Handy Commentary EDITED BY C/. The Commentary for Schools. CJe gets of tfje apostles. WITH COMMENTARY BY E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D., Prebendary of St. PauFs ; Ykar of Bickley ; Professor of Divinity, King's College, London ; And Examining Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. SECOND EDITION. CASSELL, PeU'TEK, GrALPIN" jQ~o. LONDON, PARIS # NEW YORK. [ALL KIGHTS RESERVED.] PREFACE. A desire has been expressed for the publication in a separate form of the Notes on the "Acts of the Apostles" in Bishop Ellicott's New Testament Commentary for English Readers, and at the request of the Publishers I have undertaken the preparation of this volume. A few errata have been corrected, and cross-references to Notes on other Books of the New Testament, which would have been out of place in a Commentary published by itself, have been omitted, but with these exceptions what I had before written is reproduced in its completeness. I have thought it desirable to append part of the Introduction to the Gospel of St. Luke, in which I have given a sketch of the life and character of the writer of the " Acts," and which is, I think, all but indispensable for a right study of the book. E. H. P. Bickley Vicarage, March 1th, 1879. INTRODUCTION TO THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. I. The Author. — The opening words of the Acts, addressed, lite the Gospel of St. Luke, to Theo- philus, and referring to a former book, as containing a history of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus, such as we find in that Gospel, are, at least, primd facie evidence of identity of. authorship. The inter nal evidence of style,* yet more, perhaps, that of character and ten dency as shown in the contents of the book, confirm this conclusion. A tradition, going back to the second century, falls in with what has thus been inferred from the book itself. The words of Stephen, " Lay not this sin to their charge," are quoted in the Epistle of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne to thoseof Asia ¦and Phrygia (a.u., 177), given by Eusebius [Hist. v. 2). Irenasusand Clement of Alexandria quote from it, the latter citing St. Paul's speech at Athens (Strom, v. 2) ; as also does Tertullian (De Jejun. c. 10). The MS. known as the Murato- rian Fragment dwells on its being largely the work of an eye-witness, as seen in its omission of the mar tyrdom of St. Peter, and St. Paul's journey to Spain. Eusebius (Mist. * Not fewer than fifty words are com mon to the two books, and are not found elsewhere in the New Testament, Many of these are noticed in the Notes. 1 iii. 4) ascribes both books to him, in the same terms ; and Jerome (De Vir. Illnst. c. viii.) almost repeats the words of the Fragment : " Luke wrote his Gospel from what he had heard, but the Acts of the Apostles from what he saw." It will be enough, therefore, as far as the authorship of this book is con cerned, to refer for all that is known or conjectured as to the writer to the Introduction to St. Luke. There also will be found all that it is necessary to say as to Theophilus as representing the first readers of the Acts. n. The Title.— It does not follow that the present title was prefixed to the book by the writer himself. For him, probably, it would only present itself as the " second treatise," or " book," which came as a natural sequel to the first. It was not strange, how ever, especially when the books of the New Testament came to be collected together in a volume, and the "former treatise" took its place side by side with the other Gospels, and was thus parted from its companion, that a distinct title should be given to it. In the title itself the Greek MSS. present con siderable variations — "Acts of the Apostles," " Acts of all the Apostles," " Acts of the Holy Apostles," sometimes with the THE ACTS. addition of the author's name, " Written by Luke the Evan gelist," "Written by the Holy and Illustrious Luke, Apostle and Evangelist." The word "Acts" seems to have been in common use in the first and second centuries after Christ for what we should call " Memoirs" or " Biographies," and appears conspicuously in the apocryphal literature of the New Testament, as in the Acts of Pilate, the Acts of Peter and Paul, of Philip, of Matthew, of Bartholo mew. III. The Scope of the Book. — It is obvious that the title, whether by the author or by a transcriber, does but imperfectly describe its real nature. It is in no sense a history of the Apostles as a body. The names of the Eleven meet us but once (chap. i. 13). They are mentioned collectively in chaps, ii. 37, 42, 43 ; iv. 33—37 ; v. 2, 12, 18, 29; vi. 6; viii. 1, 14, 18 ; ix. 27; xi 1 ; xv. 2, 4, 6, 22, 23, 33. St. John appears only in chaps, iii. 1 ; iv. 13 ; viii. 14. Nothing is told us of the individual work of any other. Looking to the contents of the book, it would be better described, if we were to retain the present form at all, as the "Acts of Peter and of Paul," the former Apostle occupying a pro minent place in chaps, i. — v., x. — xii., xv., the latter being the cen tral figure in chaps, vii. 58, ix. , xi. 25 — 30, xiii. — xxvii. From another point of view a, yet more appro priate title would be (using the term in its familiar literary sense) that of the Origines Ecclesice — the history of the growth and develop ment of the Church of Christ, and of the mission work of that Church among the Gentiles. The staiting- point and the close of the book are in this respect significant. It begins at Jerusalem ; it ends at Kome. When it opens, circumcision is re quired, as well as baptism, of every disciple ; the Church of Christ is outwardly but a Jewish sect of some hundred and twenty persons (chap. i. 15). When it ends, every barrier between Jew and Gentile has been broken down, and the Church has become catholic and all-embracing. To trace the stages of that expansion both locally and as affecting the teaching of the Church is the dominant purpose of the book. The "acts" of those who were not concerned in it at all, or played but a subordinate part in it, are, we may venture to say, deliberately passed over. Some principle of selection.is clearly in volved in the structure of such a book as that now before us, and even without going beyond the four corners of the book itself, we may safely affirm that the main purpose of the writer was to inform a Gentile convert of Rome how the gospel had been brought to him, and how it had gained .the width and freedom with which it was actually presented. IV. ' Its Relation to the Gospel of St. Luke. — The view thus taken is strengthened by the fact that it presents the Acts of the Apostles as the natural sequel to the Gospel which we have seen sufficient reason to assign to the same writer. For there also, as it has been shown (Introduction), we trace the same principle of selection. It is more than any of the other three a Gospel for the Gentiles, bringing out the univer sality of the kingdom of God, recording parables and incidents which others had not recorded because they bore witness that the INTRODUCTION. love of God flowed out beyond the limits of the chosen people on robbers and harlots, on Samaritans and Gentiles. It remained for one who had led his catechumen con vert to think thus of the Christ during His ministry on earth, to show that the unseen guidance given by the Christ in Heaven, through the working of the Holy Spirit, was leading it on in the same direction, that, though there had been expansion and develop ment, there had been no interrup tion of continuity. I have ven tured to say (Introduction) that the Gospel of St. Luke might be described as emphatically " the Gospel of the Saintly Life." The natural sequel to such a Gospel was a record of the work of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier. Look ing to the prominence given to the work of the Spirit, from the Day of Pentecost onwards, as guiding both the Church collectively and its in dividual members, it would hardly be over-bold to say that the book might well be called " the Gospel of the Holy Spirit." At every Btage His action is emphatically recognised. Jesus, after His resur rection, had, "through the Holy Ghost, given commandment to the Apostles whom He had chosen " (chap. i. 2). They are to be " bap tised with the Holy Ghost " (chap. i. 5), are to "receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon them" (chap. i. 8). The Holy Ghost had spoken through the mouth of David (chap. i. 16.) Then comes the great wonder of the Day of Pentecost, when all the disciples were " filled with the Holy Ghost (chap. ii. 4), and spake with tongues, and the prophecy, " I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh" (chap. ii. 17), is quoted as on the verge of fulfilment. Jesus has " received from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost" (chap. ii. 33). Once again all were " filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake the word with boldness " (chap. iv. 31). The sin of Ananias is a " lie unto the Holy Ghost " (chap. v. 3). He and his wife have " tempted the Spirit of the Lord " (chap. v. 9). The " Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him," is a witness that the Christ is exalted at the right hand of God (chap. v. 32). The seven who are chosen in chap. vi. are ' ' full of the Holy Ghost, and of wisdom" (chap. vi. 3). Stephen is pre-emi nently "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost " (chap. vi. 5). His leading charge against priests and scribes is that they " do always re sist the Holy Ghost" (chap. vii. 51.) His vision of the Son of Man stand ing at the right hand of God is closely connected with his being at the moment " filled with the Holy Ghost" (chap. vii. 55). Peter. and John go down to Samaria that those who had been baptised- by Philip "might receive the Holy Ghost" (chap. viii. 15 — 17); and the sin of Simon the sorcerer is that he thinks that that gift of God can be purchased with money (chap. viii. 1 8 — 20) . It is the Spirit that impels Philip to join himself to the Ethiopian eunuch (chap. viii. 39), and carries him away after his baptism (chap. viii. 39). Ananias is to lay his hands on Saul of Tar sus, that he "may be filled with the Holy Ghost" (chap. ix. 17). The churches of Judasa and Galilee and Samaria in their interval of rest are " walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost" (chap. ix. 31). The admission of the Gentiles is attested 3 THE ACTS. when " the gift of the Holy Ghost " is poured out on Cornelius and his friends (chap. x. 44 — 47), and Peter dwells on that attestation in his address to the Church of Jerusalem (chaps, xi. 15 — 17 ; xv. 8). Barna bas, when he is sent to carry on that work among the Gentiles at Antioch, is described, as Stephen had been, as " full of the Holy Ghost and of faith " (chap. xi. 24). It is the Holy Ghost who " separates Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry," and they are sent forth by Him (chap. xiii. 2 — 4). Saul, roused to indignation by the subtlety of Elymas, is " filled with the Holy Ghost" (chap. xiii. 9). It is He who guides the decision of the council assembled at Jeru salem (chap. xv. 28), and directs the footsteps of Paul and his com panions in their mission journey (chap. xvi. 6, 7). The twelve dis ciples at Ephesus, baptised before with the baptism of John, ' ' receive the Holy Ghost " when Paul lays his hands on them (chap. xix. 6). He it was who witnessed in every city that bonds and imprisonment awaited the Apostle in Jerusalem (chaps, xx. 23; xxi. 11). It was the Holy Ghost who had made the elders of Ephesus overseers of the Church of God (chap. xx. 28). Well-nigh the last words of the book are those which " the Holy Ghost had spoken by Esaias," and which St. Paul, in the power of the same Spirit, applies to the Jews of his own time (chap, xxviii. 25). V. Its Relation to the Con troversies of the Time. — I have thought it right to go through this somewhat full induction be cause it presents an aspect of the book which has hardly been ade quately recognised in the critical inquiries to which it has been sub jected. But subject to this, as the dominant idea of the Acts of the Apostles, I see nothing to hinder us from recognising other tendencies and motives, partly as inferred from the book itself, partly as in themselves probable, looking to the circumstances under which it must have been written. An educated convert like Theophilus could hardly have been ignorant of the controversy between St. Paul and the Judaisers, which is so prominent in the Epistle to the Galatians and the Second Epistle to the Corin thians. He would know that the Judaising teachers in the Galatian Church had spoken of the Apostle as a time-server seeking to please men (Gal. i. 10) ; as having no authority but that which he de rived from the Church of Jerusa lem (Gal. i. 1, 12, 17, 22); that they used the name of James in support of their exaggerated rigour, and worked upon the mind even of Peter, so as to lead him to, at least, a temporary inconsistency (Gal. ii. 11 — 13) ; that others of the same school had appeared at Corinth, boasting of their " letters of com mendation" (2 Cor. iii. 1); taunt ing the Apostle with his "bodily presence weak, and speech con temptible" (2 Cor. x. 10); speak ing of him as a " fool " and mad man (2 Cor. xi. 16) ; arrogating to themselves something like an ultra- apostolic authority (2 Cor. xi. 4) ; boasting that they were Hebrews and ministers of Christ (2 Cor. xi. 22). The language of Eom. xiv. shows that disputes analogous in their nature had sprung up at Eome even before St. Paul's arrival • differences as to days and meats (Rom. xiv. 2 — 6) ; connected with the very question of eating "things INTRODUCTION. sacrificed to idols," which had given occasion to one of the canons of the Council of Jerusalem (chap. xv. 20, 29) proposed by James, the bishop of that Church, and which had been discussed fully in the Epistle which St. Paul addressed to the Church of Corinth, at a time when its numbers were largely made up of Roman Christians (1 Cor. viii. — x.). These facts were patent to any one who had any knowledge of St. Paul's work. If Theophilus were, as is probable, an Italian, probably even a Roman, convert, they would be forced upon his notice. There are, however, other mate rials for estimating the attitude of the Judaising party towards St. Paul, and the language they habi tually used in reference to him. I do not assume that the Pseudo-Cle mentine Homilies, Recognitions, and Epistles are of an earlier date than the second century, but it is a legiti mate inference that they represent the traditions of the party from which they emanated, and they help us to fill up the outline which has been already sketched. In them, accordingly, we find James, the bishop of Jerusalem, as the centre of all church authority, the " lord and bishop of the holy Church " (Epist. of Feter, c. i), the "archbishop" (Recogn. c. i. 73). Peter complains that " some among the Gentiles have rejected his preaching, which is according to the Law, and have followed the lawless and insane preaching of the man who is his enemy " (ibid. c. 2. Comp. Gal. iv. 16). He complains that he has been mis represented as agreeing with that " enemy " (ibid.). James declares that circumcision is an essential condition of discipleship (ibid. c. 4). Under cover of the legendary dis putes between Peter and Simon the Sorcerer, the personal dis cipleship of _ the former is con trasted with that of one who has only heard the doctrine of Jesus through a vision or a dream (Horn. Clem. xvii. c. 14. Comp. chaps, ix. 3, 17; xviii. 9; xxii. 18; xxiii. 11; 2 Cor. xii. 1), and it is suggested that one who trusts in those visions and revelations may have been deceived by a demon (ibid. xvii., c. 16). Barnabas is named with praise' (ibid, i., c. 9), but the name of Paul is systematically ignored. The opposition to Peter at Antioch, of which we read in Gal. ii. 11 — 14, is represented as the work of the sorcerer (Recogn. x., c. 54). Almost the only direct reference to the Apostle of the Gentiles is an allusion to the "enemy" who had received a commission from Caiaphas to go to Damascus and make havoc of the faithful .(Recogn. i., c. 71), and the fact that the "enemy" afterwards preached the faith which he had once destroyed is kept out of sight. With the strange confusion of chronology characteristic of this apocryphal literature, the " enemy" is represented as entering the Temple, disputing with James, attacking him with violence and throwing him down the Temple stairs, so that he lay there as dead (Recogn. i., c. 70). Representations such as these might be met in two different ways. St. Paul, in the manly in dignation of his spirit against such misrepresentations, met them, as in the Epistle to the Galatians, by asserting his entire independence of the Church at Jerusalem (Gal. i. 1 — 12); by showing that they had learnt from him, not he from THE ACTS. them, the fulness and freedom of the gospel which he preached (Gal. ii. 2) ;.that the chief leaders of that Church had given to him and Bar nabas the right hand of fellowship in their work among the Gentiles (Gal. ii. 9) ; that he had not given way by subjection, no, not for an hour, to the Judaising Pharisee section of the Church (Gal. ii. 4, 6) ; that he had not shrunk from rebuking, with the general ap proval of the Church at Antioch, the inconsistency of Peter and of Barnabas (Gal. ii. 11 — 14). He meets them also, as in 2 Cor. xi. 13 — 27, by challenging a compari son between his own life and that of his antagonists. St. Luke thought it wise, in writing to a Gentile convert, to lay stress on the fact that the history of the Church of Jerusalem, truly stated, was against the policy and claims of the Juda isers, that the Apostle of the Gen tiles, in his turn, had shown every disposition to conciliate the feel ings of the Jews. With this view, he records the fact that charges like those which were brought against St. Paul had been brought also against the martyr Stephen (chap. vi. 14) ; that the Apostle had been admitted into the Church of Christ by a disciple devout according to the Law (chaps, ix. 10; xxii. 12) ; that he had been received, after the first natural suspicion had been removed by the testimony of Bar nabas, by the Apostles at Jeru salem (chap. ix. 27) ; that it had been given to Peter to be, perhaps, the first to act on the essential principle of St. Paul's gospel, and to throw open the doors of the Church to the uncircumcised Gen tiles (chaps, x ; xi. 1 — 13) ; that he and the Church of Jerusalem had sent Barnabas to carry on that 6 work at Antioch (chap. xi. 22) ; that St. Paul had always addressed himself to the Jews whenever there were any to listen to his preaching (chaps, xiii. 5, 14 ; xiv. 1 ; xvii. 2, 17 ; xviii. 4 ; xix. 8) ; that he had lost no opportunity of renewing his friendly intercourse with the Church of Jerusalem (chaps, xv. 2 ; xviii. 22 ; xxi. 15) ; and that James, the bishop of that Church, had throughout received him as a beloved brother (chap. xv. 4, 25, 26) ; that he had shown his willingness to conciliate the Jewish section of the Church by circum cising Timotheus (chap. xvi. 3), and by his taking on himself the vow of a Nazarite (chaps, xviii. 18 ; xxi. 26) ; and, lastly, that the Council of Jerusalem had solemnly formulated a concordat by which the freedom of the Gentiles was secured (chap. xv. 23 — 29). A principle of selection such as this is naturally open to the charge that has been pressed by unfriendly critics, that it tends to lead the writer to exaggerate the harmony between the two parties whom it seeks to reconcile; and stress has been laid on the omission of the dispute between Paul and Peter at Antioch (Gal. ii. 14), as showing that with this view he slurred over what was an important fact in the history which he undertakes to write. It may fairly be urged, however, on the other side, that there is absolutely no evidence that he was acquainted with that fact. As far as we can gather from his narrative, he was not at Antioch at the time. It was an incident on which St. Paul would naturally be reticent, unless forced to allude to it, as in writing to the Galatians, in vindicating his own independence. And even if he did INTRODUCTION. know it, was this passing, momen tary difference of sufficient im portance to find a place in a brief compendium of the history of St. Paul's work ? Would the writer of a school history of England during the last fifty years feel bound, in tracing the action of the Conservative or Liberal party as a whole, to notice a single passage at arms, in which sharp words were Bpoken, in debate in cabinet or Parliament, between two of its leaders ? Would a writer of Eng lish Church - History during the same period think it an indispens able duty to record such a difference as that which showed itself between Bishop Thirlwall and Bishop Sel- wyn in the Pan- Anglican Confer ence of 1867? That he did not shrink from recording a personal dispute when important conse quences were involved is shown by his treatment of the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas (chap. xv. 37—40). VI. Its Evidential "Value. — (1) In relation to the Gospels. Had the Acts of the Apostles presented itself as an entirely independent book, its evidence as to the main facts of the Gospel history would obviously have been of the highest value. It assumes those facts throughout as well known. The main work of the Apostles is to bear witness of the resurrection (chap. i. 32) . Jesus of Nazareth had been " approved of God by miracles, and wonders, and signs " (chap. ii. 22). Against him "Herod and Pontius Pilate had been gathered together" (chap. iv. 27). God had " anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power ; " and He " went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached " (chap. x. 37, 38). It is obvious, however, that it does not present itself as independent. It looks back to a former book, and that former book is the Gospel according to St. Luke. "It was natural," it has been said, " that the writer should thus take for granted what he had thus himself recorded. You cannot, in such a case, cite the second volume to bear witness to the veracity of the first." Admitting this, however — as in all fairness it must be ad mitted — the Acts present evidence of another kind. If they are shown, by the numerous coincidences which they present with the writings of St. Paul (see infra), by their occa sional use of the first personal pronoun (chaps, xvi. 10 — 15 ; xx. 5 ; xxi. 17 ; xxvii. 1 ; xxviii. 16), by their stopping at St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, instead of going on to the close of his work and life, to be, on any fair estimate of circumstantial evidence, the work of a contemporary, and to have been written before St. Paul's death, in a.d. 65 or 66, then it follows that the Gospel from the pen of the same author must have been of even earlier date. The reference to the " many " who had " taken in hand" to set forth a narrative of the gospel (Luke i. 1) connects itself with the quotation from " the words of the Lord Jesus " in chap. xx. 35, as showing that there was not only a widely diffused oral tradition of the facts of the Gospel history (such as that implied in 1 Cor. xi. 23—25 ; xv. 3—7), but that there was also a fairly copious Gospel literature, presenting ma terials for future editors and com pilers. But we may go yet further. It has often been urged, as against THE ACTS. the early date of the Gospels in their present form, that they have left so few traces of themselves in the early history and the early writings of the Church. As far aB the Epistles of the New Testament are concerned, those traces are far from few ; but it may be admitted that they do not refer, as we might, perhaps, have expected them to refer, to any individual miracles, or parables, or discourses of our Lord. The same holds good of the Apostolic fathers ; and it is not till we come to Justin Martyr that we get any such frequency of citation as to make it certain that he had one of our first three Gospels or another resembling them, in his hands. Well, be it so ; but here we have aworkwith the same absence of citation, the same vague generalisa tion in its reference to the outlines only of the Gospel history ; and of this book, whatever view may be taken of its date, it is absolutely certain that the writer knew that history in all its fulness. Had the Acts come down to us without the Gospel of St. Luke, its reticence, and vagueness also, might have been urged as against the credi bility of the narratives of the Gospels that bear the names of St. Matthew and St. Mark. As it is, it shows that that reticence and vagueness may be compatible with a full and intimate knowledge of the facts so narrated. (2) In relation to the Epistles of St. Paul. Here, as Paley has well put the argument in the opening of his BZorcc Paulina, the case is different. We have a book pur porting to be by a contemporary of St. Paul's. We have thirteen or fourteen documents purporting to be Epistles from him. There is not the shadow of a trace in the Epistles that the writer had read the Acts, or even knew of the existence of the book. There is not the shadow of a trace in the Acts of the Apostles that the writer had read the Epistles, or even knew of their existence. He not only does not compile from them nor allude to them, but he does not even record, as might have been expected, the fact that they had been written. He omits facts which we find in them, and which would have been important as materials for his history. Whatever co incidences the two may present are conspicuously undesigned. So far as they do agree and throw light upon each other, they sup ply a reciprocal testimony each to the trustworthiness of the other. The coincidences which thus present themselves are dealt with in the Notes, and to state them with any fulness here would be to re-write the Sora Paulince with numerous additions. It will, how ever, it is believed, be of some advantage to the student to have at least the more important of these coincidences brought under his notice in such a form as to admit of examination without turning to other books, and the following table has accordingly been drawn up with that view. It has been thought expedient to present them as they occur in the Epistles of St. Paul, and to take those Epistles in their chronological order. 1 Thess. ii. 2 ; iii. 4. St. Paul's suffering at Philippi . Acts xvi. 22 23 » iii- * ., „ „ Thessa lonica , xvii. 6. 8 INTRODUCTION. ] Thess. ii. 18; iii. 1, 6,7 . „ ii. 14 . „ i.9 . . » ii. 9, 10; iv. 11 . 1 Cor. ii. 1 ; iv. 19 xvi. 5. „ xv. 32 . . „ xvi. 19 . . „ xvi. 9 . . . „ iv. 17—19 . „ xvi. 10, 11 . „ i. 12 ; iii. 6 „ iv. 11, 12 . „ ix. 20 . . „ i. 14—17 „ xvi. 1 . . ,, v. 7, 8 „ xvi. 8 . 1 Cor. i. 1 . „ xvi 6 . „ xvi. 5 . 2 Cor. i. 16 ; ii. „ xi. 32, 33 „ i.8 . . 13 „ xi. 9 . St. Paul left at Athens alone . Acts xvii. 16. Sufferings of the Thessalonians from their own country men „ xvii. 5. Thessalonian converts turning from idols , xvii. 4. St. Paul's precept and practice in working , xviii. 3. St. Paul's two visits to Corinth . „ xviii. 1 ; xy. 2. Fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus „ xix. 29, 30. " Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord " . „ xviii. 18, 26. The " effectual door " opened at Ephesus „ xix. 20, 26. The many adversaries ... „ xix. 9, 28. Timotheus sent to Corinth from Ephesus .... „ xix. 21, 22. St. Paul's doubt as to arrival of Timotheus .... „ xix. 22. Work of Apollos at Corinth . „ xviii. 27, 28. St. Paul's working for his bread at Ephesus ... „ xx. 34. St. Paul's becoming to Jews as a Jew „ xvi. 3 ; xviii. 18 ; xxi. 23 —26. Baptism of Crispus and Gtaius . „ xviii. 8. Collection for the saints in Galatia , xviii. 23. Allusion to the Passover . . 1 ¦ 99 . "Tarrying at Ephesus till [ " ^-^.xx- Pentecost" J Sosthenes with St. Paul xviii. 12 — 17. St. Paul's wintering at Corinth „ xx. 3, 6. „ journey through Macedonia „ xx. 1. St. Paul's journey through Macedonia xx. 1. St. Paul's escape from Damas cus „ ix. 23—25. The trouble that came on him in Asia , xix. 29, 30. Supplies from the brethren from Macedonia , xviii. 1, 5. 9 2 Cor. i. 19 . . „ xi. 25 . . „ iii. 1 . . „ x. 14—16 . Gal. i. 17, 18 . . „ ii. 1 . . . „ ii. 13 . . . „ v. 11 . . . „ i. 18 . . . „ ii. 9 . . . Rom. xv. 25, 26 . „ xvi. 21—23 . „ xvi. 3 . . . „ xvi. 27 . . „ i. 13; xv. 23 „ xv. 19 . . „ xv. 30 . . Phil. ii. 19 . . . „ i. 29, 30 ; ii. 1, 2 . . „ iv. 2, 3 . . Eph. vi. 21 . . . i „ vi. 19, 20 . Col. iv. 10 . . . THE ACTS. Silvanus and Timotheus as St. Paul's fellow-workers at Corinth Acts xviii. 5. " Once was I stoned " xiv. 19. Letters of commendation . . „ xviii. 27. Corinth as then the limit of St. Paul's labours ... „ xviii. 18. His visit to St. Peter and James the Lord's brother, after his conversion .... „ ix. 28. The journey with Barnabas to Jerusalem , xv. 2. Barnabas with St. Paul at Antioch „ xv. 35—37. Persecutions from the Jews . „ xiii. 49; xiv. 1—19; xvii. 4—13; xviii. 12. The shortness of the first visit to Jerusalem „ xxii. 18. The authority of James, the brother of the Lord . . „ xii. 17 ; xv. 13; xxi. 18. St. Paul's journey to Jerusalem „ xx. 6; xxiv. !7- Salutations from Sosipater, Timotheus, and Gaius . „ xx. 4. Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth and Rome „ xviii. 2. Phoebe of Cenchrea? .... „ xviii. 18. St. Paul's desire to visit Rome . „ xix. 21. The gospel preached in JJly- ricum ;) xx. 2. Apprehension of coming dan- _. Kf • , xx. 22, 23. Trmotheusknown tothePhilip- Plans „ xvi. 4 ; xvii. 14. St. Paul's sufferings at Philippi „ xvi. 22. Euodia, Syntyche, and the other women at Philippi . n Xvi. 13. Tychicus as known to the Ephesians n ^ St. Paul as an ambassador in a cnail1 xxviii. 16 — ,, , . 20. Mark as sister's son (better, cousin) to Barnabas . . „ xv. 37—40- xii. 12. 10 INTRODUCTION. Col. iv. 10 . . . ITim ,. i 13 —16 . . >• i Titus2Tim 6,7;iv.l— 4 iii. 13 . . . i. 16 . . n II 11 iv. i. iii. 20 . . 4,5 . . 15 . . II iii. 10, 11 . II iv.iv. 11 . . 14 . . Aristarchus, St. Paul's fellow- prisoner Acts xix. 29 ; xxvii. 2. Provision for the maintenance of widows The persecutor converted . . State of the Church at Ephesus Apollos in Crete Onesiphorus and St. Paul's chain Trophimus left at Miletus . . The mother of Timotheus . . His education in the Holy Scriptures Persecutions at Antioch, Ico nium, Lystra Mark profitable in ministering Alexander the coppersmith i vi. 1. , Vlll. 3; ix. —10. , XX. 29, 30 , xvm. 24. , xxviii 20. , XX. 4. , XVI. 1. , xvi. 2. , xiii. , xiv. , mi. 5. , XIX 33. It ought to be stated that the comparison of the Acts and the Pauline Epistles brings to light also some real or apparent diffi culties. Of these the most con spicuous are : — (1) The omission in chap. ix. 19 — 23 of the journey to Arabia mentioned in Gal. i. 17. (2) The omission in Gal. ii. 1 — 10 of any notice of the journey to Jerusalem in chap. xi. 30, or of the decrees of the council of Apostles and elders in chap. xv. (3) The omission in the Acts of any record of the dispute between St. Peter and St. Paul at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11). These are examined in detail in the Notes on the several passages connected with them. This method of inquiry may be extended, with similar results, to the Epistle to the Hebrews, and to the two Epistles of St. Peter. It is in the account of Apollos, in chap, xviii. 24 — 28, that we get what many critics since Luther's time have looked upon as the only satisfactory explanation of the phenomena presented by the first of these Epistles. Assuming the authorship of Apollos as at least a probable hypothesis, the spiritual condition described in Heb. v. 11, vi. 2, as that of some of those who had been under the teaching of the writer, may be compared with that of the twelve disciples at Ephesus who knew only the bap tism of John (chap. xix. 1 — 7). In the reference to the ' ' saints of Italy " in Heb. xiii. 24 — apparently as distinct from Roman Christians — we may, perhaps, see a refer ence to the Church of Puteoli, the only Italian town, besides Rome, mentioned in the Acts as con taining "brethren" (chap, xxviii. 14). THE ACTS. I note, further, a few coincidences I of the Apostles and the Epistles of of come interest between the Acts | St. Peter : — 1 Pet. i. 11 . . The tone in which prophecy is spoken of, as compared with „ i. 17 . . God no respecter of persons . „ i. 22 . . Purity by faith and obedience „ ii. 7 . . The stone which the builders re jected ... „ iv. 16 . The name of Christian . „ v. 12 . . Mention of Silvanus as accounting for St. Peter's knowledge of St. Paul's Epistles (2 Pet. iii. 15) ..... „ v. 13 . . " Marcus my son . Acts ii. 16, 17, 30, 31. „ x. 34. „ xv. 9. „ iv. 11. „ xi. 26 ; xxvi. 28. xv. 32, 40. xii. 12. (3) In relation to External His tory. — It is obvious that the Acts of tbe Apostles take a wider range, both in space and time, than any other narrative book of the New Testament. They cover a period of more than thirty years1. The scene is shifted from Jerusalem to Samaria, Csesarea, Damascus, An tioch, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and finally ends in Italy. The writer is constantly brought across some of the events of contempo rary history, and the scenes which earlier or later travellers have described. Does he show himself in these respects an accurate ob server, faithful in his reports, cor rect in his language ? Does he fall into the blunders which would be natural in a man writing a ficti- tious narrative a century or so after the events which he professes to relate F For a full answer to these questions the reader is referred to the Notes that follow ; but it may be well to indicate briefly some of the more important of these points of contact with the con temporary history of the outer world. Acts. v. 37. Acts vi. 9. Acts viii. 9. Acts viii. 27. Acts ix. 36. Acts x. 1. Acts xi. 26. Acts xi. 28. Acts xii. 23. Acts xiii. 7. Acts xiv. 11. Acts xvi. 12. Acts xvi. 14. Acts xvi. 16. Acts xvi. 22. Acts xvi. 37. Acts xvii. 6. Judas of Galilee. The synagogue of the Libertines. Simon the sorcerer. Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Dorcas.The centurion of- the Italian band. The name of Chris tian at Antioch. The famine under Claudius. Death of Herod Agrippa I. Sergius Paulus of Cyprus. Paul and Barnabas taken for Zeus and Hermes. Philippi a colonia. The purple-seller of Thyatira. The damsel with a Python spirit. The strategi oi Philippi. St. Paul's Roman citizenship. The politarchs oi Thessalonica. 12 INTRODUCTION. Acts xvii. 19. Acts xvii. 21. Acts xvii. 28. Acts xviii. 2. Acts xviii. 12. Acts xix. 9. Acts xix. 24. Acts xix. 27 — 29. Acts xix. 31 — 35. Acts xix. 38, 39. Acts xxi. 38. Acts xxii. 28. Acts xxiii. 2. Acts xxiii. 24. Acts xxiv. 24. Acts xxiv. 27. Acts xxv. 13. Acts xxv. 11. Acts xxvii. Acts xxviii. 7. Actsxxviii.15. The court of the Areopagus. Character of the Athenians. Quotation from Aratus. Jews banished from Rome by Clau dius. Gallio pro-consul of Achaia. The school of Ty- rannus. The silver shrines of'Artemis. The temple and theatre at Ephe sus. The Asiarchs and town - clerk of Ephesus. The pro-consuls and the lawful As sembly. The Egyptian rebel. St. Paul's Roman citizenship. The high priest Ananias. Felix the governor. Drusilla.Porcius Festus. Agrippa and Ber- nice. Appeal to Caesar. The details of the narrative throughout The "chief man" of Melita. Appii Forum and the Three Ta- TJnder this head also it is right to notice that which appears to make against, rather than for, the credi bility of the narrative, and I accordingly name the chronological difficulty oonneeted with the name of Theudas in Gamaliel's speech (chap. v. 36). (4) Internal Evidence of Credi bility. — The internal consistency of any book is not necessarily evi dence of more than the skill of the writer. Every writer of fiction aims more or less at producing the impression of verisimilitude by touches that have the effect of coincidences between one part of the narrative and another ; and the art that conceals art will produce, according to the skill of the author, the impression that the coincidences are undesigned. On the other hand, we feel, as we read some stories, that they contain, in the natural ness of their style, the absence of any sensational dove-tailing of incidents, primd facie testimony to their own veracity. And it is sub mitted to the reader whether in stances such as the following may not fairly claim consideration, as coming under the latter category rather than the former. (1) Hostility of the high priests, as Sadducees, to the preach ing of the resurrection (chaps, iv. 1, 2 ; v. 17). (2) Barnabas of Cyprus going twice to his own country (chaps, iv. 36 ; xiii. 4 ; xv. 39). (3) The complaints of the Hel- lenista? (Grecians), leading to the election of seven men with Greek names (chap. vi. 1 — 5). (4) The Cilicians disputing with Stephen (chap. vi. 9). The young man named Saul (chap. vii. 58) ; afterwards described as of Tarsus (chap. ix. 11). 13 THE ACTS. (5) Philip's arrival at Caesarea (chap. viii. 40). No fur ther mention of him till we find him again at Csesarea (chap. xxi. 8). (6) Mark's return to Jerusalem (chap. xiii. 13) explained by his mother's being there (chap. xii. 12) and the pres sure of the famine (chap. xi. 28). (7) Agabus prophesying the famine (chap. xi. 28) ; again appearing in the character of a prophet sixteen years later (chap. xxi. 10). (8) The speech of Lycaonia as accounting for the surprise of Paul and Barnabas at the preparations for sacri fice (chap. xiv. 11 — 14). (9) Conversion of Samaritans (chap. viii. 14). Incidental mention of the brethren in Samaria (chap. xv. 3). (10)- Men of Cyprus and Cyrene found the Church at An tioch (chap. xi. 20). Bar nabas of " Cyprus sent to carry on the work (chap. xi. 22). Lucius of Cyrene among the prophets of the Church (chap. xiii. 1). (11) Philippi a colonia (chap. xvi. 12). Philippians speak of themselves as Romans (chap. xvi. 21). (12) Trophimus the Ephesian (chap. xxi. 29) recognised by Jews of Asia, i.e., from Ephesus and its neighbour hood. The list might, it is believed, be easily enlarged, but these will be sufficient to put the student on the track of a method which he can li apply almost indefinitely in other instances for himself.* VII. Sources of the His tory. — It will be assumed here that the use of the first person in parts of the history implies that the writer was then the companion of the Apostle whose labours he records. We have seen, in the Introduction to St. Luke, how far the facts that are thus implied brought the writer into contact with persons who could give him trustworthy information as to what he relates in his Gospel ; it remains to be seen how far they point to the probable sources of his know ledge as to the events recorded in the Acts. Acts i. — v. Philip the Evan gelist (chap. xxi. 8 — 10), or Mnason of Cy prus (chap. xxi. 16), or others— and, in parti cular, the "women" of Luke viii. 2 — at Jeru salem. Acts vi., vii. Philip or St. Paul. Acts viii. Philip. Acts ix. St. Paul. Acts x. — xi. 18. Philip. Acts xi 19 — 30. St. Paul, or, probably, personal knowledge gained at Antioch. Acts xii. 1 — 19. John surnamed Mark (Col. iv. 10—14). Acts xiii. 1 — 13. St. Paul, or Mark, or Mnason of Cyprus. * It lies on the surface that I am largely indebted in this part of my work to Paley's Horce Paulinas. I wish also to acknow ledge my obligation to Mr. Birks's Horte A-postolicce. INTRODUCTION. Acts xiii. 14 — 52; xiv. St. Paul ; or, possibly, knowledge gained by Luke in person on his journey to Troas, or afterwards from Timo theus. Acts xv., xvi. 1 — 7. St. Paul, or, probably, personal knowledge, as staying at Antioch, and, pos sibly, going up to Jeru salem.- Acts xvi. 8 — 40. Personal knowledge. Acts xvii., xviii. Probable com munications from the brethren who came from Philippi to Thessalonica (Phil. iv. 16), and again to Corinth (2 Cor. xi. 9). General intercourse between the Romans of Philippi and the Roman Jews at Corinth. Acts xix. St. Paul ; or possibly Aristarchus and Gaius of Macedonia, or Ty- rannus. Acts xx. — xxviii. Personal knowledge. Looking to the manner in which the Gospel begins with what has the character of a distinct docu ment, so strongly marked by He braisms that it could scarcely have been written by a Greek writer, it is probable that the first five chap ters of the Acts may, in Eke man ner, have been incorporated from an earlier document, recording, like the later history of Hegesippus, the history of the Church of Jeru salem with a special fulness. It will, at any rate, be clear that at every step in the narrative we are able, in the Acts, as in the Gospel of the same writer, to point with a very high degree of probability to those who here also were " eye witnesses and ministers of the Word" (Lukei. 2). VIII. Its Bearing on the Mission-work, Organisation, and "Worship of the Church. — (1) Mission-work. It will not, it is believed, be unprofitable to look at the records of the Acts of the Apostles as presenting the type and pattern for all future labours in the work of evangelising the world. It is obvious that the preaching of the Apostles is some thing very different from that of those who offer to men's acceptance simply a lofty ideal of virtue or high-toned ethical precepts. The central fact of all their teaching is the resurrection of Christ (chaps ii. 32, 33 ; iv. 10 ; a. 40, 41 ; xiii. 32 —37; xvii. 31; xxvi 23). Upon that proclamation of a fact in the past they build their assurance that He will come again ars the Judge of the living and the dead (chaps. iii. 21; x. 42; xvii. 31); that in the meantime He calls men to repent and believe in Him (chaps. ii. 38 ; v. 31 ; x. 43 ; xiii. 38, 39 ; xiv. 15; xvii. 30, 31); and that thus they may receive remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost (chaps, ii. 38 ; viii. 15 ; x. 45 ; xix. 2). They are naturally brought into contact, as they preach this gospel, with men of very different habits of thought, varying in their-training, their knowledge, and their culture ; and they adapt themselves, as far as lies in their power, to all these variations in their hearers. With the Jews of Jerusalem, Antioch in Pisidia, Corinth, and Rome, they draw their arguments almost exclusively from the correspondence between the acts and death and resurrection 15 THE ACTS. of Jesus with what had been written in the Law and Prophets as pointing to the coming Christ (chaps, ii. 14—36 ; iii. 19 — 26 ; vii. 2—53; xiii. 17—41; xxviii. 23). With peasants, such as those at Lystra, they lay their foundation on what we should call the broad lines of a simple natural theology, and appeal to the goodness of God as manifested in the order of nature, in rain from heaven and fruitful seasons (chap. xiv. 15 — 17). With the Stoics and Epicureans of Athens, St. Paul (he alone, it may be, of the glorious company of the Apostles was fitted for that work) rises to the level of the occasion, and meets the thinkers on their own grounds, appeals to the witness of their own poets, and sets before them what we have ventured to call the outlines of a philosophy at once of worship and of human history (chap. xvii. 22 — 31). And it may be noted how care fully in all these cases the preachers abstain from the weapons of terror and of ridicule which men have sometimes used in dealing with the heathen whom they were seeking to convert. There are no state ments that the world outside the range of the gospel was sentenced to hopeless condemnation — that the forefathers of those to whom they preached were for ever in the dark prison of Gehenna. They recog nised, on the contrary, that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is ac cepted with Him. (See Note on chap. x. 35). They speak of the times of ignorance which God "winked at" (chap. xvii. 30). They are no "blasphemers" even of the worship which they are seeking to supplant (chap. xix. 37). They present the gospel to men's 16 minds as realising at once the con scious prophecies of Israel and the unconscious prophecies of heathen ism. They come, it is true, with some weapons in which modern missionaries are wanting. They claim to work signs and wonders as attestations of their divine mission (chaps, iii. 6, 7 ; v. 15 ; vi. 8 ; viii. 13; ix. 34—40; xiv. 10; xix. 12; xxviii. 5 — 8) ; but they lay far less stress on these than on the " de monstration of .the Spirit" — the prophecy that reveals the secrets of the heart, the conscious ex perience of the power of that Spirit to give a new peace and a new purity to souls that had been alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them (chaps, ii. 38, 39 ; xi. 17, 18 ; Rom. viii. 23—26; 1 Cor. ii. 4). (2) Organisation and Worship. And, it may be noted further, they do not rest satisfied with the con version of individuals as such, nor with leaving with each believer a book or a rule of life for his own personal guidance. Everywhere they seek to organise a society : the "brethren," the "disciples," the " saints," are formed into a church — i.e., an ecclesia, or congregation ; and that society receives a distinct and definite constitution. Elders, otherwise known as bishops (chap. xx. 28 ; Phil. i. 1 ; Tit. i. 5, 7), are appointed in every city (chaps, xi. 30 ; xiv. 23 ; xx. 17), to teach, and preside in worship, and administer the discipline and laws of the con gregation. There are ministers or deacons under them, who assist in baptising, in the subordinate offices of worship, in the relief of the sick and poor, and, if they have special gifts, in preaching the gos pel to Jews and heathen, and teach ing converts also (chap. vi. 3 6 • INTRODUCTION. Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim. iii. 8). The Apostles appoint both elders and deacons, with the consent — and therefore the implied right of veto — of the congregation, and exercise over them an authority analogous to that of the later bishops (chaps. xiv. 23; xx. 17). There is an organisation of the charity of the Church on the basis of systematic almsgiving ; and the Apostles, and, in their absence, the bishop-elders of the Church, act, where necessary, with the help of others as repre senting the laity of the Church, as treasurers and almoners (chaps, iv. 37 ; v. 2). The disciples meet to break bread, as their Lord had com manded, on the evening of every day; afterwards, as the Church included men of various classes and employments, on that of the first day of the week — probably, i.e., on Saturday evening (chaps, ii. 46 ; xx. 7) ; and the history of the institu tion of what came to be known as the Supper of the Lord formed the centre of the celebration of that feast (1 Cor. xi. 23—26). The feast itself was preceded by a solemn blessing, and closed with a solemn thanksgiving. Psalms, hymns, and unpremeditated bursts of praise, chanted in the power of the Spirit, such as those of the gift of tongues, were the chief elements of the service (chap. iv. 24—30 ; Eph. v. 19 ; Col. iii. 16). The right of utterance was not denied to any man (women even seem at first to have been admitted to the same right — chap. xxi. 9 ; 1 Cor. xi. 5) who possessed the neces sary gifts (1 Cor. xiv. 26—33) and was ready to submit them to the control of the presiding elder or Apostle. There were in the un written traditions of the Church ; in its oral teaching as to our Lord's 2 life and teaching (1 Cor. xi. 23; xv. 1 — 8) ; as in its rules of disci pline and worship (2 Thess. ii. 15 ; iii. 6) ; in the ' ' faithful sayings " which were received as axioms of its faith (1 Tim. i. 15 ; iv. 9 ; 2 Tim. ii. 11 ; Tit. iii. 8), the germs at once of the creeds, the canons, the liturgies, the systematic theo logy of the future. It is, lastly, instructive and suggestive to note that throughout the history there is no record of any effort to set apart a separate place of worship for the members of the new society. They meet in private houses (chaps. ii. 46 ; xx. 8 ; Rom. xvi. 5, 15, 23 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 19), or in a hired class room (chap. xix. 9), as opportunities present themselves. There would apparently have been no difficulty in their claiming the privilege which Roman rulers conceded freely to other Jews and proselytes, of erecting a synagogue of their own ; but they left this to come in due course afterwards. Their own work was of a different and higher kind. They were anxious rather to found and edify the society which, as built of " living stones," was to be the temple of the living God, than, in the modern sense of the term, to be the builders of churches. IX. Its Bearing on the Church History of the Future. — Nor is the record which we owe to St. Luke less instructive considered as the first volume of the history of Christendom. Fairly considered, while it brings before us the picture of primitive Chris tianity as a pattern to be followed in its essential features, it is as far as possible from presenting it as a golden age of unalloyed and unapproachable perfection. It tells us of men who were of like passions 17 THE ACTS. with ourselves, not free from the bitterness of personal quarrels (chap. xv. 39), or from controversies in which party was arrayed against party on a question on which each held that it was contending for a vital truth (chap. xv. 1 — 5). It records, as if with an unconscious prevision of future controversies, now that dispute ended in an ami cable compromise, each party mak ing concessions, within certain well-defined limits, to its opponents, neither insisting on what an inexor able logic might have looked on as the necessary conclusion from its premisses (chap. xv. 23 — 30). The writer tends, partly by his natural instincts, partly of deliberate pur pose, to dwell on the points of agreement between men rather than on their points of difference; to bring out the good which was to be found in men of different degrees of culture and very varied training. Peter, James, Apollos, Paul, are not for him what they were for so many others — leaders of parties, rivals for allegiance. He is able to recognise in each and all men who are ministers of Christ, fitted for the work of that ministry by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And in striking contrast to the martyro- logists and other annalists of the Church who followed him, he avoids what we may call the sensational element of history ; does not dwell (with the one marked exception of St. Stephen) on the deaths and sufferings of the disciples; understates the work, the hardships, and the perils of the Apostle who is the chief figure in his history ; aims rather at presenting the results of the actual contest between the new and the old societies, now favourable and now quite other wise, than at representing the two as in irreconcilable enmity. There is, so to speak, a hopefulness and healthiness of tone, which contrasts favourably with that of later writers after the sword of systematic persecution had been unsheathed, or even in some measure with that of the later writings of the New Testament, such as the Epistles of St. Peter and the Apocalypse, and which may fairly be allowed some weight as evidence for the early date of its composition. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF APOSTOLIC HISTORY. It will, it is believed, be helpful to the reader to have before him something like a general survey of the history of the Apostolic Age, indicating, at least approximately, the probable succession of events, and the relation which they bore to what then occupied the minds of men as the prominent facts in the history of the world in which they lived; and with this view the following Table has been compiled. Where the dates are uncertain, and have therefore been variously placed, the doubt is indicated by a note of interrogation (?), A.D. EMrEROHS. Apostolic History. Civil nramia. Hioh Pbibsts. COKTBMPOEABT BVBHTS. A.D. 28 Tiberius, The Day of Pentecost, May (?). Pontius Pilate, Pro Caiaphas from 28 from a.d. (Other dates, varying from a.d. 80—33, have been assigned for curator of Judeea a.d. 251 son-in- 14. from a.d. 26. law of Annas, this.) or Ananus. 29 29 30 30 31 Death of Sejanus. 31 32 The growth of the Church as de scribed in Acts ii. — v. may be referred to this period, but there are no data for going further into detail. Tiberius at Caprese. New Sibyl line books brought under notice of Senate. 32 33 Drasua, son of Germanicus, starved to death. 33 34 Vitellins, Prefect of Syria. Phoenix reported to have been seen in Egypt. 34 35 Vitellius in Mesopotamia. 35 86 Martyrdom of Stephen (?). Peter and John in Samaria. Philo at Alexandria. 36 37 Caligula. Herod Agrippa I. - Jonathan, son Aretas in possession of Damas 37 Conversion of Saul. of Ananus. cus. 38 Conversion of Cornelius. Saul at Damascus. Theophilus, son of Ananus. Philo's mission to Borne. 38 89 Saul at Damascus. Herod Antipas goes to Borne, and is banished to Gaul. Birth of Lucan. 39 40 Paul at Jerusalem and Tarsus. Petromus, Prefect of Syria. Caligula orders his statue to be set up in the Temple of Jeru salem. Philo at Bomo. 40 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF APOSTOLIC HISTORY (continued). A.D. Empbeobb. AP08TOUO HlSTOBY. Civil Rulebs. High Priests. CONTEMPOBAttY EVENTS. Claudius. Barnabas sent to Antioch. See of Eome founded by St. Peter Paul at Antioch. Disciples called Christians. Paul and Barnabas go to Jeru salem. The Gospel ac cording to St. Malthew Death of James the son of Zebe dee. Peter imprisoned. Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus. Epistle of St. James (?). Paul and Barnabas in Pisidia and Lycaonia. Paul and Barnabas return to An tioch. Paul's dispute with Peter (??). Council at Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas return with Silas to Antioch. Paul and Silas start on another mission. Paul's dispute with Peter (?). Paul at Philippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens, Corinth. Paul at Corinth. FirBt and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians. Cuspius Fadus Pro curator of Judsea. Tiberius Alexander, Procurator of Judsea. Ventidius Cumanus, Procurator of Judsea. Herod Agrippa II., King of Chalcis. Felix, Procurator Judsea. of pa II., •Herod Agripj King of Bj and Trachonitis, Simon Can- theras. Matthias, son of Ananus. Elionseus, son of Canthe- ras. Joseph, son of Cauis. Ananias, son of Nebedius. Birth of Titus. Herod Agrippa made King of Judsea by Claudius. Claudius conquers Britain, Death of Herod Agrippa at Cse- sarea. Plautius in Britain. Apollonius of Tyaua in India and Persia. Ludi smculares at Rome. Plau tius returns from Britain. Death of Messalina. Claudius under the influence of Narcis sus and Pallas. Herod Agrippa II. made King of Chalcis. Seneca appointed as Nero's tutor. Jews banished from Rome. Caractacus captive in Rome. Foundation of Cologne "by Agrippina. Burrus made Prefect of the Pree- torian Guards. Astrologers expelled from Italy. Herod Agrippa IJ. made King of B a tan sea and Trachonitis. Marriage of Nero with Octavia. 47 Nero. Paul's journey to Ephesus, Cae sarea, Jerusalem, Antioch. Apollos at Ephesus. Dispute , with Peter (?). Apollos at Corinth. £ Paul in Asia. Tumult at Ephesus (May). First Epistle to the Corin thians. Paul in Macedonia. Epistle to the Oalatlans. Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul at Corinth. Epistle to the Romans. Journey to Jerusalem (April, May). Trial before Felix. Paul at Csesarea. Paul at Csesarea. Paul at Caesarea. Appeal to Csesar. Voyage to Italy. Paul at Melita. Arrives at Bome (April). Lives in his own Paul at Bome. Epistle to the Philippians. Paul at Rome. Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon. Belease. First Epistle of St. Peter. Paul in Spain (?), Asia (?), Nico- polis (?). First and Second Epistles to Timothy. The Gospel according to St. LuKe and Acts of the Apostles (?) Epistle to Titus. Second Epistle of St. Peter. Jude. Porcius Festus, Pro curator of Judsea. Albinus, Procurator of Judsea. Gessius Floras, Pro curator of Judsea. i Narcissus put to death by Nero. 54 Ishmael, son of Phabi. Joseph Cabi. Ananus. Jesus, son of Damnseus Tumult in Judsea, headed by the Egyptian of Acts xxi 38. Birth of Trajan. Trial of Fomponia Grajcma. Poppaea Babina, Nero's mistress. Agrippina, Nero's mother, put to death. Revolt in Britain, under Boadi- cea, Queen of the Iceni. Apol- lonius of Tyana at the Olympic Games. Burrus dies, and is succeeded by Tigellinus. Persius dies. Jo sephus at Bome. Earthquakes in Asia Minor. Great fire at Bome. of Christians. Persecution CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF APOSTOLIC HISTORY (continued). AD Emperors. Apostolic History. Civil Rulers. High priests. Contemporary Events. 67 70 Galba. Otto. Vitellius. Vespasian. Titus. Death of Paul and Peter (?) at ¦ Bome. Linns Bishop of Rome (?)• Epistle to the Hebrews (?). The Gospel according to St. Matthew (?). Death of Peter and Paul (?). The Gospel according to St. Mark. Epistle of St. James (??). St. John in Patmos (?). The Apocalypse (?). .Death of James, the Bishop of I Jerusalem (?). Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem ; Ignatius of Antioch (?). Cletus Bishop oi Bome (7). Epistle of Clement of Bome to the Corinthians (ffl. Seneca and Luean put to death by Nero. Death of Poppaea. Nero in Greece. Apollonius of Tyana ordered to leave Rome. Martial at Rome. Josephus gains favour with Ves pasian after the capture of Jotapata. Vespasian takes Jericho The Capitol rebuilt by Vespasian. Jerusalem taken by Titus (Aug. 31). Josephus released. Temple of Janus closed. Destruc tion of the Onias Temple in Egypt. Triumph of Titus and Berenice at Rome with Vespasian and. Titus. Philosophers ba nished from Rome. Temple of Peace at Bome dedi cated by Vespasian. Coliseum begun. Birthof Hadrian. Britain conquered by Agricola. Pompeii and Herculaneum de stroyed. Death of Pliny the Elder. Coliseum finished. Pestilence and fire at Bome. Baths of Titus built. 67 70 71 81 Domitian.! Nerva. Trajan. Clement Bishop of Bome. St. John thrown into boiling oil before the Latin Gate (ff). Epistle of Clement (f). The Apooalypse (??). Flavins Clemens put to death. Domi- tilla banished. The Three Epistles of St. John (?). The Gospel according to St. John (?). Cerdon Bishop of Alexandria; Ignatius of Antioch; Simon of Jerusalem. Death of St. John (?). .Death of St. John (?). Domitian banishes all philo sophers from Bome. Agricola in Caledonia. Antoninus Plus born. Qulntllian at Bome from a.d. 68- Philosophers again banished from Bome, Epictetus among them. Death of Agricola and Josephus. Juvenal banished. Grandsons of the brethren of the Lord brought before Domitian. Death of Apollonius of Tyana. Pliny and Plutarch in favour with Trajan. Pliny's Panegyric on Trajan. Martial retires to Spain. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. CHAPTER I.— ("The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, (2) until the day in which he was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had The Acts of the Apostles. — See Introduction as to the title thus given to the Book. W The former treatise. — Literally, word, or discourse; hut the English of the text is, perhaps, a happier equivalent than either. The Greek term had been used by Xenophon (Anab. ii. 1 ; Cyrop. viii. 1, 2) as St. Luke uses it, oi what we should call the several " Books" or portions of his Histories. The adjective is strictly " first" rather than " former," and the tense of the verb, " I made," rather than "I have made." O Theophilus. — See Luke i. 3. It has been thought that the absence of the words "most excellent" implies that the writer's friendship with Theophilus was now of a more intimate and familiar nature. It is possible, just as a like change of relation has been traced in Shakespeare's dedications of his two poems to the Earl of Southampton, but the in ference is, in each case, somewhat precarious. That Jesus began both to do and teaoh. — The verb " begin" is specially characteristic of St. 21 Luke's Gospel, in which it occurs not less than thirty-one times. Ita occurrence at the beginning of the Acts is, accordingly, as far as it goes, an indication of identity of author ship. He sought his materials from those who had been "from the beginning" eye-witnesses and ministers of the word (Luke i. 2). (2) Until the day in which he was taken up. — We notice, as a matter of style, the same periodic structure that we found in the opening of the Gospel, made more conspicuous in the Greek by an arrangement of the words which places "he was taken up" at the close of the sentence. On the word " taken up," see Luke ix. 61. That he through the Holy Ghost had given command ments — The words admit of two possible meanings— (1) that the work of " commanding " was left to _ the Holy Spirit, guiding the spirits of tho disciples into all the truth ; (2) that in his human nature the Lord Jesus, after, as before His passion, spoke as one who was " filled with the Holy Ghost " (Lukeiv. 1), to whom the Father had given the Spirit not by measure The days after THE ACTS, I. the Passion. chosen : 0) to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God : <¦*> and, being (John iii. 34). As the Apostles were still waiting for the promised gift, the latter aspect of the words is, we can scarcely doubt, that which was intended by the writer. He was taken up ; and a cloud received him . . . — It is remarkable how little stress is laid in the Gospels on the fact which has always been so promi nent in the creeds of Christendom. Neither St. John nor St. Matthew record it. It is barely mentioned with utmost brevity in the verses which close the Gospel of St. Mark, and in which many critics see, in deed, a fragment of apostolic teach ing, but not part of the original Gospel. The reasons of this silence are, however, not far to seek. It was because the Ascension was from the first part of the creed of Christendom that the Evangelists said so little. The fact had been taught to every catechumen. They would not embellish it — as, for example, the Assumption of the Virgin was embellished in later legends — by fantastic details. That it was so received is clear. It is imphed in our Lord's language, as recorded by St. John, "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before ? " (John vi. 62), and such words would hardly have been brought before believers at the close of the apostolic age if they had received no fulfilment. It is assumed in the earliest form of the Church's creed, " He was received up into glory," the verb being identical with that which St. Luke employs in St. Peter's speeches (Acts ii 33 , iii. 21), and in St. Paul's epistles (Eph. i. 20; 1 Tim. iii. 16). We may add that there was something like a moral necessity, assuming the Eesurrection as a fact, for such a conclusion to our Lord's work on earth. Two other alternatives may, perhaps, be just imagined as pos sible : He might, like Lazarus, have 27 They witness THE ACTS, I. His Ascension, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (10) And while they looked stedfastly to ward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel ; (u) which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like man ner as ye have seen him lived out His restored life to its appointed term, and then died the common death of all men ; but in that case where would have been the victory over death, and the witness that He was the Son of God ? He might have lived on an endless life on earth ; but in this case, being such as He was, conflict, persecution, and suffering would have come again and again at every stage, and in each instance a miracle would have been needed to save the suffering from passing on to death, or many deaths must have been followed by many resur rections. When we seek, however, to realise the process of the Ascen sion, we find ourselves in a region of thought in which it is not easy to move freely. With our thoughts of the relations of the earth to space and the surrounding orbs, we find it hard to follow that upward motion, and to ask what was its direction and where it terminated. We cannot get beyond the cloud ; but that cloud was the token of the glory of the Eternal Presence, as the Shechinah that of old filled the Temple (1 Kings viii. 10, 11; Isa. vi. 1- — 4), and it is enough for us to know that where God is there also is Christ, in the Glory of the Father, retaining still, though under new conditions and laws, the human nature which made Him like unto His brethren. 28 P°) Two men stood by them in white apparel. — Better, were standing, the appearance being sudden, and their approach un noticed. The forms were such as those as had been seen at the por tals of the empty sepulchre, bright and fair to look upon, and clad in white garments, like the young priests in the Temple. (See Matt. xxviii. 3; Mark xvi. 5; Luke xxiv. 4.) (n) Shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. — So our Lord, following the great prophecy of Dan. vii. 13, had spoken of Him self as "coming in the clouds of heaven " (see Matt. xxvi. 64), in visible majesty and glory. Here, again, men have asked ques tions which they cannot answer; not only, when shall the end be, but where shall the Judge thus appear p what place shall be the chosen scene of His second advent ? So far as we dare to localise what is left undefined, the words of the angels suggest the same scene, as well as the same manner. Those who do not shrink from taking the words of prophecy in their most literal sense,. have seen in Zech. xiv. 4, an intimation that the Valley of Jehosophat (= Jehovah judges)— the " valley of decision" —shall witness the great Assize, and that the feet of the Judge shall stand upon the Mount of Olives and return THE ACTS, I. to Jerusalem. go into heaven. ™ Then returned they unto Jeru salem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. as) And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James t7ie son of Alphseus, and Simon from which He had ascended into heaven. This was the current mediaeval view, and seems, if we are to localise at all, to be more probable than any other. pa) From the Mount called Olivet. — The Greek noun answers to the Latin Olivetum = & place of olives. The mention of the distance, and the measure of dis tance employed are, both of them, remarkable, and suggest the thought that St. Luke's reckoning was a different one from that which Christendom has commonly received, that the "forty days" expired before the last re newal of our Lord's intercourse with His disciples, and that this ended on the following sabbath — i.e., eight days before the day of Pentecost. On this supposition we get a reason, otherwise wanting, for this manner of stating the dis tance. Symbolically, too, there seems a fitness in our Lord's enter ing into His rest, on the great day of rest, which is wanting in our common way of reckoning. On the other hand, it may be noted that it is after St. Luke's manner as in the case of Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 13) to give distances. The "Sabbath day's journey" was reckoned at 2,000- paces, or about six furlongs. t13) They went up into an upper room, where abode . . . — Better, into the upper room, where they were abiding. The Greek noun has the article. The room may have been the same as that in which the Paschal Supper had been eaten (Mark xiv. 15). On the other hand, that room seems to have been different from that in which the disciples had lodged during the Paschal week, and to have been chosen specially for the occasion (Luke xxii. 8). The word used is also different in form. So far as we are able to distinguish between the two words, the room of the Paschal Supper was on the first floor, the guest-chamber, used for meals ; that in which the disciples now met, on the second floor, or loft, which was used for retirement and prayer. It would seem from Luke xxiv. 53, that they spent the greater part of each day in the Temple, and met together in the evening. The better MSS. give " prayer " only, without " supplica tion." The prayer thus offered may be thought of as specially directed to the "promise of the Father." Whether it was spoken or silent, unpremeditated or in some set form of words, like the Lord's Prayer, we have no data to determine. Peter, and James. — See Matt. x. 2—4. The points to be noticed with regard to this list of the Twelve Apostles are — (1) that Andrew stands last in the group of the first four, divided from his 29 The Disciples in THE ACTS, I. the Upper Chamber. Zelotes, i,nd Judas the brother of James. (u) These all continued with one ac cord in prayer andsupplica- brother, thus agreeing with the list in St. Mark (iii. 17); (2) that Philip is in like manner divided from Bartholomew, and Thomas from Matthew; (3) that Zelotes appears here, as in Luke vi. 15, instead of the Cananaean. (14> With the women. — Look ing to what we have seen in the Gospels, it is a natural inference that here, too, the " devout women" of Luke viii. 2, 3, were among St. Luke's chief informants. This may, perhaps, account for the variations in the list just noticed. The women were less likely than the disciples to lay stress on what we may call the accurate coupling of the Twelve. The mention of " the women" as a definite body is characteristic of St. Luke as the only Evangelist who names them. (See Luke viii. 1 — 3 ; xxiii. 49). We may reasonably think of the company as including Mary Magdalene, Salome, Susanna, Joanna, Mary and Martha of Bethany, possibly also the " woman that had been a sinner " of Luke vii. 37. Here we lose sight of them, and all that follows is conjectural. It is pro bable that they continued to share the work and the sufferings of the growing Church at Jerusalem, liv ing together, perhaps at Bethany, in a kind of sisterhood. The per secution headed by Saul was likely to disperse them for a time, and some may well have been among the "women" who suffered in it (chap. viii. 3) ; but they may have returned when it ceased. St. Luke, when he came to Palestine, would Beem to have met with one or more of them. 30 Mary the mother of Jesus. — Brief as the record is, it has the interest of giving the last known fact, as distinct from legend or tra dition, in the life of the mother of our Lord. St. John, we know, had taken her to his own home, pro bably to a private dwelling in Jerusalem (see John xix. 27), and she had now come with him to the first meeting of the Ecclesia. Here also we trace the influence of the women as St. Luke's informants. They could not have left unnoticed the presence of her who was the centre of their group. The legends of some apocryphal books represent her as staying at Jerusalem with St. John till her death, twenty-two years after the Ascension; while others represent her as going with him to Ephesus and dying there ; the Apostles gather around her death-bed; she is buried, and the next day the grave is found emptied, and sweet flowers have grown around it ; Mary also had been taken up into heaven. The festival of the Assumption, which owes its origin to this legend, dates from the sixth or seventh century. With his brethren. — The last mention of the "brethren" had shown them as still unbeliev ing (John vii 5). Various expla nations of their change may be given. (1) They may have been drawn to believe before the Cruci fixion by the great miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus. (2) The risen Lord had appeared to James as well as to the Apostles (1 Cor. xy. 7), and that may have fixed mm and the other brothers in stead- Peter addresses THE ACTS, I. the Disciples. tion, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with,- his brethren. °5) And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names to gether were about an hun dred and twenty,) °"> Men I Ps. 41. 9. and brethren, this scripture milst needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before con cerning Judas,a which was guide to them that took Jesus. a7) For he was numbered with us, and fast faith. (3) If the mother of Jesus was with John, the brethren also were likely to come, in greater or less measure, under the influence of their cousin. It may be noted that the brethren are here em phatically distinguished from the Apostles, and therefore that James the son of Alphaeus cannot rightly be identified with James the Lord's brother. (See Matt. xii. 46.) G5) The number of names together were about an hun dred, and twenty. — The num ber probably included the Seventy of Luke x. 1, perhaps also Joseph of Arimathea and Nico demus, and some of the " five hundred " who had seen then- risen Lord in Galilee or elsewhere (1 Cor. xv. 6). The use of " names" may be merely as a synonym for " persons," but it suggests the idea of there having been a list from which St. Luke extracted those that seemed most conspicuous. ("j Men and brethren. — Better, brethren only, the word being used as in the LXX. of Gen. xiii. 8. The tone of St. Peter's speech iB that of one who felt that his offence had been fully forgiven, and that he was now restored by the charge given him, as in John xxi. 15 — 17, to his former position as guide and leader of the other disciples. To do that work faith fully was a worthier fruit of re pentance than any public confession of his guilt would have been. This, of course, does not exclude — what is in itself probable — that he had previously confessed his fault, either to his special friend St. John, or to the whole company of Apostles and other disciples. "Which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake . . . — We have here, obviously, the "firstfruits of the new method of interpretation in which the Apostles had been instructed (Luke xxiv. 27, 45). They had already been taught that the Holy Spirit which their Lord had promised to them had before spoken by the prophets. The recurrence of the same mode of speech in the " holy men of God who spake j as they were moved (literally, borne along) by the Holy Ghost," in 2 Pet. i. 21, is, as far as it goes, evidence in favour of the genuineness of that Epistle. Which was guide to them that took Jesus. — The actual word " guide " is not found in the Gospel narrative, but it appears as a fact in all four, notably in that of St. John (xviii. 2, 3). C17) For he was numbered 31 Account of THE ACTS, I. Judas' death. had obtained part of this ministry. (18) Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity;6 and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. (I9) And it was known Matt. 27.7 ; Ps. 69. 25. unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem ; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. c^'For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate," with US. — Literally, he had been Had obtained part of this ministry. — Better, the portion, or inheritance. The Greek has the article, and the noun (cleros) is one which afterwards acquired a special half-technical sense in the words, clerus, clericus, " clerk," "clergy." In 1 Pet. v. 3, as being " lords over the heritage," we find it in a transition sense. (See Note on verse 25.) ps, is) Uow this man pur chased a field. — Better, acquired, got possession of, a field, the Greek not necessarily including the idea of buying. A few words may be said on the difficulties presented by a comparison of this account with that in Matt, xxvii. 5 — 8. Here the field bought with Judas' money is spoken of as that which he gained as the reward of his treachery. The details that follow are additions to the briefer state ment of St. Matthew, but are obviously not incompatible with it. Nor is there any necessity for assuming, as some have done, that there were two fields known as Aceldama, one that which the priests had bought, and the other that which was the scene of Judas' death. The whole passage must be regarded as a note of the his torian, not as part of the speech of St. Peter. It was not likely that he, speaking to disciples, all of whom knew the Aramaic, or popular Hebrew of Palestine, should stop to explain that Acel dama meant " in their proper tongue, The field of blood." P9) In their proper tongue. Literally, in their own dialect. The word is used frequently in the Acts (ii. 6, 8 ; xxi. 40), but not elsewhere in the New Testament. (20) jior ^ is -nrritten in the book of Psalms. — St. Peter's speech is continued after the paren thetical note. His purpose in making the quotation is to show that the disciples should not be staggered by the treachery of Judas, and the seeming failure of their hopes. The Psalms had re presented the righteous sufferer as the victim of treachery. They had also_ spoken of the traitor as re ceiving a righteous punishment such as had now fallen upon Judas. No Btrange thing had happened. What had been of old was typical of what they had heard or known. We need not in this place discuss either the historical occasions of the Psalms cited, or the ethical difficulties presented by their im precations of evil. Neither comes, so to speak within the horizon of St. Peter's thoughts. It was enough for him to note the striking paral- 32 They must choose THE ACTS, I. a Successor. and let no man dwell therein: and his bishop rick1 let another take.0 (21) Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, C23) begin- Or, otfcr,or, charge. i Ps. 109. a ning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. C23) And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was lelism which they presented to what was fresh in his memory, and to believe that it was not accidental. His bishoprick let another take Better, as in Ps. cix. 8, let another take his office. The Greek word is episcoph, which, as meaning an office like that of the episcopos, is, of course, in one sense, rightly translated by "bishoprick." The latter term is, however, so sur rounded by associations foreign to the apostolic age that it is better to use the more general, and, therefore, neutral, term of the English version of the Psalm. The use of " bishoprick ' ' may be noted as an instance of the tendency of the revisers of 1611 to maintain the use of " bishop " and the like where the office seemed to be placed on a high level (as here and in 1 Pet. ii. 25), while they use "over seer " and " oversight " (as in Acts xx. 28, and 1 Pet. v. 2) where it is identified with the functions of the elders or presbyterB of the Church. " Bishoprick " had, however, been used in all previous versions, ex cept the Geneva, which gives "charge." (21> Wherefore of these men which have companied with us. — From the retrospective glance at the guilt and punishment of the traitor, Peter passes, as with a practical sagacity, to the one thing that was now needful for the work of the infant Church. They, the Apostles, must present themselves to the people in their symbolic completeness, as sent to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the gap left by the traitor must be filled by one qualified, as they were, to bear witness of what had been said or done by their Lord during His ministry, and, above all, of TTia resurrection from the dead. That would seem, even in St. Paul's estimate, to have been a condition of apostleship (1 Cor. ix. 1). Went in and out . . The phrase was a familiar Hebrew phrase for the whole of a man's life and conduct. (Comp. chap. ix. 28.) (23) They appointed. — It is uncertain whether this was the act of the Apostles, presenting the two men to the choice of the whole body of disciples, or of the com munity choosing them for ultimate decision by lot. Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus. — Some MSS. give the various- reading of " Joses," which was, perhaps, only another form of the same name. Nothing further is known of him. The conditions of the case make it certain that he must have been a disciple almost 3 33 Joseph and THE ACTS, I. Matthias selected. surnamed Justus, and Mat thias. C24) And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, (25) that he may take part of this ministry and apostle- from the beginning of our Lord's ministry, and that he must have become more or less prominent, and probable therefore, as stated by Eusebius (Hist. i. 12), that he was one of the Seventy. The name Barsabas (=sonof the oath, or of wisdom) may have been a pa tronymic, like Barjona, or may have been given, like Barnabas, as denoting character. It appears again in Judas Barsabas of chap. xv. 22, and on the former assump tion, the two disciples may have been brothers. The epithet Justus, the just one, is significant, as possibly indicating, as in the case of James the Just, a specially high standard of ascetic holiness. Another with the same surname — Jesus surnamed Justus — meets us as being with St. Paul at Eome as one of " the circumcision " (Col. iv. 11), and another, or possibly the same, at Corinth (chap, xviii. 7). In both cases the use of the Latin instead of the Greek word is notice able, as indicating some point of contact with the Eomans in Judasa or elsewhere. Matthias. — Here too, probably, the same conditions were fulfilled. The name, like Matthew signified " given by Jehovah," and had become, in various forms, popu lar, from the fame of Mattathias, the great head of the Maccabean family. m Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men — Literally, heart-knower of all men. The compound word is 31 not found in any Greek version of the Old Testament, but meets us again in chap. xv. 8. The question meets us whether the prayer is addressed to the Lord Jesus, as with a recollection of His insight into the hearts of men (John ii. 24 ; vi. 64), or to the Father. The prayer of Stephen (chap. vii. 59, 60) shows, on the one hand, that direct prayer to the Son was not foreign to the minds of the disciples ; and in John vi. 70 He claims the act of choosing as His own. On the other hand, the analogy of chap. iv. 29, where the Father is en treated to work signs and wonders " through his holy servant Jesus," is in favour of the latter view. " Whether," as used in the sense of "which of two," may be noted as one of the archaisms of the English version. (25) That he may take part of this ministry.— Better, the portion, or the lot, so as to give the word (cleros, as in verse 17) the same prominence in English as it has in the Greek. From which Judas by transgression feU.— The last three words are as a paraphrase of the one Greek verb. Better, fell away. That he might go to his own place — Literally, as the verb is m the infinitive, to go to his own place. The construction is not free from ambiguity, and some interpreters have referred the words to the disciple about to be ' " "' "to go to his own place" chosen, ' The Lot falls THE ACTS, II. upon Matthias. ship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. ""> And they gave forth their lots ; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. CHAPTEE IL— o'And in the company of the Twelve. If we connect them, as seems most natural, with Judas, we find in them the kind of reserve natural in one that could neither bring him self to cherish hope nor venture to pronounce the condemnation which belonged to the Searcher of hearts. All that had been revealed to him was, that "it had been good for that man if he had not been born " (Mark xiv. 21). I26) And they gave forth their lots. — As interpreted by the prayer of verse 24, and by the word " fell " here, there can be no doubt that the passage speaks of " lots " and not "votes. " The two men were chosen by the disciples as standing, as far as they could see, on the same level. It was left for the Searcher of hearts to show, by the exclusion of human will, which of the two He had chosen. The most usual way of casting lots in such cases was to write each name on a tablet, place them in an um, and then shake the urn till one came out. A like custom pre vailed among the Greeks, as in the well-known story of the stratagem of Cresphontes in the division of territory after the Dorian invasion (Sophocles, Aias. 1285; comp. Prov. xvi. 33). The practice was recognised, it may be noted, in the Law (Lev. xvi. 8). He was numbered with the eleven apostles. — The Greek word is not the same as in verse 17, and implies that Matthias was " voted in," the suffrage of the Church unanimously confirming the indication of the divine will which had been given by the lot. It may be that the new Apostle took the place which Judas had left vacant, and was reckoned as the last of the Twelve. II. P) When the day of Pente cost was fully come. — It is natural to assume a purpose in the divine choice of the day on which the disciples were thus to receive the promise of the Father. That choice may have been determined, if one may so speak, either in view of the circumstances of the feast, or of its history and symbolic fitness. (1) Of all the feasts of the Jewish year, it was that which attracted the largest number of pilgrims from distant lands. The dangers of travel by sea or land in the early spring or late autumn (comp. chap, xxvii. 9) prevented their coming in any large numbers to the Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles. At no other feast would there have been representa tives of so many nations. So, it may be noted, it was the Feast of Pentecost that St. Paul went up to keep once and again, during his mission-work in Greece and Asia. (See Notes on chaps, xviii. 21 ; xx. 16.) So far, then, there was no time on which the gift of the Spirit was likely to produce such direct and immediate results. 35 The Day THE ACTS, II. of Pentecost. when the day of Pentecost; I was fully come, they were (2) Each aspect of the old Feast of Weeks, now known as Pentecost, or the " Fiftieth-day " Feast, pre sented a symbolic meaning which made it, in greater or less measure, typical of the work now about to be accomplished. It was the "feast of harvest, the feast of the firstfruits ; " and so it was meet that it should witness the first great gathering of the fields that were white to harvest (Ex. xxiii. 16). It was one on which, more than on any other, the Israelite was to remember that he had been a bondman in the land of Egypt, and had been led forth to freedom (Deut. xvi. 12), and on it, accord ingly, they were to do no servile work (Lev. xxiii. 31) ; and it was, therefore, a fit time for the gift of the Spirit, of whom it was em phatically true that " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. hi. 17), and who was to guide the Church into the truth which should make men free indeed (John viii. 32). It was a day on which sacrifices of every kind- were offered — burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and meat offer ings, and peace offerings — and so represented the consecration of body, soul, and spirit as a spiritual sacrifice (Lev. xxiii. 17 — 20). As on the Passover the first ripe sheaf of corn was waved before Jehovah as the type of the sacrifice of Christ, of the corn of wheat which is not quickened except it die (Lev. xxiii. 10 ; John xii. 24), so on Pentecost two wave-loaves of fine flour were to be offered, the type, it may be, under the hght now thrown on them, of the Jewish and the Gentile Churches (Lev. xxiii. 17). And these loaves were to be leavened, as a witness that the process of the contact of mind with mind, which — as the prohibition of leaven in the Passover ritual bore witness — is naturally so fruitful in evil, might yet, under a higher influence, become one of unspeak able good: the new life working through the three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. (See Matt. xiii. 33.) (3) Lastly, the Feast of Pentecost had — traditionally, at least — also a commemorative character. On that day — so it was computed by the later Babbis, though the Book of Exodus (xix. 1) seems to leave the matter in some uncertainty — the Israelites had encamped round Sinai, and there had been thunders and darkness and voices, and the great Laws had been proclaimed. It was, that is, an epoch-making day in the religious history of Israel. It was fit that it should be chosen for another great epoch- making day, which, seeming at first to be meant for Israel only, was intended ultimately for mankind. Was fully come. — Literally, was being accomplished. The word seems chosen to express the fact that the meeting of the disciples was either on the vigil of the Feast- day, or in the early dawn. Assum ing the, Passover to have occurred on the .light of the Last Supper, the Day of Pentecost would fall on the first day of the week, beginning, of course, at the sunset of the Sab bath. So the Churches of East and West have commemorated the day as on the eighth Sunday after Easter. In the Latin nations the name of Pentecost remains scarcely 36 The Sound THE ACTS, II. from Heaven. all with one accord in one place. C2) And suddenly there come a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they altered. The Pfingst of the Germans shows it still surviving in a very contracted form. Some eminent scholars have thought that our Whitsun-ia,j represents it after a still more altered form, and that this is a more probable etymology of the word than those which con nect it with the white garments worn on that day by newly-baptised converts, or with the gift of " wit, or wisdom." With one accord in one place. — Probably in the same large upper room as in chap. i. 13. We may reasonably think of the same persons as being present. The hour, we may infer from verse 15, was early in the morning, and probably followed on a night of prayer. It is said, indeed, that devout Jews used to solemnise the vigil of Pentecost by a special thanksgiving to God for giving His Law to Israel; and this may well have been the occasion that brought the disciples together (Schottgen, Hor. Hebr. in Acts ii. 1). It was, in the mystic language of the Eabbis, the night on which the Law, as the Bride, was espoused to Israel, as the Bridegroom. The frequent occurrence of the Greek word for " with one accord " ^chaps. i 14 ; ii. 46 ; iv. 24 ; v. 12) is sig nificant as showing the impression made on the writer by the excep tional unity of the new society. Outside the Acts it is found only in Eom. xv. i6. (2) And suddenly there came a sound from heaven .... — The description reminds us of the " sound of a trumpet " (Ex. xix. 19; Heb. xii. 19) on Sinai, of the " great and strong wind " that rent the mountains on Horeb (1 Kings xix. 11). Such a wind was now felt and heard, even as the wind, the breath, the Spirit of God, had moved upon the face of the waters, quickening them into life (Gen. i 2). A rushing mighty wind. — Better, a mighty breath borne on wards, so as to connect the English, as the Greek is connected, with St. Peter's words, that "holy men of old spake as they were moved (literally, borne on) by the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. i. 21). The Greek word for " wind " is not that com monly so translated (anemos), but one from the same root as the Greek for " Spirit " (Pnoi and Pneuma — both from Pne6, " I breathe "), and rendered "breath" in chap. xvii. 25. It is obviously chosen here as being better fitted than the more common word for the supernatural inbreathing of which they were conscious, and which to many must have recalled the moment when their Lord had " breathed on them, and said, Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost " (John xx. 22). Now, once more, they felt that light yet awful breathing which wrought every nerve to ecstasy ; and it filled " the whole house," as if in token of the wide range over which the new spiritual power was to extend its working, even unto the whole Church, which is the House of God (1 Tim. iii. 15), and to the utter most parts of the earth. 37 The Gift THE ACTS, II. of Tongues. were sitting. w And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. C4) And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave (3) There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. — Better, and tongues as of fire were seen by them, parted among them. The word translated " cloven " cannot possibly have that meaning. It is not uncommon (e.g., verse 45 ; Matt, xxvii. 35; Luke xxii. 17; and John xix. 24), and is always used in the sense of dividing or distri buting. What the disciples saw would, perhaps, be best described in modern phrase as a shower of fiery tongues, coming they knew not whence, lighting for a moment on each head, and then vanishing. The verb "it (sc, a tongue of fire) sat upon " is in the tense which ex presses momentary, not continuous, action. (*> And they were aU filled with the Holy Ghost The outward portent was but the sign of a greater spiritual wonder. As yet, though they had been taught to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke xi. 13), and, we must believe, had found the answer to their prayer in secret and sacred influences and gradual growth in wisdom, they had never been con scious of its power as " filling " them— pervading the inner depths of personality, stimulating every faculty and feeling to a new in tensity of life. Now they felt, in St. Peter's words, as " borne on ward " (2 Pet. i. 21), thinking thoughts and speaking words which were not their own, and which they could hardly even control. They had passed into a state which was 38 one of rapturous ecstasy and joy. We must not think of the gift as confined to the Apostles. The con text shows that the writer speaks of all who were assembled, not excepting the women, as sharers in it. (Comp. verses 17, 18.) And began to speak with other tongues. — Two facts have " to be remembered as we enter upon the discussion of a question which is, beyond all doubt, difficult and mysterious. (1) If we receive Mark xvi. 9 — 20 as a true record of our Lord's words, the disciples had, a few days or weeks before the Day of Pentecost, heard the promise that they that believed should "speak with new tongues " (see Mark xvi. 17), i.e., with new powers of utterance. (2) When St. Luke wrote his account of the Day of Pentecost, he must have had — partly through his companionship with St. Paul, partly from personal observation — a wide knowledge of the phenomena described as connected with the "tongues" in 1 Cor. xiv. He uses the term in the sense in which St. Paul had used it. We have to read the narrative of the Acts in the light thrown upon it by the treatment in that chapter of the phenomena described by the self-same words as the Pentecost wonder. What, then, are those phenomena? Does the narrative of this chapter bring before us any in addition? (1) The utterance ot the "tongue" is presented to us as entirely unconnected with the work of teaching. It is not a means The Gift THE ACTS, II. of Tongues. of instruction. It does not edify any beyond the man who speaks (1 Cor. xiv. 4). It is, in this re spect, the very antithesis of ' ' pro phecy." Men do not, as a rule, understand it, though God does (1 Cor. xiv. 2). Here and there, some mind with a special gift of insight may be able to interpret with clear articulate speech what had been mysterious and dark (1 Cor. xiv. 13). St. Paul desires to subject the exercise of the gift to the con dition of the presence of such an interpreter (1 Cor. xiv. 5, 27). (2) The free use of the gift makes him who uses it almost as a barbarian or foreigner to those who listen to him. He may utter prayers, or praises, or benedictions, but what he speaks is as the sound of a trumpet blown uncertainly, of flute or lyre played with unskilled hand, almost, we might say, in the words of our own poet, " like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh" (1 Cor. xiv. 7—9). (3) Those who speak with tongueB do well, for the most part, to confine their utterance to the solitude of their own chamber, or to the presence of friends who can share their rapture. When they make a more public display of it, it produces results that stand in singular contrast with each other. It is a " sign to them that believe not," i.e., it startles them, attracts their notice, impresses them with the thought that they stand face to face with a superhuman power. On the other hand, the outside world of listeners, common men, or unbelievers, are likely to look on it as indicating madness (1 Cor. xiv. 23). If it was not right or expedient to check the utterance of the tongues altogether, St. Paul at least thought it necessary to pre scribe rules for its exercise, which naturally tended to throw it into the background as compared with prophecy (1 Cor. xiv. 27, 28). The conclusion from the whole chapter is, accordingly, that the " tongues " were not the power of speaking in a language which had not been learnt by the common ways of learning, but the ecstatic utterance of rapturous devotion. As regards the terms which are used to describe the gift, the English reader must be reminded that the word ' ' unknown' ' is an interpolation which appears, for the first time in the version of 1611. Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Ehemish give no adjective, and the Geneva inserts " strange." It may be noted further that the Greek word for ' ' tongue ' ' had come to be used by Greek writers on rhetoric for bold, poetic, unusual terms, such as belonged to epic poetry (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 3), not for those which belonged to a foreign language. If they were, as Aristotle calls them, " unknown," it was because they were used in a startlingly figurative sense, so that men were sometimes puzzled by them (Aristot. Rhet. iii. 10). We have this sense of the old word (glossa) surviving in our glossary, a collection of such terms. It is clear (1) that such an use of the word would be natural in writers trained as St. Paul and St. Luke had been in the language of Greek schools ; and (2) that it exactly falls in with the conclusion to which the phenomena of the case leads us, apart from the word. We turn to the history that follows in this chapter, and we find almost identical phenomena. (1) The work of teaching is not done by the gift of tongues, but by the speech of Peter, and that was delivered either in the Aramaic 39 The Gift THE ACTS, II. of Tongues. of Palestine, or, more probably, in the Greek, which was the common medium of intercourse for all the Eastern subjects of the Eoman empire. In that speech we find the exercise of the higher gift of prophecy, with precisely the same results as those described by St. Paul as following on the use of that gift. (Comp. verse 37 with 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.) (2) The utterances of the disciples are described in words which convey the idea of rapturous praise. They speak the "mighty works," or better, as in Luke i. 49, the great things of God. Doxologies, benedictions, adora tion, in forms that transcended the common level of speech, and rose, like the Magnificat, into the region of poetry : this is what the word suggests to us. In the wild, half dithyrambic hymn of Clement of Alexandria — the earliest extant Christian hymn outside the New Testament — in part, perhaps, in that of chap. iv. 24 — 30, and the Apocalyptic hymns (Eev. iv. 8, 11; v. 13 ; vii. 10), we have the nearest approach to what then came, in the fiery glow of its first utterance, as with the tongues " of men and of angels," from the lips of the dis ciples. (3) We cannot fail to be struck with the parallelism between the cry of the scoffers here, " These men are full of new wine " (verse 13), and the words, " Will they not say that ye are mad ? " which. St. Paul puts into the mouth of those who heard the " tongues " (1 Cor. xiv. 23). In both cases there is an intensity of stimulated life, which finds relief in the forms of poetry and in the tones of song, and which to those who listened was as the poet's frenzy. It is not without significance that St. Paul elsewhere contrasts the "being drunk with wine" with "being filled with the Spirit," and im mediately passes on, as though that were the natural result, to add " speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph. v. 18, 19). H we find the old Jewish psalms in the first of these three words, and hymns known and remembered in the second, the natural explanation of the adjective specially alluded to in the third is that the ' ' songs " or "odes" are such as were not merely " spiritual " in the later sense of the word, but were the immediate outflow of the Spirit's working. Every analogy, it will be noticed, by which St. Paul illustrates his meaning in 1 Cor. xiii. 1, xiv. 7, 8, implies musical intonation. We have the sounding brass and the tinkling (or, clanging) cymbal, the pipe, the harp, the trumpet giving an uncertain sound. It falls in with this view that our Lord Himself compares the new energy of spiritual life which He was about to impart to new wine (Matt. ix. 17), and that the same comparison meets us in the Old Testament in the words in which Elihu describes his inspiration (Job xxxii. 19). The accounts of pro phecy in its wider sense, as includ ing song and praise, as well as a direct message to the minds and hearts of men, in the life of Saul, present phenomena that are ob viously analogous (1 Sam. x. 10, 11; xix. 20, 24). The brief re ports in chap. x. 46, "speaking with tongues and magnifying God," and chap. xix. 6, where tongues are distinguished • from prophecy, present nothing that is not in harmony with this ex planation. In the present case, however, Result of THE ACTS, II. the Gift. them utterance. ^ And there were dwelling at Je rusalem Jews, devout men, lGr. when thin voicewasmade. out of every nation under heaven. (6) Now when this was noised abroad,1 the there are exceptional phenomena. We cannot honestly interpret St. Luke's record without assuming either that the disciples spoke in the languages which are named in verses 9 — 11, or that, speaking in their own Galilean tongue, their words came to the ears of those who listened as spoken in the language with which each was familiar. The first is at once the more natural interpretation of the language used by the historian, and, if we may use such a word of what is in itself supernatural and mysterious, the more conceivable of the two. And it is clear that there was an end to be attained by such an extension of the gift in this case which could not be attained otherwise. The disciples had been present in Jerusalem at many feasts before, at which they had found themselves, as now, sur rounded by pilgrims from many distant lands. Then they had wor shipped apart by themselves, with no outward means of fellowship with these strangers, and had poured out their praises and bless ings in their own Galilean speech, as each group of those pilgrims had done in theirs. Now they found themselves able to burst through the bounds that had thus divided them, and to claim a fel lowship with all true worshippers from whatever lands they came. But there is no evidence that that power was permanent. It came and went with the special out pouring of the Spirit, and lasted only while that lasted in its full intensity. (Comp. Notes on chaps. x. 46, xix. 6.) There are no traces of its exercise in any narrative of the work of apostles and evan gelists. They did their work in countries where Greek was spoken, even where it was not the native speech of the inhabitants, and so would not need that special know ledge. In the history of chap. xiv. 11, it is at least implied that Paul and Barnabas did not understand the speech of Lycaonia. P) There were dweUing at Jerusalem. — The phrase is one of frequent occurrence in St. Luke's writings (Luke xiii. 4 ; Acts i. 19 ; iv. 16). As a word, it implied a, more settled residence than the "sojourning" of Luke xxiv. 18, Heb. xi. 9, but was pro bably sufficiently wide in its .range to include the worship pers who had come up to keep the feast. Devout men. — The mean ing of the word is worth noting. Its primary sense was one of cau tious reverence, the temper that handles sacred things devoutly. As such, it was probably used to include proselytes as well as Jews by birth. The words that are added, "from every nation under heaven," reduce the pro bability to a certainty. It appears again in chap. viii. 2. m When this was noised abroad . . . . — Better, When there had been this voice, or utterance. The word for "voice" is never used for rumour or report in the New Testament ; always of some 41 The Multitude THE ACTS, II. astonished. multitude came together, and were confounded,1 be cause that every man heard them speak in his own lan guage. m And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, 1 Or, troubledinmind. Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans 1 C8) And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? (9) Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the utterance — human (Matt. iii. 3 ; Gal. iv. 20), angelic (1 Thess. iv. 16; Eev. v. 11), or divine (Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5). In John iii. 7 we find it significantly used, in the same connection as in this verse, for the "voice" or "utter ance " of the Spirit. Were confounded. • — The word is peculiar to the Acts (ix. 22 ; xix. 32). If we were to draw a distinction between two words of cognate meaning with each other and with the Greek, confused would, perhaps, be a better rendering than "confounded." Every man heard them speak The verb is in the imper fect. They went on listening in their amazement as one after another heard the accents of his own language. In his own language. — Another word peculiar to the Acts. (See Note on chap. i. 19.) It stands as an equivalent for the " tongue " in verse 11, but was used for a dialect, in the modern sense of the term, as well as for a distinct (7) They were all amazed and marvelled. — It will be noted that this is precisely in accordance with what St. Paul describes as the effect of the gift of tongues. They were a " sign " to them that be lieved not, filling them with won der, but the work of convincing and 42 converting was left for the gift of . prophecy (1 Cor. xiv. 22). Are not all these which speak Galilaeans? — This was, of course, antecedently probable, but it is singular that this is the first assertion of the fact as regards the whole company. The traitor, from Kerioth in Judsea, had been apparently the only exception, and he had gone to his own place. (8) And how hear we every man in our own tongue ? — We have here, it is obvious, a com posite utterance, in which the writer embodies the manifold ex pressions which came from those who represented the several na tionalities that are afterwards enu merated. (9_ii) Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites . . ..—The list that follows is characteristic of the trained historian and geo grapher, — trained, it may be, as in the school of Strabo, — who had carefully inquired what nations were represented at that great Pentecost, who had himself been present, at least, at one later Pen tecost (chap. xxi. 15), and knew the kind of crowd that gathered to it. There is a kind of order, as of one taking a mental bird's-eye view of the Eoman empire, beginning with the great Parthian kingdom, which was still, as it had been in the days of Crassus, the most formidable of Variety THE ACTS, II. of Hearers. dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judsea, and Cap- padocia, in Pontus, and Asia,00' Phrygia, and Pam- phylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about its foes ; then the old territory of the Medes, which had once been so closely connected with the history of their fathers ; then, the name of the Persians having been thrown into the background, the kindred people of Elam (commonly ren dered Persia in the LXX.), whom Strabo speaks of as driven to the mountains (xi. 13, § 6); then the great cities of the Tigris and Euphrates, where the " princes of the captivity" still ruled over a large Jewish population ; then passing southward and westward to Judaea ; then to Cappadocia, in the interior of Asia Minor ; then to Pontus, on the northern shore washed by the Euxine ; then west ward to the Proconsular Province of Asia, of which Ephesus was the capital. From Ephesus the eye travels eastward to the neighbour ing province of Phrygia ; thence southward to Pamphylia ; thence across the Mediterranean to Egypt ; westward to Cyrene; northward, re-crossing the Mediterranean, to the great capital of the empire ; then, as by an after-thought, to the two regions of Crete and Arabia that had been previously omitted. The absence of some countries that we should have expected to find in the list — Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, Bithynia, Macedonia, Achaia, Spain —is not easy to explain, but it is, at any rate, an indication that what we have is not an artificial list made up at a later date, but an actual record of those whose pre sence at the Feast had been ascer tained by the historian. Possibly they may have been omitted because Jews and converts coming from them would naturally speak Greek, and there would be no marvel to them in hearing Galileans speaking in that language. The presence of Judaea in the list is almost as un expected as the absence of the others. That, we think, might have been taken for granted. Some critics have accordingly conjectured that " India " must be the true reading, but without any MS. authority. Possibly, the men of Judaea are named as sharing in the wonder that the Gahleans were no longer distinguished by their provincial patois. (Comp. Matt. xxvi. 73.) f10) Strangers of Rome . . . — Better, the Romans who were sojourn ing there — i.e., at Jerusalem. The verb is peculiar to St. Luke in the New Testament, and is used by him, as in chap. xvii. 18, of the Btrangers and visitors of a city. Jews and proselytes. — The words may possibly be applicable to the whole preceding list ; but they read more like a note specially emphasising the prominence of the Eoman proselytes in that mixed multitude of worshippers. It lies in the nature of the case, that they were proselytes in the full sense of the term, circumcised and keeping the Law. Looking to St. Luke's use of another word (" they that worship God," as in chaps, xvi. 14 i xvii. 4, 17) for those whom the Eabbis classed as "proselytes of the gate," it is probable that he used the term in its strictest sense 43 Their Wonder THE ACTS, II. and Perplexity. Cyrene, and strangers of Eome, Jews and proselytes, ni) Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. (12) And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? <1S) Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. (14) But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judsea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known for those who had been received into the covenant of Israel, and who were known in the Eabbinic classification as the " proselytes of righteousness." (n) The wonderful works of God. — Better, the great things, or the majesty, of God. The word is the same as in Luke i. 49. The word points, as has been said above, distinctly to words of praise and not of teaching. I12) They were all amazed, and were in doubt. — The last word is somewhat stronger in the Greek: "were much perplexed," as in Luke xxiv. 4. No New Testament writer uses it except St. Luke. What meaneth this ? — Better, What may this mean ? The same phrase occurs in chap. xvii. 18. P3) These men are full of new wine. — Literally, of sweet drink — the word " wine " not being used • — stronger and more intoxicating than the lighter and thinner wines that were ordinarily drunk. The Greek word was sometimes used, like the Latin mustum, for the unf ermented grape- juice. Here, however, the context shows that wine, in the strict sense of the word, was intended, and the use of the same word in the 44 LXX. of Job. xxxii. 19 confirms this meaning. The word for "new wine" in Matt. ix. 17, Mark ii. 22, is different, but there also fer mentation is implied. The words, as has been said above (Note on verse 4), point to a certain appear ance of excitement in tone, manner, and words. (14) But Peter standing up with the eleven . . ' We are struck at once with the mar vellous change that has come over the character of the Apostle. Timidity has become boldness ; for the few hasty words recorded in the Gospels we have elaborate discourses. There is a method and insight in the way he deals with the prophecies of the Christ alto gether unlike anything that we have seen in him before. If we were reading a fictitious history, we should rightly criticise the author for the want of consistency in his portraiture of the same cha racter in the first and second volumes of his work. As it is, the inconsistency becomes almost an evidence of the truth of the narratives that contain it. The writer of a made-up history, bent only upon reconciling the followers of Peter and Paul, would have made the former more promi nent in the Gospels, or less pro- Peter speaks THE ACTS, II. to them unto you, and hearken to my words : a6) for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. °6' But this is that which was a Isa. 14. 3; Joel 2.23. spoken by the prophet Joel; ar) And it shall come to pass in the last days," saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your minent in the Acts. And the facts which St. Luke narrates are an adequate explanation of the phe nomena. In the interval that had passed, Peter's mind had been opened by his Lord's teaching to understand the Scriptures (Luke xxiv. 45), and then he had been endued, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, with power from on high. That which he now speaks is the first utterance of the new gift of prophecy, and followed rightly on the portent of the " tongues " to bring about the work of conversion which they had no power to ac complish. The speech which fol lows was Bpoken either in the Aramaic of Palestine, or, more probably, in the Greek, which was common in Galilee, and which would be intelligible to all, or nearly all, of the pilgrims from distant countries. » And said unto them. — The verb is not the word commonly so rendered, but that which is trans lated "utterance," or "to utter," in verse 4. The unusual word was probably repeated here to indicate that what follows was just as much an "utterance" of the Holy Spirit, working on and through the spiritual powers of man, as the marvel of the "tongues" had been. Hearken to my words.— Literally, give ear to. The verb is an unusual one, and is found here only in the New Testament. It is used not unfrequently in the LXX., as, e.g., in Gen. iv. 22 ; Job xxiii. 18. <15) Seeing it is but the third hour of the day. — The appeal is made to the common standard of right feeling. Drun kenness belonged to the night (see 1 Thess. v. 7). It was a mark of extremest baseness for men to " rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink " (Isa. v. 11; comp. also Eccles. x. 16). Were the disciples likely to be drunk at 9 a.m., and that on the morning of the Day of Pentecost, after a night spent in devotion, and when all decent Jews were fasting ? t17) It shall come to pass in the last days. — The prophecy of Joel takes its place, with the ex ception, perhaps, of Hosea, as the oldest of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. The people were suffering from one of the locust- plagues of the East and its conse quent famine. The prophet calls them to repentance, and promises this gift of the Spirit as the great blessing of a far-off future. He had tbeen taught that no true knowledge of God comes but through that Spirit. So Elisha prayed that a double portion (i.e., the eldest son's inheritance) of the Spirit which God had given to Elijah might rest upon him (see 2 Kings ii. 9). Your sons and your daugh ters shall prophesy. — The Old 45 He refers to THE ACTS, II. Joel's Prophtcy. daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: a8)and on my servants and on my handmaidenslwill pourout in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy : n9) and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke : <20) the sun shall be turned into darkness," and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day Testament use of the word in its wider generic sense, as, e.g., in the case of Saul, 1 Sam. x. 10, xix. 20 — 24, covered phenomena analogous to the gift of tongues as well as that of prophecy in the New Testament sense. The words imply that women as well as men had been filled with the Spirit, and had spoken with the " tongues." Your young men shall see visions The "visions," imply ing the full activity of spiritual power, are thought of as belonging to the younger prophets. In the calmer state of more advanced age, wisdom came, as in the speech of Elihu, " in a dream, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men" (Job xxxiii. 15). P8) And on my servants and on my handmaidens . . . — This was the culminating point of the joyous prediction. Not on priests only, or those who had been trained in the schools of the prophets, but on slaves, male and female, should that gift be poured by Him who was no respecter of persons. The life of Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, the "ga therer of sycomore fruit" (Amos i. 1 ; vii. 14), was, perhaps, the earliest example of the gift so bestowed. The apostolic age must have witnessed many. The fisher man of Gahlee, who was now 46 speaking, was the forerunner of thousands in whom the teaching of the Spirit has superseded the training of the schools. (19) And I will shew won ders in heaven above. — St. Peter quotes the words of terror that follow, apparently, for the sake of the promise with which they end in verse 21. But as it was not given to him as yet to know the times and the seasons (chap. i. 7), it may weU have been that he looked for the " great and notable day " as about to come in his own time. The imagery is drawn from one of the great thunderstorms of Palestine. There is the lurid blood-red hue of clouds and sky; there are the fiery flashes, the vaporous columns of smoke-like clouds boiling from the abyss. These, in their turn, were probably thought of as symbols of bloodshed, and fire and smoke, such as are involved in the capture and destruction of a city like Jeru salem. <2°) The sun shall be turned into darkness. — Both clauses bring before us the phenomena of an eclipse: the total darkness of the sun, the dusky copper hue of the moon. Signs, of which these were but faint images, had been predicted by our Lord, echoing, as it were, the words of Joel, aa He reminds them THE ACTS, II. of Jesus. of the Lord come : (21) and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." m Ye men of Is rael, hear these words ; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among a Rom. 10. 13. you by miracles and won ders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know : C2S) him, being de livered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and among the preludes of TTia Advent (Matt. xxiv. 29). That great and notable day. —St. Luke follows the LXX. version. The Hebrew gives, as in our version, " the great and terrible day." As seen by the prophet, the day was terrible to the enemies of God; a day of blessing to "the remnant whom the Lord should call" (Joel ii. 32). The Greek word for "notable" (epiphanes) lent itself readily to the thought of the great Epiphany or manifestation of Christ as the Judge of all. W Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord . . . — Singularly enough, the precise phrase, to " call upon " God, com mon as it is in the Old Testament, does not occur in the Gospels. With St. Luke and St. Paul it is, as it were, a favourite word (chaps, vii. 59; ix. 14 ; Eom. x. 12; 1 Cor. i. 2). Its Greek associations gave to the " invoking" which it expressed almost the force of an appeal from a lower to a higher tribunal. (Comp. chap. xxv. 11, 21, 25.) Here the thought is that that Name of the Eternal, invoked by the prayer of faith, was the one sufficient condi tion of deliverance in the midst of all the terrors of the coming day of the Lord. P2) Jesus of Nazareth. — We hardly estimate, as we read these words the boldness imphed in the utterance of that Name. Barely seven weeks had passed since He who bore it had died the death of a slave and of a robber. The speaker himself had denied ah knowledge of Him of whom he now spoke. A man approved of God. — The verb is used in its older English sense, as proved, or pointed out, not as we now use the word, as meeting the approval of God. Miracles and wonders and signs. — Better, mighty works . . . The words are three synonyms, expressing different aspects of the same facts, rather than a classifica tion of phenomena. The leading thought, in the first word, is the power displayed in the act ; in the second, the marvel of it as a por tent ; in the third, its character as a token or note of something beyond itself. (2a) By the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. — The adjective meets us again in St. Peter's speech in chap. x. 42 ; the word for " foreknow ledge" in his Epistle (1 Pet. i. 2), and there only in the New Testa ment. The coincidence is not with out its force as bearing on the genuineness both of the speech and of the letter. It has now become the habit of the Apostle's mind to trace the working of a divine pur- 47 And how THE ACTS, II. they slew Him. by wicked hands have cru cified and slain : (24) whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death : because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. ^ For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face," for he is on my right pose, which men, even when they are most bent on thwarting it, are unconsciously fulfilling. In chap. i. 16, he had seen that purpose in the treachery of Judas ; he sees it now in the malignant injustice of priests and people. Ye have taken . . . . — Better, ye took, and by lawless hands cruci fied and slew. Stress is laid on the priests having used the hands of one who was "without law" (1 Cor. ix. 21), a heathen ruler, to inflict the doom which they dared not inflict themselves. (24) Whom God hath raised up. — It is probable enough that some rumours of the Eesurrection had found their way among the people, and had been met by the counter-statement of which we read in Matt, xxviii. 11 — 15; but this was the first pubhc witness, borne by one who was ready to seal his testimony with his blood, to the stupendous fact. Having loosed the pains of death. — The word for "pains" is the same as that for ' ' sorrows " in Matt. xxiv. 8 ; literally, travail- pangs. The phrase was not un common in the LXX. version, but was apparently a mistranslation of the Hebrewfor "cords," or "bands," of death. If we take the Greek word in its full meaning, the Eesur rection is thought of as a new birth as from the womb of the grave. Because it was not possible . . . — The moral impossibility was, we may say, two-fold. The 48 work of the Son of Man could, not have ended in a failure and death which would have given the lie to ah that He had asserted of Himself. Its issue could not run counter to the prophecies which had implied with more or less clearness a victory over death. The latter, as the sequel shows, was the thought prominent in St. Peter's mind. (25) jior David speaketh con cerning him. — More accurately, in reference to Him — i.e., in words which extended to Him. Beading Ps. xvi. without this interpretation, it seems as if it spoke only of the confidence of the writer that he would be himself delivered from the grave and death. Some inter preters confine that confidence to a temporal deliverance ; some extend it to the thought of immortality, or even of a resurrection. But Peter had been taught, both by his Lord and by the Spirit, that all such hopes extend beyond them selves — that the ideal of victory after suffering, no less than that of the righteous sufferer, was realised in Christ. The fact of the Eesurrection had given a new meaning to prophecies which would not, of themselves, have suggested it, but which were incomplete without it. He is on my right hand. — The Psalmist thought of the Eternal as the warrior thinks of him who, in the conflict of battle, extends his shield over the comrade who is on the left hand, and so The Promise THE ACTS, II. to David. hand, that I should not be moved : <23) therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad ; more over also my flesh shall rest in hope : (27) because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou guards him from attack. When the Son of Man is said to sit on the right hand of God (Ps. ex. 1 ; Matt. xxvi. 64) the imagery is different, and brings before us the picture of a king seated on his throne with his heir sit ting in the place of honour by his side. W My tongue was glad. — The Hebrew gives " my glory," a term which was apphed to the mind of man, perhaps also to his faculty of speech (Pss. lvii. 8 ; lxii. 7), as that by which he excelled ah other creatures of God's hand. The LXX. had paraphrased the word by "tongue," and St. Peter, or St. Luke reporting his speech, foUows that version. . Also my flesh shall rest in hope. — literally, shall tabernacle, or, dwell as in a tabernacle. We may, perhaps, trace an echo of the thought in 2 Pet. i. 13, 14. (27) Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. — Literally, in Hades. (See Matt. xi. 23.) As interpreted by St. Peter's words in his Epistle (1 Pet. iii. 19), the words conveyed to his mind the thought which has been embodied in the article of the " Descent into Hell," or Hades, in the Apostle's Creed. The death of Christ was an actual death, and while the body was laid in the grave, the soul passed into the world of the dead, the Sheol of the Hebrews, the Hades of the Greeks, to carry on there the redemptive work which had been begun on earth. (Comp. chap. xiii. 34 — 37, and Eph. iv. 9.) Here again we have an interesting coincidence with St. Peter's lan guage (1 Pet. iii. 19), as to the work of Christ in preaching to the ' ' spirits in prison." Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see cor ruption. — The word for " holy " is different from that commonly so rendered, and conveys the idea of personal piety and godliness rather than consecration. As the Psalmist used the words, we may think of them as expressing the confidencp that he himself as loving, and beloved of, God, would.be delivered from destruction, both now and hereafter. St. Peter had learnt to interpret the words as having rer ceived a higher fulfilment. Christ was, in this sense, as weh as in that expressed by the other word, " the Holy One " of God (Mark i. 24 ; Luke iv. 34). In Heb. vh. 26; Eev. xv. 4 ; xvi. 5, this very word is apphed to Christ. The Hebrew text of Ps. xvi. 10 presents the various-reading of " the holy ones," as if referring to the " saints that are upon the earth," of verse 3. The LXX., which St. Peter foUows, gives the singular, which is indeed essential to his argument, and this is also the reading of the Masoretic text. The Greek word for " cor ruption" ranges in its meaning from "decay" to "destruction." The Hebrew to which it answers is primarily the "pit" of the grave, and not " corruption," or " wasting away/' 49 The Sepulchre THE ACTS, II. of David. suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (28) Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. C29) Men 10r, I a 1 Kings 2.10. and brethren, let1 me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David," that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. C30) There- (28) Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. — The Apostle does not interpret these words, but we can hardly err in thinking that he would have looked on them also as fulfiUed in Christ's humanity. To Him also the ways of life had been made known, and so even in Hades He was fiUed with joy (better, perhaps, gladness, as in Acts xiv. 17), as being in the Para dise of God (Luke xxiii. 43). (29) Let me freely speak. — Better, it is lawful for me to speak with freedom. Those to whom the Apostle spoke could not for a mo ment dream of asserting that the words quoted had been literaUy and completely fulfiUed in David, and it was therefore natural to look for theh fulfilment elsewhere. Of the patriarch David. — The word is used in its primary sense, as meaning the founder of a family or dynasty. In the New Testament it is appUed also to Abraham (Heb. vii. 4) and the twelve sons of Jacob (Acts vii. 8). In the Greek version of the Old Testament it is used only of the comparatively subordinate "chief of the fathers " in 1 Chron. ix. 9 ; xxiv. 31, et al. His sepulchre is with us unto this day.