| CHAPTER I. | |
| THE TRAINING OF SAUL THE RABBI. | |
| Acts vii. 58; xxii. 3. | |
| PAGE | |
St. Paul's Appearance on the Christian Stage and its Results—The Tübingen Theory—His Parentage—Birthplace—Testimony of St. Epiphanius—Early Friends—Education—Trade—Gamaliel and his Influence—Evidence of Talmud—Pharisaic Schools—Their Casuistry and Exegesis—Parallel between Hagar and Sarah | [1]‑21 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| THE CONVERSION OF THE PERSECUTOR. | |
| Acts viii. 3; ix. 1-6. | |
Saul of Tarsus and St. Stephen—Saul and the Sanhedrin—Conduct of Saul when Unconverted—Continuity of Judaism and Christianity—Saul and Blasphemy of Christ—Sense of Sin compatible with Sense of Forgiveness—Hooker on the Litany—Jeremy Taylor on Humility—Saul's Mission to Damascus—Domestic Tribunal permitted to the Jews by the Romans—Used against the Men of the Way—Meaning of this expression—Influence of it—Saul's Journey—Scene of Conversion—Lord Lyttelton's Observations upon St. Paul's Conversion—Supernatural Accompaniments appropriate to—Apostle's own Narrative—Reflections of the Venerable Bede | [22]‑47 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| THE NEW CONVERT AND HIS HUMAN TEACHER. | |
| Acts ix. 10, 11. | |
Saul and the Vision—Which probably produced Ophthalmia—Portrait of St. Paul—Ananias of Damascus—Straight Street—St. Chrysostom on the Spiritual Greatness of Ananias—Seventeenth-century Travellers in Palestine—Conversation between Jesus Christ and Ananias—Its Theology—Meaning of word Saint—Protest against Antinomianism—St. Paul and title Vas Electionis—And Doctrine of Election—Balance of Doctrine—The New Convert and Prayer | [48]‑67 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| SAUL AND SINAI. | |
| Acts ix. 19, 20. | |
Visit of Ananias to House of Judas—Christ the True Visitor—Keble's Hymn for Easter Monday—Restoration of Saul's Sight—His Baptism—Language of Ananias—Importance of this fact—Saul's Work in Damascus—Narrative in Acts and in Galatians—Difficulties—Reconciliation—Saul in Arabia—Ancient Explanations of—Discipline of—Value of Seasons of Retirement—Waste of Vital Spiritual Tissues in Activity—Abuse of this Principle in Monasticism—Celtic Monasticism—Saul, the Vas Electionis, trained like Jesus Christ | [68]‑91 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| THE FIRST GENTILE CONVERT. | |
| Acts x. 1-6. | |
The Turning-points of Primitive Church History—Conversion of Saul and of Cornelius—Saul's earliest Ministry at Jerusalem—His Escape to Tarsus—St. Peter and Church in Joppa—Temporary Peace after Saul's Conversion—Caligula's attempt to erect his Statue in Jerusalem—St. Peter and Simon the Tanner—Time of Conversion of Cornelius was Providential—Place, Cæsarea-by-the-Sea, Providential—Cornelius, a Roman Centurion—The Legions and Palestine—Modern Authorities confirm the Acts—New Testament and Favourable Estimate of Soldiers—Catholic Nature of Christianity—Value of Discipline—Lessons Taught by Example of Cornelius | [92]‑114 |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| THE PETRINE VISION AT JOPPA. | |
| Acts x. 9-15. | |
St. Peter led to Joppa Unconsciously—His Period of Repose—Joppa and Missions to the Gentile World—Jonah—Peter and the Hour of Prayer—Value of Forms—Canonical Hours—Tertullian's Testimony—Nature of Peter's Vision—Conditioned by his Natural State—Exactly suited to Destroy his Prejudices—John Calvin's View—St. Peter at Cæsarea—His Sermon—Not Latitudinarian, as some Think—But Truly Catholic—Peter presupposes some Knowledge of Gospel Facts—Evidence of Resurrection—Necessarily Limited—Unless Course of Human Affairs was to be Upset—And God's Usual Laws set Aside—Outpouring of Holy Ghost on Gentiles—Baptism of Cornelius | [115]‑141 |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| THE HARVEST OF THE GENTILES. | |
| Acts xi. 26. | |
Reception of News of Gentile Conversion at Jerusalem—Debate and Strife with St. Peter—The Early Church Knew Nothing of the Privilegium Petri—Fable of Pope Marcellinus—Origin of Antiochene Church—Foundation of Antioch—Scenery and History—Orators and Water Supply—Arrival of Barnabas and of Saul—Invention of the Name Christians—Remarks of Archbishop Trench—The Prophet Agabus and the Outgoings of Charity | [142]‑163 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| THE DEFEAT OF PRIDE. | |
