Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ

by David Francis Bacon

The church of Antioch having thus made great advances under these very abundant and extraordinary instructions, the apostles began to turn their eyes again to a foreign field, and longed for a renewal of those adventurous labors from which they had now had so long a repose. Paul therefore proposed to Barnabas that they should go over their old ground again:——“Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city, where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.” To this frank and reasonable proposition, Barnabas readily agreed, and as it was desirable that they should have an assistant with them on this journey, he proposed that his nephew Mark should accompany them in this capacity as he had done on their former voyage. But Paul, remembering the manner in which he had forsaken them just as they were entering upon the arduous missionary fields of Asia Minor, refused to try again one who had once failed to do them the desired service, at a time when he was most needed. Yet Barnabas, being led, no doubt by his near relationship to the delinquent evangelist, to overlook this single deficiency, and perhaps, having good reason to think that he had now made up his mind to stick to them through thick and thin, through good and bad fortune, was disposed to give him another trial in the apostolic service, and therefore strongly urged Paul to accept of him as their common assistant in this new tour for which he was well fitted by his knowledge of the routes. Paul, however, no doubt irritated against Mark, for the wavering spirit already manifested by him at Perga, utterly refused to have anything to do with him after such a display of character, and wished to take some other person who had been tried in the good work with more satisfactory results as to his resolution and ability. Barnabas of course, was not at all pleased to have his sister’s son treated so slightingly, and refused to have any substitute whatever, insisting that Mark should go, while Paul was equally resolved that he should not. The conclusion of the whole matter was, that these two great apostles, the authorized messengers of God to the Gentiles, quarreled downright; and after a great deal of furious contention, they parted entirely from one another; and so bitter seems to have been the division between them that they are not known to have ever after been associated in apostolic labors, although they had been the most intimate friends and fellow-travelers for many years, standing by one another through evil and good report, through trials, perils, distresses and almost to death. A most lamentable exhibition of human [♦]weakness marring the harmonious progress of the great scheme of evangelization! Yet it must be esteemed one of the most valuable facts relating to the apostles, that are recorded in the honest, simple, clear, and truly impartial narrative of Luke; because it reminds the Christian reader of a circumstance, that he might otherwise forget, in an undue reverence for the character of the apostles,——and that is, the circumstance that these consecrated ministers of the word of truth were, really and practically, in spite of their holiness, “men of like passions with ourselves,” and even in the arrangement of their apostolic duties, were liable to be governed by the impulses of human passion, which on a few occasions like this, acting in opposite directions in different persons at the same time, brought them into open collisions and disputes,——which, if men of their pure martyr-spirit, mostly too, under the guidance of a divine influence, could not avoid, nor could satisfactorily settle, neither may the unconsecrated historian of a later age presume to decide. Who was right and who was wrong in this difficulty, it is impossible to say; and each reader may judge for himself. It may be remarked, however, that Paul was no more likely to be right than Barnabas; he was a younger man, as it would appear from the circumstance that he is named after him in the apostolic epistle;——he was no more an apostle than Barnabas was; for both are thus named by Luke in his account of their first journey, and both were expressly called by a distinct revelation from the Holy Spirit to undertake the apostleship of the Gentiles together. Paul also is known to have quarreled with other persons, and especially with Peter himself, and that too without very just cause; and although Barnabas may have been influenced to partiality by his relationship to Mark, yet much also may be justly chargeable to Paul’s natural violence and bitterness of temper, which often led him into hasty acts, of which he afterwards repented, as he certainly did in this very case, after some time; for he repeatedly mentions Mark in his epistles in terms of regard, and what is most in point, declares him to be “profitable to him in the ministry.”

[♦] “weaknes” replaced with “weakness”

Witsius remarks, (Vita Pauli, iv. 16,) that the ancient Christian writers ascribe the greatest part of the blame of this quarrel to Barnabas, whom they consider as having been unduly influenced by natural affection for his kindred according to the flesh. “But”, as Witsius rather too cautiously remarks, “it may well be doubted whether Paul’s natural violence of temper did not carry him somewhat beyond the bounds of right. The Greeks have not unwisely remarked——Ὁ Παυλος ἐζητει το δικαιον, ὁ Βαρναβας το Πιλανθροπον ‘Paul demanded what was just——Barnabas, what was charitable.’ It might have been well enough if Barnabas had yielded to the zeal of Paul; but it would not have been bad if Paul had persuaded himself to allow something to the feelings of that most mild and amiable man. Meanwhile, it deserves notice, that God so ordered this, that it turned out as much for the individual benefit of Mark, as for the general benefit of the church. For the kind partiality of Barnabas was of advantage to Mark, in preventing him from being utterly cast off from apostolic companionship, and forsaken as unworthy; while to the church, this separation was useful, since it was the means of confirming the faith of more of the churches in the same time.” (Witsius.)

