set of their journey, he was partly influenced by a very innocent desire to visit his kindred, his connexions, or perhaps his birth-place, and that having achieved this object, he landed with his two companions in Pamphylia, and so returned forthwith to Jerusalem. And this supposition (it may be added) is strengthened by the expression applied by St. Paul to Mark, "that he went not with them to the work"-as if in the particular case, the voyage to Cyprus did not deserve to be considered even the beginning of their labors, being more properly a visit of choice to kinsfolk and acquaintance, or to a place at least having strong local charms for Mark. XXII. ACTs, vi. 1.-" And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2." Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word Wherefore, of God, and serve tables. 5." And the saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch." In this passage, I perceive a remarkable instance of consistency without design. There is a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, on account of what they considered. an unfair distribution of the alms of the church. Seven men are appointed to redress the grievance. No mention is made of their country or connexions. The multitude of the disciples is called together, and by them the choice is made. No other limitation is spoken of in the commission they had to fulfil, than that the men should be of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost. Yet it is probable, (and here lies the coincidence,) that these deacons were all of the party aggrieved, for their names are all Grecian. It is difficult to suppose this accidental. There must have been Hebrews enough fitted for the office. Yet Grecians alone seem to have been appointed. Why this should be so, St. Luke does not say, does not even hint. We gather from him that the Grecians thought themselves the injured party; and we then draw our own conclusions, that the church having a sincere wish to maintain harmony, and remove all reasonable ground of complaint, chose as advocates for the Greeks, those, who would naturally feel for them the greatest interest, and protect their rights with a zeal that should be above suspicion. XXIII. ACTS, xxiv. 26.-" He (Felix) hoped that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him." It is observed by Lardner,* that Felix, (it might be thought,) could have small hopes of * Vol. i. p. 27, 8vo. edition. receiving money from such a prisoner as Paul, had he not recollected his telling him on a former interview, that "after many years he came to bring alms to his nation, and offerings.”—Hence he probably supposed, that the alms might not yet be all distributed, or if they were, that a public benefactor would soon find friends to release him. The observation is curious, and in confirmation of its truth, I will add, that the personal appearance of Paúl, when he was brought before Felix, was certainly not such as would give the governor reason to believe that he had wherewithal to purchase his own freedom, but quite the contrary. For a passage in the Acts, (xxii. 28,) certainly conveys very satisfactory, though indirect, evidence that the apostle wore poverty in his looks, at the very period in question. When Lysias, the chief captain at Jerusalem, had been apprized that he was a Roman, he could scarcely give credit to the fact; and, being further assured of it by Paul himself, he said, "with a great sum obtained I this freedom," manifestly implying a suspicion of Paul's veracity, whose appearance bespoke no such means of procuring citizenship. The cupidity, therefore, of Felix, was no doubt excited, as has been said, by recollecting the errand on which his prisoner had come so lately to Jerusalem. And this, moreover, furnishes the true explanation of the orders which Felix (very far from a merciful or indulgent officer) gave to the keeper of Paul, "to let him have liberty, and to forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him," a free admission of his friends being necessary, in order that they might furnish him with the ransom. It is true that there is no coincidence here between independent writers; but surely every unprejudiced mind must admit, that there is an extremely nice, minute and undesigned harmony between the speech of Paul and the subsequent conduct of Felix; though the cause and effect are so far from being traced by the author of the Acts, that it may be doubted whether he saw any connexion subsisting between them. Surely, I repeat, such a harmony must convince us that it is no fictitious or forged narrative that we are reading, but a true and very accurate detail of an actual occurrence. |