— The king was buried in the city which bore his name (1 Kings ii. 10). Josephus relates that vast treasures were buried with him (Ant. vii. 15, § 4), and that John' Hyrcanus opened 50 one of the chambers of the tomb, and took out three thousand talents to pay the tribute demanded by Antiochus the Pious (Ant. xiii. 8, § 4). Herod the Great .also opened it, and found no money, but gold and sUver vessels in abundance. The tradition was that he sought to penetrate into the inner vault, in which the bodies of David and Solomon were resting, and was deterred by a flame that issued from the recess (Ant. xvi. 7, § 1). It is difficult to understand how such a treasure could have escaped the plunderer in aU the sieges and sacks to which Jerusalem had been exposed ; but it is possible that its fame as a holy place may have made it, hke the temples at Delphi and Ephesus, a kind of bank of deposit, in which large treasures in coin or plate were left for safety, and many of these, in the common course of things, were never claimed, and graduaUy accumulated. The monuments now known as the " tombs of the kings " on the north side of the city, though identified by De Saulcy with the sepulchres of the house of David, are of the Eoman period, and are outside the wans. David and his successors were probably buried in a vault on the eastern huh in the city of David (1 Kings ii. 10), within the range of the enclosure now known as the Haram Area. (30) Therefore being a pro phet.— The words "according to The Promise of THE ACTS, II. the Holy Ohosf. fore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,° that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne ; (sl) he seeing this before spake of the re surrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,6 neither his flesh did see corruption. CS2) This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are wit nesses. (S3) Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having re ceived of the Father the the flesh.He would raise up Christ," are wanting in many of the best MSS. Without them the sentence, though somewhat incomplete, would run thus : " That God had sworn with an oath that from his loins one should sit upon his throne." The words claim for the Psalmist a pro phetic foresight of some kind, without defining its measure or clearness. His thoughts went beyond himself to the realisation of his hopes in a near or far-off future. As with most other pro phets, the precise time, even the "manner of time," was hidden from him (1 Pet. ill). He would raise up Christ. — The Greek, by using the verb from which comes the word "re surrection," gives to the verb the definite sense of " raising from the dead." (31) He seeing this before . . . . — In the vision of the future which St. Peter thus ascribes to David, the king had been led, as he interprets the words, not only or chiefly to speak out his own hopes, but to utter that which re ceived its fulfilment in the fact of the resurrection of Christ. What was conspicuously not true of the historical David was found to be true of the Son of David according to the flesh. P2) This Jesus hath God raised up . . . — From the first the Apostles take up the position which their Lord had assigned them. They are witnesses, and before and above aU else, witnesses of the Eesurrection. (33) Therefore being by the right hand of God.— The Greek has the dative case without a pre position. The Enghsh version takes it, and probably is right in taking it, as the dative of the in strument, the image that underHes the phrase being that the Eternal King stretches forth His hand to raise Him who was in form His Servant to a place beside Him on His right hand ; and, on the whole, this seems the best rendering. Not a few scholars, however, render the words " exalted to the right hand of God." Having received of the Father.— The words of St. Peter, obviously independent as they are of the Gospel of St. John, present a striking agreement with our Lard's language as recorded by him (John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26). The promise throws us back upon these chapters, and also upon chap. i. 4. Hath shed forth this.— Bet ter, hath poured out. The verb had not been used in the Gospels of the promise of the Sphit, but is iden- 51 Jesus as Lord THE ACTS, II. and Christ. promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. (34)For David is not as cended into the heavens : but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord,11 Sit thou on my right hand, (S5) until I make thy foes thy footstool. C36) There fore let all the- house of Israel know assuredly, that sPs.uo. 1. God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have cruci fied, both Lord and Christ. (3J) Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the . apostles, M.ea.and brethren, what shall we do 1 (38> Then Peter said unto them, Re pent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of tical with that which was found in the Greek version of Joel's pro phecy, as cited in verse 17, "I will pour out of My Spirit." (3*1 The Lord said . . .—There is, when we remember what had passed but seven weeks before, something very striking in the reproduction by St. Peter of the very words by which our Lord had brought the Scribes to confess theh ignorance of the true interpreta tion of the Psalmist's mysterious words (Ps. ex. 1). (See Matt. xxii. 41 — 46.) Those who were then sUenced are now taught how it was that David's Son was also David's Lord. (36) That same Jesus . . . . — Better, this Jesus. Both Lord and Christ. — Some MSS. omit "both." The word " Lord" is used with special reference to the prophetic utterance of the Psalm thus cited. There is a rhetorical force in the very order of the words which the English can scarcely give : " that both Lord and Christ hath God made this Jesus whom ye crucified." The pronoun of the last verb is emphatic, as pointing the contrast between the way in which the Jews of Jerusalem had dealt with Jesus, and the recognition which he had received from the Father. The utterance of the word ' ' cruci fied" at the close, pressing home the guilt of the people on theh consciences, may be thought of as, in a special manner, working the result described in the next verse. (37) They were pricked in their heart. — The verb occurs here only in the New Testament, and expresses the sharp, painful emotion which is indicated in " compunction," a word of kindred meaning. A noun derived from it, or possibly from another root, is used, in Eom. xi. 8 in the sense of " slumber," apparently as indicat ing either the unconsciousness that foUows upon extreme pain, or sim ple drowsiness. In "attrition" and "contrition'' we have analo gous instances of words primarily physical used for spiritual emo tions,. (38J Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ The work of the Apostles is, in one sense, a continuation, in another a develop- 52 He calls them THE ACTS, II. to Repentance. Jesus Christ for the remis sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (38> For the pro mise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God ment, of that of the Baptist. There is the same indispensable condition of ' ' repentance " — i.e., a change of heart and will — the same outward rite as the symbol of purification, the same promise of forgiveness which that change involves. But the baptism is now, as it had not been before, in the name of Jesus Christ, and it is connected more directly with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The question presents itself, Why is the baptism here, and elsewhere in the Acts (x. 48 ; xix. 5), " in the name of Jesus Christ," while in Matt, xxviii. 19, the Apostles are commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ? Various explanations have been given. It has been said that baptism in the Name of any one of the Persons of the Trinity involves the Name of the other Two. It has even been assumed that St. Luke meant the fuUer formula when he used the shorter one. But a more satisfactory so lution is, perhaps, found in seeing in the words of Matt, xxviii. 19 what was to be the formula for the baptism of those who, as Gen tiles, had been "without God in the world, not knowing the Father;" while for converts from Judaism, or those who had before been pro selytes to Judaism, it was enough that there should be the distinctive profession of theh faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, added on to theh previous behef in the Father and the Holy Spirit. In proportion as the main work of the Church of Christ lay among the Genthes, it was natural that the fuller form should become dominant, and finaUy be used ex clusively. It is interesting here, also, to compare the speech of St. Peter with the stress laid on bap tism in his Epistle (1 Pet. iii. 21). Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.— The word for " gift " (fibred) is generic, and differs from the more specific " ght " (charisma) of 1 Cor. xh. 4, 9, 28. The Apostle does not neces sarily promise startling and mar vellous powers, but in some way they should all feel that a new Spirit was working in them, and that that Spirit was from God. P9) The promise is unto you, and to your children. — The tendency of sects has always been to claim spiritual gifts and powers as an exclusive privhege limited to a few. It is the essence of St. Peter's appeal that aU to whom he speaks can claim the pro mise as fuhy as himseh. The phrase " those that are afar off," was probably wide enough to cover both the Jews of the Dispersion, to whom the Apostle afterwards wrote (1 *Pet. i 1, 2), and the heathen nations among whom they lived. The use of the phrase in Eph. ii. 13, 17, inclines rather to the latter meaning. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call. — There seems; at first sight, a limitation on the universality of the previous words. And in some sense there 53 THE ACTS, II. to the Church. shall call. <*» And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. (41) Then they that gladly received his word were bap tized : and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. (42> And they continued stedfastly. in the apostles' is ; but it is not more than is in volved in the fact that spiritual knowledge and culture are not bestowed on all nations and ages alike. Wherever there is a dif ference, some possessing a higher knowledge and greater power than others, the Apostle could only see, not chance or evolution, but the working of a divine purpose, calling some to special privileges, and yet dealing equitably with all. (40) %ith. many other words. —The report breaks off, as if St. Luke's informant had followed closely up to this point and then lost count of the sequence of thought and words. Did he testify — i.e., continued to testify. Save yourselves. — LiteraUy, in the passive, Be ye saved. They were invited to submit to God's way of salvation, to accept Jesus as their Saviour. Prom this untoward generation. — LiteraUy, from this crooked generation, as the word is rendered in Luke iii. 5 ; Phil. ii. 15. («) They that gladly re ceived his word were bap tised. — This was, we must re member, no new emotion. Not four years had passed since there had been a like eagerness to rush to the baptism of John. (See Matt. hi. 5; xi. 12.) Three thousand souls. — The largeness of the number has been 54 urged as rendering it probable that the baptism was by affusion, not immersion. On the other hand (1) immersion had clearly been prac tised by John, and was involved in the original meaning of the word, and it is not Ukely that the rite should have been curtaUed of its full proportions at the very outset. (2) The symbolic meaning of the act requhed immersion in order that it might be clearly manifested, and Eom. vi. 4, and 1 Pet. iii. 21, seem almost of necessity to imply the more complete mode. The pools or swimming-baths of Bethesda and SUoam (see John v. 7 ; ix. 7), or the so-caUed Fountain of the Virgin, near the Temple enclo sure, or the bathing-places within the Tower of Antony (Jos. Wars, v. 5, § 8), may weU have 'helped to make the process easy. The sequel shows (1) that many converts were made from the HeUenistic Jews who were present at the Feast (chap. vi. 1) ; and (2) that few, if any, of the converts were of the ruling class (chap. iv. 1). It is obvious that some of these converts may have gone back to the cities whence they came, and may have been the unknown founders of the Church at Damascus, or Alexandria, or Eome itseh. (42) And they continued stedfastly. — The one Greek word is expressed by the EngUsh verb and adverb. As applied to persons, the New Testament use of Wonders done by THE ACTS, II. the Apostles. doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (43) And fear came upon every soul : and many -wonders and signs were done by the apostles. (44) And all that believed were together, and the word is characteristic of St. Luke (chaps, ii. 46 ; vi. 4 ; viii. 13 ; x. 7), and peculiar to him and St. Paul (Eom. xh. 12 ; xiii. 6 ; Col. iv. 2). The apostles' doctrine. — Four elements of the hfe of the new society are dwelt on. (1) They grew in knowledge of the truth by attending to the teaching of the Apostles. This, and not the thought of a formulated doctrine to which they gave theh consent, is clearly the meaning of the word. (See Matt. vh. 28 ; xxii. 23.) (2) They joined in outward acts of feUowship with each other, acts of common worship, acts of mutual kindness and benevolence. The one Greek word diverges after wards into the sense of what we technically caU " communion," as in 1 Cor. x. 16, and that of a " coUection " or contribution for the poor (Eom. xv. 26 ; 2 Cor. ix. 13). And in breaking 'of bread, and in prayers. — (3) St. Luke uses the phrase, we must remember, in the sense which, when he wrote, it had acquired in St. Paul's hands. It can have no meaning less solemn than the commemorative "break ing of bread," of 1 Cor. x. 16. From the very first what was afterwards known as the Lord's Supper (see 1 Cor. xi. 20) took its place with baptism as a permanent universal element in the Church's life. At first, it would seem, the evening meal of every day was such a Bupper. Afterwards the two elements that had then been united were developed separately, the social into the Agapce, or Feasts of Love (Jude, verse 12, and — though here there is a various-reading — 2 Pet. ii. 13), the other into the Communion, or Eucharistic Sacri fice. (4) Prayer, in Uke manner, in cluded private as weU as public devo tions. These may have been the out pouring of the heart's deshes ; but they may also have been what the disciples had been taught to pray, in Matt. vi. 9, Luke xi. 1, as the disciples of John had been taught. The use of the plural seems to indi cate recurring times of prayer at fixed hours. (43> Pear came upon every soul. — The Greek text shows a careful distinction of tenses. Fear — i.e., reverential awe — came spe- ciaUy at that season ; the " signs and wonders" were wrought con- tinuaUy. (See Note on verse 19.) (**) All that believed were together . . . . — The writer dwells with a manifest deUght on this picture of what seemed to him the true ideal of a human society. Here there was a literal fulfilment of his Lord's words (Luke xii. 33), a society founded, not on the law of self-interest and competition, but on sympathy and self-denial. They had ah things in common, not by a compulsory abolition of the rights of property (see chap. v. 4), but by the spontaneous energy of love. The gift of the Spirit showed its power, not only in tongues and prophecy, but in the more excehent 55 Community THE ACTSj LL of Goods. had all things common ; C45) and sold their posses sions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. ,46? And they, continuing daily with ono accord in the temple, and breaking bread from way of charity. It 'was weU that that inimitable glow of love should manifest itseh for a time to be a beacon-Ught to after ages, even if experience taught the Church in course of time that this generous and general distribution was not the wisest method of accompUshing permanent good, and that here also a discriminate economy, such as St. Paul taught (2 Thess. iii. 10; 1 Tim. iii. 8), was necessary as a safe-guard against abuse. It was, we may perhaps believe, partly in consequence of the rapid exhaustion of its resources thus brought about, that the Church at Jerusalem be came dependent for many years upon the bounty of the churches of the Gentiles. (See Note on chap. xi. 29.) (45) And sold their posses sions and goods. — The verbs throughout this description are in the imperfect tense, as expressing the constant recurrence of the act. The Greek words for " possessions " and " goods " both mean ' ' property,' ' the former as a thing acquired, the latter as that which belongs to a man for the time being. Custom, however, had introduced a technical distinction, and "possessions" stands for real property, " goods " for personal. So in chap. v. 1, 3, 8, the former word is used inter changeably with that which is translated " field," and in the LXX. of Prov. xxiii. 10, xxxi. 16, is used both for "field" and "vine yard." As every man had need. — The words imply at least the en deavour to discriminate. The money was not given UteraUy to every one who applied for it, and so the way was prepared for more fixed and definite rules. W Continuing daily with one accord in the temple. — At first it would have seemed natural that the foUowers of a Teacher whom the priests had con demned to death, who had once nearly been stoned, and once aU but seized in the very courts of the Temple (John viii. 59 ; x. 31 ; vii. 45), should keep aloof from the sanctuary that had thus been dese crated. But they remembered that He had claimed it as His Father's house, that His zeal for that house had been as a consuming passion (John ii. 16, 17), and therefore they had attended its worship daily be fore the Day of Pentecost (Luke xxiv. 53) ; and it was not less, but infinitely more, precious to them now, as the place where they could meet with God, than it had been in the days of ignorance, before they had known the Christ, and through Him had learnt to know the Father. The apparent strangeness of theh being allowed to meet in the Temple is explained partly by the fact that its courts were open to ah IsraeUtes who did not disturb its peace, partly by the existence of a moderate half- beUeving party in the Sanhedrin itself, including Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathaja, and Gamaliel (chap. v. 35); and by the popularity gained for a time by the holiness 56 Life in the THE ACTS, II. Primitive Church. house to house,1 did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, (47) praising God, and having 1 Or, at home. favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. and liberal almsgiving of the new community. Breaking bread from house to house. — Better, with the mar gin, at home — i.e., in theh own house. The Greek phrase may have a distributive force, but Eom. xvi 5, 1 Cor. xvi. 19, Col. iv. 14, where the same formula is used, seem to show that that is not the m"«ning here. They met in the Tanple, they met also in what, in the modern sense of the word, would be the "church" of the new society, for the act of worship, above ah, for the highest act of worship and of feUowship, for which the Temple Was, of course unsuitable. Did eat their meat . . .- We have again the tense which implies a customary act. The words imply that as yet the solemn breaking of bread was closely con nected with theh daily hfe. An ticipating the language of a few years later, the Agape, or Love- feast, was united with the Eucha- ristic Communion. The higher sanctified the lower. It was not tUl love and faith were colder that men were forced to separate them, lest (as in 1 Cor. xi. 20, 21) the lower should desecrate the higher. Gladness and singleness of heart. — This "gladness" is signi ficant. The word was the same as that which had been used by the angel to Zacharias (Luke i. 44) in announcing the birth of the Fore runner. The verb from which the noun was derived had been em ployed by our Lord when He bade His disciples rejoice and be glad (Matt. v. 12). The hteral meaning of the word translated " single ness," which does not occur else where in the New Testament, was the smoothness of a soil without stones. Thence it came to be used for evenness and simpUcity, unity of character; thence for that unity showing itseh in love ; thence, by a further transition, for unalloyed benevolence, showing itself in act. (47) Having favour with all the people. — The new life of the Apostles, in part probably their Uberal almsgiving, had revived the early popularity of theh Master with the common people. The Sadducean priests were, probably, the only section, that looked on them with a maUgnant fear. The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. — Many of the better MSS. omit the words "to the Church," and connect "together," which in the Greek is the first word in chap. iii. 1, with this verse — The Lord added together . . . The verb " added " is in the tense which, Uke the adverb " daUy," imphes a continuaUy recurring act. " The Lord " is probably used here, as in verse 39, in its generic Old Testa ment sense, rather than as definitely applied to Christ. For " such as should be saved" — a meaning which the present participle passive cannot possibly have — read, those that were in the way of salvation ; lite- raUy, those that were being saved, as 57 Peter and John THE ACTS, III. in the Temple, CHAPTER III.— 0) Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of in 1 Cor. i 18 ; 2 Cor. ii. 15. The verse takes its place among the few passages in which the trans lators have, perhaps, been in fluenced by a Calvinistic bias ; Heb. x. 38, " if amy man draw back," instead of "if he draw back," being another. It should, however, be stated in fairness that aU the versions from Tyndale on ward, including the Ehemish, give the same rendering. Wiclif alone gives nearly the true meaning, " them that were made saaf ." in. t1) Now Peter and John went up. — Better, were going up. The union of the two brings the narratives of the Gospels into an interesting connection with the Acts. They were probably about the same age (the idea that Peter was some years older than John rests mainly on the pictures which artists have drawn from their imagination, and has no evidence in Scripture), and had been friends from theh youth upward. They had been partners as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee (Luke v. 10). They had been sharers in looking for the consolation of Israel, and had together received the baptism of John (John i. 41). John and Andrew had striven which should be the first to tell Peter that they had found the Christ (John i. 41). The two had been sent together to prepare for the Passover (Luke xxii. 8). John takes Peter into he palace of the high priest (John xviii. 16), and though he must have witnessed his denials, is not estranged from him. It is to John 58 that Peter turns for comfort after his fall, and with him he comes to the sepulchre on the morning of the Eesurrection (Johnxx. 6). The eager affection which, now more strongly than ever, bound the two together is seen in Peter's question, " Lord, and what shaU this man do f " (John xxi. 21) ; and nowthey are again sharers in action and in heart, in teaching and in worship. Passing rivalries there may have been, disputes which was the greatest, prayers for places on the right hand and the left (Matt. xx. 20 ; Mark x. 35) ; but the idea maintained by Eenan ( Vie de Jesus, Introduction), that St. John wrote his Gospel to exalt himseh at the expense of Peter, must take its place among the delirantium somnia, the morbid imaginations, of inven tive interpretation. They appear in company again in the mission to Samaria (chap. vni. 14), and in re cognising the work that had been done by Paul and Barnabas among the GentUes (Gal. u. 9). When it was that they parted never to meet again, we have no record. No account is given as to the interval that had passed since the Day of Pentecost. Presumably the brief notice at the end of chap. ii. was meant to summarise a gradual pro gress, marked by no striking inci dents, which may have gone on for several months. The absence of chronological data .in the Acts, as a book written by one who in the Gospel appears to lay stress on such matters (Luke iii. 1 ; vi. 2), is some what remarkable. The most natural explanation is that he found the in formants who supphed him with his The Cripple at the THE ACTS, III. Beautiful Gate. prayer, being the ninth hour. ca) And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple ; (3) who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. (4) And facts somewhat uncertain on these points, and that, as a truthful his torian, he would not invent dates. At the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour — sc. 3 p.m., the hour of the evening sacrifice (Jos. Ant. xiv. 4, § 3). The traditions of later Judaism had fixed the third, the sixth, and the ninth hours of each day as times for private prayer. Daniel's practice of praying three times a day seems to imply a rule of the same kind, and Ps. Iv. 17 (" evening and morning and at noon wiU I pray ") carries the practice up to the time of David. " Seven times a day " was, perhaps, the rule of those who aimed at a hfe of higher devotion (Ps. cxix. 164). Both practices passed into the usage of the Christian Church certainly as early as the second century, and probably therefore in the first. The three hours were observed by many at Alexandria in the time of Clement (Strom, vii. p. 722). The seven became the "canonical hours" of Western Christendom, the term first appear ing in the Eule of St. Benedict (ob. a.d. 542) and being used by Bede (a.d. 701). (2) A certain man lame from his mother's womb. — The care ful record of the duration of his suffering is more or less character istic of St. Luke (chaps, ix. 33 ; xiv. 8). The minuteness in this narrative suggests the thought that St. Luke's informant may have been the cripple himseh. Was carried. — Better, was being carried. The gate of the temple which is called Beautiful. — Literally, door, though "gate" is used in verse 10. No gate of this name is mentioned by other writers, but it was probably identical either (1) with the gate of Nicanor (so caUed, according to one tradition, because the hand of the great enemy of Judah had been nailed to it as a trophy), which was the main eastern entrance of the inner court (Stanley's Jewish Church, iii. p. 323) ; or (2) the Susa gate, also on the eastern side, and named in memory of the old historical con nection between Judah and Persia, leading into the outer court of the women. The latter was of fine Corinthian brass, so massive that twenty men were requhed to open or'shut it (Jos. Wars, v. 5, § 3). To ask alms of them that entered into the temple The approaches of the Temple, hke those of modern mosques, were commonly thronged with the blind, lame, and other mendicants. (Comp. John ix. 8.) The practice was com mon at Constantinople in the time of Chrysostom, and has prevailed largely throughout Christendom. (4) Peter, fastening his eyes upon him . . . — See Notes on chaps, i. 10; vii. 55 ; xiii 9, where the same characteristic word is used. 59 Healing of THE ACTS, III. the Cripple. Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. (5) And he gave heed unto them, ex pecting to receive some thing of them. (6) Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee : In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. m And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up : and imme diately his feet and ancle bones received strength. <8) And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered The gaze was one which read cha racter in the expression of the man's face, and discerned that he had faith to be healed (verse 16). And he, in his turn, was to look on them that he might read in their pitying looks, not only the wish to heal, but the consciousness of power to carry the wish into effect. (6) Silver and gold have I none. — The narrative of chap. ii. 45 shows that the Apostles were treasurers and stewards of -the sums committed to theh charge by the generous self-denial of the community. Either, therefore, we must assume that the words meant that they had no silver or gold with them at the time, or that, as almoners, they thought themselves bound to distribute what was thus given them in trust, for the benefit of members of the society of which they were officers and for them only. They, obeying their Lord's commands (Matt. x. 9), had no money that they could caU theh own to give to those that asked them. But they could give more than money. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth . . .—The full trust with which the words were spoken was in part a simple act of faith in their Master's pro mise (Mark xvi. 18), in part the 60 result of a past experience in the exercise of like powers (Mark vi. 13). And the Name in which they, spoke could hardly have been a new name to the cripple. Among the beggars at the Temple-gate there had once been the blind man who received his sight at the pool of Shoam (John ix. 7, 8). The healing of the cripple at Bethesda (John v. 2, 14) could scarcely have been unknown to the sufferer from a like infirmity. What made the caU to rise and walk a test of faith was that, but a few weeks before, that Name had been seen on the superscription over the cross on which He who bore it had been condemned to die as one that de ceived the people (John vh. 12). I7) His feet. — Better, his soles. The precision with which the pro cess is described is characteristic of the medical historian. Both this term and the ' ' ankle bones " em ployed are more or less technical, as is also the word rendered "re ceived strength," literally were con solidated, the flaccid tissues and muscles being rendered firm and vigorous. (8) And he leaping up stood. — The verb is a compound form of that in the LXX. version of Isa. xxxv. 6— "The lame shaU leap as a hart." Fhst, there was the The People THE ACTS, Iii. wonder greatly. with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. w And all the people saw him walking and praising God : ao) and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the tem ple : and they were filled with wonder and amaze ment at thatwhich had hap pened unto him. ai) And as the lame man -which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solo mon's, greatly wondering. °2) And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this ? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our upward leap in the new conscious ness of power ; then the successful effort to stand for the first time in his hfe ; then he " began to walk," and went on step by step ; then the two-fold mode of motion, what to others was the normal act of walk ing, alternating with the leaps of an exuberant joy. And so " he entered with them into the Tem ple," i.e., into the Court of Women, upon which the Beautiful Gate opened. At this hour, the hour of the evening sacrifice, it would be naturally filled with worshippers. P°) They knew. — Better, they recognised him that it was he. P1) In the porch that is called Solomon's. — The porch — or better, portico or cloister — was outside the Temple, on the eastern side. It consisted in the Herodian Temple, of a double row of Corinthian columns, about thirty- seven feet high, and received its name as having been in part con structed, when the Temple was rebuht by Zerubbabel, with the fragments of the older edifice. The people tried to persuade Herod Agrippa I. to pull it down and rebuild it, but he shrank from the risk and cost of such an undertaking (Jos. Ant. xx. 9, § 7). It was, like the porticos in all Greek cities, a favourite place of resort, especially as facing the morning sun in winter. (See John x. 23.) The memory of what had then been the result of their Master's teaching must have been fresh in the minds of the two disciples. Then the people had complained of being kept in sus pense as to whether Jesus claimed to be the Christ, and, when He spoke of being One with the Father, had taken up stones to stone Him (John x. 31 — 33). Now they were to hear His name as Holy and Just, as "the Servant of Jehovah," as the very Christ (verses 13, 14, 18). C12) Why look ye so ear nestly on us ? — The verb is the same as that in verse 4. The pronoun Btahds emphaticaUy at the beginning of the Verse — Why is it on as that ye gaze ? As though by our own . . . holiness. . . — Better, piety, or devotion. The words refer to what may be called the popular theory of miracles, that if a main were 61 Peter's Discourse THE ACTS, III. to the People. own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? <13> The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus ; whom ye delivered up, and denied a Matt. 27.20. 1 Or, Author. him in the presence of Pilate, when he was deter mined to let him go. a* But ye denied the Holy One and the Just," and desired a murderer to be granted unto you ; (15) and killed the Prince1 of life, whom devout, i.e., " a worshipper of God," God would hear him (John ix. 31). That theory might be true in itseh generally, but the Apostle disclaims it in this special instance. No piety of his own would have availed, but for the Name, i.e., the power, of Jesus of Nazareth. m The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. — Here again we have an echo of our Lord's teaching. That Name had been uttered in the precincts of the Temple, not improbably in the self same portico, as part of our Lord's constructive proof of the resurrec tion of the dead (Matt. xxii. 32). Now it was heard again in connec tion with the witness borne by the Apostles that He Himseh had risen. (See also Note on chap. vii. 32.) Hath glorified his Son Jesus. — Better, Servant. The word is that used throughout the later chapters of Isaiah for " the servant of Jehovah " (Isa. xlh. 1 ; xlviii. 20 ; hi 13 ; liii. 11). It meets us again in verse 26 ; iv. 27, 30, and as apphed to Christ is peculiar to the Acts, with the exception of the citation from Isaiah in Matt. xii. 18. It is, therefore, more dis tinctive than " Son " would have been, and implies the general Mes sianic interpretation of the pro phetic language in which it is so prominent. When he was determined. — Better, when he had decided ; the word implying, not a purpose only, but a formal act, as in Luke xxiii. 16. (") Ye denied the Holy One and the Just. — The language, though starthngly new to the hearers, had been partiaUy anti cipated. It had been used of the Christ by the demoniacs (Mark i. 24). The best MSS. give St. Peter's confession in John vi. 69 in the form, " Thou art the Holy One of God." Pilate's wife, and PUate himself, had borne theh witness to Jesus as emphaticaUy " Just " (Matt, xxvii. 19, 24). It is interest ing to note the recurrence of the word as appUed to Christ in the writings of each of the Apostles who were now proclaiming it (1 Pet. iii. 18 ; 1 John ii. 1), yet more so to think of this as the result of their three years' converse with theh Master. To them He was empha tically, above ah the sons of men that they had known, the Holy and the Bighteous One. Desired a murderer to be granted unto you. — The fact that Barabbas was a murderer as weU as a robber is stated by St. Mark(xv. 7) and St. Luke (xxiii. 12) only. (15> And killed the Prince of life. — The word translated They killed THE ACTS, III the Prince of Life. God hath raised from the dead ; whereof we are wit nesses. a6) And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know : yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. (17) And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did "Prince" is apphed to Christ here and in chap. v. 31. In Heb. ii. 10 we meet with it in " the Captain of theh salvation ; " in Heb. xh. 2, in " the Author and Finisher of our faith." Its primary meaning, like that of prince (princeps), is one who takes the lead — whois the originator of that to which the title is attached. The "Prince of hfe," the "Captain of salvation," is accordingly He who is the source from which life and salvation flow. In the LXX. of the Old Testament it is used for the "chieftains" or "princes" of Moab and the hke (Num. xiii 3 ; xxiv. 17). Whereof we are witnesses. — St. Peter falls back, as in chap. ii. 32 (where see Note), on this attestation to the one central fact. I16) His name through faith in his name. — We have, in tech nical language, the efficient cause distinguished from the indispensable condition of its action. The Name did not work as a formula of incan tation ; it requhed, on the part both of the worker and the receiver, faith in that which the Name represented, the manifestation of the Father through the Son. Hath made this man strong. — The verb is the same as that which had been used in verse 7 of the " feet and ankle-bones." It was Jesus who had given them that new fiimness. The faith which is by him. 63 — The causation of the mhacle is carried yet another step backward. The faith which was aUke in the healer and in the man healed was itseh wrought in each by the power of Christ. The man was first a willing recipient of that faith spirituaUy, and then was in a state that made him worthy to be a recipient also of the bodily restoration. This perfect soundness. — LiteraUy, this completeness. This is the only passage in the New Testament in which the word occurs. The cognate adjective is found in the "whole" of 1 Thess. v. 23 ; the " complete " of Jaa. i. 4. P7) I wot that through ignorance ye did it The Ehemish is the only version which substitutes " I know " for the now obsolete " I wot." St. Peter's treatment of the relation of " igno rance " to " guilt " is in exact agreement with St. Paul's, both in his judgment of his own past offences (1 Tim. vi. 13) and in that which he passed on the Gentile world (chap. xvii. 30). Men were ignorant where they might have known, if they had not aUowed prejudice and passion to overpower the witness borne by reason and conscience. Theh ignorance was not invincible, and therefore they needed to repent of what they had done in the times of that ignorance. But because it was ignuianee, re- He calls them THE ACTS, III. to Repentance. it, as did also your rulers. (18) But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his pro phets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. (19) Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refresh ing shall come from the presence of the Lord ; pentance was not impossible. Even the people and rulers Of Israel, though their sin was greater, came within the range of the prayer, offered in the first instance for the Eoman soldiers : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (See Luke xxiii. 34.) P8) Those things, which God before had shewed. — As in chaps, i. 16, ii. 23, we have again an echo of the method of prophetic interpretation which the Apostles had learnt from theh Lord. 19) Bepent ye therefore, and be converted The latter word, though occurring both in the Gospels and Epistles, is yet pre eminently characteristic of the Acts, in which it occurs eleven times, and, with one exception, always in its higher sphitual sense. The use of the middle voice for "be converted," gives the word the same force as in the " turn yourselves " of the older prophets (Ezek. xiv. 6 ; xviii. 30, 32). That your sins may be blotted out. — This is the only passage in which the verb is directly connected with sins. The image that underlies the words (as in Col. ii. 14) is that of an indictment which catalogues the sins of the penitent, and which the pardoning love of the Father cancels. The word and the thought are found in Ps. Ii. 10 ; Isa. xliii. 25. When the times of refresh ing shall come. — Better, "that so the times of refreshing may come." The Greek conjunction never has the force of "when." The thought is that again expressed both by St. Peter (2 Pet. iii. 12) and by St. Paul (Eom. xi. 25—27) : that the conversion of sinners, especiaUy the conversion of Israel, wiU have a power to accelerate the fulfilment of God's purposes, and, therefore, the coming of His kingdom in its completeness. The word for ' ' re freshing" is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but the cognate verb meets us in 2 Tim. i. 16. In the Greek version of Ex. viii. 15, it stands where we have "respite." The "times of refreshing" are distinguished from the "restitution of all things" of verse 21, and would seem to be, as it were, the gracious preludes of that great consummation. The souls of the weary would be quick ened as by the fresh breeze of morning ; the fire of persecution assuaged as by " a moist whistling wind " (Song of the Three ChUdren, verse 24). Israel," as a nation, did not repent, and therefore hatred and strife went on to the bitter end without refreshment. For every church, or nation, or family, those "times of refreshr ing" come as the sequel of a true conversion, and prepare the way for a more complete restoration. 64 The Second THE ACTS, III. Coming of Christ. (20) and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you : (2U whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by a Dent. 18.15;cb.7.87. the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (ia) For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, a like unto (20) And he shall send Jesus Christ. — Better, as before, and that He may send. Which before was preached unto you. — The better MSS. have, which was fore-appointed, or, fore-ordained, for you. W Whom the heaven must receive. — The words have a preg nant force : " must receive and keep." Until the times of restitu tion of all things. — The "times" seem distinguished from the " sea sons " as more permanent. This is the only passage in which the word translated "restitution ' is found in the New Testament ; nor is it found in the LXX. version of the Old. EtymologicaUy, it conveys the thought of restoration to an earlier and better state, rather than that of simple consummation or completion, which the immediate context seems, in some measure, to suggest. It finds an interesting parallel in the " new heavens and new earth " — involving, as they do, a restoration of aU things to their true order — of 2 Pet. hi. 13. It does not necessarily imply, as some have thought, the final salva tion of aU men, but it does ex press the idea of » state in which "righteousness," and not "sin," BhaU have dominion over a redeemed and new-created world ; and that idea suggests a wider hope as to the possibilities of growth in wis dom and holiness, or even of re pentance and conversion, in the unseen world than that with which Christendom has too often been content. The corresponding verb is found hi the words, ' ' Elias truly shah come first, and restore all things " (see Matt. xvii. 11); and St. Peter's words may weU be looked on as an echo of that teach ing, and so as an undesigned coin cidence testifying to the truth of St. Matthew's record. Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. — The relative, if we take the meaning given above, must be referred to the "times," not to " things." The words, com pared with 2 Pet. i. 21, are, as it were, the utterance of a profound dogmatic truth. The prophets spake as " they were moved by the Holy Ghost " ; but He who spake by them was nothing less than God. Since the world began. — LiteraUy, from the age — i.e., from its earhest point. The words take in the promises to Adam (Gen. iii. 15) and Abraham (Gen. xxii. 18). See Luke i 70, of which St. Peter's words are as an echo. P2) Eor Moses truly said unto the fathers. — Better, For Moses indeed said, the word being one of the common conjunctions, 65 Prophecies of the THE ACTS, III. Old Testament. me ; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. C23) And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. (24> Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. (Z5) Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.6 i2S) Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to and not the adverb which means " truthfuUy." The appeal is made to Moses in his two-fold character as lawgiver and prophet. As the words stand, taken with theh eon- text, they seem to point to the appearance of a succession of true prophets as contrasted with the diviners of Deut. xviii 14 ; and, even with St. Peter's interpretation before us, we may weh admit those prophets as primary and partial fulfilments of them. But the words had naturaUy fixed the minds of men on the coming of some one great prophet who should excel all others, and we find traces of that expectation in the question put to the Baptist, "Art thou the pro phet?" (John i. 21, 25.) None that came between Moses and Jesus had been "like unto the former," as marking a new epoch, the channel of a new revelation, the giver of a new law. In all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. — The words are inserted by St. Peter as a parenthesis in the actual quota tion, and suggest the thought of a quotation from memory. (23> Shall be destroyed from among the people. — The Go original has it, "I wiU require it of him" (Deut. xviii. 19). The words which St. Peter substitutes are as an echo of a familiar phrase which occurs in Ex. xh. 15, 19 ; Lev. xvii. 4, 9, et al. This, again, looks Hke a citation freely made. I24) All the prophets from Samuel.— Samuel is named, both as being the founder of the school of the prophets, and so the repre sentative of the "goodly feUow ship," and as having uttered one of the earhest of what were re garded as the distinctively Mes sianic predictions (2 Sam. vh. 13, 14; Heb.i. 5). (25) And of the covenant . . . — It is a significant indica tion of the unity of apostolic teach ing, which it was St. Luke's aim to bring before his readers, that St. Peter thus refers chiefly to the covenant made with Abraham (Gen. xii. 3), with as fuU an emphasis as St. Paul does when he had learnt to see that it implicitly involved the calling of the Gentiles into the kingdom of Christ (Gal. hi. 8.) (2°) Unto you first. . . Here again we note, even in the very turn of the phrase as well as of the Interruption of THE ACTS, IV. the Discourse. bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. CHAPTER IV— «And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the thought, an agreement with St. Paul's formula of the purpose of God being manifested " to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile " (chap. xiii. 46 ; Eom. i. 16 ; ii. 9, 10). St. Peter does not as yet know the conditions under which the gospel wiU be preached to the heathen ; but his words imply a distinct per ception that there was a caU to preach to them. His Son Jesus. — Better, as before, Servant. (See Note on verse 13.) Sent him to bless you. — The Greek structure gives the present participle where the English has the infinitive, sent Him as in the act of blessing. The verb which strictly and commonly expresses a spoken benediction is here used in a se condary sense, as conveying the reality of blessedness. And the blessing is found, not in mere exemption from punishment, not even in pardon and reconciliation, but in a change of heart, in " turn ing each man from his wickednesses." The plural of the abstract noun implies, as in Mark vh. 22, ah the many concrete forms in which man's wickedness could show itseh. IV. G) The priests, and the cap tain of the temple.— For the first time in this book, we come across the chief agents in the con demnation passed on our Lord by the Sanhedrin. A few weeks or months had gone by, and they were congratulating themselves on hav ing f oho wed the sdvice of Caiaphas (John xi. 48). They knew that the body of Jesus had disappeared from the sepulchre, and they in dustriously circulated the report that the disciples had stolen it (Matt, xxviii 13 -15). They must have heard something of the Day of Pentecost — though there is no evidence of theh having been pre sent as spectators or listeners — and of the growth of the new society. Now the two chief members of the company of those disciples were teaching pubUcly in the very portico of the Temple. What were they to do ? The " captain of the Temple " (see Luke xxii. 4) was the head of the band of Levite sentinels whose function it was to keep guard over the sacred pre cincts. He, as an inspector, made his round by night, visited ah the gates, and roused the slumberers. His presence implied that the quiet order of the Temple was supposed to be endangered. In 2 Mace. iii. 4, however, we have a " captain," or " governor of the Temple " of the tribe of Benjamin. The Sadducees. — The higher members of the priesthood, Annas and Caiaphas, were themselves of this sect (chap. v. 17). They had aheady been foremost in urging the condemnation of Christ in the meetings of the Sanhedrin. The shame of having been put to sUence by Him (Matt. xxii. 34) added vin- dictiveness to the counsels of a cal culating policy. Now they found His disciples preaching the truth which they denied, and proclaiming it as attested by the resurrection of 67 The Apostles THE ACTS, IV. put in Prison, captain 1 of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, C2) being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (3) And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day : for it was now even tide. <4) Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed ; and the number of the men was about five thousand. (5) And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and Jesus. Throughout the Acts the Sadducees are foremost as perse cutors. The Pharisees temporise, like Gamaliel, or profess themselves behevers. (Comp. chaps, v. 34 ; xv. 5 ; xxiii. 7.) (2) Being grieved. — The verb is one which expresses something like an intensity of trouble and vexation. (Comp. chap. xvi. 18.) Preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. — Literally, preached in Jesus — i.e., in this as the crucial instance in which the resurrection of the dead had been made manifest. (Comp. the close union of " Jesus and the resurrection" in chap. xvii. 18.) (3) It was now eventide. — The narrative started, it wiU be remembered, from 3 p.m. (chap. hi. 1). The " eventide " began at 6 P.M. Put them in hold Literally, in custody. In chap. v. 18, the word is translated " prison." The old noun survives in our modern word " strong-AoW." (*> The number of the men was about five thousand Better, became, or, was made up to, about five thousand. It seems probable, though not certain, that St. Luke meant this as a statement of the aggregate number of dis ciples, not of those who were con verted on that day. As in the narrative of the feeding of the five thousand (Matt. xiv. 21), women and children were not included. The number was probably ascer tained, as on that occasion, by grouping those who came to bap tism and to the breaking of bread by hundreds and by fifties (Mark vi. 40). The connection in which the number is given makes it pro bable that it represents those who, under the influence of the impres sion made by the healing of the cripple and by St. Peter's speech, attended the meetings of the Church that evening. The coincidence of the numbers in the two narratives could scarcely fail to lead the dis ciples to connect the one with the other, and to feel, as they broke the bread and blessed it, that they were also giving men the true bread from heaven. (5) And it came to pass on the morrow . . .—Better, that there were gathered together 'the rulers, elders, and scribes, in Jeru salem. The two last words are mis placed in the English version by being transferred to the end of the next verse. The later MSS. give, however, nnto Jerusalem. The meeting was obviously summoned, like that of Matt. xxvi. 5, to con- and brought before THE ACTS, IV. the High Priest. scribes, (6) and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered to- sider what course was necessary in face of the new facts that had presented themselves, and was probably the first formal meeting of the Sanhedrin that had been held since the trial of our Lord. (See Matt. v. 22 ; xxvi. 57 ; xxvii. 1.) This meeting would, of course, include the Pharisee section of the scribes as weh as the Sadducees. (6) And Annas the high priest . . . — These are mentioned by themselves as representing the section that had probably convened the meeting, and came in as if to dominate its proceedings. The order of the first two names is the same as in Luke iii. 2, and as that imphed in John xviii. 13, 24. Annas, or Ananus, had been made high priest by Quirinus, the Gover nor of Syria, filled the office a.d. 7 — 15, and hved to see five of his sons occupy it after him. At this time, Joseph Caiaphas was the actual high priest (Matt. xxvi. 57 ; John xi. 49), having been appointed in a.d. 17. He was deposed a.d. 37. He had married the daughter of Annas ; and the latter seems to have exercised a dominant in fluence, perhaps, as the Nasi, the Prince, or President, of the Sanhe drin, during the remainder of his life. If he presided on this occa sion, it may explain St. Luke's calling him " the high priest." John. — This may have been the Johanan ben Zaccai, who is reported by Jewish writers to have been at the height of his fame forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and to have been President of the Great Synagogue after its removal to Jamnia. The identification is, at the best, uncer tain ; but the story told of his death bed, in itseh f uU of pathos, becomes, on this assumption, singularly in teresting. His disciples asked him why he wept : " 0 hght of Israel, .... whence these tears p " And he repUed: "If I were going to appear before a king of flesh and blood, he is one who to-day is and to-morrow is in the grave ; if he were wroth with me, his wrath is not eternal ; if he were to cast me into chains, those chains are not for ever ; if he slay me, that death is not eternal; I might soothe him with words or appease him with a gift. But they are about to bring me before the King of kings, the Lord, the Holy and Blessed One, who liveth and abideth for ever. And if He is wroth with me, His wrath is eternal ; and if He bind, His bonds are eternal ; if He slay, it is eternal death; and Him I cannot soothe with words or appease with gifts. And besides ah this, there are before me two paths, one to Para dise and the other to Gehenna, and I know not in which they are about to lead me. How can I do aught else but weep ? " (Bab-Bera- coth, fol. 28, in Lightfoot : Cent.- Chorogr., chap, xv.) Alexander. — This name has been identified by many scholars with Alexander, the brother of Philo, the Alabarch, or magistrate of Alexandria (Jos. Ant. xvni. 8, C9 Questioned by THE ACTS, IV. the Rulers gether at Jerusalem. OTAnd when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? ® Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, C9) if we this day be exam- § 1 ; xix. 5,r§ 1). There is, however, not the shadow of any evidence for the identification. As many as were of the kindred of the high priest. — The same phrase is used by Jose phus (Ant. xv. 3, § 1), and may mean either those who were per- sonaUy related by ties of blood with the high priest for the time being, or the heads of the four- and-twenty courses of priests. (See Matt. ii. 4 ; xxvi. 3 ; Luke i. 5.) AU these had probably taken part in our Lord's condemnation. (7) And when they had set them in the midst. — The San hedrin sat in a, semi-circle : the president being in the middle of the arc, the accused standing in the centre. They asked. — Literally, were asking. They put the question repeatedly, in many varying forms. By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? — LiteraUy, By what kin i of power, or what kind of name ? apparently in a tone of contempt. They admit the fact that the lame man had been made to walk, as too patent to be denied. (Comp. verse 16.) The question imphed a suspicion that it was the effect of magic, or, as in the case of our Lord's casting out devils, by the power of Beel zebub (Luke xi. 15; John viii. 48). There is a touch of scorn in the way in which they speak of the thing itseh. They wiU not as yet 70 caU it a " sign," or " wonder," but " have ye done this ? " (8) Then Peter,' filled with the Holy Ghost. — The tense implies an immediate sudden in spiration, giving the wisdom and courage and words which were needed at the time. The promises of Matt. x. 19, 20, Luke xxi. 14, 15, were abundantly fulfiUed. The coincidence of names in the juxta position of the representatives of the new and the older Israel is striking. On each side there was a John; on each a Cephas or Caiaphas, the two names possibly coming from the same root, or, at any rate, closely alike in sound. A few weeks back Peter had quailed before the soldiers and servants in the high priest's palace. Now he stands before the Sanhedrin and speaks, in the language of respect, it is true, but also in that of un flinching boldness. We may, per haps, trace a greater deference in the language of the GalUean fisher man, " Ye rulers of the people," than in the " Men and brethren" of St. Paul (chap, xxiii. 1, 6), who was more famhiar with the mem bers of the court, and stood in less awe of them. <9) If we this day be ex amined. — The word is employed in its technical sense of a judicial interrogation, as in Luke xxiii. 14. It is used by St. Luke and St. Paul (chap. xh. 19; xxiv. 8; 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15; iv. 3, 4), and Defence made THE ACTS, IV by Peter, ined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole ; (10) be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye cru cified, whom God raised a Ps. 118. 22; Matt. 21.42. from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they mar velled ; and they took knowledge of them, that The Greek has the article before " salvation." That of which Peter spoke was the salvation which the rulers professed to be looking for. Given among men. — Better, that has been given. The words must be taken in the sense which Peter had learnt to attach to the thought of the Name as the symbol of personality and power. To those to whom it had been made known, and who had taken in all that it embodied, the Name of Jobus Christ of Nazareth was the one true source of deUverance and salvation. Speaking for himseh and the rulers, Peter rightly says that it is the Name " whereby we must be saved." Where it is not so known, it rises to its higher sig nificance as the symbol of a divine energy ; and so we may rightly say that the heathen who obtain salvation are saved by the Name of the Lord of whom they have never heard. (Comp. 1 Tim. iv. 13.) P3> When they saw the boldness of Peter and John. — John, so far as we read, had not spoken, but look and bearing, and, perhaps, unrecorded words, showed that he too shared Peter's courage. That " boldness of speech " had been characteristic of his Lord's teaching (Mark viii. 32 ; John vh. 13.) It was now to be the distinc tive feature of that of the disciples : here of Peter; in chap, xxviii. 31, 2 Cor. iii. 12, vh. 4, of St. Paul ; in 1 John iv. 17, v. 14, of the be loved disciple. It is, perhaps, characteristic that the last named uses it not of boldness of speech towards men, but of confidence in approaching God. The Greek word for " when they saw" implies " considering " as weU as behold ing ; that for "perceived" would be better expressed by having learnt, or having ascertained. The Greek verb implies, not direct perception, but the grasp with which the mind lays hold of a fact after inquiry. In Acts xxv. 5,- it is rightly translated " when I found." Unlearned and ignorant. — The first of the two words means, literally, unlettered. Looking to the special meaning of the "letters" or " Scriptures " of the Jews, from which the scribes took theh name (grammateis, from grammata), it would convey, as used here, the sense of "not having been educated as a scribe, not having studied the Law and other sacred writings." It does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The second word means UteraUy, a private person, one without special office or caUing, or the culture which they imply : what in EngUsh might be called a "common man." It appears again in 1 Cor. xiv. 16, 23, 24, with the same meaning. Its later history is curious enough to be worth noting. The Vulgate, in stead of translating the Greek word, foUowed Cicero ( Verr. ii 4) 72 They determine THE ACTS, IV to dismiss them- they had been with Jesus. (14) And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. m But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, (16) say ing, What shall we do to these men] for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem ; and we cannot deny it. m But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. °8) And they called them, and com manded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name in reproducing it as idiota. It thus passed into modern European lan guages with the idea of ignorance and incapacity closely attached to it, and so acquhed its later sense of " idiot." They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. — Better, they began to recognise. The tense is in the imperfect, implying that one after another of the rulers began to re member the persons of the two Apostles as they had seen them with theh Master in the Temple. These two, and these two alone, may have been Been by many of the Counch on that early dawn of the day of the Crucifixion in the court-yard of the high priest's palace (John xviii. 15). P4> They could say nothing against it. — Literally, they had nothing to say against it. P6) What shall we do to these men ? — The question now debated was clearly one that never oughttohavebeenevenasked. They were sitting as a Court of Justice, and should have given their verdict for or against the accused according to the evidence. They abandon that office, and begin discussing what poUcy was most expedient. It was, we may add, characteristic of Caiaphas to do so (John xi. 49, 50). A notable miracle.— Lite raUy, sign. We cannot deny it. — The very form of the sentence betrays the whl, though there is not the power. P7) Let us straitly threaten them. — The Greek gives literaUy, let us threaten them with threats. The phrase gives the Hebrew idiom for expressing intensity by redupli cation, as in " blessing I wiU bless thee " (Gen. xxii. 17), " dying thou shalt die" (Gen. ii. 17, marg.), and, as far as it goes, indicates that St. Luke translated from a report of the speech which Caiaphas had delivered in Aramaic. It is, how ever, a perfectly possible alternative that the priests, speaking in Greek, reproduced, as the LXX. often does, the old Hebrew formula. (is) jjfot to speak at all.— The Greek is even more forcible : abso lutely not to utter . . . The very name of Jesus was not to pass theh lips. 73 They are charged THE ACTS, IV. and sent away. of Jesus. (lffl But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. C20> For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (21) So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people : P9) Whether it be right in the sight of God . . The words assert the right of conscience, recognising a divine authority, to resist a human authority which opposes it. In theory, as the ap peal " judge ye ' ' showed even then, the right so claimed is of the nature of an axiom. In practice, the dif ficulty rises in the question, Is there the divine authority which is claimed? And the only prac tical answer is to be found in the rule, that men who beheve they have the authority are bound to act as if they had it. If the Lord God hath spoken to them, they can but prophesy (Amos iii. 8). In cases such as this, where the ques tion is one of witness to facts, they must not tamper with the truth, rf they believe themselves commis sioned by God to declare the facts, for fear of offending men. When they pass from facts to doctrines inferred from facts, from doctrines to opinions, from opinions to con jectures, the duty of not saying that which they do not believe remains the same, but there is not the same obligation to proclaim what they thus hold in various stages of assent. There may be cases in which reticence is right as well as politic. And even in regard to facts, the publication — as law recognises in relation to libels ¦ — must not be gratuitous. There 74 must be an adequate authority, or an adequate reason for dis obedience to the human authority, which is binding unth it is super seded by that which is higher than itseh. And the onus probandi rests on the man who asserts the higher authority. Intensity of conviction may be enough for himseh, but it cannot be expected that it will be so for others. In the absence of signs and wonders the question must be discussed on the wide ground of Eeason and of Con science, and the man who refuses to enter into debate on that ground because he is certain he is right is ipso facto convicted of an almost insane egotism. The words have clearly no bearing on the " froward retention " of a custom which God has not enjoined and a lawful authority has forbidden. (20) We cannot but speak . . . — The pronoun is emphatic : "we, for our part" . . . The question at issue was one of bearing witness, and that witness they had received a special command to bear (chap. i. 8.) (21) All men glorified God • • _• — The tense implies continued action. It is speciaUy characteristic of St. Luke thus to note the im pression made upon the people by signs and wonders (Luke ii. 20; iv. 15; and in seven other pas- They give Glory THE ACTS, IV. to God. for all men glorified God for that which was done. (22) For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed. C23) And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. C24) And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and I22) The man was above forty years old. — This precision in noting the duration of disease or infirmity is again characteristic of the writer. Comp. the case of the woman with an issue of blood (Luke viii. 43) ; of -33neas (chap. ix. 33) ; of the cripple at Lystra (chap. xiv. 8). (23) They went to their own company. — LiteraUy, their own people-. The statement implies a recognised place of meeting, where the members of the new society met at fixed times. AU that the chief priests. — The word is probably used in its more extended meaning, as includ ing, not only Annas and. Caiaphas, but the heads of the four-and- twenty courses (see Matt. ii. 4), and others who were members of the Sanhedrin. («) They lifted up their voice to God with one ac cord. — The phrase seems to imply an intonation, or chant, different from that of common speech (chap. xiv. 11 ; xxii 22). The joint utter ance described may be conceived as the result either (1) of a direct inspiration, suggesting the same words to all who were present ; (2) of the people foUowing St. Peter, clause by clause ; (3) of the hymn being aheady f amihar to the disciples. On the whole, (2) seems the most probable, the special fitness of the hymn for the occasion being against (3), and (1) involving a miracle of so startling: a nature that we can hardly take it for granted without a more definite statement. The recurrence of St. Luke's favourite phrase (see Note on chap. i. 14) should not be passed over. Lord. — The Greek word is not the common one for Lord (Kyrios), but Despotes, the absolute Master of the IJniverse. It is a coinci dence worth noting that, though but seldom used of God in the New Testament, it occurs again, as used by the two Apostles who take part in it, as in 2 Pet. u. 1, and Eev. vi. 10. (See Luke ii. 29.) In the Greek version of the Old Testament it is found applied to the Angel of Jehovah in Josh. v. 14, and to Jehovah Himseh in Prov. xxix. 25. The hymn has the special interest of being the earliest re corded utterance of the praises of the Christian Church. As such, it is significant that it begins, as so many of the Psalms begin, with setting forth the glory of God as the Creator, and rises from that to the higher redemptive work. More strict, " the heaven, the earth, and the sea," each region of creation being contemplated in its distinct ness. 75 Prayer of THE ACTS, IV. the Apostles. earth, and the sea, and all that in them is : C25) who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage," and the people imagine vain things? (26> The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and a Ps. 2. 1. against his Christ. (27) For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the peo ple of Israel, were gathered together, (28) for to do what soever thy hand and thy counsel determined before (25) Who by the mouth of thy servant David . . . . — The older MSS. present many variations of the text. It probably stood originally somewhat in this form : " Who through the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David our father, thy servant," and was sim plified by later copyists. In the citation from Ps. ii. we have another lesson from the Apostles' school of prophetic interpretation. The Psalm is not cited in the Gospels. Here what seems to us the most striking verse of it (verse 7) is passed over, and it does not appear as referred to Christ tiU we find it in Heb. i. 5 ; v. 5. Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine . . . ? — Neither noun has the article in the Greek or in the Hebrew. Why did nations rage and peoples ima gine . . . ? The word for " rage " is primarily appUed to animal fero city, especiaUy to that of untamed horses. (26) And against his Christ. — The question whether the word " Christ" should be used as a pro- rjer name, or translated, is com monly answered by accepting the former alternative. Here, perhaps, to maintain the connection with the Psalm and with the verb in 76 the next verse, it would be better to say, " against His Anointed." The " Lord" stands, of course, for the Supreme Deity of the Father. (27) Of a truth . . .—Many of the better MSS. add the words " in this city." Against thy holy child Je sus. — Better, as before, Servant. (See Notes on chap. iii. 13, 36.) The word is the same as that used of David in verse 25. Both Herod, and Pontius Pilate. — The narrative of Herod's share in the proceedings connected with the Passion is, it whl be re membered, found only in Luke xxiii. 8 — 12. So far as the hymn here recorded may be considered as an independent evidence, the two present an undesigned coincidence. With the Gentiles, and the people of Israel Even here the nouns are, in the Greek, with out an article. The " peoples " (the Greek noun is plural) are rightly defined, looking to the use of the Hebrew word, as those of Israel. (28) To do whatsoever thy hand . . . . — The great problem of the relation of the divine purpose to man's free agency is stated (as before in chaps, i. 16 ; ii. 23), without any attempt at a philosophical solution. The Prayer THE ACTS, IV. is answered. to be done. (29) And now, Lord, behold their threat- enings : and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, <30) by stretching forth thine hand to heal ; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. (31) And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they No such solution is indeed possible. If we admit a Divine WUl at all, manifesting itseh in the govern ment of the world, in the education of mankind, in the salvation of individual souls, we must foUow the example of the Apostle, and hold both the facts of which con sciousness and experience bear theh witness, without seeking for a logical formula of reconciliation. In every fact of history, no less than in the great fact of which St. Peter speaks, the wiU of each agent is free, and he stands or faUs by the part he has taken in it ; and yet the outcome of the whole works out some law of evolution, some " increasing purpose," which we recognise as we look back on the course of the events, the actors in which were impeUed by theh own base or noble aims, theh self-inte rest or their self-devotion. As each man looks back on his own life he traces a sequence visiting him with a righteous retribution, and lead ing him, whether he obeyed the caU, or resisted it, to a higher hfe, an education no less than a proba tion. "Man proposes, God dis poses." " God works in us, there fore we must work." Aphorisms such as these are the nearest ap proximation we can make to a practical, though not a theoretical, solution of the great mystery. P9) And now. Lord, behold their threatenings. — The con text shows that the prayer of the Church is addressed to the Father. The Apostles, who had shown "boldness of speech" (verse 13), pray, as conscious of theh na tural weakness, for a yet further bestowal of that gift, as being now more than ever needed, both for themselves and the whole com munity. (30) By stretching forth thine hand to heal There seems something like an intentional assonance in the Greek words which St. Luke uses — iasis (heal ing) and Jesus (pronounced Tesus) — as though he would indicate that the very name of Jesus wit nessed to His being the great Healer. A hke instance of the nomen et omen idea is found in the identification by TertuUian (Apol. c. 3) of Christos and Chrestos (good, or gracious), of which we have, perhaps, a foreshadowing in 1 Pet. ii. 3. (Comp. also chap. ix. 34.) Thy holy child Jesus Better, as before, Servant. (See Note on chap. iii. 13.) P1) The place was shaken . . . . — The impression on the senses was so far a renewal of the wonder of the Day of Pente cost, but in this instance without the sign of the tongues of fire, 77 They are filled with THE ACTS, IV. the Holy Ghost. spake the word of God with boldness. (3a And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul : neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. (33) And with great powei gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus : and great grace was upon them all. (34) Neither was there any among them that lacked : which were the symbols of a gift imparted once for aU, and, perhaps also, without the special marvel of the utterance of the tongues. The disciples felt the power of the Spirit, the evidence of sense con firming that of inward, spiritual consciousness, and it came in the form for which they had made a special supplication, the power to speak with boldness the word which they were commissioned to speak. m And the multitude of them that believed. — LiteraUy, And the heart and the soul of the multitude of those that believed were one. Of the two words used to describe the unity of the Church, " heart" represented, as in Hebrew usage, rather the inteUectual side of character (Mark ii. 6, 8 ; xi. 23 ; Luke ii. 35 ; iii. 15 ; vi. 45, et al.), and " soul," the emotional (Luke ii. 35 ; xii. 22 ; John xii. 27, et al.). As with most like words, however, they often overlap each other, and are used together to express the to tality of character without minute analysis. The description stands parallel with that of chap. ii. 42 — 47, as though the historian deUghted to dweU on the con tinuance, as long as it lasted, of that ideal of a common life of equaUty and fraternity after which philosophers had yearned, in which the rights of property, though not 78 abolished, were, by the spontaneous action of its owners, made sub servient to the law of love, and benevolence was free and fuU, without the " nicely calculated less or more " of a later and less happy time. .The very form of expression impUes that the community of goods was not comp'ulsory. The goods stiU belonged to men, but they did not speakja^hem as theh own. They hftK^fprned, as from our Lord's. 'fea«wfiig (Luke xvi. 10 — l4)fto thin* of themselves, not as possessors, Jbut as stewards. (33) 'with great power gave the apostles witness. — The Greek verb implies the idea of paying or rendering what was due, as in Matt. xxii. 11. They were doing that which they were bound to do. Great grace was upon them. — The words may stand parallel with Luke u. 40 as mean ing that the grace of God was be stowed upon the disciples in full measure, or with chap. u. 47 as stating that the favour of the people towards them sthl con tinued. There are no sufficient data for deciding the question, and it must be left open. The English versions all give " grace," as if accepting the highest meaning, as do most commentators. P4) Neither was there any THE ACTS, IV. of Goods. for as many as were pos sessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, (35) and laid tliem down at the apostles' feet : and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. (S6) And Joses, who by the apostles among them that lacked. — Better, perhaps, any one in need. Sold them, and brought the prices. — Both words imply continuous and repeated action. It is possible that besides the strong impulse of love, they were im pressed, by theh Lord's warnings of wars and coming troubles, with the instability of earthly posses sions. Landed property in Pales tine was Ukely to be a source of anxiety rather than profit. As Jeremiah had shown his faith in the future restoration of his people by purchasing the field at Ana- thotb. (Jer. xxxii. 6—15), so there was, in this sale of theh estates, a proof of faith in the future desola tion which theh Master had fore told (Matt. xxiv. 16—21). (3=) And laid them down at the apostles' feet. — The words are a vivid picture of one phase of Eastern hfe. When gifts or offer ings are made to a king, or priest, or teacher, they are not placed in his hands, but at his feet. The Apostles sat, it would seem, in con clave, on theh twelve seats, as in the figurative promise of Matt. xix. 28, and the vision of Eev. iv. 4. I36) And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Bar nabas -The better MSS. give the name as Joseph. It is possible, as Eabbinic writers often give Jose for Joseph, that both were but different forms, hke Simon and Simeon, of the same name. The liter friendship between the Levite of Cyprus and St. Paul makes it probable that there had been some previous companionship (see Notes on chaps, ix. 27, xi. 25), and it may weU have been that he was sent from Cyprus to receive his education in the famous schools of Tarsus, or practised with Saul in early Ufe the craft of tent-mak ing, for which Tarsus was famous, and in which they were afterwards feUow-labourers (1 Cor. ix. 6). As a Levite he had probably taken his place in the ministries of the Temple, and may, therefore, have been among our Lord's actual hearers. His relation Mary, the mother of John surnamed Marcus, was, we know, hving at Jerusalem. (See Note on chap. xu. 12 ; Col. iv. 10.) A tradition, as early as Clement of Alexandria (Strom, ii. § 116), makes him one of the Seventy, and this agrees with the prophetic character, which we have seen reason to think of as attaching to that body. (See Luke x. 1.) The new name which the Apostles gave him, literally, if we look to its Hebrew etymology, The son of prophecy, or, taking St. Luke's translation, The son of counsel, imphes the possession of a special gift of persuasive utterance, in which the Apostles recognised the work of the Spirit. The Para clete had endowed him with the gift of paraclesis, in the sense in which that word included counsel, comfort, admonition, application of divine truth to the sphitual 79 Contribution THE ACTS, IV. oj Joses. was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, (37) having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. necessities of men. (See John xiv. 16, 17, 26 ; xvi. 8.) In chap. xi. 23, we find him exhorting the Gen tile converts at Antioch, the verb being that from which paraclesis is derived. He was, i.e., conspicuous for the ght of prophecy as that gift is described in 1 Cor. xiv. 3. The several stages in his Ufe come before us later. An Epistle bear ing his name, and recognised as his by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, is stiU extant, but its authenticity is, to say the least, questionable. It consists mainly of allegorical interpretations of Old Testament narratives. Some critics have assigned the Epistle to the Hebrews to his authorship, as the expounder of St. Paul's thoughts. It should be noted that a httle further on, his kinswoman Mary's house is the chief meeting-place of the Church of Jerusalem (chap. xii. 12), and that her son John, sur named Mark, is mentioned by St. Peter ("Marcus my son," 1 Pet. v. 13) in words which make it almost certain that he was converted by that Apostle. (37) Having land, sold it. — Better, perhaps, having a farm. (See Mark v. 14 ; vi. 36, 56.) In the original poUty of Israel the Levites had cities and land in common, but no private property (Num. xviii. 20, 21 ; Deut. x. 8, 9, et al.), and depended for theh sup port upon the tithes paid by the people. The case of Jeremiah, however (Jer. xxxu. 7 — 12), shows that there was nothing to hinder 80 priest or Levite from becoming th< possessor of land by purchase or inheritance. The position of Bar nabas' kinswoman Mary shows that she, also, was wealthy, and, though she did not sell her house, she, too, didnot caU it her own, but gave it up for the public use of the community. The seh-chosenpoverty of Barnabas led him afterwards to act as St. Paul did in working for his live lihood (1 Cor. ix. 6). It whl not be out of place on this first mention of the name of a new disciple to note a few others whose member ship of the Church dated probably from this period; Mnason, the " old disciple" of chap. xxi. 16, of Cyprus, and probably, therefore, a friend of Barnabas ; Andronicus and Junia (or, more probably, Junias, as a man's name), in some sense kins men of St. Paul, who were " in Christ " before him (Eom. xvi. 7), and whom we afterwards find at Eome; the seven who in chap. vi. 5 are prominent enough to be chosen as representatives of the Hellenistic members of the Church; Agabus (chap. xi. 28), Judas, and Silas (chap. xv. 32). The last three, however, as being " prophets," may have been among the number of the Seventy; and, possibly, if we foUow a fairly early tradition, Stephen and Philip among the Seven. (See Luke x. 1.) We again note the absence of any measure of the interval between the events of this chapter and the history that foUows. The picture of the peaceful expansion of the Ananias THE ACTS, V and Sapphira, CHAPTER V— <» But a- certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, (2) and kept back part of the price, his wife also 1 Or, to deceive. being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. C3) But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to1 the Holy Church's hfe implies, probably, as in chap, ii 41 — 47, one of several months. V. P'2) A certain man named Ananias. — The name meets us again as belonging to the high priest in chap, xxiii. 2, and was the Greek form of the Hebrew Hananiah. It had the same sig nificance as John, or Johanan, " The Lord be gracious." " Sap phira," is either connected with the " sapphire," as a precious stone, or from a Hebrew word signifying "beautiful" or "pleasant." The whole history must be read in con nection with the act of Barnabas. He, it seemed, had gained praise and power by his self-sacrifice. Ananias thought that he could get at the same result more cheaply. The act shows a strange mingling of discordant elements. Zeal and faith of some sort had led him to profess himseh a beUever. Ambi tion was strong enough to win a partial victory over avarice; avarice was strong enough to triumph over truth. The impulse to seh came from the Spirit of God ; it was counteracted by the Spirit of Evil, and the resulting sin was therefore worse than that of one who lived altogether in the lower, commoner forms of covetousness. It was an attempt to serve God and mammon ; to gain the reputation of a saint, without the reality of holiness. 6 The sin of Ananias is, in some aspects, Uke that of Gehazi (2 Kings v. 20 — 27), but it was against greater light and intensified by a more profound hypocrisy, and it was therefore visited by a more terrible chastisement. We may well trace in the earnestness with which St. James warns men against the peril of the " double mind" — i.e., the heart divided between the world and God (Jas. i. 8 ; iv. 8) — the im pression made on him by such a. history as this. (2) And kept back part of the price. — The mere act of keeping back would not in itself have been sinful. The money was his own, to give the whole or part (verse 4). But the formal act, apparently reproducing that of Barnabas, was an acted lie. The part was offered as if it were the whole. The word for " kept back " is rendered " purloining " in Titus u. 10, and always carried with it the idea of stealthy and dishonest appropriation. It is used in the LXX. of Josh. vii. 1, as describing the sin of Aehan. I3) Why hath Satan filled thine heart ? — The narrative is obviously intended to leave the impression that St. Peter's know ledge of the fact came from a supernatural insight. He had that prophetic gift which gave him in sight into the hearts of men, and through this outward show of generous devotion he read the 81 Their Deceit THE ACTS, V. reproved by Peter. Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land 1 «> Whiles it re mained, was it not thine own ] and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power 1 why hast thou con ceived this thing in thine heart 1 thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. baseness and the Ue. And that evil he traced to its fountain-head. Like the sin of Judas (John xiii. 2, 27) , it had in it a malignant subtlety of evil, which imphed the perversion of conscience and wiU just at the moment when they seemed to be, and, it may be, actuaUy were, on the point of attaining a higher perfec tion than before. The question " why " implies thatresistance to the temptation had been possible. Had he resisted the Tempter, he would have fled from him (Jas. iv. 7). To lie to the Holy Ghost. — The words admit of two tenable interpretations. Ananias may be said to "have Ued unto the Holy Ghost," either (1) as lying against Him who dwelt in the Apostles whom he was seeking to deceive ; or (2) as against Him who was the Searcher of the secrets of all hearts, his own included, and who was "grieved "(Eph. iv. 31) by this resistance in one who had been caUed to a higher hfe. The ap parent paraUelism of the clause in verse 4 is in favour of (1) ; but there is in the Greek a distinction, obviously made deliberately, be tween the structure of the verb in the two sentences. Here it is used with the accusative of the direct object, so that the meaning is "to cheat or deceive the Holy Spirit ; " there with the dative, "to speak a lie, not to men, but to God ; " and this gives a sense which is at least compatible with (2). The special intensity of the sin consisted in its being against the hght and knowledge with which the human spirit had been iUumined by the Divine. The cir cumstance that it was also an attempt to deceive those in whom that Sphit dwelt in the fulness of its power comes in afterwards as a secondary aggravation. (4) Whiles it remained . . . — Fresh circumstances are pressed home, as depriving the act of every possible excuse. Ananias had not been bound by any rule of the Church to such a ght. At every stage he was free to act as he thought best ; and had he brought part as part, or even brought no thing, he would have been free from any special blame. As it was, the attempt to obtain the reputation of sainthness without the reality of sacrifice, involved him in the guilt at once of sacri lege, though there had been no formal consecration, and of per jury, though there had been no formulated oath. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God The paraUelism between this and "lying to the Holy Ghost " in verse 3 has often been used, and perfectly legitimately, as a proof that while the Apostles thought of the Spirit as sent by the Father, and there fore distinct in His personaUty, they yet did not shrink from speak ing of Him as God, and so identify ing Him with the Divine Essential Being. The Death THE ACTS, V of Ananias. 80 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost : and great fear come on all them that heard these things. (6) And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried P) Ananias hearing these words fell down. — It is to be noted that St. Peter's words, whhe they press home the intensity of the guilt, do not contain any formal sentence. In such a case we may rightly trace that union of natural causation and divine purpose which we express in the famihar phrase that speaks of "the visitation of God" as a cause of death. The shame and agony of detection, the horror of conscience not yet dead, were enough to paralyse the powers of hfe. Eetribution is not less a divine act because it comes, through the working of divhie laws, as the natural consequence of the sin which draws it down. It was necessary, we may reverently say, that this special form of evU, this worst corruption of the best, should be manifestly condemned on its first appearance by a divine judg ment. And we must remember that there is a sUence which we may not dare to break aB to aU but the visible judgment. The dominant apostolic idea of such punishments was that men were deUvered to Satan for the destruc tion of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. v. 5). St. Peter himseh speaks of those who are " judged according to men in the flesh," who yet "live ac cording to God in the sphit" (1 Pet. iv. 6). («) And the young men arose. — LiteraUy, the younger men tinct body as contrasted with the " elders " of the Church. So in Luke xx. 26 ; 1 Pet. v. 5, we find the same word answering in the paral lel clause to " him that serveth," and opposed to " elders," where the latter word seems used in a half-official sense rather than of age only. We find here, accord ingly, rather than in chap, vi., the germ of the later diaconate as a body of men set apart for the subordinate services of the com munity. The special work here done by them was afterwards as signed to the Fossarii, the sextons, or grave-diggers of the Church. Wound him up. — The word in this sense is found here only in the New Testament. It impUes the hurried wrapping in a wind ing-sheet. It was followed by the immediate interment outside the walls of the city. Custom, resting partly on the necessities of climate, partly on the idea of cere monial defilement, as caused by con tact with a corpse (Num. xix. 11 — 16),required burial to'foUow quickly on death, unless there was a more or less elaborate embalmment. In the act itseh we note something like a compassionate respect. There is a reverence for humanity, as such, perhaps for the body that had once been the temple of the Spirit (1 Cor. vi. 19), that whl not permit men to do as the heathen did, and to inflict dishonour on the Ufeless corpse. The narrative implies that the new society had aheady a implying the existence of a dis- 1 burial-place to which they had 83 The Death THE ACTS, V. of Sapphira. him. m And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. C8) And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much 1 And she said, Yea, for so much. (9) Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have igreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord 1 behold, the feet of them which have buried thy hus band are at the door, and shall carry thee out. O0)Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost : and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. ai) And great free right of access. Was it in the Potter's Field that had been bought to bury strangers in? (Matt. xxvn. 7.) Did the body of Ananias rest in the same cemetery with that of Judas f (See Matt. xxvn. 8.) P) And it was about the space of three hours after. — LiteraUy, And there was an interval of about three hours. (8) And Peter answered unto her.— The word does not necessarily imply a previous ques tioning, but it is probable enough that she came to inquire why her husband had not returned home ; perhaps expecting to find him high in honour. The question asked by Peter gave her an opening for repentance. It had been in her power to save her husband by a word of warning protest. It was now in her power to clear her own conscience by confession. She misses the one opportunity as she had misused the other. The he which they had agreed upon comes glibly from her lips, and the irre vocable word is spoken. (9) To tempt the Spirit of the Lord — i.e., to try, or test, 84 whether the Sphit that dwelt in the Apostles was really a discerner of the secrets of men's hearts. The " Spirit of the Lord " is pro bably used in its Old Testament sense, as the Sphit of Jehovah. The combination is rare in the New Testament, occurring only in 2 Cor. hi. 17, but is common in the Old, as in Isa. lxi. 1 (quoted in Luke iv. 18); 1 Kings xxii. 24; 2 Kings ii. 16. Behold, the feet of them .... — In this instance the coming judgment is foretold, and the an nouncement tended to work out its own completion. Here, to aU the shame and agony that had faUen on Ananias, there was now added the bitter thought of her husband's death as in some sense caused by her, inasmuch as she might have prevented the crime that led to it. The prophetic insight given to St. Peter taught him that the messengers, whose footsteps he aheady heard, had another task of a hke nature before them. P1) And great fear came upon all the church.— With the exception of the doubtful read ing in chap, ii. 47, this is the first Wonders wrought THE ACTS, V. by the Apostles. fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. °2) And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people ; (and they were all with one ac cord in Solomon's porch. as)And of the rest durst no man join himself to them : but the people mag nified them. (14) And be hevers were the more added to the Lord, multi tudes both of men and occurrence of the word ecclesia since the two instances in which our Lord had used it, as it were, by anticipation. (See Matt. xvi. 18 ; xviii. 17.) Its frequent use in the LXX. version for the " as sembly," or "congregation," of Israel (Deut. xviii. 16 ; xxiii. 1 ; Ps. xxvi. 12; lxviii. 26), its associa tions with the poUtical life of Greece as apphed to the assembUes, every member of which was a fuU citizen, made it a natural and fitting word for the new society; and the use by our Lord either of the actual Greek word or of the cor responding Aramaic term stamped it with His sanction. Its occurrence here is, perhaps, an indication of the increase of the HeUenistic ele ment among the disciples. The sudden startling death of Ananias and his wife naturaUy tended to give a new prominence to the society, the rulers of which were seen to be clothed with superna tural powers; and the fear that feU upon aU who heard of these things led them in part to draw near with reverence, in part to shrink back in awe. P2) Many signs and won ders . . . . — See Note on chap. ii. 22. They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. — See Notes on chap. hi. 2 ; John x. 23. It was, we have seen, at ah times a favourite place of resort for teachers. The chronology of this period of the history is still, as before, left somewhat indefinite ; but assuming some months to have passed since the Day of Pentecost, what is now related would be in the winter, when, as in John x. 23, that portico, as facing the east and catching the morning sunUght, was more than usuaUy frequented. On "with one accord," see Note on chap. iv. 24. P3) Of the rest We are left to conjecture who these were who are contrasted with the Apostles on the one side and with the people on the other. Does it mean that the Apostles stood aloof in an isolated, majesty, and so that none of the other disciples dared asso ciate himseh with them ? or is this St. Luke's way of speaking of the Pharisees and other teachers, who also resorted to the portico, but, as in the days of our Lord's ministry (John vii. 48 ; xn. 42), had not the courage to attach themselves to those with whom they really sym pathised? The latter view seems every way the more probable, and so the passage stands parallel with those which tell us how the people heard our Lord gladly and " came early to hear him" (Luke xxi. 38). (") Added to the Lord. — 85 Many sick Folk THE ACTS, V. Healed. women.) (15) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets,1 and laid them, on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. 1 Or, in every street. c16' There came also a mul titude out of the cities round about unto Jeru salem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits : and they were healed every one. Here, probably, the word is used in its definite New Testament sense for the Lord Jesus. Both of men and women. — The mention of the latter forms an introduction to the dissensions connected with the "widows" in chap, vi., and is itseh characteristic of St. Luke as a writer who had seen and known the effect of the new Eehgion in raising women to a higher hfe, and whose knowledge of its history was in great measure derived from them. So in chap. vhi. 3 women are named as pro minent among the sufferers in the first general persecution. P6) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick . . . — The tense impUes habitual action. For some days or weeks the sick were laid aU along the streets — the broad open streets, as distinct from the lanes and aUeys (see Matt. vi. 5) — by which the Apostle went to and fro between his home and the Temple. That at the least the sha dow of Peter . . . — It is implied in the next verse that the hope was not disappointed. Assuming that mhacles are possible, and that the narratives of the Gospels indicate generaUy the laws that govern them, there is nothing in the pre sent narrative that is not in har mony with those laws. Christ healed sometimes directly by a word, without contact of any kind (Matt. viii. 13 ; John iv. 52) ; some times through material media — the fringe of His garment (Matt. ix. 20), or the clay smeared over the bUnd man's eyes (John ix. 5) be coming channels through which the heahng virtue passed. AU that was wanted was the expecta tion of an intense faith, as the subjective condition on the one side, the presence of an objective super natural power on the other, and any medium upon which the imagina tion might happen to fix itseh as a help to faith. So afterwards the " handkerchiefs and aprons " from St. Paul's skin do what the shadow of St. Peter does here (chap. xix. 12). In the use of oil, as in Mark vi. 13, Jas. v. 14, we find a medium employed which had in itseh a healing power, with which the prayer of faith was to operate. Beds and couches The couches were the more portable paUets or mattresses of the poor. See Mark ii. 4 ; vi. 55 ; John v. 8. (i6) There came also a mul titude. — Here also the tense points to a continual and daily concourse. The work of expansion is beginning. The " cities round about" may have included Hebron, Bethlehem, Emmaus, and Jericho ; perhaps also Lydda and Joppa. (See, however. Notes on chap. ix. '''' 36.) It is obvious here also 32. The Apostles THE ACTS, V. out in Prison. m Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indig- 1 Or, envy. nation,1 a8) and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. • 00) But the angel of the Lord by night that we have the summary of what must have occupied, at least, several months. Vexed with unclean spi rits. — In this work the Apostles and the Seventy had already ex perienced the power of the Name of the Lord Jesus (Luke x. 17). Now that they were working in the full power of the Spirit, it was natural that they should do yet greater things (John xiv. 12). PI Then the high priest rose up . . . — Probably, as before, Annas or Caiaphas. Which is the sect of the Sadducees. — The fact, of which this is the only distinct record, is of immense importance as throw ing Ught on the course of action taken by the upper class of priests, both during our Lord's ministry and in the history of thiB book. From the time of the teaching of John v 25 — 29, they must have felt that His doctrine was dia- metricaUy opposed to theirs. They made one attempt to turn that doc trine, on which, and almost on which alone, He and the Pharisees were in accord, into ridicule, and were baffled (Matt. xxii. 23—33). The raising of Lazarus mingled a dogmatic antagonism with the counsels of political expediency (John xi. 49, 50). The promi nence of the Eesurrection of Jesus in the teaching of the Apostles now made the Sadducean high priests theh most determined op ponents. The Pharisees, on the other hand, less exposed now than they had been before to the con demnation passed by our Lord on theh unreahty and perverted casu istry, were drawing off from those with whom they had for a time coalesced, into a position at first of declared neutrality ; then of secret sympathy ; then, in many cases, of professed adherence (chap. xv. 5). Pilled with indignation. — The word is that which is else where rendered " zeal," or " envy." Both meanings of the word were probably appUcable here. There was "zeal" against the doctrine, "envy" of the popularity of the Apostles. P8> Put them in the com mon prison. — The word is the same as the ' ' ward " of chap. iv. 3. The addition of the word "com mon" or "public" perhaps in dicates a greater severity of treat ment. They were not merely kept in custody, but dealt with as com mon criminals, compeUed to herd with ruffians and robbers and murderers. P9) But the angel of the Lord. — Better, an angel. The fact is obviously recorded by St. Luke as supernatural. Those who do not accept that view of it, and yet wish to maintain the general historical character of the narra tive, are driven to the hypothesis that the " angel" was some jealous and courageous disciple ; and that the Apostle, in the darkness of the night and the excitement of his 87 They are miraculously THE ACTS, V. Released. opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, C20) Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. el) And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morn ing, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. l22> But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison they returned, and told, (23) saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors : but when we had opened, we found no man within. (24> Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief Uberation, ascribed his rescue to the intervention of an angel. Acts xh. 7 may be noted as another instance of a Uke interposition. It has sometimes been urged, with something of a sneer, what was the use of such a deUverance as this, when the Apostles were again arrested on the very next day. The answer to such a question is not far to seek. (1) The marveUous deUverance was a sign, not without its influence on the subsequent decision of the Council, and on the courage of the two Apostles. (2) It was no smaU boon for them to be delivered even for a few hours from the vile companionship to which they had been condemned. (2U) All the words of this life The use of the demonstra tive pronoun is significant. The "life in Christ" which the Apostles preach is that eternal life which consists in knowing God (John xvii. 1), and in which the angels are sharers. (21) Early in the morning. — Probably at daybreak, when the worshippers would be going up to the Temple for their early de votions, or, though less probable at the third hour, the time of the morning sacrifice. They that were with him. — Probably those named in chap iv. 6, who seem to have acted as a kind of cabinet or committee. All the senate . . . . — LiteraUy the word means, like senate, the assembly of old men, or elders. They are here distinguished from the Sanhedrin, which itseh included elders, in the official sense of the word, and were probably a body of assessors — how chosen we do not know — speciaUy quaUfied by age and experience, called in on special occasions. They may have been identical with the " whole estate of the elders " of chap. xxii. 5. m The high priest.— The Eeceived text gives " the priest," but the use of that word as mean ing the high priest has no parallel in the New Testament, and the word is omitted by many of the best MSS. The captain of the temple. — The commander of the Levite- They are Charged THE ACTS, V. before the Council. priests heard these things, they doubted of them where- unto this would grow. (=5) Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in pri son are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. C26) Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence : for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. (27) And when they had brought them, they set tliem before the council : and the high priest asked them, (28) say ing, Did not we straitly command youthatyeshould not teach in this name 1a and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doc trine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. <*»Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey sentinels. (See Notes on chap. iv. 1 ; Luke xxii. 52.) Whereunto this would grow. — LiteraUy, what it might become, or, possibly, what it might be. They do not seem to have re cognised at once the supernatural character of what had taken place, and may have conjectured that the Apostles had by some human help effected theh escape. (26) "Without violence . The scene recaUs that of John vii. 45. Here, however, the Apostles set the example of unresisting acquiescence, even though the tide of feeling in their favour was so strong that they might have easily raised a tumult in theh favour. The Bigns that had been recently wrought, perhaps also the lavish distribution of alms, the ideal com munism of the disciples, were ah likely, tiU counteracted by stronger influences, to secure popular favour. (281 Did not we straitly com mand you . . . ? — The Greek presents the same Hebrew idiom as in chap. iv. 17, and suggests again that it is a translation of the Aramaic actuaUy spoken. Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine Better with your teaching, both to keep up the connection with the pre vious clause, and because the word is taken as in Matt. vii. 28, in its wider sense, and not in the modern sense which attaches to "doctrine" as meaning a formulated opinion. To bring this man's blood upon us. — There seems a touch, partly of scorn, partly, it may be, of fear, in the careful avoidance (as before, in "this name") of the name of Jesus. The words that Peter had uttered, in chaps, ii. 36 ; Hi. 13, 14 ; iv. 10, gave some colour to the conscience-stricken priests for this charge ; but it was a strange complaint to come from those who had at least stirred up the people to cry, " His blood be on us and on our chUdren" (Matt, xxvii. 25). (29) Then Peter and the other apostles. — The whole company of the Twelve, it must be remembered, were now the objects Peter's Answer THE ACTS, V. to the Council. God rather than men. (so) The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. <31) Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. C32) And we are his witnesses of these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. (33) -when they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. C3C Then stood there up one in the council, a of attack, and they aU accept Peter as theh spokesman. We ought to obey God rather than men. — The words are an assertion of the same general law of duty as that of chap. iv. 19, 20, but the command of the angel in verse 20 had given them a new significance. (so) whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. — This syno nym for crucifying comes from the LXX. version of Deut. xxi. 23, where it is used in a, wider sense, including analogous forms of punishment, such as hanging or impaling. It meets us again in Peter's speech to Cornehus (chap. x. 39. Comp. Gal. hi. 13). (31) Him hath God exalted.— It is significant that St. Peter should use a word which, whUe it does not occur as applied to our Lord in the first three Gospels, meets us as so apphed in St. John (iii. 14; xii. 32: "hfted up" in the EngUsh version). It had also been used of the righteous sufferer in the LXX. version of Isa. Ui. 13, and was afterwards used of the ascended and glorified Christ by St. Paul, in PhU. h 9. A Prince. — See Note on chap. iii. 15. To give repentance. — We note, as in chap. ii. 38, the essential unity of the teaching of the Apos tles with that of the Baptist (Matt. Hi. 2). The beginning and the end were the same in each ; what was characteristic of the new teach ing was a fuUer revelation (1) of the way in which forgiveness had been obtained ; (2) of the spiritual gifts that foUowed on forgiveness ; and (3) the existence of the society which was to bear its witness of both. (32) And so is also the Holy Ghost. — The signs and wonders, the tongues and the prophecies, the new power and the new love, were aU thought of by the Apostles as coming from their Lord ; and there fore as an evidence that He had triumphed over death and had as cended into heaven. (Comp. chap. h 33.) (33) They were cut to the heart. — The strict meaning of the verb describes the action of a saw, as in Heb. xi. 37. Used figura tively, it seems to imply a more lacerating pain than the " pricked to the heart" of chap. H. 37, lead ing not to repentance but to hatred. The persons spoken of are princi- paUy the high priest and his Sad- ducean foUowers (verse 17). (34) A Pharisee, named 90 Spach THE ACTS, V. of Gamaliel' Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to Gamaliel. — We are brought into contact here with one of the heroes of Eabbinic history. The part he now played in the opening of the great drama, and not less his posi tion as the instructor of St. Paul, demand attention. We have to think of him as the grandson of the great Hillel, the representative of the best school of Pharisaism, the tolerant and large-hearted rival of the narrow and fanatic Shammai, whose precepts — such, e.g., as, "Do nothing to another which thou wouldest not that he should do to thee" — remind us of the Sermon on the Mount. The fame of Hillel won for him the highest honour of Judaism : the title of Eabban (the Rabboni of Mark x. 51 ; John xx. 16), and the office of President of the CouncU. For the first time, there seemed hkely to be a dynasty of scribes, and the office of chief of the Jewish schools, what we might almost caU theh Professorship of Theology, was transmitted through four generations. HUlel was suc ceeded by his son Simeon, whom some have identified with the Simeon of Luke ii. 25, and he by Gamahel. He, too, was known as the Eabban, and he rose now, with aU the weight of years and autho rity, to counsel moderation. Various motives may have influenced him. He was old enough to remember the wisdom and grace of the child Jesus when, twenty-eight years before, He had sat in the midst of the doctors (Luke ii. 46). He may have welcomed, during our Lord's ministry, the teaching with so much of which Hillel would have sympa thised, and been as the scribe who was not far from the kingdom of God (Mark. xii. 32 — 34), rejoicing in the new proof that had been brought forward of the doctrine of the Eesurrection. As being himseh of the house and Uneage of David, he may have sympathised with the claims of One who was welcomed as the Son of David. One who was so prominent as a teacher could not fail to be acquainted with a brother-teacher Hke Nicodemus, and may weU have been influenced by the example of his gradual con version and the counsels of caution which he had given (John vu. 50, 51). The tone in which he speaks now might almost lead us to class him with the " many " of the chief rulers who secretly beheved in Christ, but shrank from confessing Him (John xii. 42, 43). It seems probable that he, hke Joseph of Arimathsea, had " not consented to the counsel and deed " of the San hedrin which Caiaphas had hastily convened for our Lord's trial, and had contented himseh with a poUcy of absence and expectation. If, as seems probable, Saul of Tarsus was at this time one of his disciples (chap. xxii. 3), the words of warn ing, though addressed generaUy to the CouncU, may weU have been intended specially to restrain his fiery and impetuous zeal. Commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. — The practice of thus deliberating in the absence of the accused seems to have been common. (Comp. chap. iv. 15.) The report of the speech that follows may have come to St. Luke from some member of the Council, or, probably enough, 91 His Advice THE ACTS, V. to 1 put the apostles forth a little space ; C35) and said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to your selves what ye intend to do as touching these men. (36) For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody ; to whom a number of men, from St. Paul himseh. The occa sional coincidences of language with (he writings of that 'Apostle tend to confirm the antecedent likelihood of the conjecture. (3») Ye men of Israel.— We note the more familiar address of a man in high authority as com pared with St. Peter's " Eulers of the people, and elders of Israel" (chap. iv. 8). Take heed to yourselves. — Compare our Lord's use of the same formula (Matt. vi. 1 ; vii. 15 ; x. 17), and St. Paul's (1 Tim. i. 4; iv. 13; Tit. i 14). (361 Before these days rose up Theudas. — An insurrection, headed by a leader of this name, is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. xx. 5, § 1). He, however, places it, not "before the taxing" — i.e., circ. A.n. 6 — but in the reign of Claudius, and under the procuratorship of CuspiusFadus,A.D.44,ten or twelve years after this speech of Gamaliel's. The Theudas of whom he speaks claimed to be a prophet, and pro mised to lead his fohowers across the Jordan. Fadus sent a troop of horse against him, and he was taken and beheaded. It has ac cordingly been inferred by some critics that we have here a blunder so portentous as to prove that the speech was made up long years after its alleged date by a writer ignorant of history, that the whole narrative of this part of the Acts is accordingly untrustworthy, and that the book requires to be sifted throughout, with a suspicious caution. On the other side, it is urged (1) that the circumstances of the two cases are not the same, Josephus speaking of a " very great multitude " as following his Theudas, while Gamaliel distinctly fixes the number of adherents at "about fonr hundred"; (2) that the name Theudas, whether con sidered as a form of the Aramaic name Thaddatus (see Matt. x. 3), or the Greek Theodorus, was common enough to make it probable that there had been more than one rebel of that name ; (3) that Josephus mentions no less than three insur rections of this type as occurring shortly after the death of Herod the Great (Ant. xvii. 10) — one headed by Judas (a name which appears from Matt. x. 3, Luke vi. 16, to have been interchangeable with Thaddaeus or Theudas), the head of a band of robbers who seized upon the fortress of Sep- phoris ; one by Simon, previously a slave of Herod's, who proclaimed himseh king and burnt Herod's palaces at Jericho and elsewhere; one by Athronges and four brothers, each of whom ruled over a band, more or less numerous, of his own — and adds further, that besides these there were numerous pre tenders to the name of king, who murdered and robbed at large, and that one of these may well have been identical with the Theudas of whom Gamaliel speaks ; (4) that it is hardly conceivable that a writer The Cases of THE ACTS, V. Theudas and Judas. about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed1 him, were scattered, and brought to nought (37) After this man rose up Judas of lOr, believed. Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him : he also perished ; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. <38) And of St. Luke's culture and general accuracy, writing in the reign of Nero, could have been guhty of such inaccuracy as that imputed to him, stiU less that such a mis take should have been made by any author writing after Josephus's history was in the hands of men. A writer in the reign of Henry VIII. would hardly have inverted the order of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade. The description given by Gamaliel, saying that he was some one — «.«., some great personage — agrees with the sufficiently vague account given by Josephus of the leaders of the revolts on the death of Herod, especiaUy, perhaps, with that of Simon (who may have taken the name of Theudas as an alias to conceal his servile origin) of whom he says that "he thought himseh more worthy than any other" of kingly power. P7) Judas of Galilee. — In one passage Josephus (Ant. xviii. 1) caUs himaGaulonite — i.e., of the country east of GaUlee. Had this stood alone, St. Luke might have been charged here also with inaccuracy ; but in other passages (Ant. xx. 5, § 2 ; Wars, ii. 8, § 1) he is described as a Galilaean. On the taxing, in the modern sense of the term, which f oUowed on the census that synchronised with our Lord's nati vity, both being conducted under the supervision of Quhinus, see Luke u. 1, 2. The insurrection of Judas was by far the most im portant of the attempts to throw off the yoke of Eome. He was assisted by a Pharisee, named Sadduk, and the absolute independence of Israel was the watchword of his fohowers. It was unlawful, in any form, to pay tribute to Cassar. It was lawful to use any weapons in de fence of freedom. The war they waged was a religious war ; and Josephus, writing long after the movement had collapsed, but giving, obviously, the impressions of his own early manhood, enumerates them as being with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, with the first of whom they were very closely allied — one of the four great reli gious sects of Judaism. Eoman procurators and princes, Uke Arche laus and Antipas, were naturaUy united against him, and he and his foUowers came to the end of which GamaUel speaks. His influence over the excitable population of Galilee was, however, at the time great, and in part survived him. One of the Apostles probably derived his name of Zelotes, or Cananite (see Matt. x. 4), from having been among the foUowers of Judas, who were known by that name. His sons, Jacob and Simon, continued to be looked on as leaders after his death, and were crucified under Tiberius Alexander, the successor of Fadus in the pro- curatorship (Jos. Ant. xx. 5, § 2). (88) Befrain from these men. — The advice implies something Uke a suppressed conviction not 93 The Apostles beaten THE ACTS, V. and Dismissed. now I say unto you, Re frain from these men, and let them alone : for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought : ¦S9) but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. m And to him they agreed : and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. <41) And they departed from the presence of the bold enough to utter itself. Gama liel takes .his place in the class, at aU times numerous, of waiters upon Providence, who are neutral tiU a cause is successful, and then come forward with a tardy sympathy, but who, above aU, shrink from committing themselves while there seems any possibiUty of failure. In 1 Thess. ii. 13, St. Paul seems almost to contrast the readiness of his disciples in receiving his gospel not as "of man," but as " of God," with the timid caution of his master. As a prudential dhemma, the argu ment was forcible enough. Eesist- ance was either needless or it was hopeless. If needless, it was a waste of energy ; if hopeless, it involved a fatal risk besides that of mere fahure. We may legiti mately think of the fiery disciple as listening impatiently to this temporising counsel, and as stirred by it to greater vehemence. It will come to nought. — Better, it will be overthrown, so as to preserve the emphasis of the repetition of the same verb in the next clause of the dilemma. (39) Fighters against God. — It is interesting to note the re currence of the Bame phrase in the reasoning of the Pharisees who took St. Paul's part in chap. xxUi. 9. (¦"•) And to him. Oisy agreed. — The Sadducees, after theh man ner, would probably have preferred a more violent course, but the Pharisees were strong in the San hedrin, and the via media recom mended by Gamaliel was, under such circumstances, hkely to command a majority, and was, therefore, apparently accepted without a division. And beaten them. — Here we trace the action of Caiaphas and the priests. They were not con tent without some punishment be ing inflicted, and the party of GamaUel apparently acquiesced in this as a compromise, in the hope of averting more violent measures. And this is accordingly to be noted as the first actual experience of per secution falling on the whole com pany of the Twelve, and not on Peter and John only. They were probably convicted of the minor offence of causing a disturbance in the Temple, though dismissed, as with a verdict of " not proven," on the graver charge of heresy. The punishment in such a case would probably be the "forty stripes save one," of Deut. xxv. 3 and 2 Cor. xi. 24. <41) Bejoicing that they were counted worthy. — The emotion is probably, in one sense, natural to aU who have an intense 94 Their Joy THE ACTS, V. and Constancy. council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. t4a) And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. conviction of the Truth for which lived to see five of his sons fiU the they suffer. But in this case there was something more. The Twelve could not fah to remember theh Lord's beatitudes; and now, for the first time, felt that they could " rejoice and be exceeding glad " because they were suffering as the prophets had suffered before them (Matt. v. 11, 12). And they were suffering for His Name, or rather, with the best MSS., "for the Name " — for that of the Master who had loved them and whom they had learnt to love. We may note, too, in the whole history, the fulfilment of the prediction and the promise of Matt. x. 17 — 20. l42) And daily in the temple. — Probably, as before, in the Por tico of Solomon ; the captain of the Temple now acting on the resolu tion just taken, and letting the movement take its course without interruption. And in every house. — Better, as in chap. H. 46, at home : in their place, or, it may be, places, of meeting. To teach and preach Jesus Christ. — Better, to teach and to declare the good tidings of Jesus Christ. The word for " preach " is literaUy to " evangeUse," as in chap. viii. 4, 12, 25 ; Eom. x. 15, and elsewhere. As the chief members of the Sanhedrin disappear from the scene at this stage, it may be well to note the later fortunes of those who have been prominent up to this point in the history. (1) Annas office of high priest (Jos. Ant. xx. 9, § 1) ; but his old age was over clouded by the tumults raised by the Zealots under John of Gischala, in the reign of Vespasian, and before he died the sanctuary was occupied by them, and became in very deed a " den of robbers " (Jos. Wars, iv. 3, § 7). (2) Joseph, sur named Caiaphas, his son-in-law, who owed his appointment to Gratus (Jos. Ant. xviii. 2, § 2), was deposed by the Proconsul Vitelhus, a.d. 36 (Jos. Ant. xviii. 4, § 3), and disappears from history. (3) On John and Alexander, see Notes on chap. iv. 6. (4) Gamaliel, who is not mentioned by Josephus, con tinued to preside over the San hedrin under Caligula and Claudius, and is said to have died eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and to have sanctioned the Anathema, or "Prayer against heretics," drawn up by Samuel the Little (Lightfoot, Cent. Chorograph, c. 15). Christian traditions, how ever, represent him as having been secretly a disciple of Christ (Pseudo-Clement, Recogn. i. 65), and to have been baptised by Peter and Paul, with Nicodemus, who is represented as his nephew, and hia son Abibas (Photius, Cod. 171, p. 199). In a legendary story, pur porting to come from » priest of Syria, named Lucian, accepted by Augustine, he appears as having buried Stephen and other Chris tians, and to have been buried him self in the same sepulchre with the 9; Complaint by THE ACTS, VI. the Grecians. CHAPTER VT.^'And in those days, when the number of the disciples was; multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, be cause their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. C2) Then the twelve called the multitude Proto-martyr and Nicodemus at Caphar-algama. (Aug. Civ. Dei. xvii. 8 ; Serm. 318.) Later Eabbis looked on him as the last of the great Teachers or Eabbans, and noted that tiU his time men had taught the Law standing.whhe afterwards they sat. The glory of the Law, they said, had departed with Gamaliel. VI. W And in these days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied. — Better, were being multiplied, as by an almost dahy increase. The length of the interval between this and the previous chapter is left uncertain. The death of Stephen is fixed by most writers in a.d. 38. The Grecians. — The EngUsh version always carefuUy uses this word, and not Greek's, for the Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews. These were known also as "the dispersion among the Gentiles" (John vu. 35), or generaUy as "the dispersion," the " sojourners of the dispersion," those that were "scat tered abroad " (Jas. i. 1 ; 1 Pet. i 1). Many of the converts of the Day of Pentecost must have be longed to this body ; so, probably, did Barnabas and the others named in the Note on chap. iv. 37. Now they were becoming a prominent section of the Church, perhaps more numerous than the Hebrews, or Jews of Palestine. They, as their name implies, spoke Greek habitually, and as a rule did not 96 read the older Hebrew or speak the current Aramaic. They read the Septuagint (LXX.) version of the Old Testament. They were commonly more zealous, with the zeal of pilgrims, for the sanctity of the holy places, than the Jews of Jerusalem, itself, who had been familiar with them from infancy (chap. xxi. 27). Because their widows were. neglected. — The words imply something hke an organised ad ministration of the common fund: widows and theh children being the chief objects of relief. The rules of 1 Tim. v. 3 — 16, were probably the growth of a more mature experience ; and here we have to think of a clamorous crowd of applicants besieging the house at which the Apostles held theh meeting at the times appointed for giving reUef in money, or, as seems more probable, in kind. The Twelve — singly, or in groups — sat at the table, and gave as they were able. It was hke the dole of alms at the gate of a convent. Under such circumstances, jealousies and complaints were aU but inevitable. The Twelve were ah of them GaHlseans, and were suspected of favouring the widows of Palestine rather than those of the Dispersion. It was the first sign that the new society was outgrowing its primi tive organisation. <2> Then the twelve called the multitude of the dis ciples.— The Apostles meet tho Division THE ACTS, VI. of Labour. of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. (3) Wherefore, breth ren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may ap point over this business. crisis with singular tact and moderation. They do not resent the suspicion ; they are not careful to vindicate themselves against it. They remembered, it may be, the precedent presented by the life of Moses (Ex. xviu. 25), and they act, as he had acted, by delegating part of theh authority to others. The collective action of the multitude is Btrikingly in harmony with the Greek ideas attached to the word Ecclesia, as the assembly in which every citizen might take his share. Bepresentative government might come as a necessity of later times ; as yet, every member of the con gregation, every citizen of the new pohty, was invited, as having a right to vote. It is not reason.