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The inspired historian begins his narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, I. With a reference to, and a brief recapitulation of, his gospel, or history of the life of Christ, inscribing this, as he had done that, to his friend Theophilus, Ac 1:1,2. II. With a summary of the proofs of Christ's resurrection, his conference with his disciples, and the instructions he gave them during the forty days, of his continuance on earth, Ac 1:3-5. III. With a particular narrative of Christ's ascension into heaven, his disciples' discourse with him before he ascended, and the angels' discourse with them after he ascended, Ac 1:6-11. IV. With a general idea of the embryo of the Christian church, and its state from Christ's ascension to the pouring out of the Spirit, Ac 1:12-14. V. With a particular account of the filling up of the vacancy that was made in the sacred college by the death of Judas, by the electing of Matthias in his room, Ac 1:15-26.

INTRODUCTION

THIS book is to the Gospels what the fruit is to the tree that bears it. In the Gospels we see the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying: in the Acts we see it bringing forth much fruit

(Joh 12:24).

There we see Christ purchasing the Church with His own blood: here we see the Church, so purchased, rising into actual existence; first among the Jews of Palestine, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, until it gains a footing in the great capital of the ancient world--sweeping majestically from Jerusalem to Rome. Nor is this book of less value as an Introduction to the Epistles which follow it, than as a Sequel to the Gospels which precede it. For without this history the Epistles of the New Testament--presupposing, as they do, the historical circumstances of the parties addressed, and deriving from these so much of their freshness, point, and force--would in no respect be what they now are, and would in a number of places be scarcely intelligible.

The genuineness, authenticity, and canonical authority of this book were never called in question within the ancient Church. It stands immediately after the Gospels, in the catalogues of the Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged books of the New Testament (see Introduction to our larger Commentary, Vol. V, pp. iv, v). It was rejected, indeed, by certain heretical sects in the second and third centuries--by the Ebionites, the Severians (see EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.29), the Marcionites, and the Manicheans: but the totally uncritical character of their objections (see Introduction above referred to, pp. xiii, xiv) not only deprives them of all weight, but indirectly shows on what solid grounds the Christian Church had all along proceeded in recognizing this book.

In our day, however, its authenticity has, like that of all the leading books of the New Testament, been made the subject of keen and protracted controversy. DE WETTE, while admitting Luke to be the author of the entire work, pronounces the earlier portion of it to have been drawn up from unreliable sources (New-Testament Introduction, 2a, 2C). But the Tubingen school, with BAUR at their head, have gone much farther. As their fantastic theory of the post-Joannean date of the Gospels could not pretend even to a hearing so long as the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles remained unshaken, they contend that the earlier portion of this work can be shown to be unworthy of credit, while the latter portion is in flat contradiction to the Epistle to the Galatians--which this school regard as unassailable--and bears internal evidence of being a designed distortion of facts for the purpose of setting up the catholic form which Paul gave to Christianity in opposition to the narrow Judaic but original form of it which Peter preached, and which after the death of the apostles was held exclusively by the sect of the Ebionites. It is painful to think that anyone should have spent so many years, and, aided by learned and acute disciples in different parts of the argument, should have expended so much learning, research, and ingenuity in attempting to build up a hypothesis regarding the origination of the leading books of the New Testament which outrages all the principles of sober criticism and legitimate evidence. As a school, this party at length broke up: its head, after living to find himself the sole defender of the theory as a whole, left this earthly scene complaining of desertion. While some of his associates have abandoned such heartless studies altogether for the more congenial pursuits of philosophy, others have modified their attacks on the historical truth of the New Testament records, retreating into positions into which it is not worth while to follow them, while others still have been gradually approximating to sound principles. The one compensation for all this mischief is the rich additions to the apologetical and critical literature of the books of the New Testament, and the earliest history of the Christian Church, which it has drawn from the pens of THIERSCH, EBRARD, and many others. Any allusions which it may be necessary for us to make to the assertions of this school will be made in connection with the passages to which they relate--in Acts, First Corinthians, and Galatians.

The manifest connection between this book and the third Gospel--of which it professes to be simply the continuation by the same author--and the striking similarity which marks the style of both productions, leave no room to doubt that the early Church was right in ascribing it with one consent to Luke. The difficulty which some fastidious critics have made about the sources of the earlier portion of the history has no solid ground. That the historian himself was an eye-witness of the earliest scenes--as HUG concludes from the circumstantiality of the narrative--is altogether improbable: but there were hundreds of eye-witnesses of some of the scenes, and enough of all the rest, to give to the historian, partly by oral, partly by written testimony, all the details which he has embodied so graphically in his history; and it will appear, we trust, from the commentary, that De Wette's complaints of confusion, contradiction, and error in this portion are without foundation. The same critic, and one or two others, would ascribe to Timothy those later portions of the book in which the historian speaks in the first person plural--"we"; supposing him to have taken notes of all that passed under his own eye, which Luke embodied in his history just as they stood. It is impossible here to refute this gratuitous hypothesis in detail; but the reader will find it done by EBRARD (The Gospel History, sect. 110, Clark's translation; sect. 127 of the original work, Wissenschaftliche Kritik der Evangelische Geschichte, 1850), and by DAVIDSON (Introduction to New Testament, Vol. II, pp. 9-21).

The undesigned coincidences between this History and the Apostolic Epistles have been brought out and handled, as an argument for the truth of the facts thus attested, with unrivalled felicity by PALEY in his Horæ Paulinæ, to which Mr. BIRKS has made a number of ingenious additions in his Horæ Apostolicæ. Exception has been taken to some of these by JOWETT (St. Paul's Epistles, Vol. I, pp. 108 ff.), not without a measure of reason in certain cases--for our day, at least--though even he admits that in this line of evidence the work of PALEY, taken as a whole, is unassailable.

Much has been written about the object of this history. Certainly "the Acts of the Apostles" are but very partially recorded. But for this title the historian is not responsible. Between the two extremes--of supposing that the work has no plan at all, and that it is constructed on an elaborate and complex plan, we shall probably be as near the truth as is necessary if we take the design to be to record the diffusion of Christianity and the rise of the Christian Church, first among the Jews of Palestine, the seat of the ancient Faith, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, with Antioch for its headquarters, until, finally, it is seen waving over imperial Rome, foretokening its universal triumph. In this view of it, there is no difficulty in accounting for the almost exclusive place which it gives to the labors of Peter in the first instance, and the all but entire disappearance from the history both of him and of the rest of the Twelve after the great apostle of the Gentiles came upon the stage--like the lesser lights on the rise of the great luminary.

Introduction to Acts

There is no evidence that the title, "The Acts of the Apostles," affixed to this book, was given by divine authority or by the writer himself. It is a title, however, which, with a little variation, has been given to it by the Christian church at all times. The term "Acts " is not used, as it is sometimes with us, to denote decrees or laws, but it denotes the doings of the apostles. It is a record of what the apostles did in founding and establishing the Christian church. It is worthy of remark, however, that it contains chiefly a record of the actions of Peter and Paul. Peter was commissioned to open the doors of the Christian church to both Jews and Gentiles (see the note on Matthew 16:18-19); and Paul was chosen to bear the gospel especially to the pagan world. Since these two apostles were the most prominent and distinguished in founding and organizing the Christian church, it was deemed proper that a special and permanent record should be made of their labors. At the same time, occasional notices are given of the other apostles; but of their labors elsewhere than in Judea, and of their death, except that of James Act 12:2, the sacred writers have given no information.

All antiquity is unanimous in ascribing this book to Luke as its author. It is repeatedly mentioned and quoted by the early Christian writers, and is mentioned as his work without a dissenting voice. The same thing is clear from the book itself. It professes to have been written by the same person who wrote a "former treatise," addressed to the same person, Theophilus (compare Acts 1:1 with Luke 1:3), and it bears manifest marks of being from the same pen. It is designed evidently as a continuation of that Gospel, since, in this book, the author has taken up the history at the very time where he left it in the Gospel Acts 1:1-2.

Where, or at what time, this book was written, is not known with certainty. However, since the history is continued to the second year of the residence of Paul at Rome Acts 28:31, Acts was evidently written about as late as the year 62 a.d. And, since it makes no mention of the subsequent facts in the life of Paul, or of any other event of history, it seems clear that it was not written much after that time. It has been common, therefore, to fix the date of the book at about 63 a.d. It is also probable that it was written at Rome. In Acts 28:16 Luke mentions his own arrival at Rome with Paul. Since Luke does not mention his departure from that city, it is to be presumed that Acts was written there. Some have supposed that it was written at Alexandria in Egypt, but of that there is no sufficient evidence.

The canonical authority of this book rests upon the same foundation as that of the Gospel by the same author. Its authenticity has not been called in question at any time in the church.

This book has commonly been regarded as a history of the Christian church, and of course the first ecclesiastical history that was written. But it cannot have been designed as a general history of the church. Many important transactions have been omitted. It gives no account of the church at Jerusalem after the conversion of Paul; it omits his journey into Arabia Galatians 1:17; it gives no account of the propagation of the gospel in Egypt or in Babylon 1 Peter 5:13, or of the foundation of the church at Rome, or of many of Paul's voyages and shipwrecks 2 Corinthians 11:25; and, it omits the labors of most of the apostles, and confines the narrative chiefly to the transactions of Peter and Paul.

The design and importance of this history may be learned from the following particulars:

1. It contains "a record of the promised descent and operations of the Holy Spirit." The Lord Jesus promised that after he had departed to heaven he would send the Holy Spirit to carry forward the great work of redemption, John 14:16-17; John 15:26; John 16:7-14. The apostles were directed to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high, Luke 24:49. The four Gospels contained a record of the life, instructions, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But it is clear that he contemplated that the most signal triumphs of his gospel should take place after his ascension to heaven, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The descent of the Spirit, and his influence on the souls of men, was therefore a most important part of the work of redemption. Without an authentic, an inspired record of that, the account of the operations of God the Father, Son, and Spirit in the work of redemption would not have been complete. The purposes of the Father in regard to that plan were made known clearly in the Old Testament; the record of what the Son did in accomplishing it was contained in the Gospels; and some book was necessary that should contain a record of the actions of the Holy Spirit. Since the Gospels, therefore, may be regarded as a record of the work of Christ to save people, so may the Acts of the Apostles be considered as a record of the actions of the Holy Spirit in the same great work. Without that, the way in which the Spirit operates to renew and save would have been known very imperfectly.

2. This book is "an inspired account of the character of true revivals of religion." It records the first revivals that occurred in the Christian church. The scene on the Day of Pentecost was one of the most remarkable displays of divine power and mercy that the world has ever known. It was the commencement of a series of stupendous movements on the earth to recover human beings. It was the true model of a revival of religion, and it is a demonstration that such scenes as have characterized our own age and nation especially are strictly in accordance with the spirit of the New Testament. The entire Book of the Acts of the Apostles records the effect of the gospel when it comes fairly in contact with the minds of people. The gospel was addressed to every class. It met the Jew and the Gentile, the bond and the free, the learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, and it showed its power everywhere in subduing the mind to itself. It was proper that some record should be preserved of the displays of that power, and that record we have in this book. And it was especially proper that there should be given by an inspired man an account of the descent of the Holy Spirit, "a record of a true revival of religion." It was certain that the gospel would produce excitement. The human mind, as all experience shows, is prone to enthusiasm and fanaticism; and people might be disposed to pervert the gospel to scenes of wildfire, disorder, and tumult. That the gospel would produce excitement was well known to its Author. It was well, therefore, that there should be some record to which the church might always appeal as an infallible account of the proper effects of the gospel, some inspired standard to which might be brought all excitements on the subject of religion. If they are in accordance with the first triumphs of the gospel, they are genuine; if not, they are false.

3. This book shows that "revivals of religion are to be expected in the church." If they existed in the best and purest days of Christianity, they are to be expected now. If, by means of revivals, the Holy Spirit chose at first to bless the preaching of the truth, the same thing is to be expected. still. If in this way the gospel was at first spread among the nations, then we are to infer that this will be the mode in which it will finally spread and triumph in the world.

4. The Acts of the Apostles contains a record of the organization of the Christian church. That church was founded simply by the proclamation of the truth, and chiefly by a simple statement of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The "Acts of the Apostles" contains the highest models of preaching, and the purest specimens of that simple, direct, and pungent manner of addressing people, which may be expected to be attended with the influences of the Holy Spirit. It contains some of the most tender, powerful, and eloquent appeals to be found in any language. If a man wishes to learn how to preach well he can probably acquire it nowhere else so readily as by giving himself to the prayerful and profound study of the specimens of preaching contained in this book. At the same time we have here a view of the character of the true church of Christ. The simplicity of this church must strike every reader of "the Acts ." Religion is represented as a work of the heart, the pure and proper effect of truth on the mind. It is free from pomp and splendor, and from costly and magnificent ceremonies. There is no apparatus to impress the senses, no splendor to dazzle, no external rite or parade adapted to draw the affections from the pure and spiritual worship of God. How unlike to the pomp and parade of pagan worship! How unlike the vain and pompous ceremonies which have since, alas, crept into no small part of the Christian church!

5. In this book we have many striking and impressive illustrations of what the gospel is suited to produce, to make people self-denying and benevolent. The apostles engaged in the great enterprise of converting the world. To secure that, they cheerfully forsook everything. Paul became a convert to the Christian faith, and, for that, cheerfully gave up all his hopes of preferment and honor, and welcomed toil and privation in foreign lands. Compare Philippians 3:4-11, 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. The early converts had all things in common Acts 2:44; those "which used curious arts," and were gaining property by a course of iniquity, forsook their schemes of ill-gotten gain, and burned their books publicly Acts 19:19; Ananias and Sapphira were punished for attempting to impose on the apostles by hypocritical, professed self-denials Acts 5:1-10; and throughout the book there occur constant instances of sacrifices and toil to spread the gospel around the globe. Indeed, these great truths had manifestly seized upon the minds of the early Christians: that the gospel was to be preached to all nations; that whatever stood in the way of that was to be sacrificed; that whatever toils and dangers were necessary were to be borne; and that even death itself was cheerfully to be met if it would promote the spread of true religion. Therefore, this was genuine Christianity. This is still the spirit of the gospel of Christ.

6. This book throws important light on the Epistles. It is a connecting link between the Gospels and the other parts of the New Testament. Instances of this will be noticed in the notes. One of the most clear and satisfactory evidences of the genuineness of the books of the New Testament is to be found in the undesigned coincedences between the Acts and the Epistles. This argument was first clearly stated and illustrated by Dr. Paley. His little work, the Horae Paulinae, which illustrates it, is one of the most indisputable proofs which have yet been furnished of the truth of the Christian religion.

