  revolts  notre  sentiment. 
This  is  to  judge  a  writer  by  the  standard  of  two  millenniums  later.  Accustomed  to 
Paul's  manner  and  temperament  it  would  have  been  road  as  a"  touch  of  rough  humour, 
yet  with  a  deep  meaning  in  it  —  viz.,  that  circumcision  to  Gentiles  was  mere  concision 
(Phil.  iii.  2,  3),  and  if  as  such  it  had  any  virtue  in  it,  there  was  something  to  be  said  for 
tlie  priests  at  Pessinus. 

«  1  Peter  ii.  1C. 

7  v.  14,  irEjrA)jp<oT<u,  has  been  fulfilled  ;  Matt.  xxii.  40  ;  Rom.  ziii.  8  (Lev.  3rix.  18). 

8  v.  13  —  15.    To  a  great  extent  the  Apostle's  warning  was  fulfilled.    Julian,  En.  52, 
speaks  of  their  internecine  dissensions.     Galatia  became  not  only  the  stronghold  of 
Ivlontanism,  but  the  headquarters  of  Ophites,  Manichees,  Passalorynchites,  Ascodrogites, 
Artotyrites,  Borborites,  and  other 

"  Gorgons  and  hydras,  and  chimeras  dire  ;  " 

and  St.  Jerome  speaks  of  Ancyra  as  Schimatibus  dilac&mta,  doymaturn 
oonstuprata  (Lightfoot,  Gal.,  p.  31). 


442  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OB1  ST.   PAUL. 

"  I  mean  then,  walk  spiritually,  and  there  is  no  fear  of  your  fulfilling  the  loots 
of  the  flesh.  The  flesh  and  the  spirit  are  mutually  opposing  principles,  and  their 
opposition  prevents  your  fulfilling  your  highest  will.  But  if  ye  are  led  by  the  spirit 
ye  are  not  under  Law.  Now  the  deeds  of  the  flesh  are  manifest ;  such  are  fornica- 
tion, nncleanness,  wantonness,  idolatry,  witchcrafts,1 — enmities,  discord,  rivalry, 
wraths,  cabals,  party-factions,  envies,  murders,* — drunkenness,  revellings,8  and 
things  like  these ;  as  to  which  I  warn  you  now,  aa  I  warned  you  before,  that  all  who- 
do  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit 4  ia 
love,  joy,  peace,  longsuffering,  kindness,  beneficence,  faith,  gentleness,  self-control. 
Against  such  things  as  these  there  ia  no  law.  But  they  that  are  of  Christ  Jesua. 
crucified  the  flesh  with  its  passions  and  desires.  If  we  are  living  spiritually,  spiritu- 
ally also  let  us  walk.  Let  us  not  become  vainglorious,  provoking  one  another, 
envying  one  another."  * 

At  this  point  there  is  a  break.  It  may  be  that  some  circumstance  at 
Corinth  had  powerfully  affected  him.  Another  lapse  into  immorality  may 
have  taken  place  in  that  unstable  church,  or  something  may  have  strongly 
reminded  St.  Paul  of  the  overwhelming  effect  which  had  been  produced  by  the 
•sentence  on  the  particular  offender  whom  he  had  decided  to  hand  over  to 
•datan.  However  this  may  be,  he  says  with  peculiar  solemnity : 

"  Brethren,  even  though  a  man  be  surprised  in  a  transgression,  ye  the  spiritual 
*«store  such  an  one  in  a  spirit  of  meekness,  considering  thyself  lest  even  thou 
shouldst  be  tempted.  Bear  ye  the  burdens  of  one  another's  cares,8  and  so  shall  ye 
fulfil  the  law  of  Christ.  But  if  any  man  believes  himself  to  be  something  when  he 
is  nothing,  he  is  deceiving  himself.  But  let  each  man  test  his  own  work,  and  then 
he  shall  have  his  ground  of  boasting  with  reference  to  himself,  and  not  to  his  neigh- 
bour. For  each  one  shall  bear  his  own  appointed  load.7 

"  Let  then  him  who  is  taught  the  word  communicate  with  the  teacher  in  all  good 
things.8  Be  not  deceived,  God  is  not  mocked.  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
also  he  shall  reap.  For  he  that  soweth  to  his  flesh,  from  his  flesh  shall  reap  cor- 
ruption ;  but  ho  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit,  from  the  Spirit  shall  reap  life  eternal. 
[That  is  the  general  principle ;  apply  it  to  the  special  instance  of  the  contribution 
for  which  I  have  asked  you.]  Let  us  not  lose  heart  in  doing  right,  for  at  the  due 
time  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not.  Well,  then,  as  we  have  opportunity,  let  us 
do  good  to  all  men,  but  especially  to  those  who  are  of  the  family  of  the  faith.* 

"  Look  ye  with  what  large  letters  I  write  to  you  with  my  own  hand.10  As  many 
aa  want  to  make  fair  show  in  the  flesh,  want  to  compel  you  to  get  yourselves  cir- 
cumcised, only  that  they  may  not  be  persecuted  for  the  crosa  of  Christ.  For  not 
even  the  circumcision  party  themselves  keep  the  law,  yet  they  want  to  get  you 
circumcised  that  they  may  boast  in  your  flesh.  But  far  be  it  from  me  to  boast 
except  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  haa  been  crucified 
to  me,  and  I  to  the  world.  For  neither  circumcision  ia  anything  nor  uncircum- 
cision,  but  a  new  creation.11  And  as  many  as  shall  walk  by  this  rule,  peace  on  them 

I  Sins  with  others  against  God.  *  Sins  against  our  neighbour. 
8  Personal  sins  (Bengel). 

4  Deeds  of  the  flesh,  because  they  spring  from  ourselves ;  fruit  of  the  spirit,  because 
they  need  the  help  of  God's  grace  (Chrys.j. 

*  v.  16—26.  6  vi.  2,  /3ap>j,  weaknesses,  sufferings,  even  sins. 

7  vi.  1 — 5.    vi.  5,  foprlov  of  responsibility  and  moral  consequence. 

8  1  Cor.  ix. ;  Rom.  xii.  13 ;  1  Thess.  v.  12.  »  vi.  6—10. 

10  Theodore  of  Mopsuetia,  believing  that  only  the  conclusion  of  the  letter  was  auto- 
graph, makes  the  size  of  the  letters  a  sort  of  sign  that  the  Apostle  does  not  blush  for 
anything  he  has  said.  But  the  style  of  the  letter  seems  to  show  that  it  was  not  dictated 
to  an  amanuensis. 

II  It  will  be  seen  that  in  those  two  clauses  he  haa  resumed  both  the  polemical  (13, 


THE   EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIA3TS.  443 

and  mercy,  and  on  the  Israel  of  God."  And  then,  as  though  by  a  sudden  after- 
thought,  we  have  the  "  Henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me,  for  I  bear  in  triumph  on 
my  body  the  brands  of  Jesus." 1 

"  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  your  spirit,  brethren.     Amen."  * 

Such  was  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians ;  nor  can  we  without  some  knowledge 
of  what  Judaism  then  wa3,  and  what  it  was  daily  becoming,  form  any  adequate 
conception  of  tho  daring  courage,  the  splendid  originality — let  us  rather  say 
the  inspired  and  inspiring  faith — which  enabled  the  Apostle  thus  to  throw  off 
the  yoke  of  immemorial  traditions,  and  to  defy  the  hatred  of  those  among 
whom  he  had  been  trained  as  a  Hebrew  and  a  Pharisee.  "We  must  remember 
that  at  this  veiy  time  the  schools  of  Rabbinism  were  fencing  the  Law  with  a 
jealous  exclusiveness  which  yearly  increased  in  its  intensity ;  and  that  while 
St.  Paul  was  freely  flinging  open  all,  and  more  than  all,  of  the  most  cherished 
hopes  and  exalted  privileges  of  Judaism,  without  one  of  its  burdens,  the 
Rabbis  and  Rabbans  were  on  the  high  road  to  the  conclusion  that  any  Gentile 
who  dared  to  get  beyond  the  seven  Noachian  precepts — any  Gentile,  for 
instance,  who  had  the  audacity  to  keep  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  rest — without 
becoming  a  proselyte  of  righteousness,  and  so  accepting  the  entire  yoke  of 
Levitism,  "neither  adding  to  it  nor  diminishing  from  it,"  deserved  to  be 
beaten  and  punished,  and  to  be  informed  that  he  thereby  legally  incurred  tha 
penalty  of  death.8  "What  was  the  effect  of  the  Epistle  on  the  Churches  of 
Galatia  we  cannot  tell ;  but  for  the  Church  of  Christ  the  work  was  done.  By 
this  letter  Gentiles  were  freed  for  ever  from  the  peril  of  having  their  Chris, 
tianity  subjected  to  impossible  and  carnal  conditions.  In  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  circumcision  does  not  occur  as  a  practical  question.  Judaism 
continued,  indeed,  for  some  time  to  exercise  over  Christianity  a  powerful  in- 
fluence, but  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  circumcision  is  treated  with  contempt, 
and  even  attributed  to  the  deception  of  an  evil  angel;4  in  the  Epistle  of 
Ignatius,  St.  Paul's  distinction  of  the  true  and  false  circumcision  is  absolutely 
accepted ; 5  and  even  in  the  Clementine  Homilies,  Judaistic  as  they  are,  not  a 
word  is  said  of  the  necessity  of  circumcision,  but  he  who  desires  to  be 
on-Hellenised  must  bo  so  by  baptism  and  the  new  birth.6 

13)  and  the  dogmatic  theses  (14,  1C)  of  the  letter ;  and  that  the  personal  (17)  as  well  as 
the  doctrinal  truth  (18)  on  which  he  has  been  dwelling  recur  in  the  last  two  verses. 
Thus,  from  first  to  last,  the  Epistle  is  characterised  by  remarkable  unity. 

1  Hence,  as  one  marked  with  the  brands  of  his  master,  in  his  next  Epistle  (Eom.  i.  1) 
he  for  the  first  time  calls  himself  "a  slave  of  Jesus  Christ."    Stigmata  were  usually  a 
punishment,  so  that  in  classic  Greek,  stiffmatias is  "a  rascal."    Whether  St.  Paul's 
metaphor  turns  on  his  having  been  a  deserter  from  Christ's  service  before  his  conversion, 
or  on  his  being  a  Hierodoulos  (Hdt.  ii.  113),  is  doubtful.     There  seem,  too,  to  be  traces 
of  the  branding  of  recruits  (Ronsch.  Das  N.  T.  Tertullian's,  p.  700).     The  use  of 
"stigmata"  for  the  "five  wounds"  has  had  an  effect  analogous  to  the  notion  of 
"  unknown  "  tongues. 

2  vi.  11 — 18.     The  one  unusual  last  word,   "brethren,"  beautifully  tempers  the 
general  severity  of  tone. 

3  See  Sanhedrin,  f.  58,  c.  2 ;  and  Maimonides.  Yad  Hach&akah  (Hilchoth  Melachim, 
§  10,  Hal.  9). 

4  Ep.  Ps.  Barnab.  Ix.  5  Ep.  ad  Philad.  6,  i  TJJ?  «£«•  vtpironrjs  t|»«vSoiov5at«f. 

fr'jj'fii  (Ps.  Clem.  Horn.  iii.  9). 


444  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  was  qniclily  followed  by  that  to  the  Romans, 
which  was  at  once  singularly  like  and  singularly  unlike  iia  immediate  pre- 
decessor.  No  violent  external  opposition,  no  deep  inward  sorrow  was  at  that 
particular  moment  absorbing  the  Apostle's  soul.  It  "was  a  little  pause  in  his 
troubled  life.  The  period  of  his  winter  stay  at  Corinth  was  drawing  to  a 
close.  Ho  was  already  contemplating  a  yet  wider  circle  for  his  nest  missionary 
tour.  The  tide  of  his  thoughts  was  turning  wholly  towards  the  West.  Ke 
wished  to  see  Rome,  and,  without  making  any  prolonged  visit,  to  confirm  the 
Gospel  in  the  capital  of  the  world.  He  did  not  contemplate  a  long  stay 
araong  the  Roman  Christians,  because  it  was  his  invariable  principle  not  to 
build  on  other  men's  foundations.  But  he  wished  to  bo  helped  by  them — 
with  facilities  which  a  great  capital  alone  can  offer — on  his  journey  to  Spain, 
where  aa  yet  the  Gospel  had  been  unpreached.  His  heart  was  yearning 
towards  the  shores  whose  vessels  he  saw  in  the  ports  of  Lechseuni  and 
Cenehreae,  and  whose  swarthy  sailors  he  may  have  often  met  in  the  crowded 
streets. 

But  before  he  could  come  to  them  he  determined  to  carry  out  his  long- 
planned  visit  to  Jerusalem.  Whether  the  members  of  that  church  loved  or 
whether  they  hated  him — whether  they  would  give  to  his  converts  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  or  hold  them  at  arin's-length — ho  at  least  would  repay  evil 
with  good;  he  would  effectually  aid  their  mass  of  struggling  pauperism;  he 
would  accompany  the  delegates  who  carried  to  them  a  proof  of  Gentile  love 
and  generosity,  and  would  himself  hand  over  to  the  Apostles  the  sums— 
which  must  by  this  time  have  reached  a  considerable  amount — which  had 
been  collected  solely  by  his  incessant  endeavours.  How  earnestly  and  even 
solemnly  had  he  brought  this  duty  before  the  Galatians,  both  orally  and  by 
letter!  how  carefully  had  he  recommended  the  Corinthians  to  prevent  all 
uncertainty  in  the  contributions  by  presenting  them  in  the  form  of  a  weekly 
cliering !  how  had  he  stimulated  the  Macedonians  by  the  forwardness  of  the 
Achaians.  and  the  Achaiaus  by  the  liberality  of  the  Macedonians !  And  after 
all  this  trouble,  forethought,  and  persistence,  and  all  the  gross  insinuations 
which  he  had  braved  to  bring  it  to  a  successful  issue,  it  was  but  natural  that 
one  so  warm-hearted  should  wish  to  reap  some  small  earthly  reward  for  his 
exertions  by  witnessing  the  pleasure  which  the  subscription  afforded  to  the 
mother  church,  and  the  relief  which  it  furnished  to  its  humbler  members. 
But  he  did  not  conceal  from  himself  that  this  visit  to  Jerusalem  would  be 
accompanied  by  great  dangers.  He  was  thrusting  his  head  into  the  lion's  den 
of  Judaism,  and  from  all  his  past  experience  it  was  bat  too  clear  that  in  such 
a  place,  and  amid  the  deepened  fanaticism  of  one  of  the  yearly  feasts,  perils 
among  his  own  countrymen  and  perils  among  false  brethren  would  besot 
every  step  of  his  path.  Whether  he  would  escape  those  perils  was  known  to 
God  alone.  Paul  was  a  man  who  cherished  no  illusions.  He  had  studied  too 
deeply  the  books  of  Scripture  and  the  book  of  experience  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
manner  in  which  God  deals  with  His  saints.  He  knew  how  Elijah,  how 
Isaiah,  how  Jeremiah,  how  Ezekiel,  liow  Daniel,  how  John  the  Baptist,  how 


EPISTLE  TO  THE   ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY   OF  ST.   PAUL.          44£ 

the  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  had  lived  and  died.  He  knew  that  devotion  to 
God's  work  involved  no  protection  from  earthly  miseries  and  trials,  and  he 
quoted  without  a  murmur  the  sad  words  of  t  bo  Psalmist,  "  For  Thy  sake  are 
wo  killed  all  the  day  long;  we  are  accounted  as  sheep  appointed  to  be  slain."1 
But  whether  it  was  God's  will  that  he  should  escape  or  not,  at  any  rate  ifc 
would  be  well  to  write  to  the  Roman  Christians,  and  answer  all  objections, 
aad  remove  all  doubts  respecting  the  real  nature  of  his  teaching,  by  a 
systematic  statement  of  his  beliefs  as  to  the  true  relations  between  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  between  the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  as  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  great 
Christian  revelation  that  we  are  justified  through  faith  in  Christ.  This,  if 
anything,  might  save  him  from  those  Judaic  counter-efforts  on  the  part  of 
nominal  Christians,  which  had  undone  half  his  work,  and  threatened  to  render 
of  no  effect  the  cross  of  Christ.  He  therefore  availed  himself  of  the  earliest 
opportunity  to  write  and  to  despatch  tho  greatest  of  all  his  Epistles — one  of 
the  greatest  and  deepest  and  most  memorably  influential  of  all  compositions 
ever  written  by  human  pen — the  Epistla  to  the  Romans. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE  EPISTLE  TO   THE   EOMANS,  AND   THE  THEOLOGY  OP  ST.  PAUL. 
n«j  y&p  Hffrui.  jSporta  I/KCUOJ  evuvrt  Kvpiov ', — JOB  xxv.  4  (LXX.). 

"  But  to  the  cross  He  nails  thy  enemies, 
The  Law  that  is  against  thee,  and  the  sins 
Of  all  mankind ;  with  Him  these  are  crucified, 
Never  to  hurt  them  more  who  rightly  trust 
In  this  His  satisfaction." 

MILTON,  Par.  lost,  xii.  415. 

Haf/Acf  3  nl~jsa  rris  aA-/j0e:as  xi)pv|,  ri  Kavx^/xa  T^y  fKi&stiaia.s,  3  tv  sitptU'Ois 
&vdp<oTfos. — Ps.  CHBYS.  Oral.  Encom. 

I. — INTRODUCTORY. 

BEFOBE  we  enter  on  the  examination  of  the  Epistle  to  tho  Romans,  it  wSl 
ha  necessary  to  understand,  as  far  as  we  can,  the  special  objects  which  tL.o> 
Apostle  had  in  view,  and  the  conditions  cf  the  ehurch  to  which  it  was 
addressed. 

Tho  first  conqueror  who  had  introduced  the  Jews  in  any  numbers  into 
Romo  was  tho  great  Pompoms,  who  treated  tho  nation  with  extreme  indignity/* 
In  the  capital  of  the  world  they  showed  that  strong  self-reliance  by  which 
they  have  ever  been  distinguished.  From  tho  peculiarities  of  their  religious 

i  Rom.  viii.  36. 

3  Jos.  Antt.  xiv.  4,  §§1—5;  B.  J.I.  7;  Floras,  iii,  5;  Tac.  H.  v.  9;  Cic.  pro  Flaa. 
xxvii.,  &c, 


446  THE  LITE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

conviction,  they  were  useless  and  troublesome  as  ordinary  slaves,  but  they 
displayed  in  every  direction  the  adaptability  to  external  conditions  which, 
together  with  their  amazing  patience,  has  secured  them  an  ever-strengthen- 
ing position  throughout  the  world.  They  soon,  therefore,  won  their  emanci- 
pation, and  began  to  multiply  and  flourish.  The  close  relations  of  friendship 
which  existed  between  Augustus  and  Herod  the  Great  improved  their  con- 
dition ;  and  at  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era,  they  were  so  completely 
recognised  as  an  integral  section  of  the  population,  with  rights  and  a  religion 
of  their  own,  that  the  politic  Emperor  assigned  to  them  that  quarter  beyond 
the  Tiber  which  they  have  occupied  for  ages  since.1  From  these  dun  purlieus, 
where  they  sold  sulphur  matches,  and  old  clothes,  and  broken  glass,  and  went 
to  beg  and  tell  fortunes  on  the  Cestian  or  Fabrician  bridge,2  8,000  of  them 
swarmed  forth  to  escort  fifty  deputies  who  came  from  Jerusalem  with  a 
petition  to  Augustus.3  It  was  doubtless  the  danger  caused  by  their  growing 
numbers  which  led  to  that  fierce  attempt  of  Sejanus  to  get  rid  of  them  which 
Tacitus  records,  not  only  without  one  touch  of  pity,  but  even  with  con- 
centrated scorn.*  The  subsequent,  but  less  atrocious  decree  of  Claudius,6 
brought  about  St.  Paul's  friendship  with  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  and  is  probably 
identical  with  the  measure  alluded  to  by  Suetonius  in  the  famous  passage 
about  the  "Impulsor  Ckrestus."8  If  so,  it  is  almost  certain  that  Christians 
must  have  been  confounded  with  Jews  in  the  common  misfortune  caused  by 
their  Messianic  differences.7  But,  as  Tacitus  confesses  in  speaking  of  the 
attempt  to  expel  astrologers  from  Italy,  these  measures  were  usually  as  futile 
as  they  were  severe.8  We  find  that  those  Jews  who  had  left  Rome  under  im- 
mediate pressure  began  soon  to  return.9  Their  subterranean  prosolytism,10  as 
far  back  as  the  days  of  Nero,  acquired  proportions  so  formidable  that  Seneca,11 
while  he  characterised  the  Jews  as  a  nation  steeped  in  wickedness  (gens 
sceleratissima),  testifies  to  their  immense  diffusion.  It  is  therefore  certain 
that  when  St.  Paul  first  arrived  in  Home  (A.D.  61),  and  even  at  the  time 
when  he  wrote  this  letter  (A.D.  58),  the  Jews,  in  spite  of  the  uurepealed 

1  I  have  described  this  quarter  of  Rome  In  Seekers  after  Gfod,  p.  168. 

2  Mart.  Ep.  i.  42,  109 ;  vi.  93 ;  x.  3,  5 ;  xii.  57 ;  Juv.  xiv.  134,  186,  201  ;  Stat.  Silv.  L, 
vi.  72.    They  continued  here  for  many  centuries,  but  were  also  to  be  found  in  other  parta 
of  Rome.   On  their  mendicancy  see  Juv.  iii.  14,  29G ;  vi.  542.  On  their  faithful-ness  to  the 
Law,  see  Hor.  Sat.  i.,  ix.  69;  Suet.  Aug.  76;  Juv.  xiv.  96 ;  Pers.  v.  134;  &c. 

8  Jos.  Antt.  xvii.  1. 

4  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  85 ;  Sueton.  Tib.  36 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  3,  5.  s  Acts  xviii.  2. 

6  V.  supra,  p.  279  ;  infra,  p.  720.     Since  Christus  would  be  meaningless  to  classic  ears, 
the  word  was  surfrappe  (see  my  Families  of  Speech,  p.  119).     Chrestianus  is  common  in 
inscriptions ;  Renan,  St.  Paul,  101. 

7  And  perhaps  by  the  commencing  troubles  In  Judaea,  early  In  A.D.  52. 

8  Tac.  Ann.  xii.  52,  "atrox  et  irritum."    It  is  not  impossible  that  these  may  be  one 
and  the  same  decree,  for  the  Mathematici,  and  impostors  closely  akin  to  them,  were  fre- 
quently Jews. 

9  Dion  Cass.  (Ix.  6),  who  is  probably  alluding  to  this  decree,  says  that  the  Jews  were 
not  expelled,  but  only  forbidden  to  meet  in  public  assemblies.     Aquila,  however,  as  a 
leading  Christian,  would  be  naturally  one  of  those  who  was  compelled  to  leave. 

i°  Hor.  Sat.  L  ix.  70; Pers.  Sat.  v.  180 ;  Ovid,  A.  A.  i.  76 ;  Juv.  vi.  542 ;  Suet.  Aug.  76 } 
RIerivale,  vi.  257,  teq.,  &c. 

11  Ap.  Aug.  De  Civ.  Dei,  vi.  11 ;  v.  infra,  Excursus  XIV, 


EPISTLE    TO   THE   ROMANS,    AND   THEOLOGT   OF   ST.   PAUL.  447 

decree  of  Claudius,  which  had  been  passed  only  six  years  before,  formed  a 
large  community,  sufficiently  powerful  to  bo  an  object  of  alarm  and  jealousy 
to  the  Imperial  Government. 

Of  this  Jewish  community  wo  can  form  no  conjecture  how  many  were 
Christians ;  nor  have  we  a  single  datum  to  guide  us  in  forming  an  estimate 
of  the  numbers  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Rome,  except  the  vague  assertion 
of  Tacitus,  that  a  "  vast  multitude  "  of  its  innocent  members  were  butchered 
by  Nero  in  the  persecution  by  which  he  strove  to  hide  hia  guilty  share  in  th? 
conflagration  of  July  19,  A.D.  64.1  Even  tho  salutations  which  crowd  the 
last  chapter  of  tho  Epistle  to  the  Romans  do  not  help  us.  Twenty-six  people 
are  greeted  by  name,  besides  "  the  Church  in  the  house "  of  Aquila  and 
Priscilla,  some  of  the  "households"  of  Aristobulus  and  Narcissus,2  tho 
"  brethren,"  with  Asyncritus  and  others,  and  tho  "  saints  "  with  Olympas  and 
others.3  All  that  we  could  gather  from  these  notices,  if  we  could  bo  sure  that 
(he  sixteenth  chapter  was  really  addressed  to  Home,  is  that  tho  Roman  Chris- 
tians possessed  as  yet  no  common  place  of  meeting,  but  were  separated  into 
at  least  three  communities  grouped  around  different  centres,  assembling  in 
different  places  of  worship,  and  with  no  perceptible  trace  of  ecclesiastical 
organisation.  But  there  is  nothing  whatever  to  show  whether  those  com- 
munities were  large  or  small,  and  we  shall  see  that  the  sixteenth  chapter, 
though  unquestionably  Pauline,  was  probably  addressed  to  the  Ephesiau  and 
not  to  the  Roman  Church. 

Assuming,  however,  that  the  Christians  were  numerous,  as  Tacitus  ex- 
pressly informs  us,  two  questions  remain,  of  which  both  are  involved  in  deep 
obsurity.  The  one  is,  "  When  and  how  was  Christianity  introduced  into 
Home  P  "  The  other  is,  "  Was  the  Roman  Church  predominantly  Jewish  or 
predominantly  Gentile  P" 

1.  Tradition  answers  the  first  question  by  telling  us  that  St.  Peter  was  tho 
founder  of  Latin  Christianity,  and  this  answer  is  almost  demonstrably  false. 
It  is  first  found  in  a  work,  at  once  malignant  and  spurious,  written  late  in 
the  second  century,  to  support  a  particular  party.  That  work  is  the  forged 
Clementines,4  in  which  we  are  told  that  Peter  was  the  first  Bishop  of  Rome. 
Tradition,  gathering  fresh  particulars  as  it  proceeds,  gradually  began  to  assert, 

i  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  40,  41 ;  Suet.  Nero,  38. 

5  The  mention  of  these  two  names  has  been  regarded  as  an  argument  that  the 
sixteenth  chapter  really  belongs  to  the  Roman  letter,  since  Aristobulus,  the  son  of 
Herod,  and  other  Herodian  princes  of  that  time,  had  been  educated  in  Rome,  whose  slaves 
and  freedmen  these  might  be.  Again,  although  Narcissus,  the  celebrated  freedman  of 
Claudius,  had  been  put  to  death  in  A.D.  54  (Tac.  Arm.  xiii.  1),  four  years  before  the 
date  of  this  letter,  they  of  the  household  of  Narcissus "  may  have  been  some  of  his 
slaves.  On  the  other  hand,  neither  of  these  names  was  uncommon,  and  it  is  less 
intrinsically  improbable  that  there  should  have  been  a  Narcissus  and  an  Aristobulus  at 
Ephesus,  than  that  there  should  have  been  so  many  Asiatic  intimates  and  Jewish 
kinsmen  of  St.  Paul  at  Rome.  Muratori  (No.  1328)  and  Orelli  (No.  720)  give  an  inscrip- 
tion found  at  Ferrara  from  a  tablet  erected  by  Tib.  Claud.  Narcissus,  to  the  manes  of 
Iris  wife,  Dicceosune  (Righteousness).  See  an  interesting  note  on  thi*  in  Phiniptre,  Bill, 
Stud.,  p.  428. 

8  Rom.  xvi.  5  14  15  «  Rccognit.  I  6 


448  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PATTJ 

with  more  or  less  confidence,  that  he  came  to  Borne  in  the  second  year  of 
Claudius  (AJ).  42) ;  that  he  met  and  confounded  Simon  Magus ;  that  he  con- 
tinued Bishop  of  Borne  for  twenty -five  years ;  that  he  vras  ultimately  martyred 
by  being  crucified,  head  downwards,  at  his  own  humble  desire ;  and  that  this  took 
pkce  on  June  29th,  the  same  day  as  the  execution  of  St.  Paul.  In  attestation 
of  their  martyrdom,  Gains  refers  to  their  "  trophies  "  noar  the  city.1  The 
lateness  of  these  details,  the  errors  with  which  they  are  mingled,  and  the 
obvious  party  reasons  for  their  invention,  forbid  our  attaching  to  them  any 
liistoric  value.  It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  St.  Peter  arrived  at  the  city  till 
the  year  of  his  death.  This  at  least  is  certain — that,  in  the  New  Testament, 
the  sole  asserted  trace  of  his  presence  in  Rome  is  to  be  found  in  the  highly 
disputable  allusion,  "  They  of  Babylon  salute  you."9  He  may  have  died  in 
Rome ;  he  may  even  have  preached  in  Rome ;  he  may  even  have  been  accepted 
by  the  Jewish  section  of  Roman  Christians  as  their  nominal  "  Bishop ; "  but 
tLat  he  was  not,  and  could  not  have  been,  in  any  true  sense  the  original 
founder  of  the  Roman  Church  is  freely  admitted  even  by  Roman  Catholics 
themselves. 

At  what  time  the  chance  seeds  of  Christianity  had  been  wafted  to  the 
shores  of  Italy  s  we  are  utterly  unable  to  say.  That  this  took  place  in  oar 
Lord's  lifetime  is  improbable,  nor  is  it  worth  while  to  do  more  iLau  allude 
to  the  fiction  which  ascribes  to  the  Emperor  Tiberius  a  favourable  opinion 
respecting  the  divinity  of  Christ.4  All  that  wo  can  safely  assert  is  the  like- 
lihood that  the  good  tidings  may  first  have  been  conveyed  by  some  of  those 
Jews  and  proselytes  from  Borne  who  heard  the  speech  of  St.  Peter  at  Pente- 
cost ;  °  or  by  others  who,  like  St.  Paul  himself,  received  their  first  impressions 
from  the  close  reasoning  and  fiery  eloquence  of  St.  Stephen  as  they  sat  among 
chance  visitors  in  the  synagogue  of  the  Libertini.6 

2.  If  this  conjecture  be  correct,  we  see  that,  from  the  first,  the  Church 
cf  Borne  must  have  contained  both  Jewish  and  Gentile  elements.  Tho 
mere  probabilities  of  the  case  will  not  enable  us  to  decide  which  of  the 
two  elements  preponderated,  and  if  we  turn  to  the  Epistle  we  aro  met  by 

1  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  14,  25  (quoting  Dionysius  of  Corinth) ;  Id,  Dem.  Ev.  iii.  3 ;  Origen 
fop.  £u«e&.  iii.  1) ;  Justin  Martyr,  Apolvg.  ii.  26  ;  Tert.  De  Praescr.  Haw.  36  ;  c.  Matt. 
iv.  5 ;  Gaius  ap.  Euseb.  ii.  25.  Justin,  and  perhaps  others,  were  misled  by  the  inscrip- 
tion to  the  Sabine  deity  Semo  Sancus,  which  they  read  Simoni  Sancto.  Peter  is  also 
associated  with  Paul  in  the  founding  of  Christianity  at  Rome  by  Clemens,  Ep.  ad  Cor. 
5 ;  by  the  Kijpirpu*  tttrpcv ',  by  Lactant.  Instt.  Div.  iv.  21 ;  by.  Iren.  Hacr,  iii.  3 ;  by 
Epiphan.  Haer.  i.  27 ;  Ores.  vii.  7 ;  Constt.  Apost.  vii.  46 ;  &o.  &c. 

5    TM,  «      A  ~i.~    „..--.-     11....L     C<J.     T>~i.._  _..,..   .i.    T 1 _1 J.     1     TV 

An 


impr 

It'  "Babylon"  in  1  Pet.  v.  13,  means  Babylon  and  not  Rome — a  question  -which  cannot 
be  positively  decided— then  St.  Peter  was  in  Babylon  ten  years  later  than  this.  (See 
Baur,  Paul,  ii.  291  seqq.)  Spanheim,  in  his  celebrated  Dissertatic  (1679),  dwells  much  on 
Gal.  ii.  9  as  a  strong  argument  against  the  likelihood  of  Peter's  visiting  Rome.  Ellendorf 
(a  Roman  Catholic  writer)  admits  that  it  cannot  be  proved;  but  even  Neander  and 
Gieseier  admit  it  to  be  probable. 

s  Act*  JU..TL  I .,  4  Tert.  Apolcg.  5,  21  (Just.  Mart.  Aptlog.  i.  S5,  48), 

*  Acts  ii.  10,  «  .Act*  vi.  9, 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   BOMAN3,  AND  THEOLOGY  OP  ST.  PAUL.          449 

indications  so  dubious  that  critics  have  arrived  at  the  most  opposite  con- 
clusions.1 Baur  cannot  even  imagine  how  it  is  possible  for  any  one  to 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  Apostle  has  Jewish  Christians  in  view 
throughout.  Olshausen,  on  the  other  hand,  pronounces  with  equal  confi- 
dence on  the  prominence  of  Gentiles.  Each  can  refer  to  distinct  appeals 
to  both  classes.  If,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  Epistle,  St.  Paul  seems  to 
address  the  whole  Church  as  Gentiles,  and  in  xi.  13  says,  "I  speak  unto 
you  Gentiles,"  and  in  xv.  15,  16,  writes  in  the  exclusive  character  of 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,2  and  in  x.  1  speaks  of  the  Jews  in  the  third  per- 
son ; 3  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  in  iv.  1  he  speaks  of  "  Abraham  our  father/' 
and  eajs  that  he  is  writing  to  those  who  "  know  the  Law,"  and  have  once 
been  under  its  servitude.  If,  again,  the  multitude  of  quotations  from  the 
Jewish  scriptures*  might  be  supposed  to  have  most  weight  with  Jews 
(though  we  find  the  same  phenomenon  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians^, 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  apologetic  section  (ix. — xi.)  the  argument  is 
rather  about  the  Jews  than  addressed  to  them,3  and  the  moral  precepts  of  the 
practical  chapters  seem  to  have  in  view  the  liberal  Gentiles  far  more  than 
the  Ebionisiug  Jews.  The  views  of  the  latter  are  not  directly  combated, 
while  the  former  are  bidden  to  waive  their  personal  liberty  rather  than 
cause  any  personal  offence. 

Of  these  apparent  contradictions  the  solution  most  commonly  accepted  is 
that  suggested  by  Professor  Jowett,5  that  even  the  Gentile  converts  had  been 
mainly  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  proselytes,  who  at  Home  were  particularly 
numerous,7  so  that  "  the  Roman  Church  appeared  to  be  at  once  Jewish  and 
Gentile — Jewish  in  feeling,  Gentile  in  origin ;  Jewish,  for  the  Apostle  every- 
where argues  with  them  as  Jews ;  Gentile,  for  he  expressly  addresses  them  as 
Gentiles."  This,  no  doubt,  was  the  condition  of  other  Churches,  and  may 
have  been  that  of  the  Church  at  Borne.  But  as  this  hypothesis  by  no  meana 
solves  all  the  difficulties,  it  seems  to  me  a  preferable  supposition  that  St.  Paul 

1  Neander,  Meyer,  De  Wotte,  Ofchausen,  Tholuck,  Reuss,  &c.,  are  confident  that  it 
was  mainly  intended  for  Gentiles ;  Baur,  Schwegler,  Thierseh,  Davidson,  "Wordsworth, 
&<>.,  for  Jews. 

2  L  13.    "Among  you,  as  among  other  Gentilea"  (of.  6,  6). 

3  x.  1,  "  My  heart's  desire  and  prayer  for  them  "  (vwJp  O.VTMV — s,  A,  B,  D,  E,  F,  Q — 
not  virlp  tov  'I<fparf\). 

4  The  phrase  K&3^  )i'/paitrai  occurs  no  less  than  nineteen  times  in  this  single  Epistle, 
as  it  does  on  almost  every  page  of  the  Talmud. 

5  ix.  1 ;  x.  1 ;  xi.,  passim.  6  Jowett,  Romans,  vol.  ii.  23. 

1  Tao.  H.  v.  5 ;  Cio.  pro  Flacco,  28,  &o.  We  read  of  Jewish  slaves  in  the  noblest 
houses.  There  was  an  Acme  in  the  household  of-Livia;  a  Samaritan  named  Thallus 
was  a  freedman  of  Tiberius ;  Aliturus  was  a  favourite  mime  of  Nero,  &c.  The  Judaic 
faithfulness  of  these  Jews  is  proved  by  the  inscriptions  on  their  graves ;  Garueei, 
Oimitero,  4 ;  Grata,  iv.  123,  60o" ;  and  by  the  allusions  of  classic  -writers.  Suet.  Aug. 
57,  76,  &c.  Ifc  ia  remarkable  that  among  Jewish  proselytes  are  found  such  names  as 
Fulvia,  Flavia,  Valeria,  &c..  while  the  Christians  were  mainly  Trypheenas  and  Tryphosa?, 
slave  names  ("Luxurious,  "  wanton ")  which  no  human  being  would  voluntarily  bear. 
It  appears  from  inscriptions  given  by  Grater  and  Orelli  that  there  were  many  Jewish 
synagogues  in  Rome,  e.g.,  Synagoga  Campi,  Augutti,  Agrippae,  Suburrat,  Oleae.  The 
titles  cjjiAeiToAo*  and  4>iAo\ao?  on  their  tombs  significant^  indicate  their  orthodoxy  and 
patriotism.  (See  too  Hor,  Sat,  II.  iii.  288.) 


450  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.    PAUL. 

is  not  so  much  addressing  a  special  body  as  purposely  arguing  out  a  funda- 
mental problem,  and  treating  it  in  an  ideal  and  dramatic  manner.  To  the 
Koman  Christians  as  a  body  he  was  avowedly  a  stranger,  but  he  knew  that 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  each  with  their  special  difficulties  and  prejudices,  existed 
side  by  side  in  every  Church  which  he  had  visited,  and  he  wished  once  for  all 
to  lay  down,  not  only  for  the  Roman  Christians,  but  for  all  who  might  read 
his  letter,  the  principles  which  were  to  guide  their  mutual  relations.  He  is 
stating  the  truths  which  could  alone  secure  the  perfect  unity  of  that  Church 
of  the  future  in  which  the  distinctions  between  Jew  and  Greek  were  to  be  no 
more.  It  was  natural  that  before  he  visited  a  strange  Church,  and  one  so 
important  as  the  Church  of  Rome,  he  should  desire  plainly  to  state  to  them 
the  Gospel  which  he  meant  to  preach.  But  surely  it  is  hardly  probable  that 
he  would  wish  the  benefits  of  this  consummate  effort  to  be  confined  to  a  single 
Church.  The  hypothesis  that  several  copies  of  the  letter  were  made,  and  that. 
with  appropriate  conclusions,  it  was  sent  in  whole  or  in  part  to  other  Churches 
beside  that  of  Rome,  is  not  only  intrinsically  reasonable,  but  also  accounts  for 
some  of  the  peculiar  phenomena  presented  by  the  manuscripts,  and  especially 
by  the  structure  of  the  concluding  chapters.1 

1  (i.)  The  mission  of  Phoebe  to  Ephesoa  is  more  probable  than  a  mission  to  Rome, 
which  was  nearly  three  times  more  distant ;  nor  could  Paul  well  have  addressed  a 
strange  Church  in  language  of  such  urgent  request  on  the  subject  of  her  visit  (Rom.  xvi. 
1,  2).  (ii.)  It  is  strange  that  St.  Paul  should  salute  twenty-six  people  at  a  Church 
which  he  had  never  visited,  and  address  them  in  terms  of  peculiar  intimacy  and 
affection,  when  he  only  salutes  one  or  two,  or  none  at  all,  in  Churches  which  he  had 
founded,  (iii.)  Aquila  and  Priscilla  were  at  Ephesus  when  St.  Paul  wrote  1  Cor.  xvi. 
19,  and  again  at  Ephesus  when  he  wrote  2  Tim.  iv.  19.  It  is  strange  to  find  them  settled 
at  Rome  with  a  Church  in  their  house  between  these  two  dates.  ("  Quoi !  toute  I'Eglise 
d'Ephe'se  s'ctait  done  donnS  rendezvous  in  Rome?"  Renan,  St.  Paul,  Ixviii.)  (iv.)  How 
is  it  that  there  are  no  salutations  to  Eubulus,  Pudens,  Linus,  Claudia  (2  Tim.  iv.  21)7 
(v.)  How  comes  it  that  "Epsenetus,  the  first-fruits  of  Asia,"  is  at  Rome?  and  that  so 
many  others  are  there  who  have — in  other  places,  of  which,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
Ephesus  is  the  one  which  most  prominently  suggests  itself — toiled  so  much,  and  suffered 
so  much  for  Paul,  and  even  shared  his  frequent  prisons  (xvi.  7,  9,  12,  13)?  (vi.)  If  so 
many  were  at  Rome  who  deserve  to  be  specially  signalised  as  "beloved,  "and  "approved," 
and  "elect,"  and  "kinsmen."  and  "toilers,"  how  is  it  that  they  all  deserted  him  at  the 
hour  of  need  (2  Tim.  iv.  16)  ?  Was  the  Church  at  Rome  BO  mere  a  sand-cloud  that  all 
these  had  been  scattered  from  Rome  ?  or  had  they  all  been  put  to  death  in  the  perse- 
cution of  A. D.  64?  How  is  it  that  not  one  of  these  exemplary  twenty-six  are  among 
the  three  Jewish  friends  who  are  alone  faithful  to  him,  even  before  the  Neronian 
persecutions  began,  and  only  a  few  years  after  this  letter  was  despatched  (Col.  iv.  10, 11)? 
(vii.)  Again,  how  comes  it  that  the  severe  yet  fraternal  reproachfulness  of  xvi.  17 — 20  is 
BO  unlike  the  apologetic  and  distant  politeness  of  xv.  15 — 20?  (viii.)  How  came  Timothy 
and  St.  Paul's  other  friends,  whose  salutations  to  Thessalonica  or  to  Ephesus  would  be 
natural,  to  send  them  so  freely  to  distant  and  un visited  Rome?  (ix.)  Even  if  these 
considerations  were  unimportant,  how  is  it  that  they  are  so  well  supported  by  the  appa- 
rently different  terminations  of  the  Epistle  at  xv.  33,  and  xvi.  20  and  24,  as  well  as 
xvi.  27  ?  Why  is  the  conchiding  doxology  missing  in  F,  G,  and  some  MSS.  mentioned  by 
Jerome  ?  Why  is  it  placed  after  xiv.  23  in  L,  in  most  cursives,  in  Greek  Ivectionaries,  ir- 
Chrysostom,  Theodoret,  &c.  ?  Why  is  it  found  twice  in  Codex  A  (xiv.  24  and  xvi.  25)  ? 
Why  did  Mansion,  with  no  apparent  dogmatic  reason,  omit  the  two  last  chapters 
altogether  ?  Why,  lastly,  does  so  important  a  manuscript  as  G,  founded  as  it  is  on  a 
very  ancient  manuscript,  omit  the  words  iv  'Pupy  in  i.  7,  15  ?  No  fair  critic  will,  I  think, 
assert  that  these  difficulties  are  collectively  unimportant ;  and  they  find  a  perfectly 
simple  and  adequate  solution  if,  without  accepting  the  entire  details  of  Renan's  theory, 
we  suppose  with  him  (St.  Pavl,  Ixiii. — Ixxv.)  that  the  main  body  of  the  Epistle  WHS  tent 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY   OF   ST.    PAUL.          451 

3.  We  come,  then,  to  the  question,  What  is  the  main  object  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  ?  And  here  we  must  not  be  surprised  if  we  meet  with  different 
answers.  The  highest  works  of  genius,  in  all  writings,  whether  sacred  or 
secular,  are  essentially  many-sided.  Who  will  pretend  to  give  in  a  few  words 
the  central  conception  of  the  "  Prometheus  Vinctus"  or  of  "  Hamlet "  ?  Who  will 
profess  to  unite  all  suffrages  in  describing  the  main  purpose  of  Ecclesiastes  or 
of  Job  ?  Yet,  although  the  purpose  of  the  Epistle  has  been  differently  inter- 
preted, from  our  ignorance  of  its  origin,  and  of  the  exact  condition  of  the 
Church  to  which  it  was  written,  it  is  impossible  so  to  state  it  as  not  to  express 
one  or  other  of  its  essential  meanings. 

The  first  question  which  meets  us  affects  the  general  character  of  the 
Epistle.  Is  it  didactic  or  polemical  P  Is  it  general  or  special  P  The  divergent 
views  of  commentators  may  here  be  easily  reconciled.  It  is  only  indirectly 
and  secondarily  polemical ;  the  treatment  is  general  even  if  the  immediate 
motive  was  special.  Its  tone  has  nothing  of  the  passionate  intensity  which  the 
Apostle  always  betrays  when  engaged  in  controversy  with  direct  antagonists. 
It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  he  desired  to  vindicate  to  the  Roman  Church 
his  Apostolic  authority.  Undoubtedly  such  a  vindication  is  implicitly  involved 
in  the  masterly  arguments  of  the  Epistle ;  yet  how  different  is  his  style  from 
the  vehemence  with  which  he  speaks  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians! 
Bishop  Wordsworth  says  that  it  is  "  an  apology  for  the  Gospel  against 
Judaism ;"  but  where  is  the  burning  invective  and  indignant  eloquence  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  P  We  have  no  trace  here  of  the  ultra-liberalism  of 
Corinth,  or  the  dreamy  asceticisms  of  Colossae,  or  the  servile  Pharisaisms  of 
Galatia.  Clearly  he  is  not  here  dealing  with  any  special  dissensions,  heresies, 
or  attacks  on  his  authority.1  The  very  value  of  the  Epistle,  as  a  systematic 
exposition  of  "  the  Gospel  of  Protestantism1,"  depends  on  the  calmness  and 

not  only  to  Rome,  but  also  to  Ephesus,  Thessalonica,  and  possibly  some  other  Church, 
vrith  differing  conclusions,  which  are  all  preserved  in  the  present  form  of  the  Epistle. 
On  the  other  side  may  be  set  the  remark  of  Strabo  (xiv.  5),  that  many  Tarsians  were  at 
Home,  and  that  Borne  swarmed  with  Asiatics  (Friedlander,  Sittengesch.  Horns,  i.  59) ;  the 
certainty  that  even  in  the  days  of  Scipio,  and  much  more  in  each  succeeding  generation, 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  Rome — the  faex  populi — were  but  "  stepsons  of  Italy  " 
(Sen.  ad  Helv.,  Com.  6,  "Non  possum  ferre  Quirites  Graecam  urban,"  Juv.  Sat.  iii.  61, 
73,  seq.,  "St.  1  tacete  quibus  nee  pater  nee  mater  est ")  and  predominantly  Greek  (see 
Lightfoot,  Philippians,  p.  20) ;  and  that  the  names  of  Amplias,  Urbanus,  Stachys, 
Apelles,  Nereus,  Hermes,  Hernias,  are  all  found,  as  Dr.  Lightfoot  has  shown  (ib.  172 — 
175),  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  Columbaria  among  the  slaves  in  the  households  of  various 
Cassarian  families ;  and  not  only  these,  but  the  rarer  names  Tryphsena,  Tryphosa, 
Patrobas,  and  even  Philologus  and  Julia  in  connexion,  which  is  at  least  a  curious 
coincidence.  But  when  we  remember  the  many  hundreds  of  slaves  in  each  great  Roman 
household ;  and  the  extreme  commonness  of  the  names  by  which  they  were  mostly 
called  ;  and  the  fact  that  Garucci  found  that  Latin  nanws  were  twice  as  numerous  as  the 
Greek  in  the  old  Jewish  cemetery  at  Rome, — we  must  still  consider  it  more  likely  that 
chap,  xvi.,  in  whole  or  in  part,  was  addressed  to  Ephesus  as  a  personal  termination  to 
the  copy  of  the  Roman  Epistle,  which  could  hardly  fail  to  be  sent  to  so  important  a 
Church.  (See  Schulz,  Stud.  u.  Krit.  1829  ;  Ewald,  Sendschr.  428 ;  Reuss,  Les  JEpttres,  ii. 
19.)  Of  all  theories,  that  of  Baur,  that  the  chapter  was  forged  to  show  how  intimate 
were  the  relations  of  Paul  with  the  Roman  Church,  seems  to  me  the  most  wanton  and 
arbitrary. 

1  Reusa,  Let  £pttrvit  \L  1L 


452  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

lucidity  with  which  the  Apostle  appeals  to  an  ideal  public  to  follow  him  in  the 
discussion  of  abstract  truths.  We  seem  already  to  be  indefinitely  removed  from 
the  narrow  fanaticism  of  those  who  insisted  on  the  impossibility  of  salvation 
apart  from  circumcision.  The  Hellenistic  Judaism  of  a  great  city,  however 
ignorant  and  however  stereotyped,  was  incapable  of  so  gross  an  absurdity,  and 
in  the  wider  and  deeper  questions  which  were  naturally  arising  between  the 
Jew  and  the  Gentile  Christian,  there  was  as  yet  nothing  sufficiently  definite  to 
exasperate  the  Apostle  with  a  sense  of  ruinous  antagonism.  The  day  indeed 
was  not  far  distant  when,  in  the  very  city  to  which  he  was  writing,  some  would 
preach  Christ  even  of  contention,  hoping  to  add  affliction  to  his  bonds.1  But, 
this  lay  as  yet  in  the  unknown  future.  He  wrote  during  one  of  those  littio 
interspaces  of  repose  and  hope  which  occur  in  even  the  most  persecuted  lives. 
The  troubles  at  Corinth  had  been  temporarily  appeased,  and  his  authority 
established.  He  was  looking  forward  with  the  deepest  interest  to  fresh 
missions,  and  although  he  could  not  deliberately  preach  at  Some,  because  ho 
had  made  it  a  rule  not  to  build  on  another  man's  foundation,  he  hoped  to  hava 
his  heart  cheered  by  a  kindly  welcome  in  the  imperial  city  before  he  started  to 
plant  the  Cross  on  the  virgin  soil  of  Spain.  And  the  Church  of  Rome  stood 
high  in  general  estimation.  It  was  composed  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  of  whom, 
not  long  afterwards,  the  former  seem  to  have  ranged  themselves  in  uncompro- 
mising hostility  to  the  Gospel ;  but  he  could  as  little  foresee  this  as  he  could  be 
aware  that,  in  the  second  century,  the  Ebionism  of  this  section  of  the  Church 
would  lead  to  a  malignant  attack  on  his  character.  At  this  time  there  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  any  open  divisions  or  bitter  animosities.2  Differences  of 
opinion  there  were  between  "  the  weak,"  who  attached  importance  to  distinctions 
of  meats  and  drinks,  and  "  the  strong,"  who  somewhat  scornfully  discarded 
them ;  but  it  seems  as  though,  on  the  whole,  the  Jews  were  forbearing  and  the 
Gentiles  moderate.  Perhaps  the  two  parties  owed  their  immunity  from  dis- 
sensions to  the  passage  of  the  Gentiles  into  the  Church  through  the  portals  of 
the  synagogue ;  or  perhaps  still  more  to  the  plasticity  of  ecclesiastical  organisa- 
tion which  enabled  the  foreign  and  Greece-Roman  converts  to  worship 
undisturbed  in  their  own  little  congregations  which  met  under  the  roof  of  an 
Aquila  or  an  Olympas.  If  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  communities  were  separated 
by  a  marked  division,  collisions  between  the  two  sections  would  have  been  less 
likely  to  occur. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  evident  that  it  was  in  a  peaceful  mood  that  the 
Apostle  dictated  to  Tertius  the  great  truths  which  he  had  never  before  so 
thoroughly  contemplated  as  a  logical  whole.3  The  broad  didactic  character 

1  Phil.  L  16.    These  were  evidently  Judaieers  (iii.  2 ;  Col.  iv.  11). 

2  The  only  trace  of  these  is  in  xvi.  17 — 20 ;  rat  &i\otrTa<ria.s,  TO.  o-Ka-^SaAa.    But  this 
furnishes  one  of   the  arguments  against  that  chapter  as  part  of  the  Epistle  to  tbg 
Romans. 

8  fc-co  the  much  more  tender  tone  towards  the  Jews,  and  also  towards  the  Law,  in 
Rom.  iv.  16,  xi.  26,  &c.,  compared  with  Gal.  iv.  3,  2  Cor.  L5i.  6,  &c.  In  tho  "  not  only — 
but  also "  of  iv.  16  is  reflected  the  whole  conciliatory  character  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  (Pfieiderer,  ii.  45). 


EPISTLE   TO  THE    ROMAN3,   AND  THEOLOGY   OF    ST.    PAUL.  453 

of  the  Epistle,  its  freedom  from  those  outbursts  of  emotion  which  we  find  in 
others  of  his  writings,  is  perfectly  consistent  with  its  having  originated  ia 
historic  circumstances;  in  other  words,  with  its  having  been  called  forth, 
as  was  every  one  of  the  other  Epistles,  by  passing  events.  St.  Paul  was  on 
his  way  to  Jerusalem,  and  his  misgivings  as  to  the  results  of  the  visit  were 
tempered  by  the  hope  that  the  alms  which  he  had  collected  would  smooth  the 
way  for  his  favourable  reception.  Borne  was  the  next  place  of  importance 
which  he  intended  to  visit.  How  would  ho  be  received  by  the  Christians  cf 
the  great  city?  "Would  they  have  heard  rumours  from  the  Pharisees  of 
Jerusalem  that  he  was  a  godless  and  dangerous  apostate,  who  defied  all 
authority  and  abandoned  all  truth  ?  It  was  at  any  rate  probable  that,  even  if 
he  had  not  been  represented  to  them  in  the  most  unfavourable  light,  he  would 
have  been  spoken  of  as  one  who  was  prepared  to  abandon  not  only  the  peculiari- 
ties, but  even  the  exclusive  hopes  and  promises  of  Judaism.  To  a  great  extent 
this  was  true ;  and,  if  true,  how  serious,  nay,  how  startling,  were  the  conse- 
quences which  such  a  belief  entailed !  They  wore  views  so  contrary  to  centu- 
ries of  past  conviction,  that  they  at  least  deserved  the  most  careful  statement, 
the  most  impregnable  defence,  the  most  ample  justification,  from  the  ancient 
scriptures.  Such  a  defence,  after  deep  meditation  on  the  truths  which  God's 
Spirit  had  revealed  to  his  inmost  soul,  he  was  prepared  to  offer  in  language 
the  most  conciliatory,  the  most  tender — in  language  which  betrayed  how  little 
the  unalterable  fixity  of  his  conviction  had  quenched  the  fire  of  his  patriotism, 
or  deadened  the  quickness  of  his  sensibility.1  He  expresses  an  inextinguish- 
able love  for  his  countrymen,  and  a  deep  sense  of  their  glorious  privileges,  at 
the  very  moment  that  he  is  explaining  why  those  countrymen  have  been  tempo- 
rarily rejected,  and  showing  that  those  privileges  have  been  inexorably  an- 
nulled.2 He  declares  his  readiness  to  be  even  "  anathema  from  Christ  "  for 
the  sake  of  Israel,  in  the  very  verses  in  which  he  is  showing,  to  the  horrified 
indignation  of  his  Jewish  readers,  that  not  the  physical,  but  the  spiritual  seed 
of  Abraham,  are  alone  the  true  Israel  of  God.3 

1  "We  see,"  g^ys  Dr.  Davidson,-" a  constant  conflict  between  his  convictions  and  feel- 
ings ;  the  former  too  deep  to  be  changed,  the  latter  too  strong  to  be  repressed,  too  ardent 
to  be  quenched  by  opposition  of  the  persons  he  loved"  (Introdn,  i.  127). 

2  We  can  judge  what  the  Jewish  estimate  of  these  privileges  was  by  such  passages  of 
the  Talmud  as  Yebhamoth,  f.  47,  2 ;  supra,  p.  227. 

3  There  can  be  no  more  striking  contrast  to  the  whole  argument  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  than  the  following  very  remarkable  passage  in  the  Abhdda,  Zara  (f .  3,  col.  1 — 3), 
which  will  serve  to  show  to  what  infinite  heights  above  the  ordinary  Rabbinism  of  his 
nation  St.  Paul  had  soared.     I  appeal  to  any  candid  and  learned  Jew  which  is  noblest, 
truest,  divinest,  manliest — the  tone  and  the  reasoning  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  or 
the  bigotry  and  frivolity  of  the  following  passage : — 

"  In  the  days  of  the  Messiah,  the  Holy  One,  blessed  be  He,  holding  the  roll  of  the 
Law  in  His  bosom,  will  call  upon  those  who  have  studied  it  to  come  forward  and  receive 
their  reward.  Instantly  the  idolatrous  nations  will  appear  in  a  body  (Isa.  xliii.  9),  but 
will  be  told  to  present  themselves  separately  with  their  Scribes  at  the-j  head,  that  they 
may  understand  the  answers  severally  addressed  to  them.  The  Romans,  as  the  most 
renowned  of  all,  will  enter  first.  '  What  has  been  your  occupation  ? '  will  be  demanded 
of  them.  They  will  point  to  their  baths  and  forums,  and  the  gold  and  silver  with  which 
they  enriched  the  world,  adding,  '  All  this  we  have  done  that  Israel  may  have  leisure  for 


454  THE  LIPS  AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

If  the  current  feelings  of  the  Jews  towards  the  Gentiles  were  much  em. 
bittered— if  they  habitually  regarded  them  in  the  spirit  of  hostile  arrogance — 
it  is  very  possible  that  the  section  respecting  the  relative  position  of  the  Jews 
and  Gentiles  (ix. — xi.)  may  be,  as  Baur  argues,  the  kernel  of  the  whole 
Epistle,  in  the  sense  that  these  were  the  first  thoughts  which  had  suggested 
themselves  to  the  mind  of  the  Apostle.  Tet  it  is  not  correct  to  say  that  "  the 
whole  dogmatic  treatment  of  the  Epistle  can  be  considered  as  nothing  but  the 
most  radical  and  thorough-going  refutation  of  Judaism  and  Jewish  Chris- 
tianity." l  In  his  reaction  against  the  purely  dogmatic  view  which  regards 
the  Epistle  as  "  a  compendium  of  Pauline  dogma  in  the  form  of  an  apostolic 
letter,"  2  Baur  was  led  into  a  view  too  purely  historical ;  and  in  his  unwilling- 
ness to  regard  the  central  section  as  a  mere  carottary  from  the  doctrines 

the  study  of  the  Law.'  '  Fools  ! '  will  be  the  stern  answer :  '  have  you  not  done  all  this  for 
your  own  pleasure,  the  market-places,  and  the  baths  alike,  to  pamper  your  own  self- 
indulgeuce  ?  and  as  for  the  gold  and  silver,  it  is  Mine  (Hagg.  ii.  8).  Who  among  you  can 
declare  this  Law  ? '  (Isa.  xliii.  9). 

"  The  Romans  retire  crestfallen,  and  then  the  Persians  enter.  They  too  will  urge  that 
they  built  bridges,  took  cities,  waged  wars  to  give  Israel  leisure  to  study  the  Law ;  but 
receiving  the  same  rebuke  as  the  Romans,  they  too  will  retire  in  dejection. 

"Similarly  all  other  nations,  in  the  order  of  their  rank,  will  come  in  to  hear  their 
doom ;  the  wonder  is  that  they  will  not  be  deterred  by  the  failure  of  the  others,  but  will 
BtLll  cling  to  their  vain  pleas.  But  then  the  Persians  will  argue  that  they  built  the 
Temple,  whereas  the  Romans  destroyed  it ;  and  the  other  nations  will  think  that  since 
they,  unlike  the  Romans  and  Persians,  never  oppressed  the  Jews,  they  may  expect  more 
lenience. 

"The  nations  will  then  argue,  'When  has  the  Law  been  offered  to  us,  and  we  refused 
it  ? '  In  answer  it  is  inferred  from  Dent,  xxxiii.  2  and  Hab.  iii.  3  that  the  Law  had  been 
offered  to  each  in  turn,  but  that  they  would  not  have  it.  Then  they  will  ask, '  Why  didst 
Thou  not  place  us  also  underneath  the  mount  (Ex.  xix.  17)  as  Thou  didst  Israel,  bidding  ua 
accept  the  Law,  or  be  crushed  by  the  mountain  ? '  To  whom  Jehovah  will  reply,  '  Let  ua 
hear  the  first  things  (Isa.  xliii.  9).  Have  you  kept  the  Noachic  precepts?'  They  answer, 
'  Have  the  Jews  kept  the  Law  though  they  received  it?'  God  answers,  'Yes ;  I  Myself 
bear  them  witness  that  they  have.'  '  But  is  not  Israel  thy  firstborn,  and  is  it  fair  to 
admit  the  testimony  of  a  Father?'  'The  heaven  and  earth  shall  bear  them  witness.' 
4  But  are  not  they  interested  witnesses  ? '  *  '  Well,  then,  you  yourselves  shall  testify ; '  and 
accordingly  Nimrod  has  to  testify  for  Abraham,  Laban  for  Jacob,  Potiphar's  wife  for 
Joseph,  Nebuchadnezzar  for  the  three  children,  Darius  for  Daniel,  Job's  friends  for  Job. 
Then  the  nations  entreat,  'Give  us  now  the  Law,  and  we  will  keep  it.'  'Fools !  do  ye 
want  to  enjoy  the  Sabbath  without  having  prepared  for  it  ?  However,  I  will  give  you  one 
easy  precept — keep  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  (Zech.  xiv.  16).  Then  they  will  all  hurry  off 
to  make  booths  on  the  roofs  of  their  houses.  But  the  Holy  One,  blessed  be  He,  will  make 
the  sun  blaze  with  midsummer  heat,  and  they  will  desert  the  booths  with  the  scornful 
exclamation,  '  Let  us  break  His  bands  asunder,  and  fling  away  Hia  cords  from  us '  (Ps.  ii. 
3).  Then  the  Lord,  sitting  in  the  heavens,  shall  laugh  at  them.  The  only  occasion  on 
which  He  laughs  at  His  creatures,"  though  He  doea  so  with  His  creatures,  notably  with 
Leviathan,  every  day. 

1  Baur,  Paul.  i.  349 ;  Olshausen,  Romans,  Introd.  §  5.  Philippi  calls  it  "  a  con- 
nected doctrinal  statement  of  the  specifically  Pauline  Gospel." 

3  In  any  case  this  statement  would  be  far  too  broad.  If  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
be  a  complete  statement  of  what  may  be  called  the  Apostle's  "  Soteriology,"  it  contains 
little  or  none  of  the  Eschatology  which  distinguishes  these  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians, 
or  the  Christology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  or  the  Ecclesiology  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians.  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  notice  the  opinions  that  it  is  a  mere  defence 
of  his  Apostolate  (Mangold),  or  a  description  and  vindication  of  the  Pauline  system  of 
missionary  labours  (Schott.).  See  Lange's  Romans,  p.  38,  E.  T. 

•  Because  they  only  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  Law  (A'edaHm,  f.  82,  col.  1). 


EPISTLE    TO   THE    EOMANS,   AND    THEOLOGY  OP    ST.   PAUL.  455 

enunciated  in  the  first  eight  chapters,  he  goes  too  far  in  calling  them  the  heart 
and  pith  of  the  whole,  to  which  everything  else  is  only  an  addition.  These 
chapters  may  have  been  first  in  the  order  of  thought,  without  being  first 
in  the  order  of  importance ;  they  may  have  formed  the  original  motive  of  the 
Epistle,  and  yet  may  have  been  completely  thrown  into  subordination  by  the 
grandeur  of  the  conceptions  to  which  they  led. 

May  we  not  well  suppose  that  the  Epistle  originated  as  follows  P  The 
Apostle,  intending  to  start  for  Jerusalem,  and  afterwards  to  open  a  new 
mission  in  the  West,  thought  that  he  would  utilise  an  interval  of  calm 
by  writing  to  the  Roman  Church,  in  which,  though  not  founded  by  himself,  he 
could  not  but  feel  the  deepest  interest.  He  knows  that,  whatever  might  be 
the  number  of  the  Gentile  Christians,  the  nucleus  of  the  Church  had  been 
composed  of  Jews  and  proselytes,  who  would  find  it  very  hard  to  accept  the 
lesson  that  God  was  no  respecter  of  persons.  Yet  this  was  the  truth  which 
he  was  commissioned  to  teach ;  and  if  the  Jews  could  not  receive  it  without  a 
shock — if  even  the  most  thoughtful  among  them  could  not  but  find  it  hard  to 
admit  that  their  promised  Messiah — the  Messiah  for  whom  they  had  yearned 
through  afflicted  centuries — was  after  all  to  be  even  more  the  Messiah  of  the 
Gentiles  than  of  the  Jews — then  it  was  pre-eminently  necessary  for  him  to  set 
this  truth  so  clearly,  and  yet  so  sympathetically,  before  them,  as  to  soften  the 
inevitable  blow  to  their  deepest  prejudices.  It  was  all  the  more  necessary 
because,  in  writing  to  the  more  liberal  Judaisers,  he  had  not  to  deal  with  the 
ignorant  malignity  of  those  who  had  seduced  his  simple  Galatians.  In 
writing  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia,  and  smiting  down  with  one  shattering 
blow  their  serpent-head  of  Pharisaism,  he  had  freed  his  soul  from  the  storm 
of  passion  by  which  it  had  been  shaken.  He  could  now  write  with  perfect 
composure  on  the  larger  questions  of  the  position  of  the  Christian  in  reference 
to  the  Law,  and  of  the  relations  of  Judaism  to  Heathenism,  and  of  both 
to  Christianity.  That  the  Gentiles  were  in  no  respect  inferior  to  the  Jews  in 
spiritual  privileges — nay,  more,  that  the  Gentiles  were  actually  superseding 
the  Jews  by  pressing  with  more  eagerness  into  the  Church  of  Christ 1 — was  a 
fact  which  no  Jewish  Christian  could  overlook.  Was  God,  then,  rejecting 
Israel  ?  The  central  section  of  the  Epistle  (ix. — xi.)  deals  with  this  grave 
scruple :  and  the  Apostle  there  strives  to  show  that  (1)  spiritual  sonship  does 
not  depend  on  natural  descent,  since  the  only  justification  possible  to  man- 
namely,  justification  by  faith — was  equally  open  to  Jews  and  Gentiles  (ix.); 
that  (2),  so  far  as  the  Jews  are  losing  their  precedence  in  the  divine  favour, 
this  is  due  to  their  own  rejection  of  a  free  offer  which  it  was  perfectly  open 
to  them  to  have  embraced  (x.);  and  that  (3)  this  apparent  rejection  is  softened 
by  the  double  consideration  that  («)  it  is  partial,  not  absolute,  since  there  was 
"  a  remnant  of  the  true  Israelites  according  to  the  election  of  grace  " ;  and  (£) 
it  is  temporary,  not  final,  since,  when  the  full  blessing  of  the  Gentiles  has 

1  Just  as  in  the  days  of  Christ  the  publicans  and  harlots  were  admitted  before  the 
Pharisees  into  the  kingdom  of  God  (Matt.ni.  31,  32). 


456  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

been  secured,  there  still  remains  the  glorious  hope  that  all  Israel  would  at  last 
be  saved.1 

But  was  it  not  inevitable  that  from  this  point  his  thoughts  should  work 
backwards,  and  that  the  truths  to  which  now,  for  the  first  time,  he  gave  full 
and  formal  expression  should  assume  an  importance  which  left  but  subordinate 
interest  to  the  minor  problem  P  From  the  relative  his  thoughts  had  been  led 
en  to  the  absolute.  From  the  question  as  to  the  extinction  of  the  exclusive 
privileges  of  the  Jews,  he  had  ascended  to  the  question  of  God's  appointed  plan 
for  the  salvation  of  mankind — its  nature,  its  world- wide  f reedom,  its  necessity. 
That  plan  the  Apostle  sums  up  in  the  one  formula,  JUSTIFICATION 
BY  FAITH,  and  in  order  to  establish  and  explain  it  he  had  to  prove  the 
universality  of  human  sin;  the  inability  alike  of  Jew  and  Gentile  to 
attain  salvation  by  any  law  of  works ;  the  consequent  "  subordinate,  relative, 
negative"  significance  of  the  Law;  the  utter  and  final  evanescence 
of  all  difference  between  circumcision  and  uncircumcision  in  the  light  of 
a  dispensation  now  first  revealed.  And  thus  the  real  basis  of  this,  as  of  every 
other  Epistle,  is  "  Christ  as  the  common  foundation  on  which  Jew  and  Gentile 
could  stand,  the  bond  of  human  society,  the  root  of  human  righteousness."2  It 
may  be  quite  true  that  throughout  all  these  high  reasonings,  and  the  many 
questions  to  which  they  give  rise,  there  runs  an  undertone  of  controversy,  and 
that  the  Apostle  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  he  was  endeavouring  to  prove 
for  the  Roman  Christians,  and  through  them  to  the  entire  Church,  the  new 
and  startling  doctrine  that,  since  the  annihilation  of  sin  was  rendered  possible 
by  faith,  and  faith  alone,  all  claims  founded  on  Jewish  particularism  were 
reduced  to  nothingness.  This  is  the  main  point;  but  even  the  practical 
questions  which  receive  a  brief  decision  at  the  close  of  the  Epistle, 
are  handled  in  strict  accordance  with  the  great  principles  which  he 
has  thus  established  of  the  Universality  of  Sin,  and  the  Universality  of 
Grace.8 

Such  seems  to  me  to  be  the  origin  and  the  idea  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  of  which  Luther  says  that  "  it  is  the  masterpiece  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment,  and  the  purest  gospel,  which  can  never  be  too  much  read  or  studied, 
and  the  more  it  is  handled,  the  more  precious  it  becomes ; "  on  which  Melanc- 
thon  founded  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  Reformed  Church ;  which  Coleridge 
called  "  the  most  profound  work  in  existence ; "  in  which  Tholuck,  who  wrote 
the  first  really  important  and  original  commentary  upon  it  in  recent  tiinesi 
saw  "  a  Christian  philosophy  of  universal  history."  Its  general  outline  may 
be  given  as  follows: — After  a  full  and  solemn  greeting,  he  passes,  in  tho 
simplest  and  most  natural  manner,  to  state  his  fundamental  thesis  of  justi- 

''  ,  -L-GP.       "*>-»•  .,-.,<..  «:*'"!. j,-  iel   *i.±',  .;    • 

1  See  Baur,  Paul.  ii.  828.  •  Maurice,  Unity,  p.  477. 

*  If  we  were  to  choose  one  phrase  as  expressing  most  of  the  idea  of  the  Epistle,  it 
would  be,  "As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  22). 
"  Its  precepts  naturally  arise  from  its  doctrinal  assertions,  that  (1)  all  are  guilty  before 
God ;  that  (2)  all  need  a  Saviour ;  that  (3)  Christ  died  for  all ;  that  (4)  we  are  all  one 
body  in  Him !l  (Bp.  Wordsworth's  Spittles,  p.  200), 


TO  THE  ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  8T  PAUL.     457 

fication  by  faith,1  which  he  illustrates  and  supports  by  quoting  the  Septua- 
gint  version  of  Hab.  ii.  4.  The  necessity  for  this  mode  of  salvation  rests  in  the 
universality  of  sin — a  fact  taught,  indeed,  by  human  experience,  but  too  apt 
to  be  overlooked,  and  therefore  needing  to  be  argumentatively  enforced. 
Thus  Jews  and  Gentiles  are  reduced  to  the  same  level,  and  the  exceptional 
privileges  of  the  Jew  do  but  add  to  his  condemnation  (i.  16 — iii.  20).  Conse- 
quently by  the  works  of  the  Law — whether  the  natural  or  the  Mosaic  Law 
— no  flesh  can  be  justified,  and  justification  can  only  be  obtained  by  the  faith 
of  man  accepting  the  redemption  of  Christ,  so  that  all  alike  are  dependent  on 
the  free  will  of  God  (iii.  21 — 30).2  Aware  of  the  extreme  novelty  of  these 
conclusions,  he  illustrates  them  by  Scripture  (iii.  31 — iv.  25),  and  then  dwells 
on  the  blessed  consequences  of  this  justification  (v.  1 — 11).  These  conse- 
quences are  foreshadowed  in  the  whole  moral  and  religious  history  of  man- 
kind as  summed  up  in  the  two  periods  represented  by  Adam  and  by  Christ 
(v.  12 — 21).  Having  thus  completed  the  statement  of  his  great  doctrine,  he 
meets  the  objections  which  may  be  urged  against  it.  So  far  from  diminish- 
ing  the  heinousness,  or  tending  to  the  multiplication  of  sin,  he  shows  that  it 
involves  the  radical  annihilation  of  sin  (vi.).  If  any  were  startled  at  the 
close  juxtaposition  of  the  Law  and  sin,  he  points  out  that  while  the  Law  iii 
itself  is  holy,  just,  and  good,  on  the  other  hand  what  he  has  said  of  it, 
relatively  to  mankind,  is  demonstrated  by  its  psychological  effects,  and  that 
in  point  of  fact  the  Law  is,  for  the  changed  nature  of  the  believer,  super- 
seded by  a  new  principle  of  life — by  the  Spirit  of  God  quickening  the  heart 
of  man  (vii.  1 — viii.  11).  This  naturally  leads  him  to  a  serious  appeal  to  his 
readers  to  live  worthily  of  this  changed  nature,  and  to  a  magnificent  outburst 
of  thanksgiving,  which  rises  at  last  into  a  climax  of  impassioned  eloquence 
(viii.  12—39). 

At  this  point  he  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  the  question  from  which 
his  thoughts  probably  started — the  relations  of  Judaism  to  Heathenism, 
and  of  Christianity  to  both.  In  an  episode  of  immense  importance,  especially 
to  the  age  in  which  he  wrote,  he  shows  that  God's  promises  to  Israel,  when 
rightly  understood,  both  had  been,  and  should  be,  fulfilled,  and  that — so  far 
as  they  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  been  made  void — the  failure  was 
due  to  the  obstinate  hardness  of  the  chosen  people  (ix. — ri.).  The  remainder 
of  the  Epistle  is  more  practical  and  popular.  He  urges  the  duties  of  holi- 
ness, humility,  unity,  the  faithful  use  of  opportunities,  hope,  and  above  all 
love,  on  which  he  dwells  earnestly  and  at  length  (xii).  Then,  perhaps  with 
special  reference  to  the  theocratic  prejudices  of  Jewish  Christians,  he  enforces 
the  duty  of  obedience  to  civil  authority,  and  reverts  once  more  to  love  as  the 
chief  of  Christian  graces ;  enforcing  these  practical  exhortations  by  the  thought 
that  the  night  of  sin  and  ignorance  was  now  far  spent,  and  the  day  waa 

1  o  Si  2iK<uof  « irt'oreti?  [/xou]  £ri<r«Tai.    The  /aov  is  omitted  by  St.  Paul,  and,  indeed,  by 
many  MSS.  of  the  LXX.  (see  supra  on  Gal.  iii.  11). 

2  This  passage  contains  the  very  quintessence  of  Pauline  theology.    See  it  admirably 
explained  and  developed  by  Reuss,  ThM.  Chret.  ii.  18—107. 

II 


458 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


near  (xiii.).  He  then  points  out  the  necessity  for  mutual  forbearance  and 
mutual  charity  between  the  strong  and  the  weak — that  is,  between  those  who 
considered  themselves  bound  by  legal  prescriptions,  and  those  who  realised 
that  from  such  elements  they  were  emancipated  by  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  children  of  God;  mingling  with  these  exhortations  some  reference  to 
the  views  which  he  had  already  expressed  about  the  mutual  relation  of 
Jews  and  Christians  (xiv. — xv.  13).  The  remainder  of  the  Epistle  is  chiefly 
personal.  He  first  oilers  an  earnest  and  graceful  apology  for  having  thus 
ventured  to  address  a  strange  Church — an  apology  based  on  his  apostolic 
mission  (xv.  14 — 21) — and  then  sketches  the  outline  of  his  future  plans, 
specially  entreating  their  prayers  for  the  good  success  of  his  approaching 
visit  to  Jerusalem.  In  the  last  chapter,  which  I  have  given  reasons 
for  believing  to  have  been  addressed,  at  any  rate  in  part,  not  to  Romans, 
but  to  Ephesians,  he  recommends  Phoebe  to  the  kindly  care  of  the  Church 
(1,  2);  sends  affectionate  salutations  to  six-and-twenty  of  the  brethren 
(3 — 16);  gives  a  severe  warning  against  those  who  fostered  divisions, 
which  concludes  with  a  promise  and  a  benediction  (17 — 20);  repeats  the 
benediction  after  a  few  salutations  from,  the  friends  who  were  with  him 
(21 — 24) ;  and  ends  with  an  elaborate  and  comprehensive  doxology,  in  which 
Borne  have  seen  "a  liturgical  antiphouy  in  conformity  with  the  funda- 
mental thought  of  the  Epistle."1 


n. 

GENERAL  THESIS   OF  THE   EPISTLE. 

*fl  fov  ISic&rov  rb  QavfM  &  rov  a-ypcy^arov  fj  ffofyia.. — Ps.  Chrys.  Orat.  Encom. 
(Opp.  viii.  10). 

"Such  we  are  in  the  sight  of  God  the  Father,  as  is  the  very  Son  of  God 
Himself.  Let  it  be  counted  folly,  or  frenzy,  or  fury,  or  whatsoever.  It  is  our 
wisdom  and  our  comfort ;  we  care  for  no  knowledge  in  the  world  but  this,  that  man 
hath  sinned,  and  God  hath  suffered ;  that  God  hath  made  Himself  the  Son  of  men, 
and  men  are  made  the  righteousness  of  God." — Hooker,  Serm.  ii.  6. 

"It  breaketh  the  window  that  it  may  let  in  the  light ;  it  breaketh.  the  shell  that 
we  may  eat  the  kernel ;  it  putteth.  aside  the  curtain  that  we  may  enter  into  the 
most  Holy  Place :  it  removeth  the  cover  of  the  well  that  we  may  come  by  the 
water." — Pref.  to  Authorised  Version. 

WE  must  now  look  more  closely  at  this  great  outline  of  one  of  the  most 
essential  factors  of  Christian  theology ;  and  I  must  ask  my  readers,  Bible  in 
hand,  to  follow  step  by  step  its  solemn  truths  as  they  gradually  expand  them- 
selves before  our  view. 

The  Salutation,  which  occupies  the  first  seven  verses,  is  remarkable  as 

1  v.  Lange,  ad  loc. 


«PIS*LE  TO  THE  ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY   OF  ST.  PAtTL.  459 

being  the  longest  and  most  solemnly  emphatic  of  those  found  in  any  of  his 
Epistles.  Had  he  adopted  the  ordinary  method  of  his  day,  he  would  have 
simply  headed  his  letter  with  the  words,  "Paul,  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
the  Roman  Christians,  greeting." 1  But  he  had  discovered  an  original  method  of 
giving  to  his  first  salutation  a  more  significant  and  less  conventional  turn,  and 
of  making  it  the  vehicle  for  truths  to  which  he  desired  from  the  first  to  arrest 
attention.  Thus,  in  one  grand  single  sentence,  of  which  the  unity  is  not  lost 
in  spite  of  digressions,  amplifications,  and  parentheses,  he  tells  the  Roman 
Christians  of  his  solemn  setting  apart,2  by  grace,  to  the  Apostolate ;  of  the 
object  and  universality  of  that  Apostolate  ;  of  the  truth  that  the  Gospel  is  no 
daring  novelty,  but  the  preordained  fulfilment  of  a  dispensation  prophesied  in 
Scripture;8  of  Christ's  descent  from  David,  according  to  the  flesh,  and  of  his 
establishment  with  power  as  the  Son  of  God  according  to  the  spirit  of  holi- 
ness* by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.6 

We  ask,  as  we  read  the  sentence,  whether  any  one  has  ever  compressed 
more  thoughts  into  fewer  words,  and  whether  any  letter  was  ever  written 
which  swept  so  vast  an  horizon  in  its  few  opening  lines  ?8 

He  passes  on  to  his  customary  thanksgiving  "  by  Jesus  Christ "  for  the 
widely-rumoured  faith  of  the  Christians  at  Rome;7  and  solemnly  assures 
them  how,  in  his  unceasing  prayers  on  their  behalf,  he  supplicates  God  that 
he  may  be  enabled  to  visit  them,  because  he  yearns  to  see  them,  and  impart  to 
them,  for  their  stability,  some  spiritual  gift.8  Then,  with  infinite  delicacy, 
correcting  an  expression  which,  to  strangers,  might  seem  to  savour  of  assumed 
authority,  ho  explains  that  what  he  longs  for  is  an  interchange  between  them 
of  mutual  encouragement ; 9  for  he  wishes  them  to  know10  that,  though  hin- 
dered hitherto,  he  has  often  planned  to  come  to  them,  that  he  might  reap 
among  them,  as  among  all  other  Gentiles,  some  of  the  fruit  of  his  ministry. 
The  Gospel  has  been  entrusted  to  him,  and  he  regards  it  as  something  due 
from  him,  a  debt  which  he  has  to  pay  to  all  Gentiles  alike,  whether  Greeks  or 
non-Greeks,  whether  civilised  or  uncivilised.  He  is  therefore  eager,  so  far  as 

1  This  is  the  earliest  letter  which  he  addresses  to  "the  saints."  His  former  letters 
were  all  addressed  "to  the  Church"  or  "Churches"  (1,  2  Thess.,  1,  2  Cor.,  Gal.).  It 
is  also  the  first  in  which  he  calls  himself  "  a  slave  of  Jesus  Christ." 

-  a.<f>ti>puT/j.fvos-     Cf,  Acts  xiii.  2,  a^opiourc. 

3  ypcufial  ayuu,  not  "  sacred  writings,"  but  like  Upa  ypo^xaTa,  a  proper  name  for  the 
Scriptures,  and  therefore  anarthrous. 

4  The  form  of  expression  is  of  course  antithetical,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  Dr.  Forbes, 
in  his  Analytical  Commentary,  pushes  this  antithesis  to  most  extravagant  lengths. 

s  1 — 7.  In  ver.  4,  avaoTa<r«  vcKpuv,  is  not  "from"  (ex),  but  "of"  the  dead,  regarded 
as  accomplished  in  Christ.  The  notions  of  x<*pi«  and  elpjjnj  are  united  in  Num.  vi.  25,  26. 

6  "Epistola  tota  sic  methodica  est,  ut  ipsum  quoque  exordium  ad  rationem  artis 
coinpositum  sit "  (Calvin). 

7  The  iv  SA<j>  TW  Ko<Tfi<«  of  course  only  means  among  the  humble  and  scattered  Christian 
communities,  and  therefore  furnishes  no  argument  against  the  truth  of  Acts  xxviii.  21,  22. 

8  The  expressions  in  these  verses  (eTruroei,  11  ;   <rv/x7rapcucAr)fc)v<u,  12  ;  irpocOeMV,  e<c«Av0rji/, 

Kapn-bp,  13 ;  6<£e<.Aenp,  14)  are  closely  analogous  to  those  in  xv.  (eveKonrc^ijc,  22 ;  ewmodiav, 
23  ;  o$eiAerai,  27  ',  crvvafairavawfiai,  32). 

9  Of.  xv.  24.     Erasmus  goes  too  far  in  calling  this  a  "  sancta  adulatw." 

10  ov  ffc'Aw  <?«  OM«  ivvotii/,  xl.  25 ;  1  Thess.  iv.  13 ;  1  Cor.  x.  1,  xii.  1 ;  2  Cor.  i.  8, 


460  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  Of  St.  PAltt. 

it  depends  on  him,  to  preach  the  Gospel  even  in  the  world's  capital,  even  in 
imperial  Borne.1 

This  leads  him  to  the  fundamental  theme,  which  he  intends  to  treat. 
Many  are  ashamed  of  that  Gospel ;  he  is  not ; a  "for  it  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  Jew  first,3  and  also  to  the 
Greek.  For  in  it  God's  righteousness  is  being  revealed  from  faith  to  faith, 
even  as  it  is  written,  '  But  tlie  just  shall  live  by  faith.'  "4 

How  easy  are  these  words  to  read !  Yet  they  require  the  whole  Epistle 
for  their  adequate  explanation,  and  many  volumes  have  been  written  to  eluci- 
date their  meaning.  Rome  is  the  very  centre  of  human  culture,  the  seat  of 
the  widest,  haughtiest  despotism  which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  he  is  well 
aware  that  to  the  world's  culture  the  Cross  is  foolishness,  and  feebleness  to 
the  world's  power.  Yet  he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  that  Cross,  for 
to  all  who  will  believe  it,  whether  the  Jew  to  whom  it  was  first  offered  or  the 
Greek  to  whom  it  is  now  proclaimed,  it  is  the  display  of  God's  power  in  order 
to  secure  their  salvation.  Even  those  few  words  "  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also 
to  the  Greek  "  are  the  sign  that  a  new  aeon  has  dawned  upon  the  world ;  and 
having  thus  indicated  in  two  lines  the  source  (God's  power),  the  effect  (salva- 
tion), and  the  universality  of  the  Gospel  (to  Jew  and  Gentile),  he  proceeds  to 
sum  up  its  essence.  "  In  it,"  he  says,  "  God's  righteousness  is  being  revealed 
from  faith  to  faith." 

We  repeat  the  familiar  words,  but  what  meaning  should  we  attach  to 
them  ?  It  would  take  a  lifetime  to  read  all  that  has  been  written  about  them 
in  interminable  pages  of  dreary  exegesis,  drearier  metaphysics,  and  dreariest 
controversy.  Traducianist  and  Pelagian,  Calvinist  and  Armiuian,  Sublap- 
sarian  and  Supralapsarian,  Solifidian  and  Gospeller,  Legalist  and  Antinomian, 
Methodist  and  Baptist,  have  wrangled  about  them  for  centuries,  and  strewn 
the  field  of  polemical  theology  with  the  scattered  and  cumbering  debris  of 
technicalities  and  anathemas.  From  St.  Augustine  to  St.  Thomas  of  Aquinum, 
and  from  St.  Thomas  to  Whitefield,  men  have— 

"  Reasoned  high 

Of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free-will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  found  no  end  in  wandering  mazes  lost ; " 

and  their  controversies  have  mainly  turned  on  these  words.  Does  it  not  seem 
presumptuous  to  endeavour  to  express  in  one  simple  sentence  what  they  appear 
to  state  P*  Not  if  we  distinguish  between  "  ideas  of  the  head"  and  " feelings 

i  i.  8-15. 

8  What  cause  he  might  have  had  to  be  tempted  to  shame  by  the  feelings  of  the 
lordlier  and  more  cultivated  Gentiles  may  be  seen  in  the  remark  of  Tacitus  (Ann.  xv.  44), 
who  classes  Christianity  among  the  "  cuncta  atrocia  aut  pudenda  "  which  flow  together 
into  the  vortex  of  .Roman  life. 

3  irpSrrov,  precedence,  genetic  and  historical  (John  iv.  22 ;  Acts  i.  8). 

4  i.  16,  17. 

*  It  will  be  observed  that  the  true  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the  words  Is  one 
thing,  and  one  which  may  be  regarded  aa  approximately  certain ;  the  adequate  explana- 


EPISTLE   TO  THK    ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY  OP   ST.   PAUL.  461 

of  the  heart."  Not  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  these  controversies  arise  mainly 
from  "  the  afterthoughts  of  theology."  We  can  only  understand  St.  Paul's 
views  in  the  light  of  his  own  repeated  elucidations,  comments,  and  varied 
modes  of  expression ;  yet  with  this  guidance  we  should  sum  up  the  results  of 
endless  discussions,  prolonged  for  a  thousand  years,  by  interpreting  his  words 
to  mean  that  In  the  Gospel  is  being  made  known 1  to  the  world  that  inherent 
righteousness  of  God,  which,  by  a  judgment  of  acquittal  pronounced  once  for 
all  in  the  expiatory  death  of  Christ,  He  imputes  to  guilty  man,  and  which 
beginning  for  each  individiial,  with  his  trustful  acceptance  of  this  reconciliation 
of  himself  to  God  in  Christ,  ends  in  that  mystical  union  with  Christ  whereby 
Christ  becomes  to  each  man  a  new  nature,  a  quiclcening  spirit. 

It  is  impossible,  I  think,  in  fewer  words  to  give  the  full  interpretation  of 
this  pregiiant  thesis.  The  end  and  aim  of  the  Gospel  of  God  is  the  salvation 
of  man.  Man  is  sinful,  and  cannot  by  any  power  of  his  own  attain  to  holiness. 
Yet  without  holiness  no  man  can  see  the  Lord.  Therefore,  without  holiness  no 
man  can  be  saved.  How,  then,  is  holiness  to  be  attained  P  The  Gospel  is  the 
answer  to  that  question,  and  this  Epistle  is  the  fullest  and  most  consecutive  ex- 
position of  this  divine  dispensation.  The  essence  of  the  answer  is  summed  up  in 
the  one  phrase  "  JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH."  In  this  verse  it  is  expressed  as 
"  the  righteousness  and  justice  of  God"  which"  is  being  revealed  in  the  Gospel 
from  faith  to  faith."  The  word  for  "  righteousness  "  is  also  rendered  "  justi- 
fication." But  neither  of  this  word,  nor  of  the  word  "faith,"  lias  St.  Paul  ever 
given  a  formal  definition.  It  is  only  from  his  constantly- varied  phrases,  and 
from  the  reasonings  by  which  he  supports,  and  the  quotations  by  which  he 
illustrates  them,  that  we  can  ascertain  his  meaning.  Many  writers  have  main- 
tained that  this  meaning  is  vague  and  general,  incapable  of  being  reduced  to 
rigid  and  logical  expression,  impossible  to  tesselate  into  any  formal  scheme  of 
salvation.  We  must  not  overlook  the  one  element  of  truth  which  underlies 
these  assertions.  Undoubtedly  there  is  a  vast  gulf  between  the  large  impas- 
sioned utterances  of  mystic  fervour  and  the  cold  analytic  reasonings  of 
technical  theology ;  between  emotional  expressions  and  elaborate  systems ; 
between  Orientalism  and  scholasticism ;  between  St.  Paul  and  St.  Thomas  of 
Aquinum.  Speculative  metaphysics,  doctrines  of  sin,  theories  of  imputation, 
transcendental  ontology — these  in  the  course  of  time  were  inevitable ;  but 
these  are  not  the  foundation,  not  the  essence,  not  the  really  important  element 
of  Christianity.  This  has  been  too  much  forgotten.  Yet  there  is  all  the  dif- 
ference in  the  world  between  understanding  what  Paul  meant  to  express, 
and  pretending  to  have  fathomed  to  their  utmost  depths  the  Eternal  Truths 
which  lie  behind  his  doctrine ;  and  it  is  perfectly  possible  for  us  to  compre- 
hend God's  scheme,  so  far  as  it  affects  our  actions  and  our  hopes,  without 

;tion  of  the  doctrine  is  quite  another  thing,  and  all  attempt  to  do  it  lands  us  at  once  in 
the  region  of  insoluble  mysteries.  "  We  cannot  measure  the  arm  of  God  with  the  finger 
of  man. " 

1  affoitaAvirrerai — "progressive   revelation,"  but  tyavepaOii,  it  has  been  once  for  all 
manifested ;  or  rather  tr<4>a?c'pwr<u  (iii.  21)  has  been  manifested  now  atulfor  ever. 


462  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

attempting  to  arrange  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  our  logical  formulae  the  incom- 
prehensible mysteries  encircling  that  part  of  it  which  has  alone  been  opened 
for  our  learning: 

1.  We  may,  then,  pronounce    with  reasonable  certainty  that    in    this 
memorable  thesis  of  the  Epistle,  "  God's  righteousness,"  which,  in  the  first 
instance,  means  a  quality  of  God,  is  an  expression  which  St.  Paul  uses  to 
express  the  imputation  of  this  righteousness  by  free  bestowal  upon  man,  so 
that  man  can  regard  it  as  a  thing  given  to  himself— a  righteousness  which 
proceeds  from  God  and  constitutes  a  new  relation  of  man  towards  Him — » 
justification  of  man,  a  declaration  of  man's  innocence — an  acquittal  from  guilt 
through  Christ  given  by  free  grace — the  principle,  ordained  by  God  himself, 
which   determines   the  religious   character  of   the  race,  and   by  which   the 
religious  consciousness  of  the  individual  is  conditioned.1 

2.  And  when  St.  Paul  says  that  this  "  righteousness  of   God  "  springs 
"from  faith,"  he  does  not   mean  that  faith  is  in  any  way  the  meritorious 
cause  of  it,  for  he  shows  that  man  is  justified  by  free  grace,  and  that  this 
justification  has  its  ground  in  the  spontaneous  favour  of  God,  and  its  cause 
in  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  ;2  but  what  he  means  is  that  faith  is  the 
receptive  instrument3  of  it — the   personal  appropriation  of  the  reconciling 
love  of  God,  which  has  once  for  all  been  carried  into  effect  for  the  race  by 
the  death  of  Christ. 

3.  Lastly,  when  he  says  that  this  righteousness  of  God  is  being  revealed 
in  the  Gospel  "  from  faith  to  faith,"  he  implies  the  truth,  which  finds  frequent 
illustration  in  his  writings,  that  there  are  ascensive  degrees  and  qualities  of 
Christian  faith.4    Leaving  out  of  sight  the  dead  faith  (fides  informis)  of  the 
schoolmen,  its  lowest  stage  (i.)  is  the  being  theoretically  persuaded  of  God's 
favour  to  us  in  Christ  on  higher  grounds  than  those  of  sensuous  perception 
and  ordinary  experience,  namely,  because  we  have  confidence  in  God  (assensus 
fiducia}.    In  a  higher  stage  (ii.)  it  has  touched  the  inmost  emotions  of  the 

1  Pfleiderer,  Paulinism,  i.  178.     "The  acceptance  wherewith  God  receives  us  into 
His  favour  as  if  we  were  righteous — it  consists  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  imputa- 
tion of  the  righteousness  of  Christ "  (Calvin).     "  Faith  taketh  hold  of  Christ,  and  hath 
Him  enclosed,  as  the  ring  doth  the  precious  stone.    And  whosoever  shall  be  found  having 
this  confidence  in  Christ  apprehended  in  the  heart,  him  will  God  accept  for  righteous  " 
(Luther).    [See,   too,   the  twelve  ancient  authorities  quoted  in  the  Homily  on  the 
salvation  of  mankind.]     "  The  righteousness  wherewith  we  shall  be  clothed  in  the  world 
to  come  ia  both  perfect  and  inherent ;  that  whereby  here  we  are  justified  is  perfect,  but 
not  inherent-ythat  whereby  we  are  sanctified,  inherent,  but  not  perfect "  (Hooker,  Serm. 
ii.  3).  "  The  righteousness  which  God  gives  and  which  he  approves  "  (Hodges).    "  The  very 
righteousness  of  God  Himself  .    .   .  imputed  and  imparted  to  men  in  Jesus  Christ  (Jer, 
xxiii.  6 ;  xxxiii.  16)  ...  who  ...  is  made  righteousness  to  us  (1  Cor.  L  30)  .    .    .so 
that  we  may  be  not  only  acquitted  by  God,  but  may  become  the  righteous  of  God  in  Him 
(2  Cor.  v.  21) "  (Bishop  Wordsworth). 

2  The  Tridentine  decree  speaks  of  God's  glory  and  eternal  life  as  the  final,  of  God  as 
the  efficient,  of  Christ  as  the  meritorious,  of  baptism  as  the  instrumental,  and  of  God's 
righteousness  as  the  formal  cause  of  justification. 

3  Spyavoj/  \rfim.Kov.    We  are  justified  per,  not  propter  fidem  (Acts  x.  1,  2). 

"From  faith  to  faith,"  i.e.,  "which  begins  in  faith  and  ends  in  faith,  of  which| 
faith  is  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end  "  (Baur,  who  compares  6o>x.i)  fwijs  e«  f«7jv,  2  Cor.  i',. 
16).  In  the  first  stage  the  Glavbe  passes  into  Trent, 


EPISTLE   TO  THE   ROMANS,   AND  THEOLOGY  OP  ST  PATTL.  463 

heart,  and  has  become  a  trustful  acceptance  of  the  gift  of  favour  by  God,  "  a 
self-surrender  of  the  heart  to  the  favourable  will  of  God  as  it  presents  itself 
to  us  in  the  word  of  reconciliation."  But  it  has  a  higher  stage  (iii.)  even  than 
this,  in  which  it  attains  a  mystical  depth,  and  becomes  a  mystical  incorpora- 
tion with  Christ  (unio  mystica)  in  a  unity  of  love  and  life — a  practical 
acquaintance  with  Christ,  which  completes  itself  by  personal  appropriation  of 
His  life  and  death.  In  its  final  and  richest  development  (iv.)  it  has  risen 
from  the  passive  attitude  of  receptivity  into  a  spontaneous  active  force — "  a 
living  impulse  and  power  of  good  in  every  phase  of  personal  life."1  In  this 
last  stage  it  becomes  so  closely  allied  to  spirit,  that  what  is  said  of  the  one 
may  be  said  of  the  other,  and  that  which  regarded  from  without  is  "  faith," 
regarded  from  within  is  "spirit."  Faith,  in  this  full  range  of  its  Pauline 
meaning,  is  both  a  single  act  and  a  progressive  principle.  As  a  single  act,  it 
is  the  self -surrender  of  the  soul  to  God,  the  laving  hold  of  Christ,  the  sole 
means  whereby  we  appropriate  this  reconciling  love,  in  which  point  of  view  it 
may  be  regarded  as  the  root  of  the  new  relation  of  man  to  God  in  justification 
and  adoption.  As  a  progressive  principle  it  is  the  renewal  of  the  personal  life 
in  sanctification  2 — a  preservation  of  the  "  righteousness  of  God  "  objectively 

1  For  these  ascensive  uses  of  the  word  faith  see  (i.)  Rom.  iv.  18,  Heb.  xl.  1 ;  (ii.) 
Rom.  x.  9,  Pliil.  iii.  7 ;  (iii.)  Phil.  i.  21,  Gal.  ii.  20;  (iv.)  1  Cor.  vi.  17.    (Baur,  N.  Test. 
Theol.  176.)    It  should  be  observed  that  in  his  earlier  Epistles  St.  Paul  does  not  use  the 
word  at  all  in  the  modern  sense  of  "a  body  of  doctrine,"  though  this  meaning  of  the 
word  begins  to  appear  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles.    From  the  lowest  stage  of  the  word,  in 
which  it  merely  means  "belief"  and  "faithfulness,"  he  rises  at  once  to  the  deeper  sensa 
of  "  fast  attachment  to  an  unseen  power  of  goodness,"  and  then  gradually  mounts  to 
that  meaning  of  the  word  in  which  it  is  peculiar  to  himself,  namely,  mystic  union,  abso- 
lute incorporation,  with  Christ. 

2  Rom.  xii.  3 ;  2  Cor.  x.  15.     "Faith,"  says  Luther  (Preface  to  Romans),  "  is  a  divine 
work  in  us,  which  changes  us,  and  creates  us  anew  in  God."  "Oh  es  ist  ein  lebendig, 
goschaftig,  thatig,  machtig  Ding  um  den  Glauben,  dass  es  unmachtig  ist  dass  er  nicht 
ohne  Unterlass,  sollte  Gutes  wirken.    Er  fragt  auch  nicht  ob  gute  "Werke  zu  thun  sind, 
sondern  ehe  man  fragt  hat  er  sie  gethan,  und  ist  immer  im  Thun.     .     .     .    Also  dass 
nnmoglich  ist  Werke  vom  Glauben  zu  scheiden :  ja  so  unmoglich  als  brennen  und  leuchten 
vom  Feuer  mag  geschieden  werden."    Coming  from  hearing  (ax<»i  TriVrew?,  Gal.  iii.,  2),  it 
Is  primarily  a  belief  of  the  Gospel  (n.  rov  evoyyeXio).    As  Christ  is  the  essence  of  the 
Gospel,  it  becomes  -a.  rov  Xp«rroC  (Gal.  ii.  16,  iii.  26),  the  faith  which  has  its  principle  in 
Christ.     It  is  further  defined  as  "  faith  in  His  Blood  "  (Rom.  iii.  24,  25),  and  thus  is 
narrowed  stage  by  stage  in  proportion  as  it  grows  more  intense  and  inward,  passing  from 
theoretical  assent  to  certainty  of  conviction  (Baur,  Paid.   ii.  149).     The  antithesis  of 
faith  and  works  is  only  one  of  abstract  thought ;  it  is  at  once  reconciled  in  the  simple 
moral  truth  of  such  passages  as  1  Cor.  iii.  13,  ix.  17,  Gal.  vi.  7,  &c.     I  cannot  here  enter 
on  the  supposed  contradiction  between  St.  Paul  and  St.  James.    It  will  be  sufficient  to 
remark  that  they  were  dealing  with  entirely  different  provinces  of  religious  life,  and  were 
using  every  one  of  the  three  words,  "faith,"  "works,"  and  "justification,"  in  wholly 
different  senses.    By  "faith"  St.  James  (who  knew  nothing  of  its  Pauline  meaning), 
only  meant  outward  profession  of  dead  Jewish  religiosity.     By  "works"  Paul  meant 
Levitism  and    even  moral  actions  regarded   as  external ;    whereas  James  meant  the 
reality  of  a  moral  and  religious  life.     Their  meeting-point  may  be  clearly  seen  in 
2  Cor.  v.  10  ;  Rom.  ii. ;  1  Cor.  xiii.  1.    And  in  the  superficial  contrast  lies  a  real  coinci- 
dence.    "The  regal  law  of  St.  James  (i.  25,  ii.  8)  is  the  law  of  liberty  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians.     Both  are  confuting  Jewish  vanity  and  Pharisaism.     Only  the  work  of 
St.  James  was  to  confute  the  Pharisee  by  showing  what  was  the  true  service  of  God,  and 
that  of  St.  Paul  to  show  what  !foundation  had  been  laid  for  a  spiritual  and  universal 
economy  after  the  Jewish  ceremonial  had  crumbled"  (Maurice,    Unity,   511).     See 
Wordsworth,  Epistles,  p.  205  ;  Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.  1,  xi.  6. 


464  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PATTL. 

bestowed  upon  us,  in  the  inward  and  ever-deepening  righteousness  of  our  own 
life ;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  new  and  spiritual  life,  lived  in  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God, 
who  loved  us,  and  gave  Himself  for  us.1  And  hence  will  be  seen  at  once  the 
absurdity  of  any  radical  antithesis  between  Christian  faith  and  Christian  works, 
since  they  can  no  more  exist  apart  from  each  other  than  the  tree  which  is 
severed  from  the  root,  or,  to  use  the  illustration  of  Luther,  than  fire  can  exist 
apart  from  light  and  heat.  "  Justification  and  sanctification,"  says  Calvin, 
"  cohere,  but  they  are  not  one  and  the  same.  It  is  faith  alone  which  justifies, 
and  yet  the  faith  which  justifies  is  not  alone ;  just  as  it  is  the  heat  alone  of  the 
sun  which  warms  the  earth,  and  yet  in  the  sun  it  is  not  alone,  because  it  is 
always  conjoined  with  light." 

In  accordance  with  his  usual  manner  when  he  is  enunciating  a  new  truth, 
St.  Paul  seeks  to  support  it  by  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and  reads  the 
deeper  meaning  which  he  has  now  developed  into  the  words,  "  The  just  shall 
live  by  faith,"  which  Habakkuk  had  used  in  the  far  simpler  sense  of  "  the  just 
shall  be  delivered  by  his  fidelity."  But  St.  Paul  reads  these  simple  words 
by  the  light  of  his  own  spiritual  illumination,  which,  like  the  fabled  splendour 
on  the  graven  gems  of  the  Urim,  makes  them  flash  into  yet  diviner  oracles. 
Into  the  words  "  faith  "  and  "  life  "  he  infuses  a  significance  which  he  had 
learnt  from  revelation,  and,  as  has  been  truly  said,  where  Habakkuk  ends, 
Paul  begins.  And,  in  fact,  his  very  phrase,  "  justification  by  faith,"  marks 
the  meeting-point  of  two  dispensations.  The  conception  of  "  justification  " 
has  its  roots  in  Judaism ;  the  conception  of  "  faith  "  is  peculiarly  Christian. 
The  latter  word  so  completely  dominates  over  the  former,  that  Sucaioo-vvri  from 
its  first  meaning  of  "righteousness,"  a  quality  of  God,  comes  to  mean  sub- 
jectively "justification"  as  a  condition  of  man — the  adequate  relation  in 
which  man  has  to  stand  towards  God.  Man's  appropriation  of  God's  recon- 
ciling love  in  Christ  has  issued  in  a  change  in  man's  personal  life :  justifica- 
tion has  become  sanctification,  which  is  the  earnest  of  future  glory. 


m. 

UNIVERSALITY  OF   SIN. 
"Knit  in  vetitum,  damni  secura,  libido." — OLATTD. 

HAVING  thus  endeavoured  to  render  clear  the  one  subject  which  underlies  the 
entire  system  of  St.  Paul's  theology,  we  can  proceed  more  rapidly  in  trying  to 
catch  his  line  of  thought  through  the  remainder  of  the  Epistle. 

1  See  the  two  very  valuable  sections  on  Faith  and  Justification  In  Pfleiderer's 
Paulinisium,  §  v.  Other  explanations  of  "from  faith  to  faith  "  are—I,  "  from  the  Old 
to  the  New  Testament "  (Origen,  Ohrys.,  &c.) ;  2,  "  Ex  tide  legis  in  fidem  evangolii  " 
(TertJ  ;  3,  "from  faith  to  the  believer  "  (iii.  22  ;  Olshausen,  &c.) ;  4,  " from  weak  to  strong 
faith'  (cf.  2  Cor.  iii.  18;  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  7;  Luther,  &c.) ;  5,  "An  intensive  expression  = 
mera  fides  ;  faith  the  prora  etpuppis  (Bengel,  &c.) ;  6,  From  Divine  faithfulness  to  human 
faith  (Ewald).  Of.  Heb.  xii.  2,  "the  author  &n&  finisher  of  oar  faith  "  (Lange,  ad  te. ». 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  ST.  PATTL.  465 

L  Now,  since  the  Apostle  had  already  dwelt  on  the  universality  of  the 
Gospel,  it  was  necessary  to  show  that  it  applied  equally  to  Jews  and  Pagans ; 
that  the  universality  of  free  grace  was  necessitated  by  the  universality  of 
wilful  sin.  Righteousness  and  sin,  soteriology  and  hamartiology,  are  the 
fundamental  thoughts  in  St.  Paul's  theological  system.  The  first  is  a  theoretic 
consequence  of  our  conception  of  God's  nature ;  the  second  an  historic  fact 
deducible  fi'om  experience  and  conscience. 

As  there  is  a  righteousness  of  God  which  is  being  revealed  in  the  Gospel,  so,  too, 
there  is  a  wrath  of  God  against  sin  which  is  ever  being  revealed  from  heaven,  by 
tbe  inevitable  working  of  God's  own  appointed  laws,  against  all  godlessness  and 
unrighteousness  of  those  who  in  their  unrighteousness  suppress  the  truth.1  And 
since  the  world  is  mainly  Gentile,  he  speaks  of  the  Gentiles  first.  Some  might 
imagine  that  their  ignorance  of  God  made  them  excusable.  Not  so.  The  facts 
which  render  them  inexcusable2  are  (i.)  that  God  did  in  reality  manifest  Himself  to 
them,  and  tbe  invisibilities  of  Has  eternal  power  and  Godhead  were  clearly  visible 
in  His  works ;  3  and  (ii.)  that  though  they  knew  God,  yet  by  denying  Him  the  due 
glory  and  gratitude,  they  suffered  themselves  to  plunge  into  the  penal  darkness  of 
ignorant  speculation,  and  the  penal  folly  of  self-asserted  wisdom,  and  tbe  self-con- 
victed  boast  of  a  degraded  culture,  until  they  sank  to  such  depths  of  spiritual 
imbecility  as  to  end  even  in  tbe  idolatry  of  reptiles ; 4  and  (iii.)  because  mental 
infatuation,  both  as  its  natural  result  and  as  its  fearful  punishment,  issued  in  moral 
crime.  Their  sin  was  inexcusable,  because  it  was  the  outcome  and  the  retribution, 
and  the  natural  child,  of  sin.  Because  they  guiltily  abandoned  God,  God  abandoned 
them  to  their  own  guiltiness.5  The  conscious  lie  of  idolatry  became  the  conscious 
infamy  of  uncleanness.  Those  "  passions  of  dishonour  "  to  which  God  abandoned 
them  rotted  tbe  heart  of  manhood  with  their  retributive  corruption,  and  affected 
even  women  with  their  execrable  stain.6  Pagan  society,  in  its  hideous  disintegration, 
became  one  foul  disease  of  unnatural  depravity.  The  cancer  of  it  ate  into  the  heart ; 
tbe  miasma  of  it  tainted  tbe  air.  Even  tbe  moralists  of  Paganism  were  infected 
with  its  vileness.7  God  scourged  their  moral  ignorance  by  suffering  it  to  become  a 
deeper  ignorance.  He  punished  their  contempt  by  letting  them  make  themselves 
utterly  contemptible.  Tbe  mere  consequence  of  this  abandonment  of  them  was 
a  natural  Nemesis,  a  justice  in  kind,  beginning  even  in  this  life,  whereby  their 
unwillingness  to  discern  Him  became  an  incapacity  to  discern8  the  most  elementary 

1  Ka.Ttx6vT<av  (TTJV  oAr/flaa!/),  i.  18.    In  19,  rt  yvoxrrby  is  "that  wbich  is  known,"  not 
" which  may  be  known."    'AirtHcoAunreTcu,  is  being  revealed.     "The  modes  of  the  New 
Testament  converge  towards  the  present  moment "  (Jowett). 

2  In  verse  20,  obviously  «is  TO  «twu,  K.  r.  A.,  expresses  rather  a  consequence  tban  a 
purpose. 

s  oopoLTa  Kafloparai,  "  Invisibilia  videntur"  an  admirable  oxymoron.  "Deum  non 
vides,  tamen  Deum  agnoscis  ex  ejus  operibus "  (Cic.  Q.  T.  i.  29.  Of.  De  Div.  ii.  72). 
The  world  was  to  the  Gentiles  a  fleoyi-uo-ias  iraifievTjjptox  (Basil).  On  this  point  see  Hum- 
boldt,  Cosmos,  ii.  16. 

4  As  in  Egypt.     Egyptian  worship  was  now  spreading  in  Italy : — 

"  Nos  in  terapla  tuam  Romana  receplmus  Isim 
Semidcosque  canes  "  (Luc.  Phart.  viii.  83). 

*  Verse  24,  s-ape'Saxe,  "non  permissive,  nee  «K0<mKw«  sed  SucaoTucwt"— i.e.,  not  as  a  mere 
result,  but  as  a  judgment  in  kind. 

6  This  is  the  period  of  which  Seneca  says  that  women  counted  their  years  by  the 
number  of  their  divorced  husbands  (De  Benef.  iii.  15). 

7  There  are  only  top  awful  and  only  too  exhaustive  proofs  of  all  this,  and  (if  possible), 
worse  than  all  this,  in  Dollinger,  Heidenthum  und  Judenthum,  684.    But      Ostendi 
debent  scelwa  dum  puniuntur  afoscondi  Jtagitia." 

8  i.    28,   Ka0u>?  owe   <io«i'/xa<ray    .    .    .    irafiSatcw    .    .     .     ti?  i^OKi^ov  rovy,    "As   they 

16  » 


466  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OP  ST;  PAUL. 

distinctions  between  nobleness  and  shame.  Therefore,  their  hearts  became  sur- 
charged with  every  element  of  vileness ; — with  impurity  in  its  most  abysmal  degra- 
dations, with  hatred  alike  in  its  meanest  and  its  most  virulent  developments,  with 
insolence  culminating  in  the  deliberate  search  for  fresh  forms  of  evil,1  with  cruelty 
and  falsity  in  their  most  repulsive  features.  And  the  last  worst  crime  of  all — beyond 
which  crime  itself  could  go  no  further — was  the  awfully  defiant  attitude  of  moral  evil, 
which  led  them — while  they  were  fully  aware  of  God's  sentence  of  death,2  pro- 
nounced on  willing  guilt — not  only  to  incur  it  themselves,  but,  with  a  devilish 
delight  in  human  depravity  and  human  ruin,  to  take  a  positive  pleasure  in  those  who 
practise  the  same.  Sin,  as  has  been  truly  said,  reaches  its  climax  in  wicked  maxims 
and  wicked  principles.  It  is  no  longer  Vice  the  result  of  moral  weakness,  or  the 
outcome  of  an  evil  education,  but  Vice  deliberately  accepted  with  all  its  conse- 
quences, Vice  assuming  the  airs  of  self -justification,  Vice  in  act  becoming  Vice  in 
elaborate  theory — the  unblushing  shamelessness  of  Sodom  in  horrible  aggravation  of 
its  polluting  sin.* 

Thus  did  Paul  brand  the  insolent  brow  of  Pagan  life.  It  is  well  for  the 
world — it  is  above  all  well  for  the  world  in  those  ages  of  transition  and  decay» 
when  there  is  ever  an  undercurrent  or  tendency  towards  Pagan  ideals — to 
know  what  Paganism  was,  and  ever  tended  to  become.  It  is  well  for  the 
world  that  it  should  have  been  made  to  see,  once  for  all,  what  features  lurked 
under  the  smiling  mask,  what  a  heart  of  agony,  rank  with  hatred,  charred 
with  self-indulgence,4  lay  throbbing  under  the  purple  robe.  And  in  St.  Paul's 
description  not  one  accusation  is  too  terrible,  not  one  colour  is  too  dark.  He 
does  but  make  known  to  us  what  heathen  writers  unblushingly  reveal  in  those 
passages  in  which,  like  waves  of  a  troubled  sea,  they  foam  out  their  own  mire 
and  dirt.6  It  is  false  to  say  that  Christianity  has  added  to  the  gloom  of  the 
world.  It  is  false  that  it  has  weakened  its  literature,  or  cramped  its  art.  It 
has  been  wilfully  perverted ;  it  has  been  ignorantly  misunderstood.  Rightly 
interpreted  it  does  not  sanction  a  single  doctrine,  or  utter  a  single  precept, 
which  is  meant  to  extinguish  one  happy  impulse,  or  dim  one  innocent  delight. 

refused  .  .  .  God  gave  them  to  a  refuse  mind"  (Vaughan,  ad  loc.).  St.  Paul  was 
deeply  impressed  (24,  26,  28)  with  the  ethic  retributive  law  of  the  punishment  of  sin 
with  sin.  It  was  recognised  both  by  Jews  and  Gentiles  (Pirke  Abhtith,  iv.  2;  Sen.  Ep.  16). 

1  i.  30,  e^euperas  xajcSiv  (2  Mace.  vii.  31).     Pliny  (H.  N.  xv.  5)  applies  this  very  expres- 
sion to  the  Greeks.     Some  of  these  words  occur  in  speaking  of  corruptions  within  the 
Church  (2  Tim.  iii.  2);  "of  so  little  avail  is  nominal  Christianity"  (Vaughan);  evperip 

ayaScoi/  (Prov.  xvi.  20). 

2  i.  32,  TO  SiKou'cu/xa,  "the  just  decree;"  WOIOVITIV,  "single  acts;"  irpatr<rov<r<.v,  "habitual 
condition. "    Possibly  an  OVK  has  dropped  out  before  eiriyv<W$  ( ' '  they  did  not  fully  know  "), 
of  which  some  readings  show  a  trace. 

3  i.  16 — 32.     The  Apostle  is  fond  of  these  accumulative  lists  (<rwa0p<n<7>io«)  of  good 
and  evil  (2  Cor.  xii.  20 ;  Gal.  v.  19 ;  Eph.  v.  3,  4  ;  1  Tim.  i.  9 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  2).    No  satis- 
factory classification  of  the  order  can  be  made.     Bengel  says,  "Per  membra  novem,  in 
aff ectibus  ;  duo  in  sermone  ;  tria  respectu  Dei  et  sui,  et  proximi ;  duo  in  rebus  gerendis ; 
sex  respectu  necessitudinum."    On  verses  27,  28,  the  best  comment  is  to  be  found  in 
Aristophanes,  Juvenal,  and  Suetonius  ;  on  29 — 31,  in  Thuc.  iii.  82 — 84.     See  the  contem- 
porary testimony  of  Sen.  De  Ird,  ii.  8,  "  Omnia  sceleribus  ac  vitiis  plena  sunt    .     .     . 
nee  furtiva  jam  scelera  sunt."    The  special  horror  of  the  age  is  reflected  in  Tac.  H.  i.  2, 
and  passim.     "  Le  premier  siecle  de  notre  ere  a  un  cachet  infernal  qui  n'appartient  qu'fc 
lui ;  le  siScle  des  Borgia  pent  «eul  lui  6tre  compare"  en  fait  de  sceleratesse "  (Renan, 
Melanges,  p.  167). 

«  i.  27,  ^atffcjow.  •  Jud.  13;  Isa.  Ivii.  20. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE   ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOOT  OF  ST.   PAUL.  4(57 

What  it  does  is  to  warn  us  against  seeking  and  following  the  lowest  and  most 
short-lived  pleasures  as  a  final  end.  This  was  the  fatal  error  of  the  popular 
Hedonism.  St.  Paul's  sketch  of  its  moral  dissolution  and  the  misery  and 
shame  which  it  inevitably  involved,  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  truth  that 

"  Who  follows  pleasure,  pleasure  slays, 

God's  wrath  upon-  himself  he  wreaks  ; 
But  all  delights  attend  his  days 
Who  takes  with  thanks  but  never  seeks." 

ii.  Having  thus  accomplished  his  task  of  proving  the  guilt  of  the  Gentiles, 
he  turns  to  the  Jews.  But  he  does  so  with  consummate  tact.  He  does  not 
at  once  startle  them  into  antagonism,  by  shocking  all  their  prejudices,  but 
begins  with  the  perfectly  general  statement,  "  Therefore  *  thou  art  inexcusable, 
O  man — every  one  who  judgest."  The  "  therefore  "  impetuously  anticipates 
the  reason  why  he  who  judges  others  is,  in  this  instance,  inexcusable — namely, 
because  he  does  the  same  things  himself.  He  does  not  at  once  say,  as  he 
might  have  done,  "You  who  are  Jews  are  as  inexcusable  as  the  Gentiles, 
because  in  judging  them  you  are  condemning  yourselves,  and  though  you 
habitually  call  them  '  sinners '  you  are  no  less  sinners  yourselves." 2  This  is 
the  conclusion  at  which  he  points,  but  he  wishes  the  Jew  to  be  led  step  by 
step  into  self-condemnation,  less  hollow  than  vague  generalities.3  He  is  of 
course  speaking  alike  of  Jews  and  of  Pagans  generically,  and  not  implying 
that  there  were  no  exceptions.  But  he  has  to  introduce  the  argument  against 
the  Jews  carefully  and  gradually,  because,  blinded  by  their  own  privileges,  they 
were  apt  to  take  a  very  different  view  of  their  own  character.  But  they  were 
less  excusable  because  more  enlightened.  He  therefore  begins,  "  O  man,"  and 
not  "  O  Jew,"  and  asks  the  imaginary  person  to  whom  he  is  appealing  whether 
he  thinks  that  God  will  in  his  case  make  an  individual  exception  to  His  own 
inflexible  decrees?  or  whether  he  .intends  to  despise  the  riches  of  God's  endur- 
ance, by  ignoring4  that  its  sole  intention  is  to  lead  him  to  repentance — and  so 
to  heap  up  against  himself  a  horrible  treasury  of  final  ruin  ?  God's  law  is 
rigid,  universal,  absolute.  It  is  that  God  will  repay  every  man  according  to 
his  works.6  This  law  is  illustrated  by  a  twofold  amplification,  which,  begin- 
ning and  ending  with  the  reward  of  goodness,  and  inserting  twice  over  in  the 

1  This  Aifc  of  Ii.  1  is  clearly  proleptic. 

8  Gal.  ii.  15,  i^iets  <f>u<r«  'lov&uoi,  KOI  OVK  «£  tfouv  o/noprwAoi.  Meyer  truly  says  this 
judging  of  the  Gentiles  (which  they  little  dreamt  would  be  pointed  out  to  them  as  self- 
condemnation,  by  one  of  themselves)  was  a  characteristic  of  the  Jews. 

3  Thus  the  High-priest  said  oyer  the  scapegoat,  "Thy  people  have  failed,  sinned,  and 
transgressed  before  Thee  "  ( Yoma,  66  a). 

*  Ver.  4,  &yvoG>v.  "Ayei,  "Deus  ducit  volentem  duel  .  .  .  non  cogit  necessitate" 
(Bengel). 

5  The  apparent  contradiction  to  the  fundamental  theme  of  the  Epistle  is  due  to  his 
speaking  here  of  ordinary  morality.  "The  divine  valuation  placed  on  men  apart  from 
redemption"  (Tholuck).  Fritzsche's  comment  that  "the  Apostle  is  here  inconsistent, 
and  opens  a  semita  per  honestatem  near  the  via  regia  of  justification  "  is  very  off-hand  and 
valueless. 


468  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

middle  clause  the  punishment  of  sin,1  expresses  the  thought  that  this  rule 
applies  to  all,  by  twice  repeating  that  it  applies  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to 
the  Greek ;  but  to  the  Jew  first,  only  because  of  Ms  fuller  knowledge  and, 
therefore,  deeper  responsibility.  And  having  thus  introduced  the  name  of  the 
Jew,  he  lays  down  with  a  firm  hand  the  eternal  principle — so  infinitely 
blessed,  yet  so  startlingly  new  to  the  prejudices  of  a  nation  which  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years  had  been  intoxicating  itself  with  the  incense  of  spiritxial 
pride — that  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God.  Each  section  of  humanity 
shall  be  judged  in  accordance  with  its  condition. 

"  As  many  as  sinned  without  the  Law,  shall  also  without  the  Law  perish ;  and 
as  many  as  sinned  in  the  Law,  shall  be  condemned  by  the  Law."  Righteousness 
before  God  depends,  not  on  possession  of  the  Law,  but  on  obedience  to  it.  Gentiles  as 
well  as  Jews  had  a  law ;  Jews  the  Mosaic  law,  Gentiles  a  natural  law  written  on 
their  hearts,  and  sufficiently  clear  to  secure,  at  the  day  of  judgment,2  their  acquittal 
or  condemnation  before  the  prophetic  session  of  their  own  consciences,  in  accordance 
with  the  decision  of  Christ  the  Judge.8  Jew,  then,  and  Gentile  stand  before  God 
eqiially  guilty,  because  equally  condemned  of  failure  to  fulfil  the  moral  law  which 
God  had  laid  down  to  guide  tbeir  lives.  The  word  "ALL"  as  has  been  truly  ob- 
served, is  tbe  governing  word  of  tbe  entire  Epistle.  All — for  whatever  may  be  the 
modifications  which  may  be  tbougbt  necessary,  St.  Paul  doe's  not  himself  make 
them — all  are  equally  guilty,  all  are  equally  redeemed.  All  have  been  temporarily 
rejected,  all  shall  be  ultimately  received.  All  shall  be  finally  brought  into  living 
harmony  with  tbat  God  wbo  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all, — by  whom, 
and  from  whom,  and  unto  wbom,  all  things  are,  and  all  things  tend.4 

And  then  Paul  turns  upon  the  self-satisfied  Jew,  who  has  been  thus 
insensibly  entrapped  (as  it  were)  into  the  mental  admission  of  his  own 
culpability,  and  after  painting  in  a  few  touches  his  self-satisfied  pretensions 
to  spiritual,  moral,  and  intellectual  superiority,  and  then  leaving  his  sentence 
unfinished,  bursts  into  a  question  of  indignant  eloquence,  in  which  there  is  no 
longer  any  masked  sarcasm,  but  terribly  serious  denunciation  of  undeniable 
sins.  He  does  not  use  one  word  of  open  raillery,  or  give  offence  by  painting 
in  too  glaring  colours  the  weaknesses,  follies,  and  hypocrisies  of  the  Pharisee, 
yet  the  picture  which  stands  out  from  phrases  in  themselves  perfectly  polished, 
and  even  apparently  complimentary,  is  the  picture  of  the  full-blown  religionist 

1  The  figure  of  speech  is  called  Chiasrmis,  or  intro verse  parallelism.     "  Glory  and 
honour,  and  immortality — precious  pearls ;  eternal  life — the  goodly  pearl,  Matt.  xiii.  46  " 
(Lange). 

2  ii.  16,  leg.  *piV«,  "is  judging,"  not  npim," shall  judge." 

3  ii.  1 — 16.     St.  Paul  adds  KO.TO.  TO  evayWAiov  /utov.    "  Suum  appellat  ratione  ministerii" 
fCalv.).    It  means,  of  course,  the  Gospel  of  free  grace  which  he  preached  to  Gentiles 
(Gal.  ii.  7).    In  verse  14,  "Do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law."    St.  Paul  (who  is  not 
here  speaking  with  theologic  precision,  but  dealing  with  general  external  facts)  recog- 
nises even  in  heathens  the  existence  of  the  nobler  nature  and  its  better  impulses.     See 
the  remarkable  expression  of  Aristotle,  6  cXeuflepo*  ourws  «|et  o'ov  vo^xos  ii/  «avru>  (Eth. 
Nic.  iv.  14, 9).    It  is  strange  to  see  so  great  a  commentator  as  Bengel  joining  <f>v'<m  with 
TO.  fi)(  POJUOC  I xoira,  and  interpreting  it  to  mean  "do  the  same  things  that  the  Law  does," 
i.e.,  commanding,  condemning,  punishing,  &c.  !    Nothing  would  have  been  more  amazing 
to  St.  Paul  than  the  notion  that  he  discouraged  good  works.    The  phrase  occurs  no  less 
than  fourteen  times  in  his  three  last  short  Epistles. 

«  See  Rom.  v.  15-20  •  x  12;  I  Cor.  xv.  28 ;  Col.  iii.  11 ;  2  Cor.  v.  15 ;  Heb.  ii.  8 ;  4o. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  BOMANfc,  AtfD  THEOLOGY  OF  ST  PAUL.  469 

in  all  his  assumed  infallibility,  and  the  very  air  of  the  "  Stand  aside,  for  I  am 
holier  than  thou." 

"But  if"1  (so  we  may  draw  out  the  splendid  rhetoric),  "  if  thou  vauntest  the 
proud  name  of  Jew,2  and  makest  the  Law  the  pillow  of  thy  confidence,8  and  boastest 
thy  monopoly  in  God,  and  art  the  only  one  who  canst  recognise  His  will,  and  dia- 
criminatest  the  transcendent4  in  niceties  of  moral  excellence,  being  trained  in  the 
Law  from  infancy, — if  thou  art  quite  convinced  that  thou  art  a  Leader  of  the 
blind,  a  Light  of  those  in  darkness,  one  who  can  train  the  foolishness,  and  instruct 
the  infancy  of  all  the  world  besides,  possessing  as  thou  dost  the  very  form  and  body 
of  knowledge  and  .of  truth  in  the  Law — thou  then  that  teachest  another,  dost  thou  not 
teach  thyself?  thou  that  preachest  against  theft,  art  thou  a  thief  P  thou  that  for- 
biddest  adultery,  art  thou  an  adulterer?6  leather  of  idols,  dost  thou  rob  temples  ?6 
boaster  in  the  Law,  by  violation  of  the  Law  dost  thou  dishonour  God  ?  For  " — and 
here  he  drops  the  interrogative  to  pronounce  upon  them  the  categorical  condemnation 
which  was  as  true  then  as  in  the  days  of  the  Prophet — "  for  on  your  account  the 
name  of  God  is  being  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles."  7  They  had  relied  on  sacri- 
fices and  offerings,  on  tithes  and  phylacteries,  on  ablutions  and  mezuzoth, — but  "  omnia 
vanitas  praetcr  amare  Deum  et  illi  soli  servire," — "  all  things  are  emptiness  save  to  love 
God,  and  serve  Him  only," — and  this  weightier  matter  of  the  Law  they  had  utterly 
neglected  in  scrupulous  attention  to  its  most  insignificant  minutiae.  In  fact,  the 
difference  between  Heathenism  and  Judaism  before  God  was  the  difference  between 
Vice  and  Sin.  The  Jews  were  guilty  of  the  sin  of  violating  express  commands ; 
the  heathens  sank  into  an  actual  degradation  of  nature.  The  heathens  had  been 
punished  for  an  unnatural  transposition  of  the  true  order  of  the  universe  by  being 
suffered  to  pervert  all  natural  relations,  and  so  to  sink  into  moral  self -debasement ; 
but  the  Jews  had  been  "  admitted  into  a  holier  sanctuary,"  and  so  were  "  guilty  of 
a  deeper  sacrilege."  8 

1  ii ,  17,  el  8«,  and  not  !**,  is  almost  unquestionably  the  true  reading,  s,  A,  B,  D,  K, 
"  oratio  vehemens  et  splendida  "  (Est.). 

eflWDfjiaCn.  *  Verse  17,  iiro.vo.rra.vrj- 

*  Verse  lo,    Jo«cijAa£ei«   TO.   5ia</>epoira.      See    Heb.    V.   14.      The  S(.eurro\»)   a.yicw  jtai  £«/3rjAa>i' 

(rbUo)  was  the  very  function  of  a  Rabbi ;  and  the  Pharisee  was  a  Separatist,  because  of 
his  scrupulosity  in  these  distinctions. 

6  Verse  21,  on  the  morality  of  the  Pharisees  and  llabbis,  Eee  Surenlmsius,  Mishna,  ii. 
200—293,  and  of.  Jaa.  iv.  4—13 ;  v.  1—6 ;  Matt.  xix.  8 ;  xxiii.  13—25.  Josephus  calls  his 
own  generation  the  most  xingodlv  of  all,  and  says  that  earthquake  and  lightning  must  have 
destroyed  them  if  the  Romans  had  not  coine.  B.  J.  iv.  8,  §  3 ;  v.  9,  §  4  j  10,  §  5 ;  13,  §  6. 
Take  the  single  fact  that  the  "  ordeal  of  jealousy  "  had  been,  abolished,  because  of  the 
prevalence  of  adultery,  by  K.  Johanan  ben  Zaccai  quoting  Hos.  iv.  14  (Sotah,  f.  47,  1). 

6  Verse  22,  6  /S5«Au<r<r6fievos.     They  called  idols  ra»in,  /sScXiryftara,  2  Kings  xxiii.  13,  &o. 
ItXX.  iepoavXet?.    The  reference  is  not  clear,  but  see  Deut.  vii.  25 ;  Acts  xix.  36,  37  ;  Jos. 
ArM.  iv.  8,  §  10;  xx.  9,  §  2.    Or  does  it  refer  to  defrauding  then-  own  Temple  ?     (Mai.  i.  8 ; 
iii.  8 — 10.)    <rrri)\at.ov  \ri<rriav  (Matt.  xxi.  13).     Josephus  quotes  a  Greek  historian,  Lysima- 
chus,  who  said  that  from  the  conduct  of  the  Jews  in  robbing  the  Temples  of  their  charms 
that  city  was  called  Eierosyla  (Temple-plunder)  and  afterwards  changed  to  Hierosolyma; 
»  story  which  he  angrily  rejects  (c.  Ap.  i.  34). 

7  ii.  17 — 24.     In  verse  24  the  words  of  Isa.  Iii.  5  are  curiously  combined  with  the  sense 
of  Ezek.  xxxvi.  21—23. 

8  The  needfulness  of  this  demonstration  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
Talmudists  regarded  perfection  as  possible.    They  denied  the  sinfulness  of  evil  thoughts 
by  interpreting  Ps.  Ixvi.  18  to  mean — "If  I  contemplate  iniquity  in  my  heart,  the  Lord 
does  not  notice  it"  (Kiddushin,  f.  40,  1).     R.  Jehoshua  Ben  Levi,  admitted  to  Paradise 
without  dying,  is  asked  if  the  rainbow  has  appeared  in  his  days,  and  answers  "  Yes." 
"Then,"  said  they,  "thou  art  not  the  son  of  Levi,  for  the  rainbow  never  appears  when 
there  is  one  perfectly  righteous  man  in  the  world."     "  The  fact  was  that  no  rainbow  had 
appeared,  but  he  was  too  modest  to  say  so  "  I  (Kiddushin,  f.  40,  1). 


470  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

From  this  impassioned  strain  he  descends — in  a  manner  very  characteristic 
of  his  style — into  a  calmer  tone.  "  But" — some  Jew  might  urge,  in  accordance 
with  the  stubborn  prejudices  of  theological  assumption,  which  by  dint  of 
assertion,  has  passed  into  invincible  belief — "  but  we  are  circumcised  I  Surely 
you  would  not  put  its  on  a  level  with  the  uncircumcised — the  dogs  and  sinners 
of  the  Gentiles?"  To  such  an  implied  objection,  touching  as  it  does  on  a 
point  wholly  secondary,  however  primary  might  be  the  importance  which  the 
Jew  attached  to  it,  St.  Paul  can  now  give  a  very  decisive  answer,  because  with 
wonderful  power  he  has  already  stripped  them  of  all  genuine  precedence,  and 
involved  them  in  a  common  condemnation.  He  therefore  replies  in  words 
which,  however  calm  and  grave,  would  have  sounded  to  a  Jerusalem  Pharisee 
like  stinging  paradox. 

"  Circumcision  is  indeed  an  advantage  if  thou  keepest  the  Law ;  but  if  thou  art — 
as  I  have  generically  shown  that  thou  art — a  violator  of  the  Law,  then  thy  circum- 
cision has  become  uncircumcision.1  If,  then,  the  circumcision  of  the  disobedient  Jew 
is  really  uncircumcision,  is  it  not  conversely  plain  that  the  '  uncircumcision  of  the 
obedient  Gentile  is  virtually  circumcision,'  2  and  is  even  in  a  position  to  pass  judg- 
ment upon  Jewish  circumcision  ?  God  (strange  and  heretical  as  you  may  think  it) 
loves  the  man  who  does  Ms  duty  more  than  the  man  who  bears  a  cutting  in  his 
flesh.  You  praise  literal  circumcision ;  God  praises  the  unseen  circumcision  of  the 
heart.  Offensive  as  the  antithesis  may  sound  to  you,  the  faithless  Jew  is  but  a 
Gentile ;  the  faithful  Gentile  is,  in  God's  sight,  an  honoured  Jew !  Though  none 
may  have  told  you  this  truth  before — though  you  denounce  it  as  blasphemous,  and 
dangerous,  and  contrary  to  Scripture — yet,  for  all  that,  the  mere  national  Judaism 
is  a  spiritual  nonentity ;  the  Judaism  of  moral  faithfulness  alone  is  dear  to  God."  * 


IV 

OBJECTIONS      AND     CO  NFIEM  ATION8. 

"  The  stars  of  morn  shall  see  Him  rise 
Out  of  His  grave,  fresh  as  the  dawning  light ; 
Thy  ransom  paid,  which  man  from  death  redeems. 
His  death  for  man,  as  many  as  offered  life 
Neglect  not,  and  the  benefit  embrace 
Of  faith,  not  void  of  works." — MILTON,  Par.  Lost,  xii.  422. 

So  far  then,  both  by  fact  and  by  theory,  he  has  shown  that  Jews  and  Gentiles 
are  equal  before  God ;  equally  guilty,  equally  redeemed.  But  here  a  Jew 
might  exclaim  in  horror,  "  Has  the  Jew  then  no  superiority  ?  Is  circumcision 
wholly  without  advantage  p  "  Here  St.  Paid  makes  a  willing  concession,  and 

1  This  is  reluctantly  admitted  even  in  the  Talmud.  The  Rabbis  hold  generally  that 
"  no  circumcised  man  can  see  hell "  (Midr.  Tittin,  7,  2) ;  but  they  get  over  the  moral 
danger  of  the  doctrine  by  saying  that  when  a  guilty  Jew  comes  to  Gehenna,  an  angel 
makes  his  irepiro^rj  into  o(cpo^v<rr«'a  (Sheni.  Rabbah,  138,  13 ;  cf.  1  Mace.  i.  15 ;  Jos.  Antt. 
xii.  6,  §  2),  and  they  even  entered  into  minute  particulars  to  show  how  it  was  done. 

a  Ford  quotes  an  Imitation  from  Tillotson — if  we  walk  contrary  to  the  Gospel  "our 
baptism  is  no  baptism,  and  our  Christianity  is  heathenism  "  (Sermon  on  2  Tim.  ii,  19). 

»  ii.  25—29. 


SPISTLE  TO  THE   ROMANS,   AND    THEOLOGY   OF  ST.  PAUL.  4#1 

replies,  "  Much  advantage  every  way.  First,  because  they  were  entrusted 
with  the  oracles  of  God."  The  result  of  that  advantage  was  that  the  Jew 
stood  at  a  higher  stage  of  religious  consciousness  than  the  Gentile.  Judaism 
was  the  religion  of  revelation,  and  therefore  the  religion  of  the  promise ;  and 
therefore  the  religion  which  typically  and  symbolically  contained  the  elements 
of  Christianity ;  and  the  religion  of  the  idea  which  in  Christianity  was  realised. 
Christianity  was,  indeed,  spiritualised  Judaism,  an  advance  from  servitude  to 
freedom,  from  nonage  to  majority,  from  childhood  to  maturity,  from  the  flesh 
to  the  spirit ;  yet  even  in  this  view  Judaism  had  been,  by  virtue  of  its  treasure 
of  revelation,  preparatory  to  the  absolute  religion.1  This  was  its  first 
advantage.  What  he  might  have  added  as  his  secondly  and  thirdly,  we  may 
conjecture  from  a  subsequent  allusion,2  but  at  this  point  he  is  led  into  a 
digression  by  his  eagerness  to  show  that  his  previous  arguments  involved  no 
abandonment  on  God's  part  of  His  own  promises.  This  might  be  urged  as 
an  objection  to  what  he  has  been  saying.  He  answers  it  in  one  word : — 

Some  of  the  Jews  had  been  unfaithful ;  shall  their  unfaithfulness  nullify  God's 
faith  ?  Away  with  the  thought ! 3  Alike  Scripture  and  reason  insist  on  God's 
truthfulness,  though  every  man  were  thereby  proved  a  liar.  The  horror  with 
which  he  rejects  the  notion  that  God  has  proved  false,  interferes  with  the  clearness 
of  his  actual  reply.  It  lies  in  the  word  "  some."  God's  promises  were  true ;  true 
to  the  nation  as  a  nation ;  for  some  they  had  been  nullified  by  the  moral  disobedience 
which  has  its  root  in  unbelief,  but  for  all  true  Jews  the  promises  were  true.4 

A  still  bolder  objection  might  be  urged — "All  men,  you  say,  are  guilty.  In 
their  guilt  lies  the  Divine  necessity  for  God's  scheme  of  justification.  Must  not 
God,  then,  be  unjust  in  inflicting  wrath?"  In  the  very  middle  of  the  objection  the 
Apostle  stops  short — first  to  apologise  for  even  formulating  a  thought  so  blasphemous 
— "  I  am  speaking  as  men  speak ;  "  6  "  these  thoughts  are  not  my  own ;" — then  to 
repudiate  it  with  horror,  "Away  with  the  thought!" — lastly,  to  refute  it  by 
'anticipation,  "  If  it  were  so,  how  shall  God  judge  the  world  ?  "  6  Thus  fortified,  as 
lit  were,  by  the  reductio  ad  absurdum,  and  purified  by  the  moral  justification,  he 
follows  this  impious  logic  to  its  conclusion — "  God's  truth,  it  seems,  abounded  in  my 
ialseness  ;  why,  then,  am  I  still  being  judged  as  a  sinner  ?  and  why  " — "  such  [he 
pauses  to  remark]  is  the  blasphemous  language  attributed  to  me  !  " — "  why  may  we 
,not  do  evil  that  good  may  come  ?  "  To  this  monstrous  perversion  of  his  teaching 
he  deigns  no  further  immediate  reply.  There  are  in  theology,  as  in  nature,  admitted 
antinomies.  The  relative  truth  of  doctrines,  their  truth  as  regards  mankind,  is  not 
affected  by  pushing  them  into  the  regions  of  the  absolute,  and  showing  that  they 
involve  contradictions  if  thrown  into  syllogisms.  We  may  not  push  the  truths  of 
the  finite  and  the  temporal  into  the  regions  of  the  infinite  and  the  eternal.  Syllo- 
gistically  stated,  the  existence  of  evil  might  be  held  to  demonstrate  either  the  weak- 
ness or  the  cruelty  of  God ;  but  such  syllogisms,  without  the  faintest  attempt  to 
answer  them,  are  flung  aside  as  valueless  and  irrelevant  by  the  faith  and  conscience 
of  mankind.  The  mere  statement  of  some  objections  is  their  most  effective  re- 

1  iii.  2.     "In  vetere  Testamento  Novum  latet,  in  Novo  Testamento  vetus  patet." 

'  ix.  4,  5. 

8  Ten  times  in  this  Epistle  (iii.  4,  6,  31;  vi.  2,  15;  vii.  7, 13;  be.  14;  xi.  1,  11),  and 
in  1  Cor.  vi.  15;  Gal.  ii.  17 ;  iii.  21. 

«  iii.  1-4. 

4  iii.  5.  There  is  an  interesting  reading,  Kara.  av8pu>ir<av.  "  Is  God  unjust  who  inflicts 
His  anger  against  men  ? "  (MSS.  mentioned  by  Rufinus).  ri  fpov^v ;  of.  vi.  1 ;  vii.  7 ; 
ix.  14,  30.  It  is  found  in  no  other  Epistle. 

6  For  similar  instances  of  entangled  objection  and  reply,  Tholuck  refers  to  vii.  and 
iGaL  iii.  See,  too,  Excursus  XXI.,  "  On  the  Antinomies  of  St.  Paul." 


472  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

f utation.  It  shows  that  they  involve  an  absurdity  easily  recognisable.  However 
logically  correct,  they  are  so  morally  repulsive,  so  spiritually  false,  that  silence  is 
the  only  answer  of  which  they  are  worthy.  Such  an  objection  is  the  one  which 
Paul  has  just  stated.  It  is  sufficient  to  toss  it  away  with  the  sense  of  shuddering 
xepulsion — the  horror  naturalis — involved  in  a  ^  ytroiro.  It  is  enough  to  bid  it 
'avaunt,  as  we  might  avert  with  a  formula  an  evil  omen.  People  say  that  Paul  has 
'taught  the  hideous  lie  that  we  may  sin  to  get  experience — or  sin  to  add  to  Christ's 
redeeming  glory — or  that  the  end  justifies  the  means ;  or  that  we  may  do  evil  that 

good  may  come.     "  They  say What  say  they?    Let  them  say!"    All  that  Paul 

has  to  say  to  them  is  merely  that  "  their  judgment  is  just."  * 

What  further,  then,  can  the  Jew  allege  ?  *  Absolutely  nothing !  In  spite  of 
every  objection,  Jew  and  Gentile  are  all  proved  to  be  under  sin.  Here  this  section 
of  the  proof  might  close,  and  on  a  demonstrated  fact  of  human  history  Paul  might 
have  based  his  Gospel  theology.  But  neither  to  himself  nor  to  his  readers  would 
the  proof  have  seemed  complete  without  Old  Testament  sanction.  He  therefore 
proceeds  to  quote  a  number  of  fragmentary  passages  from  the  fifth,  tenth,  fourteenth, 
and  hundred-and-f ortieth  Psalms,  and  from  the  fifty-ninth  of  Isaiah,  the  validity  of 
which,  in  this  connexion,  he  rests  upon  their  use  of  the  word  "  all,"  which  implies 
Jews  as  well  as  Gentiles.  The  Law  (which  here  means  the  Old  Testament 
generally)  must  include  the  Jews,  because  it  is  specially  addressed  to  Jews.  The 
intention,  then,  of  the  Law  "  is  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world 
be  recognised  as  guilty  before  God ; "  guilty  because3  by  the  works  of  the  Law  4— 
seeing  that,  as  a  fact,  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile  has  obeyed  it — no  flesh  shall  be 
justified  before  God.  Half,  then,  of  his  task  is  done.  For  before  he  could  prove 
the  thesis  of  i.  17,  that  in  the  Gospel  was  being  revealed  a  justification  by  faith — it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  demonstrate  that  by  no  other  means  could  justification  bo 
attained.  "  For  " — and  here  he  introduces  an  anticipative  thought,  which  later  on 
in  his  epistle  he  will  have  seriously  to  prove — "  by  the  Law  is  the  full  knowledge 
of  sin."  * 


V. 

JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH. 


°  } 


Justitia  2 

8.  [  Dei  et  fidei,  coram  Deo  justificat." 

_  LUTHEK,  Colkqu,  i.  30. 

iii.  "But  now,"  he  says,  and  this  introduces  one  of  the  fullest  and  weightiest 
passages  in  all  his  writings,  "  without  the  Law"  —  which  all  have  failed  to  keep  — 

1  iii.  5—8. 

2  iii.  9,  jrpoex6jx«0a  properly  means  "use  as  a  pretext;"  the  reading  jrpoicoTexoftev  n-epio-ow 
of  D,  G,  Syr.  is  a  gloss  to  give  the  meaning  of  n-poe'xo/io',  "do  we  excel?"  which  suits  the 
sense  far  better.  ,  "Wetstein  renders  it  "are  we  (the  Jews)  surpassed  by  the  Gentiles?" 
But  as  the  Greek  Fathers  made  it  mean  "have  we  the  advantage?"  (Vulg.  praecellimus), 
perhaps  the  sense  is  admissible  here. 

3  iii.  19.    Ae'yei  speaks,  \oAei  utters  :  cf  .  John  viii.  48,  XoAiW,  \6-vov.    This  is  the  only 
place  in  the  New  Testament  where  our  translators  have  rendered  SCori  by  "therefore,  ' 
though  it  occurs  twenty-two  times.    Everywhere  else  they  render  it  "for  "  or  "because." 
It  may  mean  "  therefore  "  in  classical  Greek,  but  «ib  is  the  usual  New  Testament  word  in 
this  sense.    If  rendered  "because,"  a  comma  only  should  be  placed  after  e«6. 

4  epyo.  1/o/j.ou,  the  works  of  any  law,  whether  ritual,  Mosaic,  or  general,  and  whether  as 
to  the  works  prescribed  by  it,  or  those  produced  by  it. 

5  iii.  9  —  20.  —  ewiyi/wo-is  oftoprias,  and  therefore  the  Law  cannot  justify,  since,  as  Calvia 
says,  "  Ex  eadem  scatebra  non  prodeunt  vita  et  mors." 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  ST.  PAUL.        473 

!<  the  righteousness  of  God,"  both  in  itself  and  as  an  objective  gift  of  justification 
to  man,  "  has  been  manifested,  being  witnessed  to  by  the  Law  and  the  Prophets." 
The  nature  of  that  witness  he  will  show  later  on ;  at  present  he  pauses  to  give  a 
fuller,  and  indeed  an  exhaustive,  definition  of  what  he  means  by  "  the  righteousness 
of  God."  "  I  mean  the  righteousness  of  God  accepted  by  means  of  faith  in  Jesug 
Christ,  coming  to  and  upon  all  believers — all,  for  there  is  no  difference.  For  all 
sinned,  and  are  failing  to  attain  the  glory  of  God,  being  justified  freely  by  His 
grace,  by  means  of  the  redemption  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  whom  God  set  forth  as 
a  propitiation,1  by  means  of  faith  in  His  blood,  for  the  manifestation  of  His  own 
righteousness" — which  righteousness  might  otherwise  have  been  doubted  or  mis- 
understood— "  because  of  the  pretermission  of  past  sins  in  God's  forbearance;  with 
a  view  (I  say)  to  the  manifestation  of  this  righteousness  at  this  present  epoch,  that 
He  might,  by  a  divine  paradox,  and  by  a  new  and  divinely  predestined  righteousness, 
be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  whose  life  springs  from  faith  in  Jesus." a 

Lot  us  pause  to  enumerate  the  separate  elements  of  this  great  statement. 
It  brings  before  us  in  one  view — 

1.  Justification, — the  new  relation  of  reconcilement  between  man  and  God. 

2.  Faith, — man's  trustful  acceptance  of  God's  gift,  rising  to  absolute  self- 
surrender,  culminating  in  personal  union  with  Christ,  working  within  him  as 
a  spirit  of  new  life. 

3.  The  universality  of  this  justification  by  faith, — a  possibility  offered  to, 
because  needed  by,  all. 

4.  This  means  of  salvation  given,  not  earned,  nor  to  be  earned ;  a  free  gift 
due  to  the  free  favour  or  grace  of  God. 

5.  The  object  of  this  faith,  the  source  of  this  possibility  of  salvation,  the 
life  and  death  of  Christ,  as  being  (i.)  a  redemption — that  is,  a  ransom  of 
mankind  from  the  triple  bondage  of  the  law,  of  sin,  and  of  punishment  ; 
(ii.)  a  propitiatory  victim,8 — not  (except  by  a  rude,  imperfect,  and  most  mis- 

1  Ver.   25.      This  verse  is   "  the  Acropolis  of  the  Christian  faith "  (Olshausen). 
'AffoAvTpwero  (not  inLXX.)  implies — i.,  bondage ; ii.,  ransom;  iii.,  deliverance  (Eph.  i.  7). 
Many  most  eminent  theologians  (Origen,  Theodoret,  Theophylact,  Augustine,  Erasmus, 
Luther,   Calvin,    Grotius,   Calovius,   Olshausen,   Tholuck,    &c.)  make  i\a<rrrjpiov  mean 
"mercy-seat,"  since  lAcurnjpiov  is  the  invariable  word  for  the  cappweth  in  the  LXX. 
(Ex.  xxv.,  passim,  &c.),  which  never  uses  it  for  an  expiatory  sacrifice  (00^a).    Philo  also 
(Tit.  Mos.,  p.  668;  cf.  Jos.  Antt.  iii.  6,  §  5)  calls  the  mercy-seat  a  symbol,  iXeu  £wa>c(u$. 
It  is,  therefore,  difficult  to  suppose  how  Hellenist  readers  of  this  Epistle  could  attach 
any  other  meaning  to  it.    The  capporeth  between  the  Shekinah  and  the  Tables  of  the 
Law,  sprinkled  with  atoning  blood  by  the  High  Priest  as  he  stood  behind  the  rising 
incense,  is  a  striking  image  of  Christ  (Heb.  ix.  25).     I  quite  agree  with  Lange  in  calling 
Fritzsche's  remark,  "Valeat  absurda  explicatio,"  an  "ignorantly  contemptuous  one;" 
but  as  Christ  is  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament  compared  to  the  mercy-seat,  and 
the  comparison  would  here  be  confined  to  the  single  word,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
the  word,  though  ambiguous,  must  here  bear  an  analogous  meaning  to  iA«j>ibs,  also 
rendered  "  a  propitiation  "  in  1  John  iv.  10. 

2  iii.  22 — 27.     Bengel  points  out  the  grandeur  of  this  evangelic  paradox.    In  the  Law 
God  is  just  and  condemns;  in  the  Gospel  He  is  just  and  forgives.     God's  judicial 
righteousness  both  condemns  and  pardons.     On  God's  "  pretermission "  of  past  sins 
(iii.  25,  jra'pem?,  praetcrmissio,  not  a^co-is,  remissio)  compare  Ps.  Ixxxi.  12 ;  Acts  xiv.  16 ; 
xvii.  30 ;  Lev.  xvi.  10.     Tholuck  calls  the  Atonement  "the  divine  theodicy  for  the  past 
history  of  the  world." 

3  "Here  is  a  foundation  for  the  Anselmic  theory  of  satisfaction,  but  not  for  its 
grossly  anthropopathic  execution."    Schaff.  ad  loc.  (Lange's  Romans,  2—7).    And  this  is 
only  the  external  aspect  of  the  death  of  Christ,  the  merely  judicial  aspect  pertaining  to 


4#4  1EU  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAtTt. 

leading  anthropomorphism)  as  regards  God,  but  from  the  finite  and  imperfect 
standpoint  of  man ;  and  therefore  the  Apostle  adds  that  Christ  becomes  such 
to  us  by  means  of  faith  in  His  blood. 

6.  The  reason  for  this, — the  manifestation  of  God's  righteousness,  which 
might  otherwise  have  been  called  in  question,  because  of  the  pretermission  of 
past  sins. 

7.  The  end  to  be  attained, — that,  in  perfect  consistency  with  justice,  God 
might  justify  all  whose  new  lif e  had  its  root  in  faith. 

Boasting  then  is  impossible,  since  merit  is  non-existent.  By  worJcs  it  is 
unattainable ;  by  the  very  conception  of  faith  it  is  excluded.  Tliis  holds  true 
alike  for  Jew  and  Pagan,  and  Justification  is  God's  free  gift  to  man  as  man,1 
because  He  is  One,  and  the  God  alike  of  Jews  and  Gentiles.  To  the  Jew 
faith  is  the  source,  to  the  Gentile  the  instrument  of  this  justification.8 

But  here  another  objection  has  to  be  combated.  The  Jew  might  say,  "  By  this 
faith  of  yours  you  are  nullifying  the  Law" — meaning  by  the  Law  the  whole  Mosaic 
dispensation,  and  generally  the  Old  Testament  as  containing  the  history  of  the 
covenant  people.  On  the  contrary,  St.  Paul  replies,  I  am  establishing  it  on  a  firmer 
basis;8  for  I  am  exhibiting  it  in  its  true  position,  manifesting  it  in  its  true  relations ; 
showing  it  to  be  the  divinely -necessary  part  of  a  greater  system ;  adding  to  the 
depth  of  its  spirituality,  rendering  possible  the  cheerful  obedience  to  its  require- 
ments ;  indicating  its  divine  fulfilment.  I  am  showing  that  the  consciousness  of 
sin  which  came  by  the  Law  is  the  indispensable  preparation  for  the  reception  of 
grace.  Let  us  begin  at  tbe  very  beginning.  Let  us  go  'back  from  Moses  even  to 
Abraham.  What  did  he,  our  father,  gain  by  works?4  By  his  works  he  gained 
nothing  before  God,  as  St.  Paul  proves  by  tbe  verse  that  "  He  believed  God,  and  it 
•was  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness.""  That  word  "imputed"  repeated  eleven 

the  sphere  of  Law.  The  inward  motive — the  element  in  which  God's  essential  nature  is 
revealed,  is  the  grace  of  God  (Horn.  iii.  24). 

1  Ver.  28,      Therefore  [but  yap,  «,  A]  we  reckon  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith 
without  the  works  of  the  Law."    This  is  the  verse  in  which  Luther  interpolated  the  word 
"alone" — "Vox  SOLA  tot  clamoribus  lapidata  "  (Erasm.).     Hence  the  name  Solifidian. 
It  was  a  legitimate  inference,  and  was  already  existing  in  the  Nuremberg  Bible  (1483) 
and  the  Genoese  (1476),  but  was  an  unfortunate  apparent  contradiction  of  oinc  IK  n-iorew? 
iiovov  (James  ii.  24).    But  Luther's  famous  preface  shows  sufficiently  that  he  recognised 
the  necessity  of  works  in  the  same  sense  as  St.  James  (see  Art.  xi.,  xii.).     Luther  was 
not  guilty  or  the  foolish  error  which  identifies  faith  with  mere  belief  ;  and  yet,  perhaps, 
bis  mode  of  dealing  with  this  verse  led  to  his  rash  remark  as  to  the  impossibility  of 
reconciling  the  two  Apostles  (Colloqu.  ii.  203). 

2  iii.    27 — 30,    irepiTOfHjv  «c  TTiorccot    .     .     .     ojrpojSvcrrtav  Sia.  rljs  iria-reiat  Seems   to   imply 
some  real  difference  in  the  Apostle's  view,  though  Meyer  (usually  such  a  purist)  here 
denies  it.     Calvin  sees  a  shade  of  irony  in  it — "  This  is  the  grand  difference  :  the  Jew  is 
saved  ex  fide,  the  Gentile  per  fidem  1       Bengel  is  probably  right  when  he  says  that  it 
implies  the  priority  of  the  Jews,  and  the  acceptance  of  the  Gospel  from  them  by  the 
Gentiles ; — the  Jews  as  an  outgrowth  of  faith,  the  Gentiles  by  the  means  of  the  faith, 
(see  Gal.  iii.  22—26). 

8  iii.  31.     See  chap.  vi. ;  viii.  4 ;  xiii.  10. 

4  iv.    1.      If   we   do    not   Omit    «vpr]<ceV<u    (with  B),    itaTa   trap**  must  go   with  ev'plKeW. 

not  as  in  A.  V.  with  jrarepa.    It  means,  "  What  did  he  obtain  by  purely  human  efforts  ? 
e.g.,  by  circumcision  (Baur);  propriis  viribus  (Grot.);  Nach  rein  menschlichcr  Weise 
(De  Wette).     St.  Paul  here  attacks  a  position  which  afterwards  became  a  stronghold  of 
Talmudists. 

5  St.  Paul  here  follows  the  LXX.,  which  changes  the  active  into  the  passive.    The 
faith  of  Abraham  was  a  common  subject  of  discussion  in  Jewish  schools.     See  some 
remarkable  parallels  in  1  Mace.  ii.  52 ;  Philo's  eulogy  of  faith,  De  Abrakamo,  ii.  39  :  De 


EPISTLE   TO  THE   ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  Of  ST.   PAUL.  475 

times  in  the  chapter,  is  the  keynote  of  the  entire  passage,  and  is  one  of  very  primary 
importance  in  the  argument  with  the  Jews,  who  held  that  Abraham  obeyed  the  Law 
before  it  was  given.1  To  us,  perhaps,  it  is  of  secondary  importance,  since  the 
Apostle  did  not  derive  his  views  from  these  considerations,  but  discovered  the  truths 
revealed  to  him  in  passages  which,  until  he  thus  applied  them,  would  not  have  been 
seen  to  involve  this  deeper  significance.  It  required,  as  De  "Wette  says,  no  small 
penetration  thus  to  unite  the  climax  of  religious  development  with  the  historic 
point  at  which  the  series  of  religious  developments  began.  To  a  worker,  he  argues, 
the  pay  is  not  "  imputed"  as  a  favour,  but  paid  as  a  debt ;  but  Abraham's  faith  was 
"  imputed"  to  him  for  righteousness,  just  as  it  is  to  all  who  believe  on  Him  who 
justifies  the  ungodly.  This  truth  David  also  indicates  when  he  speaks  of  the 
blessedness  of  the  man  to  whom  God  imputeth  righteousness,  or,  which  comes  to  the 
same  thing,  "  does  not  impute  sin."  Now  this  imputation  can  have  nothing  to  do 
with  circumcision,  because  the  phrase  is  used  at  a  time  before  Abraham  was  circum- 
cised, and  circumcision  was  only  a  sign*  of  the  righteousness  imputed  to  him 
because  of  his  faith,  that  he  might  be  regarded  as  "  the  father  of  the  faithful," 
whether  they  be  circumcised  or  uncircumcised.  Had  the  great  promise  to  Abraham, 
on  which  all  Jews  relied,  come  to  him  by  the  Law?  Not  so,  for  two  reasons. 
First,  because  the  promise  was  long  prior  to  the  Law,  and  would  have  been  nullified 
if  it  were  made  to  depend  on  a  subsequent  law ;  and,  secondly,  because  the  Law 
causes  the  sense  of  wrongdoing,3  and  so  works  wrath,  not  promise.  Hence,  it  was 
the  strength  of  Abraham's  faith  looking  to  God's  promise  in  spite  of  his  own  and 
Sarah's  age,4  which  won  him  the  imputed  righteousness ;  and  this  was  recorded  for 
us  because  the  faith,  and  the  promise,  and  the  paternity,  are  no  mere  historic  circum- 
stances, but  have  all  of  them  a  spiritual  significance,  full  of  blessedness  for  all  who 
"  believe  on  Him  who  raised  Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead,  who  was  delivered  up 
for  our  sins,  and  raised  for  our  justification."  6 

This,  then,  is  the  proof  that  the  doctrine  of  Justification  is  not  contrary  to 
Scripture,  and  does  not  vilipend,  but  really  establishes  the  Law ;  and  into  the 
last  vorse  are  skilfully  introduced  the  new  conceptions  of  Christ's  death  for 
our  sin,  and  His  resurrection  to  procure  our  imputed  righteousness,  which  are 
further  developed  in  the  subsequent  chapters. 

But  first,  having  proved  his  point,  he  dwells  on  its  blessed  consequences, 
which  may  be  summed  up  in  the  two  words  Peace  and  Hope. 

These  are  treated  together.  We  have  Peace,'  because  through  Christ  we  have 
our  access  into  the  free  favour  of  God,  and  can  exult  not  only  in  the  hope  of  the 

Mul.  Nom.  i.  586.    Nay,  since  the  plural  "laws"  is  used  in  Gen.  xxvi.  5,  Kabh  held 
that  he  kept  both  the  written  and  the  oral  law  ( Yoma,  f.  28,  2). 

1  Kiddushin,  f.  82,  1. 

2  iv.  11.    The  word  "  seal "  (m»)  occurs  in  the  formula  of  circumcision  (BeracMlh, 
xiii.   1).     A  circumcised   child    was    called    "  an  espoused  of   blood "    &c..    to  God 
(Ex.  iv.  26). 

3  See  vii.  7,  seqq. 

4  In  iv.  19  the  ov  should  be  omitted  (M,  A,  B,  0,  Syr.,  &c.).    He  did  perceive  and  con- 
sider the  weakness  of  his  own  body,  but  yet  had  faith.    In  fact,  "  not  considering  his  own 
body  "  contradicts  Gen.  xvii.  17. 

*  iv.  1 — 25.  In  verse  25  the  first  Sii  is  retrospective,  the  second  is  prospective ;  Sea  TO 
napa.irTu>ii.aTa,  "  on  account  of  our  transgressions ; "  Sto.  TIJV  SiKatWiv,  "  to  secure  our  being 
justified."  Luther  calls  this  verse  "  a  little  covenant,  in  which  all  Christianity  is  com- 
prehended." 

6  v.  1,  ex<ancv  is  the  better  supported  reading  (»,  A,  B,  0,  D,  K,  L) ;  but  ex<v*ev  gives 
by  far  the  better  sense,  and  the  other  reading  may  be  due  to  the  Pietistic  tendency  of  the 
Loctioiiarics  to  make  sentences  hortative, — which  apparently  began  to  work  very  early. 
For  a  defence  of  ix<a^ev,  I  may  refer  to  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Beet's  able  commentary  on  the 
Epistle,  which  reached  me  too  late  for  use. 


476  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PA.TTL. 

future,  but  even  in  the  afflictions  of  the  present,  which  tend  to  hope  because  first 
they  work  endurance,  then  approved  firmness.1  The  certainty  of  our  Hope  is  due' 
to  the  love  of  God  poured  into  our  hearts  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  and  unmistakable  to 
us,  since,  by  a  stretch  of  self-sacrifice  unknown  to  humanity,2  Christ  died  for  us,: 
not  because  of  any  justice,  much  less  any  goodness  of  ours,  but  while  we  were  yet 
sinners  and  enemies.  And  since  we  have  been  reconciled  to  God  by  His  death,' 
much  more  shall  we  be  saved  by  His  life,  so  that  our  hope — founded  on  this  recon- 
ciliation to  God — may  even  acquire  a  tinge  of  exultation.8  Our  Peace,  then,  is  an 
immediate  sentiment  "which  requires  no  external  proof ;  and  our  Hope  is  founded  on 
the  love  of  God  assured  to  us  in  three  ways — namely,  by  Christ's  death  for  us  while 
we  were  yet  enemies  to  God ;  on  the  strength  to  endure  afflictions  and  BOG  their 
blessed  issue ;  and  above  all  on  union  with  Christ  in  death  and  life.4 

And  this  universality  of  Sin,  and  universality  of  Justification,  leads  Paul 
to  one  of  his  great  sketches  of  the  religious  history  of  humanity.  To  him 
that  history  was  summed  up  in  three  great  moments  connected  with  the  lives 
of  Adam,  Moses,  and  Christ,  of  which  the  mission  of  Moses  was  the  least: 
important.  Those  three  names  corresponded  to  throe  stages  in  the  world's- 
religious  history — Promise,  Law,  and  Faith — of  which  the  third  is  the  realisa- 
tion of  the  first.  Adam  was  a  type  of  Christ,  and  each  stood  as  it  were  at 
the  head  of  long  lines  of  representatives.  Each  represents  the  principle  of 
a  whole  aeon.  Adam's  first  sin  developed  a  principle  from  which  none  of 
his  posterity  could  be  free ;  and  Christ  introduced  the  possibility  of  a  new 
and  saving  principle,  the  necessity  for  which  had  been  made  manifest  by  the 
dispensation  of  Moses.  Here,  however,  as  so  often,  the  logical  statement  is 
incomplete  and  entangled,  owing  to  the  rush  of  the  Apostle's  thoughts.6 

"  So  then,  at  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  by  sin  death,  and  so 
death  extended  to  all  men  on  the  ground  that  all  sinned,"  '  he  probably  meant  to 

i  Matt.  v.  10—12 ;  Acts  v.  41 ;  1  Pet.  iv.  13,  14 ;  2  Cor.  xii.  10, 11. 

8  v.  7,  Chrysostom,  Theodoret,  Erasmus,  Calvin,  Meyer,  &c.,  make  110  difference 
between  oyoflbs,  "good,"  and  Siicaio*,  "just,"  as  though  St.  Paul  meant  "one  would 
scarcely  die  for  a  good  man,  though  possibly  one  might."  It  is,  however,  more  probable 
that  St.  Paul  meant  "  one  would  not  die  merely  for  a  man  of  ordinary  integrity,  but  for 
a  truly  good  man  one  might  even  dare  to  die  "  (cf .  Cic.  De  Off.  iii.  15). 

8  v.  11,  oAAi  KM  Kavxw^eroi.  4  Verses  1 — 12. 

8  1  Cor.  xv.  45.  The  difference  between  Adam  and  Eve  (1  Tim.  ii.  14)  was  a  smaller 
matter,  and  one  which  had  little  or  no  bearing  on  the  destiny  of  the  human  being, 
whether  male  or  female. 

6  Pages  and  almost  volumes  of  controversy  have  been  written  on  verse  12.  €<£'  c5  wai/re? 
foaprov.  Many  make  the  <S  masc.,  and,  referring  it  to  Adam,  render  it  "  hi  whom  (Aug.), 
or,  "  by  whose  means  "  (Grot.),  or  "  on  whose  account "  (Chrys.).  There  can,  however, 
be  no  doubt  that  <?  is  neuter  (cf.  2  Cor.  v.  4 ;  Phil.  iii.  12,  iv.  10),  and  that  it  means 
neither  "unto  which  (death),"  as  a  final  cause,  nor  any  variation  on  this  meaning,  but 
"  inasrcmch  as."  Since,  however,  the  argument  of  St.  Paul  seems  simply  to  be  that  sin 
was  universal,  and  that  the  universality  of  death  was  a  proof  of  this,  it  certainly  seems 
admissible  to  understand  ty'  <L  in  the  universal  sense  of  "in  accordance  with  the  fact 
that."  It  is  here  used  in  a  larger  and  looser  causal  connexion  than  usual.  Sin  and 
death  are  universal,  and  are  inseparably  linked  together ;  it  might  be  supposed  that 
where  there  was  no  law  there  was  no  sin ;  it  is  true  that  sin  is  not  fully  imputed  where 
there  is  no  law ;  but  death  entered  the  world  through  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  "  which  shows  that — which  involves  the  presupposition  that — all  sinned."  This  is 
Baur's  view,  and  if  it  be  tenable,  the  discussions  about  "original  sin,"  "inherent  total 
depravity,"  &c.,  are  irrelevant  to  this  passage  (Baur,  Paul.  ii.  183 — 186).  Let  us,  at  any 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  ST.   PAUL.  477 

fedd  as  the  second  half  of  the  parallel,  "  so,  too,  by  one  man  came  justification,  and 
so  life  was  offered  to  all."  The  conclusion  of  the  sentence  was,  however,  displaced 
by  the  desire  to  meet  a  difficulty.  He  had  said,  "  all  sinned,"  but  some  one  might 
object,  "  How  so  ?  you  have  already  told  us  that  where  there  is  no  law  there  is  no 
transgression ;  how,  then,  could  men  sin  between  Adam  and  Moses  ?"  The  answer 
is  far  from  clear  to  understand.  St.  Paul  might  perhaps  have  referred  to  the  law 
of  nature,  the  transgression  of  which  involved  sin  ;  but  what  he  says  is  that  "  till 
the  law,  sin  was  in  the  world,  but  sin  is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law."  If  he 
had  said,  "  sin  is  not  brought  into  prominent  self-consciousness,"  his  meaning 
would  have  been  both  clear  and  consistent,  but  the  verb  used  (t\\oyeiTcu)  does  not 
admit  of  this  sense.  Perhaps  we  may  take  the  word  popularly  to  imply  that  "  it  is 
not  so  fully  reckoned  or  imputed,"  a  view  which  may  find  its  illustration  in  our 
Lord's  remark  that  the  sin  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  was  less  unpardonable  than 
that  of  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida.  It  seems  as  if  he  meant  to  imply  a  distinction 
between  "  tin  "  in  general,  and  the  "  transgression  "  of  some  special  law  or  laws  in 
paiticular.1  "Every  sin,"  as  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  says,  "may  be  called  a  trans- 
gression in  so  far  as  it  transgresses  a  natural  law  ;  but  it  is  a  more  serious  thing  to 
transgress  a  law  both  natural  and  written.  And  so,  when  the  law  was  given,  trans- 
gression increased  and  deserved  greater  anger."  But  the  only  proof  which  St.  Paul 
offers  that  there  was  sin  during  this  period  is  that,  throughout  it,  death  also 
reigned.2  When,  however,  he  passes  from  this  somewhat  obscure  reply  (13,  14), 
to  show  how  Adam  was  a  type  of  Christ,  his  meaning  again  becomes  clear.  He 
dwells  first  on  the  points  of  difference  (15 — 18),  and  then  on  those  of  resemblanc 
(18,  19).  The  differences  between  the  results'caused  by  Adam  and  Christ  are  dif- 
ferences both  qualitative  and  quantitative — both  in  degree  and  kind. 

i.  By  Adam's  one  transgression  the  many  died,  but  the  free  grace  of  Christ 
abounded  to  the  many  in  a  far  greater  degree.8 

•rate,  imitate  St.  Paul  in  dwelling  rather  on  the  positive  than  the  negative  side,  rather  on 
Christ  than  Adam,  rather  on  the  superabundance  of  grace  than  the  origin  of  sin. 

1  So  most  of  the  commentators.     "  Sine  lege  palest  csse  quis  iniquus  sed  nan  praevari- 
cator"  (Augustine).    Luther  explains  «AAoyeIr<u,  "  sin  is  not  minded  " — "  man  achtet  ihrer 
•nicht." 

2  Ver.  14,  "Even  over  those  who  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression  " — i.e.,  who  had  broken  no  positive  direct  command — whose  a^apria.  was 
not  a  definite  ir<xpo/Sa<ris.    Dr.  Schaff  (Lange's  Romans,  p.  191,  E.T.)  gives  a  useful  sketch 
of  the  theories  about  original  sin  and  imputation.     1.  The  PANTHEISTIC  and  Necessitarian 
makes  sin  inherent  in  our  finite  constitution,  the  necessary  result  of  matter.    2.  The 
PELAGIAN  treats  Adam's  sin  as  a  mere  bad  example.    3.  The  PRS-ADAMIC  explains  sin 
by  antenatal  existence,  metempsychosis,  &c.     4.  The  AUGOSTINIAN — all  men  sinned  in 
Adam  (cf.  Heb.  vii.  9,  10).     "Persona  corrumpit  naturam,  natura  corrumpit  personam" 
— i.e.,  Adam's  sin  caused  a  sinful  nature,  and  sinful  nature  causes  individual  sin.    This 
has  many  subdivisions  according  as  the  imputation  of   Adam's  sin  was  regarded  as 
(a)  Immediate ;  (£)  Mediate ;  or  (y)  Antecedent.    5.  The  FEDERAL — vicarious  represen- 
tation of  mankind  in  Adam,  in  virtue  of  a  one-sided  (liovov^evpov)  contract  of  God  with 
man  (foedus  operum,  or  naturae) ;  with  subdivisions  of  (a)  The  Augustino-federal;  (0)  The 
purely  federal  or  forensic.    6.  The  NEW  ENGLAND  CALVINISTS,  who  deny  imputation  and 
distinguish  between  natural  ability  and  moral  inability  to  keep  innocence.    7.  The 
ARMINIAN,  which  regards  hereditary  corruption  not  as  sin  or  guilt,  but  as  infirmity,  a 
maladive  condition,  &c.     I  ask,  would  Paul  have  been  willing  to  enter  into  all  these 
questions  ?    Have  they  in  any  way  helped  the  cause  of  Christianity  or  deepened  vital 
religion  ?    Can  they  be  of  primary  importance,  since  the  traces  of  them  in  Scripture  are 
BO  slight  that  scarcely  any  two  theologians  entirely  agree  about  them  ?    Do  they  tend  to 
humility  and  charity  and  edification,  or  to  "  vain  word-battlings  "  ? 

3  The  contrast  is  between  plurality  and  unity ;  the  phrase  "  the  many  "  (not  "many," 
as  in  Luther  and  the  E.V.)  does  not  for  a  moment  imply  any  exception  (e.g.,  Enoch,  or 
Elijah).    It  is  merely  due  to  the  fact  that  "  all "  may  sometimes  be  "  a  few  "  (Aug.). 
"Adamus  et  Christus,"  says  Bengel,   "secundum  rationes  contrarias,   conveniunt  in 
positive,  differunt  in  comparative.      See  Bcntley,  Sermon  upon  Popery      Opp.  iii.  244. 
Observe  the  parallel  between  the  xsW,  Ko.raKp^ia,  \*p<,<riM,  St/couwpa,  of  verse  16  and  the 


478  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

ii.  The  condemnation  of  the  race  to  death  sprang  from  the  single  transgression 
of  one  ;  the  sentence  of  acquittal  was  freely  passed  in  spite  of  many  transgressions. 

iii.  By  the  transgression  of  Adam  began  the  reign  of  death  ;  far  more  shall  all 
who  are  receiving  the  superabundance  of  grace  of  the  gift  of  righteousness  reign 
in  life  by  the  One,  Jesus  Christ.  But  with  these  differences  there  is  also  a  parallel 
of  deeper  resemblance.  One  transgression  (Adam's  sin),  and  one  sentence  of  con- 
demnation on  all ;  one  act  of  righteousness  (Christ's  death),  and  one  justification 
which  gives  life  to  all; — by  the  disobedience  of  the  one,1  the  many  were  made 
sinners  ;2  by  the  obedience  of  the  one,  the  many  shall  be  made  righteous.3  Thus 
St.  Paul  states  the  origin  of  sin  in  this  passage  ;  but  however  he  might  have  solved 
the  antinomy  of  its  generic  necessity  and  individual  origin,  which  he  leaves  unsolved, 
he  would  certainly  have  been  ready  to  say  with  Pseudo-Baruch  that  "  every  one  of 
us  is  the  Adam  to  his  own  soul." 

But  here  once  more  the  question  recurs,  What  then  of  the  Law  ?  Is  that 
divine  revelation  to  go  for  nothing  P  To  that  question  St.  Paul  has  already 
given  one  answer  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  :  he  now  gives  another, 
which  till  explained  might  well  have  caused  a  shock.  To  the  Galatians  he  had 
explained  that  the  ante- Messianic  period  was  the  tirocinium  of  the  world,  and 
that  during  this  period  the  Law  was  necessary  as  a  paedagogic  discipline. 
To  the  Romans  he  presents  a  new  point  of  view,  and  shows  that  the  Law 
was  not  merely  a  corrective  system  thrust  in  between  the  promise  and  its  ful- 
filment,, but  an  essential  factor  in  the  religious  development  of  the  world.  It 
appears  in  the  new  aspect  of  a  "  power  of  sin,"  in  order  that  by  creating  the 
knowledge  of  sin  it  may  mediate  between  sin  and  grace.  The  Law,  he  says, 
came  in  (the  word  he  uses  has  an  almost  disparaging  sound,*  which  probably, 
however,  he  did  not  intend)  "  that  transgression  might  multiply."  A  terrible 
purpose  indeed,  and  one  which  he  subsequently  explained  (chap,  vii.) :  but 
even  here  he  at  once  hastens  to  add  that  where  sin  multiplied,  grace  super- 

irapairrufia,  Karaxpijua,  5tKou'<Djiia,  and  5iK<uiucrif  of  verse  18.  The  distinction  between  these 
words  seems  to  be  as  follows : — 1.  &iKa.;<ana,  actio  justificative,,  Rechtsfertigungsthat,  the 
act  which  declares  us  just.  2.  SucaiWn,  the  process  of  justification.  3.  Sucatoinvri,  the 
condition  of  being  justified.  Rothe  quotes  Arist.,  Eth.  Nic.,  v.  10,  where  Sucai'w^a  is 
defined  as  TO  n-acopdw^a  TOV  aSutrj^a-ro^.  In  verse  16,  D,  E,  F,  G,  read  <x/napnjfji.aTo?. 

1  Adam,  says  Luther,  stuck  his  tooth,  not  into  an  apple,  but  into  a  stachel,  namely, 
the  Divine  command.    Pelagius,  in  his  commentary  on  Romans  (preserved  in  Augustine's 
works),  renders  &C  evb?  &.v6pu>nav,  "per  unum  hominem,  Evam/"    Philo's  views  about  the 
Fall  may  be  seen  in  his  Legg.  Alleg.  ii.  73 — 106.     He  regards  gluttony  and  lust  as  the 
source  of  all  evil,  and  considers  that  all  men  are  born  hi  sin,  i.e.,  under  the  dominion  of 
sensuality  (De  Mundi  Opif.  37 ;  Vit.  Mos.  iii.  675).    "  God  made  not  death,  but  ungodly 
men  with  then-  works  called  it  to  them  "  (Wisd.  i.  13 — 16). 

2  In  what  way  they  were  made  sinners  St.  Paul  nowhere  defines.     There  is  no 
distinctive  Pelagianism,  or  Traducianism,  lure.     To  say  with  Meyer,  "men  were  placed 
in  the  category  of  sinners  because  they  sinned  in  and  with  Adam's  fall,"  is,  as  Lange 
remarks,  not  exegesis,  but  Augustinian  dogmatics.     St.  Paul  simply  accepted  the  uni- 
versal fact  of  death  as  a  proof  of  the  universal  fact  of  sin,  and  regards  death  and  sin 
as  beginning  with  Adam.      Beza,   Bengel,   Reuss,   &c.,  understand   Ka.Te<rra.8i\aa.v  and 
K<na.<naJSr)<Tomaj.  in  an  imputative  sense — "regarded  as  sinners" — which  ia  a  defensible 
translation,  and  makes  the  parallel  more  complete. 

»  Vs.  12—20. 

4  v.  20,  jrape«rijA0ev,  Vulg.  Sulintravit,  "supervened,"  "came  in  besides,"  cf.  jrpo<r«Te'0rj, 
Gal.  iii.  19.  In  Gal.  ii.  4  the  surreptitious  notion  of  tropo  is  derived  from  tke  context. 
The  notion  of  "between,"  "media  tern/pore  subingreesa  est,"  is  not  in  tke  word  itself. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE   ROMANS,  AND  THEOLOGY  OP  ST.  PAUL.  479 

abounded,  that  as  sin  reigned  in  death,  so  also  grace  might  reign  through 
righteousness  into  life  eternal,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.1 

The  next  chapter  (vi.)  is  of  vast  importance  as  stating  an  objection  which 
might  well  be  regarded  as  deadly,  and  as  showing  us  how  best  to  deal  with  an 
apparent  paradox.  If  grace  superabounds  over  sin,  why  should  we  not  con- 
tinue in  sin  P  After  first  throwing  from  him  the  hateful  inference  with  a 
"  Perish  the  thought !  "  he  proceeds  in  this  chapter  to  prove,  first  in  a  mystic 
(vi.  1 — 15),  and  then  in  a  more  popular  exposition  (15 — 23),  the  moral  conse- 
quences of  his  doctrine.  In  the  first  half  of  this  chapter  he  uses  the 
metaphor  of  death,  in  the  latter  the  metaphor  of  emancipation,  to  illustrate 
the  utter  severance  between  the  Christian  and  sin. 

Ideally,  theoretically,  it  should  be  needless  to  tell  the  Christian  not  to  sin ;  he  is 
dead  to  sin  ;  the  very  name  of  "  elect "  or  "  saint  "  excludes  the  entire  conception 
of  sin,  because  the  Christian  is  "  IN  CHRIST."  Those  two  words  express  the  very 
quintessence  of  all  that  is  most  distinctive  in  St.  Paul's  theology,  and  yet  they  are 
identical  with  the  leading  conception  of  St.  John,  who  (we  are  asked  to  beHeve) 
rails  at  him  in  the  Apocalypse  as  Balaam  and  Jezebel,  a  sham  Jew,  and  a  false 
apostle !  That  the  two  words  "  in  Christ "  sum  up  the  distinctive  secret,  the 
revealed  mystery  of  the  Christian  life,  especially  as  taught  by  St.  Paul  and  by  St. 
John,  will  be  obvious  to  any  thoughtful  reader.  If  this  mystic  union,  to  which 
both  Apostles  again  and  again  recur,  is  expressed  by  St.  Paul  in  the  metaphors  of 
stones  in  a  temple  of  which  Christ  is  the  foundation,2  of  members  of  a  body  of 
which  Christ  is  the  head,3  St.  John  records,  and  St.  Paul  alludes  to,  the  metaphor  of 
the  branches  and  the  vine,4  and  both  Apostles  without  any  image  again  and  again 
declare  that  the  Christian  life  is  a  spiritual  life,  a  supernatural  fife,  and  one  which 
we  can  only  live  by  faith  in,  by  union  with,  by  partaking  of  the  life  of  the  Son  of 
God.8  With  both  Apostles  Christ  is  our  life,  and  apart  from  Him  we  have  no  true 
life.6  St.  Paul,  again,  is  fond  of  the  metaphor  of  wearing  Christ  as  a  garment, 
putting  on  Christ,  putting  on  the  new  man,7  reflecting  Him  with  ever-brightening 
splendour.8  In  fact,  the  words  "  in  Christ "  and  "  with  Christ "  are  his  most  con- 
stantly recurrent  phrases.  "We  work  for  Him,  we  live  in  Him,  we  die  in  Him, 
we  rise  with  Him,  we  are  justified  by  Him.  We  are  His  sheep,  His  scholars,  His 
soldiers,  His  servants. 

1  v.  20,  21.  The  old  Protestant  divines  thus  stated  the  uses  of  the  Law : — L  Usus 
primus,  civil  or  political — to  govern  states.  2.  Usus  secundus,  convictive  or  paedagogio 
— to  convince  us  of  sin.  3.  Usus  tertius,  didactic  or  formative — to  guide  the  life  of  a 
believer  (Formula,  Concordiae,  p.  594).  Dr.  Schaff,  in  his  useful  additions  to  the  trans- 
lation of  Lange's  Romans,  points  out  that  these  three  correspond  to  the  German  sentence 
that  the  Law  is  a  Zugel  (1,  a  restraint) ;  a  Spiegel  (2,  a  mirror) ;  and  a  Rieyel  (3,  a  rod). 
The  Law  multiplies  transgressions  because— i.  "  Nitimur  in  vetitum  semper,  cupimus 
que  negata."  "Ignoti  mdla  cupido."  ii.  "Because  desires  suppressed  forcibly  from 
without  increase  in  virulence"  (St.  Thomas),  iii.  "Because  suppressive  rules  kindle 
anger  against  God  "  (Luther).  But  the  real  end  of  the  Law  was  not  the  multiplication 
of  transgressions  per  se,  but  that  the  precipitation  of  sin  might  lead  to  its  expulsion ; 
that  the  culmination  of  sin  might  be  the  introduction  of  grace.  "  Non  crudeliter  hoc 
fecit  Deus  sed  ratione  medicinae — augebatur  morbus,  crescit  malitia,  quaeritur  inedicus, 
et  totum  sanatur"  (Aug.  in  Ps.  cii.). 

a  Eph.  ii.  19—22  (1  Pet.  ii.  5 ;  Isa.  xxviii.  16). 

8  Rom.  xii.  5 ;  Eph.  iv.  16 ;  1  Cor.  xii.  12,  13,  27 ;  Col.  i.  18. 

*  John  xv.  5 ;  Rom.  vi.  5 ;  Phil.  i.  11. 

s  2  Cor.  v.  17 ;  Rom.  vi.  8 ;  Gal.  ii.  20 ;  Eph.  iii.  6 ;  Col.  iii.  3 ;  John  x.  28 ;  xiv.  19 ; 
xv.  4—10 ;  1  John  v.  20 :  ii.  24.  &c. 

6  John  v.  24 ;  xi.  25  ;  xiv.  20 :  Gal.  ii.  20 ;  CoL  iii.  4 ;  1  John  i.  1 ;  v.  12,  &o. 

7  Gal.  iii.  27 ;  Rom.  xiii.  14 ;  Eph.  iv.  24 ;  Col.  iii.  10. 

•  2  Cor.  iii.  18. 


480  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF   ST.   PAUL. 

The  life  of  the  Christian  being  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  his  death  with  Christ  is 
a  death  to  sin,  his  resurrection  with  Christ  is  a  resurrection  to  life.  The  dipping 
under  the  waters  of  baptism  is  his  union  with  Christ's  death ;  his  rising  out  of  the 
waters  of  baptism  is  a  resurrection  with  Christ,  and  the  birth  to  a  new  life.  "  What 
baptism  is  for  the  individual,"  it  has  been  said,  "  Christ's  death  is  for  the  race."  If 
the  Christian  has  become  coalescent  with  Christ  in  His  death,  he  shall  also  in  His 
resurrection.1  The  old  sin-enslaved  humanity  is  crucified  with  Christ,  and  the  new 
man  has  been  justified  from  sin,  because  he  is  dead  to  it,  and  lives  in  Christ.  This 
is  the  ideal.  Live  up  to  it.  Dethrone  the  sin  that  would  rule  over  your  frail 
nature.  "  Be  not  ever  presenting  your  members  as  weapons  of  unrighteousness, 
but  present  yourselves  once  for  all,2  to  God  as  alive  from  the  dead,  and  your 
members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  to  God.  For  sin  shall  not  lord  it  over 
you ;  for  ye  are  not  under  the  Law,  but  under  grace." s  Die  to  sin,  die  to 
lust,  die  to  your  old  vulgar,  enslaved,  corrupted  self,  die  to  the  impulses 
of  animal  passion,  and  the  self-assertion  of  worldly  desire ;  for  Christ  too  died, 
and  you  are  one  with  him  in  death,  that  you  may  be  one  in  life.  But 
these  words,  again,  raise  the  ghost  of  the  old  objection.  "  Shall  we  then  sin, 
since  we  are  not  under  the  Law,  but  under  grace  ?"  and  this  objection  St.  Paul 
again  refutes  by  the  same  argument,  clothed  in  a  more  obvious  and  less  mystic 
illustration,  in  which  he  amplifies  the  proverb  of  Jesus,  ' '  Ye  cannot  serve  two 
masters."  A  man  must  either  be  a  slave  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of  obedience  unto 
righteousness.4  Thank  God,  from  that  old  past  slavery  of  sin  you  were  freed,  when 
you  submitted  to  the  form  of  doctrine  to  which  you  were  handed  over  by  God's 
providence;  and  then — if  in  condescension' to  your  human  weakness  I  may  use  an 
imperfect  expression — you  were  enslaved  to  righteousness.5  The  fruit  of  that 
former  slavery  was  shame  and  misery ;  its  end  was  death.  This  new  enslavement 
to  God  is  perfect  freedom ;  its  fruit  is  sanctification,  its  end  eternal  life.  "  For  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  the  free  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  in  Christ  Jesua  our 
Lord."  « 

iv.  At  this  point  of  his  argument  the  Apostle  felt  it  imperative  to  de- 
fine more  clearly,  and  establish  more  decisively,  his  view  as  to  the  position  of 
the  Law  in  the  scheme  of  salvation.  Apart  from  his  discussion  of  this  question 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  he  has  already,  in  this  Epistle,  made  three  inci- 
dental remarks  on  the  subject,  which  might  well  horrify  those  Jews  and 
Jewish  Christians  who  were  unfamiliar  with  his  views.  He  has  said — 

1.  That  "  by  the  works  of  the  Law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  before  God : 
for  by  the  Law  is  the  full  knowledge  of  sin  "  (iii.  20). 

2.  That  "the  Law  came  in  as  an   addition    that   transgression  might 
abound  "(v.  20). 

3.  That  the  Christian  "  is  not  under  the  Law,  but  under  grace,"  and  that 
therefore  sin  is  not  to  lord  it  over  him  (vi.  14). 

1  vL  5,  <ruV<J>vTou    The  Vulg.  " complantati"  is  too  strong.    It  is  from  <f>uw,  not  </>imrw«>. 
3  vi.  13,  irapio-Tai/ere  .  .  .  mzpaanjouTe.  In  the  New  Testament  oTrXa  is  always  "  weapons. " 
Cf.  Rom.  xiii.  12 ;  2  Cor.  vi.  7. 

3  vi.  1—15. 

4  vi.  16.    The  phrase  "  a  slave  of  obedience  "  is  strange.    Perhaps  he  used  uircucoijt 
instead  of  ^uauwravip,  because  of  the  two  senses  of  the  word,  "righteousness"  and  "justi- 
fication." 

5  vi.  18,  'ESovAwfrp-e.    "Deo  servire  vera  libertas  est"  (Aug.).     "Whose  service  is 
perfect  freedom."   ' \vdp<awi.vov  Xeyo> — Calvin,  following  Origen  and  Chrysostom,  renders 
this  clause^  "  I  require  nothing  which  your  fleshly  weakness  could  not  do," 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY   Of   ST.    PAUL.          481 

Such  statements  as  these,  if  left  unsupported  and  unexplained,  might  well 
turn  every  Jewish  reader  from  respectful  inquiry  into  incredulous  disgust ; 
and  he  therefore  proceeds  to  the  difficult  task  of  justifying  his  views. 

The  task  was  difficult  because  he  has  to  prove  scripturally  and  dialectically 
the  truths  at  which  he  had  arrived  by  a  wholly  different  method.  The  central 
point  of  his  own  conviction  was  that  which  runs  through  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,1  that  if  salvation  was  to  be  earned  by  "  doing  " — if  the  Law  was 
sufficient  for  justification — then  Christ's  death  was  needless  and  vain.  If  he 
were  right  in  his  absolute  conviction  that  only  by  faith  in  the  blood  of  Christ 
are  we  accounted  righteous  before  God,  then  clearly  the  Law  stood  condemned 
of  incapacity  to  produce  this  result.  Now  by  the  Law  St.  Paul  meant  the 
whole  Mosaic  Law,  and  there  is  not  in  him  a  single  trace  of  any  distinction 
between  the  degree  of  sacredness  in  the  ceremonial  and  the  moral  portion  of 
it.  If  there  had  been,  he  might  perhaps  have  adopted  the  luminous  principle 
of  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  shown  that  the  Law  was 
only  abrogated  by  the  completeness  of  its  fulfilment ;  that  its  inefficiency  only 
proves  its  typical  character ;  and  that  the  type  disappeared  in  the  fulness  of 
the  antitype,  as  a  star  is  lost  in  the  brightness  of  the  sun.  This  method  of 
allegory  was  by  no  means  unfamiliar  to  St.  Paul ;  he  not  only  adopts  it 
freely,2  but  must  have  learnt  it  as  no  small  element  of  his  Rabbinic  training 
in  the  school  of  Gamaliel.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  this  attribution  of  a  spiritual 
depth  and  mystery  to  every  part  of  the  ceremonial  Law  would  have  only 
tended  to  its  glorification  in  the  minds  of  Jndaisers  who  had  not  yet  learnt 
its  abrogation ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  in  this  way  that  the  relation 
of  the  Law  to  the  Gospel  had  specially  presented  itself  to  the  mind  of  Paul. 
The  typical  relation  of  the  one  to  the  other  was  real,  and  to  dwell  upon  it 
would,  no  doubt,  have  made  St.  Paul's  arguments  "  less  abrupt  and  less  op- 
pressive to  the  consciousness  of  the  Jews ;  "  3  but  it  would  also  have  made 
them  less  effective  for  the  emancipation  of  the  Church  and  the  world.  The 
Law  must  be  deposed,  as  it  were,  from  its  long  primacy  in  the  minds  of 
the  Jews,  into  that  negative,  supplementary,  secondary,  inefficient  position 
which  alone  belonged  to  it,  before  it  could  with  any  prudence  be  rein- 
stalled into  a  position  of  reflected  honour.  It  had  only  a  sxiboi-dinate,  pro- 
visional importance;  it  was  only  introduced  per  accidens.  Its  object  waa 
psedagogic,  not  final.  St.  Paul's  reasoning  might  inflict  pain,  but  the  pain 
which  he  inflicted  was  necessary  and  healing;  and  it  was  well  for  the  Jews 
and  for  the  world  that,  while  he  strove  to  make  his  arguments  acceptable 
by  stating  them  in  a  tone  as  conciliatory  as  possible,  he  did  not  strive  to 
break  the  shock  of  them  by  any  unfaithful  weakening  of  their  intrinsic 
force. 

i.  His  first  statement  had  been  that  the  Law  could  not  justify.*    That 

1  Gal.  ii.  21 ;  iil.  21. 

2  The  muzzled  ox,  1  Cor.  Ix.  9 ;  Sarah  and  Hagar,  Gal.  Iv.  24 ;  the  evanescence  of  the 
light  on  the  face  of  Moses,  2  Cor.  iii.  7 — 13 ;  the  following  rock,  1  Cor.  x.  4 ;  the  cloud 
and  sea,  1  Cor.  x.  1,  2. 

8  Pflejderer,  Pavlinismus,  L  73,  E.  T.  *  Rom.  iii.  $0, 


482  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

it  could  not  justify  he  saw  at  once,  because  had  it  been  adequate  to  do  so, 
then  the  death  of  Christ  would  have  been  superfluous.  But  why  was  it 
that  the  Law  was  thus  inefficacious  ?  St.  Paul  rather  indicates  than  clearly 
states  the  reason  in  the  next  chapter  (viii.).  It  is  because  the  Law,  as  re- 
gards its  form,  is  external ;  it  is  a  command  from  without ;  it  is  a  letter 
which  denounces  sentence  of  death  on  its  violators ; *  it  has  no  sympathy 
wherewith  to  touch  the  heart;  it  has  no  power  whereby  to  sway  the  will. 
"  Spiritual "  in  one  sense  it  is,  because  it  is  "  holy,  just,  and  good ;  "  but  it  is 
in  no  sense  a  "quickening  spirit,"  and  therefore  can  impart  no  life.  And 
why  ?  Simply  because  it  is  met,  opposed,  defeated  by  a  strong  counter- 
principle  of  man's  being — the  dominion  of  sin  in  the  flesh.  It  was  "  weak 
through  the  flesh  " — that  is,  through  the  sensuous  principle  which  dominates 
the  whole  man  in  body  and  soul.2  In  the  human  spirit,  Paul  perceived 
a  moral  spontaneity  to  good;  in  the  flesh,  a  moral  spontaneity  to  evil; 
and  from  these  different  elements  results  "  the  dualism  of  antagonistic 
moral  principles." s  Man's  natural  self-will  resists  the  Divine  determina- 
tion ;  the  subjective  will  is  too  strong  for  the  objective  command.  Even 
if  man  could  obey  a  part  of  the  Law  he  could  not  be  justified,  because  the 
Law  laid  a  curse  on  him  who  did  not  meet  all  its  requirements,  which  the 
moral  consciousness  knew  that  it  could  not  do.4 

ii  But  St.  Paul's  second  proposition — that  the  Law  multiplied  trans- 
gressions 6 — sounded  almost  terribly  offensive.  "  The  Law,"  he  had  already 
said  in  the  Galatians,  was  added  until  the  coming  of  the  promised  seed, 
"for  the  sake  of  transgressions."  6  To  interpret  this  as  meaning  "a  safeguard 
against  transgressions  " — though  from  another  point  of  view,  and  hi  another 
order  of  relations,  this  might  be  true  7 — is  in  this  place  an  absurdity,  because 
St.  Paul  is  proving  the  inability  of  the  Law  to  perform  this  function  at  all 
effectually.  It  would,  moreover,  entirely  contradict  what  he  says — namely, 
that  the  object  of  the  Law  was  the  multiplication  of  transgressions.  Apart 
from  the  Law,  there  may  indeed  be  "  sin "  (a/j.aprla),  although,  not  being 
brought  into  the  light  of  self -consciousness,  man  is  not  aware  of  it  (Rom.  v. 
13 ;  vii.  7) ;  but  he  has  already  told  us  that  there  is  not  "  transgression  " 
(iv.  15),  and  there  is  not  "imputation  "  (v.  13),  and  man  lives  in  a  state  of 
relative  innocence,  little  pained  by  the  existence  of  objective  evil.8  It  was, 

1  2  Cor.  iii.  6. 

2  The  <r<£p£  is  not  only  the  material  body,  but  an  active  inherent  principle,  which 
influences  not  only  the  ^vx»)  or  natural  life,  but  even  the  i-oSs  or  human  spirit  (Baur, 
Paul.  ii.  140). 

3  Gal.  v.  17 ;  Pfleiderer,  i.  54.     To  this  writer  I  am  much  indebted,  as  well  as  to 
Baur  and  Reuss,  among  many  others,  for  my  views  of  Pauline  theology.     I  must  content 
myself  with  this  large  general  acknowledgment,  because  they  write  from  a  standpoint 
widely  different  from  my  own,  and  because  I  find  in  the  pages  of  all  three  writers  very 
much  with  which  I  entirely  disagree. 

4  Gal.  iii.  10 ;  James  ii.  10.  *  Eom.  v.  20. 
'  Gal.  iii.  19,  x*Piv  Tapa0a<recuv  irpo<reT£0ij. 

7  The  usus  primus  or  politicus  of   the  Law — v.  supra,  p.  479.     It  is  a  safeguard 
against  acts  which,  when  the  law  is  uttered,  become  transgressions. 

8  To  be  "  naked  and  not  ashamed  "  is,  in  the  first  instance,  the  prerogative  of  inno- 
cence ;  but  it  becomes  ultimately  the  culmination  of  guilt. 


EPISTLE    TO   THE    ROMANS,   AND   THEOLOGY   OP   ST.   PAUL.  483 

therefore,  St.  Paul's  painful  and  difficult  task  to  sever  the  Law  finally  from 
all  direct  connexion  with  salvation,  by  showing  that,  theologically  considered—- 
and this  was  the  point  which  to  the  Jew  would  sound  so  paradoxical  and  so 
wounding — God  had  expressly  designed  it,  not  for  the  prevention  of  sin,  and 
the  effecting  of  righteousness,  but  for  the  increase  of  sin,  and  the  working  of 
ivrath.1  It  multiplied  sin,  because,  by  a  psychological  fact,  which  we  cannot 
explain,  but  which  St.  Paul  here  exhibits  with  marvellous  insight  into  human 
nature,  the  very  existence  of  a  commandment  acts  as  an  incitement  to  its 
violation  ("  Permission  fit  vile  nefas  ") ;  and  it  worked  wrath  by  forcing  all 
sin  into  prominent  self-consciousness,2  and  thus  making  it  the  source  of  acute 
misery ;  by  bringing  home  to  the  conscience  that  sense  of  guilt  which  is  the 
feeling  of  disharmony  with  God ;  by  darkening  life  with  the  shadows  of  dread 
and  self-contempt ;  by  creating  the  sense  of  moral  death,  and  by  giving  to 
physical  death  its  deadliest  sting.3 

iii.  The  third  proposition — that  "we  are  not  under  the  Law,  but  under 
grace"* — has  been  already  sufficiently  illustrated;  and  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  object  of  St.  Paul  throughout  has  been  to  show  that  the  true 
theological  position  of  the  Law — its  true  position,  that  is,  in  the  Divine 
reconomy  of  salvation — is  to  come  in  between  sin  and  grace,  to  be  an  impulse 
in  the  process  of  salvation.  He  has  already  shown  this,  historically  and  exe- 
getically,  in  the  fifth  chapter,  as  also  in  Gal.  iii.,  by  insisting  on  the  fact  that 
the  Law,  as  a  supplementary  ordinance,6  cannot  disannul  a  free  promise  which 
was  prior  to  it  by  430  years,  and  which  had  been  sanctioned  by  an  oath.  The 
Law,  then,  shows  (1)  the  impossibility  of  any  oilier  way  of  obtaining  the  ful- 
filment of  the  promise,  except  that  of  free  favour ;  and  (2)  the  impossibility 
of  regarding  this  promise  as  a  debt  (o<pei\i}p.a)  when  it  was  a  free  gift.  In 
this  point  of  view  the  Law  fulfils  the  function  of  driving  man  to  seek  that 
justification  which  is  possible  by  faith  alone.  Objectively  and  historically, 
therefore,  the  history  of  man  may  be  regarded  in  four  phases — Sin,  Promise, 
Law,  Grace — Adam,  Abraham,  Moses,  Christ;  subjectively  and  individually, 
also  in  four  phases — relative  innocence,  awakened  consciousness,  imputable 
transgression,  free  justification.  The  one  is  the  Divine,  the  other  is  the 
human  side  of  one  and  the  same  process ;  and  both  find  their  illustration, 
though  each  independently  of  the  other,  in  the  theology  of  St.  Paul.6 

1  Pfleiderer,  L  81.     "Whoever  separates  himself  from  the  words  of  the  Law  is  con- 
sumed by  fire  "  (Babha  Bathra,  f.  79,  1). 

2  "  The  strength  of  sin  is  the  Law  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  56),  because  it  is  what  it  is  essentially 
through  man's  consciousness  of  it.     It  strengthens  the  perception  of  sin,  and  weakens  the 
consciousness  of  any  power  in  the  will  to  resist  it. 

"  And  therefore  Law  was  given  them  to  evince 
Their  natural  pravity,  by  stirring  up 
Sin  against  Law  to  fight ;  that  when  they  see 
Law  can  discover  sin,  but  not  remove, 
Save  by  those  shadowy  expiations  weak, 
The  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  they  may  conclude 
Some  blood  more  precious  must  be  paid  for  man." — Milton,  P.  L.  xii.  285. 

The  last  three  lines  express  the  argument  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

»  Kom.  iv.  15 ;  vu.  10-13.  *  Bom.  vi.  1*.  *  Qfal.  ijL 

f  Bom.  v.uvii.,  xi.  j  GaL  iii.,  Iv, 


484  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PATTL. 

And  if  it  be  asserted,  by  way  of  modern  objection  to  this  theology,  and  to 
St.  Paul's  methods  of  argument  and  exegesis,  that  they  suggest  multitudes  of 
difficulties ;  that  they  pour  new  wine  into  old  wine-skins,  which  burst  under 
its  fermentation ;  that  they  involve  a  mysticising  idealisation  of  1,500  years  of 
history  and  of  the  plain  literal  intention  of  large  portions  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament  Scriptures ;  that  Moses  would  have  been  as  horrified  to  be 
told  by  St.  Paul  that  the  object  of  his  Law  was  only  to  multiply  transgres- 
sion, and  intensify  the  felt  heinousness  of  sin,  as  he  is  said  to  have  been  when 
in  vision  he  saw  Rabbi  Akhibha  imputing  to  him  a  thousand  rules  which  he 
had  never  sanctioned ;  that  the  Law  was  obviously  given  with  the  intention 
that  it  should  be  obeyed,  not  with  the  intention  that  it  should  be  broken ;  that 
St.  Paul  himself  has  spoken  in  this  very  Epistle  of  "doers  of  the  Law  being 
justified,"  and  of  "works  of  the  Law,"  and  of  "working  good,"  and  of  a 
recompense  for  it,1  and  of  "reaping  what  we  have  sown;"2  that  he  has  in 
every  one  of  his  Epistles  urged  the  necessity  of  moral  duties,  not  as  an 
inevitable  result  of  that  union  with  Christ  which  is  the  Christian's  life,  but  as 
things  after  which  Christians  should  strive,  and  for  the  fulfilment  of  which 
they  should  train  themselves  with  severe  effort;3  and  that  in  his  Pastoral 
Epistles  these  moral  considerations,  as  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Peter  and 
St.  James,  seem  to  have  come  into  the  foreground,4  while  the  high  theological 
verities  seem  to  have  melted  farther  into  the  distance — if  these  objections  be 
urged,  as  they  often  have  been  urged,  the  answers  to  them  are  likewise  mani- 
fold. We  have  not  the  smallest  temptation  to  ignore  the  difficulties,  though 
it  would  be  easy  by  separate  examination  to  show  that  to  state  them  thus  is  to 
shift  their  true  perspective.  As  regards  St.  Paul's  style  of  argument,  those 
who  see  in  it  a  falsification  of  Scripture,  a  treacherous  dealing  with  the  Word 
of  God,  which  St.  Paul  expressly  repudiates,6  should  consider  whether  they 
too  may  not  be  intellectually  darkened  by  suspicious  narrowness  and  ignorant 
prepossessions.6  St.  Paul  regarded  the  Scripture  as  the  irrefragable  Word  of 
God,  and  yet,  even  when  he  seems  to  be  attaching  to  mere  words  and  sounds 
a  "  talismanic  value,"  he  never  allows  the  letter  of  Scripture  to  becloud  the 
illumination  (4>&>T«r/^s)  of  spiritual  enlightenment.7  Even  when  he  seemed  to 
have  the  whole  Pentateuch  against  him,  he  never  suffered  the  outward  expres- 
sion to  enthral  the  emancipated  idea.  He  knew  well  that  one  word  of  God 
cannot  contradict  another,  and  his  allegorising  and  spiritualising  methods — • 
(which,  in  one  form  or  other,  are  absolutely  essential,  since  the  Law  speaks  in 
the  tongue  of  the  sons  of  men,  and  human  language  is  at  the  best  but  an 
asymptote  to  thought) — are  not  made  the  vehicle  of  mechanical  inference  or 
individual  caprice,  but  are  used  in  support  of  formative  truths,  of  fruitful 
ideas,  of  spiritual  convictions,  of  direct  revelations,  which  are  as  the  Eternal 

»  Bom.  ii.  6-13 ;  iv.  4.  '  Gal.  vi.  7 ;  2  Thess.  iii.  13 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  58. 

»  1  Cor.  ix.  25—27 ;  Phil.  iii.  14. 

4  Mic.  vi.  12;  1  Tim.  iv.  7,  8;  ii.  3;  Tit.  iii.  8;  ii.  14;  2  Pet.  i.  10,  11}  James  U. 
17,24. 

6  2  Cor.  ii.  17,  ov  icamjAc'voires  ;  2  Cor.  Iv.  2.  unSe  SoAovires. 

•  2  Cor.  iv.  I— 7.  *  3Cor.iv.  4, 


•PISTLK  tO  THE    EOMANS,   AND  THEOLOOT  OF   ST/  PAUL.  486 

Temple,  built  within  the  temporary  scaffolding  of  abrogated  dispensations. 
In  this  way  of  dealing  with  Scripture  he  was  indeed  regarded  as  a  blasphemer 
by  a  Pharisaism  which  was  at  once  unenlightened  and  unloving ;  but  he  was  a 
direct  successor  of  the  Prophets,  who  dealt  in  a  spirit  of  sacred  independence 
with  earlier  revelations,1  and  with  their  mantle  he  had  caught  a  double  portion 
of  their  spirit.  He  felt  that  the  truths  his  opponents  characterised  as  "  teme- 
rities "  and  "  blasphemies  "  were  as  holy  as  the  Trisagion  of  the  Seraphim ; 
that  his  "apostasy  from  Moses"2  was  due  to  a  reverence  for  him  far  deeper 
than  that  of  his  upholders,  and  that  there  was  an  immemorial,  nay,  even  an 
eternal  validity,  in  the  most  extreme  of  his  asserted  innovations. 

And  as  for  apparent  contradictions,  St.  Paul,  like  all  great  thinkers,  was 
very  careless  of  them.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  they  were  distinctly  pre- 
sent to  his  mind.  He  knew  that  the  predestinations  of  the  Infinite  cannot  be 
thrust  away — as  though  they  were  ponderable  dust  inurned  in  the  Columbaria 
— in  the  systems  of  the  finite.  He  knew  that  in  Divine  as  well  as  in  human 
truths  there  are  certain  antinomies,  irreconcilable  by  the  mere  understanding, 
and  yet  perfectly  capable  of  being  fused  into  unity  by  the  divinely  enlightened 
reason,  or,  as  he  would  have  phrased  it,  by  the  spirit  of  man  which  has  been 
mystically  united  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  As  a  scheme,  as  a  system,  as  a 
theory  of  salvation — abstractly  considered,  ideally  treated — he  knew  that  his 
line  of  argument  was  true,  and  that  his  exposition  of  the  Divine  purpose  was 
irrefragable,  because  he  knew  that  he  had  received  it  neither^  f rom  man,  nor 
by  any  man,3  but  by  the  will  of  God.  But  there  is  a  difference  between  the 
ideal  and  the  actual — between  the  same  truths  regarded  in  their  theological 
bearing  as  parts  of  one  vast  philosophy  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  and  stated  in 
everyday  language  in  their  immediate  bearing  upon  the  common  facts  of  life. 
In  the  language  of  strict  and  accurate  theology,  to  talk  of  the  "  merit "  of 
works,  and  the  "  reward  "  of  works,  or  even  the  possibility  of  "  good  "  works, 
was  erroneous ;  but  yet — without  any  of  such  Protestant  after- thoughts  as 
that  these  works  are  the  fruits  of  unconscious  faith,  or  that  without  this  faith 
they  cannot  in  any  sense  be  good,  and  without  dreaming  of  any  collision  with 
what  he  says  elsewhere,  and  untroubled  by  any  attempt  to  reconcile  his  state- 
ments with  the  doctrine  of  original  sin — he  could  and  did  talk  quite  freely 
about  "  Gentiles  doing  by  nature  the  things  of  the  Law,"  and  says  that  "the 
doer  of  the  Law  shall  be  justified,"  and  that  God  will  render  to  every  man 
according  to  his  works.*  St.  Paul  would  probably  have  treated  with  contempt, 
as  a  mere  carping  criticism,  which  allowed  no  room  for  common  sense  in  dealing 

1  Jer.  xxxi.  29.    Ezek.  rviii.  2 ;  xx.  25,  "  Wherefore  I  gave  them  also  statutes  that 
were  not  good,  and  judgments  whereby  they  should  not  live."     Hos.  vi.  6,  "I  desired 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice ;  and  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt  offering."    Jer.  vii. 
22,  23,  "I  spake  not  unto  your  fathers  concerning  burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices,  but  this 
thing  commanded  I  them,  saying,  Obey  my  voice. 

2  Acts  xxi.  21,  "  They  have  been  indoctrinated  with  the  view  that  you  teach  apostasy 
from  Moses." 

s  Gal.  i.  1,  OVK  an'  OLf8p<amav,  ov&f  Si  avOpairov. 

*  Kom.  li  13,  14  ;  xiv.  10.    See,  too,  2  Cor.  v.  10 ;  Gal.  vi.  7 ;  Eph.  vi.  8 ;  Col.  lii, 
24,  2o> 


486  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST:  PAtTfc. 

with  the  truths  of  revelation,  any  attempt  to  show  that  in  such  passages—- 
both on  this  and  on  other  subjects — he  appears  to  contradict  himself.1  He 
would  very  briefly,  and  with  profound  indifference,  have  contented  himself 
with  saying  that  his  remarks  in  these  passages  are  not  in  pari  material  He 
is  not  there  speaking  or  thinking  at  all  of  the  doctrine  of  redemption.  He  is 
there  talking  about  "  the  justification  of  the  Law,"  which  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  "  the  justification  by  faith."  He  is  there  using  general  language, 
altogether  irrespective  of  the  GospeL  Protestant  commentators  with  all  their 
elaborate  and  varying  theories — that  in  these  works  faith  is  included  as  the 
highest  work;3  that  they  are  perfected  in  faith;4  that  "works  will  be  adduced 
in  the  day  of  judgment,  not  as  meriting  salvation,  but  as  proofs  and  results  of 
faith  ;"6  that "  the  imperfect  works  of  the  sanctified  will  be  rewarded,  not  on  the 
ground  of  the  Law,  but  on  the  ground  of  grace;"  6  that  he  was  mentally  refer- 
ring to  a  "  prevenient  grace  "  over  the  Gentile  world,  and  so  on — are  doubtless 
dogmatically  right,  but  they  are  far  more  anxious  to  save  St.  Paul's  orthodoxy 
and  consistency  than  he  would  have  been  himself.  It  is  at  least  doubtful 
whether  such  considerations  were  consciously  present  to  his  mind.  He  would 
have  held  it  enough  to  reply  that,  in  these  passages,  he  was  only  applying 
the  current  language  of  morality  to  the  concrete  relations  of  actual  life ; 7  and 
that  "  the  doctrine  of  justification  cannot  conflict  with  the  doctrine  of  God's 
righteousness  by  virtue  of  which  He  will  reward  every  man  according  to  his 
works."8  When  St.  Paul  was  using  the  language  of  accurate  theology,  he 
would  have  shown  the  nullity  of  righteousness  by  works.  But,  in  any  case, 
he  would  have  thought  far  more  highly  of  the  possibility  of  such  righteous- 
ness than  of  the  righteousness  of  dogmatic  orthodoxy,  or  the  righteousness  of 
the  letter ;  the  righteousness  of  the  jealous  heresy-hunter,  or  the  righteousness 
of  the  religious  partisan.9 

Lastly,  it  will  be  seen  how  little  St.  Paul  is  troubled  by  the  apparent  para- 
doxes which  result  from  the  doctrines  which  he  enforces.  By  those  who 
manipulated  truth  to  suit  their  own  parties  and  purposes ;  by  those  who  huck- 
stered the  Word  of  Life ;  by  those  who  pushed  truths  into  extravagant  infer- 
ences, and  then  condemned  them  on  the  ground  of  their  possible  misapplication 
— his  doctrines  were  denounced  as  "  dangerous ;"  and  we  know  as  a  fact  that, 
even  in  his  own  lifetime,  what  he  taught  was  made  a  handle  for  evil  doctrine,10 
and  was  subjected  to  perilous  perversions.11  When  such  arguments  as  these 
wore  urged  against  him,  St.  Paul  treated  them  with  entire  disdain.  Truth 

1  For  these  antinomies,  which  exist  in  theology  as  they  exist  in  nature,  and  are  com- 
plementary truths  of  which  the  harmony  is  to  he  found  in  the  Infinite,  see  Excursus  XXI. 