— LiteraUy, It is not pleasing, as in chap. xh. 3. The word implies that they had undertaken a burdensome duty, not for theh own pleasure, because they Uked it, but for the good of the community. And serve tables. — The word wasusedforthe " tables" of money changers, as in Matt. xxi. 12, John ii 15, and was, therefore, equahy appropriate whether we think of the relief as being given in money or in kind. P) Seven men of honest re port. — The number may have had its origin in the general reverence for the number Seven among the Jews. Possibly, however, the sug gestion may have come from the JAbertini, or Hellenists of Eome, 7 I where there was a distinct guild or Collegium, known as the Septemviri Epulones, or Seven Stewards (Lucan i. 602), whose business it was to arrange for the banquets held in honour of the gods, which were more or less analogous to the Christian agapa, on certain set days. (See Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Art. " Epulones.") It is an interesting coincidence that they, too, had been appointed to relieve the Pon- tifices from a duty which they found too heavy. This view falls in with the inference as to the Eoman origin of Stephen which wiU bo found in the Notes on verse 5. Pull of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. — The Apostles, it is clear, did not Hmit theh thoughts of the Spirit's working to prophecy and the ght of tongues. Wherever wisdom, and charity, and kindness were requisite, there was need of a supernatural grace, raising men above prejudice and passion. Of these qualities, no less than of the good report, the whole body of believers were to be, in the first instance, the judges, the Apostles reserving to themselves the right of final appointment, and therefore, if necessary, of a veto. It is significant that the word " wisdom" only appears in the Acts in con nection with Stephen (here and in verse 10, and in the report of his speech, chap. vh. 10, 22). We may, perhaps, think of James, the brother of the Lord, as led by what The Work of THE ACTS, VI. He Apostles (i> But we will give our selves continually to prayer, I and to the ministry of the word. C5) And the saying he now saw and heard to that prayerful seeking after wisdom which is so prominent in his Epistle (Jas. i. 5; iii. 13—17). (4) We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word LiteraUy, We will persevere in . . . These formed the true work of the Apostles, as afterwards of the bishops or elders of the Church. " Prayer" includes the pubUc wor ship of the Church in aU its various developments, as weU as private prayer and intercession ; the " ministry of the word," aU forms Of teaching. It is to be noted that the men thus appointed are never caUed " deacons " in the New Testament. When they are referred to again it is as "the Seven" (chap. xxi. 8), as though they were a distinct and peculiar body. Their functions were, of course, in some degree, analogous to those of the " deacons" of the Pastoral Epistles and the later organisation of the Church; but these, as we have seen, had theh prototypes in the "young men," as contrasted with" elders," in chap. v. 6, 10 ; and the Seven were- probably appointed, so to speak, " as archdeacons, to super intend and guide them. In some churches, as at Eome, the number of deacons was fixed at seven, in conformity with this precedent (so also at the Council of Neo-Csesarea, Can. 14, a.d. 314), and they were Considered, when the bishop came to be distinguished from the elders, a9 acting more immediately under the direction of the former, helping him in the details of his office. (°) And they chose Stephen. — The seven who were chosen aU bear Greek names, and it is a natural, though not a necessary, inference, that they were all of the HeUenistic section of the Church, either because that section had a majority, or because the Hebrews generously voted for giving them special representatives of theh own. The order of names may represent the actual order of election, Stephen obtaining the largest number of votes, and so on. The position occupied by the new teacher is so prominent that we should welcome anything that threw hght on his previous training. TJnhappUy, we cannot advance beyond the region of uncertain tradition, or, at best, of probable inference. The coinci dences, however, which suggest that inference are not without in terest. (1) The name of Stephanus was not a common one, and appears in few inscriptions. Like so many of the names in Eom. xvi., how ever, it is found in those of the Columbarium, or burial-place, of the household of the Empress Livia. The man bearing it is described as a goldsmith (Aurifaber), and as im- munis — i.e., exempted from the reUgious obUgations of his trade- guild. He is a freed-man, or liber- tinus. Circumstances, such as the bequest by Herod the Great of his gold plate to Livia (Jos. Ant. xvi. 5, § 1 ; xvu. 8, § 1), indicate an mtimate connection between him and the Imperial Court, and make it probable that the goldsmith Stephanus was a Jew. The busi ness was one in which then, as in later ages, Jews conspicuously ex- Choice of THE ACTS, VI. Deacons. pleased the whole multi tude : and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and ceUed, and the exemption just mentioned may weU have been, as it were, of the nature of a " con science-clause " in his favour. The name is found also on a tablet in the museum of the Collegio Romano. (2) It is obvious that the " strangers of Eome " — the Jews from the capital of the empire — were likely to be among the most prominent of the Hellenists at Jerusalem. It was antecedently probable that the name of one of that body should stand first on the list. (3) When Stephen becomes conspicuous as a teacher, the synagogue which is the most prominent scene of his activity is that of the Libertines, who can be none other than the freed-men or emancipated Jews from Eome. (See Note on verse 9.) (4) Jews from Eome were, we have Been, present on the Day of Pente cost, and some conspicuous converts from among them had been made before Stephen appears on the scene. (See Note on chap. iv. 37.) (5) The very appointment of the Seven has, as we have seen, its origin in the customs of the trade- guilds of Eome, Buch as that to which the goldsmith Stephanus had belonged. Taking aU these facts together, there seems sufficient ground to beUeve that in the proto-martyr of the Church, whose teaching and whose prayers exer cised so marvellous an influence in the history of the Church of Christ, we have one of the earnest repre sentatives of Eoman Christianity. A tradition accepted by Epiphanius in the fourth century leads to another conclusion. Stephen and PhiUp were both, it was said, of the number of the Seventy who were sent shortly after the last Feast of Tabernacles in our Lord's ministry into every city and viUage where He Himseh would come. That mission, there seems Uttle ground to doubt, was in its very form symbolic of the admission of the Gentile nations to the kingdom of God; and it would seem from Luke ix. 52, xvii. 11, as if, at that time, Samaria had been the chief scene of our Lord's ministry, and therefore of that of the Seventy. In a mission of such a nature, it was not unlikely that Hellenistic Jews should be more or less prominent, and the assumption of some previous connection with Samaria gives an adequate expla nation both of PhUip's choice of that region as the scene of his work as an Evangelist (chap. viii. 5), and of the general tendency of St. Stephen's speech; perhaps also of one of the real or apparent inaccu racies which criticism has noted as a proof of ignorance either in the speaker or the writer. (See Note on chap. vii. 16.) Admitting the comparative lateness of the tradi tion mentioned .by Epiphanius, it was still antecedently probable that men who had been brought into prominence by their Lord's special choice would not be passed over in such an election as that now before us ; and if, as has been suggested, the Seventy were the primary representatives of the Prophets of the New Testament, then it was natural that men should turn to them when they wanted to. find men " full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom." List of THE ACTS, VI. the Deacons. Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch : Philip. — The coincidence of name with that of the Apostle and with two of Herod's sons indicates that the name was as common as that of Stephen was rare. Of his previous history we know nothing, except the tradition that he also had belonged to the Seventy. His long-continued residence at Caesarea just suggests the probability of an eariier connection with that city. The fact that he had four grown up daughters when St. Paul came to Caesarea makes it probable that he was married at the time of his appointment (chap. xxi. 9). Prochorus, and Micanor, and Timon, and Parmenas. — Of these four nothing is known, nor are there any materials even for probable conjecture. The name of Nicanor was memorable as that of the great enemy of Judah, who died in battle, fighting against Judas Maccabeus. It appears later on as borne by a Jewish friend of Titus and Josephus (Wars, v. 6, § 2). That of Timon had been made conspicuous by the philoso pher of Phhus and the misanthrope of Athens. TTieolas a proselyte of Antioch Next to the first two names on the list, the last is that to which greatest interest attaches. (1) It is the first appearance in the history of the Christian Church of the city which was afterwards to be the mother-church of the Gen tiles. (On Antioch and its position see Note on chap. xi. 19.) Here it wiU be enough to note that there wasa large Jewish population there, and that Herod had gained the favour of the city by building a 100 splendid colonnade along the whole length of its chief street. (2) The name had been made memorable by Nicolaus of Damascus, who wrote a long and elaborate history of his own times, and pleaded for the Jews before Augustus and Agrippa (Jos. Ant. xii. 3, § 2 ; xvi. 2, § 3 ; 9, § 4). He appeared at Eome again as counsel for Archelaus, and was for many years the confidential friend and adviser of Herod the Great (Jos. Ant. xvii. 9, § 6 ; 11, § 3). Finding, as we do, an adopted son of Herod's at Antioch (chap. xiii. 1), and a proselyte of that city bearing the name of his chosen companion, there seems Bome ground for assuming a link con necting the three together. (3) In any case Nicolas is memorable as the first person not of the race of Abraham named as admitted to full membership in the Church. He may have sacrificed to ApoUo, or taken part in the licentious festivals of the grove of Daphne. The word "proselyte" is taken in its fuU sense, as including the acceptance of chcumcision and the ceremonial law. He was, in technical lan guage, a proselyte of Eighteous- ness, not of the Gate. Had it been otherwise, his conversion would have anticipated the lesson taught afterwards by that of CorneUus. (4) The name of Nicolas has been identified by an early tradition as the founder of the sect of the Nico- laitanes condemned in Eev. ii. 6. He, it was said, taught men "to misuse the flesh " (Clem. Alex. Strom, hi. 4, p. 187 ; Euseb. Hist. hi. 29). Some contended that he meant by this that it was to be The Deacons THE ACTS, VI. ordained. i6) whom they set before the apostles : and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. (" And the word of God increased ; and the number of the dis- subdued by a rigorous asceticism : others, that he held it to be a proof of spiritual progress to yield to sensuous impulses, and yet remain pure. The traditions are not of much value, and another interpre tation of the name of the sect is now very generaUy adopted (see Eev. u. 6) ; but the fall of one of the Seven into the error of overstrained rigour, or a reaction from it, is not in itseh inconceiv able. In the New Testament we never come across his name again. I6) When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. — This is the first mention of the act in the New Testament. It had had an analogous meaning in the ritual of Israel (Num. xxvii. 23) in acts of blessing (Gen. xlviu. 13, 14) and the transmission of functions. Its primary symboUsm would seem to be that of the con centration for the moment of aU the spiritual energy of prayer upon him on whom men lay their hands; and so of the bestowal of any office for which spiritual gifts are re quhed. It had been used in the Jewish schools on the admission of a scribe to his office as a teacher. It soon became the customary outward and visible sign of such beBtowal (Acts xiii. 3). Instruction as to what it thus meant entered into the primary teaching of ah converts (Heb. vi. 2). It was con nected with other acts that pre supposed the communication of a spiritual ght (1 Tim. v. 22). Through well-nigh aU changes of poUty and dogma and ritual, it has 101 kept its place, with Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, among the un changing witnesses of the Church's universality and permanence, wit nessing, as in Confirmation, to the diversity of sphitual gifts, and, as in Ordination, to their connection with every special office and ad ministration in the Church of God. CT The word of God in creased. — The tense indicates gradual and continuous growth. The fact stated implies more than the increase of numbers specified in the next clause. The " word of God " is here the whole doctrine of Christ as preached by the Apostles, and, we must now add, by the Seven who are commonly known as Dea cons, and there was, as the sequel shows, at this stage, what we have learnt to call an expansion and development of doctrine. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. — The fact is every way sig nificant. No priest is named as a foUower of our Lord's. None, up to this time, had been converted by the Apostles. The new fact may fahly be connected with the new teaching of Stephen. And the main feature of that teaching was, as we shah see, an anticipation of what was afterwards proclaimed more clearly by St. Paul and (if we assign the Epistle to the He brews to its probable author) by ApoUos : that the time for sacri fices had passed away, and that the Law, as a whole, and the ritual of the Temple in particular, were decaying and waxing old, and Growth of THE ACTS, VI. the Church. ciples multiplied in Jeru salem greatly ; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (8> And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. (9) Then there arose cer tain of the synagogue, which is called tlie syna gogue of the Libertines, and ready to vanish away (Heb. viii. 13). We might have thought this likely to repel the priests, and to rouse them to a fanatic frenzy. We find that it attracts them as nothing else had attracted. To them, it may weh have been that the daily round of a ritual of slaughtered victims and clouds of in cense, the cutting up of the carcases and the carriage of the offal, had become unspeakably wearisome. They felt how profitless it was to theh own sphitual life, how little power there was in the blood of buUs and goats to take away sin (Heb. x. 4). Theh profession of the new faith did not necessarily involve the immediate abandon ment of their official function ; but they were drifting to it as to a not far-off result, and were prepared to meet it without misgiving, per haps with thankfulness, when it became inevitable. (8) Stephen, fuU of faith and power The better MSS. give, " full of grace and power." Did great wonders and miracles. — Better, as preserving the famiUar combination, wonders and signs. (9) Certain of the syna gogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines. —The structure of the sentence makes it probable that the Liber tines, the Cyrenians, and the Alex andrians, attended one synagogue, those of CiHcia and Asia another. 102 Each of the names has a special interest of its own. (1) The Libertini. These were freed-men, emancipated Eoman Jews, with probably some proselytes, descend ants of those whom Pompeius had led captive, and who were settled in the trans-Tiberine district of Eome in large numbers, with oratories and synagogues of theh own. When Tacitus (Ann. ii. 85) describes the expulsion of the Jews under Claudius, he speaks of "four thousand of the freed-men, or Libertine class," as banished to Sardinia. From this class, we have seen reason to beUeve, Stephen himself had sprung. Andronicus and Junias were probably members of this synagogue. (See Eom. xvi. 7.) Cyrenians.— At Cyrene, also, on the north coast of Africa, lying between Egypt and Capthage, there was a large Jewish population. Strabo, quoted Jby Josephus, de scribes them as a fourth of the whole (Jos. Ant. xiv. 7, § 2). They were conspicuous for the offerings they sent to the Temple, and had appealed to Augustus for protec tion against the irregular taxes by which the provincial governors sought to intercept theh gifts (Jos. Ant. xvi. 6, § 5). In Simon of Cyrene we have had a conspicuous member, probably a conspicuous convert, of this community. (See Matt, xxvii. 32.) Later on, clearly as the result of Stephen's teaching, Stephen and THE ACTS, VI. his Opponents. Cyrenians, and Alexan-I Idrians, and of them of they are prominent in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles of An tioch. We may think of Simon himseh, and his two sons Alex ander and Bufus (Mark xv. 21), as probably members of this societ y . Alexandrians. — Next to Jeru salem and Eome, there was, perhaps, no city in which the Jewish popu lation was so numerous and influen tial as at Alexandria. Here, too, they had theh own quarter, as signed to them by Ptolemy Phila- delphus, and were governed, as if they were a free repubUc, by an ethnarch of theh own (Jos. Ant. xiv. 7, § 2). They were recognised as citizens by theh Eoman rulers (Ibid. xiv. 10, § 1). From Alexan dria had come the Greek version of the Old Testament, known from the legend of the seventy transla tors who had aU been led to a supernatural agreement, as that of the Septuagint, or LXX., which was then in use among ah the Hellenistic Jews throughout the empire, and largely read even in Palestine itseh. There, at this time, living in fame and honour, was the great teacher Philo, the probable master of ApoUos, training him, aU unconsciously, to be the preacher of a wisdom higher than his own. The knowledge, or want of knowledge, with which ApoUos appears on the scene, knowing only the baptism of John, forbids the assumption that he had been at Jerusalem after the Day of Pente cost (chap. xviH. 25), but echoes of the teaching of Stephen are found in that of the Epistle to the He brews, and it is not improbable that thoughts had been carried back to Alexandria by those who had thus been brought under his in fluence. Of them of Cilicia. — Here we feel at once the interest of the name. The young Jew of Tarsus, the disciple of Gamaliel, could not fail to be among the leading mem bers of this section of the second synagogue, exercising, in the fiery energy of his zeal, a dominant in fluence even over the others. And of Asia. — The word is taken, as throughout the New Testament, in its later and more restricted sense, as denoting the pro-consular province so caUed, in cluding the old Lydia and Ionia, and having Ephesus as its capital. Later on in the history, we find Jews of Asia prominent in theh zeal for the sacredness of the Temple (chap. xxi. 27). Disputing with Stephen. — The nature of the dispute is not far to seek. The tendency of distance from sacred places which are con nected with men's rehgion, is either to make men sit loose to their asso ciations, and po rise to higher and wider thoughts, or to intensify their reverence. Where pilgrimages are customary, the latter is almost in variably the result. Men measure the sacredness of what they have come to see by the labour and cost which they have borne to see it, and they resent anything that suggests that they have wasted their labour, as tending to sacrilege and impiety. The teaching of Stephen, representing as it did the former alternative, guided and per fected by the teaching of the Spirit, was probably accepted by a few in each community. The others, moved by their pUgrim zeal, were 103 He is accusal THE ACTS, VI. of Blasphemy, Cilicia and of Asia, disput ing with Stephen. oa> And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. CD)Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. (12)And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to more intolerant of it than the dweUers in Jerusalem, to whom the ritual of the Temple was a part of their every-day life. Those who were most familiar with it, the priests who ministered in its courts, were, as we have seen (verse 7), among the first to welcome the new and wider teaching. (i«) They were not able. — Better, had no strength; the verb being somewhat more forcible than that commonly translated "to be able." To resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake. — It is remarkable that Stephen is the first Christian teacher of whom " wisdom " is thus speciaUy predicted. In the Gospels it is ascribed to our Lord (Matt. xHi. 54 ; Luke ii. 40, 52) ; and we read of " the wisdom of Solomon " (Matt. xii. 42). In a writer like St. Luke it impUes something higher even than the ' 'consolation " or " prophecy " from which Bar nabas took his name ¦ — wider thoughts, a clearer vision of the truth, the development of what had been before latent in hints and parables and dark sayings. The speech that foUows in the next chapter may be accepted as an example, as far as circumstances aUowed, of the method and power of his general teaching. (u) Blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. — The words indicate with sufficient clearness the nature of Stephen's teaching. The charge was a false one, but its falsehood was a distortion of the truth, as that against our Lord had been. He was accused of blasphemy in calhng Himself the Son of God; making Himseh equal with God (Matt. xxvi. 63 ; John v. 18) ; threatening to destroy the Temple (Matt. xxvi. 61) — each of the counts in the indictment resting on words that He had actually spoken. And Stephen in like manner was charged with offences for which there must have seemed colourable ground. He had taught, we must believe, that the days of the Temple were numbered ; that with its faU the form of worship of which it was the representative would pass away; that the Law given by Moses was to make way for the higher revela tion in Christ, and the privileges of the elect nation to be merged in the blessings of the universal Church. In this case, accordingly, the antagonism comes, not only or chiefly, as in the previous chapters, from the Sadducean high priests and their followers, but from the whole body of scribes and people. Pharisees and Sadducees, Hebrews and Hellenists, are once more brought into coalition against the new truth. 104 And brought THE ACTS, VII. before the Council. the council, °3) and set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law : a4) for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs1 which 1 Or, rites. Moses delivered us. C1B) And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. CHAPTER VII— a) Then said the high priest, Are these things so) m And he said, Men, breth- P3) Against this holy place. — The new feature of Stephen's preaching comes into greater pro minence. P4) This Jesus of TTazareth shall destroy this place. — The accusation rested in part on the words of John ii. 19, partly on the prediction of Matt. xxiv. 2, which Stephen must have known, and may weh have reproduced. It would seem to the accusers a natural inference that He who had uttered the prediction should be the chief agent in its fulfilment. And shall change the cus toms. — The words seem to have been used in a half -technical sense, as including the whole complex system of the Mosaic law, its ritual, its symbolism, its laws and rules of Hfe, circumcision, the Sabbath, the distinction of clean and unclean meats (chaps, xv. 1 ; xxi 21 ; xxvi. 3 ; xxviii. 17). P6) Looking stedfastly on him. — St. Luke's characteristic word. (See Note on chap. i. 10.) Saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. — We can scarcely be wrong in tracing this description tr. the impression made at the time on St. Paul, and re ported by him to St. Luke. It must be interpreted by the account given of angels as appearing in the form of " young men " (Mark xvi. 5), and so throws some light upon St. Stephen's age, as being, pro bably, about the same standing as St. Paul, and imphes that his face was lighted up as by the radiance of a divine brightness. The phrase seems to have been more or less proverbial. In the expanded ver sion of the Book of Esther, which appears in the LXX., she says to the King, as in reverential awe, " I saw thee, 0 my lord, as an angel of God" (Esth. v. 2). In 2 Sam. xiv. 17, the words refer to the wisdom of David rather than to anything visible and outward. Here the impression left by St. Luke's narrative is that the face of St. Stephen was Ulumined at once with the glow of an ardent zeal and the serenity of a higher wisdom. VII. P) Then said the high priest, Are these things so ? — The question was analogous to that put to our Lord. The accused was caUed on to plead guilty or not guUty, and had then an opportunity for his defence. On that defence we now enter. (2) Men, brethren, and fathers. — The discourse which 105 THE ACTS, VII. Apologia, ren, and fathers, hearken ; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopota- foUows presents many aspects, each remarkable as bringing together of special interest. (1) It is clearly an unfinished fragment, inter rupted by the clamours of the by standers (verse 51) — the torso, as it were, of a great apologia. Its very incompleteness, the difficulty of tracing the argument as far as it goes, because we do not see how far it was meant to go, are indirect proofs that we have a true, though not necessarily a verbatim, report. A later writer, composing a speech after the manner of Herodotus and Thucydides, would have made it a much more direct answer to the charges in the indictment. And this, in its turn, supplies a reason able presumption in favour of other speeches reported by the same author. (2) Looking to the rela tions between St. Luke and St. Paul, and to the prominence of the latter among the accusers of Stephen, there is a strong proba- biHty that the report was derived from him. This is confirmed by some instances of remarkable parallelism between the speech and his later teaching. (Comp. verse 53, Gal. Hi. 19 ; verse 48, Acts xvii. 24.) (3) The speech is the first great survey of the history of Israel as a process of divine educa tion — the first development from the Hps of a human teacher of principles that had before been latent. As such, it contains the germs which were, in theh turn, to be afterwards developed, on the one hand, by St. Paul in the Epistles known to be his, on the other hand by ApoUos, or whoever was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. (4) The speech is also 106 within a comparatively small com pass a considerable number of real or seeming inaccuracies in the de tails of the history which is com mented on. Whether they are real or apparent wiU be discussed as we deal with each of them. It is obvious that the results thus arrived at will form something like a crucial test of theories which men have formed as to the nature and Umits of inspiration. (5) As Stephen was a Hellenistic or Greek- speaking Jew, it is probable that the speech was delivered in Greek, and so far it confirms the inference which has been drawn from the Aramaic words speciaUy recorded in our Lord's teaching — " Eph- phatha," " Talitha cumi," and the cry upon the cross — that He habit ually used the former language, and that this was the medium of inter course between the priests and Pilate. (See Mark v. 41 ; vii. 34.) The God of glory.— The opening words are an impHed answer to the charge of blasphem ing God. The name contained an aUusive reference to the Shechinah, or cloud of glory, which was the symbol of the Presence of Jehovah. That was the " glory of the Lord." He, in like manner, was the " Lord of glory." (Comp. Jas. ii. 1.) Before he dwelt in Char ran. — We come, at the very out set, on one of the difficulties above referred to. Here the cah of Abraham is spoken of as before he sojourned in Haran, or Charran, west of the Euphrates. In Gen. xH. 1 it is first mentioned after Abraham's removal \hither. On The History THE ACTS, VII. of Abraham. mia, before he dwelt in Charran, (3) and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country," and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew a Goil.12. 1. thee. (4) Then came he out of the land of the Chal- dseans, and dwelt in Char ran : and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this the other hand, Gen. xv. 7 speaks of God as bringing him " from Ur of the Chaldees" — i.e., from Mesopotamia, or the east of the Euphrates ; and this is confirmed by Josh. xxiv. 3, Neh. ix. 7. The language of writers contemporary with Stephen (Philo, De Abrah. ; Jos. Ant. i. 1, § 1) lays stress, as he does, on the first caU as weU as the second. Here, accordingly, it cannot be said that the statement is at variance with the Old Testa ment narrative. The word Meso potamia was used by the LXX., and has thence passed into later versions, for the Hebrew Aram- Naharaim, " Syria of the two rivers " (Gen. xxiv. 10 ; Deut. xxiii. 4 ; Judg. Hi. 8), and, less accurately, for Padan-Aram in Gen. xxv. 20 ; xxviii. 2, 5, 6 ; where our version retains the Hebrew name. (4) Prom thence, when his father was dead. — In Gen. xi. 26, 32, Terah, the father of Abra ham, is said to have died at the age of 205 years, and after he had reached the age of seventy to have begotten Abram, Nahor, and Ha- ran ; whhe Abraham in Gen. xii. 4 is said to have been seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. This, primd facie, suggests the conclusion that he Hved for sixty years after his son's depar ture. The explanations sometimes given — (1) that Abraham may have been the youngest, not the eldest son of Terah, placed first in order of honour not of time, as Shem if among the sons of Noah (Gen. v. 32 ; vi. 10), though Japheth was the elder (Gen. x. 21); and (2) that the marriage of Abraham's son with the granddaughter of Nahor by the youngest of his eight sons, Bethuel (Gen. xxii. 22), suggests some such difference of age, and that he may therefore have been born when Terah was 130, and so have remained in Ha ran tiU his father's death — though probable as an hypothesis, would hardly appear so natural an ex planation as that the memory of St. Stephen or of his reporter dwelt upon the broad outlines of the history, and was indifferent to chronological detaUs. It is re markable that like difficulties pre sent themselves in St. Paul's own survey of the history of Israel. (See Notes on chap. xiii. 20 ; Gal. iii. 17.) A man speaking for his Hfe, and pleading for the truth with a passionate eagerness, does not commonly carry with him a memoria technica of chronological minutia). This seems, on the whole, a more satisfactory explanation than the assumption that the Apostle, having a clear recollec tion of the facts as we find them, brought them before his hearers in a form which presented at least the appearance of inaccuracy. He removed Him. — The change of subject may be noted as 107 The Promise THE ACTS, VII. to Abrahnm. land, wherein ye now dwell. C5) And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on : yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. <« And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land ; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. m And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God : and after that shall they come forth, and serve me more natural in a speaker than a writer, and as so far confirming the inference that we have probably a verbatim report. (6) And he gave him none inheritance The apparent ex ception of the field and cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxiii. 9—17) was not a real one. That was pur chased for a special purpose, not given as an inheritance. (6) And that they should bring them into bondage . . . — Here again there is another apparent discrepancy of detail. Taking the common computation, the interval between the covenant with Abraham and that with Moses was 430 years (Gal. iii. 17), of which only 215 are reckoned as spent in Egypt. The IsraeUtes were indeed sojourners in a strange land for the whole 430 years, but the history shows that they were not in bondage nor evh entreated tiU the Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph. The chronological difficulty, however, Hes in recon- ciUng St. Paul's statement in Gal. in. 17 with the language of Gen. xv. 13, which gives 400 years as the sojourning in Egypt, and Ex. xii. 40, which gives 430, and with which St. Stephen is in substantial agreement. St. Paul appears to 103 have foUowed the LXX. reading of Ex. xii. 40, which inserts " in the land of Canaan," and in some MSS. "they and their fathers," and with this the Samaritan Pen tateuch agrees. Josephus varies, in some passages (Ant. ii. 15, § 2), giving 215 years ; in others (Ant. H. 9, § 1 ; Wars, v. 9, § 4), 400. AU that can be said is, as before, that chronological accuracy did not affect the argument in either case. It was enough for St. Stephen, as for St. Paul, to accept this or that system of dates, as they had been taught, without inquiring into the grounds on which it rested. Such inquiries were foreign to the Jewish character generaUy, and above all to that character when possessed by the sense of new and divine reali ties. Bound numbers were enough for them to mark the successive stages of God's deaUngs with His people. P) And after that shall they come forth The verse combines the promise to Abraham in Gen. xv. 17 with a free rendering of the sign given to Moses (Ex. iii. 12), which referred not to Canaan but to Horeb. What St. Stephen does is to substitute with the natural freedom of a narrative given from memory the words " they shaU The Story of THE ACTS, VII. Joseph, in this place. (8) And he gave him the covenant of circumcision : " and so Abraham begat Isaac,6 and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob f and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. d (9) And the patriarchs," moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but b Gen. 21. 3. /Gen. 41. 37. e Gen. 25. 26. d Gen. 29. 31. e Gen. 37. 28. God was with him, 00) and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt / and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. (11) Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great afflic- serve me " for the simpler phrase, " they shah come hither again," of Genesis. The whole context is at variance with the assumption that St. Stephen meant the last words of the verse to be taken as applying to the mount of God. (8) And he gave him the covenant . . . — Here we trace an indirect reference to the charge that he had spoken " against the customs." He does not deny the specific charge that he had said that Jesus of Nazareth should change them. He probably had taught that the change was about to come. He does assert (1) that the covenant of chcumcision foUowed on the promise to Abraham, and therefore was not the ground of his election, and so lays the foundation for St. Paul's argument in Gal. hi. 17 ; (2) that, though part of a provisional, not of a permanent, system, it came from God's appointment, and therefore was to be spoken of with aU reverence, and so he clears him seh from the charge of blas phemy. The twelve patriarchs. — On the meaning of the word see Note on chap. ii. 29. Here it is applied to the sons of Jacob, as being, each of them, the founder of a patria, or family. (9) The patriarchs moved with envy. — This, interpreted by what foUows, is the first step in the long induction which is to show that the elect of God had always been opposed and rejected by those who were for the time the represen tatives of the nation. Envy had actuated the patriarchs when they sold Joseph; envy had led their descendants to dehver up Jesus (Matt, xxvii. 18). But man's evil will had not frustrated God's gra cious purpose. Joseph was made ruler over a kingdom. A greater glory might therefore be in store for Him who had now been rejected by them. Sold Joseph into Egypt.— The objection that Joseph's brethren sold him not into Egypt, but to the Midianites and IshmaeUtes (Gen. xxxvii.25,28), may weU be dismissed as frivolous. They knew the trade which the Midianite slave-dealers carried on, and where theh brother would be taken. So Joseph him seh says of them "ye sold ms hither" (Gen. xiv. 5). (li-ii) Uow there came a dearth . . . — So far as we can 109 Joseph in THE ACTS, VII. Egypt. tion : and our f ath 3rs found no sustenance. (12) But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt," he sent out our fathers first. a3) And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren ; 6 and Joseph's kindred was made 1. c Gen. 46. 5. i! Gen. 49. 33. b Gen. 45. known unto Pharaoh. <14)Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. (15) So Jacob went down into Egypt, c and died/ he, and our fathers, (16) and were carried over into trace the sequence of thought, there seems the suggested infer ence that as those who, in the his tory of Joseph, had persecuted him, came afterwards to be dependent on his bounty, so it might prove to be, in the last paraUel which the history of Israel presented. In the coming famine, not of bread, but of sustenance for their spiritual Ufe, they would have to turn to Him of whom they had been, in purpose and in act, the betrayers and murderers. (i4) Threescore and fifteen souls. — Seventy is given as the number, including Jacob, Joseph, and his sons, in Gen. xlvi. 27 ; Ex. i. 5; Deut. x. 22. Here, however, Stephen had the authority of the LXX. of Gen. xlvi. 27, which gives the number at seventy-five and makes it up by inserting the son and grandson of Manasseh, two sons and a grandson of Eph raim. With them it was probably an editorial correction based upon Num. xxvi. 26 — 37. Stephen, as a HeUenistic Jew, naturaUy ac cepted, without caring to investi gate, the number which he found in the Greek version. (16) And were carried over into Sychem. — The words appear to include Jacob, who was buried not at Sychem, but Machpelah 110 (Gen. 1. 13). If we Hmit the verb to the patriarchs, which is in itseh a tenable Umitation, we are met by the fresh difficulty that the Old Testament contains no record of the burial of any of the Twelve Patriarchs, with the exception of Joseph, whose boneB were laid, on the occupation of Canaan, in She chem (Josh. xxiv. 32) ; and Jose- sephus states (Ant. iv. 8, § 2) that they were buried at Hebron. This, however, only represents, at the best, a local tradition. In the time of Jerome (Ep. 86) the tombs of the Twelve Patriarchs were shown at Shechem, and this in its turn witnesses to a Samaritan tradition which continues to the present day (Palestine Exploration Report, Dec, 1877), and which Stephen, it may be, followed in preference to that of Judaea. Looking to the pro babilities of the case, it was Hkely that the example set by Joseph would be followed by the other tribes, and that as Shechem was far more prominent than Hebron, as the centre of the civil and reU- gious Hfe of Israel in the time of Joshua, that should have been chosen as the burial-place of his brethren rather than Machpelah. Looking, again, to the fact that one of Stephen's companions, im mediately after his death, goes to. Burial of THE ACTS, VII. the Patriarch. Sychem, and laid in thel i sepulchre that Abraham Samaria as a preacher, and that to the massacre connected with the there are good grounds for believ. ing that both had been previously connected with it (see Note on chap. vi. 5), we may probably trace to this influence his adoption of the Samaritan version of the history. The hated Sychar (Ecclus. 1. 26; see John iv. 5) had, from Stephen's point of view, a claim on the reverence of all true IsraeUtes, and his assertion of that claim may weh have been one of the causes of the bitterness with which his hearers listened to him. That Abraham bought for a sum of money. — Here we seem to come across a direct con tradiction to the narrative of Gene sis. The only recorded transaction in which Abraham appears as a buyer, was his purchase of the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite (Gen. xxiu. 16). The only recorded transaction hi which the sons of Emmor, or Hamor, appear as seUers, was in Jacob's purchase of the field at Shechem (Gen. xxxhi. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32). What we have seen above, how ever, prepares us for the existence of a Samaritan tradition carry ing the associations of Shechem to a remoter past. And, assuming such a tradition, there are sig nificant facts in the patriarchal history of which it furnishes an explanation. (1) Jacob gives as a special inheritance to Joseph, " one portion" (in the Hebrew, "one Shechem;" in the LXX., Sikima) above his brethren, which he had taken "out of the hands of the Amorites with his sword and his bow." Of that conquest — as it is clear that the words cannot refer story of Dinah, which Jacob had severely condemned (Gen. xxxiv. 30) — the history contains no re cord, and to interpret the words as prophetic of future conquests is to strain them to a non-natural interpretation which they wiU hardly bear. Jacob did not come as an invader, nor had the time for thus taking possession of the whole land as yet arrived. The facts of the case suggest a special right claimed and asserted in regard to this one possession, and that right presupposes a previous purchase by some ancestor of Jacob's — i.e., by Abraham. This being done, and the right asserted, to make the portion larger, and perhaps as a measure of conciliation, there fol lowed the subsequent purchase of Gen. xxxiii. 19. (2) Shechem was the earUest settlement of Abraham on his entrance into Canaan, and there he built an altar (Gen. xu. 67). But the feeUng of reverence for holy places, always strong in the Hebrew race, as seen, e.g., in the case of David and Araunah, would hardly permit a man of Abraham's wealth and princely nobleness to offer burnt-offerings to the Lord of that which had cost him nothing (2 Sam. xxiv. 24) ; nor would a devout worshipper be content to see the altar so con secrated in the possession of another, and so exposed to desecra tion. The building of an altar involved, almost of necessity, as in the case just cited, the purchase of the ground on which it stood. (3) The Samaritans had an im memorial tradition (adopted by Dean Stanley, Ffoulkes, Grove, ill Abraham's THE ACTS, VII. Sepulchre. bought for a sum of money I I of the sons of Emmor the and others) that the sacrifice of Isaac took place on the mountain of Moriah (Gen. xxii. 2), or Geri zim, which commands the plain of Moreh (Gen. xii. 6), or Shechem ; and, without now discussing the evidence for or against the tradi tion, it almost involved of necessity the assumption that Abraham had aheady an altar there, and with it a consecrated field which he could call his own. (4) Another Sama ritan tradition, it may be noted, connected Shechem with the sacri fice offered by Melchizedek. This is enough to show the extent of the claims which were made by the Samaritans on behalf of theh sa cred places, and taken together with the statement referred to in the previous Note as to the tombs of the Patriarchs, leads us to the conclusion that Stephen, more or less influenced by his recent as sociations with them, adopted theh traditions. This seems, at any rate, the most probable solution of the difficulty which the statement at first sight presents. To do this in Jerusalem, before the very San hedrin, the members of which had revUed our Lord as a Samaritan (John viii. 48), requhed a martyr's boldness, and, claiming as it did a brotherhood for the hated Sama ritans, the hereditary foes of Ju dah, had, we may believe, much to do with causing the fury that ended in his actual martyrdom. It may be added (1) that the manifest famiU- arity of St. Luke with Samaria and the Samaritans would dispose him to accept such a tradition without correction ; (2) that the Twelve, some of whom had so journed for three days at Sychar 112 (John iv. 43), were Hkely to have become acquainted with it, and to have been ignorant of the Hebron traditions; (3) that the well-known substitution of Gerizim for Ebal in Deut. xxvu. 4, in the Samaritan Pentateuch, not less than theh addition of a commandment to build an altar on Gerizim to the ten great laws of Ex. xx., shows a tendency to deal freely with the text and the facts of the Penta teuch, so as to support theh own traditions as to their sacred places. Of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. — The inser tion of the word "father" instead of "son," which would be (as in Matt. x. 3; Luke hi. 23) the natural rendering of the Greek construction, must be looked on as betraying a wish on the part of the translators to meet the difficulty presented by the statement in Gen. xxxiv. 2, that Shechem was the son of Hamor the Hivite. It may be noted that it is the only English version that thus tampers with the text — Tyndale giving " at Sy chem ; " Wiclif, Cranmer, Geneva, and the Bhemish giving " son of Sychem." A possible explanation of the apparent discrepancy may be found in the very probable as sumption that Shechem may have been a quasi-hereditary name ap pearing in alternate generations. In this instance, however, textual criticism comes in to cut the knot. Many of the better MSS., including the Vatican and the Sinaitic, give the reading "in Sychem," and so make the name apply to the place and not to a person. With the exception of verse 43, we have now come to the last of Israel THE ACTS, VII. in Egypt. father of Sychem. 07)But when the time of the pro mise drew nigh, whieh God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 08) till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. °9) The same dealt subtilly with our kin dred, and evil entreated l Or, Jai to God our fathers, so that they cast out their young chil dren, to the end they might not live. (20) In which time Moses was born,9 and was exceeding fair,1 and nourished up in his father's house three months : * (211 and when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter the difficulties, chronological, his torical, or nunieriqai, presented by St. Stephen's speech. They have been approached by writers of different schools of thought in ways singularly, sometimes almost pain fully, characteristic. On the one hand, there has been something Uke the eagerness of a partisan muster ing aU objections and anxious to secure an adverse verdict ; on the other, there has been an almost hysterical alarm and indignation that such questions should be ever raised. Here the effort has, at least, been made to deal with each on its own merits, and not to force facts this way or that to meet a foregone conclusion. Should there be errors of transcription, of re port, or even of memory, in the record of St. Stephen's speech, they need not shake the faith of those who have learnt to take a higher view of inspiration than that which depends upon the registers of genealogies or chronological tables. But it may be weU also not to assume too hastily that men of average culture and information would be altogether ignorant of the facts which they narrate, and the sacred writings which have the appearance of seeming inac curacies, which a moment's re ference to the Book of Genesis would have enabled the writer to correct, is, at any rate, evidence of faithfulness in his report of the speech which he thus reproduces. P?) Which God had sworn to Abraham. — The better MSS. give, which God promised. I18) Which knew not Joseph. — The idiom was originally a He brew one, for " not remembering, not caring for ; " but as the words are quoted from the LXX. they do not affect the question as to the language in which the speech was deUvered. P9) So that they cast out their young children. — Lite- raUyt to make their children cast out so that they should not be brought forth alive. The latter verb is used in the LXX. narrative (Ex. i. 17). (20) Exceeding fair. — Liter raUy, as in the margin, fair to God. The adjective is found in the LXX. of Ex. ii. 2, as apphed to Moses. The special idiom for expressing pre-eminent excellence is itseh essentiaUy Hebrew, the highest goodness being thought of as that been the object of their continual I which approves itseh as good to study. And it mav be urged that ' God ; but this also had become 8 113 The History THE ACTS, VII. of Moses. took him up, and nourished him for her own son. (22) ^Qfi Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. t23) And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. (24) Andseeing one of them suffer wrong, " he f amiUar to Hellenistic Jews through the LXX. version, as, e.g., in Jonah hi. 3, a city "great to God" = an exceeding great city. St. Paul's "mighty to God" (2 Cor. x. 4) is probably an example of the same idiom. Josephus, foUowing probably some old tradition (Ant. i. 9, § 6), describes the beauty of the infant Moses as such that those who met him turned to gaze in admiration. (22) Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. — Better, was trained, or instructed. There is no direct statement to this effect in the history of the Pentateuch, but it was implied in Moses being brought up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and was in harmony with later paraphrases and expansions of the earUer history. The narrative of Josephus (as above) and the re ferences in the New Testament to Jannes and Jh mbres as the magicians who withstood Moses (2 Tim. Hi. 8), and to the dispute of Michael and Satan as to his body (Jude, verse 9), indicate the wide accept ance of some such half-legendary history. The passage is instructive. (1) as an indirect plea on the part of Stephen, hke that afterwards made by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, i. 5, § 28 ; vi. 5, § 42) and Justin (Dial. c. Tryph. c. 1 — 4), for the recognition of heathen wisdom as an element in the divine education of mankind ; (2) as hav ing contributed to fix the attention of the more cultivated and scholarly of the early Christian critics, such as those named, and Origen, and Jerome," and Augustine, on the teaching of Greek poets and phho- sophers, and having furnished, them with a sanction for such studies. Mighty in words and in deeds. — Josephus (Ant. ii. 10), still following the same traditional history, relates that Moses com manded the Egyptian forces in a campaign against the Ethiopians, and protected them against the serpents that infected the country, by transporting large numbers of the ibis, that feeds on serpents. The romance was completed by the marriage of Moses with the daughter of the Ethiopian king who had fahen passionately in love with him. This was possibly a development of the brief statement in Num. xii. 1. The language of Moses (Ex. iv. 10), in which he speaks of himseh as " not elo quent " and " slow of speech," seems at first inconsistent with " mighty in words," but may fairly be regarded as simply the utterance of a true humUity shrinking from the burden of a mighty task. <23> It came into his heart. ¦ — The distinct purpose in going out to look after his brethren is stated somewhat more emphaticaUy than in Ex. ii. 11. Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday] l29) Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons. C30)And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the tical with that used by St. Luke (xviii. 7) in reporting the lesson drawn by our Lord from the para ble of the Unjust Judge. (25) Por he supposed his brethren would have under stood . . . — Better, and he sup posed. The Greek conjunction never has the meaning of "for," and the insertion of that word gives to the act of slaying the Egyptian a deliberate character which, in the narrative of Ex. ii. 11, 12, does not belong to it. Would deliver them. — Liter aUy, was giving them salvation, or deliverance ; the act being itseh one of championship and the first step to deUverance. f26) Would have set them at one again. — LiteraUy, brought them to peace. The better MSS. give ' ' was bringing them." Sirs. — Literally, Ye are brethren, without any word of address. The phrase is the same as "we be brethren " in Gen. xiii. 8. I27) Who made thee a ruler and a judge ? — The stress laid ^n this afterwards, in verse 35, shows that it took its place in the induction which was to show that the whole history of Israel had been marked by the rejection of those who were, at each successive stage, God's ministers and messenr gers for its good, and that the re jection of Jesus was therefore a presumptive proof that He, too, was sent from God. <*>) Then fled Moses at this saying. — The rapid survey of the history passes over the intermediate link of Pharaoh's knowledge of the murder of the Egyptian, and his search for Moses. (30) There appeared to him in the wilderness. — With the exception of the substitution of Sina, or Sinai, for the less familiar Horeb, the fact is stated in nearly the same words as in Ex. iii. 2. The reference to this revelation, besides the bearing it had on the main argument of the speech, wasin- directly an answer to the charge that he had spoken ' ' blasphemous words against Moses." Both in the Hebrew and the LXX. the word "angel" is, as here, without the article. 115 The Angel of the THE ACTS, VII. Lord in Sinai. wilderness of Mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.11 (si) When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight : and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, (32) saying, I am the God of thyf athers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. (33'Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet : for the place where thou standest is holy ground. C34) I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to de liver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. C35)This Moses whom they In a bush. — The Hebrew word seneh is used for a species of thorny acacia, which still grows in the wUderness of Sinai. The Greek word, in the LXX. and here, was used commonly for the bramble, or any prickly shrub. P1) The voice of the Lord came unto him The speech agrees with Ex. Hi. 4 in ascribing the voice to the Lord, the Eternal, while the visible manifestation was that of the angel of the Lord. It hardly belongs to the interpretation of the speech to discuss the relation between the two statements. Speak ing generaUy, it may be said that all, or nearly aU, theophanies, or divine manifestations, in the Old Testament addressed to the sense of sight resolve themselves into angelophanies, aU manifestations addressed exclusively to the sense of hearing into revelations by the Son, as the Logos, or eternal Word. (32) The God of Abraham.— It is probable, on the assumption that Stephen had been one of the Seventy discipleB of Luke x. 1 , that he knew that these words had been 11G cited by the Lord Jesus (Matt. xxii. 32) as witnessing against the unbe lief of the Sadducees. In any case, the fact could hardly have been forgotten by the priestly and there fore Sadducean members of the CouncU, to whom Stephen addressed his defence. They had then been urged as a new proof of immor tality, and therefore of the resur rection. They are now connected with the proclamation that He who then spake had himseh been raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God. (33, 34) T^en said tne Lord t0 him . . — The words are almost a verbal reproduction of Ex. hi. 5, 7, 8. The citation was in part an impUed answer to the charge of disregarding the sanctity of places in which man stands as in the pre sence of God, partly an impUed protest against the narrowing thoughts which limited that sanc tity to the Temple of Jerusalem. (35) r^he same did Q.od send to be a ruler and a deliverer. — LiteraUy, a ruler and redeemer. The word is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but is The Exodus THE ACTS, VII. of Israel. refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge 1 the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. (36) He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt," and c Dent. 18. 15. I Or, as myself. a Ex. 7. 9, in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.6 csnThis is that Moses, which said unto the chil dren of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,0 like unto me ;' him shall ye hear. CS8) This is he, that was in the formed from the noun for " ran som " in Matt. xx. 28, Mark x. 45, and appears to have been chosen to emphasise the paraUelism which the speech indicates between Moses and the Christ. In a yet higher sense than Moses, the latter also had been made " a ruler and a re deemer." P6) After that he had showed wonders and signs. — The two nouns are joined together, as in Deut. vi. 22, Matt. xxiv. 24. The words express different relations, it may be, of the same phenomena, rather than phenomena specificaUy different ; — the first emphasising the wonder which the mhacle pro duces, and therefore answering more strictly to that word; the latter, the fact that the miracle is a token or evidence of something beyond itseh. (See also chaps, ii. 22 ; vi. 8.) In the Red Sea. — It may be worth whhe noting that the famiUar name comes to us, not from the Hebrew word, which means, Hterally, the Weed Sea, but from the LXX. version, which Stephen, as a Hellenistic Jew, used., and which gave the word Erythraean, or red, which had been used by Greek traveUers from Herodcha onward. Why the name was given is an unsolved problem. Some have referred it to the colour of the coast ; some to that of the sea- weed ; some to an attempt to give an etymological translation of its name as the sea of Edom (Edom meaning " red," as in Gen. xxv. 25 ; xxxvi. 1) ; some to a supposed con nection with an early settlement of Phoenicians, whose name had, with the Greeks, the same significance. I37) A prophet shall the Lord your G-od raise up. — The paral- leUsm previously suggested is now distinctly proclaimed, and shown to be a fulfilment of the prediction of Deut. xviii. 18. The prediction itseh is cited freely, as before. (See Note on chap. Hi. 22.) The definite application of the words by St. Peter determined their bearing here. At this point we may rea sonably think of the members of the Sanhedrin as catching the drift of his discourse, and showing signs of excitement, the effect of which is, perhaps, traceable in the greater compression of the narrative that foUows. (38) That was in the church in the -wilderness. — The word ecclesia is used, as it had been in the LXX. (Deut. xviii. 16 ; xxiH. 1 ; Ps. xxvi. 12), for the "congre gation " of Israel. Of the earher 117 The Idolatry THE ACTS, VII. church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sina," and with our fathers : who received the lively oracles to give unto us : (39) to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again b Ex.32. 1. into Egypt, C40) saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us :b for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. C41) And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the versions, Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan, had given " congre gation." Even the Bhemish con tented itself with " assembly." The translators of 1611, acting on the instructions which were drawn, up for their direction, did not see any reason for making this an excep tion to the rule, and so gave '.' church." Assuming that ecclesia was so rendered elsewhere, it was, it may be admitted, right, as a matter of consistency, that it should be used here, as presenting the thought, which was emphasised in Stephen's speech, that the society of believers in Christ was like, in character and in its relation to God, to that of Israel. The new ecclesia waB the development of the .old. (See Matt. xvi. 18.) The lively oracles. — The noun was used by the Greeks for the solemn utterances of the Py thian oracles, and thus came to be used by the LXX. in connection with the Urim and Thummim of the high priest (Ex. xxviH. 30), and so for any answer from God (Num. xxiv. 4). In the New Tes tament it appears again in Bom. iii. 2 ; Heb. v. 12 ; 1 Pet. iv. 11. (39) To whom our fathers would not obey. — The historical parallelism is continued. The 118 people rejected Moses then (the same word is used as in verse 27) as they were rejecting Christ now, even after He had shown Himseh to be theh redeemer from a worse than Egyptian bondage. In their hearts turned back again into Egypt. — The sin was one often repeated, but the history referred to is probably that in Ex. xvi. 3. Por a later example see Num. xi. 5. (40) Make us gods. — The speech foUows the LXX. and the English version of Ex. xxxii. 4 in giving the plural, but it is probable that the Hebrew, Elohim, was used in its ordinary sense as singular in meaning, though plural in form, and that the sin of the Golden Calf was thus a transgression of the Second, and not of the Fhst Com mandment. («) They made a calf.— The fact is stated in a compound word which is not found in the LXX. version, and which St. Stephen apparently coined for the purpose. Rejoiced in the works of their own hands. — The verb expresses speciaUy the joy of a feast, as in Luke xv. 23, 24, 29 ; xvi. 19; and is therefore speciaUy appropriate for what is related in Ex. xxxn. 5, 6. The tense "were Worship of THE ACTS, VII. Moloch and Remphdn. works of their own hands. '*» Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel," have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacri- a Amos 5. 25. flees by the space of forty" years in the wilderness 1 (43) Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Rem- phan, figures which ye made to worship them : and I will carry you away rejoicing " expresses the frequency nacle of Moloch, in the same manner or continuance of the sin m The host of heaven.— The word includes the host or army of the firmament, sun, moon, and stars, as in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3, 5 ; Jer. viii. 2. The sin of Israel was that it worshipped the created host, instead of Jehovah Sabaoth, the [' Lord of hosts." . In the book of the pro phets. — The term is used hi con formity with the Babbinic usage which treated the Twelve Minor Prophets as making up a single book. ¦ Have ye offered to me . . . ? —Better, did ye offer . . . ? The words are, with one exception, from the LXX. of Amos v. 25, 26. The narrative of the Pentateuch is in consistent with the inference that no sacrifices were offered to Jehovah during the forty years' wandering ; but the question emphasises the thought which Amos deshed to press upon the men of his generation, that Jehovah rejected the divided wor ship offered to them by a people who were ah along hankering after, and frequently openly returning to, the worship of Egypt or Chaldaea. Moloch, and not the true God of Abraham, had been their chosen deity. («) Ye took up the taber nacle ,of Moloch. — The verb implies the up-lif ting of the taber- as the ark was borne (Ex. xxv. 14 ; 1 Kings U. 26), as a sacred ensign in the march of the Israelites. The Hebrew word for " tabernacle " (Siccuth) is an unusual one, and may have been used as a proper name ; the word rendered " Moloch," being descriptive, Siccuth your king. The prohibition of the distinctive rite of Moloch worship, in Lev. xviii. 21, xx. 2, is, perhaps, in favour of the common rendering. In spite of this prohibition, however, it re appeared continually under the kings, both of Judah (2 Kings xvi 3, xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 31, xxxii 35) and Israel (2 Kings xvh. 17 ; Ezek; xxin. 37). And the star of your god Remphan. — Bemphan appears to have been understood by the LXX. translators as an equivalent for the Hebrew " Chiun," which is sup posed by many scholars to be iden-. tified with the planet Saturn, of which " Basphan " the LXX. form of the name) was the Coptic or Egyptian name. There is no ade quate proof, however, that the planet was so known, and the Hebrew may bear the meaning of the pedestal of your images. As to " star," however, there is no ques tion, and thi3 was enough for Ste phen's purpose, as proving the worship of the host of heaven. 119 The Tabernacle THE ACTS, VII. of Witness. beyond Babylon. (U) Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilder ness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it accord ing to the fashion that he a Ex. 25. 40. had seen." (4S) Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gen tiles, whom God dravo out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of I will carry you away beyond Babylon. — Both the Hebrew and the LXX. give " Da mascus " ; and we are left to choose between an intentional variation, to emphasise the actual fulfilment of the words as surpassing what the prophet had forotold, or an in accuracy naturally incident to a quotation from memory. One sec tion of the speech, that which ac cumulates proof that Israel had been all along a rebellious people, seems to end here. The next deals with the charge that Stephen had Spoken blasphemous words against the Temple. («) The tabernacle of wit ness. — The word was applied by the LXX. to the Tabernacle, as in Num. ix. 15, xvii. 7, as containing the two Tables of Stone, which were emphatically the testimony of what was God's wiU as the rule of man's conduct (Ex. xxv. 16, 21 ; xxxi. 18). It should be noted, that the LXX. gives the same render ing for the words which the English version translates as the ' ' taber nacle of the congregation," e.g., in Ex. xxix. 10 ; xxxHi. 7 ; Num. xvi. 18, 19. As he had appointed, speaking unto Moses. — The answer to the charge lay in these words. Stephen admitted and as serted the divine sanction that had been given to Tabernacle and Tem pie. What he denied was that that sanction involved perpetuity. It is not without interest to note in the thought thus implied the germ of Hooker's great argument in the Third Book of his Ecclesiastical Polity (c. xi). (45) Brought in with Jesus. — This is, of course, as in Heb. iv. 8, the" Joshua" of the Old Tes tament. It would, perhaps, have been better, as a general rule, to have reproduced the Hebrew rather than the Greek form of Old Testa ment names in the English version of the New. On the other hand, there is, in this instance, something gained in our attention being called to the identity of the two names. It is noticeable that though Stephen was on his trial as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, that name does not pass his lips as he speaks in his defence, except in this reference to the great captain of Israel. It is possible that under this reticence there may have been a half-vened reference \to Him who, also bear ing the name that marked Him out as a Saviour, had come, after another fashion, " into the pos session of the Gentiles." The word for " possession " is found in verse 5, but not elsewhere in the New Testament. In the LXX. it is common enough, as in Gen. xlvii. 11; Lev. xxv. 24; Deut. xxxii. 51. 120 The Temple THE ACTS, VII. and its Teaching, David ; W6) who found f avour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. (4" But Solo- alCliron. 17.12. b ch. 17. 24. mon built him s«n house." <48) Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands ;b as saith C6) Who found favour be fore God. — Again we trace, though stiU in the form of a nar rative, an indirect answer to the accusation brought against Stephen. He was ready to acknowledge with out reserve that the Temple was planned by the man after God's own heart, and bvult by the wisest of the sons of men. But the question still remained whether it was therefore the symbol of a final and perfect worship, whether it did not bear witness to its own in completeness. I48) Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples. — The sequel shows the impression which these wfirds made on the hearers. Stephen had risen to the truth which, though it had been pro claimed before, had been practi cally dormant. It broke down the thought of any exclusive holiness in the Temple, and therefore placed its downfall among the chances and changes which might be involved in God's chastisement of the people, and His education of mankind. The inference which we have seen reason to draw as to the probability of some connection, dhect or in direct, between Stephen and the Samaritans (see Notes on verse 16 and chap. vi. 5), suggests the thought that we may trace here something like an echo of the teaching of our Lord in His dia logue with the woman of Samaria (John iv. 21 — 23). It is a fact of singular interest to note how one who now listened to the words as appUed to the Temple of the God of Israel, afterwards embraced them in aU their fulness, and used them as his text in asserting the truth they embodied as against the Temples of Zeus and Athene (Acts xvii. 24). As saith the prophet. — The truth which Stephen asserted had been uttered in the very dedication prayer of the Temple (1 Kings viii. 27). The builder of the Temple had himseh felt that it was the witness not of a locaUsed but a universal Presence. But he turns to what might seem to his hearers a yet higher authority — to the great prophet (Isa. lxvi. 1, 2), who was pre-eminently the preacher of glad tidings, and who had closed his mission with the utterance of the truth that, whatever glory and greatness might attach to the Temple in Jerusalem, the prayer of him that was " poor and of a con trite spirit " was equaUy acceptable wherever it might be offered. The words were full of deep meaning in themselves. They were yet more significant as showing that the thoughts of Stephen had been turned to that great close of a great work, and that he must thus have been led to that wider vision of the future when aU nations and tongues should be gathered to see the glory of the Eternal; and the work of Israel, especially of those who, Hke himself, belonged to the Dispersion, should be to declare His glory U the Genthes, and when they, too, should be accepted as priests and 121 Stephen rebukes THE ACTS, Vn. his Listeners. the prophet, (49) Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool : what house will ye build me 1 saith the Lord : or what is the place of my rest 1 eo) Hath not my hand made all these things f (si) ye stiffnecked and un circumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye. (62) Which of the prophets have not your fathers per secuted 1 and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom ye have been now the be- Levites in the true Temple (Isa. lxvi. 21). Here also we may think of him as anticipating the widest and highest teaching of St. Paul. (51) Ye stiffnecked and un circumcised . . . — The sudden change of tone from calm argument to vehement indignation cannot be thought of as spontaneous. The excitement of the Sanhedrin, per haps of the listening crowd also, at this point, would seem to have be come uncontroUable. The accused seemed to them to be repeating his offence with defiant boldness, and loud clamours took the place of whispered murmurs. Both the adjectives had been applied to the sins of the older Israel ; " stiff- necked " in Ex. xxxiii. 3, 5 ; xxxiv. 9; "uncircumcised" in Jer. vi. 10. The actual phrase " uncircumcised in heart" had been used by Ezekiel (xliv. 7) of " strangers." It was now applied to those who boasted of their exclusive privileges as Israelites, and it is scarcely pos sible for us to estimate the sharp incisiveness with which it, or its Aramaic equivalent, must have faUen on the ears of the Sanhedrin. It was to them all, and more than all, that "heretic" and "infidel" have been in the controversies of 122 Christians. Here again, in St. Paul's " circumcision of the heart " (Bom. ii. 29), we have another echo from St. Stephen's speech. (52, -Wnich of the prophets have not your fathers per secuted ?-^St. Stephen echoes, as it were, our Lord's own words (Matt. v. 12 ; Luke xHi. 34). Every witness for the truth had, in his day, had to suffer. The prophet was not only " without honour," but was exposed to shame, treated as an enemy, con demned to death. 1 Thess. u. 15, perhaps, reproduces the same fact, but more probably refers to the sufferings of the prophets of the Christian Church who were treated as theh predecessors had been. The coming of the Just One. — The name does not appear to have been one of the received titles of the expected Messiah, but may have been suggested by Isa. xi. 4, 5. It seems to have been accepted by the Church of Jeru salem, and in 1 John H. 1, and, perhaps, in Jas. v. 6, we find ex amples of its application. The recent use of it by PUate's wife (Matt, xxvii. 19) may have helped to give prominence to it. He who had been condemned as a male factor was emphatically, above aU The Close of THE ACTS, VII. trayers and murderers : (63)who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. (54)When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. l65) But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus stand- the sons of men, the "righteous," the " Just One." The betrayers and mur derers. — The two words em phasise, the first the act of the Sanhedrin and the people, and secondly, the persistence with which they urged on PUate the Sentence of death, and which made them not merely accessories, but principals in the deed of blood. (53) "Vfrho have received . . . — More accurately, who received. By the disposition of angels. — Better, as ordained of angels or, more literally, as ordi nances of angels. The Greek pre position cannot possibly have the meaning of "by." The phrase expressed the current Jewish beUef that angels were the intermediate agents through whom Israel re ceived the Law ; that it was theh voice that was heard on Sinai. Here also St. Paul, in speaking of the Law as " ordained by angels " (Gal. Hi. 19), reproduced St. Stephen. Comp. also Heb. ii. 2 and Jos. Ant. xv. 4, § 3, for hke statements. The idea rested mainly on the LXX. version of Deut. xxxiii. 2, " on His right hand were angels with Him " and " the thou sands of angels " as connected with Sinai in Ps. lxvih. 17. P*) They were cut to the heart. — LiteraUy, were sawn through and through. (See Note on chap. v. 33.) The word de scribes a keener pang than the "pricked" of chap. h. 37, pro ducing, not repentance, but the frenzy of furious anger. They gnashed on him with their teeth. — The passage is worth noting as the only example of the literal use of a phrase with which we are so familiar in its figurative appUcation (Matt. viii. 12 ; xui. 42, et al.). Here it clearly expresses brute passion rather than despair. At this point rage and fury — the fury caused by the consciousness that the stern words are true — had become alto gether beyond control. They had passed beyond articulate speech into the inarticulate utterances of animal ferocity. W Being ftdl of the Holy Ghost. — There is something sug gestive in the fact that this descrip tion comes at the close, as at the beginning, of the record of St. Stephen's work (chap. vi. 8). From first to last he had been conspicuous; as manifesting the power of the higher life which had, as it were, iUumined and transfigured his whole being. The Greek "being fuU" implies, not a sudden inspira tion, but a permanent state. And saw the glory of G-od. — Stephen had begun with speak ing of " the God of glory " (verse 2). He ends with the vision of. 123 •n's Vision of THE ACTS, VII. God's Glory. ing on the right hand of God, ««and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man stand- 1 ing on the right hand of God. (W) Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran that glory as belonging to the Son of Man. The fact was inferred partly, we may beheve, from the rapt, fixed expression of the mar tyr's face, partly from the words that followed, interpreting that upward gaze. On the word for " looked up steadfastly," see Note on chap. Hi. 4. W Behold, I see the heavens opened. — It is manhest that the vision was given to the inward spiritual eye, and not to that of sense. No priest or scribe saw the glory of the opened heavens, and, therefore, the words which declared that Stephen saw them seemed to them but an aggravation of guilt that was aheady deep. (See Matt. iii. 16.) And the Son of man. — The words caU for notice as the only certain instance outside the Gospels of the use of the name which they record to have been constantly used by our Lord in speaking of Himseh. (See Matt. viii. 20.) As the speech of Stephen was de livered at least some years before any Gospel was written, and as the whole character of the speech re ported, even in its apparent incon sequences and inaccuracy, is against the theory that it was put by the historian into the martyr's lips, its occurrence here is evidence in favour of the Gospel narrative, as showing that the title, which a few years afterwards, for some reason or other, the disciples ceased to use, was at that earlier date famiUar. As uttered by Stephen before the 124 Sanhedrin, it had the special em phasis of reminding them of the words which had been spoken by the Son of Man Himseh (Matt. xxvi. 64). It was from their point of view a repetition of what they had then condemned as blasphemy. In Eev. i. 14 we have possibly another instance. Standing on the right hand of God. — Our Lord's own language (Matt. xxvi. 64), and that of the Church foUowing it (e.g. Eph. i. 20 ; Heb. viii. 1), has commonly spoken of Him as sitting at the right hand of God. It was not, we may believe, without significance that He was manifested to Stephen's gaze as standing in the attitude of one who rises to help and welcome a foUower who had shown himseh faithful even unto death. I67) Ran upon him with one accord. — The violence reported presents a singular contrast to the general observance of the forms of a fah trial in our Lord's condem nation. Then, however, we must remember, the Boman procurator was present in Jerusalem. Now aU restraint was removed, and fanaticism had full play. That neither office nor age was enough to guard, under such conditions, against shameful outrage has been seen even in the history of Christian assembUes, as, e.g., in that of the Bobber Synod of Ephesus, in a.d. 449. The caution in 1 Tim. iii. 3, that a bishop should not be a striker, shows how near the danger was even in the apostoUc age. The Stephin Stoned THE ACTS, VII. to Death. upon him with one accord, C68) and cast him out of the city, and stoned him : and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name facts in this case seem to imply that the accusers, and perhaps also the excited crowd whom they re presented, were present as Ustening to the speech, as weU as the mem bers of the Sanhedrin. (ss) And stoned him. — Lite raUy, were stoning him. The verb is repeated hi verse 59, as if to show that the shower of stones went on even during the martyr's prayers. The witnesses laid down their clothes. — The Law re quhed, as if tc impress on witnesses theh solemn responsibility, that they should be the first, if the accused were condemned to death, to take part in his execution (Deut. xvU. 7). Our Lord, it wiU be re membered, had appUed the rule in the case of the woman taken in adultery (John vui. 7). The loose, flowing cloak, which was worn as an outer garment, would have im peded the free action of theh arms, and had therefore to be laid, on one Bide. A young man's feet, whose name was Saul. — As defined by Philo, on the authority of medical writers, the term thus used ex tended from twenty-one to twenty- eight years of age. Looking to the prominent position taken by Saul in this matter, and to his description of himseh as " Paul the aged," a.d. 64 (Philem. verse 9), it whl be safe to assume that he had nearly attained the later limit. It wiU be convenient on this his first appearance to put together the chief faets of his hfe up to this period. He was of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. iii. 6), and had been named after its great hero-king. His father had obtained, perhaps as a freed-man, after a time of slavery at Bome, the privUege of Boman citizenship (chap. xxii. 28). He had settled at Tarsus. The absence of any reference to him or to the Apostle's mother makes it probable that they were both dead before he appears on the scene. The son of a married sister is found, apparently residing in Jerusalem, in chap. xxiii. 16. At Tarsus the boy would probably receive a two-fold education — instructed at home in the Holy Scriptures daily, and in Greek literature and philosophy in the schools for which the city was famous. Traces of the knowledge thus acquired are found in his quotations from the Cilician poet Aratus (see Note on chap. xvii. 28), Menander (see 1 Cor. xv. 33), Epi- menides (see Tit. i. 12), and the Festival Hymn quoted by him at Lystra (see Note on chap. xiv. 17). At twelve he would become a child of the Law (see Luke ii. 42) ; and showing great devotion to the studies which thus opened on him, was probably dedicated by his parents to the caUing of a scribe. This, however, did not involve the abandonment of secular occupation ; and after some years spent in Jerusalem, studying under Gama liel (we may say, with almost absolute certainty, before the com mencement of our Lord's ministry), he returned to his native city, and became a "tent-maker" (chap. 125 Saul Consenting THE ACTS, VII. to Stephen's Death. was Saul. (59)And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. C60) And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge-; And when he had said this, he fell asleep. xviii. 3) — a manufacturer, i.e., of the coarse goats' hair sail-cloth, for which CiHcia was famous. There seems reason to beheve that some where about this time he became acquainted with Barnabas (see Note on chap. iv. 36), and possibly also with St. Luke' (see Note on chaps. xiii. 1, and xvi. 10). In the in terval between the Ascension and the appointment of the Seven Deacons, he came up to Jerusalem. He finds a new sect, as it would seem,' added to the three — the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes — whom he had known before. In some respects their teaching is such as HiUel, the grandfather of Gama- Uel, would have approved. They pray and fast, and give alms. They proclaim a resurrection and a judg ment after death. They connect that proclamation with the behef that a teacher of Nazareth, who had died a malefactor's death, was the long-expected Messiah. What is he to think of these startling claims ? What were others think ing ? GamaUel, his master, coun selled caution and a policy of expectation (chap. v. 35 — 39) ; Barnabas, his early friend, had joined the new society (chap. iv. 36) ; Andronicus and Junias, his kinsmen, had foUowed the example (Bom. xvi. 7). But Saul had a zeal which was more fiery than theirs. He was a Pharisee after the straitest sect, and the teaching of Stephen, more conspicuously, it would seem, than . that of Peter, was a protest against Pharisaism, and told of its coming downf aU. He, therefore, could make no truce with that teaching, and burst im patiently from the cautions of his master. For good or for evU, he was at least " thorough," and had the courage of his convictions. Even the face " as of an angel " and the words of ecstatic joy did but kindle in him the fire of a burning indignation. (5») Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. — The words are memorable as an instance of direct prayer addressed, to use the words of Pliny in reporting what he had learned of the worship of Chris tians, "to Christ as God" (Epist. x. 97). Stephen could not think of Him whom he saw at the right hand of God but as of One sharing the glory of the Father, hearing and answering prayer. And in the prayer itseh we trace an echo of words of which Stephen may well have heard. The Son commended His Spirit to the Father (Luke xxiii. 46) ; the disciple, in his turn, commends his sphit to the Son. The word " God," in the sentence " caUing upon God," it should be noted, is, as the italics show, an insertion to complete the sense. (60) Lord, lay not this sin to their charge Here again we cannot help finding proof, not only that the mind of Stephen was after the mind of Christ, but that the narrative of the Crucifixion, as recorded, by St. Luke, was, in some Persecution THE 4-CTS, VIII. of the Church. CHAPTER VIII.— a) And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jeru salem ; and they were all scattered abroad through- measure, known to him. The re semblance to the prayer of Christ, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do " (Luke xxiii. 34), could hardly have been accidental. We may weh think of the prayer as having for its chief object him who was the foremost of the accusers. The old words of Augustine (Serm. 314 — 318), that we owe the conversion of Saul to the prayers of Stephen, may be accepted as the expression of a great spiritual fact. This prayer, like that which preceded it, was addressed, it whl be noted, to the Lord Jesus. He feU asleep. — The thought ¦ and the phrase were not altogether new. (Comp. John xi. 11.) Even a heathen poet had said of one who died the death of the righteous — 4t When good men die, it is not death, but sleep." — Callimaehus, Epig. 10. vex 0) And Saul was consenting unto his death. — The word seems carefuUy chosen to convey the fact that he did not himself take part in stoning, but contented himseh with guiding and dhecting the murder. He "kept the gar ments " of the witnesses who flung the stones (chap. xxii. 20). The statement came, we can scarcely doubt, from St. Paul's own Ups, and in his use of the same word in the passage just referred to, and Ha Eom. i. 32, we may see an indica tion that he had learnt to see that his guilt in so doing was greater, and not less, than that of the actual murderers. There was a great persecu tion against the Church. — It is clear that this involved much suffering, imprisonment, as in verse 3, perhaps the spoiHng of men's goods, the being made "a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions " (Heb. x. 33, 34). In St. James's description of the Bufferings of the brethren (Jas. U. 6, 7) we may see at once the measure of the violence of the persecution, and the pro minence in it (though Saul, the Pharisee, was for the time the chief leader) of the priesthood and the rich Sadducean aristocracy. Throughout the regions of Judsea and Samaria. — Jerusa lem was naturaUy the chief scene of the persecution, and the neigh bouring towns, Hebron, and Gaza, and Lydda, and Joppa, became places of refuge. It was probably to this influx of beUevers in Christ that we may trace the existence of Christian communities in the two latter cities. (See Notes on chap. ix. 32, 36.) The choice of Samaria, was, perhaps, suggested by the hatred of that people to the Jews. Those who were fleeing from a per secution set on foot by the priests and rulers of Jerusalem were al most ipso facto sure of a welcome in Neapolis and other cities. But the choice of this as a place of refuge indicated that the barriers of the old antipathy were aheady in part broken down. What seemed the pressure of circumstances was 127 Burial THE ACTS, VIII. of Stephen. out the regions of Judsea and Samaria, except the apostles. ta And devout men carried Stephen to leading indirectly to the fulfilment of our Lord's commands, that the disciples should be witnesses in Samaria as well as in Judsea (chap. i. 8). It seems probable, as already suggested (see Note on chap. vii. 16), that there was some point of contact between the Seven, of whom Stephen was the chief, and that region. Except the apostles.-^The sequel of the history suggests two reasons for theh remaining. (1) The Twelve had learnt the lesson which theh Master had taught them, "that the hireling fleeth because he is an hirehng " (John jl. 13), and would not desert their post. A. tradition is recorded by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, vi. 5, § 43) and Eusebius (Hist.r. 13), that the Lord had commanded ti-'a Apostles to remain for twelve years in Jerusalem lest any should say " We have not heard," and after that date to go forth into the world. (2) The persecution which was now raging seems to have been directed speciaUy against those who taught, with Stephen, that the " customs " on which the Pharisees laid so much stress should pass away. The Apostles had not as yet proclaimed that truth ; had, perhaps, not as yet been led to it. They were conspicuous as worship pers in the Temple, kept themselves from aU that was common and un clean (chap. x. 14), held aloof from feUowship with the Gentiles (chap. x. 28). They may weU have been protected by the favour and rever ence with which the great body of the people stiU looked on them, and so have been less exposed than 128 the Seven had been to the -violence of the storm. It was probable, in the nature of the case, that the HeUenistic disciples, who had been represented by Stephen, should suffer more than others. It was from them that the next great step in the expansion of the Church in due course came. P) And devout men carried Stephen to his buriaL — It has sometimes been asserted, as, e.g., by Renan (Les Apdtres, p. 145), that these were proselytes. St- Luke, however, always uses a different word to describe that class (comp. chap. xui. 43, 50 ; xvi. 14 ; xvii. 4, 17), and the word used here is applied by him to Simeon (Luke H. 25), to the multitude of Jews pre sent on the day of Pentecost (chap. ii. 5), to Ananias as devout accord* ing to the Law (chap. xxu. 12). This notion must accordingly be re jected as against evidence. On the other hand, had they been members of the Church they would naturally, though perhaps not necessarily, have been described as " brethren " or " disciples." We are left there fore to the conclusion that they were Jews who had been kindled into admiration and half -conviction by the calm heroism of the martyr, and who, without committing themselves to more than that ad miration, acted in his case as Nico demus and Joseph of Arimathasa had acted after the Crucifixion. They would show honour to the memory of the dead, though they had not had the courage to defend the preacher of the truth while he was yet with them. In the legend or tradition as to the death of Saul makes Havoc THE ACTS, VIII. of the Church. his burial, and made great lamentation over him. <3)As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women com mitted them to prison. (4) Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Stephen, reported and accepted by Augustine (De Civ : Dei. xvii 8 ; Serm. 318, 319 ; Tract, in Joann., 120), Gamaliel and Nicodemus are named as actuaUy taking part in the entombment, and as afterwards laid in the same sepulchre, on which his name appeared in Aramaic cha racters as Chaliel (— garland), the equivalent in that language of the Greek Stephanos. The translation of the martyr's reHcs to Ancona, Minorca, and to TJzaUs, and other towns in Africa, made a deep im pression on Augustine, and gave occasion to some of his most elo quent sermons. Oratories were dedicated to his memory, and mira culous cures effected by praytrs addressed to him. (See Butler's Lives of the Saints, Aug. 3rd.) And made great lamenta tion over him. — The act was every way significant. Commonly, one who had been stoned to death on the charge of blasphemy would have had no funereal honours. He would have been buried " with the burial of an ass" (Jer. xxH. 19). The public lamentation on the part of men conspicuous for theh devout zeal for the Law, was therefore of the nature of a protest, probably on the part of the more moderate section of the Pharisees, such as Joseph, Nicodemus, and GamaUel, against what would seem to them the unnatural coalition between the Sadducean priesthood and the ultra- zealot section of their own party. (?) As for Saul, he made havock of the church. — The tense in the Greek implies con tinuous action, and so indicates the severity of the persecution. Further details are given by St. Paul himseh. He " persecuted this way unto the death" (chap. xxH. 4). It does not follow, however, that this points to more than the death of Stephen. Both men and women were imprisoned (ibid.). The fact that the latter class were in cluded among the sufferers, implies that they had been more or less prominent in the activity of the new society. Such mav have been the devout women of Luke viii. 2, S. The victims were punished in every synagogue, most probably with the forty stripes save one (2 Cor. xi. 24) which was tho common penalty for minor offences against reUgious order. They were compeUed to blaspheme the " wor thy name " of the Master whom they owned as the Christ (chap. xxvi. 11 ; Jas. ii. 7). They were subject to wanton outrages in ad dition to judicial severity (1 Tim. i 13). There was, as the perse cutor himseh afterwards confessed (chap. xxvi. 11), a kind of insane ferocity Hi his violence. Even the very word " haling " impUes a bru tality which might weU have been (4) They that were scattered abroad. — These, as has been said above, would in all probabiUty be Stephen's HeUenistic feUow- workers and foUowers. As in later 129 Philip's Visit THE ACTS, VIII. to Samaria. lB> Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 80 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. ages, the axiom that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," held true from the beginning. The attempt to stamp out the new faith did but give it a wider scope of action, and urged it on to pass the Hmits within which it might other wise have been confined for a much longer period. Preaching the word. — Bet ter, preaching the glad tidings of the word. (5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria. — More accurately, " a city." The sequence of events implies that it was not the Apostle, but his namesake who had been chosen as one of the Seven. As having been conspicuous in the work of " preaching the glad tidings of Christ," he was after wards known as PhiUp the Evan gelist (chap. xxi. 8). It was natural enough that the identity of name should lead writers who were imperfectly informed to confuse the two, as Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, seems to have done in the passage quoted by Eusebius (Hist. Hi. 31). The "city of Sa maria" is described Hi precisely the same terms as in John iv. 5, where it is identified with Sychar, the Sichem of the Old Testament. (See John iv. 5.) " Samaria," throughout the New Testament (as, e.g., in chap. ix. 31 ; Luke xvii. 11 ; John iv. 4, 5), is used for the province, and not for the city to which it had been attached in earUer times. This had been new- named Sebaste (the Greek equiva- 130 lent of Augusta) by Herod the Great Hi honour of the Emperor, and this had more or less superseded the old name (Job. Ant. xv. 8, § 5). Assuming the identity with Sychar, the narrative of John iv. suggests at once the reason that probably determined PhiUp's choice. The seed had already been sown, and the fields were white for harvest (John iv. 35). Possibly, as sug gested above (Note on chap. vii. 16), there may have been some previous connection with the dis trict. Some of that city had aheady accepted Jesus as the Christ. Preached Christ. — The verb is not the same as in verse 4, and is the word used for " preaching " or " proclaiming." The tense im pUes continued action, extending, it may be, over weeks or months. We find in John iv. 25 that the expecta tion of the Messiah was as strong amongthe Samaritans as among the Jews, and Philip's work therefore was to proclaim that the long-ex pected One had come, and that the Eesurrection was the crowning proof that He was the Christ the Son of God. The readiness with which the proclamation was accepted shows that in spite of the adverse influence which had come into play since our Lord had taught there, the work then done had not been in vain. '6) Hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. — Better, the signs, as being closer, here as elsewhere, to the force of His Miracles. THE ACTS, VIII. Simon the Sorcerer. (7) For unclean spirits, cry ing with loud voice, came out of many that were pos sessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. (8J And there was great joy in that city. <9) But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great the Greek. It is remarkable that they had beUeved in the first in stance without any other sign than the person and the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Miracles came not as the foundation, but for the strengthening of theh faith ; per haps also as a corrective to the adverse influence of which we are so soon to hear. P) For unclean spirits, cry ing with loud voice. — The MSS. present several variations in the structure of the sentence, but they do not affect its meaning. The character of the " signs" agrees with those that are recorded Hi the Gospels. The "great cry," partly, it may be, of agony, partly of exultation at dehverance, agrees with Mark i. 26 ; Luke iv. 33. (8) There was great joy in that city. — This and the whole narrative may weh have been learnt by St. Luke from the Hps of PhUip himseh, when St. Paul and his companions visited the Evangelist at Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem (chap. xxi. 8), or during the Apostle's two years' imprisonment in that city (chap. xxiv. 27), or, we may add, from St. Paul's report of what he had heard when he traveUed through Samaria (chap. xv. 3). (9) But there was a certain man, called Simon. — The man who is thus brought before us in a 131 brief episode, occupies a prominent place in the history and the legends of the ApostoUc Church. For the present it wiU be convenient to deal only with the materials which St. Luke gives us, reserving a fuller account for the close of the narra tive. Nothing is told us here as to his earUer history, prior to his arrival in Samaria. The name indicates Jewish or Samaritan origin. He appears as the type of a class but too common at the time, that of Jews trading on the mysterious prestige of their race and the credulity of the heathen, claiming supernatural power exer cised through charms and incan tations. Such afterwards was Elymas at Cyprus (chap. xiii. 6) ; such were the vagabond Jews exorcists at Ephesus (chap. xix. 13); such was a namesake, Simon of Cyprus (unless, indeed, we have a re-appearance of the same man), who also claimed to be a magician, and who pandered to the vices of FeHx, the Procurator of Judsea, by persuading DrusiUa (Jos. Ant. xx. 7, § 2, see Note on chap. xxiv. 24) to leave her first husband and to marry him. The Hfe of such a man, Uke that of the CagUostro fraternity in aU ages, was a series of strange adventures, and startling as the statements as to his previous life may seem (see Note on verse 24), they are not in themselves Simon as the THE ACTS, VIII. Great Power of Gcd. one : °m to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. ai) And to him they had regard, be cause that of long time he had bewitched them with incredible. Apollonius of Tyana is, perhaps, the supreme representa tive of the charlatanism of the period. Used sorcery.— LiteraUy, was practising magic. The Greek verb is formed from the noun Magos, the root of our " magic." In Matt. u. 1, it is rendered " wise men." Our "sorcerer" comes, through the French sorcier, from the Latin sor- titor, a caster of lots (sortes) for the purpose of divination. Later le gends enter fuUy into the various forms of sorcery of which Simon made use. (See below.) Bewitched the people of Samaria. — Literally, threw them into the state of trance or ecstasy ; set them beside themselves, or out of their wits. The structure of the sentence shows that the " city " is not identical with Samaria, and that the latter name is used, as elsewhere, for the region. Giving out that himself was some great one. — The next verse defines the nature of the olaim more clearly. The cry of the people that he was " the great power of God," was, we may weU beUeve, the echo of his own boast. He claimed to be, in some undefined way, an Incarnation of Divine Power. The very name had ap peared in our Lord's teaching when He spoke of Himseh as sitting on the right hand of "the Power of God," as an equivalent for the Father (Luke xxH. 69). 0-") To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the 132 greatest The ready acceptance of the claims of the pretender, may, in part, be traced to the impression made by the presence of ' ' the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (John iv. 42). If One had come among them in whom they felt that there was a more than human greatness, why might there not be another mani festation of a Uke nature ? The sorcerer appears as the earhest type of those who were to come with lying signs and wonders " bo as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect" (Matt. xxiv. 24 ; 2 Thess. H. 9). This man is the great power of God.— The better MSS. give, " This is the Power of God that is called great." The word " Powers" was used by the Sama ritans of the angels or hosts of God, and they probably recognised Simon as one of these and as of special pre-eminence. P1) And to him they had regard The Greek word is the same as in the " gave heed" of the previous verse. The " long time " during which the evil fascination had been exercised, reckoning back wards from the date which we have now reached (a.d. 36), might can-j us to a period prior to our Lord's visit to Sychar, in a.d. 26 or 27. It is scarcely probable, however, that it was in active operation at that time. And it is likely enough that, finding the people stiU influenced by the impressions which that visit had left, he wrought on theh excited feelings for his own purpose. THE ACTS, VIII. Baptised. sorceries. 02) But when they believed Philip preach ing the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 03) Then Simon himself believed also : and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, be holding the miracles and f12) But when they believed Philip . . . .—The word for preaching is, as Hi verse 4, "preach ing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God." The sequel shows that this included baptism as the out ward condition of admission to the kingdom. We may infer from the other narrative of PhiUp's mission- work (verses 31 — 35) that it also included an outline-history of the passion and death and resur rection of the Prophet whom they had seen among them as fulfilling the great Messianic pro phecies. They were baptized, both men and women. — The tense points, not to one great act, but to the continual succession of converts who were thus admitted. We think of the woman of Samaria, of John iv. 7, and wonder whether she was one of them. (la) Then Simon himself be lieved also. — Endless questions have been raised as to the nature of such a faith, and the effect of such a baptism. It is probable enough that he was impressed by the signs that Philip wrought ; that he felt himseh in the presence of a Power above his own ; that he accepted PhiUp's statements as to the death and resurrection of the Christ. It was such a faith as that of which St. James speaks (Jas. H. 14, 19). If we are to use the definite lan guage of theological science, it 133 would be true to say tbat he had the fides informis, faith not pre ceded by repentance and not per fected by love. And baptism, in such a case, the expressed or im phed conditions being absent, brought with it no new birth to a higher Hfe. He remained stiU " in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity" (verse 23). But even for him it bore its witness of the readiness of God to forgive and to regenerate. The subsequent ful filment of the conditions which were then absent would have quickened the potential into an actual grace, and no second bap tism would have been needed to supplement the shortcomings of the first. Peter calls on him (verse 22) to repent and pray for forgiveness. He does not tell him that he must be baptised again. And wondered. — The verb is the same as that rendered " be witched" in verses 9 and 11. The tables were turned. The magician yielded to a speU mightier than his own, and was, hi his turn, as one beside himself with amazement. The difference between Simon and the believing Samaritans is, in this matter, suggestive. His faith rested on outward miracles. With them the miracles did but serve to confirm a, faith which rested on the "prophetic word" as spoken by the Son of Man (John iv. 42). Peter and John THE ACTS, VIII. sent to Samaria. signs which were done. <14> Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John : (15) who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost : C16) (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them : only they were bap tized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) m Then laid they their hands on them, (14) When the apostles which were at Jerusalem . . . . — The tidings came to the Twelve as a proof that the limita tion which had at first excluded Samaria from the range of theh work as preachers of the kingdom had now passed away (Matt. x. 5), and that the time had now come when they were to be " witnesses " to Christ in Samaria as well as in Judsea (chap. i. 8). Old antipathies of race and worship disappeared, and without hesitation they sent the two who were, in many respects, the chief of the Apostles, to sanc tion the admission of the new con verts. The Apostle who in his zeal had once sought to call down the fire of the wrath of God on the village of the Samaritans (Luke ix. 54), was now to bring to them that baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire (Matt. Hi. 11) which spoke not of wrath but of love. That his com panion should be Peter, was natural, both from the position which the latter occupied as the leader of the apostolic company and from the friendship by which the two had been throughout their life united. The word of God is charac- teristicaUy used by St. Luke, as in his Gospel, for the whole sum and substance of the gospel of Christ. (Comp. Luke v 1 ; viii. 11, 21.) (is) Prayed for them, that 134 they might receive the Holy Ghost. — The prayer clearly pointed to such a gift of the power of the Spirit as had been bestowed on the Day of Pentecost. It assumed that such gifts had been received by the disciples generaUy at Jerusalem, and that they were distinct from the new birth of water and the Spirit (John Hi. ;5) which was given through baptism. The Apostles looked on the Sama ritans as quaUfied for that higher gift as weh as for admission into the kingdom, and it was given to them, and not to PhiUp in his subordinate position as an evange- Hst, to be the channels of communi cating it. p6) As yet he was fallen upon none of them. — The same verb is used of the gift of the Spirit in chaps, x. 44; xi. 15, and of Peter's trance in chap. x. 10. It is manifestly used to express an unlooked-for change in a man's normal state of consciousness, the sudden advent of new powers and feelings. (17) Then laid they their hands on them The act had aheady appeared as at once the symbol and the channel of the communication of spiritual gifts and offices in the appointment of the Seven. (See Note on chap. vi. 6.) HistoricaUy, the act here The Gift of THE ACTS, VIII. fhe Holy Ghost. and they received the Holy Ghost. a8) And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, (19) saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. (20) But Peter said unto him, Thy money recorded has the interest of being the starting-point of what after wards developed into the rite known, as Confirmation. Taking the nar rative of the Acts by itself, a question might be raised how far what we read of was normal or exceptional, connected, for a time only, with the bestowal of new and marvehous powers, or powerful, through the whole history of the Church, as a means of grace strengthening the spiritual hfe after those powers had been with drawn. In any case it was pro bable that no hard and fast line marked the disappearance of the special and marveUous forms of spiritual power which were at first manifested in connection with the laying-on of hands, and so the practice had time to become part of the fixed order of the Church. When they ceased altogether we can understand the reluctance of men to give up a rite that had come down from the days of the Apbstles. They would feel that the prayer of faith was stiU mighty to prevaU ; that the Spirit would still be given in answer to prayer joined with the symboUc act, though no longer hi the same form, and would confirm and strengthen the work which had been begun in baptism, and so the primitive laying-on of hands passed into Confirmation, and was accompanied by other symboUc acts, such as anointing. The thought that it is so caUed because in it adults confirm the promises made for them when baptised as infants, is e-itirely modern, and cannot be traced further back than the sixteenth century. ps. is) When Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands . . . . — The words imply that the result was something visible and conspicuous. A change was wrought ; and men spoke with tongues and prophesied. To the sorcerer, accustomed to charms and incantations, the men who were in possession of this power would seem to be enchanters with a higher knowledge than his own, and he who had purchased many such secrets, after the man ner of the time (comp. chap. xix. 19), from previous masters in the magic art, thought that this might be obtained in the same way. The act thus recorded has given its name to a large class of offences in ecclesiastical jurisprudence, and the sin of Simony in all its forms, the act of purchasing sphitual powers and functions, perpetuates the infamy of the magician of Samaria. t20) Thy money perish with thee. — LiteraUy, Thy money be to gether with thee, for perdition. The same word is used as in the " son of perdition " in John xvii. 12 and Ha Heb. x. 39. The prominence of the word in 2 Pet. ii. 1, 2, 3 ; iii. 7, 16, is interesting in connection with 135 The Sin THE ACTS, VIII. of Simony. perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be pur chased with money. (21)Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter : for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. C22) Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the the question as to the authorship of that Epistle. Another coincidence presents itseh in the " gold that perisheth " of 1 Pet. i. 7. Because thou hast thought . . . . — Better, because thou thoughtest. The speaker looks at the thought historically, as at the moment when it rose up in the sorcerer's mind. The Greek verb has a transitive not a passive sense, thou thoughtest to acquire the gift of God by money. Not so, Peter must have remembered, had he acquired that gift. The very word which he uses is that which our Lord had spoken to him and his brother Apostles, "Freely " (i.e., as a gift) "ye have received " (Matt. x. 8). (21) Neither part nor lot A Hke, though not an identical, com bination of the two words meets us in Col. i. 12. On the latter, see Notes on chap. i. 17, 25. It is, perhaps, used here in it§ secondary sense. Simon had no inheritance in the sphitual gifts nor in the spiritual offices of the Church. The power attached to the apostleship was not a thing for traffic. Thy heart is not right in the sight of God.—" Straight " or " right " is used, as in Matt. iii. 3 ; Mark i. 3, for " straightfor ward," not in the secondary sense of " being as it ought to be." The word is not of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, but, Uke so many of the spoken words of St. Peter, meets us again as coining from his pen (2 Pet. u. 15). 136 (22) Repent therefore of this thy wickedness The stern words of condemnation are, we see, meant to heal, not to slay. Bightly understood, the call to repent in such a case as this, opens the door of hope as wide as the history of the penitent thief. Bepentance, and with repentance, forgiveness, were possible, even for the char latan adventurer who had traded on the credulous superstition of the people, and claimed something Uke adoration for himseh and his mistress. Pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart .... —The better MSS. give "Lord" instead of " God," either in the Old Testament sense of the word or with special reference to the Lord Jesus. The "if perhaps," hi the Greek, as Hi the English, im pUes a latent doubt. Did the thought come across the mind of the Apostle that the sin of Simon came very near that " sin against the Holy Ghost which hath never forgiveness " (Matt. xh. 31) ? The use of such words by the chief of the Apostles, after the apparent concession of a plenary power in John xx. 23, are terribly suggestive. He neither forgives nor condemns, but bids the offender turn to the Searcher of hearts and pray for forgiveness. Had he seen re pentance, he might have said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Had he seen a conscience utterly dead, he might have closed the The Judgment THE ACTS, VIII. on Simon's Sin. thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. (23) For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. c:!4) Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none door of hope. As it is, he stands midway between hope and fear, and, keeping sUence, leaves judg ment to the Judge. I23) In the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. — " GaU," in its literal sense, meets us in Matt. xxvh. 34. This is the only passage in the New Testament in which it is used figuratively. " Bitterness " meets us, as expressing extreme moral depravity, in Bom. Hi. 14 ; Eph. iv. 31 ; Heb. xh. 15. The latter phrase impUes that the iniquity of Simon bound him as with the hon chains of a habit from which he could not free himseh. (M) Pray ye to the Lord for me. — There is something eminently characteristic in the sorcerer's words. (1) His conscience reads " between the lines" of St. Peter's address what was not actually found there. That " if perhaps " is to him as the kneU of doom. (2) He prays not for deliverance from " the bond of iniquity," but only from the vague terror of a future penalty. (3) He turns, not, as Peter had bidden him, to the Lord who was ready to forgive, but to a Tinman mediator. Peter must pray for him who has not faith to pray for himseh. At this point Simon disappears from the history of the Acts, and this seems accordingly the right place for stating briefly the later traditions as to his history. In those traditions he occupies a far more prominent position than in St. Luke's narrative, and becomes, as it has been said, the " hero of the romance of heresy," as given in the Homilies and Recognitions of the Pseudo - Clement. Born at Gittom, in Samaria (Justin, Apol. i. 26), he received his education at Alexandria, and picked up the lan guage of a mystic Gnosticism from Dositheus (Horn. ii. c. 22 ; Constt. Apost. vi. 8). He had for a short time been a disciple of the Baptist (Horn. c. 23). He murdered a boy that the soul of his victim might become his famUiar spirit, and give him insight into the future (Horn. ii. c. 26 ; Recogn. ii. 9). He carried about with him a woman of great beauty, of the name of Luna or Helena, whom he represented as a kind of incarnation of the Wisdom or Thought of God (Justin, Apol. i. 6 ; Horn. ii. c. 25 ; Euseb. Hist. ii 13). He identified himseh with the promised Paraclete, and the Christ, and took the name of " He who stands," as indicating divine power (Recogn. n. 7). He boasted that he could turn himseh and others into the form of brute beasts ; that he could cause statues to speak (Horn. iv. c. 4 ; Recogn. ii. 9, Hi. 6). His hfe was one of osten tatious luxury. He was accom panied by the two sons of the Syro- Phoenician woman of Mark vh. 26 (Horn. i. 19). After the episode related in the Acts, he went down to Caesarea, and Peter was then sent thither by James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, to confront and hold a disputation with him on various 137 The Apostles return THE ACTS, VIII. to Jerusalem. of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. C25) And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, re turned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Sama- points of doctrine. From Caesarea he made his way to Tyre and Tri- polis, and thence to Bome, and was there worshipped by his foUowers, so that an altar was seen there by Justin with an inscription, ' ' Si- moni Deo Sancto " (Apol. i. 56). Peter foUowed him, and in the reign of Claudius the two met, once more face to face, in the imperial city. According to one legend, he offered to prove his divinity by flying in the ah, trusting that the demons whom he employed would support him ; but, through the power of the prayers of Peter, he fell down, and had his bones broken, and then committed suicide (Constt. Apost. ii. 14; vi. 9). Another represents him as buried alive at his own request, in order that he might show his power by rising on the third day from the dead, and so meeting his death (Irenaeus; Adv. Hair. vi. 20). In the midst of all this chaos of fantastic fables, we have, per haps, one grain of fact in Justin's assertion that he had seen the altar above referred to. An altar, now in the Vatican Museum, was discovered at Bome in 1574, on the island Hi the Tiber, with the in scription, "Sbmoni Sanco Deo Fidio." Archaeologists, however, agree in thinking that this was de dicated to the Sabine Hercules, who was known as Sbmo Sancus, and it has been thought by many writers that Justin may have seen this or some like altar, and, in his ig norance of Italian mythology, have 138 imagined that it was consecrated to the Sorcerer of Samaria. His statement is repeated by Tertullian (Apol. c. 13) and Irenaeus (i. 20). Of the three names in the inscrip tion, Semo (probably connected with Semen as the God of Harvest, or as Semihomo) appears by itseh in the Hymn of the Fratres Ar- vales, and in connection with San cus and Fidius (probably connected with Fides, and so employed hi the formula of asseveration, medius fidius) hi Ovid, Fast. vi. 213 ; Livy, vih. 20 ; xxxii. 1. (25) And they, when they had testified . . . — The state ment involves a stay of some dura tion, long enough to found and organise a community of disciples. And this was foUowed, not by an immediate return to Jerusalem, but, as the Greek tense shows, by one with many halts, at each of which the glad tidings of ' ' the word of the Lord" were proclaimed, and a Church founded. Did the Apostles enter on this journey into the village on which one of them had sought to call down fire from heaven (Luke ix. 54) ? Now, at least, he had learnt to know ' ' what manner of Spirit " claimed him as his own. The curtain faUs, at the close of this drama, on the Christians of Samaria, and we know but Uttle of theh after history. The one glimpse of them which we get is, however, of very special interest. When Paul and Barnabas after theh first missionary journey went up to Jerusalem, they passed Philip sent THE ACTS, VIII. Southward, ritans. (26) And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, " through Phenice and Samaria " (chap. xv. 3). St. Paul also had conquered the antagonism that divided the Jew, and, above aU, the Pharisee, from the Samaritan. The Samaritans heard with joy of that conversion of the Gentiles which showed that old barriers and walls of partition were broken down. Many, we may beUeve, would elect to take their stand on the ground of the freedom of the Gospel rather than on any claim to Jewish de scent or the observance of the Jewish Law. Others, however, we know, adhered to that Law with a ri gorous tenacity, and left theh creed and ritual, theh Gerizim worship and their sacred books, as an in heritance to be handed down from century to century, even to the present day. The whole nation suffered severely in the wars with Bome under Vespasian, and Sychem was taken and destroyed, a new city being built by the emperor on the ruins — a Boman city with temples dedicated to Boman gods — to which, as perpetuating the name of his house and lineage, he gave the name of Flavia Neapolis (= New Town), which survives in the modern Nablous. In the early history of the Church there attaches to that city the interest of having been the birthplace of the martyr Justin, and of the heretic Dosi- theus. In one of the Simon legends, as stated above, the latter appears as the instructor of the sorcerer, but this is probably a distortion of his real history. (26) And the angel ol the Lord . . . — Better, an The tense of the verbs in the pre ceding verse, in the better MSS., implies that the events that foUow synchronised with the journey of Peter and John through Samaria. The journey which PhUip was commanded to take led him by a quicker route across country into the main road from Jerusalem to Gaza. The history of the city so named (appearing at times in the English version — Deut. ii. 23 ; 1 Kings iv. 24 ; Jer. xxv. 20 — as Azzah) goes even as far back as that of Damascus, hi the early records of Israel. It was the southernmost or border-city of the early Canaanites (Gen. x. 19), and was occupied first by the Avim, and then by the Caphtorim (Deut. H. 23). Joshua was unable to conquer it (Josh. x. 41 ; xi. 22). The tribe of Judah held it for a short time (Judg. i. 18), but it soon feh into the hands oi the PhiHs- tines (Judg. Hi. 3; xiu. 1), and though attacked by Samson, was held by them during the times of Samuel, Saul, and David (1 Sam. vi. 17; xiv. 52; 2 Sam. xxi. 15). Solomon (1 Kings iv. 24), and later on Hezekiah (2 Kings xvHi. 8), attacked it. It resisted Alexander the Great during a siege of five months, and was an important mUitary position, the very key of the country, during the struggles between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, and in the wars of the Maccabees (1 Mace. xi. 61). Its name, it may be noted, meant the " strong." 139 He Meets the THE ACTS, VIII. Ethiopian Ruler, which is desert. "^ And he arose and went : and, be hold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority Which is desert. — LiteraUy, as in a separate sentence, This (or It) is desert. There is nothing to show whether this was intended to appear as part of the angel's bid ding, or as a parenthetical note added by St. Luke, nor whether the pronoun refers to the " way " or to the " city." If we assume the latter, we may think of it as written after the city had been laid waste during the Jewish war (a. d. 65). On the former hypothesis, it points to a less frequented route than that from Jerusalem through Bamleh to Gaza, which led through Hebron and then through the Southern or Negeb country. On the whole, the latter seems most to commend itseh, and on this view we may see in it part of the in struction which Philip reported as coming, whether in dream or vision or voice we are not told, from the angel of the Lord. He was to go in faith to the less frequented, less promising route from Jerusalem to Gaza, apparently without passing himseh through the Holy City, and so to intercept the traveUer whose history was to become so memo rable. (27) A man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority. — LiteraUy, a eunuch, a potentate. The Ethiopia from which the traveUer came was the region so named by the geographers of St. Luke's time in the upper vaUey of the Nile. Its connection with the Jewish people presents many points of in terest. There seems reason to beUeve that Ha the time of Manas- seh who (according to the statement in the narrative of Aristeas as to 140 the LXX. translation) formed an aUiance with Psammetichus, king of Egypt, a, considerable body of Jews were sent off to protect the outposts of his kingdom ; and it is in reference, probably, to these that Zephaniah speaks of the sup pliants of "the daughter of my dispersed beyond the rivers of Ethiopia" (Zeph. hi. 10). Jewish influences had accordingly been at work there for some centuries. They may probably be traced in the piety of the Ethiopian eunuch, Ebed-melech, in the time of Jere miah (xxxvui. 7 — 13 ; xxxix. 16 — 18). Even at an earher period the hopes of Israel had looked forward to, perhaps had actuaUy seen, the admission of Ethiopians among the citizens of Zion (Ps. lxxxvii. 4), Ethiopia stretching forth her hands unto God (Ps. lxvui. 31). The fact that the traveller had come as a pilgrim or a proselyte, shows (if, as the narrative implies, the latter) that he was a circumcised " prose lyte of righteousness." His baptism was not, Uke that of Cornelius, the admission of a GentUe as such. The word "eunuch" has been taken by some commentators as meaning only " chamberlain," which is, indeed, the strict etymo logical sense of the word. Its use in Matt. xix. 12, and indeed, in later Greek -writers generaUy, is, however, hi favour of the hteral sense of the word. The strict letter of Deut. xxiH. 1, forbidding the admission of such persons into the congregation of the Lord, had been aheady modified (probably on the assumption that the state was not one which they had brought Chamberlain THE ACTS, VIII. to Candace. under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her trea sure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, C28) was returning, and sit- about by theh own act) in favour of the sons of the stranger, the eunuchs " who keep my Sabbaths," by Isaiah (lvi. 4) ; and we may weU think of St. Luke, as glad to record a proof that the discipline of the Church of Christ was as liberal on this point as the teaching of the Evangehcal prophet. It is inter esting to note that the first act of the first (Ecumenical CouncU was to formulate a hke rule in dealing with such cases of the kind as then presented themselves (Cone. Nic. Can. 1), admitting those who were not self-mutilated even into the ranks of the clergy. Under Candace queen of the Ethiopians. — The quantity of the second syllable is uncertain, but the analogy of Cana.ce is in favour of its being short. The knowledge of the student of Strabo (Strabo, xvH. p. 820) may, perhaps, be traced in the description. He mentions a Queen of Meroe, in Ethiopia, bearing the name of Can dace. The occurrence of the same name in PHn. iv. 35, Dion. -Cass. Uv. 5, indicates that it was, Hke Pharaoh, a dynastic name or title. Eusebius (Hist. H. 1) states that in his time (circ. a.i>. 430) the region was stiU under the rule of a queen, according to the custom of the country. Who had the charge of all her treasure. — The Greek word for treasure is Gaza, a word of Persian origin, which about this time had come into use both among Greek and Lathi writers (Cicero, de Off. n. 22). The LXX. trans- lators employ it in Ezra v. 17; vi. 1 ; vii. 21 ; Isa. xxxix. 2. Aristotle (Hist. Plant. vHi. 11) is the first Greek writer in whom we find it naturalised. It is not found else where in the New Testament, but a compound form appears as de noting the treasury of the Temple in Luke xxi. 1. The coincidence between this Gaza and the name of the town is at least suggestive of the thought that St. Luke saw in it a nomen et omen. The man came from one Gaza, and was going to another; and he, hke the man in the parable of Matt. xui. 44, found a treasure which he had not looked for, but which came to him as the reward of his diUgently seeking. Had come to Jerusalem for to worship. — The act itseh, even prior to the eunuch's conversion by Phihp, was a fulfilment of the hope of the prophet Zephaniah cited above. Whether of Jewish origin or incorporated as a "proselyte of righteousness," he belonged to "the daughter of the dispersed," and so long a journey by a man in so high a position was in itself a notable event. He came seeking, we must believe, for Hght and wisdom, and they were given him beyond his expectations. I28) Sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. — After the manner of most Eastern nations, to whom silent reading is almost unknown, the eunuch was reading aloud. PhiUp heard him, and so gained an opening for con versation. Was the roU of Isaiah a new-found treasure? Had he 141 The Eunuch THE ACTS, VIII. reads Isaiah ting in his chariot read Esaiastheprophet. C29) Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. C30)And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Under- standest thou what thou readest % C31) And he said, a Isa. 53. r. How can I, except some man should guide me ? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. C32) The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter ;" and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he bought the MS. in Jerusalem, and was he reading the wonderful utterances for the first time ? The whole narrative impUes that he was reading the LXX. version. (29> Join thyself to this chariot. — The act implied is that of laying hold and, as it were, attaching himself to the chariot in which the eunuch rode. (30) TJnderstandest thou what thou readest ? — The Greek play upon the word for understand (Gindskein) and read (Anagindskein) cannot weU be pro duced in English, but is worth noting as paraUel to a like play in the well-known saying of the Emperor JuUan (Anegnbn ; egndn; kategniri) — " I read ; I understood ; I condemned." l31) How can I, except some man should guide me? — The words of the inquirer imply, as has been said above, that the prophecy was new to him. It is as though, in turning over, or perhaps un rolling, the MS., this was the pas sage which, in its strange, touching portraiture of the Man of Sorrows, had riveted his attention, and on which he was consequently dweU- ing with the prayer that some authorised interpreter would un fold its meaning. The word for "guide" connects itself with the title of "a guide of the blind," which the Babbis were fond of claiming (Matt. xv. 14 ; Bom. H. 19). (32) rpne piace 0f the scrip ture which he read. — The word for "place" is apparently used as an equivalent for the Hebrew Pa- rashah, or Haphtarah, which were technically used for the sections of the Law and Prophets respectively appointed for use as lessons in the synagogue services. It was in common use among the Greek writers, and was adopted by Cicero (Ep. ad AU. xiii. 25). He -was led as a sheep to the slaughter. — We may venture, taking as our guide the statement in verse 35 that PhUip "preached unto him Jesus," to represent to ourselves the method of interpretation which would be given of each clause. In 1 Pet. H. 23 we find the outlines of such a method. The story of the Passion would be told ; the silent patience of the Sufferer ; His previous Hfe and work ; the proofs which both had given that he was none other than that which He claimed to be — the Christ, the son of God. 142 "Led < THE ACTS, VIII. to the Slaughter." not his mouth : tS3) in his humiliation his judgment was taken away : and who shall declare his genera- P3) In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.— The Hebrew runs, as in the EngUsh version of Isa. liii. 8, which fairly represents its natural construction, " He was taken from prison (or, oppression) and from judgment," i.e., was delivered from His suffer ings just when they seemed to culminate. A different meaning has, however, been given to the Hebrew preposition by many scholars, who render the words, " Through oppression and [unjust] judgment He was taken away " — i.e., He was the victim of a judicial murder. The LXX., which is here foUowed, seems to have adopted a different construction, " By His humiliation, by His low estate, His judgment (i.e., the righteous judgment which was His due) was taken away." Here also, however, the word "judgment" has been taken hi a different sense, and the words have been interpreted as meaning, " His condemnation was taken away, or canceUed" — i.e., because He humbled Himseh He was afterwards exalted. Assuming Philip to have explained the words as they stand in the LXX., the first of these two latter interpretations has most to commend itseh. The story of the Passion, the unrighte ous sentence passed on the Lord Jesus because He stood before the Council and the Governor as poor and friendless, would be dwelt on as fiUing in the outlines of the pro phetic picture. Who shall declare his generation ?— The Hebrew noun may mean, as in Ps. xiv. 5, the men of a given period, or those sharing a common character. The words have, however, been very variously taken : (1) " Who shah declare the number of those who share His Ufe, and are, as it were, sprung from Him" — i.e., Who can count His faithful disciples? (2) " Who shaU declare the wickedness- of the crooked and perverse gene ration in which He lived p " (3) " Who, as far as His generation went, were wise enough to con sider ? " Assuming, as before, that it was the LXX. that Philip ex plained, the second of these seems preferable, as corresponding with the frequent use of the word "generation" with condemnatory epithets attached to it both by our Lord Himself (Matt. xii. 39—42; xvi. 4; xvH. 17) and His Apostles (chap. H. 40; PhU. ii. 15). The senses which some commentators have affixed to' it, (4) " Who shaU declare His duration ? " (5) " Who shaU set Umits to the life of Him who is One with the Eternal ? " or, as others, (6) " Who shall declare the mystery of His mode of birth ? " — i.e., of the Incarnation — are, it is believed, untenable as regards the Hebrew, and yet more so as regards the Greek. For his hfe is taken from the earth. — The Hebrew admits of no other meaning than that the Sufferer was hurried to a violent death. The fact that in being thus taken from the earth the Sufferer was exalted to heaven, though true in itseh, cannot be found in the words. We are not concerned here with a detailed explanation, either of the words that precede, or those 143 interprets THE ACTS, VIII. the Scripture. tion ? for his life is taken from the earth. C34) And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the pro phet this 1 of himself, or of some other man ? (35) Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. (36) And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water : and the eunuch said, See, that foUow, the passage quoted hi Isa. HU., but it is difficult to think of PhiUp as not taking in context as weU as text, and unfolding in fuU, not only the fact of the Pas sion, but its atoning and redeeming power, as set forth in the prophet's marveUous prediction. (34> Of himself, or of some other man ? — Later interpreters, some of them ascribing the whole of the second hah of Isaiah's prophecies (chaps, xl.— lxvi.) to a great unknown writer living to wards the close of the Babylonian Exile, have given very different answers to the question which the eunuch asked. They have seen hi the righteous sufferer of Isa. liii. either the deUneation of the cha racter of Jeremiah as the greatest sufferer of all the prophets, or of the righteous few who were sharers in his sufferings. This is not the place to discuss either the authen ticity of this part of the writings that bear Isaiah's name, or the primary historical appUcation of this passage. It is enough to remember that here, as with weU nigh every other Messianic pro phecy cited in the New Testament, there may well have been " spring ing and germinant accompUsh- ments," and that a primary reference to persons or facts in nearly contemporary history does not exclude a more complete f ulfil- 144 ment in Him who gathered up in Himseh ah that belonged to the ideal sufferer, as weU as to the ideal King, of, whom the prophets had spoken, with special reference, we may beUeve, to the atoning power of His sufferings (Isa. Hii. 4 — 6), and to His sUent patience under them (Isa. UH. 7. Comp. 1 Pet. ii. 22—25). (35) Philip opened his mouth. — The phrase, wherever it occurs in the New Testament, implies something like a set discourse. (Comp. chaps, x. 34 ; xviH. 14 ; Matt. v. 2 ; xiu. 35 ; 2 Cor. vi. 11). It always means something more than the mere act of speaking. And preached unto him Jesus. — The sequel shows that the teaching must have included, not only an interpretation of the prophecy as fulfiUed Hi Christ, but instruction as to the outward con dition of admission to the society of the disciples. The eunuch hears enough to make him eager for the baptism which was to bring with it so great a blessing. (36) Th.ey came unto a cer tain water. — Men have naturally endeavoured to identify the locality. In the time of 0 erome, probably in that of Eusebius (de loc), it was fixed at Bethsura, the Bethzur of 2 Chron. xi. 7), about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and two from Hebron. A fountain, now known The Eunuch THE ACTS, VIII. is Baptised. here is water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized ? <37) And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. <*>And he commanded the chariot to stand still : and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and he baptized him. (S9) And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the as Ain-Edh-Dhirweh rises near the town, which retains the old name in the sUghtly altered form of Beit- Sur. On the other hand, Eobinson is inclined to find the spring Hi the Wady-el-Hasey, between Eleuthe- ropolis and Gaza, not far from the old sites of Lachish and Eglon. This agrees better with the mention of Gaza and with the epithet " desert " as attached to the " way.'' (»> And Philip said . . . .— The verse is a striking illustration of the tendency which showed it self at a very early period to improve the text of Scripture with a view to greater edification. It existed in the time of Irenaeus, who quotes it (Hi. 12), but is wanting Hi aU the best MSS., including the Sinaitic, and many versions. The motive for the interpolation Ues on the surface. The abruptness of the unanswered question, and the ab sence of the confession of faith which was requhed in the Church's practice on the baptism of every convert, seemed hkely to be stumb- Ung-blocks, and the narrative was completed according to the received type of the prevaUing order for baptism. Even with the insertion, the shortness of the confession points to a very early stage of liturgical development, as also does the reference to it in Irenaeus. (38) They -went down both 10 into the water. — The Greek preposition might mean simply " unto the water," but the univer- saUty of immersion hi the practice of the early Church supports the English version. The eunuch would lay aside his garments, descend chest-deep into the water, and be plunged under it "in the name of the Lord Jesus ; " the only formula recognised in the Acts. (See Note on chap. H. 38.) So it was, in the half-playful language in which many of the Fathers dehghted, that "the Ethiopian changed his skin" (Jer. xiii. 23). P9) The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. — Human feeling would have naturaUy led the teacher to continue his work, and to accompany the convert with a view to further instruction ; but an impulse so strong and irresist ible that it was felt to be from the Spirit of the Lord led PhUip to an abrupt and immediate departure. He was literaUy snatched away from his companion. So under stood, the history presents a strik ing paraUel to the Spirit hindering St Paul from going in this or that direction Hi chap. xvi. 6, 7. Many commentators have, however, taken the words hi a yet more Hteral and material sense, as stating that PhiUp was caught up into the air and carried out of sight, and 115 Philip is THE ACTS, VIII. Caught Away, Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more : and he went 01 his way rejoicing. (40) Bu compare the cases of Elijah (1 Kings xvHi..l2; 2 Kings H. 11), Ezekiel (Hi 12, 14), and St. Paul (2 Cor. xii. 2, 4). In the last two cases, however, the language of the writer implies a spiritual rather than a bodily transport, and the case of EUjah, in 1 Kings xviii. 12, admits of an explanation Hke that which has now been offered hi the case of PhiUp. The use of the same verb in 2 Cor. xH. 2, 4, sug gests the thought that here also there was a suspension of the normal activity of consciousness. As St. Bernard walked by the Lake of Geneva, and knew not that he was near it, so Philip rushed away, as drawn on he knew not whither, as in a state of ecstasy; and so, in informing St. Luke of what passed (it is obvious that the report must,, in the first instance, have come from him), could give no other account of his journeying than that he was " found " at Azotus. Went on hia way rejoicing. — A remarkable various-reading runs : ' ' The Holy Sphit feU on the eunuch^ and an angel of the Lord caught away PhiUp ; " but it does not appear to be more than a conjectural emendation. Joy at the new-found truth prevaUed, we must beheve,, over any sorrow at the disappearance of the preacher. Eusebius (Bist. ii. 1) speaks of him as returning to his native country, and there preaching "the know ledge of the God of the universe and the Ufe-giving abode of the Saviour with men," and so ful- filUng the words that "Ethiopia should stretch forth her hands 116 unto God" (Ps. lxviii. 31); but U does not appear that he was ac quainted with any historical facts. It is, perhaps, not without" sig nificance in connection with this history, that the Ethiopian Church has been throughout its history the most strongly Jewish, in its wor ship and tone of thought, of all Christian communities (Stanley, Eastern Church, p. 12). (40) Philip was found at Azotus The city so named, the Ashdod of the Old Testament, was, Uke Gaza, one of the cities of the Philistines, about three miles from the sea, and hah- way between Gaza and Joppa. Like Gaza, its history was chiefly marked by successive sieges : by Tartan, the Assyrian General, B.C. 716 (Isa. xx. 1) ; by Psammetichus, B.C. 630 (Herod. H. 157); the Maccabees (1 Mace. v. 68 ; x. 34). It was restored by the Boman general Gabinius in B.o. 55. In remoter times it had been, one of the head-quarters of the worship of Dagon (1 Sam. v. 5). The old name lingers in the modern Esdud, but the city has sunk into a decayed village. The narrative suggests the thought that here also PhiUp continued his work as an evangelist. PhiHstia was, as of old, to be joined with Ethiopia in furnishing the city of God -with converts who should be written among the people (Ps. lxxxvii. 4). He preached in aU the cities — The route which PhUip would naturally take on this jour ney led through Lydda and Joppa, and we may probably trace the effect of his labours in the appear ance in chap. ix. 32, 36, of or- Comes to Catsana. THE ACTS, IX. Saul Persecuting. Philip was found at Azotus : and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. CHAPTER IX— m And Saul, yet breath ing out threatenings and slaughter against the dis- ganised and apparently flourishing Christian societies in both these towns. Till he came to Caesarea. — The historical importance of the city, lying on the fine of the great road from Tyre to Egypt, dates, as its name shows, from the Boman period. As described by Strabo, it was known only as Strato's Tower, with a landing-place for ships. It rose to magnificence, however, under Herod the Great, who built theatres, amphitheatres, and temples, and constructed a harbour as large as the Piraeus at Athens. In honour of his imperial patron he named it Caesarea Sebaste (the latter word meaning Augusta) (Jos. Ant. xvi. 5, § 1). It became, after the deposition of Archelaus, the official residence of the Boman Procurator, and is, as the sequel shows, prominent in the early his tory of the Church. Tacitus ( Hist. H. 79) speaks of it as the chief city — the caput of Judaea. It appears from chap. xxi. S that PhiUp took up his abode there and made it the head-quarters of his work as an evangeUst. In ecclesiastical his tory it became famous as the scene for a time of the labours of the great Origen, and as the home of the historian-bishop Eusebius. IX. P) Yet breathing out threat enings. — The "yet" impUes a considerable interval since the death of Stephen, probably coinciding with the time occupied by the mission - work of Philip in the previous chapter. During this in terval the persecution had probably been continuing. The Greek par ticiple, Uterally, breathing-in, is somewhat more emphatic than the English. He Uved, as it were, in an atmosphere of threats and slaughter. It was the very ah he breathed. Patristic writers and theh foUowers have not unnatur- aUy seen a half -prophetic parallel ism between the language of Jacob, " Benjamin shaU ravin as a wolf : in the morning he shah devour the prey, and at night he shaU divide the spoU " (Gen. xhx. 27), and this description of one who gloried hi being of that tribe (Phil. iii. 5), and bore the name of its great hero-king. Went unto the high priest. — It wiU be remembered that the high priest (whether we suppose Annas or Caiaphas to be meant) was a Sadducee, and that Saul gloried in being a Pharisee of the straitest sect (Acts xxvi. 5). The temper of the persecutor, however, does not shrink from strange com panionship, and the coalition which had been formed against our Lord (Matt. xxvi. 3) was renewed against His foUowers. If, as is probable, the admission of the Samaritans to the new community had become known at Jerusalem, it would na- turaUy tend to intensify their hatred. It would seem to them as if the accursed people were now alUed with the Galileans against the Holy Place, and those who were zealous for its honour. 147 He starts THE ACTS, IX. for Damascus. ciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, ^ and desired of him letters to Damascus to the syna gogues, that it he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound (2) And desired of him let ters to Damascus.— We learn from 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33, that Damas cus waB at this time under the government of Aretas, the king of Arabia Petraea. How it came to be so, having been previously under "Vitellius, the Boman president of Syria (Jos. Ant. xiv. 4, § 5), is not clear. It is probable, however, that in the war which Aretas had de clared against Herod Antipas, in consequence of the Tetrarch's di vorcing his daughter in order that he might marry Herodias (see Matt. xiv. 3 ; Luke Hi. 14), he had been led, after defeating the Tetrarch (Jos. Ant. xviii. 5, § 1), to push his victories further ; and, taking advantage of the absence of ViteUius, who had hastened to Bome on hearing of the death of Tiberius (a.d. 37) had seized on Damascus. In this abeyance of the control of the Boman power, Aretas may have desired to con ciliate the priestly party at Jeru salem by giving facilities to their action against the sect which they would naturally represent as iden tified with the Gahleans against whom he had been waging war. The Jewish population at Damas cus was, at this time, very numer ous. Josephus relates that not less than 10,000 were slain in a tumult under Nero (Wars, ii. 25), and the narrative of the Acts (verse 14) impUes that there were many " dis ciples of the Lord" among them. Many of these were probably re fugees from Jerusalem, and the 148 local synagogues were called upon to enforce the decrees of the San hedrin of the Holy City against them. On the position and history of Damascus, see Note on next verse. If he found any of this way. — LiteraUy, of the way. We have here the first occurrence of a term which seems to have been used familiarly as a sy nonym for the disciples of Christ (chaps, xix. 9, 23 ; xxii. 4 ; xxiv. 14, 22). It may have originated in the words in which Christ had claimed to be Himseh the " Way," as weh as the "Truth" and the " Life" (John xiv. 6); or in His language as to the " strait way " that led to eternal hfe (Matt. vfi. 13) ; or, perhaps, again, Hi the pro phecy of Isaiah ^xl. 3) cited by the Baptist (Matt. hi. 3 ; Mark i. 3), as to preparing " the way of the Lord." Prior to the general ac ceptance of the term " Christian" (chap. xi. 26) it served as a con venient, neutral designation by which the disciples could describe themselves, and which might be used by others who wished to speak respectfully, or, at least, neutraUy, instead of the oppro brious epithet of the "Nazarenes" (chap. xxiv. 5). The history of the term "Methodists," those "that follow a distinct " method " or " way " of Hfe, offers a partial but interesting analogue. Whether they were men or women — The mention of the latter has a speoial interest. They iZis Journey THE ACTS, IX. to Damascus. unto Jerusalem. !S) And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus : and sud denly there shined round too were prominent enough to be objects of the persecution. It is probable that those who were most exposed to it would have fled from Jerusalem, and among these we think of those who had been fore most in theh ministry during our Lord's life on earth (Luke viii. 2), and who were with the Apostles at theh first meeting after His Ascen sion (chap. i. 14). Might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. — The mission implied that the offence, as being against the Holy Place and the Law, as involving what would be caUed, in modern language, sacri lege and heresy, was beyond the jurisdiction of the subordinate tri bunals, and must be reserved for that of the CouncU. (See Matt. v. 22 ; x. 17.) P) And as he journeyed. — The route by which the persecutor and hia companions travelled was probably that taken by the Boman road (see map), which led from Jerusalem to Neapolis (Sychar, or Shechem), thence to Scythopolis, and so by the shores of the Sea of Gahlee and Caesarea Philippi, and thence under the slopes of Her- mon, to Damascus. On this sup position Saul would traverse the chief scenes of our Lord's ministry, and be stirred to madness by the progress which the new sect had made in the cities of Samaria. It is, however, possible that he may have taken the road by the Jor dan valley by which Galilean pil grims sometimes traveUed in order to avoid Samaria ; but the former was beyond all question the most direct and best frequented road. He came near Damascus The city has the interest of being one of the oldest hi the world. It appears Hi the history of Abraham (Gen. xiv. 15 ; xv. 2), and was, tra- ditionaUy, the scene of the murder of Abel. David placed his gar risons there (2 Sam. viu. 6 ; 1 Chron. xviu. 6), and, under Bezon, it resisted the power of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 24). Its fair streams, Abana and Pharpar, were, in the eyes of the Syrian leper, better than aU the waters of Israel (2 Kings v. 12). It was the centre of the Syrian kingdom in its alliances and wars with those of Israel and Judah (2 Kings xiv. 28 ; xvi. 9, 10 ; Amos i. 3, 5). Its trade with Tyre Hi wares, and wine of Helbon, and white wool is noted by Ezekiel (chap. xxvu. 16, 18). It had been taken by Parmenion for Alexander the Great, and again by Pompeius. It was the birth place of Nicolaos of Damascus, the historian and rhetorician who is conspicuous as the counsellor of Herod the Great (Jos. Ant. xh. 3, § 2 ; xvi 2, § 2). At a later period it was the residence of the Ommi- yad caliphs, and the centre o"the world of Islam. The beauty of its site, the river which the Greeks knew as Chrysorrhoas, the " Golden Stream," its abounding fertUity, the gardens of roses, made it, as Lamartine has said, a ?' predestined capital." Such was the scene which met the bodily eye of the fanatic persecutor. The historian does not care to dwell on its description, and hastens to that which met his inward gaze. As suming the journey to have been 149 The Voice THE ACTS, IX. frem Heaven, about him a light from heaven : <4) and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, continuous, the approach to Da mascus would come on the seventh or eighth day after leaving Jeru salem. There shined round about him a light from heaven.— As in chap. xxvi. 13, "above the brightness of the sun." Three accounts of the event that thus turned the current of the life of Saul of Tarsus meet us Hi the Acts. (1) This, which gives the writer's report of what he could hardly have heard from any lips but St. Paul's; (2) St. Paul's narrative before the Sanhedrin (chap. xxH. 6 — 11); (3) that which he ghes before Agrippa (chap. xxvi. 13 — 18). They present, as wiU be seen, considerable variations, such as were natural in the records of a manifestation which was partial to some, and complete to one only. Those that were with him heard a voice but did not distinguish words (chap. xxii. 9). They saw, as stated here (verse 7), the light, but did not perceive the form of Him who spoke. The phenomena, in this respect, stand paraUel to those of the voice from heaven, in which some heard the words, ascribing them to an angel, while others, hearing only the sound, said it thundered (see John xii. 29). It is not possible in such a history to draw a hard and fast line between the objective and the subjective. The man himBelf cannot say whether he is in the body or out of the body (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3). It is enough for him that he sees what others do not see, and hears what they do not hear, whhe they too hear and see enough to prove both 150 to themselves and to him that something has occurred beyond the range of ordinary phenomena. No thing in the narrative suggests the thought of a sudden thunderstorm, which has seemed to some writers a probable explanation of the tacts. In that case, the gathering gloom, the dark roUing clouds, would have prepared the traveUer for the lightning-flash. It this hypothesis be at aU entertained — and as it does not necessarily exclude the super natural element, and presents ana logies to the divine jnarrrf estations on Sinai (Et- six. 16) and Horeb li' Kings xix. 11, 12), it may be entertained legitimately — we must think of the storm, if we take such a view, as coming with an almost instantaneous quickness, the first flash and crash striking aU with terror, while the fuU revelation of the Christ was made to the con sciousness and conscience of the future Apostle. (4) Saul, Saul, why perse cutest thou me ? — It is remark able that here only, Hi the original Greek, and hi verse 17, as in the reproduction of the words in chaps. xxii. 27, xxvi. 14, do we find the Hebrew form of the Benjamite name. It is as though he, who gloried in being above ah things a Hebrew of the Hebrews, heard himseh claimed as such by Him who spoke from heaven, called as Samuel had been called of old (1 Sam. Hi. 4 — 8), and having to decide whether he would resist to the end, or yield, saying with Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." The narrative imphes that the persecutor saw the The Vision THE ACTS, IX. of Jesus. Saul, why persecutest thou me 1 (5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord 1. And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ; it is hard for thee to kick form of the Son of Man as well as heard His voice, and to that visible presence the Apostle afterwards refers as a witness to him of the Eesurrection (1 Cor. ix. 1 ; xv. 8). If we ask as to the manner of the appearance, it is natural to think of it as being such as had met the gaze of Stephen. The martyr's words, " I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God " (chap. vu. 56), had then seemed to the fiery zeal of the Pharisee as those of a blasphemer. Now he too saw the Son of Man in the glory of the Father stretching forth His hand, not now, as He then had done, to receive the servant who was faith ful even unto death, but in answer to that servant's dying prayer, to transform the persecutor into the Hkeness of his victim. («) Who art, thou, Lord?— The word "Lord" could not as yet have been used Hi ah the fulness of its meaning. As Hi many cases in the Gospels, it was the natural utterance of respect and awe (John v. 7; ix. 36; xx. 15), such as would be roused by what the persecutor saw and heard. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. — Some of the best MSS. give "Jesus of Nazareth;" or better, perhaps, Jesus the Naza- rene. It is probable, however, that this was inserted from chap. xxii. 18, where it occurs in St. Paul's own narrative. Assuming the word3 to have been those which he actuaUy heard, they reproduced the very Name which he himseh, as 151 the chief accuser of Stephen, had probably uttered Hi the tone of scorn and hatred (chap. vi. 14) — the very Name which he had been compelling men and women to blaspheme. Now it was revealed to him, or to use his own suggestive mode of speech, " in him " (Gal. i. 16), that the Crucified One was in very deed, as the words of Stephen had attested, at the right hand of God, sharing in the glory of the Father. The pronouns are both emphatic, " I, in my Love and Might and Glory, I am the Jesus whom thou, now prostrate and fuU of dread, hast been bold enough to persecute.' ' It was not the disciples and brethren alone whom Saul was persecuting. What was done to them the Lord counted as done unto Himseh (Matt. x. 40). It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. — There is a decisive preponderance of MS. authority against the appearance of these words here, and the con clusion of nearly aU critics is that they have been inserted in the later MSS. from chap. xxvi. 14. As they occur in the English text, however, and belong to this crisis in St. Paul's hfe, it wiU be weU to deal with them now. In theh outward form they were among the oldest and most familiar of Greek pro verbs. The Jew who had been educated in the schools of Tarsus might have read them in Greek poets (^Eschylus, Agam. 1633; Pin dar, Pyth. ii. 173; Eurip. Bacch. 791), or heard them quoted in familiar speech, or written them in " Lord, what wilt thou THE ACTS, IX. me to do ? " against the pricks. (6) And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do 1 And tho Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and his boyhood. They do not occur in any collection of Hebrew pro verbs, but the analogy which they presented was so obvious that the ploughmen of Israel could hardly have faUed to draw the same lesson as thoBe of Greece. What they taught was, of course, that to resist a power altogether superior to our own is a profitless and perilous ex periment. The goad did but prick more sharply the more the ox struggled against it. Two of the passages cited apply the words directly to the suffering which man is sure to encounter when he resists God, as e.g. — " With God we may not strive : ****** But to Dow down the willing neck, And bear the yoke, is wise ; To kick against the pricks will prove A perilous emprise. " — Pind. Pyth. ii. 173. We ask what lesson the words brought to the mind of Saul. What were the "pricks" against which he had been " kicking f" The answer is found in what we know of the facts of his life. There had been promptings, misgivings, warn ings, which he had resisted and defied. Among the causes of these, we may well reckon the conversion of the friend and companion of his youth (see Note on chap. iv. 36), and the warning counsel of Gama liel (chap. v. 34 — 39), and the angel-face of Stephen (chap. vi. 15), and the martyr's dying prayer (chap. vii. 60), and the daily spec tacle of those who were ready to 152 go to prison and to death rather than to renounce the name of Jesus. In the frenzy of his zeal he had tried to crush these misgivings, and the effort to do so had brought with it discomfort and disquietude which made him more "exceedingly mad " against the disciples of the Lord. Now he learnt that he had aU along, as his master had warned hhn, been " fighting against God," and that his only safety lay in the surrender of his own passionate resolve to the gracious and loving WUl that was seeking to win him for itseh. In his later retrospect of this stage of his life he was able, as by a subtle process of self- analysis, to distinguish between the element of ignorance which made forgiveness possible, and that of a wUful resistance to Hght and know ledge which made that forgiveness an act of free and undeserved com passion (1 Tim. i. 12, 13). (6) And he trembling and astonished . . . — The words stand, as far as textual authority is concerned, on the same footing as the foregoing, but, for the same reason, wih be dealt with here. We note (1) the use of the word "Lord," now, we must believe, with a new meaning, as apphed to the Nazarene whom he had before despised. (2) The entire surrender of his own wiU to that of Him whom he thus recognised as command ing his allegiance. At that moment Christ was formed in him (Gal. i. 16) ; the new man came to Hfe. He lived in Christ, and Christ in hhn. "Not I, but Christ that liveth Conversion THE ACTS, IX. of Saul. it shall be told thee what thou must do. (7) And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hear ing a voice, but seeing no man. ® And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man : but they led him by the hand, and in me " (Gal. u. 20) was hencefor ward the axiom of his Ufe. Arise, and go into the city. — In the narrative of chap. xxvi. 16 there appears a fuher manifes tation of the divine purpose as made at this time ; but there St. Paul, in his rapid survey, is ob viously combining, hi one brief summary, the whole sum and sub stance of the teaching that was as sociating with that great turning- point of his Hfe. We may trace in the command actuaUy given a stage in the divine discipline ap pointed for his sphit. Silence and submission, and acquiescence in ignorance of the future, and patient expectation, and prayer for light — these were needed before he could be ready for the great work which was to be committed to his charge. f7) Hearing a voice, but seeing no man. — We are told by St. Paul himseh (chap. xxii. 9) that they " did not hear the voice." What is meant is clearly that they did not hear the words- — could at tach no meaning to the sounds which for Saul himseh had so pro found a significance. So, in Uke manner, they saw the Ught, but did not see the form. In chap. xxvi. 14, they also are said to have faUen on the ground in terror. (8) He saw no man. — • The blindness was that of one who has been dazzled with excess of Ught (comp. chap. xxH. 11), the natural result of the vision of the super natural glory, a witness to the man himseh that the vision was not a mere play of imagination. Traces of its permanent effect on his powers of sight have been found in his habit of dictating rather than writing letters (see 2 Thess. in. 17), in the large characters traced by him when he did write (see Gal. vi. 11), in his not recog nising the high priest who com manded him to be struck. (See Notes on chap, xxiii. 2 — 5.) Of the many theories as to the mysterious "thorn in the flesh" (see 2 Cor. xH. 7), there seems most reason for accepting that which connects it with some affection of the eyes, involving, perhaps, attacks of agonising pain. On' this assump tion, the eager wish of the Gala- tians, if it had been possible, to have plucked out their own eyea and given them to him, receives a special and interesting significance. (See Gal. iv. 15.) For Saul him seh, the bUndness may well have had a spiritual significance. He had looked on himseh as "a guide of the blind," boasting that he saw clearly (Bom. H. 19). Now, for a time, tUl inward and outward light should shine in on him, he had to accept his bUndness. The new-born soul had to be as " An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry." They led him by the hand, and brought him into Da mascus. — The mission on which Saul had come was aheady known 153 Ananias THE ACTS, IX. of Damascus. brought him into Damas cus. C9) And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. (10) And there was a cer tain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias ; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. al) And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire at Damascus, and his arrival ex pected with alarm. Now he came, and the mission feU to the ground. The letters to the synagogues were not deUvered. (9) He was three days with out sight. — It is natural to think of this period of seclusion from the visible world as one of spiritual communion with the invisible, and we can hardly be wrong in refer ring the visions and revelations of the Lord, the soaring as to the third heaven, and the Paradise of God, of which he speaks fourteen or fifteen years later, to this period. (See 2 Cor. xii. 1— *•) The condi tions of outward Hfe were sus pended, and he lived as one faUen into a trance — in the ecstasy of an apocalyptic rapture. (Comp. the analogous phenomena in Ezek. vHi. 1-4.) (10) A certain disciple at Da mascus, named Ananias In chap. xxii. 12 St. Paul speaks of him as a " devout man " (the same word as in chaps, ii. 5 ; viii. 2) "according to the law," weU re ported of by aU the Jews who dwelt at Damascus. The name was so common that any identification must be in some measure uncertain, but the account which Josephus gives (Ant. xx. 2, § 4) of the con version of Izates, King of Adia- bene, to the faith of Israel by a Jewish merchant who bore the 154 name of Ananias, and who taught that it was enough for men to wor ship the God of Israel without being circumcised, suggests, as probable, the thought that he too was a preacher of the gospel of Christ as St. Paul preached it. The arrival of another teacher, Eleazar of GalUee, who worked on the young king's fears and compeUed him to be chcumcised, presents a striking paraUel to the manner in which the Judaisers foUowed on the track of St. Paul in Galatia and elsewhere (Gal. H. 4 ; iv. 17). The narrative here leaves it uncertain whether this Ananias had been a disciple during our Lord's ministry or had been converted since the Day of Pentecost. In relation to St. Paul the name hid a two-fold significance. He had come from one Annas, or Ananias, the Saddu- cean high priest, he was to be re ceived by another. The meaning of the name — identical with that of Jochanan, Joannes, John, "the Lord is gracious " — was itseh an omen and prophecy of pardon. To him said the Lord in a vision. — It is clear from verse 16 that the writer is speaking of the Lord Jesus. The ready acceptance of the command seems to imply either personal discipleship or pre vious visions of the same nature. P1) The street which is called Straight. — A Btreet an- He is sent THE ACTS, IX to Saul in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus : for, behold, he prayeth, (12) and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. tl3) Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this swering to this description stiU runs from the Eastern Gate to the palace of the Pacha, and is known locally as the "Street of Bazaars." Somewhat curiously, the house shown by guides as that of Judas is not in it. A piece of ground surrounded by trees, and used as a Christian burial-place, is pointed out as the scene of the Conversion ; but this is on the east side of the city, and St. Paul must have ap proached from the south or south west. Saul, of Tarsus. — The passage is memorable as the first mention of the Apostle's birthplace. For an account of the city, see Notes on chap. vii. 58 and verse 30. Behold, he prayeth. — The thoughts which the words suggest belong to the preacher rather than the commentator. We can but think of the contrast between the present and the recent past— be tween the threateningand slaughter which the persecutor breathed out as he drew near to Damascus, and the prayer of humble penitence in which he was now living. Esti mating that prayer by that which came as the answer to it, we may think of it as including pardon for the past, Hght and wisdom for the future, strength to do the work to which he was now called, inter cession for those whom he had be fore persecuted unto the death. (12> And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias. — The coincidence of the two visions has seemed to some critics, as after wards in the history of Cornelius, to betray something Hke the skUl of the artistic historian. To those who reject the supernatural alto gether, this may, of course, seem a short and easy explanation. To those who have not brought them selves to that point of denial, it wiU not seem strange that there should be in the work of the highest Designer the same unity of purpose and convergence of varied means which rouse our admiration in works of human skill. For Ananias, what he was now told was an im phed command that he should fulfil the vision thus reported to him. t13) Lord, I have heard by many of this man. — The words are of interest as showing both the duration and the character of the persecution in which Saul had been the leader. The report of it had spread far and wide. The refugees at Damascus had told of the suffer ings of the brethren at Jerusalem. Thy saints at Jerusalem.— This is noticeable as the first appli cation of the term " saints" to the disciples. The primary idea of the word was that of men who con secrated themselves, and led, in the strictest sense of the word, a de vout hfe. A term of hke import had been taken by the more re- Ugious Jews in the time of the Maccabeans. The Chasidim, or Saints (the word occurs in Ps. xvi. 3), were those who banded them selves together to resist the inroads 155 Saul is a THE ACTS, IX. Chosen Vessel. man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem : (I4) and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. 0S) But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way : for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before of heathenism under Antiochus Epiphanes. They appear in the books of Maccabees under the title of Assideans (1 Mace. H. 42 ; vH. 13; 2 Mace. xiv. 6). The more distinctive name of Pharisees (Sepa ratists), which came to be attached to the more zealous Chasidim, prac tically superseded this ; and either by the disciples themselves, or by friendly outsiders, the Greek equi valent of the old Hebrew word — and probably, therefore, in Palestine, the Aramaic form of the word itseh — was revived to describe the devout members of the new society. The fact that theh Master had been conspicuously " the Holy One of God " (the same adjective is used of Him in the quotations from Ps. xvi. 10, in chaps. U. 27 ; xiii. 35), make it natural that the term should be extended to His foUowers, just as He had been spoken of as the " Just One " (chaps, iii. 14 ; vii. 52) ; and yet that name was applied, in its Greek form, to James the brother of the Lord, and, in its Latin form of Justus, to the three so named in chaps, i. 23 ; xviii. 7 ; Col. iv. 1 ;. It is significant that its first appear ance in the New Testament should be as used by the man who was sent to be St. Paul's instructor, and that it should afterwards have been employed so frequently by the Apostle himself (Bom. i. 7 ; xv. 25 ; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; vi. 1, 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ; Eph. i. 1 ; PhU. i. 1, et al.) The " devout man according to the law," may weU have been among- 156 the Chasidim even prior to his con version to the faith of Christ. The term appears in inscriptions from the Catacombs in the Museum of the Collegia Romano at Bome — " N. or M. resteth here with the Saints ; " but probably in the later sense, as attached to martyrs and others of distinguished holiness. P4> AU that call on thy name. — Here again we have to trace the growth of a new termi nology. The description of the dis ciples of the Lord Jesus as those who called upon or invoked His name, had its origin in the words of Joel cited by St. Peter (chap. H. 21), and afterwards by St. Paul (Bom. x. 13). It is used again in verse 21, and afterwards in 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. ii. 22. It may be noted further (1) that the same word is used of calling upon the Father (1 Pet. i. 17), and of calling on Christ (here and chap. vii. 59) ; and (2) that this also, Uke the term "saints" discussed in the foregoing Note, passed from Ananias to St. Paul. I15) He is a chosen vessel unto me — LiteraUy, » vessel of election. — The term has nothing directly analogous to it Hi the Old Testament, but it is Hebrew in its form ; the second noun being used as a genitive of the characteristic attribute, and so equivalent to an intensified adjective. So in Isa. xxii. 7, we have in the LXX. "valleys of election" for the " choicest vaUeys " of the English Ananias THE ACTS, IX. Visits Saul. the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel : (16) for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (17)And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house ; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that ap peared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath version. The term " vessel " is used in the Old Testament of arms (Gen. xxvii. 3), of garments (Deut. xxii. 5), of household goods (Gen. xxxi. 56). In the New Testament its range of meaning is yet wider, as hi Matt. xii. 29 ; Luke viii. 16 ; John xix. 29 ; Eom. ix. 22 ; 2 Cor. iv. 7. Here our word " instrument " or "implement" comes, perhaps, nearest to its meaning. The per secutor had been chosen by the Lord as the " tool " with which He would work out TTig gracious wiU for Him and for the Gentiles. In this sense it was used by classical writers of useful and trusty slaves, just as we speak of one man being the "tool" of another. Possibly, however, the words may be inter preted as containing the germ of the parable of the potter's vessel on which St. Paul dwells in Bom. ix. 21 — 23, and implied that the con vert was not only chosen, but moulded, for his future work. The word " election," which occurs here for the first time in the New Tes tament, and is afterwards so pro minent in the teaching of St. Paul (Eom. ix. 11 ; xi. 5, 7, 8 ; 1 Thess. l. 4), affords yet another instance of the influence exercised on the Apostle by the thoughts and lan guage of the instructor through whom alone he could have learnt what is here recorded. To bear my name before the Gentiles. — The mission of the Apostle was thus revealed to Ananias in the first instance. He is one who welcomes that expansion of the kingdom on which even the chief of the Apostles would have entered, but for the voice from heaven, with doubt and hesitation (chap. x. 13, 28). He is taught to see in the man of whom he had only heard as the persecutor, one who had been trained a ad chosen as fitter than aU others for the work of that expansion. And kings.— The words find their fulfilment in the speech before Agrippa (chap. xxvi. 12) ; possibly in one before Nero (2 Tim. i. 16). t16) For I will shew him how great things he must suffer . . . — The words are spoken as by One who knows " what is in man " (John H. 25), their secret motives, and springs of action. With characters of a lower type, the prospect of what they wUl have to suffer in any enterprise tends to deter them from embarking on it. With such a one as Saul of Tarsus, now repenting of the sufferings he had inflicted on others, that pros pect would be welcome as enabling him, so far as that was possible, if not to atone for the past, at least to manhest fruits worthy of his repentance. l17) Putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul. — The corre spondence of the act with the vision spoken of in verse 12, would be the first step in the identification of the visitor. The words would 157 Saul's Sight THE ACTS, IX. is Restored. sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. C18) And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales : and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. C19) Aud when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were tend to remove aU doubt and mis giving. The man who came as the representative of the disciples of Jesus welcomed the persecutor as a "brother." It may be noted that he uses the same Hebrew form of the name as St. Paul had heard in the heavenly vision. That thou mightest receive thy sight . . . . — Better, regain thy sight. The narrative clearly implies that here, as in chap. viH. 17, the being " fiUed with the Holy Ghost" was connected with the laying on of hands as a condition, and it is so far a proof that that ght was not one which attached exclusively to the Apostles. It was, we may weU believe, manifested Hi this instance as in others, by the ecstatic utterance of "the tongues" (comp. chap. xix. 6 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 18), and by the ght of prophetic insight. PB) There fell from his eyes as it had been scales. — The description suggests the thought that the blindness was caused by an incrustation, caused by acute inflammation, covering the pupil of the eye, or closing up the eye lids, analogous to the " whiteness," that peeled (or scaled) off from the eyes of Tobit (Tob. xi. 13). Like phenomena are mentioned by Hippocrates, and the care with which St. Luke records the fact in this instance may be noted, with chaps. Hi. 7 ; xxviu. 8, as one of the examples of the 15S technical precision of his caning as a physician. Arose, and was baptized. — It is clear that both Saul and Ananias looked on this as the indis pensable condition for admission into the visible society of the kingdom of God. No visions and revelations of the Lord, no intensity of personal conversion, exempted him from it. For him, too, that was the " washing of regeneration " (Tit. hi. 5), the moment of the new birth, of being buried with Christ (Bom. vi. 3, 4). It may be inferred almost as a matter of certainty that it was at the hands of Ananias that he received baptism. The baptism would probably be administered in one or other of the rivers which the history of Naaman had made famous, and so the waters of "Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus " (2 Kings v. 12), were now sancti fied no less than those of Jordan for the " mystical washing away of sin." ("I And when he had re ceived meat. — Better, as else where, food. The three days' fast had obviously brought about a state of extreme prostration. In St. Paul's account of his conversion in Gal. i. 17, he states that when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, immediately he " conferred not with flesh and blood," but went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. We have, it is obvious, He PreacMs Christ THE ACTS, IX. at Damascus. at Damascus. tao) And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. (al) But all that heard him were amazed, and said ; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this no certain data for fixing the time, nor the extent of that journey. St. Luke does not mention it, and his " straightway " balances the "immediately" of St. Paul's ac count. On the whole, it seems most probable that it was the first step taken by him after he had regained his sight and been bap tised. Physically, rest and seclu sion would be necessary during the period of convalescence after the great crisis of his conversion. SpirituaUy, that soUtude was needed, we may beUeve, to prepare him for the continuous labour of the three years that foUowed. I place the journey to Damascus accordingly, with hardly any hesi tation, after the " certain days " of feUowship with the disciples, and his reception at theh solemn meet ing to break bread Hi the Supper of the Lord, and before the "preaching Christ" Hi the syna gogues. How far the journey extended we cannot say. "Arabia " was used somewhat vaguely as a geographical term; but the fact that Damascus was at this time occupied by the troops of Aretas, the king of Arabia Petraea, makes it probable that he went to that region. In St. Paul's paronomastic reference to Hagar as a synonym for Mount Sinai Hi Arabia (Hagar and Sinai both admitting of an etymology which gives ' ' rock " as the meaning of each), we may, perhips, trace a local knowledge gained during this journey, and draw the mference that he had sought communion with God where Moses and EHjah had found it, on the heights of Sinai and Horeb. (Comp. Gal. iv. 25.) He learnt, it may be, the true meaning and pur pose of the Law, as arousing the fear of judgment, amid the terrors of the very rocks from which that Law had first been proclaimed to Israel. (M) And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues. — The " straight way" as interpreted by the in ference drawn in the previous Note, must be taken to refer to the Apostle's first pubhc appear ance Hi the synagogues of Damas cus after his return from Arabia. The tense of the verb impUes that the work was continued for some length of time. What he had to proclaim was, first, that the Christ was actuaUy and verily the Son of God no less than the Son of David ; and, secondly, that Jesus of Naza reth had been shown to be the Christ. The better MSS., how ever, give the reading, preached Jesus. The line of reasoning we may assume to have been identical with that of chap. xiii. 16 — 41. It is not without interest to remember here also that the Samaritans had a synagogue of theh own at Damascus, and that he may thus have preached to them, so foUow- ing in the footprints of PhUip and taking his first step Hi the great work of breaking down the barriers that divided Israel from the world. (21) That destroyed them 159 He increases THE ACTS, IX. more in Strength. name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? (22) But Saul in creased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. C23) And after that many days were fulfilled, the which called on this name. — Better, made havock of them. It is noticeable that St. Paul uses the same verb as descriptive of his own conduct in Gal. i. 13, where the EngUsh version has" wasted." On " them which cahed on this name," see Note on verse 16. And came hither. — More accurately, had come hither, as im plying that the purpose of his coming had been abandoned. (22) But Saul increased the more in strength. — The tense implies a continuous growth Hi power, obviously in the sphitual power which enabled the Apostle to carry on his work. A comparison of dates suggests the connection of this growth with the special vision of 2 Cor. xH. 8, when Hi answer to his prayer that the mfirmity which he describes as "a thorn in his flesh, the minister of Satan to buf fet him," he received the comfort ing assurance from the Lord whom he served — " My strength is made perfect in weakness." It is not without interest that in after years St. Paul once and again uses the same verb of himseh — "I can do all things Hi Christ that strengthened me" (Phil. iv. 13). It was Christ who "enabled him," or, made him strong, for his minis try (1 Tim. i. 12) ; who "strengthened him" hi the closing trials of his Hfe (2 Tim. iv. 17). By tome com mentators the words are connected with the journey to Arabia as fol- 160 lowing on his first appearance as a preacher in the synagogues; but see Note on the previous verBe. CT After that many days were fulfiUed. — We learn from the more definite statement in Gal. i 18 that these few words cover a period of otherwise unrecorded work, extending over a period of three years. That period must have witnessed the growth of a Christian society at Damascus, with an order of discipline and worship based on the outlines of that at Jerusalem. It foUows, however, from the subsequent history that as yet Gentile converts were not admitted to the Church as such. The special mission to them came later on (comp. chap. xxii. 21), and it was natural that one, with the intense affection for hisbrethren according to the flesh which cha racterised St. Paul (Eom. x. 1), should, tUl that mission came, have given himseh mainly, or even ex clusively, to the work of labouring for their conversion. It is pro bable, however, from the bitter antagonism of the Jews, that his teaching had aheady pointed to the breaking down of " the middle waU of partition " (Eph. H. 14), and the passing away of aU on which they had prided themselves as being theh exclusive privileges. From the first it might almost seem as if Stephen had risen from the dead, and was hving again Hi the spirit and power of his persecutor. Plot against THE ACTS, IX. Saul's Life. Jews took counsel to kill him : C2* but their laying await was known of Saul." And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. (23) Then the disciples took 9 Cor. 11. S3. him by night, and let him down by the wall in a bas ket. (a6) And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples : but they (24) They watohed the gates day and night to kill him. — A somewhat f uUer account of this episode in the Apostle's hfe is given by him Hi 2 Cor. xi. 32. There we read that the governor/ — literaUy, ethnareh — of the city, under Aretas, King of Arabia Petraaa, with Petra as his capital, the father of the wife whom Herod Antipas divorced, in order that he might marry Herodias, took an active part in the plot against Paul On the manner in which Aretas had gained possession of a city which was properly attached to the Boman province of Syria, see Note on verse 2. It is noticeable that there are coins of Damascus bearing the names of Augustus and Tiberius, and again of Nero and his suc cessors, but none of those of Caligula and Claudius, who suc ceeded Tiberius. Caligula, on his accession, reversed the poUcy of Tiberius, who had been a friend and supporter of Antipas against Aretas, and it is probable that, as Hi other instances, he created a new principaUty, or ethnarchy, in favour of Aretas, to whose pre decessors Damascus had belonged (Jos. Ant. xiii. 15, § 2). The ethnareh apparently wished to court the favour of the large Jewish population, and, looking on St. Paul as a disturber of the pubUc peace, took measures for his arrest and condemnation. Troops were stationed at each gate of I confined to a purely technical 11 161 the city in order to prevent his escape. I26) Let him down by the wall in a basket. — The basket is the spuris of Matt. xv. 37. In 2 Cor. xi. 33 St. Paul describes it by another word (sargane), which gives the idea of a wioker or rope- work hamper. It seems to fol low, from the tone in which the Apostle there speaks of this ad venture, that it had been made matter of ridicule. It is con nected in his thoughts with the " infirmities " (probably with his smallness of stature) of which he was content to boast. The escape was effected, Uke that of the spies from the house of Bahab (Josh. ii. 15) and of David from his own house (1 Sam. xix. 11), through an opening or " window " in the town waU. Such a window is stiU shown Hi the waU of Damascus as the traditional scene of the escape. t26> And when Saul was eome to Jerusalem. — His jour ney probably took him, as before, through Samaria (see Note on verse 3), and so laid the foundation of the interest in the Samaritan Church, which shows itseh later on in the history in chap. xv. 3, when he and Barnabas journeyed " through Phosnice and Samaria." He assayed to join himself to the disciples.— The reader may note the use of the word which has since been Barnabas takes him THE ACTS. IX. to the Apostles. were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. on But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damas cus in the name of Jesus. (28) And he was with them meaning, hi the wider sense of trying or attempting. The verb for " join " is that which is always used of close and intimate feUow ship, such as that of husband and wife, of brothers, and of friends. (Comp. chap. x. 28 ; Matt. xix. 5 ; Luke xv. 15 ; 1 Cor. vi. 16). He was seeking, Hi the language of a later tune, fuU communion with the disciples. It was not strange that his motives should be at first suspected. Might he not be coming to "spy out" theh weak places, and Hi time appear again as a per secutor f The difficulty which at first presents itseh Hi understand ing how the Church at Jerusalem could have remained ignorant of what Saul had done at Damascus as a preacher of the faith, is ade quately explained by the poUtical incidents to which attention has been already drawn. The occupa tion of the city by Aretas, and his enmity against the Herodian house, may weU have stopped the usual intercourse between it and Jeru salem, then under the rule of Agrippa, and so the reports that reached the Apostles would come in uncertain and fluctuating forms, which were not sufficient to lead the disciples to trust in the con version of the persecutor. (27) But Barnabas took him. — What, we ask, made Barnabas more ready than others, not only to receive the convert himseh, but to vouch for his sincerity ? The 102 answer is found Hi the inference that the Levite of Cyprus and the tent-maker had been friends in earher years. The culture of which Tarsus was the seat would natur- aUy attract a student from the neighbouring island, and the eager ness of Barnabas to secure Saul's co-operation at a later stage of bis work (chap. xi. 25) may fahly be looked on as furnishing a confirma tion of the view now suggested. He knew enough of his friend to believe every syllable of what he told him as to the incidents of his conversion. Brought him to the apos tles, —In the more definite account in Gal. i. 18, 19, we find that his primary purpose was to exchange thoughts (iaTopTjcrat ¦=¦ to inquire, the word from which we get our "history") with Peter, and that the only other leading teacher that he saw (we need not now inquire whether he speaks of him as an Apostle or not) was "James, the Lord's brother." It may, perhaps, be inferred from this, either (1) that the other Apostles were absent from Jerusalem at the time, or (2) that the new convert did not attend any public meeting of the Church. I28) Coming in and going out — The words, hke the kindred phrase in chap. i. 21, are used to imply a certain undefined fre quency of intercourse. From Gal. i. 18 we learn that the whole dura- He is sent THE ACTS, IX. to Tarsus. coming in and going out at Jerusalem. m And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and dis puted against the Grecians : but they went about to slay him. 'se> Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cse- sarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus. (31) Then had the churches rest through out all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were tion of the visit was not more than fifteen days. (29) Disputed against the Grecians. — It wUl be remembered that it was as the leader of the HeUenistic Jews of the synagogue named hi chap. vi. 9 that Saul had first appeared Hi the history of the Church. Now, it would seem, he sought to undo the evh that he had then wrought, by preaching to them the faith which he had then opposed, and presenting, we may weU beheve, the very aspects of the truth that had been most pro minent in Stephen's teaching, and which, therefore, now, as then, roused them to a passionate frenzy. Twice, within a few weeks, the Apostle's Hfe was in danger. (30) They brought him down to Caesarea. — The fact that the brethren at Jerusalem took these measures for the Apostle's safety may be noted as a, proof of their friendship. At Caesarea he would probably, as afterwards in chap. xxi. 8, find Philip, and the friend and the accuser of the proto-mar- tyr met face to face as brethren. In returning to his home at Tarsus, from which he had been absent at the least for four years, and pos sibly for a much longer period, it would be natural for him to resume his old employment as a tent-maker. (See Note on chap. xvHi. 3.) Thence, as from a centre, he did his work 163 as an EvangeUst in the regions of Cilicia (Gal. i. 21), where, in chap. xv. 41, we find churches already organised, which had not been founded Hi what we caU the first mission journey of Paul and Bar nabas, and must therefore have been planted by the former at an earher period. Here, for the pre sent, we lose sight of him. It need hardly be said that the Caesarea here spoken of is that on the sea- coast. Caesarea PhUippi is always distinguished by its special epithet. P1) Then had the churches rest.— The better MSS. have "the Church" Hi the singular. The tranquilUty described may have been due, partly to the absence of any leading men among the op ponents of the new society ; partly, perhaps, to public excitement being diverted to the insane attempt of CaUgula to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem — an attempt from which he was only dissuaded by the earnest entreaties of Herod Agrippa, whom he had raised to the dignity of King of Judaea; but who happened at the time to be at Bome, and of Petronius, the Presses of Syria. The latter was influenced by great showers of rani faUing from a clear sky, after a, long drought, in answer to the prayers of Israel (Jos. Ant. xvni. 8, § 6). Such prayers, made at a crisis in which beUeving and unbelieving The Churches THE ACTS, IX Multiplied. edified ; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and' in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. Jews felt an equal interest, may, probably, have suggested. St. James's aUusion to the old his torical parallel of EUjah (Jas. v. 17). Throughout all Judsea and Galilee and Samaria. — Brief as the notice is, it is every way significant. It is the first intima tion since the opening of the Apos tolic history of the existence, not of disciples only, such as had gathered round our Lord during His personal ministry, but of organised religious communities, Hi tho towns and villages of GaHlee. We may think of such churches as formed in Capernaum and Tiberias, hi Chorazin and the two Beth- saidas, perhaps even in Nazareth. The history is silent as to . the agency by which these churches had been founded ; but looking to the close relations between St. Luke and St. PhiUp, and to the probability that the latter made Caesarea his head-quarters for the work of an Evangelist, we may legitimately think of him as having worked there as he had worked in Samaria. It is not improbable, however, that here also, as Hi that region, he may have been foUowed, after he had done his work as an Evangelist, by the Apostles to whom it belonged to confirm and organise. (See note on chap. viii. 14.) The mention of Samaria in like manner indicates the extent and permanence of the result of Philip's work there, foUowed up as it had been by the preaching of Peter and John. Were edified ; and walking „ „ , — The more accurate construc- 161 tion of the sentence gives, The Church . . . had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and was multiplied by the counsel of the Holy Ghost. The passage is noticeable for the appearance of the word " edified," or " buUt up," in- the sense in which St. Paul had used it (1 Cor. viH. 1 ; xiv. 4), as describing orderly and continuous growth, the superstructure raised wisely upon the right foundation. Walking in the fear of the Lord. — The phrase, so common in the Old Testament, is compara tively rare in the New, being used only by St. Luke here, and in 2 Cor. v. 11, where it is wrongly translated "the terror of the Lord." What it describes, as interpreted by its Old Testament use (Job xxviH. 28 ; Ps. cxi. 10 ; Prov. i. 7, et al.), is the temper of reverential awe, the scrupulous obedience to the commandments of God, which had been described of old as " the beginning " of wisdom. The comfort of the Holy Ghost. — It was natural that the ght of the Sphit, who had beer. promised as the Paraclete, or Ad vocate, should be described by the kindred word of paraclesis, and equaUy natural that this connec tion should reappear in the two English words of "comfort" and "Comforter." "Comfort" is, however, somewhat too narrow; the Greek word including (see Note on chap. iv. 36) counsel and exhortation, so as to be very nearly equivalent to "prophecy." What is meant here is that the words of counsel which came from the Holy Ghost, speaking through the pro- Peter THE ACTS, IX. at Lydda, (S2) And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which A.^33. dwelt at Lydda. (33> And there he found a certain man named ^Eneas, which had kept his bed eight phets of the Church, were, then as always, far more than signs and wonders, or human skUl of speech, the chief agents in its expansion. P2) As Peter passed through out all quarters. — The plan of the writer, arranging his materials, leads him from this point of chap. xh. 18 to dweU entirely on the personal work of Peter. So far this section of the book may be described as the Acts of Peter. On the other hand, it is obvious that he only gives those acts ;as part of his general plan, not caring to foUow the Apostle's course, as Hi a biography, but confining himseh to tracing the steps by which he had been ¦ led to the part he played in the great work of the conver sion of the Genthes. The "aU quarters" may weU have included Galilee. He came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. — On the term " saints " see Note yn. verse 13. Lydda, the Lud of She Old Testament (1 Chron. viii. 12 ; Ezra ii. 33 ; Neh. vH. 37 ; xi. 35), was a town Hi the rich plain of Sharon, one day's journey from Jerusalem, founded originaUy by settlers from the tribe of Benjamin, and retaining to the present day its old name as Ludd. It is men tioned by Josephus (Wars, iii. 3, § 5) as transferred by Demetrius Soter, at the request of Judas Mac cabeus, to the estate of the Temple at Jerusalem (1 Mace. x. 30, 38 ; xi. 34). Under the grasping rule of Cassius, the inhabitants were sold as slaves (Jos. Ant. xiv. 11, § 2). It had, however, recovered its former prosperity, and appears at this time to have been the seat of a flourishing Christian com munity. In the wars that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, it was partiaUy burned by Cestius Gallus a.d. 66 (Jos. Wars, ii. 19, § 1), aU but fifty of the inhabitants having gone up to the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem, and was again occupied by Vespasian a.d. 68 (Jos. Wars, H. 8, § 1). When it was rebuilt, probably under Hadrian, when Jerusalem received the new name of JElia Capitolina, it also was re-named as DiospoUs (= city of Zeus), and as such was the seat of one of the chief bishoprics of the Syrian Church. It was, at the time when Peter came to it, the seat of a Babbinic school, scarcely inferior to that of Jabneh, and retained its fame after the scribes of the latter city had mi grated to Tiberias. GamaUel, son of the great Babbi who was St. Paul'smaster.and himseh honoured with the title of Eabban, presided over it, and was succeeded by the great Tarphon (Lightfoot, Cent. Chorogr. c. xvi.). The question which we naturaUy ask, who had planted the faith of Christ there, carries us once more on the track of PhiUp the EvangeUst. Lying as it did on the road from Azotus to Caesarea, it would lie in his way on the journey recorded in chap. viii. 40, as he passed " through aU the cities ; " and we may beUeve, 165 Healing of THE ACTS, IX. Apneas. years, and was sick of the palsy. (34) And Peter said unto him, ^Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole : arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. t35) And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord. (36) Jfow there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas : this woman was without much risk of error, that here also he was St. Luke's in formant as to what had passed in the Church with which he was so closely connected. A certain man named iEneas. — The Greek name (we note the shortened vowel JEneas of the later form of the word), perhaps imphes that he belonged to the Hellenistic section of the Church. Had the fame of VirgU's poem made the name of the Trojan hero known even in the plains of Palestine ? In the care with which St. Luke records the circumstances of the case, the eight years of bed ridden paralysis, we note a trace of professional exactness, as in chaps. Hi. 7 ; ix. 18 ; xxvui. 8. The word "bed," used commonly of the couches of the lower class (see Matt. H. 4), suggests the thought that poverty also was added to his sufferings. (M) Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. — Better, Jesus the Christ. We note the same anxiety to disclaim any personal power or hoH- ness as the cause that wrought the supernatural heaUng, as Hi chaps. Hi. 12 ; iv. 9, 10. In the assonance of the Greek words (lesus idtai se) we may, perhaps, trace a deshe to impress the thought that the very name of Jesus testified that He was the great Healer. Such a parono masia has its paraUel in the later 168 play upon Christiani and Chrestiani = the good or gracious people (TertuU. Apol. c. 3), perhaps also Hi St. Peter's own language that the Lord is not Christos only, but Chrestos = gracious (1 Pet. H. 3). The command seems to imply a reminiscence of the manner hi which our Lord had wrought His work of heahng hi hke cases (Matt. ix. 6 ; John v. 8). Make thy bed. — More accu rately, make, or arrange for thyself. He was to do at once for himseh what for so many years others had done for him. (35) AU that dwelt at Lydda and Saron. — The latter name in dicates a district rather than a town. The presence of the article with it, and its absence from Lydda, indi cates that men spoke of " the Saron" — the plain — the woodlands — (so it is rendered by the LXX. : 1 Chron. v. 16 ; xxvii. 29 ; Cant. H. 1 ; Isa. xxxv. 2) — as we speak of " the weald." It lay between the central mountains of Palestine and the Mediterranean, and was proverbial for its beauty and fertility (Isa. xxxiii. 9 ; lxv. 10). (36) There -was at Joppa .... — The Hebrew form of the name, Japho (pronounced Yapho), appears in Josh. xix. 46, but the English version more commonly gives the better-known Joppa, as in 2 Chron. H. 16 ; Ezra Hi. 7 ; Jonah i. 3). It Tabitha THE ACTS, IX. Dies. full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. (37) And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died : whom when they had washed, they laid was famous in Greek legends as the spot where Andromeda had been bound when she was deUvered by Perseus (Strabo, xvi. p. 759 ; Jos. Wars, L 6, § 2). The town stood on a bill so high that it was said (though this is not in conformity with the fact) that Jerusalem could be seen from its summit. It was the nearest port to that city, and though the harbour was difficult and dangerous of access, was used for the timber that, first under Solomon, and afterwards under Zerubbabel, was brought from Lebanon for the construction of the Temple (1 Kings v. 9 ; 2 Chron. u. 16 ; Ezra Hi. 7). In the history of Jonah it appears as a port from which ships sail to Tarshish and Spain (Jonah i. 3). Under the Maccabean rulers the harbour and fortifications were restored (1 Mace. iv. 5, 34). By Augustus it was given to Herod the Great, and afterwards to Archelaus (Jos. Ant. xv. 7, § 3; xvH. 11, § 4), and on his deposition became part of the Boman province of Syria. It was at this time, and later on, notorious as a nest of pirates. Here also we may, as in the case of Lydda (see Note on verse 32), see the work of PhiUp as the probable founder of the Church. Tabitha, which by inter pretation is called Dorcas. — Both the Hebrew and Greek names mean Antelope or Gazelle. The fact that she bore both impUes Bome points of connection both with the Hebrew and Hellenistic sections of the Church. The Greek form occurs, in the curious com bination of Juno Dorcas, on one of the inscriptions in the Columbarium of Livia, now in the Capitoline Museum at Bome, as belonging to an Ornatrix of the Empress. Was the disciple at Joppa in any way connected with the slave, whose very function impUed skill in needlework p H, as is probable, the Church at Joppa owed its foundation to PhUip (see Note on chap. viH. 40), we may trace in the position which she occupied, Hi relation to the " widows " of the Church, something of the same prudential wisdom as had been shown hi the appointment of the Seven, of whom he had been one. Full of good works. — The form of the expression may be noticed as characteristic of St. Luke, and his favourite formula for conveying the thought of a quaUty being possessed Hi the highest degree possible. So we have ' ' f uU of leprosy" in Luke v. 12, "fuU of grace" and "fuU of faith" in Acts vi. 5, 8. (Comp. also chaps. xiU. 10 ; xix. 28.) (37) They laid her in an upper chamber. — This implies some httle delay in the usual ra pidity of Eastern funerals. As Lydda was only nine miles from Joppa, the report of Jikieas's re covery might weU have traveUed from the one city to the other, and led to the hope that the power which St. Peter had thus put forth might extend even to the farther work of raising from the dead. 167 Tabitha is THE ACTS, IX. restored to Life, her in an upper chamber. C38) And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay1 to come to them. (3») Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper cham ber : and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and gar- 1 Or, be grieved. ments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. m But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed ; and turning him to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes : and when she saw Peter, she sat up. (41) And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. C42) And it was known throughout (38) Desiring him that he would not delay. — The better MSS. give the message somewhat more dramaticaUy, " Delay not," or "Be not reluctant to come." It was, of course, necessary that he should come at once, as inter ment would have come, as a matter of course, on the foUowing day. (39) All the widows stood by him weeping. — We have ap parently the same organisation of charity as that which prevailed in the Church at Jerusalem. The " widows " of the Church were the object of a special provision. (See Note on chap. vi. 1.) The "coats," were the close-fitting tunics worn next the body, the " garments " the looser outer cloaks that were worn over them. (See Matt. v. 40.) These were now exhibited by those who were mourning over the loss of their benefactress. It is probable that the garments were for the use of men and boys, as well as women, and that the " widows ' ' had been fellow- workers with her in makmg them. She 168 was, as it were, at the head of a Sisterhood of Mercy. Which Dorcas made.— More accurately, used to make. m Peter put them all forth. We may perhaps trace in Peter's action his recoUection of what our Lord had done in the case of the daughter of Jairus (see Matt. ix. 23, 24), at which he had been pre sent. The work was one not to be accomplished by the mere utter- . ance of a name, nor as by his " own power or hoUness " (chap. Hi. 12), but by the power of the prayer of faith, and this caUed for the sUence and soUtude of communion with God. Even the very words which were uttered, if he spoke in Ara maic, must have been, with the change of a single letter, the same as the Talitha cumi of Mark v. 41. The utterance of the words implied the internal assurance that the prayer had been answered. C1) And when he had called the saints. — See Note on verse 13. («) Many believed in the Lord. — Here the word is obviously Pi tsr at Joppa. THE ACTS, X. Cornelius. all Joppa ; and many be lieved in the Lord. (43) And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner. CHAPTER X.— a) There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, used definitely for the Lord Jesus as the specific object of theh faith. m Many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner. — Either as bringing with it, through contact with the carcases and hides of dead beasts, the risks of ceremo nial defilement, or being generaUy a repulsive and noisome business, the occupation was one from which the stricter Jews generaUy shrunk. The Eabbis held that if a tanner about to marry concealed his occu pation from his intended wife, the concealment was of the nature of a fraud that invahdated the contract (Schottgen, Hor. Heb., in loc). In taking up his abode with one of this caUing, Peter must accordingly have been taking one step in advance towards greater freedom. He had learnt, partially at least, the lesson which his Master had taught as to that which alone can bring with it real defilement (Mark vH. 17 — 23), and was thus being trained for a fuUer illumination. We have no data for determining the length of time imphed in the " many days." In verse 23, as we have seen, the words covered a period of nearly three years. X. P) There was a certain man in Caesarea. — We enter on a new stage of expansion in the Church's growth, the fuU details of which St. Luke may have learnt either from Philip the Evangelist during his stay at Caesarea (chaps, xxi. 8 ; xxiv. 27) or, possibly, from Corne lius himseh. His admission into the Church, even if it were not the first instance of the reception of a GentUe convert as such, became, through its supernatural accompa niments and (in the strict sense of that word) its " prerogative " cha racter, the ruling case on the sub ject. Whether it were earlier or later than the admission of the GentUes recorded in chap. xi. 20, we have no adequate data for de termining. (See Note on that passage.) Caesarea was at this time the usual residence of the Boman Pro curator of Judaea, and was con sequently garrisoned by Boman troops. Greeks, Jews, and Eomans, probably also Phoenicians and other traders, were mingled freely in its population. Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. — The office was a compara tively subordinate one, the cen turion commanding the sixth part of a cohort, the sixtieth part of a legion. The Greek implies that he belonged to the cohort, not that he commanded it. The name Cornelius may indicate a connection with the great Cornelian gens which had been made famous by the Gracchi and by Sylla. The bands, or co horts, stationed at Caesarea, con sisted chiefly of auxiliaries levied from the province (Jos. Wars, ii. 13, § 6), who were not always to be reUed on in times of popular 169 Cornelius sees THE ACTS, X. an Angel. (2)a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. (3) fie saw in a vision evi dently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and say ing unto him, Cornelius. (4) And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and excitement, and this cohort was accordingly distinguished from the others as Italian, i.e., as being at least commanded by Boman officers. A first ItaUan legion is repeatedly mentioned by Tacitus (Hist. i. 59, 64; ii. 100; Hi. 22}, but this is said by Dion (lv. 24) to have been first raised by Nero ; and the term which St. Luke uses for band (spira) was, strictly speaking, not used of the legions, the latter term bemg apphed exclusively to Boman troops. In chap. xxvn. 1 we meet with another of these cohorts, also at Caesarea, known as the Augustan. (2) A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house. — The word for " devout " is not the same as that used Hi chaps. H. 5, vhi. 2, and Luke u. 25, and appears to be used by St. Luke, as again Hi verse 7, for the special type of devotion that belonged to Gentile converts to Judaism. The phrase ' ' those that feared God " is employed distinctly for this class in verses 22 and 35, and again in chap. xiii. 16, 26. There is a special significance Hi the addition " with aU his house." The centurion was not satisfied with having found a higher truth for himself, but sought to impart it to the soldiers and slaves, possibly to those nearer and dearer to him, who came under his influence. (Comp. verse 7.) Which gave much alms to the people — i.e.', to the Jews of Caesarea as distinct from the Gen- 170 tiles. (Comp. chaps, xxvi. 17, 23 ; xxviii. 17.) And prayed to God alway. — As the vision that foUows may rightly be regarded as an answer to the prayers thus offered, it is natural to infer that Cornelius was seeking for guidance as to the new faith which Philip had brought to Caesarea, and of which, he could scarcely faU to have heard. Was it reaUy a new revelation from God to man f Could he be admitted to the feUowship of the society which confessed Jesus as the Christ without accepting the yoke of circumcision and the ceremonial law from which, as a " proselyte of the gate," he had hitherto kept back ? . (3) In a vision evidently. — The adverb seems added to dis tinguish the manifestation from that of a dream like Joseph's in Matt, i 20, H. 13, or of a trance Hke St. Peter's (verse 10) or St. Paul's (chap. xxh. 17). About the ninth hour of the day. — This was, as in chap. Hi. 1, one of the three hours of prayer, the hour when the evening sacrifice was offered in the Temple. ComeHus had, therefore, so far accepted the Jewish rules of devo tion, and for him also the Law was a " schoolmaster " bringing: him to Christ. (4> Are come up for -a me morial before God.— The word so used was emphaticaUy sacrificial He sends to Joppa THE ACTS, X. for Peter. said, What is it, Lord1? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. (5>And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter : (6) he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side : he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. (7) And when the angel which spake unto Cor nelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; (8)and when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. and hturgical, as, e.g., in Lev. ii. 2, 1 as fictitious, the resemblance will 9, 16 ; v. 12 ; vi. 15 ; Ecclus. xiv. ; appear as characteristic of St. 16 ; and elsewhere. The words Luke's style as a writer. Admit- impUed, therefore, that the "pray ers, ting, however, the possibility of a and alms " were accepted as a true divine guidance being given by a sacrifice, more acceptable than the supernatural message, it wUl not blood of buUs and goats. If we seem strange to us, as has been ask, in the technical language of a said aheady, that it should Hi each later theology, how they could be j case take the form which made it iccepted when they were offered most effectual, giving directions as prior to a clear faith in Christ, and to names and places, and yet therefore before justification, the leaving something open as a test answer is that the good works were of faith. wrought by the power of God's j P) A devout soldier. — The grace aheady working Hi him. He word impUes that the man was, was beUeving hi the Light that hke his superior officer, a convert Ughteth every man, though as yet ' to the faith of Israel, though not he did not identify that Light with ; Hi the f uh sense of the word a its manifestation in Jesus as the proselyte. It is natural to infer Christ (John i. 9). He had the faith which from the beginning of the world has justified — the behef that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb xi. 6). P.6) CaU for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. — The circumstances of the communi cation present, it is obvious, a striking paraUeUsm with those attendant on the revelation to Ananias in chap. ix. 10 — 17. To those who regard both narratives the same of the two slaves to whom theh master imparted the vision, which to those who were living as heathens would have seemed strange and uninteUigible. It is obvious that all such facts are in teresting as throwing Ught on the character of CorneUus, and show ing that, to the extent of his power, he sought to lead those over whom he had any influence to the Truth which he had found precious as leading him to a highe*- hfe. 171 Peter's Vision THE ACTS, X. at Joppa. C9) On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour : '10) and he became very hungry, and would have eaten : but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, '"'and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four (9) As they went on their journey . . . — The distance from Caesarea to Joppa was about thirty Boman miles. To pray about the sixth hour. — As in chap. Hi. 1, we again find St. Peter observing the Jewish hours of prayer. The "hunger" mentioned in the next verse impUes that up to that time he had par taken of no food, and makes it probable that it was one of the days, the second and fifth Hi the week, which the Pharisees and other devout Jews observed as fasts. The flat housetop of an Eastern house was commonly used for prayer and meditation (comp. Matt. x. 27 ; xxiv. 17 ; Luke xvii. 31), and in a city Hke Joppa, and a house like that of the tanner, was probably the only place acces sible for such a purpose. P0) He feU into a trance. — St. Luke characteristicaUy uses, as in chaps, xi. 5, xxii. 17, the tech nical term ekstasis (whence our EngUsh ecstasy) for the state which thus supervened. It is obvious that it might in part be the natural consequence of the protracted fast, and the intense prayer, possibly also of exposure under such con ditions to the noontide sun. The state was one in which the normal action of the senses was suspended, like that of Balaam in Num. xxiv. 4, or that which St. Paul describes 172 in 2 Cor. xh. 3, " whether in the body or out of the body " he can not teU, and, as such, it was, in this instance, made the channel for a revelation of the Divine Will conveyed Hi symbols which were adapted to the conditions out of which it rose. (ii) A certain vessel des cending . . .—The form of the vision corresponded, as has just been said, with the bodily condition of the Apostle. Its inward mean ing may fairly be thought of as corresponding to his prayer. One who looked out from Joppa upon the waters of the Great Sea towards the far-off Isles of the Gentiles, might weU seek to know by what process and under what conditions those who dwelt in them would be brought within the fold of which he was one of the chief appointed shepherds. The place, we may add, could not fail to recaU the memory of the great prophet who had taken ship from thence, and who was conspicuous alike as a preacher of a gospel of repentance to the GentUes, and, Hi our Lord's own teaching, as a type of the Eesurrection (Matt. xii. 40, 41). The Apostle was to be taught, as the prophet had been of old, that the thoughts of God were not as his thoughts (Jon. iv. 10, 11). A great sheet knit at the four corners. — Better, bound by The Lesson of THE ACTS, X. the Vision. corners, and let down to the earth: g* wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 03) And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter ; kill, and eat. ™ But Peter said, Not so, Lord ; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. (16) And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. four ends — i.e., those of tho ropes by which it seemed to Peter's gaze to be let down from the opened firmament. The Greek word, UteraUy beginnings, is used as we use "ends." P2) All manner of four- footed beasts . . . .—The classification seems to imply the sheep, the oxen, or the swine, that were used as food by the Gentiles, as coming under this head, the deer and goats, and conies and hares under that of " whd beasts." Stress in each case is laid upon their being "all manner" of each class, those that were aUowed, and those also that were forbidden by the Jewish law. t13) Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. — In the symbolism of the vision the natural promptings of appetite were confirmed by the divine voice. That which resisted both was the scruple of a hesitating conscience, not yet emancipated from its bondage to a ceremonial and therefore transitory law. It is natural to infer that the spiritual yearnings of Peter's soul were, in like manner, hungering and thirst ing after a wider feUowship which should embrace " aU manner " of the races that make up mankind, while, on the other hand, he was as yet waiting to be taught that the distinction between Jew and GentUe was done away Hi Christ. (") Mot so, Lord . . . — The emphatic resistance even to a voice from heaven is strikingly in harmony with the features of St. Peter's character, as portrayed in the Gospels, with the " Be it far from thee, Lord," when he heard of the coming Passion (Luke xvi. 32), with " Thou shalt never wash my feet," in John xhi. 8. He had been taught that that which " goeth into the mouth cannot defile the man " (Mark vii. 15), but he had not taken hi that truth in its fulness, either in its hteral or symboUc meaning. Any thing that is common or unclean. — " Common " is used, as in Mark vii. 2, in the sense of " denied " or " impure," that which excludes the idea of consecration to a special service. P5) What God hath cleansed, that caU not thou common. — In the framework of the vision, the clean and the unclean beasts stood on the same footing, were let down from heaven in the same sheet. That had purified them from what ever taint had adhered to them under the precepts of the Law. In the interpretation of the vision, all that belongs to humanity had been taken up into heaven ; first, when man's nature was assumed by the 173 Thi Messengers THE ACTS, X. from Cornelius. de) rphjg wag ,jone thrice : and the vessel was re ceived up again into heaven. ^ Now while Peter doubted iu himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cor nelius had made enquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, (18) and called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. aw While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. (20) A^se therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing : for I have sent them. l21) Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cor nelius ; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek : what is the cause where fore ye are come 1 (22) And they said, Cornelius the Eternal Word in the Incarnation (John i. 14), and, secondly, when that nature had been raised in the Ascension to the heaven of hea vens, sitting on the right hand of God (chap. vii. 56 ; Mark xvi. 19). . P6) This was done thrice. — The three-fold repetition was at once general and personal in its significance. It was mystically the token of a complete ratification of the truth proclaimed. It reminded him of the three-fold command, " Feed my sheep," and taught him to take a wider range of work in obeying it (John xxi. 15 — 17). P7) While Peter doubted in himself . . . — A doubt might weU arise whether the teaching of the vision went beyond its immediate scope. The Apostle might have admitted that it abrogated the old distinction between clean and un clean meats, and yet might hesitate to answer the question, " Did it do more than this?" P9) The Spirit said unto him ¦ — The words seem to 174 imply a state of consciousness' in termediate between the "trance" that had passed away and the normal state of every-day Hfe. The " voice " no longer seemed to come from heaven to the outward ear, but was heard as not less divine Hi the secret recesses of his soul. pso) Go with them, doubting nothing. — The command was speciaUy addressed to the perplexed questionings of the disciple. For a time he was to walk, as it were, bHndfold, but trusting in the full assurance of faith Hi the Hand that was guiding him As once before (John xiu. 7), he knew not yet what his Lord was doing, but was to know hereafter. He and the messengers from Cornelius were ahke acting on the promptings of the Divine Sphit. (22) Cornelius the centurion. — The description seems to imply that the name of the soldier- convert was not altogether un known at Joppa. It could not Peter goes THE ACTS, X. to Cassarea. centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. t23) Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa ac companied him. C24) And the morrow after they en tered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. (25) And as Peter was com- faU to remind Peter of that other (23) Then called he them in. centurion whose name is not re corded, who was stationed at Capernaum, and had built the synagogue (Luke vh. 5), and with that recoUection there would come back to his memory the words which his Master had spoken Hi connection with the faith which was greater than he had found Hi Israel, and which proclaimed that ' ' many should come from east and west and north and south, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God" (Matt. vhi. 11). One that feareth God. — The word was almost a technical one as describing the GentUe converts who stood in the position of "proselytes of the gate." (Comp. verses 2, 35 ; chap. xhi. 16.) Of good report among all the nation of the Jews. — St. Luke's poUcy of conciUation, if one may so speak, is traceable in the stress laid on this fact. As Hi the case of the reception of the Apostle of the Gentiles by Ananias (chap ix. 10), so Hi that of Cor- neUus, aU occasion of offence was, as far as possible, guarded against by the attestation given by those who were themselves Jews to the character of those concerned. 175 -As it was about noon when Peter went up to the house-top to pray, the arrival of the messengers, allowing an adequate interval for the trance and the vision, may be placed at some time Hi the after noon. Certain brethren from Joppa. — We learn from chap. xi. 12, that they were six in number. They were obviously taken that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established" (Deut. xvii. 6; xix. 15), that they might report to the Church at Joppa what had been done by the Apostle whom they had learnt to reverence. (M) His kinsmen and near friends. — These, we may weU beUeve, were, Uke the soldiers and slaves under his command, more or less in sympathy with CorneUus. He, at all events, was seeking to bring them also within the range of the new Ulumination which he was expecting to receive. (M) FeU down at his feet, and worshipped him. — The attitude was the extremest form of Eastern homage. So Jairus had bowed down before Jesus (Matt. ix. 18), so St. John bowed before the angel (Eev. xxii. 8). Peter's answer, Meeting of Peter THE ACTS, X. and Cornelius. ing in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. (261But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up ; I myself also am a man. (2,) And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. (28)And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an un lawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of ano- in strong contrast with the words and acts, the very ceremonial, of those who claim to be his suc cessors, shows that he looked on it as expressing a homage such as God alone could rightly claim. For man to require or receive it from man was an inversion of the true order. The language of the angel in Bev. xxH. 9 — "See thou do it not : for I am thy feUow servant . . . worship God" — impUes the same truth. Both bear their wit ness, aU the more important be cause not controversial, against any cultus of saints or angels that tends to efface the distinction between man and God. We must not pass over the paraUelism between St. Peter's words and those of St. Paul at Lystra, " We also are men of Uke passions with yourselves" (chap. xiv. 15). R) And as he talked with him. — The word implies a conver sation of some length ; possibly, as the sequel seems to show, leading to the resolve that each should state separately how they, who had previ ously been strangers to each other, had thus been brought together. (28) Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing.— St. Peter speaks from the standpoint of tra ditional Pharisaism rather than from that of the Law itseh ; but the feeUng was widely diffused, and showed itself in forms more or less rigorous wherever Jews and hea thens came in contact with each other. The strict Jew would not enter a Gentile's house, nor sit on the same couch, nor eat or drink out of the same vessel. (Comp. Mark vii. 3, 4.) The very dust of a heathen city was defiling. The Hindoo feeling of caste, shrinking from contact with those of a lower grade, driven to madness and mutiny by "greased cartridges," presents the nearest modern ana logue. God hath shewed me that I should not caU any man common or unclean. — The Apostle had, we find, at last learnt the leBson which the vision had taught him, in aU the fulness of its meaning. Humanity as such had been redeemed by the Incarna tion and Ascension, and was no longer common or unclean, even in the most outcast heathen. God was wiUing to receive aU men. Sin alone was that which separated men from Him. Impurity was thought of as a moral, not a physi cal taint, and men were taught to see even in the sinner the poten- tiaUties of a higher hfe. He, too, had been redeemed, and might be justified and sanctified, and to him therefore honour and reverence were due as to one in whom the image of God was not utterly effaced, and might be restored to 76 Cornelius reports THE ACTS, X. his Vision. ther nation ; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. (29) Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for : I ask there fore for what intent ye have sent for me 1 (30) And Cornelius said, Pour days ago I was fasting until this hour ; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright cloth ing, ^ and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in re membrance in the sight of God. ™ Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter ; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tan ner by the sea side : who, when he cometh, shall brightness. It is interesting, in this connection, to note the " Honour aU men " of 1 Pet. H. 17. It is obvious that the pride of class, resting on mere differences of cul ture, and showing itseh Hi acts and words of contempt, is, from one point of view, even less excusable than that which at least imagined that it rested on a religious basis, while from another, it is less inve terate, and therefore more easily curable. (30) j -was fasting until this hour. — The hour is not stated, but the facts of the case imply that it could not have been much before noon, and may have been later. As suming that Cornelius hi his fasts observed the usage of devout Jews, we may think of his vision as having been on the second day of the week, and Peter's on the fifth. It is pro bable, accordingly, that the meet ing Hi the house of Cornelius took place on the Sabbath. Allowing some hours for the conference, of which we have probably but a con densed report, the outpouring of the Spirit, the subsequent baptism, and the meal which must have foUowed on it, may have coincided with the beginning of the first day of the week. In bright clothing. — The phrase is the same as that used by St. James (chap. ii. 2, 3). The same adjective is employed by St. John to describe the raiment of the angels (Bev. xv. 6), and of the bride of the Lamb (Bev xix. 8). (3i) Thy prayer is heard. — The singular number gives a greater definiteness to the object of the prayer than in verse 4. It must have been, in the nature of the case, a prayer for fuller Ught and knowledge of the Truth. One who had heard, through PhiUp's work at Caesarea, or, it may be, through the brother-officer who had been stationed at Capernaum (Luke vh. 2), of the teaching and the Hfe of Jesus, and of the new society that acknowledged Him as its Head, may weU have sought for guidance as to the special con ditions of admission to that society. PhUip was not as yet authorised to admit one who had not taken on himseh the sign of the covenant of 177 He desires THE ACTS, X. to hear Peter. speak unto thee. css) Im mediately therefore I sent to thee ; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that a Dent.10. 17 ; Horn. 2. ll: 1 Pet. 1. 17. are commanded thee of God. C34) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter ot persons :" (3a but in every nation he Israel. Was that an indispensable condition ? (33) Thou hast weU done. — The peculiar turn of the phrase, in social usage, made it the expression, not of mere approval, but of heart felt gratitude. (Comp. St. Paul's use of it in Phil. iv. 14.) Now therefore are we aU here present. — The words imply that the circle that had gathered round Cornelius were sharers in his soUcitude, ready to comply with whatever might come to them as the command of God, and yet anxiously hoping that it might not impose upon them a burden too heavy to be borne. (34) Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. — In regard to aU dis tinctions of social rank, or wealth, or knowledge, Peter had seen in his Master that absence of " respect of persons" which even His enemies acknowledged (Matt. xxii. 16 ; Luke xx. 21). St. James lays stress on that element of character, within the same limits, as essential to all who seek to be true disciples of the Christ (Jas. ii. 1 — 7). Both, how ever, needed to be taught that the same law of an impartial equity had a yet wider application, that the privileges and prerogatives of Israel, whatever blessings they might confer, were not to be set up as a barrier against the admission 178 of other races to an equal fellowship in Christ. God had accepted the centurion. It remained tor His servants to accept him also. It is instructive to note that St. Paul reproduces the same thought in nearly the same phrase (Bom. n. 11). (35) In every nation he that feareth him. — The great truth which Peter thus proclaimed is obviously far-reaching in its range. It appUes, not to those only who know the name ot Christ and beUeve on Him when He is preached to them, but to aU who in all ages and countries "fear God" according to the measure of their knowledge, and "work righteousness" according to their belief and opportunities. The good works in such a case, are, in their measure and degree, as " fruits of faith, and foUow after justification" (Article XII.), justi fication having been, in such cases, objectively bestowed for the merits of Christ, and subjectively appro priated by the faith which, in the Providence of God, was possible under the conditions of the case. They do not come under the head of "works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit " (Article XIII.), for Christ is "the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world " (John i. 9), and the Spirit Peter's Speech THE ACTS, X. at Casarea. that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (S6) The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ : (he is Lord of all :) (37)that word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judsea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John is to every man " the Lord, and giver of life," and the works are done " as God hath wUled and commanded them to be done." What such men gain by conversion is a f uUer knowledge of the Truth, and therefore a clearer faith, a fuller justification, and a higher blessedness, but as this history distinctly teaches, they are aheady accepted with God. They are saved, "not by the law or sect which they profess " (Article XVIII.), but, even though they know not the Name whereby they must be saved (chap. iv. 12), by Christ, who is the Saviour of all. The truth which St. Peter thus set forth proclaims at once the equity and the love of the Father, and sweeps away the narrowing dreams which confine the hope of salvation to the circumcised, as did the theology of the Babbis ; or to those who have received the out ward ordinance of baptism, as did the theology of Augustine and the mediaeval Church ; or, as do some forms of Protestant dogmatism, to those who have heard and believed the story of the Cross of Christ. The language of St. Paul in Bom. x. 9 — 14 should, however, be com pared with this, as showing that the higher knowledge brings with it an incomparably higher blessed ness, and that the man first tastes the fuU meaning of "salvation" when he consciously calls on the Lord by whom he has been saved. (36) rjne wora -which God sent . . The structure of the sentence, beginning with the object, and carried on through a series of clauses, is both in the Greek and English somewhat compUcated, but it is characteristicaUy like that of St. Peter's speech Hi chap. H. 22 — ¦ 24, whether the actual form in which both now appear is due to the speaker or the reporter. It is possible, though the construction is less natural, that " the word which God sent" may look back ward to the verb " I perceive " and not to the " ye know " of verse 37. Preaching peace. — Better, as reproducing with the Greek the thought and language of Isa. Hi. 7, preaching glad tidings of peace. He is Lord of aU. — The paren thesis is significant as guarding against the thought which Cor nelius might have entertained, that the Jesus of whom he heard as the Christ was only a Prophet and a Teacher. Peter, stiU holding the truth which had been revealed to him, not by flesh and blood, but by his Father in heaven (Matt. xvi. 17), proclaims that He was none other than the "Lord of aU," of aU men, and of all things. (37) That word, I say, ye know. — The Greek for " word " differs from that in verse 36, as including more distinctly the sub ject-matter of the message. In the words "ye know" we may trace '9 The Life and THE ACTS, X. Death of Jesus. preached ; <38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power : who went about doing good, and heal ing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him. (S9) And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem ; whom they slew and hanged on a tree : (40)him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly ; C41) not to all the the result of the conversation held before the more formal conference. The main facts of the Hfe and ministry of the Christ were aheady known, either through that con versation, or through the previous . opportunities which it had disclosed. The question at issue was the rela tion in which they stood to those who were now listening. (38) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. — In the Greek struc ture the name stands Hi apposition with the " word " in the two pre vious verses — " Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him." The word " anointed " is used with distinct reference to the name of Christ Hi verse 35, and assumes a knowledge of the facts connected with His baptism, as in Matt. Hi. 16, Mark i. 10, Luke Hi. 21, 22, as the divine witness that that Name belonged of right to Him and to no other. Healing aU that were op pressed of the devil. — The words seem to us to refer speciaUy to the works of healing performed on demoniacs, but were probably uttered with a wider range- of meaning, aU disease being thought of as the work directly or indirectly of the great enemy. So Satan had bound the woman with a spirit of infirmity (Luke xiii. 11). So St. Paul's " thorn in the flesh " was " a messenger of Satan to buffet him " (2 Cor. xii. 7). (39) And we are witnesses of all things The Apostle stiU keeps before him the main idea of his mission as laid down in the command given by his Lord (chap. i.8). Both in the land of the Jews. — Speaking as St. Peter did at Caesarea, and as a GaUlean, we must probably take the word in its narrower sense as meaning the in habitants of Judaea. So taken, the words have the interest of implying our Lord's ministry in Judaea, of which the first three Gospels record so little, but which comes out into f uU prominence in the fourth. Whom they slew and hanged on a tree. — As in chap. ii. 23, Peter represents the Cruci fixion as ¦virtually the act of the rulers and people of Jerusalem, and not of the Boman governor. The mode of death is described as in the Greek of Deut. xxviii. 26 and Hi Gal. Hi. 10, rather than in the more technical language of the Gospels. (See Note on chap. v. 30.) <40> And shewed him open ly. — LiteraUy, gave him to be mani fest. (41) Unto witnesses chosen before — Better, appointed. The precise word which St. Luke uses 180 Peter's Witness of THE ACTS, X the Resurrection. people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. (43> And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be 00, .Ul 7.18. the Judge of quick and dead. (4S' To him give all a^mk'' *be prophets witness," that through his name whoso ever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. («) While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but is connected with the word rendered " ordained " in chap. xiv. 23. Who did eat and drink with him. — The three recorded instances of this are found in Luke xxiv. 30, 42 ; John xxi. 13. This was, of course, the crucial test which showed that the Form on which the disciples had looked was no phantom of the imagination. (42) And he commanded us to preach unto the people. — No such command is found in terms Hi the Gospel narratives of the words of the risen Lord, but it is partly imphed in Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20, and is covered by the general teaching as to the things of the kingdom of God in ,chap. i. 3. It is interesting to note that St. Peter and St. Paul agree hi thus connecting the Eesurrection with the assurance that He who had risen was to be the future Judge of all men. (Comp. chap. xvii. 31.) Which was ordained. — More accurately, who has been ordained. («) To him give all the prophets witness. — As in St. Peter's earlier speeches in chap. u. and iii. so here, we trace the result of our Lord's teaching given in the interval between the Eesurrec tion and Ascension as to the method of prophetic interpretation, which discerns, below ah temporary and historical references, the under current of testimony to the king dom of which Christ was the Head. That through his name . . . . — We can without difficulty represent to ourselves the impres sion which these words must have made on the anxious Hsteners. This was the answer to theh doubts and perplexities. Not by submitting themselves to the bond age of the Law, not by circumcision and aU that it impUed, but by the simple act of faith Hi Christ, and in the power of His Name,.i.«., of aU the attributes and energies of which the Name was the symbol, they, GentUes as they were, might receive that remission of sins which conscience, now roused to its fuU activity, taught them was the indispensable condition of accep tance and of peace. The intensity of that emotion, the satisfaction of aU theh previous yearnings, placed them subjectively in a spiritual condition which prepared the way for the wonder which the next verse narrates. m The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. — The words imply a sudden 181 The Gift THE ACTS, X. of the Spirit. which heard the word. C45> And they of the circum cision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. «6) For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, (47) Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have thrill of spiritual joy and elevation which showed itseh, as it had done on the Day of Pentecost (see Note on chap. H. 4), Hi a burst of unpre meditated praise. Now, as then, the " tongues " manifested them selves, not as instruments of teach ing, but in "magnifying God." As there is no mention here of the utterance of praise being in any other language than those with which the speakers were familiar, there is no ground for assuming that this feature of the Pentecostal gift was reproduced, and the jubi lant ecstatic praise which was the essence of that gift must be thought of as corresponding to the pheno mena described in 1 Cor. xiv. 7-9. (45) And they of the circum cision which believed . . . ¦ — St. Luke obviously dwells on this as a testimony, beyond suspicion, to the reality of the gift. Those who came with Peter were ap parently not sharers at the time in the exultant joy which they were yet compelled to recognise as the Spirit's work. They Ustened with amazement as they heard the rapturous chant burst from the Ups of the as yet unbaptised heathens. Here, accordingly, was one de finite fulfilment of Peter's vision. Those who so spake had been, as it were, carried up into heaven, as the four-footed beasts and creeping- things had been, and so a proof was given that no man might henceforth call them common or unclean. Peter himseh had indeed learnt that lesson so fuUy (verse 28) as not to need this special at testation, but for those who came with him this evidence was needed, and was sufficient. (47) Can any man forbid water . . . — The question was an appeal to the voice of reason. Could the outward sign be refused, when thus the inward and spiritual grace had been so manifestly be stowed? Ordinarily, as in the case of the Samaritans (chap. vHi. 15 — 17), the gift of spiritual powers foUowed, by the subsequent act of laying on of hands, on the grace given in baptism. Now even that gift had been anticipated, and aU that remained was the outward act of incorporation with the society which owned Christ as its Head. While the history thus bore its witness that the gifts of God may flow through other channels than the outward forms which Christ had appointed, it testified no less clearly that no spiritual gifts, how ever marveUous, superseded the necessity of obedience to the law of Christ which had appointed those outward forms. The exceptional gift was bestowed, in this instance to remove the scruples which " those of the chcumcision " might 182 Cornelius is THE ACTS, XT. Baptised. received fchfc Holy Ghost as well as we 1 (4S) And he commanded them to be bap tized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. CHAPTER XI. — U)A.nd the apostles and brethren that were in Ju- dtea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. (a) And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the cir cumcision contended with him, upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw four- footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creep ing things, and fowls of the air. m And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter ; slay and eat. (8) But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or un clean hath at any time entered into my mouth. (9) But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. (10) And this was done three times : and all were drawn up again into heaven. uncircumcised. — The words cannot weU be translated other wise, but the Greek (UteraUy, men with a foreskin) is somewhat more expressive of scorn than the merely negative form of the EngUsh. The same word is commonly used by St. Paul where he discusses the relation between circumcision and uncir- cumcision (Bom. ii. 25, 26 ; iv. 9, 10; 1 Cor. vH. 18, 19, et al.). (4) But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning. — Better, perhaps, the word "re hearse " having grown into a dif ferent shade of meaning, began and set forth the matter. The trans lators seem to have paraphrased the participle " having begun "• somewhat more fuUy than its actual meaning admits. The almost verbal repetition of the same nar rative as that of chap. x. seems, at first sight, inconsistent with our common standard of skUl in com position. The probable explanation of it is that St. Luke obtamed the 184 first narrative from the disciples whom he met at Caesarea, and the second from those of Jerusalem, and that the close agreement of the two seemed to him, as indeed it was, a confirmation of the truth of each. (5) It came even to me. — The variations in the narrative are few and of httle importance. There is, perhaps, a touch of the vividness of personal recoUection in the des cription of the sheet as coming " even to me," as compared with its being let down " to the earth " hi chap. x. 11. <6) Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered. — Here again we trace the same kind of vividness as in the previous verse. The Apostle recaUs the intense eager gaze with which he had looked on the strange vision. (10) All were drawn up again into heaven. — Once more there is a slight increase of vividness Hu Natrative THE ACTS, XI. of his Vision. an And, behold, imme diately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. aa And the spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house : as) and he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter ; °* who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. o» And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. a tl6)Then re membered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water ;b but ye shall be in the word which expresses a rapid upward movement, as compared with "the vessel was received up into heaven," in chap. x. 16. P2) The spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. — The Greek verb has a, special force as being the same as that for "contended" in verse 2. Peter, guided by the Sphit, raised no debate such as they were raising. P4) Whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. — The words are not found in the report of the angel's speech in chap. x. 4 — 6, but may legitimately be thought of as imphed in it. The prayer of CorneHus had been for salvation, and when he was told, in answer to that prayer, to send for one who should speak to him, it must have been clear to him that he was to hear of that way of salvation which he had been seeking. P5) And as I began to speak . . . — It is, perhaps, a trait of mdividual character that the Apostle speaks of what is recorded in chap. x. 34 — 43 as the mere beginning of what he had meant to say. As on us at the beginning. — The words are spoken, it wUl be remembered, to apostles and dis ciples who had been sharers Hi the Pentecostal gift. St. Peter bears his witness that what he witnessed at Caesarea was not less manifestly the Spirit's work than what they had then experienced. P6) Then remembered I the word of the Lord. — The special promise referred to was that re corded in chap. i. 5. Then it had seemed to refer only to the disciples, and the Day of Pentecost had ap peared to bring a complete fulfil ment of it. Now Peter had learnt to see that it had a wider range, that the ght might be bestowed on those who were not of Israel, and wno were not caUed to come out wardly within the covenant of Israel. If the baptism of the Holy Ghost had been thus given to them it imphed, as the greater includes the less, that they were admissible to the baptism of water. 185 Admission of THE ACTS, XI. the Gentiles. baptized with the Holy Ghost. m Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ ; what was I, that I could withstand God 1 08) When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. U9) Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about (17> Forasmuch then . . . — More accurately, If then. Unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. — The Greek construction gives a some what different meaning : if then God gave to them an equal gift as to us, upon their believing . . . That condition was sufficient in their case for the greater gh'ts, and theh admissibility to baptism and to general feUowship foUowed natu rally as a thing of course. What was I, that I could withstand God ? — The Greek gives a complex question, Who was I? Able to withstand God? — i.e., How was I, being such a one as I am, able to withstand ? Ps) They held their peace, and glorified God The dif ference of tenses in the two Greek verbs implies that they first held their peace, and then began a con tinuous utterance ot praise. The fact was obviously one of immense importance in its bearing on the question at issue between St. Paid and the Judaisers, of which ,St. Luke had seen so much and which he sought, by his narrative, to settle. Not only had the first step in the free admission of the Gentiles been taken by the chief of the Apostles, and under dhect guidance from above, but it had received the formal approval ot the Apostles 186 and other members of the Church of the Circumcision at Jerusalem. The Judaisers. in opposing St. Paul, were acting against the Church from which they pretended to derive theh authority. (ls) Now they which were scattered abroad. — A new and important section begins with these words. We are carried back to the date of the persecution of which Stephen was the chief victim. The persecution that arose about Stephen The MSS. vary in their reading, some giving the case which would be rendered by " tne persecution in the time of Stephen ; " some, that which answers to the persecution upon or against or after Stephen. The death of the martyr was foUowed, as chap. viii. 1 — 4 shows, by a general outburst of fanaticism against the disciples, and this led to a comparatively general flight. It was probable, in the nature of the case, that the HeUemstic or Greek-speaking J ews who had been associated with Stephen would be the chief sufferers. Philip we have traced in Samaria and Caesarea; others went to Phoenice, i.e., to the cities of Tyre and Sidon and Ptolemais, and were probably the founders of the churches which we find there in chaps, xxi. 4 — 7, xxvH. 3. In Cyprus (see Note on Teachers of Cyprus THE ACTS, XI. and Cyrene. Stephen" travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. w) And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, chap. xui. 4, for an account of the island) they prepared the way for the work of Barnabas and Paul. And Antioch. — We have here the first direct point of contact between the Church of Christ and the great Syrian capital which was for so many years one of its chief centres. We may, perhaps, think of the proselyte of Antioch (chap. vi. 5) who had been one of Stephen's coUeagues as one of those who brought the new faith to his native city. It was, as the sequel shows, a moment of immense importance. Situated on the Orontes, about fifteen miles from the port of Seleucia, the city, founded by Se- leucus Nicator, and named after his father Antiochus, had grown in wealth and magnificence tUl it was one of the "eyes" of Asia. Its men of letters and rhetoricians (among them the poet Archias, in whose behah Cicero made one of his most memorable orations) had carried its fame to Bome itseh, and the Boman satirist complained that the Syrian Orontes had polluted his native Tiber with the tainted stream of luxury and vice (Juvenal, Sat. Hi. 62—64). It had a, large colony of Jews, and Herod the Great had courted the favour of its inhabitants by building a marble colonnade which ran the whole length of the city. It became the head-quarters of the Prefect or President of Syria, and the new faith was thus brought into more direct contact with the higher forms of Boman lhe than it had been at Jerusalem or Caesarea. There also it came into more direct conflict with heathenism in its most tempting and most debasing forms. The groves of Daphne, in the out skirts of the city, were famous for a worship which in its main features resembled that of Aphrodite at Co rinth. An annual festival was held, known as the Maiuma, at which the harlot-priestesses, stripped of clothing, disported themselves in the waters of a lake. The city was stained with the vices of a reckless and shameless sensuality. It was as one of the strongholds of Satan ; and we have to trace, as it were, the stages of the victory which transformed it into the mother-church of the Gentiles. Preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. — Better, as answering to the singular number in the Greek, to no one. This was, of course, to be expected in the work of those who had left Jerusalem before the con version of CorneUus had ruled the case otherwise. The fact is stated, apparently, in contrast both with the narrative that precedes and the statement that immediately follows. (20) And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. — Better, But some. These were, from the nature of the case, Hel lenistic, or Greek-speaking Jews. Who they were we can only con jecture. Possibly Lucius of Cyrene, who appears in the Ust of prophets in chap. viii. 1 ; possibly Simon of Cyrene, of whom there is reason 187 Believers added THE ACTS, XI. to the Church. spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. "° And the hand of the Lord was with them : and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. to think that he was a disciple of Christ. (See Matt, xxvii. 