7. This book contains incontrovertible evidence of the truth of Christianity. It is a record of its early triumphs. Within the space of 30 years after the death of Christ the gospel had been carried to all parts of the civilized and to no small portion of the uncivilized world. Its progress and its triumphs were not concealed. Its great transactions were not "done in a corner." It had been preached in the most splendid, powerful, and enlightened cities; churches were already founded in Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and at Rome. The gospel had spread in Arabia, Asia Minor, Greece, Macedon, Italy, and Africa. It had assailed the most mighty existing institutions. It had made its way over the most formidable barriers. It had encountered the most deadly and malignant opposition. It had traveled to the capital (Rome), and had secured such a hold even in the imperial city as to make it certain that it would finally overturn the established religion and seat itself upon the ruins of paganism.

Within 30 years, it had settled the point that it would overturn every bloody altar, close every pagan temple, bring under its influence everywhere the men of office, rank, and power, and that "the banners of the faith would soon stream from the palaces of the Caesars." All this would be accomplished by the instrumentality of Jews - of fishermen - of Nazarenes. They did not have either wealth, armies, or allies. With the exception of Paul, they were people without much education. They were taught only by the Holy Spirit, armed only with the power of God, victorious only because Christ was their Captain, and the world acknowledged the presence of the messengers of the Highest One and the power of the Christian religion. Its success never has been, and never can be accounted for by any other supposition than that God Himself attended it! And if the Christian religion is not true, the change which was brought about by the twelve apostles is the most inexplicable, mysterious, and wonderful event that has ever been witnessed in this world. Their success will stand until the end of time as an argument for the truth of God's overall plan (see 2 Corinthians 13:8). It will always confound the infidel. And, it will forever sustain the Christian with the assured belief that this is a religion which has proceeded from the all-powerful and infinitely benevolent God.

Preface to the Acts of the Apostles

The book of the Acts of The Apostles forms the fifth, and last, of the historical books of the New Testament. And on this account it has been generally placed at the end of the four Gospels; though in several MSS. and versions it is found at the end of St. Paul's Epistles, as many circumstances in them are referred to by the narrative contained in this book, which is carried down almost to the apostle's death.

This book has had a variety of names: Πραξεις των Αποστολων, the Res Gestae, Acts or Transactions of the Apostles, is the title it bears in the Codex Bezae. Πραξεις των Ἁγιων Αποστολων The Acts of the Holy Apostles, is its title in the Codex Alexandrinus, and several others, as well as in several of the ancient versions, and in the Greek and Latin fathers. One or other form of the above title is followed by almost all the editors of the Greek Testament, and translators and commentators in general. By some it has been reckoned a fifth Gospel; and by Oecumenius it is termed, The Gospel of the Holy Spirit; and by St. Chrysostom, Το Βιβλιον, Αποδειξις αναστασεως, The Book, The Demonstration of the Resurrection. These two last characters are peculiarly descriptive of its contents. All the promises which Christ gave of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are shown here to have been fulfilled in the most eminent manner; and, by the effusion of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of our blessed Lord has been fully demonstrated. The calling of the Gentiles is another grand point which is here revealed and illustrated. This miracle of miracles, as one terms it, which had been so frequently foretold by the prophets and by Christ himself, is here exhibited; and by this grand act of the power and goodness of God the Christian Church has been founded and thus the tabernacle and kingdom of God have been immutably established among men. It is truly a fifth Gospel, as it contains the glad tidings of peace and salvation to the whole Gentile world.

All antiquity is unanimous in ascribing this book to St. Luke as the author; and, from the commencement of it, we see plainly that it can be attributed to no other; and it seems plain that St. Luke intended it as a continuation of his Gospel, being dedicated to Theophilus, to whom he had dedicated the former; and to which, in the introduction to this, he expressly refers: indeed he has taken up the narrative, in this book precisely in the place where he had dropped it in the other. The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, etc.; and from this we may form a safe conjecture, that the two books were written at no greater a distance from each other than the time of the last occurrence recorded in this book. Some have supposed that this book was written from Alexandria; but this does not appear to be probable. The conjecture of Michaelis is much more likely, viz. that it was written from Rome, at which place St. Luke mentions his arrival, in company with St. Paul, shortly before the close of the book. See Acts 28:16.

Though the time in which the book of the Acts was written is not recorded, yet the same writer observes that, as it is continued to the end of the second year of St. Paul's imprisonment, it could not have been written before the year 63; and, had it been written after that year, it is reasonable to conclude that it would have related some farther particulars relative to St. Paul; or would at least have mentioned the event of his imprisonment, in which the reader is so much interested. This argument seems conclusive, in reference to the date of this book.

St. Luke's long attendance upon St. Paul, and his having been himself eye-witness to many of the facts which he has recorded, independently of his Divine inspiration, render him a most respectable and credible historian. His medical knowledge, for he is allowed to have been a physician, enabled him, as Professor Michaelis has properly observed, both to form a proper judgment of the miraculous cures which were performed by St. Paul, and to give an account and authentic detail of them. It is worthy also of observation that St. Luke himself does not appear to have possessed the gift of miraculous healing. Though there can be no doubt that he was with St. Paul when shipwrecked at Malta, yet he was not concerned in healing the father of Publius the governor; nor of the other sick persons mentioned Acts 28:8, Acts 28:9. These were all healed by the prayers of St. Paul, and the imposition of his hands, and consequently miraculously; nor do we find any evidence that St. Luke was ever employed in this way. This is another proof of the wisdom of God: had the physician been employed to work miracles of healing, the excellence of the power would have been attributed to the skill of the man, and not to the power of his Maker.

The Acts of the Apostles have been generally considered in the light of a Church History, and, consequently, the first ecclesiastical history on record; but Professor Michaelis very properly contends that it cannot have been intended as a general history of the Christian Church, even for the period of time it embraces, as it passes by all the transactions of the Church at Jerusalem, after the conversion of St. Paul; the propagation of Christianity in Egypt; Paul's journey into Arabia; the state of Christianity at Babylon; (1 Peter 5:13); the foundation of the Christian Church at Rome; several of St. Paul's voyages; his thrice suffering shipwreck, etc., etc. See more particulars in Lardner and Michaelis.

The object of St. Luke appears to have been twofold:

1. To relate in what manner the gifts of the Holy Spirit were communicated on the day of pentecost, and the subsequent miracles performed by the apostles, by which the truth of Christianity was confirmed.

2. To deliver such accounts as proved the claim of the Gentiles to admission into the Church of Christ; a claim disputed by the Jews, especially at the time when the Acts of the Apostles were written.

Hence we see the reason why he relates, Acts 8:1-25, the conversion of the Samaritans; and Acts 10:1-11:18, the story of Cornelius, and the determination of the council in Jerusalem relative to the Levitical law; and for the same reason he is more diffuse in his account of St. Paul's conversion, and his preaching to the Gentiles, than he is on any other subject. In such a restricted manner has St. Luke compiled his history, that Michaelis is of opinion that it was the intention of this apostle to record only those facts which he had either seen himself, or heard from eye witnesses. Introduct. vol. v. p. 326, etc.

The book of the Acts has been uniformly and universally received by the Christian Church in all places and ages: it is mentioned and quoted by almost every Christian writer, and its authenticity and importance universally admitted. Arator, a subdeacon in the Church at Rome, in the sixth century, turned it into verse. In ancient times, personal history and important transactions, in most nations, were generally thus preserved; as the facts, through the medium of verse, could be the more easily committed to memory.

St. Luke's narration bears every evidence of truth and authenticity. It is not a made up history. The language and manner of every speaker are different; and the same speaker is different in his manner, according to the audience he addresses. The speeches of Stephen, Peter, Cornelius, Tertullus, and Paul, are all different, and such as we might naturally expect from the characters in question, and the circumstances in which they were at the time of speaking. St. Paul's speeches are also suited to the occasion, and to the persons before whom he spoke. When his audience was heathen, though he kept the same end steadily in view, yet how different is his mode of address from that used when before a Jewish audience! Several of these peculiarities, which constitute a strong evidence of the authenticity of the work, shall be pointed out in the notes. See some good remarks on this head, in Michaelis' Introduction, ubi supra.

As St. Luke has not annexed any date to the transactions he records, it is not a very easy matter to adjust the chronology of the Acts; but, as in some places he refers to political facts, the exact times of which are well known, the dates of several transactions in his narrative may be settled with considerable accuracy. It is well known, for instance that the famine mentioned Acts 11:29, Acts 11:30, happened in the fourth year of the Emperor Claudius, which answers to the forty-fourth of the Christian aura. From facts of this nature, dates may be derived with considerable accuracy: all such dates are carefully noted at the top of the column, as in the preceding parts of this Commentary; and the chronology is adjusted in the best manner possible. In some cases, conjecture and probability are the only lights by which this obscure passage can be illuminated. The dates of the commencement and the end of the book are tolerably certain; as the work certainly begins with the twenty-ninth year of the Christian era, Acts 1:1 and ends probably with the sixty-third, Acts 28:30.

In the book of the Acts we see how the Church of Christ was formed and settled. The apostles simply proclaim the truth of God relative to the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; and God accompanies their testimony with the demonstration of his Spirit. What was the consequence? Thousands acknowledge the truth, embrace Christianity, and openly profess it at the most imminent risk of their lives. The change is not a change of merely one religious sentiment or mode of worship for another; but a change of tempers, passions, prospects, and moral conduct. All before was earthly, or animal, or devilish; or all these together; but now all is holy, spiritual, and Divine: the heavenly influence becomes extended, and nations are born unto God. And how was all this brought about? Not by might nor power: not by the sword, nor by secular authority; not through worldly motives and prospects; not by pious frauds or cunning craftiness; not by the force of persuasive eloquence: in a word, by nothing but the sole influence of truth itself, attested to the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherever religious frauds and secular influence have been used to found or support a Church; professing itself to be Christian, there, we may rest assured, is the fullest evidence that that Church is wholly antichristian; and where such a Church, possessing secular power, has endeavored to support itself by persecution, and persecution unto privation of goods, of liberty, and of life, it not only shows itself to be antichristian, but also diabolic. The religion Of Christ stands in no need either of human cunning or power. It is the religion of God, and is to be propagated by his power: this the book of the Acts fully shows; and in it we find the true model, after which every Christian Church should be builded. As far as any Church can show that it has followed this model, so far it is holy and apostolic. And when all Churches or congregations of people professing Christianity, shall be founded and regulated according to the doctrines and discipline laid down in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, then the aggregate body may be justly called, The Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Church.

The simplicity of the primitive Christian worship, as laid down in the book of the Acts, is worthy of particular notice and admiration. Here are no expensive ceremonies: no apparatus calculated merely to impress the senses, and produce emotions in the animal system, "to help," as has been foolishly said, "the spirit of devotion." The heart is the subject in which this spirit of devotion is kindled; and the Spirit of God alone is the agent that communicates and maintains the celestial fire; and God, who knows and searches that heart, is the object of its adoration, and the only source whence it expects the grace that pardons, sanctifies, and renders it happy. No strange fire can be brought to this altar: for the God of the Christians can be worshipped only in spirit and truth; the truth revealed, directing the worship; and the Spirit given, applying that truth, and giving life and energy to every faculty and power. Thus God was worshipped in his own way, and through his own power; every religious act, thus performed, was acceptable to him; the praises of his followers rose up as incense before the throne, and their prayers were heard and answered. As they had but one God, so they had but one Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. They received him as the gift of God's eternal love; sought and found redemption in his blood; and, in a holy and useful life, showed forth the virtues of Him who had called them from darkness into his marvellous light; for no profession of faith was then considered of any worth that was not supported by that love to God and man which is the fulfilling of the law, which is the life and soul of obedience to the Divine testimonies, and the ceaseless spring of benevolence and humanity. This is the religion of Jesus Christ, as laid down and exemplified in this blessed book.

"Ye different sects, who all declare,

Lo! Christ is here, and Christ is there,

Your stronger proofs divinely give,

And show me where the Christians live."

St. Luke's prologue, containing a repetition of Christ's history from his passion till his ascension, Acts 1:1-9. Remarkable circumstances in the ascension, Acts 1:10, Acts 1:11. The return of the disciples to Jerusalem, and their employment there, Acts 1:12-14. Peter's discourse concerning the death of Judas Iscariot, Acts 1:15-20, and the necessity of choosing another apostle in his place, Acts 1:21, Acts 1:22. Barnabas and Matthias being set apart by prayer, the apostles having given their votes, Matthias is chosen to succeed Judas, Acts 1:23-26.

INTRODUCTION TO ACTS

This book, in some copies, is called, "The Acts of the holy Apostles". It contains an history of the ministry and miracles of the apostles of Christ, and is a sort of a journal of their actions, from whence it takes its name. It begins at the ascension of Christ, and reaches to the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul at Rome; and is a history of upwards of thirty years: it gives an account of the first Gospel church at Jerusalem, and of the progress of the Gospel there, and in Judea, by the means of all the apostles, and particularly Peter, the minister of the circumcision, and who also first opened the door of faith to the Gentiles: it shows how the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, and was spread in the Gentile world, especially by the Apostle Paul, whose companion Luke was, that was the writer of this book; for that it was written by him is very evident from the beginning of it, it being dedicated to the same person his Gospel is, and of which he makes mention; and in the Complutensian edition the book is called, "The Acts of the Apostles of Saint Luke the Evangelist"; and so the title of it in the Syriac version is, "the Book of the Acts: that is, the history of the blessed apostles, which my Lord Luke the Evangelist collected for the saints". It was by him written in the Greek language; and we are told (a), that there was a version of it into the Hebrew language, and which was laid up in the library of the Jews at Tiberias; and is cited by R. Azarias (b) under the name of twlweph, "the Acts": of the authority of this book there has been no doubt, among the ancients, only Cerinthus the heretic endeavoured to discredit it; and it was not received by another sort of heretics called Severiani, from Severus, a disciple of Tatian (c). It is a most excellent and useful work, showing the first planting of Christianity, and of Christian churches, both among the Jews and Gentiles; the spread and progress of the Gospel in several parts of the world; what sufferings the apostles endured for the sake of it; and with what patience and courage they bore them; and what success attended them; and is a standing proof and confirmation of the Christian religion.

(a) Epiphan. Contr. Haeres. l. 1. Haeres. 30. (b) Meor Enayim, p. 167. (c) Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 29.

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

The Acts of the Apostles

BY

THE VERY REV. E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D

INTRODUCTION

TO

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

I. The Author.—The opening words of the Acts, addressed, like the Gospel of St. Luke, to Theophilus, 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, primâ facie evidence of identity of authorship. The internal evidence of style, [1] yet more, perhaps, that of character and tendency 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 those of Asia and Phrygia (A.D. 177), given by Eusebius (Hist. v. 2). Irenæus and 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 Muratorian Fragment (see Vol. I., p. 13) dwells on its being largely the work of an eye-witness, as seen in its omission of the martyrdom of St. Peter, and St. Paul’s journey to Spain. Eusebius (Hist. iii. 4) ascribes both books to him, in the same terms; and Jerome (De Vir. Illust. c. 8) 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 concerned, 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.

[1] Not fewer than fifty words are common to the two hooks, and are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. Many of these are noticed in the Notes.