3  "Haeo  descriptio  justitiae  legis,  quae  nihil  impedit  alia  dicta  de  justitia  fidei" 
(Melancthon  in  Horn.  ii.  13).  He  is  here  "  laying  down  those  general  principles  of  justice, 
according  to  which,  irrespective  of  the  Gospel,  all  men  are  to  be  judged  "  (Hodge  on 
Rom.  ii.  6). 

8  Limborch.  4  Luthardt.  5  Gerhard.  6  Stuart. 

7  Baur,  N.  Test.  Thed.  181 ;  Pfleiderer,  i.  78.  8  Lange  on  Eom.  ii.  6^10. 

9  Lehrgerechtigkeit ;  Buchstabende  Echtigkeit,  Negationsgerechtigkeit,  Parteigerech- 
tigkeit  (Lange,  ubi  supra). 

1°  Kom.  iii.  8.  H  2  Pet.  111.  16,  orpe^Xovo-iv    .    .    .    irpbs  TT\V  I6ia.t>  avrSiy 


EPISTLE   TO   THE    ROMANS,  AND    THEOLOGY  Ofc   ST.   PAUL.          487 

lhay  bo  wrested,  truth  may  be  distorted,  truth  may  be  made  an  instrument  of 
self-destruction — but  truth  is  truth,  and  can  take  care  of  itself,  and  needs  no 
"lying  for  God"  to  servo  as  its  buttress.1  The  doctrine  of  free  grace  might 
be,  and  was,  quoted  in  the  cause  of  antinomianism,  and  degraded  into  a  justi- 
fication of  sensuality.  The  predominance  of  grace  over  sin  was  twisted  into  a 
reason  for  doing  evil  that  good  might  come.  The  hope  of  future  forgiveness 
was  pleaded  as  a  ground  for  continuing  in  sin.  Well,  let  it  be  so.  The  ocean 
of  truth  did  not  cease  to  bo  an  ocean  because  here  and  there  a  muddy  river  of 
error  flowed  stealthily  in  its  tides.  In  answer  to  the  moral  perversity  which 
abused  truth  into  an  occasion  of  wickedness,  St.  Paul  thought  it  sufficient  to 
appeal  to  the  right  feeling  of  mankind.  If  a  man  chooses  to  pervert  a  Divine 
and  gracious  doctrine  into  a  "  dangerous  downfall,"  he  does  so  at  his  own 
peril.  Evil  inferences  St.  Paul  merely  repudiates  with  a  "  God  forbid !  "2 — of 
malignant  misiuterpreters  he  thought  it  enough  to  say  that  "  their  condemna- 
tion was  just!"3 

After  these  preliminary  considerations  we  are  in  a  position  to  proceed 
uninterruptedly  with  our  sketch  of  the  Epistle,  since  we  are  now  hi  possession 
of  its  main  conceptions.  Proceeding  then  to  a  further  expansion  of  his 
views  respecting  the  Law,  and  speaking  (chap,  vii.)  to  those  who  know  it, 
the  Apostle  further  enforces  the  metaphor  that  the  Christian  is  dead  to  his 
past  moral  condition,  and  has  arisen  to  a  new  one.  A  woman  whose 
husband  is  dead  is  free  to  marry  again;  we  are  dead  to  the  Law,  and 
are  therefore  free  to  be  united  to  Christ.  Obviously  the  mere  passing 
illustration  must  not  be  pressed,  because  if  used  as  more  than  an  illustration 
it  is  doubly  incomplete — incomplete  because  the  word  "dead"  is  here  used 
in  two  quite  different  senses;  and  because,  to  make  the  analogy  at  all 
perfect,  the  Law  ought  to  have  died  to  us,  and  not  we  to  the  Law.  But 
St.  Paul  merely  makes  a  cursory  use  of  the  illustration  to  indicate  that  the 
new  life  of  the  Christian  involves  totally  new  relationships;4  that  death 
naturally  ends  all  legal  obligations;  and  that  our  connexion  with  the  risen 
Christ  is  so  close  that  it  may  be  compared  to  a  conjugal  union.  Hence  our 
whole  past  condition,  alike  in  its  character  and  its  results,  is  changed,  and  a 
new  Law  has  risen  from  the  dead  with  our  new  life — a  Law  which  we 
must  serve  in  the  newness  of  the  spirit,  not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter. 
He  who  is  dead  to  sin  is  dead  to  the  Law,  because  the  Law  can  only 
reign  so  long  as  sin  reigns,  and  because  Christ  in  His  crucified  body  has 
destroyed  the  body  of  sin.5 

But  St.  Paul  is  conscious  that  in  more  than  one  passage  he  has  placed  the 
Law  and  Sin  in  a  juxtaposition  which  would  well  cause  the  very  deepest 

1  Job  xiiL  7,  8. 

2  Horn.  iii.  4,  6,  31 ;  vi.  2,  15 ;  vii.  7,  &o. ;  Gal.  ii.  17 ;  iii.  21 ;  vi.  14 ;  1  Cor.  vi.  15. 
»  Rom.  iii.  8.  4  2  Cor.  xi.  2 ;  Eph.  v.  25. 

8  vii.  17-6.  The  very  harshness  of  the  construction  iitoQwovm  lv  $  ("by  dying  to 
that  in  which  we  were  held  fast ")  seems  to  make  it  more  probable  than  the  TOV  9a.va.rov  of 
D,  E,  If,  G,  The  E.V.  renders  itroeavovTos,  the  unsupported  conjecture  of  Beza,  or 
Erasmus, 


488  THE  LIFE  AKD  WORK  OF  ST.  PAtit. 

offence.  To  show  his  meaning  he  enters  on  a  psychological  study,  of  which 
the  extreme  value  has  always  been  recognised  entirely  apart  from  its  place 
in  the  scheme  of  theology.  Here  he  writes  as  it  were  with  his  very  heart's 
blood;  ho  dips  his  pen  in  his  inmost  experience.  He  is  not  here  dealing 
with  the  ideal  or  the  abstract,  but  with  the  sternest  facts  of  actual  daily 
life.  There  have  been  endless  discussions  as  to  whether  he  is  speaking  of 
himself  or  of  others ;  whether  he  has  in  view  the  regenerate  or  the  unre- 
generate  [man.  Let  even  good  men  look  into  their  own  hearts  and  answer. 
Ideally,  the  Christian  is  absolutely  one  with  Christ,  and  dead  to  siu;  in 
reality,  as  again  and  again  St.  Paul  implies  even  of  himself,  his  life  is  a 
warfare  in  which  there  is  no  discharge.  There  is  an  Adam  and  a  Christ 
in  each  of  us.  "The  angel  has  us  by  the  hand,  and  the  serpent  by  the 
heart."  The  old  Adam  is  too  strong  for  young  Melancthon.1  Here,  then, 
he  explains,  from  a  knowledge  of  his  own  heart,  confirmed  by  the  knowledge 
of  every  heart,  that  the  Law,  though  not  the  cause  of  sin,  is  yet  the  occa- 
sion of  it ;  and  that  there  are  in  every  human  being  two  laws— that  is,  two 
opposing  tendencies — which  sway  him  from  time  to  time,  and  in  greater  or 
less  degree  in  opposite  directions.  And  in  this  way  he  wrote  an  epitome 
of  the  soul's  progress.  When  we  have  once  realised  that  the  "  I "  of  the 
passage  is  used  in  different  senses — sometimes  of  the  flesh,  the  lower  nature, 
in  the  contemplation  of  which  St.  Paul  could  speak  of  himself  as  the  chief 
of  sinners;  sometimes  of  the  higher  nature,  which  can  rise  to  those  full 
heights  of  spiritual  life  which  he  has  been  recently  contemplating;  some- 
times generically  of  himself  as  a  member  of  the  human  race — it  is  then 
easy  to  follow  his  history  of  the  soul. 

The  Law  is  not  sin — Heaven  forbid! — but  it  provokes  disobedience,9  and  it 
creates  the  consciousness  of  sin.  Without  it  there  is  sin  indeed,  but  it  is  dead  ;  in 
other  words,  it  is  latent  and  unrecognised.  That  is  the  age  of  fancied  innocence, 
of  animal  irreflective  life,  of  a  nakedness  which  is  not  ashamed.  But  it  is  a  condi- 
tion of  "immoral  tranquillity"  which  cannot  be  permanent ;  of  misplaced  confidence 
which  causes  many  an  aberration  from  duty.  When  the  blind  tendency  of  wrong 
becomes  conscious  of  itself  by  collision  with  a  direct  command,  then  sin  acquires 
fresh  life  at  the  expense  of  that  misery  and  shame  which  is  spiritual  death.8  Thus 
sin,  like  Satan,  disguises  itself  under  the  form  of  an  angel  of  light,  and  seizes  the 
opportunity  furnished  by  the  command  which  in  itself  is  holy,  just,  and  good,4  to 
utterly  deceive  and  to  slay  me.* 

1  "  Our  little  lives  are  kept  in  equipoise 

By  struggles  of  two  opposite  desires  : 
The  struggle  of  the  instinct  that  enjoys, 
And  the  more  noble  instinct  that  aspires." 

2  Of  this  thought  there  are  many  interesting  classical  parallels.  Liv.  xxxiv.  4 : 
"  Parricidae  cum  lege  coeperunt,  et  illis  facinus  poenamonstravit."  Sen,  De  Clem.  i.  23  : 
"Gens  humanaruit  per vetitum  et  nefas."  ILor.Carm.  13, 26  :  "Quod  licet  ingratum  est, 
quod  non  licet  acrius  urit."  Ov.  Amor.  ii.  19,  &c. :  "  The  Law  produces  reflection  on  the 
forbidden  object,  curiosity,  doubt,  distrust,  imagination,  lust,  susceptibility  of  the  seed 
of  temptation  and  of  seduction,  and  finally  rebellion — the  n-opaSao-w  (Lange). 

8  " More  peccati  vita  est  hominia;  vita  peccati  mors  hominis "  (Calvin).  "By  the 
jetser  ha-rd  "  (the  evil  impulse),  says  Rabbi  Simeon  Ben  Lakish,  "  is  meant  the  angel  of 
death  "  (Tholuck). 

4  Holy  in  its  origin,  just  in  its  requirements,  good  in  its  purpose.  *  vii.  7-12. 


RPISTLE  TO  THB   ROMANS,   AND  THEOLOGY  OF  ST.    PAUL.  489 

"What?"  one  may  ask,  "did  that  which  is  good  become  death  to  me?"  Nay, 
but  sin  by  meant  of  that  which  was  good  effected  my  death,  because  by  means  of  th« 
commandment  sin's  exceeding  sinfulness  was  dragged  into  recognition.  How  came 
this  P  It  came  out  of  the  struggle  of  the  higher  and  the  lower  elements  of  our  being ; 
out  of  the  contest  between  my  fleshen  and  servile  nature l  and  the  Law*-*  spirituality 
of  origin, — the  result  of  which  is  that  I  am  two  men  in  one,  and  live  two  lives  in 
one,  not  doing  wh&t  I  desire,  and  doing  what  I  detest.  In  me — that  is,  in  my  flesh 
— dwelleth  no  good  thing ;  but  I  am  not  my  flesh.  I  identify  my  own  individuality 
with  that  higher  nature  which  wills  what  is  noble,  but  is  too  often  defeated  by  the 
indwelling  impulses  of  sin.2  My  true  self,  my  inward  man,8  delights  in  the  law  of 
God;  but  my  spirit,  my  intellect  and  my  reason  are  in  constant  warfare  with 
another  law — a  sensual  impulse  of  my  fleshy  nature — which  often  reduces  me  into 
the  bondage  of  its  prison-house.  Wretched  duality  of  condition  which  makes  my 
life  a  constant  inconsistency !  Wretched  enchainment  of  a  healthy,  living  organism 
to  a  decaying  corpse !  Who  shall  rescue  me  from  these  struggles  of  a  disintegrated 
individuality  ? 

"  Thanks  to  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord ! "  It  is  a  sign  of  the  intensity 
of  feeling  with  which  he  is  writing  that  he  characteristically  omits  to  mention  the 
very  thing  for  which  he  thanks  God.  But  the  words  "  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord  "  sufficiently  show  that  his  gratitude  is  kindled  by  the  conviction  that  the  deli- 
verance is  possible — that  the  deliverance  has  been  achieved.4  I,  my  very  self — the 
human  being  within  me* — serve  with  my  mind  the  law  of  God.  Through  my 
weakness,  my  inconsistency,  my  imperfect  faith,  my  imperfect  union  with  Christ,  I 
still  serve  with  my  flesh  the  law  of  sin ; 6  but  that  servitude  is  largely  weakened,  is 
practically  broken.  There  is  no  condemnation  for  those  who  by  personal  union 
with  Christ  7  live  in  accordance  with  the  Spirit.  Sin  is  slavery  and  death ;  the 
Spirit  is  freedom  and  life.  The  Law  was  rendered  impotent  by  the  flesh,  but  God, 
by  sending  His  own  Son  in  the  form  of  sinful  flesh 8  and  as  a  sin-offering,9  con- 

1  vii.  14.    vapiuvot,  "fleshen,"  carneua;  voftuiAt,  "  fleshly, "  carnalis.    The  former  is 
here  the  true  reading,  and  involves  (of  course)  less  subjection  to  the  flesh  than  the  latter. 

2  The  most  commonly -quoted  of  the  classic  parallels  is  Ovid's  "Video  meliora  pro- 
boque,  Deteriora  sequor  "  ( Met.  vii.  19).     The  nearest  is  5  f«v  fie\«c  (6  ifi.apTa.inav)  ov  irocet  *ol 
3  tut  0€\«.  irotet.    Au'o  -yap  <rcu/>w$  «x<°  <f™x»*  (Xen.  Cyr.  vi.  1).     Chrysostom  calls  ver.  21 
aerate?  ciprnifvov,  but  the  obscurity  is  only  caused  by  the  trajection  of  on,  which  involves 
the  repetition  of  i^oC.    It  means  "  I  find,  then,  the  law  that  evil  is  close  at  hand  to  me 
when  my  will  is  to  do  good." 

8  Of.  1  Pet.  iii.  4.     6  KPVTJTO*  T^S  xopiux?  •u'dptoTrof.     German  writers  apeak  of  the 

" pseudo-plasmatic  man"  with  Ms  vovs  TTJ?   <rapKb«,  <j>p6vrnj.a.  rrjs  crapxbs,  c-wfxa  Tijs  iftapritis. 

j-6/aos  iv  rots  jme'\«o-i,  ^apl,  &c.  Schuh.  Pathologie  und  Therapie  des  Pseudo-plasmen,  18. 
"This  double  personality  is  a  dethronement  of  the  ey*>  in  favour  of  the  afiofrui.." 

4  Instead  of  "  I  thank  God  "  (evxaptorw),  the  easier,  and  therefore  less  probable  reading, 
cf  D,  E,  F,  G  is  rt  x<*p'«  rov  6eov,  or  Kvpiov.  More  probable  is  the  x«p<?  T¥  s"i>  °f  B  and  the 
Sahidic. 

*  vii.  25,  ouT09  «yw.  I  believe  this  to  be  the  true  meaning,  though  many  reject  it. 
St.  Paul  is  speaking  in  his  own  person,  not  by  perooxwumojufe  (see  1  Cor.  iv.  6).  An 
"infection  of  nature  "  remains  even  in  the  regenerate  (Art.  ix.). 

6  There  is  a  determining  power  in  the  "flesh  "which  Paul  calls  "a  law  in  th«  members," 
and  which  by  its  predominance  becomes  "  a  law  of  sin."  This  is  opposed  by  the  rational 
principle,  the  vovs  or  human  jri/ev^a — the  e<rw  ai/flp<o7ros — the  higher  spiritual  consciousness, 
which  can  however  never,  by  itself,  invade  and  conquer  the  flesh.  Its  power  is  rather 
potential  than  actual.  Reason  is  the  better  principle  in  man,  but  the  flesh  ia  the  stronger. 
It  is  not  the  Divine  m>fv^a.  Nothing  but  union  with  Christ  can  secure  to  the  vovs  the 
victory  over  the  o-opj  (Baur,  Paul.  ii.  146). 

'  viii.  3.  "Christus  in  homine,  ubi  fides  in  corde  "  (Aug.).  The  true  reading  is, 
"There  is,  then,  now  no  condemnation  to  those  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  rest  of  the  vers? 
IB  a  gloss. 

8  Lit.,  "  in  a  flesh-likeness  of  sin." 

'  *«pt  o.uop-u'at  "as  a  sin-offering"  rtKign,  chattath.    Lev.  xvi.  5:  X^«TM  3vb 


4s90  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF   ST.  PAUL. 

demned  to  death 1  the  victorious  power  of  sin  in  the  flesh,  and  so  enabled  us,  by  a 
spiritual  life,  to  meet  the  otherwise  impossible  requirements  of  the  Law.  Our  life 
is  no  longer  under  the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  which  obeys  the  law  of  sin,  but  of  the 
spirit2  The  death  of  Christ  has,  so  to  speak,  shifted  the  centre  of  gravity  of  our 
will.  If  Christ  be  in  us,  the  body  indeed  is  still  liable  to  death  because  of  sin,  but 
the  spirit — our  own  spiritual  life — (he  does  not  say  merely  '  contains  the  elements  of 
life,'  but  in  his  forcible  manner) — is  life,  because  of  the  righteousness  implanted  by 
the  sanctifying  Spirit  of  God.  If  that  Spirit  which  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell 
in  us,  He  who  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  will  also  quicken  us  to  full  life,  partially 
but  progressively  here,  but  triumphantly  and  finally  beyond  the  grave.8  And  even 
here,  in  a  measure,  we  attain  to  the  "life  of  the  spirit."  Never,  indeed,  can  we 
fulfil  the  whole  Law  (Gal.  iii.  10^  ;  but  for  the  quantitative  is  substituted  a  quali- 
tative fulfilment,  and  the  "  totality  of  the  disposition  contains  in  itself  the  totality 
of  the  Law."  In  that  stage  life  becomes  life  indeed.  The  "law  of  the  spirit"  is 
the  "  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus." 

This,  then,  shows  us  the  true  law,  and  the  final  issue  of  our  lives.  If  we  are  led 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  we  are  the  sons  of  God,  and  the  spirit  of  fear  becomes  the  spirit 
of  sonship,  and  the  cry  of  slavery  the  cry  of  confident  appeal  to  a  Father  in  heaven. 
Thus  we  become  joint-heirs  with  Christ ;  and,  therefore,  to  share  His  glory  we  must 
share  His  sufferings.  The  full  glory  of  that  sonship  is  to  be  ours  beyond  the  grave, 
and  in  comparison  with  it  the  sufferings  of  this  life  are  nothing.  The  life  of  all 
creation  is  now  in  anguish,  in  bondage,  in  corruption,  yearning  for  a  freedom  which 
shall  be  revealed  when  we  too  have  entered  on  the  full  glory  of  our  inheritance  as 
the  children  of  God.  We,  though  we  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  spirit,  share  in  the 
groaning  misery  of  nature,  as  it  too  shares  in  inarticulate  sympathy  with  our 
impatient  aspirations.  We  live,  we  are  saved  BY  HOPE,  and  the  very  idea  of 
Hope  is  the  antithesis  of  present  realisation.4 

Hope  is  not  possession,  is  not  reality ;  it  can  but  imply  future  fruition ;  it  is  Faith 
in  Christ  directed  to  the  future.  But  we  have  something  more  and  better  than 
Hope.  We  have  the  help  in  weakness,  the  intercession  even  in  prayer  that  can  find 
no  utterance,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself.  We  know,  too,  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  all  them  that  love  God  and  are  called  according  to  His  purpose. 
He  ends  the  Divine  work  that  He  begins.  Election — predestination  to  conformity 
and  brotherhood  with  Christ — vocation — justification — these  four  steps  all  follow, 
all  must  inevitably  follow  each  other,  and  must  end  in  glorification.  So  certain  is 
this  glorification,  this  entrance  into  the  final  fulness  of  sonship  and  salvation,  that 
St.  Paul — with  one  of  those  splendid  flashes  of  rhetoric  which,  like  all  true  rhetoric, 
come  directly  from  the  intensities  of  emotion,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  tech- 
nicalities of  art — speaks  of  it  in  the  same  past  tense  which  he  has  employed  for  every 
other  stage  in  the  process.  Those  whom  He  foreknew,*  predestined,  called,  justified 
• — them  He  also  glorified.* 

"  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things  ?"     What,  but  that  magnificent  burst 

Itepl  e.jj.apTu!t.  Ps.  zl.  7  !  wept  a/xaprt'ar  OVK  flTTjcrar  (Heb,  X.  5).  JJ6V.  iv.  25  :  a)rb  TOU  aifuxrof 
TOV  TTJS  a^apria?. 

1  Ko.-reiipi.vtv,  "condemned  to  execution"  (Matt,  xxvii.  13). 

2  Ver.  6.     On  the  ^po^/ao.  T^S  o-apxbs,  see  Art.  ix.     Philo  also  dwells  strongly  on  the 
impotence  of  man  apart  from  Divine  grace  (Legg.  Alleg.  i.  48,  55, 101). 

3  vii.   13 — Vlii.   11.       The  change  from  TOV  eyeipaz/ros  'I^o-ow  to  6  £v«ipa«  rbv  Xpiarbf   is 
remarkable.  "  Appellatio  Jesu  spectat  ad  ipsum,  Christi  refertur  ad  nos"  (Bengel,viii.  11) 
partly  resumes  the  subject  of  v.  11  after  the  separate  points  handled  in  v.  12 — 21 ; 
vi.  1—23 ;  vii.  1—6,  7—25. 

4  viii.  18—25. 

5  There  are  four  explanations  of  "  foreknew,"  aud  each  is  claimed  alike  by  Calviniats 
and  Arminians !    (Tholuck.)    But,  "  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture,  if  we  would  feel 
as  St.  Paul  felt,  or  think  as  he  thought,  we  must  go  back  to  that  age  in  which  the  water 
of  life  was  still  a  running  stream." 

•  viii.  26—30, 


PREDESTINATION  AND  FEEE  WILL.  491 

of  confidence  and  rapture 1  which  we  will  not  degrade  by  the  name  of  peroration, 
because  in  St.  Paul  no  such  mere  artificiality  of  construction  is  conceivable,  but 
which  fitly  closes  this  long  and  intricate  discussion,  in  which  he  has  enunciated 
truths  never  formulated  since  the  origin  of  the  world,  but  never  to  be  forgotten  till 
its  final  conflagration.  The  subtleties  of  dialectic,  the  difficulties  of  polemical  argu- 
ment, the  novelties  of  spiritualising  exegesis,  are  concluded ;  and,  firm  in  his  own 
revealed  conviction,  he  has  urged  upon  the  conviction  of  the  world,  and  fixed  in  the 
conviction  of  Christians  for  ever,  the  deepest  truths  of  the  Gospel  entrusted  to  his 
charge.  What  remains  but  to  give  full  utterance  to  his  sense  of  exultation  in  spite 
of  earthly  sufferings,  and  "  to  reduce  doubt  to  absurdity  "  by  a  series  of  rapid,  eager, 
triumphant  questions,  which  force  on  the  minds  of  his  hearers  but  one  irresistible 
answer  ?  In  spite  of  all  the  anguish  that  persecution  can  inflict,  in  spi^e  of  all  the 
struggles  which  the  rebellious  flesh  may  cause,  "  we  are  more  than  conquerors 
through  Him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am  convinced  that  neither  death  nor  life,  nor 
angels  nor  principalities,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  created  thing,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  for  a  moment 2  from 
God's  love  manifested  towards  us  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  In  spite  of  failure, 
in  spite  of  imperfection,  our  life  is  united  with  the  life  of  Christ,  our  spirit  quick- 
ened by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  what  have  we  to  fear  if  all  time,  and  all  space,  and 
all  nature,  and  all  the  angels  of  heaven,  and  all  the  demons  of  hell,  are  utterly 
powerless  to  do  us  harm  ?  8 


CHAPTER   XXXYIH. 

PREDESTINATION  AND   FEEE  WILL. 

"Everything  is  foreseen,  and  free  will  is  given.     And  the  world  is  judged  by 
grace,  and  everything  is  according  to  work." — K.  AKHIBHA  in  Pirke  AbMth,  iii.  24. 
'Op$s  STI  ov  <pvffta>s  o68i  uAoojj  avdyitris  tffrl  rd  tlvai  -jfjfvffovv  ff  bff-rpiKivov  &AA.& 
TTJS  qntTtpas  TTpoaipfffews. — CHRYS.  ad  2  Tim.  ii.  21. 

"  Reasoned  high 

Of  Providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate, 
Fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  found  no  end  in  wandering  mazes  lost." 

MILTON,  Paradise  Lott,  ii. 
"  Soil  ich  dir  die  Gegend  Zeigen 
Musst  du  erst  das  Dach  besteigen." — GO"THH. 

WE  now  come  to  the  three  memorable  chapters  (ix.,  x..  xi.)  in  which  St.  Paul 
faces  the  question  which  had,  perhaps,  led  him  to  state  to  the  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles of  Rome  the  very  essence  of  his  theology.  He  has  told  them  "  his 
Gospel" — that  revealed  message  which  he  had  to  preach,  and  by  virtue  of 

1  Compare  the  outburst  in  1  Cor.  xv.  54.  "  In  fact,  as  verses  19 — 23  may  be  called 
a  sacred  elegy,  so  we  may  term  31 — 39  a  sacred  ode  ;  that  is  as  tender  and  fervent  as  this 
Is  bold  and  exalted — that,  an  amplification  of  "we  do  groan  being  burdened"  (2  Cor. 
v.  4) ;  this,  a  commentary  on  "  this  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world"  (1  John, 
T.  4).  Philippi,  ad  loc. 

*  viil.  39,  xiapLuai.. 

8  Compare  this  rapture  of  faith  and  hope  with  the  aching  despair  of  materialism. 
"  To  modern  philosophical  unbelief  the  beginning  of  the  world,  as  well  as  its  end,  is  sunk 
in  mist  and  night,  because  to  it  the  centre  of  the  world — the  historical  Christ — is  sunk 
in  mist  and  night "  (Lange).  The  time  was  ripe  for  the  recognition  of  a  deliverer.  Plato 
and  Seneca  had  clearly  realised  and  distinctly  stated  that  man  was  powerless  to  help 
himself  from  his  own  misery  and  sin.  (Sen.  JEp.  53.  Cf.  Tac.  Ann.  iii.  18 :  Cic.  De  Off. 
14,18.) 


492  TflS  LIFE  jLSb  WORK  Of  St.  PAUL. 


which  he  was  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  He  has  shown  that  Jews  and 
Gentiles  were  equally  guilty,  equally  redeemed.  The  Redemption  was  achieved  ; 
but  only  by  faith,  in  that  sense  of  the  word  which  he  has  so  fully  explained, 
could  its  blessings  be  appropriated.  Alas  !  it  was  but  too  plain  that  while  the 
Gentiles  were  accepting  this  great  salvation,  and  pressing  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  the  Jews  were  proudly  holding  aloof,  and  fatally  relying  on  a  system 
now  abrogated,  on  privileges  no  longer  exclusive.  Their  national  hopes,  their 
individual  hopes,  were  alike  based  on  a  false  foundation,  which  it  has  been  the 
Apostle's  duty  inexorably  to  overthrow.  Their  natural  exclusiveness  he  meets 
by  the  unflinching  principle  that  there  is  no  favouritism  with  our  Heavenly 
Father;  he  meets  their  attempts  after  a  legal  righteousness  by  proving  to 
them  that  they,  like  the  Gentiles,  are  sinners,  that  they  cannot  attain  a  legal 
righteousness,  and  that  no  such  endeavour  can  make  them  just  before  God. 
Obviously  he  was  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  a  tragic  fact  and  a  terrible 
problem.  The  fact  was  that  the  Jews  were  being  rejected,  that  the  Gentiles 
were  being  received.  Even  thus  early  in  the  history  of  Christianity  it  had 
become  but  too  plain  that  the  Church  of  the  future  would  be  mainly  a  Church 
of  Gentiles,  that  the  Jewish  element  within  it  would  become  more  and  more 
insignificant,  and  could  only  exist  by  losing  its  Judaic  distinctiveness.  The 
problem  was,  how  could  this  be,  in  the  face  of  those  immemorial  promises,  in 
the  light  of  that  splendid  history  ?  Was  God  breaking  TTi.s  promises  P  Was 
God  forgetting  that  they  were  "  the  seed  of  Abraham  His  servant,  the  children 
of  Jacob  whom  He  had  chosen  ?  "  l  To  this  grave  question  there  was  (1)  a 
theologic  answer,  and  (2)  an  historic  answer.  (1)  The  theologic  answer  was  — 
that  acceptance  and  rejection  are  God's  absolute  will,  and  in  accordance  with 
His  predestined  election  to  grace  or  wrath.  (2)  The  historic  answer  was  —  that 
the  rejection  of  the  Jews  was  the  natural  result  of  their  own  obstinacy  and 
hardness.  The  two  answers  might  seem  mutually  irreconcilable  ;  but  St.  Paul, 
strong  in  faith,  in  inspiration,  in  sincerity,  never  shrinks  from  the  seeming 
oppositions  of  an  eternal  paradox.  He  often  gives  statements  of  truth 
regarded  from  different  aspects,  without  any  attempt  to  show  that  they  are,  to 
a  higher  reason  than  that  of  man,  complementary,  not  (as  they  appear)  contra- 
dictory, of  each  other.  Predestination  is  a  certain  truth  of  reason  and  of 
revelation  ;  free  will  is  a  certain  truth  of  revelation  and  of  experience.  They 
are  both  true,  yet  they  seem  mutually  exclusive,  mutually  contradictory.  The 
differences  between  Supralapsarians  and  Sublapsarians  do  not  really  touch 
the  question  ;  God's  foreknowledge  is  always  recognised,  but  in  no  way  does  it 
solve  the  difficulty  of  the  absolute  decree.  If  we  say  that  St.  Paul  is  here 
mainly  arguing  about  great  masses  of  men,  about  men  in  nations,  and  the 
difference  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that  is  partially  true;  but  he  most 

1  "  Who  hath  not  known  passion,  cross,  and  travail  of  death,  cannot  treat  of  foreknow- 
ledge without  injury  and  inward  enmity  towards  God.  Wherefore,  take  heed  that  thou 
drink  not  wine  while  thou  art  yet  a  sucking  babe  "  (Luther).  He  also  said,  "  The  ninth 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  the  ninth.  Learn  first  the  eight  chapters  which 
precede  it." 


PREDESTINATION  AND  FREE  WILL.  493 

definitely  recognises  the  case  of  individuals  also,  and  God  is  tlio  God  not  only 
of  nations,  "but  of  individuals.  In  any  case,  this  sacrifice  of  the  individual  to 
the  interests  of  the  mass  would  be  but  a  thrusting  of  the  difficulty  a  little 
further  back.  The  thought  that  many,  though  Edomites,  will  be  saved,  and 
many,  though  of  Israel,  will  be  lost,  may  make  the  antenatal  predilection  for 
Israel  and  detestation  of  Esau  less  startling  to  us,  and  it  is  quite  legitimate 
exegetically  to  soften,  by  the  known  peculiarities  of  Semitic  idiom,  the  painful 
harshness  of  the  latter  term.  But  even  then  we  are  confronted  with  the  pre- 
destined hardening  of  Pharaoh's  heart.  St.  Paul  recognises — all  Scripture 
recognises — the  naturalness  of  the  cry  of  the  human  soul ;  but  the  remorseless 
logic  of  a  theology  which  is  forced  to  reason  at  all  about  the  Divine  prescience 
can  only  smite  down  the  pride  of  finite  arguments  with  the  iron  rod  of  revealed 
mysteries.  Man  is  but  clay  in  the  potter's  hands.  God  is  omnipotent ;  God 
is  omniscient ;  yet  evil  exists,  and  there  is  sin,  and  there  is  death,  and  after 
death  the  judgment ;  and  sin  is  freely  forgiven,  and  yet  we  shall  receive  the 
things  done  in  the  body,  and  be  judged  according  to  our  works.  All  things 
end  in  a  mystery,  and  all  mysteries  resolve  themselves  into  one — the  existence 
of  evil.  But,  happily,  this  mystery  need  in  no  way  oppress  us,  for  it  is  lost  in 
the  Plenitude  of  God.  The  explanation  of  it  has  practically  nothing  to  do 
with  us.  It  lies  in  a  region  wholly  apart  from  the  facts  of  common  life. 
When  St.  Paul  tells  us  "  that  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that 
runneth,"  he  is  dealing  with  one  order  of  transcendental  ideas ;  but  when  he 
comes  to  the  common  facts  of  Christian  life,  he  bids  us  will,  and  he  bids  us 
run,  and  he  bids  us  work  out  our  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling; 
exactly  as  he  tells  us  that  justification  is  of  faith  alone,  and  not  of  works,  and 
yet  constantly  urges  us  to  good  works,  and  tells  us  that  God  will  reward  every 
man  according  to  his  works.1  Beyond  this  we  cannot  get.  "  Decretum 
horribile  fateor,"  said  Calvin,  "at  tamen  verum."  Theology  must  illustrate 
by  crushing  analogies  its  irreversible  decrees,  but  it  cannot  touch  the  sphere  of 
practical  experience,  or  weaken  the  exhortations  of  Christian  morality.  God 
predestines ;  man  is  free.  How  this  is  we  cannot  say ;  but  so  it  is.  St.  Paul 
makes  no  attempt  to  reconcile  the  two  positions.  "  Neither  here  nor  anywhere 
else  does  he  feel  called  upon  to  deal  with  speculative  extremes.  And  in  what- 
ever way  the  question  be  speculatively  adjusted,  absolute  dependence  and 
moral  self-determination  are  both  involved  in  the  immediate  Christian  self- 
consciousness."  8  The  finite  cannot  reduce  the  infinite  to  conditions,  or  express 
by  syllogisms  the  mutual  relations  of  the  two.  The  truths  must  be  stated, 
when  there  is  need  to  state  them,  although  each  of  them  belongs  to  separate 
orders  of  ideas.  Since  they  cannot  be  reconciled,  they  must  be  left  side  by 
side.  It  is  an  inevitable  necessity,  implied  throughout  all  Scripture,  that,  as 
regards  such  questions,  the  sphere  of  dogma  and  the  sphere  of  homily  should 
often  be  regarded  as  though  they  were  practically  separate  from  each  other, 

1  oiroSiWvai  (Bom.  il.  6;  2  Tim.  iv.  8);  iirrr.«oo-«  (Col.  lii.  24);  pirfi*  (1  Cor.  iii.  8j 
jix.  17),  &c. 

*  Bftur,  Paul.  II.  269. 


494  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATTL. 

though  in  reality  they  intersect  each  other.  And  the  reason  of  this  is  that 
both  are  enclosed  in  the  circumference  of  a  sphere  by  far  more  vast — thai, 
sphere  of  the  Divine,  of  which  for  us  the  centre  is  everywhere,  and  the 
circumference,  not  indeed  "nowhere,"  but  immeasurably  beyond  our  ken.1 
This  is  one  comfort.  And  again,  just  as  St.  Paul  refuses  to  find  the  sub- 
stantial essence  of  morality  anywhere  but  in  the  inmost  disposition,  so  he  does 
away  with  the  individual  ego  by  raising  it  to  the  universal  ego — to  that 
humanity  which  is  present,  and  is  identified  with  itself,  in  every  separate 
individual.2  It  is  unquestionable  that  he  categorically  asserts,  and  that 
without  limitations,  the  redemption  of  the  universe  and  of  the  race.3  In  that 
thought,  and  in :  the  thought  of  God's  infinite  love,  lies  the  gleam  of  light 
in  the  saddest  destinies  or  the  most  perplexed  enigmas  of  the  individual. 
The  logical  conclusions  of  an  exaggerated  dogmatism  are  rectified  by  the 
unchangeable  certainties  of  moral  conviction,  and  the  inspired  hopes  of  a 
child-like  love. 

"  Ah,  truly,"  says  Beuss,4  "  if  the  last  word  of  the  Christian  revelation 
is  contained  in  the  image  of  the  potter  and  the  clay,  it  is  a  bitter  derision 
of  all  the  deep  needs  and  legitimate  desires  of  a  soul  aspiring  towards  its 
God.  This  would  be  at  once  a  satire  of  reason  upon  herself,  and  the  suicide 
of  revelation."  But  it  is  neither  the  last  word,  nor  the  only  word;  nor 
has  it  any  immediate  observable  bearing  on  the  concrete  development  of 
our  lives.  It  is  not  the  only  word,  because  in  nine-tenths  of  Scripture  it 
is  as  wholly  excluded  from  the  sphere  of  revelation  as  though  it  had  been 
never  revealed  at  all;  and  it  is  not  the  last  word,  because  throughout  the 
whole  of  Scripture,  and  nowhere  more  than  in  the  writings  of  the  very 
Apostle  who  has  faced  this  problem  with  the  most  heroic  inflexibility,  we 
see  bright  glimpses  of  something  beyond.  How  little  we  were  intended  to 
draw  logical  conclusions  from  the  metaphor,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  we 
are  living  souls,  not  dead  clay ;  and  St.  Paul  elsewhere  recognised  a  power, 
both  within  and  without  our  beings,  by  which,  as  by  an  omnipotent  alchemy, 
mean  vessels  can  become  precious,  and  vessels  of  earthenware  be  transmuted 
into  vessels  of  gold.6  Vessels  fitted  for  destruction  may  be  borne  with 
much  long-suffering.  Apparent  loss  is  made  the  immediate  instrument  of 
wider  gain.  Partial  rejection  is  to  pave  the  way  for  universal  acceptance. 
God  wills  the  salvation  of  all.6  Where  sin  abounds,  there  grace  super- 
abounds/  God  giveth  freely  to  all,  and  freely  calleth  all,  and  His  gifts 
and  calling  are  without  repentance.  Israel  is  rejected,  Israel  in  part  is 
hardened,  yet  "all  Israel  shall  be  saved."8  "God  shut  up  all  into 

1  The  Rabbis,  to  avoid  even  the  most  distant  semblance  of  irreverent  anthropo- 
morphism, often  spoke  of  God  as  Ha-Mak6m,  "the  place ; "  and  it  is  one  of  their  grand 
sayings  that  "  the  Universe  is  not  the  place  of  God,  but  God  is  the  Place  of  the 
Universe." 

2  Baur,  Three  Centuries,  p.  32. 

»  See  Roin.  viii.  19—24 ;  xi.  32;  1  Tim.  ii.  3—6  (Acts  iii.  21 ;  Rev.  xxi.  4 ;  xxii.  3). 
*  ThloL  Chr&t.  ii.  115. 

»  2Tim.  ii.  21.  «  1  Tim.  ii.  4;  Tit.  ii.  11;  2Pet.  iii.  9, 

7  Bom.  v.  20,  21.  •  Bom.  zi.  26. 


MiEDtfSTINATION   A.ND   FREE  WILL,  495 

disobedience,  that  He  might  pity  all."1  The  duality  of  election  resolves 
itself  into  the  higher  unity  of  an  all-embracing  counsel  of  favour ;  and  the 
sin  of  man,  even  through  the  long  Divine  ceconomy  of  the  ceons,  is  seen  to 
be  but  a  moment  in  the  process  towards  that  absolute  end  of  salvation, 
which  is  described  as  the  time  when  God  shall  be  "  all  things  in  all  things," 
and  therefore  in  all  men;  and  when  the  whole  groaning  and  travailing 
creation  shall  be  emancipated  into  "  the  freedom  of  the  glory  of  the  children 
of  God."2  If  disobedience  has  been  universal,  so  too  is  mercy ;  and  Divine 
mercy  is  stronger  and  wider,  and  more  infinite  and  more  eternal,  than  human 
sin.  Here,  too,  there  is  an  antinomy.  St.  Paul  recognises  such  a  thing  as 
"  perdition ; "  there  are  beings  who  are  called  "  the  perishing."3  There  are 
warnings  of  terrible  significance  in  Scripture  and  in  experience.  But  may  we 
not  follow  the  example  of  St.  Paul,  who  quite  incontestably  dwells  by  prefer- 
ence upon  the  wide  prospect  of  infinite  felicity;  who  seems  always  lost  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  final  triumph  of  all  good  P  However  awful  may  be  the  future 
retribution  of  sinful  lives,  we  still  cannot  set  aside — what  true  Christian  would 
wish  to  set  aside? — the  Scriptures,  which  say  that  "as  in  Adam  all  die,  even 
so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive ; "  that  all  things  tend  "  unto  God,"  as  all 
things  are  from  Him  and  by  Him  ;  *  that  Christ  shall  reign  until  He  hath  put 
all  enemies  under  His  feet,  and  that  the  kst  which  shall  be  destroyed  is  death.5 

Let  us,  then,  see  more  in  detail  how  the  Apostle  deals  with  a  fact  so  shock- 
ing to  every  Jew  as  the  deliberate  rejection  of  Israel  from  every  shadow  of 
special  privilege  in  the  kingdom  of  God ;  let  us  see  how  he  proves  a  doctrine 
against  which,  at  first  sight,  it  might  well  have  seemed  that  the  greater  part 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  1,500  years  of  history  were  alike  arrayed. 

It  should  be  observed  that  in  his  most  impassioned  polemic  he  always 
unites  a  perfect  conciliatoriness  of  tone  with  an  absolute  rigidity  of  statement. 
If  he  must  give  offence,  he  is  ready  to  give  offence  to  any  extent,  so  far  as  the 
offence  must  inevitably  spring  from  the  truth  which  it  is  his  sacred  duty  to 
proclaim.  Doubtless,  too,  much  that  he  said  might  be  perverted  to  evil 
results;  be  it  so.  There  are  some  who  abuse  to  evil  purposes  God's  own 
sunlight,  and  who  turn  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  into  a  curse.  Are  we  to 
quench  His  sunlight  ?  are  we  to  say  that  He  does  not  forgive  P  Some  Jews 
were,  doubtless,  dangerously  shaken  in  all  their  convictions  by  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Gospel,  as  some  Romanists  were  by  the  truths  of  the 
Reformation.  Is  error  to  be  immortal  because  its  eradication  is  painful  ?  Is 
the  mandrake  to  grow,  because  its  roots  shriek  when  they  are  torn  out  of  the 
ground  ?  Or  is  it  not  better,  as  St.  Gregory  the  Great  said,  that  a  scandal 
should  be  created  than  that  truth  should  be  suppressed  P  There  is  no  style  of 

i  Bom.  3d.  32. 

8  1  Cor.  xv.  22 ;  Rom.  3d.  15 — 86 ;  viii.  19—23.  See  Banr,  First  Three  Centuries, 
p.  72 ;  Pfleiderer,  ii.  256,  272—275 ;  Reuss,  Thlol.  Ghrdt.  ii.  23,  seqq. 

3  'AfroAAvVurvoi.  This  word  does  not  mean  "the  lost,"  a  phrase  which  does  not  exist 
In  Scripture,  but  "the  perishing." 

«  Rom.  xi.  36 ;  1  Cor.  viii.  6 ;  Col.  i.  16, 17. 

*  1  Cor.  xv.  25—28;  Eph.  i.  20—22;  2  Tim.  i.  10  (Matt.  3d.  27;  Heb.  ii.  8, 14), 


498  THE  LIFE  ANI»  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

objection  to  the  proclamation  of  a  new  or  a  forgotten  truth  which  is  so  false, 
so  faithless,  and  so  futile,  as  the  plea  that  it  is  "  dangerous."  But  one  duty 
is  incumbent  on  all  who  teach  what  they  believe  to  be  the  truths  of  God.  It 
is  that  they  should  state  them  with  all  possible  candour,  courtesy,  forbearance, 
eonsiderateness.  The  controversial  method  of  St.  Paul  furnishes  the  most 
striking  contrast  to  that  of  religions  controversy  in  almost  every  age.  It  is 
as  different  as  anything  can  be  from  the  reckless  invective  of  a  Jerome  or  of  a 
Luther.  It  bears  no  relation  at  all  to  the  unscrnpulousness  of  a  worldly 
ecclesiasticism.  It  is  removed  by  the  very  utmost  extreme  of  distance  from 
the  malice  of  a  party  criticism,  and  the  Pharisaism  of  a  loveless  creed. 

Thus,  though  he  knows  that  what  he  has  to  enforce  will  be  most  un- 
palatable to  the  Jews,  and  though  he  knows  how  virulently  they  hate  him,  how 
continuously  they  have  thwarted  his  teaching  and  persecuted  his  life,  he  begins 
with  an  expression  of  love  to  them  so  tender  and  so  intense,  that  theologians 
little  accustomed  to  an  illimitable  unselfishness  felt  it  incumbent  upon  them 
to  explain  it  away. 

"  I  say  the  truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  conscience  bearing  me  witness  in  the 
Holy  Spirit,  that  I  have  great  grief  and  incessant  anguish  in  my  heart ; "  and  then, 
in  the  intensity  of  his  emotion,  he  omits  to  state  the  cause  of  his  grief,  because  it  is 
sufficiently  explained  by  what  follows  and  what  has  gone  before.  It  is  grief  at  the 
thought  that  Israel  should  be  hardening  their  hearts  against  the  Gospel.  "  For  I 
could  have  wished  my  own  self  to  be  anathema  from  Christ1  on  behalf  of  my 
brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,  seeing  that  they  are  Israelites,  whose 
is  the  adoption,2  and  the  Shechinah,3  and  the  covenants,  and  the  legislation,  and  the 
ritual,  and  the  promises,  whose  are  the  fathers,  and  of  whom  is  Christ,  according  to 
the  flesh,  who  is  over  all — God  blessed  for  ever.  Amen."4  On  his  solemn  appeal 
to  the  fact  of  his  readiness  even  to  abandon  all  hopes  of  salvation  if  thereby  he  could 
save  his  brethren,  I  think  it  only  necessary  to  say  that  the  very  form  in  which  it  ie 

1  D?fl,  Deut. ;  Zech.  xiv.  11 ;  Gal.  I.  8,  9 ;  1  Cor.  xil.  3 ;  xrl  22.  Strong  natures 
have  ever  been  capable  of  braving  even  the  utmost  loss  for  a  great  end.  "  If  not,  blot 
me,  I  pray  tb.ee,  out  of  tbe  book  which  Thou  hast  written  "  (Ex.  xxxii,  32).  "  Que  mon 
nom  soit  fle'tri,"  said  Danton,  "pourvu  que  la  France  soit  libre."  "  Let  the  name  of 
George  Whitefield  perish  if  God  be  glorified." 

a  2  Oor.  vi.  18.  8  Ex.  xvi.  10 ;  1  Sam.  iv.  22,  &c.  (LXX.) 

4  Rom.  ix.  1—5.  On  the  punctuation  of  this  last  verse  a  great  controversy  has  arisen. 
Many  editors  since  the  days  of  Erasmus  (and  among  them  Lachmann,  Tischendorf, 
Riickert,  Meyer,  Fritzsche)  put  the  stop  at  "  flesh ;"  others  at  " all"  (Locke,  Baum- 
garten,  Crusius) ;  and  regard  the  concluding  words  as  a  doxology  to  God  for  the  grandest 
of  the  privileges  of  Israel.  In  favour  of  this  punctuation  is  the  fact  that  Paul,  even  in 
bis  grandest  Christological  passages,  yet  nowhere  calls  Christ,  "  God  over  all, "  nor  ever 
appUea  to  Him  th«  word  «vXoyr)T<fe.  (See  i.  25;  1  Cor.  iii.  23 ;  viii.  6 ;  2  Cor.  i.  3 ;  xi.  31 ; 
Eph.  i.  17;  iv.  6;  1  Tim.  ii.  5,  &c.)  But,  on  the  other  hand,  a  doctrinal  an-o£  Xeydfiecov 
may,  as  Lange  says,  mark  a  culminating  point ;  and  having  regard  (i.)  to  the  language 
which  Paul  uses  (Phil.  ii.  6 ;  CoL  i.  15 ;  ii.  9 ;  l.Cor.  viii.  6;  2  Cor.  iv.  4),  and  (ii.)  to  the 
grammatical  structure  of  the  sentence,  and  (iii.)  to  the  position  of  <-uA.o7rp-bs  (which  in 
Sexologies  in  the  New  Testament  stands  always  first),  and  (iv.)  to  the  unanimity  of  all 
ancient  commentators,  and  (v.)  to  the  fact  that  the  clause  probably  alludes  to  Ps.lxviii.19 
(LXX. ),  and  in  Eph.  iv.  8,  St.  Paul  quotes  the  previous  verse  of  this  Psalm,  and  applies 
it  to  Christ, — the  punctuation  of  our  received  text  can  hardly  be  rejected.  Yet  there  is 
weight  in  Baur's  remark  that  Kara.  o-dpica  is  added  to  show  that  it  is  as  only  "  after  the 
flesh'1  that  the  Jews  could  claim  the  birth  of  the  Messiah,  and  that  the  "God  over  all 
blessed  for  ever  "  would  have  been  allowing  too  much  to  Jewish  particularism.  (Cf . 
Gal.  iv.  4,  y«>6|u.«i««  «  ywaiKt*.)  For  a  full  examination  of  the  question,  I  may  refer  to 
my  papers  on  the  text  in  the  Expositor,  1879- 


PREDESTINATION  AND   FREE  WILL.  497 

expressed  shows  MB  sense  that  such  a  wish  is  by  the  very  nature  of  things 
impossible.  Further  explanation  is  superfluous  to  those  who  feel  how  natural,  how 
possible,  is  the  desire  for  even  this  vast  self-sacrifice  to  the  great  heart  of  a  Moseg 
or  a  Paul. 

"  Not,  however,  as  though  the  Word  of  God  has  failed."  l  This  is  the  point 
which  St.  Paul  has  to  prove,  and  he  does  it  by  showing  that  God's  gifts  are  matters 
of  such  free  choice  that  the  Jew  cannot  put  forward  any  exclusive  claim  to  their 
monopoly. 

In  fact,  all  who  are  Jews  naturally  are  not  Jews  spiritually  —  are  not,  therefore, 
in  any  true  sense  heirs  of  the  promise.  To  be  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  is  nothing  in 
itself.  Abraham  had  many  sons,  but  only  one  of  them,  the  son  of  Sarah,  was 
recognised  in  the  promise.* 

Not  only  so,  but  even  of  the  two  sons  of  the  son  of  promise  one  was  utterly  rejected; 
and  so  completely  was  this  a  matter  of  choice,  and  so  entirely  was  it  independent  of 
merit,  that  before  there  could  be  any  question  of  merit,  even  in  the  womb,  the  elder 
was  rejected  to  servitude,  the  younger  chosen  for  dominion.  And  this  is  stated  in 
the  strongest  way  by  the  prophet  Malachi—  "  Jacob  I  loved,  but  Esau  I  hated."  8 

"Is  God  unjust  then?"  To  a  natural  logic  the  question  might  seem  very 
excusable,  but  St.  Paul  simply  puts  it  aside  as  irrelevant  and  impossible,  while  he 
re-states  the  fact  which  suggests  it  by  quoting  as  decisive  two  passages  of  Scripture.4 
God  has  an  absolute  right  to  love  whom  He  will  ;  for  He  says  to  Moses,  "  Whomso- 
ever I  pity,  him  I  wUl  pity  ;  and  whomsoever  I  compassionate,  him  I  will  com- 
passionate ;  "  so  that  pity  is  independent  of  human  will  or  effort.  And  God  has  an 
absolute  right  to  hate  whom  He  will  ;  for  Scripture  says  to  Pharaoh,  "  For  this 
very  purpose  I  raised  thee  up,  to  display  in  thee  my  power,  and  that  my  name  may 
be  proclaimed  in  all  the  earth."  * 

So  then  God  pities,  and  God  hardens,  whom  He  will. 

Again,  the  natural  question  presents  itself  —  "  Why  does  He  then  blame  ?  If 
wickedness  be  the  result  of  Divine  Will,  what  becomes  of  moral  responsibility?" 

In  the  first  place,  Paul  implies  that  the  question  is  absurd.  Who  are  you,  that 
you  can  call  God  to  account  ?  No  matter  what  becomes  of  moral  responsibility,  it 
does  not  at  any  rate  affect  God's  decree.  Man  is  but  passive  clay  in  the  Potter's 
hands  ;  He  can  mould  it  as  He  will.' 

1  tKirivnanev,  "fallen  like  a  flower,"  Job  xiv.  2  ;  but  see  1  Cor.  xiii.  8  ;  James  i.  11. 

2  ix.  6  —  9;  comp.  Nedarim,  f.  31,  1.     "Is  not  Ishmael  an  alien,  and  yet  of  the  seed 
of  Abraham?"     It  is  written,  "  In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called."     "But  is  not  Esau 
tM  alien,  and  yet  of  the  seed  of  Isaac  ?  "    "  No.     '  In  Isaac,"  but  not  all  Isaac." 

s  Mai.  i.  2,  3.  Hated  ="  loved  less"  (Gen.  xxix.  31;  Matt.  yi.  24;  x.  37,  com- 
pared with  Luke  xiv.  26);  and  the  next  verse  shows  that  temporal  position  is  alluded  to. 

4  "These  arguments  of  the  Apostle  are  founded  on  two  assumptions.  The  first  is 
that  the  Scriptures  are  the  word  of  God  ;  and  the  second,  that  what  God  actually  does 
cannot  be  unrighteous"  (Hodge).  At  the  same  time  it  is  most  necessary,  as  Bishop 
"Wordsworth  says,  "not  to  allow  the  mind  to  dwell  exclusively  or  mainly  on  single 
expressions  occurring  here  or  there,  but  to  consider  their  relation  to  the  context,  to  the 
whole  scope  of  the  Epistle,  to  the  other  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  to  the  general  teachings 
of  Holy  Writ  "  (Epistles,  p.  201). 

*  ix.  14  —  18.  "Satis  habet,"  says  Calvin,  "Scripturae  testimoniis  impurot  latratua 
compescere;"  but  the  "impure  barkings  "(a  phrase  which  St.  Paul  would  never  have 
used)  shows  the  difference  between  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  Genevan 
Eeformer.  SKAqpuVei,  however,  in  ver.  18,  cannot  mean  "treats  hardly."  Calovius  says 
that  God  does  not  harden  tvepy>jTucais,  "by  direct  action,"  but  <rvyx<"p'jT"cws  (permissively), 
KeJs  (by  the  course  of  events),  ey/caTa\«iimicws  (by  abandonment),  and 


(by  handing  men  over  to  their  worst  selves).  It  may  be  said  that  this  chapter  contradicts 
the  next,  and  Fritzsche  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  'Paul  would  have  better  agreed  with 
himself  if  he  had  been  the  pupil  of  Aristotle,  not  of  Gamaliel  ;  "  but  the  contradiction, 
or  rather  the  antinomy,  is  not  in  any  of  St.  Paul's  arguments,  but  in  the  very  nature 
of  things. 

8  ix.  !&—£?.    It  was  a  common  metaphor  (Jer.  xviil.  6;  ha.  xlv.  9;  Wisd.  xv»  7? 
SSrach  xxxiii.  IJj. 


498  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

But  Paul  would  not  thus  merely  smite  down  the  timid  questioning  of 
sinners  by  the  arbitrary  irresponsibility  of  Infinite  Power.  He  gives  a  gleam 
of  hope  ;  he  sheds  over  the  ultimate  Divine  purposes  a  flash  of  insight.  He 
asks  a  question  which  implies  a  large  and  glorious  answer,  and  the  very  form 
of  the  question  shows  how  little  he  desires  to  dwell  on  the  unpractical  in- 
soluble mysteries  of  Divine  reprobation.1 

What  if  God,  willing  to  display  His  wrath,  and  to  make  known  His  power — (he 
will  not  say,  "  created  vessels  of  wrath,"  or  "  prepared  them  for  destruction,"  but, 
swerving  from  a  conclusion  too  terrible  for  the  wisest) — "  endured  in  much  long- 
suffering  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  for  destruction  .  .  .  ?  And  what  if  He  did  this 
that  He  might  also  make  known  the  riches  of  His  glory  towards  the  vessels  of 
mercy  which  He  before  prepared  for  glory  .  .  .  ?"  What  if  even  those 
decrees  which  seemed  the  harshest  were  but  steps  towards  an  ultimate  good  ?  .  . 
By  that  blessed  purpose  we  profit,  whom  God  called  both  out  of  the  Jews  and  out  of 
the  Gentiles.  This  calling  is  illustrated  by  the  language  of  two  passages  of  Hosea,2 
in  which  the  prophet  calls  his  son  and  daughter  Lo-ammi  and  Lo-ruhamah  (Not- 
my-people  and  Not-pitied)  because  of  the  rejection  of  Israel,  but  at  the  same  time 
prophesies  the  day  when  they  shall  again  be  His  people,  and  H«  their  God  : — and 
by  two  passages  of  Isaiah  s  in  which  he  at  once  prophesies  the  rejection  of  the  masa 
of  Israel  and  the  preservation  of  a  remnant.* 

Having  thus  established  the  fact  on  Scriptural  authority,  what  is  the  conclusion  P 
Must  it  not  be  that — so  entirely  is  election  a  matter  of  God's  free  grace — the 
Gentiles,  though  they  did  not  pursue  righteousness,  yet  laid  hold  of  justification  by 
faith;  and  that  the  Jews,  though  they  did  pursue  a  legal  righteousness,  have  not 
attained  to  justification  ?  How  can  such  a  strange  anomaly  be  explained  ?  What- 
ever may  be  the  working  of  Divine  election,  humanly  speaking,  their  rejection 
is  the  fault  of  the  Jews.  They  chose  to  aim  at  an  impossible  justification  by  works, 
and  rejected  the  justification  by  faith.  Again  St.  Paul  refers  to  Isaiah  in  support 
of  his  views.*  They  stumbled  at  Christ.  To  them,  as  to  all  believers,  He  might 
have  been  a  firm  rock  of  foundation  ;  they  made  Him  a  stone  of  offence.6  The 
desire  of  his  heart,  his  prayer  to  God,  is  for  their  salvation.  But  their  religious 
zeal  has  taken  an  ignorant  direction.  They  are  aiming  at  justification  by  works, 
and  therefore  will  not  accept  God's  method,  which  is  justification  by  faith.' 

In  the  path  of  works  they  cannot  succeed,  for  the  Law  finds  its  sole  end,  and 
aim,  and  fulfilment  in  Christ,8  and  through  Him  alone  is  justification  possible. 
Even  these  truths  the  Apostle  finds  in  Scripture,  or  illustrates  by  Scriptural  quota- 
tions. He  contrasts  the  statement  of  Moses,  that  he  who  obeyed  the  ordinances  of 

1  When  we  read  such  passages  as  Rom.  viii.  22 — 24  ;  2  Cor.  v.  18 ;  Acts  iii.  19,  21, 
we  think  that  St.  Paul  would  have  seen  a  phase  of  truth  in  the  lines — 
"  Safe  in  the  hands  of  one  disposing  power, 
Or  in  the  natal  or  the  mortal  hour ; 
All  Nature  is  but  Art,  unknown  to  thee ; 
All  Chance,  Direction  which  thou  canst  not  see  ; 
All  Discord,  Harmony  not  understood ; 
All  partial  evil,  universal  good." 

*  Hos.  i.  9,  10 ;  ii.  23.  •  Isa.  x.  22 ;  i.  9. 

4  ix.  22 — 30.  Ver.  28  is  an  exegetical  translation  which  St.  Paul  adopts  from  the 
LXX.  As  the  form  of  quotation  has  only  an  indirect  bearing  on  the  argument,  the  reader 
must  refer  to  special  commentaries  for  its  elucidation. 

*  Isa.  viii.  14 ;  xxviii.  16. 

6  In  ix.  33,  the  "  be  ashamed  "  of  the  LXX.,  followed  by  St.  Paul,  is  an  ex«getioal 
translation  of  "make  haste"  or  "flee  hastily. " 

7  ix.  30— x.  4. 

8  x.  4,  T«'X.OS — i.e.,  the  righteousness  at  which  the  Law  aims  is  accomplished  in  Christ, 
and  the  Law  leads  to  Him  ;  He  is  its  fulfilment  and  its  termination.     Its  glory  is  done 
away,  but  He  remains,  because  His  eternal  brightness  is  the  rcAoc  roi)  Karopyovpevov  (Gal). 


PREDESTINATION   AND   FRKK   WILL.  499 

the  Law  should  live  by  them,1  with  those  other  words  which  he  puts  into  the  mouth 
of  Justification  personified,  "  Say  not  in  thine  heart  who  shall  ascend  into  heaven, 
or  who  shall  descend  into  the  abyss,  but  the  word  is  very  nigh  thee  in  thy  mouth 
and  in  thy  heart,"  which  (being  used  originally  of  the  Law)  he  explains  of  the  near- 
ness and  accessibility  of  the  Gospel  which  was  now  being  preached,  and  which  was 
summed  up  in  the  confession  and  belief  in  Him  as  a  risen  Saviour.  This  is  again 
supported  by  two  quotations  in  almost  the  same  words — one  from  Isaiah  (xxviii.  16), 
"  Every  one  that  believeth  on  Him  shall  not  be  ashamed ;"  and  one  from  Joel 
(ii.  32),  "  Every  one  that  calleth  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved" — and  the 
"  every  one  "  of  course  includes  the  Gentile  no  less  than  the  Jew.z 

But  had  the  Jews  enjoyed  a  real  opportunity  of  hearing  the  Gospel  ?  In  a 
series  of  questions,  subordinated  to  each  other  by  great  rhetorical  beauty,  St.  Paul 
shows  that  each  necessary  step  has  been  fulfilled — the  hearing,  the  preachers,  the 
mission  of  those  whose  feet  were  beautiful  upon  the  mountains,  and  who  preach  the 
glad  tidings  of  peace ;  but,  aks  !  the  faith  had  been  wanting,  and,  therefore,  also  the 
calling  upon  God.  For  all  had  not  hearkened  to  the  Gospel.  It  was  not  for  want 
of  hearing,  for  in  accordance  with  prophecy  (Ps.  xix.  4)  the  words  of  the  preachers 
had  gone  out  to  all  the  world ;  but  it  was  for  want  of  faith,  and  this,  too,  had  been 
prophesied,  since  Isaiah  said,  "  Who  believed  our  preaching  ?"  Nor,  again,  was  it 
for  want  of  warning.  Moses  (Deut.  xxxii.  21)  had  told  them  ages  ago  that  God 
would  stir  up  their  jealousy  and  kindle  their  anger  by  means  of  those  Gentiles 
whom  in  their  exclusive  arrogance  they  despised  as  "no  nation;"  and  Isaiah 
(Ixv.  1,  2)  says  with  daring  energy,  "  I  was  found  by  such  as  sought  me  not, 
I  became  manifest  to  such  as  inquired  not  after  me,"  whereas  to  Israel  he  saith, 
"  The  whole  day  long  I  outspread  my  hands  to  a  disobedient  and  antagonistic 
people."  * 

Thus,  with  quotation  after  quotation — tnere  are  nine  in  tnis  cnapter  alone, 
drawn  chiefly  from  Deuteronomy,  Isaiah,  and  the  Psalms — does  St.  Paul  state 
his  conviction  as  to  the  present  rejection  of  the  Gospel  by  his  own  nation ; 
while  he  tries  to  soften  the  bitter  rage  which  it  was  calculated  to  arouse  both 
against  himself  and  against  his  doctrine,  by  stating  it  in  words  which  would 
add  tenfold  authority  to  the  dialectical  arguments  into  which  they  are 
enwoven.  But  having  thus  established  two  very  painful,  and  at  first  sight 
opposing  truths — namely,  that  the  Jews  were  being  deprived  of  all  exclusive 
privileges  by  the  decree  of  God  (ix.),  and  that  this  forfeiture  was  due  to  their 
own  culpable  disbelief  (x.) — he  now  enters  on  the  gladder  and  nobler  task  of 
explaining  how  these  sad  truths  are  robbed  of  their  worst  sting,  when  we 
recognise  that  they  are  but  the  partial  and  transient  phenomena  incidental 
to  the  evolution  of  a  blessed,  universal,  and  eternal  scheme. 

"I  ask,  then,  did  God  reject  His  people ?  Away  with  the  thought !  for  at  worst 
the  rejection  is  but  partial."  Of  this  he  offers  himself  as  a  proof,  being  as  he  is 
" an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin;"  and  he  then 
quotes  the  analogy  of  the  7,000  whom  God  "reserved  for  Himself,"  who  in  the 
days  of  Elijah  had  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal.  On  this  he  pauses  to  remark  that 
the  very  phrase,  "  I  reserved  for  myself,"  implies  that  this  remnant  was  saved  by 
faith,  and  not  by  works.  But  how  came  it  that  the  majority  had  missed  the  end 
for  which  they  sought?  Because,  he  answers,  they  were  hardened;  God  (as 

'   X,  A,  B,  ev  aurjj. 

3  x.  4—12.    It  is  remarkable  that  in  verse  11  the  important  word  irSe  is  found  neither 
In  the  Hebrew  nor  in  the  T,XX.     Of.  be.  33. 
*  x.  14— 21. 


500  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST  PAUL. 

Isaiah  prophesied)  had  sent  them  a  spirit  of  stupor  which  finds  its  illustration  in  the 
phrase,  "  let  their  eyes  he  darkened,"  amid  David's  prayer  for  the  humiliation  and 
bewilderment  of  his  enemies.1 

But  then  another  awful  question  occurs :  is  this  hardening,  this  spiritual  blind- 
ness, to  be  final  ?  "  Did  they  stumble  that  they  may  utterly  fall  ?  "  Again  Paul 
exclaims,  Perish  the  thought!  Their  very  fall  was  meant  for  salvation  to  the 
Gentiles,  and  to  stimulate  their  own  hearts  to  better  things.  And  here  his  readers 
could  not  but  feel  that  he  was  explaining  facts  which  were  taking  place  under  their 
very  eyes.  In  every  instance  the  Gospel  had  been  offered  first  to  the  Jew ;  in  eveiy 
instance  the  Jew  had  rejected  it ;  and  it  was  through  this  very  obstinacy  that  it 
had  now  been  offered  everywhere  to  the  Gentile.  The  Messiah  rejected  by  the 
Jew  was  daily  being  glorified  as  the  Redeemer  of  the  Gentile.  The  Church  of  the 
Christ  was  now  securely  founded,  but  even  already  Antioch,  and  Rome,  and 
Ephesus,  and  Thessalonica  were  far  more  its  capitals  than  the  Holy  City.  But  this 
fact  revealed  a  glorious  anticipation.  If  their  deficiency  was  thus  the  wealth  of 
the  Gentiles,  how  much  more  would  their  replenishment !  It  was  his  grand  mission 
to  preach  this  to  the  Gentiles,  and  thereby,  if  possible,  to  stir  the  Jews  to  emulation, 
for  if  their  rejection  be  the  world's  reconciliation,  what  will  be  their  acceptance  but 
life  from  the  dead  ? 

And  that  there  will  be  this  restoration  of  Israel  he  illustrates  by  a 
double  metaphor 

i.  When  the  heave-offering  was  offered,  the  whole  lump  of  dough  acquired 
eacredness  from  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  it  was  sanctified  to  the  Lord.  So  with 
Israel.  Their  first-fruits — Abraham  and  their  patriarchal  fathers — were  holy,  and 
their  holiness  was  ideally  attributable  to  all  the  race. 

ii.  The  second  metaphor  has  a  wider  applicability.  The  root  of  the  olive-tree 
is  the  source  of  its  fruitfulness ;  but  if  some  of  its  branches  lose  their  fruitf ulness 
and  become  withered,  they  are  lopped  off  and  are  replaced  by  grafts  of  the  wild 
olive,  which  then  shares  the  richness  of  the  tree.  Such  withered  branches  were  the 
present  unbelieving  majority  of  Israel.  That  they  should  be  lopped  off  is  a  part  of 
God's  just  and  necessary  severity.  To  explain  this  truth — to  bring  it  home  to  the 
pained  and  angry  consciousness  of  his  people — has  been  one  of  his  objects  in  this 
great  Epistle ,  and  he  has  carried  it  out,  at  whatever  cost,  with  a  most  unflinching 
sincerity.  But  meanwhile,  if  the  Gentiles  in  their  turn  were  tempted  to  assume 
the  airs  of  particularism  with  which  the  Jews  had  so  long  gloried  over  them,  what 
a  warning  should  be  conveyed  to  them  by  the  state  of  things  here  shadowed  forth ! 
And  how  much  consolation  might  the  Jew  find  in  this  metaphor  to  revive  the  faint- 
ing hopes  of  his  patriotism,  and  to  alleviate  his  wounded  pride  of  nationality  by 
gentler  and  holier  thoughts !  For  Christ,  after  all,  was  a  rod  of  the  stem  of  Jesso, 
and  a  branch  out  of  his  roots.  The  Gentiles  were  admitted  into  the  Church  through 
the  vestibule  of  the  Temple.  With  the  Jews  had  remained  till  this  moment  the 
oracles  of  God.  In  Judaism — its  privileges,  its  promises,  its  prophecies — were  the 
germs  of  Christianity.  The  new  rich  fruitfulness  of  the  Gentiles  was  drawn  from 
the  tree  into  which  they  had  been  grafted.  Little  cause  had  they  to  boast  against 
the  natural  branches.  Deep  cause  had  they  to  take  warning  by  the  fate  which 
those  branches  had  undergone.  They,  in  their  turn,  might  be  lopped  off,  and — 
though  here  the  metaphor  as  such  breaks  down — the  old  branches  might  be  grafted  into 
their  proper  place  once  more.2  Let  them  remember  that  faith  was  the  source  of 
their  new  privileges,  as  the  want  of  it  had  caused  the  ruin  of  those  whom  they 
replaced ;  let  them  not  be  high-minded,  but  fear.* 

»  ri.  1-11. 

*  This  of  course  was,  physically,  an  impossible  method  of  tyKtinpurrfs ;  the  other,  if 
adopted  at  all,  was  most  rare.    (V.  supra,  p.  12.) 

*  xi.  16—24. 


FRUITS  or  FAITH.  501 

The  concluding  words  of  this  section  of  the  Epistle  open  a  glorious  per- 
spective of  ultimate  hope  for  all  whose  hearts  are  sufficiently  large  and 
loving  to  accept  it.  He  calls  on  the  brethren  not  to  ignore  the  mystery  that 
the  partial  hardening  of  Israel  should  only  last  till  the  fulness  of  the 
Gentiles  should  come  in ;  and  he  appeals  to  Scripture  (Isa.  lix.  20)  to  sup- 
port his  prophecy  that  "  all  Israel  shall  be  saved,"  beloved  as  they  are  for  the 
sake  of  their  fathers  as  regajds  the  election  of  grace,  though  now  alienated 
for  the  blessing  of  the  Gentiles  as  regards  the  Gospel. 

For  God's  gifts  and  calling  admit  of  no  revocation;  once  given,  they  are  given 
for  ever.1  Once  themselves  disobedient,  the  Gentiles  were  now  pitied  in  con- 
sequence of  the  disobedience  of  the  Jews ;  so  the  Jews  were  now  disobedient,  but 
when  the  pity  shown  to  the  Gentiles  had  achieved  their  full  redemption,  the  Jews 
in  turn  should  share  in  it.1  "  For  " — such  is  the  grand  conclusion  of  this  sustained 
exposition  of  the  Divine  purposes — "  God  shut  up  all  into  disobedience,8  that  He 
might  show  mercy  unto  all." — Many  are  anxious,  in  accordance  with  their  theo- 
logical views,  to  weaken  or  explain  away  the  meaning  of  these  words  ;  to  show  that 
44  ail  "  does  not  really  mean  "  all "  in  the  glad,  though  it  does  in  the  gloomy 
clause ;  or  to  show  that  "  having  mercy  upon  all "  is  quite  consistent  with  the  final 
nun  of  the  vast  majority.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Apostle,  as  he  contemplates  the 
universality  of  free  redeeming  grace,  bursts  into  a  paean  of  praise  and  prophecy  : 
"  O  the  depth  of  the  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearchable 
are  His  judgments,  and  untrackable  His  ways !  For  who  ever  fathomed  the  mind 
of  the  Lord,  or  who  ever  became  His  counsellor  ?  Or  who  gave  Him  first,  and  it 
shall  be  repaid  to  him  ?  For  from  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  unto  Him  aro  all 
things.  To  Him  be  glory  for  ever.  Amen." 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

FRUITS    OF    FAITH. 

44  La  foi  justifie  quand  il  opere,  mais  il  n'opere  que  par  la  charitS  "  (Quesnel). 

41  Not  that  God  doth  require  nothing  unto  happiness  at  the  hands  of  man  save 
only  a  naked  belief  (for  hope  and  charity  we  may  not  exclude),  but  that  without 
belief  all  other  things  are  as  nothing;  and  it  is  the  ground  of  those  other  divine 
virtues  "  (Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.  I.  xi.  6). 

"  Faith  doth  not  shut  out  repentance,  hope,  love,  dread,  and  the  fear  of  God,  to  be 
joined  with  faith  in  every  man  that  is  justified ;  but  it  shutteth  them  out  from  the 
office  of  justifying  "  (Homily  of  Salvation,  pt.  i.). 

[It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  the  sense  of  the  word  "  faith  "  in  these  passages 
is  by  no  means  the  Pauline  sense  of  the  word."] 

AT  this  point  there  is  a  marked  break  in  the  letter,  and  we  feel  that  the 
writer  has  now  accomplished  the  main  object  for  which  he  wrote.     But  to 

1  Hos.  xiii.  14,  "I  will  redeem  them  from  death    .    .    .    repentance  shall  be  hid 
from  mine  eyes." 

2  xi.  41.    If,  as  in  this  explanation,  the  comma  is  placed  after  ^ir«i0rj<rav,  the  connexion 
of  T(j>  iifneTepta  l\i?i  is  very  awkward,  and  almost  unparalleled.     On  the  other  haud,  the 
antithesis  is  spoiled  if  we  place  the  comma  after  «A««,  and  render  it,  "So  they  too  now 
disbelieved  (or  disobeyed)  the  pity  shown  to  VOTV" 

s  Iii  the  declaratory  sens*. 


502  THE   L»E   ANB  WORK   OS"   ST.   PAUL. 

this,  as  to  all  his  letters,  he  adds  those  noble  practical  exhortations,  which  are 
thus  made  to  rest,  not  on  their  own  force  and  beauty,  bnt  on  the  securer  basis 
of  the  principles  which  he  lays  down  in  the  doctrinal  portion.  No  one  felt 
more  deeply  than  St.  Paul  that  it  requires  great  principles  to  secure  our 
faithfulness  to  little  duties,  and  that  every  duty,  however  apparently 
insignificant,  acquires  a  real  grandeur  when  it  is  regarded  in  the  light  of  those 
principles  from  which  its  fulfilment  springs.  Since,  then,  the  mercy  and  pity 
of  God,  as  being  the  source  of  His  free  grace,  have  been  dwelt  upon  throughout 
fche  Epistle,  St.  Paul  begins  the  practical  part  of  it — "  I  exhort  you  therefore, 
brethren,  by  the  compassions  of  God " — for  these,  and  not  the  difficult 
doctrines  of  election  and  reprobation,  are  prominent  in  his  mind — "  to  present 
your  bodies,  not  like  the  dead  offerings  of  Heathenism  or  Judaism,  but  "  a 
living  sacrifice,  holy,  well-pleasing  to  God — your  reasonable  service,  and  not  to 
be  conformed  to  this  world,  but  to  be  transformed  *  in  the  renewing  of  your 
mind,  that  ye  may  discriminate  what  is  the  will  of  God,  good  and  acceptable  to 
Him,  and  perfect." 

This  general  exhortation  is  then  carried  into  details,  unsystematically 
indeed,  and  even  unsyntactically,  but  with  an  evident  rush  and  glow  of 
feeling  which  gives  to  the  language  a  perfection  transcending  that  of  conscious 
art.*  The  prevalent  thought  is  the  duty  of  love  : — to  the  brethren,  love  without 
dissimulation;  to  the  Church,  love  without  struggling  self-assertion; 
to  the  civil  power,  love  without  fear ;  to  the  world,  love  without  despising  its 
rights  or  mingling  with  its  immoralities.8  First,  by  the  grace  given  to  him, 
he  urges  them  "  not  to  be  high-minded  above  what  they  ought  to  be  minded, 
but  to  mind  to  be  soberminded,4  each  in  porportion  to  their  God-apportioned 
receptivity  of  faith ; "  and  he  illustrates  and  enforces  this  duty  of  modest 
simplicity  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  mutual  ministries,6  by  touching  once  more 
on  the  apologue  of  the  body  and  the  members,6  which  he  has  already  applied 
in  his  Letter  to  the  Corinthians.  The  moral  of  the  metaphor  is  that  "  Diversity 
without  unity  is  disorder;  unity  without  diversity  is  death."7  Then  with 
a  free  interchange  of  participles,  infinitives,  and  imperatives,  and  with  a  mixture 
of  general  and  special  exhortations,  he  urges  them  to  love,  kindliness,  zeal, 
hope,  patience,  prayer,  generosity,  forgiveness,  sympathy,  mutual  esteem,  self- 

1  Ver.  2,  <rv<rx»jfi<mfe<r0«,  "fashioned  in  accordance;"  f«Tafu>p<f>orfff#«,  "trans-formed.* 
5xwa,  as  in  Phil.  ii.  8,  is  the  outward,  transitory  fashion;  ftop^,  the  abiding  and 
•ubstantial  form. 

3  Ver.  3,  fXT)  virep^popeTv  Trap'  &  Sel  (frpovtlv,  aAAct  $pov«tr  els  TO  mtfypbrtlv. 

8  Lange  ad  loc.  *  ni.  3. 

*  In  ver.  6  the  "prophecy  [i.e.,  high  Christian  teaching]  according  to  the  proportion 
of  faith"  (/euro.  rr)v  ivaXoyCav  T»|«  TriVrew?)  means  that  the  Christian  teacher  is  to  keep 
•within  the  limits  of  his  gift  assigned  him  by  his  individuality  (Tholuck),  i.e.,  not  to  push 
his  xapK^a  as  a  preacher  into  disproportionate  prominence  (Deut.  rviii.  18).  The 
objective  sense  of  inVris  as  a  body  of  doctrines  is  later.  Hence  the  common  rule  of 
explaining  Scripture,  "according  to  the  analogy  of  faith,"  though  most  true  and 
necessary,  is  a  misapplication  of  the  original  meaning  of  the  phrase. 

6  1  Cor.  xii.  12—27. 

7  Lange.    The  conception  of  Christian  fellowship  involves  both  unity  and  variety. 
"The  Spirit  resolves  the  variety  into  unity,  introduces   variety  into  the  unity,  and 
reconciles  unity  to  itself  through  variety  "  (Baur). 


FRUITS  or  FAITH.  503 

restraint,  the  steady  lore  of  God,  the  steady  loathing  of  evil,  the  deliberate 
victory  of  virtue  over  vice.  It  is  clear  that  the  dangers  which  he  most 
apprehended  among  the  Roman  Christians  were  those  exacerbations  which 
spring  from  an  unloving  and  over-bearing  self-confidence ;  but  he  gives 
a  general  form  to  all  his  precepts,  and  the  chapter  stands  unrivalled  as  a 
spontaneous  sketch  of  the  fairest  graces  which  can  adorn  the  Christian 
life.1 

The  first  part  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  has  a  more  obviously  special  bear- 
ing. It  is  occupied  by  a  very  earnest  exhortation  to  obedience  towards  the 
civil  power,  based  on  the  repeated  statements  that  it  is  ordained  of  God ;  that 
its  aim  is  the  necessary  suppression  of  evil;  that  it  was  not,  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  any  source  of  terror  to  a  blameless  life ;  and  that  it  should  be 
obeyed  and  respected,  not  of  unwilling  compulsion,  but  as  a  matter  of  right 
and  conscience.8  This  was,  indeed,  the  reason  why  they  paid  taxes,3  and  why 
the  payment  of  them  should  be  regarded  as  a  duty  to  God.4 

,  The  warmth  with  which  St.  Paul  speaks  thus  of  the  functions  of  civil 
governors  may,  at  first  sight,  seem  surprising,  when  we  remember  that  a 
Helius  was  in  the  Praef  ecture,  a  Tigellinus  in  the  Praetorium,  a  Gessius  Floras 
in  the  provinces,  and  a  Nero  on  the  throne.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Neronian  persecution  had  not  yet  broken  out ;  and  that 
the  iniquities  of  individual  emperors  and  individual  governors,  while  it  had 
free  rein  in  every  question  which  affected  their  greed,  their  ambition,  or  their 
lust,  had  not  as  yet  by  any  means  destroyed  the  magnificent  ideal  of  Roman 
Law.  If  there  were  bad  rulers,  there  were  also  good  ones.  A  Cicero  as  well 

1  xii.  1 — 2L  As  regards  special  expressions  in  this  chapter,  we  may  notice — ver.  9, 
es  "loathing;"  icoAAw/wvoi,  "bridal  intimacy  with.  Ver.  10,  rjj <f>tAo5eA<f>i* 
,  "  love  your  brethren  in  the  faith  as  though  they  were  brethren  in  blood ; 
i,  Vulg.  invicem  praevenientee,"  "  anticipating  one  another,  and  going  before 
one  another  as  guides  in  giving  honour  "  (ver.  11).  The  evidence  between  the  readings, 
Koipcp,  "  serving  the  opportunity,"  and  Kvpi'y,  the  Lord,"  is  very  nicely  balanced,  but 
probably  rose  from  the  abbreviation  Kfxa.  The  other  clause  is,  "In  zealous  work  not 
slothful ;  boiling  in  spirit "  (cf.  the  NU3,  "  a  prophet " ).  In  ver.  13,  pvtiax,  "  memories," 
can  hardly  be  the  true  reading.  In  ver.  14,  the  «IWKOVT«J,  "  pursuing  hospitality,"  may 

have  suggested  the  thought  of  SUOKOVTO.S,  "persecutors;  "  ver.  16,  TOI?  ron-eivms  ovvairayoju.eyot 

is  either  " modestissimorum  exempla  sectantes"  (Grot.),  "letting  the  lowly  lead  you 
with  them  by  the  hand"  (masc.),  or  "humilibus  rebus  pbsecundantes,"  "going  along 
with  lowly  things"  (neut.).  Ver.  19,  Sore TOWOV if  opyjj,  either  (1)  "Give  place  for  the 
divine  wrath  to  work"  (Chrys.,  Aug.,  &c.) ;  or  (2),  "Give  room  to  your  own  anger" — 
i.e.,  defer  its  outbreak — this,  however,  would  be  a  Latinism,  "irae  spatium  dare  (cf. 
Virg.  jEn.  iy.  433);  or  (3)  "Give  place  to,  yield  before,  the  wrath  of  your  enemy." 
The  first  is  right.  Ver.  20,  "coals  of  fire  "  (Prov.  xxv.  21,  22)  to  melt  him  to  penitence 
and  beneficent  shame.  The  chapter  is  full  of  beautiful  trilogies  of  expression. 

3  xiii.  5,  ocayKD(7,  8,  Aug.)  in-ordero-eotf.  (D,  E,  F,  G,  Vulg.,  Luther),  "Yield  to 
necessity."  "Pray  for  the  established  Government,"  said  Rabbi  Chaneena,  " for  with- 
out it  men  would  eat  one  another  "  (AbMda  Za.ro.,  f.  4, 1).  Josephus  calls  Judas  the 
Gaulonite  "  the  author  of  the  fourth  sect  of  Jewish  philosophy,"  who  have  "  an  inviolable 
attachment  to  liberty,"  and  say  that  God  is  to  be  the  only  Ruler  (Antt.  xxiii.  1,  §  6). 

3  xiii.  6,  reXetrt  is  the  indicative ;  not,  as  in  the  A.V.,  an  imperative  (Matt.  xvii.  21). 
In  ver.  4  the  ^axatpa  refers  to  the  jus  gladii.  A  provincial  governor  on  starting  was 
presented  with  a  dagger  by  the  Emperor.  Trajan,  in  giving  it,  used  the  words — Pro 
me ;  si  merear,  in  me." 

«  xiii.  1—7. 


504  THE  LItfE  AND  WOEK  OF  Si,  PA.VL. 

as  a  Terres  had  once  been  provincial  governors ;  a  Barea  Soranus  as  well  as  a 
Felix  The  Roman  government,  corrupt  as  it  often  was  in  special  instances, 
was  yet  the  one  grand  power  which  held  in  check  the  anarchic  forces  which 
but  for  its  control  were  "nursing  the  impatient  earthquake."  If  now  and 
then  it  broke  down  in  minor  matters,  and  more  rarely  on  a  large  scale,  yet  the 
total  area  of  legal  prescriptions  was  kept  unravaged  by  mischievous  injustice. 
St.  Paul  had  himself  suffered  from  local  tyranny  at  Philippi,  but  on  the 
whole,  up  to  this  time,  he  had  some  reason  to  be  grateful  to  the  impartiality  of 
Roman  law.  At  Corinth  he  had  been  protected  by  the  disdainful  justice  of 
Gallic,  at  Ephesus  by  the  sensible  appeal  of  the  public  secretary;  and  not 
long  afterwards  he  owed  his  life  to  the  soldier-like  energy  of  a  Lysias,  and 
the  impartial  protection  of  a  Festus,  and  even  of  a  Felix.  Nay,  even  at  his 
first  trial  his  undefended  innocence  prevailed  not  only  over  all  the  public 
authority  which  could  be  arrayed  against  him  by  Sadducean  priests  and 
a  hostile  Sanhedrin,  but  even  over  the  secret  influence  of  an  Aliturns  and  a 
Poppsea.  Nor  had  the  Jews  any  reason  to  be  fretful  and  insubordinate.  If 
the  ferocity  of  Sejanus  and  the  alarm  of  Claudius  had  caused  them  much 
suffering  at  Rome,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  been  protected  by  a 
Julius  and  an  Augustus,  and  they  were  in  possession  of  legal  immunities 
which  gave  to  their  religion  the  recognised  dignity  of  a  religio  licita.  It  may 
safely  be  said  that,  in  many  a  great  city,  it  was  to  the  inviolable  strength  and 
grandeur  of  Roman  law  that  they  owed  their  very  existence ;  because,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  protection  thus  afforded  to  them,  they  might  have  been  liable 
to  perish  by  the  exterminating  fury  of  Pagan  populations  by  whom  they  were 
at  once  envied  and  disliked.1 

No  doubt  the  force  of  these  considerations  would  be  fully  felt  by  those 
Jews  who  had  profited  by  Hellenistic  culture.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that 
St.  Paul  is  here  dealing  with  religious  rather  than  with  political  or  even  theo- 
cratic prejudices.  The  early  Church  was  deeply  affected  by  Essene  and 
Ebionitic  elements,  and  St.  Paul's  enforcement  of  the  truth  that  the  civil 
power  derives  its  authority  from  God,  points  to  the  antithesis  that  it  was  not 
the  mere  vassalage  of  the  devil.  It  was  not  likely  that  at  Rome  there  should 
be  any  of  that  zealot  fanaticism  which  held  it  unlawful  for  a  Jew  to  recognise 
any  other  earthly  ruler  besides  God,  and  looked  on  the  payment  of  tribute  as 
a  sort  of  apostasy.8  It  is  far  more  likely  that  the  Apostle  is  striving  to 
counteract  the  restless  insubordination  which  might  spring  from  the  preva- 
lence of  chiliastic  notions  such  as  those  which  we  find  in  the  Clementine 
Homilies,  that  "  the  present  world  with  all  its  earthly  powers  is  the  kingdom 
of  the  devil,"  and  that  so  far  from  regarding  the  civil  governor  as  "the 
minister  of  God  for  good,"  the  child  of  the  future  could  only  look  upon  him 
as  the  embodied  representative  of  a  spiritual  enemy.  This  unpractical  and 
dualistic  view  might  even  claim  on  its  side  certain  phrases  alluding  to  the 

1  Thus  the  later  Eabhis  found  it  necessary  to  say,  with  Shemuel,  "The  law  of  the 
Gentile  kingdom  is  valid  "  (Babha  Kama,  f.  113, 1). 
»  Matt.  xiii.  17. 


FRUITS  OF  FAITH.  SOS 

moral  wickedness  of  the  world,  which  had  a  wholly  different  application:1 
and  therefore  Paul,  with  his  usual  firmness,  lays  down  in  unmistakable  terms 
the  rule  which,  humanly  speaking,  could  alone  save  the  rising  Church  from 
utter  extinction — the  rule,  namely,  of  holding  aloof  from  political  distur- 
bances. On  thj  whole,  both  Jews  and  Christians  had  learnt  the  lesson  well, 
and  it  was.  therefore,  the  more  necessary  that  the  good  effects  of  that  faithful 
fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  to  which  both  Jewish  historians  and 
Christian  Fathers  constantly  appeal,  should  not  be  obliterated  by  the  fanatical 
theories  of  incipient  Manichees. 

The  question  as  to  the  payment  of  civil  dues  leads  St.  Paul  naturally  to 
apeak  of  the  payment  of  other  dues.  The  one  debt  which  the  Christian  owes 
to  all  men  is  the  debt  of  love — that  love  which  prevents  us  from  all  wrong- 
doing, and  is  therefore  the  fulfilment  of  the  law.  To  this  love  he  invites  them 
in  a  powerful  appeal,  founded  on  the  depth  of  the  night  and  the  nearness  of 
the  dawn,  so  that  it  was  high  time  to  put  away  the  works  of  darkness  and  put 
on  the  arms  of  light 2 — nay,  more,  to  put  on,  as  a  close-fitting  robe,  by  close 
spiritual  communion,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself.3 

The  fourteenth  chapter  again  reveals  the  existence  of  Ebionitic  elements 
in  the  Roman  Church.  In  a  strange  city,  and  especially  if  he  were  ont  free, 
a  scrupulous  Jew,  uninfluenced  by  Hellenism,  would  find  it  so  impossible  to 
fulfil  the  requirements  of  the  Law  respecting  clean  and  unclean  meats,  and 
still  more  the  many  minute  additions  which  Rabbinic  Pharisaism  had  made  to 
those  requirements,  that  he  would  be  forced  either  to  sacrifice  his  convictions, 
or  to  reduce  his  diet  to  the  simplest  elements.  As  St.  Paul  does  not  allude 
fco  the  Law,  it  is  probable  that  he  is  here  dealing  with  scruples  even  more 
deeply  seated.  HIB  object  is  to  reconcile  the  antagonistic  feelings  of  two 
classes  of  Christians,  whom  he  calls  respectively  the  "  strong  "  and  the  "  weak." 
The  "  strong  "  regarded  all  days  as  equally  sacred,  or,  as  the  "  weak  "  would 
have  said,  as  equally  profane ;  whereas  the  "  weak  "  surrounded  the  Sabbath 
and  the  Jewish  festivals  with  regulations  intended  to  secure  their  rigid  observ- 
ance.4 Again,  the  "  strong  "  ate  food  of  every  description  without  the  smallest 
scruple,  whereas  the  "  weak "  looked  on  all  animal  food  with  such  disgust 
and  suspicion  that  they  would  eat  nothing  but  herbs.6  It  is  obvious  that  in 
adopting  so  severe  a  course  they  went  far  beyond  the  requirements  of  Levit- 

1  John  Xli.  81.  6  apx<av  TOU  ic6cr/xov  rovrow ;   Epll.  ii.  2,  ttsv  apxovra  Trj?  <f  outn'os  rov  ac'pos 

3  xiii.  12,  or  ''the  deeds  of  light "  foya,  A,  D,  E). 
8  Of.  Gal.  ill.  27,  Xp«rr6v  fvrfvVaotfe. 

4  Rom.  riv.  6.    The  words,  "  and  he  who  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  he  doth 
not  regard  it,"  are  omitted  by  N,  A,  B,  0,  D,  E,  F,  G,  Vet.,  It.,  Vulg.,  Copt.     On  the 
other  hand,  the  Syriac  has  it,  and  the  omission  may  be  due  to  the  homoeoteleuton  of  <t>povtl, 
or  to  doctrinal  prejudices,  which  regarded  the  clause  as  dangerous.     The  clause  is  far  too 
liberal  to  have  been  inserted  by  a  second  century  scribe  ;  but  even  if  it  be  omitted,  the 
principle  which  it  involves  is  clearly  Implied  in  the  first  half  of  the  verse,  and  in  the 
previous  verse. 

*  Seneca  tells  us  that  in  hia  youth  he  had  adopted  from  his  Pythagorean  teacher 
Sotion  the  practice  of  vegetarianism,  but  his  father  made  him  give  it  up  because  it 
rendered  him  liable  to  the  suspicion  of  foreign  superstitions  (probably  Judaism).  See 
Skelters  after  Ghd,  p.  16. 


506  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OS1  ST.  PATTL. 

ism,  and  when  we  find  the  very  same  views  and  practices  existing  in  Borne 
during  the  next  century,1  it  is  hardly  possible  to  avoid  the  suspicion  that  the 
Judaic  Christianity  of  these  "  weak  "  brethren  was  tinged  with  those  Essene, 
Phrygian,  or  Pythagorean  elements  which  led  them  to  look  on  the  material 
and  the  sensuous  as  something  intrinsically  dangerous,  if  not  as  positively 
evil.  Epiphanius  says  that  Ebion  visited  Borne ;  *  and  although  it  is  more 
than  doubtful  whether  there  ever  was  such  a  person,  yet  the  statement  shows 
the  prevalence  of  such  views.  Now  one  of  the  Ebionitie  principles  was  that 
all  meat  is  impure,3  and  in  the  Clementine  Homilies  the  eating  of  meat  is 
attributed  to  impure  demons  and  bloodthirsty  giants ;  and  the  Apostle  Peter 
is  made  to  say  to  Clement  that  "  he  makes  use  only  of  bread  and  olives  and 
(sparingly)  of  other  vegetables  "  * — a  tradition  which  we  also  find  attached  by 
Clemens  of  Alexandria  to  the  names  of  St.  Matthew  and  James  the  Lord's 
brother,  and  the  latter  we  are  told  drank  no  wine  or  strong  drink.6  It  is  very 
possible  that  St.  Paul  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  formally  warning  the  Boman 
Christians  against  the  tendency  to  dualism.  This  might  be  the  subterranean 
origin  of  wrong  notions  long^  before  it  had  risen  into  clear  consciousness. 
What  St.  Paul  did  see  was  the  danger  that  if  "  the  weak  "  prevailed,  Chris- 
tianity might  be  frittered  away  into  a  troublesome  and  censorious  externalism  ; 
or  that  the  "  strong  "  might  treat  their  weaker  brethren  with  a  rough  and 
self -exalting  contempt  which  would  either  put  force  on  tender  consciences,  or 
create  a  permanent  disruption  between  the  different  members  of  the  Church.8 
He  treats  the  difficulty  in  the  same  masterly  manner — broad  yet  sympa- 
thetic, inflexible  in  convictions  yet  considerate  towards  prejudices — which 
he  had  already  displayed  in  dealing  with  a  similar  question  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians.  But  the  difference  between  the  tone  adopted  in  this 
chapter  and  that  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  very  remarkable,  and 
shows  the  admirable  tact  and  versatility  of  the  Apostle.  He  is  there  es- 
tablishing the  rights  of  Christian  freedom  against  the  encroachments  of 
Pharisaism,  so  that  the  assertion  of  the  liberty  of  the  Gentiles  was  a  matter 
of  essential  importance.  He  therefore  speaks,  as  it  was  a  duty  to  speak, 
with  an  almost  rough  contempt  of  attaching  any  vital  importance  to  "  beg- 
garly elements."  Here  his  tone  is  altogether  different,  because  his  object 
is  altogether  different,  as  also  were  his  readers.  The  right  to  enjoy  our 
liberty  he  can  here  in  the  most  absolute  manner  assume.  As  to  the  merit 
of  the  particular  scrupulosities  which  were  in  vogue  among  the  weak,  he 
has  no  occasion  to  do  more  than  imply  his  own  indifference.  What  is  here 
necessary  is  to  warn  the  "  strong  "  not  to  be  arrogant  in  their  condemna- 
tions, and  the  "  weak  "  not  to  be  supercilious  in  their  self-esteem.  He  has 
shown  the  universality  of  guilt,  and  the  universality  of  grace,  and  he  has 
now  to  show  the  sacred  duty  of  unanimity  among  those  thus  universally 

1  The  Ebionites  regarded  the  Sabbath  as  the  holiest  command  of  the  Jewish  religion. 
3  Haer.  xxx.  18.  J  Epiphan.  Haer.  in.  15. 

*  Horn.  xii.  6.  '  Paedag.  ii.  1 ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  23 ;  Baur,  Paul.  i.  358. 

«  Gal.  Ui. ;  T.I— 9;  vi.  12,13. 


FBUITS  OF   FAITH.  607 

called,  defending  this  unanimity  against  censoriousness  on  the  one  hand,  and 
against  disdain  on  the  other. 

He  does  not  attempt  to  conceal  the  bent  of  his  own  sympathies ;  he  de- 
clares himself  quite  unambiguously  on  the  side  of  the  "  strong."  The  life  of 
the  Christian  is  a  life  in  Christ,  and  rises  transcendently  above  the  minutiae 
of  ritual,  or  the  self-torments  of  asceticism.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  " — such 
is  the  great  axiom  which  he  lays  down  for  the  decision  of  all  such  questions — 
"  is  not  meat  and  drink ;  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  "  strong,"  therefore,  in  St.  Paul's  judgment,  were  in  the  right 
But,  for  this  very  reason,  it  was  necessary  to  warn  them  against  the  contemp- 
tuous assertion  of  their  superior  wisdom. 

i.  Let  each  party  follow  their  own  course  if  they  believe  it  to  be  the  best,  but 
let  each  abstain  from  the  guilt  and  folly  of  condemning  the  other.  God,  not  man, 
is  the  judge,  by  whose  judgment  each  man  stands  or  falls.  Nay,  he  snail  stand,  for 
God  is  able  to  make  him  stand.  Conceited  illuminism  is  as  deep  an  offence  against 
charity  as  saintly  self-satisfaction.  The  first  counsel,  then,  on  •which  he  strongly 
insists  is  mutual  forbearance,  the  careful  avoidance  of  arguments  and  discussions 
about  disputed  points.  Let  there  be  no  intolerant  scrupulosity,  and  no  uncharitable 
disdain,  but  an  avoidance  of  dispute  and  a  reciprocal  recognition  of  honest  convic- 
tions. These  differences  are  not  about  essentials,  and  it  is  not  for  any  man  to  adopt 
a  violently  dogmatic  or  uncharitably  contemptuous  tone  towards  those  who  differ 
from  himself  respecting  them.  The  party-spirit  of  religious  bodies  too  often  finds 
the  fuel  for  its  burning  questions  in  mere  weeds  and  straw. l 

ii.  The  second  counsel  is  tbe  cultivation  of  careful  consideration  which  shall  not 
shock  tender  consciences  ;  it;  is,  in  short,  condescendence  towards  the  weakness  of 
others,  a  willingness  to  take  less  tban  our  due,  and  a  readiness  to  waive  our  own 
rights,2  and  enjoy  as  a  private  possession  between  ourselves  and  God  the  confidence 
of  our  faith.  His  own  positive  and  sacred  conviction  is  tbat  these  rules  about  food 
are  unessential ;  that  no  food  is  intrinsically  unclean.  But  if  by  acting  on  this  con- 
viction we  lead  otbers  to  do  the  same,  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  their  consciences, 
then  for  a  paltry  self -gratification  we  are  undoing  God's  work,  and  slaying  a  soul 
for  which  Christ  died.3  Rather  than  do  this,  rather  than  place  a  needless  stumbling- 
block  in  any  Christian's  path,  it  were  well  neither  to  eat  meat  nor  to  drink  wine, 
because  Christian  love  is  a  thing  more  precious  than  even  Christian  liberty.4 

iii.  His  third  counsel  is  the  obedience  to  clear  convictions.5  Happy  the  man 
who  has  no  scruples  as  to  things  intrinsically  harmless.  But  if  another  cannot 

1  adv.  1 — 12,  irpo<r\afji.fi<ive<r6c,  "  take  by  the  hand  ;"  M  «ty  Staieola-tit  JioAoyto>uoc,  "not  by 
way  of  criticising  for  them  their  scrupulous  niceties  "  (Tholuck). 

2  2vy»ca.Ta/Jao-ts  (see  Rom.  TV.  1),  eAxuro-ovcrfcu  (John  iii.   30),  i<rrepei<r0ai  (Phil.  IV.  12  ;   1 
Cor.  vi  7) ;  three  great  Christian  conceptions  which  have  in  the  practice  of  "  religious" 
parties  become  perilously  obsolete. 

3  1  Cor.  viii.  13.  4  xiv.  13—21 

*  Augustine's  "  Omnis  infidelium  vita,  peccatum  est "  is  an  instance  of  the  many 
extravagant  inferences  which  are  the  curse  of  theology,  and  which  arise  from  recklessly 
tearing  words  from  the  context,  and  pushing  them  beyond  their  legitimate  significance. 
We  have  no  right  to  apply  the  text  apart  from  the  circumstances  to  which  it  immediately 
refers.  As  a  universal  principle  it  is  only  applicable  to  the  party  of  which  the  Apostle  is 
speaking.  When  applied  analogically,  "faith  "can  here  only  be  taken  to  mean  "the 
moral  conviction  of  the  rectitude  of  a  mode  of  action"  (Chrys.,  De  Wette,  Meyer,  &c.). 
To  pervert  the  meaning  of  texts,  as  is  done  so  universally,  is  to  make  a  bad  play  upon 
words.  Our  Art.  XIII.  does  not  in  the  least  exclude  the  possibility  of  gratia,  pracveniens 
even  in  heathens  (see  Horn.  ii.  &— 15).  If  Augustine  meant  that  even  the  morality  and 
virtue  of  pagans,  heretics,  &c.,  is  sin,  his  axiom  is  not  only  morose  and  repellent,  Phari- 
saical and  nnti-smptural,  but  historically,  spiritually,  and  morally  false. 


508  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

emancipate  himself  from  these  scruples,  however  needless,  and  exhibits  in  his  own 
conduct  the  same  freedom  in  defiance  of  his  scruples,  then  he  stands  self-condemned. 
Why  f  Because  in  that  case  he  is  acting  falsely  to  that  faith  which  is  the  ruling 
principle  of  his  Christian  life,  and  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith, — whatsoever  involves 
the  life  of  self,  and  not  the  life  of  Christ — is  sin.1 

The  true  principle,  then,  is  that  we  ought  not  to  please  ourselves,  even  as  Christ 
pleased  not  Himself,  but  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  aim  at  mutual 
edification.  This  is  the  lesson  of  Scripture,  and  he  prays  that  the  God  of  that 
patience  and  comfort  which  it  is  the  object  of  Scripture  to  inspire,  may  give  them 
mutual  unanimity  in  Jesus  Christ.  And  addressing  alike  the  "  weak "  Judaizers 
and  the  " strong"  Gentiles,  he  concludes  his  advice  with  the  same  general  precept 
with  which  he  began,  ' '  AVheref ore  take  one  another  by  the  hand,  as  Christ  also 
took  us  by  the  hand  for  the  glory  of  God."  * 

And  Christ  had  thus  set  His  example  of  love  and  help  to  both  the  great  divisions 
of  the  Church.  He  had  become  the  minister  of  the  circumcision  on  behalf  of 
God's  truth,  to  fulfil  the  promise  made  to  the  fathers ;  and  to  the  Gentiles  out  of 
compassion.  Christ  therefore  had  shown  kindness  to  both,  and  that  the  Gentiles 
were  indeed  embraced  in  this  kindness — which,  perhaps,  in  their  pride  of  liberty 
they  did  not  always  feel  inclined  to  extend  to  their  weaker  brethren — he  further 
proves  by  an  appeal  to  Deuteronomy,  Isaiah,  and  the  Psalms.8  The  last  citation 
ends  with  the  words  "shall  hope,"  and  he  closes  this  section  with  yet  another 
prayer  that  the  God  of  hope  would  fill  them  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing, 
that  they  might  abound  in  hope  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  once  more  he  takes  up  the  pen  to  assure  them  of  his  confidence  in 
them,  and  to  apologise  for  the  boldness  of  his  letter.  His  plea  is  that  Lr 
wished  to  fulfil  to  the  utmost  that  ministry  to  the  Geutiles  which  he  here  call's 
a  priestly  ministry,  because  he  is  as  it  were  instrumental  in  presenting  the 
Gentiles  as  an  acceptable  offering  to  God.4  Of  this  Apostolate  (giving  all 
the  glory  to  God) — of  the  signs  by  which  it  had  been  accompanied — of  the 
width  of  its  range,  from  Jerusalem  to  Illyricum — he  may  make  a  humble 
boast. 

And  he  is  still  ambitious  to  preach  in  regions  where  Christ  has  not  been  named. 
He  will  not  stay  with  them,  because  he  has  seen  enough  of  the  evil  caused  by  tho.% 
who  built  on  a  foundation  which  they  had  not  laid ;  but  he  has  often  felt  a  strong 
desire  to  visit  them  on  his  way  to  Spain,8  and  after  a  partial  enjoyment  of  their 
society,8  to  be  furthered  on  his  journey  by  their  assistance.  He  has  hitherto  been 
prevented  from  taking  that  journey,  but  now — since  for  the  present  his  duties  in  the 
feast  are  over — he  hopes  to  carry  it  out,  and  to  gratify  his  earnest  desire  to  see  them. 
At  present,  however,  he  is  about  to  start  for  Jerusalem,  to  accompany  the  deputies 
who  are  to  convey  to  the  poor  saints  there  that  temporal  gift  from  the  Christians  of 
Macedonia  and  Achaia  which  is  after  all  but  a  small  recognition  of  the  spiritual 
gifts  which  the  Gentiles  have  received  from  them.  When  this  task  is  over  he  will 

1  xiv.  22,  23.    It  is  at  this  point  that  some  MSS.  place  the  doxology  of  xvi.  25 — 27 ; 
but  this  would  be  a  most  awkward  break  between  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  chapters, 
and  the  reasons  for  regarding  the  fifteenth  chapter  as  spurious  seem  to  me  to  be  wholly 
inconclusive. 

2  rr.  1—8.  3  Deut.  xxxii.  43 ;  Ps.  xviii.  49 ;  cxvii.  1 ;  Isa.  xl.  10. 

4  xv.  16,  'lepovfrfovvT-a.  It  is  a  in.  teyofievov  not  due  to  any  sacrificial  conception  of  the 
Christian  ministry  (of  which  there  is  not  in  St.  Paul  so  much  as  a  single  trace),  but  to 
the  particular  illustration  which  he  here  adopts. 

6  xv.  24  omit  fXevVo^ai  jrpbs  u/aa?  with  all  the  best  MSS.     "  Having  a  desire  for 
years  past  to  come  to  you  whenever  I  journey  into  Spain." 

"  uon  quantum  vellem  sed  quantum  hceret "  (Grofc,), 


I-RTTITS  OP   FAITH.  509 

turn  his  face  towards  Spain,  and  visit  them  on  his  way,  and  he  is  confident  that  he 
shall  come  in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  He,  there- 
fore, earnestly  entreats  their  prayers  that  he  may  be  rescued  from  the  perils  which 
he  knows  await  him  from  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem,  and  that  the  contribution  due  to 
his  exertions  may  be  favourably  received  by  the  saints,  that  so  by  God's  will  he 
may  come  to  them  in  joy,  and  that  they  may  mutually  refresh  each  other.1  "  And 
the  God  of  peace  be  with  you  all.  Amen."' 

There  in  all  probability  ended  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  I  have  already 
given  abundant  reason  in  support  of  the  ingenious  conjecture3  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  sixteenth  chapter  was  addressed  to  the  Epliesian  Church.4 
Even  a  careless  reader  could  scarcely  help  observing  whatVe  should  not  at  all 
have  conjectured  from  the  earlier  part  of  the  Epistle  that  there  were  schisms 
and  scandals  (17 — 20)  in  the  Roman  Church,  and  teachers  who  deliberately 
fomented  them,  slaves  of  their  own  belly,  and  by  their  plausibility  and 
flattery  deceiving  the  hearts  of  the  simple.5  Nor,  again,  can  any  one  miss  the 
fact  that  the  position  of  the  Apostle  towards  his  correspondents  in  verse  19  is 
far  more  severe,  paternal,  and  authoritative  than  in  the  other  chapters.  If — 
as  is  surely  an  extremely  reasonable  supposition — St.  Paul  desired  other 
Churches  besides  the  stranger  Church  of  Rome  to  reap  the  benefit  of  his 
ripest  thoughts,  and  to  read  the  maturest  statement  of  the  Gospel  which  he 
preached,  then  several  copies  of  the  main  part  of  the  Epistle  must  have  been 
made  by  the  amanuenses,  of  whom  Tertius  was  one,  and  whose  services  the 
Apostle  was  at  that  moment  so  easily  able  to  procure.  In  that  case  nothing  is 
more  likely  than  that  the  terminations  of  the  various  copies  should  have 
varied  with  the  circumstances  of  the  Churches,  and  nothing  more  possible 
than  that  in  some  one  copy  the  various  terminations  should  have  been  care- 
fully preserved.  We  have  at  any  rate  in  this  hypothesis  a  simple  explanation 
of  the  three  final  benedictions  (20,  24,  27)  which  occur  in  this  chapter  alone. 

The  fullest  of  the  Apostle's  letters  concludes  with  the  most  elaborate  of 
his  doxologies.' 

1  xv.  32,  K«U  avv*vairtt.v<miiM  v^lv  is  omitted  by  B. 

*  xv.  9—33.  »  First  made  by  SchuLs. 

4  "We  may  be  very  thankful  for  its  preservation,  as  it  has  a  deep  personal  Interest. 
On  deaconesses  see  Bingham  i.  334 — 366.    Phoebe  was  probably  a  widow.     Verse  4, 
vTtiS,)Ka.v,  "laid  their  own  necks  under  the  axe,"  a  probable  allusion  to  some  risk  at 
Corinth  (Acts  xviii.  12 ;  adx.   32).     In  verse  5  the  true  reading  is  'A<r«'<«.     Verse  7, 
owaixjxoAwTovs — probably  at  Ephesus,  emori/aoi  ev Toi9  aTrooToAou,   "illustrious  among  the 
missionaries  of  the  truth  "  (2  Cor.  viii.  23 ;  Acts  xiv.  4),  in  the  less  restricted  sense  of 
the  word.     It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  St.  Paul  would  make  it  a  merit  that  the 
Apostles  knew  them  and  thought  highly  of  them  (Gal.  i.  ii.) — verse  13.     Rufus,  perhaps 
one  of  the  sons  of  Simon  of  Cyrene  (Mark  xv.  22) — verse  14.     Hermas,  not  the  author 
of  The  Shepherd,  who  could  hardly  have  been  born  at  this  time.    Verse  16,  ^l^a.  ayior, 
1  Thess.  v.  26 ;  1  Pet.  v.  14 ;  Luke  vii.  45.     The  attempted  identification  of  Tertius  with 
Silas,  because  the  Hebrew  for  Tertius  ('ttJ'V?})  sounds  like  Silas,  is  one  of  the  imbecilities 
of  fanciful  exegesis.     On  such  names  as  Tryphaena  and  Tryphosa,  voluptuous  in  sound 
and  base  in  meaning,  which  may  have  suggested  to  St.  Paul  the  Kon-iwo-a?  iv  Kvpup  as  a 
sort  of  noble  paronomasia,  see  Merivale,  Hist.  vi.  260,  and  Wordsworth,  ad  loc, 

5  Phil.  iii.  2,  18 ;  2  Cor.  xi.  20. 

8  "Whether  the  Epistle  proceeded  in  two  forms  from  the  Apostle's  hands,  the  one 
closing  with  chapter  xiv.  and  the  doxology,  the  other  extended  by  the  addition  of  the  two 
i&st  chapters,  or  whether  any  other  more  satisfactory  explanation  can  be  offered  of  the 


510  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

"  Now  to  Him  who  is  able  to  establish  you  according  to  my  Gospel,  and  the 
preaching  of  Jesug  Christ,  according  to  the  revelation  of  the  mystery,  buried  in 
silence  in  eternal  ages,  but  manifested  now  and  made  known  by  the  prophetic 
Scriptures,  according  to  the  command  of  the  Eternal  God  unto  obedience  to  the 
faith  to  all  nations : — To  the  only  wise  God,  through  Jesus  Christ — to  whom  be  the 
glory  for  ever.  Amen."1 


CHAPTER  XL. 

THE   LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM. 

"  Show  me  some  one  person  formed  according  to  .the  principles  he  professes. 
Show  me  one  who  is  sick  and  happy ;  in  danger  and  happy ;  dying  and  happy ; 
exiled  and  happy  ;  disgraced  and  happy." — EPICTBTUS. 

IT  was  now  about  the  month  of  February,  A.D.  58,  and  the  work  which  St. 
Paul  had  set  before  him  at  Corinth  was  satisfactorily  concluded.  Having 
been  nine  months  in  Europe,2  he  was  anxious  to  get  to  Jerusalem  by  the  Pass- 
over, and  intended  to  sail  straight  from  Corinth  to  one  of  the  ports  of 
Palestine.  Every  preparation  was  made ;  it  almost  seems  that  he  had  got  on 
board  sliip ;  when  he  was  informed  of  a  sudden3  plot  on  the  part  of  the  Jews 
to  murder  him.  As  to  all  the  details  we  are  left  in  the  dark.  We  know  that 
the  previous  plot  of  the  Jews,  nearly  five  years  earlier,4  had  been  foiled  by  the 
contemptuous  good  sense  of  Gallic ;  but  even  if  their  revenge  were  otherwise 
likely  to  be  laid  aside,  we  cannot  doubt  that  ample  fuel  had  since  been  heaped 
upon  the  smouldering  fire  of  their  hatred.  From  every  seaport  of  the 
JEgean,  from  the  highlands  of  Asia  Minor,  from  its  populous  shores,  from 
Troas  under  the  shadows  of  Mount  Ida,  to  Athens  under  the  shadow  of  Mount 
Pentelicus,  they  would  hear  rumours  of  that  daring  creed  which  seemed  to 
trample  on  all  their  convictions,  and  fling  to  the  Gentiles  their  most  cherished 
hopes.  The  Jewish  teachers  who  tried  to  hound  the  Judaising  Christians 
against  St.  Paul  would  stand  on  perfectly  good  terms  with  them,  and  these 
Judaisers  would  take  a  pleasure  in  disseminating  the  deadliest  misrepresenta- 
tions of  Paul's  doctrine  and  career.  But  apart  from  all  misrepresentation, 
his  undeniable  arguments  were  quite  enough  to  madden  them  to  frenzy.  We 

phenomenon  of  omission,  repetition,  transposition,  authenticity,  must  be  left  for  further 
investigation."  "Westcott  (Vaughan's  Romans,  p.  xxv.).  One  theory  is  that  xii. — xiv. 
were  substituted  later  for  IT.  xvi.,  and  then  both  were  accumulated  in  one  copy  with 
some  modifications. 

1  Of.  Eph.  iii.  20,  21.  The  text,  as  it  stands,  involves  an  anacoluthon,  since  the  <L 
should  properly  be  eiceiVw.  Tholuck,  &c.,  think  that  the  Apostle  was  led  by  the  paren- 
thesis from  a  doxology  to  God  to  a  doxology  to  Christ.  It  may  be  that  he  meant  to 
insert  the  word  x«p«>  but  lost  sight  of  it  in  the  length  of  the  sentence.  Here,  as  in 
Hab.  iii.  6,  the  word  au6>ao?  is  used  in  two  consecutive  clauses,  where  in  the  first  clause 
all  are  agreed  that  it  cannot  mean  "  endless  "  since  it  speaks  of  things  which  have 
already  come  to  au  end. 

a  He  left  Ephesus  before  the  Pentecost  of  A.D.  57. 

*  Act!  TX.  8,  juMXAom  «>dy«r0<u.  ycyopfap.  4  A.D.  53. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  511 

may  be  sure  that  St.  Paul  taught  as  he  wrote,  and  since  we  have  noticed  it  as 
a  characteristic  of  his  intellect  that  he  is  haunted  by  words  and  expressions,1 
we  might  infer,  a  priori,  even  if  it  were  not  abundantly  evident  in  his 
writings,  that  he  is  still  more  powerfully  possessed  and  absorbed  by  any 
thoughts  which  might  have  been  forced  into  immediate  prominence.  We  may 
regard  it  as  psychologically  certain  that  his  discourses  at  Corinth  were  the 
echo  of  the  arguments  which  fill  the  two  Epistles  which  he  wrote  at  Corinth ; 
and  to  the  Jews  the  conclusions  which  they  were  meant  to  establish  would  be 
regarded  as  maddening  blasphemies.  "  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile  "— 
where,  then,  is  the  covenant  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  ?  "  There  is  neither 
circumcision  nor  uncircumcision  " — where,  then,  is  Moses  and  all  the  splen- 
dour of  Sinai  P  "  Weak  and  beggarly  elements  " — are  these  the  terms  to 
apply  to  the  inspired,  sacred,  eternal  Thorah,  in  which  God  himself  meditates, 
which  is  the  glory  of  the  world  ?  We  are  not  surprised  that  the  Jews  should 
get  up  a  plot.  Paul,  under  the  aegis  of  Roman  authority,  might  be  safe  in 
the  city,  but  they  would  avenge  themselves  on  him  as  soon  as  his  ship  had 
left  the  shore.  The  wealthy  Jewish  merchants  of  Corinth  would  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  hearing  of  sailors  and  captains  of  country  vessels  who  were  sufficiently 
dependent  on  them  to  do  any  deed  of  violence  for  a  small  consideration. 

How  was  the  plot  discovered  ?  We  do  not  know.  Scenes  of  tumult,  and 
hairbreadth  escapes,  and  dangerous  adventures,  were  so  common  in  St. 
Paul's  life,  that  neither  he,  nor  any  one  else,  has  cared  to  record  their  details. 
We  only  know  that,  after  sudden  discussion,  it  was  decided,  that  Paul, 
with  an  escort  of  the  delegates,  quite  sufficiently  numerous  to  protect  him 
from  ordinary  dangers,  should  go  round  by  Macedonia.  The  hope  of  reaching 
Jerusalem  by  the  Passover  had,  of  course,  to  be  abandoned  ;  the  only  chance 
left  was  to  get  there  by  Pentecost.  It  was  doubtless  overruled  for  good  that 
it  should  be  so,  for  if  St.  Paul  had  been  in  the  Holy  City  at  the  Passover  he 
would  have  been  mixed  up  by  his  enemies  with  the  riot  and  massacre  which 
about  that  time  marked  the  insane  rising  of  the  Egyptian  impostor  who  called 
himself  the  Messiah.* 

Of -the  seven  converts'  who  accompanied  St.  Paul — Sosipater  son  of 
Pyrrhus,4  a  Bercean,  Aristarchus  and  Secundus  of  Thessalonica,  Gains  of 
Dorbe,  Timotheus  of  Lystra,  Tychicus  and  Trophimus  of  Ephesus,  and  Luke 
— all  except  the  latter  left  him  apparently  at  Philippi,  and  went  on  to  Troas 
to  await  him  there.6  St.  Luke  was  closely  connected  with  Philippi,  where  St. 

1  V.  tupra,  pp.  273,  387,  407 ;  infra,  pp.  516,  698.  8  Verse  3,  *y«Vrro  ywSf«j. 

*  In  verse  4  the  reading,  i^pl  T>}S  'A<rw,  is  not  quite  certain,  since  it  is  omitted  in  «,  B, 
Coptic  (both  versions),  and  the  Jithiopic.  Some,  at  any  rate,  of  the  converts — Luke, 
Aristarchus,  and  Trophimus,  if  not  others — accompanied  him  all  the  way  to  Jerusalem — 
xxi.  29,  xxvii.  2,  1  Cor.  xvi  3,  4.  How  is  it  that  there  were  no  Corinthian  delegates  ? 
Had  the  large  promises  of  Corinth  ended,  after  all,  in  words  ?  or  did  they  entrust  their 
contributions  to  some  of  the  other  deputies  ? 

4  The  nuppov  was,  perhaps,  added  to  distinguish  him  from  the  Sosipater  of  Bom.  xri. 
M,  N,  A,  B,  D,  E. 

8  Verse  5.  If  irp<xr«A0dxT«  (N,  A,  B,  E,)  be  the  right  reading,  Tychicus  and  Trophinrai 
must  have  met  Paul  at  Troas. 


512  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Paul  had  left  him  on  his  first  visit,1  and  the  two  stayed  at  the  Roman  colony 
to  keep  the  Passover.  Very  happy,  we  may  be  sure,  was  that  quiet  time  spent 
by  St.  Paul  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church  which  he  loved  best  of  all — amid  the 
most  blameless  and  the  most  warm-hearted  of  all  his  converts.  Years  must 
have  elapsed  before  he  again  spent  a  Passover  in  circumstances  so  peaceful 
and  happy.2 

The  eight  days  of  the  feast  ended  in  that  year  on  Monday,  April  3,  and  on 
the  next  day  they  set  sail.  Detained  by  calms,  or  contrary  winds,  they  took 
five  days8  to  sail  to  Troas,  and  there  they  again  stayed  seven  days.4  The  delay 
was  singular,  considering  the  haste  with  which  the  Apostle  was  pressing  for- 
ward to  make  sure  of  being  at  Jerusalem  by  Pentecost.  It  was  now  about  the 
10th  of  April,  and  as  the  Pentecost  of  that  year  fell  on  May  17,  St.  Paul, 
dependent  as  he  was  on  the  extreme  uncertainties  of  ancient  navigation,  had 
not  a  single  day  to  spare.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that  it  was  neither  the 
splendour  of  the  town,  with  its  granite  temples  and  massive  gymnasium,  that 
detained  him,  nor  all  the  archaic  and  poetic  associations  of  its  neighbourhood, 
nor  yet  the  loveliness  of  the  groves  and  mountains  and  gleams  of  blue  sea. 
Although  his  former  visits  had  been  twice  cut  short — once  by  the  Macedonian 
vision,  and  once  by  his  anxiety  to  meet  Titus — it  is  even  doubtful  whether  he 
would  have  been  kept  there  by  the  interest  which  he  must  have  necessarily  felt 
in  the  young  and  flourishing  Church  of  a  town  which  was  one  of  the  Tory  few 
in  which  he  had  not  been  subjected  to  persecution.  The  delay  was  therefore 
probably  due  to  the  difficulty  of  finding  or  chartering  a  vessel  such  as  they 
required.6 

Be  that  as  it  may,  his  week's  sojourn  was  marked  by  a  scene  which  is 
peculiarly  interesting,  as  one  of  the  few  glimpses  of  ancient  Christian  worship 
which  the  New  Testament  affords.  The  wild  disorders  of  vanity,  fanaticism,  and 
greed,  which  produced  so  strange  a  spectacle  in  the  Church  of  Corinth,  would 
give  us,  if  we  did  not  regard  them  as  wholly  exceptional,  a  most  unfavourable 
conception  of  these  Sunday  assemblies.  Very  different,  happily,  is  the  scene  to 
which  we  are  presented  on  this  April  Sunday  at  Alexandria  Troas,  A.D.  58.5 

It  was  an  evening  meeting.  Whether  at  this  period  the  Christians  had 
already  begun  the  custom  of  meeting  twice — early  in  the  morning,  before 
dawn,  to  sing  and  pray,  and  late  in  the  evening  to  partake  of  the  Love  Feast 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  they  did  some  fifty  years  after  this  time  in  the 
neighbouring  province  of  Bithynia  «• — we  are  not  told.  Great  obscurity  hangs 
over  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  in  the  first  century.  The  Jewish 

1  The  first  person  plural  is  resumed  in  the  narrative  at  xx.  5,  having  been  abandoned 
at  xvi.  17.    It  is  now  continued  to  the  end  of  the  Acts,  and  Luke  seems  to  have  remained 
with  St.  Paul  to  the  last  (2  Tim.  iv.  11). 

2  Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri,  §  1857. 

3  It  had  only  taken  them  two  days  to  sail  from  Troas  to  Neapolis,  the  port  of  Philippi, 
on  a  former  occasion,  xvi.  11. 

4  Compare  xx.  6,  xd.  4,  xxviil.  14.  «  2  Cor.  ii.  13. 

'  It  was  early  called  Sunday,  even  by  Christians.  TJ}  nv  'HAi'ov  tayopcVg  i»MMf  (Just 
Mart.  Apul.  ii.  228). 

•  Plin.  Ep.  x.  96.  "Quod  essent  soliti  stato  die  ante  lucem  con  venire    ,    .    .    quibus 


^     THE   LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  513 

Christians  doubtless  continued  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  but  St.  Paul  reprobates 
the  adoption  of  any  such  custom  among  the  Gentiles;  and,  indeed,  his 
language  seems  to  show  that  he  did  not  regard  with  favour  any  observance  of 
times  or  seasons  which  savoured  at  all  of  Sabbatical  scrupulosity.1  All  that 
we  know  is,  that  from  the  Resurrection  onwards,  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
signalised  by  special  Christian  gatherings  for  religious  purposes,  and  that  on 
this  particular  Sunday  evening  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Troas  were 
assembled,  in  accordance  with  their  usual  custom,  to  partake  of  the  Love 
Feast,  and  to  commemorate  the  death  of  Christ  in  the  Holy  Communion.2 

The  congregation  may  have  been  all  the  more  numerous  because  it  was 
known  that  on  the  next  day  the  Apostle  and  his  little  company  would  leave  the 
place.  They  were  gathered  in  one  of  those  upper  rooms  on  the  third  storey, 
which  are  the  coolest  and  pleasantest  part  of  an  Eastern  house.  The  labours 
of  the  day  were  over,  and  the  sun  had  set,  and  as  three  weeks  had  now  elapsed 
since  the  full  moon  of  the  Passover,  there  was  but  a  pale  crescent  to  dispel  the 
darkness.  But  the  upper  room  was  full  of  lamps,3  and  in  the  earnestness  of 
his  overflowing  heart,  Paul,  knowing  by  many  a  mysterious  intimation  the 
dangers  which  were  awaiting  him,  continued  discoursing  to  them  till  midnight. 
On  the  broad  sill  of  one  of  the  open  windows,  of  which  the  lattice  or  enclosing 
shutter  had  been  flung  wide  open  to  catch  the  cool  sea  breeze,  sat  a  boy  named 
Eutychus.*  The  hour  was  very  late,  the  discourse  unusually  long,  the  topics 
with  which  it  dealt  probably  beyond  his  comprehension.  Though  he  was 
sitting  in  the  pleasantest  place  in  the  room,  where  he  would  enjoy  all  the  air 
there  was,  yet  the  heat  of  a  crowded  meeting,  and  the  glare  of  the  many  lamps, 
and  the  unbroken  stream  of  the  speaker's  utterance,6  sent  the  lad  fast  asleep. 
The  graphic  description  of  St.  Luke  might  almost  make  us  believe  that  he  had 
been  watching  him,  not  liking,  and  perhaps  not  near  enough  to  awaken  him, 
and  yet  not  wholly  insensible  of  his  danger,  as  first  of  all  he  began  to  nod, 
then  his  head  gradually  sank  down  on  his  breast,  and,  at  last,  he  fell  with  a 
rush  and  cry  from  the  third  storey  into  the  courtyard  beneath.8  We  can 
imagine  the  alarm  and  excitement  by  which  the  voice  of  the  speaker  was 
suddenly  interrupted,  as  some  of  the  congregation  ran  down  the  outside 
staircase7  to  see  what  had  happened.  It  was  dark,8  and  the  poor  lad  lay 

peractis  morem  sibi  discedendi  fuisse  rursusque  coeundi  ad  capiendum  cibum,  promiscuum 
tamen  et  innoxium. 

1  Rom.  xiv.  5 ;  Gal.  iv.  10 ;  Col.  ii.  16. 

3  This  is  implied  by  the  expression  owjjy^eVwx  ^t&v  icAa<r<u  aprov.  Cf.  the  word  imawa.yu-vn, 
Heb.  x.  25,  and  <ruvo£ts. 

3  This  is  with  St.  Luke  the  casual  incident  mentioned  by  an  eye-witness,  on  whose 
mind  the  scene  was  vividly  impressed.    The  lamps  are  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the 
darkness,  but  the  mention  of   them  is  valuable,  as  showing  how  little  of  secresy  or 
disorder  attended  these  late  meetings.     They  had  not  as  yet  become  subjects  of  suspicion, 
but  it  was  not  long  before  they  did. 

4  It  is  a  common  slave  name,  but  nothing  more  is  known  of  him. 
V  6T.  9,  Sia\eyofLtvm>  TOW  IlauAou  girl  nAetoi/. 

'  Ver.9, /caTa^npofievo?  vinnp  JJadci     .     .     .     KarevexOelt  airb  TOV  vmxm  iirt<ret>.    Karcufie'pcafc .  IB  ft 

vox  tolemnis  de  hoc  re.    Aristot.  de  Insommis,  iii.  &c. 

7  £i>a0a0jiot.  s  Being  now  late  at  night,  the  crescent  moon  must  have  »et. 


514  THE  LIFE   AND  WORK   OP  ST.   PAUL. 

senseless,  and  "  was  taken  up  dead."  *  A  cry  of  horror  and  wailing  rose  from 
the  bystanders;  but  Paul,  going  down-stairs,  fell  on  him,  and  clasping  his 
arms  round  him,2  said,  "  Do  not  bo  alarmed,  for  his  life  is  in  him."  After  he 
had  calmed  the  excitement  by  this  remark,  he  left  the  lad  to  the  effects  of  rest 
and  quiet,  and  the  kindly  care,  perhaps,  of  the  deaconesses  and  other  women 
who  were  present  ;  for  the  narrative  simply  adds  that  the  A  postle  went  up- 
stairs again,  and  after  "  breaking  the  bread,"  3  —  words  descriptive  probably  of 
the  eucharistic  consecration  —  and  making  a  meal,  which  describes  the  subse- 
quent Agapd,  he  continued  in  friendly  intercourse  with  the  congregation  till 
the  dawn  of  day,  and  then  went  out.  By  that  time  Eutychus  bid  fully 
recovered.  "  They  led  the  boy  alive  "  —  apparently  into  the  upper  chamber— 
"  and  were  not  a  little  comforted." 

Next  day  the  delegates  —  these  "  first  Christian  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land  " 
—  went  down  to  their  vessel  to  sail  round  Cape  Lectum,  while  Paul  went  by 
land  *  across  the  base  of  the  promontory  to  rejoin  them  at  Assos.  "Whether  he 
had  friends  to  visit  on  the  way,  or  whether  he  wished  to  walk  those  twenty 
miles  through  the  pleasant  oak-groves  along  the  good  Roman  roads  in  silent 
commune  with  his  own  spirit,  we  do  not  know.  Natures  like  his,  however 
strong  may  be  their  yearning  for  sympathy,  yet  often  feel  an  imperious 
necessity  for  solitude.  If  he  had  heard  the  witty  application  by  Stratonicus, 
of  Homer's  line, 

*A<T(Toy  tff"  &s  Key  Buararov  o\fOpov  rtpfnaO'  fcqcu, 


he  might,  while  smiling  at  the  gay  jest  directed  against  the  precipitous  descent 
from  the  town  to  the  harbour,  have  thought  that  for  him  too  —  on  his  way  to 
bonds  and  imprisonment,  and  perhaps  to  death  itself  —  there  was  a  melancholy 
meaning  in  the  line.5  Passing  between  the  vast  sarcophagi  in  the  street  of 
tombs,  and  through  the  ancient  gate  which  still  stands  in  ruin,  he  made  his 
way  down  the  steep  descent  to  the  port,  and  there  found  the  vessel  awaiting 
him.  St.  Luke,  who  was  one  of  those  on  board,  here  gives  a  page  of  his  diary, 
as  the  ship  winged  her  way  among  the  isles  of  Greece.  The  voyage  seems  to 
have  been  entirely  prosperous.  The  north-west  wind  which  prevails  at  that 
season  would  daily  swell  the  great  main-sail,  and  waft  the  vessel  merrily 
through  blue  seas  under  the  shadow  of  old  poetic  mountains,  by  famous  cities, 
along  the  vernal  shores.  That  same  evening  they  arrived  at  Mitylene,  the 
bright  -capital  of  Lesbos,  the  home  of  Sappho  and  Alcseus,  and  the  cradle  of 
lyric  song.  Here  they  anchored,  because  the  moonless  night  rendered  it  unsafe 
to  thread  their  course  among  the  many  intricacies  of  that  sinuous  coast.  Next 

1  De  Wette,  Olshausen,  Meyer,  Evald,  and  many  others,  take  veicpbs  to  mean  "  as 
dead,"  "apparently  dead,"  "in  a  dead  swoon,"  interpreting  this  word  by  St.  Paul'i 
»«)  0opvpti<r6t    .    .    .    yap,  but  the  r/yayov    ,    .    .    £<avra.  of  vs.  12  seems  to  show  St.  Luke'* 
meaning. 

2  €ir<ire<riir     .     .     .     oviurtp&afiav,  1  Kings  XVli.  21  ;  2  Kings  IV.  34. 
*  Ver.  11,  KAdtrat  rov  iprov,  KCU.  ytvtrafievos. 

4  jrtfeveu'  —  possibly,  but  not  necessarily,  on  foot. 

8  H,  vi.  143.    The  pun  may  be  freely  rendered  "  Go  to  Assos,  If  yon  want  to  meet 
your  fate."    The  Vulgate,  too,  confuses  the  name  Assoa  and  the  adverb  asson  ("near") 

In  .TTVn.  IS, 


THE   LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  515 

day  they  anchored  off  rocky  Chios,  whose  green  fields  wore  the  fabled  birth- 
place of  Homer.1  Next  day  they  touched  for  a  short  time  at  Samos,  and  then 
sailed  across  the  narrow  channel  to  anchor  for  the  night  in  the  island-harbour 
of  Trogyllium,  under  the  ridge  of  Mycale,  so  famous  for  Conon's  victory. 
Next  day,  sailing  past  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  of  Ephesus,  they  came  to 
anchor  at  Miletus.  St.  Paul  would  gladly  have  visited  Ephesus  if  time  had 
permitted,  but  he  was  so  anxious  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  reach  Jerusalem  by 
Pentecost,  and  therefore  to  avoid  all  delays,  whether  voluntary  or  accidental, 
that  he  resisted  the  temptation.  At  Miletus,  however,  the  vessel  had  to  stop, 
and  Paul  determined  to  utilise  the  brief  delay.  He  had  probably  arrived 
«bout  noon,  and  at  once  sent  a  messenger  to  the  elders  of  the  Church  of 
Ephesus  to  come  and  see  him.2  It  was  but  a  distance  of  from  thirty  to  forty 
niiles  along  a  well-kept  road,  and  the  elders  3  might  easily  be  with  him  by  the 
next  day,  which,  reckoning  from  his  departure  at  Troas,  was  probably  a 
Sunday.  He  spent  the  day  in  "their  company,  and  before  parting  delivered 
them  an  address  which  abounds  in  his  peculiar  forms  of  expression,  and  gives 
a  deeply  interesting  sketch  of  his  work  at  Ephesus. 

"  Te  know,"  he  said,  "  how  from  the  first  day  on  which  I  set  foot  in  Asia  I 
bore  myself  with  you,  serving  the  Lord  with  all  lowly-mindedness,  and  tears, 
and  trials  that  happened  to  me  in  the  plots  of  the  Jews  ;  *  how  I  reserved 
nothing  that  was  profitable,6  but  preached  to  you,  and  taught  you  publicly, 
and  from  house  to  house,  testifying  both  to  Jews  and  Greeks  repentance 
towards  God  and  faith  towards  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  now  behold  I, 
bound  in  the  spirit,6  am  on  my  way  to  Jerusalem,  not  knowing  what  may 
happen  to  me  there,  save  that  in  every  city  the  Holy  Spirit  testifies  to  me, 
saving  that  bonds  and  tribulations  await  me.  But  I  regard  it  as  of  no 
moment,  nor  do  I  hold  my  soul  so  precious  to  myself  7  as  to  finish  my  course,8 

1  TV<J>\b«  i»T)p  oljeei  Si  Xwa  ivt  jrcuiraXoeVon  (dp.  Thuc.  ill.  104). 

1  It  is  impossible  to  determine  whether  the  vessel  had  been  chartered  by  Paul  and 
his  companions,  or  whether  they  were  dependent  on  its  movements.  Verse  16  is  not 
decisive. 

3  It  is  of  course  known  that  the  words  "presbyter"  and  "bishop"  are  used  inter- 
changeably in  the  New  Testament"  (see  ver.  28,  where  the  E.V.  has  "overseers"  for 
"bishops").     'Eir«ric6jrovs  rovt  irpe&fivTipovt  KoAei  an<porepa  yip  tt\tv  K.O.T   cxetvoy  TOV  /ccupbr  T« 
evoMaTa  (Theodor.  ad  Phil.  i.  1). 

4  These  are  not  mentioned  in  the  narrative.    This  is  one  of  the  many  casual  indica- 
tions that  St.  Luke  knew  many  more  particulars  than  it  entered  into  his  plan  to  detail. 

'  Ver.  20,  ljre<rr«iXofiiji<  (lit.    reefed  up"). 


The  nautical  word  (cf.  jrXripo^opi'a,  Col.  ii.  2, 

Iv.  12  ;  (rreAAdjoievot,  2  Thess.  iii.  6  ;  2  Cor.  viii.  20),  so  natural  in  a  speaker  who  must  have 
heard  the  word  every  day  in  his  voyage,  is  very  characteristic  of  St.  Paul,  who  constantly 
draws  his  metaphors  from  the  sights  and  circumstances  immediately  around  him.  He 
uses  it  again  in  ver.  27.  These  little  peculiarities  of  style  are  quite  inimitable,  and,  as 
Ewald  says,  "to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  this  speech  is  folly  itself."  Besides  many 
other  indications  of  authenticity,  it  contains  at  least  a  dozen  phrases  and  constructions 
•which  are  more  or  less  exclusively  Pauline. 

*  Ver.  22.  Though  the  true  order  is  ««Se/i«Vo*  «y«,  M,  A,  B,  C,  E,  the  emphasis  is  best 
brought  out  in  English,  by  putting  "I"  first. 

"  In  the  extreme  varieties  of  the  MSS.  in  this  clause  I  follow  «,  ovttvos  Xdyov—  ov««  &>x, 
This  is  the  very  spirit  of  Luther  on  his  way  to  Worms. 

8  Omit  Mer«  x«p«  with  «,  A,  B,  D.  It  is  interpolated  from  Phil.  L  4  ;  Col.  L  11  ;  cf. 
3  Tim.  iv.  7. 


516  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OP  ST.  PAUL. 

and  the  ministry  which  I  received  from  the  Lord  Jesus  to  testify l  the  Gospel 
of  the  grace  of  God.  And  now  behold  I  know  that  ye  shall  never  see  my  face 
again,  all  you  among  whom  I  passed  proclaiming  the  kingdom.2  Therefore,  I 
call  you  to  witness  this  very  day  that  I  am  pure  from  the  blood  of  all.  For  I 
reserved  nothing,  but  preached  to  you  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  Take  heed, 
then,  to  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  appointed 
you  bishops  to  feed  the  Church  of  the  Lord  3  which  He  made  His  own  by  His 
own  blood.  I  know  that  there  shall  come  after  my  departure  grievous  wolves 
among  you,  not  sparing  the  flock  ;  and  from  your  own  selves  *  shall  arise  men 
speaking  perverse  things,  so  as  to  drag  away  disciples  after  them.  Therefore 
be  watchful,  remembering  that  for  three  years,  night  and  day,6  I  ceased  not 
with  tears6  to  admonish  each  one.  And  now  I  commend  you  to  God,  and  to  the 
word  of  His  grace,  who  is  able  to  build  you  up,  and  give  you  an  inheritance 
among  all  the  sanctified.  No  man's  silver  or  gold  or  raiment  did  I  covet. 
Yourselves  know  that  to  my  needs,  and  to  those  with  me,  these  hands  " — and 

1  The  third  time  that  this  verb  has  occurred  in  these  few  verses.    It  is  quite  true  of  St. 
Paul  that  "  un  mot  1'obsede."    This  is  an  interesting  sign  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
speech. 

2  St.  Paul  speaks  partly  with  a  view  to  the  dangers  he  is  about  to  face,  partly  with 
reference  to  his  intention  to  go  to  the  far  west.    Hie  ot&x  was  not  necessarily  infallible 
(compare  Phil.  i.  25  with  ii.  24),  and  in  point  of  fact  it  is  probable  that  he  did  visit 
Ephesus  again  (1  Tim.  i.  3,  iii.  14,  iv.  12 — 20).    But  that  was  long  afterwards,  and  it  is 
quite  certain  that  as  a  body  (n-avres  v^ets)  the  elders  never  saw  him  again. 

3  I  accept  the  reading  Kvpiow  here  with  A,  0,  D,  E,  the  Coptic,  Sahidic,  Armenian 
versions,   Irenseus,  Didymus,   Cyril,  Jerome,   Augustine,   &c.,  rather  than  OeoC,   the 
remarkable  reading  of  M,  B,  the  Vulgate,  Syriac,  Chrysostom,   Basil,   Ambrose,  &c., 
because  "  the  blood  of  God  "  is  an  expression  which,  though  adopted — perhaps  from  the 
variation  of  this  very  text — by  some  of  the  Fathers  (Tert.  ad  Uxor.  ii.  3),  the  Church 
has  always  avoided.    Athanasius,  indeed,  distinctly  says,  oiSajxoO  Si  at/ut  Oeoii  8i'x<x  <rap(cb« 
napa&eSiaKao-iv  at  ypa«f>ai.    That  St.  Paul  held  in  the  most  absolute  sense  the  Divinity  of 
the  Eternal  Son  is  certain  ;  but  he  would  never  have  said,  and  never  has  said,  anything 
like  ' '  the  blood  of  God, "  and  I  cannot  but  think  it  much  more  probable  that  he  would 
have  used  the  uncommon  but  perfectly  natural  expression  "  Church  of  the  Lord,"  than 
seem  to  sanction  the  very  startling  "blood  of  God."     I  cannot  attach  much,  if  any, 
importance  to  the  fact  that  "Church  of  the  Lord"  is  a  less  usual  combination  than 
"Church  of  God ;"  for  just  in  the  same  way  St.  Paul,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians, 
abandons  his  favourite  expression  of  "  the  day  of  the  Lord,"  and  uses  instead  "  day  of 
Christ "  (Phil.  i.  10,  ii.  16).     If  he  had  written  0eo5,  it  seems  to  me  very  improbable 
that  the  reading  would  have  been  early  tampered  with.     Such  a  phrase  would  rank  with 
terms  like  Adelphotheos  and  Theotokos,  which  are  at  once  unscriptural  and  ecclesiastical, 
whereas,   if  St.  Paul  said  Kvptov,  the  marginal  ©EOU  of  some  pragmatic  scribe  might 
easily  have  obtruded  itself  into  the  text.     Indeed,  the  very  fact  that  "Church  of  the 
Lord  "  is  not  Paul's  normal  phrase  may  have  siiggested  the  gloss.     If,  however,  0eov 
be  the  right  reading,  the  nominative  to  n-epteiroiTJo-aro  may  simply  have  been  suppressed 
by    a    grammatical   inadvertency   of   the    Apostle  or   his  amanuensis,     (See  further, 
Scrivener,  Introd.  540.)     The  mysterious  doctrine  of  the  jre/xx<opr)<ris  is  one  which  the 
Apostle  always  treats  with  deepest  reverence,  and  such  a  collocation  as  al^a  ©coC  would 
have  given  at  least  primd  facie  countenance  to  all  kinds  of  Sabellian,  Eutychian,  and 
Patripassian  heresies.    (I  have  made  some  further  remarks  on  this  reading  in  the 
Expositor,  May,  1879  ) 

4  This  sad  prediction  was  but  too  soon  fulfilled  (1  Tim.  L  20 ;  Rev.  li.  6  j  1  John  ii.  19). 
*  Undoubtedly  this  expression — though  not  meant  to  be  taken  au  pied  de  la  lettre— 

tells  against  the  theory  of  a  visit  to  Corinth  during  this  period. 

6  Tears  are  thrice  mentioned  in  this  short  passage — tears  of  suffering  (19) ;  of  pastoral 
solicitude  (31) ;  and  of  personal  affection  (37).      Monod,  Cinq  Discours  (Les  Larmes  de 


STREET       IN       RHODES. 

(From  a  Sketch  by  C.  G.  Danford.) 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  517 

there  he  held  up  those  thin,  toilworn  hands  before  them  all  —  "  these  hands 
ministered.  In  all  things  I  set  you  the  example,  that,  thus  labouring,  you 
ought  to  support  the  weak,  and  to  remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how 
He  said,  '  It  is  blessed  rather  to  give  than  to  receive.'  "  l 

After  these  words,  which  so  well  describe  the  unwearied  thoroughness,  the 
ieep  humility,  the  perfect  tenderness,  of  his  Apostolic  ministry,  he  knelt 
lown  with  them  all,  and  prayed.  They  were  overpowered  with  the  touching 
solemnity  of  the  scene.  He  ended  his  prayer  amidst  a  burst  of  weeping,  and 
as  they  bade  him  farewell  —  anxious  for  his  future,  anxious  for  their  own  — 
they  each  laid  their  heads  on  his  neck,2  and  passionately  kissed  him,3  pained 
above  all  at  his  remark  that  never  again  should  they  gaze,  as  they  had  gazed 
so  often,*  on  the  dear  face  of  the  teacher  who  had  borne  so  much  for  their 
sakes,  and  whom  they  loved  so  well.  If  Paul  inspired  intense  hatreds,  yet, 
with  all  disadvantages  of  person,  he  also  inspired  intense  affection.  He 
had  —  to  use  the  strong  expression5  of  St.  Luke  —  to  tear  himself  from  them. 
Sadly,  and  with  many  forebodings,  they  went  down  with  him  to  the  vessel, 
which  was  by  this  time  awaiting  him  ;  and  we  may  be  very  sure  that  Paul 
was  weeping  bitterly  as  he  stepped  on  board,  and  that  sounds  of  weeping 
were  long  heard  upon  the  shore,  until  the  sails  became  a  white  speck  on  the 
horizon,  and  with  heavy  hearts  the  Elders  of  Ephesus  turned  away  to  face 
once  more,  with  no  hope  of  help  from  their  spiritual  father,  the  trials  that 
awaited  them  in  the  city  of  Artemis. 

The  wind  blew  full  in  favour  of  the  voyagers,  and  before  the  evening  they 
had  run  with  a  straight  course  to  Cos.  Neither  the  wines,  nor  the  purple,  nor 
the  perfumes  of  Cos,  would  have  much  interest  for  the  little  band  ;  '  but,  if 
opportunity  offered,  we  may  be  sure  that  "  the  beloved  physician"  would  not 
miss  the  opportunity  of  seeing  all  that  he  could  of  the  scientific  memorials  of 
the  Asclepiadse  —  the  great  medical  school  of  the  ancient  world.  Next  day  the 
little  vessel  rounded  the  promontory  of  Cnidus,  and  sped  on  for  Rhodes, 
where,  as  they  entered  the  harbour,  they  would  admire  the  proverbial  fertility 
of  the  sunny  island  of  roses,  and  gaze  with  curiosity  on  the  prostrate  mass  of 
its  vast  Colossus,  of  which  two  legs  still  stood  on  their  pedestal,7  though  the 
huge  mass  of  bronze  had  been  hurled  down  by  an  earthquake,  there  to  stay 
till,  thirteen  centuries  later,  they  were  broken  up,  and  carried  away  on  900 
camels,  to  be  the  ignoble  spoil  of  a  Jew.8  The  monstrous  image  —  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  world  —  was  a  figure  of  the  sun  ;  and,  with  whatever  lingering 
artistic  sympathy  it  might  have  been  regarded  by  the  Gentile  converts, 


1  The  only  "unwritten  saying"  (S^pa^ov  Myna.)  of  our  Lord  in  the  New  Testament 
not  preserved  for  us  in  the  Gospels. 

2  cf.  Gen.  xlv.  14,  xlvi.  29. 

s  KO.TC&I.OVV,  deosculabantur  (cf.  Matt.  xxvi.  49). 

4  Ver.  38,  6t<ap*lv.    He  had  only  said  6^«<r0e  (cf.  John  n.  5,  6).    The  word  implies  the 
feeling  here  alluded  to. 

4  XH.  1,  i»Tro<rn-(T.(T6c'rTas  ear   O.VTWV  (cf.  Luke  xxii.  41). 

8  Strab.  xiv.  2;  Hor.  Od.  IV.  ziii.13  ;  Athen.  i.  688  (Alf.L 
1  Plan.  H.  N.,    xxiv.  18;  Strab.  rir.  2. 
a  Ccdremu,  H\*t.  p.  431. 


518  THK  LIFE  AND  WOSK  OS1  ST.   PAUL. 

St.  Paul  would  perhaps  think,  with  a  smile,  of  Dagon,  "  when  he  fell  flat,  and 
shamed  his  worshippers,"  or  point  to  it  as  a  symbol  of  the  coming  day  when 
all  idols  should  be  abolished  at  the  returning  dawn  of  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness. The  empire  of  the  sea,  which  this  huge  statue  had  been  reared  to  com- 
memorate, had  not  passed  away  more  completely  than  the  worship  of  Apollo 
should  pass  away ;  and  to  St.  Paul  the  work  of  Chares  of  Lindos,  spite  of  all 
its  grace  and  beauty,  was  but  a  larger  idol,  to  be  regarded  with  pity,  whereas 
the  temple  reared  to  that  idol  by  the  apostate  Idumean  usurper  who  had  called 
himself  king  of  the  Jews  could  only  be  looked  upon  with  righteous  scorn.1 

Next  day,  passing  the  seven  capes  which  terminate  the  mountain  ridge  of 
"  verdant  Cragus,"  and  the  mouth  of  the  yellow  river  -which  gave  its  name  of 
Xauthus  to  the  capital  of  Lycia,  and  so  catching  a  far-off  glimpse  of  temples 
rich  with  the  marbles  which  now  adorn  our  British  Museum,  the  vessel  which 
bore  so  much  of  the  fortune  of  the  future,  turned  her  course  eastward  to 
Patara.  Beneath  the  hill  which  towered  over  its  amphitheatre  rose  also  amid 
its  palm-trees,  the  temple  and  oracle  of  Apollo  Patareus.  A  single  column, 
and  a  pit, — used  possibly  for  some  of  the  trickeries  of  superstition, — alone 
remain  as  a  monument  of  its  past  splendour;2  and  it  was  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  lif  e's  work  of  the  poor  Jewish  Apostle  who  now  looked  up  at 
the  vast  world-famed  shrine,  that  Christian  poets  would  tell  in  later  days  how 

"  The  oracles  are  dumb, 

No  voice  nor  hideous  hum 
Runs  through  the  arched  roof  in  words  deceiving ; 

Apollo  from  his  shrine 

Can  no  more  divine, 
With  hollow  shriek  the  steep  of  Delphos  leaving; 

No  nightly  trance  or  breathed  spell 

Inspires  the  pale-eyed  priest  from  the  prophetic  cell.*1 

They  could  now  no  longer  avail  themselves  of  the  vessel  in  which  BO  far 
they  had  accomplished  a  prosperous,  and,  in  spite  of  all  misgivings,  a  happy 
voyage.  Either  its  course  ended  there,  or  it  would  continue  to  coast  along 
the  shores  of  Pamphylia  and  Cilicia.  But  here  they  were  fortunate  enough 
to  find  another  vessel  bound  straight  for  Phoenicia,  and  they  at  once  went  on 
board,  and  weighed  anchor.  Once  more  they  were  favoured  by  wind  and 
wave.  Sailing  with  unimpeded  course — through  sunlight  and  moonlight — at 
the  rate  of  a  hundred  miles  a  day,  they  caught  sight 3  at  dawn  of  the  snowy 
peaks  of  Cyprus,  and  passing  by  Paphos— whore  Paul  would  be  reminded  of 
Sergius  Paulus  and  Elymas — in  some  four  days,  they  put  in  at  Tyre,  where 
their  ship  was  to  unload  its  cargo.  The  Apostle  must  have  ceased  to  feel 
anxiety  about  being  at  Jerusalem  by  Pentecost,  since,  owing  to  providential 
circumstances,  he  had  now  a  full  fortnight  to  spare.  There  were  some  disciples 

i  The  Pythium.  8  Sprat  and  Forbes,  i.  30 ;  ap.  0.  and  H.  U.  232. 

*  jud.  3,  ivcufxivivTts,  of.  aperire  (see  Ps.  Luoian,  Ver.  Hist.  §  38,  p.  687) ;  the  opposite 
technical  term  is,  in-oitpvirreiv,  abscondere  (Thuc.  v.  65 ;  Virg.  J2n.  iii.  275,  291). 


tHE  LAST  JOTTBNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  519 

at  Tyre,  and  St.  Paul  may  have  seen  them  on  previous  occasions ; l  but  in  so 
populous  and  busy  a  town  it  required  a  little  effort  to  find  them.2  With  them 
Paul  stayed  his  usual  period  of  seven  days,  and  they  by  the  Spirit  told  him 
not  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  He  knew,  however,  all  that  they  could  tell  him  of 
impending  danger,  and  he  too  was  under  the  guidance  of  the  same  Spirit  which 
urged  him  along — a  fettered  but  willing  captive.  When  the  week  was  over3 
St.  Paul  left  them;  and  so  deeply  in  that  brief  period  had  he  won  their  affections, 
that  all  the  members  of  the  little  community,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
started  with  him  to  conduct  him  on  his  way.  Before  they  reached  the  vessel 
they  knelt  down  side  by  side,  men  and  women  and  b'ttle  ones,  somewhere  on 
the  surf -beat  rocks4  near  which  the  vessel  was  moored,  to  pray  together — he  for 
them,  and  they  for  him — before  they  returned  to  their  homes ;  and  he  went 
once  more  on  board  for  the  last  stage  of  his  voyage  from  Tyre  to  Ptolemais, 
the  modem  Acre.  There  they  finally  left  their  vessel,  and  went  to  greet  the 
disciples,  with  whom  they  stayed  for  a  single  day,  and  then  journeyed  by  land 
across  the  plain  of  Sharon — bright  at  that  time  with  a  thousand  flowers  of 
spring — the  forty-four  miles  which  separate  Acre  from  Cassarea.  Here  St.  Paul 
lingered  till  the  very  eve  of  the  feast.  Eeady  to  face  danger  when  duty 
called,  he  had  no  desire  to  extend  the  period  of  it,  or  increase  its  certainty. 
At  Csesarea,  therefore,  he  stayed  with  his  companions  for  several  days,  and 
they  were  the  last  happy  days  of  freedom  which  for  a  long  time  he  was 
destined  to  spend.  God  graciously  refreshed  his  spirit  by  this  brief  interval 
of  delightful  intercourse  and  rest.  For  at  Csesarea  they  were  the  guests  of 
one  who  must  have  been  bound  to  Paul  by  many  ties  of  the  deepest  sympathy 
—Philip  the  Evangelist.  A  Hellenist  like  himself,  and  a  liberal  Hellenist, 
Philip,  as  Paul  would  have  been  most  glad  to  recognise,  had  been  the  first  to  show 
the  large  sympathy  and  clear  insight,  without  which  Paul's  own  work  would 
have  been  impossible.  It  was  Philip  who  had  evangelised  the  hated  Samari- 
tans ;  it  was  Philip  who  had  had  the  courage  to  baptise  the  Ethiopian  eunuch. 
The  lots  of  these  two  noble  workers  had  been  closely  intertwined.  It  was  the 
furious  persecution  of  Saul  the  Pharisee  which  had  scattered  the  Church  of 
Jerusalem,  and  thus  rendered  useless  the  organisation  of  the  seven  deacons. 
Ifc  was  in  flight  from  that  persecution  that  the  career  of  Philip  had  been 

i  Acts  xrvi.  20 ;  Gal.  1.  21. 

3  xxi.  4,  avtvpovrt*  TOVS  /uaflip-as,  "  Seeking  out  the  disciples,"  not  as  in  E.  V.  "finding 
disciples." 

3  xxi.  5.    IfaprtW  usually  means  "to  refit, "but  hers  with  i^e'pasit  seems  to  mean 
"complete."     Hesychius  makes  it  equivalent  to  reXsiwcrai,  and  so  Theophylact  and 
(Ecumeuius  understood  it.     Meyer  is  probably  mistaken  in  giving  the  word  its  first 
meaning  here. 

4  Ver.  5,  aiyiaXw.     Of.  xxvii.  39.    There  is,  indeed,  a  long  range  of  sandy  shore 
between  Tyre  and  Sidon,  but  near  the  city  there  are  also  rocky  places.     Dr.  Hackett, 
ad-  loc.,  quotes  a  strikingly  parallel  experience  of  an  American  missionary,  Mr.  Schneider, 
at  Anrtab,  near  Tarsus  : — "  More  than  a  hundred  converts  accompanied  us  out  of  the 
city ;  and  there,  near  the  spot  where  one  of  our  number  had  once  been  stoned,  we  halted, 
and  a  prayer  was  offered,  amid  tears.     Between  thirty  and  forty  escorted  us  two  hours 
farther    .     .     .    Then  another  prayer  was  offered,  and  with  saddened  countenances  and 
with  weeping  they  forcibly  broke  away  from  us.     (Cf.  ajr<xnr<«r0«VTas,  ver.  1.)    It  reallj 

as  though  they  could  not  turn  back." 


520  tHE  LI>E  AND  WORK  Of  ST.  PAtTL. 

changed.  On  the  other  hand,  that  new  career  had  initiated  the  very  line  of 
conduct  which  was  to  occupy  the  Me  of  Paul  the  Apostle.  As  Paul  and 
Philip  talked  together  in  those  few  precious  hours,  there  must  have  flourished  up 
in  their  minds  many  a  touching  reminiscence  of  the  days  when  the  light  of 
heaven,  which  had  once  shone  on  the  face  of  Stephen  upturned  to  heaven  in 
the  agony  of  martyrdom,  had  also  flashed  in  burning  apocalypse  on  the  face 
of  a  young  man  whose  name  was  Saul.  And  besides  a  community  of  thoughts 
and  memories,  the  house  of  Philip  was  hallowed  by  the  gentle  ministries  of 
four  daughters  who,  looking  for  the  coming  of  Christ,  had  devoted  to  the 
service  of  the  Gospel  their  virgin  lives.1 

To  this  happy  little  band  of  believers  came  down  from  Judaea  the  Prophet 
Agabus,  who,  in  the  early  days  of  St.  Paul's  work  at  Antioch,  had  warned  the 
Church  of  the  impending  famine.  Adopting  the  symbolic  manner  of  the 
ancient  prophets,2  he  came  up  to  Paul,  unbound  the  girdle  which  fastened 
his  cetoneth,  and  tying  with  it  his  own  feet  and  hands  said,  "  Thus  saith  the 
Holy  Spirit,  Thus  shall  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem  bind  the  man  whose  girdle  this 
is,  and  shall  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  the  Gentiles."  They  had  long  been 
aware  of  the  peril  of  the  intended  visit,  but  no  intimation  had  been  given  them 
so  definite  as  this,  nor  had  they  yet  foreseen  that  a  Jewish  assault  would 
necessarily  end  in  a  Roman  imprisonment.  On  hearing  it,  St.  Paul's  com- 
panions earnestly  entreated  him  to  stay  where  he  was,  while  they  went  to 
Jerusalem  to  convey  the  Gentile  contribution;  and  the  members  of  the 
Caesarean  Church  joined  their  own  tears  and  entreaties  to  those  of  his  beloved 
companions.  Why  should  he  face  a  certain  peril  P  Why  should  he  endanger 
an  invaluable  life  P  Since  the  Spirit  had  given  him  so  many  warnings,  might 
there  not  be  even  something  of  presumption  in  thus  exposing  himself  in  the 
very  stronghold  of  his  most  embittered  enemies  ?  St.  Paul  was  not  insensible  to 
their  loving  entreaties  and  arguments ;  there  might  have  been  an  excuse,  and 
something  more  than  an  excuse,  for  him  had  he  decided  that  it  was  most  unwise 
to  persist  in  his  intentions;  but  it  was  not  so  to  be.  His  purpose  was  inflexible. 
No  voices  of  even  prophets  should  turn  him  aside  from  obedience  to  a  call  which 
he  felt  to  be  from  God.  A  captive  bound  to  Christ's  triumphant  chariot- wheel, 
what  could  he  do?  What  could  he  do  but  thank  God  even  if  the  Gospel,  which 
was  to  some  an  aroma  of  life,  became  to  him  an  aroma  of  earthly  deathP 
When  the  finger  of  God  has  pointed  out  the  path  to  a  noble  soul,  it  will  not 
swerve  either  to  the  right  hand  or  the  left.  "  What  are  ye  doing,  weeping 
and  breaking  my  heart?  "  he  said.  "  I  am  willing  not  only  to  go  to  Jerusalem 
to  be  bound,  but  even  to  die,  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  They  saw  that 
further  importunity  would  be  painful  and  useless — 

"  He  saw  a  hand  they  could  not  see 

Which  beckoned  him  away, 
He  heard  a  voice  they  could  not  hear 
Which  would  not  let  him  stay." 

1  Of.  Plin.  JSp.  i.  96.  »  Cf.  1  Kings  xxii.  11 ;  Isa.  xx.  2 ;  Jer.  xiii.  1,  4* 


LA.ST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  521 

They  desisted  and  wiped  away  their  tears,  saying,  "The  Lord's  will  be 
done." 

Too  soon  the  happy  days  of  rest  and  loving  intercourse  came  to  an  end. 
It  was  seventy-five  miles,  an  ordinary  three  days'  journey,  from  Csesarea  to 
Jerusalem.  That  year  the  feast  began  at  sunset  on  Wednesday,  May  17.1 
The  last  day  at  Cajsarea  was  a  Sunday.  Next  day  they  packed  up  their 
baggage2— and  it  was  precious,  for  it  contained  the  chaluka — and,  accompanied 
by  some  of  the  Csesarean  converts,  who,  with  multitudes  of  other  Jews,  were 
streaming  up  to  Jerusalem  on  that  last  day  before  the  feast  began,3  they  started 
for  the  Holy  City,  with  hearts  on  which  rested  an  ever-deepening  shadow. 
The  crowd  at  these  gatherings  was  so  immense  that  the  ordinary  stranger  might 
well  fail  to  find  accommodation,  and  be  driven  to  some  temporary  booth  outside 
the  walls.  But  the  brethren  had  taken  care  to  secure  for  Paul  and  his  delegates 
a  shelter  in  the  house  of  Mnason,  a  Cyprian,  and  one  of  the  original  disciples. 
St.  Paul  seems  to  have  had  a  sister  living  at  Jerusalem,  but  we  do  not  know 
that  she  was  a  Christian,  and  in  any  case  her  house — which  might  be  well 
known  to  many  Tarsian  Jews — would  be  an  uncertain  resting-place  for  an 
endangered  man.  And  so  for  the  fifth  time  since  his  conversion  Paul  re-entered 
Jerusalem.  He  had  rarely  entered  it  without  some  cause  for  anxiety,  and  there 
could  have  been  scarcely  one  reminiscence  which  it  awoke  that  was  not  infinitely 
painful.  The  school  of  Gamaliel,  the  Synagogue  of  the  Libertines,  the  house 
where  the  High  Priest  had  given  him  his  commission  to  Damascus,  the  spot 
where  the  reddened  grass  had  drunk  the  blood  of  Stephen  must  all  have  stirred 
painful  memories.  But  never  had  he  trod  the  streets  of  the  Holy  City  with  so 
deep  a  sadness  as  now  that  he  entered  it,  avoiding  notice  as  mueh  as  possible, 
in  the  little  caravan  of  Caesarean  pilgrims  and  Gentile  converts.  He  was 
going  into  a  city  where  friends  were  few,  and  where  well-nigh  every  one  of 
the  myriads  among  whom  he  moved  was  an  actual  or  potential  enemy,  to  whom 
the  mere  mention  of  his  name  might  be  enough  to  make  the  dagger  flash  from 
its  scabbard,  or  to  startle  a  cry  of  hatred  which  would  be  the  signal  for  a 
furious  outbreak.  But  he  was  the  bearer  of  help,  which  was  a  tangible  proof 
of  his  allegiance  to  the  mother  church,  and  the  brethren  whom  he  saw  that 
evening  at  the  house  of  Mnason  gave  him  a  joyous  welcome.  It  may  have 
cheered  his  heart  for  a  moment,  but  it  did  not  remove  the  deep  sense  that  he 
was  in  that  city  which  was  the  murderess  of  the  Prophets.  He  knew  too  well 
the  burning  animosity  which  he  kindled,  because  he  remembered  too  well  what 
had  been  his  own,  and  that  of  his  party,  against  the  Christian  Hellenists  of 
old.  The  wrath  which  he  had  then  felt  was  now  a  furnace  heated  sevenfold 
against  himself. 

The  next  day  till  sunset  was  marked  by  the  ceremonies  of  the  feast,  and  the 

1  Fasti  Sacri,  No.  1857. 

2  Verse  15.   Leg.   tirt<nc«va(r(£/i«vot,  H,  A,  B,  E,  G,  and  a  mass  of  cursives.     In  the 
E.  V.  "carriages"  means  "baggage  :"  cf.  Judges  xviii.  21;  1  Sam.  xvii.  22;  Isa.  x.  28. 
""We  trussed  up  our  fardeles,"  Genev.  Vers. 

3  That  St.  Paul  had  only  arrived  on  the  very  eve  of  the  feaat  maybe  at  once  inferred 
from  Acts  xxiv.  11. 

la 


522  ?HS  LIFK  AND  WOSK  O?  ST.  PAUL. 

greater  part  of  it  was  spent  by  St.  Paul  and  his  little  company  in  an  assembly 
of  the  elders,  who  met  to  receive  him  under  the  presidency  of  James.1  The 
elders  were  already  assembled  when  the  visitors  canie  in,  and  we  may  imagine 
that  it  was  with  something  more  than  a  thrill  of  curiosity — that  it  must  have 
been  with  an  almost  painful  shyriess — that  "  iimid  provincial  neophytes  "  like 
Timothy  and  Trop'amus  (the  laUer  especially,  an  nncircumcised  Gentile,  whom 
his  teacher  had  encouraged  to  regard  himself  as  entirely  emancipated  from  the 
Jewish  law) — found  themselves  in  the  awful  presence  of  James,  the  Lord's 
brother — James,  the  stern,  white-robed,  mysterious  prophet,  and  the  conclave 
of  his  but  half-conciliated  Judaic  presbyters.  No  misgiving  could  assail  them 
in  their  own  free  Asiatic  or  Hellenic  homes ;  but  here  in  Jerusalem,  in  fe  the 
Holy,  the  Noble  city,"  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Temple,  face  to  face  with 
zealots  and  Pharisees,  it  required  nothing  loss  than  the  genius  of  a  Paul  to  claim 
without  shadow  of  misgiving  that  divine  freedom  which  was  arraigned  in  the 
tame  of  a  history  rich  in  miracles,  and  a  whole  literature  of  inspired  books. 
That  free  spirit  was  a  lesson  which  the  Jews  themselves  as  a  body  could  not 
learn.  It  required,  indeed,  the  earthquake  shock  which  laid  their  temple  in 
ruins,  and  scattered  their  nationality  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  effectively 
to  teach  them  the  futility  of  the  convictions  to  which  they  so  passionately 
clung.  They  would  have  resisted  without  end  the  logic  of  argument  had  not 
God  Himself  hi  due  tiroe  refuted  their  whole  theology  by  the  irresistible  logic 
of  facts.  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem  did  more  to  drive  them  from  an  im- 
memorial "  orthodoxy  "  than  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  himself. 

As  we  read  the  narrative  of  the  Acts  in  the  light  of  the  Epistles,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  resist  the  impression  that  the  meeting  between  tho  Apostle  and  tho 
Elders  of  Jerusalem  was  cold.  It  is,  of  course,  certain  that  tho  first  object  of 
the  meeting  was  the  presentation  of  the  contribution  from  which  Paul  had 
hoped  so  much.  One  by  one  he  would  call  forward  the  beloved  delegates, 
that  they  might  with  their  own  hands  lay  at  the  feet  of  James  tho  sums  of 
money  which  his  Gentile  Churches  had  contributed  out  of  their  deep  poverty, 
and  which  in  many  and  many  a  coin  bore  witness  to  weeks  of  generous  self- 
denial.  There  lay  all  this  money,  a  striking  proof  of  the  faithfulness  with 
which  Paul,  at  any  rate,  had  carried  out  his  share  of  the  old  compact  at  Jeru- 
salem, when —almost  by  way  of  return  for  concessions  which  the  Judaisers  had 
done  their  best  to  render  nugatory — the  Three  had  begged  him  to  be  mindful 
cf  the  poor.  It  must  have  been  a  far  larger  bounty  than  they  had  any  reason 
to  expect,  and  on  this  occasion,  if  ever,  we  might  surely  have  looked  for  a 
little  effusive  sympathy,  a  little  expansive  warmth,  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
munity which  had  received  so  tangible  a  proof  of  the  Apostle's  kindness.  Yet 
we  are  not  told  about  a  word  of  thanks,  and  we  sea  but  too  plainly  that  Paul's 

1  AJJ  none  of  the  Twelve  are  mentioned,  it  ia  probable  that  none  were  present.  The 
twelve  years  which,  as  tradition  tells  us,  had  been  fixed  by  Christ  for  their  stay  in  Jem 
salem,  had  long  elapsed,  and  they  were  scattered  on  their  various  missions  to  evangelise 
the  world.  St'.  Luke  was  aware  cf  the  contributions  brought  by  St.  Paul  (ixiv,  17)j 
though  ha  dofis  not  mention  them  here. 


THS  LAST  JCTJBSTEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  523 

hardly  disguiae-d  misgiving  as  to  the  manner  in  wliieh  his  gift  would  be 
accepted l  was  confirmed.  Never  in  any  ago  iiavo  the  recipients  of  alms  at 
Jerusalem  been  remarkable  for  gratitude.3  Was  tlio  gratitude  of  the  Zealots 
and  Pharisees  of  the  community  extinguished  in  this  instance  by  the  fact  that 
one  of  the  bags  of  money  was  carried  by  tho  hands  of  an  uncircumeised  Gen- 
tile P  Had  it  been  otherwise,  nothing  would  have  lain  more  entirely  in  the 
scope  of  St.  Luke's  purpose  to  record.  Though  some  at  least  of  the  brethren 
received  Paul  gladly,  the  Elders  of  the  Church  had  not  hurried  on  tho  previous 
evening  to  greet  and  welcome  him,  and  subsequent  events  prove  too  clearly 
that  his  chief  reward  lay  in  the  sense  of  having  done  and  taught  to  his  con- 
verts what  was  kind  and  right,  and  not  in  any  softening  of  the  heart  of  the 
Jadaie  Christiana.  Gratitude  is  not  always  won  by  considerateness.  Tho 
collection  for  the  saint*  occupies  many  a  paragraph  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  as 
it  had  occupied  many  a  year  of  his  thoughts.  But  there  is  little  or  no 
recorded  recognition  of  his  labour  of  lovo  by  tho  recipients  of  the  bounty 
which  but  for  him  could  never  have  been  collected. 

When  the  presentation  was  ever,  Paul  narrated  in  full  detail3  the  work  he 
had  done,  and  the  Churches  which  he  had  confirmed  or  founded  in  that  third 
journey,  of  which  wo  have  seen  the  outline.  What  lovo  and  exultation  should 
euch  a  narrative  have  excited !  All  that  wo  are  told  is,  that  "  they,  on  hearing 
it,  glorified  God,  and  said" — what?  The  repetition,  the  echo,  of  bitter  and 
even  deadly  reproaches  against  St.  Paul,  coupled  with  a  suggestion  which, 
however  necessary  they  may  have  deemed  it,  was  none  the  less  humiliating. 
"  You  observe,  brother,  how  many  myriads  of  the  Jews  there  are  that  have 
embraced  the  faith,  and  they  are  all  zealots  of  the  Law."  The  expression  is  a 
startling  one.  Were  there,  indeed,  at  that  early  date  "  many  myriads "  of 
Jewish  Christians,  when  we  know  how  insignificant  numerically  were  tho 
Churches  even  at  such  places  as  Rome  and  Corinth,  and  when  wo  learn  how 
small  was  the  body  of  Christians  which,  a  decade  later,  took  refuge  at  Pella 
from  the  impending  ruin  of  Jerusalem  P  If  we  are  to  take  tho  expression 
literally — if  there  were  even  as  many  as  two  myriads  of  Christiana  who  wevo 
kll  zealous  for  the  Law,  it  only  shows  how  fatal  was  the  risk  that  the  Church 
\vould  be  absorbed  into  a  mere  slightly-differentiated  synagogue.  At  any  rate. 
the  remark  emphasised  the  extreme  danger  of  tho  Apostle's  position  in  that 
hotbed  of  raging  fanaticism,  especially  when  they  added,  "And  they" — all 
these  myriads  who  have  embraced  the  faith  and  are  zealots  of  the  Law ! — "  have 
been  studiously  indoctrinated4  with  the  belief  about  you,  that  you  teach 
APOSTASY  JTEOH  MOSES,  telling  all  THE  JEWS  of  the  dispersion  not  to  cir- 
cumcise their  children,  and  not  to  walk  iu  obedience  to  tho  customs.  What 
then  is  the  state  of  affairs?  That  a  crowd  will  assemble  is  quite  certain;  for 

1  Horn.  IT.  81. 

2  Witness  the  treatment  in  recent  days  of  Sir  M.  Sfontefiore  and  Dr.  Frank!,  after 
conferring  on  them  the  largest  pecuniary  benefits. 

*  xxL  19,  naff  iv  cKturrcf. 

<  Ver.  21,  K<xnjx>j0)}<w.    Very  much  stronger  than  the  E.  V.,  "  they  are  informed." 


524  THE  LI1TE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAtJL. 

they  will  hear  that  you  have  come.  At  once  then  do  what  we  tell  you.  Wfi 
have  four  men  who  have  a  vow  upon  them.  Take  them,  be  purified  with 
them,  and  pay  their  expenses  that  they  may  get  their  heads  shaved.  All  will 
then  recognise  that  there  is  nothing  in  all  which  has  been  so  carefully  incul- 
cated into  them  about  you,  but  that  you  yourself  also  walk  in  observance  of 
the  Law.  But  as  regards  the  Gentiles  that  have  embraced  the  faith,  we 
enjoined  their  exemption  from  everything  of  this  kind,  deciding  only  that 
they  should  keep  themselves  from  meat  offered  to  idols,  and  blood,  and 
strangled,  and  fornication." 

What  did  this  proposal  mean  P  It  meant  that  the  emancipation  from  the 
vow  of  the  Nazarite  could  only  take  place  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  Temple, 
and  that  it  was  accompanied  by  offerings  so  costly  that  they  were  for  a  poor 
man  impossible.  A  custom  had  therefore  sprung  up  by  which  rich  men 
undertook  to  defray  the  necessary  expenses,  and  this  was  regarded  as  an  act 
of  charity  and  piety.  The  Jews,  indeed,  looked  so  favourably  on  a  species  of 
liberality  which  rendered  it  possible  for  the  poor  no  less  than  the  rich  to  make 
vows  at  moments  of  trial  and  danger,  that  when  Agrippa  I.  paid  his  first  visit 
to  Jerusalem,  he  had  paid  the  expenses  which  enabled  a  large  number  of 
Nazarites  to  shave  their  heads,1  not  only  because  he  wished  to  give  an  ostenta- 
tious proof  of  his  respect  for  the  Levitical  law,  but  also  because  he  knew  that 
this  would  be  a  sure  method  of  acquiring  popularity  with  the  Pharisaic  party. 
The  person  who  thus  defrayed  the  expenses  was  supposed  so  far  to  share  the 
vow,  that  he  was  required  to  stay  with  the  Nazarites  during  the  entire  week, 
which,  as  we  gather  from  St.  Luke,  was  the  period  which  must  elapse  between 
the  announcement  to  the  priest  of  the  termination  of  the  vow,  and  his  formal 
declaration  that  it  had  been  legally  completed.8  For  a  week  then,  St.  Paul,  if 
he  accepted  the  advice  of  James  and  the  presbyters,  would  have  to  live  with 
four  paupers  in  the  chamber  of  the  Temple  which  was  set  apart  for  this  pur- 
pose ;  and  then  to  pay  for  certain  sacrificial  animals  and  the  accompanying 
meat  offerings ;  and  to  stand  among  these  Nazarites  while  the  priest  offered 
four  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish  for  burnt  offerings,  and  four 
ewe-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish  for  sin  offerings,  and  four  rams 
without  blemish  for  peace  offerings ;  and  then,  to  look  on  while  the  men's 
heads  were  being  shaved  and  while  they  took  their  hair  to  burn  it  under  the 
boiling  cauldron  of  the  peace  offerings,  and  while  the  priest  took  four  sodden 
shoulders  of  rams  and  four  unleavened  cakes  out  of  the  four  baskets,  and  four 
unleavened  wafers  anointed  with  oil,  and  put  them  on  the  hands  of  the  Naza- 
rites, and  waved  them  for  a  wave-offering  before  the  Lord — which,  with  the 
wave-breads  and  the  heave- shoulders,  the  priest  afterwards  took  as  his  own 
perquisites.  And  he  was  to  do  all  this,  not  only  to  disprove  what  was 

*  Jos.  Antt.  XIX.  6,  §  1,  cU  'It  potrdAv^a  cAfiuv  X"P; c"T7)P'ol'S  <£ iirkyfKofft  &v<rta.t  ovStv  Tvv  JtaTJk 
v6ft,ov  airoAirrwr.  Jib  icai  Na£ipaiwy  £vpa<T0at  JieTafe  fiaAa  crv\vov<;. 

2  Neither  the  Talmud  nor  the  Pentateuch  mentions  this  circumstance.  Numb.  vi.  9, 
10  refers  only  to  the  cases  of  accidental  pollution  during  the  period  of  the  vow.  It  may 
have  been  on  the  analogy  of  this  rule  that  a  week  was  fixed  as  the  period  of  purification. 


THE  LAST  JOTTBNEY  TO  JEBUSALEM.  525 

undoubtedly  a  calumny  if  taken  strictly — namely,  that  he  had  taught  the  Jews 
apostasy  from  Moses  (as  though  his  whole  Gospel  was  this  mere  negation  !)— 
but  also  to  prove  that  there  was  no  truth  in  the  reports  about  him,  but  that  he 
also  was  a  regular  observer  of  the  Law. 

That  it  was  an  expensive  business  was  nothing.  Paul,  poor  as  he  had  now 
become,  could  not,  of  course,  pay  unless  he  had  the  money  wherewith  to  pay 
it ;  and  if  there  were  any  difficulty  on  this  score,  its  removal  rested  with  those 
who  made  the  proposal.  But  was  the  charge  against  him  false  in  spirit  as 
well  as  in  letter  ?  Was  it  true  that  he  valued,  and — at  any  rate,  with  anything 
approaching  to  scrupulosity — still  observed  the  Law  ?  Would  there  not  be  in 
such  conduct  on  his  part  something  which  might  be  dangerously  misrepresented 
as  an  abandonment  of  principle  p  If  those  Judaisers  on  whom  he  did  not 
spare  to  heap  such  titles  as  "  false  apostles,"  "  false  brethren,"  "  deceitful 
workers,"  "dogs,"  "emissaries  of  Satan,"  "the  concision,"1  had  shaken  the 
allegiance  of  his  converts  by  charging  him  with  inconsistency  before,  would 
they  not  have  far  more  ground  to  do  so  now  ?  It  is  true  that  at  the  close  of 
his  second  journey  he  had  spontaneously  taken  on  himself  the  vow  of  the 
Nazarite.  But  since  that  time  circumstances  had  widely  altered.  At  that 
time  the  animosity  of  those  false  brethren  was  in  abeyance ;  they  had  not 
dogged  his  footsteps  with  slander ;  they  had  not  beguiled  his  converts  into 
legalism ;  they  had  not  sent  their  adherents  to  undo  his  teaching  and  persuade 
his  own  churches  to  defy  his  authority.  And  if  all  these  circumstances  were 
changed,  he  too  was  changed  since  then.  His  faith  had  never  been  the 
stereotype  of  a  shibboleth,  or  the  benumbing  repetition  of  a  phrase.  His  life, 
like  the  life  of  every  good  and  wise  man,  was  a  continual  education.  His  views 
during  the  years  in  which  he  lired  exclusively  among  Gentile  churches 
and  in  great  cities  had  been  rendered  clearer  and  more  decided.  Not  to  speak 
of  the  lucid  principles  which  he  had  sketched  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians, 
he  had  written  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  and  had  developed  the  arguments 
there  enunciated  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  It  had  been  the  very  object  of 
those  Epistles  to  establish  the  nullity  of  the  Law  for  all  purposes  of  justification. 
The  man  who  had  written  that  the  teaching  of  the  Judaisers  was  a  quite 
different  gospel  to  his,  and  that  any  one  who  preached  it  was  accursed  ' — who 
had  openly  charged  Peter  with  tergiversation  for  living  Judaically  after  having 
lived  in  Gentile  fashion  3 — who  had  laid  it  down  as  his  very  thesis  that  "  from 
works  of  Law  no  flesh  shall  be  justified  "* — who  had  said  that  to  build  again 
what  he  destroyed  was  to  prove  himself  a  positive  transgressor6 — who  had 
talked  of  the  Law  as  "a  curse"  from  which  Christ  redeemed  us,  and  declared 
that  the  Law  could  never  bring  righteousness9 — who  had  even  characterised 
that  Law  as  a  slavery  to  "  weak  and  beggarly  elements "  comparable  to  the 
rituals  of  Cybele  worship  and  Moon  worship,  and  spoken  of  circumcision  as 
being  in  itself  no  better  than  a  contemptible  mutilation7 — who  had  talked 

»  2  Cor.  xi.  13 ;  Gal.  il.  4 ;  Plul.  iii.  2 ;  2  Cor.  il.  13.  *  Gal.  i.  6-9. 

»  Id.  ii.  14 ;  supra,  p.  250.  «  /&  ii  16.  *  Id.  ii.  18. 

.  iii.  2Q;  G»l.  U.  IS.  T  phJL  Ui.  2]  CM).  T.  1£ 


528  THE  LIFE  AND  WOER  OF  ST. 

again  and  again  of  being  dead  to  the  Law,  and  openly  claimed  fellowship 
rather  -with  the  Gentiles,  who  were  the  spiritual,  than  with  the  rejected  and 
penally  blinded  Jews,  who  were  bnt  the  physical  descendants  of  Abraham — , 
was  this  the  man  who  could  without  creating  false  impressions  avoid  danger 
of  death,  which  ho  had  braved  so  often,  by  doing  something  to  show  how 
perfectly  orthodox  he  was  in  the  impugned  respects  ?  A  modern  writer  has 
said  that  he  could  not  do  this  without  untruth;  and  that  to  suppose  the 
author  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians  standing  seven  days,  oil- 
cakes in  hand,  in  the  Temple  vestibule,  and  submitting  himself  to  all  the 
manipulations  with  which  Rabbinic  pettiness  had  multiplied  the  Mosais 
ceremonials  which  accompanied  the  completion  of  the  Nazaritic  vow — to  suppose 
that,  in  the  midst  of  unbelieving  Priests  and  Lovites,  he  should  have  patiently 
tolerated  all  the  ritual  nullities  of  the  Temple  service  of  that  period,  and 
BO  have  brought  the  business  to  its  tedious  conclusion  in  the  elaborate  manner 
above  described,  "is  just  as  credible  as  that  Luther  in  his  old  age  should 
have  performed  a  pilgrimage  to  Einsiedeln  with  peas  in  his  shoes,  or  that 
Calvin  on  his  deathbed  should  have  vowed  a  gold-embroidered  gown  to  tha 
Holy  Mother  of  God."1 

But  the  comparison  is  illusory.  It  may  be  true  that  the  natural  tempera- 
ment of  St.  Paul — something  also,  it  may  bo,  in  his  Oriental  character- 
inclined  him  to  go  much  farther  in  the  way  of  concession  than  either  Luther 
or  Calvin  would  have  done;  but  apart  from  this  his  circumstances  wore 
widely  different  from  theirs  in  almost  every  respect.  We  may  well  imagine 
that  this  unexpected  proposal  was  distasteful  to  him  in  many  ways;  it  is 
hardly  possible  that  he  should  regard  without  a  touch  of  impatience  tha 
todious  eereinonialisnis  of  a  system  which  he  now  knew  to  be  in  its  last 
decadence,  and  doomed  to  speedy  extinction.  Still  there  wore  two  great 
principles  which  he  had  thoroughly  grasped,  and  on  which  he  had  consistently 
acted.  One  was  acquiescence  in  things  indifferent  for  the  sake  of  charity,  so 
that  he  gladly  became  as  a  Jew  to  Jews  that  he  might  save  Jews ;  the  other 
that,  during  the  short  time  which  remained,  and  under  the  stress  of  the 
present  necessity,  it  was  each  man's  duty  to  abide  in  the  condition  wherein  he 
had  been  called.  He  was  a  Jew,  and  therefore  to  him  the  Jewish  ceremonial 
was  a  part  of  national  custom  and  established  ordinance.  For  him  it  had,  at 
the  very  lowest,  a  civil  if  not  a  religious  validity.  If  the  Jews  misinterpreted 
his  conduct  into  more  than  was  meant,  it  would  only  be  a  misrepresentation 
like  those  which  they  gratuitously  invented,  and  to  which  he  was  incessantly 
liable.  Undoubtedly  during  bis  missionary  journey  he  must  again  and  again 
have  broken  the  strict  provisions  of  that  Law  to  the  honour  and  furtherance 
of  which  he  had  devoted  his  youth.  But  though  he  did  not  hold  himself 

1  Hausrath  (p.  453),  who,  however,  erroneously  Imagines  that  Paul  had  himself  on 
thia  occasion  the  vow  of  a  Nazarite  upon  him.  The  person  who  paid  the  expense  of  the 
Nazarito  had  not,  I  imagine,  to  make  offering*  for  himself — at  least  it  is  nowhere  BO 
stated — though  we  infer  that  he  lived  with  the  Nararites  during  the  period  of  their , 
seclusion,  and  in  some  undefined  way  shared  in  their  purification. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JEEUSALEM.  527 

bound  to  do  all  that  the  Law  and  the  Rabbis  required,  yet  neither  did  ho  feel 
himself  precluded  from  any  observance  which  was  not  wrong.  His  objection 
to  Levitiain  was  not  an  objection  to  external  conformity,  but  only  to  that 
substitution  of  externalism  for  faith  to  which  conformity  might  lead.  He  did 
not  so  much  object  to  ceremonies  as  to  placing  any  reliance  on  them.  Ho 
might  have  wished  that  things  were  otherwise,  and  that  the  course  suggested 
to  him  involved  a  less  painful  sacrifice.  He  might  have  boon  gladder  if  the 
Eiders  had  said  to  him,  "  Brother,  you  are  detested  here ;  at  any  moment  the 
shout  of  a  mob  may  rise  against  you,  or  the  dagger  of  a  Siearius  be  plunged 
into  your  heart.  "We  cannot  under  such  circumstances  be  responsible  for 
your  life.  You  have  given  us  this  splendid  proof  of  your  own  loyalty  and  of 
the  Christian  love  of  your  converts.  The  feast  is  over.1  Retire  at  once  with 
safety,  and  with  our  prayers  and  our  blessings  continue  your  glorious  work." 
Alas  !  such  advice  was  only  a  "  might  have  been."  He  accepted  the  suggestion 
they  offered,  and  the  very  next  day  entered  the  Temple  with  these  four 
Nazarites,  went  through  whatever  preliminary  purification  was  deemed  neces- 
sary by  the  Oral  Law,  and  gave  notice  to  the  priests  that  from  this  time  they 
must  begin  to  count  the  eeven  days  which  must  pass  before  the  final  offerings 
woro  brought  and  the  vow  concluded.2 

If  the  Elders  overrated  the  conciliatory  effect  of  this  act  of  conformity, 
they  had  certainly  underrated  the  peril  to  which  it  would  expose  tho  great 
missionary  who,  more  than  they  all,  had  done  his  utmost  to  fulfil  that  Last 
command  of  Christ  that  they  ehould  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature.  The  city  was  full  of  strangers  from  every  region  of 
tho  world,  and  the  place  where  of  all  others  they  would  delight  to  congregate 
would  be  tho  courts  of  tho  Temple.  Even,  therefore,  if  St.  Paul,  now  that 
the  storms  of  years  had  scarred  his  countenance  and  bent  his  frame,  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  remain  unrecognised  by  any  hostile  priest  who  had  known  him 
in  former  days,  it  was  hardly  possible  that  every  one  of  the  thousands  whom 
he  had  met  in  scores  of  foreign  cities  should  fail  to  identify  that  well-known 
face  and  figure.  It  would  have  been  far  safer,  if  anything  compelled  him  to 
linger  in  the  Holy  City,  to  live  unnoticed  in  tho  lowly  house  of  Mnason.  He 
might  keep  as  quiet  as  he  possibly  could  in  that  chamber  of  the  Nazarites ; 

i  The  Pentecost  only  lasted  one  day. 

3  In  some  such  way  I  understand  the  obscure  and  disputed  expressions  of  ver.  26;  but 
even  with  the  Talmudic  treatise  Nazir  beside  us,  we  know  too  little  of  the  details  to  be 
sure  of  the  exact  process  gone  through,  or  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  expressions  used. 
Some  take  ayi/nrfVi?  and  ayvurub?  to  mean  that  St.  Paul  took  on  him  the  Nazaiite  vow 
with  them  (cf.  Narab.  vi.  3,  5,  LXX.)-  This  seems  to  be  impossible,  because  thirty  days 
is  tho  shortest  period  mentioned  by  the  Mishna  for  a  temporary  vow.  Mr.  Lewin  and 
others  have  conjectured  that  he  was  himself  a  Nazarite,  having  taken  the  vow  after  his 
peril  at  Epheaus,  as  on  tha  previous  occasion  after  his  peril  at  Corinth ;  and  that  this 
was  the  reason  why  he  was  BO  anxious  to  get  to  Jerusalem.  But  if  so,  why  did  not  St. 
Luke  mention  the  circumstance  as  he  had  done  before  ?  And  if  so,  why  was  it  necessary 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  these  four  Nazarites  when  the  fulfilment  of  his  own  personal  vow 
would  have  been  a  sufficient  and  more  striking  proof  of  willingness  to  conform  to  Mosaism 
in  his  personal  conduct  ?  Moreover,  the  proposal  of  the  EHers  evidently  came  to  St.  Paul 
gnexpcctedly, 


528  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

but  even  if,  during  those  seven  days  of  enforced  idleness,  he  confined  himself 
there  to  the  utmost  extent,  and  even  if  the  other  Nazarites  abstained  from 
divulging  the  secret  of  a  name  so  famous,  it  was  impossible  that  he  should 
escape  the  eyes  of  the  myriads  who  daily  wandered  through  the  Temple  court* 
and  took  part  in  its  multitudinous  ceremonies. 

For  the  Jews  at  that  period  were  in  a  most  inflammable  state  of  mind,  and 
the  tremors  of  the  earthquake  were  already  felt  which  was  soon  to  rend  the 
earth  under  their  feet,  and  shake  their  Temple  and  city  into  irretrievable  ruin. 
On  the  death  of  Herod  Agrippa  I.,1  Claudius,  thinking  that  his  son  was  too 
young  to  succeed  to  the  government  of  so  turbulent  a  people,  kept  him  under 
his  own  eye  at  Rome,  and  appointed  Cuspius  Fadus  to  the  Procuratorship  of 
Judaea.  To  secure  an  additional  hold  upon  the  Jews,  he  ordered  that  the 
crown  of  Agrippa,  and,  what  was  of  infinitely  greater  importance,  the  "golden 
robes  "  of  the  High  Priest,  should  be  locked  up  under  the  care  of  the  Romans 
in  the  Tower  of  Antonia.  So  deep  was  the  fury  of  the  Jews  at  the  thought 
that  those  holy  vestments  should  be  under  the  impure  care  of  Gentiles,  that 
the  order  could  only  be  enforced  by  securing  the  presence  at  Jerusalem  of 
C.  Cassius  Longinus,  the  Prsefect  of  Syria,  with  an  immense  force.  Claudius 
almost  immediately  afterwards  cancelled  the  order,  at  the  entreaty  of  a 
deputation  from  Jerusalem,  supported  by  the  influence  of  the  young  Agrippa. 
Claudius  had  owed  to  Agrippa's  father  his  very  empire,  and  since  the  youth 
inherited  all  the  beauty,  talent,  and  versatility  of  his  family,  he  was  a  great 
favourite  at  the  Imperial  Court.  Fadus  had  been  succeeded  by  Tiberius 
Alexander,  a  nephew  of  Philo,2  who  was  peculiarly  hateful  to  the  Jews 
because  he  was  a  renegade  from  their  religion.  He  was  superseded  by 
Cumanus,  and  about  the  same  time  Agrippa  II.  was  invested  with  the  little 
kingdom  of  Chalcis,  vacant  by  the  death  of  his  uncle  Herod,  and  also  with 
the  functions  of  guarding  the  Temple  and  the  Corban,  and  nominating  to  the 
High  Priesthood.3  The  Procuratorship  of  Cumanus  marked  the  commence- 
ment of  terrible  disturbances.  At  the  very  first  Passover  at  which  he  was 
.  present  an  event  occurred  which  was  a  terrible  omen  of  the  future.  Just  as 
at  this  day  the  Turkish  soldiers  are  always  prepared  to  pour  down  from  the 
house  of  the  Turkish  Governor  on  the  first  occurrence  of  any  discord  between 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  so  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Roman  com- 
mandant  of  the  Tower  of  Antonia  to  post  detachments  of  soldiers  along  the 
roof  of  the  cloister  which  connected  the  fortress  with  the  Temple  area — ready 
at  any  moment  to  rush  down  the  stairs  and  plunge  into  the  very  midst  of 
the  crowded  worshippers.  What  occurred  on  this  occasion  was  singularly 
characteristic.  While  standing  there  at  guard,  one  of  the  Roman  soldiers, 
weary  of  having  nothing  to  do,  and  disgusted  with  watching  what  he  despised 
as  the  mummeries  of  these  hateful  Jews,  expressed  his  contempt  for  them  by 
a  gesture  of  the  most  insulting  indecency.*  Instantly  the  Jews  were  plunged 
into  a  paroxysm  of  fury.  They  cursed  the  new  Procurator,  and  began  to  pelt 

1  A.D.  44.  *  Josephus  calls  him  Oavnturuararot  (e.  Ap.  L  2). 

»  4.P.  49.  «  JOB.  ft.  /•  U.  12,  §  1;  4ntt.  xx.  5,  §  3. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JEBUSALEM.  529 

the  soldiers  with  stones,  which  seem  to  have  been  always  ready  to  hand 
among  this  excitable  race.  Fearing  that  the  Antonia  detachment  would  be 
too  weak  to  cope  with  so  savage  an  onslaught,  Cumanus  marched  his  entire 
forces  ronnd  from  the  Pnetorium.  At  the  clash  of  their  footsteps,  and  the 
gleam  of  their  swords,  the  wretched  unarmed  mass  of  pilgrims  was  struck 
with  panic,  and  made  a  rush  to  escape.  The  gates  of  the  Temple  were  choked 
up,  and  a  multitude,  variously  stated  at  ten  and  at  twenty  thousand,  was 
trampled  and  crushed  to  death. 

This  frightful  disaster  was  followed  by  another  tragedy.  An  imperial 
messenger  was  robbed  by  bandits  at  Bethhoron,  not  far  from  Jerusalem. 
Furious  at  such  an  insult,  Cumanus  made  the  neighbouring  villages  re- 
sponsible, and  in  sacking  one  of  them  a  Roman  soldier  got  hold  of  a  copy  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  burnt  it  before  the  villagers  with  open  blasphemies. 
The  horror  of  the  insult  consisted  in  the  fact  that  the  sacred  roll  contained 
in  many  places  the  awful  and  incommunicable  Name.  As  they  had  done 
when  Pilate  put  up  the  gilt  votive  shields  in  Jerusalem,  and  when  Caligula 
had  issued  the  order  that  his  image  should  be  placed  in  the  Temple,  the 
Jews  poured  in  myriads  to  Csesarea,  and  prostrated  themselves  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  Procurator.  In  this  instance  Cumanus  thought  it  best  to 
avert  dangerous  consequences  by  the  cheap  sacrifice  of  a  common  soldier,  and 
the  Jews  were  for  the  time  appeased  by  the  execution  of  the  offender. 

Then  had  followed  a  still  more  serious  outbreak.  The  Samaritans, 
actuated  by  the  old  hatred  to  the  Jews,  had  assassinated  some  Galilaean 
pilgrims  to  the  Passover  at  En  Gannim,  the  frontier  village  of  Samaria  which 
had  repulsed  our  Lord.1  Unable  to  obtain  from  Cumanus — whom  the  Sama- 
ritans had  bribed — the  punishment  of  the  guilty  village,  the  Jews,  secretly 
countenanced  by  the  High  Priest  Ananias,  and  his  son  Ananus,  flew  to  arms, 
and,  under  the  leadership  of  the  bandit  Eleazar,  inflicted  on  the  Samaritans  a 
terrible  vengeance.  Cumanus,  on  hearing  this,  marched  against  them  and 
routed  them.  A  renewal  of  the  contest  was  prevented  by  the  entreaties  of 
the  chief  men  at  Jerusalem,  who,  aware  of  the  tremendous  results  at  issue, 
hurried  to  the  battle-field  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  Meanwhile  the  Prsefect  of 
Syria,  Titus  Ummidius  Quadratus,  appeared  on  the  scene,  and,  after  hearing 
both  sides,  found  Cumanus  and  his  tribune  Celer  guilty  of  having  accepted  a 
bribe,  and  sent  them  to  Borne  with  Ananias  and  Ananus  to  be  tried  by  the 
Emperor,1  Jonathan,  one  of  the  very  able  ex-High  Priests  of  the  astute 
house  of  Annas,  was  sent  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Jews.  At  that  time 
Agrippina  was  all-powerful  with  the  Emperor,  and  the  freedman  Pallas  all- 
powerful  both  with  him  and  with  Agrippina,  who  owed  her  elevation  to  his 
friendly  offices.  The  supple  Agrippa  introduced  Jonathan  to  Pallas,  and 
it  seems  as  if  a  little  compact  was  struck  between  them,  that  Pallas  should 

l  Luke  ii.  53  ;  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  6,  §  L 

1  The  discrepancies  in  this  story  as  told  by  Josephus  in  B.  J.  ii.  12,  §  5,  and  Antt. 
TO.,  6,  §  2,  are  glaring,  yet  no  one  doubts  either  the  honesty  of  Josephus  or  the  general 
truth  of  the  story.    How  scornfully  would  it  have  been  rejected  as  A  myth  or  an  Inven- 
tion if  it  had  occurred  in  the  Gospels  I 
18* 


530  THE  LIFE  AND  WOSK   OF  ST.  PATTL. 

induce  the  Emperor  to  decide  in  favour  of  the  Jews,  and  that  Jonathan  should 
petition  him  on  behalf  of  the  Jews  to  appoint  to  the  lucrative  Procuratorship 
his  brother  Felix.  The  plot  succeeded.  The  Samaritans  were  condemned; 
their  leaders  executed;  Cumanus  banished;  Celer  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  be 
beheaded;  Ananias  and  Ananus  triumphantly  acquitted;  and  A.D.  52,  six 
years  before  St.  Paul's  last  visit  to  Jerusalem,  Felix — like  his  brother,  an 
Arcadian  slave — who  had  taken  the  name  of  Antonius  in  honour  of  his 
first  mistress,  and  the  name  of  Claudius  in  honour  of  his  patron — became 
Procurator  of  Judaea.1 

At  first  the  new  Procurator  behaved  with  a  little  decent  reserve,  but  it 
was  not  long  before  he  began  to  show  himself  in  his  true  colours,  and  with 
every  sort  of  cruelty  and  licentiousness  "  to  wield  the  power  of  a  king  with 
the  temperament  of  a  slave."  After  his  emancipation  he  had  been  entrusted 
with  a  command  in  ft  troop  of  auxiliaries,  and  acting  with  the  skill  and  promp- 
titude of  a  soldier,  he  had  performed  a  really  useful  task  in  extirpating  the 
bandits.  Yet  even  the  Jews  murmured  at  the  shameless  indifference  with 
which  this  Borgia  of  the  first  century  entrapped  the  chief  bandit  Eleazar  into 
a  friendly  visit,  on  pretence  of  admiring  his  skill  and  valour,  and  instantly: 
threw  him  into  chains,  and  sent  him  as  a  prisoner  to  Rome.  They  were  still 
more  deeply  scandalised  by  his  intimacy  with  Simon  Magus,  who  lived  with 
him  at  Csesarea  as  a  guest,  and  by  whose  base  devices  this  "husband  or 
adulterer  of  three  queens"  succeeded  in  seducing  Drusilla,  the  beautiful 
sister  of  Agrippa  II. — who  had  now  come  as  a  king  to  Judaea — from  her 
husband  Aziz,  King  of  Emesa.  A  crime  of  yet  deeper  and  darker  dye  had 
taken  place  the  very  year  before  Paul's  arrival.  Jonathan,  who  was  often 
bitterly  reminded  of  his  share  in  bringing  upon  his  nation  the  affliction  of 
a  Procurator,  who  daily  grew  more  infamous  from  his  exactions  and  his 
savagery,  thought  that  his  high  position  and  eminent  services  to  Felix  himself 
entitled  him  to  expostulate.  So  far  from  taking  warning,  Felix  so  fiercely 
resented  the  interference  that  he  bribed  Doras,  a  friend  of  Jonathan's,  to  get 
rid  of  him.  Doras  hired  the  services  of  some  bandits,  who,  armed  with  sicae, 
or  short  daggers,  stabbed  the  priestly  statesman  at  one  of  the  yearly  feasts. 
The  success  and  the  absolute  impunity  of  the  crime  put  a  premium  upon 
murder;  assassinations  became  as  frequent  in  Jerusalem  as  they  were  at  Pcome 
during  the  Papacy  of  Alexander  VI.  The  very  Temple  was  stained  with 
blood.  Any  one  who  wanted  to  get  rid  of  a  public  or  private  enemy  found  it 
a  cheap  and  easy  process  to  hire  a  murderer.  It  is  now  that  the  Ominous 
term  stearins  occurs  for  the  firs't  time  in  Jewish  histo'ry. 

This  had  happened  in  A.D.  37,  and  it  wfcs  probably  at  the  Passover  of 
A.D.  58 — only  seven  weeks  before  the  time  at  which  we  hare  now  arrived— 
that  the  Egyptian  Pseudo-Messiah  had  succeeded  in  raising  30,000  followers, 
with  no  better  pretensions  than  the  promise  that  he  would  lead  them  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  and  that  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  should  fall  fiat  before  him. 

1  JLD.  52. 


THE  LAST  JOTmWEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  531 

Four  thossand  of  these  poor  deluded  wretches  seem  actually  to  have  accom- 
panied him  to  the  Mount  of  Olives.  There  Felix  fell  upon  them,  routed  them 
at  the  first  onslaught,  killed  four  hundred,  took  a  multitude  of  prisoners,  and 
brought  the  whole  movement  to  an  impotent  conclusion.  The  Egyptian,  how- 
ever,  had  by  some  means  or  other  made  good  his  escape — was  at  this  moment- 
uncaptnred — and,  in  fact,  was  never  hoard  of  any  more.  But  the  way  in 
which  followers  had  flocked  in  thousands  to  so  poor  an  impostor  showed  the 
tension  of  men's  minds. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  events — in  so  excited  a  state  were  the  leaders 
and  the  multitude — at  the  very  time  that  St.  Paul  was  keeping  himself  as 
quiet  as  possible  in  the  chambers  of  the  Nazarites.  Four  days  had  already 
passed,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a  hope  that,  as  the  number  of  pilgrims  began 
to  thin,  he  might  be  safe  for  three  more  days,  after  which  there  would  be 
nothing  to  prevent  him  from  carrying  out  his  long-cherished  wish  to  visit 
Rome,  and  from  thence  to  preach  the  Gospel  even  as  far  as  Spain.  Alas !  he 
was  to  visit  Rome,  but  not  as  a  free  man. 

For  on  the  fifth  day  there  were  some  Jews  from  Ephesus  and  other  cities 
of  Asia — perhaps  Alexander  the  coppersmith  was  one  of  thorn— in  the  Court 
of  the  Women,  and  the  glare  of  hatred  suddenly  shot  into  the  eyes  of  one  of 
these  observers  as  he  recognised  the  marked  features  of  the  hated  Shaul.  He 
instantly  attracted  towards  him  the  attention  of  some  of  the  compatriots  to 
whom  Paul's  teaching  was  so  well  known.  The  news  ran  in  a  moment  through 
the  passionate,  restless,  fanatical  crowd.  In  one  minute  there  arose  one  of 
those  deadly  cries  which  are  the  first  beginnings  of  a  sedition.  These  Asiatics 
sprang  on  Paul,  and  stirred  up  the  vast  throng  of  worshippers  with  the  cry, 
"  Israelites !  help  !  This  is  the  wretch  who  teaches  all  men  everywhere  against 
the  people,  and  the  Thorah,  and  the  Temple.  Ay,  and  besides  that,  he  brought 
Greeks  into  the  Temple,  and  hath  polluted  this  holy  place."  Whether  they 
really  thought  so  or  not  we  cannot  tell,  but  they  had  no  grounds  for  this  mad 
charge  beyond  the  fact  that  they  had  seen  the  Ephesian  Trophimus  walking 
about  with  Paul  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  and  supposed  that  Paul  had 
taken  him  even  into  the  holy  precincts.  To  defile  the  Temple  was  what  every 
enemy  of  the  Jews  tried  to  do.  Antiochus,  Heliodorus,  Pompey,  had  pro. 
f aned  it ;  and  very  recently  the  Samaritans  had  been  charged  with  deliberately 
polluting  it  by  scattering  dead  men's  bones  over  its  precincts.  Instantly  the 
rumour  flew  from  lip  to  lip  that  this  was  Shanl,  of  whom  they  had  heard?— 
Paul,  the  mesttTi — Paul,  one  of  the  Galilaean  Minim — one  of  the  believers  ia 
"{he  Hung %-Paul,  the  renegade  Rabbi,  who  taught  and  wrote  that  Gfeutiles 
•were  as  good  as  Je'ws— -the  maa  who  blasphemed  the  ThoTai— the  man  whom 
the  synagogues  had  scourged  in  vain—the  man  who  went  from  place  to  plaea 
getting  them  into  trouble  with  the  Romans ;  and  that  he  had  been  caught 
taking  with  him  into  the  Temple  a  Gentile  dog,  an  uneircumcised  ger.1  The 

1  Had  he  done  thia  he  would  have  incurred  the  censure  in  Ezek.  xlir.  7;  cf.  Eph.  ii. 
14.  The  following  remarkabletpasBage  of  the  Talmud  is  a  self-condemnation  by  the  Jewish 
teachers  .'—"What,"  it  is  asked,  "was  the  cause  of  the  destruction  of  the  first  Temple" 


632  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PATH* 

punishment  for  that  crime  was  death — death  by  the  full  permission  of  the 
Romans  themselves ;  death  even  against  a  Roman  who  should  dare  to  set  foot 
beyond  the  Chel.  They  were  now  in  the  Court  of  the  Women,  but  they  only 
had  to  go  through  the  Corinthian  gate,  and  down  the  fifteen  steps  outside  of 
it,  to  come  to  the  CMl — the  "  middle-wall  of  partition,"  that  low  stone  bains- 
trade  with  obelisks,  on  each  of  which  was  engraved  on  stone  tablets  the 
inscription  in  Greek  and  Latin  that  "  No  alien  must  set  foot  within  that 
enclosure  on  pain  of  certain  death."1  Here,  then,  was  a  splendid  opportunity 
for  most  just  vengeance  on  the  apostate  who  taught  apostasy.  A  rush  was 
made  upon  him,  and  the  cry  "  To  the  rescue  ! "  echoed  on  all  sides  through  the 
streets.2  To  defend  himself  was  impossible.  What  voice  conld  be  heard 
amid  the  wild  roar  of  that  momentarily  increasing  hubbub  ?  Was  this  to  be 
the  end  ?  Was  he  to  be  torn  to  pieces  then  and  there  in  the  very  Temple 
precincts?  If  he  had  been  in  the  court  below,  that  would  have  been  his 
inevitable  fate,  but  the  sacredness  of  the  spot  saved  him.  They  began  drag- 
ging him,  vainly  trying  to  resist,  vainly  trying  to  speak  a  word,  through  the 
great  "  Beautiful "  gate  of  Corinthian  brass,  and  down  the  fifteen  steps,  while 
the  Levites  and  the  Captain  of  the  Temple,  anxious  to  save  the  sacred  en- 
closure from  one  more  stain  of  blood,  exerted  all  their  strength  to  shut  the 
ponderous  gate  behind  the  throng  which  surged  after  their  victim.3  But 
meanwhile  the  Roman  centurion  stationed  under  arms  with  his  soldiers  on  the 
roof  of  the  western  cloisters,  was  aware  that  a  wild  commotion  had  suddenly 
sprung  up.  The  outburst  of  fury  in  these  Oriental  mobs  is  like  the  scream  of 
mingled  sounds  in  a  forest  which  sometimes  suddenly  startles  the  deep  still- 
ness of  a  tropic  night.  The  rumour  had  spread  in  a  moment  from  the  Temple 
to  the  city,  and  streams  of  men  were  thronging  from  every  direction  into  the 
vast  area  of  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles.  In  another  moment  it  was  certain 
that  those  white  pillars  and  that  tessellated  floor  would  be  stained  with  blood. 
Without  a  moment's  delay  the  centurion  sent  a  message  to  Lysias,  the  com- 
mandant of  Antonia,  that  the  Jews  had  seized  somebody  in  the  Temple,  and 
were  trying  to  kill  him.  The  Romans  were  accustomed  to  rapid  movements, 
taught  them  by  thousands  of  exigencies  of  their  career  in  hostile  countries, 

The  prevalence  of  idolatry,  adultery,  and  murder.  .  .  .  But  what  was  the  cause  of 
the  destruction  of  the  second  Temple,  seeing  that  the  age  vxu  characterised  by  study  of  the 
Law,  observance  of  its  precepts,  and  the  practice  of  benevolence  ?  It  was  groundless 
hatred  ;  and  it  shows  that  groundless  hatred  «  equal  in  heinousness  to  idolatry,  adultery, 
and  murder  combined  "  (Jama,  f.  9,  2).  As  specimens  of  the  groundless  and  boundless 
'hatred  of  the  Talmudists  to  Christians,  see  Abhoda  Zarah,  f.  26,  1,  2  (Amsterdam 
edition) ;  Maimonides,  Hilch.  Accum,  §  9. 

i  The  Vn-  (Jos-  JB.  «f.  v.  5,  §  2  ;  vi.  2,  §  4 ;  Antt.  xv.  11,  §  5.)  The  discovery  of  one 
of  these  inscriptions  by  M.  Clermont  Ganneau — an  inscription  on  wkich  the  eyes  of  our 
Lord  Himself  and  of  all  Has  disciples  must  have  often  fallen — is  very  interesting.  Ho 
found  it  built  into  the  walls  of  a  small  mosque  in  the  Via  Dolorosa  (Palestine  Exploration 
Fund  Report,  1871,  p.  132).  Paul  had  not  indeed  actually  brought  any  Gentile  inside  the 
Chtl ;  but  to  do  so  ideally  and  spiritually  had  been  the  vary  purpose  of  bis  life,  V.  infra, 
ad  Eph.  ii.  14. 

3  Xxi.  30,  cKti/qfh)  rj  Tro\i?  oAij,  (tai  iftvtro  <rvi-JpO(ij[. 

•  Jo«.  B.  J.  vi.  5,  §  3 ;  c.  Ap,  ii.  9.  .       .; ,;    .Jiul"."? 