“From hence we may learn, not only that these great lights in the Christian church were men of the like passions with us, but that God, upon this occasion, did most eminently illustrate the wisdom of his providence, by rendering the frailties of two such eminent servants instrumental to the benefit of his church, since both of them thenceforward employed their extraordinary industry and zeal singly and apart, which till then had been united, and confined to the same place.” (Stanhope on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. 4.)

HIS SECOND APOSTOLIC MISSION.

After this unhappy dispute, the two great apostles of the Gentiles separated; and while Barnabas, accompanied by his favorite nephew, pursued the former route to Cyprus, his native island, Paul took a different direction, by land, north and west. In selecting a companion for a journey which he had considered as urgently requiring such blameless rectitude and firmness of resolution, he had set his heart upon Silas, the efficient Hellenist deputy from Jerusalem, whose character had been fully tested and developed during his stay in Antioch, where he had been so active in the exercise of those talents, as a preacher, which had gained for him the title of “prophet” before his departure from Jerusalem. Paul, during his apostolic association with him, had laid the foundation of a very intimate friendship; and being thus attached to him by motives of affection and respect, he now selected him as the companion of his missionary toils. Bidding the church of Antioch farewell, and being commended by them to the favor of God, he departed,——not by water, but through the cities of Syria, by land,——whence turning westward, he passed through the Syrian gates into Cilicia; in all these places strengthening the churches already planted, by making large additions to them from the Gentiles around them. Journeying northwest from Cilicia, he came by the Cilician gates of Taurus, to his old scenes of labor and suffering, in Lycaonia, at Derbe and Lystra, where he proceeded in the task of renewing and completing the good work which he had himself begun on his former tour with Barnabas; with whom he might now doubtless have effected vastly more good, and whose absence must have been deeply regretted by those who owed their hopes of salvation to the united prayers and labors of him and Paul. Among those who had been converted here by the apostles on their first mission, was a half-bred Jew, by name Timotheus, his father having been a Greek who married Eunice, a Jewess, and had maintained a high character among his countrymen in that region, both in Lystra and Iconium. Under the early and careful instructions of his pious mother, who had herself received a superior religious education under her own mother Lois, Timothy had acquired a most uncommon familiarity with the Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation; and that he had learned them and appreciated their meaning in a much more spiritual and exalted sense than most Jews, appears from the fact, that notwithstanding his early regard for the law as well as the prophets, he had never complied with the Mosaic rite of circumcision,——perhaps because his father may have been prejudiced against the infliction of such a sign upon his child. Paul becoming acquainted with Timothy, and seeing in the young man the germ of those talents which were afterwards so eminent in the gospel cause, determined to train him to be an assistant and associate with him in the apostolic ministry,——and in order to make him so far conform to all the rites of the ancient covenant, as would fit him for an acceptable ministry among the Jews as well as the Gentiles, he had him circumcised; and he was induced still farther to this step of conformity, by the consideration of the effect it would have on the Jews in that immediate neighborhood, who were already very suspicious that Paul was in reality aiming at the utter overthrow and extinction of all the Mosaic usages, and was secretly doing all that he could to bring them into contempt and disuse. Having made this sacrifice to the prejudices of his countrymen, he now considered Timothy as completely fitted for usefulness in the apostolic ministry, and henceforth made him his constant companion for years.

HIS WESTWARD JOURNEY.