II. 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, however, 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 considerable variations—“Acts of the Apostles,” “Acts of all the Apostles,” “Acts of the Holy Apostles,” sometimes with the addition of the author’s name, “Written by Luke the Evangelist,” “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 Bartholomew.

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 (Acts 1:13). They are mentioned collectively in Acts 2:37; Acts 2:42-43; Acts 4:33-37; Acts 5:2; Acts 5:12; Acts 5:18; Acts 5:29; Acts 6:6; Acts 8:1; Acts 8:14; Acts 8:18; Acts 9:27; Acts 11:1; Acts 15:2; Acts 15:4; Acts 15:6; Acts 15:22-23; Acts 15:33. St. John appears only in Acts 3:1; Acts 4:13; Acts 8:14. 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 prominent place in Acts 1-5, 10-12, 15, the latter being the central figure in Acts 7:58; Acts 7:9; Acts 11:25-30; Acts 13-27. From another point of view a yet more appropriate title would be (using the term in its familiar literary sense) that of the Origines Ecclesiœ—the history of the growth and development of the Church of Christ, and of the mission work of that Church among the Gentiles. The starting-point and the close of the book are in this respect significant. It begins at Jerusalem; it ends at Rome. When it opens, circumcision is required, as well as baptism, of every disciple; the Church of Christ is outwardly but a Jewish sect of some hundred and twenty persons (Acts 1:15). 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 involved 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 (Vol. I., p. 241), we trace the same principle of selection. It is more than any of the other three a Gospel for the Gentiles, bringing out the universality of the kingdom of God, recording parables and incidents which others had not recorded, because they bore witness that the 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 convert 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 development, there had been no interruption of continuity. I have ventured to say (Vol. I., p. 242) 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. Looking to the prominence given to the work of the Spirit, from the Day of Pentecost onwards, as guiding both the Church collectively and its individual members, it would hardly be over-bold to say that the book might well be called “the Gospel of the Holy Spirit.” At every stage His action is emphatically recognised. Jesus, after His resurrection, had, “through the Holy Ghost, given commandment to the Apostles whom He had chosen” (Acts 1:2). They are to be “baptised with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 1:5), are to “receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon them” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Ghost had spoken through the mouth of David (Acts 1:16). Then comes the great wonder of the Day of Pentecost, when all the disciples were “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4), and spake with tongues, and the prophecy, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17), is quoted as on the verge of fulfilment. Jesus has “received from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:33). Once again all were “filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake the word with boldness” (Acts 4:31). The sin of Ananias is a “lie unto the Holy Ghost” (Acts 5:3). He and his wife have “tempted the Spirit of the Lord” (Acts 5:9). 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 (Acts 5:32). The seven who are chosen in Acts 6 are “full of the Holy Ghost, and of wisdom” (Acts 6:3). Stephen is pre-eminently “full of faith and of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 6:5). His leading charge against priests and scribes is that they “do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51). His vision of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God is closely connected with his being at the moment “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:55). Peter and John go down to Samaria that those who had been baptised by Philip “might receive the Holy Ghost” (Acts 8:15-17): and the sin of Simon the sorcerer is that he thinks that that gift of God can be purchased with money (Acts 8:18-20). It is the Spirit that impels Philip to join himself to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29), and carries him away after his baptism (Acts 8:39). Ananias is to lay his hands on Saul of Tarsus, that he “may be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:17). The churches of Judæa and Galilee and Samaria in their interval of rest are “walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31). The admission of the Gentiles is attested when “the gift of the Holy Ghost” is poured out on Cornelius and his friends (Acts 10:44-47), and Peter dwells on that attestation in his address to the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 11:15-17; Acts 15:8). Barnabas, 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” (Acts 11:24). It is the Holy Ghost who “separates Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry,” and they are sent forth by Him (Acts 13:2-4). Saul, roused to indignation by the subtlety of Elymas, is “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 13:9). It is He who guides the decision of the council assembled at Jerusalem (Acts 15:28), and directs the footsteps of Paul and his companions in their mission journey (Acts 16:6-7). The twelve disciples at Ephesus, baptised before with the baptism of John, “receive the Holy Ghost” when Paul lays his hands on them (Acts 19:6). He it was who witnessed in every city that bonds and imprisonment awaited the Apostle in Jerusalem (Acts 20:23; Acts 21:11). It was the Holy Ghost who had made the elders of Ephesus overseers of the Church of God (Acts 20:28). 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 (Acts 28:25).

V. Its Relation to the Controversies of the Time.—I have thought it right to go through this somewhat full induction because it presents an aspect of the book which has hardly been adequately recognised in the critical inquiries to which it has been subjected. But subject to this, as the dominant idea of the Acts of the Apostles, I see nothing to hinder us from recognizing 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 Corinthians. He would know that the Judaising teachers in the Galatian Church had spoken of the Apostle as a time-server seeking to please men (Galatians 1:10); as having no authority but that which he derived from the Church of Jerusalem (Galatians 1:1; Galatians 1:12; Galatians 1:17; Galatians 1:22); 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 (Galatians 2:11-13); that others of the same school had appeared at Corinth, boasting of their “letters of commendation” (2Corinthians 3:1); taunting the Apostle with his “bodily presence weak, and speech contemptible” (2Corinthians 10:10); speaking of him as a “fool” and madman (2Corinthians 11:16); arrogating to themselves something like an ultra-apostolic authority (2Corinthians 11:4); boasting that they were Hebrews and ministers of Christ (2Corinthians 11:22). The language of Romans 14 shows that disputes analogous in their nature had sprung up at Rome even before St. Paul’s arrival; differences as to days and meats (Romans 14:2-6); connected with the very question of eating “things sacrificed to idols,” which had given occasion to one of the canons of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:20; Acts 15:29) 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 Corinthians 8-10). 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 (see Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel, Vol. I., p. 241), they would be forced upon his notice.

There are, however, other materials for estimating the attitude of the Judaising party towards St. Paul, and the language they habitually used in reference to him. I do not assume that the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, Recognitions, and Epistles are of an earlier date than the second century, but it is a legitimate 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 Peter, c. 1), 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. Galatians 4:16). He complains that he has been misrepresented as agreeing with that “enemy” (ibid.). James declares that circumcision is an essential condition of discipleship (ibid. c. 4). Under cover of the legendary disputes between Peter and Simon the Sorcerer, the personal discipleship of the former is contrasted with that of one who has only heard the doctrine of Jesus through a vision or a dream (Hom. Clem. xvii., c. 14. Comp. Acts 9:3; Acts 9:17; Acts 18:9; Acts 22:18; Acts 23:11; 2Corinthians 12:1), 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 Galatians 2:1-14, 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 indignation 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 (Galatians 1:1-12), by showing that they had learnt from him, not he from them, the fulness and freedom of the gospel which he preached (Galatians 2:2); that the chief leaders of that Church had given to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship in their work among the Gentiles (Galatians 2:9); that he had not given way by subjection, no, not for an hour, to the Judaising Pharisee section of the Church (Galatians 2:4-5); that he had not shrunk from rebuking, with the general approval of the Church at Antioch, the inconsistency of Peter and of Barnabas (Galatians 2:11-14). He meets them also, as in 2Corinthians 11:13-27, by challenging a comparison 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 the claims of the Judaisers, that the Apostle of the Gentiles in his turn had shown every disposition to conciliate the feelings 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 (Acts 6:14); that the Apostle had been admitted into the Church of Christ by a disciple devout according to the Law (Acts 9:10; Acts 22:12); that he had been received, after the first natural suspicion had been removed by the testimony of Barnabas, by the Apostles at Jerusalem (Acts 9:27); 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 Gentiles (Acts 10; Acts 11:1-13); that he and the Church of Jerusalem had sent Barnabas to carry on that work at Antioch (Acts 11:22); that St. Paul had always addressed himself to the Jews whenever there were any to listen to his preaching (Acts 13:5; Acts 13:14; Acts 14:1; Acts 17:2; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4; Acts 19:8); that he had lost no opportunity of renewing his friendly intercourse with the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 15:2; Acts 18:22; Acts 21:15); and that James, the bishop of that Church, had throughout received him as a beloved brother (Acts 15:4; Acts 15:25-26); that he had shown his willingness to conciliate the Jewish section of the Church by circumcising Timotheus (Acts 16:3), and by his taking on himself the vow of a Nazarite (Acts 18:18; Acts 21:26); and, lastly, that the Council of Jerusalem had solemnly formulated a concordat by which the freedom of the Gentiles was secured (Acts 15:23-29).

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 (Galatians 2:14), 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 know it, was this passing, momentary difference of sufficient importance 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 spoken, in debate in cabinet or Parliament, between two of its leaders? Would a writer of English Church History during the same period think it an indispensable duty to record such a difference as that which showed itself between Bishop Thirlwall and Bishop Selwyn in the Pan-Anglican Conference of 1867? That he did not shrink from recording a personal dispute when important consequences were involved is shown by his treatment of the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:37-40).

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 (Acts 4:33). Jesus of Nazareth had been “approved of God by miracles, and wonders, and signs” (Acts 2:22). Against Him “Herod and Pontius Pilate had been gathered together” (Acts 4:27). 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” (Acts 10:37-38). 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 admitted—the Acts present evidence, as has been already pointed out (Vol. I., p. xxxi.), of another kind. If they are shown, by the numerous coincidences which they present with the writings of St. Paul (see infra), by their occasional use of the first personal pronoun (Acts 16:10-15; Acts 20:5; Acts 21:17; Acts 27:1; Acts 28:16), 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 1:1) connects itself with the quotation from “the words of the Lord Jesus” in Acts 20:35, as showing that there was not only a widely diffused oral tradition of the facts of the Gospel history (such as that implied in 1Corinthians 11:23-25; 1Corinthians 15:3-7), but that there was also a fairly copious Gospel literature, presenting materials for future editors and compilers. But we may go yet further. It has often been urged, as against 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. It has been already shown (Vol. I., pp. 27-31) that, as far as 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. (See Vol. I., p. xxvii.) Well, be it so; but here we have a work with the same absence of citation, the same vague generalisation 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 credibility 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 Horœ Paulinœ, the case is different. We have a book purporting 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 coincidences the two may present are conspicuously undesigned. So far as they do agree and throw light upon each other, they supply a reciprocal testimony each to the trustworthiness of the other.

The coincidences which thus present themselves are dealt with in the Notes in this Commentary on the Acts and the Epistles, and to state them with any fulness here would be to re-write the Horœ Paulinœ with numerous additions. It will, however, 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.

1Thessalonians 2:2; 1Thessalonians 3:4

St. Paul’s sufferings at Philippi

Acts 16:22-23.

1Thessalonians 3:4

St. Paul’s sufferings at Thessalonica

Acts 17:5.

1Thessalonians 2:18; 1Thessalonians 3:1; 1Thessalonians 3:6-7

St. Paul left at Athens alone

Acts 17:16.

1Thessalonians 2:14

Sufferings of the Thessalonians from their own countrymen

Acts 17:5.

1Thessalonians 1:9

Thessalonian converts turning from idols

Acts 17:4.

1Thessalonians 2:9-10; 1Thessalonians 4:11

St. Paul’s precept and practice in working

Acts 18:3.

1Corinthians 2:1; 1Corinthians 4:19; 1Corinthians 16:5

St. Paul’s two visits to Corinth

Acts 18:1; Acts 20:2.

1Corinthians 15:32

Fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus

Acts 19:29-30.

1Corinthians 16:19

“Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord”

Acts 18:18; Acts 18:20.

1Corinthians 16:9

The “effectual door” opened at Ephesus

Acts 19:20; Acts 19:26.

The many adversaries

Acts 19:9; Acts 19:28.

1Corinthians 4:17-19

Timotheus sent to Corinth from Ephesus

Acts 19:21-22.

1Corinthians 16:10-11

St. Paul’s doubt as to arrival of Timotheus

Acts 19:22.

1Corinthians 1:12; 1Corinthians 3:6

Work of Apollos at Corinth

Acts 18:27-28.

1Corinthians 4:11-12

St. Paul’s working for his bread at Ephesus

Acts 20:34

1Corinthians 9:20

St. Paul’s becoming to Jews as a Jew

Acts 16:3; Acts 18:18; Acts 21:23-26.

1Corinthians 1:14-17

Baptism of Crispus and Gains

Acts 18:8.

1Corinthians 16:1

Collection for the saints in Galatia

Acts 18:23.

1Corinthians 5:7-8

Allusion to the Passover

1Corinthians 16:8

“Tarrying at Ephesus till Pentecost”

Acts 19:22; Acts 20:3.

1Corinthians 1:1

Sosthenes with St. Paul

Acts 18:12-17.

1Corinthians 16:6

St. Paul’s wintering at Corinth

Acts 20:3; Acts 20:6.

1Corinthians 16:5

St. Paul’sjourney through Macedonia

Acts 20:1.

2Corinthians 1:16; 2Corinthians 2:13

St. Paul’s journey through Macedonia

Acts 20:1.

2Corinthians 11:32-33

St. Paul’s escape from Damascus

Acts 9:23-25.

2Corinthians 1:8

The trouble that came on him in Asia

Acts 19:29-30.

2Corinthians 11:9

Supplies from the brethren from Macedonia

Acts 18:1; Acts 18:5.

2Corinthians 1:19

Silvanus and Timotheus as St. Paul’s fellow workers at Corinth

Acts 18:5.

2Corinthians 11:25

“Once was I stoned”

Acts 14:19.

2Corinthians 3:1

Letters of commendation

Acts 18:27.

2Corinthians 10:14-16

Corinth as then the limit of St. Paul’s labours

Acts 18:18.

Galatians 1:17-18

His visit to St. Peter and James the Lord’s brother, after his conversion

Acts 9:28.

Galatians 2:1

The journey with Barnabas to Jerusalem

Acts 15:2.

Galatians 2:13

Barnabas with St. Paul at Antioch

Acts 15:35-37.

Galatians 5:11

Persecutions from the Jews

Acts 13:49; Acts 14:1-19; Acts 17:4-13; Acts 18:12.

Galatians 1:18

The shortness of the first visit to Jerusalem

Acts 22:18.

Galatians 2:9

The authority of James, the brother of the Lord

Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18.

Romans 15:25-26

St. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem

Acts 20:6; Acts 24:17.

Romans 16:21-23

Salutations from Sosipater, Timotheus, and Gains

Acts 20:4.

Romans 16:3

Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth and Rome

Acts 18:2.

Romans 16:27

Phœbe of Cenchreæ

Acts 18:18.

Romans 1:13; Romans 15:23

St. Paul’s desire to visit Rome

Acts 19:21.

Romans 15:19

The gospel preached in Illyricum

Acts 20:2.

Romans 15:30

Apprehension of coming danger

Acts 20:22-23.

Philippians 2:19

Timotheus known to the Philippians

Acts 16:4; Acts 17:14.