| Acts xii. 1-3, 23, 24. | |
Contact of Sacred and Secular History in this Chapter—Story of Herod Agrippa—Illustration of Principle of Heredity—First Martyrdom among Apostles—Character of James, Son of Zebedee—His Spiritual Eminence—His Death a Real Answer to Prayer—St. Peter's Deliverance—Granted to a Pleading Church—Angelic Interference—And the Proprieties of Christianity—Clement of Alexandria and the Pædagogue—Herod's Ostentation and Miserable Death—Testimony of Josephus | [164]‑187 |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| ST. PAUL'S ORDINATION AND FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR | |
| Acts xiii. 2-4, 14; xiv. 1, 26. | |
Thirteenth Chapter may be called the Watershed of the Acts—Calvin and St. Paul's Ordination—Title Apostle Henceforth Applied to Him—Ember Seasons, Reason of—First Formal Mission to the Gentile World—Outline of Apostolic Tour—Saul and Sergius Paulus—Discoveries of General Cesnola—St. Paul's Sermon at the Pisidian Antioch—Jewish Jealousy and Opposition—Iconium—Lystra and Greek Legends—Discovery of Site of Lystra—Roman Police in Asia Minor—Dialects of Asia Minor—Museum of the Evangelical School at Smyrna—St. Paul and Church Organisation | [188]‑218 |
| CHAPTER X. | |
| THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COUNCIL. | |
| Acts xv. 1, 2, 6, 19. | |
History of the great General Councils—Originates at that of Jerusalem—Date and Subject-matter—The Controversy about Circumcision—Social Questions springing from it—St. Paul's Position—His Apparent Inconsistencies—Lessons of Apostolic Council—Early Church Scene of Controversies—No Infallible Guide—Composition of Council—Lay Element in Church Synods—Hooker and the Church of England—Witness of Prayer Book—Experience of Irish Church—Proceedings of the Council—Triumph of Gentile Freedom | [219]‑244 |
| CHAPTER XI. | |
| APOSTOLIC QUARRELS AND THE SECOND TOUR. | |
| Acts xv. 36, 39; xvi. 6, 8, 9. | |
Introduction of Christianity to Greece—St. Peter and his Asserted Roman Episcopate of Twenty-five Years—Quarrel between St. Paul and St. Barnabas—Between St. Paul and St. Peter—Patristic Explanations—St. Augustine and St. Jerome—St. Paul's Opposition to Nepotism—Barnabas and Mark—Blessings of Sternness—The Wrath of Man praises God—Outline of St. Paul's Second Tour—Ramsay's Historical Geography of Asia Minor—Timothy's Ordination—The Gospel among the Celts—Jeremy Taylor and the Via Intelligentiæ—The Vision at Troas | [245]‑270 |
| CHAPTER XII. | |
| ST. PAUL IN MACEDONIA. | |
| Acts xvi. 29, 31; xvii. 1, 2, 10. | |
Ancient Roads and Rome—The Gospel at Philippi—History of that Town—Constitution of Roman Colonies—Lydia and Jewish Oratory—Francis de Sales and Small Congregations—Politics and Christianity—The Apostle before the Duumviri—The Jailer and the Earthquake—"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou shalt be Saved"—The Philippian Church and Persecution—St. Paul at Thessalonica and Berœa—The Politarchs | [271]‑300 |
| CHAPTER XIII. | |
| ST. PAUL IN GREECE. | |
| Acts xvii. 16-18; xviii. 1. | |
St. Paul and St. Athanasius, a Parallel—Escape to Athens down the Thermaic Gulf—Visit of Pausanias to that City—Ideal Character of Athenian Paganism—Areopagus and St. Paul—The Unknown God—The Greek Poets—Jesus and the Resurrection—The Primitive Athenian Church and its Theology—Aristides and his Apology—Dionysius the Areopagite and his reputed Philosophy—Origin of Corinthian Church—The Saintly Tentmakers—The Firstfruits of Achaia—Gallio and the Jews—Philosophy and Christ | [301]‑330 |
| CHAPTER XIV. | |
| THE EPHESIAN CHURCH AND ITS FOUNDATION. | |
| Acts xviii. 19-21, 24-26; xix. 1. | |
History of Ephesus—Cenchreæ and its Church—Aquila and his Vow—Christianity and External Actions—Judaism and Christianity confounded by Romans—St. Paul's Journey to Ephesus and Jerusalem—Visit to Galatia—Ephesus and John's Disciples—Slow Progress of Gospel in Apostolic Age—Apollos and Meyer's Theory about Baptism—The Baptismal Formula—The School of Tyrannus—Ephesian Magic and its Professors—Story of St. Chrysostom—The Sons of Sceva | [331]‑356 |
| CHAPTER XV. | |
| THE EPHESIAN RIOT AND A PRUDENT TOWN CLERK. | |
| Acts xix. 23-28. | |