THE   LAST   JOU&ttSfr   TO  JKIi'JSALEM.  533 

but  nowhere  more  essential  than  in  a  city  which  Prefect  after  Praefoct  and 
Procurator  after  Procurator  had  learnt  to  detest  as  the  head-quarters  of 
burning,  senseless,  and  incomprehensible  fanaticism.  A  single  word  was 
enough  to  surround  Lysias  with  a  well- disciplined  contingent  of  centurions 
and  soldiers,  and  he  instantly  dashed  along  the  cloister  roof  and  down  the 
stairs  into  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles.  The  well-known  clang  of  Roman  arms 
arrested  the  attention  of  the  mob.  They  had  had  some  terrible  warnings  very 
lately.  The  memory  of  that  awful  day,  when  they  trampled  each  other  to 
death  by  thousands  to  escape  the  cohort  of  Cumanus,  was  still  fresh  in  their 
memory.  They  did  not  dare  to  resist  the  mailed  soldiery  of  their  conquerors. 
Lysias  and  his  soldiers  forced  their  way  straight  through  the  throng  to  the 
place  where  Paul  was  standing,  and  rescued  him  from  his  enraged  opponents. 
When  he  had  seized  him,  and  had  his  arms  bound  to  two  soldiers  by  two  chaiiia, 
he  asked  the  question,  "  Who  the  man  might  be,  and  what  he  had  done  ?  " l 
Nothing  was  to  be  learnt  from  the  confused  cries  that  rose  in  answer,  and,  in 
despair  of  arriving  at  anything  definite  in  such  a  scene,  Lysias  ordered  him 
to  be  marched  into  the  barracks.1  But  no  sooner  had  he  got  on  the  stairs  which 
led  up  to  the  top  of  the  cloister,  and  so  into  the  fortress,3  than  the  mob,  afraid 
that  they  were  going  to  be  baulked  of  their  vengeance,  made  another  rush  at 
him,  with  yells  of  "  Kill  him !  kill  him  !  "  *  and  Paul,  unable  in  his  fettered 
condition  to  steady  himself,  was  carried  off  his  legs,  and  hurried  along  in  the 
arms  of  the  surrounding  soldiers.  He  was  saved  from  being  torn  to  pieces 
chiefly  by  the  fact  that  Lysias  kept  close  by  him ;  and,  as  the  rescue-party 
was  about  to  disappear  into  the  barracks,  Paul  said  to  him  in  Greek,  "  May 
I  speak  a  word  to  you  P  "  "  Can  you  speak  Greek  ?  "  asked  the  commandant 
in  surprise.  "  Are  you  not  then  really  that  Egyptian  5  who  a  little  while  ago 
made  a  disturbance,6  and  led  out  into  the  wilderness  those  4,000  sicarii  ?  " J 
"  No,"  said  Paul ;  "  I  am  a  Jew,  a  native  of  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia,  a  citizen  of 

1  XXI.  33,  rt?  iv  f IT),  KOI  ri  ccrnv  weTroiTJKoit.  *  Tra.pf[j.{io\rj.  < 

*  Fort  Antonia  was  a  four-square  tower,  at  the  N.W.  angle  of  the  Temple  area,  with 
a  smaller  tower  fifty  cubits  high  at  each  corner  except  the  southern,  where  the  tower  was 
seventy  cubits  high,  with  the  express  object  of  overlooking  everything  that  went  on  in 
the  Temple  courts.  Stairs  from  these  towera  communicated  with  the  roofs  of  two  por- 
ticoes, on  which  at  intervals  (juOTajievoi)  stood  armed  Human  soldiers  at  the  times  of  the 
great  festivals,  to  prevent  all  seditious  movements  (Jos.  JJ.  •/".  v.  5,  §  8 ;  Antt.  xx.  5,  §  3). 

4  Of.  Luke  xxiii.  18,  and  the  cry  of  Pagan  mobs,  a!pe£roi>$  adcW . 

5  Ver.  38,  OVK  apa  (TV  tl  o  Aivvirrios  ....  .  j     One  hardly  sees  why  Lysias  should  have 
inferred  that  the  Egyptian  could  not  speak  Greek,  but  he  may  have  known  that  this  was 
the  fact.    Since  the  Egyptian  had  only  escaped  a  few  months  before,  and  the  mass  of  the 
people — never  favourable  to  him — would  be  exasperated  at  the  detection  of  hia  impos- 
ture, the  conjecture  of  Lysias  was  not  surprising. 

avcurraTwra?.      Cf.  XVli.  6. 

7  Ver.  38,  roi/s  TerpajcwrxtXiovt  ap£pa;  Ttav  triKopiiav.  Josephus  (Antt.  XX.  8,  §  6)  says  that ; 
Felix,  when  he  routed  them,  killed  400  and  took  200  prisoners.  In  B.  J.  ii.  13,  §  5,  he 
says  that  he  collected  30,000  followers,  and  led  them  to  the  Mount  of  Olives  from  the 
wilderness,  and  that  the  majority  of  them  were  massacred  or  taken  prisoners.  Most 
critics  only  attach  importance  to  such  discrepancies  when  they  find  or  imagine  them  in 
the  sacred  writere.  For  the  sicarii,  see  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  13,  §  3.  He  says  that  they  mur- 
dered people  in  broad  day,  and  in  the  open  streets,  especially  during  the  great  feasts,  and 
that  they  carried  their  daggers  concealed  under  their  robes, 


534  THE  LIffE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

no  undistinguished  city,1  and,  I  entreat  you,  allow  me  to  speak  to  the 
people." 

It  was  an  undaunted  request  to  come  from  one  whose  life  had  just  been 
rescued,  and  barely  rescued,  from  that  raging  mob,  and  who  was  at  that 
moment  suffering  from  their  rough  treatment.  Most  men  would  have  been 
in  a  state  of  such  wild  alarm  as  to  desire  nothing  so  much  as  to  bo  hurried  out 
of  sight  of  the  crowd.  Not  so  with  St.  Paul.  Snatched  from  his  persecutors 
after  imminent  risk  —  barely  delivered  from  that  most  terrifying  of  all  forms 
of  danger,  the  murderous  fury  of  masses  of  his  fellow-men  —  he  asks  leave 
not  only  to  face,  but  oven  to  turn  round  and  address,  the  densely.  thronging 
thousands,  who  wore  only  kept  from  him  by  a  little  belt  of  Roman  swords.2 

Lysias  gave  him  leave  to  speak,  and  apparently  ordered  one  of  his  hands 
to  bo  unfettered  ;  and  taking  his  stand  on  the  stairs,  Paul,  with  uplifted  arm, 
made  signals  to  the  people  that  he  wished  to  address  them.s  The  mob 
became  quiet,  for  in  the  East  crowds  are  much  more  instantly  swayed  by 
their  emotions  than  they  are  among  us  ;  and  Paul,  speaking  in  Syriac,  the 
vernacular  of  Palestine,  and  noticing  priests  and  Sanhedrists  among  the 
crowd,  began— 

"Brethren  and  Fathers,*  listen  to  the  defence  I  have  now  to  make  to 
you!" 

The  sound  of  their  own  language,  showing  that  the  speaker  was  at  any  rate 
no  mere  Hellenist,  charmed  their  rage  for  the  moment,  and  produced  a  still 
deeper  silence.  In  that  breathless  hush  Paul  continued  his  speech.  It  was 
adapted  to  its  object  with  that  consummate  skill  which,  even  at  the  most 
exciting  moments,  seems  never  to  have  failed  him.  While  he  told  them  the 
truth,  he  yet  omitted  all  facts  which  would  be  likely  to  irritate  them,  and 
which  did  not  bear  on  his  immediate  object.  That  object  was  to  show  that 
he  could  entirely  sympathise  with  them  in  this  outburst  of  zeal,  because 
he  had  once  shared  their  state  of  mind,  and  that  nothing  short  of  divino 
revelations  had  altered  the  course  of  his  religion  and  hia  life.  He  was, 
he  told  them,  a  Jew,6  born  indeed  in  Tarsus,  yet  trained  from  his  earliest 
youth  in  Jerusalem,  at  the  feet  of  no  less  a  teacher  than  their  great  living 
ilabban  Gamaliel  ;  that  he  was  not  merely  a  Jew,  but  a  Pharisee  who  had 
studied  the  inmost  intricacy  of  the  Halacha  ;  6  and  was  so  like  themselves  in 
being  a  zealot  for  God,  that  he  had  persecuted  "  this  way  "  to  the  very  death, 


1  o£<  d<r>}fiov  *4Aei*f  (Eur.  Ion.  8).    It  'wut  a-jro'vo^o?,  &nd  &  p^rpoiroXi?,  and  had  a  famcua 
university. 

2  Knox,  who  thought  that  Paul  did  wrong  to  take  the  TOW,  says,  "He  was  brought 
into  the  most  desperate  danger,  God  designing  to  show  thereby  that  we  must  not  do 
evil  that  good  may  come." 

8  Ver.  40,  MweVeicre  T$  x«pu  Cf.  xii.  17  ;  xix.  33  ;  xxi.  40.  Of.  Pers,  iv.  5,  "Calidm 
fecisse  silentia  turbae  Maj  estate  mantis." 

4  See  St.  Stephen's  exordium  (yii.  2). 

6  xxii.  3,  into  'lov&uot.  To  Lysias  he  had  used  the  general  expression  &v6p*s*ot  'lav-S. 
(xxl.  39). 

*-xxii.  3,  KO.TO.  oicpt/3etav  rov  warpifov  v£fiov.  Cf.  xxvi.  5;  Jos.  B.  J.  it  8,  §  14;  Th3e 
"accuracy"  corresponds  to  the  Hebrew  tsedakaJt,  End  the  Talmudic  dikdukty  ('pnpi), 


THE   LA.3T  JOUKSKY  TO  JKBUaALEtt.  535 

haling  to  prison  not  only  men,  but  even  women ;  in  proof  of  which  he  appealed 
to  tho  testimony  of  the  ex-High  Priest  Theophilus,1  and  many  still  surviving 
members  of  the  Sanhedrin  who  had  given  him  letters  to  Damascus.  What, 
then,  had  changed  the  whole  spirit  of  his  life  P  Nothing  less  than  a  Divine 
vision  of  Jesus  of  JNazarath,  which  had  stricken  him  blind  to  earth,  and  bidden 
him  confer  with  Ananias.8  He  does  not  tell  them  that  Ananias  was  a  Chris- 
tian, but — which  was  no  less  true — that  he  was  an  orthodox  observer  of  the 
Law,  for  whom  all  the  Jews  of  Damascus  felt  respect.  Ananias  had  healed 
his  blindness,  and  told  him  that  it  was  "  the  God  of  our  fathers,"  who  fore- 
ordained him,  to  know  His  will  and  see  "  the  Just  One,"  3  and  hear  the 
message  from  His  lips,  that  he  might  be  for  Him  "  a  witness  to  all  men  "  of 
what  he  had  heard  and  seen.  He  then  mentions  his  baptism  and  return  to 
Jerusalem,  and,  hurrying  over  all  needless  details,  comes  to  the  point  that, 
while  he  was  worshipping — now  twenty  years  ago — in  that  very  Temple,  he 
had  fallen  into  a  trance,  and  again  seen  the  risen  Jesus,  who  bado  him 
hurry  with  all  speed  out  of  Jerusalem,  because  there  they  would  not  receive 
bis  testimony.  But  so  far  from  wishing  to  go,  he  had  even  pleaded  with 
the  heavenly  vision  that  surely  the  utter  chaiigo  from  Saul  the  raging  per- 
secutor— Saul  who  had  imprisoned  and  beaten  the  believers  throughout  the 
synagogues — Saul  at  whose  feet  had  been  laid  the  clothes  of  them  that 
slew  His  witness*  Stephen — the  change  from  such  a  man  to  Saul  the 
Christian  and  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ — could  not  fail 
to  win  credence  to  his  testimony.  Bui  He  who  spake  to  him  would  not 
suffer  him  to  plead  for  a  longer  opportunity  of  appealing  to  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  Briefly  but  decisively  came  the  answer  which  had  been  the 
turning-point  for  all  his  subsequent  career—"  Go,  for  I  will  send  thee  far  away 
TO  THE  GENTILES  1 " 

That  fatal  word,  which  hitherto  he  had  carefully  avoided,  but  which  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  avoid  any  longer,  was  enough.  Up  to  this  point 
they  had  continued  listening  to  him  with  the  deepest  attention.  Many  of 
them  were  not  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  facts  to  which  he  appealed.  His 
intense  earnestness  and  mastery  over  the  language  which  they  loved  charmed 
them  all  the  more,  because  the  soldiers  who  stood  by  could  not  understand  a 
word  of  what  he  was  saying,  so  that  his  speech  bore  the  air  of  a  confidential 
communication  to  Jews  alone,  to  which  the  alien  tyrants  could  only  listen 
with  vain  curiosity  and  impatient  suspicion.  Who  could  tell  but  what  some 
Messianic  announcement  might  be  hovering  on  his  lips  ?  Might  not  he  who 
was  thrilling  them  with  the  narrative  of  these  visions  and  revelations  have 
some  new  ecstasy  to  tell  of,  which  should  be  the  signal  that  now  the  supreme 
hour  had  come,  and  which  should  pour  into  their  hearts  a  stream  of  fire  so 

>  See  p.  100. 

'  The  narratives  of  St.  Paul's  conversion  in  lx.,  xxii.,  rzvi.  are  sufficiently  considered 
and  "harmonised" — not  that  they  really  need  any  harmonising — in  pp.  107 — 112 

*  "  The  Just  One."    See  the  gpeech  of  Stephen  (vii.  52). 

4  jiajm*.  not  yet  "martyr,"  as  in  Rev.  xvii.  6.  (Clem.  Ep,  1  Cor.  v.)  But  St.  Paul 
would  here  have  used  the  word  edh,  "  witness." 


538  THE  LIFE  AND  WOfcK  Otf  S!t.  PAUL. 

intense,  so  kindling,  that  in  the  heat  of  it  the  iron  chains  of  the  Romans 
should  be  as  tow  ?  But  was  this  to  be  the  climax  ?  Was  a  trance  to  be 
pleaded  in  defence  of  the  apostasy  of  the  renegade  ?  Was  this  evil  soul  to  be 
allowed  to  produce  holy  witness  for  his  most  flagrant  offences  P  Were  they 
to  bo  told,  forsooth,  that  a  vision  from  heaven  had  bidden  him  preach  to 
"  sinners  of  the  Gentiles,"  and  fling  open,  as  he  had  been  doing,  the  hallowed 
privileges  of  the  Jews  to  those  dogs  of  the  uncircuineision  ?  All  that  strange 
multitude  was  as  one ;  the  same  hatred  shot  at  the  same  instant  through  all 
their  hearts.  That  word  "  GENTILES,"  confirming  all  their  worst  suspicions, 
fell  like  a  spark  on  the  inflammable  mass  of  their  fanaticism.  No  sooner  was 
it  uttered x  than  they  raised  a  simultaneous  yell  of  "  Away  with  such  a  wretch 
from  the  earth ;  he  ought  never  to  have  lived ! "  a 

Then  began  one  of  the  most  odious  and  despicable  spectacles  which  tho 
world  can  witness,  the  spectacle  of  an  Oriental  mob,  hideous  with  impotent 
rage,  howling,  yelling,  cursing,  gnashing  their  teeth,  flinging  about  their  arms, 
waving  and  tossing  their  blue  and  red  robes,  casting  dust  into  the  air  by  hand- 
fuls,  with  all  the  furious  gesticulations  of  an  uncontrolled  fanaticism.3 

Happily  Paul  was  out  of  the  reach  of  their  personal  fury.*  It  might  goad 
them  to  a  courage  sufficient  to  make  them  rend  the  air  with  their  cries  of 
frenzy,  and  make  the  court  of  the  Temple  look  like  the  refuge  for  a  throng  of 
demoniacs ;  but  it  hardly  prompted  them  to  meet  the  points  of  those  Roman 
broadswords.  In  great  excitement,  the  commandant  ordered  the  prisoner  to 
be  led  into  the  barracks,  and  examined  by  scourging;  for,  being  entirely 
ignorant  of  what  Paul  had  been  saying,  he  wanted  to  know  what  further  he 
could  have  done  to  excite  those  furious  yells.  The  soldiers  at  once  tied  his 
hands  together,  stripped  his  back  bare,  and  bent  him  forward  into  the  position 
for  that  horrid  and  often  fatal  examination  by  torture  which,  not  far  from  that 
very  spot,  his  Lord  had  undergone.5  Thrice  before,  on  that  scarred  back,  had 
Paul  felt  the  fasces  of  Roman  lictors ;  five  times  the  nine-and-thirty  strokes  of 
Jewish  thongs ;  here  was  a  new  form  of  agony,  the  whip — the  horribile  flagellum 
—which  tho  Romans  employed  to  force  by  torture  the  confession  of  the  truth.6 
But  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  Paul,  self-possessed  even  in  extremes, 
interposed  with  a  quiet  question.  It  had  been  useless  before,  it  might  be 
useless  now,  but  it  was  worth  trying,  since  both  the  soldiers  and  their  officers 
seem  already  to  have  been  prepossessed  by  his  noble  calm  and  self-control  in 

1  xxii.  22,  TIKOVOV  i«  avrov  a\pi  TOVTOV  rov  Xoyov,  xal  tinjpav  Ti)i>  faovrjv  avruv  Aryoxrtf ,  c.r.A. 
1  Ver.  22,  ou  KOJ^MV.    «,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  G. 

8  xxii.  23.  On  the  sudden  excitability  of  Eastern  mobs,  and  the  sudden  calm  which 
often  follows  it,  see  Palest.  Explor.  Fund  for  April,  1879,  p.  77. 

4  St.  James  had  spoken  of  the  "many  myriads  "  (Acts  ixi.  20)  of  Jews  who,  though 
zealots  for  the  Law,  had  embraced  the  faith.     How  came  it  that  not  one  of  these  "many 
myriads  "  lifted  an  arm  or  raised  a  voice  to  liberate  St.  Paul  from  the  perils  into  which 
he  had  been  brought  by  religious  hatred  greedily  adopting  a  lying  accusation  ? 

5  xxii.  25,  irpoereifev  avrov  rot?  i/iao-iv — "stretched  him  forward  with  the  thongs"  to 
prepare  him  for  examination  by  being  scourged  with  f«umy««.    The  word  ijx«T«  seems 
never  to  mean  a  scourge. 

«  See  Life  of  Christ,  I  187  ;  IL  380. 


SHE  LAST  JOURNEY  10  JERUSALEM.  53? 

the  midst  of  dangers  BO  awful  and  so  sudden.  He  therefore  asked  in  a  quiet 
voice,  "  Is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  Roman  who  has  not  been  tried  P" 
The  question  was  addressed  to  the  centurion  who  was  standing  by  to  see  that 
the  torture  was  duly  administered,  and  he  was  startled  by  the  appeal.  This 
was  evidently  no  idle  boaster ;  no  man  who  would  invent  a  privilege  to  escape 
pain  or  peril.  Few  under  any  circumstances  would  ever  venture  to  invent  the 
proud  right  of  saying  Civis  ROMANUS  SUM,1  for  the  penalty  of  imposture 
was  death;2  and  the  centurion  had  seen  enough  to  be  quite  sure  that  this 
prisoner,  at  any  rate,  was  not  the  man  to  do  so.  He  made  the  soldiers  stop, 
went  off  to  the  commandant,  and  said  to  him,  with  something  of  Roman  blunt- 
ness,  "  What  are  you  about  ?  3  This  man  is  a  Roman."  This  was  important. 
If  he  was  a  Roman,  the  Chiliarch  had  already  twice  broken  the  law  which 
entitled  him  to  protection  ;  for  he  had  both  bound  him  and,  in  contravention 
of  an  express  decree  of  Augustus,  had  given  orders  to  begin  his  examination 
by  putting  him  to  the  torture.  Moreover,  as  being  one  who  himself  placed 
the  highest  possible  value  on  the/ws  civitatis,  he  respected  the  claim.  Hurry- 
ing to  him,  he  said— • 

"  Tell  me,  are  you  a  Roman  P  " 

"  Yes/' 

But  Lysias,  as  he  looked  at  him,  could  not  help  having  his  doubts.  He 
was  himself  a  Greek  or  Syrian,  who  had  bought  the  franchise,  and  thereupon 
assumed  the  prsenomen  Claudius,  at  a  time  when  the  privilege  was  very 
expensive.4  Whether  Paul  was  a  Roman  or  not,  he  was  clearly  a  Jew,  and  no 
less  clearly  a  very  poor  one :  how  could  he  have  got  the  franchise  ? 

"  I  know  how  much  it  cost  me5  to  get  this  citizenship,"  he  remarked,  in  a 
dubious  tone  of  voice. 

"  But  I  have  been  a  citizen  from  my  birth,"  was  the  calm  answer  to  his 
unexpressed  suspicion. 

The  claim  could  not  be  resisted.  Paul  was  untied,  and  the  soldiers  dropped 
their  scourges.  But  Lysias  was  not  by  any  means  free  from  anxiety  as  to  the 
consequences  of  his  illegal  conduct.6  Anxious  to  rid  his  hands  of  this 
awkward  business  in  a  city  where  the  merest  trifles  were  constantly  leading  to 

1  Cic.  in  Verr.  v.  63.  *  At  any  rate  in  certain  cages.     Suet.  Claud.  25. 

*  Ver.  26,  Ti  /xe'AAeis  iroietc;    The  Spa  is  omitted  in  N,  A,  B,  0,  E. 

*  Some  ten  years  before  this  time  it  had,  however,  become  much  cheaper.    Messalina, 
the  infamous  wife  of  Claudius,  who  was  put  to  death  A.D.  48,  openly  sold  it,  first,  at 
very  high  terms,  but  subsequently  so  cheap  that  Dion  Cassius  (is..  17)  says  it  could  be 
bought  for  one  or  two  broken  glasses. 

4  Ver.  28,  'Eyw  o'Sa  iroerov,  D.  Though  unsupported  by  evidence,  the  colloquialism 
sounds  very  genuine.  Perhaps  Lysias  had  bribed  one  of  Claudius's  freedmen,  who  made 
money  in  this  way. 

6  Ver.  29.  There  is  a  little  uncertainty  as  to  what  is  meant  by  i<J>o/3ij0))  .  .  art  Jj»  oJror 
<<£cKw?.  If  it  means  the  chaining  him  with  two  chains  (xxi.  33),  Lysias  did  not  at  any 
rate  think  it  necessary  to  undo  what  he  had  once  done,  for  it  is  clear  that  Paul  remained 
chained  (xxii.  30,  i\vvev  av-rbv).  I  therefore  refer  it  to  the  binding  with  the  thongs 
(ver.  25),  by  which  Lysias  seems  to  have  broken  two  laws  :  (1)  The  Lex  Porcia  (Cic.  pro 
Habirw,  3 ;  in  Verr.  v.  66) ;  (2)  "  Non  esse  a  torment ia  incipiendum  Div.  Augustus 
oonstituit"  (Digest.  Leg.  48,  tit.  18,  c.  1). 


538  THE   LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PATH* 

most  terrible  consequences,  he  told  the  chief  priests  to  summon  next  d&y  a 
meeting  of  the  Sanhodrin  in  order  to  try  the  prisoner. 

The  Sanhedrin  met  in  full  numbers.  They  no  longer  sat  in  the  Liahcath 
Haggazzith,  the  famous  hall,  "with  its  tessellated  pavement,  which  stood  at  the 
south  side  of  the  Court  of  the  Priests.1  Had  they  still  been  accustomed  to 
meet  there,  Lysias  and  his  soldiers  would  never  have  been  suffered  to  obtrude 
their  profane  feet  into  a  chamber  which  lay  within  the  middle  wall  of  partition 
—beyond  which  even  a  Procurator  dare  not  even  have  set  a  step  on  pain  of 
death.  But  at  this  period  the  Sanhedrin  had  probably  begun  their  meetings 
in  the  Chanujoth,  or  "  booths,"  the  very  existence  of  which  was  a  proof  of  the 
power  and  prosperity  of  "the  Serpent  House  of  Hanan."*  To  this  place 
"Lysias  led  his  prisoner,  and  placed  him  before  them.  The  Nasi,  or  President, 
was,  as  usual,  the  High  Priest.8  The  preliminary  questions  were  asked,  and 
then  Paul,  fixing  on  the  assembly  his  earnest  gaze,4  began  his  defence  with  the 
words,  "Brethren,  my  public  life  has  been  spent  in  all  good  conscience 
towards  God  till  this  day."*  Something  in  these  words  jarred  particularly  on 
tho  mind  of  the  High  Priest.  He  may  have  disliked  the  use  of  the  term 
"  brethren,"  an  address  which  implied  a  certain  amount  of  equality,  instead  of 
one  of  those  numerous  expressions  of  servility  which  it  was  only  fitting  that  a 
man  like  this  should  use  to  the  great  assembly  of  the  wise.  But  Paul  was  no 
Am-ha-arets,  on  the  contrary,  he  was  as  much  a  Rabbi,  as  much  a  Chakart.,  as 
the  best  "  remover  of  mountains  "  among  them  all,  and  it  may  have  been  that 
he  designedly  used  the  term  "  brethren  "  instead  of  "  fathers  "  because  he  too 
had  been  once  a  Sanhedrist.  The  bold  assertion  of  perfect  innocence  further 
irritated  the  presiding  Nasi,  and  he  may  have  felt,  somewhat  painfully,  that 
his  own  public  life  had  not  by  any  means  boon  in  all  good  conscience  either 
towards  God  or  towards  man.  This  High  Priest,  Ananias,  the  son  of 
Nebedoeus,9  who  had  been  appointed  by  Herod  of  Chalcis,  was  one  of  the 
worst,  if  not  the  very  worst  specimen  of  the  worldly  Sadducees  of  an  age  ia 
which  the  leading  hiorarchs  resembled  tho  loosest  of  the  Avignon  cardinals,  or 
of  the  preferment-hunting  bishops  in  the  dullest  and  deadest  period  of 
Charles  the  Second  or  George  the  First,7  History  records  the  revengeful  un- 

»  See  Lightfoot.  ffor.  Heir.  i.  1,105. 

a  r.  lupn,  pp.  87,  94.  Life  of  Ckrui,  i.  77;  a  337.  Jost,  Gesch,  i.  145; 
Hwzfeld,  Qesch.  i.  394.  By  thia  time,  A.D.  58,  the  change  had  undoubtedly  taken 
place. 

3  Endless  mistakes  have  apparently  arisen  from  confusing  the  President  of  tha 
Shnhedrin  •with  the  President  of  the  Schools.  The  subject  ia  very  obseuro  ;  but  whilo 
undoubtedly  the  title  of  Nasi,  or  President  of  the  Sanhedrin,  was  borne  by  great  Rabbis 
like  Hillelj  Simeon,  and  Gamaliel,  no  less  undoubtedly  the  High  Priest — unless  most 
flagrantly  incompetent — presided  as  Nasi  at  the  judicial  meetings  of  the  Sanhedrin, 
regarded  as  a  governing  body. 

*  xxiii.  1,  aTtyiVa?.    Cf.  Luke  iv.  20 ;  Acts  x.  4 ;  ziii.  9. 

8  «-«!roA.T€VMai  (PhiL  L  27 ;  Jos.  Vit.  §  49 ;  2  Mace.  vi.  1).  Besides  the  general  assertion 
of  his  innocence,  he  may  mean  that,  -whatever  he  had  taught  to  the  Gentiles,  he  had 
Ih-ed  as  a  loyal  Jew. 

•  On  this  man  see  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  5,  §  2;  6,  §§  2,  3;  8,  §8;  9,  §  2;  S.  J.  U.  17,  §9. 

"  No  wonder  that  in  these  dayi  there  lay  upon  the  Jews  an  abiding  sense  of  the 
wrath  of  God  against  their  race.  No  wonder  that  the  Talmud  records  the  legends  how 


THE  LAST  JOUSXEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  539 

wisdom  of  his  conduct  towards  the  Samaritans,  and  tbe  far  from  noble  means 
which  he  took  to  escape  the  consequences  of  his  complicity  in  their  massacre. 
The  Talmud  adds  to  our  picture  of  him  that  he  was  a  rapacious  tyrant  who,  in 
his  gluttony  and  greed,  reduced  the  inferior  priests  almost  to  starvation  by 
defrauding  them  of  their  tithes;1  and  that  he  was  one  of  those  who  sent  his 
creatures  with  bludgeons  to  the  threshing-floors  to  seize  tho  tithes  by  force.3 
He  held  the  highpricsthood  for  a  period  which,  in  these  bad  days,  was 
unusually  long,3  a  term  of  office  which  had,  iowever,  been  interrupted  by  hia 
absence  as  a  prisoner  to  answer  for  his  misconduct  at  Rome.  On  this  occasion, 
thanks  to  an  actor  and  a  concubine,  he  eeems  to  have  gained  his  cause,4  but  he 
was  subsequently  deposed  to  make  room  for  Ishmael  Ben  Phabi,  and  few 
pitied  him  when  he  was  dragged  out  of  his  hiding-place  iu  a  sewer  to  perish 
miserably  by  the  daggers  of  the  Sicarii,  whom,  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity, 
he  had  not  scrupled  to  sanction  and  employ.5 

His  conduct  towards  St.  Paul  gives  us  a  specimen  of  his  character. 
Scarcely  had  the  Apostle  uttered  the  first  sentence  of  his  defence  when,  with 
disgraceful  illegality,  Ananias  ordered  the  officers  of  the  court  to  smite  him  on 
the  mouth.8  Stung  by  an  insult  so  flagrant,  an  outrage  so  undeserved,  the 
naturally  choleric  temperament  of  Paul  flamed  into  that  sudden  sense  of  anger 
which  ought  to  be  controlled,  but  which  can  hardly  bo  wanting  in  a  truly  noble 
character.  No  character  can  be  perfect  which  does  not  cherish  in  itself  a 
deeply-seated,  though  perfectly  generous  and  forbearing,  indignation  against 
intolerable  wrong.  Smarting  from  the  blow,  "  God  shall  smite  thee,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  thou  white-washed  wall!7  What!  Dost  thou  sit  there  judging 
me  according  to  the  Law,  and  in  violation  of  law  biddest  me  to  be  smitten  ?"3 

at  this  time  the  sacred  light,  -which  was  to  burn  all  night  on  the  candlestick  (/?«• 
ma'oraii),  was  often  quenched  before  the  daybreak ;  how  the  red  tongue  of  cloth  round 
the  neck  of  the  scapegoat  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  was  no  longer  miraculously  turned 
to  white ;  how  the  huge  brazen  Nikanor-gate  of  the  Temple,  v/liich  required  twenty 
Levites  to  shut  it  every  evening,  opened  of  its  own  accord ;  and  how  Johauan  Bea 
Zacchai  exclaimed,  on  hearing  the  portent,  "  Why  wilt  thou  terrify  us,  O  Temple  ?  "We 
know  that  thou  art  doomed  to  ruin." 

1  The  Talmud  tella  us  that  when  this  person  was  High  Priest  the  sacrifices  were 
always  eaten  up,  so  that  no  fragments  of  them  were  left  for  the  poorer  priests  (Pesachim, 
57,1).     (Gratz,  iii.  279.) 

2  Pesachtm,  vJbi  supra.    St.  Paul  might  well  have  asked  him,  o  iSSeAvo-  c^evM  ri  U&aHat, 
;*po<n>Xfi?  (Rom.  ii.  22 ;  v.  supra). 

3  From  A.  D.  48  to  A.D.  59.    The  voyage  as  a  prisoner  to  Rome  was  in  A.D.  52. 

*  Wieseler  Chrvn.  d.  Ap.  Zeit,  76.  6  Jcs.  Antt,  xx.  9,  §  2;  B.  J.  ii.  17,  §  9. 

8  To  this  style  of  argument  the  Jews  seem  to  have  been  singularly  prone  (cf.  Luke 
vi.  29 ;  John  xviii.  22 ;  2  Cor.  33.  20 ;  1  Tim.  iii.  3 ;  Tit.  i.  7).  This  brutality  illustrates 
the  remark  in  Jonia,  23,  1,  Sota,  47,  2,  that  at  that  period  no  one  cared  for  anything  but 
externalism,  and  that  Jews  thought  more  of  a  pollution  of  the  Temple  than  they  did 
of  assassination  (Gratz,  iii.  322). 

7  xxiii.  3,  roix«  Ktxovia.iJ.ti-t.     Cf.  Matt,  xxiii.  27,  T<££OI  Kexoyiapcvoi.     Dr.  Plumptre 
compares  Jeffreys'  treatment  of  Baiter. 

8  For  a  Jew  to  order  a  Jew  to  be  struck  on  the  cheek  was  peculiarly  offensive.     "  He 
that  strikes  the  cheek  of  an  Israelite  strikes,  as  it  were,  the  cheek  of  the  Shechinah,"  for 
it  is  said  (Prov.  xx.  25),  "  He  that  strikes  a  man  "  (i.e.,  an  Israelite  who  alone  deserves 
the  name ;  Rashi  quotes  JSalha  Mctsia,  f.  114,  col.  2),  strikes  the  Holy  One.    Sanhtdr. 
f.  58,  coL  2,  sV  =  cheekbone,  and  op3,  "to  strike,"  in  Syriac  (collidere,  cf.  Dan,  v.  6; 
Buxtorf,  Lex  Chald,  s,  v.),  as  well  as  to  snare, 


5-iO  *HE  LIFB  AND  WORK  OlT  ST. 

Tlie  language  has  been  censured  as  unbecoming  in  its  violence,  and  has  been 
unfavourably  compared  with  the  meekness  of  Christ  before  the  tribunal  of  his 
enemies.  "  Where,"  asks  St.  Jerome,  "  is  that  patience  of  the  Saviour,  who— 
as  a  lamb  led  to  the  slaughter  opens  not  his  mouth — so  gently  asks  the  smiter, 
'  If  I  have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  to  the  evil ;  but  if  well,  why  smitest  thou 
mo  P '  We  are  not  detracting  from  the  Apostle,  but  declaring  the  glory  of 
God,  who,  suffering  in  the  flesh,  reigns  above  the  wrong  and  frailty  of  the 
flesh."1  Yet  we  need  not  remind  the  reader  that  not  once  or  twice  only  did 
Christ  give  the  rein  to  righteous  anger,  and  blight  hypocrisy  and  insolence 
with  a  flash  of  holy  wrath.  The  bystanders  seem  to  have  been  startled  by  the 
boldness  of  St.  Paul's  rebuke,  for  they  said  to  him,  "  Dost  thou  revile  the 
High  Priest  of  God  ?  "  The  Apostle's  anger  had  expended  itself  in  that  one 
outburst,  and  he  instantly  apologised  with  exquisite  urbanity  and  self-control. 
"  I  did  not  know,"  he  said,  "  brethren,  that  he  is  the  High  Priest ; "  adding 
that,  had  he  known  this,  he  would  not  have  addressed  to  him  the  opprobrious 
name  of  "whited  wall,"  because  he  reverenced  and  acted  upon  the  rule  of 
Scripture,  "  Thou  shalt  not  speak  ill  of  a  ruler  of  thy  people."2 

It  has  been  thought  very  astonishing  that  St.  Paul  should  not  know  that 
Ananias  was  the  High  Priest,  and  all  sorts  of  explanations  have  consequently 
been  foisted  into  his  very  simple  words.  These  words  cannot,  however,  mean 
that  he  was  unable  to  recognise  the  validity  of  Ananias's  title ; 8  or  that  he  had 
spoken  for  the  moment  without  considering  his  office ;  *  or  that  he  could  not 
be  supposed  to  acknowledge  a  high  priest  in  one  who  behaved  with  such 
illegal  insolence.6  Considering  the  disrepute  and  insignificance  into  which 
the  high-priesthood  had  fallen  during  the  dominance  of  men  who  would  only, 
as  a  rule,  take  it  for  a  short  time  in  order  to  "  pass  the  chair; "  6  considering 
that  one  of  these  worldly  intruders  took  to  wearing  silk  gloves  that  he  might 
not  soil  his  hands  with  the  sacrifices ;  considering,  too,  that  the  Romans  and 
the  Herods  were  constantly  sotting  up  one  and  putting  down  another  at  their 
own  caprice,  and  that  the  people  often  regarded  some  one  as  the  real  high  priest, 
who  was  no  longer  invested  with  the  actual  office ;  considering,  too,  that  in 
such  ways  the  pontificate  of  these  truckling  Sadducees  had  sunk  into  a  mere 
simulacrum  of  what  once  it  was,  and  that  the  real  allegiance  of  the  people  had 
been  completely  transferred  to  the  more  illustrious  Rabbis — it  is  perfectly 
conceivable  that  St.  Paul,  after  his  long  absence  from  Jerusalem,7  had  not, 

1  Adv.  Pelag.  iii.  1. 

2  Ex.  xxii.  28,  LXX.  (cf.  2  Pet.  ii.  10).    Under  the  good  breeding  of  the  answer  we 
notice  the  admirable  skill  which  enabled  Paul  thus  to  show  at  once  his  knowledge  of  and 
his  obedience  to  the  Law,  for  the  supposed  apostasy  from  which  he  was  impugned. 

*  Lightfoot,  Schoettgen,  Kuinoel,  Baumgarten. 

4  Bengel  (non  veniebat  mihi  in  mentem),  Wetstein,  Bp.  Sanderson  (non  uoveram,  non 
satis  attente  consideravi),  Bp.  Wordsworth,  &c. 

*  Calvin. 

*  The  Jews  themselves  take  this  view  of  them.    Qratz  (iii.  322)  refers  to  PesacMm^ 
57, 1,  Joma,  23,  1,  which  speaks  of  their  narrowness,  envy,  violence,  love  of  precedence^ 
&c. ;  Josephus  (Antt.  xx.  8,  §  8,  9,  §  4)  speaks  of  their  impudence  and  turbulence  (see  Life 
of  Christ,  ii.  329—342). 

7  This  is  the  view  of  Chryaostom. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  541 

during  the  few  and  much  occupied  days  which  had  elapsed  since  his  return, 
given  himself  the  trouble  to  inquire  whether  a  Kamhit,  or  a  Boethusian,  or  a 
Canthera  was  at  that  particular  moment  adorned  with  the  empty  title  which 
he  probably  disgraced.  He  must,  of  course,  have  been  aware  that  the  high 
priest  was  the  Nasi  of  the  Sanhedrin,  but  in  a  crowded  assembly  he  had  not 
noticed  who  the  speaker  was.  Owing  to  his  weakened  sight,  all  that  ho  saw 
before  him  was  a  blurred  white  figure  issuing  a  brutal  order,  and  to  this 
person,  who  in  his  external  whiteness  and  inward  worthlessnoss  thus  reminded 
him  of  the  plastered  wall  of  a  sepulchre,  he  had  addressed  his  indignant 
denunciation.  That  he  should  retract  it  on  learning  the  hallowed  position  of 
the  delinquent,  was  in  accordance  with  that  high  breeding  of  the  perfect 
gentleman  which  in  all  his  demeanour  ho  habitually  displayed. 

But  while  we  can  easily  excuse  any  passing  touch  of  human  infirmity,  if 
such  there  were,  in  his  sudden  vehemence,  we  cannot  defend  his  subsequent 
conduct  at  that  meeting.  Surely  it  was  more  than  pardonable  if  on  that  day 
he  was  a  little  unhinged,  both  morally  and  spiritually,  by  the  wild  and  awful 
trials  of  the  day  before.  In  the  discussion  which  was  going  on  about  his 
case,  his  knowledge  of  the  Sanhadrin,  of  which  he  had  been  a  member,  enabled 
him  easily  to  recognise  that  his  judges  were  still  mainly  divided  into  two 
parties — the  Sadducean  priests  and  the  Pharisaic  elders  and  scribes.  The 
latter  were  the  more  popular  and  numerous,  the  former  were  the  more  wealthy 
and  powerful.  Now  St.  Paul  well  knew  that  these  two  parties  were  separated 
from  each  other  by  an  internecine  enmity,  which  was  only  reconciled  in  the 
presence  of  common  hatreds.  He  knew,  too,  that  one  main  point  of  conten- 
tion between  them  arose  from  questions  about  the  Unseen  "World,  and  the  lifo 
beyond  the  grave.1  Seeing,  therefore,  that  he  would  meet  with  neither  justice 
nor  mercy  from  that  tribunal,  he  decided  to  throw  among  them  the  apple  of 
discord,  and  cried  out  amid  the  Babel  of  tongues,  "  Brethren,  I  am  a 
Pharisee,  a  son  of  Pharisees.  I  am  being  judged  about  the  hope  and 
resurrection  of  the  dead."  The  plan  showed  great  knowledge  of  character, 
and  the  diversion  thus  caused  was  for  the  time  eminently  successful ;  but  was 
it  worthy  of  St.  Paul  ?  Undoubtedly  there  were  points  in  common  between 
him  and  the  Pharisees.  "They  taught  a  resurrection  of  the  dead:  so  did  he. 
They  taught  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  :  so  did  he.  They  taught 
the  Advent  of  the  Messiah  :  so  did  he.  They  taught  an  intercourse  of  God 
with  men  by  the  medium  of  angels,  dreams,  and  visions :  so  did  he.  He 
shared  with  the  Pharisees  exactly  those  doctrines,  on  account  of  which  he  was 
regarded  by  the  Sadducees  as  a  seducer  of  the  people."  This  is  true ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  his  belief  in  the  risen  Messiah  was  not  the  point  on  which  he 
was  mainly  being  called  in  question.2  That  belief,  had  it  stood  alone,  would 

»  Matt.  xxii.  23 ;  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  8,  §  14  ;  Antt.  xviii.  1,  §  4. 

2  Reuss,  whose  Actes  des  Ap6tres  I  had  not  read  till  these  pages  were  written,  takes  a 
very  similar  view,  p.  218.  Yet  it  is,  of  course,  possible  that  St.  Paul's  exclamation  may 
have  been  justified  by  some  circumstances  of  the  discussion  which  have  not  been  pre- 
•er^ed  in  the  narrative. 


542  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

have  been  passed  over  by  the  Sanhedrin  as,  at  the  worst,  a  harmless  delusion. 
Nay,  some  of  the  Pharisaic  Sanhedrists  may  even  have  been  nominally 
Christians.1  But  the  fury  against  St.  Paul  was  kindled  by  the  far  more 
burning  questions  which  arose  out  of  his  doctrine  of  the  nullity  of  the  Law, 
and  the  admission  of  the  Gentiles  to  equal  privileges  with  the  seed  of  Abraham. 
Did  not,  then,  the  words  of  the  Apostle  suggest  a  false  issue  P  And  had  he 
any  right  to  inflame  an  existing  animosity  P  *  And  could  he  worthily  say, 
"I  am  a  Pharisee  ?  "  Was  ho  not  in  reality  at  variance  with  the  Pharisees 
in  every  fundamental  particular  of  their  system  P  Is  not  the  Pharisaic  spirit 
in  its  very  essence  the  antithesis  of  the  Christian  ?  s  Did  not  the  two  greatest 
Epistles  which  he  had  written  prove  their  whole  theology,  as  such,  to  be  false 
in  every  line  ?  Was  it  not  the  very  work  of  his  life  to  pull  down  the  legal 
prescriptions  around  which  it  was  their  one  object  to  rear  a  hedge  ?  Had  not 
they  been  occupied— as  none  knew  better  than  himself — in  riveting  the  iron 
fetters  of  that  yoke  of  bondage,  which  he  was  striving  to  shatter  link  by  link  P 
Was  there  not  the  least  little  touch  of  &  suggestio  falsi  in  what  he  said  ?  Let 
us  make  every  possible  deduction  and  allowance  for  a  venial  infirmity ;  for  a 
sudden  and  momentary  "  economy,"  far  less  serious  than  that  into  which  his 
great  brother- Apostle  had  swerved  at  Antioch ;  and  let  us  further  admit  that 
there  is  a  certain  nationality  in  the  chivalry  of  rigidly  minute  and  scrupulously 
inflexible  straightforwardness,  which  is,  among  Northern  nations,  and  among 
the  English  in  particular,  the  hereditary  result  of  centuries  of  training.  Let 
us  also  acknowledge,  not  without  a  blush  of  shame,  that  certain  slight 
managements  and  accommodations  of  truth  have  in  later  ages  been  reckoned 
among  Christian  virtues.  Tet,  after  all  these  qualifications,  we  cannot  in 
this  matter  wholly  see  how  St.  Paul  could  say  without  qualification,  in 
such  an  assembly,  "  I  am  a  Pharisee."  If  we  think  him  very  little  to 
blame  for  his  stern  rebuke  of  the  High  Priest;  if,  referring  his  conduct 
to  that  final  court  of  appeal,  which  consists  in  comparing  it  with  the 
precepts  and  example  of  his  Lord,  we  can  quite  conceive  that  He  who  called 
Herod  rta  fox"  would  also  have  called  Ananias  "a  whited  wall;"  on  the 
other  hand,  we  cannot  but  think  that  this  creating  of  a  division  among 
common  enemies  on  the  grounds  of  a  very  partial  and  limited  agreement  with 
certain  other  tenets  held  by  some  of  them,  was  hardly  worthy  of  St.  Paul ; 
and  knowing,  as  we  do  know,  what  the  Pharisees  were,  we  cannot  imagine  his 
Divine  Master  ever  saying,  under  any  circumstances,  "I  am  a  Pharisee." 
Moreover,  the  device,  besides  being  questionable,  was  riot  ev&i  jk&itic.  It 

1  Acts  xv.  5. 

3  Those  who,  in  the  teeth  of  all  Scripture,  will  not  believe  that  an  Apostle  can  make 
a  mistake,  have  built  disastrous  conclusions  on  this  action  of  St.  Paul's,  quoting  it  to 
sanction  the  Machiavellian  policy  of  the  Komans,  "  Divide  et  impera."  Corn.  4  Lapide, 
on  this  passage,  says,  "  Bellum  haereticorum  est  pax  ecclesiae," — a  maxim  on  which  the 
Romish  Church  has  sometimes  acted  (see  "Wordsworth,  ad  loc.).  On  the  other  hand, 
Luther  says,  with  hia  robust  good  sense,  "Non  mihi  placet  studium  illud  sanctos  nimii 
efferendi  et  excusandi  si  sacra)  scripture  vim  negat." 

»  Matt,  jnriii.  35,  27 ;  John  xii.  43 ;  Rom.  ii. 


THE  LAST  JOT7ENEY  TO  JERUSALEM.  543 

added  violence  to  a  yet  more  infuriated  reaction  in  men  who  felt  that  they 
had  been  the  victims  of  a  successful  stratagem,  and  in  the  remark  of  St.  Paul 
before  the  tribunal  of  Felix l  I  seem  to  seo — though  none  have  noticed  it — a 
certain  sense  of  compunction  for  the  method  in  which  he  had  extricated  him. 
self  from  a  pressing  danger. 

But,  as  we  have  said,  the  stratagem  was  for  the  time  almost  magically 
successful.  Paul's  enemies  wore  instantly  at  each  other's  throats.  The  High 
Priest,  Ananias,  was  so  singularly  detested  by  the  Pharisaic  party  that 
centuries  afterwards  the  tradition  still  lingered  of  his  violence  and  greed.8 
There  rose  a  sudden  uproar  of  angry  voices,  and.  the  scribes,  who  sided  with 
the  Pharisees,  started  up  in  a  body  to  declare  that  Paul  was  innocent.  "  We 

find  the  defendant  not  guilty ;  but  if  a  spirit  or  angel  spoke  to  him P  "  * 

Again  the  Jews,  even  these  distinguished  Hierarchs  and  Rabbis,  showed  their 
utter  incapacity  for  self-control.  Even  in  the  august  precincts  of  the 
Sanhcdrin  the  clamour  was  succeeded  by  a  tumult  so  violent  that  Paul  was 
once  more  in  danger  of  being  actually  torn  to  pieces,  this  time  by  learned  and 
venerable  hands.  Claudius  Lysias,  more  and  more  amazed  at  the  imprac- 
ticability of  these  Jews,  who  first  unanimously  set  upon  Paul  in  the  Temple, 
and  half  of  whom  in  the  Sanhedrin  appeared  to  be  now  fighting  in  his  defence, 
determined  that  his  fellow-citizen  should  not  at  any  rate  suffer  so  ignoble 
a  fate,  and  once  more  ordered  the  detachment  of  soldiers  to  go  down  to  snatch 
him  from  the  midst  of  them,  and  lead  him  to  the  one  spot  in  Jerusalem  where 
the  greatest  living  Jew  could  alone  find  security — the  barracks  of  foreign 
conquerors. 

St.  Paul  might  well  be  exhausted  and  depressed  by  the  recurrence,  on  two 
consecutive  days,  of  such  exciting  scenes,  and  even  a  courage  so  dauntless  as  his 
could  not  face  unshaken  this  continual  risk  of  sudden  death.  The  next  day 
was  again  to  bring  a  fresh  peril ;  but  before  it  came,  God  in  His  mercy,  who 
had  ever  encouraged  His  faithful  servant  at  the  worst  and  darkest  crises,  sent 
him  a  vision  which  saved  him  from  all  alarm  as  to  his  actual  life  for  many  a 
long  and  trying  day.  As  at  Jerusalem  on  his  first  visit,  and  as  at  Corinth,  and 
as  afterwards  on  the  stormy  sea,  the  Lord  stood  by  him  and  said,  "  Cheer 
thee,  Paul ;  for  as  thou  didst  bear  witness  respecting  me  at  Jerusalem,  so  must 
thou  also  bear  witness  at  Rome." 

The  dawn  of  the  next  day  sufficed  to  prove  that  his  manceuvre  in  the 
Sanhedrin  had  only  won  a  temporary  success  at  the  cost  of  a  deeper 
exasperation.  So  unquenchable  was  the  fury  against  him,  and  so  inflamed 
was  the  feeling  of  disappointment  tliat  Lysias  sho'uld  have  snatched  him  a\Vay 
from  their  revenge,  that  in  the  mtfrning  no  less  than  fc».ty  Jews  bound 

1  Acts  xxiv.  21,  which  I  take  to  be  a  confession  of  his  error  on  this  occasion. 

8  Derenbourg,  Palest.  §  31. 

1  The  expression  is  an  aposiopesis,  or  suppression  of  the  apodosis,  not  uncommon 
after  el,  as  suggesting  an  alternative.  See  lay  Brief  Greek  Syntax,  %  309.  The 
t>n  ecofiax&pcv  of  the  Received  Text  (omitted  in  N,  A,  B,  C,  E,  the  2Ethiopic,  the  Coptic, 
&c.)  is  a  glass  from  chap.  v.  89.  Chrysostom  fills  up  the  sentence  with  ircto 
"  What  sort  of  charge  i*  that?" 


544  THE    LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

themselves  with  a  terrible  cherem  not  to  eat  or  drink  till  they  had  killed  him.1 
The  Jews,  like  some  Christians  in  the  worst  days  of  Christendom,  believed  in 
the  divine  right  of  assassination  as  the  means  of  getting  rid  of  a  tyrant  or  an 
apostate.3  Their  penal  blindness  had  deceived  them  into  the  sanctification  of 
religious  murder.  How  dark  a  picture  does  it  present  to  us  of  the  state 
of  Jewish  thought  at  this  period  that,  just  as  Judas  had  bargained  with  the 
chief  priests  for  the  blood-money  of  his  Lord,  so  these  forty  sicarii  went,  not 
only  without  a  blush,  but  with  an  evident  sense  of  merit,  to  the  hostile  section 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  to  suggest  to  them  the  concoction  of  a  lie  for  the  facilitation 
of  a  murder.  "  We  are  bound  under  a  curse  not  to  touch  food  till  we  slay 
Paul.  Do  you  then,  and  the  Sanhedrin,  give  notice  to  the  commandant  to 
bring  him  down  to  you,  under  pretext  of  a  more  accurate  inquiry  into  his  case. 
We,  before  he  gets  near  you,  are  prepared  to  slay  him."  So  far  from  rejecting 
the  suggestion  with  execration,  as  many  a  heathen  would  have  done,  these 
degenerate  Jews  and  worldly  priests  agreed  to  it  with  avidity.  But  a  secret 
known  to  forty  conspirators,  and  requiring  the  complicity  of  an  indefinite 
number  more,  is  no  secret  at  all.  There  were  sure  to  be  dark  hints,  ominous 
gestures,  words  of  ill-concealed  triumph,  and,  indeed,  so  unanimous  among 
the  orthodox  Jews,  and  even,  we  fear,  among  some  nominal  Jewish 
Christians,  was  the  detestation  of  the  man  who  taught  "apostasy  from 
Moses,"  that  in  most  circles  there  was  no  need  for  any  pretence  of 
concealment.  When  St.  Peter  had  been  in  prison,  and  in  peril  of 
execution,  the  Christian  community  of  Jerusalem  had  been  in  a  ferment 
of  alarm  and  sorrow,  and  prayer  had  been  made  day  and  night  without  ceasing 
to  God  for  him ;  but  St.  Peter,  and  especially  the  St.  Peter  of  that  early  period, 
was  regarded  with  feelings  very  different  from  those  with  which  the  Judaic 
believers  looked  on  the  bold  genius  whose  dangerous  independence  treated 
Mosaism  and  its  essential  covenant  as  a  thing  of  the  past  for  converted 
Gentiles.  We  hear  of  no  prayer  from  any  one  of  the  Elders  or  the  "  many 
myriads"  on  behalf  of  St.  Paul.  He  owed  to  a  relative,  and  not  to  the 
Church,  the  watchful  sympathy  which  alone  rescued  him  from  murder.  He 
had  a  married  sister  living  in  Jerusalem,  who,  whether  she  agreed  or  not  with 
the  views  of  her  brother — and  the  fact  that  neither  she  nor  her  family  are 
elsewhere  mentioned,  and  that  St.  Paul  never  seems  to  have  put  up  at  her 
house,  makes  it  at  least  very  doubtful — had  yet  enough  natural  affection  to 
try  to  defeat  a  plot  for  his  assassination.  Most  gladly  would  we  have  known 
something  further  about  the  details.  All  that  we  are  told  is,  that  the  son  of 
this  lady,  apparently  a  mere  boy,  on  hearing  of  the  intended  ambuscade,  went 
at  once  to  the  barracks  of  Fort  Antonia,  and  gaining  ready  access  to  his  uncle, 
who,  as  an  untried  Roman  citizen,  was  only  kept  in  custodia  militaris, 
revealed  to  him  the  plot.  The  Apostle  acted  with  his  usual  good  sense  and 
promptitude.  Sending  for  one  of  the  ten  centurions  of  the  garrison,  he  said 

1  For  instances  of  a  similar  cherem,  see  1  Sam.  xiv.  24;  Jos.  Antt.  8,  §  3,  &o. 
*  Sanhedf.  9 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xii.  6,  §  2 ;  Philo,  De  Sacrif.  p.  855. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY  TO   JERUSALEM.  545 

to  him,  "Lead  this  youth  to  the  commandant,  for  he  has  something  to  tell 
him. " l  The  centurion  went  immediately  to  Lysias,  and  said,  "  The  prisoner 
Paul  called  me  to  him,  and  asked  me  to  lead  this  youth  to  you,  as  he  has  some- 
thing to  say  to  you."  There  is  a  touch  of  very  natural  kindness  in  the  way  in 
which  the  Roman  officer  received  the  Jewish  boy.  Seeing,  perhaps,  that  he 
was  nervous  and  flustered,  both  from  the  peril  to  which  he  was  subjecting 
himself  by  revealing  this  secret — since  suspicion  would  naturally  fall  on  him— 
and  also  by  finding  himself  in  the  presence  of  the  most  powerful  person  in 
Jerusalem,  the  military  delegate  of  the  dreaded  Procurator — Lysias  took  him 
by  the  hand,  and  walking  with  him  to  a  place  where  they  were  out  of  earshot, 
began  to  ask  him  what  his  message  was.  The  youth  told  him  that  he  would 
immediately  receive  a  request  from  the  Sanhedrin  to  summon  a  meeting  next 
day,  and  bring  Paul  once  more  before  them  to  arrive  at  some  more  definite 
result ;  and  that  more  than  forty  sicarii  had  agreed  on  time  and  place  to 
murder  his  prisoner,  so  that  the  only  way  to  defeat  the  plot  was  to  refuse  the 
request  of  the  Sanhedrin.  Lysias  saw  the  importance  of  the  secret,  and 
instantly  formed  his  plans.  He  told  the  youth  not  to  mention  to  any  one  that 
he  had  given  him  information  of  the  conspiracy,  and,  summoning  two  cen- 
turions, ordered  them  to  equip  two  hundred  legionaries,  seventy  cavalry 
soldiers,  two  hundred  lancers,2  with  two  spare  horses,  to  be  ready  to  escort  Paul 
safely  to  Csesarea  that  very  evening  at  nine  o'clock.  He  was  extremely  glad 
to  get  rid  of  a  prisoner  who  created  such  excitement,  and  who  was  the  object 
of  an  animosity  so  keen  that  it  might  at  any  moment  lead  to  a  riot.  At  that 
day,  too,  charges  of  bribery  flew  about  in  the  most  dangerous  manner.  Celer, 
a  Roman  knight  of  far  higher  rank  than  himself,  had  actually  been  dragged 
by  Jews  round  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  finally  beheaded,  for  receiving  a  bribe 
from  the  Samaritans.3  Agrippa  I.  had  been  dismissed  from  Antioch ;  and  no 
less  a  person  than  the  Procurator  Cumanus  had  been  imprisoned  and  dis- 
graced. So  corrupt  was  the  Roman  administration  in  the  hands  of  even  the 
highest  officials,  that  if  Paul  were  murdered  Lysias  might  easily  have  been 
charged  with  having  accepted  a  bribe  to  induce  him  to  connive  at  this 
nefarious  conspiracy.1  There  was  now  sufficient  pretext  to  send  Paul  away 
swiftly  and  secretly,  and  so  get  rid  of  an  embarrassing  responsibility.  At 
nine  that  evening,  when  it  was  dark  and  when  the  streets  would  be  deserted, 
the  largo  escort  of  four  hundred  and  seventy  soldiers — an  escort  the  necessity 
of  which  shows  the  dangerous  condition  of  the  country,  and  the  extent  of 
Lysias's  alarm — stood  ready  at  the  gate  of  the  barracks ;  and  before  the  tramp 
of  horse  and  foot  began  to  startle  the  silent  city,  the  commandant  handed  to 

1  The  minuteness  of  the  narrative,  perhaps,  indicates  that  St.  Luke,  who  sought  for 
information  from  all  sources,  had  received  the  story  from  the  youth  himself. 

2  itfi'oAafloi,  Vulg.  lancearii.    The  only  passage  to  throw  light  on  the  word  is  one 
adduced  by  Meyer  from  Constantino  the  Porphyrogenete,  which  proves  nothing.   A  reads 
5*f  idfioXoi.    One  explanation  is  gens  du  train — men  who  held  a  second  horse  by  the  right 
hand. 

3  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  6,  §  3 ;  B.  J.  ii.  12,  §  7. 

4  One  of  the  cursives  (137)  actually  adds  <4>o/3ij0>j  yip  fuprgrt  opiriaflrrtj  ivrcx  w  TovJotot 
rt <a&t     U      T        tTav  fiita  t      «          nT.  «iAi(«s. 


PAUL  AND  FELIX,  547 

The  centurion  and  bis  prisoner  were  at  once  introduced  into  the  presence 
of  Felix.  Felix  read  tlie  letter  of  Lysias,  and  after  briefly  inquiring  to  what 
province  Paul  belonged,  and  being  told  ho  was  a  Cilician,  ho  said,  "  I  will  hear 
out  your  case  when  your  accusers  have  arrived."1  Ho  then  handed  Pan!  over 
to  a  soldier  to  bo  kept  in  one  of  the  guard-rooms  attached  to  the  old  Herodian 
palace  which  now  formed  the  splendid  residence  of  the  Procurators  of  Judsea. 


CHAPTER  XLL 

PAUL    AND     FELIX. 

"Antoaius  Felix,  per  oroac-rn  saevitiain  et  libidinem,  jus  regium  servill  ingeuio 
exercuit."— TAO.  Hut.  v.  9. 

"  Jam  pridem  Judaeae  impositot  ,  .  ,  et  cuiicta  malofacta  sibiunpune  ratua."— 
Ann.  xji.  54. 

A  R05IAN  judge  to  whom  a  prisoner  had  been  sent,  with  an  elogium  was 
bound,  if  possible,  to  try  him  within  three  days.  Felix,  however,  had  to  send 
a  message  to  Jerusalem,  and  fix  a  time  for  the  case  to  come  on,  hi  order  that 
the  accusers  might  be  present;  and  as  the  journey  took  nearly  two  days, 
it  was  the  fifth  day  after  St.  Paul's  arrival  at  Cssarea  that  he  was  brought 
to  trial.  The  momentary  diversion  in  his  favour,  of  which  by  this  time  the 
Pharisees  were  probably  ashamed,  had  settled  into  an  unanimous  hatred,  and 
the  ciders,  probably  of  both  parties,  hurried  down  to  accuse  their  adversary. 
AiifJiias  in  person  accompanied  them,  eager  for  revongo  against  the  man 
who  had  compared  him  to  a  plastered  sepulchre.  It  must  have  been  intensely 
disagreeable  to  these  dignified  personages  to  be  forced  to  hurry  on  a  fatiguing 
journey  of  some  seventy  miles  from  the  religious  to  the  political  capital  of 
Judaea,  in  order  to  induce  a  Gentile  dog  to  give  up  an  apostate  mesith  to 
their  jurisdiction ;  but  the  Sanhedrists,  smarting  under  defeat,  would  not  be 
likely  to  leave  any  stone  unturned  which  should  bring  the  offender  within 
reach  of  vengeance. 

They  wished  to  make  sure  of  the  extradition  of  their  victim,  and  being 
little  able  to  plead  either  in  Greek  or  Latin,  and  more  or  less  ignorant 
of  the  procedure  in  Roman  courts,  they  gave  their  brief  to  a  provincial 
barrister  named  Tertullus.  Everything  was  done  with  due  formality.  They 
first  lodged  their  complaint,  and  then  the  prisoner  was  confronted  with  them 
that  he  might  hear,  and  if  possible  refute,  their  accusations.  Tertullus  was 
evidently  a  practised  speaker,  and  St.  Luke  has  faithfully  preserved  an  outline 
of  his  voluble  plausibility.  Speaking  with  politic  complaisance  as  though  ha 
were  himself  a  Jew,  he  began  by  a  fulsome  compliment  to  Felix,  which  served 
as  the  usual  captatio  benevolentiae.  Alluding  to  the  early  exertions  of  Felix 
against  the  banditti  and  the  recent  suppression  of  the  Egyptian  false  Messiah, 

1  "  Qtd  cum  elogSo  mltttmtnr  ex  Integra  audiendi  mat," 


THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

he  began  to  assure  his  Excellency,  with  truly  legal  rotundity  of  verbiage,  of 
the  quite  universal  and  uninterrupted  gratitude  of  the  Jews  for  the  peace 
which  he  had  secured  to  them,  and  for  the  many  reforms  l  which  had  been 
initiated  by  his  prudential  wisdom.  The  real  fact  was  that  Felix  was  most 
peculiarly  detested,  and  that  though  he  had  certainly  suppressed  some 
brigands,  yet  he  had  from  the  earliest  times  of  his  administration  distinctly 
encouraged  more,2  and  was  even  accused  of  having  shared  their  spoils  with 
Ventidius  Cumanus  when  he  had  the  separate  charge  of  Samaria.*  He  then 
apologised  for  intruding  ever  so  briefly  on  his  Excellency's  indulgent  forbear- 
ance, but  it  was  necessary  to  trouble  him  with  three  counts  of  indictment 
against  the  defendant  —  namely,  that  first,  ho  was  a  public  pest,  who  lived  by 
exciting  factions  among  all  the  Jews  all  over  the  world  ;  secondly,  that  he 
was  a  ringleader  of  the  Nazarenes  ;  and  thirdly,  that  he  had  attempted  to 
profane  the  Temple.  They  had  accordingly  seized  him,  and  wanted  to  judge 
him  in  accordance  with  their  own  law  ;  but  Lysias  had  intervened  with  much 
violence  and  taken  him  from  their  hands,  ordering  his  accusers  to  come  before 
the  Procurator.  By  reference  to  Lysias  *  his  Excellency  might  further 
ascertain  the  substantial  truth  of  these  charges.  When  the  oration  was  over, 
since  there  were  no  regular  witnesses,  the  Jews  one  after  another  "  made  a 
dead  set"  against  Paul,6  asseverating  the  truth  of  all  that  Tertullus  had 
stated. 

Then  the  Procurator,  already  impatient  with  the  conviction  that  this  was, 
as  Lysias  had  informed  him,  some  Jewish  squabble  about  Mosaic  minutiaa, 
flung  a  haughty  nod  to  the  prisoner,  in  intimation  that  he  might  speak. 
St.  Paul's  captatio  benevolentiae  was  very  different  from  that  of  Tertullus. 
It  consisted  simply  in  the  perfectly  true  remark  that  he  could  defend  himself 
all  the  more  cheerfully  before  Felix  from  the  knowledge  that  he  had  now  been 
Procurator  for  an  unusual  time,6  and  could  therefore,  from  his  familiarity  with 
Jewish  affairs,  easily  ascertain  that  it  was  but  twelve  days  7  since  the  Pentecost, 
to  which  feast  he  had  come,  not  only  with  no  seditious  purpose,  but  actually 
to  worship  in  Jerusalem;  and  that  during  that  time  he  had  discoursed  with  no 
one,  and  had  on  no  occasion  attracted  any  crowd,  or  caused  any  disturbance, 
either  in  the  Temple  or  in  the  Synagogues,  or  in  any  part  of  the  city.  He, 


1  xxiv.  2,  iiopSiaiiartav,  «,  A,  B,  E.    The  other  reading  Karopdu^arwv  is  a  more  general 
expression. 

2  Jos.  Anti,  xx.  8,  5  5;  B.  J.  ii.  13,  §  2;  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  20—22. 

8  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  8,  §  9  ;  Tac.  Ann.  xii.  64,  "quies  provinciae  reddita." 

4  This  entire  clause  (Acts  xxiv.  6  —  S)  is  omitted  from  xal  KOTO.  down  to  tVi  ai  in  «• 
A,  B,  G,  H,  and  in  the  Coptic,  Sahidic,  Latin,  and  other  versions.  If  it  be  an  inter- 
polation, the  trap'  08  must  refer  to  Paul,  but  there  are  great  difficulties  either  way, 
and  verse  22  is  in  favour  of  their  genuineness.  On  the  other  hand,  if  genuine,  why 
should  the  passage  have  been  omitted?  D,  which  has  so  many  additions,  ia  here 
deficient. 

s  Ver.  9,  wvtntBtrro.    K,  A,  B,  E,  G,  H. 

6  xxiv.  10,  »  TroJUiv  irS>v.  since  A.D.  52,  i.e.  six  years.  "Noii  ignoravit  Paulus  artem 
rhetorum  movere  laudcuido.  (Grot.) 

'  1.  Arrival.    2.  Interview  with  James,  &c.     3  —  7.  Vow  and  arrest.    8. 
9,  Conspiracy.    10.  Arrival  at  Csesarea.    11,  12.  In  custody.    13.  Trial. 


AND   FBLIl.  549 

therefore,  met  the  first  and  third  counts  of  the  indictment  with  a  positive 
contradiction,  and  challenged  the  Jews  to  produce  any  witnesses  in  confirma- 
tion of  them.  As  to  the  second  count,  he  was  quite  ready  to  admit  that  he 
belonged  to  what  they  called  a  sect ;  but  it  was  no  more  an  illegal  sect  than 
those  to  which  they  themselves  belonged,  since  he  worshipped  the  God  whom, 
as  a  Jew,  he  had  been  always  taught  to  worship — frankly  accepted  their  entire 
Scriptures — and  believed,  exactly  as  the  majority  of  themselves  did,  in  a  resur- 
rection of  the  just  and  unjust.  In  this  faith  it  had  always  been  his  aim  to 
have  a  conscience  void  of  offence  towards  God  and  towards  man.  He  had 
now  been  five  years  absent  from  Jerusalem,  and  on  returning  with  alms  for 
the  poor  of  his  people,  and  offerings  for  the  Temple,  they  found  him  in  the 
Temple,  a  quiet  and  legally  purified  worshipper.  For  the  riot  which  had 
ensued  he  was  not  responsible.  It  had  been  stirred  up  by  certain  Asiatic 
Jews,  who  ought  to  have  been  present  as  witnesses,  and  whose  absence  was 
a  proof  .of  the  weakness  of  the  case  against  him.  But  if  their  attendance 
could  not  be  secured,  ho  called  upon  his  accusers  themselves  to  state  the 
result  of  their  trial  of  him  before  the  Sanhedrin,  and  whether  they  had  a 
single  fact  against  him,  unless  it  were  his  exclamation  as  he  stood  before 
them,  that  he  was  being  tried  about  a  question  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead. 

The  case  had  evidently  broken  down.  St.  Paul's  statement  of  facts 
directly  contradicted  the  only  charge  brought  against  him.  The  differences 
of  doctrine  between  the  Jews  and  himself  were  not  in  any  way  to  the  point, 
since  they  affected  questions  which  had  not  been  touched  upon  at  all,  and  of 
which  the  Roman  law  could  take  no  cognisance.  It  was  no  part  of  his  duty 
to  prove  the  doctrine  of  the  Nazarenes,  or  justify  himself  for  having  embraced 
it,  since  at  that  time  it  had  not  been  declared  to  be  a  religio  illicita.  Of  this 
fact  Felix  was  perfectly  aware.  He  had  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  "  that 
way  "  than  the  Jews  and  their  advocate  supposed.1  He  was  not  going,  there- 
fore, to  hand  Paul  over  to  the  Sanhedrin,  which  might  be  dangerous,  and  would 
certainly  be  unjust ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  did  not  wish  to  offend  these 
important  personages.  He  therefore  postponed  the  trial — rem  ampliavit— 
on  the  ground  of  the  absence  of  Lysias,  who  was  a  material  witness,  promising, 
however,  to  give  a  final  decision  whenever  he  came  down  to  Csesarea.  Paul 
was  remanded  to  the  guard-room,  but  Felix  gave  particular  instructions  to  the 
centurion2  that  his  custody  was  not  to  be  a  severe  one,  and  that  his  friends 
were  to  be  permitted  free  access  to  his  prison.  St.  Luke  and  Aristarchus 
certainly  availed  themselves  of  this  permission,  and  doubtless  the  heavy  hours 
were  lightened  by  the  visits  of  Philip  the  Evangelist,  and  other  Christians 
of  the  little  Czesarean  community  to  whom  Paul  was  dear.* 

1  xxiv.  22,  i/cpi0c<mpoi«. 

*  Ver.  23,  T<J>  iKOLrovra.px'n — the  centurion  who  was  present  at  the  trial ;  not  at  all  necea- 
Barily,  or  even  probably,  the  centurion  who  had  escorted  him  from  Antipatris  to  Caesarea. 

3  It  seems  to  have  been  about  this  time  that  Felix  used  the  machinations  of  Simon 
Magus  to  induce  Drusilla,  the  younger  sister  of  Agrippa  II.,  to  elope  from  her  husband 


550  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OS  ST.   PAUL. 

On  Lig  rfcium  to  Cassarea  with  his  wife  Brasilia,  and  apparently  in  order 
to  gratify  her  curiosity  to  see  and  hear  a  person  whose  strange  history  and 
marvellous  powers  were  so  widely  known,  Felix  once  more  summoned  Paul 
into  his  presence,  and  bade  him  discourse  to  them  about  his  beliefs.  Right 
nobly  did  Paul  use  his  opportunity.  Felix  was  a  Gentile,  and  was  moreover 
his  judge,  and  it  was  no  part  of  St.  Paul's  duty  to  judge  those  that  are 
without.  Had  he  assumed  such  A  function,  his  life  must  have  become  one 
incessant  and  useless  protest.  And  yet,  with  perfect  urbanity  and  respect 
for  the  powers  that  be,  he  spoke  of  the  faith  in  Christ  which  he  was  bidden 
to  explain,  in  a  way  that  enabled  him  to  touch  on  those  virtues  which  were 
most  needed  by  the  guilty  pair  who  listened  to  his  words.  The  licentious 
princess  must  have  blushed  as  he  discoursed  of  continence ;  tho  rapacious  and 
unjust  governor  as  ho  spoke  of  righteousness — both  of  them  as  he  reasoned  of 
the  judgment  to  come.  "Whatever  may  have  been  the  thoughts  of  Brasilia, 
ehe  locked  them  np  in  her  own  bosom;  but  Felix,  less  accustomed  to  such 
truths,  was  deeply  agitated  by  them.  As  he  glanced  back  over  the  stained 
and  guilty  past,  he  was  afraid.  He  had  been  a  slave,  in  the  vilest  of  all 
positions,  at  the  vilest  of  all  epochs,  in  tho  vilest  of  all  cities.  He  had  crept 
with  his  brother  Pallas  into  the  position  of  a  courtier  at  the  most  morally 
degraded  of  all  courts.  He  had  been  an  officer  of  those  auxiliaries  who  were 
tlio  worst  of  all  troops.  "Wnat  secrets  of  lust  and  blood  lay  hidden  in  his 
earlier  life  we  do  not  know ;  but  ample  and  indisputable  testimony,  Jewish 
and  Pagan,  sacred  and  secular,  reveals  to  us  what  he  had  been — how  greedy, 
how  savage,  how  treacherous,  how  unjust,  how  steeped  with  tho  blood  of 
private  murder  and  public  massacre — during  tho  eight  years  which  he  had 
now  spent  in  the  government,  first  of  Samaria,  then  of  Palestine.  There  were 
footsteps  behind  him ;  he  began  to  feel  as  though  "  the  earth  wore  made  of 
glass."  He  could  not  bear  the  novel  sensation  of  terror  which  crept  over  him, 
or  the  reproaches  of  the  blushing,  shamefaced  spirit  which  began  to  mutiny 
even  in  such  a  breast  as  his.  He  cut  short  tho  interview.  "  Go,"  he  said, 
"  for  tho  present ;  I  will  take  some  future  opportunity  to  summon  you  to  a 
hearing."  Even  his  remorse  was  not  purely  disinterested.  Paul  had  indeed 
acquired  over  him  some  of  that  ascendency  which  could  hardly  fail  to  be  won 
by  eo  lofty  a  personality ;  and  Felix,  struck  by  his  bearing,  his  genius,  hia 

Aziz,  and  to  become  his  wife.  It  was  a  strange  thing,  and  one  which  must  have  required 
all  the  arts  of  Simon  to  effect,  that  thia  young  and  beautiful  princess,  who  was  at  this 
time  only  twenty  years  old,  should  have  abandoned  all  her  Jewish  prejudices,  and  risked 
the  deadliest  abhorrence  of  her  race,  by  leaving  a  prince  who  loved  her,  and  had  even 
been  induced  to  accept  circumcision  to  gratify  her  national  scruples,  in  order  to  form  an 
adulterous  connexion  with  a  cruel  and  elderly  profligate,  who  had  been  nothing  better 
than  a  slave.  Felix  would  never  have  dreamt  for  one  moment  of  making  for  her  sake 
the  immense  sacrifice  which  Ariz  had  accepted,  and  which  her  previous  lover,  the  Prince 
of  Commagsne,  had  refused.  Such,  however,  were  the  subtle  arts  of  the  Cyprian  sorcerer, 
and  such  the  Greek-like  fascinations  of  the  seducer,  that  he  had  gained  his  end,  and  how 
thus  still  further  obliterated  the  memories  of  his  servile  origin  by  marrying  a  third  princess. 
"Trium  roginarum  maritum  aut  adulienun"  (Suet.  Claud.  28).  Another  of  his  wives 
was  also  a  Drusilia,  daughter  of  Juba,  King  of  MauretarJa.  an -I  granddaughter  of  Antony 
mid  Cleopatra,  The  third  is  unknown. 


PJLTTL  AffB  TSLIX.  551 

moral  forco.  seat  for  hiia  not  unfrequeutiy  to  converse  with  Mm  respecting 
his  beliefs.  But  this  apparent  interest  in  religious  Dtibjeets  was.  in  reality, 
akin  to  that  vein  of  superstition  which  made  him  the  ready  clnpe  of  Simon 
Magus,  -aad  it  did  not  exclude  a  certain  hankering  after  a  bribe,  which  he 
felt  sure  that  Paul,  who  had  brought  considerable  sums  of  money  to  Jeru- 
salem, could  either  procure  or  give.  He  took  care  to  drop  hints  which  should 
leave  n0  doubt  as  to  his  intentions.  But  Paul  was  innocent,  and  neither 
would  he  adopt  any  illicit  method  to  secure  his  liberty,  nor  in  any  ease  would 
he  burden  the  affection  of  his  converts  to  contribute  the  ransom  which  he  was 
too  poor  to  offer.  He  did  not  wish  by  dubious  human  methods  to  intorfove 
with  God's  plan  respecting  him,  nor  to  set  a  questionable  example  to  the 
future  libellatici.  He  therefore  declined  to  take  the  hints  of  Felk,  and  two 
years  glided  away,  and  he  was  still  in  prison. 

Towards  the  end  of  that  time  he  must  have  been  startled  by  a  terrible 
clamour  in  the  streets  of  Csesarea.  Disputes,  indeed,  were  constantly  occur- 
ring in  a  city  composed  half  of  Jews  and  half  of  Greeks,  or  Syrians,  between 
whom  there  was  a  perpetual  feud  for  precedence.  All  the  splendour  of  the 
place — its  amphitheatre,  its  temples,  its  palace — was  due  to  the  passion  for 
building  which  animated  the  first  Herod,  lha  Jewish  population  was  largo 
and  wealthy,  and  since  their  king  had  done  so  much  for  the  town,  they  claimed 
it  as  their  own.  It  was  quite  true  that,  but  for  Herod,  Caesarea  would  never 
have  been  heard  of  in  history.  Its  sole  utility  consisted  in  the  harbour  which 
he  had  constructed  for  it  at  enormous  cost  of  money  and  labour,  and  which 
was  extremely  needed  on  that  inhospitable  coast.  But  the  Greeks  maintained 
that  it  was  their  town,  seeing  that  it  had  been  founded  by  Strato,  and  called 
Strato's  Tower  until  Herod  had  altered  the  name  in  his  usual  spirit  of  flattery 
towards  the  Imperial  House.  Towards  the  close  of  Paul's  imprisonment,  the 
Greeks  and  Jews  came  to  an  open  quarrel  in  the  market-place,  and  the 
Greeks  were  being  worsted  in  the  combat  by  their  enraged  adversaries,  when 
Felix  appeared  with  his  cohorts  and  ordered  the  Jews  to  disperse.  As  his 
command  was  not  instantly  obeyed  by  the  victorious  party,  Felix,  who  like  all  ths 
Romans  sided  with  the  Gentile  faction,  let  loose  his  soldiers  upon  them.  The 
soldiers  were  probably  not  Romans,  but  provincials.1  They  were  therefore 
delighted  to  fall  on  the  Jews,  many  of  whom  were  instantly  put  to  the  sword. 
Not  content  with  this,  Felix,  whose  dislike  to  the  whole  race  only  deepened 
every  year,  allowed  them  to  plunder  the  houses  of  the  wealthier  Jews.2  This 
crowning  act  of  injustice  could  not  pass  unnoticed.  Felix,  indeed,  as  Tacitus 
tells  us,  had  so  long  learnt  to  rely  on  the  overwhelming  influence  of  Pallas 
over  Claudius,  that  he  began  to  think  that  he  might  commit  any  crime  he 
liked  without  being  called  to  question.  But  Claudius  had  now  been  dismissed 

1  There  were  no  Jews  among  them,  becauso  no  Jew  could  servo  in  the  army  without 
a  constant  necessity  of  breaking  the  rules  of  his  religion,  so  that  on  this  ground  they 
were  exempted  froia  the  liability  to  conscription. 

3  The  scenes  which  took  place  on  this  occasion  ware  analogous  to  those  which  hap- 
pened at  Alexandria  under  Flaccus. 


552  TSB  LlffB  AND  WOBK  O*1  ST. 

to  his  apotlieoiis  by  the  poisoned  mushrooms  of  Agrippina,  and  the  influence 
both  of  Pallas  and  Agrippina  was  on  the  wane.  The  Jews  laid  a  formal 
impeachment  against  Felix  for  his  conduct  at  Caasarea,  and  he  was  recalled  to 
answer  their  complaints.  Accompanied  by  Drusilla  and  Simon  Magus,  who 
had  by  this  time  assumed  the  position  of  his  domestic  sorcerer,  he  sailed  to 
Italy,  and  his  very  last  act  was  one  of  flagrant  injustice.  He  had  already 
abused  the  power  of  a  provincial  governor  by  delaying  the  trial  of  Paul  for 
two  years.  It  was  a  defect  in  Roman  law  that,  though  it  ordered  the  imme- 
diate trial  of  a  prisoner  sent  to  a  superior  court  with  an  elogium,  it  laid  down 
no  rule  as  to  the  necessary  termination  of  his  trial,  and  thus  put  into  the 
hands  of  an  unjust  Prsefect  a  formidable  instrument  of  torture.  Paul  had 
now  languished  for  two  full  years  in  the  Herodian  palace,  and  Felix  had  not 
decided  his  case.  Philo  mentions  a  similar  instance  in  which  Flaccus  kept 
Lampo  for  two  years  in  prison  at  Alexandria  *  on  a  charge  of  laesa  majestas, 
in  hopes  of  breaking  his  heart  by  a  punishment  worse  than  death.  Felix  had 
no  such  object,  for  he  seems  to  have  felt  for  Paul  a  sincere  respect ;  but  since 
Paul  would  not  offer  a  bribe,  Felix  would  not  set  him  free,  and — more  the 
slave  of  self-interest  than  he  had  ever  been  the  slave  of  Antonia — he  finally 
left  him  bound  in  order  to  gratify  the  malice  of  the  Jews  whom  he  thus 
strove,  but  quite  vainly,  to  propitiate.  He  thought  that  he  could,  perhaps, 
settle  some  awkward  items  of  their  account  against  him  by  sacrificing  to  their 
religious  hatreds  a  small  scruple  on  the  score  of  justice.  Perhaps  this  was 
the  last  drop  in  the  overflowing  cup  of  his  iniquity.  How  he  closed  his  bad 
career  we  do  not  know.  It  required  the  utmost  stretch  of  the  waning 
influence  of  his  brother  Pallas  to  save  him  from  the  punishment  which  his 
crimes  had  deserved ;  and,  although  he  was  not  put  to  death  or  banished,  he 
had  to  disgorge  the  greater  portion  of  his  ill-gotten  wealth.  Drusilla  had  one 
son  by  her  marriage  with  him,  and  this  son,  whose  name  was  Agrippa, 
perished  in  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  nineteen  years  after  these  events.8 
Felix  himself  vanishes  henceforth  into  obscurity  and  disgrace. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

ST.   PAUL  BEFORE   AGRIPPA   II. 

"  When  I  consider  tliis  Apostle  as  appearing  either  before  the  witty  Athenians,  or 
before  a  Roman  Court  of  Judicature,  in  the  presence  of  their  great  men  and  ladies,  I  see 
how  handsomely  he  accommodateth  himself  to  the  apprehension  and  temper  of  these 
politer  people." — SHAFTESBUBT,  Characteristics,  i.  30. 

THE  successor  of  Felix  was  Porcius  Festus  (A.D.  60),3  who,  though  he  too 
was  probably  of  no  higher  rank  than  that  of  a  f roedman,  was  a  far  worthier 
and  more  honourable  ruler.  His  Procuratorship  was  of  very  brief  duration, 

i  Philo  in  Place,  rvi  s  A.D.  79.    Jos.  Antt.  p.  7,  §  2. 

*  This  furnishes  one  of  the  few  certain  points  de  repttre  for  the  precise  chronology  of 
the  Acts.  He  died  the  next  year. 


iT.  PAUL  BEFORE  AGRIPPA.  II.  553 

and  he  inherited  the  government  of  a  country  in  which  the  wildest  anarchy 
was  triumphant,  and  internecine  quarrels  were  carried  on  in  the  bloodiest 
spirit  of  revenge.  Had  he  been  Procurator  for  a  longer  time,  difficult  as  was 
the  task  to  hold  in  the  leash  the  furious  hatreds  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  he 
might  have  accomplished  more  memorable  results.  The  sacred  narrative  dis- 
plays him  in  a  not  unfavourable  light,  and  he  at  any  rate  contrasts  most 
favourably  with  his  immediate  predecessor  and  successor,  in  the  fact  that  he 
tried  to  administer  real  justice,  and  did  not  stain  his  hands  with  bribes.1 

Hia  first  movements  show  an  active  and  energetic  spirit.     He  arrived  in 
Palestine  about  the  month  of  August,  and  three  days  after  his  arrival  at 
Caesarea  went  direct  to  Jerusalem.     One  of  the  first  questions  which  he  had 
to  face  was  the  mode  of  dealing  with  St.  Paul.    Two  years  of  deferred  hope, 
and  obstructed  purposes,  and  dreary  imprisonment  had  not  quenched  the 
deadly  antipathy  of  the  Jews  to  the  man  whose  free  offer  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  Gentiles  seemed  to  them  one  of  the  most  fatal  omens  of  their  impending 
ruin.      The  terrible  fight  in  the  market-place  between  Jews  and  Syrian 
Greeks,  which  had  caused  the  disgrace  of  Felix,  had  left  behind  it  an  uu- 
'appeased  exasperation,  and  the  Jews  of  Csesarea  were  unanimous  J  in  demand- 
ing the  immediate  punishment  of  Paul.     When  Festus  reached  Jerusalem 
the  same  cry 3  met  him,  and  the  death  of  Paul  was  demanded,  not  only  by 
the  mob,  but  by  deputations  of  all  the  chief  personages  in  Jerusalem,  headed 
by  Ishmael  Ben  Phabi,  the  new  High  Priest.4    We  have  seen  already  that 
the  Jews,  with  great  insight  into  human  nature,  eagerly  seized  the  first  op- 
portunity of  playing  upon  the  inexperience  of  a  newly-arrived  official,  and 
moulding,  him  if  possible,  while  he  was  likely  to  be  most  plastic  in  his 
desire  to  create  a  favourable  impression.     But  Festus  was  not  one  of  the  base 
and  feeble  Procurators  who  would  commit  a  crime  to  win  popularity.    The 
i  Palestinian  Jews  soon  found  that  they  had  to  do  with  one  who  more  resem- 
bled a  Gallio  than  a  Felix.    The  people  and  their  priests  begged  him  as  an 
'initial  favour  not  to  exempt  Paul's  case  from  their  cognisance,  but  to  bring 
him  to  Jerusalem,  that  he  might  once  more  be  tried  by  the  Sanhedrin,  when 
^they  would  take  care  that  he  should  cause  no  second  fiasco  by  turning  their 
theologic  jealousies  against  each  other.     Indeed,  these  sacerdotalists,  who 
thought  far  less  of  murder  than  of  a  ceremonial  pollution,*  had  taken  care 
that  if  Festus  once  granted  their  petition,  their  hired  assassins  should  get  rid 
!of  Paul  on  the  road  "  or  ever  he  came  near."     Festus  saw  through  them 
'sufficiently  to  thwart  their  design  under  the  guise  of  a  courteous  offer  that, 
as  Paul  was  now  at  Caesarea,  he  would  return  thither  almost  immediately, 
and  give  a  full  and  fair  audience  to  their-  complaints.     On  their  continued 
insistence  Festus  gave  them  the  haughty  and  genuinely  Roman  reply  that, 

1  Joe.  Antt.  IT.  8,  §  9 ;  9,  §  1 ;  B.  J.  ii.  14,  §  1. 

2  Acts  TXV.  24,  airav  TO  7rA.rj0os  rav  'lovSaiuv     .     .     .     i-Mie.  */(£.,  «~i|3ouiT«t. 

4  He  had  been  appointed  by  Agrippa  II.,  A.D.  59. 

5  See  Sota.  f .  47,  2 ;  Totifta  Sota,  c.  14  ;  Joma,  f .  23,  1 ;  Jos.  B.  J,  pcusim.    (GrStz. 
iii.  321,  teqq,) 


554  THE  LIFE  AND  WGBS  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

whatever  their  Oriental  notions  of  justice  might  ba,  it  was  not  the  custom  of 
the  Romans  to  grant  any  person's  life  to  his  accusers  by  way  of  doing  a  favour, 
but  to  place  the  accused  and  the  accusers  face  to  face,  and  to  give  the  accused 
a  full  opportunity  for  self-defence.  The  High  Priest  and  his  fellow-conspi- 
rators, finding  that  they  could  not  play  either  on  the  timidity  of  Festus  or  his 
complaisance,  had  to  content  themselves  once  more  with  organising  a  powerful 
deputation  to  carry  out  the  accusation.  Eight  or  ten  days  afterwards  Festus 
returned  to  the  palace  at  Csesarea,  and  the  very  next  day  took  his  seat  on  the 
tribunal  to  hear  the  case.  The  Jews  had  not  again  hired  a  practised  barrister 
to  help  them,  and  the  trial  degenerated  into  a  scene  of  passionate  clamour,  in 
which  St.  Paul  simply  met  the  many  accusations  against  him  by  calm  denials. 
The  Jews,  tuinultuously  surrounding  the  tribunal,  reiterated  their  accusa- 
tions of  heresy,  sacrilege,  and  treason ;  but  as  not  a  single  witness  was  forth- 
coming, Paul  had  no  need  to  do  more  than  to  recount  the  facts.  This  time  the 
Jews  seem  to  have  defined  the  old  vague  charge  that  Paul  was  a  stirrer-up  of 
sedition  throughout  the  Diaspora,  by  trying  to  frighten  Festus,  as  they  had 
frightened  Pilate,  with  the  name  of  Caesar ;  l  but  Festus  had  too  thorough  a 
knowledge  of  the  Roman  law  not  to  see,  through  all  this  murky  storm  of  rage, 
the  two  plain  facts,  that  he  was  trying  a  false  issue,  since  the  inquiry  really 
turned  on  matters  which  affected  the  arcana  of  Jewish  theology ;  and  that 
even  if  there  was  a  grain  of  truth  in  the  Jewish  accusations,  Paul  had  not 
been  guilty  of  anything  approaching  to  a  capital  crime.  Wishing  to  put  an 
end  to  the  scene — for  nothing  was  more  odious  to  the  dignity  of  a  well-trained 
Homan  than  the  scowling  faces,  and  gleaming  eyes,  and  screaming  interpel- 
lations of  despised  Orientals — Festus  asked  Paul  whether  he  was  willing  to 
go  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  be  tried  before  the  Sanhedrin  under  his  protection.8 
This  was  practically  a  proposal  to  transfer  the  question  back  from  the  Roman 
to  the  Jewish  jurisdiction.  But  Paul  knew  very  well  that  he  had  far  more 
chance  of  justice  at  the  hands  of  the  Romans  than  at  the  hands  of  Jews, 
whose  crimes  were  now  dragging  Jerusalem  to  her  destruction.  Jewish 
tribunals  had  invariably  and  even  savagely  condemned  him ;  Gentile  tribunals 
— Gallic,  the  Politarchs,  the  Asiarchs,  Lysias,  Felix,  Festus,  even  the 
"Praetors,"  at  Philippi,  and  at  last  even  the  monster  Nero— always  saw  and 
proclaimed  his  innocence.  But  he  was  sick  of  these  delays ;  sick  of  the  fierce 
reiteration  of  calumnies  which  he  had  ten  times  refuted ;  sick  of  being  made 
the  bone  of  contention  for  mutual  hatreds ;  sick  of  the  arbitrary  caprice  of 
provincial  governors.  Terrible  as  the  black  dungeon  of  Machaerus  to  the  free 
soul  of  the  Baptist,  must  have  been  the  dreary  barracks  of  Caesarea  to  the 
ardent  zeal  of  Paul.  How  he  must  have  hated  that  palace,  dripping  with  the 
blood  6f  murdered  Herods,  and  haunted  by  the  worst  memories  of  their 
crimes !  How  tired  he  must|have  been  of  the  idleness  and  the  ribaldries  of 

1  Acte  xxv.  8. 

2  This  must  be  the  meaning  of  eir'  e^ov,  xxv.  9.    There  could  be  no  conceivable  object 
In  taking  Paul  to  Jerusalem,  unless  it  were  to  have  him  once  more  tried  by  the  Sanhedrin ; 
but  of  course  Festus  could  not  preside  at  a  meeting  of  the  Sanhedrin,  though  he  might 
be  present  (somewhat  aa  Lysias  was),  and  se«  that  the  accused  received  fair  treatmeaii 


S£.  PAUL  BEFOBE  AORIPPA  II.  555 

'provincial  soldiers,  and  the  tumultuous  noises  of  collision  between  Jews  and 
Gentiles  which  were  constantly  resounding  in  those  ill-managed  streets ! 
Doubtless  his  imprisonment  had  been  a  period  of  deep  inward  calm  and 
growth.  Ho  knew  that  his  course  was  not  yot  over.  He  was  awaiting  the  ful- 
filment of  God's  will.  He  saw  that  he  had  nothing  more  to  hope  for  from 
High  Priests  or  Procurators,  and  seized  his  opportunity.  As  a  Roman  citizen 
ho  had  one  special  privilege — that  right  of  appeal  to  Caesar,  which  was  still 
left  as  the  venerable  trophy  of  popular  triumph  in  the  struggles  of  centuries. 
He  had  only  to  pronounce  the  one  word  Appello,  and  every  enemy  would,  for 
a  time,  be  defeated,  who  was  now  thirsting  for  his  blood.1  He  determined  to 
exorcise  his  privilege.  The  Procurator  was  but  a  shadow  of  the  Cassar.  His 
offer  sounded  plausibly  fair,  but  perhaps  Paul  saw  through  it.  "  I  am  stand- 
ing," he  said,  "  at  Caesar's  tribunal  There,  and  not  before  the  Sanhedrin,  I 
ought  to  be  judged.  Even  you,  O  Festus !  know  full  well  that  I  never 
in  any  respect  wronged  the  Jews.  If  I  am  an  offender,  and  have  committed 
any  capital  crime,  it  is  not  against  them,  but  against  the  Empire ;  and  if 
I  am  found  guilty,  I  do  not  refuse  to  die.  But  if  all  the  accusations  which 
these  bring  against  me  are  nothing,  no  one  can  sacrifice  me  to  them  as  a 
favour."  And  then  he  suddenly  exclaimed,  "  Caesarem  appello !  " 

The  appeal  was  a  surprise ;  even  Festua,  who  meant  well  and  kindly, 
though  perhaps  with  a  touch  of  natural  complaisance  towards  his  new  sub- 
ject's, was  a  little  offended  by  it.  It  was  not  agreeable  to  have  his  jurisdiction 
superseded  by  an  "  appeal "  to  a  superior  on  the  very  first  occasion  that  he  took 
his  seat  on  the  tribunal.  Paul  had  not  yet  had  time  to  learn  his  character, 
He  might  doubtless  have  trusted  him  more,  if  he  had  known  him  better ;  but 
matters  had  fallen  into  a  hopeless  imbroglio,  and  perhaps  Paul  had  some  in- 
ward intimation  that  this,  at  last,  was  God's  appointed  way  in  which  he  was 
to  visit  Italy,  and  to  bear  witness  at  Rome. 

The  appeal  at  once  put  an  end  to  all  the  proceedings  of  the  court.  Festus 
held  a  very  brief  consultation  with  his  consiliarii — or  council  of  his  assessors 
— as  to  whether  the  appeal  was  legally  admissible  or  not.  The  case  was  too 
clear  to  admit  of  much  doubt  under  this  head,  and,  after  a  moment's  delay, 
Festus  exclaimed,  in  words  which,  however  brusquely  spoken,  must  have 
thrilled  the  heart  of  more  than  one  person  in  that  assembly,  and  most  of  all 
the  heart  of  the  Apostle  himself,  "  Caesarem  appellasti ;  ad  Caesarem  ibis." 
Perhaps  Festus  avenged  his  momentarily  wounded  vanity  by  the  thought, 
tc  Tou  little  know  what  an  appeal  to  CsEsar  means ! " 

Of  course  some  days  must  elapse  before  an  opportunity  would  occur  to 
send  Paul  fi'om  Cssarea  to  Italy.  A  ship  had  to  be  provided,  and  other 
prisoners  had  to  ba  tried  whom  it  might  be  necessary  to  remand  to  the 
Emperor's  decision.  The  delay  was  a  providential  one.  It  furnished  Paul 
with  a  happy  opportunity  of  proclaiming  the  truths  and  the  arguments  of 
Christianity  in  the  presence  of  all  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  magnates  of  the 

1  By  the  Lex  Jalis  De  Appcllatwnt.    Of.  Plin.  Epp.  x.  97. 


556  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

capital  and  of  the  last  scions  of  that  Idumean  house  of  brilliant  adventurers 
who  had  allied  themselves  with  the  Asmonaean  princes,  and  worn  the  title  of 
Jewish  kings. 

For  only  a  day  or  two  had  elapsed  after  the  appeal,  when  Agrippa  II.,  the 
last  of  the  Herods,  and  his  sister  Berenice  came  down  to  Osesarea  to  pay  their 
respects  to  the  new  Procurator.  It  was  a  compliment  which  they  could  never 
safely  omit,  and  we  find  that  they  paid  similar  visits  to  each  Procurator  in 
succession.  The  regal  power  of  Agrippa,  such  as  it  was,  depended  on  no 
popular  support,  but  simply  and  solely  on  the  will  of  the  Emperor.  As  a 
breath  had  made  him  first  king  of  Chalcis  (A.D.  48),  then  of  the  tetrarchy  of 
Philip  (AJD.  52),  and  finally  of  various  other  cities  (A.D.  55),  so  on  any  day 
a  breath  might  unmake  him.  He  was  not,  like  his  father,  "  the  king  of  tho 
Jews,"  and  therefore  St.  Luke,  with  his  usual  accuracy  in  these  details,  only 
calls  him  "  the  king ; "  but  as  he  had  succeeded  his  uncle  Herod  of  Chalcis  in 
the  guardianship  of  the  Temple,  with  its  sacred  robes,  and  the  right  of  nomi- 
nations to  the  High-priesthood,  he  practically  became  a  mere  gilded  instrument 
to  keep  order  for  the  Romans,  and  it  was  essential  for  him  to  remain  on  good 
terms  with  them.1  They  in  their  turn  found  it  desirable  to  flatter  the  harm- 
less vanities  of  a  phantom  royalty. 

During  tho  visit  of  Agrippa  and  Berenice  to  Festus,  he  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  referring  to  the  perplexing  case  of  the  prisoner  Paul.  He  told 
Agrippa  of  the  fury  which  seemed  to  inspire  the  whole  Jewish  people  at  the 
mention  of  his  name,  and  of  the  futile  results  of  the  trial  just  concluded. 
However  much  the  Jews  might  try  to  misrepresent  the  real  questions  at  issue, 
it  was  clear  that  they  turned  on  Mosaic  technicalities,2  and  "  on  one  Jesus  who 
was  dead,  whom  Paul  alleged  to  be  alive  "  3 — matters  about  which  Festus  had 
no  jurisdiction,  and  could  not  be  supposed  to  know  anything.  The  prisoner, 
however,  had  refused  to  be  tried  again  by  the  Sanhedrin,  and  had  appealed  to 
the  decision  of  the  Augustus. 

"I  shoiild  have  liked  myself  also  to  hear  this  person,"  said  Agrippa.* 
Festus  eagerly  closed  with  the  wish,  and  fixed  the  next  day  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  the  king's  fancy. 

It  was  not,  as  is  commonly  represented,  a  new  trial.  That  would  have 
been,  on  all  grounds,  impossible.  Agrippa  was  without  judicial  functions, 
and  the  authority  of  the  Procurator  had  been  cut  short  by  the  appeal.  It  was 
more  of  the  nature  of  a  private  or  drawing-room  audience — a  sort  of  show 
occasion  designed  for  the  amusement  of  these  princely  guests,  and  the  idle 

1  The  Romans  would  have  resented  any  neglect  towards  their  representative,  as  much 
as  we  should  resent  the  conduct  of  Scindiah  or  Holkar  if  they  entered  the  district  of  one 
of  our  Indian  Residents  without  paying  their  respects. 

2  xxv.  19.    The  use  of  the  phrase,  wepi  r>;«  ZSi'as  fenm&Hfurta,  "about  their  own  religious 
matters  "  (cf.  xvii.  22),  shows  sufficiently  that  among  Gentiles  Agrippa  was  accustomed 
to  speak  of  his  religion  quite  in  the  tone  of  a  man  of  tho  world. 

*  St.  Luke  and  the  early  Christians  were  far  too  much  in  earnest  in  their  belief  to 
make  them  shrink  in  the  least  from  recording  the  scorn  with  which  it  was  spoken  of. 

4  xxv.  22,  'E/3ovx6/xr)v  KO.I  nvTot ;  cf.  GaL  iv.  20.  It  might,  however,  mean,  "I,  too, 
was  feeling  a  personal  desire." 


'St.  P.A.U1  BEFO&E  l(JRlPi»A  11.  657 

aristocracy  of  Caesarea,  both  Jewish  and  Gentile.  Festtts  ordered  the 
auditorium  to  be  prepared  for  the  occasion,  and  invited  all  the  chief  officers 
of  the  army,  and  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  town.  The  Herods  were 
fond  of  show,  and  Festus  gratified  their  humour  by  a  grand  processional 
display.  He  would  doubtless  appear  in  his  scarlet  paludament,  with  his  full 
attendance  of  lictors  and  body-guard,  who  would  stand  at  arms  behind  the 
gilded  chairs  which  were  placed  for  himself  and  his  distingiiished  visitors. 
We  are  expressly  told  that  Agrippa  and  Berenice  went  in  state  to  the 
Prsetorium,  eho,  doubtless,  blazing  with  all  her  jewels,  and  he  in  his  purple 
robes,  and  both  with  the  golden  circlets  of  royalty  around  then*  foreheads,  and 
attended  by  a  suite  of  followers  in  the  most  gorgeous  apparel  of  Eastern 
pomp.  It  was  a  compliment  to  the  new  governor  to  visit  him  with  as  much 
splendour  as  possible,  and  both  he  and  his  guests  were  not  sorry  to  furnish  a 
spectacle  which  would  at  once  illustrate  their  importance  and  their  mutual 
cordiality.  Did  Agrippa  think  of  his  great-grandfather  Herod,  and  the 
massacre  of  the  innocents  ?  of  his  great-uncle  Antipas,  and  the  murder  of 
John  the  Baptist  P  of  his  father  Agrippa  I.,  and  the  execution  of  James  the 
Elder  ?  Did  he  recall  the  fact  that  they  had  each  died  or  been  disgraced, 
soon  after,  or  in  direct  consequence  of,  those  inflictions  of  martyrdom  ?  Did 
he  realise  how  closely,  but  unwittingly,  the  faith  in  that  "  one  Jesus "  had 
been  linked  with  the  destinies  of  his  house?  Did  the  pomp  of  to-day  remind 
him  of  the  pomp  sixteen  years  earlier,  when  his  much  more  powerful  father 
had  stood  in  the  theatre,  with  the  sunlight  blazing  on  the  tissued  silver  of  his 
robe,  and  the  people  shouting  that  he  was  a  god  ? l  Did  none  of  the  dark 
memories  of  the  place  overshadow  him  as  he  entered  that  former  palace  of  his 
race  ?  It  is  very  unlikely.  Extreme  vanity,  gratified  self-importance,  far 
more  probably  absorbed  the  mind  of  this  titular  king,  as,  in  all  the  pomp  of 
phantom  sovereignty,  he  swept  along  the  large  open  hall,  seated  himself  with 
his  beautiful  sister  by  the  Procurator's  side,  and  glanced  with  cold  curiosity 
on  the  poor,  worn,  shackled  prisoner — pale  with  sickness  and  long  imprison- 
ment— who  was  led  in  at  his  command. 

Festus  opened  the  proceedings  in  a  short,  complimentary  speech,  in  which 
he  found  an  excuse  for  the  gathering,  by  saying  that  on  the  one  hand  the  Jews 
were  extremely  infuriated  against  this  man,  and  that  on  the  other  he  was 
entirely  innocent,  so  far  as  he  could  see,  of  any  capital  crime.  Since,  however, 
he  was  a  Roman  citizen,  and  had  appealed  to  Caesar,  it  was  necessary  to  send 
to  "  the  Lord "  a  some  minute  of  the  case,  by  way  of  elogium,  and  he  was 
completely  perplexed  as  to  what  he  ought  to  say.  He  was,  therefore,  glad  of 
the  opportunity  to  bring  the  prisoner  before  this  distinguished  assembly,  that 
they,  and  especially  King  Agrippa,  might  hear  what  he  had  to  say  for  himself, 
and  so,  by  forming  some  sort  of  preliminary  judgment,  relieve  Festus  from 
the  ridiculous  position  of  sending  a  prisoner  without  being  able  to  state  any 
definite  crime  with  which  he  had  been  charged. 

»  A.D.  44.     It  was  now  A.D.  60.  «  xxr.  26, 


558  THE  LIPS  AND  WOEX   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

As  no  accusers  were  present,  and  this  was  not  in  any  respect  a  judiei&l 
assembly,  Agrippa,  as  the  person  for  whom  the  whole  scene  was  got  np,  told 
Paul  that  he  was  allowed  to  speak  about  himself.  Had  the  Apostle  been  of 
a  morose  disposition  he  might  have  despised  the  hollowness  of  these  mock 
proceedings.  Had  he  been  actuated  by  any  motives  lower  than  the  highest, 
ha  might  have  seized  the  opportunity  to  flatter  himself  into  favour  in  the 
absence  of  bis  enemies.  But  the  predominant  feature  in  his,  as  in  the  very 
greatest  characters,  was  a  continual  seriousness  and  earnestness,  and  his  only 
desire  was  to  plead  not  his  own  cause,  but  that  of  his  Master.  Featus,  with 
the  Roman  adulation,  which  in  that  ago  outran  even  the  appetite  of  absolutism, 
had  used  that  title  of  "the  Lord,"  which  the  later  Emperors  seized  with 
avidity,  but  which  the  earliest  and  ablest  of  them  had  contemptuously  refused.* 
But  Paul  was  neither  imposed  upon  by  these  colossal  titles  of  reverence,  nor 
daunted  by  these  pompous  inanities  o£  reflected  power. 

There  is  not  a  word  of  his  address  which  does  not  prove  how  completely 
he  was  at  his  ease.  The  scarlet  eagum  of  the  Procurator,  the  fasces  of  the 
lictors,  the  swords  of  the  legionaries,  the  gleaming  armour  of  the  ChiliarcLs, 
did  not  for  one  moment  daunt  him, — they  were  a  terror,  not  to  good  works, 
bat  to  the  evil ;  and  he  felt  that  his  was  a  service  which  was  above  all  sway. 

Stretching  out  his  hand  in  the  manner  familiar  to  the  orators  whom  he  had 
often  heard  in  Tarsus  or  in  Antioch,2  he  began  by  the  sincere  remark  that 
he  was  particularly  happy  to  make  his  defence  before  King  Agrippa,  not—- 
which would  have  been  false — for  any  special  worth  of  his,  but  because  the 
prince  had  received  from  his  father — whose  anxiety  to  conform  to  the  Law, 
both  written  and  oral,  was  well  known — an  elaborate  training  in  all  matters 
of  Jewish  religion  and  casuistry,  which  could  not  fail  to  interest  him  in  a 
question  of  which  he  was  so  competent  to  judge.  He  begged,  therefore,  for 
a  patient  audience,  and  narrated  once  more  the  familiar  story  of  his  conversion 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  rigid  and  bigoted  Pharisee  to  a  belief  that  the  Mes- 
sianic hopes  of  his  nation  had  now  been  actually  fulfilled  in  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  whose  followers  he  had  at  first  furiously  persecuted,  but  who  had 
won  him,  by  a  personal  revelation  of  His  glory,  to  the  knowledge  that  He  had 
risen  from  the  dead.  Why  should  that  belief  appear  incredible  to  his  hearers? 
It  once  bad  been  so  to  himself ;  but  how  could  he  resist  the  eye-witness  of  a 
noonday  vision  P  and  how  could  he  disobey  the  heavenly  voice  which  sent 
him  forth  to  open  tho  eyes  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that  they  might  turn 
from  darkness  to  light,  and  tho  power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that,  by  faith  in 
Jesus,  they  might  receive  remission  of  sins  and  a  lot  among  the  sanctified  P 
He  had  not  been  disobedient  to  it.  In  Damascus,  in  Jerusalem,  throughout 
all  Judaea,  and  subsequently  among  the  Gentiles,  he  had  been  a  preacher  of 
repentance  and  conversion  towards  God,  and  a  life  consistent  therewith. 
This  was  why  the  Jews  had  seized  him  in  tho  Temple  and  tried  to  tear  him 

1  Suet.  Oct.  59 ;  Tiber.  27 ;  Domit.  13. 

2  Plut.  Caa.,  p.  729;  Appul.  Mttam.  11.,  "porrigit  dsxtrain  ct  td  inatar  oratoruas 
eonformat  articulum." 


ST.  PAUL  BEFORE  AGRIPPA  IX.  559 

to  pieces;  but  in  this  and  every  danger  God  had  helped  him,  and  the  testimony 
which  he  bore  to  small  and  great  was  no  blasphemy,  no  apostasy,  but  simply 
a  truth  in  direct  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets, 
that  the  Messiah  should  be  liable  to  suffering,  and  that  from  His  resurrection 
from  the  dead  a  light  should  dawn  to  lighten  both  the  Gentiles  and  His 
people. 

Paul  was  now  launched  cu  the  full  tide  of  that  sacred  and  impassioned 
oratory  which  was  so  powerful  an  agent  in  his  mission  work.  He  was  deliver- 
ing to  tings  and  governors  and  chief  captains  that  testimony  which  was  the 
very  object  of  his  life.  Whether  on  other  topics  his  speech  was  as  con- 
temptible as  his  enemies  chose  to  represent,  we  cannot  say ;  but  on  this  topic, 
at  any  rate,  he  spoke  with  the  force  of  long  familiarity,  and  the  fire  of  intense 
conviction.  He  would  probably  have  proceeded  to  develop  the  great  thesis 
which  he  had  just  sketched  in  outline — but  at  this  point  he  was  stopped  short. 
These  facts  and  revelations  were  new  to  Festus.  Though  sufficiently  familiar 
with  true  culture  to  recognise  it  even  through  these  Oriental  surroundings, 
he  could  only  listen  open-mouthed  to  this  impassioned  tale  of  visions,  and 
revelations,  and  ancient  prophecies,  and  of  a  Jewish  Prophet  who  had  been 
crucified,  and  yet  had  risen  from  the  dead  and  was  Divine,  and  who  could 
forgive  sins  and  lighten  the  darkness  of  Jews  as  well  as  of  Gentiles.  He 
had  been  getting  more  and  more  astonished,  and  the  last  remark  was  too 
much  for  him.  He  suddenly  burst  out  with  the  loud  and  excited  interruption, 
"You  are  mad,  Paul;1  thoso  many  writings  are  turning  your  brain."  His 
startling  ejaculation  checked  the  majestic  stream  of  the  Apostle's  eloquence, 
but  did  not  otherwise  ruffle  his  exquisite  courtesy.  "  I  am  not  mad,"  ho 
exclaimed  with  calm  modesty,  giving  to  Festus  his  recognised  title  of  "  your 
Excellency ;  "  "  but  I  am  uttering  words  of  reality  and  soberness."  But  Festus 
was  not  the  person  whom  he  was  mainly  addressing,  nor  were  these  tLo 
reasonings  which  he  would  be  likely  to  understand.  It  was  different  with 
Agrippa.  He  had  read  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  and  had  heard,  from  multi- 
tudes of  witnesses,  some  at  least  of  the  facts  to  which  Paul  referred.  To  him, 
therefore,  the  Apostle  appealed  in  proof  of  his  perfect  sanity.  "  The  king," 
he  said,  "  knows  about  these  things,  to  whom  it  is  even  with  confidence  that 
I  am  addressing  my  remarks.  I  am  sure  that  he  is  by  no  means  unaware  of 
any  of  these  circumstances,  for  all  that  I  say  has  not  been  done  in  a  corner." 
And  then,  wishing  to  resume  the  thread  of  his  argument  at  the  point  where 
it  had  been  broken,  and  where  it  would  be  most  striking  to  a  Jew,  he  asked — 

"King  Agrippa,  dost  thou  believe  the  Prophets?  I  know  that  thou 
beliovest." 

But  Agrippa  did  not  choose  to  be  entrapped  into  a  discussion,  still  less 
into  an  assent.  Not  old  in  years,  but  accustomed  from  his  boyhood  to  an 
atmosphere  of  cynicism  and  unbelief,  he  could  only  smile  with  the  good- 
natured  contempt  of  a  man  of  the  world  at  the  enthusiastic  earnestness  which 

i  Wisd.  T.  4 ;  2  Cor.  T.  13.  There  is  an  Iambic  rhythm  In  Festua's  interpellation  which 
toakes  it  sound  like  a  quotation. 


560  *HE  LIFE  AKD   WOBZ  O*  ST.  PAUL. 

could  even  for  a  moment  fancy  that  he  would  bo  converted  to  the  heresy  oi 
the  Nazarenes  with  their  crucified  Messiah!  Yet  he  did  not  wish  to  be 
uncourteous.  It  was  impossible  not  to  admire  the  burning  zeal  which  neitheu 
stripes  nor  prisons  could  quench — the  clear-sighted  faith  which  not  even  such 
a  surrounding  could  for  a  moment  dim. 

"  You  are  trying  to  persuade  me  offhand  to  be  'a  Christian ! '" l  he  said, 
with  a  half-suppressed  smile ;  and  this  finished  specimen  of  courtly  eutrapelia 
was  his  bantering  vnswer  to  St.  Paul's  appeal.  Doubtless  his  polished  remark 
on  this  compendious  style  of  making  converts  sounded  very  witty  to  that 
distinguished  company,  and  they  would  with  difficulty  suppress  their  laughter 
at  the  notion  that  Agrippa,  favourite  of  Claudius,  friend  of  Nero,  King  ot 
Chalcis,  Itursea,  Trachonitis,  nominator  of  the  High  Priest,  and  supreme 
guardian  of  the  Temple  treasures,  should  succumb  to  the  potency  of  thig 
"  short  method  with  a  Jew."  That  a  Paul  should  make  the  kintf  a  Chi-istian  (!)j 
would  sound  too  ludicrous.  But  the  laugh  would  be  instantly  suppressed  ii» 
pity  and  admiration  of  the  poor  but  noble  prisoner,  as  with  perfect  dignity 
he  took  advantage  of  Agrippa's  ambiguous  expression,  and  Said,  with  all  the 
fervent  sincerity  of  a  loving  heart,  "  I  could  pray  to  God  that  whether  '  in 
little '  or  '  in  much/  *  not  thou  only,  but  even  all  who  are  listening  to  ma 
to-day  might  become  even  such  as  I  am — except,"  he  added,  as  he  raised  hia 
fettered  hand — "except  these  bonds."  They  saw  that  this  was  indeed  na 
common  prisoner ;  one  who  could  argue  as  he  had  argued,  and  speak  as  ha 
had  spoken;  one  who  was  so  filled  with  the  exaltation  of  an  inspiring  idea,  so 
enriched  with  the  happiness  of  a  firm  faith  and  a  peaceful  conscience,  that 
he  could  tell  them  how  he  prayed  that  they  all — all  these  princely  and  dis- 
tinguished people — could  be  even  such  as  he — and  who  yet  in  the  spirit  of 
entire  forgiveness  desired  that  the  sharing  in  his  faith  might  involve  no  share 
in  his  sorrows  or  misfortunes — must  be  such  a  one  as  they  never  yet  had  seen 
or  known,  either  in  the  worlds  of  Jewry  or  of  heathendom.  But  it  was  useless 
to  prolong  the  scene.  Curiosity  was  now  sufficiently  gratified,  and  it  had 
become  clearer  than  ever  that  though  they  might  regard  Paul  the  prisoner 
as  an  amiable  enthusiast  or  an  inspired  fanatic,  he  was  in  no  sense  a  legal 
criminal.  The  king,  by  rising  from  his  seat,  gave  the  signal  for  breaking  up 
the  meeting ;  Berenice  and  Festus,  and  their  respective  retinues,  rose  up  at 
the  same  time,  and  as  the  distinguished  assembly  dispersed  they  were  heard 

1  iviXivft  "in  brief,"  "in  few  words  "(of.  irpo^ypo^a  «V  oAiy«R  Eph.  iii.  3),  "tout  d'un, 
coup."    It  cannot  mean  |"  almost,"  which  would  be  trap  faiyov,  or  oAfyou  Sel.     On  the 
conatut  involved  in  the  present  ir«i'e«?,  see  my  Brief  Greek  Syntax,  §  136.    But  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  we  have  got  Agrippa's  real  remark.     A  reads  wdOn  (Lachm.),   and 
perhaps  irt/fltis  may  have  come  from  an  original  ir«cfl«,  "you  are  persuading  yourself 
(cf.  ov  n-€i.'9oM<u,  ver.  26);  for  instead  of  ycvtVftu,  the  reading  of  H.  A,  £  is  wolr><rai,  which, 
with  irti0««  is  unintelligible.      From  the  confusion  of  readings  we  might  almost  con- 
jecture that  Agrippa  ironically  said,  ^«  ^firrMvov  mufvcif — "you'll  soon  be  making  me — a 
Clvrittian  I " 

2  St.  Ohrysostom  thinks  that  St.  Paul  mistook  Agrippa's  meaning,  and,  from  ignor- 
ance of  colloquial  Greek  (?),  supposed  him  to  mean  "almost."    But  Eph.  iii.  3  is  enough 
to  disprove  tkU  > 


THE  VOtAGE  AND  SHIPWRECK.  561 

remarking  oft  all  sides  that  Paul  was  undeserving  of  death,  or  even  of  imprison- 
ment. Ho  had  made,  in  fact,  a  deeply  favourable  impression.  Agrippa's 
decision  was  given  entirely  for  his  acquittal.  "This  person,"  he  said  to 
Festus,  "  might  have  been  permanently  set  at  liberty,  if  he  had  not  appealed 
to  Csesar."  Agrippa  was  far  too  little  of  a  Pharisee,  and  far  too  much  of  a 
man  of  the  world,  not  to  see  that  mere  freedom  of  thought  could  not  be,  and 
ought  not  to  be,  suppressed  by  external  violence.  The  proceedings  of  that 
day  probably  saved  St.  Paul's  life  full  two  years  afterwards.  Festus,  since 
his  own  opinion,  on  grounds  of  Roman  justice,  were  so  entirely  confirmed 
from  the  Jewish  point  of  view  by  the  Protector  of  the  Temple,  could  hardly 
fail  to  scud  to  Nero  an  elogium  which  freely  exonerated  the  prisoner  from 
every  legal  charge ;  and  even  if  Jewish  intrigues  were  put  in  play  against 
him,  Nero  could  not  condemn  to  death  a  man  whom  Felix,  and  Lysias,  and 
Festus,  and  Agrippa,  and  even  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin,  in  the  only  trial  of  the 
case  which  they  had  hold,  had  united  in  pronouncing  innocent  of  any  capital 
dime. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

THE     VOYAGE     AND     SHIPWRECK. 

"  Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni 
Mente  quatit  solida,  nee  Auster 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Adriae." — Hon.  Od.  iii.  3,  5. 
"  The  flattering  wind  that  late  with  promised  aid 
From  Candia's  bay  the  unwilling  ship  betrayed, 
No  longer  fawns,  beneath  the  fair  disguise, 
But  like  a  ruffian  on  his  quarry  flies." 

FALCONER,  Shipwreck,  canto  ii. 

AT  the  earliest  opportunity  which  offered,  St.  Paul,  and  such  otker  prisoners1 
as  were  waiting  the  result  of  an  appeal,  were  despatched  to  Italy  under  the 
charge  of  Julius,  a  centurion  of  an  Augustan  cohort.  This  Augustan  cohort 
may  either  be  some  local  troop  of  soldiers  of  that  name  stationed  at  Csesarea, 
since  the  name  "  Augustan  "  was  as  common  as  "  Royal "  among  us ;  or  they 
may  have  belonged  to  the  body  of  Augustani — veterans  originally  enrolled 
by  Augustus  as  a  body-guard ; 2  or  they  may  have  been  the  Praetorian  guards 
themselves,  who  occasionally,  though  not  frequently,  were  sent  out  of  Italy 
on  imperial  missions.3  It  is  not,  however,  said  that  Julius  was  accompanied 
by  his  cohort,  and  it  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  he  may  have  been  sent  with 
a  few  of  those  chosen  soldiers  of  the  most  distinguished  Roman  regiment* 

1  xxv  ii.  1.    ffcpout  is  not  necessarily  used  with  classical  accuracy  to  denote  "prisoner* 
of  a  different  class  "  (Luke  viii.  3;  Mark  xv.  41). 

2  It  certainly  was  not  a  cohort  of  "Sebasteni, "i.e.,  natives  of  Sebaste,  the  nara« 
which  Hierod  had  given  to  Samaria  (Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  12,  §  5). 

*  Pliny,  H.  N.  vi.  35.    (Lewin,  ii  183.) 
19  • 


562  THE  LIFE  AJSD  WOBX  OF  ST. 

to  give  ecZaf  to  the  arrival  of  Festus  in  one  of  the  Avealthiesi  but  raost  dis- 
affected of  imperial  provinces.1  If  this  wore  the  case,  Julius  may  very  well 
have  been  that  Julius  Priecns  who  afterwards  rose  to  the  splendid  position 
of  one  of  the  two  Praefects  of  the  Praetorians,  and  committed  suicide  on  the 
disgraceful  overthrow  of  his  patron.*  We  see  enough  of  him  daring  this 
voyage  to  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  was  a  sensible,  honourable,  and  kindly  man. 

Roman  soldiers  were  responsible  with  their  own  lives  for  the  security  of 
their  prisoners,  and  this  had  originated  the  custom — so  painful  to  the  prisoners, 
and  all  the  more  painful  because  so  necessarily  irritating  to  the  legionaries— 
of  keeping  the  prisoners  safe  by  chaining  them  with  a  long  light  chain  by 
the  right  wrist  to  the  left  wrist  of  soldiers,  who  relieved  each  other  in  turn. 
It  may  be  imagined  how  frightfully  trying  it  must  have  been  to  have  no 
moment  and  no  movement  free,  and  to  be  fettered  in  such  liorriblfl  proximity 
to  a  man  who  would  certainly  have  been  an  uneducated  specimen  of  the  lowest 
classes,  and  who,  surrounded  from  boyhood  upwards  by  rough  and  demoralis- 
ing companionships,  might  be  a  coarse  and  loose  provincial,  or  a  morose  and 
brutal  peasant  from  the  dregs  of  the  Italian  population.  It  is  tolerably  certain 
that  ashore  prisoners  were  not  allowed  to  go  anywhere  without  tills  galling 
protection,  but  we  may  hope  that  they  were  not  always  subject  to  it  in  the 
narrow  fetid  cribs  and  hatchways  of  the  huge,  rolling,  unwieldy  merchantmen 
in  which  their  compulsory  voyages  had  to  bo  performed. 

Since  Festus  had  arrived  in  Palestine  towards  the  end  of  June,  it  must 
now  have  been  late  in  August,  and  the  time  was  rapidly  drawing  on  in  which 
ancient  navigation  was  closed  for  the  year.  Every  day  made  the  weather 
more  uncertain  and  the  voyage  more  perilous,  and  since  time  was  pressing, 
Julius,  to  whom  the  commission  was  entrusted,  embarked  his  prisoners  on 
board  a  coasting  merchantman  of  the  Mysian  town  of  Adramyttium.  As  tha 
vessel  would  touch  at  the  chief  ports  on  the  west  of  Asia,  thoro  was  every 
possibility  of  their  finding  a  ship  at  Ephosus,  or  at  some  nearer  port,  ii>  -which 
they  could  perform  the  rest  of  their  voyage j  but  if  not.  Julius  might,  as  a 
last  resource,  march  his  soldiers  and  their  prisoners  from  Adramyttiam  to 
Troaa,  and  thence  sail  to  Neapolis,  whence  he  could  proceed  along  the  great 
Egnatian  Road,  already  so  familiar  to  St.  Paul,  through  Philippi  and  Thes- 
salonica  to  Dyrrhachium.  Dyrrhachium  and  Brundusium  were  to  the  Romans 
what  Calais  and  Dover  are  to  the  English;  and  after  crossing  the  ^Egean, 
Julius  would  march  along  the  Appian  Road — in  a  reverse  order  through  the 
scenes  described  with  such  lively  humour  by  Horace  in  his  Her  ad  Brundusium. 
—till  his  journey  ended  at  Rome.  This  was  the  route  traversed  by  St.  Ignatius 
and  his  "ten  leopards"  who  conducted  him  to  his  martyrdom,  and  in  his  dis- 
agreeable connexion  with  whom  he  says  that  ho  fought  with  wild  beasts  all 
the  way.  It  is,  however,  most  unlikely  that  a  hind  journey  entered  into  the 
immediate  plans  of  Julius.  As  he  had  several  prisoners  under  his  charge, 
each  of  whom  would  require  ten  soldiers  to  relieve  guard,  such  a  journey 

1  More  strictly  Procuratorships.    St.  Luke,  however,  uses  the  general  word  « 
'  Tao.  Hist.  ii.  92 ;  iv.  11.     "  Pudoro  magis  quam  necessitate." 


THE  VOYAGE  AND  SHIPWRECK.  563 

would  be  inexpressibly  tedious  and  extremely  expensive;  and  Julius  might 
rely  with  tolerable  certainty  on  finding  some  vessel  which  was  bound  from 
one  of  tho  great  emporiums  of  Asia  for  the  capital  of  the  world. 

St.  Paul  was  spared  one  at  least  of  the  circumstances  which  would  hare 
weighed  most  heavily  on  his  spirits — he  was  not  alone.  Luke  and  Aristarchns 
accompanied  him,  and,  whether  such  had  bsen  their  original  intention  or  not, 
both  were  at  any  rate  driven  by  stress  of  circumstances  to  remain  with  him 
during  great  part  of  his  Roman  imprisonment.  They,  no  doubt,  were  pas- 
sengers, not  prisoners,  and  they  must  either  have  paid  their  own  expenses,1 
or  have  been  provided  with  money  for  that  purpose  by  Christians,  who  knew 
how  necessary  was  some  attendance  for  one  so  stricken  with  personal  infirmities 
as  their  illustrious  Apostle. 

The  voyage  began  happily  and  prosperously.  The  leading  westerly  wind 
was  so  far  favourable  that  the  day  after  they  started  they  had  accomplished 
the  sixty-seven  miles  which  lay  between  them  and  the  harbour  of  Sidon. 
There  they  touched,  and  Julius,  who  can  hardly  have  been  absent  from  the 
brilliant  throng  who  had  listened  to  Paul's  address  before  Agrippa,  was  so 
indulgently  disposed  towards  him  that  he  gave  him  leave — perhaps  merely 
on  parole — to  hind  and  see  h's  friends  who  formed  the  little  Christian  com- 
munity of  that  place.  This  kindness  was  invaluable  to  St.  Paul.  The  two 
years'  imprisonment  must  have  told  unfavourably  upon  his  health,  and  he 
must  have  been  but  scantily  provided  with  the  requisites  for  a  long  voyage. 
The  expression  used  by  St.  Luke  that  Julius  allowed  him  to  go  to  his  friend 
and  "  be  cared  for,"  2  seems  to  imply  that  even  during  that  one  day's  voyage 
ho  had  suffered  either  from  sea-sickness  or  from  general  infirmity.  The  day 
at  Sidon  was  the  one  happy  interlude  which  was  to  prepare  him  for  many 
anxious,  miserable,  and  storm-tossed  weeks. 

For  from  that  day  forward  the  entire  voyage  became  a  succession  of  delays 
and  accidents,  which,  after  two  months  of  storm  and  danger,  culminated  in 
hopeless  shipwreck.  No  sooner  had  they  left  tho  harbour  of  Sidon  than  they 
encountered  the  baffling  Etesian  winds,  which  blow  steadily  from  the  north- 
west. This  was  an  unlooked-for  hindrance,  because  the  Etesians  usually  cease 
to  blow  towards  the  end  of  August,  and  are  succeeded  by  south  winds,  on 
which  the  captain  of  the  merchantman  had  doubtless  relied  to  waft  him  back 
to  his  port  of  Adramyttium.  His  natural  course  would  have  been  to  sail 
straight  across  from  Sidon  to  Patara,  leaving  Cyprus  on  the  starboard;  but 
the  very  winds  which  sped  St.  Paul  so  blithely  along  this  course  to  his 
Csesarean  imprisonment  more  than  two  years  before,  were  now  against  his 
return,  and  the  vessel  had  to  sail  towards  Capo  Pedalium,  the  south-eastern 
promontory  of  Cyprus,  hugging  the  shore  under  the  lee  of  the  island  as  far 
as  Cape  Dinaretnm.3  On  rounding  this  cape  they  could  beat  to  windward 

1  Luke,  as  a  physician,  might  easily  have  procured  a  free  passage. 

*  Xivii.  3,  «arji<A«urs  rvXely. 

»  vvnrAcWafin',  "  we  sailed  under  the  lee  of,"  i.e.,  in  this  instance,  "we  left  Cyprus  on 
the  left."  Observe  that  in  this  narrative  alone  there  are  no  less  than  thirteen  different 
expressions  for  "  sailing." 


564  THE  LIFE  AND  WOBK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

by  the  aid  of  land-breezes  and  westward  currents  right  across  the  sea  which 
washes  the  coasts  of  Cilicia  and  Pamphylia,  until  they  dropped  anchor  in  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Andriacus,  opposite  to  a  hill  crowned  with  the  magnificent 
buildings  of  Myra,  the  former  capital  of  Lycia.1 

Here  they  were  fortunate — or,  as  it  turned  out,  unfortunate — enough  to 
find  a  large  Alexandrian  wheat-ship,2  which  had  undergone  the  common  fate 
of  being  driven  out  of  the  direct  course  by  the  same  winds  which  had  baffled 
the  Adramyttian  vessel,  and  which  now  intended  to  follow  the  usual  alter- 
native of  creeping  across  the  JEgean  from  island  to  island,  northward  of 
Crete,  and  so  to  the  south  of  Cythera,  and  across  to  Syracuse.3  This 
vessel,  built  for  the  purposes  of  the  trade  which  supplied  to  all  Italy  the  staff 
of  life,  could  easily  provide  room  for  the  centurion  with  his  soldiers  and 
prisoners,  and  such  passengers  as  chose  to  accompany  them.  They  were, 
therefore,  shifted  into  this  vessel,  and  sailed  for  Cnidus,  the  last  point  at 
which  they  could  hope  for  any  help  from  the  protection  of  the  shore  with  its 
breezes  and  currents.  The  distance  between  the  two  spots  is  only  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles,  and  under  favourable  circumstances  they  might  have  got 
to  their  destination  in  twenty-four  hours.  But  the  baffling  Etesians  still 
continued  with  unseasonable  steadiness,  and  to  reach  oven  to  Cnidus  occupied 
many  weary  and  uncomfortable  days.  And  when  they  got  off  the  beautiful 
and  commodious  harbour  they  were  destined  to  a  fresh  and  bitter  disappoint* 
ment,  for  they  could  not  enter  it.  Had  they  been  able  to  do  so  the  season 
was  by  this  time  so  far  advanced,  and  the  wind  was  so  steadily  adverse,  that 
we  can  hardly  doubt  that,  unless  they  continued  their  journey  by  land,  they 
would  either  have  waited  there  for  a  more  favourable  breeze,  or  decided  to 
winter  in  a  port  where  there  was  every  pleasant  requisite  at  hand  for  the 
convenience  of  so  large  a  vessel,  and  its  numerous  crew.  Since,  however, 
the  wind  would  neither  suffer  them  to  put  in  at  Cnidus,*  nor  to  continue 
their  direct  voyage,  which  would  have  passed  north  of  Crete,  the  only  alter- 
native left  them  was  to  make  for  Cape  Salmone,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 
island,  and  there  sail  under  its  lee.  To  get  to  Salmone  was  comparatively 
easy ;  but  when  they  had  rounded  it  they  had  the  utmost  difficulty  in  creeping 
along  the  weather  shore  until  they  came  to  a  place  called  Fair  Havens,  a  little 
to  the  east  of  Cape  Matala,  and  not  far  from  an  obscure  town  of  the  name 
of  Lasaea.  While  the  wind  remained  in  its  present  quarter  it  was  useless  to 
continue  their  voyage,  for  beyond  Cape  Matala  the  shore  trends  sharply  to 
the  north,  and  they  would  have  been  exposed  to  the  whole  force  of  the  Etesians, 

i  Cf.  Thuo.  viii.  35. 

3  The  Emperor  Titus  (Suet.  Vit.  5)  did  the  same  on  his  return  from  Palestine  (cf.  Jos. 
]'..  J.  vii.  2,  §  1 ;  Tac.  U.  iv.  81).  At  this  period  that  part  of  the  Mediterranean  is  almost 
always  stormy  (Falconer,  Dissert.,  p.  16). 

3  It  will,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind  that  (1)  they  had  no  compass ;  and  (2)  could  not 
work  to  windward.    The  Cilician  land  breeze,  which  had  helped  the  Adramyttian  vessel 
to  Myra,  was  quite  local.    Compare  Socr.  IT.  E.  ii.  24 ;  Sozomen,  vi.  25  (speaking  of  the 
voyage  of  Athanasius  from  Alexandria  to  Home).     Wetst. 

4  xxvii.  7,  pi)  flvxxrewi/n*  TOV  oi-e/iov.    It  is  not  said  that  they  got  to  Cnidus,  but  only  thai 
they  got  "opposite  to "  or  " off  "  it,  and  that  with  difficulty. 


THE   VOYAGE  AND  SHIPWRECK.  565 

with  ft  lee  shore  on  which  they  would  inevitably  have  been  dashed  to  pieces. 
At  Fair  Havens,  therefore,  they  were  obliged  to  put  in,  and  wait  for  a  change 
of  wind.  Time  passed,  and  found  them  still  windbound.  It  was  now  getting 
towards  the  close  of  September.  At  Fair  Havens  St.  Paul  and  any  Jewish 
Christians  on  board  would  probably  keep  the  Kippor,  or  great  day  of  Atone- 
ment,1 the  one  fast  in  the  Jewish  calendar,  which  this  year  fell  on  September 
24  The  autumnal  equinox  passed.  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles  passed,  and 
perhaps  some  of  the  sailors  regarded  with  superstitious  terror  the  partial 
eclipse  which  occurred  on  that  evening.  The  Jewish  season  for  navigation 
was  now  over,3  but  the  Gentiles  did  not  regard  the  sea  as  closed  until 
November  11.*  Discussions  took  place  as  to  whether  they  should  winter 
where  they  were  or  choose  the  first  favourable  chance  of  pushing  on  round 
Cape  Matala  to  Port  Phoenix,  which  lay  only  thirty-four  miles  beyond  it. 
St.  Paul,  whose  remarkable  ascendency  had  already  displayed  itself,  was 
allowed  to  give  his  opinion,  and  he  gave  it  emphatically  in  favour  of  staying 
where  they  were.  "Sirs,"4 he  said,  "I  perceive  that  this  voyage  will  certainly 
result  in  violent  weather,  and  much  loss  not  only  of  the  cargo  and  of  the  ship, 
but  even  of  our  lives."  His  opinion  was  entitled  to  great  weight,  because  his  many 
voyages  had  made  him  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  winds  and  dangers  of  a 
sea  in  which  he  had  thrice  been  shipwrecked,  and  had  once  floated  for  a  night 
and  a  day.  The  captain,  however,  and  the  owner  of  the  vessel  gave  their 
opinion  the  other  way ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  had  much  to  urge. 
Fair  Havens  afforded  a  shelter  from  the  norwester  which  had  so  long  been 
prevalent,  but  it  was  entirely  unprotected  against  east  winds,  and  indeed 
lay  open  to  most  points  of  the  compass.  It  would,  therefore,  be  a  dangerous 
haven  in  which  to  pass  the  winter,  and  it  was  further  unsuitable  because  the 
place  itself  was  a  poor  one,  not  quite  close  even  to  the  town  of  Laesea,  and 
offering  no  means  of  employment  or  amusement  for  the  soldiers  and  sailors. 
It  would  have  been  a  serious  matter  to  spend  three  or  four  months  in  a  place 
so  dreary  and  desolate,  and  it  seemed  worth  while,  if  possible,  to  get  to  Port 
Phoenix.  That  town,  the  modern  Lutro,  which  they  could  reach  in  a  few 
hours'  sail,  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  the  only  harbour  on  the  south  of  Crete 
which  is  safe  in  all  weathers,  and  which  was  therefore  a  familiar  resort  of 
Alexandrian  corn-ships.  Its  harbour  was  closed  and  protected  by  a  little 
island,  and  was  described  by  those  who  advocated  its  claims  as  "looking 
towards  Libs  and  towards  Canrus,"  or,  as  we  should  say,  towards  the  south- 
west and  the  north-west.  It  has  greatly  puzzled  commentators  to  account 
for  this  expression,  seeing  that  the  entrance  to  the  harbour  of  Lutro  (which 
is  undoubtedly  the  ancient  Phoenix)  looks  towards  the  east,  and  its  two 
openings  at  the  extremities  of  its  sheltering  island  look  precisely  in  the 

1  It  was  observed  on  the  tenth  of  Tisri,  which  in  this  year  (A.D.  60)  fell  at  tho 
autumnal  equinox. 

»  Sept.  28.    See  Lewin,  Fasti  Sacri,  §  1899;  and  UArt  de  verifier  lea  Dates,  iv.,  p.  51. 
'  See  Schoettgen,  Hor,  Hebr.  ad  loc.;  Plin.  H,  Jf.  ii.  47;  Veget.  De  Be  Milit.  v.  9. 
<  "&vSptt,  "  gentlemen,"  as  in  ^iv.  1J5,  xix.  25 ;  not  nvpioi,  as  jn  Acts  wi.  39, 


566  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

opposite  directions,  namely,  north-east  and  south-east.  The  explanation  of 
this  singular  anomaly  is  not  to  be  sought  in  grammatical  illustrations,  but  in 
the  subjectivity  of  the  sailors,  who  simply  regard  the  bearings  of  the  harbour 
from  the  directions  in  which  they  sail  into  it,  and  might  say,  for  instance,  that 
a  harbour  "  looked  towards "  the  north,  if  they  could  only  sail  into  it  by 
turning  their  prow  northward;  just  as  farther  on  in  the  chapter  they  speak 
of  "  some  land  approaching  them,"  when  in  reality  they  are  approaching  some 
land.1  But  besides  the  security  of  Port  Phoenix,  it  was  evidently  a  far  more 
desirable  place  for  nearly  three  hundred  people  to  winter  in  than  the  com- 
paratively obscure  and  lonely  Fair  Havens,  and  on  both  these  grounds  it 
seemed  to  be  worth  a  slight  risk  to  reach  it.  These  arguments  won  the 
adhesion  of  the  majority,  and  the  centurion,  with  whom  the  decision  rested, 
decided  that  this  should  be  done.  St.  Paul  claimed  no  inspiration  for  the 
solemn  advice  he  gave,2  and  of  course  there  was  a  fair  chance  of  safely  travers- 
ing so  short  a  distance.  Yet  results  proved  that  his  advice  was  right.  Fair 
Havens,  though  not  a  first-rate  harbour,  is  yet  partially  protected  by  reefs 
and  islets,  and  though  it  might  not  be  wholly  safe  to  winter  there,  yet  the 
risk  was  much  smaller  than  that  which  must  be  incurred  by  doubling  Cape 
Matala,  and  so  getting  possibly  seized  in  the  grasp  of  one  of  the  prevalent 
and  sadden  northerly  gales,  which  would  drive  the  ship  into  almost  certain 
destruction.  But  there  is  a  gambling  element  in  human  nature,  and  the 
centurion,  at  any  rate,  could  hardly  avoid  following  the  opinion  of  the 
experts,  whoso  interests  were  BO  deeply  concerned,  in  preference  to  that  of 
a  prisoner,  whose  knowledge  was  not  professional  and  who  had  BO  much  less 
at  stake. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  wished-f or  opportunity  occurred.8  A  soft  south 
wind  sprang  up,  and  gladly  weighing  anchor,  they  hoisted  the  great  mainsail, 
took  their  boat  in  tow,  sailed  close  along  the  shore  to  the  point  of  Cape  Matala, 
and  then  gaily  prepared  for  a  delightful  run  of  a  few  hours  to  the  beautiful 
and  hospitable  harbour  for  which  they  were  abandoning  the  dull,  dreary  Lasses. 
Now  at  last  a  little  gleam  of  prosperity  seemed  to  have  shone  on  their  tedious 
and  unfortunate  voyage.  Perhaps  they  had  a  good-natured  laugh  against  Paul 
the  prisoner  for  advice  which  would  have  made  them  throw  away  a  golden 
chance.  But,  alas !  the  gentle  breathing  of  the  south  wind  in  the  sails  and 
cordage  was  but  a  siren  song  which  had  lured  them  to  their  destruction.  They 
had  not  long  passed  the  cape,  when  &  tempestuous  typhoon4 — such  as  often  iu 
those  latitudes  succeeds  a  brief  spell  of  the  south  wind — burst  down  from  the 
Cretan  Ida,  and  smote  with  terrible  fury  on  the  hapless  vessel.  The  ancient 
name  of  this  "Levanter,"  as  it  is  now  called,  was  probably  Euroaquilo,  a  name 

1  See  further,  Smith,  p.  49.  »  Ver.  10,  feupa. 

3  Ver.  13,  apavrej  ivffov  wap«A*yowo  nj»  Kp^nji*.    The  E.V.  misses  the  exact  force  of  the 

a  Grist  viroirvfi'ffavTos. 

4  Hie  word  Tv4>«v«cfc«  describes  the  circular  whirling  of  the  clouds  caused  by  the  meet- 
ing of  the  S.  and  the  E.N.E.  winds.     See  Plin.  H.  N.  ii.  48,  "praecipua  navigantum 
pestis ; "  A.  GelL  xix.  1.    This  change  of  wind  is  exactly  what  might  have  baen  expected 
CPurdy,  Hailing  IHrectori/,  ii.  61 ;  Smith,  Voy.  and  Shipwreck,  p.  412). 


THS  VOYAGE  AND  SHIPWRECK.  567 

which  exactly  describes  ila  direction,  since  we  see  from  St.  Luke's  subsequent 
remarks  that  it  must  have  been  an  east-north-easter,  which,  indeed,  continued 
to  blow  during  the  remainder  of  their  voyage.1  From  the  first  moment  that 
this  fatal  blast  rushed  down  from  the  hills  and  seized  the  wheat-ship  in  its  grasp,* 
the  condition  of  the  vessel  was  practically  hopeless.  It  was  utterly  impossible 
for  her  —  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  tb»  finest  made  vessel  —  to  "  look  th« 
wind  in  the  face."3  The  suddenness  and  fury  of  the  blow  loft  the  sailors  not 
one  moment  to  furl  the  mainsail,  or  to  do  anything  but  leave  the  ship  to  ba 
driven  madly  forward  before  the  gale,4  until  after  a  fearful  run  of  twenty-  three 
miles  they  neared  the  little  island  of  Clauda,*  and  ran  in  under  its  lee.  Happily 
the  direction  of  the  wind,  and  the  fact  —  in  which  we  see  the  clear  hand  of 
Providence  —  that  the  storm  had  burst  on  them  soon  after  they  had  rounded 
Cape  Matala,  and  not  a  little  later  on  in  their  course,  had  saved  them  from  being 
dashed  upon  the  rocks  and  reefs,  which  lie  more  to  the  north-west  between  both 
Candia  and  Clauda;  but  their  condition  was,  in  other  respects,  already 
dangerous,  if  not  quite  desperate.  The  ships  of  the  ancients  had  one  main- 
mast and  one  mainsail  ;  any  other  masts  or  rigging  were  comparatively  small 
and  insignificant.  Hence  the  strain  upon  the  vessel  from  the  leverage  of  the 
mast  was  terrific,  and  it  was  impossible  that  the  Alexandrian  ship,  however 
etoutly  built,  should  have  scudded  with  her  huge  sail  set  in  the  grasp  of  a 
typhoon,  without  her  timbers  starting.  It  is  evident  that  she  had  already 
eprung  a  serious  leak.  There  was  no  available  harbour  in  the  little  island,  and 
therefore  the  captain,  who  seems  to  have  shown  the  best  seamanship  which  was 
possible  in  his  age,  took  advantage  of  the  brief  and  partial  lull  which  was 
afforded  them  by  the  shelter  of  the  island  to  do  the  two  things  which  were 
most  immediately  necessary  —  namely,  first  to  secure  the  means  of  escape,  for 
some  at  any  rate  of  the  crew,  in  case  the  vessel  foundered,  and  next  to  put  off 
that  catastrophe  &s  long  as  possible.  He  therefore  gave  orders  at  once  to  hoist 
the  boat  on  board,  and  so  secure  it  from  being  staved  in.  But  this  was  a  task 

1  EipaxvXui-,  A,  B,  Sahid.,  Copt.,  Smith,  p.  69.  It  was  thus  a  "point  wind."  If 
anything  is  to  be  said  for  the  very  ill-supported  Ei>fKK\v5uv  of  the  Syriac,  we  can  only 
regard  the  word  as  aurfrappi  by  Greek  sailors  (see  Language  and  Languages,  p.  119). 

J  Ver.  14,  ipa\ty  KO.T  aurijs  may  meaa  either  "ttruck  againtt  her,"  the  conception  of  a 
•Iiip  being  in  all  languages  feminine,  and  vavt  being 
the  prevalent  substantive  in  the  mind  of  the  writer, 
though  throughout  the  narrative  he.  always  uses  rb 
V\QIOV,  except  in  verse  41  ;  or  it  may  mean,  no  leu 
correctly,  down  from  it,"  namely  Crete,"  which 
ie  the  substantive  immediately  preceding.  But  that 
the  former  is  the  right  translation  in  this  instance 
is  certain,  because  <p.a.\iv  could  not  be  used  \vith 
nothing  to  follow  it.  The  reader  will  more  easily 
follow  the  details  of  the  voyage,  if  he  will  compare 
the  map  with  the  directions  indicated  on  thi* 
compass. 

**  iarro<j>9a}mt"v.    Eyes  were  painted  on  the  prow 
(Eustath.  ad  H.  riv.  717). 

4  One  of  the  Cursives  (137)  add* 


. 
1  Clauda  j  B,  Kcv««;  Plin.  IT,  20;  Gaudui,  GOZEO. 


568  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

by  no  means  easy.  The  boat,  which  they  had  so  securely  towed  astern  in  what 
they  meant  to  be  a  sort  of  gala  trip  to  Port  Phoenix,  had  now  been  hurled  after 
them  through  twenty  miles  of  their  swirling  wake,  and  must  therefore  have 
been  sorely  battered,  and  perhaps  half  water-logged;  and  though  they  were 
now  in  slightly  smoother  water,  yet  such  was  the  violence  of  the  gale  that  it 
was  difficult  to  perform  the  simplest  duty.  They  managed,  however — aud 
Luke  was  one  of  those  who  lent  a  hand  in  doing  it1 — to  heave  the  boat  on  board 
as  a  last  resource  in  the  moment  of  peril ;  and  then  the  sailors  proceeded  to 
adopt  the  rough  and  clumsy  method  in  use  among  the  ancients  to  keep  a  vessel 
together.  This  consisted  in  undergirding,  or,  to  use  the  modern  and  technical 
term  for  a  practice  which  is  now  but  rarely  resorted  to,  in  f '/rapping"  it,  by 
passing  stout  hawsers  several  times  under  the  prow,  and  tying  them  as  tightly 
as  possible  round  the  middle  of  the  vessel.2  They  had  thus  met  the  two  most 
pressing  dangers,  but  a  third  remained.  There  was  no  place  into  which  they 
eould  run  for  shelter,  nor  could  they  long  avail  themselves  of  the  partial  pro- 
tection which  they  derived  from  the  weather-shore  of  the  little  island,  and  they 
knew  too  well  that  the  wind  was  driving  them  straight  towards  the  Goodwin 
Sands  of  the  Mediterranean — the  dreaded  bay  of  the  Greater  Syrtis.3  There 
was  only  one  way  to  save  themselves,  which  was  not,  as  the  English  Version 
most  erroneously  expresses  it,  to  "strike  sail  and  so  be  driven" — since  this 
would  be  certain  destruction — but  to  lie  to,  by  rounding  the  prow  of  the  vessel 
on  the  starboard  tack  as  near  to  the  wind  as  possible,  to  send  down  the  topsail 
and  cordage,  lower  the  ponderous  yard  to  such  a  height  as  would  leave  enough 
of  the  huge  mainsail  to  steady  the  vessel,*  set  the  artemo,  or  storm-sail,  and 
so — having  made  all  as  snug  as  their  circumstances  permitted — let  her  drift 
on,  broadside  to  leeward,  at  the  mercy  of  wind  and  wave.  This  they  did,  and 
so  ended  the  miserable  day,  which  had  begun  with  such  soft  breezes  and  pre- 
sumptuous hopes.6 

All  night  long  the  storm  blew,  and,  in  spite  of  the  undergirding,  the  vessel 
still  leaked.  Next  day,  therefore,  they  kept  throwing  over  from  time  to  time 
everything  that  could  possibly  be  spared  to  lighten  the  ship ; '  but  even  this 
was  insufficient.  The  next  night  brought  no  relief;  the  vessel  still  leaked 
and  leaked,  and  all  labour  at  the  pumps  was  in  vain.  The  fate  which  most 

1  The  narrative  of  St.  Luke  is  admirably  brief  and  pregnant,  and  yet  we  can  at  once 
trace  in  it  the  tasks  in  which  he  and  St.  Paul  and  other  passengers  or  prisoners  were  able 
to  take  their  share.  They  helped,  for  instance,  in  getting  hold  of  the  boat  (ver.  16),  and 
in  lightening  the  vessel  (ver.  19,  leg.  tpptyanw) ;  but  they  could  not  help  in  such  technical 
tasks  as  f  rapping  the  vessel,  heaving  the  lead,  dropping  the  anchors,  &c. 

1  vvofrnara,  mitrae,  Vitruv.  x.  15,  6  ;  Thuc.  i.  29  ;  Plato,  Rep.  x.  616 ;  Hor.  Od.  i.  14, 
8.  "They  [a  Spanish  man-of-war  in  a  storm]  were  obliged  to  throw  overboard  all  their 
upper-deck  guns,  and  take  six  turns  of  the  cable  round  the  ship  to  prevent  her  opening" 
(Anson,  Voyage  Round  the  World).  The  Albion  was  frapped  with  iron  chains  after  the 
battle  of  Navarino. 

1  Ver.  17,  «jr«Vw<ri, not  "fall  into,"  but  "be  driven  ashore  on"  (Hdt.  viil.  13). 

4  xoAoo'wTef  rJ>  <ncevo?,  here  "lowering  the  great  yard  "  (Smith). 

*  Ver.  13,  iofa«re9  Tijf  irpoW<r«W9  Kejcpan)K<i'cu. 

•  Ver.  18,  «/3oXijv  iiroiovvro,  jacturam  facitbant,  whereas  what  tfcej-  did  the  day  ftftfflT 
1T3S  an  instantaneous  act, 


THE  VOYAGE  AND  SHIPWRECK.  569 

commonly  befell  ancient  vessels — that  of  foundering  at  sea — was  obviously 
imminent.  On  the  third  day,  therefore,  it  became  necessary  to  take  some  still 
more  decisive  step.  This,  in  a  modern  vessel,  would  have  been  to  cut  down 
the  masts  by  the  board ;  in  ancient  vessels,  of  which  the  masts  were  of  a  less 
towering  height,  it  consisted  in  heaving  overboard  the  huge  mainyard,  which, 
as  we  see,  was  an  act  requiring  the  united  assistance  of  all  the  active  hands.1 
It  fell  over  with  a  great  splash,  and  the  ship  was  indefinitely  lightened.  But 
now  her  violent  rolling — all  the  more  sensible  from  the  loose  nature  of  her 
cargo — was  only  counteracted  by  a  trivial  storm-sail.  The  typhoon,  indeed, 
had  become  an  ordinary  gale,  but  the  ship  had  now  been  reduced  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  leaky  and  dismantled  hulk,  swept  from  stem  to  stern  by  the  dashing 
spray,  and  drifting,  no  one  knew  whither,  under  leaden  and  moonless  heavens. 
A  gloomy  apathy  began  to  settle  more  and  more  upon  those  helpless  three 
hundred  souls.  There  were  no  means  of  cooking ;  no  fire  could  be  lighted ; 
the  caboose  and  utensils  must  long  ago  have  been  washed  overboard ;  the  pro 
visions  had  probably  been  spoiled  and  sodden  by  the  waves  that  broke  over  the 
ship  ;  indeed,  with  death  staring  them  in  the  face,  no  one  cared  to  eat.  They 
were  famishing  wretches  in  a  fast-sinking  ship,  drifting,  with  hopes  that 
diminished  day  by  day,  to  what  they  regarded  as  an  awful  and  a  certain 
death. 

But  in  that  desperate  crisis  one  man  retained  his  calm  and  courage.  It 
was  Paul  the  prisoner,  probably  in  physical  health  the  weakest  and  the  greatest 
sufferer  of  them  all.  But  it  is  in  such  moments  that  the  courage  of  the  noblest 
souls  shines  with  the  purest  lustre,  and  the  soul  of  Paul  was  inwardly  enlight- 
ened. As  he  prayed  in  all  the  peacefulness  of  a  blameless  conscience,  it  was 
revealed  to  him  that  God  would  fulfil  the  promised  destiny  which  was  to  lead 
him  to  Rome,  and  that,  with  the  preservation  of  his  own  life,  God  would  also 
grant  to  him  the  lives  of  those  unhappy  sufferers,  for  whom,  all  unworthy  as  some 
of  them  soon  proved  to  be,  his  human  heart  yearned  with  pity.  While  the  rest 
were  abandoning  themselves  to  despair,  Paul  stood  forth  on  the  deck,  and  after 
gently  reproaching  them  with  having  rejected  the  advice  which  would  have 
saved  them  from  all  that  buffeting  and  loss,  he  bade  them  cheer  up,  for 
though  the  ship  should  be  lost,  and  they  should  be  wrecked  on  some  island, 
not  one  of  them  should  lose  his  life.  For  they  knew  that  he  was  a  prisoner 
who  had  appealed  to  Caesar;  and  that  night  an  angel  of  the  God,  whose  child 
and  servant  he  was,  had  stood  by  him.  and  not  only  assured  him  that  he  should 
stand  before  Caesar,  but  also  that  God  had,  as  a  sign  of  His  grace,  granted  him 

1  Yer.  19,  iV  <r«vV  tpptyaiJ.iv.  (This  is  the  reading  of  G,  H,  most  of  the  Cursives,  both 
the  Syriac  versions,  the  Coptic,  JEthiopic,  &c.  I  agree  with  De  "Wette  in  thinking  that 
the  if>pi\jiav  of  N.  A,  B,  C,  Vulg.,  is  a  mistaken  alteration,  due  to  the  cn-oioCpro  of  the  pre- 
vious verse.)  The  meaning  of  the  expression  is  disputed,  but  it  has  been  universally 
overlooked  that  the  aorist  requires  some  tingle  act.  Hence  Alford's  notion  that  ^  <r«v^ 
means  beds,  furniture,  spare  rigging,  &c.,  and  Wetstein's,  that  it  means  the  baggage  of 
the  passengers,  fall  to  the  ground,  and  Smith's  suggestion  that  the  main  spar  is  intended 
is  much  strengthened.  He  observes  that  the  effect  would  be  much  the  same  aa  that 
produced  &  modern  vessels  by  heaving  the  guru  overboard. 


570  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  0?  ST.  PAUL. 

the  lives  of  all  on  board.    He  bade  them,  tlioref  ore,  to  cheer  up,  and  to  share 
Lis  own  conviction  that  the  vision  should  come  true. 

Who  shall  eay  how  much  those  calm  undoubting  words  were  designed  by 
God  to  help  in  bringing  about  their  own  fulfilment  ?  Much  had  yet  to  be 
done ;  many  a  strong  measure  to  avert  destruction  had  yet  to  be  taken ;  and 
God  helps  those  only  who  will  take  the  appointed  means  to  help  themselves. 
The  proud  words  "  Caeearem  vehis  " 1  may  have  inspired  the  frightened  sailor 
to  strenuous  effort  in  the  open  boat  on  the  coast  of  Illjria,  and  certainly  it  was 
Paul's  undaunted  encouragements  which  re-inspired  these  starving,  fainting, 
despairing  mariners  to  the  exertions  which  ultimately  secured  their  safety. 
For  after  they  had  drifted  fourteen  days,  tossed  up  and  down  on  the  heaving 
waves  of  Adria,2  a  weltering  plaything  for  the  gale,  suddenly  on  tho  fourteenth 
night  the  sailors,  amid  the  sounds  of  the  long-continued  storm,  fancied  that 
they  heard  the  roar  of  breakers  through  the  midnight  darkness.  Suspecting 
that  they  were  neariug  some  land,  and  perhaps  even  detecting  that  white 
phosphorescent  gleam  of  a  surf -beat  shore  which  is  visible  so  far  through  even 
the  blackest  night,  they  dropped  the  lead  and  found  that  they  were  in  twenty 
fathom  water.  Sounding  again,  they  found  that  they  were  in  fifteen  fathoms.8 
Their  suspicions  and  fears  were  now  turned  to  certainty,  and  hero  was  the 
fresh  danger  of  having  their  desolate  hulk  driven  irresistibly  upon  some  iron 
coast.  In  the  face  of  this  frosh  peril  the  only  thing  to  be  done  was  to  drop 
anchor.  Had  they  anchored  the  vessel  in  the  usual  manner,  from  the  prow/ 
the  ship  might  have  swung  round  against  a  reef;  nor  could  they  suppose,  as 
they  heard  the  extraordinary  loudness  of  the  surf  beating  upon  the  shore,  that 
they  were  at  that  moment  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  land.  So  they  dropped 
four  anchors*  through  the  hawse-holes  in  which  the  two  great  paddle-rudders 
ordinarily  moved ;  since  these — having  long  boon  useless  as  they  drifted  before 
the  gale—had  been  half  lifted  out  of  the  water,  and  lashed  to  the  stern.* 
Having  done  this,  they  could  only  yearn  with  intense  desire  for  the  dawn  of 
day.  All  through  the  remaining  hours  of  that  long  wintry  night,  they  etood 
face  to  face  with  the  agony  of  death.  In  its  present  condition,  the  leak  con- 
stantly gaining  on  them,  the  waves  constantly  deluging  them  with  spray,  the 
vessel  might  at  any  moment  sink,  even  if  the  anchors  held.  But  they  did  not 
know,  what  we  know,  that  those  anchors  had  dropped  into  clay  of  extraordinary 
•  ,f>;.i./  id^rn  terl  '  o&'t 

1  Plut.  Cats.  38;  De  Fort.  JRom.  6;  Florae,  IT.  2;  Dion  Casa.  sll.  48.  "Et  fortunam 
Caesaris  "  is  a  later  addition. 

"  The  Mediterranean  between  Greece,  Italy,  and  Africa.  Strabo,  ii.  123.  'IOWOK 
jre/uyos,  6  vvv'A5pi«(Hosych.).  4uuj>tpofievo»',  "  tossed  hither  and  thither."  So  it  would 
appear  to  those  on  board,  but  probably  they  drifted  in  the  E.N.  Easter.  477  mile*  in 
thirteen  days  at  the  natural  rate  of  one  mile  and  a  half  an  hour.  (See  Smith,  p.  101.) 

3  Mr.  Smith  says  that  Captain  Stewart's  soundings  "would  alone  have  furnished  a 
conclusive  test  of  tha  truth  of  this  narrative"  (p.  ix.) ;  and  that  we  are  enabled  by  these 
and  similar  investigations  "to  identify  the  locality  of  a  shipwreck  which  took  place 
eighteen  centuries  ago"  (p.  xiii.}. 

4  "Anchor*  de  prora  jacitur"  (Virg.    Mn.  lil.  277).     Lord  Nelson,  reading  this 
chapter  just  before  the  battle  of  Copenhagen,  ordered  our  vessels  to  be  anchored  by 
the  stern. 

*  Cf.  Gaei.  Bell,  Civ.  i  25,  *  Ax  appears  from  zxr!L  40. 


THE  VOYAGE  AJTD  SHIPWRECK.  571 

tenacity,  which,  indeed,  was  the  solo  circumstance  between  them  and  hopeless 
wreck. 

Gradually  through  the  murky  atmosphere  of  rain  and  tempest,  the  grim 
day  began  to  dawn  upon  the  miserable  crew.  Almost  as  soon  as  they  could  see 
the  dim  outlines  of  their  own  faces,  haggard  and  ghastly  with  so  much  privation 
and  so  many  fears,  they  observed  that  they  were  anchored  off  a  low  point, 
over  which  the  eea  was  curling  with  a  huge  and  most  furious  eurf .  Ignorant 
that  this  was  Point  Koura,  on  the  north-east  sido  of  Malta,1  and  not  recog- 
nising a  single  landmark  on  the  featureless  shore,  the  only  thought  of  the 
selfish  heathen  sailors  was  to  abandon  the  hulk  and  crew  to  their  fate,  while 
they  saved  themselves  in  the  boat  which  they  had  with  such  trouble  and 
danger  hoisted  on  board.  Pretending,  therefore,  that  they  could  steady  the 
pitching  of  the  ship,  and  therefore  make  her  hold  together  for  a  longer  time, 
if  they  used  more  anchors,  and  laid  them  out  at  full  length  of  the  cables1 
instead  of  merely  dropping  them  from  the  prow,  they  began  to  unlash  the  boat 
and  lower  her  into  the  sea.  Had  they  succeeded  in  their  plot,  they  would 
probably  have  been  swamped  in  the  surf  upon  the  point,  and  all  on  board 
would  inevitably  have  perished  from  inability  to  handle  the  sinking  vessel. 
From  this  danger  alike  the  crew  and  the  sailors  were  once  more  saved  by  the 
prompt  energy  and  courage  of  St.  Paul.  Seeing  through  the  base  design,  he 
quietly  observed  to  Julius,  who  was  the  person  of  most  authority  on  board, 
"  If  these  sailors  do  not  stay  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved."  He  says  "  ye," 
not  "  we."  Strong  in  God  s  promise,  he  had  no  shadow  of  doubt  respecting 
his  own  preservation,  but  the  promise  of  safety  to  all  the  crew  was  conditional 
on  their  own  performance  of  duty.  The  soldiers,  crowded  together  in  the 
vessel  with  their  prisoners,  heard  the  remark  of  Paul,  and— since  he  alone  at 
that  wild  moment  of  peril  had  kept  calm,  and  was  therefore  the  virtual  captain 
— without  the  smallest  scruple  drew  their  swords  and  cut  through  the  boat's 
ropes,  letting  her  fall  away  in  the  trough  of  the  sea.  It  is  not  likely  that  the 
sailors  felt  much  resentment.  Their  plan  was  distinctly  base,  and  it  offered  at 
the  best  a  very  forlorn  and  dubious  hope  of  safety.  But  the  daylight  had  now 
increased,  and  the  hour  was  approaching  in  which  everything  would  depend 
upon  their  skill  and  promptitude,  and  on  the  presence  of  mind  of  all  on  board. 
Once  more,  therefore,  the  Apostle  encouraged  them,  and  nrged  them  all  to 
take  some  food.  "  This  is  the  fourteenth  day,"  he  said,  "  on  which  you  are 
continuing  foodless,  in  constant  anxiety  and  vigilance,  without  taking  any- 
thing. I  entreat  you,  then,  all  to  join  in  a  meal,  which  is  indeed  essential 
to  that  preservation,  of  which  I  assure  you  with  confidence,  for  not  a 
hair  of  the  head  of  any  one  of  you  shall  perish."  And  having  given 
them  this  encouragement,  he  himself  set  the  example.  Making  of  the 
simplest  necessity  of  life  a  religious  and  eucharistic  act,  he  took  bread, 
gave  thanks  to  God  in  the  presence  of  them  all,  broke  it,  and  began  to 
eat.  Catching  the  contagion  of  his  cheerful  trust,  the  drenched,  miserable 

1  Where  the  English  frigate  Lively  waa  wrecked  in  1810, 
8  xsvii.  30,  irichttr,  not  "to  cast  out."  as  in  E.V. 


572  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

throng  of  276  souls,  who  had  so  long  been  huddled  together  in  their  unspeak- 
able wretchedness  and  discomfort,  as  their  shattered  vessel  lay  rolling  and 
tossing  under  the  dismal  clouds,  took  fresh  courage,  and  shared  with  him  in  a 
hearty  meal  Knowing  that  this  was  the  last  meal  they  could  ever  take  in  the 
dismasted  vessel,  and  also  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  save  the  cargo,  they 
lightened  and  righted  the  vessel  by  flinging  overboard  the  wheat,  which  in  the 
long  drift  of  476  miles  from  Clauda  in  the  storm  must  have  shifted  much  to 
one  side  and  made  the  vessel  heel  over  in  a  dangerous  manner.  When  the  full 
daylight  enabled  them  to  examine  the  shore,  they  saw  no  recognisable  land- 
mark— since  the  present  Yaletta,  the  harbour  of  Malta,  at  which  ships  often 
touched,  was  seven  miles  E.S.E.  of  the  point  where  they  were  wrecked ;  but 
they  saw  a  bay,  at  one  extremity  of  which  the  cliffs  sank  down  into  a  flat 
beach,  and  the  only  thing  which  they  could  hope  to  do  was  to  thrust  the 
ship  out  of  her  direct  course,  and  strand  her  at  this  spot.  To  make  a  tack 
athwart  the  wind  with  a  disabled  ship  was  a  manoeuvre  by  no  means  easy, 
but  it  was  worth  attempting.  They  therefore  cut  away  the  anchors,  letting 
the  ropes  drop  into  the  sea,1  unlashed  and  let  down  the  paddle-rudders,3 
hoisted  the  wrtemo,  or  foresail3 — which  was  all  that  was  left  them — to  the 
wind,  and  steered  straight  for  the  beach.  But  their  manoeuvre,  resolutely  as  it 
had  been  undertaken,  was  a  failure.  They  had  unconsciously  anchored  off  Rag 
el  Koura.  The  opposite  point  looked  like  another  promontory,  but  was  in 
reality  the  island  of  Salmonetta,  separated  from  the  mainland  by  a  deep, 
narrow,  and  precipitous  channel.  Through  this  channel,  about  a  hundred 
yards  in  width,  ran  a  current,  and  in  the  stormy  race  where  the  waters  of  this 
current  met  the  waters  of  the  bay,  the  vessel*  would  not  answer  to  the  helm, 
and  all  they  could  do  was  to  run  her  ashore.  Happily  for  them  she  drove, 
not  upon  a  rock,  but  deep  into  a  bank  of  mud,  such  as  still  exists  at  that  very 
spot.  Here  the  prow  stuck  immovably  fast,  while  the  stern  was  free.  The 
crew  rushed  to  the  prow,  while  the  waves,  which  broke  with  fury  over  the  un- 
supported stern,  began  instantly  to  batter  it  to  pieces.  Here,  even  at  this 
extremity,  there  rose  for  Paul  and  the  other  prisoners  a  new,  unexpected,  and 
yet  more  terrible  danger.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  soldiers  to  be  responsible 
with  their  own  lives  for  their  prisoners.  The  Roman  law  was  stern,  rigid,  and 
unbending,  nor  did  it  admit  of  any  extenuating  plea.  So  long  as  death  seemed 
imminent,  and  every  hand  on  board  might  be  useful  in  averting  it,  the 
prisoners  must  have  been  left  unchained ;  but  in  such  a  crisis  as  this,  what 
was  there  to  prevent  any  one  of  them  from  taking  a  dive  into  the  sea,  and 
so  escaping  P  It  would  have  been  a  horrible  thing  that  blood  and  butchery 
should  stain  the  planks  of  a  shipwrecked  vessel  at  the  very  moment  when 
safety  seemed  within  reach,  and  that  this  human  sacrifice  of  lives  which  God 

1  Ver.  40,  iy«upa*  mpttAovrtc  tit**  tit  iV  0aX<ur<rav,  not  "  when  they  had  taken  up  the 
anchors,  they  committed  themtdvet  unto  the  sea,"  E.  V. 

a  Eur.  Eel.  1536. 

»  "Levato  artemone,"  Vulg.;  "a  litil  sail,"  Wycl. ;  "Vestibus  extensia,  et  quofl 
fnperaverat  unum  Velo  prora  suo,"  JUT.  xii.  68,  Artemone  Solo.  Sch, 

*  So  $e?a\awof  U  used  of  the  Eosphvrut  by  Strabo,  124. 


ST.  PAUL'S  ARRIVAL  AT  ROME.  573 

had  rescued  should  be  the  only  thanksgiving  of  the  survivors.  It  was  even 
more  horrible  that  they  who  had  fraternised  with  their  fellows  in  the  levelling 
communism  of  sympathy,  as  they  huddled  side  by  side,  with  death  staring  them 
in  the  face,  should  now  thrust  their  swords  into  hearts  with  which  their  own 
had  so  long  been  beating  in  fearful  sympathy.  From  this  peril  the  prisoners 
were  again  indirectly  saved  by  liim  whose  counsel  and  encouragement  had  all 
along  been  the  direct  source  of  their  preservation.  If  the  prisoners  were  to 
be  killed,  equal  justice,  or  injustice,  must  be  dealt  to  all  of  them  alike,  and 
Julius  felt  that  it  would  be  dastardly  ingratitude  to  butcher  the  man  to  whom, 
under  God's  providence,  they  all  owed  their  rescued  lives.  He  therefore 
forbade  the  design  of  the  soldiers,  and  gave  orders  that  every  one  who  could 
swim  should  first  fling  himself  overboard,  and  get  to  land.1  The  rest  seized 
hold  of  planks  and  other  fragments  of  the  fast-dissolving  wreck.1  The  wind 
threw  them  landwards,  and  at  last  by  the  aid  of  the  swimmers  all  were  saved, 
and — at  s  spot  which,  owing  to  the  accurate  fidelity  of  the  narrative,  can  still 
be  exactly  identified — a  motley  group  of  nearly  three  hundred  drenched,  and 
shivering,  and  weather-beaten  sailors  and  soldiers,  and  prisoners  and  passen- 
gers, stood  on  that  chill  and  stormy  November  morning  upon  the  desolate  and 
surf -beat  shore  of  the  island  of  Malta.  Some,  we  are  sure,  there  were  who 
joined  with  Paul  in  hearty  thanks  to  the  God  who,  though  He  had  not  made 
the  storm  to  cease,  so  that  the  waves  thereof  were  still,  had  yet  brought  them 
safe  to  land,  through  all  the  perils  of  that  tempestuous  month. 


JSoofe   i. 

HOME. 


CHAPTER  XLIT. 

ST.  PAUL'S  AERIVAL  AT  ROMB. 

;   -  •<-.-.,-.    j.-.,;'     «v>v:   {;•>"»   «'f{ 

**  Paulus  Romae,  apex  Evangelii." — "BssofL. 

So  ended  Si  Paul's  fourth  shipwreck.  The  sight  of  the  vessel  attracted 
the  natives  of  the  island,3  a  simple  Punic  race,  mingled  with  Greek  settlers, 
aud  under  Roman  dominion.  There  have  been  times  far  more  recent,  and 
coasts  far  nearer  to  the  scenes  of  civilisation,  in  which  the  castaways  of  s 

1  Probably  Paul  was  among  these  (2  Cor.  xi.  25). 

2  Ver.   41,    fAv'ero,  "  was  going    to   pieces."      "Dissolutum    navigium'    (Cio.   Att, 
iv.  11). 

3  The  notion  that  the  island  on  which  they  were  wrecked  was  not  Malta,  but  the 
little  Adriatic  island  of  Meleda,  off  the  coast  of  Dalmatia,  was  started  by  Constantino 
the  Porphyrogenite.     It  was  founded  on  mistakes  about  Adria  (xxvii.  27),  barbarians 
(iiviii.  2),  and  vipers  (id.  3),  combined  with  various  nautical  considerations ;   and  was 
supported  by  Georgi  of  Meleda,  Jacob  Bryant,  and  Dr.  Falconer,  and  lastly  by  Dr.  J. 
Mason  Neale,  in  his  Notes  on  Dalmatia,  p.  161.    All  that  can  be  said  for  it  may  be  found 
in  Falconer's  Dissertation  (3rd  edit.,  with  additional  notes,  1872). 


574  THE  LIITE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

derelict  would  have  been  more  likely  to  bo  robbed  and  murdered  than  received 
with  hospitality  and  compassion  ;  but  these  Maltese  Phoenicians,  nearly  two 
millenniums  ago,  welcomed  the  rescued  crew  with  unusual  kindneas.  Heavy 
showers  had  come  on,  and  the  shipwrecked  men  were  half  -benumbed  with 
fatigue  and  cold.  Pitying  their  condition,  the  natives  lit  a  huge  fire  of  fagots 
and  brushwood,  that  they  might  dry  their  clothes,  and  gave  them  in  all  respects 
a  friendly  welcome.  Paul,  with  that  indomitable  activity  and  disregard  of 
self  which  neither  danger  nor  fatigue  could  check,  was  busy  among  the  busiest 
collecting  fuel.  He  had  got  together  a  large  bundle  of  furze-roots,1  and  had 
just  put  it  on  the  blazing  fire,  when  a  viper  which  had  been  lying  torpid,  being 
suddenly  revived  and  irritated  by  the  hoat,  darted  out  of  the  bundle  and 
"fastened  on  Paul's  hand."  Seeing  the  creature  hanging  from  hia  hand, 
and  observing  that  he  was  a  prisoner,  thd  simple  natives  muttered  to  one 
another  that  he  must  be  some  murderer,  rescued  indeed  from  the  waves,  but 
pursued  by  just  vengeance  even  on  land.  Paul,  quite  undisturbed,  shook  the 
creaturo  oft  into  the  fire,  and  was  none  the  worse.2  The  natives  expected 
that  he  would  suddenly  drop  dead.3  For  a  long  time  they  watched  him  with 
eager  eyes,  but  when  they  observed  that  no  unpleasant  result  of  any  kind 
followed,  they,  like  the  rude  people  of  Lystra,  gradually  changed  their  minds, 
and  said  that  he  was  a  god. 

For  three  months,  until  the  beginning  of  February  opened  the  sea  to 
navigation,  the  crew  lived  in  Malta  ;  and  during  that  time,  owing  once  more 
to  the  inSuonce  of  St.  Paul,  he  and  his  associates  received  the  utmost  kindness. 
Not  far  from  the  scene  of  the  shipwreck  lay  the  town  now  called  Alta  Yecchia, 
the  residence  of  Pubiius,  the  governor  of  the  island,  who  was  probably  a  legate 
of  the  Pi-aster  of  Sicily.  Since  Julius  was  a  person  of  distinction,  this  Roman 
official,  who  bore  the  title  of  Protos  ("  First  ")  —  a  local  designation,  the  accu- 
racy of  which  is  supported  by  inscriptions*  —  offered  to  the  centurion  a 
genial  hospitality,  in  which  Paul  and  his  friends  wore  allowed  to  share.  It- 
happened  that  at  that  time  the  father  of  Pubiius  was  lying  prostrated  by 
feverish  attacks  complicated  with  dysentery.  St.  Luke  was  a  physician,  but 
his  skill  was  less  effectual  than  the  agency  of  St.  Paul,  who  went  into  the 
side  man's  chamber,  prayed  by  his  beasido,  laid  his  hands  on  him,  and  healed 
him.  The  rumour  of  the  cure  spread  through  the  little  island,  and  caused  all 
the  sick  inhabitants  to  come  for  help  and  tendance.  We  may  be  sure  that 
St.  Paul,  though  we  do  not  hear  of  his  founding  any  Church,  yet  lost  no 
opportunity  of  making  known  the  Gospel.  He  produced  a  doop  and  most 


(see  Theophrast.  Hist.  Plant.  1,  4).  Hence  the  objection  that  Bo3quetia, 
tome  distance  from  St.  Paul'*  Bay,  is  the  only  place  where  there  is  timber  hi  Malta,  drops 
to  the  ground,  even  if  there  were  ever  anything  in  it. 

J  The  disappearance  of  the  viper  from  Malta,  if  it  has  disappeared,  is  no  more  strange 
than  its  disappearance  from  Arran.  There  is  a  curious  parallel  to  ihe  incident  in  tke 
Greek  Anthology.  ('E/eTavt)  Avypbs  ex«'  rl  fianjv  jrpb«  KVJJLOLT'  e,a<5x0«  TJ;V  «rl  yrji  ^ei'ytw  ftoipax 
tysiAJvxtVijK;  (Anthol.) 

8  So  when  Charmian  is  bitten,  "  Trembling  she  stood,  and  on  the  sudden  dropped," 
Ant.  and  Cleop.  v.  2  (Humphry). 

«  IJochart,  Phaltg.  II.  i.  26.    npS>?ot  M«\tr«6*y,  Corp.  Inter.  Grac,  5754. 


ST.  PAUL'S  ABRIVAL  AT  KOME.  575 

favourable  impression,  and  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  •with  respectful  demon- 
strations. In  the  shipwreck  the  crew  must  hare  lost  all,  except  what  little 
money  they  could  carry  on  their  own  persons ;  they  were  therefore  in  deep 
aeed  of  assistance,1  and  this  they  received  abundantly  from  the  love  and 
gratitude  of  the  islanders  to  whom  their  stay  had  caused  so  many  benefits. 

Another  Alexandrian  corn-ship,  the  Castor  and  Pollux — more  fortun.-ite 
than  her  shattered  consort — had  wintered  in  the  harbour  of  Valetta;  and 
when  navigation  waa  again  possible,  Julius  and  his  soldiers  embarked  on 
board  of  her  with  their  prisoners,  and  weighed  anchor  for  Syracuse.  It  was 
but  eighty  miles  distant,  and  during  that  day's  voyage  St.  Paul  would  gazo 
for  the  first  time  on  the  giant  cone  of  Etna,  the  first  active  volcano  ho  had 
ever  soon.  At  Syracuse  they  waited  three  days  for  a  more  favourable  wind. 
Since  it  did  not  come,  they  made  a  circuitous  tack,2  which  brought  them  to 
Rhegiurn.  Hero  again  they  waited  for  a  single  day,  and  as  a  south  wind 
then  sprang  up,  which  was  exactly  what  they  most  desired,  they  sped  swiftly 
through  tha  Straits  of  Messina,  between  the  chains  of  snow-clad  hills,  and 
after  passing  on  their  left  tho  huge  and  ever-Sashing  cone  of  Str?*nboli, 
anchored  the  next  day,  after  a  splendid  rnn  of  180  miles,  in  the  lovely  Bay 
of  Puteoli.  The  unfurled  topsail  which  marked  the  Alexandrian  corn-ship 
would  give  notice  of  her  arrival  to  the  idlers  of  the  gay  watering-place,  who 
gathered  in  hundreds  on  the  mole  to  welcome  with  their  shouts  the  vessels 
which  brought  the  ataS  of  life  to  the  granaries  of  Boms.  Hero  Paul  had  the 
unexpected  happiness  to  find  a  little  Christian  Church,  and  the  brethren  bogged 
him  to  stay  with  them  seven  days.  This  enabled  them  to  spend  together  a 
Sabbath  and  a  Sunday,  and  the  privilege  was  granted  by  the  kindly  and  grateful 
Julius.  Here,  then,  they  rested,  in  one  of  the  loveliest  of  earthly  scenes, 
when  Vesuvius  was  still  a  slumbering  volcano,  clad  to  its  green  summit  with 
vines  and  gardens.  Paul  could  not  have  looked  unmoved  on  the  luxury  and 
magnificence  of  the  neighbouring  towns.  There  was  Baise,  where,  to  the 
indignation  of  Horace,  the  Roman  nobles  built  out  their  palaces  into  the  sea ; 
and  where  the  Caesar  before  whose  judgment-seat  he  was  going  to  stand  had 
enacted  tha  hideous  tragedy  of  his  mother's  murder,  and  had  fled,  pursued 
by  her  Furies,  from  place  to  place  along  the  shore.3  In  sight  was  Pandataria, 
and  the  other  distant  rocky  islets,  dense  with  exiles  of  the  noblest  rank,  whore 
Agrippa  Postumus,  the  hist  of  the  genuine  Csesara,  had  tried  to  stop  the  pangs 
of  famine  by  gnawing  the  stuffing  of  his  own  mattress,  and  where  the  daughter 
of  the  great  Augustus  had  ended,  in  unutterable  wretchedness,  her  life  of 
infamy.  Close  by  was  Cumse,  with  its  Sibylline  fame,  and  Pausilypus,  with 
Yirgii's  tomb,  and  Caprese,  where  twenty-three  years  before  Tiberius  had 
dragged  to  the  grave  his  miserable  old  age.  And  within  easy  distance  were 
tho  little  towns  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  little  dreaming  as  yet,  in  their 

1  TinaTs.    Cf.  Ecclus.  ixxviii.  1 ;  "hones,"  Cic.  ad  Diw.  rri.  9. 

*  xxviii.  13.    ir*pt«A9ovT<rs,  "  fetched  a  compass,"  2  Sam.  v.  S3  j  2  Kings  iii.  9. 

J  A.D.  59.      Atb  (tat  cAXo<r«  f*«  «al  cimSq  Ka.vTa.vQai  ri    avra  oi>T<3  <rwe'/Jcur«,  c^Ac<r«  i/j.-MJRrtit 
.    Dion,  Ixi.  13,  14;  Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  8;  Suet.  Nero,  3i 


576  THE  LItfE  AND  WOBK  Of  ST.  PAUL. 

Greek-like  gaiety  and  many-coloured  brilliance,  how  soon  they  would  be  bttried 
by  the  neighbouring  mountain  in  their  total  and  sulphurous  destruction. 

Here,  free  and  among  brethren,  Paul  passed  seven  peaceful  days.  On  the 
eighth  they  started  for  Rome,  which  was  only  distant  a  hundred  and  forty 
miles.  News  of  their  arrival  had  reached  the  brethren,  and  when  they  had 
gone  about  a  hundred  miles,  past  Capua,  and  through  the  rich  vineyards  of 
Italy,  and  then  through  the  Pomptine  Marshes,  Paul  and  Luke  and  Aris- 
tarchus,  among  the  bargees  and  hucksters  who  thronged  Appii  Forum,1 
caught  sight  of  a  body  of  Christians,  who  had  come  no  less  than  forty  miles 
to  welcome  them.  Farther  than  this  they  could  not  have  come,  since  there 
were  two  ways  of  reaching  Home  from  Appii  Forum,  and  the  centurion  might 
have  preferred  the  less  fatiguing  journey  by  the  canal.  Ten  miles  further  on, 
at  Tres  Tabernse,  they  found  another  group  of  brethren  awaiting  them. 
Though  there  were  a  few  who  loved  him  at  Rome,  Paul  knew  the  power,  the 
multitude,  and  the  turbulence  of  the  vast  assemblage  of  synagogues  in  the 
great  city,  and  on  their  favour  or  opposition  much  of  his  future  destiny  must, 
humanly  speaking,  depend.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  when  he  saw  the 
little  throng  of  Christians  he  should  thank  God,  and  take  courage  from  this 
proof  of  their  affection.  Nothing  cheered  and  inspired  him  so  much  as  human 
sympathy,  and  the  welcome  of  these  brethren  must  have  touched  with  the 
brightness  of  a  happy  omen  his  approach  to  a  city  which,  greatly  as  he  had 
longed  to  see  it,  he  was  now  to  enter  under  circumstances  far  more  painful 
than  he  had  ever  had  reason  to  expect. 

And  so  through  scenes  of  ever-deepening  interest,  and  along  a  road  more 
and  more  crowded  with  stately  memorials,  the  humble  triumph  of  the  Lord's 
slave  and  prisoner  swept  on.  St.  Paul  had  seen  many  magnificent  cities,  but 
iiover  one  which  was  approached  by  a  road  so  regular  and  so  costly  in  construc- 
tion. As  they  passed  each  well-known  object,  the  warm-hearted  brethren 
would  point  out  to  him  the  tombs  of  the  Scipios  and  Csecilia  Metella,  and  the 
thousands  of  other  tombs  with  all  their  architectural  beauty,  and  striking  bas- 
reliefs  and  touching  inscriptions ;  and  the  low  seats  for  the  accommodation  of 
travellers  at  every  forty  feet ;  and  the  numberless  statues  of  the  Dei  Yiales  ; 
and  the  roadside  inns,  and  the  endless  streams  of  carriages  for  travellers  of 
every  rank — humble  birotae  and  comfortable  rhedae,  and  stately  carpenta— 
and  the  lecticae  or  palanquins  borne  on  the  necks  of  slaves,  from  which  the 
occupants  looked  luxuriously  down  on  throngs  of  pedestrians  passing  to  and 
from  the  mighty  capital  of  the  ancient  world. 

"  What  conflux  issuing  forth  or  passing  in ; 
Praetors,  Proconsuls  to  their  provinces 
Hasting,  or  on  return,  in  robes  of  state, 
Lictors  and  rods,  the  ensigns  of  their  power, 
Legions  and  cohorts,  turms  of  horse  and  wings ; 
Or  embassies  from  regions  far  remote, 
In  various  habits,  on  the  Appian  road  .  . 
Dusk  faces  with  white  silken  turbans  wreathed." 

i  HOT.  Sat.  L  T.  4. 


ST.  PAUL'S  ARRIVAL  AT  ROMB.  577 

How  many  a  look  of  contemptuous  curiosity  would  bo  darted  at  the  chained 
prisoner  and  his  Jewish  friends  as  they  passed  along  with  their  escort  of 
soldiers !  But  Paul  could  bear  all  this  while  ho  felt  that  he  would  not  be 
utterly  lonely  amid  the  vast  and  densely-crowded  wilderness  of  human  habita- 
tions, of  which  he  first  caught  sight  as  he  mounted  the  slope  of  the  Alban 
hills. 

Perhaps  as  they  left  the  Alban  hills  on  the  right,  the  brethren  would  tell 
the  Apostle  the  grim  annals  of  the  little  temple  which  had  been  built 
beside 

"  that  dim  lake  which  sleeps 

Beneath  Aricia's  trees, 
The  trees  in  whose  dim  shadow 
The  ghastly  priest  doth  reign, 
The  priest  who  slew  the  slayer 
And  shall  himself  be  slain." 

And  so  through  ever-lengthening  rows  of  suburban  villas,  and  ever-thickening 
throngs  of  people,  they  would  reach  the  actual  precincts  of  the  city,  catch 
sight  of  the  Capitol  and  the  imperial  palace,  pass  through  the  grove  and  by 
the  fountain  of  Egeria,  with  its  colony  of  begging  Jews,1  march  past  the 
pyramid  of  0.  Cestius,  under  the  arch  of  Drusns,  through  the  dripping 
Capenian  gate,1  leave  the  Circus  Maximus  on  the  left,  and  pass  on  amid 
temples,  and  statues,  and  triumphal  arches,  till  they  reached  the  Excubito* 
rium,  or  barracks  of  that  section  of  the  Praetorian  cohorts  whose  turn  it  was 
to  keep  immediate  guard  over  the  person  of  the  Emperor.  It  was  thus  that, 
the  dream  of  Paul's  life  was  accomplished,  and  thus  that  in  March,  A.D.  61, ; 
in  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  Nero,  under  the  consulship  of  Csesennius 
Paetus  and  Petronius  Turpilianus,  he  entered  Home. 

Here  the  charge  of  the  centurion  Julius  ended,  though  we  can  hardly  suppose 
that  he  would  entirely  forget  and  neglect  henceforth  his  noble  prisoner,  to  whom 
in  God's  providence  he  owed  his  own  life  and  the  safety  of  the  other  prisoners 
entrusted  to  him.  Officially,  however,  his  connexion  with  them  was  closed 
when  he  had  handed  them  over  to  the  charge  of  the  Prefect  of  the  Praetorian 
guards.  From  this  time  forward,  and  indeed  previously,  there  had  always 
been  two  Praefecti  Praetorio,  but  during  this  year  a  single  person  held  the 
power  of  that  great  office,  the  honest  and  soldierly  Afranius  Burrus.5  So  far, 
Paul  was  fortunate,  for  Burrus,  as  an  upright  and  humane  officer,  was  not 
likely  to  treat  with  needless  severity  a  prisoner  who  was  accused  of  no  compre- 
hensible charge — of  none  at  any  rate  which  a  Roman  would  consider  worth 
mentioning — and  who  had  won  golden  opinions  both  from  the  Procurators  of 
Judsea  and  from  the  centurion  who  had  conducted  him  from  Jerusalem.  A 
vulgar  and  careless  tyrant  might  have  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was 
some  fanatical  Sicarius,  such  as  at  that  time  swarmed  throughout  Judaea,  and 
so  have  thrust  him  into  a  hopeless  and  intolerable  captivity.  But  the  good 

1  Juv.  Sat.  iii.  12.  *  Porta  di  S.  Sebastiano. 

8  Acts  xxviii.  16,  ry  <rrpa.TOTrtSd(>xa-  Trajan  op.  Plin.  Epp.  x.  65,  "Vinctrui  mitti  ad 
praefectos  praetorii  mei  debet." 


578  THE   LIFE   AND  WORE   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

word  of  Julius,  and  the  kindly  integrity  of  Burrus,  were  invaluable  to  him, 
and  he  was  merely  subjected  to  that  Mad  of  cusiod-ia  militaris  which  was 
known  as  observatio.  For  the  first  three  days  he  was  hospitably  received  by 
some  member  of  the  Christian  community,1  and  was  afterwards  allowed  to 
Lire  a  lodging  of  his  own,  with  free  leave  to  communicate  with  his  friends  both 
by  letter  and  by  personal  intercourse.  The  trial  of  having  a  soldier  chained 
to  him  indeed  continued,  but  that  was  inevitable  under  the  Roman  system.  It 
was  in  mitigation  of  this  intolerable  concomitant  of  his  imprisonment  that  tho 
goodwill  of  his  Roman  friends  might  bs  most  beneficially  exercised.  At  the 
best,  it  was  an  infliction  which  it  required  no  little  fortitude  to  endure,  and  for 
a  Jew  it  would  be  far  more  painful  than  for  a  Gentile.  Two  Goatiles  might 
have  much  in  common  j  they  would  be  interested  in  common  topics,  actuated 
by  common  principles  j  but  a  Jew  and  Gentile  would  bo  separated  by  mutual 
antipathies,  and  liable  to  the  incessant,  friction  of  irritating  peculiarities.  That 
St.  Paul  deeply  felt  this  annoyance  may  be  seen  from  his  allusions  to  his 
"bonds"  or  hia  "coupling-chain"  in  every  Epistle  of  the  Captivity.  When 
the  first  Agrippa  had  been  flung  into  prison  by  Tiberius,  Antonia,  out  of 
friendship  for  his  family,  had  bribed  the  Praetorian  Prefect  Macro  to  place 
him  under  the  charge  of  a  kind  centurion,  and  to  secure  as  far  as  possible  thai, 
the  soldiers  coupled  to  him  should  be  good-tempered  men.  Some  small  measure 
of  similar  consideration  may  have  been  extended  to  Paul ;  but  tho  service  was 
irksome,  and  there  must  have  been  some  soldiers  whose  morose  and  sullen 
natures  caused  to  their  prisoner  a  terrible  torture.  Yet  even  over  these  coarse, 
uneducated  Gentiles,  the  courtesy,  the  gentleness,  the  "  sweet  reasonableness  " 
;of  the  Apostle,  assorted  its  humanising  control.  If  he  was  chained  to  the 
soldier,  the  soldier  was  also  chained  to  him,  and  during  the  dull  hours  until  he 
was  relieved,  many  a  guardsman  might  be  glad  to  hear  from  such  lips,  in  all 
their  immortal  novelty,  the  high  truths  of  the  Christian  faith.  Out  of  hia 
worst  trials  the  Apostle's  cheerful  faith  created  the  opportunities  of  his  highest 
usefulness,  and  from  the  necessities  of  his  long-continued  imprisonment  arose 
a  diffusion  of  Gospel  truths  throughout  tho  finest  regiment  of  that  army  which 
less  than  a  century  later  was  to  number  among  its  contingents  a  "  thundering 
legion,"  and  in  less  than  three  centuries  was  to  supplant  the  silver  eagles  of 
the  empire  by  tho  then  detested  badge  of  a  slave's  torture  and  a  murderer's 
punishment. 

It  was  one  of  the  earliest  cares  of  the  Apostle  to  summon  together  the 
leading  members  of  the  Roman  Ghetto,  and  explain  to  them  his  position. 
Addressing  them  as  "  brethren,"  he  assured  them  he  had  neither  opposed  his 
people  nor  contravened  their  hereditary  institutions.  In  spite  of  tliis  he  had 
been  seized  at  Jerusalem,  and  handed  over  to  the  Roman  power.  Yet  tho 
Romans,  after  examining  him,  had  declared  him  entirely  innocent,  and  would 
have  been  glad  to  liberate  him  had  not  the  opposition  of  the  Jews  compelled 
him  to  appeal  to  Ccesar.  But  ho  was  anxious  to  inform  them  that  by  this 

»  Kvlii.  23,  .Is  rijr  fw'w.    Of.  FMleni.  22;  Ada  sxl  18, 


ST.  PAtri/B  ABKIVAL  AT  BOM1.  679 

appeal  he  did  not  intend  in  any  way  to  sot  the  Roman  authorities  against  liis 
own  nation,  and  that  the  cause  of  the  chain  he  wore  was  his  belief  in  the  fulfil- 
ment  of  that  Messianic  hope  hi  which  all  Israel  shared. 

The  reply  of  the  Jews  was  very  diplomatic.  Differences  within  their  own 
pale,  connected  as  we  have  seen  with  the  name  of  Christ,  had  kindled  such  anger 
and  alarm  against  them,  that  less  than  ten  years  before  this  time  they  had 
suffered  the  ruinous  indignity  of  being  banished  from  Borne  by  an  edict  of 
Claudius.  That  edict  had  been  tacitly  permitted  to  fall  into  desuetude  ;  but 
the  Jews  were  anxious  not  to  be  again  subjected  to  so  degrading  an  infliction. 
They  therefore  returned  a  vague  answer,  declaring — whether  truthfully  or  not 
wo  cannot  say — that  neither  by  letter  nor  by  word  of  mouth  had  they  received 
uny  charge  against  the  Apostle's  character.  It  was  true  that,  if  any  Jews  had 
been  deputed  to  carry  before  Caesar  the  accusation  of  the  Sanhodrin,  they  could 
only  have  started  at  the  same  time  as  Julius,  and  would  therefore  have  been 
delayed  by  the  same  storms.  The  Jews  wished,  however,  to  learn  from  Paul 
Ids  particular  opinions,  for,  as  ho  was  a  professed  Christian,  they  could  only 
say  that  that  sect  was  everywhere  spoken  against.1  It  is  obvious  that  this 
answer  was  meant  to  say  as  little  as  possible.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  Jews 
should  never  have  heard  anything  said  against  St.  Paul;  but  being  keen 
observers  of  the  political  horizon,  and  seeing  that  Paul  was  favourably  regarded 
by  people  of  distinction,  they  did  not  choose  to  embroil  themselves  in  any 
quarrel  with  him.  Nor  does  their  professed  ignorance  at  all  disprove  the 
existence  of  a  Christian  community  so  important  as  that  to  which  St.  Paul  had 
addressed  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans.8  The  Jews  could  boast  of  one  or  two 
nol>le  proselytes ;  and  it  is  possible  that  Pomponia  Graecina,3  wife  of  Plautius, 
one  of  the  conquerors  of  Britain,  may  have  been  a  Christian.  But  if  so  she 
had  long  been  driven  into  the  deepest  seclusion,4  and  the  conversion  of  the 
Consular  Flavins  Clemens,  and  his  wife,  Flavia  Domitilla,  who  were  martyred 
by  Bomitian,  did  not  take  place  till  some  time  afterwards.  The  Christian 
Church  was  composed  of  the  humblest  elements,  and  probably  its  Jewish  and 
Gentile  members  formed  two  almost  distinct  communities  under  separate 
presbyters.5  Now,  with  uncircuiacised  Gentile  Christians  of  tho  lowest  rank 

1  This  they  might  well  say.  See  Tax:.  Ann.  xv.  44  ;  Suet.  Ifer.  1C;  and,  doubtless, 
the  graffiti  or  the  catacombs  are  only  successors  of  others  Btill  earlier,  just  as  are  the 
hideous  calumnies  against  which  the  Christian  apologists  appeal  (Tert.  Apol,  16,  &c.). 

3  In  Rom.  L  8  St.  Paul  tells  the  Roman  Christians  that  their  faith  is  proclaimed  in 
the  whole  world.  No  one  familiar  with  his  style  would  see  more  in  this  than  tho  favour- 
able mention  of  them  in  the  scattered  Christian  Churches  which  he  visited.  To  St.  Paul, 
aa  to  every  one  else,  "the  world"  meant  the  world  in  the  raidat  of  which  he  lived,  i.e., 
the  little  Christian  communities  which  he  had  founded.  Kenan  remarks,  that  in  reading 
Benjamin  of  Tudela,  one  would  imagine  that  there  was  no  one  in  the  world  but  Jews ; 
and  in  reading  Ibn  Batoutah  that  there  was  no  one  in  the  world  but  Moslira. 

3  On  this  lady  see  Tac.  Ann.  xiii.  32. 

*  She  was  privately  tried  by  her  husband,  and  acquitted,  in  A.D.  57. 

5  laghtfoot,  Philippiann,  p.  219.  It  ia  at  any  rate  a  moat  remarkable  fact  that,  when 
St.  Paul  wrote  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  two  only  of  the  Judaic  Christians  showed 
him  any  countenance — namely,  Mark  and  Jesus,  whose  surname  of  Justus,  if  it  ba 
intended  as  a  translation  of  b  «««<*,  shows  that  he,  like  "  James  the  Just "  was  a 
faithful  observer  of  the  Law  (Col,  IT,  11). 


S80  THE  LIFE  AND  WOEK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

the  leading  Jews  would  not  be  likely  to  hold  any  intercourse,  even  if  they  were 
aware  of  their  existence.  But  is  it  remembered  that  Rome  at  this  time  was  s 
city  of  more  than  two  million  inhabitants?  Is  there  any  improbability  that» 
among  so  many  myriads,  a  small  and  struggling  sect  might,  to  outsiders* 
remain  utterly  unknown  ?  The  immense  weight  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
furnishes  no  proof  that  the  Church  to  which  it  was  addressed  was  one  which 
the  world  would  regard  as  of  any  importance.  The  Sandemanians  or  Glassites 
are  a  Christian  body  in  London,  and  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  some  eminent 
member  of  their  body,  like  the  late  Mr.  Faraday,  might  address  to  them  a 
letter  of  deep  significance ;  would  it  be  any  sufficient  reason  to  deny  their 
existence  if  it  was  found  that  the  Archdeacons  and  Rural  Deans  of  London 
had  barely  so  much  as  heard  of  their  peculiar  tenets  ? 

Since,  however,  the  Romish  Jews  professed  a  wish  for  further  information, 
St.  Paul  begged  them  to  fix  their  own  day  to  hear  what  he  had  to  set  before 
them.  They  came  to  him  in  considerable  numbers.  That  only  the  heads  of 
their  community  can  have  been  invited  is  clear.  St.  Paul's  abode  could  only 
have  accommodated  an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  Jewish  residents,  who  at 
this  time  are  believed  to  have  amounted  to  60,000.  It  is  said  that  there  were 
seven  synagogues  in  Rome,1  and  the  officers  of  these  synagogues  would 
probably  be  as  many  as  Paul  could  hope  to  address  at  once.  All  day  long, 
from  dawn  till  evening,  he  set  before  them  his  personal  testimony  and 
his  scriptural  arguments.  That  they  were  not  wholly  unimpressed,  appears 
from  the  length  of  the  discussion ;  but  while  a  few  were  convinced,  others 
disbelieved.  The  debate  acquired  towards  its  conclusion  a  somewhat  stormy 
emphasis ;  and  before  it  broke  up  Paul  addressed  the  dissentients  with 
something  of  his  old  fiery  energy,  applying  to  them  the  passage  of  Isaiah 
once  quoted  by  our  Lord  Himself,  which  said  that  they  should  not  see  nor 
hear  because  they  would  not,  and  that  their  blindness  and  deafness  were  a 
penal  consequence  of  the  grossness  of  their  hearts.  And  then  he  sternly 
warned  them  that  the  salvation  of  God  was  now  sent  to  the  Gentiles,  and  that 
the  Gentiles  would  listen  to  its  gracious  offer.  a 

Henceforth  St.  Paul  took  his  own  line,  opening  no  further  communication 
with  his  obstinate  fellow-countrymen.  For  two  whole  years  he  remained  in 
Rome,  a  fettered  prisoner,  but  living  in  his  own  hired  lodging,3  and  cheered 
by  the  visits  of  the  fellow-workers  who  were  truest  and  best  beloved.  The 
quiet  and  holy  Timotheus  perhaps  acted  as  his  amanuensis,  and  certainly 
showed  him  all  the  tenderness  of  a  son ;  *  the  highly-cultivated  Luke  was  his 
historiographer  and  his  physician ; 5  Aristarchus  attended  him  so  closely  as  to 
earn  the  designation  of  his  "  fellow-prisoner;  "*  Tychicus  brought  him  news 
from  Ephesus ;  T  Epaphroditus  warmed  his  heart  by  the  contributions  which 
showed  the  generous  affection  of  Philippi ; 8  Epaphras  came  to  consult  him 

1  Friedlander,  iii.  510.  8  Ver.  29  is  not  found  in  H,  A,  B,  E. 

1  MiVfopa,  not  "house,"  as  in  the  E.  V.,  but  "lodging" — meritorium  conductum, 

*  Phil.  L  1 ;  iL  19,  teqq. ;  Col.  i.  1 ;  Philem.  1. 

•  CoL  iv.  14  ;  Philem.  24.  «  Col.  iv.  10 ;  Philem.  24, 

1  Eph.  vi.  21 ;  CoL  iv.  7.  «  Phil.  ii.  25 ;  iv.  18,  ,f  4 


ST.  PAUL'S  SOJOURN  IN  BOMB.  581 

about  the  heresies  which  were  beginning  to  creep  into  the  Churches  of 
Laodicea,  Hierapolis,  and  Colossse  ;  l  Mark,  dear  to  the  Apostle  as  the  cousin 
of  Barnabas,  more  than  made  up  for  his  former  defection  by  his  present 
constancy  ;  2  and  Demas  had  not  yet  shaken  the  good  opinion  which  he  at  first 
inspired.3  Now  and  then  some  interesting  episode  of  his  ministry,  like  the 
visit  and  conversion  of  Onesimus,  came  to  lighten  the  tedium  of  his  confine- 
ment.* Nor  was  his  time  spent  fruitlessly,  as,  in  some  measure,  it  had  been  at 
Csesarea.  Throughout  the  whole  period  he  continued  heralding  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  teaching  about  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  openness  of  speech 
"  unmolestedly." 


With  that  one  weighty  word  o/caXvron,  we  lose  the  help  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  From  the  Epistles  of  the  imprisonment  we  learn  that,  chained 
though  he  was  in  one  room,  even  the  oral  teaching  of  the  Apostle  won  many 
converts,  of  whom  some  at  least  were  in  positions  of  influence  ;  and  that  —  as 
soldier  after  soldier  enjoyed  the  inestimable  privilege  of  being  chained  to  him 
•  —  not  his  bonds  only,  but  also  his  Gospel,  became  known  throughout  the 
whole  body  of  Praotorian  guards.  But  besides  this,  God  overruled  these  two 
years  of  imprisonment  in  Rome  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  world.  Two 
imprisonments,  away  from  books,  away  from  all  public  opportunities  for 
preaching,  each  of  two  years  long,  with  only  a  terrible  shipwreck  interpolated 
between  them  —  how  sad  an  interruption  to  most  minds  would  these  have 
seemed  to  be  !  Yet  in  the  first  of  these  two  imprisonments,  if  nothing  else 
was  achieved,  we  can  perceive  that  his  thoughts  were  ripening  more  and  more 
in  silent  growth  ;  and  in  that  second  imprisonment  he  wrote  the  letters  which 
have  enabled  him  to  exercise  a  far  wider  influence  on  the  Church  of  Christ 
throughout  the  world  than  though  he  had  been  all  the  while  occupied  in 
sermons  in  every  synagogue  and  missionary  journeys  in  every  land. 


CHAPTER   XLY. 
ST.  PAUL'S  SOJOURN  IN  ROME. 

TTJJ  oiKovfjLeinjs. — ATHBN.  Deipnoi,  1120. 
"  Fumum  et  opes  strepitumque  Ilomae." — HOB.  Carm.  iii.  29,  12. 

ST.  PAUL'S  arrival  at  Rome  was  in  many  respects  the  culminating  point  of 
his  Apostolic  career,  and  as  he  continued  to  work  there  for  so  long  a  time, 
it  is  both  important  and  interesting  to  ascertain  the  state  of  things  with  which 
he  came  in  contact  during  that  long  stay. 

Of  the  city  itself  it  is  probable  that  he  saw  little  or  nothing  until  he  was 

i  Col.  i.  7  ;  iv.  12.  *  Col.  iv.  10  ;  PMlem.  24  ;  2  Tim.  IT.  IL 

*  Col.  iv.  14 ;  Philem.  24 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  10.          *  Col.  iv.  9  ;  Philem.  10. 


582  THE  LI?E  A2TD  WORK  OF  Bit  PAUL. 

liberated,  except  such  a  glimpse  of  it  as  he  may  have  caught  on  his  way  to  hia 
place  of  confinement.  Although  his  friends  had  free  access  to  him,  he  •was 
not  permitted  to  visit  them,  nor  could  &  chained  Jewish  prisoner  walk  about 
with  his  guarding  soldier.  Yet  on  his  way  to  the  Praetorian  barracks  he  must 
have  seen  something  of  the  narrow  and  tortuous  streets,  as  well  as  of  the  great 
open  spaces  of  ancient  Borne ;  something  of  the  splendour  of  it6  public  edifices, 
and  the  meanness  of  its  lower  purlieus ;  something  of  its  appalling  contrast 
between  the  ostentatious  luxury  of  inexhaustible  wealth,  and  the  painful 
squalor  of  chronic  pauperism.1  And  during  his  stay  ho  must  have  seen  or 
heard  much  of  the  dangers  which  beset  those  densely-crowded  masses  of 
human  beings ; 8  of  men  injured  by  the  clumsy  carrucae  rumbling  along  with 
huge  stones  or  swaying  pieces  of  timber;8  of  the  crashing  fall  of  houses 
raised  on  weak  foundations  to  storey  after  storey  of  dangerous  height;4  of 
women  and  children  trampled  down  amid  the  rush  of  an  idle  populace  to 
•witness  the  horrid  butcheries  of  the  amphitheatre ;  of  the  violence  of  nightly 
marauders ;  of  the  irresistible  fury  of  the  many  conflagrations.6  It  is  obvious 
that  he  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  seek  a  lodging  in  the  Jewish  quarter 
beyond  the  Tiber,  since  he  would  be  obliged  to  consult  the  convenience  of  the 
successions  of  soldiers  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  guard  over  him.  It  is 
indeed  possible  that  he  might  have  been  located  near  the  Excubitorium,  but 
it  seems  more  likely  that  the  Pratorians  who  were  settled  there  were  too 
much  occupied  with  the  duties  thrown  on  them  by  their  attendance  at  the 
palace  to  leave  them  leisure  to  guard  an  indefinite  number  of  prisoners. 
We  infer,  therefore,  that  Paul's  "hired  apartment"  was  within  close  range 
of  the  Praetorian  camp.  Among  the  prisoners  there  confined  ho  might  have 
seen  the  Jewish  priests  who  had  been  sent  to  Borne  by  Felix,  and  who  won 
from  their  nation  so  much  approval  by  the  abstinence  which  they  endured  in 
the  determination  that  they  would  not  be  defiled  by  any  form  of  unclean 
meat.6  Here,  too,  he  may  have  seen  Caradoc,  the  British  prince  whose  heroic 
resistance  and  simple  dignity  extorted  praise  even  from  Roman  enemies,7 
The  fact  that  he  was  not  in  the  crowded  city  precincts  would  enable  him  at 
less  cost  to  get  a  better  room  than  the  stifling  garrets  which  Juvenal  so 
feelingly  describes  as  at  once  ruinously  expensive  and  distressingly  incon- 
venient. Considering  that  he  was  a  prisoner,  his  life  was  not  dull.  If  he  had 
to  suSer  from  deep  discouragements,  he  could  also  thank  God  for  many  a 
happy  alleviation  of  his  lot.  He  had  indeed  to  bear  the  sickness  of  hope 
deferred,  and  put  up  with  the  bitterness  of  "  the  law's  delays."  His  trial  was 
indefinitely  postponed — perhaps  by  the  loss,  during  shipwreck,  of  the  elogium 
of  Festus ;  by  the  Hop-appearance  of  hia  accusers ;  by  their  plea  for  timo  to 
procure  the  necessary  witnesses ;  or  by  the  frivoloiis  and  inhuman  carelessness 

Juv.  Sat.  iii.  128- -189. 

Juv.  Sat.  iii.  235 ;  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  38. 

Juv.  Sat.  iii.  254—201 :  Mart.  v.  22. 

Juv.  iii.  197,  teq.  *  Id.  239,  seq..  190  -  £31. 

Jos.  Met.  3.  7  Tac.  Ann,  xii.  38 ;  H.  iii,  -15. 


ST  PAUL'S  SOJOURN  IN  HOME.  583 

of  the  miserable  youth  who  was  then  the  emperor  of  the  world.  He  was 
saddened  at  the  rejection  of  his  teaching  by  his  unconverted  countrymen,  and 
by  the  dislike  and  suspicion  of  Judaising  Christians.  He  could  not  but  feel 
disheartened  that  some  should  be  preaching  Christ  with  the  base  and  conten- 
tious motive  of  adding  affliction  to  his  bonds.1  His  heart  must  have  been 
sometimes  dismayed  by  the  growth  of  subtle  heresies  in  the  infant  Church.' 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  safe  for  the  present  from  the  incessant  perils 
and  tumults  of  the  past  twenty  years ;  and  he  was  deprived  of  the  possibility, 
and  therefore  exempt  from  the  hard  necessity,  of  earning  by  incessant  toil  his 
daily  bread.  And  again,  if  he  was  neglected  by  Jews  and  Jndaisors,  he  was 
acceptable  to  many  of  the  Gentiles ;  if  his  Gospel  was  mutilated  by  unworthy 
preachers,  still  Christ  was  preached ;  if  his  bonds  were  irksome,  they  inspired 
others  with  zeal  and  courage ;  if  one  form  of  activity  had  by  God's  will  been 
restrained,  others  were  still  open  to  him,  and  while  he  was  strengthening 
distant  Churches  by  his  letters  and  emissaries,  he  was  making  God's  message 
known  more  and  more  widely  in  imperial  Rome.  He  had  preached  with  but 
small  success  in  Athens,  which  had  been  pre-eminently  the  homo  of  intellect ; 
but  he  was  daily  reaping  the  fruit  of  his  labours  in  the  city  of  empire — the 
city  which  had  snatched  the  sceptre  from  the  decrepit  hands  of  her  elder 
sister — the  capital  of  that  race  which  represented  the  law,  the  order,  and  the 
grandeur  of  the  world. 

That  many  of  the  great  or  the  noble  resorted  to  his  teaching  is  wholly 
improbable,  nor  is  there  a  particle  of  truth  in  the  tradition  which,  by  the  aid 
of  spurious  letters,  endeavoured  to  represent  the  philosopher  Seneca  as  one  of 
his  friends  and  correspondents.  We  have  seen  that  Gallio  prided  himself 
on  ignoring  his  very  existence;  and  it  is  certain  that  Seneca  would  have 
shared,  in  this  as  in  all  other  respects,  the  sentiments  of  his  brother.  In  his 
voluminous  writings  he  never  so  much  as  alludes  to  the  Christians,  and  if  he 
had  done  so  he  would  have  used  exactly  the  same  language  as  that  so  freely 
adopted  many  years  later — and,  therefore,  when  there  was  far  less  excuse 
for  it — even  by  such  enlightened  spirits  as  Pliny,  Tacitus,  Epictetus,  and 
M.  Aurelius.  Nothing  can  less  resemble  the  inner  spirit  of  Christianity  than 
the  pompous  and  empty  vaunt  of  that  dilettante  Stoicism  which  Seneca 
professed  in  every  letter  and  treatise,  and  which  he  belied  by  the  whole  tenor 
of  his  life.  There  were,  indeed,  some  great  moral  principles  which  ho  was 
enabled  to  see,  and  to  which  ha  gave  eloquent  expression,  but  they  belonged 
to  the  spirit  of  an  age  when  Christianity  was  in  the  air,  and  when  the  loftiest 
natures,  sick  with  disgust  or  with  satiety  of  the  universal  vice,  took  refuge  in 
the  gathered  experiences  of  the  wise  of  every  age.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
Seneca  ever  heard  more  than  the  mare  name  of  the  Christians ;  and  of  tiia 
Jews  he  only  speaks  with  incurable  disdain.  The  ordinary  life  of  the  wealthy 
and  noble  Roman  of  St.  Paul's  day  was  too  much  divided  between  abject 
terror  and  unspeakable  depravity  to  be  reached  by  anything  short  of  a 
yniraculous  awakening. 