Philippians 1:29-30; Philippians 2:1-2

St. Paul’s sufferings at Philippi

Acts 16:22.

Philippians 4:2-3

Euodia, Syntyche, and the other women at Philippi

Acts 16:13.

Ephesians 6:21

Tychicus as known to the Ephesians

Acts 20:4.

Ephesians 6:19-20

St. Paul as an ambassador in a chain

Acts 28:16-20.

Colossians 4:10

Mark as sister’s son (better, cousin) to Barnabas

Acts 15:37-40; Acts 12:12.

Aristarchus, St. Paul’s fellow-prisoner

Acts 19:29; Acts 27:2.

1Timothy 5:9

Provision for the maintenance of widows

Acts 6:1.

1Timothy 1:13-16

The persecutor converted

Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-10.

1Timothy 1:6-7; 1Timothy 4:1-4

State of the Church at Ephesus

Acts 20:29-30.

Titus 3:13

Apollos in Crete

Acts 18:24.

2Timothy 1:16

Onesiphorus and St. Paul’s chain

Acts 28:20.

2Timothy 4:20

Trophimus left at Miletus

Acts 20:4.

2Timothy 1:4-5

The mother of Timotheus

Acts 16:1.

2Timothy 3:15

His education in the Holy Scriptures

Acts 16:2.

2Timothy 3:10-11

Persecutions at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra

Acts 13, 14

2Timothy 4:11

Mark profitable in ministering

Acts 13:5.

2Timothy 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith

Acts 19:33.

It ought to be stated that the comparison of the Acts and the Pauline Epistles brings to light also some real or apparent difficulties. Of these the most conspicuous are:—

(1)The omission in Acts 9:19-23 of the journey to Arabia mentioned in Galatians 1:17.

(2)The omission in Galatians 2:1-10 of any notice of the journey to Jerusalem in Acts 11:30, or of the decrees of the council of Apostles and elders in Acts 15

(3)The omission in the Acts of any record of the dispute between St. Peter and St. Paul at Antioch (Galatians 2:11).

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 Acts 18:24-28, 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 Hebrews 5:11; Hebrews 6:2, 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 baptism of John (Acts 19:1-7). In the reference to the “saints of Italy” in Hebrews 13:24—apparently as distinct from Roman Christians—we may, perhaps, see a reference to the Church of Puteoli, the only Italian town, besides Rome, mentioned in the Acts as containing “brethren” (Acts 28:14).

I note, further, a few coincidences of some interest between the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Peter:—

1Peter 1:11

The tone in which prophecy is spoken of, as compared with

Acts 2:16-17; Acts 2:30-31.

1Peter 1:17

God no respecter of persons

Acts 10:34.

1Peter 1:22

Purity by faith and obedience

Acts 15:9.

1Peter 2:7

The stone which the builders rejected

Acts 4:11.

1Peter 4:16

The name of Christian

Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28.

1Peter 5:12

Mention of Silvanus as accounting for St. Peter’s knowledge of St. Paul’s Epistles (2Peter 3:15)

Acts 15:32; Acts 15:40.

1Peter 5:13

“Marcus my son”

Acts 12:12.

(3) In relation to External History.—It is obvious that the Acts of the 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 years. The scene is shifted from Jerusalem to Samaria, Cæsarea, Damascus, Antioch, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and finally ends in Italy. The writer is constantly brought across some of the events of contemporary history, and the scenes which earlier or later travellers have described. Does he show himself in these respects an accurate observer, faithful in his reports, correct in his language? Does he fall into the blunders which would be natural in a man writing a fictitious narrative a century or so after the events which he professes to relate? 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 contemporary history of the outer world.

Acts 5:37.

Judas of Galilee.

Acts 6:9.

The synagogue of the Libertines.

Acts 8:9.

Simon the sorcerer.

Acts 8:27.

Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.

Acts 9:36.

Dorcas.

Acts 10:1.

The centurion of the Italian band.

Acts 11:26.

The name of Christian at Antioch.

Acts 11:28.

The famine under Claudius.

Acts 12:23.

Death of Herod Agrippa I.

Acts 13:7.

Sergius Paulus of Cyprus.

Acts 14:11.

Paul and Barnabas taken for Zeus and Hermes.

Acts 16:12.

Philippi a colonia.

Acts 16:14.

The purple-seller of Thyatira.

Acts 16:16.

The damsel with a Python spirit.

Acts 16:22.

The strategi of Philippi.

Acts 16:37.

St. Paul’s Roman citizenship,

Acts 17:6.

The politarchs of Thessalonica.

Acts 17:19.

The court of the Areopagus.

Acts 17:21.

Character of the Athenians.

Acts 17:28.

Quotation from Aratus.

Acts 18:2.

Jews banished from Rome by Claudius.

Acts 18:12.

Gallio pro-consul of Achaia.

Acts 19:9.

The school of Tyrannus.

Acts 19:24.

The silver shrines of Artemis.

Acts 19:27-29.

The temple and theatre at Ephesus.

Acts 19:31-35.

The Asiarchs and town-clerk of Ephesus.

Acts 19:38-39.

The pro-consuls and the lawful assembly.

Acts 21:38.

The Egyptian rebel.

Acts 22:28.

St. Paul’s Roman citizenship.

Acts 23:2.

The high priest Ananias.

Acts 23:24.

Felix the governor.

Acts 24:24.

Drusilla.

Acts 24:27.

Porcius Festus.

Acts 25:13.

Agrippa and Bernice.

Acts 25:11.

Appeal to Cæsar.

Acts 27

The details of the narrative throughout.

Acts 28:7.

The “chief man” of Melita.

Acts 28:15.

Appii Forum and the Three Taverns.

Under this head also it is right to notice that which appears to make against, rather than for, the credibility of the narrative, and I accordingly name the chronological difficulty connected with the name of Theudas in Gamaliel’s speech (Acts 5:36).

(4) Internal Evidence of Credibility.—The internal consistency of any book is not necessarily evidence 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 naturalness of their style, the absence of any sensational dove-tailing of incidents, primâ facie testimony to their own veracity. And it is submitted to the reader whether instances 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 preaching of the resurrection (Acts 4:1-2; Acts 5:17).

(2)Barnabas of Cyprus going twice to his own country (Acts 4:36; Acts 13:4; Acts 15:39).

(3)The complaints of the Hellenistae (Grecians), leading to the election of seven men with Greek names (Acts 6:1-5).

(4)The Cilicians disputing with Stephen (Acts 6:9). The young man named Saul (Acts 7:58); afterwards described as of Tarsus (Acts 9:11).

(5)Philip’s arrival at Cæsarea (Acts 8:40). No further mention of him till we find him again at Cæsarea (Acts 21:8).

(6)Mark’s return to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13) explained by his mother’s being there (Acts 12:12) and the pressure of the famine (Acts 11:28).

(7)Agabus prophesying the famine (Acts 11:28); again appearing in the character of a prophet sixteen years later (Acts 21:10).

(8)The speech of Lycaonia as accounting for the surprise of Paul and Barnabas at the preparations for sacrifice (Acts 14:11-14).

(9)Conversion of Samaritans (Acts 8:14). Incidental mention of the brethren in Samaria (Acts 15:3).

(10)Men of Cyprus and Cyrene found the Church at Antioch (Acts 11:20). Barnabas of Cyprus sent to carry on the work (Acts 11:22). Lucius of Cyrene among the prophets of the Church (Acts 13:1).

(11)Philippi a colonia (Acts 16:12). Philippians speak of themselves as Romans (Acts 16:21).

(12)Trophimus the Ephesian (Acts 21:29) recognised by Jews of Asia, i.e., from Ephesus and its neighbourhood.

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 apply almost indefinitely in other instances for himself.[2]

[2] It lies on the surface that I am largely indebted in this part of my work to Paley’s Horœ Paulinœ. I wish also to acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Birks’s Horœ Apostolicœ.

VII. Sources of the History.—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 knowledge as to the events recorded in the Acts.

Acts 1-5. Philip the Evangelist (Acts 21:8-10), or Mnason of Cyprus (Acts 21:16), or others—and, in particular, the “women” of Luke 8:2—at Jerusalem.

Acts 6, 7. Philip or St. Paul.

Acts 8. Philip.

Acts 9. St. Paul.

Acts 10-11. 18. Philip.

Acts 11:19-30. St. Paul, or, probably, personal knowledge gained at Antioch.

Acts 12:1-19. John surnamed Mark (Colossians 4:10-14).

Acts 13:1-13. St. Paul, or Mark, or Mnason of Cyprus.

Acts 13:14-52; Acts 14. St. Paul; or, possibly, knowledge gained by Luke in person on his journey to Troas, or afterwards from Timotheus.

Acts 15, Acts 16:1-7. St. Paul, or, probably, personal knowledge, as staying at Antioch, and, possibly, going up to Jerusalem.

Acts 16:8-40. Personal knowledge.

Acts 17, 18. Probable communications from the brethren who came from Philippi to Thessalonica (Philippians 4:16), and again to Corinth (2Corinthians 11:9). General intercourse between the Romans of Philippi and the Roman Jews at Corinth.

Acts 19. St. Paul; or possibly Aristarchus and Gaius of Macedonia, or Tyrannus.

Acts 20-28. Personal knowledge.

Looking to the manner in which the Gospel begins with what has the character of a distinct document, so strongly marked by Hebraisms that it could scarcely have been written by a Greek writer, it is probable that the first five chapters of the Acts may, in like manner, have been incorporated from an earlier document, recording, like the later history of Hegesippus, the history of the Church of Jerusalem 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” (Luke 1:2).

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 something 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 (Acts 2:32-33; Acts 4:10; Acts 10:40-41; Acts 13:32-37; Acts 17:31; Acts 26:23). Upon that proclamation of a fact in the past they build their assurance that He will come again as the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 3:21; Acts 10:42; Acts 17:31); that in the meantime He calls men to repent and believe in Him (Acts 2:38; Acts 5:31; Acts 10:43; Acts 13:38-39; Acts 14:15; Acts 17:30-31); and that thus they may receive remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38; Acts 8:15; Acts 10:45; Acts 19:2). 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 of Jesus with what had been written in the Law and Prophets as pointing to the coming Christ (Acts 2:14-36; Acts 3:19-26; Acts 7:2-53; Acts 13:17-41; Acts 28:23). 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 (Acts 14:15-17). 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 (Acts 17:22-31).

And it may be noted how carefully 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 statements 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 recognised, on the contrary, that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him. (See Note on Acts 10:35). They speak of the times of ignorance which God “winked at” (Acts 17:30). They are no “blasphemers” even of the worship which they are seeking to supplant (Acts 19:37). They present the gospel to men’s minds as realising at once the conscious prophecies of Israel and the unconscious prophecies of heathenism. 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 (Acts 3:6-7; Acts 5:15; Acts 6:8; Acts 8:13; Acts 9:34-40; Acts 14:10; Acts 19:12; Acts 28:5-8); but they lay far less stress on these than on the “demonstration of the Spirit”—the prophecy that reveals the secrets of the heart, the conscious experience 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 (Acts 2:38-39; Acts 11:17-18; Romans 8:23-26; 1Corinthians 2:4).

(2) Organisation and Worship. And, it may be noted further, they do not rest satisfied with the conversion 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 (Acts 20:28; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:5; Titus 1:7), are appointed in every city (Acts 11:30; Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17), to teach, and preside in worship, and administer the discipline and laws of the congregation. 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 gospel to Jews and heathen, and teaching converts also (Acts 6:3-6; Philippians 1:1; 1Timothy 3:8). 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 (Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17). 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 representing the laity of the Church, as treasurers and almoners (Acts 4:37; Acts 5:2). The disciples meet to break bread, as their Lord had commanded, 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 (Acts 2:46; Acts 20:7); and the history of the institution of what came to be known as the Supper of the Lord formed the centre of the celebration of that feast (1Corinthians 11:23-26). 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 (Acts 4:24-30; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). The right of utterance was not denied to any man (women even seem at first to have been admitted to the same right; Acts 21:9; 1Corinthians 11:5) who possessed the necessary gifts (1Corinthians 14:26-33) and was ready to submit them to the control of the presiding elder or Apostle. There were in the unwritten traditions of the Church; in its oral teaching as to our Lord’s life and teaching (1Corinthians 11:23; 1Corinthians 15:1-8); as in its rules of discipline and worship (2Thessalonians 2:15; 2Thessalonians 3:6); in the “faithful sayings” which were received as axioms of its faith (1Timothy 1:15; 1Timothy 4:9; 2Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8), the germs at once of the creeds, the canons, the liturgies, the systematic theology 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 (Acts 2:46; Acts 20:8; Romans 16:5; Romans 16:15; Romans 16:23; 1Corinthians 16:19), or in a hired class-room (Acts 19:9), 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 Christianity 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 with ourselves, not free from the bitterness of personal quarrels (Acts 15:39), 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 (Acts 15:1-5). It records, as if with an unconscious prevision of future? controversies, how that dispute ended in an amicable compromise, each party making concessions, within certain well-defined limits, to its opponents, neither insisting on what an inexorable logic might have looked on as the necessary conclusion from its premises (Acts 15:23-30). The writer tends, partly by his natural instincts, partly of deliberate purpose, 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 martyrologists 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 otherwise, 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.

EMPERORS.

APOSTOLIC HISTORY.

CIVIL RULERS.

HIGH PRIESTS.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS.

A.D.

28

Tiberius, from A.D. 14.

The Day of Pentecost, May (?). (Other dates, varying from A. D. 30-33, have been assigned for this.)

Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judæa from A.D. 26.

Caiaphas from A.D. 25, son-in-law of Annas, or Ananus.

28

29

29

30

30

31

Death of Sejanus.

31

32

The growth of the Church as described in Acts 2-5. may be referred to this period, but there are no data for going further into detail.

Tiberius at Capreæ. New Sibylline books brought under notice of Senate.

32

33

Drusus, son of Germanicus, starved to death

33

34

Vitellius, Prefect of Syria.

Phœnix reported to have been seen in Egypt.

34

35

Vitellius in Mesopotamia.

35

36

Martyrdom of Stephen (?).

Philo at Alexandria.

36

37

Caligula.

Peter and John in Samaria. Conversion of Saul.

Herod Agrippa I.

Jonathan, son of Ananus.

Aretas in possession of Damascus.

37

38

Conversion of Cornelius. Saul at Damascus.

Theophilus, son of Ananus.

Philo’s mission to Rome.

38

39

Saul at Damascus.

Herod Antipas goes to Rome, and is banished to Gaul. Birth of Lucan.

39

40

Paul at Jerusalem and Tarsus.

Petronius, Prefect of Syria.

Caligula orders his statue to be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem. Philo at Rome.

40

41

Claudius.

Barnabas sent to Antioch. See of Rome founded by St. Peter (??).

Simon Cantheras.

Birth of Titus.

41

42

Paul at Antioch. Disciples called Christians.

Matthias, son of Ananus.

Herod Agrippa made King of Judæa by Claudius.