Duration of St. Paul's Ministry at Ephesus—Date of 1st Corinthians—Diana of Ephesus and her Persian Worship—Weakness of Argument e silentio—Demetrius and the Craftsmen—Artemisian Festivals and Christian Sufferings—Testimony of Achilles Tatius—Martyrdom of Polycarp—Celtic Conventions—Mr. Wood's Discoveries at Ephesus—Gaius Vibius Salutarius—Extant Specimen of Ephesian Silverwork—Speech of Demetrius—The Asiarchs and the Recorder—Apostolic Controversy and its Methods | [357]‑384 |
| CHAPTER XVI. | |
| ST. PAUL AND THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. | |
| Acts xx. 1, 7, 17-19, 28. | |
St. Paul's Position in A.D. 57—Personal Character of St. Luke's Narrative—Defects of German Criticism—Apostle's Second Visit to Macedonia—"Round about unto Illyricum"—Visitation of Corinth—Passover at Philippi—Holy Communion at Troas—The Lord's Day in the Primitive Church—Argument from Silence, Dangers of—Justin Martyr on Sunday—Eucharistic Amen—Evening Celebrations—The Agape—Fasting Communion—St. Paul's Sermon and Eutychus—Miletus and Charge to Ephesian Elders—Its Apologetic Tone—St. Paul's view of Sermons—Decay of Modern Preaching—Apostolic Power of Prevision—The Ministry and Personal Religion—The Holy Ghost and Ordination—Origin of Episcopacy—Dr. Hatch's Theories unhistorical—Irenæus on Bishops—Derived from Apostles—Communicatio Idiomatum—St. Paul's Farewell | [385]‑421 |
| CHAPTER XVII. | |
| A PRISONER IN BONDS. | |
| Acts xxi. 2, 3, 17, 33, 39, 40; xxii. 22, 30; xxiv. 1; xxvi. 1. | |
St. Paul's Voyage from Miletus to Jerusalem—Christianity at Tyre—"The Seed growing silently"—The Church at Cæsarea and its Teachers—St. Paul's Interview with St. James—The Nazarite Vow—St. Paul's Arrest and Appearance before the Sanhedrin—His Defence before Felix—Felix and Drusilla—Lessons of St. Paul's Vicissitudes—Agabus and Prophesying—St. James and Compromise—St. Paul and the High Priest—His Quickness and Tact—Tertullian on Flight in Persecution—Quietism and Quakerism—St. Paul and the Herodian Family—Argument of his Address before Agrippa and Bernice—His Appeal to Cæsar | [422]‑449 |
| CHAPTER XVIII. | |
| "IN PERILS ON THE SEA." | |
| Acts xxvii. 1-3; xxviii. 16. | |
St. Paul as a Traveller and a Prisoner—Length of his Imprisonment—Blessed Results of his Captivity—"The Prisoner of the Lord"—Teaching of the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity—His Captivity Benefited—(a) His Personal Religion—(b) The Church at Cæsarea—(c) The Church at Rome—(d) The Universal Church—Composition of St. Luke's Gospel—Technical Use of word Gospel—Testimony of Aristides and Irenæus—Epistles of the Captivity—Story of the Voyage to Rome—Roman Provincial Organisation—Writings of Mr. James Smith of Jordanhills—Church at Sidon—The Storm—Malta and Puteoli—Christianity at Pompeii—Christian Inscription there Discovered—St. Paul's Approach to Rome—Intense Humanity of the Apostle—Interview with the local Jewish Sanhedrin—Christianity at Rome—Investigations of Harnack and Schürer | [450]‑471 |
[CHAPTER I.]
THE TRAINING OF SAUL THE RABBI.
"A young man named Saul."—Acts vii. 58.
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day."—Acts xxii. 3.
The appearance of St. Paul upon the stage of Christian history marks a period of new development and of more enlarged activity. The most casual reader of the Acts of the Apostles must see that a personality of vast power, force, individuality, has now entered the bounds of the Church, and that henceforth St. Paul, his teaching, methods, and actions, will throw all others into the shade. Modern German critics have seized upon this undoubted fact and made it the foundation on which they have built elaborate theories concerning St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Some of them have made St. Paul the inventor of a new form of Christianity, more elaborate, artificial, and dogmatic than the simple religion of nature which, as they think, Jesus Christ taught. Others have seen in St. Paul the great rival and antagonist of St. Peter, and have seen in the Acts a deliberate attempt to reconcile the opposing factions of Peter and Paul by representing St. Paul's career as modelled upon that of Peter's.[1] These theories are, we believe, utterly groundless; but they show at the same time what an important event in early Church history St. Paul's conversion was, and how necessary a thorough comprehension of his life and training if we wish to understand the genesis of our holy religion.