1  Phil.  i.  16.  '  Later  Epistles, 


584  THE  LIFE  AND  WOES  OF  ST.  PATTIi. 

"  On  that  hard  Pagan  world  disgust 

And  secret  loathing  fell ; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 

Made  human  life  a  hell. 
"  In  his  cool  hall,  with  haggard  eyes, 

The  Roman  noble  lay ; 
He  drove  abroad  in  furious  guise 

Along  the  Appian  Way. 
**  He  made  a  feast,  drank  fast  and  fierce, 
And  crowned  his  hair  with  flowers— 
No  easier  nor  no  quicker  passed 
The  impracticable  hours. " 

The  condition  of  the  lower  classes  rendered  them  more  hopeful  subjects 
for  the  ennobling  influences  of  the  faith  of  Christ.  It  is  true  that  they  also 
lived  in  the  midst  of  abominations.  But  to  them  vice  stood  forth  in  all  its 
bare  and  revolting  hideousness,  and  there  was  no  wealth  to  gild  its  anguishing 
reactions.  Life  and  its  temptations  wore  a  very  different  aspect  to  tho 
master  who  could  lord  it  over  the  souls  and  bodies  of  a  thousand  helpless 
minions,  and  to  the  wretched  slave  who  was  the  victim  of  his  caprice  and 
tyranny.  As  in  every  city  where  the  slaves  far  outnumbered  the  free 
population,  they  had  to  be  kept  in  subjection  by  laws  of  terrible  severity.  It 
it  is  no  wonder  that  in  writing  to  a  Church  of  which  so  many  members  were 
in  this  sad  condition,  St.  Paul  had  thought  it  necessary  to  warn  them  of  the 
duty  of  obedience  and  honour  towards  the  powers  that  be.1  The  house  of  a 
wealthy  Roman  contained  slaves  of  every  rank,  of  every  nation,  and  of  every 
accomplishment,  who  could  bo  numbered  not  by  scores,  but  by  hundreds.  The 
master  might  kill  or  torture  his  slaves  with  impunity,  but  if  one  of  them, 
goaded  to  passionate  revenge  by  intolerable  wrong,  ventured  to  raise  a  hand 
against  his  owner,  the  whole  familia,  with  their  wives  and  children,  however 
innocent,  were  put  to  death.2  The  Roman  lady  looked  lovely  at  the  banquet, 
but  the  slave  girl  who  arranged  a  curl  wrong  had  been  already  branded  with 
a  hot  iron.3  The  triclinia  of  a  banquet  might  gleam  with  jewelled  and 
myrrhine  cups,  but  if  a  slave  did  but  drop  by  accident  one  crystal  vase  he 
might  be  flung  then  and  there  to  feed  the  lampreys  in  his  master's  fishpond. 
The  senator  and  the  knight  might  loll  upon  cushions  in  the  amphitheatre, 
and  look  on  luxuriously  at  the  mad  struggles  of  the  gladiators,  but  to  the 
gladiator  this  meant  the  endurance  of  all  the  detestable  savagery  of  the 
lanista,  and  the  taking  of  a  horrible  oath  that,  "  like  a  genuine  gladiator,"  he 
would  allow  himself  to  be  bound,  burned,  beaten,  or  killed  at  his  owner's  will.* 

1  Bom.  xiii.,  xiv. 

2  The  necessity  for  this  law  had  been  openly  argued  in  the  Senate,  and  it  was  put  in 
force  during  this  very  year,  A.D.  61,  when  Pedanius  Secundus,  the  prefect  of  the  city, 
was  murdered  by  one  of  his  slaves  (Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  42).     In  consequence  of  that  murder — 
itself  caused  by  dreadful  depravities — no  less  than  four  hundred  slaves  had  been  executed, 
and  it  ia  far  from  impossible  that  there  may  have  been  some  Christians  among  them.    On 
their  numbers  see  Juv.  iii.  141 ;  viii.  180 ;  xiv.  305.    Mancipiorum  legiones,  Plin.  H.  2V, 
xxxiii.  6,  §  26. 

•  Juv.  xiv.  24 ;  Becker,  Charides,  ii.  53 ;  Gallus,  ii.  124, 
4  Fetron.  Satyr.,  p.  117  (Sen.-  Ep.  7J. 


ST.  PAUL'S  80JOTJKN  IN   ROME.  585 

There  were,  doubtless,  many  kind  masters  at  Rome ;  but  the  system  of  slavery 
was  in  itself  irredeemably  degrading,  and  we  cannot  wonder,  but  can  only 
rejoice,  that,  from  Caesar's  household  downwards,  there  were  many  in  this 
condition  who  found  in  Christian  teaching  a  light  and  peace  from  heaven. 
However  low  their  earthly  lot,  they  thus  attained  to  a  faith  so  sure  and  so 
consolatory  that  in  the  very  catacombs  they  surrounded  the  grim  memorials 
of  death  with  emblems  of  peace  and  beauty,  and  made  the  ill-spolt  jargon  of 
their  quaint  illiterate  epitaphs  the  expression  of  a  radiant  happiness  and  an 
illimitable  hope. 

From  the  Roman  aristocracy,  then,  Paul  had  little  to  expect  and  little  to 
fear;  their  whole  life — physical,  moral,  intellectual — moved  on  a  different 
plane  from  his.  It  was  among  the  masses  of  the  populace  that  he  mainly 
hoped  for  converts  from  the  Gentiles,  and  it  was  from  the  Jews,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Emperor,  on  the  other,  that  he  had  most  to  dread.  The  first 
terrible  blow  which  was  aimed  at  any  Church  among  the  Gentiles  was  dealt 
by  the  Emperor,  and  the  hand  of  the  Emperor  was  not  improbably  guided  by 
the  secret  malice  of  the  Jews.  That  blow,  indeed — the  outburst  of  the 
Neronian  persecution — St.  Paul  escaped  for  a  time  by  the  guiding  Providence 
which  liberated  him  from  his  imprisonment  just  before  the  great  fire  of 
Rome ;  but  since  he  escaped  it  for  a  time  only,  and  since  it  fell  on  many 
whom  he  had  taught  and  loved,  we  will  conclude  this  chapter  by  a  glance  at 
these  two  forces  of  Antichrist  in  the  imperial  city. 

1.  The  importance  of  the  Jews  at  Rome  began,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the 
days  of  Pompeius.1  Julius  Csesar — who,  as  Philo  informs  us,  felt  an 
undisguised  admiration  for  the  manly  independence  with  which  they  held 
themselves  aloof  from  that  all  but  idolatrous  adulation  into  which  the 
degenerate  Romans  were  so  ready  to  plunge — allowed  them  to  settle  in  a  large 
district  beyond  the  Tiber,  and  yearly  to  send  deputies  and  temple-tribute  to 
their  holy  city.  From  that  time  forward  they  were  the  incessant  butt  for  the 
half-scornful,  half -alarmed  wit  and  wrath  of  the  Roman  writers.  The  district 
assigned  to  them — being  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  wharfs  where  the  barges 
from  Ostia  were  accustomed  to  unlade — was  particularly  suitable  for  the  retail 
trade  in  which  they  were  mainly  occupied.2  They  increased  with  almost 
incredible  rapidity.  Their  wisp  of  hay  and  the  basket,  which  were  their  sole 
belongings,  and  were  adopted  to  secure  them  from  the  danger  of  unclean 
meats,  were  known  in  every  quarter.  Martial  describes  how  Jewish  hawkers 
broke  his  morning  slumbers  with  their  bawling,  and  Juvenal  complains  of  the 
way  in  which  their  gipsy-like  women  got  themselves  smuggled  into  the 
boudoirs  of  rich  and  silly  ladies  to  interpret  their  dreams.3  Others  of  them, 
with  a  supple  versatility  which  would  have  done  credit  to  the  Greeks  them- 

1  Oio.  pro  Place.  28 ;  Jos.  c.  Apion.  i.  7 ;  Tao.  Ann.  IL  85 ;  Philo,  Leg.  ad  Quium, 
p.  568. 

2  Jos.  Antt.  rvii.  11,  §  1 ;  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  85.     See  on  the  whole  subject  Friedlander, 
Sittcngesch.  Roins,  iii.  500 ;  Hausratli,  p.  474,  seqq. 

»  Mart.  L  41,  3;  x.  5,  3;  Juv.  iv.  116;  v.  8;  xiv.  134, 
20 


586  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

selves,  thrust  themselves  into  every  house  and  every  profession,  flung  them- 
selves with  perfect  shamelessness  into  the  heathen  vices,  and  became  the 
useful  tools  of  wealthy  rascality,  and  the  unscrupulous  confidants  of  the 
"  gilded  youth." l  Some  became  the  favourites  of  the  palace,  and  made 
nominal  proselytes  of  noble  ladies  who,  like  Poppaea,  had  every  gift  except 
that  of  virtue.2  But  whatever  their  condition,  they  were  equally  detested  by 
the  mass  of  the  population.  If  they  were  false  to  their  religion  they  wore 
flouted  as  renegades ;  if  they  were  true  to  it,  their  Sabbaths,  and  their  circum- 
cision, and  their  hatred  of  pork,  their  form  of  oath,  their  lamp -lightings,  and 
their  solemn  festivals  were  held  up  to  angry  ridicule,3  as  signs  of  the  most 
abject  superstition.  If  a  Roman  saw  a  knot  of  Jew  beggars,  he  turned  from 
them  with  a  shudder  of  disgust ;  if  he  noticed  the  statue  of  a  Jewish  king  or 
Alabarch,  he  frowned  at  it  as  a  proof  of  the  degradation  of  the  age.  Whether 
successful  or  unsuccessful — whether  he  was  an  Herodian  prince  or  a  match- 
selling  pedlar — the  Jew  was  to  the  Latin  races  an  object  of  abhorrence  and 
disdain.  They  were  regarded  with  the  same  feelings  as  those  with  which  a 
citizen  of  San  Francisco  looks  on  the  Chinese  immigrant — as  intruders,  whose 
competition  was  dangerous — as  aliens,  whose  customs  were  offensive.  And 
yet  they  made  their  presence  tremendously  felt.  Borne,  so  tolerant  and  so  in- 
different in  her  own  religious  beliefs,  was  sometimes  startled  into  amazement 
by  the  raging  violence  of  their  internal  disputes.  Cicero,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  before  this  period,  prided  himself  on  his  courage  in  defending 
Flaccus  against  their  charges,  and  was  obliged  to  deliver  his  speech  in  a  low 
tone  of  voice,  for  fear  of  exciting  a  riot  among  the  thousands  of  them  who 
besieged  the  court  to  denounce  their  enemy.  Sober  Quirites  had  listened  with 
astonishment  to  their  wild  wailing  round  the  funeral  pile  of  their  patron 
Julius  Caesar.4  Even  poets  and  satirists  imply  that  those  who  were  attracted 
by  feelings  of  superstition  to  adopt  some  of  their  customs  were  neither  few  in 
number  nor  insignificant  in  position.6 

Under  Augustus  their  condition  was  not  materially  altered.  Tiberius,  recog- 
nising them  as  a  dangerous  element  in  the  population,  made  a  ruthless  attempt 
to  keep  down  their  numbers  by  conscriptions  and  deportations.  Grains,  on  the 
other  hand,  grossly  as  he  behaved  to  their  most  venerable  ambassadors,  was  so 
much  attached  to  the  elder  Agrippa  that  he  respected  their  religious  and 
political  immunities.  The  position  of  the  Herodian  princes  in  the  imperial 
court  was  sufficient  to  protect  them  during  the  greater  part  of  the  reign  of 
Claudius.  During  the  reign  of  Nero,  and  therefore  at  the  very  time  of  St. 
Paul's  Bornan  imprisonment,  they  enjoyed  a  secret  influence  of  the  most  for- 
midable kind,  since  Poppsea  never  hesitated  to  intercede  for  them,  and  had 
even  given  orders  that  after  her  death  her  body  was — in  accordance  with  the 
Jewish  practice — to  be  buried  and  not  burnt, 

-*  "•* 

l  Mart.  xi.  94;  vii.  30. 

5  Tac.  Ann.  xiii.  44,  "Huic  mulieri  cuncta  alia  fuere  praeter  hones  turn  animum." 

8  See  Pers.  v.  180 ;  Hor.  Sat.  ii.  3,  288. 

«  Suetou.  Cat*.  84,  *  Hor.  Sat,  I,  is..  20, 


ST.  PAUL'S  SOJOTTBN  IN  ROME.  587 

2.  If  Fan!  had  little  to  hope  from  the  Jewish  community  at  Borne,  he 
had  still  less  reason  to  place  any  confidence  in  the  justice,  or  mercy,  or  even 
the  ordinary  discernment,  of  the  Caesar  to  whom  he  had  appealed.  The  first 
three  Caesars  had  been  statesmen  and  men  of  genius.  For  Gains  might  have 
been  urged  the  mitigating  plea  of  congenital  madness.  Claudius  was 
redeemed  from  contempt  by  a  certain  amount  of  learning  and  good-nature, 
But  Nero  was  in  some  respects  worse  than  any  who  had  preceded  him. 
Incurably  vicious,  incurably  frivolous,  with  no  result  of  all  his  education 
beyond  a  smattering  of  ridiculous  or  unworthy  accomplishments,  his  selfish- 
ness had  been  so  inflamed  by  unlimited  autocracy  that  there  was  not  a  single 
crime  of  which  he  was  incapable,  or  a  single  degradation  to  which  he  could 
not  sink.  The  world  never  entrusted  its  imperial  absolutism  to  a  more  des- 
picable specimen  of  humanity.  He  was  a  tenth-rate  actor  entrusted  with 
irresponsible  power.  In  every  noble  mind  he  inspired  a  horror  only  alleviated 
by  contempt.  The  first  five  years  of  his  reign— that  "  golden  quinquennium  " 
which  was  regarded  as  an  ideal  of  happy  government — were  a  mere  illusion.1 
Their  external  success  and  happiness  had  been  due  to  the  wise  counsels  exclu- 
sively of  Burrus  and  Seneca,  which  Nero — who  was  but  seventeen  when  his 
stepfather  Claudius  had  been  poisoned  by  his  mother  Agnppina — was  too 
ignorant,  too  careless,  and  too  bent  on  personal  pleasure  to  dispute.  Yet  in 
all  that  concerned  the  personal  conduct  of  himself  and  of  Agrippina,  even 
those  five  years  had  been  thickly  sown  with  atrocities  and  infamies,  of  which 
the  worst  are  too  atrocious  and  too  infamous  to  be  told.  His  very  first  year 
was  marked  not  only  by  open  ingratitude  to  his  friends,  but  also  by  the 
assassination  of  Junius  Silanus,  and  the  poisoning  of  the  young  sou  of 
Claudius — Britannicus,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  from  whom  he  had  usurped  the 
throne.  The  second  year  was  marked  by  the  cowardly  folly  of  his  disguised 
nightly  marauding  among  his  peaceful  subjects,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
Mohawks  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.  From  these  he  had  descended 
through  every  abyss  of  vice  and  crime,  to  the  murder  of  his  mother,  his  public 
displays  in  the  theatre,2  the  flight  from  place  to  place  in  the  restless  terrors  of 
a  haunted  conscience,  and  finally  to  the  most  abandoned  wickedness  when  he 
found  that  even  such  crimes  as  his  had  failed  to  sicken  the  adulation  or  to 
shake  the  allegiance  of  his  people.  He  was  further  encouraged  by  this 
discovery  to  throw  off  all  shadow  of  control.  Shortly  after  Paul's  arrival 
Burrus  had  died,  not  without  suspicion  of  being  poisoned  by  his  imperial 
master.  Nero  seized  this  opportunity  to  disgrace  Seneca  from  his  high 
position.  To  fill  up  the  vacancy  created  by  the  death  of  Burrus,  he  returned 
to  the  old  plan  of  appointing  two  Praetorian  Praefects.  These  were  Fenius 
Hufns,  a  man  of  no  personal  weight,  but  popular  from  bis  benevolent  disposi- 

1  Nero  succeeded  Claudius  on  October  13,  A.D.  54. 

2  At  the  Juvenalia,  which  he  instituted  on  the  occasion  of  first  shaving  his  beard, 
Gallic  had  to  submit  to  the  degradation  of  publicly  announcing  his  appearance  in  the 
theatre,  and  Burrus  and  Seneca  had  to  act  as  prompters  and  tutors,     with  praises  on 
their  lips  and  anguish  in  their  hearts  "  (Dion.  Ixi.  20,  19 ;  Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  15). 


588  THE  LIVE  AKD  WORK  Of  ST.   PAUL, 

tion,1  and  Sofonius  Tigellinus,  one  of  the  worst  characters  of  that  bad  age. 
Tigellinus  was  dear  to  Nero  from  the  exceptional  cruelty  and  infamy  of  his 
nature,  and  to  him  was  practically  entrusted  the  entire  power.2  The  banish- 
ment and  subsequent  murder  of  Nero's  wife  Octavia,  the  unhappy  daughter 
of  Claudius,  took  place  within  a  year  of  St.  Paul's  arrival  at  Borne. 

Such  are  some  of  the  events  which  must  have  been  whispered  to  the 
Apostle  from  time  to  time  by  the  Praetorians  who  guarded  him ;  and  if  his 
condition  was  rendered  less  tolerable  by  the  promotion  of  such  a  wretch  as 
Tigellinus,  he  must  also  have  felt  that  his  hopes  for  the  future  had  been  ren- 
dered more  precarious  by  the  downfall  of  Seneca,  and  the  now  unchecked 
tyranny  of  the  incestuous  matricide  before  whose  tribunal  his  appeal  must 
soon  be  tried.  But  if  deep  fears  as  to  the  result  of  that  appeal  alternated  with 
passing  hopes,  neither  his  natural  fears  nor  his  earthly  hopes  disturbed  the 
serenity  of  his  soul.  He  quietly  continued  the  discharge  of  every  duty  which 
was  still  possible  to  him  in  his  captivity,  and  for  the  rest  he  knew  that  his 
times  were  in  God's  hands,  and  that,  whether  life  awaited  him  or  death,  all 
things  were  his,  whether  things  present  or  things  to  come,  and  he  was  Christ's 
and  Christ  was  God's.  Alike  on  the  stage  of  stormy  publicity  and  in  the  soli- 
tude of  his  sad  imprisonment,  his  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 


CHAPTEB  XLVI. 

EPISTLES  OF  THE   CAPTIVITY. 

"  That  man  is  very  strong  and  powerful  who  has  no  more  hopes  for  himself,  who 
looks  not  to  be  loved  any  more,  to  be  admired  any  more,  to  have  any  more  honour  or 
dignity,  and  who  cares  not  for  gratitude  ;  but  whose  sole  thought  is  for  others,  and 
who  only  lives  on  for  them." — HELPS. 

THE  history  of  St.  Paul's  first  imprisonment,  as  well  as  the  thoughts  by  which 
he  was  then  occupied,  can  only  be  derived  from  the  "Epistles  of  the  Cap- 
tivity." The  extant  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  fall  naturally  into  four  connected 
groups,  "  separated  from  each  other  alike  by  chronological  intervals  and  by 
internal  characteristics."  They  are  respectively  the  letters  of  the  second  mis- 
sionary journey  (1,  2  Thess.) ;  those  of  the  third  missionary  journey  (1,  2  Cor., 
Gal.,  Bom.) ;  those  of  the  first  imprisonment  (Phil.,  Col.,  Philem.,  Eph.) ; 
and  those  of  the  second  imprisonment  (1,  2  Tim.,  Tit.).  These  groups  may  be 
respectively  characterised  as  the  Eschatological  Epistles  (1,  2  Thess.) ;  the 
Epistles  of  the  anti-Judaic  controversy  (1,  2  Cor.,  GaL,  Bom.) ;  the  letters 
against  incipient  Gnosticism  (Col.,  Eph.) ;  and  the  Pastoral  Epistles  (1, 2  Tim. 

1  Tac.  Ann.  xrr,  51. 

3  "  Validior  Tigellinus  in  animo  Principis  et  intimis  libidinibus  assumptus  "  (Tac.  I.  &). 
TtycXAti/ov  &f  TWO.  Sw^oviov  a<Tf\yei*  TV  cat  imufoviti  ira,vrvs  rovt  Ko?  wvrbr  aytfpwwwc  vwfpaipo>r« 
(Dion.  Ixii.  13). 


EPISTLES  OF  THE   CAPTIVITY.  589 

Tit.).    The  Epistles  to  the  Philippians  and  to  Philemon  stand  in  most  respects, 
separate  from  the  gronp  to  which  they  belong. 

1.  The  two  letters  to  the  Thessalonians  are  the  simplest  of  all  in  their 
matter  and  manner,  and  deal  mainly  (as  we  have  seen)  with  the  question 
of  the  shortly-expected  return  of  Christ.     They  were  written  about  A.D.  52. 

2.  The  next  great  gronp  of  letters  may  be  called  in  one  of  their  aspects  the 
letters  of  Judaic  controversy.     This  group  comprises  the  two  Epistles  to  the 
Corinthians — which  show  St.  Paul's  method  of  dealing  with  questions  of  doc- 
trine and  discipline  in  a  restless,  intellectual,  and  partly  disaffected  Church ; 
and  those  to  the  Galatians  and  Romans.     They  were  written  during  the  years 
A.D.  57  and  A.D.  58,  a  period  pre-eminently  of  storm  and  stress  in  the 
Apostle's  life,  of  physical  suffering  and  mental  anxiety,  which  leave  deep 
traces  on  his  style. 

Of  these,  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  are  largely  occupied  with  the 
personal  question  of  Paul's  Apostolate.  His  Jewish- Christian  opponents  had 
found  it  easier  to  impugn  his  position  than  to  refute  his  ai-guments.  It  became 
a  duty  and  a  necessity  to  prove  his  claim  to  be  a  teacher  of  co-ordinate 
authority  with  the  very  chiefest  of  the  Twelve. 

The  Epistles  to  the  Galatians  and  the  Romans  contain  the  defence  of  his 
main  position  as  regards  the  Law;  a  definition  of  the  relations  between 
Christianity  and  Judaism ;  and  the  statement  and  demonstration  of  the  Gospel 
entrusted  to  him  by  special  revelation.  Of  these,  the  latter  is  calmer,  fuller, 
and  more  conciliatory  in  tone,  and  serves  as  the  best  commentary  on  the 
former. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  finds  its  main  motive  in  an  entirely  different 
order  of  conceptions.  In  it  we  only  hear  the  dying  echoes  of  the  great  con- 
troversy, and  if  his  one  outburst  of  strong  indignation  against  his  opponents 
(iii.  2, 18, 19)  reminds  us  of  the  heat  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  on  the 
other  hand  he  here  suppresses  the  natural  sense  of  deep  personal  injuries,  and 
even  utters  an  expression  of  rejoicing  that  these  very  opponents,  whatever 
may  be  their  motives,  are  still  preachers  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  (i.  14 — 20). 

3.  The  next  two  Epistles,  those  to  the  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  mark  the 
rise  of  a  new  phase  of   error.     They  are  the  controversy  with  incipient 
Gnosticism.     Hence  also  they  are  the  chief  Christological  and  Ecclesiastical 
Epistles,  the  Epistles  of  Christian  dogma,  the  Epistles  of  Catholicity.     The 
idea  and  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Christ  was  the  destined  bulwark 
against  the  prevalence  of  heresy,  and  the  doctrine  of  Christ  was  the  sole  pro- 
servative  against  the  victory  of  error.    The  dominant  thought  of  the  Colos- 
3ians  is  Christ  over  all;  that  of  the  Ephesians,  the  Universal  Church  in 
Christ. 

The  Epistle  to  Philemon,  a  sort  of  appendix  to  the  Colossians,  stands  alone 
as  a  letter  addressed  solely  to  an  individual  friend,  though  it  involves  the 
statement  of  an  immortal  principle. 

4.  In  the  last  group  stand  the  three  Pastoral  Epistles,  containing,  as  we 
should  have  expected,  the  proof  that  there  had  been  a  development  of  the 


590  THE   LIFE  AND    WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Gnostic  tendency  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Church  organisation  on  the  other. 
In  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  we  have  the  last  words  and  thoughts  of 
St.  Paul  before  his  martyrdom.1 

May  we  go  further,  and  attempt,  in  one  or  two  words,  a  description  of 
each  separate  Epistle,  necessarily  imperfect  from  its  very  brevity,  and  yet,  per- 
haps,  expressive  of  some  one  main  characteristic  p  If  so,  we  might  perhaps 
say  that  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  is  the  Epistle  of  consolation  in 
the  hope  of  Christ's  return ;  and  the  second,  of  the  immediate  hindrances  to 
that  return,  and  our  duties  with  regard  to  it.  The  First  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians is  the  solution  of  practical  problems  in  the  light  of  eternal  principles ; 
the  Sec<  .nd,  an  impassioned  defence  of  the  Apostle's  impugned  authority,  his 
Apologia  pro  vita  sud.  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  the  Epistle  of  freedom 
from  the  bondage  of  the  Law ;  that  to  the  Romans,  of  justification  by  faith. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  the  Epistle  of  Christian  gratitude  and 
Christian  joy  in  sorrow ;  that  to  the  Colossians,  the  Epistle  of  Christ  the  uni- 
versal Lord ;  that  to  the  Ephesians,  so  rich  and  many-sided,  is  the  Epistle  of 
"the  hoavenlies,"  the  Epistle  of  grace,  the  Epistle  of  ascension  with  the 
ascended  Christ,  the  Epistle  of  Christ  in  His  One  and  Universal  Church  j 
that  to  Philemon,  the  Hagna  Charta  of  emancipation.  The  First  Epistle  to 
Timothy,  and  that  to  Titus,  are  the  manuals  of  the  Christian  pastor ;  the 
Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  is  the  last  message  of  a  Christian  ere  his  death.2 

He  must  doubtless  have  written  others  besides  these,  but  intense  as  would 
have  been  for  us  the  theologic  and  psychologic  interest  of  even  the  most 
trivial  of  his  writings,  we  may  assume,  with  absolute  certainty,  that  those 
which  we  still  possess  have  been  preserved  in  accordance  with  God's  special 
providence,  and  were  by  far  the  most  precious  and  important  of  all  that  he 
wrote. 

That  the  four  letters  which  we  shall  now  examine  were  written  at  Rome, 
and  not,  as  some  critics  have  imagined,  at  Csesarea,  may  be  regarded  as  abso- 
lutely certain.  Although  Rome  is  not  mentioned  in  any  of  them,  yet  the 
facts  to  which  they  advert,  and  the  allusions  in  which  they  abound,  are  such 
as  exactly  suit  the  ancient  and  unanimous  tradition  that  they  were  penned 
during  the  Roman  imprisonment,8  while  they  agree  far  less  with  the  novel  and 

1  Other  classifications  have  been  attempted — e.y.,  thai  of  Baur,  who  divides  them 
Into  ofno\oyoviJLeva  (four),  avrtAeyo/iei'a  (si.c),  and  v&9a  (three). 

Similarly,  M.  Kenan  classes  the  Epistles  as  follows  : — 1.  Incontestable — Gal.,  1,  2  Cor., 
Rom.  2.  Authentic,  though  disputed — 1,  2  Thess.,  Phil.  3.  Probably  authentic,  though 
open  to  serious  objection — Col.  and  Philem,  4.  Doubtful — Eph.  5.  Spurious — The 
Pastoral  Epistles.  (St.  Paul,  v.) 

Lange  classes  the  Epistles  as— 1.  Eschatological  (1,  2Thess.).  2.  Soteriological  (Gal., 
Rom).  3.  Ecclesiastical  (1  Cor.,  polemically ;  2  Cor.,  apologetically).  4.  Christological 
(Col.,  Eph.).  5.  Ethical  (Philipp.).  6.  Pastoral  (Philem.,  1,  2  Tim.,  Tit.).  (Introd.  to 
Romans.) 

Olshausen's  classification  of  them  under  the  heads  of — 1.  Dogmatic ;  2.  Practical  • 
8.  Friendly — is  unsuccessful. 

2  See  Excursus  y^TT,, "  Distinctive  Words,   Keynotes,   and  Characteristics  of  the 
Epistles." 

*  Ohrys.  Pram  ad  Epist.  ad  Ephct. ;  Jerome,  ad  Eph.  ill.  1,  IT,  1,  yi.  20 ;  Theodoret, 


KPISTLE8  OP  THE   CAPTIVITY.  591 

fantastic  hypothesis  that  they  were  sent  from  Caesarea.1  If  any  confirmation 
for  this  certain  tradition  were  required,  it  would  be  found,  as  far  as  the 
Epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  concerned,  in  the  salutation  which  St.  Paul  sends 
from  the  converts  in  "  Caesar's  household."  As  regards  the  other  three 
Epistles  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  internal  evidence  conclusively  proves  that 
all  three  were  written  at  the  same  time,  as  they  were  despatched  by  the  same 
messengers,  and  that  whereas  during  his  Caesarean  imprisonment  St.  Paul  was 
looking  forward  to  visit  Rome,2  he  is,  at  the  time  of  writing  these  letters, 
looking  forward  to  visit,  first  Macedonia,  then  Colossae.8  Further  than  this, 
the  allusions  in  these  Epistles  show  that,  prisoner  though  he  was,  he  was 
inabled  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  a  city 
of  the  highest  importance.4  Meyer,  indeed — with  that  hypercritical  ingenuity 
which,  like  vaulting  ambition,  so  constantly  overleaps  itself  and  falls  on  the 
other  side — argues  that  Onesimus  is  more  likely  to  have  fled  from  Colossae  to 
Caesarea  than  to  Rome ;  an  argument  of  which  we  can  only  say  that  Caesarea 
— a  mere  Procuratorial  residence  full  of  Jews — would  be  about  the  very  last 
town  which  any  one  would  naturally  have  dreamt  of  suggesting  as  a  likely 
hiding-place  for  a  runaway  Asiatic  slave.  Meyer  might  as  reasonably  argue 
that  a  London  pickpocket  would  be  more  likely  to  hide  himself  at  Biarritz  than 
at  New  York.  His  other  arguments  derived  from  the  non-mention  of  the 
name  of  Onesimus  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  and  the  incidental  expres- 
sion "  you  also"  in  that  letter,  are  too  trivial  for  serious  discussion. 

The  question  next  arises,  in  what  order  these  Epistles  were  written ;  and 
the  primd  fade  argument  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  seems  to  have 
been  written  before  the  approaching  crisis  of  his  trial  has  been  taken  as  a 
sufficient  proof  that  it  was  written  after  the  other  three.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  the  same  expectation  of  approaching  release  in  the  Epistle  to  Phile- 
mon, so  that  on  this  circumstance  no  conclusion  can  be  built.  The  notion 
that  this  Epistle  shows  traces  of  deeper  depression  than  the  others,  and  that 
this  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  change  wrought  in  his  affairs  through  the 
influence  of  Tigellinus  and  Poppaea,  is  partly  unsupported  by  fact,  since  a 
spiiit  of  holy  joy  is  the  very  key-note  of  the  Epistle ;  and  partly  inconsistent 
with  itself,  since,  if  the  hostile  influences  were  at  work  at  all  appreciably,  they 
were  quite  as  much  so  within  a  few  months  after  Paul's  Roman  imprisonment 
began,  as  they  were  at  its  close,6  It  is  true  that  the  letter  could  not  have  been 

Procem  ad  Epist.  ad  Eph.,  &c.  If  I  do  not  mention  Oeder's  theory  (?)  that  the  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians  was  written  from  Corinth  (see  Schenkel,  Der  Brief  an  die  Philippier, 
p.  110),  it  ia  because  "  it  is  not  worth  while,"  as  Baur  says,  "  to  discuss  vague  hypotheses 
which  have  no  support  in  history,  and  no  coherence  in  themselves." 

1  I  can  only  express  my  surprise  that  this  theory  should  have  commended  itself  not 
only  to  Schula  and  Schneckenburger,  but  even  to  Holtzmann,  Keuss,  Schenkel,  and 
Meyer. 

2  Acts  xix,  21 ;  xsaii  11.  »  Phil.  iL  24 ;  Philem.  22, 
«  Eph.  vi.  19,  20 ;  Col.  iv.  3,  4. 

8  The  death  of  Burrus  and  the  appointment  of  Tigellinus  took  place  very  early  In 
A.D.  62,  some  nine  months  after  St.  Paul's  arrival.  Nero's  marriage  with  Fopprea  took 
place  about  the  time,  and  indeed  bears  very  little  on  the  matter,  since  her  influence  aa 
Nero's  mistress  was  probably  even  greater  than  that  which  she  enjoyed  as  hia  wife, 


692  THE  LIFE  AND  WOKK  OF  ST.  PAUL, 

written  during  the  earliest  months  of  the  captivity  at  Rome,  because  time 
must  be  allowed  for  the  news  of  Paul's  arrival  there  to  have  reached  the 
Philippians ;  for  the  despatch  of  Epaphroditus  with  their  contributions ;  for 
his  illness  at  Rome ;  for  the  arrival  of  intelligence]  to  that  effect  at  Philippi ; 
and  for  the  return  of  their  expressions  of  sorrow  and  sympathy.1  Now  a 
journey  from  Rome  to  Philippi — a  distance  of  seven  hundred  miles — would, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  occupy  about  a  month,  and  as  we  do  not  sup- 
pose that  any  of  those  letters  were  written  during  the  first  year  of  the 
imprisonment,  ample  time  is  allowed  for  these  journeys,  and  no  objection 
whatever  to  the  traditional  priority  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  can  be 
raised  on  this  score. 

Still  less  can  any  argument  be  urged  from  the  absence  of  greetings  from 
Luke  and  Aristarchus,  or  from  the  allusion  to  Timothy  as  the  sole  exception  to 
the  general  selfishness  which  the  Apostle  was  grieved  to  mark  in  those  around 
him.  The  presence  of  particular  names  in  the  greetings  of  any  letter  may 
furnish  a  probable  or  even  positive  argument  as  to  its  date,  but  their  absence 
is  an  indication  of  the  most  uncertain  character.  It  needs  no  more  than  the 
commonest  everyday  experience  to  prove  the  utter  fallaciousness  of  the 
"  argument  from  silence  ;  "  and  we  know  far  too  little  of  the  incessant  missions 
and  movements,  from  church  to  church,  and  continent  to  continent,  of  the 
companions  of  St.  Paul,  to  be  able  in  any  way  to  build  upon  the  non-occurrence 
of  the  name  of  any  one  of  them.  Since,  therefore,  there  are  no  adequate 
arguments  against  regarding  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  as  the  earliest  of 
the  four  Epistles  of  the  Captivity — although  it  may  have  been  written  only  a 
few  months  before  the  other  three — full  weight  may  be  given  to  the  internal 
evidence,  which  is  in  favour  of  that  supposition.  That  internal  evidence  con- 
sists in  the  general  resemblance  of  this  Epistle  to  those  of  the  earlier  group — 
especially  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — which  enables  us  to  regard  it  as  an 
intermediate  link  between  the  Epistles  of  the  Captivity  and  those  of  the  third 
Apostolic  journey.2  To  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  it  presents  many  and 
close  parallels  in  thought  and  language,  while  its  general  tone  and  spirit,  its 

1  Dr.  Lightfoot  (Philipp.  p.  34)  thinks  that  Aristarchus  may  have  left  St.  Paul  at 
Myra,  and  may  have  conveyed  to  Philippi  the  news  of  St.  Paul's  journey  to  Rome,  as  he 
was  on  his  way  home  to  Thessalonica ;  but  I  can  see  no  sufficient  reason  for  believing  that 
Aristarchus,  who  was  in  some  sense  St.  Paul's  "fellow-prisoner"  at  Rome  (Col.  iv.  10), 
went  home  from  Adramyttium  (Acts  xxvii.  2).  In  any  case  he  could  only  have  taken  the 
news  that  St.  Paul  was  on  his  way  to  Rome,  not  that  he  had  arrived. 

3  Lightfoot,  Philippians,  pp.  40 — 45,  e.g. — 


PHILIPPIANS.  ROMANS. 

i.  3,  4,  7,  8         ...  i.  8—11 

L10         ii.  18 

ii.  8,  9,  10,  11    ...  adv.  9,  11 

ii.  4  ...  xii.  10 


PHILIPPIANS.  ROMANS. 

iii.  4,  5  .„        ...        xi.  1 

iii.  9  x.  3 

iii.  21  viii.  29 

iii.  19  xvi.  18. 


2  Tim.  iv.  6,  x-atpbs  Ti)S  «ft^«  a>/aAv<r«i>«  c^eaTTj/cec.  Phil.  ii.  17,  «i  Kal  <rjr«V8o;a<u,  2  Tim.  iv.  6, 
ryi>  yap  rjSi}  (TjreVSo/xoi.  Phil.  iii.  14,  Kara.  ffKOirbv  Siakw  «ni  TO  /3pa/3cioi/,  2  Tim.  iv.  7»  8,  T&r 
Sp6fi,ov  Tere'AeKn,  aTroKcirai  ftoi  6  T»JV  8tK 


EPISTLES  OF   THE   CAPTIVITY.  593 

comparative  calmness,  the  spiritual  joy  which  breathes  through  its  holy  resig- 
nation, the  absence  of  impassioned  appeal  and  impetuous  reasoning,  mark  its 
affinity  to  the  three  by  which  it  was  immediately  followed.  Although  not 
much  more  than  four  years  had  now  elapsed  since  Paul,  a  free  man  and  an 
active  Apostle,  elaborated  at  Corinth  the  great  argument  which  he  had 
addressed  to  the  Gentiles  and  proselytes,  who  formed  the  bulk  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  his  controversy  with  Judaism  had  to  some  extent  faded  into  the 
background.  Every  Church  that  he  had  founded  was  now  fully  aware  of 
his  sentiments  on  the  questions  which  were  agitated  between  the  advocates 
of  Judaic  rigour  and  Gospel  freedom.  In  writing  to  the  Philippians  there 
was  no  need  to  dwell  on  these  debates,  for  whatever  dangers  might  yet 
await  them — dangers  sufficiently  real  to  call  forth  one  energetic  outburst, 
which  reminds  us  of  his  earlier  tone — they  had  up  to  this  time  proved 
themselves  faithful  to  his  teaching,  and  were  as  yet  unsophisticated  by  any 
tampering  interference  of  emissaries  from  Jerusalem.  The  Judaisers  of  the 
party  of  James  may  have  heard  enough  of  the  devotion  of  the  Philippians  for 
St.  Paul  to  show  them  that  it  would  be  unadvisable  to  dog  his  footsteps 
through  the  Christian  Churches  of  Macedonia.  They  might  leave  their  view 
of  the  question  with  better  policy  in  the  hands  of  those  unconverted  Jews, 
who  would  never  hesitate  to  use  on  its  behalf  the  engines  of  persecution. 
Thus  St.  Paul  had  no  need  to  enter  on  the  debate  which  had  so  recently 
occupied  the  maturity  of  his  powers ;  and  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians 
we  have  only  "  the  spent  waves  of  this  controversy."  Nevertheless,  as  we 
have  seen,  his  was  a  mind  whose  sensitive  chords  continued  to  quiver  long 
after  they  had  been  struck  by  the  plectrum  of  any  particular  emotion.  He 
was  reminded  of  past  controversies  by  the  coldness  and  neglect  of  a  commu- 
nity in  which  some  "  preached  Christ  even  of  contention,  supposing  to  add 
affliction  to  his  bonds."  If,  then,  he  dwelt  on  doctrinal  considerations  at  all 
in  a  letter  of  affectionate  greetings  to  the  community  which  was  dearest  to 
his  heart,  they  would  naturally  be  those  on  which  he  had  last  most  deeply 
thought.  By  the  time  that  he  sat  down  to  dictate  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 
sians  a  fresh  set  of  experiences  had  befallen  him.  His  religious  musings  had 
been  turned  in  an  entirely  different  direction.  The  visit  of  Epaphras  of 
ColossEe  had  made  him  aware  of  new  errors,  entirely  different  from  those 
which  he  had  already  combated,  and  the  Churches  of  Proconsular  Asia  evi- 
dently needed  that  his  teaching  should  be  directed  to  questions  which  lay  far 
apart  from  the  controversies  of  the  last  eight  years.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
regard  it  as  psychologically  certain  that,  had  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians 
been  written,  as  so  many  critics  believe,  after  those  to  the  "  Ephesians  "  and 
Colossians,  it  could  not  possibly  have  failed  to  bear  upon  its  surface  some 
traces  of  the  controversy  with  that  hybrid  philosophy — that  Judaic  form  of 
incipient  Gnosticism — in  which  he  had  been  so  recently  engaged.  These  con- 
siderations seem  to  me  to  have  decided  the  true  order  of  the  Epistles  of  the 
Captivity,  and  to  give  its  only  importance  to  a  question  on  which  little  would 
otherwise  depend. 
20* 


594  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PAUL. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Philippians l  arose  directly  out  of  one  of  the  few  happy 
incidents  which  diversified  the  dreary  uncertainties  of  St.  Paul's  captivity. 
This  was  the  visit  of  Epaphroditus,  a  leading  presbyter  of  the  Church  of 
Philippi,  with  the  fourth  pecuniary  contribution  by  which  that  loving  and 
generous  Church  had  ministered  to  his  necessities.  At  Rome,  St.  Paul  was 
unable  with  his  fettered  hands  to  work  for  his  livelihood,  and  it  is  possible 
that  he  found  no  opening  for  his  special  trade.  One  would  have  thought  that 
the  members  of  the  Roman  Church  were  sufficiently  numerous  and  sufficiently 
wealthy  to  render  it  an  easy  matter  for  them  to  supply  his  necessities ;  but  the 
unaccountable  indifference  which  seems  to  have  marked  their  relations  to 
him,  and  of  which  he  complains  both  in  this  and  in  his  later  imprisonment, 
shows  that  much  could  not  be  hoped  from  their  affection,  and  strangely  belied 
the  zealous  respect  with  which  they  had  come  thirty  or  forty  miles  to  meet 
and  greet  him.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  they  may  have  been  willing  to 
help  him,  but  that  he  declined  an  assistance  respecting  which  he  was 
sensitively  careful.  But  the  Phillippians  knew  and  valued  the  privilege  which 
had  been  accorded  to  them — and  perhaps  to  them  only — by  their  father  in 
Christ — the  privilege  of  helping  him  in  his  necessities.  It  was  a  custom 
throughout  the  Empire  to  alleviate  by  friendly  presents  the  hard  lot  of 
prisoners,2  and  we  may  be  sure  that  when  once  the  Philippians  had  heard  of 
his  condition,  friends  like  Lydia,  and  other  converts  who  had  means  to  spare, 
would  seize  the  earliest  opportunity  to  add  to  his  comforts.  Epaphroditus 
arrived  about  autumn,  and  flinging  himself  heartily  into  the  service  of  the 
Gospel — which  in  a  city  like  Rome  must  have  required  the  fullest  energies  oi 
every  labourer — had  succumbed  to  the  unhealthiness  of  the  season,  and  been 
prostrated  by  a  dangerous  and  all  but  fatal  sickness.  The  news  of  this  illness 
had  reached  Philippi,  and  caused  great  solicitude  to  the  Church.3  Whatever 
gifts  of  healing  were  entrusted  to  the  Apostles,  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
considered  themselves  at  liberty  to  exercise  them  in  their  own  immediate 
circle,  or  for  any  ends  of  personal  happiness.  No  miracle  was  wrought, 
except  one  of  those  daily  miracles  which  are  granted  to  fervent  prayer.4  Paul 
had  many  trials  to  bear,  and  the  death  of  "his  brother,  Epaphroditus,"  as  he 
tenderly  calls  him,  would  have  plunged  him  in  yet  deeper  sadness.  "We  can- 

1  The  notion  that  the  Epistle  is  really  two  and  not  one  seems  to  have  originated  in 
Phil.  iii.  1,  and  in  a  mistaken  supposition  that  Polycarp,  in  his  letter  to  the  Philippians, 
mentions  more  than  one  letter  of  St.  Paul  to  them  (5r  ical  auriw  vii.lv  iypatyev  «r«7ro\as,  ad 
Philipp.  c.  3).     That  'Eir«rroXa«,  however,  may  only  differ  from  e7r«rro\r)  in  being  a  more 
important  term,  is  conclusively  proved  by  Thuc.  viii.  51 ;  Jos.  Antt.  xii.  4,  §  10.      That 
St.  Paul  wrote  other  letters  to  the  Philippians  during  the  ten  years  which  had  elapsed 
since  he  visited  them,  and  that  he  may  have  written  other  letters  after  this,  is  not  only 
possible,  but  probable  ;  but  if  any  such  letters  had  survived  till  the  time  of  Polycarp,  it 
is  wholly  improbable  that  they  should  not  have  been  subsequently  preserved. 

2  Thus,  the  friends  of  Agrippa  had  helped  him  by  providing  him  with  better  fare  and 
accommodation  when  he  was  imprisoned  by  Tiberius ;  and  Lucian  relates  the  warmth 
and  open-handedness  with  which  the  Christians  diminished  the  hardships,  and  even 
shared  night  after  night  the  confinement  of  Peregrinus. 

3  Phil.  ii.  26. 

*  Compare  what  Luther  said  of  Melancthon's  sickness  and  recover;. 


•PISTLK8  OF  THE  CAPTIVITT.  595 

not  doubt  that  he  pleaded  with  God  for  the  life  of  his  sick  friend,  and  God 
had  mercy  on  him.  Epaphroditus  recovered;  and  deeply  as  Paul  in  his 
loneliness  and  discouragement  would  have  rejoiced  to  keep  him  by  his  side, 
he  yielded  with  his  usual  unselfishness  to  the  yearning  of  Epaphroditus  for 
his  home,  and  of  the  Christians  of  Philippi  for  their  absent  pastor.  He  there- 
fore sent  him  back,  and  with  him  the  letter,  in  which  he  expressed  his  thank- 
fulness for  that  constant  affection  which  had  so  greatly  cheered  his  heart. 

And  thus  it  is  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  is  one  of  the  least 
systematic,  the  least  special  in  character,  of  all  St.  Paul's  writings.  But  it  i? 
this  which  raises  the  genuineness  of  the  letter,  not  indeed  beyond  cavil,  but 
far  beyond  all  reasonable  dispute.  The  Tubingen  school,  in  its  earlier  stages, 
attacked  it  with  the  monotonous  arguments  of  its  credulous  scepticism. 
With  those  critics,  if  an  Epistle  touches  on  points  which  make  it  accord  with 
the  narrative  of  the  Acts,  it  was  forged  to  suit  them ;  if  it  seems  to  disagree 
with  them,  the  discrepancy  shows  that  it  is  spurious.  If  the  diction  is 
Pauline,  it  stands  forth  as  a  proved  imitation ;  if  it  is  un-Pauline,  it  could  not 
have  proceeded  from  the  Apostle.  The  notion  that  it  was  forged  to  introduce 
the  name  of  Clement  because  he  was  confused  with  Flavius  Clemens,  and 
because  Clement  was  a  fellow-worker  of  St.  Peter,  and  it  would  look  well  to 
place  him  in  connexion  with  Paul — and  the  notion  that  in  Phil.  ii.  6 — 8  the 
words  form  and  shape  express  Gnostic  conceptions,  and  that  the  verses  refer 
to  the  Valentinian  JEon  Sophia,  who  aimed  at  an  equality  with  God — are 
partly  founded  on  total  misinterpretations  of  the  text,  and  are  partly  the 
perversity  of  a  criticism  which  has  strained  its  eyesight  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  become  utterly  purblind.1  This  Epistle  is  genuine  beyond  the  faintest 
shadow  or  suspicion  of  doubt.  The  Philippian  Church  was  eminently  free 
from  errors  of  doctrine  and  irregularities  of  practice.  No  schism  seems  to 
have  divided  it ;  no  heresies  had  crept  into  its  faith ;  no  false  teachers  had 
perverted  its  allegiance.  One  fault,  and  one  alone,  seems  to  have  needed 
correction,  and  this  was  of  so  personal  and  limited  a  character  that,  instead 
of  denouncing  it,  Paul  only  needs  to  hint  at  it  gently  and  with  affectionate 
entreaty.  This  was  a  want  of  unity  between  some  of  its  female  members, 
especially  Euodia  and  Syntyche,  whom  Paul  begs  to  become  reconciled  to  each 
other,  and  whose  feud,  and  any  partisanship  which  it  may  have  entailed,  he 
tacitly  and  considerately  rebukes  by  the  constant  iteration  of  the  word  "  all " 
to  those  whom  he  can  only  regard  as  one  united  body.  In  fact,  we  may  say 
that  disunion  and  despondency  were  the  main  dangers  to  which  they  were 
exposed ;  hence  "  all  "  and  "  rejoice  "  are  the  two  leading  words  and  thoughts. 
But  this  absence  of  any  special  object  makes  the  letter  less  doctrinally  dis- 
tinctive than  those  which  are  more  controversial  in  character.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  colourless  if  it  did  not  receive  a  colouring  from  the  rich  hues  of  the 
writer's  individuality.  It  is  not,  like  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  a 

1  Baur,  Paul.  ii.  50,  seqq.  Schwegler,  Nachapostal.  Zeital.  ii.  133,  seqq.  The  three 
arguments  are :  (1)  Gnostic  conceptions  in  ii.  6—9 ;  (2)  want  of  anything  distinctively 
Pauline ;  (3)  the  questienableness  of  some  of  the  historic  data. 


596  THE   LIFE  AND  WOliK    OF  ST.   PAUL. 

consolation  to  the  afflicted,  by  reminding  them  of  the  near  advent  of  their 
Lord ; 1  or  a  series  of  replies  to  questions,  like  the  greater  part  of  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians ;  nor  a  trumpet  note  of  defiance  to  powerful  and 
aggressive  opponents,  like  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians ;  nor  a  treatise  of 
theology,  like  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans :  but  it  is  the  warm,  spontaneous  out- 
pouring of  a  loving  heart  expressing  itself  with  unreserved  gratitude  and 
tenderness  towards  the  favourite  children  of  his  ministry.  If  it  exhibits  to  us 
somewhat  less  than  other  Epistles  of  St.  Paul's  peculiar  teaching,  it  has  this 
high  source  of  interest  that  it  shows  to  us  more  of  his  character  and  feelings. 
In  this  respect  it  somewhat  resembles  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
except  that  in  it  St.  Paul  is  writing  to  those  who  were  kindest  and  most 
faithful  to  him,  whereas  towards  the  Corinthians  he  had  little  cause  for 
gratitude,  and  much  need  of  forbearance.  Amid  the  trials  and  suspense  of  a 
galling  imprisonment  it  reveals  to  us,  not  directly,  but  as  it  were  unconsciously, 
the  existence  of  an  unquenchable  happiness — a  peace  as  of  the  inmost  heart  of 
the  ocean  under  the  agitation  of  its  surface  storms.  It  was  dictated  by  a 
worn  and  fettered  Jew,  the  victim  of  gross  perjury,  and  the  prey  of  contend- 
ing enmities ;  dictated  at  a  time  when  he  was  vexed  by  hundreds  of  opponents, 
and  consoled  but  by  few  who  cared  for  him ;  and  yet  the  substance  of  it  all 
may  be  summed  up  in  two  words — xa^P°>>  x«<'p«T«  ("  I  rejoice  ;  rejoice  ye  "). 
If  any  one  compare  the  spirit  of  the  best-known  classic  writers  in  their 
adversity  with  that  which  was  habitual  to  the  far  deeper  wrongs  and  far 
deadlier  sufferings  of  St.  Paul — if  he  will  compare  the  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians  with  the  "  Tristia  "  of  Ovid,  the  letters  of  Cicero  from  exile,  or 
the  treatise  which  Seneca  dedicated  to  Polybius  from  his  banishment  in 
Corsica — he  may  see,  if  he  will,  the  difference  which  Christianity  has  made  in 
the  happiness  of  man. 


CHAPTER  XLVn. 

THE   EPISTLE  TO  THE   PHILIPPIANS. 
«*  Summa  Epistolae — gaudeo,  gaudete." — BENGEL. 

THE  greeting  is  from  "  Paul  and  Timothens,  slaves  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  all  the 
saints  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus  in  Philippi,  with  the  bishops  and  deacons." 
Timothy  is  naturally  associated  with  him  as_one  who  had  laboured  at  Philippi, 
but  so  little  is  he  supposed  to  have  any  share  in  the  authorship  that  St.  Paul 
afterwards  proceeds  to  speak  of  him  in  (he  third  person,  The  "  bishops  " 
(i.e.,  the  presbyters)  and  deacons  are  specially  greeted,  perhaps  because  they 
had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  collection  of  the  contribution.  He  does  not 

1  The  topic  of  "  persecution  "  is  prominent  only  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Macedonian 
Churches.  It  had  led  the  Philippians  to  despondency ;  the  Thessalonians  to  a  mistaken 
form  of  hope. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE   PHILIPPIANS.  597 

call  himself  an  apostle,  because  to  them  no  assertion  of  his  authority  was  in 
any  way  needful.1 

The  thanksgiving  which  follows  is  unusually  full.  He  tells  them  that  he 
tliauks  God  in  all  his  remembrance  of  them,  always,  in  all  his  supplication  on 
behalf  of  them  all,  making  his  supplication  with  joy  for  their  united  work  in 
furtherance  of  the  Gospel  from  the  first  day  when  ho  had  visited  them — ten 
years  ago — until  now ;  and  he  is  very  sure  that  God,  who  began  in  them  that 
sacred  work  of  co-operation  in  a  good  cause,  will  carry  it  on  to  perfection  until 
the  day  of  Christ;2  a  conviction  arising  from  his  heartfelt  sense  that  they 
were  ALL  of  them  partakers  of  the  grace  which  God  had  granted  to  him,  and 
which  they  had  manifested  by  their  sympathetic  aid  in  his  bondage,  and  in 
the  defence  and  establishment  of  the  Gospel.  God  knows  how  much  he  yearns 
for  them  in  Christ ;  and  his  prayer  for  them  is  that  their  love  may  abound 
more  and  more  in  full  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  all  insight  into  its  applica- 
tion, so  that  they  may  discriminate  all  that  is  best  and  highest,3  and  be  pure 
towards  God,  and  blameless  towards  men,  for  the  day  of  Christ,  having  been 
filled  with  the  fruit  of  a  righteousness  attainable  not  by  their  own  works,  but 
by  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  glory  and  praise  of  God.4 

They  must  not  suppose,  he  tells  them,  that  he  is  the  Apostle  of  a  ruined 
cause,  or  that  his  imprisonment  is  a  sign  that  God's  frown  is  on  his  work,  and 
that  it  is  coming  to  nought ;  on  the  contrary,  he  wants  them  to  recognise  that 
his  misfortunes  have  been  overruled  by  God  to  the  direct  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel.  The  necessity  of  his  being  coupled  to  guardsman  after  guardsman, 
day  after  day  and  night  after  night,  had  resulted  in  the  notoriety  of  his  con- 
dition as  a  prisoner  for  Christ  among  all  the  Praetorian  cohorts,6  and  to  every- 
body else ;  and  the  majority  of  tho  brethren  had  been  stimulated  by  his  bonds  to 
a  divine  confidence,  which  had  shown  itself  in  a  yet  more  courageous  daring  than 
before  in  preaching  the  word  of  God.  Some  of  them  preach  Christ  out  of 
genuine  good  will,  but  some,  alas  !  tell  tho  story  of  Christ  insincerely  8  out  of 

1  Phil.  i.  1,  2.     This  Epistle  may  be  thus  summarised : — i.  1,  2,  Greeting ;  i.  3 — 11 , 
Thanksgiving  and  prayer ;  12 — 26,  Personal  details ;  i.  27 — ii.  16,  Exhortation  to  unity 
by  the  example  of  Christ ;  ii.  17 — 30,  Personal  details ;  iii.  1,  2,  Last  injunction  suddenly 
broken  off    by  a  digression    in  which   he   denounces  Judaism  and    Antinomianism  ; 
iii.  3 — iv.  1,  Exhortation  to  unity ;  iv.  2,  3,  and  to  Christian  joy ;  4 — 9,  Gratitude  for 
their  aid ;  iv.  10—20,  Final  greetings  and  benediction ;  21 — 23,  The  unity  of  the  Epistle 
(in  spite  of  Heinrichs,  "Weisse,  &c.)  is  generally  admitted. 

2  "  It  is  not  God's  way  to  do  things  by  halves  "  (Neander). 

8  Ver.  10,  5oKifia£«iv  TO  8ia4>e'poiTa,  cf.  Rom.  ii.  18.     "  Non  modo  prae  malis  bona,  sed 
ex  bonis  optima  "  (Bengel).     "  Ut  probetis  potiora  "  (Vulg.). 
*  i.  3—11. 

5  Ver.   13,  iv  o\a  r<a  TrpaiT<opia»     The  word,  though  used  of  royal  residences  in  the 
provinces  (Mark  xv.  l'6 ;  Acts  xxiii.   35),  was  purposely  avoided  at  Rome,  where  the 
ostentation  of  a  military  despotism  was  carefully  kept  out  of  sight  (Merivale,  vi.  268,  n.). 
The  use  of  Prcetorium  (properly  "  General's  tent ")  for  the  house  of  the  Emperor  on  the 
Palatine  would  have  been  an  insult  to  the  Romans.     The  contrast  with  TOW  Aoitrotf  iratriv 
shows  fh&t  persons  are  meant  (laghtfoot,  pp.  97—99 ;  Schleusner,  s.v.). 

6  i.  15,  KTjpvWovffiv  :  16,  jcarayy&Aovo-ti'.    It  is  doubtful  whether  the  change  of  word 
implies  as  much  as  Dean  Blakesley  seems  to  think  (Diet,   of  Bible,   s.v.   Philippi). 
'Epiflet'o:— 1,  "Working  for  hire;   2,  Canvassing  of  hired  partisans;  3,  "Factiousness" 
Arist.  Polit.  v.  3). 


598  tfHE  LIFE  AND  WOftK  OF  S±.  PAtTt. 

mere  envy  and  discord.  The  former  are  influenced  by  love  to  him,  knowing 
that  he  is  appointed  for  the  defence  of  the  Gospel  ;  the  latter  announce  Christ 
out  of  partisanship  with  base  motives,  thinking  to  make  his  bonds  more 
galling.1  Perhaps  the  day  had  been  when  Paul  might  have  denounced  them 
in  tones  of  burning  rebuke  ;  but  he  is  already  Paul  the  prisoner,  though  not 
yet  Paul  the  aged.  He  had  learnt,  he  was  learning  more  and  more,  that  the 
wrath  of  man,  even  in  a  holy  cause,  worketh  not  the  righteousness  of  God  ;  he 
had  risen,  and  was  rising  more  and  more,  above  every  personal  consideration. 
What  mattered  it  whether  these  preachers  meant  only  to  insult  him,  and 
render  his  bondage  yet  more  galling  p  After  all,  "  in  every  way,  whether  with 
mashed  design  or  in  sincerity,  Christ  is  being  preached,  and  therein  I  do  — 
aye,  and  "  —  whatever  angry  feelings  may  try  to  rise  within  my  heart  —  "  I  will 
rejoice."* 

It  is  thus  that  the  Apostle  first  tramples  on  the  snake  of  any  mere  personal 
annoyance  that  may  strive  to  hiss  in  his  sad  heart,  and  crushes  it  yet  more 
vigorously  with  a  determined  effort  if  its  hiss  still  tries  to  make  itself  heard. 
He  has  attained  by  this  time  to  a  holy  resignation. 

"  For  I  know  that  this  trouble  will  turn  to  salvation  by  means  of  your  prayer, 
and  the  rich  out-pouring3  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  accordance  with  my 
earnest  desire  4  and  hope  that  with  all  outspokenness,  as  always,  so  now  "  —  he  was 
going  to  say,  "  I  may  magnify  Christ,"  but  with  his  usual  sensitive  shrinking  from 
any  exaltation  of  himself,  he  substitutes  the  third  person,5  and  says,  "  So  now 
Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my  body,  whether  by  life  or  by  death.  For  to  me  to 
live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain.6  But  if  life  in  the  flesh  means  that  I  shall  reap 
the  fruit  of  labour  .  .  .  well,  what  to  choose  I  cannot  tell;  but  I  am  hard 
pressed  by  the  alternatives.  I  desire  to  break  up  my  earthly  camp,7  and  be  with 
Christ,  for  it  is  very  far,  far  better  ;  8  but  to  abide  by  this  earthly  life  is  more 
necessary  for  your  sakes.  And  I  am  confidently  persuaded  of  this,  that  I  shall  bide 
and  abide9  with  you  all,  for  the  advance  and  joy  of  your  faith,  that  by  a  second 
stay  of  mine  among  you,  you  may  have  in  me  some  further  subject  for^'your  Christian 
glorying."  >• 

Only  in  any  case  he  bids  them  play  worthily  the  part,  not  only  of  Roman, 
but  of  Christian  citizens,11  that,  whether  he  camo  and  saw  their  state,  or  only 
heard  of  it  at  a  distance,  he  might  know  that  they  stood  firm  in  one  spirit,  with 
one  heart,  fellow-  wrestlers  with  the  Faith  in  the  Gospel,  and  not  scared  in 
anything  by  their  adversaries  —  conduct  which  would  be  to  those  adversaries  a 
proof  of  their  ultimate  perdition,  and  to  themselves  of  salvation  ;  an  evidence 


i  Leg.  «y*rp«K  (N,  A,  B,  D,  F,  G). 

8  i.  12—18.  Perhaps  the  \o$w°v-<"  Implies,  "  I  shall  in  the  long-run  have  good  cause 
to  rejoice  ;  for,"  &c. 

»  Ver.  19,  ^xoprryc'*  ;  GaL  iii.  5;  2  Cor.  ix.  10  ;  Eph.  Iv.  16  ;  2  Pet.  i.  5. 

4  Ver.  20,  iiroKapaSoicia.?  ',  Rom.  viii.  19  ;  iirvrtra^ivn  irpocrJoKio,  Chrys.  (See  Jos.  B.  J, 
Iii.  7,  §  26,  and  Sclileusner,  t.v.) 

*  Lightfoot,  Phil.  i.  20. 

6  "  Quicquid  vivo,  Christum  vivo  .  .  .  In  Paulo  non  Paulus  vivit,  sed  Jesus  Christus  " 
(Bengel). 

7  2  Cor.  v.  1  ;  iv.  6  —  8.     On  the  intermediate  state  of  the  dead,  see  1  Cor.  xv.  51,  52. 

8  Ver.  23,  iroAAip  /u.aM.ov  updvaov.  '  juecu  xol  tropofiecoi  (Lightfoot,  Phil.  i.  25). 
10  i.  19—26.    icauxiifia,  "  a  ground  of  boasting."  "  Ver.  27.  woAmvcirfc. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE   PHILlPPIANB.  599 

from  God  Himself,  since,  thus,  they  were  privileged  not  only  to  believe  in 
Christ,  but  to  suffer  for  Him,  as  sharers  in  a  contest  like  that  in  which  they 
aaw  Paul  engaged  when  he  was  among  them,  and  in  which  they  knew  by 
rumour  that  he  was  at  that  moment  engaged.1 

And  this  brings  him  to  one  main  object  of  his  letter,  which  was  to  urge  on 
them  this  earnest  entreaty  :— 

"  If,  then,  there  be  any  appeal  to  you  in  Christ,  if  any  persuasiveness  in  love,  if 
;my  participation  in  the  Spirit,  if  any  one  be  heart  and  compassionateness,2  complete 
my  joy  by  thinking  tbe  same  thing,  having  the  same  love,  heart-united,  thinking 
one  thing.  Nothing  for  partisanship,  nor  for  empty  personal  vanity ;  but  in  lowli- 
ness of  mind,3  each  of  you  thinking  others  his  own  superiors,  not  severally  keeping 
your  eye  on  your  own  interests,  but,  also  severally,  on  the  interests  of  others.4 

"  Be  of  tbe  same  mind  in  yourselves  as  Christ  Jesus  was  in  Himself,  who  exist- 
ing in  tbe  form  ((/uop<f>y)  of  God,  deemed  not  equality  with  God  a  thing  for  eager 
seizure,5  but  emptied  Himself,  taking  tbe  form  of  a  slave,  revealing  Himself  in 
human  semblance,  and  being  found  in  shape  (o-x^art)  as  a  man,6  humbled  Himself, 
showing  Himself  obedient  even  to  death,  aye,  and  that  death — tbe  death  of  tbe 
Cross." 

Those  words  were  the  very  climax ;  in  striving  to  urge  on  the  Philippians 
the  example  of  humility  and  unselfishness  as  the  only  possible  bases  of  unity, 
he  sets  before  them  the  Divine  lowliness  which  had  descended  step  by  step 
into  the  very  abyss  of  degradation.  He  tells  them  of  Christ's  eternal  posses- 
sion of  the  attributes  of  God;  His  self-abnegation  of  any  claim  to  that 
equality;  His  voluntary  exinanition  of  His  glory;  His  assumption  of  the 
essential  attributes  of  a  slave ;  His  becoming  a  man  in  all  external  semblance  ; 
His  display  of  obedience  to  His  Father,  even  to  death,  and  not  only  death,  but 
—which  might  well  thrill  the  heart  of  those  who  possessed  the  right  of 
Roman  citizenship,  and  were  therefore  exempt  from  the  possibility  of  so 
frightful  a  degradation — death  by  crucifixion.  Such  were  the  elements  of 

i  i.  27-30. 

*  ii.  1,  fl  rtt  inrXayxva  icoi  oucnpfioi.  This  reading  of  «,  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  G,  K,  has 
usually  been  treated  as  a  mere  barbarism.  So  it  is  grammatically ;  but  the  greatest 
writers,  and  those  who  most  deeply  stir  the  heart,  constantly  make  grammar  give  way 
to  tbe  rhetoric  of  emotion ;  and  if  St.  Paul  in  bis  eager  rush  of  words  really  aaid  it,  tbe 
amanuensis  did  quite  right  to  take  it  down.  Possibly,  too,  the  word  tm-Aayxva  had  come 
to  be  used  colloquially  like  a  collective  singular  (cf.  spoglia,  depouille,  Bible,  &c.).  How 
entirely  it  bad  lost  its  first  sense  we  may  see  from  the  daring  ci/Sva-aotfe  .  .  <nrAayx»'a  of 
Col.  Hi.  12. 

3  A  word  redeemed  from  tbe  catalogue  of  vices  (Col.  ii.  18 ;  Plato,  Legg.  iv.,  p.  774 ; 
Epict.  i.  3)  into  that  of  virtues. 

4  ii.  1^4,  leg.  oxon-ov™?  (M,  A,  B,  F,  G). 

6  This  interpretation  of  the  Greek  Fathers  is  preferable  to  that  of  most  of  tbe  Latin 
Fathers,  followed  by  our  E.V.  It  makes  apna.yij.pv  jjyei<r0a<.  identical  in  meaning  with  tbe 
common  phrase  apn-ay/na  >jy.  =  "to  clutcb  at  greedily."  Besides,  this  sense  is  demanded 
by  the  whole  context  (/tjj  TO.  eavTuv  tnconelv).  This  is  the  passage  which  is  supposed  to  be 
borrowed  from  the  conception  of  the  Valentinian  JEon  Sophia,  who  showed  an  eccentric 

and   passionate    desire,  n-pooAAeerflat,  "  to    dart   forward  ;  "  KeKoivuvijcrdat  TU>  n-o/rpl  rif  reAeiw, 

"to  be  associated  with  the  Perfect  Father;"  iuna\apfiv  rb  fteyeOos  avroC,  to  grasp  His 
greatness  !  (Iren.  Adv.  Haer.  i.  2,  2). 

6  Baur  sees  Docetism  here,  as  he  saw  Valentinianism  in  ver.  6  (Paul.  ii.  15 — 21) ; 
itop^j),  abiding  substantial  form  (Rom.  viii.  29 ;  Gal.  iv.  19) ;  ffxwo,  outward  transitory 
fashion  (iii.  21 ;  Bom.  xii.  2 ;  1  Cor.  vii  31). 


600  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST. 

Christ's  self-abasement !    Yet  that  self-humiliation  had  purchased  its  owe. 
infinite  reward,  for— • 

"  Because  of  it  God  also  highly  exalted  Him,  and  freely  granted  Him  the  name 
above  every  name,  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bend  of  heavenly 
and  earthly  and  subterranean  beings,  and  every  tongue  gratefully  confess1  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  the  Father."  2 

Could  they  have  a  stronger  incentive  P  In  his  absence,  as  in  his  presence, 
he  exhorts  them  to  maintain  their  obedience,  and  work  out  their  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling,  since  the  will  and  the  power  to  do  so  came  alike 
from  God.3  Let  them  lay  aside  the  murmur-ings  and  dissensions  which  were 
the  main  hindrance  to  their  proving  themselves  blameless  and  sincere — 
children  of  God,  uncensured  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  distorted  genera, 
tion,  among  whom  they  appeared  as  stars,4  holding  forth  the  word  of  life,  so 
as  to  secure  to  him  for  the  day  of  Christ  a  subject  of  boast  that  he  neither 
ran  his  race  nor  trained  for  his  contest  to  no  purpose. 

"  Nay,  even  if  I  am  poured  out  as  a  libation  over  the  sacrifice  and  free  offering 
of  your  faith,*  I  rejoice  and  congratulate  you  all ;  and  likewise  rejoice  ye  too,  and 
congratulate  me."6 

Perhaps,  then,  he  might  never  come  to  them  himself. 

"  But  I  hope  in  the  Lord  Jesus  speedily  to  send  Timothy  to  you,  that  he  in  turn 
may  be  cheered  by  a  knowledge  of  your  fortunes.  For  I  have  no  emissary  like  him 
— no  one  who  will  care  for  your  affairs  with  so  genuine  an  earnestness.  For,"  he 
sadly  adds,  "  one  and  all  seek  their  own  interests,  not  those  of  Jesus  Christ.  But 
ye  remember  how  he  stood  the  test,  since  as  a  son  for  a  father  he  slaved  with  me  for 
the  Gospel.  Him  then,  at  any  rate,  I  hope  to  send — as  soon  as  I  get  a  glimpse  of 
how  it  will  go  with  me — at  once.  But  I  feel  sure  in  the  Lord  that  I  myself  too 
shall  quickly  come.  I  think  it  necessary,  however,  to  send  you  Epaphroditus,  my 
brother,  and  fellow-labourer,  and  fellow-soldier,8  the  messenger  whom  you  sent  to 
minister  to  my  need,  since  he  was  ever  yearning  for  you,  and  feeling  despondent 
because  you  heard  of  his  illness.  Yes,  he  was  indeed  ill  almost  to  death ;  but  God 
pitied  him,  and  not  him  only,  but  also  me,  that  I  may  not  have  grief  upon  grief. 
With  all  the  more  eagerness,  then,  I  send  him,  that  you  may  once  more  rejoice  on 
seeing  him,  and  I  may  be  less  full  of  grief.  Welcome  him,  then,  in  the  Lord  with 
all  joy,  and  hold  such  as  him  in  honour,  because  for  the  sake  of  the  work  he  came 

1  «£o,aoXov7)<n7T<u.    Of.  Matt.  xi.  25 ;  Luke  x.  21.  3  ii.  9—11. 

s  Vers.  12,  13,  KaTepya£e<r9e  ...  6  ©ebs  yap  .  .  .  Here  we  see  the  correlation  of  Divine 
grace  and  human  effort.  Cf.  1  Cor.  ix.  24,  rpe'x*",  Iva.  /caToAajSrjT*.  Bom.  ix.  16,  ov&s  ™C 
rpe'xoiros,  aAAa  TOV  eXeoviros  ®eov. 

4  ?>w(rri}pes.    Gen.  i.  14;  Rev.  xxi.  11.    Bp.  Wordsworth  makes  it  mean  "torches  in 
the  dark,  narrow  streets." 

5  Cf .  2  Tim.  iv.  6.    Compare  the  striking  parallel  in  the  death  of  Seneca,  Tac.  Arm. 
xv.  64.    Some  make  eirl,  not  "over,"  but  "in  addition  to," because  Jewish  libations  were 
poured,  not  "on,"  but  "round"  the  altar.    (Jos.  Antt,  iii.  9,  §  4.)    But  the  allusion  may 
be  to  Gentile  customs. 

6  ii.  14 — 18.     "We  are  reminded  of  the  messenger  who  brought  the  tidings  of  the 
battle  of  Marathon  expiring  on  the  first  threshold  with  these  words  on  his  lips  :  \aip-™ 
ecu  xa/po/iev  (Plut.  Mor.,  p.  347)."    (Lightfoot,  ad  loc.) 

«  2  Tim.  ii.  3  j  philem.  2, 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  THE  PHILIPPIANS.  60] 

aear  to  death,  playing  the  gambler  with  his  life,1  in  order  to  fill  np  the  necessary 
lack  of  your  personal  ministration  towards  me.2 

"  For  the  rest,  my  brethren,  farewell,  and  indeed  fare  ye  well  in  the  Lord.1  To 
write  the  same  things  to  you  is  not  irksome  to  me,  and  for  you  it  is  safe."  4 

Then  came  a  sudden  break.5  It  seoms  clear  that  the  Apostle  had  intended 
at  this  point  to  close  the  letter,  and  to  close  it  with  a  repetition  of  the  oft- 
repeated  exhortation — for  which  he  half  apologises — to  greater  peace  and 
unity  among  themselves.6  It  is  quite  possible  that  these  last  words  might 
have  run  on,  as  they  do  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  to  a 
considerable  length ; T  but  here  something  occurred  to  break  the  sequence  of 
the  Apostle's  thoughts.  When  he  returned  to  his  dictation  he  began  a 
digression  far  more  severe  and  agitated  in  its  tone  than  the  rest  of  his  letter, 
and  he  does  not  resume  the  broken  thread  of  his  previous  topic  till  the  second 
verse  of  the  fourth  chapter,  where,  instead  of  any  general  exhortation,  he 
makes  a  direct  personal  appeal. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  interruption  we  cannot  even  conjecture.  It  may 
have  been  merely  a  change  of  the  soldier  who  was  on  guard;  but  in  the 
exigencies  of  a  life  which,  though  that  of  a  prisoner,  was  yet  fully  occupied, 
many  circumstances  may  have  caused  a  little  delay  before  everything  could  bo 
ready,  and  the  amanuensis  once  more  at  his  post.  And  meanwhile  something 
had  occurred  which  had  ruffled  the  Apostle's  soul — nay,  rather  which  had 
disturbed  it  to  its  inmost  depths.  That  something  can  only  have  been  a 
conflict,  in  some  form  or  other,  with  Judaising  teachers.  Something  must 
either  have  thrown  him  in  contact  with,  or  brought  to  his  notice,  the  character 
and  doctrine  of  false  Apostles,  of  the  same  class  as  he  had  encountered  at 
Corinth,  and  heard  of  in  the  Churches  of  Galatia.  Once  more  the  thoughts 
and  tone  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  truths  and  arguments  of  the  Epistlo 
to  the  Romans,  swept  in  a  storm  of  emotion  over  his  soul ;  and  it  is  with  a 
burst  of  indignation,  stronger  for  the  moment  than  he  had  ever  before  ex- 
pressed, that,  on  once  more  continuing  his  letter,  he  bids  Timothy  write  to  the 
still  uncontaminated  Church  : — 

"  Beware  of  the  dogs  !8  Beware  of  the  bad  workers ! 9  Beware  of  the  concision 
party ! " 10 

1  irapa/SoXevo-anevos  (»,  A,  B,  D,  E,  F,  G).    It  is  used  especially  of  one  who  endangers 
his  life  by  attendance  on  the  sick  (parabolani),     (Wetst.  ad  loc.) 

2  ii.  19—30. 

3  I  have  tried  to  keep  up  the  two  meanings  of  "  farewell "  and  "rejoice." 
*  Hi.  1.  5  Ewald,  Sendscfvr.,  p.  438. 

6  This  is  the  simplest  and  most  reasonable  explanation  of  TO.  O.VTO.  ypcufcn',  and  accords 
with  St.  Paul's  custom  of  a  concluding  warning  (1  Cor.  xvi.  22;  Gal.  vi.  15,  &c.),  or  it 
may  refer  to  the  topic  of  joy  (i.  18,  25 ;  ii.  17 ;  iv.  4).     It  has  led  to  all  sorts  of  hypo- 
theses.    St.  Paul  had  doubtless  written  other  letters  to  the  Philippians  (the  natural 
though  not  the  necessary  inference  from  «<«.  avmv  vp.lv  ey/xu^v  «run-oAo« — Polyc.  ad  Phil.  3), 
but  these  words  do  not  show  it.     (V,  supra,  p.  594.) 

7  1  Thess.  iv.  1. 

8  Generally  used  of  Gentiles  and  Hellenising  Jews  (Matt.  xv.  26),  involving  a  coarse 
ihade'of  reproach  (Deut.  xxiii.  18 ;  Rev.  xxii.  15).    We  cannot  be  sure  of  the  allusion  here. 

9  Of.  2  Cor.  xi.  13;  Matt,  xxiii.  15. 

10  *«piTof«i,  Ka.To.7ou.r.  would  be  in  Latin  "  clrcumdsl,"  "decisi,"  (Gurti,  Hor.  Sat.  L 


602  THK  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAttL. 

The  words  are  intensely  severe.  He  implies,  "  They  call  ns  dogs,  but  they, 
not  we,  are  the  veritable  dogs ;  and  we,  not  they,  are  the  true  circumcision. 
Their  circumcision  is  but  concision — a  mere  mutilation  of  the  flesh.  We  serve 
by  the  Spirit  of  God1 — they  serve  ordinances;  we  boast  in  Christ  Jesus — they 
do  but  trust  in  the  flesh."  And  why  should  they  put  themselves  into  rivalry 
with  him  ?  If  the  external  were  anything  in  which  to  place  confidence,  he 
could  claim  it  in  even  a  greater  degree  than  any  one  else.  He  had  been 
circumcised  when  eight  days  old;  he  was  an  Israelite,  and  of  one  of  the 
noblest  tribes  of  Israel,  and  not  a  mere  Hellenist,  but  a  Hebrew — aye,  and  a 
Hebrew  of  Hebrews;2  and — to  pass  from  hereditary  to  personal  topics  of 
carnal  boasting — as  regards  Law,  he  was  a  Pharisee;  as  regards  Judaic 
enthusiasm,  he  had  even  persecuted  the  Church ;  as  regards  legal  righteous- 
ness, he  had  proved  himself  above  all  reproach.  Things  like  these  were  at 
one  time  the  gains  which  he  reckoned  that  life  had  brought  him,  but  now  for 
Christ's  sake  he  had  got  to  count  them  as  a  loss. 

"  Aye,  and  more  than  that,  I  even  count  all  things  to  be  a  loss  for  the  sake  of 
the  transcendence  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus,  my  Lord,  for  whose  sake  I  was 
mulcted  of  all  things,3  and  I  regard  them  as  refuse  flung  to  dogs,4  that  I  may  gain 
Christ,  and  may  be  found  in  Him,  not  having  any  righteousness  of  mine  which  is  of 
Law,  but  that  which  is  by  means  of  faith  in  Christ,  that  which  comes  of  God,  which 
is  based  on  faith,5  that  I  may  know  Him,  and  the  power  of  His  resurrection,  and 
the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings,  being  conformed  to  His  death,  if  so  be  I  may  attain 
to  the  resurrection  (I  mean  not  the  general  resurrection,  but  the  resurrection  of 
those  that  are  Christ's)  from  the  dead."  6 

And  yet,  as  he  goes  on  to  warn  them — though  he  had  all  this  pregnant 
ground  for  confidence  in  externalisms,  though  he  had  rejected  it  all  for  the 
sake  of  Christ  as  mere  foul  and  worthless  rubbish,  though  his  whole  trust  was 
now  in  Christ's  righteousness,  and  not  in  his  own — so  far  was  he  even  still 
from  the  secure  and  vaunting  confidence  of  their  adversaries,  that  he  did  not 
at  all  consider  that  he  had  grasped  the  prize,  or  had  been  already  perfected : — 

"  But  I  press  forward  to  see  if  I  may  even  grasp — for  which  purpose  7  I  too  was 
grasped  by  Christ.  Brothers,  I  do  not  reckon  myself  to  have  grasped ;  but  one 
thing — forgetting  the  things  behind,  and  leaning  eagerly  forward  for  the  things 
before,  I  press  forward  to  the  goal  for  the  prize  of  my  heavenly  calling  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus." 

He  is  like  one  of  those  eager  charioteers  of  whom  his  guardsmen  so  often 

9,  70);  In  German,  Beschnittenc,  Zerschnittene.  "Concision"  means  circumcision  re- 
garded as  a  mere  mutilation.  Cf.  Acts  vii.  51 ;  Rom.  ii.  25—29 ;  Col.  ii.  11 ;  Ezek. 
xliv.  7 ;  Deut.  x.  16. 

1  iii.  3,  Xarpevoire?,  intr.  Luke  ii.  37 ;  Acts  xxvi.  7. 

2  iii.  5.    A  proselyte,  son  of   a  proselyte,  was  called  a  Oer  ben-ger,  but  Paul  was 
n»  n  T».    (Pirke  Abhdth,  v.) 

3'  May  this  refer  to  some  sudden  loss  of  all  earthly  means  of  living  at  his  conversion  ? 
4  Ver.  8,  <TKv/3oAa.     In  derivation  perhaps  from  root  O*<XT,  but  in  usage  =  «v<7i/3oAo 
(Suid.).     Some  prefer  the  technical  sense  of  the  word  =  "excrements  "  (Theodoret). 

*  Ver.  9,  Sia  n-wrrewy   .    .  .  e*  6eoC   .    .   .  em  rn   irioreit 

•  iii.  2—11,  leg.  TJJV  ««  vexpwx  (N,  A,  B,  D,  E). 

7  i(f>  $  may  also  mean  "because  (2  Cor.  v.  4) ;  or  there  may  be  an  ellipse  of  the 
accusative  after  KaroAajSw,  as  in  the  E.  V, 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE   PHILIPPIANS.  60S 

talked  to  him  when  they  had  returned  from  the  contests  in  the  Circua 
Maximns,  and  joined  their  shouts  to  those  of  the  myriads  who  cheered  their 
favourite  colours — leading  forward  in  his  flying  car,  bending  over  the  shaken 
rein  and  the  goaded  steed,  forgetting  everything — every  peril,  every  com- 
petitor, every  circling  of  the  rneta  in  the  rear,  as  he  pressed  on  for  the  goal  by 
which  sat  the  judges  with  the  palm  garlands  that  formed  the  prize.1 

"  Let  all,  then,  of  us  who  are  full  grown  in  spiritual  privileges  have  this  mind  ; 
then  if  in  any  other  respect  ye  think  otherwise2  than  ye  should,  this  shall  God 
reveal  to  you;  only  walk  in  the  same  path  to  the  point  whereunto  we  once 
reached."* 

And  as  a  yet  further  warning  against  any  danger  of  their  abusing  the 
doctrine  of  the  free  gift  of  grace  by  antinomian  practices,  he  adds— 

"  Show  yourselves,  brethren,  imitators  of  me,  and  mark  those  who  walk  as  ye 
have  us  for  an  example.  For  many  walk  about  whom  I  often  used  to  tell  you,  and 
now  tell  you  even  with  tears— the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  whose  end  is 
destruction,  whose  god  their  belly,  and  their  glory  in  their  shame,  men  minding 
earthly  things.  For  our  real  citizenship  is  in  heaven,  whence  also  we  anxiously 
await  as  a  Saviour  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  change  the  fashion  of  the  body 
of  our  abasement  so  as  to  be  conformable  to  the  body  of  His  glory,4  according  to  the 
efficacy  of  His  power  to  subject  also  every  existing  thing  unto  Himself.  So,  my 
brethren,  beloved  and  longed  for,  my  joy  and  crown,  so  stand  ye  firm  in  the  Lord, 
beloved."5 

Then  after  this  long  digression,  which,  beginning  in  strong  indignation, 
calms  itself  down  to  pathetic  appeal,  he  once  more  takes  up  the  exhortation  to 
unity  with  which  he  had  intended  to  conclude.  He  entreats  two  ladies,  Euodia 
and  Syntyche,  to  unity  of  mind  in  Christ,  and  he  also  affectionately  asks 
Syzygus6 — on  whose  name  of  "yokefellow"  he  plays,  by  calling  him  a 
genuine  yokefellow — a  yokefellow  in  heart  as  well  as  in  name7 — to  assist  these 
ladies  in  making  up  their  quarrel,  which  was  all  the  more  deplorable  because 
of  the  worth  of  them  both,  seeing  that  they  wrestled  with  him  in  the  Gospel, 
with  Clement  too,  and  the  rest  of  his  fellow-workers  whose  names  are  in  the 
Book  of  Life.8 

1  "Non  progredi  est  regredi "  (Aug.). 

s  ere'pio;,  used  euphemistically  (  =  tea/cut ,  Od.  i.  234,  darepov  =  TO  KOKOV).  So  the  Hebrew 
"  acheer."  The  meaning  is,  If  you  have  the  heart  of  the  matter,  God  will  enlighten  you 
in  non-essentials. 

3  iii.  12—16,  omit  Kavovi,  rb  O.VTO  tpovtiv  (**,  A,  B). 

*  Ver.  21,  fieTa<rx»)/xaTi<r«i     ,     .     .     (rvV/iop^ov  J  U.  6. 

*  iii.  17— iv.  1. 

'  iv.  3,  ynjo-ie  Sufvye.    Clement  of  Alexandria  seems  to  have  taken  the  word  to  mean 

Paul's  Wife,  ail*  OKveZ  T»)V  avrov  irpo<rayopev«ty  <rv$uyov  fa  ou  »refpiei«>^u<J'ei'   (Strom,  ill.  6,  53),  cf. 

Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  30.  Kenan  (p.  145)  thinks  it  was  Lydia.  Why  is  she  not  saluted? 
If  Lydia  be  merely  a  Gentilic  name  she  may  be  one  of  those  two  ladies,  or  she  may  have 
been  dead. 

7  Schwegler  thinks  that  this  is  intended  to  be  taken  as  an  allusion  to  the  Apostle 
Peter !  The  play  on  names  is  quite  in  St.  Paul's  manner.  The  only  difficulty  is  that 
Syzygus  does  not  occur  elsewhere  as  a  name. 

"  iv.  2,  3.  Baur's  wild  conjecture  (?)  about  Clement — that  the  whole  story  of  his 
Kouiish  Episcopate  is  invented  to  give  respectability  to  the  early  Christians,  by  insinuating 


604  THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

"  Fare  ye  well  always ;  again  I  will  say,  fare  ye  well.  Let  your  reasonableness 
be  recognised  by  all  men.  Be  anxious  about  nothing,  but  in  everything,  in  your 
general  and  special  prayers,  with  thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made  known 
before  God.  Then  shall  the  peace  of  God,  which  surpasseth  all  understanding,  keep 
sentry  over  your  hearts,  and  the  devices  of  your  hearts,  in  Christ  Jesus. 

"  Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  real,  whatsoever  things  are  awful, 
whatsoever  thing?,  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are 
amiable,  whatsoever  things  are  winning,  if  '  virtue,' l  if  '  honour,'  have  a  real  mean- 
ing for  you,  on  these  things  meditate.  The  things  which  ye  both  learned  and 
received,  both  heard  and  saw  in  me,  these  things  do,  and  the  God  of  peace  shall  be 
with  you.'5  3 

Then  comes  the  warm  yet  delicate  expression  of  his  heartfelt  gratitude  to 
them  for  the  pecuniary  contribution  by  which  now,  for  the  fourth  time,  they, 
and  they  only,  had  supplied  the  wants  which  he  could  no  longer  meet  by 
manual  labour. 

"  One  word  more : — I  rejoiced  in  the  Lord  greatly,  that  now  once  more  your 
thought  on  my  behalf  blossomed  afresh.*  In  this  matter  ye  were  indeed  bearing  mo 
in  mind,  but  ye  were  without  opportunity.  Not  that  I  speak  with  reference  to 
deficiency,  for  I  learnt  to  be  always  independent  in  existing  circumstances.  I  know 
how  both  to  be  humiliated,  and  I  know  how  to  abound.  In  everything  and  in  all 
things  I  have  been  initiated  how  both  to  be  satisfied  and  to  be  hungry,  both  to 
abound  and  to  be  in  need.  I  am  strong  for  everything  in  Him  who  gives  me  power. 
Still  ye  did  well  in  making  yourselves  partakers  in  my  affliction.  And  ye  know  as 
well  as  I  do,  Philippians,  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel,  when  I  went  forth 
from  Macedonia,  no  Church  communicated  with  me  as  regards  giving  and  receiving, 
except  ye  only,  for  even  in  Thessalonica  both  once  and  twice  ye  sent  to  my  need — 
not  that  I  am  on  the  look-out  for  the  gift,  but  I  am  on  the  look-out  for  the  fruit 
which  abounds  to  your  account.  Now,  however,  I  have  all  things  to  the  full,4  and 
I  abound.  I  have  been  fulfilled  by  receiving  from  Epaphroditus  the  gifts  you  sent, 
an  odour  of  sweet  fragrance,  a  sacrifice  acceptable,  well-pleasing  to  God.5  But  my 
God  shall  fulfil  all  your  need  according  to  His  riches,  in  glory,  in  Christ  Jesus. 
Now  to  our  God  and  Father  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen.6 

"  Salute  every  saint  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  brethren  with  me  salute  you.  All  the 
saints  salute  you,  and  especially''  those  of  Caesar's  household.8 

"  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  your  spirit." 

his  identity  with  the  Consular  Flavius  Clemens,  and  that  the  whole  of  this  Epistle  is 
forged  to  lead  up  to  this  passing  allusion — looks  almost  tame  beside  Volkmar  s  hypo- 
thesis (?)  about  Euodia  and  Syntyche — viz.,  that  Euodia  =  "orthodoxy,"  the  Petrine 
party,  and  Syntyche,  "the  partner  "  =  the  Pauline  party!  Clement,  though  a  Philip- 
pian,  may  possibly  be  identical  with  "  Clement  of  Rome  "  (Orig.  in  Joann.  i.  29 ;  Euseb. 
H.  E.  iii.  15,  &c.);  we  cannot  even  say  "probably,"  because  the  name  is  exceedingly 
common. 

1  iv.  8,  open?,  here  alone  in  St.  Paul.  2  iv.  4 — 9. 

3  Ver.  10,  aveSoAeTe,  literally,  "ye  blossomed  again  to  think  on  my  behalf."    Chry- 
sostom  says,  Sri  trporepov  ovres  dvtfijpol  efjjpav&ja-ai',  which  is  to  touch  the  metaphor  with  an 
Ithuriel  spear  (Repullvlastis,  Aug. ;  Eeflaruistis,  Vulg.). 

4  Ver.  18,  airexw.     (Matt.  vi.  2.)    The  word  is  used  for  "giving  receipt  in  full." 
*  Gen.  viii.  21.  «  iv.  10—20. 

7  Why  especially  ?    It  Is  impossible  to  say. 

8  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  slaves  would  be  counted  by  thousands — 
atrioises,   cubicularii,    secretarii,    Icctores,  introductory,    nomcnclatores,    dispensatores, 
silentiarii  (to  keep  the  others  quiet),  &c.  &c.,  and  even  slaves  to  tell  the  master  the 
names  of  his  other  slaves  I    We  read  of  Romans  who  had  20,000  slaves.    Four  thousand 
was  no  very  extraordinary  number  (Sen.  De  Vit.  Beat.  17 ;  Plin.  H.  N.  xxxiii.  10 ;  Athen. 
vi.,  p.  272): 


GNOSTICISM   IN   THE   GERM.  605 

No  great  future  awaited  the  Philippian  Church.  Half  a  century  later, 
Ignatius  passed  through  Philippi  with  his  "  ten  leopards,"  on  his  way  to 
martyrdom ;  and  Polycarp  wrote  to  the  Church  a  letter  which,  like  that  of  St. 
Paul,  is  full  of  commendations.  Little  more  is  heard  of  it.  Its  site  is  still 
occupied  by  the  wretched  village  of  Filibidjek,  but  in  spite  of  the  fair  promise 
of  its  birth,  "  the  Church  of  Philippi  has,"  in  the  inscrutable  counsel  of  God, 
"  lived  without  a  history,  and  perished  without  a  memorial." l 


CHAPTER  XLVin. 

GNOSTICISM     IN     THE     GERM. 

Oi>,  K&Oairep  &v  ris  et/ccftrete,  avdpdiirois  irmjpfTTjy  rivk  W^ij/a?  ^  &yye\ov  4A./V  avrbv 
rdv  rexvirrjv  ital  Sijfiiovpydv  rwv  ^\eav. — Up.  ad  Diognet.  7. 

THE  remaining  three  of  the  Epistles  of  the  Captivity  were  written  within  a 
short  time  of  each  other,  and  were  despatched  by  the  same  messengers. 
Tychicns  was  the  bearer  of  those  to  the  Ephosians  and  Colossians.  Onesimus, 
who  naturally  took  the  letter  to  Philemon,  was  sent  at  the  same  time  with  him, 
as  appears  from  the  mention  of  his  name  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians.  In 
both  of  these  latter  Epistles  there  is  also  a  message  for  Archippus. 

There  is  nothing  but  internal  evidence  to  decide  which  of  these  letters  was 
written  first.  The  letter  to  Philemon  was,  however,  a  mere  private  appendage 
to  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  which  may  have  been  written  at  any  time. 
The  letter  to  this  Church  must  claim  the  priority  over  the  circular  Epistle 
which  is  generally  known  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.  The  reason  for  this 
opinion  is  obvious — the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  was  called  forth  by  a  special 
need,  the  other  Epistle  was  not.  It  is  in  exact  psychological  accordance  with 
the  peculiarities  of  St.  Paul's  mind  and  style  that  if,  after  writing  a  letter 
which  was  evoked  by  particular  circumstances,  and  led  to  the  development  of 
particular  truths,  he  utilised  the  opportunity  of  its  despatch  to  send  another 
letter,  which  had  no  such  immediate  object,  the  tones  of  the  first  letter  wonld 
still  vibrate  in  the  second.  When  he  had  discharged  his  immediate  duty  to 
the  Church  of  Colossse,  the  topics  dwelt  upon  in  writing  to  the  neighbouring 
Churches  would  be  sure  to  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  those  which  had  most 
recently  been  occupying  his  thoughts.  Even  apart  from  special  information, 
St.  Paul  may  have  seen  the  desirability  of  warning  Ephesus  and  its  depen- 
dencies against  a  peril  which  was  infusing  its  subtle  presence  within  so  short  a 
distance  from  them ;  and  it  was  then  natural  that  his  language  to  them  should 
be  marked  by  the  very  differences  which  separate  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians 
from  that  to  the  Ephesians.  The  former  is  specific,  concrete,  and  polemical ; 
the  latter  is  abstract,  didactic,  general.  The  same  words  and  phrases  predomi- 
nate in  both ;  but  the  resemblances  are  far  more  marked  and  numerous  in  the 

1  Lightfoot,  p.  64. 


606  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

practical  exhortations  than  in  the  doctrinal  statements.  In  the  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians  he  is  primarily  occupied  with  the  refutation  of  an  error ;  in  that 
to  the  Ephesians  he  is  absorbed  in  the  rapturous  development  of  an  exalted 
truth.  The  main  theme  of  the  Colossians  is  the  Person  of  Christ ;  that  of  the 
Ephesians  is  the  life  of  Christ  manifested  in  the  living  energy  of  His  Church.1 
In  the  former,  Christ  is  the  "  Plenitude,"  the  synthesis  and  totality  of  every 
attribute  of  God ;  in  the  latter,  the  ideal  Church,  as  the  body  of  Christ,  is  the 
Plenitude,  the  recipient  of  all  the  fulness  of  Him  who  filleth  all  things  with 
all.2  Christ's  person  is  most  prominent  in  the  Colossians ;  Christ's  body,  the 
Church  of  Christ,  in  the  Ephesians. 

The  genuineness  of  these  two  letters  has  been  repeatedly  and  formidably 
assailed,  and  the  grounds  of  the  attack  are  not  by  any  means-  so  fantastic  as 
those  on  which  other  letters  have  been  rejected  as  spurious.  To  dwell  at 
length  on  the  external  evidence  is  no  part  of  my  scheme,  and  the  grounds  on 
which  the  internal  evidence  seems  to  me  decisive  in  their  favour,  even  after 
the  fullest  and  frankest  admission  of  all  counter-difficulties,  will  best  appear 
when  we  have  considered  the  events  out  of  which  they  spring,  and  which  at 
once  shaped,  and  are  sufficient  to  account  for,  the  peculiarities  by  which  they 
are  marked. 

Towards  the  close  of  St.  Paul's  Roman  imprisonment,  when  his  approach- 
ing liberation  seemed  so  all  but  certain  that  he  even  requests  Philemon  to  bo 
getting  a  lodging  in  readiness  for  him,  he  received  a  visit  from  Epaphras  of 
Colossae.  To  him,  perhaps,  had  been  granted  the  distinguished  honour  of 
founding  Churches  not  only  in  his  native  town,  but  also  in  Laodicea  and 
Hierapolis,  which  lie  within  a  distance  of  sixteen  miles  from  each  other  in  the 
valley  of  the  Lycus.  That  remarkable  stream  resembles  the  Anio  in  clothing 
the  country  through  which  it  flows  with  calcareous  deposits  ;  and  in  some  parts 
of  its  course,  especially  near  Colossse,  it  flowed  under  natural  bridges  of 
gleaming  travertine  deposited  by  its  own  waters,  the  course  of  which  was  fre- 
quently modified  by  this  peculiarity,  and  by  the  terrific  earthquakes  to  which 
the  valley  has  always  been  liable.  The  traveller  who  followed  the  course  of 
the  Lycus  in  a  south-eastward  direction  from  the  valley  of  the  Maeander  into 
which  it  flows,  would  first  observe  on  a  plateau,  which  rises  high  above  its 
northern  bank,  the  vast  and  splendid  city  of  Hierapolis,  famous  as  the  birth- 
place of  him  who  in  Nicopolis 

"  Taught  Arrian  when  Vespasian's  brutal  son 
Cleared  Rome  of  what  most  shamed  him  M3— 

and  famous  also  for  the  miraculous  properties  of  the  mephitic  spring  whose 
exhalations  could  be  breathed  in  safety  by  the  priests  of  Cybele  alone.  About 

»  CoLii.  19;  Eph.  iv.  16. 

8  CoL  i.  19;  ii.  9;  Eph.  i.  23;  ffl.  19;  iv.  13.  (John  i.  14,  16.)  German  writers 
express  the  difference  by  saying  that  Christlichkeit  is  more  prominent  in  the  Colossians, 
Kirchlichkeit  in  the  Ephesians. 

3  Epictetus  was  a  contemporary  of  the  Apostle.  As  to  the  Christian  tinge  of  his  Stoic 
•peculations,  see  my  Seekers  after  God. 


GNOSTICISM  IN  THE  GERM.  607 

aix  miles  further,  upon  the  southern  bank  of  the  river,  he  would  see  Laodicea, 
the  populous  and  haughty  metropolis  of  the  "  Cibyratie  jurisdiction,"  which 
alone  of  the  cities  of  proconsular  Asia  was  wealthy  and  independent  enough 
to  rebuild  its  streets  and  temples  out  of  its  own  resources,  when,  within  a  year 
of  the  time  at  which  these  letters  were  written,  an  earthquake  had  shaken  it.1 
Passing  up  the  valley  about  ten  miles  further,  he  might  before  sunset  reach 
Colossae,  a  town  far  more  anciently  famous  than  either,  but  which  had  fallen 
into  comparative  decay,  and  was  now  entirely  eclipsed  by  its  thriving  and 
ambitious  neighbours.2 

This  remarkable  valley  and  these  magnificent  cities,  St.  Paul,  strange  to 
say,  had  never  visited.  "Widely  as  the  result  of  his  preaching  at  Ephesus  had 
been  disseminated  throughout  Asia,  his  labours  for  the  Ephesian  Church  had 
been  so  close  and  unremitting  as  to  leave  him  no  leisure  for  wider  missionary 
enterprise.3  And  although  Jews  abounded  in  these  cities,  the  divinely  guided 
course  of  his  previous  travels  had  not  brought  him  into  this  neighbourhood. 
It  is  true  that  St.  Luke  vaguely  tells  us  that  in  the  second  missionary  journey 
St.  Paul  had  passed  through  "  the  Phrygian  and  Galatian  country," 4  and  that 
in  the  shifting  ethnological  sense  of  the  term  the  cities  of  the  Lycus-valley 
might  be  regarded  as  Phrygian.  But  the  expression  seems  rather  to  mean 
that  the  course  of  his  journey  lay  on  the  ill-defined  marches  of  these  two  dis- 
tricts, far  to  the  north  and  east  of  the  Lycns.  In  his  third  journey  his  natural 
route  from  the  cities  of  Galatia  to  Ephesus  would  take  him  down  the  valleys  of 
the  Hermus  and  Cayster,  and  to  the  north  of  the  mountain  range  of  Messogis 
which  separates  them  from  the  Lycus  and  Maaander.  From  St.  Paul's  own 
expression  it  seems  probable  that  the  Churches  in  these  three  cities  had  been 
founded  by  the  labours  of  Epaphras,  and  that  they  had  never  "  seen  his  face  in 
the  flesh  "  at  the  time  when  he  wrote  these  Epistles,  though  it  is  not  impossible 
that  he  subsequently  visited  them.6 

And  yet  he  could  not  but  feel  the  deepest  interest  in  their  welfare,  because, 
indirectly  though  not  directly,  he  had  been  indeed  their  founder.  Ephesus,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  a  centre  of  commerce,  of  worship,  and  of  political  procedure ; 
and  among  the  thousands,  "  both  Jews  and  Greeks,"  "  almost  throughout  all 
Asia,"  who  heard  through  his  preaching  the  word  of  the  Lord,6  must  have  been 
Philemon,7  his  son,  Archippus,  and  Epaphras,  and  Nymphas,  who  were  leading 
ministers  of  the  Lycus  Churches.8 

And  there  was  a  special  reason  why  St.  Paul  should  write  to  the  Colossian 
Christians.  Philemon,  who  resided  there,  had  a  worthless  slave  named 

1  Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  27,  "propriis  opibus  revaluit."    Rev.  iii.  14.     Cicero,  who  resided 
there  as  Proconsul  of  Cilicia,  frequently  refers  to  it  in  his  letters. 

2  Now  Chonos.     Dr.  Lightfoot  calls  it  "the  least  important  Church  to  which  any 
Epistle  of  St.  Paul  was  addressed  "  (Col.,  p.  16). 

»  Acts  xx.  31. 

4  Acts  xvi.  6.  In  Acts  xviii.  23  the  order  is  "  the  Galatian  country  and  Phrygia."  In 
the  former  instance  he  was  travelling  from  Antioch  in  Pisidia  to  Troas;  in  the  latter  from 
Antioch  in  Syria  to  Ephesus. 

*  Col.  i.  4,  6,  9  ;  ii.  1.  *  Acts  six.  10—26. 

7  Philem.  1,  2.  •  Col.  iv.  12,  13, 16. 


608  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF  ST,   PAUL. 

Onesiiuus — a  name  which,  under  the  circumstances,  naturally  lent  itself  to  a 
satiric  play  of  words ;  for  instead  of  being  "  Beneficial,"  he  had  been  very 
much  the  reverse,  having  first  (apparently)  robbed  his  master,  and  then  run 
away  from  him.  Borne  was  in  anciout  days  the  most  likely  place  to  furnish 
a  secure  refuge  to  a  guilty  fugitive,  aiid  thither,  even  more  than  to  modern 
London,  drifted  inevitably  the  vice  and  misery  of  the  world.  Philemon  was  a 
Christian,  and  some  access  of  wretchedness,  or  danger  of  starvation,  may  have 
driven  the  runaway  slave  to  fling  himself  on  the  compassion  of  the  Christian 
teacher,  whom  he  may  have  heard  and  seen  when  he  attended  his  master  on  somo 
great  gala- day  at  Ephesus.  The  kind  heart  of  Paul  was  ever  open ;  he  had  a 
deep  and  ready  sympathy  for  the  very  lowest  and  poorest  of  the  human  race, 
because  in  the  very  lowest  and  poorest  he  saw  those  "  for  whom  Christ  died." 
His  own  sufferings,  too,  had  taught  him  the  luxury  of  aiding  the  sufferings  of 
others,  and  he  took  the  poor  dishonest  fugitive  to  his  heart,  and  was  the  human 
instrument  by  which  that  change  was  wrought  in  him  which  converted  the 
"  non  tressis  agaso  "  into  a  brother  beloved.  But  Onesimus  was  still  legally  the 
debtor  and  the  slave  of  Philemon ;  and  Paul,  ever  obedient  to  the  law,  felt  it  a 
duty  to  send  him  back.  He  placed  him  under  the  protecting  care  of  Tychicus 
of  Ephesus,  and  sent  him  with  a  letter  which  could  not  fail  to  ensure  his 
pardon.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  for  him  to  write  to  a  citizen  of  Colossae, 
and  another  circumstance  determined  him  to  write  also  to  the  Colossian 
Church. 

This  was  the  strange  and  sad  intelligence  which  he  heard  from  Epaphras. 
They  had  many  opportunities  for  intercourse,  for,  either  literally  or  metaphori- 
cally, Epaphras  shared  his  captivity,  and  did  not  at  once  return  to  his  native 
city.  In  his  conversations  with  St.  Paul  he  told  him  of  an  insidious  form  of 
error  unlike  any  which  the  Apostle  had  hitherto  encountered.  The  vineyard 
of  the  Lord's  planting  seemed,  alas !  to  resemble  the  vineyards  of  earth  in  the 
multiplicity  of  perils  which  it  had  to  overcome  before  it  could  bring  forth  its 
fruit.  Now  it  was  the  little  foxes  that  spoiled  its  vines ;  now  the  wild  boar 
which  broke  down  its  hedge ;  and  now,  under  the  blighting  influence  of  neglect 
and  infertile  soil,  its  unpruned  branches  only  brought  forth  the  clusters  of 
Gomorrah.  An  erroneous  tendency,  as  yet  germinant  and  undeveloped,  but 
one  of  which  the  prescient  eye  of  St.  Paul  saw  all  the  future  deadliness,  had 
insensibly  crept  into  these  youthful  Churches,  and,  although  they  only  knew 
the  Apostle  by  name,  he  felt  himself  compelled  to  exert  the  whole  force  of 
his  authority  and  reasoning  to  check  so  perilous  an  influence.  Doubtless 
Epaphras  had  expressly  sought  him  for  the  sake  of  advice  and  sympathy,  and 
would  urge  the  Apostle  to  meet  with  distinct  warnings  and  clear  refutation 
the  novel  speculations  with  which  he  may  have  felt  himself  incompetent  to 
cope. 

The  new  form  of  error  was  partly  Judaic,  for  it  made  distinctions  in  meata, 
attached  importance  to  new  moons  and  sabbaths,1  and  insisted  upon  the  value 

>  Ool.  IL  1C. 


GNOSTICISM   IN  THE   QERM.  609 

of  circumcision,  if  not  upon  its  actual  necessity.1  Yet  it  did  not,  as  a  whole, 
resemble  the  Galatian  Judaism,  nor  did  it  emanate,  like  the  opposition  at 
Antioch,  from  a  party  in  Jerusalem,  nor  was  it  complicated,  like  the  Corinthian 
schisms,  with  personal  hostility  to  the  authority  of  St.  Paid.  Its  character  was 
Judaic,  not  so  much  essentially  as  virtually ;  not,  that  is,  from  any  special 
sympathy  with  national  and  Levitical  Hebraism,  but  rather  because  there  were 
certain  features  of  Judaism  which  were  closely  analogous  to  those  of  other 
Oriental  religions,  and  which  commanded  a  wide  sympathy  in  the  Eastern 
world. 

We  must  judge  of  the  distinctive  colour  of  the  dawning  heresy  quite  as 
much  from  the  truths  by  which  St.  Paul  strives  to  check  its  progress,  as  by 
those  of  its  tenets  on  which  he  directly  touches.2  In  warning  the  Colossians 
respecting  it,  he  bids  them  be  on  their  guard  against  allowing  themselves  to  be 
plundered  by  a  particular  teacher,  whose  so-called  philosophy  and  empty  deceit 
were  more  in  accordance  with  human  traditions  and  secular  rudiments  than 
with  the  truth  of  Christ.  The  hollow  and  misguiding  system  of  this  teacher, 
besides  the  importance  which  it  attached  to  a  ceremonialism  which  at  the  best 
was  only  valuable  as  a  shadow  of  a  symbol,  tried  further  to  rob  its  votaries  of 
the  prize  of  their  Christian  race  by  representing  God  as  a  Being  so  far  removed 
from  them  that  they  could  only  approach  Him  through  a  series  of  angelic 
intermediates.  It  thus  ignored  the  precious  truth  of  Christ's  sole  mediatorial 
dignity,  and  turned  humility  itself  into  a  vice  by  making  it  a  cloak  for  inflated 
and  carnal  intellectualism.  In  fact,  it  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  pride 
which  was  thus  aping  humility ;  and,  in  endeavouring  to  enforce  an  ignoble 
self -abrogation  of  that  direct  communion  with  God  through  Christ  which  is 
the  Christian's  most  imperial  privilege,  it  not  only  thrust  all  kinds  of  inferior 
agencies  between  the  soul  and  Him,  but  also  laid  down  a  number  of  rules  and 
dogmas  which  were  but  a  set  of  new  Mosaisms  without  the  true  Mosaic  sanc- 
tions. Those  rules  were,  from  their  very  nature,  false,  transient,  and  trivial. 
They  paraded  a  superfluous  self-abasement,  and  insisted  on  a  hard  asceticism, 
but  at  the  same  time  they  dangerously  flattered  the  soul  with  a  semblance  of 
complicated  learning,  while  they  were  found  to  be  in  reality  valueless  as  any 
remedy  against  self-indulgence.  That  these  ascetic  practices  and  dreamy 
imaginations  were  accompanied  by  a  pride  which  arrogated  to  itself  certain 
mysteries  as  an  exclusive  possession  from  which  the  vulgar  intellect  must  bo 
kept  aloof ;  that,  while  professing  belief  in  Christ,  the  Colossian  mystic 
represented  Him  as  one  among  many  beings  interposed  between  God  and  man  ; 
that  he  regarded  matter  in  general  and  the  body  in  particular  as  something  in 
which  evil  was  necessarily  immanent,3  seem  to  result  from  the  Christology  of 
the  Epistle,  which  is  more  especially  developed  in  one  particular  direction  than 

i  Col.  ii.  11. 

8  They  were  "Gnostic  Ebionites,"  Baitr;  "Corinthians,"  Mayerhoff;  "Christian 
Essenism  in  its  progress  to  Gnosticism,"  Lipsius;  "A  connecting  fink  between  Essence 
and  Cerinthians,"  Nitzsch ;  "Ascetics  and  Theosophists  of  the  Essene  school,"  Holts 
mann ;  "  Precursors  of  the  Christian  Essenes,"  Ritschl.  (Pfleiderer,  ii.  98.) 

*  So,  too,  Philo  regarded  the  body  M  the  Egypt  of  the  sonL    (Qua.  rer.  div.  hoar.  SIB.} 


610  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

we  find  it  to  be  in  any  of  St.  Paul's  previous  writings.  Already,  in  writing  to 
the  Corinthians,  he  had  said  that  "  if  he  had  ever  known  Christ  after  the  flesh, 
from  henceforth  he  knew  Him  no  more,"  and  in  this  Epistle  the  Person  of  our 
Lord  as  the  Eternal  Co-existent  Son  is  represented  in  that  divine  aspect  the 
apprehension  of  which  is  a  boon  infinitely  more  transcendent  than  a  human 
and  external  knowledge  of  Jesus  in  His  earthly  humiliation.  And  yet — as 
though  to  obviate  beforehand  any  Cerinthian  attempt  to  distinguish  between 
Jesus  the  man  of  sorrows  and  Christ  the  risen  Lord,  between  Jesns  the 
crucified  and  Christ  the  Eternal  Word — he  is,  even  in  this  Epistle,  emphatic 
in  the  statement  that  these  are  one.1  To  say  that  there  is  any  change 
in  St.  Paul's  fundamental  conception  of  Christ  would  be  demonstrably 
false,  since  even  the  juxtaposition  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  God 
the  Father  as  the  source  of  all  grace,  and  the  declaration  that  all 
things,  and  we  among  them,  exist  solely  through  Him,  are  statements  of 
His  divinity  in  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistles2  as  strong  as  anything  which 
could  be  subsequently  added.  But  hitherto  the  Apostle  had  been  led  to 
speak  of  Him  mainly  as  the  Judge  of  the  quick  and  dead,  in  the  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians ;  as  the  invisible  Head  and  Ruler  of  the  Church  in  those 
to  the  Corinthians ;  as  the  Author  of  all  spiritual  freedom  from  ceremonial 
bondage,  and  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  from  the  yoke  of  sin  and  death,  as 
in  those  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians ;  as  the  Saviour,  the  Raiser  from  the 
dead,  the  Life  of  all  life,  the  Source  of  all  joy  and  peace,  in  that  to  the  Philip- 
pians.  A  new  phase  of  His  majesty  had  now  to  be  brought  into  prominence 
— one  which  was  indeed  involved  in  every  doctrine  which  St.  Paul  had 
taught  concerning  Him  as  part  of  a  Gospel  which  he  had  received  by 
revelation,  but  which  no  external  circumstance  had  ever  yet  led  him  to  explain 
in  all  its  clearness.  This  was  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  as  the  Eternal,  Pre- 
existing, yet  Incarnate  Word.  He  had  now  to  speak  of  Him  as  One  in  whom 
and  by  whom  the  Universe — and  that  not  only  its  existing  condition  but  its 
very  matter  and  its  substance — are  divinely  hallowed,  so  that  there  is  nothing 
irredeemable,  nothing  inherently  antagonistic  to  Holiness,  either  in  matter  or  in 
the  body  of  man ;  as  One  in  whom  dwells  the  "  plenitude  "  of  the  divine  per- 
fections, so  that  no  other  angelic  being  can  usurp  any  share  of  God  which  is 
not  found  in  Him ;  as  One  who  is  the  only  Potentate,  the  only  Mediator,  the 
only  Saviour,  the  Head  of  the  Body  which  is  the  Church,  and  the  Source  of 
its  life  through  every  limb.  And  the  expression  of  this  truth  was  rendered 
necessary  by  error.  The  Colossian  teachers  were  trying  tcf  supplement  Chris- 
tianity, theoretically  by  a  deeper  wisdom,  practically  by  a  more  abstentious 
holiness.  It  was  the  beautiful  method  of  St.  Paul  to  combat  false  doctrine  as 
little  as  possible  by  denunciation  and  controversy  (though  these  two  have  at 
times  their  necessary  place),  and  as  much  as  possible  by  the  presentation  of 
the  counter  truth.  We  are  able,  therefore,  to  find  the  theological  errors  of 

i  1.  20,  22  ;  ii.  6. 

»  1  Thess.  i.  1 ;  v.  28 ;  1  Cor.  viii.  6 ;  2  Cor.  iv.  4 ;  v.  19 ;  Rom.  ix.  5.    Even  Renas 
fully  admit  this  (St.  Paul,  x.  274), 


GNOSTICISM  IN  THE  OERM.  611 

the  Colossians  reflected  in  the  positive  theology  which  is  here  developed  in 
order  to  counteract  thorn.  In  the  moral  and  practical  discussions  of  the 
Epistle  we  see  the  true  substitute  for  that  extravagant  and  inflating  asceticism 
which  had  its  origin  partly  in  will-worship,  ostentatious  humility,  and  trust  in 
works,  and  partly  in  mistaken  conceptions  as  to  the  inherency  of  evil  in  the 
body  of  man.  St.  Paul  points  out  to  them  that  the  deliverance  from  sin  wag 
to  be  found,  not  in  dead  rules  and  ascetic  rigours,  which  have  a  fatal  tendency 
to  weaken  the  will,  while  they  fix  the  imagination  so  intently  on  the  very  sins 
against  which  they  are  intended  as  a  remedy,  as  too  often  to  lend  to  those  very 
sins  a  more  fatal  fascination — but  in  that  death  to  sin  which  is  necessarily  in- 
volved in  the  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  From  that  new  life — that  resurrec- 
tion from  the  death  of  sin — obedience  to  the  moral  laws  of  God,  and  faithfulness 
in  common  relations  of  life,  result,  not  as  difficult  and  meritorious  acts,  but  as 
the  natural  energies  of  a  living  impulse  in  the  heart  which  beats  no  longer 
with  its  own  life  but  with  the  life  of  Christ. 

Alike,  then,  from  the  distinct  notices  and  the  negative  indications  of  the 
Epistle  we  can  reproduce  with  tolerable  clearness  the  features  of  the  Colossian 
heresy,  and  we  at  once  trace  in  it  the  influence  of  that  Oriental  theosophy, 
those  mystical  speculations,  those  shadowy  cosmogonies  and  moral  aberrations 
which  marked  the  hydra-headed  forms  of  the  systems  afterwards  summed  up 
in  the  one  word  Gnosticism.  This  very  circumstance  has  been  the  main  ground 
for  impugning  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistle.  It  is  asserted  that  Gnosticism 
belongs  to  a  generation  later,  and  that  these  warnings  are  aimed  at  the 
followers  of  Cerinthus,  who  did  not  flourish  until  after  Paul  was  dead,  or 
even  at  those  of  Yalentinus,  the  founder  of  a  Gnostic  system  in  the  second 
century.  In  support  of  this  view  it  is  asserted  that  the  Epistle  abounds  in 
un-Pauline  phrases,  in  words  which  occur  in  no  other  Epistle,  and  in  technical 
Gnostic  expressions,  such  as  plenitude,  mystery,  wisdom,  knowledge,  powers, 
light,  darkness.  Now,  that  Gnosticism  as  a  well-developed  system  belongs  to 
a  later  period  is  admitted ;  but  the  belief  that  the  acceptance  of  the  Epistle 
as  genuine  involves  an  anachronism,  depends  solely  on  the  assumption  that 
Gnostic  expressions1  may  not  have  been  prevalent,  and  Gnostic  tendencies 
secretly  at  work,  long  before  they  were  crystallised  into  formal  heresies.  As 
far  as  these  expressions  are  concerned,  some  of  them  are  not  technical  at  all 
until  a  Gnostic  meaning  is  read  into  them,  and  others,  like  "  knowledge " 
(gnosis),  &c.,  "plenitude"  (pleroma),  though  beginning  to  be  technical,  are 
used  in  a  sense  materially  different  from  that  which  was  afterwards  attached 
to  them.  As  for  the  asserted  traces  of  doctrines  distinctly  and  systematically 
Gnostic,  it  is  a  matter  of  demonstration  that  they  are  found,  both  isolated  and 
combined,  during  the  Apostolic  age,  and  before  it,  as  well  as  afterwards.  The 
esoteric  exclusiveness  which  jealously  guarded  the  arcana  of  its  mysteries 

1  The  use  of  these  expressions  is  admirably  illustrated  by  some  remarks  of  TertulHan, 
Adv.  Praxeam.,  8.  He  nas  used  the  word  irpo/SaA.}),  and  anticipating  the  objection  that 
the  word  is  tainted  with  Valentinianism,  he  replies  that  Herety  baa  taken  that  vcH 
from  Truth  to  mould  it  after  its  own  likenesi, 


612  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL, 

from  general  knowledge ;  the  dualism  wliich  became  almost  Manichaean  in  the 
attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  good  and  evil  impulses ;  the  notion  that 
God's  "plenitude"  could  only  flow  out  in  a  multitude  of  imperfect  emanations; 
the  consequent  tendency  to  exalt  and  worship  a  gradation  of  angelic  hierarchies ; 
the  rules  and  purifications  which  were  designed  to  minimise  all  infection  from 
the  inevitable  contact  with  matter ;  the  attempt  to  explain  the  inherency  of 
evil  in  matter  by  vain  and  fanciful  cosmogonies ;  the  multiplication  of  obser- 
vances ;  the  reduction  of  food  and  drink  to  the  barest  elements,  excluding  all 
forms  of  animal  life;  the  suspicious  avoidance  or  grudging  toleration  of 
marriage  as  a  pernicious  and  revolting  necessity ; — these  are  found  in  various 
Oriental  religions,  and  may  be  traced  in  philosophies  which  originated  among 
the  Asiatic  Greeks.  They  find  a  distinct  expression  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Essenes.1  Their  appearance  in  the  bosom  of  a  Christian  community  was 
indeed  new ;  but  there  was  nothing  new  in  their  existence ;  nothing  in  them 
with  which,  as  extraneous  forms  of  error,  St.  Paul's  Jewish  and  Gentile 
studies — were  it  only  his  knowledge  of  Essene  tenets  and  Alexandrian  specu- 
lations— had  not  made  him  perfectly  familiar.  That  they  should  appear  in  a 
Phrygian  Church,  powerfully  exposed  to  Jewish  influences,  and  yet  consisting 
of  Gentiles  trained  amid  the  mysteries  of  a  ceremonial  nature  worship,  and 
accustomed  to  the  utterances  of  a  speculative  philosophy2  must  have  been 
painful  to  St.  Paul,  but  could  not  have  been  surprising.  The  proof  that  these 
forms  of  heresy  might  have  been  expected  to  appear  is  rendered  yet  more 
cogent  by  the  knowledge  that,  within  a  very  short  period  of  this  time,  they 
actually  did  appear  in  a  definite  and  systematic  form,  in  the  heresy  of  Cerin- 
thus,  with  whom  St.  John  himself  is  said  to  have  come  into  personal  collision.8 
And  under  these  circumstances,  so  far  from  seeing  a  mark  of  spuriousness, 
we  rather  deduce  an  incidental  argument  in  favour  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
Epistle  from  the  nature  of  the  errors  which  we  find  that  it  is  intended  to 
denounce.  Many  critics  have  been  eager  to  prove  that  St.  Paul  could  not  have 
written  it,  because  they  reject  that  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Eternal 
Divinity  of  Christ,  of  which  this  group  of  Epistles  is  so  impregnable  a 
bulwark ;  yet  this  was  so  evidently  the  main  article  in  the  belief  of  St.  Paul 

1  Neander  (Planting,  p.  323,  seq.)  points  out  the  Phrygian  propensity  to  the  mystical 
and  magical  as  indicated  by  the  worship  of  Cybele,  by  Montanism,  by  the  tendencies  con- 
demned at  the  council  of  Laodicea,  and  by  the  existence  of  Athinganians  in  the  ninth 
century,  &c.  Perhaps  the  incipient  heresies  of  Asia  might  be  most  briefly  characterised 
as  the  germ  of  Gnosticism  evolved  by  Essene  and  Oriental  speculations  on  the  origin  of 
evil.  These  speculations  led  to  baseless  angelologies  injurious  to  the  supremacy  of  Christ; 
to  esoteric  exclusiveness  injurious  to  the  universality  of  the  Gospel ;  and  to  mistaken 
asceticism  injurious  to  Christian  freedom.  Cloudy  theories  generated  unwise  practices. 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  some  at  least  of  the  same  tendencies  are  traceable  in  St. 
John's  rebukes  to  the  seven  Churches.  Compare  Rev.  iii.  14  and  Col.  i.  15 — 18  ;  Rev.  iii, 
21  and  Col.  iii.  1,  Eph.  ii.  6.  Some  interesting  Zoroastrian  parallels  are  quoted  from 
Bleeck  by  the  Rev.  J.  LI.  Daviea  in  his  essay  on  traces  of  foreign  elements  in  these 
Epistles  (Ephes.  pp.  141 — 9).  He  says  "  the  decay  and  mixture  of  old  creeds  in  the 
Asiatic  intellect  had  created  a  soil  of  '  loose  fertility — a  footfall  there  sufficing  to  upturn 
to  the  warm  air  half -germinating '  theosophies." 

»  Lightfoot,  Col.  pp.  114—179. 

*  Neander,  Planting,  i.  325;  G'/t.  Hist.  ii.  42;  Lightfoot,  Col.,  p.  107,  seq. 


GNOSTICISM  IN  THE  GERM.  613 

that  the  proof  of  its  being  so  would  hardly  be  weakened,  even  if  these 
Epistles  could  be  banished  from  the  canon  to  which  hostile  criticism  has  only 
succeeded  in  showing  more  conclusively  that  they  must  still  be  considered  to 
belong. 

The  Christology,  then,  of  these  Epistles  is  nothing  more  than  the  syste- 
matic statement  of  that  revelation  respecting  the  nature  of  Jesus,  which  is 
implicitly  contained  in  all  that  is  written  of  Him  in  the  New  Testament  j1  and 
the  so-called  "  Gnosticism  "  with  which  these  Epistles  deal  is  nothing  more 
than  a  form  of  error — a  phase  of  the  crafty  working  of  systematic  decep- 
tion— which  is  common  to  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  aberrations 
of  all  ages  and  countries.  It  is  found  in  the  Zend  Avesta;  it  is  found 
in  Philo ;  it  is  found  in  Neoplatonism ;  it  is  found  in  the  Kabbala ;  it 
is  found  in  Yalentinus.  Abject  sacerdotalism,  superstitious  ritual,  extravagant 
asceticism,  the  faithlessness  which  leads  men  to  abandon  the  privilege  of 
immediate  access  to  God,  and  to  thrust  between  the  soul  and  its  One  Mediator 
all  sorts  of  human  and  celestial  mediators ;  the  ambition  which  builds  upon 
the  unmanly  timidity  of  its  votaries  its  own  secure  and  tyrannous  exalta- 
tion ;  the  substitution  of  an  easy  externalism  for  the  religion  of  the  heart ;  the 
fancy  that  God  cares  for  such  barren  self-denials  as  neither  deepen  our  own 
spirituality  nor  benefit  our  neighbour ;  the  elaboration  of  unreasonable  systems 
which  give  the  pompous  name  of  Theology  to  vain  and  verbal  speculations 
drawn  by  elaborate  and  untenable  inferences  from  isolated  expressions  of 
which  the  antinomies  are  unfathomable,  and  of  which  the  true  exegetic  history 
is  deliberately  ignored ;  the  oscillating  reactions  which  lead  in  the  same  sect 
and  in  even  the  same  individual  to  the  opposite  extremes  of  rigid  scrupulosity 
and  antinomian  licence : 2 — these  are  the  gerins  not  of  one  but  of  all  the  here- 
sies ;  these  are  more  or  less  the  elements  of  nearly  every  false  religion.  The 
ponderous  technicalities  of  the  systematiser  ;  the  interested  self-assertions  of 
the  priest ;  the  dreamy  speculations  of  the  mystic ;  the  Pharisaic  conceit  of 
the  externalist ;  the  polemical  shibboleths  of  the  sectarian ;  the  spiritual  pride 
and  narrow  one-sidedness  of  the  self -tormentor ;  the  ruinous  identification  of 
that  saving  faith  which  is  a  union  with  Christ  and  a  participation  of  His  life 
with  the  theoretic  acceptance  of  a  number  of  formulae : — all  these  elements 
have  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  Christianity  mingled  in  the  tainted  stream  of 
heresy  their  elements  of  ignorance,  self-interest,  and  error.  In  their  dark 
features  we  detect  a  common  resemblance. 

"  Facies  non  omnibus  una 
Nee  diversa  tarn  en,  quales  decet  esse  sororum." 

There  was  Gnosticism  in  the  days  of  St.  Paul  as  there  is  Gnosticism  now, 
though  neither  then  nor  now  is  it  recognised  under  that  specific  name. 

We  may,  therefore,  pass  to  the  study  of  the  Epistle  with  the  strongest 

1  "  Les  plus  Snergiques  expressions  de  1'Epltre  aux  Colossiens  ne  font  qu'encherir  on 
pea  »ur  celles  des  Epltreg  anterieures"  (Kenan,  St.  P.  x.). 

»  (Bern.  Alex.  Mrem.  iii.  5;  »  "Ow.  iii.  1— 7  J  Jude  8;  Rev.  ii.  14,  20—22. 


614  THE   LIFE   AJTD  WORK   OP  ST.   PATOU 

Conviction  tnat  tfiere  is  no  expression  in  it  which,  on  these  grounds  at  any 
rate,  disproves  its  genuineness.  None  but  Paul  could  have  written  it.  To  say 
that  it  is  un-Pauline  in  doctrine  is  to  make  an  arbitrary  assertion,  since  it- 
states  no  single  truth  which  is  not  involved  in  his  previous  teachings.  The 
fact  that,  it  is  a  splendid  development  of  those  teachings,  or  rather  an  expan- 
sion in  the  statement  of  them,  in  order  to  meet  new  exigencies,  is  simply  in 
its  favour.  Nor  do  I  see  how  any  one  familiar  with  the  style  and  mind  of  St. 
Paul  can  fail  to  recognise  his  touch  in  this  Epistle.  That  the  style  should 
lack  the  fire  and  passion — the  "  meras  flammas  " — of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  and  the  easy,  fervent  outflowing  of  thought  and  feeling  in  those 
to  the  Thessalonians,  Corinthians,  and  Philippians,  is  perfectly  natural.  Of 
all  the  converts  to  whom  St.  Paul  had  written,  the  Colossians  alone  were 
entire  strangers  to  him.  He  had  not  indeed  visited  the  Church  of  Rome, 
but  many  members  of  that  Church  were  personally  known  to  him,  and  he 
was  writing  to  them  on  a  familiar  theme  which  had  for  years  been  occupying 
his  thoughts.  The  mere  fact  that  he  had  already  written  on  the  same  topic 
to  the  Galatians  would  make  his  thoughts  flow  more  easily.  But  in  writing 
to  the  Colossians  he  was  handling  a  new  theme,  combating  a  recent  error  with 
which,  among  Christians,  he  had  not  come  into  personal  contact,  and  of  which 
he  merely  knew  the  special  characteristics  at  secondhand.  When,  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  he  reverts  to  the  same  Tange  of  conceptions,1  his 
sentences' run  with  far  greater  ease.  The  style  of  no  man  is  stereotyped,  and 
least  of  all  is  this  the  case  with  a  man  so  many-sided,  so  emotional,  so 
original  as  St.  Paul.  His  manner,  as  we  have  repeatedly  noticed,  reflects 
to  an  unusual  degree  the  impressions  of  the  time,  the  place,  the  mood,  in 
which  he  was  writing.  A  thousand  circumstances  unknown  to  us  may  have 
given  to  this  Epistle  that  rigid  character,  that  want  of  spontaneity  in  the 
movement  of  its  sentences,  which  led  even  Ewald  into  the  improbable  con- 
jecture that  the  words  were  Timothy's,  though  the  subject  and  the  thoughts 
belong  to  St.  Paul.  But  the  difference  of  style  between  it  and  other  Epistles 
is  no  greater  than  we  find  in  the  works  of  other  authors  at  different  periods 
of  their  lives,  or  than  we  daily  observe  in  the  writings  and  speeches  of  living 
men  who  deal  with  different  topics  in  varying  moods. 

1  V.  infra,  p.  630,  seq.  "These  two  letters  are  twins,  singularly  like  one  another 
in  face,  like  also  in  character,  but  not  so  identical  as  to  exclude  a  strongly-marked 
individuality"  (J.  LI.  Davies,  Eph.  and  Col.,  p.  7).  He  says  that  the  style  is  laboured, 
but  "the  substance  eminently  genuine  and  strong."  A  forger  would  have  copied 
phrases ;  who  could  copy  the  most  "  characteristic  and  inward  conceptions  of  the 
Apostle?"  Even  critics  who  fail  to  admit  the  genuineness  of  the  whole  letter,  see  that 
its  sentiments  and  much  of  its  phraseology  are  so  indisputably  Pauline  that  they  adopt 
the  theory  of  interpolation  (Hitzig,  Weiss,  Holtzman),  or  joint  authorship  of  Paul  and 
Timothy  (Ewald). 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS.  815 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

THE   EPISTLE   TO  THE   COLOSSIANS. 

"  Per  Me  venitur,  ad  Me  pervenitur,  in  Me  permanetur." — AUG.  In  Joann.  xii. 
"  'E,v  avrf  trtpnrarrtiTt.   In  eo  ambulate ;  in  illo  solo.    Hie  Epistolae  acopus  est.' 
— BENGEL. 

"  Viva,  pressa,  solida,  nervis  plena,  mascula." — BOHMER,  Isag.  Ix. 
"Brevis  Epistola,  sed  nucleum  Evangelii  continens." — CALVIN. 

AFTER  a  brief  greeting  "  to  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  which 
are  in  Colossse,"1  he  enters  on  the  usual  "thanksgiving,"  telling  them  how  in 
his  prayers  he  ever  thanked  God  our  Father2  on  their  behalf,  on  hearing  of 
their  faith  in  Christ  and  love  to  all  the  saints,  because  of  the  hope  stored  up 
for  them  in  heaven.  Of  that  hope  they  had  heard  when  the  Gospel  was  first 
preached  to  them  in  its  true  genuineness ;  and  as  that  Gospel  grew  and  bore 
fruit3  in  all  the  world,  so  it  was  doing  in  them,  from  the  day  when  they  heard 
of  the  grace  of  God,  and  recognised  it  in  all  its  fulness,  from  the  teaching  of 
Epaphras,  the  Apostle's  beloved  fellow-prisoner  and  their  faithful  pastor  on 
the  Apostle's  behalf.*  By  Epaphras  he  has  been  informed  of  their  spiritual 
charism  of  love,  and  from  the  day  that  he  heard  of  their  Christian  graces  it 
was  his  earnest  and  constant  prayer  that  their  knowledge  of  God's  will  might 
be  fully  completed  in  all  spiritual  wisdom  and  intelligence,  in  practical  holi- 
ness, in  fresh  fruit-fulness  and  growth,  in  increasing  power  to  endure  even 
suffering  with  joy,  and  in  perpetual  thanksgiving  to  God,  who  qualified  us  for 
our  share  in  the  heritage  of  the  saints  in  light,  and  who  rescued  us  from  the 
power  of  darkness,  and  transferred  us  by  baptism  into  the  kingdom  of  the 
Son  of  His  love,  in  whom  we  have  our  redemption,  the  remission  of  our 
sins.5 

Of  the  nature  of  that  Son  of  God,  on  whose  redemption  he  has  finis 
touched,  he  proceeds  to  speak  in  the  next  five  verses.  They  form  one  of  the 
two  memorable  passages  which  contain  the  theological  essence  of  this  Epistle. 
They  are  the  full  statement  of  those  truths  with  respect  to  the  person  of 
Christ  which  were  alone  adequate  to  meet  the  errors,  both  of  theory  and 
practice,  into  which  the  Colossians  were  sliding  under  the  influence  of  some 

1  Ver.  2,  Ko\o<rcra«,  «,  B,  D,  F,  G,  L ;  but  probably  irpbs  KoAao-o-aels  in  the  later  super- 
scription. 

•  This,  If  the  reading  of  B,  D,  Origen,  &c.,  be  correct,  is  the  only  instance  where  God 
the  Father  stands  alone  in  the  opening  benediction.    The  briefest  summary  of  the 
Epistle  is  as  follows :— I.  Introduction :  L  1, 2,  Greeting ;  i.  3—8,  Thanksgiving ;  i.  9^-13, 
Prayer.     II.  Doctrinal :  the  person  and  office  of   Christ,  i.  13— ii.  3.    in.  Polemical : 
warnings  against  error,  and  practical  deductions  from  the  counter  truths,  ii.  4 — iii.  4. 
IV.  Practical :  general  precepts,  iii.  5 — 17 ;  special  precepts,  iii.  18 — iv.  6.    V.  Personal 
messages  and  farewell,  iv.  7 — 18. 

3  Ver.  6,  Ko.piro<t>opoviifi'ov,  "spontaneously  bearing  fruit''  (ver.  10,  Kopwo^ovvTes),  and 
yet  gaining  progressive  force  in  doing  so  (avfavo/ievoi). 

4  Ver.  7,  imep  rtiJ-lav,  »,  A,  B,  D,  F,  G.    This  can  only  mean  that  Epaphras  preached 
on  St.  Paul's  behalf— i.e.,  in  his  stead— and,  if  it  be  the  right  reading,  furnishes  another 
decisive  proof  that  St.  Paul  had  never  himself  preached  in  these  Churches. 

*  i.  9—14.    The  "by  His  blood  "  of  the  E.  v .  is  a  reading  interpolated  from  Eph.  L  7. 


616  THB   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Essene  teacher.  The  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Divine  Word, — the  Likeness 
of  God  manifested  to  men — the  Pre-existent  Lord  of  the  created  world — could 
alone  divert  them  from  the  dualism  and  ascetic  rigour  which  their  Phrygian 
mysticism  and  mental  proclivities  had  led  them  to  introduce  into  the  system 
of  Christianity.  And  therefore  having  spoken  of  Christ,  he  shows  "His 
absolute  supremacy  in  relation  to  the  universe,  the  nativral  creation  (15 — 17), 
and  in  relation  to  the  Church,  the  new  moral  creation  (ver.  18)."  * 

"  Who  is  the  Image  of  the  Unseen  God,  the  First-born  of  all  Creation,  since  in 
Him  all  things  were  created2  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the  earth,  the  things  seen 
and  the  things  unseen, — whether  'thrones'  or  'dominations,'  ' principalities '  or 
'  powers ' :  3  all  things  have  been  created4  by  Him  and  unto  Him :  and  HE  is5  before 
aU  things,  and  in  Him  all  things  cohere ;  and  He  is  the  head  of  the  body — the 
Church ;  who  is  the  origin,  the  first-born  from  the  dead,  that  He  and  none  otber 
may  become  the  Presiding  Power  in  all  things ;  because  in  Him  God  thought  good 
tbat  the  whole  Plenitude6  should  permanently  dwell,7  and  by  Him  to  reconcile  all 
things  to  Himself,  making  peace  by  the  blood  of  His  cross ; — by  Him,  whether  the 
things  on  tbe  earth  or  the  things  in  the  heavens.  And  you,  who  once  were  alienated 
and  enemies  in  your  purpose,  in  the  midst  of  wicked  works, — yet  now  were  ye 

1  Dr.  Lightfoot,  in  his  valuable  note  (p.  209),  shows  that  Christ  is  spoken  of  first  in 
relation  to  God — the  word  tlmav  involving  the  two  ideas  of  Representation  and  Manifesta- 
tion ;  and,  secondly,  in  relation  to  created  things — the  words  rrptoroTcwco?  iro<r»)«  «TiV«o? 
involving  the  idea  of  mediation  between  God  and  Creation,  and  JTP«TOTOKO?  being  applied 
to  the  Logos  by  Philo,  and  to  the  Messiah  in  Ps.  Ixxxix.  27.     It  implies  priority  to,  and 
sovereignty  over,  all  creation.    It  seems  as  though  there  were  already  tendencies  to  find 
the  cross  an  offence,  and  to  distinguish  between  the  crucified  Jesus  and  the  ascended 
Christ  (L  19,  20—22;  ii.  6—9). 

2  Ver.  16,  e*KTiV0T/,  "created  by  one  word." 

3  No  definite  angelology  can  be  extracted  from  these  words  (of.  ii.  18 ;  Eph,  i.  21), 
The  hierarchies  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  are  as  entirely  arbitrary  as  Milton's 

"  Thrones,  dominations,  virtues,  princedoms,  powers, 
Warriori,  the  flower  of  heaven." 

But  to  say  that  the  passage  is  gnostic,  &c.,  is  absurd  in  the  face  of  such  passages  as 
Rom.  viii.  38 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  24. 

4  Ver.  16,  €KTior<u,  "have  been  created,  and  still  continue." 

5  UK  is — eoriv,  not  ecrrtv  (so  Lightfoot),  since  the  tense  and  the  repetition  of  the 
pronouns  imply  pre-existence  and  personality  (John  viii.  58 ;  Ex.  iii.  14). 

6  This  rendering  "Plenitude" — in  the  sense  of  "completeness"  and  "completed 
fulfilment " — will  be  found  to  meet  all  the  uses  of  the  words  in  St.  Paul,  both  in  its 
ordinary  sense  (1  Cor.  x.  26;  Rom.  xi.  12,  25;  xiii.  10;  xv.  29;  Gal.  iv.  4;  Eph.  i.  10), 
and  in  its  later  quasi -technical  sense,  as  applied  to  the  "totality  of  the  Divine  attributes 
and  agencies"  (Col.  i.  19;  ii.  9;  Eph.  i.  23;  iii.  19;  iv.  13).    It  is  directly  derived  from 
the  O.T.  usage  (Jer.  viii.  16,  &c.) ;    and  the  later  localised  usage  of  Ceriuthus  and 
Valentinus  is  in  turn  derived  from  it.     If  it  be  derived  from  n-Aijpou,  in  the  sense  of 
"fulfil"  rather  than  its  sense  to  "fill,"  the  difficulties  of  its  usage  by  St.  Paul  are 
lessened ;   I  cannot  say  that  they  disappear.     Lightfoot,  Col.  323—339.     Those  who 
wish  to  see  other  views  may  find  them  in  Baur,  Paul.  ii.  93 ;  Pfleiderer,  ii.  172 ;  Holtz- 
mann,  Eph.  Col.  222,  scq. ;  Fritzsche  on  Rom.  x.  1.     On  the  connexion  of  irA^pwjxo  with 
the  Hebrew  DlpO  there  are  some  valuable  remarks  in  Taylor's  Pirque  Aboth,  p.  54. 
Makom,  "  place  "  =  186,  and  by  Gematria  was  identified  with  Yehovah,  because  the 
squares  of  the  letters  of  the  Tetragrammaton  (102  +  52  +  6s  +  52)  give  the  same  result 
(Buxt.  Lex  Chatd.  2001).     So  far  from  being  exclusively  gnostic,  Philo  had  already  said 
(De  Somniis,  1.)  that  the  word  has  three  meanings,  of  wliich  the  third  is  God.    Hence 
the  interesting  Alexandrianism  in  the  LXX.  of  Ex.  xxiv.  10,  elSov  rbv  roirov  o5  «t<mj»c« 
6  Offa.     "God,"  said  a  celebrated  Jewish  proverb,  "is  not  in  Ha-Makom  [the  "Place," 
the  "Universe  "1  but  all  Ha-Makom  is  in  God." 

7  Ver.  19,  KaroiKfj(rtut  not  a  ropoucio  or  transient,  but  a  Karetxia  or  permanent  abode. 
Cf.  Gen.  zxxvi.  44,  LXX. ;  Karouttlv,  aty. ;  TropoixnF,  113,  &c. 


THE   EPISTLE  TO  THE   COLOSSIANS.  617 

reconciled1  in  the  body  of  His  flesh  by  death,  to  present  yourselves  holy  and  un- 
blemished and  blameless  before  Him,  if,  that  is,  ye  abide  by  the  faith,  founded  and 
firm,  and  not  being  ever  shifted  from  the  hope  of  the  Gospel  which  ye  heard,  -which 
was  proclaimed  throughout  this  sublunary  world — of  which  I  became — I,  Paul — a 
minister."8 

The  immense  grandeur  of  this  revelation,  and  the  thought  that  it  should 
have  been  entrusted  to  his  ministry,  at  once  exalts  and  humiliates  him  ;  and 
he  characteristically3  continues  :— 

"  Now  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  on  your  behalf,  and  supplement  the  deficiencies 
of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  on  behalf  of  His  body,  which  is  the  Church,4 
of  which  I  became  a  minister  according  to  the  stewardship  of  God  granted  to  me 
to  you-ward,  to  develop  fully  the  word  of  God,  the  mystery5  which  has  lain  hidden 
from  the  ages  and  the  generations,  but  is  now  manifested  to  His  saints,  to  whom 
God  willed  to  make  known  what  is  the  wealth  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  among 
the  Gentiles,  which  mystery  is  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory ;  whom  we  preach  " 
— not  to  chosen  mystae,  not  with  intellectual  exclusiveness,  not  with  esoteric  reserves, 
but  absolutely  and  universally — "  warning  every  man,  and  teaching  every  man  in  all 
wisdom,  that  we  may  present  every  man  '  perfect '  in  Christ.6  For  which  end  also  I 
toil,  contending  according  to  His  energy,  which  works  in  me  in  power.? 

"  For  I  wish  you  to  know  how  severe  a  contest8  I  have  on  behalf  of  you,  and 
those  in  Laodicea,  and  all  who  have  not  seen  my  face  in  the  flesh,  that  their  hearts 
may  be  confirmed,  they  being  compacted9  in  love,  and  so  brought  to  all  wealth  of 
the  full  assurance  of  intelligence,  unto  the  full  knowledge  of  that  mystery  of  God, 
which  is  Christ,10  in  whom  are  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge — hid 
treasures," — yet,  as  the  whole  passage  implies,  hidden  no  longer,  but  now  brought 
to  light."  "This  I  say" — i.e.,  I  tell  you  of  this  possibility  of  full  knowledge  for 
you  all,  of  this  perfect  yet  open  secret  of  wisdom  in  Christ — "  that  no  man  may 
sophisticate  you  by  plausibility  of  speech.  For  even  though  personally  absent,  yet 
in  my  spirit  I  am  with  you,  rejoicing  in  and  observing  your  military  array,  and  the 
solid  front  of  your  faith  in  Christ.  As,  then,  ye  received  the  Christ—Jesus  the 

1  Ver.   21,   o7roic<mjXAay>}T«  (B).     The  awo,    as  in  an-oXa/m/Sawu-  vio8e<rua>  (Gal.  Iv.  5)  and 
iiroKaTaoroo-w,  points  to  the  restoration  of  a  lost  condition. 

2  i.  15—23.     At  ver.  20  begins  a  sketch  of  Christ's  work,  first  generally  (20),  then 
specially  to  the  Colossians  (21 — 23). 

3  Of.  Eph.  iii.  2—9 ;  1  Tim.  i.  11. 

4  TO.  ixrrtmtiMra..    These  latter  words  throw  light  on  the  former.    Christ's  sacrifice  is, 
of  course,     a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world,"  and  the  sufferings  of  saints  cannot,  therefore,  be  vicarious.    But 
they  can  be  ministrative,  and  useful — nay,  even  requisite  for  the  continuance  of  Christ's 
work  on  earth  ;  and  in  that  sense  St.  Paul,  and  every  "partaker  of  Christ's  sufferings  " 
(2  Cor.  i.  7 ;  Phil.  iii.  10)  can  "  personally  supplement  in  Christ's  stead  (avra.va.ir\iipC,) 
what  ia  lacking  of  Christ's  afflictions  on  behalf  of  His  body,  the  Church."    Steiger, 
Maurice,  Huth,  &c.,  read  "the  sufferings  of  the  Christ  in  my  flesh  ; "  but  there  can  be 
no  xpi<rrbs  in  the  <rop|  which  Christ  destroys. 

6  The  mystery  of  th«  equal  admission  of  the  Gentiles  (i.  27  ;  iv.  8;   Eph.  L  10 ;  iii. 
3,  8.  and  passim). 

*  The  repetition  of  the  n-ai/ra  is  a  clear  warning  against  esoteric  doctrines,  and  the 
exclusive  arrogance  of  intellectual  spiritualism  which  is  a  germ  of  many  heresies.  It  is 
naturally  a  favourite  word  of  the  Apostle  who  had  to  proclaim  the  universality  of  the 
Gospel  (1  Cor.  x.  1 ;  xii.  29,  30,  &c.).  Te'Aetos  was  used  of  those  initiated  into  the 
mysteries. 

7  i.  24 — 29.  *  Ver.  1.    iyiva,  referring  back  to  ayw^d/xew,  i.  29. 

9  Bead  <rv^pifia.<rOevTes. 

10  Ver.  2.    Read  rov  ©eoO,  XPKTTOV.     (Lightfoot,  Col.  p.  318.) 
"  Prov.  ii.  4 ;  Matt.  xiii.  44  ;  1  Cor.  ii.  7  ;  iv.  5. 
21 


618  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

Lord — walk  in  Him,  rooted,  and  being  built  up  in  Him,1  and  being  confirmed  by 
your  faith,  even  as  ye  were  taught,  abounding  in  that  faith  with  thanksgiving."  * 

He  has  thus  given  them  a  general  warning  against  being  dazzled  by 
erroneous  teaching.  He  has  laid  down  for  them,  with  firm  hand  and  absolute 
defiuiteness,  the  truth  that  the  Pleroma  dwells  permanently  in  Christ — the 
sole  Lord  of  the  created  universe,  and  therefore  the  guarantee  that  there  is  in 
matter  no  inherent  element  of  inextinguishable  evil ;  the  sole  Head  of  the 
Church,  the  solo  Redeemer  of  the  world ;  the  solo  centre,  and  source,  and 
revealer  of  wisdom  to  all  alike,  as  they  had  all  along  boon  taught.  But  it  is 
now  time  to  come  to  more  specific  warnings — to  the  more  immediate  applica- 
tion of  these  great  eternal  principles ;  aud  he  continues  ;— 

"  Look  that  there  be  no  person  [whom  one  might  name]  8  who  is  carrying  you 
off  as  plunder  by  his  '  philosophy,' 4  which  is  vain  deceit  in  accordance  with  mere 
human  traditions,  and  earthly  rudiments,5  and  not  in  accordance  with  Christ.  For 
in  Him  all  the  Plenitude  of  Godhead  6  has  bodily  its  permanent  abode,  and  ye  are 
in  Him.  fulfilled  with  Sis  Plenitude,  who  is  the  head  of  every  '  principality '  and 
'  power. ' "  7 

From  this  great  truth  flow  various  practical  consequences.  For  instance, 
the  Essene  mystic,  who  was  making  a  prey  of  them  by  the  empty  and  specious 
sophistry  which  he  called  philosophy,  impressed  on  them  the  value  of  circum- 
cision, though  not,  it  would  seem,  with  the  same  insistency  as  the  Christian 
Pharisees  who  had  intruded  themselves  into  Galatia.  But  what  possible  good 
could  circumcision  do  them  P  Their  circumcision  was  spiritual,  and  had 
already  been  performed — not  by  human  hands,  but  by  Christ  Himself ;  not  as 
the  partial  mutilation  of  one  member,  but  as  the  utter  stripping  away  from 
them  of  the  whole  body  of  the  flesh.8  It  was,  in  fact,  their  baptism,  in  which 
they  had  been  buried  with  Christ,  and  also  raised  with  Him  through  their 
faith  in  the  power  of  God  who  raised  Him  from  the  dead.9 

"  You,  too,  doad  by  transgressions  and  the  uucircumcision  of  your  flesh,  God 
quickened  with  Him,  freely  remitting  to  us  all  our  transgressions,  wiping  out  the 
bond  which,  by  its  decrees,  was  valid  against  us,i°  which  was  opposed  to  us — this 
bond  He  has  taken  away,  nailing  it  to  His  cross.  Stripping  utterly  away  from  Him 

1  Ver.  7.    Notice  the  chaugo  from  cppt^upcW,  the  permanent  result  of  stability,  to 
tiroiKoSojuoupet'ot,  the  continuous  process  of    edification.     Notice,  too,   the  confusion  of 
metaphor  which  is  no  confusion  of  thought:   "walk,"  "rooted,"  "being  built/'  "being 
strengthened." 

2  ii.  1—7.  •    Ver  8,  ««,  indefinitely  definite  (cf.  Gal.  i.  7). 

4  Remarkable  as  being  the  only  place  where  St.  Paul  uses  the  word  "philosophy," 
just  as  he  only  uses  "  virtue "  once  (Phil.  iv.  8).  Both  are  superseded  by  lof  cier 
conceptions. 

*  See  tupra,  p.  439.     (Gal.  iv.  3,  9.) 

6  Storm,  deitaa ;  stronger  than  eeion??,  diinnitas. 

^  ii.  7—10.  8  Ver.  11,  dir«Swr.t.  »  Cf.  Phil.  iii.  10. 

10  Deut.  xxvii.  14 — 26 ;  Gal.  ii.  19,  iv.  9;  o*,-iXfT>)*.  The  "ordinances"  are  those  of  th* 
Mosaic  and  the  natural  law.  The  &6yna<n.v  is  difficult ;  the  rendering  'consisting  in  ordi- 
nances' would  seem  to  require  ev,  as  in  Eph.  ii.  15.  Also  the  Greek  Fathers  made  it  mean 
"wiping  out  by  the  decrees  of  the  Gospd, 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIAN8.  619 

the  '  principalities '  and  '  powers '  (of  wickedness),1  He  made  a  show  of  them  boldly, 
leading  them  in  triumph  on  that  cross  "  2 — thus  making  the  gibbet  of  the  slave  His 
fcretrum,  on  which  to  carry  the  spoils  of  His  triumph  as  an  Eternal  Conqueror,  after 
deadly  struggle  with  the  clinging  forces  of  spiritual  wickedness. 

Since,  then,  mere  legal  obligations  are  part  of  a  dead  compact,  a  torn  and 
cancelled  bond,  which  is  now  nailed  to  Christ's  Cross — 

"  Let  no  one  then  judge  you  in  eating  and  drinking,8  and  in  the  matter  of  a 
feast,  or  a  new  moon,  or  Sabbath,4  which  things  are  a  shadow  of  things  to  be,  but 
the  substance  is  Christ's.  Let  no  one  then  snatch  your  prize  from  you,  by  delight- 
ing in  abjectness,5  and  service  of  the  angels,6  treading  the  emptiness  of  his  own 
visiovis7  in  all  the  futile  inflation  of  his  mere  carnal  understanding,  and  not  keeping 
hold  of  Him  who  is  "  the  Head,"  from  whom,  supplied  and  compacted  by  its 
junctures  and  ligaments,  the  whole  body  grows  the  growth  of  God.8  If  ye  died 
with  Christ  from  mundane  rudiments,  why,  as  though  living  in  the  world,  are  ye 
ordinance-ridden  with  such  rules  as  '  Do  not  handle,'  '  Do  not  taste,'  '  Do  not  even 
touch,'  referring  to  things  all  of  which  are  perishable  in  the  mere  consumption,9  ac- 
cording to  '  the  commandments  and  teachings  of  men '  ?  All  these  kinds  of  rules  have 
a  credit  for  wisdom  in  volunteered  supererogation10  and  abasement — hard  usage  of  the 
body — but  have  no  sort  of  value  as  a  remedy  as  regards  the  indulgence  of  the  nesh."  " 

1  Tearing  himself  free  from  the  assaults  of  evil  spirits,  which  would  otherwise  have 
invested  Him  as  a  robe  (cf.  1  Pet.  v.  5,  ty/cowSoWotfe ;  Heb.  xii.  1,  euVepiVraros  ;  L>a.  xL  5, 
&c.),  He  carried  away  their  spoils,  as  trophies,  on  His  cross. 

2  ii.  11—15.    For  OptanpevVas,  cf.  2  Cor.  ii.  14,  infra,  p.  700. 

3  ' '  This  is  the  path  of  the  Thorah.     A  morsel  with  salt  shalt  thou  eat ;  thou  shalt 
drink  also  water  by  measure"  (Perek.  R.  Meir). 

4  If  after  nineteen  centuries  the  Christian  Church  lias  not  understood  the  sacred 
freedom  of  this  language,  we  may  imagine  what  insight  it  required  to  utter  it  in  St. 
Paul's  day,  and  how  the  Jews  would  gnash  their  teeth  when  they  heard  of  it.     When 
"the  Emperor "  asked  E.  Akibha  how  he  recognised  the  Sabbath  day,  he  said,  "The 
river  Sambatyon  (the  so-called  '  Sabbatic  river ')  proves  it ;  the  necromancer  proves  it 
(who  can  do  nothing  on  the  Sabbath) ;  thy  father's  grave  proves  it  (which  smokes,  to 
show  that  its  tenant  is  in  hell,  except  on  the  Sabbath,  on  which  day  even  hell  rests  "). — 
Sanhedrin,  f.  65,  2.     Myriads  of  passages  might  be  quoted  to  show  that  it  was  the  very 
keystone  of  the  whole  Judaic  system  :  see  Babha  Kama,  f.  82,  1 ;  Abhdda  Zara,  f.  G4,  2, 
&c.     The  law  of  the  Sabbath,  as  our  Lord  strove  so  often  to  convince  the  Jews,  is  a  law 
of  holy  freedom,  not  of  petty  bondage. 

5  PeAwv  Iv,  3  ypn,  1  Sam.  xviii.  22,  &c.     See  Aug.,  Beng.,  Olsh.,  Lightf. 

"  Angelology  of  the  most  developed  description  existed  in  the  Jewish  Church  long 
before  Gnosticism  was  heard  of.  See  Gfrorer,  Jahr.  des  Heils.  i.  124,  seq.  I  have  collected 
some  of  the  facts  in  a  paper  on  Jewish  Angelology  and  Demonology  (Life  of  Christ,  ii.  4G5, 
seq.).  Neander  refers  to  the  K^pvyfia  TTeVpov,  and  Clem.  Alex.  Strom,  vi.  635.  Theodoret 
(ii.  IS)  mentions  that  even  in  his  day  there  were  oratories  to  the  Archangel  Michael. 

^  a  iopaiceK  («,  A,  B,  D).  Dr.  Lightfoot  and  others  make  the  very  simple  conjectural 
emendation,  a  iopaKev  Ktvti<.p<neviov,  aut  s.  a.  This  does  not  indeed  occur  in  any  MS.,  but 
its  disappearance  would  be  easily  explained — (i.)  by  the  homceoteleuton ;  (ii.)  by  the  rare 
verb.  The  verb  xevc/ij3<xTevw  (not  unlike  the  aepojSa-oxcalirepi^poi'iTbi/  jjAiov,  "I  trea.d  the  air 
and  circumspect  the  sun,"  of  Arist.  Nub.  225,  and  the  aWepojSareiTe  of  Philo,  i.  465)  might 
conceivably  have  been  suggested  by  one  of  the  heretical  theosophic  terms,  if  iceW/xa  had 
ever  been  used  by  some  incipient  Gnostic  of  that  day  (as  afterwards)  by  way  of  antithesis 
to  Pleroma.  But  may  not  a  eiipoutei<  enparcvwx  be  taken  (metaphorically)  to  mean  "dwell- 
ing upon  what  He  has  seen  "? 

8  The  accordance  of  the  passage  with  the  highest  scientific  range  of  that  age  is  remark- 
able, and  may  be  due  to  St.  Luke. 

9  Mark  vii.  1—23. 

10  Ver.  23,  e0e\o0p>,<rK«a,  a  happy  coinage  of  St.  Paul's,  which  Epiphanius  expands  into 
«*«\»ir«pi<r<roepjjoWa  (Haer.  i.  16). 

11  ii.  16—23.    This  remarkable  passage,  which  is  very  obscure  in  the  B.  V.,  is  an 


620  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.   PAtTL. 

The  true  remedy,  he  proceeds  to  imply,  is  very  different  :— 

"If  then  ye  were  raised  with  Christ,  seek  the  things  above,  where  Christ 
is  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  Think  of  the  things  above,  not  the  things 
on  the  earth.  For  ye  died  "  (to  sin  in  baptism),  "  and  your  life  has  been  hidden 
with  Christ  in  God.  When  Christ,  our  life,  is  manifested,  then  ye  also  with  Him 
shall  be  manifested  in  glory.  Kill  then  at  a  blow  " — not  by  regulated  asceticisms, 
but  by  this  outburst  of  a  new  life,  which  is  in  Christ,  which  is  Christ — "  your 
members  that  are  on  the  earth — fornication,  uncleanness,  passion,  evil  desire,  and, 
above  all,  covetousnoss,  for  that  is  idolatry — because  of  which  things  cometh  the 
wrath  of  God.1  In  which  things  ye  also  walked  once,  when  ye  were  living  in  them ; 
but  now  put  ye  away  also  all  vices,  anger,  wrath,  malice,  railing,  foul  calumny, 
out  of  your  mouths.  Lie  not  one  to  another,  since  ye  utterly  stripped  off  the  old 
man  with  his  deeds,  and  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is  being  ever  renewed  to  full 
knowledge,  according  to  the  image  of  his  Creator,  in  a  region  wherein  there  is  no  room 
for  Greek  or  Jew,  circumcision  or  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scythian,2  slave,  free, 
but  Christ  is  all  things,  and  in  all.  Put  on  then,  as  elect  of  God,  saints  beloved, 
hearts  of  compassion,  kindness,  humbleness,  meekness,  long-suffering,  forbearing  one 
another,  and  forgiving  one  another,  if  any  one  have  a  complaint  against  any  one. 
Even  as  the  Lord  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye.  And  over  all  these  things  put 
on  love,  for  love  is  the  girdle  of  perfection  ;  and  let  the  peace  of  Christ  arbitrate  in 
your  hearts,  unto  which  peace  ye  were  even  called  in  one  body,  and  show  yourselves 
thankful.  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all  wisdom,  teaching  one 
another  and  admonishing  one  another  in  psalms,  hymns,3  spiritual  songs  in  grace, 
singing  in  your  hearts  to  God.  And  everything  whatever  ye  do,  in  word  or  in 
deed,  do  all  things  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  thanking  God  the  Father  by 
Him."4 

Then  follow  various  practical  exhortations — to  wives  to  love  their  husbands, 
as  is  eternally  fit  in  the  Lord ; 6  to  husbands  to  love  their  wives,  and 
not  behave  bitterly  towards  them ;  to  children  to  obey  their  parents ;  to  fathers 
not  to  irritate  their  children,  that  they  may  not  lose  heart.6  To  slaves, 
of  whose  duties  and  position  he  must  often  have  thought  recently,  from 
his  interest  in  Onesimus,  he  gives  the  precept  to  obey  earthly  masters,  working 
as  ever  in  their  Great  Taskmaster's  eye,  looking  for  the  reward  of  faithfulness 
to  Him  who  would  also  send  the  retribution  for  wrong-doing.  On  masters 
he  enjoins  justice  and  equity  towards  their  slaves,  remarking  that  they  too 
have  a  Lord  in  heaven.7 

argument  against,  not  for,  the  worrying  scrupulosities  of  exaggerated  asceticism — on  the 
ground  that  they  are  useless  for  the  end  in  view.  St.  Paul  might  have  gone  even  further ; 
for  the  lives  of  hermits  and  monks  show  us  that  the  virulence  of  temptation  is  intensified 
into  insupportable  agony  by  the  morbid  introspection  which  results  from  mistaken  means 
of  combating  it. 

1  Ver.  G,  our  «rl  TOUS  vlous  T>J«  aTreifleios,  introduced  probably  from  Eph.  v.  6. 

*  Ver.  11.     The  Scythians  were  the  lowest  type  of  barbarians  (Gal.  iii.  28). 

3  Christian  hymnology  began  very  early,  though  the  hymns  were  not  necessarily  me- 
trical (Rev.  xv.  3 ;  Acts  xvi.  25 ;  Eph.  v.   19,  20 ;   Plin.   Ep.  97 ;  Mart.  S.  Ign.  vli. 
uSa!  in-'  ipx^js  virb  ITKTTUV  ypa<f>etocu,  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  28.    Rhythmic  passages  are  Eph.  v.  14 ; 
1  Tim.  iii.  16 ;  vi.  15,  16 ;  2  Tim.  ii.  11—13  (Diet.  Christ.  Antt.  s.  v.  Hymns). 

4  iii.  1—17. 

6  us  anjxev,  "  as  ever  was,  and  ever  is  fitting"  (cf.  Acts  xxii.  22).  (See  my  Brief 
Greek  Syntax,  §  140.) 

6  Notice  the  rare  originality  of  the  exhortation.    Should  we  expect  to  find  it  In 
a  forger  ? 

7  iii.  18—25.    From  ouch  passages  as  these  were  drawn  such  noble  warning  rul^a  of 


THE  EPI8TLB  TO  THIS  COLO88IAW8.  621 

Then  he  tells  them  to  be  constant  in  watchful  prayer  and  thanksgiving, 
and  asks  their  prayers  that  God  would  grant  an  opening  for  that  ministry  for 
which  he  was  a  prisoner.  To  the  outer  world  he  bids  them  walk  in  wisdom, 
buying  up  every  opportunity,  and  addressing  each  one  to  whom  they  spoke 
with  pleasant  and  wholesome  words — "  in  grace  seasoned  with  salt."  * 

He  sends  no  personal  news,  because  that  will  be  conveyed  by  Tychicus, 
his  beloved  brother,  and  a  faithful  minister  and  fellow-slave  in  the  Lord,  whom 
he  sends  for  that  purpose 2  to  strengthen  their  hearts,  with  Onesimus,  their 
fellow-citizen,  and  now  their  faithful  and  beloved  brother,  whatever  he  may 
have  been  before.  He  sends  them  greetings  from  Aristarchus,  his  fellow- 
prisoner;3  from  Mark,  the  cousin  of  Barnabas,4  about  whose  possible  visit 
they  had  received  special  injunctions ;  and  Jesus  surnamed  Justus — the  only 
three  Jewish  Christians  who  worked  with  him  to  further  God's  kingdom,  and 
so  became  a  source  of  consolation  to  him.  Epaphras,  also  one  of  themselves, 
greets  them — a  slave  of  Christ  Jesus,  ever  contending  on  their  behalf  in  his 
prayers  that  they  may  stand  perfect  and  entire  in  all  God's  will,  and  one  who 
was  deeply  interested  in  their  Churches.  Luke  the  physician,  the  beloved, 
greets  them,  and  Demas.'  He  begs  them  to  greet  the  Laodicean  brethren,  and 
Nymphas,  and  the  church  in  the  house  of  him  and  his  friends.8  He  orders 
his  Epistle  to  be  publicly  read,  not  only  in  the  Colossian,  but  also  in  the 
Laodicean  Church,  and  bids  them  read  the  circular  letter  which  they  couldprocure 
from  Laodicea.7  "  And  say  to  Archippus,  Take  heed  to  the  ministry  which 
thou  receivedst  in  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfil  it."  8  The  letter  concludes  with 
his  own  autograph  salutation,  to  which  he  briefly  adds,  "  Remember  my  bonds. 
Grace  be  with  you."8 

It  is  no  part  of  my  present  task  to  trace  the  subsequent  history  of 

feudalism  as :  "  Entre  toi  vilain,  et  toi  seigneur,  il  n'y  a  juge  fors  Dieu."  "  Le  seigneur 
qui  prend  des  droits  injustes  de  son  vilain,  les  prend  au  p6ril  de  son  ame  "  (Beaumanoir). 
These  humble  practical  rules  might  be  all  the  more  necessary  for  those  who  looked  on 
outward  family  duties  as  vulgar,  and  obstructions  to  spiritual  contemplation.  (Maurice, 
Unity,  587.)  How  different  this  from  ovM  >rporye\av  8ovAm»  'AP«TTOT<AT)S  eta  wn-  (Clem. 
Alex.  Strom,  iii.  12,  §  84.) 

1  iv.  1 — 6.  s  Iv.  8,  leg.    Iva.  yyure  TO.  jrepi  WL£I>  (A,  B,  D,  F,  Q). 

3  Ver.  10,  arvwuxftaXam*.    Properly,  "  a  fellow-captive  taken  in  war."    So  of  Epaphras 
(Philem.  23),  Andronicus,  Junias  (Rom.  xvi.  7.)    In  none  of  these  cases  can  we  tell  the 
exact  allusion,  or  whether  the  word  is  literal  or  metaphorical. 

4  Barnabas  was  perhaps  dead,  and  thus  Mark  would  be  free.    Paul  seems  to  have  had 
a  little  misgiving  about  his  reception. 

5  Perhaps  Paul's  insight  into  character  is  shown  by  his  somewhat  ominous  silence 
about  Demas.    (2  Tim.  iv.  10.) 

6  Ver.  15,  avrwv  (N,  A,  C) ;  OUTT}?  (B,  Lachm.) ;  afrrov  (F,  Q,  K,  &c.). 

7  iV  ««  Aao&iceias,  "written  to  Laodicea  and  coming  to  them  from  Thrace."    Con- 
structio  praegnans.     (Brief  Greek  Syntax,  §  89;  Winer,  §  Ixvi.  6.)    There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  this  was  the  Epistle  to  the  "  Ephesians."    The  apocryphal  Epistle  to  Laodicea 
is  a  miserable  cento.     (See  Lightfoot,  Col.  340 — 366  ;  Westcott,  Canon,  p.  542.) 

8  Archippus  is  believed  to  be  a  son  of  Philemon,  and  chief  presbyter  of  Laodicea. 
If  so,  Tychicus  would  see  him  on  his  way  to  Coloasae.     It  is  at  least  curious  that  the 
lukewarmness,  the  lack  of  zeal  which  seems  here  to  be  gently  rebuked,  is  the  distinguishing 
character  of  the  Laodicean  Church,  as  repres«nted  by  its  "  angel "  in  Rev.  iii.  15.    (Trench, 
Seven  Churches,  180.) 

9  This  shorter  form  is  characteristic  of  Paul's  later  Epistlea    CoL  L,  2  Tim.,  Tit. 
The  longer  form  is  found  in  all  up  to  this  date. 


622  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

the  Churches  of  the  Lycus.  The  followers  of  Baur  in  Germany,  ana 
of  Renan  in  France,  have  tried  to  represent  that  St.  Paul's  teaching  in  Asia 
was  followed  by  a  reaction  in  which  his  name  was  calumniated  and  his 
doctrines  ignored.  The  theory  is  very  dubious.  The  doctrines  and  the 
warnings  of  -St.  John  to  the  Seven  Churches  are  closely  analogous  to, 
sometimes  almost  verbally  identical  with,  those  of  St.  Paul ;  and  the  essence 
of  the  teaching  of  both  Apostles  on  all  the  most  important  aspects  of 
Christianity  is  almost  exactly  the  same.  An  untenable  inference  has  been 
drawn  from  the  supposed  silence  of  Papias  about  St.  Paul,  so  far  as  wo  can 
judgs  from  the  references  of  Eusebius.  It  was  the  object  of  Papias  to  collect 
traditional  testimonies  from  various  Apostles  and  disciples,  and  of  these  St. 
Paul  could  not  have  been  one.  Papias  was  Bishop  of  Eierapolis,  in  which 
St.  Paul  may  never  have  set  his  foot.  Even  if  he  did,  his  visit  was  brief,  and 
had  taken  place  long  before  Papias  wrote,  whereas  after  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  St.  John  resided  for  many  years  at  Ephcsus,  and  there  were 
'  gathered  around  him  Andrev/,  Philip,  Aristion,  and  others  who  had  known  the 
Lord.  These  were  the  authorities  to  which  Papias  referred  for  his  somewhat 
loose  and  credulous  traditions,  and  he  may  have  quoted  St.  Paul,  just 
as  Polycarp  does,  without  its  at  all  occurring  to  Eusebius  to  mention  the  fact. 
Not  only  is  there  no  proof  of  a  general  apostasy  from  Pauline  principles,  but 
in  the  decrees  of  the  Council  held  at  Laodicea  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century,  we  read  the  very  same  warnings  against  angelolatry,  Judaism,  and 
Oriental  speculation,  which  find  a  place  in  these  Epistles  of  the  Captivity. 
Colossae  itself — liable  as  it  was  to  constant  earthquakes,  which  were  rendered 
more  ruinous  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  Lycus  with  its  petrifying  waters 
— was  gradually  deserted,  and  the  churches  of  Asia  finally  perished 
under  the  withering  blight  of  Islam  with  its  cruelties,  its  degradation, 
and  its  neglect. 


CHAPTER   L. 

ST.   PAUL  AND   ONESIMTJS. 

"  Quasi  vero  curent  divina  de  servis !  " — MACROS.  Sat.  i.  11. 

"  In  servos  superbissiini,  crudelissimi,  contumeliosissimi  sumus." — SEN.  Up.  xlvii. 

"  Aequalitas  naturae  et  fidoi  potior  est  quam  differentia  statuum." — BENGEL. 

"  Through  the  vista  of  history  we  see  slavery  and  its  Pagan  theory  of  two 
races  fall  before  the  holy  word  of  Jesus,  '  All  men  are  the  children  of  God.' — 
MAZZINI,  Works,  vi.  99. 

"  '  The  story  is  too  rare  to  be  true.'  Christian  faith  has  answered  that.  '  It  ifl 
too  suggestive  to  be  true.'  Christian  science  has  answered  that."— LAN  GE,  Apostol. 
Zeitalt.  i.  134. 

IN  tho  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  St.  Paul  had  sent  no  greeting  to  Philemon— 
who  was  a  prominent  member  of  that  Church — because  he  purposed  to  write 
liiiu  a  separata  letter.  A  man  like  St.  Paul,  whose  large  and  loving  heart  had 


ST.   PAUL  AND  ONESIMU8.  623 

won  for  him  so  many  deeply-attached  friends,  must  have  often  communicated 
with  them  by  brief  letters,  but  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  is  the  only  private 
letter  of  this  correspondence  which  has  been  preserved  for  us — the  only  private 
letter  in  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament,  with  the  exception  of  the  brief 
letter  of  St.  John  to  the  well-beloved  Gaius.1  "We  cannot  but  regret  the  loss. 
Hundreds  of  letters  of  Cicero,  of  Seiieca,  and  of  Pliny,  have  come  down  to  us, 
and,  though  some  of  them  are  models  of  grace  and  eloquence,  how  gladly 
would  we  resign  them  all  for  even  one  or  two  of  those  written  by  the  Apostle  t 
In  style,  indeed,  his  letter  is  quite  careless  and  unpolished ;  but  whereas  the 
letters  of  the  great  Romans,  with  all  their  literary  skill  and  finish,  often  leave 
on  us  an  involuntary  impression  of  the  vanity,  the  insincerity,  even  in  some 
instances  the  entire  moral  instability  of  their  writers,  on  the  other  hand,  this 
brief  letter  of  St.  Paul  reveals  to  us  yet  another  glimpse  of  a  character  worthy 
of  the  very  noblest  utterances  which  we  find  in  his  other  Epistles.  These  few 
lines,  at  onee  so  warmhearted  and  so  dignified,  which  theological  bigotry  was 
once  inclined  to  despise  as  insignificant,  express  principles  of  eternal  ap- 
plicability which  even  down  to  the  latest  times  have  had  no  small  influence  in 
the  development  of  the  world's  history.  With  all  the  slightness  of  its  texture, 
and  the  comparative  triviality  of  the  occasion  which  called  it  forth,  the  letter 
is  yet  a  model  of  tact,  of  sympathy,  and  of  high  moral  nobleness.  This  little 
"  idyl  of  the  progress  of  Christianity " 2  shows  that  under  the  worn  and 
ragged  gabardine  of  the  wandering  missionary  there  beat  the  heart  of  a  true 
gentleman,  whose  high-bred  manners  would  have  done  honour  to  any  court.3 

We  have  seen  that  during  his  imprisonment  St.  Paul  was,  by  "  that  unseen 
Providence  which  men  nickname  Chance,"  brought  into  contact  with  a 
runaway  slave  from  Colossse,  whose  name  was  Onesimus,  or  "  Profitable."  Ho 
had  fled  to  Koine — to  Rome,  the  common  sentina  of  the  world4 — to  hide 
himself  from  the  consequences  of  crimes  for  which  a  heat-lien  master  might 
without  compunction  have  consigned  him  to  the  erga^tulum  or  the  cross ;  and 
in  the  basement  of  one  of  the  huge  Roman  insulae,  or  in  the  hovel  of  some 
fellow-child  of  vice  and  misery  in  that  seething  mass  of  human  wretchedness 
which  weltered  like  gathered  scum  on  the  fringe  of  the  glittering  tide  of 
civilisation,  he  was  more  secure  than  anywhere  else  of  remaining  undetected. 
What  it  was  that  rescued  him  from  the  degradations  which  were  the  sole 
possible  outcome  of  such  an  ill-begun  career  wo  cannot  tell.  He  would  soon 
exhaust  what  he  had  stolen  from  his  master ;  and  as  Rome  was  full  to  over- 
flowing of  slaves  and  idlers — as  the  openings  for  an  honest  maintenance  even 
5n  tho  barest  poverty  were  few — it  is  hard  to  see  what  resource  was  left  to 

1  The  "  elect  lady  "  of  2  John  1.  1  is  believed  to  be,  not  an  Individual,  bat  a  Church. 
s  Davies. 

*  Even  Baur  seems  to  blush  for  the  necessity  which  made  him  declare  this  Epistle 
spurious.    He  only  does  so  because  it  is  more  or  less  involved  with  the  other  three,  and 
stands  or  falls  with  them.      "What  has  criticism  to  do  with  this  short,  attractive, 
friendly,  and  graceful  letter,  inspired  as  it  is  by  the  noblest  Christian  feeling,  and  which 
has  never  yet  been  touched  by  the  breath  of  suspicion  ?"    (Paul.  ii.  80.) 

*  SalL  Cat.  xxxviL  5. 


624  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

him  except  a  life  of  villany.  Perhaps  in  this  condition  he  was  met  by  his 
fellow- Colossian,  Epaphraa,  who  as  a  Presbyter  of  Colossae  would  be  well 
known  to  Philemon.  Perhaps  Aristarchus,  or  any  other  of  those  who  had 
been  St.  Paul's  companions  at  Ephesus,  had  come  across  him,  and  recognised 
him  as  having  been  in  attendance  on  Philemon  at  the  time  of  his  conversion 
by  St.  Paul.  Perhaps  he  had  himself  been  present  at  some  of  those  daily 
addresses  and  discussions  in  the  school  of  Tyrannus,  which,  though  at  the 
time  they  had  not  touched  his  heart,  had  at  the  least  shown  him  the  noble 
nature  of  the  speaker,  and  revealed  to  the  instinctive  sense  of  one  who 
belonged  to  an  oppressed  class,  the  presence  of  a  soul  which  could  sympathise 
with  the  suffering.  How  this  may  have  been  we  do  not  know,  but  we  do 
know  that  his  hopes  were  not  deceived.  The  Apostle  received  him  kindly, 
sympathetically,  even  tenderly.  The  Eabbis  said,  "  It  is  forbidden  to  teach  a 
slave  the  Law." l  "  As  though  Heaven  cared  for  slaves !  "  said  the  ordinary 
Pagan,  with  a  sneer.8  Not  so  thought  St.  Paul.  In  Christianity  there  is 
nothing  esoteric,  nothing  exclusive.  Onesimus  became  a  Christian.  The 
heart  which  was  hard  as  a  diamond  against  Pharisaism  and  tyranny,  was  yet 
tender  as  a  mother's  towards  sorrow  and  repentant  sin.  Paul  had  learnt  in 
the  school  of  Him  who  suffered  the  penitent  harlot  to  wash  His  feet  with  her 
tears  and  wipe  them  with  the  hair  of  her  head ;  of  Him  who  had  said  to  the 
convicted  adulteress,  "  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee ;  go,  and  sin  no  more." 
Paul  in  no  wise  shared  the  anti- Christian  respect  of  persons  which  made  some 
people  in  St.  Jerome's  days  3  argue  that  it  was  beneath  his  dignity  to  trouble 
himself  about  a  runaway  slave.  He  understood  better  than  the  Fathers  that 
the  religion  of  Christ  is  the  Magna  Charta  of  humanity.  The  drag-net  of  His 
"  fishers  of  men  "  was  dropped  to  the  very  depths  of  the  social  sea.  Here  was 
one  whose  position  was  the  lowest  that  could  be  conceived.  He  was  a  slave  ; 
a  slave  of  the  country  whose  slaves  were  regarded  as  the  worst  there  were ;  a 
slave  who  had  first  robbed  a  kind  master,  and  then  run  away  from  him ;  a 
slave  at  whom  current  proverbs  pointed  as  exceptionally  worthless,*  amenable 
only  to  blows,  and  none  the  better  even  for  them.6  In  a  word,  he  was  a 
slave;  a  Phrygian  slave;  a  thievish  Asiatic  runaway  slave,  who  had  no 
recognised  rights,  and  towards  whom  no  one  had  any  recognised  duties.  He 
was  a  mere  "  live  chattel ; " 8  a  mere  "  implement  with  a  voice ;  "  T  a  thing 
which  had  no  rights,  and  towards  which  there  were  no  duties.  But  St.  Paul 
converted  him,  and  the  slave  became  a  Christian,  a  brother  beloved  and 
serviceable,  an  heir  of  immortality,  a  son  of  the  kingdom,  one  of  a  royal 
generation,  of  a  holy  priesthood.  The  satirist  Porsius  speaks  with  utter  scorn 
of  the  rapid  process  by  which  a  slave  became  a  freeman  and  a  citizen: 

1  Ketubhoth,  f.  28, 1. 

2  Macrob.  Saturn.  IL    The  better  Stoics  furnish  a  noble  exception  to  this  tone. 

*  In  Ep.  ad  PhUem. 

*  Mv<riv  «rx<mw.     Menand.  Androg.  7 ',  Plat.  Theaet.  209,  B. 

3  Cic.  pro  Place.  27.  '  Arist.  Pol.  i.  4,  e/xija/xoi-  opyoiw. 

7  Varro,  de  Be  Rust.  i.  17.     "  instrument*  gentu    .     .    ,    vooale." 


8T.    PATJI,  AKD  ONESIMUS.  625 

"  There  stands  Dama — a  twopenny  stable-boy,  and  a  pilfering  scoundrel ;  the 
Praetor  touches  him.  with  his  wand,  and  twirls  him  round,  and 

"  Momento  turbinis,  exit 

MARCUS  Dama !  .  .  .  .  Papae  !  Marco  spondente  recusas 
Credere  tu  nummos  P    Marco  sub  judice  palles  ?  " 1 

But  the  difference  between  Dama  the  worthless  drudge  and  Marcus  Dama  the 
presumably  worthy  citizen  was  absolutely  infinitesimal  compared  to  the  real 
and  unsurpassable  difference  which  separated  Onesimus  the  good-for-nothing 
Phrygian  fugitive  from  Onesimus  the  brother  faithful  and  beloved. 

And  thus  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  becomes  the  practical  manifesto  of 
Christianity  against  the  horrors  and  iniquities  of  ancient  and  modern  slavery.3 
From  the  very  nature  of  the  Christian  Church — from  the  fact  that  it  was  "  a 
kingdom  not  of  this  world " — it  could  not  be  revolutionary.  It  was  never 
meant  to  prevail  by  physical  violence,  or  to  be  promulgated  by  the  sword.  It 
was  the  revelation  of  eternal  principles,  not  the  elaboration  of  practical  details. 
It  did  not  interfere,  or  attempt  to  interfere,  with  the  facts  of  the  established 
order.  Had  it  done  so  it  must  have  perished  in  the  storm  of  excitement 
which  it  would  have  inevitably  raised.  In  revealing  truth,  in  protesting 
against  crime,  it  insured  its  own  ultimate  yet  silent  victory.  It  knew  that 
where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  there  is  liberty.  It  was  loyal  to  the  powers 
that  bo.  It  raised  no  voice,  and  refused  no  tribute  even  to  a  Gaius  or  a  Nero. 
It  did  not  denounce  slavery,  and  preached  no  fatal  and  futile  servile  war.  It 
did  not  inflame  its  Onesimi  to  play  the  parts  of  an  Eunus  or  an  Artemio.  Yet 
it  inspired  a  sense  of  freedom  which  has  been  in  all  ages  the  most  invincible  foe 
to  tyranny,  and  it  proclaimed  a  divine  equality  and  brotherhood,  which  while 
it  left  untouched  the  ordinary  social  distinctions,  left  slavery  impossible  to 
enlightened  Christian  lands.3 

This  delicate  relation  to  the  existing  structure  of  society  is  admirably 
illustrated  by  the  Letter  to  Philemon.  The  tension  always  produced  by  the 
existence  of  a  slave  population,  vastly  preponderant  in  numbers,  was  at  that 
moment  exceptionally  felt.  Less  than  two  years  before  St.  Paul  wrote  to 

1  Pers.  Sat.  v.  76—80. 

2  "  Omnia  in  servum  licent "  (Sen.  Clem.  1.  18).     For  an  only  too  vivid  sketch  of  what 
those  horrors  and  iniquities  were,  see  Dollinger,  Judenth.  u.  Heidenth.  be.  1,  §  2  ;  Wallon, 
Hist,  de  VEsclavage  dans  I'AntiquitS.   The  difference  between  the  wisdom  which  is  of  the 
world  and  the  wisdom  which  is  of  God  may  be  measured  by  the  difference  between  the 
Epistle  to  Philemon  and  the  sentiments  of  heathens  even  so  enlightened  as  Aristotle 
(Polit.  i.  3  ;  Eth.  Nic.  viii.  13)  and  Plato  (Legg.  vi.  777,  seq. ;  Rep.  viii.  549).    The  differ- 
ence  between  Christian  morals  and  those  of  even  such  Pagans  as  passed  for  very  models 
of  virtue  may  be  estimated  by  comparing  the  advice  of  St.  Paul  to  Christian  masters, 
and  the  detestable  greed  and  cruelty  of  the  elder  Cato  in  his  treatment  of  his  slaves 
(Pint.  Cat.  Maj.  x.  21;   Plin.  H.  N.  xviii.  8.  3).     See  too  Plautus,  passim;   Sec. 
Up.  xlvii. ;  Juv.  Sat.  vi.  219,  scq.  ;  Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  42 — 45 ;  and  Plut.  Apophthegm,  vi. 
778  (the  story  of  Vedius  Pollio). 

3  On  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  slavery  see  Lecky,  Hist,  of  Rationalism,  ii.  258  ; 
Troplong.  De  Vlnflumce  du  Christ  sur  le  Droit  civil,  &c.  ;  Gold.  Smith,  Docs  the  Bible 
sanction  American  Slavery  f     De  Broglie,  L*E<jlise  ct  L'Emp.  vi.  498,  scq. ;  i.  162,  306 ; 
Wallon,  DC  VEsclavaye,  ii.  ad  Jin.,  &c.    The  feeling  is  indicated  in  Rev.  iviii.  13. 

21 « 


626  tHE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Philemon,  a  Consular,  a  Praefect  of  the  city,  named  Pedauius  Secundus,  had 
been  murdered  by  a  slave  under  circumstances  of  infamy  which  characterised 
that  entire  epoch.  In  spite  of  the  pity  of  the  people,  the  Senate  had  decided 
that  the  old  ruthless  law,  re-established  by  the  Silanian  decree  under 
Augustus,  should  be  carried  out,  and  the  entire  familia  of  slaves  be  pxit 
to  death.  Regardless  of  the  menaces  of  the  populace,  Nero  ordered  the 
sentence  to  be  executed  by  military  force,  and  four  hundred  human  beings  of 
every  age  and  of  both  sexes  had  been  led  through  lines  of  soldiers  to  their 
slaughter  in  spite  of  the  indubitable  innocence  of  the  vast  majority.  This 
horrible  event,  together  with  the  thrilling  debate  to  which  it  had  given  rise  in 
the  Senate,  had  made  the  subject  of  slavery  a  "  burning  question  "  at  Borne, 
and  deepened  the  general  feeling  which  had  long  found  proverbial  expression, 
that  "the  more  slaves  the  more  enemies."  In  that  memorable  debate,  it  had 
been  asserted  by  C.  Cassius  Longinus  that  the  only  way  in  which  the  rich 
could  live  in  Rome — few  amid  multitudes,  safe  amid  the  terrified,  or,  at  the 
worst,  not  unavenged  among  the  guilty — would  be  by  a  rigid  adherence  to  the 
old  and  sanguinary  law. 

Such  then,  was  the  state  of  things  in  which  St.  Paul  sat  down  to  write  his 
letter  of  intercession  for  the  Phrygian  runaway.  Ho  could  not  denounce 
slavery ;  he  could  not  even  emancipate  Onesimus  ;  but  just  as  Moses,  "  because 
of  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,"1  could  not  overthrow  the  lex  talionis,  or 
polygamy,  or  the  existence  of  blood-feuds,  but  rendered  them  as  nugatory  as 
possible,  and  robbed  them  as  far  as  he  could  of  their  fatal  sting,  by  controlling 
and  modifying  influences,  so  St.  Paul  established  the  truths  that  rendered 
slavery  endurable,  and  raised  the  slave  to  a  dignity  which  made  emancipation 
itself  seem  but  a  secondary  and  even  trivial  thing.  A  blow  was  struck  at  the 
very  root  of  slavery  when  our  Lord  said,  "  Te  all  are  brethren."  In  a 
Christian  community  a  slave  might  be  a  "  bishop,"  and  his  master  only  a 
catechumen ;  and  St.  Paul  writes  to  bid  the  Corinthians  pay  due  respect  and 
subjection  to  the  household  of  Stephanas,  though  some  of  the  Corinthians 
were  people  of  good  position,  and  these  were  slaves.2  Onesimus  repaid  by 
gratitude,  by  affection,  by  active  and  cherished  services  to  the  aged  prisoner, 
the  inestimable  boon  of  his  deliverance  from  moral  and  spiritual  death. 
Gladly  would  St.  Paul,  with  so  much  to  try  him,  with  so  few  to  tend  him,  have 
retained  this  warm-hearted  youth  about  his  person,— one  whose  qualities, 
however  much  they  may  have  been  perverted  and  led  astray,  wore  so  naturally 
sweet  and  amiable,  that  St.  Paul  feels  for  him  all  the  affection  of  a  father 
towards  a  son.3  And  had  ho  retained  him,  he  felt  sure  that  Philemon  would 
not  only  have  pardoned  the  liberty,  but  would  even  have  rejoiced  that  one  over 
whom  he  had  some  claim  should  discharge  some  of  those  kindly  duties  to  the 

1  Matt.  six.  8.  *  See  Hausrath,  Newt.  Zeitg.  ii.  405. 

8  It  is  not  said  in  so  many  words  that  Onesinius  was  young,  but  the  language  used 
respecting  him  seeins  clearly  to  show  that  this  was  the  case  (Philem.  10,  12,  &c.).  The 
expression  an^dyxva.,  like  the  Latin  viscera,  is  used  of  sons— o!  iraiSes  <rn\d.yx.va  Ax'yovrw 
(Artemid.  Onevrocr.  i.  44 ;  cf ,  v.  57)t 


ST.  PAUL  AND  ONESIMTT8.  627 

Apostle  in  his  affliction  which  he  himself  was  unable  to  render.1  But  Paul 
was  too  much  of  a  gentleman2  to  presume  on  the  kindness  of  even  a  beloved 
convert.  And  besides  this,  a  fault  had  been  committed,  and  had  not  yet  been 
condoned.  It  was  necessary  to  show  by  example  that,  where  it  was  possible, 
restitution  should  follow  repentance,  and  that  he  who  had  been  guilty  of  a 
great  wrong  should  not  be  irregularly  shielded  from  its  legitimate  conse- 
quences. Had  Philemon  been  a  heathen,  to  send  Onesimus  to  him  would  have 
been  to  consign  the  poor  slave  to  certain  torture,  to  possible  crucifixion.3  He 
would,  to  a  certainty,  have  become  henceforth  a  "branded  runaway,"  a 
stigmatias,*  or  liave  boon  turned  into  the  slave-prison  to  work  in  chains.  But 
Philemon  was  a  Christian,  and  the  "  Gospel  of  Christ,  by  Christianising  the 
master,  emancipated  the  slave." 6  Paul  felt  quite  sure  that  he  was  sending 
back  the  runaway — who  had  become  his  dear  son,  and  from  whom  he  could  not 
part  without  a  violent  wrench — to  forgiveness,  to  considerate  kindness,  in  all 
probability  to  future  freedom;  and  at  any  rate  right  was  right,  and  he  felt  that 
he  ought  not  to  shrink  from  the  personal  sacrifice  of  parting  with  him.  He 
therefore  sent  him  back  under  the  kind  care  of  Tychicus,  and — happily  for  us 
— with  a  "  commendatory  Epistle,"  which  even  Baur  apologises  for  rejecting, 
and  which  all  the  world  has  valued  and  admired.6  It  has  been  compared  by 
Grotius  and  others  with  the  graceful  and  touching  letter  written  by  the 
younger  Pliny  to  his  friend  Sabinianus  to  intercede  for  an  offending  freeclman, 
who  with  many  tears  and  entreaties  had  besought  his  aid,  That  exquisitely 
natural  and  beautifully-written  letter  does  credit  both  to  Pliny's  heart  and  to 
his  head,  and  yet  polished  as  it  is  in  style,  while  St.  Paul's  is  written  with  a 
sort  of  noble  carelessness  of  expression,  it  stands  for  beauty  and  value  far 
below  the  letter  to  Philemon.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  for  a  young  freedman 
who  had  been  deeply  beloved,  and  not  for  a  runaway  slave.  In  the  next  place, 
it  is  purely  individual,  and  wholly  wanting  in  the  large  divine  principle  which 
underlies  the  letter  of  St.  Paul.  And  there  are  other  marked  differences. 
Paul  has  no  doubt  whatever  about  the  future  good  conduct  of  Onesimus ;  but 

1  Philem.  13,  fra  vnep  <rov  fioi  faaKovfi.  It  is  unlikely  that  SKUCOVW  here  implies  religioui 
assistance. 

3  Many  writers  have  felt  that  no  word  but  "gentleman,"  in  its  old  and  truest  sense, 
is  suitable  to  describe  the  character  which  this  letter  reveals.  (Stanley,  Cor.  391 ;  Newman, 
Serm.  on  Various  Occasions,  133.)  "The  only  fit  commentator  on  Paul  was  Luther— 
not  by  any  means  such  a  gentleman  as  the  Apostle  was,  but  almost  as  great  a  genius '' 
(Coleridge,  Table  Talk). 

3  Juv.  Sat.  vi.  219 ;  Plin.  Ep.  ix.  21,  "  Ne  torseris  ilium." 

4  8pair6TT)s  e<TTiynfvos  (Ar.  Av.  759),     (Becker,  Charikles,  p.  370.) 
1  Bp.  "Wordsworth. 

6  Baur's  rejection  of  it  is  founded  on  un-Pauliue  expressions— i.e.,  expressions  which 
only  occur  in  other  Epistles  which  he  rejects ;  on  the  assertion  that  the  circumstances  are 
improbable ;  and  that  the  word  (nr^ayxya.— which  he  admits  to  be  Pauline,  and  which 
might,  he  says,  have  occurred  twice — is  used  three  times !  The  Epistle  is  therefore  to 
him  an  "Embryo  einer  Christtichen  DifMung."  Admissirismntencatis?  Tho  "  Vorwurf 
der  HyperkriMk,  eines  ubertriebenen  Misstrauens,  einer  alles  angreif enden  Zweifelsucht " 
is,  however,  one  which  applies  not  only  to  his  criticism  of  this  Epistle,  but  to  much  of 
his  general  method  ;  only  w  this  instance,  as  Wiesinger  says,  it  is  not  only  Hyperkrtiik 
But  Unkritik. 


628  THE    LIFE  AND  WORK  Of   ST.   PAUL. 

Pliny  thinks  that  the  young  freedman  may  offend  again.  Pliny  assumes  that 
Sabinianus  is  and  will  be  angry;  Paul  has  no  such  fear  about  Philemon. 
Paul  pleads  on  the  broad  ground  of  Humanity  redeemed  in  Christ;  Pliny 
pleads  the  youth  and  the  tears  of  the  freedman,  and  the  affection  which  his 
master  had  once  felt  for  him.  Paul  does  not  think  it  necessary  to  ask 
Philemon  to  spare  punishment ;  Pliny  has  to  beg  his  friend  not  to  use  torture. 
Paul  has  no  reproaches  for  Onesimns ;  Pliny  severely  scolded  his  young 
suppliant,  and  told  him — without  meaning  to  keep  his  word — that  he  should 
never  intercede  for  him  again.  The  letter  of  Pliny  is  the  letter  of  an  excellent 
Pagan ;  but  the  differences  which  separate  the  Pagan  from  the  Christian  stand 
out  in  every  line.1 


CHAPTER   LI. 

THE     EPISTLE    TO    PHILEMON, 

"  Servi  sunt  ?  immo  conservi." — SEN. 

"  Evangelico  decore  conscripta  est." — JER. 

"  Epistola  familiaris,  mire  aerrtTos  summae  sapientiae  praebitura  specimen.** — 
BENGEL. 

"  Ita  modeste  ct  suppliciter  pro  infimo  homine  se  dimittit  ut  vix  alibi  usquam 
rnagis  ad  vivum  sit  expressa  ingenii  ejus  mansuetudo." — CALVIN. 

"  PAUL,  a  prisoner  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  Timothy  the  brother,  to  Philemon,  our 
beloved  and  fellow- worker,  and  to  Apphia  the  sister,2  and  to  Archippus  our  fellow- 
soldier,  and  to  the  Church  in  thy  house ;  grace  to  you,  and  peace  from  God  our 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  I  thank  my  God  always,  making  mention  of  thee  in  my  prayers — hearing  thy 
love,  and  the  faith  thou  hast  towards  the  Lord  Josus  and  unto  all  the  saints  3 — that 
the  kindly  exercise  of  thy  faith  may  become  effectual,  in  the  full  knowledge  of  every 
blessing  we  possess,  unto  Christ's  glory.  For  I  had  much  joy  and  consolation  in 
thy  love,  because  the  hearts  of  the  saints  have  been  refreshed  by  thee,  brother. 

"  Although,  then,  I  feel  much  confidence  in  Christ  to  enjoin  upon  thee  what  is 
fitting,  yet  I  rather  entreat  thee  for  love's  sake,  being  such  an  one  as  Paul  the  aged,4 
and  at  this  moment  also  a  prisoner  of  Christ  Jesus.  I  entreat  thee  about  my  child, 
whom  I  begot  in  my  bonds — Onesimus — once  to  thee  the  reverse  of  his  name — profit- 

1  A  translation  of  Pliny's  letter  will  be  found  in  Excursus  XI.     (Ep.  ix.  21.) 

2  The  reading  is  uncertain,  but  N,  A,  D,  E,  F,  G  (15  is  here  deficient)  read  aSetyrj,  and 
we  jud^e  from  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  that  ayamjTT)  may  in  his  age,  and  perhaps  in  the 
Apostle's,  have  given  rise  to  coarse  remarks  from  coarse  mindft. 

3  Ver.  5,  jrpbs    .    .    .    tit. 

4  Ver.  9,  TOIOVTOS  &v  ws  is  not  unclassical,  as  Meyer  asserts.     (See  instances  in  Light- 
foot,  Col.,  p.  404.)    St.  Paul  must  at  this  time  have  been  sixty  years  old,  and  people  of 
that  age,  particularly  when  they  have  been  battered,  as  he  had  been,  by  all  the  storms 
of  life,  naturally  speak  of  themselves  as  old.     I  cannot  think  that  this  means  "  an  ambas- 
sador     (Eph.  vi.  20).     To  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  reading  is  irpe<r/3vTi)«,  not 
7rpe<r/3euT>js,  and  allowing  that  the  two  might  often  have  been  confused  (just  as,  indeed, 
Trpeo-pi?  and  irpeo-/3euTTj?  interchange  the  meanings  of  their  plurals),  yet  would  P&ul  have 
taid  "an  ambassador"  without  saying  of  whom? 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  PHILEMON.  629 

less1  not  'profitable,'  and  no  Christian,  but  now  truly  profitable*  and  a  good 
Christian — whom  I  send  back  to  thee.  Him  that  is  the  son  of  my  bo-.vels,3  whom  I 
should  have  preferred  to  retain  about  my  own  person  that  he  may  on  thy  behalf 
minister  to  me  in  the  bonds  of  the  Gospel — but  without  thy  opinion  I  decided  to  do 
nothing,  that  thy  kindly  deed  may  not  be  a  matter  of  compulsion,  but  voluntary. 
For  perhaps  on  this  account  he  was  parted  for  a  season,  that  thou  mayst  have  him 
back  for  ever,  no  longer  as  a  slave,  but  above  a  slave,  a  brother  beloved,  especially 
to  me,  but  how  far  more  to  thee,  both  naturally  and  spiritually.  If,  then,  thou 
boldest  me  as  a  comrade,  receive  him  like  myself.  But  if  he  wronged  thee  in  any 
respect,  or  is  in  thy  debt,  set  that  down  to  me.  I  Paul  write  it  with  my  own  hand, 
I  will  repay  it4— not  to  say  to  thee  that  thou  owest  me  even  thyself  besides.  Yes, 
brother,  may  I '  profit '  by  thee  in  the  Lord.5  Kefresh  my  heart  in  Christ.  Con- 
fiding in  thy  compliance  I  write  to  thee,  knowing  that  even  more  than  I  say  thou 
wilt  do.  But  further  than  this,  prepare  for  me  a  lodging,  for  I  hope  that  by  means 
of  your  prayers  I  shall  be  granted  to  you. 

"  There  salute  thee  Epaphras,  my  fellow-prisoner  in  Christ  Jesus,  Marcus,  Aris- 
tarchus,  Demas,  Luke,  my  fellow-labourers. 

"  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  the  spirit  of  you  and  yours."  • 

1  oxp.    Litotes;  crat  enim  noxius  (Bengel). 

2  Ver.  11.  There  seems  here,  as  Baur  acutely  observes,  to  be  a  double  paronomasia, 
which  I  have  endeavoured  to  indicate.    For  Xpiorbs  and  Xpijorbs  were  confused  with  each 
other,  and  the  Christians  did  not  dislike  this.    '£«  rov  /conjyopov/iuVov  q.uwc   ovoVai-o? 

Xpi)<rroTaTot    vna.pxoii.ev   XP'OTiai/oi    yap   ilrai   Karqyopovjiefa    TOV   5e   XPI)OT°1'   f"<m<T0ai    ou   SiKaiov 

(Justin,  Apol.  i.  4).    (Tert.  Apol.  3.)    Supra,  p.  169. 

3  "Son  of  my  bowels,  Anselm  !     (Browning,  The  Bishop's  Tomb.)    SnAayxva  =  eor- 
culum,  "my  very  heart;"  "the  very  eyes  of  me;"  Dtim.    The  elliptic  form  of  the 
sentence,  so  characteristic  of  St.  Paul,  is  filled  up  in  some  MSS.  by  20  Se  avroV,  TevVeari 
TO.  «fia  tnrA.ayxva  irp<xrA.aj3oO. 

*  'Airi  ypafj.uM.riov  (a  bond)  rrjvSt  Ka.rt\t  TIJI'  nrioroAiji'*  irirav  aiirij v  yeypa.<f>a  (Theodoret).  Some 
have  supposed  that  Paul  here  took  the  pen  from  the  amanuensis,  and  that  this  is  the 
only  autograph  sentence.  Oosterzee,  &c.,  treat  this  as  "a  good-humoured  jest;"  and 
others  think  it  unlike  the  delicacy  which  never  once  reminds  the  Judaisers  of  the  chaluka 
which  St.  Paul  had  toiled  to  raise.  But  a  slave  was  valuable,  and  something  in  the 
character  of  Philemon  may  have  led  to  the  remark.  Bengel  rightly  says,  Vinctus 
scribit  serio,"  as  a  father  pays  the  debts  of  his  son.  Schrader.  Lardner,  Bleek,  Hackett 
regard  it  as  "no  better  than  calumny "  to  say  that  Onesimus  had  stolen  anything. 

5  Ver.  20,  opoijtup'.     "  I  send  you  back  an  Onesimus  now  worthy  of  his  name ;  will 
you  be  my  Onesimus  ?"    It  is  vain  for  critics  to  protest  against  these  plays  on  names. 
They  have  been  prevalent  in  all  ages,  and  hi  all  writers,  and  in  all  countries,  as  I  have 
shown  by  multitudes  of  instances  in  Chapters  on  Language,  ch.  xxii.    As  a  parallel  to 
this  play  on  Onesimus,  compare  Whitefield's  personal  appeal  to  the  comedian  Shuter, 
who  had  often  played  the  character  of  Ramble — "  And  thou,  poor  Ramble,  who  hast  so 
often  rambled  from  Him  ....  Oh,  end  thy  ramblings  and  come  to  Jesus." 

6  Paul  had  been  trained  as  a  Rabbi.    To  see  what  Christianity  had  taught  him  we 
have  only  to  compare  his  teachings  with  those  of  his  former  masters.     Contrast,  for 
instance,  the  Rabbinic  conception  of  a  slave  with  that  tender  estimate  of  human  worth 
— that  high  conception  of  the  dignity  of  man  as  man — which  stands  out  so  beautifully 
in  this  brief  letter.     The  Rabbis  taught  that  on  the  death  of  a  slave,  whether  male  or 
female — and  even  of  a  Hebrew  slave — the  benediction  was  not  to  be  repeated  for  the 
mourners,  nor  condolence  offered  to  them.    It  happened  that  on  one  occasion  a  female 
slave  of  Rabbi  Eliezer  died,  and  when  his  disciples  came  to  condole  with  him  he  retired 
from  them  from  room  to  room,  from  upper  chamber  to  hall,  till  at  last  he  said  to  them, 
"I  thought  you  would  feel  the  effects  of  tepid  water,  but  you  are  proof  even  against  hot 
water.     Have  I  not  taught  you  that  these  signs  of  respect  are  not  to  be  paid  at  the  death 
of  slaves?"    "What,  then,"  asked  the  disciples,  "are  pupils  on  such  occasions  to  say  to 
their  masters?"    "The  same  as  is  said  when  their  oxen  and  asses  die,"  answered  the 
Rabbi — "  May  the  Lord  replenish  thy  loss."    They  were  not  even  to  be  mourned  for  bj 
their  masters;  Rabbi  Jose  only  permitted  a  master  to  say — "Alas,  a  good  and  faithful 
man,  and  one  who  lived  by  his  labour ! "    But  even  this  was  objected  to  aa  being  to? 
much  LBerachtih.  f.  16,  2 ;  Maimonides,  Hilch.  Aval.,  §  12 ;  Hal.  12). 


630  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.   PATTL. 

When  Pliny  interceded  with  Sabinianus  for  the  offending  freedman,  he 
was  able  to  write  shortly  afterwards,  "  You  have  done  well  in  receiving  back 
your  freedman  to  your  house  and  heart.  This  will  give  you  pleasure,  as  it 
certainly  gives  me  pleasure ;  first,  because  it  shows  me  your  self-control,  and 
secondly,  because  you  esteem  mo  sufficiently  to  yield  to  my  authority,  and 
make  a  concession  to  my  entreaties."  What  was  the  issue  of  St.  Paul's  letter 
we  are  not  told,  but  we  may  feel  quite  sure  that  the  confidence  of  one  who 
was  so  skilful  a  reader  of  human  character  was  not  misplaced ;  that  Philemon 
received  his  slave  as  kindly  as  Sabinianus  received  bis  freedman ;  that  he  for- 
gave him,  and  not  merely  took  him  into  favour,  but  did  what  St.  Paul  does 
not  ask,  but  evidently  desired,  namely,  set  him  free.1  We  may  be  sure,  too, 
that  if  St.  Paul  was  ever  able  to  carry  out  his  intended  visit  to  Colossse,  it  was 
no  more  "lodging"  that  Philemon  prepared  for  him,  but  a  home  under  his 
own  and  Apphia's  roof,  where  they  and  the  somewhat  slack  Archippus;  and 
the  Church  that  assembled  in  their  house,  might  enjoy  his  beloved  society,  and 
profit  by  his  immortal  words. 


CHAPTER  LH. 

•THE    EPISTLE   TO  "THE   EPHESIANS." 

Tp  'KK«\t}ffl<f  TjJ  a.£iop.aKapTa.T<prfj  ofiffr)lv'E.<l>tfftp  T?JJ  Afftas.  —  ISNAT.  ad  Eph.  i 
"  Nulla  Epistola  Pauli  tanta  habet  mysteria  tarn  reconditis  senflibus  involuta.*'—  - 
JEK.  in  Eph.  iii. 

.  —  EPH.  iv.  4. 


THE  polemical  speciality  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  compared  with 
the  far  more  magnificent  generality  of  the  great  truths  which  occupy  the 
earlier  chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  "  the  Epliesiaus,"2  seems  (as  we  have  already 

1  The  ecclesiastical  traditions  about  Philemon's  episcopate,  martyrdom,  &c.,  are  too 
late  ami  worthless  to  deserve  mention  ;  and  the  samo  may  be  said  of  those  respecting 
Onesimus.     As  far  as  dates  are  concerned,  he  might  be  the  Onesimus,  Bishop  of  Ephesus, 
mentioned  forty-four  years  later  by  St.  Ignatius.     A  postscript  in  two  MSS.  says  that  he 
was  martyred  at  Rome  by  having  his  legs  broken  on  the  rack. 

2  That  the  Epistle  was  meant  for  the  Ephesiaus,  amonff^thers,  is  generally  admitted. 
and  Alford  points  out  the  suitableness  of  "  the  Epistle  of  the  grace  of  God  "  to  a  church 
where  Paul  had  specially  preached  "  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  "  (Acts  xx.  24,  3i!). 
And  the  pathetic  appeal  contained  in  the  words  o  SeV^tos  (iii.  1  ;  iv.  1)  would  come  home 
to  those  who  had  heard  the  prophecy  of  Acts  xx.  22.     Other  points  of  parallel  between 
this  Epistle  and  that  to  the  Ephesian  elders  are  the  rare  use  of  /?ou\>;  (i.  11  ;  Acts  xx.  27), 
of  irepiiro»)<r<«  (i.  14  ;  cf.  Acts  xx.  28),  and  of  <A>)po:<o;iia  (i.  14,  18  ;  v.  6  ;  Acts  xx.  32  ;  and 
Maurice,  Unity,  512  —  514).     But  without  going  at  length  into  the  often-repeated  argu- 
ment. the  mere  surface-phenomena  of  the  Epistle  —  not  by  any  means  the  mere  omission 
of  salutations,  and  of  the  name  of  Timothy  —  but  the  want  of  intimacy  and  speciality, 
the  generality  of  the  thanksgiving,  the  absence  of  the  word  "  brethren"  (see  vi  10),  the 
distance,  so  to  speak,  in  the  entire  tone  of  address,  together  with  the  twice-repeated  elye 
(iii.  2  ;  iv.  21).  and  the  constrained  absence  of  strong  personal  appeal  in  iii.  2—4,  would 
alone  be  inexplicable,  even  if  there  were  no  external  grounds  for  doubting  the  authenticity 
of  the  words  <!»>  '£$&•».    But  when  we  find  these  words  omitted  for  no  conceivable  reason 
in  N,  B,  and  know,  on  the  testimony  of  Basil,  that  he  had  been  traditionally  informed  of 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE   EPHESIANS."  631 

observed)  to  furnish  a  decisive  proof  that  the  latter,  to  some  extent,  sprang 
out  of  the  former,  and  that  it  was  written  because  the  Apostle  desired  to 
utilise  the  departure  of  Tychicus  with  the  letter  which  had  been  evoked  by 
the  heresies  of  Colossae. 

Of  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistle,  in  spite  of  all  the  arguments  which  have 
been  brought  against  it,  I  cannot  entertain  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  I  examine 
the  question  without  any  conscious  bias.  If  the  arguments  against  its  Pauline 
authorship  appeared  valid,  I  am  aware  of  no  prepossession  which  would  lead 
me  to  struggle  against  their  force,  nor  would  the  deepest  truths  of  the  Epistle 
appear  to  me  the  less  profound  or  sacred  from  the  fact  that  tradition  had  erred 
in  assigning  its  authorship.1 

To  the  arguments  which  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  Phaedo  had  not 
been  written  by  Plato  it  was  thought  almost  sufficient  to  reply  — 

el  fj.f  fl\dra>y  ov  ypdtye  5t5o>  tjfvovro  H\drtaves. 

Certainly  if  St.  Paul  did  not  write  the  Epistle  to  "  the  Ephesians,"  there  must 
have  been  two  St.  Pauls.  Banr  speaks  contemptuously  of  such  an  objection  ;  2 
but  can  any  one  seriously  believe  that  a  forger  capable  of  producing  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  could  have  lived  and  died  unheard  of  among  the 
holy,  but  otherwise  very  ordinary,  men  and  mediocre  writers  who  attracted 
notice  in  the  Church  of  the  first  century  ?  It  is  true  that  De  Wette,  and  his 
followers,  3  treat  the  Epistle  de  haut  en  bos  as  a  verbose  and  colourless  repro- 
duction, quite  inferior  to  St.  Paul's  genuine  writings,  and  marked  by  poverty 
of  ideas  and  redundance  of  words.  We  can  only  reply  that  this  is  a  matter  of 
taste.  The  colour  red  makes  no  impression  on  the  colour-blind  ;  and  to  some 
readers  this  Epistle  has  seemed  as  little  colourless  as  is  the  body  of  heaven  in 


or  omsson,  an     oun        em  ome,  v  TO?  naXaios  TUV  avnypaav,  as  aso  arcon, 

Tcrtullian,  and  Jerome,  we  are  led  to  the  unhesitating  conclusion  that  the  letter  was  not 
addressed  exclusively  to  the  Ephesians.  The  view  which  regards  it  as  an  encyclical,  sent, 
among  other  places,  to  Laodicea,  is  highly  prohable  (Col.  iv.  16).  In  Eph.  vi.  21,  /cal 
v^f??  is  most  easily  explicable,  on  the  supposition  that  the  letter  was  to  go  to  different 
cities.  In  any  case,  the  absence  of  greetings,  &c.,  is  a  clear  mark  of  genuineness,  for  a 
forger  would  certainly  have  put  them  in.  The  Epistle  is  by  no  means  deficient  in  external 
evidence.  Irenaeus  (Hatr.  v.  2,  3),  Clement  of  Alexandria  (Strom,  iv.  8),  Polycarp  (ad 
Phil.  L,  xii.),  Tertullian  (adv.  Marc.  v.  1,  17),  and  perhaps  even  Ignatius  (ad  Eph.  vi.), 
have  either  quoted  or  alluded  to  it  ;  and  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Muratorian  Canon.  Im- 
pugners  of  its  authenticity  must  account  for  its  wide  and  early  acceptance,  no  less  than 
for  the  difficulty  of  its  forgery.  It  is  a  simple  fact  that  the  Epistle  was  accepted  as 
unquestionably  Pauline  from  the  days  of  Ignatius  to  those  of  Schleiermacher.  Renan 
sums  up  the  objections  to  its  authenticity  under  the  heads  of  (i.)  Recurrent  phrases  and 
an-af  \ey6iJLf-va.  ',  (ii.)  style  weak,  diffused,  embarrassed  ;  (iii.  )  traces  of  advanced  Gnosticism  ; 

!iv.)  developed  conception  of  the  Church  as  a  living  organism  ;  (v.)  un-Pauline  exegesis  ; 
vi.)  the  expression  "holy  Apostles;"  (vii.)  un-Pauline  views  of  marriage.  I  hope  to 
show  that  these  objections  are  untenable. 