42

43

Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem. The Gospel according to St. Matthew (??).

Elionæus, son of Cantharas.

Claudius conquers Britain.

43

44

Death of James the son of Zebedee. Peter imprisoned.

Cuspius Fadus, Procurator of Judæa.

Death of Herod Agrippa at Cæsarea. Plautius in Britain.

44

45

Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus. Epistle of St. James (?).

Joseph, son of Canis.

Apollonius of Tyana in India and Persia.

45

46

Paul and Barnabas in Pisidia and Lycaonia.

Tiberius Alexander, Procurator of Judæa.

40

47

Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch.

Ventidius Cumanus, Procurator of Judæa.

Ananias, son of Nebedius.

Ludi sœculares at Rome. Plautius returns from Britain.

47

48

Death of Messalina. Claudius under the influence of Narcissus and Pallas.

48

49

Paul’s dispute with Peter (??).

Herod Agrippa II., King of Chalcis.

Herod. Agrippa II. made King of Chalcis. Seneca appointed as Nero’s tutor. Jews banished from Rome.

49

50

Council at Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas return with Silas to Antioch.

Caractacus captive in Rome. Foundation of Cologne by Agrippina.

50

51

Paul and Silas start on another mission. Paul’s dispute with Peter (?).

Felix, Procurator of Judæa.

Burrus made Prefect of the Praetorian Guards. Astrologers expelled from Italy.

51

52

Paul at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berœa, Athens, Corinth.

Herod. Agrippa II., King of Batanæa and Trachonitis.

Herod Agrippa II. made King of Batanæa and Trachonitis.

52

53

Paul at Corinth. First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians·

Marriage of Nero with Octavia.

53

54

Nero.

Paul’s journey to Ephesus, Cæsarea, Jerusalem, Antioch. Apollos at Ephesus. Dispute with Peter (?).

:

Narcissus put to death by Nero.

54

55

Apollos at Corinth. Paul in Asia.

55

56

Tumult at Ephesus (May). First Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul in Macedonia. Epistle to the Galatians. Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

Tumult in Judæa, headed by the Egyptian of Acts 21:38, Birth of Trajan.

56

57

Paul at Corinth. Epistle to the Romans. Journey to Jerusalem (April, May). Trial before Felix.

Trial of Pomponia Graecina.

57

58

59

Paul at Cæsarea.

Paul at Cæsarea.

Ishmael, son of Phabi.

Poppæa Sabina, Nero’s mistress. Agrippina, Nero’s mother, put to death.

58

59

60

Paul at Cæsarea. Appeal to Cæsar. Voyage to Italy.

Porcius Festus, Procurator of Judæa.

60

61

Paul at Melita. Arrives at Rome (April), Lives in his own house.

Joseph Cabi.

Revolt in Britain, under Boadicea, Queen of the Iceoni. Apollonius of Tyana at the Olympic Games.

61

62

Paul at Borne. Epistle to the Philipplans.

Albinus, Procurator of Judæa.

Ananas.

Burrus dies, and is succeeded by Tigellinus. Persius dies. Josephus at Rome.

62

63

Paul at Rome. Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon. Release. First Epistie of St. Poter.

Jesus, son of Damnæus.

Earthquakes in Asia Minor.

63

64

Paul in Spain (?), Asia (?), Nicopolis (?). 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.

Gessius Florus, Procurator of Judæa.

Great fire at Rome. Persecution of Christians.

64

65

Death of Paul and Peter (?) at Rome. Linus Bishop of Rome (?).

Seneca and Lucan put to death by Nero. Death of Poppæa,

65

66

Epistle to the Hbrews (?). The Gospel according to St. Matthew (?).

Nero in Greece. Apollonius of Tyana ordered to leave Rome. Martial at Rome.

66

67

Death of Peter and Paul (?).The Gospel according to St. Mark. Epistle of St. James (??).

Josephus gains favour with Vespasian after the capture of Jotapata.

67

68

Galba.

St. John in Patmos (?). The Apocalypse (?).

Vespasian takes Jericho.

68

69

Otho. Vitellius. Vespasian.

Death of James, the Bishop of Jerusalem (?).

69

70

Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem; Ignatius of Antioch (?).

The Capitol rebuilt by Vespasian. Jerusalem taken by Titus (Aug. 31). Josephus released.

70

71

Temple of Janus closed. Destruction of the Onias Temple in Egypt. Triumph of Titus and Vespasian.

71

72

72

73

73

74

Berenice at Rome with Vespasian and Titus. Philosophers banished from Rome.

74

75

76

Temple of Peace at Rome dedicated by Vespasian.

Coliseum begun. Birth of Hadrian.

75

76

77

77

78

Cletus Bishop of Rome (?).

Britain conquered by Agrícola.

78

79

Titus.

Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed. Death of Pliny the Elder.

79

80

Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (??)

Coliseum finished. Pestilence and fire at Rome. Baths of Titus built.

80

81

Domitian,

81

82

82

83

Domitian banishes all philosophers from Rome.

83

84

Agricola in Caledonia.

84

85

85

80

Antoninus Pius born.

86

87

87

88

Quintilian at Rome from A.D. 68

88

89

89

90

Philosophers again banished from Rome, Epictetus among them.

90

91

Clement Bishop of Rome.

91

92

92

93

St. John thrown into boiling oil before the Latin Gate (??).

Death of Agricola and Josephus.

93

94

Juvenal banished.

94

95

Epistle of Clement (?). The Apocalypse (??). Flavius Clemens put to death. Domitilla banished.

Grandsons of the brethren of the Lord brought before Domitian.

95

96

Nerva.

The three Epistles of St. John (?).

96

97

The Gospel according to St. John (?).

Death of Apollonius of Tyana.

97

98

Trajan.

Cerdon Bishop of Alexandria; Ignatius of Antioch; Simon of Jerusalem.

Pliny and Plutarch in favour with Trajan.

98

99

Death of St. John (?).

99

100

Death of St. John (?).

Pliny’s Panegyric on Trajan. Martial retires to Spain.

100

EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO THE ACTS.

EXCURSUS ON THE LATER YEARS OF ST. PAUL’S LIFE.

THE date of St. Paul’s arrival at Rome may be fixed, with little risk of error, in the spring of A.D. 61. Festus had gone to the province of Judæa, according to the computation of the best chronologists, in the autumn of A.D. 60. He had lost no time in despatching the arrears of business which Felix had left behind him, had inquired at once into the Apostle’s case, and, on his appealing to the Emperor, had sent him off. Then came the voyage, the shipwreck, the three winter months at Melita, and, early in the spring, the voyage to Puteoli, and the land journey to Rome. It was the seventh year of Nero’s reign, the twenty-fourth of his life. The emperor had already begun to show the baseness and cruelty of his nature. The murder of his mother, Agrippina, by his orders, had been perpetrated in the previous year. False rumours had been circulated as to the manner of her death, but the letter which Nero sent to the Senate, giving his account of it, and which Seneca was suspected of having helped to write, heaped up charges of crimes, old and new, on the memory of the wretched woman, so that it seemed to men almost as an apology for matricide (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 4-12).[5] Even Burrus, hoping still to retain some hold on him, had congratulated him on his deliverance from a great and standing danger (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 10). Poppæa, after her fashion, half a proselyte to Judaism (Jos. Life, c. 3), was living with the emperor, as his mistress, in his palace on the Palatine Hill. The supreme passion of his life was an insane desire for popular applause. To gain this, descending step by step to lower and lower depths, he drove his chariots in an enclosed circus on the site now occupied by the Vatican. He played on the lyre, and sung his odes at supper. He instituted games known as Juvenalia on attaining to the dignity of a beard, and men of the highest rank were compelled to bear their part in representing, in dramas or in tableaux, the foulest and most prurient of the myths of Greece. The emperor and his lyre were conspicuous everywhere (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 14). A body-guard of the equestrian order was formed (probably the Augustan band of Acts 27:1), who acted as his claqueurs, and led the applause of the multitude. Centurions and tribunes had to attend officially at spectacles which seemed to them to dishonour the Roman name. Even Burrus, “consenting thus far to avoid worse deeds,” stood by, praising with his lips and groaning in his soul (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 15). By way of showing the extent and variety of his culture, he gave his leisure also to painting and to poetry. He would cap verses or display his skill as an impro-visatore among his companions. As if he had not altogether forgotten the teaching of Seneca, he would summon philosophers after a banquet and listen to them as they discussed their theories as to the chief good and true law of duty (ibid. c. 16).

[5] May we see a passing reference to Nero’s guilt in the mention of “murderers of mothers” in 1 Timothy 1?

With this form of life, entering into various relations with those who were, in greater or less measure, sharers in it, St. Paul was now brought into contact. Strange as it may sound, it presented, in some degree, a more favourable opening for his work than if he had found Rome under a wise and vigorous rule, like Trajan or Aurelius. Poppæa was, as has been said, a proselyte to Judaism, a patroness of Jews. Aliturius, a Jew (a Jew taking his part in the mimes of Nero!), was high in the emperor’s favour as an actor. When Josephus came, in the second year of St. Paul’s stay in Rome, he found that he had a friend at Court. He obtained the liberation of some priests whom Felix had sent as prisoners to Rome, and returned laden with gifts which Poppæa had presented him (Jos. Life, c. 3). The names in Romans 16 coinciding, as they do largely, with those in the Columbaria of the imperial household on the Appian Way, confirm the natural inference from Philippians 4:22 as to the presence of Christians, some Gentiles and some of the Circumcision, among the freed-men of the palace.[6] And St. Paul, we must remember, was in Rome as a Jew, and the favour thus shown to other Jews would naturally be extended to him also. And we have seen that there was no lack of friends: Aquila and Priscilla, and Rufus and his mother, probably the wife of Simon of Cyrcne (see Note on Mark 15:21), and the slaves and freed-men of Narcissus,[7] and Tryphena, and Tryphosa, and probably Phœbe also. And with these, we may believe on good grounds, there were others. Only four years before (A.D. 57) the conqueror of Britain. Aulus Plautius, brought his wife before a family tribunal as accused of holding “a foreign superstition.” She was acquitted by her husband’s judgment, but her habits before and after the trial, for forty years (she died A.D. 83), were those of an outward unworldly life and of continual sorrow (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 32). The “foreign superstition “may have been only Judaism or some Oriental cultus, like that of Isis and Serapis, but the vague way in which it is described suggests the idea of a new religion rather than of one with which men were already familiar, and it does not seem an over-bold inference to rest in the conclusion that she was a Christian.

[6] A list of names may be given as common to both lists, or found in other like records :—Amplias, Urbanus, Stachys, Apelles, Aristobulus, Narcissus, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Hermes, Hermas, Patrobas, Philologus, and Nereus (Lightfoot, Philipp, pp. 169-176.) To these may be added Tyehicus, Trophimus, Onesimus, Dorcas among New Testament names. (Comp. Notes on Acts 9:36; Acts 20:4.)

[7] Narcissus, the freed-man and favourite of Claudius, had been put to death by Nero (A.D. 54), but the household may have continued to be kept by some member of the family. An interesting inscription records the name of Dikœosyne (=Righteousness) the wife of T. Claudius Narcissus, who is described as pientissima et frugalissima (“most devout, and simple in her life”). The name is not, so far as I know, found elsewhere. Was it taken by one who had learnt from the preachers of the gospel what true righteousness consisted in? (Muratori, Inscriptt. 1325; Orelli, 720.) The appearance of new names in the epitaphs of the Roman catacombs, expressing new thoughts and hopes, is singularly suggestive. Elpis (=Hope), Euphrosyne (=Joy), Redempta, Simplicitas, Eusebius (=Devout), Kyriakos (=the Lord’s), may be noted as examples.

And connected with Pomponia there were probably two other converts. The names of Claudia and Pudens are coupled together in the salutation of 2Timothy 4:21. They are coupled together as husband and wife in the epigrams of Martial. And the Pudens of Martial bears the name of Aulus, and he is married to Claudia, and Claudia is descended from the blue-eyed and fair-haired Britons (Epig. xi. 53). Martial, usually so scurrilous in his jests, treats them both with a marked respect. He writes an epithalamium on their union, and, instead of licentious innuendoes, utters his wishes thus:—

“O Concord, bless their couch for evermore,

Be with them in thy snow-white purity,

Let Venus grant, from out her choicest store,

All gifts that suit their married unity;

When he is old may she be fond and true,

And she in age the charms of youth renew.”

—Epig. iv. 13.

A child is born to them, and he is again ready with his salutations to the father—

“Grant, O ye gods, that she may ever prove

The bliss of mother over girl and boy;

Still gladdened by her pious husband’s love,

And in her children And perpetual joy.”

—Epig. xi. 53.

He jestingly remonstrates with Pudens for objecting to the coarseness of his epigrams—

“You urge me, Pudens, to take pen in hand,

And prune and purge these epigrams of mine;

How much thou lov’st them now I understand,

When thou would’st have each quip a faultless line.”

—Epig. vii. 11.

He has been ill while Pudens was absent in the north, and has sighed for his presence—

“Yea, all but snatched where flow the gloomy streams,

I saw the clouds that shroud the Elysian plain;

Still for thy face I groaned in weary dreams,

And cold lips ‘Pudens, Pudens’ cried in vain.”

—Epig. vi. 58.

The juxtaposition of the two names, and the character thus assigned to those who bore them, justify us, I believe, here also, in spite of some difficulties that have been raised on chronological or other grounds, in identifying them with those whom St. Paul mentions.

The chronological difficulty lies in the fact that Martial, born in Spain, circ. A.D. 40, did not come to Rome till A.D. 66, nor collect his epigrams till A.D. 86. It is clear, however, that the former date, the very year after St. Paul’s death, is certainly not incompatible with his knowing St. Paul’s Claudia and Pudens, and the collected poems may well have ranged over the whole period of his stay in Rome. It is perfectly inconceivable that such a man could have lived in Rome for twenty years without writing epigrams. It may be added that the identification does not assume that Pudens and Claudia were married when St. Paul wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy (A.D. 66), but only that both were then disciples of Christ. If Martial came to Rome in A.D. 66 he might, therefore, have known the young officer before his marriage, and written his congratulatory lines shortly afterwards. The insertion of the name of Linus between Pudens and Claudia is, as far as it goes, against the hypothesis that they were at that period husband and wife.

Another objection has been taken to the identification, on the moral ground that, in some of his epigrams, Martial insinuates that his Pudens shared in the foul immorality of his time. It is not expedient to examine such a question in detail, but it will be found that the incidents to which he alludes (there is literally nothing more than the fact that a young slave of Pudens had cut his hair as a votive offering[8]) admit, in themselves, of a perfectly innocent interpretation, and that the innuendoes are but the scurril jests of a tainted mind coming into contact with a purity which it cannot comprehend.[9] They deserve no more attention than the analogous charges which were whispered against St. Paul (see Note on 2Corinthians 7:2), or those which were brought against Athanasius and Hooker. Such charges are often, indeed, brought against the pure in proportion to their purity.