32 ; Mark xv. 21.) The founders of the Church of Antioch, Uke those of the Church of Bome, must remain unknown. Spake unto the Grecians. — The MSS. present the two read ings — Hellenists, Greek-speaking Jews, and Hellenes, Greeks or Gen tiles by descent. As far as theh authority is concerned, the two stand nearly on the same level, the balance mclining sHghtly in favour of Hellenist®, which is found in MSS. B and D, while A gives Hel lenes. The Sinaitic has the almost incomprehensible reading, " they spake unto the Evangelists," which is obviously wrong, but which, so far as it goes, must be thrown into the scale Hi favour of Hellenists, as the word which the transcriber had before him, and which he misread or misheard. If we receive that reading, then we must suppose St. Luke to lay stress upon the fact that the preachers of whom he speaks, instead of speaking to the Jews at large, many of whom, being Syrians, would speak Ara maic, addressed themselves speciaUy to the Greek-speaking Jews and proselytes, and were thus f oUowing in St. Stephen's footsteps, and in directly preparing the way for St. Paul— the fiellenista? being, as a body, the Hnk between the Jews as a race and the Hellenes. On the whole, however, internal evi dence seems to turn the scale in favour of the other reading. (1) As the Hellenistas were " Jews," 18S though not " Hebrews," they would naturaUy be included Hi the state ment of verse 19, and so there would be no contrast, no new advance, indicated in verse 20 in the statement that the word was spoken to them. (2) The contrast between Jews and HeUenes is, on the other hand, as in chaps, xiv. 1, xvui. 4, a perfectly natural and familiar one, and assuming this to be the true reading, we get a note of progress which otherwise we should miss, there being no record elsewhere of the admission of the Gentiles at Antioch. (3) It does not necessarily foUow, however, that the HeUenes who are spoken of had been heathen idolaters up to the time of theh conversion. Pro bably, as in chap. xviU. 4, they were more or less on the same level as Cornelius, proselytes of the gate, attending the services of the synagogue. (4) The question whether this preceded or foUowed the conversion of CorneUus is one which we have not sufficient data for deciding. On the one hand, the brief narrative of verse 19 suggests the thought of an in terval as long as that between the death of Stephen and St. Peter's visit to Cassarea, and it may have been part of the working of God's providence that there should be simultaneous and parallel advances. On the other, the language of those of the circumcision to Peter in verse 3, impUes that they had not heard of such a case before; and that of the Apostle himself, in chap. xv. 7, distinctly claims the honour of Barnabas sent THE ACTS, XI. to Antioch. <¦> Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem : and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. "^ Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and ex horted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. MFor he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost having been the first (possibly, how ever, only the first among the dis ciples at Jerusalem) from whose Ups the Gentiles, as such, had heard the word of the Gospel. On the whole, therefore, it seems probable that the work went on at Antioch for many months among the Hel lenistic and other Jews, and that the men of Cyprus and Cyrene arrived after the case of CorneUus had removed the scruples which had hitherto restrained them from giving fuU scope to the longings of theh heart. We must not forget, however, that there was one to whom the Gospel of the TJncircum- cision, the Gospel of Humanity, had been already revealed in its fulness (chap. xx. 21; Gal.i. 11, 12),andwe can hardly think of him as waiting, after that revelation, for any de cision of the Church of Jerusalem. His action, at any rate, must have been paraUel and independent, and may have been known to, and fol lowed by, other missionaries. Preaching the Lord Jesus. — As before, preaching the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus. P"> They sent forth Barna bas. — The choice was probably determined, we may beheve, by the known sympathies of the Son of Consolation for the work which was going on at Antioch. The friend of Paul, who had been with him when he was at Jerusalem (chap. ix. 27), must have known his hopes and convictions on this matter, and must have welcomed the opening which was thus given hhn for work ing in the same direction. The fact that he was himseh of the same country would also qualify him for co-operating with the men of Cyprus, who were carrying on that work in Antioch. I23) And exhorted them all. — The tense impUes continuous action ; and the verb Hi the Greek is that from which Barnabas took his name as the " Son of Comfort" or " Counsel." (See Note on chap. iv. 36. ) With purpose of heart. — The preacher had seen the grace of God, and had rejoiced at it; but he knew, as aU true teachers know, that it is possible for man's whl to frustrate that grace, and that its co-operation, as manifested Hi de- Uberate and firm resolve, was necessary to carry on the good work to its completion. The word fdr "purpose" meets us again hi chap, xxvii. 13. They would cleave unto the Lord. — The noun is probably used in its dominant New Testa ment sense, as pointing to the Lord Jesus as the new object of the faith and love of those who had turned to Him. (24) For he was a good man. — Words of praise of this kind are 189 Saul brought THE ACTS, XT. by Barnabas and of faith : and much people was added unto the Lord. (25)Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul : <26) and when he had found him, he brought A.D. 43. 1 Or, in the church. him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church,1 and taught much people. And the disciples were comparatively rare in this history, and we may, perhaps, think of them here as expressing St. Luke's per sonal estimate of the character of the preacher, which he was aU the more anxious to place on record because he had to narrate before long the sad contention which separated him from his friend and fellow-worker (chap. xv. 39). The word "good" is probably to be taken as presenting the more win ning and persuasive form of holi ness, as contrasted with the severer forms of simple justice. (Comp. Bom. v. 7.) Full of the Holy Ghost This was implied in his very name as "the Son of Prophecy" (see Note on chap. iv. 31) ; but it is interesting to note that the words are identical with those in which the historian had previously de scribed Stephen (chap. vi. 5). Bar nabas appeared to him to reproduce the mind and character of the martyr. Much people. — LiteraUy, a great multitude, implying a large increase upon the work related hi verse 21. (25) Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus The act is every way significant. It indicates the assurance that Saul would approve of the work which had been going on at Antioch, and the confident beHef that he was the right person to direct and organise it. It pro bably implies also some intercourse with the Apostle, by letter or message, since his departure from Jerusalem. In the absence of any direct record, we can only infer that Saul had remained at Tarsus, carrying on his occupation as a tent-maker (chap, xviii. 3), and preaching the Gospel there and in the neighbouring cities of CUicia (see Note on chap. xv. 41) " to the Jew first and also to the Gentile." It is clear that he must have heard of the grace of God that had been, manifested at Antioch with great joy, and accepted the invitation to join in the work there with a ready gladness. (26) ijine disciples were cahed Christians first in Antioch. — The term for " were caUed" is not the word usuaUy so rendered. Better, perhaps, got the name of Christians. The Emperor Julian (Misopog., p. 344) notes the tendency to invent nicknames, as a form of satire, as characteristic of the popu lation of Antioch in his time, and the same tone of persiflage seems to have prevahed on the first appear ance of the new faith. The origin of a name which was afterwards to be so mighty in the history of the world is a subject fuU of interest. In its form it was essentiaUy Latin, after the pattern of the Pompeiani, Sullani, and other party-names ; and so far it would seem to have grown out of the contact of the new_ society with the Eomans stationed at Antioch, who learning ICO The Prophecy THE ACTS, XI. of Agabus. called Christians first in Antioch. C2r)And in these days came prophets from Jeru salem unto Antioch. t28)And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signi fied by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world : that its members acknowledged the Christos as theh head, gave them the name of Christiani. In the Gospels, it is true, however (Matt. xxii. 16, et al.), we find the ana logous term of Herodiani, but there, also, we may legitimately trace the influence of Boman asso ciations. As used in the New Testament, we note (1) that the disciples never use it of themselves. They keep to such terms as the " brethren " (chap. xv. 1), and the " saints " (chap. ix. 13), and " those of the way " (chap. ix. 2). (2) That the hosthe Jews use the more scornful term of " Nazarenes " (chap. xxiv. 5). (3) That the term Christianus is used as a neutral and sufficiently respectful word by Agrippa in chap. xxvi. 23, and at a somewhat later date, when it had obviously gained a wider currency, as that which brought with it the danger of suffering and persecution (1 Pet. iv. 16). It was natural that a name first given by out siders should soon be accepted by behevers as a title in which to glory. Tradition ascribes its origin to Euodius, the first Bishop of Antioch (Bingham, Ant. II. i. § 4) ; and Ignatius, his successor, uses it frequently, and forms from it the hardly less important word of Christianismos, as opposed to Judaismos (Philadelph. c. 6), and as expressing the whole system of faith and life which we know as "Christianity." It may be worth while to note that another eccle- 191 siastical term, hardly less important in the history of Christendom, seems also to have originated at Antioch, and that we may trace to it the name of Catholic as weU as Christian (Ignatius, Smyrn. c. 8). We learn from TertuUian (Apol. c. 3) that the name was often wrongly pronounced as Chrestiani, and its meaning not understood. Even the name of Christos was pronounced and explained as Chrestos (— good). The Christians, on their side, ac cepted the mistake as a nomen et omen, an unconscious witness on the part of the heathen that they were good and worthy in theh Hves, that theh Lord was " good and gracious" (1 Pet. ii. 3). P7) Came prophets from Jerusalem.— The mission thus described was obviously a further sanction given by the Church at Jerusalem to the work that Saul and Barnabas were carrying on at Antioch. If we adopt the view of some commentators on Luke x. 1, that the Seventy were the representatives of the prophetic order, and were symboUcaUy signi ficant of the conversion of the Genthes, it wUl seem probable that those who now came to Antioch belonged to that body, and rejoiced in what they found there as ful filling the idea of their own com mission. W There stood up one of them named Agabus. — The same prophet appears again in chap. xxi. 10 as coming down from Great Dearth in THE ACTS, XI. the Roman Empire. which came to pass in the days of Claudius Csesar. (29) Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judsea : C30) which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Jerusalem to Caesarea. Nothing more is known of him. The pro phecy of the "dearth" or "famine" was in part an echo of Matt. xxiv. 7. Throughout all the world. — LiteraUy, the inhabited earth, used, as in Luke H. 1, iv. 5, and elsewhere Hi the New Testament, for the Boman emphe. Which came to pass in the days of Claudius Csesar. — The reign of CaHgula lasted from a.d. 37 — 41, that of Claudius from a.d. 41 — 54. The whole reign of the latter emperor was memorable for frequent famines (Suetonius, Claud, 28; Tacitus, Ann. xh. 43). Josephus (Ant. xx. 5) speaks of one as specially affecting Judaea and Syria, under the proeuratorship of Cuspius Fadus, a.d. 45. The popu lation of Jerusalem were reduced to great distress, and were chiefly relieved by the bounty of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, who sent in large supplies of corn, figs, and other articles of food. She was herself a proselyte to Judaism, and was the mother of Izates, whose probable conversion to the faith of Christ by Ananias of Damascus is mentioned in the Note on chap. ix. 10. The title of "Csesar" is omitted in the better MSS. (29) Then the disciples, every man according to his ability. —LiteraUy, as each man prospered. It is obviously impUed that the col lection was made at once, as a pro vision against the famine, in con- 192 sequence of the prophecy, before the famine itseh came. We may weU beUeve that Saul and Barna bas were active in stirring up the GentUes to this work of charity. It was the beginning of that col lection for the " poor saints at Jerusalem " which was afterwards so prominent in the Apostle's la bours (chap. xxiv. 17 ; Bom. xv. 25, 26 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. ix. 1 — 15 ; Gal. ii. 10), and which he regarded as a bond of union between the Jewish and GentUe sections of the Church. It is probable that the generous devotion and liberality of the converts of Jerusalem in the glow of their first love had left them more exposed than most others to the pressure of poverty, and that when the famine came it found them to a, great extent de pendent on the help of other churches. Determined to send relief. — The Greek gives the more specific to send as a ministration, the half- technical word which St. Paul uses in Bom. xv. 31 ; 2 Cor. ix. 1. (3°) And sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.— The elders of the Church are here named for the first time, and appear henceforth as a permanent element of its or ganisation, which in this respect foUowed the arrangements of the synagogue. Officers fining Uke functions were known Hi the Gen tile churches as Episcopi = Bishops, or Superintendents, and where Jews Persecution THE ACTS, XII. by Herod. CHAPTER XII.— a) Now about that time 1 Or,began. Herod the king stretched forth his hands1 to vex and Genthes were mingled, the two names were interchangeable, as in chap. xx. 17, 18 ; Titus i. 5, 7. See also PhU. i. 1 ; 1 Pet. v. 1, 2. In St. James's Epistle (v. 14), written probably about this time, ike ' ' elders " are mentioned as visiting the sick, and anointing them with oU as a means of healing. It may be noted that this visit to Jerusalem has been identified by some writers with that of which the Apostle speaks in Gal. H. 1. It wiU be shown, however, in the Notes on chap. xv. that it is far more likely that he speaks of the journey there narrated. St. Luke would hardly have passed over the facts to which St. Paul refers, had they occurred on this occasion; nor are there any signs that the Pharisaic party had at this time felt strong enough to insist on the circumcision of the GentUe con verts. It is probable that the journey would be timed so as to coincide with one of the Jewish festivals, and judging by the ana logy of St. Paul's other visits, we may think of this as coinciding with that of Pentecost. (See Notes on chaps, xviii. 21 ; xx. 16.) XIX P) Herod the king. — The pre vious Hfe of this prince had been fuU of strange vicissitudes. The son of Aristobulus and Bernice, grandson of Herod the Great, brother of the Herodias who ap pears in the Gospel history, named after the statesman who was the chief minister of Augustus, he had been sent, after his father had faUen a victim (b.c. 6) to his 13 193 grandfather's suspicions, to Bome, partly perhaps as a hostage, partly to be out of the way of Palestine intrigues. There he had grown up on terms of intimacy with the prince afterwards known as CaU- gula. On the marriage of Herod Antipas with his sister, he was made the ruler of Tiberias, but soon quarreUed with the tetrarch, and went to Bome, and, falUng under the displeasure of Tiberius, as having rashly given utterance to a wish for the succession of CaUgula, was imprisoned by him, and remained in confinement tiU the death of that emperor. When CaUgula came to the throne he loaded his friend with honours, gave him the tetrarchies first of PhUip, and then that of Lysanias (Luke Hi. 1), and conferred on him the title of King. Antipas, prompted by Herodias, came to Bome to claim a 'Uke honour for himself, but fell under the em peror's displeasure, and was ban ished to Lugdunum in Gaul, whither his wife accompanied him. His tetrarchy also was conferred on Agrippa. Coins are extant, minted at Caesarea, and bearing in scriptions in- which he is styled the Great King, with the epithets sometimes of Philo-Caesar, some times of PhUo-Claudios. At the time when CaUgula's insanity took the form of a resolve to place his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, Agrippa rendered an essential ser vice to his people, by using all his influence to deter the emperor from carrying his purpose into execution, and, backed as he was by Petro- nius, the Governor of Syria, was James put THE ACTS, Xn. to Death, certain of the church. (2) And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. ro And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further tc take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened at last successful. On the death of CaUgula, Claudius, whose claims to the emphe he had supported, confirmed him in his kingdom. When he came to Judaea, he pre sented himself to the people in the character of a devout worshipper, and gained their favour by at taching himseh to the companies of Nazarites (as we find St. Paul doing in chap. xxi. 26) when they came to the Temple to offer sacri fices on the completion of their vows (Jos. Ant. xix. 7, § 3). It would seem that he found a strong popular excitement against the be hevers in Christ, caused probably by the new step which had recently been taken in the admission of the Gentiles, and fomented by the Sad- ducean priesthood, and it seemed to bim politic to gain the favour of both priests and people, by making himseh the instrument of theh jealousy. (2) He killed James the brother of John with the sword. — Had the Apostle been tried by the Sanhedrin on a charge of blasphemy and heresy, the sen tence would have been death by stoning. Decapitation showed, as in the case of John the Baptist, that the sentence was pronounced by a civil ruler, adopting Boman modes of punishment, and striking terror by them in proportion as they were hateful to the Jews. The death of James reminds us of his Lord's pre diction that he, too, should drink of His cup, and be baptised with His baptism (Matt. xx. 23). The 194 fulfilment of that prophecy was found for one brother in his being the proto-martyr of the apostoUc company, as it was found for the other in his being the last sur vivor of it. What led to his being selected as the first victim we can only conjecture ; but the prominent position which he occupies Hi the Gospels, Hi company with Peter and John, probably continued, and the natural vehemence indicated Hi the name of Son of Thunder may have marked him out as among the foremost teachers of the Church. The brevity of St. Luke's record presents a marked contrast to the fulness of later martyrologies. A tradition preserved by Eusebius (Hist. ii. 9) as coming from Clement of Alexandria, records that his ac cuser was converted by beholding his faith and patience, confessed his new faith, and was led to execution in company with the Apostle, who bestowed on him the parting bene diction of " Peace be with thee." Is) Because he sawit pleased the Jews. — This was throughout the ruling pohcy of the Herodian house. The persecution did not spring from any fanatic zeal against the new faith, but simply from motives of poHtical expediency. A somewhat touching incident is re corded, iUustrating the king's sen sitiveness to popular praise or blame. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Law was read, and he heard the words of Deut. xvH. 15 : " Thou shalt not set a stranger over thee," and he burst into tears Peter put THE ACTS, XII. in Prison. bread.) t4) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him ; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. C5) Peter therefore was kept in prison : but prayer J was made without ceasing of lOr, instant andearnest prayer wasmade. the church unto God for him. (6) And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains : and the keepers before the door kept the prison. (7) And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light at the thought of his own Idumasan descent. The people saw him weep ing, and cried out: "Trouble not thyself, Agrippa ; thou also art our brother," and the king's heart was comforted (Jost. Gesch. des Juden- thums, I., p. 420). Then were the days of un leavened bread. — The crowds of HeUenistic and other Jews who were gathered to keep the feast at Jerusalem naturaUy made this a favourable opportunity for courting the favour of the people. A tradi tion recorded by St. Jerome states that St. James was beheaded on the 15th of Nisan, i.e., on the same day as that of the Crucifixion. Peter was arrested probably at the same time; but the trial and execution were deferred tUl the seven days of the feast were over. <*> Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers. — Agrippa- apparently foUowed the les sons of Boman practice which he had learnt by his own prison experience. The four quaternions relieved each other at set times, and the prisoner was chained to two of the soldiers of each company, whUe the others were stationed as sentinels at the door of the- dungeon. (Comp. St. Paul's chains in chap, xxvhi. 20 ; Eph. vi. 20.) Intending after Easter. — Better, after the Passover, as else where. In this soHtary instance the translators have introduced, with a singular infeHcity, the term which was definitely appropriate only to the Christian festival that took the place of the Passover. (5) Prayer was made with out ceasing. — The adjective is rendered by " fervent " in 1 Pet. iv. 8, and imphes, as hi the mar ginal reading, intensity as weU as continuity. The words imply that the members of the Church con tinued, in spite of the persecution, to meet as usual, probably, as in verse 12, in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. («) Peter was sleeping be tween two soldiers. — The pic ture of the calm repose of the Apostle as of one to whom God had given the sleep of His beloved (Ps. cxxvh. 2), undisturbed by the fear of coming suffering and death, wiU be felt by most readers to be one of singular interest. I7) The angel of the Lord came upon him. — The phrase is identical with that of Luke u. 9. 195 Peter delivered THE ACTS, XIX from Prison. shined in the prison : and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. (8) And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. (9) And he went out, and followed him ; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel ; but thought he saw a vision. ao) When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city ; which opened to them of his own accord : and they went out, and passed on through one street ; and forthwith the angel de parted from him. m And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out The absence of the article in the Greek leaves it open to render it either as "the angel," or " an angel." The "Ught" in this in stance corresponds to the ' ' glory of the Lord " in that. In the prison. — LiteraUy, in the cell, or chamber. The term appears to be used as an euphemism for " prison." (8) Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. — In lying down to sleep the Apostle had naturally laid aside his " cloak," loosened the girdle that bound his tunic, and put off his sandals. As regards the latter we note his continued obser vance of the rule of Mark vi. 9. (9) And wist not that it was true . . . — The kind of introspec tive analysis of the Apostle's con sciousness suggests the thought that he was himseh, possibly through some intermediate channel, St. Luke's informant. As in the activity of somnambulism, the wUl dhected the actions of the body, and 196 yet was only half-conscious of what it did. It may be noted that his experience of the trance and vision narrated in chap. x. would tend to suggest the impression that he was passing through phenomena of a like kind. P0) When they were past the first and the second ward. — It would seem from this that Peter had been placed in the inner most dungeon, and had to pass the two court-yards. Lightfoot sup poses the prison to have been be tween the inner and outer walls of the city, the direction of Peter's movements being from the outer to the inner. The iron gate. — The touch of topographical precision may be no ticed as characteristic of St. Luke. Passed on through one street. — The word imphes one of the narrow streets or lanes of the city. (See Matt. vi. 2.) (J1) When Peter was come to himself. — Here again we find He goes to the THE ACTS, XII. house of Mary. of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. 036 Aid when he had con sidered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered to gether praying. as) And as Peter knocked at the 1 Or.io ask who was there. door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken,1 named Bhoda. M And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood be fore the gate. 05) And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even the tone of a personal reminiscence. He finds himseh at night, free, in the open street. It was no dream. As before (chap. v. 19), his Master had sent His angel to deliver him. P2) Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. — The question of the pro bable identity of this Mark with the evangeUst belongs rather to the Gospel which bears his name. Here we may note (1) that as being mentioned by St. Peter as his "son" (1 Pet. v. 13) he was probably converted by him; (2) that he was cousin to Barnabas, probably through his mother, and was therefore at least connected with the tribe of Levi (chap. iv. 36), and possibly belonging to it; (3) that the fact that Mary's house was the meeting-place of the Church indicates comparative wealth, as did Barnabas's sale of his estate; (4) that the absence of any mention of Mark's father makes it probable that she was a widow ; (5) that the Latin name of Marcus indicates some point of contact with Eomans or Boman Jews. Many were gathered to gether praying. — The facts of the case show that the meeting was 197 held at night, possibly to avoid persecution, or, it may be, as the sequel of the evening gathering to " break bread." P3) A damsel came to hearken, named Bhoda The mention of the name of the slave indicates St. Luke's care in ascer taining details, as far as his oppor tunities aUowed. The office of opening the door to strangers was commonly assigned, as in the case even of the high priest's palace (Matt. xxvi. 69, 71), to a female slave. The name, which means " a rose," is of the same class as Tamar = a palm tree ; Deborah r= a bee ; Margarita = a pearl ; Dorcas = an antelope. P4) She opened not the gate for gladness. — The slave, it would seem, had shared the anxiety and borne her part in the prayers of the Church ; and the eager de- she to teU the good news that their prayers had been answered over powers her presence of mind. There is something characteristic of the writer in this analysis of a Btate of consciousness. (See verse 9, and Luke xxii. 45 ; xxiv. 14.) P6) It is his angel. — The lan guage expresses the common behef He declares THE ACTS, XII. his Deliverance. so. Then said they, It is his angel. a6) But Peter continued knocking : and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. m But he, beckoning unto them with the hand tohold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place. a8) Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among of the Jews, that every true IsraeUte had a guardian angel speciaUy as signed to him, who, when he ap peared in human form, assumed the Ukeness of the man whom he protected. It is obvious that the record of the casual utterance of such a belief cannot be taken as an authoritative sanction of it. (W) Go shew these things unto James, and to the bre thren. — The James, or Jacob, thus spoken of may have been either James the son of Alphaeus or James the brother of the Lord. Many writers have maintained the iden tity of the person described under these two names ; but the facts presented by Matt. xii. 47, John vii. 5, give grounds for beheving that they were two distinct persons, and that the brother of the Lord was therefore not an Apostle. It is obvious that about this time, pro bably Hi consequence of the death of his namesake, the son of Zebe dee, James the brother of the Lord comes into a fresh prominence. He is named as receiving St. Paul in Gal. i. 19, and as being, with Peter and John, one of the pilars of the Church (Gal. ii. 9). Probably about this time (some writers, however, fix a later date) he ad dressed the letter that bears his name to the Twelve Tribes that were scattered abroad. He presides at the CouncU of Jerusalem in chap. xv. 13, and acted as bishop of the Church at Jerusalem. Ac cording to the statement of Hege sippus, a Jewish Christian writer of the second century, preserved by Eusebius (Hist. ii. 23), he led the Ufe of a Nazarite Hi all its rigour, was regarded by the Jews as having a priestly character, wore the Hnen ephod, and the golden petalon or plate, fitting on the brow of the priests, and as such was admitted to the Holy Place in the Temple. In a.d. 62 or 63 he was tempted by the priestly rulers, especiaUy by the high-priest Ananias, to declare that the Christ was a deceiver, and on proclaiming his faith in Him was thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple, and as he lay on the ground, received a coup de grdce from a fuUer's club. The way in which St. Peter here speaks of him impUes that he was, in some way, the head and representative of the Christian community at Jerusalem. He departed, and went into another place. — The act was in accordance with the precept which had been given to the Twelve in Matt. x. 23. What the "other place" was we can only conjecture. Some Eomish writers have hazarded the whd guess that he went to 198 Herod at THE ACTS, XII. Ccesarea. the soldiers, what was be come of Peter. a9) And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judsea to Csesarea, and there abode. W And Herod was highly 1 bare an displeased l with them of US Tyre ^d sidon : but tnev |nt«i And afterward they de sired a king:" and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. C22)And a 1 Sam. 8.6. 61 Sam. 16.13. when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king;1 to whom also he gave tes timony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine as an inheritance about four hundred and fifty years, and after these things he gave unto them judges," the 450 years in this case bemg referred to the interval between the choice of " our fathers," which maj be reckoned from the birth of Isaac (b. c. 1897 according to the received chronology) to the distribution of the conquered country in B.C. 1444. So far as any great discrepancy is concerned, this is a sufficient ex planation, but what has been said before as to the general tendency in a discourse of this kind to rest in round numbers, has also to be remembered. (See Note on chap. vii. 6.) Josephus (Ant. vhi. 3, § 1) gives 592 years from the Exodus to the bunding of Solomon's Temple. Of this period sixty-five years were occupied by the wanderings in the wilderness and the conquest under Joshua, eighty-four by the reigns of Saul and David and the first four years of Solomon, leaving 443 years for the period of the Judges. This agrees, it wiU be seen, sufficiently with the Beceived text in this passage, but leaves the discrepancy with 1 Kings vi. 1 unexplained. There would, of course, be nothing strange Hi St. Paul's following the same traditional chronology as Josephus, even where it differed from that of the present Hebrew text of the Old Testament. (2I) Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. — It is natural to think of the Apostle as dwelling on the memory of the hero-king of the tribe to which he himself belonged. (Comp. Phil. Hi. 5.) The very fact that he had so recently renounced the name would bring the associations connected with it more vividly to his recollection. Forty years. — The duration of Saul's reign is not given Hi the Old Testament, but Ish-bosheth, his youngest son (1 Chron. viii. 33), was forty years old at the time of Saul's death (2 Sam. ii. 10), and Saul himseh was a " young man " when chosen as king (1 Sam. ix. 2). A more definite corroboration of St. Paul's statement is given by Josephus (Ant. vi. 14, § 9), who states that he. reigned eighteen years before Samuel's death and twenty-two after it. (22> I have found David the Son of Jesse. — The words that follow are a composite quotation, after the manner of the Eabbis, made up of Ps. lxxxix. 20, and 1 Sam. xiu. 14. The obvious purpose of this opening was, as Hi the case of St. Stephen's speech, to gain attention by showing that the speaker recognised ah the tradi tional glories of the people. It is possible that we have, as it were, but the precis of a fuller statement. 211 The Preaching of THE ACTS, XIII. John the Baptist. own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.* ™ Of this man's seed 6 hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Sa viour, Jesus : (24) when John had first preached" before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. C25) And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I ami I am not he.a But, behold, there cometh one after me, c Matt. 3 1. whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. (26) Men and brethren, chil dren of the stock of Abra ham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. m For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sab bath day, they have fulfilled P3) Raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. — It is, of course, probable that the names of Jesus and of John were not utterly un known, even in those remote regions of Pisidia. No Jew could have gone up to keep a. feast at Jerusalem for some years past with out having heard something of the one or of the other. St. Paul's tone is clearly that of one who as sumes that theh story is aheady vaguely known, and who comes to offer knowledge of greater clear ness. (24) ijine -baptism of repent ance. — St. Paul uses the very term of Matt. Hi. 1 1, Mark i. 4, Luke Hi. 3. P6) And as John fulfiEed his course. — Better, was fulfilling, the tense implying continuous action. Whom think ye that I am? — The precise question is not found hi the Gospel records of St. John's ministry, but the substance of the answer is imphed Hi Matt. Hi. 11 ; John i. 20, 21. m Children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God. — The two classes are, as before (see Note on verse 16), again pointedly con trasted with each other. To you is the word of this salvation sent. — The demonstra tive pronoun impUes that the sal vation which St. Paul proclaimed rested on the work of Jesus the Saviour (verse 23), and was found in union with him. (Comp. " this Hfe" in chap. v. 20.) P7) For they that dwell at Jerusalem. — The impUed reason of the mission to the Gentiles and more distant Jews is that the offer of salvation had been rejected by those who would naturaUy have been its first recipients, and who, had they received it, would have been, in theh turn, witnesses to those that were " far off," in both the local and spiritual sense of those words. The voices of the prophets which are read every sab bath day. — See Note on verse 15. The Apostle appeals to the syna gogue ritual from which the dis course started, as in itseh bearing witness, not to the popular notions 212 The Death THE ACTS, XIII. of Jesus. tltem in condemning him. (28) And though they found no cause of death in him," yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. (29) And when they had ful filled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children. —The better MSS. give, with hardly an exception, unto our children, and the Eeceived text must be regarded as having been made to obtain what seemed a more natural meaning. St. Paul's language, however, is but an echo of St. Peter's " to us and to our chUdren," in chap. H. 39. As it is also written in the second psalm. — The various- reading, "in the first Psalm," given by some MSS. is interesting, as snowing that in some copies of the Old Testament, what is now the first Psalm was treated as a kind of prelude to the whole book, the numeration beginning with what is now the second. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. — His toricaUy, Psalm ii. appears as a triumph-song, written to celebrate the victory of a king of Israel or Judah — David, or Solomon, or ano ther — over his enemies. The king had been shown by that day of victory to have been the chosen son of God— the day itseh was a new begetting, manifesting the sonship. So, in the higher fulfil ment which St. Paul finds in Christ, he refers the words, not primarily to the Eternal Genera tion of the Son of God, " begotten before aU worlds," nor to the In- 214 carnation, but to the day of victory over rulers and priests, over prin- cipaUties and powers, over death and Hades. The Eesurrection manifested in the antitype, as the victory had done in the type, a pre-existing sonship ; but it was to those who witnessed it, or heard of it, as the ground on which theh faith in that sonship rested. Christ was to them the " firstborn of every creature," because He was also " the firstborn from the dead." (See Col. i. 15, 18.) (3*1 Wow no more to return to corruption.— We note from the turn of the phrase that St. Paul already has the words of Ps. xvi. 10 in his mind, though he has not as yet referred to it. I will give you the sure mercies of David. — The words do not seem Hi themselves to have the nature of a Messianic predic tion. To those, however, whose minds were f uh to overflowing with the writings of the prophets they would be pregnant with meaning. What were the " sure mercies of David " (Isa. Iv. 3) but the " ever lasting covenant " of mercy which was to find its fulfilment in One who should be "a leader and com mander to the people ? " We may weU beUeve that the few word's quoted recalled to St. Paul and to his hearers the whole of that won derful chapter which opens with "Ho, every one that thhsteth, come ye to the waters." The Greek Fulfilled THE ACTS, XIII. in Jesus. will give you the sure mer cies1 of David." ^'Where fore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see cor ruption.6 (S6) For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God,3 fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, 1 Gr. ta osia, holy,or, just things .- whichword thoLXX. both In thepliceof Isa. 55.3, and in many others, use for thatwhich and saw corruption:0 (S7)but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. CS8) He it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins : C39) and by him all that be lieve are justified from all Is In the Hehrew, mercies, a Isa. 65. 3. b Ps. 16. 10. 2 Or, after he had in his own age served the wul of God. c 1 Kings 2. 10. word for "mercies" is the same adjective as that translated " holy " in the next verse, " holiness " bemg identified with "mercy," and so forms a connecting link with the prophecy cited in the next verse. P5) Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see cor ruption. — See Notes on the pro phecy so cited Hi chap. ii. 25 — 31. P6) After he had served his own generation. — literaUy, ministered to his own generation. There is, perhaps, a suggested contrast between the limits within which the work of service to man kind done by any mere man, however great and powerful, is necessarily confined, and the wide, far-reaching, endless ministry to the whole human famUy which belongs to the Son of Man. By the wiU of God The words are, perhaps, better con nected with the verb that foUows. It was by the whl (UteraUy, counsel) of God that David f eU asleep when ' his life's work was accompHshed. PeU on sleep It is not with out interest to note that St. Paul uses the same word for death as had been used by the historian in the case of Stephen (chap. vu. 36). It agreed with the then current language of mankind that death was as a sleep. It differed from it in thinking of that sleep not as "eternal" (the frequently recur ring epithet in Greek and Eoman epitaphs), but as the prelude to an awakening. W Men and brethren. — Better, brethren, simply. Is preached . . . — The force of the Greek tense emphasises the fact that the forgiveness was, at that very moment, in the act of being proclaimed or preached. Forgiveness of sins This forms the key-note of St. Paul's preaching (here and Hi chap. xxvi. 18), as it had done of St. Peter's (chaps, ii. 38; v. 31; x. 43), as it had done before of that of the Baptist (Mark i 4; Luke iii. 3), and of our Lord Himseh (Matt. ix. 2, 6 ; Luke vii. 47 ; xxiv. 47). It was the ever-recurring burden of the glad tidings which were preached ahke by aU. (3») And by him. — LiteraUy, in Him, as the sphere in which forgiveness was found, rather than as the instrument through whom it came. AU that believe are justi- 215 The Words of THE ACTS, XIII. the Prophets. things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. C4t0 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets ; " (41) Be hold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish : for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. fled. — Literally, with a, more individuaUsing touch, every one that believeth is justified. The latter verb is not found elsewhere in the Acts. It is interesting to note in this, the first recorded example of St. Paul's teaching, the occurrence of the word, which, as time passed on, came to be almost identified with him and with his work. It is clearly used, as interpreted by the "forgiveness of sins" Hi the con text, Hi its forensic sense, as meaning "acquitted," "declared not guilty." (Comp. Matt. xh. 37.) Prom which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. — The words are full of meaning, as the germ of aU that was most characteristic in St. Paul's later teaching. The Law, with its high standard of righteous ness (Eom. vH. 12), its demand of entire obedience, its sacrifices which bore witness to the burden of sin, yet had no power to liberate conscience from its thraldom (Heb. viU. 1 — 3), had taught him that its function in the sphitual life of man was to work out the know ledge of sin (Bom. vii. 7), not to emancipate men from it. The sense of freedom from guUt, and there fore of a true life, was to be found, only, as he had learnt by his own experience, through faith in Christ. "The just by faith shall live" (Hab. ii. 4; Bom. i. 17; Gal. iii. 11). (40) -which is spoken of in the prophets. — This formula of citation seems to have been common, as Hi chap, vh 42, in the case of quotations from the minor Prophets, which were regarded, as it were, as a single volume with this title. t41) Behold, ye despisers The quotation is from the LXX. version, the Hebrew giving ' ' Be hold, ye among the heathen. " So, Hi the next clause, " wonder, and perish " takes the place of " wonder marveUously." The fact that St. Paul quotes from the prophet (Hab. i. 5) whose teaching (Hab. H. 4) that "the just by faith shall Hve " becomes henceforth the axiom of his Hfe, is not without a special interest. The "work" of which the prophet spoke was defined in the following verse as the raising up the Chaldeans, " that bitter and hasty nation," to execute God's judgment. St. Paul may have had in his thoughts the Uke judgment about to be executed by the Eo mans, and already known as fore told by Christ (Matt. xxiv. 2—28), or may have thus dimly indicated that which was so closely connected with it — the rejection of Israel, because they, as a nation, had re jected Christ. The sharp tone of warning, as in St. Stephen's speech (see Note on chap. vii. 51), suggests the thought that signs of anger and impatience had aheady begun to show themselves. 216 Effect of THE ACTS, XIII. Paul's Discourse. (42) And when the Jews were gone out of the syna gogue, the Gentiles be sought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath1 (43) Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious prose- 1 Gr. in the week between,QT.inthe sab bath be tween. lytes followed Paul and Barnabas : who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. <44) And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. l4» But t*a> And when the Jews were gone out of the syna gogue. — The better MSS. give simply, as they were going out, the Beceived text being apparently an explanatory interpretation. The reading "the Gentiles besought," is an addition of the same character, the better MSS. giving simply, they besought, or were beseeching. What foUows shows, indeed, that some at least of the Jews were led to in quire further. The participle im plies that they stopped as they passed out, to request the Apostle to resume his teaching on the fol lowing Sabbath. This, and not the marginal reading " in the week be tween," is the true meaning of the words, though they admit, literaUy, of the other rendering. (43) when the congregation was broken up. — Better, as keeping to the usual rendering, the synagogue. The two preachers with drew to theh inn or lodging, and were foUowed by many of both classes of theh hearers — not, as the Eeceived text of verse 42 impUes, by one only. It is probable, look ing to St. Paul's language Hi 1 Cor. ix. 6 — which can only refer to theh (See Note on chap, xviii. 3.) Manu factures of this kind were so com mon in all the towns lying on or near the Taurus range of moun tains, that it would not be difficult for any skiUed workman, such as St. Paul, to obtain casual employ ment. Persuaded them. — The tense imphes that they went on through out the week — probably after theh day's labour was over — with this work of persuasion. (44) The -next sabbath day came almost the whole city together It is clear that the Jewish synagogue could not have held such a crowd, and we are led accordingly to the conclusion either that they thronged round portals and windows while the Apostles spoke within, or that the crowd gathered in some open space or piazza Hi which the synagogue was situated, and were addressed from its entrance. We are left to infer the nature of St. Paul's discourse from what had preceded, and to assume that it was not recorded, either because St. Luke had notes of one discourse and not of the other, or because it went more or joint Hfe at the Syrian Antioch, or less over the same ground, and on this journey — that during the . therefore did not seem to him to week that foUowed they worked for require recording. theh maintenance as tent-makers. I <45) They were filled with 217 Opposition of THE ACTS, XIII. the Jews. when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, con- tradictingand blaspheming. (46' Then Paul and Barna bas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you : but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. wn For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for envy. — They heard the Apostles speaking to the multitudes, not in the condescending, supercUious tone of those who could just tolerate a wealthy proselyte of the gate, that could purchase theh favour, but as finding in every one of them a brother standing on the same level as themselves, as redeemed byChrist, and this practical repudiation of aU the exclusive privileges on which they prided themselves was more than they could bear. Contradicting and blas pheming. — The latter word im plies reviling words with which the Apostles were assailed, as weU as blasphemy in the common mean ing of the word. m It was necessary. — The preachers recognised the necessity of following what they looked on as the divine plan in the education of mankind, and so they preached "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile" (Eom. ii. 9, 10). The former were offered, as the fulfil ment of the promise made to Abraham, the high privilege of being the channel through which " all families of the earth should be blessed" by the knowledge of Christ (Gen.xxii. 18). When they rejected that offer, it was made, without theh intervention, to the Gentiles. Judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting hfe There is a touch of righteous indignation, per haps something Hke irony, in the words. The preacher had thought them " worthy " of the highest of aU blessings, the life eternal which was in Christ Jesus, but they, in theh boastful and envious pride, took what was really a lower esti mate of themselves, and showed that they were ' ' unworthy." They passed sentence, ipso facto, on them- 218 Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. — We have to remember (1) that the words were as an echo of those which the Apostle had heard Hi his trance in the Temple at Jerusalem (chap. xxii. 21); (2) that they would be heard, on the one hand, by the Gentiles with a joy hitherto un known, and, on the other, by the Jews as a new cause of hritation. (47) I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles. — The context of the quotation has to be remembered as showing that St. Paul identified the " Servant of the Lord" in Isa. xUx. 6 with the person of the Christ. (See Note on chap. iv. 27.) The citation is interesting as the first example of the train of thought which led the Apostle to see Hi the language of the prophets, Paul turns to THE ACTS, XIII. the Gentiles. salvation unto the ends of the earth.11 m And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glori fied the word of the Lord : and as many as were or dained to eternal life be lieved. (49)And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. (50) But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised per- where others had found only the exaltation of Israel, the divhie pur pose of love towards the whole heathen world. It is the germ of the argument afterwards more fuUy developed in Bom. ix. 25, x. 12. («) They were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord. — Both verbs are in the tense of continued action. The joy was not an evanescent burst of emotion. The " word of the Lord" here is the teaching which had the Lord Jesus as its subject. As many as were ordained to eternal life beheved. — Better, as many as were disposed for. The words seem to the EngUsh reader to support the Calvinistic dogma of divine decrees as deter mining the beHef or unbeUef of men ; and it is not improbable, looking to the general drift of the theology of the English Church Hi the early part of the seventeenth century, that the word " ordained " was chosen as expressing that dogma. It runs, with hardly any variation, through aU the chief English versions, the Bhemish giving the stronger form "pre- ordinate." The Greek word, how ever, does not imply more than that they feh in with the divine order which the Jews rejected. They were as soldiers who take the place assigned to them hi God's great 219 army. The j«a«-middle force of the passive form of the verb is seen Hi the Greek of chap. xx. 13, where a compound form of it is rightly rendered "for so he had appointed," and might have been translated for so he was disposed. It Hes in the nature of the case that belief was foUowed by a public profession of faith, but the word " believed " does not, as some have said, involve such a profession. (49) Throughout all the re gion. — This clearly involves a considerable period of active work ing. It was not in Antioch only, but Hi the "region" round about the border district of the three provinces of Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Galatia, that the new faith was planted. Each town and viUage in that region presented the spec tacle of at least some few men and women who no longer sacrificed to theh country's gods, who were no longer content even to worship in the synagogue of the relligio licita of the Jews, but met in smaU com panies here and there, as the dis ciples of a new Master. (eo) rjijjg jews stirred up the devout and honourable wo men. — The fact stated brings before us another feature of the relations between Jews and Gentiles at this period. They " compassed sea and land to make one prose lyte" (Matt. xxui. 15). They Paul leaves THE ACTS, XIII. Antioch, secution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. a Matt. 10.14. <61) But they shook off the dust of their feet against them," and came unto Ico- foundit easiest to make proselytes of women. Such conversions had theh good and theh bad sides. In many cases there was a, real longing for a higher and purer life than was found in the infinite debasement of Greek and Boman society, which found its satisfaction in the Hfe and faith of Israel. (See Notes on chap. xvH. 4, 12.) But with many, such as Juvenal speaks of when he describes (Sat. vi. 542) the Jewish teacher who gains influence over women — "Arcanam Judsea tremens mendicat in aurem Interpres legum Solymarum " — T" The trembling Jewess whispers in her ear, And tells her of the laws of Solymae."]* the change brought with it new elements of superstition and weak ness, and absolute submission of conscience to its new directors, and thus the Eabbis were often to the wealthier women of Greek and Boman cities what Jesuit confessors were in France and Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen turies. Here we get the darker side of the picture. The Jews stir up the women of the upper class, and they stir up their husbands. The latter were content apparently to acquiesce in their wives accept ing the Judaism with which they had become famihar, but resented the intrusion of a new and, in one sense, more exacting doctrine. liaised persecution against Paul and Barnabas. — It Ues in • Solymaj, of course, stands for Jerusalem. 220 the nature of the case that they were not the only sufferers. From the first the Christians of Antioch in Pisidia had to learn the leBson that they must " through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (chap. xiv. 22). The memory of these sufferings came back upon St. Paul's mind, even in the last months of his hfe, as some thing never to be forgotten (2 Tim. hi. 11). t51) They shook off the dust of their feet against them. — The act was one of literal obedience to our Lord's commands (see Matt. x. 14), and may fairly be regarded as evidence that that command had come to the knowledge of Paul and Barnabas as weU as of the Twelve. It was in itseh, however, the lan guage of a natural symbolism which every Jew would understand, a declaration that not the heathen, but the unbelieving and maUgnant Jews, were those who made the very dust on which they trod " common and unclean." And came unto Iconium. — The journey to Iconium is passed over rapidly, and we may infer that it presented no opportunities for mission work. That city lay on the road between Antioch and Lystra at a distance of ninety miles south-east from the former city, and forty north-west from the latter. When the traveUers ar. rived there they found what they probably had not met with on their route— a synagogue, which indi cated the presence of a Jewish population, on whom they could and goes THE ACTS, XIV. to Iconium. nium. C62) And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. CHAPTER XIV. — m And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. (2) But the un believing Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. (3) Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave begin to work. The city, which from its size and stateUness has been called the Damascus of Ly- caonia, was famous in the early Apocryphal Christian writings as the scene of the intercourse be tween St. Paul and his convert Thekla. In the middle ages it rose to importance as the capital of the Seljukian sultans, and, under the sHghtly altered name of Konieh, is stiU a flourishing city. By some ancient writers it was assigned to Phrygia, by others to Lycaonia. (52> And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost The tense is again that which expresses the continu ance of the state. The "joy" expresses what is almost the normal sequence of conversion in the his tory of the Acts. (See Notes on chap. viH. 8, 39.) The addition of "the Holy Ghost" may im ply special gifts Uke those of tongues and prophecy, but certainly involves a new intensity of spiritual life, of which joy was the natural outcome. As being con spicuous among the GentUe con verts, we trace the impression which it then made, in words which St. Paul wrote long years afterwards, "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteous 221 ness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Bom. xiv. 17). xrv. P) Both of the Jews and also of the Greeks. — The latter term is used in its wider sense, as hi Mark vH. 26 and elsewhere, as equivalent to GentUe, but it im- pUeS that those who were so de scribed spoke and understood Greek. In the former instance these would probably be the " proselytes of the gate" who heard the Apostles Hi the synagogue. I2) The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles . . . — It is the distHiguishing feature of nearly aU the persecutions in the Acts that they originated Hi the hostiHty of the Jews. The case of Demetrius furnishes almost the only exception (chap. xix. 24), and even there the Jews apparently fomented the enmity of the Greek craftsmen. So at a considerably later date (a.d. 169) we find them prominent Hi bringing about the persecution which ended Hi the death of Polycarp at Smyrna (Mart . Polyc. c. 13). (3) Longtime therefore abode they. — This can hardly be under stood as involving a stay of less than several months, during which, Assaulted at THE ACTS, XIV. testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (4) But the multitude of the city was divided : and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. ® And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, (6) they were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities Paul and Barnabas, as before, were working for their UveUhood. Speaking boldly.— The ' ' bold ness" consisted, as the context shows, in a f uU declaration of the gospel of the grace of God as con trasted with the narrowing Judaism with which the Greek proselytes had previously been famiHar. Granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. — It whl be noted that here also, as so often elsewhere, the mhacles that were wrought came as the confirma tion of faith, not as its foundation. (4) The multitude of the city was divided. — The context shows that St. Luke writes of the bulk of the heathen population. No num bers are given, but we may fairly assume that the converts were in a minority, and that they belonged, as » rule, to the lower classes (1 Cor. i. 26, 27), and that the chief men and women of the city, as at the Pisidian Antioch (chap. xhi. 50), were against them. The ' rulers " who are named would seem, from the form of punishment selected, to have been those of the Jewish synagogue, and the crime of which the preachers were accused, as in the case of Stephen, to have been blasphemy. (See Notes on chap. vh. 58 ; John x. 31.) (6) To use them despitefully. — The verb expresses wanton in sult and outrage. St. Paul uses the noun derived from it to express the character of his own conduct as a persecutor (1 Tim. i. 13), and must have felt, as afterwards in the actual stoning of verse 19, that he was receiving the just reward of his own deeds. l6) And fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia. — Here again, as Hi chap. xiii. 51, we can scarcely faU to trace a Hteral obedience to our Lord's commands, as given in Matt. x. 23. The direction of the Apostles' journey now took them into a wUder and less civiUsed region. The range of the Taurus cut it off from the more cultivated eoujaAIjsf'Sf CiUcia and Pisidia. Itiihose % J1*! as a dreary plain, bare of ti vJi; destitute of fresh water, and \^ith several salt lakes. So OvidJ(Met. vhi. 621) speaks of it, as the result of per sonal observation ;- " Where men once dwelt a marshy lake is { seen, Arid coots and bitterns haunt the waters green." The very name, Lycaonia, inter preted traditionaUy as Wolf-land (the local legend derived it from Lycaon, who had been transformed into a wolf), represented but too faithfully the character of the in habitants. The traveUers were also 222 Healing THE ACTS, XIV. at Lystra. of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about : m and there they preached the gospel. C8) And there sat a cer tain man at Lystra, impo tent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked : (9) the same heard Paul speak : who sted fastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, (10) said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And losing the protection which a Boman citizen might claim in a Eoman province, Lycaonia, which had been annexed hi a.d. 17 to the Boman province of Galatia, having been assigned by Caligula to Antio chus, King- of Commagene. So wild a country was hardly likely to at tract Jewish settlers ; and there is no trace in St. Luke's narrative of the existence of a synagogue in either of the two cities. For the first time, so far as we know, St. Paul had to begin his work by preaching to the heathen. Even the chUd of a devout Jewish mother had grown up to manhood uncir cumcised (see Note on chap. xvi. 3). Of the two towns named, Lystra was about forty mUes to the south east of Iconium, Derbe about twenty mhes further to the east. The former, which Hes to the north of a lofty conical mountain, the Kara- dagh ( = Black Mountain) is now known as Bin-bir-Kilisseh, i.e., " the thousand and one churches," from the ruins that abound there. The addition of "the region that Ueth round about" suggests the thought that the cities were not large enough to supply a sufficient field of action. The work in the country villages must obviously — even more than Hi the cities — have been entirely among the GentUes. Among the converts of this region, 223 and probably of this time, we may note the names of Timotheus of Lystra (see Note on chap. xvi. 1), and Gaius, or Caius, of Derbe (chap. xx. 4). (8) Being a cripple from his mother's womb. — We note, as Hi chaps, iii. 2, ix. 33, the charac teristic care to record the duration of the Hvfirmity which was super- naturaUy cured. (9) Who stedfastly behold ing him. — We note once more the recurrence of the characteristic word and look. (See Note on chap. xHi. 9.) Perceiving that he had faith to be healed Here, as so often, as if it were the general, though not the universal, law of miraculous working (see Mark x. 23), faith is pre-supposed as the condition. It foUows from this, no less than from the tense of the verb, "used to listen to Paul as he spoke," that he had for some days been among St. Paul's hearers, had heard the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and had found that such a Saviour met his every need. AU this the Apostle read, with that earnest gaze of his, in the man's upward look. P°) Stand upright on thy feet. —What may be called the modus operandi of the miracle reminds us of that of the paralytic in Matt. Wonder of THE ACTS, XIV. the People. he leaped and walked. &1) And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are ix. 6, and the cripple at Bethesda in John v. 11, and the lame man in chap. Hi. 6. The command, which would have seemed a mockery to one who did not rise beyond the limits of experience, is obeyed by the wiU that had been inspired by the new power of faith. The natural inference from the special fact recorded Hi verse 11, is that the command was given Hi Greek, and therefore that St. Paul had taught Hi that language. And he leaped and walked. — The two verbs differ in their tense : he leaped, as with a single bound, and then continued walking. (Comp. Note on chap. iu. 8.) P1) Saying in the speech of Lycaonia. — The fact is clearly recorded with a definite purpose, and no explanation seems so natural as that which assumes it to be given as accounting for the passive atti tude of the Apostles till what was then said had borne its fruit in acts. It wiU be admitted by aU who are not under the influence of a theory that this serves almost as a orucial instance, showing that the " gift of tongues," which St. Paul possessed so largely (1 Cor. xiv. 18), did not consist in a supernatural knowledge of every provincial patois with which he came Hi contact. (See Note on chap. ii. 4.) It is clear that he might easily have learnt afterwards from those who knew both lan guages, the meaning of what at the time was uninteUigible. To suppose, as some have done, that the Apostles, understanding what was said, acquiesced in the prepara- 221 tions for sacrifice Hi order that they might afterwards make their pro test as with a greater dramatic effect, is at variance with the natu ral impression made by the narra tive, and, it need scarcely be said, with any worthy conception of St. Paul's character. The diglottic character of the people, here and hi other Asiatic provinces of the emphe, would make it perfectly natural that they should speak to one another Hi their own dialect, whhe Greek served for theh intercourse with strangers. The " speech of Lycaonia " is said to have had affinities with Assyrian. The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. — LiteraUy, the gods, made like unto men, are come down to us. The beUef which the words expressed are characteristic of the rude sim- pHcity of the Lycaonians. No such cry would have been possible in the great cities where the con fluence of a debased polytheism and philosophical speculation had ended in utter scepticism. And the form which the beUef took was Hi accordance with the old legends of the district. There, according to the Myth which Ovid had re cently revived and adorned (Metam. viH. 625 — 724), Zeus and Hermes (Jupiter and Mercury) had come Hi human guise, and been received by Baucis and Philemon (St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon shows that the name Ungered in that region) , and left tokens of theh favour. We find from the poem just ref erred to that the place where they had The People THE ACTS, XIV. worship them. come down to us in the likeness of men. (12) And they called Barnabas, Jupi ter ; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. os) Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have dwelt was looked on as a shrine to which devout worshippers made theh pUgrimages, and where they left their votive offerings. P2) They called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mer curius. — St. Luke gives, as was natural, the Greek forms — Zeus and Hermes. The main reason for the assignment of the two names was that the listeners recognised in St. Paul the gift of eloquence, which was the special attribute of Hermes. Possibly, also, unlike as were the weak bodUy presence and the many infirmities of the Apostle to the sculptured grace with which we are familiar as belonging to the sandaUed messenger of the gods — young, and beauthul, and aghe — there may have been something in the taher stature and more stately presence of Barnabas which hn pressed them with the sense of a dignity Uke that of Jupiter. In any case, we must remember that the masterpieces of Greek art were not Hkely to have found their way to a Lycaonian village, and that the Hermes of Lystra may have borne the same relation to that of Athens and Corinth as the grotesque Madonna of some Italian wayside shrine does to the masterpieces of Eaphael. Eeal idolatry cares httle about the aesthetic beauty of the objects of its worship ; and the Lycaonians were genuine idolaters. The chief speaker. — Liter- 15 225 aUy, the ruler of speech — taking the chief part in it. Ps) The priest of Jupiter, which was before their city. — The latter clause probably de scribes the position of the Temple of Zeus, standing at the entrance of the city, as the shrine of its pro tecting deity. The identical phrase used by St. Luke is found in Greek inscriptions at Ephesus. Brought oxen and garlands unto the gates. — The garlands were the weU - known vitts, so familiar to us in ancient sculptures, commonly made of white wool, sometimes interwoven, with, leaves and flowers. The priests, atten dants, doors, and altars were often decorated in the same way. The " gates " (the form of, the Greek implying that they were the fold ing-doors of a large entrance) were probably those which led into the atrimn, or court-yard, of the house where the Apostles were dweUing. The whole action is weU repre sented in Baphael's well-known cartoon. Oxen were, Hi Greek ritual, the right victims for both Zeus and Hermes. Would have done sacrifice with the people. — This would have involved cutting the throats of the oxen, catching the blood Hi a patera, or deep dish, and pouring it upon an altar. There may have been such an altar hi the atrium, or one may have been improvised for the occasion. The Apostles THE ACTS, XIV. prevent them. done sacrifice with the people. (14) Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, C15) and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things ? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are there- G4) Which when the apos tles, Barnabas, and Paul, heard o£ — They were, we may beUeve, in the house, within the court-yard, and therefore did not see the sacrificial procession; but they heard the noise of the multi tude, perhaps also of some sacri ficial hymn, and asked what it meant. They rent their clothes. — The act is obviously recorded as that of men who are startled and surprised, and is altogether incom patible with the theory that they knew that they had been taken for deities, and were expecting such honours. On the act of rending the clothes, see Matt. xxvi. 65. It was the extremest expression of horror, hardly ever used except in deprecation of spoken or acted blasphemy. How far it would be fully understood by the heathen population of Lystra may be a question, but its very strangeness would startle and arrest them. (16> Sirs, why do ye these things ? — It is natural to suppose that the words were spoken hi the Greek in which St. Luke records them, and therefore that St. Paul's previous teaching had been Hi the same language. The metrical structure of the close of the speech (see Note on verse 17) leaves hardly a shadow of doubt on this point. We also are men of hke passions with you. — The word, which expresses participation Hi all the passive conditions of human life, as weh as in what are com monly known as " passions," occurs again Hi Jas. v. 17. There is, it wUl be noted, a striking paraUelism between St. Paul's language here, and that of Peter to CorneKus (chap. x. 26). Ye should turn from these vanities The demonstrative pro noun imphes a corresponding ges ture. The Apostle points to aU the pomp and pageantry of the intended sacrifice. The words " vanity " and "vain" were almost the invariable terms used by Jews to describe the emptiness and worthlessness of hea then worship (Eph. iv. 17; 1 Pet. i. 18; and, in the Old Testament, 1 Sam. xh. 21 ; 2 Kings xvH. 15). In contrast with these dead and dumb things, the Apostle caUs on them to turn to God, who truly Uves and acts, and is the Source of aU Hfe and power, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Giver of all good gifts, the Judge of aU evU deeds. Li contrast, alike, with the popular polytheism which assigned heaven, and earth, and sea to different deities, and to the specu lative Pantheism which excluded wUl and purpose from its concep tion of the Godhead, he proclaims Speech of Paul THE ACTS, XIV. at Lystra. in :° a6) who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.6 m Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and a Gen. 1. 1 ; Ps. 146. 6 ; Rev. 14. r. b Ps. 81. Ii gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. a8) And with these sayings scarce re strained they the people, the One God as having every at- tribute of personal Life and Being. P6) Who in times past suf fered ah nations. — Better, all the heathen; the term used being that which is always employed of the nations outside the covenant of Israel. We have here the first germ of what may be fairly de scribed as St. Paul's phUosophy of history. The " tunes of ignorance " had been permitted by God, and those who had lived Hi them would be equitably dealt with, and judged according to their knowledge. The same thought meets us again Hi the speech at Athens (chap. xvii. 30). In Bom. i, H., xi., we meet with it, in an expanded form, as a more complete "vindication of the righteousness of God. The ignor ance and the sins of the GentUe world had been aUowed to run theh course, as the Law had been aUowed to do its partial and im perfect work among the Jews, as parts, if one may so speak, of a great divine drama, leading both to feel the need of redemption, and preparing both for its reception. AU were "concluded in unbeUef that God might have mercy upon aU" (Bom. xi. 32). P7) He left not himself with out witness. — Here again we have the outline of what is after wards expanded (Eom. i. 19, 20). In speaking to peasants Hke those at Lystra, St Paul naturaUy dweUs most on the witness given through 227 the divine goodness as manifested in nature. In addressing philoso phers at Athens and at Eome, he points to the yet fuUer witness of consciousness and conscience (chap. xvii. 28; Eom. ii. 14, 15). In that he did good. — Better, as expressing the continuous mani festation of the divine will, " work ing good, giving rain, filling our hearts . ." The MSS. vary, some giving " us," and " our," and some " you " and " your." The former is more characteristic of the sym pathy which led St. Paul to identify himseh with GentUe as weU as Jew. The " joy of harvest " (Isa. ix. 3) was the common inheritance of each. The latter words Hi the Greek, from " giving us rain from heaven" are so distinctly rhyth mical that they suggest the thought that St. Paul quotes from some hymn of praise which he had heard in a harvest or vintage festival, and which, as with the altar, to the Unknown God at Athens, he claims as due to Him whom men ignorantly worshipped. (See Note on chap. xvh. 23. ) P8) With these sayings scarce restrained they the people. — On some of those who were thus restrained the effect may weU have been that they were roused to a higher life, and did turn from " vanities " to the living God. We must, at any rate, think of St. Paul's work at Lystra as last ing long enough to aUow time for Paul stoned THE ACTS, XIV. at Lystra. that they had not done sacrifice unto them. a9) And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, a 2 Cor. 11. 25. having stoned Paul," drew him out of the city, sup posing he had been dead. C20) Howbeit, as the dis ciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came the foundation of a church there. Among the more conspicuous con verts were the devout Jewesses, Lois and her daughter Eunice (more accurately, Eunike), and the young Timotheus (2 Tim. i. 5). No mention is made of his father, and Eunice may have been a widow ; but the fact that the boy had grown up uncircumcised rather suggests the influence of a Hving father. (See Note on chap. xvi. 3.) P9) There came thither cer tain Jews from Antioch. — The context shows that the Pisidian Antioch is meant. The strength of the hostiUty is shown by the facts, (1) that the Jews of the two cities were acting Hi concert, and (2) that those of the former had traveUed not less than one hundred and thirty mUes to hinder the Apostle's work. Who persuaded the people. — The sudden change of f eeUng is almost as startling as that which transformed the hosannas of the multitudes at Jerusalem into the cry of " Crucify Him ! " (Matt. xxi. 9 ; xxvii. 22.) It is not difficult, however, to understand these vicis situdes of feeling in a barbarous and superstitious people. We find a Hke sudden change Hi an opposite direction in the people of MeUta (chap. xxvHi. 6). If the strangers who were endowed with such mysterious powers were not " gods in the Ukeness of men," they might be sorcerers, or even demons, in the evU sense of that word. The Jews, ever ready to impute signs and wonders to Beelzebub, the chief of the demons (see Matt. x. 34, xu. 24), would readUy work on this feeling, and terrify the people into the cruel ferocity of panic. Having stoned Paul The mode of punishment, as elsewhere, shows that it was planned and exe cuted by Jews. They, apparently, were eager to satisfy themselves that they were inflicting punish ment on a blasphemer: stoning hhn to death, and casting hhn out to be buried with the burial of an ass. And so, in one sense, as from man's way of looking on such things, the martyr expiated the guUt of the persecutor. The bind ing, stunning blows feU on him as they had fallen on Stephen. It was the one instance Hi St Paul's life of this form of suffering (2 Cor. xi. 25). The sufferings en dured at Lystra stand out, at the close of his Hfe, Hi the vista of past years with a marveUous distinctness (2 Tim. iii. 11). (20) Howbeit, as the dis ciples stood round about him. — They, it is obvious, had been powerless to prevent the attack ; but they stole out, when all was over, it may be, with the purpose of giving at least a decent interment. We may fairly think of Lois, and Eunice, and Timotheus, as present in that crowd, weeping first for sorrow, and then for 228 Departs to Derbe, THE ACTS, XIV. and returns. into the city : and the next day he departed with Bar nabas to Derbe. C21) And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and An tioch, m confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to con tinue in the faith, and that exceeding joy, to find that the teacher whom they loved was stunned only, and not dead. He departed with Barna bas to Derbe. — The journey was one that must have occupied several hours, and we do weU to remember that after the suffering of the pre vious day, it must have been one of peculiar hardship and fatigue. The city of Derbe was, as has been said, twenty mUes to the east of Lystra. It was just within the Cappadocian boundary of Isauria. The exact site has not been identified, but the ruins of an AcropoUs have been found not far from the lake Ak- Ghieul, which have been supposed to be the remains of Derbe. The whole regiftn was infamous for its brigandage, and there may be a reference to this in the " perils of robbers " of 2 Cor. xi. 26. (21) And had taught many. — Better, made many disciples. The word is the same as in Matt, xxviii. 19. Among these we may note Gaius, or Caius, afterwards con spicuous as one of St. Paul's com panions (chap. xx. 4). The work done imphes a stay of, it may be, some months' duration. During this time the violence of the hos- tiUty of the Jews at Antioch and Iconium had probably subsided, and the Apostles could revisit those cities, as they retraced theh steps, without any great danger. (22) Confirming the souls of the disciples. — Better, perhaps, strengthening, so as to avoid the more definite associations con nected with the other term. In chap. xviH. 23, the word is so ren dered. It is not the same as that used by later writers for the eccle siastical rite of Confirmation. Exhorting them to con tinue in the faith. — The ques tion meets us whether "faith" is used in its -subjective sense, the "feeling of trust," or objectively, as including the main substance of what was beUeved and taught — " a behef or creed." That the latter meaning had become established a few years after St. Luke wrote, we see .Hi 1 Tim. v. 8 ; Jude verses 3, 20 ; and on the whole it seems probable that it is so used here. And that we must through much tribulation. — More ac curately, through many tribulations. The use of the first personal pro noun is suggestive. Is St. Luke generaUsing what he heard from those who had hstened to St. Paul, and giving it in theh very words ? Was he himseh one of those hsteners f The two had clearly met before we find them both at Troas ; and on the supposition sug gested in the last question, the apparently casual use of the pro noun would be analogous to what we find afterwards. (See Note on chap. xvi. 10.) In St. Paul's latest Epistle to the chosen disciple of Lystra we have a touching repro duction of this teaching. He speaks 229 Elders THE ACTS, XIV. ordained. we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. <23) And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they com mended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. <*> And after they had of the afflictions which came on him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, and adds the general truth that "aU that wUl live godly in Christ Jesus shaU suffer perse cutions " (2 Tim. Hi 12). The kingdom of God. — We may pause to note the occurrence of the familiar phrase and thought of the Gospels in the earUest re corded teaching of St. Paul. In his Epistles it recurs frequently (Eom. xiv. 17 ; 1 Cor. iv. 20 ; vi. 9 ; Col. iv. 11 ; 2 Thess. i. 5). For him, too, that which was proclaimed was not a theory or an opinion, but an actual kingdom, of which Jesus the Christ was king. (23) And when they had or dained them elders. — The word for " ordained " occurs in the New Testament here and in 2 Cor. viii. 19, where it is translated " chosen," and certainly seems to imply po pular election (election by show of hands), which is, indeed, the natural meaning of the word. In chap. x. 41 a compound form of the verb is translated " chosen of God," and clearly excludes any action but that of the divine wiU. Used, as it is here, of the act of the two Apostles, not of the Church, the latter meaning seems most in har mony with the context. There may have been, as in chap. vi. 3, a previous election ; or the names of those who were to be appointed may have been submitted to the approval of the Church ; but the word cannot in itseh be held to imply either. On the institution of elders, see Note on chap. xi. 30. It is interesting here to note (1) that Paul and Barnabas, by virtue of the authority which as Apostles they had received, primarily from Christ (Gal. i. 1) and mediately from the Church of Antioch (chap. xiii. 3), exercised the right of ap pointing, or, Hi later phrase, or daining, elders. (2) They plant among the Churches of the Gen tiles the organisation which we have found in that of Jerusalem, and which was itseh based on that of the Synagogue, not on that of the Temple. (3) As this appears as the first appointment, it would seem to foUow that the disciples had Hi the meantime met, and taught, and baptised, and broken bread without elders. Organisation of this kind was, i.e., important for the permanence of the Hfe of the Church as such, but not essential to its being, or to the spiritual growth of individual members. (4) It wiU be remembered that the " elders " so appointed were the same as those who, Hi the ApostoUc Church, were known as " bishops " or " overseers " (episcopi), what we caU distinctive episcopal functions being reserved for the Apostles, or for theh personal representatives (1 Tim. iv. 16; Titus i. 5; see Note on chap. xx. 28). Had prayed with fasting. —See Notes on chap. xUi. 2, 3. It is a legitimate inference, from this recurrence of the act, that Paul and 230 Paul returns THE ACTS, XIV. to Antioch. passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. (25) And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia : (26) and thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. <*> And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had Barnabas recognised it as an estab- Hshed rule or canon of the Church that these two acts should jointly serve as a preparation for the solemn work of appointing men to spiritual functions. Without prayer such an appointment was a mockery, and fasting served to intensify prayer. They commended them.— The word is the same as in chap. xx. 32 ; Luke xxiii. 46. It impUes the confiding trust of one who commits what is very precious to him to the keeping of another. So Hi 2 Tim. H. 2 it is used of the de position fid-el, the treasure of truth which Timothy was to commit to faithful men. Here it impUes an absolute trust in God as ordering aU things for His Church and those who love Hhn. P6) And when they had preached the word in Perga. The traveUers retrace their steps. There is a coincidence more or less striking in the report of what they did at Perga. In chap. xhi. 13 there is no mention of theh having preached Hi that city. We are simply told that Mark left them there, and that they then went on to Antioch. On theh return, accord ingly, they did what they had then left undone. They went down into At talia. — On theh first journey they had gone straight from Paphos to Perga up the Oestrus. Now they made a ditour which led them to the port at the mouth of the Catar- rhactes, named after Attalus PhUa- delphus, King of Pergamus. There is no record of any work done there, and they probably only went to it as the port where they were most likely to find a saUing- vessel that would take them to Antioch. Their ship would naturaUy pass between CUicia and Cyprus, enter the Orontes at Seleucia, and sah up to Antioch. Whence they had been recommended. — Better, perhaps, commended, the compound form having sUghtly changed its mean ing. The words seem to imply a mental survey on the part of the traveUers of aU that had passed since they had started on their journey. The " grace of God," to which they had then been com mended, had not failed them. (27) And when they were come. — Two years or thereabouts (a.d. 45 — 48) had passed since theh mission. During that interval Httle probably had been heard of them, and we can picture to our selves the eagerness with which the Christiani of Antioch would gather to Hsten to their report. How he had opened the door of faith unto the 231 Stay at Antioch. THE ACTS, XV. The Judaisers. opened the door of faith a-061- unto the Gentiles. C28) And there they abode long time with the disciples. CHAPTER XV— (1> And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and Gentiles. — This is noticeable as the first occurrence, as far as the chronological order of the books of the New Testament is concerned, of a very characteristic phrase. It would seem to have been a favourite metaphor of St. Paul's (comp. 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. ii. 12 ; Col. iv. 3), and comes Hi here, probably, as a fragment from his speech. From this point of view it is interesting to note the recurrence of the phrase in Bev. hi. 8, both St. Paul and St. John, representing as they did dif ferent sections of the Church (Gal. H. 9), agreeing in the thought that the door of the Father's house was now opened wider than it had ever been before, and that no man might shut it. (23> There they abode long time. — The words probably cover an interval of more than a year, during which it is reasonable to suppose that the preaching of the two Apostles drew together a large number of GentUe converts. XV. P) And certain men which came down from Judeea.— We enter on the history of the first great controversy in the records of the Christian Church. It might have seemed as if the conversion of CorneUus had been accepted as deciding the question which we now find raised again (chap. xi. 18). It would seem, however, that those who had raised objections to Peter's conduct in that case were not content to I 232 accept the conclusion which he drew from it, and it is not difficult to represent to ourselves the train of thought which led them to take a different view. To them it may have seemed the exception that proved the rule. Where signs and wonders came in, they may have been content to accept an uncir cumcised convert as a member of the Church, simply on the ground that God had dispensed hi such cases with His own law; or they may have urged that though, in such cases, they did not require circumcision as a condition of ad mission, the continuance in the uncircumcised state after baptism was a wilful transgression, which shut men out from the " salvation " which they were seeking. Circum cision, they may have said, had been given as an " everlasting covenant" (Gen. xvU. 13), and had never been formally abrogated. Who were the new teachers, that they should change what God had thus established P It is clear that they came, claiming to speak in the name of James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, and though he dis tinctly repudiates having author ised them (verse 24), yet if we suppose, as is probable, that his Epistle was written shortly before the Council, we can easUy under stand that they might rest their case on the words which he had used in it, that ' ' whosoever shaU keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of aU " (Jas. u. 10). Here, they might say, iB a Mission of Paul THE ACTS, XV. and Barnabas. said, Except ye be circum cised after the manner of Moses," ye cannot be saved. 00 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem point confessedly in the Law, and even prior to it; and they were not prepared to draw the distinc tions which we have learned to draw between the positive and the moral, the transient and the permanent, obUgations of that Law. And it is to be noted that they did not merely make circumcision a condition of church communion ; they carried theh principles to theh logical conclusion — as mediaeval dogmat ism did hi the case of baptism — and excluded the uncircumcised from aU hope of salvation. (Comp. the account of Ananias and Izates given in the Note on chap. ix. 10.) (a) When therefore Paul and Barnabas. — The two Apostles must obviously have agreed in feeling that the teaching of the Judaisers (it wUl be convenient to use that term henceforth) involved a direct condemnation of aU the work in which they saw the triumph of God's grace. They had proclaimed salvation through faith in Christ. Their converts were now told that they had been teaching a soul-destroying false hood. Ho small dissension and dis putation.— The first of the two words was that which had been used by classical writers, like Thucydides (Hi. 82) and Aristotle (Polit. v. 2), to express the greatest evU of aU political societies — the spirit of party and of faction. In Mark xv. 7 ; Luke xxHi. 19, it is used of the "insurrection" in which Barabbas had been the ring leader. The element of evU was now beginning to show itseh Hi the Christian Church. They determined that Paul and Barnabas. — These were naturaUy chosen as the representa tives of the cause of which they had been the chief advocates. The " certain others " are not named, but the prophets of chap. xiii. 1, and the men of Cyprus and Cyrene of chap. xi. 20, were Ukely enough to have been chosen, and Titus was apparently taken up as an example of the fruits of St. Paul's labours (Gal. i. 3). Looking to the Eoman name which this disciple bore, it is not unlikely that he may have been among the first to whom the term Christian was appUed. (See Note on chap. xi. 26.) The fulness with which the history of the CouncU is given suggests the possibiUty that St. Luke himseh may have been present at it. If not, he must have based his report on materials suppUed by St. Paul or one of the other delegates from Antioch, possibly Manaen (chap. xiii. 1). Should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders. — The circumstances of the journey make it aU but certain that we may identify it with that of which St. Paul speaks in Gal. U. 1. The only other visits that can dispute its claim are those of chaps, xi. 30 and xviii. 22; but though the latter 233 They journey THE ACTS, XV. through Samaria, unto the apostles and elders about this question. C3)And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Sa maria, declaring the con version of the Gentiles : and they caused great joy view has been taken by some able writers (e.g., Lewin's St. Paul, i, p. 302), there are, it is beheved, decisive grounds for rejecting both. Against the first there are the facts, (1) that it is not easy to place fourteen years between the visit of chap. ix. 27, and that of chap. xi. 30 ; (2) the visit of chap. xi. 30 appears in the history as confined to the single object of carrying rehef to the suffering poor of the Church at Jerusalem; (3) the question as to enforcing circum cision had not then been raised, after its apparent settlement Hi the case of ComeHus; (4) had the agreement referred to in Gal. U. 9 preceded the CouncU, it would assuredly have been appealed to in the course of the debate at the CouncU. Against the second there are the facts (1) that the interval would, in that case, have been more than fourteen years ; and (2) that it was not Hkely that the question should have been raised again after the decision of the CouncU. The only arguments of any weight on the other side are, (1) that the narrative of Acts xv. makes no mention of Titus ; and (2) that that of Gal. ii. makes no mention of the CouncU ; but these arguments from omission teU equally against both the other visits. These points wiU be dealt with as we proceed, and are, in any case, not sufficient to outweigh the evidence Hi the other scale. The reference of the question to the "Apostles and elders " is in many ways important. 234 (1) As against the dogmatic system of the Church of Eome. On her theory, Hi its latest forms, the reference should have been to Peter, and to Peter alone, as the unerring guide of the Church into aU truth. (2) As a recognition of the authority of the mother-Church of Jerusalem by the daughter- Church of Antioch; and as a precedent for referring local dis putes to the decision of a central authority. (3) As showing the confidence which Paul and Barnabas felt that the decision would be in theh favour. They could not believe that St. Peter would be false to the lesson which the history of Cornelius had taught him, nor that St. James would recaU the definition which he had so recently given of " pure and undefiled reUgion" (Jas. i. 27). (4) We note that St. Paul ascribes the journey to a "revelation " (Gal. H. 1). The thought came into his mind as by an inspiration that this, and not prolonged wrangUngs at Antioch, was the right solution of the problem. P) They passed through Phenice and Samaria. — The route lay from Seleucia, at the mouth of the Orontes, along the coast of Sidon, Tyre, and, probably, Caesarea, and then through Samaria. They might have gone to Joppa, and so have avoided the old Canaanite cities and the region of the hated Samaritans. The very j ourney was, therefore, an assertion of the prin. ciples for which they were contend- Mid arrive THE ACTS, XV. at Jerusalem. unto all the brethren. (* And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. (6) But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise ing. We note, too, that the facts imply that they found ' ' brethren," i.e., established Christian societies, in both regions. " Tyre and Sidon " had repented and believed, though Chorazin and Bethsaida had hard ened themselves in unbeUef (Luke xi. 13). The " woman of Canaan," of Mark vh. 26, may, by this time, have eaten not of the " crumbs," but of the " Bread " of Life. Every thing points to PhUip as the pro bable Evangelist of this region as weU as of Samaria. Paul and Barnabas would accordingly, as they traveUed, be setting theh seal to his work, claiming feUowship with Canaanites and Samaritans ; and wherever they went they were received with joy. Here, at least, they were certain of support ; and, on mere grounds of policy, they were strengthening their cause by appearing at Jerusalem as the re presentatives of such important communities, having the courage of their convictions, and deter mined, though they might make concessions Hi -things indifferent, not to sacrifice a single principle. They caused great joy. — The tense impUes continued action. Wherever they went the tidings of the conversion of the GentUes were received by the disciples at large with a gladness which presented the strongest possible contrast to the narrowness and bitterness of the Pharisee section of the Church of Jerusalem. (4) They were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders. — The words imply a general gathering of the Church, members of different syna gogues coming together, with the elders who presided over them. The position of the Apostles, though in some degree analogous in theh relation to the elders to the later office of bishops, was yet in many ways unique. They had no local diocese, but remained at Jeru salem, guiding the progress of the Church at large, as a kind of central councU, calling Hi the " elders," or " presbyters," to consult with them, and submitting the result of their dehberations to the Church at large. The three bodies stood to each other as the Boutt, or councU, the Gerusia, or senate, and the Ecclesia, or assembly, in a Greek republic. They declared aU things that God had done with them. — This obviously impUed a narrative of considerable length : the history of acts and sufferings, of signs and wonders, of the fruits of the Spirit as seen in the purity, and truth, and love of the Gentile converts. This took place apparently at a preUminary meeting. (5) Certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. — This is the first distinct mention of the conversion of any of the Pharisaic party, but there had been a drift Hi that dhection going 235 The Council THE ACTS, XV. at Jerusalem. them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. ® And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. on for some time, beginning during our Lord's ministry (John xu. 42), and showing itseh in the moderate counsels of GamaHel (chap. v. 38, 39). The position which they occupied was that of accepting Jesus as a teacher sent from God, proved by the Eesurrection to be the Christ, and as such the Head of a kingdom which was to present to mankind a restored and glorified Judaism, the Law kept in its com pleteness, the Temple ritual stiU maintained, GentUes admitted only on theh confessing theh inf eriority and accepting the sign of incorpo ration with the superior race. It appears, from Gal. ii. 1, that here, as Hi so many later controversies, the general issue was debated on an individual case. Was Titus — a Greek, i.e., a GentUe, whom St. Paul had brought up with him — to be circumcised or not? Was he to be admitted to communion with the Church, or treated as a heathen p Here, probably, there was no offi cial rank as in the case of CorneUus, no previous transition stage in passing through the synagogue as a proselyte of the gate. He was a Gentile pure and simple, and as such his case was a crucial one. Circumcision, however, did not stand alone. It carried with it every jot and tittle of the Law, the Sabbaths and the feasts, the distinction between clean and un clean meats. It may be noted that the position which Titus occupied Hi this controversy gave him a special fitness for the work after wards assigned to him, of contending 236 against the party of the circum cision, with their " Jewish fables " and false standards of purity (Tit. i. 10,14, 15). (6) And the apostles and elders came together. — The meeting rightly takes its place as the first in the long series of coun- cUs, or synods, which mark the course of the Church's history. It bore its witness that the govern ment of the Christian society was not to rest in the autocracy of a single wUl, but in the deliberative decision of those who, directly or indirectly, having been appointed by the choice, or with the approval, of the people, represented the whole community. Presbyters had an equal voice with the Apostles, whose position was analogous to that of the later bishops. Those whom we should caU the laity were present at the deUberations, and, though we have no absolute proof that they took part in them, gave theh vote. (Comp. Note on verse 23.) Strictly speaking, it was, Hi the later ecclesiastical lan guage, a provincial and not an oecumenical synod, caUed to decide what seemed a question of discipHno rather than of doctrine ; but the ground on which the question had been argued made it one of world wide dogmatic importance. If chcumcision was necessary, then faith in Christ was insufficient. St. Paul saw and felt this in aU its fulness, and therefore would not " give way by subjection, no, not for an hour" (Gal. U. 5). We have no data for estimating the Speech of THE ACTS, XV. Peter. m And ¦« hen there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us," a ch. 10. 20, and 11.13. that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and be lieve. (8> And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them number of the presbyter3 who were present. Probably they in cluded those of the neighbouring towns and viUages of Judaea as weU as of Jerusalem, and if so, we may fairly think of some number between fifty and a hundred. I7) When there had been much disputing. — This imphes a full discussion, in which the Judaising teachers, probably, though not certainly, presbyters, on the one side, and the advocates of freedom, on the other, took part. Light is thrown on the character of the debate by St. Paul's account of the matter in Gal. H. 2 — 10. He did not even then bring out what he held and taught, Hi its fulness. He shrank from startling and offending the prejudices of his countrymen, and was content to argue that circumcision and the Law were not binding upon the GentUes, to press the precedent of the case of CorneUus and the analogy of the proselytes of the gate. Privately, in interviews with Peter, James, and John, he had gone further, and had declared his convictions that for Jew and GentUe alike chcumcision and the Law were hindrances, and not helps, to the spiritual hfe, and that " faith working by love " was every thing. And they, as the history of the CouncU and yet more theh Epistles show, accepted his teach ing. Of aU doctrines as to the development of the Christian Church, that which sees in Peter, James, and John the leaders of a Judaising anti-Pauline party is, perhaps, the most baseless and fantastic. The fact that theh names were unscrupulously used by that party, both in their life time and, as the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions show, after theh death, cannot outweigh theh own dehberate words and acts. Peter rose up, and said unto them. — The position of the Apostle is one of authority, but not of primacy. He does not preside, nor even propose, as we should say, a definite canon or resolution. His authority is that of personal and moral influence, that of a vir pietate gravis, but nothing more. Men and brethren. — Better, as before, Brethren only, and so again in verse 13. Ye know how that a good while ago . . .—LiteraUy, of ancient days. Ten or twelve years had passed since the conversion of CorneUus. Where Peter had been Hi the meantime, and what he had done, we have no record. We can hardly beUeve, as the Eomish theory implies, that he came from the imperial city to attend the CouncU. It wiU be noted, as has been said before (see Note on chap. xi. 20), that the Apostle speaks of this as having been the first admis sion of the Gentiles. (8) God which knoweth the 237 Peter advises THE ACTS, XV. Liberality. the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us ; (9> and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts byfaith." '""Now therefore a cb. 10. 43; 1 Oor. 1.2. why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear 1 m But we believe hearts. — We note the recurrence of the epithet as characteristic of St. Peter. (See Note on chap. i. 24.) (9) And put no difference between us and them. — It is obvious that this implies the most enthe acceptance of the teaching which St. Paul had privately com municated to the three who were as the piUars of the Church (Gal. U. 9). In Bom. x. 12 we have almost the very words of St. Peter repro duced. Purifying their hearts by faith The addition of these words is very suggestive. It was not only in the " gifts " of the Spirit, the tongues and prophecy, that the Apostle saw the witness which God had borne to the acceptance of the GentUes, but even more than this, hi the new purity growing out of a new faith in God and a new hope. Underlying the words we trace the assertion of a higher ideal of purity than that on which the Pharisees were insisting. They looked on the GentUes as impure because they did not observe the ceremonial law and the traditions of the elders as to purity. He had learnt to caU no man common or unclean (chap. x. 28), and to see that it was in the heart, and not in the flesh, that the work of purifying was to be ac complished. Comp. in connection with the thought suggested Hi the Note on verse 5, the teaching as to purity in Tit. i. 15. P°) Why tempt ye God To tempt God was to make the experi- 238 ment whether His will, manifested in the acceptance of the Gentiles, or man's wiU, resenting and resist ing it, was the stronger of the two. Nothing but defeat and condemna tion could be the issue of such a trial. To put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples. — No words of St. Paul's, in relation to the Law, could be stronger or clearer than these. They repro duced our Lord's own language as to the "heavy burdens" of the Pharisaic traditions (Matt, xxiii. 4) and His own " easy yoke " (Matt. xi. 30). They were echoed by St. Paul when he warned the Galatians not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage (Gal. v. 1). The words that f oUow, on the one hand, speak out the experience of the Apostle himself Hi terms that are hardly less striking than those of St. Paul in Eom. vii. 7, 8, though they deal with the Law in its posi tive rather than its moral aspects, and contain an implied appeal to the experience of his hearers. Was it worth while to " tempt God " by resisting His teaching Hi history in order to bring the GentUes down to the level from which they them selves, Jews as they were, were thankful to have risen ? P1) We believe that through the grace . . This comes, in what we may well regard as a sum mary of St. Peter's speech, as the closing argument. The Pharisee might regard the Law as binding, Speeches of Paul THE ACTS, XV. and Barnabas. that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. '"'Then all the multi tude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what mira cles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. (13) And after they had held theh' peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me : a4) Simeon hath declared how God at the first did but even he, if he beheved in Christ, was compeUed to confess that his hope of salvation was found in the work of Christ as the Saviour ; and if so, then, as regards that hope, Jew and GentUe were on the same level, and the judgment that men could not be saved with out the Law was but the inconsist ency of an intolerant dogmatism, insisting on imposing that which was acknowledged to be profitless. It may be noted that this is the last appearance of St. Peter Hi the Acts, which from this period turns exclusively upon the work of St. Paul. Later on we find him at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11), Babylon (1 Pet. v. 13), and Hi traditional history, ending his career at Eome. P2) And gave audience to Barnabas and Paul. — The leaders of the Church had clearly reserved theh part in the debate to the last, and the two Apostles of the GentUes were now called on to repeat more pubUcly what they had aheady narrated to the Apos tles and elders (verse 4). It was, perhaps, with a special view to the character of theh hearers that they laid stress on the " signs and won ders " which had attested God's acceptance of theh work (Matt. xH. 38; xvi. 1 ; 1 Cor. i. 22). Mhacles had been wrought among the GentUes as freely as among the Jews, and those who wrought them, unless they were casting out devUs by Beelzebub (and the Judaisers appear to have shrunk from that charge), must have been sent by God (John hi. 2 ; ix. 31—33). P3) James answered. — The position which James the brother of the Lord (see Notes on chap. xH. 17 ; and Matt. xh. 46 ; xhi. 55) occupies Hi the CouncU is clearly that of pre-eminence, justifying the title of Bishop of Jerusalem, which later writers give him. No one speaks after him ; he sums up the whole debate ; he proposes the decree which is to be submitted to the CouncU for approval. P4) Simeon hath declared . . . — The Greek form is Symeon, as in 2 Pet. i. 1. The use of the old Hebrew form of the Apostle's name, instead of the more famUiar Simon, was natural Hi the Galilean speaker, and is presumptive evi dence Hi favour of our having a report from notes made at the time. Did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people. — The two words present an emphatic contrast. The Jews claimed for themselves the exclusive right to the latter term. They alone were the " people," the rest of man kind were the "nations" — the " heathen." St. James proclaims that out of those heathen nations a Speech of THE ACTS, XV. James. visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (16)Ajid to this agree the words of the prophets ; as it is written, 06) After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle a Amos 9.11. of David, which is fallen down;" and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up : an that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom people had been taken who were as truly God's people as Israel had ever been. He, too, recognises the change as fuUy as St. Paul does, when in Bom. ix. 26 he quotes the memorable prophecy of Hosea i. 10. St. James as well as St. Peter had, it is clear, profited by the private teaching referred to in Gal. H. 2. P6) To this agree the words of the prophets. — On the mode of quoting without naming the prophet, see Note on chap. xiii. 40. P6) After this I will return. — It is a fact not without interest that the prophet from whom these words are taken (Amos ix. 11, 12) had been aheady quoted by Stephen (chap. vii. 42). Those who then listened to him had, we may beUeve, been led to turn to the writings of Amos, and to find Hi them mean ings which had hitherto been latent. The fact that the inference drawn from the passage mainly turns on a clause in which the LXX. version, which St. James quotes, differs from the Hebrew, shows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the discussion must have been con ducted Hi Greek, and not in He brew. At first this may appear strange Hi a councU held at Jerusalem, but the trial of Stephen presents a precedent (see Note on chap. vu. 1) ; and it is obvious 240 that in a debate which chiefly affected the interests of Greeks, and at which many of them, and of the Hellenistic Jews, were likely to be present, the use of that lan guage, both in the debate and the decree in which it resulted, was almost a matter of necessity. Both languages were probably equaUy famiHar to the inhabitants of Jeru salem. (See Note on chap. xxn. 2.) The quotation suggests, per haps imphes, a fuller interpreta tion than is given Hi the summary of St. James's speech. It assumes that the "tabernacle of David," which to human eyes had been lying as in ruins, was being rebuilt by Christ, the Son of David, that He was doing the work which, in the prophecy, Jehovah claimed as His. P?) That the residue of men . . . — The Hebrew gives, as Hi our version, " That they may possess the "remnant of Edom and of aU the heathen which are caUed by My name." The LXX. translators either paraphrased the passage, so as to give a wider and more general view of its teaching, or foUowed a reading in which the Hebrew for " man " (Adam) took the place of Edom. It wUl be seen that the argument of St. James turns upon the Greek rendering. The " name of God " was to be " caUed " upon by those who were " the residue of Sentence given THE ACTS, XV. by James. my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. a8) Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. a9) Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God : C20) but that we write men," i.e., aU that were outside the pale of Israel. So understood, the words became, of course, a predic tion of the conversion of the Gen tiles, and to the uncritical habits of the time, accustomed to Targums or Paraphrases of many parts of Scripture, the LXX. was for aU but the stricter and more bigoted Hebraists, as authoritative as the original. P3) Known unto God are aU his works.— The better MSS. give "aU His work" — i.e., the great work of the government and education of mankind. The words are an impHcit answer to the charge of innovation. K the work were of God, it could not be so caUed, for His mercies are everlasting, and the work which He carries on now must be thought of as contemplated and purposed from eternity. The principle has clearly a wider range than that within which St. James apphes it. We do well to remem ber, whenever we are tempted to offer an obstinate resistance to what seems to us a, novelty, and which we therefore are ready to condemn, that we ought first to inquire whether the ' ' signs of the times " do not indicate that it is part of the divhie plan, working through the ages, that the old order should change and give place to the new. P9) Wherefore my sentence is. — LiteraUy, Wherefore I judge. The tone is that of one who speaks with authority, but what foUows is not given as a decree, but as a resolution which was submitted to the judgment of the Apostles and elders. (Comp. chap. xvi. 4.) That we trouble not them. — The verb is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, and ex presses the idea of "worrying" or ' ' harassing." Are turned to God. — More accurately, are turning, as acknow ledging that the work was going on at that very moment. (20) But that we write unto them. — The grounds on which the measure thus defined was proposed are not far to seek. (1) It was of the nature of a compromise. The GentUes could not complain that the burden imposed on them was anything very grievous. The Pha risee section of the Church could not refuse admission to those who fulfiUed these conditions, when they had admitted the proselytes of the gate on Uke conditions to theh synagogues, and had so treated them as no longer unclean. (2) The rules on which stress was now laid found a place among the seven precepts traditionally ascribed to Noah, and based upon the com mands recorded in Gen. ix. 5. These were held to be binding upon aU mankind; whUe the Law, as such, was binding on Israel only. These, therefore, had been thought sufficient for the proselytes of the gate before, and were urged now as sufficient for the GentUe converts by the teacher who represented the most rigid type of Judaism. (See, 16 241 Terms of THE ACTS, XV. the Sentence unto them, that they ab-l I stain frompollutions of idols, once more, the history of Ananias and Izates in the Note on chap. ix. 10.) Special reasons attached, as wiU be seen, to each precept. Prom poUutions of idols. — The Greek of the first noun is found only in the LXX. and the New Testament; and perhaps its primary idea is that of "waUow- ing " Hi blood and mire, and so incurring poUution. As distin guished from the acts that f oUow, it indicates any participation, pub- Ucly or privately, in idolatrous rites. One who acted on the rule would have to refrain from entering a temple, and to dislodge busts or statues of the gods from his house and gardens. The presence of such things, when they presented them selves on entering a house, was a great stumbling-block to devout Jews, and the GentUe convert who, left to himseh, might have been disposed to keep them, though no longer as objects of worship, yet as works of art, was requhed to renounce them. The statues of Zeus and Artemis and Hermes were to be to him henceforth as abominations. In the decree it seh, however, we find " things sacrificed to idols" instead of the more general term, and we may accordingly deal here with that question also. So interpreted, the rule brings before ns a new phase of the Hfe of the early Christian converts. Under the reUgion of Greece and Eome, sacrifices were so common that it might fairly be taken for granted that the flesh at any festive meal had been so offered. But a smaU portion of the flesh was burnt upon the altar, and the rest was cooked for the 242 household meal, or sent to the market for sale. Such meat was, in the eyes of the strict Jews, polluted, _and the history of Daniel and his companions (Dan. i 8) was regarded as a precedent to avoiding it. Partly on this ground, partly on that referred to in the next Note but one, the Jew never bought meat Hi the market, nor of other than a Jewish butcher. He traveUed with his cophinus, or bas ket, on his back, and carried his provisions with him. So Juvenal (Sat. Hi. 14) speaks of — "JudEeis, quorum cophinus frenumque supellex " ["Basket, and wisp of straw to serve as pillow, — That's the Jew's luggage."] Here, therefore, was a new stum bling-block, and the GentUe was requhed to avoid this also. It in volved many sacrifices, and what would seem privations. The con vert had to refuse invitations to birthday, and marriage, and fune ral feasts ; or, if present, to refuse to eat at them. A man with a sen sitive conscience would refuse to partake of what was set before him Hi a private house or offered for sale in the market, unless he had satisfied himseh that it had not so been offered. It was natural that this restriction, which did not rest directly on a moral ground, should give rise to some resistance, and the controversy connected with it assumed many different phases. At Corinth men claimed the right to eat what they chose, and St. Paul conceded the right in the ab stract, but urged abstinence on the ground of charity (1 Cor. viii. — x.). At Pergamos and Thyatira, some- proposed THE ACTS, XV. by James. and from fornication, andl [from things strangled, and what later hi the apostolic age (Bev. H. 14, 20), the lawfulness of eating things sacrificed to idols was openly maintained Hi contra vention alike of the teaching of St. Paul and of the apostoUc de cree, and was joined with a Uke claim to be exempted from the law which forbade iUicit sexual inter course. At Corinth, it would seem from 1 Cor. vhi. 10, the assertion of freedom had led men so far as not only to eat of the flesh that had been sacrificed, but actuaUy to sit down to a feast in the idol's temple. (Comp. Eom. U. 22, as expressing the Jewish feeling.) And from fornication. — We are surprised at first to find, what seems to us, a moral law placed in juxtaposition with two rules which, Hke those that foUow, seem purely positive and ceremonial. We have to remember, however, (1) that the first command was moral also, and that we may fahly rocognise some thing Uke a practical, though not a formal distinction, by thinking of the first two precepts as grouped together ; (2) that the sin named, involving, as it did, the absence of any true sense of self-respecting purity or reverence for woman hood, was the wide-spread evU of the ancient world, against which Israel had from the first been called to bear its witness (Gen. xxxiv. 81; Lev. xix. 29; Deut. xxiH. 17 ; Prov. vU. 6—27). The in creasing laxity of morals through out the Eoman emphe, showing itseh in the weU-known line of Terence — 'Nihil peceati est adolesceutulum soortari," had led men to think of it as natural and permissible, bringing with it no sense of wrong or shame (comp. Horace, Sat. i. 2, 119), and it might well be that the ethical standard of the GentUe converts was not aU at once raised to a true ideal of purity. The old license may have seemed venial, and the disciples may have thought, as Christians have too often thought since, that it did not caU for any deep repentance, or exclude them from feUowship with Christ. And yet it was clear that to the Jewish Christian, trained from his child hood to condemn the sin severely, this, too, would legitimately be a very grave stumbling-block in the admission of Gentile converts. How could he feel any assurance that they might not have come from the embraces of a harlot to the Eeast of Charity or to the very Supper of the Lord ? (Comp. 1 Cor. vi. 15 ; Eev. ii. 14.) Such a state of things required to be dealt with by a special enactment. The moral command had to be re-enacted, and brought into a new prominence. The Church had to take its first step Hi purifying the morals of mankind, not only by its general teaching, but by canons and rules of discipUne. Stress has often been laid on the fact that in many cas'sa as Hi those of the Hetsrs, or har lot-priestesses, of Aphrodite at Corinth and Paphos, prostitution was hi closest alliance with idolatry, as a reason for the prohibition, and it is, of course, true that in such cases the sin assumed, Hi the eyes of Jews, an aggravated character. The man identified himseh, by his sinful indulgence, with the cultus of 243 A Mission THE ACTS, XV. to Antioch. from blood. l21j For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the syna gogues every sabbath day. (22)Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with the woman who was its avowed devotee. We can scarcely think, however, that the sin was forbid den, not on account of its own in trinsic evil, but only, or chiefly, with a view to this ulterior and in cidental consequence. Things strangled. — LiteraUy, of that which has been strangled. The prohibition rested on Gen. ix. 4, and was connected with the sym bolic meaning of the blood as re presenting Hfe, and therefore con secrated to Jehovah. It was re peated Hi the Law (Lev. Hi. 17 ; vH. 26 ; Deut. xH. 16 ; 1 Sam. xiv. 33), and has been maintained with a wonderful tenacity. For this reason, long after sacrifices have ceased, the Jew wUl stiU, if pos sible, only eat what has been killed by a butcher of his own persuasion. Meat so killed, which may be eaten without defilement, is known tech- nicaUy as Kosher. Here the moral element faUs entirely into the back ground, and the prohibition has simply the character of a concordat to avoid offence. St. Paul and St. Peter were ahke persuaded that "there is nothing unclean of it seh" (chap. x. 15 ; Eom. xiv. 14). Practically, the effect of the rule would have been to compel Chris tians to buy theh meat, poultry, &c, from a Jewish butcher or a Christian who foUowed the Jewish mode of kiUing, and in some places this must have entaUed consider able inconvenience. Promblood. —As distinguished 244 from the preceding rule, this for bade the separate use of blood, as with flour and vegetables, or Hi the black-puddings of modern cookery, as an article of food. Dishes so prepared were common in the cui sine both of Greeks and Eomans, and here also, therefore, the re striction would have involved a frequent withdrawal from social life, or a conspicuous singularity. On the history of the observance, see Note on verse 28. (21) Por Moses of old time LiteraUy, of ancient generations. The conjunction gives the reason for writing to the Gentiles, and giving them these injunctions. The Jews, who heard the Law Hi theh synagogues every Sabbath, did not need instruction. It might be taken for granted that they would adhere to the rules now specified. So, in verse 23, the encycHcal letter is addressed exclusively to "the brethren of the GentUes." (22) iphe apostles and elders, with the whole church. — The latter words are important, as show ing the position occupied by the laity. If they concurred in the letter, it must have been submitted to their approval, and the right to approve involves the power to reject and, probably, to modify. It is probable enough, as in the analo gous constitution of Greek repubUcs above referred to (see Note on verse 4), that the Ecclesia, or popular assembly, did not possess the power of initiating measures; but their Letter from THE ACTS, XV. the Council. Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren : (23) and they wrote letters by them after this manner ; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and right to vote appears, from this instance, to have been indisputable. (See, however, Note on the next verse.) It does not foUow, of course, that what was thus the poHty of the apostolic age was necessarily adapted for the Church of aU subsequent ages ; but the exclusion of the laity from, aU share Hi Church synods, though it may be defended as a safeguard against the violence of a barbarous or faithless age, must, at any rate, be admitted to be at variance with primitive and apostoUc practice. To send chosen men. — Lite raUy, the participle being active in meaning, to choose and send men. ThiB was obviously necessary, to guard against suspicion. Had Paul and Barnabas alone been the bearers of such a letter, it might have been said that they had forged it. Judas surnamed Barsabas. — The same patronymic meets us, it wiU be remembered, in chap. i. 23, as belonging to " Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus." It is a natural inference that the two were brothers, and therefore that the disciple now mentioned had been among those who were personaUy foUowers of our Lord. This would naturaUy clothe him with a high authority. The fact that he is spoken of Hi verse 32 as a prophet, makes it probable that he was of the number of the Seventy. (See Luke x. 1.) Silas. — This may have been either a contracted form of Sil- vanus, as Antipas was of Antipatros, or an Aramaic name, for which SUvanus was adopted as the nearest Greek equivalent. It is probable that he, too, fulfiUed the same conditions as his companion. He also was a prophet (verse 32). His later history wUl be noticed as it comes before us. As the name is connected with the Hebrew for " three," he has by some been iden tified with the Tertius of Eom. xvi. 22 ; but it is hardly probable that one who had been known at Corinth as SUvanus (2 Cor. i. 19), should afterwards have changed his name. Chief men among the brethren. — The title thus given is the same as " those that bear rule over you," Hi Heb. xui 17, and impUes that they had a position of greater authority than the other elders, as at least primi inter pares. This also f aUs in with the view that they had been disciples of Christ, who, as the number of witnesses diminished, came more and more into prominence. P3) And they wrote letters by them. — Literally, wrote letters by their hands. What foUows, unless we assume a deUberate fraud, is clearly the transcript of a document — the first in the long Ust of decrees and canons and en- cycUcal letters which mark the Church's history. The apostles and elders and brethren. — The MSS. present a singular variation of readings, some of the earhest omitting the The Letter THE ACTS, XV. to Antioch. Syria and Cilicia : m For asmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, andkeepthe law : to whom we gave no conjunction and article before the last noun, and giving "the Apostles and elders, brethren." Such a mode of speech, however, is foreign to the usage of the New Testament, and it is probable that this reading originated in a desire to bring the text into harmony with the later practice of the Church, which ex cluded the laity from aU participa tion in its synods. (See Note on verse 22.) Send greeting. — LiteraUy, wish joy. The formula was common in Greek epistles, but is not used in the New Testament, except here and in Jas. i. 1. As it is reasonable to suppose that this letter was written or dictated by him, its occurrence is primd facie evidence of the authorship of the Epistle that bears his name, and which, on the view taken in these Notes, had been already written to the Church of the Circumcision. Unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles. — The letter was therefore addressed to them exclusively (see Note on verse 20), as the Epistle of St. James had probably been previously addressed to the Jews of the " dispersion," and not to the Gentiles. In Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. — The mention of the latter country is important, as showing the extent of St. Paul's work there prior to his joining Barnabas at Antioch (chap. xi. 25). There also he had founded churches in which GentUe converts were admitted as such to full communion. I24) Certain which went out from us. — The reference is ob viously to the teachers (their names are wisely and charitably sup pressed) who had appeared at Antioch, as in verse 1. St. John, who was present at the CouncU (Gal. ii. 9), and who, though he took no part in the debate, may weU have had a share in drawing up the letter, uses a like mode of speech, " They went out from us, but they were not of us " (1 John ii. 19). Subverting your souls. — The Greek verb, Hterally, turning upside down, impUes throwing into a state of excitement and agitation. The Gentiles had been " unsettled" by the teaching of the Judaisers. And keep the law As suming the Epistle of St. James to have been already written, there is something almost like a touch of irony in his repeating the phrase of Jas. ii. 10. The teachers who bade the GentUes keep the Law were reminded Hi that Epistle that they, in theh servile respect of persons, were breaking the Law deHberately in one point, and were therefore guUty of aU. Putting the two passages together, they bring St. James before us as speak ing in the very accents of St. Paul, " Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyseh ? " (Rom. ii. 21). To whom we gave no such commandment. — The word " such " is a needless interpolation. What St; James declares is that 246 Tlie Band of THE ACTS, XV chosen Men. such commandment : <25) it seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Bar nabas and Paul,C26> men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. m We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. C28) For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these neces- the teachers had had no commission of any kind from him. The pas sage is important as throwing Hght on the nature of a later claim set up by the same party (Gal. U. 12). P5) Being assembled with one accord. — LiteraUy, being of one mind, unanimously. To send chosen men unto you. — LiteraUy, to choose men and send them unto you. The men, are, of course, Barsabas and Silas. With our beloved Barna bas and Paul — The order in which the names stand is, perhaps, characteristic of the Church of Jerusalem, to whom Barnabas was stUl the more conspicuous teacher of the two. The way in which the two are named may be taken as illustrating St. Paul's statement that the "pillars" of the Church of Jerusalem gave to him and Barnabas the " right hand of feUowship " (Gal. H. 9). f26) Men that have hazarded their lives. — It is clear from this that the narrative of the hairbreadth escapes at the Pisidian Antioch (chap. xiii. 50) and Lystra (chap. xiv. 19) must have been laid before the Church Prominence is given to the fact as Hkely to secure reverence for those whom many had hitherto regarded with distrust. I28) It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us The measure was, the Apostles were persuaded, one of wisdom and charity, and they could not ascribe those gifts to any other source than the Spirit who gives a right judg ment in aU things. The words have since become almost a formula for the decrees of councils and synods, often used most recklessly when those decrees bore most clearly the marks of human pohcy and passion. Here we may weU admit that the claim was founded on a real inspiration, remembering, however, as we do so, that an insphed commandment does not necessarily involve a permanent obligation. (See Note on next verse.) To lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. — The words throw Hght upon the message addressed to the Church of Thyatira, "I wiU put upon you no other burden" (Rev. ii. 24). Looking to the prominence, in the Epistles to the Seven Churches, of the two points of fornication and eating things sacri ficed to idols, there can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt that we have in those words a distinct reference to the decree of the Council of Jerusalem. The letter does not say why these things were neces sary, and the term was probably chosen as covering alike the views 217 The Rule THE ACTS, XV. of Abstinence. sary things ; (29) that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled and from fornication : from which if ye keep yourselves, of those who held, Hke the Pharisee Christians, that they were binding on the Church for ever, and those who, like St. Paul, held that they were necessary only for the time, and as a measure of wise expe diency. (29) Prom meats offered to idols. — The specific term takes 'the place of the more general word which St. James had used. The change, if the two words were not used, as is possible, as altogether equivalent, may be thought of as favouring the GentUes by narrow ing the prohibition to a single point. Pare ye weU The closing salutation was, like the opening, a Greek and not a Hebrew one. It meets us again Hi chap, xxiii. 