1  That  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  not  written  by  the  Apostle  is  now  almost 
universally  believed,  yet  this  conviction  has  never  led  the  Church  to  underrate  its  value 
as  a  part  of  the  sacred  canon  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures. 
"  Paul.  ii.  2. 

8  Dr.  Davidson,  Introd.  ii.  388.  In  his  earlier  edition,  Dr.  Davidson  thought 
"nothing  more  groundless  "  than  such  assertions,  and  he  then  said,  "The  language  is 
rich  and  copious,  but  it  is  everywhere  pregnant  with  meaning."  (See  Gloag,  Introd.. 
p.  313,) 


632  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF   ST.    PAtTL. 

its  clearness.  Chrysostoin  —  no  bad  judge  surely  of  style  and  rhetoric  —  spoke 
of  the  lofty  sublimity  of  its  sentiments.  Theophylaet  dwells  on  the  same 
characteristics  as  suitable  to  the  Ephesians.  Grotius  says  St.  Paul  here 
equals  the  sublimity  of  his  thoughts  with  words  more  sublime  than  any  human 
tongue  has  ever  uttered.  Luther  reckoned  it  among  the  noblest  books  of  the 
New  Testament.  Witsius  calls  it  a  divine  Epistle  glowing  with  the  flame  of 
Christian  love,  and  the  splendour  of  holy  light,  and  flowing  with  fountains  of 
living  water.  Coleridge  said  of  it,  "  In  this,  the  divinest  composition  of  man, 
is  every  doctrine  of  Christianity:  first,  those  doctrines  peculiar  to  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  secondly,  those  precepts  common  to  it  with  natural  religion," 
Lastly,  Alf  ord  calls  it  "  the  greatest  and  most  heavenly  work  of  one  whose 
very  imagination  is  peopled  with  things  in  the  heavens,  and  even  his 
fancy  rapt  into  the  visions  of  God."  Pfleiderer,  though  he  rejects  the 
genuineness  of  the  Epistle,  yet  says  that  "  of  all  the  forms  which  Paulinism 
went  through  in  the  course  of  its  transition  to  Catholicism,  that  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  is  the  most  developed  and  the  richest  in  dogma." 

The  close  resemblance  in  expression,  and  in  many  of  the  thoughts,  to 
the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  when  combined  with  the  radical  differences  l 
which  separate  the  two  Epistles,  appears  to  me  an  absolutely  irresistible 
proof  in  favour  of  the  authenticity  of  both,  even  if  the  external  evidence 
were  weaker  than  it  is.  Roughly  speaking,  we  may  say  that  the  style 
of  Colossians  shows  a  "  rich  brevity  ;  "  that  of  Ephesians  a  diffuser  fulness. 
Colossians  is  definite  and  logical;  Ephesians  is  lyrical  and  Asiatic.  In 
Golossians,  St.  Paul  has  the  error  more  prominently  in  view  ;  in  Ephesians 
ho  has  the  counteracting  truth.  In  Colossians  he  is  the  soldier;  in  Ephe- 
sians the  builder.  In  Colossians  he  is  arguing  against  a  vain  and  deceitful 
philosophy;  in  Ephesians  he  is  revealing  a  heavenly  wisdom.  Colossians 
is  "  his  caution,  his  argument,  his  process,  and  his  work-day  toil  ;  "  Ephe- 
sians is  instruction  passing  into  prayei*,  a  creed  soaring  into  the  loftiest  of 
Evangelic  Psalms.  Alike  the  differences  and  the  resemblances  are  stamped 
with  an  individuality  of  style  which  is  completely  beyond  the  reach  of 
imitation.2  A  forger  might  indeed  have  sat  down  with  the  deliberate  pur- 
pose of  borrowing  words  and  phrases  and  thoughts  from  the  Epistle  to 
the  Colossians,  but  in  that  case  it  would  have  been  wholly  beyond  his 
power  to  produce  a  letter  which,  in  the  midst  of  such  resemblances,  con- 

1  There  is  the  general  resemblance  that  in  both  (Col.  iii.  ;  Eph.  iv.  1)  the  same  tran- 
sition leads  to  the  same  application  —  the  humblest  morality  being  based  on  the  sublimest 
truths  ;  and  there  are  the  special  resemblances  (<*)  in  Christological  views  ;  (ft)  in  phrase- 
ology —  seventy-eight  verses  out  of  155  being  expressed  in  the  same  phrases  in  the  two 
Epistles.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  marked  differences  —  (a)  there  are  airo| 


in  both  ;  {£)  the  leading  word  TO.  f-n-ovpavia  is  peculiar  to  Ephesians  ;  (y)  Ephesians  has 
deep  thoughts  and  whole  sections  (i.  3—14  ;  iv.  5—15  ;  v.  7  —  14  ;  23—31  ;  vi.  10—17) 
which  are  not  found  in  Colossians  ;  (S)  there  are  seven  Old  Testament  allusions  or 
quotations  in  Ephesians,  and  only  one  in  Colossians  (ii.  21). 

2  Hence  the  critics  are  quite  unable  to  make  up  their  minds  whether  the  Epistles  were 
written  by  two  authors,  or  by  one  author  ;  and  whether  St.  Paul  was  in  part  the  author 
of  either  or  of  neither  ;  and  whether  the  Colossians  was  an  abstract  of  the  Ephesians,  01 
the  Ephesians  an  amplification  of  the  Colossiaua. 


THE  EPISTLE   TO  "THE  EPHESIANS."  633 

veyed  so  different  an  impression  in  a  style  so  characteristic  and  so  intensely 
emotional.1  Even  if  we  could  regard  it  as  probable  that  any  one  could 
have  poured  forth  truths  so  exalted,  and  moral  teaching  so  pure  and  pro- 
found, in  an  Epistle  by  which  he  deliberately  intended  to  deceive  the 
Church  and  the  world,2  it  is  not  possible  that  one  actuated  by  such  a  pur- 
pose  should  successfully  imitate  the  glow  and  rush  of  feeling  which  marks 
the  other  writings  of  the  Apostle,  and  expresses  itself  in  the  to-and-fro- 
conflicting  eddies  of  thought,  in  the  one  great  flow  of  utterance  and  pur- 
pose. The  style  of  St.  Paul  may  be  compared  to  a  great  tide  ever  advanc- 
ing irresistibly  towards  the  destined  shore,  but  broken  and  rippled  over 
every  wave  of  its  broad  expanse,  and  liable  at  any  moment  to  mighty 
refluences  as  it  foams  and  swells  about  opposing  sandbank  or  rocky  cape.9 
With  even  more  exactness  we  might  compare  it  to  a  river  whose  pure 
waters,  at  every  interspace  of  calm,  reflect  as  in  a  mirror  the  hues  of 
heaven,  but  which  is  liable  to  the  rushing  influx  of  mountain  torrents,  and 
whose  reflected  images  are  only  dimly  discernible  in  ten  thousand  fragments 
of  quivering  colour,  when  its  surface  is  swept  by  rufning  winds.  If  we 
make  the  difficult  concession  that  any  other  mind  than  tha,t  of  St.  Paul 
could  have  originated  the  majestic  statement  of  Christian  truth  which  is 
enshrined  in  the  doctrinal  part  of  the  Epistle,  we  may  still  safely  assert, 
on  literary  grounds  alone,  that  no  writer,  desirous  to  gain  a  hearing  for  such 
high  revelations,  could  have  so  completely  merged  his  own  individuality  in 
that  of  another  as  to  imitate  the  involutions  of  parentheses,  the  digressions 
at  a  word,  the  superimposition  of  a  minor  current  of  feeling  over  another 

1  The  similarity  of  expressions  (Davidson,  Introd.  L  384)  often  throws  into  more 
marked  relief  the  dissimilarity  in  fundamental  ideas.    It  is  another  amazing  sign  of  the 
blindness  which  marred  the  keen  insight  of  Baur  in  other  directions,  that  he  should  say 
the  contents  of  the  Epistles  "are  so  essentially  the  same  that  they  cannot  well  be  dis- 
tinguished"! (Paul.  ii.  6.)     The  metaphysical  Christology,  which  is  polemically  dwelt 
upon  in  the  Colossians,  is  only  assumed  and  alluded  to  in  the  Ephesians;  and  the 
prominent  conceptions  of  Predestination  and  Unity  which  mark  the  doctrinal  part  of  the 
Ephesians  find  little  or  no  place  in  the  Colossians.    The  recurrence  of  any  word  ^ns 
icriSdireo-o-i  vewrarr)  <i//4>iir«A7/T<u  is  a  common  literary  phenomenon,  and  any  careful  student 
of  ^Eschylus  is  aware  that  if  he  finds  a  startling  word  or  metaphor  he  may  find  it  again 
in  the  next  hundred  lines,  even  if  it  occurs  in  no  other  play.    Nothing,  therefore,  was 
more  natural  than  that  there  should  be  a  close  resemblance,  especially  of  the  moral  parts 
of  two  Epistles,  written  perhaps  within  a  few  days  of  each  other ;  and  that  even  though 
the  doctrinal  parts  had  different  objects,  and  were  meant  for  different  readers,  we  should 
find  alternate  expansions  or  abbreviations  of  the  same  thoughts  and  the  repetition  of 
phrases  so  pregnant  as  6  TI-AOUTOS  rijs  Jofrj?  (Eph.  i.  18;  Col.  i.  27) ;  TO  irAijpw^a  (Eph.  i.  23  j 

Col.  i.  19);  ir«piTO(U.i|  ax<Hpoiroir)To's   (Eph.    ii.  11;   Col.    ii.   11);  and  6  TroAcubs  a^pun-os  (Eph. 

iv.  22  ;  Col.  iii.  9).  When  Schneckenburger  talks  of  "  a  mechanical  use  of  materials  "  he 
is  using  one  of  those  phrases  which  betray  a  strong  bias,  and  render  his  results  less 
plausible  than  they  might  otherwise  seem.  '"  How  can  he  have  overlooked  the 
memorable  fact,  which  all  readers  of  the  Epistle  have  noticed,  that  the  idea  of  catho- 
licity is  here  first  raised  to  dogmatic  definiteness  and  predominant  significance?" 
(Pfieiderer,  ii.  164.) 

2  iii.  1,  8,  &c. 

3  "  Every  one  must  be  conscious  of  an  overflowing  fulness  in  the  style  of  this  Epistle, 
as  if  the  Apostle's  mind  could  not  contain  the  thoughts  that  were^at  work  in  him,  as  if 
each  one  that  he  uttered  had  a  luminous  train  before  it  and  behind  it,  from  which  it 
could  not  disengage  itself  "  (Maurice,  Unity  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  535), 


634  THB  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

that  is  flowing  steadily  beneath  it,  the  unconscious  recurrence  of  haunting 
expressions,  the  straggle  and  strain  to  find  a  worthy  utterance  for  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  burst  through  the  feeble  bands  of  language,  the  dominance 
of  the  syllogism  of  emotion  over  the  syllogism  of  grammar — the  many  other 
minute  characteristics  which  stamp  so  ineffaceable  an  impress  on  the  Apostle's 
undisputed  works.  This  may,  I  think,  bo  pronounced  with  some  confidence 
to  be  a  psychological  impossibility.  The  intensity  of  the  writer's  feelings  is 
betrayed  in  every  sentence  by  the  manner  in  which  great  truths  interlace  each 
other,  and  are  yet  subordinated  to  one  main  and  grand  perception.  Mannerisms 
of  style  may  be  reproduced ;  but  let  any  one  attempt  to  simulate  the  lan- 
guage of  genuine  passion,  and  every  reader  will  tell  him  how  ludicrously  he 
fails.  Theorists  respecting  the  spuriousness  of  some  of  the  Pauline  Epistles 
have,  I  think,  entirely  underrated  the  immense  difficulty  of  palming  upon  the 
world  an  even  tolerably  successful  imitation  of  a  style  the  mosi  living,  the 
most  nervously  sensitive,  which  the  world  has  ever  known.  The  spirit  in 
which  a  forger  would  have  sat  down  to  write  is  not  the  spirit  which  could 
have  pom-ed  forth  so  grand  a  eucharistic  hymn  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians.1  Fervour,  intensity,  sublimity,  the  unifying — or,  if  I  may  use  the 
expression,  esemplastic — power  of  the  imagination  over  the  many  subordinate 
truths  which  strive  for  utterance  ;  the  eagerness  which  hurries  the  Apostle  to 
his  main  end  in  spite  of  deeply  important  thoughts  which  intrude  themselves 
into  long  parentheses  and  almost  interminable  paragraphs — all  these  must, 
from  the  very  nature  of  literary  composition,  have  been  far  beyond  the  roach 
of  one  who  could  deliberately  sit  down  with  a  lie  in  his  rigut  hand  to  write  a 
false  superscription,  and  boast  with  trembling  humility  of  the  unparalleled 
spiritual  privileges  entrusted  to  him  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 

A  strong  bias  of  prejudice  against  the  doctrines  of  the  Epistle  may 
perhaps,  in  some  minds,  have  overborne  the  sense  of  literary  possibilities. 
But  is  there  in  reality  anything  surprising  in  the  developed  Christology  of 
St.  Paul's  later  years  P  That  his  views  respecting  the  supreme  divinity  of 
Christ  never  wavered  will  hardly,  I  think,  be  denied  by  any  candid  contro- 
versialist. They  are  as  clearly,  though  more  implicitly,  present  in  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  as  in  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy.  No  human 
being  can  reasonably  doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans ; 
yet  the  Pauline  evangel  logically  argued  out  in  that  Epistle  is  identical  with 
that  which  is  so  triumphantly  preached  in  this.  They  are  not,  as  Reuss  has 
observed,  two  systems,  but  two  methods  of  exposition.  In  the  Romans, 
Paul's  point  of  view  is  psychologic,  and  his  theology  is  built  on  moral  facts — 
the  universality  of  sin,  and  the  insufficiency  of  man,  and  hence  salvation  by 
the  grace  of  God,  and  union  of  the  believer  with  the  dead  and  risen  Christ. 
But  in  the  Ephesians  the  point  of  view  is  theologic — the  idea  of  God's  eternal 
plans  realised  in  the  course  of  ages,  and  the  unity  in  Christ  of  redeemed 
humanity  with  the  family  of  heaven.  "  The  two  great  dogmatic  teachers  of 

1  J.  LI.  Davies,  Eph.,  p.  19, 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE  EPHESIANS."  635 

the  sixteenth  century,  both  essentially  disciples  of  St.  Paul,  have  both,  so  to 
speak,  divided  between  them  the  inheritance  of  their  master.  The  manual  of 
Molancthon  attaches  itself  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans;  the  ' Institiites ' 
of  Calvin  follow  the  direction  marked  out  in  that  to  the  Ephesians ;  party 
spirit  will  alone  be  able  to  deny  that,  in  spite  of  this  difference  of  method,  the 
system  of  the  two  writers  has,  after  all,  been  one  and  the  same." *  Is  there  a 
word  respecting  Christ's  exaltation  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  which 
implies  a  greater  or  diviner  Being  than  Him  of  whom  St.  Paul  has  spoken  as 
the  Final  Conqueror  in  the  15th  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians ? 

"We  can  imagine  that  when  he  began  to  dictate  this  circular  letter  to  the 
Churches  of  Asia,  the  one  overwhelming  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  Apostle 
was  the  ideal  splendour  and  perf  ectness  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  the  con- 
sequent duty  of  holiness  which  was  incumbent  on  all  its  members.  The  thought 
of  Humanity  regenerated  in  Christ  by  an  eternal  process,  and  the  consequent 
duty  of  all  to  live  in  accordance  with  this  divine  enlightenment — these 
are  the  double  wings  which  keep  him  in  one  line  throughout  his  raptm-ous 
flight.  Hence  the  Epistle  naturally  fell  into  two  great  divisions,  doctrinal  and 
practical ;  the  idea  and  its  realisation ;  pure  theology  and  applied  theology  ^ 
the  glorious  unity  of  the  Church  in  Christ  its  living  head,  and  the  moral 
exhortations  which  sprang  with  irresistible  force  of  appeal  from  this  divine 
mystery.  But  as  he  was  in  all  his  doctrine  laying  the  foundations  of  practice, 
and  throughout  founded  the  rules  of  practice  on  doctrine,  the  two  elements 
are  not  so  sharply  divided  as  not  to  intermingle  and  coalesce  in  the  general 
design.  The  glory  of  the  Christian's  vocation  is  inseparably  connected  with  the 
practical  duties  which  result  from  it,  and  which  it  was  directly  intended  to 
educe.  Great  principles  find  their  proper  issue  in  the  faithful  performance  of 
little  duties. 

It  is  naturally  in  the  first  three  chapters  that  St.  Paul  is  most  overpowered 
by  the  grandeur  of  his  theme.  Universal  reconciliation  in  Christ  as  the  central 
Being  of  the  Universe  is  the  leading  thought  both  of  the  Ephesians  and  the 
Colossiaus,  and  it  is  a  deeper  and  grander  thought  than  that  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  which  only  sees  this  unity  in  Christ's  priesthood,  or  that  of  the 
Pseudo-Clementines,  which  sees  it  in  Christ  as  the  Prophet  of  Truth.3  St. 
Paul  is  endeavouring  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  all  Christians  that  they 
have  entered  upon  a  now  aeon  of  God's  dispensations — the  ceon  of  God's  ideal 
Church,  which  is  to  comprehend  all  things  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Round  this 
central  conception,  as  round  a  nucleus  of  intense  light,  there  radiate  the  con- 
siderations which  he  wishes  them  specially  to  bear  in  mind  : — namely,  that  this 
perfected  idea  is  the  working  out  of  a  purpose  eternally  conceived ;  that  the 
ceconomy — i.e.,  the  Divine  dispensation 3 — of  all  the  past  circumstances 
of  history  has  been  fore-ordained  before  all  ages  to  tend  to  its  completion ; 
that,  it  is  a  mystery — t.e,,a  truth  hidden  from  previous  ages,  but  now  revealed  ; 

1  Reuss,  Les  Epitrcs  Paulin.  ii.  146. 

*  Baur,  First  Three  Cent.  i.  126.  »  olMvop.*,  Epli.  i.  10;  iii.  2, 


636  THE    LIFE  AND   WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

that  each  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  has  taken  direct  part  therein ;  that 
this  plan  is  the  result  of  free  grace ;  that  it  is  unsurpassable  in  breadth  and 
length,  and  height  and  depth,  being  the  exhibition  of  a  love  of  which  the 
wealth  is  inexhaustible  and  passes  knowledge  ;  that  the  benefits  of  it  extend 
alike  to  Jew  and  Gentile ;  that  it  centres  in  the  person  of  the  risen  Christ ; 
and  that  to  the  Apostle  himself,  unworthy  as  he  is,  is  entrusted  the  awful 
responsibility  of  preaching  it  among  the  Gentiles. 

The  incessant  recurrence  of  leading  words  connected  with  these  different 
thoughts  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  the  first  three  chapters.1  Thus,  in  the 
endeavour  to  express  that  the  whole  great  scheme  of  redemptive  love  is  part  of 
the  Divine  "Will"  and  "Purpose,"  those  two  words  are  frequently  repeated, 
Grace  (x<fy»s)  is  so  prominent  in  the  Apostle's  mind  that  the  word  is  used 
thirteen  times,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  key-note  of  the  entire  Epistle.3 
The  writer's  thoughts  are  so  completely  with  the  risen  and  ascended  Christ 
as  the  head,  the  centre,  the  life  of  the  Church,  that  he  six  times  uses  the 
expression  "  the  heavenlies  "  without  any  limitation  of  time  or  place.3  He 
feels  so  deeply  the  necessity  of  spiritual  insight  to  counteract  the  folly 
of  fancied  wisdom,  that  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  spirit  of  man 
is  here  peculiarly  prominent.4  The  words  "wealth,"6  and  "glory,"6  and 
"mystery,"7  and  "plenitude,"8  show  also  the  dominant  chords  which  are 
vibrating  in  his  mind,  while  the  frequent  compounds  in  farip,  -n-po,  and  fftv,9 
gbow  how  deeply  he  is  impressed  with  the  loftiness,  the  fore-ordainment,  and 
the  result  of  this  Gospel  in  uniting  the  Jew  and  Gentile  within  one  great 
spiritual  Temple,  of  which  the  middle  wall  has  been  for  ever  broken  down.  "  It 
would,  indeed,"  says  Mr.  Maurice,  "amply  repay  the  longest  study  to  examine 
the  order  in  which  these  details  are  introduced,  in  what  relation  they  stand  to 
each  other,  how  they  are  all  referred  to  one  ground,  the  good  pleasure  of  His 

1  ee'XTjfta,  Eph.  L  1,  5,  9,  11  (v.  17 ;  vi.  6) ;  /3ovXtj,  L  11 ;  tb&oKtn,  i.  9 ;  trpd0«o-i«,  iii.  11. 

2  x<£pts,  u  2,  6  (W»),  7 ;  ii.  5,  7,  8 ;  iii.  2,  7,  8;  iv.  7,29  ;  vi.  24. 

8  ra  ftfovpavta.,  i.  3,  20 ;  ii.  6;  iii.  10;  vi.  12.  "The  Apostle  carries  us  into  'the 
heavenlies '  (not  'the  heavenly  places,'  as  our  translators  render  it,  so  perverting  the 
idea  of  a  sentence  from  which  place  and  time  are  carefully  excluded),  into  a  region  of 
voluntary  beings,  of  spirits,  standing  by  a  spiritual  law,  capable  of  a  spiritual  blessing  " 
(Maurice,  Unity  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  523). 

4  irvtvua.  and  jryev/iaTKcbs  occurs  thirteen  times  in  this  Epistle  (i.  3,  13,  17 ;  ii.  18,  22 ; 
Iii.  5,  16;  iv.  3,  4,  23,  30  j  v.  18;  vi.  17,  18);  and  only  once  in  the  Colossians  (i.  8,  9). 
(Baur,  Paul.  ii.  21.) 

6  irXovros,  TrXovVtos,  i.  7,  18 ;  ii.  4,  7 ;  iii.  8,  16.  This  word  is  only  used  in  this  sense 
by  St.  James  (ii.  5).  See  Paley,  Horae  Paulimae,  Ephes.  ii.  But  see  2  Cor.  viii.  9 ; 
Phil.  ii.  7. 

6  Jo'fo,  L  6,  12,  14,  17,  18 ;  iii.  16,  21,  &c. 

7  ii.virrripi.ov,  Eph.  i.  9 ;  iii.  3,  4,  9  (v.  32) ;  vi.  19.    In  no  other  Epistle,  except  that  to 
the  Colossians  and  1  Cor.,  does  it  occur  more  than  twice. 

8  jrA»ip<o(jia,  i.  23 ;  iii.  19 ;  iv.  10 — 13  (i.  10).     In  the  quasi-technical  sense  it  is  only 
found  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  i.  19 ;  ii.  9. 


bad  word, 

Phryn.,  p.  172) ;  a-uvoiKoSo^elcrOa,  22 ;  <ruy(cATjpdvoj*a,  awarwua,  avunfToxpi  iii«  6 ; 
iv,  3  ;  trvfipi/fa^opevov,  crvpapnoAoyou/iecov, 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE   EPHESIAN8."  637 

will,  and  to  one  end,  the  gathering  up  of  all  things  in  Christ.1  But  however 
desirable  the  minute  investigation  is,  after  the  road  has  been  travelled 
frequently,  the  reader  must  allow  the  Apostle  to  carry  him  along  at  his 
own  speed  on  his  own  wings,  if  he  would  know  anything  of  the  height  from 
which  he  is  descending  and  to  which  he  is  returning."  * 

After  his  usual  salutation  to  the  saints  that  are  in (perhaps  leaving  a 

blank  to  be  filled  up  by  Tychicus  at  the  places  to  which  he  carried  a  copy  of 
the  letter),  he  breaks  into  the  rapturous  sentence  which  is  "not  only  the 
exordium  of  the  letter,  but  also  the  enunciation  of  its  design." 

"  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  blessed  us  with 
all  spiritual  blessings  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ,  even  as  He  chose  us  out  in  Him 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  that  we  should  be  holy  and  blameless  before 
Him,  in  love ;  fore-ordaining  us  to  adoption  by  Jesus  Christ  into  Himself,  according 
to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will,  for  th«  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace  wherewith 
He  graced  us  in  the  beloved."* 

This  leads  him  to  a  passage  in  which  the  work  of  the  Son  in  this  great 
fore-ordained  plan  is  mainly  predominant. 

"  In  whom  we  have  our  redemption  through  His  blood,  the  remission  of  trans- 
gressions, according  to  the  wealth  of  His  grace,  wherewith  He  abounded  towards 
us,  in  all  wisdom  and  discernment,  making  known  to  us  the  mystery  of  His  will, 
according  to  His  good  pleasure  which  He  purposed  in  Himself,  with  a  view  to  the 
dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  the  seasons — to  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ,  both  the 
things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things  on  the  earth — in  Him.  In  whom  we  also  were 
made  an  inheritance,  being  fore-ordained  according  to  the  purpose  of  Him  who 
worketh  all  things  according  to  the  counsel  of  His  will,  that  we  should  be  to  tht 
praise  of  His  glory  who  have  before  hoped  in  Christ."4 

This  repetition  of  the  phrase  "  to  the  praise  of  His  glory,"  introduces  the 
work  of  the  Third  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity. 

"  In  whom  (Christ)  ye  also  "  (as  well  as  the  Jewish  Christians  who  previously 
had  hoped  in  Christ)  "  on  hearing  the  word  of  truth,  the  Gospel  of  your  salvation, 
in  whom  (I  say),  believing,  ye  too  were  sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  who 
is  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance,  with  a  view  to  the  redemption  of  the  purchased 
possession  unto  the  praise  of  His  glory."* 

Since,  therefore,  it  is  the  fixed  ordinance,  from  all  eternity,  of  the  Blessed 
God,  that  man  should  be  adopted  through  the  redemption  of  Christ  to  the 
praise  of  the  glory  of  the  Eternal  Trinity,  and  should  receive  the  seal  of  the 

1  The  Epistle  may  be  thus  briefly  summarised  : — Salutation  (i.  1,  2).  Thanksgiving 
for  the  election  of  the  Church,  and  the  unity  wrought  by  Christ's  redemption  and  calling 
of  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  (i.  3 — 14).  Prayer  for  their  growth  into  the  full  knowledge  of 
Christ  (15 — 23).  Unity  of  mankind  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ  (ii.  1 — 22).  Fuller  ex- 
planation of  the  mystery,  with  prayer  for  the  full  comprehension  of  it,  and  doxology 
(iii.  1 — 21).  Exhortation  to  live  worthily  of  the  ideal  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
love  (iv.  1 — 16).  Exhortation  to  the  practical  duties  of  the  new  life,  in  the  conquest 
over  sin  (iv.  17 — v.  21),  and  in  social  relations  (v.  22— vi.  9).  The  armour  of  God 
(vi.  10—17).  Final  requests  and  farewell  (vi.  10—24). 

8  Unity  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  525.  See  Excursus  XXV.,  "Phraseology  and  Doc- 
trines of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians. " 

3  i.  3 — 6.    Notice  the  marvellous  compression  aiid  exhaustive  fulness  of  this  great 
outline  of  theology. 

4  i.  7_12>  *  L  13, 14. 


638  THE  LIPE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PAUL. 

Spirit  as  the  pledge  of  full  and  final  entrance  into  his  heritage,  St.  Paul  tells 
them  that,  hearing  of  their  faith  and  love,  ho  ceaselessly  prayed  that  God — 
the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  the  Glory — would  grant  tbcm 
a  full  knowledge1  of  Himself,  giving  them  "illuminated  eyes  in  their  hearts" 
to  know  what  their  calling  means,  and  the  wealth  and  glory  of  this  heritage, 
and  the  surpassing  greatness  of  the  power  which  He  had  put  forth  in  raising 
Christ  from  the  dead,  and  seating  Him  at  His  right  hand  in  the  heavenlies,  as 
the  Supreme  Ruler  now  and  for  ever  of  every  spiritual  and  earthly  power,  and 
as  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church, — which  is  His  body,  "  the  Pleroma" 
(i.e.,  the  filled  continent,  the  brimmed  receptacle)  "  of  Him  who  filloth  all 
things  with  all  things."2 

But  for  whom  were  these  great  privileges  predestined,  and  how  were  they 
bestowed  P  The  full  answer  is  contained  in  the  second  chapter.  They  were 
intended  for  all,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  were  bestowed  by  free  grace. 
In  this  section  the  leading  conception  is  the  unity  of  mankind,  in  the  heaven- 
lies,  in  Christ.  The  Gentiles  had  been  dead  in  transgressions  and  sins, 
absorbed  in  the  temporal  and  the  external,3  showing  by  their  disobedience  the 
influence  of  the  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air ;  and  the  Jews,  too,  had  been 
occupied  with  the  desires  of  the  flesh,  doing  the  determinations  of  the  flesh 
and  the  thoughts,  and  were  by  nature  children  of  wrath4  even  as  the  rest; 
but  God  in  His  rich  love  and  mercy  quickened  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  to- 
gether, while  still  dead  in  their  transgressions,  and  raised  them  together,  and 
seated  them  together  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ  Jesus — a  name  that  occurs  in 
verse  after  verse,  being  at  the  very  heart  of  the  Apostle's  thoughts.  The  in- 
strumental cause  of  this  great  salvation  is  solely  free  grace,  applied  by  faith, 
that  this  grace  might  be  manifested  to  the  coming  ages  in  all  its  surpassing 
wealth  of  kindness;  and  that  we,  thus  created  anew  in  Christ,  and  so  pre- 
vented from  any  boast5  that  we  achieved  by  good  works  our  own  salvation, 
might  still  walk  in  good  works,  to  which  God  predestined  us.6  The  Gentiles, 

1  'EiriyiKo<ri<;,  i.  17  ;  iv.  13.     I  have  already  alluded  to  the  importance  attached  to  true 
knowledge  in  these  Epistles,  written  as  it  was  to  counteract  the  incipient  but  already 
baneful  influence  of  a  "knowledge  falsely  called."    Hence  we  have  also  yi/itrts,  iii.  19; 
<rvytcri9,  iii.  4 ;  <J>p6iTjo-i?,  L  8 ;  o-o^i'o,  ib. ;  an-oKaAvi/a?,  iii.  3 ;  ^xoTuJeii/,  iii.  9 ;  &c.  &c. 

2  i.  15 — 23.     See  iv.  10.     Cf .  Xen.  HcU.  vi.  2,  14,  TOS  va.v<t  «7rArjpoCTO.     On  the  different 
application  of  the  word  Pleroma  here  and  in  Col.  i.  19,  v.  supra.    The  view  that  it  here 
means  "  complement1'  like  parapleroma  seems  to  me  much  less  probable.    On  the  expres- 
sion the  "  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  cf.  ver.  3 ;  John  xx.  17.    In  the  unique  phrase, 
"  the  Father  of  the  Glory,"  6  irarrjp  ITJS  Sofa,  Canon  Barry  sees  an  allusion  to  the  Jewish 
identification  of  "the  Word"  with  "the  Shcchinah.       Compare  the  use  of  Ad£a  in 
James  ii.  1 ;  Titus  ii.  13  ;  Heb.  i.  3. 

°  11.  2,  Kara  rov  aHava.  roD  KOCT/JOU  TOVTOV. 

4  Mr.  Maurice's  rendering,  "children  of  impulse,"  is  untenable. 

5  ii.  9.    The  last  appearance  of  the  word  "boast"  in  St.  Paul. 

8  ii.  10.  It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  epoch  of  controversy  on  the  great  topic  of 
these  verses  is  here  assumed  to  be  closed ;  «JT'  «?pyo«  ayaflots,  ols  7rpoi)Toiju.acr£i/  6  ©ecj  IVa  iv 
ourots  Trepuranjcrcoftev.  Certainly  o's  may  be  by  attraction  for  a ;  but  it  is  surely  a  very 
awkward  expression  to  say  that  "  God  created  good  works  that  we  should  walk  in  them," 
and  although  jj^os  is  not  expressed,  it  is  involved  in  irepuranjo-eafiev.  Alford,  who  adopts 
the  E.V.j  compares  it  with  John  v.  38,  which  is,  however,  no  parallel.  Nowhere  is  the 
uf  good  works  with  free  grace  more  admirably  illustrated  than  here.  Good 


THE   EPISTLE   XO  "  THE   EPHESIAN8."  639 

then,  were  to  remember  that  their  former  uncircumcision,  so  far  as  it  was  of 
any  importance,  was  that  spiritual  uucircumcisiou  which  consisted  iu  utter 
alienation  from  Christ,  His  kingdom,  and  His  promises.  But  now  in  Christ, 
by  the  blood  of  Christ,  the  once  afar  have  been  made  near.  For  He  is  our 
Peace;  Ho  has  broken  down  the  separating  partition — the  enmity  between 
the  two  members  of  His  great  human  family — by  doing  away  with  the  law  of 
ordinances  and  decrees,1  that  He  might  create  the  two — Jew  and  Gentile— 
uito  one  fresh  human  being,  making  peace ;  and  might  reconcile  them  both  in 
one  body  to  God  by  the  cross,  slaying  thereby  the  enmity  between  them  both, 
and  between  them  and  God.  The  result,  then,  of  His  advent  is  peace  to  the 
far-off  and  to  the  nigh ;  for  through  Him  we  both  have  access  by  one  Spirit 
to  the  Father.  The  Gentiles  are  no  longer  aliens,  but  fellow-citizens  with  the 
saints,  built  on  the  corner-stone  of  Christ  which  the  Apostles  and  prophets 
laid — like  stones  compaginated3  into  the  ever-growing  walls  of  the  one 
spiiitual  House  of  God.3 

Then  follows  a  chapter  of  parentheses,  or  rather  of  thoughts  leading  to 
thoughts,  and  linked  together,  as  throughout  the  Epistle,  by  relatival  con- 
nexions.4 Resuming  the  prayer  (i.  17)  of  which  the  thread  had  been  broken 
by  the  full  enunciation  of  the  great  truths  in  which  he  desired  them  to  be 
enlightened :  "  For  this  cause,"  he  says — namely,  because  of  the  whole  blessed 
mystery  which  he  has  been  expounding,  and  which  results  in  their  corporate 
union  in  Christ — "  I,  Paul,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  on  behalf  of  you  Gentiles  " 
— and  there  once  more  the  prayer  is  broken  by  a  parenthesis  which  lasts 
through  thirteen  verses.  For,  remembering  that  the  letter  is  to  be  addressed 
not  only  to  the  Ephesians,  of  whom  the  majority  were  so  well  known  to  him, 
but  also  to  other  Asiatic  Churches,  some  of  which  he  had  not  even  visited,  and 
which  barely  knew  more  of  him  than  his  name,5  he  pauses  to  dwell  on  the 
exalted  character  of  the  mission  entrusted  to  him,  and  to  express  at  the  same 
time  his  own  sense  of  utter  personal  unworthiness.  Having  called  himself 
"  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord  on  behalf  of  you  Gentiles,"  he  breaks  off  to  say— 

"  Assuming  that  you  have  heard  of  the  dispensation  of  the  grace  of  God  given 
me  towards  you — that  by  revelation  was  made  known  to  me  the  mystery  [of  the 

works  are  here  included  iu  the  predestined  purpose  of  grace,  so  that  they  are  not  a  con- 
dition of  salvation,  but  an  aim  set  before  us,  and  rendered  practicable  by  God's  uncon- 
ditional favour.  (See  Pfleiderer,  ii.  189.) 

1  Of.  Col.  i.  20—22.     The  application  of  the  word  is  somewhat  different ;   but  it  is 
exactly  the  kind  of  difference  which  might  be  made  by  an  author  dealing  independently 
with  his  own  expressions,  and  one  on  which  a  forger  would  not  have  ventured.    The 
breaking  down  of  the  Chel,   "the  middle  wall  of  partition,"  was  that  part  of  Christ's 
work  which  it  fell  mainly  to  St.  Paul  to  continue.     The  charge  that  he  had  taken 
Trophimus  into  the  Court  of  Israel,  literally  false,  was  ideally  most  true.     And  Paul  the 
Apostle  was  the  most  effectual  uprooter  of  the  "  hedge, ''   which  Saul  the  Pharisee 
thought  it  his  chief  work  to  make  around  the  Law. 

2  This  word,  used  by  St.  Jerome,  may  express  the  unusual  cn>i/ap/io,V>yovfi<rV>|. 

3  ii.  1—22.  4  See  Ellicott,  ad  iii.  5. 

5  Although  undoubtedly  the  elye  ^ova-are,  like  the  similar  expression  in  iv.  21, 
Gal.  iii.  4,  &c.,  implies  that  the  fact  is  assumed,  yet  it  is  certainly  not  an  expression 
which  would  well  accord  with  a  letter  addressed  only  to  a  church  in  which  the  writer  had 
long  laboured. 


640  THE   LIFE  AND  WOBK  OF  ST.  PAtTL. 

calling  of  the  Gentiles],  as  I  previously  wrote  to  you  in  brief,1  in  accordance  with 
which  you  can,  as  you  read  it,  perceive  my  understanding  in  the  mystery  of  Christ 
— a  mystery  which  in  other  generations  was  not  made  known  to  the  sons  of  men  as 
it  is  now  revealed  to  His  holy  Apostles2  and  prophets  by  the  Spirit — (namely)  that 
the  Gentiles  are3  co-heirs,  and  concorporate,  and  comparticipant 4  of  the  promise  in 
Christ  Jesus  by  the  Gospel,  of  which  I  became  a  minister,  according  to  the  gift  of 
the  grace  of  God  given  to  me  according  to  the  working  of  His  power.  To  me,  the 
less-than-least5  of  all  saints,  was  given  this  grace,  to  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the 
untrackable6  wealth  of  Christ ;  and  to  enlighten  all  on  the  nature  of  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  mystery  that  has  been-  hidden  from  the  ages  in  God,  who  created  all 
things ;  that,  now  to  the  principalities  and  the  powers  in  the  heavenlies  may  be  made 
known  by  the  Church  the  richly- variegated  wisdom  of  God,7  according  to  the  pre- 
arrangement  of  the  ages  which  He  made  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  in  whom  we  have 
our  confidence  and  our  access  by  faith  in  Him  :  wherefore  I  entreat  you  not  to  lose 
heart  in  my  afflictions  on  your  behalf,  seeing  that  this  is  your  glory.  For  this 
cause,  then"  (and  here  he  resumes  the  thread  of  the  prayer  broken  in  the  first  verse) 
"  I  bend  my  knees  to  the  Father,8  from  whom  every  fatherhood9  in  heaven  and  on. 
earth  derives  its  name,  that  He  would  give  you,  according  to  the  wealth  of  His 
glory,  to  be  strengthened  by  power  through  His  Spirit  into  spiritual  manhood,10  that 
Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith — ye  having  been  rooted  and  founded  in 
love,  that  ye  may  have  strength  to  grasp  mentally  with  all  saints  what  is  the  length 
and  breadth  and  depth  and  height,  and  to  know  (spiritually)  the  knowledge-sur- 
passing love  of  Christ,  that  ye  may  be  filled  up  to  all  the  plenitude  of  God."  n 

"  Now  to  Him  that  is  able  above  all  things  to  do  superabundantly  above la  all  that 
we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  [of  the  Holy  Spirit]  which  worketh  in  us, 

1  i.  9  scq. ;  ii.  13  seq. 

2  Serious  objections  have  been  made  to  this  phrase,  as  proving  that  it  could  not  have 
been  written  by  the  pen  that  wrote  Gal.  ii.     The  objection  is  groundless.     Assuming  the 
oyiots  to  be  correct  (though  not  found  in  every  MS. ;  cf.  Col.  i.  26) — i.  It  is  perfectly 
generic,  not  individual ;  cf .  ver.  8  and  ii.  20 ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  15.    ii.  Apostles  and  prophets 
are  bracketed,  and  the  epithet  "holy  "  means  "  sanctified,"  a  title  which  they  share  with 
all  "  saints."    iii.  "Apostles"  does  not  here  necessarily  bear  its  narrower  sense. 

3  Not  "should  be,"  as  in  A.V. 

*  iii.  6,  ovyKAijpdfOfia,  <rvtr<r<afiat  <rv/u/xeVoxa.  The  two  parts — Jews  and  Gentiles — are  to 
become  one  body,  the  body  of  Christ,  the  Christian  Church  (ii.  16).  The  strange  English 
words  may  perhaps  correspond  to  the  strange  Greek  words  which  St.  Paul  invented  to 
express  this  newly-revealed  mystery  hi  the  strongest  possible  form,  as  though  no  words 
could  be  too  strong  to  express  his  dominant  conception  of  the  reunion  in  Christ  of  those 
who  apart  from  Him  are  separate  and  divided, 

5  iii.  8,  e\axto-TOTe'p<j).    Would  a  forger  have  made  St.  Paul  write  thus  ?    The  expression 
has  been  compared  to'  1  Cor.  xv.  9,  but  expresses  a  far  deeper  humility,  because  it  is  used 
when  the  writer  is  alluding  to  a  far  loftier  exaltation.     Those  who  criticise  the  phrase  as 
exaggerated  must  be  destitute  of  the  deepest  spiritual  experiences.     The  confessions  of 
the  holiest  are  ever  the  most  bitter  and  humble,  because  their  very  holiness  enables  them 
to  take  the  due  measure  of  the  heinousness  of  sin.     The  self-condemnation  of  a  Cowper 
or  a  Fe'nelon  is  far  stronger  than  that  of  a  Byron  or  a  Voltaire.     ' '  The  greatest  sinner, 
the  greatest  saint,  are  equi-distant  from  the  goal  where  the  mind  rests  in  satisfaction 
with  itself.    With  the  growth  in  goodness  grows  the  sense  of  sin.     One  law  fulfilled 
shows  a  thousand  neglected  "  (Mozley,  Essays,  i.  327). 

6  iii.  8,  a.ve£i\t>ia.<TTov,    Job  V.  9,  "\j7TJ  p*.    Cf .  Rom.  xi.  33,  oref  epevrrjTa  Tot  KpijiaTa  auroO  (tat 
ai/ef  ixy cWroi  at  65oi. 

7  7ro\ujro»'iciXos.      Cf.  are^ai/ov  w.  avOeuv.     EubuluS,  Ath.  XV.  7,  p.  679. 

8  The  addition  "  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  however  ancient,  is  probably  spurious,  as 
It  is  not  found  in  «,  A,  B,  C,  the  Coptic,  the  JSthiopic  versions,  &c. 

9  Not  "the  whole  family,"  as  in  A.V.  10  iii.  16,  «STOJ>  e<r<o  ZvQpairov. 

11  iii.  1 — 19.     In  other  words,  "  that  ye  may  be  filled  with  all  the  plenitude  of  good- 
ness wherewith  God  is  filled  ; "  "  omnes  divinae  naturae  divitiae  "  (Fritzsche). 

12  Of  twenty-eight  compounds  in  virip  in  the  New  Testament,  no  less  than  twenty  ar» 
found  in  St.  Paul  alone. 


THE  EPfSTLE  TO  "THE  EPHESIANS."  641 

to  Him  be  glory  in  the  Church,  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  all  the  generations  of  the  age  of 
the  ages.     Amen."  * 

With  this  prayer  he  closes  the  doctrinal  part  of  the  Epistle ;  the  remaining 
half  of  it  is  strictly  practical.  St.  Paid  would  have  felt  it  no  descent  of 
thought  to  pass  from  the  loftiest  spiritual  mysteries  to  the  humblest  moral 
duties.  Ho  knew  that  holiness  was  the  essence  of  God's  Being,  and  he  saw 
in  the  holiness  of  Christians  the  beautiful  result  of  that  predestined  purpose, 
which,  after  being  wrought  out  to  gradual  completion  in  the  dispensation  of 
past  ccons,  was  now  fully  manifested  and  revealed  in  Christ.  He  knew  that 
the  loftiest  principles  were  the  necessary  basis  of  the  simplest  acts  of  faithful- 
ness, and  that  all  which  is  most  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report,  in  the 
Christian  life,  is  the  sole  result  of  all  that  is  most  sublime  in  the  Christian's 
faith.  The  lustre  of  the  planets  may  be  faint  and  poor,  but  yet  it  is  reflected 
from  the  common  sun ;  and  so  the  goodness  of  a  redeemed  man,  however  pale 
in  lustre,  is  still  sacred,  becaiise  it  is  a  reflexion  from  the  Sun  of  righteousness. 
The  reflected  light  of  morality  is  nothing  apart  from  the  splendour  of  that 
religion  from  which  it  is  derived.  There  is  little  which  is  admirable  in  the 
honesty  which  simply  results  from  its  being  the  best  policy ;  or  in  the  purity 
which  is  maintained  solely  by  fear  of  punishment ;  or  even  in  the  virtue  which 
is  coldly  adopted  out  of  a  calculation  that  it  tends  to  the  greatest  happiness  of 
the  greatest  number.  It  was  not  in  this  way  that  St.  Paul  regarded  morality. 
Many  of  the  precepts  which  he  delivers  in  the  practical  sections  of  his 
Epistles  might  also  have  been  delivered,  and  nobly  delivered,  by  an  Epictetus 
or  a  Marcus  Aurelius;  but  that  which  places  an  immeasurable  distance 
between  the  teachings  of  St.  Paul  and  theirs,  is  the  fact  that  in  St.  Paul's 
view  holiness  is  not  the  imperfect  result  of  rare  self -discipline,  but  the  natural 
outcome  of  a  divine  life,  imparted  by  One  who  is  the  common  Head  of  all  the 
family  of  man,  and  in  participation  with  whose  plenitude  the  humblest  act  of 
self-sacrifice  becomes  invested  with  a  sacred  value  and  a  sacred  significance. 
And  there  are  these  further  distinctions  (among  many  others)  between  the 
lofty  teachings  of  Stoicism  and  the  divine  exhortations  of  Christianity. 
Stoicism  made  its  appeal  only  to  the  noble-hearted  few,  despising  and  despair- 
ing of  the  vulgar  herd  of  mankind  in  all  ranks,  as  incapable  of  philosophic 
training  or  moral  elevation.  Christianity,  in  the  name  of  a  God  who  was  no 
respecter  of  persons,  appealed  to  the  very  weakest  and  the  very  worst  as  being 
all  redeemed  in  Christ.  Again,  Stoicism  was  dimmed  and  darkened  to  the 
very  heart's  core  of  its  worthiest  votaries  by  deep  perplexity  and  incurable 
sadness ;  Christianity  breathes  into  every  utterance  the  joyous  spirit  of  victory 
and  hope.  Even  the  best  of  the  Stoics  looked  on  the  life  of  men  around  them 
with  a  detestation  largely  mingled  with  contempt,  and  this  contempt  weakened 
the  sense  of  reciprocity,  and  fed  the  fumes  of  pride.  But  St.  Paul  addresses 
i  revelation  unspeakably  more  majestic,  more  profound,  more  spiritual,  than 
any  which  Stoicism  could  offer,  to  men  whom  he  well  knows  to  have  lived  in 

*  iii.  20,  2L 


842  THE   LIFE   ANI>   WORK   OF  ST.   PA171* 

the  trammels  of  the  vilest  sins  of  heathendom,  and  barely  even  yet  to  have 
escaped  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler.  Ho  confidently  addreases  exhortations 
of  stainless  purity  and  sensitive  integrity  to  men  who  had  been  thieves  and 
adulterers,  and  worse ;  and  so  far  from  any  self-exaltation  at  his  own  moral 
superiority,  he  regards  hia  own  life  as  hid  indeed  with  Christ  in  God,  but  as 
so  little  fit  to  inspire  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  that  ho  is  lost  in  the  conviction 
of  his  own  unworthiness*  as  contrasted  with  the  wealth  of  God's  compassion, 
aud  the  unspeakable  grandeur  of  the  long-hidden  mystery  which  now  in  due 
time  he  is  commissioned  to  set  forth.  The  mingled  prayer  and  paean  of 
this  magnificent  Epistle  is  inspired  throughout  "  by  a  sense  of  opposites — of 
the  union  of  weakness  and  strength,  of  tribulation  and  glory,  of  all  that 
had  been  and  all  that  was  to  be,  of  the  absolute  love  of  God,  of  the  discovery 
of  that  love  to  man  in  the  Mediator,  of  the  working  of  that  love  in  man 
through  the  Spirit,  of  the  fellowship  of  the  poorest  creature  of  flesh  and  blood 
on  earth  with  the  spirits  in  heaven,  of  a  canopy  of  love  above  and  an  abyss  of 
love  beneath,  which  encompasses  the  whole  creation."  The  Apostle  would 
have  delighted  in  the  spirit  of  those  words  which  a  modern  poet  has  learnt 
from  the  truths  which  it  was  his  high  mission  to  reveal : — 

"  I  say  to  thee,  do  thou  repeat 
To  the  first  man  thou  mayest  meet 
In  lane,  highway,  or  open  street, 
That  he,  and  we,  and  all  men  move 
Under  a  canopy  of  love 
As  broad  as  the  blue  sky  above."  * 

*  I  then,"  continues  the  Apostle — and  how  much  does  that  word  "  then  " 
involve,  referring  as  it  does  to  all  the  mighty  truths  which  he  has  been  setting 
forth ! — "  I  then,  the  prisoner  in  the  Lord,  exhort  you  to  walk  worthily  of  the 
calling  in  which  ye  were  called."  This  is  the  keynote  to  all  that  follows.  So 
little  was  earthly  success  or  happiness  worth  even  considering  in  comparison 
with  the  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory  which  affliction  was  working 
out  for  them,  that  while  ho  has  urged  them  not  to  lose  heart  in  his  tribula- 
tions, he  makes  those  very  tribulations  a  ground  of  appeal,  and  feels  that  he 
can  speak  to  them  with  all  the  stronger  influence  as  "  a  prisoner  in  the  Lord," 
and  "  an  ambassador  in  a  chain."  And  the  worthy  elevation  to  the  grandeur 
of  their  calling  was  to  be  shown  by  virtues  which,  in  then-  heathen  condition, 
they  would  almost  have  ranked  with  abject  vices — lowliness,  meekness,  en- 
durance, the  forbearance  of  mutual  esteem.  The  furious  quarrels,  the  mad 
jealousies,  the  cherished  rancours,  the  frantic  spirit  of  revenge  which  charac- 
terised their  heathen  condition,  are  to  be  fused  by  the  heat  of  love  into  one 
great  spiritual  unity  and  peace.  Oneness,  the  result  of  love,  is  the  ruling 
thought  of  this  section  (iv.  3 — 13).  "  One  body,  and  one  spirit,  even  as  also 
ye  were  called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling,  one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one  Baptism, 
one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all." a 
Tet  this  unity  is  not  a  dead  level  of  uniformity.  Each  has  his  separate 

1  Archbishop  Trench.  2  Omit  futv,  M,  A,  B,  0,  Ac, 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE   EPHE8IANS."  643 

jrtMisure  of  grace  given  by  Him  who,  ascending  in  triumph,  with  Sin  and 
Deatn  bound  to  His  chariot-wheels,  "  gave  gifts  for  men," 1  having  first 
descended  that  by  ascending  "  far  above  all  heavens  "  He  might  fill  all  things. 
Apostles  therefore,  and  Prophets,  and  Evangelists,  and  Pastors,  and  Teacher* 
were  all  appointed  by  virtue  of  the  gifts  which  He  gave,  with  a  view  to  per- 
fect the  saints,  and  so  to  build  up  the  Church  which  is  tho  body  of  Christ, 
until  we  all  finally  attain2  to  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  the  full  knowledge  of 
the  Son  of  God,  to  perfect  manhood,  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  t  he 
Plenitude  of  Christ."  But  to  contribute  to  this  perfect  growth  we  must  lay 
aside  moral  and  spiritual  childishness  j  we  must  keep  the  hand  firmly  on  tho 
helm  that  we  may  not  be  tossed  like  dismantled  hulks  by  every  wave  and 
storm  of  doctrine,  in  that  frandf ul  sleight  and  craft  which  many  devote  to 
further  the  deliberate  system  of  error.  To  be  true  and  to  be  loving  is  the 
secret  of  Christian  growth.3  Sincerity  and  charity  are  as  tho  life-blood  in  the 
veins  of  that  Church,  of  which  Christ  is  the  Head  and  Heart,  "  from  whom 
tho  whole  body  being  fitly  framed  and  compacted  by  means  of  every  joint  of 
tho  vital  supply,  according  to  the  proportional  energy  of  each  individual  part, 
tends  to  the  increase  of  the  body,  so  as  to  build  itself  up  in  love.'** 

After  this  expansion  of  the  duty  of  Unity,  he  returns  to  his  exhortation ; 
and,  as  before  he  had  urged  them  to  walk  worthily  of  their  vocation,  he  now  urges 
them  not  to  walk,  as  did  the  rest  of  the  Gentiles,  in  tho  vanity  of  their  mind, 
having  been  darkened  in  their  understanding,  and  utterly  alienated  from  tho 
life  of  God  because  of  their  ignorance  and  the  callosity  of  their  hearts,6  seeing 
that  they,  having  lost  all  sense  of  shame  or  sorrow  for  sin,9  abandoned  themselves 
to  wantonness  for  tho  working  of  all  nncleanness,  in  inordinate  desire  :7 — 

"But  NOT  eo  did  ye  learn  Christ — assuming  that  ye  heard  Him,  and  were  taught 
in  Hun  as  the  truth  is  in  Jesua,8  that  ye  put  off,  as  concerns  your  former  conversa- 
tion, the  old  man  which  is  over  being  corrupted  according  to  the  lusts  of  deceit,  and 
undergo  renewal  by  the  spirit  of  your  mind,  and  put  on  tho  new  man  which  after 
God  was  created  in  righteousness  and  holiness  of  truth."  * 

Then  follow  the  many  practical  applications  which  result  from  this  clothing 
of  the  soul  with  the  new-created  humanity.  Put  away  lying,  because  we  are 

1  On  this  singular  reference  to  Ps.  Ixviii.,  and  the  change  of  the  «Ao/3«  &6^ara  tv 
ai/0pwiroi?,  see  Da  vies,  p.  44.  It  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  there  is  the  slightest  allusion 
to  the  descent  into  hell.  The  point  is  the  identity  of  Him  who  came  to  earth  (i.e.,  the 
historic  Jesus)  and  Him  who  ascended,  i.e.,  of  the  Eternal  and  the  Incarnate  Christ. 

'  The  omision  of  i*  marks  the  certain  result. 

*  iv.  15,  iA>,eevoiT«  i«  iv  dyaTTD— r.ot  merely  "  sjxaking  the  truth,"  but  "  being  true." 

*  iv.  1—16. 

*  jrfipos,  "tufa-stone,"  is  used,  secondarily,  for  a  hard  tumour,  or  callus  at  the  end  of 
injured  boces. 

6  amjAyTjxoTK.  " Qui  postquam  peccaverint,  non  detent."  "A  siu  committed  a 
kucond  time  does  net  seem  a  sin  "  (Moed  Katon,  f.  27,  2). 

*  ir\eovef<«u 

8  The  form  of  expression  might  seem  to  point  to  a  warning  against  any  incipient 
docetic  tendency  (cf.  1  John  iv.  2,  3)  to  draw  a  distinction  between  Christ  and  Jesus, 
between  the  Eternal  Christ  and  the  human  Jesus. 

*  iv.  17-24. 


644  THE  UFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.  PAUL. 

members  of  one  another.1  Let  not  just  anger  degenerate  into  chronic  ex- 
asperation,  neither  give  room  to  the  devil.  Let  honest  work,  earning  sufficient 
oven  for  charity,  replace  thievishness.  For  corruption  of  speech  2  let  there  be 
such  as  is  "  good  for  edification  of  the  need 8  that  it  may  give  grace  to  the 
hearers,"  since  unwholesome  impurity  is  a  chronic  grief  to  that  Holy  Spirit 
who  has  sealed  you  as  His  own  to  the  day  of  redemption.  Then,  returning  to 
his  main  subject  of  unity,  he  says  .— 

"  Let  all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamour,  and  railing  be  put  away 
from  you  with  all  malice,  and  become  kind  to  one  another,  compassionate,  freely 
forgiving  one  another,  as  God  also  in  Christ*  freely  forgave  you.  Become,  then, 
imitators  of  God  as  children  beloved,  and  walk  in  love,  even  as  Christ  loved  us  aud 
gave  Himself  for  us  an  offering  and  sacrifice  to  God  for  a  savour  of  sweet  smell."9 

Then,  proceeding  to  other  practical  duties,  he  forbids  every  form  of  im- 
purity or  obscenity,  in  word  or  deed,  with  the  worldly  polish6  which  was  of  tea 
nearly  akin  to  it,  since  they  are  unsuitable  to  the  Christian  character,  and  they 
who  are  addicted  to  such  things  have  no  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  whatever  men  may  say,  such  things  are  the  abiding  source  of  God's  wrath.7 
Let  thanksgiving  take  the  place  of  indecency  of  speech.  For  though  they 
were  darkness,  they  are  now  light  in  the  Lord.  Walk  as  children  of  light. 
For  the  fruit  of  light8  is  in  all  goodness,  and  righteousness,  and  truth.  Light 
is  the  prevalent  conception  here,  as  love  was  in  the  last  chapter.9  Let  them 
not  participate  in  the  unfruitful  infamies  of  secret  darkness,  "but  rather 
even  convict  them,  for  all  things  on  being  convicted  are  illumined  by  the  light, 
for  all  that  is  being  illumined  is  light."1*  And  this  is  the  spirit  of  what  is 
perhaps  a  Christian  hymn  :— 

1  The  necessity  of  the  following  moral  exhortations  will  excite  no  astonishment  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  studied  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  or  who  have  sufficient 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart  to  be  aware  that  the  evil  habits  of  a  heathen  lifetime 
•were  not  likely  to  be  cured  in  all  converts  by  a  moment  of  awakeument,  or  by  an 
acceptance  of  Christian  truths,  which  in  many  cases  may  have  been  mainly  intellectual. 

2  iv.  29,  o-ojrobj,  "rotten"  (Matt.  vii.  17),  the  opposite  of  vyii^,  "sound,"  in  2  Tim. 
L  13,  &c.,  and     seasoned  with  salt,"  CoL  iv.  6. 

3  Not  "for  the  use  of  edification,"  as  in  B.V.,  but  for  such  edification  as  the  occasion 
requires. 

*  iv.  32,  Iv  Xf>t<rr<p,  not  as  in  E.V.,  "  for  Christ's  sake." 

*  iv.  25— v.  2. 

*  Ver.  4,  «iipair«Ata,    Aristotle  defines  it  as  "cultivated  impertinence  " (Rhet.  il.  12), 
and  places  the  polished  worldling  (evrpd-oXos,  facctus)  midway  between  the  boor  (cfy>oi«o?) 
and  the  low  flatterer  (j3<«,fi.oAi$x<x)  (Eth.  N.  ii.  7).    The  mild  word,  TO.  OUK  AnjKovra,  is  due, 
not  to  the  comparatively  harmless  "  polish  "  which  has  been  last  mentioned,  but  to  litotes 
—the  use  of  a  soft  expression  (like  Virgil's  \Qeorg.  iii.  6j  "iliaudati  Busiridis  aras  "),  to  be 
corrected  by  the  indignant  mental  substitution  of  a  more  forcible  word.  (See  supra,  p.  694.) 

7  Ver.  6,  epxereu,  is  ever  coming. 

8  This  is  the  try e  reading      ($*«•<*)>  not   "fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  as  in  the  E.V.     The 
reading  was  doubtless  alterea  to  soften  the  harshness  of  the  metaphor ;  but  St.  Paul  is 
i:n  indifferent  as  Shakespeare  himself  to  a  mere  verbal  confusion  of  metaphors  when  the 
aeuse  in  clear.     To  see  allusions  here  to  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  is  surely  absurd. 

'•»  Paley  (H<#.  Paul.)  says  that  St.  Paul  here  "  goes  off  "  at  the  word  light ;  but  thi» 
IB  not  nearly  so  good  an  instance  of  this  literary  peculiarity  as  iv.  8,  "ascended." 

10  Deeds  of  darkness  must  cease  to  be  deeds  of  darkness  when  the  light  shines  on 
them.  The  light  kills  them.  Everything  on  which  light  is  poured  is  light,  because  i* 
reflects  light.  ^avepovfievov  cannot  mean  'that  inaketh  manifest,"  as  in  the  B.V. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE   KPHESIAK8.'  645 


'£7*  ipt  6 

'Aj/(£(TTa   IK  TWV 


("  Awake  thee,  thou  that  sleepest, 
And  from  the  dead  arise  thou, 
And  Christ  shall  shine  upon  thee.")  » 

"  Take  heed,  then,  how  ye  walk  carefully,  not  as  unwise  but  as  wise,  buying  up 
the  opportunity  because  the  days  are  evil.  Do  not  prove  yourselves  senseless,  but 
understanding  what  is  the  will  of  the  Lord."2 

Thus,  mingling  special  exhortation  with  universal  principles,  he  proceeds  to 
warn  them  against  drunkenness,  and  recalling  perhaps  the  thrill  of  emotion 
with  which  he  and  they  have  joined  in  such  stirring  words  as  those  he 
has  just  quoted,  he  bids  them  seek  rather  the  spiritual  exaltations  of  that  holy 
enthusiasm  which  finds  vent  in  the  melodies  of  Christian  hymnology,  and  in 
the  eucharistic  music  of  the  heart,  while  at  the  same  time  all  are  mutually 
submissive  to  each  other  in  the  fear  of  God.3 

The  duty  of  submissiveness  thus  casually  introduced  is  then  illustrated 
and  enforced  in  three  great  social  relations.4  Wives  are  to  be  submissive 
to  their  husbands,  as  the  Church  is  to  Christ  ;  and  husbands  to  love  their 
wives,  as  Christ  loved  the  Church,  to  sanctify  it  into  stainless  purity,  and 
to  cherish  it  as  a  part  of  Himself  in  inseparable  union.  Children  are  to  obey 
their  parents,  and  parents  not  to  irritate  their  children.  Slaves  are  to  render 
sincere  and  conscientious  service,  as  being  the  slaves  of  their  unseen  Master, 
Christ,  and  therefore  bound  to  fulfil  all  the  duties  of  the  state  of  life  in  which 
He  has  placed  them  ;  and  masters  are  to  do  their  duty  to  their  slaves,  abandon- 
ing threats,  remembering  that  they  too  have  a  Master  in  whose  sight  they  all 
are  equal.5 

Having  thus  gone  through  the  main  duties  of  domestic  and  social  life  as 
contemplated  in  the  light  of  Christ,  he  bids  them  finally  "  grow  strong  in  the 
Lord  and  in  the  might  of  His  strength."6  The  exhortation  brings  up  the 
image  of  armour  with  which  the  worn  and  aged  prisoner  was  but  too  familiar. 
Daily  the  coupling-chain  which  bound  his  right  wrist  to  the  left  of  a  Roman 
legionary  clashed  as  it  touched  some  part  of  the  soldier's  arms.  The  baldric, 
the  military  boot,  the  oblong  shield,  the  cuirass,  the  helmet,  the  sword  of  the 
Praetorian  guardsman  were  among  the  few  things  which  he  daily  saw.  But 

1  Isa.  be.  1,  2.  The  versification  is  of  the  Hebrew  type.  On  Christian  hymnology, 
v.  supra,  on  Col.  iii.  16.  Antiphonal  congregational  singing  was  very  early  introduced 
(Rev.  xix.  1—4). 

'  Vers.  3—17.  s  Vers.  1&—  21. 

4  All  commentators  have  felt  a  difficulty  in  seeing  the  connexion  between  singing  and 
subjection.  I  believe  that  it  lies  in  a  reminiscence  of  the  unseemly  Babel  of  contentioua 
vanities  which  St.  Paul  had  heard  of,  perhaps  even  witnessed,  at  Corinth,  where  such 
disorder  had  been  caused  by  the  obtrusive  vanity  with  which  each  person  wished  to 
display  his  or  her  particular  xapta-^a.  If  so  —  or  even  if  the  association  was  something 
else  —  we  have  another  inimitable  maik  of  genuineness.  No  forger  would  dream  of 
appending  a  most  important  section  of  his  moral  teaching  to  a  purely  accidental  thought. 

*  Ver.  22—  vi.  9. 

8  vL  10.    The  aSfXfa!  is  wanting  in  »,  B,  D,  E,  and  does  not  occur  in  Eph.  or  OoL 


646  THE   LIFE   AND  WOEK   OF  ST.   PAUL 

we  cannot  doubt  that,  with  his  kindly  human  interest  in  life  and  youth,  ths 
Apostle,  who  knew  that  heathendom  too  was  redeemed  in  Christ,  whoso  boy- 
hood had  been  passed  in  a  heathen  city,  who  loved  man  as  man  because  he  saw 
a  vision  of  all  humanity  in  God  —  would  have  talked  often  to  the  weary  soldiers 
who  guarded  him  ;  would  have  tried  by  wholesome  and  courteous  and  profitable 
words  it)  dissipate  their  tedium,  until  we  can  well  imagine  that  the  legionaries 
who  had  to  perform  the  disagreeable  task  would,  in  spite  of  intense  national 
repugnances,  prefer  to  bo  chained  to  Paul  the  Jewish  prisoner  than  to  any 
wlium  caprice,  or  justice,  or  tyranny  consigned  to  their  military  charge. 
Doubtless  the  soldiers  would  tell  him  in  what  countries  they  had  been  stationed, 
What  barbarians  they  had  helped  to  subdue.  He  would  ask  them  in  what 
tumult  they  had  got  that  fracture  in  the  helmet,  in  what  battle  that  dint  upon 
the  shield,  by  what  blow  they  had  made  that  hack  in  the  sword.1  They  would 
tell  him  of  the  deadly  wrestle  with  foes  who  grappled  with  them  in  the  melee, 
and  of  the  falaricae?  the  darts  wrapped  round  with  flaming  tow,  from  which 
their  shields  had  saved  them  in  the  siege.  And  thinking  of  the  sterner 
struggle  against  deadlier  enemies,  even  against  the  world-rulers  of  this  dark- 
ness, against  the  spiritual  powers  of  wickedness  in  the  heavenlies,3  in  which 
all  God's  children  are  anxiously  engaged,  he  bids  the  Christian  converts  assume, 
act  "  the  straw-armour  of  reason,"  but  the  panoply  of  God,  that  they  may  be 
able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day.  Let  spiritual  truth  be  their  baldric  or  bind- 
ing girdle;*  moral  righteousness  their  breastplate;  zealous  alacrity  in  the 
cause  of  the  Gospel  of  Peace  their  caligae  of  war  ;  5  and  in  addition  to  these, 
let  faith  bo  taken  up  as  their  broad  shield6  against  the  darts  of  the  evil  one, 
however  fiercely  ignited.  Their  one  weapon  of  offence  is  to  be  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God.7  Prayer  and  watchfulness  is  to  be 
their  constant  attitude  ;  and  in  their  prayers  for  all  saints  he  begs  also  for 
their  prayers  on  his  own  behalf,  not  that  his  chains  may  bo  loosed,  but  that  he 
may  boldly  and  aptly  make  known  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel,  on  behalf  of 

1  The  pilum,  or  heavy  javelin,  which  a  soldier  would  not  bring  with  him  to  the 
guard-room,  is  omitted. 
*  Or  mallcoli  (Ps.  vii.  13). 
3  The  Kabbinical  •vranp-DDV'     Similarly,  in  2  Cor.  Iv.  4,  St.  Paul  goes  so  far  as  to  call 


"  the  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,"  6  flcb?  rov  oUwvos  TOVTOV.  (Of,  1  John  v.  19  ;  John  xiv. 
30  ;  xvi.  11.)  "The  spirituals  of  wickedness  in  the  heav-enlies"  are  the  Gdstcrchaft  of 
iniquity  in  the  regions  of  space  ;  but  one  would  expect  inrovpaviot.?.  The  E.V.  conceals 
the  difficulty  by  its  "  high  places  ;"  but  if  eTi-ovpaWois  be  right,  it  can  only  be  in  a  physical 
sense.  As  for  mortal  enemies:  "vasa  sunt,  alius  utitur;  organa  sunt,  alius  jungit" 

*  "  Veritas  astringit  hominem,  mendaciorum  magna  est  laxitas"  (Grot.). 
'•>  Cf.  Horn.  iii.  16  ;  x.  15;  ero^aa-la.  may,  however,  mean  "basis,"  "sole"  ()i3O,  Ezra  iii. 
3  •  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  15,  LXX.).    The  Gospel  of  Peace  gives  a  secure  foothold  even  in  war. 
'  *  Faith,  not  merit,  as  in  "VVisd.  v.  19.      (Cf.  Ps.  xviii.  31,  &c.)     Notice  the  emphatic 

position  of  ireirupu^eVa. 

7  Dr.  Davidson  finds  this  a  tedious  and  tasteless  amplification  of  1  Thess.  v.  8, 
2  Cor.  x'.  3,  4,  and  has  many  similar  criticisms  (Introd.  i.  388,  390).  It  is  impossible  to 
argue'  against  such  criticisms  as  bearing  on  the  question  of  genuineness.  The  general 
metaphor  is  not  uncommon  (Isa.  Ibc.  16—19  ;  1  Thess.  v.  8  ;  Wisd.  v.  17—20  ;  Bleeck, 
Zend  Arfstn,  p.  90;  Davies,  p.  61).  (See  the  account  of  the  arms  In  the  Interpreter's 
House  in  Pilgrim's  Progress,  and  Gurnall's  Christian  Annow,) 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  "THE  EPHE8IAN8."  647 

which  he  is  an  ambassador — not  inviolable,  not  splendid,  but — "  an  ambassador 
iu  a  coupling-chain."1 

He  sends  no  news  or  personal  salutations,  because  he  is  sending  the  f  aitiif  ul 
and  beloved  Tychicus,  who  will  tell  them,  as  well  as  other  cities,  all  his  affairs ; 
but  he  concludes  with  a  blessing  of  singular  fulness : 

"  Peace  to  the  brethren  and  love  with  faith  from  God  the  Father  and  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Grace  be  with  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  incorruption." a 


Wo  have  now  examined  all  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  except  the  last  group 
of  all — the  three  addressed  to  Timothy  and  Titus.  These  are  usually  known 
as  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  because  they  sketch  the  duties  of  the  Christian 
Pastor.  Of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  I  have  said  nothing,  because  I  hope 
to  speak  of  it  hereafter,  and  because,  for  reasons  which  appear  to  me  abso- 
lutely convincing,  I  cannot  regard  it  as  a  work  of  St.  Paul's.  But  even  if  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  be  accepted  as  having  been  written  by  the  Apostle,  it 
adds  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  his  history.  But  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Pastoral  Epistles,  we  should  not  know  a  single  additional  fact  about  him, 
except  such  as  we  can  glean  from  vague  and  wavering  traditions. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ends  with  the  statement  that  Paul  remained  a 
period  of  two  whole  years  in  his  own  hired  lodging,  and  received  all  who 
came  in  to  visit  him,  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God  and  teaching  the  tilings 
concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  confidence  unmolestcdly.3  The 
question  why  St.  Luke  deliberately  ended  his  sketch  of  the  Apostle  at  tliat 
point,  is  one  which  can  never  receive  a  decisive  answer.  He  only  related  cir- 
cumstances of  which  he  was  an  eyewitness,  or  which  he  knew  from  trustworthy 
information,  and  for  that  reason  his  narrative,  in  spito  of  its  marked  lacunae, 
is  far  more  valuable  than  if  it  had  been  constructed  out  of  looser  materials. 
It  may,  however,  be  safely  asserted  that  since  he  had  been  with  St.  Paul 
during  at  least  a  part  of  the  Roman  imprisonment,  he  brought  down  his  story 
to  the  period  at  which  he  first  wrote  his  book.  A  thousand  circumstances  may 
liave  prevented  any  resumption  of  his  work  as  a  chronicler,  but  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  St.  Paul  should  have  died  almost  immediately  afterwards,  by  a 
martyr's  death,  and  St.  Luke  have  been  aware  of  it  before  his  book  was  pub- 
lished, and  yet  that  he  should  not  have  made  the  faiutost  allusion  to  the 
subject.4  The  conjecture  that  Theophilus  know  all  the  rest,  so  that  it  was 
ijeedless  to  commit  it  to  writing,  is  entirely  valueless,  for  whoever  Theophilus 

1  Vi.  10 — 20.  In  ver.  18  it  is  irepl  rr&vnav  ruv  iyitav  teal  ujrep  ejioS.  "Paradoxon  :  miUldus 
habet  splendidos  legates  "  (Bengel).  -  vi.  21 — 24. 

8  The  cadence  is  expressive  of  stability ;  of  motion  succeeded  by  rest ;  of  action  settled 
In  repose.  "An  emblem  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  of  the  life  of  every 
true  believer  in  Him  "  (Bishop  Wordsworth). 

4  So  far  as  anything  can  be  said  to  be  probable  in  the  midst  of  sxicli  uncertainties,  the 
probability  is  that  the  leisure  of  his  attendance  on  St.  Paul  during  the  Koman  imprison- 
ment had  enabled  St.  Luke  to  draw  up  the  main  part  of  his  work  ;  that  he  concluded  it 
exactly  at  the  point  at  which  St.  Paul  was  expecting  immediate  liberation,  and  that 
he  either  published  it  at  .the  first  favourable  opportunity  after  that  time,  or  waa  pre- 
vented— it  may  be  even  by  death  from  ever  continuing  or  completing  his  task. 


648  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OP  ST.   PATTL. 

may  have  been,  it  is  clear  that  St.  Luke  was  not  writing  for  him  alone.  It  is 
also,  to  say  the  least,  a  probable  conjecture  that  soon  after  the  close  of  those 
two  whole  years  some  remarkable  change  took  place  in  the  condition  of  the 
prisoner.  That  such  a  change  did  take  place  is  the  almost  unanimous  tradi- 
tion of  the  Church.  However  slight  may  be  the  grounds  of  direct  testimony, 
it  has  been  generally  believed  in  all  ages  that  (about  the  beginning  of  the  year 
A.D.  64)  St.  Paul  was  tried,  acquitted,  and  liberated ;  and  that  after  some  two 
years  of  liberty,  during  which  he  continued  to  prosecute  his  missionary 
labours,  he  was  once  more  arrested,  and  was,  after  a  second  imprisonment,  put 
to  death  at  Rome.  This  would,  at  least,  accord  with  the  anticipations 
expressed  in  his  own  undoubted  Epistles.  Although  he  was  still  a  prisoner 
when  he  wrote  the  letter  to  the  Philippians,  his  trial  was  near  at  baud,  and 
while  promising  to  send  Timothy  to  inquire  about  their  fortunes,  he  adds, 
"  But  I  am  confident  in  the  Lord  that  I  myself  too  shall  come  speedily ;"  and 
this  is  so  far  from  being  a  casual  hope  that  he  even  asks  Philemon  "  to  get  a 
lodging  ready  for  him,  for  he  hopes  that  ho  shall  be  granted  to  them  by  their 
prayers."  It  is,  of  course,  quite  possible  that  St.  Paul's  sanguine  expectations 
may  have  been  frustrated,1  but  he  certainly  would  not  have  expressed  them  so 
distinctly  without  good  grounds  for  believing  that  powerful  friends  were  at 
work  in  his  favour.  Whether  Festus,  and  Agrippa,  and  Lysias,  and  Publius 
had  used  their  influence  on  his  behalf,  or  whether  he  had  reason  to  rely  on  any 
favourable  impression  which  he  may  have  made  among  the  Praetorian  soldiers, 
or  whether  he  had  received  intelligence  that  the  Jews  had  seen  reason  to 
abandon  a  frivolous  and  groundless  prosecution  it  is  impossible  to  conjecture ; 2 
but  his  strong  impression  that  he  would  be  liberated  at  least  helps  to  confirm 
the  many  arguments  which  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  actually  was.  If  so,  it 
must  have  been  very  soon  after  the  close  of  that  two  years'  confinement  with 
which  St.  Luke  so  suddenly  breaks  off. 

For  in  July,  A.D.  64,  there  broke  out  that  terrible  persecution  against  the 
Christians,  from  which,  had  he  been  still  at  Home,  it  is  certain  that  he  could 

1  For  this  reason  I  have  not  here  laid  any  stress  on  his  once-purposed  visit  to  Spain 
(Rom.  xv.  24,  28).     It  seems  clear  from  Philem.  22  that  he  had  either  abandoned  this 
intention,  or  at  any  rate  postponed  it  till  he  had  re- visited  Asia. 

2  It  is  undesirable  to  multiply  uncertain  conjectures,  but  perhaps  the  Jews  may  have 
sent  their  documents,  witnesses,  &c.,  with  Josephus  when  he  went  to  Rome,  A.D.  64. 
He  tells  us  that,  by  the  influence  of  the  Jewish  pantomimist  Aliturus  and  of  Poppsea,  he 
was  enabled  to  secure  the  release  of  some  Jewish  priests,  friends  of  his  own,  whom 
Festus  had,  on  grounds  which  Josephus  calls  trivial,  sent  bound  to  Rome.    Josephus  was 
doubtless  one  of  »  commission  dispatched  for  this  purpose,  and  it  is  conceivable  that 
the  prosecution  of  St.  Paul's  trial  may  have  been  a  subordinate  object  of  this  com- 
mission, and  that  the  trial  may  have  broken  down  all  the  more  completely  from  the 
loss  of  witnesses  and  evidence  in  the  shipwreck  which  Josephus  underwent.     His  vessel 
foundered  on  the  voyage,  and  out  of  two  hundred  souls  only  eighty  were  picked  up  by 
a  ship  of  Cyrene,  after  they  had  swum  or  floated  all  night  in  the  waves.     Josephus 
then  proceeded  to  Puteoli  in  another  ship.     He  makes  little  more  than  a  dry  allusion  to 
these  events  ( Vit.  3),  which  contrasts  singularly  with  the  vivid  minuteness  of  St.  Luke : 
but  the  general  incidents  so  far  resemble  those  of  St.  Paul's  shipwreck  that  some  have 
conjectured  that  the  two  events  were  identical.     Chronology  and  other  considerations 
render  this  impossible,  nor  is  there  any  great  reason  to  sxippose  that  Josephus  is  here 
introducing  embellishments  from  the  story  of  St.  Paul. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   "THE    EPHESIANS."  649 

not  have  escaped.  If,  therefore,  the  Pastoral  Epistles  be  forgeries,  we  have 
heard  the  last  words  of  St.  Paid,  aud  at  the  last  verse  of  the  Acts  the  curtain 
rushes  down  in  utter  darkness  upon  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Let  ua,  then, 
consider  what  tradition  says,  and  whether  we  can  still  accept  as  genuine  the 
Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus.  If  the  indications  derived  from  these  sources 
are  in  any  degree  trustworthy,  we  have  still  to  hear  some  further  thoughts  and 
opinions  of  the  Apostle.  We  catch  at  least  a  glimpse  of  his  final  movements, 
and  attain  to  a  sure  knowledge  of  his  state  of  mind  up  to  the  moment  of  his 
death.  If  tradition  be  mistaken,  and  if  the  Epistles  are  spurious,  then  we 
must  acquiesce  in  the  fact  that  we  know  nothing  more  of  the  Apostle,  and  that 
he  perished  among  that  "  vast  multitude  "  whom,  in  the  year  64,  the  vilest  of 
Emperors,  nay,  almost  of  human  beings,  sacrificed  to  the  blind  madness  which 
had  been  instigated  against  them  by  a  monstrous  accusation.  If,  indeed,  St. 
Paul  perished  amid  that  crowd  of  nameless  martyrs,  there  is  but  little  pro- 
bability that  any  regard  would  have  been  paid  to  his  claim  as  a  Roman  citizen. 
He  may  have  perished,  like  them,  by  crucifixion ;  or  have  been  covered,  like 
them,  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  to  be  mangled  by  dogs ;  or,  standing  in  his 
tunic  of  ignited  pitch,  may  with  his  dying  glance  have  caught  sight  of  the 
wicked  Emperor  of  triumphant  Heathendom,  as  the  living  torch  of  hideous 
martyrdom  cast  a  baleful  glare  across  the  gardens  of  the  Golden  House.1 
From  all  this,  however,  we  may  feel  a  firm  conviction  that,  by  the  mercy  of 
God,  he  was  delivered  for  a  time.2 

It  is  true  that,  so  far  as  direct  evidence  is  concerned,  we  can  only  say  that 
St.  Paul's  own  words  render  it  probable  that  he  waa  liberated,  and  that  this 
probability  finds  some  slight  support  in  a  common  tradition,  endorsed  by  the 
authority  of  some  of  the  Fathers.  But  this  tradition  goes  little  further  than 
the  bare  fact.  If  we  are  to  gain  any  further  knowledge  of  the  biography  of 
St.  Paul,  it  must  be  derived  from  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  from  them  alone. 
If  they  be  not  genuine,  we  know  no  single  further  particular  respecting  his 
fortunes. 

Now,  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  number  of  critics,  formidable  alike  in 
their  unanimity  and  their  learning,  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus  were  not  written  by  St.  Paul.3  Their  arguments 
are  entitled  to  respectful  attention,  and  they  undoubtedly  suggest  difficulties, 
which  our  ignorance  of  all  details  in  the  history  of  those  early  centuries 
venders  it  by  no  means  easy  to  remove.  Nevertheless,  after  carefully  and 
impartially  weighing  all  that  they  have  urged — of  which  some  account  will  be 
found  in  the  Excursus  at  the  end  of  the  volume — I  have  cotne  to  the  decided 
conviction  that  the  Epistles  are  genuine,  and  that  the  first  two  of  them  were 
written  during  the  two  years  which  intervened  between  St.  Paul's  liberation 
*ud  his  martyrdom  at  Rome. 

i  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  44  (cf.  Mart.  x.  25 ;  Juv.  Sat.  viii.  235) ;  Sen.  Ep.  14,  4 ;  Schol.  In 
Juv.  i.  155 ;  Tert.  Apol.  15 ;  ad  Nat.  118;  ad  Mart.  5. 

:  See  Excursus  XXVI.,  "Evidence  aa  to  the  Liberation  of  St.  Paul. 

8  Schmidt,  Schleiermaclier,  Eichhorn,  Credner,  De  Wette,  Baur,  Zeller,  Hilgeufeld, 
Schenkel,  Ewald,  Hausrath,  Renan,  Pfieidei-er.  Krenkel,  Davidson,  &c. 

as 


650  THE  LIFE   AND  WOEK   OF  ST.  PAUL, 

CHAPTER   LHL 

THE  FIRST   EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 

vov  ffn6rei  4>«Aev<W«»'  tlcren  rare  ruv,  fl  Kai  rives  fanipxov,  irapatpdetptn- 
ni  x.a.v6va.  TOV  <ro>ri]piov  Kijp{iyfj.aros. — HaGBSiPPTJS   «JD.  Euseb. 
S.JS.  iii.  32. 

I  SHALL  not  attempt,  by  more  than  a  few  sentences,  to  dispel  the  obscurity  of 
that  last  stage  of  the  Apostle's  life  which  began  at  the  termination  of  his 
Eoman  imprisonment.  We  feel  that  our  knowledge  of  his  movements 
is  plunged  in  the  deepest  uncertainty  the  moment  that  we  lose  the  guidance 
of  St.  Luke.  I  cannot  myself  believe  that  he  was  able  to  carry  out  his 
intention  of  visiting  Spain.  The  indications  of  his  travels  in  the  two  later 
Pastoral  Epistles  seem  to  leave  no  room  for  such  a  journey ;  nor,  if  it  had 
really  taken  place,  can  we  imagine  that  no  shadow  of  a  detail  respecting  it 
should  have  been  preserved.  But  even  if  he  did  accomplish  this  new  mission, 
we  cannot  so  much  as  mention  a  single  church  which  he  founded,  or  a  single 
port  at  which  he  touched.  To  speak  of  his  work  in  Spain  could  only  theref  ore 
leave  a  fallacious  impression.  If  he  went  at  all,  it  must  have  been  im- 
mediately after  his  imprisonment,  since  his  original  object  had  been  merely 
to  visit  Rome  on  his  way  to  the  "  limit  of  the  West."  In  writing  to  the 
Romans  he  had  expressed  a  hope  that  he  would  be  furthered  on  his  journey 
by  their  assistance.  Judging  by  the  indifference  with  which  they  treated  hint 
in  both  of  his  imprisonments,  there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  this  hope 
was  in  any  case  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  next  trace  of  his  existence  is 
the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy.  That  Epistle  is  less  organic — that  is,  it  has  less 
structural  unity — than  any  other  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  The  time  and  place 
at  which  it  was  written  are  wholly  uncertain,  because  the  only  historic 
indication  which  it  contains  is  that  "  on  his  way  to  Macedonia  Paul  had 
begged  Timothy  to  remain  at  Ephesus." l 

"Paul,  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  commandment  of  God  our 
Saviour,8  and  Christ  Jesus  our  hope,  to  Timothy  my  true  child  in  the  faith ;  grace, 
mercy,  and  peace  from  God  the  Father8  and  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  * 

This  salutation  is  remarkable  for  the  title  "  Saviour "  applied  to  God  the 

1  The  general  outline  of  the  Epistle  u  as  follows : — Salutation  (i.  1,  2).    The  object 
of  the  letter  to  encourage  Timothy  to  resist  false  teachers,  and  hold  fast  the  faith  (8 — 
11,  18 — 20),   with  the  Apostle's  thanks  to  God  for  the  mercy  which  had  made  him  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel  (12^-17).     The  duty  of  praying  for  rulers,  with  rules  about  the 
bearing  of  women  in  public  worship  (ii.).     The  qualifications  of  "bishops"  (presbyters) 
and  deacons  (iii. ).      Fresh  warnings  respecting  the  false  teachers,  and  the  way  in  which 
Timothy  is  to  deal  with  them  (iv.).     His  relations  to  elders  (v.  1,  2) ;  to  the  order  of 
"  widows  "  (3 — 16) ;  and  to  presbyters,  with  rules  as  to  their  selection  (17 — 25).     Direc- 
tions concerning  slaves,  especially  with  reference  to  the  false  teachers ;  warnings  against 
covetousness  ;  with  final  exhortations  and  benediction  (vi.). 

2  Not,  of  course,  "a  Saviour."     The  spread  of  Christianity  is  naturally  marked  by 
the  increasing  anarthrousness  (omission  of  the  article)  of  its  commonest  terms.     We 
mark  this  fact  in  the  word  Christ,  which  is  an  appellative  in  the  Gospels  (almost  always 
"the  Christ" — 1.«.,  the  Messiah) ,  but  has  become,  in  the  Epistles,  a  proper  name. 

»  Omit  w5>v,  N,  A,  D,  F,  G  (B,  deficient).  <  1.  1,  2. 


THE   PIE8T   EPISTLB   TO   TIMOTHV.  651 

Father,  perhaps  derived  from  some  recent  study  of  Psalm  Ixiii.  7,  and 
continued  throughout^the  Pastoral  Epistles  when  once  adopted ;  for  the  name 
"  our  Hope,"  applied  to  Christ,  and  not  improbably  borrowed  from  the  same 
verse ;  and  for  the  word  "  mercy  "  so  naturally  introduced  by  the  worn  and 
tried  old  man,  between  the  usual  greetings  of  "  grace  and  peace."  l 

"  As  I  begged  thee  to  remain  still  in  Ephesus,  on  my  way  to  Macedonia,  that 
thou  mightest  command  some  not  to  teach  different  doctrine,  nor  to  give  heed  to 
myths  and  interminable  genealogies,"  seeing  that  these  minister  questions  rather 

than  the   dispensation  of   God3  which  is  in  faith "4      The  sentence,  quite 

characteristically,  remains  unfinished;  but  St.  Paul  evidently  meant  to  say,  "I 
repeat  the  exhortation  which  then  I  gave." 

In  contrast  with  these  false  teachers  he  tells  him  that  the  purpose  of  the 
Gospel  is  love  out  of  a  pure  heart,  a  good  conscience,  and  faith  unfeigned, 
failing  of  which  some  turned  aside  to  vain  jangling.  They  wanted  to  pass 
themselves  off  as  teachers  of  the  Jewish  Law,  but  their  teaching  was  mere 
confusion  and  ignorance. 

The  mention  of  the  Law  leads  him  to  allude  to  its  legitimate  function.6 
To  those  who  were  justified  by  faith  it  was  needless,  being  merged  in  the 
higher  law  of  a  life  in  unity  with  Christ ;  but  its  true  function  was  to  warn 
and  restrain  those  who  lived  under  the  sway  of  mere  passion  in  heathenish 
wickedness.6  For  these,  though  not  for  the  regenerate,  the  thunders  of  Sinai 
are  necessary,  "according  to  the  Gospel  of  the  glory  of  the  blessed  God, 
wherewith  I  was  entrusted."  T 

He  then  at  once  digresses  into  an  expression  of  heartfelt  gratitude  to  God 
for  that  grace  which  superabounded  over  his  former  ignorant  faithlessness,  a 
faithlessness  which  had  led  him  to  outrage  and  insult,  such  as  only  his 
ignorance  could  palliate. 

"  Faithful  is  the  saying,8  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief.9  But  on  this  account  I 
gained  mercy,  that  in  me  first  and  foremost  Christ  Jesus  might  manifest  His  entire 
long-suffering  as  a  pattern  for  those  who  were  hereafter  to  believe  on  Him  to 

i  Cf.  Gal.  vi.  16. 

8  Though  the  Sephiroth  of  the  Kabbala  belong  to  a  much  later  period,  and  the  Zohar 
is  probably  a  mediaeval  book,  yet  Judaic  speculations  of  the  same  kind  seem  to  have  been 
the  prototype  of  the  Valentinian  emanations  with  then-  successive  intermarriages  of  asons. 

3  i.  4 ;  leg.  olKovo^lav  («,  A,  B,  F,  G,  &c.).     The  questions  do  not  further  the  divine 
scheme  of  God,  which  works,  not  in  the  sphere  of  misty  uncertainties,  but  in  the  sphere 
of  faith. 

4  3,  4.    For  similar  anakolutha,  see  Gal.  ii.  4,  5 ;  Kom.  v.  12,  &c. 

*  1.  8,  9,  i/ouo;    .   .    .  vojjii;i.w?. 

6  For  the  true  use  of  the  Law,  and  the  limitation  to  its  validity,  see  Rom.  rii.  12 ; 
Gal.  iii.  19 ;   Phil.  iii.  9.     It  is  idle  to  pretend  that  there  is  anything  un-Pauline  in  this 
sentiment.   With  the  list  of  crimes— which  is,  however,  varied  with  perfect  independence 
— cf.  Rom.  i.  29  ;  1  Cor.  vi.  9  ;  Gal.  v.  19. 

7  i.  8—11. 

8  This  arresting  formula  would  naturally  arise  with  the  rise  of  Christian  axioms ; 
cf.  "  These  words  are  faithful  and  true  "  (Rev.  rxi.  5 ;  xxii.  6). 

»  Of.  "  Ged  be  merciful  to  me  the  Mnnw  "  (Luke  xviM.  IS ;  irpirot,  "  nen  tempore  sed 
maUgnitete  "  (Aug.  in  fa.  Imi.  1), 


652  THK   LIFE   AKD  WORK   OF   ST.   PAUL, 

life  eternal     Now  to  the  King  of  the  Agea,1  the  incorruptible,  invisible,  only  God,* 
houour  and  glory  unto  the  ages  of  the  agea.    Amen.8 

"  This  charge  I  commit  to  thee,  son  Timothy,  in  accordance  with  the  prophecies 
which  in  time  past  were  prophesied  of  thee,4  that  thou  in  them  mayest  war  the  good, 
warfare,8  having  faith  and  a,  good  conscience,  which  some  rejecting  have  been 
wrecked  as  regards  the  faith;  of  whom  is  Hymenaeus  and  Alexander,  whom  I 
handed  over  to  Satan,  that  they  may  be  trained  not  to  blaspheme  u  ' 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  section  he  begins  with  the  false  teachers,  and 
after  two  digressions — one  suggested  by  the  mention  of  the  Law,  the  other  by 
his  personal  commission  to  preach  the  Gospel — returns  to  them  again. 

The  second  chapter  contains  regulations  for  public  worship,  the  duty  of ' 
praying  for  those  in  authority,  and  the  bearing  and  mutual  relations  of  men 
and  women  in  religious  assemblies — broken  by  brief  and  natural  digressions 
on  the  universality  of  God's  offered  grace,  and  on  his  own  Apostolic  office.  He 
directs  that 

"Petitions,  prayers,  supplications,  and  thanksgivings7  should  be  made  for  all, 
and  especially  for  kings,8  and  those  in  authority,  that  we  may  spend  a  calm  and 
quiet  life  in  all  godliness  and  gravity.  This  is  fair  and  acceptable  before  our 
Saviour,  God,  who  wills  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  full  knowledge  of  the 
truth.  For  there  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus,9  who  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all — the  testimony  in  its  own  seasons. 
For  which  testimony  I  was  appointed  an  herald  and  an  Apostle  (I  speak  the 
truth; 10  I  lie  not,11)  in  faith  and  truth."" 

1  Not  here  in  its  technical  sense  of  ' '  the  moms ; "  of.  Ps.  oxlv.  13,  "  a  kingdom  of  all  ages. " 

2  Omit  o-ocfxp  («,  A,  D,  F,  G,  &c.). 

8  For  similar  personal  digressions,  see  GaL  i.  12 ;  1  Thess.  ii.  4  ;  2  Cor.  iii.  6  ;  iv.  1, 
&c. ;  and  for  the  dpxology  (Rom.  xv.  33 ;  xvi.  27 ;  2  Cor.  ii.  14 ;  ix.  15 ;  Phil.  iv.  20, 
&c.  The  passage  is  intensely  individual,  for  "  all  Paul's  theology  is  in  ultimate  analysis, 
the  reflex  of  his  personal  experience  "  (Reuss,  Les  Epttres,  ii.  352). 

4  Perhaps  a  reference  to  his  solemn  ordination,  as  in  iv.  14,  when  Silas,  who  was  a 
prophet  (Acts  xv.  32),  was  present  among  others  (Acts  xiii.  3). 

»  vrpaTtia,  not  a^uv,  as  in  2  Tim.  iv.  7.  It  is  St.  Paul's  favourite  metaphor  (Rom.  xiiL 
12 ;  2  Cor.  x.  5 ;  1  Thess.  v.  8,  &c.). 

4  i.  12 — 20.  It  is  impossible  to  know  the  exact  circumstances  referred  to.  For 
Hymenaeus,  see  2  Tim.  ii.  17.  For  Alexander,  2  Tim.  iv.  14 ;  Acts  xix.  33 ;  but  even 
the  identifications  are  precarious.  For  "  delivering  to  Satan,"  see  1  Cor.  v.  5.  "Whether 
it  was  excommunication,  or  generally  giving  up  from  all  Church  influences,  and  leaving 
Satan  to  deal  with  them,  or  the  delivery  to  preternatural  corporal  sufferings,  iheintention, 
we  see,  was  merciful  and  disciplinary  (irot&vdwert)- 

7  The  synonyms  are    mainly  cumulative,   though  perhaps  Stfati*    means    special, 
7rpoer£u\a?  general,  and  «vrevf«is  earnest  prayers  (see  Phil.  iv.  6). 

8  Baur  sees  in  this  plural  an  indication  that  the  Epistle  was  written  in  the  times  of 
the  Antonines,  when  Emperors  took  associates  in  the  Empire.     Can  theorising  be  more 
baseless? — The  word  "kings"  does  not  necessarily  refer  only  to  local  viceroys,  &c.,  like 
the  Herods,  but  was  in  the  provinces  applied  genetically  to  the  Emperors,  as  it  constantly 
is  in  the  Talmud.     It  was  most  important  to  both  Jews  and  Christians  that  they  should 
not  be  suspected  of  civic  turbulence  (Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  10,  §  4 ;  Bingham,  xv.  8,  14).     Hence 
we  see  how  baseless  is  the  conjecture  of  Pfleiderer  (Protestcmten  bibel)  that  it  was  written 
in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  who  befriended  the  Christians  (Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  8,  9). 

9  The  word  ^.tvi-ny;  as  applied  to  Christ  is  new,  but  not  the  conception  (Rom.  v.  10 ; 
2  Cor.  v.  19).    There  may  be  a  silent  condemnation  of  incipient  Docetism  in  avdpuiros, 
as  well  as  of  the  supposed  mediation  of  angels  in  «U  (Col.  ii.  15,  18). 

»°  Om.  iv  Xp«rr<j>  (A,  D,  F,  G,  &c.). 

11  A  natural  reminiscence  of  the  occasions  when  such  asseverations  had  been  BO 
necessary  that  they  had  become  habitual  (2  Cor.  xi.  31 ;  Rom.  xi.  1). 
a  ii.  1—7. 


THE   FIBS?  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY.  653 

After  this  double  digression  he  expresses  his  wish  that  the  men l  should 
pray  in  every  place,  "  uplifting  holy  hands,2  without  wrath  and  doubting ;  and 
that  women,  with  shamefastuess  and  sobriety,  should  adorn  themselves,  not 
with  plaits  of  hair,  and  gold  or  pearls,  or  costly  raiment,  but,  in  accordance 
with  their  Gospel  profession,  with  good  works."  Let  them  be  silent  and 
submissive,  not  obtrusive  and  didactic.  This  rule  he  supports  by  the 
narrative  of  the  Fall,  as  illustrative  of  generic  differences  between  the  sexes,3 
adding,  however,  that  in  spite  of  the  greater  liability  to  deception  and  sin, 
woman  "  shall  be  saved  through  motherhood,  if  they  abide  in  faith  and  love 
and  sanctification  with  sober-mindedness."  * 

The  third  chapter  passes  into  the  qualifications  for  office  in  the  Church. 
It  is  introduced  by  a  sort  of  Christian  aphorism,  "  Faithful  is  the  saying,  If 
any  man  desires  the  office  of  the  pastorate,8  he  desires  a  good  work."  The 
qualifications  on  which  St.  Paul  insists  are  irreproachableness,  faithful 
domestic  life,6  soberness,  sobennindedness,  decorousness,  hospitable  dispo- 
sition, and  aptitude  to  teach.  He  who  is  quarrelsome  over  wine,  given  to 
blows  and  covetousness,  is  unfit.  Moderation,  peacefulness,  indifference  to 
money,  a  well-ordered  household,  grave  and  obedient  children,  are  signs  that  a 
man  may  aspire  to  the  sacred  work  ;  but  he  must  not  be  a  neophyte,7  that  he 

1  TOVS  avSpas  (ii.  8). 

2  The  ancient  attitude  of  pra7er  (Bingham,  Antiq.  nil.  8, 10 ;  Ps.  xxiv.  4 ;  xxvi.  6) ; 
of.  Tennyson — 

"  For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  bliiid  life  within  the  brain, 
If  knowing  God  they  lift  not  Jumds  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  f" 

8  This  is  quite  independent  of,  yet  exactly  analogous  to,  his  reasoning  in  1  Oor.  xl. 
S,  9  (cf.  2  Cor.  xi.  3 ;  Wisd.  xxv.  24). 

4  ii.  8 — 15.  It  Will  be  seen  that  he  is  here  looking  at  the  question  from  a  wholly 
different  point  of  view  to  that  in  1  Cor.  vii.,  which  applies  not  to  the  whole  sex,  but  to 
a  chosen  few.  So,  too,  in  the  previous  verses,  he  is  considering  concrete  fact*,  not  the 
abstract  abolition  of  all  sexual  distinctions  in  Christ  (Gal.  iii.  28).  The  ^  Tewtyoviti  is 
probably  not  specific  ("the  child-bearing" — i.e.,  the  Incarnation — surely  a  most  obscure 
allusion),  but  generic — i.e.,  a  holy  married  life,  with  the  bearing  and  training  of  children, 
is,  as  a  rule,  the  appointed  path  for  women,  and  it  will  end  in  their  salvation,  in  spite 
of  their  original  weakness,  if  that  path  be  humbly  and  faithfully  pursued.  Doubtless 
St.  Paul  was  thinking  of  Gen.  iii.  16. 

6  To  translate  this  "the  office  of  a  bishop"  is,  as  Alford  says  in  his  usual  incisive 
way,  "merely  laying  a  trap  for  misunderstanding."  Episcopacy  proper  was  developed 
after  the  death  of  St.  Paul,  but  before  that  of  St.  John,  as  a  bulwark  against  heresy. 

6  I  am  not  persuaded  that  jjufis  ywoucbs  avSpa.  really  implies  more  than  this,  with 
reference  to  the  prevalence  of  divorce,  &c.  The  early  prejudice  against  second  marriages 
naturally  inclined  the  ancient  commentators  to  take  it  exclusively  in  one  way ;  but  the 
remark  of  Chryspstoin,  TIJX  i/meTpww  icwAu'ei,  seems  to  me  to  be  nearest  the  truth.  St.  Paul's 
opinion  was  not  in  the  least  that  of  Athenagoras,  that  a  second  marriage  is  ' '  specious 
adultery,"  since  in  some  cases  he  even  recommends  it  (v.  14;  1  Cor.  vii.  39;  Rom.  vii., 
2,  3),  but  he  would  possibly  have  held  -with  Hermas  (Pastor,  ii.  4),  that  though  a  second 
marriage  is  no  sin,  it  is  a  better  and  nobler  thing  to  avoid  it.  It  is  as  Gregory  of 
Naziauzus  says,  "  a  concession  "  (<nryxwpi7<ns — Orat.  xxxi.). 

J  The  first  occurrence  of  the  word  neophyte" — "  nevrly -planted  " — a  recent  convert. 
For  the  metaphor,  see  1  Cor.  iii.  6.  At  Ephesus  there  must  have  been  a  choice  of 
presbyters  who  were  not  "neophytes."  Perhaps  the  reason  why  this  qualification  is 
omitted  in  Tit.  i.  6  is  that  there  would  have  been  greater  difficulty  in  carrying  it  out  in 
the  more  recent  Churches  of  Crete. 


654  THE   LITE   AND   WORK   OF   ST.    PAUL. 

may  not,  through  the  cloudy  fumes  of  pride,  fall  into  the  devil's  judgment1 
He  must  be  well  thought  of  by  his  Pagan  neighbours,  that  he  may  not  fall 
into  disrepute,  and  the  devil's  snare  which  such  loss  of  character  involves.2 

Deacons,  too,  must  be  grave,  straightforward,  sober,  not  avaricious,  sound 
in  faith,  and  pure  of  conscience ;  and  their  freedom  from  reproach  must  be 
tested  before  they  are  appointed.* 

Deaconesses  *  must  be  grave,  not  slanderers,  sober,  faithful.  The  domestic 
relations  of  deacons  and  deaconesses  must  be  irreproachable;  for  an 
honourable  diaconate  secures  an  honourable  position,5  and  boldness  in  the 
faith.' 

"  These  things  I  write  to  thee,  though  I  hope  to  come  to  you  unexpectedly 
soon ;  7  but  in  order  that,  if  I  am  delayed,  thou  mayest  know  how  to  bear  thyself  in 
the  house  of  God— seeing  that  it  is  the  Church  of  God — as  a  pillar  and  basis  of  the 
truth." 

"  And  confessedly  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness — who  was  * 

"  Manifested  in  the  flesh, 
Justified  in  the  Spirit, 
Seen  of  angels, 
Preached  among  the  Gentiles. 
Believed  on  in  the  world, 

Taken  up  in  glory." 18 

1  These  Epistles  ore  peculiar  in  the  use  of  the  word  "devil."  Elsewhere  St.  Paul 
uses  "  Satan,"  except  in  Eph.  iv.  27 ;  vi.  11.  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  "  the  devil's 
judgment "  means  "  that  which  he  has  incurred  "  or  "  that  which  he  inflicts." 

5  ui.  1-7. 

s  iii.  8 — 10.  Besides  the  "  Seven,"  deacons  properly  so  called  may  be  referred  to  in 
1  Cor.  xii.  28 ;  Rom.  xii.  7 ;  1  Pet.  iv.  11 ;  as  well  as  in  Phil.  i.  1. 

4  rw<uK«  must  mean  "deaconesses"  (Rom.  xvi  1.     "Aneillae  quae  ministrae  dice- 
bantur  " — Plin.  ix.  27),  because  the  wives  of  deacons  were  certainly  not  selected  by  the 
Church. 

5  iii.  11—13. 

6  KoAbs8a0/nbs  can  only  mean  "a  fair  standing-point,"  "an  honourable  position,"  from 
which  to  discharge  nobly  his  Christian  duties.     The  notion  that  it  means  "earning 
preferment "  would  be  an  immense  anachronism.     Cf.  vi.  19  :  KaXoi>  Ocufaiov. 

7  Taxiov — an  untranslatable  ellipse.     John  xiii.  27  ;  Heb.  xiii.  23. 

8  Apart  from  the  awkwardness  of  the  Church  being,  in  the  same  verse,  the  house  of 
God  and  also  a  pillar  and  base  of  the  truth,  the  expression  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  and 
surprising — one  of  the  least  obviously  Pauline — in  the  whole  Epistle.     The  separate 
metaphors  occur  in  Gal.  ii.  9  and  Eph.  ii.  20,  but  only  of  persons.    There  is,  therefore, 
much  to  be  said  for  attaching  them  to  avaorpe^co&u,  and  making  them  apply  to  Timothy, 
as  I  have  done.     (See  Dean  Stanley,  Sermons  on  the  Apostolic  Age,  p.  115.)    The  words 
are  applied  to  the  martyr  Attalus  in  the  Epistle  of  the  Church  of  Lyons,  c.  5.     Others 
attach  them  to  the  next  sentence — which  they  would  turn  into  a  most  awkward  and 
unnatural  anti-climax.     If,  however,  they  are  applied  to  the  Church,  the  meaning  is 
clear  enough — namely,  that  apart  from  the  Church  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  would  be 
without  that  earthly  institution  on  which,  by  Christ's  ordinance,  its  stability  and  perma- 
nence depends. 

9  "O?  is  read  by  N,  A,  0,  F,  G.     (The  wading  of  A  was  once  supposed  to  be  ec,  but 
Bishop  Ellicott  testifies  that  the  apparent  line  across  the  O  was  originally  due  to  the 
tagitta  of  the  <  in  the  word  tvvepsiav  on  the  other  side  of  the  page.     See  his  Pastoral 
Epistles,  p.  103.)    Besides  this,   it  ii  ao  unquestionably  supported  by  every  canon  of 
criticism  that  it  may  now  be  regarded  a»  a  certain  reading. 

10  iiL  14 — 16.  These  last  phrases  are  so  rhythmic  in  their  introverted  parallelism 
with  the  varied  order  of  then-  triple  antitheses,  that  they  have,  with  much  probability, 
been  supposed  (like  Eph.  v.  14)  to  belong  to  some  ancient  hymn  or  creed.  Tke  extreme 
fcntiquity  of  Christian  hymns  is  proved  by  Eph.  v.  19,  and  by  Plin.  Epp.  x.  97.  "  Juste- 


THE   FIBST  KPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY.  655 

The  true  doctrine  again  recalls  him  to  the  subject  of  the  falsa  teachers. 
Beyond  the  present  peril  lies  the  prophecy  of  future  apostasies,  in  which  some 
shall  give  heed  to  deceitful  spirits  and  doctrines  of  devils,  by  means  of  the 
hypocrisy  of  liars,  whose  consciences  have  been  seared.  This  apostasy,  partly 
present,  partly  future,  is  marked  by  dualistio  tendencies.  It  hinders  mar- 
riage,1 and  commands  abstinence  from  meats,2  forgetting  that  thankfulness 
and  prayer  sanctify  everything.  Another  feature  of  the  nascent  heresy  is  a 
fondness  for  profane  and  anile  myths.  A  third  is  mere  bodily  asceticism. 
This  training  may  indeed  have  a  partial  advantage ;  but  better  is  the  gymna- 
sium which  trains  for  godliness,  since  godliness  is  profitable  both  for  this  life 
and  the  next  ("  faithful  is  the  saying  ") :  for  with  a  view  to  this — because  we 
have  hope  in  the  living  God,  who  is  the  Saviour  of  all,  specially  of  the  faith- 
ful3— w«  are  enabled  to  endure  both  toil  and  struggle.*  These  truths  Timothy 
is  to  teach,  showing  himself  an  example  to  the  faithful  in  speech,  conversa- 
tion, love,  spirituality,  faith,  purity,  so  that  none  may  despise  his  youth.*  Till 
St.  Paul  arrives  he  is  bidden  to  occupy  himself  in  reading,8  exhortation,  teach- 
ing; securing  progress  by  diligence,  and  not  neglecting — which  possibly 
Timothy,  in  his  retiring  character,  was  tempted  to  do— the  grace  which  was 
solemnly  bestowed  on  him  at  his  ordination.7 

Then  he  is  advised  how  to  behave  towards  various  orders  in  his  Church. 
He  is  not  to  use  severe  language  to  an  elder,  but  to  exhort  them  as  fathers ; 
the  younger  men  as  brothers ;  the  elder  women  as  mothers,  the  younger  as 
sisters,  in  all  purity.1  Special  directions  are  given  about  widows.'  Those  are 
true  widows  who  rightly  train  their  children  or  grandchildren,  who  do  their 
duty  to  their  parents,  who  devote  themselves  to  constant  prayer.  But  in  a 
widow,  a  prurient,  frivolous  character  is  a  living  death ;  for,  in  a  Christian, 
neglect  of  domestic  duties  and  relations  is  worse  than  heathenism.  No  widow 
is  therefore  to  be  put  on  the  list  before  sixty  years  of  age,  after  one  honour- 
able marriage,10  and  after  having  acquired  a  character  for  motherliness,  hospi- 

fiod  in  the  Spirit "  means  that  Christ  was  manifested  to  be  the  Son  of  God  (Root.  i.  0  by 
the  workings  of  His  higher  spiritual  life ;  "  seen  of  angels  "  refers  to  the  various  ar^elia 
witnesses  of  scenes  of  His  earthly  life. 

Not  yet  "  forbids,"  but  somewhat  "  discourages,"    Of.  JOB.  B.  J.  II.  8,  2,  and  13. 

Cf.  Rom.  adv.  1— 4 :  1  Cor.  yiii.  8  ;  x.  20. 

The  universalism  of  expression  is  here  even  more  remarkable  than  in  ii.  4. 

Leg.  iy<avi&n<8a,  »,  A,  F,  C,  G,  K. 

The  sneers  that  Timothy  "seems  to  have  been  endowed  by  Christian  legend  with 
the  gift  of  immortal  youth  "  are  very  groundless.  If  he  were  converted  in  A.D.  45,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  he  would  now  (A.D.  66)  be  only  thirty-seven — a  very  youthful  age 
for  so  responsible  a  position.  The  aged  rector  of  one  who  has  now  become  a  very  exalted 
ecclesiastic,  and  is  long  past  sixty,  still  says  of  his  first  curate,  "  I  always  told  you  that 
young  man  was  very  ambitious ;  "  knd  when  M.  Thiers  was  Prime  Minister  of  France, 
and  called  on  his  old  schoolmaster,  he  found  that  he  was  only  remembered  as  "  the  little 
Adolphus  who  played  tricks." 

*  Perhaps  the  earliest  allusion  to  the  duty  of  reading  Scripture. 

7  iv.  1—16.     Acts  xvi.  1,  and  2  Tim.  i.  6,  where  he  receives  a  similar  injunction. 

*  "  Omnes  puellas  et  virgines  Christ!  aut  aequaliter  ignora  aut  aequaliter  dilige  "  (Jer. ). 
But  how  inferior  to  the  direction  of  St.  Paul ! 

*  Actsil.  44;  vi.  1. 

1°  Cf.  Tit.  i.  6.    It  Is  a  remarkable  sign  of  the  position  of  widows  in  the  Church  that 


65#  THE  LIFE  AND   WOBK  OF  8*.  PAtTL. 

tality,  kindly  service,  succour  to  the  afflicted,  and  continuance  !n  every  good 
work.  But  Timothy  is  to  have  nothing  to  say  to  younger  widows  who  want 
to  marry  again  when  they  begin  to  wax  restive  against  the  yoke  of  Christ— 
and  so  are  convicted  of  setting  at  nought  their  first  faith.1  To  avoid  the 
danger  of  gadding  idleness  and  unseemly  gossiping,  it  is  better  that  such 
should  avoid  all  chance  of  creating  scandal  by  quietly  re-entering  into  mnr. 
ried  life.  Heuce  all  younger  widows  must  be  supported  by  their  own  relations, 
and  not  at  the  expense  of  the  Church.8 

Keturning  to  the  Presbyters,  he  quotes  the  passage  of  Deuteronomy, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  a  threshing  ox,"  and  adds  the  maxim,  "  The  labourer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire,"3  to  support  his  rule  that  "double  honour"  be  paid  to 
faithful  and  laborious  pastors.4  If  they  do  wrong  they  must  indeed  be 
rebuked,  but  never  on  ill-supported  accusations.  "  I  solemnly  charge  thee 
before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  elect  angels,6  to  observe  these 
rules  without  prejudice,  and  without  doing  anything  by  favour."  He  is  not 
to  ordain  any  one  too  hastily,  lest  he  be  involved  in  the  responsibility  for  their 
sins ;  and  this  discrimination  is  the  more  necessary  because  there  are  flagrant 
sins  which  marshal  men  to  judgment,  and  hidden  sins  which  stealthily  follow 
behind  them ;  just  as  also  there  are  some  good  works  which  are  openly  mani- 
fest, and  others  which  are  concealed,  although  ultimately  all  shall  stand 
revealed  in  their  true  light. 

In  the  very  midst  of  these  wise  and  serious  directions  are  introduced  two 
personal  exhortations.  One  of  them — "Keep  thyself  pure" — may  naturally 
have  been  suggested  by  the  passing  thought  that  he  whose  duty  it  was  to 
exorcise  so  careful  an  oversight  over  others  must  be  specially  watchful  to  be 
himself  free  from  every  stain.  The  other,  "  Be  no  longer  a  water-drinker,  but 
use  a  little  wine  because  of  thy  stomach,  and  thy  frequent  infirmities,"6  is  so 
casual  that,  though  we  see  at  once  how  it  may  have  occurred  to  St.  Paul's 

I'olycarp  calls  them  Ovo-iao-njpioj'  8eof>,  "  an  altar  of  God  "  (ad  Phil.  4).  From  the  severity 
of  some  of  St.  Paul's  remarks,  Benss  thinks  that  he  may  have  had  in  view  the  occasional 
second  marriage  of  Christian  widows  with  Pagans,  which  would  be  a  disgraceful  pro- 
ceeding after  they  had  received  assistance  from  the  Church.  They  might  be  "dea- 
conesses "  earlier  than  sixty,  but  not  "  widows." 

1  In  their  practical  pledge  not  to  marry  again  when  they  were  placed  on  the  official 
list  of  widows. 

3  v.  1—16. 

8  1  Cor.  ix.  9.  Those  who  apply  ^  ypafo  to  both  clauses  must  admit  that  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Luke  had  been  published,  and  had  come  to  be  regarded  of  Divine  authority,  before 
this  Epistle  (Luke  x.  7).  But  the  inference  is  most  precarious,  for  our  Lord  often 
alluded  ;to  current  proverbs,  and  ^  yp«<J>>)  may  here  only  apply  to  the  quotation  from 
Deut.  xiv.  4. 

4  SurXii  TI/«J  is  a  perfectly  general  expression.     The  spirit  of  foolish  literalism  led 
to  double  rations  for  the  Presbyters  at  the  Agapae. 

5  See  1  Cor.  xi.  10 ;  1  Pet.  i.  12.     It  is  not  possible  to  explain  the  exact  shade  of 
meaning  in  the  word  "elect."  ,They  are  probably  so  called,  as  Calvin  says,  "excellentiae 
causa."    Cf.  rove  iepovs  iyWAnvc  'm  Agrippa's  adjuration  to  the  Jews  not  to  rebel  against 
Rome  (Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  16,  §  4,  and  Tobit  xii.  15). 

6  These  "frequent  infirmities"  perhaps  explain  the  timidity  of  Timothy's  character 
(1  Cor.  xvi.  10,  11),     Some  have  seen  a  reflex  of  this  in  the  reproaches  addressed,  in  the 
midst  of  praise.  "  to  the  angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus," 


THE   FIBST   EPISTLE   TO  TIMOTHY  657 

thoughts — since  otherwise  the  former  rule  might  have  led  to  a  self-denial  still 
more  rigid,1  and  even  injurious  to  health — it  is  far  too  natural  and  spon- 
taneous, too  entirely  disconnected  from  all  that  precedes  and  follows  it,  to  hare 
occurred  to  any  imitator.  An  imitator,  if  capable  of  introducing  the  natural 
play  of  thought  to  which  the  precept  "  Keep  thyself  pure  "  is  due,  would  have 
been  far  more  likely  to  add — and  especially  hi  an  Epistle  which  so  scrupu- 
lously forbids  indulgence  in  wine  to  all  Church  officials — "  And,  in  order  to 
promote  this  purity,  take  as  little  wine  as  possible,  or  avoid  it  altogether."2 

He  then  passes  to  the  duties  of  slaves.3  Their  conversion  is  not  to  be 
made  a  plea  for  upsetting  the  social  order,  and  giving  any  excuse  for  abusing 
the  Gospel.  Christian  masters  are  still  to  be  treated  as  masters,  and  to  be 
served  all  the  more  heartily  "because  all  who  are  partakers  of  this  kindly 
service  are  faithful  and  beloved."  Here  again  he  reverts  to  the  false  teachers 
—who  had  perhaps  perverted  the  truth  of  Christian  equality  into  the  falsehood 
of  socialism — to  denounce  their  inflated  ignorance  and  unwholesome  loquacity 
as  the  source  of  the  jealousies  and  squabbles  of  corrupt  men,  who  look  on 
religion  as  a  source  of  gain.4  A  source  of  gain  indeed  it  is  when  accompanied 
with  the  contentment6  arising  from  the  sense  of  the  nakedness  of  our  birth 
and  death,  and  the  fewness  of  our  real  needs,6  whereas  the  desire  of  wealth 
breeds  the  numerous  forms  of  foolish  desire  which  plunge  men  into  destruc- 
tion and  perdition.  For  all  evils  spring  from  the  root  of  covetousness,7  which 
has  led  many  i»to  heresy  as  well  as  into  manifold  miseries.  The  Apostle 
appeals  to  his  son  hi  the  faith  to  flee  these  things:  to  pursue8  righteousness, 
godliness,  faith,  love,  endurance,  gentleness ;  to  strive  the  good  strife  of  faith ; 
to  grasp  eternal  life,  "  to  which  also  thou  wert  called,  and  didst  confess  the 
good  confession  before  many  witnesses."  He  most  solemnly  adjures  him,  by 
Christ  and  His  good  confession  before  Pontius  Pilate,9  to  keep  the  command- 
ment without  spot,  without  reproach,  till  the  manifestation  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  which  He  shall  show  in  His  own  seasons,  who  is  the  blessed  and  only 
Potentate,  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  who  alone  hath  immortality, 

1  Rom.  xiv.  2.    Plutarch  speaks  of  an  ooiw  Ayv«ia  (De  Isid.  et  Osvr,  §  6). 

2  Ver.  17—23. 

8  Some  have  fancied,  with  very  little  probability,  that  the  topic  is  suggested  by  the 
mention  of  those  whose  good  works  cannot  be  finally  hid,  but  are  little  likely  to  be  noticed 
in  this  world. 

4  Gal.  iii.  28.    The  recognition  of  the  existing  basis  of  society  is  found  throughout 
the  Epistles  (1  Cor.  vii.  21 ;  Col.  iii.  22,  &c.). 

5  avTap«ia,  self-sufficing  independence  (2  Cor.  ix.  8 ;  I'hil.  iv.  11).     Of.  Prov.  xiv.  14, 
"The  good  man  shall  be  satisfied  from  himself." 

«  Phil.  iv.  11—13. 

^  pi'£a  need  not  be  rendered  "a  root,"  for  it  is  a  word  which  does  not  require  the 
article  ;  but  St.  Paul  does  not,  of  course,  mean  that  it  is  the  only  root  from  which  all 
evils  spring,  but  the  root  from  which  all  evils  may  spring.  So  Diogenes  Laertius  calls  it 
"  the  metropolis  of  all  evils  "  (Vit.  Diogen.  vi.  50 ;  and  Kilo,  De  Spec.  Legg.  346,  calls  it 

op^TjTijpioi'  irav-rtav  iropavofujfxaTwi'  (cf .  Luke  Xll.  15 — 21).      J^ 

8  timtt,  EirtAa£oG. 

9  There  is  an  obvious  allusion  in  the  KOXTJ  opoXoyia  of  Christ  to  that  of  the  previous 
verse,  but  in  the  latter  instance  it  seems  to  mean  the  faithful  performance  of  the  will  of 
God  even  to  death. 

22* 


658  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  FAUX, 

dwelling  in  light  unapproachable,  whom  no  man  ever  saw,  or  can  see — to 
w)»om  honour  and  eternal  strength.  Amen.1 

With  this  majestic  description  of  the  Divine  attributes  it  might  well  have 
been  thought  that  the  Epistle  would  close.  A  forger  might  naturally  desire  a 
climax;  but  St.  Paul  is  never  influenced  by  such  considerations  of  style. 
Filled  with  the  thought  of  the  perils  of  wealth  in  a  city  like  wealthy  Ephosus, 
he  once  more,  in  a  sort  of  postscript,2  advises  Timothy  to  warn  the  rich  "  not 
to  be  high-minded,  nor  to  fix  their  hopes  on  the  uncertainty  of  riches,  but  on 
the  living  God,  who  richly  affords  us  all  things  for  enjoyment,"  and  to  use 
their  riches  wisely  and  generously,  "  treasuring  up  for  themselves  a  fair  founda- 
tion for  the  future,  that  they  may  grasp  that  which  is  really  life."3 

Then,  with  one  parting  reference  to  the  false  teachers,  the  Epistle  ends : — 

"  0  Timothy,  guard  the  trust  committed  to  thee,  turning  away  from  these  pro- 
fane babblings,  and  "antitheses"  of  the  knowledge  which  usurps  the  name;  which 
some  professing  have  gone  astray  as  regards  the  faith.  Grace  be  with  thee."  4 

The  "  Amen  "6  is  probably  a  pious  addition,  and  the  various  superscriptions 
which  tell  us  that  the  Epistle  was  written  from  Laodicea,  "which  is  the 
metropolis  of  Phyrgia  Pacatiana,"  or  "from  Nicopolis,"  or  "from  Athens," 
"  by  the  hands  of  his  disciple  Titus,"  or  "  from  Macedonia,"  are  idle  guesses, 
of  which  the  latter  alone  has  any  plausibility,  though  even  this  is  only  a  pre- 
carious inference  from  the  verse  which  suggested  it. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

THE   EPISTLE   TO  TITUS. 

"  Lord  Jesus,  I  am  weary  in  Thy  work,  but  not  of  Thy  work.     Let  me  go  and 
speak  for  Thee  once  more  .  .  .  seal  Thy  truth,  and  then  die." —  WHITEFIELD. 

FROM  St.  Paul's  message  to  Philemon  we  infer  that  as  speedily  as  possible 
after  he  was  set  free  he  visited  Ephesus  and  the  cities  of  the  Lycus.  Even  if 
ho  deferred  this  visit  till  he  had  carried  out  his  once-cherished  plan  of  visiting 
Spain,  we  know  that  the  moment  his  destiny  was  decided  he  sent  Timothy  to 
Philippi,  with  the  intention  of  following  him  at  no  long  interval.6  Hence 
when  Timothy  rejoined  him,  probably  at  Ephesus,  he  left  him  there,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  finish  the  task  of  setting  the  Church  in  order,  and  himself  set  oui 
on  his  promised  journey  to  Macedonia.  It  is  not  likely  that  he  felt  any  desire 
to  revive  the  gloomy  reminiscences  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  incur  a  second  risk 
of  being  torn  to  pieces  by  infuriated  Pharisees.  In  that  unhappy  city  a  fresh 
outburst  of  the  spirit  of  persecution  had  ended  the  year  before  (A.D.  63)  in 

i  vL  1—18.  »  Reuss,  Lot  Epttreg,  ii  878. 

•  Yi  17—16.    Lea.  6,™*,  A,  D,  E,  F>  G. 

4  »,  4,  *",  G,  wad  p*ff  v/duv,  as  in  2  Tim.  iv.  22 ;  Tit.  iii.  15. 

»  Omitted  bf  «,  A,  D,  F,  G,  «  Phil.  ii.  19-23. 


THE   1PISTUB   TO  TITOS.  659 

the  murder  of  James  the  Lord's  brother.1  Soon  after  the  accession  of  Gessius 
Floras  to  the  post  of  Procurator,  there  were  violent  disturbances  throughout 
JndaBa.  The  war  which  culminated  in  the  total  destruction  of  the  Jewish 
polity  did  not  indeed  break  out  till  A.D.  66,  but  the  general  spirit  of 
turbulence,  the  deeply-seated  discontent  with  the  government  of  Agrippa  IL» 
and  the  threatening  multiplication  of  the  Sicarii,  showed  that  everything 
was  ripening  for  the  final  revolt.1  We  may  be  sure  that  when  the  ship  of 
Adramyttium  sailed  from  Tyre,  St.  Paul  had  seen  his  last  of  the  Holy  Land. 
From  Macedonia  he  doubtless  went  to  Oorinth,  and  he  may  then  have  sailed 
with  Titus  to  Crete. 

On  the  southern  shores  of  that  legendary  island  he  had  involuntarily 
touched  in  the  disastrous  voyage  from  Myra,  which  ended  in  his  shipwreck 
at  Malta.  But  a  prisoner  on  his  way  to  trial,  in  a  crowded  Alexandrian 
corn- vessel  which  only  awaited  the  earliest  opportunity  to  sail,  could  have  had 
but  little  opportunity  to  preach  the  gospel  even  at  the  Fair  Havens  and  Lasyea, 
and  we  may  at  once  reject  the  idle  suggestion  that  the  Church  of  Crete  had 
then  first  been  founded.  It  is  probable  that  the  first  tidings  of  Christianity 
had  been  carried  to  the  island  by  those  Cretan  Jews  who  had  heard  the 
thrilling  words  of  St.  Peter  at  Pentecost ;  and  the  insufficiency  of  knowledge 
in  these  Churches  may  be  accounted  for  in  part  by  these  limited  opportunities, 
as  well  as  by  the  inherent  defects  of  the  Cretan  character.  The  stormy  shores 
of  Crete,  and  the  evil  [reputation  of  its  inhabitants  even  from  mythical  days, 
may  well  have  tended  to  deter  the  evangelising  visits  of  the  early  preachers 
of  Christianity;  and  the  indication  that  the  nascent  faith  of  the  converts 
was  largely  tainted  with  Jewish  superstition  is  exactly  what  we  should  have 
expected.  St.  Paul's  brief  sojourn  in  the  island  with  Titus  was  probably 
the  first  serious  effort  to  consolidate  the  young,  struggling,  and  imperilled 
Churches ;  and  we  can  easily  imagine  that  it  was  the  necessity  of  completing 
an  anxious  work  which  reluctantly  compelled  the  Apostle  to  leave  his  com- 
panion behind  him.  The  task  could  not  have  been  left  in  wiser  or  firmer 
hands  than  those  of  one  who  had  already  made  his  influence  felt  and  his 
authority  respected  among  the  prating  and  conceited  sophists  of  turbulent 
Corinth.  Those  who  argue  that,  because  Paul  had  but  recently  parted  with 
Titus,  the  advice  contained  in  the  letter  would  be  superfluous,  are  starting  a 
purely  imaginary  difficulty,  and  one  of  which  the  futility  is  demonstrated  by 
the  commonest  experiences  of  daily  life.  Objections  of  this  kind  are  simply 
astonishing,  and  when  we  are  told  that  the  instructions  given  are  too  vague 
and  commonplace  to  render  them  of  any  value,  and  that  "  the  pointlessness  of 
the  directions  must  have  made  them  all  but  worthless  to  an  evangelist,"8  we 
can  only  reply  that  the  Christian  Church  in  all  ages,  in  spite  of  the  incessant 
tendency  to  exalt  dogma  above  simple  practice,  has  yet  accepted  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  as  a  manual  which  has  never  been  surpassed. 

»  Jos.  Antt.  rx.  9,  §§  1,  2  ;  Acts  xii.  1—11.  f  Jos.  B.  J.  ii.  14,  §  2. 

8  Davidson,  Introd.  ii.  129  ;  Keuss,  Lts  Eptfres,  ii.  333. 


660  THE  LIPB  AND  WOKK  OF  8!f.  PAVt. 

From  Crete,  St.  Paul  may  have  returned  by  Ephesns  and  Troas  to  Mace- 
donia, and  thence  to  Dalmatia  and  Illyriciun;1  and  we  learn  from  the  Epistle 
to  Titus  that  he  was  accompanied  by  several  friends,  for  whom  he  found  the 
amplest  employment  in  missions  to  various  Churches.  He  intended  to  spend 
the  winter  at  Nicopolis,  which,  beyond  all  question,  must  be  the  well-known 
and  flourishing  city  of  Epirus,  built  by  Augustus  to  commemorate  his  victory 
at  Actium.  When  he  wrote  the  Epistle  to  Titus,  he  was  about  to  send 
Arfcemas  or  Tychicus  to  him  in  Crete,  to  continue  the  work  of  organisation 
there,  while  Titus  is  directed  to  join  the  Apostle  at  Nicopolis  before  the  winter 
conies  on. 

How  little  we  really  know  about  Titus  will  be  best  seen  by  the  theories 
which  attempt  to  identify  him  with  Titus  (or,  Titius)  Justus  (Acts  xviii.  7), 
with  Silas,  and  even  with  Timothy !  Though  he  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Acts 
— probably  because  he  never  happened  to  be  a  companion  of  the  Apostle  at 
the  same  time  that  Luke  was  with  him — he  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
trustiest  and  most  beloved  members  of  the  noble  little  band  of  St.  Paul's 
friends  and  disciples.  As  he  was  a  Greek  by  birth,  St.  Paul,  whose  convert 
he  was,  had  chosen  to  take  him  to  Jerusalem  on  that  memorable  visit,  which 
ended  in  the  recognition  of  Gentile  emancipation  from  the  yoke  of  Mosaism.2 
If  we  were  right  in  the  conjecture  that  the  generous  self-sacrifice  of  Titus  on 
this  occasion  rescued  Paul  from  a  grievous  struggle,  if  not  from  an  immense 
peril,  we  may  imagine  how  close  would  have  been  the  personal  bond  between 
them.  He  had  special  connexions  with  Corinth,  to  which  he  had  three  times 
been  sent  by  the  Apostle  during  the  troubles  of  that  distracted  Church.3 
The  warm  terms  hi  which  St.  Paul  always  speaks  of  him  as  his  brother, 
and  associate,  and  fellow-labourer,  and  the  yearning  anxiety  which  made  him 
utterly  miserable  when  he  failed  to  meet  him  in  Troas,  show  that  he  was  no 
ordinary  man ;  and  the  absence  from  this  Epistle  of  the  personal  warnings 
and  exhortations  which  are  found  in  those  to  Timothy,  lead  us  to  believe  that 
Titus  was  the  more  deeply  respected,  even  if  Timothy  were  the  more  tenderly 
beloved.  The  last  notice  of  him  is  his  visit  to  Dalmatia  during  the  second 
imprisonment,  and  we  may  feel  the  strongest  confidence  that  this  was  under- 
taken as  a  special  duty,  and  that  he  did  not  voluntarily  desert  his  friend  and 
teacher  whom  he  had  so  long  and  faithfully  served.  The  Epistle  which  St. 
Paul  addresses  to  him  goes  over  much  the  same  ground  as  that  to  Timothy, 
but  with  additional  particulars,  and  in  a  perfectly  independent  manner.  It 
excited  the  warm  admiration  of  Luther,  who  says  of  it :  "  This  is  a  short 
Epistle,  but  yet  such  a  quintessence  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  composed  in 
such  a  masterly  manner,  that  it  contains  all  that  is  needful  for  Christian 
knowledge  and  lif o."  The  subjects  are  touched  upon  in  the  same  easy  and 
natural  order  as  in  the  other  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  the  incidental  mention  of 
people  so  entirely  unknown  in  the  circle  of  the  Apostle's  friends  as  Artomas 
and  Zcnas,  the  lawyer,  together  with  the  marked  variations  in  the  initial  and 

»  Bom.  xv.  19.  2  CW.il.  3;  Tit.  1.4.  •  2  Cor.  vii.,  Tfii 


EPISTLE  TO  TITtrS.  661 

final  salutations,  are  among  the  many  incidental  circumstances  which  powerfully 
strengthen  the  argument  in  favour  of  its  authenticity. 

The  greeting  with  which  the  Apostle  opens  is  somewhat  obscure  and 
involved,  owing  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  various 
prepositions  employed.  It  differs  from  all  other  salutations  in  the  phrase  "  a 
slave  of  God,"  instead  of  a  "  a  slave  of  Jesus  Christ,"  and  it  is  marked  by  the 
prominence  of  the  title  Saviour,  which  is  applied  throughout  this  Epistle  both 
to  God  and  to  Christ.1 

"  Paul,  a  slave  of  God,  but  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  faith  of  the  elect 
of  God  and  the  full  knowledge  of  the  truth  which  is  according  to  godliness,  (based) 
on  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  which  God,  who  cannot  lie,  promised  before  eternal 
times,  but  manifested  His  word  in  His  own  seasons  in  the  preaching  with  which  I 
was  entrusted  according  to  the  commandment  of  God  our  Saviour — to  Titus,  my 
true  son  after  the  common  faith,  grace  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father,  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour." 

After  this  solemn  greeting  he  proceeds  at  once  to  the  many  practical 
directions  which  are  the  object  of  his  writing.  He  left  Titus  in  Crete  to 
finish  all  necessary  regulations,  and  especially  to  ordain  presbyters  in  every 
city,  who  are  to  be  men  of  irreproachable  character,  and  well-ordered  domestic 
positions,  for  a  "  bishop  "  must  be  blameless  as  God's  steward,  not  self-willed, 
not  passionate,  and  with  the  other  positive  and  negative  qualifications  which 
he  has  already  mentioned  in  the  Epistle  to  Timothy — with  the  addition  that 
he  is  to  love  what  is  good,  and  to  hold  fast  the  faithful  word  according  to  the 
instruction  he  has  received  that  he  may  be  able  to  exhort  with  healthy  teaching 
and  to  refute  the  gainsayers.3 

These  opponents  are  described  as  being  disorderly,  prating,  and  self- 
deceiving  Jewish  Christians,  who  for  the  sake  of  filthy  lucre  turn  whole 
families  upside  down.  To  these,  as  to  the  Cretans  in  general,  St.  Paul  applies 
the  stinging  line  of  their  fellow-countryman  Epimenides — 

"The  Cretans  are  always  liars,  evil  wild  beasts,  lazy  gluttons,"  ' 
—for  which  reason  they  must  be  sharply  rebuked,  that  they  may  be  healthy 

1  If  the  idea  of  God  the  Father  as  a  Saviour  had  not  occurred  both  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  elsewhere  in  St.  Paul,  the  expression  might  fairly  have  been  called 
nn-Pauline.  But  the  idea  is  distinctly  found  in  1  Cor.  i.  21. 

*  i.  5—9. 

•  The  line  is  an  hexameter  from  the  poem  on  "Oracles"  by  Epimenides,  the  Cretan 
poet  and  philosopher.    It  was  quoted  by  Callimachus,  Hymn  to  Zeus,  8,  and  well  known 
in  antiquity  because  it  gave  rise  to  the  syllogistic  catch  known  as  "the Liar." 

They  were  among  the  three  very  bad  K's  of  antiquity. 

Kp^Tts,  KainraSoitai,  KiAixet,  Tpia  tcoLirrra.  xaxurra. 

As  for  their  lying,  Kfn)Tlf*t.v  meant  "  to  tell  lies ;"  of  their  ferocity,  gluttony,  drunken- 
ness, and  sensuality,  and  above  all  of  their  greed,  ample  testimonies  are  quoted — 
"CretenseB  epem  peooniae  secuti"  (Liv.  xliv.  45);  TOI«  xfnfM<ri">  u»nrea  ropiW  pftirrat. 
jrpc,<rXurapovvT«  (Plut,  Paul.  sEmil.  23) ;  Polyb.  vi.  46,  &o.,  and  a  remarkable  epigram  of 
Leonidea — 

Aiei  A/>ji'<rra(  xou  oAi<f»0<5poi  ovrc  dtjcatm 
KpiJTtc  '  rif  Kpifriiv  otic 

(gee  Meumus's  Greta,  and  Wetsteln  ad  toff.) 


662  THE   UFH   AND   WORK   OV  ST.    PAU*. 

in  the  faith,  ceasing  to  heed  Jewish  myths  and  the  commandments  of  men 
who  turn  away  from  the  truth.1  Among  these  commandments  there  seem  to 
have  been  many  distinctions  between  things  clean  and  unclean,  all  of  which 
the  Apostle  sweeps  aside  in  his  clear  decisive  manner  by  the  deep  truth  that 
to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure ; — whereas  nothing  is  or  can  be  pure  to  men  of 
defiled  mind  and  conscience,  such  as  these,  who,  professing  knowledge  of  God, 
in  deeds  denied  Him,  being  detestable,  and  disobedient,  and  to  every  good 
deed  reprobate.2 

"  But  speak  thou  the  things  which  become  the  healthy  teaching."  The 
keynote  of  this  wholesome  teaching  is  sober-mindedness.  Aged  -men  are  to  be 
temperate,  grave,  sober-minded,  sound  in  love,  in  faith,  in  endurance.  Aged 
woinen  are  to  show  a  sacred  decorum  in  demeanour,  free  from  slander  and 
intemperance,3  teachers  of  what  is  fair,  that  they  may  train  the  younger 
women,  too,  to  be  sober-minded,  ennobling  the  estimate  of  their  Christian 
profession  by  humble,  diligent,  submissive  performance  of  their  home  duties. 
Titus  must  also  exhort  young  men  to  be  sober-minded,  and  in  all  respects  he 
is  to  set  them  a  pure  example  of  dignity,  and  faithfulness  to  the  truth.  Slaves 
are  to  "adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things,"  by  silent 
obedience  and  cheerful  honesty. 

"For  God's  grace  was  manifested  bringing  salvation  to  all  men,  training  us  to 
the  end  that  once  for  all  rejecting  impiety  and  all  worldly  desires,  we  should  live', in 
the  present  age  soberly,  and  righteously,  and  godly,  expecting  the  blessed  hope  and 
manifestation  of  the  glory  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,4  who  gave 
Himself  for  us,  that  He  might  ransom  us  from  all  lawlessness,  and  purify  for 
Himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works.  These  things  speak,  and  rebuke 
and  exhort  with  all  authority.  Let  no  man  despise  thee."s 

After  this  swift  and  perfect  summary  of  the  Christian  life,  alike  in  its 
earthly  and  spiritual  aspects,  he  reverts  to  necessary  subjects  for  practical 
exhortation.  Naturally  turbulent,  the  Cretans  are  to  be  constantly  reminded 
of  the  duty  of  submission  in  all  things  right  and  good.  Naturally  ferocious, 
they  are  to  be  exhorted  to  meekness  of  word  and  deed  towards  all  men.  For 
even  so  God  showed  gentleness  to  us  when  we  were  living  in  foolish  and 
disobedient  error,  the  slaves  of  various  passions,  in  a  bitter  atmosphere  of 

1  Possibly  Titus  had  tried  to  regard  these  "  myths  "  as  harmlesc. 

a  L  10-16. 

J  1L  3,  "Not  enslaved  by  much  wine."  On  the  proverbial  intemperance  of  women 
among  the  ancients,  see  Antholoy,  ri.  298 ;  Aristoph.  Thetur.  735  and  f-assim  ;  Athen. 
x.  57. 

4  The  question  as  to  whether  these  words  should  be  rendered  as  in  the  text,  or 
"  our  great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  is  simply  a  critical  question.  The  analogy 
of  other  passages  throughout  these  and  other  Epistles  (1  Tim.  i.  1 ;  v.  21 ;  vi.  13 ;  and, 
above  all,  ii.  3—5 ;  2  Peter  i.  1 ;  2  Thess.  L  12 ;  Jude  4,  &c.),  and  the  certainty  that  this 
translation  is  aot  required  either  by  the  anarthrous  Somjp,  or  by  the  word  cn-e^an),  show 
that  the  view  taken  by  our  English  Version,  and  the  majority  of  Protestant  and  other 
versions,  as  well  as  by  many  of  tha  ancient  versions,  is  correct. 

•  Which  of  ail  the  Fathers  of  tha  ant  or  second  century  was  in  the  smallest  degree 
capable  of  writing  so  masterly  a  formula  of  Christian  doctrine  and  practice  as  these 
verses  (ii.  11 — 14),  or  the  perfectly  independent  yet  no  less  memorable  presentation  of 
Qospel  truth — with  a  compleieaoM  only  ceo  m»uy-»ided  for  sects  and  parties — in  UL 


THE   EPISTLE   TO  TITOS.  663 

reciprocal  hatred.  "But  when" — and  here  follows  anotne*  concentrated 
summary  of  Pauline  doctrine  unparalleled  for  beauty  and  completeness— 

"  But  when  tha  kindness  and  lore  towards  man  of  God  our  Saviour  was  mani- 
fested, not  in  aonsequence  of  works  of  righteousness  which  we  did,  but  according  to 
His  mercy  He  saved  us,  by  means  of  the  laver  of  regeneration,  and  renewal  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  He  poured  upon  us  richly  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour, 
that  being  justified  by  His  grace  we  might  become  heirs,  according  to  hope,  of 
eternal  life." 

Faithful  is  the  saying1 — and  in  accordance  with  it  he  desires  Titus  to 
teach  with  due  insistence,  that  all  who  have  believed  may  live  up  to  their  pro- 
fession. This  teaching  is  fair  and  beneficent,  but  foolish  speculations  and 
discussions,  2  and  genealogies  and  legalist  disputes  are  vain  and  useless.  But 
if,  after  one  or  two  admonitions,  a  man  would  not  give  up  his  own  depraved 
and  wilful  perversities,  then  Titus  is  to  have  nothing  more  to  say  to  him.3 

The  brief  letter  closes  with  a  few  personal  messages.  Titus  may  soon  ex- 
pect the  arrival  of  Artemas  or  Tychicus,4  and  on  the  arrival  of  either,  to  take  up 
his  work,  he  is  with  all  speed  to  join  Paul  at  Nicopolis  for  the  winter.  He  is 
also  asked  to  do  anything  he  can  to  further  the  journey  and  meet  the  require- 
ments of  Zenas  the  jurist,6  and  Apollos.  And  St.  Paul  hopes  that  all  our 

5 — 7  ?  Will  any  one  produce  from  Clemens,  or  Hennas,  or  Justin  Martyr,  or  Ignatius, 
or  Polycarp,  or  Irenseus — will  any  one  even  produce  from  Tertullian,  or  Chrysostom,  or 
Basil,  or  Gregory  of  Nyssa — any  single  passage  comparable  for  terseness,  insight,  and 
mastery  to  either  of  these  ?  Only  the  inspired  wisdom  of  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles 
could  have  traced  so  divine  a  summary  with  so  unfaltering  a  hand.  If  the  single  chorus 
of  Sophokles  was  sufficient  to  acquit  him  of  senility— if  the  thin  unerring  line  attested 
the  presence  of  Apelles — if  the  flawless  circle  of  Giotto,  drawn  with  one  single  sweep  of 
his  hand,  was  sufficient  to  authenticate  his  workmanship  and  prove  his  power — surely 
such  passages  as  these  ought  to  be  more  than  adequate  to  defend  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
from  the  charge  of  vapidity.  Would  it  not  be  somewhat  strange  if  all  the  great 
Christian  Fathers  of  three  centuries  were  so  far  surpassed  in  power  and  eloquence  by  the 
supposed  falsarii  who  wrote  the  Epistles  of  the  First  and  Second  Captivity  of  St.  Paul? 

1  n.  o  Xdyos  here  refers  to  what  has  gone  before,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  this  favourite 
formula  is  generally  applied,  as  here,  to  expressions  which  have  something  solemn  and 
almost  rhythmic  in  the  form  of  their  expression  (1  Tim.  i.  15 ;  iii.  1 ;  2  Tim.  ii.  11 — 
the  analogous  1  Tim.  iii.  16).   Were  the  quotations  from  Lymus  ?  The  contrast  between  the 
regenerate  present  and  the  unregenerate  past  is  common  in  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  vi.  11 ;  Gal. 
iv.  3 ;  Eph.  ii.  &o.).     If  any  one  were  asked  to  fix  on  two  passages  which  contained  the 
essence  of  all  Pauline  theology  he  would  surely  select  Bom.  iii.  21 — 26  and  Tit.  iii.  5 — 
7 ;  and  the  latter,  though  less  polemical,  is  in  some  respects  more  complete.     Again  I 
ask,  Would  it  not  be  strange  if  the  briefest  yet  fullest  statement  of  his  complete  message 
should  come  from  a  spurious  Epistle  ? 

2  St.  Paul  stigmatises  these  sophistic  discussions  as  both  KCVOI  and  ULo.rm.oi — i.e.,  empty 
in  their  nature,  and  void  of  all  results. 

3  aip«V«is  only  occurs  in  1  Cor.  xi.  19  ;  Gal.  v.  20,  and  means,  not  "heresies,"  but 
1 '  ecclesiastical  divisions. " 

4  "Artemas or  Tychicus."    Who  was  Artemas,  or  Artemidorus  ?     That  he,  like  Tro- 
phimus  and  Tychicus  (Acts  xx.  4  ;  xxi.  29),  was  an  Ephesian,  we  may  perhaps  conjecture 
from  his  name,  and  Paul  may  have  met  with  him  in  his  recent  visit  to  Ephesus  ;  but 
what  could  possibly  have  induced  a  forger  to  insert  a  totally  unknown  name  like  that  of 
Artemas  ?  or  to  imagine  any  uncertainty  in  the  mind  of  Paul  as  to  which  of  the  two  he 
should  send  ?    (On  Tychicus,  see  Col.  iv.  7  ;  Eph.  vi.  21.) 

s  Does  this  mean  "  a  lawyer  "  in  the  same  sense  as  vojuoStSaoxaAoe  in  Luke  v.  17  ?  Was 
he  a  Jewish  scribe,  or  a  Greek  or  Roman  legist  ?  It  is  quite  impossible  to  say  ;  and  who 
was  this  Zenas,  or  Zenodorus  ?  What  should  put  such  a  name  and  such  an  allusion  into 
a  forger's  mind  ? 


664  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  BT.  PAUL, 

people  also  will  learn  to  follow  the  example  of  these  kindly  services  to  all  who 
require  them,  that  they  m*y  not  be  unfruitful.  "  All  who  are  with  me  salute 
thee.  Salute  those  who  love  us  in  the  faith.  God's  grace  with  you  all." 

These  last  three  greetings  have  several  points  of  interest.  They  show  us 
that  Paul,  who  was  soon  to  be  so  sadly  and  unworthily  deserted,  was  still 
carrying  on  his  manifold  missionary  activities  as  one  in  a  band  of  devoted 
friends.  The  fact  that  they  differ  in  expression  from  every  other  closing 
salutation  is  a  mart  of  authenticity,  because  a  forger  would  have  been  sure 
to  confine  himself  to  a  servile  and  unsuspicious  repetition  of  one  of  the  forms 
which  occur  elsewhere.  But  what  does  St.  Paul  mean  by  the  remarkable  ex- 
pression, "let  our  people  also  learn  to  be  forward  in  good  works  "P  It  is 
usually  explained  to  mean  "  the  other  believers  as  well  as  thou ;  "  but  this  is 
obviously  unsatisfactory.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  no  sufficient  data  to 
interpret  it  of  the  existence  of  converts  of  Apollos  forming  a  different  body 
from  those  of  Paul.  Its  very  obscurity  is  a  sign  that  the  allusion  is  to  some 
fact  which  was  known  to  the  correspondent,  but  is  unknown  to  us. 

Titus  here  disappears  from  Christian  history.  The  rest  of  his  biography 
evaporates  into  the  misty  outlines  of  late  ecclesiastical  conjecture  scarcely  to 
be  dignified  by  the  name  of  tradition. 


CHAPTER  LV. 

THE      CLOSING      DAYS, 

'*  Christianus  etfam  extra  carcerem  saeoulo  renuntiavit,  in  careers  autem  etiam 
carceri.  .  .  .  Ipsam  etiam  conversationen  saeculi  et  carceris  comparemus,  si 
non  plus  in  carcere  spiritus  acquirit,  quam  cai-o  amittit." — TERT.  ad  Mart.  2. 

"  In  a  free  state  Gaius  would  have  found  his  way  to  Bedlam,  and  Nero  to 
Tyburn." — FREEMAN,  Essays,  ii.  337. 

SOME  of  those  critics  who  have  been  most  hostile  to  the  genuineness  of  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  have  felt  and  expressed  a  certain  reluctance  to  set  down  the 
Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  as  the  work  of  a  forger,  and  to  rob  the  world  of 
this  supremely  noble  and  tender  testament  of  the  dying  soldier  of  Christ. 
And  some  who  have  rejected  the  two  other  Epistles  have  made  an  exception 
in  favour  of  this.  For  myself  I  can  only  express  my  astonishment  that  any 
one  who  is  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  Christian  literature  of  the  first 
two  centuries  to  see  how  few  writers  there  were  who  showed  a  power  even 
distantly  capable  of  producing  such  a  letter,  can  feel  any  hesitation  as  to  its 
having  been  written  by  the  hand  of  Paul.  The  Tubingen  critics  argue  that 
the  three  Epistles  must  stand  or  fall  together,  and  think  that  the  First 
Epistle  to  Timothy  shows  signs  of  spuriousness,  which  drags  the  other  two 
letters  into  the  same  condemnation.  Accepting  the  close  relationship  which 
binds  the  three  letters  together,  and  seeing  sufficient  grounds  in  the  First 
Epistle  to  Timothy  and  the  Epistle  to  Titus  to  furnish  at  least  a  very  strong 


THH  CLOSING  DATS.  W» 

probability  of  their  genuineness,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  probability  is  raised 
to  certainty  by  the  undoubted  genuineness  of  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy. 
If,  indeed,  St.  Paul  was  never  liberated  from  his  first  Roman  imprisonment, 
then  the  Pastoral  Epistles  must  be  forgeries ;  for  the  attempts  of  Wieseler 
and  others  to  prove  that  they  might  have  been  -written  during  any  part  of  the 
period  covered  by  the  narrative  of  the  Acts — during  the  three  years'  stay  at 
Ephesus,  for  instance,  or  the  stay  of  eighteen  months  at  Corinth — sink  to  the 
ground  not  only  under  the  weight  of  their  own  arbitrary  hypotheses,  but  even 
more  from  the  state  both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  mind  and  circumstances  of 
the  Apostle,  which  these  letters  so  definitely  manifest.  But  as  the  liberation 
and  second  imprisonment  of  St.  Paul  are  decidedly  favoured  by  tradition,  and 
give  a  most  easy  and  natural  explanation  to  every  allusion  in  these  and  in 
earlier  Epistles,  and  as  no  single  valid  objection  can  be  urged  against  this  belief, 
I  believe  that  there  would  never  have  been  any  attempt  to  disprove  its  possi- 
bility except  from  the  hardly-concealed  desire  to  get  rid  of  these  letters  and 
the  truths  to  which  they  bear  emphatic  witness. 

The  allusions  in  the  Second  Epistle,  though  too  fragmentary  and  insig- 
nificant to  have  been  imagined  by  an  imitator,  are  only  allusions,  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  they  may  not  supply  us  with  sufficient  data  to  enable  us  to 
arrive  at  any  continuous  narrative  of  events  in  the  Apostle's  history  between 
his  first  and  second  imprisonment.  To  dwell  on  these  events  at  any  length 
would  therefore  be  misleading ;  but  it  is  perfectly  allowable  to  construct  an 
hypothesis  which  is  simple  in  itself,  and  which  fits  in  with  every  circumstance 
to  which  any  reference  is  made.  The  probability  of  the  hypothesis,  and  the 
natural  manner  in  which  it  suits  the  little  details  to  which  St.  Paul  refers,  is 
one  more  of  the  many  indications  that  we  are  dealing  here  with  genuine  letters. 

If,  then,  we  piece  together  the  personal  notices  of  this  Epistle,  they  enable 
us  to  trace  the  further  fortunes  of  St.  Paul  after  the  winter  which  he  spent 
at  Nicopolis,  in  the  society  of  Titus.  At  his  age,  and  with  his  growing 
infirmities— conscious  too,  as  he  must  have  been,  from  those  inward  intima- 
tions which  are  rarely  wanting,  that  his  life  was  drawing  to  a  close — it  is  most 
unlikely  that  he  should  have  entered  on  new  missions,  and  it  is  certain  that 
he  would  have  found  more  than  sufficient  scope  for  all  his  energies  in  the 
consolidation  of  the  many  Greek  and  Eastern  Churches  which  he  had 
founded,  and  in  the  endeavour  to  protect  them  from  the  subtle  leaven  of 
spreading  heresies.  The  main  part  of  his  work  was  accomplished.  At 
Jerusalem  and  at  Antioch  he  had  vindicated  for  ever  the  freedom  of  the 
Gentile  from  the  yoke  of  the  Levitic  Law.  In  his  letters  to  the  Romans  and 
Galatians  he  had  proclaimed  alike  to  Jew  and  Gentile  that  we  are  not  under 
the  Law,  but  under  grace.  He  had  rescued  Christianity  from  the  peril  of 
dying  away  into  a  Jewish  sect,  only  distinguishable  from  Judaism  by  the 
accepted  fulfilment  of  Messianic  hopes.  Labouring  as  no  other  Apostle  had 
laboured,  he  had  preached  the  Gospel  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  world,  from 
Jerusalem  to  Rome,  and  perhaps  even  as  far  as  Spain.  During  the  short 
space  of  twenty  years  he  had  proclaimed  Christ  crucified  to  the  simple 


666  THE   LIFE   AND  WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

Pagans  of  Lycaonia,  the  fickle  fanatics  of  Galatia,  the  dreamy  mystics  of 
Phrygia,  the  vigorous  colonists  of  Macedonia,  the  superficial  dilettanti  of 
Athens,  the  sensual  and  self-satisfied  traders  of  Corinth,  the  semi-barbarous 
natives  of  Dalmatia,  the  ill-reputed  islanders  of  Crete,  the  slaves  and 
soldiers  and  seething  multitudes  of  Borne.  He  had  created  the  terminology, 
he  had  formulated  the  truths  of  Christianity.  It  had  been  his  rare  blessedness 
to  serve  the  Gospel  at  once  as  an  active  missionary  and  as  a  profound  thinker. 
The  main  part  of  his  work  was  done.  There  was  no  further  danger  to  be 
apprehended  from  "  them  of  the  circumcision,"  or  from  "  certain  who  came 
from  James."  New  dangers  were  arising,  but  their  worst  developments  lay 
far  in  the  f uture.1  As  Karl  the  Great  burst  into  tears  when,  after  a  life  spent 
in  subjugating  Lombards  and  Saxons,  he  saw  in  the  offing  the  barques  of  the 
pirate  Norsemen,  and  knew  that  they  would  never  give  much  trouble  in  his 
own  days,  but  wept  to  think  of  the  troubles  which  they  would  cause  hereafter, 
so  Paul  felt  the  presentiment  of  future  perils  from  the  Essenic  elements 
which  were  destined  to  ripen  into  Gnosticism,  but  he  did  not  live  to  witness 
their  full  development.  His  desire  would  be,  not  to  attempt  the  foundation 
of  new  Churches,  but  to  forewarn  and  to  strengthen  the  beloved  Churches 
which  he  had  already  founded. 

And  therefore,  after  he  left  Nicopolis,  he  would  naturally  travel  back  to 
Bercea,  Thessalonica,  Philippi,  and  so  by  Neapolis  to  Troas,  where  he  stayed 
in  the  house  of  a  disciple  named  Carpus.  Here  it  was  that  the  final  crisis  of 
his  fate  seems  to  have  overtaken  him.  It  is  at  least  a  fair  conjecture  that  he 
would  not  have  left  at  the  house  of  Carpus  his  precious  books,  and  the  cloak 
which  was  so  necessary  to  him,  unless  his  departure  had  been  hasty  and 
perhaps  involuntary.  His  work  and  his  success  in  that  town  had  been  suffi- 
ciently marked  to  attract  general  attention,  and  it  was  exactly  the  kind  of 
town  in  which  he  might  have  been  liable  to  sudden  arrest.  Since  Nero's 
pei-secution  of  the  Christians,  they  must  have  been  more  or  less  the  objects 
of  hatred  and  suspicion  throughout  the  Empire,  and  especially  in  the 
provincial  towns  of  Asia  Minor,  which  were  ever  prone  to  flatter  the  Emperor, 
because  their  prosperity,  and  sometimes  almost  their  existence,  depended  on 
his  personal  favour.  Any  officer  eager  to  push  himself  into  notice,  any  angry 
Jew,  any  designing  Oriental,  might  have  been  the  cause  of  the  Apostle's 
arrest;  and  if  it  took  place  at  Troas,  especially  if  it  were  on  some  pretext 
suggested  by  Alexander  the  coppersmith,  or  connected  with  St.  Paul's  long 
and  active  work  at  Ephesus,  he  would,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things,  have 
been  sent  under  guard  to  Ephesus  to  be  judged  by  the  Proconsul.  While 
awaiting  his  trial  there  he  would,  of  course,  have  been  put  in  prison ;  and  the 
fact  that  his  place  of  imprisonment  is  still  pointed  out  among  the  ruins  of 
Ephesus,  although  no  imprisonment  at  Ephesus  is  directly  mentioned  in 
Scripture,  adds  perhaps  a  slight  additional  probability  to  these  conjectures. 
It  was  here  that  he  experienced  at  the  hands  of  Onesiphorus  the  kindness 

1  9  Tim.  lii.  1,  ireri 


THB   CLOSING   DATS.  667 

which  was  continued  to  him  at  Borne,1  and  to  which  he  alludes  with  a 
gratitude  all  the  more  heartfelt^  because  very  shortly  afterwards  Onesiphoms 
seems  to  have  died. 

From  the  trial  at  Ephesus,  where  his  cause  might  have  suffered  from 
local  prejudices,  he  may  once  more  have  found  it  necessary  to  appeal  to 
Csesar.  Barea  Soranns,  the  then  Proconsul,  may  have  been  glad,  as  Pliny 
afterwards  was  in  Bithynia,  to  refer  the  case  to  thefhighest  tribunal.  Timothy 
would  naturally  desire  to  accompany  him,  but  at  that  time  the  Apostle — still 
sanguine,  still  accompanied  by  other  friends,  still  inclined  to  believe  that  his 
life,  which  had  long  been  valueless  to  himself,  might  be  saved  from  human 
violence,  however  near  might  be  its  natural  close — thought  it  necessary  to 
leave  his  friend  at  Ephesus  to  brave  the  dangers,  and  fulfil  the  duties  of 
that  chief  pastorate,  respecting  which  he  had  recently  received  such 
earnest  instructions.  It  was  natural  that  they  should  part  with  deep  emotion 
at  a  time  so  perilous  and  under  circumstances  so  depressing.  St.  Paul, 
sitting  in  his  dreary  and  desolate  confinement  at  Borne,  recalls  with  gratitude 
the  streaming  tears  of  that  farewell,  which  proved  how  deeply  his  affection 
was  requited  by  the  son  of  his  heart.  In  all  his  wanderings,  in  all  his 
sickness,  in  all  his  persecutions,  in  all  his  imprisonments,  in  all  his  many  and 
bitter  disappointment*,  the  one  spot  invariably  bright,  the  one  permanent 
consolation,  the  one  touch  of  earthly  happiness,  had  been  the  gentle  com- 
panionship,  the  faithful  attendance,  the  clinging  affection  of  this  Lycaonian 
youth.  For  St.  Paul's  sake,  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  he  had  left  his  mother,  and 
his  home,  and  his  father's  friends,  and  had  cheerfully  accepted  the  trying  life 
of  a  despised  and  hunted  missionary.  By  birth  a  Greek,  he  had  thrown  in 
his  lot  by  circumcision  with  the  Jew,  by  faith  with  the  Christian  ;  and  his 
high  reward  on  earth  had  been,  not  the  shadow  of  an  immortal  honour,  but  the 
substance  of  lofty  service  in  the  cause  of  the  truth  which  was  to  subdue  the 
world.  The  affection  between  him  and  the  Apostle  began  in  the  spiritual 
sonship  of  conversion,  and  was  cemented  by  community  of  hopes  and  perila 
until  it  had  become  one  of  the  strongest  ties  in  life.  For  troubled  years  they 
had  cheered  each  other's  sorrows  in  the  midst  of  painful  toils.  The  very 
difference  in  their  age,  the  very  dissimilarity  of  their  characters,  had  but 
made  their  lore  for  each  other  more  sacred  and  more  deep.  The  ardent, 
impetuous,  dominant  character  and  intense  purpose  of  the  one,  found  its 
complement  and  its  repose  in  the  timid,  yielding,  retiring,  character  of  the 
other.  What  Melancthon  was  to  Luther,  whom  Luther  felt  that  he  could  not 
spare,  and  for  whose  life  when  all  hope  seemed  over  ho  stormed  heaven  with 
passionate  and  victorious  supplication,1 — that  and  more  than  that  was  the 
comparatively  youthful  Timothy  to  the  more  tried  and  lonely  Paul. 

1  2  Tim.  i.  18,  ova-  if  '^<t>t<r<f  Jt»j««vT)<r«,  "  how  many  acts  of  service  he  rendered "  to 
Paul  and  others.  Wieseler's  inference  that  Oncsiphorua  was  a  deacon  is  hardly  sup- 
ported by  so  general  a  verb. 

s  "  AJlda  musste  mir  unser  Herr  Gott  herhalten.  Denn  Ich  rleb  Dun  die  Ohren  mit 
alien  promissionibus  exaudieudarum  preeum."  (Lather.) 


668  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OJ  ST.  PAUL, 

We  may  hope  that  the  Apostle,  now  once  more  a  prisoner,  was  not  alone 
when  he  left  Ephesus  to  cross  the  Mediterranean  for  the  last  time.  Titus 
and  Tychicus1  had  probably  accompanied  him  from  Nicopolis;  Demas  may 
have  joined  him  at  Thessalonica,  Luke  at  Philippi ;  and  Trophimus,  undo- 
terred  by  his  past  dangers  at  Jerusalem,  volunteered  to  accompany  him  from 
the  Ionian  capital.  But  the  kindly  intentions  of  the  latter  were  frustrated, 
for  he  fell  ill  at  Miletus,  and  there  the  sad  little  band  of  Christians  had  to 
leave  him  when  the  vessel  started.2  Erastus,  if  he  was  with  him  at  Ephesus, 
stayed  behind  when  they  reached  his  native  Corinth. 

Of  the  particulars  of  the  voyage  we  know  nothing.  It  may  very  possibly 
have  been  from  Ephesus  to  Cenchreae,  over  the  Biolkos  to  Lechaeum,  and 
then  along  the  Gulf  of  Corinth  and  across  the  Adriatic  to  Brundisium,  whence 
the  prisoner,  his  guards  and  his  companions,  would  make  their  dreary  way 
along  the  great  Appian  road  to  Rome.  This  time  no  disciples  met  them  at 
the  Appii  Forum  or  the  Three  Taverns,  nor  could  anything  have  well  occurred 
to  make  Paul  thank  God  and  take  courage.  The  horrible  Neronian  persecu- 
tion had  depressed,  scattered,  and  perhaps  decimated  the  little  Christian 
community;  and  the  Jews,  who  had  received  Paul  at  the  time  of  his  first 
imprisonment  with  an  ostentatiously  indifferent  neutrality,  had  been  trans- 
formed since  then — partly,  no  doubt,  by  the  rumours  disseminated  by  emissaries 
from  Jerusalem,  and  partly  by  the  mutual  recriminations  after  the  fire  of 
Eome — into  the  bitterest  and  most  unscrupulous  enemies.  On  the  former 
occasion,  after  a  short  detention  in  the  Prsetorian  camp,  St.  Paul  had  been 
allowed  to  live  in  his  own  lodging ;  and  even  if  this  had  been  in  the  humblest 
purlieus  of  the  Trastevere,  among  the  Jewish  vendors  of  sulphur  matches  and 
cracked  pottery,3  it  had  still  been  his  own,  and  had  allowed  him  to  continue, 
in  a  sphere  however  restricted,  his  efforts  at  evangelisation.  But  Christianity 
was  now  suspected  of  political  designs,  and  was  practically  reduced  to  a  religio 
illicita.  This  time  he  had  no  kindly-disposed  Lysias  to  say  a  good  word  for 
him,  no  friendly  testimonies  of  a  Festus  or  an  Agrippa  to  produce  in  his 
favour.  The  government  of  Nero,  bad  almost  from  the  first,  had  deteriorated 
year  by  year  with  alarming  rapidity,  and  at  this  moment  it  presented  a  spectacle 
of  awful  cruelty  and  abysmal  degradation  such  as  has  been  rarely  witnessed 
by  the  civilised  world.  While  an  honest  soldier  like  Burrns  held  the  high 

1  Hence  we  infer  that  Artemas,  and  not  Tychicus,  had  been  sent  to  replace  Titus  at 
Crete ;  and  the  mention  of  the  name  Artemas  first  in  Tit.  iii.  12  is  yet  another  of  the 
numberless  subtle  traces  of  genuineness. 

3  This  incidental  allusion  (most  unlike  a  forger)  throws  a  valuable  light,  as  also  does 
tbe  almost  fatal  illness  of  Epaphroditus  at  Rome,  on  the  limitation  which  the  Apostles 
put  on  the  exercise  of  any  supernatural  gift  of  healing.  It  is,  further,  an  insuperable 
stumblingblock  in  the  way  of  every  possible  theory  which  denies  the  second  imprisonment. 
Some  have  suggested  a  desperate  alteration  of  the  text  to  M«/uYp,  and  Schrader  is  content 
with  the  preposterous  fiction  of  a  Miletus  in  Crete  1  But  why  should  St.  Paul  tell 
Timothy  that  Trophimus  was  sick  at  Miletus  ?  For  the  same  reason  that  a  person  writing 
to  London  might,  even  in  these  days  of  rapid  communication,  tell  a  correspondent  that 
tb«ir  common  friend  was  ill  at  Soutbend.  Miletus  was  more  then  thirty  miles  from 
E'.-hesus,  and  Trophimus  might  be  ill  for  months  without  Timothy  knowing  of  i* 

*  Put  roe  nmra,  p.  58<5. 


CLOSING  OATS.  669 

post  of  Prsatorian  Praefect,  a  political  prisoner  was  at  least  sure  that  he  would 
not  be  treated  with  wanton  severity;  but  with  a  Tigellinus  in  that  office — a 
Tigellinus  whose  foul  hands  were  still  dripping  with  Christian  blood,  and 
whose  foul  life  was  stained  through  and  through  with  every  form  of  detestable 
wickedness— what  could  be  expected  ?  We  catch  but  one  glance  of  this  last 
imprisonment  before  the  curtain  falls,  but  that  glimpse  suffices  to  show  how 
hard  it  was.  Through  the  still  blackened  ruins  of  the  city,  and  amid  the 
squalid  misery  of  its  inhabitants — perhaps  with  many  a  fierce  scowl  turned 
on  the  hated  Christian — Paul  passed  to  his  dungeon,  and  there,  as  the  gate 
clanged  upon  him,  he  sat  down,  chained  night  and  day,  without  further  hope 
—a  doomed  man. 

To  visit  him  now  was  110  longer  to  visit  a  man  against  whom  nothing 
serious  was  charged,  and  who  had  produced  a  most  favourable  impression  on 
the  minds  of  all  who  had  been  thrown  into  relation  with  him.  It  was  to  visit 
the  bearer  of  a  name  which  the  Emperor  and  his  minions  affected  to  detest ; 
it  was  to  visit  the  ringleader  of  those  who  were  industriously  maligned  as  the 
authors  of  a  calamity  more  deadly  than  any  which  had  afflicted  the  city  since 
its  destruction  by  the  Gauls.  Merely  to  be  kind  to  such  a  man  was  regarded 
as  infamous.  No  one  could  do  it  without  rendering  himself  liable  to  the 
coarse  insolence  of  the  soldiers.1  Nay,  more,  it  was  a  service  of  direct  political 
danger.  Rome  swarmed  with  spies  who  were  ready  to  accuse  any  one  of 
laesa  majestas  on  the  slightest  possible  occasion.  Now  who  but  a  Christian 
would  visit  a  Christian?  What  could  any  respectable  citizen  have  to  do 
with  the  most  active  propagandist  of  a  faith  which  had  at  first  been  ignored 
as  contemptible,  but  which  even  calm  and  cultivated  men  were  beginning  to 
regard  as  an  outrage  against  humanity  P2  And  if  any  Christian  were  charged 
with  being  a  Christian  on  the  ground  of  his  having  visited  St.  Paul,  how  could 
he  deny  the  charge,  and  how,  without  denying  it,  could  he  be  saved  from 
incurring  the  extremest  danger  P 

Under  these  circumstances  the  condition  of  the  Apostle  was  very  different 
from  what  it  had  been  three  years  before.  His  friends  had  then  the  freest 
access  to  him,  and  he  could  teach  Christ  Jesus  with  all  boldness  undisturbed. 
Now  there  were  few  or  no  friends  left  to  visit  him;  and  to  teach  Jesus  Christ 
was  death.  He  knew  the  human  heart  too  well  to  be  unaware  how  natural 
it  was  that  most  men  should  blush  to  associate  themselves  with  him  and  his 
chain.  One  by  one  his  Asiatic  friends  deserted  him.3  The  first  to  leave 
him  were  Phygellus  and  Hermogenes.4  Then  the  temptations  of  the  present 
course  of  things,  the  charm  of  free  and  unimperilled  life,  were  too  much  for 
Demas,  and  he  too — though  he  had  long  been  his  associate — now  forsook  him. 

1  See  Juv.  Sat.  xvi.  8—12. 

*  "  Odio  generis  human!  convicti  sunt."    (Tao,  Ann.  XT.  44 ;  of.  H.  v.  5.) 

»  2  Tim.  i.  15. 

4  Nothing  whatever  is  known  of  these  two.  In  later  days  the  Christians,  under  the 
stress  of  persecution,  had  learnt  their  lessons  better,  so  that  their  tender  faithfulness 
to  one  another  in  distress  excited  the  envious  astonishment  of  Pagans  (Lucian,  De  Morte 
Pertgr.  §  13). 


670  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST. 

Crescens  departed,  perhaps  on  some  necessary  mission,  to  the  Churches  of 
Galatia,  and  Titus  to  those  of  Dalmatia.  He  had  dispatched  Tychiens  to 
Ephesus  shortly  before  he  wrote  this  letter.  One  friend  alone  was  with  him 
— the  beloved  physician,  the  faithful,  unobtrusive,  cultivated  Luke.1  Of 
hardship  Paul  recked  nothing;  he  had  spent  a  life  of  endless  hardship,  and 
had  learnt  a  complete  independence  of  the  outward  elements  of  comfort ;  but 
to  one  situated  as  he  was,  and  liable  to  constant  pain,  to  be  utterly  companion* 
less  would  have  been  a  trial  too  hard  to  bear. 

A  single  happy  unexpected  visit  broke  the  continuity  of  his  loneliness,  and 
cheered  him  amid  the  sense  of  desertion.  The  good-hearted  Ephesian  Onesi- 
phorus,  who  had  already  made  himself  conspicuous  among  the  Christians  of 
his  native  city  by  his  active  kindliness,  came  to  Rome.  He  knew  that  St. 
Paul  was  somewhere  in  that  city  as  a  prisoner,  and  he  rose  above  the  timid 
selfishness  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  He  set  about  searching  for  the  captive 
Jew.  In  a  city  thronged  with  prisoners,  and  under  a  government  rife  with 
suspicions,  upon  which  it  acted  with  the  most  cynical  unscrupulousness,  it  was 
by  no  means  a  safe  or  pleasant  task  to  find  an  obscure,  aged,  and  deeply 
implicated  victim.  Had  Onesiphorus  been  less  in  earnest,  it  would  have 
been  easy  for  him  to  make  an  excuse  to  other  Christians,  and  to  his  own 
conscience,  that  he  had  not  known  where  Paul  was,  and  that  he  had  looked 
for  him  but  could  not  find  him.  But  he  would  not  abandon  his  earnest  search 
until  it  led  him  to  the  side  of  the  Apostle.8  Nor  was  he  content  with  a  single 
visit.  Glad  to  face  the  shame  and  scorn  of  befriending  one  whose  condition 
was  now  so  abject,  he  came  to  the  Apostle  again  and  again,  and  refreshed  his 
soul  with  that  very  consolation — the  sense  of  human  sympathy — f  or  which  most 
of  all  it  yearned.8  Probably  the  death  of  this  true  and  warm-hearted  Ephesian 
took  place  at  Rome,  for  St.  Paul  utters  a  fervent  wish  that  he  may  find  mercy 
of  the  Lord  in  the  great  day,  and  in  writing  to  Timothy  he  sends  a  greeting  to 
his  household,  but  not  to  him.4  The  tone  of  intense  gratitude  which  breathes 
through  the  few  verses  in  which  the  Apostle  alludes  to  him  makes  us  feel  that 
the  brave  and  loving  friendliness  of  this  true  brother,  contrasted  as  it  was  with 
the  cowardly  defection  of  the  other  Asiatics,  was  the  brightest  gleam  of  light 
which  fell  on  the  dense  gloom  of  the  second  imprisonment. 

At  last  the  time  came  when  the  Apostle  had  to  stand  before  the  great 
Roman  tribunal.  What  was  called  in  Roman  law  the  prima  aciio  came  on.6 
The  Scriptures  were  written  with  other  objects  than  to  gratify  our  curiosity 
with  the  details  of  historic  scenes,  however  memorable  or  however  important. 

1  Where  was  Aristarchus  (Acts  xxvii.  2 ;  Col.  iv.  10 ;  Phil.  24)  ?  We  cannot  tell ;  but 
his  name  would  not  have  been  omitted  by  an  ingenious  imitator. 

*  2  Tim.  i  17,  <rirov&ai6rtpov  e^jJTTjtre'p  /j.e  Kal  eu(XK. 

»  2  Tim.  i.  16,  iro\A<iias  (*«  avt\ln>£ ev.  *  2  Tim.  iv.  19. 

•  Such  certainly  seems  to  be  the  natural  meaning  of  trpomj  iiroXoyCa  (2  Tim.  iv.  16), 
and  it  u  not  certain  that  this  method  of  procedure  and  the  ampliatio  or  comperendinatio 
hud  been  entirely  abandoned.     In  these  matters  the  mere  caprice  of  the  Emperor  was  all 
that  had  to  be  consulted.    It  is,  however,  possible  that  the  iroun)  an-oXoyia  may  refer  to  the 
first  count  of  the  indictment,  since  Nero  had  introduced  the  custom  of  hearing  every 
count  separately. 


THB   CLOSING   DJLT6.  671 

That  which  God  has  revealed  to  us  in  Scripture  is  rather  the  ceconomy — the 
gradual  unfolding  and  dispensation — of  His  eternal  scheme  for  the  salvation 
of  mankind,  than  the  full  biography  of  those  whose  glory  it  was  to  be  en- 
trusted with  the  furtherance  of  His  designs.  Eagerly  should  we  have  desired 
to  know  the  details  of  that  trial,  but  Si  Paul  only  tells  us  a  single  particular. 
His  silence  once  more  illustrates  the  immense  difference  between  ancient  and 
modern  correspondence.  A  modern,  in  writing  to  a  dear  friend,  would  have 
been  sure  to  give  him  some  of  the  details,  which  could  hardly  fail  to  interest 
him.  It  may  be  said  that  these  details  might  have  been  supplied  by  the  bearer 
of  the  letter.  It  may  be  so ;  but  if  we  judge  St.  Paul  by  his  own  writings, 
and  by  the  analogy  of  other  great  and  spiritually-minded  men,  we  should 
infer  that  personal  matters  of  this  kind  had  but  little  interest  for  him. 
Accustomed  to  refer  perpetually  to  his  high  spiritual  privileges — digressing 
incessantly  to  the  fact  of  his  peculiar  Apostolate — he  yet  speaks  but  little, 
and  never  in  detail,  of  the  outward  incidents  of  his  life.  They  did  but  belong 
to  the  world's  passing  show,  to  the  things  which  were  seen  and  evanescent. 
Two  vivid  touches  alone  reveal  to  us  the  nature  of  the  occasion.  One  is  the 
deplorable  fact  that  not  a  single  friend  had  the  courage  to  stand  by  his 
side.  He  had  to  defend  himself  single-handed.  No  patronus  would  encourage 
him,  no  advocatus  plead  his  cause,  no  deprecator  say  a  word  in  his  favour. 
"  No  man  took  his  place  by  my  side  to  help  me ;  all  abandoned  me ;  God 
forgive  them."  The  other  is  that  even  at  that  supreme  moment,  with  the 
face  of  the  threatening  tyrant  fixed  loweringly  upon  him,  and  the  axed  fasces 
of  the  lictors  gleaming  before  his  eyes,  his  courage  did  not  quail.  If  man 
forsook  him,  God  strengthened  him.  If  even  Luke  left  him  to  face  the 
court  alone,  the  Lord  Himself  stood  by  him.  He  spoke,  and  spoke  in 
a  manner  worthy  of  his  cause.  How  much  heathen  literature  would  we 
freely  sacrifice  for  even  a  brief  sketch  of  that  speech  such  as  Luke  could 
so  well  have  given  us  had  he  only  been  present!  How  supreme  would 
have  been  the  interest  of  a  defence  uttered  by  St.  Paul  in  the  Roman 
forum,  or -in  a  Roman  basilica!  Alas!  the  echoes  of  his  words  have  died 
away  for  ever.  We  only  know  what  he  who  uttered  it  tells  us  of  it.  But  he 
was  satisfied  with  it.  He  felt  that  the  Lord  had  strengthened  him  in  order 
that,  through  his  instrumentality,  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  might  be  ful- 
filled to  the  uttermost,  and  that  all  the  Gentiles  might  hear  it.  And  he  was 
successful — successful,  we  cannot  doubt,  not  merely  that  he  might  prolong  his 
days  in  useless  and  hopeless  misery,  but  for  some  high  design,  and  perhaps 
among  other  reasons  that  he  might  leave  us  his  last  precious  thoughts  in  the 
Second  Epistle  to  his  dearest  convert.  But  the  danger  had  been  imminent, 
and  the  too-certain  result  was  only  postponed.  "  I  was  rescued,"  he  says, 
"out  of  the  lion's  mouth."  Each  juror  received  three  voting  tablets — one 
marked  with  A.,  for  Absolvo ;  another  with  C.,  for  Condemno ;  and  a  third  with 
N.L.,  for  Non  Hquet,  or  "not  proven."  The  majority  of  votes  had  been  of  the 
third  description,  and  the  result  had  been  the  ampliatio,  or  postponement  of 
the  trial  for  the  production  of  further  evidence.  But  St.  Paul  was  not  deceived 


672  THB   LIFE  \AND   WORK   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

by  any  false  hopes.  "  I  was  rescued  out  of  the  lion's  mouth.  The  Lord  shall 
deliver  me  "—not  necessarily  from,  death  or  danger,  but — "  from  every  evil 
work,1  and  shall  save  mt>  unto  His  heavenly  kingdom."  Death  by  martyrdom 
was  no  such  "  evil  work;  "2  from  that  he  did  not  expect  to  be  saved — nay,  he 
knew,  and  probably  even  hoped,  that  through  that  narrow  gate  an  entrance 
might  be  ministered  unto  him  abundantly  into  Christ's  heavenly  kingdom. 
But  he  must  have  passed  through  perilous  and  exciting  hours,  or  he  would 
have  hardly  used  that  metaphor  of  the  lion's  mouth,3  prompted  perhaps  by  a 
reminiscence  of  the  powerful  image  of  the  shepherd  prophet, "  As  the  shepherd 
tears  out  of  the  motith  of  a  lion  two  legs  and  the  piece  of  an  ear."4 

But  who  was  the  lion  ?  Was  it  Satan  ? 6  or  Helius  the  Prsef  ect  of  the 
city  ?  or  Nero  ? 6  or  is  the  expression  a  merely  general  one  ?  Even  if  so, 
it  is  not  impossible  that  he  may  have  pleaded  his  cause  before  Nero  himself. 
The  power  of  deciding  causes  had  been  one  which  the  Roman  Emperors  had 
jealously  kept  in  their  own  hands ;  and  if  the  trial  took  place  in  the  spring  of 
A.D.  66,  Nero  had  not  yet  started  for  Greece,  and  would  have  been  almost 
certain  to  give  personal  attention  to  the  case  of  one  who  had  done  more  than 
any  living  man  to  spread  the  name  of  Christ.  Nero  had  been  intensely  anxious 
to  fix  on  the  innocent  Christians  the  stigma  of  that  horrible  conflagration, 
of  which  he  himself  had  been  dangerously  suspected,  and  the  mere  suspicion 
of  which,  until  averted  into  another  channel,  had  gone  far  to  shake  even  his 
imperial  power.  And  now  the  greatest  of  the  Christians — the  very  coryphceus 
of  the  hated  sect — stood  chained  before  him.  He  to  whom  popularity,  forfeited 
in  part  by  his  enormous  crimes,  had  become  a  matter  of  supreme  importance, 
saw  how  cheaply  it  could  be  won  by  sacrificing  a  sick,  deserted,  aged,  fettered 
prisoner,  for  whom  no  living  soul  would  speak  a  word,  and  who  was  evidently 
regarded  with  intense  hatred  by  Gentiles  from  Asia,  by  the  dense  rabble  of 
the  city,  and  by  Jews  from  every  quarter  of  the  world.  Cicero  has  preserved 
for  us  a  graphic  picture  of  the  way  in  which,  nearly  a  century  and  a  half 
before  this  time,  a  screaming,  scowling,  gesticulating  throng  of  Jews,  unde- 
terred by  soldiers  and  lictors,  surrounded  with  such  threatening  demonstrations 
the  tribunal  before  which  their  oppressor,  Flaccus,  was  being  tried,  that  he, 
as  his  advocate,  though  he  had  been  no  less  a  person  than  a  Roman  Consul, 
and  "  father  of  his  country,"  was  obliged  to  plead  in  low  tones  for  fear  of 
their  fury.  If  in  B.C.  59  the  Romish  Jews  could  intimidate  even  a  Cicero  in 

1  From  all  that  can  be  really  called  irovqp6v.    "  Liberabit  me  ne  quid  agam  "  (and  we 
may  add,  ne  quid  patiar)  "  Christiano,  ne  quid  Apostolo  indignum    (Grot.). 

2  "  Decollabitur  ?  liberabitur,  liberante  Domino  "(Bengel).    It  would  be  difficult  for 
me  to  exaggerate  my  admiration  for  this  truly  great  commentator.     On  the  following 
words,  "  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever,"  he  remarks,  "Doxologiam  parit  spes, 
quanto  majorem  res." 

3  2  Tim.  iv.  17. 

4  Amos  iii.  12.    Of.  ivioiriw  TOV  Mot/rat,  referring  to  Xerxes  (Apocr.  Esth.  xiv.  13). 
•  1  Pet.  v.  & 

6  \tovra  yap  TOV  Wpova  <f>T)<ri  8to  TO  0T)ptwS6«  (Chrys.).  re6vr)Kfv  o  A«W  (of  the  death  of 
Tiberius)  (Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  6,  §  10) ;  but  here  \eWos  has  no  article.  The  metaphor  i« 
probably  general,  aa  in  Ps.  xxii.  21.  Esther  is  said  to  have  cried,  "  Save  me  from  the 
Bon's  mouth,"  when  sh«  went  to  Ahasuerus  (Megittah,  f.  15,  2). 


THE   CLOSING  DATS.  673 

their  hatred  to  a  Flaccus,  is  it  likely  that  they  would  have  abstained  from 
hostile  demonstrations  against  an  enemy  BO  detested  and  so  perfectly  defence- 
less as  St.  Paul  f 

Paul  before  Nero!  if  indeed  it  was  so,  what  a  contrast  does  the  juxta- 
position of  two  such  characters  suggest — the  one  the  vilest  and  most  wicked, 
the  other  the  best  and  noblest  of  mankind !  Here,  indeed,  we  see  two  racos, 
two  civilisations,  two  religions,  two  histories,  two  ceons  brought  face  to  face. 
Nero  summed  up  in  his  own  person  the  might  of  legions  apparently  invincible; 
Paul  personified  that  more  irresistible  weakness  which  shook  the  world.  The 
one  showed  the  very  crown  and  flower  of  luxurious  vice  and  guilty  splendour; 
the  other  the  earthly  misery  of  the  happiest  saints  of  God.  In  the  one  we  see 
the  incarnate  Nemesis  of  past  degradation ;  in  the  other  the  glorious  prophecy 
of  Christian  sainthood.  The  one  was  the  deified  autocrat  of  Paganism ;  the 
other  the  abject  ambassador  of  Christ.  The  emperor's  diadem  was  now  con- 
fronted for  the  first  time  by  the  Cross  of  the  Victim  before  which,  ere  three 
centuries  were  over,  it  was  destined  to  succumb. 

Nero,  not  yet  thirty  years  of  age,  was  stained  through  and  through  with 
every  possible  crime,  and  steeped  to  the  very  lips  in  every  nameless  degrada- 
tion. Of  all  the  black  and  damning  iniquities  against  which,  as  St.  Paul  had 
often  to  remind  his  heathen  converts,  the  wrath  of  God  for  ever  burns,  there 
was  scarcely  one  of  which  Nero  had  not  been  guilty.  A  wholesale  robber, 
a  pitiless  despot,  an  intriguer,  a  poisoner,  a  murderer,  a  matricide,  a  liar, 
a  coward,  a  drunkard,  a  glutton,  incestuous,  unutterably  depraved,  his  evil 
and  debased  nature — of  which  oven  Pagans  had  spoken  as  "  a  mixture  of 
blood  and  mud " — had  sought  abnormal  outlets  to  weary,  if  it  could  not 
sate,  its  insatiable  proclivity  to  crime.  He  was  that  last  worst  specimen 
of  human  wickedness — a  man  who,  not  content  with  every  existing  form 
of  vice  and  sin  in  which  the  taint  of  human  nature  had  found  a  vent, 
had  become  "an  inventor  of  evil  things."  He  had  usurped  a  throne;  he 
had  poisoned,  under  guise  of  affection,  the  noble  boy  who  was  its  legitimate 
heir;  he  had  married  the  sister  of  that  boy,  only  to  break  her  heart  by  his 
brutality,  and  finally  to  order  her  assassination ;  he  had  first  planned  the 
murder,  then  ordered  the  execution,  of  his  own  mother,  who,  however  deep 
her  guilt,  had  yet  committed  her  many  crimes  for  love  of  him;  he  had 
treacherously  sacrificed  the  one  great  general  whose  victories  gave  any 
lustre  to  his  reign ;  among  other  murders,  too  numerous  to  count,  he  had 
ordered  the  deaths  of  the  brave  soldier  and  the  brilliant  philosopher  who 
had  striven  to  guide  his  wayward  and  intolerable  heart ;  he  had  disgraced 
imperial  authority  with  every  form  of  sickening  and  monstrous  folly ;  he  had 
dragged  the  charm  of  youth  and  the  natural  dignity  of  manhood  through  the 
very  lowest  mire ;  he  had  killed  by  a  kick  the  worthless  but  beautiful  woman 
whom  he  had  torn  from  her  own  husband  to  be  his  second  wife ;  he  had 
reduced  his  own  capital  to  ashes,  and  buffooned,  and  fiddled,  and  sung  with 
his  cracked  voice  in  public  theatres,  regardless  of  the  misery  and  starvation 
of  thousands  of  its  ruined  citizens ;  he  had  charged  his  incendiarism  upon 


674  THE  LIFfi   AND   WOBK   OF   ST.   PAUL, 

the  innocent  Christians,  and  tortared  them  to  death  by  hundreds  in  hideous 
martyrdoms ;  he  had  done  his  best  to  render  infamous  his  rank,  his  country, 
his  ancestors,  the  name  of  Roman. — nay,  even  the  very  name  of  man. 

And  Paul  had  spent  his  whole  life  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  and  the  practice 
of  holiness.  Even  from  boyhood  a  grave  and  earnest  student  of  the  Law  of 
God,  he  surpassed  in  learning  and  faithfulness  all  the  other  "  pupils  of  the 
wise  "  in  the  school  of  the  greatest  Doctor  of  the  Law ;  and  if  the  impetuous 
ardour  of  his  nature,  and  that  commonest  infirmity  of  even  noble  minds — the 
pride  of  erroneous  conviction  which  will  not  suffer  itself  to  be  convinced  of 
error — had  for  a  time  plunged  him  into  a  course  of  violent  intolerance, 
of  which  he  afterwards  repented  Twith  all  the  intensity  of  his  nature,  yet 
even  this  sin  had  been  due  to  the  blind  fury  of  misdirected  zeal  in  a  cause 
which  he  took — or  for  a  time  thought  that  he  took — to  be  the  cause  of  God. 
Who  shall  throw  the  first  stone  at  him  ?  not  even  those  learned  and  holy  men 
tviiose  daily  lives  show  how  hard  it  is  to  abdicate  the  throne  of  infallible 
ignorance,  and  after  lives  of  stereotyped  error  to  go  back  as  humble  learners 
to  the  school  of  truth.  But,  if  for  a  moment  he  erred,  how  grandly — by  what 
a  life  of  heroic  self-sacrifice — had  he  atoned  for  his  fault !  Did  ever  man  toil 
like  this  man  ?  Did  ever  man  rise  to  a  nobler  superiority  over  the  vulgar 
objects  of  human  desire  P  Did  ever  man  more  fully  and  unmunnuringly 
resign  his  whole  life  to  God  ?  Has  it  ever  been  granted  to  any  other  man, 
in  spite  of  all  trials,  obstructions,  persecutions,  to  force  his  way  in  the  very 
teeth  of  "clenched  antagonisms"  to  so  full  an  achievement  of  the  divine 
purpose  which  God  had  entrusted  to  his  care  ?  Shrinking  from  hatred  with 
fche  sensitive  warmth  of  a  nature  that  ever  craved  for  human  love,  he  had  yet 
braved  hatreds  of  the  most  intense  description — the  hatred  not  only  of  enemies, 
but  of  friends;  not  only  of  individuals,  but  of  entire  factions;  not  only  of 
aliens,  but  of  bis  own  countrymen ;  not  only  of  Jews,  but  even  of  those  who 
professed  the  same  faith  with  himself.1  Shrinking  from  pain  with  nervous 
sensibility,  he  yet  endured  for  twenty  years  together  every  form  of  agony 
with  a  body  weakened  by  incessant  hardship.  The  many  perils  and  miseries 
which  we  have  recounted  are  but  a  fragment  of  what  he  had  suffered.  And 
what  had  he  done  P  He  had  secured  the  triumph,  he  had  established  the 
universality,  he  had  created  the  language,  he  had  co-ordinated  the  doctrines, 
he  had  overthrown  the  obstacles  of  that  Faith  which  is  the  one  source  of  the 
hope,  the  love,  the  moral  elevation  of  the  world. 

And  now  these  two  men  were  brought  face  to  face — imperial  power  and 
abject  weakness ;  youth  cankered  with  guilt,  and  old  age  crowned  with 
holiness ;  he  whose  whole  life  had  consummated  the  degradation,  and  he 
whose  life  had  achieved  the  enfranchisement  of  mankind.  They  stood  face  to 
face  the  representatives  of  two  races — the  Semitic  in  its  richest  glory,  the 
Aryan  in  its  extremest  degradation :  the  representatives  of  two  trainings— 

1  "  They  who  hurt  me  most  are  my  own  dear  children — my  brethren—; fraterculi  met, 
ourci  amiculimei,"  (Luther.  CocfiUariv*,  146.) 


THE   CLOSING  DATS.  675 

the  life  of  utter  self -(sacrifice,  and  the  life  of  unfathomable  self-indulgence : 
the  representatives  of  two  religions — Christianity  in  its  dawning  brightness, 
Paganism  in  its  effete  despair :  the  representatives  of  two  theories  of  life — the 
simplicity  of  self-denying  endurance  ready  to  give  up  life  itself  for  the  good 
of  others,  the  luxury  of  shameless  Hedonism  which  valued  no  consideration 
divine  or  human  in  comparison  with  a  new  sensation :  the  representatives  of 
two  spiritual  powers — the  slave  of  Christ  and  the  incarnation  of  Antichrist. 
And  their  respective  positions  showed  how  much,  at  this  time,  the  course  of 
this  world  was  under  the  control  of  the  Prince  of  the  Power  of  the  Air — for 
incest  and  matricide  were  clothed  in  purple,  and  seated  on  the  curule  chair, 
amid  the  ensigns  of  splendour  without  limit  and  power  beyond  control ;  and 
he  whose  life  had  exhibited  all  that  was  great  and  noble  in  the  heart  of 
man  stood  in  peril  of  execution,  despised,  hated,  fettered,  and  in  rags. 

But  Roman  Law  was  still  Roman  Law,  and,  except  where  passions  of 
unusual  intensity  interfered,  some  respect  was  still  paid  to  the  forms  of 
justice.  For  the  time,  at  any  rate,  Paul  was  rescued  out  of  the  lion's  mouth. 
There  was  some  flaw  in  the  indictment,  some  deficiency  in  the  evidence ;  and 
though  St.  Paul  well  knew  that  it  was  but  a  respite  which  was  permitted  him, 
for  the  time  at  any  rate  he  was  remanded  to  his  prison.  And  Nero,  if  indeed 
he  were  "the  lion"  before  whom  this  first  defence  had  been  pleaded,  had  no 
further  door  for  repentance  opened  to  him  in  this  life.  Had  he  too  trembled, 
as  Paul  reasoned  before  him  of  temperance,  righteousness,  and  the  judgment 
to  come  ?  Had  he  too  listened  in  alarm  as  Herod  Antipas  had  listened  to 
the  Baptist  P  Had  he  too  shown  the  hue  of  passing  shame  on  those  bloated 
features  so  deformed  by  the  furrows  of  evil  passion — as,  at  the  Council  of 
Constance,  the  Emperor  Sigismund  blushed  when  John  Huss  upbraided  him 
with  the  breach  of  his  pledged  word  P  The  Emperor,  who  stood  nearest  to 
Nero  in  abysmal  depravity,  and  who,  like  him,  being  himself  unutterably 
impure  and  bad,  had  the  innermost  conviction  that  all  others  were  at  heart 
the  same,  used  to  address  grave  men  with  the  most  insulting  questions,  and 
if  the  indignant  blood  mantled  on  their  cheeks,  he  used  to  exclaim,  "  Erubuit, 
salva  res  est." l  "  He  blushed ;  it  is  all  right."  But  of  Domitian  we  are 
expressly  told  that  he  could  not  blush;  that  his  flushed  cheeks  were  an 
impervious  barrier  against  the  access  of  any  visible  shame.2  And  in  all 
probability  Nero  was  infinitely  too  far  gone  to  blush.  It  is  far  more  probable 
that,  like  Gallic,  he  only  listened  to  the  defence  of  this  worn  and  aged  Jew 
with  ill-concealed  impatience  and  profound  disdain.  He  would  have  regarded 
such  a  man  as  this  as  something  more  abject  than  the  very  dust  beneath  his 
feet.  He  would  have  supposed  that  Paul  regarded  it  as  the  proudest  honour 
of  his  life  even  to  breathe  the  same  atmosphere  as  the  Emperor  of  Rome. 
His  chance  of  hearing  the  words  of  truth  returned  no  more.  '  About  this  time 
he  sailed  on  his  frivolous  expedition  to  Greece ;  and  after  outraging  to  an 
extent  almost  inconceivable  the  very  name  of  Roman,  by  the  public  singings 

i  Heliogabalvu.  *  Tac.  Aync.  45 ;  Suet.  Uwn,  18 ;  JPiin.  I'anqj-  48, 


676  THE  LIFE  ANB  WORK  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

of  his  miserable  doggrel,  and  the  sham  victories  in  which  the  supple  and 
shameless  Greeks  fooled  him  to  the  very  top  of  his  bent,  he  returned  to  find 
that  the  revolt  of  Galba  was  making  head,  until  he  was  forced  to  fly  at  night  in 
disguise  from  his  palace,  to  quench  his  thirst  with  ditch-water,  to  display  a 
cowardice  which  made  him  contemptible  to  his  meanest  minions,  and  finally 
to  let  his  trembling  hand  be  helped  by  a  slave  to  force  a  dagger  into  his 
throat. 

But  it  is  no  wonder  that  when,  over  the  ruins  of  streets  which  the  fire  had 
laid  in  ashes,  St.  Paul  returned  to  his  lonely  prison,  there  was  one  earthly 
desire  for  the  fulfilment  of  which  he  still  yearned.  It  was  once  more  to  see 
the  dear  friend  of  earlier  years — of  those  years  in  which,  hard  as  were  their 
sufferings,  the  hope  of  Christ's  second  coming  in  glory  to  judge  the  world 
seemed  still  so  near,  and  in  which  the  curtains  of  a  neglected  death  and  an 
apparently  total  failure  had  not  yet  been  drawn  so  closely  around  his  head. 
He  yearned  to  see  Timothy  once  more ;  to  be  refreshed  by  the  young  man's 
affectionate  devotion ;  to  be  cheered  and  comforted  by  the  familiar  attendance 
of  a  true  son  in  Christ,  whose  heart  was  wholly  at  one  with  his ;  who  shared 
so  fully  in  all  his  sympathies  and  hopes ;  who  had  learnt  by  long  and  familiar 
attendances  how  best  to  brighten  his  spirits  and  to  supply  his  wants.  It  was 
this  which  made  him  write  that  second  letter  to  Timothy,  which  is,  as  it  were, 
his  "  cycnea  oratio,"  and  in  which,  amid  many  subjects  of  advice  and  exhorta- 
tion, he  urges  his  friend  with  reiterated  earnestness  to  come,  to  come  at  once, 
to  come  before  winter,1  to  come  ere  it  is  too  late,  and  see  him,  and  heh)  him, 
and  receive  his  blessing  before  he  died. 


CHAPTER   LVI. 

PAUL'S      LAST      LETTER. 
HauAof  K  o  rpwr/Aoxaptos  TTJK  KtjiaXriv  £«</>tt  iirtrjtijflj?  6  dyeJcSujyijTOf  Mpovos. — pg. 

Orai.  Enam. 

"  Testamentum  Pauli  et  cycnea  cantio  eat  haec  Epistola." — BENGBL. 

11  Hoc  praestat  career  Christiano,  quod  eremus  Prophetis." — TERT.  ad  Mart.  3. 

"  Mortem  habebat  Paulus  ante  oculos.  .  .  .  Quaecunque  igitur  hie  legimus 
de  Ghristi  regno,  de  spe  vitae  aetemae,  de  Christiana  militia,  de  fiducia  confessionis, 
de  certitudine  doctrinao,  non  tanquam  atramento  scripta,  sed  ipsius  Pauli  sanguine 
accipere  convenit.  .  .  .  Proinde  haec  Epistola  quasi  solennis  quaedam  est  sub- 
scriptio  Paulinas  doctrinae,  eaque  ex  repraesenti." — CALVIN. 

HE  began  much  in  his  usual  f  orm— 

"  Paul,  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God,J  according  to  the  promise 
of  the  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  Timothy  my  beloved  son,  grace,  mercy,  and 

»  2  Tim.  iv.  9,  21. 

8  «ia  fleX^aros.  The  attempt  to  deduce  some  very  special  and  recondite  inference  from 
the  fact  that  he  uses  this  phrase  for  the  KO.T'  «7riTayV  of  the  First  Epistle,  seems  to  me  as 
arbitrary  as  Mack's  argument  that  the  use  of  iyajnjr<p  for  yn)(ri'v  in  the  next  verse  is  a  siga 
tbat  this  Epistle  shows  more  affection  but  leas  confidence. 


PAUL'S  LAST  LETTER.  677 

peace,  from  God  our  Father  and  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  I  thank  God,  whom  I  serve 
from  my  forefathers  in  a  pure  conscience  —  as  the  remembrance  which  I  have  of  thee 
night  and  day  in  my  supplications  is  incessant,  longing  earnestly  to  see  thee  —  re- 
membering thy  tears  l  —  that  I  may  be  filled  with  joy.2  [I  thank  God,  I  say]  on 
being  reminded3  of  the  unfeigned  faith  which  is  in  thee,  which  dwelt  first  in  thy 
grandmother  Lois,  and  in  thy  mother  Eunice  ;  yes,  and  I  feel  confident  that  it 
dwells  also  in  thee."4 

Perhaps  the  sadness  of  Timothy's  heart  —  the  tears  for  his  absent  and  im- 
prisoned teacher  —  had  hindered  the  activity  of  his  work,  and  plunged  him  in  a 
too  indolent  despondency  ;  and  so  Paul,  remembering  all  the  hopes  which  had 
inaugurated  his  youthful  ministry,  continues  — 

"  For  which  cause  *  I  remind  thee  to  fan  aflame  the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  thee 
by  the  imposition  of  my  hands  ;  for  God  gave  us  not  the  spirit  of  cowardice,  but  of 
power  and  of  love,  and  of  moral  influence.6  Be  not  then  ashamed  of  the  testimony 
of  our  Lord,  nor  of  me  His  prisoner,  but  rather  share  my  sufferings  for  the  Gospel 
in  accordance  with  the  power  of  God,  who  saved  us  and  called  us  with  a  holy  calling, 
not  according  to  our  works,  but  according  to  His  own  plans  and  the  grace  given  us 
in  Christ  Jesus  before  eternal  times,  but  now  manifested  by  the  appearing  of  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  did  away  with  death,  and  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  by  the  Gospel,  whereunto  I  was  appointed  a  herald,  and  an  Apostle,  and 
teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  for  which  reason  also  I  suffer  these  things  ;  but  I  am  not 
ashamed.  For  I  know  on  whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  feel  confident  that  he  is 
able  to  preserve  the  trust  committed  to  me  till  that  day."  7 

Then  —  having  ended  the  double  digression  on  the  word  Gospel,  which 
suggests  to  him  first  what  that  word  implies  (9,  10),  and  then  recalls  to  him 
his  own  mission  —  he  returns  to  his  exhortation— 

"As  a  pattern  of  wholesome  teachings,8  take  those  which  thou  heardest  froci 
me,  in  faith  and  the  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  That  fair  trust  preserve, 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  which  dwelleth  in  us."  9 

Then  he  touches  for  a  moment  on  the  melancholy  circumstances  of  which 
we  have  already  spoken  —  his  abandonment  by  the  Asiatic  converts,10  and  the 

1  Tears  at  parting.     Of.  Acts  xx.  37. 

8  Does  not  this  involved  sentence,  with  its  tesselation  of  parenthetic  thoughts,  at 
once  indicate  the  hand  of  Paul  ? 

3  How  reminded?    "We  do  not  know;  but  this  is  the  proper  meaning  of  vn-d^vnais- 

OTOV  TIV  v<f>'  cre'pov  els  ii.vrjii.rjv  vpoa-X^fj- 

4  L  1  —  5,  Wireto-juot  Se.     To  make  the  Se  imply   "  notwithstanding  appearances,"  as 
Alford  does,  is  too  strong  ;  but  the  adversative  force  of  Se,  though  unnoticed  by  most 
commentators,  and  missed  in  many  versions,  does  seem  to  imply  that  passing  shade  of 
hesitation  about  the  fervour  of  the  faith  of  Timothy  —  at  any  rate,  as  manifested  in 
vigorous  action  —  which  I  have  tried  to  indicate  in  the  "  Yes,  and  I  feel  confident." 

5  This  phrase—  Si'  f\v  ahiav  for  Sib—  is  peculiar  to  the  Pastoral  Epistles. 

6  (ria<t>povi<ri*ov.    The  form  of  the  word  seems  to  imply  not  only  "  sobermindedness," 
but  the  teaching  others  to  be  sober-minded. 

7  i. 


8  This  seems  to  me  the  real  meaning,  though  Alford  has  something  to  urge  for  his 
view  that  it  should  be  rendered,  "Have  (in  what  I  have  just  said  to  you)  a  pattern 
of  sound  words,  which,"  &c. 

9  i.  13,  14. 

10  The  expression  oJ  «/  TJ}  *A<ri<x  irdvrcs,  "  all  those  in  Asia,"  is  difficult.  It  seems  to  imply 
that  they  had  abandoned  St.  Paul  in  Rome,  and  had  now  returned  to  Asia,  so  that  they 
would  be  "  in  Asia  "  by  the  time  this  letter  arrived. 


678  THE   MFE  AND  WORST   OF  ST.    PA.UL. 

zealous  refreshing  kindness  of  Onesiphorus,  for  whom  he  breathes  an  earnest 
prayer.1 

"  Thou  therefore,  my  child,  be  strengthened  in  the  grace  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  the  things  which  thou  heardest  from  me  in  the  presence  of  many  witnesses, 
these  things  extend  to  faithful  men  who  shall  he  adequate  also  to  teach  others.  Share 
my  sufferings  as  a  fair  soldier  of  Christ  Jesus."  * 

The  conditions  of  this  soldiership  he  illustrates  by  three  similes,  drawn 
from  the  life  of  the  soldier,  the  athlete,  and  the  labourer,  and  doubtless  meant 
to  suggest  to  Timothy  the  qualities  of  which  at  that  depressed  period  he  stood 
most  in  need.  The  soldier  must  abandon  all  business  entanglements,  and 
strive  to  please  his  captain.  The  athlete,  if  he  wants  the  crown,  must  keep 
the  rules.  The  toiling  husbandman  has  the  first  claim  to  a  share  of  the 
harvest.3  It  was  a  delicate  way  of  suggesting  to  Timothy  the  duties  of  in- 
creased single-heartedness,  attention  to  the  conditions  of  the  Christian  life, 
and  strenuous  labour;  and  that  he  might  not  miss  the  bearing  of  these  simili- 
tudes he  adds,  "Consider  what  I  say,  for  the  Lord  will  give  you4  understanding 
in  all  things."  By  the  example  of  his  own  sufferings  he  reminds  him  that 
the  cardinal  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  ample  to  inspire  toil  and  endurance. 

"  Bear  in  mind,"  he  says,  "  Jesus  Christ,  raised  from  the  dead,  of  the  seed  of 
David,  according  to  my  Gospel — in  the  cause  of  which  I  suffer  even  to  chains  as  a 
malefactor :  hut  the  word  of  God  has  not  been  chained.  For  thia  reason,  for  the 
sake  of  the  elect,  I  am  enduring  all  things,  that  they  too  may  obtain  the  salvation 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  with  eternal  glory.  Faithful  is  the  saying — 

'If  we  died  with,  we  shall  also  live  with  Him;' 
If  we  endure,  we  shall  also  reign  with  Him ;        /- 
If  we  d«ny,  He  also  will  deny  us.  , 
If  we  are  faithless,  He  abideth  faithful, 
For  He  is  not  able  to  deny  Himself.' "  ' 

"  These  things  call  to  their  remembrance ; "  and  from  this  Terse  to  the  end 
of  the  chapter  he  reverts  to  the  false  teachers  among  whom  Timothy  is  labour- 
ing, and  against  whom  he  has  warned  him  in  the  First  Epistle,  testifying  to 
them  before  the  Lord  not  to  fight  about  "  views  " — a  thing  entirely  useless — 
to  the  subversion  of  the  hearers.7  "Strive  to  present  thyself  approved  to 
God,  a  workman  unshamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth."  8  He  is  to 
shun  the  vain  babblings  of  men  like  Hymeuseus  and  Philetus,'  with  their 

i  i.  15—18. 

*  The  distinction  between  woAb?  and  ayaOfc  can  only  be  kept  up  by  the  old  English 
word  "fair,"  as  in  Tennyson's 

"  So  that  ye  trust  to  our  fair  Father,  Christ." 

»  ii.  1—6.  4  ii.  7,  leg.  8<i(m. 

•  Of.  1  Cor.  xv.  81;  2  Cor.  iv.  18 ;  Bom.  vi.  8. 

6  ii.  7—13.     The  last  words  are  rhythmical,  perhaps  liturgical. 

7  ii.  14.     Logomachy  is  a  sure  mark  of  Sophistic  teaching,  and  there  IB  a  resemblance 
of  the  Gnostics  to  the  Sophists  in  several  particulars. 

8  bpdorofLovvra,  "rightly  cutting,"  or  "cutting  straight."    " Nihil  praetermittere,  nil 
adiicere,  nil  mutOare,  discerpere,  torquere  "  (Beza).     But  it  is  not  clear  whether  the 
metaphor  is  from  cutting  roads,  or  victims,  or  furrows,  or  bread,  or  carpentry.     It  is 
better  to  regard  it  as  general,  "  rightly  handling,"  just  as  muvoroiittv  came  to  mean  merely 
"Unovating."    In  patristic  language  bpeoroula  became  another  word  for  "orthodoxy." 

9  Nothing  is  known  of  them  (1  Tim.  i.  20). 


PAUL'S  LAST  LETTKB.  679 

ever-advancing  impiety  and  the  spreading  canoer  of  their  doctrine,  which 
identified  the  resurrection  with  spiritual  deliverance  from  the  death  of  sin, 
and  denied  that  there  was  any  other  resurrection,1  to  the  ruinous  uusettlemeut 
of  some.  Fruitlessly,  however,  for  God's  firm  foundation  stands  impregnable 
with  the  double  inscription  on  it,a  "  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His," 
and  "  Let  every  one  who  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  stand  aloof  from  un- 
righteousness." *  Yet  there  should  be  no  surprise  that  such  errors  spring  up 
in  the  visible  Church.  It  is  like  a  great  house  in  which  are  vessels  of  wood 
and  earth,  as  well  as  of  gold  and  silver,  and  alike  for  honourable  and  mean 
purposes.  What  each  one  had  to  do  then  was  to  purge  himself  from  polluting 
connexion  with  the  mean  and  vile  vessels,  and  strive  to  be  "a  vessel  for 
honour,  sanctified,  serviceable  to  the  master,  prepared  for  every  good  pur- 
pose." *  He  is  therefore  to  "  fly  "  from  the  desires  of  youth,6  and  in  union 
with  all  who  call  on  the  Lord  with  a  pure  heart  to  pursue  righteousness,  faith, 
love,  peace,  having  nothing  to  do  with  those  foolish  and  illiterate  questions 
which  only  breed  strifes  unworthy  of  the  gentle,  enduring  meekness  of  a 
slave  of  the  Lord,  whose  aim  it  should  be  to  train  opponents  with  all  mildness,6 
in  the  hope  that  God  may  grant  them  repentance,  so  that  they  may  come  to 
full  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  "  awake  to  soberness  out  of  the  snare  of  the 
devil,  after  having  been  taken  alive  by  him — to  do  God's  will." 7 

The  third  chapter  continues  to  speak  of  these  evil  teachers  and  their 
future  developments  in  the  hard  times  to  come.  A  stern  sad  picture  is  drawn 
of  what  men  shall  then  be  in  their  selfishness,  greed,  conceit,  ingratitude, 
lovelessness,  treachery,  besotted  atheism,  and  reckless  love  of  pleasure.  He 
bids  Timothy  turn  away  from  such  teachers  with  their  sham  religion,  their 
creeping  intrigues,  their  prurient  influence,  their  feminine  conquests,8 
resisting  the  truth  just  as  the  old  Egyptian  sorcerers  Jannes  and  Jambres ' 

1  Sinui  there  is  a  trace  of  exactly  the  same  heresy  in  1  Cor.  xv.  12,  it  is  idle  of  Baur 
to  assume  any  allusion  to  Marcion  here.  St.  Paul's  warning  against  thus  making  the 
resurrection  a  mere  metaphor  was  all  the  more  needful,  because  it  was  a  distortion  of  hia 
own  expressions  (Rom.  vi.  4;  Col.  ii.  12,  &c.). 

*  Cf.  Kev.  xxi.  14.  »  See  Numb.  xvi.  5,  26. 

4  2  Tim.  ii.  21.  The  general  meaning  of  the  passage  is  clear,  though  it  is  indistinctly 
expressed;  on  fKKaOapy  Melancthon  remarks,  "Haec  mundatio  non  est  desertio  congre- 
gationig,  sed  conversio  ad  Deum." 

6  eiri0vfA<at>  not  exclusively  sensual  passions.  6  See  Matt.  xii.  19,  20. 

7  ii.  14 — 26.    The  devil  has  taken  the  mcaptive  in  a  snare  while  they  were  drunk ; 
awaking,  they  use  their  recovered  soberness  (iva.vitf>ta,  crapulam  excutio)  to  break  the 
snare,  arid  return  to  obedience  to  God's  will,     airov  probably  refers  to  Satan,  iiwiVou  to 
God,  although  this  explanation  is  not  absolutely  necessary. 