With this accession to his company, Paul proceeded through the cities of that region which he had before visited, and communicated to them the decrees passed by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, for the regulation of the deportment of professing Christians, in regard to the observance of Mosaic usages. They all, moreover, labored for the extension of the churches already founded, and thus caused them to be built up, so that they received fresh additions daily. Nor did Paul limit his apostolic labors to the mere confirmation of the work begun on his tour with Barnabas; but after traversing all his old fields of exertion, he extended his journey far north of his former route, through all Phrygia, and Galatia, a province which had never before been blessed with the presence of a Christian missionary,——and after laboring in his high vocation there, he was disposed to move west, to the Ionian or true Asian shore of the Aegean, but was checked by a direction which he could not resist; and passing northward of the true Asian cities, he came out of Phrygia into Mysia, the province that occupies the northwestern corner of all Asia Minor, bounded north by the Propontis and Hellespont, and west by the northern part of the Aegean,——the true Asia lying south of it, within the geographical division commonly named Lydia. Having entered Mysia, they were expecting to turn northeast into Bithynia, when again their own preferences and counsels were overruled by the same mysterious impulse as before, and they therefore continued their westward journey to the shore of the Hellespont and Aegean, arriving within the classic region of the Troad, at the modern city of Alexandria Troas, some miles south of that most glorious of all the scenes of Grecian poetical antiquity, where, thirteen hundred years before, “Troy was.” Here they rested for a brief space, and while they were undecided as to the course which they ought next to pursue, Paul had a remarkable vision, which gave a summons too distinct to be mistaken or doubted, to a field in which the most noble triumphs of the cross were destined to be won under his own personal ministration, and where through thousands of years the name of Christ should consecrate and re-exalt the land, over all whose hills, mountains, streams, valleys, and seas, then as now, clustered the rich associations of the most splendid antiquity that is marked in the records of the past, with the beautiful and the excellent in poetry, art, taste, literature, philosophy and moral exaltation. In the night, as Paul was slumbering at his stopping-place, in the Troad, there appeared to him a vision of a Macedonian, who seemed to cry out beseechingly to him——“Come over into Macedonia, and help us!” This voice of earnest prayer for the help of Christ, rolling over the wide Aegean, was enough to move the ardent spirit of Paul, and on waking he therefore summoned his companions to attend him in his voyage to this new field. He had been joined here by a new companion, as appears from the fact, that the historian of the Acts of the apostles now begins to speak in the first person, of the apostolic company, and it thence appears that besides Silas and Timotheus, Paul was now attended by Luke. Setting sail from Troas, as soon as they could get ready for this unexpected extension of their travels, the whole four were wafted by a fresh south-eastern breeze from the Asian coast, first to the large island of Samothrace; and on the second day, they came to Neapolis, a town on the coast of Macedonia, which is the seaport of the great city of Philippi.

HIS MISSION IN MACEDONIA.

They without delay proceeded to Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia, taking its name from that sage monarch who laid the foundation of the Macedonian dominion over the Grecian world, and gave this city its importance and splendor, re-building it, and granting it the honors of his peculiar favor. Under the Roman conquest it had lost no part of its ancient importance, but had been endowed by Julius Caesar, in a special decree, with the high privileges of a Roman colony, and was in the apostolic age one of the greatest cities in that part of Europe. Here Paul and his companions staid for several days; and seeking on the sabbath, for some place where they could, in that heathen land, observe the worship, and celebrate the praises of the God of their fathers, they wandered forth from the great pagan city, and sat down, away from the unholy din of mirth and business, in a retired place on the banks of the little stream which ran by the town, being made up of numerous springs that rise at the foot of the hills north of it,——which gave it the name of Crenides, or “the city of springs;”——the common name of the town before its conquest by Philip. In such places, by the side of streams and other waters, the Jews were always accustomed to construct their places for social worship; and here, in this quiet place, a few Jewish residents of the city resorted for prayer, remembering the God of their fathers, though so far from his sanctuary. Those who thus kept up the worship of God in this place, are mentioned as being women only; for it may always be observed that it is among the softer sex that religion takes its deepest root, and among them a regard to its observances is always found, long after the indifference generated by a change of circumstances, or by the engrossing cares of business, has turned away the devotions of men. So was it in Philippi; while the sons of Judah had grown indifferent to those observances of their religion, which were inconvenient, by interfering with the daily arrangements of business intercourse with their heathen fellow-citizens, the daughters of Zion came still regularly together, to the place where prayer was wont to be made. Here the apostolic company met them, and preached to them the new word of grace, now revealed for all the scattered race of Israel, far and near,——and not for them only, but also for the Gentiles. Among these gentle auditors of the word of grace, now first proclaimed in Greece, was a Jewess, named Lydia, who had emigrated from Thyatira, in Lydian Asia, and now carried on in Philippi, a trade in the purple dye, for which the region from which she came was so famous, even from the time of Homer. While listening to the words of Paul, her heart was opened to the comprehension of the truth of the gospel, and she professed her faith in Jesus. Having been baptized with all her household, she was so moved with regard for those who had thus taught her the way of salvation, that she earnestly invited them to make her house their home. Complying with her benevolent and hospitable invitation, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke, took up their abode in her house, and remained there throughout their whole stay in Philippi.