[8] The cutting of the hair may, indeed, even have been, after St. Paul’s example (Acts 18:18), the completion of a Nazarite vow.

[9] It is right, perhaps, to state that Dean Merivale (St. Paul at Rome, p. 149) looks on the supposed Christianity of Pomponia as a “hypothesis of the flimsiest character,” and rejects the conclusions drawn as to Claudia and Pudens on the strength of objections to which I seem to myself to have given a sufficient answer.

Further coincidences connect themselves with an inscription discovered in Chichester in A.D. 1723, which runs thus:—

To Neptune and Minerva

This Temple

For the welfare of the Divine (i.e., the Imperial) House,

By the authority of

Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus

Legate of Augustus (i.e., the Emperor) in Britain,

The Guild of Smiths and those in it

Who minister in sacred things, have

At their own cost dedicated,

The site being given by

Pudens the son of Pudentinus.

Cogidubnus, we learn from Tacitus (Agricola, c. xiv.), was king of the Regni, a tribe occupying the modern Sussex, and was the faithful ally of Rome under Claudius, when Aulus Plautius, the husband of Pomponia. was governor of Britain (A.D. 43-52).[10] His daughter, if he had one, would naturally bear the name of Claudia. We find him connected with a Pudens; and it is, to say the least, a highly probable inference that the attachment of the latter to his British bride began during a service in the North prior to that of which Martial speaks, and that she came to Rome under the protection of Pomponia, and, embracing the same faith, was married to her lover.

[10] A note is, perhaps, necessary as to the dates thus given. If this, it has been urged, gives the limits of the date of the inscription, then Martial was a boy of ten when Pudens was old enough to be an officer in Britain, and was therefore not likely to have been on the terms of intimacy with him which the epigrams indicate. The date of the inscription, however, may have been considerably later. Cogidubnus was the ally of Rome for many years after the conquest of Caractacus by Ostorius Scapula (Tacit. Ann. xii. 11), and even as Tacitus says “within his own memory.” The temple to which the inscription refers may easily therefore have been erected, say, circ. A.D. 60-64.

It may be well to mention another, though less probable, coujecture, that Claudia was the daughter of Caractacus, who had been brought to Rome, with his wife and children, under Claudius, and that Linus was identical with the Llin who appears in Welsh hagiography as the son of Caractacus (Lewin, St. Paul, ii. 397).

St. Paul’s acquaintance with Pudens may have begun through Pomponia; but it is also probable that, through the courteous kindness of the centurion Julius, himself of the Augustan band (see Note on Acts 27:1), he was commended to the favourable notice of Burrus, the Prefect of the Prætorian camp; and that thus, and through the frequent change of soldiers who kept guard over him, his bonds in Christ would become known (as he says) through the whole Praetorian barracks[11] (Philippians 1:13), and that this may have either originated or strengthened their friendship.

[11] The Greek word is Prœtorium, on which see Note on Matthew 27:27.

Did the Apostle become acquainted with the great philosophic thinker Seneca, the friend of Burrus, who, though his influence was waning, still endeavoured to reach the mind of Nero by writing ethical treatises for his benefit? We cannot return a decisive answer to that question. Letters were extant in the fourth century, and are mentioned by Jerome as very widely read (Vir. Illust. xii.), purporting to be a correspondence between Seneca and St. Paul; and though these are certainly apocryphal, the fact of the forgery may well have rested on some tradition of intercourse between the two. The numerous parallelisms of thought and language between the two writers (comp. Lightfoot’s Philippians: “Excursus on St. Paul and Seneca”) may be accidental, but they at least suggest the probability of some communication, direct or indirect. One who saw as clearly as St. Paul did the weak and the strong points of Stoicism, and was necessarily known to Seneca’s friend, was not likely to remain altogether outside the range of his acquaintance. If we adopt the suggestion already made (see Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel), that there was some previous connection between the Lucas or Lucanus who was St. Paul’s companion and the poet who was Seneca’s nephew, the probability becomes yet stronger; nor can we quite exclude the probability that Gallio, Seneca’s brother, who was now at Rome, and in high favour with the emperor, may have renewed his acquaintance with the Apostle. (See Note on Acts 18:17.) The traditional identification of Clement of Rome with the Clement of Philippians 4:3, presents some serious chronological difficulties which have led Dr. Lightfoot (Philipp., Exo. on 4:3) to reject it. Apart from this, however, it is in the nature of things probable that those who were appointed to take the oversight of the Church of Rome after the death of the Apostles would be men who had known St. Paul; and we may, therefore, think, with no undue boldness of conjecture, of his knowing Linus, who, indeed, is named in 2Timothy 4:21, and who became bishop in A.D. 66, and Cletus, or Anacletus (A.D. 79), and possibly Clement also (A.D. 91).[12] The full name of this last, Titus Flavius Clemens, indicates that he was probably the first convert of the Flavian imperial house, which in Vespasian and Titus had been brought into close contact with Judaism, and which under Domitian furnished, in Flavius Clemens the Consul and his sister Flavia Doraitilla, two illustrious sufferers for the new faith.

[12] The succession and dates are given, it must be remembered, as only approximately correct. The origines of the Church of Rome are singularly obscure and uncertain.

Leaving these interesting, even if they are also precarious, inferences, we pass to the more solid ground of the statements in St. Paul’s own writings.

A year or more passed, during which he was waiting for his appeal to be heard, and which we cannot fill up with any accurate precision. Timotheus, his true son in the faith, joined him soon after his arrival, or possibly was even one of his companions in the voyage (Philippians 1:1). Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, came to him; Luke, the beloved physician, and Aristarchus remained with him. Linus, whose name appears in the list of Roman bishops as St. Peter’s successor, and who was probably even then exercising some pastoral functions, is named as in the same circle of friends with Claudia and Pudens (2Timothy 4:21); and Eubulus may well have been another presbyter. A Jew named Jesus, and bearing (probably, as in other cases, as a recognition of character) the surname of Justus, and Demas, were among his fellow-workers (Colossians 4:10-14). Onesiphorus, probably an Ephesian freed-man (the name, like that of Onesimus, indicates his class), found out his lodging, was not ashamed of his chain, and ministered to him diligently there, as he had done, or did afterwards, at Ephesus (2Timothy 1:16). Onesimus, the runaway slave of Philemon of Colossæ, at one time joined apparently with St. Paul in a partnership, as Aquila and Priscilla had been (Philemon 1:17; Acts 18:3), had come to him, had been converted by him, had ministered to him with the loyalty and affection of a son (Philemon 1:10-12). Either with him or about this time came Epaphras, as a messenger from the churches of the valley of the Lycus—Colossae, Laodicea, and Hiera-polis (Colossians 4:12). Tychicus (see Note on Acts 20:4), the Ephesian, who had gone with him to Jerusalem, or at least to Ephesus, had also found his way to him (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7). Nor was the Apostle without communications from the Macedonian churches who were so dearly loved by him. Possibly in the “true yoke-fellow” of Philippians 4:3 we may trace a temporary return of St. Luke to the church with which he had been so closely connected.[13] If so, his stay was short, and he returned afterwards to Rome, where we find him when the Apostle writes to the Colossians (Colossians 4:14). In the meantime Epaphroditus (the name is that from which Epaphras is contracted, but the difference in the two forms indicates almost certainly difference of persons) had come bearing gifts, probably in money. which were sent by the Philippian converts to their beloved teacher (Philippians 4:10-17), as they had sent to him some ten years before, when he was at Thessalonica, and afterwards, probably, at Corinth also (2Corinthians 11:9). Epaphroditus, while at Rome, had been sick nigh unto death[14] (Philippians 2:27), and there had been time for a messenger to go from Rome to Philippi reporting his sickness, and bring back tidings of the anxiety of the Church there (Philippians 2:25-28). It was not in St. Paul’s nature to neglect the opportunities which thus presented themselves for reopening communication with the churches from which he had now for some two or three years been parted. The first of these letters of the Imprisonment was in all probability the EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.[15] When he wrote it he was exulting in the spread of the gospel. It was becoming known at once in the Praetorian camp, and among the slaves and freed-men of the Palace of the Caesars (Philippians 1:13; Philippians 4:22). His personal defence was becoming identified with the apologia of the gospel (Philippians 1:17) There were, indeed, darker shades in the picture. There were some—probably of the party of the Circumcision, or, as he calls them, as if they were unworthy of the old time-honoured word, of the “concision” (Philippians 3:2), “dogs,” tainted, as the word implies (comp. Deuteronomy 23:18; Revelation 22:15), by sharing, as did Aliturius and the other Jews who hung about Poppæa, in the shameless license of the time—who preached Christ, i.e., made his name known, in the-spirit of contentious rivalry, and sought to add affliction to the Apostle’s bonds. He was hoping, however, to be released shortly, and to revisit his Philippian friends. In the meantime he would send Timotheus, as soon as-he saw his way clearly to the probable course of events. He would, at all events, not delay to send Epaphroditus with a letter (Philippians 2:19-30). Probably about a year passed between this and the next letters, the EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS, TO THE COLOSSIANS, and TO PHILEMON. The three were manifestly written at the same time. Tychicus is the bearer both of the letter to the Ephesians, itself probably an encyclical letter to the churches of Asia, and of that to the Colossians. Epaphras, in his turn, is connected with the Epistle to the Colossians and that to Philemon (Colossians 1:7; Colossians 4:12), and Timothy also is with St. Paul when he writes these last (Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1:1). In the interval that had passed since the letter to the Philippians was despatched, Burrus had fallen a victim to the emperor’s suspicions, and had been succeeded by the infamous Tigellinus (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 51, 57). The influence of Seneca was waning, and that of Poppæa was more and more in the ascendant (ibid. xiv. 52). Octavia was formally repudiated, banished to the island of Pandataria (now Santa Maria), and finally murdered (ibid. xiv. 63), while the Senate welcomed the birth of Poppæa’s child as though it were a gift from heaven (ibid. xv. 23). It does not appear, however, that these changes affected St. Paul’s condition for the worse. Though he was still the prisoner of the Lord (Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1), an “ambassador in bonds” (Ephesians 6:20), he was not less hopeful than before as to his release, when he sent Tychicus and his companions with their Epistles. He formed the plan of visiting the churches of Colossæ and Laodicea. He wrote to Philemon, as if looking forward to resuming his partnership with him, to prepare him a lodging at the first-named city (Philemon 1:22).

[13] The “yoke-fellow” has also been identified with Lydia, but see Note on Philippians 4:3.

[14] It is not without interest to note the fact that Rome was visited about this time by a violent epidemic, a catarrh with inflammation of the tonsils. Nero was one of the sufferers; he lost his voice, and sacrifices were offered in the temples for his recovery (Philostr. Life of Apollonius, iv. 44).

[15] I follow Dr. Lightfoot in this order of the Epistles of the first imprisonment. Some writers, however, place the Epistle to the Philippians as the last of the four.

If we accept the PASTORAL EPISTLES as genuine, we are led partly by their style, partly by the difficulty of fitting them into any earlier period of St. Paul’s life, partly by the traces they present of a later stage of development both of truth and error, to assign them to a date subsequent to the two years of the imprisonment of Acts 28:30. This leads, in its turn, to the conclusion that he was released from that imprisonment, and started on a fresh journey. How his release was brought about we do not know. His appeal may have come on for hearing, after the long two years’ delay, and, in the absence of any “respondents appearing, personally or by counsel, against it, have been allowed. This seems, at any rate, more probable than the picture drawn by some writers (Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, c. xxvii.; Lewin, ii., p. 380) of a formal trial before the emperor, with priests from the Sanhedrin, and Alexander the coppersmith as prosecutor, Jews from Asia as witnesses, and an advocate like Tertullus to conduct the case against him. A curious synchronism, however, suggests the thought that there may have been wheels within wheels, working to bring about this result. Josephus, the Jewish historian, then in his twenty-seventh year, came to Rome about the close of the second year of St. Paul’s confinement. He was shipwrecked, on his voyage, picked up by a ship of Cyrene, landed at Puteoli, and made his way to Rome. His main object in coming was, he says, to obtain the release of certain priests who had been sent to Home by Felix as prisoners, and he accomplished his purpose through the influence of Poppæa, to whom he was introduced by Aliturius, the Jewish actor, already mentioned (Jos. Life, c. 3). May we not think it probable that St. Paul reaped the benefit of a general order for the release of Jewish prisoners sent by the Procurator of Palestine obtained through this instrumentality? The reticence of Josephus in regard to the Christian Church, the Gamaliel-like tone in which he speaks (not to dwell on passages of doubtful genuineness) of John the Baptist and of James the Bishop of Jerusalem (Ant. xviii. 5, § 2; xx. 9, § 1), his avowed Pharisaism, the tone in which he speaks of Ananias of Damascus (see Note on Acts 9:10), all make it probable that he would, at least, not be unwilling that the Apostle, “a Pharisee and son of a Pharisee,” should share in the freedom which he had obtained for others.