8  Baur  (Pastwalbriefe,  p.  36)  sees  an  allusion  to  the  Gnostic  prophetesses,  Prisca, 
Maximilla,  Quintilla,  &c.,  and  quotes  Epiphan.  Haer.  xxvi.  11.     But,  on  the  one  hand, 
these  certainly  did  not  deserve  to  be  stigmatised  as  yvvoucopia  (see  Tert.),  and  on  the 
other  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  women  would  be  any  less  susceptible  to  every  phase  of 
religious  influence  in  the  Apostle's  days  than  they  have  been  in  all  ages  (cf.  Jos.  Antt. 
xvii.  2,  §  4).     Such  a  ywaiKdptov  was  Helena  whom  Simon  Magus  took  about  with  him 
(Justin,  Apol,  i.  26 ;  Iren.  c.  Haer.  i.  23).    When  Jerome  speaks  with  such  scorn  and 
slander  of  Nicolas  of  Antipch  (chores  duxit  femineos),  Marcion  and  his  female  adherent, 
Apelles  and  Philumena,  Arius  and  his  sister,  Donatus  and  Lucilla,  Epidius  and  Agape, 
Priscillian  and  Galla,  had  he  forgotten  certain  ladies  called  Paulla  and  Eustochium  ? 

•  Jannes  and  Jambres  are  mentioned  by  Origen,  and  even  by  Pliny  (H,  N,  xxx.  1), 


680  THE   LIFE   AND   WOBK   OP   ST.   PATH* 

did,  and  destined  to  have  their  emptiness  equally  exposed.1  But  Timothy— 
who  has  followed  all  that  Paul  has  been  iu  the  teaching,  the  purpose,  and  the 
sufferings  of  his  life,  and  well  knows  how  the  Lord  saved  him  out  of  many 
trials  and  persecutions  in  his  first  journey  2 — must  expect  persecution,  and  be 
brave  and  faithful,  making  his  life  a  contrast  to  that  of  these  deceived 
deceivers,  in  accordance  with  that  training  which  from  a  babe  he  had  received 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  were  able  to  make  him  wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ :  since  "  every  Scripture  inspired  by  God  ia 
also  profitable  for  teaching,3  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  training  in 
righteousness,  that  the  mail  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  equipped  for 
every  good  work."  * 

The  fourth  chapter  begins  with  a  solemn  appeal  to  him  to  do  his  duty  as 
a  pastor  "  in  season,  out  of  season,"  &  because  the  time  would  soon  come 
when  men  would  turn  away  from  truth  to  the  fantastic  doctrines  of  teachers 
who  would  answer  them  according  to  their  own  lusts. 

"  Do  thott  then  be  sober  in  all  things,  endure  sufferings.  Do  the  work  of  an 
evangelist,  fulfil  thy  ministry.  For  /  am  being  already  poured  in  libation,  and  the 
time  of  iny  departure6  is  close  at  hand.  I  have  striven  the  good  strife,  I  have  finished 
my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith.  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the  crown  of 
righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  me  in  that  day ;  and 
not  to  me  only,  but  also  to  all  who  have  loved  His  appearing."  7 

That  is  practically  St.  Paul's  last  word.  The  remainder  of  the  letter  is 
occupied  with  personal  information,  given  in  the  natural,  loose,  accidental 
order  of  a  letter,  mingled  with  earnest  entreaty  to  him  that  he  would  come  at 

who  calls  them  Jaimes  and  Jotapes,  and  Numenius  (Orig.  c.  Cela.  iv.  199).  The  names 
belong  to  the  cycle  of  Jewish  Hagadoth.  They  are  mentioned  in  the  Targum  of 
Jonathan  on  Ex..  vii.  11,  aiid  were  said  to  be  sons  of  Balaam. 

1  This  is  said  to  contradict  ii.  16  and  iii.  13.     It  only  does  so  to  an  unintelligent 
literalism.     Error  will  succeed,  but  its  very  success  will  end  in  its  exposure.     "Non 
proficient  amplius,  quamquam  ipsi  et  eoruin  similes  proficiant  in  ejus     (Bengel);  or, 

&S  ChrySOStom  remarks,  K&V  irportpov  av9rj<rjj  TO.  rijs  nAai/qs  eis  re\ot  ov  Sioftevei. 

2  It  has  been  asked  why  he  refers  especially  to  these.     Perhaps  because  they  had 
come  most  heavily  upon  him,  and  affected  him  most  severely  as  being  the  first  of  the 
kind  which  he  had  endured.    Perhaps  because  Timothy  was  a  Lycaonian,  and  Paul's 
memory  of  those  old  days  is  vividly  awaked. 

3  This  is  almost  certainly  the  true  translation.     It  was  so  understood  by  Origen, 
Theodoret,  by  Erasmus  and  Grotius,  by  Whitby  and  Hammond,  by  Alford  and  Ellicott ; 
is  so  translated  in  the  Arabic,  the  Syriac,  the  Vulgate,  Luther,  the  Dutch,  and  the 
Rhenish,  and  in  the  versions  of  Wiclif,  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  and  Cranmer.     For  the 
introduction  of  the  predicate  by  «**  see  Gal.  iv.  7,  Luke  i.  36,  Rom.  viii.  29,  &c. 

4  iii.  1—17. 

5  iv.  2,  fi>Ko.iptas,  aieatpws  :  "opportune",  importune"  "  (Aug.).    The  smallest  element  of 
literary  sense  is  sufficient  to  save  the  verse  from  the  fanatical  abuse  which  has  perverted 
•o  many  passages  of  Scripture.     If  any  antidote  to  its  abuse  is  required,  see  Matt.  vii.  G. 

8  apoAvo-Ewf,  "departure,"  not  " dissolution  "  (Phil.  i.  23).     ayoAusiy  is  "to  set  sail." 
7  iv.  1 — 8.     "There  is  nothing  better,"  says  Chrysostom,  "than  this  strife.     There 


110  end  to  this  crown.     It  is  not  a  crown  of  piice,  nor  is  it  assigned  by  any  earthly 
,  nor  are  men  spectators  of  its  bestowal ;  the  theatre  is  filled  with  angel- witnesses. " 


arbiter 


It  is  useless  to  argue  with  those  who  see  a  spirit  of  boasting  here  which  contradicts  1 
Cor.  iv.  3  ;  Phil.  iii.  12 ;  1  Tim.  i.  16.  "Distingue  tempora  et  coucordabit  Scrip tura." 
The  same  man  may,  at  different  moments,  in  different  moods,  and  from  different  stand- 
point*, say,  "I  am  the  chief  of  sinners,"  and  " I  have  striven  the  good  strife." 


PAUL'S   LAST   LETTER.  M1 

once.  "  l)o  your  best  to  come  to  me  quickly."  Demas,  Grescens,  Titus,  are 
all  absent  from  him  ;  Erastus  did  not  come  with  him  farther  than  Corinth  ; 
Trophimus  was  taken  ill  at  Miletus  ;  Luke  only  is  left.  Mark  is  useful  to 
him  for  service  —  perhaps  because  he  knew  Latin  —  and  therefore  Timothy  is 
to  take  him  up  somewhere  on  the  way,  and  bring  him.1  Tychicus  is  already 
on  the  way  to  Ephesus,2  so  that  he  can  take  Timothy's  place  when  he  arrives. 
Timothy  is  to  be  on  his  guard  against  the  pronounced  hostility  of  Alexander 
the  coppersmith.3  Then  follows  the  touching  allusion  to  his  first  trial  and 
deliverance,  on  which  we  have  already  dwelt.  Greetings  are  sent  to  Priaca, 
Aquila,  and  the  house  of  Ouesiphorns.  Once  more,  "  Do  your  best  to  come 
before  winter  ;  "  —  if  he  comes  after  that  time  he  may  be  too  late.  "  Eubulus 
greets  thee,  and  Pudens,  and  Linus,  and  Claudia,  and  all  the  brethren.  The 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  thy  spirit.  Grace  be  with  you."  * 

I  have  purposely  omitted  the  one  simple,  touching  message,  introduced  so 
incidentally,  and  with  such  inimitable  naturalness.  "  When  you  come,  bring 
with  you  the  cloke  that  I  left  at  Troas,  at  Carpus'  house,  and  the  books, 
especially  the  parchments."6  The  verse  has  been  criticised  as  trivial,  as 

1  Mark  had  been  attached  of  late  to  the  ministry  of  Peter.    Perhaps  —  but  all  ia  here 
uncertain  —  St.  Peter  may  have  been  already  martyred.     It  is,  at  any  rate,  deeply 
interesting  to  observe  how  completely  St.  Mark  had  regained  that  high  estimation  in  the 
mind  of  the  Apostle  which  he  had  weakened  by  his  early  defection  (Acts  xv.  38). 

2  aircVreiAa.    It  is  made  a  difficulty  that  St.  Paul  should  mention  this  to  Timothy, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  been  at  Ephesus.     But  even  if  air«rr«iAa  cannot  be  an  epistolary 
acrist,  and  so  equivalent  to  "I  am  sending,"  Paul  could  not  be  sure  that  Timothy  might 
not  be  visiting  some  of  the  neighbouring  churches  ;  and  Tychicus  may  have  gone  by 
some  longer  route.    Even  apart  from  this,  nothing  is  more  common  in  letters  than  the 
mention  of  facts  which  must  be  perfectly  well  known  to  the  person  addressed  ;  and,  in 
any  case,  since  Timothy  could  hardly  leave  without  resigning  his  charge  for  a  time  into 
the  hands  of  Tychicus,  he  might  be  glad  of  a  personal  assurance  from  Paul  that  he  had 
sent  him. 

3  The  meaning  of  n-oAXa  u.ot  xaxa  «v«S«'ifaTo  ia  not  certain,  but  is  probably  nothing  more 
than  "exhibited  very  mischievous  conduct  towards  me."    The  following  words,  "The 
Lord  shall  reward  him  (<"ro&i<m,  M,  A,  0,  D,  E,  F,  G),  according  to  his  works,"  have  been 
rebuked  as  a  malediction.     But  the  t"i  <*UTO«  AoyKrtew)  of  verse  16  is  sufficient  to  show  that 


this  was  not  the  mood  of  Paul  ;  and  it  is  no  malediction  to  say  of  an  enemy,  "  I  must 
leave  God  to  deal  with  him,"  since  God  ia  infinitely  more  merciful  than  man. 

4  iv.  9—22.  Linus  may  be  the  traditional  first  Bishop  of  Home  (Iren.  c.  Hacr.  iii. 
33;  Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  4);  but  I  am  surprised  that  any  one  should  accept  the  ingenious 
attempt  to  identify  Pudens  with  the  dissolute  centurion  of  Martial's  epigrams  (iv.  13  ; 
xi.  53)  and  the  Pudens  who  built  a  temple  at  Chiohester  to  Neptune  and  Minerva  ;  and 
Claudia  with  the  British  Claudia  Rufina,  whom  he  married,  and  with  the  daughter  of 
the  British  king  Cogidubuus  or  of  Caraotacus.  The  grounds  of  the  identification  were 
suggested  by  Archdeacon  Williams  in  a  pamphlet  on  Pudens  and  Claudia.  No  doubt  the 
Pudens  of  Martial  may  be  the  Pudens  of  the  Chiohester  inscription,  since  he  married  a 
British  lady  ;  and  this  Claudia  may  have  been  a  daughter  of  Cogidubnus,  and  may  have 
been  sent  to  Rome  as  a  hostage,  or  for  education,  and  may  have  taken  the  name 
Rufina,  because  she  may  have  been  entrusted  to  the  charge  of  Pomponia,  the  wife  of 
Aulus  Plautus,  who  had  been  a  commander  in  Britain,  and  in  whose  family  was  a  branch 
called  Rufi.  And  it  is  possible  that  Pomponia  may  have  been  secretly  a  Christian  (Tao. 
Ann.  xiiL  32),  and  so  this  Claudia  Rufina  may  have  become  a  Christian  too  ;  but  even 
if  we  grant  the  possibility  of  all  these  hypotheses,  still  nothing  whatever  remains  to 
identify  the  Pudens  and  Claudia  here  separated  from  each  other  by  another  name  with 
the  Pudens  and  Claudia  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking.  Claudia  was  the  commonest 
of  names,  and  the  whole  theory  is  an  elaborate  rope  of  sand. 

'  That  <**\6njs,  if  that  be  the  true  reading,  means  a  cloak,  seems  to  be  nearly  certain^ 
23 


682  THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.   PATTIi. 

unworthy  the  dignity  of  inspiration.  But  men  mast  take  their  notions  of 
inspiration  from  facts,  and  not  try  to  square  the  facts  to  their  own  theories 
Even  on  these  grounds  the  verse  has  its  own  value  for  all  who  would  nut 
obscure  divine  inspiration,  nor  obliterate  the  true  meaning  and  saoredness  of 
Scripture  by  substituting  a  dictated  infallibility  for  the  free  play  of  human 
emotions  in  souls  deeply  stirred  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  But  even  on 
other  grounds  how  little  could  we  spare  this  verse  !  What  a  light  does  it 
throw  on  the  last  sad  days  of  the  persecuted  Apostle !  The  fact  that  these 
necessary  possessions — perhaps  the  whole  that  the  Apostle  could  call  his  own 
in  this  world — had  been  left  at  the  house  of  Carpus,  may,  as  we  have  seen, 
indicate  his  sudden  arrest,  either  at  Troas  or  on  his  way  to  it.  A  prisoner 
who  is  being  hurried  from  place  to  place  by  unsympathising  keepers  is 
little  able  to  look  after  his  property.  But  now  the  Apostle  is  settled 
again,  though  his  home  is  but  a  prison,  and  he  feels  that  it  will  be  his 
home  for  life.  Winter  is  coming  on,  and  winter  in  a  Roman  prieon,  as 
he  knows  by  experience,  may  be  very  cold.  He  wants  to  get  back  his  rough 
travelling  cloak.  It  was  one  of  those  large  sleeveless  garments  which  we 
should  call  an  "  overall "  or  "  dreadnought."  Perhaps  St.  Paul  had  woven 
it  himself  of  the  black  goat's  hair  of  his  native  province.  And,  doubtless 
—for  he  was  a  poor  man — it  was  an  old  companion — wetted  many  a  time  in 
the  water-torrents  of  Asia,  whitened  with  the  dust  of  .Roman  roads,  stained 
with  the  brine  of  shipwreck  when  Euroaquilo  was  driving  the  Adriatic  into 
foam.  Ho  may  have  slept  in  its  warm  shelter  on  the  chill  Phrygian 
uplands,  under  the  canopy  of  stars,  or  it  may  have  covered  his  bruised 
and  trembling  limbs  in  the  dungeon  of  Philippi.  It  is  of  little  value; 
but  now  that  the  old  man  sits  shivering  in  some  gloomy  cell  under  the 
palace  or  on  the  rocky  floor  of  the  Tullianum,  and  the  winter  nights  are 
coming  on,  he  bethinks  him  of  the  old  cloak  in  the  house  of  Carpus,  and  asks 
Timothy  to  bring  it  with  him.  "  The  cloke  that  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus, 
bring  with  thee."  "And  the  books,  but  especially  the  parchments.'*1  The 

It  was  the  opinion  of  the  Greek  Fathers,  who  only  mention  alternatively  the  meaning 
yk<a<r<roKoiu>v,  oi  book-case.  But  had  this  been  meant  it  would  have  been  mentioned  after 
the  books,  not  before  them.  We  may  assume  that  the  word  is  a  transliteration  of  the 
Latin  poewula,  and  meant  a  long  thick  cloak.  The  form  of  the  transliteration  might 
surprise  us,  but  it  is  another  incidental  mark  of  genuineness,  for  it  comes  from  the  form 
which  the  work  took  in  Syriac,  ]V"?D.  Even  if  jvto  be  pallium,  we  see  that  in  Syriac  D  re- 
presents rr.  Modern  ingenuity  sees  in  it  a  sacrificial  vestment — a  chasuble  ! 

1  Many  will  recall  the  striking  and  pathetic  parallel  to  this  request  in  the  letter 
written  by  the  martyr  William  Tyndale,  from  the  damp  cells  of  Vilvorde,  in  the  winter 
before  his  death,  asking,  for  Jesus'  sake,  for  a  warmer  cap,  and  something  to  patc\i  hia 
leggings,  and  a  woollen  shirt,  and,  above  all,  his  Hebrew  Bible,  Grammar,  and  Dictionary : 
"  Quamobrem  tuam  dominationem  rogatum  habeo,  idque  per  Dominum  Jesum,  ut  si 
mihi  per  hiernen  hio  manendum  sit,  solicites  apud  dominum  comuiissarium,  si  forte 
dignari  velit,  de  rebus  meis  quas  habet  mittere  calidiorem  birethum.  Frigus  enirn  patior 
in  capite  nimiuin  .  .  .  calidiorem  quoque  tunicam,  nam  haec,  quam  habeo,  admodum 
tenuis  est.  Item  pannum  ad  caligas  deficiendas.  Duplois  (sic)  detrita  eat,  oaniiseae 
detritao  aunt  etiam.  Camiseam  laneam  habet  si  mittere  velit.  .  .  .  Mnxinie  autein 
omnium  tuam  clementiam  rogo  atque  obsecro  tit  ex  animo  agere  relit  apud  dominum 
oojnmigsarjvua  tjuatcuub  dignari  mini  velit  Sill.  Helraicam,  Gmmaiaticam 


GREAT  MOSQUE  AT  TARSUS. 

(From  a  .SfceicTi  by  Rev.  E.  J.  Davis.) 


PAUI/8   LAST  IJBTTKB.  688 

ttiZia — the  papyrus  books — few  we  may  b«  rare,  but  old  friends.  Perhaps 
he  had  bonght  them  when  he  was  a  student  in  the  school  of  Gamaliel  at 
Jerusalem;  or  they  may  have  been  given  him  by  his  wealthier  converts.1 
The  papyrus  books,  then,  let  Timothy  bring,  but  especially  the  parchments— 
the  vellum  rolls.  What  were  these  ?  Perhaps  among  them  was  the  diploma 
of  his  Roman  franchise ;  or  were  they  precious  rolls  of  Isaiah  and  the  Psalms, 
and  the  lesser  Prophets,  which  father  or  mother  had  given  him  as  a  life-long 
treasure  in  the  far-off  happy  days  when,  little  dreaming  of  all  that  would 
befall  him,  he  played,  a  happy  boy,  in  the  dear  old  Tarsian  home  ?  Dreary 
and  long  are  the  days — the  evenings  longer  and  drearier  still — in  that  Roman 
dungeon ;  and  it  will  be  a  deep  joy  to  read  once  more  how  David  and  Isaiah, 
in  their  deep  troubles,  learnt,  as  he  had  learnt,  to  suffer  and  be  strong.  A 
simple  message,  then,  about  an  old  cloak  and  some  books,  but  very  touching. 
They  may  add  a  little  comfort,  a  little  relief,  to  the  long-drawn  tedium  of 
these  last  dreary  days.  Perhaps  he  thinks  that  he  would  like  to  give  them, 
as  his  parting  bequest,  to  Timothy  himself,  or  to  the  modest  and  faithful 
Luke,  that  their  true  hearts  may  remember  him  when  the  sea  of  life  flows 
smooth  once  more  over  the  nameless  grave.  It  would  be  like  that  sheepskin 
cloak  which  centuries  afterwards  the  hermit  Anthony  bequeathed  to  the 
Archbishop  Athanasius — a  small  gift,  but  all  he  had.  Poor  inventory  of  a 
saint's  possessions !  not  worth  a  hundredth  part  of  what  a  buffoon  would  get 
for  one  jest  in  Caesar's  palace,  or  an  acrobat  for  a  feat  in  the  amphitheatre ; 
but  would  he  have  exchanged  them  for  the  jewels  of  the  adventurer  Agrippa, 
or  the  purple  of  the  unspeakable  Nero  P  No,  he  is  much  more  than  content. 
His  soul  is  joyful  in  God.  If  he  has  the  cloak  to  keep  him  warm,  and  the 
books  and  parchments  to  teach  and  encourage  him,  and  Mark  to  help  him  in 
various  ways,  and  if,  above  all,  Timothy  will  come  himself,  then  life  will  have 
shed  on  him  its  last  rays  of  sunshine ;  and  in  lesser  things,  as  well  as  in  all 
greater,  he  will  wait  with  thankfulness,  even  with  exultation,  the  pouring  out 
in  libation  of  those  last  few  drops  of  his  heart's  blood,  of  which  the  rich  full 
stream  has  for  these  long  years  been  flowing  forth  upon  God's  altar  in  willing 
sacrifice.8 

But  there  are  no  complaints,  no  murmurs — there  is  nothing  querulous  or 
depressed  in  these  last  words  of  St.  Paul.  If  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  above 
all  this  one,  were  not  genuine,  they  must  have  been  written  by  one  who  not 
only  possessed  the  most  perfect  literary  skill,  but  who  had  also  entered  with 
consummate  insight  into  the  character  and  heart  of  Paul ; — of  Paul,  but  not 
of  ordinary  men,  even  of  ordinary  great  men.  The  characteristic  of  waning 
life  is  disenchantment,  a  sense  of  inexorable  weariness,  a  sense  of  inevitable 

et  Vooabularivm  H&raicum,  ut  eo  studio  tempus  conteram  .  .  .  "W.  Tindalus  "  (Life, 
by  Demaufl,  p.  475). 

1  See  Ewald,  Gcech.  iv.  626 ;  vi.  891.  Paul  seems  to  have  been  a  student  all  his  life, 
as  far  as  circumstances  permitted.  Acts  xxvi.  24,  -.a.  n-oAAa  <rt  ypaf^xara  ««  jjuwtav  tr«p»Tp«r««. 

*  Of.  PhiL  ii.  17.  Seneca,  when  dying,  sprinkled  the  bystanders  with  his  blood, 
Kiying,  "  Libare  se  liquorem  ilium  Jovi  Liberator! "  (Tao.  Ann,  xv.  64).  So,  too^  Thrasea, 
"Libetmi*,  iuquit,  Jovi  Liberator!"  (Id.  rvi.  35). 


684  THE  LITE  AND  WORK  OF  St. 

disappointment.  We  trace  it  in  Elijah  and  John  the  Baptist ;  we  trace  it  in 
Marcus  Aurelius ;  we  trace  it  in  Francis  of  Assisi ;  we  trace  it  in  Roger 
Bacon ;  we  trace  it  in  Luther.  All  is  vain  !  We  have  lived,  humanly  speaking, 
to  little  or  no  purpose.  "  We  are  not  better  than  our  fathers."  "  Art  thou  He 
that  should  come,  or  do  we  look  for  another ?  "  "I  shall  die,  and  people  will 
say,  '  We  are  gkd  to  get  rid  of  this  schoolmaster.' "  "  My  order  is  more 
than  I  can  manage."  "  Men  are  not  worth  the  trouble  I  have  taken  for  them." 
"  We  must  take  men  as  we  find  them,  and  cannot  change  their  nature."  To 
some  such  effect  have  all  these  great  men,  and  many  others,  spoken.  They 
have  been  utterly  disillusioned ;  they  have  been  inclined  rather  to  check  the 
zeal,  to  curb  the  enthusiasm,  to  darken  with  the  shadows  of  experience  the 
radiant  hopes  of  their  younger  followers.  If  in  any  man  such  a  sense  of 
disappointment — such  a  conviction  that  life  is  too  hard  for  us,  and  that  we 
cannot  shake  off  the  crushing  weight  of  its  destinies — could  have  ever  been 
excusable,  it  would  have  been  so  in  St.  Paul.  What  visible  success  had  he 
achieved? — the  founding  of  a  few  Churches  of  which  the  majority  were 
already  cold  to  him  ;  in  which  he  saw  his  efforts  being  slowly  undermined  by 
heretical  teachers ;  which  were  being  subjected  to  the  fiery  ordeal  of  terrible 
persecutions.  To  the  faith  of  Christ  he  saw  that  the  world  was  utterly 
hostile.  It  was  arraying  against  the  Cross  all  its  intellect  and  all  its  power. 
The  Christ  returned  not ;  and  what  could  His  doves  do  among  serpents,  His 
sheep  among  wolves  ?  The  very  name  "  Christian "  had  now  come  to  be 
regarded  as  synonymous  with  criminal ;  and  Jew  and  Pagan — like  "  water 
with  fire  in  ruin  reconciled."  amid  some  great  storm — were  united  in  common 
hostility  to  the  truths  he  preached.  And  what  had  he  personally  gained  P 
Wealth  ? — He  is  absolutely  dependent  on  the  chance  gifts  of  others.  Power  ? 
— At  his  worst  need  there  had  not  been  one  friend  to  stand  by  his  side. 
Love  ? — He  had  learnt  by  bitter  experience  how  few  there  were  who  were  not 
ashamed  even  to  own  him  in  his  misery.  And  now  after  all — after  all  that 
he  had  suffered,  after  all  that  he  had  done — what  was  his  condition?  He  was 
a  lonely  prisoner,  awaiting  a  malefactor's  end.  What  was  the  sum-total  of 
earthly  goods  that  the  long  disease,  and  the  long  labour  of  his  life,  had 
brought  him  in  ?  An  old  cloak  and  some  books.  And  yet  in  what  spirit  does 
he  write  to  Timothy  ?  Does  he  complain  of  his  hardships  ?  Does  he  regret 
his  life  ?  Does  he  damp  the  courage  of  his  younger  friend  by  telling  him  that 
almost  every  earthly  hope  is  doomed  to  failure,  and  that  to  struggle  against 
human  wickedness  is  a  fruitless  fight  P  Not  so.  His  last  letter  is  far  more 
of  a  pcean  than  a  miserere.  For  himself  the  battle  is  over,  the  race  run,  the 
treasure  safely  guarded.  The  day's  work  in  the  Master's  vineyard  is  well- 
nigh  over  now.  When  it  is  quite  finished,  when  he  has  entered  the  Master's 
presence,  then  and  there — not  here  or  now — shall  he  receive  the  crown  of 
righteousness  and  the  unspeakable  reward.  And  so  his  letter  to  Timothy  is 
all  joy  and  encouragement,  even  in  the  midst  of  natural  sadness.  It  is  the 
young  man's  heart,  not  the  old  man's,  that  has  failed.  It  is  Timotheus,  not 
Paul,  who  is  in  danger  of  yielding  to  languor  and  timidity,  and  forgetting 


THK   END.  685 

that  the  Spirit  which  God  gave  was  one  not  of  fear,  but  of  power,  and  of  love, 
and  of  a  sound  mind.  "  Bear,  then,  afflictions  with  me.  Be  strong  in  the 
grace  of  Jesus  Christ.  Fan  np  the  flame  in  those  whitening  embers  of  zeal 
and  courage.  Be  a  good  soldier,  a  true  athlete,  a  diligent  toiler.  Do  you 
think  of  my  chains  and  of  my  hardships  ?  They  are  nothing,  not  worth  a 
word  or  a  thought.  Be  brave.  Be  not  ashamed.  We  are  weak,  and  may  be 
defeated;  but  nevertheless  God's  foundation-stone  stands  sure  with  the 
double  legend  upon  it — one  of  comfort,  one  of  exhortation.  Be  thou  strong 
and  faithful,  my  sou  Timothy,  even  unto  death."  So  does  he  hand  to  the 
dear  but  timid  racer  the  torch  of  truth  which  in  his  own  grasp,  through  the 
long  torch-race  of  his  life,  no  cowardice  had  hidden,  no  carelessness  had 
dimmed,  no  storm  had  quenched.  "  Glorious  Apostle !  would  that  every 
leader's  voice  could  burst,  as  he  falls,  into  such  a  trumpet-sound,  thrilling 
the  young  hearts  that  pant  in  the  good  fight,  and  must  never  despair  of  final 
victory."1  Yes,  even  so : 

"  Hopes  have  precarious  life ; 

They  are  oft  blighted,  withered,  snapped  sheer  off 

In  vigorous  youth,  and  turned  to  rottenness ; 

£ut  faithfulness  can  feed  on  suffering  t 

And  knows  no  disappointment"  s 


CHAPTER   LVIL 

THE   END. 

"  Bonum  agonem  subituri  estis,  in  quo  agonothetee  Deus  vivus  eat,  xystarchea 
Spiritus  Sanctus,  corona  aeternitatis,  bravium  angelicae  substantiae,  politia  in  coelis, 
gloria  in  saecula  saeculorum.'1 — TEKT.  ad  Mart.  3. 

"  Qui  desiderat  dissolvi  et  ease  cum  Christo,  patienter  vivit  et  deleotabiliter 
moritur." — AUG. 

"  Lieblich  wie  der  Iris  Farbenf  euer 
Auf  der  Donnerwolke  duft'gem  Thau 
Schimmert  durch  der  Wehmuth  diistern  Schleier 
Hier  der  Euhe  heitres  Blau." — SCHJXLEH. 

DID  Paul  ever  get  that  cloak,  and  the  papyri  and  the  vellum  rolls  P  Did 
Timothy  ever  reach  him  p  3  None  can  tell  us.  With  the  last  verse  of  the 
Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  we  have  heaud  Paul's  last  word.  In  some  Roman 
basilica,  perhaps  before  Helius,  the  Emperor's  freedman,  in  the  presence  of 
some  dense,  curious,  hostile  crowd  of  Jews  and  Pagans,  he  must  have  been 
heard  once  more,  in  his  second  defence,  or  on  the  second  count  of  the  indict- 
ment against  him ;  and  on  this  occasion  the  majority  of  the  assessors  must 
have  dropped  the  tablet  0 — the  tablet  of  condemnation — into  the  voting  urn, 
and  the  presiding  judge  must  have  pronounced  sentence  of  decapitation  on 

i  Martinean,  Hours  of  Thought,  p.  89.  *  "Spanish  Gypsy." 

3  That  he  did  is  a  reasonable  conjecture,  and  it  not  improbably  led  to  that  imprison- 
ment the  liberation  from  whioh  is  mentioned  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (xiii.  23) 


686  THE   LIFB  AND  "WOBK  OV  ST.  PATTL. 

one  who,  though  condemned  of  holding  a  dangerous  and  illegal  superstition, 
was  still  a  Roman  citizen.  Was  he  alone  at  his  second  trial  as  at  his  first  ? 
Did  the  Gentiles  again  hear  of  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection  P  Did  he  to  them, 
as  to  the  Athenians,  prove  that  the  God  whose  Gospel  he  had  been  commissioned 
to  proclaim  was  the  same  God  after  whom  their  fathers  had  ignorantly  groped, 
if  haply  they  might  find  him,  in  the  permitted  ages  of  ignorance,  before  yet, 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  times,  the  shadow  on  the  dial-plate  of  eternity  had 
marked  that  the  appointed  hour  had  come  ?  All  such  questions  are  asked  in 
vain.  Of  this  alone  we  may  feel  convinced — that  he  heard  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced upon  him  with  a  feeling  akin  to  joy — 

"  For  sure,  no  gladlier  does  the  stranded  wreck 
See,  through  the  grey  skirts  of  a  lifting  squall, 
The  boat  that  bears  the  kope  of  life  approach 
To  save  the  lif e  despaired  of,  than  he  saw 
Death  dawning  on  him,  and  the  end  of  all." 

But  neither  respecting  his  bearing  nor  his  fate  do  we  possess  any  particulars. 
If  any  timid,  disheartened,  secret  Christians  stood  listening  in  the  crowded 
court— if  through  the  ruined  areas  which  marked  the  sites  of  what  had  once 
been  shops  and  palaces  before  the  conflagration  had  swept  like  a  raging  storm 
through  the  narrow  ill-built  streets — if  from  the  poorest  purlieus  of  the  Tras- 
tevere  or  the  gloomy  haunts  of  the  catacomb  any  converted  slave  or  struggling 
Asiatic  who  believed  in  Jesus  had  ventured  among  the  throng,  no  one  has  left 
a  record,  no  one  even  told  the  story  to  his  fellows  so  clearly  as  to  leave  behind 
him  a  floating  tradition.  We  know  nothing  more.  The  last  word  has  been 
spoken.  The  curtain  has  fallen  on  one  of  the  noblest  of  human  lives. 

They  who  will  may  follow  him  in  imagination  to  the  possible  scene  of  his 
martyrdom,  but  every  detail  must  be  borrowed  from  imagination  alone.  It 
may  be  that  the  legendary  is  also  the  real  scene  of  his  death.  If  so,  accom- 
panied by  the  centurion  and  the  soldiers  who  were  to  see  him  executed, 
he  left  Rome  by  the  gate  now  called  by  his  name.  Near  that  gate, 
close  beside  the  English  cemetery,  stands  the  pyramid  of  C.  Cestius,  and 
under  its  shadow  lie  buried  the  mortal  remains  of  Keats  and  Shelley,  and  of 
many  who  have  left  behind  them  beloved  or  famous  names.  Yet  even  amid 
those  touching  memorials  the  traveller  will  turn  with  deeper  interest  to  the 
old  pyramid,  because  it  was  one  of  the  last  objects  on  which  rested  the  eyes 
of  Paul.  For  nearly  three  miles  the  sad  procession  walked ;  and  doubtless 
the  dregs  of  the  populace,  who  always  delight  in  a  scene  of  horror,  gathered 
round  them.  About  three  miles  from  Rome,  not  far  from  the  Ostian  road, 
is  a  green  and  level  spot,  with  low  hills  around  it,  known  anciently  as  Aquae 
Salviae,  and  now  as  Tre  Fontane.  There  the  word  of  command  to  halt  was 
given;  the  prisoner  knelt  down;  the  sword  flashed,  and  the  life  of  the  greatest 
of  the  Apostles  was  shorn  away.1 

1 1  have  Dot  thought  it  desirable  to  trouble  the  reader  with  Medieval  legends  of  St. 
Paul's  death,  which  may  be  seen,  by  those  who  list,  in  Fabrioius,  Cod.  Apocr.  iii.  632 ; 
Ordwietw  Yltaii*.  ii.  2, 


THE   EITD.  687 

*  Dulce  sonat  sethere  vox 
Hiems  tranfriit,  occidit  nor, 
Imber  abiit  moeetaque  crux, 
Lucet  io  perpetna  lux." — BALDH. 

Earthly  favour  could  hardly  have  seemed  more  absolute.  No  blaze  of 
glory  shone  on  his  last  hours.  No  multitudes  of  admiring  and  almost  ador- 
ing brethren  surrounded  his  last  days  "with  the  halo  of  martyrdom.  Near 
the  spot  where  he  was  martyred  it  is  probable  that  they  laid  him  in  some 
nameless  grave — in  some  spot  remembered  only  by  the  one  or  two  who  knew 
and  loved  him.  How  little  did  they  know,  how  little  did  even  he  understand, 
that  the  apparent  earthly  failure  would  in  reality  be  the  most  infinite  success ! 
Who  that  watched  that  obscure  and  miserable  end  could  have  dreamed  that 
Borne  itself  would  not  only  adopt  the  Gospel  of  that  poor  outcast,  but  even 
derive  from  his  martyrdom,  and  that  of  his  fellow  Apostle,  her  chief  sanctity 
and  glory  in  the  eyes  of  a  Christian  world ;  that  over  his  supposed  remains 
should  rise  a  church  more  splendid  than  any  ancient  basilica  ;  and  that  over 
a  greater  city  than  Home  the  golden  cross  should  shine  on  the  dome  of  a 
mighty  oathedral  dedicated  to  his  name  ? 

How  little  did  men  recognise  his  greatness !  Here  was  one  to  whom  no 
single  man  that  has  ever  lived,  before  or  since,  can  furnish  a  perfect  parallel. 
If  we  look  at  him  only  as  a  writer,  how  immensely  does  he  surpass,  in  his 
most  casual  Epistles,  the  greatest  authors,  whether  Pagan  or  Christian,  of 
his  own  and  succeeding  epochs.  The  younger  Pliny  was  famous  as  a  letter- 
writer,  yet  the  younger  Pliny  never  produced  any  letter  so  exquisite  as  that 
to  Philemon.  Seneca,  as  a  moralist,  stood  almost  unrivalled,  yet  not  only  is 
clay  largely  mixed  with  his  gold,  but  even  his  finest  moral  aphorisms  are 
inferior  in  breadth  and  intensity  to  the  most  casual  of  St.  Paul's.  Epictetus 
and  Marcus  Aurelins  furnish  us  with  the  purest  and  noblest  specimens  of 
Stoic  loftiness  of  thought,  yet  St.  Paul's  chapter  on  charity  is  worth  more 
than  all  they  ever  wrote.  If  we  look  at  the  Christian  world,  the  very  greatest 
worker  in  each  realm  of  Christian  service  does  but  present  an  inferior  aspect 
of  one  phase  only  of  Paul's  many-sided  pre-eminence.  As  a  theologian,  as 
one  who  formulated  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  we  may  compare  him  with 
St.  Augustine  or  St.  Thomas  of  Aqninum  ;  yet  how  should  we  be  shocked  to 
find  in  him  the  fanciful  rhetoric  and  dogmatic  bitterness  of  the  one,  or  the 
scholastic  aridity  of  the  other !  If  we  look  at  him  as  a  moral  reformer,  we 
may  compare  him  with  Savonarola ;  but  in  his  practical  control  of  even  the 
most  thrilling  spiritual  impulses — in  making  the  spirit  of  the  prophet  subject 
to  the  prophet — how  grand  an  exemplar  might  he  not  have  furnished  to  the 
impassioned  Florentine  !  If  we  consider  him  as  a  preacher  we  may  compare 
him  with  St.  Bernard ;  yet  St.  Paul  would  have  been  incapable  of  the 
unnatural  ascetism  and  heresy- hunting  hardness  of  the  great  Abbot  of 
Clairvaux.  As  a  reformer  who  altered  the  entire  course  of  human  history, 
Luther  alone  resembles  him  ;  yet  how  incomparably  is  the  Apostle  superior 
to  Luther  in  insight,  in  courtesy,  in  humility,  in  dignity,  in  self-control !  As 


688  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ST.  PAWL. 

a  missionary  we  might  compare  him  to  Xavier,  as  a  practical  organiser  to  St. 
Gregory,  as  a  fervent  lover  of  souls  to  Whitefield,  and  to  many  other  saints 
of  God  in  many  other  of  his  endowments ;  but  no  saint  of  God  has  ever 
attained  the  same  heights  in  so  many  capacities,  or  received  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  in  so  rich  an  outpouring,  or  borne  in  his  mortal  body  such  evident 
brand-marks  of  the  Lord.  In  his  lifetime  he  was  no  whit  behind  the  very 
chiefest  of  the  Apostles,  and  he  towers  above  the  very  greatest  of  all  the 
saints  who  have  since  striven  to  follow  the  example  of  his  devotion  to  his 
Lord. 

"  God  buries  his  workmen,  but  carries  on  their  work."  It  is  not  for  any 
earthly  rewards  that  God'a  heroes  have  sought — not  even  for  the  reward  of 
hoping  in  the  posthumous  success  of  the  cause  to  which  they  have  sacrificed 
their  lives.  All  questions  of  success  or  failure  they  have  been  content  to  leave 
in  the  hands  of  God.  Their  one  desire  has  been  to  be  utterly  true  to  the  best 
that  they  have  known ;  their  prayers  have  all  been  simplified  to  this  alone — 
"  Teach  me  to  do  the  thing  that  pleaseth  Thee,  for  Thou  art  my  God ;  let 
Thy  loving  Spirit  lead  me  into  the  land  of  righteousness."  That  God  has 
seemed  to  be  careless  of  their  individual  happiness  they  would  be  the  last  to 
complain  ;  though  He  slay  them,  yet  do  they  trust  in  Him.  Failure  was  to 
St.  Paul  a  word  unknown.  He  knew  that  to  fail — or  seem  to  fail — in  the 
cause  of  God,  was  to  succeed  beyond  the  dreams  of  earthly  ambition. 

His  faith  had  never  wavered  amid  life's  severest  trials,  nor  his  hope  grown 
dim  amid  its  most  bitter  disappointments ;  and  when  he  passed  from  the 
dungeon  and  the  martyrdom  to  his  crown  of  righteousness,  he  left  the  life 
which  ho  had  sown  to  be  quickened  by  the  power  of  God  in  the  soil  of  the 
world's  history,  where  it  shall  continue  to  bear  fruit  until  the  end  of  time, 
amid  the  ever-deepening  gratitude  of  generations  yet  unborn.  One  who  had 
lived  with  him,  and  knew  his  thoughts  and  hopes,  and  had  himself  preached 
the  faith  of  Christ  in  days  when  to  bo  a  Christian  was  to  suffer  as  a  Christian, 
has  written  of  God's  heroes  in  words  which  St.  Paul  would  have  endorsed, 
and  in  which  he  would  have  delighted,  "  These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having 
received  the  promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded 
of  them,  and  embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they  were  strangers  and 
pilgrims  on  the  earth.  For  they  that  say  such  things  declare  plainly  that  they 
seek  a  country ;  and  truly,  if  they  had  been  mindful  of  that  country  whence 
they  came  out,  they  might  have  had  opportunity  to  have  returned.  But  now 
they  desire  a  better  country,  that  is,  an  heavenly  ;  wherefore  God  is  not 
ashamed  to  be  called  their  God,  for  He  hath  prepared  for  them  a  city." 


APPENDIX. 

EXCUKSUS   I  (p.  16). 
THB  STYLE  or  ST.  PAUL  AS  ILLUSTBATIVB  01-  HIS  OHABAOTEB, 

THE  reader  may  be  interested  to  see  collected  a  very  few  of  the  varying  estimates  of  the 
style  of  the  great  Apostle  : — 

LONQINUS  [Paul  as  master  of  the  dogmatic  style] — 

Kopwyis  £  «<rr<i>  Adyov  froirbs  tal  ^potTJfioTos 
'EAAqvucoO  Ai)fios#«JT;S,/t.  T.  A.  rrpbs  TOVTOIS  IlauXos  6  Tap<revs 
oiru'a  /ecu  TTpwrdv  <#")/ii  TrpotOTafievoi'  Soy/xaros  awfrofiet'icTOV. 

ST.  CHBYBOSTOM  [Paul  a  champion,  and  his  Epistles  a  wall  of  adamant  round  the 
Church}— 

utnrep  yap  m^os  e(  aSa.uarros  (tarourKtvao^iv  oyru  TO* 
iravrayov  TTJS  oiKOViienn  «KxA))<ri'a5  TO,  rovrov  TeiX'C"  Ypafifxara'  xat 
xdBarrep  ri;  apiorni;  y«vfai6TaTo«  larqxc,  K.  r.  X.  (quoting  2  Cor.  z.  5). 

De  Sacerdotio,  1,  iv.  7. 

ST.  JEBOME  [Paul's  words  thunders]. — "  Paulum  proferam  quem  quotiescunque  lego, 
video  mihi  non  verba  audire  sed  tonitrua  .  .  .  Videntur  quidem  verba  simplicis  et 
quasi  innocentis  hominis  et  rusticani  et  qui  nee  facere  nee  declinare  noverit  insidias, 
sed  quocunque  respexeris  fulmina  sunt.  Haeret  in  causS. ;  capit  omne  quod  tetigerit ; 
tergum  vertit  ut  superet ;  fugam  simulat  ut  occidat "  (Ep.  ad  Pammach.  68, 18). 
DANTE — 

"  Vidi  due  vecchi  in  abito  dispari 

Ma  pari  hi  atto,  ognuno  onesto  e  sodo. 
L'un1  si  monstrava  alcun  de  famigliari 
Di  quel  sommo  Ippocrate,  che  natura 
Agli  animali  f  e'  ch'  ella  ha  piu  oari. 

Monstrava  1'  altro 2  la  contraria  cura 
Con  una  spada  lucida  ed  acuta  * 
Tal  che  di  qua  del  rio  mi  fe'  paura. 

Purgatorio..  xxix.  184. 

Andowi  poi  lo  Vat  d'  elezwne  * 
Per  recarne  conf orto  a  quella  Fede 
Ch'  d  principio  alia  via  di  salvazione. 

Inferno,  tt.  2& 

LUTHER. — "PauluB  meras  flammas  loquitur  tamque  vehementer  ardet  ut  incipiat 
etiam  quasi  Angelis  maledicere  "  (in  Gal.  L). 

"In  S.  Paulo  und  Johanne  ist  eine  sonderliche  furtrenliche  Gewissheit  und  Plero- 
phoria;  sie  reden  davon  als  sey  es  schon  allbereit  vor  Augen"  (Tisch'reden,  iv.  399;  ed. 
Forstemann). 

Bishop  HEBBERT  DE  LOSINGA. — "  Certe,  fratres,  verba  Pauli,  non  verba  hominis,  sed 
aeiheris  tonitrua  esse  videntur  "  (Life  and  Sermons,  ii.  309). 

EBASMUS  [Paul's  style  like  a  thunderstorm]. — "  Non  est  cujusvis  hominis  Paulinum 
pectus  effingere ;  tonat,  fulgurat,  meras  flammas  loquitur  Paulua  "  (ad  Col.  iv.  10). 

i  St.  Luke,  "the  beloved  physician."  »  St.  Paul.  s  The  Eiiistlea 

•  oxevos  «Aoy^«  (Acts  ix.  15).    For  other  allusions  see  Farad.  zviiL  181,  xxi.  119. 

23* 


690  APPENDIX. 

And  again  [Paul's  rhetorical  skill  like  the  course  of  a  stream] — "Sudatur  ab 
eruditissimis  viris  in  oxplicandis  poetarum  ac  rhetorum  consiliis,  at  in  hoc  rhetore  longe 
plus  sudoris  est  ut  deprehendas  quid  agat,  quo  tendat,  quid  velit;  adeo  stropharum 
plenus  est  undique,  absit  invidia  verbis.  Tanta  vafrities  est,  non  credas  eundem 
hominem  loqui.  Nunc  ut  turbidus  quidam  fons  sensim  ebullit,  mox  torrentis  in  morem 
ingenti  fragore  devolvitur,  multa  obiter  secum  rapiens,  nunc  placide  leniterque  fluit, 
nunc  late  velut  in  lacum  diffusus  exspatiatur.  Rursum  alicubi  se  condit  ac  diverse  loco 
subitus  emicat;  cum  visum  est  miris  maeandris  nuno  has  nunc  illas  lambit  ripaa, 
aliquoties  procul  digressus,  reciprocate  flexu  in  sese  redit  "  (Id.  Paraph.  Dedicat.). 

CASAUBON. — "Ille  solus  ex  omnibus  scriptoribus  non  mihi  videtur  digitis,  calamo,  et 
atramento  scripsisse,  verum  ipso  corde,  ipso  affectu,  et  denudatis  visceribus "  (Adver- 
saria, ap.  Wolf.,  p.  135). 

On  the  other  hand,  CALVIN,  after  alluding  to  his  anakolutha,  ellipses,  &c.,  adds — 
"Quae  suiit  quidem  orationis  vitia  sed  quibus  nihil  majestati  decedit  caelestis  sapientiae 
quae  nobis  per  apostolum  traditur.  Quin  potius  singulari  Dei  providentia  factum  est,  ut 
sub  contemptibtti  verborum  humilitate  altissima  haec  mysteria  nobis  traderentur,  ut  non 
humanae  eloquentiae  potentia,  sed  sola  spiritus  efficaci&  niteretur  nostra  fides." 

HEMSTKRHUSIUS  [Character  of  St.  Paul's  flowers  of  speech]. — "Eloquentia  ejus  non 
in  nosculis  verborum  et  rationin  calamistratae  pigmentis  .  .  .  sed  indolis  excelsae  notis 
et  pondere  rerum.  ...  In  ejus  epistolis  nullae  non  exstant  oratorum  figurae,  non  illae 
quidem  e  rhetorum  loculis  et  myrotheciis  depromptae  .  .  .  Verum  affectus  animi 
coelesti  ardore  inflammatus  haec  scriptionis  lumina  sponte  sub  manum  praevenientia 
pergignebat."1 

REUSS. — "  Ordinairement  il  d6bute  par  des  phrases  on  ne  peut  plus  embarrassees.  .  .  . 
Mais  dds  qu'il  a  trouvS  la  bonne  veine,  combien  son  style  n'est  il  pas  le  fiddle  miroir  de 
son  individuality  J  n  n'est  ni  correct,  ni  classique ;  il  lui  manque  la  cadence  sonore.  Des 
antitheses  paradoxales,  des  gradations  pleines  d'effet,  des  questions  pressantes,  des 
exclamations  passioimees,  des  ironies  qui  terrassent  1'opposition,  une  vivacite,  enfin,  qui 
ne  permet  aucun  repos  au  lecteur,  tout  cela  alterne  avec  des  epanchements  naifs  et 
touchants,  qui  achevent  de  gagner  1«  coeur  "  (TMol.  Chrdt.  ii.  11). 

R.  H.  HUTTOS. — "  Who  that  has  studied  St.  Paul  at  all  has  not  noticed  the  bold 
soaring  dialectic  with  which  he  rises  from  the  forms  of  our  finite  and  earthly  thought  to 
the  infinite  and  the  spiritual  life  embodied  in  them?  What  ease  and  swiftness  and 
power  of  wing  in  this  indignant  upward  flight  from  the  petty  conflicts  of  the  Corinthian 
Church;  the  upward  flight  which  does  not  cease  till  the  poor  subjects  of  contention, 
though  he  himself  was  one  of  them,  seem  lost  like  grains  of  sand  beneath  the  bending 
sky !  .  .  .  The  all  but  reckless  prodigality  of  nature  which  made  St.  Paul  now  and  then 
use  a  stratagem,  and  now  and  then  launch  a  thunderbolt,  in  the  fervour  of  his  preaching, 
is  the  spring  of  all  his  finest  touches,  as  when  he  wishes  himself  accursed  from  Christ  if 
it  could  save  his  Jewish  brethren  "  (Essays,  321 — 330). 

The  AUTHOR  of  "Saul  of  Tarsus." — "If  he  staggers  under  the  greatness  of  his 
subject,  if  he  is  distracted  by  the  infinity  of  the  interests  which  he  treats,  if  every  word 
which  rises  to  his  lips  suggests  a  host  of  profound  and  large  associations,  if  the  care  of  all 
the  Churches,  gives  all  the  facts  a  varied  but  a  real  significance.  .  .  .  Human  speech 
must  be  blamed  for  its  poverty ;  human  experience,  which  has  developed  speech,  for  its 
narrowness.  His  life  was  ever  in  his  hand,  his  heart  was  on  his  lips.  The  heart  was 
often  too  great  for  the  speech  "  (p.  229). 

MAKTINEAU. — "What  can  be  more  free  and  buoyant,  with  all  their  variety,  than  his 
writings?  Brilliant,  broken,  impetuous  as  the  mountain  torrent  freshly  filled,  never 
smooth  and  calm  but  on  the  eve  of  some  bold  leap,  never  vehement  but  to  fill  some 
receptacle  of  clearest  peace,  they  present  everywhere  the  image  of  a  vigorous  Joy. 

1  See  next  Excursus. 


TflB   STYJhiC    OK    ST.   PAUL.  691 

Beneath  the  forms  of  their  theosophic  reasonings,  and  their  hints  of  deep  philosophy, 
there  may  be  heard  a  secret  lyric  strain  of  glorious  praise,  bursting  at  times  into  open 
utterance,  and  asking  others  to  join  the  chorus.  .  .  .  THs  life  was  a  battle  from  which 
in  intervals  of  the  good  fight,  his  words  arose  as  the  song  of  victory  "  (Hours  of  Thought, 
p.  15G). 

PBOF.  JOWETT  speaks  of  him  as  teaching  his  great  doctrines  "in  broken  words  and 
hesitating  form  of  speech,  with  no  beauty  or  comeliness  of  style." 

BATJB,  after  pointing  out  how  the  style  is  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  forms  and 
elements  of  thought,  and  that  thoughts  not  only  follow  hard  on  thoughts,  but  tfeat  those 
thoughts  succeed  each  other  as  determinations  and  memento  of  some  one  conception  that 
is  greater  than  all  of  them,  so  that  the  thought  unfolds  itself,  as  it  were,  out  of  its  own 
depths,  and  determines  itself  by  taking  up  its  own  momenta,  adds: — "Hence  the  peculiar 
stamp  of  the  Apostle's  language :  it  is  distinguished  on  the  one  hand  for  precision  and 
compression;  on  the  other  hand  it  is  marked  by  a  harshness  and  roughness  which 
suggests  that  the  thought  is  far  too  weighty  for  the  language,  and  can  scarcely  find  fit 
form  for  the  superabundant  matter  it  would  fairly  express  "  (Pa/ul.  ii.  281). 

HAUSRATH. — "Es  ist  schwer  diese  Individualitat  zu  charakterisiren  in  der  sich 
christliche  Liebesfiille,  rabbinischer  Scharfsinn,  und  antike  Willenskraft  so  wunderbar 
mischen.  Wie  wogt  stromt,  drangt  alles  in  seinen  Briefen.  "Welch  ein  Wechsel 
gluhender  Ergusse  und  spitzer  Beweisfuhrungeii  1  Hier  iiberwindet  er  das  Heidenthum 
mit  der  Liebesfiille  Jesu.  Dort  knebelt  er  das  Judenthum,  mit  dessen  eigenen  Gurtel 
rabbinischer  Schriftbeweise.  Am  wenigsten  hat  die  Phantasie  Antheil  an  seiner  inneru 
Welt.  Die  Sprache  ist  oft  hart  und  herb  well  nur  die  Gedanke  sie  geboren  hat.  Die 
Bilder  die  er  braucht  sind  meistens  farblos.  ,  .  .  Das  ist  die  Schranke  seines 
Geisteslebens.  Darin  blieb  er  stets  ein  Rabbi "  (Der  Ajtostel  Paulug,  502). 

RENAN  [Paul's  style  like  a  conversation]. — "Le  style  epistokire  do  Paul  est  le  plus 
personnel  qu'il  y  ait  jamais  eu ;  la  langue  y  est,  si  j'ose  le  dire,  broyee ;  pas  une  phrase 
suivie.  n  est  impossible  de  violer  plus  audacieusement,  je  ne  dis  pas  le  genie  de  la 
langue  grecque,  mais  la  logique  du  langage  humain ;  on  dirait  une  rapide  conversation 
st6nographiee  et  reproduite  sans  corrections.  .  .  .  Un  mot  1'obsede.  ...  Ce  n'est  pas 
de  la  sterilit6;  c'cst  de  la  contention  de  1'esprit  et  une  complete  insouciance  de  la 
correction  du  style  "  (St.  Paul,  p.  232). 

The  less  favourable  of  the  above  estimates  shelter  themselves  in  part  under  the  asser- 
tion that  St.  Paul  recognised  the  popular  and  vulgar  character  of  his  own  style.  But 
such  passages  as  2  Cor.  xi.  6  do  not  bear  out  these  remarks.  His  language  was  not 
indeed  of  a  class  which  would  have  gained  applause  from  pedantic  purists  and  Atticising 
professors ;  it  bears  about  the  same  relation  to  the  Greek  of  Plato  as  the  Latin  of  Milton 
does  to  that  of  Cicero.  But  this  fact  constitutes  its  very  life.  It  is  a  style  far  too  vivid, 
far  too  swayed  and  penetrated  by  personal  emotion,  to  have  admitted  of  being  polished 
into  conformity  with  the  artificial  standards  and  accuracies  of  the  schools.  It  more 
closely  resembles  the  style  of  Thucydides  than  that  of  any  other  great  writer  of  anti- 
quity. 1  That  many  defects  in  it  can  b«  pointed  out  is  certain ;  but  then  in  one 
important  point  of  view  these  defects  are  better  than  any  beauties,  because  they  are  due 
to  Paul's  individuality.  In  whole  sections  of  his  Epistles  his  very  want  of  style  is  his 
style.  His  style,  like  that  of  every  great  man,  has  the  defects  of  it*  qualities.  "  Le 
style,"  said  Buffon,  not  (as  he  is  usually  quoted)  cfest  Vhornme,  but  "o'est  de  I'homme."8 

»  Bee  some  good  remarks  of  Banr  :— "Bach  passages  as  1  Cor.  Iv.  12,  13  ;  vlL  29—31 ;  9  Cor. 
vl.  9,  10,  have  the  true  ring  of  Thucydides,  not  only  hi  expression,  but  in  the  style  of  the  thought. 
The  genuine  dialectic  spirit  appears  in  both,  in  the  low  of  antithesis  and  contrast,  rising  not  un- 
frcquently  to  paradox.  .  .  .  With  both  these  men  the  ties  of  national  particularism  give  way  before 
the  generalising  tendency  of  their  thought,  and  cosmopolitanism  takes  the  place  of  nationalism" 
(Paul.  ii.  281).  He  refers  to  Bauer's  Philelogfa  ThiMydideo-Paulvna,  1778,  which  1  have  not  seen. 

*  D'Alembert,  (Suvret,  vL  18.  The  "de  "  in  Buffon'g  phrase  occurs  in  later  edition*. 


692  APPENDIX. 

He  has,  as  every  great  writer  has,  "  le  style  de  an.  yensee :"  he  has  the  style  of  genius,  a 
he  has  not  the  genius  of  style.1 

After  quoting  such  remarkable  and  varied  testimonies,  it  Is  needless  for  me  to  write 
an  essay  on  the  Apostle's  style.  That  he  could  when  he  chose  wield  a  style  of  remark- 
able finish  and  eloquence  without  diminishing  his  natural  intensity,  is  proved  by  the 
incessant  assonances  and  balances  of  clauses  and  expressions  (parechesis,  parisosis,  paro- 
moiosis)  in  such  passages  as  2  Oor.  vi.  3 — 11.  And  yet  such  is  his  noble  carelessness  of 
outward  graces  of  style,  and  his  complete  subordination  of  mere  elegance  of  expression 
to  the  purpose  of  expressing  his  exact  thought,  that  he  never  shrinks,  even  in  his  grandest 
outbursts  of  rhythmic  eloquence,  from  the  use  of  a  word,  however  colloquial,  which 
expresses  his  exact  shade  of  meaning.3 

All  that  has  been  written  of  the  peculiarities  of  St.  Paul's  style  may,  I  think,  be 
summed  up  in  two  words — Intense  Individuality.  His  style  is  himself.  His  natural 
temperament,  and  the  circumstances  under  which  that  temperament  found  its  daily 
sphere  of  action  ;  his  training,  both  Judaic  and  Hellenistic ;  his  conversion  and  sanctin- 
cation,  permeating  his  whole  life  and  thoughts — these  united  make  up  the  Paul  we  know. 
And  each  of  these  has  exercised  a  marked  influence  on  his  style. 

1.  The  absorption  in  the  one  thought  before  him,  which  makes  him  state  without  any 
qualification  truths  which,  taken  in  the  whole  extent  of  his  words,   seem  mutually 
irreconcilable ;  the  dramatic,  rapid,  overwhelming  series  0f  questions,  which  show  that 
in  his  controversial  passages  he  is  always  mentally  face  to  face  with  an  objection  ;s  the 
centrifugal  force  of  mental  activity,  which  drives  him  into  incessant  digressions  and 
goings  off  at  a  word,  due  to  his  vivid  power  of  realisation ;  the  centripetal  force  of 
imagination,  which  keeps  all  these  digressions  under  the  control  of  one  dominaut 
thought;4  the  grand  confusions  of  metaphor;5  the  vehemence  which  makes  him  love 
the  most  emphatic  compounds;6  the  irony7  and  sarcasm;8  the  chivalrously  delicate 
courtesy;9  the  overflowing  sympathy  with  the  Jew,  the  Pagan,  the  barbarian — with 
saint  and  sinner,  king  and  slave,  man  and  woman,  young  and  old ; 10  the  passion,  which 
now  makes  his  voice  ring  with  indignation11  and  now  break  with  sobs  ;13  the  accumula- 
tion and  variation  of  words,  from  a  desire  to  set  forth  the  truths  which  he  is  proclaiming 
In  every  possible  light ; 1S  the  emotional  emphasis  and  personal  references  of  his  style ; M 
the  depressed  humility  passing  into  boundless  exultation;15 — all  these  are  due  to  his 
natural  temperament,  and  the  atmosphere  of  controversy  and  opposition  on  the  one  hand, 
and  deep  affection  on  the  other,  in  which  he  worked. 

2.  The  rhetorical  figures,  play  of  words,  assonances,  oxymora,  antitheses,  of  his  style, 
which  are  fully  examined  in  the  next  Excursus  ;  the  constant  widening  of  his  horizon ; 16 
the  traceable  influence  of  cities,  and  even  of  personal  companions,  upon  his  vocabulary  ;17 
the  references  to  Hellenic  life ; 18  the  method  of  quoting  Scripture  ;  the  Rabbinic  style  of 
exegesis,  which  have  been  already  examined  w — these  are  due  to  his  training  at  Tarsus  and 
Jerusalem,  his  life  at  Corinth,  Ephesus,  and  Borne. 

3.  The  daring  faith  which  never  dreads  a  difficulty  ;x  the  unsolved  antinomies,  which, 
though  unsolved,  do  not  trouble  him ; Jl  "  the  bold  soaring  dialectics  with  which  he  rises 

1  Grimm,  Corretp.,  1788. 

*  E.g.,  ij/co(Ai<rio  and  irtpmpevtT<u  in  1  Cor.  xiii.  8,  4  ;  Ka.revaf>KT\cra,  2  Cor.  xi.  8  ;  airoKoifiotrcu. 
Gal  v.  12.  *  Rom.  x. ;  2  Cor.  vi.,  zL  and  pass-im. 

*  2  Cor.  ii.  14—16  ;  xii.  1—3,  12—16  ;  Eph.  iv.  8—11  ;  v.  12—15  ;  and  Paley,  Hor.  Paulinae, 
vi.  8.  •  2  Cor.  iii.  1 ;  Col.  ii.  6.  '  Especially  compounds  in  vircp.    Supra,  p.  844. 

i  1  Cor.  iv.  8  ;  2  Cor.  xi.  16—20,  and  passim.  •  Phil.  iii.  2  ;  Gal.  iv.  17  ;  v.  12,  and  passim. 

»  1  Cor.  i — iii.  ;  Philem.  and  Phil,  passim  ;  Acts  xxvi.  29,  &c. 

10  Bom.  i.,  iv.,  and  all  the  Epistles  passim.          u  Galatians,  Corinthians,  Phil.,  2  Tim.,  passim. 
M  All  the  Epistles  passim.  ls  All  the  Epistles  passim.  lt  All  the  Epistles  passim 

«  2  Cor.  U.  14  ;  Rom.  vii.  25,  &c. 

18  "Eo  (ordine  Epistolarum  chronologico)  constitute    .    .    .    inerementum  Apostoli  spirituale 
cogiioseitur^  (Bengel,  ad  Bom.  L  1).  17  V.  sworn,  pp.   2?3,  691. 

18  Bee  Excursus  III.  w  See  Excursus  IV.  *>  Bee  Ep.  to  Romans,  pawn. 

a  See  Excursus  XXI.,  "  Th«  Antinomies  of  St.  Paul" 


BHETOBIO  0V  ST.   PAUL. 

from  the  forma  of  one  finite  and  earthly  thought  to  the  infinite  and  spiritual  life  em- 
bodied in  them;"  the  "language  of  ecstasy,"  which  was  to  him,  as  he  meant  it  to  be  to 
his  converts,  the  language  of  the  work-day  world ;  that  "transcendental-absurd,"  as  it 
seems  to  the  world,  which  was  the  very  life  both  of  his  conscience  and  intellect,  and  made 
him  what  he  was  ;  the  way  in  which,  as  with  one  powerful  sweep  of  the  wing,  he  passes 
from  the  pettiest  earthly  contentions  to  the  spiritual  and  the  infinite ;  the  "  shrinking 
Infirmity  and  self-contempt,  hidden  in  a  sort  of  aureole  of  revelation,  abundant  beyond 
measure  " ' — this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  his  citizenship  was  in  heaven,  his  life  bid  with 
Christ  in  God. 


EXCURSUS   H.    (p.  15). 

BHETOBIO  OF  ST.  PATH. 

M.  KENAN,  in  describing  the  Greek  of  St.  Paul  as  Hellenistic  Greek  charged  with  Hebra- 
isms and  Syriacisms  which  would  be  scarcely  intelligible  to  a  cultivated  reader  of  that 
period,  says  that  if  the  Apostle  had  ever  received  even  elementary  lessons  in  grammar  or 
rhetoric  at  Tarsus,  it  is  inconceivable  that  he  would  have  written  in  the  bizarre,  incorrect, 
and  non-Hellenic  style  of  his  letters. 

Now,  I  do  not  think  that  St.  Paul  would  have  made  about  his  own  knowledge  of 
Greek  the  same  remarks  as  Josephus  does,  who  tells  us  that  he  had  taken  great  pains  to 
master  the  learning  of  the  Greeks  and  the  elements  of  the  Greek  language.  St.  Paul  had 
picked  up  Greek  quite  naturally  in  a  Greek  city,  and  I  think  that  I  have  decisively  proved 
that  he  could  not  have  possessed  more  than  a  partial  and  superficial  acquaintance  with 
Greek  literature.  But  I  have  little  doubt  that  he,  like  Josephus,  would  have  said  that 
he  had  so  long  accustomed  himself  to  speak  Syriac  that  he  could  not  pronounce  Greek 
with  sufficient  exactness,  and  that  the  Jews  did  not  encourage  the  careful  endeavour  to 
obtain  a  polished  Greek  style,  which  they  looked  on  as  an  accomplishment  of  slaves  and 
freedmen.*  Yet,  after  reading  the  subjoined  list  of  specimens  from  the  syntaxis  ornata 
of  St.  Paul,  few,  I  think,  will  be  able  to  resist  the  conviction  that  he  had  attended,  while 
at  Tarsus,  some  elementary  class  of  Greek  rhetoric.  I  will  here  content  myself  with  brief 
references ;  if  the  reader  should  feel  interested  in  the  subject,  I  have  gone  further  into  it 
in  the  Expositor  for  1879. 

Figures  (ox1?!"""^)  are  divided  by  Greek  and  Latin  rhetoricians  into  Figures  of  Language 
(figurae  verborum,  elocutions,  A.«|e<as),  and  Figures  of  Thought  (sententiae,  fitavow).  They 
drew  this  distinction  between  them — that  figures  of  language  disappear,  for  the  most 
part,  when  the  words  and  their  order  are  changed ;  whereas  figures  of  thought  still  sur- 
vive.8 The  distinction  is  superficial  and  unsatisfactory,  and  it  would  perhaps  be  more 
to  the  point  to  divide  figures  into  : — 1.  Those  of  colour,  dependent  on  the  imagination ; 
as  metaphor,  simile,  allegory,  personifications,  metonyms,  catachresis,  &c.  2.  Those  of 
form,  ranging  over  an  immense  field,  from  the  natural  expression  of  passions,  such  as 
irony,  aposiopesis,  erotesis,  &c.,  down  to  mere  elegancies  of  verbal  ornament,  and  varia- 
tions of  style  (such  as  zeugma,  &c.)  or  of  order  (such  as  chiasmos,  hysteron-proteron,  &c.). 
3.  Those  of  sound,  dependent  on  analogies  of  words,  resemblance  of  sounds,  unconscious 
associations  of  ideas,  &c.,  such  as  alliteration,  parisoais,  paromoiosis,  parechesis,  parono- 
masia, oxymoron,  plays  on  names,  &c. 

1.  On  figures  of  Colour  I  have  already  touched.4  Ax  specimens  of  the  two  other 
classes  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles  we  may  take  the  following — referring  to  my  Brief  Greek 
Syntax,  or  to  other  books,  for  an  explanation  of  the  technical  terms : — 

1  See  2  Cor.  r, — xiii.  passim,  and  some  excellent  remarks  in  Button's  Eaofus,  i.  825 — 880. 
«  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  11,  §  2. 

*  So  Aquila,  Rutilius,  &c.,  following  Cic.  Dt  Oral.  S.  See  Voss,  Instt.  Oral  r.  1 ;  Glaaa 
Pkilologia  Sacra,  p.  963,  Ac.  »  Supra,  pp.  10—18. 


694  APPENDIX. 

2.    Figures  of  Form, 

Chiasmus  —  a  crosswise  arrangement  of  words  or  clauses,  as  in  Rom.  iL  6,  10.    (Thia 
figure  is  much  more  common  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.)    A  good  instance  is  — 

1  Cor.  iii.  17,  '*  Tt*  T°v  **""'  T0"  ®«o«  <j>deCpfi,  <j>6tpel  O.VTOV  o  Stos. 


1  Cor.   V.   1,  2,   «XeW      i      «      .      4  TO  ((TfOV  TOVTO  TTOlTJOOf  . 

2  Cor.  vii.  11,  ev  ™  irpay^aTi. 

1  Thess.  iv.  6,  supra,  p.  334. 
Litotes. 

Rom.  L  28.  irately  TO.  fiij  xafiijKotra. 

Eph.  V.  4,  Ttt  OVK  arrj/covra. 

1  Cor.  xi.  22,  eircwwrw  ifias  «v  TOU'TU  ;  OIIK  «T<UM»> 

Fhilem.  18,  «  W  n  ^Sucrj 

Philem.  11,  TOV  ITOTS  o-ot 
Afeioszs.1    Rom.  iii.  9,  ov  iravrcos  (comp.  1  Cor.  xvi  12). 

1  Cor.  i.  29,  OTTWS  fti)  Kaux^OTjrai  ira<7a  aapf  . 

Rom.  iii.  20,  *f  ipytav  vo^ov  ov  $ucaiw0ij<reTai  iroflra  <rop{. 

Antithesis,  Parisosis,  Paro)noiosis,y  Paradox,  Alliteration,  Erottsis,  Epexergasia  —  all 
exhibited  in  such  passages  of  deep  emotion  as  2  Cor.  vi.  &—  16  ;  xi.  22—28  ;  1  Cor.  iv. 
8—  11. 


Phil.  iv.  8,  5<rci    .    .    .    ova.    .    .    .    «.  T.  X.    «I  TW,  «.  r.  A. 

Phil.  ii.  1,  tl  TIS    .    .    .    el  TI    .    .    •    K.  T.  A. 

2  Cor.  vii.  11,  aAAo   .    .    .    oAAA   .    .   .    «.  T.  A. 
Aposiopesis. 

2  Thess.  ii.,  ride  supra,  p.  346. 
Proparaitesis,  Protherapeia,  Captatio,  Benevolmtiac,  &o. 

The  Thanksgiving  at  the  beginning  of  every  Epistle  except  the  "  Galatiana." 

Rom.  ix.  1—5. 

Acts  rriv.  10  (before  Felix),  and  xxvi.  2,  3,  before  Agripp*. 
Paraldpsis  (praeterita). 

Philem.  19,  ^va.  /tij  \«yo>  <roi. 

1  Thess.  iv.  9,  ov  xPe'at<  «x««  v.aii'  Ypaiecretu  (cf.  v.  1  ;  2  Cor.  ix,  1). 
Intentional  Andkoluthon* 

Gal.  ii.  6,  a>ro  Se  Tiv  5o(covvro>v  tlval  n.    .    .     . 

2  Thess.  ii.  3,  on  sav  ti.it  eMy  q  a.no&Ta.O'Ca.  npuiror     .    .    « 
2  Thess.  iL  7,    MoVoi»  o  Kcae\<av  opri     .     .     . 

(The  Anakolutha  of  mere  inadvertence,   due  to   the  eager  rapidity  of   thought,   are 
incessant  in  St.  Paul,  as  in  Rom.  ii.  17  —  21  ;  xvi.  25  —  27,  &c.,  <fec.) 
Climax. 

Rom.  v.  3—5. 
Rom.  viii.  29,  30. 
Rom.  x.  14,  15,  &o. 
Zeugma. 

1  Cor.  iii.  2,  yoAa  v^as  nroVura  KOI  ov  pptan*.. 

1  Tim.  iv.  3,  Kia\.vovruv  ymuiv,  inrf\to$<n  ^pw^aTur. 
Oxymoron. 

2  Cor.  vL  9,  Savarov/ievoi  «oi  iSoii  fifttv  (being  slain,  yet  behold  we  live). 
1  Tim.  v.  6,  fuo-o  reffvriKtv  (living  she  ia  dead). 

Rom.  i.  20,  TO  iopara  avroO    .    .    .    KajBopaTtu  (TTig  unseen  things  are  clearly  seen). 
Rom.  xii.  11,  r§  nrov5jj  (A»)  oxinjpol  (in  Acwfc  not  sluggish). 

i  Thctw  UKagw  are,  however,  idiomatic  (Wiu«r,  f  36).  »  See  Arist.  RM.  UI.  9,  9. 


RHETORIC  OP   ST.    PAUL.  695 

1  Thess.  iv.  11,  <#>cXoT4ju.et<rtat  ij9vxa£eti>  (be  ambitious  to  be  quiet), 
1  Thess.  i.  6,  iv  exfyei  iroXAjj  jiera  x»p««  (joyous  affliction). 

1  Cor.  viii.  10,  ouco8o|ui}fcj<reTai  (ruinous  edification). 
Rom.  L  22,  $>awto»r«  elvo*  <ro«£oi  i(uapa.vdr)<Ta.v. 

Eph.  vi.  15,  Gospel  of  peace  part  of  panoply  of  war. 

2  Cor.  viii.  2,  deep  poverty  abounding  to  wealth  of  liberality. 
2  Cor.  xii.  10,  "  When  I  am  weak,  then  I  am  strong." 

It  will  be  sufficient  to  make  the  merest  reference  to  Anadiplosis  (Bom.  be.  30;  Phil. 
Q.  8);  Epanodos  (GaL  ii.  16);  Epanorthosis  (Rom.  viii.  34;  Gal  ii.  20;  iii.  4,  &c.); 
Asyndeton  (1  Cor.  xv.  43 ;  1  Tim.  i.  17 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  2—5,  10,  11,  &c.) ;  Antiptosis  (Col.  iv. 
17  ;  Gal.  vi.  1 ;  iv.  11) ;  Hyperbaton  (2  Thess.  ii.  5,  &o.) ;  Alliteration  (1  Cor.  ii.  13  ; 
2  Cor.  viii.  22 ;  ix.  8,  &c.) ;  Constructio  praegnans  (2  Thess.  ii.  4,  &o.) ;  and  many  minor 
figures. 

3.  Coming  to  figure*  of  the  third  division — Sound — we  find  that  St.  Paul  makes 
most  remarkable  and  frequent  nee  of  paronomasia. 

E.g.  (a)  Paronomasia,  dependent  on  the  change  of  one  or  two  letter! l  :— 
Horn.  L  29,  iropvfi*  irovyptq    .     .     .      <}>66vov,  <j>6vov, 
Rom.  L  30,  twrtverovs,  aa-vvStrovs, 
Rom.  xi.  17,  W«S  '"?*'  K^iiSuv  «s«<,\ao"J7)cra>', 
Cf .  Heb.  V.  8,  «fwi9e»  <!<£'  S>v  iiraOtv. 

(03  Paronomasia,  dependent  on  a  play  of  words  of  similar  sound  or  derivation.*  Thin 
is  St.  Paul's  most  frequent  rhetorical  figure  : — 

2  Cor.  iiL  2,  ytvaxneo/tei'i)  KOI  a.v ayiyuoxo/ue'i'ij.  * 

Rom.  i.  28,  OVK  «So»afia<rav  (they  refused)  .  .  .  «W«tfioi»  vovv  (g.  refute  mind). 
Phil.  iii.  2,  3,  (tararofiij  (concision)  .  .  ,   wtpiTo^J)  (circumcision). 

Rom.  ii.  1,  icptVew  .   .   .   KaTcucpiVas. 

I  Cor.  xL  29,  teq.,  8iouep«r«  .   .   .   upC^a.  ,   ,   ,   Kartucpi/ta. 

Rom.  xii.  3,  "Not  to  be  high-minded  (vir«p4>pov«tv)  above  what  we  ought  to  be 
minded  (<£povelv),  but  to  be  minded  so  as  to  be  sober-minded"  (fna^povtlv).    Of. 

Thuc.  ii.  62,  ov  <f>pov>jf«iTi  ftovov  oAAa  icol  «coereu^povi)|xaTi. 

1  Cor.  vii.  31,  xpw^evoi  .   .  .  (taraxp<ij*evoi, 

2  Cor.  vi.  10,  s\°vr<x  .   .  .  «OT«'XOVT€S. 

2  Cor.  iv.  8,  an-opovjievo*  ,   ,   ,   ifcwropovf/.«i'Oi. 

2  Tim.  iii.  4,  <J>tXij8ovoi  .  .  .  ^tAdSsot. 

2  Thess.  iii.  11,  not  busy  (epyafojwovs)  but  busybodies  (w«pi  tpyofojtA'ow).* 

1  Tim.  v.  13,  ow  jxdi'OK  8c  apyai,  o\\a  xal  repttpyoi  (female  toilers  in  the  school  of 

idleness). 

Cornelius  a  Lapide  and  others  have  imagined  a  latent  paronomasia  in  1  Cor.  1.  23, 
24.  If  St.  Paul  thought  in  Syriac  it  might  be  "To  the  Jews  a  micsol,  and  to  the  Greeks 
a  mashcal,  but  to  those  that  are  called — Christ  the  secel  of  God."  But  this  is  probably  a 
mere  ingenious  fancy.* 

(y)  A  third  class  of  paronomasias  consists  in  plays  on  names,  of  which  we  find  three  in 
St.  Paul  :— 

Philem.  11,  'Oiojo-i^w  .  .  .  oxp>j<"W'i 

Philem.  20,  Not,  »y<6  ami  o^otfiqv. 

i  See  Cic.  De  Orat.  ii.  68 ;  Auot  ad  Hermin,  Iv.  S4 ;    Qotot  Imtt.  Orat.  Ix  3,  «9,  &C.    An 

instance  in  our  Prayer  Book  is — "  among  all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life." 

*  A  curious  instance  occurs  In  our  E.  V.  of  James  1.  C,  "  He  that  toavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the 
sea,"  where  it  does  not  occur  in  the  original. 

1  Compare  Acts  viii.  80,  and  Basil's  remark  to  the  Emperor  Julian,  oWyv*x  ov*  fyvws ,  «i  yap 
?yuo-  OVK  ax  xareyvuf . 

*  So  Domitius  Afer,  "  No^i  agentes  sed  satagentes  "  (Quint,  vl.  8,  M). 
»  Qlas^PhUolog.  Sacra,  p.  959. 

*  F.  supra,  ad  foe.,  where  I  have  noticed  the  possible  second  paronomasia  in  axpnvror, 


696  APPENDIX. 

PhiL  iv.  8,  2vfvy«~yvij<rt€,  "yoke-fellow  by  name  and  yoke-fellow  by  nature,"1 
St.  Jerome  imagines  another  in  Gal.  i.  6,  where  he  thinks  that  "ye  are  being  removed" 
(u'ia.Tidc<rOe)  is  a  play  on  the  name  Galatse  and  the  Hebrew  Galal,  "  to  roll." 

Since,  then,  we  find  upwards  of  fifty  specimens  of  upwards  of  thirty  Greek  rhetorical 
figures  in  St.  Paul,  and  since  they  are  far  more  abundant  in  his  Epistles  than  in 
other  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  and  some  are  found  in  him  alone,  may  we  not  con- 
clude that  as  a  boy  in  Tarsus  he  had  attended  some  elementary  class  in  Greek  rhetoric, 
perhaps  as  a  part  of  his  education  in  the  grammatical  knowledge  of  the  language  ?  Pro- 
fessional rhetoricians  abounded  in  Tarsus,  and  if  Paul's  father,  seeing  the  brilliant 
capacity  of  his  son,  meant  him  for  the  school  of  Gamaliel,  he  may  have  thought  that  an 
elementary  initiation  into  Greek  rhetoric  might  help  to  pave  the  way  for  his  future  dis- 
tinction among  the  Hillelites  of  Jerusalem  ;  since,  as  we  see  from  the  Talmud,  this  kind 
of  knowledge  opened  to  some  Babbis  a  career  of  ambition.  If  so,  the  lessons  which  the 
young  Saul  learnt  were  not  thrown  away,  though  they  were  turned  to  very  different 
objects  than  had  been  dreamt  of  by  one  who  intended  his  boy  to  be,  like  himself,  a 
Pharisee  of  Pharisees  and  a  Hebrew  of  Hebrews. 


EXCURSUS  HI.  (p.  23). 
THE  CLASSIC  QUOTATIONS  AND  ALLUSIONS  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

L  THOSE  who  maintain  the  advanced  classic  culture  of  St.  Paul,  rely  on  the  fact  that  he 
quotes  from  and  alludes  to  Greek  and  Roman  writers. 

Three  quotations  are  incessantly  adduced.  One  is  the  hexameter  written  by  the 
Cretan  poet  Epimenides  in  such  stern  and  contemptuous  depreciation  of  the  character  of 
his  own  countrymen — 

KpvjTe;  atl  «/»€VOT<u,  Kaxa  Bripla.,  yaorepe?  apyai'.3 

("  Liars  the  Cretans  aye,  ill  monsters,  gluttonous  idlers.") 

Another  is  the  half -hexameter  in  which  he  reminds  his  audience,  in  the  speech  on  the 
Areopagus,  that  certain  also  of  their  native  poets  had  said — 

Tov  yap  KOU,  yw>?  eo>iev.* 
("  For  we  are  also  his  offspring.") 

A  third  is  the  moral  warning  to  the  Corinthians — 

QStipovonv  TJOjj  xP1<rra  o/xiXiou  Kajtai  * 
("  Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners ; ") 

or  it  may,  perhaps,  be  more  correctly  rendered,  "  Evil  associations  destroy  excellent 
characters." 

Now,  if  we  look  a  little  closer  at  these  quotations,  we  shall  see  how  very  little  proof 
they  furnish  of  anything  more  than  the  most  superficial  acquaintance  with  Greek  writers. 
The  first  of  them  is  just  such  a  current  national  characterisation 5  as  might  pass  every- 
where from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  which  St.  Paul  might  very  well  repeat  without  having 
read  a  line  of  the  poem  of  Epimenides  on  Oracles,  or  Callimachus's  Hymn  to  Zeus,  in 
both  of  which  it  occurs.6  The  second  is  a  recognised  commonplace  of  heathen  insight,  to 
which  many  parallels  might  be  quoted,  but  which  is  found  in  Oleauthos,"  nearly  in  the 
form  in  which  St.  Paul  quotes  it.  The  actual  quotation  is  from  one  of  those  tedious 

1  r.  tupra,ad  Joe.  *  Tit  L  12.  »  Acts  xvii  2a  *  1  Cor.  xv.  33. 

*  See.  as  to  the  Cretans,  Leonidas,  Anthol.  iii.,  p.  369 ;  Polyb.  vL  47 ;  Diod.  Sic.  xxii.  Fr.  ; 
Wetst  ad  loc. 

6  Callim.  Hymn,  in  Jov.  8.  Kptfr«T  an  \f/«0crrou,  xal  yap,  rafyov  c*  iva.  <mo  Kpijres  irnfTfjvavro, 
See  Chrysostom  and  Jerome  ad  Tit.  i.  12.  Moraow,  the  line  had  originated  one  of  the  commonest 
syllogistic  puzzles,  called  "the  Liars."  "Epimenides  said  that  the  Cretans  were  liars;  but 
Epimenidei  was  a  Cretan  ;  therefore  Epimenides  was  a  liar ;  therefore  the  Cretans  were  not  liars  ; 
therefore  Epimenides  was  not  a  liar,"  &o.  &c.  (Diog.  Laert  ii.  108.)  It  was  invented  by  Eubulides; 
cf.  Clc.  Civ.  ii  4,  "  mentions."  *  Gleanthes,  Hymn,  in  Jov.  6. 


CLASSIC  QUOTATIONS  OF  ST.  PATTL.  607 

poems  which  wore  most  in  vogue  at  this  period,  the  Phenomena  of  AratuB.1  With  the 
writings  of  this  poet  St.  Paul  may  have  become  acquainted,  both  because  they  are 
entirely  harmless — which  Is  more  than  can  be  said  of  almost  any  other  Pagan  production 
which  was  popular  at  that  time — and  because  Aratus  was  a  Cilician,  and  very  probably  & 
Tarsian.2  The  third  was  one  of  those  common  sententious  pieces  of  morality  which  had 
passed  into  a  proverb,  and  which  in  all  probability  Menander,  in  his  Thais,  had 
appropriated  from  some  lost  tragedy  of  Euripides.  St.  Paul  is  far  more  likely  to  have 
heard  it  used  in  common  parlance,  or  to  have  seen  it  inscribed  on  one  of  the  Hermse  at 
Tarsus  or  Athens,  than  to  have  read  it  in  Menander,  or  even— as  Socrates3  and 
Chrysostom  seem  to  think — in  one  of  the  Greek  tragedians.  It  is  further  remarkable 
about  these  quotations,  first,  that  all  three  of  them  were  so  current,  they  are  found  in  at 
least  two  poets  each ;  and  next,  that  two  of  them  occur  at  the  very  beginning  of  Hymna 
to  Zeus.  If  any  collection  of  Hymns  to  Zeus  was  to  be  found  on  any  bookstall  at  Athens, 
it  is  exactly  the  kind  of  book  into  which  St.  Paul's  human  sympathies  may  have  induced 
him  to  dip  in  support  of  his  liberal  and  enlightened  view  that  God  had  revealed  Himself 
even  to  the  heathen,  to  a  degree  sufficient  for  their  happiness  and  their  salvation,  had 
they  chosen  to  make  use  of  the  light  they  had.4  A  third  very  remarkable  point  is  that 
In  the  quotation  from  Menander  or  Euripides,  whichever  it  may  have  been,  the  great 
majority  of  the  best  MSS.  read  xpi<"-a,  not  X/"?"*'5 — a  reading  which  may  therefore  be 
regarded  as  certainly  genuine,  since  no  one  would  have  dreamt  of  altering  the  correct 
metre,  if  it  had  been  given  in  the  original  manuscript.  Now  if  such  be  the  case,  it  seems 
to  indicate  that  the  ear  of  St.  Paul  was  unfamiliar  with — or,  which  comes  to  the  same 
thing,  was  indifferent  to — even  so  common  a  rhythm  as  that  of  the  iambic  verse.  Our 
conclusion,  therefore,  is  that  St.  Paul's  isolated  quotations  no  more  prove  a  study  of 
Greek  literature  than  the  quotation  of  such  a  national  epigram  as 

"  Inglese  italianato,  Dlavolo  incarnate," 

»r  of  such  a  line  M 

"  Lasciate  ognl  speranza  voi  ch'  entrate," 

would  necessarily  prove  that  an  English  writer  was  a  proficient  in  the  literature  of  Italy, 
or  had  read  the  poems  of  Dante.  St.  Paul  was  a  man  of  remarkable  receptivity,  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  an  habitual  quoter.  Except  in  Epistles  intended  for  readers  to  whom  Old 
Testament  quotations  would  have  been  unintelligible,  he  can  hardly  write  five  sentences 
in  succession  without  a  Biblical  reference.  The  utter  absence  of  any  similar  use  of  even 
the  noblest  of  the  classic  writers,  is  a  proof  either  that  he  had  intentionally  neglected 
them,  or  that,  at  any  rate,  they  had  left  little  or  no  mark  on  an  intellect  so  sensitive  to 
every  cognate  influence.  For  that  it  was  not  only  the  Scriptures  of  the  Jewish  canon 
which  thus  clung  to  his  retentive  memory,  is  apparent  from  the  free  use  which  he  makes 
of  the  Book  of  "Wisdom,  and  perhaps  of  other  books  of  the  Jewish  Apocrypha.'  It  is  also 

1  Aratus  flourished  about  B.C.  270.  His  poems,  considering  that  they  only  bear  a  sort  of  dull 
resemblance  to  Thomson's  Seasons,  acquired  astonishing  popularity.  They  were  translated,  among 
others,  by  Cicero,  and  by  Cesar  Germanicus. 

*  Buhle,  Aratus,  ii.  429.  »  Hist.  Etc.  iil  16.  «  Acts  xiv.  17  ;  xvii.  27 ;  Rom.  i.  30. 

4  H,  A,  B,  D,  E,  F,  G,  &c.,  IOP£E<'W  rpayiKif.  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  L  14,  69 ;  Meineke,  Fr.  Com., 
p.  75. 

8  See  llansmth,  p.  23.  He  compares  1  Cor.  vi.  2  with  Wisd.  iil.  8,  the  image  of  the  Christian 
armour  with  Wisd.  v.  17,  the  metaphor  of  the  potter  making  one  vessel  to  honour  and  another  to 
dishonour  with  Wisd.  xy.  7.  The  memorable  thrice-repeated  saying,  "  Neither  circumcision  is  any- 
thing, nor  aucircuBiciBion  "  (QaL  v.  6 ;  vi.  15 ;  1  Cor.  vii.  19),  ia  by  Photius,  Syncellus,  and  others 
said  to  be  a  quotation  from  "  Revelation  of  Moses."  Dr.  Lightfoot  (on  GaL  vi.  17)  shows  that  there 
Is  some  reason  to  doubt  this,  and  says  that  "  a  sentiment  which  is  the  very  foundation  of  St.  Paul's 
teaching  was  most  unlikely  to  have  been  expressed  in  any  earlier  Jewish  writing ;  and  if  it  really 
occurred  in  the  apocryphal  work  in  question,  this  work  must  have  been  either  written  or  inter- 
polated after  St.  Paul's  time  (See  Liicke,  0/enb.  d.  JoJian.  i.,  p.  232)."  The  same  must  be  said  of  th« 
Book  of  Wisdom  on  the  ingenious  hypothesis  that  it  was  written  by  Apollos  (Plumptre,  Eaaxwitor. 
L  432.  *a.). 


698 

traceable  in  the  extent  to  which  he  is  constantly  haunted  by  a  word,1  and  in  the  new 
and  often  rare  expressions  which  are  found  hi  every  one  of  the  Epistles,3  and  which  show 
us  a  mind  keenly  susceptible  to  impressions  derived  from  the  circumstances  around  him, 
and  from  the  intercourse  of  those  among  whom  he  was  habitually  thrown. 

2.  But  though  the  Greek  culture  of  Tarsus  had  little  or  no  influence  on  the  current  of 
the  Apostle's  thoughts,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it  produced  no  influence 
at  all  on  his  life  or  on  his  style.    Besides  the  direct  quotations,  there  is  more  than  one 
isolated  passage  which  may  be  the  distant  echo  of  classical  reminiscences.     Such,  for 
instance,  is  the  apologue  of  the  self-asserting  members  in  1  Cor.  xii.,  which  reminds  us 
at  once  of  the  ingenious  fable  of  Menenius  Agrippa;3  and  the  fearful  metaphor  of 
Rom.  vii.  24,  which  has  less  probably  been  held  to  refer  to  a  true  story  of  the  family  of 
Regulus.4    And  it  is  far  from  improbable  that  it  was  in  some  "  class  of  rhetoric  "  at 
Tarsus  that  the  Apostle  acquired  the  germs,  at  any  rate,  of  that  argumentative  habit 
of  mind,  that  gift  of  ready  extempore  utterance,  and  that  fondness  for  chiasmus, 
paronomasia,  paraleipsis,  oxymoron,  litotes,  and  other  rhetorical  figures,  which  charac- 
terise his  style.*    It  was  there,  too,  that  he  may  have  learnt  that  ready  versatility,  that 
social  courtesy,  that  large  comprehensiveness,  that  wide  experience  and  capacity  for 
dealing  with  varied  interests  and  intricate  matters  of  business,  which  made  him,  in  the 
high  and  good  sense  of  the  word,  a  true  gentleman,  a  Christian  man  of  the  world.    He 
was,  in  heart  and  feeling,  an  ideal  specimen  of  what  the  Greeks  call  the  *<>*te  icayofldj — 
"  fair  and  good  " — and  his  intercourse  with  polished  Greeks  may  have  tended  to  brighten 
that  spirit  of  "entirely  genuine  Attio  urbanity"6 — a  spirit  more  flexible  and  more 
charming  than  natural  Semitic  dignity — which  breathes  in  every  line  of  the  Epistle  to 
Philemon. 

3.  It  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  this  natural  liberality  that,  in  spite  of  the  burning 
hatred  of  idolatry  which  we  have  already  noticed,  he  is  yet  capable  of  looking  with 
sympathy,  and  even  admiration,  on  some  of  those  nobler  and  more  innocent  aspects  of 
heathen  life  which  his  countrymen  indiscriminately  condemned.?     The  hallowing  of 
heathen  symbols,  the  use  of  metaphors  derived  from  heathen  life  for  the  illustration  of 
Christian  truths  and  Christian  duties,  is  a  very  remarkable  feature  of  the  style  of  St. 
Paul.     There  were  few  of  the  crimes  of  Herod  which  the  strict  Pharisees  had  regarded 
with  more  undisguised  horror  and  hatred  than  his  construction  of  a  theatre  at  Caesarea ; 
yet  St.  Paul  quite  freely,  and  without  misgiving,  adopting  a  metaphor  which  would  have 
caused  a  shudder  to  any  Palestinian  Pharisee,  compares  the  transient  fashion  of  the  world 
to  the  passing  scene  of  a  theatrical  display,  and  in  other  places  turns  the  whole  Universe 
into  a  theatre,  on  the  stage  of  which  were  displayed  the  sufferings  of  the  Apostles  as  a 
spectacle  to  angels  and  to  men.8    "We  recognise,  too,  the  more  liberal  son  of  the  Disper- 


vyii)S  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  Ac. 

»  Liv.  ii.  82.    There  is  also  a  remarkable  parallel  In  Sen.  Z>«  IT&,  1L  31. 

4  The  if  is  against  this  supposed  reference.  On  the  other  hand,  the  "  ptrikatharmata"  and 
peripsema  of  1  Cor.  iv.  13  may  be  an  allusion  to  ancient  piacular  offerings  (v.  supra,  ad  loc.). 

*  E.g.,  Chiasmm,  Rom.  1L  7 — 10;  Paronomasia,  2   Thess.  iii.  11  (supra,  ad  loc.) ;   Potraleipsi*, 
1  Thsss.  iv.  9,  r.  1 ;  Oxymoron,  Rom.  i.  20,  Philem.  11 ;  Litotes,  1  Cor.  xi.  22,  &c.    (See  Excursus  II., 
"  The  Rhetoric  of  St.  Paul." 

*  Krenkel.  p.  12.    See  Arist  if.  MOT.  ii.  9,  2. 

i  The  Talmud  abounds  in  passages  which  utter  nothing  but  unmixed  scorn  of  the  Gentiles, 
even  of  their  very  virtues.  In  Batoha  Bathra,  f.  10,  2,  there  is  a  notable  discussion  on  Prov.  xiv.  84. 
It  Is  rendered,  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  and  the  goodness  of  nations  is  tin."  R.  Eleazar 
explained  it  to  mean.  "Righteousness  exalts  Israel ;  but  the  goodness  of  other  nations  Is  sin,  being 
only  due  to  their  self-exaltation."  Rabban  Gamaliel  said,  "They  were  only  good  in  order  to  heap 
reproach  on  the  shortcomings  of  Israel ;"  and  Rabbi  Nechunya  Ben  Hakanah  punctuated  the  verse, 
"Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation  (Israel)  and  goodness:  but  the  nations,  a  sin-offering."  This 
explanation  was  adopted  by  Rabban  Johanan  Ben  Zakkai. 

*  1  Cor.  viL  81,  wtLpmyn  ri  V^^M.  TOW  wfcrftov.    1  Cor.  ir.  6,  Wco-por  eyjp^jj/ie»'.    (Of.  Hob.  x.  33, 


OLA.IMIG  QtJOTATlOWfi  «*  ST. 


eior.  the  man  whose  thoughts  have  been  enlarged  by  travel  and  by  intercourse  •with  men 
of  other  training  and  other  race  —  In  the  apparently  vivid  sympathy  with  which  St.  Paul 
draws  some  of  his  favourite  metaphors  from  the  vigorous  contests  of  the  Grecian  games.1 
Those  games  constituted  the  brightest,  the  most  innocently  attractive  feature  of  Hellenio 
life.  During  his  long  stay  at  Ephesus  and  at  Corinth  he  had  doubtless  witnessed  those 
wrestling  bouts,  those  highly-skilled  encounters  of  pugilism,  those  swift  races  to  win  the 
fading  garlands  of  laurel  or  pine,  which,  for  some  of  his  heathen  converts,  and  particularly 
for  the  younger  among  them,  could  not  at  once  have  lost  their  charm.  "We  can  well 
imagine  how  some  young  Ephesian  or  Corinthian  might  have  pressed  St.  Paul  to  come 
with  him  and  see  the  struggle  and  the  race  ;  and  how,  for  one  whose  sympathies  were 
BO  vividly  human,  there  would  have  been  a  thrilling  interest  in  the  spectacle  of  those 
many  myriads  assembled  in  the  vast  stadium  —  in  the  straining  eyes  and  eager  countenances 
and  beating  hearts  —  in  the  breathless  hush  with  which  they  listened  to  the  proclamations 
of  the  herald  —  in  the  wild-eyed  charioteers  bending  over  their  steeds,  with  the  hair  blown 
back  from  their  glowing  faces  —  in  the  resounding  acclamations  with  which  they  greeted 
the  youthful  victor  as  he  stepped  forward  with  a  blush  to  receive  his  prize.  Would 
these  fair  youths  do  so  much,  and  suffer  so  much,  to  win  a  poor  withering  chaplet  of 
pine  and  parsley,  whose  greenness  had  faded  before  the  sun  had  set,  and  would  they  use 
no  effort,  make  no  struggle,  to  win  a  crown  of  amaranth,  a  crown  of  righteousness  which 
could  not  fade  away  ?  And  that,  too,  when  here  the  victory  of  one  was  the  shame  and 
disappointment  of  all  the  rest,  while,  in  that  other  contest,  each  and  all  might  equally 
be  victors,  and  the  victory  of  each  be  a  fresh  glory  to  all  who  were  striving  for  the  same 
high  prize.2  And  as  such  thoughts  passed  through  his  mind  there  was  no  Judaic  nar- 
rowness, but  a  genial  sympathy  in  his  soul,  and  a  readiness  to  admire  whatever  was 
innocent  and  beautiful  in  human  customs,  when  he  wrote  to  his  converts  of  Corinth  — 
"  Know  ye  not  that  they  which  run  in  a  stadium  run  all,  but  one  receiveth  the  prize  ? 
So  run  that  ye  may  grasp.*  Now  every  one  that  strive  th  is  temperate  in  all  things  ; 
they,  however,  that  they  may  receive  a  corruptible  crown,  but  we  an  incorruptible. 
I,  then,  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly  ;  so  box  I,  as  one  who  beateth  not  the  air  ;  but  I 
bruise  my  body  with  blows  and  enslave  it,  lest  perchance,  after  making  proclamation  to 
others,  I  myself  should  prove  to  be  a  rejected  combatant."4 

4.  But  it  was  not  only  with  Greek  customs  that  St.  Paul  became  familiar  during  his 
residence  at  Tarsus.  It  is  clear  that  he  must  also  have  possessed  some  knowledge  of 
Roman  law.  His  thoughts  often  have  a  juridical  form.  He  speaks  of  the  "earnest- 
money  "  of  the  Spirit  ;  of  the  laws  of  inheritance  ;  of  legal  minority  ;  of  the  rights  of 
wives  and  daughters.6  The  privileges  and  the  prestige  conferred  upon  him  by  his  rights 
of  Civitas  would  have  inevitably  turned  his  thoughts  in  this  direction.  The  Laws  of  the 
Twelve  Tables  had  defined  the  authority  which  might  be  exercised  by  fathers  over  sons 
even  after  they  have  come  of  age  (patria  potcstas)  in  a  manner  which  Gaius  tells  us  was 
peculiar  to  Roman  jurisprudence,  with  the  single  exception  that  it  also  existed  among 
the  Gfalatce.  If  this  means  the  Galatians  it  would  give  peculiar  significance  to  the 
illustration  in  Gal.  iv.  1,  which  in  any  case  proves  St.  Paul's  familiarity  with  Roman 
institutions  which  had  no  existence  among  the  Jc/ws.  So,  too,  we  are  told  by  Sir  H.  Maine 
that  "  a  true  power  of  test  at  ion  "  was  nowhere  provided  for  in  the  Jewish  Code  of  Laws, 
and  that  the  Romans  "  invented  the  will."  Yet  to  the  rules  of  testamentary  bequests, 
and  their  irrevocability  in  certain  cases,  St.  Paul  seems  to  make  an  express  allusion  (Gal. 

i  1  GOT.  ix  24  ;  PhiL  iii.  14  ;  1  Tim.  vL  12  ;  2  Tim.  tv.  8  ;  tt.  5  ;  1  Theaa  it  IS. 

*  See  a  close  parallel  in  Sen.  Ep.  If  or.  Ixxviii.  16. 

*  KaToXaftrfre.     Cf.  Phil.  iii.  12  —  14,  Kara  ffxoirbv    .    .    .    iiri  rb  flpafielov. 

*  1  Cor.  ix.  24—27.    oJoxifiof,  vocabulum  agonislicwn,  (Beng.  ;  Philo,  de  Cherub.  §  22).    On  the 
temperate  training  of  competitors,  see  Hor.  A.  P.  412  ;  Bpict.  EncMr.  35  ;  Dissert,  iii.  15  :  Tert.  ad 
Mart.  3.    ae'pa  Stpeiv  is  to  tight  a  oxia/aiaxta  (i.e.,  make  mere  feints),  (Eustuth,  ail  II.  xx.  446  ;  Athen. 
154,  A,  4e.  ;  Viig.  &n.  v.  376).    Ki)pt£<u>  perhaps  "heralding  the  laws  of  the  contest    (JEsch. 
EVM.  566).  •  Gal.  iii.  17,  18  ;  iv,  1,  2  ;  Bom.  viL  2,  tc. 


700  APPHVDIX. 

ill.  15).  Again,  he  gives  prominence  to  the  Roman  idea  of  artificial  "adoption,"  even  to 
the  extent  of  making  an  apparent  reference  to  the  fact  that  a  son,  fully  adopted,  aban- 
doned the  domestic  rites  (sacra)  of  his  own  family,  and  attached  himself  to  those  of  his 
new  parent  (Gal.  iv.  5 ;  Eph.  i.  6).1 

5.  "We  may  select  one  more  passage — though  in  this  case  it  involves  no  admiration  or 
sympathy — to  show  how  accurately  the  customs  of  the  Pagan  life  had  been  observed  by 
St.  Paul  in  that  varied  experience  which  made  him,  in  the  best  sense,  a  citizen  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  passage  which,  from  the  absence  of  this  knowledge,  has  often  been  entirely 
misunderstood.  It  occurs  in  2  Cor.  ii.  14 — 16 :  "  Now  thanks  be  to  God,  who  always 
leadeth  us  everywhere  in  triumph  2  in  Christ,  and  who  by  us  maketh  manifest  the  odour 
of  the  knowledge  of  Him  in  every  place.  For  we  are  to  God  a  sweet  odour  of  Christ 
among  those  who  are  being  saved,  and  among  those  who  are  perishing.  To  the  latter  we 
are  an  odour  of  death  to  death,  to  the  former  an  odour  of  life  to  life." 

Here,  though  the  details  of  the  metaphor  are  intricately  involved,  the  general  con- 
ception which  was  in  the  thoughts  of  the  Apostle,  and  swayed  his  expression,  is  derived 
from  the  customs  of  a  Roman  triumph.  It  was  one  main  feature  of  such  "insulting 
vanities  "  that  the  chief  captives  were  paraded  before  the  victor's  path,  and  sweet  odours 
were  burnt  in  the  streets  while  his  car  climbed  the  Capitol.3  But  when  he  reached  the 
foot  of  the  Capitoline  hill  there  was  a  fatal  halt,  •which,  in  the  utter  deadness  of  all 
sense  of  pity,  might  be  a  moment  of  fresh  exultation  to  the  conqueror,  but  which  was 
death  to  the  captive ;  for  at  that  spot  the  captives  ceased  to  form  any  part  of  the  pro- 
cession, but  were  led  aside  into  the  rocky  vaults  of  the  Tullianum,  and  strangled  by  the 
executioner  in  those  black  and  fetid  depths.  And  thus  the  sweet  odours,  which  to  the 
victor — a  Marius  or  a  Julius  Caesar — and  to  the  spectators  were  a  symbol  of  glory  and 
success  and  happiness,  were  to  the  wretched  victims — a  Jugurtha  or  a  Vercingetorix — 
an  odour  of  death.  Reminded  of  this  by  his  use  of  the  words  "  leadeth  us  in  triumph," 
St.  Paul  for  an  instant  fancies  himself  a  captive  before  the  chariot  of  God — a  captive  in 
connection  with  Christ ;  and  then  another  passing  fancy  strikes  him.  The  preachers  of 
Christ  are  like  that  burning  incense  whose  perfume  filled  the  triumphant  streets,4  but 
they  were  not  an  odour  of  life  and  hope  to  all.  As  light  is  light  yet  pains  the  diseased 
eye,  as  honey  is  honey  yet  palls  on  the  sated  taste,5  so  the  odour  retained  its  natural 
fragrance,  although  to  many — through  their  own  sins  and  wilfulness — it  might  only 
breathe  of  death.  The  tidings  of  salvation  were  glad  tidings,  but  to  the  guiltily  hardened 
and  the  wilfully  impenitent  they  might  prove  to  be  tidings  of  wrath  and  doom.6 

Little,  perhaps,  did  it  occur  to  St.  Paul  as  he  wrote  those  words,  that  the  triumph  of 
God,  in  which  he  was  being  led  along  from  place  to  place  as  a  willing  victim,  might  end 
for  him  also  in  the  vaults  of  that  very  TuUianum  7— the  description  of  which  must  have 

1  These  instances  are  pointed  out  by  Dean  Merivale,  Boyle  Lectures,  and  in  St.  Paul  at  Rome,  pp. 
172 — 180.  The  passages  of  Gaius  referred  to  are  Instt.  i.  55  (cf.  Caesar,  B.  G.  vi.  19)  and  189  ;  Digests, 
xxvi.  3  ;  but  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  that  the  conclusions  formed  are  indisputable. 

*  The  rendering  of  the  E.  V.,  "  which  always  causes  u*  to  triumph  in  Christ,"  is  both  philologi- 
cally  impossible  (cf.  Col.  ii.  15),  and  confuses  the  metaphor  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render  it  entirely 
unintelligible.    St.  Paul  may  well  have  heard  of  the  famous  triumph  of  Claudius  over  the  Britons  a 
few  years  before  (A.D.  51),  in  which  Caractacus  had  walked  as  *  prisoner  (0piopj3cvdci$),  but  "had 
passed  from  the  ranks  of  the  'lost'  to  those  of  the  'saved'"  (Tac.  Ann.  xiii.  36).    (See  Dr. 
Plumptre,  ad  loc.)    Cleopatra  had  proudly  said,  ov  0piofij3ev0>;cr3fuu. 

»  Dion  CasB.  hndv. ;  Her.  Od.  IV.  ii.  60 ;  Plut.  JEmil.  p.  272. 

*  St.  Paul  rises  superior  to  the  vulgar  prejudice  of  the  Rabbis,  who  said  that  "a  man  is  a  sinner 
who  while  walking  in  a  part  of  a  town  inhabited  by  idolaters  inhales  purposely  the  odour  of 
incense  oflered  up  by  them  "  (BeracMth,  t.  53, 1). 

5  See  Theophyl.  ad  loc. 

*  Similarly  the  Kabbis  spoke  of  the  law  as  an  "  aroma  of  life  "  to  those  who  walk  on  the  right, 
an  "aroma  of  death"  to  those  on  the  left  (ShaVbath,  f.  88,  2). 

i  The  Tullianum  Is,  according  to  old  tradition,  the  scene  of  the  last  imprisonment,  before 
martyrdom,  both  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  It  was  the  rock-hewn  lower  dungeon  added  by  Serving 
Tullius  to  the  career  of  Ancus  Martins.  Excavations  within  the  last  few  months  prove  that  It  wa» 
much  larger  than  has  been  hitherto  supposed. 


ST.   PAUL  A  HAGADIST.  701 

been  mingled  In  his  thoughts  with  the  other  details  of  the  Roman  pomp — and  that  if  not 
from  the  Mamertine,  yet  from  some  other  Roman  prison  he  would  only  be  dragged 
forth  to  die. 


EXCURSUS   IV.  (p.  83). 
ST.  PAUL  A  HAQADIST  :  ST.  PAUL  AND  PHILO. 

THERE  are  two  large  divisions  of  Rabbinic  lore,  which  may  be  classed  under  the  heads 
of  Hagadoth,  or  unrecorded  legends,  and  Halachoth,  or  rules  and  precedents  in  explana- 
tion of  dubious  or  undefined  points  of  legal  observance.1  It  is  natural  that  there  should 
be  but  few  traces  of  the  latter  in  the  writings  of  one  whose  express  object  it  was  to 
deliver  the  Gentiles  from  the  intolerable  burden  of  legal  Judaism.  But  though  there  is 
little  trace  of  them  in  his  writings,  he  himself  expressly  tells  us  that  he  had  once  been 
enthusiastic  in  their  observance.2  "I  was  making,"  he  says  to  the  Galatians,  "con- 
tinuous advance  in  Judaism  above  many  who  were  my  equals  in  age  in  my  own  race, 
being  very  exceedingly  a  zealot  for  the  traditions  handed  down  from  my  fathers."  8  And 
there  are  in  the  Epistles  abundant  signs  that  with  the  Hagadoth  he  was  extremely 
familiar,  and  that  he  constantly  refers  to  them  in  thought.  Thus  in  2  Tim.  iii.  8  he 
traditionally  names  Jannes  and  Jambres,  two  of  the  Egyptian  magicians  who  withstood 
Moses.  He  adopted  the  current  Jewish  chronologies  in  Acts  iii.  20,  21.  He  alludes  to 
the  notion  that  the  Adam  of  Gen.  i.  is  the  ideal  or  spiritual,  the  Adam  of  Gen.  ii.  the 
concrete  and  sinful  Adam.4  The  conception  of  the  last  trumpet,5  of  the  giving  of  the 
Law  at  Sinai  by  angels,6  of  Satan  as  the  god  of  this  world  and  the  prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air,7  and  of  the  celestial  and  infernal  hierarchies,8  are  all  recurrent  in  Talmudio 
writings.  When,  in  1  Cor.  xi.  10,  he  says  that  "  a  woman  ought  to  have  a  veil 9  on  her 
head  because  of  the  angels,"  there  can,  I  think,  be  no  shadow  of  doubt  in  the  unpre- 
judiced mind  of  any  reader  who  is  familiar  with  thrsa  Jewish  views  of  the  subject  in 
which  St.  Paul  had  been  trained,  that  he  is  referring  to  the  common  Rabbinic  interpre- 
tations of  Gen.  vi.  2  (LXX.  Cod.  A,  "  the  angels  "),  where  the  Targum,  and,  indeed,  all 
Jewish  authorities  down  to  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  (quoted  in  the  Epistle  of 
Jude),10  attribute  the  Fall  of  the  Angels  to  their  guilty  love  for  earthly  women.  St. 
Paul  could  not  have  been  unaware  of  a  notion  which  for  many  ages  seems  to  have  been 
engrained  in  the  Jewish  mind 1] — a  notion  which  is  found  over  and  over  again  in  the 

I  I  have  tried  fully  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  Halachah  and  the  Hagadah  In  the  Expositor, 
October,  1877.    The  former  dealt  mainly  with  the  Pentateuch,  the  latter  with  the  Hagiographa. 
Dr.  Deutsch  (Smith's  Diet.  s.  y.  "  Versions  ")  says,  "  If  the  Halachah  used  the  Scriptural  word  as  a 
last  and  most  awful  resort  against  which  there  was  no  further  appeal,  the  Hagadah  used  it  as  the 
golden  nail  on  which  to  hang  its  gorgeous  tapestry.    If  the  former  was  the  irou  bulwark  round  the 
nationality  of  Israel,  the  latter  was  a  maze  of  flowery  walks  within  those  fortress  walls." 

Gal  L  14. 

The  n-opoSoTif  did  not  mean  the  written  Law,  but  the  Oral  Law,  the  irdrpta  Iffy  of  which 
Josephus  speaks  so  much  ;  the  germ,  in  fact,  of  the  HalacMth  of  the  Mishna  and  Gomara. 

1  Cor.  xv.  47.    This  is  also  found  in  Philo,  De  Opif.  Mima.  L  82. 

1  Cor.  xv.  52 ;  1  Thess.  iv.  16.  •  Gal.  iii.  19.  *  Epn,  11.  8. 

Eph.  i.  21 ;  iii.  10 ;  vi.  12 ;  Col.  1.  16 ;  li.  15. 

Such,  however  arrived  at,  or  whatever  be  the  special  shade  of  thought  about  the  use  of  the 
word — which  may  be  a  mere  provincialism — is  the  obvious  meaning  of  efouo-ux  in  1  Cor.  xL  10.  St. 
Paul  gives  three  reasons  for  this  rule— (1)  our  instinctive  sense  that  an  uncovered  head,  like  a 
shaven  head,  is  a  dishonour  to  a  woman,  whose  hair  is  a  glory  to  her  ;  (2)  the  fact  that  woman's 
hair  indicates  her  subordinate  position  towards  man,  as  man's  covered  head  denotes  his  subordina- 
tion to  God ;  (8)  "  because  of  the  angels."  10  2  Pet  ii.  4 ;  Jude  6,  14. 

II  The  argument  that  oi  ayyeAoi  is  never  used  in  the  New  Testament  except  for  good  angels  la 
quite  valueless,  for  the  fallen  angels  were  supposed  to  have  been  good  angels  until  they  fell,  and,  if 
they  had  fallen  thus,  there  was  nothing  to  show  the  impossibility  that  othel-s  might  similarly  fall 
This  interpretation  is  given  quite  unhesitatingly  by  Tertullian,  de  Virg.  Vtl.  7,  "  propter  angelos, 
scilicet  quos  legimus  a  Deo  et  coelo  excidisse  ob  coneupiscentiam  feminanun."    I  have  thoroughly 
examined  this  point  in  a  paper  in  the  Homiletic  Quarterly  of  1878,  and  quoted  many  Rabbinic  illus- 
trations.   (TaMhuma,  f.  61,  4  ;  Abhoth  of  Babbi  Nathan,  c.  84.) 


702  A.PPKITDIX. 

Talmud,  and  which  IB  still  so  prevalent  among  Oriental  Jews,  as  also  among  Moham- 
medans,1 that  they  never  allow  their  women  to  be  unveiled  in  public  lest  the  Shedim,  or 
evil  spirits,  should  injure  them  and  others.2  To  this  very  day,  for  this  very  reason, 
Jewish  women  in  some  Eastern  cities  wear  an  inconceivably  hideous  headdress,  called 
the  khalebt,  so  managed  as  to  entirely  conceal  the  hair.  It  exposes  them  to  derision  and 
inconvenience,  but  is  worn  as  a  religious  duty,  "  because  of  the  spirits." 

Again,  in  Rom.  iv.  5,  13,  Paul  evidently  accepts  the  tradition,  also  referred  to  by  St. 
Stephen,  that  Abraham  had  been  an  uncircumcised  idolater  when  he  first  obeyed  the  call 
of  God,  and  that  he  then  received  a  promise — unknown  to  the  text  of  Scripture — "  that 
he  should  be  the  heir  of  the  world."3  In  Bom.  ix.  9  it  has  been  supposed,  from  the  form 
of  his  quotation,  that  he  is  alluding  to  the  Rabbinic  notion  that  Isaac  was  created  in  the 
womb  by  a  fiat  of  God ;  in  Gal.  iv.  29  to  the  Hagadah  that  Ishmael  not  only  laughed, 
but  jeered,  insulted,  and  mis-treated  Isaac  ; 4  and  in  2  Cor.  xL  14  to  the  notion  that  the 
angel  who  wrestled  with  Jacob  was  an  evil  angel  assuming  the  semblance  of  an  Angel  of 
Light.  These  three  latter  instances  are  slight  and  dubious  ;  but  there  is  a  remarkable 
allusion  to  the  smitten  rock  in  the  wilderness,  which  in  1  Cor.  x.  4  is  called  "  a  spiritual 
following  rock."  The  expression  can  have  but  one  meaning.  Among  the  many  marvel- 
lous fancies  which  have  been  evolved  from  the  thoughts  of  Jewish  teachers,  occupied  for 
centuries  in  the  adoring  and  exclusive  study  of  their  sacred  books,  was  one  to  which  they 
repeatedly  recur,  that  the  rock,  from  which  the  water  flowed,  was  round  and  like  & 
swarm  of  bees,  and  rolled  itself  up  and  went  with  them  in  their  journeys.  "When  the 
Tabernacle  was  pitched,  the  rock  came  and  settled  in  its  vestibule.  Then  came  the 
princes,  and  standing  near  it  exclaimed,  "Spring  up,  O  well;  sing  ye  unto  it,"5  and  it 
sprang  up.  How  are  we  to  regard  these  strange  legends  ?  Can  we  suppose  that  wise  and 
sensible  Rabbis  like  Hillel  and  Gamaliel  took  them  literally?  There  is  no  ground  what- 
ever for  supposing — indeed,  it  is  essentially  impossible — that  any  one  could  have  accepted, 
au  pied  de  la  Icttre,  all  the  fables  of  the  Talmud,  which  are  in  many  instances  both 
senseless  and  contradictory.  Many  of  them  were  doubtless  regarded  as  mere  plays  of 
pious  fancy — mere  ingenious  exercises  of  loving  inference.  Others  were  only  an  Oriental 
way  of  suggesting  mystic  truths — were,  in  fact,  intentional  allegories.  Others,  in  their 
broad  outlines,  were  national  traditions,  which  may  often  have  corresponded  with  fact, 
and  which,  at  any  rate,  had  passed  into  general  and  unquestioned  credence  in  ages  little 
troubled  by  the  spirit  of  historical  criticism.6  Though  St.  Paul  might  quite  naturally 
glance  at,  allude  to,  or  even  make  use  of  some  of  these  latter,  it  would  be  an  utter 
mistake  to  assume  that  he  necessarily  attached  to  them  any  objective  importance.  If  he 
alludes  to  the  simplest  and  most  reasonable  of  them,  he  does  so  ornamentally,  inci- 
dentally, illustratively,  and  might  in  all  probability  have  attributed  to  them  no  value 

1  Bee  the  very  remarkable  story  of  Khadijah,  who  discovers  that  it  is  really  Gabriel  who  has 
appeared  to  Mohammed  by  his  flying  away  directly  she  takes  off  her  veil,  "  knowing  from  Wai-oka 
that  a  good  angel  must  fly  before  the  face  of  an  unveiled  woman"  (Weil,  Mahomed,  48).  (See  Dean 
Stanley's  exhaustive  note,  Cor.  p.  187.) 

3  See  BeracMth,  t.  6,  1 :  "  Abba  Benjamin  says  that  if  we  had  been  suffered  to  see  them,  no  one 
would  stand  before  the  hurtful  demons.  Rav  Huna  that  each  of  us  has  1,000  at  his  left  aud  10,000 
at  his  right  hand  (Ps.  xcl  7),"&c.  &c.  The  reason  why  Solomon's  bed  was  guarded  by  sixty  valiant 
men  with  drawn  swords  was  "  because  of  fear  in  the  night "  (Cant  iii  7,  8).  "  Walk  not  alone  at 
night,  because  Egrath,  daughter  of  Machlath,  walks  about — she  and  180,000  destroying  angels,  and 
every  one  of  them  individually  has  pel-mission  to  destroy "  (Pesachtm,  112,  2).  They  are  called 
ruchM,  shedim,  l-ilin,  tiharim,,  ftc.  (Hamburger,  «.«.  "  Gespenster ").  The  only  other  view  of  the 
passage  which  seems  to  me  even  possible  (historically)  is  that  of  St  Chrysostom,  "  because  good 
angels  present  at  Christian  worship  rejoice  to  see  all  thiugs  done  decently  and  in  good  order." 

»  Rom.  iv.  :18.    Of.  Josh.  xxiv.  15.  *  Sanhedr.  t  89,  2.  s  Num.  xxL  17. 

s  The  Rabbis  themselves  draw  a  distinction  between  passages  which  are  to  be  accepted  literally 
in  'Db)  and  those  which  are  meant  to  be  "  hyperbolical,"  in  ordinary  Oriental  fashion  ('Nin  Vf»> 
.nd,  Antt.  Hebr.,  p.  140).  It  must  further  be  remembered  that  much  of  the  Talmud  consists  of 
cryptographs  which  designedly  concealed  meanings  ^wravra  ovvtrofcrtr  from  "persecutors"  aud 
heretics."  Space  prevents  any  further  treatment  of  these  subjects  hew,  but  I  may  refer  those  who 
are  interested  in  them  to  my  papers  on  the  Halaclm  and  the  Hagada,  Talmudic  cryptographs,  &c.,  in 
the  Sxpofitor  for  1877. 


ST.   PAUL  A  HAQADIST.  703 

beyond  their  connexion  with  loving  reminiscences  of  the  things  wliioh  he  h*d  learnt  in 
the  lecture-hall  of  Gamaliel,  or  in  his  old  paternal  home.  In  this  very  passage  of  the 
Corinthians  the  word  "following"  (oKoAou'floi/aijs)  is  only  a  graceful  allusion  to  the  least 
fantastic  element  of  a  legend  capable  of  a  spiritual  meaning ;  and  St.  Paul,  in  the  instant 
addition  of  the  words  "  and  this  rock  was  Christ,"  shows  how  slight  and  casual  is  the 
reference  to  the  purely  Hagadistic  elements  which,  in  the  national  consciousness,  had  got 
mingled  up  with  the  great  story  of  the  wanderings  in  the  wilderness.1  Meanwhile — since 
it  is  the  spiritual  and  not  the  material  rock  which  is  prominent  in  the  thoughts  of  St. 
Paul — is  there  any  one  who  holds  so  slavish  and  unseriptural  a  view  of  inspiration  as  to 
think  that  such  a  transient  allusion  either  demands  our  literal  acceptance  of  the  fact 
alluded  to,  or,  if  we  reject  it,  weakens  the  weight  of  apostolic  authority  ?  If  a  modern 
religious  writer  glanced  allusively  at  some  current  legend  of  our  own  or  of  ancient  history, 
would  it  be  at  once  assumed  that  he  meant  to  support  its  historical  certainty  ?  If  he 
quotes  Milton's  line  about  Aaron's  breastplate  "ardent  with  gems  oracular,"  is  he  held 
to  pledge  himself  to  the  Rabbinic  theory  of  the  light  which  moved  upon  them?  Does  any 
one  think  himself  bound  to  a  literal  belief  in  seven  heavens,  because  St.  Paul,  in  direct 
accordance  with  Jewish  notions,  tells  us  that  he  was  caught  up  into  Paradise  as  far  as  the 
third?2 

There  is  one  respect  in  which  these  traces  of  Judaic  training  are  specially  interesting. 
They  show  the  masterly  good  sense  of  the  Apostle,  and  they  show  his  inspired  superiority 
to  the  influences  of  his  training.  That  he  should  sometimes  resort  to  allegory  is  reason- 
able and  interesting;  but  when  we  study  the  use  which  he  makes  of  the  allegorising 
method  in  the  case  of  Sarah  and  Hagar,  we  see  at  once  its  immense  superiority  to  the 
fantastic  handling  of  the  same  facts  by  the  learned  Philo.  How  much  more  soberly  does 
St.  Paul  deal  with  the  human  and  historic  elements  of  the  story ;  and  how  far  more 
simple  and  natural  are  the  conclusions  which  he  derives  from  it  I  Again,  when  he  alludes 
to  the  legends  and  traditions  of  his  nation,  how  rational  and  how  purely  incidental  is  his 
way  of  treating  them  !  Compare  St.  Paul  with  Philo,  with  the  Taliuudists,  with  any  of 
the  Fathers  in  the  first  three  centuries,  and  we  can  then  more  clearly  recognise  the  chasm 
which  separates  the  Apostle  from  the  very  greatest  writers  both  of  his  own  nation  and  of 
the  early  Christian  Church. 

The  question  as  to  whether  St.  Paul  had  or  had  not  read  Philo  is  not  easy  to 
answer.  Gfrorer's  work  on  Philo  might  seem  a  decisive  proof  that  he  had  done  so. 
Undoubtedly  many  passages  may  be  adduced  from  the  voluminous  pamphlets  of  the 
eloquent  Alexandrian  which  might  lead  us  to  repeat  the  old  remark  that  "  either  Paul 
Philonises,  or  Philo  is  a  Christian."  Philo,  like  St.  Paul,  speaks  of  the  Word  of  God  as 
the  antitype  of  the  manna,  and  the  smitten  rock,  and  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  ;  and 
as  a  Mediator,  and  as  begotten  before  the  worlds,  and  as  the  Heavenly  Man.  He  speaks 
of  the  strife  between  the  fleshly  and  the  rational  soul ;  of  the  assisting  grace  of  God ;  of 
the  milk  of  doctrine ;  of  seeing  God  as  through  a  mirror;  of  the  true  riches ;  and  of  the 
faith  of  Abraham.  And,  besides  agreement  in  isolated  phrases,  Philo  resembles  St.  Paul 
in  his  appeal  to  overwhelming  revelations,3  in  modes  of  citing  and  interpreting  Scripture, 
in  his  use  of  allegory,  in  the  importance  which  he  attaches  to  the  spiritual  over  the 
carnal  meaning  of  ordinances,  and  in  many  other  particulars.  But  when  we  look  closer 
we  see  that  many  of  these  expressions  and  points  of  view  were  not  peculiar  to  Philo. 
They  were,  so  to  speak,  in  the  air.  They  fall  under  the  same  category  as  the  resem- 
blances to  Christian  sentiments  which  may  be  adduced  from  the  writings  of  Seneca, 

i  Seven-  such  current  national  traditions  are  alluded  to  in  St.  Stephen's  speech.  (See  supra, 
p.  92.) 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  2,  4 ;  Eph.  iv.  10.  Many  other  passages  and  expressions  of  St.  Paul  find  their 
Dluatralion  from  the  Talmud — e.g,t  1  Cor.  xv.  87,  45,  yvjivw  K&K.K.W  ;  Eph.  1L  14  (the  Chel) ;  1  Cor. 
T.  2  (ctrdtetth,  "  other  lands  ") ;  2  Cor.  II.  16,  &O-/M)  Savarov ;  2  Cor.  v.  2,  iitevl>»<T<ur8iu,,  So.  (So* 
Meyer  on  tbcso  passages.)  *  DC  Cherubim,  i.  448. 


704 


APPENDIX. 


Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  may  therefore  be  explained  as  having  been  due 
rather  to  the  prevalent  currents  of  moral  and  religioua  sentiment,  than  to  any  imitation 
or  conscious  interchange  of  thought.  And  side  by  side  with  these  resemblances,  the 
differences  between  Paul  and  Philo  are  immense.  The  cardinal  conception  of  Philo  is 
that  of  the  Logos,  and  it  is  one  which,  in  this  sense,  is  never  used  by  St.  Paul.  St.  Paul 
makes  but  one  or  two  distant  and  slighting  allusions  to  the  ancient  Greek  philosophy, 
which  Philo  regarded  as  of  transcendent  importance.  St.  Paul  makes  but  the  most 
subordinate  use  of  the  allegoric  method,  which  with  Philo  is  all  in  all.  To  Philo  the 
Patriarchs  become  mere  idealised  virtues ;  to  St.  Paul  they  are  living  men.  Philo 
addresses  his  esoteric  eclecticism  to  the  illuminated  few ;  St.  Paul  regards  all  alike  as 
the  equal  children  of  a  God  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Philo  clings  to  the  Jewish 
ritualisms,  though  he  gives  them  a  mystic  significance ;  St.  Paul  regards  them  as  abro- 
gated for  Gentiles,  and  non-essential  even  for  Jews.  Philo  still  holds  to  the  absolute 
superiority  of  the  Jew  over  the  Gentile ;  St.  Paul  teaches  that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  ia 
neither  Jew  nor  Gentile.  In  Philo  we  see  the  impotence  of  Hellenising  rationalism ;  in 
St.  Paul  the  power  of  spiritual  truth.  Philo  explains  and  philosophises  in  every  direc- 
tion ;  St.  Paul  never  recoils  before  a  paradox,  and  leaves  antinomies  unsolved  side  by 
side.  Philo,  like  St.  Paul,  speaks  much  of  faith ;  but  the  "faith"  of  Philo  is  something 
far  short  of  a  transforming  principle,1  while  that  of  St.  Paul  is  a  regeneration  of  the 
whole  nature  through  mystic  union  with  Christ.  The  writings  of  Philo  are  a  collection 
of  cold  abstractions,  those  of  St.  Paul  a  living  spring  of  spiritual  wisdom.  "Philo," 
says  Professor  Jowett,  "was  a  Jew,  St.  Paul  a  Christian.  Philo  an  eclectic,  St.  Paul 
spoke  as  the  Spirit  gave  him  utterance.  Philo  was  an  Eastern  mystic,  St.  Paul  preached 
the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Philo  was  an  idealiser,  St.  Paul  a  spiritualiser  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Philo  was  a  philosopher,  St.  Paul  a  preacher ;  the  one  taught  a  system 
for  the  Jews,  the  other  a  universal  religion.  The  one  may  have  guided  a  few  more 
solitaries  to  the  rocks  of  the  Nile,  the  other  has  changed  the  world.  The  one  is  a  dead, 
unmeaning  literature,  lingering  amid  the  progress  of  mankind ;  the  other  has  been  a 
principle  of  life  to  the  intellect  as  well  as  to  the  heart.  While  the  one  has  ceased  to 
exist,  the  other  has  survived,  without  decay,  the  changes  in  government  and  the  revolu- 
tions in  thought  of  1,800  years."2 

Of  the  Apocryphal  books  there  was  one  at  least  with  which  St.  Paul  was  almost 
certainly  acquainted — namely,  the  Book  of  Wisdom.  No  one,  I  think,  will  question  this 
who  compares  his  views  of  idolatry,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  expresses  them,  with  the 
chapters  in  which  that  eloquent  book  pursues  the  worship  of  heathenism  with  a  concen- 
trated scorn  hardly  inferior  to  that  of  Isaiah ;  or  who  will  compare  together  the  passages 
to  which  I  have  referred  in  a  former  note.  If  the  books  for  which  St.  Paul  wrote  from 
his  last  imprisonment  were  any  but  sacred  books,  we  may  feel  a  tolerable  confidence  that 
the  Book  of  Wisdom  was  among  their  number.8 


EXCURSUS  V.  (p.    64). 
GAMALIEL  AND  THE  SCHOOL  OF  TUBINQEN. 

I  SHALL  not  often  turn  aside  to  meet  what  seem  to  me  to  be  baseless  objections ;  but  as 
the  name  of  Gamaliel  will  always  be  associated  with  that  of  St.  Paul,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  do  so  for  a  moment  in  this  instance.  It  seems,  then,  to  me  that  this  accusation 

1  Philo's  highest  definition  of  faith  is  "  a  bettering  in  all  things  of  the  soul,  which  has  cast 
Itself  for  support  on  the  Author  of  all  things  "  (Z>»  Abraham,  ii.  89).  *  Rmw.ns,  i.  416. 

»  Comp.  Bom.  v.  12 ;  xi.  82 ;  1  Coi.  vi.  2 ;  2  Cor.  v.  4,  &c.,  respectivelv.  with  Wisd.  ii.  84; 
«L  83—26 ;  iii.  8 ;  U.  16,  &c.  But  see  supra,  p.  007. 


GAMALIEL  AND   THE   SCHOOL  OF  TtJBINGEST.  70S 

of  St.  Luke  ia  founded  on  a  mass  of  errors.1  Gamaliel,  like  St.  Paul,  was  a  Pharisee,  the 
son  of  Pharisees,  and  it  was  doubtless  Ms  nobleness  and  candour  of  disposition  which 
Impressed  the  Apostle  with  the  better  elements  of  Pharisaism.  The  fiery  zeal  of  a 
youthful  Tarsian  may  have  led  him  for  a  time  to  adopt  the  more  violent  tone  of  the 
school  of  Sharamai,  and  yet  might  have  been  very  far  from  obliterating  the  effects  of 
previous  teaching.  But,  in  point  of  fact,  even  a  Hillel  and  a  Gamaliel,  in  spite  of  their 
general  mildness,  would  have  described  themselves  without  hesitation  as  "  exceedingly 
zealous  for  the  traditions  of  the  fathers."  Their  concessions  to  expediency  were  either 
concessions  in  their  conduct  to  the  heathen,  or  concessions  to  necessity  and  the  general 
interest.2  The  difference  between  the  two  Pharisaic  schools  was  not  nearly  so  wide  as 
that  between  the  two  great  Jewish  sects.  The  Pharisees  were  beyond  all  question  allied 
to  the  Zealots  in  political  sympathies,  while  the  Sadducees  had  natural  affinities  with 
the  Herodians.  In  what  we  know  of  Gamaliel,  we  trace  a  spirit,  a  tone,  a  point  of  view, 
which  eminently  resembles  that  of  his  far  greater  pupil.  His  decision  that  soldiers  in 
war  time,  and  all  people  engaged  in  works  of  mercy,  duty,  or  necessity,  might  be 
exempted  from  the  more  stringent  Sabbatical  traditions;  his  concession  of  rights  of 
gleaning  to  the  poorer  brethren;8  his  direction  that  the  "Peace  be  with  you" 
should  be  addressed  even  to  pagans  on  then-  feast  days  4 — are  all  exactly  analogous  to  the 
known  sentiments  of  the  Apostle ;  while  the  just,  humane,  and  liberal  regulations  which 
he  laid  down  to  prevent  the  unfairness  of  husbands  towards  divorced  wives,  and  of  dis- 
obedient children  towards  their  mothers,  are  identical  in  spirit  to  those  which  St.  Paul 
applies  to  similar  subjects.  The  story  that  he  bathed  in  a  bath  at  Ptolemais  which  was 
adorned  with  a  statue  of  Aphrodite,  and  answered  the  reproaches  of  a  min  with  the 
remark  that  the  statue  had  evidently  been  made  for  the  bath,  and  not  the  bath  for  the 
statue,  belongs  not  to  him  but  to  his  grandson,  with  whom  he  is  perpetually  con- 
fused.5 To  the  latter  is  also  due  the  wise  and  kindly  rule  of  burying  the  dead  in 
simple  white  linen,  instead  of  in  costly  robes.  Yet  so  close  was  the  unity  of 
doctrine  which  bound  together  the  successive  hereditary  presidents  of  the  school  of 
Hillel,  that  we  may  look  on  any  anecdote  of  the  younger  Gamaliel  as  fairly  illustrative 
of  the  views  of  the  elder;  and  the  ai-gument  of  Gamaliel  II.,  that,  if  he  were  to 
be  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  every  place  which  had  been  defiled  by  the 
rights  of  idolatry,  he  would  not  be  able  to  find  any  place  to  live  in  at  all,  reminds 
us  of  more  than  one  passage  in  St.  Paul's  argument  about  meats  offered  to  idols. 
We  may  therefore  regard  it  as  a  significant  fact  that,  in  spite  of  these  liberal 
principles,  Gamaliel  of  Jabue  sanctioned  the  use  of  the  "curse  against  heretics,"6 

1  The  precept,  of  Gamaliel,  "  Get  thee  a  teacher,  eschew  that  which  is  doubtful,  and  do  not 
multiply  uncertain  tithes  "  (Pirke  Abh6tJi,l,lS\,  might  have  emanated  from  Shammai  himself.  In 
fact,  the  difference  between  the  two  schools  existed  far  more  in  infinitesimal  details  than  in 
fundamental  principles. 

*  nViyn  pjrn  ^sm  «« for  the  good  order  of  the  world,"  Gittin,  v.  5.    (Derenbourg,  Palestine,  p. 
189.)    It  is  difficult,  however,  to  account  for  Gamaliel  I.  having  a  figure  engraved  on  his  seal  if  that 
story  belongs  to  him. 

3  Sse  Dr.  Ginsburg,  s.  v.,  in  Kltto's  Cyd.,  and  Gratz,  Gesck.  d.  Juden,  ill.  274,  sq. ;  Jost,  Gesck. 
d.  Judenthums,  i.  281 ;  Frankel,  Hodegsttea  in  MiscJinam,  67 ;  Derenbourg,  Palestine,  239,  sq. 

*  In  Jer.  Btracli6th,  ix.  (Schwab,  p.  159),  there  is  a  story  that  meeting  a  beautiful  Pagan  woman 
he  uttered  to  her  the  ShalOm,  alaikh.    "  Is  it  possible  ?  "  is  the  amazed  remark  of  the  Gemara.    "  Did 
not  E.  Zeira  say,  on  the  authority  of  R.  Jos6  bar  E.  Hanina,  and  B.  Ba  or  R.  Hiya,  on  the  authority 
of  E.  Jochanan,  that  one  ought  not  to  express  admiration  for  Pagans  1 "  (a  rule  based  on  a  sort  of 
jeu  des  mots  derived  from  Deut.  rii.  3).    The  answer  is  that  Gamaliel  only  admired  her  as  he  might 
have  admired  a  beautiful  horse  or  camel,  exclaiming  that  Jehovah  had  made  beautiful  things  in  the 
universe.    The  Talmudist  then  proceeds  to  excuse  Gamaliel  for  the  enormity  of  looking  at  a  woman, 
on  the  ground  that  it  could  only  have  been  unexpectedly  in  a  narrow  street. 

5  Abhdda  Zara,  f.  44,  2.     Conybeare  and  Howsoa,  Krenkel,  Lewin,  and  others,  confuse  the 
anecdotes  of  this  Gamaliel  (Borzaken,  or  "  the  Elder ")  and  Gamaliel  II.,  as  also  does  Otho,  Lex, 
Rabb.,  a.  v.  (Etheridge,  Hebr.  Lit.,  p.  45). 

6  O'yon  roil  Berachdth,  f.  28,  2.    Its  first  sentence  is,  "  Let  there  be  no  hope  to  them  that 
apostatize  from  the  true  religion  ;  and  let  heretics  (minim),  how  many  soever  they  be,  all  perish  xa 
la  a  moment."    The  actual  author  of  this  prayer  was  Samuel  the  Little  (Ha-faWn).    (Gratz,  iv.  105 


706  APPEWDIX. 

which  fa  given  twelfth  hi  order  in  the  Shemone  Eere.*  It  in  probable  that  his  grand- 
father, who  was  equally  liberal  in  many  of  his  sentiments,  would  yet  have  been 
perfectly  willing  to  authorise  a  similar  prayer.  His  sense  of  expediency  was  so  little 
identical  with  any  indifference  to  pure  Mosaism,  that  when  he  died  It  was  said  that  the 
purity  and  righteousness  of  Pharisaism  was  removed,  and  the  glory  of  the  Law  ceased.8 
Neither,  then,  in  St.  Paul's  original  zeal  for  the  oral  and  written  Law,  nor  in  the  liber- 
ality of  hia  subsequent  views  and  decisions  about  Mosaic  observances,  do  we  find  any 
reason  whatever  to  doubt  the  statement  of  his  relation  to  Gamaliel,  but  on  the  contrary 
we  find  it  confirmed  by  many  minute  and,  at  first  sight,  counter  indications.  And  as  far 
as  the  speech  of  Gamaliel  is  concerned,  it  seems  probable  that  his  toleration  would  have 
had  decided  limits.  As  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  he  did  not  afterwa/rds  sanction  the 
attempt  to  suppress  the  Christians,  so  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  up  to  this  time 
even  Saul  of  Tarsus,  had  he  been  present  at  the  debate,  might  have  coincided  with  the 
half-tolerant,  but  also  half-contemptuous,  views  of  his  great  teacher.  Although  the 
Pharisees,  in  their  deadly  opposition  to  the  Sadducees,  were  always  ready  to  look  with 
satisfaction  on  that  one  part  of  Christianity  which  rested  on  the  belief  in  the  Resurrec- 
tion, the  events  of  the  next  few  months  greatly  altered  the  general  relations  of  the 
Church,  not  only  towards  them,  but  also  towards  the  entire  body  of  the  Jewish  people, 
of  whom,  up  to  this  time,  a  great  multitude  had  welcomed  its  early  manifestations  with 
astonishment  and  joy. 


EXCURSUS  VL  (p,  93). 
CAPITAI.  PUNISHMENTS  :  THE  STONIHQ  o*  ST.  STKPHEW. 

GENERALLY  speaking  the  Sanhedrin  were  not  a  sanguinary  tribunal.  They  shuddered 
at  the  necessity  of  bloodshed,  and  tried  to  obviate  its  necessity  by  innumerable  regula- 
tions. So  great  was  their  horror  at  putting  an  Israelite  to  death,  that  any  means  of 
avoiding  it  seemed  desirable.  Simeon  Ben  Shatach  is  the  only  conspicuous  Rabbi  who, 
for  his  cruelty  in  deciding  causes,  is  said  "  to  have  had  hot  hands."  Josephus  expressly 
marks  it  as  disgraceful  to  the  Sadducees  that,  unlike  the  rest  of  their  nation,  they  were 
savage  in  their  punishments.  "We  are  told  that  if  even  once  in  seven  years — Rabbi 
Eleazar  Ben  Azariah  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  once  hi  seventy  years — a  Sanhedrin 
inflicted  capital  punishment  it  deserved  the  opprobrious  title  of  "sanguinary."1  The 
migration  of  the  Sanhedrin  forty  years  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  from  their 

434.)  The  notion  that  this  Samuel  the  Less  (for  his  name  is,  perhaps,  given  to  distinguish  him  from 
the  prophet  Samnel :  cf.  o  ntyas,  as  the  title  of  Herod,  Life  of  Christ,  i.,  p.  48,  n.)  has  anything  to 
do  with  Saul  (Shaftl  being  a  contraction  of  Shamnel,  and  Paulas  being  supposed  to  mean  the  little  ; 
Alting,  Schilo,  iv.  28 ;  Basnage,  Bk.  III.  1.,  pp.  12,  13)  is  an  absurdity  hardly  worthy  of  passing 
notice.  (Eisenmeng.  Entd.  JuAenth.,  1L  107 ;  Buxtorf,  Lex.  Talm.,  1,201,  2,662 ;  Wolf,  Bibl.  Hebr., 
i.  1,119.) 

1  In  point  of  fact,  there  Is  a  considerable  amount  of  obscurity  about  this  prayer.  The  Shemone- 
eert  or  cimida  is  a  prayer  recited  alter  the  Shema.  It  is  named  from  the  "eighteen  blessings,"  or 
sections,  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  is  recited  three  times  a  day,  or  oftener  on  feast  days.  It 
actually  contains  nineteen  sections,  the  12th,  which  is  numbered  11  bit,  being  the  celebrated  iirfcotA 
%0-Afinfm,  or  prayer  against  the  minim,  or  heretics.  Now,  in  Jtr.  BeraeMth,  ch.  iv.,  §  8,  we  are 
expressly  told  that  this  prayer  was  added  to  the  Amida  at  Jabne,  and  therefor*  by  Gamaliel  II.  in 
the  second  century,  long  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  (Cahen,  Hist,  de  la  Priere,  p.  30,  sq. ; 
and  Megittah,  f.  17,  2)i  How  this  can  be  reconciled  with  the  ascerted  death  of  Samuel  the  Little, 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  is  only  one  of  the  confusions  and  contradictions  which  meet  us 
in  every  stage  of  Talmndic  literature.  Hallel  (quoted  by  Schwab)  says  that  the  prayer  is  sometimes 
called  •  the  Messing  (by  euphemism)  of  the  BadduceeB,"  and  is  intended  as  a  protest  of  the  Pharisees 
against  the  mixture  of  temporising  and  severity  by  which  the  Sadducees  ruined  their  country. 
Chronology  shows  this  to  bo  futile. 

•  SotaA,  f.  49, 1.    He,  or  bin  grandson,  are  cited  with  high  respect  for  various  minute  decisions 
la  the  BeracMth.    (See  Schwab's  TraiU  des  BeraeMth,  pp.  1, 11, 12,  Ac.) 
X oenoft,  t  7, 1 ;  Derenbourg,  p.  901. 


POWER   Of   THE    SANHEDRIN.  707 

"  Hall  of  Squares,"  which  was  beside  the  great  Court  of  the  Temple  to  th«  Chamijdth  or 
"shops"  which  were  under  two  cedars  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  is  expressly  stated  to 
have  been  due  to  their  desire  to  get  to  a  greater  distance  from  the  sacred  precincts,  in 
order  that  they  might  not  feel  it  so  sternly  incumbent  upon  them  to  inflict  the  strict 
punishmentB  of  the  Law.i  But  if,  after  strict  and  solemn  voting,  a  man  was  condemned 
to  any  of  the  four  capital  punishments,  the  utmost  care  was  taken  to  remove  from  the 
punishment  all  semblance  of  vindictive  haste.  In  the  case  of  a  convicted  blasphemer 
the  death  assigned  by  the  Law  was  stoning,  and  in  Leviticus  it  is  ordained  that  the 
witnesses  should  lay  their  hands  upon  his  head,  and  all  the  congregation  should  stone 
him.2  In  Deuteronomy  we  read  the  further  regulations  that  the  hand  of  the  witnesses 
was  first  to  be  upon  him3 — and  this  horrible  duty  was  one  of  the  deterrents  from  false 
or  frivolous  accusation.  But  if  we  may  accept  the  authority  of  the  Mishna,  the  process 
was  an  elaborate  one.  On  pronunciation  of  the  sentence  the  condemned  was  handed 
over  to  the  Shotertm  or  Lictors  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  led  to  the  place  of  execution.  An 
official  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Judgment  Hall4  holding  in  hia  hand  a  handkerchief ;  a 
second  on  horseback  was  stationed  just  in  sight  of  the  first,  and  if,  even  at  the  last 
moment,  any  witness  could  testify  to  the  innocence  of  the  condemned,  the  first 
shook  his  handkerchief,  and  the  second  galloped  at  full  speed  to  bring  back  the 
accused,  who  was  himself  allowed  to  be  led  back  as  many  as  four  or  five  times  if' 
he  could  adduce  a  single  solid  proof  in  his  own  favour.  Failing  this  he  was  led  on 
with  a  herald  preceding  him,  who  proclaimed  his  name,  his  crime,  and  the  witnesses  on, 
whose  testimony  he  had  been  condemned.  At  ten  paces'  distance  from  the  place  of 
death  he  was  bidden  to  confess,  because  Jewish  no  less  than  Roman  law  valued  the 
certainty  derived  from  the  "confitentem  reum,"  and  the  Jews  deduced  from  the  story 
of  Achan  that  hia  punishment  would  be,  as  regards  the  future  world,  a  sufficiently 
complete  expiation  of  his  crime.  *  A  bitter  draught  containing  a  grain  of  frankincense 
was  then  given  him  to  stupefy  his  senses  and  take  away  the  edge  of  terror.  At  four 
cubits'  distance  from  the  fatal  spot  he  was  stripped  bare  of  bis  upper  garments,  and 
according  to  the  older  and  simpler  plan  of  procedure  was  then  stoned,  the  witnesses 
simultaneously  hurling  the  first  stones.6  But  the  later  custom  seems  to  have  been  more 
elaborate.  The  place  of  execution  7  was  twelve  feet  high,  and  one  of  the  witnesses  flung 
the  criminal  down,  back  foremost,  from  the  top,  the  other  immediately  hurling  a  heavy 
stone  upon  his  chest.  If  this  failed  to  produce  death,  all  who  were  present  joined  in 
stoning  him,  and  his  body  was  subsequently  hung  by  the  hands  on  a  tree  until  the  fall  of 
evening.8 

"We  may  be  quite  sure  that  none  of  these  elaborate  prescriptions  were  followed  in  the 
martyrdom  of  Stephen.  He  was  murdered  in  one  of  those  sudden  outbiirsts  of  fury  to 
which  on  more  than  one  occasion  the  life  of  our  Lord  had  been  nearly  sacrificed. 


EXCURSUS   VIL  (p.   94). 

THE  POWEB  0»  THB  SANHBDBTJf  TO  INTLIOT  DEATH. 

A  QTJBSTIOW  has  often  been  raised  how  the  Sanhedrin  at  this  time  had  the  power  of 
inflicting  death  at  all  T    The  well-known  passage  of  St.  John,  "  It  is  not  lawful  for  us 

*  The  ZMnt  Kenasdth  or  punitive  decisions  (AVMda  Zara,  18,  2 ;  Shabbath,  t  15,  1).    Rashi 
Inferred  from  Dent.  xvii.  10,  that  minor  Sanhedrins  outside  Jerusalem  could  bot  pronounce  capital 
wntences  (IHnt  NepJiatMth)  unless  the  greater  Sanhedrin  was  seated  on  the  Temple  Mount. 

»  Lev.  xxiv.  14.  »  Deut.  xvii.  7. 

*  All  these  particulars,  except  when  otherwise  stated,  I  derive  from  the  tract  Sanhedrin  of  th« 
Mishna,  cap.  vi.    (Surenhus.  ii.,  p.  234,  scqq.) 

*  Ta.nchv.inn,  t.  39,  §  3  ;  Sehottg.  Her.  H&r.  ad  Acts  vtt.  58. 

*  TcHKhwmo,  «M  mpr. ;  Deut.  xvii  7.  »  Called  rfrpon  lt>  •  Deut,  xxl.  M,  8J. 


708  APPENDIX. 

to  put  any  man  to  death,"  has  been  asserted  to  bo  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  narra- 
tive. The  explanation  of  that  passage  to  mean  "it  is  not  lawful  at  the  time  of  the 
feast  "  is  both  philologically  and  historically  untenable,  and  there  seems  to  be  little 
doubt  that  there  is  truth  in  the  statement  of  the  Talmud  that  about  forty  years— a 
well-known  vague  term  in  Jewish  writers — before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  the  Sanhedriu 
had  relinquished — it  would  be  truer  to  say,  had  been  deprived  of — the  power  of  death.1 
That  deprivation  was  due  to  the  direct  interference  of  the  Komans,  who  would  not 
extend  the  highest  judicial  functions  to  men  so  likely  to  abuse  them  for  seditious  ends. 
It  is,  perhaps,  only  an  attempt  of  the  Rabbis  to  veil  their  national  humiliation,  when 
they  attribute  the  diminished  glories  of  their  "House  of  Judgment"  to  thek  own 
leniency ;  to  their  reluctance  to  shed  the  blood  of  a  descendant  of  Abraham ;  to  the 
consequent  increase  of  crimes ;  and  to  the  migration  from  the  Hall  of  Squares  to  the 
"  Shops  "  of  the  Benl  Hanan.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  know  the  astute  connivance 
which  the  Romans  were  always  ready  to  extend  to  acts  which  were  due  to  religious 
excitement  and  not  to  civil  rebellion.2  They  rarely  interfered  with  national  superstitions. 
Even  Pilate,  though  by  no  means  void  of  a  sense  of  justice,  had  been  quite  willing  to 
hand  over  Jesus  to  any  extreme  of  ecclesiastical  vengeance,  provided  only  that  the  direct 
responsibility  did  not  fall  upon  himself.  Further  than  this,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  St.  Stephen's  martyrdom  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  murder  of  James,  the 
Lord's  brother.  That  was  brought  about  by  the  younger  Hanan  during  a  High  Priest- 
hood of  only  three  months'  duration,  in  which  he  seized  his  opportunity,  and  availed 
himself  of  a  brief  interregnum  which  followed  on  the  death  of  Festus,  and  preceded  the 
arrival  of  his  successor  Albinus.  It  was  at  just  such  an  interregnum  that  the  death  of 
Stephen  is  believed  to  have  taken  place.  Pontius  Pilate  had  been  sent  to  Home  by  his 
official  chief,  Vitellius,  the  Prsefect  of  Syria,  to  answer  to  the  Emperor  for  the  com- 
plaints of  cruelty  and  insult  brought  against  him  by  the  inhabitants  of  every  division 
of  his  Procuratorship.  Before  his  arrival  the  Emperor  Tiberius  died.  An  event  of  this 
magnitude  relaxed  the  sternness  of  government  in  every  province  of  the  Empire,3  and 
though  Vitellius  appointed  Marcellus  as  a  brief  temporary  locum  tenens  until  the  arrival 
of  Manillas,  who  was  appointed  Procurator  by  Gaius,4  the  Sanhedrin  may  have  met 
while  there  was  no  Procurator  at  all,  and  in  any  case  would  have  found  it  easy  to 
persuade  a  substitute  like  Marcellus,  or  a  new-comer  like  Marullus,  that  it  would  bs 
useless  to  inquire  into  a  mere  riot  which  had  ended  in  the  richly  deserved  punishment 
of  a  blaspheming  Hellenist.  In  short,  we  find  that  the  possibility  of  tumultuous 
outbreaks  which  might  end  in  a  death  by  stoning  is  constantly  recognised  in  the  New 
Testament ; 5  and  it  would  have  been  easy  for  the  Sanhedrin  to  represent  the  stoning  of 
St.  Stephen  in  such  a  light. 


EXCURSUS   VHI.  (p.   101). 
DAMASCUS    UNDEB    HARETH. 

HARETH  was  the  father-in-law  of  Herod  Antipas,  and  from  the  day  when  the  weakness 
of  that  miserable  prince  had  beguiled  him  into  his  connexion,  at  once  adulterous  and 

1  Alh&dah  Zara,  f.  8,  2. 

*  The  policy  of  Rome  towards  her  Oriental  subjects  was  a  policy  of  contemptuous  tolerance  in 
all  matters  that  affected  the  local  cult. 

s  That  there  was  at  this  very  time  a  special  desire  to  conciliate  the  Jews,  who  had  been  so  much 
exasperated  by  the  cruelties  of  Pilate,  is  clear  from  the  circumstance  that  Vitellius,  after  a  magnifi- 
cent reception  at  Jerusalem,  had  just  restored  to  the  Jews  the  custody  of  the  pontifical  vestments 
which  since  the  days  of  Herod  the  Great  had  been  kept  in  the  Tower  of  Antonia  (Jos.  Antt.  xv.  11, 
§4;  xviii.  4,  §  2).  The  privilege  was  again  forfeited,  and  again  restored  to  them  by  Claudius,  at  the 
request  of  Agrippa  II.  (id.  xx.  1,  §  2).  The  power  of  inflicting  minor  punishments  seems  always  to 
have  rested  with  the  Jews,  as  it  does  with  many  religious  communities  of  raias,  even  under  the 
tyranny  of  Turkish  misrule  (Renan,  Les  Ap6tres.f.  144).  *  Jos.  Antt.  rviii.  6,  §  10  (cf.  4,  §  2). 

s  John  viii.  59 ;  x.  81-33 ;  Matt,  xxiii.  87  ;  Acts  v.  26.  See  Orig.  ad  African.  §  14,  o&uA 
Sk-rdsworth, 


SAtfl,  IN  AKABIA.  709 

incestuous,  with  Herodias,  his  brother  Philip's  wife,  Hareth  had  been  the  implacable 
foe  of  the  Tetrarch  of  Galilee.  Their  quarrel  had  ended  in  a  battle,  in  which  the 
troops  of  Hareth  won  a  signal  victory.  After  this  defeat,  in  which  the  Jews  saw  a 
retribution  for  the  murder  of  John  the  Baptist,1  Antipas  applied  to  the  Emperor 
Tiberius,  who  sent  Vitellius  to  chastise  the  audacious  Emir  who  had  dared  to  defeat  an 
ally  of  Rome.  But  when  Vitellius  had  reached  Jerusalem,  he  heard  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Tiberius.  The  death  of  a  Roman  emperor  often  involved  so  immense  a  change 
of  policy,  that  Vitellius  did  not  venture,  without  fresh  instructions,  to  renew  the  war. 
The  details  of  what  followed  have  not  been  preserved.  That  Hareth  ventured  to  seize 
Damascus  is  improbable.  Vitellius  was  too  vigorous  a  legate,  and  the  Arab  had  too 
wholesome  a  dread  of  imperial  Rome,  to  venture  on  so  daring  an  act  of  rebellion.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  Emperor  Gaius — who  was  fond  of  dis- 
tributing kingdoms  among  princes  whom  he  favoured,2  and  whose  mind  was  poisoned 
against  Antipas  by  his  friend  and  minion  Agrippa  I. — should  have  given  back  to  Hareth 
a  town  which  in  old  days  had  belonged  to  the  Nabathzean  dynasty.3  The  conjecture 
receives  some  independent  confirmation.  Coins  of  Damascus  are  found  which  bear  the 
image  of  Augustus,  of  Tiberius,  and  again  of  Nero,  but  none  which  bear  that  of  Gaius 
or  of  Claudius.  This  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  during  these  reigns  Damascus  waa 
subject  to  a  local  sway.4 


EXCURSUS   EX.   (p.  120). 
SAUL  IN  ABABIA. 

FEW  geographical  terms  are  more  vaguely  used  by  ancient  writers  than  "Arabia,"  and 
some  have  seen  the  explanation  of  St.  Luke's  silence  about  the  retirement  of  St.  Paul,  in 
the  possibility  that  he  may  scarcely  have  gone  beyond  the  immediate  region  of  Damascus. 
Justin  Martyr  challenges  Trypho  to  deny  that  Damascus  "  belongs  and  did  belong  to 
Arabia,  though  now  it  has  been  assigned  to  what  is  called  Syrophcenicia."  Some 
shadow  of  probability  may  be,  perhaps,  given  to  the  view  that  St.  Paul  did  not  travel  far 
from  Syria,  because  the  Arabic  translator  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  renders  the 
clause  in  GaL  i.  17,  &c.,  "Immediately  I  went  to  El  Belka  ;  "  and  in  GaL  iv.  25,  mis- 
taking the  meaning  of  the  word  <rua-Toi\ei  (which  means  "answers  to,"  "corresponds 
with,"  "falls  under  the  same  row  with"),  he  says  that  "Mount  Sinai  or  El  Belka  is 
contiguous  to  Jerusalem."5  But  since  Sinai  is  certainly  not  in  the  El  Belka  with  which 
alone  we  have  any  acquaintance — namely,  the  region  to  the  north  and  east  of  the  Dead 
Sea — this  curious  version  does  not  seem  worthy  of  any  further  notice.  Doubtless,  in  the 
then  disturbed  and  fluctuating  relations  between  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  various  Eastern 
principalities,  St.  Paul  might  have  found  himself  far  beyond  the  range  of  interruption 
by  taking  but  a  short  journey  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Damascus. 

But  is  it  not  more  probable  that  when  St.  Paul  speaks  of  his  visit  to  Arabia,  he  means 
Arabia  in  that  Hebrew  sense  in  which  the  word  would  be  understood  by  the  majority  of 
his  readers  ?  We  cannot,  indeed,  accept  the  proof  of  his  familiarity  with  these  regions 
which  is  derived  from  the  reading  of  our  Received  text,  "  for  this  Hagar  is  Mount  Sinai 
in  Arabia,"  and  from  the  supposition  that  Hagar  was  a  local  name  for  the  mountain  itself.6 

i  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  5,  §§  1,  2. 

»  Thus  in  A.D.  38  he  gave  Ituwea  to  Soheym ;  Lesser  Armenia  to  Cotys ;  part  of  Thrace  to 
Rhsemetalces  ;  Pontius,  &c.,  to  Polemo  II.  (Dion  Cass.  lix.  12).  KeLm  thinks  that  Aretas  may  have 
had  a  sort  of  partial  jurisdiction  in  Damascus. 

»  Jo3.  Antt.  xiii.  5,  §  §  2,  3  ;  Wieseler,  Chron.  des  Apost.  ZeitdU.  174. 

*  Wieseler,  in  his  article  on  Aretas  in  Herzog's  Encycl.,  refers  to  Mioiinet,  p.  204,  as  his  authority 
for  the  existence  of  a  coin  of  Aretas,  which  bears  the  date  101  (A.D.).  Now,  if  this  date  refer  to  th« 
Pompeian  eia,  the  coin  would  belong  to  A.D.  37 — 38,  about  the  very  time  in  which  Saul's  mission  to 
Damascus  took  place.  9  Lightfoot,  GalcUians,  p.  81.  *  Gal.  iv.  25. 


710 


APPXHDIZ. 


For  the  true  reading  of  that  verse  seems  to  be,  "for  Sinai  i>  a  mountain  in  Arabia ; " 
and,  as  Dr.  Lightfoot  has  shown,  there  is  no  adequate  authority  for  the  assertion — perhaps 
originally  a  mistake  of  St.  Chrysostom — that  Mount  Sinai  was  ever  called  Hagar.  More- 
over, it  is  doubtful  whether,  even  by  way  of  allegoric  paronomasia,  St.  Paul  would  have 
identified  Hagwr,  "  a  wanderer,"  with  chadjar,  "  a  stone  ; "  especially  since  Philo,  who 
also  has  an  allegory  about  Hagar  and  Sarah,  had  already  extracted  a  moral  meaning 
from  the  correct  derivation.  But  setting  this  ancient  argument  aside,  nothing  can  seem 
more  natural  than  that  St.  Paul,  possibly  already  something  of  a  fugitive,  almost  certainly 
a  sufferer  in  health  and  mind,  driven  by  an  imperious  instinct  to  seek  for  solitude,  should 
have  turned  his  lonely  steps  to  a  region  where  he  would  at  once  be  safe,  and  unburdened, 
and  alone  with  God. 


EXCURSUS  X.  (p.  126). 
ST.  PAUL'S  "  STAKB  TS  TEX  FLESH." 

THERE  are  two  main  passages  on  which  our  inferences  about  the  "stake  in  the  flesh" 
must  be  founded,  and  the  impression  which  they  leave  is  only  strengthened  by  more 
isolated  allusions.  These  two  passages,  to  give  them  in  their  chronological  order,  are  : 
2  Cor.  xii.  1 — 10  J  and  Gal.  iv.  ; 2  and  I  translate  them  in  all  their  ruggedness,  and  the 
interchanges  of  thought  which  render  it  almost  impossible  to  explain  the  rapid  transition 
of  their  causal  connexions. 

i.  The  first  of  them  runs  as  follows  : — After  showing  that,  however  weak  and 
unworthy  he  may  be,  he  has  yet  laboured  and  suffered  more  than  "the  super-pre-eminent 
Apostles, " — a  boastf  ulness  the  very  semblance  of  which  he  loathes,  but  which,  again  and 
again,  he  says  has  been  forced  upon  him  by  the  intrigues  and  slanders  of  interested 
opponents — he  mentions  his  perilous  escape  from  Damascus,  which  had  made  a  deep 
impression  on  his  memory,  and  then  continues  :  "  Boasting,  evidently,  is  not  expedient 
for  me  ;  for  I  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord.3  I  know  a  man  in  Christ 
fourteen  years  ago — (whether  in  the  body  I  know  not,  or  whether  out  of  the  body  I  know 
not :  God  knoweth) — caught  up,  such  a  one  as  far  as  the  third  heaven.  And  I  know 
guch  a  man — (whether  in  the  body,  or  apart 4  from  the  body,  I  know  not :  God  knoweth) 
— that  he  was  caught  up  into  Paradise  and  heard  unutterable  things  which  it  is  not 
lawful  for  man  to  speak.  About  such  a  one  I  will  boast ;  but  about  myself  I  will  not 
boast  except  in  mine  infirmities.  For  if  I  should  wish  to  boast,  I  shall  not  be  a  fool,  for 
I  shall  speak  the  truth ;  but  I  forbear,  that  no  one  may  reckon  about  me  more  than  what 
he  seeth  me  or  heareth  anything  from  me.  And,  that  I  may  not  be  puffed  up  by  this 
abundance  of  revelations,  there  was  given  me  a  stake  in  the  flesh  an  angel  of  Satan 5  that 
it  may  buffet  me  that  I  may  not  be  puffed  up.  For  this,  thrice  did  I  entreat  the  Lord 
that  it  might  depart  from  me.  And  He  hath  said  to  me  :  My  grace  sufficeth  for  thee  ; 
for  power  is  being  perfected  in  weakness.6  Most  gladly,  then,  rather  will  I  boast  in  my 
infirmities,  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  spread  its  tent  over  me.  Therefore,  I  am 
content  in  infirmities,  in  insults,  in  necessities,  in  persecutions,  in  distresses,  for  Christ's 
sake,  for  when  I  am  weak  then  I  am  powerful."? 

ii.  The  other  passage  is  Gal.  iv.  12 — 16.  St.  Paul  has  been  vehemently  urging  the 
Galatians  not  to  sink  to  the  low  level  of  their  previous  bondage  from  the  freedom  of  the 
Gospel,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  reasonings  and  exhortations  he  inserts  this  tendei 
appeal : — 

1  Written  not  earlier  than  the  autumn  of  A.D.  57. 

*  Written  perhaps  in  the  spring  of  A.D.  68. 

»  The  reading  of  this  verse  is  extremely  doubtful ;  v.  supra,  ad  TJoo. 

•<KS,  B,  D,  B,  which  is  more  likely  to  have  been  altered  into  the  lurk  of  the  previous  venw 
>.  *  Of.  1  Oor.  r.  *.  «  Omit  pov  fa,  A,  B,  D,  F.  O).  *  £  Cor.  xiL  1—19 


85.  PAUL'S  "STAKE  IH  THE  FLESH.  711 

"  Become  as  I  am,  for  I  too  have  become  as  you,  brethren,  I  beseech  you.  In  no 
respect  did  ye  wrong  me.  Yea,  ye  know  that  because  of  infirmity  of  the  flesh  I  preached 
to  you  the  first  time,  and  your  temptation  in  my  flesh a  ye  despised  not  nor  loathed,  but 
as  an  angel  of  God  ye  received  me,  as  Christ  Jesus.  What,  then,  was  your  self -congratu- 
lation ?  For  I  bear  you  witness  that,  if  possible,  ye  dug  out  your  eyes 2  and  gave  them 
me.  So,  have  I  become  your  enemy  by  telling  you  the  truth  ? " 

iii.  The  most  prominent  alhuiona  to  the  same  bodily  affliction  are — Gal.  vi.  17 : 
"  Henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me,  for  I  carry  in  my  body  the  brands  of  Jesus ; " s 
2  Cor.  iv.  10:  "Always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the  putting  to  death  of  the  Lord 
Jesus ; "  and  perhaps  indirectly,  Col.  i.  24  :  "  Now  I  rejoice  4  in  my  sufferings  for  you, 
and  I  supplement  in  Christ's  stead  the  deficiences  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh 
for  His  body  which  is  the  Church."  When,  too,  we  remember  that  the  word  for  "stake" 
is  only  a  more  contemptuous  form  of  the  word  for  "cross,"5  there  may  be  a  further 
allusion  to  this  special  trial  in  the  words,  "I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ."6 

«••  Now,  from  the  first  of  these  passages  we  see  that  St.  Paul,  so  far  from  boasting  of 
exceptional  revelations,  will  only  mention  them  because  they  are  connected  with  infirm- 
ities so  painful  as  to  render  it  ridiculous  as  well  as  sinful  for  him  to  boast  at  all,  unless 
he  might  boast  that  his  very  weakness  was  but  a  more  signal  proof  of  that  strength  of 
Christ  which  had  enabled  him  to  do  and  to  suffer  more  than  the  very  chiefest  Apostles. 

£•  We  gather  that  his  trial  was  something  agonising,  or  it  would  not  be  called  a  stake 
In  the  flesh  ;7  mysterious  in  its  nature,  or  it  would  not  be  described  as  an  angel  of  Satan ; 
intermittent,  as  is  implied  in  the  word  "buffet,"  and  as  is  also  apparent  from  various 
special  paroxysms  to  which  St.  Paul  alludes ;  and  a  direct  consequence  of,  or  at  any  rate 
intimately  connected  with,  his  most  exalted  moments  of  revelation  and  ecstasy. 

y.  From  the  second  passage,  we  have  the  additional  particulars,  that  it  was  in  con- 
sequence of  some  sharp  attack  of  his  malady  that  he  had  been  detained  in  Galatia ;  that 
this  malady  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to  form  an  actual  trial  to  the  Galatians,  and 
naturally  dispose  them  to  look  on  him  with  contempt,  if  not  with  positive  loathing  ;  but 
that  they  had  so  completely  triumphed  over  this  feeling  as  to  receive  him  with  almost 
divine  respect,  and  that  they  had  so  congratulated  themselves  on  his  visit  as  to  have  been 
ready,  had  it  been  possible,  to  dig  out  their  very  eyee  and  give  them  to  their  suffering 
teacher. 

*•  The  other  references  confirm  these  conclusions.  In  one  of  them  we  learn  that 
St.  Paul  looked  on  his  physical  infirmities  as  sacred  stigmata  by  which  Jesus  had  marked 
him  out  as  His  slave,  that  he  might  be  secured  from  molestation  ; 3  and  in  the  others 
that  he  regarded  Ms  living  death  as  a  sort  of  continuation  of  his  Lord's  crucifixion,  and  a 
supplement  to  those  sufferings  for  the  sake  of  His  Church,  in  which  Christ  allowed  His 
servants  to  participate  by  taking  up  their  cross  and  following  after  Him  for  the  service 
of  mankind.' 

Now  these  passages  at  once  exclude  nine-tenths  of  the  conjectures  which  have  been  so 
freely  hazarded,  and  which  could  not  have  been  hazarded  at  all  by  those  who  had  care- 
fully considered  the  conditions  of  the  question.  Many  of  these  conjectures  would  not 
have  even  deserved  a  passing  mention  if  they  had  not,  on  the  one  haad,  possessed  a 
certain  archaeological  interest  as  belonging  to  the  history  of  exegesis,  and  on  the  other 

1  The  true  reading  is  rov  irtipoafiMv  v^Siv  ev  rij  cropxt 


6  Gal.  U.  20,  Xpicrnp  arvve<TTavptaiuu..    This  epistle  is  full  of  the  "cross,"  and  was  written  with 
vivid  reminiscence  (at  least)  of  the  "stake."    The  allusion  of  1  Thess.  ii.  18,  "but  Sstan  hindered 
»*>"  is  tao  vague  to  be  referred  with  any  special  probability  to  this  affliction. 

7  *  Ax<w8a.i  KOI  oxoAowef  bSvvcu;  crr^tau-oinji  810  TO  ofu  (Artemid.  iii.  83,  Meyer);  (of.  Num.  xudli. 
66  ;  Josh,  xxiii.  13 ;  Ezek.  xxviii.  24 ;   oxdAoii  trucpias,  Hos.  IL  6 ;  LXX.).    Hence  perhaps  the 
tendering  "  tkom."  •  Gal.  vi.  17.  »  2  Cor.  iv.  10 ;  CoL  i.  24 ;  PhlL  til.  10 ;  Gal.  IL  20. 


712  JLPPENDIX. 

brought  to  light  some  fragments  of  old  tradition,  or  pointed  to  certain  features  in  the 
character  of  the  Apostle. 

1.  It  ia,  for  histauce,  abundantly  clear  that  the  stake  in  the  flesh  was  nothing  of  a 
spiritual  nature.     If  we  find  such  men  aa  Jean  Gerson,1  and  Luther,  and  Calvin  more  or 
less  confidently  deciding  that  the  expression  alludes  to  high  spii~itual  temptations,  such  as 
shrinking  from  his  duties  as  an  Apostle,  tormenting  doubts,  and  stings  of  conscience  for 
the  past,  the  decision  is  only  interesting  as  a  proof  that  these  great  and  holy  men  could 
so  well  sympathise  with  these  painful  hindrances.    Yet  such  an  explanation  is  wholly 
impossible.     It  is  excluded  at  once  by  the  references  to  the  infirmity  as  being  of  a 
physical  description.   It  is  excluded  also  by  St.  Paul's  character,  and  by  the  circumstances 
of  his  life.    There  is  much  in  his  Epistles  about  weariness  and  sorrow,  about  fightings 
without  and  fears  within,  but  there  ia  not  the  faintest  trace  that  the  fire  of  zeal  burnt 
low,  even  at  his  moments  of  deepest  discouragement,  on  the  altar  of  his  heart.     Nor 
could  tormenting  doubts  have  had  much  reality  in  the  soul  of  one  who  had  seen  the  risen 
Christ,  and  to  whom  were  constantly  vouchsafed  the  vivid  revelations  which  not  only 
solved  the  problems,  but  even  guided  the  movements  of  his  life.1 

2.  And  while  we  reject  this  view  of  some  great  Reformers,  we  must  reject  quite  ;u> 
decidedly  the  fixed  opinion  of  the  most  eminent  Roman  Catholics.     Vague  expressions 
in  St.  Jerome,  St.  Augustine,  and  Gregory  the  Great  seem  to  have  led  to  an  opinion  that 
the  stake  in  the  flesh  was  some  form  of  c&rnal  temptation.3    This  view,  repeated  by  the 
Venerable  Bede,  has  been  continued  through  Aquinas,  Bellarmine,  Cornelius  a  Lapide, 
and  other  Roman  Catholic  writers  down  to  Van  Est  in  the  sixteenth  century,  till  it  has 
become  almost  a  stereotyped  part  of  the  exegesis  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.     It  is 
due  to  the  ambiguous  rendering  of  "  stake  in  the  flesh,"  by  stimulus  carnis  in  the  Vulgate 
translation.     Now,  in  this  case  also — though  we  may  observe  with  sorrowful  interest 
that  the  struggles  of  ascetics  to  subdue  by  unwise  methods  their  carnal  passions  made 
them  glad  to  believe  that  even  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul  such  an  infirmity  was  never  wholly 
removed — we  are  nevertheless  obliged  on  every  ground  to  reject  the  explanation.     It  in 
no  way  satisfies  the  general  tenor  of  St.  Paul's  expressions.     It  is  not  an  infirmity  of 
which  by  any  possibility  he  could  boast.     We  cannot  conceive  so  revolting  a  stain  on  the 
character  of  the  Apostle  as  that  which  would  be  involved  in  the  supposition  that  such 
tendencies,  if  he  had  been  cursed  with  them,  should  have  so  manifested  themselves  as  to 
be  a  hindrance  to  his  ministry,  and  a  source  of  loathing  to  those  who  heard  him.     It  is 
still  more  outrageous  to  imagine  that  such  criminal  concupiscence  would  have  been 
implanted  or  strengthened  in  him  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  spiritual  pride  which  might 
otherwise  have  resulted  from  special  revelations.     But  besides  all  this,  it  fixes  on  the 
memory  of  the  Apostle  a  weakness  from  which  we  may  well  believe  that  he  was  most 
exceptionally  free.    It  is  true  that  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  he  describes,  in  language 
of  intense  emotion,  the  struggle  in  the  soul  between  the  good  and  the  evil  impulse — the 
Yetser  ha-tdbh  and  Yetser  ha-rd  of  which  he  had  heard  so  much  in  the  Beth  Midrash  of 
his  education.     But  it  is  idle  to  imagine  that  a  strife  so  multiform  must  be  referred  to 
one  only  of  its  manifestations.     And  we  judge  that  St.  Paul  had  very  early  subdued 
every  motion  of  rebellious  sensuality,  not  only  because  no  man  who  ever  lived  has 
uttered  words  of  loftier  purity ;  not  only  because  upon  his  principles  more  than  upon 
those  of  any  human  moralist  have  been  founded  the  very  bases  of  Christian  abstinence ; 
not  only  because,  to  an  extent  unparalleled  in  literature,  he  has  the  high  gift  of  being  able 
to  brand  the   shamelessness  of  impurity  without  wounding  the  delicacy  of  Christian 
thought ; 4  but  more  than  this,  because  he  is  able  to  appeal  to  others  that  they  should 
learn  by  his  example  how  possible  it  was  to  live  by  the  rule  of  a  holy  continence.     Ad' 

1  Pernaps  tne  author,  or  part  author,  of  the  Imitatio  Chriati.    (See  Compwiimi*  oj  tlw  Devout 
.  J*  8,  «g.)  *  See  Acts  xvi.  7 ;  xxi.  4 ;  rrii.  17  ;  Gal.  U.  2,  Ac. 

*  «*reg.  ttisuflL  z.  8,  215,    Bee  the  authorities  in  Tillemont,  i.  222  (ed.  1608). 

*  Rom.  i. ;  Eph.  v.,  &c. 


ST.  PAUL'S  "STAKE  IN  THE  FLESH."  713 

mitting  as  lie  does  to  the  Corinthians  that  it  is  better  once  for  all  to  marry  than  to  be 
consumed  by  the  slow  inward  fires  of  concupiscence,1  he  yet  says  to  the  unmarried,  "it 
is  good  for  them  to  abide  even  as  I,"  and  that  "he  would  that  all  men  were  even  as  he 
himself."8  There  would  be  hypocrisy,  and  something  worse  than  hypocrisy,  in  such 
language  if  the  "stake  in  the  ilesh,"  which  was  still  unremoved  when  he  wrote  the 
Second  Epistle,  were  that  which  this  long  succession  of  commentators  have  supposed 
it  to  be.3 

3.  It  may,  then,  be  regarded  as  certain  that  the  stake  in  the  flesh  was  some  physical 
malady ;  for  the  fancy  first  mentioned  by  Chrysostom  and  adopted  by  the  Greek  fathers, 
as  well  as  by  Hilary  and  Augustine,  that  it  means  the  opposition  and  persecution  with 
which  St.  Paul  met  at  the  hands  of  Judaista,  and  perhaps  especially  of  one  leader  among 
them  who  was  "a  thorn  in  his  side,"  4  is  too  entirely  at  variance  with  the  conditions  of 
the  question  to  deserve  further  notice.     But  when,  in  our  anxiety  to  understand  and 
sympathise  as  far  as  possible  with  the  Apostle's  personality,  we  still  ask  what  was  thia 
malady,  we  are  left  in  uncertainty.    To  omit  the  more  futile  conjectures,  neither  attacks  of 
headache  nor  earache  mentioned  traditionally  by  Tertullian  and  Jerome,  nor  the  stone 
which  is  the  conjecture  of  Aquinas,  present  those  features  of  external  repulsiveness  to 
which  the  Apostle  evidently  alludes  as  the  concomitants  of  his  trial.     The  only  con- 
jectures which  have  much  intrinsic  probability  are  those  which  suppose  him  to  have 
Buffered  from  epilepsy  or  from  ophthalmia. 

4.  There  is  something  to  be  said  in  favour  of  the  view  that  it  was  Epilepsy.     It  is 
painful ;  it  is  recurrent ;  it  opposes  an  immense  difficulty  to  all  exertion ;  it  may  at  any 
tune  cause  a  temporary  suspension  of  work ;   it  is  intensely  humiliating  to  the  person 
•who  suffers  from  it ;  it  exercises  a  repellent  effect  on  those  who  witness  its  distressing 
manifestations.     Moreover,  it  was  regarded  in  ancient  days  as  supernatural  in  its  charac- 
ter, was  surrounded  with  superstitious  fancies,  and  was  directly  connected  by  the  Jews 
with  demoniacal  possession.5    Further,  St.  Paul  himself  connects  his  infirmity  with  his 
trances  and  visions,  and  the  soul  of  man  is  so  constituted  that  any  direct  intercourse 
with  the  unseen  world — even,  in  a  lower  order,  any  deep  absorption  in  religious  thought, 
or  paroxysms  of  religious  feeling — does  tend  to  a  violent  disturbance  of  the  nervous 
organism.6     It  would  be  specially  certain  to  act  in  this  way  in  the  case  of  one  whoso 
temperament  was  so  emotional  as  was  that  of  St.  Paul.      It  is  not  impossible  that  the 
prostration  which  followed  his  conversion  may  have  been  induced  by  the  shock  which 
his  system  received  from  his  miraculous  conversion  on  the  road  to  Damascus ;   and  that 
the  recurrence  of  this  shock,  involving  a  chronic  liability  to  its  attacks,  accompanied 
that  second  trance  in  the  Temple,  which  determined  his  future  career  as  the  Apostle  of. 
the  Gentiles.     Hi  a  third  ecstasy  happened  fourteen  years  7  before  he  wrote  the  Second 

1  1  Cor.  vii.  9,  Kpeurow  ya^o-at »)  wvpovotfat.  *  1  Cor.  vii.  7,  8. 

»  It  is  difficult  to  believe  tliat  2  Cor.  vii.  2 ;  xl.  8 ;  and  1  Thess.  ii.  3  are  intended  to  refute 
charges  which  had  been  even  brought  against  Paul  himself.  They  may  be  intended  to  contrast  hi/» 
own  conduct  with  that  of  other  teachers,  and  indeed  the  first  two  passages  do  not  necessarily  refer 
to  unchastity  at  all.  The  axuSapa-ia.  of  1  Thess.  ii.  3  is  explained,  even  by  Chrysostom,  of  vile  and 
juggling  arts ;  and  Olshausen,  Ltiuemann,  Alfprd,  Ellicott,  and  others  all  suppose  it  to  refer  pri- 
marily to  at<rxpoK€p5«ui  and  similar  impure  motives. 

*  A  special  person  may  be  indicated  in  2  Cor.  x.  7, 10, 11, 18 ;  ad.  4,  20 ;  and  in  Gal.  i.  9  ;  iii.  1 ; 
Ti.  7,  12. 

5  Morbus  Com.itia.lis, '  Dion  Cass.  xlvi.  S3 ;  Cell.  xix.  2.    In  Welsh  it  is  called  gwiahn  Cltrisli,  "the 
rod  of  Christ,"  aud  clefyd  bendigaidd"  blessed  disease."    A  curious  Celtic  tradition  to  this  effect  is 
preserved  in  the  old  Irish  name  for  epilepsy,  in  gular  Pail  (Stokes,  Old  Irisli  Glossary,  p.  120;  Aiic. 
Laws  of  Ireland,  iii.  506).    Krenkel,  in  Hilgeufold's  Zeitschr.  xvi.  (ii.)  233 — 244,  notices  the  curious 
fact  that  the  evil  omen  of  epilepsy  was  averted  by  spitting.    Hence  Plautus  calls  it  the  "  morbus 
•qui  sputatur"  (Captiv.  in.  4,  15;  cf.  Plin.  H.  N.  x.  23,  33;  xxviii.  4,  7).    He  connects  this  with 
*f e'imxraTe  (as  though  it  meant  "  neither  did  ye  spit ")  of  Gal.  iv.  14. 

6  The  trances  of  Sokrates,  the  fits  of  Mohammed,  accompanied  by  foaming  at  the  mouth,  and 
followed  by  the  sleep  of  exhaustion,  the  faiiitiugs  and  ecstasies  of  St.  Bernard,  St.  Francis,  and  tit. 
Catherine  of  Siena,  have  been  adduced  as  parallels  (Hausrath,  pp.  52 — 56).    Wo  may  add  the  cases  of 
•George  Fox,  of  Jacob  Boehme,  of  Sweden borg,  &c.          7  The  "  about "  in  the  E.  V.  is  interpolated. 

24 


714  APPENDIX. 

Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  therefore  at  some  period  during  his  second  residence  la 
Tarsus.  If  we  take  the  words,  "thrice  I  besought  the  Lord,"  literally,  we  may  then 
further  believe  that  it  was  at  each  of  these  recurrences  of  anguish  upon  the  renewals  of 
special  revelations  that  he  had  made  his  most  earnest  entreaty  to  be  delivered  from  the 
buffets  of  this  angel  of  Satan ;  and  that  it  was  only  during,  or  after,  his  third  and  most 
memorable  vision  that  his  Lord  pointed  out  to  him  the  meaning  of  the  trial,  and  told 
him  that,  though  it  could  not  be  removed,  he  should  be  strengthened  with  grace  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to  bear  it.1 

5.  But  even  if  this  was  the  actual  "stake  in  the  flesh,"  there  is  the  strongest  reason 
to  believe  that  St.  Paul  suffered  further  from  acute  Ophthalmia,  which  also  fulfils  in  every 
particular  the  conditions  of  the  problem.  This,  too,  would  have  the  advantage  of  following 
the  analogy  of  God's  dealings,  by  being  a  trial  not  arbitrarily  inflicted,  but  one  which 
might  have  resulted  naturally — or,  to  use  the  more  exact  term,  let  us  say,  providentially 
— from  the  circumstances  through  which  Paul  had  passed.  We  know  that  he  was 
physically  blinded  by  the  glare  of  light  which  surrounded  him  when  he  saw  the  risen 
Lord.  The  whole  circumstances  of  that  event — the  noonday  journey  under  the  fierce 
Syrian  sun,  the  blaze  of  light  which  outshone  even  that  noonday  brightness,  and  the 
blindness  which  followed  it — would  have  been  most  likely  to  leave  his  eyes  inflamed  and 
weak.  His  stay  in  the  desert  and  in  Damascus — regions  notorious  for  the  prevalence  of 
this  disease — would  have  tended  to  develop  the  mischief  when  it  had  once  been  set  up ; 
and  though  we  are  never  told  in  so  many  words  that  the  Apostle  suffered  from  defective 
sight,  there  are  yet  so  many  undesigned  coincidences  of  allusion  all  pointing  in  this  direc- 
tion, that  we  may  regard  it  as  an  ascertained  fact.  Apart  from  the  initial  probability 
that  eyes  which  had  once  been  so  seriously  affected  would  be  liable  to  subsequent  attacks 
of  disease,  we  have  the  following  indications : — (i.)  When  speaking  of  his  infirmity  to 
the  Galatians,  St.  Paul  implies  that  it  might  well  have  rendered  him  an  object  of  loathing ; 
and  this  is  pre-eminently  the  case  with  acute  ophthalmia.  The  most  distressing  objects, 
next  to  the  lepers,  which  the  traveller  will  ever  see  in  the  East — those  who  will  most 
make  him  inclined  to  turn  away  his  face  with  a  shudder  of  pity  and  almost  involuntary 
disgust — are  precisely  those  who  are  the  victims  of  this  disease.3  (ii.)  And  this  would 
[give  a  deeper  pathos  and  meaning  to  the  Apostle's  testimony  that  the  Galatians  in  the 
first  flush  of  their  Gospel  joy,  when  they  looked  on  the  preacher  of  those  good  tidings  as 
an  angel  of  God,  would,  had  it  been  possible,  have  dug  out  their  eyes  in  order  to 
place  them  at  the  sufferer's  service,  (iii.)  The  term,  "  a  stake  in  the  flesh,"  would  be 
most  appropriate  to  such  a  malady,  because  all  who  have  been  attacked  with  it  know 
that  the  image  which  it  recalls  most  naturally  is  that  of  a  sharp  splinter  run  into  the 
eye.3  (iv.)  Moreover,  it  would  be  extremely  likely  to  cause  epileptic  or  other  symptoms, 
since  in  severe  attacks  it  is  often  accompanied  by  cerebral  disturbance,  (v.)  In  spite  of 
the  doubt  which  has  been  recently  thrown  on  the  commonly  accepted  meaning  of  the 
expression  which  St.  Paul  uses  to  the  Galatians,  "Ye  see  in  what  large  letters  I  write 
to  you  with  my  own  hand,"  it  must  at  any  rate  be  admitted  that  it  suits  well  with  the 
hypothesis  of  a  condition  which  rendered  it  painful  and  difficult  to  write  at  all.  That 
this  was  St.  Paul's  normal  condition  seems  to  result  from  his  almost  invariable  practice 
of  employing  an  amanuensis,  and  only  adding  in  autograph  the  few  last  words  of  greet- 
ing or  blessing,  which  were  necessary  for  the  identification  of  his  letters  in  an  age  in 
which  religious  forgeries  were  by  no  means  unknown,  (vi.)  It  is  obvious,  too,  that  an 
ocular  deformity,  caused  aa  this  had  been,  might  well  be  compared  to  the  brand  fixed  by 

1  Compare  the  interesting  parallels  of  Alfred  and  of  St.  Bernard. 

•  When  Dr.  Lightfoot,  who  rejects  this  theory,  says  that  "  St.  Paul's  language  implies  some 
more  striking  complaint,"  he  is  probably  thinking  of  the  milder  forms  of  ophthalmia  with  which  alone 
we  are  familiar  in  England,  and  not  of  those  virulent  attacks  which  are  but  too  common  in  Syria 
And  which  make  such  terrible  havoc  of  the  human  countenance. 

*  Alford's  remark  that  ophthalmic  disorders  are  not  usually  painful  is  singularly  Tnigfaitnn. 


ON  JEWISH  SCOUKGINQS.  715 

a  master  6n  hia  slave,  (vii.)  Lastly,  there  is  no  other  reasonable  explanation  of  tha 
circumstance  that,  when  St.  Paul  had  uttered  an  indignant  answer  to  the  High 
Priest,  and  had  been  rebuked  for  it,  he  at  once  frankly  offered  his  apology  by 
saying  that  "he  had  not  recognised  the  speaker  to  have  been  the  High  Priest."  Now, 
considering  the  position  of  the  High  Priest  as  Nasi  of  the  Sanhedrin,  seated  at  the  end 
of  the  hall,  with  the  Ab  Beth  Din  on  one  side  of  him,  and  the  Chacham  on  the  other,1 
it  is  almost  inconceivable  that  Paul  should  not  have  been  aware  of  his  rank  if  he  had 
not  suffered  from  defective  sight.  All  that  his  blurred  vision  took  in  was  a  white  figure, 
nor  did  he  see  this  figure  with  sufficient  clearness  to  be  able  to  distinguish  that  the 
overbearing  tyrant  was  no  less  a  person  than  the  High  Priest  himself.2 

But  if  these  conjectures  are  correct — and  to  me  they  seem  to  be  almost  certain — how  im« 
mensely  do  they  add  to  our  conception  of  Paul's  heroism ;  how  much  do  they  heighten 
the  astonishment  and  admiration  which  we  feel  at  all  that  he  endured  and  all  that  he 
accomplished !  This  man,  who  almost  single-handed  carried  the  Gospel  of  Christ  from 
Damascus  to  Rome,  was  so  great  a  sufferer  from  inflammation  of  the  eyes  that  he  was  often 
pitiable  to  look  upon  ;  was  unable  to  write  except  with  pain,  and  in  large  letters ;  was 
liable  to  attacks  of  severe  agony,  accompanied  at  times  with  loss  of  consciousness.  He 
was  so  weak  and  ailing  that  under  circumstances  of  danger  he  was  personally  helpless ; 
that  be  had  to  be  passively  conducted  from  place  to  place ;  that  it  was  almost  impossible 
for  him,  I  will  not  say  only  to  preach,  but  even  to  get  through  the  ordinary  routine  of 
life  without  companions  to  guide,  and  protect,  and  lead  him  by  the  hand.3  We  can  then 
see  how  indispensable  it  was  that  St.  Paul  should  have  some  "  that  ministered  unto  him ;" 
how  strongly  he  would  feel  the  necessity  of  being  always  accompanied  upon  his  missions 
by  faithful  friends  ;4  how  much  anguish  might  lie  in  his  remark  that  in  his  strong  affec- 
tion for  the  Thessalonians  he  was  even  ready  for  their  sakes  to  part  with  his  beloved 
Timotheus,  and  to  be  left  at  Athens  alone.5  How  close,  then,  and  how  tender  would  be 
the  bond  of  mutual  gratitude  and  affection  which  would  inevitably  grow  up  under  such 
circumstances  between  himself  and  the  little  band  of  disciples  by  whom  he  was  usually 
accompanied  !  With  what  deepened  bitterness  would  he  feel  the  cruelty  of  neglect  •"~>v 
ingratitude  when,  at  his  first  answer,  no  man  stood  with  him,  but  all  forsook  him  * ' 


EXCURSUS   XI.    (p.   127). 
ON  JEWISH  SCOUBQINQS. 

EVEN  a  single  Jewish  scourging  might  well  entitle  any  man  to  be  regarded  as  a  martyr. 
Thirty-nine  blows  were  inflicted,  unless,  indeed,  it  was  found  that  the  strength  of  the 
patient  was  too  much  exhausted  to  admit  of  his  receiving  the  full  number.  Eoth  of  his 
hands  were  tied  to  what  is  sometimes  called  a  column,  but  which  was  in  reality  a  stake  a 

1  Acts  xxiii.  5.    It  is  possible  that  the  presence  of  Roman  officials  disturbed  this  order. 

*  The  expression  "  fixing  an  earnest  gaze  "  (dTei/iVa?)  has  often  been  adduced  as  yet  another  sign 
that  St.  Paul's  eyesight  was  weak,  and  therefore  that  he  had  acquired  the  intent  stare  so  common 
in  short-sighted  people.    This  argument  is,  however,  untenable,  since  the  word  is  a  favourite  one 
with  St.  Luke  (Acts  xiii.  9  ;  xxiii.  1)  and  is  applied  not  only  to  St.  Paul,  but  also  to  St.  Peter,  St. 
Stephen,  and  even  to  whole  bodies  of  men  (Luke  iv.  20  :  xxii.  56 ;  Acts  i.  10 ;  iii.  2 — 1 ;  vL  15 ; 
vii.  55). 

3  Acts  XViL  14,  rov  IIouXov  efaire'oreeAav  ot  a&e\<j>ol;  15,  oi  S«  KafltOTai/ovres  (Kaffierriavre^,  E,  G,  II) 
TOV  UaOXov  mayov  ews 'Aflrji-coi'.  These  phrases  seein  more  specific  than  those  in  Gen.  xviii.  16: 
Rom.  XV.  24  (Trpoirfn<j>9rjv<u). 

*  Mr.  Lewm  (St.  Paid,  i.  189,  third  edition)  was,  I  believe,  the  earliest  to  point  out  that  these 
passages  bear  on  the  question.     They  are  not  in  themselves  conclusive;  but  when  we  find  the 
Mine  words  used  in  Acts  ix.  30  (to  which  Mr.  Lewin  does  not  refer),  when  we  may  well  suppose  that 
a  fresh  attack  had  followed  a  fresh  revelation,  they  not  improbably  point  to  some  such  state  of 
things  aa  that  which  I  have  inferred,  *  i  Thess.  iii.  1.  •  2  Tim.  iv.  IS. 


716  APPENDIX. 

cubit  and  a  half  high.1  The  public  officer  then  tore  down  his  robe  until  his  breast  was 
laid  bare.  The  executioner  stood  on  a  stone  behind  the  criminal.  The  scourge  consisted 
of  two  thongs,  one  of  which  was  composed  of  four  strands  of  calf -skin,  and  one  of  two 
strands  of  ass's-skin,  which  passed  through  a  hole  in  a  handle.  The  executioner,  who 
was  ordinarily  the  Chazzan  of  the  synagogue,  could  thus  shorten  or  lengthen  them  at  will, 
so  as  not  to  strike  too  low. 2  The  prisoner  bent  to  receive  the  blows,  which  were  inflicted 
with  one  hand,  but  with  all  the  force  of  the  striker,  thirteen  on  the  breast,  thirteen  on 
the  right,  and  thirteen  on  the  left  shoulder.  While  the  punishment  was  going  on,  the 
chief  judge  read  aloud  Deut.  xxviii.  58,  59,  "  If  thou  wilt  not  observe  to  do  all  the  words 
of  this  law  that  are  written  in  this  book,  that  thou  mayest  fear  this  glorious  and  fearful 
name,  the  Lord  thy  God ;  then  the  Lord  will  make  thy  plagues  wonderful,  and  tlio 
plagues  of  thy  seed."  He  then  read  Deut.  ™*\  9,  "  Keep  therefore  the  words  of  this 
covenant,  and  do  them,  that  ye  may  prosper  in  all  ye  do ;  "  and  lastly,  Ps.  Ixxviii.  38,  39, 
"But  He,  being  full  of  compassion,  forgave  their  iniquity,  and  destroyed  them  not :  yea, 
many  a  time  turned  He  His  anger  away,  and  did  not  stir  up  all  His  wrath."  If  the 
punishment  was  not  over  by  the  tune  that  these  three  passages  were  read,  they  were  again 
repeated,  and  so  timed  as  to  end  exactly  with  the  punishment  itself.  Meanwhile  a  second 
judge  numbered  the  blows,  and  a  third  before  each  blow  exclaimed  "  Hakkehu"  (strike 
him).  All  these  particulars  I  take  from  the  Treatise  on  Punishments  (iron,  Makkblh)  in 
the  Mishna.3  The  severity  of  the  pain  may  best  be  estimated  by  the  brief  addition  :  "  If 
the  criminal  die  under  the  infliction,  the  executioner  is  not  accounted  guilty  unless  he  gives 
by  mistake  a  single  blow  too  many,  in  which  case  he  is  banished." 

These  facts  have  an  interest  far  deeper  than  archaeological.  They  not  only  show  how 
awful  were  the  trials  which  St.  Paul  had  to  endure,  if  such  as  these  were  hardly  counted 
worthy  of  narration  amongst  them,  but  also  they  illustrate  to  a  singular  degree  the 
minute  scrupulosity  which  reigned  through  all  Jewish  observances.  If,  for  instance, 
only  thirty-nine  blows  were  inflicted  instead  of  forty,  it  was  not  only,  as  is  usually  stated, 
to  avoid  the  possibility  of  error  in  the  counting,  but  also  (such  at  least  is  the  reason  as- 
signed by  Maimonides4)  because  the  Law  says,  "in  number,  forty,"5  not  "forty  in 
number;"  whence  they  concluded  that  they  might  assign  a  smaller  but  not  a  larger 
number;  and,  perhaps,  also  because  the  word  "thy  brother  "(^TIN)  stands  by  Gematria 
for  thirty-nine.6  Another  assigned  reason  is  that  the  passage  of  the  Psalm  (Ixxviii.  33,  39) 
which  was  recited  on  the  occasion  ends  at  verse  39.  The  scourge  was  made  partly  of  ox- 
hide, partly  of  ass's-hide,  for  the  astounding  reasons  that  immediately  after  the  passage 
in  Deuteronomy  which  orders  the  infliction  of  scourging  follows  the  verse,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  muzzle  tho  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn  ; " '  and  that  in  Isa.  i.  3  we  find,  "  The 
ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib ;  but  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people 
doth  not  consider."  And  thus  it  was  thought  right  that  those  who  do  know  should  punish 
him  who  does  not  know  1 8  The  criminal  was  to  receive  only  thirteen  blows  on  his  breast, 
but  twenty-six  on  his  shoulders,  because  it  was  inferred  from  Deut.  xxv.  2  that  it  was 
only  on  the  back  that  he  was  to  be  beaten,9  "  according  to  his  fault,"  so  that  the  back 

1  Marble  "  columns,"  traditionally  assigned  to  this  purpose,  are  shown  among  the  relics  of 
Roman  Catholic  churches ;  e.g.,  the  column  of  the  flagellation  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  ; 
that  of  the  scourging  of  St.  Paul  in  S.  I'aalo  fuori  de'  Muri  at  Rome,  &c. 

*  This  was  not  strictly  in  accordance  with  Deut.  xxv.  2 ;  but  it  is  strange  to  see  how  traditional 
laxity  was  mingled  by  the  Jews  with  unintelligent  literalism. 

*  See  Surenhusius,  Mishna,  voL  iv.,  p.  280,  seqq. 

*  Maimon.  Sanliedr.  17.  s  D'3?T)N  7IDDQ3- 

*  Gematria  (Geomatria)  was  one  of  the  Kabbalistic  methods  of  drawing  interpretations  from  tho 
numerical  value  of  letters.    I  have  given  many  instances  in  Rabbinic  Exegesis  (Expositor,  May,  1877). 
Thus  because  both  Mashiach  and  nachash,  "  serpent,"  numerically  represent  358,  they  inferred  that 
it  was  the  Messiah  who  would  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  &c. 

1  Deut.  xxv.  4.  »  So  Maimonides  and  11.  Ob.  de  Bartenora,  ap.  Surenhus.  I.  a. 

*  Buxtorf,  Synag.,  p.  523.    See  also  Praef.  Libr.  de  Abbreviaturis.   This  was  one  of  the  numerous 
instances  hi  which  the  Jews  were  more  legal  than  tho  Law  itself.    Similarly  they  extended  the 
Bab  bath  Into  a  Little  Sabb&th,  an  hour  before  and  an  hour  after  the  true  Sabbath.    They  wern  i>'> 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  ROMAN  EMPEEORS.  717 

received  a  double  number  of  blows.  The  duty  of  reading  aloud  while  the  scourging 
continued  was  also  a  minute  inference  from  the  words  of  Scripture.1 

A  person  was  liable  to  this  penalt7  if  he  wilfully  violated  any  of  the  negative 
precepts  of  the  Law,  and  inadvertently  any  of  those  which,  if  deliberately  transgressed, 
involved  the  threat  of  excision  from  among  the  people,2  or  "death  by  the  visitation 
of  God."8  Under  which  of  the  numerous  offences  for  which  this  punishment  was 
assigned  Paul  five  times  suffered,  is  by  no  means  easy  to  say.  Looking  through  them 
all  as  enumerated  in  the  treatise  Makkoth,4  and  as  expanded  by  Maimonides,*  I  cannot 
find  any  of  which  the  Apostle  could  possibly  have  been  guilty.  Where,  however,  the 
will  to  punish  him  existed,  the  pretext  would  not  long  be  wanting.  His  flagellation 
must  have  been  that  minor  but  stil]  terrible  punishment  which  was  called  "  the  legal 
scourging"  or  the  "scourging  of  forty,"6  because  the  yet  deadlier  flagellation  with  rods, 
which  was  called  the  Rabbinic,  or  the  flagellation  of  contumacy,7  was  never  inflicted 
within  the  limits  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  is  expressly  stated  to  have  been  a  beating  to 
death, 

"When  once  an  offender  had  been  scourged  this  punishment  was  considered  to  remove 
the  danger  of  "cutting  off,"3  and  not  only  so,  but  it  was  regarded  as  leaving  no  igno- 
miny behind  it.  The  humane  expression  of  Moses  that  forty  stripes  were  not  to  be 
exceeded  "  lest  thy  brother  seem  vile  unto  thee,"  was  interpreted  to  mean  that  when 
the  punishment  was  over  the  sufferer  was  "restored  to  his  integrity."  So  completely 
was  this  the  case  that  even  the  High  Priest  himself  might  be  thus  scourged,  and 
afterwards  be  "restored  to  his  majesty."  But  although  it  was  assumed  that  he  would 
suffer  no  ulterior  injury,  but  rather  be  sure  to  win  an  inheritance  in  the  future,  yet,  of 
course,  if  he  again  offended  he  was  again  scourged.9  It  was  even  possible  that  for  one 
offence,  if  it  involved  the  disobedience  to  several  negative  precepts,  he  might  incur 
several  consecutive  scourgings,  care  being  only  taken  that  he  had  sufficiently  recovered 
from  the  first  before  the  next  was  inflicted.  It  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  impossible, 
or  even  improbable,  that  during  those  "many  days"  which  Paul  spent  in  Damascus  La 
trying  to  convince  these  passionate  disputants,  he  may  have  incurred  this  torture 
several  times. 

To  have  refused  to  undergo  it  by  sheltering  himself  under  the  privilege  of  hie 
Roman  citizenship  would  have  been  to  incur  excommunication,  and  finally  to  have  out 
himself  off  from  admission  into  the  synagogues. 


EXCURSUS  XII.  (p.  141). 
APOTHEOSIS  OF  ROMAN  EMPERORS. 

THE  early  Emperors  rather  discouraged  than  stimulated  this  tendency  to  flatter  them  by 
a  premature  apotheosis.  If  temples  had  been  built  to  them  in  their  lifetime,  they  had 
always  been  to  their  "  genius,"  or  had  at  least  been  associated — as  at  Athens — with  the 
divinity  of  Rome.10  Augustus,  with  these  restrictions,  had  yielded  to  the  earnest 

bidden  to  have  leaven  In  their  houses  daring  the  Passover,  and  they  abstained  from  oven  using  the 
word.  Being  forbidden  swine's  flesh,  they  avoid  the  word  pig  altogether,  and  call  the  pig  nnw  "lyi, 
dablMr  acheer,  "the  other  thing,"  &c.  (Godwyn,  Moses  and  Aaron,  viil.  12.)  These  are  specimens 
of  the  "  hedge  of  the  Law." 

1  Deut.  xrv.  4,  imn  mpa,  "hlnc  colligimus  plagas  inflgi  debere  inter  legendum"  (B.  Ob.  da 
Bartenora,  op.  Snrenhus.  MisTina,  iv.  290).  *  p-fl.  »  C'DttJ  'T3  niTO- 

*  III.,  1,  2,  3,  4.  s  HUkoth  Sanhedr.  xviii.,  xix.  •  Mdlkooth,  nrVWIi  or  D'JWN- 

7  nmo.    See  Carpzov.  App.  Crit.,  p.  589.    The  Greek  rvfiironcr/ios .  8  2  Mace.  hi.  35. 

»  They  quoted  Lev.  xviii.  29  ;  2  Mace.  ill.  15. 

10  Dion  Cass.  M.  20  ;  Suet.  Avg.  62.  Though  he  knew  that  even  Proconsuls  had  in  the  provinces 
been  honoured  with  temples,  yet  in  "  nullcl  provincift,  nisi  comwvuni  suo  Jiowifieque  nomiiiz  recepit." 
See  the  excellent  chapter  on  "  L'Apotheose  Imperiale,"  in  Boissier,  La  Religion  Komaine,  i.  123 — 205. 


718 


APPENDIX. 


entreaties  of  the  people  of  Pergamop  and  Nicomedia,  but  had  expressly  forbidden  the 
Romans  to  take  any  part  in  this  new  cult.  The  base  example  spread  rapidly  in  the 
provinces,  and  though  it  is  probable  that  in  secret  Augustus  was  not  displeased  at  so 
astonishing  a  proof  of  his  own  power,  he  affected  to  smile  at  it  aa  a  man  of  the  world. ' 
In  the  frenzy  of  flattery,  which  is  the  disease  of  despotisms,  it  was  but  too  likely  that 
this  deification  of  a  living  man  would  creep  from  the  provinces  into  Italy,  and,  in  spite 
of  the  assertion  of  Dion  Cassius,  that  in  Italy  no  one  ventured  to  worship  Augustus,  it  is 
certain  from  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  that  at  his  death  there  had  sprung  up,  either  by 
his  permission  or  without  his  interference,  priests  of  Augustus  at  Pompeii,  flamens  at 
Praeneste,  an  Augusteum  at  Pisa,  and  a  Caesareum  at  Puteoli ;  and  this — though  it  was 
due  far  more  to  the  religious  degradation  of  the  age  than  to  the  phrenetic  pride  of  the 
autocrat — was  made  a  source  of  bitter  blame  against  him  when  he  was  dead.  Even  at 
Rome,2  though  no  temple  rose  to  him  till  he  was  dead,  yet  we  need  go  no  further  than 
the  poetry  of  Virgil,  Horace,  and  Ovid,3  to  show  that  he  was  commonly  addressed  as  a 
deity  (numen)  and  a  god,  and  that  sacrifices  were  offered  either  to  him  or  in  his  name  ; 
and,  as  appears  from  inscriptions,  even  at  Rome,  if  they  did  not  worship  him  directly, 
they  did  so  indirectly,  by  rearing  altars  to  his  virtues  and  his  laws,  and  by  inserting  his 
name  among  those  of  ancient  deities  in  the  songs  of  the  Arval  brothers.  After  his  death 
the  worship  was  extended  without  limit.  He  was  known  universally  as  the  Divine 
Augustus,  a  phrase  which  became  as  common  as  feu  le  roi.4 

Tiberius,  for  political  reasons,  patronised,  and  even  to  a  certain  extent  enforced,  thia 
new  worship,  but  he  also  discouraged  the  extravagance  which  endeavoured  to  extend 
divine  honours  to  his  living  self,  and  by  doing  so  he  at  once  gratified  his  undisguised 
cynicism  and  showed  his  strong  good  sense.  But  the  tendency  to  apotheosis  was  in  his 
time  firmly  established.  He  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  deified  after  his  death,  and  his 
panegyrist,  Velleius  Paterculus,  tells  us  a  story  that  when  he  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
campaign  among  the  Chauci,  a  barbarian  chief  obtained  permission  to  see  him,  and  after 
crossing  the  river  in  order  to  do  so,  gazed  at  him  for  a  long  time  in  silence,  and 
exclaiming  that  he  had  now  seen  the  gods,5  asked  to  touch  his  hand,  and  then  pushed 
off  his  boat  towards  the  opposite  shore,  gazing  to  the  last  on  the  living  deity.  So  rapidly 
did  the  disease  of  adulation  grow  that,  according  to  Suetonius,  Domitian  actually  used 
to  begin  his  letters  with  the  words  "Dominus  et  Deus  noster  sic  fieri  jubet" — "Thus 
orders  our  Lord  and  God,  Domitian  1  "6 


EXCURSUS   XIII.    (p.    185). 
BURDENS  LAID   ON  PBOSELYTES. 

WE  are  told  in  the  Talmud  that  if  a  Gentile  wished  to  become  a  proselyte  he  was  asked 
his  reasons  for  the  wish,  and  informed  that  Israel  is  now  afflicted,  persecuted,  and  cast 
down  with  all  kinds  of  sufferings.  If  he  replies  that  he  knows  it,  and  is  not  worthy  to 
share  in  their  sufferings,  he  is  admitted,  but  is  told  enough  of  the  "light"  and  the 

i  Qidntil  Instt.  Orat.vL  3,  77. 

»  Tac.  Ann.  L  10,  "  Nihil  deorum  honoribus  relictum,  cum  so  templis  et  efflgie  numinum  per 
flat/lines  et  sacerdotes  coli  vellet;"  Aurel.  Viet  de  Coesctr.  1,  "Huicque,  uti  Deo,  Romae  provin- 
ciisque  omnibus,  per  urbes  celeberrimas  vivo  mortuoque  tenipla  sacerdotes  et  collegia  sacravere." 
This  seems,  however,  to  be  a  positive  mistake,  though  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.  xii.  19,  mentions  a  temple 
which  Livia  erected  to  him  after  his  death  (Divo)  on  the  Palatine.  Suetonius,  a  very  high  authority 
on  such  a  subject,  says  that  he  most  obstinately  refused  this  honour  at  Rome  when  it  was  pressed 
upon  him  (Aug.  52,  "  In  urbe  quidem  pertinacissime  abstinuit  hoc  honore  "). 

»  See  Bentley's  note  on  Hor.  Epp.  II.  i.  10 ;  Virg.  Eccl.  i.  7  ;  Georg.  i.  42  ;  Hor.  Od.  1.  2,  «  ;  ilL 
I,  1 ;  iv.  5,  16  ;  Ov.  Trist.  ii.  8, 9 ;  iv.  9,  111.  (Boissier,  L  153.) 

*  Tac.  Ann.  1,  73,  "  Caelum  decretum." 

•  Veil  Patera  U.  107,  "  Quos  ante  audiebam  hodie  vtdj  deos."  •.fiuet.  Domtt.  18. 


HATRED  OF   THE   JEWS.  719 

"heavy "precepts  to  warn  him  to  desist  in  time  if  he  is  not  sincere,  since,  as  Rabh 
Chelbo  said,  "  proselytes  are  as  injurious  to  Israel  as  a  scab."  He  is  told  about  the  rules 
respecting  gleaning,  and  tithes,  and  the  penalties  attached  to  any  transgression  of  the 
Law,  and  is  informed  that  henceforth  if  he  desecrates  the  Sabbath  he  is  liable  to  death 
by  stoning.  If  he  submits  he  is  circumcised,  and  even  circumcised  a  second  time,  if 
there  were  any  neglect  or  carelessness  in  the  first  performance  of  the  rite.  After  his 
recovery  he  is  immersed  without  delay  by  way  of  baptism,  and  two  "disciples  of  the 
wise"  stand  by  him,  repeating  some  of  the  "light"  and  "heavy"  precepts.1  In  fact,  a 
Gentile  could  only  become  a  proselyte  by  submitting  himself  to  the  whole  yoke  of 
Eabbinism,  the  tyranny  of  archaic,  puerile,  and  wearisome  halach6th  which  year  by  year 
was  laid  more  heavily  on  Jewish  shoulders  by  the  pedantry  of  their  theologio  schools.  It 
was  the  fault  of  the  Jews  that  the  Gentiles  usually  concentrated  their  attention  on  mere 
transient  Jewish  rites,  and  not  on  the  eternal  principles  which  God  had  revealed  to  them. 
Can  we  be  surprised  at  this  when  we  find  R.  Eleazar  Ben  Chasmah  saying  that  the  rules 
about  birds'  nests  (kintm),  and  the  "  uncleanliness  "  of  women  (niddah)  are  essential*  of 
the  Law  I* 


EXCURSUS   XIV.   (p.  186). 
HATRED  OF  THE  JEWS  IN  CLASSICAL  ANTIQUITT. 

IT  la  at  once  curious  and  painful  to  perceive  how  strange  was  the  mixture  of  curiosity, 
disgust,  and  contempt,  with  which  the  Jews  were  regarded  in  pagan  antiquity.  From 
Alanetho  the  Egyptian  priest,  with  whom  seems  to  have  originated  the  calumny  that 
they  were  a  nation  of  lepers,3  down  to  Annaeua  Floras,  who  brands  them  as  an  impious 
race,4  the  references  to  them  in  secular  literature  are  a  tissue  of  absurd  calumnies  or 
biting  sarcasms.  Chaeremon  alludes  to  them  as  unclean  and  polluted;5  Lysimachus,  as 
diseased  and  unsocial  ;6  Diodorus  Siculus,  as  addicted  to  strange  rites,  and  hostile  to 
strangers;7  Apollonius  Molon,  a  Greek  rhetorician  of  the  time  of  Cicero,  as  "godless 
and  misanthropical ;  "8  Cicero  heaps  scorn  and  indignation  upon  them  in  his  Oration  for 
the  extortionate  and  tyrannous  Flaccus,9  and  in  that  on  the  consular  provinces  calls 
them  "a  race  born  for  slavery;"10  Horace  sneers  at  their  proselytism,  and  their 
circumcision,  and  their  Sabbaths;11  Seneca  calls  them  "a  most  abandoned  race;"1- 
Martial,  besides  odious  allusions  to  their  national  rite,  pours  his  contempt  on  their 
poverty,  their  mendicancy,  their  religion,  and  their  low  trade  of  selling  sulphur  matches 
and  buying  broken  glass,  and  he  seems  to  be  the  first  to  originate  the  slander  repeated 
by  Sir  Thomas  Browne  in  his  "Popular  Errors;"13  Quintilian,  gentle  as  he  was,  yet 
admits  a  very  bitter  remark  against  the  Jews  and  Moses;14  Lucan  alludes  to  their 
"  uncertain  Deity  ;"15  Petronius  Arbiter  seems  to  think,  as  did  many  of  the  ancients, 
that  the  Jews  did  not  abhor,  but  actually  worshipped  the  pig ; I$  Tacitus,  in  his  History, 

1  YtblmmOth,  f.  47, 1. 

*  Pirke  Abhdth,  in.  28.  In  partial  defence  of  the'Jews  it  may  be  said  that  some  were  Inclined  to 
become  proselytes  to  avoid  military  service  (Tac.  Ann.  ii.  85 ;  Suet.  Tib.  36  ;  Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  3,  §  5), 
others  were  Shechemite  proselytes— i.e.,  to  marry  rich  Jewesses  (id.  xvi.  7,  §  6  ;  xx.  7,  §§  2,  3),  others 
were  "  Jion-proselytes  "—i.e.,  out  of  fear  (2  Kings  xvii.  26  ;  Jos.  H.  J.  ii.  17,  §  10).  Herzog,  KeaZ-Enc., 
»•  v.  *  Ap.  Jos.  c.  Ap*  i.  26. 