30. Both were naturaUy used in a letter addressed to Greeks, and intended to be read by them and by HeUen- istic Jews. It does not occur, how ever, in any of the Epistles of the New Testament. It is natural to ask, at the close of the great encycHcal letter, in what relation it reaUy stood to the Hfe of the Apostolic Church. As a concordat between the contending parties it was framed, as has been said, with a sagacity that may weU be looked on as inspired. But obviously it was not, and from the nature of the case could not be, more than that. The time had not come for proclaiming to the Church of Jerusalem the fuU width of St. Paul's teaching (Gal. ii. 2), and ac cordingly, though something may be read between the lines, the 248 decree seems to treat the precepts of Noah as perpetuaUy binding, places moral and positive obliga tions on the same footing, and leaves the ground on which they are " necessary" an open question. St. Paul, who had accepted it as a satisfactory settlement of the matter in debate, never refers to it, even when he is discussing the chief point with which the decree dealt (1 Cor. vni. — x.), and hi his narrative of what passed on this occasion (Gal. U. 1 — 10) there is no mention of it. The private conference with the three great " pillars" of the Church was for him more than the decree of the synod, and he felt himseh able to discuss the whole question again on different grounds, and with a more distinct reference to sphitual and ethical principles. It was wrong to eat things sacrificed to idols, not because the act of so eating in itseh brought defilement, but because it might involve a par ticipation in the sin of idolatry in the consciousness of the eater, or wound the conscience of the weaker brother who saw him eat. It was natural that those who lacked his largeness of view should become slaves to the letter of the rules long after the grounds on which they rested had ceased to exist, and so we find that the prohibition of blood was re-enforced in the so- called Apostolic Canons (c. 62), and in the fourth century by the Council of Gangra (e. 2), and in the seventh by that at Constantinople, known as in Trullo (c. 67), ana continues to be the binding rule of the Greek The Letter read THE ACTS, XV. at Antioch. ye shall do well. Fare ye well. ise> So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch : and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered 1 Or. ex hortation. the epistle: m which when they had read, they re joiced for the consola tion.1 (S2) And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the Church stiU. In Africa and in Europe, however, truer views pre- vaUed (August, eont. Faust, xxxii. 13), and not even the most devout believer hi the inspiration of the Apostles, or in the authority of primitive antiquity, would venture to urge that the two middle precepts of the four here enjoined were in any degree binding. Hooker (Eccl. Pol. iv., xi., § 5) rightly refers to this decree as a crucial instance proving that commands might be divine and yet given only for a sea son, binding as long as the condi tions to which they apphed con tinued, but no longer. It would almost seem, indeed, as if St. Paul felt that the terms of the decree had the effect of placing the sin of impurity on the same level with that of eating things sacrificed to idols, and things strangled, and blood, and so tended to keep men from seeing it Hi its true hateful- ness. Those who claimed a right, which in the abstract St. Paul could not deny, to eat of things strangled or offered to idols, thought them selves free to faU back into the old Hcense of the heathen world, and he needed far stronger motives than the canons of the council to restrain them (1 Cor. v. 9, 10 ; vi. 15—20), and found those motives in the truths that they had been bought with a price, that the wiU of God was their sanctification, and that theh bodies were His temple. (30) When they were dis missed, they came to An tioch. — It is natural, Hi the absence of anything to the con trary, to infer that they returned, as they had come, through Samaria and Phoenicia, and gladdened the hearts of the disciples there by telhng them of the triumph which had been won at Jerusalem for the cause of freedom. They delivered the epistle. — We can picture to ourselves the eager excitement of that moment, the listening crowds, the letter, which as a formal missive would be sealed and tied round with thread, solemnly opened and read out aloud, mortification and mur murs on the one side, clamorous applause on the other, as each sentence repudiated the claims of the Judaisers and confirmed the principles and the work of St. Paul and Barnabas. To the GentUe converts it was, indeed — ¦ won, as it had been, after a hard battle — as the Great Charter of their freedom. (3i) They rejoiced for the consolation. — We ought not to forget that the letter was probably read out by one who was himself emphaticaUy " the son of consola tion" (chap. iv. 36) Hi aU the manifold aspects of that word, and who now proved himseh worthy of the name. (32) Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves. — See Note on verse 22. Paul stays THE ACTS, XV. at Antioch. brethren with many words, and confirmed them. (33) And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles. (34) Notwithstand ing it pleased Silas to abide there still. C35) Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. C36) And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas,- Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and Exhorted. — The verb is that from which the Greek for " con solation " was formed, and includes that meaning here. This was the chief end to which the gift of prophecy was directed. The two teachers thus showed that they had not come only as formal repre sentatives of the Church in Jeru salem, but took a personal interest Hi the work. Theh work was the very reverse of those who had pre viously come from Judaea " sub verting the souls of the disciples " (verse 24). (33) Unto the apostles.— The better MSS. have simply, " to those that had sent them," and omit verse 34, which was probably added by a later copyist to ex plain the fact mentioned hi verse 40. (35) preaching the word of the Lord. — Here, as often else where, preaching the glad tidings of the word. With many others. — Among these we may fairly reckon the prophets of chap. xiU. 1. Looking to the later history of the Church of Antioch, it is not improbable that we may think also of the martyr Ignatius, and Euodius, afterwards Bishop of Antioch, as among those who were thus active, though they were not prominent enough, when St. Luke wrote, to be speciaUy named. Ignatius was said to have been, together with Polycarp, a disciple of St. John (Mart. Ignat. c. 3), whUe another tradition represents him as a fol lower of Peter. It is possible that the dispute between St. Peter and St. Paul, referred to in Gal H. 1 1 — 13, occurred during this period, but the evidence on the whole tends to connect it with St. Paul's visit to Antioch in chap. xviH. 22, where see Note. (36) And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas. — The commonly received chronology of the Acts makes the interval be tween the CouncU of Jerusalem and St. Paul's second missionary journey somewhat more than a year. Let us go again. — The pro posal was characteristic of one whose heart was ever fuU of " the care of aU the churches" (2 Cor. xi. 28), ever making mention of them in his prayers night and day (Rom. i. 9 ; Eph. i. 16 ; PhU. i. 3). We may well believe that it was a deshe to know, not only the general condition of the churches, but the sphitual growth of each individual member. 250 Dissension THE ACTS, XV. with Barnabas. see how they do. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work (S9)And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other : and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus ; H0)and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recom mended by the brethren P7) Barnabas determined. — The Greek verb is hardly so strong, better, was minded. The ties of relationship led the uncle, or cousin, to wish to make another trial of his kinsman's fitness (Col. iv. 10). He saw extenuating cir cumstances which St. Paul could not recognise, and which half- excused his turning back when he had set his hand to the plough. (See Note on chap. xHi. 13.) To St. Paul one who had so acted, seemed, in our Lord's words, " not fit for the kingdom of God," and needing at least the discipline of rejection for a time, from the higher work for which he had shown himself unworthy. ps) And the contention was so sharp between them, that . . . . — LiteraUy, there was a sharp contention (or paroxysm), so that .... The warmth of previous affection, of a friendship begun probably in boyhood, and cemented by new hopes, and a great work Hi which both were sharers, made the breach between the two more painful. At this stage both Bar nabas and Mark disappear from the history of the Acts, but it will be worth while to note the chief facts in the after-history of each. (1) Probably Barnabas and Paul met again in the visit of chap. xvhi. 22, unless, indeed, we refer the incidents of Gal. ii. 11 — 13 to an earher period, and then there was a yet further cause of division Hi his yielding to the dissimulation of the Judaising teachers. (2) In writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor. ix. 6) the Apostle names Barnabas as setting the same noble example as himseh in labouring with his own hands and accepting nothing from the churches. (3) On the later Hfe of Mark see the Intro duction to St. Mark's Gospel. Here it wUl be sufficient to note that the discipline did its work. After labouring with his cousin hi Cy prus, he appears to have returned to St. Peter, as his first father in the faith, and to have been with him at Babylon (1 Pet. v. 13). He and St. Paul met during the lat- ter's first imprisonment at Eome (Col. iv. 10; Philem. verse 24), and the Apostle learnt to recognise in him one who was " profitable to him for the ministry " (2 Tim. iv. 11), and whom he wished to have with him at the last. (4°) Paul chose Silas.— It is clear from this, even if we reject verse 34 as an interpolation, that Silas had remained when the other delegates from the Church of Jeru salem went back. This in itself was a proof of his interest in the 251 Paul sets out THE ACTS, XVI. with Silas. unto the grace of God. (41)And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirm ing the churches. CHAPTER XVI. — 01 Then came he to Derbe a Rom. 16. 21. and Lystra : and, behold, a certain disciple was there. named Timotheus, * the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek : 08 which was well reported mission-work among the Gentiles, and no one, perhaps, could be found so weU fitted to fiU the place of Barnabas. He too had the gift of prophetic utterance, and, as we have seen (Npte on verse 22), was probably able to speak as one who had foUowed the Lord Jesus, and could bear witness of the Eesur rection. Being recommended by the brethren. — See Note on chap. xiv. 26. This obviously HnpHed a fuU gathering of the Church and a special service of prayer on the departure of the two Apostles. Silas, as thus sent forth by the Church, might now claim that title no less than Barnabas. («) He went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. — CiHcia, it wiU be re membered, had not been visited on St. Paul's first journey with Barnabas, and the churches must accordingly have been founded at some earlier period, probably during St. Paul's residence at Tarsus be fore he came to Antioch (chaps, ix. 30 ; xi. 25). Confirming is, it need hardly be said, used Hi the general sense of ' ' strengthening," but as the bestowal ,of sphitual gifts by the laying-on of hands was a chief part of the work so done, it, at least, approximates to the idea of " confirming " Hi the later and more technical sense of the term. XVI. f1) A certain disciple was there, named Timotheus. — We read with a special interest the first mention of the name of one who was afterwards so dear to the Apostle, his " true son in the faith " (1 Tim. i. 2). On his pro bable conversion on St. Paul's first mission in Lystra, see Notes on chap. xiv. 6, 19. We have to think of him as stiU young; pro bably, as his youth is spoken of some twelve years later in 1 Tim. iv. 12, not more than eighteen or twenty ; but Hi the six years that had passed Bince St. Paul's de parture he had been conspicuous for his devotion and "unfeigned faith." He had been trained to know the sacred Books of Israel from his chUdhood (2 Tim. Hi. 15) ; and the fact that he had obtained a good report from the brethren at Iconium as well as Lystra shows that he had been already employed in carrying on intercourse between the two ' churches. The way Hi which St. Paul writes to him, and of him, implies a constitution natu raUy not strong, and, in after Hfe, weakened by a rigorous asceticism (ITim.v. 23), emotionalevento tears (2 Tim. i. 4), naturaUy shrinking from hardships and responsibiUties, He meets THE ACTS, XVI. Timothy. of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Ico nium. ® Him would Paul have to go forth with him ; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which where in those quarters : for they knew yet facing them in the strength of Christ (1 Cor. xvi. 10). The name Timotheus was not uncommon. It is found Hi 2 Mace. xii. 21 — 24, as belonging to a general defeated by Judas Maccabeus, and appears Hi early Christian inscriptions in the Vatican Museum. Its meaning ("one who honours God") made it a suitable name for the child of a proselyte. The son of a certain woman. — LiteraUy, of a certain woman, a faithful (or believing) Jewess. The adjective is the same as that used by Lydia of herself in verse 15. 2 Tim. i. 4, tells ns that her name was Eunike, and her mother's Lois. They were both devout, and had trained the chUd in the Law (2 Tim. Hi. 16) ; and this makes it probable that the father was a proselyte of the gate. He naturaUy thought it sufficient that his- chUd should grow up under the same religious conditions as himseh, and they had either thought so, or had yielded to his wiU. His father -was a Greek. — LiteraUy, of a Greek father. The adjective is used, as in the New Testament generally, to express the fact that he was a heathen. (See Notes on chap. xi. 20; Mark vH. 26.) It seems, on the whole, pro bable that he was stiU hving. I3) And took and circum cised him. — The act seems at first inconsistent with St. Paul's conduct as to Titus (Gal. ii. 3), and with his general teaching as to circumcision (Gal. v. 2 — 6). The circumstances of the two cases were, however, different, and there were adequate reasons here for the course which he adopted. (1) The act was spontaneous, and men may rightly concede as a favour, or as a matter of expediency, what they would be justified in resisting when demanded as a matter of necessity. (2) Titus was a Greek, pure and simple (Gal. H. 3) ; but the mixed parentage of Timotheus, according to the received canons of Jewish law, made him inherit from the nobler side, and he was therefore by birth in the same position as an Israelite. (3) By not urging cir cumcision prior to baptism, or to his admission to that " breaking of bread" which was then, as after wards, the witness of a fuU com munion with Christ, the Apostle had shown that he did not look on it as essential to admission into the Christian Church, or continued feUowship with it, and in what he now did he was simply acting on his avowed principle of becoming to the Jews as a Jew (see Note on chap, xviii. 18 ; 1 Cor. ix. 20), and guarding against the difficulties which he would have encountered from those whom he sought to win to Christ, had they seen, as one of the travelling company, an Israelite who was ashamed of the seal of the covenant of Abraham. The ac ceptance of that seal by one who had grown up to manhood without it may be noted as showing that the disciple had imbibed the spirit 253 Journey THE ACTS, XVI. in Phrygia. all that his father was a Greek (4) And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem." <5) And so were the churches estab lished in the faith, and increased in number daily. (6) Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, of his Master. It seems probable, from the youth of Timotheus, that at this period he took the place which had been before fiUed by Mark, and acted chiefly as an attendant, the " work of an evan- geUst " coming later (2 Tim. iv. 5). (4) They delivered them the decrees. — The number of copies which the process impUes is in it self a sufficient guarantee that that which St. Luke gives is a faithful transcript. The decrees were clearly stiU regarded by the Gentile con verts as being the charter on which they might take their stand in any dispute with the Judaisers, and doubtless helped to determine many who had previously hesitated, to seek admission into the Church. (6) When they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia. — In the pre vious journey St. Paul, when he was at Antioch in Pisidia, was just on the border of the two provinces, but had not traveUed through them, Phrygia lying to the west, and Galatia to the north-east. The former name was used with an ethnological rather than a poUtical significance, and did not at this period designate a Roman pro vince. It does not possess any special points of interest in connec tion with St. Paul's work, except as including the churches of the vaUey of the Lycus, Colossae, Lao dicea, and Thyatira, but the latter was the scene of some of his most important labours. The province, named after the GalataB, or Gauls, who had poured over Greece and Asia Minor in the third century b.c, as they had done over Italy in the fourth, and to whom it had been assigned by Attalus I., King of Pergamus, had been conquered by the Eomans under ManHus (the name appearing a second time Hi connection with a victory over the GaUic races) Hi b.c 189 ; and under Augustus it had been constituted as a Roman province. The inhabitants spoke a Keltic dialect, Uke that which the people of the same race spoke in the fourth century after Christ, on the banks of the MoseUe, and retained aU the distinctive quickness of emotion and UabiHty to sudden change which charac terised the Keltic temperament. They had adopted the rehgion of the Phrygians, who had previously inhabited the region, and that re- Ugion consisted mainly in a wild orgiastic worship of the great Earth-goddess Cybele, in whose temples were found the Eunuch- priests, who thus consecrated them selves to her service. (See Gal. v. 12.) The chief seat of this worship was at Pessinus. The incidental reference to this journey in Gal. iv. 13—15, enables us to fiU up St. Luke's outline. St. Paul seems to 254 Work in Asia THE ACTS, XVI. and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, m after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go intoBithynia : but the Spirit suffered have been detained in Galatia by severe illness, probably by one of the attacks of acute pain hi the nerves of the eye in which many writers have seen an explanation of the mysterious " thorn in the flesh" of 2 Cor. xh. 7, which led to his giving a longer time to his mis sionary work there than he had at first intended. In this illness the Galatians had shown themselves singularly devoted to him. They had received him "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." They had not shrunk from what would seem to have been repulsive in the malady from which he suffered ; they would have " plucked out theh own eyes," had it been possible, and given them to replace those which were to him the cause of so much Buffering. Then they thought it theh highest "blessedness" to have had such a one among them. Pf the memory of that reception made his sorrow all the more bitter when, in after years, they feU away from theh first love, it must at the time have been among the most cheering seasons of the Apostle's hfe. Were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. — It is obviously imphed in this that theh own plans would have led them to turn theh steps to the region from which they were thus turned. The pro- consular province of Asia, with its teeming cities, hke Ephesus, Smyrna, and Sardis, its large Jewish population, its great centres of idolatrous worship, was naturaUy attractive to one who was seeking with aU 255 his energy a rapid expansion of the kingdom of his Lord. But in ways which we are not told, by inner promptings, or by visions of the night, or by the inspired utterances of those among their converts who had received the gift of prophecy, as afterwards in chap. xxi. 4, they were led on, step by step, towards the north-western coast, not seeing theh way clearly as yet to the next stage of theh labours. Theh route through the " Galatian region" (the phrase, perhaps, in dicates a wider range of country than the Eoman province of that name) must have taken them through Pessinus, the great centre of the worship of Cybele, and Ancyra, famous for its goat's-hair manufactures, and for the great historical marble tablets which Augustus had erected there. CT They assayed to go into Bithynia. — The verse describes very vividly the uncertainty pro duced day by day by this conflict between human plans and divine direction. Bithynia, lying to the north, had, Uke Pontus, a consider able Jewish population scattered along its shores, and they were in clined to take that as their next field of labour. They were led on, however, as before, westward and not northward. There is no record of any considerable halt in this stage of their journey, and they probably found few favourable openings in a district which, for great part of the way, presented only unimportant villages. The use of the archaic form " assayed " The Vision THE ACTS, XVI. at Troas. them not. (8) And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. t9) And a vision appeared to Paul in the night ; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. ao) And after he had seen the vision, imme diately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia for " essayed," or " attempted," caUB for a word of notice. (Comp. chap. ix. 26.) The Spirit suffered them not The better MSS. and ver sions give the reading, " the Spirit of Jesus," which is of some dog matic importance, as confirming the doctrine that the Sphit stands Hi the same relation to the Son as to the Pather, and may therefore be spoken of either as the Sphit of God, or of Christ (Rom. viii. 9), or of Jesus. (8) Came down to Troas. — Their travels had at last led them to the coast, and they looked out upon the watera of the iEgean. The town of Alexandria Troas, at this time reckoned as a Roman colony and a free city, recaUs to our memories, without entering into vexed questions as to its identity with the site of the older Troy, the great poem which teUs us the tale of IUum. To St. Paul that poem was probably unknown, and had it been otherwise, the associations connected with it would have had no charms for him. The question which must have occupied all his thoughts was, where he was next to proclaim the glad tidings of the Christ, and of forgiveness and peace through Him. That question, we may weU believe, expressed itseh in prayer, and to that prayer the vision of the next verse was an answer. (9) There stood a man of 256 Macedonia. — The term is pro bably used in its later sense as appUed to the Roman province, which included Macedonia, properly so caUed, IUyricum, Epirus, and Thessaly, the province of Achaia including, in like manner, the whole of Southern Greece. The vision which St. Paul looked on explained to him aU the varied promptings and drawings-back of his journey. This was the door that was to be opened to him. The faith of Christ was to pass from Asia to Europe, and the cry, " Come over and help us," was to him as a cah from the whole Western world. In view of this, he did not now tarry to preach at Troas. Probably, indeed, as the next verse impUes, that work had been aheady done. (10) Immediately we endea voured . . . — The natural mfer ence from the sudden appearance of the first person Hi a narrative previously in the third, is that the author became at this point an actor in the events which he records. (See Introduction to St. Luke's Gospel.) The other hypothesis, that he incorporates a narrative written by Silas or Timotheus, is not probable in itseh, and would naturaUy have involved an earlier change in the form of the narrative. Accepting the received view, it seems to foUow, as there is no mention of the conversion of the EvangeHst, that St. Paul and St. Luke must have been aheady known They hose THE ACTS, XVI. from Troas. assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. ao Therefore loos ing from Troas, we came with a straight course to to each other, probably either at Tarsus or Antioch, the fulness with which the history of the latter Church is given pointing to it as the scene of theh previous intimacy. On this assumption, the narrator must have left Antioch after the CouncU of Jerusalem, probably after the dispute between Paul and Barnabas, and traveUed through the interior of Asia Minor, in part, perhaps, in the track of St. Paul's earlier journey; and so gathered materials for his history tUl he came to Troas, and there carried on his work as an evangeUst. The manner in which St. Luke intro duces himseh (" the Lord had called us ") implies, it may be noted, that he too was a preacher of the gospel. There is no record here of any mission- work done by St. Paul; but the language in 2 Cor. H. 12, and, yet more, the facts of chap. xx. 6, imply the existence of a Christian community. We may look, accordingly, on St. Luke as the founder of the Church of Troas, and place this among the " labours in the gospel" to which St. Paul refers in 2 Cor. viu. 18. The "we endeavoured " (literaUy, we sought) impUes an immediate inquiry as to what ship was sailing, bound for any port of Macedonia. Such a call as that which had been given in the vision admitted of no delay. It came from the Lord Jesus, as the sequel of that given Hi the vision Hi the Temple (chap." xxH. 17 — 21), and was, therefore, to be obeyed at once. P1) We cams with a straight course to Samothracia. — Their course lay to the north-west, and, probably, after the manner of the navigation of the time, they put into harbour each night; and the historian, with his characteristic love of geographical detah notes the main facts of the voyage. The " straight course " impUes that they had the wind Hi theh favour. The current, which sets to the south after leaving the HeUespont, and to the east between Samothrace and the mainland, would, of course, be against them. In chap. xx. 6, the voyage from Philippi to Troas takes five days. The name of Samothrace points, probably, to its having been a colony from Samosi In early Greek history it had been, one of the chief seats of the worship of the Pelasgic race,- and, besides the mysteries of Demeter and Perse phone, which it had in common. with the rest of Greece, was cele brated for the local cultus of the Cabiri, a name of uncertain origin, and appUed to the twelve great The next day to Neapolis. The name (=new town) was naturaUy common wherever Greek was spoken. It survives in two conspicuous instances — in Naples, and hi Nablous as the modern name of Sychem. The town now before us was in Thrace, about twelve mUes from PhUippi, which was the frontier town of Macedonia. It has been identified, on adequate grounds, with the modern Kavalla, where a Eoman aqueduct, columns, and Greek and Latin inscriptions 17 257 They arrive THE ACTS, XVI. at Philippi, Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; (12) and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief1 city of that part of Macedonia, and 1 Or, the first. a colony : and we were in that city abiding certain days. (13) And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, remain to attest the former impor tance of the city. Ten or twelve miles to the west are the traces of another harbour at Eski Kavalla, which was probably the PalaeopoUs (= old town) that had been super seded by the new port. P2> The chief city of that part of Macedonia. — More ac curately, a chief (or first) city of the border-country of Macedonia. The description is not without difficulty, and has been noted by adverse critics as an instance of St. Luke's inaccuracy. The city of PhiHppi, rebuUt by the father of Alexander the Great, and bearing his name in heu of Krenides (= the fountains), was situated on the Gangites, a tributary of the Stry mon ; but it was not the chief city of any one of the four sub-divi sions of the Roman province of Macedonia, that rank beingassigned to AmphipoUs, Thessalonica, PeUa, and Pelagonia. As there is no definite article in the Greek, it is possible that St. Luke simply meant to say it was a chief town of the district, the epithet Prbte (= first) being often found on the coins of cities which were not capitals. The more probable explanation, however, is that he uses the Greek word translated "part," in the sense of "border-land," as in the LXX. of Ezek. xxxv. 7 ; Euth Hi. ¦7, and that it was the first city of that frontier district, either as the most important, or as being the first to which they came in the route by which they traveUed. This was precisely the position of PhiHppi, which, together with PeUa and other towns, had been garrisoned by the Eomans as outposts against the neighbouring tribes of Thrace. It had been established as a colony by Augustus after the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, and its fuU title, as seen on the coins of the city, was Colonia Augusta JuUa Philippensis. A colony. — The EngUsh reader needs to be reminded that a Eoman colonia differed from the modern in being essentially a miUtary position. Portions of the conquered territory were commonly assigned to veteran soldiers, and the settlement thus formed was considered poUticaUy as an integral part of Eome, aU decrees of the emperor or senate being as binding there as Hi the capital itseh. The colonies thus formed were as the " propugnacula imperii" (Cic. de leg.Agrar. c. 27), " popuH Eomani quasi effigies parvae simulacraque " (Aul. GeU. xvi. 13). Here, then, in the first European city to which St. Paul came, there was something Uke an earnest of his future victories. Himself a Roman citizen, he was brought into direct contact with Romans. (See Note on verse 21.) P3) By a river side, where prayer was wont to be made. — Better, where an oratory (i.e., a place of prayer) was established. The word, which was the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew " house 258 The Oratory THE ACTS, XVI. by the River. where prayer was wont to be made ; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thitlcer. (14> And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thya tira, which worshipped God, heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she at tended unto the things Of prayer" (Matt. xxi. 13), is used in this sense by Josephus (Vit. p. 54), (see Luke vi. 12), and was current among the Jews at Eome. Where they had no synagogue, and Hi a military station Hke Phi lippi there'was not Hkely to be One, the Jews frequented the river- banks, which made ablutions easy, and often succeeded Hi getting a piece of ground assigned for that purpose outside the walls of the city. Juvenal (Sat. Hi. 11 — 13) notes this as one of the instances of the decay of the old faith of Rome : " The groves and streams which once were sacred ground Are now let out to Jews." The local meaning is seen in another line from the same writer (Sal. hi. ,296) : " Ede, ubi eonsistas, in qua te quaero proseucha ? " ["Sky where thou dwell'st, and in what place of prayer I am to seek thee ? "] The oratories, or proseucha, thus formed, were commonly circular, and without a roof. The practice continued in the time of TertuUian, who speaks of the " orationes litorales " of the Jews (ad. Nat. i. 13). The river, in this instance, Was the Gangites. Finding no synagogue hi the city, and hearing of the oratory, the company of preachers went out to it to take theh part in the Sabbath Bervices, 259 and to preach Christ to any Jews they might find there. We sat down, and spake unto the -women. — The fact that there were only women shows the almost enthe absence of a Jewish population. Possibly, too, the decree of Claudius, expelUng the Jews from Rome (chap, xviii. 2), was enforced, as stated above, in the colonia, which was as a part of Rome, and as Jewesses would not be Hkely to have settled there without theh husbands or brothers, it is probable that the women whom St. Paul found assembled were, Hke Lydia, proselytes who deshed to remain faithful to theh new faith, even Hi the absence of any settled provision for theh instruction. Women thus placed would natu raUy welcome the presence of strangers who, probably, wore the garb of a Rabbi, and who showed when they sat down (see Note on chap. xni. 14) that they were about to preach. We note that here also the narrator speaks of himseh as teaching. (See Note on verse 10.) P4) Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira.— The city so named, now known as Ak- hissar, was in the Eoman province of Asia, but came within the boundaries of the older kingdom of Lydia, and it is probable that, like so many slaves and women of the libertins class, she took her name from her country. Afra, Graeca Syra, are familiar examples of liko Lydia, the Seller THE ACTS, XVI. which were spoken of Paul. C16) And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful names. " Lydia " occurs, it wUl be remembered, once and again, in Horace (Od.i. 14; Hi. 9). Thyatira, one of the cities in the vaUey of the Lycus, was, Uke many other towns of Asia Minor, famous for its dy eing works, especiaUy for purple, or crimson, which rivalled the fame of Tyre or MUetus (Strabo, xUi. i, § 14). Inscriptions found on the spot bear witness to the existence of a guild, or corporation, of purple-seUers, with which Lydia doubtless was connected. In Bev. i. 11, H. 18, it appears as one of the seven churches to which special epistles were to be sent from their divine Head. It had been founded as a colony, in the modern sense of the term, from Macedonia, as the sequel of the conquest of the Persian monarchy by Alexander the Great, and this may in part explain Lydia's presence at Phi lippi The fact that she, and not her husband, is named as the purple - seller, is at least pre sumptive evidence that she was carrying on the business by her self. Which worshipped God. — She was, i.e., a proselyte (see Note on chap. xiH. 10), and, as the sequel shows, one of the better type drawn to Judaism, not by superstitious fear, or weak credulity, but by the higher ethical and spiritual teach ing which it presented. Heard. — For " heard " read was Whose heart the Lord opened. — The scene is one which might weU call for the master touches of a great painter. The river flowing calmly by, the preacher sitting and talking fami liarly, but earnestly, to the groups of women, one, at least, among them listening with looks and tears that told of deep emotions, and the consciousness of a new hfe. That she attended. — Better, to give heed to, as in chap. viii. 6, and elsewhere. P5) And when she was bap tized, and her household.— It does not foUow from St. Luke's condensed narrative that aU this took place on the same day. The statement that " her household " were baptised has often been urged as evidence that infant baptism was the practice of the apostolic age. It must be admitted, however, that thiB is to read a great deal between the lines, and the utmost that can be said is that the language of the writer does not exclude infants. The practice itseh rests on firmer grounds than a precarious induction from a few ambiguous passages. (See Matt. xix. 13—15.) In this instance, moreover, there is no evi dence that she had chUdren, or even that she was married. The " house hold " may weU have consisted of female slaves and freed -women whom she employed, and who made up her familia. It foUows, almost as a necessary inf erence, that many of these also were previously pro selytes. For such as these, Judaism had been a " schoolmaster," leading them to Christ. (See Gal. U. 24.) We may think of Euodia and Syntyche, and the other women Paul abides THE ACTS, XVI. at her House. to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. ae) And it came to pass, 1 Or. of Python as we went to prayer, a Certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination1 met us, which brought her who "laboured in the gospel" (PhU. iv. 2, 3), as having been, probably, among them. The names of the first two occur frequently in the inscriptions of the Columbaria of this period, now in the Vatican and Lateran Museums, the Bor- ghese Gardens, and elsewhere, as belonging to women of the .slave or libertins class. She besought us. — Up to this time the teachers, four in number, had been, we must beheve, Hving in a lodging and maintaining them selves, as usual, by labour — St. Paul as a tontmaker, St. Luke, probably, as a physician. Now the large- hearted hospitahty of Lydia (the offer implies a certain measure of wealth, as, indeed, did her occupa tion, which requhed a considerable capital) led her to receive them as her guests. They did not readUy abandon the independent position which theh former practice secured them, and only yield to the kind "constraint" to which they .were exposed. If ye have judged. — The words contain a modest, almost a pathetic, appeal to the fact that the preachers had recognised her faith by admit ting her to baptism. If she was fit for that, was she unfit to be theh hostess ? P6) As we went to prayer. — Better, perhaps, to the oratory, or place of prayer. (See Note on verse 13.) It should be stated, however, that the Greek noun is used without the article, and that this is so far in favour of the Received rendering. On the other hand, we find the noun ecclesia, or church, used without the article in 1 Cor. xiv. 4, 19, 35 ; 3 John 6, and it is, therefore, pro bable that proseucha might be used in the same way, just as we speak of " going to .church, or to chapel," without the article. This was pro bably on the following Sabbath, or possibly after a longer interval, when the mission of the Apostles had become known, and had caused some excitement. A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination. — LiteraUy, as in the margin, a spirit of Python, or, as some MSS. give it, a Python spirit. The Python wa3 the serpent worshipped at Delphi, as (the symbol of wisdom, from which the Pythian priestesses and ApoUo, as succeeding to the oracular power of the serpent, took theh distinguishing appellative. The fact that St. Luke, who Hi his Gospel describes Uke phenomena as coming from dsmonia, "evil spirits," '¦'unclean sphits," should here use this exceptional descrip tion, seems to imply either that this was the way in which the people of Philippi spoke of the maiden, or else that he recognised hi her state phenomena identical with those of the priestesses of Delphi, the wUd distortions, the shrill cries, the madness of an evU inspiration. After the manner of sibyls, and sor ceresses, and clairvoyantes of other times, the girl, whom Augustine describes as a fsmina ventriloqua — the phrase probably expressing 261 The Spirit THE ACTS, XVI. of Divination. masters much gain by soothsaying : an the samfe followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. C18) And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name the peculiar tones characteristic of hysteria — was looked on as having power to divine and predict (" sooth saying, " as distinct from " pro phesying," exactly expresses the force of the Greek verb), and her wUd cries were caught up and re ceived as oracles. Plutarch (de Defect. Orac, p. 737) speaks of the name Python as being applied com monly, in his time, to " ventrilo quists " of this type. As she was a slave, her masters traded on her supposed inspiration, and made the girl, whom prayer and quiet might have restored to sanity, give answers to those who sought for oracular guidance in the perplexities of theh hves. (17) The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying. — Better, kept on crying. Assuming that the case now before us pre- sented phenomena analogous to those of the cases of demoniac pos session, we may ref erto what has been said in the Excursus on that subject appended to St. Matthew's Gospel in Bishop EUicott's Commentary, Vol. I. Here it wUl be enough to note the same symptom of a divided consciousness. We lose much of the human interest of the narrative if we merely think of a demon bear ing, as in mockery, his witness to tho work of Christ, in order that he might thwart that work. That continual cry spoke, we may well believe, of the girl's mind as long ing for dehverance, and peace, and calm. She sees in the preachers those whom she recognises as able to deUver her, as unlike as possible to the masters who traded on her maddened misery. And yet the thraldom in which she found her self led her to cries that simply impeded their work. We note, as characteristic, the recurrence of the name of the Most High God, which meets us from the Hps of the de moniac in the Gospels. (See Mark v. 7.) As the name which was often in the mouths of exorcists, it became famiUar to those who were regarded as subjects for theh treatment. As she seems day by day to have gone to the riveNside oratory, it is probable that she also had some points of contact with the faith of those who worshipped there, and had Hstened there to the preaching of the Apostles. Might not she claim a share in " the way of salvation " which was proclaimed to them P P8) But Paul, being grieved . . . . — It is obvious that the con stant repetition of these clamorous cries must have been a hindrance to the Apostle's work, disturbing him as he talked to the other women at the proseucha. Was it not right for him to do as his Master had done with the de moniacs of Gadara (see Matt. viii. 28 — 34), and to restore the woman to her true seh, by teaching her to distinguish between her longing for deUverance and the wUd passions The Spirit THE ACTS, XVI. cast out. of Jesus Christ to come put of her. And he came out the same hour. °9) And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught 1 Or,' court Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace1 unto the rulers, <20) and brought them to the magis trates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly that hindered her from attain ing it ? And so he spoke, and the evU sphit " came out the same hour." Here the history ends, as far as the damsel was concerned; but we can hardly think that she was left to drift back into ig norance and unbehef. Would not such a one find shelter and com fort at the hands of the women who " laboured " with the Apostle ? (PhU. iv. 2). May we not think of her gratitude as showing itseh in the gifts that were sent to the Apostle, upon whom she had un willingly brought so much suffer ing ? (Phil. iv. 15). P9) That the hope of their gains was gone. — Better, of their occupation. The word for " gains " is the same as that trans lated " gain " and " craft " in chap. xix. 24, 25. There is something Hke a prophetic significance in the use, at this stage, of the word which was the" key to nearly aU the persecutions to which the early behevers were exposed. Men could tolerate varieties of worship or the speculations of phUosophers : they were roused to madness by that which threatened theh business. The use Hi the Greek of the same verb for " was gone," as had been used Hi the previous verse for " come out," gives an emphasis which the English does not re produce. Their business and the spirit of divination " passed away " together. Paul and Silas. — Luke and Timotheus escaped, probably, as less conspicuous. Drew them into the mar ket-place. — The market-place, or Agora, was, in ah Greek cities, the centre of social hfe. In PhiHppi, as a colonia, reproducing- the ar rangements of Eome, it would answer to the Forum, where the magistrates habituaUy sat. What had taken place would naturaUy cause excitement and attract a crowd. (20) The magistrates. — The Greek word used (Strategi, lite raUy, generals — the name survived in 1750 in the Italian Stradigo, used of the prefect of Messina) is used with St. Luke's usual ac curacy, for the praetors, or duum viri, who formed the executive of the Eoman colonia. These men, being Jews. — We must remember that the decree of Claudius (see Note on chap. xviii. 2), banishing the Jews from Rome on account of their disturb ing that city, would be known, and probably acted on, at PhiHppi (see Notes on verses 12, 13), and would give a special force to the accusa tion. Here, also, there is some thing speciaUy characteristic of the nature of many of the early perse cutions. Christians were exposed, on the one hand, to the relentless enmity of the Jews, and, on the other, they were identified by heathen rulers and mobs with the 263 Paul and Silas THE ACTS, XYL trouble our city, C21) and teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Eomans. (22) And the mul titude rose up together against them : and the magistrates rent off their a 2 Car. 11.25; 1 Thess. 2.2. clothes, and commanded to beat t/iem.a (23) And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely : (24) who, having received such a charge, thrust them Jews, and so came in, where the latter were the objects of popular antipathy, for a two-fold measure of suffering. (21> And teach customs. — The word is used as including ritual as weU as social habits, and seems to have been speciaUy used of the whole system of Jewish life. (See Notes on chaps, vi. 14 ; xv. 1 ; xxi. 21.) Being Eomans. — The people of PhUippi, as a colonia, had a right to claim the title of Roman citizens, which could not have been claimed by those who were merely inhabitants of a Greek city, such as Thessalonica or Corinth. (See Note on verse 12.) (22) Commanded to beat them. — The Greek verb gives the special Roman form of punishment, that of being beaten with the rods of the Uctors. This, therefore, takes its place as one of the three instances to which St. Paul refers in 2 Cor. xi. 25. The question naturally occurs, why he did not, on these occasions claim, as he did afterwards at Jerusalem (chap. xxii. 25), the privUeges of a Roman citi zen. Some have supposed that the violence of the mob rendered it impossible for his claim to be heard. Others have even questioned the truthfulness of his claim. A more natural supposition is that he would 261 not assert in this instance a right which would only have secured exemption for himseh, and left his companion to suffer the ignomi nious penalty of the law, and that by putting the strategi in the wrong, he sought to secure for his disciples afterwards a more tolerant treatment. As far as the first part of this hypothesis is concerned, it may, perhaps, be accepted (see, however, Note on verse 37) ; but such of the Philippian disciples as belonged to the colonia, were aheady protected from outrages of this kind as Roman citizens. Others, however, of the freed-men class, were stUl Uable to them. (23) And when they had laid many stripes upon them. — The words imply a punishment of more than usual severity, such as would leave theh backs lacerated and bleeding. So in 1 Thess. ii. 2, St. Paul speaks of having been "shamefully entreated" at PhUippi. (24) Thrust them into the inner prison. — Those who have seen anything of the prisons of the Roman emphe, as, e.g., the Mamer- tine dungeon at Rome itseh, can picture to themselves the darkness and foulness of the den into which St. Paul and his friend were now thrust : the dark cavern-like ceU, below the ground, the damp and reeking waUs, the companionship The Great THE ACTS, XVI. Earthquake. into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. C25) And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God : and the prisoners heard them. (26) And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken : and immediately all the doors of the vhest outcasts. And, as if this were not enough, they were fastened in the " stocks." St. Luke uses the Greek term xylon, the same as is used sometimes for the cross (chaps, v. 30 ; xiii. 29). The technical Latin word was nervus. Like the EngUsh stocks, it was a wooden frame with five holes, into which head and feet and arms were thrust, and the prisoner left in an attitude of "little-ease." Here, however, it would seem, the feet only were fastened, the rest of the body being left lying on the ground. If the Received version of Job xiii. 27; xxxUi. 11, which foUows the LXX. and the Vulgate, be correct, the punishment was common at a very early period in the East. (Comp. Jer. xxix. 26.) P5) And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises. — Better, praying, they were singing hymns, the Greek ex pressing one act rather than two. The act. was, we may beheve, habitual, and they would not inter mit it even in the dungeon, and fastened as they were, so that they could not kneel. The hymn may have been one of the prayer-psalms of David, or possibly one of those, of which Pliny speaks in his letters, and which may weh have been in use hah a century earher, in which men offered adoration to Christ as God (Epist. x. 96). The words of Tertullian to the martyrs of his time may weU be quoted : Nihil crus sentit in nervo quum animus in cslo est; Etsi corpus detinetur, omnia spiritui patent — " the leg feels not the stocks when the mind is in heaven. Though the body is held fast, all things He open in the spirit " (ad Mart. c. 2). And the prisoners heard them. — Better, were listening eagerly, the kind of Ustening which men give to a musical performance. Never before, we may be sure, had those outcasts and criminals heard such sounds in such a place. For the most part those vaults echoed only with wild curses and foul jests. (26> And suddenly there was a great earthquake. — Both the region and the time were, it wUl be remembered, conspicuous for convulsions of this kind. Cities in Asia, such as Sardis, Apamea, and Laodicea, and Hi Campania, suffered severely under Tiberius. (See Matt. xxiv. 7.) St. Luke apparently reads the fact not as hi itseh miraculous, but as leading to a display of superna tural calmness and courage on the part of the Apostles, and so to the conversion of the gaoler. Every one's bands were loosed. — This seems, at first, be yond the range of the usual effects of an earthquake, but the chains of the prisoners were fastened, we must remember, to rings or staples Hi the waU, and the effect of a great shock would be to loosen the 265 The Keeper of THE ACTS, XVI. the Prison were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. <27) And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, sup posing that the prisoners had been fled. (28> But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm : for we are all here. C29) Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, (so) and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved] stones and so make it easy to escape. The fact that the " foun dations of the prison were shaken " agrees with what has been said above (Note on verse 24), as to the dungeon into which the prisoners had been thrust. (27) He drew out his sword, and would have killed him self. — We have seen in chap. xii. 19 what was to be expected by a gaoler who, under any circum stances, aUowed a prisoner to escape. (See also Note on chap. xxvH. 42.) Here the man sought to anticipate his fate. Suicide was a natural resource under such conditions everywhere, but here there was a local predisposing influence. Philippi, after the great battle in which Brutus and Cassius had been defeated by Antonius, had been conspicuous for the number of those who had thus pre ferred death to the abandonment of the EepubUc and the loss of freedom. This act had been looked on as heroic (Plutarch, Brutus, c. 62), and was naturaUy enough contagious. F) Do thyself no harm Few and simple as the words are, they are eminently characteristic of the love and sympathy which burnt in St. Paul's heart. For 266 him the suicide which others would have admired, or, at least, have thought of without horror, would have been the most terrible of all forms of death. He could not bear the thought that even the gaoler who had thrust him into the dungeon, should so perish Hi his despair. (29) Then he caUed for a light. — More accurately, for lights. As St. Luke does not use, as in chap. xx. 8, the word for " lamps," it is probable that the Hghts were torches, and that the gaoler, with one Hi his hand, leapt into the darkness of the subterranean dun geon. (3°) Sirs, what must I do to be saved?— The use of "Sirs" differs from that of chap. vii. 26 in having a Greek word, expressive of respect (that used in John xx. 15), corresponding to it. We ask what the gaoler meant by the ques tion. Was he thinking of temporal safety from the earthquake, or from punishment; or had there come upon him, in that suicidal agony, the sense of an inward misery and shame, a "horror of great darkness " from which he sought deliverance? The latter seems every way most probable. It must be remembered that the very Converted THE ACTS, XVI. and Baptised. ^ And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou .shalt be saved, and thy house. <32) And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. w And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. circumstances which had brought St. Paul to the prison had pointed him out as " proclaiming the way of salvation" (verse 17). The witness of the demoniac girl was thus not altogether fruitless. I31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. — The plural pronoun is not without significance. St. Paul was not the only teacher. SUvanus also took part in the work of conversion. The words have naturaUy become, as it were, the crucial instance- standing nearly on the same level as that of the penitent robber on the cross — of the conditionsof salvation. To beheve in Christ, with all that this faith involved, was to obtain salvation, ».«., deUverance from sin, and not only from the penalty of sin, in this world and in the world to come. The Greek presents a contrast which is lost in ithe English. He had called them by the usual title of respect, Kyrii (= Sirs, or Lords) ; they answer that there is one Kyrios, the JLord Jesus Christ, who alone can save. P2) And they spake unto him the word of the Lord. — It is clear that belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, unless it were to be a mere formula, repeated as a charm, re quhed an explanation. The very title of Christ ; the acts and words that showed that Jesus was the Christ ; His hfe, and death, and re surrection ; the truths of forgive ness of sins and communion with Him, and the outward signs which He had appointed as witnesses of those truths; ah this must have been included in " the word of the Lord," which was preached to that congregation so strangely assembled, between the hours of midnight and of dawn. Even the PhiUppian gaoler had to be a catechumen before he was baptised. pa) He . . . washed their stripes ; and was baptized . . . — The two-fold washings, that which testified of the repentance of the gaoler and his kindly reverence for his prisoners, and that which they administered to him as the washing of regeneration, are placed in suggestive juxtaposition. He, too, was cleansed from - wounds which were worse than those in flicted by the rods of the Eoman lictors. No certain answer can bo given to the question whether the baptism was by immersion or affu sion. A public prison was Hkely enough to contain a bath or pool of some kind, where the former would be feasible. What has been said above (see Note on verse 15) as to the bearing of these narratives on the question of infant baptism ap plies here also, with the additional fact that those who are said to have been baptised are obviously iden tical with those whom St. Paul addressed (the word "aU" is used Hi each case), and must, therefore, have been of an age to receive instruction together with the gaoler himseh. 267 Paul and Silas THE ACTS, XVI. released (3fl And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, be lieving in God with all his house. (35> And when it was day, the magistrates sent the Serjeants, saying, Let those men go. C36) And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go : now there fore depart, and go in peace. C3r) But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncon- demned, being Romans, l34) He set meat before them, and rejoiced. — LiteraUy, set a table before them. The two suf ferers may weU have needed food. If the tumult had begun, as is pro bable, as they were going to the proseucha for morning prayer, at the third hour of the day (9 a.m.), they had probably been fasting for nearly twenty-four hours. They were not Hkely to have made a meal when they were thrust into the dungeon. The "joy" of the meal reminds us of that noted as a chief feature of the social life of the disciples at Jerusalem in chap. H . 46. The new hope, succeeding Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia. — The two cities were both on the great Eoman road known as the Via Egnatia. Amphipolis, formerly known as Ennea Hodoi, or the Nine Ways, was famous in the Peloponnesian War as the scene of the death of Brasidas, and had been made, under the Eomans, the capital of Mace donia prima. It was thirty-three Boman mUes from PhiHppi and thirty from ApoUonia, the latter being thirty-seven from Thessalo nica. The site of ApoUonia is un certain, but the name is, perhaps, traceable in the modern village of Folina, between the Strymonio and Thermaic Gulfs. A more famous city of the same name, also on the Via Egnatia, was situated near Dyrrhacimn. It seems clear that the names indicated the stages at which the traveUers rested, and that thirty mUes a day (a somewhat toUsome journey for those who had so recently been scourged) was as with most men of ordinary strength, theh average rate of traveUing. It would seem that there was no Jewish population to present an opening for the gospel at either of these cities, and that St. Paul, therefore, passed on to Thessalonica. Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. — The city, which had previously borne the names of Emathia, Halia, and Therma, had been en larged by PhUip of Macedon, and named after his daughter. It was situated on the Thermaic Gulf, and had grown into a commercial port of considerable importance. As such, it had at tracted Jews in large numbers. The MSS. differ as to the presence or absence of the Greek article before " synagogue," but, on the whole, it is probable that we should read, " the synagogue," that which served for the Jews of the neigh bouring cities, who were not numerous enough to have one of theh. own The old name survives 270 Paul at THE ACTS, XVII. Thessalonica. to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews : (2) and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, m opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead ; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. (4) And some of them believed, and con sorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. (5) But the Jews which believed not, moved with in the modern Saloniki, and there is stiU a large Jewish population there. (2) Paul, as his manner was . . . — What we read of as occur ring Hi the Pisidian Antioch (chap. viii 14, 15), was, we may beUeve, now reproduced. That he was aUowed to preach for three Sabbaths in succession, shows the respect commanded by his character as a Rabbi, and, it may be, by his earnest eloquence. Though he came with the marks of the scourge upon him, he was as fearless as ever, speaking the gospel of God " with much contention," " not in word only, but also Hi power, and in the Holy Ghost, and hi much assurance" (1 Thess. i. 5). And with thig boldness there was also a whining gentleness, " even as a nurse cherisheth her chUdren" (1 Thess. H. 7). And not a few Gentiles "turned from idols to serve the Hving and true God" (1 Thess. i'9> P) Opening and alleging. — The latter word is used in the sense of bringing forward proofs, and the two words imply an argu ment from the prophecies of the Messiah, Hke in kind to that at the Pisidian Antioch. In the in tervals between the Sabbaths, the Apostle worked, as usual, for his UveUhood, probably, of course, as a tent-maker (2 Thess. Hi. 8). That Christ must needs have suffered. — Better, that the Christ, as pointing to the expected Messiah, the Anointed of the Lord, whom aU Jews were expecting, but whom they were unwilling to recognise Hi the crucified Jesus. The argument was, therefore, to show that prophecy pointed to a suffering as weh as a glorified Messiah, and that both conditions were fulfiUed in Jesus. (4> And some of them . . . — Obviously but a few in comparison with the " great multitude " of the Greek proselytes of the gate. The Thessalonian church waB predomi nantly GentUe, some, apparently, won from idolatry without passing through Judaism (1 Thess. i. 9). Some good MSS., indeed, express this, by reading, devout persons and Greeks. Of the chief women not a few. — These, Uke the women in the Pisidian Antioch (chap. xiii. 50), had probably come previously under Jewish influence. Here, however, they were attracted by the higher teaching of the Apostles. (5) The Jews which believed not. — The latter words are want- 271 Tumult before THE ACTS, XVII. Jason's House. envy, took unto them cer tain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and as saulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. (8) And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world up side down are come hither ing in many MSS., as " filled with envy " are in others. Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. — The word " lewd " is used Hi its older sense, as meaning vUe, worthless. At a stUl earlier stage of its history, as in Chaucer and the Vision of Piers Plowman, [" How thou lernest the people, The lered and the lewed,"]— 1. 2100, it meant simply the layman, or un taught person, as distinct from the scholar. The " baser sort " answers to a Greek word describing the loungers in the agora, or market place, ever ready for the excite ment of a tumult — the sub-rostrani or turba forensis of Latin writers. Men of such a class, retaining its old habits, are found even among the Christian converts Hi 2 Thess. iii. 11, " working not at aU, but busybodies." Assaulted the house of Jason. — The ground of the attack was that he had received the preachers as his guests. The name was locahy conspicuous as having belonged to the old hero of the Argonautic expedition, and to the tyrant of Pherae. It is probable, however, that St. Paul would, in the first instance, take up his abode with a Jew, and that Jason, as in the case of the apostate high priest of 2 Mace. iv. 7, was the 2'. Greek equivalent for Joshua or Jesus. To bring them out to the people. — Thessalonica was a free Greek city, and the Jews accord ingly in the first instance intended to bring the matter before the popular ecclesia, or assembly. («) Unto the rulers of the city. — The Greek term here, poli- tarchat, is a very peculiar one, and occurs nowhere else Hi the New Testament, nor, indeed, in any classical writer. Aristotle, whose Politics weU-nigh exhausts the list of aU known official titles in Greek cities, does not mention it, although he gives an analogous title (Polito- phylakes) as found at Larissa and elsewhere (Pol. v. 6). An inscrip tion on an arch that still spans (or did so tUl quite lately) one of the streets of the modern city Saloniki, shows it to have been a special official title of that city, and St. Luke's use of it may, therefore, be noted as an instance of his accuracy in such matters. The inscription is probably of the date of Vespa sian, but it contains some names that are identical with those of the converts in the apostolic history, Sosipater (" Sopater," chap. xx. 4), Gaius (chap. xix. 29), and Secun- dus (chap. xx. 4). It would seem from the inscription that, as with the Archons of Athens, there were seven magistrates who bore the title. Paul and Silas THE ACTS, XVII. depart by Night. also ; m whom Jason hath received : and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. (8) And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. (9) And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go. 00) And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea : who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews, P) These all do contrary to the decrees of Csesar. — Thessa lonica, though a free city, was yet under the imperial government, and the Jews therefore appeal to the emperor's decree, probably to the edict of Claudius (chap. rvHi. 2), as at least showing the drift of the emperor's poHcy, even though it was not strictly binding except in Rome and the colonis. This, however, might prove an insufficient weapon of attack, and therefore they add another charge, to which no magistrate throughout the em phe could be indifferent. (See Luke xxiH. 2 ; John xix. 12.) The preachers were not only bring ing in a relligio illicita, but were guilty of treason against the ma jesty of the emphe ; they said there was " another King." It is clear from the Epistle to the Thes salonians that the Kingdom of Christ, and speciaUy His second coming as King, had been very prominent Hi the Apostle's teaching (1 Thess. iv. 14 ; v. 2, 23 ; 2 Thess. i. 7, 8; u. 1 — 12), and this may have furnished materials for the accusation. t9) And when they had taken security of Jason.^ The Greek noun, probably used as an equivalent for the Lathi satis accipere, in common use in legal language, is a technical one (Ute- raUy, the sufficient sum) for the bah which Jason was requhed to give for the good conduct of his guests, and for theh readiness to meet any charge that might be brought against them. It is clear from 1 Thess. i. 6 ; ii. 14, that St. Paul and SUas were not the only sufferers. The Gentile converts were exposed alike to the violence of theh own countrymen and to the maUce of the Jews. How anxious he was to visit and comfort them is seen from the fact that he made two attempts to return, before or during his stay at Corinth (1 Thess. U. 18). (10) Sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. — Timotheus apparently remained behind, partly to help the Thessa- lonian converts under theh present trials, partly to be able to bring word to St. Paul as to theh con dition. At Beroea Paul and SUas were alone. The city lay to the south of Thessalonica, not far from PeUa, on the banks of the Astraeus, and still retains its name in the modern Kara Feria, or Verria. It has now a population of 20,000. Here also there was a Jewish population, but the city was a far less important place commerciaUy than Thessalonica. 18 273 Converts THE ACTS, XVII. at Berea. m These were more noble than those in Thessalo nica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. a2) Therefore many of them believed ; also of honour able women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. (ls)But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. a4) And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as P1) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica. — The word for " noble" (literaUy, well-born, as in 1 Cor. i. 26) had, like most words of Uke origin (such, e.g., as the Latin ingenuus), a wide latitude of meaning. Here it stands for the generous, loyal temper which was ideaUy supposed to characterise those of noble origin. This was the quaHty which the Apostle and the historian admired in the Berceans. They were not the slaves of prejudice. They were ready to beheve in the gospel which St. Paul preached as meeting their spiritual wants ; and so they came to the study of the proofs, which the preacher " opened and aUeged," with a temper pre disposed to faith. On the other hand, they did not accept theh own wishes, or the Apostle's asser tions, as in themselves sufficient grounds of faith. With a quick and clear HitelUgence they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether they really did speak of a Christ who should suffer and rise again. The Bercean converts have natu rally been regarded, especiaUy among those who urge the duty, or claim the right, of private judgment, as a representative instance of the right relations of Reason and Faith, occupying a middle position between credulity and scepticism, to be reproduced, mutatis mutandis, according to the different aspects which each presents Hi successive ages. (12) Therefore many of them believed. — The narrator dweUs with satisfaction on the fact that at Beroea there were many Jewish aB weU as Gentile converts. Among the latter there were, as at Thessa lonica, women of the upper class. (i3) They came thither also, and stirred up the people. — To the unbelieving Jews of Thessa lonica the conversions at Beroea were simply a cause of offence. It is apparently with reference to this that St. Paul says of them that ' ' they please not God and are contrary to ah men, forbidding us to speak to the GentUes " (1 Thess. ii 15). (i4) rpo go as it were to the sea. — The English version conveys the impression that the movement was a feint Hi order to baffle the pursuers. Many of the better MSS., however, give " as far as the sea," and this is probably the meaning even of the reading followed by the Authorised version. The absence of any mention of places between Beroea and Athens 274 Paul brought THE ACTS, XVII. to Athens. it were to the sea : but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. aB And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens : and re ceiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. Or, full of idols. 06) Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.1 (1,) There fore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout per sons, and in the market (as e.g., Amphipolis and ApoUonia are mentioned Hi verse 1), is presumptive evidence that St. Paul actuaUy travelled by sea, and rounding the promontory of Sunium, entered Athens by the Piraeus. He had been accompanied so far by some of those who had escorted him from Beroea, but when they too went back, he was, we must remember, for the first time since the commencement of his missionary labours, absolutely alone. His yearning for com panionship and counsel is shown Hi the urgent message sent to Silas and Timotheus to come " with ah speed " (UteraUy, as quickly as pos sible). As far as we can gather from 1 Thess. Hi. 1 — 3, Timotheus came by himseh to Athens, pro bably after the scene at the Areo pagus, and was sent back at once with words of counsel and comfort to those whom he reported as suffering much tribulation. ps) His spirit was stirred in him. — The verb is the root of the noun from which we get our " paroxysm," and which is trans lated by "sharp contention" hi chap. xv. 39. Athens, glorying now, as it had done in the days of Sophocles (CEdip. Col. 1008), in its devotion to the gods, presented to him, even after seeing Tarsus and Antioch, a new aspect. The city was "full of idols ;" Hermes-busts at every corner, statues and altars in the atrium or court-yard of every house, temples and porticos and colonnades, all presenting what was to him the same repulsive spectacle. He looked on the Theseus and the Ilissus, and the friezes of the Cen taurs and Lapithae on the Parthe non, as we look on them Hi our museums, but any sense of art- beauty which he may have had (and it was probably, in any case, but weak) was overpowered by his horror that men should bow down and worship what theh own hands had made. The beauty of form which we admire in the ApoUo or the Aphrodite, the Mercury, or the Faun, would be to him, in its un veiled nakedness, a thing to shudder at. He knew too well to what that love of sensuous beauty had led Hi Greek and Eoman hfe (Eom. i. 24 — 27), when it had thrown aside what, to a Jew, were not only the natural instincts of purity, but the sanctions of a divine command (Gen. ix. 22). P?) And in the market daily. — To teach in the synagogue, and to gather the devout persons, i.e., the proselytes to whom the Law had been a schoolmaster, leading them to Christ, was after the usual 275 Paul encounters THE ACTS, XVII. the Philosophers. daily with them that met with him. n81 Then certain philosophers of the Epicu reans, and of the Stoicks, pattern of St. Paul's work. The third mode of action, disputing in the market-place, the agora, which in every Greek city was the centre of its life, was a new experiment. He saw, we may believe, others so disputing ; teachers of this or that school of phUosophy, with Hsteners round them, debating gUbly of the "highest good," and the "chief end" of life, and man's relation to the One and the AU. Why should not he take part Hi the discussion, and lead those who were apparently in earnest in their inquiries to the truth which they were vainly seek ing? ps) Certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks. — The two schools were at this time the great representatives of Greek thought. The former took its name from its founder, Epicurus, who lived a long and tranquU life at Athens, from B.C. 342 to 270. As holding theh meetings in a garden, which he had left by his wUl Hi trust as a place of study for his disciples, they were sometimes known as the School of the Garden, and as such were distinguished from those of the Porch (Diog. Laert. Epic. c. 10). His specula tions embraced at once a physical and an ethical solution of the pro blems of the universe. Bejecting, as aU thinking men did, the popular Polytheism, which yet they did not dare openly to renounce, he taught that the gods, in theh eternal tran- quUUty, were too far off from man to trouble themselves about his sor rows or his sins. They needed no sacrifices and answered no prayers. The superstition which enslaved the 276 minds of most men was the great evil of the world, the source of its crimes and miseries. The last enemy to be destroyed was with him, as in our own time with Strauss, the belief in an immor- taUty of retribution. A man's first Btep towards happiness and wisdom was to emancipate himseh from its thraldom ; the next was to recog nise that happiness consisted in the greatest aggregate of pleasurable emotions. Experience taught that what are caUed pleasures are often more than counterbalanced by the pains that foUow, and sensual ex cesses were therefore to be avoided. Epicurus's own hfe seems to have been distinguished by generosity, self-control, and general kindliness, and even by piety and patriotism (Diog. Laert. Epic. c. 5). But as no law was recognised as written Hi the heart, and human laws were looked on as mere conventional ar rangements, each man was left to form his own estimate of what would give him most pleasure, and most men decided for a Hfe of ease and self-indulgence; sometimes balanced by prudential calculations, sometimes sinking into mere volup tuousness. The poetry of Horace presents, perhaps, the most attrac tive phase of popular Epicureanism; the sense which has come to be at tached to the modern word " Epi cure," as apphed to one whose Hfe is devoted to the indulgence of the sense of taste, shows to what a depth of degradation it might sink. In the world of physics, Epi curus has been claimed as anticipa ting some of the results of modern science. The ideas of creation Epicureans THE ACTS, XVII. and Stoics. encountered him. And i I some said, What will this and control were alike excluded. Matter had existed from eternity, and the infinite atoms of which it was compofedhad, under the action of attractive and repelling forces as yet unknown, entered into manifold combinations, out of which had issued, as the last stage of the evolution, the world of nature as it now Hes before us. The poem of Lucretius, DeRerumNaturd, may be regarded as the grandest utterance of this negative and practicaUy atheistic system, but its real noble ness hes chiefly in its indignant protest against the superstition which had cast its veU of thick darkness over aU the nations. It may be weU to give one or two characteristic examples of each of these phases. On the one side we have the ever-recurring advice of the popular poet of society to remember that life is short, and to make the most of it : — " Quid sit faturum eras, fuge quaerere : et. Quern Fors dienim cunque dabit, luero Appone." ("Strive not the morrow's chance to know, But count whate'er the Fates bestow As given thee for thy gain."] Hor. Od. L 9. "Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi Spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida jEtas. Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." ["Be wise, and let your wines flow elear, And as you greet each short-lived year, Curb hope's delusive play : E'en as we speak, our life glides by ; Enjoy the moments as they fly, Nor trust the far-off day."] Od. i. 11. The student of Scripture wiU re cognise an Epicurean element of this kind in one of the two voices that alternate in the Book of Ecclesiastes, " It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun aU the days of his Hfe " (Eccles. v. 18. Comp. also Eccles. Hi. 19 ; viii. 15 ; ix. 7). It appears as the avowed principle of the evU-doers in the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom which, as probably the work of a contem porary writer, represents the im pression made by the dominant Horatian phase of Epicureanism on a devout and thoughtful Jew: — "Our time is a very shadow that passeth away . . . Come on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present . . Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they are withered . . . Let none of us go without his part of our volup tuousness." — Wisd. ii. 5 — 9. There is a nobler ring, it must be owned, in the bold language Hi which Lucretius sings the praises of Epicurus : — "When this our life lay crushed before men's eyes Beneath the yoke of Faith, who from on high With horrid aspect frightened mortal hearts, It was a Greek, himself a mortal too, Who first had courage to lift up his eyes And to her face withstand her. Tales of gods, And thunderbolts from Heaven, with all their threats, Were impotent to stay him .... .... So at last Faith in its turn lies trampled under foot, And we through him have triumphed over Heaven." DeRer.Nat.I. 67-80. We can understand how St. Paul would assert, as against this school 277 Their Opinion THE ACTS, XVII. of Paul. babbler1 say 1 other some,! 105i££"|He seemeth to be a setter of thought, the personality of the Hving God, as Creator, Euler, Father ; the binding force of the law written in the heart ; intuitive moraUty as against mere utili tarianism ; the nobleness of a hero- soul raised above pleasure, and hving, not for itself, but for others and for God. And in so teaching them he, in this respect diff ering from the mere professor of a higher phUosophy, would point to the Eesurrection and the Judgment as that which should confound the pleasure-seeker by giving him tribulation and anguish, and should assign glory and immortality to the patient worker of righteous ness. (Comp. Bom. ii. 7 — 9.) The Stoics — who took their name, not from theh founder (Zeno, of Citium Hi Cyprus), but from the Stoa pcekili, the painted porch, at Athens, adorned with frescoes of the battle of Marathon, where Zeno used to teach — pre sented a higher phase of thought. Josephus ( Vit. c. 2) compares them with the Pharisees, and their rela tion to the moral hfe of heathenism at this tune presented many features analogous to those which we find in the influence of that sect in Palestine. They taught that true wisdom consisted in being the master, and not the slave, of cir cumstances. The things which are not in our power are not things to seek after, nor shrink from, but to be accepted with a calm equa nimity. The seeker after wisdom learnt, therefore, to be indifferent aUke to pleasure or pain, and aimed at an absolute apathy. The theo logy of the Stoics was also of a nobler kind than that of Epicurus. 278 They spoke of a divine Mind per vading the universe, and ordering ah things by its Providence. They recognised its government in the lives of nations and individual men, and probably reconciled, as the Pharisees did, theh acceptance of its decrees with a practical behef in the freedom of the individual wUl. In the Manual of Ethics, by Epictetus, under Nero, and the Meditations of Marcus AureHus, we see how the slave and the emperor stood on common ground. In Seneca, we see how often the Stoics spoke in the accents of Christian ethics. Many of the Stoics were sought after as tutors for the sons of noble families, and occupied a position of influence not unlike that of Jesuit confessors and directors in France Hi the seventeenth and eighteenth cen turies. The main draw - backs were (1) that hi aiming at apathy for themselves they shut out sympathy with others as disturb ing their tranquhlity ; (2) that in striving after an ethical per fection in the strength of theh own wiU they anticipated the position of the Pelagians in the history of the Christian Church; and (3) that, as with the Pharisees, the high ideal was often but a mask for selfish and corrupt hves. They, also, were too often ' ' hypocrites," acting a part before the world to which theh true character did not correspond. In the language of the satirist — "Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt." [" They pose as heroes, and as drunkards live."] Juvenal, Sat. ii. 3. ' "A setter forth THE ACTS, XVII. of Strange c?Ws." forth of strange gods : be- 1 | cause he preached unto It is evident that there would be many points of sympathy between the better representatives of this school and St. Paul, but for them also the message that spoke of Jesus and the Eesurrection — of God sending TTia Son into the world to be first crucified and then raised from the dead — would seem an idle dream, and they would shrink from the thought that they needed pardon and redemption, and could do nothing true and good in theh own strength without the grace of God. What -will this babbler say? — Better, What might this babbler mean ? The Greek noun, literaUy seed-picker, was primarily appUed to a smaU bird of the finch tribe. The idle gossips of the agora picking up news, and, eager to re- taU it, the chattering parasites of feasts, were Ukened by the quick wit of Athenian humourists to such a bird as it hopped and chirped. So Zeno himseh caUed one of his dis ciples, who' had more words than wisdom, by the same contemptuous name (Diog. Laert. Zeno, c. 19). The phUosophers, in theh scorn of the stranger who was so ready to discuss great questions with any whom he met, appUed the derisive epithet to him. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. — This was, it wiU be remembered, the precise charge on which Socrates had been condemned (Xenoph. Memor. i. 1, § 1). In his case it rested on his constant reference to the dsmdn, the divine monitor who checked and guided him, in whose voice he heard something hke the voice of God ; but the secret of his condemnation by his countrymen was to be found less in what he actuaUy taught than in the questions with which he vexed theh inmost soul, and made them conscious of ignorance or baseness. The ques tions of St. Paul, as he reasoned " of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," were, we may weU believe, equaUy disturbing. Because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrec tion. — The verb implies continuous action. This was the ever-recur ring theme of his discourses. It is possible that with the strong tendency of the Greek mind to personify all attributes and abstract thoughts, St. Paul's hearers saw in the word Anastasis (= Eesurrec tion) the name of a new goddess, representing the idea of immor tality, to be worshipped in con junction with Jesus, and therefore they used the plural and spoke of his bringing in " strange gods." So temples and altars had been dedicated to Concord, and the history of Athens told how Epi- menides had bidden them erect two altars to Insolence and Outrage (Cicero, De Leg. H. 11), as the two demons by whom theh city was being brought to rum. What startled them in the Apostle was that he taught not only the im mortality of the soul — that had entered into the popular mythical behef, and had been enforced with phUosophical arg-uments by Socrates and Plato — but the re surrection of the body. In 1 Cor. xv. 35 we see the 'character of the objections raised to this doctrine, and the manner in which St. Paul answered them. 279 Paul brought to THE ACTS, XVII. them Jesus, and the re surrection. a9) And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus,1 saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou 1 Or, Mars' hill. It was the highestcourt tn Athens. speakest, is ? (20) For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would know therefore what these things mean. m (For all the Athenians and 0s) They took him, and brought him unto Areo pagus The name may stand either for the HiU of Mars, Bimply as a locaHty, or for the Court which sat there, and was known as the Court of the Areopagus, and which, as the oldest and most revered tribunal Hi Athens, owing its origin to Athena, and connected with the story of Orestes and the worship of the propitiated Erinnyes (the Avengers) as the Eumenides (the Gentle Ones), StiU continued to exercise jurisdiction in aU matters connected with the religion of the state, and numbered among its members men of the highest official rank. It had originaUy consisted only of those who had filled the office of Archon and were over sixty years of age. Its supreme authority had been in some measure limited by Pericles, and it was as the organ of the party who opposed the ideas of freedom and progress of which he was the representative, that iEschylus wrote the tragedy of the Eumenides, in which the divine authority of the Court was im pressed upon men's minds. Here, however, the narrative that follows presents no trace of a formal trial, and hence it has been questioned whether the Apostle was brought before the Court of the Areopagus. Unless, however, there had been some intention of a trial, there seems no reason for theh taking 280 him to the Areopagus rather than to the Pnyx or elsewhere : and the mention of a member of the Court as converted by St. Paul's preach ing, makes it probable that the Court was actuaUy sitting at the time. The most natural explana tion of the apparent difficulty is, that as the charge of bringing in " strange deities " was one which came under the jurisdiction of the Areopagus Court, the crowd who seized on St. Paul hurried him there, not presenting a formal indictment, but calling for a preliminary in quhy, that his speech accordingly, though of the nature of an apologia, was not an answer to a distinct accusation, and that having heard it, the judges looked on the matter as calling for no special action, and passed to the order of the day. May we know . . . ? — The form of the question, courteous in semblance, but with a sUght touch of sarcasm, is eminently charac teristic in itself, and shows also that there was no formal accusa tion, though the words that foUowed suggested the thought that there possibly might be materials for one. What had been said was " strange" enough to require an explanation. (20) Thou bringest certain strange things.— The adjective stands for a Greek participle, things that startle, or, leave an impression of strangeness. P1) For aU the Athenians and strangers. — The restless His Speech to THE ACTS, XVII. the Athenians. strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) C22)Then Paul stood in 1 Or, the court of Areo- pagites. the midst of Mars' hill,1 and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. (a3) For as I passed by, and inquisitiveness of the Athenian cha racter had been aU along proverbial. In words which St. Luke almost reproduces, Demosthenes (Philipp. i, p. 43) had reproached them with idling theh time away Hi the agora, asking what news there was of PhUip' s movements, or the action of their own envoys, when they ought to have been preparing for strenuous action. The " strangers" who were present were probably a motley group — young Eomans sent to finish theh education, artists, and sight-seers, and philosophers, from every province in the empire. Some new thing LiteraUy, some newer thing : as we should say, the " very latest newB." Theo- phrastus (c. 8) uses the self-same word in describing the questions of the loquacious prattlers of so ciety, " Is there anything new ? . . . Is there anything yet newer f " (22) Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill. — Better, Areopagus, as before. The Court sat in the open ah on benches forming three sides of a quadrangle. A short flight of sixteen steps, cut in the rock, led from the agora to the plateau where the Court held its sittings. If it was actually sitting at the time, the temptation to have recourse to it, if only to cause a sensation and terrify the strange disputant, may weU have been irresistible. As the Apostle stood there, he looked from the slight elevation on the temple of the Eu menides below him, that of Theseus to the east, and facing him on the Acropolis, the Parthenon. On the height of that hiU stood the colossal bronze statue of Athena as the tutelary goddess of her beloved Athens, below and aU around him were statues and altars. The city was " very fuU of idols." P3) I perceive that in all things ye are too supersti tious. — Better, I observe you as being in all things more fearful of the gods than others. It is not easy to express the exact force of the Greek adjective. " Superstitious " is, perhaps, too Btrong on the side of blame ; " devout," on the side of praise. The word which the Athenians loved to use of them selves (theosebes, a worshipper of God) exactly answers to the latter term. This St. Paul wiU not use of idolaters, and reserves it for those who worship the one living and true God, and he uses a word which, Hke our " devotee," though not offensive, was neutral with a sHght touch of disparagement. The deisidaimbn is described at some length Hi the Characters of Theophrastus, the La Bruyere of classical Hterature (c. xvii.), as one who consults soothsayers, and is a beUever in omens, who wUl give up a journey if he sees a weasel on the road, and goes with his wife and children to be initiated into the Orphic mysteries. Nikias, the Athenian general, ever oppressed with the sense of the jealousy of the gods, and counter - ordering 281 Athenian THE ACTS, XVII. Devoutness. beheld your devotions,1 1 11 ?£?"„? I found an altar with this • ' worship, 2 Thess. 2. 1. important strategic movements because there was an echpse of the moon (Thucyd. vH. 60), is a con spicuous instance of the deisidai- mSn in high places. The Stoic Emperor, Marcus AureUus (Meditt. i. 16), congratulates himself on not being such a deisidaimdn, whUe he gives thanks that he has inherited his mother's devotion (theosebes) (i. 2). The opening words would gain, and were perhaps meant to gain, the ears of the philosophers. Here, they would say, is one who, at least rises, as we do, above the reUgion of the multitude. As I passed by, and beheld your devotions. — Better, as I passed by and was contemplating the objects of your worship. The EngUsh word appears to have been used in its old sense, as meaning what the Greek word means — the object, and not the act, of devotion. So, Wichf gives " your mawmetis " — i.e., " your idols." Tyndale, Cran- mer, and the Geneva version give " the manner how ye worship your gods." The Bhemish foUows Wiclif , and gives ' ' your idols." I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE Ulf- KNOWN" GOD.— The Greek of the inscription has no article, and might, therefore, be rendered TO AN UNKNOWN GOD, as though it had been consecrated as a votive offering for benefits which the re ceiver was unable to assign to the true donor among the " gods many and lords many" whom he wor shipped. So interpreted, it did not bear its witness directly to any deeper thoughts than those of the j popular polytheism, and stands on ; the same footing as the altars TO UNKNOWN GODS, which are mentioned by Pausanias (i. 1 — 4) as set up in the harbour and streets of Athens, or to the description which Theophrastus gives (as above) of the deisidaimdn as asking the soothsayers, after he has had a disquieting dream, to what god or goddess he ought to pray. Greek usage, however, did not require the use of the article in inscriptions of this nature, and the EngUsh trans lation is quite as legitimate as- the other, and clearly gives the sense in which St. Paul understood it. Taking this sense, there come the questions, What thought did the inscription express? To what period did it belong? A story connected with Epimenides of Crete, who, as a prophet of great fame, was invited to Athens at a time when the city was suffering from pestilence, is sometimes referred to as affording a probable explanation of its origin. Diogenes Laertius (Epimen. c. 3) relates that he turned sheep loose into the city, and then had them sacrificed, where they stopped, to the god thus pointed out, i.e., to the one whose image or altar was nearest to the spot, and that " altars without a name " were thus to be seen in many parts of Athens ; and it has been supposed that this may have been one of these altars, erected where there was no image near enough to warrant a sacrifice to any known deity, and as Epimenides is stated to have offered sacrifices on the Areopagus, that such an altar may have been standing within view as St. Paul spoke. Against this view, however, are the facts Altar to the THE ACTS, XVII. Unknown God. inscription, TO THE UN- 1 I KNOWN GOD. Whom (1) that the narrative of Laertius names no such inscription as that of which St. Paul speaks, and rather imphes that every victim found the god. to whom it of right belonged, or else that the altar was left with out any inscription; (2) that St. Paul's language impUes that he had seen the inscription as he walked through the city, and not that he looked on it as he spoke ; and (3) that it is hardly conceivable that such an altar, standing in so con spicuous a place from the time of Epimenides, would have remained unnoticed by a thinker Uke Socrates. Jerome (on Tit. i 12) cuts the knot of the difficulty by stating that the inscription actually ran, "To the Gods of Asia and Europe and Africa, to unknown and strange Gods." It is possible that he may have seen an altar with such words upon it, and that he rushed to the conclu sion that it was what St. Paul referred to ; but it is not Hkely that the Apostle would have ven tured on altering the inscription to suit his argument Hi the presence of those who could have confuted hhn on the spot, and his words must be received as indicating what he had actuaUy seen. A passage Hi the dialogue of Philopatris, ascribed to Lucian, where one of the speakers swears ' ' by the Unknown God of Athens," is interesting ; but, as written Hi the third century after Christ, may be only a reference, not without a sneer, to St. Paul's speech, and cannot be adduced as evidence either as to the existence of such an altar or its meaning. Ah inde pendent inquhy based upon data hitherto not referred to, wiU, per haps, lead to more satisfactory con clusions. (1) The verbal adjective means something more than " Un known." It adds the fact that the Unknown is also the Unknowable. It is the ultimate confession, such as we have heard of late from the Ups of some students of science, of man's impotence to solve the problems of the universe. It does not affirm Atheism, but it knows not what the Power is, which yet it feels must be. (2) As such it presents a striking parallel to the inscription which Plutarch (de Isid. et Osir.) records as found on the veU of Isis at Sais : "I am aU that has been, and aU that is, and aU that shaU be ; and no mortal hath lifted my veU." Whether that inscription expressed the older thoughts of Egypt may, perhaps, be questioned. Plutarch gives it in Greek, and this probably indicates a date after the foundation of the monarchy of the Ptolemies (b.c. 367), possibly contemporary with Plutarch (a.d. 46—140). (3) StiU more striking, if possible, is the paraUeUsm presented by an altar found at Ostia, and now in the Vatican Museum. It represents what is known as a Mithraic sacri ficial group, connected, i.e., with the worship of Mithras, the Sun-god of later Persian mythology, a winged figure sacrificing ahull, with various symboUc emblems, such as a serpent and a scorpion. Underneath appears the inscription (OrelU, Inssrr., Vol. U. 5,000)— SIGNTJM INDEPREHEN- SIBILIS DEL [THE SYMBOL OP THE UNDIS- COVEKABLE GOD.] 283 Their Ignorant THE ACTS, XVII. Worship. therefore ye ignorantlyl I worship, him declare I unto It wiU be admitted that this ex presses the same thought as the inscription which St. Paul quotes ; that it is the nearest equivalent that Latin can supply for the "Unknown and Unknowable " God. The fre quent recurrence of Mithraic groups in nearly aU museums, generally without any note of time, but, Hi the judgment of experts, ranging from the time of Pompeius to that of Diocletian, shows the prevalence of this Sun-worship throughout the Eoman world during the early period of the emphe. We have found an in teresting trace of it in Cyprus. (See Note on chap. xih. 14.) We may see its surviving influence in the reverence shown by Con stantine to the Dies Soils and in the general observance of that day throughout the empire. Other inscriptions, also Hi the Vatican Museum, such aB SOLI DEO IN- VICTO (OreUi, i. 1904—14), show its prevalence. Our own Sunday (Dies Soils), little as we dream of it, is probably a survival of the Mithraic cultus, which at one time seemed not unlikely, as seen from a merely human standpoint, to pre sent a formidable rivalry to the claims of the Church of Christ. It is, at least, a remarkable coin cidence that the twenty-fifth of December was kept as the festival of Mithras long before it was chosen by the Western Church for the Peast of the Nativity. It is true that De Eossi, the great Eoman archaeologist, in a note to the pre sent writer, gives the probable date of the inscription in question as belonging to the second or third century after Christ; but the m Mithraic worship is known to have prevailed widely from a much earUer period, and the church of San Clemente, at Eome, where be low the two basiUcas have been found the remains of a Christian oratory turned into a Mithraic chapel, presents a memorable in stance of the rivalry of the two systems. On the whole, therefore, it seems probable that the altar which St. Paul saw was an earner example of the feeUng represented by the Ostian inscription, and may weU have found its expression, with a Hke characteristic formula, among the .'many forms of the conQuent polytheism of Athens. Plutarch (Pompeius) speaks of the worship of Mithras as having been brought into Europe by the CiUcian phates whom Pompeius defeated, and as continuing in his own time. Whom therefore ye igno- rantly -worship. — Better, as ex pressing the connection with the inscription, What therefore ye wor ship not knowing, that declare I unto you. The better MSS. give the relative pronoun in the neuter. It was, perhaps, deUberately used, as St. Paul uses the neuter form for "Godhead" in verse 29, and a cognate abstract noun in Eom. i 20, to express the fact that the Athenians were as yet ignorant of the personality of the living God. That any human teacher should have power and authority to proclaim that " Unknown God," as making Himseh known to men, was what neither Epicureans nor Stoics had dreamt of. The verb " declare " is closely connected with the term " setter forth," of verse 18. He God the Maker THE ACTS, XVII. of the World. you. (24) God that made the world and all things therein," seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; ^ neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing,6 see ing he giveth to all life, does not disclaim that element in the charge against hhn. (") God that made the world . . . — The masculine form of the pronoun and participles throughout the sentence presents an emphatic contrast to the neuter pronoun of the previous verse. Seeing that he is Lord. — Better, He, being Lord. Dwelleth not in temples made with hands. — We note with special interest the reproduc tion of the thought which the then persecutor had heard from the Hps of the martyr Stephen. (See Note on chap. vH. 48.) As asserted of the Temple at Jerusalem, it had at that time, even though it was quoted from a Jewish prophet, driven the Pharisee Saul into the frenzy of fanaticism. Now, having learnt the lesson as regards that Temple, he proclaims the truth as applicable a fortiori to aU temples raised by human hands. It is ob vious that this truth places the sacredness of Christian churches on a ground entirely different from that which influenced the minds of Jew or Greek Hi regard to theh respective temples. Churches are holy, not because God dwells in them, but because they are set apart for the highest acts of the coUective Ufe of the congregation of His people. In those acts men hold communion with God, and so the Church is for them aU, and more than aU, that the Tabernacle of Meeting (this, as meaning the 285 place where man met God, rather than Tabernacle of the Congrega tion, being the true rendering of the Hebrew term ; comp. Ex. xxix. 42) was to the Israelites of old. Eomish theory and practice, in pre senting the consecrated wafer in pyx or monstrance, or carrying it hi procession, as an object of ado ration, revives the old Pagan view which St. Paul disclaims. P6) neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing. — Lite raUy, as needing anything in addi tion. The previous words had struck at a false theory of temples, this strikes at a false theory of worship. Men have to think of God as the supreme Giver, not as requiring anything at theh hands but justice, mercy, and truth. Both Jewish and heathen writers had borne theh witness of the same truth : David had said, " Thou desirest not sacrifice ; else would I give it" (Ps. h. 16), and the Latin Epicurean poet had written of the Divine nature, that it was — "Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri, Nee Dene promeritis capitur, nee tan- giturira." and [" Strong in itself, it needeth no^jjc* Isra&her won by gifts,- "wvf' Should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.— The word for "feel after" expresses strictly the act of groping in the dark. From the Apostle's point of view, anticipating Hi part the great Theodiksa — the vindication of the ways of God— in the Epistle to tha "In Him we THE ACTS, XVII. Live and Move." every one of us : (28) for in I I him we live, and move, and Eomans, the whole order of the world's history was planned, as part of the education of mankind, waking longings which it could not satisfy, leading men at once to a consciousness of the holiness of God and of theh own sinfulness. The reHgions of the world were to him as the movements of one who climbs " Upon the great world's altar stairs. That slope through darkness up to God ; " who can only say — " I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust, and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope." Theh ritual in aU its manifold variety was but as the inarticulate wailing of childhood — " An infant crying for the light, And with no language hut a cry." Tennyson, In Memoriaw,, liv. The "if haply" expresses the exact force of the Greek particles, which imply « doubt whether the end had been attained in its com pleteness. The altar to the Un known and Unknowable was a witness that they had not been found. "The world by wisdom knew not God" (1 Cor. i. 21). It had not got, in the language of another poet of our own, beyond " Those ohstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings ; " which are as the " Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realised." "Wordsworth, Ode on Immortality. Though he be not far from every one of us. — Better, and yet He is not far. The speaker appeals, as he does in Bom. H. 15, to the witness borne by man's conscious ness and conscience. There, Hi the depths of each man's being, not in temples made with hands, men might find God and hold communion with him. It was natural, Hi speak ing to the peasants of Lystra, to point to the witness of " the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons." (See Note on chap. xiv. 17.) It was as natural, Hi speaking to men of high culture and introspective analysis, to appeal to that which was within them rather than to that which was without. But it wiU be noted that he does not con fine that witness to the seekers after wisdom. God is not far from "everyone of us." St. Paul ac cepts the truth which St. John afterwards proclaimed, that Christ is the " true Light that Hghteth every man that cometh into the world." (See John i. 9.) The- writer of the Book of Deuteronomy. . (chap. xxx. 11 — 14) had asserted a Uke truth when he taught Israel that " the word was not in heaven, or beyond the sea," but "in thy mouth and in thine heart, that thou mayest do it." At this point the Stoics, we may beheve, would re cognise the affinities which St. Paul's thoughts presented to their own teaching. The Epicureans would be more and more repeUed by this attack on the central posi tion of theh system. (as) ]jior in him we live, and move, and have our being. — Better, we live, and are moved, and are. Each of the verbs used has a definite philosophical significance. The first points to our animal hfe ; ' the second — from which is derived the Greek word used by ethical 287 "We are also THE ACTS, XVII. His Offspring." have our being ; as certain I I also of your own poets have writers for passions, such as fear, love, hate, and the Uke — not, as the English verb suggests, to man's power of bodUy motion in space, but to our emotional nature ; the third, to that which constitutes our true essential being, the inteUect and wiU of man. What the words express is not merely the Omni presence of the Deity ; they teU us that the power for every act and sensation and thought comes from Him. They set forth what we may venture to caU the true element of Pantheism, the sense of a "pre sence interposed," as in nature, "in the Hght of setting suns," so yet more in man. As a Latm poet had sung, whose works may have been known, if not to the speaker, to the hearers, and the historian : — " Deura namque ire per omnes Terrasque tractusque maris, coelnmque profundum, Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne —-ferarum, Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas ; Scilicet hinc reddi deinde ac resoluta re- ferri, Omnia ; nee morti esse locum, sed viva volare Sideris in numeruin atque alto succedere eselo." [" God permeates all lands, all tracts of sea, And the vast heaven. From him all flocks and herds, And men, and creatures wild, draw, each apart, Their subtle life. To Him they all re turn, When onee again set free. No place is found For death, but all mount up onee more on high To join the stars in yon high firma ment."]— Virg. Georg. iv. 221—225. ' In the teaching of St. Paul, how ever, the personality of God is not merged, as in that of the Pantheist, in the thought of the great Soul of the World, but stands forth with awful distinctness in the character of King and Judge. Traces of Uke thoughts are found in the prophetic vision of a time when God shaU be " aU hi aU " (1 Cor. xv. 28), the dis- cords of the world's history har monised in the eternal peace. As certain also of your own poets have said. — The quotation has a special interest as being taken from a poet who was a countryman of St. Paul's. Aratus, probably of Tarsus (circ. B.C. 272), had written a didactic poem under the title of Phsnomena, comprising the main facts of astronomical and meteoro logical science as then known. It opens with an invocation to Zeus, which contains the words that St. Paul quotes. Like words are found in a hymn to Zeus by Cleanthes (b.c 300). Both passages are worth quoting : — (1) "From Zeus begin we ; never let us leave His name unloved. With Him, with Zeus, are filled All paths we tread, and all the marts of men ; Filled, too, the sea, and every creek and bay ; And all in all things need we help of Zeus, For we too are his offspring." Aratus, Phcenom. 1 — 5. (2) " Most glorious of immortals, many- named, Almighty and for ever, thee, O Zeus, Sovran o'er Nature, guiding with thy hand All things that are, we greet with praises. Thee 'Tis meet that mortals call with one accord, For we thine offspring are, and we alone Of all that live and move upon this earth, Receive the gift of imitative speech." Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus. The Folly THE ACTS, XVII. of Idolatry. said, For we are also his offspring. (29) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold,0 or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. (so) And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now com- The fact of the quotation would at once quicken the attention of the hearers. They would feel that they had not to deal with an Uliterate Jew, like the traders and exorcists who were so common in Greek cities, but with a man of culture hke theh own, acquainted with the thoughts of some at least of theh great poets. We are also his offspring. — We too often think of the quota tion only as happUy introduced at the time ; but the fact that it was quoted shows that it had impressed itseh, it may be, long years before, on St. Paul's memory. As a stu dent at Tarsus it had, we may weU beheve, helped to teach him the meaning of the words of his own Scriptures : " I have nourished and brought up chUdren" (Isa. i. 2). The method of St. Paul's teaching is one from which modern preachers might weU learn a lesson. He does not begin by telling men that they have thought too highly of them selves, that they are vile worms, creatures of the dust, chUdren of the devU. The fault which he finds in them is that they have taken too low an estimate of theh position. They too had forgotten that they were God's offspring, and had counted themselves, even as the unbeHeving Jews ¦ had done (chap. xiH. 46) " unworthy of eter nal Hfe." (29) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God. — One consequence from the thought 19 2 of sonship is pressed home at once. If we are God's offspring our con ception of Him should mount up ward from what is highest Hi our selves, from our moral and spiritual nature, instead of passing down ward to that which, being the crea ture of our hands, is below us. SubstantiaUy asserting the same truth, the tone of St. Paul in speak ing of idolatry is very different from that which we find in the older prophets (1 Eings xvHi. 27 ; Ps. cxxxv. 15 — 18; Isa. xliv. 9 — 20). He has, as it were, studied the genesis of idolatry, and instead of the burning language of scorn, and hatred, and derision, can speak of it, though not with tolerance, yet with pity, to those who are its victims. The Godhead, — The Greek term is neuter, and corresponds to the hah - abstract, hah - concrete forms of the " Divine Being," the " Deity." Gold, or silver, or stone. — The first word reminds us of the lavish use of gold in the colossal statue of Zeus by Phidias. Silver was less commonly used, but the shrines of Artemis at Ephesus (see Note on chap. xix. 24) supply an instance of it. " Stone " was the term commonly applied to the marble of PenteHcus, which was so lavishly employed Hi the sculpture and ar chitecture of Athens. (30) And the times of this ignorance God winked at. — Better, perhaps, overlooked, the The Call to THE ACTS, XVII. mandeth all men every where to repent : (sl) be cause he hath appointed a day, in the which he will 10r, offered faith. judge the world in right eousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance1 EngUsh phrase, though vivid, being somewhat too famiHar, and suggest ing, strictly taken, not merely tolerance, but connivance and con currence. The thought is one in which St. Paul manifestly found comfort. He sees in that ignorance a mitigation of the guilt, and therefore of the punishment due to the heathen.world. The past history of the world had shown a praBter- mission of the sins, for which, on the condition of repentance, men were now offered a full remis sion. (See Eom. hi. 25.) In thus teaching he was reproducing what our Lord had taught as- to the servant who "knew not his Lord's wiU," and should therefore be beaten, but with "few stripes." (See Luke xii. 48.) And now commandeth aU men every where to repent. — At this point the feelings of both Stoics and Epicureans would almost inevitably undergo a change. The latter might regret the mistakes he had made inhis search after the maxi mum of enjoyment, but a change such as the Greek for ' ' repentance " implied — new aims and purposes, loathing of the past and efforts for the future — was altogether ahen to his thoughts. Prom the Stoics, as measured by Epictetus and Marcus AureHus, better things might perhaps have been expected, but the doctrine of Necessity, which entered largely into popular Stoicism, blunted theh sense of responsibUity. They accepted the consequences of theh actions with a serene apathy ; for the most part, they gave thanks, as the phUo- Sophie Emperor did, that they were not as other men, and that the events of theh Hfe had led them to an ethical completeness ; but the idea of abhorring themselves, and repenting in dust and ashes, had not as yet dawned on the Stoic's thoughts. (Medltt. i. 1—16.) pi) Because he hath ap pointed a day. — Here the speaker would seem, to both sets of hearers, to be falling back into popular superstition. Minos and Ehada- manthus, and Tartarus and the Elysian Fields, — these they had learnt to dismiss, as belonging to the chUdhood of the individual and of mankind, — "Esse aliquid Manes et subterranea regna Vix pueri credunt." . . . [" Talk of our souls and realms beyond the grave, The very boys will laugh, and say you rave."] Juvenal, Sat. ii. 149. The Epicurean rejected the idea of a divine- government altogether. For the Stoic, to quote a line from SchiUer, — "Die Welt-geschichte ist das Welt- gericht," i" And the world's story is its judgment day."] and he expected no other. The thought of a day of judgment as the consummation of that history, which was bo prominent in St. Paul's teaching, was altogether strange to them. 290 Effect of THE ACTS, XVII. Paul's Speech. unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (33) And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. C3S) So Paul departed from among them. (M) Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed : among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. By that man whom he hath him. — The word implies practicaUy ordained. — LiteraUy, by a man. Who the man was, and what proof there was that he had been raised from the dead, were questions either reserved for a later stage of teaching, or interrupted by the derision of the hearers. Up to this point they had listened atten tively, but that the dead should be raised again seemed to them — as to the Sadducean, to the Greeks generaUy — absolutely incredible (chap. xxvi. 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 35). Ps) Some mocked : and others said, We will hear thee again. — The word " mocked " implies look and gesture, as weU as words of derision. (See Note on chap, ii 13.) We may venture to assume that the mockers were found chiefly among the Epicureans, both companionship and conversion. There was an attractive power in the Apostle's character that drew men unto him. Dionysius the Areopagite. — As the constitution of the Court of the Areopagus requhed its mem bers to have filled a high magisterial function, such as that of Archon, and to be above sixty, the convert must have been a man of some note. According to a tradition, ascribed by Eusebius (Hist. Hi. 4, iv. 23) to Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, he became Bishop of Athens. An elaborate treatise on the hierarchy of Heaven — Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, and the Hke — is extant under his name, but is obviously of much later date, probably of the fourth or and that the inquhers, perhaps fifth century. The legend of the putting off the inquiry to a " more Seven Champions of Christendom convenient season," were Stoics, who wished to hear more from a teacher with whom they found themselves in sympathy on so many points of contact with theh own system. Whether they car ried on theh inquiry we are not told. The words that fohow imply a certain indignation on the part of the Apostle. He would not stay to expose the name or the work of his Lord to the jests of scoffers. (34) Certain men clave unto has transformed him into the St. Denys of France. A church dedi cated to him stands on the Areo pagus of modern Athens. Damaris. — Chrysostom says that she was the wife of Diony sius, but this is obviously only a conjecture. And others with them. — The contrast between this and the " great multitude," the " many " at Thessalonica and Beroea, is very significant. Not less striking is 291 Paul comes THE ACTS, XVIII, to Corinth. CHAPTER XVIII. al After these things Paul a.d.54. I departed from Athens, and came to Corinth ; (2) and the absence of any reference to Athens in St. Paul's Epistles. Of all the cities which he visited, it was that with which he had least sympathy. AU that can be said is that he may have included them among " the saints which are in aU Achaia" (2 Cor. i. 1) Hi his prayers and hopes. It would almost seem as if he felt that little was gained by entering into a discussion on the great questions of natural theology, and therefore he came to Corinth, determined to know nothing "but Jesua Christ, and Hhn crucified " (1 Cor. ii. 2). XVIII. . C1) And came to Corinth. — The journey may have been either by land along the Isthmus of Corinth, or by sea from the Piraeus to Cenchreae. The position of Corinth on the Isthmus, with a harbour on either shore, Cenchreae on the east, Lechaeum on the west, had naturaUy made it a place of commercial importance at a very early stage of Greek history. With commerce had come luxury and vice, and the verb Corinthiazein = to live as the Corinthians, had become pro verbial, as early as the time of Aristophanes (Frag. 133), for a course of profligacy. The harlot priestesses of the Temple of Aphro dite gave a kind of consecration to the deep-dyed impurity of Greek social Hfe, of which we find traces in 1 Cor. v. 1 ; vi. 9—19. The Isthmian games, which were cele brated every fourth year, drew crowds of competitors and specta tors from all parts of Greece, and obviously furnished the Apostle with the agonistic imagery of 1 Cor. ix. 24 — 27. Less distin guished for higher culture than Athens, it was yet able (standing to Athens in much the same rela tion as Venice did to Florence from the 13th to the 16th century) to boast of its artists in stone and metal (Corinthian bronze was pro verbial for its excellence), of its rhetoricians and philosophers. On its conquest by the Eoman general Mummius (b.c 146), many of its buildings had been destroyed, and its finest statues had been carried off to Eome ; and it was a Eoman jest that the general had bound the captains of the ships that carried them to replace them in case of loss, A century later, Julius Caesar determined to restore it to its former splendour, and thousands of freed- men were employed in the work of reconstruction. Such was the scene of the Apostle's new labours, less promising, at first sight, than Athens, but, ultimately, far more fruitful in results. (2) And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus. — The name presents some interesting associations. Strictly speaking, the Greek form is Akylas, but this is undoubtedly the trans literated form of the Latin Aquila ( = Eagle). The name appears in a yet more altered form in Onkelos, the traditional writer of one of the Targums, or Paraphrases of the Law, then current among the Jews. In Aquila, one of the later trans lators of the Old Testament into Greek, himseh also born in Pontus, and possibly (but see Mr. Deutsch's Remains, p. 339) identical with On- 292 He finds THE ACTS, XVIII, Aquila. found a certain Jew named I a ft;?™' I Aquila," born in Pontus, kelos, we get the Greek form again. In the weU-known chief Eabbi of the synagogues of the Jews of London, Dr. Adler, we have it re appearing in a German form (Adler = Eagle). The tendency of Jews to take names derived from animals when sojourning in heathen coun tries, may be noted as not uncom mon. Ursulus, Leo, Leopardus, Dorcas, which appear in the early Christian inscriptions Hi the Vatican and Lateran Museums, present an alogous instances. His birth in Pontus indicates that he belonged to the dispersion of the Jews of that province (1 Pet. i. 1) which, as the north-eastern region of Asia Minor, lay between Bithynia and Armenia. Some from that province had been present at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (chap. H. 9). As the Jews at Eome consisted largely of freed-men, the libertinum genus of Latin writers (see Note on the Libertines in chap. vi. 9), it is probable that AquUa belonged to that class. With his wife Priscilla. — The name appears in some MSS. both here and elsewhere, in the form of Prisca, of which it is the diminutive. So we have LuciUa from Lucia, Domitilla from Domitia, AtticiUa (in an inscription Hi the Museum of Perugia) from Attica. The name Prisca probably indicates a connection with the gens of the Prisei, who appear in the earhest stages of Eoman history, and sup phed a long series of praetors and consuls. The marriage was pro bably, therefore, an example of the influence gained by educated Jews over the higher class of women at Eome. It was, perhaps, a, natural consequence of her higher social position that her name is sometimes placed before Aquila's (verse 1 3 ; Eom. xvi. 3; 2 Tim. iv. 19). The fact that she took part Hi the in struction of ApoUos (see Note on verse 26), indicates that she was a woman of more than ordinary culture, a student and interpreter of the Old Testament Scriptures. The question naturaUy suggests itseh, whether the husband and wife, who were afterwards so prominent in the ApostoUc Church, were, at this stage of their career, converted by St. Paul to the faith in Christ. The answer to that question must, it is believed, be a distinct and decisive negative. (1) There is no mention of their listen ing to St. Paul, and beheving, as, e.g., in the case of Lydia (chap. xvi. 14) ; and it is hardly con ceivable that St. Luke, who relates that case so fuUy, would have omitted a fact of such importance. (2) St. Paul joins himseh to them, as able to share his thoughts and hopes, even before he begins preaching in the synagogue, as in verse 4. (3) An unbelieving Jew was not likely to have admitted St. Paul into a partnership in his business. The question how and by whom the Church of Christ had been first brought to Bome whl be discussed in the next Note. Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to de part from Rome. — The account of the expulsion is given by Sue tonius (Claudius c. 25) in words which are in many ways suggestive — " Claudius Judsos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes Romti expulit " (" Claudius expeUed the Aquila's Wife THE ACTS, XVIII. Priscilla. lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Cla udius had commanded all Jews to Jews from Rome on account of theh continual tumults, instigated by Chrestus "). The Jews, at this period, were settled mainly in the Transtiberine region of Eome, at the base of the Janiculum, opposite the present Ghetto, or Jewry, of the city. They exercised consider able influence over the upper classes, had synagogues and ora tories (proseucha, see Notes on chap. xvi. 13 ; Luke vi. 12) of their own, were tolerated as possess ing a relligio llcita, had theh own cemeteries on the Appian Way. Suddenly there is a change in theh relations to the civil power, and the name of Chrestus is connected with it. Of the man whom he so mentions, Suetonius tells us nothing further. But we know that the sounds of the Greek "i" and "e" were hardly distinguishable. TertuUian (Apol. u. 3) says that the name of Christus was almost invariably pro nounced Chrestus, and, as that word signifies " good," " useful," "honest," founds a kind of argu- mentum ad hominem on the pre valent mistake. So in Jewish in scriptions in the Lateran Museum, Alfius appears as the equivalent for the Greek form Alphsus. The probable explanation of Claudius's decree, accordingly, is that men had come to Eome after the Day of Pentecost proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, that this had been foUowed by tumults like those of which we read in the Pisidian Antioch (chap. xiii. 50), and Lystra (chap. xiv. 19), and Thessalonica (chap. xvii. 5), and Beroea. (chap. xvii. 13), and that as the name of Christus was much in the mouths both of those 291 who received and those who re jected His claim to be the Messiah, the Boman magistrates, Uke GaUio, careless as to questions about names and words (verse 15), naturally in ferred that he was the leader of one of the parties, probably assuming, as at Thessalonica (chap, xvii 7), that he claimed the title of king after the manner of the pretenders to an earthly throne. If we ask who were the first preachers of the new faith, the answer, though we may be unable to identify indi viduals, is not far to seek. (1) It was scarcely Hkely that twenty- three years should have passed since the Day of Pentecost, with out bringing to the ears of the Jews of Eome some tidings of what was going on Hi Palestine. (2) In the Ust of those who were present at the Pentecostal wonder are strangers of Eome, Jews and proselytes (chap. ii. 10). (3) Among the Hellenistic Jews who disputed with Stephen were llber- tlnl, or freed-men of Eome, and Stephen himseh, we saw reason to believe, belonged to the same class. (See Notes on chap. vi. 5, 9.) (4) Andronicus and Junias (contracted from Junianus, as Lucas from Lucanus), who are among those to whom St. Paul sends messages of affection at Rome, were " in Christ" before him (Rom. xvi. 7). To these, then, and not to St. Peter, we may probably look as among the real founders of the Church of Eome. The facts aU indicate that the theo logy of the disciples of Eome was likely to be based upon the samo great principles as that of Stephen, and this explains the readiness with Paul stays THE ACTS, XVIII. with them. depart from Eome :) and came unto them. CS) And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought : for by their occupation they were tent- which Aquila and PrisciUa received the Gospel as St. Paul preached it. It is obvious that many more of those who had been expeUed from Eome were Hkely to have accom panied them from Eome to Corinth, and the long Ust of names in Eom. xvi. 3 — 15 probably consists for the most part of those who had thus come within the range of St. Paul's personal acquaintance, and had returned to Rome in the interval. The names in that list are many of them identical with those Hi the Columbarium, or burial-place, on the Appian Way, which contains the names of the men and women of the freed-man class who belonged to the household of the Empress Livia, and make it almost certain that they were of the same class ; and that when St. Paul speaks g'hil. iv. 22) of the "saints of aesar's household" he is referring to such as these, and not to persons of high official rank. (See Eom. xvi.) The name of Priscus occurs, it may be added, in a Christian in scription of uncertain date in the CoUegio Romano. We need not wonder that Greek should be the medium of intercourse even with these Eoman Jews. The inscrip tions Hi the recently discovered Jewish cemetery in the Vigna Randanini, at Eome, Bhow a strange blending of the two lan guages, Greek words appearing sometimes in Latin characters, and Latin words in Greek. Hebrew does not appear, but the symbol of the seven-branched candlestick of the Temple recurs frequently, 295 P) Because he was of the same craft The caUing was one which St. Paul had probably learnt and practised in his native city, which was noted then, as now, for the rough goat's-hair fabrics known to the Eomans, from the name of the province, as CUicium ( = Back- cloth). The material was one used for the saUs of ships and for tents, and on the whole, though some have supposed that leather was used for the latter, it seems more probable that this was the material which St. Paul worked at. It may be added that Pontus, from which AquUa came, was also famous for the same manufacture, the material Hi each case being furnished by the goats which fed upon the slopes of the Taurus, and the mountain ranges of that province. The fact that St. Paul had learnt this trade is not inconsistent with the com parative opulence suggested by his education both hi boyhood at Tar sus and at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. The Rabbinic proverb, that " He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief,?' made such instruction al most universal. So the great Hillel was a carpenter. Here, it is clear, he took the course of working for his hvelihood, as he had done at Thessalonica, that he might keep himself from the suspicion of self- interest in his work as a teacher (1 Cor. ix. 15—19 ; 2 Cor. xi. 7— 13). Such was the beginning of his labours at Corinth. A new artisan was working for wages, or as a partner, probably the latter, as Arrival of SUas THE ACTS, XVIII. and Timotheus. makers. C4) And he rea soned in the synagogue every sabbath, and per suaded the Jews and the Greeks. C5) And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and afterwards with Philemon (Philem. verse 17), in the workshop of the Jew, not as yet known to the outer world as more than a Jew, who had recently arrived in Corinth from Rome. I4) He persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. — It is neces sary to remind the reader that the latter word does not mean Greek- speaking Jews, or proselytes in the fuU sense of the word, but, as else where (see Note on chap. xi. 22), is used for those who were GentUes by birth, and who, though wor shipping in the synagogue, had not accepted circumcision. (5) And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia. — We learn from 1 Thess. H. 18, that the latter had come to St. Paul at Athens, but had been almost immediately sent back to Thessalonica to bring further news about the converts, for whose trials the Apostle felt so much sympathy and anxiety. They brought a good report of theh faith and love (1 Thess. Hi. 6), pos sibly also fresh proofs of .theh personal regard, and that of the Philippians, in. the form of gifts (2 Cor. xi. 9). This may, however, refer to a later occasion. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was probably sent back by the brethren who had accompanied SUas and Timotheus on theh jour ney to Corinth. The reader wiU note the paraUelism (1) between the passage in 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, which treats of the Second Advent, with the teaching of 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, and (2) between the few words as to spiritual gifts, in 1 Thess. v. 19 — 21, with the fuUer treatment of the same subject in 1 Cor. xii. — xiv.Paul was pressed in the spirit The better MSS. give, " he was constrained by the Word." The words describe something of the same strong emotion as the "paroxysm" of chap. xvii. 16. The Word was within him as » constraining power, compelHng him to give utterance to it. His " heart was hot within him, and while he was musing the fire kindled" (Ps.xxxix. 4). Whether there was any connection between the arrival of SUas and Timotheus and this strong feeling is a ques tion which there are no sufficient data for answering. It is hardly satisfactory to say, as has been suggested, that they probably brought pecuniary suppHes from Macedonia (2 Cor. xi. 9), and that he was therefore relieved from the obUgation of working for his Uve- lihood, and able to give himseh more entirely to the work of preaching. There is no indication of his giving up tent-making, and 1 Cor. ix. 1 is decidedly against it. A more probable explanation may be found Hi the strong deshe — of which he says, in Rom. xv. 23, that he had cherished it for many years — to see Rome, and preach the gospel there. Now he found him self brought into contact with those who had come from Eo ne, who The Jews THE ACTS, XVIII. oppose Paid. testified to the Jews iliat Jesus was Christ. (6) And when they opposed them selves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads ; ° I a Matt. 10. 14. am clean : from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. m And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that wor shipped God, whose house formed, in fact, part of its popula tion, and the old feeHng was stirred to a new intensity. (6) And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed. — The latter word includes the re viling of which the Apostle himseh was the object, as weU as blas pheming against God. Assuming what has been suggested in the Note on verse 2, we may think of these disturbances as reproducing what had aheady taken place at Eome. We may, perhaps, trace an echo of such blasphemies hi the words " Anathema be Jesus," of which St. Paul speaks in 1 Cor. xii. 3 as having been uttered as ¦with the vehemence of a simulated inspiration, against which men needed to be warned. He shook his raiment. — On the symboUc significance of the act Bee Matt. x. 14. As done by a Jew to Jews no words and no act could so weU express the Apostle's indignant protest. It was the last resource of one who found appeals to reason and con science powerless, and was met by brute violence and clamour. Your blood be upon your own heads. — The phrase and thought were both essentiaUy Hebrew. (See Matt. xxvn. 25.) We can hardly think of the Apostle as using them without a distinct recoUection of the language which 297 defined the responsibUity of a prophet of the truth Hi Ezek. Hi. 18, 19. Prom henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. — The words are almost identical with those in chap. xui. 46, and are explained by them. It is obvious Hi each case that the words have a Hmited and local appUcation. The Apostle did not renounce aU future work among the Jews, but gave up preaching to those at Corinth. P) And entered into a certain man's house, named Justus. — On the name, see Note on chap. i. 23. It may be added here that it occurs also in early Christian inscriptions Hi the Vatican Museum, Hi one case at the bottom of a glass cup, in the Museo Christiano, in conjunction with the name of Timotheus. In some of the better MSS. the name Titus is prefixed to Justus, and it wUl be noted that both Hi chap. i. 23, and Col. iv. 11, the latter is used as an epithet after the names of Joseph and of Jesus. It is found by itseh in the Jewish cemetery above referred to. (See Note on verse 1.) It would be rash to inf er from this the identity of this Titus Justus with the Titus of Gal. ii 3, or the disciple left in Crete. The name Titus was, like Caius or Gaius, one of the commonest Eo man names, and, if the reading be genuine, we may think of the Conversion THE ACTS, XVIII. of Crispus. joined hard to the syna gogue. (8) And Crispus," the chief rulerof the synagogue, believed on the Lord with a 2 Cor. 1 14. all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were bap tized. (9) Then spake the epithet as added to distinguish the Titus of Corinth from his name sake. On the other hand, to state the evidence on both sides fairly, the Titus who appears in 2 Cor. ii. 12, vii. 14, viii. 16, 23, was ob viously very closely connected with the Church of Corinth, and was not unlikely to be sent to Crete to exercise a mission analogous to that which he had been entrusted with at Corinth, and the combination of the names Timotheus and Justus, above referred to, as equally entitled to reverence, i3 more intelHgible if we assume that the latter name belonged to Titus, and that both stood therefore in the same relation to St. Paul as disciples and friends. In any case the Justus who is here named was, like Titus, an uncir cumcised Gentile, attending the synagogue as a proselyte of the gate. Up to this time apparently, St. Paul had been lodging in the house of a Jew, in some region of Corinth analogous to the Ghetto of modern Eome, in the hope of con- ciUating his brethren according to the flesh. Now, in sight of the wUd frenzied fanatics, he goes into a house which they would have shrunk from entering, even though it was next door to the synagogue, and though the man who lived in it was a devout worshipper. (8) And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, be lieved on the Lord — The article does not necessarily show that there was only one ruler — com monly, as at the Pisidian Antioch (chap. xiii. 15), there were more— but that this Crispus was thus dis tinguished from others of the same name. The office was one which gave its holder an honourable position, and as in inscriptions from the Jewish catacombs now in the LateTan Museum, was recorded on tombstones (Alfius Archisynagos) as a personal distinction of which the famUy of the deceased were proud. In favour of so conspicuous a con vert, St. Paul deviated from his usual practice, and baptised Crispus with his own hands (1 Cor. i. 14). Many of the Corinthians hearing beheved, and were baptized. — The tense of the two verbs impUes a process going on daUy for an undefined period. Among the converts we may note Gaius, or Caius, probably a man of higher social position than others, who made his house the meeting- place of the Church, and at St. Paul's second visit received him as a guest (Eom. xvi. 23), and the household of Stephanas, who, as " the first-fruits of Achaia," must have been among the earhest con verts (1 Cor. xvi. 15). These also St. Paul baptised himseh (1 Cor. i. 14, 15)_. Fortunatus and Achaicus, and Chloe, a prominent female con vert (1 Cor. i. 11), with Quartus, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city (Rom. xvi. 23), and Epasnetus, also among the " first-fruits of Achaia" (Rom. xvi. 5), may also be counted among the disciples made now or soon afterwards. <9> Then spake the Loid to The Vision THE ACTS, XVIII. in the Night. Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : ao) for I am with 1 Gr. sat there. thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee : for I have much people in this city. ai> And he continued l Paul. — We note the recurrence of these visions at each great crisis of the Apostle's Hfe. He had seen the Lord at his conversion (chap. ix. 4—6), he had heard the same voice and seen the same form in his trance in the Temple at Jerusalem (chap. xxH. 17). Now he saw and heard them once more. " In visions of the night, when deep sleep faUeth upon men," he passed from the strife of tongues into the pre sence of the Divhie Friend. The words " Be not afraid " imply that he too was subject to fear and depression, and felt keenly the trial of seeming f aUure and comparative isolation. His converts came chiefly from the slave or freed-man class, and those of a culture Hke his own, whether Greeks or Jews, were slow to accept his preaching (1 Cor. i 26, 27). And then, too, he carried, as it were, his Hfe in his hands. The reviling of the Jews might any hour burst into furious violence or deliberate plots of assassination. No wonder that he needed the gra cious words, " Be not afraid." The temptation of such a moment of human weakness was to faU back, when words seemed fruitless, into the safety of sUence, and there fore the command foUowed, " Speak, and hold not thy peace." We are reminded of the Hke passing mood of discouragement in one great crisis of EUjah's hfe (1 Eings xix. 4—14), yet more, perhaps, of its frequent recurrence in Jeremiah (Jer. i. 6—8 ; xv. 15—21). P°> Por I am with thee.— The command was foUowed by a promise which met the special trial of the time. Men might be against him, but Christ was with him. The general promise given to the Church at large, " Lo ! I am with you always " (Matt. xxvUi. 20), received - a personal apphcation, " I am with thee ;" and though called to a life of suffering, there was for the time an assurance that the wrath of men should be restrained, and that his work should not be hindered. I have much people in this eity. — The words remind us once more of those which EUjah had heard at a moment of Uke weakness, ¦" Yet have I left me seven thousand men Hi Israel" (1 Kings xix. 18). Even Hi the sinful streets of Corinth, among those plunged deepest into its sin (1 Cor. v. 10, 11), there were souls yearning for de Uverance, in whom conscience was not dead, and was waiting only for the caU to repentance. I11) And he continued there a year and six months. — This obviously gave time not only for founding and organising a Church at Corinth itself, but for work Hi the neighbouring districts, such as the port of Cenchreae, where we find Hi Eom. xvi. 1 a church duly furnished not only with presbyters and deacons, but with a sisterhood of deaconesses. The superscription of 2 Cor. i. 1, " to the Church that is in Corinth and to all the saints that are in all Achaia," clearly in dicates an extension of evangelising work beyond the Umits of the city. Paul brought THE ACTS, XVIII. before Gallio. there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. a2) And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the A.TJ. 66, ending. Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, a3) say ing, This fellow persuadeth The unimpeded progress of this period came to him as an abundant fulfilment of the Lord's promise, and prepared him for the next per secution when it came. (i2) And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia.— " Deputy " stands, as before (see Note on chap. xui. 7), for " pro consul." Here, also, St. Luke shows his characteristic accuracy in the use of official titles. Achaia, which included the whole of Greece south of the province of Macedonia, had been an imperial province under Tiberius (Tacitus, Ann. i. 76), and had been governed by a praetor, but had been recently, in the same year as the expulsion of the Jews from Eome, restored to the senate by Claudius, as no longer needing direct miHtary control (Suetonius, Claud, c. 25). GalUo, or to give his fuU name, M. Annaeus Novatus, who had taken the agnomen of GaUio on his adoption by the rhetorician of that name, was the brother of L. Annasus Seneca, the tutor of Nero. The philosopher dedicated to him two treatises on Anger and the Blessed Lhe ; and'the kindHness of his nature made him a general favourite. He was every body's " dulcis GalUo," was praised by his brother for his disinterested ness and calmness of temper, as one " whom those even who could not love him more than they did, loved all too little ' ' (Seneca, Ep. civ.) . On the whole, therefore, we may see in him a very favourable example of 300 what phUosophic culture was able to do for a Eoman statesman. On the probable connection of the writer of the Acts with his famUy, see Appendix, Excursus on the Life of St. Luke. Made insurrection . . . against Paul. — Better, per haps, rose up against, or rushed upon, our word "insurrection" having acquired the special mean ing of a revolt of subjects against rulers. And brought him to the judgment seat. — The habit of the Roman governors of provinces was commonly to hold theh court in the agora, or market-place on certain fixed days (see Note on chap. xix. 38), so that any one might appeal to have his grievance heard. GaUio was now so sitting, and the Jews, having probably pre concerted their plans, took advan tage of the opportunity. (13) This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. — It is obvious that in this appeal to the proconsul the Jews must have meant, not the law of Moses, but that of Rome. Their contention was that though Jews had been banished from Rome as a measure of policy, Judaism as such was stiU a relliglo llcita, tolerated and recognised by the State. Their charge against the Apostle was that he was preaching a new religion, which was not so recognised. The words "this feUow," though the substantive is an interpolation, Gallio's THE ACTS, XVIII. men to worship God con trary to the law. 04) And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you : °6) but if it be a question of words and names, and of jour law, look ye to it ; for I will be no fairly expresses the contempt im pUed Hi the use of the Greek pro noun. P4> When Paul was now about to open his mouth. — The phrase always impUes, as has been noticed (see Note on chap. viU. 35), the beginning of a set discourse. St. Paul was about to begin a formal apologia. This, however, proved to be unneces sary. Gallio said unto the Jews. — The proconsul could hardly have resided in Achaia for eighteen months without hearing of the new movement. He knew the Jews. He probably knew something of St. Paul. On the assumption aheady referred to (see Note on verse 12) the knowledge may have been fuUer than appears on the surface. In any case, from his standpoint, as philosopher and statesman, it was not a matter for his tribunal. He was not anxious to draw a hard and fast line as to the relligiones lieits recognised by the State. A matter of wrong or wicked lewdness. — Better, a matter of crime or fraud. " Lewd ness," which to us suggests a special class of crimes, is used as "lewd" had been Hi chap. xvii. 5. The Greek word is very closely connected with that translated " subtlety " in chap. xiU. 10. Both words were probably used Hi a strictly forensic sense — the first for acts of open wrong, such as robbery 301 or assault ; the second for those in which a fraudulent cunning was the chief element. Season would that I should bear with you. — The very turn of the phrase expresses an intense impatience. Even Hi the case sup posed, his tolerance would have required an effort. As it was, these Jews were now altogether intole rable. (16) But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law. — The second noun is in the singular number in the Greek. St. Paul was known as a speaker, one who preached the word of God, and with that, as distinct from acts, GaUio had nothing to do. The " names " were those which he had probably heard of at Rome, even before he came to Corinth. (See Note on verse 2.) Was a teacher whom both parties spoke of as Jesus the Nazarene entitled also to bear the name of Christos P In the emphasis laid on "your law" (lite raUy, the law which affects you), the judge intimates that he sees through theh appeal to law. It is Jewish, and not Roman law, which they are seeking to vindicate, and he wiU not make himself, as Pilate, after a weak protest (John xvhi. 3), had done (GalUo may weU have known the history), the executioner of an ahen code. With a strong emphasis on the pronoun, he ends with, " I, for my part, have no wish to be a judge of these things." Me drives THE ACTS, XVIII. the Jews away. judge of such matters. ue) And he drave them from the judgment seat tl7)Then all the Greeks took Sos thenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat G«) He drave them from the judgment seat. — The words imply a magisterial act. The order was given to the Hctors to clear the court, and the Jews, who did not immediately retreat were exposed to the ignominy of blows from theh lods. (") Then all the Greeks toou Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue. — The better MSS. omit the word " Greeks," which was probably in serted as an explanatory interpola tion by some one who thought it more Ukely that a ruler of the synagogue should have been assaulted by the Greek bystanders than by those of his own race. Taking the better reading, and assuming the natural construction of the sentence to be " ah of them (se., the Jews) took Sosthenes, and beat him," we have to ask for an explanation of conduct which seems so strange. This is probably found in the appearance of the same name in 1 Cor. i. 1, as associated with St. Paul in the Epistle to the Church of Corinth. It is a natural inference that Sosthenes, like his predecessor or partner hi office (it does not necessarily foUow that he succeeded him) became a convert to the new faith. If so, it is probable that he was aheady suspected of tendencies in that dhection, and when the Jews at Corinth found their plans frustrated, it was natural that they should impute their failure to the lukewarmness or treachery of the man who ought to have carried them to a successful 302 issue. They did not shrink from giving vent to theh rage even before the tribunal of the pro consul. And Gallio cared for none of those things. — More accu rately, And Gallio cared nothing for these things. The words have become almost proverbial for the indifference of mere poHticians and men of the world to religious truth. We speak of one who is tolerant because he is sceptical, as a GalUo. It may be questioned, however, whether this was the thought prominent Hi St. Luke's mind as he thus wrote. What he apparently meant was that the pro-- consul was clear-sighted enough to pay no regard to the clamours of St. Paul's accusers. If they chose, after failing in theh attack on Paul, to quarrel among themselves, what was that to him ? " Laissez faire, laissez alter " might well be his motto Hi dealing with such a people. The general impression, however, as to his character is not without its truth. The easy-going gentleness of his character Ul fitted him to resist the temptations of Nero's court, and after retiring from Achaia in consequence of an attack of fever (Sen. Ep. civ.), he returned to Eome, and, to the dis tress of Burrhus and his own brother, Seneca, he took part in ministering to the emperor's vices (Dio. Ixi. 20). He finaUy fell under the tyrant's displeasure, and, according to one tradition, was put to death by him. Another repre sents him as anticipating his fate Sosthenes beaten. THE ACTS, XVIII. Paul departs. him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things. a8) And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his by suicide ; Tacitus, however (Ann. xv. 73), only speaks of him as terrified by his brother's death, and supphcating Nero for his own hfe. P8) And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while. — LiteraUy, tarried yet many days, the phrase probably covering a period of some months. The fact is noted as fohowing on GaUio's repression of the enmity of the Jews. The Apostle could stay and work on without molestation. The time of his voyage was probably, as in the second journey from Corinth to Jerusalem, after the Passover, and before Pentecost. (See Note on chap. h. 1.) It was the most favourable time of the year for traveUing, and it brought the Apostle into contact with a larger number both of HeUenistic Jews and Hebrews than were found at other times. We can only infer, more or less conjecturaUy, the motives of his journey. (1) As afterwards, in chap. xx. 3, 4, he may have wished, in carrying out the terms of the compact with the Church of Jerusalem (Gal. H. 10), to be the bearer of alms collected for the disciples there. By some writers, however, this visit is iden tified with that of which St. Paul there speaks. (2) The vow which he had taken (see Note below) re quhed a visit to the Temple for its completion. (3) There might be a natural wish to report, as hi chap. xv. 4, the results of his ministry among the GentUes, Hi what, from the stand-point of Jerusalem, would seem the remoter regions of Mace donia and Achaia. Priscilla and Aquila. — On the priority given to the name of the wife, see Note on verse 2. Having shorn his head in Cenchrea : for he had a vow. —The grammatical structure of the Greek sentence makes it pos sible to refer the words to Aquila as weU as St. Paul, but there is hardly the shadow of a doubt that the latter is meant. (1) If Aquila had taken the vow he too would have had to go to Jerusalem instead of remaining at Ephesus. (2) The language of St. James in chap. xxi. 23, 24, implies a conviction, as rest ing on past experience, that St. Paul would wUhngly connect him seh with those who had such a vow. It remains to inquire (1) as to the nature and conditions of the vow ; (2) as to St. Paul's motives in taking it. (1) There can be no doubt that the " vow " was that of the tem porary Nazarite, as described in Num. vi. 1 — 21. It impUed a separation from the world and common hfe (this was the meaning of the word "Nazarite"), and whUe under the vow the man who had taken it was to drink no wine or strong drink, and to let no razor pass over his head or face. When the term was completed, he was to shave his head at the door of the Tabernacle, and burn the hair in the fire ' of the altar. It wiU be noted that the Nazarites in chap. xxi. 24, who are completing their vow, shave their heads. Here u 303 Paul sails THE ACTS, XVIII. into Syria. leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila ; having shorn his head in Cenchrea : for he had a vow : C19) And he different word (' ' shorn ") is used, which is contrasted with " shaving " in 1 Cor. xi. 6. It was lawful for a man to have his hah cut or cropped during the continuance of the vow, and this apparently was what St. Paul now did. But in this case also the hah so cut off was to be taken to the Temple, and burnt there, and this explains the Apostle's eagerness "by aU means" (verse 21) to keep the coming feast at Jerusalem. (2) We cannot exclude from the probable motives the strong feeling of thankfulness for deUverance from danger, foUowing upon fear which, as in nearly aU phases of the reUgious Hfe, has been the chief impulse out of which vows have grown. We have seen the fear, and the promise, and the deliverance, in the record of St. Paul's work at Corinth, and the vow of seh-consecration, for a season, to a Hfe of special devotion was the natural result. St. Paul had not learnt to despise or condemn such expressions of devout feeling. (3) We may add to this motive the principle on which St. Paul acted of being " ah things to aU men," and, therefore, as a Jew to Jews (1 Cor. ix. 20). A Nazarite vow would testify to aU his brethren by blood that he did not despise the Law himseh nor teach other Jews to despise it. (See Notes on chap. xxi. 21 — 24.) Such a vow, involving, as it did, for a time a greater asceticism than that of common life, furnishes a Unk in the succession of thoughts in 1 Cor. .301 ix. 22 — 25, between the Apostle's being made " ah things to all men" and his " keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection." (4) So far we have found reasons for the vow. But taken by itseh, the vow would seem to have in volved a continuous growth of hah rather than cropping it. How was that act connected with the vow ? A probable answer to the question is found in the Apostle's language as to social customs in matters of this kind, in 1 Cor. xi. 14. He condemns long hah as effeminate. But the Nazarite vow led to long hah as its natural consequence, and there was, therefore, the risk that whhe practising a rigorous auste rity, he might seem to outside observers to be adopting an un manly refinement. At Corinth men would, perhaps, know what his act meant, but in the regions to which he was now going it was wise to guard against the suspicion by a modification of the vow, such as Jewish law aUowed. Cenchreae was, as has been said, the eastern harbour of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf. Eom. xvi. 1 indicates the existence of an or ganised Church there. The warm language of gratitude Hi which St. Paul speaks of Phoebe, the dea coness of the Church there, is best explained by supposing that she had ministered to him as such when he was suffering from bodily pain or mfirmity, and this, in its turn, may afford another probable explanation of the vow. (I9> He came to Ephesus, and Brief Stay THE ACTS, XVIII. at Ephesus. came to Ephesus, and left them there : but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. ca» When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; a 1 Cor, 4.19; Jas. 4. 15. W) but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem : but I will return again unto you, if God will." And he sailed from Ephesus. m And left them there. — The better MSS. give, " They came to Ephe sus." What foUows seems to imply that he no longer continued to work with them, as at Corinth, but leaving them to establish themselves in theh craft, began, under the pressure of his eagerness to reach Jerusalem, an independent course of teaching Hi the synagogues. The first mention of Ephesus calls for a short account of its history. It had been one of the early Greek colonies on the western coast of Asia Minor. It f eU under the power of Alyattes, King of Lydia, and his successor, Croesus. It had from the first been celebrated for the worship of Artemis (see Note on chap. xix. 14) ; and her Temple, with its sacred image, and stately courts, and its hundreds of priests and priestesses of various grades, was visited by pUgrims of aU nations. It was one of the cities hi which East and West came into close contact with each other, and the reUgion of Greece assumed there a more Oriental character, and was fruitful in magic, and mysteries, and charms. The Jewish popula tion was sufficiently numerous to have a synagogue, and St. Paul, as usual, appeared in it as a teacher. TO When they desired him. to tarry longer time with them. — This -was, obviously, a hopeful sign, the earnest of the fruitful labours that followed. No where, among the churches that he founded, does St. Paul seem to have found so great a receptivity for sphitual truth. While he looked on the Corinthians as being chUdren requiring to be fed with mhk (1 Cor. Hi. 2), he saw Hi the Ephesians those to whom he did not shun to declare "the whole counsel of God" (chap. xx. 27), to whom he could, at a later date, appeal as able to measure his knowledge of the mystery of the gospel (Eph. Hi. 4). (21> I must by all means keep this feast that cometh. — Lite raUy, the coming, or, the next feast. This was, probably, as has been said, the Feast of Pentecost. (See Note on verse 18.) If he missed that, there would be no other feast till that of Tabernacles ; and then, in October, travelling, whether by sea or land, became dangerous and difficult. (See Note on chap. xxvii. 9.) If God wBl. — In this resting in the thought of the wiU of the Father as ordering all things weU — even in theh use of almost the same formula, to them much more than such a formula as the Deo volente has often become Hi the lips of Christians — we find another point of agreement between St. Paul and St. James (Jas. iv. 15). P2) And when he had landed at Caesarea. — It is obvious that a 20 305 Journey in THE ACTS, XVIII. Asia Minor. -when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. C23> And after he had spent some time tliere, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. (24) And a certain Jew named Apollos," born at great deal is covered by the short record of this verse. In the absen ce of any data in the Acts for settling the question, we may possibly refer to some casualty in this voyage, one of the three shipwrecks of 2 Cor. xi. 25. At Caesarea, we may believe, he would probably renew his inter course with PhiUp the Evangelist. At Jerusalem there would be the usual gathering of the Church, the completion of his Nazarite vow Hi the Temple, a friendly welcome on the part of St. James and the elders of the Church. Peter was pro bably at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11), or possibly at Babylon (1 Pet. v. 13). To this visit to Antioch we may probably refer the scene which St. Paul narrates in Gal. H. 11 — 14. His long absence from Antioch had left the Judaising party time to gather strength and organise a new attack on the freedom of the Gen tUes, and they brought a fresh pressure to bear upon the element of instability which stUl Ungered in St. Peter's character, and he had not been able to resist, it. It is, however, possible that the incident may have occurred before Paul and SUas had left Antioch. (See Note on chap. xv. 39, 40.) (23) "Went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order. — It is clear from the Epistle to the Galatians that on this visit he found few traces, or none at aU, of the work of the Judaisers. The change came afterwards. Some 306 falling away from theh first love, some relapse into old national vices, he may have noticed aheady, which called for earnest warning (Gal. v. 21). As he passed through the churches be had founded on his previous journey, he gave the direc tions for the weekly appropriation of what men could spare from their earnings (the term, a weekly "of fertory," though often employed of it, does not represent the facts of the case), to which he refers in 1 Cor. xvi. 2. What churches in Phrygia were visited we are unable to say. A possible construction of Col. H. 1 might lead us to think of those of the vaUey of the Lycus, Colossae, Hierapolis, Laodicea, as having been founded by him, but the more probable interpretation of that passage is, that he included them in the list of those who had " not seen his face Hi the flesh." l24) And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria. — The name was probably a contraction of Apol lonius or Apollodorus. The facts in the New Testament connected with him show that he occupied a prominent position in the history of the Apostolic Church. Conjec tures, more or less probable, indi cate a yet more representative character and a wider range of influence. Luther, looking to the obviously Alexandrian character of the Epistle to the Hebrews and to the mystery which shrouds its Apollos at THE ACTS, XVIII. Ephesus. Alexandria, an. eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. (25) rpj^g man wag mstructed in the way of the Lord ; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the tilings of the authorship, and which led Origen to the conclusion that God alone knew who wrote it, hazarded the thought that ApoUos was the writer. Later critics have adopted the hypothesis, and have brought it to a closer approximation to certainty by an induction from numerous paraUeUsms in thought and language between the Epistle and the writings of Philo, who Hved between b.c 20 and a.d. 40 or 50. The present writer has carried the inquiry one step further. Among the ethical books of the LXX. there is one, the Wisdom of Solomon, the authorship of which is also an unsolved problem. It is not named or quoted by any pre- Christian writer, Clement of Eome being the first writer who shows traces of its influence, just as he is the first who reproduces the thoughts of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It has been ascribed to PhUo partly on the external evidence of a doubtful passage in the Muratorian Canon, partly on the internal evidence of numerous coincidences with his writings. A careful comparison of the two books shows so close an agreement in style and language between the Wisdom of Solomon and the Epistle to the Hebrews that it is scarcely possible to resist the inference that they must have come from the same pen, and that they represent, therefore, different stages in the sphitual growth of the same man. Those who wish to carry the inquhy further wiU find the subject discussed at length in two papers, ' ' On the Writings of ApoUos," in Vol. I. of the Expositor. Without assuming more than the probabUity of this mference, it is yet obvious that a Jew coming from Alexandria at this time could hardly fail to have come under PhUo's influence, and that his mode of interpreting the Scriptures would naturaUy pre sent many analogies to that of the Alexandrian thinker. To him accordingly may be assigned, with out much risk of error, the first introduction of the charac teristic idea of PhUo that the Unseen Godhead manifests itself Hi the Logos, the Divine Word, or Thought, as seen in the visible creation, and in the spirit and heart of man (Wisd. ix. 1, 2, 4 ; xvi. 12 ; xviii. 15 ; Heb. iv. 12). It wiU be remembered that Jews of Alexandria were among those who disputed with Stephen (chap. vi. 9). Some of these may have been more or less persuaded by his preaching, and have carried back to their native city some knowledge, more or less complete, of the new faith. An eloquent man. — The Greek adjective impHes learning as well as eloquence. It was applied pre eminently to those who wrote history with fulness and insight (Herod, i. 1 ; H. 3, 77). The treat ment of the history of Israel both in Wisd. x. xi., xviu., and Heb. xi. might weU be described by it. (25) This man was instructed in the way of the Lord.— 307 Apollos with THE ACTS, XVIII. Aquila and Priscilla. Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. (26:) And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue : whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more Better, had been instructed. The verb is the same as that used in Luke i. 1 (where see Note), and was afterwards used technicaUy in the form of Catechumen to describe the status of a convert preparing for baptism. The " way of the Lord " is used in a half -technical sense, as in the phrase "those of the way" (see Note on chap. ix. 2), as equivalent to what, in modern speech, we should describe as the " rehgion " of Christ. And being fervent in the spirit. — The noun is ob viously used, as in the identical phrase Hi Rom. xH. 11, for the spirit of the man, not for the Holy Spirit of God. He spake and taught dili gently. — Better, he was speaking and teaching accurately. Both verbs are Hi the tense which impHes continuous action. The things of the Lord. — The better MSS. give, "the things concerning Jesus." We ask in what the teaching, which is thus described as accurate, was yet de fective, lhe position of ApoUos at this stage, was, it would seem, that of one who knew the facts of our Lord's Hfe, and death, and re surrection, and had learnt, compar ing these with Messianic prophecies, to accept Him as the Christ. But his teacher had been one who had not gone beyond the standpoint of the followers of the Baptist, who accepted Jesus as the Christ during His ministry on earth. The Christ was for him the head of a glorified 308 Judaism, retaining aU its distinc tive features. He had not as yet learnt that " circumcision was nothing " (1 Cor. vii. 19 ; Gal. v. 6), and that the Temple and aU its ordinances were " decaying and waxing old, and ready to vanish away" (Heb. vHi. 13). Knowing only the baptism of John. — The words are f uU of interest, as showing a wider extent in the work of the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Christ, than is indicated in the Gospels. Even at Alexandria, probably among the ascetic communities of the Thera- peutae, whose hfe was fashioned upon the same model, there were those who had come under his in fluence. (26) 'Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard . . .— Many of the best MSS. put Pris- ciUa's name first, as in verse 18. The fact mentioned is interesting as showing (1) that Aquila and his wife continued to attend the services of the synagogue, and (2) that Apohos appeared there, as St. Paul had done, in the character of a Eabbi who had a message to deliver, and was therefore allowed, or, it may be, requested (as in chap. xiH. 15), to address the people. And expounded unto him the way of God more per fectly. — Better, as maintaining the right relation of the compara tive to the positive idverb of the previous verse, more accurately. The prominence given to Priscilla Apollos goes THE ACTS, XVIII. to Achaia. perfectly. G" And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him : who, when he was come, helped them in this instruction implies that she was a woman of more than ordinary culture, a student of the older Scriptures, able, with a prophetic insight, to help even the disciple of Philo to understand them better than he had done before. It fol lows of necessity that " the way of God" which they "expounded" to him was the gospel as they had learnt it from St. Paul, perhaps as they had learnt it at an earher stage, from the Ups of Stephen or his foUowers. (See Note on verse 2.) It would include, to put the matter somewhat technicaUy, the doctrines of salvation by grace, and justifi cation by faith, and the ght of the Spirit, and union with Christ through baptism and the Supper of the Lord. It would seem to fol low almost necessarily, as in the case of the twelve disciples in the next chapter (chap. xix. 1 — 6), that ApoUos, who had before known only the baptism of John, was now baptised into " the name of the Lord Jesus." (271 And when he was dis posed to pass into Achaia. — In the absence of the name of any city in the province, Corinth naturaUy suggests itself as the place to which he went. Chap. xix. 1, and the mention of ApoUos in 1 Cor. i. 12, turn this into a certainty. He felt, we may believe, that his training in the phUoso phical thought of Alexandria quahfied him to carry on there the work which St. Paul had begun both there and at Athens. One who had written, or even read, the noble utterances of Wisd. i., H., was weh qualified to carry an aggreBsive warfare into the camp of the Epicureans, while thoughts Hke those of Wisd. vH., viii., especiaUy vHi. 7, with its recog nition of the four cardinal virtues of Greek ethics, " temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude," would attract the sympathy of the nobler followers of Zeno. The brethren wrote, ex horting the disciples to re ceive him. — This is the firs\ instance of what were afterwards known technicaUy as "letters of commendation" (mentioned Hi 2 Cor. Hi. 1), written by one church to another in favour of the bearer. The fact that they were given by the Christian community at Ephesus shows how favourable an impression ApoUos had made there. It is probable that St. Paul aUudes indirectly to these letters in the passage just referred to. The partisans of ApoUos had referred to them as one of the points in which he excelled St. Paul. He had come with letters of commen dation. He had received them when he left Corinth. The Apostle answers the disparaging taunt in the language of a noble indigna tion. He needed no such epistle. The church which he had planted was itself an epistle, ' ' known and read of aU men" (2 Cor. Hi. 3). Helped them much which had believed through grace. — The two last words admit, in the Greek as in the English, of being taken either with "helped" or 309 Preaching of THE ACTS, XVIII. Apollos, much which had believed through grace : C28) for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. " believed." The former con struction seems preferable. It was through the grace of God, co operating with the ght of wisdom, that ApoUos was able to lead men to a higher stage of thought. It will be noted that this exactly cor responds with the account which St. Paul gives of his relation to the teacher whom some set up against him as a rival: "I have planted ; ApoUos watered." " I have laid the foundation and another buUdeth thereon" (1 Cor. Hi. 6, 10). I28) He mightily convinced the Jews The conclusion to which he led the Jews was the same as that which St. Paul urged on them. The process was, per haps, somewhat different, as the line of argument in the Epistle to the Hebrews differs from that in the Epistle to the Galatians. To lead men on, after the manner of Philo, into the deeper meanings that lay beneath the letter of Scripture, to deal with them as those who were pressing forwards to the perfection of maturity in spiritual growth (Heb. v. 11 — 14), instead of treating them as children who must be fed with milk and not with " strong meat " (i.e., soUd food), as St. Paul had done (1 Cor. i. 2) — it was natural that this should attract foUowers to the new preacher, and give him a larger measure of real or apparent success in dealing with the Jews than had attended the labours of St Paul. As Apollos does not appear again in the Acts, it may be weU to bring 310 together what is known as to his after-history. At Corinth, as has been said, his name was used as the watchword of a party, probably that of the phUosophising Jews and proselytes, as distinguished from the narrower party of the circumcision that raUied round the name of Cephas .(1 Cor. i. 12). Not a word escapes from St. Paul that indicates any doctrinal differ ence between himself and ApoUos, and as the latter had been instructed by St. Paul's friends, AquUa and PriscUla, this was, indeed, hardly probable. It would appear from 1 Cor. xvi. 12, that he returned to Ephesus, probably with letters of commendation from the Church of Corinth (2 Cor. Hi. 1). St. Paul's confidence in him is shown by his desire that he should return once more to Corinth with Stephanas and Fortunatus and Acnaicus. His own reluctance to be the occasion even of the semblance of schism explains his unwiUingness to go (1 Cor. xvi. 12). After this we lose sight of him for some years. These, we may weU believe, were well fiUed up by evangelising labours after the pattern of those which we have seen at Ephesus and Corinth. Towards the close of St. Paul's ministry (a.d. 65) we get our last gHmpse of him, in Tit. Hi. 13. He is Hi company with Zenas, the lawyer (see the same word as in Matt. xxii. 35), one, i.e., who, Hke himself, had a special reputation for the profounder knowledge of the Law of Moses. St. Paul's feeUng towards him is stiU, as of Paul at THE ACTS, XIX Ephesus. CHAPTER XIX— 01 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus : and find ing certain disciples, (2) he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard old, one of affectionate interest, and he desires that Titus wiU help him in aU things. He has been labouring at Crete, and there also has gathered round him a distinct company of disciples, whom St. Paul distinguishes from his own ; "Let our's also learn to maintain good works " (Tit. Hi. 14). After this, probably after St. Paul's death, he wrote — if we accept Luther's conjecture — the Epistle to the Hebrews, addressed, as some have thought, to the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and speciaUy of Caesarea, but, more probably, as I have been led to beUeve, to the Christian ascetics, known as Therapeutas, trained, Uke himseh, in the school of PhUo, with whom he had formerly been associated at Alexandria. The mention of disciples of, or from, Italy Hi Heb. xiu. 24 suggests a connection with some other Itahan Christians than those of Eome, probably with those of Puteoli. (See Note on chap, xxviu. 14.) XIX. P) Paul having passed through the upper coasts. — This implies a route passing from Galatia and Phrygia through the mterior, and coming thence to Ephesus. The "coast," in the modern sense of the term, St. Paul did not even approach. (2) Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- 311 lieved ? — Better, as connecting the two facts in the EngUsh as in the Greek, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed 1 — i.e., on your conversion and baptism. We are left to conjecture what prompted the question. The most natural explanation is that St. Pau» noticed Hi them, as they attended the meetings of the Church, a want of spiritual gifts, perhaps, also, a want of the peace and joy and brightness that showed itself in others. They presented the fea tures of a rigorous asceticism like that of the Therapeutae — the out ward signs of repentance and mortification — but something was manifestly lacking for their spiri tual completeness. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost The standpoint of the disciples so exactly corresponds to that of Apollos when he arrived at Ephesus, that we may reasonably think of them as having been converted by his preaching. They must, of course, have known the Holy Spirit as a name meeting them in the Sacred Books, as given to the olden prophets, but the}' did not think of that Spirit as a living and pervading presence, in which they themselves might claim a share. They had been baptised with the baptism of repentance, and were leading a life of fasting, and prayers, and alms, but they had not passed on to " righteous- Disciples THE ACTS, XIX of John. whether there be any Holy Ghost. (3) And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized 1 And they said, Unto John's baptism. <4) Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance," saying unto the people, a Matt. 3. 11. that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. (5) When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (6) And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Eom. xiv. 17). It lies on the surface that they were Jewish, not Gentile disciples. (3) Unto what then were ye baptized ? — The answer of the disciples had shown (1) an im perfect instruction, faffing short of that which catechumens ordinarily received before they were admitted to the new birth by water and the Spirit; (2) an imperfect spiritual experience. Could those who made it have been admitted into the Church of Christ by baptism in His name ? The answer to that question showed theh precise posi tion. They were practically dis ciples of the Baptist, beHeving in Jesus as the Christ, and thinking that this constituted a sufficient qualification for communion with the Church of Christ. (4) John verily baptized with the baptism of repent ance. — The words may fairly be regarded as giving the summary of what was actually a fuUer teaching. The distinctive point in it was that the baptism of John was, by his own declaration, simply provisional and preparatory. He taught his disciples to believe in Jesus, and belief implied obedience, and obedience baptism in His name. It is not without significance that 312 the list of elementary doctrines in Heb. vi. 1 — 4, addressed, we may believe, by ApoUos to those who had once been his disciples, in cludes what those who are now before us might have learnt from him in theh spiritual chUdhood, and that he then passes on to describe the higher state of those who had been " illumined," and had " tasted of the heavenly gift," and been made ' ' partakers of the Holy Ghost " (Heb. vi. 4—6). P) They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. — On the use of this formula in connection with the baptism of Jewish converts, see Notes on chap. H. 38 ; Matt, xxviu. 19. (6) They spake with tongues, and prophesied. — Better, they were speaking with tongues and pro phesying, the verbs implying con tinuous action. As to the nature and relation of the two gifts, see Notes on chaps, ii. 4 ; x. 46. Here ah the facts of the case confirm the view which has there been stated. The mere power of speak ing foreign languages without learning them, as other men learn, seems a much less adequate result of the new gift than that which we find in the new enthusiasm and in tensity of spiritual joy, of which the gift of tongues was the natural Gift of the THE ACTS, XIX Holy Ghost and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. m And all the men were about twelve. (8) And he went into the syna gogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and per suading the things concern ing the kingdom of God. (9) But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he expression. It is not without in terest to remember that the dis cussion of the two gifts in 1 Cor. xiv., in which the connection of the "tongues" with jubilant and ecstatic praise is unmistakable (1 Cor. xiv. 14 — 16), was written not very long after this incident, and while the facts must yet have been fresh in St. Paul's memory. On the "laying on of hands," which was the "outward and visible Bign" of the " inward and sphitual grace," see Notes on chap. viii. 14 — 18, where the laying-on of hands is foUowed by the ght of the Holy Ghost. O And aU the men were about twelve. — Better, The men were in all about twelve. The whole narrative seems to imply that they were not individual cases, occurring here and there from time to time, but were Hving together as a kind of ascetic community, attending the meetings of the Church, yet not sharing the fulness of its Hfe. (8) Spake boldly for the space of three months. — We pause for a moment to think of the amount of work of aU kinds im plied in this short record. The daily labour as a tent-maker went on as before (chap. xx. 34), pro bably stiU in partnership with Aquila and Priscilla. The Sab baths saw the Apostle evening and morning Hi the synagogue preach ing, as he had done elsewhere, that Jesus was the Christ, and setting forth the nature of His work and the laws of His kingdom. (9) When divers were har dened and believed not. — Better (the verb implying con tinuous action), when some were growing hardened and disobedient. Spake evil of that way be fore the multitude Better, as before, of the way. (See Note on chap. ix. 2.) The unbelieving Jews acted at Ephesus as at Thessalonica, and tried to wreak their hatred against St. Paul by stirring up sus picion among the Gentiles, especi- aUy, as before, among those of the lower class, who were always ready for a tumult. Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.— Tho Greek word for " school " had a somewhat interesting history. Ori- ginaUy meaning "leisure," it was appUed to leisure as bestowed on study, then, as here, to the place in which study was pursued; lastly, as Hi our phrase, " the school of Zeno or Epicurus," as a coUective term for the foUowers of a conspi cuous teacher. In this case it was probably a lecture-room which, as the private property of the owner, was lent or let to the Apostle. Of the Tyrannus here mentioned nothing more is known with cer- I tainty, but the name is connected 313 Paul stays THE ACTS, XIX Two Tears. departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. C10) And this continued by the space of two years ; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. aw And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul : as> so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases with one or two interesting coinci dences that are more or less sng- gestive. Like its Latm equivalent, Rex, it was not uncommon among the class of slaves or freed-men. It is found in the Columbarium of the household of Livia on the Appian Way, and as belonging to one who is described as a Medicus or physician. Both names and professions in this class were very commonly hereditary, and the hy pothesis that this Tyrannus was also a physician, and that, as such he may have known St. Luke, or possibly may have been among the Jews whom the decree of Claudius (chap. xviU. 2) had driven from Eome, and so shared the faith of Aquila and PrisciUa, fits in with and explains the facts recorded. An unconverted teacher of philo sophy or rhetoric was not likely to have lent his class-room to a preacher of the new faith. (See also Note on verse 12.) I10; So that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. — Here also there is a gap which can only be partiaUy filled up by inference or conjecture. Ephesus, probably, came to be the centre of St. Paul's activity, from which journeys were made to neighbouring cities ; and hence we may legitimately think of the other 3U six churches of Eev. ii. and Hi. as owing theh origin to him. The growth of the new community among both sections of the popula tion became a conspicuous fact, and began to teU upon the number of pilgrims who brought their offer ings to the shrine of Artemis, or carried away memorials from it. (u) And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. — The Greek phrase is negative : no common works of power — not such as one might meet with any day. (See Note on chap. xxviU. 2, where the same phrase recurs.) The noun is that which was technically used by physicians for the heaUng "powers " or "virtues" of this or that remedy, and is so far, though used freely by other writers, characteristic of St. Luke. P2) So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons. — Both words are, in the original, transUterated from the Latin, the former being sudarla, used to wipe off sweat from brow or face ; the latter semlcincta, the short aprons worn by artisans as they worked. We ask how St. Luke, passing over two years of labour in a few words, came to dwell so fully on these special facts. The answer may be found (1) in St. Luke's own habit Work of the THE ACTS, XIX. Exorcists. departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. (13) Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. CM) And of mind as a physician, which would lead him to dweU on the various phenomena presented by the supernatural gift of heaHng. (2) A further explanation may be found in the inference suggested Hi the Note on verse 9. Such a report of special and extraordinary pheno mena was Hkely enough to be made by a physician Uke Tyrannus to one of the same calling, and probably of the same faith. Thepicture suggested is that of devout persons coming to the Apostle as he laboured at his craft, and carrying away with them the very handkerchiefs and aprons that he had used, as precious relics that conveyed the supernatural gift of healing which he exercised. The efficacy of such media stands tibviously on the same footing as that of the hem of our Lord's gar ment (see Matt. ix. 20, 21), and the shadow of Peter (see Note on chap. v. 15), and, we may add, of the clay in the heahng of the blind (see Johnix. 6). The two condi tions of the supernatural work of healing were a Divine Power on the one hand, and Faith on the other, and any external medium might serve to strengthen the latter and bring it into contact with the former. Cures more or less analo gous, ascribed to the reHcs of saints, admit, in some measure, of a Hke explanation. Without pretending to draw a sharp line of demarca tion between the natural and super natural in such cases, it is clear that a strong beUef in the possi bUity of a heaHng work as Hkely, or certain, to' be accompanied by any special agent, does much to stimulate the activity of the vis medicatrix Naturce which before was passive and inert. It is not unreasonable to see Hi the works of healing so wrought a special adaptation to the antecedent habits of mind of a population like that of Ephesus. It was something for them to learn that the prayer of faith and the handkerchief that had touched the Apostle's skin had a greater power to heal than the charms in which they had previously trusted. P3) Certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists. — The men be longed to a lower section of the class of which we have aheady seen representatives in Simon of Samaria or Elymas of Cyprus. (See Notes on chaps. viH. 9 ; xHi. 6.) They practised exorcism as a profession, and went from city to city, pre tending with charms and speUs to cure those who were looked on as possessed with demons. Many of these were said to have come down from Solomon. In Layard's Nineveh and Babylon (c. xxH.) there is an interesting account of several bronze bowls containing such formulae. To them "the name of the Lord Jesus," which was so often in St. Paul's Ups, was just another formula, mightier than the name of the Most High God, or that of the archangels Baphael or Michael, which were used by others. (i*) Seven sons of one Seova, 315 The Sons THE ACTS XIX of Sceva. there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. Cl6) And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye t C16) .And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (17) And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; a Jew, and chief of the priests. — Better, a Jewish chief priest. The word might mean that he was at the head of one of the twenty-four courses into which the priests of the Temple were divided. (See Matt. xxi. 15 ; Luke Hi. 2.) It is hardly probable, how ever, that one in that position would have taken to this disre putable caUing, and it seems more likely that the title itseh was part of the imposture. He caUed him self a chief priest, and as such St. Luke, or Tyrannus, described him. The scene is brought vividly be- . fore us. The seven exorcists, rely ing partly, we may believe, in the mystical virtue of theh number, stand face to face with a demoniac, frenzied and strong Hke the Gada- rene of Matt. vUi. 28 ; Mark v. 3, 4. (15) Jesus I know, and Paul I know . . . — Better, Jesus I acknowledge. The two verbs are different in the Greek, the one implying recognition of authority, the latter, as colloquially used, though originaUy it had a stronger meaning, a more famiUar acquaint ance. The possessed man, identi fying himself, as the Gadarene did, with the demon, stood in awe of the Name of Jesus, when uttered by a man like St. Paul ; but who were these seven pretenders, that they should usurp authority over him? (181 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on Ahem. — The demoniacal possession brought with it, as in the case of the Gadarene, "the preternatural strength of frenzy, and the seven impostors (men of that class being commonly more or less cowards) fled in dismay before the violent paroxysms of the man's passionate rage. leaked and wounded. — The .first word does not necessarily imply more than that the outer garment, or cloak, was torn off from them, and that they were left with no thing but the short tunic. (See Matt. v. 40 ; John xxi. 7.) It may be noted, as an indication of truth fulness, that the narrative stops here. A writer inventing mhacles would no doubt have crowned the story by representing the man who baffled the impostors as healed by the power of the Apostle. <"> Pear feU on them aU, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. — The fact thus narrated had shown that the sacred Name stood on quite a different level from that of the other names which exorcists had employed. It was a perilous thing for men to use it rashly, without inward faith in aU that the Name 316 Magicians THE ACTS, XIX converted. and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. °8) And many that be lieved came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. (l9) Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books to gether, and burned them imphed. Men thought more of it than they had done before, because they saw the punishment that f eU on those who had profaned it. (,s> And many that believed. — More accurately, many of those that had believed. The word is pro bably used, as in verse 2, for the whole process of conversion, in cluding baptism, confession in this instance foUowing on that rite, instead of preceding it. The words do not definitely state whether the confession was made privately to St. Paul and the other teachers, or pubHcly in the presence of the con gregation ; but the latter is, as Hi tiie confession made to the Baptist, much the more probable. (See Matt. hi. 6.) The feeUng of a vague awe at this contact with the Unseen in some, the special beUef in Christ as the Judge of aU men in others, roused conscience into intense activity ; the sins of their past Hves came back upon theh memories, and it was a relief to throw off the burden by confessing them. (is) Many of them, also which used curious arts . . . — The Greek word expresses the idea of superstitious arts, overbusy with the supposed secrets of the invisible world. These arts were almost, so to speak, the specialite of Ephesus. Magicians and astrologers swarmed in her streets (comp. the reference to them as analogous to the magicians at the court of Pharaoh in 2 Tim. Hi. 8), and there was a brisk trade in the charms, incanta tions, books of divination, rules for interpreting dreams, and the Uke, such as have at all times made up the structure of superstition. The so-caned "Ephesian spells" (grammata Ephesia) were small slips of parchment Hi sUk bags, on which were written strange caba- Hstical words, of Httle or of lost meaning. The words themselves are given by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, v., c. 46), and he interprets them, though they are so obscure as to baffle the conjectures of phUology, as meaning Darkness and Light, the Earth and the Year, the Sun and Truth. They were probably a survival of the old Phrygian cultus of the powers of Nature which had existed prior to the introduction of the Greek name of Artemis. And burned them before aU men. — This, then, was the result of the two sets of facts re corded in verses 12 and 16. The deep-ingrained superstition of the people was treated, as it were, homoeopathicaUy. Charms and names were aUowed to be channels of renovation, but were shown to be so by no virtue of theh own, but only as being media between the Divine power on the one hand and the faith of the receiver on the other; and so the disease was cured. The student of the history of Florence cannot help recalling the analogous scene Hi that city, when men and women, artists and 317 Growth of the THE ACTS, XIX. Word of God. before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (20) So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. C21) After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jeru salem, saying, After I have musicians, brought the things in which they most delighted— pic tures, ornaments, costly dresses — and burnt them in the Piazza of St. Mark at the bidding of Savonarola. The tense of the verb imphes that the "burning" was continuous, but leaves it uncertain whether it was an oft-repeated act or one that lasted for some hours. In this complete renunciation of the old evU past we may probably see the secret of the capacity for a higher knowledge which St. Paul recognises as belonging to Ephesus more than to most other churches. (See Note on chap. xx. 27.) Fifty thousand pieces of silver. — The coin referred to was the Attic drachma, usually esti mated at about 8Jd. of English mo ney, and the total amount answers, accordingly, to £1,770 17s. 6d., as the equivalent in coin. In its purchasing power, as deter mined by the prevalent rate of wages (a denarius or drachma for a day's work), it was probably equivalent to a much larger sum. Such books fetched what might be caUed "fancy" prices, according to their supposed rareness, or the secrets to which they professed to introduce. Often, it may be, a book was sold as absolutely unique. (20> So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. — The verbs imply a continuous growth. The better MSS. give, '< the word of the Lord." 318 (21) Paul purposed in the spirit. — Better, perhaps, in spirit. The Greek word, however, implies a reference to something more than human volition. The spirit which formed the purpose was in commu nion with the Divine Sphit. (See Notes on chap. xvii. 16 ; xviu. 5). We learn from the Fhst Epistle to the Corinthians what were the chief antecedents of this purpose. There had been intercourse, we may beheve, more or less frequent with the churches of both Mace donia and Achaia during the two years which St. Paul had spent at Ephesus ; and there was much to cause anxiety. It had been neces sary for him to send a letter, not extant, to warn the Corinthians against theh besetting impurity (1 Cor. v. 9). The slaves or freed- men of Chloe had brought tidings of schisms, and incestuous adul teries, and grave disorders in ritual and discipline. (See 1 Cor. i. 11; v. 1, 2; viii 10; xi. 4, 17— 22 ; xiv. 26.) These things caUed for the Apostle's presence. With these was joined another purpose. He wished to revisit Jerusalem, and to appear there as the bearer of a munificent contribution from the Gentile churches to the suffering church of the Hebrews. (See 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. viii. 1.) After I have been there, I must also see Eome This is the first recorded expression of a desire which we learn from Eom. Timotheus sent THE ACTS, XIX to Achaia. been there, 1 must also see Pome. C22) So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus ; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another : for the assembly was con fused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. ^'And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. (34) But when they knew that he was a Jew, P2) Some therefore cried one thing, and some another. — Better, kept on crying. The graphic character of the whole narrative makes it almost certain that it must have come from an eye-wit ness, or possibly from more than one. Aristarchus or Gaius, who traveUed to Jerusalem with St. Luke (chap. xx. 4), and were with him also at Eome, may have told him the whole tale of the scene in which they had borne so prominent a part. Possibly, also, fohowing up the hint thrown out in the Note on verse 12, we may think of Tyrannus as having written a re port of the tumult to St. Luke. The two conjunctions translated " therefore " (better, then) seem to carry the narrative back to what was passing Hi the theatre, after the parenthetical account of what bad been going on between the Apostle, the disciples, and the Asiarchs outside it. For the assembly was con fused. — It is not without interest to note that the Grerk word for assembly is the ecclesia, with which we are so famiUar as appUed to the Church of Christ. Strictly speaking, as the town-clerk is careful to point out (verse 39), this mob gathering was not an ecclesia, but the word had come to be used vaguely. TO And they drew Alex ander out of the multi tude . . . — The fact that he was put forward by the Jews indicates, probably, that they were anxious to guard against the suspicion that they were at aU identified with St. Paul or his companions. If we identify this Alexander with the " copper smith" of 2 Tim. iv. 14, who wrought so much evU against the Apostle on his third and last visit to Ephesus, we may assume some trade connection with Demetrius which would give him influence with the crowd of artisans. His apologia, or defence, was obviously made by him as the representative of the Jews. The whole scene is again painted vividly — the vain attempt to gain a hearing by signs and gestures, the fury of the people on recognising his Jewish features and dress, theh ready assumption that all Jews were alike in abhor ring idols. Perhaps, also, they may have known or suspected that that abhorrence was sometimes accompanied by a readiness to traffic Hi what had been stolen from the idol's temple. St. Paul's words in Eom. H. 22 may have had a personal apphcation. The language of the town-clerk in verse 37 suggests the same thought. He could point to Aristarchus and Gaius, and say emphaticaUy, " These men are not robbers of temples, whatever others may be." (3*) when they knew that 325 Speech of the THE ACTS, XIX. Town-clerk. all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. (35) And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he 1 Gr. the templekeeper. said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper1 of the great goddess Diana, and of the he was a Jew. — Better, when they recognised. ps) And when the town- clerk had appeased the people . . . — The Greek word is the same as the " scribe " of the Gospels, and the familiar EngUsh expresses his function with adequate correctness. He was the keeper of the records and archives of the city. The title appears in many of the inscriptions in Mr. Wood's volume, often in conjunction with those of the Asiarchs and the pro consul. If, as is probable," his office was a permanent one, he was likely to have more weight with the people than the Asiarchs, who were elected only for a year, and who were not aU of Ephesus. The language of the pubHc officer is as characteristic in its grave caution as that of Demetrius had been in its brutal frankness. He, like the Asiarchs, obviously looks on St. Paul and his companions with respect. He has no feeUng of fanaticism, and would not willingly be a persecutor. He dares not oppose the multitude, br.t he wiU try and soothe them with the loud profession of his attachment to the reUgion of his country. He was, if we may so speak, the Gamaliel of Ephesus, not without paraUels among the princes and statesmen and prelates who have lived in the critical times of ppUtical and reUgious changes, and have en- 326 deavoured to hold the balance be tween contending parties. A worshipper of the great goddess Diana.— The substan tive as weU as the adjective belonged to the local vocabulary. Its Hteral meaning is "temple- sweeper," or "sacristan" — one consecrated tt> the service of the goddess. The Greek word (nedkoros) is found on' coins and inscriptions of Ephesus as appUed to the in habitants, sometimes Hi relation to the Emperor, sometimes to the goddess. They looked to her as theh guardian and protector. One inscription claims for the city the honour of being the " nurse " of the great goddess (Boeckh. 2954, ut supra) . She was, as it were, to borrow a phraseology which pre sents only too painful an analogy, " Our Lady of Ephesus." It is a curious fact that the same month was consecrated to Flora in Eome, and is now the "Mois de Marie" in France and Italy. The omission of the word " goddess " in nearly aU the best MSS. is significant. She was, even without that word, emphaticaUy " Artemis the Great." In some of the inscriptions of Ephesus she is described as " the greatest," the "most High." The image which fell down from Jupiter.— The name was often given to old pre-historic images— as, e.g., to that of Athene Polias at Athens. It may have He advises THE ACTS, XIX. against Rashness. image which i'ell down from Jupiter? (S6) Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. <37) For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blas phemers of your goddess. (ss) Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen whichare been merely a legendary way of stating that no one knew what artist had sculptured the image, or when it had been first worshipped. Possibly, however, the word may have had a more Hteral meaning as applied to a meteoric stone which had been employed by the sculptor, or was worshipped in its original form. The many-breasted image of Artemis described in the Note on verse 24 is, however, reported to have been made of oHve-wood. The word image is not in the Greek, and onefamUiarword (diopetes) was suffi cient to express what requires seven in the EngUsh paraphrase. I36) Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against . . . — The language of the town-clerk has the ring of an official.acceptance of the estabHshed cultus rather than of any strong personal devotion. Such language has often been heard from the defenders of institutions which were almost on the verge of ruin. Ye ought to be quiet. — The verb is the same as that of the transitive "appeased" Hi verse 35. In the exhortation "to do nothing rashly " we hear the voice of a worldly prudence, reminding us partly, as has been said, of Gama liel, partly of the weU-known maxim of TaUeyrand, Surtout, point de zele. P7) These men, which are neither robbers of churches. — Better, robbers of temples. It was 324 not unusual for the writers of the Elizabethan age to apply the term, which we confine to Christian build ings, to heathen temples. They would speak, e.g., of the "church" of Diana, or the "chapel " of ApoUo. The corresponding noun for " rob bing temples," or "sacrilege," is found in inscriptions discovered by Mr. Wood (vi. 1, p. 14) among the ruins of the temple, as denoting a crime to which the severest penalties were attached. The testimony to the general character of St. Paul and his companions, as shown both Hi word and deed, indicates the quietness and calmness with which they had preached the truth. They persuaded, but they did not ridicule or revile. This was, probably, more than could be said for Alexander and the Jews who put him forward. (See Note on verse 33.) (38) rphe law is open. — Lite rally, the court, or forum, days are going on. The words may either indicate that the proconsul was then actuaUy sitting to hold trials in the agora or forum, or may be taken as a- coUoquial idiom for " there are court days coming." There are deputies. — The Greek word is (as in chaps. xHi. 7, xviii. 12) the equivalent for pro consul. Strictly speaking, there was only one proconsul in each province, and we must therefore assume either that here also the expression is coUoquial, or that the assessors (consiliarii) of the proconsul were The Law THE ACTS, XIX is Open. with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open,1 and there are deputies : let them implead one another. (39) But if ye enquire any thing concern ing other matters, it shall 2 Or, or dinary. 1 Or, the courtdays arekept. be determined in a lawful2 assembly. C40) For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's up roar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. popularly so described, or that some pecuUar combination of circum stances had led to there being two persons at this time at Ephesus clothed with proconsular authority. There are some grounds for adopt ing the last alternative. Junius SUanus, who was Proconsul of Asia when St. Paul arrived in Ephesus (a.d. 54), had been poisoned by Celer and Helius, the two procu rators, at the instigation of Agrip- pina; and it seems probable that they for a time held a joint procon sular authority. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 1.) Bet them implead one another. — The EngUsh word exactly expresses the technical force of the Greek. Demetrius and his foUowers were to lodge a formal statement of the charge they brought against the accused. They in theh turn were to put hi a rejoinder, and bo joining issue, each side would produce its wit nesses. Ps) It shall be determined in a lawful assembly. — Better, in the lawful assembly. The argu ment is that, should the alleged grievance be one that called for legislative rather than judicial action, the matter would have to be referred to the regular meeting of the ecclesia, which the town- clerk had probably the right to summon. There they could pre- for redress. Here also the in scriptions discovered by Mr. Wood (vi. 6, p. 50) give an interesting Ulustration of the official phrase ology. An image of Athena is to be placed ' ' above the bench where the boys sit," at " every lawful (or regular) ecclesia.'' (40> We are in danger to be called in question. — The "we" was used to include the rioters. The " caUed in question" is the same verb as that rendered " im plead " in verse 38. There was a risk of which Demetrius and his party had to be reminded, that they might find themselves defendants, and not plaintiffs, in a suit. A riotous " concourse " (the town- clerk uses the most contemptuous word he can find, ' ' this mob meet ing ") taking the law into its own hands was not an offence which the proconsuls were Hkely to pass over lightly. It would hardly be thought a legitimate excuse that they had got hold of two Jews, and wanted to "lynch" them. An interesting inscription of the date of Trajan, from an aqueduct at Ephesus, gives nearly aU the technical terms that occur in the town-clerk's speech, and so far confirms the accuracy of St. Luke's report: "This has been dedicated by the loyal and devoted Council of the Ephesians, and the people that sent theh gravamen, and petition serve the temple (Nebkoros), Pedu. 328 The Assembly THE ACTS, XX. Dismissed. WI) And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. CHAPTER XX.— 111 And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called casus Priscinus being pro-consul, by the decree of Tiberius Claudius ItaUcus, the town-clerk of the people." XX. G) Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them . . . — The latter verb im pUes a fareweU salutation. Departed for to go into Macedonia. — We are able from the Epistles to the Corinthians to fiU up the gap left in the narrative of the Acts. Having sent Timo theus and Erastus to see after the discipline of the Church of Corinth (chap. xix. 17), the Apostle was cheered by the coming of Stephanas and his two companions (1 Cor. xvi. 17), and apparently wrote by them what is now the First Epistle to the Corinthians. A previous Epistle had been sent, probably by Timothy, to which he refers hi 1 Cor. iv. 17. When he wrote that Epistle, he intended to press on quickly, and complete Hi person the work which it was to begin (1 Cor. iv. 18, 19). He was led, however, to change his purpose, and to take the land journey through Macedonia instead of going by sea to Corinth (2 Cor. i. 16, 17), and so from Corinth to Macedonia, as he had at first in tended. He was anxious to know the effect of his letter before he took any further action, and Titus, who probably accompanied the bearers of that letter, was charged to hasten back to Troas with his report. On coming to Troas, how ever, he did not find hhn, and after waiting for some time in vain (2 Cor. ii. 12), the anxiety told upon his health. He despaired of hfe, and felt as if the sentence of death was passed on him (2 Cor. i. 8; iv. 10, 11). The mysterious thorn Hi the flesh " buffeted " him with more severity than ever (2 Cor. xH. 7). He pressed on, however, to Macedonia (2 Cor. ii. 13), pro bably to Philippi, as being the first of the churches he had planted, where he would find loving friends and the " beloved physician " whose services he now needed more than ever. There, or elsewhere in Macedonia, Titus joined him, and brought tidings that partly cheered him, partly roused his indignation. There had been repentance and reformation where he most wished to see them, on the one hand (2 Cor. vi. 6—12); on the other, his enemies said bitter things of him, sneered at his bodily infir mities (2 Cor. x. 10), and compared, to his disparagement, the creden tials which ApoUos had presented (2 Cor. iii. 1) with his lack of them. The result was that Titus was sent back with the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, accompanied by two other disciples (probably St. Luke and Tychicus ; 2 Cor. viii. 18, 19), the Apostle resolving to wait tiU they had brought matters into better order, and had coUected what had been laid up in store for the Church of Jerusalem, so that it might be ready for him on his arrival (2 Cor. ix. 5). At or about this time also, to judge from the numerous paraUelisms of thought Departure THE ACTS, XX. of Paul. unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and de parted for to go into Mace donia. C2) And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much and language between it and the Epistles to the Corinthians on the one hand, and that to the Romans on the other, we must place the date of the Epistle to the Galatians. Probably after Titus and Luke and Tychicus had left, and before Timotheus had returned — when he was alone, with no one to share the labour of writing, or to give help and counsel — tidings came that the Judaising teachers had been there also, and, as at Corinth, had been only too successful. How the tidings reached hhn we do not know ; but if the purple-seUer of Thyatira was stiU at Philippi, she might naturaUy be in receipt of communications from that city, and it was near enough to Galatia to know what was passing there. P) And when he had gone over those parts. — Here also we can fiU up the outline of the narra tive from the Epistles. We may take for granted that St. Paul would revisit the churches which he had himself founded at Thessa lonica and Beroea, as weU as at PhUippi. The names in verse 4 indicate that delegates were chosen, probably by his direction, for the great journey to Jerusalem which he now began to contemplate. Rom. xv. 19 indicates a yet wider range of activity. He had taken the great Eoman road across Mace donia, and going westward to the shores of the Adriatic, had preached the gospel in Illyricum, where as yet it had not been heard. He came into Greece. — The word Hellas, or Greece, seems used 330 as synonymous with Achaia, the southern province. This may have led to an unrecorded visit to Athens. It certainly brought him to Corinth and Cenchreae. There, we may hope, he found aU his hopes ful filled. Gaius was there to receive him as a guest, and Erastus was stiU a faithful friend. There, if not before, he found Timotheus, and he had with him Jason of Thes salonica and Sosipater of Beroea (Eom. xvi. 21 — 23) . In one respect, however, he found a great change, and missed many friends. The decree of Claudius had either been revoked or was no longer acted on. Aquila and Priscilla had gone straight from Ephesus to Eome on hearing that they could do so with safety, and with them the many friends, male and female, most of them of the libertini class, whom he had known in Corinth, and whose names fiU so large a space Hi Eom. xvi. The desire which he had felt before (chap. xix. 21) to see Eome was naturaUy strengthened by their absence. His work in Greece was done, and he felt an impulse, not merely human, drawing him to the further west. A rapid journey to Jerusalem, a short visit there, to show how generous were the gifts which the GentUe Churches sent to the Churches of the Circumcision, and then the desire of his lhe might be gratified. To preach the Gospel in Rome, to pass on from Rome to the Jews at Cordova and other cities in Spain (Rom. xv. 24—28), — that was what he now proposed to himseh. How different a path Three Months THE ACTS, XX. in Greece. exhortation, he came into Greece, (s) and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to re turn through Macedonia. l4) And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea ; and of the Thessa lonians, Aristarchus and Secundus ; and Gaius of was actuaUy marked out for hhn the sequel of the story shows. P) When the Jews laid wait for him . . . — In sailing for Syria, Cenchreae would naturaUy be the port of embarkation, and St. Paul's presence there may reasonably be connected with the mention of Phoebe, the deaconess of that church, in Rom. xvi. 1. His intention was, however, frustrated. The maUg- nant Jews of Corinth watched their opportunity. At Cenchreae, amid the sth and bustle of a port, they might do what they had failed to do before. Here there was no GaUio to curb their fury, and throw the aegis of his tolerant equity over theh victim. Their plans were laid, and theh victim was to be seized and made away with as he was on the point of embarking. On hearing of the plot, the Apostle had to change his plans, and started with his companions for Macedonia, either travelling by land or taking a ship bound for one of its ports, instead of the one bound for Caesarea, or Tyre, or Joppa. It is clear that the latter course would have baffled his murderous foes quite as much as the former. (4) And there accompanied him into Asia . . . — The occur rence of the two names, Timotheus and Sosipater (another form of Sopater) Hi Rom. xvi. 21 makes it probable that all of those here named were with St. Paul at Corinth. As they were to go with him to Jerusalem, it was indeed natural they should have gone to the city from which he intended to embark. It is not difficult to dis cover the reason of their accom panying him. He was carrying up a large sum in trust for the churches of Judtea, and he sought to avoid even the suspicion of the malversa tions which the tongue of slanderers was so ready to impute to him (2 Cor. vhi. 20, 21). Representatives were accordingly chosen from the leading churcheB, who acting, as it were, as auditors of his accounts, would be witnesses that ah was right. As regards the individual names, we note as follows : (1) The name of Sopater, or Sosipater, occurs in the inscription on the arch named Hi the note on chap. xvii. 8 as belonging to one of the politarehs of Thessalonica. (2) Aristarchus had been a feUow- worker with St. Paul at Ephesus, and had been a, sufferer Hi . the tumult raised by Demetrius (chap. xix. 29). (3) Of Secundus nothing is known, but the name may be compared with Tertius in Eom. xvi. 22, and Quartus in Eom. xvi. 23*, as suggesting the probabiHty that all three were sons of a disciple who had adopted this plan of naming his chUdren. The corresponding name of Primus occurs in an inscription from the Catacombs now in the Lateran Museum, as belonging to an exorcist, and might seem, at first, to supply the missing link ; 331 Companions THE ACTS, XX. of Paul. Derbe, and Timotheus ; and of Asia, Tychicus and I Trophimus. (s) These going before tarried for us at but the inscription is probably of later date. In any case, it is a probable inference that the three belonged to the freed-man or slave class, who had no family names ; and the Latin form of their names suggests that they had been ori- ginaUy Eoman Jews, an mference confirmed by the fact that both Tertius and Quartus send saluta tions to theh brethren in the im perial city (Eom. xvi. 22, 23). The names Primitivus and Primitiva, which occurs both in Christian and Jewish inscriptions Hi the same Museum, are more or less analogous. (4) Gaius of Derbe. The Greek sentence admits of the description bemg attached to the name of Timotheus which foUows ; and the fact that a Gaius has aheady appeared in close connection with Aristarchus makes this construction preferable. On this assumption he, too, came from Thessalonica. (See Note on chap. xix. 29.) (5) Timo theus. (See Note on chap. xvi. 1.) (6) Tychicus. The name, which means " fortunate," the Greek equivalent for FeHx, was very common among slaves and freed- men. It is found Hi an inscription in the Lateran Museum from the cemetery of PrisciUa; and in a non-Christian inscription, giving the names of the household of the Emperor Claudius, in the Vatican Museum, as belonging to an archi tect. The Tychicus of the Acts would seem to have been a disciple from Ephesus, where men of that caUing would naturaUy find an opening. Such vocations tended naturally, as has been said in the Note on chap. xix. 9, to become 332 hereditary. (7) Trophimus ( = ' ' nursling," or " foster-chUd ") was, again, a name of the same class, almost as common as Onesimus ( = " profitable "). In a very cur sory survey of inscriptions from the Columbaria and Catacombs of Rome, I have noted the recurrence of the former four, and of the latter five times. Trophimus appears again in chap. xxi. 29, and is described more definitely as an Ephesian. We find him again in contact with St. Paul towards the close of the Apostle's hfe, in 2 Tim. iv. 20. That they were seven Hi number suggests the idea of a reproduction either of the idea of the Seven, who are commonly caUed Deacons in chap, vi., or of the Eoman institu tion upon which that was probably based. (See Note on chap. vi. 3.) It may be noted here, Hi addition to what has there been said on the subject, that the well-known pyra midal monument of Caius Cestius, of the time of Augustus, near the Porta Latina at Rome, records that he was one of the Septemviri Epulonum there referred to. We must not forget what the sudden change to the first person plural in the next verse reminds us of, that the name of Luke has to be added to the list of St. Paul's com panions. We may, perhaps, assume that he went less as an official dele gate from the church of PhiHppi than as a friend, and probably, St. Paul's health needing his services, as physician. P) These going before tar ried for us at Troas.— Two motives may be assigned for this arrangement— (1) It enabled St. Visit to Philippi THE ACTS, XX. and Troas. Troas. (6) And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days ; where we abode seven days. m And upon the first day of the week, when the dis ciples came together to break bread, "Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow ; and con- Paul to keep the Passover with the church at PhUippi, starting " after the days of unleavened bread," and that feast was aheady assuming a new character as the festival of the Eesurrection, bring ing with it also the commemoration that " Christ our Passover was sacri ficed for us" (1 Cor. v. 7, 8). (2) The disciples who went on in ad vance would announce St. Paul's coming to the church of Troas, and so there would be a full gathering to receive him and Hsten to him on his arrival. (<>) And came unto them to Troas in five days. — The voyage from Troas to PhUippi (see Notes on chap. xvi. 11, 12) had taken only three days, but the ship had now to contend against the south-west current that set in from the Dar danelles, and probably also against the Etesian winds blowing from the north-east that prevah hi the Archi pelago in the spring. Where we abode seven days. — It Hes on the surface that the motive for this stay was to keep the Lord's day (the name was pro bably aheady current ; see Eev. i. 10), and to partake with the Church of what, even before the date of this journey, St. Paul had aheady spoken of as the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. xi. 20). P) Upon the first day of the week . . . — This and the eounsel given in I Cor. xvi. 2, are distinct proofs that the Church had aheady begun to observe th e weekly festival of the Resurrection in place of, or, where the disciples were Jews, in addition to, the weekly Sabbath. It hes in the nature of the case that those who were slaves, or freed-men sthl hi service under heathen masters, could not transfer to it the rigid abstinence from labour which characterised the Jewish Sabbath. And on this day they met together, obviously in the evening, after sunset, to " break bread." On the hah- technical significance of that phrase, as appUed speciaUy to the Lord's Supper, the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, see Notes on chap. ii. 46, and 1 Cor. x. 16. Two further questions, how ever, present themselves — (1) On what evening was the meeting held ? (2) How far was a meal such as was known as the Agape, or Feast of Charity, united with the Lord's Supper ? In answer to (1), it seems probable that in churches which were so largely organised on the framework of the Jewish synagogue, and con tained so many Jews and proselytes who had been famUiar with its usages, the Jewish mode of reckon ing would still be kept, and that, as the Sabbath ended at sunset, the first day of the week would begin at sunset on what was then or soon afterwards known as Satur day. In this case, the meeting of which we read would be held on 333 The Sermon THE ACTS, XX at Troas. tinued his midnight. speech <» And until there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they , what we should caU the Saturday evening, and the feast would present some analogies to the prevalent Jewish custom of eating bread and drinking wine at that time in honour of the departed Sabbath (Jost, Gesch. Judenthums, i. 180). (2) Looking to St. Paul's directions in 1 Cor. xi. 33, 34, it is probable that the hour of the "breaking bread" became graduaUy later, so as to aUow those who would otherwise have been hungry to take their evening meal at home before they came. The natural result of this arrangement was, as in the instance how before us, to throw the Eucharistic rite forward to midnight, or even later ; and, as this was obviously Hkely to cause both inconvenience and scan dal, the next step was to separate it entirely from the Agape, and to celebrate the purely symboUc feast very early in the morning of the first day of the week, whhe the actual meal came later in the evening of the same day. That this was so Hi the regions of Troas and Asia we see from Pliny's letter to Trajan (Epp. x. 96), in which he describes the Christians as meeting on " a fixed day," for what he caUs a sacramentum at break of day, and again in the evening to partake of a " simple and innocent " repast. At Troas we have the connecting Unk between the evening communion of the Church of Corinth and the morning celebration which has been for many centuries the universal practice of the Church. Paul preached unto them. — The fact has a liturgical interest as showing that then, as in the more developed services of the 331 second and third centuries, the sermon, and the lessons from Scripture which it implied, pre ceded what we now know as the Celebration. Heady to depart on the morrow. — It may perhaps seem to some strange, taking the view maintained Hi the previous Note, that the Apostle and his com panions should thus purpose to travel on a day to which we have transferred so many of the restric tions of the Jewish Sabbath. But it must be remembered (1) that there is no evidence that St. Paul thought of them as so transferred, but rather the contrary (Gal. iv. 10; Col. ii. 16); and (2) that the ship Hi which his friends had taken theh passage was not Hkely to alter its day of starting to meet their scruples, even had those scruples existed. p) And there were many lights in the upper chamber. — We learn from verse 9 that it was on the third floor of the house. In the high narrow streets of Eastern towns the upper storey is often chosen for social or de votional purposes, partly as more removed from the noise of the street, partly as giving access to the roof of the house. Such a room in a good-sized house might weU hold two or three hundred people. It is a fair inference also that the vividness and minuteness of the account indicate that we have the narrative of an eye-witness. The lamps or torches (see Matt. v. 1 5 ; xxv. 3 ; John v. 35) are probably mentioned, partly as accounting for the sleep of Eutychus by the heat Eutychus THE ACTS, XX. Asleep. were gatl.ered together. w And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, be ing fallen into a deep sleep : and as Paul was Ions: and closeness of the room, partly, perhaps, as an indirect answer to the calumny loudly asserted after wards (TertuU. Apol. c. 8), and probably even then whispered, that at the meetings of the Christians the lamps were extinguished, and free scope given for deeds of shame less Hcence. There is no ground for assuming that the lamps at this early period had any distinctive ritual or symboUc character, though it would be a natural expression of respect that two or more should be placed in front of the Apostle, or other presiding elder, at such a meeting, on either side of the loaf which was to be broken, and the cup which was to be blest. The position of the celebrant (to use a later, but convenient term) may have been, as in the original in stitution of the Supper, recumbent on the triclinium, or couch, which was at this time used by both Greeks and Bomans. It is obvious, however, that this would be an inconvenient posture for distribu tion to a large assembly, and the special mention of " the Lord's table " in 1 Cor. x. 21, leads to the conclusion that there was a separate " high table " (to borrow the fami liar language of a coUege or Inn of Court) at which the celebrant and other ministers sat, theh backs to the waU, theh faces to the people, and that from that table they dis tributed the bread and wine, either by taking them, or sending them by the deacons of other ministers, to those who sat Hi the body of the room, or by giving it to the con gregation as they came up to the table in detachments. The later practice of the Church, and the absence of any indication Hi patris tic writings that there was an abrupt change, makes the latter the more probable alternative. The table, so placed, served as a tran sition stage between the triclinium and the altar of the later basiUca. The primitive arrangement in which the priest faces the congre gation and stands behind the altar, it may be noted, was at first re tained in most of the basilicas, and survives to the present day in some of the churches of that type in Rome — as, for example, in that of S. Clemente. This, therefore, and not any eastward or southward position, may claim to be, as has been weU said, "at once the most primitive, the most CathoUc, the most Protestant" of Eucharistic usages. P) There sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus . . . — The name, like those of kindred meaning, such as FeHx, Felicia, FeUcissimus, Syntyche, Epaphroditus, Fortu- natus, Faustus, Felicitas, was suf ficiently common, especially among the freed-man class. In one in stance, in an inscription in the Collegio Romano, the two names of Eutychus and Felicia appear as belonging to husband and wife. And was taken up dead. — What foUows is obviously related as a miraculous resuscitation ; but it may be questioned, looking to St. Paul's words, " his life is in him," 33a Eutychus THE A.CTS, XX. Brought to Life. preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. (10) And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not your- foi his life is in him. ai) When he there fore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. (12)And whether more than apparent death is meant. He was to aU appearance dead — would have died but for the prayer of the Apostle; but there had been no fracture of Umb or skull, and the cause of death, or of the state that looked Uke death, was the shock given to the brain and nerves by the violence of the fall. (10) Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him . . . — The act reminds us of those of Elijah (1 Kings xvH. 21), and Elisha (2 Xings iv. 34). The close contact, the clasp of warm affection, gave a new inten sity to the prayer of faith, and, as a current of •vifaHty passed, as it were, from the one body to the other, enabled the Apostle to feel that the heart had not ceased to beat, and to give the calming as surance, " his Hfe is in him." The whole scene is painted, as before, vividly, as by an eye-witness. We have to think of the cries of alarm, the rush of men down the staircase from the third floor with lamps and torches in theh hands, the waU of sorrow on finding what looked like death, the undisturbed calmness of the Apostle, sure that his prayer was answered, and returning quietly, leaving the motionless body in the cool night air, to finish the interrupted dis course. P1) And had broken bread, 336 and eaten. — Better, broken the bread, and tasted. In the early usage of the Lord's Supper the bread was not made, as in the Latin Church, Hi the form of circular wafers, nor cut up into smaU cubes, as Hi most Eeformed Churches. The loaf, probably a long roU, was placed before the celebrant, and each piece was broken off as it was given to the communicant. Stress is laid on this practice in 1 Cor. x. 16, and indeed in the very term of " breaking of bread " as a syno. nym for the Lord's Supper. (See Note on chap, ii 46.) Whether the next act of " eating " refers to the actual communion (we are obHged to use technical terms for the sake of definiteness), or to a repast, or Agape, we have no adequate data for deciding. The use of the same verb, however, in " tasting of the heavenly gift," in Heb. vi. 4, suggests the former, and it is probable that the portion of bread and wine thus taken, in the primitive celebration, would be enough to constitute a real re freshment, and to enable the Apostle to continue his discourse. Even tiU break of day.— The whole service must have lasted some seven or eight hours, sunrise at this time of the year, shortly after the Passover, being between 5 and 6 a.m. The inconvenience of such a protracted service led, as Tm Journey THE ACTS, XX. Continued. they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. 03) And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul : for so had he appointed, minding him self to go afoot. a4) And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene. 06) And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios ; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium ; and the next day we came to has been stated(see Note on verse 7), to the transfer of the Lord's Supper from the evening of Saturday to the early morning of Sunday, a position which, with some moderate variations, it has retained ever since, tUl the introduction, in recent times, of the yet more primitive practice of an evening celebration. (13) And sailed unto Assos. — The port of Assos lay about twenty-four miles to the south of Troas. We can only conjecture St. Paul's motives for going thither himseh by land whhe his com panions went by sea. In chap; xvi. 8 we find that he had avoided Mysia to press on to Troas ; but he may weU have extended his labours thither during his two years' sojourn in Asia, and have wished, before he started for Jeru salem, Hi the fuU beUef that he was never to return to those regions (verse 25), to say a few words of parting counsel. Possibly, also, after the exciting scene at Troas, he may have been glad to have even a couple of days of compara tive soUtude for meditation and prayer as to the great work that lay before him, before embarking on the ship, with aU its motley crew of passengers and sailors. P4> We took him in, and came to Mitylene. — This was the capital of Lesbos, and furnished the island with its modern name of Mitilini. P6) We sailed thence . . . — After the usual manner of the Mediterranean navigation of the time, the ship put into harbour, where it was possible, every evening. Each of the Btations named — Lesbos, Chios, Samos — has legendary and historical as sociations of its own, full of interest for the classical student; but these, we may weU believe — the revolt of1 Mitylene in the Pelopon- nesian War (Thuc. Book Hi.), the brilHant tyranny of Polycrates at Samos (Herod; Hi. 39 — 56), even " the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle " — were nothing to the Apostle and his companions. Trogyllium, the last station named before Mi letus, was a promontory on the mainland, forming the extremity of the ridge of Mycale, and sepa rated from Samos by a narrow channel of about a mile in width. MUetus, famous for its dyes and wooUen manufactures, memorable in its earlier history for the disas trous issue of its revolt against Persia (Herod, v. 28 — 36), was practicaUy the port of Ephesus, the harbour of which had been gradually choked by the accumu lation of silted-up sand. 337 Paul stays at THE ACTS, XX Miletus, Miletus. 08> For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia : for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pen tecost. an And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. a8) And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I P6> For Paul had deter mined to sail by Ephesus. — The English phrase is unfortunately ambiguous. What is meant is that he had decided to continue his voyage without going to Ephesus — to pass it by. To be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. — The motives for this wish he on the surface. (1) It was, as has been said in the Note on chap. U. 1, the Feast that attracted most pilgrims from aU parts of the world, and therefore gave most scope for his work as an Apostle, especiaUy for the great task of healing the growing breach between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. (2) It revived the memories and the power of the great day which had been the birthday of the Church's Hfe as a distinct society. (3) St. Paul was contemplating a journey from Syria to Rome after his visit, and that would hardly have been fea sible had he waited for the Feast of Tabernacles (comp. chap. xxvH. 9). It might have seemed at first as if there was Httle gained in point of time by sending for the elders to come to him instead of going to them. We must remem ber, however, that had he taken the journey he would have been exposed to the accidents of travel, perhaps to a fresh riot Hke that of 338 Demetrius, and might have been detained beyond the day fixed for the departure of the ship. By remaining at Miletus it was Hi his power to embark at any moment. P7) And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. — We find, from verse 28, that they were known also as episcopi ("bishops," or "overseers"), the two names being interchangeable at this period, and the Apostle stand ing Hi relation to those who bore them as the later bishop did to the elders under him. (See Phil. i. 1 ; Tit. i. 5, 6 ; 1 Pet. v. 1, 2.) The many presbyters represented probably, each of them, a distinct church or congregation. Most, if not aU, of these must have been ordained by the Apostle himself. He had found them loyal, faithful, singularly receptive of the truth (verse 20 ; Eph. iu. 4). He was passing, as he thought, to far-off regions, never to revisit them, and he was naturaUy anxious to give them parting words of counsel and of warning. P8> Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia . . . — No discourse recorded in the Acts is so full of Hving personal interest. St. Luke would naturaUy be present at the meeting, and able to take notes of the address, and Address to the THE ACTS, XX. Ephesian Elders. have been with you at all seasons, 09) serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews : (ao) and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have reproduce it almost, if not alto gether, word for word. It bears upon the face of it internal marks of genuineness. No writer of a history adorned with fictitious speeches could have written a dis course so essentially Pauline in all its turns and touches of thought and phraseology, in its tenderness and sympathy, its tremulous anxie ties, its frank assertions of the ful ness of his teaching and the self- denying labours of his Hfe, its seDse of the infinite responsibility of the ministerial office for himself and others, its apprehension of coming dangers from without and from within the Church. The words present a striking paraUel to the appeal of Samuel to the people in 1 Sam. xH. 3. P9) Serving the Lord with all humility of mind . . . — The participle exactly answers to the epithet of the "servant" or " slave " of Christ which St. Paul so often uses of himseh (Rom. i. 1 ; Gal. i. 10; Phil. i. 1 ; Tit. i. 1). The "tears," too, are characteristic of the Apostle, whose intense sen sitiveness and sympathy had not been hardened into a Stoic apathy, and therefore found vent in a form which the Stoic would have scorned as unmanly. (Comp. verse 31 ; 2 Cor. ii. 4.) Epictetus (Enchirld. c. 2) barely aUowed a foUower of wisdom to mourn outwardly with those who mourned, and added the warning : " Take heed that thou mourn not inwardly." Temptations. — Better, trials — the word retaining its dominant meaning of troubles coming from without, rather than allurements to evil from within. The reference to the "lying in wait of the Jews" refers, of course, to something altogether distinct from the Deme- trian tumult, and implies unre corded sufferings. The Apostle's hfe was never safe, and the ah was thick with plots against it. m How I kept back no thing that was profitable. — The verb is one which belongs to the vocabulary of saUors, and was used for taking in or reefing sails. He, St. Paul seems to say of him self, had used no such reticence or reserve, but had gone on his course, as it were before the wind, with aU his canvas spread. It must be noted, however, that even here, as in the more Hmited range of teaching imparted to the Corin thians (1 Cor. Ui. 1, 2), he confines his statement to the things that were " profitable." In each case he considered what was required by the capacity of his disciples. That of Ephesus was wider than that of Corinth, and there, accordingly, he was able to set forth " the whole counsel of God " (verse 27). Publickly, and from house to house.— The first word points probably to the teaching in the synagogue and the lecture-room of Tyrannus (chap. xix. 9), the second to the meetings of disciples which were held in private houses, such Bound in THE ACTS, XX. the Spirit. taught you publickly, and from house to house, C21) tes tifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, re pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (22) And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there : «*» save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and as that of Aquila and PriscUla (1 Cor. xvi. 19). It may, however, include even more personal and individual counsel. (21> Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. — These, under aU varieties of form, whether speaking to Jews or Gentiles, to philosophers at Athens (chap, xvii 30) or peasants of Lystra (chap. xiv. 15), formed the substance of his teach ing. It is obvious, however, that out of these might be developed a whole system of theology— why repentance was nee led, and what it was, and how it should show itself, what was involved in the statement that Jesus was the Christ, and why men should believe in Him, and what works were the proper fruit of faith. AU these were questions which had to be answered, before even the most elementary truths could be rightly apprehended. (22) And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit. — The question meets us as before (see Note on chap. xix. 21), whether the words refer to the direct action of the Holy Spirit or to the higher element of St. Paul's own nature, as in 1 Cor. v. 3 ; 2 Cor. ii. 13. On the whole, the latter seems the more probable, subject, as before, to the reservation that the word is used because it points to that part of his being which was most in 340 communion with the Divine Spirit. (Comp. Bom. viii. 16.) He was going to Jerusalem regardless of results, under a constraint which vhtuaUy Umited the freedom of his human wUl. As in 1 Cor. ix. 16, a "necessity" was laid upon him. (*») The Holy Ghost wit nesseth in every city. — This can hardly refer to mere internal previsions of the future, but im plies, like the analogous phraseology of 1 Tim. iv. 1, predictions uttered by the mouth of prophets, such as that which was afterwards spoken by Agabus (chap. xxi. 11). In every city, Corinth, Beroea, Thes salonica, PhUippi, Troas, there had been like utterances, of which, though they are here impUed, we have no separate record. There was a general dread as to the results of his journey, which led the disciples who loved him to dissuade him from attempting it. We may trace the influence of such predictions in the anxiety which he himself expresses when he asks for the prayers of his friends at Eome (Rom. xv. 30, 31) that he may be delivered from those that did not believe in Judaea. The words are not without their value as throwing Hght on the nature and limits of inspiration. The prophets of whom St. Paul speaks were truly inspired, as far as their A last THE ACTS, XX Farewell. afflictions abide me.1 <24) But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my'course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord 'Or, wait forme. Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (25) And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the king dom of God, shall see my face no more. (26) Where- prevision of the future was con cerned, and yet that inspiration did not make them infallible ad visers, and the Apostle felt that he was right in acting on those con victions of his own in which he, too, recognised the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I24) But none of these things move me . . . — LiteraUy, But I take account of nothing, nor do I hold my Kfe . . . We note the paraUelism with Luther's famous declaration, when warned by his friends not to go to Worms, "I wUl go thither, though there should be devUs on every house-top." So that I might finish my course with joy. — The two last words are wanting in many of the best MSS., and were probably in serted as a rhetorical improvement. The passage is grander without them. What St. Paul deshed was to finish his course — whether " with joy " or not mattered little. The dominance of the same ruling thought finds utterance once again Hi his last Epistle (2 Tim. iv. 7). The ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus. — We have again to note the paraUel ism with St. Paul's language elsewhere (2 Cor. iv. 1 ; v. 18 ; 1 Tim. i. 12) ; the words that foUow are Hi apposition with the "ministry," and explain what it consisted in. To bear witness, especiaUy as a hving example of its power (1 Tim. i. 12—16), of the good tidings that God was not a harsh Judge, but a gracious Father, willing aU men to be saved (1 Tim. H. 4), that was the truth to the proclamation of which his Hfe was to be devoted. In this there was the central truth of the kingdom of God, of which the next verse I25) I know that ye all . . . shall see my face no more. — It is clear from these words, as weU as from Rom. xv. 23, 24, that at this time St. Paul did not con template any further work hi the Roman province of Asia, or in Greece. It is as clear, if we accept the Pastoral Epistles as genuine, that he did revisit Asia (2 Tim. i. 15), and that that visit included Troas (2 Tim. iv. 13), MUetus (2 Tim. iv. 20), and, in aU pro- babiHty, Ephesus also (1 Tim. i. 3). We need not be startled at this seeming discrepancy. The Apostle expressly disclaims foresight of his own future, and when he says, " I know," he speaks after the manner of men who take the f ulfilment of theh purpose for granted. In one sense, perhaps, his words were true. When he returned to Asia, and all were turned away from him (2 Tim. i. 15), how many of that company was he hkely to have met again ? P») I am pure from the 311 Final THE ACTS, XX. Exhortations. fore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. (») For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (28) Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he blood of all men. — The image was a familiar one in the Apostle's Hps (chap. xvUi. 6). It rested on the language of an older prophet (Ezek. Hi. 18, 20). He had acted on the teaching of that prophet, and none could require the blood of any man at his hands. (27> I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. — The words point to a greater degree of recep tivity for Divine truth than had been found elsewhere. So Hi the Epistle to the Ephesians, which, even on the assumption that it was an encycHcal letter, was addressed to them principaUy, he speaks to them as able to understand his knowledge Hi the mystery of Christ (Eph. Hi. 4), the universaHty of His redeeming work, the brother hood of mankind in the common Fatherhood of God. In "I have not shunned" we have the same word and image as in the " kept back '' of verse 20. W Over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you over seers. — Better, In which the Holy Ghost set you as watchers. The word used is the same as that commonly translated bishops, but, as used here Hi connection with the idea of the flock, it requires a word less technicaUy ecclesiastical. It wiU be noticed that the word is commonly used in the New Testa ment as associated with this imagery. So Hi 1 Pet. H. 25, we have " the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," and the corresponding verb in 1 Pet. v. 2, " feed the flock of God . . . taking the oversight thereof." The appointment, as re ferred to the Holy Ghost, impHes, probably, (1) the inward caU, the impulse which drew the man to the offiee; (2) the attestation of that call by the voices of the prophets, as in chap. xhi. 2, 1 Tim. iv. 1; (3) the bestowal of gifts fitting them for the work. To feed the church of God, which he hath purchased. with his own blood! -It is clear that the words as they stand Hi the text are of immense impor tance, as bearing theh witness to the behef of the Apostohc Church at once in the absolute divinity of Christ and hi the nature of His redemptive work. The MSS., however, vary in theh readings. Some of the best uncials and ver sions give "God;" others, of al most equal authority, give. " Lord ; " others, again, combine the two, " Lord and God." The fact that elsewhere St. Paul invariably speaks of " the Church of God " («.£., 1 Cor. i. 2; 2Cor.i.l; Gal.i.13; 1 Thess. H. 14, et al.), and never "the Church of the Lord," may be aUowed, from one point of view, some weight as internal evidence in favour of the Beceived reading; whUe from another it may be urged that it might have tempted a tran scriber to substitute a familiar for 342 Grievous Wolves THE ACTS, XX Foretold. hath purchased with his own blood. "^ For I know this, that after my depart ing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. (30) Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking per- an unfamiliar phrase. Accepting that reading, the words not only confirm the great truths of the Church's creed, but give an implicit sanction to the language of theology or devotion, when it appHes to the divine nature of our Lord predi cates that belong strictly to the human nature which was associated with it. So Ignatius (Rom. 6) spoke of " the passion of my God," and Tertullian (Ad Uxor, H. 3) and Clement of Alexandria (Quis dives, c. 34) use the very phrase "the blood of God " which this passage suggests ; and the Eastern Church at the CouncU of Ephesus gave to the Blessed Virgin the title of TheotBkos (Delpara), the mother of the very God. So in the Hturgy which bears the name of St. James the brother of the Lord, he is described as Adelphotheos, the brother of God, and that name is stiU current among the Greek Christians of Jerusalem. The general drift of the language of the New Testament writers was, how ever, in the other dhection, and predicated human acts and at tributes of the man Christ Jesus, Divine acts and attributes of the eternal Son ; and it is obvious that this tends at once to greater accu racy of thought, and is reaUy more reverential than the other. In the word "purchased" (or, more UteraUy, acquired for himself), we recognise the idea, though not the word, of redemption. The same verb is used Hi 1 Tim. Hi. 13. The thought seems to have been one which speciaUy characterised the teaching of St. Paul at Ephesus (Eph. i. 14 : " the redemption of the purchased possession ") Comp. also, " ye were bought with a price," Hi 1 Cor. vi. 20, which, it wiU be remembered, was written from that city. The same idea is expressed in the " pecuHar people," of 1 Pet. ii. 9, UteraUy, a people for a pur chased possession, and so, as it were, the peculium, or personal property of Him who had paid the purchase money. I29) After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you.— The figurative language foUowed naturaUy on the idea of the flock and of the shep herds who keep watch over it. It Ues in the nature of the case that the wolf stands primarily for the open enemies of the flock, the per secutors of all ages. (Comp. John x. 12.) The wolves, however, might come in sheep's clothing (Matt. vii. 15), and so the false prophets, the usurpers of authority, and leaders of parties within the Church, are also included in the term. Here this latter class is distinctly pointed out in the following verse. We find traces of the fulfilment of the prediction Hi the " turning away " of 2 Tim. i. 15 ; the " fiery trial " of 1 Pet. i. 7, iv. 12 ; the suffering "as a Christian" of 1 Pet. iv. 16. i30) Of your own selves shaU men arise, speaking perverse things. — The Pastoral Epistles, 2 Peter and Jude, supply but too abundant evidence of the clearness 313 Exhortation to THE ACTS, XX. Watchfulness verse things, to draw away disciples after them. CS1) Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. <32) And now, breth ren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give of the Apostle's prevision. Hy- menaeus and Alexan der and PhUetus, saying that the resurrection was past already (1 Tim. i. 20 ; 2 Tim. ii. 17) ; evU men and seducers becoming worse and worse (2 Tim. Hi. 13) ; resisting the faith, as Jannes and Jambres had resisted Moses (2 Tim. Hi. 8) ; false prophets, bringing in damnable heresies, and denying the Lord that bought them (2 Pet. U. 1) ; these were part of the rank after growth of the apostoUc age, of which St. Paul saw even now the germs. It adds to- the pathos of this parting to think that men such as Hymenaeus and PhUetus may have been actually present, listen ing to the Apostle's warnings, and warned by him in vain. To draw away disciples after them. — Better, to draw away the disciples — those who had pre viously been disciples of Christ and His Apostles. This was at once the motive and the result of the work of the false teachers. The note of heresy was that it was essentiaUy self-asserting and schis- matical. (31) Therefore watch . . . — The word was, as it were, an echo from our Lord's teaching (Matt. xxiv. 42, xxv. 13, et al.), which could hardly have been unknown to St. Paul. Here, however, it receives a fresh significance from its connection with the term episcopi. They who were the biBhops, the overseers, the watchers of the flock, 344 ought, above aU others, to set an example of vigUance. By the space of three years. — Strictly speaking, the narrative of the Acts accounts for three months' preaching in the synagogue (chap. xix. 8), two years Hi the school of Tyrannus (chap. xix. 10), and an undefined period embracing the time immediately before and after the tumult of Demetrius. This would be enough to warrant him describing the time of his minis try, speaking roughly, as extending over three years. To warn every one night and day with tears. — Comp. Note on verse 19. (32) And now, brethren, I commend you . . . — The Greek verb and its derivatives are charac teristic of St. Paul's phraseology. Teachers are to "commit" the truth they have received to others (2 Tim. H. 2), and the truth so committed is the depositum fidei which they thus hold, as it were, in trust (2 Tim. i. 14). The word of his grace, which is able to build you up . . . — It can hardly be said that the " word " here is used, as it is by St. John, for the person of Christ as the Logos. (See John i. 14, 16; 1 John i. 1.) There is, however, a quasi-personal character ascribed to it, "able to . . . give an inheritance," which suggests the thought of something more than the written or spoken word The Appeals to his THE ACTS, XX. own Practice. you an inheritance among all them which are sancti fied. (33) I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or a 1 Cor. 4. 