As regards the details of this last journey we are again dependent upon inferences more or less precarious. It is clear that, if he left Rome at all, it must have been before the great fire and the persecution of the Christians which followed on it, and from which a prisoner in St. Paul’s position could scarcely have escaped—probably, therefore, about the close of A.D. 63 or the beginning of 64. A vague phrase of Clement of Rome (1 Ep. ad Cor. c. 5), stating that he travelled to the “furthest limits of the West,” has given rise to wild conjectures. On the one hand, looking to the connection with natives of Britain already traced, and to the fact that the epithet ultimi was commonly applied to them, it has been contended that he preached the gospel in this island. A more probable hypothesis is that he started, on his release, to carry into effect his long-intended journey to Spain, to which the epithet “limit of the West” would be nearly as applicable. There, especially at Corduba (now Cordova), he would find many Jews, and Luke, as we have seen (Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel), had probably earlier points of contact with it. Of such a journey to Spain we find traces in the Muratorian Fragment (see Vol. I., p. xiii.), which speaks of St. Paul as ab urbe ad Spaniam proficiscentis, and the language of Jerome, who echoes Clement’s phrase, stating that he had been set free that he might preach the gospel in Occidentis quoque partibus (Cat. Script. Illusi. “Paulus”), and of Chrysostom (on 2 Timothy 4), who says that “after being in Rome he went on for Spain,” shows that the tradition was widely accepted. In our own time it has been received even by some critics who do not admit the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles (Ewald, Geschichte Israel, vi. 621, 631; Renan, L’Antechrist, p. 106). We have seen reason to fix the liberation of St. Paul in A.D. 63 or 64, i.e., in the tenth or eleventh year of the reign of Nero. The date of his death is fixed by Jerome in the emperor’s fourteenth year, i.e., in A.D. 66 or 67. We have, therefore, a period of between two or three years towards which we have only the scanty materials furnished—assuming their genuineness—by the Pastoral Epistles. To these, accordingly we turn. They indicate, as might have been expected, that St. Paul was eager to revisit the Greek and Asiatic churches from which he had so long been separated. Timotheus and Luke, who were with him towards the close of his first imprisonment, were probably his companions in travel. They came—if from Corduba, probably by sea from Gades, and through the Straits of Gibraltar, probably taking Crete on the way (Titus 1:5)—to Ephesus. The state of things there was altered greatly for the worse. The grievous wolves, some of them in sheep’s clothing, had done their worst. Hymenæus, and Philetus, and Alexander were conspicuous as the teachers of heresies that led practically to a denial of the Christian’s hope, and the Apostle felt that he had no alternative but to pronounce the sentence which cut them off from Christian fellowship and exposed them to the supernatural chastisements in which lay the only hope of their reformation (1Timothy 1:20; 2Timothy 2:17-18). Alexander the coppersmith, probably altogether distinct from the heretic of the same name, succeeded in stirring up the passions of men against him (2Timothy 4:14), and “wrought him much evil.” Everywhere in Asia (the proconsular province of that name) he met averted glances, even, where, as in the case of Phygellus and Hermogenes, he might have expected better things (2Timothy 1:15). In Onesiphorus, who had ministered so faithfully to him at Rome, alone, or all but alone, had he found the loyal and loving care which had once been general, and he had to think of him as having passed away, with the prayer that “he might find mercy with the Lord in that day” (2Timothy 1:16-17; 2Timothy 4:19), The inspired utterances of the prophets foretold dark and evil times, times at once of apostasy, and heresy, and persecution (1Timothy 4:1-4). The churches had lost their first love and their first purity. Their very organisation of charity was becoming the source of great evils, leading some to shift on others the burden of the duties which of right devolved on them, and encouraging a systematic pauperised idleness in others (1Timothy 5:3-8). The women of the Christian Church, even its deaconesses, widows, virgins, were sinking to the old level of their heathen lives in dress and scandals, in idleness and frivolity (1Timothy 5:11-13; 2Timothy 3:6). It seemed necessary to the Apostle to meet these dangers by asking his true son in the faith—half-shrinking, it would seem, from so grave a responsibility—to remain at Ephesus clothed with a larger measure of authority than before, while he continued his journey and went to Macedonia (1Timothy 1:3). If we were to receive the note attached in the Authorised version to the FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, he passed on from Macedonia to Laodicea, but these foot-notes are of too late a date and too uncertain an authority to be relied on. We must treat them, then, as though they were non-existent, and proceed with our inferences from St. Paul’s own words. What his actual movements and plans were we are informed in the EPISTLE TO TITUS. There we learn that either before or after he went to Asia—more probably the former—he had visited Crete. There also the same evils were showing themselves as at Ephesus. Jewish fables and lives “abominable” and “reprobate” were bringing scandal on the name of Christians, and they were aggravated by the proverbial untruthfulness and sensuality of the national character (Titus 1:5; Titus 1:12; Titus 1:16). Apollos, it is true, was there, and with him Zenas, a “lawyer,” in the Gospel sense of the term (see Note on Matthew 22:35), a Christian teacher, i.e., like Apollos, mighty in the Scriptures, a trained interpreter of the Law of Moses in a Christian sense (Titus 3:13); but their influence was confined within the narrow circle of their own immediate followers, and those of whom St. Paul speaks as “ours” (Titus 3:14) needed more direct superintendence. For this purpose, Titus (possibly the Justus of Corinth; see Note on Acts 18:7), who had once before brought a like special mission to a successful issue (2Corinthians 7:13-14; 2Corinthians 8:6; 2Corinthians 8:23), was despatched with a delegated authority which made him what we might fairly call a “vicar apostolic” rather than a bishop. When St. Paul wrote to him he was himself apparently travelling, or intending to travel, in Macedonia, revisiting, we may believe, in accordance with the promise of Philippians 2:24, the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica and Berœa, and was intending to winter at Nicopolis. It is a natural inference from this, and from the urgency with which he entreats Titus to come to him quickly (Titus 3:12), that the Epistle was written in the autumn. The name of Nicopolis ( = “the city of victory”), to which, we may believe, he now directed his course, was borne by three cities, one on the borders of Thrace and Macedonia, one in Cilicia, and a third, more conspicuous than the others, on the Bay of Actium, which had been built by Augustus to commemorate his great victory there over the combined fleets of Antonius and Cleopatra.

In a previous journey through Macedonia to the Illyrian frontier, probably that of Acts 20:2 (comp. Romans 15:19), he had already laid the foundations of a church in that region of Greece, and may well have been anxious to revisit it.

In the meantime a great change had come over the policy of the imperial court at Rome. Poppæa, with her tendency to protect the Jews, and probably the Christians of “Cæsar’s household,” who at first passed for a sect of Jews, had died under the brutality of the emperor (A.D. 65),[16] and the influence of Tigellinus, base, brutal, and cruel, was altogether dominant. The great fire of A.D. 64 had broken out at the foot of the Cœlian and Palatine Hills, after an entertainment which he had given in the gardens of Agrippa, with surroundings of shameless foulness, in honour of the emperor (Tacit. Ann. xv. 37-40); and when, after being partially subdued, it renewed its devastations in the Æmilian district of the city, where Tigellinus had large estates, he shared with Nero the odium of having either originated it, or at least looked on it with an Epicurean indifference, if not, as the emperor was reported to have done, with a kind of æsthetic complacency. That suspicion had to be stamped out. The Christians of Rome, those especially whose presence in the palace reproved the vices of Tigellinus and his master, were sacrificed as victims to the popular indignation, and the tide of suspicion was turned only too successfully on the strange people who lived in the world but not of it, and talked much of a King who was to come in flaming fire and devour his adversaries (2Thessalonians 1:8). The language of Juvenal implies that the better Romans knew that the martyrs whose lurid flames were as torches in the gardens of Nero on those fearful nights were sacrificed to the jealousy and vindictive hatred of the favourite—

[16] It is not without interest to note the fact that the body of Poppæa was embalmed, as if in deference to her known tendencies, after the Jewish manner, and not burnt, after the custom of Rome (Tacit. Ann. xvi. 6).

“Dar’st thou to speak of Tigellinus’ guilt?

Thou too shalt flare as they did, whom we saw,

Standing and burning, throat impaled, in smoke,

And make wide furrows in the thirsty sand.”

—Sat. i. 155.

That of Martial shows that they suffered as Christians, and might have purchased safety by apostasy, He refers to the well-known story of Mucius Scævola thrusting his hand into the fire, which apparently had been dramatised under Nero, and received with much. applause—

“You saw, enacted on the stage of sand,

How Mucius thrust into the flames his hand;

Think ye that act true hero’s deed to be?

Dull as Abderas[17] dotards then are ye;

[17] The town was proverbial for the stupidity of its people. The men of Abdera were as the men of Gotham of our nursery rhyme.

Is it not more, when robe of flame is nigh,

To say, ‘I will not sacrifice,’ and die,

Than with the order ‘Burn thy hand,’ comply?”

—Epig. x. 25.

The populace, excited, as the Athenians had been by the mutilation of the Hermæ busts, as that of England was by the Fire of London in 1666, rushed upon the members of the “sect everywhere spoken against” with a ferocious eagerness, and beheld their sufferings at first without a shudder. Only in a few, like Juvenal and Tacitus, did a touch of pity mingle with their aversion. All the old calumnies were revived, and the presence of the Christians at Rome was looked on as a reproach to be got rid of with all convenient speed.

Fanaticism is naturally contagious, and though there was no formal organised persecution throughout the empire,[18] old enmities revived, and the opportunities for acting on them were utilised. The Epistles of St. Peter, written about this time, bear witness to the “fiery trial” that was coming upon all the provinces of Asia Minor (1Peter 4:12), to the fact that men spoke against the disciples of Christ as criminals at large, that the very name of Christian exposed them to persecution (1Peter 4:16). The fact that a medal had been struck at Laodicea, in which the very name of “God” was assigned to Nero, would naturally rouse the horror of all believers, and make them think that the Antichrist had indeed come—the “man of lawlessness” who exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.[19] It only needed that he should follow in the footsteps of Caligula to verify the whole predicted description of one who “sitteth in the Temple of God showing himself that he is God” (2Thessalonians 2:4). Was not the day of the Lord at hand? Was not a more terrible conflagration than had already been witnessed about to destroy the city on the seven hills, the new “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots . . . drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”? (Revelation 17:5-6.)

[18] The inscription found in Spain and recording the success of Nero in extirpating the new superstition which had spread over the empire (“NERONI CL. CÆS. AUG. PONT. MAX. OB PROVING. LATRONIBUS ET HIS QUI NOVAM GENER. HUM. SUPERSTITION. INCULCAB. PURGATAM”), is now commonly regarded as spurious (Gruter, Inscriptt, p. 238, No. 9).

[19] For the medal, see Note in Brotier’s Tacitus (Ann. xv. 74). Even in the Roman senate, however, the title Divus, reserved for other emperors as a posthumous apotheosis, had been applied to Nero while he lived (ibid.).

It was under these conditions that the warrant was issued, as we must believe, by Tigellinus, for the arrest of St. Paul. It lies in the nature of the case that the charge could not have been the original accusation brought against him by Tertullus (Acts 24:1-8), for that was simply a question of Jewish law, a charge of having profaned the Jewish Temple. But Tigellinus must have known that for two years he had been the central figure among the Christians of Rome—that he was on terms of friendship with officers of the Augustan band and of the Prætorian Guard. True, he had left the city before the fire; but what if he had planned it, or even suggested the idea, and left others to work it out?

It is a reasonable, though not certain, inference, from the facts of the case, that the officers who were in charge of the warrant arrested their prisoner at Nicopolis; and if so, the notes of travel in the SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY must be referred, as above, to the hasty journey which had led him to that city, and in which he had revisited Corinth, Miletus, and Troas (2Timothy 4:13; 2Timothy 4:20). When he wrote that Epistle, he was, beyond all doubt, at Rome. And he was there not now, as before, in a hired apartment, and with the comparative freedom of a libera custodia (see Note on Acts 28:16), but in bonds, as a malefactor and a criminal (2Timothy 2:9). The Roman tradition that he was confined in the lower dungeon of the Mamertine prison, dark and damp, with no opening but a hole through which the prisoners were let down, has in it nothing in itself improbable.[20] The persecution that had been raging since his departure had naturally thinned the ranks, and tried the fidelity, of his friends. Aquila and Priscilla had once again been forced to leave Rome, and were now at Ephesus (2Timothy 4:9). Demas had forsaken him (2Timothy 4:10). Tychicus, still acting as the courier of the Apostolic Church, was the bearer of the Epistle to Timotheus (2Timothy 4:12). Crescens had gone to Gaul or to Galatia. Titus, who, we may infer, left Crete, and joined him at Nicopolis, had gone thence, without coming to Italy, to Dalmatia (2Timothy 4:10). One friend only, Luke, the beloved physician, probably finding some protection even now in his connection with Seneca and Gallio, was found willing to continue with him (2Timothy 4:11). It was probably before Tigellinus, rather than Nero himself, that the Apostle, in the utter loneliness of which he speaks so plaintively, made his first defence against the charge of treason.[21] Possibly the judge was, for a time, moved by his dauntless innocence; possibly, as when, about the same time, the celebrated impostor, Apollonius, of Tyana, stood before the same judge (Philostr. Vit. Apollon, iv. 42-44), he shrank from condemning one who was believed to possess supernatural powers. St. Paul’s entreaty that Timothy would bring the books and parchments which he had left at Troas (2Timothy 4:13) may imply a delay during which he was waiting for documentary evidence (possibly the “parchments” of 2Timothy 4:13), to prove his citizenship. The “cloak” may well have been wanted if he had to spend the winter months in the Mamertine prison. It was after that first hearing (2Timothy 4:16), filled with the conviction that the end was near, that the Apostle penned the last words which tell us of his hope and joy at seeing the crown of righteousness at last within his reach (2Timothy 4:8).

[20] Recent excavations by Mr. J. H. Parker have shown that what is now known as the Mamertine prison was probably only part of a much larger building used as a state prison (Macduff’s Footsteps of St. Paul, p. 76).

[21] It is hardly probable that St. Paul should have referred in these words to a trial during his former stay at Rome. The whole tone is that of a man writing of what had passed recently. Timotheus would naturally, having been with St. Paul at Rome (Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:1), know the whole history of the first imprisonment.

The confinement of St. Paul probably lasted for several months after this first hearing of his case. Before long, according to traditions which were current in their simplest form in the time of Clement of Rome, and were recognised in their fuller details by Eusebius (Hist. ii. 25) in the fourth century, he was joined by the great Apostle of the Circumcision, and the two who, as far as we know, had not met since the memorable dispute at Antioch (Galatians 2:14), were brought together at last once more in the Mamertine prison. The later Roman fiction of a pontificate of twenty-five years,[22] the earlier myths in the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions of a conflict with Simon Magus in the streets of Rome (see Notes on Acts 8:24), may be dismissed as belonging altogether to the region of the fabulous; but there is nothing improbable in the supposition, either that he had come from the literal to the spiritual Babylon (1Peter 5:13) to look after the welfare of the suffering Christians there,[23] or that the wide-spread net of Tigellinus, which had taken in its meshes St. Paul at Nicopolis and Apollonius at Rome, had caught him also. The story perpetuated by the Domine, Quo Vadis? chapel on the Appian Way, that he had endeavoured to effect his escape, and after he had passed the Capuan Gate (now the Porta San Sebastiano) had seen the well-remembered form of the Master he had loved, and on asking the question, “Lord, whither goest Thou?” received the answer, “I go to be crucified again,” and then returned to the city to face the doom which he was seeking to avoid, has in it, I venture to think, the likelihood which is involved in the fact that it was altogether unlikely that such a story should have been invented at a later age, when the name of the Prince of the Apostles had been identified with the notion of the primary, if not the infallibility, of his successors. It is at all events, somewhat over-sceptical, in spite of much uncertainty as to dates and details, to reject the tradition that the two Apostles were at last tried and condemned together. For the last time the free-born citizen of Rome was allowed the privileges of his citizenship, and escaped the degradation of the servile punishment of crucifixion. The Galilean Apostle, on the other hand, who had seen the Crucified One, chose, according to a current tradition, to be placed upon the cross head-downwards, unwilling to present himself to the eyes of the disciples as suffering as their Lord had suffered (Euseb. Hist. iii. 1). As the story runs, the two Apostles were led out together by the Ostian Gate (now the Porta San Paolo), and a small chapel about a mile from the city indicates the spot where they took their last farewell. St. Peter was led, according to one tradition, to the hill of the Janiculum, on the left bank of the Tiber, and a chapel attached to the church of San Pietro in Montorio, was built over the spot where the cross was believed to have been fixed; while his brother Apostle was taken further on the Ostian road to the spot now known as the Tre Fontane, from the legend that as the head was struck off by the sword of the executioner it bounded three times from the ground, and that a spring of water sprang up at each spot where it had touched the earth. Both bodies were placed, according to the Roman tradition of the time of Gregory the Great, in the catacombs on the Appian Way, under the modern church of San Sebastiano. Thence that of St. Peter was removed, possibly by the Jewish Christians of Rome, to the site in the Vatican, where the stately temple of Michael Angelo has replaced the old Basilica, the marbles and mosaics of which still remain in the Confession[24] under the central dome, while that of St. Paul was interred by the pious care of a Gentile convert, Lucina on the Ostian road, and the Basilica of San Paolo-fuori-le-Mura, built by Theodosius and Valentinian in A.D. 388 on the site of a smaller church erected by Constantine, claims for its Confession the glory of containing his sarcophagus. In the full-blown development of the rival traditions of Roman churches, that of St. John Lateran boasted of possessing the heads of both Apostles, while each of the Churches of St. Paul outside the walls and St. Peter in the Vatican, admitting the claims of its rival, exulted in the thought that it could claim half of the body of each of them.