«  Speaking  of  Pompey,  Floras  says,  "Kt  vidit  illud  grande  impiae  gentis  arcanum." 

•  Jos.  c.  Ap.  1.  82.  •  Id.  1.  34.  1  Diod.  Sic.  xL  •  Jos.  e.  Ap.  U.  14. 

•  Cic.  pro.  Flacco,  xxviii.  "  De  Prow.  COM.  v.  "  Hor.  Sat.  1.  iv.  143 ;  v.  100  ;  ix.  69. 
™  Ap.  Aug.  De  Civ.  Del.  vll.  80,  "  Usque  eo  sccleratissimae  gentis  consuetudo  convaluit  [the 

Sabbathl  ut,"  &c 

i»  Mart.  Ep.  L  42  ;  xii.  30,  85,  57 ;  Iv.  4  ;  vii.  82  ;  xl.  94, 1.  4.  Cf.  Stat.  Silv.  1.  6.  The  relation  of 
the  Herods  to  the  Caesars  had  attracted  a  large  share  of  attention  to  the  Jews  in  the  Imperial  epoch. 
Pers.  v.  17»— 184  ;  Juv.  vi.  157.  i*  De  Instt.  Oro«.  iii.  7. 

'*  PiMrsal.  ii.  593,  "  incerti  Judaea  Dei." 

"  Satirui.  Biichler,  p.  221,  "  Judaeua  licet  et  POR*MM»  numen,  adoreV  &c,  (Cf.  Pint 


75SU  APPENDIX. 

reproaches  them  with  gross  sensuality,  low  cunning,  and  strong  hatred  of  alt  nations  but 
their  own,  and  gives  at  full  length,  and  with  all  gravity,  the  preposterous  story  about 
their  veneration  for  the  ass.1  In  his  Annals  he  speaks  with  equal  horror  and  equal 
ignorance  of  Jews  and  Christians,  and  considers  that  if  the  thousands  of  Jews  who  were 
deported  to  Sardinia  died  it  would  bo  a  cheap  loss ; 2  Juvenal  flings  scornful  allusion  at 
their  squalor,  beggary,  turbulence,  superstition,  cheatery,  and  idleness ; 3  Celsus  abused 
them  as  jugglers  and  vagabonds ; 4  Ammianus  Marcellinus  as  "  disgusting  and  noisy  ; "  5 
Kutilius  Numatianus  closes  the  long  line  of  angry  slanderers  by  a  burst  of  abuse,  in 
which  he  characterises  Judaea  as  a  "lying  slave-cage."6  Jeremiah  had  bidden  the  Jews 
to  seek  the  peace  of,  and  to  pray  for,  the  city  of  their  captivity,  "for  in  the  peace 
thereof  shall  ye  have  peace."  7  Better  had  it  been  for  the  ancient  Jews  if  they  had  lived 
in  the  spirit  of  that  large  advice.  But  the  Gentiles  were  well  aware  that  in  the  Jewish 
synagogues  there  was  an  exception  to  the  dead  uniformity  of  the  liomish  Empire,  and 
that  they  and  their  customs  were  there  treated  with  open  and  bitter  scorn,  which  they 
repaid  tenfold.8 


EXCUESUS  XV.  (p.  186), 
JUDGMENTS  OF  EARLY  PAGAN  WRITERS  ON  OHRISTIANITT. 

SUETONIUS  (died  ciro.  A.D.  110). 

*'  Judaeos  impulsore  Chresto  assidue  tumultuantes  Roma  expulit"  (Claud.  25).' 
"Afflicti  suppliciis  Christiani  genus  hominum  superstitionis  novae  et  maleficae" 
o,  16). 

"  Percrebuerat  Oriente  toto  vetus  et  constans  opinio,  esse  in  fatis,  ot  eo  tempore. 
Judaea  profocti  rerum  potirentur  "  (Fesp.  4). 

TACITUS  (Consul  suffectus,  A.D.  97). 

"Ergo  abolendo  rumori  Nero  subdidit  reos,  et  quaesitissimis  pocnis  affecit,  quos  per 
flngitia  invisos  vulgus  Christianos  appellabat.  Auctor  ejus  nominia  Christus  Tiberio 
imperitante  per  procuratorem  Pont.  Pilatum  supplicio  afifectus  est ;  repressaque  in 
praesens  oxitiabilis  superstitio  rursum  erumpebat  non  modo  per  Judaeam  originem  ejus 
in.ili,  sed  per  urbem  etiam  quo  cuncta  undique  atrocia  aut  pudenda  confluunt  celebran- 
turque.  Igitur  primum  correpti  qui  fatebantur,  deinde  indicio  eorum  multitude  ingens, 
haud  perinde  in  crimine  incendii  quam  odio  generis  humani  convicti  aunt.  Et  pereunti- 
bus  addita  ludibria,  ut  ferarum  tergis  contecti  laniatu  canum  interirent,  aut  criicibus 
affixi  aut  flammandi,  atque  ubi  defecisset  dies,  in  usum  nocturni  luminis  urerentur  .  .  . 
undo  quamquam  adversus  sontes  et  novissima  exempla  meritos  miseratio  oriebatur 
tamquam  non  utilitate  publica  sed  in  saevitiam  unius  absumerentur  "  (Ann.  rv.  44). 

Gentiles  in  the  Letter  of  the  Churches  of  Vienne  and  Lyons  complain,  f enji-  nva  «<u 
KouTji'  rifuv  e«Tayov<ri  Opri<rKfCo.v  (ap.  Euseb.  H.  E.  V.  1). 

1  Tac.  Hist.  v.  2—5  ;  Died.  Sic.  i.  28 ;  Plut.  Synop.  iv.  5.    On  this  story  see  Geiger,  Jufcn  und 
Judenthum,  illustr.  Monatxfi.  d.  Judeneth.,  Oct.,  1S65. 

2  Ann.  xv.  44  ;  ii.  85,  "si  ob  gravitatem  caeli  intcrissent,  vile  damnmn."    (Cf.  Suet.  Tib.  36 ; 
Jos.  Antt.  xviii.  3,  §  5 ;   Philo,  Leg.  24.) 

»  Sat.  vi.  542—547, 156—160 ;  xiv.  96—107.    See,  for  other  allusions,  id.  iii.  13,  296. 

*  Ap.  Orig.  c.  Cels.  i.  33,  yen/row. 

5  Ammian.  Mare.  xxii.  5,  "  fetentes  Judaei."    (See  "Gentiles  "  in  Kitto.) 

'  Itinerar.  i.  8,  89.  In  the  above  quotations  and  references  I  have  made  free  use  (with  certain 
additions)  of  Dr.  Gill's  Notices  of  the  Jews  by  Classic  Authors  (see  also  Meier's  Judaica,  and  the  article 
of  Geiger,  above  quoted).  ?  Jer.  xxix.  7. 

8  Ps.  Heraclit.  Ep.  vil. ;  Hausrath,  N.  T.  Gesch.  11.  79.    Specimens  of  this  scorn  may  be  seen  in 
Jos.  c.  Ap.  ii.  34,  35. 

9  According  to  Sulplc.  Severus  (Hist.  Sacr.  11.  80),  Titus  decided  that  the  Temple  should  b« 
destroyed  that  Christianity  and  Judaism  might  be  eradicated  together.    "  Quippe  has  religiones, 
licet  contrarias  sibi,  iisdem  tamon  auctoribus  profectas  ;  Christianos  ex  Jndaeis  exstitisse  ;  radioe 
sublata,  stirpem  facile  perituraiu."    This  is  believed  by  Beraaya  to  be  a  quotation  from  Tacitus. 


PROCONSULATE  OF  8ERQIUS  PATJLUS.  T21 

PLINY  THE  YOUNGER  (died  circ.  A.D.  117). 

His  famous  letter  to  Trajan  is  too  long  for  insertion.  He  asks  whether  he  is  to  punish 
persons  for  simply  being  Christians,  or  for  crimes  involved  in  the  charge  of  being  so  (nomen 
ipsum,  siflagitiis  cweat,  anflagitia,  cohaerentia  nomini).  He  says  that  he  has  punished  thosa 
who,  after  threat  of  punishment,  still  declared  themselves  Christians,  because  he  con- 
siders that  in  any  case  their  "  inflexible  obstinacy  "  should  be  punished.  Others  equally 
infatuated  (similis  amentiae)  he  determined  to  send  to  Rome,  being  Roman  citizens. 
Having  received  an  anonymous  accusation  which  inculpated  many,  he  tested  them,  if 
they  denied  the  charge  of  being  Christians,  by  making  them  call  on  the  gods,  and  offer 
incense  and  wine  to  the  Emperor's  image,  and  curse  Christ.  If  they  did  this  he  dismissed 
them,  because  he  was  told  that  no  true  Christian  would  ever  do  it.  Some  said  that  they 
had  long  abjured  Christianity,  but  declared  that  the  head  and  front  of  their  "  fault  "  or 
"error  "  had  simply  been  the  custom  of  meeting  before  dawn,  and  singing  antiphons  to 
Christ  as  a  God,  and  binding  themselves  with  an  oath l  not  to  steal,  rob,  commit 
adultery,  break  their  word,  or  deny  the  trust  committed  to  them;  after  which  they 
separated,  meeting  again  for  a  harmless  meal — a  custom  which  they  had  dropped  after 
Pliny's  edict  forbidding  guilds.  Scarcely  crediting  this  strange  account  of  their  innocent 
life,  he  had  put  two  deaconesses  (ex  duabus  ancillis  quae  ministrae  dicebantur)  to  the 
torture,  but  discovered  nothing  beyond  perverted  and  immoderate  superstition  (pravam, 
immodicam).  He  therefore  consults  Trajan,  because  of  the  multitude  of  the  accused, 
who  were  of  every  age,  rank,  and  sex,  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  country.  So  widely 
had  ' '  the  contagion  of  that  wretched  superstition  "  spread  that  the  temples  were  almost 
deserted,  and  there  was  scarcely  any  one  to  buy  the  victims  (Ep.  x.  97). 

To  this  letter  Trajan  briefly  replies  that  the  Christians  are  to  be  punished  if  con- 
victed, but  not  to  be  sought  out ;  to  be  pardoned  if  they  sacrifice,  and  not  to  be  tried  on 
anonymous  accusations. 

EPIOTETUS  (died  A.D.  117). 

"  Then  through  madness  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  be  so  disposed  towards  these 
things"  (i.e.,  to  be  indifferent  to  the  world),  "and  the  Galilseans  through  habit* 
(Dissert,  iv.  7). 

M.  AURELIUS  ANTONINUS  (died  A.D.  180). 

Speaking  of  readiness  to  die,  he  says  that  it  is  noble,  "  so  that  it  comes  from  a  man's 
own  judgment,  not  from  mere  obstinacy  (&ia  ij/iMiv  Traparaf iv),  as  with  the  Christians,  but 
considerately,  and  with  dignity  "  (Eucheir.  xi.  3). 

LUCIAN  (died  circ.  A.D.  200). 

His  sneers  and  parodies  of  what  he  calls  the  eav/iaorrj  <ro$la  of  the  Christians  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Ver.  Historia,  I.  12,  30 ;  II.  4,  11—12  (Alexand.  (Pseudomantis)  xxv.  38). 
The  Philopatris  is  not  by  Lucian,  but  a  hundred  years  later. 

GALEN,  the  great  writer  on  Physic  (died  A.D.  200). 
In  his  book,  De  different,  pulsv.um,  he  alludes  twice  to  the  obstinacy  of  Christians. 


EXCURSUS  XVI.  (p.  197). 

THE  PROCONSULATE  OF  SERGIUS  PAULDS. 

THE  title  of  "  Proconsul "  3  given  to  this  insular  governor  is  one  of  those  minute  touches 
of  accuracy  which  occur  on  every  page  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

It  might  have  been  a  serious  difficulty  that  the  name  of  Sergius  Paulus  does  not  occur 
in  the  Fasti  of  the  Consuls  till  long  after  this  period,3  but  the  difficulty  vanishes  when 

1  Interesting  as  the  earliest  Christian  application  of  the  word  "  Sacrament "  (Waterland,  On  tfn 
Eucharist,  i.).  *  K.  V.  "  Deputy." 

3  Berg.  Paulas,  consul  suffectus,  A.D.  21,  and  another,  Consul,  A.D.  168. 

24« 


„__ 

722  APPENDIX, 

we  find  that  the  title  of  Proconsul  was  given  to  the  Governor  of  a  senatorial  province, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  previous  rank.1  But  another  and  more  serious  difficulty 
was  once  urged.  There  were  two  kinds  of  provinces,  the  imperial  and  the  senatorial, 
both  of  which  were  called  Eparchies  («ropx"").  The  imperial  were  those  to  which  the 
governors  were  sent  by  the  Emperor,  because  their  circumstances  involved  the  necessity 
of  military  command.  Augustus,  under  pretence  of  relieving  the  Senate  from  the  burden 
of  the  more  disturbed  provinces,  had  astutely  reserved  for  his  personal  administration 
those  regions  of  the  empire  where  the  presence  of  an  army  was  required.  As  the  title 
Praetor  (in  Greek,  SrpaTiryb?,  or  general)  still  retained  some  shadow  of  its  old  military 
significance,  the  Governors  of  these  provinces  were  called  Propraetors,  or  'AjTiorpanj-yoi. 
for  which,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  more  general  term  'Hye^wi-  is  often  used.  This 
Greek  word  for  "  Governor  "  serves  as  an  equivalent  both  for  "  Procurator  "  and  also  for 
Praeses  or  Lfgatus,  which  was,  for  instance,  the  ordinary  designation  of  the  Governor  of 
Syria.  These  Praesides,  Legati,  or  Propraetors  held  their  commands  at  the  Emperor's 
pleasure,  and,  especially  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  were  often  left  for  years  undisturbed 
in  their  tenure  of  office.  The  Proconsuls,  or  'AvflviroToi,  on  the  other  hand,  who  were 
appointed  by  the  Senate,  only  held  their  posts  for  a  single  year.  Now  it  appears  from 
Strabo  that  when,  in  B.C.  27,  Augustus  divided  the  provinces  between  himself  and  the 
Senate,  Cyprus  was  reserved  as  one  of  the  imperial  districts  (oTpanjyio/  en-apxta),  and  with 
this  Dion  Cassius  agrees.2  Consequently  even  eminent  writers  like  Grotius  thought  that 
St.  Luke  had  here  fallen  into  an  error ;  and  Baronius  supposes  that  Cyprus  must  at  this 
time  have  been  an  honorary  adjunct  to  the  Proconsulship  of  Cilicia,  while  Grotius  suggests 
that  Greek  flattery  might  have  often  given  to  a  Propraetor  the  more  distinguished  title 
of  Proconsul,  and  that  St.  Luke  might  have  used  it  in  accordance  with  the  common 
parlance.  But  a  little  more  research  has  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  though  Cyprus 
originally  was  an  imperial  province,  and  ultimately  reverted  to  the  same  condition,  yet 
Augustus  restored  both  it  and  Gallia  Narbonensis  to  the  Senate  in  exchange  for  Dalmatia, 
because  he  found  that  they  did  not  need  the  presence  of  many  soldiers.3  And  to  set  the 
matter  finally  at  rest,  copper  coins  and  inscriptions  of  this  very  epoch  have  been  found 
at  Curium  and  Citium  in  which  the  title  of  Proconsul  is  given  to  Cominius  Proclus> 
Julius  Cor  Jus,  and  L.  Aunus  Bassus,  who  must  have  been  immediate  predecessors  or 
successors  of  Sergius  Paulus.4 

The  name  Sergius  Paulus  is  itself  interesting.  Of  this  particular  Proconsul,  indeed, 
we  know  nothing  beyond  the  eulogy  of  the  sacred  historian  that  he  was  a  man  of  sense,5 
and  that  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  teaching  of  St.  PauL  But  Pliny  the  Elder,  in 
his  Natural  History,  three  times  refers  to  a  Sergius  Paulus  as  a  person  interested  in 
intelligent  researches. ;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  this  Sergius  Paulus  may  be  none 
other  than  our  Cyprian  Proconsul.'  If  so,  the  character  given  him  in  one  passing  word 
by  St.  Luke  will  be  confirmed,  and  we  feel  additional  pleasure  in  tracing  similar 
characteristics  in  others  of  the  same  name  who  may  well  have  been  his  descendants ;  for 
instance,  in  the  Sergius  Paulus  who,  more  than  a  hundred  years  afterwards,  receives 
the  encomium  of  the  physician  Galen  for  his  eminence  both  as  a  theoretic  and  a  practical 
philosopher.7 

1  Dion  Cass.  liil.  13,  xal  ivdwarovt  (coAtiff&u  M  on.  TOUS  Suo  TOVS  inraTCVKorac  (ex-Consuls)  oAAa 
KOI  Toii«  aAAovc  TUV  (orpanjyriKOTUn'  (ex- Praetors),  K.  T.  A. 

*  Dion  Cass.  liii.  12 ;  Strabo,  xiv.  685  ;  Suet  Aug.  47. 

*  Dion  Cass.  liii,  13,  •nji'  Hun-pop     ...     rep  SI//JKU  aneSiaictv  :   liv.  4,   «al  ovru  avOuiraroi  leal  «t 
bcctpa  ra  iOvn  veunta6<u  ijp£ai/TO. 

*  Eckhel,  iii.  84  ;  Akerman,  Numitm.  Illustr.,  pp.  39,  42 ;  Boeckh,  Corp.  Inscr.  2681,  2632. 

8  Acts  xiii.  7,  AfSpi  owtrtp.  The  name  of  a  Proconsul  Paulus  has  been  found  on  an  inscription 
at  Soli  (Cesnola,  Cyprus,  p.  495). 

«  Plin.  H.  N.  I.    Pliny  is  writing  only  twenty  years  after  this  period. 

»  Kenan,  St.  Paul,  p.  15,  who  refers  to  Orelli,_2414,  4938.  Galen,  De  Anatom.  1  (ftpud  Wetstein), 
ii-Jeoj  rot  jraira  irpwwovros  ifyou  T«  KOI  Advoif  Totj  iv  ' 


ST.   JOHN  AND  ST.  PAUL,  723 


EXCURSUS    XVII.    (p.  249). 

ST.  JOHN  AND  ST.  PAUL. 

Or  the  three  "seeming  pillars,"  John  appears  to  have  taken  no  part  In  the  synod  at 
Jerusalem,  or  if  he  did  it  was  not  sufficiently  decisive  to  be  recorded.  He  belonged,  it 
is  clear,  at  this  time  to  the  Church  of  the  Circumcision,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  this  was 
the  only  occasion  on  which  he  was  thrown  into  the  society  of  St.  Paul.  But  we  have  St. 
Paul's  express  testimony — in  the  only  passage  in  which  he  is  mentioned  in  the  Epistles— 
that  he  recognised  his  apostolate  ;  and  the  Apocalypse,  his  earliest  writing,  so  far  from 
showing  that  irreconcilable  hatred  to  the  doctrines  of  St.  Paul  which  has  been  assumed 
on  grounds  inconceivably  frivolous,  and  repeated  subsequently  with  extraordinary  reck- 
lessness, offers  a  close  parallelism  to  St.  Paul's  Epistles  in  thoughts  and  principles,  which 
is  all  the  more  striking  from  the  marked  differences  of  tone  and  expression.  We  are 
calmly  assured,  without  even  the  condescension  of  an  attempted  proof,  that  the  "  false 
Jew,"  the  "false  Apostle,"  the  "false  prophet,"  the  "Balaam,"  the  "Jezebel,"  the 
"Nicolas,"  the  "  chief  of  the  synagogue  of  Satan,"  alluded  to  in  the  Apocalypse,1  are  as 
indubitably  intended  for  St.  Paul  as  are  the  savage  allusions  covertly  made  to  him  under 
the  name  of  Simon  the  Magician  in  the  Pseudo- Clementines.  Now,  on  what  basis  is  this 
conclusion  founded  ?  Simply  on  the  resemblance  in  tone  of  a  spurious  Ebionite  romance 
(the  Clementines)  to  the  phrases,  "those  which  say  they  are  Apostles  and  are  not," 
"  those  which  say  they  are  Jews  and  are  not,"  and  the  allusions  to  some  who  held  the 
doctrine  of  Balaam,  and  of  "that  woman  Jezebel,"  who  taught  people  "to  commit  forni- 
cation, and  to  eat  things  sacrificed  unto  idols."  It  is  true  that  there  were  Judaisers  who 
attacked  St.  Paul's  claim  to  be  an  Apostle  ;  but  to  assert  that  St.  John  was  one  of  them 
is  to  give  the  direct  lie  to  St.  Paul,  while  to  class  St.  Paul  with  them  "  that  say  they  are 
Jews  and  are  not "  is  to  falsify  the  most  notorious  facts  concerning  one  who  was  a 
Pharisee  of  Pharisees,  and  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews.  Again,  to  assert  boldly  that  St. 
Paul  ever  taught  people  to  eat  things  offered  to  idols,  or  anything  which  could  be  so 
described  without  the  grossest  calumny,  is  a  distinct  contradiction  of  his  own  words,  since 
he  expressly  warned  his  converts  not  to  do  this,  and  assigns  for  his  warning  the  very 
reason  that  to  do  so  would  be  "to  cast  a  stumbling-block  before  the  children  of  Israel."  2 
In  fact,  though  St.  Paul  would  have  denied  that  to  eat  them  was  wrong  in  itself,  his 
concessions  on  this  point  went  very  little  beyond  those  which  are  sanctioned  in  the 
Talmud  itself.3  Once  more,  what  conceivable  excuse  could  there  be  for  saying  that  St. 
Paul  ever  taught  men  "  to  commit  fornication  "  ?— a  sin  against  which,  whether  literally 
or  metaphorically  understood,  he  has  urged  considerations  more  deeply  seated,  mora 
likely  to  touch  the  heart,  more  likely  to  bind  the  conscience,  than  all  the  other  writers  in 
the  New  Testament  put  together.  That  even  in  earliest  days  there  did  spring  up  anti- 
nomian  sects  which  were  guilty  of  such  accursed  teaching,  we  know  from  Church  history, 
and  find  traces  even  in  the  sacred  writers ;  and  it  is  therefore  probable  that  the  allusions 
of  the  Apocalypse  are  as  literal  as  the  Old  Testament  analogies  to  which  St.  John  no  less 
than  St.  Paul  refers.*  That  "the  fornication"  of  the  Apocalypse  means  "mixed 
marriages  "  there  is  not  even  a  shadow  of  reason  to  believe,  nor  if  it  did  would  there  be 

'"'  1  Rev.  11.  2,  6,  9,  14,  15,  20,  34  ;  ill.  9.  (See  Benan,  St.  P.,  302—305,  who  quietly  asserts  this  as 
tf  it  were  indisputable.)  Yet  St.  Paul  himself  was  the  first  to  use  this  very  comparison  with  Balaam 
(1  Cor.  x.  7,  8),  and  to  denounce  the  extreme  wickedness  of  putting  a  stumbling-block  before  others 
(Bom.  xiv.  21 ;  2  Cor.  xi.  29).  »  1  Cor.  viii.  13  (cf.  x.  32). 

»  KetubMOi,  f.  15, 1,  which,  almost  in  the  very  language  of  St.  Paul,  kys  down  the  rule  that  if 
I  man  has  bought  meat,  and  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  legally  clean,  he  must  not  eat  it ;  but  if  he 
lights  upon  it  accidentally,  he  may  eat  it  without  further  inquiry.  Meat  declared  to  be  legally 
clean  (tabor)  is  stamped  with  a  leaden  seal,  on  which  is  the  word  kashar  ("  lawful,"  icaflapov).  (I. 
D'lsraeli,  Genius  of  Judaism,  p.  154.) 

1 1  Cor.  x.  7,  8.    (See  some  excellent  remarks  In  Llghtfoot's  Gal.,  pp.  290,  335.) 


724  APPENDIX, 

any  ground  for  saying  that  St.  Paul  encouraged  them,  Though  he  used,  on  that  as  on 
all  such  topics,  the  language  of  wisdom  and  of  charity,  the.whole  tendency  of  his  teaching 
is  to  discourage  them.1  Moreover,  if  Paul  had  been  aimed  at,  and  if  St.  John,  the 
Apostle  of  Love,  really  had  been  the  slanderous  and  rabid  Judaiser  which  these  allusions 
would  then  imply,  it  is  inconceivable  that  no  word  should  be  said  about  the  points 
respecting  which,  to  a  Judaiser,  he  must  have  seemed  infinitely  more  assailable — namely, 
St.  Paul's  very  low  estimate  of  circumcision,  and  his  declared  conviction  that  by  the 
works  of  the  Law  no  man  can  be  justified  in  God's  sight.  Now,  in  the  Apocalypse  neither 
circumcision,  nor  the  Law,  nor  Moses,  nor  oral  tradition  are  scarcely  so  much  as  men- 
tioned or  alluded  to,a  while  redemption  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  the  universality  of 
that  redemption  as  extending  to  "every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation,"1 
are  asserted  as  absolutely  and  unconditionally  as  they  could  have  been  by  Paul  himself. 
Further,  it  needs  but  a  casual  study  of  St.  John  and  St.  Paul  to  see  that  "  Jesus  Christ " 
is  in  both  of  them  the  divine  secret  and  the  fundamental  conception  of  all  Christianity. 
St.  John  at  this  time  was  the  more  contemplative,  the  less  prominently  active,  St.  John 
of  the  Gospels.  "  The  hidden  fires  of  his  nature  "  had  not  yet  "burst  out  into  a  flame." 
Two  incidents  preserved  for  us  in  the  Gospels  had  indeed  shown  that  those  fires  were 
there ;  4  but  it  was  not  till  James  the  Lord's  brother,  and  Peter,  and  Paul  himself  had 
'  passed  away  that  he  became  the  bold  and  uncompromising  leader  whose  counsels  were  as 
oracles  to  the  Asian  Church.  Nevertheless,  we  may  be  sure  that  St.  John  was  not  found 
among  the  opponents  of  St.  Paul.  That  opposition  is  always  connected  with  the 
adherents  and  the  influence  of  James.  During  the  lifetime  of  Jesus  James  had  not  fully 
accepted  His  mission,  and  seems  only  to  have  been  converted  by  the  Resurrection.  He 
had  not  therefore  lived,  as  the  other  Apostles  had  lived,  in  daily  contact  with  the  mind 
and  influence  of  Jesus,  and  was  in  consequence  more  deeply  imbued  with  the  beliefs  of 
his  early  Jewish  training,  and  less  entirely  permeated  in  intellect  by  the  breath  of  the 
new  life.  But  Peter  and  John,  more  than  any  living  men,  must  have  known  what  was 
the  mind  of  Christ.  We  know  that  they  were  one  in  heart,  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
they  who  had  gone  together  to  visit  and  confirm  the  detested  Samaritans  and  witness 
their  participation  in  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  would  be  little  likely  to  look  with 
rabid  jealousy  on  the  equal  freedom  of  a  yet  wider  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


EXCURSUS  XVHI.  fo,254). 

THE  ATTACKS  OK  ST.  PAUL  IN  THE  CLEMENTINES. 

THAT  Paul,  in  consequence  of  the  death-blow  which  he  gave  to  Jewish  Pharisaism,  was 
pursued  by  a  particular  section  of  the  Judaeo-Christian  Church  with  unrelenting  opposi- 
tion, is  a  matter  of  history.  It  needs  no  further  proof  than  the  large  sections  in  his 
Epistles  which  are  occupied  with  arguments  against  Pharisaic  or  Gnostic  Judaism,  such 
as  had  invaded  the  Churches  of  Corinth,  Galatia,  Colossse,  and  Crete.  But  true  though 
it  is  that  he  wag  obliged  to  contend  in  lifelong  straggle  with  a  party,  it  is  not  true  that 
he  remained  long  unrecognised  by  the  Church  at  large.  The  supposition  that  he  was, 
has  merely  originated  from  the  exceptional  literary  activity  of  a  single  section  of 
Christian  Ebionites.  Dr.  Lightfoot,  in  his  essay  on  "St.  Paul  and  the  Three,"  has 
shown,  by  patient  and  entirely  candid  investigation,  that  even  the  Church  of  Judaea  was 
not  exclusively  anti-Pauline,  and  that  the  anti-Pauline  faction  within  it,  go  far  from 
representing  the  tendencies  of  the  whole  Christian  Church,  did  not  even  represent  the 
Christians  of  Palestine.  The  Christian  Jews  of  the  Holy  Land  naturally  continued,  as  a 

1  Bee  especially  2  Cor.  vi.  14.  *  \Vhich  will  be  explained  by  Bey.  xr.'B. 

»  Rev.  v.  0 :  vli.  9.  «  Lwtc  is.  64  ;  Matt.  xx.  21. 


ST.   PAUL  IN  THK  CLEMENTINES.  725 

body,  to  observe  the  Mosaic  Law — as  was  done  by  St.  Paul  himself  so  far  as  he  could  do 
BO  without  compromising  the  emancipa^  •  .-f  the  Gentiles — until  the  fall  of  Jerusalem 
rendered  all  such  observance  a  mere  mockery  and  sham. l  If  the  Passover,  the  very  central 
ordinance  of  Mosaism,  was  rendered  simply  impossible,  God  had  Himself  demonstrated 
that  the  aeon  of  the  Law  was  closed.  The  withdrawal  of  the  Church  to  Pella,  caused  by 
a  recollection  of  the  warnings  of  Jesus,  would  look  to  the  Jews  like  an  unpatriotic 
desertion  of  their  cause ;  and  the  frantic  denunciations  of  the  Mins,  which  date  from 
this  epoch,  were  but  signs  of  the  gathering  detestation  of  Jew  for  Christian  which 
culminated  in  the  savage  massacres  by  Bar-cochba  of  those  Christians  who  refused  to 
apostatise  and  blaspheme.  When  the  name  of  Jerusalem  had  given  way  to  that  of 
.iElia  Capitolina,  and  Christians  wore  allowed  to  live  where  no  Jew  might  set  his  foot, 
the  Church  of  the  new  city  became  predominantly  Gentile,  and  was  for  the  first  time 
governed  by  a  Gentile  bishop.2  It  is  not  till  after  this  period  that  we  hear  of  two  sects, 
distinct  from  each  other,  but  often  confused.  These  were  the  Nazarenea  and  the 
Ebionites.  The  NAZARENES  were  not  in  any  way  hostile  to  the  work  and  memory  of 
Paul,  and  they  differed  from  other  Christians  only  in  holding  that  the  Law  was  still 
binding  on  Jewish  converts.  "  The  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs " — a  book 
which,  whether  written  by  a  Nazarene  or  not,  expresses  their  general  tenets  so  far  as  we 
can  gather  them — not  only  does  not  oppose  the  doctrines  of  St.  Paul,  but,  though 
written  from  the  Judaso-Christian  standpoint,  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Benjamin  a 
splendid  eulogy  of  Paul,  as  one  who  is  to  arise  from  that  tribe  "beloved  of  the  Lord, 
listening  to  His  voice,  enlightening  all  the  Gentiles  with  new  knowledge."  The 
EBIONITES,  on  the  other  hand — a  powerful  and  zealous  sect — breathed  the  exact 
spirit  of  Paul's  Judaising  enemies,  and  the  views  of  many  of  them  became  deeply  tinged 
with  the  Gnostic  tendencies  of  the  more  advanced  Essenes.  To  this  section  of  the 
Ebionites  we  owe  the  forgeries  known  as  the  Clementine  Homilies,  the  Clementine 
Recognitions,  extant  in  a  Latin  paraphrase  of  Rufinus,3  and  a  spurious  letter  of  Peter  to 
James.  In  the  Homilies  St.  Paul  is  surreptitiously  attacked  in  the  guise  of  Simon 
Magus.4  The  allusion  to  his  reproof  of  St.  Peter  at  Antioch  is  too  plain  to  be  overlooked, 
and  discredit  is  thrown  on  his  doctrine,  his  revelations,  and  his  independent  attitude 
towards  James.  In  the  letter  of  St.  Peter  he  is  still  more  severely,  though  still  covertly 
slandered,  as  "the  enemy"  whose  teaching  was  antinomian  and  absurd,  and  who 
calumniously  asserted  that  St.  Peter  held  one  view  and  sanctioned  another.  In  the 
Recognitions  these  attacks  do  not  appear,  but  "the  enemy  "  sent  by  Caiaphas  to  arrest 
St.  Peter  at  Antioch,  and  who  throws  St.  James  down  the  Temple  steps,  is  evidently 
meant  for  St.  Paul,  and  this  notable  story  is  believed  to  have  been  borrowed  from  a 
prating  fiction  called  the  "Ascents  of  James,"  which  is  also  the  source  of  the  venomous 
calumny  that  Paul  was  a  Gentile  who  had  accepted  circumcision  in  hopes  of  marrying 
the  High  Priest's  daughter,  and  had  only  apostatised  from  Mosaism  when  his  hopes 
were  disappointed.5 

It  is  on  trash  of  this  kind,  at  once  feeble  and  virulent,  at  once  baseless  and  malignant, 
that  some  have  based  the  belief  that  there  was  deadly  opposition  between  Paul  and  the 
Twelve,  and  that  his  work  was  not  fully  recognised  till  the  close  of  the  second  century. 
The  fact,  however,  is  that  these  Ebionite  slanders  and  forgeries  are  representative  of  none 
but  an  isolated  sect.  Justin  lived  in  Samaria  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  second  century, 
and  shows  no  trace  of  these  views.  Hegesippus  was  a  Jewish  Christian  who  travelled  to 
Rome  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  visiting  many  Christian  Churches ;  and 

1  Griitz,  Gesch.  d.  Jttden,  iv.  Ill  *  Marcus,  B.C.  132.    Just.  Mart.  Apol.  i.  81,  p.  T2. 

*  And  partly  in  Syriac. 

*  The  English  reader  may  sea  these  passages  translated  in  Banr'a  First  Three  Centuries,  i.  pp 
rfS. 

*  Epiphan.  Haerts,  xxz.  16.    Henan  also  refers  to  Massechta,  Qtri<&,  1,  ed.  Kirchhelm. 


726  APPENDIX 

Eusebius,  who  knew  his  writings,  vouches  for  his  perfect  orthodoxy.1  Such  being  ths 
case,  it  is  hardly  even  necessary  to  prove  that  the  other  churches  of  the  second  century 
were  in  no  sense  anti-Pauline.  It  may  be  true  that  for  a  short  time  there  were  two 
sections — a  Jewish  and  a  Gentile — in  the  Church  of  Borne,  and  even  that  each  section 
had  its  own  bishop,  the  possible  successors  respectively  of  the  Apostles  of  the  circumcision 
and  of  the  uncircumcision.2  But  if  so,  these  two  sections  were,  at  the  close  of  the  first 
century,  united  under  the  gentle  and  orthodox  Clement ;  and  even  on  the  doubtful 
hypothesis  that  the  Clementines  had  a  Roman  origin,  their  indirectness — the  cautious, 
•ubterranean,  timid  sort  of  way  in  which  they  attack  the  great  Apostle — is  alone  a 
decisive  proof  that  the  forger  could  by  no  means  rely  on  the  general  sympathy  of  the 
readers  into  whose  hands  his  writings  fell.  And  yet  on  this  very  attenuated  apex  is  built 
the  huge  inverted  pyramid  of  inference,  which  finally  declares  the  Epistle  of  St.  Jude  to 
be  a  specimen  of  one  of  the  letters,  breathing  sanguinary  hatred  and  atrocious  falsehood, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  despatched  from  Jerusalem  in  the  name  of  the  Apostles, 
and  in  the  composition  of  which,  "since  James  and  Jude  probably  could  not  speak  Greek,** 
they  probably  employed  Greek  secretaries  1s  Let  any  one  read  the  Epistle  of  St.  Jude, 
and  consider,  verse  by  verse,  how  it  could  be  possibly  applied  to  St.  Paul,  and  how  abso» 
lately  such  a  theory  contradicts  every  really  authentic  fact  of  his  relation  to  the  Apostles, 
as  well  as  the  character  and  bearing  of  the  Apostles  themselves,  and  he  will  be  able  to 
estimate  the  validity  of  the  criticism  which  calmly  represents  as  reasonable  history  this 
darkening  fume  of  inferences  from  the  narrow  aperture  of  a  worthless  forgery. 


EXCUESUS  XIX  (p.  S51). 
THE  MAN  OF  Snr;  OB,  "THB  LAWLESS," 

"  figo  prorsus  quid  dixerit  fateor  me  ignorare." — S.  A0O. 

THE  various  conjectures  as  to  the  "  Man  of  Sin,"  and  "  that  which  withholdeth,"  may  be 
classed  under  three  heads — (i.)  the  nearly  contemporary,  (ii.)  the  distantly  prophetic,  and 
(iii.)  the  subjectively  general  And  in  each  of  these  classes  the  suggested  antitypes  are 
either  (a)  general  and  impersonal,  or  (P)  individual  and  special. 

(i.)  The  opinion  adopted  will,  of  course,  depend  greatly  on  the  extent  to  which  the 
destruction  of  Judaism  in  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem  can  be  regarded  as  "  a  coming  of 
the  Lord."  Those  who,  in  accordance  with  most  of  the  definite  temporal  prophecies  of 
Scripture,  think  that  St.  Paul  must  have  been  alluding  to  something  nearly  contemporary 
— something  which  already  loomed  on  the  horizon,  and  therefore  to  something  which 
would  alone  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the  lives  of  contemporary  Christians,  explain  the 
Apostasy  and  the  Man  of  Sin  to  represent,  (a)  generally,  the  Pharisees,  or  Gnosticism,  or 

1  It  is  no  disproof  of  this  that  he  borrows  the  Ebionite  account  of  St.  James ;  and  his  supposed 
condemnation  of  St.  Paul  for  using  the  expression  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,"  &c.,  seems  to  rest  on  an 
entire  misapprehension  (Light/foot,  Qal.,  p.  811). 

*  Some  such  fact  may  be  behind  the  remark  of  Tertullian  that  Clemeat  was  ordained  bishop  by 
Ht.  Peter,  whereas  Iremeus  places  Linus  and  Anencletus  before  him. 

1  Renan,  St.  Paul,  p.  800.  "  En  quittant  Autioohe  lea  agents  du  parti  hierosolomyto  jtugrent 
do  bouleverser  lea  fondatlons  do  Paul,  de  detruire  les  Eglises,  de  renverser  co  qu'il  avait  edifle  aveoj 
tant  de  labours.  II  semble  qu'a  cette  occasion  de  nouvelles  lettres  furent  ezpediees  de  Jerusalem. : 
;  au  nom  des  apdtres.  II  se  peut  ineme  qu'un  exemplaire  de  ces  lettres  haineuses  nous  ait  ete  conserve 
'  dana  1'Epitre  de  Jude,  frere  de  Jacques,  et  comme  lui '  frere  du  Seigneur,'  qui  fait  partie  du  canon," 
&c.  The  apparent  array  of  authorities  quoted  in  support  of  such  inferences  has  no  real  bearing  on 
them,  and  upon  examination  dwindles  into  the  narrow  limits  indicated  below.  Nor  does  M.  Renan 
adduce  a  single  proof,  or  anything  remotely  resembling  a  proof,  that  by  noavtia.  the  Apocalypse  and 
the  Epistle  of  Jude  imply  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul  (id.  p.  300),  or  that  the  relative  moderation  of 
Michael  (Jude  9)  is  contrasted  with  the  impertinence  of  St.  Paul  (I),  or,  in  fact,  any  other  of  the 
utterly  wild  conclusions  into  which  he  has  exaggerated  the  perverted  ingenuity  of  Tubingen  theorist*. 
Bee  further  the  Excursu*  on  St.  John  and  St.  PauU 


IBB  MAN  07  snr  727 

the  growth  of  heresy ;  or  (£)  individually,  Nero,  or  some  Roman  Emperor,  Simon  Magus, 
or  Simon  the  son  of  Gioras ;  and  they  see  "  the  check  "  generally  in  the  Roman  Emperor, 
or  the  Jewish  Law,  or  spiritual  gifts,1  or  the  time  appointed  by  Qod  ;*  or  individually  in 
some  Emperor  ( e.g.,  Claudius=qui  claudit=4  jearlx")>*  or  James  the  Just,4  or — in  St. 
Paul  himself  I 

(ii.)  Those  who  have  taken  the  distantly  prophetical  view  of  the  passage  explain  tho 
Apostasy  of  the  Man  of  Sin  to  be,  (a)  generally,  the  Papacy,  or  the  Reformation,  or 
Rationalism,  or  something  as  yet  undeveloped ;  or  (P)  individually,  Mahomet,  or  Luther, 
or  Napoleon,  or  some  future  personal  Antichrist;  while  they  see  "  the  check"  either,  aa 
above,  in  the  Roman  Empire,  or  in  the  German  Empire,  or,  more  generally  still,  in  the 
fabric  of  human  polity. 

(iii.)  Finally,  those  who  take  an  entirely  broad  and  subjective  view  of  the  passage,  see 
in  it  only  a  vague  forecast  of  that  which  finds  its  fulfilment  in  all  Christian,  and,  indeed, ' 
in  all  secular,  history,  of  the  counter  working  of  two  opposing  forces,  good  and  evil, 
Christ  and  Antichrist,  the  Jctser  tSbh  and  the  Jetser-ha-rd,  a  lawless  violence  and  a 
restraining  power. 

Now,  of  all  these  interpretations  one  alone  can  be  regarded  as  reasonably  certain— 
namely,  that  which  views  "the  check"  as  the  Roman  Empire,5  and  "the  checker"  aa 
the  Roman  Emperor.  This  may  be  regarded  as  fairly  established,  and  has  received  the 
widest  acceptance,  first,  because  it  fulfils  the  conditions  of  being  something  present  and 
intelligible ;  secondly,  because  we  see  an  obvious  reason  why  it  should  have  been  only 
hinted  at,  since  to  express  it  would  have  been  a  positive  danger  both  to  the  writer  and 
the  community;'  and,  thirdly,  because,  as  Bishop  Wordsworth  has  pointed  out,  the 
Epistle  was  from  the  first  publicly  read,  and  the  Thessalonians  must  have  attached  a 
meaning  to  it,  and  that  meaning  has  been  handed  down  to  us  traditionally  from  the 
earliest  times.?  Whatever  may  have  been  the  wild  vagaries  of  theological  rancour,] 
expressing  itself  in  the  form  of  Biblical  commentary,  the  early  Fathers,  at  least,  were 
almost  unanimous  in  regarding  "the  restraining  power"  as  being  the  Roman  Empire,9 
and  the  "  restrainer "  as  being  some  Roman  Emperor.9  And  it  seems  obvious  that  one 
main  feature  in  the  blasphemous  self -exaltation  and  opposition  to  God  which  is  to  be  a 
mark  of  the  Man  of  Sin  is  suggested  by  the  insane  and  sacrilegious  enormities  of  Caligula 
(A.D.  40)  thirteen  years  earlier,  as  well  as  by  the  persecutions  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 
Other  traits  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  pretensions  and  sorceries  of  Simon  Magus 

'1    •  iif  feUJ  -j 

1  Chrysostom.  •  Theodoret  (i  rov  Ceou  Spot).  ' 

»  Hitzig— very  precariously.  ...      •  Wieseler,  Chrm.  268—278. 

•  "  Qufi  nisi  Ilomanus  status  T  "  (Tort.  De  Beiurr.  Cam.  24).  "  Clausulam  saeculi  acerbitates 
horrendas  comminentem  Roman!  Imperil  commeatu  scimus  ratardarl"  (Id.  Apol.  82).  This  was  all 
the  more  natural,  because  the  Roman  Empire  was  regarded  aa  the  Fourth  Kingdom  of  Daniel.  Prof. 
Jowctt  objects  (1)  that  he  could  not  have  expected  it  to  be  so  soon  swept  away ;  and  (2)  that  it  is 
not  in  pari  matend.  But  for  (1)  see  1  Thess.  L 10 ;  v.  4 ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  22,  &c. ;  and  (2)  St.  Paul  daily  saw 
the  bearing  of  the  Empire  on  the  spread  and  position  of  Christianity. 

i  '.  •  St.  Paul  had  already  found  this  by  experience,  even  though  his  conversation  with  the  Thessalo- 
nians had  been  comparatively  private.  But  when  the  Church  grew,  and  heathens  dropped  not  un- 
frequently  into  its  meetings,  It  would  have  been  [most  compromising  to  them  to  speak  of  the 
destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire  contemplated  as  a  near  event. 

i  The  Rabbis  held  a  similar  view.  One  of  them  said,  "  The  Messiah  will  not  come  till  the  world 
Jias'become  all  white  with  leprosy  (Lev.  xiii.  13)  by  the  Roman  Empire  embracing  Christianity." 
\Sanhedrin,  t.  97, 1 ;  Soteh,  f.  49,  2  ;  (Amsterd.  ed.). 

8  So  Tert.  De  Resurr.  Carnit,  24 ;  Ireii.  v.  25, 26  ;  Aug.  De  Civ.  Del.  xx,  19  ;  Jer.  Qu.  xL  ad  Algat; 
Lact.  vii.  15,  &c. 

i  •  Claudius  was  Emperor  when  the  Epistle  was  written,  early  in  A.D.  54.  Whether  there  is  any 
Allusion  to  his  name  in  the  word  KCLTC'XCO  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  Kern  believes  that  Nero  ia 
intended  by  "the  Lawless,"  and[therefore  (seeing  that  the  first  five  years  of  Nero  were  that  "goldea 
quinquennium,"  which  Roman  writers  so  highly  praise)  concludes  that  the  Epistle  is  spurious. 
iRev.  xvii.  10,  11,  refers  to  a  later  time,  and  possibly  to  the  strangely  prevalent  notion  that  Nero  was 
not  really  dead,  but  would  in  due  time  re-appear.  The  expressions  used  are  evidently  coloured  by 
•the  picture  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  in  Dan.  xL  He  is  called  "  a  man  of  sin  "  (arrjp  apaprwAfc)  in 
1  Mace,  ii  48,  02. 


723  APPENDIX. 

and  similar  widely-accredited  impostors.  Nero  became  to  the  Christian  Church  some 
years  afterwards  the  veiy  impersonation  of  their  ideal  Antichrist. 

But  to  form  any  conception  as  to  St.  Paul's  meaning,  besides  being  guided  by  his 
belief  of  the  probable  nearness  of  the  Advent,  and  by  the  necessity  that  what  he  said 
should  have  some  meaning  and  value  to  his  hearers,  we  must  consider  (a)  the  views  of  the 
age  ;  (P)  the  symbols  he  uses  ;  and  (y)  his  own  subsequent  language  when  he  alludes  to 
any  similar  topic. 

Turning,  then,  to  these,  we  find  that  (a)  St.  Paul  was  fully  aware  that,  in  the  then 
present  dispensation,  the  triumph  of  Christ  was  not  to  be  final  or  complete.  He  may 
well  have  heard  of  Christ's  solemn  question,  "Nevertheless,  when  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth?"1  Even  thus  early  in  his  career  his  prescient 
eye  may  have  observed  the  traces  of  that  Judaic  and  Antichristian  faction  which  waa 
to  undo  so  much  of  his  work,  and  embitter  so  many  years  of  his  life,  and  to  whom  he 
applies  tke  sternest  language.  Already  he  may  have  noticed  the  germs  of  the  various 
forms  of  Gnosticism,  of  which,  in  his  Epistle  to  Timothy,  he  describes  the  "  devilish 
doctrines  "  in  language  which  recalls  some  of  his  expressions  in  this  place.2  And  the 
views  of  the  early  Christians,  as  expressed  by  other  Apostles,  were  all  founded  on  warn- 
ings which  Christ  had  uttered,  and  all  pointed  in  the  same  direction.3  That  St.  Paul 
should  have  throAvn  his  forebodings  into  the  concrete  was  natural  to  one  so  familiar  with 
Old  Testament  prophecy,4  so  given  to  personification,  and  so  trained  to  the  expectation 
of  a  Messiah  who  should  be  the  personal  victor  over  all  iniquity  in  the  person  of  the 
Arch-foe,  the  KashA,  the  Antichrist.  That  this  personification  should  also  in  part  have 
taken  its  colour  from  the  monstrous  wickedness  and  blasphemous  follies  of  emperors  like 
Tiberius  and  Caligula,  was  exactly  what  we  should  have  expected ;  and,  indeed,  the 
hopes  and  fears  of  the  Jews  had  acted  on  the  world  of  heathendom,  which  in  its  turn 
reacted  upon  them.  It  is  a  most  interesting  confirmation  of  this  fact  that  the  Jews  gave 
to  Antichrist  the  name  of  Armittus  (D^-IN)-  Thus>  in  the  Targum  of  Jonathan  on  Isa. 
xi.  4,  we  find,  "  With  the  breath  of  His  lips  shall  He  destroy  the  wicked  Armillus ;  **  and 
In  the  Jerusalem  Targum  on  Numb.  xt  26,  and  Deut.  xxxiv.  2,  we  are  told  of  Armalgus 
the  Impious.  This  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  the  bracelets  (a/rmiMce)  which,  with  utter 
defiance  of  all  public  dignity,  were  worn  in  public  by  Caligula.6  "We  see,  then,  what 
St.  Paul's  anticipations  at  this  moment  were.  He  thought  that  ere  long  the  Roman 
Empire,  so  far  at  any  rate  as  it  was  represented  by  the  reigning  Emperor,  would  be  swept 
away;  that  thereupon  the  existing  tendencies  of  iniquity  and  apostasy,  whether  in 
Judaism  or  in  the  Church  itself,  would  be  concentrated  in  the  person  of  one  terrible 
opponent,  and  that  the  destruction  of  this  opponent  would  be  caused  by  the  personal 
Advent  of  the  Lord.  At  this  time  portents  and  presages  of  the  most  direful  character 
were  in  the  air.  The  hideous  secrets  of  the  Imperial  Court  were  darkly  whispered  among 
the  people.  There  were  rumours  of  monstrous  births,  of  rains  of  blood,  of  unnatural 
omens.6  Though  Claudius  had  been  the  last  to  learn  the  infamous  orgies  of  his  wife 
Messalina,  and  perhaps  the  last  to  suspect  the  murderous  designs  of  his  wife  and  niece 
Agrippina,  yet  by  this  time  even  he  was  not  unaware  that  his  life  hung  on  a  thread.  Little 
was  as  yet  known  of  Nero  in  the  provinces,  but  it  might  have  been  anticipated,  before 
the  illusive  promise  of  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  that  the  son  of  such  a  father  and  auch  a 
mother  could  only  turn  out  to  be  the  monster  which  bis  father  expected,  and  which  he 
did  ultimately  turn  out  to  be.  If  St.  Paul  anticipated  that  the  present  condition  of  the 

»  Luke  xvliL  8. 

•  1  Tim.  Iv.  1— «  (cf.  2  Tim,  1. 15  ;  111.  1—9 ;  Col.  IL  8, 16— 19 ;  Acte  xx.  29). 

»  Luke  xviii.  8 ;  1  John  iv.  3 ;  2  Pet.  11.  1,  2 ;  iii.  3 ;  Rev.  xiii.  and  passim  ;  and  the  Epistle  of 
.  *  Ezek.  xxxviii.  16, 17. 

Suet.  CBH0.  6«.  "  AroiiOattu  in  publicum  processit"  (Hitzig.,  Gesch.  Is.  583).  The  anniversary 
of  his  death  was  observed  as  a  festival  (Derenbourg,  Palest.  208).  Others,  however,  connect 
Armillits  with  tm^Aaos,  or  "  Romulus  "  (Hamburger.  Talm,  Worterb,  a.  v.). 

*  Tac.  Ann.  xii.  U :  Soot.  Claud.  43  :  Dion  Cass.  be.  84.  86, 


THE  MAN  OF  SIN.  729 

government  would  perish  with  Claudius,  the  reigning  Emperor,  and  that  his  successor 
would  be  the  Man  of  Sin,  his  anticipation  was  fulfilled.  If  he  further  anticipated  that 
this  representative  of  lawless  and  already  working  opposition  to  God  and  His  Christ  would 
be  destroyed  by  the  second  Advent,  he  was  then  absolutely  right  so  far  as  its  Judaio 
elements  were  concerned,  and  so  far  as  the  second  Advent  was  foreshadowed  by  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem ;  and  his  anticipations  were  only  mistaken  on  a  point  respecting 
which  all  knowledge  was  confessedly  withheld — only  in  that  ante-dating  of  the  personal 
second  Advent  which  was  common  to  him  with  all  Christians  in  the  first  century  of 
Christianity.  Nor  need  it  be  surprising  to  any  one  that  he  should  mingle  Jewish  and 
heathen  elements  in  the  colours  with  which  he  painted  the  coming  Antichrist.  In  doing 
this  he  was  in  full  accord  with  that  which  must  be  the  case,  and  with  the  dim  expecta- 
tions of  paganism  no  less  than  with  Rabbinic  notions  respecting  the  rival  of  the  Messiah.1 
— Further  than  this  we  cannot  go ;  and  since  we  cannot — since  all  attempts  at  nearer 
indication  have  failed — since  by  God's  express  and  declared  Providence  we  are  as  far  as 
the  Thessalonians  could  have  been  from  any  accurate  conception  as  to  the  times  and 
seasons  of  the  coming  of  Christ — it  is  clear  that  we  lose  no  vital  truth  of  the  Gospel  by 
our  inability  to  find  the  exact  interpretation  of  an  enigma  which  has  been  hitherto 
Insoluble,  and  of  which,  had  it  been  necessary  for  ua,  the  exact  explanation  would  not 
have  been  withheld.3 

1  It  was  but  a  few  years  after  this  time  that  Balbillus,  the  Ephesian  Jew,  who  professed  a  know- 
ledge of  astrology,  used  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  to  assure  Nero  that  he  should  be  King 
at  Jerusalem. 

s  The  Thessalonians,  says  St.  Augustine,  knew  what  St.  Paul  meant,  we  do  not  "  Nos  qai 
neacimufl  quod  ilii  scieb&at  pervenire  labore  ad  id  quod  sennit  Apoatolua  eupirnua,  nee  valemus." 


730 


APPENDIX. 


EXCURSUS  XX.— CHLB»  UNCIAL  MANUSCBUEI 


Century 

Acts  of  the 
Apostles. 

Roman*. 

ICor. 

»  Cor. 

N,  Sinai  ticus,  at  Peters-") 
burg  (Imp.  Library)  J 

IV. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

A,    Alexandrinus,     at") 
British  Museum     ...J 

V. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL       { 

(i.  1  toiv.  13)  \ 
(xii.  7  to  end)) 

B,  Vaticanus,  at  Rome) 
(Vatican  Library)  ...) 

rv. 

All. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

' 

(1.  2  to  iv.  3) 

1 

0,  Ephraeini,  at  Paris") 
(Imperial  Library),  a  > 
Palimpsest  MS.      ...  j 

v.  - 

(v.  35—  x  43) 
(xiii.  1—  xvi.  37) 
(xx.  10—  xxi  31) 
rxxii.  21—  xxiiL  18) 
(xxiv.  15  —  xxvi.  19' 

(i.  1—  ii.  5) 
(iii.  21—  ix.  6) 
'  (x.  15—  xi.  31) 
(xiiL  10—  end) 

!(i.  1—  vii.  18) 
(ix.7—  xiii.  81 
(xv.  40—  end. 

}  (L  2-*.  8) 

• 

(xxvii.  17-xxviil.  6) 

- 

f 

(L  1—  viii.  29) 

)'""  '"  '•'-•**<•**' 

Dj,  Bezae.at  Cambridge  > 
(Univ.  Library)       ...  f 

H 

(x.  14—  xxi.  2) 
(xxi.  10—16) 
(xxi.  18—  xxii.  10) 

- 

...... 

.„- 

t 

(xxU.  20—29) 

D2,       Claromontanus,  ") 
Paris  (Imp.  Lib.)    ...) 

VI. 

CL  7-«nd) 

AIL 

AIL 

B2,  Laudianus,  Oxford") 
(Bodleian)  j 

51 

(i.  1—  xxvi.  29) 
(xxviiL  26  —  end) 

I        „.... 

~.M. 

»§»*• 

ES,      Sangerraanensis,") 

Petersburg  (Imperial  ( 

Lib.).     A  transcript  f 

x. 

•MM 

MMH 

****** 

****** 

of  Ds,  mutilated     ...J 

F2,  Augiensls,  Trinity") 
College,  Cambridge...  ) 

IX. 

HH.I 

(iii.  19—  to  end)  j 

(i.  1—  iii.  8) 
(iii.  16—  vi.  7) 
(vi.  16—  end) 

}      ^ 

F.,  Coislinianua,  Paris 

VIL 



Some  fragments  of  the  Epistles  found  IB 

Gj,    Angelicus,    Rome  ") 
(August.  Monks)    ...  ) 

IX.  | 

(viii.  10—  end) 
Same  as  La.    See 
below. 

?      The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  in  this  MS.  ar« 
r                         known  as  />_>. 

63,  Boernerianus,  Dres-  > 
den  (Royal  Library)  ) 

IX 



(L  1  —  onward) 

This  is  a  sister  MS.  to  F» 

Hj,    Mutinensis,    Mo-") 

.. 

(v.  28—  ix.  89) 

•\ 

dena   (Grand    Ducal  > 

IX  \ 

(x.  19—  xiii.  36) 

v       ^^, 

«.«•. 

M.Mt 

Library)    j 

(_ 

(xiv.  3—  xxvii.  4) 

) 

HQ,  Coislinianus  (twelve") 
leaves  at  Paris,  two  f 
leaves  at  Petersburg),) 

VL 

,.~ 

— 

f   (x.  23—29) 
1   (xL  9—17) 

}             ...«. 

I,  Fragmenta,  Palimp-^\ 
sestaTischeudorftana,  ( 
They  are  seven  frag-  t 
ments,  at  Petersburg,) 

V.—  VII. 

f       (ii.  6-17) 
1    (xxvi.  7-18) 
(  (xxviiL  8—17) 

}    ™ 

(xv.  53—  xvL  9) 

~~ 

Ko,     Mosquensis,     at  ") 
Moscow     j 

IX 



a  i-*.  is)  { 

(1.  13—  viii.  7) 
(viii.  12—  end) 

•\ 

1*2,  Angelicus,   Rome.") 
Same  as  Gj      j 

IX.  { 

(viii.  10—  end) 
See  0  a  above. 

}       AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

Ma,  Ruber.   Fragments") 
at  Hamburg  and  at  f 
British  Museum     ...) 

X 

-.-. 



[xv.52  —  end)  | 

(Ll-15)    I 
(x.13—  xii.0)f 

P,  Porphyrlanus.  Pub-") 

lished    by    Tischen- 

f 

(i.  1—  xii.  23) 

dorf.        Monumenta  V 

IX 

(iL14-ond) 

lllttl       J 

(xiii.6—  xiv.  23) 

*Mj 

sacra  luedita.     (See 

^ 

(xiv.  39—  end) 

Alford,  vol.  2.)       ...J 

This  Table  has  kindly  been  drawn  np  for 

[The  general  reader  should  notice  (i.)  that  D  and  E  mean  different  MSS.  for  the  Acts  and  for  the 

(iii.)  that  F  (Angiensis)  is  in  most  instances 


THE  UHCIA1A 
THB  ACTS,  AND  EPISTLES  Off  ST.  PAUL. 


731 


6*1. 

Eph. 

Philip. 

Colog. 

1  Thcgg. 

2  Thees. 

iTim. 

1  Tim. 

Titu*. 

Phllem. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

All. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

•Mt* 



~~ 

~- 

0.  ai-  1  til  ) 

(iL  18-iv.  17) 

(1.22-111.5) 

(t.  2-end) 

(L  8—  11.  9) 



(ill.  »-v.  20) 

(t.  8—  end) 

(1.  4-end) 

(Stoend) 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

All. 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 


AIL 

M1KI 

AIL 

All. 

AU.{ 

»•«••• 

(i.  1-ii.  1) 
(ii.  8-end) 

}     AIL 

AIL 

•«•»«• 

AIL 

AIL 

« 
AIL 

<i-si) 

marginal  notes  to  the  great  Septuugint  Octateuch  known  as  Cod.  Coislinlanua  L 


•applying  the  commencement  of  Romans,  not  other  deficiencies.    It  la  considerably  mutilated. 


<  (i.  4-10) 
l(iL  9-14) 

•*«•« 

}     ft 

M*»»« 

"••" 

MUM 

...... 

(iiL  7—14) 

.....{ 

M*M« 

O.l) 

(i.  15—  li.  5) 
(iii.lStoend) 

}~ 

~- 

~~ 











•*»»•« 

0.1-13) 



AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

AIL 

•«•••• 

AIL 

AIL 

ffitil 

AIL 

AIL 

All 

AIL 

AIL 

AB.{ 

rt.l—  lii.16) 
(iv.8  —  end) 

(LI—  11L6) 

(ir.  17-euU) 

}^ 

AIL 

AIL 

AD. 

AIL 

me  ty  the  Rev.  J.  8.  Northcote. 

Epistles ;  (ii.)  that  B  (Sangermanensis)  la  a  copy  of  the  third  corrector  of  D  (Claromontamui)* 
Almost  identical  with  O  (Boereeriaims).] 


732  APPENDIX, 

v___  ;  -*?'-'*  -1*0'  *'•>  -  'V  1H2  W 

EXOUESUS  XXI.   (p.  898). 
THEOLOGY  AND  ANTINOMIES  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

I  HAVE  treated  so  fully  of  the  main  outlines  of  St.  Paul's  theology  in  the  sketch  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  that  I  need  not  here  enter  upon  it,  but  it  may  be  convenient  to 
the  reader  to  see  at  one  glance  two  of  his  own  most  pregnant  summaries  of  it.  These 
are  Rom.  iii.  21—26 ;  Tit.  iii.  3—7,  for  further  explanation  of  which  I  must  refer  to 
pp.  472,  seq.,  663. 

Eom.  iii.  21 — 26:  "But  now  apart  from  Law,  God's  righteousness  has  been  mani- 
fested, being  witnessed  to  by  the  Law  and  the  Prophets — even  God's  righteousness  (I  say) 
by  means  of  faith  In  Jesus  Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all  believers ;  for  there  is  no 
difference.  For  all  sinned  and  are  falling  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  being  made  righteous 
freely  by  His  grace,  by  the  means  of  the  redemption  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  whom  God 
set  forth  as  "  a  propitiary  "  by  means  of  faith  in  His  blood  for  the  manifestation  of  His 
righteousness,  because  of  the  praetermission  of  past  sins  by  the  long-suffering  of  God — 
with  a  view  (I  say)  to  the  manifestation  of  His  righteousness  in  the  present  season,  so 
that  He  may  be  righteous  and  the  giver  of  righteousness  to  him  who  is  of  faith  in 
Jesus." 

Tit.  iii.  3 — 7:  "For  we  were  once  ourselves  also  foolish,  disobedient,  wandering 
slaves  to  various  lusts  and  pleasures,  living  in  malice  and  envy,  hateful,  hating  one 
another.  But  when  the  kindness  and  the  love  to  man  of  our  Saviour  God  appeared,  not 
by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  did,  but  according  to  His  mercy  He  saved  us  by 
means  of  the  laver  of  regeneration  and  renewal  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  He  poured 
forth  upon  us  richly  by  means  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  that  being  justified  by  His 
grace  we  should  become  heirs  of  eternal  life  according  to  hope." 

By  "antinomies"  I  mean  the  apparent  contradictoriness  to  human  reason  of  divine 
facts.  Such  antinomies  must  arise  when  Eeason  seeks  to  know  something  of  the  absolute, 
stepping  beyond  the  limits  of  experience. 

Among  the  apparent  antinomies  left  without  any  attempt — because  there  is  no 
possibility — of  their  reconciliation  to  our  finite  reason  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  are— 
L  Predestination  Eom.  ix.  (as  explaining  the  rejection  of  Israel 

(Absolute  dependence).  from  the  objective  and  theological  point 

of  view). 

Free  Will  Eom.  ix.  30 — x.  21  (as  explaining  the  rejection 

(Moral  self-determination).  of  Israel  from  the  moral  and  anthropolo- 

gical point  of  view). 
2.  Sin  through  Adam's  fall ;  Eom.  v.  12—21. 

Sin  as  inherent  in  the  flesh ;    1  Cor.  xv.  50,  seq. 
S.  Christ  judging  all  Christiana  at  His  Advent;  Eom.  ii.  16;  xiv.  10;  1  Cor.  iii. 

13 ;  2  Cor.  v.  10. 
God  finally  judging  ott  men  through  Christ ;  1  Cor.  iv.  5  (xv.  24,  25). 

4.  Recompense  for  ALL  according  to  works  ;  Eom.  ii.  6 — 10  ;  2  Cor.  v.  10. 
Free  forgiveness  of  the  redeemed ;  Eom.  iv.  4 ;  ix.  11 ;  xi.  6. 

5.  Universal  Restoration  and  Blessedness ;  Eom.  viii.  19 — 23  ;  xi.  30 — 36. 
A  twofold  end ;  Eom.  ii.  6—12.     "The  perishing ;"  2  Cor.  ii.  15,  &o. 

6.  Necessity  of  human  effort ;  1  Cor.  ix.  24.     "  So  run  that  ye  may  obtain. 
Ineffectualness  of  human  effort ;  Eom.  ix.  16,  "  It  is  not  of  him  that  willeth, 

I  nor  of  him  that  runneth." 

The  two  are  brought  together  in  Phil.  ii.  12, 13,  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation 

.  .  .  For  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you." 
To  these  others  might  perhaps  be  added,  but  none  of  them  causes,  or  need  cause,  any 


DISTINCTIVE  WORDS,  ETC.,  OP  THE  EPISTLES.  733 

trouble  to  the  Christian.  On  the  one  hand,  we  know  that  omnia  exeunt  in  myiterium, 
and  that  we  cannot  think  for  five  minutes  on  any  subject  connected  with  the  spiritual 
life  without  reaching  a  point  at  which  the  wings  of  the  soul  beat  in  vain  as  against  a  wall 
of  adamant.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  Paul  almost  created  the 
language  of  Christian  theology ;  that  he  often  enshrines  in  a  single  word  a  whole  world 
of  ideas ;  and  that  he  always  refuses  to  pursue  the  great  saving  truths  of  religion  into 
mere  speculative  extremes.  If  we  cannot  live  as  yet  in  the  realms  of  perfect  and 
universal  light,  we  have  at  any  rate  &  lamp  which  throws  a  circle  of  radiance  around  our 
d?jly  steps. 

"  Lead  thou  me  on.    I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  distant  scene ;  one  step  enough  for  me." 


EXCURSUS    XXII.    (p.  690). 
DISTINCTIVE  WORDS,  KEY-NOTES,  AND  CHABAOTEBISTIOS  OF  THE  EPISTLES. 

IT  may  perhaps  serve  to  call  attention  to  the  individuality  of  the  Epistles  if  I  endeavour 
to  point  out  how  some  of  them  may  be  roughly  characterised  by  leading  words  or 
conceptions. 

J.  —  The  Eschatological  Group. 

1  THESSALONIANS.  —  This  Epistle  is  marked  by  the  extreme  sweetness  of  its  tone. 
Its  key-note  is  Hope.    Its  leading  words,  napovo-ia.,  0/u'i>ts.    Its  main  theme  is  Consolation 
from  the  near  hope  of  the  Second  Advent,  iv.  17,  18,  w£«  «*  £««"•«*  opirayij»ofi«0a,  K.  r.  A. 
rapoucoAeiTe  aAXjjXovj  iv  TOIS  Xdyois  Tourots.1 

2  THESSALONIANS.  —  The  key-note  is  ii.  1,  2,  ^  Tax«->«  <raAev0iji«H  .  .  .  we  ori  mi<rrnMv  } 
TOV  miptov.    Peculiar  doctrinal  section  on  the  Man  of  Sin. 


II.  —  The  Anti-Judaic  Group. 

1  COBINTHIANS.  —  Love  and  unity  amid  divergent  opinions.     Little  details  decided  by 
great  principles.     Life  in  the  world  but  not  of  it. 

2  COBINTHIANS.  —  The  Apostle's  Apologia,  pro  vitd  su&.    The  leading  words  of  L  —  vi. 
"  tribulation  "  and  "consolation."    In  viii.  —  end,  the  leading  conception  "boasting  not 
on  merits  but  in  infirmities." 

GALATIANS.  —  The  Apostle's  independent  authority.  Christian  liberty  from  the  yoke 
of  the  Law.  Circumcision  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  nothing,  but  - 

.ROMANS.  —  The  Universality  of  sin,  and  the  Universality  of  grace  («•£«  a  leading  word). 
Justification  by  faith.  This  Epistle  is  the  sum  of  St.  Paul's  theology,  and  Bom.  i.  16,  17 
is  the  sum  of  the  Epistle. 

///.  —  The  Christoloyiccd  or  Anti-Gnostic  Group. 

PHnjPPlANS.—  Joy  in  sorrow.     "  Summa  Epistolae,  yaudeo,  gaudete  "  (Bengel). 

COLOSSIANS.  —  Christ  all  in  all.  The  Pleroma.  Leading  conception,  ii.  6,  iv  air* 
i«p«raTetT«.  "Hie  epistolue  scopus  est"  (Bengel). 

PHILEMON.  —  Can  &  Christian  master  treat  a  brother  as  a  slave?  Leading  conception, 
12,  irpooAojSou  O.VTOV. 

EPHESIANS.—  Christ  in  His  Church.     The  Epistle  of  the  Ascension.    The  leading 

Words  are  x^P'S.  Ta  cirdvpavia,  iv  XptcrruJ. 

1  "  Habet  haec  epistola  meram  quaudam  dulcedinem,  quae  lectori  dulclbus  affectibus  noa 
assueto  minus  sapit  quam  ceterae  severitate  quadam  palatum  etringentes  *  (Bengel).  "  Im  Gauzw 
ift  os  ein  Trostbrief  "  (Hansrath,  p.  299).  • 


734  APPENDIX, 


IV. — The  Pastoral  Group. 

'    .  _  /"Manuals  of  the  Christian  pastor's  dealing  with  the  faithful  and  with 

_.  <  false  teachers.    Leading  conceptions,  sobriety  of  conduct,  soundness  of 

J.ITU3  I  .   . ,  -i 

^  faith. 

2  TIMOTHY. — Last  words.    Be  brave  and  faithful,  as  I  have  tried  to  be.    Come 
quickly,  come  before  winter;  come  before  I  die.    IT.  6,  «yi>  yap  % 


EXCUESUS   XXIII.    (p.  628). 
LETTEB  or  PLINY  TO  SABINIANUS  ON  BEHALF  OF  AW  OFFENDING  FEEEDMAX. 

"  0.  Plinius  Sabiniano  suo  S. 

"Libertus  tuus,  cui  succensere  te  dixeras,  venit  ad  me  advolutusque  pedibus  meta 
tanquam  tuis  haesit.  Flevit  multum,  multum  rogavit,  multum  etiam  tacuit,  in  summa 
fecit  mild  fidem  paenitentiae.  Yere  credo  emendatum,  quia  deliquisse  se  sentit. 
Irasceris,  scio,  et  irasceris  merito,  id  quoque  scio :  sed  tune  praecipua  mansuetudinus 
laus,  cum  irae  caussa  iustissima  est.  Amasti  hominem  et,  spero,  aniabis :  interim  sufficit 
ut  exorari  te  sinas.  Licebit  rursus  irasci,  si  meruerit,  quod  exoratus  excusatius  facies. 
Kcmitte  aliquid  adulcscentiae  ipsius,  remitte  lacrimis,  remitte  indulgentiae  tuae :  ne 
torseris  ilium,  ne  torseris  etiam  te.  Torqueris  enim,  cum  tarn  lenis  irasceris.  Vereor  ne 
videar  non  rogare,  sed  cogere,  si  precibus  eius  meas  iunxero.  Jungam  tamen  tanto 
plenius  et  effusius,  quanto  ipsum  acrius  severiusque  corripui,  districte  minatus  numquam 
me  postea  rogaturum.  Hoc  illi,  quem  terreri  oportebat ;  tibi  non  idem.  Nam  f ortasse 
iterum  rogabo,  impetrabo  iterum:  sit  modo  tale  ut  rogare  me,  ut  praestare  te  deceat. 
Vale!" 

TRANSLATION. 

"0.  Plinius  to  his  Sabinianus,  greeting : — 

"Your  freedman,  with  whom,  as  you  had  told  me,  you  were  vexed,  came  to  me,  and, 
flinging  himself  at  my  feet,  clung  to  them  as  though  they  had  been  yours.  He  wept 
much,  entreated  much,  yet  at  the  same  time  left  much  unsaid,  and,  in  short,  convinced 
me  that  he  was  sincerely  sorry.  I  believe  that  he  is  really  reformed,  because  he  is 
conscious  of  his  delinquency.  You  are  angry,  I  know ;  justly  angry,  that  too  I  know ; 
but  gentleness  is  most  praiseworthy  exactly  where  anger  is  most  justifiable.  You  loved 
the  poor  fellow,  and  I  hope  will  love  him  again ;  meanwhile,  it  is  enough  to  yield  to 
intercession.  Should  he  ever  deserve  it  you  may  be  angry  again,  and  all  the  more 
excusably  by  yielding  now.  Make  some  allowance  for  his  youth,  for  his  tears,  for  your 
own  kindly  disposition.  Do  not  torture  him,  lest  you  torture  yourself  as  well,  for  it  is  a 
torture  to  you  when  one  of  your  kindly  nature  is  angry.  I  fear  you  will  think  that  I  am 
not  asking  but  forcing  you  if  I  join  my  prayers  to  his ;  I  will,  however,  do  so,  and  all  the 
more  fully  and  unreservedly  in  proportion  to  the  sharpness  and  severity  with  which  I 
took  him  to  task,  sternly  threatening  that  I  would  never  say  a  word  for  MTU  again. 
That  I  said  to  him  because  he  needed  to  be  well  frightened;  but  I  do  not  say  it  to  you, 
for  perhaps  I  shall  say  a  word  for  him  again,  and  again  gain  my  point ;  provided  only 
my  request  be  such  as  it  becomes  me  to  ask  and  you  to  grant.  Farewell  1 " 


BXCTmSUS  XXIV.  (pp.  175,  556). 
THE  HEBODS  IN  THE  ACTS. 

IF  there  be  sufficient  ground  for  the  plausible  conjecture  which  identifies  Agrippa  I.  and 
Cypros  with  the  king  and  que*n  who  figure  in  the  two  following  anecdotes  of  the  Talmud, 


THE  HEBOD3  IN  THE  ACTS.  735 

we  shall  see  that  the  part  he  had  to  play  was  not  always  an  easy  one,  and  even  led  to 
serious  complications. 

L  The  Talmud  relates  that  on  one  occasion,  at  a  festival,  a  lizard  was  found  in  the 
royal  kitchen.  It  appeared  to  be  dead,  and  if  so  the  whole  banquet  would  have  become 
ceremonially  unclean.  The  king  referred  the  question  to  the  queen,  and  the  queen  to 
Eabban  Gamaliel.  He  asked  whether  it  had  been  found  in  a  warm  or  a  cold  place.  "In  a 
warm  place,"  they  said.  "Then  pour  cold  water  over  it."  They  did  so.  The  lizard 
revived,  and  the  banquet  was  pronounced  clean.  So  that,  the  writer  complacently  adds, 
the  fortune  of  the  entire  festival  depended  ultimately  on  Eabban  Gamaliel.1 

ii.  The  other  story  is  more  serious.  It  appears  that  at  a  certain  Passover  the  king 
and  queen  were  informed  by  their  attendants  that  two  kinds  of  victims — a  lamb  and  a 
kid — either  of  which  was  legal — had  been  killed  for  them,  and  they  were  in  doubt  as  to 
which  of  the  two  was  to  be  regarded  as  preferable.  The  king,  who  considered  that  the 
kid  was  preferable,  and  was  less  devoted  to  the  Pharisees  than  his  wife,  sent  to  ask  the 
high  priest  Issachar  of  Kephar-Barcha'i,  thinking  that  since  he  daily  sacrificed  victims, 
he  would  be  sure  to  know.  Issachar,  who  was  of  the  same  haughty,  violent,  luxurious 
temperament  as  all  the  numerous  Sadducean  high  priests  of  the  day,  made  a  most  con- 
temptuous gesture  in  the  king's  face,  and  said  that,  if  the  kid  was  preferable,  the  lamb 
would  not  have  been  ordained  for  use  in  the  daily  sacrifice.  Indignant  at  his  rudeness, 
the  king  ordered  his  right  hand  to  be  cut  off.  Issachar,  however,  bribed  the  executioner 
and  got  him  to  cut  off  the  left  hand.  The  king,  on  discovering  the  fraud,  had  the  right 
hand  cut  off  also.1  It  is  thus  that  the  story  runs  in  the  Pesachlm,  and  further  on  it  is 
said  that  when  the  doubt  arose  the  king  sent  to  the  queen,  and  the  queen  to  the  Rabban 
Gamaliel,  who  gave  the  perfectly  sensible  answer  that  as  either  victim  was  legal,  and  as 
the  king  and  queen  had  been  perfectly  indifferent  in  giving  the  order  for  the  Paschal 
yktims  to  be  slain,  they  could  eat  of  the  one  which  had  been  first  killed.3 

As  this  story  was  not  very  creditable  to  Agrippa  I.,  we  find  a  sufficient  reason  tor  the 
•ilence  of  Josephus  in  passing  over  the  name  of  Issachar  in  his  notices  of  the  High 
Priests.4  His  was  not  a  name  which  could  have  sounded  very  agreeable  in  the  ears  of 
Agrippa  II.  The  elder  Agrippa  seems  to  have  been  tempted  in  this  instance  into  a 
violence  which  was  not  unnatural  in  one  who  had  lived  in  the  court  of  Tiberius,  but 
which  was  a  rude  interruption  of  his  plan  of  pleasing  the  priestly  party,  while  Cypros 
took  the  Pharisees  under  he.  special  patronage.  Issachar  seems  to  have  come  between 
Theophilus,  son  of  Hanan,  and  Simon,  son  of  Kanthera  the  Boethusian.5  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  tendencies  of  Cypros,  and  his  own  proclivities,  it  was  important  to 
Agrippa  that  he  should  retain  the  support  of  the  sacerdotal  aristocrats ;  and  they  were 
well  pleased  to  enjoy,  in  rapid  succession,  and  as  the  appanage  of  half-a-dozen  families, 
the  burdensome  dignity  of  Aaron's  successor. 

The  Pharisees,  on  the  other  hand,  recounted  with  pleasure  the  fact  that  no  sooner 
had  Agrippa  arrived  at  Jerusalem  than  he  caused  to  be  suspended  on  the  columns  of  the 
oulam,  or  Temple  portico,  the  chain  of  massive  gold  which  he  had  received  from  Gaius  as 
an  indemnification  for  his  captivity ;  6  that  he  was  most  munificent  in  his  presents  to 
the  nation ;  that  he  was  a  daily  attendant  at  the  Temple  sacrifice ;  that  he  had  called 
the  attention  of  the  Legate  Petronius  to  the  decrees  of  Claudius  in  favour  of  Jewish 
privileges,  and  had  thereby  procured  the  reprimand  and  punishment  of  the  inhabitants 

i  PesaeMm,  t.  88,  2. 

*  Pesachim,  t  57,  1.    In  KeriUth,  t  28,  2,  it  is  told  with  some  variations,  and  the  king  Is  called 
,  Jannaeus.    It  is,  however,  a  fashion  of  the  Talmud  to  give  this  name  to  Asmonsean  kings  (Deren- 
iDourg,  p.  211).    May  this  wild  story  have  been  suggested  by  the  indignation  of  the  Jews  against  the 
first  High  Priest  who  wore  gloves  to  prevent  his  hands  from  being  soiled  ? 

s  Id.  88  ft.  When  I  was  present  at  the  Samaritan  passover  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Gerizim, 
•ix  lambs  and  one  kid  were  sacrificed.  *  Antt.  xx.  10,  §  1. 

»  Herod  the  Great  had  married  a  daughter  of  Boethus. 

•  MiddOth,  ill.  7.    Josephus  (Antt,  xix.  9,  §  1)  says  that  it  w«a  huny  "  OTCT  the  treasury." 


736  APPENDIX. 

of  Dor, l  who  had  insulted  the  Jews  by  erecting  In  their  synagogue  a  statue  of  th« 
emperor.  They  had  also  told  with  applause  that  he  carried  his  basket  of  first-fruits  to 
the  Temple  like  any  ordinary  Israelite  ; 2  and  that  although  every  one  had  to  give  way  in 
the  streets  to  the  king  and  his  suite,  yet  Agrippa  always  yielded  the  right  of  road  to  a 
marriage  or  funeral  procession.3  There  were  two  stories  on  which  they  dwelt  with 
peculiar  pleasure.  One  was  that  on  a  single  day — perhaps  that  of  his  arrival  at 
Jerusalem — he  offered  a  thousand  holocausts,  and  that  when  they  had  been  offered,  a 
poor  man  came  with  two  pigeons.  The  priest  refused  this  sacrifice,  on  the  pretext  that 
on  that  day  he  had  been  bidden  to  offer  none  but  royal  victims ;  but  he  yielded  to  the 
poor  man's  earnest  solicitation  on  being  told  that  the  pigeons  were  brought  in  fulfilment 
of  a  vow  that  he  would  daily  offer  half  the  produce  of  his  day's  work ;  and  Agrippa 
warmly  approved  of  this  disobedience  of  his  orders.4  On  another  occasion,  at  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles,  he  received  from  the  hands  of  the  High  Priest  the  roll  of  the  Law,  and 
without  seating  himself,  read  the  Lesson  for  the  day,  which  was  Deuteronomy  xvii. 
14 — 20.  When  he  came  to  the  words,  "  Thou  mayest  not  set  a  stranger  over  thee  which 
is  not  thy  brother,"  the  thought  of  his  own  Idumsean  origin  flashed  across  his  mind,  and 
he  burst  into  tears.  But  the  cry  arose  on  all  sides,  "  Fear  not,  Agrippa ;  thou  art  our 
brother,  thou  art  our  brother."6 

There  were  other  tendencies  which  would  win  for  Agrippa  the  approval  of  the  people 
no  less  than  that  of  the  Pharisees.  Such,  for  instance,  were  his  early  abolition  of  a 
house-tax  in  Jerusalem,  which  had  been  felt  to  be  particularly  burdensome ;  and  his 
construction  of  a  new  quarter  of  the  Holy  City,  which  was  called  Bezetha.6  The  Kabbis, 
indeed,  refused  to  accord  to  the  new  district  the  sanctity  of  the  old,  because  it  had  not 
been  inaugurated  by  the  presence  of  a  king,  a  prophet,  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  a 
Sanhedrin  of  seventy-one,  two  processions,  and  a  choir."  It  is  far  from  improbable  that 
this  addition  to  Jerusalem  was  mainly  intended  to  strengthen  its  natural  defences,  and 
that  Agrippa  had  formed  the  secret  intention  of  making  himself  independent  of  Home. 
If  so,  his  plans  were  thwarted  by  the  watchful  jealousy  of  Vibius  Marsus,8  who  had 
succeeded  Petronius  as  Praefect  of  Syria.  He  wrote  and  informed  the  Emperor  of  the 
suspicious  proceedings  of  Agrippa,  and  an  Imperial  rescript  commanded  the  suspension 
of  these  building  operations.  Petronius  had  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Agrippa, 
but  Marsus  distrusted  and  bitterly  offended  him.9  After  the  completion  of  the  magni- 
ficent theatre,  and  other  buildings  which  he  had  presented  to  Berytus,  he  was  visited  by 
a  number  of  neighbouring  princes — Antiochus,  King  of  Commagene,  Sampsigeramus  of 
Emesa,  Cotys  of  Lesser  Armenia,  Polemo  of  Pontus,  and  his  brother  Herod,  King  of 
Chalcis.  It  is  probable  that  these  royal  visits  were  not  of  a  purely  complimentary 
character,  but  may  have  been  the  nucleus  of  a  plot  against  the  Koman  power.  If  so, 
their  machinations  were  scattered  to  the  winds  by  the  contemptuous  energy  of  the 
Praefect,  who  felt  a  truly  Koman  indifference  for  the  gilded  impotence  of  these 
Oriental  vassals.  As  the  gathering  took  place  at  Tiberias,  he  went  thither,  and  Agrippa, 

i  Jos.  Antt.  xix.  6,  §  8.  *  Bikkurim,  iii.  4 ;  Derenbourg,  p.  217. 

»  Bab.  KethubMth,  £  17, 1 ;  Munk,  Palest,  p.  571.  *  Vayyikra-rabba,  iii. 

5  Sota,  f.  41, 1,  2.  Bat,  as  Derenbourg  points  out,  there  were  not  wanting  some  stern  Rabbis 
who  unhesitatingly  condemned  this  "flattery  of  the  king."  (See,  too,  Jost,  Gesch.  d.  Judenthvmt, 
420.  It  is  not  certain  that  the  anecdote  may  not  refer  to  Agrippa  II.)  In  continuation  of  the  story 
about  Babha  Ben  BuU's  advice  to  Herod  the  Great  to  rebuild  the  Temple,  the  Talmud  adds  that  the 
Romans  were  by  no  means  willing,  but  that  the  task  was  half  done  before  the  return  of  the 
messenger,  who  had  been  purposely  told  to  spend  three  years  in  his  mission.  Among  other  things 
the  Romans  said,  "  If  thou  hast  succeeded  by  violence  at  home,  we  have  the  genealogy  here.  Thou 
art  neither  a  kino,  nor  the  son  of  a  king,  but  a  liberated  slave  "  (Babha  Bathra,  f.  3,  2). 

8  Josephus  (B.  J.  v.  4,  §  2)  says  that  this  word  means  "New  City";  but  elsewhere  (Antt.  rii. 
10,  §2;  11,  §  l)hu  writes  it  BMh-Zttho,  or  "House  of  Olive-trees."  In  the  Syriac  version  of  Acts  L 
12,  eXatwi',  olive-yard,  is  rendered  3tth-Z£tho ;  and  in  B.  J.  ii.  19,  §  4,  Josephus  seems  to  draw  a 
distinction  between  Bezetha  and  the  New  City  (Munk,  Palest.,  p.  45).  Derenbourg,  however,  holds 
that  Bezetha  is  a  transliteration  of  the  Chaldaic  Bet!i  Hadta,  and  that  Josephus  is  right  (Palest., 
p.  218).  1  Jer.  Sanhedr.  i.  8 ;  Jos.  V.  J.  v.  4,  §  2. 

*  Jew.  B.  /.  a.  11, 1 0.  ••  Jos.  Antt.  xix.  7,  §  2. 


THE  HERODS   IN  THE  ACTS.  73T 

In  whose  character,  as  in  that  of  all  his  family,  there  was  a  large  vein  of  ostentation,*1 
went  seven  furlongs  out  of  the  city  to  meet  him,  with  the  five  other  kings  in  his  chariot.' 
Marsus  did  not  like  the  look  of  this  combination,  and  sent  his  servants  to  the  kings  withj 
the  cool  order  that  they  were  all  to  make  the  best  of  their  way  at  onco  to  their  respective' 
homes.  It  was  in  consequence  of  this  deliberate  insult  that,  after  the  death  of  Agrippa, 
Claudius,  in  respect  to  his  memory,  and  in  consequence  of  a  request  which  he  had1 
received  from  him,  displaced  Marsus,  and  sent  C.  Cassius  Longinus  in  his  place.3 

AGRIPPA  AND  BEEENIOB. 

Not  a  spark  of  true  patriotism  seems  ever  to  have  been  kindled  in  the  breast  of 
Agrippa  II.  He  was  as  complete  a  renegade  as  his  friend  Josephus,3  but  without  hi* 
versatility  and  genius.  He  had  passed  all  his  early  years  in  the  poisoned  atmosphere  of 
such  coiTrts  as  those  of  Gaius  and  Claudius,  and  was  now  on  excellent  terms  with  Nero. 
The  mere  fact  that  he  should  have  been  a  favourite  with  the  Messallinas,  and  Agrip- 
pinas,  and  Poppneas,  of  a  palace  rife  with  the  basest  intrigues,  is  sufficient  to  condemn 
him.  His  appointments  to  the  High-priesthood  were  as  bad  as  those  of  his  predecessors, 
and  he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Jews  by  the  arbitrary  rapidity  of  the  constant 
changes  which  he  made.  Almost  the  only  specific  event  which  marked  his  period  of 
royalty  was  a  dispute  about  a  view  from  a  window.  In  a  thoroughly  unpatriotic  and 
irreverent  spirit  he  had  built  a  banquet-hall  in  Herod's  palace  at  Jerusalem,  which 
overlooked  the  Temple  courts.  It  was  designed  to  serve  the  double  purpose  of  gratifying 
the  indolent  curiosity  of  his  guests  as  they  lay  at  table,  by  giving  them  the  spectacle  of 
the  Temple  worship  in  its  most  sacred  details,  and  also  of  maintaining  a  certain 
espionage  over  the  movements  of  the  worshippers,  which  would  at  any  moment  enable 
him  to  give  notice  to  the  Roman  soldiers  if  he  wished  them  to  interfere.  Indignant  at 
this  instance  of  contemptible  curiosity  and  contemptible  treachery,  the  Jews  built  up  a 
counter  wall  to  exclude  his  view.  Agrippa,  powerless  to  do  anything  himself,  invoked 
the  aid  of  the  Procurator.  The  wall  of  the  Jews  excluded  not  only  the  view  of  Agrippa, 
but  also  that  of  the  commandant  in  the  tower  of  Antonia,  and  Festus  ordered  them  to 
pull  it  down.  The  Jews  resisted  this  demand  with  their  usual  determined  fury,  and 
Festus  BO  far  gave  way  that  he  allowed  them  to  send  an  embassy  to  Home  to  await  the 
decision  of  the  Caesar.  The  Jews  sent  Ishmael  Ben  Phabi  the  high  priest,  Helkias  the 
treasurer,  and  other  distinguished  ambassadors,  and  astutely  gaining  the  ear  of  Poppsea 
— who  is  believed  to  have  been  a  proselyte,  but  if  so,  was  a  proselyte  of  whom  the  Jews 
ought  to  have  been  heartily  ashamed — obtained  a  decision  in  their  favour.  Women  like 
Poppaea,  pantomimists  like  Aliturus — such  were  in  theso  days  the  defenders  of  the  Temple 
for  the  Jews  against  their  hybrid  kings  !  We  hear  little  more  of  Agrippa  II.  till  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  As  might  have 
been  expected,  ho,  like  Josephus.  like  Tiberius  Alexander,  and  other  eminent  renegade*, 
was  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  Roman  invaders,  waging  war  on  the  Holy  City.  He 
probably  saw  the  Temple  sink  amid  its  consuming  fires.  Like  Josephus  he  may  have 
watched  from  a  Roman  window  the  gorgeous  procession  in  which  the  victor  paraded  the 
sacred  spoils  of  the  Temple,  while  the  wretched  captives  of  his  countrymen — 

"  Swelled,  slow-pacing,  by  the  car's  tall  side, 
The  Stoic  tyrant's  philosophic  pride." 

After  that  he  fell  into  merited  obscurity,  and  ended  a  frivolous  life  by  a  dishonoured 
old  age. 

1  Thus  on  a  coin,  engraved  by  Akerman,  Numism.  Tllustr.,  he  is  called  0<x<riXev?  pc'yat. 

»  Jos.  Ant.,  xix.  8,  §  1. 

*  For  instance,  he  changed  the  name  of  Caesarea  Philippi  to  Neronias;  stripped  Judaea  to 
Ornament  Berytus ;  and  even  stooped  to  take  the  surname  Mareiu,  which  is  found  oil  one  of  his 
coins  (Jos.  Anit.  xs.  0,  §  4 ;  Eckhel,  Doct.  Num.  F«{.  iii.  493). 


738  APPENDIX. 

Such  was  the  prince  who  came  to  salute  Festus,  and  he  was  accompanied  by  his  sister, 
who  was  unhappily  notorious  even  among  the  too  notorious  ladies  of  rank  in  that  evil 
time.  Berenice  was  the  Lucrozia  Borgia  of  the  Herodian  family.  She  was  beautiful, 
like  all  the  princesses  of  her  house.  Before  the  age  of  sixteen  she  had  been  married  to 
her  uncle  Herod  of  Chalcis,  and  being  left  a  widow  before  she  was  twenty,  went  to  live 
in  Borne  with  her  equally  youthful  brother.  Her  beauty,  her  rank,  the  splendour  of  her 
jewels,  the  interest  and  curiosity  attaching  to  her  race  and  her  house,  made  her  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  the  society  of  the  capital ;  and  a  diamond,  however  lustrous  and  valuable, 
was  enhanced  in  price  if  it  was  known  that  it  had  once  sparkled  on  the  finger  of  Berenice, 
and  had  been  a  present  to  her  from  her  brother.1  The  relations  between  the  two  gave 
rise  to  the  darkest  rumours,  which  gained  credence,  because  there  was  nothing  to 
contradict  them  in  the  bearing  or  character  of  the  defamed  persons.  So  rife  indeed  did 
these  stories  become,  that  Berenice  looked  out  for  a  new  marriage.  She  contracted  an 
alliance  with  Polemo  II.,  King  of  Cilicia,  insisting,  however,  that  he  should  save  her  from 
any  violation  of  the  Jewish  law  by  submitting  to  the  rite  of  circumcision.2  Circumcision, 
not  conversion,  was  all  that  she  required.  So  true  is  the  charge  brought  alike  by  St. 
Paul  in  his  Epistles,  and  by  the  writers  of  the  Talmud,  that  the  reason  why  the  Jews 
insisted  upon  circumcision  was  only  that  they  might  have  whereof  to  glory  in  the  flesh.1 
The  lowering  of  the  Gentile  fasces  in  token  of  external  respect  was  all  that  they  cared 
for,  and  when  that  was  done,  the  Ger  might  go  his  own  vile  way — not  improbably  to 
Gehenna.*  Circumcision  to  them  was  greater  than  all  affirmative  precepts,  and  was 
therefore  exalted  above  love  to  God  or  love  to  our  neighbour.5  No  doubt  it  cost  Polemo 
something  to  accept  concision,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  orthodox  scrupulosity  of  an 
abandoned  Jewess ;  but  her  wealth  was  an  inducement  too  powerful  to  resist.  It  was 
hardly  likely  that  such  a  marriage  could  last.  It  was  broken  off  very  rapidly  by  the 
elopement  of  Berenice,  after  which  Polemo  immediately  repudiated  every  shadow  and 
semblance  of  allegiance  to  the  Jewish  religion,  and  Berenice  returned  to  the  house  of  her 
brother,  until  her  well-preserved  but  elderly  beauty,  added  to  the  munificence  of  her 
presents,  first  won  the  old  Vespasian,  and  then  his  son  Titus.6  The  conqueror  of  Judaea 
was  so  infatuated  by  his  love  for  its  dishonoured  princess  that  he  took  her  with  him  to 
Borne,  and  seriously  contemplated  making  her  a  partner  of  his  imperial  throne.?  But 
this  was  more  than  the  Bomans  could  stand,  far  gone  as  they  were  in  servitude  and 
adulation.  The  murmurs  which  the  rumoured  match  stirred  up  were  so  wrathful  in  their 
indignation,  that  Titus  saw  how  unsafe  it  would  bo  to  wed  a  Jewess  whose  name  had 
been  dragged  through  the  worst  infamy.  He  dismissed  her — invitus  invitam — and  we 
hear  of  her  no  more.  Thus  in  the  fifth  generation  did  the  sun  of  the  Herodian  house  set 
in  obscure  darkness,  as  it  had  dawned  in  blood ;  and  with  it  set  also  the  older  and  purer 
splendour  of  the  Asmonaean  princes.  They  had  mingled  the  honourable  blood  of  Judas 
the  Maccabee  with  that  of  Idumsean  adventurers,  and  the  inheritors  of  the  grandest 
traditions  of  Jewish  patriotism  were  involved  in  a  common  extinction  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  basest  intrigues  of  Jewish  degradation. 

1  "  Adamas  nottissimns,  et  Berenices 

In  digito  factus  pretiosior  ;  hunc  dedlt  olim  ' 
Barbaras  incestae,  dedit  hunc  Agrippa  sororl." 

Juv.  Sat.  vi.  156;  Jos.  Antl.  n.  6,  §  S. 
»  Jos.  Antt.  xx.  7,  §  8. 

»  Gal.  vi.  13.    It  was,  of  course,  a  Judaic  triumph  to  make  a  king  not  only  a  Ger  Thoshabh,  or  a 
proselyte  of  the  gate  (Ex.  xx.  14),  but  even  a  Ger  hatsedek,  "  a  proselyte  of  righteousness,"  or  "  of  tho 
Covenant."  These  latter  were  despised  alike  by  Jews  and  GentUes  (Suet.  Claud.  25 ;  Domit.  12 ; 
Yebhamoth,  xlvii.  4  ;  see  Wetstein  on  Matt,  xxiii.  151 
«  See  McCaul,  Old  Paths,  pp.  63  »tq^. 

*  Nedarim,  t.  82,  c.  2. 

•  Jos.  Antt.  XX.  7,  |  8. 

»  Boot.  Tit  7 ;  Tac.  H.  ii  81. 


PHBASEOLOGY  OF  THE  EPHESIANg,  739 


EXCURSUS  XXV.  (p.  637V 
PHRASEOLOGY  AND  DOCTBINES  or  THE  Erisrun  TO 
IT  i«  admitted  that  there  are  some  new  and  rare  expressions  in  this  Epistle  ;*  but  they 
are  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the  writer,  and  the  peculiarity  of  the 
subjects  with  which  he  had  to  deal.  It  is  monstrous  to  assume  that,  in  the  case  of  one  so 
fresh  and  eager  as  St.  Paul,  the  vocabulary  would  not  widely  vary  in  writings  extending 
over  nearly  twenty  years,  and  written  under  every  possible  variety  of  circumstances,  to 
very  different  communities,  and  in  consequence  of  very  different  controversies.  The 
wide  range  of  dissimilarity  in  thought  and  expression  between  Epistles  of  admitted 
authenticity  ought  sufficiently  to  demonstrate  the  futility  of  overlooking  broad  probabili- 
ties and  almost  universal  testimony,  because  of  peculiarities  of  which  many  are  only 
discoverable  by  a  minute  analysis.  It  must  be  remembered  that  at  this  period  the 
phraseology  of  Christianity  was  still  in  a  plastic,  it  might  almost  be  said  in  a  fluid, 
condition.  No  Apostle,  no  writer  of  any  kind,  contributed  one  tithe  so  much  to  its 
ultimate  cohesion  and  rigidity  as  St.  PauL  Are  we  then  to  reject  this  Epistle,  and  that 
to  the  Colossians,  on  grounds  so  flimsy  as  the  fact  that  in  them  for  the  first  time  he 
speaks  of  the  remission  (a£«(ns,  Eph.  i.  7;  CoL  i.  14)  instead  of  the  prsetermission  (irapeais, 
llom.  iii.  25)  of  sins;  or  that,  writing  to  a  Church  predominantly  Gentile,  he  says 
"  Greeks  and  Jews"  (CoL  iii.  11)  instead  of  "Jews  and  Greeks"  (Rom.  L  16,  &c.)  ;  or 
that  he  uses  the  word  "Church"  in  a  more  abstract  and  generic  sense  than  in  his  former 
writings  ;  or  that  he  uses  the  rhetorical  expression  that  the  Gospel  has  been  preached  in 
all  the  world  (CoL  i.  6,  23)  ?  By  a  similar  mode  of  reasoning  it  would  be  possible  to 
prove  in  the  case  of  almost  every  voluminous  author  in  the  world  that  half  the  works 
attributed  to  him  have  been  written  by  some  one  else.  Such  arguments  only  encumber 
with  useless  d&yrit  the  field  of  criticism.  There  is  indeed  one  very  unusual  expression, 
the  peculiarity  of  which  has  been  freely  admitted  by  all  fair  controversialists.  It  is  the 
remark  that  the  mystery  of  Christ  is  now  revealed  "  to  the  holy  Apostles  and  Prophets" 
(iii.  5).  The  Prophets  (as  in  ii.  20;  iv.  11)  are  doubtless  those  of  the  New  Testament  — 
those  who  had  received  from  the  Spirit  His  special  gifts  of  illumination  ;  but  the  epithet 
is  unexpected.  It  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  general  dignity  and  fulness  (the 
o-efivonp)  of  the  style  in  which  the  Epistle  is  written  ;  and  the  epithet,  if  genuine,  is,  it 
need  hardly  be  said,  official  and  impersonal. 

It  would  be  much  more  to  the  purpose  if  the  adverse  critics  could  produce  even  one 
decided  instance  of  un-Pauline  theology.  The  demonology  of  the  Epistle  is  identical 
with  that  of  Paul's  Rabbinic  training.2  The  doctrine  of  original  sin,  even  if  it  were  by  any 
means  necessarily  deducible  from  Eph.  ii.  3  —  which  is  not  the  case,  since  the  word  <£vVei  is 
not  identical  with  "  by  birth  "  —  is  quite  as  clearly  involved  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans 
and  Galatians.  The  descent  of  Christ  into  Hades  is  not  necessarily  implied  in  iv.  8;  and 
even  if  it  were,  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  has  not  elsewhere  alluded  to  it  furnishes  no  shadow 
of  a  proof  that  he  did  not  hold  it.  The  method  of  quoting  Scripture  is  that  of  all  Jewish 
writers  in  the  age  of  Paul,  and  the  reminiscences  of  the  Old  Testament  in  iv.  8  and  v.  14 
(if  the  latter  be  a  reminiscence)  are  scarcely  more  purely  verbal  than  others  which  occur 
in  the  Epistles  of  which  no  doubt  has  ever  been  entertained.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
frankly  admitted  that  in  all  essential  particulars  the  views  of  the  Epistle  are  distinctly 
Pauline.  The  relations  of  Christianity  to  Judaism  ;  the  universality  of  human  corrup- 
tion through  sin  ;  the  merging  of  heathenism  and  Judaism  in  the  higher  unity  of 
Christianity  ;  the  prominence  given  to  faith  and  love  ;  the  unconditional  freedom  of 


1  Such    aTraf  Arydfifi'a,  Or   unusual   expressions,   &S   TO.  inovpavui,  KoayxoKparopet   7ro\vjrai.<i.\gt» 

iroli)<rtf  ,  o</>0op<rto,  6ioj3oA<x. 

'  Thacktfyhit—  an  association  of  demons,  and  Isbalganith  (see  BeracMtA,  L  61,  1). 


740  APPENDIX. 

grace;  the  unserviceableness  and  yet  the  moral  necessity  of  good  works ;  are  In  absolute 
accordance  with  the  most  fundamental  conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  acknowledged  writings. 
If  some  of  these  great  truths,  of  theology  here  receive  a  richer,  more  mature,  and  more 
original  development  this  is  only,  what  we  should  expect  from  the  power  of  a  mind  which 
never  ceased  to  grow  in  grace  and  wisdom,  and  which  regarded  growth  in  grace  and  wisdom 
as  the  natural  privilege  of  a  Christian  soul.  On  the  other  hand,  we  might  well  be  amazed 
if  the  first  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Christ  produced  a  totally  unknown  writer 
who,  assuming  the  name  of  Paul,  treats  the  mystery  which  it  was  given  him  to  reveal 
with  a  masterly  power  which  the  Apostle  himself  rarely  equalled,  and  most  certainly 
never  surpassed.  Let  any  one  study  the  remains  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  and  he  may 
well  be  surprised  at  the  facility  with  which  writers  of  the  Tubingen  school,  and  their 
successors,  assume  the  existence  of  Paula  who  lived  unheard  of  and  died  unknown, 
though  they  were  intellectually  and  spiritually  the  equals,  if  not  the  superiors,  of  St. 
Paul  himself !  In  no  single  Epistle  is  the  point  of  view  so  clear,  so  supreme,  so  final — 
in  no  other  Epistle  of  the  Homologoumena  is  the  doctrine  so  obviously  the  outcome  and 
issue  of  truths  which  before  had  been  less  fully  and  profoundly  enunciated — so  undeniably 
the  full  consummate  flower  from  germs  of  which  we  have,  as  it  were,  witnessed  the 
planting.  At  supreme  epochs  of  human  enlightenment  whole  centuries  of  thought  seem 
to  separate  the  writings  of  a  few  years.  The  questions  which  occupy  the  Apostle  in  the 
Thessalonians  and  Galatians  seem  to  lie  indefinitely  far  behind  the  goal  which  his  thoughts 
have  now  attained.  In  earlier  Epistles  he  was  occupied  in  maintaining  the  freedom  of 
the  Gentiles  from  the  tyrannous  narrowness  of  Jewish  sacerdotalism ;  here,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  is  dwelling  on  the  predestined  grandeur  of  the  equal  and  universal  Church. 
In  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  the  Galatians  he  has  founded  the  claims  of  Christianity 
on  "a  philosophy  of  the  history  of  religion,"  by  showing  that  Christ  is  the  Second  Adam, 
and  the  promised  seed  of  Abraham ;  here  he  contemplates  a  scheme  predestined  before 
the  ages  of  earth  began,  and  running  through  them  as  an  increasing  purpose,  so  that  aeon 
after  aeon  revealed  new  forms  and  hues  of  the  richly-varied  wisdom,  and  the  Gentiles 
(KOI  v/xeis,  i.  13)  as  well  as  the  Jews  are  included  in  the  predestined  election  (e/cXrjpu^ev, 
irpoopio-BevTfs,  i.  11)  to  the  purchased  possession  (n-epuronjais,  14).  And  not  to  exhaust, 
which  would  be  indeed  impossible,  the  manifold  aspects  of  thia  so-called  "colourless" 
Epistle,  the  manner  in  which  it  expresses  the  conception  of  the  quickening  of  spiritual 
death  by  union  with  the  Risen  Christ  (ii.  1 — 6) ;  the  present  realisation,  the  immanent 
consciousness  of  communion  with  God ;  the  all-pervading  supremacy  of  God  in  Christ ; 
the  importance  of  pure  spiritual  knowledge ;  the  dignity  given  to  the  Church  as  the 
house  (ii.  20-22),  the  body  (iv.  12—16)  and  the  bride  (v.  25—27)  of  Christ,— all  mark  it 
out  as  the  most  sublime,  the  most  profound,  and,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  the  most 
advanced  and  final  utterance  of  that  mystery  of  the  Gospel  which  it  was  given  to  St.  Paul 
for  the  first  time  to  proclaim  in  all  its  fulness  to  the  Gentile  world.1  It  is  not  surprising 
that  when  these  truths  had  once  found  utterance  they  should  have  had  their  influence 
on  the  teachings  of  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  upon  St.  Peter  and 
St.  John ;  nor  is  this  any  ground  whatever,  but  rather  the  reverse,  for  looking  with 
suspicion  on  the  authenticity  of  the  Epistle.8 

1  Entirely  an  I  disagree  with  Pflelderer,  I  have  received  great  help  from  his  PBwHnfemws  (B.  T. 
H.  162—193)  In  the  study  of  this  Epistle.     - 

2  See  1  Pet.  i.  14  (Eph.  iv.  14) ;  1  Pet.  i.  20  (Eph.  1.  4) ;  1  Pet  i.  7  (Eph.  1.  6) ;  15  (Eph.  111.  5)  ; 
Si.  9  (Eph.  1. 14) ;  1.  3  (Eph.  i.  17) ;  U.  11  (Eph.  II.  3) ;  lii.  7  (Eph.  tit  6) ;  v.  10  (Eoh.  Iv.  2),  &C.    See 
Webs,  Petrintech.  Lehrbegr.  434, 


THE  LIBERATION   OF  ST.  PAUL.  741 

•  »  -v 

" 

EXCURSUS   XXVL    (p.  649). 
EVIDENCE  AS  TO  THE  LIBERATION  OF  ST.  PAU&I 

THE  chief  passages  on  the  remaining  life  of  St.  Paul  which  have  much  historic  importance 
are  the  following : — 

I.  Clemens  Romanus,  possihly  a  personal  friend  and  fellow- worker  of  St.  Paul,  if  he 
be  the  Clement  mentioned  in  PhiL  iv.  3,1  but  certainly  a  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  a  writer  of 
the  first  century,  says  that : — 

"Because  of  envy,  Paul  also  obtained  tho  prize  of  endurance,  having  seven  times 
borne  chains,  having  been  exiled,  and  having  been  stoned.  After  he  had  preached  the 
Gospel  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  "West,  he  won  the  noble  renown  of  his  faith,  having 
taught  righteousness  to  the  whole  world,  and  having  come  to  the  limit  of  the  "West,  and 
borne  witness2  before  the  rulers.  Tims  he  was  freed  from  the  world,  and  went  into  the 
holy  place,  having  shown  himself  a  pre-eminent  example  of  endurance."3 

H.  The  fragment  of  the  Muratorian  Canon  (about  A.D.  170),  though  obscure  and 
corrupt,  and  only  capable  of  uncertain  conjectural  emendation  and  interpretation,  yet 
seems  on  the  whole  to  imply  the  fact  of  "Paul's  setting  forth  from  the  city  on  his  way  to 
Spain."* 

III.  Eusebius,  in  the  fourth  century,  says : — 

"Then,  after  his  defence,  there  is  a  tradition  that  the  Apostle  again  set  forth  to  the 
ministry  of  his  preaching,  and  having  a  second  time  entered  the  same  city  [Rome],  waa 
perfected  by  his  martyrdom  before  him  [Nero]."5 

IV.  Chrysostom  (died  A.D.  407)  says  :— 

"After  he  had  been  in  Rome,  he  again  went  into  Spain.  But  whether  he  thence 
returned  into  those  regions  [the  East]  we  do  not  know."6 

V.  St.  Jerome  (died  A.D.  420)  says  that  "Paul  was  dismissed  by  Nero,  that  he  might 
preach  Christ's  Gospel  also  in  the  regions  of  the  West."  1 

I  take  no  notice  of  the  inscription  supposed  to  have  been  found  in  Spain  (Gruter,  pp. 
238 — 9),  which  gratefully  records  that  Nero  has  purged  the  province  of  brigands,  and  of 
the  votaries  of  a  new  superstition,  because  even  on  the  assumption  that  it  is  genuine  it 
has  no  necessary  bearing  on  the  question.  Nor  does  any  other  writer  of  the  least 
authority  make  any  important  contribution  to  the  question,  since  it  cannot  be  regarded 
as  adding  one  iota  of  probability  to  the  decision  to  quote  the  general  assertions  of  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem  and  Theodoret  that  St.  Paul  visited  Spain ;  nor  can  it  be  taken  as  a 
counter-evidence  that  Origen  does  not  mention  Spain  when  he  remarks  "  that  he  carried 
the  Gospel  from  Jerusalem  to  Illyricum,  and  was  afterwards  martyred  in  Rome  in  the 

1  Wo   can   only  say  that  this  is  an  ancient  and  not   impossible  tradition  (see  Lightfoot, 
Philippians,  pp.  ICG— 109). 

2  The  word  at  this  period  did  not  necessarily  mean  "suffered  martyrdom,"  but  probably 
connoted  it. 

3  Ata   <Jrj\oi>  [KCM   o]  HauAos   inrofjLOinjf   fipafieiov  vjrecrxev,   iirrajtif  Scoria   <£op€<ra9,    <j>yya5cv9cis, 
\i0acr0eis,  K-rjfivf  yevQiievos  tv  re  TJJ  afaroAjJ  Kai  [777]  Svtrei.,  TO  yewaiov  Trjs  iriareut  ai'Tov  «Xe'o?  efAajScv, 
SiKaiotrvvyv  SiSafas  o\<a  T<p  KO<T/J.O>  Kai  eiri  To  T€p(ia  TTJS  Sv<re<as  el\9uiv,  Kai  ^oprvp>]<ra«  eiri  riav  TJyot'fieVajp 
oimos  aTnjAAayij  TOU  *6o>iov  icai  «is  rov  Hyiov  TOTTQV  fnopevSy,  uiro/xovijs  yevo^fvot  ftfyiarros  VTroypafc/idf. 
— Ep.  1  ad  Cor.  5  (see  Lightfoot,  Epistles  of  Clement,  pp.  46—52). 

*  "  Lucas  obtime  Theophile  comprindit  quia  sub  praesentia  ejus  singula  gerebantur,  sicuti  et 
semote  passionern  Petri  evidenter  declarat,  sed  profectionem  Pauli  ab  urbo  ad  Spaniam  proflcis- 
centis  .  .  ." 

s  Tore  fuv  oZv  a.no\oyt]<raji.evov,  aSflir  eiri  Tip  TOU  KrjpvyjiaTOS  SLOLKOVULV  \6yps  ex.ei  oretAatrflai  TOJ» 
airoVToA.oi',  Seurepov  8*  «5ri/3aiTa  Tfj  avrfj  iroAei  T<3  tear  OVTOV  (Ne'pwi'a)  TcAciwOijyat  fiaprvpiio  (Euseb. 
H.  E.  ii.  22,  25).  He  quotes  Dionysius'  of  Corinth  to  show  that  Peter  and  Paul  had  both  been  at 
Rome  (id.  t&.  25),  which  is  also  stated  by  Ignatius  (ad  Rom.  iv.). 

6  MeTa  TO  yeVco-^ai  et>  Pcojip  iraXiv  til  TT)V  ~S.Tra.vuiv  enirfi^Sev  ti  J«  tKttOfv  wdXaf  «lj  raura  ri  fie  (HI 
OUK  l<rii.ev  (Clirys.  ad  2  Tim.  iv.  20). 

7  "  Sciendum  est.    .     .    .    Puuluin  a  Nerone  dimissum  nt  evangelium  Christi  in  occidentis 
quoque  partibus  praedicaret"  (Jer.  Catal.  Scrip.).    See  also  Tert.  Scorp.  15,  De  Praetor.  89;  Lactaut. 
De Mart.  Persw.  S.  .-,-       --  ,..-  ' 


742  APPENDIX. 

time  of  Nero."  Even  as  late  as  the  fourth  century,  no  writer  ventures  to  do  more  than 
allude  distantly  to  the  supposed  fact  in  a  manner  which  shows  that  not  a  single  detail  on 
the  subject  existed,  and  that  tradition  had  nothing  tangible  to  add  to  the  data  furnished 
by  the  New  Testament,  or  the  inferences  to  which  it  led.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
testimony  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  (A.D.  170)  that  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  after  founding 
the  Church  of  Corinth,  went  to  Italy — apparently  together  (o^do-e) — and  were  there 
martyred  about  the  same  time,  is,  so  far  as  it  goes,  somewhat  unfavourable  to  the 
Spanish  journey,  and  at  any  rate  proves  that  even  in  the  second  century  tradition  had 
buried  its  ignorance  in  the  shifting  sand  of  erroneous  generalities. 

If  we  be  asked  what  is  the  historic  value  of  this  evidence,  we  must  answer  that  it  is 
very  small  indeed.  The  testimony  of  Clement,  assuming  it  to  be  genuine,  would  be 
important  from  his  early  date  if  it  were  not  so  entirely  vague.  It  is  a  purely  rhetorical 
passage,  in  which  it  seems  not  impossible  that  he  means  to  compare  St.  Paul  to  the  sun 
rising  in  the  east  and  setting  in  the  west.  The  expression  that  "  he  taught  righteousness 
to  the  whole  world  "  shows  that  we  are  here  dealing  with  enthusiastic  phrases  rather 
than  rigid  facts.  The  expression  "having  come  to  the  limit  of  the  "West"  is  unfavourable 
to  a  Spanish  journey.  "The  limit  of  the  West,"  though  undoubtedly  it  would  mean 
Spain  to  an  author  who  was  writing  from  Rome,  if  he  were  speaking  in  plain  and  lucid 
prose,  has  not  necessarily  any  such  meaning  in  a  glowing  comparison,  least  of  all  on  the 
hypothesis  that  the  native  place  of  the  writer  was  Philippi.  If,  however,  Spain  is 
intended,  and  if  the  word  "  bearing  witness "  (jmapTvpjjo-as)  means  martyrdom,  then  the 
author,  taken  literally,  would  imply  that  St.  Paul  perished  in  Spain.  The  argument 
that  "before  the  rulers "  must  be  a  reference  to  Helius  and  Polycletus,  or  Tigellinus  and 
Nymphidius  Sabinus,  or  two  other  presidents  left  to  act  as  regents  during  Nero's  absence 
in  Greece,  is  a  mere  gossamer  thread  of  attenuated  inference.  The  authority  of  St. 
Clement,  then,  must  be  set  aside  as  too  uncertain  to  be  of  decisive  value.* 


Nor  is  the  sentence  in  the  second-century  Canon  discovered  by  Muratori  at  Milan  ol 
any  great  value.  The  verb  which  is  essential  to  the  meaning  has  to  be  supplied,  and  it 
is  even  possible  that  the  writer  may  have  intended  to  quote  Luke's  silence  as  to  any 
Spanish  journey  to  prove  that  the  tradition  respecting  it — which  would  have  been 
naturally  suggested  by  Bom.  xv.  24 — had  no  authority  in  its  favour. 

Eusebius,  indeed,  is  more  explicit,  but,  on  the  one  hand,  he  lived  so  late  that  hia 
testimony,  unless  supported  by  reference  to  more  ancient  authorities,  is  of  no  importance ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  so  far  from  following  his  usual  habit  of  quoting  any 
authority  for  hisr  assertion,  that  he  distinctly  ascribes  it  to  tradition.  He  merely 
observes  that  "  it  is  said,"  and  then  proceeds  to  support  the  probability  of  this  tradition 
by  an  extraordinary  misconception  of  2  Tim.  iv.  16,  17,  in  which  he  founds  an  argument 
for  the  Apostle's  second  imprisonment  on  the  grounds  that  he  spoke  of  deliverance  from 
the  first  when  he  said,  "I  was  saved  from  the  mouth  of  the  lion."  His  testimony  is 
rendered  the  more  worthless  because  in  his  Chronicon  he  misdates  by  nearly  ten  years 
the  time  of  the  first  imprisonment,  and  his  erroneous  inference  from  2  Tim.  seems  to 
show  that  the  floating  rumour  was  founded  on  a  mere  hypothesis  suggested  by  the 
Epistles  themselves.3  The  real  proofs  of  St.  Paul's  liberation  are,  as  we  have  seen,  of  a 
different  character. 

1  See  however  Dollinger,  First  Age,  78,  seq. ;  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Canon,  p.  479 ;  and  LigMfoot, 
Ep.  of  Clement,  p.  608,  who  quotes  Strabo,  ii.  1,  Veil.  Paterc.  i.  2,  to  show  tliat  Spain  la  probably 
meant. 

*  He  makes  Paul  arrive  at  Borne  A.D.  65. 


OF  THE  PASTOBAL  EPISTLES. 


EXOUBSUS    XXVIL    (p.  649). 

THE  GENUINENESS  OF  THE  PASTORAL  EPISTLES. 

As  our  knowledge  of  the  life  of  St.  Paul,  after  his  first  imprisonment,  depends  entirely 
on  the  decision  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  I  will  here  briefly  examine 
the  evidences. 

I.  Turning  first  to  the  external  evidence  in  their  favour,  we  find  an  almost  indis- 
putable allusion  to  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  in  Clement  of  Rome.1  That  they  were 
universally  accepted  by  the  Church  in  the  second  century  is  certain,  since  they  are  found 
in  the  Peshito  Syriac,  mentioned  in  the  Muratorian  Canon,  and  quoted  by  Ignatius, 
Polycarp,  Hegesippus,  Athenagoras,  Irenseus,  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  Theophilus  of 
Antioch,  and  perhaps  by  Justin  Martyr.  After  the  second  century  the  testimonies  are 
unhesitating  and  unbroken,  and  Eusebius,  in  the  fourth  century,  reckons  them  among 
the  homologomena  or  acknowledged  writings  of  St.  PauL  With  the  exception  of 
Marcion,  and  Tatian,  who  rejected  the  two  Epistles  to  Timothy,  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  doubt  as  to  their  genuineness  from  the  first  century  down  to  the  days  of  Schmidt 
and  Schleiermacher.  On  what  grounds  Marcion  rejected  them  we  are  not  informed.  It 
is  possible  that  Baur  may  be  right  in  the  supposition  that  he  was  not  aware  of  their 
existence.3  But  this  would  be  no  decisive  argument  against  them,  since  the  preservation 
and  dissemination  of  purely  private  letters,  addressed  to  single  persons,  must  have  been 
much  more  precarious  and  slow  than  that  of  letters  addressed  to  entire  Churches.  But 
in  such  a  case  Marcion's  authority  is  of  small  value.  He  dealt  with  the  Scriptures  on 
purely  subjective  grounds.  His  rejection  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  all  the  New 
Testament  except  ten  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  a  mutilated  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  shows 
that  he  made  no  sort  of  scruple  about  excluding  from  his  canon  any  book  that  militated 
against  his  peculiar  dogmas.  Nor  is  Tatian's  authority  of  more  weight.  The  only 
reason  why  he  accepted  as  genuine  the  Epistle  of  Titus  while  he  rejected  those  of 
Timothy,  is  conjectured  to  have  been  that  in  the  Epistle  to  Titus  the  phase  of  incipient 
Gnosticism  which  meets  with  the  condemnation  of  the  Apostle  is  more  distinctly 
identified  with  Jewish  teaching.3 

But  perhaps  it  may  be  argued  that  the  Pastoral  Epistles  were  forged  in  the  second 
century,  and  that  the  earlier  passages  which  are  regarded  as  allusions  to  them,  or 
quotations  from  them,  are  in  reality  borrowed  from  Clemens,  Polycarp,  and  Hegesippus, 
by  the  writer,  who  wished  to  enlist  the  supposed  authority  of  St.  Paul  in  condemnation 
of  the  spreading  Gnosticism  of  the  second  century.  No  one  would  argue  that  there  is  a 
merely  accidental  connexion  between,  "Avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings,  and 
oppositions  [or  antitheses]  of  the  knowledge  [Gnosis]  which  is  falsely  so  called"  in 
1  Tim.  vi.  20,  and  "the  combination  of  impious  error  arose  by  the  fraud  of  false 
teachers  [e-repoSiSao-KcuW,  comp.  1  Tim.  L  3,  cTcpo£<.5aa-icaAeii>]  who  henceforth  attempted  to 
preach  their  science  talsely  so  called  "  in  Hegesippus.4  But  Baur  argues  that  the  forger 
of  the  Epistle  stole  the  term  from  Hegesippus,  and  that  it  was  aimed  at  the  Marcionites, 
who  are  especially  indicated  in  the  word  "Antitheses,"  which  is  the  name  of  a  book 
•written  by  Marcion  to  point  out  the  contradiction  between  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
and  between  those  parts  of  the  New  Testament  which  he  rejected  and  those  which  he 
retained.*  Now,  "  Antitheses "  may  mean  simply  " oppositions,"  as  it  is  rendered  in  our 
version,  and  the  injunction  is  explained  by  Chrysostom  and  Theophylact,  and  even  by 

1  "  Let  us  then  approach  Him  In  holiness  of  soul,  lifting  to  Him  pure  and  unstained  hands."— 
Sp.  1,  ad  Cor.  29 ;  cf.  1  Tim.  iL  8.  »  Baur,  PastorcJbrieft,  p.  138. 

8  Tit  i.  10, 14 ;  iii.  9.  Tatian  founded  a  sect  of  Gnostic  Eucratites  towards  the  close  of  the 
second  century.  «  Ap.  Euseb.  E.  E.  iii.  32. 

5  Tort.  Adv.  Marc.  I.  19 ;  iv.  &c.    Baur  also  (Paul.  ii.  Ill)  dwells  on  the  use  of  the  word 
"  sound,"  •'  wholesome,"  by  Hegesippus  and  iu  1  Tim.  L  10. 


744  APPENDIX. 

De  Wette,  to  mean  that  Timothy  is  not  to  embroil  himself  in  idle  and  fruitless  con- 
troversies. But  even,  supposing  that  "antilogies"  are  meant,  what  shadow  of  proof  is 
there  that  nothing  of  the  kind  existed  among  the  "vain  babblings"  of  Essenian  specula- 
tion? " Hegesippus, "  says  Baur,1  "considering  his  Ebionite  views,  can  scarcely  have 
drawn  from  an  Epistle  supposed  to  be  by  Paul."  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  this 
remark  is  perfectly  serious;2  but  if  it  be,  I  would  ask,  Is  it  not  indefinitely  more 
improbable  that  the  falsarius 3  would  instantly  condemn  his  own  work  as  spurious  by 
interpolating  marked  passages  from  Clemens,  Polycarp,  and  Hegesippus,  which  hia 
instructed  readers  would  be  sure  to  recognise,  and  which  would  then  bo  absolute!}'  fatal 
to  the  success  of  his  design  ? 

II.  Let  us,  then,  pass  to  the  internal  evidence.  It  is  argued  that  these  three 
Epistles  cannot  have  been  written  by  St.  Paiil — (1)  Because  "  they  stand  far  below  the 
originality,  the  wealth  of  thought,  and  the  whole  spiritual  substance  and  value  of 
the  authentic  Epistles;"4  (2)  Because  they  abound  in  un-Pauliue  words  and  phrases; 
(3)  Because  their  theology  differs  from  that  of  the  Apostle ;  (4)  Because  they  deal  with 
conditions  of  ecclesiastical  organisation  which  had  no  existence  till  long  after  the  ago  of 
the  Apostles ;  (5)  Because  they  betray  allusions  to  later  developments  of  Gnostic 
heresy :  and  these  objections  we  will  briefly  consider. 

(1)  Now  as  to  the  style  of  these  Epistles,  we  admit  at  once  that  it  is  inferior  to  that 
of  St.  Paul's  greatest  productions.  For  eloquence,  compression,  depth,  passion,  and 
logical  power,  they  cannot  for  one  moment  be  compared  to  the  letters  to  the  Corinthians, 
Homans,  Galatians,  or  Ephesians.  St.  Paul  is  not  here  at  his  best  or  greatest.  "  His 
restless  energies,"  says  Alford,5  "  are  still  at  work;  but  those  energies  have  changed  their 
complexion ;  they  have  passed  from  the  dialectic  character  of  his  earlier  Epistles, 
from  the  wonderful  capacity  of  intricate  combined  rationalism  of  his  subsequent  Epistles, 
to  the  urging,  and  repeating,  and  dilating  upon  truths  which  have  been  the  food  of 
his  life ;  there  is  a  resting  on  former  conclusions,  a  constant  citation  of  the  temporis  acti, 
which  lets  us  into  a  most  interesting  phase  of  the  character  of  the  great  Apostle.  Wo 
see  here  rather  the  succession  of  brilliant  sparks  than  the  steady  flame  ;  burning  words 
indeed  and  deep  pathos,  but  not  the  flower  of  his  firmness  as  in  his  discipline  of  tho 
Galatians ;  not  the  noon  of  his  bright,  warm  eloquence,  as  in  the  inimitable  Psalm  of 
Love."6 

But  in  what  way  does  this  invalidate  their  authenticity  ?  Wo  entirely  dissent  from 
Baur's  exaggerated  depreciation  of  then*  value  ;  if  we  admitted  that  they  were  as  meagre 
of  contents,  as  colourless  in  treatment,  as  deficient  in  motive  and  connexion,  as  full  of 
monotony,  repetition,  and  dependence,  as  he  asserts — what  then?  Must  a  writer  be  always 
at  his  greatest  ?  Does  not  the  smallest  knowledge  of  literary  history  prove  at  once  that 
writers  are  liable  to  extraordinary  variations  of  literary  capacity  ?  Do  not  their  shorter 
and  less  important  works  offer  in  many  cases  a  most  singular  contrast  to  their  more 
elaborate  compositions  ?  Are  all  the  works  of  Plato  of  equal  value  ?  Do  we  find  in  the 
Epinomis  the  grandeur  and  profundity  which  mark  the  Phaedo  and  the  Tkeaetetus  f  Is 
the  Leges  as  rich  in  stylo  as  the  Phaedrus  ?  Is  there  no  difference  in  manner  between  the 
Annals  of  Tacitus  and  the  dialogue  De  Oratoribusf  Was  it  the  same  hand  which  wrote 

»  Paul.  ii.  101. 

*  Davidson  freely  admits  that  "there  Is  no  great  difficulty  In  supposing  that  he  read  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  written  in  Paul's  name,  and  remembered  some  of  their  expressions "  (Introd. 
ii.  181). 

3  Admitting  that  "  pseudonymity  and  literary  deception  "  were  regarded  in  antiquity  as  very 
different  things,  I  would  willingly  avoid  the  word  "forger  "  if  there  were  auy  other  convenient  word 
which  could  be  substituted  for  it.  I  quite  concede  to  Do  Wette,  Schloiermacher,  Baur,  &c.,  that 
the  word  connotes  much  more  than  it  ought  to  do,  as  applied  to  a  writer  of  the  first  two  centuries, 
and  that  "  the  forging  of  such  Epistles  must  not  be  judged  according  to  the  modern  standard  of 
literary  honesty,  but  according  to  the  spirit  of  antiquity,  which  attached  no  such  definite  value  as 
we  do  to  literary  property,  and  regarded  the  thing  much  more  than  the  person "  .(Baur,  Paul. 
U.  110).  *  Baur,  Paul.  ii.  100.  *  Greek  Ttst.  iii.  83.  6  1  Cor.  xiil 


GENUINENESS  OF  THE  PASTOBAL  EPISTLES.  745 

Love's  Labour't  Lost  and  Hamlet?  Would  any  one  who  read  the  more  prosaic  parts  of  the 
Paradise  Regained  recognise  the  poet  of  the  first  or  sixth  books  of  the  Paradise  Lostf 
IB  the  style  of  Burke  in  the  Essay  on  the  Sublime  and  Beautiful  the  same  as  his  style  in 
the  Essay  on  the  French  Revolution  f  It  would  be  quite  superfluous  to  multiply 
instances.  If  it  be  asserted  that  the  Pastoral  Epistles  are  valueless,  or  unworthy  of 
their  author,  we  at  once  join  issue  with  the  objectors,  and,  Independently  of  our  own 
judgment,  we  say  that,  in  that  case,  they  would  not  have  deceived  the  critical  intuition 
of  centuries  of  thinkers,  of  whom  many  were  consummate  masters  of  literary  expression. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  merely  contended  that  the  style  lacks  the  verve  and  passion 
of  the  earlier  Epistles,  we  reply  that  this  is  exactly  what  we  should  expect.  Granted  that 
"  it  is  not  the  object  of  this,  as  of  preceding  Epistles,  to  develop  fully  some  essentially 
Pauline  idea  which  has  still  to  vindicate  itself,  and  on  which  the  Christian  consciousness  and 
life  are  to  be  formed,  but  rather  to  apply  the  contents  of  Christian  doctrine  to  practical  lifo 
in  its  varying  circumstances,"  we  reply  that  nothing  could  be  more  natural.  Granted 
that,  unlike  all  the  other  Epistles,  they  have  no  true  organic  development ;  that  they 
do  not  proceed  from  one  root-idea  which  penetrates  the  whole  contents,  and  binds  all 
the  inner  parts  in  an  inner  unity,  because  the  deeper  relations  pervade  the  outward  dis- 
connectedness ;  that  no  one  creative  thought  determines  their  contents  and  structure ; 
that  they  exhibit  no  genuine  dialectic  movement  in  which  the  thought  possesses 
sufficient  inherent  force  to  originate  all  the  stages  of  its  development ; J  granted,  I  say  — 
and  it  is  a  needlessly  large  concession — that  this  depth  of  conception,  this  methodical 
development,  this  dialectic  progress,  are  wanting  in  these  three  letters,  we  entirely 
refuse  to  admit  that  this  want  of  structural  growth  belies  their  Pauline  origin.  It  is 
little  short  of  absurd  to  suppose  that  every  one  of  St.  Paul's  letters — however  brief, 
however  casual,  however  private — must  have  been  marked  by  the  same  features  as  the 
Epistles  to  the  Romans  or  the  Galatians.  I  venture  to  say  that  every  objection  of  this 
kind  falls  at  once  to  the  ground  before  the  simple  observation  of  the  fact  that  these  were 
not  grand  and  solemn  compositions  dealing  with  the  great  problems  which  were  rending 
the  peace  of  the  assembled  Churches  before  which  they  would  be  read,  but  ordinary 
private  letters,  addressed  by  an  elder  and  a  superior  to  friends  whom  he  had  probably 
known  from  early  boyhood,  and  who  were  absolutely  familiar  with  the  great  main 
features  of  his  teaching  and  belief.  Add  the  three  circumstances  that  one  of  them  waa 
written  during  the  cruel  imprisonment  in  which  his  life  was  drawing  to  its  close ;  that 
they  were  probably  written  by  his  own  hand,  and  not  with  the  accustomed  aid  of  an 
amanuensis ; 2  and  that  they  were  certainly  written  in  old  age, — and  we  shall  at  once  see 
how  much  there  is  which  explains  the  general  peculiarities  of  their  style,  especially  in 
its  want  of  cohesion  and  compression.  There  are  in  these  Epistles  inimitable  indications 
that  we  are  reading  the  words  of  an  old  man.  There  is  neither  senility  nor  garrulity, 
but  tliore  is  the  dignity  and  experience  which  marks  thejttcwrtda  senectua.3  The  digres- 
siveness  becomes  more  diffuse,  the  generalities  more  frequent,  the  repetitions  more 
observable.4  Formulae  are  reiterated  with  an  emphasis  which  belongs  less  to  the 
necessities  of  the  present  than  to  the  reminiscences  of  the  past.  Divergences  into 
personal  matters,  when  he  is  writing  to  Timothy,  who  had  so  long  been  his  bosom  com- 
panion, become  more  numerous  and  normal.5  And  yet  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that  a 

1  Baur,  Paul.  ii.  107. 

»  The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  and  the  concluding  doxology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  wera 
also  autographic  ;  and  Dean  Alford— than  whom  few  men  have  ever  been  more  closely  acquainted 
with  the  style  of  the  Apostle  in  all  its  peculiarities — has  pointed  out  a  series  of  resemblances  between 
these  writings  and  the  Pastoral  Epistles  (Greek  Test.  iii.  86). 

*  Even  when  he  wrote  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  he  calls  himself  Paul  the  Aged,  and  he  had  gone 
through  much  since  then.   Supposing  him  to  have  been  converted  at  the  age  of  thirty,  he  would  now 
have  been  nearly  sixty,  and  could  hardly  have  seemed  otherwise  than  aged,  considering  the  illnesses 
and  trials  which  had  shattered  a  weak  and  nervous  frame. 

*  ITim.  i.15;  ii.  4— 6  ;  UL  16,  &c. ;  2 Tim.  I.  9;  ii.  11— 18 ;  Tit.  i  M;  U.  11;  iii.  8»£c.  £«. 

*  1  Tim.  L  11,  «aa.;  2  Tim.  i.  11,  seqq.;  lft>  «<'</<<•;  iv.  0,  «;.•>,       - 

26 


746  APPENDIX. 

Paul  is  still  the  writer.  There  are  Sashes  of  the  deepest  feeling,  outbursts  of  the  most 
intense  expression.  There  is  rhythmic  movement  and  excellent  majesty  in  the  doxo- 
1  logics,  and  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  pastor  is  drawn  not  only  with  an  unfaltering  hand,  but 
'with  a  beauty,  fulness,  and  simplicity,  which  a  thousand  years  of  subsequent  experience 
have  enabled  no  one  to  equal,  much  less  to  surpass.  In  these  Epistles  direct  logical 
controversy  is  to  a  great  extent  neglected  as  needless.  All  that  the  Apostle  had  to  say 
In  the  way  of  such  reasoning  had  probably  been  said  to  his  correspondents,  in  one  form 
or  other,  again  and  again.  For  them,  as  entrusted  with  the  supervision  of  important 
Christian  communities,  it  was  needless  to  develop  doctrines  with  which  they  were 
familiar.  It  was  far  more  necessary  to  warn  them  respecting  the  fatal  moral  tendencies 
in  which  heresies  originated,  and  the  fatal  moral  aberrations  in  which  they  too  often 
issued. 

And  while  we  are  on  this  subject  of  style,  how  much  is  there  which  we  must  at  once 
see  to  be  favourable  to  the  authenticity  of  these  writings  I    Take  the  First  Epistle  to 
Timothy  alone,  which  is  more  seriously  attacked  than  the  other  two,  and  which  is 
supposed  to  drag  down  its  companions  by  the  evidence  of  its  spuriousness.     Do  we  not 
find  in  it  abundant  traces  of  a  familiar  style  ?    Is  it  even  conceivable  that  a  forger  would 
have  actually  begun  with  an  anakolutlwn  or  unfinished  construction?    Such  sentences 
abound  in  the  style  of  St.  Paul,  and  to  imitate  them  with  perfect  naturalness  would  be 
no  easy  task.      But  even  supposing  the  possibility  of  imitation,  would  a  forger  have 
started  off  with  one  ?     Again,  it  would  be  very  easy  to  caricature  or  clumsily  imitate  the 
digressive  manner  which  we  have  attributed  to  familiarity  and  age ;  but  to  reproduce  it 
so  simply  and  naturally  as  it  here  appears  would  require  supreme  literary  accomplish- 
ment.    Would  an  imitator  have  purposely  diverged  from  St.  Paul's  invariable  salutation 
by  the  insertion  of  "  mercy"  between  " grace  "  and  " peace  "  ?    It  is  easy  to  understand 
on  psychological  grounds  that  St.  Paul  might  call  himself  "  the  chief  of  sinners  "  (i.  15) ; 
but  would  a  devoted  follower  have  thus  written  of  him  ?    Would  he  purposely  and  con- 
,  tinuatty  have  lost  the  main  thread  of  his  subject  as  at  ii.  3,  7  ?    A  writer  with  a  firm  grasp 
'  of  truths  which  he  knows  to  be  complementary  to  each  other  would  never  hesitate  at  any 
merely  apparent  contradiction  of  his  previous  opinions ;  still  less  would  he  hesitate  to 
modify  those  opinions  in  accordance  with  circumstances ;  but  would  a  forger  have  been 
so  bold  as  apparently  to  contradict  in  ii.  15  what  St.  Paul  had  taught  in  1  Cor.  vii.  ? 
Would  he  be  skilful  enough  to  imitate  the  simple  and  natural  manner  in  which,  more 
than  once,  the  Apostle  has  resumed  his  Epistle  after  seeming  to  be  on  the  point  of  ending 
it,  as  at  iii.  14, 15  ?    St.  Paul,  like  most  supremely  noble  writers,  is  quite  indifferent  to 
confusion  of  metaphors ;  but  would  an  imitator  be  likely  to  follow  him  with  such  lordly 
indifference  as  at  vi.  19  ?    In  writing  to  familiar  friends,  nothing  is  more  natural  than  the 
perfectly  casual  introduction  of  minute  and  unimportant  particulars.     There  is  nothing 
like  this  in  St.  Paul's  other  letters,  not  even  in  that  to  Philemon,  and  therefore  a  forger 
would  have  had  no  model  to  copy.     How  great  a  literary  artist,  then,  must  have  been  the 
forger  who — writing  with  some  theory  of  inspiration,  and  under  the  shadow  of  a  great 
name,  and  with  special  objects  in  view — could  furnish  accidental  minutiae  so  natural,  sa 
interesting,  and  even  so  pathetic  as  that  in  1  Tim.  v.  23,  or  introduce,  by  way  of  precaution, 
such  particulars — "unexampled  in  the  Apostle's  other  writings,  founded  on  no  incident, 
tending  to  no  result" — as  the  direction  to  Timothy  to  bring  with  him  to  Rome  "the 
cloak  which  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus,  and  the  books,  especially  the  parchments."    It 
§eems  to  me  that  forgery,  even  under  the  dominant  influence  of  one  impressive  personality 
and  one  supreme  idea,  is  by  no  means  the  extraordinarily  easy  and  simple  thing  which  it 
appears  to  be  to  the  adherents  of  the  Tubingen  criticism.     It  is  a  comparatively  simple 
matter  to  pass  off  imitations  of  a  Clemens  Komanus  or  an  Ignatius,  but  it  is  hardly  likely 
that  the  world  would  be  long  deceived  by  writings  palmed  off  upon  it  as  those  of  a  Milton 
—•till  less  of  a  St.  Paul. 


GENUINENESS   OP  THE  PABTOBAL  EPISTLES.  747 

(2)  It  ia  said  they  abound  in  unusual,  isolated,  and  un-Pauliue  expressions.     Among 
'these  are  "It  is  a  faithful  saying,"1  "piety,5'  and  "piously"  (cvo-e'/Seia,  ev<«/Jw«),  found 
i  eight  times  in  these  Epistles,  and  nowhere  else  except  in  2  Pet.  ;2  the  metaphor  of 

"  wkolesomeness  "  (i/yirj?,  vyuuVeiv),  applied  to  doctrines  nine  times  in  these  Epistles,  and 
not  elsewhere  ;3  the  use  of  &t<nr6rrit  "  Lord  "  for  Kvpivt  "  master  " ; 4  the  use  of  apvct<r0a  "  to 
[deny  "  for  the  renunciation  of  true  doctrine ;  and  of  iropatTeio-flai  "  to  avoid,"  of  which  the 
latter  is,  however,  used  by  Paul  in  his  speech  before  Festus,  and  which,  as  well  as 
irpoae'xeiv,  with  a  dative  in  the  sense  of  "attend  to,"  he  very  probably  picked  up  in  inter- 
course with  St.  Luke,  to  whom  both  words  are  familiar.5  No  one,  I  think,  will  be 
seriously  startled  by  these  unusual  phrases,  nor  will  they  shake  our  belief  in  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  Epistles  when  we  recall  that  there  is  not  a  single  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  in  which 
these  hapax  legomena,  or  isolated  expressions,  do  not  abound.  Critics  who  have  searched 
minutely  into  the  comparative  terminology  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  tell  us 
there  are  no  less  than  111  peculiar  terms  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  186  in  the  two 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians,  57  and  54  respectively  in  the  short  Epistles  to  the  Galatians 
and  Philippians,  6  even  in  the  few  paragraphs  addressed  to  Philemon.  It  is  not  therefore 
in  the  least  degree  surprising  that  there  should  be  74  in  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy,  67 
in  the  Second,  and  13  in  that  to  Titus.  Still  less  shall  we  be  surprised  when  we  examine 
them.  St.  Paul,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  the  main  creator  of  theological  language. 
In  the  Pastoral  Epistles  he  is  dealing  with  new  circumstances,  and  new  circumstances 
would  inevitably  necessitate  new  terms.  Any  one  who  reads  the  list  of  unusual  expres- 
sions in  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  will  see  at  once  that  the  large  majority  of  them  are 
directly  connected  with  the  new  form  of  error  with  which  St.  Paul  had  recently  been 
called  upon  to  deal.  Men  who  are  gifted  with  a  vivid  power  of  realisation  are  peculiarly 
1  liable  to  seize  upon  fresh  phrases  which  embody  their  own  thoughts  and  convictions,  and 
these  phrases  are  certain  to  occur  frequently  at  particular  periods  of  their  lives,  and  to  be 
varied  from  time  to  time.6  This  is  simply  a  matter  of  psychological  observation,  and  is 
quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the  expressions  we  have  mentioned,  and  many  more.  We 
can  have  little  conception  of  the  plasticity  of  language  at  its  creative  epoch,  and  we  must 
never  forget  that  St.  Paul  had  to  find  the  correct  and  adequate  expression  for  conceptions 
which  as  yet  were  extremely  unfamiliar.  Every  year  would  add  to  the  vocabulary, 
•which  must  at  first  have  been  more  or  less  tentative,  and  the  harvest  of  new  expressions 
would  always  be  most  rich  where  truths,  already  familiar,  were  brought  into  collision 
with  heresies  altogether  new.  The  list  of  hapax  legomena  in  the  note  7  are  all  due,  not  to 
the  difference  of  authorship,  but  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times. 

(3)  It  would  be  a  much  more  serious — it  would  indeed  be  an  all  but  fatal— objection 
to  the  authenticity  of  these  Epistles,  if  it  could  be  proved  that  their  theology  differs  from 
that  of  Paul.    But  a  very  little  examination  will  show  that  there  is  no  such  contradiction 

»  Tim.  1. 15;  ill.  1 ;  iv.  9;  2Tim.  11. 11  ;  Tit  ffl.  8. 

*l\  Tim.  ii.  2  ;  iii.  16 ;  iv.  7  ;  vi.  11 ;  2  Tim.  iii.  5,  12 ;  Tit.  t.  1 ;  ii  12.  Pfleiderer  suggests  that 
this  word  ruo-e'/Seia  may  have  been  taken  as  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  Christian  holy  life  as  the 
word  "  faith  "  became  gradually  externalised. 

s  1  Tim.  i.  10  ;  vi.  3,  4 ;  2  Tim.  i.  13  ;  iv.  3 ;  Tit.  1.  9, 13  ;  ii.  1,  8.  And,  as  a  natural  antithesis, 
yoyvpoiva  and  vo&tiv  are  applied  to  false  doctrine.  *  1  Tim.  vi.  1,  2  ;  2  Tim.  ii.  21 ;  Tit.  ii.  9. 

*  Alford,  l.c.    Can  the  use  of  8e<riror>j«  instead  of  xvpiof  be  due  to  the  literary  inconvenience 
which  was  gradually  felt  to  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  latter  word  was  more  and  more  incessantly 
employed  as  the  title  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? 

•  I  feel  convinced  that  the   Tubingen  methods  applied  to  the  writings  of  Mr.  Carlyle  (for 
instance)  or  Mr.  Ruskin,  would  prove  in  the  most  triumphant  manner  that  some  of  their  writings 
were  forgeries  (a)  from  their  resemblance  to,  (/S)  from  their  dissimilarity  from,  their  other  writings. 
But  as  Dean  Alford  happily  says,  "  In  a  fresh  and  vigorous  style  there  will  ever  be  (so  to  speak) 
librations  over  any  rigid  limits  of  habitude  which  can  be  assigned  ;  and  such  are  to  be  judged  of, 
not  by  their  mere  occurrence  or  number,  but  by  their  subjective  character  being  or  not  being  in 
accordance  with  the  writer's  well-known  characteristics  "  (Test.  iii.  54). 

1  yeveoAoyicu,  1  Tim.  i.  4,  Tit.  iii.  9 ;  ^aratoXoyos,  IJTim.  i.  6,  Tit  i.  10  ;  Myo^tmat,  1  Tim.  vL 
80,  2  Tim.  ii.  16  ;  A.oyofiox«M,  irapaftjoj,  /3c'/37)Ao$,  o.<rro\<iv,  rv<£ov(7tf<u  ;  &a  .  . 


748  APPENDIX. 

—nothing  beyond  the  varying  expression  of  truths  which  complement  but  do  not  con- 
tradict each  other.  Some,  indeed,  of  the  alleged  discrepancies  are  too  shadowy  to  grasp. 
If  Christianity  be  described  as  "the  doctrine,"  and  as  "sound  doctrine";  l  if  the  word 
"  faith  "  has  acquired  a  more  objective  significance,  so  as  sometimes  almost  to  imply  a 
body  of  truths  as  opposed  to  heresy;2  if  the  name  "Saviour" — rare  in  St.  Paul — be 
applied  to  God,  and  not  to  Christ ; 3  if  "  Palingenesia  "  (regeneration)  occurs  only  in  the 
Epistle  to  Titus ; 4  these  are  peculiarities  of  language,  not  differences  of  theology.  There 
is  a  dominant  practical  tendency  in  these  Epistles; — so  there  is,  we  reply,  in  all  St.  Paul's 
Epistles.  The  value  and  blessedness  of  good  works  is  incessantly  insisted  on  ;5 — is  this,  then, 
to  be  stigmatised  as  "utilitarianism  and  religious  eudsemonism,"  and  a  decided  pietistic 
attenuation  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  ?  Are  they  not,  then,  insisted  on  even  in  the  Epistles 
to  the  Romans  and  Galatians,  though  there  he  is  developing  a  theory,  and  here  he  is 
professedly  occupied  with  moral  instructions?  Will  any  one  attempt  to  prove  that 
St.  Paul,  either  in  these  Epistles  or  elsewhere,  held  any  other  view  of  good  works  than 
this — that  they  are  profitless  to  obtain  salvation,  but  are  morally  indispensable  ? 8  De 
Wette's  further  objection,  that  St.  Paul  here  makes  an  apology  for  the  Law  (1  Tim.  L  8), 
and  his  attempt  to  draw  a  subtle  distinction  between  the  universalism  of  these  Epistles 
and  of  the  other  Pauline  writings,  deserve  no  serious  refutation.  St.  Paul's  method 
and  object  are  here  wholly  unlike  those  of  his  Epistles  to  Churches  composed  of  hetero- 
geneous and  often  of  hostile  elements ;  but  it  may  be  asserted,  beyond  all  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, that,  bearing  in  mind  the  non-  theoretical  treatment  of  the  points  on  which 
i  he  here  touches,  and  the  fact  that  he  is  writing  to  friends  and  disciples  already  absolutely 
convinced  of  the  main  truths  of  his  theology,  there  is  not  one  word  in  these  Epistles 
which  either  contradicts  or  seriously  differs  from  the  fundamental  ideas  of  St.  Paul. 
Even  Baur — candid,  with  all  his  hypercritical  prejudices — only  sees  in  them  "  a  certain 
something  of  the  specific  Pauline  doctrine  with  a  dominant  practical  tendency,"  an 
"applying  of  the  contents  of  Christian  doctrine  to  the  various  circumstances  of  practical 
life.  "7 

:  (4)  It  is  not,  however,  on  the  above  grounds  that  the  Pastoral  Epistles  have  been 
most  seriously  attacked.  The  considerations  which  we  have  here  seen  to  be  untenable 
are  really  due  to  after-thoughts ;  and  the  assaults  on  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistles 
have  mainly  risen  from  the  belief  that  they  are  "tendency-writings,"  meant  to  serve  the 
twofold  object  of  magnifying  ecclesiastical  organisation  and  of  covertly  attacking  a 
Gnosticism  which  was  not  prevalent  till  long  after  the  Apostle's  time.  The  two  subjects 
are  by  no  means  disconnected.  The  Gnostics,  it  is  said — as  the  first  heretics  properly 
so  called — gave  occasion  for  the  episcopal  constitution  of  the  Church ;  and  if  there  were 
no  such  heretics  at  that  time,  then  these  ecclesiastical  arrangements  will  be  devoid  of  any 
historical  occasion  or  connexion  1  I  have  sought  the  strongest  and  fullest  statements  of 
these  objections,  and  shall  try  to  express  the  reasons  why  they  appear  to  me  to  be  most 
absolutely  groundless.  I  quite  freely  admit  that  there  are  some  remarkable  peculiarities 
in  these  Epistles ;  I  do  not  deny  that  they  suggest  some  difficulties  of  which  we  can  give 
no  adequate  explanation  ;  I  cannot  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  objections  brought  against 
them  are  "not  adequate  even  to  raise  a  doubt  on  the  subject  of  their  authenticity ;  "  but 
for  these  very  reasons  I  can  say,  with  all  the  deeper  sincerity,  that,  whatever  minor 

i  1  Tim.  1. 10 ;  vi.  1. 

»  1  Tim.  L  19 ;  li.  7 ;  iiL  9 ;  iv.  1—6 ;  yi.  10,  21.    Pfleiderer,  Paulinism,  ii.  201 

8  Pfleiderer  says  that  In  Tit.  ii.  13  Christ  is  called  "  our  great  God  and  Saviour,"  and  that  "  this 
goes  beyond  all  the  previous  Christology  of  St.  Paul."  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  phrase  is 
applied  to  God  in  this  place,  as  also  in  1  Tim.  i.  1 ;  li.  3  ;  iv.  10 ;  Tit.  i.  3 ;  ii.  10.  The  anarthrous- 
ness  of  2o>ri)p  is  no  valid  grammatical  objection.  «  Tit.  iii.  6. 

*  Baur,  Paid.  ii.  106 ;  De  Welte,  PastordUtr.  117,  c. ;  Pfleiderer,  Paulinism,  210 ;  Beuss,  La 
Epitres,  ii.  314.  «  Bom.  ii.  6—10  ;  xiii.  3 ;  GaL  v.  6,  &c. ;  Eph.  ii.  8—10,  &c. 

i  Paul.  ii.  107.  It  is  the  view  of  some  hostile  critics  that  the  Asiatic  Epistles  (Eph.  and  Col.) 
are  Pauline  with  mi-Pauline  Interpolations ;  and  the  Pastoral  Epistles  un-1'uuliue,  yet  containing 
Pauline  matter. 


GENUINENESS  OF  THH  PASTORAL  EPISTLES  749 

hesitations  and  doubts  may  remain  unremoved,  the  main  arguments  of  those  who  reject 
the  Epistles  have — even  without  regard  to  other  elements  of  external  testimony  and 
internal  evidence  In  their  favour — been  fairly  met  and  fairly  defeated  all  along  the 
lino. 

(a)  Let  us  first  consider  the  question  of  ecclesiastical  organisation.  And  here  we  are 
at  once  met  with  the  preliminary  and  fundamental  objection  of  Baur,  that  in  the  Epistles 
which  supply  us  with  the  surest  standard  of  St.  Paul's  principles  he  never  betrays  the 
slightest  interest  in  ecclesiastical  institutions,  not  even  when  they  might  be  thought  to 
lie  directly  in  his  way ;  and  that  this  want  of  interest  in  such  things  is  not  merely 
accidental,  but  founded  deep  in  the  whole  spirit  and  character  of  Pauline  Christianity. 

But  this  form  of  statement  is  invidious,  and  will  not  stand  a  moment's  examination. 
In  the  minutiae  of  ecclesiastical  institutions,  as  affected  by  mere  sectarian  disputes,  St. 
Paul  would  have  felt  no  interest ;  and  to  that  exaltation  of  human  ministers  which  has 
received  the  name  of  sacerdotalism — feeling  as  he  did  the  supreme  sufficiency  of  one 
Mediator — he  would  have  been  utterly  opposed.  It  is  very  probable  that  he  would  have 
treated  the  differences  between  Presbyterianism  and  Episcopacy  as  very  secondary 
questions — questions  of  expediency,  of  which  the  settlement  might  lawfully  differ  in 
different  countries  and  different  times.  But  to  say  that  he  would  have  considered  it 
superfluous  to  give  directions  about  the  consolidation  of  nascent  Churches,  and  would 
have  had  no  opinion  to  offer  about  the  duties  and  qualifications  of  ministers,  is  surely 
preposterous.  It  is,  moreover,  contradicted  by  historic  facts.  His  tours  to  confirm  the 
Churches,  his  solemn  appointment  of  presbyters  with  prayers  and  fastings  in  his  very 
first  missionary  journey,1  and  his  summons  to  the  Ephesian  presbyters,  that  they  might 
receive  his  last  advice  and  farewell,  would  be  alone  sufficient  to  prove  that  such  matters 
did — as  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  they  should — occupy  a  large  part  of  his  attention. 
Are  we  to  suppose  that  he  gave  no  pastoral  instructions  to  Timothy  when  he  sent  him 
to  the  Churches  of  Macedonia,  or  to  Titus  when  he  appointed  him  a  sort  of  commissioner 
to  regulate  the  disorders  of  the  Church  of  Corinth? 

It  is  true  that  the  pseudo-Clementines,  the  Apostolical  constitutions,  parts  of  the 
letters  of  Ignatius,  and  in  all  probability  other  early  writings,  were  forged,  with  the 
express  object  of  giving  early  and  lofty  sanction  to  later  ecclesiastical  development,  and 
above  all  to  the  supposed  primacy  of  Rome.  But  what  could  be  more  unlike  such 
developments  than  the  perfectly  simple  and  unostentatious  arrangements  of  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  ?  In  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  counter-growth  of  error, 
the  establishment  of  discipline  and  government  would  almost  from  the  first  become  a 
matter  of  pressing  exigency.  Even  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and  Romans  we 
find  terms  that  imply  the  existence  of  deacons,  deaconesses,  teachers,  prophets,  apostles, 
rulers,  overseers  or  presbyters,  and  evangelists;  and  a  comparison  of  the  passages 
referred  to  will  show  that  all  these  names,  with  the  exception  of  the  first,2  were  used 
vaguely,  and  to  a  certain  extent  even  synonymously,  or  as  only  descriptive  of  different 
aspects  of  the  same  office.8  If  the  imposition  of  hands  is  alluded  to  in  the  Epistles  to 
Timothy,  so  it  is  in  the  Acts.4  The  notion  that  a  formal  profession  of  faith  was  required 
at  ordination  so  little  results  from  2  Tim.  i.  13  that  the  very  next  verse  is  sufficient  to 
disprove  such  a  meaning.  If  the  Pastoral  Epistles  contained  a  clear  defence  of  the 
episcopal  system  of  the  second  century,  this  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  prove  their 
spuriousness ;  but  the  total  absence  of  anything  resembling  it  is  one  of  the  strongest 
proofs  that  they  belong  to  the  Apostolic  age.  Bishop  and  presbyter  are  still  synonyms, 

i  Acts  Jdv.  23. 

»  1  Cor.  xii.  28;  xvi.  15 ;  Rom.  xii.  7;  xvl.  1 ;  PhlL  1. 1 ;  1  Thess.  V.  12;  Eph.  iv.  11 ;  Acts  x*. 
17,  28. 

3  To  a  certain  extent,  indeed,  the  overseers,  presbyters,  and  deacons,  in  their  purely  official 
wpect,  corresponded  to  the  Sheliach,  the  RosJi  ha-Kcneseth,  the  Chazzan  of  the  synagogue, 

«  1  Tim.  iv.  14 ;  v.  22 :  Acts  vi.  6  ;  viii.  17. 


£50  APPENDIX. 

as  they  are  throughout  the  New  Testament.1  If  em<TKOjros,  "overseer,"  or  "bishop"  be 
used  in  the  singular,  this  is  partly  an  accident  of  language  in  the  common  generic  use  of 
the  Greek  article,  and  partly  arises  from  the  very  nature  of  things  as  a  transitional  stage 
to  the  ultimate  meaning  of  the  word — since,  even  in  a  presbytery,  it  is  inevitable  that 
some  one  presbyter  should  take  the  lead.  Timothy  and  Titus  exercise  functions  which 
would  be  now  called  episcopal ;  but  they  are  not  called  "bishops" ;  their  functions  were 
temporary ;  and  they  simply  act  as  authoritative  delegates  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.3 
Nor  is  there  any  trace  of  exalted  pretensions  in  the  overseers  whom  they  appoint.  The 
qualifications  required  of  them  are  almost  exclusively  moral.  The  directions  given  are 
"ethical,  not  hierarchical."  And  yet  it  is  asserted  that  one  main  object  of  the  First 
Epistle  to  Timothy  is  "to  establish  the  primacy  of  the  bishops  as  against  the 
presbyters"!3  A  more  arbitrary  statement  could  hardly  be  formulated.  Let  any  one 
turn  from  the  Epistle  to  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius,4  where  he  will  read,  "Give  heed  to 
the  bishop,  that  God  also  may  give  heed  to  you ; "  to  the  pseudo-Ignatius,5  who  tells  us 
that  "  he  who  doeth  anything  without  the  knowledge  of  the  bishop  serveth  the  devil "  ;- 
to  the  pseudo-Clementines,  which  say  that  "  the  bishop  occupies  the  seat  of  Christ,  and 
must  be  honoured  as  the  image  of  God  ; " 6  and  he  will  see  how  glaring  is  the  anachronism 
of  supposing  that  it  was  written  towards  the  middle  of  the  second  century  to  oppose  the 
Marcionites ;  and  how  utterly  different  is  the  mild  and  natural  authority  which  the 
Apostle  assigns  to  a  representative  presbyterate  from  that  "crushing  despotism"  of 
irresponsible  authority  for  which  the  writers  of  the  second  century  were  willing  to  betray 
their  Christian  liberty. 

We  will  consider  the  minor  objections  on  this  head  when  we  come  to  the  actual 
passages  to  which  exception  is  taken,  and  especially  the  difficult  expression  in  which  the 
Church  is  apparently  called  "  a  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth.  "1  But  another  ground 
of  objection  is  the  rules  about  widows,  which,  as  Baur  asserts,  "  can  only  be  successfully 
explained  out  of  the  ecclesiastical  vocabulary  of  the  second  century,"  in  which  the  term 
xijpai  is  applied  to  an  order  consisting  not  only  of  bereaved  persons  but  even  of  young 
virgins.8  That  this  use  of  the  word  did  not  arise  in  the  Apostle's  time  may  be  fairly 
assumed,  but  if  there  be  not  one  single  fact  in  the  passage  referred  to  which  makes  this 
necessary,  the  objection  falls  to  the  ground.  Baur's  only  argument  is  that  if  x^Pat  be 
actual  widows,  the  Apostle  gives  two  directly  contradictory  precepts  about  them, 
bidding  the  younger  widows  to  marry  again  (1  Tim.  v.  11 — 14),  and  yet  ordering  that  a 
second  marriage  is  to  exclude  them,  should  they  again  become  widows,  from  the  viduatus 
of  the  Church.  But  where  is  the  contradiction  ?  We  learn  from  the  Acts  that  the 
Church  continued  the  merciful  and,  indeed,  essential  custom,  which  it  had  learnt  from 
the  synagogue,  of  maintaining  those  widows,  who  from  the  circumstances  of  Eastern  and 
ancient  society  were  its  most  destitute  members,  and  whose  helpless  condition  constituted 
a  special  appeal  to  pity.  But  it  was  only  natural  that  each  Church  should  try  as  far  as 

1  Thus  in  1  Tim.  ill.  St.  Paul  passes  at  once  from  "  bishops  "  (1 — 7)  to  "  deacons  "  (8—13),  and 
afterwards  speaks  of  these  same  bishops  as  "presbyters"  (v.  17—19),  and  in  Tit.  i.  6 — 7  the  identi- 
fication is  indisputable.  No  one  is  ignorant  that  "  bishops  "  and  "  presbyters  "  are  in  the  New 
Testament  identical  (Acts  xx.  17—28 ;  Phil.  LI;  1  Pet.  v.  2).  The  fact  was  well  known  to  the 

Fathers,  ot  irpea/Surepoi.  TO  TroAaibi/  (KaXovvro  iiriawmii     .     .     .     KOJ.  01  eiriVxoTroi  irpe<rf)vTCpoi  (Clirys. 

ad  Phil.  i.  1 ;  Jer.  ad  Tit.  i.  5).    The  more  marked  distinction  of  the  two  is  first  found  in  Ignatius 
ad  Polyc.  6.  »  1  Tim.  1.  3 ;  iii.  14  ;  2  Tim.  iv.  9,  21 ;  Tit.  i.  5  ;  iii.  12. 

*  Pfleiderer,  Faulinism,  ii.  205.    Yet  he  admits  (p.  203)  that  in  the  second  Epistle  the  remarks 
addressed  to  Timothy  are  "  very  far  removed  from  the  later  conceptions  of  the  exalted  condition  of 
a  bishop,"  and  that  even  in  the  first  Epistle  "  the  difference  between  bishops  and  presbyters  does 
not  appear  to  be  any  fixed  difference  of  officers." 

*  Ad  Polyc.  6.    If  the  shorter  form  of  the  seven  Ignatian  Epistles  be  genuine,  they  show  that 
even  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  the  ecclesiastical  development  was  so  far  in  advance  of 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  as  almost  to  demonstrate  the  genuineness  of  the  latter.  *  Ad  Smyrn.  9. 

*  Clem.  Horn.  iii.  62,  66,  70.    For  these  and  other  quotations  see  Dr.  Lightfoot'g  essay  on  the 
Christian  ministry  (Philippianf,  p.  209,  seqq.).  1  1  Tim.  iii.  15. 

1  rat  irapdlrovf  rat  Aryo^cVaf  xijpas  (Ign.  ad  Smyrn.  13).  The  genuineness  of  the  passage  i»  ta 
from  certain. 


GENUINENESS  OF  THE  PASTORAL  EPISTLES.  751 

possible  to  utilise  this  institution,  and  that  the  widows  should  themselves  desire  to  be 
serviceable  to  the  brethren  to  whom  they  owed  their  livelihood.  Hence  "  the  widows  " 
became  a  recognised  order,  and  acquired  a  semi-religious  position.  Into  this  order  St. 
Paul  wisely  forbids  the  admission  of  widows  who  are  still  of  an  age  to  marry  again.  Of 
the  female  character  in  general  and  in  the  abstract  he  does  not  ordinarily  speak  in  very 
exalted  terms,  and  in  this  respect  he  only  resembles  most  ancient  writers,  although,  in 
spite  of  surrounding  conditions  of  society,  he  sees  the  moral  elevation  of  tho  entire  sex 
in  Christ.  He  regarded  it  as  almost  inevitable  that  the  religious  duties  of  the  "order  of 
widows,"  although  they  involved  a  sort  of  consecration  to  celibacy  for  the  remainder  of 
their  lives,  would  never  serve  as  a  sufficient  barrier  to  their  wish  to  marry  again ;  and  he 
thought  that  moral  degeneracy  and  outward  scandal  would  follow  from  the  Intrusion  of 
such  motives  into  the  fulfilment  of  sacred  functions.  There  is  here  no  contradiction, 
and  not  the  shadow  of  a  proof  that  in  the  language  of  the  Epistle  there  must  be  any 
identification  of  widows  with  an  order  of  female  celibates  or  youthful  nuns.1 

(0)  We  now  come  to  the  last  objection,  which  is  by  far  the  strongest  and  most  per- 
sistent, as  it  is  also  the  earliest.  The  spuriousness  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  is  mainly 
asserted  on  the  ground  that  they  indicate  the  existence  of  a  Gnosticism  which  was  not 
fully  developed  till  after  the  death  of  St.  Paul.  A  more  extensive  theory  was  never 
built  on  a  more  unstable  foundation.3  The  one  word  antitheses  in  1  Tim.  vi.  20,  seemi 
to  Baur  a  clear  proof  that  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  is  a  covert  polemic  against  Marcion 
in  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  To  an  hypothesis  so  extravagant  it  is  a  more  than 
sufficient  answer  that  the  heretical  tendencies  of  the  false  teachers  were  distinctly 
Judaic,  whereas  there  was  not  a  single  Gnostic  system  which  did  not  regard  Judaism  aa 
either  imperfect  or  pernicious.  Objections  of  this  kind  can  only  be  regarded  as  fantastic 
until  some  proof  be  offered  (1)  that  the  germs  of  Gnosticism  did  not  exist  in  the  apostolio 
age ;  and  (2)  that  the  phrases  of  Gnosticism  were  not  borrowed  from  the  New  Testament, 
nor  those  of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Gnostic  systems.  Knowing  as  we  do  that 
"  jEon"  was  thus  borrowed  by  Valentinus,3  and  that  "  Gnosis"  was  beginning  to  acquire 
&  technical  meaning  even  when  St.  Paul  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,4  we  see 
that  on  the  one  hand  Gnostic  terms  are  no  proof  of  allusion  to  Gnostic  tenets,  and  on  the 
other,  that  Gnostio  tendencies  existed  undeveloped  from  the  earliest  epoch  of  the 
Christian  Church.  It  would  be  far  truer  to  say  that  the  absence  of  anything  like  definite 
allusion  to  the  really  distinctive  elements  of  Marcionite  or  Valentinian  teaching  is  a 
decisive  proof  that  these  Epistles  belong  to  a  far  earlier  epoch,  than  to  say  that  they  are 
an  attempt  to  use  the  great  name  of  Paul  to  discountenance  those  subtle  heresies.  In 
the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  St.  Paul  had  dealt  formally  with  the  pretended  philosophy 
and  vaunted  insight,  the  incipient  dualism,  the  baseless  angelology,  and  the  exaggerated 
asceticism  of  local  heretics  whose  theosophio  fancies  were  already  prevalent.5  In  these 
Epistles  he  merely  touches  on  them,  because  in  private  letters  to  beloved  fellow- workers 
there  was  no  need  to  enter  into  any  direct  controversy  with  their  erroneous  teachings. 
But  he  alludes  to  these  elements  with  the  distinct  statement  that  they  were  of  Judaio 
•rigin.  Valentinus  rejected  the  Mosaic  law ;  Marcion  was  Antinomian ;  but  these 
Ephesian  and  Cretan  teachers,  although  their  dualism  is  revealed  by  their  ascetic 
discouragement  of  marriage,  their  denial  of  the  resurrection,  and  their  interminable 
"genealogies"  and  myths,6  are  not  only  Jews,  but  founded  their  subtleties  and  specula- 

!        i  1  Cor.  xlv.  34  ;  1  Tim.  li.  12—14  ;  2  Tim.  iii.  6  j  &c. 

1  Apparently  the  use  of  the  word  *nyofc6««MJUu>  in  1  Tim.  1.  3  as  compared  with  cTtpoji&urKoJUi 
In  Hegesippus  first  led  Schleiennacher  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  First  Epistle. 

*  Hippolytus  (R.  II.  vL  20)  tells  us  that  Valeutinus  gave  the  name  of  ^Eons  to  the  emanation! 
which  Simon  Magus  had  called  Boots. 

«  1  Cor.  viii.  1.  The  adjective  "  Gnostic  "  is  ascribed  to  the  Ophites,  or  to  Carpocratfls.  (Ira. 
Eaer.  i.  25 ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  7,  9.) 

*  See  Col.  i.  16, 17 ;  ii.  8, 18 ;  and  Hansel,  The  Gnostic  Heresies,  p.  54 

*  1  Tim.  i.  4;  ir.  4  ;  3  Tim.  ii.  18. 


752  APPENDIX. 

tiona  on  the  Mosaic  law.1  In  dealing  with  these  Paul  has  left  far  behind  him  tne  epoch 
of  his  struggle  with  the  Pharisaic  legalists  of  Jerusalem.  Thought  moves  with  vast 
rapidity ;  systems  are  developed  into  ever-varying  combinations  in  an  amazingly  short 
space  of  time,  at  epochs  of  intense  religious  excitement,  and  as  the  incipient  Gnosticism 
of  the  apostolic  age  shows  many  of  the  elements  which  would  hereafter  be  ripened  into 
later  development,  so  it  already  shows  the  ominous  tendency  of  restless  speculation  to 
degenerate  into  impious  pride,  and  of  over-strained  asceticism  to  link  itself  with  intoler- 
able license.2  These  are  speculations  and  tendencies  which  belong  to  no  one  country  and 
no  one  age.  Systems  and  ideas  closely  akin  to  Gnosticism  are  found  in  the  religions  and 
philosophies  of  Greece,  Persia,  India,  China,  Egypt,  Phoenicia ;  they  are  found  in  Plato, 
in  Zoroaster,  in  the  Vedas,  in  the  writings  of  the  Buddhists,  in  Philo,  in  neo- 
Platonism,  and  in  the  Jewish  Kabbalah.  In  all  ages  and  all  countries  they  have 
produced  the  same  intellectual  combinations  and  the  same  moral  results.  A  writer  of 
the  second  century  could  have  had  no  possible  object  in  penning  a  forgery  which  in  his 
day  was  far  too  vague  to  be  polemically  effective.3  On  the  other  hand,  an  apostle  of  the 
year  65  or  66,  familiar  with  Esseno  and  Oriental  speculations,  a  contemporary  of  Simon 
Magus  the  reputed  founder  of  all  Gnosticism,  and  of  Cerinthus,  its  earliest  heresiarch, 
might  have  had  reason — even  apart  from  divine  guidance  and  prophetic  inspiration — to 
•warn  the  disciples  to  whom  he  was  entrusting  the  care  and  constitution  of  his  Churches 
against  tendencies  which  are  never  long  dormant,  and  which  were  already  beginning  to 
display  a  dangerous  activity  and  exercise  a  dangerous  fascination.  If  there  is  scarcely  a 
warning  which  would  not  apply  to  the  later  Gnostics,  it  is  equally  true  that  there  is  not 
*  warning  which  would  not  equally  apply  to  errors  distinctly  reprobated  in  the  Epistles 
to  the  Philippians,  Corinthians,  and  Colossians,  as  well  as  to  the  Churches  addressed  by 
St.  Peter,  St.  Jude,  and  St.  John.4  Greek  subtleties,  Eastern  imagination,  Jewish 
mysticism — in  one  word,  the  inherent  curiosity  and  the  inherent  Manicheism  of  unre- 
generate  human  nature — began  from  the  very  first  to  eat  like  a  canker  into  the  opening 
bud  of  Christian  faith. 

Those  who  wish  to  see  every  possible  argument  which  can  be  adduced  against  the 
Pauline  authorship  of  these  Epistles,  may  find  them  marshalled  together  by  Dr.  Davidson 
in  the  latter  editions  of  his  "  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  New  Testament."5  To 
answer  them  point  by  point  would  be  tedious,  for  many  of  them  are  exceedingly 
minute ; '  nor  would  it  be  convincing,  for  critics  will  make  up  their  minds  on  the 
question  on  the  broader  and  larger  grounds  which  I  have  just  examined.  But  to  sum 
up,  I  would  say  that,  although  we  cannot  be  as  absolutely  certain  of  their  authenticity 
us  we  are  of  that  of  the  earlier  Epistles,  yet  that  scarcely  any  difficulty  in  accepting 
their  authenticity  will  remain  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  following  considerations.  (1)  In 
times  like  those  of  early  Christianity,  systems  were  developed  and  institutions  consoli- 
dated with  extraordinary  rapidity.  (2)  These  letters  were  written,  not  with  the  object 

i  1  Tim.  L  7 ;  Tit.  L  10, 14 ;  iii.  ». 

»  1  Tim.  i.  7, 19 ;  iv.  2 ;  2  Tim.  ii.  17 ;  111.  1—7 ;  Tit.  1. 11, 15, 16. 

•  The  vagueness  is  due  to  the  still  wavering  outlines  of  the  heretical  teachings.    The  "Gnos- 
tic-ism"  aimed  at  has  been  by  various  critics  Identified  with  Kabbalism  (Baumgorten) ;  with 
Pharisaism  (Wiesinger) ;  with  Esseuism  (Mangold) ;  with  Marcionism  (Baur)-— 
"It  shape  it  could  be  called  which  shape  had  none 
Distinguishable  in  vesture,  joint,  or  limb." 

But  whether  Gnosticism  be  regarded  as  theological  speculation  (Gleseler),  or  an  aristocratic  and 
exclusive  philosophy  of  religion  (Neander),  or  allegorising  dualism  (Baur),  if  "  it  is  still  an  accom- 
plished task  to  seize  amidst  so  much  that  Is  indefinite,  vogue,  merely  circumlocutory  and  only 
partly  true,  those  points  that  furnish  a  clear  conception  of  it,  then  it  is  clearly  idle  to  say  that  iti 
undeveloped  genius  cannot  have  existed  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 

«  PhD.  iii.  18 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  *  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  137—195. 

6  I  shall,  however,  touch  on  some  of  these  In  speaking  of  the  Epistles  separately.  It  has  been 
Baid  that  Paley  uses  the  discrepancies  between  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  to  prove  their  indepen- 
dence, and  the  agreements  to  establish  their  truthfulness.  It  may  certainly  be  said  that  the 
Tilbingen  school  adduces  un-Pauline  expressions  to  prove  non-authenticity,  and  Pauline  expression! 
to  prove  forgery. 


OHBONOLOOT   OF  THS   LIFE   OF  ST.    PAUL,  753 

of  entering  into  direct  controversy,  but  to  grade  the  general  conduct  of  those  on  whom 
that  duty  had  devolved,  and  who  were  already  aware  of  that  fixed  body  of  truth  which 
formed  the  staple  of  the  apostolic  teaching.  (3)  They  abound  in  unusual  expressions, 
because  new  forms  of  error  required  new  methods  of  stating  truth.  (4)  Their  unity  ia 
less  marked  and  their  style  less  logical,  because  they  are  the  private  and  informal 
letters  of  an  elder,  written  with  the  waning  powers  of  a  life  which  was  rapidly  passing 
beyond  the  sphere  of  earthly  controversies.  Pauline  in  much  of  their  phraseology, 
Pauline  in  their  fundamental  doctrines,  Pauline  in  their  dignity  and  holiness  of  tone, 
Pauline  alike  in  their  tenderness  and  severity,  Pauline  in  the  digressions,  the  construc- 
tions, and  the  personality  of  their  style,  we  may  accept  two  of  them  with  an  absolute 
conviction  of  their  authenticity,  and  the  third — the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy,  which  ia 
more  open  to  doubt  than  the  others — with  at  least  a  strong  belief  that  in  reading  it  we 
are  reading  the  words  of  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles.1 


EXCURSUS   XXVIII. 
CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  LIFE  AND  EPISTLES  OF  ST. 

To  enter  fully  into  the  chronology  of  this  period  would  require  a  separate  volume,  and 
although  there  is  now  an  increasing  tendency  to  unanimity  on  the  subject,  yet  some  of 
the  dates  can  only  be  regarded  as  approximate.  As  few  definite  chronological  indications 
are  furnished  in  the  Acts  or  the  Epistles,  we  can  only  frame  our  system  by  working 
backwards  and  forwards,  with  the  aid  of  data  which  are  often  vague,  from  the  few  points 
where  the  sacred. narrative  refers  to  some  distinct  event  in  secular  history.  These, 
which  furnish  us  with  our  pointt  de  repZre,  are — 

The  Death  of  Herod  Agrippa  I.,  A.D.  44. 
The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Rome,  A.D.  52. 
The  Arrival  of  Festus  as  Procurator,  A.D.  60. 
The  Neronian  Persecution,  A.D.  64. 

How  widely  different  have  been  the  schemes  adopted  by  different  chronologors  may  be 
seen  from  the  subjoined  table,  founded  on  that  given  by  Meyer. 

1  Even  Usteri,  Liicke,  Neander,  and  Bleek  are  unconvinced  of  the  authenticity  of  the  First 
Epistle.  Otto,  Wieseler,  and  Beuss  have  said  all  that  is  to  be  said  in  favour  of  a  single  captivity ; 
but  on  the  assumption  that  the  Pastoral  Epistles  are  genuine,  such  a  theory  forces  us  into  a  mass  of 
impossibilities.  The  conviction  at  which  I  have  arrived  may  be  summed  up  thus : — If  St.  Paul  was 
put  to  death  at  the  end  of  his  first  imprisonment,  the  Pastoral  Epistles  must  certainly  be  spurious. 
But  there  is  the  strongest  possible  evidence  that  two  of  them  at  least  are  genuine,  and  great 
probability  in  favour  of  the  other.  They  therefore  furnish  us  with  a  proof  of  the  current  tradition 
that  his  trial,  as  he  had  anticipated,  ended  in  an  acquittal,  and  that  a  period  of  about  two  yean 
elapsed  between  his  liberation  and  his  subsequent  arrest,  imprisonment,  and  death. 


754 


APPENDIX. 


EVENTS. 

^C 

jjt 
& 

Eusebius. 

Jerome. 

Chronlcon 
Paschale. 

Baronius. 

Petaviua. 

Usher. 

Spanhelm. 

£ 

Tillemont. 

P 

Ascension  of  Christ  

31 

33 

32 

31 

32 

31 

33 

33 

33 

33 

33 

Stephen  stoned    

33 
or 

34 

... 

... 

a. 

Claud. 
I. 

32 

31 

33 

38? 

34 

33 

37 

Paul's  conversion       

35 

... 

33 

a. 

Claud. 
II. 

34 

33 

35 

40 

85 

34 

37 

Paul's   first  journey  to") 
Jerusalem      ,..) 

38 

... 

... 

a. 
Claud. 
III. 

37 

36 

33 

43 

33 

37 

40 

Paul's  arrival  at  Antioch 

43 

... 

... 

a. 

Claud. 
IU. 

41 

40 

43 

43? 

42 

43 

40 

Death  of  Jamea   ...   

44 

... 

... 

... 

42 

41 

44 

... 

44 

44 

44 

The  famine    ...    ...    ...    ... 

44 

41 

44 

... 

42 

42 

44 

44 

44 

44 

42 

Paul's  second  journey  to  > 
Jerusalem      ) 

44 

... 

... 

46 

42 

41 

44 

44 

44 

44 

42 

Paul's   first    missionary") 

45 
to 

a. 

Claud. 

44 
to 

42 

45 
to 

... 

44 
to 

44 
to 

45 
to 

51 

V. 

47 

46 

47 

46 

47 

Paul's  third  journey  to~) 
Jerusalem,  to  the  Apos-  > 
tolic  convention   ) 

52 

... 

... 

... 

49 

49 

52 

53 

49 

51 

50 

Paul     commences     the") 
second  missionary  jour-  > 

62 

... 

... 

... 

19 

49 

53 

... 

50 

51 

50 

Banishment  of  the  Jews') 
from  Home     S 

52 

... 

49 

... 

49 

49 

54 

... 

52 

49 
to 
52 

51 

Paul  arrives  at  Corinth   ... 

53 

... 

... 

... 

60 

50 

54 

54? 

52 

52 

51 

Paul's  fourth  journey  to") 
Jerusalem  (al.  Caesarea)  > 
and  third  miss,  journey  ) 

65 

... 

... 

... 

52 

Cces 

52 

56 

54-? 

54 

54 

58 

Paul's  abode  at  Ephesus  ... 

56 
to 

58 

... 

... 

... 

53 
to 
55 

52 
to 
54 

56 
to 
59 

56 
to 

58 

54 
to 
57 

54 
to 

57 

53 
to 

55 

Paul's    fifth  journey  to) 
Jerusalem,  and  impri-  > 
sonment    ) 

59 

... 

53 
or 

51 

56 

55 

60 

59 

58 

58 

56 

Paul   is   removed  from") 
Caesarea  to  Borne      ...  y 

61 

55 

57 

under 
Nero. 

56 

56 

62 

60 

60 

60 

59 

Paul's  imprisonment  ol\ 
two  years'  in  Home    ...  S 

62 
or 
61 

... 

to  a 
Ner. 
IV. 

... 

57 
to 
59 

... 

63 
to 
65 

61 
to 
63 

61 
to 
63 

61 
to 
63 

60 
to 
62 

CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   PAUL. 


755 


1 
I 

MichaellB. 

Eichhorn. 

Kuinoel. 

Winer. 

De  Wette. 

Schrader. 

§ 

1 
o 

I 

Sanclpmentel 
and  Ideler. 

WIeseler. 

•e 

•a 

H 

Lechler. 

Wordsworth.] 

Alford. 

30 

33 

32 

33 

30? 

... 

35 

33 

31 

29 
Id. 

30 

33 

30 

30 

SO 

... 

37 

37 
or 
38 

37? 

35 

... 

37 

... 

39? 

38 

... 

33 

37 

31 

37? 

37 
or 
38 

40 

38? 

37 
or 
38 

39 

35 

38 

35 
or 
.38 

40 

38 

between 

37 

and 
41 

34 

37 

S3 

... 

40 
or 
41 

43 

41 

40 
or 
41 

42 

38 

41 

38 
or 
41 

43 

41 

... 

37 

40 

88 

... 

42 

... 

... 

43 
or 
44 

43 

41 

43 
or  44 
or  45? 

... 

44 

44 

... 

43 

41 

42 

about 
44 

44 

43 
or 
41 

44 

44 

44 

... 

43 
or 
44 

... 

44 

44 

... 

44 

44 

44 

44 
or 
45 

44 

44 

... 

... 

{44 
or 
45 
or 
46? 

45 

45 
to 
46 

between 
41 

and 

45 

44 

44 

41 
to 

44 

44 

44 

44 

45 

44 
or 
45 

44 

44 

44 

45 

45 
to 
46 

... 

44 

44 

45 
to 
46 

45 
ff. 

... 

... 

44 

to 
46 

to 

49 

to 

about 
48 

45 
to 
47 

48 
to 
51 

46 
to 

48 

45 

45 

47 

52 

52 

51 

50 
or 
51 

47 

52 

51 

52 

about 
50 

52 

... 

49 
to 

50 

50 

47 

53 

... 

51 
or 
52 

47 

52 

51 

about 
50 

52 

51 

51 

... 

54? 

54  i 

52 

52 

between 

52 

and 

54 

49 

... 

51 
or 
52 

52 

52 

... 

48 

54? 

aboui 
54 

52 

52 

52 
or 
53 

49 

53 

52 

52 

53 

53 

53 

49 

56 

C038 

54 

53 
or 
54 

51 

55 

54 

56 

54 

55 

54 
or 
55 

54 

54 

50 
to 

52 

57 
to 
59 

... 

55 
to 

57 

54 
or 
55ff 

51 
ff 

56 
and 
57 

54 
to 

57 

... 

54 
to 

57 

to 
58 

55 
to 

57 

54 
to 

57 

55 

53 

60 

60 

57 

58 

58 
or 
59 

59 

60 

58 

60 

58 

59 

58 

58 

58 

55 

62 

62 

59 

60 

60 
or 
61 

61 

62 

60 

62 

60 

61 

60 

61 

61 

56 
to 

58 

63 
to 
65 

63 
to 
65 

60 
to 
62 

61 
to 
63 

62 
to 
64 

62 
to 
64 

63 
to 
65 

61 
to 
63 

63 
to 
65 

61 
to 
61 

62 
to 
64 

62 
to 
64 

61 
to 
63 

61 
to 
63 

756 


APPENDIX. 


I  subjoin  a  separate  list  of  the  dates  of  the  Epistles  adopted  in  this  volume.  The 
reasons  are  stated  in  loco,  but  the  reader  will  understand  that  the  dates  in  some  instances 
can  only  be  approximate. 

DATES  OF  THE  EPISTLES. 


EPISTLE. 

WRITTEN  AT 

A.D. 

1  Thessalonians. 

Corinth. 

62. 

2  Thessalonians. 

Corinth. 

52. 

1  Corinthians. 

Ephesua. 

57. 

2  Corinthians. 

Philippi  (?). 

58  (early). 

Galatians. 

Corinth. 

68. 

Romans. 

Corinth. 

58. 

Philippians. 

Rome. 

61  or  6  2. 

Colossians  I 
Philemon  ) 

Rome. 

63. 

Ephesians. 

Rome. 

63. 

1  Timothy. 

Macedonia  (:).           |            65  or  66. 

Titus. 

Macedonia  (?). 

66. 

2  Timothy. 

Rome. 

67. 

The  subjoined  table  will  give  the  probable  dates  of  the  chief  events  in  the  Apostle's 
life,  with  those  of  the  events  in  secular  history  with  which  they  synchronised. 

TABLE  OF  CONTEMPORARY  RULEKS,  ETC. 


EMPERORS. 

PBOOUBATOBS. 

LEGATES  or 

Kl'UiA. 

KINGS. 

HIGH  PRIESTS 

EVBSTS  ur  LIFI 
or  ST.  PAUJU 

14 

TlBEKIUS 

(sole  Emperor). 

25 

••I... 

»*<»»1 

...... 

Caiaphas. 

2(5 

.....< 

Pontius  Pilatus. 

20 

20 

31 

32 

Retires  to  Capreca 

S3 

Hi 

A  Phronix  said 

•••»*• 

Vitellius. 

to  have   been 

eeen  in  Egypt. 

35 

3(5 

S7 

GAIUS  (Caligula) 
(March  l5). 

Marallus 

£l7r7r<xpxi)«). 

»"•• 



Jonathan 

Martyrdom 
of  Stephen. 

St.  Paul's 

Conversion. 

33 

•.•..I 



Theophilus. 

39 

•••••'• 

•••••I 

Petronius 

Herod 

...... 

First  Visit  to 

40 

Orders  his  statue 

»«!!*• 

TurpilianuB. 

Agrippal. 

Jerusalem. 
At  Tarsus. 

to    be    placed 

in  the  Temple. 

Embassy       of 

Pbilo. 

41 

CLAUDIUS 

•**«*« 

Simon 

At  Antiocb. 

(Jan.  24). 

Kanthera. 

42 

DiBciplea   called 
Christians     at 

~~ 

VibuisMar- 

bUS. 

Herod 
Agrippa  I. 

Matthias. 

Antioch. 

(dominion 

extended). 

43 

MM 

„,,,, 

M%W 

...... 

KlionetMis, 

son  pf 

__  J 

Kanthera. 

4 

CHRONOLOGY   OF   THE   LIFE   OF   ST.   PAUL. 

TABLS  or  CONTEMPORARY  RULSBS,  me,— continued. 


757 


KMPEHOES. 

PROCURATORS. 

LEOATBS  o» 
SYRIA. 

KI5GS. 

HIGH  PBIESTS. 

KVBSTS  IS  LlPl 

o»  ST.  PAUL. 

44 

Famine       (Jos. 
Antt.  xx.  5,  §  2). 

Cuspius  Fadus 

Cassius 
Longinus. 

Death  of 
Herod 



Second  Visit 
to  Jerusalem. 

Agrippa  I. 

45 

..<>.. 

...... 

MMM 

...... 

Joseph 

First  Mission 

4S 

Tiberius  Alex- 

Ben Kamhit. 

Journey. 

ander. 

47 

MMM 

...... 

...... 

Ananias, 

son  of 

Nebadeeus. 

48 

...... 

Ventldlus  Cu- 

Ummidiua 

uianua. 

Quadratus. 

49 

Expulsion        of 
Jews        from 
Rome. 

...... 

Agrippa 
II.,  King 
of  Chalcis. 

50 

Caractacus  taken 

to  Rome. 

51 

...... 

MMM 

•MM. 

...... 

...... 

Third  Visit  to 

Jerusalem, 

and  Synod. 

At  Corinth. 

58 

MMM 

K«f»* 

tl,,, 

Agrippa 

Ishmael 

1,  2  Thesa. 

II.  (Bata- 

BeaPhabi. 

nsea  and 

Tracho- 

iiitis). 

53 



Claudius  Felix 

V.    . 

...... 

Fourth  Visit 

54 

NERO  (Oct  13) 

to  Jerusalem. 

55 

56 

Birth  of  Trajan. 

57 

Trial  of  Pomponia 
Graecina  (as    a 

M.M, 

M.M. 

...... 

...... 

Paul  at  Eph. 
ICor. 

Christian?). 

53 

»M»». 

•*!*•* 

..».. 

MMM 

Second  Ep.  to 

Corinthians. 

Epistle  to 

Galatians. 

59 

Murder  of  Agrip- 

pina. 

60 

Porcius  Festoa 

Corbulo 

Cl 

Revolt   of  Boa- 

....4. 

Joseph  Cabi 

At  Rome. 

dicea. 

62 

Deaths  of  Burma, 
Octavia,      and 

Albinua 

«•*•«! 

...... 

Ananus 

Epistle  to 
Phffippiana 

Pallas. 

Nero     marries 

Popproa. 

63 

Power  of  Tigel- 

linua. 

*•», 

...... 

Jesus, 
son  of 

Ep.  to  Colos- 
sians,  Phile- 

Damnoeus. 

mon,  and 

Ephesus. 

Paul  liberated. 

64 

Great    Fire     of 

Rome. 

Persecution     of 

Christians. 

65 

Death  of  Seneca 

Gesslus  Florus 

MMM 

MMM 

MI.M 

First  Epistle 

to  Timothy. 

G6 

Beginnings      of 

Ep.  to  Titus. 

Jewish      War. 

Nero  in  Greece. 

67 

Siege  of  Jotapata 

MMM 

MMM 

MMM 

MMM 

Second  Epistle 

to  Timothy. 

68 

Suicide  of  Nero 

Vespasian  takes 

MMM 

MMM 

w..  .-1 

Martyrdom. 

(June). 

Jericho. 

GALBA. 

758  APPENDIX. 


EXCURSUS  XXIX. 
TKADITIONAL  ACCOUNTS  OF  ST.  PAUL'S  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE. 

THE  traditional  accounts  of  the  personal  appearance  of  the  great  Apostle  are  too  late  to 
have  any  independent  value,  but  it  is  far  from  improbable  that  where  they  coincide  they 
preserve  with  accuracy  a  few  particulars.  Such  as  they  are,  the  reader  may  perhaps 
care  to  see  them  translated ;  but  he  must  bear  in  min<l  the  sad  probability  that  there 
were  periods  of  St.  Paul's  career  at  which,  owing  to  the  disfigurement  wrought  by  the 
ravages  of  his  affliction,  we  should  not  have  liked  to  gaze  upon  his  face. 

In  the  sixth  century  John  of  Antioch,  commonly  called  Malala,1  writes  that  "Paul 
was  in  person  round-shouldered  (rn  ^Aua<j  <cov8oeiS>fa),  with  a  sprinkling  of  grey  on  his  head 
and  beard,  with  an  aquiline  nose,  greyish  eyes,  meeting  eyebrows,2  with  a  mixture  of 
pale  and  red  in  his  complexion,  and  an  ample  beard.  "With  a  genial  expression  of  coun- 
tenance, he  was  sensible,  earnest,  easily  accessible,  sweet,  and  inspired  with  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

Nicephorus,8  writing  in  the  fifteenth  century,  says,  "  Paul  was  short,  and  dwarfish  in 
stature,  and,  as  it  were,  crooked  in  person  and  slightly  bent.  His  face  was  pale,  his 
aspect  winning.  He  was  bald-headed,  and  his  eyes  were  bright.  His  nose  was  prominent 
and  aquiline,  his  beard  thick  and  tolerably  long,  and  both  this  and  his  head  were  sprinkled 
with  white  hairs. " 

In  the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thekla,  a  romance  of  the  third  century,  he  is  described  aa 
"  short,  bald,  bow-legged,  with  meeting  eyebrows,  hook-nosed,  full  of  grace."  4 

Lastly,  in  the  Philopatris  of  the  pseudo-Lucian,5  a  forgery  of  the  fourth  century,8 
he  is  contemptuously  alluded  to  as  "  the  bald-headed,  hook-nosed  Galilsean  who  trod  the 
air  into  the  third  heaven,  and  learnt  the  most  beautiful  things." 

The  reader  must  judge  whether  any  rill  of  truth  may  have  trickled  into  these  accounts 
through  centuries  of  tradition.  As  they  do  not  contradict,  but  are  rather  confirmed  by, 
the  earliest  portraits  which  have  been  preserved  to  us,  we  may  perhaps  assume  from 
them  thus  much,  that  St.  Paul  was  short — a  fact  also  mentioned  by  the  pseudo- 
Chrysostom,7  and  to  which  he  may  himself  allude  with  somewhat  bitter  touches  of 
Irony  in  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 8 — that  he  had  a  slight  stoop,  if  not  a 
positive  bend,  in  the  shoulders ;  that  his  nose  was  aquiline,  and  that  his  thin  hair  was 
early  "  sable-silvered."  We  may  also  conjecture  from  these  notices  that  his  face  was 
pale,  and  liable  to  a  quick  flush  and  change  of  expression,  and  that  when  he  was  not 
absolutely  disfigured  by  his  malady,  or  when  he  was  able  to  throw  off  the  painful  self- 
consciousness  by  which  it  was  accompanied,  the  grace  and  sweetness  of  his  address,  the 
dignity  and  fire  of  his  bearing,  entirely  removed  the  first  unfavourable  impression  caused 
by  the  insignificance  of  his  aspect.  We  may  conclude  that  this  was  the  case  from  many 
of  the  circumstances  of  his  intercourse  with  men  and  churches,  and  also  from  the  fact 
that  the  rude  inhabitants  of  Lystra  take  him — before  he  had  yet  attained  to  middle  age, 
and  before  his  body  had  been  so  rudely  battered  as  it  was  by  many  subsequent  miseries 
— for  an  incarnation  of  the  young  and  eloquent  Hermes. 

»  X.  257. 

»  This  <rvvo<l>pv<ona,  and  the  expression  arcvurot,  may  be  the  sole  ground  for  fancying  that  the 
eyes  of  St.  Paul  were  grey  and  bright.  /  *  H.  E.  ii.  87. 

*  I  can  make  nothing  of  the  evKcqpo?  following  the  ay<cuAo«  rats  KJT//J.CUS .  *  Philopatr,  18. 

•  Such  is  the  opinion  of  Gesner  in  his  dissertation  De  Aetate  et  Auctore  Philopatridia.       — 
»  6  Tpimjxvj  wfywatw.  •  2  Cor.  x.  10—16,  especially  verse  14. 


INDEX. 


Abennerig,  King*— Ananias'  influence  over  hla 
family,  429.  (See  Ananias.) 

AlMda  Zara,  Quotations  from,  453-4. 

Abraham — his  wives  as  types,  32. 

Acts  of  Apostles— The  intention  and  genuine- 
ness of ;  not  a  perfect  history,  4-5 ;  chief 
uncial  MSS.  of,  730-1 ;  its  abrupt  termi- 
nation not  explained,  647. 

Adiabene — Province  of,  173 ;  Eoyal  family  of, 
how  entangled  by  Judaisers,  429. 

Adrian  VL — his  remark  on  the  statuary  ol 
the  Vatican,  298-9. 

Advent,  Nearness  of  final  Messianic,  343. 

/JOucas  healed,  148. 

Agabus — his  prophecy,  172,  520. 

Agupoe — Institution  of,  51 ;  held  with  closed 
doors,  99-100 ;  in  reference  to  the  circum- 
cision of  Titus,  236 ;  abuse  of,  at  Corinth. 
009 

OOA. 

Agrippa  I.  and  II.,  734-8. 

Agrippa  IL — his  desire  to  hear  Paul,  556; 
Paul  brought  before,  556  et  seq. ;  his  use  of 
the  word  "  Christian,"  560. 

Agrippa  Herod.    (See  Herod.) 

Akibha— 33  rules  of,  34. 

Alexandria,  The  learning  of  the  Jews  of,  70-2. 

Altar,  Altars — built  by  advice  of  Epimenides, 
301 ;  Paul's  view  of  the  altar  at  Athens  to 
the  Unknown  God,  301. 

Ananias  and  Sapphira— their  sin  and  death, 
60. 

Ananias  (of  Damascus) — his  doubts  about 
Paul,  113 ;  his  intercourse  with  Paul,  114. 

Ananias  (Jewish  merchant) — his  ascendancy 
over  King  Abennerig  and  his  family,  429. 

Ananias  (the  high  priest) — his  outrage  on 
Paul,  539-40. 

Andrew — Andre  wand  Philip,  though  Hellenic 
names,  yet  common  among  the  Jews,  74. 

Annas— his  treatment  of  Peter  and  John,  60. 

Antichrist — Jewish  and  heathen  influences  in 
Eome,  585-8. 

Antinomies  of  Paul,  732-3. 

Autioch  (in  Syria) — Mission  of  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas, A.  D.  44, 162;  description  of,  162-3; 
earthquake  at,  4.D.  37,  165;  Christians 
first  so  called  at,  167 ;  Church  and  religious 
feelings  at,  182;  state  of  Church  in,  224; 
false  brethren  in  Church,  224-5;  Peter 
and  Paul  at,  247  et  seq. 

Antioch  (in  Pisidia)— Description  of,  204-5; 
Paul  and  Barnabas  at,  205-6;  synagogue 
and  worship,  205 ;  Paul  preaches  in  syna- 
gogue, 207, 

Antouiua  (Emperor)  and  Babbi  Jnda  Haka- 
dosh,  430. 

Apollonius  Tyaneus  at  Ephesus,  360. 

Apollos — as  regards  authorship  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  6 ;  at  Ephesns — journey 
to  Corinth — his  preaching  there,  361 ;  un- 
intentional cause  of  division  in  the  Church 
at  Corinth,  362 ;  bis  report  of  the  Corin- 
thian Church  to  Paul,  376 ;  results  of  hia 
teaching  at  Corinth,  380.  L. 


Apostle— of  love,  John,  1 ;  of  the  Foundation 
stone,  Simon,  1 ;  of  progress,  Paul,  1 ;  of 
the  Gentiles,  Paul,  2  :  the  source  and  vin- 
dication of  Paul's  authority  as  an  Apostle, 
406-7 ;  term  of  authority  first  used  by  Paul 
in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  431-2. 
Apostles — their  antecedents  compared  with 
those  of  Paul,  3 ;  bold  after  weakness,  47 ; 
their  Lord's  intercourse  with  them  after 
His  Resurrection,  and  the  power  of  Hia 
Eesurrection  on  them,  47 ;  the  regenera- 
tors of  the  world,  47 ;  their  last  inquiry 
of  their  Lord  as  to  the  promised  kingdom, 
48;  their  feelings  after  their  Lord's  As- 
cension, 48 ;  Jews  still,  only  with  belief  in 
Christ,  48 ;  the  holy  women  joining  with, 
them  in  prayer,  49 ;  fill  up  vacancy  of 
Judas  Iscariot  49,  50 ;  as  witnesses  of  their 
Lord's  Eesurrection,  49;  their  hope  be- 
tween Ascension  and  Pentecost,  50 ;  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost  fulfilled,  52 ; 
speaking  with  tongues,  52-3  :  limit  of  the 
gift  of  tongues,  54 ;  different  views  of  the 
gift,  54-5 ;  charge  of  intoxication  refuted, 
58 ;  miracles  and  signs  done  by  them,  59, 
60,  148, 192, 199,  214 ;  conduct  under  per- 
secution, and  strength  of  their  position, 
59  ;  scourged,  though  defended  by  Gama- 
liel, 61 ;  their  early  failing  to  grasp  the 
truth,  80 ;  their  perception  that  the  Mo- 
saic Law  was  to  be  superseded,  80 ;  their 
failure  to  understand  the  teaching  of  their 
Lord,  81 ;  remain  in  Jerusalem  when 
others  fly  from  Saul's  persecuting  zeal,  98; 
tradition  of  twelve  years  as  the  limit  fixed 
by  their  Lord  for  their  abode  in  Jerusalem, 
180 ;  Greece  and  Eome  in  their  time,  186 ; 
showing  the  superiority  of  Christianity 
over  Stoicism,  188 ;  convinced  by  Paul  on 
circumcision,  230  j  letter  after  their  de- 
cision on  circumcision,  242 ;  genuineness 
of  this  encyclical  letter,  245. 

Apostolical  Journeys  of  Paul— the  first,  A.I>. 
45-46,  Antioch  in  Syria,  Seleucia,  Cyprus, 
Pergu  in  Pamphylia,  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
Iconium,  Lystra,  Derbe,  Lystra,  Iconium, 
Antioch  in  Pisidia,  Perga,  Attalia,  An- 
tioch in  Syria,  189-224 ;  the  second,  A.D. 
63-56,  Antioch  in  Syria,  Derbe,  Lystra, 
Phrygia,  Galatia,  Mysin,  Troaa,  Somo- 
thrace,  Neapolis,  Philippi,  Thessalonica, 
Berom,  Athens,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Coesa- 
rea,  Jerusalem,  256-353;  the  tliird,  A.  D. 
66-60,  Jerusalem,  Antiock  in  Syria, 
Galatia,  Phrygia,  Ephesus,  Troas,  Mace- 
donia, Illyricum,  Corinth,  Troas,  Assos, 
Mitylene,  Chios,  Trogyllium,  Miletus, 
Cos,  Ehcdes,  Patara,  Tyre,  Ptolemaia, 
Ctesarea,  Jerusalem,  354-521. 

Apotheosis  of  Eoman  Emperors,  717-8. 

Aquila  and  Priscilla— their  relation  to  Paul. 
317. 

Arabia,  the  scene  of  Paul's  retirement  on  hia 
conversion,  116, 120. 


760 


INDEX. 


Aramaic — Paul's  knowledge  of,  10)  in  relation 
to  the  gift  of  tongues,  57;  decay  and 
advance  of  among  Jews,  71. 

Aratns,  poet  of  Cih'cia,  quoted  by  Paul,  308. 

Aretas,  Emir  of  Petra,  10L 

Aristorchus,  Paul's  companion  on  his  voyage 
to  Borne,  563. 

Art — its  relation  to  Christianity,  299. 

Artemas — Artemidorus,  660. 

Artemis— Temple  at  Epliesus,  357-60;  wor- 
ship at  Ephesus,  360-1. 

Ascension  of  our  Lord,  47. 

Athens — Associations  and  description,  295  j 
the  statuary  of,  297 ;  Paul  at,  29C  et  seq. ; 
philosophers  of,  802-4 ;  Paul's  preaching 
and  its  results,  304  et  seq. ;  Paul  ques- 
tioned by  the  Athenians,  306  ;  Athenian 
view  of  the  Resurrection  and  judgment 
to  come,  811 ;  later  growth  of  the  Church 
at  Athens,  313;  Paul  leaves  Athens,  313. 

Augustus  Cessar— his  protection  of  the  Jews, 
504. 

Aurelius  Antoninus,  Morons,  on  Christianity, 
721. 

B. 

Baptism  of  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  and  its 
results,  147, 160. 

Barnabas,  St.— with  Paul  at  Lystra,  11 ;  hia 
early  relations  with  Paul,  133  j  his  influ- 
ence with  the  Apostles  in  Paul's  favour, 
134 ;  twice  secured  Paul's  services  for  the 
work  of  Christianity,  134,  162 ;  his  need 
of  help,  162 ;  bis  view  of  the  admission  of 
the  Gentiles  to  the  Christian  covenant, 
161-2;  his  view  of  Paul's  character,  162; 
commencement  of  their  joint  work,  162 ; 
separated  jointly  with  Paul  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  the  work  of  converting  the 
world,  188 ;  dispute  with  Paul  as  to  the 
companionship  of  Mark,  254  ;  their  sepa- 
ration, 254;  friendship  with  Paul  not 
broken,  but  mutual  loss  owing  to  the 
separation,  255-6.  (See  Paul.) 

Bar-Jesus,  the  sorcerer,  197. 

Basil,  St. — his  Christian  education  at  Athens, 
313. 

Berenice— Paul  before  her,  557:  her  character. 
738. 

Beroaans  compared  with  the  Thessalouians 
as  to  gladness  in  receiving  the  word  of 
God,  293. 

Bethany,  the  scene  of  our  Lord's  Ascension, 
47. 

Books  and  Parchments  of  Paul  at  Troas, 
21,  68  et  seq. 

Burdens  laid  on  Proselytes,  718-19. 

Burros,  Af raniua — his  character,  577 ;  in  charge 
of  Paul,  578 ;  as  formerly  Prtetorian  Pre- 
fect. 668 

C. 

Cffisar.    (See  distinctive  names.) 

Caiaphas— Peter  and  John  before,  59,  60 1  aa 

guilty  of  the  blood  of  Christ,  93. 
Caligula.    (See  Gains.) 
Captivity,  Paul's  Epistles  in,  588  et  teq. 
Carpus  of    Troas,  Paul's  cloak,  books,  and 

parchments  left  with,  21,  681-2. 
Castor  and  Pollux,  ship  in  which  Paul  sailed 

from  Melita,  575. 
Cenchrero,  Church  at,  820. 


Cephas.    (Se«  Peter.) 

Chamber  of  the  Last  Supper  and  of  assembly 
of  the  Apostles,  48, 181. 

Charity,  395. 

Chastity,  389. 

Chief  Priests.    (See  Priests.) 

Chosen  People.    (See  Jews. ) 

Chrestian  and  Christian,  169. 

Christ.    (See  Jesus.) 

Christendom  founded  by  St.  Paul,  2. 

Christian,  Christians — Origin  of  thenaiae,and 
where  first  used,  167-9;  "Christian"  and 
"Nazarene,"  169;  Christian  character  aa 
opposed  to  Jewish  character,  406;  con- 
trast brought  out  in  Paul's  Epistles  to  the 
Corinthians,  407 ;  the  life  of  the  Christian 
a  life  in  Christ,  507;  Christian  and  Cbrea- 
tian,  169 ;  Christian  unity  (see  Unity) ;  at 
first  not  in  disfavour  with  the  Pharisees, 
but  used  by  them  against  the  Sadducees, 
78  ;  their  observances  and  their  position, 
79;  charged  with  blasphemy  rather  than 
with  idolatry,  96 ;  first  so  called  at  Antioch 
in  Syria,  167 ;  their  endurance  under  per. 
se-cution,  186  ;  living  sacrifice  required  of, 
502;  dangers  dreaded  by  Paul  for  the 
Christians  of  Borne,  503. 

Christianity — Conditions  of,  to  the  Jews,  184 ; 
views  of,  by  Pliny,  Tacitus,  and  Suetonius, 
186 ;  compared  with  Stoicism,  187-8 ;  rela- 
tion of,  to  art,  299;  judgments  of  early 
Pagan  writers  on,  720-1  et  seq. ;  its  intro- 
duction into  Borne,  447  et  seq. 

Chronology  of  the  lifo  and  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  753. 

Chrysostojn,  St. — his  estimate  of  St.  Paul,  3, 
689. 

Church,  The — Its  vitality  from  early  timea, 
47 ;  the  early  days  of,  59  et  seq. ;  Paul  twice 
secured  for  work  of,  by  Barnabas,  13i, 
162;  rest  and  progress,  144  et  seq. ;  work 
begun  by  Stephen,  advanced  by  Philip, 
completed  by  Paul,  160-1;  the  early 
Church  at  Antioch  in  Syria,  182;  fake 
brethren  in  the  Church  at  Antioch  iii 
Syria,  225 ;  peril  to,  from  the  difference  on 
circumcision,  228 ;  growth  of,  at  Athens, 
813 ;  Church  founded  by  Paul  at  Corinth, 
319 ;  Church  at  Cenchrete,  320;  danger  to, 
at  Corinth,  377;  the  heathen  not  judges 
in  Church  questions,  389;  qualifications 
for  office  in,  653-6  et  seq. ;  regulations  for 
rulers  in.  654,  656.  (See  names  of  the 
several  Churches.) 

Cicero — his  views  of:  Athenian  philosophy, 
303. 

Circumcision — disputed  point  at  the  Church 
at  Antioch  in  Syria,  225  et  seq. ;  disputes 
dangerous  to  the  Church,  228;  question 
submitted  to  Church  at  Jerusalem,  and 
especially  to  the  Apostles  as  having  known 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  228 ;  decision  and 
encyclical  letter  of  the  Apostles,  242-3 ;  of 
Timothy  and  Titus,  261;  absence  of  ne- 
cessity for,  the  key-note  of  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Galatiaus,  428;  Defence  or,  by 
Judaisers,  428 ;  its  use  to  Judaisers,  430 ; 
as  required  by  the  Jews,  738. 

Civil  Governors.    (See  Governors.) 

Claudius,  his  accession,  and  consideration  for 
the  Jews,  143;  his  attempt  to  eject  the 
Jews  from  Rome,  446;  his  persecution  of 
the  Jews,  504. 

Clement,  St.— writing  of  Paul,  6, 


INDEX. 


761 


Clementines,  Attacks  on  Paul  in  tlie,  724-6. 

Cloak,  Paul's,  Looks,  and  parchments  loft  at 
Troas,  21 ;  681-2. 

Coleridge,  Opinion  of,  on  Paul's  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  456. 

Colossse,  Account  of,  607. 

•Colossians— Paul's  Epistle  to,  603  et  seq. ; 
causes  of,  60S;  fctate  of  Church  described 
to  Paul  by  Epaphras,  608 ;  false  teachers 
In  Church  at  Colosss,  609;  objects  of 
Epistle  to,  610;  genuineness  of  Epistlo 
to,  614 ;  account  of  Epistlo  to,  615  et  seq. ; 
Jesus  the  remedy  against  the  Phrygian 
mysticism  of,  6i«;  waruiug  to,  against 
false  teachers,  618;  future  of  the  Church, 
622. 

Conscience,  Happiucss  of  e:<5ar,  507-8. 

Corinth — Paul  visits,  314  ;  description  of, 
314-5;  Church  founded  at,  by  Paul,  319; 
Paul's  pain  at  the  immorality  of  Corinth, 
382-3;  dangers  to  Church,  377-8;  results 
of  Apollos1  teaching  at,  380  ;  false  teachers 
in  Church  at,  381;  further  division  iii 
Church  at,  381 ;  disputes  in  Church  at, 
381-2 ;  incest  in  Church  at,  383 ;  here  Paul 
wrote  Epistles  to  Galatians  and  Romans, 
423 ;  Paul's  rejoicing  in  Church  of,  423. 

Corinthian,  Corinthians  —  Epistles  to,  S43  ; 
wherein  different  from  rest  in  plan  and 
divisions,  343 ;  relapse  of  Corinthian  Chris- 
tians into  sensuality,  377;  causes  of  Paul's 
First  Epistle  to,  378 ;  sins  at  the  Lord's 
Supper,  383 ;  account  of  1  Corinthians, 
884-401 ;  Paul's  warnings  against  false 
teachers  and  divisions  in  Church,  386-7; 
Paul's  dealing  with  cases  of  incest,  388-9 ; 
on  chastity,  meat  offered  to  idols,  and  re- 
Burrection  from  the  dead,  389  et  seq. ;  sel- 
fishness the  origin  of  disorders  in  Church, 
397;  Paul's  self-defence  to,  403;  restora- 
tion of  Mark,  404;  punishments  for  pro- 
fanation of  the  Lord's  Supper,  404;  account 
of  2  Corinthians,  402-19  ;  2  Corintliians, 
Paul's  self-vindication  not  self-commen- 
dation, 408-10 ;  Church  behind  Macedonian 
Church,  which,  though  poor,  collected  for 
necessities  of  the  saints,  414. 