12:1 Thess. 2.9; 2 Thess. 3.8. apparel. <** Yea, ye your selves know, that these hands have ministered unto mynecessities," and to them true explanation is probably to be found in the thought of the " en grafted (or better, the implanted) word" of Jas. i. 21, the "word of God, quick and powerful " of Heb. iv. 12 ; and in so far as this is identical with the " Light that Hghteth every man" of John i. 9, we may find hi these passages a preparation for the more fuhy- developed teaching of St. John as to the Logos. We cannot pass over the word "buUd" without noting the recurrence of the same thought and word in Eph. ii. 20, 21 ; iv. 12, 16, 29 ; Col. H. 7. The figure was a natural one anywhere (comp. 1 Cor. Hi. 10), but it would gam additional vividness from the stately architecture of Ephesus, perhaps also from the presence of one among St. Paul's companions who may have been himseh an architect. (See Note on verse 4.) An inheritance among all them which are sanctified. — Here also we find a thought spe ciaUy characteristic of the teaching of the Epistle to the Ephesians. So we find the " earnest of our inheritance" (Eph. i. 14), the "in heritance in, or among, the saints " (Eph. i 18), the " inheritance in the kingdom " (Eph. v. 5). The participle is in the perfect tense : those that have been sanctified, or consecrated. That term was, of course, equivalent to and co-exten sive with "the saints," as appHed to the whole body of beUevers. (See Notes on chap. ix. 2 ; Eom. i- 7; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 1.) P3) I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.— Comp. the paraUel of Samuel's appeal to the people (1 Sam. xii. 3). In each case there was a special reason for what might otherwise seem an uncaUed-f or boast. Samuel's sons had been guilty of corrupt practices, taking bribes and the like (1 Sam. viii. 3). Among the many calumnies against St. Paul, one was that he used his apostolic ministry "as a cloke of covetous- ness." (Comp. 2 Cor. vU. 2 ; xii. 17, 18; 1 Thess. ii. 5.) On "ap parel," as constituting a large part of the personal estate of the East, see Matt. vi. 19 ; Jas. v. 2. PJ) These hands have minis tered unto my necessities. — The words clearly cover the whole three years of the Apostle's ministry at Ephesus. The partnership with Aquila and PrisciUa (chap, xviii. 3) continued. PhUemon was pro bably a sharer hi it (Philem. verse 17). And the Apostle had not been satisfied with working for himself, but ministered also to " those who were with him." His teaching in 2 Thess. Hi. 10 makes it improbable that he would have thus laboured to maintain others who were able- bodied Hi idleness, and the words that immediately foUow make it almost certain that we must confine the statement to those who were Buffering from infirmity. In 1 Cor. iv. 12, written, it will be remem bered from Ephesus, we have an undesigned coincidence confirming the statement. 34j The Parting THE ACTS, XXI. at Miletus. that were with me. l35) I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. C36) And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. I have shewed you all things. — The words point to his motive in acting as he did. He sought to teach by example, to indicate in all things how others ought to act. To support the weak. — The Greek verb is rightly rendered, but it deserves notice that it is the root of the noun translated " help " in 1 Cor. xH. 28. The word " weak" is to be taken as implying bodUy infirmities. (See Note on previous verse.) To remember the words of the Lord Jesus. — The words that foUow are not found in any of the four Canonical Gospels, nor indeed in any of the Apocryphal. They furnish, accordingly, an ex ample of the wide diffusion of an oral teaching, embodying both the acts and the words of Christ, of which the four Gospels, especiaUy the first three, are but partial representatives. On the other instances of sayings ascribed to our Lord, and probably in many cases rightly ascribed, see the Introduc tion to the First Three Gospels in Vol. 1. of Bishop EUicott's New Testa ment Commentary. The injunction to " remember " the words impHes 316 that they had often been prominent in the Apostle's teaching. ffl He kneeled down, and prayed with them all. — The historian who has recorded what we may caU the " charge " of St. Paul, shrinks, with a natural reve rence, from reporting his prayer. Eph. Hi. 14 — 21 wiU enable the thoughtful reader to represent to himseh its substance, perhaps even its very thoughts and words. m Pell on Paul's neck, and kissed him. — We note, as before, in verse 19, the absence of any suppression of emotion. As David and Jonathan parted of old (1 Sam. xx. 41), so did St. Paul and his feUow-workers part now. In 2 Tim. i. 4 we have a passing reference to another parting scene of perhaps even tenderer emotion. To think that they should see his face no more, that this was theh last fare well, made the elders of Ephesus and the other disciples eager, up to the very hour of embarkation, for the last embrace. XXI. P) After we were gotten from them . . .—The Greek verb is more emphatic, and might almost The Voyage THE ACTS, XXI. to Tyre. after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara : <* and finding a ship sailing over unto Phe- nicia, we went aboard, and set forth. m Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre : for there the ship was to unlade her burden. (* And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days : who said to be rendered, " When we had torn ourselves away from them." We came with a straight course unto Coos . . . — The navigation is, as before (chap. xx. 14, 15), from port to port. It would hardly be within the scope of a Commentary to enter at length into the history of each place. It wiU be enough to note that Coos was famous both for its wines and its silk fabrics, of fine and almost transparent tissue ; that Rhodes, then famous for its Colossus, was one of the largest and most flourish ing islands of the Archipelago, and is memorable for us in later history as connected with the history of the Knights HospitaUers of St. John ; that Patara was a harbour on the coast of Lycia. For this harbour the ship in which the traveUers had left Troas and MUetus was bound, and they had therefore to look out for another. HappUy there was no long delay, and they embarked at once on a merchant-ship bound for Phoenicia. (?) When we had discovered Cyprus . . .—The use of a tech nical term here is specially charac teristic of St. Luke. Here the meaning is that, as soon as they sighted Cyprus, they stood to the south-east, and so had it on their left as they continued theh voyage to Syria. At Tyre they had either to change their ship, or to wait whUe she discharged her cargo. (4) And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days. — The word for " finding " implies a previous search. They inquired, when they landed, amid the crowded streets of the stUl busy port, whether any Christians were to be found there. It wUl be remembered that St. Paul had passed through that region at least once before. {See Note on chap. xv. 3.) The church had probably been planted by the labours of PhiUp, as the Evangelist of Caesarea. It is clear that the believers there were prepared to welcome St. Paul and his compa nions, and showed a warm interest in theh welfare. The " seven days' " stay, as at Troas (see Note on chap. xx. 6), and afterwards at PuteoU (chap. xxvih. 14), was obviously for the purpose of attending one, or possi bly more than one, meeting of the church for the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day. The utterances through the Spirit implied the exercise of prophetic gifts at such a meeting. It seems, at first, somewhat startling that St. Paul should reject what is described as an insphed counsel ; or, if we believe 347 The Disciples THE ACTS, XXI. at Tyre. Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. cs And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way ; and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city : and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. C6) And when we had taken • our leave one of another, we took ship ; and they re turned home again. m And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted him also to have been guided by the Spirit, that the two inspirations should thus clash. We remember, however, that men received the Spirit "by measure," and the prophets of the churches at Tyre, as elsewhere (chap. xx. 23), though foreseeing the danger to which the Apostle was exposed, might yet be lacking hi that higher inspiration which guided the decision of the Apostle, and which he himseh de fines as the spirit " of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. i. 7). This is, it is beheved, a much more adequate explanation than that which sees in the Apostle's conduct a somewhat seh-wiUed adherence to his own human pur pose, and finds a chastisement for that self-will in the long delay and imprisonment that foUowed on the BHghted warnings. He was right, we may boldly say, to go to Jeru salem in spite of consequences. The repeated warnings are, how ever, an indication of the exceeding bitterness of f eeling with which the Judaisers and unbelieving Jews were known to be animated against him. (5) We departed, and went our way. — LiteraUy, and were going on our way, the tense bringing before us something like a proces sion wending its way from the city to the shore. We kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. — The choice of the place was in itseh natural enough. It was the spot where the two sets of friends were to part. It was removed from the stir and bustle of the city. We may add that it feU in with the common Jewish practice of using the banks of rivers or the sea-shore as a place of prayer. The beach of Tyre be came for the time a proseuche, (See Note on chap. xvi. 13.) It seems impUed, from the use of the plural, that in this instance St. Paul was not the only spokesman of the prayers, but that others also (pro bably St. Luke himseh, and the leading members of the Church of Tyre) joined in reciprocal inter cession. (6) We took ship. — LiteraUy, we embarked in the ship. The article probably, though not necessarily, indicates that they went in the same ship that had brought them, and which, after discharging her cargo at Tyre, was now bound for P) We came to Ptolemais. —This city is memorable both for its antiquity and for the varied for tunes of its city. As Accho it ap pears in Judges i. 31 as one of the old cities of the Canaanites which the IsraeUtes of the tribe of Asher 348 Arrival at THE ACTS, XXI. Cssarea. the brethren, and abode with them one day, (8) And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto and we entered into the house of Philip the evange list, which was one of the fafled to conquer. It was con quered, rebuUt, and re-named by Ptolemy Soter King of Egypt. The old name, however, ultimately revived, or perhaps was never en tirely disused ; and the natives of the region stiU speak of it as Accho, whUe to Europeans it is familiar as Acre, or, more fuhy, St. Jean d'Acre. Here, also, as through aU the line of cities along the coast, we find a church aheady organised, founded probably, as aheady sug gested, by PhUip the Evangelist. Here the stay of the traveUers was shorter than at Tyre, probably because the ship only put into the harbour for the night. The pas sengers had time, however, to land, and refresh themselves by inter course with those who were sharers in theh faith and hope. f8) We that were of Paul's company departed — Better, simply, we departed. The Greek which answers to the intervening five words is wanting in the best MSS., and seems a needless inter polation, there being no apparent reason for any change in the writer's previous phraseology, or for his distinguishing " Paul's com pany " from some other person or persons unknown. In some of the MSS. in which it is found, the verb is in the third person : " They that were of Paul's company de parted, and came . . . ." Came unto Caesarea. — Comp. chaps. vHi. 40 ; x. 1. This was, it will be remembered, St. Paul's third visit there (chaps, ix. 30; xvHi. 22), and we may weU beUeve that he was simply renewing the intercourse of a previous friendship with Philip. PhiUp the evangelist.— The title given to him is interesting as showing that the work of " serving tables," i.e., of superintending the distribution of alms, had been merged hi the higher work of a missionary preacher. (See Note on chap. vi. 3.) He was no longer known, if, indeed, that title had ever been appUed to him, as PhiUp the deacon, but as PhiUp the evan- geUst. The office so described is recognised by St. Paul in his enumeration of sphitual gifts and functions, hi Eph. iv. 11, as coming next in order of importance to those of apostles and prophets, and before pastors and teachers. It would seem, accordingly, to have been distinct from the " orders," in the later sense, of presbyter or deacon, though capable of being united with either of them. Timotheus was exhorted by St. Paul when he was left at Ephesus, with the authority of a bishop, or, more strictly, of a vicar apostohc, to "do the work of an evangeUst," as that to which he had been caUed (2 Tim. iv. 5). It foUowed, from the nature of the office, as analogous to that of the missionary of later times, that, though residing mainly at Caesarea, Philip's labours extended beyond its limits ; and we have seen reason to trace his work (see Notes on chaps, viii. 40 ; xv. 3 ; xxi. 3, 7) all along the coasts of Palestine 319 The House THE ACTS, XXI. of Philip. seven;" and abode with Uch. 6.5. ihim. C9) And the same man and Phoenicia. As far a8 we know, PhiUp and St. Luke had not met before, and we can imagine the satisfaction with which the latter, himseh probably an evangeHst in both senses of the word (2 Cor. viii. 18), and aheady contemplating his work as an historian, would wel come the acquaintance of the former, how he would ask many questions as to the early history of the Church, and learn from him aU, or nearly all, that we find Hi the first eleven chapters of this book. Which was one of the seven. — We note how entirely the Seven of Acts vi. 3 are regarded as a special or distinct body. If the term deacon had ever been appUed to them, which is very doubtful, it ceased to be applicable by its wide extension to the subor dinate functionaries of the churches throughout the emphe. (9) The same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.— Both elements of the description are full of inte rest as throwing light on the life of the ApostoUc Church. (1) The four daughters were "virgins." The word then, as afterwards, probably indicated, not merely the bare fact that they were as yet unmarried, but that they had devoted them selves, if not by irrevocable vows, yet by a steadfast purpose, to that form of service. In the organisa tion of women's work in the Church they formed apparently a distinct class, the complement of that of the widows of 1 Tim. v. 10. St. Paul had distinctly sanc tioned such a Hfe, as presenting a higher standard of excellence than the duties of domestic hfe (1 Cor. vh. 8), and on grounds which, in theh general character, went be yond the "present distress" of a time of persecution (1 Cor. vh. 26, 34). It was, indeed, a, matter on which he had no commandment from the Lord (1 Cor. vh. 25), and in which he was therefore open to the teachings of experience, and these seem to have modified his judgment at a later date, and led him to the conclusion that it was better that the younger " widows " should marry (1 Tim. v. 14), and that they should only be received into the list of those who were maintained by the Church in return for theh services as " widows," at a more advanced age (1 Tim. v. 9). The order of " virgin," however, continued to exist, and the term Virgo, sometimes with Ancllla Domini (the handmaid of the Ldrd; comp. Rom. xvi 1) added to it, is found in the inscriptions from the catacombs now in the Museums of the CoUegio Romano and the La- teran. So Pliny, in his letter to Trajan (Ep. x. § 6), speaks of the women who were then cahed mlnis- trs among the Christians, the latter term bemg probably used as the equivalent for " deaconesses." (2) These virgins " prophesied." The word comprised much more than mere prediction of the future, and included aU words that came into the mind of the speaker as an in spiration, and to the hearers as a message from GocL (Comp. Notes on chaps. H. 17; ix. 6 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.) In other words, they preached. We ask when, and where ? Did they prophesy in the assembUes of the Chureh? It is 350 Prophecy THE ACTS, XXI. of Agabus. had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. ao)And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. au And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver Aim into the hands of the Gen tiles. a2) And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, true that St. Paul had forbidden this at Corinth (1 Cor. xiv. 34), and forbade it afterwards at Ephesus (1 Tim. ii 12) ; bnt the very pro hibition proves that the practice was common (see also 1 Cor. xi 5), and it does not foUow that St. Paul's rules of discipline as yet obtamed Hi aU the churches. It is perfectly possible, however, that they may have confined theh rnhustrations to those of theh own sex, and, accompanying theh father in his missionary journeys, have gained access to women, both among Jews and Gentiles, and brought them to the knowledge of the Truth. It is obvious that the services of women, acting as dea conesses, would be needed as a matter of decorum in the baptism of female converts. P°) As we tarried there many days . . . — The- adjective is in the comparative degree, and impUes, accordingly, a longer time than had been intended. Probably the voyage had been quicker than the traveUers had expected, and there was therefore time to remain at Caesarea, and yet to arrive at Jerusalem, as St. Paul purposed, hi time for Pentecost (chap. xx. 16). There was, at any rate, time for the tidings of his arrival to reach Jerusalem, and for Agabus (see Note on chap. xi. 28) to come down in consequence. P1) He took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet— The MSS. vary be tween "Ins hands" (St. Paul's) and "his own;" but the latter is by far the best-supported reading. It is interesting to note the revival of the old prophetic manner of predicting by symboUc acts. So Isaiah had walked "naked and barefoot " (Isa. xx. 3, 4) \ and Jeremiah had gone and left his girdle Hi a cave on the banks of the Euphrates, and had made bonds and yokes, and had put them on his neck (Jer. xHi. 1—1 1 ; xxvii. 2) ; and Ezekiel had portrayed the siege of Jerusalem on a tUe, and had cut the hah from his head and beard (Ezek. iv. 1 — 3; v. 1 — 4). Looking to the previous relations between St. Paul and Agabus at Antioch (chap. xi. 27), we may weh believe that the latter, foreseeing the dan ger to which the Apostle would be exposed, came down to Caesarea, in a sphit of friendly anxiety, to warn him not to come. The feeling which led to the murderous plot of chap. xxiH. 12 could be no secret to a prophet living at Jerusalem. P2) Both we, and they of that place . . . — For the first time the courage even of the 351 Joumeg U THE ACTS, XXI. Jerusalem. besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. a3) Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart 1 for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. ai> And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. One Mnason of Cyprus, jirrival at THE ACTS, XXI. Jerusalem. Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge. a7) And when we were come to Jerusa lem, the brethren received us gladly. 08) And the day following Paul went in with us unto James ; and all the elders were present. (19) And when he had saluted them, he declared particu larly what things God had wrought among the Gen tiles by his ministry. (20)And an old disciple, with whom we should lodge. — Better, per haps, an early disciple. The word for "old" refers less to personal age than to his having been a dis ciple from the beginning of the Church's history. He may accord ingly have been among those " men of Cyprus " who came to Antioch, and were among the first to preach the gospel to the GentUes. (See Note on chap. xi. 20.) We may fairly infer that he was one of those who had been "from the begin ning " among the eye-witnesses and ministers of the word to whom St. Luke refers as his inf ormants (Luke i. 2). If so, it is interesting, as showing that our Lord's disciples were not limited to the natives of Gahlee and Judea. It Ues on the sur face of the narrative that Mnason had a house at Jerusalem in which he could receive St. Paul and his companions. The arrangement seems to have been made as the best course that could be taken to mini mise the inevitable danger to which the Apostle was exposing himself. In that house at least he might be sure of personal safety, and the men from Caesarea would form a kind of escortashewenttoandfrointhecity. P7) The brethren received us gladly.— This was, perhaps, an informal welcome, given in Mnason's house, by those who came there to receive the expected guests. P8) The day following Paul went in with us unto James . . . — Looking- to chap. xx. 16, it seems natural to infer that this was on or near the Day of Pentecost. The city would be crowded with pilgrims. The Church would be' holding its solemn festival, not without memories of tho great gifts of the Spirit, and prayers for theh renewal. The Bishop of Jerusalem — to give him the title which, though apparently not then borne by him, expressed his functions, and was afterwards attached to his name— was there with the elders of the Church. St. Luke is careful to add that they were ah there. On theh part there was no reluctance to receive the Apostle of the Gen tUes into fuU feUowship. P9) He declared particularly . . . — Better, one by one, or, in detail, the adverb of the Authorised version having acquired in modern Enghsh a shghtly different mean ing. This must, it is obvious, have impUed a narrative of considerable length, including an outline of aU that had passed since the visit of chap. xvih. 22, and ending with an account of the contribution which he and his companions had brought with them from well-nigh aU the churches of the GentUes. (2») They glorified the Lord. — The better MSS. give, "they glorified God." The tense imphes 23 353 The Elders THE ACTS, XXI. enquire when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, bro ther, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe ; and they are all zealous of the law : C211 and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not continued action, and although its meaning would be satisfied by assuming mere ejaculations of wonder and praise, it is, at least, not improbable that there was a more formal thanksgiving. How many thousands of Jews there are which be lieve. — LiteraUy, how many my riads — i.e., tens of thousands. The numbers seem large if we think of the population of Jerusalem only, but the crowds that came from aU quarters to the Feast of Pentecost (see Note on chap. H. 1) would fuUy justify the statement. The speaker here is obviously St. James in the character of president of the as sembly. There is no trace what ever of the presence of any of the twelve Apostles. They are all zealous of the law. — Better, the word being a substantive and not an adjective, zealots for the law. The term was an almost technical one for the most rigid class of Pharisees, which meets us in Simon Zelotes (Luke vi. 15). So St. Paul describes him seh as in this sense a " zealot " (chap. xxH. .3 ; Gal. i. 14). (21) And th6y are informed of thee . . . — This, it is clear, was the current version of St. Paul's teaching. How far was it a true representation of its tendencies ? As a personal accusation it was, of course, easy to refute it. His rule of adaptation led him to be to the Jews as a Jew (1 Cor. ix. 20). He taught that every man, circum cised or uncircumcised, should accept his position with its atten dant obHgations (1 Cor. vH. 18 — 20). He had himseh taken the Nazarite vow (chap. xvHi. 18), and had circumcised Timotheus (chap. xvi. 3.) It was probably false that he had ever taught that Jews " ought not to circumcise their chUdren." But fanaticism is some times clear-sighted in its bitterness, and the Judaisers felt that when it was proclaimed that " circumcision was nothing," hi its bearing on man's relations to God (1 Cor. vii. 19 ; Gal. v. 6 ; vi. 15), it ceased to have a raison detre, and sank to the level of a mere badge of the national exclusiveness, which, in its turn, was assailed by St. Paul's teaching that ah middle walls of partition were broken down (Eph. H. 14), and that Jews and GentUes were alike one in Christ. If a Jew had asked, Why then should I circumcise my child? it would not have been easy to return a satisfying answer. If it were said, "To avoid giving offence," that was clearly only temporary and local hi its apphcation, and the practice would die out as people ceased to be offended. If it were urged that it was a divine com mand, there was the reply that, as a command, it had been virtuaUy though not f ormaUy repealed when the promises and privileges con nected with it were withdrawn. 354 Concerning THE ACTS, XXI. Faul's Tenets. to circumcise tlteir children, neither to walk after the customs. C22) What is it therefore % the multitude I must needs come together : | for they will hear that thou art come. 'Do there fore this that we say to It was the seal of a covenant (Bom. iv. 11). and could hardly be looked upon as binding when the cove nant itseh had been superseded. Few Christians would now hold that a converted Jew was still bound to circumcise, as weU as baptise, his chUdren. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews did but push St. Paul's teaching to its legitimate conclusions when he said that " the new covenant had made the first old," and that " that which is decaying and wax ing old is ready to'vanish away " {Heb. vhi. 13). That thou teachest all the Jews ... to forsake Moses. — LiteraUy, that thou teachest apos tasy from Moses, the term used, with aU its burden of evU import, adding weight to the charge. Neither to walk after the customs. — On the general import of this phrase, as including the " traditions of the elders," as well as the precepts of the Law, see Notes on chaps, vi. 14 ; xv. 1. (22) The multitude must needs come together. — More accurately, at all events a crowd must needs come together. The report of St. Paul's arrival was sure to spread, and those who heard of it would be eager to see how he acted. Would he ostenta tiously reproduce in Jerusalem that Hving as a Greek with Greeks (1 Cor. ix. 22) of which they heard as his manner at Corinth and Ephesus ? The advice which foUowed was intended to allay the suspicion of the timid, and to dis appoint the expectations of more determined adversaries. (2S) "We have four men which have a vow on them. — The advice was eminently characteristic. (1) It came from one who himseh Hved as bound by the Nazarite vow. "No razor came upon his head, and he drank neither wine nor strong drink " (Hegesippus in Euseb. Hist. ii. 23). By connecting himseh with such a vow St. Paul would show that he was content Hi these matters to foUow in the footsteps of St. James, that he looked upon the observance of the Nazarite vow, if not as binding, at any rate as right and praiseworthy. (2) It is ob vious that St. Paul's conduct on his last visit to Jerusalem had fur nished a, precedent for the line of action now recommended. He had then come as u, Nazarite himseh ; had in that character burnt the hair which he had cut off at Cenchreae (see Note on chap. xviU. 18), and had offered the accustomed sacri fices. Why should he not repeat the process now p There was, however, this difficulty : the mini mum period of the Nazarite vow was for thirty days, and as St. Paul had not taken the vow pre vious to the advice, and probably wished to leave Jerusalem soon after the feast was over (chap. xix. 21), it was out of his power to fulfil it now Hi its completeness. Jewish usage, however, made an intermediate course feasible. A 355 The Four Men THE ACTS, XXI. with aVow". thee : We have four men which have a vow on them; (24)them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads :a and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed con cerning thee, are nothing ; but that thou thyself also walkestorderly,andkeepest a Num. 6 18 ; oh. 18. 18. the law. (25)As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and con cluded that they observe no such thing, i save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from forni cation. (26) Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with man might attach himseh to a Nazarite, or company of Nazarites, join in the final process of purifi cation, which lasted, probably, for seven days (Num. vi. 9), shaving his head, and offering sacrifices with them. This was considered in itseh a devout act, especiaUy if the new comer defrayed the cost of the sacrifices. Agrippa I., for instance, had Hi this way gamed credit with the Jews, as showing his reverence for the Law (Jos. Wars, H. 15, § 1). It is clear that the four men were members of the Church of Jerusalem, and the fact is interesting as showing how in tensely Jewish that church stiU was in its observances. (24) pUrify thyself with them . . . — This involved sharing theh abstinence for the uncompleted term of the vow, and shaving the head at its conclusion. Be at charges with them . . — LiteraUy, spend money on them. This involved payment (1) for the act of shaving the head, for which probably there was a fixed fee to priest or Levite ; (2) for the sacri fices which each Nazarite had to offer — sc, two doves or pigeons, a 3ot> lamb, an ewe lamb, a ram, a basket of unleavened bread, a meat offer ing and a drink offering (Num. vi. 9—12). (26) As touching the Gen tiles which believed. — See Note on chap. xv. 20. St. James, it wiU be seen, adheres stiU to the terms of the concordat sanctioned at the councU of Jerusalem. He has no deshe to withdraw any conces sion that was then made, and the Judaisers who in Galatia and else where were, in his name, urging the necessity of circumcision, were acting without authority. He thinks it fah to call on St. Paul to show that he too adheres to the compact, and has no wish to disparage the "customs" of the Law. St. Paul, it wiU be seen, readily acts upon the suggestion. All promised weU ; but an interruption came from an unexpected quarter and overturned what seemed so wisely planned in the interests of peace. (26) To signify the aocom phshment of the days of puri fication . . . — The process lasted, as the next verse showB, for seven days, which were probably reckoned from the completion of the thirty The Jews stir up THE ACTS, XXI. the People. them entered into the tem ple, to signify the accom plishment of the days of purification," until that an offering should be offered for every one of them. m And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, a Num 6. 13. when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, (28) crying out, Men of Israel, help : This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place : and further days, or other term, of the vow itseh. St. Paul, having made him self the representative of the Nazarite company, had to give, in theh name, the formal notice to the priests, who were to be ready for the sacrifices when the seven days had expired. Seven days was, it wiU be noted, the ordinary period for the most solemn purifications (Ex. xxix. 37 ; Lev. xh. 2 ; xhi. 6 ; Num. xH. 14 ; xix. 14, et al.). (27) When the seven days were almost ended — literally, were on the point to be completed. St. Luke speaks of " the seven days " as a definite or known period. They cannot refer, as some have thought, either to the duration of the vow, which was never less than thirty days, or to that of the Feast of Pentecost, which at this time was never extended beyond one, and must therefore be understood of the period of special purification which came at the final stage of the fulfil ment of the vow. The Jews which were of Asia . . . — Better, from Asia — those who had come up to keep the Feast at Jerusalem. They, we may weU beUeve, had been watching the Apostle eagerly as he passed in and out of the courts of the Temple. As it was, they seized him, with aU upon him (comp. chap. xxiv. 18), about to offer sacrifices, and raised a cry which was sure to throw the whole city mto an uproar. They first reiterate the general charge, and Hi doing so, bring against St. Paul, in almost identical terms, the very accusation which he had brought against Stephen (chap. vi. 11 — 13), of which they thus make themselves the witnesses. This was backed up by a more specific in dictment (verse 28) . He had brought Greeks — i.e., uncircumcised Gen tiles — mto the Holy Place — i.e., beyond the middle waU of partition (Eph. ii. 14) which divided the court that was open to strangers from that which none but Jews might enter (Jos. Ant. xv. 11, § 5). The recent excavations of the Palestine Exploration Society (Re port for 1871, p. 132) have brought to light a slab with an inscription, discovered and deciphered by M. Clermont Ganneau, which Ulus- trates the horror with which the Jews looked on such a profanation. Its contents show that it must have formed part of the low waU just mentioned : — " NO MAN OF ALIEN EACE IS TO ENTER WITHIN THE BALUSTRADE AND FENCE THAT GOES ROUND THE TEMPLE. IF the tokens of his purification stUl i ANY ONE IS TAKEN IN THE 357 Uproar in THE ACTS, XXI. the City. brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath pol luted this holy place. (*> (For they had seen be fore with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) (30) And all the city was moved, and the people ran together : and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple : and forthwith the doors were shut. C31) And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an up roar. t32) Who immediately took soldiers and cen turions, and ran down unto them : and when they saw the chief captain ACT, LET HIM KNOW THAT HE HAS HIMSELF TO BLAME FOR THE PENALTY OF DEATH THAT FOLLOWS." This, accordingly, was the punish ment which the Jews of Asia were now seeking to bring on St. Paul and on his friends. (29) Trophimus an Ephesian. — See Note on chap. xx. 4. His face was naturaUy famUiar to those who had come from the same city. They had seen the two together in the streets, possibly near the en trance of the Temple, and, hatred adding wings to imagination, had taken for granted that St. Paul had brought his companion within the sacred enclosure. (30) rpne people ran together. — Better, perhaps, there was a rush of the people. St. Luke brings into something Uke a mental juxtaposi tion the pictures of the tumult at Ephesus and that at Jerusalem. The Jews of Asia, among whom we may perhaps think of Alexander the coppersmith, working then as after wards "much evU" against the Apostle Paul (2 Tim. iv. 14), may have taken part in both. Forthwith the doors were 358 shut This was obviously the act of the Levite gate-keepers. The Apostle was dragged out, the crowd foUowed him, and they seized the opportunity to guard the sacred pre cincts against further profanation. (3i) rjine ohjgf captain of the band — On the word " band," and its relation to the Latin " cohort," see Notes on chap. x. 1 ; Matt. xxvH. 27. The word for " chief captain " (UteraUy, chillarch, or " captain of a thousand men," the cohort bemg the sixth part of the legion, which consisted of 6,000) appears also in Mark vi. 21; John xvifi. 12. They were stationed in the tower known as Antonia, bruit by Herod the Great, and named in honour of the Triumvh, which stood on the north-west side of the Temple area, on a rock, with a turret at each corner, and two flights of stairs leading to the arcades on the northern and wes tern sides of the Temple. The Roman garrison was obviously stationed there to command the crowds of pUgrims, and was likely to be on the alert at a time Uke the Pentecost Feast. The Procurator Felix, however, was for the time Paul bound THE ACTS, XXI. with Chains. and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. »» Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and com manded him to be bound with two chains; and de manded who he was, and what he had done. C34) And some cried one thing, some another, among the multi tude : and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. (S5) And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. CS6) For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him. (37) And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief at Caesarea. The next verse shows that theh appearance was sufficient at once to strike some kind of awe into the turbulent mob. Once again the Apostle owed his safety from violence to the interposition of the civU power. (See Notes on chap. xviii. 14—17.) The "beating" would seem to have been rough treatment with the fists rather than any regular punishment. (33) Commanded him. to be bound with two chains. — Looking to the usual Boman prac tices in the treatment of prisoners, we may think of each chain as fastened at one end to the Apostle's arm, and at the other to those of the soldiers who kept guard over him. (See Notes on chaps, xh. 6 ; xxvni 16.) So shackled, he was taken before the Chiliarch Lysias for a preHnunary inquiry. I34) Some cried one thing, some another. — We note the parallelism with the Uke confused clamour at Ephesus (chap. xix. 32), which is described hi exactly the same terms. He commanded him to be carried into the castle. — The Greek, which literally means en campment, is translated "armies" in Heb. xi. 34. By a transition which reminds us of the connection between the words castrum and cas- tellum, or castle, it came to be ap phed to a regular structure of stone or brick, such, for example, as the Tower Antonia, described Hi the Note on verse 31. (35) "virhen he came upon the stairs . . . — This was one of the flights leading, as has been said, from the tower to the Temple area. Here the violence of the crowd became greater as they were more pressed in, and the soldiers had UteraUy to Hft him from his legs and carry him in, whUe the troops lined the staircase on either side. P6> Away with him We remember that the seh-same cry had been raised at the time of the Crucifixion (Luke xxiH. 18 ; John xix. 15), and that it was used now with the same meaning with which it had been used then. (37> Canst thou speak Greek? — The chiliarch apparently expected his prisoner to have spoken Hebrew, i.e., Aramaic, and was surprised to hear Greek ; the people expected Greek, and were surprised at 359 Paul upon THE ACTS, XXI. the Stairs. captain, May I speak unto thee 1 Who said, canst thou speak Greek t (38) Art not thou that Egyptian," which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilder ness four thousand men that were murderers t <-m> But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the peo ple. (40)And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and Hebrew (chap. xxii. 2). Nothing could better illustrate the familiarity of the population of Jerusalem with both languages. <38) Art not thou that Egyp tian ? — The Greek has an illative particle which is wanting in the EngUsh : Art not thou then that Egyptian ? This was the mference drawn by the chief captain from the fact that hisprisoner spoke in Greek. The Egyptian was a false prophet, who a short time before this, under the procuratorship of Felix, had led 30,000 men (?) to the Mount of Ohves, promising them that they should see Jerusalem destroyed (Jos. Ant. xx. 8, § 6 ; Wars, ii. 13, § 5.) His foUowers were routed by Fehx, but he himself escaped ; and the chief captain infers from the tumult raised by a Greek-speaking Jew, that the Egyptian must have reappeared. Probably this was one of the vague reports Hi the confused clamour of the multitude. The words of the question have, how ever, been taken, on grammatical grounds, in a different sense : Thou art not, then, that Egyptian ? as though his speaking Greek had changed the chiliarch' s previous impression. Against this, however, there is the fact that an Egyptian Jew, coming from the very land of the Septuagint, would naturaUy 360 speak Greek, and the inference that St. Paul was not the Egyp tian because he knew that language would hardly be inteUigible. Four thousand men that were murderers. — Josephus, as has been said, gives a much larger number, but his statistics, Hi such eases, are never to be reUed on. The word for murderer (sicarii, UteraUy, dagger-bearers) was applied to the cut-throat bands who about this period infested weU-nigh every part of Palestine, and who differed from the older robbers in being, Uke the Thugs in India, more systematicaUy murderous (Jos. Wars, U. 13, § 3). In the siege of Jerusalem,theirpresence,sometimes in ahiance with the more fanatic of the zealots, tended to aggravate aU its horrors. (3S) A citizen of no mean city. — The boast was quite a legi timate one. In addition to aU its fame for culture, the town of Tarsus bore on its corns the words METEOPOLIS - ATJTONOMOS (Independent). (40) Paul stood on the stairs. — The position was one which raised him above the people, and the cha racteristic gesture commanded in stant attention. And he spoke, not as they expected, Hi the Greek which belonged to one who frater- His Speech THE ACTS, XXII. to the People. beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, CHAPTER XXII.— 01 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. <2) (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence : and he saith,) ts) I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia," yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught ac cording to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous nised with GentUes, but Hi the He brew or Aramaic, which he had studied at the feet of GamaHel. It was a strange scene for that Feast of Pentecost. The face and form of the speaker may have been seen from time to time by some during his passing visits to Jerusalem, but there must have been many who had not heard him take any part in pubhc action since the day when, twenty-five years before, he had kept the garments of those who were stoning Stephen. And now he was there, accused of the self same crimes, making his defence before a crowd as whd and frenzied as that of which he had then been the leader. XXH. P) Men, brethren, and fathers. —The apparently triple division is reaUy only two-fold — Brethren and fathers. (See Note on chap. vH. 2). It is noticeable that he begins his speech with the self-same formula as Stephen. It was, perhaps, the received formula in addressing an assembly which included the scribes and elders. W They kept the mo silence. — The opening words had done the work they were meant to do. One who spoke Hi Hebrew was not Hkely to blas pheme the sacred Hebrew books. What foUows was conceived Hi the same spirit of concUiation. (3) Brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. — His education may have begun shortly after he became a chUd of the Law, at the age of twelve. (See Luke ii. 42.) He, too, had sat in the midst of the doctors, hearing and asking questions. The Rabbis sat Hi a high chair, and theh scholars on the ground, and so they were UteraUy at theh master's feet. Taught according to the perfect manner . The two last words are expressed hi the Greek by a single noun, meaning "accuracy," exactness. In the "most straitest sect of our rehgion," of chap. xxvi. 5, we have the cor responding adjective. Was zealous toward God. — The Apostle (see Note on chap. xxi. 20) claims their sympathy as having at one tune shared all theh dearest convictions. There is, perhaps, a touch of higher 361 Account of THE ACTS, XXII. his Early Life toward God, as ye all are this day. w And I per secuted this way unto the death, binding and deliver ing into prisons both men and women." <5) As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders : from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jeru salem, for to be punished. (6) And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from enthusiasm in the Apostle's lan guage. He was a zealot for God : they were zealots for the Law. (4) And I persecuted this way. — The speaker obviously uses the current coUoquial term (see Notes on chaps, ix. 2 and xix. 23), used by the disciples as indicating that they had found in Christ the way of eternal Hfe; used, it may be, by others with a certain tone of scorn, as of people who had chosen theh own way, and must be left to take it. (5) As also the high priest doth bear me witness. — Annas is named as high priest at the time of St. Paul's conversion, acting probably with his son - in - law, Caiaphas, as his coadjutor. (See Luke Hi. 2; John xvHi. 13.) At the time which we have now reached, the office was fiUed by Ananias, son of Nebedaeus, who owed his appointment to Herod Agrippa II. , then King of Chalcis, to whom Claudius had conceded the privhege of nominating the high priests (Jos. Ant. xx. 5, § 2). The official acts of his predecessors would of course be known to the high priest for the time being, and St. Paul can therefore appeal to his knowledge as confirming his own statements. AU the estate of the elders. — The word is perhaps used as identical with the Sanhedrin, or CouncU; perhaps, also, as includ ing the Gerousia, or " Senate," of chap. v. 21 — a body, possibly of the nature of a permanent com mittee, or an Upper Chamber, which was apparently represented in the Sanhedrin, and yet had separate rights, and might hold separate meetings of its own. I received letters unto the brethren. — The phrase is in teresting, as showing that the Jews used this language of each other, and that it passed from them to the Church of Christ. On the general history of St. Paul's conversion, see Notes on chap. ix. 1 — 16. Here it wiU be sufficient to note points that are more or less distinctive. In chap. ix. 2 the letters are said to have been addressed to the " syna gogues." For to be punished.— We must remember that the punish ments would include imprisonment, scourging, and brutal violence (chaps, ix. 2; xxvi. 10, 11); or, as Hi the case of Stephen, death by stoning. (6) About noon. — The special note of the hour is not given in chap. ix. 3, and may fairly be taken And of his THE ACTS, XXII. Conversion. heaven a great light round about me. C7) And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? (8) And I an swered, Who art thou, Lord] And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Naza reth, whom thou perse cutest. (9) And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid ; but they hearji not the voice of him that spake to me. 00) And I said, What shall I do, Lord ] And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus ; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. m And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. °* And one Ananias, a devout man ac cording to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, as) came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. <"> And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest as characteristic of a personal re- coUection of the circumstances of the great event. P) Saul, Saul . . .—We have again, as in chap. ix. 4, the Hebrew form of the name. (9) They heard not the voice . . . — i.e., they did not hear it as a voice uttering articulate words. It was for them as though it thundered. (See Notes on chap. ix. 7, and John xH. 29.) P1) And when I could not see for the glory of that hght. — It is again characteristic of a personal recohection that, whUe the narrative of chap. ix. 8 states only the fact of bUndness, St. Paul himseh connects it with its cause. (12) A devout man according to the law. — In chap. ix. 10, Ananias is simply described as " a disciple." The special description here was obviously given with a view to conciliate those who were Ustening to the speech. One, such as Ananias was, was not Hkely to have connected himseh with a pro fane blasphemer, nor to have re ceived the converted persecutor except on evidence that the change had come from God. St. Paul naturaUy confines himseh to what came within his own experience, and does not dweU on the vision which had been seen by Ananias. C") The God of our fathers . . . — The report of what was said by Ananias is somewhat f uUer than in chap. ix. 17, and gives in outUne what had been spoken to him by the Lord. It is obviously impUed Hi chap. ix. 15, 16, that those words 363 The Visit THE ACTS, XXII. of Ananias. know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 05) For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. C16) And now why tarriest thou ? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. m And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance ; were to be reproduced to Saul. We note the recurrence of the same formula in speaking of God that had been used by Stephen (chap. vii. 32). Hath chosen thee. — The Greek verb is not that commonly rendered by " chosen," and is better translated fore-appointed. And see that Just One. — See Note on chap. vH. 52, in refe rence to the use of this name to designate the Lord Jesus. P5) Thou shalt be his wit ness. — This mission, identical with that which had been assigned to the Twelve (chap. i. 8), virtuaUy placed the persecutor on a level with them, and was equivalent to his appointment as an Apostle. P6) Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins Here, again, we have words which are not Hi the narrative of chap. ix. They show that for the Apostle that baptism was no formal or cere monial act, but was joined with repentance, and, faith being pre supposed, brought with it the assurance of a real forgiveness. In St. Paul's language as to the " washing " (or, bath) of regenera tion (Tit. Hi. 5). we may trace his continued adherence to the idea which he had thus been taught to embrace on his first admission to the Church of Christ. Calling on the name of the Lord. — The better MSS. give simply " calling upon His name," i.e., the name of the Just One whom St. Paul had seen. The reading in the Beceived text probably arose from a wish to adapt the phrase to the language of chap. ii. 21. P7) When I was come again to Jerusalem. — This probably refers to the visit of chap. ix. 26, and Gal. i. 17, 18. The objection that the mission " far hence to the GentUes" must refer to the sub sequent visit of chap. xi. 30, has Httle or no force. When the Apostle went to Tarsus and preached the gospel to the Greeks at Antioch (chap. xi. 26), there was a sufficient fulfilment of the promise, " I wiU send thee . . ." What was indi cated Hi the vision was that he was to have another field of work than Jerusalem and the Church of the Circumcision. It may be noted as one of the " visions or revelations of the Lord" referred to in 2 Cor. xii. 1. Even while I prayed in the temple. — Better, and as I was praying. The fact is brought for ward as showing that then, as now, he had been not a blasphemer of the Temple, but a devout worshipper Hi it, and so formed an important part of the Apostle's apologia to the charge that had been brought against him. 364 Paul's Trance THE ACTS, XXII. in the Temple. n8) and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. °9) And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee : <20) and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed," I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. <31) And he said unto me, Depart : for I will ¦ send I was in a trance. — On the word and the state of conscious ness it imphes, see Note on chap. x. 10. P8) Get thee quickly out of Jerusalem. — It is obvious that this fits Hi better with the first hurried visit after St. Paul's con version than with the second, when he came with Barnabas with alms for the sufferers from the famine. (See Note on chap. xi. 30.) ' P9> Lord, they know that I imprisoned . . . — This was said at the time, and it was repeated now, as with a two-fold bearing. It was partly an extenuation of the unbehef of the people. They were, as he had once been, sinning Hi ignorance, which, though as yet unconquered, was not hivincible. Partly it expressed the hope that they too might listen when they saw him whom they had known as a vehement persecutor preaching the faith which he had once destroyed. (20> When the blood of thy martyr Stephen . . . . — Better, thy witness. The English word is, perhaps, a Httle too definite and technical, and faUs to remind us, as the Greek does, that the same word had been used Hi verse 15 as ex pressing the office to which St. Paul himseh was caUed. He pro bably used the Aramaic word Edh, of which the Greek martus (witness, and, hi ecclesiastical Greek, martyr) was the natural equivalent. Consenting unto his death. — The self-same word is used as Hi chap. vhi. 1, not, we may believe, without the feeling which the speaker had lately expressed Hi Rom. i. 32, that that state of mind involved a greater guUt than those who had been acting bUndly — almost in what John Huss called the sancta simpllcitas of devout ignorance — Hi the passionate heat of fanaticism. The words " unto his death " are wanting in the best MSS., but are obviously impUed. (21> I wiU send thee . . . .— It may be noted, Hi connection with the question discussed Hi the Note on verse 17, that the words convey the promise of a mission rather than the actual mission itseh. The work immediately before hhn was to depart and wait tiU the way should be opened to him, and the inward caU be confirmed, as Hi chap. xhi. 2, by an outward and express command. Far hence unto the Gen tiles. — The crowd had Ustened, impatiently, we may beUeve, up to, this point, as the speaker had once Ustened to St. Stephen. This, that the Christ should be represented as sending His messenger to the 365 Paul brought THE ACTS, XXH. into the Castle. thee far hence unto the Gentiles. (22) And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth : for it is not fit that he should live. t23' And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, (24) the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know where fore they cried so against him. C25> And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the cen turion that stood by, GentUes, and not to Jews, was more than they could bear. (22) Away with such a fel low from the earth. — The scene was ominously Hke that hi which St. Stephen's speech ended. Immediate execution without the formality of a trial' — an eager craving for the blood of the blas phemer — this was what theh wUd cries demanded and expressed. On the words themselves, see Note on chap. xxi. 36. i23> Cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air. — The latter gesture would seem to have been a natural reHef, as with other Oriental nations, to the violence of uncontroUed passion. It may be, however, that the hand- fuls of dust were aimed at the Apostle as a sign of loathing (comp. Notes on chap. xvHi. 6 ; Matt. x. 14) ; and if we take the EngUsh version, the "casting off" theh outer garments looked very much like preparing for the act of ston ing, as Hi chap. vH. 58. The verb may, however, mean only that they " shook theh garments," as St. Paul had done Hi chap. xvHi. 6, and so the two gestures might be parts of the same act. On the whole, the latter view seems the more probable. (24) Bade that he should be examined by scourging. — The matter-of-course way in which this is narrated illustrates the ordinary process of Roman provincial ad ministration. The chiliarch had probably only partiaUy understood St. Paul's Aramaic speech, and his first impulse was to have him scourged, so as to ehcit from his own Hps that which he could not gather from the confused and con tradictory clamours of the crowd. (25) And as they bound him with thongs. — The words have sometimes been rendered, "they stretched him forward for the straps" — i.e., put him into the attitude which was requhed for the use of the scourge; and gram- maticaUy the words admit this sense. The Authorised version is, however, it is beUeved, right. The Greek word for " thong " is always used in the New Testament in connection with the idea of tying (Mark. i. 7 ; Luke Hi. 16 ; John i. 27). It appears here to be ex pressly distinguished from the " scourges " of verse 24, and in verse 29 we find that St. Paul had 3G6 Claims his THE ACTS, XXII. Rights as a Roman. Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Eoman, anduncondemned? (i») When the centurion heard tliat, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest : for this man is a Roman. (37> Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Eoman1! He said, Yea. <*> And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. (29) Then straightway they actuaUy been bound. He was, i.e., according to Roman custom, stripped to the waist, and tied with leathern thongs, as our Lord had been, to the column or whipping post which was used within the fortress for this mode of torture. In both instances, it wiU be noted, the order for the punishment came from a Eoman officer. Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman . . . ? — Stress is laid on both points. It was unlawful to scourge a Roman citizen in any case; it was an aggravation so to torture hhn, as slaves were tortured, only as a means of inquiry. On the whole question of the rights of Eoman citizens, and St. Paul's claim to those rights, see Note on chap. xvi. 37. t26) Take heed what thou doest.— The better MSS. give the words simply as a question : "What art thou about to do ? " W Art thou a Roman?— The pronoun is emphatic : " Thou, the Jew of Tarsus, speaking both Greek and Hebrew, art thou a citizen of Rome ? " The combina tion of so many more or less dis cordant elements was so exceptional as to be almost incredible. I28) With a great sum ob tained I this freedom. — Better, this citizenship, the word expressing, not the transition from bondage to freedom, but from the position of an ahen to that of a citizen. Pro bably the translators used the word in the sense in which we stUl speak of the "freedom" of a city. The chUiarch was himseh, apparently, an ahen by birth, and, as was customary at the time, had obtamed the citizenship by the payment of a large bribe. As the admission of citizens now rested with the Em peror, as holding the office of Cen sor, the money had probably been paid to Narcissus, or some other of Claudius' favourite freedmen who carried on a traffic of this kind. I was free born. — The Greek is somewhat more emphatic : I am one even from birth. This implies that St. Paul's father or grand father had received the citizenship ; how, we cannot teU. Many of the Jews who were taken to Rome by Pompeius as slaves first obtained theh freedom and became llbertlnl, and afterwards were admitted on the register as citizens. (See Notes on chaps, vi. 9; xvi. 37.) The mention of kinsmen or friends at Bome (Rom. xvi. 7, 11), makes it probable, as has been said, that the Apostle's father may have been among them. I29) Which should have 367 Paul brought THE ACTS, XXIII. before the Council. departed from him which should have examined him :l and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Eoman, and because he had bound him. C30) On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he 1 Or, tor tured him. loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them. CHAPTER XXIII— m And Paul, earnestly be holding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have examined him. — The verb had acquired the secondary sense (just as "putting to the question" did in mediaeval administration of jus tice) of examining by torture. Because he had bound him. — The words seem to refer to the second act of binding (verse 25) rather than the first (chap. xxi. 33). The chains fastened to the arms were thought of, as we see after wards, when St. Paul's citizenship was an acknowledged fact (chap. xxvi. 29 ; Eph. Hi. 1, iv. 1), as not incompatible with the respect due to a Roman citizen. The binding, as slaves were bound, with leathern thongs, was quite another matter. (30) Because he would have known the certainty . . . — Better, wishing to know the certain fact, namely, why he was accused. FaUing to get the information by the process of torturing the prisoner, the chiUarch now has recourse to the other alternative of getting a formal declaration from the Sanhe drin, as the chief representative body of the Jews. As yet, it will be remembered, they had taken no official action in the proceedings, and the chief captain had heard only the clamours of the crowd. xxin. P) And Paul, earnestly be holding the council. — We note once more the characteristic word for the eager anxious gaze with which St. PaiU scanned the as sembly. He had not seen it since he had stood there among Stephen's accusers, a quarter of a century ago. Many changes, of course, had come about in that interval, but some of the faces were probably the same ; and at ah events the general aspect of the Gazith, or Hall of Meeting, on the south Bide of the Temple, with its circular benches must have remained the same. I have lived in all good conscience . . . — The verb for " I have Uved " means UteraUy, i" have used my citizenship. It had ceased, however, to have this sharply de fined meaning (the kindred substan tive hi PhU. Hi. 20 is translated "conversation"), and hadcometobe used of the whole course of a man's social conduct. Perhaps My mode of Hfi has been in all good conscience, would be the nearest equivalent. The reference to " conscience " may be noted as eminently characteristic of St. Paul. So we find him saying Insolence of THE ACTS, XXIII. Ananias. lived in all good conscience before God until this day. C2)And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. m Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thowwhited wall : for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smit ten contrary to the law 1 (4) And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest ? (5) Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest : for it is written, Thou shalt of himseh that he had aU his hfe served God with " a pure con science" (2 Tim. i. 3) ; that a "good conscience" is the end of the commandment (1 Tim. i. 5) ; or, again, recognising the power of conscience even among the heathen (Rom. ii. 15). In the phrase "I know nothing by myself," i.e., " I am conscious of no fault" (see 1 Cor. iv. 4), we have a like reference to its authority. Comp. also chap. xxiv. 16 ; Rom. xiii. 5 ; 1 Cor. x. 25. And in aU these passages he assigns to conscience its true func tions with an exact precision. It is not an inf alHble guide and it r e quire s illumination, and therefore each man needs to pray for Ught, but it is never right to act against its dic tates, and that which is objectively the better course is subjectively the worse, unless the man in his heart believes it to be the better. C2) The high priest Ananias. — See Note on chap. xxii. 5. The Bon of Nebedaeus was conspicuous for his cruelty and injustice, and had been sent to Rome as a pri soner to take his trial before Claudius (a.d. 52). He had been acquitted, or at least released, and had returned to Judsea. To him this assertion of a hfe so utterly urdike his own seemed almost like a personal insult. He fitted the 24 3i cap, and raged with a brutal cruelty which reminds us of Jeffreys' treat ment of Baxter. (?) God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. — The phrase is in teresting as showing either that our Lord, in likening the Pharisees to "whitened sepulchres" (see Matt. xxiii. 27 ; Luke xi. 44), had used a proverbial comparison, or else, as seems equaUy probable, that it had become proverbial among His dis ciples as having been so used by Him. The whole utterance must be regarded by St. Paul's own con fession as the expression of a hasty indignation, recalled after a mo ment's reflection ; but the words so spoken were actuaUy a prophecy, fulfiUed some years after by the death of Ananias by the hands of the sicarii. (Jos. Wars, ii. 17, §§ 2—9.) I5) I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest These words admit of three different ex planations : — (1) We may take them as stating that St. Paul, either from defective sight (see Notes on chaps. ix. 18 ; xiv. 9), or because the high priest was not sitting as president of the Sanhedrin, HteraUy did not know who it was that had given the order, and thought it came from one of the subordinate members of the CouncU. (2) That the words Paul a THE ACTS, XXIII. Pharisee. not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." C6) But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sad ducees, and the other Pha- 6 Phil 3. 5. risees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee,6 the son of a Pharisee : of the hope and resurrection of the dead were a somewhat ironical protest against the authority of Ananias as having been improperly appointed. (3) That the " I wist not " stands for "I did not consider," and is an apologetic recantation of what had been uttered with a fuU knowledge that the words had been spoken by the high priest. Of these the first seems by far the most probable. The solemn sneer, pointed by words from Scripture, suggested by (2) is at variance with St. Paul's cha racter ; and (3) puts upon the words a greater strain than they wiU bear. It is obvious that St. Paul might weU think that greater reverence was due to the high priest than to one filling an inferior position Hi the CouncU. Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.— The passage (Ex. xxii. 28) is in teresting as one of those in which the Hebrew word Elo him, commonly translated " God," is used of earthly rulers. St. Paul probably quoted it in Hebrew (see chap. xxii. 2), whhe St. Luke reproduces it from the LXX. version. It need hardly be said that to act on tbit law to wards the rulers, not of ' ' the people' ' only, but of the heathen. ; to see below all the corruptions of human society and the vices of princes, the scheme of a divine order ; to recog nise that " the powers that be are ordained of God," was throughout the ruling principle of the Apostle's conduct, and, for the most part, of that of the early Christians (Eom. xiU.l— 6; lPet.H. 13— 17). Chris tianity was a great revolution, but they were not, politicaUy or socially, revolutionists. (6) But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sad ducees . . . — We recognise the same parties in the council as there had been twenty-five years before. Whether they sat in groups on dif ferent sides, after the manner of the Government and Oppositionbenches in the House of Commons, or whether St. Paul recognised the faces of Hidividual teachers of each sect with whom he had formerly been acquainted, we have no data for deciding.' I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. — It is natural, from one point of view, to dweU chiefly on the tact of the Apostle. He seems to be acting, consciously or unconsciously, on the principle divide et impera, to win over to his side a party who would other wise have been his enemies. With this there comes, it may be, a half-doubt whether the policy thus adopted was altogether truthful. Was St. Paul at that time reaUy a Pharisee ? Was he not, as fol lowing in his Master's footsteps, the sworn foe of Pharisaism ? The answer to that question, which ob viously ought to be answered and not suppressed, is that aU parties have theh good and bad sides, and that those whom the rank and file of a party most revUe may be the most effective witnesses for the 370 The Phartseet THE ACTS, XXIII. and Sadducees. I am called in question." m And when he had so said, there arose a dissen sion between the Pharisees and the Sadducees : and the multitude was divided. ® For the Sadducees say a clt. 34. 21. that there is no resurrec tion, neither angel, nor spirit :" but the Pharisees confess both. C9) And there arose a great cry : and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and truths on which the existence of the party rests. The true leaders of the Pharisees had given a pro minence to the doctrine of the Resurrection which it had never had before. They taught an ethical rather than a sacrificial religion. Many of them had been, Hke Nico demus and Joseph of Arimathaea, secret disciples of our Lord. At this very time there were many avowed Pharisees among the mem bers of the Christian Church (chap. xv. 5). St. Paul, therefore, could not be charged with any suppressio verl in calling himseh a Pharisee. It did not involve even a tacit disclaimer of his faith in Christ. It was rather as though he said, " I am one with you Hi ah that is truest Hi your creed. I invite you to listen and see whether what I now proclaim to you is not the crown and completion of ah your hopes and yearnings. Is not the resurrection of Jesus the one thing needed for a proof of that hope of the resurrection of the dead of which you and your fathers have been witnesses ? " P) There arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. — As a strategic act St. Paul's words had imme diately the effect which he deshed. They prevented the hasty unani mous vote which might otherwise have united the two parties, as they had been united in the case of Stephen, in the condemnation of the blasphemer. What foUows shows that it was not without re sults as regards the higher aim. (8) The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection.— On the general teaching of the Sad ducees, see Matt. xxii. 23. Theh denial of the existence of angels and sphits seems at first inconsis tent with the known facts that they acknowledged the divhie authority of the Pentateuch, which contains so many narrativesof angelophanies, and were more severe than others in theh administration of the Law. The great body of the higher priestly class were, we know, mere Saddu cees (chap. v. 17) ; and what, on theh principles, was the meaning of the Temple ritual ? They were, in fact, carried along by one of the great waves of thought which were then passing over the ancient world, and were Epicureans and Mate rialists without knowing it, just as the Pharisees were, even to the eye of a writer like Josephus (Life, c. 3), the counterpart of the Stoics. For them the " angels " of the Penta teuch were not distinct beings, but evanescent manifestations of the divine glory. P) Let us not fight against God. — If we could receive these words as part of the original text, they would be a singularly 371 Paul rescued by THE ACTS, XXIII. the Chief Captain. strove, saying, We find no evil in this man : but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God. 00) And when there arose a great dissension, the chief cap tain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle. ai) And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul : for as thou hast tes tified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also characteristic reproduction of the counsel of St. Paul's master (chap. v. 39). They are, however, want ing Hi many of the best MSS. and versions, and were apparently added to complete the sentence which St. Luke had left in the emphasis of its unfinished abruptness. Pos sibly its close was drowned in the tumultuous cries of the Sadducees. The line taken by the Pharisees is altogether that of GamaHel. After twenty-five years they have not got further than the cautious policy of those who halt between two opinions. They give a verdict of "Not Guilty" as to the specific charges brought against St. Paul. They think it possible that he may have received a vision or revela tion of some kind. In the word " spirit " they perhaps admit that the form of Jesus may have ap peared to him as a spectre from the world of the dead. P°) The chief captain, fear ing . . . — We may well be lieve that the priest who had been rebuked as a " whited waU " would not willingly forego his revenge. He, and the Sadducees generally, would now be able to assume the position of being more devoted de fenders of the Law and of the Temple than the Pharisees them- 3; selves. The fear of the chiUarch was naturaUy heightened by his knowledge that he was responsible for the Hfe of a Eoman citizen. In the barracks of the fortress, as before, probably, in the self-same guard-room as that which had witnessed our Lord's sufferings at the hands of Pilate's soldiers, the prisoner would at least be in safety. P1) Be of good cheer, Paul. — The day had been one of strange excitement, and must have roused many anxieties. Personal fear as to suffering or death St. Paul was, more than most men, free from ; but was his work to be cut short ? Was he to faU a victim to the maUce of the Jews ? Was the deshe, which he had cherished for many years, to preach the gospel in the great capital of the emphe (Rom. i. 13 ; xv. 23) to be frustrated? These questions pressed upon him in the wakeful night that foUowed the exhausting day ; and, with a nature Hke St. Paul's, such anxieties could not but find expression in his prayers. To those prayers the " vision and apocalypse of the Lord " of which we now read was manifestly the answer. To him, tossed on these waves and biUows of the soul, as once before to the Conspiracy against THE ACTS, XXIII. Paul's Life. at Rome. oa)And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse,1 saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. an with oath of execra-tWIL ll3) And they wore more than forty which had made this conspiracy. a* And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that Twelve tossing on the troubled waters of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. xiv. 27), there came the words, fuU of comfort and of hope, " Be of good cheer." There might be delay and suffering, and a long trial of patience, but the end was cer tain; he was to reach the goal of Eome. P2) Certain of the Jews banded together . . . — The casuistry of the more fanatic Jews led them to the conclusion that a blasphemer or apostate was an out law, and that, in the absence of any judicial condemnation, private persons might take on themselves the execution of the divine sentence. So, they may have argued, Matta- thias, the founder of the Maccabean dynasty, had slain the apostate Jew who offered sacrifice at the altar at Modin (1 Mace. H. 24) ; so ten Zealots of Jerusalem had con spired to assassinate Herod the Great because he had bnUt an am phitheatre and held gladiatorial games in the Holy City (Jos. Ant. xu. 6, § 2 ; xv. 8, § 3). It is me lancholy but instructive to re member how often the casuistry of Christian theologians has run in the same groove. In this respect the Jesuit teaching, absolving subjects from their aUegiance to heretic rulers, and the practical issue of that teaching in the history of the Gunpowder Plot, and of the murders perpetrated by Clement and EavaUlac, present only too painful a paraUel Those who now thus acted were probably of the number of the Zealots, or Sicarii, who have been weU described as the " Orangemen of Judaism." Under a curse. — LiteraUy, they placed themselves under an anathema. This was the Jewish kherem, and the person or thing on which it f eU was regarded as dc» voted to the wrath of God. (Comp. Eom. ix. 3 ; 1 Cor. xvi 22 ; Gal. i. 8, 9.) So, Ha the Old Testament, Jericho and aU that it contained was a kherem, or accursed thing, devoted to destruction (Josh. vii. 1). P4> They came to the chief priests and elders. — It will be remembered that the high priest Ananias had aheady shown the rough brutahty of his nature in his treatment of St. Paul, and was now, we can scarcely doubt, im pelled by the spirit of revenge It lies on the surface that those to whom the conspirators went were the Sadducean party in the CouncU, not the more moderate and cautious Pharisees. We have bound ourselves under a great curse. — The Greek foUows the Hebrew idiom in expressing intensity by the redupli cation of the leading word. Liter aUy, We have anathematised ourselves with an anathema. 373 The Plot revealed THE ACTS, XXIII. by Paul's Sister's Son. we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. °5) Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to-morrow, as though ye would enquire something more perfectly concerning him : and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him. (16) And when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul. a" Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain ; for he hath a certain thing to teU him. °» So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man P6) Mow therefore ye with the council . . . — The plot was necessary, either (1) because the Sanhedrin had lost, under Roman rule, its * power to inflict capital punishment (see Notes on chap. vh. 59; John xvHi. 31) ; or (2) because, even if they possessed that power, the chiHarch was not Hkely to aUow its exercise in the case of a Roman citizen; or (3) because the experi ence of the previous day had shown that the violent party were not hkely to obtain a majority Hi the Council. The plot was, so far, skU- fuUy laid. Even those who had said, "We find no evU in this man," could hardly oppose a pro posal for a further investigation. We, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him The first word stands in the Greek with a kind of ferocious emphasis. " You may safely leave us to do our part." P") Paul's sister's son. — The passage is noteworthy as being the only reference to any of St. Paul's relations in the Acts. The fact that St. Paul lodged with Mnason, as far as it goes, suggests the pro- 371 '.babiUty that neither the sister nor the nephew resided permanently in Jerusalem. We, do not even know whether they were members of the Christian society, though this may, perhapgtfhe iffifeured from the eager ness" of the son to save his uncle from the danger which he knew to be imminent. We find that St. Paul had kinsmen at Rome (Rom. xvi. 7, 11). Was this nephew one of them who had come to Jerusalem to keep the feast, and heard the plot talked of (it is difficult to keep a secret in which forty men are sharers) in the caravanserai where he and other pilgrims lodged? We see, from the fact thus stated, that St. Paul, though Hi custody, was aUowed to hold free communication with his friends. This, perhaps, accounts for the fulness with which the whole history is given. The writer of the Acts had come up with the Apostle, and was not hkely to desert his friend if he could possibly gain access to him. P8) Paul the prisoner . . . —We may weU beUeve that at the time he Httle thought how long Paul sent to THE ACTS, XXIII. Cssarea. unto thee, who hath some thing to say unto thee. m Then the chief captain took him by the hand, and went with him aside pri vately, and asked him, What is that thou hast to tell me 1 C20) And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to-morrow into the council, as though they would en quire somewhat of him more perfectly. (21) But do not thou yield unto them : for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, which havebound themselves with an oath, tha fc they will neith er eat nor drink till they have killed him : and now are they ready, looking for a pro mise from thee. W2) So the chief captain then let the young man depart, and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou hast shewed these things to me. (23) And he called unto him two centurions^ saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two that name would be used of him, first by others and then by himseh, until it became as a title of honour in which he seemed to glory almost more than in that of Apostle. (Comp. Eph. Hi 1 ; iv. 1 ; PhUem. verses 1, 9.) (22) So the chief captain. — The chUiarch is obviously glad of the intelHgence. His sympathies are clearly with St. Paul person- aUy as against the high priest and his foUowers. He welcomes an opportunity for showing his zeal for the safe-keeping of a Eoman citizen, and for making a statement of the whole transaction from his own point of view. With true official caution he treats the com munication he has received as con fidential, and takes his measures accordingly. I23) Spearmen two hundred . . . — LiteraUy, right hand graspers. The word was a strictly technical one, and seems to have been appUed to those Ught-armed troops who carried a Hght spear or javelin Hi their right hands, as contrasted with those who carried the old spear, with a heavier shaft, which had to be wielded by both. They are coupled by the military writers of the Byzantine emphe with archers smApeltasts, or hght shield- bearers. The escort seems a large one for a single prisoner, but the tumults of the previous days, and the information just received as to the conspiracy, gave the chiliarch good reason to apprehend a formid able attack. At the third hour of the night. — Assuming that St. Luke uses the Jewish reckoning, this would be about 9 or 10 p.m. It was evidently the object of the chUiarch to place the prisoner be yond the reach of an attack before daybreak. With this view, aU, as 375 Letter from THE ACTS, XXIIL Claudius Lysias. hundred, at the third hour of the night ; C21) and pro vide them beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe unto Felix the governor. (25) And he wrote a letter after this manner : (26) Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Eelix sendeth greeting. (27) This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them : then came I with an army, and rescued him, having under stood that he was a Roman. C28) And when I would have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into their council : weU as the horsemen, were to be mounted. <24) Felix the governor. — The career of the procurator so named is not without interest as an illustration of the manner Hi which the Roman emphe was at this tune governed. In the household of Antonia, the mother of the Emperor Claudius, there were two brothers, first slaves, then freed-men, Anto- nius Felix and Pallas. The latter became the chosen companion and favourite minister of the emperor, and through his influence Felix obtained the procuratorship of Judaea. There, in the terse epi grammatic language of Tacitus, he governed as one who thought, in his reUance on his brother's power, that he could commit any crime with impunity, and wielded "the power of a tyrant in the temper of a slave" (Tacit. Ann. xH. 54; Hist. v. 9). His career was infamous alike for lust and cruelty. Another historian, Suetonius (Claud, u. 28), describes him as the husband of three queens, whom he had married Hi succession: — (1) DrusiUa, the daughter of Juba, King of Mauri tania, and Selene, the daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra. (2) Dru siUa, the daughter of Agrippa I. 376 and siBter of Agrippa H. (See verse 24.) She had left her first husband, Azizus, King of Emesa, to marry Felix (Jos. Ant. xx. 7, § 1). Their son, also an Agrippa, died in an eruption of Vesuvius in a.d. 79 (Jos. Ant. xx. 7, § 2). The name of the third princess Hi unknown. <26) Claudius Lysias unto the most exceUent governor Felix. — The letter may have been sent unsealed, or a copy of it may have been given to St. Paul or St. Luke after his arrival. What we havo obviously purports to be a verbal reproduction of it. We note (1) that the epithet "most excellent " is that which St. Luke uses of TheophUus, to whom he dedicates both the Gospel and the Acts (Luke i. 3 ; Acts i. 1) ; and (2) that the formal salutation, " greet ing," is the same as that used in the letter of the CouncU of Jerusalem (chap. xv. 23) and in the Epistle of St. James (Jas. i. 1). CT Then came I with an army. — Better, with my troops. The chief captain ingeniously colours his statement so as to claim credit for having rescued a Roman citizen, though, as a matter of fact, he did not discover that he was a citizen until he was on the point Paul brought THE ACTS, XXIII. to Felix. w whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds. ''"'And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they Iwd against him. Farewell &> Then the soldiers, as it was com manded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris. (32) On the morrow they left the horse men to go with him, and returned to the castle : (33) who, when they came to Caesarea, and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him. (34) And when the governor had read the letter, of scourging him without a trial. That fact, of course, is passed over without a word. l29) Accused of questions of their law. — The points which probably presented themselves to the chiliarch' s mind as the result of his inquiries were — (1) that the prisoner was accused of transgress ing the rules of the Temple ; (2) that the question at issue seemed to be whether he had seen a teacher named Jesus risen from the dead ; (3) whether that teacher was entitled to the name of ChriBt. (3°) Farewell. — The closing for mula, Uke the opening one, agrees with that used in the letter of the CouncU of Jerusalem. The " com mandment" given to the accusers to go down to Caesarea was probably given hi answer to the high priest's apphcation for another inquhy be fore the Sanhedrin. We are not told what became of the vow of the forty conspirators. They doubt less considered themselves absolved from it as soon as they heard of the prisoner's removal, and theh fast probably did not last longer than eighteen or twenty hours. (3i) Antipatris. — The town buht by Herod the Great, and named after his father, is repre sented by the modern Kefr-Saba, answering to the Caphar-Saba of Josephus (Ant. xvi. 5, § 2). It was about forty-two mUes from Jerusalem and twenty-six from Caesarea. Traces of a Roman road have been discovered between it and Jerusalem, more dhect by some miles than the better known route through the pass of Beth-horon. Having started probably at or about midnight, they would reach this town about six or seven a.m. They would then be practically beyond aU danger of pursuit or attack, and the foot-soldiers therefore returned, as no longer needed, to theh bar racks Hi the Tower Antonia, leav ing the horsemen to go on with him. I34) He asked of what pro vince he was. — The question was a natural one for a procurator of Judaea to ask as to any prisoner brought before him. (Comp. Pilate s question in Luke xxni. 6.) It does not appear why Felix was ready to take cognisance of a matter 377 PauVs Accusers THE ACTS, XXIV. sent for. he asked of what province he was. And when he under stood that lie was of Cilicia; ,35) I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he com manded him to be kept in Herod's judgment halt CHAPTER XXIV— a) And after five days Ananias the high priest which apparently, to judge by the precedent set by Pilate, be longed to the jurisdiction of another. Perhaps he had no motive for con ciliating the favour of the governor of CUicia, or thought that the nature of the accusation over-ruled the nationaHty of the accused. <35) I will hear thee.— The Greek verb expresses the idea of a thorough hearing. He commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall The Greek word is prsto rlum, a word somewhat elastic in its appUcation, and ranging from a palace to a barrack. " Judgment hall" hardly gives the meaning here. The buHding had probably been intended by Herod for use as a, royal residence, and was now used by the Roman procurator for himseh and his troops. The Apostle had there a second expe rience of the Hfe of a praatorium. At Rome he does not appear to have been in the praetorium, though the circumstances of his imprisonment brought him into contact with the soldiers who were quartered there. (Comp. Matt, xxvii. 27 ; Mark xv. 16 ; JohnxviH. 28; PhU. i. 13.) XXIV. P) After five days.— The in terval may have just aUowed time for messengers to go from Caasarea to Jerusalem, and for the priests to make theh arrangements and engage their advocate. (See Notes 378 on chap. i. 30.) Possibly, however, the five days may start from St. Paul's departure from Jeru salem, and this agrees, on the whole, better with the reckon ing of the twelve days from the Apostle's arrival there, in verse 11. Descended. — Better, came down, hi accordance with the usage of modern EngUsh. A certain orator named TertuUus. — Men of this class were to be found Hi most of the provincial towns of the Roman emphe, ready to hold a brief for plaintiff or de fendant, and bringing to bear the power of theh glib eloquence, as weU as theh knowledge of Roman laws, on the mind of ' the judge. There is not the sHghtest ground for supposing, as some have done, that the proceedings were conducted in Latm, and that while the chief priests were obHged to employ an advocate to speak Hi that language, St. Paul, who had never learnt it, was able to speak at once by a special inspiration. Proceedings before a procurator of Judaea and the provincials under him were almost of necessity, as Hi the case of our Lord and Pilate, in Greek. Had St. Paul spoken in Latin, St. Luke, who records when he spoke in Hebrew, (chap. xxi. 40), and when in Greek (chap. xxi. 37), was not likely to have passed the fact over ; nor is there any evidence, even on that improbable assumption, Speech of THE ACTS, XXIV. Tertullus. descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul C3) And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, (3) we accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. C4) Notwith standing, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I that St. Paul himseh, who was, we know, a Eoman citizen, had no previous knowledge of the lan guage. The strained hypothesis breaks down at every point. The name of the orator may be noted as standing half-way between Tertius and TertuUianus. Who informed the gover nor against Paul. — The word is a technical one, and impHes something of the nature of a formal indictment. (2) Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness. — The orator had, it would seem, learnt the trick of his class, and begins with propitiating the judge by flattery. The administration of Felix did not present much open ing for panegyric, but he had at least taken strong measures to put down the gangs of sicarii and brigands by whom Palestine was infested (Jos. Ant. xx. 8, § 5 ; Wars, U. 13, § 2), and TertuUus shows his skUl in the emphasis which he lays on " quietness." By a somewhat interesting coincidence, Tacitus (Ann. xh. 54), after narrating the disturbances caused by a quarrel between Fehx, backed by', the Samaritans, and Ventidius Cu- manus, who had been appointed as governor of Galilee, ends his state ment by relating that Fehx was ' tedious 379 supported by Quadrat us, the presi dent of Syria, " et qules provinciae reddita." That very worthy deeds . . . — Better, reforms, or improve ments ; the better MSS. giving a word which expresses this meaning, and the others one which impHes it. This, as before, represents one aspect of the procurator's adminis tration. On the other hand, within two years of this time, he was re- caUed from his province, accused by the Jews at Rome, and only escaped punishment by the inter vention of his brother PaUas, then as high hi favour with Nero as he had been with Claudius (Jos. Ant. xx. 8, § 10). By thy providence . . . — The Greek word had at this time, Hke the Enghsh, a somewhat higher sense than " prudence " or " fore thought." Men spoke then, as now, of the " providence " of God, and the tendency to clothe the emperors with quasi-divine attri butes led to the appearance of this word — "the providence of Caesar" — on theh coins and on medals struck Hi theh honour. TertuUus, after his manner, goes ono step further, and extends the term to the procurator oi Judaea. (4) That I be not further . — Better, that I may Accusation THE ACTS, XXIV. of Paul. pray thee thatthou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. (5) For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ring leader of the sect of the Nazarenes : (6) who also hath gone about to profane the temple : whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. (2» And as he reasoned of right eousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; f23) And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul. — More accurately, the centurion — either the officer in whose custody he had been placed by Lysias, or the one who had the special charge of the prisoners waiting for trial. The favourable impression made on Felix is shown by the unusual leniency with which the prisoner was treated. The attribute of "clemency," on which the orator had complimented Felix, was not altogether dead, but it was shown to the accused and not to the accusers. (M) Fehx came with his wife Drusilla. — She was, as has been said (see Note on chap. xxiH. 26), the daughter of the first Herod Agrippa and the sister of the second. In her name, the diminutive of Drusus, and borne also by a sister of Caligula's, we trace the early connection of her father with that emperor. She was but six years of age at the time of her father's death. She had been married at an early age to Azizus, king of Emesa, who had become a proselyte, and accepted circumcision. Fehx fell in love with her, and employed the services of a Jewish magician named Simon, whom some writers have identified with the sorcerer of Samaria (see Note on chap. vhi. 9), to seduce her from her husband. By her mar riage with FeUx she had a son named Agrippa, who perished in an eruption of Vesuvius (Jos. Ant. xix. 9 ; xx. 7, § 2). It fohows from the facts of her hfe that she could scarcely have been altogether un acquainted with the history of the new society. She must have known of the death of James and the im prisonment of Peter (chap. xii.). She may have connected her father' s tragic end at CaBsarea with the part he had taken in persecuting the faith of which one of the chief preachers was now brought before her. It would seem, from her being with her husband at these inter views, that she was eager to learn more of "the faith in Christ." Fehx, too, seems to have been willing at first to listen. This new development of his wife's reHgion, presenting, as it did, a higher aspect than that of the priests and elders of Jerusalem, was for him, at least, an object of more than common interest. The procurator and his wife were apparently Hi the first stage of an earnest inquiry which might have led to a con version. (25) Righteousness, temper ance, and judgment. — The first word, like our EngUsh "justice," includes in Greek ethios the duties 25 385 ¦'A Convenient THE ACTS, XXIV. Season." when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. (2a) He hoped also that I money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him : where- which man owes to man. "Tem perance " answers to a term with a somewhat wider sense than that which now attaches to the English word, and implies the state in which a man exercises control over aU the passions that minister to sensuality, while he yet faUs short of a per fect harmony between Reason and Emotion (Aristot. Eth. Nicom. vh. 7 — 10). What has been said of Felix shows how faulty his cha racter was in both these respects. The selection of the unwelcome topics shows how little St. , Paul belonged to the class of those who " compassed sea and land to make a proselyte" (Matt. xxiH. 15). It would apparently have been easy to bring about this result with Felix and his wife, had the preacher been content to speak smooth things and prophesy deceits, to put the patch of a ceremonial Judaism on the old garment of a sensual life ; but instead of this he presses home the truths which theh state needed, and seeks to rouse conscience to something Hke activity. His own experience (Rom. vii. 7 — 23 ; Phil. hi. 7, 8) had taught him that, without this, neither doctrine nor ritual availed to deliver the soul from its bondage to evil, and bring it into the kingdom of God. But he does not con6ne himself, as a merely ethical teacher might have done, to abstract arguments on the beauty or the utility of "justice" and " temperance." Here, also, his own experience was his guide, and he sought to make the guilty pair before whom he stood feel that the warnings of conscience were but the presage of a divine judgment which should render to every man accord ing to his deeds. It wiU be noted that there is no mention here of the forgiveness of sins, nor of the life of feUowship with Christ. Those truths would have come, in due course, afterwards. As yet they would have been altogether pre mature. The method of St. Paul's preaching was Uke that of the Baptist, and of all true teachers. Felix trembled, and an swered . . . — Conscience, then, was not dead, but its voice was sUenced by the will which would not listen. Felix treats St. Paul as Antipas had treated the Baptist (Mark vi. 20). He does not resent bis plainness of speech ; he shows a certain measure of respect for him, but he postpones acting "tiU a more convenient season," and so becomes the type of the miUions whose sphitual Hfe is ruined by a Uke procrastination. Nothing that we know of him gives us any ground for thinking that the "convenient season" ever came. (Comp. chap. xvii. 32.) (26> He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul.— The Greek gives " hoping also," as continuing the previous verse, and so places the fact in more immediate connec tion with the procurator's conduct. This greed of gain Hi the very act of administering justice was the root-evil of the weak and wicked character. He had caught at the Porcius Festus THE ACTS, XXIV. succeeds Felix. fore he sent for him the offcener, and communed with him. (27) But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room : and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. word " alms " in verse 1 7. St. Paul, then, was not without resources. He had money himseh, or he had wealthy friends : could not something be got out of one or both for the freedom which the prisoner would naturaUy de- Bire? He sent for Tii-m the oftener, and communed with him. — It is not difficult to represent to ourselves the character of these interviews, the suggestive hints — half-promises and half-threats — of the procurator, the steadfast refusal of the prisoner to purchase the freedom which he claimed as a right, his fruitless attempts to bring about a change for the better in his judge's character. (20 After two years Porcius Festus came into Fehx' room The EngUsh states the same fact as the Greek, but inverts the order. LiteraUy, When a period of two years was accomplished, Felix received Porcius Festus as his successor. We can, of course, only conjecture how these years were spent. Some writers who main tain the "Pauline, authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews have as signed it to this period ; others have supposed that the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon were written from Caesarea ; but there is no adequate evidence in support of either hypothesis. It is better to confine ourselves to the thought of the Apostle's patient resignation, learning obedience by the things he suffered — of his in tercourse with Philip, and other members of the Church of Caesarea, as comforting and refreshing to him. We may venture, perhaps, to think of St. Luke, who had come with hhn to Jerusalem, and who sailed with him from Caesarea, as not far off from him during his imprisonment. Attention has al ready been caUed (see Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles) to the probable use made by the Evan- geUst of these opportunities for collecting materials for his two histories. The change of administration was caused by the complaints which the Jews brought against Felix, and which led Nero to recall him. The influence of his brother PaUas avaUed, however, to save him from any further punishment. His suc cessor, Festus, who came to the province in a.d. 60, died in his second year of office. Josephus (Wars, H. 14, § 1) speaks of h m as suppressing the outrages of the robbers who infested the covntry, and maintaining the tranquility of the province. Felix, with claric- teristic baseness, sought 1 y his latest act to court the favour of the Jews, and left the Apostle in prison as a set-off against the many charges which were brought against him. Willing to shew the Jews a pleasure. — Literally, to deposit a favour. The boon conferred was not to be without return. It was, so to speak, an investment in ini quity, . 387 Paul before THE ACTS, XXV. Festus. CHAPTER XXV— a> Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. C2) Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews in formed him against Paul, and besought him, (3) and desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him. (4) But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart 1 Or, as some copies read,no more than eight or ten days. shortly thither. cs Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and ac cuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him. C6) And when he had tarried among them more than ten days,1 he went down unto Caesarea ; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought. m And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and XXV. P) After three days he as cended . . . — Better, he went up. (See Note on chap. xxiv. 1.) (2) Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews . . . — Some of the best MSS. give the plural, "the chief priests." It is clear that they hoped to take ad vantage of the newness of Festus to his office. He was hkely enough, they thought, to accept theh state ments and to yield to the pressure of those who had shown themselves powerful enough to bring about his predecessor's recaU. And they have not forgotten their old tactics. Once again piiests and scribes are ready to avaU themselves of the weapon of the assassin. Possibly Festus had heard from FeHx or Lysias, or others, of the former plot, and took care to be on his guard against this, and so the con spirators were again baffled. (6) Let them . . . which among you are able. — The ad jective is probably used, as in 1 Cor. i. 26, Bev. vi. 15, in the sense of " powerful," " chief," rather than as specificaUy referring to their being able to accuse the man of whom they had complained. What Festus demanded was that the charges against St. Paul should be supported by the leaders and repre sentatives of the people, and not by a hired rhetorician like Tertullus. If there be any wickedness in him.— The better MSS. give simply, " if there be anything," practicaUy, i.e., anything worth inquiring into. d Many and grievous com plaints. — These were, we may weU believe, of the same nature as those on which TertuUus had harangued. The line of St. Paul's defence indicates the three counts of the indictment. He had broken, it was alleged, the law of Israel, He appeals THE ACTS, XXV. to Ccesar. grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. (8) While he an swered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Csesar, have I offended any thing at all. m But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jeru salem, and there be judged of these things before me ? ™ Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be j udged : to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. (n) For if I be an offender, or have com mitted any thing worthy which Rome recognised as the reli- gion of the province, and was there fore subject to the spiritual juris diction of the Sanhedrin ; he had profaned the Temple ; he was a disturber of the peace of the emphe, and taught that there was another king than Nero. > P) Willing to do the Jews a pleasure. — See Note on chap. xxiv. 27. The invitation was Hi itseh plausible enough. It practicaUy admitted that there was no evi dence on the last head of the accu sation of which he, as procurator, need take cognizance. It offered the prisoner a trial before his own national tribunal, with the presence of the procurator as a check upon violence and injustice. It is mani fest from St. Paul's answer that this was practicaUy what Festus meant. The proposed trial would, he says, not be before Caesar's judgment seat, and he, for his part, preferred the secular to the eccle siastical tribunal. P°) I stand at Caesar's judg ment seat. — The Greek verb is given in a peculiar form, which carries with it the meaning of, I am standing, and have stood all along . . . — He, as a Eoman citizen, claimed the right to be tried by a Eoman court, and finding that the procurator had shown a bias which left little hope of a fair trial, exer cised the right which attached to his citizenship, and appealed to the highest court of aU, that of the emperor himseh. This interpreta tion seems every way more rational than that which paraphrases St. Paul'swordsthus: " I stand aheady in mind and purpose before the emperor's court, for God has shown me by a special revelation that I am to preach the gospel at Bome, and my trial there is accordingly part of the divinely ordered course of things which cannot be altered." Whatever influence the promise of chap, xxiii. 11 may have had on the Apostle's conduct, it is scarcely probable that he would have re ferred to it in this way in giving his reason for appeaUng to Caesar. As thou very weU knowest. — We have, as in chap. xxiv. 22, the comparative of the adverb. Festus knew this too well to need any further proof. He had heard the random charges, and had seen the worthlessness of the evidence. P1) TTo man may deliver me unto them. — Literally, no man Paul's appeal THE ACTS, XXV. allowed. of death, I refuse not to die : but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. m Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar ? unto Caesar shalt thou go. 03) And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto may give me ; The words ip to them as a favour. show that he saw through the simulated fairness of the procurator, and did not shrink from showing that he did so. I appeal unto Csesar. — The history of this right of appeal affords a singular illustration of the manner in which the republic had been transformed into a de spotic monarchy. TheoreticaUy the emperor was but the imperator, or commander-in-chief of the armies of the state, appointed by the senate, and acting under its dhection. Con suls were stUl elected every year, and went through the shadowy functions of their office. Many of the provinces (see Notes on chaps. xiU. 7 ; xvHi. 12) were directly under the control of the senate, and were accordingly governed by proconsuls. But Augustus had con trived to concentrate in himself all the powers that in the days of the repubUc had checked and balanced the exercise of individual authority. He was supreme pontiff, and as such regulated the religion of the state ; permanent censor, and as such could give or recaU the privUeges of citi zenship at his pleasure. The Trlbu- nlcla potestas, which had originally been conferred on the tribunes of the plebs so that they might protect members of theh order who appealed to them against the injustice of patrician magistrates, was attached 390 to his office. As such he became the final Court of Appeal from aU subordinate tribunals, and so, by a subtle artifice, what had been in tended as a safeguard to freedom became the instrument of a centra- Used tyranny. With this aspect of the matter St. Paul had, of course, nothing to do. It was enough for him that by this appeal he delivered himseh from the injustice of a weak and temporising judge, and made his long-delayed journey to Rome a matter of moral certainty. P2) Hast thou appealed unto Caesar ? unto Caesar shalt thou go. — There is obviously something like a sneer Hi the pro curator's acceptance of St. Paul's decision. He knew, it may be, better than the Apostle to what kind of judge the latter was ap pealing, what long delays there would be before the cause was heard, how Httle chance there was of a righteous judgment at last. P3) King Agrippa and Ber nice. — Each of the characters thus brought on the scene has a some what memorable history. (1) The former closes the line of the Hero dian house. He was the son of the Agrippa whose tragic end is related in chap. xii. 20 — 23, and was but seventeen years of age at the time of his father's death, in a.d. 44. He did not succeed to the kingdom of Judaaa, which was placed under Agrippa THE ACTS, XXV. and Bernicc. Caesarea to salute Festus. w And when they had I been there many days, Festus declared Paul's the government of a procurator ; but on the death of his uncle Herod, the king of Chalcis, in a.d. 48, re ceived the sovereignty of that region from Claudius, and with it the super intendence of the Temple and the nomination of the high priests. Four years later he received the tetrarchies that had been governed by his great-uncles Philip and Lysanias (Luke Hi. 1), with the title of king. In a.d. 55 Nero increased his kingdom by adding some of the cities of Galilee (Jos. Ant. xix. 9, § 1 ; xx. 1, § 3 ; 8, § 4). He Hved to see the destruc tion of Jerusalem, and died under Trajan (a.d. 100) at the age of seventy-three. (2) The history of Bernice, or Berenice (the name seems to have been a Macedonian form of Pherenice), reads Hke a horrible romance, or a page from the chronicles of the Borgias. She was the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I., and was married at an early age to her uncle the king of Chalcis. AUiances of this nature were common Hi the Herodian house, and the Herodias of the Gospels passed from an incestuous marriage to an incestuous adultery. (See Matt. xiv. 1.) On his death Berenice remained for some years a widow, but dark rumours began to spread that her brother Agrippa, who had succeeded to the princi pality of Chalcis, and who gave her, as in the instance before us, something Hke queenly honours, was hving with her in a yet darker form of nicest, and was reproducing in Judaea the vices of which his father's friend, CaUgula, had set so terrible an example (Sueton. Calig. c. 24). With a view to screening herself against these suspicions, she persuaded Polemon, king of Cilicia, to take her as his queen, and to profess himseh a convert to Judaism, as Azizus had done for her sister DrusUla (see Note on chap. xxiv. 24), and accept chcumcision. The iU-omened marriage did not prosper. The queen's unbridled passions once more gained the mastery. She left her husband, and he got rid at once of her and her reUgion. Her powers of fascination, however, were still great, and she knew how to profit by them in the hour of her country's ruin. Vespasian was attracted by her queenly dignity, and yet more by the magnificence of her queenly gifts. His son Titus took his place in her long Ust of lovers. She came as his mistress to Rome, and it was said that he had promised her mar riage. This, however, was more than even the senate of the emphe could tolerate, and Titus was com- peUed by the pressure of public opinion to dismiss her, but his grief in doing so was matter of notoriety. " Dimisit invitus Invttam" (Sueton. Titus, c. 7 ; Tacit. Hist. ii. 81 ; Jos. Ant. xx. 7, § 3). The whole story furnished Juvenal with a picture of depravity which stands almost as a pendent to that of MessaUna (Sat. vi. 155—9). To salute Festus. — This visit was probably, as the word indicates, of the nature of a formal recogni tion of the new procurator on his arrival in the province. P4) Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king. — The matter seems to have come in, as it were, in the course of conversation. 391 Statement THE ACTS, XXV. by Festus. cause unto the king, say ing, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix : (15) about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. (16) To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for him self concerning the crime laid against him. a7) There fore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and com manded the man to be brought forth. C18) Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed : (18) bBt had certain ques tions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, Festus probably thought that Agrippa, who knew aU about the Jews and theh rehgion, could throw some light on the pecuHar position of his prisoner, who, though a Jew, and professing the utmost reverence for the Law and the Temple, was yet accused and denounced by his compatriots. P6> To whom I answered . . . — The facts of the case are stated with fah accuracy, but there is a certain measure of ostentation in the way in which Festus speaks of " the manner of the Romans." It was, perhaps, natural that a pro curator just entering on his term of office, should announce, as with a flourish of trumpets, that he at least was going to be rigidly impartial in his administration of justice. It is fair to state that, as far as we know, his conduct was not inconsistent with his pro fession. To deliver any man . . — The use of the same verb as that which St. Pauf'Sad used in verse 16 shows that -the arrow shot at a venture had hL. the mark. Festus is eager to rcj,^ the charge. The words "to ', ov 8.' (literaUy, unto destruction) are not found in the best MSS., and seem to have been added by way of explanation. The language of the procurator is strictly official. The accused and the accusers are to stand face to face, and the former is to have an opening for his apologia, or defence, in answer to the indictment. P9> Certain questions against him of their own superstition. — The word is of the same import as that used by St. Paul in chap. xvii. 22 (where see Note), and the use here shows its comparatively neutral character. Festus was speaking to a Jewish king, and would not knowingly have used an offensive term. He falls back, accordingly, upon one which an outsider might use of any local reUgion which he did not Agrippa desires THE ACTS, XXV. to hear Paul. whom Paul affirmed to be alive. C201 And because I doubted of such manner of questions,1 I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters. <21> But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing3 of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I 1 Or, I was doubt ful how to en quirehereof. 2 Or, judg ment. might send him to Csesar. (22) Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To mor row, said he, thou shalt hear him. <23) And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was en tered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men himseh accept. What foUows shows that he looked on St. Paul as not merely affirming, with other Pharisees, the general doctrine of a resurrection, but as connecting it with the specific witness that Jesus had risen from the dead. P°> Because I doubted of such manner of questions. — Better, I, being perplexed as to the inquiry about these things. The word imphes more than mere doubt, and his perplexity is his justifica tion for bringing the matter before a prince who, being a Jew, might be a better judge of the point at issue. (21) Unto the hearing of Augustus. — The title (Sebastos) is the Greek equivalent, as seen in the. name Sebaste ( = Augusta) given to Samaria, for the epithet which, Uke our " ids majesty," had become a kind of official title of the Eoman emperor. It had first been given by the Senate to Octavianus Sueton. Aug. c. 7), and was adopted by his successors. As connected with the technical use of augeo for " consecrating," it had originaUy, Hke Sebastos, a religious connota tion. The month of August, dedi cated to the first emperor as July had been dedicated to Julius, and the names of Augsburg and Sebas- topol, are interesting as perpetua ting its memory. The word for " hearing " (the same as our medical term diagnosis) corresponds rather to our thorough investigation. (22) I would also hear the man myself.— Better, I also was myself wishing ; the phrase imply ing that the wish was not now formed for the first time. P3) When Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp. — The description may be noted as probably coming from ono who had been an eye witness of the stately parade, and was able to report with precision aU that had passed. The fact was the first fulfilment of the promise that the Apostle was to bear His witness before " kings " as weU as rulers (chap. ix. 15). The Greek word for " pomp " (more literaUy, show) is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. There is an almost tragic pathos Hi the thought, which must have been present to the mind of the historian, and perhaps, also, to that of others, I that this display of the pride of 393 Paul before THE ACTS, XXVI. Agrippa. of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth. (24) And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jeru salem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer. (25) But when I found that he had com mitted nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him. »» Of whom I have no certain thing to -write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write. (27J For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him. CHAPTER XXVI.— m Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Tho a art permitted state was exhibited in the very city that had witnessed the terrible chastisement of a Hke display in his father. The vice was inherited : the lesson had not been learnt. The chief captains Liter aUy, chiliarchs, as in chap. xxi. 31. (241 Have dealt with me The general term, " held communi cation with me," is chosen to cover the proposal of verses 2, 3, as weh as the direct accusation of verse 7. It would seem from the addition, " and also here," that the Jews of Caesarea had also taken part Hi the proceedings, and that they too had been clamouring for a capital sentence. W When I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death The words should be noted as an emphatic declaration on the part of Festus that the accusers had failed to sustain theh indictment. But a procurator transmitting a case to 394 the supreme court of the emperor was bound to send a formal report as to the matter out of which the appeal arose, and it was on this point that the perplexed ruler deshed the advice and co-operation of Agrippa. (26) To write unto my lord — The Greek corresponds to the title of " dominus," which, though declined by Augustus and Tiberius (Sueton. Octav. c. 53 ; Tiber, c. 27), had been assumed by CaUgula and Nero. The first of the emperors had rejected it as an " accursed and ill-omened title,'- and had not allowed it to be used even by his chUdren or grand-chUdren, either seriously or in play. The name " Augustus," with its reUgious associations, was enough for him. XXVI. P) Then Paul stretched forth the hand.— The characteristic at titude reminds us of chap. xxi. 40. THE ACTS, XXVI. of Paul. to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself : (2> I think my self happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews : (3) especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews : wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. (4) My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews ; (5) which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. (6) And now I Here it acquires a fresh pictorial vividness from the fact that St. Paul now stood before the court as a prisoner, with one arm, pro bably the left, chained to the soldier who kept guard over him. (Comp. verse 29.) (2) I think myself happy, king Agrippa. — We note the characteristic union of frankness and courtesy. He wiU not flatter a prince whose character, he must have known, did not deserve praise, but he recognises that it was weh for him that he stood before one who was not ignorant of the rela tions of Sadducees and Pharisees on the great question of the Eesurrec tion, and of the expectations which both parties alike entertained as to the corning of a Messiah, and the belief, which some at least of the latter cherished (chaps, xv. 5 ; xxi. 20), that theh hopes had been fulfiUed in Christ. Because I shall answer. — Strictly, because I am about to make my defence, or apologia. (3> Expert in all customs and questions. — The former word is used in its half-technical sense, as including all the precepts of the Law of Moses. (See Notes on chaps, vi. 14 ; xxi. 21.) (4) My manner of life from my youth. — The Apostle refers, of course, to the time when he first came up to Jerusalem to study the Law and the traditions at the feet of Gamaliel. (Comp. his account of the same period in Gal. i. 14 ; Phil. Hi. 5, 6.) Know all the Jews. — The noun seems to be used in its more hmited meaning, as including chiefly, if not exclusively, the Jews of Judaea. (5) After the most straitest sect. — Better, most rigid, or most precise. The Greek does not con tain anything answering to the double superlative of the English. The word for " sect " is the same as that used in chap. xxiv. 5, and trans lated "heresy" in chap. xxiv. 14. («) For the hope of the promise made of God — The words include the whole expecta tion of a divine kingdom of which the Christ was to be the head, as well as the specific beUef in a resurrection of the dead. 395 Doctrine of THE ACTS, XXVI. the Resurrection. stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers : m unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. C8) Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead 1 (9) I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary Unto our fathers. — Some of the better MSS. have simply, " to the fathers." The Received Text is, perhaps, more in harmony with St. Paul's usual manner of identify ing himseh with those to whom he speaks. He wiU claim even Agrippa as of the stock of Abraham. (Comp. in this connection the anecdote as to Agrippa I. given in Note on chap. xH. 21.) P) Our twelve tribes. — The noun is strictly a neuter adjective : our twelve-trlbed nation. It wiU be noted that St. Paul, Uke St. James (Jas. i. 1), assumes the twelve tribes to be all alike sharers in the same hope of Israel, and ignores the legend, so often repeated and re vived, that the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, after they had been carried away by Shalmaneser, had wandered far away, and were to be found, under Bome strange disguise, in far-off regions of the world. The earliest appearance of the fable is in the apocryphal 2 Esdras xiu. 40 — 46, where they are said to have gone to " a country where never man kind dwelt, that they might there keep the statutes which they never kept in their own land." The Apostle, on the contrary, represents the whole body of the twelve tribes as alike serving God (with the special service of worship) day and night, and speaks of himself as ac cused because he had announced that the promise of God to theh fathers had been fulfiUed to them. (8) Why should it be thought a thing incredible . . ? — Some MSS. give a punctuation which alters the structure of the sentence : What ! is it thought a thing incre dible . . . ? The appeal is made to Agrippa as accepting the sacred books of Israel, in which instances of a resurrection were recorded (1 Kings xvii. 17—23; 2 Kings iv. 18 — 37), and which ought to have hindered him from postulating the incredibility of the truth which St. Paul preached, and which in cluded (1) the doctrine. of a general resurrection, and (2) the fact that Christ had risen. The Greek use of the present tense, that God ralseth the dead, gives prominence to the first thought rather than the second. Agrippa, as probably alHed, as the rest of his kindred had been, with the Sadducean high priests, not a few of whom he had himseh nomi nated, was likely to reject both. <9) I verily thought with myself . . .—The words have a tone of considerate sympathy and hope. He himself had been led from unbelief to faith ; he wUl not despah of a Hke transition for others, even for Agrippa. (Comp. 1 Tim. i. 12—17.) On the relation Paul the THE ACTS, XXVI. Persecutor. to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. <"» Which thing I also did in Jeru salem : " and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. (11) And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blas pheme ; and being exceed ingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. (12) Where upon as I went to Damas cus with authority and commission from the chief of this account of the Apostle's conversion to previous narratives, see Notes on chap. ix. 1 — 20. P°> Many of the saints did I shut up in prison. — The use of the term as apphed to the be- HeverB Hi Christ (see Note on chap. ix. 13) is remarkable as an example of courage. In the presence of Agrippa, St. Paul does not shrink from speaking of them as the " holy ones " of God's people Israel — what the Chasidim, or "devout ones" (the "Assideans" of 1 Mace. vh. 13 ; 2 Mace. xiv. 6) had been in an earher generation. When they were put to death — The history of the Acts records only one instance. Were there other martyrdoms besides that of Stephen, of which we know nothing ? or does the Apostle speak in general terms of that single act ? On the whole, the former seemB the more probable alternative. He was breathing an atmosphere of "slaughter" (chap. ix. 1). On this view, the language of Heb. xh. 4, "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood," must be referred to the sufferings of a later time, or, more probably, of a different region. In 1 Thess. ii. 15, Jas. v. 10, we have, perhaps, tisaces of widely extended I gave my voice against them. — Better, gave my vote. The words show that St. Paul, though a "young man" (see Note on chap. vh. 58), must have been a member either of the Sanhedrin itseh or of some tribunal with delegated authority. P1) CompeUed them to blas pheme. — The verb is in the im perfect tense, which may express either continued or incomplete action. It does not fohow, there fore, that any of the behevers yielded to the pressure ; and the words may be paraphrased, I went on trying to compel them. Being exceedingly mad against them. — The words ex press, with a wonderful vividness, St. Paul's retrospective analysis of his former state. It was not only that he acted in ignorance (1 Tim. i 13) ; he might plead also the temporary insanity of fanaticism. Even unto strange cities. — The words show that the mission to Damascus was not a soHtary in stance, and the persecution may weh have raged in the regions of Samaria and Galilee through which the Apostle passed. (See Note on chap. ix. 3.) P2) With authority and commission. — The former word 397 Paul's account THE ACTS, XXVI. of his Conversion priests," 03' at midday, 0 acK king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.