Meanwhile events had occurred at other and more distant places than Cæsarea, shewing that the Christian Church was no longer to be confined to the Jews only or to the sacred land of Palestine. The Christians, whom the persecution that followed after the stoning of Stephen[828] had driven from the Holy City, travelled in different directions, to Phœnicia, the neighbouring island of Cyprus, and to Antioch[829], the metropolis of Syria (Acts xi. 19). For some time they confined their ministrations to the Jews only, but at length some of them, men of Cyprus[830] and Cyrene, on their arrival at Antioch, began to preach the word even to the Gentiles, and with such success that a great number became believers, and turned unto the Lord (Acts xi. 21).
Tidings of these events reaching the Church at Jerusalem, in accordance with the precedent already acted upon in Samaria (Acts viii. 14), it was resolved to send to Antioch one in whom they had entire confidence, and who might report on all that had occurred. The person selected for this important duty was no other than Barnabas, the son of exhortation, himself a Hellenist, a native of Cyprus, and in all probability well acquainted with Antioch, one known to be a good man, full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith (Acts xi. 24).
Accordingly Barnabas set out, and on his arrival found much to approve in the ministrations of the Hellenistic teachers. They had evidently been blessed with great success, and he laboured earnestly to advance it, exhorting all to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart. His own endeavours did not lose their reward, for the church at Antioch received many additions to its numbers (Acts xi. 24), but Barnabas saw that a wise master-builder (1 Cor. iii. 10) was required for the work, and he therefore set out for Tarsus to fetch Saul. Once more, then, the two met, and Saul proceeded with his friend to the Syrian metropolis, and there side by side they continued to labour for a whole year, and so greatly were their exertions blessed, and so numerous were the additions made to the Church, that it was clear the disciples could no longer be confounded with any sect or party of the Jews. Standing out, then, as a separate community, they acquired a distinctive title, and it was first at Antioch, whose inhabitants were notorious for inventing names of derision[831], that the honourable appellation of Christians was first applied to them (Acts xi. 26). This name they were not likely to assume themselves[832], nor is it probable that it was bestowed upon them by the Jews. They called them in hatred and contempt the sect of the Nazarenes[833] (Acts xxiv. 5), and Christ being equivalent to Messiah, they were not likely to apply to them a term they themselves held sacred[834]. The name, therefore, probably originated with the Gentiles, and with the Romans rather than the Greeks. The disciples would often speak of Christ as their leader and chief, and the heathens[835] would naturally call them in mockery and derision Christians, or the Followers of Christ, just as the partisans of Marius were called Mariani, of Pompeius Pompeiani, of Otho Othoniani, of Vitellius Vitelliani, of Herod Herodiani.
While the two Apostles were thus employed, there arrived at Antioch, A.D. 42, certain prophets[836] from Jerusalem, one of whom named Agabus stood up and announced that a great famine was at hand, which in fact came to pass during the reign of Claudius Cæsar (Acts xi. 28), a reign distinguished for earthquakes, bad harvests, and general scarcity[837]. Having full faith in his prophetic words the Christians in the Syrian metropolis[838] determined to send relief, every man according to his ability, to their poorer brethren at Jerusalem, and Saul and Barnabas were selected to convey their contributions to the Holy City (Acts xi. 29, 30)[839].
CHAPTER V.
MARTYRDOM OF ST JAMES—DEATH OF HEROD.
A.D. 44.
ABOUT the time when these delegates from the church at Antioch arrived on their errand of Christian love at Jerusalem, a severe calamity befell the Church there. On the accession of Claudius, A.D. 41, Herod Agrippa, who had taken an active part in securing his succession[840], was rewarded by the addition of Judæa and Samaria to the tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas which he had already received, and ruled as king over a territory as widely extended as that governed by his grandfather[841].
Arriving at Jerusalem, A.D. 42, he dedicated in the Temple, as a memorial of the Divine protection, the golden chain with which he had been presented by Caligula, and which was of equal weight with the iron one he had worn when imprisoned by Tiberius[842], and endeavoured to ingratiate himself with his subjects by the strictest profession of Judaism. He offered sacrifice every day; paid the expenses of certain Nazarites on completing their vows[843]; abstained from every legal impurity; remitted the house-tax of the inhabitants of Jerusalem[844]; encircled the new suburb of Bezetha with a wall; and prepared to strengthen the entire fortifications of the city[845].
Thus determined to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and doubtless at the suggestions of their chiefs, he resolved to take measures for the suppression of Christianity. Accordingly, in A.D. 44, he seized the Apostle James, the brother of St John, and without any apparent process of Jewish law[846] summarily slew him with the sword (Acts xii. 2), thus early admitting him to his Master’s baptism[847] (Mtt. xx. 23). Perceiving that this atrocity rendered him exceedingly popular with his subjects[848], he arrested Peter also at the feast of the Passover, and committed him to the custody of four quaternions of soldiers[849] (Acts xii. 4), intending at the close of the festival to bring him forth before the people and gratify them with his death.
Great was the sorrow of the Church at the prospect of the Apostle’s execution, and unceasing and not ineffectual prayer was made to God in his behalf. For on the night before the day fixed for the spectacle of his martyrdom, while the Apostle was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the sentinels without were carefully guarding the doors, a light suddenly shone into his cell, and an angel touched him on the side, and bade him rise up quickly. Thereupon he arose, and his chains fell from off his hands. Gird thyself, resumed the angel, and bind on thy sandals. The Apostle did so, and casting his garment about him, and scarcely believing the reality of what was going on, followed his celestial guide through the first and second ward, and thence through the iron gate, which opened of its own accord, into the street of the city (Acts xii. 5–10).