Cornelius  and  his  friends  converted  to  the 
Christian  faith,  158. 

Covering  of  the  head  for  women,  394. 

Cretans,  Account  of,  by  Epimenides,  661. 

Crispus  baptised  by  Paul,  319. 

Cyprus,  Paul  and  Barnabas  at — its  share  in 
the  propagation  of  Christianity,  195;  the 
Jews  of,  11JC. 

D. 

Damaris,  312. 

Damascus— State  of  feeling  between  Jewa  antl 
Christians,  126 ;  Paul's  escape  from,  128 ; 
under  Hareth,  708-9. 

David,  poetry  of  Psalms  compared  with  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  10. 

Deacons— Cause  for  and  appointment  of,  74-5} 
their  names,  75 ;  results  of  their  appoint- 
ment, 76. 

Death  overcome  by  lif  e,  476-8. 

Denys,  St.,  of  France,  312. 

Derbe,  Paul  and  Barnabas  at,  21$. 

.Diana.    (Se«  Artemis.) 

Diaspora.    (See  Dispersion.) 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite  and  St.  Denys,  812. 

Disciples.   (See  Apostles.) 


Dispersion  of  the  Chosen  People.  65-6;  re- 
sults of,  on  Jews,  Greeks,;  and  Romans, 
66  et  seq. 

Dorcas  raised  from  the  dead,  148. 

Drasilla  with  Felix  hearing  Paul,  550. 


E. 

Earthquake  at  Antioch,  A.D.  37, 165. 

Ebionites  and  Nazarenes,  725. 

Effort,  Human,  necessary  but  ineffectual,  732. 

Elymas,  his  blindness,  199 ;  his  resistance  of 
Paul,  197-9. 

Emperors,  Roman,  Apotheosis  of,  717-18. 

Epaphras  of  Colosste— Visit  to  Paul,  and  its 
results,  593  ;  his  messages  to  Paul  on  the 
Church  at  Colossro,  COS. 

Epaphroditus  of  Philippi— Visit  to  Paul,  and 
its  results,  594 ;  his  work  at  Rome  :  illness, 
recovery,  return  to  Philippi,  594-5. 

Ephesus— Ephesians — visited  by  Paul,  854  ; 
description  of,  354-5;  A  development  of 
Christianity  at,  354 ;  sketch  of  its  history, 
355-6;  reputation  of  its  inhabitants,  356; 
Temple  of  Artemis  at,  357-300;  super- 
stition of,  359;  Christians  burn  magical 
books,  as  the  results  of  Paul's  labours, 
365-6 ;  outbreak  which  occasioned  Paul's 
departure,  368-376 ;  Sketch  of  Church  at, 
375-6 ;  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  pro- 
bably  also  sent  to  Ephesus,  450;  Paul's 
interview  with  elders  of  the  Church  at 
Miletus,  515-17 ;  sketch  of  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians,  630  et  seq. ;  phraseology 
and  doctrines  of  the'.Epistle,  739-40. 

Epictetus  on  Christianity,  721. 

Epicureans,  303-4. 

Epimenides — Altars  built  by  his  direction, 
301 ;  Paul's  quotation  from,  in  Epistle  to 
Titus,  661. 

Epistle — Epistles — Paul's — value  and  power 
of,  2;  Genuineness  of,  4-6;  to  Hebrews 
as  work  of  Apollos,  6 ;  Undesigned  coin- 
cidences in,  6 ;  compared  with  poetry  of 
Psalms  of  David,  10;  their  testimony  to 
Paul's  "  stake  in  the  flesh,"  121  et  seq. ; 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  289 ; 
1  Thess.,  account  of,  325  et  seq.;  Paul's 
Epistles  compared  with  our  Lord's  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  327 ;  Paul's  intense  feelings 
conveyed  in  his  Epistles,  327 ;  their 
character,  327;  salutation  and  opening, 
828-9 ;  characteristics  of  1  Thess.,  329  et 
8617. ;  2  Thess.,  account  of,  340  et  seq. ; 
object  of  this  Epistle,  343 ;.  difference  of 
the  plan  and  the  division  of  1  and  2  Cor. 
from  Paul's  other  Eoistles,  343 ;  explana- 
tion of  2  Thess.  1—12,  346  et  seq.  1  Cor. 
written  during  latter  part  of  stay  at 
Ephesus,  876 ;  cause  of  this  Epistle,  378 
et  seq. ;  account  of  ditto,  SS4  et  seq. ;  sub- 
jects of  several,  403;  2  Cor.,  account  of, 
406  et  seq.;  Epistles  to  Galatians  and 
Romans  written  at  Corinth,  423 ;  cause  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  426 ;  object, 
viz.,  to  prove  circumcision  unnecesary, 
427-8 ;  lasting  results  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  431 ;  account  of  ditto,  431  et 
eeq.;  cause  of  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  445 ; 
account  of  ditto,  445  et  seq. ;  conclusion  of, 
as  probably  intended  originally,  509 ;  actual 
conclusion  of,  510;  epistles  written  at 
Corinth  made  the  subject  of  Paul's 


IKDEZ. 


preaching  in  that  city,  511 ;  their  bearing 
on  Paul's  life — division  into  groups,  688 
et  seq. ;  order  in  which  written,  591 ;  of 
the  captivity,  692  et  seq.;  to  Colossians, 
608  et  seq. ;  to  Philemon,  623  et  seq. ;  the 
Christology  of  the  epistles  of  the  captivity, 
613-14;  to  Ephesians,  630  etseg.;  causes  of 
this  epistle;  its  genuineness,  subject, 
style,  compared  with  Epistle  to  Colossians, 
631  et  seq. ;  pastoral,  647  etseg. ;  1  Timothy, 
650  «t  seq.  ;  to  Titus,  660  et  seq. ;  genuine- 
ness of  the  pastoral  epistles,  664,  743  et 
seq. ;  Paul's  account  to  Timothy  of  his 
loneliness  in  prison ;  the  support  of  him 
by  his  God,  and  his  Boman  trial;  his 
approaching  end,  676  et  seq. ;  2  Timothy, 
account  of,  676  et  seq. ;  Chief  uncial  MSS. 
of,  730-1 ;  Paul's  Epistles,  division  into 
groups  of  —  Eschatological,  Anti- Judaic, 
Christological  or  Anti-Gnostic,  Pastoral, 
733-4 ;  phraseology  and  diction  of  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians,  739-40 ;  chronology  of 
Paul's  Epistles,  753-5 ;  dates  of  ditto,  756. 

Etesian  winds,  563-4. 

Eunice  and  Lois  visited  by  Paul,  258. 

Eunuch,  Ethiopian,  baptised  by  Philip,  147; 
results  of  baptism  to  infant  church,  160. 

Enoclia  and  Syntyche  as  Christian  women  of 
Macedonia,  277 ;  exhorted  to  unity  by 
Paul  in  Epistle  to  Ephesians,  595. 

Euroaquila — Euroclydo,  566-7. 

Eutychus,  fall  and  restoration  to  life,  513-14. 

Evodius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  tradition  of,  as 
inventor  of  the  name  of  "  Christian." 
169. 

P. 

Faith— revived  by  writings  of  Paul,  2 ;  Justi- 
fication by,  first  taught  by  Paul,  2; 
Power  of  justification  by,  461,  464,  472  et 
seq. ;  difference  between  justification  by 
faith  and  justification  by  the  Law,  486; 
relation  of  hope  to,  490. 

Feasts,  Love  Feasts,  51.    (See  Agapze.) 

Felix,  his  judicial  impartiality,  323,  504 ;  made 
Procurator  of  Judma  A.D.  52,  530;  his 
estimation  among  the  Jews,  547-8;  de- 
ferred completion  of  Paul's  trial  for 
evidences  of  Lysias,  549;  trembles  at 
Paul's  reasoning,  550;  his  attempts  to 
procure  bribes  for  Paul's  release,  551; 
cause  of  his  disgrace — his  hist  act  of 
injustice  to  Paul,  552  et  seq. 

Pcstus  —  his  judicial  impartiality,  323,  504; 
succeeds  Felix  as  Procurator  of  Judrea 
A.D.  60,  552 ;  brings  Paul  before  Agrippa, 
556  et  seq. ;  his  treatment  of  Paul,  553-5. 

Flaccus,  Governor  of  Alexandria,  arrest  and 
death,  140. 

Food,  Paul's  rules  as  to  use  of,  505-6. 

Forgiveness  of  the  redeemed,  Paul's  view  of, 
732. 

Foundation  stone,  Peter  the  Apostle  of,  i. 

Free  will,  Paul's  view  of,  732. 


a. 

Oaius  (Caligula)  —  succeeded  Tiberius  as 
Emperor  of  Borne,  137;  friend  of  Herod 
Agrippa,  138;  intended  profanation  of  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  death,  142-3. 


Qaius  (convert  of  St.  Paul)  baptised  by  PaoL 
320. 

Galatia  — Galatians  —  Paul's  visit  to,  263  et 
seq.;  their  kindness  to  Paul,  266-7; 
Churches  in,  founded  by  Paul,  268. 

Galatians,  Paul's  Epistle  to — Cause  of,  426; 
object,  to  prove  circumcision  unneces- 
sary, 427-8;  lasting  results  of,  431;  ac- 
count of,  431  et  seg. ;  apostolic  authority 
in  the  opening  salutation  first  Assumed  in 
this  Epistle,  431-2 ;  sense  of  wrong  in  the 
mind  of  the  writer — abrupt  plainness— • 
charge  of  perverting  the  Gospel — vindi- 
cation of  the  Apostolic  character — com- 
mission and  labours — recognition  by  the 
other  Apostles — dispute  with  Peter,  433-4; 
who  are  sons  of  Abraham — from  what 
Christ  has  ransomed  us — use  of  the  law, 
436 ;  concord  of  law  and  promise-^all  free 
in  Christ  and  Abraham's  seed— difference 
between  old  and  new  covenants — old  cove- 
nant fulfilled  its  oflace,  437-9;  allegory  of 
Sarah  and  Hagar  and  their  sons— Gala- 
tians can  combine  neither  law  and  gospel 
nor  flesh  and  spirit — the  question  not  of 
circumcision  or  uncircumcisiou,  but  of  a 
new  creature,  440-3. 
•  Galen  on  Christians,  721. 

Gallic,  Lucius  Junius  Anneeus,  brother  of 
Seneca,  uncle  of  Lucan,  made  Pro-consul 
of  Asia,  321 ;  character  (generally  misun- 
derstood) among  his  friends,  321 ;  his  in- 
difference when  Paul  is  brought  before 
him,  322  ;  his  reason  for  refusing  to  com- 
mit Paul,  322  ;  his  judicial  impartiality, 
323  ;  result  of  his  justice  to  Paul  while  in 
Corinth,  351 ;  protecting  Paul  by  his  dis- 
dainful justice,  504. 

Gamaliel — as  instructor  of  Paul,  3, 15,  25 ;  his 
views  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks,  21 ; 
Rabbi,  Babban — his  parentage— liberality 
of  his  views,  25 ;  his  character,  26 ;  as  a 
Pharisee,  26  ;  value  of  his  teaching  to 
Paul,  27 ;  defence  of  Paul,  61-2 ;  Gamaliel 
and  the  school  of  Tubingen,  704-6. 

Gentiles — Deliverance  and  admission  of,  to 
the  Church  of  Christ,  145;  commence- 
ment of  their  reception  into  the  Church, 
160;  their  generous  help  of  Jewish 
Christians,  172 ;  Simeon's  prophecy,  183 ; 
of  Pisidia  gladly  accept  Gospel  preached 
by  Paul  on  its  rejection  by  the  Jews,  211 ; 
Paul's  future  care,  223;  moderation  of 
the  Gentile  Christians  of  Rome  towards 
Jewish  Christians  when  Paul  wrote  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  452;  their  sin 
of  denying"  and  abandoning  God,  their 
punishment,  465 ;  Gentiles  and  Jews 
equally  guilty  before  God  and  equally 
redeemed,  470. 

Ghost,  Holy.    (See  Holy  Ghost) 

Glossolalia,  30,  54-7.     (See  Tongues.) 

God — Peace  only  in  His  Love,  40;  His  deal- 
ings with  men,  51;  visions  from,  109; 
His  warnings,  112;  universal  worship 
prophesied  by  Zephaniah,  183  ;  only  giver 
of  blessing  on  ministerial  labours,  386 ; 
effect  of  His  righteousness  on  man,  461 ; 
truth  to  His  promise  proved  by  Paul, 
471-2;  manifestation  of  His  Righteous- 
ness, 473 ;  His  infinite  love  the  solution  of 
predestinarian  difficulties,  494  ;  His  grace, 
wisdom,  i  udgments,  501 ;  kingdom  of  God 
denned,  507;  God  working  in  man,  and 


INDEX. 


763 


fudging  through  Christ,  733.  (Set  Un- 
known  God.) 

Gospel— Witness  to  our  Lord,  184 ;  women's 
part  in  dissemination  of,  184 ;  the  power 
of,  460;  for  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike,  465. 

Governors,  Civil— Duties  to,  503;  Functions 
of,  503 ;  Paul's  teachings  of  obedience  to, 
504-5. 

Grace— Relation  to  sin,  479-80;  Abundance 
of,  above  sin,  404 ;  wisdom,  and  judgments 
of  God,  501 :  source  of  grace,  mercy,  and 
pity,  502. 

Greece — Character  of,  in  time  of  the  Apostles, 
186. 

Greeks — Their  "  wisdom,"  21 ;  Besulta  on,  of 
the  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  66 ;  contact 
•with  Jews,  66-7;  conversion  of  Greek 
Proselytes,  161 ;  their  violent  treatment 
of  Sostheues  before  Gallio,  324. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus — his  Christian  educa- 
tion at  Athens,  313. 


Habakkuk,  quoted  by  Paul,  464. 

Hagada  and  Hagadist,  33  et  seq. 

Halacha  and  Halachist,  33  et  seq. 

Hallel  studied  by  Paul  when  a  boy,  25. 

Heathendom  in  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  186. 

Hebraism  aud  Hellenism,  65  et  seq, 

Hebrew — Paul's  knowledge  of,  used  by  our 
Lord  in  Paul's  conversion,  10. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to,  as  work  of  Apollos,  6. 

Helena,  Queen — Her  protracted  vows,  429. 

Hellenism  and  Hebraism,  65  et  seq. 

Herod  Agrippa— His  character,  139 :  impri- 
soned by  Tiberius,  released  by  Gaius  on 
his  accession  to  the  Empire,  and  appointed 
successor  as  Tetrarch  to  Herod  Philip  and 
Lysanias,  139  j  beginning  of  his  reign,  re- 
ception at  Alexandria,  139 ;  his  influence 
and  promotion,  174;  observance  of  the 
Mosaic  Law,  175;  slays  James — arrests 
Fetor,  175-7  et  seq. ;  his  death,  179  et  seq. 

Herods  in  the  Acts,  734-8. 

Hillel— grandfather  of  Gamaliel,  25,  26,  73; 
The  seven  rules  of,  34 ;  dealing  with  bur- 
densome Mosaic  regulations,  39. 

Holy  Ghost,  Holy  Spirit  —  Promise  of,  to 
Apostles.  47 ;  Gift  of,  at  Pentecost,  52 ; 
eltocts  of  gift,  53. 

Hope— Its  power  unto  salvation,  its  relation 
to  faith,  490-1. 

Hope  and  Peace,  the  result  of  justification  by 
faith,  475-6. 

Hymn  at  first  Pentecost,  after  gift  of  tongues, 
57. 


Iconiain  (Konieh)  visited  by  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas, 212. 

Idolatry — Influence  of,  on  Jewish  and  other 
communities,  69. 

Idols— Meats  offered  to,  3S9,  391. 

Incest  in  Corinthian  Church — Paul's  dealing 
with,  388-9. 

Inspiration.    (See  Verbal  Inspiration.) 

Islimael — Thirteen  rules  of,  34. 

Israel— the  restoration  of,  500.    (Set  Jews.) 

Issachar,  High  Priest,  735. 

Izates,  son  of  Abennerig,  circumcised,  173, 
429. 


J. 


James  the  Greater,  his  death,  176. 

James  the  Less,  cause  for  his  respect  by  the 
people,  80;  compared  with  Paul,  131;  con- 
vinced by  Paul  as  to  circumcision,  230 ; 
description  of,  239 ;  on  circumcision,  240 
et  seq. ;  error  in  his  view  of  Paul's  work, 
426 ;  with  elders  of  the  Church  receives 
Paul  at  Jerusalem,  522. 

Jason— Name  identical  with  Jesus,  14 ;  charge 
against  Jason  by  Jews  of  Thessalonica, 
291. 

Jerome,"  St. — Fragments  of  traditions  of  Paul, 
9:  on  Paul,  689;  compared  with  Paul, 
496. 

Jerusalem  —  crowd  at  first  Pentecost,  57 1 
birthplace  of  Christianity,  354 ;  its  dun- 

fers  to  Paul,  444 ;  state  of  feeling  among 
ews  at  time  of  proposal  of  James  and 
elders  to  Paul,  527-8. 

Jesus  Christ  the  Lord— speaking  to  Paul  in 
Hebrew  at  his  conversion,  10  ;  His  notice 
of  beauties  of  nature  not  the  subject  of 
Paul's  language,  12 ;  name  identical  with 
Jason,  14 ;  love  manifested  in  His  death, 
risen,  glorified,  known  to  Paul  by  revela- 
tion, 42 ;  intercourse  with  disciples  after 
Eesurrection  not  continuous,  47 ;  promise 
of  Holy  Spirit  to  Apostles ;  power  of 
His  Eesurrection,  47;  His  Ascension, 
48;  His  mission  to  found  a  kingdom, 
81 ;  His  purposes  to  supersede  the 
Law  not  seen  in  His  observance  of  it, 
81;  significance  not  seen  at  the  time  of 
His  teaching  on  the  Sabbath,  81 ;  univer- 
sality of  spiritual  worship,  ic.,  81; 
fulfilled  the  Law  in  spiritualising  it,  81 ; 
as  Messiah,  an  offence  to  the  Jews,  but 
still  that  which  Stephen  undertook  to 
prove,  83-4 ;  why  He  declared  Himself  to 
Paul  as  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  111 ;  all  in 
all  to  Paul,  114 ;  second  special  revelation 
to  Paul,  135 ;  deeper  meaning  underlying 
many  of  His  words,  150;  tradition  that 
twelve  years  was  the  limit  laid  down  by 
Him  for  abode  of  His  disciples  in  Jeru- 
salem, 180 ;  light  to  Gentiles,  183 ;  errone- 
ous view  of  Him  by  Suetonius,  186;  the 
fundamental  conception  of  all  Christianity 
in  John  and  Paul,  724;  undivided,  385; 
object  of  all  preaching,  386;  the  only 
foundation,  387 ;  common  foundation  for 
Jew  and  Gentile,  456 ;  bond  of  human 
society,  456 ;  this  is  the  basis  of  all  Paul's 
epistles,  456 ;  Power  of  life  in,  490 ;  His 
sacrifice  and  exultation,  599,  600;  the 
Divine  Word  the  remedy  for  Phrygian 
mysticism,  &c.,  in  the  Colossian  Chris- 
tians, 616;  as  judge,  732. 
Jews — as  persecutors  of  Paul,  5;  their  care 
for  youths  as  to  "  dubious  reading,"  22 ; 
marriage  customs,  25,  46,  95 ;  value  of  the 
Scriptures  among  them,  29 ;  their  litera- 
ture, 32-3;  TOWS,  40;  as  originators  of 
discord  among  Christians,  42 ;  underrating 
the  apostolic  dignity  of  Paul,  42;  cus- 
toms of  Christian  Jews  in  synagogues,  49 ; 
persecuting  the  apostles,  60  et  seq.;  the 
dispersion  of,  65  et  seq.;  result  of  the  dis- 
persion on  themselves  and  on  Greeks  and 
Romans,  66-8;  result  of  contact  on  the 
Greeks,  66-7;  violent  outbreaks,  67: 
causes  which  led  to  their  commercial 


IN-DEX. 


character,  69-70;  of  Alexandria,  their 
learning,  advance  in  literature,  more  en- 
lightened than  the  Rabbis  of  Jerusalem  as 
to  the  purposes  of  God's  gifts,  70-2; 
change  of  language  on  dispersion,  and 
results  of  contact  with  Aryan  race,  71 ; 
ordinances  to  prohibit  relations  with 
heathen,  and  bloodshed  resulting  from 
them,  73-i ;  their  Greek  names,  75  ;  their 
Messianic  hopes,  S3;  their  reverence  for 
Moses,  85;  infuriated  at  Stephen's  view 
of  the  law  of  Moses,  86 ;  not  naturally 
persecutors,  96;  the  forbearance  of  the 
Christian  Jews  of  liorne  to  Gentiles 
when  Paul  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the 
Eomans,  452  ;  of  Damascus — their  feeling 
towards  Christians — their  reception  of 
Paul's  preac-iiing,  126-7 ;  their  scourginga  of 
Paul,  127  ;  relief  at  death  of  Tiberius, 
138 ;  allegiance  to  Gaius,  138 ;  how  re- 
garded in  Alexandria — barbarities  prac- 
tised on  them,  139 — 141;  contributions  for 
brethren  in  Judcea,  172 ;  Jewish  Christians 
helped  by  Gentiles  in  return  for  spiritual 
wealth,  172 ;  of  Antioch  in  Syria,  181 ;  con- 
ditions_  on  which  alone  they  could  accept 
Christianity,  184 ;  two  Jews  (Paul  and 
Barnabas)  on  a  journey  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world,  188 ;  of  Cyprus,  and 
of  Salamis,  195 ;  their  lectionary,  207 ; 
jealousy  of  tho  Jews  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
against  the  Gentiles  at  Paul's  preaching, 
211;  Paul  stoned  at  Lystra  by  Jews  of 
Antioch  and  Iconium,  217 ;  their  hitred 
of  Paul,  218;  their  hatred  of  Paul  and 
Christ,  290 ;  disturbance  caused  by  them 
against  Paul  at  Thessaionica,  291  et  seq. ; 
belief  of  Jews  of  Beroea,  293 ;  Paul's  inter- 
course with,  and  teaching  of  the  Jews  of 
Athens,  302 ;  Paul's  complaints  of  the  Jews 
of  Corinth,  321 ;  their  animosity  against 
Christians,  even  to  bringing  false  accusa- 
tions against  them,  323 ;  of  Thessaionica, 
331 ;  their  calumnies  against  Paul,  331 ; 
their  persecution  of  Paul,  332 ;  soourgings 
715-7;  Hatred  of,  in  classical  antiquity, 
719-20 ;  of  Ephesus,  361 ;  their  opposi- 
tion to  Paul,  361 ;  introduced  into  Home 
by  Pompey,  445 ;  his  treatment  of  them, 
445 ;  useless  as  slaves,  445 ;  consequent 
emancipation,  446  ;  multiply  and  flourish, 
446;  cause  of  their  position  in  the  world, 
446;  attempts  of  Sejanus  and  Claudius  to 
eject  them  from  Eome,  446 ;  Seneca's  ac- 
count of  the  Jews  in  Borne,  446 ;  convicted 
by  Paul  of  the  Eame  sin  as  the  Gentiles, 
in  forsaking  and  denying  their  God,  467 
et  seq. ;  equally  redeemed  with  the  Gen- 
tiles,  but  their  hope  vain  while  on  wrong 
foundation,  492 ;  Eejection  of,  from  pri- 
vileges, 495 ;  Love  of  Paul  for,  496 ;  not 
naturally,  but  spiritually  alone,  heirs  of 
the  promises,  497 ;  their  want  of  faith  in 
rejection  of  the  Gospel,  498-9;  their  rejec- 
tion by  their  God  neither  entire  nor  final, 
499-500 ;  their  restoration,  500 ;  their  pro- 
tection by  Boman  law,  504 ;  their  plofc 
against  Paul's  life,  511;  causes  of  their 
plot,  511;  its  discovery  and  prevention, 
511;  customs  as  to  Nazarite  vows,  and 
proposal  of  elders  at  Jerusalem  to  Paul, 
523-4;  disposition  at  time  of  Paul's  fifth 
visit  to  Jerusalem,  various  outbreaks,  528 
et  seq.;  of  Ephesus,  outbreak  against 


Paul,  531  et  eeq. ;  charge  against  Paul  of 
defiling  the  temple,  531  et  seq.  ;  Division 
among,  at  Paul's  answer  as  to  the  resur- 
rection, 543;  contest  with  the  Greeks  ja 
market-places  of  Ctesarea,  551-3 :  edict  of 
banishment  by  Claudius,  579  ;  their  reply 
to  Paul's  appeal  to  Ctesar,  579;  Number 
of,  in  Rome,  680;  thoy  hear  Paul,  O&O; 
influence  and  trade  at  liorae,  5S5-6. 

Joel,  Fulfilment  of  prophecy  of,  at  Peutecost, 
54. 

John — As  a  "son  of  thunder,"  1 ;  it&presa 
of  individuality  on  Church,  1 ;  Martyrdom 
of  life,  his  miracles,  58 ;  description  of 
Borne  in  Apocalypse,  1S6;  convinced  by 
Paul  on  circumcision,  230 ;  compared  with 
Paul,  723-4. 

John  and  Peter — Two  chief  apostles,  1 ;  be- 
fore the  chief  priests,  60*;  their  know- 
ledge of  the  mind  of  Christ,  724. 

John  Mark.    (See  Mark.) 

Jonathan,  High  Priest  at  death  of  Stephen, 
88,  93. 

Joseph,  the  Levite  of  Cyprus — his  early  rela- 
tions with  Paul,  132. 

Joseph  Barsabbas,  surnanied  Justus — chosen 
with  Matthias  at  election  of  au  aoostle, 
49. 

Josephus —  his  allusion  to  death  of  Herod 
Agrippa,  179. 

Journeys— Apostolical,  of  Pa\il.  (See  Apos- 
tolical.) 

Juda  Hakkodosh,  Rabbi,  and  the  Emperor 
Antoninus.  430. 

Judaiscrs,  Judaising  Teachers  —  Judaism -- 
Paul's  controversy  with,  in  2  Corinthians, 
Galatians,  and  Romans,  406;  success  in 
undoing  Paul's  work  in  Antioch,  Coriuth, 
and  Galatia,  hence  Epistla  to  Golatiaui. 
425-6;  their  charges  against  Paul,  427; 
circumcision  the  ground  of  their  conten- 
tion with  Paul,  428 ;  their  motive  in  de- 
fending circumcision,  430 ;  their  hostility 
at  Jerusalem  dangerous  to  Paul,  444. 

Judas  Iscariot— his  fall  by  sin  and  his  end, 
49 ;  antitype  of  Ahitophel,  49. 

Jude,  misapprehension  of  his  Epistle,  726. 

Judgment,  Paul  on,  732. 

Julian,  attempt  to  substitute  the  term  "  Naza- 
rene  "  for  "  Christian,"  169. 

Julius  (Centurion) — his  judicial  impartiality, 
823  ;  placed  in  charge  of  Paul  to  take  him 
to  Rome,  561  et  seq. ;  gives  up  his  charge 
of  Paul,  577. 

Julius  Caasar,  his  protection  of  the  Jews, 
504. 

Justification  by  faith.    (See  Faith.) 

Juvenal,  his  description  of  Borne,  187. 


Kephas.    (See  Peter.) 

Kingdom  of  God — erroneous  ideas  of,  36-7; 

foundation  of,  Christ's  mission,  81 ;  defini> 

tion  of,  507. 
Koiiieh.    (Sec  Iconium.) 


L. 

Languages.    (See  Tongues.) 

Last  Supper,  Upper  room  of,  48, 181. 

Law— The  righteousness   of,   and  what 


INDEX. 


765 


pended  on  it,  36 ;  its  248  commands  and 
865  prohibitions,  37 ;  Oral,  nullity  of,  37 ; 
its  traditions  and  glosses  injurious,  37-9 ; 
requirements  before  God,  38-9 ;  require- 
ments impossible  for  man  to  satisfy,  39 ; 
Hypocrisy  in  observance  of,  39  ;  of  Moses, 
our  Lord  a  explanation  of  its  destiny,  85  ; 
Use,  objects,  and  end  of,  478,  651 ;  its  posi- 
tion in  the  scheme  of  salvation,  480  ct  scq. ; 
why  not  justifying,  482 ;  multiplying 
transgressions,  482-3;  difference  between 
justification  by  the  Law  and  justification 
oy  faith,  485;  position  further  defined, 
487 ;  illustration  from  marriage,  487 ;  its 
relation  to  sin,  483  et  seg. 

Lectionary,  Jewish,  207. 

Levanter,  566. 

Lex  Porcia,  23. 

Life — overcoming  death,  479-80;  in  Christ, 
490;  its  power,  490. 

Lois  and  Eunice  visited  by  Paul,  258. 

Longinus  on  the  style  of  Paul,  15,  689. 

Lord.    (See  Jesus.) 

Love — John,  the  Apostle  of,  1 ;  infinite  love 
of  God  the  solution  of  predestinarian  diffi- 
culties, 494;  ths  debt  of  all,  505.  (See 
Charity.) 

Love  Feasts,  51 ;  held  with  closed  doors,  99- 
100.  (See  AgapjB.) 

Lucan,  his  relation  to  Gallic,  321. 

Lucian  on  Christianity,  721. 

Luke — possible  errors  and  minute  exactness, 
64 ;  not  professing  to  give  a  complete  bio- 
graphy of  Paul,  116;  Paul's  companion 
from  Troaa  on  second  Apostolic  journeys, 
271 ;  his  fidelity  to  him,  271 ;  antecedents 
and  history — his  character  as  physician, 
and  in  his  relation  to  Paul,  272 ;  with  Paul 
at  Philippi,  511;  his  companion  on  his 
royage  to  Rome,  663 ;  as  historian  of  the 
Apostles,  617 ;  abrupt  ending  of  the  Acts 
not  explained,  647-8;  his  faithfulness  to 
Paul  in  his  imprisonment,  670. 

Luther,  Martin,  compared  with  Paul,  2,  431, 
496 ;  Opinion  of,  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  456. 

Lydia— baptised,  276;  entertains  Paul,  27t>: 
and  friends  at  Philippi,  their  care  for  Paul 
in  his  imprisonment  at  Rome,  594. 

Lysias — his  judicial  impartiality,  823;  pro- 
tecting Paul  by  his  soldier-like  energy, 
504;  rescues  Paul  from  the  Jews  in  the 
Temple,  533 ;  his  error  abeut  Paul,  533 ; 
permits  Paul  to  speak  to  the  Jews,  534  ; 
Informed  by  Paul's  nephew  of  plot  of  the 
Jews  to  take  Paul's  life — rescues  him — 
and  sends  him  from  Jerusalem  to  Csesa- 
rea,  544  et  seq. 

Lystra— visited  by  Paul  and  Barnabas,  214  ; 
Paul's  sufferings  there  rewarded  by  his 
conversion  of  Timothy,  217 ;  visited  asraia 
by  Paul,  25& 

M. 

Macedonia— Influx  of  Jews  and  Greeks,  but 
without  mixing  with  each  other,  67; 
visited  by  Paul  on  second  apostolic 
journey,  273  et  eeq. ;  position  of  women 
in,  276-7. 

Malta,  in  connection  with  Paul's  shipwreck, 
571-3. 

Man — Three  great  epochs  in  the  religious 
history  of,  476;  four  phases  of,  483;  not 
under  the  law  but  under  grace,  483. 


"  Man  of  Sin,"  726-9. 

Manaen  (Meuahera),  foster-brother  of  Herod 
An  tip  as,  182. 

Manuscripts — Chief  uncial  MSS.  of  the  Acta 
of  the  Apostles  and  the  Epistles  of  St 
Paul,  730-L 

Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  on  Christianity, 
721. 

Mark— interpreter  to  St.  Peter,  55;  com- 
panion of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  181,  194; 
relationship  to  Barnabas,  201 ;  leaves 
Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Perga,  202;  as 
the  cause  of  separation  between  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  254 ;  result  to  him  of  tho 
difference  between  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
256 ;  again  welcomed  by  Paul  as  a  fellow- 
labourer,  256. 

Marriage — Age  for,  and  customs  among 
Jews,  25,  46,  95;  Rabbinical  injunction 
to  marry  young,  46 ;  in  reference  to  Paul, 
46 ;  Paul's  view  of  marriage  and  virginity 
as  given  to  the  Corinthian  Church,  39L 

Mary,  the  mother  of  our  Lord — Worship  of, 
in  Cyprus,  197. 

Mary,  owner  of  the  house  in  which  was  the 
upper  chamber  in  which  the  Apostles 
met,  and  possibly  in  which  the  Last 
Supper  had  taken  place,  181. 

Masters  and  Servants — Mutual  duties,  657. 

Matthias  chosen  an  Apostle,  49,  50. 

Meat  and  other  food,  Paul's  rules  as  to  tho 
use  of,  505-6. 

Melancthon's  opinion  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  456. 

Melita.    (See  Malta.) 

Menaheia.    (See  Manaen.) 

Mercy,  Vessels  of,  498. 

Messiah — Rabbinical  idea  of  conditions  of  His 
coming,  37  ;  fulfilling  many  prophecies,  85. 

Miletus,  Paul's  interview  at,  with  elders  of 
the  Church  of  Ephesus,  515. 

Miracles  wrought  by  Apostles,  59,60, 148,  192, 
199,  214. 

Mishna — rules  for  marriages,  46 ;  marriage  tha 
first  of  its  613  precepts,  46. 

Missionary  journeys  of  Paul.  (See  Apos- 
tolical.) 

Mnason  entertains  Paul  at  Jerusalem,  521. 

Monastic  life  compared  with  Pharisaism,  38. 

Monobazus,  Zing  of  Adiabene,  and  his  family, 
173. 

Monobazus,  sou  of  Abennerig  and  Helena, 
circumcised,  429. 

Mosaic  Law.    (See  Law.) 

Moses — Jewish  reverencs  for,  85;  his  claim 
on  mankind,  85-6;  Relation  of  Paul  to, 
before  and  after  his  conversion  respec- 
tively, 120 ;  his  marriage,  183. 

Mount  of  Olives,  scene  of  our  Lord's  Ascen- 
sion, 47. 

N. 

"Nazarene" — Julian's  attempt  to  get  thia 
word  substituted  for  "  Christian,"  169. 

Nazarenes  and  Ebionites,  725. 

Nazorite  vows,  Jewish  customs  aa  to,  and 
proposal  of  elders  at  Jerusalem  to  PauL 
523-4 

Nero — Points  with,  in  Paul's  favour,  561 ;  per- 
secution,  585,  668;  the  direction  of  his 
influence  at  Rome,  587-S;  his  govern- 
ment, 668 ;  Paul  before  Nero,  671  et  teq. ; 
his  character,  672. 


INDEX. 


New  Testament.    (See  Testament.)      «*4 
Nicodemus  as  a  Pharisee,  26. 
Nicolas— Significance  of  his  appointment  as  a 
deacon,  75 ;  evidence  connecting  him  with 

the  Nicolaitans  insufficient,  75. 


O. 

Offertory,  Paul  on  the,  414,  419,  420, 421,  444. 

Old  Testament.     (See  Testament.) 

Olives,  Mount  of.    (See  Mount  of  Olives.) 

Onesimus — Visit  to  Paul  and  conversion,  58 ; 
subject  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  Philemon, 

.  608;  his  offence  and  its  legal  conse- 
quences, 623  et  scij. 

Onesiphorus — his  search  for  Paul  and  visits  to 
him  in  prison  at  Rome,  666-7 ;  his  kindness 
to  Paul,  670. 

Oral  Law.    (See  Law.) 

Our  Lord— our  Bedeemer— our  Saviour.  (Se« 
Jesus.) 

P. 

Paganism  and  its  results,  466. 

Paphos,  Soothsayers  of,  198. 

Paraclete.     (See  Holy  Ghost.) 

Parchments  and  hooks  of  Paul  at  Troas,  21, 
681  et  seq. 

Parthenon  dedicated  to  Virgin  Mary,  313. 

Pascal,  antecedents  of,  and  compared  with 
Paul,  3. 

Passover,  Upper  room  of,  48, 181. 

Pastoral  Epistles,  Paul's  genuineness  of,  664, 
743. 

Paul  —  Apostolical  journeys  of  (see  Apos- 
tolical) ;  Apostle  of  Progress,  1 ;  "in 
deaths  oft,"  1 ;  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  2 ; 
teacher  of  justification  by  faith,  2 ;  under 
God  the  founder  of  Christendom,  2 ;  value 
of  his  Epistles,  2 ;  power  of  his  writings, 
2,  3 ;  his  character,  2-4 ;  antecedents  and 
life  compared  with  those  of  Luther,  Wes- 
ley, and  others ;  antecedents  compared 
with  those  of  other  Apostles,  3,  7;  his 
education,  3,  7 ;  his  history  gathered 
from  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  but  frag- 
mentary, 5,  6 ;  genuineness  of  his  Epistles, 
4-6 ;  his  account  of  his  own  sufferings, 
compulsory,  5;  sufficiency  for  materials 
of  bis  life  and  character,  7 ;  undesigned 
coincidences  in  his  Epistles,  7:  "Paul 
the  aged,"  7,  8 ;  birthplace  and  boyhood, 
8  et  seq.  ;  parentage  and  descent,  9, 
20 ;  power  in  his  nationality,  9,  20 ; 
languages  known  to  him,  9, 10 ;  languages 
in  which  he  spoke,  10  ;  his  inner  life,  11, 
12 ;  unobservant  of  such  beauties  of  nature 
as  were  frequently  mentioned  by  our 
Lord,  12 ;  early  impressions  at  Tarsus,  13 ; 
influencing  causes  of  his  trade,  13;  in- 
fluence of  his  trade  on  his  character,  14 ; 
his  parents,  14  ;  their  privileges  as  Roman 
citizens  inherited  by  him,  14 ;  his  kinsmen, 
15 ;  his  education  under  Gamaliel,  15 ;  a 
Hebraist,  though  writing  in  Greek,  15; 
Longinus'  criticisms  on  his  style,  15; 
Cilicisms  in  his  style,  16;  influence  on 
him  of  his  residence  in  Tarsus,  16  et  seq. ; 
his  preference  of  folly  with  God  over  the 
wisdom  of  heathendom,  19  ;  not  of  Hellenic 
culture,  his  style  peculiar  and  his  Greek 
provincial,  his  thought*  Syriac,  his  dia- 


lectic method  Babbinic,  21;  his  books 
and  parchments  at  Troas,  21,  681  et  seq. ;  : 
those  books,  not  Greek  literature,  21-2 ; ! 
acquaintance  with  Greek  literature,  22; 
classic  quotations  and  allusions,  22; 
Boman  citizenship,  23-4 ;  scourgings,  24 ; 
Roman  citizenship  not  inconsistent  with 
Jewish  descent,  24;  early  studies,  25; 
claims  to  be  a  Pharisee,  26  ;  knowledge  of 
the  Old  Testament,  quoting  the  LXX., 
27 ;  value  to  him  of  Gamaliel's  teaching, 
28;  his  views  of  inspiration,  28;  use  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  of  Scriptures 
generally,  28-9 ;  his  style  of  argument  to 
Jews,  29 ;  as  Hebrew  and  Hellenist,  33 ; 
endeavours  to  keep  the  Law,  37 ;  miscon- 
ception of  the  Oral  Law,  37 ;  extent  of  hia 
obedience  to  the  Law,  38 ;  early  anxieties, 
88-9 ;  compared  with  Luther,  Bunyan,  and 
Johu  Newton,  40 ;  early  inward  struggles, 
40-1 ;  saw  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  41-3 ; 
knowledge  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by 
faith,  43 ;  not  at  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of 
our  Lord's  ministry  and  crucifixion — influ- 
ence on  him  of  Stephen's  dying  words,  44, 
97 ;  his  marriage,  44-6 ;  early  dealing  with  : 
the  infant  Church,  47 ;  cause  for  his  hatred 
by  the  people,  80 ;  his  part  in  the  dispute 
with  Stephen  in  the  Synagogue  of  the 
Libertines,  82  ;  his  feelings  on  listening  to 
him,  82 ;  holding  the  clothes  of  those  who 
stoned  Stephen,  94 ;  aged  thirty  years  at 
Stephen's  martyrdom,  95;  member  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  and  so  a  married  man, 
95;  his  fury  against  Christians,  96; 
even  under-rated  as  a  persecutor,  97; 
his  confession  of  erring  obstinacy  in  per- 
secuting the  Church,  98 ;  under  persecu- 
tion, 99 ;  his  commission  for  Damascus, 
100 ;  reflections  on  his  way  to  Damascus- 
conversion,  101-9 ;  inward  struggles,  105-6 ; 
knowledge  that  he  had  been  spoken  to  by 
his  God,  109;  result  of  having  seen  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  109, 110 ;  his  blindness, 
109 ;  the  two  accounts  of  his  conversion, 
111-12;  immediately  after  his  conversion 
led  blind  into  Damascus,  113  ;  entry  into 
and  departure  from  Damascus,  113 ;  ori- 
ginal mission  to  Damascus,  114 ;  his  con- 
version'as  an  evidence  of  Christianity, 
114 ;  Christ  all  in  all  to  him,  and  hia 
witness  to  Christ,  114 ;  a  preacher  of  the 
cross  and  the  Crucified,  115  ;  a  Nazarene, 
115 ;  the  training  necessary  for  his  great ! 
work,  117 ;  retirement  into  Arabia — his  , 
need  of  retirement,  116-17 ;  source  of  his  j 
Apostleship,  118 ;  frame  of  mind  after  his 
conversion,  118-19 ;  his  relation  to  Moses 
and  Mosaism,  120;  his  "thorn  in  thai 
flesh"  here  called  "stake  in  the  flesh"  | 
121  et  seq.;  traces  of  his  "stake  in  the 
flesh,"  122  et  seq. ;  object  of  his  "  stake  in 
the  flesh,"  125 ;  return  to  and  preaching 
at  Damascus,  125  et  seq. ;  how  his  preach- 
ing was  received  by  the  Jews  of  Damascus, 
126 ;  scourged  by  the  Jews,  127 ;  escape 
from  Damascus,  128;  journey  from  Da- 
mascus to  Jerusalem,  and  reception  there, 
128-30;  meeting  with  Peter  at  Jerusalem, 
130;  compared  with  James,  181;  early 
relations  with  Joseph,  Hark,  and  Barna- 
bas, 132-4 ;  early  trials,  135 ;  twice  secured 
by  Barnabas  for  the  work  of  Christianity, 
134, 162 ;  his  recognition  by  the  Apostles 


INDBX. 


767 


through.  Barnabas,  134;  early  ministry, 
perils,  escapes — second  vision  of  a  mission 
from  the  Lord  Jesus  to  the  Gentiles,  134 
et  seq.  ;  again  at  Tarsus,  136 ;  shipwrecks, 
136;  as  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  145; 
influence  in  Church  advancement  of  Paul, 
Stephen,  and  Philip,  respectively,  161 ; 
supplying  the  help  needed  by  Barnabas— 
with  Barnabas  at  Antioch  in  Syria — their 
joint  work  begun,  162;  preaching  at 
Antioch  in  Syria  and  its  results,  166  et 
seq. ;  separated  with  Barnabas  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  the  work  of  converting 
the  world,  188;  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 
188  ;  first  Apostolic  journey,  189,  219 ; 
description  of  Paul,  191-2;  strikes  Ely- 
mas  blind,  199;  his  miracles,  199,  214; 
a  widower  and  childless,  192;  defects 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  his  gifts, 
192-3 ;  at  Cyprus,  195  et  seq. ;  at  Salamis, 
196-7  ;  reason  for  change  in  his  name,  200; 
Mark  leaves  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Perga, 
202  ;  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  204-5 ;  preaches 
there,  207;  results,  210-11 ;  there  also,  on 
rejection  of  the  Gospel  by  the  Jews, 
turns  to  the  Gentiles,  211 ;  at  Iconium, 
212;  preaches  at  Iconium,  213;  results, 
213  et  seq. ;  at  Lystra,  214  ;  Paul  preaches, 
214 ;  heals  a  cripple,  214 ;  taken  for  gods, 
214-15;  disclaim  the  honours  offered  to 
them,  215-16;  stoned  by  Jews  at  Lystra, 
217 ;  converts  Timothy,  217 ;  with  Barna- 
bas leaves  Lystra,  218;  at  Derbe,  218; 
work  and  success,  218  ;  Gaius  and  other 
friends  and  converts,  218 ;  return  from 
Derbe  to  Antioch  in  Syria,  completing 
first  Apostolic  journey,  219;  results  of 
first  Apostolic  journey,  221 ;  convictions 
after  first  Apostolic  journey,  221-2;  con- 
scious of  special  mission  to  Gentiles, 
223-4;  with  Barnabas  goes  to  Jerusalem 
on  question  of  circumcision,  228;  con- 
verts Titus  who  (joes  with  him  to  Jeru- 
salem, 229;  convinces  John,  Peter,  and 
James  on  circumcision  as  unnecessary, 
230 ;  zeal  for  poor  of  Church  at  Jerusalem, 
231 ;  circumcises  Timothy,  232 ;  Nazarite 
now,  235  ;  with  Peter  at  Antioch  in  Syria, 
247  et  seq. ;  his  prominence  as  a  guide  of 
the  Church,  247 ;  influence  at  Antioch, 
where  he  is  joined  by  Silas,  247;  rebukes 
Peter  for  change  of  bearing  towards 
Gentiles,  250  et  seq. ;  result  of  rebuke  on 
Peter,  252  et  seq. ;  dispute  with  Barnabas 
as  to  the  companionship  of  Mark,  254: 
separation,  254 ;  mutual  loss  to  Paul  and 
Barnabas,  though  friendship  not  broken, 
254 ;  the  welcome  of  Mark  again  as  fellow, 
labourer,  256,  681;  second  Apostolic 
Journey,  256-353;  visits  Churches  of  Syria 
and  Cilicia,  Tarsus,  Derbe,  and  Lystra, 
257  et  seq. ;  love  for  Timothy,  259 ;  love 
for  his  churches,  259;  circumcision  of 
Timothy  and  Titus,  261 ;  goes  through 
Phrygia  and  Galatia,  262 ;  visits  Iconium, 
262 ;  Antioch  and  Pisidia,  262 ;  visits  Jews 
on  Eusiuc,  Galatia,  and  results,  263 ;  ill- 
ness in  Galatia,  264  et  seq. ;  cause  of  illness, 
266 ;  kindness  of  Galatians,  265-6 ;  founds 
churches  in  Galatia,  268 ;  visits  Bithynia, 
Troas,  Alexandria,  269  et  seq. ;  >»eet8  with 
Luke,  271 ;  Luke's  fidelity  to  him,  271 ; 
takes  Luke  with  him  from  Troas,  271 ;  in 
his  relations  with  Luke,  272 ;  at  Philippi, 


274  et  seq. ;  ministry  at  Philippi,  276 ;  bap- 
tises Lydia  of  Thyatira,  276 ;  lodges  with 
Lydia,  276;  reason  for  accepting  pecu- 
niary aid  from  Philippi  only  of  all  hia 
churches,  276  ;  his  fellow-workers  at  Phi- 
lippi, 277;  casts  out  spirit  of  divination 
from  possessed  damsel,  278-9;  anger  of 
owners,  279 ;  charge  against  Paul  and 
Silas,  279 ;  imprisoned  and  scourged, 
281-2 ;  conversion  [and  baptism  of  jailor, 
283-4 ;  fear  of  the  magistrates,  284 ;  Paul 
and  Silas  leave  Philippi,  285 ;  leave  Luke 
behind  them,  285  et  seq.  •  at  Thessalonica, 
286  ;  poverty  when  there,  287 ;  ministry 
there,  288 ;  preaches  Christ  in  synagogue, 
288 ;  believers  chiefly  among  the  Gentiles. 
288;  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians,  289 
et  seq. ;  dangers,  291 ;  hatred  of  Paul  by 
the  Jews,  290 ;  in  concealment,  292  j 
escape  from  Thessalonica,  292-3 ;  with. 
Silas  leaves  Thessalonica  for  Bereea,  293  > 
Athens,  295  et  seq. ;  his  feelings  at  Athens. 
296,  300 ;  intercourse  with  the  Jews  of 
Athens,  302  ;  altar  to  the  Unknown  God, 
301 ;  preaches  at  Athens,  304  ;  result,  305. 
et  seq. ;  view  of,  in  society,  305 ;  answers 
questions  of  the  Athenians,  306  ;  declares1 
true  God  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  308-311;  tact  in  addressing  Athe- 
nians, 309 ;  leaves  Athens,  312 ;  apparent 
failure,  312 ;  germ  of  victory  in  all  hia 
apparent  failures ,'312-13  ;  at  Corinth,  314  > 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and  Thessa- 
lonians, 315;  grief  at  the  wickedness  of 
Corinth,  316  et  seq.  ;  will  accept  nothing 
from  the  Corinthians  lest  it  be  used  as  a 
handle,  317 ;  relation  to  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla,  317  ;  works  as  a  tent-maker,  318; 
joined  by  Silas  and  Timotheus,  318;  re- 
ceives contributions  from  Philippian 
Christians,  318;  founds  Church  at  Corinth, 
819-20;  complaints  of  Paul  by  Jews  of 
Corinth,  322;  not  allowed  by  Gallic  to 
defend  himself,  322 ;  dismissed  by  Gallio, 
322-3 ;  his  supposed  correspondence  with 
Seneca,  spurious,  325;  writes  1  Thess., 
probably  his  earliest  Epistle,  325 ;  account 
of  1  Thess.,  325  et  seq. ;  his  intense  feelings 
conveyed  in  his  writings,  326 ;  anxiety  as 
to  reception  and  result  of  his  Epistles, 
827 }  salutation  and  introduction  in 
Epistles,  328 ;  thankfulness  on  behalf  of 
Thessalonian  Christians  in  1  The»s.,  329, 
830 ;  dangers  at  Thessalonica  and  Philippi, 
830-1 ;  calumnies  from  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
331 ;  answer  to  Thessalonian  calumnies  in 
his  life  and  disinterestedness,  331 ;  taking 
nothing  from  them,  331 ;  persecution  by 
the  Jews,  332;  joy  in  the  Christians  of 
Thessalonica,  333;  visit  of  Timothy  to 
Thessalonica,  333 ;  his  report  of  the  faith 
which  he  finds  there,  333;  enjoins  prac- 
tical Christian  duties  on  the  Thessa- 
lonians, 333-5 ;  on  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  335  et  seq.;  corrects  error  and  sloth 
caused  by  idea  of  day  of  the  Lord  as  near 
at  hand,  340 ;  account  of  2  Thessalonians, 
840  et  seq.  ;  view  of  day  of  the  Lord,  341 ; 
object  in  2  Thessalonians,  343;  stay  at 
Corinth,  351 ;  at  Ephesas,  352,  354  et  seq.; 
In  his  character  as  a  Jew,  352 ;  his  tem- 
porary Nazarite  vow  and  its  conditions, 
851-2 ;  preaches  Christ  at  Ephesus,  852 ; 
goes  to  Jerusalem  for  the  fourth  time, 


INDEX, 


853;  his  four  visits  enumerated,  838;  end 
of  second  Apostolic  journey,  853 ;  recep- 
tion at  Jerusalem,  853 ;  third  Apostolic 
journey,  854-521 ;  goes  again  to  Antioch 
and  again  visits  Churches  of  Phrygia  and 
Galatisf,  354 ;  peril  at  Ephcsus,  360 ;  testi- 
mony to  Apollos,  362  ;  labours  at  Ephesus, 
862  ;  withdraws  his  disciples  from  Jews  of 
Ephesus,  and  disputes  daily  in  the  school 
of  Tyrannus,  363 ;  success  at  Ephesus, 
363;  perils— outbreak  at  Ephesus  from 
worshippers  of  Diana,  371  et  seq.;  leaves 
Ephesus,  375:  joined  by  two  Epheaians, 
Tychicus  and  Trophimus,  375  ;  care  for 
Corinthian  Churches,  376-7;  distress  at 
news  of  Church  from  Corinth,  380 ;  begins 
1  Corinthians,  334;  declaration  to  the 
Corinthians  of  purpose  of  his  mission, 
385 ;  declares  doctrine  of  crucified  Saviour, 
385 ;  exhorts  to  unity  in  Christ,  386 ;  con- 
demns divisions  in  the  Church,  387  ;  warns 
against  false  teachers,  387 ;  case  of  incest 
in  Corinthian  Church,  388 ;  on  chastity, 
389-391 ;  meat  offered  to  idols,  391 ;  re- 
surrection of  the  dead,  398-400;  on 
marriage  and  virginity,  390-1 ;  his  own 
struggles,  392;  examples  of  those  who 
have  fallen  •.  through  want  of  self -disci- 
pline, 392;  on  the  head  covered  or  un- 
covered at  prayer,  394;  condemnation 
of  practices  in  Corinth  at  the  Lord's 
supper,  S94 ;  on  charity,  396  et  seq. ; 
leaves  Ephesus  for  Troas,  and  goes 
thence  ( in  consequence  of  a  vision) 
to  Macedonia,  401;  subjects  of  several 
Epistles,  403;  self-defence  to  the  Corin- 
thians, 403  et  seq.,  408  et  seq.  ;  controversy 
(in  three  phases)  with  Judaism  in  2  Corin- 
thians, Galatians,  and  Romans,  406 ;  source 
and  vindication  of  his  authority  as  an 
Apostle,  407  et  seq. ;  character  of  his 
preaching  described  by  himself,  411  et  seq.  ; 
his  ministry  a  ministry  of  reconciliation, 
413;  himself  an  ambassador  for  Christ, 
413;  no  burden  to  the  Corinthians,  414; 
the  plainness  of  speech,  indignation  and 
irony,  and  yet  meekness  and  gentleness 
of  2  Corinthians,  from  end  of  Chapter  ix., 
414  et  seq. ;  warning  against  false  teachers 
416-17 ;  his  own  labours  and  perils,  417  et 
seq. ;  visions  and  revelations,  418  et  seq. ; 
not  burdensome  to  Corinthian  Church, 
but  caught  them  with  guile,  419;  route 
and  work  iu  Macedonia,  420  et  seq. ;  pledge 
to  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem,  421 ;  leaves 
Macedonia  and  returns  to  Corinth,  422; 
his  companions,  422-3 ;  absence  of  infor- 
mation as  to  his  intercourse  with  the 
Church  at  Corinth  on  his  return  thither, 
424-5 ;  ground  for  inferring  his  success  in 
dealing  with  Corinthian  difficulties,  425 ; 
his  inmost  thoughts  revealed  in  Galatians 
and  Epmans,  425;  grief  at  success  of 
Jadaising  teachers  at  Antioch  and  Corinth, 
and  in  Galatia,  425-6;  henoo  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  426;  charges  against  him 
by  Judaising  teachers,  and  his  replies, 
427 ;  resistance  of  those  who  advocate  the 
necessity  for  circumcision,  428  et  seq.; 
compared  with  Luther,  431 ;  Apostolic 
authority  first  vindicated  in  Epistle  to 
Galatians,  432;  determination  to  go  to 
Jerusalem  through  whatever  danger,  and 
afterwards  to  Rome,  444;  his  faith  in  his 


God,  444-5 ;  doubts,  as  to  accounte'of  bis 
martyrdom,  4)t8 ;  in  his  character  of 
deserter  of  Judaism,  and  defender  of  the 
spiritual  seed  of  Abraham  only  as  the  true 
Israel  of  God,  458;  interpretation  of 
Ilabakkuk  on  life  by  faith,  464 ;  cause  of 
BO  me  logical  defects  in  his  statements, 
476;  objections  to  his  arguments  in 
Romans,  484 ;  his  use  of  different  methods 
in  argument,  484 ;  apparent  contradictions 
in  his  writings,  485 ;  only  jealous  for  the 
truth,  486-7  ;  indifference  to  apparently  il- 
logical reasons  in  his  teaching,  487;  method 
in  enforcing  truth  compared  with  that 
of  Luther,  Jerome,  and  others,  496 ;  grief 
for  hardness  of  heart,  496 ;  love  for  the 
Jews,  496 ;  protected  by  the  Roman  im- 
partiality of  Gallic,  Lysios,  Felix,  and 
Festus,  504 ;  plot  of  Jews  against  his 
life,  510;  Sosipater,  Aristarchus,  Secun- 
dus,  Gains,  Timotheus,  Tychicus,  Trophi- 
mus, and  Luke,  his  companions,  511 ;  at 
Philippi,  511 ;  at  Troas,  511  et  seq. ;  voyage 
by  Lesbos,  Chios,  Samoa,  and  Trogyluum 
to  Miletus,  514-15  ;  interview  with  tho 
elders  of  tho  Ephesian  Church  at  Miletus, 
515-17;  voyage  from  Miletus  by  Cos,  Cnidna 
Rhodes,  Patara.andCyprua.to  Tyre,  517-18; 
at  Tyre,  519 ;  visits  Philip  the  Evangelist 
at  Caesarea,  519 ;  fifth  visit  to  Jerusalem, 
and  end  of  the  third  Apostolic  journey, 
521 ;  reception  by  James  and  elders  of  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem — their  proposal  to 
him,  522-4 ;  does  as  James  and  elders  pro- 
posed to  him  as  to  Nazarite  vows,  527;  out- 
break of  the  Jews  in  the  temple  against 
him,  531;  charged  by  the  Jews  with  defiling 
the  Temple,  531 ;  rescued  by  Lysias  from 
the  Jews  in  the  Temple,  533 ;  address  to 
the  Jews  after  their  outrage  on  him  in  the 
Temple,  534-5 ;  order  to  scourge  him — 
declares  himself  a  Boman  citizen,  536-7; 
before  the  Sanhedrin — his  treatment  by 
the  High  Priest — his  protest— his  defence, 
538  et  seq. ;  encouraged  by  a  vision,  543: 
saved  by  his  nephew  from  a  conspiracy  of 
Jews  against  his  life,  544  et  seq. ;  sent  by 
Lysias  to  Csesarea  under  escort,  546 ;  the 
conduct  of  Lysias,  546 ;  letter  of  Lysias  to 
Felix,  546 ;  preparations  for  his  trial  before 
Felix,  547  et  seq. ;  defence  before  Felix, 
548-9 ;  trial  not  concluded,  but  again 
summoned  before  Felix,  550 ;  power  of 
his  arguments  with  Felix,  550 ;  attempts 
of  Felix  to  procure  bribes  for  Paul's  re- 
lease, 551;  beforeFestus — appeal  to  Cesar, 
554  «t  seq.;  before Festus  and  Agrippa,  558 ; 
his  defence,  558  et  seq. ;  sent  in  charge  of 
Julius  the  centurion  to  Borne  with  Luke 
and  Aristarchus  as  his  fellow-voyagers, 
561-3 ;  voyage  to  Borne  by  Sidon,  Cyprus, 
Myra,  Cnidus,  Fair  Havens,  where  waited 
long: — his  courage  in  danger — Melita,  563 
et  seq.;  shipwreck  at  Melita,  572  et  seq.; 
the  viper  at  Melita,  574 ;  declared  a  god, 
574;  heals  Publius'  father,  574:  voyage 
and  journey  to  Borne  from  Melita  by  Sy- 
racuse, Rhegium,  PnteoU,  Bale,  Capua, 
A.ppii  Forum,  Three  Taverns,  577-8 ;  treat- 
ment at  Rome,  678 ;  his  bonds,  678 ;  appeal 
to  C.'esar,  519  ;  addresses  the  Jews  at  Rome, 
680 ;  his  companions  and  friends  in  Rome 
•—Timotheus,  Luke,  Aristarchus,  TV- 
cliicus,  Epaphroditus,  Ep.iphras/j  Mark, 


INDEX. 


769 


Demaa,  680-1}  two  years  <tf  sojourn"  and 
unliindered  preaching1  in  Borne,  581}  bis 
abode,  582 ;  discouragements,  582-3 ;  post- 
ponement of  Ms  trial,  582  ;  means  of  liv- 
ing, 583;  success  of  his  preaching,  583 
et  seq. ;  position  at  Rome,  585 ;  varying 
characteristics  of  his  Epistles,  588  et  seq.  f 
Epistles  of  the  captivity,  592  et  seq. ;  lov- 
ing care  for  him  of  Lydia  and  other  Phi- 
lippian  friends  when  a  prisoner  at  Home, 
591 ;  indifference  of  the  Roman  Christians, 
594;  his  own  account  of  himself  to  the 
Philippians,  597-8;  humility  in  his  minis- 
try and  warning  to  the  Colossian  Church 
against  false  teachers,  617-18 ;  probable 
trial,  acquittal,  release,  and  course  of 
events  till  death,  648 ;  his  intended  visit 
to  Spain,  650 ;  visit  to  Crete,  659 ;  founds 
the  Cretan  Church,  659 ;  closing  days,  664 
et  seq. ;  fear  of  Gnosticism,  666 ;  desire  to 
strengthen  the  Churches  against  it,  666} 
relations  between  Paul  and  Timothy,  667 } 
companions  in  his  hist  imprisonment,  668 ; 
writes  to  Timothy  of  his  loneliness  in 
prison,  the  support  of  his  God,  his  trial, 
671;  hardships  of  second  imprisonment 
in  Rome,  and  change  in  his  position,  668-9 } 
left  in  his  loneliness  by  friend  after  friend, 
Luke  only  faithful  to  him,  670 ;  kindness 
of  Onesiphorus  in  searching  him  out  and 
visiting  him  in  prison — gratitude  to  him, 
6G6-7,  670 ;  his  last  trial— the  little  that  he 
says  of  it— strengthened  by  his  God,  670-2, 
675 ;  his  desire  once  more  to  see  Timothy, 
676;  hist  letter,  676  et  seq.;  farewell  of 
Timothy,  680 ;  personal  matters,  680 ; 
significance  of  his  request  for  his  cloak, 
books,  and  parchments,  from  Troas,  681-3  ; 
final  trial,  condemnation,  death,  686;  ap- 
parent failure — real  greatness  and  success, 
687 ;  lasting  results  of  his  life  and  work, 
688 ;  crown  of  righteousness,  6&8 ;  style  il- 
lustrative of  writer's  character,  689-693  ; 
various  writers  in  testimony  of,  689  et  seq. ; 
Rhetoric  of,  693-6 ;  classic  quotations  and 
allusions,  696-701 ;  a  Hagadist,  701 ;  Paul 
and  Philo,  701  et  seq. ;  in  Arabia,  709 ;  "  stake 
in  the  flesh,"  710-15  ;  Paul  and  John,  723-4  ; 
attacks  on  Paul  in  the  Clementines,  724-6  ; 
theology  and  antinomies  of,  732-3  ;  evidence 
as  to  liberation,  741-2 ;  chronology  of  his 
life  and  Epistles,  753-7  ;  dates  of  his  Epistles. 
756 ;  traditional  account  of  his  personal 
appearance,  758. 

Faulus,  Sergius,  Proconsul  of  Cyprus,  197, 
721-2. 

Peace  and  Hope,  results  of  justification  by 
faith,  475-6. 

Pentecost,  the  first,  after  the  Resurrection 
of  our  Lord,  50 ;  beginning  of  final  phase 
of  God's  dealings  with  men,  51 ;  crowded 
state  of  Jerusalem  at,  57 ;  events  of,  68-9. 

People,  Chosen.    (See  Jews.) 

Perishing,  Paul's  view  of  the,  732, 

Persecutions  and  results,  59  et  seq.,  160. 

Peter,  as  Cephas,  Apostle  of  the  Foundation 
Stone,  1;  impress  of  individuality  on 
Church,  1;  Peter  and  First  Pentecost, 
46  et  seq. ;  discourse  at  first  Pentecost  and 
its  effect,  58-9;  miracles,  59,  60, 148;  his 
reception  of  Paul  at  Jerusalem,  130 ;  his 
admission  of  Gentiles  into  the  Church, 
145 ;  rebukes  Simon  Magus,  146 ;  lodging 
with  Simon  the  tanner  at  Joppa,  148} 


vision  at  Joppa  and  its  significance,  152-6 ; 
sent  for  by  Cornelius  to  Ceesarea,  156 ; 
address  to  the  Gentiles  at  Caesarea  and  its 
results,  157-8 ;  address  at  Jerusalem  and 
its  results,  158-9 ;  in  prison,  176 ;  released 
from;  prison  by  an  angel,  177 ;  convinced 
by  Paul  on  circumcision,  230 ;  his  address 
on  circumcision,  238;  independence  of 
Judaism,  and  free  intercourse  with  Gen- 
tiles, 248-9  ;  rebuked  by  Paul  for  change 
of  bearing  towards  Gentiles,  250  et  seq.  ; 
spirit  in  which  he  received  Puul's  rebuke, 
252-3;  doubts  as  to  accounts  of  his 
martyrdom,  448 ;  not  the  founder  of  the 
Roman  Church,  448. 

Peter  and  John— Two  chief  Apostles,  1 ; 
before  the  chief  priests,  59, 60 ;  kncivlcdgo 
of  the  mind  of  Christ,  724. 

Peter  and  Paul  at  Antioch  in  Syria,  248. 

Pharaoh— His  hardness  of  heart  explained, 
493. 

Pharisaism,  Its  various  aspects,  26 ;  compared 
with  the  monastic  life,  36. 

Pharisees,  Life  and  observances  of,  35  et  seq,  ; 
minute  points  of  observance,  33-9 ;  scrupu- 
lous observance  of  Sabbath,  39 ;  baptised, 
but  understand  Christ  less  than  the 
Saddncees,  who  had  handed  him  over  to 
the  secular  arm,  85. 

Philemon,  Causes  of  Paul's  Epistle  to,  622-7 ; 
account,  subject  of,  &c.,  623  et  seq. 

Philip  (Apostle)  and  Andrew — Hellenic  names, 
but  still  common  among  the  Jews,  74. 

Philip  (Evangelist)  appointed  deacon,  75 ; 
evangelist  as  well  as  deacon,  78  ;  ministry, 
78 ;  baptises  Simon  Magus,  146 ;  baptises 
the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  147;  the  respec- 
tive influence  in  Church  advancement  of 
Philip,  Stephen,  andfPaul,  161:  work  in 
the  (Jhurch,  160}  Paul's  visit  to  him  at 
Csesarea,  519. 

Philippi,  Description  of,  274  et  seq.;  Church 
or,  alone  ministering  to  Paul's  necessities^ 
276 ;  Paul's  fellow_- workers  at,  276. 

Philippians — ministering  to  Paul's  necessities 
at  Corinth,  318;  Epistle  to,  502;  causes 
of,  594;  loving  care  for  Paul  and  his 
necessities,  594. 

Philippians,  Epistle  to— Exhortation  to  unity 
in,  595,  599 ;  characteristics  of,  595-6 ; 
account  of,  596  et  se<j.;  writer's  lencouraje- 
ments  to  Philippians,  598;  digression  of 
special  warnings,  601  et  seq.;  conclusion, 
603-4 ;  gratitude  for  help  in  necessities, 
601;  future  of  Fhilippian  Church,  605. 

Philosophers  of  Athens,  302  ct  seq. 

Pilate — his  judicial  impartiality,  323. 

Pliny  —  on  tests  of  Christians,  186;  his 
account  of  Christians  in  Bithynia,  186; 
letter  to  Sabinianus,  734. 

Pliny  the  Younger  on  Christianity,  721. 

Pompeii,  Morals  of,  typical  of  those  of  Tarsus, 
Ephesus,  Corinth,  and  Miletus,  21. 

Pompey— introduction  of  Jews  into  Rome, 
445 ;  his  treatment  of  them  and  its  results, 
445-6. 

Pontius  Pilate.    (See  Pilate.) 

Pope  Adrian.    (See  Adrian  VI.) 

Porcia  Lex,  23. 

Porcius  Festus.  (Sc«  Festus.) 

Predestination  —  Definition  of,  492 ;  consis- 
tent with  man's  free  will,  493 ;  difficulties 
of,  solved  by  the  infinity  of  God's  love, 
494;  Paul's  view  of ,  732, 


770 


INDEX. 


Priests,  Chief,  in  Judgment  on  Peter  and  John, 

60-1 ;   many    Jewish,  "  obedient    to  the 

faith  "  of  Christ,  76. 
Priscilla  and  Aquila,  their  relation  to  Paul. 

317.  ..  ^ 

Progress,  Paul  the  Apostle  of,  1. 
Prophecy  fulfilled  in  Messiah,  84. 
Prophets  foretold  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles, 

150. 
Proselytes,   Greek  —  their  conversion,    161 ; 

burdens  laid  on,  718-19. 
Psalms — the  -poetry  of    the,  compared  with 

Paul's  Epistles,  10. 
Public  "Worship.     (See  Worship.) 
Publius'  father  healed  by  Paul  at  Melita,  57i. 
Punishments,  Capital,  706-7. 


Babban,  Eabbi,  25. 

Eabbi,  Rabbis — School  of  the,  23  et  uq. ;  mis- 
conception of  the  oral  law,  37  j  "  strain 
gnats  and  swallow  camels,"  39;  of  Jeru- 
salem, their  ignorance  of  the  intent  of 
God's  gifts,  70. 

Ealiab  an  ancestress  of  our  Lord,  183. 

Eecompense,  Paul's  view  of,  732. 

Eedeemed,  The,  Paul's  view  of  the  forgiveness 
of,  732. 

Eedeemer.     (See  Jesus.) 

Eestoratiqn,  Universal,  Paul's  view  of,  732. 

Resurrection  —  Power  of  Christ's,  47;  and 
Judgment,  Athenian  view  of,  311;  faith 
in  the,  confirmed,  398  et  seq. 

Eighteousness  of  God— its  effect  on  man,  461 ; 
of  the  law  and  what  depended  on  it,  37. 
(See  God.) 

Borne  —  character  of,  in  the  time  of  the 
Apostles,  described  by  St.  John,  Seneca, 
and  Juvenal,  186-7 ;  Jews  introduced  into, 
by  Pompey,  445 ;  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity into,  447 ;  Jewish  and  Gentile 
elements  in  early  Church  of,  447-50;  im- 
partiality of  its  law  favourable  to  Paul, 
504 ;  Paul's  confidence  in  the  Christiana 
of,  508 ;  Paul  at,  577  et  seq. ;  its  social  con- 
dition— its  early  Christians — Paul's  im- 
munity, 582  et  seq. ;  prevailing  influences 
in,  during  Paul's  residence  there,  585 
et  seq.;  indifference  of  the  Christians  of, 
to  Paul  and  his  necessities  compared  with 
the  kindness  of  the  Philippians,  594,  650. 

Boman,  Eomans— Result  to,  of  the  dispersion 
of  the  Jews ,  66 ;  their  early  vie ws  of  Chris- 
tianity, 323  ;  their  judicial  impartiality 
k  when  Christians  were  brought  before 

them,  323  ;  apotheosis  of  their  emperors, 
717-18 ;  Paul's  position  among,  as  a  de- 
serter of  Judaism,  and  asserter  of  spiri- 
tual seed  of  Abraham  as  alone  the  true 
Israel  of  God,  453;  superiority  of  Paul's 
Epistle  to,  above  the  frivolity  of  the 
Alkoila  Zara,  453-4 ;  Paul's  confidence, 
459 ;  trials,  votes  in,  given  by  tablets,  671, 
685. 

Somans,  Paul's  Epistle  to — cause  of,  445 ;  ac- 
count of  Epistle,  445  et  seq.;  addressed  to 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  449 ;  probably 
copied  and  sent  to  other  churches,  as 
Ephesus  and  Thessalonica,  450-1;  object 
of,  451  etseq. ;  character  and  style  of,  451  et 
eeq. ;  character  of  Church  when  Paul  wrote 
Epistles,  452 ;  causes  of ,  452 ;  spirit  in  which 


written,  452-3 ;  how  probably  originated, 
455 ;  deductions  thence  in  writer's  mind, 
455-6 ;  Jesus  Christ  as  common  foundation! 
for  the  Jew  and  Gentile  the  basis  of  this] 
and  of  every  one  of  Paul's  Epistles,  456  ; 
opinions  of  Luther,  Melancthon,  Cole- 
ridge, and  Tholuck,  456 ;  outline  of,  456  etj 
teq. ;  salutation  and  introduction,  458-9  j 
comprehensiveness,  459 ;  thanksgiving  fort 
faith  of,  459;  Roman  Christians,  459;' 
God's  righteousness  revealed  in  the  Gos-i 
pel  of  the  Cross  to  Jew  and  Gentile  alike,' 
460 ;  justification  by  faith  the  one  means' 
of  attaining  to  holiness — the  great  subjects 
of  the  Epistle,  461 ;  God's  righteousness! 
— the  various  sources  and  revelations  of,, 
461  et  seq. ;  the  sins  of  Paganism,  465-6  ;j 
Jews  equally  guilty  with  Gentiles,  467 ; 
nselessness  of  circumcision,  470-1 ;  justi-t 
fication  God's  free  gift,  474;  justification! 
establishing  the  law,  474 ;  universality  off 
sin  and  of  justification,  476 ;  by  one,  sin — i 
by  one,  justification,  476-7 ;  purpose  of  the' 
law,  478;  relations  of  sin  and  grace,  479;; 
why  the  law  was  inefficacious  to  justify, : 
480,  482;  the  law  gave  its  strength  the: 
law,  but  under  grace,  history  of  man  to 
sin,  482-3;  Christians  not  under  four 
phases,  483;  writer's  style  of  argument 
justified  against  those  who  censure  it,  484  ; 
Christian  dead  to  past  moral  condition, 
risen  to  new  one,  because  Christ  in  His 
crucified  body  has  destroyed  the  power  of 
sin,  487 ;  predestination  and  free-will  not 
inconsistent  with  each  other,  492  et  se<j. ; 
Jews,  their  fall,  495  et  seq. ;  their  hopes  of 
restoration,  498  et  seq. ;  obedience  to  the 
civil  power  enjoined,  503  ;  Paul's  respect 
for  the  civil  power  from  his  own  expe- 
rience, 503-4;  dues,  503,  505;  observances 
as  to  fasting  and  use  of  food,  505;  the 
weak  and  the  strong,  505  et  seq. ;  Paul's 
defence  of  his  Epistles,  508 ;  probable  end 
of  Epistle  as  originally  intended,  509  ;  its 
actual  conclusion,  509-10. 

Room,  Upper.    (See  Upper  Boom.) 

Bulers  contemporary  with  Paul,  Table  of, 
756-7. 

Running  so  as  to  obtain,  732.1 

Buth,  ancestress  of  Christ,  183. 


Sabbath  observances  of  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees,  39. 

Sabbatic  year,  observances  of,  39. 

Sabinianus,  Letter  of  Pliny  to,  734. 

Sacrifice,  Living,  required  of  all  Christiana, 
502. 

Sadducees,  scrupulous  observances  of  Sabbath, 
39. 

St.  Denys.    (See  Denys.) 

St.  Paul.    (See  Paul.) 

Saint.    (In  each  case  see  Saint's  name). 

Sakya  Moimi,  Antecedents  of,  3. 

Salamis — Jews  of,  196 ;  Paul  and  Barnabas  at, 
195-6. 

Salvation  through  fear,  732. 

Sanhedrin — not  afraid  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
afraid  of  two  of  his  disciples,  61 ;  rage  of 
at  Stephen's  discourse,  92  ;  charged  with 
laxity  at  the  time  of  Stephen's  martyr- 
dom, 96;  marriage  a  condition  of  member- 


INDEX 


77T 


Bhip,  95  j  Paul  had  been  a  member  of, 
95-6. 

Sapphira.     (See  Ananias.) 

Sardanapalus,  Statue  of,  at  Anchiale,  17. 

"  Saul  the  Pharisee,"  35  et  seq. 

"  tiaul  the  persecutor,"  95  et  seq.    (See  PanL) 

Saviour.    (See  Jesus.) 

Sceva,  of  Ephesus,  sons  overcome  by  evil 
spirit  while  using  the  holy  name  of  Jesus, 
364-5. 

School  of  the  Babhi,  23  et  se$. 

Scourging.  Jewish,  715-17. 

Scripture,  Paul's  use  of,  27-8. 

Sejonus— his  attempt,  to  eject  the  Jews  from 
Bomb,  446  ;  persecution  of  the  Jews,  504. 

Seneca — his  description  of  Borne,  187  ;  relation 
to  Gallic,  321 ,  his  supposed  correspond- 
ence with  Paul  spurious,  325 ;  account  of 
Jews  in  Borne,  446:  his  disgrace  by 
Nero,  587. 

Septuagint,  the  work  of  the  most  learned 
men  of  the  Jewish  Dispersion,  72. 

Sergius  Paulua,  Proconsul  of  Cyprus,  197, 
721-2. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount  compared  with  Paul's 
Epistles,  327. 

Servants  and  masters,  mutual  duties  of,  657. 

Shammai,  the  school  of,  25 ;  his  descent,  183; 
view  of  the  oral  law,  226. 

Shema  in  studies  of  Paul  as  a  hoy,  25. 

Shipwreck,  Paul's,  571-3. 

Silas— joins  Paul  at  Antioch  in  Syria,  247; 
Paul's  companion  in  his  travels,  256-7. 
(See  Paul.) 

Silvanus.     (See  Silas.) 

Simeon— his  prophecy  of  our  Lord  as  a  Light 
to  the  Gentiles,  183. 

Simeon,  Niger — position  in  Church  at  Antioch 
in  Syria,  182. 

Simon  Magus,  146,  198. 

Simon  Peter.    (See  Peter.) 

Sin,  Belation  of  grace  to,  479 ;  relation  of  law 
to,  488  et  seq. ;  Man  of,  726  et  seq. ;  Paul's 
views  of,  732. 

Sohermindedness,  key-note  of  Paul's  Epistlo 
to  Titus,  662. 

Sosthenes  beaten  before  Gallio,  324. 

South-west  and  North-west  explained,  565-6. 

Spinoza,  antecedents  of,  and  compared  with 
Paul,  3. 

Spirit,  Holy.    (See  Holy  Ghost.) 

"  Stake  in  the  flesh,"  Paul's,  121  «t  seq.,  710-15. 
(See  Paul.) 

Stephen — Influence  of  his  last  words  on  Paul, 
43 ;  Stephen  and  the  Hellenists,  65  et  seq.  ? 
appointed  one  of  the  seven  deacons,  75  ; 
influence  on  Paul,  76 ;  more  his  teacher 
than  Gamaliel,  76 ;  what  he  must  have 
been  had  he  lived,  76 ;  had  probably  heard 
the  truth  from  the  Lord  Jesus,  though 
the  tradition  that  he  was  one  of  the 
seventy  disciples  is  valueless,  77 ;  elected 
deacon  for  his  faith,  78  j  the  most  pro- 
minent of  the  seven,  78 ;  equal  with  the 
Apostles  in  working  wonders  among  the 
people,  78 ;  his  great  part  in  the  history 
of  the  Church,  78 ;  evangelist  as  well  as 
deacon,  78;  compared  with  the  twelve 
Apostles,  78 ;  his  dispute  in  the  synagogue 
of  the  Libertines,  82 ;  his  triumph  in 
argument,  82  ;  its  result,  83 ;  his  view  of 
the  law  of  Moses  blasphemy  to  the  Jews, 
86  j  taken  by  violence  before  the  San- 
hedrin,  86 ;  his  view  of  the  oral  law,  87  > 


charges  against  him  by  false  witnesses,  87 ; ; 
his  reply  a  concise  history  of  the  Jewish : 
nation  down  to  their  own  murder  of 
Christ,  89  et  seq.;  his  vision  of  glory,  93 ; 
martyrdom,  94  et  seq.;  prays  for  his  mur- 
derers, 94;  burial,  97 ;  respective  influence 
of  Stephen,  Philip,  and  Paul  in  Church 
advancement,  161. 

Stoics,  stoicism,  187-8. 

Suetonius — his  error  as  to  our  Lord,  186  j  his 
view  of  Christianity,  186,  720. 

Snpper,  Last,  Upper  room  of,  48, 180-1. 

Sword,  The,  as  the  result  of  our  Lord's 
mission,  325. 

Syntyche  and  Euodia,  Christian  women  of 
Macedonia,  277.  (See  Euodia.) 


T. 

Tabitha  raised  from  the  dead,  148. 

Tablets,  Voting.    (See  Boman.) 

Tacitus— his  view  of  Christianity,  186,  720. 

Talmud,  Noble  characters  in,  26  ;  its  direction  I 
of  observances,  34,  36  j  allegories,  37 ; 
stories  from,  735. 

Tarsus,  Birthplace  of  Paul,    8  ;    description 
and  natural  features,  10 ;  commercial  and 
political  advantages  of  situation,  12-13; 
commercial  prosperity,  13 ;  resisting  Bru- 
tus and  Cassius,  12 ;  conquered  by  Lucius 
Bufus,  12 ;  scene  of  meetings  of  Antony 
and  Cleopatra,  13 ;  its  moral  condition  in  i 
Paul's  youth,  17-18 ;  morals  of  Tarsus  and  j 
other   cities    judged    from   evidence   of| 
Pompeii,  21. 

Temperance.    (See  Sobermindedness.) 

Temple  at  Jerusalem  —  scene  of  the  great ! 
events  of  the  first  Pentecost  after  our 
Lord's  resurrection,  51 ;  destruction  of, 
3-12 ;  Paul  charged  by  Jews  with  defiling,531. 

Terah,  Legend  of,  183. 

Tertius,  Scribe  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  Bomans. 
452. 

Tertullus  accuses  Paul  to  Felix,  547-8. 

Theology  of  Paul,  732. 

Theophilus,  high  priest,  100. 

Thessalonica,  Description  of,  286-7;  Famine 
at  time  of  Paul's  visit,  287 ;  Paul's 
ministry  at,  288  et  seq. ;  Paul's  Epistle  to  ' 
Bomans  probably  sent  to  Thessalonica 
also,  450-1. 

Thessalonians  sent  to  stir  up  Beneans  aerainst 
Paul,  294;  Paul's  Epistles  to,  289-90; 

1  Thess.,  Account  of,  328 ;  their  faith  and 
Christian  spirit  commended,  329-30 ;  cha- 
racteristics of,  330-7;  Paul's  joy  in,  333} 
their  faith  reported  to  Paul  by  Timothy, 
333;  expected  to   advance   in    Christian 
course,  333 ;  brotherly  love  and  quietness 
commended,  331 ;  second  coming  of  Christ 
and  judgment,  335  et  seq.;   results  of  1 
Thess.,  3o8;  disturbed  by  idea  of  day  of 
the  Lord  as  very  near,  340  et  seq. ;  2  Thess. : 
Object  of  2  Thess.,  343i;  most  important 
passage  of  2  Tbess.,  345-6 ;  explanation  of 

2  Thess.,  348-351. 

Tholuck,  his  account  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  th» 

Bomans,  456. 
"Thorn  im  the  flesh,"  Paul's,  121  et  seq..  710-1& 

(See  Paul;  Stake.) 
Tiberius,  Death  of,  137. 
Tigellinus,  Praetorian  Prefect,  hii  charactgsi 


INDSX. 


Timotheus.    (See  Timothy.) 

Timothy — converted  by  Paul  at  Lystra,  217 ; 
circumcised,  232,  261 ;  Paul's  love  for  him, 
259-60 ;  Paul's  Epistles  to,  260  ;  with  Paul 
at  Ejjhesus,  260;  places  at  which  he  is 
mentioned  as  having  been  with  Paul — 
character  of  Timothy,  259;  goes  with 
Paul  on  his  travels,  259 ;  returns  with 
Silas  to  Paul  at  Corinth  from  Thessa- 
louica,  326  ;  sent  by  Paul  to  Thessalonica, 
333 ;  his  report  of  the  faith  of  the  Thes- 
salonians,  333 ;  Paul's  personal  advice  to, 
656-7;  his  relation  to  Paul,  667;  Paul's 
account  to  him  (in  2  Timothy)  of  hia 
loneliness  in  prison,  671;  of  the  support 
of  his  God,  671 ;  of  his  trial,  671  et  seq. 

Timothy — 1  Timothy :  Account  of,  650  et  seq. ; 
object  of  Epistle,  651;  warning  against 
false  teachers,  651 ;  injunctions  to  prayer, 
quietness,  sobriety,  652;  qualifications 
for  offices  in  the  Church,  653 ;  of  pastors 
and  deacons,  653-4 ;  rules  as  to  discipline 
of  the  body,  655 ;  marriage,  655 ;  widow- 
hood, 655  ;  ordination  of  presbyters,  &c., 
656 ;  2  Timothy,  account  of,  664  et  seq. ; 
gratitude  for  the  kindness  of  Onesi- 
phorus,  666-7,  670 ;  again  warned  against 
false  teachers,  of  whom  a  picture  is  drawn. 
678  et  seq. ;  pereonal  exhortations — appeal 
to  him,  as  a  pasior,  to  e_arnost  duty,  680, 
entreaty  to  come  to  hi™ — Paul's  cloak, 
books,  parchments— conclusion,  681  et  seq. 

Titus — converted  by  Paul  at  Cyprus,  229; 
went  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  conference 
at  Jerusalem  on  circumcision,  229;  the 
question  of  his  circumcision,  232,  261 ; 
rejoins  Paul  in  Macedonia,  402;  Paul's 
Epistle  to,  account  of,  659  et  seq. ;  leading 
subject  of,  temperance,  soberminded- 
ness,  662. 

Tongue  understanded  of  people  commended 
for  use,  397. 

Tongues — Speaking  with  unknown,  53-4;  de- 
sign of  gift  of,  at  Pentecost,  54 ;  different 
view  of  this  gift,  5i-6 ;  at  Jerusalem  and 
Corinth  respectively,  56;  power  of,  as 
ivsed  by  Apostles,  57  et  seq. 

Tradition  of  twelve  years  as  the  limit  laid 
down  by  our  Lord  for  his  disciples  to 
remain  in  Jerusalem,  180. 

Trials.    (See  Roman.) 

Troas— Paul's  cloak,  books,  and  parchments 
left  at  with  Carpus,  21,  681  et  seq. 

Trophimus  of  Ephesus  joins  Paul,  375;  ill  at 
Miletus,  668. 

Truth  of  God,    (See  God.) 

Twelve  years.    (Se«  Tradition.) 

Tychicus  of  Ephesus  joins  Paul,  375 ;  Paul's 
companion,  668. 

Typos,  82. 


Unbelievers  not  to  judge  in  church  matters, 

389. 
Uncial  MSS.  of  Acts  of  Apostles  and  Paul's 

Epistles,  730-1. 

Uncleanness,  Test  of,  In  Talmud,  735. 
Unity,  Paul's  exhortations  to,  chief  snbject  of 

Epistle  to  Philippians,  595,  599. 
Universal  Restoration,  Paul's  view  of,  732. 
Unknown  God,  Altars  to,  297,  301 ;    Paul's 

view  of  altar  to,  SOI;  Paul  preaches  on, 

308. 
Unknown  tongues,  Speaking  in,  condemned, 

397.    (See  Tongues.) 
Upper  room  of  Last  Supper,  and  of  assembly 

of  Apostles  in  house  of  Mary,  48, 180-1. 


V. 


Verbal  inspiration,  341. 

Vessels  of  wrath  and  mercy,  498. 

Virginity  and  marriage— Paul  writes  on  to 

Corinthian  Church,  390-1. 
Vision  of  man  of  Macedonia  to  Paul,  40L 
Visions,  108-10. 
Voting  tablets.    (See  Roman.) 
Vows,  40  ;  Nazante,  524  et  seq. 
Voyage,  Paul's  to  Rome,  561  et  stq.   (See  PauL) 


W. 

Warnings,  God's,  112. 

"Wesley,  John,  compared  with  Paul,  8, 

"Whitefleld,  compared  with  Paul,  3. 

Whit-Sunday,  50. 

Will.    (See  Free  will.) 

Winds — of  Paul's  voyage  to  Rome,  Etesian, 

&o.,  563. 

Witness  of  Gospel  to  pur  Lord,  184. 
Women — their  part  in  the  dissemination  of 

the  Gospel,  277. 

Worship,  Public,  Regulations  for,  653. 
Wrath,  Vessels  of,  498. 
Wreck.    (See  Shipwreck.} 


T. 

Team,  Twelve.    (Set  Tradition^ 


Zepbaniah— Prophecy  of  universal  worship  of 
Jehovah,  183. 


PASSAGES    OF    SCRIPTURE 
QUOTED    OR    REFERRED    TO. 


xvi.  10,  p.  473;  xvii.  8,  p.  404;  xvii.  8-16,  p. 
243;  xvil  14.  p.  245;  xviii.  5,  pp.  104,  436; 
xviii.  26,  p.  243;  xviii.  29,  p.  717;  xviii.  30,  p. 
37;  xix.  4,  p.  330 ;  xix.  18,  p.  441 ;  sir.  19,  p. 
413;  xx.6,  p.  278;  xx.  11,  p.  404;  xxiv.  14,  p. 
707;  xxv.,  p.  69;  xxv.  26,  p.  292;  xxvii.  29, 
p.  401. 


436;  xxii.  10,  p.  413;  xxiii.  1,  pp.  147,  441; 
xxiii.  18,  p.  601 ;  xxv.  2,  p.  61 ;  xxv.  2, 4.  p.  716 ; 
xxv.  4,  pp.  666,  717 ;  xxvii.  14-26,  p.  618  ;  xxvii. 

20,  p.  404 ;  xxvii.  26,  p.  436 ;  xxviii.  25,  p.  65 ; 
xxviii.  58,  59,  p.  716;  -nit,  9,  p.  716;  xxix.  28, 
p.  254 ;   xxx.  6,  p.  92 ;   xxxii  15,  p.  1111;   xxxii 

21,  p.  499 ;  xxxii.  43,  p.  508 ;  xxxiii.  2,  pp.  92, 
437,  454;  xxxiii.  4,  p.  223;  xxxiv.  2,  p.  728; 
xxxiv.  8,  p.  94. 

JOSHUA  i.  8,  p.  22  ;  ii  16,  p.  128 ;  vi.  17,  p. 
401;  vii.  11,  p.  20;  vii.  14,  p.  50  ;  x.  26,  p.  436; 
xv.  58,  p.  147;  xxiii.  13,  p.  711 ;  xxiY.  2,  p.  183; 
xxiv.  15,  p.  702. 


JUIXJES  iii.  31,  p.  Ill ;  ir.  27,  p.  381 ;  is.  55S 
p.  49;  xvia.  21,  p.  521. 

I.  SAMUEL  iv.  22,  p.  496;  viii.  15,  p.  30 ;  x. 

10,  11,  p.  58 ;  x.  11,  p.  57;  x.  20,  p.  50 ;  xii.  18, 
p.  243;  xiv.  24,  p.  544;  xv.  22,  p.  227;  xviii.  10, 

P.  57,  58;  xviii.  22,  p.  619;  xix.  12,  p.  128;  xix. 
3,  24,  p.  57 ;  xxi  5,  p.  334 ;  xxviii.  3,  9,  p.  365. 
IL  SAMDEL  v.  33,  p.  575 ;  vii.  8,  14,  p.  413 ; 
xxii.  48,  p.  344;  xxiv.  1,  p.  333. 

I.  KINGS  ii.  38,  p.  120 ;  v.  9,  p.  178  ;  vi.  1,  p. 
208;  vii.  13, 14,  p.  14 ;  viii.  27,  p.  90 ;  xii.  2,  p. 
13  :  xv.  22,  p.  4  ;  xvii.  21,  p.  514 ;  xvii  22,  p.  521 ; 
xviii.  26,  p.  373;  xix.  11,  p.  52;  xix.  14,  p.  153; 
xx.  35,  p.  336;  xxii.  11,  p.  520;  xxii.  24,  p.  417. 

II.  KINGS  ii  3,  p.  26 ;  iii.  9,  p.  575 ;  iv.  34, 
p.  514 ;  iv.  38,    p.  26 ;  xix.  37,  p.  391 ;  xxiii.  13 
•eg.,  p.  469. 

I.  CHRONICLES  xxi.  1,  p.  333 ;  xxix.  11,  p.  90. 

II.  CHEOHICLES  vi  32,  33,  p.  310;  vii.  1,  p. 
844. 

EZRA  ii.  36-39,  pp.  65,  77;  iiL  3,  p.  64G ; 
iii.  7,  p.  178 ;  vi.  1C,  p.  66. 

NEHEMIAH  iii.  16,  p.  147;  ix.  16,  p.  92. 

JOB  i.  6,  p.  417 ;  v.  9,  p.  640 ;  v.  10,  p.  11 ; 
v.  13,  p.  19 ;  v.  24,  p.  46 ;  xii.  23,  p.  308 ;  xiii.  7, 
8,  p.  487 ;  xiii.  27,  p.  282  ;  xiv.  2,  p.  497  ;  xxv.  4, 
P.  445;  xxxiii  11,  p.  282;  xxxiii.  19,  p.  10;  xii. 

11,  p.  310. 

PSALMS  ii.,  pp.  84,  209  ;  ii  3,  p.  454  ;  ii. 
7,  p.  209  ;  ii.  12,  p.  145 ;  vii  13,  p.  646  ;  xiv. 
p.  29 ;  xvi.  10,  p.  85 ;  xviii.  31,  p.  646 ;  xviii. 
49,  p.  508  ;  xix  4,  p.  499 ;  xxii.  18,  p.  50 ; 
xxii.  21,  p.  672 ;  xxii.  31,  p.  242  ;  xxiv.  4,  p. 
653  ;  xxvi.  6,  p.  653 ;  xl.  7,  p.  490 ;  xii.  9,  pp. 
49,  85;  xlviii.  12,  p.  385;  L  11-12,  p.  310;  liii. 

?.  29 ;  Iviii.  8,  p.  398 ;  lix.  10,  p.  308 ;  Ixiii. 
,  p.  651;  Ixvi.  1-2,  p.  90;  Ixvi.  18,  p.  4tJ9; 
Ixvii.  18,  p.  92  ;  Ixvii.  19,  p.  496 ;  Ixviii,  p. 
643 ;  Ixviii  11,  p.  211 ;  Ixviii.  12,  pp.  92,  385, 
437  ;  Ixviii.  31,  p.  147 ;  Ixxi.  1,  t>.  651 ;  Ixxviii. 
2,  p.  85 ;  Ixxviii.  38-39,  p.  716;  Ixxix.  14,  p.  97  ; 
Ixxxi.  12,  p.  473 ;  Ixxxii.  6,  p.  397 ;  Ixrxiv.  7, 
p.  464;  Ixxxvi.  9,  p.  242;  Ixxxviii.  15,  p.  646; 
Ixxxix.  7,  p.  333 ;  IrariT.  27,  p.  616 ;  xci.  7,  p. 
702;  xciv.  11,  p.  19;  xcv.  7,  p.  343;  cii.,  p. 
479  ;  cii.  18,  p.  242 ;  civ.  15,  p.  11;  cv.  15,  p. 
170  ;  cvi.  28,  p.  379  ;  cvii.  23,  p.  69;  cix.  8,  p. 
49;  ex.  1,  p.  85;  cxiii.-cxviii.,  p.  25;  cxvii. 
1,  p.  508 ;  oxviii.  22,  p.  85 ;  cxxxviii.  1,  p.  394 ; 
cxxxix.  7,  p.  333  ;  cxliii.  2,  p.  435 ;  cxlv.  13,  p. 
652  ;  cxlvh.  2,  p.  65 ;  cxlvii  8-9,  p.  11. 

PKOVEUBS  ii.  4,  p.  617;  ii.  17,  p.  46;  iii  3, 
pp.  410,  414 ;  v.  18,  p.  46  :  vi.  12,  p.  413 ;  vii.  3, 
p.  410 ;  viii  30,  p.  410 ;  n.  24,  p.  414  ;  xiv.  9,  p. 
311;  xiv.  14,  p.  657;  xiv.  34,  p.  157;  xvi  20, 
p.  466 ;  xvi.  33,  p.  50;  xx.  25,  p.  539 ;  xxi.  18, 
p.  388;  xxii  9,  p.  414;  xxiii  6,  p.  266;  xxv.  19, 
p.  255 ;  xxv.  21,  22,  p.  503. 

ECCLF.SIASTES  v.  18,  p.  304 ;  vi.  6,  p.  49 ;  vii. 
20,  p.  105 ;  ix.  18,  p.  345 ;  x.  8,  p.  181 ;  xi.  6,  p.  46. 


774 


PASSAGES  OF  SCBIPTUS3 


CAMTICLSS  iii.  7, 8,  p.  702 ;  vii.  12,  p.  256. 

ISAIAH  i.  1-22,  p.  207;  L  2,  p.  207;  i.  3,  p. 
716;  i.9,  p.  498;  1. 11-15,  p.  34 ;  L  22,  p.  410; 
ii.  2,  3,  p.  125 ;  iii.  10,  p.  240 ;  v.  24,  p.  52 ;  viii. 


p.  520 ;  xxiv.  18,  p.  84 ;  xxvi.  12,  p.  267 ;'  xxviii". 
4,  p.  396 ;  xxviii  11,  pp.  30,  53  ;  xxviii.  16,  pp. 
33,  479,  498,  499;  xxix.  14,  p.  19;  xxx.  7,  p. 
334;  xxxii.  2,  p.  105 ;  xxxiii.  12,  p.  70 ;  radii. 
18,  pp.  19,  385,  386 ;  3d.  3,  p.  85 ;  xliii.  6,  p.  413 ; 
xliii  7,  p.  242 ;  xliii.  9,  p.  454;  xliv.  25,  p.  19  ; 
3dv.  9,  p.  497 ;  xiv.  14,  p.  147 ;  xlix.  6,  p.  125 ; 
Iii.  10,  p.  183 ;  Iii.  14,  p.  104 ;  Iii.  15,  p.  386 ;  liii., 


p.   84 ;     liii  4,  p.  104 ;    liii  4-6,  p.  104 ; 

5,  pp.  343,  469 ;  liii.  7,  8,  p.  147:   Bii.  9,  p.  85  ; 

liv.  1,  p.  32 ;  Ivi.  3,  8,  p.  147 ;  Ivii  20,  p.  466 ; 


Iviii.  3,  p.  34 ;  Iviii.  5-7,  p.  34 ;  lix.  10,  p.  308 ; 
lix.  16-19,  p.  646 ;  lix.  20,  p.  501 ;  IT.  1,  2,  p. 
645 ;  Ix.  3,  9,  p.  183;  Ixi  1,  p.  85;  Iriii  9,  207; 
ixiv.  4,  p.  386 ;  Ixv.  1,  2,  p.  499 ;  Ixv.  4,  p.  154 ; 
Ixv.  17,  p.  386 ;  Ixvi.  1,  2,  p.  90 ;  Ixvi.  3,  p.  154 1 
Ixvi.  16,  p.  221. 

JEBEMIAH  i.  6,  p.  153 ;  vii.  21,  p.  84 ;  vii.  22, 

23,  p.  485;  viii.  9,  p.  19;  viii.  16,  p.  616;  ix.  23, 

24,  p.  386;  ix.  26,  p.  92;  3dii.  1,  p.  520;  xvii  16, 
p.  387 ;  xviii.  6,  p.  497 ;  xix.  13,  p.  151 ;  xxiii 
6,  p.  462 ;  xxii.  7,  p.  720 ;  xxix.  26,  p.  282  ;  TYTJ. 
3-33,  p.  413 ;   mi.  29,  p.  485 ;  xrxiii.  16,  p.  462; 
xxxiii.  25,  pp.  226, 428;  xxxviii  7,  p.  147 ;  xxxix. 
16,  p.  147. 

EZEKIEL  i.  24,  p.  52 ;  xi  19,  p.  410 ;  xvi  12, 
p.  333;  xviii.  2,  p.  485;  xx.  25,  pp.  227,  485; 
xxiv.  6,  p.  50;  xxvii.  17,  p.  178;  xxviii  24, 
p.  711 ;  xxxiii.  4,  p.  319 ;  xxxvi.  21-23,  p.  469 ; 
xxxvi.  28,  p.  413  ;  xxxviii.  16,  17,  pp.  351,  728; 
xliii  2,  p.  52 ;  3div.  7,  pp.  92,  531,  602 ;  xiv.  7, 
p.  274. 

DANIEL  i.  8,  p.  241;  i.  8-12,  p.  240;  i.  12, 
p.  30;  v.  6,  p.  539 ;  v.  12,  p.  886 ;  vii  9,  p.  344 ; 
i  vii.  10, 11,  23-26,  p.  351 ;  ix.  23,  p.  110 ;  ix.  24, 
'p.  833;  x.  7,  p.  108;  3d.,  p.  727;  xi.  31-36, 
!p.  351;  xi  36,  p.  346;  xii.  10,  p.  349;  xii.  13, 
P.  49. 

HOSEA  i.  9, 10,  p.  498 ;  ii.  6,  p.  711 ;  ii.  23,  p. 
498 ;  iv.  14,  p.  96 ;  vi.  6,  pp.  227,  485  j  xii.  8,  p. 
69 ;  xiii  14,  p.  501. 

JOEL  ii.  32,  p.  499, 

AMOS  ii.  10,  p.  207 ;  iii.  12,  p.  672;  viii.  4-6, 
p.  69 ;  ix.  11, 12,  p.  241. 

JONAH  i.  3,  p.  152;  i.  7,  p.  50;  iv.  1,  9,  p. 

MICAH  iv.  2,  p.  125;  v.  12,  p.  365;  vi.  8,  p. 
227 ;  vi.  12,  p.  48-1. 

HABAKKUK  i.  5,  p.  210;  ii.  4,  pp.  29,  436, 457; 
iii  3,  p.  454;  iii.  6,  p.  510. 

ZEPHANIAH  i.  5,  p.  151;  ii.  11,  p.  183;  iii 
10,  p.  147. 

HAGGAI  ii.  8,  p.  454. 

ZECHAEIAH  xi.  7,  p.  240 ;  xi.  12,  p.  85 ;  xii. 
10,  pp.  84,  85;  xiv.  11,  p.  496;  xiv.  16,  p.  454; 
Jtiv.  21,  p.  69. 

MALACHI  i.  2,  3,  p.  497  ;  i.  7,  p.  241 ;  i.  8,  p. 
469 ;  iii.  1,  p.  85 ;  iii.  8-10,  p.  469. 

II.  E3DRAS  xiii.  45,  p.  65. 

TOBIT  i.  10-14,  p.  379;  i.  11, 12,  p.  240;  T. 
18,  p.  388;  xi.  13,  p.  114;  xii.  12,  p.  394;  xii. 
15,  v.  656. 

ESTHER  (Apocr.)  xiv.  13,  p.  672. 

WISDOM  OF  SOLOMOK  i.  13-16,  p.  478;  Ii 
7-9,  p.  804;  ii.  24,  p.  704;  iii.  8,  p.  697,  704; 
iii.  10,  p.  409 ;  iii.  14,  15,  p.  144 ;  v.  4,  p.  559 ; 
T.  17,  p.  697;  T.  17-20,  p.  646;  v.  18,  p.  336;  v. 


19,  p.  646;  v.  23,  p.  419  ;  vii.  22,  stq.,  p.  73;  ix 
15,  pp.  412,  704;  x.-xii,  p.  73;  xi,  xvi-xviiL 
p.  33;  xi  20,  21,  p.  346;  xl  23-26,  p.  704;  xiii.. 
xix.,  p.  73  ;  xiv.  15,  p.  330  ;  xv.  7,  pp.  497,  697  j 
xxv.  24,  p.  653. 

SIBACH  xxiii.  13,  p.  497. 

ECCLESIASTICUS  vii.  25,  p.  46;  xiv.  6,  p. 
266;  xxv.  22,  p.  414;  xxx.  11,  p.  311;  xxxvi. 
29,  p.  334;  xxxviii.  1,  p.  675;  xxxviii.  25,  p. 
Ill  ;  xiii.  9,  p.  46. 

BABUCH  v.  12,  p.  336  ;  vi  43,  p.  246. 

I.  MACCABEES  i.  15,  pp.  72,  390,  470;  ii.  48, 
62,  p.  627;  ii.  52,  p.  474;  iii.  37,  p.  165;  x.  36,  p. 

II.  MACCABEES  i.  27,  p.  66;  iii.   10,  p.  74; 
iii.  15,  p.  717;  iv.  7-9,  33,  p.  165;  iv.  10,  15, 
p.  71;  iv.  13,  p.  71;  iv.  13,  seq.,  p.  72;  iv.  33, 
p.  166  ;  iv.  40,  p.  363  ;  v.  9,  p.  179  ;  v.  21,  p.  165  ; 
vi.  1,  p.  538  ;  vi.  9,  p.  71  ;  vi.  18,  19,  p.  15  i  ;  vii. 
27,  p.  207;  vii  81,  p.  466;  xi.  36,  p.  165;  xiv. 
35,  p.  310. 

III.  MACCABEES  (Extra-Apocryphal  Book), 
p.  140. 

ST.  MATTHEW  iii.  10,  p.  387;  iv.  14,  p.  85; 
V.  10-12,  p.  476;  v.  14,  p.  175;  v.  17,  p.  149;  v. 
18,  pp.  81,  149  ;  v.  32,  p.  81  ;  v.  37,  p.  409  ;  v.  39, 
p.  417  ;  v.  47,  p.  435  ;  vi.  2,  p.  36  ;  vi.  5,  p.  36  ; 
vi.  7,  p.  373  :  vi.  13,  p.  433  ;  vi.  24,  p.  497  ;  vii 
6,  p.  680  ;  vii.  17,  p.  644  ;  viii  4,  p.  149  ;  ix.  10,  '. 
11,  p.  435;  ix.  13,  pp.  81,  150;  ix.  29,  30,  p.  238; 
3C.  14,  p.  212;  x.  17,  p.  98  ;  x.  23,  p.  98  ;  x.  25,  p. 


212  ;    x.  27,  p.  151  ;   x.  37,  p.  497  ;  xi  3,  p.  234  ; 
,  pp.  85,  304  ;  xi.  25,  p.  600  ;  xi.  27,  pp. 
151,  495  ;   xi  29,  30,  p.  238  ;   xii.  7,  pp.  81,  150  ; 


xii  10,  p.  150 ;  xii.  19,  20,  p.  679 ;  xii.  39,  p.  96;  I 
xii.  40,  p.  85;  xii    46,  p.  131;   xii.  55,  p.  48; 
xiii.  35,  p.  85 ;    xiii.  44,  p.  617 ;  xiii.  46,  pp. 
48,  468  ;  xiii.  52,  p.  302 ;  xiv.  2,  p.  267  ;  xv.  2- 
6,  p.  87 ;    xv.  13,  p.  62 ;   xv.  17,  p.  150 ;   xv.  , 
20,  p.  150;  xv.  26,  p.  601;  xvi.  4,  p.  96;   xvi. 
22,  p.  153 ;    xvi.  27,  p.  333 ;  xvii.  9,  p.  271 ; 
xviii.  8,  p.  390 ;  xviii.  17,  p.  157 ;  xix.  3,  6,  8, 
p.  81  ;  xix.  8,  pp.  150,  469,  626;  xx.  21,  p.  724; 
xxi  13,  p.  469 ;   xxi.  31,  32,  p.  455 ;   xxii.  4,  p. ; 
888;  xxii  17,  pp.  36,  504;  xxu.  21,  p.  503;  xxii. ', 
28,  p.  541 ;  xxii.  40,  pp.  150,  441 ;  xxiii.  5,  p.  36;  i 
xxiii  6,  p.  206 ;  xxiii.  13-25,  p.  469 ;  xxiii.  15, 
pp.  36,  44,  185,  601,  738;    xxiii.  25-27,  p.  542;  . 
xxiii.  27,  p.  539 ;  xxiii.  27-29,  p.  333 ;  xxiii  87, 
pp.  345,  708 ;   xxiii.  37-39,  p.  333 ;   xxiv.  6,  16, 
p.  333 ;  xxiv.  17,  p.  151 ;  xxiv.  23,  24,  p.  198 ; 
xxiv.  29,  30,  34,  p.  342  ;  xxiv.  31,  pp.  336,  345  ; 
xxiv.  37,  p.  336 ;  xxv.  27,  p.  75 ;  xxvi.  15,  p.  85 ; 
xxvi.  24,  p.  390 ;  xxvi.  28,  p.  711 ;   xxvi.  49,  p. • 
517 ;  xxvi.  74,  p.  401 ;  xxvii.  9, 10,  p.  85 ;  xxvii. 
13,  p.  490;  xxvii.  25,  p.  332;  xxvii.  28,  p.  711. 

ST.  MAEK  i.  3,  p.  85 ;  i.  4t,  p.  149;  ii.  23,  p. 
150;  ii  27,  p.  81;  iii  31,  p.  131 ;  iv.  16,  p.  410; 
v.  26,  p.  430  ;  vi.  3,  p.  48 ;  vii.  1-23,  619 ;  vii.  8, 
5,  8,  9, 13,  p.  87;  vii.  4-8,  p.  36 ;  vii  14,  16,  p. 
155;  vii.  19,  pp.  150,  155;  ix.  14,  p.  228;  x.  5-9, 
p.  150;  xii.  33,  p.  150;  xiii.  9,  p.  98;  xiv.  15,  p. 
48 ;  xiv.  52,  p.  43 ;  xv.  7,  p.  228 ;  xv.  16,  p.  597 ; 
xv.  22,  p.  509 ;  xv.  41,  p.  561 ;  xvi  15,  p.  184 ; 
xvi.  17,  p.  54. 

ST.  LUKE  i.  3,  p.  198 ;  i.  9,  p.  50 ;  i  22,  p. 
109 ;  i.  23,  p.  182  ;  i.  36,  p.  680 ;  i.  52,  p.  207 ;  ii. 
34,  pp.  33,  85;  ii  37,  602;  iii.  22,  p.  52; 
iv.  18,  p.  85 ;  iv.  20,  pp.  75,  194,  207,  538,  715  ; 
iv.  23,  p.  272 ;  v.  17,  p.  663 ;  vi.  29,  p.  539 ;  vi.  i 
82,  33,  p.  435;  vii.  45,  p.  509;  viii.  3,  p.  561;; 
viii.  19,  p.  131;  viii  27,  p.  220;  ix.  53,  p.  529; 
ix.  54,  p.  724;  x.  1,  p.  50 ;  x.  7,  p.  656 ;  x.  21, 
p.  600;  x.  41,  p.  391;  xii.  15-21,  p.  657;  xii.50» 


QUOTED   OB  EEFEEKED   TO. 


775 


17,  p.  50;  i.  19,  p.  272  ;  i.  22,  p.  47 ;  i.  25,  p.  49 ; 
ii.  l,p.  79;  ii  2,  pp.  51,  57 ;  ii.  2,  3,  pp.  52,  53; 
ii.  4,  p.  53 ;  ii.  6,  p.  57 ;  ii.  9,  pp.  317,  448 ;  ii. 
14,  p.  58 ;  ii.  15,  p.  58 ;  ii.  17,  p.  110 ;  ii.  22,  p. 
59;  ii.  27,  pp.  85,  209  ;  ii.  32,  p.  47;  ii.  33  p. 


14,  30,  p.  79;  x.  10,  p.  152;  x.  12,  p.  153; 
x.  13,  p.  388 ;  x  23,  p.  157 ;  x.  28,  p.  157  ; 
x.  30,  p.  79  ;  x.  36,  p.  158  ;  x.  38,  p.  169 ; 
x.  40,  41,  p.  47;  x.  46,  p.  54;  xi.  2,  p.  159; 
xi.  3,  p.  71 ;  xi.  5,  p.  110 ;  xi.  12,  p.  157 ;  xi. 

15,  pp.  54,  238  ;  xi.  17,  p.  238 ;  xi.  18,  p.  159; 
xi.  20,  pp.  71,  160,  195;  xi.  25,  pp.  44, 190;  - 

28.  n.   272?    -ri.  20    rm    IfiP    9S1  .   YI    9Q     TVT,   9 


xii.  23,  pp.  179,  272  ;  xiii  2,  pp.  182,  459;  xiii. 
2-3,  p.  79 ;  xiii.  3,  pp.  188,  652  :  xiii.  5,  pp.  194, 
196 ;  xiii.  6,  p.  197 ;  xiii.  7,  p.  722  ;  xiii.  9,  pp. 
538,  715;  xiii.  11,  p.  199;  xiii  12,  p.  199;  xin. 

16,  p.  9;  xiii.  16-22,  p.  208  ;   xiii.  17,  p.  207; 
xiii.  18,  p.  207;   xiii.  19,  p.  207  ;  xiii.  20-21,  p. 
701 ;  xiii.  23-31,  p.  208 ;  xiii.  25,  p.  208  ;  xiii  26,  p. 
208;  xiii.  27,  p.  208  ;  xiii.  32-41,  p.  208 ;  xiii  33- 
34,  p.  208 ;  xin.  35-37,  p.  209 ;  xiii.  38,  39,  46,  p. 
125  ;  xiii.  39,  p.  208 ;  xiii.  41,  pp.  85,  210 ;  xiii. 
42,  p.  210;    xiii.  43,  pp.  68,  210;    xiii.  45,  p. 
211  ;  xiii.  46,  p.  211 ;  xiii.  49,  p.  211 ;  xiii.  50,  p. 
817;    xiii.   51,   p.    212;    xiv.    1,  p.   161;    xiv. 
3,  p.  220 ;  xiv.  4,  p.  509 ;   xiv.  4,  14,  p.  188  \ 
xiv.  9,  p.  214;  xiv.  14,   p.  194;  xiv.  15,  pp.  4, 
216;  xiv.  16,  pp.  215,  216,  473  ;  xiv.  17,  pp.  11, 
216,697;    xiv.  19,  p.  317;  xiv.  22,  p.  219;  xiv. 
23,  pp.  219,  749;   xv.,  p.  448;  xv.  1,  pp.  169, 
225,  226,  243 ;  xv.  2,  pp.  227,  228,  234 ;  xv.  4, 
p.  230;  xv.  5,  p.  542;  xv.  6,  pp.  230,241;  xv.7, 
p.  229 ;  xv.  7-11,  p.  238  ;  xv.  9-11,  p.  150 ;  xv.  12, 
P.  262;  xv.  10,  pp.  235,  243;  xv.  19,  p.  241;  xv. 

20,  p.  241 ;  xv.  22,  pp.  50,  242 ;  xv.  22,  32,  34, 
P.  328;  xv.  23,  41,  p.  136;  xv.  24,  pp.  242,  253, 
435;  xv.  25,  p.  194;  xv.  29,  p.  241;  xv.  32,  pp. 
258,  652;  xv.  37,  p.  254;  xv.  38,  pp.  201,  681; 
xv.  39,  pp.  228,  254;  xv.  41,  p.,  190;  xvi  pp. 
221,  346 ;  xvi.  1,  pp.  217,  655,  749 ;  xvi.  1,  2,  p. 
259;  xvi.  2,  p.  259;  xvi.  3,  pp.  235,  260;  xvi.  6, 
pp.  221,  262,  607 ;  xvi.  6, 7,  p.  333  ;  xvi  7,  pp.  269, 
712;  xvi.  8,  p.  269;  xvi  9,  p.  110;  xvi  10,  pp. 
270,  271;  xvi  11,  p.  512;  xvi.  13,  p.  275;  xvi. 

14,  pp.  68,  276 ;  xvi  15,  p.  283 ;  xvi.  16,  pp. 
198,  278,  279 ;  xvi   16,  17,  18,  19,  p.  279 ;  xvi. 

17,  pp.  279,  283,  512;    xvi.  19,  pp.  279,  371; 
xvi  20,  pp.   279,    280 ;    xvi.    20,  37,    p.   257 ; 
xvi.   21,   p.  284 ;  xvi  24,  p.  282 ;   xvi  25,   p. 
620 ;  xvi  26,  p.   283 ;  xvi  30,  p.  283 ;   xvi.  32, 
p.    311;   xvi  33,  p.  2S3;  xvi  34,  35,    p.  284; 
xvi.  37,  p.  284 ;  xvi.  39,  p.  285 ;  xvi  40,  p.  277; 
xvii.  1,  pp.  285,  287  ;  xvii.  2,  3,  p.  288 ;  xvii.  4, 
pp.  288,  330,  332 ;  xvii.  5,  pp.  86,  290, 291 ;  xvii. 
6,  p.  533 ;  xvii.  9,  p.  291 ;  xvii.  11,  p.  293 ;  xvii. 
13,  pp.  294,  317;  xvii.  14,  pp.  260,  285;  xvii.  14, 

15,  p.  715 ;  xvii.  15,  p.  296 ;  xvii.  16,  p.  301 ;  xvii. 
17,  p.  302 ;  xvii.  18,  p.  305 ;  xvii.  21,  p.  306  ;  xvii. 

21,  p.  311 ;  xvii.  22,  pp.  307,  556 ;  xvii.  23,  pp. 
297,  301 ;  xvii.  24,  pp.  10, 90,  92 ;  xvii.  27,  p.  697  ; 
xvii.  28,  p.  696 ;  xvii.  30,  pp.  216,  473 ;  xvii.  32, 
p.  311;  xviii.  2,  pp.  279,  446;  xviii.  3,  p.  13; 
xviii.  4,  p.  161 ;  xviii.  5,  pp.  260,  318 ;  xviii.  6, 
p.  319;  xviii.  8,  p.  320;  xviii.  9,  pp.  42,  110; 
xviii.  12,  p.  509 ;  xviii.   13, 14, 15,  p.  322 ;  xviii. 
17,  pp.  71,  385 ;  xviii.  18,  21,  p.  79 ;  xviii  18, 
26,  p.  317;  xviii.  19,  p.  285;  xviii  22,  p.  228; 
xviii  23,  pp.  263,  607 ;  xviii.  25,  p.  361 ;  xviii 
26,  p.  317  ;  xviii.  27,  p.  361 ;  xix.  6,  p.  54 ;  xix. 
9,  23,  p.  169 ;  xix.  10,  p.  262 ;  xix.  10-26,  p.  607  ; 
xix.  11,  p.  363;  xix.  14,  p.  364;  xix.  15,  p.  365  J 
xix.  19,  p.  198;  xix.  21,  pp.  270,  3G9,  591 ;   xix. 

22,  p.  260 ;  xix.  29,  pp.  218,  259,  288  ;  xix.  32,  p. 
509 ;  xix.  33,  pp.  534, 652  ;  xix.  35,  p.  356  ;  xix.  36, 
p.  374;  xix.  36,  37,  p.  469;  xix.  37,  p.  358;  xx.  1, 


776 


PASSAGES  OF  6CSIPTUBB 


p.  375;  S3.  1,  2,  p.  270;  xx.  3,  p.  510;  xx.  4,  pp. 
218,  259,  260,  288,  872,  663  ;  xx.  5,  pp.  271,  285, 


612;  xx.  6,  pp.  270,  273,  512;  xx.  6,  16,  p.  79; 

.  13,   p. 
211;  xx.  16,  p.  515  ;  xx.  17,  28,  pp.  749,  750; 


.  ,  . 

9,  p.  513  ;    xx.  11,  12,  p.  514  ;    xx.  13, 


xx.  18-35,  pp.  366,  368 ;  xx.  19,  p.  366 ;  xx.  19, 
81,  87,  p.  516 ;  xx.  20,  p.  515 ;  xx.  20,  31,  34, 
p.  367 ;  xx.  22,  p.  515 ;  xx.  22,  27,  28,  32,  p. 
630;  xx.  23,  p.  868;  xx.  24,  pp.  208,  210;  xx. 
24,32,  p.  630;  xx.  27,  p.  515;  xx.  28,  p.  515; 
xx.  29,  p.  728 ;  xx.  31,  pp.  272,  866,  375,  607 ; 
xx.  32,  p.  208;  xx  33,  p.  331;  xx.  34,  p.  318; 
xx.  37,  p.  677 ;  xx.  38,  p.  517 ;  xxi.  1,  p.  517  ;  xxi. 
1, 4,  5,  p.  519 ;  xxi.  2,  p.  136 ;  xxi.  3,  p.  318 ;  xxi. 

4,  pp.  333,  512,  519,  712;  xxi.  5,  pp.  241,  519; 
xxi.  8,  p.  75 ;   xxi.  8,  9,  p.  148 ;  xxi.  15,  p.  521 ; 
xxi.  16,  pp.  195,  238,  578 ;  xxi.  18,  p.  271 ;  xxi. 
19,  p.  523;   xxi.  20,  p.  536;  xxi.  20,  24,  p.  79; 
xxi.  21,  pp.  485,  523 ;  xxi.  24,  p.  249 ;  xxi.  25, 
p.  241 ;   xxi.  29,  pp.   71,  511,  663 ;  xxi.  30,  p. 
532 ;  xxi.  33,  p.  537 ;  xxi.  33,  38,  p.  533 ;  xxi. 
39,  pp.   7,  534;  xxi.  40,  pp.  10,  207,  534;  xxii 

1,  p.  92 ;  xxii.  2,  p.  534 ;  xxii.  3,  pp.  3,  8,  25, 
26,  35,  38,  79,  534;  xxii.  4,  p.  98;  xxii.  6,  p. 
108;  xxii.  8,  pp.  43,  111;  xxii.   12,  p.  125;  xxii. 

14,  15,  p.  114;  xxii.  16,  17,  p.  116 ;  xxii  17,  pp. 
110,  135,  712  ;  xxii.  17-21,  p.  135;  xxii.  18,  p.  42; 
TTii  19,  p.  153 ;  xxii.  21,  pp.  109, 182,  372 ;  xxii 
22,  pp.  536,  620 ;   xxii.  23,  p.  536 ;   xxii.  25,  pp. 
281,  536;  xxii.  25,  26,  28,  29,  30,  p.  537;  xxii 
28,  p.  24;  xxiii  1,  pp.  199,  538,  715 ;  xxiii.  1,  6, 
p.  38 ;  xxiii.  2,  p.  417 ;  xxiii  3,  pp.  8, 539 ;  xxiii 

5,  p.  715 ;   xxiii.  6,  pp.  3,  15  ;   xxiii.  11,  p.  591 ; 
xxiii.  12,  p.  401 ;  xxiii.  16,  p.  15 ;  xxiii.  26,  p. 
243 ;   xxiii.  29,  p.  323 ;   xxiii.  35,  p.  597 ;   xxiv. 

2,  p.  548 ;    xxiv.  5,  pp.  78,  168 ;    xxiv.  6-8,  p. 
548 ;   xxiv.  9,  10,  22,  p.  548  ;  xxiv.  10,  p.  694 ; 
xxiv.  11,  p.  521 ;   xxiv.  17,  pp.  231,  522 ;  xxiv. 
21,  pp.  208,  542;  xxiv.  22,  23,  p.  549;   xxiv.  25, 
p.  312 ;  xxv.  8,  p.  554 ;  xxv.  9,  p.  554 ;  xxv.  14,  pp. 
234,434;  xxv.  15,  p.  60;  xxv.  19,  pp.  307,  556 ; 
xxv.  22,  p.  556;  xxv.  24,  p.  553 ;  xxv.  26,  p.  557 ; 
xxvi.  1,  p.  207;  xxvi.  2,  3,  p.  694;  xxvi.  4,  p. 
8;   xxvi.  5,   pp.  8,  25,   35,  534;    xxvi.  7,  pp. 
65,  272;  xxvi  10,  p.  95;  xxvi.  11,  pp.  98,  100; 
xxvi.  14,  p.  Ill  ;    xxvi.  15,  p.  43 ;     xxvi  16, 
p.  Ill ;   xxvi  17,  p.  188 ;   xxvi.  17,  18,  p.  109 ; 
xxvi.  18,  p.  50 ;  xxvi.  19,  p.  109 ;  xxvi  20,  pp. 
128,  519;  xxvi.  23,  p.  84;  xxvi.  24,  pp.  412,  683; 
xxvi  26,  p.  560 ;   xxvi.  28,  p.  168 ;   xxvi.  29,  p. 
692 ;  xxvii.  1,  pp.  271,  561;  xxvii.  2,  pp.  372, 511, 
670;  xxvii.  3,  pp.  136,  563 ;  xxvii.  7,  pp.  564,  602 ; 
xxvii  9,  p.  220;  xxvii.  10,  p.  566  ;  xxvii  13,  pp. 
614,  566,  568 ;  xxvii.  14,  p.  567  ;  xxvii  16,  p. 
568:  xxvii.  17,  p.  568;  xxvii.  19,  pp.  568,  569; 
xxvii.  27,  p.  573;  xxvii.  30,  p.  571;  xxvii  39,  p. 
519  ;   xxvii.  40,  pp.  570,  572  ;    xxvii.  41,  p.  573 ; 
xxviii.  2,  3,  p.  573 ;  xxviii.  6,  p.  347 ;  xxviii.  8, 
p.  272  ;  xxviii.  13,  p.  575  ;   xxviii.  14,  pp.  317, 
448,  512 ;  xxviii.  16,  p.  577 ;  xxviii  17,  pp.  318, 
823 ;  xxviii  21,  22,  p.   459 ;   xxviii,  22,  p.  78; 
rrviii.  23,  p.  578;  xxviii.  29,  p.  580. 

KOMANS  i.  1,  pp.  182,  279,  443;  i.  1-7,  p. 
459  ;  i.  4,  pp.  208,  459,  655 ;  i.  5,  6,  p.  449  ;  i.  7, 

15,  p.  450;   i  8,  pp.  336,  579;   i.  8-11,  p.  592; 
L  8-15,  p.  400;   i.  11-14,  p.  459  :  i.  13,  pp.  270, 
425,  419 ;  i.  14,  p.  71 ;  i  15,  p.  369 ;  i.  16,  pp.  71, 
125,  739;  i  16, 17,  pp.  460,  733;  i  16-32,  p.  466; 
i.  16-iii.  20, p.  457 ;  1. 17,  pp.  29,  472 ;  i.  18,  p.  333; 
i.  18-20,  p.  456 ;  i.  18-32,  p.  18 ;   i  19,  20,  p.  216 ; 
i.  20,  pp.  216,  308,  694,  697,  698 ;  i.  21,  p.  308 ;  i. 
21,  22,  p.  19 ;  i  21-32,  p.  318 ;  i.  22,  p.  695 ;  i.  24, 
pp.  27.  811 ;   i  24,  25,  p.  419  ;  L  24,  26,  28,  p. 
466]    L    25.    pp.    463,    496;    i.    27,  p.  466; 


L  27,  28,  29-31,  p.  466 ;  i  28,  pp.  465,  694,  695  j 
i  29,  pp.  G51,  695 ;  i  SO,  pp.  466,  695 ;  i.  30,  32, 
p.  466;  ii,  pp.  463,  542;  ii.  1,  p.  695;  ii.  1-16, 
p.  468 ;  ii  4,  p.  467 ;  ii.  5-12,  p.  732 ;  ii.  6,  pp. 
486,  493 ;  ii.  6-10,  pp.  486,  732,  748 ;  ii.  6,  10,  p. 
694 ;  ii.  6,  10,  14,  15,  p.  158 ;  ii  6-13,  p.  484 ;  u. 
6-15,  p.  507  ;  ii  7-10,  p.  698;  ii  8,  pp.  16,  463  ; 
ii  9,  p.  71 ;  ii.  13,  p.  486 ;  ii  13-14,  p.  485 ;  ii 
14,  p.  468 ;  ii  15,  p.  216 ;  ii.  16,  pp.  193,  468, 
732;  ii  17,  18,  21,  22,  p.  469;  ii.  17-21,  p.  694; 
ii  17-24,  p.  469 ;  ii.  18,  p.  592  ;  ii  21,  p.  469;  ii 
22,  pp.  374, 539 ;  ii  24,  p.  27 ;  ii.  25-29,  p.  470 ; 
ii.  29,  p.  92 ;  iii  1-4,  p,  471 ;  iii.  2,  p.  20, 27,  452, 
471;  iii  3-20,  p.  471,  472;  iii.  4,  6,  31,  p.  471, 
487;  iii.  5,  p.  471 ;  iii  5-8,  p.  472 ;  iii  6,  p.  27 ; 
iii.  8,  pp.  486,  487  ;  iii  9,  pp.  71,  472,  694 ;  iii. 
9-20,  p.  472 ;  iii.  10-18,  p.  27 ;  iii.  16,  p.  646  ;  iii. 
19,  p.  472 ;  iii.  20,  pp.  480,  481,  525,  694;  iii.  21, 
p.  461 ;  iii  21-26,  pp.  663, 732  ;  iii.  21-30,  457;  iii. 
22-27,  p.  473 ;  iii.  24,  p.  474  ;  iii  24, 25,  p.  463 ;  iii 
25,  pp.  412,  473,  739;  iii.  25-29,  p.  602 ;  iii.  27-30, 
p.  474 ;  iii  28,  p.  474 ;  iii.  31,  p.  474 ;  iii.  31-iv.  25, 
p.  457 ;  iv.  1,  p.  474 ;  iv.  1-25,  p.  475;  iv.  4,  pp.  484j 
732 ;  iv.  5, 13,  p.  702  ;  iv.  9,  p.  92 ;  iv.  10-19,  p.  92  ; 
iv.  11,  p.  475 ;  iv.  12,  p.  89  ;  iv.  13,  p.  702 ;  iv. 
13, 16, 18,  p.  31 ;  iv.  15,  pp.  410, 482, 483  ;  iv.  16, 
p.  452 ;  iv.  17,  p.  27 ;  iv.  18,  p.  463 ;  v.,  pp.  410, 
483 ;  v.t  vii,  xl,  p.  483  ;  v.  1,  p.  475 ;  v.  1-11,  p. 
457 ;  v.  1-12,  p.  476 ;  v.  8-5,  p.  694 ;  v.  6,  p.  114 ; 
v.  7, 11,  p.  476 ;  v.  9,  p.  208 ;  v.  10,  p.  652 ;  v.  11, 
p.  336  ;  v.  12,  pp.  33,  476,  651,  704;  v.  12-20,  p. 


478 ;  v.  12-21,  pp.  457,  490,  732  ;  v.  13,  p.  482  ;  i 
v.  13,14, 15-18,  18,  19,  p.  477  ;  v.  14,  pp.  477, ' 
480 ;  v.  15-20,  p.  468 ;  v.  16,  p.  477 ;  v.  18,  p.  478  ; ! 


v.  20,  pp.  399,  437,  478,  480,  482  ;  v.  20,  21,  pp. : 
479, 494  ;  vi,  pp.  457,  474;  vi-viii,  p.  41 ;  VL  1, ; 
p.  471 ;  vi.  1-15,  p.  480 ;  vi.  1-23,  p.  490  ;  vi.  2, 15. 
pp.  471,  487  ;  vi.  3-23,  p.  436  ;  vi.  4,  p.  679;  vi. 
4, 9,  p.  115  ;  vi.  4, 11,  p.  410 ;  vi.  5,  p.  479 ;  vi.  7, 
p.  208;  vi.  8,  pp.  479,  480,  678  ;  vi   9,  p.  208; 
vi.  13,  16,  p.  480 ;  vi  14,  p.  483  ;  vi  15-23,  p.  • 
480;  vi.  18,  p.  480;  vi  23,  p.  336;  vii,  pp.  471,  i 
483;  vii  1-6,  p.  487  ;  vii.  1-6,  7-25,  p.  490  ;  vii  < 
1-11,  p.  435 ;  vii.  1-viii.  11,  p.  457 ;  vii  2,  p.  j 
699;  vii.  2,  3,  p.  653;  vii.  6,  7, 10,  11,  p.  410;  1 
Vii  7,  pp.  471,  482,  487  ;  vii.  7  seq.,  p.  475  ;  vii. ! 
7-12,  p.  488 ;  vii  7, 13,  pp.  437,  471 ;  vii.  8-10,  p.  \ 
102 ;  vii  10-13,  p.  483;  vii.  12,  p.  651 ;  vii  13,  '< 
p.  408;    vii  13-viii  11,  p.  490;  vii  14, p.  489; l 
vii  24, p.  698  ;  vii.  25,  pp.  489, 692 ;  viii,  p.  482;! 
viii.  1,  pp.  41,  489;  viii  2,  10,  p.  410 ;  viii  3, 1 
pp.  2,  208;  viii  3, 11,  p.  114;  viii.  4,  p.  474;  viii 
6,  p.  490 ;  viii  11,  pp.   115,  490 ;  viii  12-39,  p.  ; 
457 ;  viii  18-25,  p.  490 ;  viii.  19-23,  pp.  399,  491,  i 
495,  732 ;  viii  19-24,  p.  494 ;  viii.  22-24,  p.  498 ; ' 
viii  23,  p.  409 ;  viii  24,  p.  203  ;  viii  26-30,  p. 
490 ;  viii.  27,  p.  169  ;  viii.  29,  pp.  592,  599,  680 ; 
viii.  29,  30,  p.  694;  viii  31-39,  p.  491 ;  viii   34, 
p.  695  ;  viii.  36,  pp.  123,  368,  445 ;  viii.  38,  pp. 
345,  433 ;  viii  39,  p,  491 ;  ix.,  pp.  236,  455,  499, 
732;  ix.-xi,  pp.   454,  455,  457;  ix.   1,  p.  449} 
ix.  1-3,  p.  124 ;  ix.  1-5,  pp.  20, 332,  694;  ix.  3,  pp. 
14,  20;  ix.  4,  p.   9 ;  ix.  4,  5,  p.  471 ;  ix.  5,  pp. 
114,  610;  ix.  £9,  p.  497;  ix.  8,  p.  31 ;  ix  9,  p. 
702 ;  ix.  11,  p.  732  ;  ix.  14,  p.  471 ;  ix.  14-18,  p. 
497 ;  ix.  14,  30,  p.  471 ;  ix.  15,  p.  27 ;  ix.  16,  pp. 
600,  732;    ix.   19-22,  p.  497;  ix.  22-30,  p.  498; 
ix.  26,  p.  216 ;  ix.  28,  p.  498 ;  ix.  30,  pp.  435,  695 ; 
ix.  30-x.  4,  p.  498;   ix.  80-x.  21,  p.  732;   ix.31,' 
p.  105 ;  ix.  33,  pp.  27, 33, 498, 499 ;  uc.  34,  p.85 ;  x., 
pp.  455, 499, 692  ;  x.  1,  pp.  20, 449,  616  -  x.  3,  p.  592; 
x.  4,  p.  498 ;  x.  4-12,  p.  499;  x.  5,  pp.  39,  104; 
x.  6,  p.  115 ;  x.  6-8,  p.  808 ;  x.  6-9,  p.  27 ;  x.  8, 
p.  463;  x.  11,  p.  499;  x.  12,  p.  468;  x.  14, 15, 


QUOTED  OR  REFERRED  TO. 


777 


p.  (94;  x.  14-21,  p.  499  ;  x.  15,  p.  646;  x.  15-21, 
p.  17 ;  x.  18,  pp.  27,  193 ;  xi.,  pp.  449,  483 ;  xi. 
1,  pp.  20,  592,  652  ;  xi.  1,  11,  p;«.  471,  500 ;  xi.  6, 
p.  732 1  xi.  8,  p.  27  ;  xi.  12,  25,  p.  616 ;  xi.  15-36, 
p.  495  ;  xi.  16-24,  p  500;  xi.  1(3  25,  p.  12  ;  xi.  17, 
p.  695 ;  xi.  22,  p.  419  ;  xi.  C  '•,  p.  12 ;  xi.  2A-27, 
p.  342 ;  xi.  25,  p.  459  ;  xi.  ::  i,  pp.  452,  494  ;  xi. 
26,  32,  p.  494 ;  xi.  30-36,  pp.  t>99,  732 ;  xi.  30,  31, 
p.  501;  xi.  32,  pp.  399,  494,  495,  704;  xi.  33, 
p.  640;  xi.  36,  p.  495;  xii.,  p.  457;  xii-xiv., 

?.  510 ;  xii.  1,  p.  501 ;  xii.  1,  10,  p.  592 ;  xii. 
•21,  p.  503;  xii.  2,  p.  502,  599;  xii.  3,  pp. 
463,  502,  695 ;  xii.  1,  3,  10,  16,  p.  592 ;  xii  5,  p. 
479 ;  xii.  6,  p.  502 ;  xii.  7,  pp.  654,  749;  xii.  9, 
10,  11,  13,  14, 16,  19,  20,  p.  503 ;  xii.  11,  pp.  361, 
694 ;  xii.  13,  p.  442 ;  xiii.,  p.  458 ;  xiii, xiv.,  p.  584 ; 
xiii.  1,  p.  475 ;  xiii.  3,  p.  748  ;  xiii.  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  p. 
503 ;  xiii.  8,  p.  441 ;  xiii.  10,  pp.  474,  616 ;  xiii. 
11-14,  p.  336 ;  xiii.  12,  pp.  48,  336, 480,  505, 652  ; 
xiii.  14, p.  479;  xiv.,  p.  244  ;  xiv.-xv.,  p.  415;  xiv.- 
xv.  13,  p.  458 ;  xiv.  1,  p.  224 ;  xiv.  1-4,  p.  655 ;  xiv. 
1-12,  p.  507 ;  xiv.  2,  p.  657 ;  xiv.  5,  pp.  25, 79, 513 ; 
xiv.  6,  pp.  505,592  ;  xiv.  9-11,  p.  592;  xiv.  10,  pp. 
485,  732 ;  xiv.  13-21,  p.  507;  xiv.  15,  p.  115  ;  xiv. 
21,  p.  723 ;  xiv.  22,  23,  p.  508 ;  xiv.  23,  pp.  435, 
450 ;  xiv.  24,  p.  450 ;  xv.  1,  pp.  261, 507 ;  xv.  1-8, 
p.  508 ;  xv.  3,  p.  115 ;  xv.  4,  pp.  203,  436  ;  xv.  5, 
p.  266 ;  xv.  9,  10, 11,  p.  150 ;  xv.  9-33,  p.  509 ;  xv. 
14-21,  p.  458;  xv.  15-20,  p.  450;  xv.  16,  pp.  182, 
221,  508 ;  xv.  18,  p.  193 ;  xv.  19,  pp.  402,  660 ; 
xv.  22,  pp.  333, 459 ;  xv.  23,  pp.  270, 422,  459 ;  xv. 
23-28,  p.  369 ;  xv.  24,  pp.  459,  508,  715,  742 ;  xv. 
24,  28,  p.  648  ;  xv.  24,  32,  p.  425;  xv.  25,  p.  169 ; 
xv.  25,  26,  p.  354 ;  xv.  25-32,  p.  422 ;  xv.  26,  27, 
p.  172 ;  xv.  27,  pp.  231,  459 ;  xv.  29,  p.  616;  xv. 
31,  p.  523;  xv.  32,  pp.  459,  509;  xv.  33,  pp.  450, 


652;  xvi.  1,  p.  320;  xvi.  1,  2,  pp.  319,  • 
xvi.  3,  pp.  317,  318,  352,  511 ;  xvi.  3-16,  p.  458 ; 
xvi.  3-20,  p.  375;  xvi.  4,  pp.  371,  511;  xvi.  5, 
pp.  319,  363,  511;  xvi.  5,  14,  15,  p.  447;  xvi.  4, 
5,  7,  13,  14,  16,  p.  509 ;  xvi.  7,  pp.  317,  432,  621 ; 
xvi.  7,  9,  12,  13,  p.  450 ;  xvi.  7,  11,  21,  p.  14 ; 
xvi.  16,  p.  337 ;  xvi.  17-20,  pp.  450, 458, 509  ;  xvi. 
17-20,  19,  20,  24,  27,  p.  500 ;  xvi.  18,  p.  592 ;  xvi. 
20,  24,  p.  450 ;  xvi.  21,  pp.  287,  319,  423.  511 ; 
xvi.  21-24,  p.  458;  xvi.  22,  23,  27,  32,  p.  459  ; 
xvi.  23,  pp.  218,  259,  369,  372  ;  xvi.  24,  p.  338 ; 
xvi.  25,  pp.  119,  450 ;  xvi.  25-27,  pp.  508,  694 ; 
xvi.  27,  pp.  450,  652. 

I.  CORINTHIANS  i-iii.,  p.  692 ;  i.  1,  pp.  193, 
323 ;  i.  1-3,  p.  385 ;  i.  2,  p.  313 ;  i.  4-9, 10,  20, 
p.  385  ;  i.  7,  p.  342 ;  i.  10,  p.  386  ;  i.  12,  p.  253  ; 
I.  13,  14,  p.  386  ;  i.  13-17,  p.  194 ;  i.  14,  p.  218, 
259,  319 ;  i.  16,  p.  283 ;  i.  17,  p.  320 ;  i.  18-25, 
p.  19  ;  i.  18-27,  p.  19 ;  i.  19,  p.  386  ;  i.  21,  pp.  19, 
301,  386.  661 ;  i.  21,  23,  24,  p.  386  ;  i.  22,  23, 
P.  71;  l.  23,  pp.  114,  320;  i.  23,  24,  p.  695; 
i.  27,  28,  p.  188 ;  i.  28,  p.  411 ;  i.  29,  p.  694 ; 
i.  30,  p.  462 ;  ii.  1-5,  p.  320 ;  ii.  2,  pp.  114, 
320,  334 ;  ii.  3,  pp.  123,  192,  315,  319 ;  ii.  5, 
p.  386  ;  ii.  6,  p.  411 ;  ii.  6-16,  p.  386  ;  ii.  7,  p.  617  ; 
ii.  13,  p.  695;  ii.  14,  p.  19;  iii.  2,  pp.  45,  386, 
694  ;  iii.  4,  p.  387  ;  iii.  6,  pp.  362,  653 ;  iii.  8.  p. 
493;  iii.  9,  p.  333;  iii.  10,  p.  193;  iii  12,  p. 
315 ;  iii.  13,  pp.  387,  463,  732 ;  iii.  17,  p.  69 1 ; 
iii.  .18-20,  p.  19 ;  iii.  19,  pp.  10, 19  ;  iii.  22,  p.  345 ; 
iii.  23,  p.  496 ;  iv.,  p.  698 ;  iv.  1-4,  p.  387 ;  iv.  3, 
pp.  16,  123,  387,  680 ;  iv.  3,  4,  p.  387 ;  iv.  5,  pp. 
411,  617,  732  ;  iv.  6,  pp.  387,  440,  489 ;  iv.  6-21, 
p.  388 ;  iv.  7,  9,  p.  3S7 ;  iv.  8.  p.  692 ;  iv.  8-10, 
p.  303;  iv.  8-11,  p.  416,  694;  iv.  8-13,  p.  368;  iv. 
9,  pp.  293,  316,  372,  698 ;  iv.  10,  pp.  19,  123  ;  iv. 
11, 12,  p.  318  ;  iv.  12,  13,  p.  691 ;  iv.  13,  pp.  123, 
698;  iv.  15,  pp.  45,  193,  388 ;  iv.  17,  p.  260;  iv. 


18-19,  p.  387 ;  v.  1,  pp.  246,  316  ;  v.  1-2,  pp.  331, 
694;  v.  1-9,  p.  389 ;  v.  2,  p.  703;  v.  5,  pp.  401, 
652,  710;  v.  6,  p.  388  ;  v.  7,  pp.  114,  388,  392; 
v.  9.  p.  325 ;  v.  9, 10,  p.  317 ;  v.  10, 11,  p.  389  ;  v. 
9-13,  p.  389 ;  v.  10,  p.  389  ;  v.  11,  pp.  383,  389  ; 
v.  16-21,  p.  337;  vi.  1-20,  p  389;  vi.  2,  pp. 
27,  333,  697,  704  ;  vi.  3-8,  p.  416  ;  vi.  7,  p. 
507  ;  vi.  9,  p.  651 ;  vi.  9-11,  pp.  193,  317 ;  vi. 
9-20,  p.  316 ;  vi  11,  pp.  171,  389,  663  ;  vi. 
13,  p.  411 ;  vi.  14,  p.  343  ;  vi  15,  pp.  471,  487  ; 
vi.  15-18,  p.  383;  vi.  17,  p.  463;  vii.,p.  746; 
vii.  1,  p.  390  ;  vii.  1-7,  p.  390;  vii.  1-40,  p.  391 ; 
vii.  2,  p.  334 ;  vii.  3,  5,  7,  9,  18,  19,  p.  390;  vii. 
7,  8,  9,  p.  713  ;  vii.  8,  pp.  45,  96  ;  vii.  9,  36,  p. 
46  ;  vii.  10,  p.  347 ;  vii.  10-24  (17-24),  23,  p.  391 : 
vii.  12,  p.  169;  vii.  14.  p.  45;  vii.  18,  p.  72; 
vii.  18,  19,  p.  390 ;  vii.  19,  p.  697 ;  vii.  21,  pp.  390, 
657;  vii.  25,  p.  391;  vii  26,  p.  390;  vii.  29-31, 
pp.  391,  691 ;  vii.  31,  pp.  599,  695,  698 ;  vii.  36, 
p.  46  ;  vii.  39,  p.  653  ;  viii,  pp.  244,  395 ;  viii.  1, 
pp.  379,  751 ;  viii.  1-13,  p.  391;  viii.  6,  pp.  348, 
495,496,  610;  viii.  8,  p.  655;  viii.  10,  pp.  22, 
695  ;  viii.  13,  pp.  507,  723 ;  ix.,  442  ;  ix.  1,  pp.  41, 
109,  111,  407;  ix.  1,  3,  7,  p.  253 ;  ix.  1-16,  p.  416 ; 
ix.  1-27,  p.  392 ;  ix.  4,  p.  318 ;  ix.  4, 11,  p.  33 ; 
ix.  5,  pp.  45,  134,  253 ;  ix.  6,  p.  255 ;  ix.  7,  pp. 
27,  392;  ix.  8-10,  11,  12,  13,  14,  p.  392;  ix. 

9,  pp.  33,  481,  656 ;  ix.  10,  pp.  33,  250 ;  ix.  12 
318;  ix.  12,  18,  p.  391;  ix.  15,  p.  331;  ix.  1(3 
p.  193 ;  ix.  17,  pp.  119,  403,  493;  ix.  19,  pp.  19.5 
221;  ix.  20,  p.  261;  ix.  21,  pp.  221,  265,  435 
ix.  24,  pp.  316,  600,  699,  732;  ix.  24-27, 
p.  699;  ix.  25,  pp.  316,  352;  ix.  25-27,  p. 
48i;  x.  1,  pp.  459,  617;  x.  1,  2,  p.  481;  x. 
1-4,  p.  27;  x.  1-14,  p.  378;  x.  1-xi.  1,  p.  392; 
x.  4,  p.  481;  x.  6,  p.  33;  x.  6,  11,  p.  33 ;  x.  7,  p. 
389 ;  x.  7,  8,  pp.  316,  723 ;  x.  8,  pp.  383,  392 ; 
x.  11,  p.  33  ;  x.  15,  p.  123;  x.  16,  p.  114;  x.  20, 
p.  655 ;  x.  20,  21,  p.  244 ;  x.  26,  p.  616 ;  x.  32, 
pp.  71,  723 ;  xi.  1,  p.  38  ;  xi.  1-17,  p.  394  ;  xi. 
2,  p.  378  ;  xi.  8,  9,  p.  653  ;  xi.  10,  pp.  656,  701 ; 
xi.  14,  pp.  316,  352;  xi.  17,  p.  347;  xi.  17-34,  p. 
395 ;  xi.  19,  p.  663 ;  xi.  21,  p.  317 ;  xi.  22,  pp. 
694,  698 ;  xi.  23,  p.  282 ;  xi.  24,  27,  29,  p.  395 ; 
xi.  29,  p.  695;  xii,  p.  698;  xii.-xiv.  33,  p.  54; 
xii.  1,  p.  459 ;  xii.  1-31,  p.  396  ;  xii.  3,  pp.  382, 
•196 ;  xii.  4-6,  p.  80 ;  xii.  8-10,  p.  395 ;  xii.  10,  pp. 
2(57,  337 ;  xii.  11,  pp.  334,  423 ;  xii.  12, 13,  27,  p. 
479 ;  xii.  12-27,  p.  502  ;  xii.  13,  p.  396 ;  xii.  28, 
pp.  182,  654,  749 ;  xii.  29,  30,  p.  617 ;  xii.  31,  p. 
408;  xii.  31-xiii.  13,  p.  396;  xiii.,  p.  744  ;  xiii. 

I,  pp.  56,  463  ;  xiii.  2,  p.  395  ;  xiii.  3,  4,  p.  692  ; 
xiii.  4,  pp.  16,  396 ;  xiii.  4,  5,  7,  8,  p.  396  ;  xiii. 
5,  pp.  297,  396 ;  xiii.  8,  pp.  56,  396,  497 ;  xiii.  8, 

II,  p.  411 ;  xiii.  9,  p.  80 ;  xiii.  9-12,  p.  222;  xiii. 

10,  p.  151 ;  xiv.  1-26,  p.  397;  xiv.  2,  p.  57 ;  xiv.  2, 
4,  11,  p.  56  ;  xiv.  4, 13, 14,  27,  p.  54 ;  xiv.  7,  8,  p. 
56 ;  xiv.  9,  11, 17,  20, 23, 26-28, 33,  40,  p.  57 ;  xiv. 
16,  p.  396  ;  xiv.  18,  p.  55 ;  xiv.  19,  p.  56 ;  xiv.  21, 
pp.  27,  30,  397 ;  xiv.  22,  p.  55  ;  xiv.  23,  p.  57 ; 
xiv.  26-40,  p.  398 ;  xiv.  27,  p.  56 ;  xiv.  32,  p.  58  ; 
xiv.  34,  p.  751 ;  xiv.  39,  p.  337 ;  xv.,  pp.  43, 
115,  752;  xv.  1-12,  p.  398;  xv.  3,  318  ;  xv.  6,  p. 
416  ;  xv.  7,  p.  48 ;  xv.  8,  pp.  109,  111,  398,  412; 
xv.  9,  pp.  43,  98,  124,  640 ;  xv.  10,  pp.  123,  210, 
407;  xv.  10-29,  p.  109;  xv.  12,  p.  679;  xv. 
12-35,  p.  398;  xv.  18,  p.  109;  xv.  19,  p.  368; 
xv.  22,  pp.  119,  336,  456,  495 ;  xv.  23,  pp.  333, 
339  ;  xv.  24,  p.  411;  xv.  24,  25,  p.  732  :  xv.  25- 
28 ;  p.  495 ;  xv.  28,  pp.  16,  463  ;  xv.  30-32,  p. 
483 ;  xv.  31,  pp.  1,  123,  678 ;  xv.  32,  pp.  17, 
316,  372  ;  xv.  33,  p.  696;  xv.  33,  34,  p.  383;  xv. 
35-50,  p.  399 ;  xv.  36,  p.  33 ;  xv.  37,  45,  p.  303  ; 
xv.  38,  p.  31;  xv.  41,  p.  10 ;  xv.  43,  p.  695;  xv. 


778 


PASSAGES  Off  SCRIPT  UK  E 


p.  491;  xv.  66,  pp.  437,  483;  xv.  58,  p.  484; 
xvi.  1,  2,  p.  364  ;  xvi.  1-4,  p,  405  ;  xvi.  1,  15,  p. 
640;  xvi.  3,  p.  231  ;  xvi.  3,  4,  p.  511  ;  xv.  5-7, 
p.  3iJ9  ;  xvi.  5-S,  p.  401  ;  xvi  6-9,  p.  270  ;  xvi. 
9,  pp.  361,  402;  xvi.  10,  pp.  260,  388;  xvi.  10, 
11,  p.  656  ;  xvi  11,  p.  200;  xvi.  12,  pp.  362,  400, 
694  ;  xvi.  15,  pp.  319,  749  ;  xvi.  19,  pp.  317,  366, 
450;  xvi.  20,  p.  337;  xvi.  22,  pp.  48,  49S,  601, 
727  ;  xvi.  23,  p.  338. 


,  ,  .     .  ,   .   ,     .  ,  .     .  ,  . 
617;  i.  8,  pp  368,  408,  459  ;  i.  8,  15,  p.  408  ;  i. 

10,  p.  375  ;  i.  11,  12,  13-17,  p.  42  ;  i.  12,  p.  408  ; 
i.  12-ii.  11,  p.  410;  i.  14,  p.  408;  i.  15,  16, 
p.  367;  i.  15,  23,  p  122  ;  i.  16-23,  p.  309  ;  i. 

17,  pp.  122,  402  ;  i.  18,  p  S20  ;  i.  22,  p.  13  ;  i  23, 
p.  409  ;  ii.,  p.  698  ;  ii.  1,  409  ;  ii.  1,  12,  13,  p.  408  ; 

11.  2,  p.  695  ;  ii.  4,  pp.  124,  327,  403  ;  ii.  5,  p.  265  ;  ii. 
5-10,  p.  402  ;  ii.  6,  p.  409  ;  ii.  7,  p.  423  ;  ii.  10,  11,  p. 
410;  ii.  12,  p.  270;  ii.  12,  13,  p.  401  ;  ii.  12-17,  p. 
410  ;  ii.  13,  pp.  191,  512  ;  ii.  11,  pp.  109,  407,  411, 
619,  652,  692  ;  ii.  14-16,  pp.  316,  368,  092,  700  ;  ii. 
15,  p.  732  ;  ii.  16,  pp.  4«2,  703  ;  ii.  17,  pp.  18, 
122,  331,  410,  484  ;  iii.  1,  pp.  253,  361,  402,  .410, 
416,  692;  iii.  1-3,  p.  410;  iii.  1-18,  p.  407;  iii.  2, 
p.  407  ;  iii.  3,  p.  411  ;  iii.  4-iv.  6,  p.  411  j  iii.  6, 
pp.  410,452,482,652;  iii.  7,  p.  411;  iii.  7-13, 
p.  481  ;  iii.  10,  11,  p.  411  ;  iii.  16,  18,  p.  411  ;  iii. 

18,  pp.  464-479;   iv.  1,  p.  652;   iv.  1-7,  p.  484; 
iv.   2,  pp.    13,   122,  331,   411,   416,  481;  iv.  4, 
pp.342,  484,  49ti,  610,   Gi8;    iv.  6,   p.   109;   iv. 
6,   7,  p.    80;     iv.    6-8,   p.    5P8;    iv.   7-vi.    10, 
p.  413;  iv.  7,  pp.  123,  192,  334;  iv.  8,  pp.  403, 
,*/*Q    £OK  .     ;,-    Q    o    ,^    .}£o  .    ;.,    o  in    «    10*3  .    ;« 


vi.  9,  p.  694 ;  vi.  9,  10,  p.  691 ;  'vi.  10,  p.  695 ; 
vi.  11,- vii.  16,  p.  414 ;  vi.  14,  pp.  316,  393,  724 ; 


14,  15,  p.  40:4;  vii.  8,  pn.  327,  401;  vii.  8-12, 
p.  415  ;  vii.  11,  pp.  3;!4,  6U1 ;  vii.  11,  12,  p.  404, 
vii.  12,  pp.  411,  423  ;  viii. -end,  p.  733  ;  viii ,  ix., 
pp.  231, 406 ;  viii.  1  ,-ix.  15,  p.  414 ;  vi,i.  1.  p.  408 ; 
viii.  2,  pp.  403,  408,  693 ;  viii.  6,  pp.  402,  423 ; 
viii.  9,  p.  636;  viii.  13,  p.  403;  viii.  15,' p.  10; 
viii.  17,  p.  402  ;  viii.  18,  pp.  271,  415;  viri.  18, 
23,  p.  402;  viii.  19,  p.  219 ;  viii.  20,  pp.  414,  515 ; 
viii.  21,  p.  347  ;  viii.  22,  p.  695 ;  viii.  *3,  pp.  432, 
509;  viii.  24,  p.  422;  ix.  1,  pp.  334,  691;  ix.  2, 
pp.  402,  408;  ix.  5,  p.  239;  ix.  6,  p.  414;  ix.  8, 
pp.  303,  657,  695 ;  ix.  10,  p.  414  ;  ix.  11,  13,  p. 
408;  ix.  12,  p.  182;  ix.  12-15,  p.  422;  ix.  1-1, 
p.  422;  ix.  15,  p.  652;  x.-xiii..  pp.  406,  693; 
x.  1,  pp.  413,  415;  x.  1,  2,  p.  122;  x.  1,  10,  pp. 
320,  415;  x.  1-11,  p.  416;  x.  2,  pp.  122,415; 
x.  2,  7,  10,  11,  12,  18,  p.  415;  x.  3,  4,  p.  643; 
x,  5,  p.  652;  x.  7,  pp.  253,  415;  x.  7,  10,  11,  IS, 


p.  713;  x.  7,  10,  11,  12,  p.  416;  x.  9,  p.  325; 
x.  10,  pp.  122,  192,  265,  402;  x.  10-16,  p.  758; 
x.  12-18,  pp.  415,  416;  x.  12,  16, 17, 18,  p.  41U  ; 
x.  14,  p.  758;  x.  15,  p.  416,  463;  x.  18,  p.  416; 
x.  20-23,  p.  407;  xi,  pp.  398,  692,  698;  xi.  1, 
pp.  405,416;  xi.  1,  4, 16,  17,  19,  20,  p.  416;  xi. 
19,  21,  p.  416  ;  xi.  1-33,  p.  418;  xi.  2,  p.  193,  42  J, 
487;  xi.  2,  20,  p.  423  ;  xi.  3,  pp.  403,  416,  fc53: 
xi.  4,  pp.  405,  415,  416,  423,  433,  702 ;  xi.  4,  20, 
p.  713;  xi.  5,  pp.  124,  417;  xi.  6,  pp.  122, 
192,  411,  415,  417,  423,  691 ;  xi.  6-21,  p.  417 ; 
xi.  7,  pp.  16,  122,  207;  xi.  8,  pp.  331,  692,  713; 
si.  8,  20,  p.  416;  xi.  9,  pp.  16,  276,  318,  331; 
xi.  10,  p.  417 ;  xi.  10,  12,  18,  30,  p.  416 ;  xi.  13, 
pp.  331,  410,  525,  601;  xi.  14,  p.  33;  xi.  16,  p. 
405  ;  xi.  16-19,  pp.  19,  123  ;  xi.  16,  17,  19,  p.  415  ; 


367;  xi.  28,  p.  418;  xiT  29,  pp.  191,  367,  723; 
xi.  29-34,  p.  398;  xi.  31,  pp.  496,  652;  xi.  32,  pp. 
101, 128 ;  xi.  33,  p.  128 ;  xii.  1,  pp.  42,  108, 109 ;  xii. 
1-3,  12-16,  p.  692 ;  xii.  1-10,  pp.  417,  710 ;  xii.  1, 
6,  6,  11,  p.  416  ;  xii.  1-11,  p.  418;  xii.  2,  p.  33; 
xii.  2,  4,  p.  703;  xii.  3,  p.  418 ;  xii.  5,  p.  405 ;  xii. 
5,  9,  p.  320  ;  xii.  6,  11,  p.  416 ;  xii.  6,  16,  p.  405  ; 
xii.  7,  pp.  121,  124;  xii.  9,  p.  418;  xii.  10,  p. 
695  ;  xii.  10, 11,  p.  476  ;  xii.  11,  pp.  123, 124, 423  ; 
xii.  11,  12,  p.  417 ;  xii.  12,  p.  320  ;  xii.  13,  p.  16 ; 
xii.  13,  14,  p.  461 ;  xii.  13-xiii.  10,  p.  419  ;  xii. 
14,  pp.  331,  419;  xii.  16,  pp.  122,  331;  xii.  18, 
p.  415;  xii.  20,  pp.  3SO,  387,  466;  xii.  20,  21,  p. 
423;  "  "'  """"  ""'"  "  "  """"  "'  "'" 


p.  338. 

GALATIAXS  i.,  ii.,  p.  432;  i.  1,  pp.  118, 182, 
423,  485;  i.  1-5,  p.  433;  i.  1,6,  10,  p.  423;  i. 
1-10,  p.  433;  i  4,  pp.  345,  433;  i.  6,  m 
268,  423,  696  ;  i.  6-9,  p.  525  ;  i.  7,  p.  618  ;  i. 


ii.  1-10,  p.  435;  ii.  2,  pp.  434,  712;  ii.  2-6,  p. 
229;  ii.  2,  7,  p.  119;  ii.  3,  pp.  71,  660,  ii.  4,  pp. 
224,  225,  478,  525 ;  ii.  4-5,  p.  551 ;  ii.  6,  pp.  423, 
434,  694  ;  ii.  6, 9,  p.  525 ;  ii.  6,  20,  p.  423 ;  ii.  7, 
pp.  228,  230,  468  ;  ii.  7-8,  p.  13i  ;  ii.  7,  9,  p.  229 ; 


ii.  9,  pp.  1,  2TO,  255,  382,  448,  654 ;  ii.  8,  10,  p. 


»p.  84,  408  ;  ii.  14,  pp.  248,  250,  525  ;  ii.  14, 
16,  18,  p.  525  ;  ii.  15,  p.  467 ;  ii.  15  21,  p. 
251 ;  ii.  16,  pp.  463,  525,  6'j5  ;  ii.  16,  20,  p.  695, 
ii.  17,  pp.  265,  471,  487 ;  ii.  19,  p.  618 ;  ii.  20,  pp. 
4,  252,  423,  463,  479,  695,  711 ;  ii.  21,  p.  481 ;  iii., 
pp.  471,  483,  508  ;  iii.,  iv.,  p.  4S3;  iii.  1,  pp.  1^4, 
241,  266, 436, 713  ;  iii.  1-5,  p.  432 ;  iii.  1-14,  p.  43o; 
iii.  2,  p.  463 ;  iii.  3,  13,  p.  423 ;  iii.  4,  pp.  433,  639, 
695 ;  iii.  5,  p.  414 ;  iii.  6-18,  p.  432 ;  iii.  6-29,  p.  42 1 ; 
iii.  7,  p.  02 ;  iii.  10,  pp.  39,  410, 482, 490 ;  iii.  11, 
pp.  29,  20S,  457 ;  iii  12,  p.  104  ;  iii.  14,  p.  183 ; 
iii.  15,  p.  437;  iii.  15-18,  p.  437;  iii.  15,  19,  p. 
437;  iii.  IS,  pp.  28,30;  iii.  17,  18,  p.  C99;  iii. 


QUOTED  OB  .REFERRED  TO. 


779 


19,  pp.  33.  91,  92,  487,  478,  482,  651,  701 ;  iii.  19, 

20,  pp.  437,  438 ;  iii.  19-29,  p.  432  ;  Hi.  21,  pp. 
471,481,487;  iii.  21-29,  p.  438;  iii.  22-26,  p. 
474 ;  iii.  24,  p.  438 ;  iii.  26,  p.  463 ;  iii.  27,  pp. 
479,  505 ;  iii.  27,  28,  p.  269 ;  iii.  28,  pp.  20,  49, 
148,  348,  620,  653,  657 ;  iii.  28,  29,  p.  31 ;  iv. 

I,  2,  p.  699  ;  iv.  1-11,  pp.  432,  439 ;  iv.  3,  pp. 
439,  452,  663 ;  iv.  3,  9,  p.  618 ;  iv.  4,  pp.  496, 
616  ;  iv.  4,  5,  p.  439  ;  iv.  5,  pp.  617,  700 ;  iv.  7, 
p.  680 ;  iv.  8,  pp.  269,  330 ;  iv.  9,  pp.  2,  269, 
618;  iv.  10,  pp.  25,  79,  513;  iv.  11,  p.  695;  iv. 
12,  pp.  123,  253;  iv.  12-14,  p.  264;  iv.  12- 
16,  pp.  440,  710 ;  iv.  13,  pp.  123,  192,  262,  265, 
738;  iv.  14,  pp.  123,265,440,  713;  iv.  15,  p. 
265 ;  iv.  16,  pp.  253,  265,  354 ;  iv.  17,  pp.  124, 
234,  423,  440,  692,  697;  iv.  17-20,  p.  440  ;  iv.  19, 
pp.  124,  193,  599 ;  iv.  20,  p.  556 ;  iv.  21-31, 
p.  441 ;  iv.  22,  p.  302 ;  iv.  24,  p.  481 ;  iv. 
24-31,  p.  27;  iv.  25,  p.  709;  iv.  29,  pp. 
33,  702;  v.  1-6,  p.  441;  v.  1-9,  p.  506;  v. 
1-12,  p.  432 ;  v.  1,  13,  14,  p.  252 ;  v.  2,  p.  79, 
244,  269,  410,  415  ;  v.  3,  p.  238;  v.  3,  6,  12-11,  p. 
430  ;  v.  6,  pp.  330,  697,  748;  v.  7-12,  p.  441 ;  v. 
7,  15,  21,  26,  p.  268;  v.  8,  p.  330;  v.  10,  p.  441; 
v.  11,  pp.  44,  221,  433 ;  v.  12,  pp.  235,  431,  525, 
533,  602;  v.  13-15,  p.  441;  v.  13-18,  p.  432;  v. 
14,  p.  441 ;  v.  15,20,  21,  p.  423 ;  v.  16-26,  p.  4t2  ; 
v.  20,  p.  365;  v.  16- vi.  10,  p.  432;  v.  17,  p.  482  ; 
v.  19,  pp.  466,  651 ;  v.  20,  p.  663 ;  v.  21,  p.  354 ; 
vi.  1,  pp.  423,  695 ;  vi.  1-5,  p.  442 ;  vi.  1, 4,  8,  15, 
p.  423;  vi.  2,  p.  442;  vi.  5,  p.  442;  vi.  6-10,  p. 
412;  vi.  7,  pp.  463,484,485;  vi.7-12,  p.  713;  vi. 

II,  p.  15;  vi.  11-18,  pp.  432,  443;  vi.  12,  pp.  99, 
269;  vi.  12, 13,  pp.  442,  506 ;  vi.  13,  p.  252;  vi. 
14,  pp.  413,  487 ;  vi.  15,  pp.  20,  601,  697 ;  vi.  16, 
p.  443,  651 ;  vi.  17,  pp.  221,  368,  433,  443,  711 ; 
vi.  18,  pp.  338,  4J3 ;  vi.  19,  p.  114. 

EPHESIANS  i,  p.  698;  i.  1,  p.  169;  i.  1,  2,  p. 
637 ;  i.  1,  5,  9,  11,  p.  636 ;  i.  2,  6,  7,  p.  636 ;  i.  3, 
638 ;  i.  3-6,  p.  637 ;  i.  3-14,  pp.  632, 637 ;  i.  3, 13, 17, 
p.  636  ;  i.  3,  20,  p.  636 ;  i.  4,  pp.  346, 740  ;  i,  5,  pp. 
636,  700,  740 ;  i.  5,  9,  p.  315  ;  i.  6,  p.  740 ;  i.  6, 12, 
14, 17, 18,  p.  636 ;  i.  7,  pp.  473,  615, 739 ;  i.  7-12,  p. 
637 ;  i.  7-18,  p.  636 ;  i.  8,  p.  638 ;  i.  9,  p.  636 ;  i.  9 
seq.,  p.  640 ;  i.  10,  pp.  50, 616,  617, 635,  636 ;  i.  11, 
pp.  630,  636,  740  ;  i.  11,  14,  18,  p.  630 ;  i.  13,  pp. 
13, 740 ;  i.  13, 14,  p.  637 ;  i.  14,  pp.  630,  740 ;  i.  15, 
18,  p.  330 ;  i.  15-23,  pp.  637,  638  ;  i.  17,  pp.  496, 
638,  639,  740 ;  i.  18,  pp.  630,  633 ;  i.  19,  21,  p. 
636;  i.  20  22,  pp.  495,  610;  i.  21,  p.  701;  i.  23, 
p.  606,  616,  633,  636 ;  ii.,  pp.  636,  663;  ii.  1-6,  p. 
740 ;  ii.  1-22,  pp.  637,  639 ;  u.  2,  pp.  411, 505,  638, 
701 ;  ii.  3,  pp.  739,  740;  ii.  4,  5,  6,  7,  8, 19,  22,  p. 
636  ;  ii.  6,  pp.  115,  201,  610,  612,  636 ;  ii.  8-10,  p. 
748 ;  ii.  9, 10,  p.  638 ;  ii.  10,  p.  636 ;  ii.  11,  p.  633 ; 
ii.  13,  p.  114 ;  ii.  13  seq.,  p.  640  ;  ii.  14,  pp.  429, 
531,  532,  703 ;  ii.  15,  p.  618 ;  ii.  16,  p.  ,640 ;  ii.  18, 
22,  p.  636 ;  ii.  19-22,  p.  479 ;  ii.  20,  pp.  85, 640, 654, 
739 ;  ii.  20, 22,  p.  740 ;  ii.  21,  p.  632 ;  iii.  1,  pp.  415, 
630 ;  iii.  1,  8,  p.  633  ;  iii.  1-19,  p.  610 ;  iii.  1-21,  p. 
637 ;  iii.  2,  pp.  630, 635;  iii.  2-4,  p.  630 ;  iii.  2, 7, 8, 
p.  636 ;  iii.  2-9,  p.  617 ;  iii.  3,  pp.  119, 266, 439, 560, 
638 ;  iii.  3,  4,  9,  p.  636 ;  iii.  3-6,  p.  118 ;  3,  8,  p. 
617 ;  iii.  3,  9,  p.  638  5  iii.  4,  p.  638 ;  iii.  5,  pp. 
253,  739,  740 ;  iii.  5,  16,  p.  636 ;  iii.  6,  pp.  221, 
479,  636,  640,  740;  iii.  8,  p.  640;  iii.  8,  16,  p. 
636 ;  iii.  9,  p.  638 ;  iii.  10,  pp.  394  ;  636,  701 ;  iii. 
11,  p.  636 ;  iii.  16,  p.  640  ;  iii.  16-21,  &c.,  p.  636  ; 
iii.  17,  18,  20,  p.  330;  iii.  19,  pp.  606,  616,  636, 
638  ;  iii.  19,  20,  p.  636 ;  iii.  20,  21,  pp.  510,  641 ; 
iv.  1,  p.  630;  iv.  1-16,  pp.  637,  643;  iv.  2,  p. 
740 ;  iv.  3-13,  p.  612  ;  iv.  3, 16,  p.  636 ;  iv.  4,  p. 
630;  iv.  3,  4,  23, 30,  p.  636;  iv.  5-15,  p.  632 ;  iv. 
6,  pp.  343,  490 ;  iv.  7,  32,  p.  636  ;  iv.  8,  pp.  33, 


496,  739 ;  iv.  8-11,  p.  692 ;  iv.  10,  pp.  636,  638, 
703 ;  iv.  10-13,  p.  636  ;  iv.  11,  pp.  182,  739,  749  ; 
iv.  12,  p.  221 ;  iv.  12-16,  p.  740 ;  iv.  13,  pp.  606, 
616,  638;  iv.  It,  p.  740;  iv.  15,  p.  643;  iv.  16, 
pp.  414,  479,  606 ;  iv.  17-v.  21,  p.  637 ;  iv.  17-24, 
p.  643 ;  iv.  21,  pp.  630,  639 ;  iv.  22,  p.  633  ;  iv. 
24,  p.  479 ;  iv.  25-v.  2,  p.  644 ;  iv.  27,  pp.  333, 
651 ;  iv.  29,  p.  644 ;  iv.  30,  p.  13 ;  iv.  32,  p.  644; 
v.,  p.  712  ;  v.  3, 4,  p.  466 ;  v.  3, 12,  p.  334 ;  v.  3-17, 
p.  645 ;  v.  4,  p.  694 ;  v.  4, 6,  p.  644 ;  v.  6.  pp.  387, 
620 ;  v.  7-14, 23-31,  p.  6  *2  ;  v.  12-15,  p.  692 ;  v.  14, 
pp.  620,  739  ;  v.  17,  p.  636 ;  v.  18,  pp.  58,  636 ;  v. 
18-21,  p.  645;  v.  19,  p.  654;  v.  19,20,  p.  620;  v. 

22,  vi.  9,  pp.  637,  645  ;  v.  24,  p.  390 ;  v.  25,  pp. 
169,  487  ;  v.  25-27,  p.  740 ;  v.  28,  p.  334  ;  v.,  32, 
p.  636 ;  vi.  6,  p.  636 ;  vi  8,  p.  485  ;  vi.  10,  pp. 
630,  615;  vi.  10-17,  pp.  632,  637;  vi.  10-20,  p. 
647;  vi.  10-24,  p.  637;  vi.  11,  pp.  333,  654;  vi. 

12,  pp.  636,  701 ;  vi.  13-17,  p.  336  ;  vi.  15,  p. 
695  ;  vi.  17-18,  p.  636  ;  vi.  18,  p.  647  ;  vi.  19,  pp. 
119,  338,  636 ;  vi.  19,  20,  p.  591 ;  vi.  20,  pp.  8, 
628 ;  vi.  21,  pp.  580,  631,  663 ;  vi.  21-24,  p.  647 ; 
vi.  22,  p.  6-15 ;  vi.  24,  pp.  338,  347,  636. 

PHILIPPIANS  i.  1,  pp.  242,  580,  654,  749,  750; 
i.  1,  2,  p.  597;  i.  3,  4,7,  8,  10,  p.  592;  i.  3-11,  p. 
597;  i.  4,  p.  515;  i.  7,  p.  592;  i  10,  p.  516;  i. 
11,  p.  479;  i.  12-18,  p.  608;  i.  12-26,  p.  597;  i. 

13,  p.  597 ;  i.  14-20,  p.  589 ;  i.  15,  16,  p.  597 ;  i. 
15,  17,  p.  253;  i.  16,  pp.  452,  583;  i.  18,  25, 
p.  601;  i.  19,  p.  267;  i.  19-26,  p.  598  ;  i.  19,  20, 

23,  27,  p.  598  ;  i.  20-23,  p.  3-12  ;  i.  21,  p.  463 ; 
i.  23,  pp.  592,  59(3,  680;  i.  25,  p.  516;  i.  27, 
pp.  277,  538;  i.  27-30,  p.  599;  i.  27-ii.  16, 
p.  597;  i.  28-30,  p.  285;  ii.  1,  pp.  599,  691;  ii. 
1-4,  599;  ii.  2,  5, 17,  p.  592 ;  ii.  3-6, 18,  p.  589 ;  ii. 
4,  8,  9,  10, 11,  p.  592  ;  ii.  6,  pp.  496,  599,  603 ; 
ii.  6,  9,  p.  595 ;  ii.  7,  pp.  16,  636 ;  ii.  8,  pp.  502, 
695 ;  ii.  9-11, 12,  13,  p.  600  ;  ii.  12,  13,  p.  732  ;  ii. 
14-18,  p.  600;  ii.  15,  p.  278;  ii.  16,  pp.  234,  434, 
516;  ii.  17,  p.  601,  683;  ii.  17-30,  p.  597;  ii. 
18-20,  p.  260;  ii.  19,  pp.  328,  580;  ii.  19,  20, 
p.  194;  ii.  19-23,  p.  658  ;  ii.  19-30,  p.  601;  ii.  20, 
p.  259  ;  ii.  22,  p.  259  ;  ii.  24,  pp.  516, 591 ;  ii.  25, 
pp.  432,  580 ;  ii.  26,  pp.  408,  591;  ii.  30,  p.  182 ; 
iii.  1,  pp.  594,  601 ;  iii.  1,  2,  p.  597 ;  iii.  2, 
pp.  79,  273,  525,  692;  iii.  2,  3,  pp.  441,  695; 
iii.  2-11,  p.  602 ;  iii.,  2, 18,  p.  509 ;  iii.  3,  p.  602 ; 
iii.  3,  4,  5,  9, 19,  21,  p.  592  ;  iii.  3-iv.  1,  p.  597 ; 
iii,  5,  pp.  3,  9,  602  ;  iii.  6,  p.  98 ;  iii.  7,  p.  463 ; 
iii.  8,  pp.  123,  273,  287;  iii.  8,  9,  p.  602 ;  iii.  9, 
651 ;  iii.  10,  pp.  617,  618,  711 ;  iii.  12,  pp.  101, 
126,  277,  476,  680;  iii.  12  11,  p.  699;  iii.  12-16, 
pp.  277,  603;  iii.  13,  p.  435 ;  iii.  14,  pp.  277,  481, 
699 ;  iii.  14,  15,  p.  592 ;  iii.  17-iv.  1,  p.  603 ;  iii. 

18,  p.  752;  iii.  19,  p.  346 ;  iii.  20,  p.  201, 277  ;  iii. 
21,  pp.  599,  603 ;  iv.  2,  p.  277 ;  iv.  2,  3,  pp.  597, 
603 ;  iv.  3,  pp.  45,  277,  333,  603,  617,  696,  741 ; 
iv.  4,  p.  601 ;  iv.  4-9,  pp.  597,  604 ;  iv.  5,  p.  48 ; 
iv.  6,  p.  652  ;  iv.  8,  pp.  305,  604,  618,  694 ;  iv. 
8,  1C,  p.  604 ;  iv.  10,  pp.  181,  276,  288,  476  ;  iv. 
10-20,  p.  601 ;  iv.  11,  p.  657  ;  iv.  11,  12,  p.  288  ; 
iv.  11-13,  p.  657  ;  iv.  11-18,  p.  303  ;  iv.  12,  p.  507 ; 
iv.  15,  pp.  238,  318 ;  iv.  15, 16,  p.  287 ;  iv.  16, 
p.  276 ;  iv.  18,  pp.  580,  604;  iv.  20,  p.  652 ;  iv. 
21-23,  p.  597;  iv.  23  p.  338. 

COLOSSIANS  i.  1,  p.  580;  i.  1,  2,  p.  615;  t  2, 
6,  7,  9-14,  10,  p.  615 ;  i.  38,  p.  615 ;  i.  4,  p.  330 ; 
i.  -1,  6, 7,  p.  202 ;  i.  4,  6,  9,  p.  6*7 ;  i.  5,  p.  245 ; 
i.  6,  23,  p.  739;  i.  7,  pp.  366,  581 ;  i.  7,  9-14,  p. 
615 ;  i.  8,  9,  p.  636 ;  i.  9-13,  p.  615 ;  i.  11,  p.  §15  j 
i.  13-ii.  3,  p.  615;  i.  14,  p.  739;  i.  15,  p.  496; 
i.  15-18,  pp.  612,  616;  i.  15-23,  p.  617 ;  i.  16,  pp. 
616,  701 ;  i.  16,  17,  pp.  495,  751 ;  i.  18,  p.  479  ;  i. 

19,  pp.  603,  016,  633, 636,  638;  i.  19, 20-22,  p.  616  j 


780 


PASSAGES  OF  SCRIPTURE 


i.  20,  p.  114;  i.  20,  22,  pp.  610,  639  ;  i.  20,  21-23, 
p.  617 ;  i.  21,  p.  617 ;  i.  24,  p.  711 ;  i.  24-29,  p.  617; 
i.  25,  p.  118 ;  i.  26,  p.  610 ;  i.  27,  pp.  617,  633 ;  i. 
29,  p.  617;  ii.  1,  pp.  282,  607,  617;  ii.  1-7,  p.  618; 
"  2,  pp.  515,  "" 


2,  pp.  515,  617  ;  ii.  4-iii.  4,  p.  615  ;  ii.  6,  pp. 
620,  692,  733  ;  ii.  6-9,  p.  616  ;  ii.  7,  p.  618  ;  ii. 
7-10,  p.  618;  ii.  8,  pp.  439,  618;  ii.  8,  18,  p.  751; 
ii.  8,  16-19,  p.  728  ;  ii.  9,  pp.  496,  60(1,  616,  636  ; 
ii.  11,  pp.  602,  609,  618,  620,  633  ;  ii.  11-15,  p. 
619  ;  ii.  12,  p.  679  ;  ii.  14,  pp.  237,  412  ;  ii.  15,  pp. 
700,  701  ;  ii.  15,  18,  pp.  652  ;  ii.  16,  pp.  25,  439, 
513,  608  ;  ii.  16-23,  p.  619  ;  ii.  17,  p.  151  ;  ii.  18, 
pp.  16,  387,  406,  599;  ii.  19,  pp.  414,  606; 
ii.  21,  p.  632;  ii.  23,  p.  619;  ii.  23,  p.  273; 
iii.  1,  pp.  115,  612;  iii.  1-8,  &c.,  p.  633;  iii. 
1-17,  p.  620  ;  iii.  3,  p.  479  ;  iii.  4,  p.  479  ;  iii.  5,  p. 
389;  iii.  5-17,  p.  615;  iii.,  p.  387;  iii.  6,  11,  p. 
620;  iii.  9,  p.  633;  iii.  10,  479;  iii.  11,  pp. 
468,  739;  iii.  12,  p.  599;  iii.  16,  p.  615; 
iii.  18-25,  p.  620;  iii.  18-iv.  6,  p.  615;  iii. 
22,  pp.  390,  657;  iii.  24,  p.  493;  'iii.  24,  25,  p. 
485  ;  iv.  1-6,  p.  621  ;  iv.  3,  pp.  119,  338  ;  iv.  3,  4. 
p.  591  ;  iv.  5,  p.  245  ;  iv.  6,  p.  614  ;  iv.  7,  p.  663  ; 
iv.  7,  10,  14,  p.  580;  iv.  7-18,  p.  615;  iv.  8,  p. 
621  ;  iv.  9,  10,  12,  14,  p.  581  ;  iv.  10,'pp.  133,  255, 
256,  372,  621,  670  ;  iv.  10,  11,  p.  450  ;  iv.  10,  11, 

14,  p.  272;  iv.  11,  pp.  452,  579  ;  iv.  12,  p.  515  ; 
iv.  12,  13,  15,  p.  607  ;  iv.  12-16,  p.  366;  iv.  14,  p. 
271  ;  iv.  15,  p.  621;  iv.  16,  p.  631  ;  iv.  17,  p.  695; 
iv.  18,  p.  338. 

I.  THESSALOKIANS  i  1,  pp.  242,  CIO  ;  i.  1-3, 
p.  329  ;  i.  1-10,  p.  330  ;  i.  2-10,  p.  329  ;  i.  2,  3,  5, 
6-8,  p.  289;  i.  6,  pp.  289,  327,  a30,  338,  695;  i. 

8,  pp.  286,  330;  i.  9,  pp.  216,  289  ;  i.  9,  10,  p. 
342  ;  L  10,  pp.  330,  338,  727  ;  ii.  1,  2,  p.  289  ;  ii. 
1-12,  pp.  329,  332  ;  ii.  2,  pp.  280,  288  ;  ii.  3,  p. 
713;  ii.  3-5,  p.  122;  ii.  3-6,  p.  289;  ii.  4,  pp. 

332,  652  ;  ii.  5,  p.  331  ;  ii.  5,  7,  9,  p.  276  ;  ii.  5, 

9,  10,  p.  331  ;  ii.  6,  p.  329  ;  ii.  6,  9,  p.  14  ;  ii. 

7,  pp.  45,  331  ;  ii.  7,  11,  p.  193  ;  ii.  8,  pp.  16, 
331  ;  ii.  9,  pp.  272,  285,  287,  290,  318,  338  ;  ii. 
11,  p.  332  ;  ii.  12,  pp.  291,  338  ;  ii.  13-16,  p.  329  ; 
ii.  14,  p.  289  ;  ii.  14-16,  pp.  321,  332  ;  ii.  15,  p. 
135  ;  fi.  17,  pp.  333,  338  ;  ii.  17-iii.  10,  p.  329  ; 
ii.  17-iii.  13,  p.  333  ;  ii.  18,  pp.  292,  294,  328,  711  ; 
ii.  19,  pp.  339,  699  ;  iii.  1,  pp.  194,  715  ;  iii.  1- 

8,  p.  329  ;  iii.  2,  pp.  260,  312;  iii.  2,  6,  p.  328; 
iii.  4,  p.  289  ;  iii.  4,  7,  p.  315  ;  iii.  5,  p.  234,  333  ; 
iii.  10,  pp.  272,  332;  iii.  13,  p.  339;  iv.  1,  p. 
(IDl;  iv.  1-8,  pp.  334;  iv.  3,  p.  3oS  ;  iv.  4,  p. 
33-1  ;  iv.  6,  pp.  334,  694  ;  iv.  7,  p.  334  ;  iv.  9,  pp. 
694,  698;  iv.  9,  10,  p.  329  ;  iv.  11,  pp.  347,  694; 
iv.  11,  12,  p.  335  ;  iv.  13,  p.  459  ;  iv.  13-18,  pp. 
329,  336  ;  iv.  13-v.  11,  p.  329  ;  iv.  14,  p.  336  ;  iv. 

15,  pp.  118,  119.  339,  341  ;  iv.  15-17,  p.  342  ;  iv. 

16,  pp.  33,  333,  701  ;  iv.  16,  17,  p.  48;  iv.  17,  p. 
338,  345;  iv.  17,  18,  p.  733;  v.  1,  pp.  3:34,  336, 
694,  698;  v.  1,  2,  4,  p.  336;  v.  1-11,  pp.  329, 
336;  v.  3,  p.  45;  v.  4,  p.  727;  v.  5,  15,  16,  p. 
338;  v.  8,  pp.  646,  652  ;  v.  9,  p.  346;  v.!2,pp. 

333,  442,  749  ;  v.  12-15,  pp.  322,  329,  337  ;  v.  15, 
pp.  337,  338;  v.  16-22,  p.  329;  v.  23,  pp.  337, 
339  ;  v.  23,  24,  p.  329  ;  v.  25-28,  p.  329  ;  v.  26,  p. 
509  ;  v.  27,  p.  434  ;  v.  28,  pp.  338,  610. 

II.  THESSAJ-OHIANS  i.  1,  p.  242;  i.  1,  2, 
344;  i.  2,  p.  328;  i.  8-12,  pp.  344,  315; 

4,  p.  344;  i.  4,  5,  p.  289;  i.  5,  p.  291  ;  i.  9, 
p.  344;  L  11,  p.  345;  i.  12,  p.  662;  ii.,  pp. 
342,  694;  ii.  1,  p.  333;  ii.  1,  2,  p.  733;  ii. 
1,  8,  p.  339  ;  ii.  1-12,  pp.  3U,  346  ;  ii.  2, 
pp.  311,  317;  ii.  3,  7,  p.  694;  ii.  4,  5,  p.  695; 
ii.  6,  7,  pp.  291,  349  ;  ii.  8,  p.  48  ;  ii.  13  17,  pp. 
344,  316;  ii.  11,  p.  119;  iii.  1,  p.  338;  iii.  1-5, 
p.  344  ;  iii.  1-11,  p.  347  ;  iii.  4,  6,  10,  12,  i>.  317; 


E 


iii.  5,  p.  842  ;  iii.  6,  p.  515 ;  iii.  6-16,  p.  344 ;  iii. 
8,  pp.  14,  272,  318,  331,  &32  ;  iii.  8-10,  p.  289; 
iii.  11,  pp.  347,  695,698;  iii.  12-16,  p.  317;  iii. 
13,  p.  484 ;  iii.  16,  p.  344 ;  iii.  17,  p.  326  ;  iii.  17, 


18,  pp.  344,  347 ;  iii.  18,  p.  338. 

I.  TIMOTHY  i.  1,  pp.  662,  748;  i.  1,  2,  p.  650; 
i.  2,  18,  pp.  217,  259 ;  i.  3,  pp.  260,  516,  743, 
750,  751 ;  i.  3,  4,  p.  651 ;  i.  3-11,  p.  650 ;  i.  4,  pp. 


11,  seq.,  pp.  42,  745 ;  i.  12-17,  p.  650 ;  i.  12-20, 
p.  652 ;  i.  13,  p.  98;  i.  15,  pp.  663,  745,  746,  747; 
i.  16,  pp.  42,  680 ;  i.  17,  p.  695 ;  i.  18,  pp.  261, 
262  ;  i.  18-20,  p.  650  ;  i.  19,  p.  748;  i.  20,  pp.  401, 
516,  678 ;  ii.,  p.  650 ;  ii.  1-7,  p.  652 ;  ii.  2,  p.  747 ; 
ii.  3,  pp.  484,  748;  ii.  3-5,  p.  662 ;  ii.  3-6,  p.  494; 
ii.  3,  7,  p.  746 ;  ii.  4,  p.  494 ;  ii  4-6,  p.  745  ;  ii. 
5,  pp.  438,  496  ;  ii.  7,  p.  748;  ii.  8,  pp.  653,  743; 
ii.  8-15,  p.  653  ;  ii.  12-14,  p.  751  ;  ii.  14,  p.  476; 
ii.  15,  pp.  390,  746;  iii.,  pp.  75,  650,  750;  iii.  1, 
pp.  663,  747 ;  iii.  1-7,  pp.  654, 750 ;  iii.  2,  p.  246 ; 
iii.  3,  pp.  417,  539 ;  iii.  6,  p.  273 ;  iii.  8,  p.  331 ; 
iii.  8-10,  p.  654 ;  iii.  8-13,  p.  750  ;  iii.  9,  p.  748; 
iii.  11-13,  p.  654 ;  iii.  14,  pp.  516, 750  ;  iii.  14,  15, 
p.  746  ;  iii.  14-16,  p.  654 ;  iii.  15,  p.  750 ;  iii.  16, 
pp.  114, 115,  620,  745,  747 ;  iv.,  p.  650 ;  iv.  1,  2, 
p.  346 ;  iv.  1-3,  p.  728 ;  iv.  1-6, 10,  21,  p.  748 ;  iv. 
1-16,  p.  655 ;  iv.  2,  pp.  273,  752  ;  iv.  3,  pp.  46, 
694 ;  iv.  4,  p.  751 ;  iv.  7,  p.  747  ;  iv.  7,  8,  p.  484  ; 
iv.  8,  p.  273  ;  iv.  9,  p.  747 ;  iv.  10,  p.  748  ;  iv.  12, 
pp.  260,  262 ;  iv.  12-20,  p.  516;  iv.  14,  pp.  261, 
262,  652,  749 ;  v.  1,  2,  p.  650;  v.  1-16,  p.  656 ;  v. 
3-16,  p.  650 ;  v.  5,  p.  272  ;  v.  6,  p.  604;  v.  11-14, 
p.  750 ;  v.  13,  p.  695 ;  v.  14,  p.  46,  390,  653  ;  v. 
17  19,  p.  750;  v.  17-23,  p.  657 ;  v.  17-25,  p.  6'0  ; 
v.  22,  p.  749  ;  v.  21,  p.  662  ;  v.  23,  pp.  273,  746  ; 
v.  24,  p.  91 ;  vi.,  p.  650 ;  vi.  1,  p.  748  ;  vi.  1,  2, 
p.  747 ;  vi.  1-16,  p.  658 ;  vi.  2,  p.  390 ;  vi.  3,  p.  273  ; 
vi.  3, 4,  p.  747 ;  vi.  4,  p.  273 ;  vi.  11,  p.  747 ;  vi.  12, 
pp.  261,  699 ;  vi.  .13,  pp.  347,  662 ;  vi.  14-16,  p. 
108  ;  vi.  15,  16,  p.  620 ;  vi.  17-19,  p.  658 ;  vi.  19, 
pp.  654,  746 ;  vi.  20,  pp.  743,  717,  751 ;  vi.  21,  p. 
338. 

II.  TIMOTHY  i.  1-5,  p.  677 ;  i.  6,  pp.  261,  262, 
655 ;  i.  6-12,  p.  677  ;  i.  9,  p.  7-15 ;  i.  10,  p.  495 ; 
i.  11, 15  seq.,  p.  745;  i.  13,  pp.  644,  747,  749  ;  i. 
13,14,  p.  677 ;  i.  15,  pp.  669,  728 ;  i.  15-18,  p.  678  ; 
i.  16,  17,  p.  670 ;  i.  18,  p.  667 ;  ii.,  p.  13 ;  ii.  1, 
p.  217 ;  ii.  1-6,  7,  p.  678 ;  ii.  1-8,  p.  680 ;  ii.  2,  p. 
259 ;  ii.  3,  p.  600  ;  ii.  5,  p.  699  ;  ii.  7-13,  p.  678  ; 
ii.  8,  p.  119  ;  ii.  10,  p.  169 ;  ii.  11,  pp.  663,  747 ; 
ii.  11-13,  pp.  620-745  ;  ii.  14,  p.  678;  ii.  14-26,  p. 
679 ;  ii.  16,  pp.  680,  747 ;  ii.  17,  pp.  273,  652, 752 ; 
ii.  18,  p.  751;  ii.  19,  pp.  10,  470;  ii.  21,  pp.  491, 
494,  679,  747  ;  ii.  22,  p.  260  ;  ii.  24,  pp.  331,  420 ; 
iii.  1,  p.  666 ;  iii.  1-7,  pp.  613,  752 ;  iii.  1-9,  p. 
728;  iii.  1-17,  p.  6SO ;  iii.  2,  p.  466;  iii.  2-5,  10, 
11,  p.  695 ;  iii.  5,  12,  p.  747;  fii.  6,  pp.  600,  751 ; 
iii.  8,  pp.  198,  701 ;  iii.  10,  p.  259;  iii.  11,  p.). 
217,  221,  259 ;  iii.  13,  pp.  198,  365,  680 ;  iii.  16, 
pp.  28,  663;  iv.  1-8,  p.  680;  iv.  2,  pp.  235,  680; 
iv.  3,  pp.  273,  747 ;  iv.  6,  p.  731;  iv.  6  seq.,  p. 
745 ;  iv.  6-8,  p.  592 ;  iv.  7,  pp.  208,  515,  652  ;  iv. 
8,  pp.  493,  699  ;  iv.  9,  p.  750 :  iv.  9,  13,  p.  260  ; 
iv.  9-21,  pp.  676,  750 ;  iv.  9-22,  p.  681 ;  iv.  10, 
pp.  420,  621  ;  iv.  10-11,  p.  581 ;  iv.  11,  pp.  194, 
255,  256,  271,  512  ;  iv.  12,  p.  422;  iv.  13,  pp.  21, 
270;  iv.  14,  p.  652;  iv.  16,  pp.  92,  450,  670,  715 ; 
iv.  16-17,  p.  742 ;  iv.  17,  pp.  373,  672 ;  iv.  19,  pp. 
317,352,450,670;  iv.  20,  pp.  369,423;  iv.  21, 
p.  450 ;  iv.  22,  pp.  338,  658. 

TITUS  i.  1,  pp.  279,  747  ;  i.  3,  p.  748  ;  i.  4,  p. 
660 ;  i.  5,  pp.  285,  750;  i.  6-7,  p.  750;  i.  5-9  p. 


QUOTED  OR  REFERRED  T®. 


781 


CGI ;  i.  6,  p.  655 ;  1.  7,  pp.  331,  417,  539 ;  i.  9,  13, 
p.  747  ;  i.  10,  p.  747  ;  i.  10,  14,  pp.  743,  752  ;  i. 
10-16,  p.  662 ;  i.  11,  15,  16,  p.  752  ;  i.  12,  p.  696 ; 
i.  13,  p.  419 ;  i.  15,  p.  745 ;  ii.  1,  8,  p.  747  ;  ii.  3, 
p.  662  ;  ii.  3-5,  p.  6(52;  ii.  9,  p.  747  ;  ii.  10,  748  ; 
u.  11,  pp.  494,  745 ;  ii.  11-14,  p.  662 ;  ii.  12,  p. 
747 ;  ii.  13,  pp.  203,  638,  748 ;  ii.  14,  p.  484 ;  iii. 
3,  pp.  305,  745  ;  iii.  3-7,  p.  732;  iii.  5,  p.  748; 
iii  5-7,  p.  663  ;  iii.  8,  p.  484  ;  iii.  9,  pp.  743, 
747,  752 ;  iii.  12,  pp.  668,  750 ;  iii.  13,  14,  p. 
362;  iii.  15,  pp.  338,658. 

PHILEMON  1,  2,  p.  607;  1,  24,  p.  580 ;  2,  p. 
600;  5,  9,  p.  628 ;  9,  p.  7  ;  10,  pp.  193,  581 ;  10, 
12,  p.  626  ;  11,  pp.  629,  695,  698;  11, 18,  p.  694; 
11,  20,  pp.  629,  695;  12,  p.  733;  13,  p.  627  ;  19, 
pp.  334,415,  694;  22,  pp.  578,  591,648;  23,  p. 
621 ;  24,  pp.  256,  271,  288,  372,  581,  670  ;  25,  p. 
338. 

HEBREWS  i.  3,  p.  638 ;  i.  13,  p.  85 ;  ii.  2,  p. 
92;  ii.  8.  p.  468;  ii.  8,  14.  p.  495;  iii.  1,  p.  188; 
iii.  4,  p.  334;  v.  8,  p.  695;  v.  14,  pp.  337,  469; 
vi.  4-6,  p.  362 ;  vii.  p.  392  ;  vii  9,  10,  p.  477 ; 
vii.  18,  p.  2 ;  viii  13,  p.  154  ;  is.  5,  p.  151 ;  ix. 
25,  p.  473 ;  x  1,  p.  151 ;  x.  5,  p.  490 ;  x.  24,  p.  254  ; 
x.  25,  pp.  345,  513 ;  x.  33,  p.  698 ;  x.  37,  p.  48; 
x.  38,  p.  29;  x.  39,  p.  346;  xi.  1,  p.  463;  xii. 
1,  p.  619 ;  xii.  2,  p.  464  ;  xii.  4,  p.  99 ;  xiii.  21,  p. 
267  ;  xiii.  23,  pp.  654,  685 ;  xiii.  25,  p.  347. 

JAMES  i.  1,  pp.  65,  66,  243,  638 ;  i.  4,  p.  337 ; 
i.  6,  p.  695;  i.  11,  pp.  396,  497  ;  i.  17,  p.  395  ;  i. 
25,  pp.  240,  425 ;  ii.  5,  p.  636 ;  ii.  7,  pp.  169, 240 ; 

11.  10,  p.  482 ;  U.  12,  p.  240 ;  ii.  17,  24,  p.  484  ;  ii. 
24,  pp.  132,  474  ;  iv.  4-13,  p.  469 ;  iv.  15,  p.  352; 
v.  1-6,  p.  469  ;  v.  8,  p.  48 ;  v.  8,  9,  p.  342 ;  v.  12, 
p.  409. 

I.  PETER  i.  1,  pp.  66,  255,  269,  317 ;  i.  3, 
p. 740;  i. 3, 4, p.  47 ;  i.5, 7,p. 740;  i.  10, 11,484;  i. 

12,  p.  656;  i.  14,  p.  740;  i.  20,  p.  740;  ii.  2, 
p.  119  ;  ii.  3,  p.  169 ;  ii.  4-8,  p.  1 ;  ii.  5,  p.  479 ; 


ii.  9,  p.  740;  ii.  11,  p.  740 ;  ii.  1C,  p.  441 ;  ii  16, 
17,  p.  252;  ii.  21  seq.,  p.  42  ;  ii.  24,  p.  252  ;  iii. 
4,  p.  489 ;  iii.  7,  pp.  334,  740 ;  iii.  18  seq.,  p.  42 ; 
iv.  5,  p.  48;  iv.  7,  p.  342 ;  iv.  11,  pp.  433,  654; 
iv.  13, 14,  p.  476  ;  iv.  16,  pp.  168,  170  ;  v.  2,  p. 
750  ;  v.  5,  p.  619 ;  v.  8,  p.  672  ;  v.  10,  p.  740; 
v.  12,  pp.  242,  256 ;  v.  13,  pp.  255,  256,  448;  v. 
14,  pp.  337,  509. 

II.  PETEB  i.  1,  pp.  241,  662 ;  i.  5,  p.  267 ;  i. 

10,  11,  p.  484 ;   ii.  1,  p.  225  ;  ii.  1,  2,  p.  728  ;  ii. 
4,  p.  701;  ii.  10,  p.  540;   ii.  22,  p.   154;  iii.  3, 
p.  728 ;  iii.  7,  p.  204 ;  iii.  9,  p.  494 ;  iii.  15,  p. 
252  ;  iii.  16,  pp.  339,  488. 

I.  JOHN  i.  1,  pp.42, 172,  479 ;  ii  18,  p.  342 ; 

11.  19,  p.  516;  ii.  22,  p.  382;  ii.  24,  p.  479  ;  iv. 
1-3,  p.  382 ;  iv.  2,  3,  p.  643  ;  iv.  3,  pp.  350,  728  ; 
iv.  10,  p.  473 ;  v.  4,  p.  491 ;  v.  12,  p.  479 ;  v.  19, 
p.  646;  v.  20,  pp.  330,  479. 

II.  JOHN  i.  1,  p.  623. 
IIL  JOHN,  9,  p.  338. 

JUDE  4,  pp.  266,  436,  662;  6,  14,  p.  701; 
8,  p.  613 ;  9,  pp.  159,  336 ;  13,  p.  466 ;  14,  p. 
333. 

REVELATION  i.  13,  p.  93;  i.-iii.  p.  263  ;  ii.  2, 
6,  9,  14,  15,  20,  34.  p.  723 ;  ii.  5,  p.  375 ;  ii.  6,  p. 
131,  516 ;  ii.  6,  15,  p.  75 ;  ii.  9,  p.  79  ;  ii.  14,  p. 
379;  ii.  It,  20-22,  p.  613 ;  ii.  20,  p.  131  ;  ii.  24, 
pp.  243,  386 ;  iii.  9,  pp.  79,  131,  723 ;  iii.  14,  p. 
607,  612 ;  iii.  15,  p.  621 ;  iii.  21,  p.  612 ;  iv.  3,  p. 
110 ;  v.  9,  p.  724  ;  vi.  1,  p.  57 ;  vii.  9,  p.  72 1 ; 
vii  15,  p.  79 ;  ix.  17,  p.  110 ;  xi.  19,  p.  79  ;  xiii, 
p.  728 ;  xiii.  18,  p.  349 ;  xiv.  4,  p.  45 ;  xiv.  13,  p. 
94;  xiv.  14,  p.  93;  xv.  3,  p.  620;  xvii  6,  p. 
535  ;  xvii.  10,  11,  p.  727  ;  xviii.  12,  13,  p.  355 ; 
xviii.  13,  p.  625;  xix.  1-4,  p.  645;  xix.  10,  p. 
4;  xix.  20,  p.  198;  xxi. 4,  p.  494;  xxi.  5,  p.  651; 
xxi  11,  p.  600 ;  xxi.  14,  pp.  1,  679 ;  xxii.  3,  p. 
494  ;  xxii.  6,  p.  651 ;  xxii.  15,  p.  601  ;  xxii.  20, 
p.  342. 


TiLE    EM3X 


PKISTED  BT 

&  COMPAKT,  LIMITED,  LA  Bzt.i.a  SAUYAGB, 
LOHDOB,  E.G. 

50.998 


THE 


QUIVER 

WHAT  IT  Is 


AND 


WHAT  IT  HAS 
DONE. 


is  "THE  QUIVER"? 


QUIVER  is  A  Popular  Magazine  contain- 
ing attractive  and  suitable  reading  for  Sunday 
and  Every  Day  in  the  Christian  Household.  The 
aim  of  the  Editor  is  to  provide  Sermon  Papers,  com- 
bining sound  doctrine  with  enlightened  and  forcible 
teaching  ;  Narratives  of  the  great  Philanthropic  and 
Missionary  movements  of  the  day;  Stories,  serial  and 
complete,  intended  to  instruct  as  well  as  to  entertain, 
by  inculcating  higher  views  of  life,  and  applying  Chris- 
tian principles  to  the  daily  incidents  of  the  home ; 
Sacred  Music,  for  the  Church  and  the  Family ;  Scrip- 
ture Lessons,  for  the  use  of  Parents  and  Sunday-school 
Teachers;  Parables,  Addresses,  and  Stories  for  Children; 
and  numerous  notes  and  anecdotes  under  the  head  of 
Short  Arrows,  descriptive  of  good  words  said  and  good 
work  done  in  all  fields,  at  home  and  abroad.  It  is,  in 
fact,  as  has  been  often  said,  A  Library  in  Itself. 

But  The  Quiver  is  more  than  this :  it  is  A  Philan- 
thropic Institution.  Its  vast  body  of  Readers  form  a 
magnificent  Society  for  Philanthropic  purposes.  More 
than  twenty  years  ago  this  great  society  of  Quiver 
Readers  subscribed  their  hundreds  of  pounds  to  the 
Lancashire  Famine  Relief  Fund ;  some  years  later  the 
Indian  Famine  Relief  Fund  received  more  than  a 


thousand  pounds  from  what  the  Lord  Mayor  of 
London  termed  "That  inexhaustible  Quiver."  Four 
Lifeboats  have  been  given  to  the  Royal  National 
Lifeboat  Institution ;  a  "  Quiver  Cot "  has  been  given 
to  the  Hospital  for  Sick  Children  in  Great  Ormond 
Street,  London ;  a  new  wing  was  added  to  the 
Orphan  Home  at  Ham  Common;  the  "Quiver 
Medal "  adorns  the  breast  of  many  a  hero  who  has 
saved  another's  life,  at  the  risk  of  his  own,  from  perils 
by  land  and  water ;  an  Order  of  Honourable  Service, 
now  numbering  over  3,000  members,  was  founded  (with 
H.R.H.  Princess  Christian  as  Patron),  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  long  and  faithful  domestic  service.  The  Quiver 
League  of  Christian  Compassion  was  instituted,  in  con- 
nection with  which  Prizes,  Medals,  and  Certificates  ol 
Honour  were  awarded  to  the  members ;  whilst  the  latest 
development  is  a  Roll  of  Honour  for  Sunday-school 
Teachers.  Under  this  scheme  a  special  medal  has  been 
struck  and  is  awarded  to  all  Sunday-school  workers  of 
over  twenty  years'  standing,  and  to  the  worker  with  the 
longest  record  in  each  county  is  presented  a  Silver 
Medal  and  a  handsome  Bible. 

Many  other  instances  might  be  mentioned,  but 
enough  has  been  said  to  establish  the  fact  that  this 
is  no  mere  Magazine,  but  an  Institution.  And  we 
may  confidently  anticipate  for  The  Quiver  a  long- 
continued  and  still  more  widely  extended  career  of 
usefulness. 

THE    EDITOR. 

26* 


QUIVER 


For  SUNDAY  AND  GENERAL  READING. 
Monthly,    6d. 

NOTICE.—  The  Yearly  Volume  of  THE  QUIVER,  con- 
taining about  1,000  Quarto  Pages,  with  several 
hundred  Illustrations  and  Coloured  Picture  for 
Frontispiece,  is  published,  Strongly  Bound  in  Cloth, 
price  7$.  6d. 


SOME    OPINIONS    OP    THE    PRESS. 

"THE  QUIVER  contains  a  rich  variety  of  matter, 
religious  and  secular.  It  is  unquestionably  ahead  of  its 
contemporaries  in  its  illustrations." — The  Times. 

"  THE  QUIVER  appears  in  a  new  and  enlarged  form." 
— Guardian. 

"  The  subjects  are  well  varied,  the  illustrations  are 
many  and  good.  The  devotional  or  expository  papers 
are  thoroughly  Scriptural." — Record. 

"  THE  QUIVER  is  an  amazing  sizpennyworth ;  the 
illustrations  are  so  good  and  the  style  is  so  fresh  and 
attractive,  combining  solid  instruction  with  much  that  is 
entertaining  and  bright." — The  Rock. 

"  There  is  no  help  for  it.  Without  withdrawing  one 
word  written  in  praise  of  the  other  sixpenny  magazines 
of  this  kind,  we  are  bound  to  say  that  THE  QUIVER, 
alike  for  quality  and  quantity,  for  variety  of  literature, 
and  for  charm  of  illustration,  stands  at  the  top  of  the 
poll." — Methodist  Times. 

"  THE  QUIVER  continues  to  march  with  the  times, 
and  takes  constant  advantage  of  the  many  fresh  pro- 
cesses which  lend  added  interest  and  attractiveness  to 
our  magazine  illustrations.  There  is  an  abundance  of 
welcome  matter,  both  literary  and  pictorial,  in  these 
pages." — Daily  Telegraph. 


"The  Quiuer"  Press  Opinions  (continued). 


"This  magazine  has  distanced  all  its  sixpenny 
competitors." — Methodist  Recorder, 

"The  new  volume  of  THE  QUIVER  holds  its  own 
against  any  of  its  predecessors,  if,  indeed,  it  may  not  be 
said  to  have  shot  a  long  way  ahead." — Christian  World. 

"THE  QUIVER  volume  is  a  veritable  storehouse  of 
stories,  records  of  Christian  and  philanthropic  work,  and 
direct  Gospel  teaching,  beside  a  miscellaneous  collection 
of  subjects  of  general  interest  gathered  under  the  title 
of '  Short  Arrows.' " — Sword  and  Trowel. 

"An  excellent  gift-book  for  the  family  circle," — 
Glasgow  Herald. 

"A  right  royal  book  for  the  home  is  the  annual 
volume  of  THE  QUIVER.  There  is  not  a  dull  page 
from  first  to  last ;  there  is  a  fine  blend  of  the  instruc- 
tive and  the  entertaining,  whilst  in  it  all  there  is  a  high 
moral  purpose  which  binds  the  variety  into  unity. 
Every  imaginable  taste  in  reading  seems  here  met, 
and  with  an  up-to-date  chattiness  that  will  arrest  at- 
tention and  maintain  the  interest  to  the  end." — Word 
and  Work. 

"THE  QUIVER  well  maintains  its  high  reputation." 
— Bradford  Observer. 

"  This  is  a  remarkably  cheap  production,  and  should 
be  in  great  demand  among  those  who  desire  to  dis- 
seminate wholesome  literature.  The  volume  contains 
960  pages  of  letterpress  by  eminent  divines  and  popular 
authors,  about  600  original  illustrations  by  the  leading 
artists  of  the  day,  five  complete  serials,  and  about  40 
short  stories,  and  numerous  papers  on  Christian  life  and 
work  in  all  fields,  in  addition  to  twelve  new  and  original 
hymn  tunes  by  the  most  popular  composers  of  sacred 
airs.  Such  a  work  would  be  an  invaluable  addition 
to  any  library,  especially  those  in  connection  with 
schools." —  Western  Daily  Mercury. 


The  Quiver"  Press  Opinions  (continued}. 


"  Among  all  the  '  Monthlies  '  none  even  approach 
in  importance  to  '  The  Quiver.'  Its  stories  are  always 
of  the  highest  order,  the  articles  are  ever  fresh  and 
instructive,  and  the  illustrations  by  leading  artists." — 
Christian  Union. 

"THE  QUIVER  is  a  library  in  itself  of  instructive, 
attractive,  and  profitable  reading." — Christian. 

"  A  veritable  gold-mine  to  those  who  are  partial  to 
quiet,  instructive,  and  religious  reading." — The  Queen. 

"  It  is  a  joy  to  have  such  a  magazine  in  one's  hands. " 
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for  the  household."  —  Civil  Service  Gazette. 

"CASSELL'S  MAGAZINE  gains  rather  than  loses  in  interest 
with  each  succeeding  year.  It  is  a  treasure  for  anyone  to 
possess,  containing  the  variety  of  information,  amusement,  and 
interest  that  it  does."  —  Saturday  Review. 

"  CASSELL'S  MAGAZINE  consists  of  numerous  short  articles 
on  subjects  of  general  interest,  sometimes  not  exceeding  one 
page  in  length,  and  rarely  extending  over  three  pages.  This 
rule  of  brevity  produces  excellent  results.  We  are  glad  to 
observe  also  that  the  literary  style  is  well  maintained,  and  that 
in  the  task  of  satisfying  the  public  taste  vulgarity  is  uniformly 
avoided.  While  the  varied  interests  of  the  domestic  circle 
are  fairly  represented,  there  is  a  marked  absence  both  of 
sensational  and  of  sermonising  writing  which  we  cannot  suf- 
ficiently commend.  The  continuity  of  the  monthly  numbers 
is  preserved  by  novels  of  more  than  average  merit."  —  Academy. 

***  CASSELL'S  MAGAZINE  can  be  obtained  by  order  from  all 
Bookseller  s>  or  will  be  sent  post  free  by  the  Publishers  to 
any  part  of  the  World  for  9s.  per  annum. 

CASSELL  &  COMPANY,  LIMITED,  Ludgate  Hill,  London. 


"Little   Folks" 

m  Magazine. 

Monthly,  6d. 
HALF-YEARLY    VOLUMES,    with    Six 

Full -page  Coloured  Plates,  and  numerous  other 
Pictures  printed  in  Colours.  Picture  boards,  33.  6d.; 
cloth  gilt,  gilt  edges,  53.  each. 

"  The  extraordinary  popularity  of  LITTLE  FOLKS  has  placed 
it  beyond  both  rivalry  and  criticism.  LITTLE  FOLKS  is  at  the 
head  of  English  illustrated  magazines  for  children." — Queen. 

"The  most  popular  of  all  the  English  magazines  for  the 
young." —  Scotsman. 

"  LITTLE  FOLKS  is  brimful  of  delight  for  little  ones."— Pall 
Mall  Gazette. 

"  A  charming  magazine  for  the  little  ones,  adorned  with 
quaintly-novel  coloured  pictures,  and  full  of  pleasing  tales  and 
poems." —  Christian. 

"  Everyone  ought  to  know  by  this  time  that  LITTLE  FOLKS 
is  THE  BEST  MAGAZINE  FOR  CHILDREN."—  Graphic. 

"  LITTLE  FOLKS  is  always  a  welcome  arrival  both  in  the 
nursery  and  the  school-room.  It  is  among  the  very  best  of 
all  the  numerous  children's  magazines  that  are  now  published. 
Many  of  the  woodcuts  are  really  quite  charming  works  of 
art. " — Academy. 

"As  usual,  up  to  the  highest  point  of  excellence.  We 
know  of  nothing  in  the  English  language  which  can  be  placed 
before  LITTLE  FOLKS.  It  keeps  always  in  the  front  rank." — 
Sword  and  Trowel. 

V  LITTLE  FOLKS  may  be  obtained  by  order  from  all  Book- 
sellers, or  will  be  sent  post  free  by  the  Publishers  to  any 
part  of  the  World  for  8s.  per  annum, 

CASSELL  &  COMPANY,  LIMITED,  Ludgate  Hill,  London. 


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