[22] The long pontificate of Pius IX. has given a fresh prominence to the traditional “years of St. Peter,” and an inscription over the chair of the Apostle in St. Peter’s records that it was given to the deceased pontiff, alone among all his successors.to equal those years. The date given in Roman Catholic chronologies to the foundation of the Church of Rome by Peter is A.D. 41.

[23] This view derives a certain support from the Roman tradition that St. Peter dwelt in the house of Pudens, the centurion, and baptised his two daughters, Praxechs and Pudentiana. The absence of any mention of Claudia shows that the tradition was independent of 2Timothy 4:21, and of any inference from the Epigrams of Martial. Churches dedicated to the two sisters stand near together on the Viminal Hill, and the traditional house of Pudens is below that which bears the name of the latter.

[24] The “Confession” is the technical term commonly applied in Italy to the crypt-like shrine which contains the relics of the saint to whom the church is dedicated.

I have thought it best to lay before the reader as clear and connected a narrative as the imperfect data allowed, without entering on the difficult and perplexing questions which have been raised as to the year of the martyrdom of the two Apostles. It is right, however, to state that a very considerable divergency of views prevails on this point, in part connected with the question of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles, and that the year has been variously fixed between the limits of A.D. 64 on the one hand, and A.D. 68 on the other. The above has been based on the assumption of the later rather than the earlier date being, at least, approximately true. The Western Church has for many centuries dedicated the 29th and 30th of June (two days being appointed so that due honour might be rendered to each) to the commemoration of the martyrdom of the two Apostles. The calendar of the Reformed Church of England follows that of Koine in assigning June 29th to St. Peter, but contents itself with commemorating the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25th without assigning any day as the anniversary of his death.

What picture, we ask, are we to draw of the man who plays so prominent a part in the history of the Apostolic Church? What was he like? What impression did he make on men at first sight? What when they had learnt to know him? The nearest approximation to an authentic portrait is the medal (an engraving from which may be seen in Lewin’s St. Paud, ii. p. 411) found in the cemetery of Domitilla, one of the Flavian family, and assigned by archæologists to the close of the first or beginning of the second century. Closely cut hair (comp. Acts 18:18), slightly projecting eyes, a high forehead, a nose and mouth that indicate intellectual vigour, moustache, and a beard full rather than long,—this was what the artist gave in his attempt to reproduce a face which he may have seen himself or heard described by others. In stature, it is obvious, he was below the middle height (2Corinthians 10:10). The suffering which he describes as the thorn in the flesh, showed itself in weak eyes, probably in the nervous trembling of one who is constantly liable to severe attacks of pain. (See Notes on 2Corinthians 12:7.) He went about as one who had the sentence of death on him (2Corinthians 1:9). With this, however, there was great vigour of body. He could travel on foot some thirty miles a day (Acts 17:1), or ride on horseback (Acts 23:24), or swim rivers, or keep himself floating for many hours at sea (Acts 27:43). The indomitable energy of the man sustained him under hardships and privations of all kinds. He spoke, not with the rhetorical cadences in which Greek rhetoricians delighted, but with words that went home like an arrow to their mark, and pierced men’s hearts (2Corinthians 11:25). The voice was, perhaps, untuneable, but the words were full of life (1Corinthians 14:25; 2Corinthians 10:10). As men saw him in his artisan’s dress, living the life of the poor, they might have taken him for what he appeared to be; but when they came to know him they found a culture that surprised them, and a marvellous readiness to adapt himself to different natures. He became “all things to all men;” won the respect of proconsuls, chiliarchs, centurions, of the wild emotional Galatians, of the runaway slave Onesimus. He would listen to any tale of sorrow, and yet a keen sense of humour mingled with his earnestness and tenderness. He did not disdain to mingle an occasional pun (Philippians 4:2; Philippians 4:18; Philemon 1:10-11) with serious counsel, nor to paint the weaknesses of silly women and charlatans with a pen that almost reminds us of the caustic sarcasm of Juvenal (1Timothy 5:11-13; 2Timothy 3:6-7). And yet when the hour of prayer came, sometimes when he was alone, sometimes when in company with others, he would be absorbed as in ecstatic adoration (1Corinthians 14:18). Strange mysterious utterances of praise, doxologiee, alleluiahs, and the like, in half-musical intonations, would pour forth from his lips. He would seem as one caught up to the third heaven, to the paradise of God (2Corinthians 12:1-4), and then, again, would speak, as a prophet of the Lord, with thoughts that breathed and words that burnt. And in his prayers there was an almost terrible earnestness. Groans mingled with words, and name after name of churches and beloved disciples passed from his lips, as he laid his intercessions for them before his Father in heaven (Romans 1:9; Romans 8:26; 1Thessalonians 3:10). Such are the outlines of the man as he was—very unlike to Raphael’s idealised representation of him,—which are given to us indirectly through his own writings, and each reader must fill up those outlines according to his power. The attempt has been made, not without success, by many word-painters and masters of style. Without disparaging other representations of this kind, I venture to lay before the reader two such portraits.

“I dreamed that, with a passionate complaint,

I wished me born amid God’s deeds of might,

And envied those who saw the presence bright

Of gifted prophet and strong-hearted saint

Whom my heart loves and fancy strives to paint:

I turned, when straight a stranger met my sight,

Came as my guest, and did a while unite

His lot with mine, and lived without restraint;

Courteous he was and grave;—so meek in mien,

It seemed untrue, or told a purpose weak;

Yet in the mood, he could with aptness speak,

Or with stern force, or show of feelings keen,

Marking deep craft, methought, or hidden pride:—

Then came a voice—‘St. Paul is at thy side!’ ”

—J. H. Newman, Lyra Apostolica.

The other is by a less known author:—

“The third who journeyed with them, weak and worn,

Blear-eyed, dim-visioned, bent and bowed with pain,

We looked upon with wonder.—Not for him

The praise of form heroic, supple limbs,

The glory of the sculptor as he moulds

The locks of Zeus, o’erspreading lofty brows,

Apollo, the far-darter, in the pride

Of manhood’s noblest beauty, or the grace

Of sandalled Hermes, messenger of gods:

Not thus he came, but clad in raiment worn,

Of roughest texture, bearing many stains

Of age and travel. In his hand he bore

A staff on which he leant, as one whose limbs

Have lost before their time the strength of youth;

And underneath his arm a strange old book,

Whose mystic letters seemed for him the words

Of wisdom and of truth. And oft he read

In solemn cadence words that thrilled his soul,

And, lighting that worn face with new-born joy,

Bade him go on rejoicing.

So they came;

So entered he our town; but, ere the sun

Had lit the eastern clouds, a fever’s chill

Fell on him; parched thirst and darting throbs

Of keenest anguish racked those weary limbs;

His brow seemed circled with a crown of pain;

And oft, pale, breathless, as if life had flea,

He looked like one in ecstasy, who sees

What others see not; to whose ears a voice

Which others hear not, floats from sea or sky:

And broken sounds would murmur from his lips,

Of glory wondrous, sounds ineffable,

The cry of ‘Abba, Father,’ and the notes

Of some strange solemn chant of other lands.

So, stricken, prostrate, pale, the traveller lay,

So stript of all the comeliness of form,

Men might have spurned and loathed him, passing on

To lead their brighter life.—And yet we stayed;

We spurned him not, nor loathed; through all the shrouds.

Of poverty and sickness we could see

The hero-soul, the presence as of One

Whom then we knew not. When the pain was sharp.

And furrowed brows betrayed the strife within.

Then was he gentlest. Even to our slaves

He spoke as brothers, winning all their hearts

By that unwonted kindness.”

To these ideal portraits we may add such fragmentary notices as are found in ancient writers, and which, from their general consistency, may claim something like the character of a tradition. Thus in the Philopatris, ascribed to Lucian (possibly of the second century, but the book is probably spurious and belonging to the fourth), he is described as “bald, and with an. aquiline nose;” and in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla (c. i. 7), as “little in stature, bald, crook-legged, vigorous, with knitted brows, slightly aquilinenose, full of grace, appearing now as a man and now as having the face of an angel.” Malala, or John of Antioch (in the sixth century), describes him (Chronograph, c. x.) as “short, bald, with partly grey hair and beard, a prominent nose, greyish eyes, knitted brows, pale and yet fresh complexion, a well-shaped beard, with a touch of humour, sagacious, self-restrained, pleasant to converse with, gentle, yet filled by the Holy Spirit with an eager enthusiasm. Nicephorus (in the fifteenth century) reproduces the same general type; but the late date makes it impossible for us to look to his account as more than a second-hand portrait. Such as it is, he too speaks of short stature, somewhat bent and stooping; pale and yet comely; bald, and with bright grey eyes; with long and aquiline nose, and a thick beard more or less grizzled (Hist. ii. 37).[25]

[25] The two last quotations are taken from Lewin’s St. Paul. II p. 412.

Such in outward form, such in manner and character, was the man to whom the Church of Christ owes so much. We are reminded as we read his own account of himself, what others said of him in his lifetime, the traditions that survived after his death, of such a one as Socrates, with his Silenus face, his ecstatic trances, his playful irony and humour, his earnest thought, his deep enthusiasm, his warm affection for the young, his indifference to wealth and ease. There were, of course, distinctive features, rising in part out of differences of race and culture—the difference between the Aryan and the Semitic types of character—in part out of the higher truths which had been revealed to the Apostle and not to the sage; but there is enough in the general features of the life and character of each to help us to understand the words which tell us that “Wisdom in all ages entering into holy souls maketh them friends of God and prophets.”

ΠΡΆΞΕΙς ΤῶΝ ἈΠΟΣΤΌΛΩΝ

B, Lachm. Tisch. have πράξεις ἀποστόλων. So also Born. Later enlargements of the title in codd.: Λουκᾷ εὐαγγελιστοῦ πράξεις ἀποστόλων, al. αἱ πράξεις τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων. Peculiar to D; πρᾶξις ἀποστόλων. א has merely πράξεις, but at the close πράξεις ἀποστόλων.

The codex D is particularly rich in additions, emendations, and the like, which Bornemann has recently defended as the original text. Matth. ed. min. p. 1 well remarks: “Hic liber (the Book of Acts) in re critica est difficillimus et impeditissimus, quod multa in eo turbata sunt. Sed corruptiones versionum Syrarum, Bedae et scribae codicis D omnem modum excedunt.” Tisch. justly calls the proceeding of Bornemann, “monstruosam quandam ac perversam novitatem.”

CHAPTER 1

Acts 1:4. συναλιζόμενος-g0-] min. Euseb. Epiph. have συναυλιζόμενος. Recommended by Wetst. and Griesb. D has συναλισκόμενος μετʼ αὐτῶν. Both are ineptly explanatory alterations.

Acts 1:5. The order: ἐν πνεύμ. βαπτ. ἁγίῳ, adopted by Lachm., is not sufficiently attested by B א* against A C E min. VSS. Or. al.

Acts 1:6. ἐτηρώτων] Lachm. Tisch. read ἠρώτων, according to A B C* א, the weight of which, considering the frequency of both words in Luke, prevails.

Acts 1:8. μοι] Lachm. Tisch. Bornem. read μου, decisively attested by A B C D א Or.

Instead of πάσῃ, Elz. Griesb. Scholz read ἐν πάσῃ. But ἐν is wanting in A C* D min. Copt. Sahid. Or. Hilar. Inserted in accordance with the preceding.

Acts 1:10. ἐσθῆτι λευκῇ] A B C א min. Syr. Copt. Arm. Vulg. Eus. have ἐσθήσεσι λευκαῖς. Adopted by Lachm. and Tisch. The Rec. is the usual expression. Comp. on Luke 24:4.

Acts 1:13. Lachm. Tisch. Bornem. have the order Ἰωάννης κ. Ἰάκωβος, which is supported by A B C D א min. VSS., also Vulg. and Fathers. The Rec. is according to Luke 6:14.

Acts 1:14. After προσευκῃ Elz. has καὶ τῇ δεήσει, which, on decisive, testimony, has been omitted by modern critics since Griesbach. A strengthening addition.

Acts 1:15. μαθητῶν] A B C* א min. Copt. Sahid. Aeth. Arm. Vulg. Aug. have ἀδελφῶν: recommended by Griesb., and rightly adopted by Lach. and Tisch.; the Rec. is an interpretation of ἀδελφ., here occurring for the first time in Acts, in the sense of μαθητ.

Acts 1:16. ταύτην is wanting in A B C* א min. and several VSS. and Fathers. Deleted by Lachm. But the omission occurred because no express passage of Scripture immediately follows.

Ver 17. σύν] Griesb. Scholz, Lachm. Tisch. Born, read ἐν according to decisive testimony; σύν is an interpretation.

Acts 1:19. Ἀκελδαμά] There are different modes of writing this word in the critical authorities and witnesses. Lachm. and Tisch. read Ἀκελδαμάχ according to A B; Born. Ἁκελδαιμάχ according to D; א has Ἀχελθαμάχ.

Acts 1:20. λάβοι] Lachm. Tisch. and Born. read λαβέτω according to A B C D א Eus. Chrys; λάβοι was introduced from the LXX.

Acts 1:24. ὅν ἐξελ. ἐκ τούτ. τῶν δύο ἕνα] Elz. has ἐκ τούτ. τῶν δύο ἕνα ὅν ἐξελ., in opposition to greatly preponderating testimony. A transposition for the sake of perspicuity.

Acts 1:25. τὸν κλῆρον] A B C* D (τόπ. τόν) Copt. Sahid. Vulg. Cant. Procop. Aug. read τὸν τόπον. Adopted by Lachm. Tisch. Born. (τόπον τόν). Rightly; the Rec. is a gloss according to Acts 1:17.

ἀφʼ ἧς] Elz. Scholz read ἐξ ἧς. The former has preponderating testimony.

Acts 1:26. αὐτῶν] A B C D** א. Min. VSS. have αὐτοῖς. So Lachm. and Tisch. The dative not being understood gave place to the genitive. Others left out the pronoun entirely (Syr. Erp.).