Who and whence, then, was this enthusiastic man who is first introduced to our notice in connexion with St. Stephen's martyrdom? What can we glean from Scripture and from secular history concerning his earlier career? I am not going to attempt to do what Conybeare and Howson thirty years ago, or Archdeacon Farrar in later times, have executed with a wealth of learning and a profuseness of imagination which I could not pretend to possess. Even did I possess them it would be impossible, for want of space, to write such a biography of St. Paul as these authors have given to the public. Let us, however, strive to gather up such details of St. Paul's early life and training as the New Testament, illustrated by history, sets before us. Perhaps we shall find that more is told us than strikes the ordinary superficial reader. His parentage is known to us from St. Paul's own statement. His father and mother were Jews of the Dispersion, as the Jews scattered abroad amongst the Gentiles were usually called; they were residents at Tarsus in Cilicia, and by profession belonged to the Pharisees who then formed the more spiritual and earnest religious section of the Jewish people. We learn this from three passages. In his defence before the Council, recorded in Acts xxiii. 6, he tells us that he was "a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees." There was no division in religious feeling between the parents. His home life and his earliest years knew nothing of religious jars and strife. Husband and wife were joined not only in the external bonds of marriage, but in the profounder union still of spiritual sentiment and hope, a memory which may have inspired a deeper meaning begotten of personal experience in the warning delivered to the Corinthians, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers." Of the history of his parents and ancestors we know practically nothing more for certain, but we can glean a little from other notices. St. Paul tells us that he belonged to a special division among the Jews, of which we have spoken a good deal in the former volume when dealing with St. Stephen. The Jews at this period were divided into Hebrews and Hellenists: that is, Hebrews who by preference and in their ordinary practice spoke the Hebrew tongue, and Hellenists who spoke Greek and adopted Greek civilisation and customs. St. Paul tells us in Philippians iii. 5 that he was "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews," a statement which he substantially repeats in 2 Corinthians xi. 22. Now it was almost an impossibility for a Jew of the Dispersion to belong to the Hebrews. His lot was cast in a foreign land, his business mixed him up with the surrounding pagans, so that the use of the Greek language was an absolute necessity; while the universal practice of his fellow-countrymen in conforming themselves to Greek customs, Greek philosophy, and Greek civilisation rendered the position of one who would stand out for the old Jewish national ideas and habits a very trying and a very peculiar one. Here, however, comes in an ancient tradition, recorded by St. Jerome, which throws some light upon the difficulty. Scripture tells us that St. Paul was born at Tarsus. Our Lord, in His conversation with Ananias in Acts ix. 11, calls him "Saul of Tarsus," while again the Apostle himself in the twenty-second chapter describes himself as "a Jew born in Tarsus". But then the question arises, how came his parents to Tarsus, and how, being in Tarsus, could they be described as Hebrews while all around and about them their countrymen were universally Hellenists? St. Jerome here steps in to help us. He relates, in his Catalogue of Illustrious Writers, that "Paul the Apostle, previously called Saul, being outside the number of the Twelve, was of the tribe of Benjamin and of the city of the Jewish Gischala; on the capture of which by the Romans he migrated with them to Tarsus." Now this statement of Jerome, written four hundred years after the event, is clearly inaccurate in many respects, and plainly contradicts the Apostle's own words that he was born in Tarsus.
But yet the story probably embodies a tradition substantially true, that St. Paul's parents were originally from Galilee. Galilee was intensely Hebrew. It was provincial, and the provinces are always far less affected by advance in thought or in religion than the towns, which are the chosen homes of innovation and of progress. Hellenism might flourish in Jerusalem, but in Galilee it would not be tolerated; and the tough, sturdy Galileans alone would have moral and religious grit enough to maintain the old Hebrew customs and language, even amid the abounding inducements to an opposite course which a great commercial centre like Tarsus held out. Assuredly our own experience affords many parallels illustrating the religious history of St. Paul's family. The Evangelical revival, the development of Ritual in the Church of England, made their mark first of all in the towns, and did not affect the distant country districts till long after. The Presbyterianism of the Highlands is almost a different religion from the more enlightened and more cultured worship of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Low Church and Orange developments of Ulster bring us back to the times of the last century, and seem passing strange to the citizens of London, Manchester, or Dublin, who first make their acquaintance in districts where obsolete ideas and cries still retain a power quite forgotten in the vast tide of life and thought which sways the great cities. And yet these rural backwaters, as we may call them, retain their influence, and show strong evidence of life even in the great cities; and so it is that even in London and Edinburgh and Glasgow and Dublin congregations continue to exist in their remoter districts and back streets where the prejudices and ideas of the country find full sway and exercise. The Presbyterianism of the Highlands and the Orangeism of Ulster will be sought in vain in fashionable churches, but in smaller assemblies they will be found exercising a sway and developing a life which will often astonish a superficial observer.